not how any Body in the last Reign as well as in this that have wilfully or by chance in keeping ill Company fallen into such a miserable state can get free of it unless by a true and hearty Repentance And Restitution where it can be done is as you use to tell us the only Evidence of its being Sincere And without it I cannot be persuaded but that such must remain in that lamentable state let them be never so prosperous and successful unless you think Success can alter the very Nature of Things which is something difficult to suppose though your Case c. seems to imply it which Case had it came out in a time of such a Thorow Settlement as where there were no Competitors or any to make a Claim I dare appeal to all Mankind Whether it would not have been burnt by the Common Hangman as a Libel against all Established and in your own Words Thorow Setled Governments in the World And whatsoever your private Advantage may be I am sure the Church nor the present State are no great Gainers by it For I am of the Opinion your Case of Allegiance will no more preserve either from the Attempts of wicked and rebellious Wretches in this Reign than your Case of Resistance did in the last And therefore you may spare your pains unless it be to oblige your Bookseller for you know this is a wicked and rebellious Nation which are more apt to follow Example than Precept And therefore you did well in leaping like the Belweather over the Hedge which was I suppose in hopes the rest of the Sheep would follow by the noise only And truly if they do not I can attribute it to nothing more than their being better taught heretofore by your self and others in those Times when People generally thought them both orthodox and honest And if what was said to St. Paul of Learning might be truly said of Honesty I am persuaded most of our Learned Clergy are pretty well in their Wits For if Possession gives a Right they ought for that Reason not to Abdicate their Livings let what will happen for fear People should think they were mad in not acting according to their own Principles But as the World goes we may observe People act not as if Godliness is great Gain but as if great Gain is Godliness And if so we may easily then guess who are the Babes of Grace and the Providential Favorites of Heaven For since as you say there are Providential Kings as well as Kings by Divine and Humane Intail and by your Notions they have Right or no Right but as they shall be by Providence in the Possession then it consequently follows that when ever it happens that a Dispute is between a Legal which I take to be the same as a Divine Right and a Providential or an Accidental one for by your Rule there can be no difference God is then by his Providence if I may so say fighting not only against his Divine Intail but his own Eternal Rule which distinguisheth what is Right and Wrong And also the Doctrine of our Lord and the Apostles viz. the least evil in the World ought not to be done to procure the greatest good For St. Paul positively says Rom. 3.8 They that do evil that good may come of it their damnation is just Which is a dreadful Consideration for all those that act by such pernicious Principles and therefore the Apostle does justly stile such Enemies to the Cross of Christ Phil. 3.8 And indeed so they are and to all Religion and Civil Government that promotes such Providential Notions which seems to run counter to the positive Commands of the Almighty And your self and others of your Coat has often told us We are not to follow Providence contrary to Precept And St. Paul himself which I presume was as great and as knowing as any of you bids us be followers of him 1 Cor. 11.1 no other ways than he was of Jesus Christ Which I think is a good Argument for others dissenting from you when you dissent from your self and the Truths which formerly you have taught But blessed be God though you have Recanted and as it were taken leave of them yet they are nevertheless Truths for that and we know where to find them and it is no small comfort to an honest Christian that no such Republican Principles are to be found in the Doctrines of our blessed Saviour and his Apostles nor in the Canons of our Church notwithstanding the present Opinion and Practices of many of our Churchmen And therefore 't is highly rational what St. Paul adviseth Rom. 16.17 18. Now I beseech you Brethren mark them which cause Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Which we find too true but 't is to be feared they will deceive themselves too at the last and then how significant and to the purpose will it be to ask the Apostle's Question What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed Rom. 2.21 But to draw as you use to say towards a Conclusion I will end where you began viz. with one Observation on the Title of your Book in the following Words c. The Case of Allegiance to Sovereign Powers stated and resolved according to Scripture and Reason and the Principles of the Church of England c. Now as for Scripture I think I have and from your own former Sentiments of it demonstrated that your Case will not stand that Test But then secondly for it 's being agreeable to Reason I shall as being no Pretender to it leave that to those who think themselves the only Criticks and Masters of it But for the third and last it being according to the Principles of the Church of England is so astonishing that I know not well what to answer save only that if it be 't is a Secret that has lay'n a long time concealed as if Providence had not only reserved it for these times but also designed you the happy Instrument of discovering so convenient a Mufftich Providential Doctrine so absolutely necessary in a Christian Church And now I dare appeal to all the proper Judges of Scripture and Reason and the Principles of the Church of England not excepting your self though you set up for one of the chief whether your Case c. have answer'd save only in the price of the Copy your own Expectations which were I presume to convince all Protestants of the Reasonableness of your Providential Hypothesis which you indeed take for granted and drive Jehu-like as if you had receiv'd Heaven's Commission to banish all the contrary Opinions out of the World For you argue with all the Assurance as if it was as plain as a Pike-staff
