necessary Erudition of a Christian Man in which the Commentary on the fifth Commandment thus instructs us Subjects be bound not to withdraw their Fealty Truth Love and Obedience towards their Prince for any Cause whatsoever it be nor for any cause they may conspire against his person nor do any thing towards the hinderance or hurt thereof or of his Estate And this they prove out of Rom. 13. Whosoever resists the power resists the ordinance of God and they that resist the ordinance of God shall get to themselves damnation And â—n the sixth Commandment No Subjects may draw their Swords against their Prince for any Cause whatsoever it be So that hereby we see that the Declaration made in the Reign of Charles the Second That it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever c. is no Novel Doctrine but the old Doctrine of the Church of England even in the infancy of its Reformation And again Although Princes which be the Supreme Heads of their Realm do otherwise than they ought to do yet God hath assigned no Judges over them in this World but will have the Judgment of them reserved to himself and will punish them when he sees his time And Ann. 1542. ‖ Id. Coll. of Record n. 26. p. 252. V. Fox to 2 p. 346 347. it is expresly injoin'd by the Bishop of London to his Clergy Item That every of you do procure and provide of your own a Book called The Institution of a Christian Man otherwise called the Bishop's Book and that you and every of you do exercise your selves in the same according to such Precepts as hath been given heretofore or hereafter to be given So that I suppose the Book to have been the whole duty of Man of those days SECT I. The Popish Bishops Tonstal and Stokesly in their Letter to Cardinal Pool * Apud Fox to 2. p. 351 352. prove out of St. Austin St. Chrysostom and other Fathers That a King is accountable to God only for his Faults that he hath no Peer upon Earth being greater than all Men and inferior but to God alone c. and from hence they shew That the Pope's Power and by parity of Argument the Power of the People to depose Kings is a Doctrine that will be to his own Damnation if he repent not whereas he ought to obey his Prince according to the Doctrine of St. Peter and St. Paul nay Bonner himself Ap. eund p. 673. as he wrote the Preface to the Book of true Obedience so in his Sermon at Paul's Cross Ann. 1549. in the beginning of the Reign of Edward the Sixth declares That all such as rebel against their Prince get to themselves Damnation and those that resist the higher Power resist the Ordinance of God and he that dieth in Rebellion is utterly damn'd and so loseth both Body and Soul what pretences soever they have as Corah Dathan and Abiram for Rebellion against Moses were swallowed down alive into Hell although they pretended to sacrifice to God. So much of the Doctrine of the Reformation did even Bonner himself at that time own and this also was the Opinion of the Protestants of that Age for †Ap. eund to 2. p. 592 among the Heresies and Errors collected by the Popish Bishops out of the Martyr Tyndal's Book called the Obedience of a Christian Man this is the fourth he faith fol. 113. that a Christian Man may not resist a Prince being an Infidel and an Ethnick and that this takes away free will or as it is in the ‖ Inter addend Latin Non licere Christiano resistere Principi Infideli Ethnico Tollit libertatem arbitrii Where observe that the Papists look'd upon it as if Tindal had said that it was impossible to do so whereas he only means that a Christian ought not to resist c. for the Words are thus explained ‡ Ibid. St. Peter willeth us to be subject to our Princes 1 Pet. ii St. Paul also doth the like Rom. xiii who was also himself subject to the Power of Nero and altho every Commandment of Nero against God he did not follow yet he never made resistance against the Authority and State of Nero as the Pope useth to do against the State not only of Infidels but also of Christian Princes SECT II. In the Reign of Edward the Sixth the true Religion began to flourish and at that time old Father Latimer was famous for a plain and honest Preacher * Fol. 56. he in his fourth Sermon before the King telling the Audience what Conference he had with my Lord Darsey in the Tower subjoins that when that Lord pleaded that he had been always faithful and had he seen the King in the Field he would have yielded his Sword to him on his Knees he replyed Marry but in the mean season you played not the part of a faithful Subject in holding with the People in a Commotion and Disturbance it hath been the cast of all Traitors to pretend nothing against the King's Person they never pretend the matter to the King but to others Subjects may not resist any Magistrates nor ought to do any thing contrary to the King's Laws And to put the matter out of all doubt in his Afternoon †Matth. xxii 21. Sermon at Stamford he says If the King should require of thee an unjust Request yet art thou bound to pay it and not to resist nor rebel against the King. The King indeed is in peril of his Soul for asking an unjust Request and God will in his due time reckon with him for it but thou must obey the King and not take upon thee to judge him for God is the King's Judge c. and know this that whensoever there is an unjust Exaction laid upon thee it is a plague and punishment for thy Sin. We marvel that we are plagued as we be and I think verily this unjust and unfaithful dealing with our Princes is one great cause of our plague look therefore every Man upon his Conscience ye shall not be judged by worldly Policy at the latter day Archbishop Cranmer in his Letter to Queen Mary whatever his fear might otherwise betray him to do confesses Ap. Fox to 3. p. 672. That the Imperial Crown and Jurisdiction of this Realm is taken immediately from God to be used under him only and is subject unto none but God alone ‖ p. 674. and afterward averrs That as the Pope taketh upon him to give the Temporal Sword to Kings and Princes so doth he likewise take upon him to depose them from their imperial States if they be disobedient to him and commandeth the Subjects to disobey their Princes assoiling the Subjects as well of their Obedience as of their lawful Oaths made unto their true Kings and Princes contrary to God's Commandment who commandeth all Subjects to obey their Kings or their Rulers over them It is not to be denied that this great
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own understanding And to that Oracle of the Son of God himself Matth. 16.24 If any man will come after me let him deny himself c. then must he raise up his thoughts to the heigth of that beatitude which our Saviour's own mouth hath given assurance of to all such as will be ruled by him herein Matth. 5.10 11 12. Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake c. and to look on the recompence of Reward and to encourage himself with the precedent of the Apostles and Prophets the innumerable company of Martyrs and Confessors and above all to look unto Christ himself Obj. P. 150 But suppose the King should command us to worship the Devil would you not give us leave to stand upon our Guard and if not what will become of God's Church and his Religion R. As if this had been a new Case never heard of before when the Devil-Worship i. e. that of Idols called Devils 1 Cor. x. 20. was so vehemently urged by the cruel Edicts of the persecuting Emperors did the Christians ever take Arms against them for the matter or betake themselves to any other Refuge but fervent Prayers unto Almighty God and patient suffering of what disgrace or punishment soever should be put upon them Pag. 152. c. But if Mens Hands be tied no Man's Estate will be secure c. I answer God's Word is clear Whosoever resisteth resisteth the Ordinance of God and thereby a necessity is imposed upon us of being subject not only for wrath but for conscience sake which may not be avoided by the pretext of any ensuing mischiefs whatsoever it becomes us in obedience to perform our part and leave the ordering of Events to God Pag. 177. whose part that is And so much both of active Obedience which in all things that may be done we are bound to perform unto our Sovereigns and of the passive which in other Cases with all Christian Fortitude we are tied to undergo ☞ without the least carnal thought either of resisting their Authority or conspiring against their Persons State and Dignity And then he closes his Discourse with an account of the Obligation of Oaths c. and the methods of the ancient Church when persecuted viz. ' Patient Sufferings and Prayers to God. Nor need I mention Dr. Heylin whose Opinions are well known and are remarkably to be seen in his Stumbling-Block of Disobedience discovered censured and removed c. Of which the Arguments are cogent and the Authorities good tho I do not like the sharpness of his Language nor the severity of his Reflections SECT XIII Archbishop * Oper. to 1. disc 2. The Serpentine-Salve p. 525 526. Bramhal who succeeded Usher both in his See and his Loyalty says there were Nonconformists in the Days of Queen Elisabeth and King James who severely protested in Print That no Christians gave more to the Royal Supremacy than they without limitation or qualification that for the King not to assume such a power or for the People to deny it is a damnable sin nay altho the States of the Kingdom should deny it him and if the King command any thing contrary to the Word of God yet we ought not to resist but peaceably to forbear Obedience and sue for Grace and when that cannot be obtained meekly to submit our selves to punishment abjuring all Doctrines repugnant to this as Anabaptistical and Antichristian they condemn all Practices contrary to this as seditious and sinful And then proceeds to give his own Opinion That Dominion is not from the Grant or Consent of the People but from God. Pag. 527 528. That absolute Power may be limited by Statutes c. without communicating Sovereign Power to subordinate or inferior Subjects or subjecting Majesty to Censure which Limitations do not proceed from mutual Pactions but from Acts of Grace and Bounty Pag. 531. If the People be greater than the King it is no more a Monarchy but a Democracy Our Oath binds us to acknowledge the King to be supreme in all Causes and over all persons to defend him against all Conspiracies and if to defend him much more not to offend him That Oath which binds us to defend him against all Attempts whatsoever presupposeth that no Attempt against him can be justified by Law against such evident Light of Truth to ground a contrary Assertion derogatory to his Majesty Pag. 532. upon the private Authority of Bracton and Fleta no authentick Authors were a strange degree of weakness or wilfulness that Subjects who have not the Power of the Sword committed to them may use force to recover their former liberty or raise Arms to change the Laws established Pag. 537. is without all contradiction both false and rebellious Surely Pag. 538. if any Liberty might warrant such force it is the Liberty of Religion but Christ never planted his Religion in Blood he cooled his Disciples Heat with a sharp Redargution Ye know not what spirit ye are of It is better to die innocent than to live nocent as the Thebean Legion all Christians of approved Valor answered the Emperor Maximian Pag. 542. If a Sovereign shall persecute his Subjects for not doing his unjust Commands yet it is not lawful to resist by raising Arms against him they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation But they ask Is there no Limits I answer where the Law doth not distinguish neither ought we to distinguish how shall we limit what God hath not limited Obj. But is there no Remedy for a Christian in this Case Yes three Remedies 1. To cease from sin remove our sin and God will take away his Rod. ☜ 2. Prayers and Tears S. Naz. lived under five Persecutions and never knew other Remedy The third Remedy is flight this is the uttermost which our Master hath allowed nor is this way so hard for Subjects this way hath ever proved successful to the Christian Religion SECT XIV With Archbishop Usher I will also join Bishop Brownrig a Man much of his primitive temper and approved Moderation even by the Enemies of our Church notwithstanding his Episcopal Character * Serm. to 1. Serm. 2. p. 26 28. The Writ by which Princes are made issues from Heaven Kings reign by God's Election not by his Permission only that is too weak and sandy a Foundation permission falls short of approbation c. †Serm. 3. p. 33. Darius was an Enemy to the Church one that kept the Church of God in Bondage and Captivity used them not as Subjects but as Slaves enthrall'd them to his Tyranny yet still acknowledged and honored by the Prophet as their rightful Sovereign the primitive Saints submitted to Julian that hateful Apostate S. Peter requires Subjection not only to the good and gentle but to the froward Governors Darius made a wicked Law forbidding Religion and
