improvements added to it likewise doth reciprocally engage by Oath also to his Father to remain under his Government and in his Family and assist him in the preservation and utmost improvement of that Estate while he lives and in a word to be deficient in no Duty incumbent on him by vertue of that ne'ar relation and obliging kindness But the Father after these mutual Engagements thus passed not provoked by any undutiful Demeanour of his Son but out of an irregular affection unto some stranger who hath insinuated himself into his favour by sordid slattery and false suggestions doth not only carry himself towards his Son in a strange unfatherly and unnatural way of rigour and useth him more like a slave then a child but also even openly and barefacedly attempts to disinherit him at his death by cutting off the legal entail of those antient Lands from him and to make the injury more remediless endeavours in his own life time to possess that Person whom he hath entertained this new kindness for of the whole Estate by surrendering all his Deeds and Evidences relating to it together with his own Person also into his hands and absolute Power So that now the Son can no longer either perform the matter of his Oath to him or indeed come at him in the circumstances wherein he is without inevitable danger of his own life from the malicious attempts of his competitor too much encouraged in them also by his Father whose Interest it is to destroy him as the only Person from whom he expects at the Fathers death to be disturbed in his ill-gotten and unjust Possessions Now here I would fain know why upon the Doctors Grounds the Son notwithstanding the obligation of natural Duty though confirmed also by an Oath may not think himself at liberty under such unexpected and surprising disappointments from his Fathers alteration towards him to such an high degree of unnatural and unjust dealing which he no way foresaw nor could foresee when he made that Oath to him and why he may not accept of the tendred Protection and assistance of some other near Relation or any one indeed who hath so great a kindness as to afford it him and is able probably to support him against such an outragious Injury both as to the safety of his Person by removing into his Family and also as to the Estate by strengthening him so far as lawfully he may by all the assistance he can give for the securing at least of that Inheritance which is rightfully his in the Reversion and cannot legally be alienated from him even while his unnatural Father is yet living Yea why he may not if demanded for the security of him who adventures so far on his behalf to create himself so great Enmities also give his generous Protector and Guardian the utmost assurance that he can require even that of an Oath like that which he gave his Father himself concerning the performance of all that Duty whiles he thus continues under his Roof and enjoyes the benefit of his Guardianship which had continued due to his Father if he had continued a Father to him to his dying day The Case if I am not much mistaken seems thus far very fair on the Sons side especially if in the mean while of the necessary cessation of his actual Duty to his Father he perform no positive Act of undutifulness to him who hath so disobliged him by way of retaliation and be dispositively ready to return to all that duty again which he formerly paid him in case he change his mind towards him restore him to his former Circumstances and give him that rational security that in such a case is requisite to assure him against any future relaps into the like unnatural designs and attempts against him Let now this Case be seriously considered by those who are most dissatisfied provided they be not over-byassed by contrary Interests as it makes too unhappy a Parallel to our late and present Circumstances and I am in great hope that they will at least see cause to judge tenderly concerning some ambiguous actions of those who have by extraordinary methods even against their Inclinations hitherto sacred to them yea to all of us and our Posterity after us too those dear Enjoyments and Reversions which were lately even upon the Point of being lost for ever if not also farther to thank that great Deliverer whom God hath gratiously by extraordinary Providence sent them and us and last of all to give him all that legal security which he hath reason to expect that whiles they sit safe under his shadow they will not undermine the Tree from which it comes but demean themselves with that fidelity to him which so great a favour deserves The obtaining of which fair and reasonable things as till I am otherwise convinced I must judge them to be at the hands of our yet unsatisfied Brethren is that which I have all along endeavoured in this discourse which now I think it time to end being afraid that I have too long exercised my Readers Patience with its prolixity But I must not dismiss it without sending this short Prayer along with it That God will vouchsafe to speed it with a success answerable to the sincerity of my Intentions therein for the satisfaction of all those for whom it was designed whether exceptious Friends or serupulous Brethren or prejudicated Enemies to the Cause I plead and make us all either cordially unanimous in it or whiles we cannot be so more charitable each to other in our differences of Opinion then according to the unhappy Fate which amongst us in England too commonly attends all Controversies we are wont to be That our common Enemies may not have the pleasure of seeing us do that by our own imprudent unseasonable and unchristian Divisions which without them all the Intrigues of Hell it self in conjunction with the Designs and Arms of France and its Adherents I hope in God shall never he able to do Amen and Amen FINIS
