duty of such an injured Prince for the common good to resigne his Government and if he will not the People ought to judge him as made uncapable by Providence and not to seek his restitution to the apparent ruine of the Commonwealth Thes 147. If therefore the rightful Governour be so long dispossessed that the Commonwealth can be no longer without but to the apparent hazard of its ruine we i. e. the people that dispossessed him are to judge that Providence hath dispossessed the former and presently consent to another Thes 149. If a People that by Oath and Duty are obliged to a Soveraign shall sinfully dispossess him and contrary to their Covenants chuse and covenant with another they may be obliged by their later Covenant notwithstanding their former Thes 181. If a Nation injuriously deprive themselves of a worthy Prince the hurt will be their own and they punish themselves but if it â— necessary to their welfare it is no injury to him but a King that by War will seek Reparation from the Body of the People doth put himself into a Hostile state and tells them actually that he looks to his own good more than theirs and bids them take him for their Enemy and defend themselves if they can p. 424. Though a Nation wrong their King and so quoad men tum Cauiae they are on the worse side yet maâ—â— he not lawfully war against the common good oâ—â— that account nor any help him in such a War because propter finem he hath the worse Cause Thes 352. And p. 476. we were to believe the Parliaments Declarations and Professions that the War which they raised was nâ—â— against the King either in respect of his Authority or his Person but onely against Delinquent Subjects And yet they actually fought against the King's Person and Authority And We are to believe saith Mr. Baxter p. 422. That men would kill them whom the fight against Quam bene conveniunt Mr. Baxter never followed any Text that he preached on so closely as he hath done the Text of this Jesuit in the Commentary of his Holy Commonwealth John Milton printed a Book very well like this of Mr. White called The Tenure of King and Magistrates driving on this Maxime That it is lawful for any that have power to call to account depose and put to death wicked Kings and Tyrants after due conviction if the ordinary Magistrate neglect it We have lately had a Fanatical Lawyer following the Divine Mr. Baxter transcribing out of the same Book of Mr. White to the same end I shall observe onely this Note among others in Mr. White p. 158. where he answers some Objections of Divines concerning the Authority of Princes and Non-resistance Vp steps the Divine saith he to preach us out of Scripture the Duty we owe to Kings no less than Death and Damnation being the Guerdons of Disobedience and Rebellion And p. 159. They will speak reason too telling us that God by nature is high Lord and Master of all That whoever is in power receiveth his right from him That Obedience consists in doing the Will of him that commandeth and concludes that his Will ought to be obeyed till God taketh away the obligation i. e. till he who is to be obeyed himself releaseth the right And p. 160. They alleadge that God by his special command transferred the Kingdom from Saul to David from Rehoboam to Jeroboam so that in fine all that is brought out of Scripture falleth short of proving that no time can make void the right of a King once given him by the hand of God Now mark what Mr. White says to overthrow the sence of Scripture The reason saith he 〈◊〉 this weak way of alleadging Scripture is that when they read that God commandeth or doth this they look not into Nature to know what this commanding or doing is but presently imagine God commands it by express and direct words and doth it by an immediate Position of the things said to be done whereas in Nature the commands are nothing but the natural light God hath bestowed on mankind and which is therefore frequently called the Law of Nature Likewise Gods doing a thing is many times onely the course of natural second causes to which because God gives the direction and motion he both doth and is said to do all that is done by them These things are transcribed by Mr. Hunt to the same ends that Mr. White urged them p. 144. of his Postscript The nature of Government and its Original saith he hath been prejudiced by men that understanding nothing but words and Grammar-Divines without contemplating Gods Attributes or the nature of man or the reasonableness of moral Precepts have undertaken to declare the sence of Scripture and infer that Soveraign power is not of humane institution but of divine appointment because they find it there written that by him Kings raign imagining that when the Scripture saith God commands or doth this that God commanded it by express words or doth it by an immediate position of the thing done whereas in Nature his commands are nothing but the natural light God hath bestowed on mankind likewise Gods doing a thing is onely the course of natural and second causes to which because God gives direction and motion he doth both and is said to do all that is done After this Mr. Hunt rails against our Divines in the Jesuits Mr. White 's Language also White calls them Grammar-Divines verbal and wind-blown Divines p. 162. and Mr. Hunt calls them men that understand nothing but words and Grammar-Divines who saith Mr. White without Logick