☜ and bear all the ill administration that might be in the Government but never to rise in Arms upon that account * Id. third Letter to the E. of Middl. p. 168. I will do that which I think fit for me to do to day though I were sure to be assassinated for it to morrow but to the last moment of my life I will pay all duty and fidelity to his Majesty * Ans to the New Test c. p. 48 49. The Church of England may justly expostulate when she is treated as seditious after she hath rendred the highest Services to the Civil Authority that any Church now on Earth hath done she hath beaten down all the principles of Rebellion with more force and learning ☜ than any body of Men hath ever yet done and hath run the hazards of enraging her Enemies and losing her Friends even for those from whom the most learned of her Members knew what they might expect We are the only Church in the World that carries these principles to the highest We acknowledg that some of our Clergy miscarried in it upon King Edward's death yet at the same time others of our Communion adhered more steadily to their Loyalty in favour of Queen Mary than she did to the promises that she made to them The Laws of Nature are perpetual P. 51. and can never be cancell'd by any special Law so that if these Gent. own so freely that this is a Law of Nature that every individual might fight in his own defence they had best take care not to provoke Nature too much P. 52. As we cannot be charg'd for having preach'd any seditious Doctrine so we are not wanting in the preaching of the duties of Loyalty P. 55. even when we see what they are like to cost us Of all the Maximes in the World there is none hurtful to the Government in our present circumstances than the saying That the King's promises and the people's fidelity ought to be reciprocal and that a failure in the one cuts off the other for by a very natural consequence the Subject may likewise say that their Oaths of Allegiance being founded on the assurance of his Majesty's protection the one binds no longer than the other is observed and the Inferences that may be drawn from hence will be very terrible if the Loyalty of the so much decryed Church of England does not put a stop to them But for that we may cite the Testimony of the Right Reverend Bishop of S. Asaph in his Seasonable Discourse c. We are Members of a Church Pag. 4. which above all other Constitutions in the Christian World enforces the great Duties of Obedience and Submission to the Magistrate and teaches to be subject not only for Truth but Conscience sake And among other Motives which he mentions in the behalf of the Established Religion The fourth says he is this The Safety of the King's Person and the Prerogative of the Crown which hath no higher or more necessary Appendent than his Supremacy in his Dominion in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Secular according to the Powers invested in the Jewish Kings under the Law ☞ and exercised by the first Christian Emperors To whom we may add the Right Reverend Doctor Sprat in his Sermon before the House of Commons Jan. 30. 1677 / 8. by them ordered to be Printed Where speaking of King Chalres the Martyr Who saith he not only by his Birth had a Successive Right to the Crown which he could not forfeit but also by his Personal Vittues might have deserved another Title to it if his Crown had been elective and as his Murderers impudently pretended at the Disposal of his Subjects pag. 3. So that he terms him the Vicegerent of God's Power ibid. pag. 44. He pleaded and prayed for his Enemies at the Bar of Heaven which only was above him And pag. 47. May all of us be most industriously watchful that the same Schismatical Designs and Antimonarchical Principles which then inspired so many ill Men misled some good Men and cost our good King so dear may not once more revive and insinuate themselves again under the same or newer and craftier Disguises and find an opportunity to attempt the like mischiefs And in another Sermon of his at White-Hall Pag. 44 45. December 22. 1678. Let us withdraw our thoughts and lift up our minds to the imitation of the most Christian Examples As of our Saviour himself so of his Apostles and Disciples in the first and therefore the best Ages How were they zealous for the Glory of God Not by violence or malice or revenge against any not eve nagainst their Oppressors but only by their own Labors and Prayers and Patience and Magnanimity in suffering How were they zealous in respect to their Temporal Governors Not to resist for conscience sake but rather to be subject for that very reason not by open Rebellion not by private Machinations but in blessing and serving and submitting to their Emperors tho they were Idolaters and obeying them in all things except their Idolatry Whom to imitate is our Duty SECT XXIII Mr. Thorndyke * Apud Falkner's Christian Loyalty p. 429. from the Instance of the Maccabees avers that it was lawful for Subjects to take Arms in Defence of their Religion under the Jewish State tho in that he be mistaken but expresly condemns taking Arms upon that or any other pretext under the Christian State. Dr. Spencer †Serm. at S. Mary's Cambr. Jun. 28. 1660 p. 4. the now Dean of Ely The Gospel doth very sparingly meddle with State matters but when it doth it engageth to Obedience by as obliging Principles as it doth to Religion even a Principle of Conscience we must be subject for conscience-sake not barely for safety's sake and a principle of highest fear They that resist shall receive to themselves damnation A Doctrine taught the World in the Type long before by that Fire and Earthquake which destroyed the Opposers of lawful Authority Numb xvi 33 34. P. 11 12. God hath attested unto Sovereignty by suffering none of his Servants in Scripture few or none in story to be guilty of willful opposing lawful Authority We find many a wicked Man guilty of this Sin but as Reverence to other Divine Commands wore off in time as the power that exalteth it self above all that is called God obtained in the world so to this among the rest of Obedience to lawful Authority P. 14. The Heathens used to reproach the Gospel on this account but the Pulpit was never intended to be a Circle in which to raise up the evil Spirits of Sedition and State-Commotions no Religion in the Doctrine of it so greatly secures the Power of Kings and the Peace of States ☜ as the Christian doth we are bound by the Gospel to be obedient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. ii 18. to the crookedest and frowardest Masters
and Prophets submitted their persons to those wicked Princes whose Idolatry they reproved with the loss of their lives P. 359. If the Prince wilfully maintain Heresie and open Impiety the Bishops are to reprove admonish c. but still they must serve him honor him pray for him and teach the People to do the like ☜ and with meekness enduring what the wrath of the Prince shall lay upon them without annoying his person resisting his power discharging his Subjects or removing him from his Throne Which says he to the Jesuit is your way of censuring Princes P. 366. P. 382. The Church of Christ offers not any Example of resisting and deposing Princes for a thousand years ☜ It is not enough for you to have Laws of your own making to license you to bear Arms against your Prince you must have God's Law for your Warrant or else you may come within the compass of heinous and horrible Rebellion Theoph. P. 384. that is the Protestant Interlocutor That 's the Case which you take in hand that the People may punish the Prince offending as the Prince may the People Phil. i. e. the Jesuit Either the people or none must do it Theoph. And seeing the people may not do it it is evident that God hath reserved the Magistrate to be punished by himself and not given the people power over their Prince P. 502. Do not with violence restrain them but in patience possess your own souls This is the way for all Christian Subjects to conquer Tyrants and this is the Remedy provided in the New Testament against all Persecutions not to resist Powers which God has ordain'd lest we be damn'd but with all meekness to suffer that we may be crowned P. 512. If Princes presume to violate the Dominion which God hath reserved to himself we may not rebel that 's your Jesuitical Doctrine but disobey them in that or any point that is prescribed by man against the will of God and submit our selves to endure persecution for righteousness sake P. 541. If Princes embrace the Truth you must obey them if they pursue Truth you must abide them And these Passages with what hath been formerly cited out of the said Book will I think sufficiently vindicate both the Author and his Doctrine from all that is usually objected against them Especially if we consider that when the Jesuit had quoted Goodman's Book of Obedience as applauding Wyat's Rebellion the Protestant answers It is much that you measure the whole Realm by one man's merit Par. 3. p. 273 274. and more that you draw the words which he spake from the meaning which he had to warrant your Rebellions The party ☞ which you name at the same time took Queen Mary for no lawful Prince which particular and false supposal beguiled him and made him think the better of Wyat's War but our Question is of lawful Princes not of violent Intruders and therefore Goodman's Opinion which himself hath long since disliked is no way serviceable to your Seditions or as it is in the Margin Goodman's private Opinion long since corrected by himself cannot prejudice the whole Realm Goodman did not hold that lawful Princes might be thrust from their Crowns but that Queen Mary was no lawful Magistrate One of his great Arguments against her being taken from her Sex which was made by God as he dreamed uncapable of Government this being one of his and Knox's beloved Paradoxes but he lived to repent and retract them SECT III. To give the King at his entry into England a Specimen of the temper of the Zealots they tender'd him a Petition called the Mille manus Petition as if they would have intermixed their desires with threatnings by telling the King that 1000 Ministers An. 1603. as they loved to be called had influence enough on many thousands of People to incline them to give disturbance to his Government if he did not comply with their requests to which the University of Oxford wrote a full and satisfactory answer wherein they affirm that the Presbyterians allow the King not potestatem Juris p. 29. but only facti while they make him a maintainer of their proceedings but no commander in them and all the while the King submits his Scepter unto the Scepter of Christ and licks the dust of the Churches feet for which they Quote T. C. lib. 1. p. 180. This assertion they condemn together with the other Antimonarchical Antiepiscopal Doctrins of that Petition nor was this the sole judgment of that Famous University but of her Famous Sister at Cambridge whose Epistle is published at the end of that answer and wherein they aver Quicunque Ecclesiae Anglicanae doctrinam vel disciplinam vel ejus partem aliquam legibus publicis stabilitam c. that whosoever shall by writing speaking or any other way publickly oppose the Doctrine or Discipline of the Church of England or any part thereof established by publick Laws shall be uncapable of taking any Degree and suspended from any Degrees he hath formerly taken Dated Octob. 7. 1603. Dr. Anthony Rudd Bishop of St. pr. at Lond. 1604. Davids Preach'd before the King May 13. 1604. on Ps 101. v. 2. and in it gives an account of David's demeanor both before and after he attained the Crown of Israel and among other things he commends him for his patient waiting on God till Saul's Death p. 26 27. David had given proof of his rare patience in his distressed Estate during the expectancy of the Kingdom of Israel for though in that Interim of sundry years attendance after that Samuel had Anointed him ☜ before the Crown fell unto him by the death of King Saul he sustain'd many grievous troubles inconveniences and dangers yet he still possessed his Soul in patience without seeking unlawful means to hasten his own advancement by the making away of his Sovereign Insomuch as though Saul who deadly pursued him was twice by the Providence of God offer'd into his hands that he might have dâ—ne his pleasure with him first in the Wilderness of Engedi and secondly in the desert of Zâ—ph yet he spared his life and did no violence to his Person leaving him to God's Judgment and referring his own cause to God's merciful providence patiently attending the Lord's leisure till he should vouchsafe to come and put him in possession of the Kingdom To King James at his first coming to the English Throne the Learned Dr. Feild was a Chaplain as he was also an eminent Champion for the Church against her adversaries of Rome and his arguments against the Usurpations of the Popes are equally cogent against the Republicans * of the Church l. 5. c 45. p. 610. If they shall say that Sovereign Princes are subject to none while they use their authority well but that if they abuse it they lose the independent absoluteness thereof their saying will be found to be Heretical