I suppose forbid any one even now to exercise the Remains of his former Loyalty who thinks himself obliged so to do And as far to the utmost as Samuels Loyalty is supposed by any one to have gone in Sauls Case I doubt not but divers at least of the Reverend Persons this Paper was in a great measure meant for have followed his Example in this present Juncture They have as long as K. J. was on the Throne and exercised his Regality born with divers harsh and uneasie encroachments of Prerogative-Power and some in an eminent and exemplary degree practised the Passive Obedience they taught to the no small credit of our Church and its Loyal Principles and I am assured upon my own knowledge that not a few of their Brethren both of the Episcopal Character and of the Inferiour Clergy who in the present Case differ from them were ready if like occasion had been offered to have followed them in the same steps wherein they led them by so good an Example they have also as most of the sacred Function have likewise done kept themselves within the bounds of Non-resistance that is free from contributing towards the effecting of that great change which God by unusual methods of astonishing Providence hath made they have those of them at least whose high Stations gave them a considerable Influence upon publick Affairs conscientiously endeavoured by their Counsels to hinder things from arriving to that Extremity to which they are now reduced and since for 't is no news nor I think will they themselves think it a disparagement or disservice to them to have it here published they have sat down under them not only with a Samuel-like condolency with the dispossessed King but also with some uneasiness to their own circumstances under some publick Acts wherein they are dissatisfied they have also shewn their dissatisfactions by their slowness to comply with the present Establishment even to the suffering a suspension from the Execution of their Ecclesiastical employments and it may be they do secretly pray for what they wish if it might be the retrieving of things into a state more suitable to their own Principles whiles God by his Providence seems still to say nay to all such Desires and attempts except we will be content to purchase them as matters now stand upon such Terms as in all humane Reason must be destructive to all that is dear to us and them too both in our Civil and Ecclesiastical Capacities Now therefore seeing as I have already shewn there can be no more lawfully done for him whom Gods Providence hath thus excluded I cannot imagine what should farther influence our Reverend Fathers and worthily esteemed Brethren to adventure the exposing themselves to the extremities of the Law and not rather exercise their Passive Principles at least under the present Authority for surely there is a kind of Passivity in it when one submits to what he is not pleased with which the Primitive Christians and the most Eminent Divines of our Church too in the days of K. Ch. I. and K. Ch. II. by our preceding measures taken of them would certainly not have stuck at in our case by transferring that Actual Allegiance which they cannot pay elsewhere to those to whom Divine Providence hath transferred the Crown I shall not here as I told you at the beginning to add farther strength to my Cause urge the Arguments which many other Writers have chiefly insisted upon to reconcile our Brethrens Judgment thereto from the rationality and legality of the Circumstances relating to the production of this great change And yet I find my self strongly inclined in the close of this Discourse to offer one to debate at least from one of the often-mentioned Dr. Sandersons Principles which if it prove sound and I have not yet met with any one that hath attempted to overthrow it will for ought I can yet see to the contrary do much toward the clearing them in both respects It is in a word this Among the other Cases wherein the Reverend Doctor tells us the obligation of a Promissory Oath ceaseth he makes this one When the state of things is so altered betwixt the Time of a Mans taking such an Oath Sanderson De Juramenti obligatione and that wherein the performance is expected that if such a change could have been foreseen by the swearer he would have forborn to take it to which I would add or would at least if he could have apprehended it but possible and much more if likely to fall out beforehand have made the falling out of what he so apprehended an express exception to the obligation thereof I must ingenuously confess with all due deference to the Judgment of so profound a Casuist I think my self not necessarily obliged to assert the verity of this Hypothesis universally in all Cases that might be put of this nature And yet I am apt to think the special Instance which he there gives hath more in it then will easily be disproved in any Case parallel to it The Case he puts is this A Father swears to his Son that having by his avowed Will and Testament bequeathed all his Estate when he dyes to him he will never revoke that Deed. But in some Time after he finds by undoubted Evidence that this Son of his hath attempted by Poyson to destroy him In this Case says the Reverend Doctor He may notwithstanding his former Oath to the contrary rescind that Will and by a consequent one is at liberty to make a new and different disposal of that Estate The Reason of which Determination suits his preceeding Thesis to wit because the case is now so altered to the Father that if he could have foreseen it he would never have taken that Oath For the Father swore it to a Son a Son then supposed to be dutiful and one from whom he expected the continuance of his filial Duty especially he knowing himself to be so highly obliged to continue so by so late a Demonstration of his Fatherly kindness until the day of his natural Death And little could he imagine much less foreknow that his Son would so far deceive his expectation as to become in stead of a Son an Enemy in stead of a dutiful Son a mortal Enemy to such a Father in stead of one that would patiently expect his natural Death had endeavoured to hasten it by Violence Now if the Doctors resolution in this Case be good and solid it seems to be no less in the Reverse of it that is supposing the Son by a like Oath also obliged to the Father Lay we the Case thus with the due variation of circumstances The Son mentioned upon his Fathers Oath so passed not only to maintain him as his Son whiles he lives but also to leave him at his death a fair Estate derived to him from his Ancestors and entailed to him as his next Heir and whatsoever of his own he hath by his industrious
