ultimately resolved they allow to an English Parliament no more power than to give some inauthoritative Advice which the King may use or neglect as he thinks fit They think a Coronation Oath whatever it may be with respect to God yet with respect to the People is only a customary Ceremony or insignificant Formality They suppose all legal limitations of the Government to be but the King 's arbitrary and temporary Condescentions which he may retract without doing any Injury to the People and in a word that all our Laws are entirely dependent on His Pleasure for their Being Continuance and Influence but his Will is in all Cases unaccountable and irresistible Such Maxims as these quite alter the Frame of our English Government raise up our King into a Tyrant and depress his Subjects into Slaves and serve only to render the King odious and his People miserable and therefore as no wise Man can forbear wishing that they may not be true so upon enquiry we shall find that they have been advanced either by the Fondness of some who frame Schemes of Government in their own imagination or by the Ignorance of others who are deceiv'd with the sound of the aequivocal Name of King or by the Craft of those who make a Trade of advancing the Prerogative in order to their own Advancement Indeed if the preceding Principle had proved true That Monarchy is a Divine Institution it would be necessary for us to grant that no other Form of Government could be mix'd with it or That be restrained by any Limitations because it cannot be lawful for Man to adulterate or infringe the Ordinance of God But seeing the Jus Divinum doth not appear we have reason to suppose that our English Government is built on the Topical Constitutions of this Countrey and may differ from the Government of other Countreys as much as our Tempers Interests and Circumstances do For if the Supreme Governor of the VVorld hath not thought fit to prescribe One Form of Government to be every-where observed he hath permitted to every Nation a Liberty of framing to themselves such a Constitution as may be most useful and agreeable and as it is inconceivable that all Nations should conspire in the same Platform of Governments so it is most unreasonable to seek in Judea Italy or France for the Measures or Properties of the English Government which was made and is therefore to be found only at Home and should be describ'd rather from its own Laws and Constitutions than any fine Notions we can conceive of what it might or should be And if we contemplate the Government it self we may easily discover what its essential Forms and Properties are for surely a Government that hath been publickly transacted through so many Ages and hath made so great a Figure in the world cannot remain an imperceptible Secret or an unintelligible Mystery and I cannot forbear suspecting those who disguise it with so many Uncertainties and Obscurities that they design to mislead us into a mistake of that which they will not allow us to understand A little skill in our English History will suffice to inform us That the Saxons and English from whom this Nation is chiefly descended did first introduce the Form of our English Government and that it was the same they had been inur'd to in Germany where as Tacitus observes Regibus nec infinita aut libera potestas Kings had not an Absolute or Unlimited Power Tacit. de morib Germ. Sect. 3 5. And from the ancient Records of those early Times we are assur'd That the Consent of the People in a Convention or Parliament did always concur to the making of Laws and also their Consent in a Jury of Peers was always admitted in the Execution of Them VVhence the People of England have been always acknowledged to be Free-men And tho we read that the Saxons were subdued by the Danes yet we find not that their Government was changed but that after a short Interruption the Government and Country returned entirely into the Hands of the Saxons The Duke of Normandy whom we call the Conqueror was such only with respect to Harold who usurp'd the Crown but not with respect to the Kingdom which he claimed as Successor to King Edward to whom he was related by whom he was adopted and from whom he had received a solemn Promise of the next Reversion and accordingly we find that tho be made some external Changes in the Government yet he made no essential Alteration in the Form of it and the same kind of Government hath been transmitted by succeeding Kings to the present Age with some accidental Improvements as our Ancestors grew wiser by Experience or the Necessities and interests of the Nation did require Now inasmuch as our English Government was at first transplanted out of another Countrey and hath been ripened into a Perfection by several degrees through a long tract of Time it would be very fanciful to suppose one solemn time when the Original Compact between the King and People was first made or to ask after a Book in which it is in a certain Form recorded that Compact being nothing else than a tacit Agreement between the King and Subjects to observe such common Usages and Practices as by an immemorial Prescription are become the Common-Law of our Government And to understand these so far as our present Case requires there it no necessity that should read over all the Records in the Tower or all the Volumes of our English History there being several ancient Forms and Customs among us which fall under easie Observation that are sufficient to inform us of the