☜ for if upon abuse of mdependent Authority they that have it lose and forfeit it ipso facto then authority and abuse of authority at least extreme abuse of it cannot stand together which is contrary to that of St. Augustine where he saith nee tyrannicae factionis perversitas laudabilis erit de bono consugali c. 14. si regiâ clementâ—â— tyrannus subditos tractet nec vituperabilis ordo regiae potestatis si rex crudelitate tyrannicâ saeviat aliud est namque injustâ porestate justè velle uti aliud est justâ potestate injustè velle uti i. e. â—â—ther shall the perversness of Tyrannical Usurpation ever be praise worthy ☞ though the Tyrant use his Subjects with all Kingly clemency nor the order of Kingly Power be ever subject to just reprehension thâ—ugh a King grow fierce and cruel like a Tyrant for it is one thing to use an unlawful Power lawfully and another thing to use a lawful Power unrighteously and unjustly SECT IV. After the happy discovery of the damnable Gun-powder Treason and the just execution of the wretched miscreants that were engaged in it the Parliament met at Westminster which had been first summoned Anno 1603. and with it a Convocation the Members of which reslecting upon the horrid design of Garnet and his Accomplices thought themselves in justice to their Sovereign and their own Principles obliged when they met to censure and condemn such Doctrins as led Men to such Rebellious Practices hereupon the Prolocutor of the lower house Dr. Overall then Dean of St. Pauls afterwards Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield then of Norwich whose vast learning gives him a character beyond all that can be said of him here drew up a Treatise which being reviewed by the Upper House of Convocation was mutually agreed on and declared to be the Sense of the Church of England in that very Svnod which made the Canons that as yet are lookt upon as the Code of our Church a Manuscript of which Acts This Book is since Printed by W. Kettilby an 1690. lib. 1. c. 2. and Canons having been happily put into my hands I cannot but think my self obliged to transcribe some Passages that discover the belief of our Church representative at that time They positively assert that God having created our first Parents and purposing to multiply their seed into many Generations for the replenishing of the World with their Posterity did give to Adam for his time and to the rest of the Patriarchs and chief Fathers successively before the Flood Authority Power and Dominion over their Children and Offspring to Rule and Govern them adding further Can. 2. if any Man shall affirm that Men at the first without all good Edacation or civility ran up and down in Woods and Fields as wild creatures resting themselves in Caves and Dens and acknowledging no Superiority one over another until they were taught by experience the necessity of Government and that thereupon they chose some among themselves to order and rule the rest giving them power and authority so to do and that consequently all civil Power Jurisdiction and Authority was first derived from the People and disorder'd Multitude or either is originally still in them or else is deduc'd by their consents naturally from them and is not God's Ordinance originally descending from him and depending upon him he doth greatly err Thus they account for the Government of the old World nor did the Flood alter the nature of Authority or alienate the Rights of Princes for say they If any Man shall affirm Can. 6.11 that the civil Power and Authority which Noah had before the Flood was by the deluge determin'd or that it was given unto him again by his Sons or Nephews or that he received from them the Sword of his Sovereignty or that the distribution of the World to his three Som did depend upon their consents or received from them any such authority as without the same it could not lawfully have been made or that this Power c. did not proceed from God or were not properly his Ordinance but that they had the same from the People their Offspring he doth greatly err Besides it is generally agreed upon cap. 16. that obedience to Kings and Civil Magistrates is prescrib'd to all Subjects in the 5th Commandment Ex 20.12 where we are enjoyn'd to Honour our Parents whereby it follows that subjection of Inferiors unto their Kings and Governors is founded upon the very law of Nature and consequently that the sentence of Death awarded by God himself against such as shewed themselves incorrigibly disobedient to their Parents or cursed them or struck them was likewise due unto those who committed any such offences against their Kings and Rulers being the Heads and Fathers of their Commonâ—ealths and Kingdoms which is not only apparent by way of consequence but likewise by example practice and precept as where Shimei is judged to die for cursing of David the Lords Anointed where David himself appointed by God to succeed King Saul would not be induced by any perswasions to lay violent hands upon his Master the King. If any Man therefore shall affirm Câ—n. 16. that it was lawful in the Old Testament either for Children or Nephews to have been disobedient to their Fathers being their chief Governâ—rs from the Creation till Moses 's time or afterward either for the Children of Israel either under Moses Joshua the Judges or their Kings to have been disobedient to them in their lawful commandments or to have murmured or rebelled against them or that it was in those times more lawful unto Subjects for any cause whatsoever either to curse their Princes Kings or civil Governors ☞ or to bear arms against them or to depose them from their Kingdoms or Principalities or to lay violent hands upon their Persons than it was in the said times lawful upon any occasion for Children either to have cursed their Parents or to have rebelled against them when they did reprove or correct them or to have withdrawn themselves from their subjection saying unto them they being private Men we will be no more your Children or you shall be no more our Fathers or bearing civil authority over them we will depose you from your Government over us and will be no longer ruled by you or to have offered any violence to them or to have beaten them and much less to have murder'd them he dâ—th greatly err After this they deduce the Scheme of Paternal and Regal Government through the several Ages of the Church down to the time of the Jewish Kings and when they considered the case of Uzziah who for offering to burn Incense on the Altar which was peculiarly the Priests Office was by God smitten with leprosie â— 1. Can 22 they aver if any Man shall affirm that Azariah and the other Priests used or that they lawfully might have used any violence or force against the
Christ provided for his own safety by flight the Martyrs by patience offered their Souls to God and the prayers of the Church have always prevailed over its Tyrannical Persecutors SECT XII Anno 1613. Dr. John Downham's sum of Sacred Divinity was publish'd in * Commen on the 5th Command P. 177. which starting the usual objection what must be done if Princes command things unlawful such as with a good conscience we cannot yield unto he answers in such cases we are patiently to abide the punishment in which doing we no way violate the obedience due to them as the Apostle directs 1 Pet. 2.19 20. Anno 1614. Printed at Oxford 1614. P. 86. Lancelot Dawes sometime Fellow of Queens College Preach'd two Sermons at the Assizes held at Carlile the second of which had for its subject Psalm 82.6 7. I have said ye are Gods c. and in it we are informed that Princes have their Authority only from God for ‖ Ja. 1.17 if every good and perfect Gift be from above even from the Father of Lights much more this excellent and supereminent gift of governing God's People must proceed from the fountain the reason of all the sins that were committed in Israel is often in the Book of Judges ascribed unto this Judg. 17.6 18. c. P. 99. that they wanted a Magistrate there was at that time no King in Israel by me Kings reign c. it is not for a Magistrate to debase himself neither is it for others of what reputation soever to equalize themselves with the Judge whom God hath placed over them and this is not only meant of Godly and Religious Magistrates P. 100 101. 1 Sam. 8. but of Wicked and Ungodly Governors too such as are described by Samuel which take Mens Sons and Fields and Vineyards c. the reason is because the bad as well as the good are of God the one he gives in his love the other in his anger and be they good or bad we have no commandment from him but parendi patiendi of obeying them when their Precepts are not repugnant to God's Statutes and of suffering with patience whatsoever they shall lay upon us it was a worthy saying of the Mother of the two Garacs when they kept Sigismond in Prison Bentin â—er Hung. â—ec 3. l 2. that a Crowned King if he were worse than a beast could not be hurt without great injury done to God himself a lesson which she learn'd from David whose heart smote him when he had out the lap of Saul 's garment because he was the Anointed of the Lord altho he himself was before that time Anointed to be King over Israel and was without cause hunted by Saul like a Pelican in the wilderness and an Owl in the desert Then to draw thy sword and to seek perforce to depose such as God hath placed over thee either because they are not suitable to thy affections or not faithful in their places what is it but with the old Gyants to fight with God the weapons of a Christian in this case when such a case doth happen must be preces lacrymae prayers that either God would turn the heart of an evil Magistrate or set in his room a Man David like after his own heart and tears for his sins which as they are the cause of War Famine Pestilence and all other calamities so are they also of Wicked and Ungodly Magistrates P. 102. SECT XIII To what hath been cited out of Dr. Bois in the first part of this History may be added In Holy Bible we read Bois on Ps 47. P. 936. that David would not suffer his Enemy Saul tho a wicked King to be slain when he was in his hands for that he was the Lord's Anointed he had sanctitatem unctionis albeit he had not sanctitatem Vitae i. e. he had an holy calling tho not an holy carriage wherefore David said who can lay hands on the Lord 's Anointed and be guiltless and if Heathen Emperors in the Primitive times and ungodly Kings in all Ages ought to be thus obeved how much more a Christian and Virtuous Prince c. After the death of Robert Abbot Bishop of Salisbury were his Academick exercitations against Bellarmine Lon. 1619. and Suarez concerning the supreme power of Kings printed a work as it is called in the Epistle dedicatory agreeable to the Laws of Nature and Religion and very seasonable the Author of which having been the King's Professor of Divinity at Oxford * Prelec 1. Sect. 4. p. 4. vindicates the power of Kings and affirms * Prelec 1. Sect. 4. p. 4 that Pope Hildebrand Hellbrand Luther calls him that the first who assumed to himself the Power of Deposing Princes and absolving their Subjects from their Oath of Allegiance which Doctrine Sigebert a Writer of that Age calls Novelty and Heresie Sect. 5. p. 6 7. and when he treats of Rom. 13.1 be subject to the higher powers c. he says by Powers are meant Kings and Monarchs as the Word is used Luc. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that exercise authority c. in which words Kings by a certain circumscription are defined because power belongs only and properly to them thus Origen Ambrose and Aquinas understood the words and Kings are not only called powers but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Peter 1. ep 2. supereminent powers because in their Kingdoms they have power over all Persons being constituted the supreme and over all and to whom it is given to exercise that power over all for Kingly Majesty is absolutely eminent and above all being so constituted by a supreme right for as * in Rom. 13. St. Ambrose says it hath the Image of God that all others might be under one to whom because he is God's Vicegerent every Soul ought to be subject as unto God. This Sentence of St. ☞ Ambrose lays the unquestionable foundation of Kingly Power for it expresses that in the Power of a Monarch the Image of the Divine Majesty appears and that Kings exercise a Power over Men delegated unto them in God's stead and therefore must be superior to all Men because nothing can be higher than God whose Deputies Kings are P. 12. this also is the Doctrine of Optatus St. John Chrysostom Agapetus and other Fathers and so destructive have the Romanists thought it to their pretensions ☞ that the Spanish Index Expurgatorius hath ordered this sentence to be blotted out of Antonius his Melissae tho the sentence be in two other Fathers viz. Agapetus and Maximus A King hath no superior on Earth Prelec 2. Sect. 4. p. 19. and tho Kings may be made by Men yet their Power is from God by whose Providence and Conduct they are advanc'd to those dignities by Men and whom God either in Mercy Job 34. Prelect 3. Sect. 1. p. 25. or in anger decrees to rule even that God who