Philosophy or Morality undertake to be Interpreters of the sacred Bible Who saith Mr. Hunt without contemplating Gods Attributes or the nature of man or the reasonableness of moral Precepts have undertaken to declare the sence of Scripture From the Premises we may draw this Conclusion That the Papists and Fanaticks do agree and mutually lend and borrow Arguments to resist Kings elude the Scriptures defame the English Clergie and overthrow the Government in Church and State As 1. That to conclude from the sence of Scripture is a weak way of arguing 2. That Non obstante what the Scripture says of Divine right of Soveraign power it is not of Divine but Humane institution 3. That Providence and the effects of second causes being influenced by God are of equal authority with the Precepts injoyned by the Word of God 4. That the Soveraign power being but of humane institution may be resisted and is alterable 5. That having cast off their Loyalty to the King and his Laws they are in a fair way to cast off God and his Laws 6. That the worst of Papists and their Atheistical Arguments are made use of by some that call themselves true Protestants against the express commands of God for Obedience to the Higher Powers There was printed 1650 an Answer to Dr. Ferne's Exercitation concerning usurped Powers in which the Answerer
accused our Church and Government of Popery for retaining those innocent and indifferent things agreeable to the primitive practice to make a publick declaration of their abhorrence of Romish principles and practices such as I have already charged them withal To which I may adde their claiming of a Supremacy above Princes and Parliaments in matters Ecclesiastical and divers other things which are the most pernicious and Antichristian Doctrines and Practices of that Church which have drawn the greatest reproach and odium on the Reformation And if they would heartily perform this duty I doubt not but they would see a necessity of returning to the Communion of the Church as it is now established and to assist her in her conflicts against the Church of Rome than which there is no means more probable to keep out that Popery against which they pretend so great an aversion And to induce them hereunto I shall recommend to their serious consideration how far the Principles and Practices of the Jesuits under the name of Doleman and of the old Regicides under that of Bradshaw and our new Conspirators under the Notions of Sidney do agree as it is fitted to my hand in this Parallel THE PARALLEL 1. DOLEMAN THere can be no doubt but that the Commonwealth hath power to chuse their own fashion of Government as also to change the same upon reasonable Causes In like manner is it evident that as the Commonwealth hath this Authority to chuse and change her Government so hath she also to limit the same with what Laws and Conditions she pleaseth Conference about Succession part 1. cap. 1. pag 12 13. All Law both Natural National and Positive doth teach us That Princes are subject to Law and Order and that the Common-wealth which gave them their Authority for the common good of all may also restrain or take the same away again if they abuse it to the common evil The whole Body though it be governed by the Prince as by the Head yet is it not Inferiour but Superiour to the Prince Neither so giveth the Commonwealth her Authority and Power up to any Prince that she depriveth her self utterly of the same when need shall require to use it for her defence for which she gave it Part 1. cap. 4. pag. 72. And finally the Power and Authority which the Prince hath from the Common-wealth is in very truth not Absolute but Potestas vicaria delegata i. e. a Power Delegate or Power by Commission from the Commonwealth which is given with such Restrictions Cautels and Conditions yea with such plain Exceptions Promises and Oaths of both Parties I mean between the King and Commonwealth at the day of his Admission oâ— Coronation as if the same be not kept but wilfully broken on either Part then is the other not bound to observe his Promise neither though never so solemnly made or sworâ—â— Part 1. cap. 4. p. 73. By this then you see the ground whereon dependeth the righteous and lawful Deposition and Chastisement of wicked Princes viz. Their failing in their Oath and Promises which they made at their first entrance Then is the Commonwealth not onely free from all Oaths made by her of Obedience or Allegiance to such unworthy Princes but is bound moreover for saving the whole Body to resist chasten or remove such evil Heads if she be able for that otherwise all would come to Destruction Ruine and publick Desolation Part 1. cap. 4. p. 77 78. 