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book_n	church_n	old_a	receive_v	2,582	5	5.9562	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64277	The vindication of a late pamphlet (entituled 0bedience and submission to the present government demonstrated from Bp. Overal's Convocation-book) from the false glosses and illusive interpretations of a pretended answer / by the author of the first pamphlet.	Taylor, Zachary, 1653-1705.	1691 (1691)	Wing T602; ESTC R37878	32,401	41

THE VINDICATION OF A LATE PAMPHLET ENTITULED Obedience and Submission TO THE PRESENT GOVERNMENT Demonstrated from Bp. Overal's Convocation-Book From the False Glosses and Illusive Interpretations of a Pretended Answer By the Author of the First Pamphlet LONDON Printed for Ric. Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms-Inn in Warwick-Lane MDCXCI THE PREFACE MAlice and Ignorance are very Spiteful and Opprobrious Words and such as the Author had little Comfort of since he saw them in the Printed Pamphlet for he had learnt That the Wrath of Man worketh not the Righteousness of God And his design was not to provoke and exasperate but if he could to win and prevail upon his Non-juring Brethren with Calmness and Composedness to examine candidly whether what he had writ was the Sense of that Learned Convocation or no Hoping that if they found it was they might be brought over to comply with and increase the Happiness of this Present Government Far therefore was he from reproaching them with Malice or Ignorance for he Reverenced the Persons and Admired the Parts and lamented the loss of many of them So that the Truth is those words never fell from the Pen of the Author and therefore he desires that the Dissembling Stationer who abused him in Printing the Book without his knowledg may be examined about it for till those words were Printed he knew nothing of them Whoever therefore would be so abused may commit his Papers to Mr. C and from his Confederacy with the Non-Jurors Party he may expect to be so treated THE VINDICATION OF OBEDIENCE TO THE Present Government c. CHAP. I. Concerning the Imputation cast on those who took the Oaths before the Publication of the Convocation-Book THE first Effort of the Answerer is an Imputation of Guilt upon all the Jurors and that whether the Allegations of the Author from the Convocation p. 1. be true or false This is hard on many a good man that knew nothing either of the obscure Convocation or the obscurer Author But so it is For this can by no means justifie them being at the best but a Pretence taken up after the Fact and as a subsequent Law cannot condemn so neither can it justifie a Fact previous to it But doth he think the Author produced this for a Reason of what he had beforehand done The Answerer is not so soft but he knew this to be only an Inducement to such as himself that were more scrupulous of the Equity and Legality of it And the Case is this The Church of England had not by any Publick Act that we knew of interposed her Judgment on either side but every man was left to the Direction of his own Conscience guided by the General Principles of that Church and the Word of God And all the Obligation that the Church could lay upon them was only an acting consonantly to her declared Principles Hereupon some took the Oaths and some did not and yet I dare not think but that both Parties acted on a Principle of Conscience Afterwards an old convocation-Convocation-Book is produced and the Jurors perusing it discover the Doctrine of the Church of England to justify their Proceedings Now though the subsequent Discovery could not be produced as the Ground and Reason of their Previous Act yet sure I am it doth clear and vindicate them from that Scandal of their deserting their Old Principles which some men labour to cast upon them And that was all that was designed from it But if in the Innocency of our Souls we had acted besides the Principles of the Church of England which were not sufficiently declared to us could those who kept this Book so long private and afterwards publish'd it as if it had been meant for a Snare to our Consciences hold themselves excused Whatever they can do in this respect P. 2. we are call'd upon to shew any other Publick Act of the Church of England any Opinion of one of the approved Sons thereof the practice of any one that own'd her Principles in favour of the Doctrines we now teach and the Practices we now follow and then we shall be allowed to say something To obtain his favour though the Principles whereupon men took the Oaths were various yet I will instance some of them and oblige my Answerer by confirming them both by the Authority of Principles and