of other Mens sins that will retain their integrity and rather than do would suffer evil P. 〈…〉 what can there do These are they that are so pityed in the Text down then ☞ down to the place of darkness from whence it came with that Antichristian Principle that it is lawful for the People upon the ill managers and abuse of their Power by Arms and force to depose and punish their Princes this once admitted layeth the Ax to the Root of all Civil Society c. Dr. 〈…〉 p. 37. Nath. Hardy D. R. The Enemies of the King accuse him for being a Traytor to his People which was so far from being true that it was impossible since he never received any trust from them after which addressing himself to the Lord Mayor and his Brethren he adds you have taken care that Rebellion may be destroyed in that which was its Principal Engine the illegal League and Covenant and in its rotten Principles those Doctrins which give Power to the two Houses of Parliament in some cases to take up Arms without and against the Kings command and distinguish between the Personal and Politick capacity of the King as to the point of resistance c. Dr. Serm. before Lord Mâ—yer Fâ—â— 11. 16 Sâ— p. 22 24. Goodman Kings are God's Vicegerents and he maintains and upholds them in their Offices under himself a King hath the Stamp and Character of Divine Authority upon him it is the Divine Providence that is the Peoples caution and security against the weaknesses passions and extravagances of Princes so that they shall not need to resort to Arms or any seditious and unlawful means in their own defence we use to appeal to an Higher Court when we are opprest in an inferior Judicatory and this is our proper refuge when our Rights and Properties are invaded to look up to God the Supreme Potentate of the World that he will restrain the exorbitances of his Ministers P. 25 26. God is the King of Kings the safety of Religion Liberty and Property are mighty Concerns but certainly they are not too great a Stake to trust in the hands of God unless the means we use be as certainly and manifestly lawful as the cause we pretend to shall be just and honorable we shall but provoke Providence instead of subverting it P. 34. let the People be quiet not listen to noice and rumors but be sure to Banish all disloyal thoughts of resorting to irregular means for the asserting their pretensions Is not God in the World c. SECT XIII Dr. Burnet in his modest and free conference †Printed Ann. 1669. p. 6 7. Shew me one place in either Testament that warrants Subjects fighting for Religion you know I can bring many against it yea tho the old dispensation was a more carnal and fiery one than the new one is yet when the Kings of Israel and Judah made Apostasie from the Living God into Heathenish Idolatry some of the Kings of Judah polluting the Temple of Jerusalem as did Ahaz and Manasseh so that God could not be Worship'd there without Idolatry yet where do we find the People resisting them or falling to popular Reformations neither do the Prophets that were sent by God ever provoke them to any such courses and you know the whole strain of the New Testament runs upon suffering it seems you are yet a Stranger to the very design of Religion which is to tame and mortifie nature and is not a natural thing but supernatural therefore the Rules of defending and advancing it must not be borrowed from nature but grace are not Christ's injunctions our Rule Since then he forbad his Disciples to draw a Sword for him with so severe a threatning that whosoever will draw the Sword shall perish by the Sword this must bind us and what he says to Pilate on this head my Kingdom is not of this World c. is so plain language P. 24. that I wonder it doth not convince all Pope Gregory VII Armed the Subjects of Germany against Henry IV. the Emperor upon the account of Religion because the Emperor laid claim to the Investiture of Bishops they being then Secular Princes and this prospering so well in the hands of Hildebrand other Popes made no bones upon any displeasure they conceived either against King or Emperor to take his Kingdom from him and free his Subjects from their Obedience to him the Authors who plead for this are only Courtiers Canonists and Jesuits now are you not ashamed in a matter of such Importance to symbolize with the worst gang of the Roman Church for the soberer of them condemn it yet fill Heaven and Earth with your clamors Burn. Vind. of the Authority c. of the Ch. of Scotland ad Lector if in some innocenter things the Church of England seem to symbolize with them one great rule by which the peace and order of all humane Societies is maintain'd and advanc'd is Obedience to the Laws and submission to the Authority of those whom God hath set over us to govern and defend us to whose commands if absolute Obedience be not paid ever till they contradict the Laws of God there can be neither peace nor order among Men now it cannot be denyed to be one of the sins of the Age we live in that small regard is had to that Authority God hath committed to his Vicegerents on Earth the Evidence whereof is palpable since the bending or slackning of the Execution of Laws is made the measure of most Mens Obedience and not the Conscience of that duty we owe the commands of our Rulers for what is more servile and unbecoming a Man not to say a Christian than to yield obedience when overawed by force and to leap from it when allured by gentler methods hence it appears how few there are who judge themselves bound to pay that reverence to the Persons and that Obedience to the commands of those God hath vested with his Authority which the Laws of Nature and Religion do exact and the root of all this disobedience and contempt can be no other but unruly and ungovern'd Pride which disdains to submit to others and exalts it self above those who are called Gods ☜ the humble are tractable and obedient but the self-will'd are stubborn and rebellious yet the heigth of many Mens pride rests not in a bare disobedience but designs the subverting of Thrones and the shaking of Kingdoms unless governed by their own measures Among all the Heresies which this Age hath spawned there is not one more contrary to the whole design of Relligion and more destructive of Mankind than is that Bloody Opinion of defending Religion by Arms and of forcible resistance upon the colour of preserving Religion ☞ the Wisdom of that policy is earthly sensual devilish savouring of a carnal unmortified and impatient mind that cannot bear the Cross nor trust to the Providence of God and
defensive ☜ against his Majesty his Heirs and lawful Successors Neither is the King accountable to them or to any other besides God These are the Essentials of Sovereignty There is but one Case wherein a good and loyal Subject will refuse to obey his Prince and that is p. 60 61 v. p. 66 96 97 119 120 154. when such Obedience will by no means consist with his Obedience to God But there is no Case whatsoever wherein he dares either to resist or reproach the Person or Authority of the King or to offer any Indignity to him To fight against him is to fight against God whom the King represents upon any pretence whatsoever it cannot be done without open Perfidiousness and Rebellion Such are Monsters of Men and are as natural brute Beasts made to be taken and destroyed So S. Peter describes them 2 Pet. 2.10 12. Mr. David Jenner in his Prerogative of Primogenitures * Lond 1635 P. 48. asserts the same Cause Altho the Law of God is indeed above all Kings and if they wilfully transgress the same they are all accountable unto God and unto God only for the same yet in this Kingdom of England no Statute Law is or can be above the King because it was the King that first gave life and being to the Law of the Land the King by his Royal Assent made the Law to be what it is viz. a Law But the Law of the Land did not make the King to be what he is viz. a King for the King was King before the Law. That the Doctrin and Practice of Deposing lawful Kings P. 122. and Excluding the right Heir from succeeding in the Throne for his being an Heretick Idolater ☜ tyrannical and wicked is grounded upon nothing but Popery and Fanaticism Mr. Hancock in his Answer to the Viscount Stafford's Memoires Lond. 1682. p. 31. I could make it evident that the same Maxims of Political Divinity the same Arguments and many times the same Phrases and Expressions are to be found in the Heads of both Factions I know 't is disputed whether the Ring-Leaders of Sedition among us poyson'd the Jesuits or the Jesuits them but I do not envy the Bishops of Rome the Honor of having first poyson'd them both with Antimonarchical Doctrins If Milton the great Oracle of one of the Factions had own'd himself to be a Papist there had been no reason to wonder at the Impiety of his Doctrins which he either did or might have learnt from the Popes and greatest Divines of the Roman Church It was truly alledg'd by Salmasius that the Doctrin of the sacred and inviolable Authority of Princes was preserved pure and uncorrupt in the Church till the Bishops of Rome attempted to set up a Kingdom in this World paramount to all Kings and Emperors but he with his usual Confidence acquits the Popes and charges his Antimonarchical Principles on Luther Zuinglius Calvin Bucer Martyr Parcus and all the Reformed Divines Bellarmine P. 50. Parsons Creswel Suarez c. are the Men that furnish'd the leading Faction among us with Principles and Precedents with Arguments and Texts of Scripture ☞ out of whom they either did or might have derived the Grounds of the War against the King of erecting an High Court of Justice and of bringing him to the Block John Goodwin P. 53. in one of his Pamphlets hath this remarkable Expression As for offering Violence to the Person of a King or attempting to take away his Life we leave the Proof of the lawfulness of it to those profound Disputers the Jesuits P. 166 c. I have fairly represented those Doctrins and Principles which strike at the very root of our establish'd Religion and Government with the Arts and Instruments which have been used by the prevailing Faction of the Roman Church for the Subversion of them ☞ And I know no stronger Argument against the truth and goodness of any Religion than that it supplants moral Righteousness and serves to be a Bond of Conspiracy allowes of Sedition and Treachery Injustice and Cruelty for how can that Religion be from God which maketh Men unlike to God as had or worse than if they were left to the Principles and Inclinations of their own Natures Of the Church of England I will only say It hath establish'd the Right of Kings upon such sure and unalterable Foundations that it is the Interest as well as the Duty of the Civil Power to support and defend it Mr. Animadv on Ob. Ch. Govern. Preface Smalridge Certainly that Doctrin which invades the just Rights of Princes can hope but for few Proselytes among those who have constantly defended them in their Writings asserted them in their Decrees and upon all occasions vindicated them with their Swords For we do not lye open to the imputation of a condition'd and distinguishing Loyalty who have shewed our readiness to imitate the glorious Examples of our Fathers and were prepar'd had not God's good Providence prevented our Service to have transcribed that Copy lately at Sedgmore which they set us formerly at Edg-hill And in truth our steady Fidelity to the Prince is so unquestionable that our Enemies have been pleased to ridicule what they could not deny and have made Passive Obedience bear a part in our Character when the Muse hath been enclin'd to Satyr Thus also the Person of Quality who wrote the Reasons Why a Protestant should not turn Papist P. 30 31. I am then quite out of conceit with your Religion since I cannot embrace it without endangering my Loyalty by reason of the Deposing Doctrin in case I live up to the pitch of its real Principles But 't is all one to me so long as I remain a Protestant what Religion my Prince is of tho I could wish he were of the same I profess because his Authority over me and my indispensible Obligation to submit to him do not depend upon his Opinion or Religion but upon his Birth-right yet have we not reason to doubt if the zealous sort of Roman Catholicks would not think it lawful to take Arms against their Prince turn'd a Heretick since the French League against Henry the 4th was upon this very account styled Holy and had I not been particularly acquainted with the Principles of the Church of Rome I had never conceived how it came to pass that such great Numbers of learned and well-meaning Men too could be guilty of such a horrible wickedness as that was and forget themselves so far as to pretend Holiness in an open Rebellion against their lawful Prince I am then more satisfied with the Loyalty of a Protestant especially of the Church of England who acknowledgeth the Prince to be a Supreme Governour over all his Subjects and Sovereign Judg in all Cases than with that of a Roman Catholick who seems to set limits to his Power by such restrictions as neither Reason nor Scripture can warrant Mr. Pomfret