Nature of our English Government For when at a Coronation we see a King presented to the People and their Consent solemnly asked and given what can we reasonably inser from thence but that anciently Kings were advanced to their Thrones by the Consent and Agreement of the People When we hear the King solemnly Promise and Swear to maintain to the People their Rights and Liberties to conserve the Laws and cause them to be observed must we not conclude from thence that there are Rights and Liberties reserved to the People that the Will of the King is limited by the Law of the Realm and that he is bound by His Oath to conserve the Laws as we are by Ours to observe them When we are taught to call the King our Leige-Sovereign and our selves his Leige-Subjects do not those Terms import that he is bound to protect Us in All our Rights as we are bound to obey Him in All his Laws When we read in the Preamble of every Statute That it is enacted not only by the Authority of the King 's most Excellent Majesty but also by the Authority of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and of the Commons assembled in Parliamen is it not very evident from hence that the Parliament hath a share in the Legislative Power which is an eminent Branch
of the Supreme Authority in this Kingdom From these and other such easie Observations any impartial unprejudiced person will certainly conclude that our English Government according to its Essential Constitution is a mixture of Three Forms of Government for he observes a Monarchy in the King an Aristocracy in the Peers and a Democracy in the Commons all which share it that Part of the Sovereignty which consists in making Laws And though our Government be called a Monarchy because That Kind is predominant in the Constitution according to the known Rule That the Denomination is to be taken from the Excelling Part the King having not only a share in the Nomothetick Power but also the whole Executive Power committed to Him yet we cannot but conclude from the foregoing Observations That our Monarchy is not Absolute and Unlimited that the Law is the stated Rule and Measure of our Government and that the Law cannot be made altered or annulled by the sole Pleasure of the King but as it is the first determinate Rule by which the King is to Govern and the People to Obey so it is to be made or chang'd only by the Consent of Both in a Parliament I might confirm all this by transcribing out of Books several Testimonies which occur in the Declarations of Parliaments in the Writings of Judges and others Learned in the Law but as these would make a Letter too tedious so they are unnecessary to an unprejudic'd Considerer and by others would be suspected of partiality to the People of whom they are a part I shall therefore only add the Testimony of King Charles the I. who of all men had most reason to study understand and assert the Rights of the English Monarchy He freely declares in his Answer to the Nineteen Propositions p. 96. That there being Three Kinds of Government among Men. Absolute Monarchy Arislocracy and Democracy and all these having their particular Conveniences and Inconveniences the Experience and Wisdom of our Ancestors hath so moulded This out of a mixture of These as to give to this Kingdom as far as Human Prudence can provide the Conveniences of all Three without the Inconveniences of any One. He also in the same Answer affirms That in this Kingdom the Laws are jointly made by a King by a House of Peers and by a House of Commons He likewise affirms in his Declaration from Newmarket That the Law is the Measure of his Power And in another Declaration to the Ministers and Freeholders of the County of York he acknowledgeth That his Prerogatives are built upon the Law of the Land. From these and other such Passages which frequently occur in the Writings of the King who so earnestly disputed for the Rights of the Crown we may be abundantly convinc'd that the English Monarchy is not unmixt or unlimited and cannot therefore enough admire the lewd presumption of others who have dar'd to attempt a change in our English Government who prefer the extremes of Tyranny and Slavery to the just temperament of our English Constitution who have labour'd to tempt our Kings into an affectation of absolute and arbitrary Power and have miserably overlay'd the Consciences of their Fellow-subjects with a boundless unlimited dread of a boundless unlimited Power 3. There are also great mistakes about the measures of our Obedience and Submission which are necessary to be removed before our Consciences can make a free and impartial determination of the Case before us We have been told it often and with great earnestness that we are bound in Conscience to yield an active Obedience to the King in all cases not countermanded by God and to resist him in no case whatsoever If indeed the two foregoing Errors had stood the proof this would have follow'd by necessary consequence for if a Monarch be jure Divino he must be absolute and if he be so there is no case not excepted by God in which we must not obey him and none at all in which we may resist him but then we may make this advantage from the connexion which these Errors have one to another That if one of them be refuted the rest much necessarily fall with it and if according to the English Principles premis'd our Government be founded on the Constitutions of this Country and according to those Constitutions be mixt and limited then there may