Practice which is all that a Man can require Now 1. Some men took the Oaths upon a Supposition That the Violation of the Fundamental Laws of the Land did release them from the Duty of their Allegiance and though the Convocation-Book doth no where purposely discourse this Case P. 27. yet the Notion that it gives of Tyranny of which more presently and its vindicating the Jews in opposing Autiochus Epiphanes a Tyrant leaves us very doubtful of their sense herein But tho they be silent since the Opinion of one Church-of England-man that is a Man approved will satisfie the Answerer he shall have Bishop Bilson's Judgment in this Case who discoursing purposely of Christian Subjection P. 279. Ed. 1586. Dare not rashly pronounce all that resist to be Rebels because Cases may so fall out even in Christian Kingdoms where the People may plead their Right against their Prince and not be charged with Rebellion And being demanded to produce an Example he adds If a Prince should go about to subject his Kingdom to a Foreign Realm or Change the Form of the Commonwealth from Impery to Tyranny or neglect the Laws established by Common Consent of Prince and People to execute his own pleasure in these saith he and other Cases which might be named if the Nobles and Commons joyn together to defend their Ancient and Accustomed Liberty Regiment and Law they may not well be counted Rebels This will justifie I think all those that deserted his Late Majesty had they done more than they did For an Embassy to Rome an Arbitrariness over Laws and before the Oaths were imposed yea probably before the Desertion an Open Negotiation with France which means our Slavery amounts to such a Vindication of us and them as cannot from this Principle be denied And this his Determination is not destitute of all Reason For if our Allegiance respect primarily the Government and then the Governour as the Head of it See his Case of the Engagement as Bishop Sanderson seems to intimate it sollows thence That by vertue of the Duty that we owe unto the Government Allegiance must although the Rightful Governour by withdrawing incapacitate himself to receive it be paid somewhere or other or else the Government must be dissolved And since this Learned Bishop judged thus I doubt not but as some others that built on the same Principles he would have practised so also 2. Others supposing that the King's Desertion or Abdication which you will left them in a State of Liberty thought their late Oath of Allegiance to him was vacated and so were free to oblige themselves anew And

my Lord Clarendon observing that the Word Abdicate is no new Word nor the Caprice and Humour of Princes to abdicate their Kingdoms a new thing And representing it as the hardest Case of Subjects without their Privity Surv. of Lev. p. 94 95. to be left in an instant without any Protection without any Security as a Prey to all that are too strong for them He adds That it is no New Transaction for Kings and Princes to resign and RELINQVISH THEIR CROWN AND SOVEREIGNTY nor may it be the better for being old Yet besides other Accounts there mentioned Some Princes saith he have been so HVMOROVS as upon the FROWARDNESS AND REFRACTORINESS OF THEIR SVBJECTS AND BECAVSETHEY COVLD NOT GOVERNIN THAT MANNER THEY HAD A MIND TO DO TO ABDICATE THE GOVERNMENT AND WOVLD HAVE BEEN GLAD AFTERWARDS TO HAVE RESVMED IT Now I imagine according to the Judgment of that Great Statesman and true Church-man that our Allegiance to the Late King is void And the Letter of which I have sufficient Testimony sent from the Jesuits to King James at Sailsbury advising him to leave the Kingdom with a promising Assurance That he should be Restored and have his ENDS upon us implies something worse than a Caprice or Humour 3. The most that I have had Converse with conclude their Present Majesties to have a Right to as well as Possession of the Crown and that not only from the Law of the Land which receives and owns them as Legal King and Queen but also upon the Appeal which they made to God for the Injustice done them on account of the Impostor which being determined on their sides fairly gives them a Divine Right And if so then the Ground-work of the Gentleman 's whole Answer is undermined and his Building must fall And this the Author in his Pamphet asserted but because he knew not what to say to it he haughtily past it by And thus much for the Principles of some Approved Church-of England-men Then for their Practice The Case of the Engagement represented by the Judicious Bishop Sanderson who plainly intimates some good men to have taken it and which is left almost in an Aequilibrio by that profound Casuist nay and which was taken by a