Man was for the Lady Jane but besides his Temper I have this to say for him that the several and contrary Acts of Parliament limiting and changing the Succession according to the King's Pleasure in the latter end of Henry the Eighth's Reign might very well in such a juncture of Affairs as happen'd on the Death of Edward the Sixth stagger a wise Man and incline him to believe that the Son had the same Right that his Father had as unquestionably he had if it were a Right of the Crown especially while that Right was recogniz'd and confirm'd in Parliament To this excellent Prince was Sir John Cheek a Tutor as he also was the Restorer of the Greek Tongue in England he in his Advice of the True Subject to the Rebel Ed. Oxon. 1641. p. 2 3 4. or the hurt of Sedition thus bespeaks the Rebels of that Age For our selves we have great cause to thank God by whose Religion and holy Word daily taught us we learn not only to fear him truly but also to obey our King faithfully and to serve in our own Vocation like Subjects honestly ye which be bound by God's Word not to obey for fear like Men-pleasers but for conscience sake like Christians have contrary to God's holy will whose Offence is everlasting Death and contrary to the godly Order of Quietness set out by the King's Majesty's Laws the breach whereof is not unknown to you taken in hand uncalled of God unsent by Men unfit by reason to cast away your bounden Duties of Obedience c. yet ye pretend that partly for God's sake partly for the Commonwealth's sake ye do rise How do you take in hand to reform Be you Kings by what Authority or by what Succession Be you the King's Officers by what Commission Be you called by God by what Tokens declare you that Ye rise for Religion what Religion taught you that If you were offer'd Persecution for Religion you ought to fly so Christ teacheth you and yet you intend to fight if you would stand in the truth you ought to suffer like Martyrs and you slay like Tyrants thus for Religion you keep no Religion and neither will follow the Counsel of Christ nor the constancy of Martyrs whatever the Causes be that have moved your wicked Affections herein Pag. 11. as they be unjust Causes and increase your Faults much the thing it self the Rising I mean must needs be wicked and horrible before God and the usurping of Authority and taking in hand rule which is the sitting in God's Seat of Justice a proud climbing up into God's high Throne must needs be not only cursed newly by him but also hath been often punished afore of him and that which is done to God's Officers Pag. 12. God accounteth it done to him Ye be bound in God's Word to obey your King and is it no Breach of Duty to withstand your King See also Bishop Hooper's Comment on the Fifth Commandment SECT III. But the outward Felicity of the Church as it was very great under Edward the Sixth so it was short-lived a black Storm gathering under Queen Mary and at last falling severely upon her Protestant Subjects who dealt with her as they were in duty bound they assisted her chearfully till she got her Crown and when contrary to her Duty and her Promises she persecuted them some of them resolutely suffered Martyrdom others as our Saviour advises fled into Foreign Countries for Protection the great Men of that Party solemnly disowning the Principle of taking up Arms against their Sovereign even when she had falsified her promises to them And this is attested by more than a few of the greatest Men of that Reign ‖ Burn. Hist Res part l. 2. p. 285. the Bishops of Exeter S. Davids and Glocester Taylor Philpot Bradford Crome Sanders Rogers Laurence and others who having given an account of their Principles conclude thus as the Historian says These things they declared that they were ready to defend as they often had before offered and concluded charging all People to enter into no Rebellion against the Queen but to obey her in all points except where her Commands were contrary to the Law of God. But their own words will most properly give us their meaning as * Tom. 3. p. 100 c. Fox records Because we hear that it is determined to send us speedily out of the Prisons of the King's Bench c. where at present we are and of a long time some of us have been not as Rebels Traitors seditious persons Thieves or Transgressors of any Laws of this Realm Inhibitions Proclamations or Commandments of the Queen's Highness or of any of the Councils God's Name be praised therefore but only for the Conscience we have to God and to his most holy Word and Truth to one of the Universities there to dispute We write and send abroad this our Faith humbly requiring and in the Bowels of our Saviour Christ beseeching all that fear God to behave themselves as obedient Subjects to the Queen's Highness and the superior Powers which are ordained of God under her rather after our Example to give their Heads to the Block than in any point to rebel or once to mutter against the Lord's anointed we mean our Sovereign Lady Queen Mary into whose Heart we beseech the Lord of Mercy plentifully to pour the Wisdom and Grace of his Holy Spirit now and for ever Amen First we confess and believe all the Canonical Books of the Old Testament c. And having reckoned up what Doctrines they owned and what they condemned they go on thus And we doubt not but we shall be able to prove all our Confessions here to be most true by the Verity of God's Word and Consent of the Catholick Church In the mean season as obedient Subjects we shall behave our selves towards all that be in Authority and not cease to pray to God for them that he would govern them all generally and particularly with the Spirit of Wisdom and Grace and so we heartily desire and humbly pray all Men to do ☞ in no point consenting to any kind of Rebellion or Sedition against our Sovereign Lady the Queen's Highness but where they cannot obey but they must disobey God then to submit themselves with all patience and humility to suffer as the will and pleasure of the highest powers shall adjudge as we are ready through the goodness of the Lord to suffer whatsoever they shall adjudge us unto rather than we will consent to any Doctrine contrary to this which we here confess unless we shall be convinced thereof either by Writing or by Word c. and the Lord of Mercy endue us all with the Spirit of his Truth and Grace of Perseverance therein unto the end Amen May 8 Anno Dom. 1554. This Letter was subscribed by Bishop Ferrar Bishop Hooper and Bishop Coverdale and by nine others who were the Flower of Confessors at that time
but that one cursed Position alone wherein notwithstanding their disagreements otherwise they both consent That lawful Sovereigns may be by their Subjects resisted and Arms taken up against them for the Cause of Religion it were enough to make good the Charge against them both which is such a notorious piece of ungodliness as no Man that either feareth God or the King as he ought to do can speak of or think of without detestation pag. 134. Ad Aulam It were good if we did remember that they are to give up that account to God onely and not to us pag. 177. SECT XX. Doctor Bernard * Ser. on Rom. 13.2 in the Clavi Trabalea p. 21. affirms that some Expositors conceived one cause of the Apostle's Exhortation to be the Rumour then falsly rais'd upon them as if they had been seditious c. And that the Kingdom of Christ tended to the absolving of Subjects from their obedience to any other And then shews †p. 28 29. That it is a Popish Assertion that a people can never so far transfer their right over to a King but they retain the habit of it still within themselves averring * p. 30. That whoever have or shall resist do tread under their feet the holy Scriptures †p. 35. That as Kings receive their Power from God so are we to leave them only to God if they shall abuse it not but that they may and ought to be prudently and humbly reminded of their duties but yet without lifting up our Hands against them in the least resistance of them God wanteth not means whereby he can when he pleases remove or amend them ‖ Pag. 40. The Arms of the Primitive Christians were nothing but Prayers to God Petitions to the Emperor or Flight when persecuted c. To this purpose does Mr. Symmons in his Vindication of King Charles aver That * Sect. 8. p. 84. Rebels as for God they believe him as little as they do the King for they dare not trust him for protection they have more confidence in the Militia a great deal and stand more upon it beside if they did believe God they would also fear him Faith and Fear go together they would regard his Word more and not be so opposite in all their ways or endeavour to make it of none effect by their sinful Ordinances and Traditions besides Faith in God discovers it self by their doing the Works of God and they are not Hatred Strife Sedition Rebellion Murther Lying Slandering and speaking evil of Dignities Sect. 14. p. 146. c. Tell us O ye pretenders to Piety where is that Subjection to the King for conscience sake which S. Paul calls for and that Obedience for the Lords sake which S. Peter requires Pag. 257. c. Consider and call to mind whether those Teachers ☞ who have been most active and busie in drawing you into this way have not hereby contradicted their own former Doctrines As it was said of Stephen Gardiner that no Man in the Days of Henry the Eighth had spoken better for the King's Authority than he had done in his Book De verâ obedientid and yet no Man more violent in Queen Mary's Time in persecuting those that held fast to the same Truth and Doctrine may not the like be affirm'd of many of your Preachers that no Men taught the Duty of Obedience better or inveighed more against Rebellion Pag. 258 259. and sheedin of Blood than they heretofore have done but now none more violent Observe that Note out of Mr. Fox how Henry the Fourth that deposed Richard the Second was the first of all English Kings that began the burning of God's Saints for their standing against the Papists Pag. 260 261 262. As the Doctrine of Infallibility is the Root of all Error among the Papists so it is now among them that are the Worshipers of a Parliament for when it was believed that the Pope could not err then he might oppose Princes excommunicate Kings absolve Subjects from their Obedience c. so now this being swallowed that the Parliament cannot err they may raise Rebellion too absolve People from their Loyalty persecute the King c. Consider whether in any thing these Men have perform'd what at first they promised whether Religion be better settled the Church better reformed and united or the Commonwealth more flourishing c. SECT XXI Thus that good Man asserted the Rights of Princes and the Duty of Subjects in those evil Days * Bishop of Lond. 2d Letter ab the neglect of the Lord's Supper when under an usurped Power Sin was the Law and Transgression the Commandment When three once happy Nations wore the heavy Yoke of Slavery and Men felt to their cost what the power of the People could do till God of his infinite Mercy restored our Judges as at the first and our Counsellors as at the beginning under whom Truth appeared in its true Colours and the Mask of Hypocrisie would no longer hide the Deformities of the Traitor and here I will not mention the Acts of Parliament made just after the Restoration that condemn the Power of the People that assert their Authority Superiority and Unaccountableness of Princes and the Unlawfulness of taking Arms against them upon any pretence whatsoever and confine my self to the Writings of the eminent Divines of the Age and I will begin with the Bishop of Down and Conner Dr. Taylor †Ductor dubitant B. 3. c. 3. Rule 1. who proves That the supreme Power in every Republick is universal absolute and unlimited ‖ Rule 3. n. 1. That it is not lawful for Subjects to rebel or take up Arms against the Supreme Power of the Nation upon any pretext whatsoever He that lifts up his Hand against the Supreme Power or Authority that God hath appointed over him is impious against God and fights against him Rom. 13. The Apostle doth not say he that doth not obey is disobedient to God for that is not true in some Cases it is lawful not to obey but in all Cases it is necessary not to resist * Id. n. 2. I do not know any Proposition in the World clearer ☞ and more certain in Christianity than this Rule And in the fifteenth Number he answers at large that wild Question as he calls it If a King went about to destroy his People is resistance then lawful And concludes all †N. 15 17. We have nothing dearer to us than our Lives and our Religion but in both these Cases we find whole Armies of Christians dying quietly and suffering Persecution without murmur if the Prince doth not do his Duty that is no Warrant for me not to do mine To this pious Prelate now in Heaven I will join a pious Brother of his as yet on Earth †Bishop Kenn's Expos Ch. Cat. V. Comman Who thus addresses to God in the behalf of his Sovereign Thou