be some cases in which it may be lawful for us not to obey the King and not unlawful to resist him For tho it may be true that we are bound to obey actively whatever is commanded by the Legislative Power of the Kingdom and is not repugnant to any Law of God yet we cannot assert so much with respect to the King only because he having not the whole Legislative Power an Act of his private Will is destitute of that Authority which can derive an obligation upon Conscience altho therefore a King may require things not inconsistent with the Law of God yet if they are beyond that Authority which the Constitutions of England have assign'd to him his Subjects are not bound in conscience to obey those Commands and tho in some cases they may comply by a voluntary Concession yet they are oblig'd to condemn and withstand such proceedings if they increase so far as to threaten a fatal subversion of the Government But how can we defend our selves against any exorbitant Acts of the King 's private Will if disarm'd and fetter'd by the Doctrines of passive Obedience and Nonresistance what may not a King do and a People suffer if no defence may be us'd I do not here forget to consider what submission God hath requir'd to that Supreme Authority which he hath instituted or what honour and reverence we are to pay to those Governors who sustain and administer it nor how impatient men ordinarily are of the yoak of Government and how apt to inlarge their liberty into licentiousness nor how pernicious disorder and confusion must needs be to any Society and therefore I use the utmost Caution I can to steer aright amidst the Rocks on the one hand and the Sands on the other that I may not make shipwrack of a good Conscience I therefore premise and sincerely acknowledg as I have learn'd from St. Paul that Every soul must be subject to the Supreme Authority which God hath instituted and that if he resist he is worthy of condemnation and according to S. Jude that we must not despise dominions or speak evil of dignities and that those untameable Spirits which are impatient of Government are like wild Beasts made to be destroyed I have also learn'd from S. Peter to submit to every ordinance of men for the Lord's sake whether to the King as supreme or to Governors sent by him so as not to disobey or resist them in the use of that Authority which the Constitutions of the Kingdom have assigned to them I have from the same Apostle learned farther to be subject with all fear not
Argument from this Declaration is of more force as it pleads the judgment and determination of our Legislators which will therefore deserve to be more attentively consider'd I acknowledg that this Form was intended in direct opposition to the Rebellious principles and practices of the times immediately preceding and must conclude that according to the judgment of this Parliament King Charles the I. did never de jure fall from his Regal Right and that consequently the War his Subjects wag'd against him was a Rebellion and the positions on which they proceeded were traiterous and that it is not lawful upon pretence of his Authority or any other pretence whatsoever to take Arms against his person who continues to be de jure King In all which the Parliament doth declare no defensive Resistance to be unlawful which was not always so nor condemn any positions which are not in themselves antecedently traiterous and whoever thinks that they intended more must suppose that that Parliament alter'd the Constitutions of our English Government and did by apparent consequence expose the Nation to utter Destruction And if any of us in subscribing the Declaration had any other apprehensions of it we may and I think we should renounce and condemn them 3. Let us in the last place consider how this resolution will agree with the received Principles and Doctrines of the Church of England We need not I know profess so high a regard for our Church as to think any doctrine upon her sole Authority to be a Sufficient rule of our Faith or Conscience and yet it cannot misbecome us to pay so great a deference to he Judgment as never to depart from it without great regret But upon second thoughts I find we shall be under no necessity of doing so for tho there have been for some time a party among us who have appropriated to themselves the Church of England exclusive of their brethren yet if we extend her Arms wide enough to embrace all her genuine children since the Reformation we shall find enough on our side to justifie our doctrines to be consistent with her principles Her Homilies no where that I know of assert the Errors I have here condemned or condemn any of the positions I have here asserted The Homilies of Obedience teach us to Submit to lawful Authority and to know our bounden duties to common Authority but they teach us no loyalty beside or contrary to law The Homilies against Rebellion are particularly designed against the Papists whose Rebellion was the occasion upon which they were written and tho they teach us not to resist our Prince if his Government be legal however contrary to our Religion or any other interests yet they no where forbid a defensive resistance against illegal oppressions which threaten an inevitable ruin to our Country Hom. of Obed. pag. 75. for they describe the Rebellion they condemn to be no other then resisting or withstanding common Authority And that the principles of loyalty which obtained in the Church at that time were no other then I have