2. BRADSHAW THe People of England as they are those that at the first as other Countries have done did chuse to themselves this Form of Government even for Justice sake that Justice might be administred that Peace might be preserved so Sir they gave Laws to their Governours according to which they should govern and if those Laws should have prov'd inconvenient or prejudicial to the Publick they had a Power in them and reserved to themselves to alter as they shall see cause Kings Tryal p. 64. CHARLES STUART King of England The Commons of England assembled in Parliament according to the fundamental Power that rests in themselves have resolved to bring you to Tryal and Judgment p. 29. If so be the King will go contrary to the end of his Government Sir he must understand that he is but an Officer of Trust and he ought to discharge that Trust and they are to take order for the Animadversion and Punishment of such an Offending Governour p. 65. Sir Parliaments were ordained for that purpose to redress the Grievances of the People And then Sir the Scripture says They that know their Masters will and do it not what follows The Law is your Master the Acts of Parliament p. 66 67. This we know to be Law Rex habet superiorem Deum Legem etiam Curiam and so says the same Author and truly Sir he makes bold to go a little further Debent ei ponere fraenum They ought to bridle him p. 65. That the said Charles Stuart being admitted King of England and therein trusted with a limited Power Vid. Char. p. 30. The House of Commons the Supream Authority and Jurisdiction of the Kingdom p. 48. Which Authority requires you in the name of the People of England of which you are elected King to answer them p. 36. Sir you may not demur the Jurisdiction of the Court they sit here by the Authority of the Commons of England and all your Predecessors and you are responsible to them p. 44. For there is a Contract and Bargain between the King and his People and your Oath is taken and certainly Sir the Bond is reciprocal Sir if this Bond be once broken farewel Soveraignty p. 72. Sir though you have it by Inheritance in the way that is spoken of yet it must not be denied that your Office was an Office of Trust Now Sir if it be an Office of Inheritance as you speak of your Title by Descent let all men know that great Offices are seizable and forfeitable as if you had it but for a year and for your Life p. 73. And Sir the People of England cannot be so far wanting to themselves which God having dealt so miraculously and gloriously for they having Power in their hands and their Great Enemy they must proceed to do Justice to themselves and to You. p. 75. 3. SIDNEY And other of The True Protestant Party GOd hath left Nations unto the liberty of setting up such Governments as best pleased themselves The Right and Power of Magistrates in every Country was that which the Laws of that Country made it to be Sidn Pap. p. 2. St. Peter 1 Pet. 2.13 14. stiles Kings as well as the Governours under him the Ordinance of Man which cannot have any other sence but that Men make them and give them their Power Hunt's Postsc p. 37. By all which it is evident That the Succession to the Crown is the Peoples Right And though the Succession to the Crown is Hereditary because
was such another Fast as those that were kept in the days of their Q Mary of which she was wont to say That she was as much afraid of a Fast of the Ministers as of an Army of Souldiers And yet if you will believe themselves or some Advocates of theirs nearer home there are not a more innocent peaceable and harmless people in the world as the Author of Naphtali said of the Rebellion of Pentland hills There hath not been in Britain such a company of men in Arms for the Covenant and Cause of God for sound Judgment true Piety Integrity and fervent Zeal and undaunted Courage But all this Zeal and Courage was still directed against the King and the established Government and Worship of God For in the year 1679. the Convention of Estates gave the King a Tax of 30000 l. to maintain a Regiment of Foot three Companies of Dragoons and three Troops of Horse to suppress the Field-Conventicles which met in Arms against which their Leaders preached saying It was given by the enemies of Christ to drive him out of his Kingdom and it would be as great a fin to pay it as it was in Judas to betray Christ and that now was the time to try them whether they would have Christ for their King or no. And the same Ruffians that murdered the Archbishop did several times lay wait for the Collectors of this Tax and they so perplexed the peoples Consciences that a Servant of the Earl of Dondonald fell distracted through trouble of mind for having assisted his Master in laying the Tax on Renscot This is that little Sister for whom the Noble Peer pleaded that having no Breasts she might like the Amazons have liberty to take up Arms and once more enter our Nation and rent us in pieces as formerly And it were easie to shew from the Writings of some of our own Nation that the same Principles have been preached to the people of this Land who have greedily swallowed and digested the same and think themselves under the same obligation of Covenant as those barbarous people Dr. Lake in a Sermon before the Lord Mayor says That discoursing some Rebels that were then in Goal in Scotland who did openly avow the Rebellion and refused to pray for the King He told them they were variously reported to be Jesuits or Jesuitically affected or to be Fifth-Monarchy-men wild arrant Fanaticks They told him they were neither one nor other but true Presbyterians according to the Covenant He replying That we had Presbyterians in our own Kingdom who yet did not obstinately maintain such King-deposing and murthering Doctrines They told him he did not understand them for they believed the same Doctrines but onely wanted Power and Courage to act them And at their execution they desired the people to take notice That they died true Presbyterians according to the Covenant It is another Artifice of these People agreeable to the practice of the Papists that they keep their People in ignorance and under the power of an implicit Faith and blind Obedience as the Papists do and bring them up in strong prejudices against their Governors Some have been so mad as to baptize their Children into the National Covenant which they are not ashamed to compare with The Covenant of Grace Mr. Alexander Gibson Clerk of his Majesties Privy-Council certified May 13. 