for Atheism * Id. Ser. on Rom. 13.5 p. 5 6. c. The real causes of Commotions are seldom the same with those that are pretended for training in and engaging a multitude they are truly an ungrounded and aspiring Ambition the heat and fury of Mens passions c. But * P. 19. 20 c. Natural and revealed Religion do offer us these reasons for obliging us to subjection to the higher Powers 1. We are taught that those Powers are of God nay that they are Gods a strain of speech that if divine Authority did not warrant it would pass for impudent and blasphemous flattery Deputed Powers are onely accountable to those from whom they derive their Authority and L. P. 25. the Example and practice of our Great Master My kingdom is not of this World this doth so expresly discharge all bustling and fighting on the pretence of Religion ☞ that we must either set up for another Gospel or utterly reject what is so formally condemn'd by the Author of this we profess to believe Never cause of Religion was of so great concern as the preserving the Head and Author of it P. 27. If we examine the nature and design of that holy Religion our Saviour deliver'd we shall find nothing more diametrically opposite to all its Rules than the distemper'd fury of these misguided Zealots Otherwise doth St. Paul teach the Romans though then groaning under the severest rigours of bondage and tyranny and St. Peter doth at full length once and again call on all Christians to prepare for sufferings and to bear them patiently ☜ And though the bondage of the Slaves was heavy and highly contrary to all the freedoms of the humane nature yet he exhorts them to bear the severities even of their froward and unjust Masters P. 29. With this Argument that Christ suffered for them leaving them an Example from these unerring practices and principles must all true Christians take the measures of their actions and the rules of their Life and indeed the first converts to Christianity embrac'd the Cross and bore it not onely with patience but with joy Neither the cruelty of their unrelenting persecutors nor the continued tract of their miseries which did not end but with their days prevailed on them either to renounce the faith or do that which is next degree to it throw off the Cross and betake themselves to seditious practices for their preservation ☜ In twenty years persecution the Martyrs of one Province Egypt were reckon'd to be betwixt eight or nine hundred thousand P. 31.32 and yet no tumults were raised against all this tyranny and injustice and though after that the Emperours turn'd Christian and establish'd the Faith by Law yet neither did the subtle attempts of Julian the Apostate nor the open persecutions of some Arian Emperours who did with great violence persecute the Orthodox occasion any seditious Combinations against Authority And though Religion suffer'd great decays in the succession of many Ages yet for the first ten Centuries no Father ☜ or Doctor of the Church or any Assembly of Churchmen did ever teach maintain or justifie any Religion or seditious Doctrines or practices It is true about the end of the Eleventh Century this pestiferous Doctrine took its rise and was first broach'd and vented by Pope Gregory VII Hildebrand P. 36. The same equality of Justice and freedom that obliged me to lay open this ties me to tax also those who pretend a great hate against Rome and value themselves on the abhorring all the Doctrines and practices of that Church and yet have carried along with them one of their most pestiferous Opinions pretending Reformation when they would bring all under confusion and vouching the Cause and Word of God when they were disturbing that Authority he had set up and opposing those impower'd by him and the more Piety and devotion such daring pretenders put on it still brings the greater stain and imputation on Religion as if it gave a patrociny to those practices it so plainly condemns But blessed be God our Church hates and condemns this Doctrine from what hand soever it comes ☞ and hath establish'd the Rights and Authority of Princes on sure and unalterable foundations enjoyning an entire Obedience to all the lawful Commands of Authority and an absolute submission to that supreme Power God hath put in our Sovereign's hands this Doctrine we justly glory in and if any that had their Baptism and Education in our Church have turn'd Renegado's from this they proved no less Enemies to the Church her self than to the Civil Authority so that their Apostacy leaves no blame on our Church The same learned Man * P. 446. in a marginal Note on Bishop Bedel's Letter to Wadsworth when the Bishop was representing the common Principles of those Papists and Protestants who asserted a right of taking up Arms against their Sovereign whenever their Lives Properties or Religion were invaded saith This passage above is to be consider'd as a Relation not as the Author's Opinion but yet for fear of taking it by the wrong handle the Reader is desired to take notice that a Subject's resisting his Prince in any cause whatsoever is unlawful and impious Which passage I have lately seen in some Copies of the same Edition for I never heard but of one thus altered This passage above is to be consider'd as a Relation not as the Author's Opinion lest it should mislead the Reader into a dangerous mistake And when he makes his own Apology * Pres to the Ser. Nov. 5. at the Rolls 1684. He professes I am sure that the last part of the Sermon that presses Loyalty and Obedience is not at all enlarged beyond what I not only preach'd in that Sermon but on many other occasions in which I appeal to all my Hearers but I leave the Sermon to speak for it self and me both and will refer it to every Man's Conscience that reads it to judg whether or not I can be concluded from it to be a Person disaffected to his Majesties Government * Id. first Letter to the E. of Middl. collect of pap p. 284. Few have written more and preach'd oftner against all sort of treasonable Doctrines and practices and particularly against the lawfulness of rising in Arms upon the account of Religion I have preach'd a whole Sermon in the Hague against all treasonable Doctrines and practices and in particular against the lawfulness of Subjects rising in Arms against their Sovereign upon the account of Religion And I have maintain'd this both in publick and private that I could if I thought t◠convenient give proofs of it that would make all my Enemies be ashamed of their injustice and malice P. 159. As oft as I have talk'd with Sir John Cochran of some things that were complain'd of in Scotland I took occasion to repeat my Opinion of the duty of Subjects to submit
he be never so true a Subject and all unlikely to make any resistance or to think any evil unto your Grace P. 184. Whereas it is they that go about to make Insurrection to the maintaining of their worldly pomp and pride and not the true Preacher Who is he that would be a Traitor or maintain a Traitor against your most excellent and noble Grace I think no Man yea and I know surely that no Man can do it without the great displeasure of the eternal God. For S. Paul commandeth straitly unto all Christians to be obedient in all things Rom. 13. on this manner Let every man submit himself to the authority of the higher power for whosoever resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation 1 Pet. 2. Also S. Peter confirmeth this saying Submit your selves unto all manner of ordinance of man c. Wherefore if every man had the Scriptures as I would to God they had to judge every Man's Doctrine ☞ then were it out of question that the Preachers thereof either would or could make or cause to be made any Insurrection against their Prince seeing the self same Scripture straitly commandeth all Subjects to be obedient unto their Princes as Paul witnesseth saying Warn them saith he that they submit themselves to princes and to powers and to obey the officers Now how can they that preach and exhort all Men to this Doctrine cause any Insurrection or Disobedience against their Prince Call to mind the old Prophets and with a single eye judge if any of them either privily or apertly stirred up the People against their Princes P. 185. Look on Christ if he submitted not himself to the high powers paid he not Tribute for all he was free and caused Peter likewise to pay Suffered not he with all patience the punishments of the Princes Yea Death most cruel altho they did him open wrong and could find him guilty in no Cause Look also on the Apostles and if ever they stirred by any occasion the People against their Princes yea if they themselves obeyed not to all Princes altho the most part of them were Tyrants and Infidels Consider likewise those Doctors which purely and sincerely have handled the Word of God either in Preaching or Writing if ever by their means any Insurrection or Disobedience rise among the People against their Princes but you shall rather find that they have been rather ready to lay down their own Heads to suffer with all patience whatsoever Tyranny any Power would minister unto them giving all People example to do the same Now to conclude if neither the Scripture neither the Practice of the Preachers thereof teacheth nor affirmeth that the People may disobey their Princes or their Ordinances but contrariwise teacheth all Obedience to be done unto them it is plain that those Bishops or rather Papists do falsly accuse those true Preachers and Subjects which thing would appear in every Man's sight if by their violence the Word of God were not kept under Now is this the Doctrin that I do Preach and Teach ☜ and none other as concerning this matter God I take to record and all my Books and Writings that ever I wrote or made and only I allow and favor them which further this Doctrine of Christ and of this I am sure mine Adversaries or rather Adversaries to Christ's Doctrin must bear me witness After this he proceeds to demonstrate that the Pope and the Papistical Bishops are they who Preach to the People the contrary Doctrin as that St. Peter exempts himself and his Successors from being subject to Superiors that Subjects may be disobedient to their own Lords and that the Pope may Depose Kings that he hath autority to break all Oaths Bonds and Obligations and other such like positions and then adds there is no Officer that hath need to be afraid of Christ's Gospel nor yet of the Preachers thereof ☜ but of those privy Traitors can no Man be too wary the Scripture commandeth us to obey to wicked Princes and giveth us none autority to Depose them who was more wicked than Herod and yet St. John suffer'd Death under him Who was wickeder than Pilate and yet Christ did not put him down but was Crucified under him Briefly which of all the Princes were good in the Apostles days and yet they deposed none So that God's word and their own learning and the Practice of our Master Christ and his Holy Apostles are openly against them p. 190. there is no People under Heaven that more abhors and with earnester heart resisteth and more diligently doth Preach against Disobedience than we do Yea I dare say boldly let all your Books be search'd that were written this 500 Years and all they shall not declare the autority of a Prince and the true obedience toward him as one of our little Books shall do that be condemn'd by you for Heresie p. 202. 204. And then he impeacheth them of denying that the King's Power is immediatly of God while it can never be proved that ever we spake against God or our King. The same Learned and Holy Martyr in his Discourse that Mens Constitutions not grounded in Scripture bind not the Conscience is of the same mind If the power command any thing of Tyranny against Right and Law always provided that it repugn not against the Gospel p. 292. 293. 294. nor destroy our Faith our Charity must needs suffer it for as St. Paul saith Charity suffereth all things also our Master Christ If a man strike thee on the one Cheek turn him the other For if he doth exercise Tyranny if he command thee any thing against right or do thee any wrong as for an example cast thee in Prison wrongfully if thou canst by any reasonable and quiet means without Sedition Insurrection or breaking of the common Peace save thy self or avoid his Tyranny thou may'st do it with a good Conscience but in no wise ☞ be it right or wrong may'st thou make any resistance with a Sword or with Hand but obey except thou canst avoid as I have shewed thee but if the Cause be right lawful or profitable to the Common-wealth thou must obey and thou must not sly without sin But suppose the King should condemn the New Testament in England and command that none of his Subjects should have it is he to be obeyed or not this will be a great Scourge and an intolerable plague My Lords the Popish Bishops would depose him with short deliberation and make no Conscience of it they have Deposed Princes for lesser Causes than this is a great deal But against them will I always lay Christ's Fact and his Holy Apostles and the Word of God. If the King forbid the New Testament c. under a temporal pain or else under the pain of Death Men shall first make faithful Prayers to God and then diligent