Practice and your new Notions of Allegiance let the World judge 'T is easie to draw divers other Inferences altogether as useful for the Enemies of our Israel as these two I have already named but they would swell this Letter beyond its intended Bounds And therefore I will haste towards a Conclusion for by this time I presume Acts 26.27 I may ask you St. Paul's Question to King Agrippa Believest thou the Prophets I know that thou believest c. Yet your Case of Allegiance c. would almost persuade a good Christian to doubt it for your prevaricating according to the different Cases which at different times happens to fall in your eye gives cause for a just suspition And your two last Books has made it too evident that you do not as to what you have formerly told us believe your self which must consequently create in us poor Laymen melancholy Considerations in that we must venture our very Souls upon the Judgment and Integrity of such Priests who are as variable as the Weathercocks on the Steeples of the Churches they preach in For it is not many Years ago that not only your self but the whole University of Oxford rejected such Doctrines as your Case c. is founded on witness the Judgment and Decree that past in their Convocation July 1. 1683. against certain Books and damnable Doctrines as they were pleased to call them consisting in all of 27 Propositions the 10th of which I will give you in the very words c. because they are the same on which the whole stress of your Case relies on and I wonder you did not place it amongst your own The 10th Proposition c. runs thus Possession and Strength gives a Right to Govern Success in a Cause or Enterprize proclaims it to be Lawful and Just To justifie it is to comply with the Will of God because it is to follow the Conduct of this Providence * Hebbs Owen's Sermon before the Regicideâ— Jan. 3â— 1648. Baxter Jenkins's Petition Oct. 1651 So you see you do but bring up the Rear to all these famous Heroes who have march'd before you fighting the good Fight of Faith in the Good Old Cause some of which have not as yet finished their Course and so are still but in expectation of their future Reward but what that may be is no great matter For if they grow Rich and fill their Bags with Crowns here they will trust to Providence for hereafter And filling of Bags you know is such an Epidemical Distemper that there are few but what are Infected with it And Judas himself possibly had never coveted to have been one of the Twelve but for the sake of carrying the Bag and rather than not have it full for a Sum betray'd his Lord and Master And it is too plain we all the Priests not excepted do much more mind the things that belong to our Profit and Preferment here Luk. 16.8 than our Peace hereafter And our Saviour has told us The Children of this World are in their Generation wiser than the Children of Light But it is such a sort of Wisdom which will turn but to a slender Account at last and therefore as our Lord elsewhere says Mat. 16.26 What will it profit a Man to gain the whole World and lose his own Soul c But that is not much minded in our days We may observe from the Universal Degeneracy of the Age we live in that Truth and Justice Religion and Loyalty are fled from amongst us 1 Kings 22.23 and that Almighty God for our Sins has as he once did permitted a lying spirit to go forth and possess our Prophets so that they prophesie falsely and we love to have it so c. which strengthens the Argument of Heaven's permissive Will And that those Texts cannot without abdicating our Understandings be understood in your Sense of Providence and Success giving a Right which is the chief Basis on which your new Fabrick stands but how long it will Time and the next change of Stars if ever there be any will best demonstrate And truly should there be as many in your Time as hapned in the Life of the Famous Vicar of Bray the Scheme is so nicely drawn and your Case so exactly calculated to the purpose that you may without Doubt or Scruple swear Faith and Allegiance to them all nay though they were all Competitors at the same time And as they happen to be uppermost you have as you say God's Authority for so doing So that you are now Thanks to Providence pretty safe For should our Metropolis be in as much danger by the French which God forbid as Vienna was not long since by the Turks you no doubt would like a good Christian patiently submit and pay both a chearful and active Obedience from your Notion of Providence judging it the Lord 's doing though it appear never so marvellous in our eyes For indeed Passive Obedience and Nonresistance were never more necessary as now in your Case c. And yet after all I cannot but be amazed to see two such Cases as your Resistance and Allegiance come from one and the same I will not say Heart but Hand without blushing for the matter But though you do not I am apt to believe there are some and of your own Function too that do for you not so much for your taking the Oaths c. as no doubt a great many good Men may but for your giving such Reasons as reflect upon the Honour and Reputation of the Church of England and possibly may make many of Her weak Sons believe that She now owns the same pernicious Doctrines that her Clergy have been preaching and writing against ever since the Reformation and strictly forbidding their Hearers the practising under no less Penalty than Damnation But I find the Case as well as the Times are altered For then was then and now is now But to draw towards a Conclusion I hope your Christian temper will lead you to a favourable Construction of this Letter which I 'll assure you was not as I said in the beginning design'd to reflect on Persons or Things but only to expose as well as I could pernicious Principles which would if universally receiv'd quickly throw us from St. Paul's state of Grace to Hobbs's of Nature And what Advantage that would be to preserve Civil Societies let the World judge 'T is true you say God is not confined to humane Laws but at the same time 't is reasonable to suppose though he be not you and I and all Mankind are and the acting or doing any thing against humane Laws especially such which do not contradict his is the same thing as breaking of God's Laws And no doubt the doing so is a Resisting the Higher Power and they that Resist shall as you say receive to themselves Damnation And if so What is Sawce for a Goose is Sawce for a Gander And I know