1678. that one David Ferguson taken at a Field-Conventicle being asked why he kept not to his Parish-Church answered That he had sworn the Covenant whereby he was obliged not to hear Bishops Deans or Curats and that others being asked why they kept Conventicles answered To hear Gods truth and being demanded what that was they answered They could not tell And upon examination they could not say the Creed the Lords Prayer or ten Commandments Mr. Jo. Dickson preached to them That all the Bishops and their Clergie never did nor ever will convert one Soul They believe without farther enquiry being forbid to read the Books written for Obedience and Conformity that Episcopacy is Antichristian and Presbytery is Christs own institution They hold with the Papists That the actions of their Kirk and Teachers in Field-Conventicles and armed and fighting men is not Rebellion because the Presbytery is not subject to the Secular Power That the Subjects may enter into Solemn Leagues and Covenants without and against the Prince That Kings may be excommunicate and deposed which some of them have practised against his present Majesty That not the King in some cases but the Kirk have power to convocate and dissolve Assemblies and that they may make Laws without the King That Salvation is not to be had but in their Communion They injoyn new Articles of belief as That Episcopacy is an Antichristian Order and so are the Church-Festivals and Ceremonies That the Oath of Supremacy is an unlawful Oath and the People are absolved from it That the Power of the King is originally in the People and that there is a mutual obligation between them and if the King perform not his part the People are free from performing theirs That for the good of the Kirk and Gods Cause they may rebel against their Prince That the Prince nor any Secular Power can silence or deprive a Minister who is subject to none but Christ That Passive Obedience to the unjust commands of a Prince is as great a sin as Active Obedience to the same That a private person may kill a Magistrate by impulse of the Spirit after the Example of Phinees to deliver the Kirk from Oppression That it is lawful to kill Protestant Bishops and their Curates as enemies to true Godliness and such as would bring the Kirk to a slavish dependance on the King James Mitchel who was executed for attempting the murther of the Archbishop said in his dying Speech They are all blessed that shall take the proud Prelates and dash their brains against the stones as afterward some Ruffians did by the Archbishop These are their Principles and all these they have practised when they had opportunities They come little behind the Papists for equivocation and persisting in falsehood where they think their lives or the good of the Kirk concerned Jo. King being charged for bearing Arms against the King in the late Rebellion denied it until one that apprehended him swore that he had both Sword and Pistols To which he answered he did it not in an hostile manner which was a Jesuitical Equivocation He bore testimony against that woful Supremacy so much applauded and universally owned of such of whom better things might be expected as usurping on Christs Royal Authority spoiling him of his Royal Crown Scepter Sword and Royal Robe by taking those Princely Ornaments to invest a man whose breath is in his nostrils And both Kid and King bore their Testimonies against the Oath of Allegiance and Bond of Peace of which to satisfie the Reader I give him a Copy I A. B. for testification of my faithful
obedience to my most gracious Soveraign Charles King of Great Britain c. affirm testifie and declare by this my solemn Oath That I acknowledge my said Soveraign onely Supreme Governour of this Kingdom over all Persons and in all Causes and that no foreign Prince Power State or Person Civil or Ecclesiastick hath any Jurisdiction Power or Superiority over the same and therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all foreign Power Jurisdictions and Authorities and shall to my utmost power defend assist and maintain his Majesties Jurisdiction aforesaid against all mortals and shall never decline his Majesties Power and Jurisdiction as I shall answer to God The form of the Bond. I A. B. underscribing do faithfully bind and oblige me that I my Wife Barnes and Servants respectively shall no ways be present at any Conventicles and disorderly Meetings in time coming but shall live orderly in obedience to the Law under the penalties contained in the Acts of Parliament made there-anent As also I bind and oblige me that my whole Tenants and Cotters respectively their Wives Barnes and Servants shall likewise refrain and abstain from the said Conventicles and other illegal Meetings not authorized by Law and that they shall live orderly in obedience to the Law And further that I nor they shall receipt supply or commune with forfeited persons intercommuned Ministers or vagrant Preachers but shall do our utmost endeavour to