Saul with his Spear to the ground David forbad him saying Kill him not for who shall lay his hands on the Lord's anointed and not be guilty c. * Pag. 111. Why did not David slay Saul seeing he was so wicked not in persecuting David only but in disobeying God's Commandments and in that he had slain Eighty five of the Priests wrongfully Verily for it was not lawful for if he had done it he must have sinned against God for God hath made the King in every Realm Judg over all and over him is there no Judg He that judgeth the King judgeth God and he that layeth hands on the King layeth hands on God and he that resisteth the King resisteth God and damneth God's Laws and Ordinance If the Subjects sin they must be brought to the King's Judgment if the King sin he must be reserved to the Judgment Wrath and Vengeance of God And as it is to resist the King so is it to resist his Officer which is set or sent to execute the King's Commandment When * Luk. 13. they shewed Christ of the Galileans whose Blood Pilate mingled with their own Sacrifice he answered Suppose ye that those Galileans were greater Sinners c. this was told Christ no doubt of such an intent as they asked him Matt. 22. Whether it were lawful to give Tribute to Cesar For they thought it was no sin to resist a Heathen Prince as few of us would think if we were under the Turk that it were Sin to rise against him and to rid our selves from under his Dominion so sore have our Bishops robb'd us of the true Doctrine of Christ But Christ condemn'd their Deeds and also the secret Thoughts of all others that consented thereto saying Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish as who should say I know that you are within your Hearts such they were outward in their Deeds and under the same Damnation except therefore ye repent betimes ye shall break out at the last into like Deeds and likewise perish as it came afterwards to pass Hereby seest thou that the King is in this World without Law and may at his lust do right or wrong and shall give Accounts but to God only The same Martyr in his Preface to the Practice of Popish Prelates set forth An. Dom. 1530. Unto all Subjects be it said if they profess the Law of God Pag. 342. and Faith of the Lord Jesus and will be Christ's Disciples then let them remember that there was never any Man so great a Subject as Christ was There was never Creature that suffer'd so great Unright so patiently and so meekly as he Therefore whatsoever they have been in times past let them now think that it is their parts to be subject in the lowest kind of Subjection and to suffer all things patiently If the High Powers be cruel unto you with natural Cruelty then with softness and patience ye shall either win them or mitigate their fierceness If they joyn them unto the Pope and persecute you for your Faith then call to mind that ye be chosen to suffer here with Christ that you may joy with him in the Life to come If they command that God forbiddeth or forbid that God commandeth then answer as the Apostles did That God must be obey'd more than man. Act. 5. If they compel you to suffer unright then Christ shall help you to bear and his Spirit shall comfort you But only see ☞ that neither they put you from God's Word nor ye resist them with bodily Violence but abide patiently c. And as for Wickedness whence it springeth and who is the cause of all Insurrection and of the fall of Princes and of the shortning of their days upon the Earth thou shalt see in the Glass following CHAP. II. The Doctrine of Passive Obedience in the Reign of King Edward the Sixth SECT I. IN the beginning of this pious Prince's Reign the Homily of Obedience was publish'd and in his Second Year Ann. 1548. the King Ch. Hist Cent. 16. lib. 7. pag. 38 8 / 9. says Fuller by his Proclamation did for a while prohibit all sort of Preaching that the Clergy might apply themselves to Prayer and the Layity to Prayer and hearing the Homilies So venerable an esteem had the wise and good Men of that Age of the now so much despised Homilies and I am enclinable to believe one great reason why they have since faln into Contempt is because they so earnestly press Subjection to Authority and forbid Sedition and Resistance Ann. 1550. Because of the scarcity of Preachers it was ordain'd Heyl. Hist of the Reform An. 1550. pag. 94. That of the King 's Six Chaplains two should be always about the Court the other four travelling abroad the first Year two in Wales and two in Lincolnshire the second Year two in the Marches of Scotland and two in Yorkshire the third Year two in Devonshire and two in Hamshire the fourth Year two in Norfolk and two in Essex c. and so till they had gone through the whole Kingdom so rare was Preaching in those days To supply the want of which the same Year a Postil or Collection of most godly Doctrin upon every Gospel through the Year was printed cum privilegio and in the Sermon on the Gospel for the Twenty third Sunday after Trinity the People are thus instructed in their Duty Here is to be noted the Difference that Christ maketh between the Kingdom of God and this World for he doth not only approve and allow this high Power and politick Life but also confirmeth it for the Kingdom of God or of Christ is spiritual and contrariwise the Kingdom of the Emperor is worldly it is visible in which the Emperor himself governeth and beareth rule mightily with his Lords and Princes Luc. 22. as the Scripture witnesseth in another place The Kings of the World have dominion over the People and they that bear rule over them are called Gracious Lords Nevertheless that Kingdom is of God and established by God's Ordinance in such wise that he that resisteth this Ordinance Rom. 13. resisteth God himself Thinkest thou that Princes and great Lords in the Scripture are called God's in vain and without a cause Psal 81. For if they be Gods and are made by God Partakers of his Magnificence then must they needs be in God's stead whose room they bear therefore seeing they rule in God's stead it is both meet and convenient to give them that we are bound to give them but what are those things S. Paul setteth them forth Rom. 13. and saith Give unto every Man his Duty Tribute to whom Tribute belongeth c. Here thou hearest what thou art bound to give to high Powers But peradventure thou wilt say Shall I give Obedience unto a Tyrant ☞ or to an ungracious Prince or Lord Yea truly thou art bound both to give and obey him for what
Magistrates but suffer patiently death rather than to offend God or else our obedience is nothing but hypocrisie and dissimulation Who would accept his own Child's making of Courtesie when all his facts be contrary to his commandment What Masler would be content or think his Servant doth his duty in putting off his cap and in his doing contemneth all his Master's Laws and Commandments the Laws of a Magistrate if they be repugnant to the Word of God they should not be obeyed yet rather should a Man suffer death than to defend himself by force ☜ and violent resisting of the Superior Powers as Christ his Apostles and the Prophets did On verse 2. Because that naturally there is in every Man a certain desire of liberty and to live without subjection and all manner of Laws except such as please himself St. Paul is not content generally to exhort and command all Men to obedience of the Higher Powers but giveth many great and weighty causes wherefore Men should be obedient and in subjection to them The first is because the Office of a Magistrate is the Ordinance of God and therefore the Magistrate must be obeyed except we will say in some respects God is not to be obeyed therefore the Magistrates be called Gods in Scripture ungodly Princes God suffers and appoints for the sins of the People but let the King and Magistrate be as wicked as can be devised and thought ☜ yet is his place and office the Ordinance and Appointment of God and therefore to be obeyed and in case they do any thing in their Offices contrary to the Word of God although the Subjects may not nor upon pain of eternal Damnation ought not by force nor violence to resist the Officer in his High Power yet they are bound to think that God can and will as well revenge the abuse of his Office in them as punish the Subject for the disobedience of his ordinance towards the Higher Power If it be true that St. Paul saith the higher power to be the Ordinance of God it is very damnable iniquity that for any private affection or other unjust oppressions for any Man to depose the Magistrates from their Places and Honors appointed by God or else privily or openly craftily or violently to go about to change or alter the State and Ordinance of God c. The second cause is the great peril and danger it is to resist and disobey God's Ordinances They that resist shall receive to themselves damnation as tho he had said lest ye should think it a light thing but a trifling matter to withstand and disobey the Magistrates understand ye that in so doing ye stand and fight against God and therefore ye provoke Judgment and Vengeance against your selves and be culpable and guilty of God's everlasting displeasure if ye repent not Here St. Paul hath set forth the End and success of Sedition ☞ Treason Conspiracy and Rebellion that is to say destruction both of Body and Soul and who is able to contend and fight with God On verse 5. One cause wherefore we must obey is the fear of pain and punishment which the Magistrate must minister by the commandment of God unto all such as disobey and contemn the Ordinance of God the other is conscience for although the Magistrate do not see nor know how thou dost disobey and break the Order of God or else if thou could'st by power and strength overcome the Magistrates yet thy conscience is bound to obey there be some so indurate and past grace that think themselves not bound to obey this order and Higher Power appointed and commanded of God but doubtless those shall perish with their Captains as Achitophel did with his Absalom if the Higher Power command any thing contrary to God's Word they should not be obey'd notwithstanding there should be such modesty and soberness used as should be without all violence force rebellion as Peter and John used ☞ saying God is more to be obeyed than Man and so in saying of truth they continued in the truth without moving of Sedition and suffered death for the truth c. Nor was this only this excellent Bishop's Opinion while his King was of his Religion and friend to his Person and Principles but as Truth is eternal and unalterable so he persevered in this belief when Queen Mary persecuted the Church of God and this worthy Prelate in a particular manner The Martyrs Letters Lond. 1564. 4to p. 120. for in his Letters just before his death set out by Miles Coverdale Bishop of Exon his fellow Confessor he frequently inculcates this Doctrin Remember ye be the workmen of the Lord and called into his Vineyard there to labour till eventide that ye may receive your peny which is more worth than all the Kings of the Earth but he that calleth us into his vineyard hath not told us how sore or how fervently the Sun shall trouble us in our labour but hath bid us labour and commit the bitterness thereof unto him who can and will so moderate all afflictions that no man shall have more laid upon him than in Christ he shall be able to bear these days be dangerous and full of peril p. 136. but yet let us comfort our selves in calling to remembrance the days of our forefathers upon whom the Lord sent such troubles that many hundreds yea many thousands died for the testimony of Jesus Christ both men and women suffering with patience and constancy as much cruelty as Tyrants could devise and so departed out of this miserable World to the Bliss everlasting p. 139. Who would not now rather than to offend so merciful a God fly this wicked Realm as your most Christian Brother and many other have done or else with boldness of heart and patience of the Spirit bear manfully the Cross even unto the death Albeit I know p. 141 / 2 that all those which seek God's honour and the furtherance of his Gospel be accounted the Queens Enemies altho we daily pray for her Grace and never think her harm but we must be content to suffer slander and patiently to bear all such injuries Nevertheless this is out of doubt that the Queens Highness hath no authority to compel any man to believe any thing contrary to God's word neither may the Subject give her Grace that Obedience in case he do his Soul is lost for ever Our bodies ☜ goods and lives be at her Highness commandment and she shall have them as of true Subjects but the Soul of man for Religion is bound to none but unto God and his holy Word p. 148 149 Seeing therefore we live for this life among so many and great perils and dangers we must be well assured by God's word how to bear them and how patiently to take them as they be sent to us from God we must also assure our selves that there is no other remedy for Christians in the time of