after their having been so long exasperated with the consequents of the War made with his Father under colour of a Parliamentary right in the Militia of this Kingdom and pleaded for by those that defended their cause that opposed him with an unusual novel Distinction of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person and those that were commissioned by him required all the Clergy of England and all in publick Trust for the greater security of the restored King whom they thought then they could never do too much for to condemn that Position as it had been taught as Traiterous and abominable and to profess for themselves that they held it unlawful upon any Pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King and those that are Commissioned by him and therein as also in another Act concerning the Militia declared their own Judgments in those Points more fully than had ever by so publick a Body been done before But whether Acts of Parliament may be taken for sufficient Expositions of the Doctrine of this Church all those who are unsatisfied in the matter of that Declaration may possibly call in Question and for the most part resolve it in the Negative For my Part I will do neither but take it for what probably it was the Doctrine of so many of the Church then represented in Convocation as were consulted in the drawing up that Form and because the whole Convocation subscribed it at least after the Law passed as did also the generality of the Clergy after them allow it to have been the Judgment of the Church at that Time in the sense wherein they that imposed it understood it But surely neither the Parliament nor the Clergy in Convocation ever intended thereby to give any King of England so uncontrollable a Power of breaking down all banks of Law as to make the whole Church and Nation meer Tenants at Will to Him for their Religion Property Liberties yea and their very Lives themselves and leave the Subject no legal Remedy against the most illegal Violences They did therefore undoubtedly mean by those that are Commissioned by the King those only that are Commissioned as our Laws allow and to such intents and purposes as may consist with them We cannot surely imagine them to be so besotted as to resign all those dear Interests at once into the Hands of a Popish Army raised on purpose to destroy and root them out altogether which appears by what followed afterward in a subsequent Parliament where in the whole Estates there assembled perceiving that some ill-designing Persons took occasion from that Declaration to mount the Points of Non-resistance and Passive Obedience to an extravagant height to which at last according to their Project they arrived in hope by a Popish Successor to bring about those evil ends took a wise course to prevent the mischief by imposing such a Test upon all Commissioned Officers as excluded all Papists from being in Commission and if they should at any Time be so declared their Commissions void and all they did in pursuance of them null That former Parliamentary Doctrine therefore is expounded by this after commentary upon it from the same Authority which first expresly taught it But as to the proper Judgment of the Church of England declared by themselves in any Act or Record extant it is vain to seek for any resolution in this matter They no where that I can learn give us any Determination of theirs concerning the Titles to Crowns the extent of Prerogative in the Prince the measures of that Subjection which Allegiance includes nor concerning the extent of its obligation or the change which upon the various Turns of Providence may or may not be made therein Only as to Kings and Queens actually in Being they deny it at any time lawful to Rebel against them whatever they personally are or what Religion soever they are of and by force of Arms to endeavour to dispossess and destroy them Of such Doctrines as these all the Homilies of Obedience and against wilful Rebellion are full And by these Doctrines all Princes actually possessed of the Throne are alike secure as to any danger from the Church of England So that as to the Questions and Cases of Conscience which relate to our present Circumstances it will prove an undertaking too hard I suppose for any Person to make the Doctrines of this Church concerning Non-resistance to comply with that tame submission to an unbounded Prerogative trampling by unpresidented Dispensations all Laws underfoot which some Men as I before intimated have of late vented under her Name And I suppose also that the most Reverend the Archbishop of Canterbury the right Reverend Bishops with others of the Reverend Clergy and the worthy President and Fellows of Magdalen College were not wanting to their Duty of Non-resistance nor misunderstood the Doctrine of th is Church when they so notably pleaded their Right in Law against the Vsurpations of Prorogation to the utmost and thereby and by their Sufferings for it stopped the career thereof from its triumphant Progress throughout the Nation and as to what other Resistance hath since been made by a too unreasonably provoked Nation together with the Consequents of it How far the natural Duty of Self-preservation even by Arms against outragious illegal Violence and the Reason of Government and Subjection in all Political Societies governed by Laws together with the fundamental Constitution of this Monarchy c. pleaded on their behalf will justifie those that have had an hand in it in such a case of extream necessity I cannot find determinable from any publick Records of this Church To be sure it much concerns not our dissatisfied Brethrens Case that it should be determined seeing none of them have any way contributed to any such Resistance hitherto and are not as I think I have sufficiently evidenced above endangered for the future by any thing which this Oath obligeth them unto to lose the Honour and Comfort of keeping the Doctrine of Non-resistance inviolate to the utmost extent of it as stated by themselves And as to that of Passive Obedience it can surely be no farther a Duty in this Case than Non-resistance is for this is the necessary consequent of that whom I must in no sort resist I must consequently submit to suffer under in whatsoever he lays upon me and on the other side so far as I may lawfully resist I am not bound to suffer As in the Case of the Great and Reverend Persons but now mentioned who took shelter in the Law so far as it would be allowed them and then only suffered when it would stand them in no farther stead For otherwise it seems too high a strain of Passive Obedience and more than Religion or Reason requires for any one patiently to quit the Defence which God and Law allow him yea and the very Laws themselves which allow them to him that he may gain an Opportunity to exercise his Patience