apprehend their persons And in case my said Tenants Cotters and their foresaids shall contravene I shall take or apprehend any person or persons guilty thereof and present to the Judge Ordinars that they may be fined or imprisoned therefor as is provided in the Acts of Parliament made there-anent otherwise I shall remove them and their Families from my ground And if I shall fail herein I shall be liable to such penalties as the said Delinquents have incurred by the Laws consenting to the registration hereof in the Books of his Majesties Privy-Council or Books of any other Judges competent that Letters and Executorials may be direct hereupon in form as effairs and constitutes my Procurators The Field-preachers damned this Bond as an Arbitrary Tyrannical and Illegal proceeding and Mr. Welsh a Field-preacher having condemned the people for not coming armed to their Meetings with Swords and Pistols to defend the Gospel said That the subscribing this Bond was a renouncing their Baptism and making a Covenant with the Devil more express and worse than that of Witches And Mr. John Dickson at a Conventicle May 26. 1678. said That those who subscribed it had committed a greater sin than the sin of the Holy Ghost and were already in Hell This Mr. Welsh as Ravilliack Redivivus relates it preaching to about seven thousand people told them That the King the Nobles and Prelates were the Murtherers of Christ And sitting down in his Chair he said O People I will be silent speak O People and tell me what good thing the King hath done since his coming home yea hath he not done all the mischief a Tyrant could do And at another time he said That God would assert the Cause of Pentland-hills in spite of the Curates and their Masters the Prelates and in spite of the Prelates and their Master the King and his Master the Devil It was but a little before the Duke of York's going to Scotland that they were forming their Presbyteries after the Model of Ignatius dividing the Nation into several Provinces each of which was to have a Provincial and over all there was appointed a General who as Ignatius had been a Souldier and was thought fit to lead an Army The Provincials were to take an account of the growth or decay of their Party to mark out their Friends and their Enemies and to renew their Contributions and to give account of all to their General who was to reside at Edinburgh or London If this designe had succeeded no two Factions in the world had been more like whatever they are now than the Jesuit and Fanatick Which was the Incubus and which the Succubus that brought forth the two last hellish Plots or whether they were not Twins or as it is in the Riddle Mater me Genuit eadem mox gignitur ex me may puzzle the Reader to resolve It is certain the same plastick Principles formed them both and the Subjects were equally disposed to receive those Forms which have so affrighted the Nations and there is little difference the name excepted between a Clement and a Melvil a Ravilliack and a Mitchel a Bradshaw and a Cargil or the Jesuitical and a Fanatical Regicide both make the King accountable to the People both are for excommunicating deposing and assassinating of Kings both have been such Fire-brands as have kindled consuming fires where-ever they have fixed their cloven feet It is no great wonder that they are sometimes transformed into Angels of light seeing Satan himself may be so transformed neither of them can do their work if they should appear in their proper colours armed with Pistols and Blunderbusses in flames of fire and an horrible stench of Gunpowder and Brimstone they come clothed with Zeal as with a Cloak and in Sheeps clothing with demure looks and fair speeches to deceive the hearts of the Simple but inwardly they are ravening Wolves and by their fruits you may know them It is not a pretence of acting for a Good Old Cause or the Catholick Church that can justifie unnatural Rebellions and Bloudshed they who do such things are of their Father the Devil though they own Rome or Geneva for their Mother It is said of Augustus that meeting with a young man in the Country exactly like him in growth and features he asked him merrily whether his Mother was never at Rome No saith the young man but my Father hath been there meaning it was more likely that Augustus and he had one Father than that he should be the Son of Augustus Though our Fanatick Plots were conceived by those that were never at Rome yet the Principles that begot them most certainly came from thence The Fanatick Zeal embracing Popish Principles hath brought forth many of those Plots and Conspiracies which have so often disturbed our Peace and Government And by this time I hope the vizard and pretence of these men will vanish viz. that such of them as have suffered by the hand of Justice have died as Patriots of their Country for their zeal against Popery and in defence of the Liberties of the People against Tyranny and Arbitrary Government This hath been pleaded a thousand times in behalf of a Noble Peer and persons of the same Principles but of the lowest rank have pleaded it for themselves This designe says Colledge is not onely against me but against all the Protestants in England that have had the courage to oppose the Popish Plot and dies praying that his may be the last Protestants bloud that murdering Church of Rome may shed in Christendom And in