Great and Good Man now with God a Dying Advocate of the Doctrine of Passive Obedience shews the Practices of some that have owned her Principles not to be altogethee repugnant to ours But this is an unpleasing Subject because reflexive upon other men From hence therefore let us proceed to enquire something after the Convocation-Book CHAP. II. An Account of the Convocation-Book and why it wanted the Royal Confirmation THE Sense and meaning of this Convocation being to be enquired after especially in these two things 1. Whether Right must of necessity be united to Authority before our Allegiance can be due unto it And 2. When a Revolution of Government may be supposed to have obtained a thorow Settlement I thought it not amiss to enquire into the Reasons for the calling of the Convocation the circumstances of Affairs when the Book was written and the Causes why it was laid to sleep not being suffer'd to appear with the Royal Confirmation For the understanding of these will mightily assist us to comprehend their meaning And what I have received is thus The Spaniards growing weary of their wars with the Vnited-Provinces seeing Queen Elizabeth the great supporter of the Dutch against the House of Auflria to grow old and knowing that James then King of the Scots was after her decease to succeed her in the Throne of England a Prince of a Peaceable Disposition they made previous Applications to him to pre-engage him when he came to the Crown of England to mediate a Truce or Peace between them and Holland The good Queen according to the course of Nature in some time after dies whereupon the Spaniards by their Ambassador as soon almost as King James was seated on the English Throne renew their Negotiation with him to mediate the foresaid Truce supposing the Vnited-Provinces would scarce refuse his Interposition because at that time he held in his hands some Cautionary Towns of theirs which had been delivered to the late Queen The King being of himself inclinable to Peace and to oblige the Spaniards who had a Pontifical claim to the Crown of England to own and acknowledg his Right and Title to that Crown that so he might secure to himself the certainty of enjoying ease and safety undertakes the Mediation But difficulties arising from the Dutch Pretentions who demanded to be acknowledged a Free and Independent State tho' they had but lately withdrawn themselves from the Crown of Spain His Majesty of Great Britain taking this to be a tender Point and of great consequence to all Crowned Heads if a Province or Principality having shaken off their Ancient Lord might set up for a Free and Independent State desirous also to over-rule the Dutch in their Allegations to this Claim on the apprehension of a Fear that it would void the overtures of the designed Truce That he might do it with the greater appearance of Authority and Judgment he resolves to consult his Convocation about the Origine of Government its various Forms Alterations and Modifications intending them especially to exalt the Sacredness and Grandeur of Monarchy Accordingly the Convocation go to work and deduce the Power of Government from its natural and prime Original taking notice what it was in it self whence Tyranny and Arbitrary Power usurped upon the Patriarchal How that again was retrenched and the True Fatherly Government setled amongst his own People the Jews till the Captivity of Babylon giving also an Account what became of them afterwards what Revolutions they underwent till they and all the Western World were made subject to the Roman Eagle This led them to treat of the Variation of Government by the Providence of God who casts down Kings and sets up Kings who alters Kingdoms and turns them into Aristocratical or Democratical States and on the contrary States into Dukedoms Elective Monarchies and the like As also what Obedience ought to be paid to the said Governments when they are once throughly setled upon such Revolutions laying down a Rule when People with a safe Conscience may nay ought to pay Obedience to their Authority But their Determination herein touching too hard upon the Claims of Sovereigns and the Royalties of Monarchies of which scarce ever Prince had more tender feeling than that his Majesty of Britain King James is displeased with it and them charging them that they had dipped too deep into what all Princes did reserve amongst the Arcana Imperii as from his Letter at the end may be seen and by Orders sent by Mr. Sollicitor restrains them from medling any farther in it And this I believe might be a Reason why the Convocation which had promised to treat of the Government of the whole World did not handle more particularly the Case of Free