Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A36199
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Dr. Sherlock's Two knights of Brainford brought upon the stage in a congratulatory letter to Mr. Johnson : occasioned by the doctor's vindication of himself in taking the oath of allegiance to Their Majesties after the time, indulg'd by the law, was expired.
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1690
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Wing D1766; ESTC R31333
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34,233
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42
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has given him would have brought him to a sound Judgment in this matter Fourthly Would excuse his holding off from the Government and his Behaviour while he did yet is Self condemn'd Fifthly Seems to make his court to the King out of Possession and to their present Majesties yet neither did nor does by this Book serve either but quite the contrary First He would have the Justification of the right Waved as an unfit Dispute and besides To judge of Page 1. the Legality of the Revolution he says requires such perfect Skill in the Law and History and the Constitution Page 2. of the English Government that few Men are capable of making so plain and certain a Judgment of it as to be a clear and safe Rule of Conscience It is to be observed that here the question is not in relation to them who were to consider of their Duty before the Revolution but what might satisfie their Consciences when it was settled and when it might be look'd on as settled And this very matter he himself thinks a plain case in our Law he says the Law it self as well as the Principles of Reason and Religion P. 59. c. 60. have annexed the Authority of Government to the Possession of the Throne And has no other colourable means of proving a Settled Possession but by the Law of the Land for he places it under God in the regular Consent and Submission of the People and owns that the Submission has been made by a Legal Representative of the People That Page 9. Page 51. the Law only tells us who is King that he has no Right that is no Authority but by Law And that our Representatives in a Convention at least in Page 54. Page 65. Parliament are the Judges in whose Judgement we should acquiesce And they 't is certain have declared that their Majesties are Lawful and Rightful King and Queen Vid. The Act Settling the Crown And that which declares the Acts of the First Parliament to be binding Laws Is not this a plain case without troubling the Subjects with particular Controversies But then he confounds this matter which otherwise were plain when he offers at the Law 1. Tho the Statute 11 H. 7. shews that Legal Allegiance is due to the King in Possession and that he is the Legal King he will have it that the Law does not deny Page 65. the others Legal Right to the Crown 2. Whereas the Lawyers say and prove from History Records and Law-books that the Constitution of this Monarchy is as has been observed of the Jewish Hereditary as to a Family elective as to Persons The Doctor will have it that the Lineal Heir has the Right to the Crown and yet that it is Hereditary Page 52. to any Person who gets a settled Possession tho he be not of that Royal Family which has through Providence either by Affinity or Consanguinity maintained the Possession for near 1000 years as may easily be proved and I hope may continue the Possession till time shall be no more 3. Whereas the Lawyers say that our Monarchy is limited and founded in Contract that a King who Acts without regard to the Fundamental Contract is not a Legal King and that the Natural Allegiance due to our Country supersedes the Obligation of what otherwise was due to him He will have the Law to allow a Legal Right to the Crown unto him who is out of Possession and lost it by the Just Judgment of God for exercising an Authority which the Law condemns and rejects And tho the Law in a limited Monarchy Page 30. sets Bounds to Sovereign Power yet that Scripture and Reason require our not Resisting a King Page 30. when he Subverts the Laws and Liberties and Legal Established Religion of the Kingdom by Illegal Methods as if he had Gods Authority for all this nor can they find a Contradiction in the thing that God should give a Prince Authority Case of Resistance p 119. to govern according to Law and yet Subjects are at Liberty to resist when the Bounds which God had set him are willfully transgressed And if a Lawyer may be allowed to Reason upon this Point he would say if he may not be resisted because he has Gods Authority Because he has Gods Authority he ought to be obeyed in every thing not contrary to Gods Law For it is certain the Sovereign Power which is Gods Authority is to be obeyed actively in all things within that Limitation A Person may act beyond it but the Power never can which shews a necessary Distinction between Persons in Power and the Power which they have or exercise tho the Doctor allows of none and helps himself by confounding and joyning what God separates which is as bad as separating what he has joyned Thirdly That he would set up Scripture and Reason without regard to Right or Law appears from the very Scheme of Government which he lays down in his first Section The design of this Book is particularly to prove it to be without regard to the Right of the Government leaving the question of Law in great measure to his Case of Resistance the chief design of which was to shew that the Scripture requires Obedience to the Prince that has Right by Law without regard to any other Law but that which settles his Title This was a giving up the Cause as to what he would enforce from the 13th to the Romans for tho he had then asserted that that Chapter and the whole Scripture where ever it speaks of Higher Powers always means the Authority of a Person not of a Law To serve his turn then he would allow no Man to be Gods Ordinance in an Case of Resistance p. 113. Hereditary Monarchy but the next Heir in the Line in Consequence of which the Scripture speaks of no Higher Power but what is Legal This point he is forced to give up as to the next Heir and yet finds another Heir according to his fancied Law of the Monarchy but in the main keeps to his Fundamental Error that the Scripture means Persons and not Laws where it speaks of Higher Powers Nay and must be of Persons alone without regard to Laws for otherwise the Scripture affords no proof that God ever sets up Persons without regard to Laws and makes them his Ordinance Now the Doctor all along supposing that their Majesties did not come to the Crown according to the Law of the Government finds it convenient that the Scripture should be held to have no regard to the Law which shews who have right to govern and yet even in that respect it is evident that he must own the 13th to the Romans not to speak of Persons barely as invested with Natural Power that is Force but Moral that is Legal Power for he will not yield that the People who have the most Natural Power have in any case Right to Govern It must