more in the right now notwithstanding you have possibly another Case in your Eye so that for ought I can see you may be as much out now as you were before and if so what are we the better for your new Discoveries in your Case of Allegiance when you give us so little Encouragement from your being so liable to mistake to believe you 'T is true you have taken a great deal of pains to make the Convocation Book speak as you would make the World think very plain to the Point but how much it serves your turn notwithstanding your nice Distinctions and ringing the Changes between Divine and Humane Entails Legal and Providential Kings and Thorow Settlements c. hath already been demonstrated by more skilful hands But though that Book did you but little service yet there was other Writings that would have done the trick to an hair such as Hobs Baxters Owens and Jenkins c. But I presume your not strengthening your Case c. with quoting those Authors was because their Tenents did not so well agree with the Doctrine of that Church which you pretend to be of But to the Point in hand and the better to inform my self and others I will as well as I can observe some kind of method viz. I will first lay down your providential Hypothesis on which your Case is built and as you have very wisely observed if the World do not judge it a right Rule to go by you know not where to fix one Pag. 24. Secondly I will examine those Texts of Scripture which you quote to prove it Thirdly I will draw up some useful Inferences very necessary for practical Reformers of Church and State But before I proceed Dr. Sherlock's Pre◠I cannot but take notice of that one thing you thought necessary to recant but though it is but one yet it is the only one on which the Case turns c. And truly you were in the right for otherways you had given room for Richard against Baxter c. Besides your Case of Allegiance if compar'd with your Case of Resistance would have been very little to the purpose save only to serve a present Case which has possibly fallen in your Eye And if so 't is but reasonable your Judgment should vary not so much with the Times but according to the different Cases that at different Times chance to fall in your Eye And also 't is but just upon every such occasion to strain I do not mean Conscience but your Art and Skill to make our blessed Lord and the Apostles to go hand in hand with you to gain the Point But now if any Body should ask me this Question viz. How shall we know the Doctor did better understand St. Paul when he writ his Case of Allegiance than he did when he writ his Case of Resistance Let me perish if I could tell what to answer and therefore I leave that Sir to your self and so proceed to what I promis'd viz. the laying down the Hypothesis on which your Case c. is built And I cannot do that better than in the words of a great Man when Time was as I have found them ready drawn up to my hand about 40 Years ago and I dare be bold to say they would have been as good a Preface to your Book as that you have writ and do but read your own Name for his and you will perhaps be pleased to see how exactly it agrees with your own Notions of Providential Rulers and Civil Governments but take them in the Author 's own words and then judge of the matter Mr. Jenkins's Recantation Or his Acknowledgment by way of Petition to the Parliament wherein he confesseth his Sorrow for his acting against the State and the unsutableness of it to his Calling and Profession As also the Parliaments Answer to his Petition as it was printed in the Year 1651. To the Supreme Authority the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England The humble Petition of William Jenkins Prisoner Humbly sheweth THat Your Petitioner is unfeignedly sorrowful for all his late Miscarriages whether testified against him or acknowledged by him and for the great and sinful unsutableness of them to his Calling and Condition That upon earnest seeking of God and diligent enquiring into his Will Your Petioner is convinced that the Alteration of all Civil Governments are ordered by and founded by the wise Providences of God who removeth Kings setteth up Kings ☞ ruleth in the Kingdoms of Men and giveth them to whomsoever he will That the Providences of this God have in the Judgment of Your Petitioner as evidently appeared in the Removing of others from and Investing Your Honours with the Government of this Nation ☞ as every they appeared in the taking away or bestowing of any Government in any History of any Age in the World That he apprehends that a Refusal to be Subjects to this present Authority ☞ under the Pretence of upholding the Title of any upon Earth is a Refusal to acquiesce in the wise and righteous Pleasure of God such an opposing of the Government set up by the Sovereign Lord of Heaven and Earth as none can have Peace either in Acting in or Suffering for And Your Petitioner looks upon it as his Duty to yield to this Authority all active and chearful Obedience in the Lord even for Conscience sake To promise he being required Truth and Fidelity to it and to hold forth the ground of his so doing to any as God shall call him thereunto c. The rest relates only to his particular Condition and Imprisonment an Inlargement from which he very humbly and submissively prayed for which was granted him in the following Words Resolved that Mr. ☞ Jenkins be pardoned both for his Life and Estate and that Mr. Attorny General be required to prepare the Pardon to be passed under the Great Seal of England and that his Body be forthwith discharged from Imprisonment and his Estate from Sequestration Which extraordinary Favour he obtained through the Mildness of that Government to poor Delinquents And here give me leave to observe viz. Had such a Case been printed in Oliver's time it would have posed a good Divine no dispraise to your self to know whether you had taken your Notions of Providence from Mr. Jenkin's Petition or he his from your Case of Allegiance For in truth they are so very like that it creates a just Supposition of your being one of his Pupils And this is the first Thing I promised viz. The laying down the Hypothesis on which the Foundation of your Case c. stands And I will appeal to all Mankind Whether this Providential Principle would not serve for the French King the Grand Signior nay a Marssinello or a Protestant Joyner provided he could but get enough of the Mob on his side to knock out the Brains of their Opposers the better to instruct them to whom the Sovereign Power do