been now asserting we may easily satisfie our selves from that form of Prayer they are charged with by the Parliament in Queen Mary's reign that God would turn her heart from Idolatry to the true Faith or else shorten her dayes and take her quickly out of the way Sr. Simon D'-Ewes journall p. 207. Also from tne Reasons which the Bishops presented to Queen Elizabeth to prove that she ought to take away the life of Mary Queen of Scots because an Enemy to their Religion and Country tho the next Heiress of the Crown as Constantine did of Licinius his fellow Emperour because he was an Enemy of the Empire and of the Christan Religion And to such as might object against their Reasons and advice they thus replie If our danger be joyn'd with the danger of our Gracious Soveraign and natural Country we see not how we can be accounted godly Bishops or faithful Subjects if in common peril we should not cry out give warning Or on the other hand how they can be thought to have true hearts toward God and toward their Prince and Country that will mislike our so doing and seek thereby to discredit us We may also know their principles in the present case from the Subsidies which the Câ—ergy gave to the Queen in several Convocations in the fifth thirty fifth and forty third years of her Reign for her maintaining and assisting the Scotch French and Dutch in their defence of their Liberties and Religion against the injust oppressions of their Princes as may be collected out of the preambles of those Subsidy Acts. And if it were not too tedious this might be fully attested out of the writings of such Bishops as were most eminent in those times Bishop Jewel speaking of Luther Def. of Apol. p. 16. Melancthon c. hath these words They do not teach the people to rebel against their Prince but only to defend themselves by all lawful means against oppression as did David against King Saul and so do the Nobles in France at this day They seek not to kill but to save their own lives as they have openly protested by publick writing to the world Bishop Bilson in his book of the true difference between Christian subjection and Unchristan Rebellion dedicated to Queen Elizaheth P. 520. Edit 1585. thus gives his Judgment concerning that defensive Resistance which the Hugonots used against the injust oppressions of their King. I will not Saith he rashly pronounce all that resist to be Rebels Cases may fall out in Christian Kingdoms where the people may plead their Right against the Prince and not be charged with Rebellion As for example if a Prince should go about to subject his Kingdom to a forreign Realm or change the form of the Comonwealth from Empire to Tyranny or neglect the Laws established by common consent of Prince and People to execute his own pleasure In these and other cases which might be named if the Nobles and Commons joyn together to defend their Ancient and accustomed Liberty Regiment and Laws they may not well be counted Rebels In the next Reign In hoc causa eorum a Veteris Ecclesiae ratione distinguenda est c. Dem. Anti. c. 17. p. 91. c. we have the judgment of Abbot Bishop of Salisbury that the Case of the Primitive Christians and of us differs in this that they had no legal Right for their Religion but were subject to the meer pleasure of the Government And while it was so Christians did suffer themselves to be kill'd and kill'd none in their own defence but when under Constantine the Emperour they had the Laws on their side Non tam caedebantur quam caedebant they did not so much yield up themselves to be kill'd as allow themselves to kill others in their just defence Such were the principles of the Church of England in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth
and King James but indeed in the next Reign when Popish and French Councils found admission at our Court then arose together the New Principles of superconformity in the Church and of Super Loyalty in the State which like a preternatural ferment have ever since disturb'd the peace of both and must be again cast out if we ever recover a true English Temper or a peaceful settlement If then we frame our Character of the Church of England from the first and purest half of her Age before she was secretly practis'd upon by the Arts of her subtle Adversary we shall easily discover that her principles of Conformity and Loyalty are far more moderate and intelligible than those which since that time have been most industriously and impetuously recommended under her Venerable Name And I wish that every one who professeth an Honourable and kind regard for our Church would no longer ascribe to her such Principles and Doctrines which she for many years was ignorant of wherewith the Church hath given great advantage to her Enemies and receiv'd nothing but Scorn and Contempts and by which she may oblige the present Government to treat her with less kindness than she might otherwise expect But I forget that I am writing a Letter and how much pardon I already need for running it into so great a length but I thought it better to give you so long a trouble in reading than to leave any trouble on your mind unremoved I beseech you to excuse candidly the mistakes I may have committed and to accept the Services of Reverend Sir London March 1688 / 9 Your Affectionate Brother and Faithful Friend c. Books Lately Printed for RIC. CHISWELL AN Explication of the Catechism of the Church of England Viz. The Creed Lords Prayer Ten Commandements and the Sacraments in IV. Volumes