Dr. SHERLOCK's TWO KINGS OF BRAINFORD Brought upon the Stage IN A Congratulatory Letter TO Mr. JOHNSON Occasioned by The Doctor 's Vindication of Himself in Taking the Oath of Allegiance to Their Majesties after the Time indulg'd by the Law was expired LONDON Printed in the Year 1690. Dr. SHERLOCK's Two Kings OF BRAINFORD Brought upon the STAGE SIR THis is to congratulate your Victory over that Passive Obedience Doctrine the Chief Confessor of which is far from imitating you who were a real Martyr for that Truth which is opposite to it The Great Champions on the other side were Dean Hicks and Dr. Sherlock these gave the word to the Party the first would prove it by Man's Law the last by God's and thus the Laws both Humane and Divine were press'd into its Service Dean Hicks his last Effort for it was in Signing or Dictating the Weak Dying Declaration of the late Bishop of Chichester who had suck'd it in with his Milk and might be thought to dye with a Surfeit of it But the Dean finds yet no occasion to renounce any part of that Doctrine the Defence of which some say procured his Deanery According to his Golden Book God himself had fix'd his Allegiance unalterably to the Vid. Dr. H. his Jovian Late King as long as he should live and to the Sham Prince after him unless his Spurious Birth be fully proved For the Dean had taught that God had Preface to Jov. p 56. given the Imperial Crown of England for an inalienable Inheritance to the Royal Family that is as he immediately explains it to the next Heir upon the Line to exclude whom or any Person of the Royal Family from the Absolute Right or Birth-right which God alone had given him he asserted to be to oppose the Will of God nor does he seem yet to have thought of our Doctor 's Distinctions for Preserving and maintaining the Right of such an one and yet obeying another as having Gods Authority Wherein the Doctor sets up Two Kings one of Right the other by Providence But upon this Point the two Brotherly Champions are divided and leave you Master of the Field while they engage against each other That Dr. Sherlock gives up the Point of Succession and says what amounts to a total yielding the Cause to you may appear from the most Cursory Consideration of his Book and tho I must confess he has a great Art in Startleing his Reader Pag. 3. and helping himself off from Assertions which at first look very Gross yet I cannot but think that in the main he leaves either himself or his Beloved Doctrine without Excuse and where his present Actions oblige him to depart from it he shews it is like a parting with a right hand or right Eye and therein indeed does more for the Government than other Men and endures little less than Martyrdom I need not profess to you that I have no disesteem for the Man but his Opinions in relation to Civil and Ecclesiastical Government are in my apprehension so Derogatory from the Goodness of God Vid. Anonymus his Letters to him about Church Communion so uncharitable to Men and destructive to Humane Societies that I long since thought my self bound publickly to avow my dislike of them tho the Government and consequently in his Sense Gods Authority were on his side as I am sure the Government is now on mine it being founded upon Legal Principles as directly contrary to his as he often is to himself I maintain by Law that their Majesties are rightful King and Queen and came by their Power by due means which is impossible to be proved upon his Grounds The Absurdity and perhaps Blasphemy of his you can best set in their true Light and expose to the just Abhorrence of Mankind and have already done it by way of Anticipation But tho you have gained the Victory over his Opinions about Civil Government and every Lash you bore for the sake of our English Liberties shall rise about you in Circles of Glory yet such Men will be likely to reap the Spoil till they who maintain the Right to be in King James shall as the Law declares them if they act accordingly be adjudged Traytors to their Majesties and till the Principles of Hobbs and Matchiavel become as Odious as the Doctrine of our Pretenders to the Spirit of the Church of England was in the time of King James Vid. Dr. H's Sermon Vid. Dr. Sherlock 's Case of resistance When that Sovereign Power which was taught to be inseparable from his Person and could make Repeal and Dispence with Laws touch'd but the Hem of the Canonical Garments then the Dying Voice of a Meek Moses and the louder Cry of that Blood which was Sacrificed to their Idol could not be heard for the Jangling of Aaron's Bells Then they who had been transported with the Fallacious Promise of Maintaining the Church of England began to bethink themselves that there was not the least word of Religion and what comfort could it be to them to have Diana's Greatness out of Danger when others were likely to enjoy the Profit of the Shrines Till then the King 's Most Illegal Acts had the Authority of Sovereign Power that is as the Case of resistance Doctor tells us Gods Authority and it would be hard if that Authority could not make them Legal They thought they had this fast on their side and not foreseeing any Probability that there would be a Flaw in the Succession till this Generation should pass away by making that Sacred and Inviolable they hop'd to secure Reverence and Authority to themselves who had taught the Oracles to Philippize and speak as the Present Powers would have them On the other side King James and his Sottish Priests thought those Warm Men of our Clergy believed their own Doctrine and would inculcate it to their People however even the Clergy themselves should be used And finding the Lay-Herd like the Tribe of Issachar imagined that the Levites who had taught them to crouch under their Burden would have had more Modesty and Sense of Shame than to be Clamorous But certain it is how much soever they inveigh'd against your true Representation of the Behaviour of the Primitive Christians towards Julian they out-went the Pattern and were beholden to you for their Justification Far be it from me in the least to reflect upon the Vid. Pref. p. 4. Body of the English Clergy their Learning the World Admires their Prayers at least called for their Majesties and the most of them Swore Allegiance to them as soon as the Law required it and it is to behop'd with Sincerity Yet if they were means of delaying our Settlement or of undermining it I should not think my self Guilty of Profaneness or Infidelity in telling them they would thereby Blacken themselves and Obstruct the Propagation of that Religion Vid. the Doctor 's Pref. p. 4. which by Profession