Fol. by Gabr. Towerson D. D. The Fifteen Notes of the Church as laid down by Cardinal Bellarmin examined and confuted by several Hands with a Table to the whole 4to Reflexions upon the Books of the Holy Scripture in order to establish the Truth of the Christian Religion in Two Parts Oct. By Mr. Alix The TEXTS which the Papists cite out of the Bible for Proof of the Points of their Religion Examined and shew'd to be alledg'd without Ground In twenty five distinct Discourses by several Hands Viz. Popery not founded in Scripture The Introduction TEXTS concerning the Obscurity of Holy Scriptures Of the insufficiency of Scripture and necessity of Tradition Of the Supremacy of St. Peter and the Pope over the whole Church In two parts Of Infallibility Of the Worship of Angels and Saints departed In two Parts Of the Worship of Images and Reliques Of the Seven Sacraments and the Efficacy of them In two Parts Of the Sacrifice of the Mass In two Parts Of Transubstantiation Of Auricular Confession Of Satisfactions In two parts Of Purgatory In two Parts Of Prayer in an unknown Tongue In two Parts Of Coelibacy of Priests and Vows of Continence In two parts Of the Visibility of the Church Of Merit of Good Works Two Tables to the whole will shortly be published A Continuation of the state of the Controversie between the Church of England and the Church of Rome being a full account of the Books that have been of late written on both sides By William Wake M. A. 4to Dr. Patricks Parable of the Pilgrim The Sixth Edition corrected A Private Prayer to be used in difficult Times 8to Exposition of the Ten Commandments 8to His Sermon before the Prince of Orange 20. January 1688. A Sermon before the Queen at Whitehall March 1. 1688. Books lately Published by Dr. Gilbert Burnet A Collection of Tracts and Discourses written after the Discovery of the Popish Plot from the years 1678 to 1685. To which is added a Letter written to Dr. Burnet giving an Account of Cardinal â—ools Secret Powers The History of the Powder Treason with a Vindication of the Proceedings thereupon An Impartial Consideration of the Five Jesuites dying Speeches who were Executed for the Popish Plot 1679. A Vindication of the Ordinations of the Church of England In which is demonstrated that all the Essentials of Ordination according to the Practice of the Primitive and Greek Churches are still retained in our Church Reflexions on the Relation of the English Reformation lately printed at Oxford in two Parts 4to Animadversions on the Reflections upon Dr. BVRNET's Travels 80 Reflexions on a Paper intitled his Majesties Reasons for withdrawing himself from Rochester An Enquiry into the present State of Affairs and imparticular whether we owe Allegiance to the King in these Circumstances And whether we are bound to Treat with Him and call Him back or no A Sermon Preached in St. James's Chappel before the Prince of Orange 23d Decemb 1688. A Sermon Preached before the House of Commons 31 January 1688 being the Thanksgiving day for the deliverance of this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power His Eighteen Papers relating to the Affairs of Church and State during the the Reign of King James the Second Seventeen whereof were written in Holland and first Printed there the other at Exeter soon after the Prince of Orange's Landing in England A Letter to Mr. Thevenot Containing a Censure of Mr. Le Grand's History of King Henry the Eighth's Divorce To which is added a Censure of Mr. de Meauxâ—s History of the Variations of the Protestant Churches Together with some further Reflections on Mr. Le Grand 1689. Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Historia Literaria a Christo nato usque ad Saeculum XIV Facili Methâ—do digesta Qua de Vita illorum ac Rebus gestis de Secta Dogmatibus Elogio Stylo de Scriptis genuinis dubiis supposititiis ineditis deperditis Fragmentis deque variis Operum Editionibus perspicue agitur Accedunt Scriptores Gentiles Christiane Religionis Oppugnatores cujusvis Saeculi Breviarium Inseruntur suis locis Veterum aliquot Opuscula Fragmenta turn Graeca tum Latina hactenus inedita Praemissa denique Prolegomena quibus plurima ad Antiquitatis Ecclesiasticae studium spectantia traduntur Opus Indicibus necessariis instructum Autore GVILIELMO CAVE SS Theol. Profes Canonico Windesoriensi Accedit ab Alia Manu Appendix ab ineunte Saeculo XIV ad Annum usque MDXVII Fol. 1689. ADVERTISEMENT Whereas a Book Intituled FASCICULUS RERUM EXPETENDARUM ET FUGIENDARUM with a large Additional APPENDIX was promised by Richard Chiswell the Undertaker to be finished in Michaelmas Term last This is to give Notice That by reason of the Sickness of the Printer and some necessary Avocations of the Publisher it has been retarded But for the Satisfaction of Subscribers the Book will be forty or fifty Sheets more than was promised in the Proposals which will cost the Undertaker 100 l. extraordinary yet in Consideration thereof he will not expect one penny above the first Subscription price only craves their patience till the Book can be done which is now going on with all possible speed and so soon as finished Notice shall be given in the Gazette In the mean time there being some few of the Impression not yet subscribed for such Gentlemen as please to take the Benefit thereof may be admitted Subscribers and may have Printed Proposals for sending for at the Rose and Crown in St. Pauls Chuch-Yard or at most Booksellers Shops in City or Country