Now as touching that mine adversaries say that I and my Preachers teach disobedience unto the High Powers and encourage their Subjects rather to make Insurrection against them than they should lose any thing at all of their sensual pleasures I know not if mine Enemies in any point have utter'd their maliciousness against us than in this one thing that ye may know how they shame nothing at all to lie hear I pray you the sum of our Doctrine concerning this matter Rom. 13.1 Pet. 2. Let every Soul be obedient to the Powers that bear rule c. again be ye obedient to every humane creature c. here have I given you a tast of Doctrine concerning the duty of Subjects unto the High Powers what disobedience do ye perceive by these words that we teach do we move the Inferiors and the base commonalty or any other unto such carnal liberty that for defence of the same they should either shew disobedience or make Insurrection against the head Rulers as our adversaries falsly report of us who brought the Higher Powers again unto the true Authority which God from the beginning gave them but I and my Ministers contrariwise who usurp'd this Power and brought the Magistrates in Subjection but these Enemies of God's Word who goeth about to maintain it still but they only I alone and my Ministers have set the Princes again in their Authority and valiantly delivered them from the Tyranny of the Papists as ye may perceive not only in our Sermons but also in our Writings CHAP. IV. The History of Passive Obedience in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth SECT I. THE Jews say that before one Prophetick light was by death extinguish'd another was set up to illuminate a degenerate World and thus did God in his mercy order it in our Church tho many eminent Confessors commenc'd Martyr's under Queen Mary yet the divine goodness did not leave it self and the truth without Witnesses who for a while sung the Songs of Sion in a strange Land but upon the advancement of Queen Elizabeth to the Throne of these Nations they return'd to vindicate that faith which was once deliver'd to the Saints and for which they had earnestly contended being ready to resist unto blood and because the Churches most eminent and most envied Advocate was Bishop Jewel I shall begin the History of this Reign with an account of his Sentiments When I have recited a Passage or two out of the Homily against Rebellion which are omitted in the first part of this History The first Author of Rebellion the root of all vices p 4th and the Mother of all mischief was Lucifer first God's most excellent creature and most bounden Subject who by rebelling against the Majesty of God of the brightest and most Glorious Angel became the blackest and most foul Fiend and Devil and from the heighth of Heaven is fallen into the Pit and bottom of Hell tho not only great multitudes of the rude and rascal Commons but sometimes also Men of great Wit Nobility and Authority have moved Rebellion against their lawful Princes tho they should pretend sundry causes as the redress of the Common-wealth or Reformation of Religion ☜ tho they have made a great show of Holy meaning by beginning their Rebellion with the counterfeit Service of God and by displaying and bearing about divers Ensigns and Banners which are acceptable unto the rude ignorant common People great multitudes of whom by such false pretences and shows they do deceive and draw unto them yet were the multitudes of the Rebels never so huge and great the Captains never so noble politick and witty the pretences feigned to be never so good and holy yet the speedy overthrow of all Rebels of what number state or condition soever they were or what colour or cause soever they pretended is and ever hath been such ☜ that God doth thereby shew that he alloweth neither the dignity of any Person nor the multitude of any People nor the weight of any cause as sufficient for which Subjects may move Rebellion against their Princes and how severely the same Homilies censure p. 6. and condemn the Barons who broke their Oath of Fidelity to their natural Lord King John is acknowledged by all Men. Bishop Jewel in his justly admired Apology taking notice p. 34. c. edit Lond 1581. that among many other false accusations then laid to the Charge of the Church this was one that its members were turbulent snatching Scepters out of the Hands of Princes Arming their Subjeâ—â— against them rescinding their Laws and changing Monarchies into popular Government whereby the minds of Princes were exasperated to believe that every Protestant in their Jurisdiction was their Enemy and a Rebel subjoins that it would have been most troublesom to those good Men to be so odiously accused of so grievous a crime as Treason had they not known that Christ himself and his Apostles and an infinite number of pious Christians had been accused of the same crime for tho Christ had taught the World to render to Caesar the things that are Caesars yet he was accus'd of Sedition and the desire of reigning and it was loudly cried at the Tribunal If thou let this man go thou art no friend to Caesar and tho the Apostles constantly taught Men to obey Magistrates that every Soul ought to be Subject to the higher powers and that not only for wrath but for conscience sake yet they were said to stir up the People and to invite the multitude to Rebellion So did Haman accuse the Jews Ahab accuse Elias and Amasias the Priest accuse the honest Prophet Amos in short Tertullian says all the Christians of his time were so accused as also did the ancient Enemies of Christianity Symmachus Celsus Julian Porphyry accuse the Christians of their Ages so that the charge is not new nor can it seem strange tho our very Enemies cannot deny that in all our discourses and writings we diligently admonish the People of their duty to be obedient to Princes and Magistrates tho they are wicked p. 84 c. c. If we are Traytors who honour our Princes who pay them deference and obedience in all things as much as is lawful for us to do by the Word of God who pray for them c. what are they who have not only done all that we speak of but also have approved of such proceedings We neither throw off the Yoke nor disturb Kingdoms we neither set up Kings ☞ nor dethrone them nor transfer their Empires nor give them Poyson nor make them to kiss our Feet nor tread on their Necks This rather is our Profession this is our Doctrine that every Soul whosoever it be whether a Monk or Evangelist or Prophet or Apostle ought to be subject to Kings and Magistrates we teach publickly that obedience ought to be paid to Princes as to Men sent by God and that whosoever resisteth them
of the pretended Holy Discipline And if I mistake not by his directions the Account of Hacket's Coppinger's and Arthington's Treason was drawn up and Printed in the Book called Conspiracy for pretended Reformation the Design of which is expresly against the Doctrin of taking up Arms against the Lord's anointed especially on the Account of Religion SECT V. Anno 1594 Dr. Richard Eedes Printed with five other Sermons London 1604. p. 70 72 73 74. Dean of Worcester Preached before the Queen on Isai 49.23 Wherein he says That the Strength even of Heathen States was in their Religion by the which they were persuaded that their Princes were the Children of their Gods and their Laws drawn from the Oracles of some Divine Power They found by experience how hard it was for men to be brought to obey men unless they had the authority of more than men c. And what doth more teach either Obedience or Peace than the Religion of Christ Obedience is rightly called Nervus Imperii the Sinew and Strength of a Kingdom as well because it is grounded upon the Obedience of Christ who as Bernard noteth Ne perderet Obedientiam perdidit vitam did rather chuse to lose his life than to leave his Obedience As also because it requires in Christians Obedience without respect of persons to all without difference of Degrees higher Powers Rom. 13.2 Without exception against their Qualities not only to them that are good and courteous but to them also who are froward 1 Pet. 2.18 ☜ And that in all things Tribute to whom tribute c. and that not with eye-service as men-pleasers c. and that not because of wrath but for conscience sake Rom. 13.5 That if all the Laws and Policies of States and Kingdoms were gathered into one they could not be so strong to work peace and to persuade Obedience as these few but very forcible Rules of the Religion of Christ How much therefore is it to be lamented that in so great Light there should be so little Fruit That whereas the Truth of Religion is the Preserver of Government and the Mother of Obedience the name of Religion is made the Firebrand of Kingdoms and the armor of disobedience and that not only to maintain the Tyranny of that Usurping Power who takes upon him to Depose Kings but also to bring in that Anarchy of factious Subjects who presume to give Laws to their lawful Princes Wherein besides that it is true which Leo wrote unto Theodosius private causes are handled with pretence of Piety and every Man makes Religion which should be the Mistress the Handmaid of his affections it is intolerable to see how far some busie heads fetch the beginning of Kingdoms p. 7â— Vindic contr Tyran Bachâ—n de juâ—e regin and so as they please the right of Kings from the pleasure of the People how contemptuously they term the titles of honour and reverence the solecisms of the Court how seditiously they give wings to ambitious humors to plead the right of a â—aconical Ephory against Kings but for themselves and to arm that beast of many heads the multitude which ever goes as Seneca not whither it should but whither the stream bears it against that which to want of judgment is ever most heavy the present Government Whereas the right rules of Religion give no remedy to Subjects against the Highest Authority ☞ but the necessity of either suffering or obeying and therefore they that open that gap whether it be to the Tyranny of ambitious Popes or to the Anarchy of seditious Subjects howsoever they pretend the name of Religion they shall sooner prove themselves to have no Religion than that there is any defence for them in the Religion of Christ which teacheth as to be thankful to God for good Princes so to be patient of those whom in anger as the Prophet Hosea speaks Hos 13.11 he setteth over us for the punishment of our sins and against whom the first Professors of our faith had no weapons but prayers and tears p. 2. the same Author in his first Sermon before King James saith that promotion comes neither from the East nor from the West nor from the South but from God. Ps 73.6 that their power is of God Rom. 3.1 and their judgments God's judgments Deut. 1.17 and that therefore they who resist them not only by a consequence resist the ordmance of God Rom. 13.2 but God in them as he told Samuel they have not rejected thee but me 1 Sam. 8.7 The Reverend Bishop Moreton begun very early to assert this Doctime in his Writings and he lived long enough to assert it by his sufferings being a great sharer in that affliction which in the great Rebellion the Doctrine of resistance brought upon both the King and the Church Anno 1596. he publish'd his Solomon or a Treatise declaring the shake of the Kingdom of Israel pr. Lond. as it was in the days of Solomon Wherein he proves after the words as it was in the days of Solomon insert these following that the Kingdom of Israel was a most true and lively picture of the State and Crown one egg being not more like another than the State to that under which we live so that all his arguments without any further comment are applicable to our Kingdom and whereas he foresaw ‖ Ep. ad Lect. that it would be objected to him that he gives the Christian Magistrate especially in great and absolute Monarchies greater authority than seems to stand with the good of the Church or the truth of God's Word he desires the Reader not to attribute it to flattery but to a constant and settled persuasion he intending in publishing the Treatise the good and peaceable State of the Kingdom and the maintaining of that powerful and majestical Authority whereunto it hath pleased God to make us subject and in the discourse he affirms †Sect. 2. p. 4 5. that Magistracy is not a mere device of Man as they who contemn and labor to overthrow all Authority speaking evil of those things which they know not have imagined but an ordinance of God. Rom. 13. there is no power but of God he therefore that resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God. Obj. But it cannot be shewed that it was ever establish'd by God throughout the World except only among the Jews but was invented and continued by Men excelling others in strength and ambition Answ The abuses of Magistracy tho many and grievous p. 6. cannot take away the lawful use of it and altho Magistracy hath been by the express commandment of God establish'd only in the Church yet it belongs as much to Infidels for it is instituted by God not as he is the Saviour of his Church but as he is the Creator and Preserver of all Men. p. 7. God sets up this his Ordiannce among Infidels by the light of nature remaining in the minds of Men c.
You dispose not only their Affairs but their Crowns at your pleasure you hunt them not to covert but to death You train up your Followers in the high mystery of Treason To these ends you wrest Scriptures you corrupt Histories you counterfeit Reasons you corrupt all Truth And all you say is directed to a holy and religious end Away then with your Devotion and so we shall be rid of your dangerous Deceit This was his Opinion in the Days of King James nor was it newly taken up to comply with that Prince for Ep. Dod. ante Answ to Doleman as Sir John Heyward himself informs us he wrote his Account of the Deposition of King Richard the Second and the Usurpation of King Henry the Fourth to shew that the People have no lawful power to resist their Prince nor to hinder the Succession according to Proximity of Blood. SECT II. On S. James's day being July 25 of the same year was this Learned Prince crowned Pr. London 1604 the Sermon on that Solemnity being Preached by Dr. Bilson Bishop of Winchester on Rom. xiâ—â— 1. The powers that are are ordained of God. In which we are told That the likeness which Princes have with the Kingdom of God and of Christ consists in the Society of the Names and Signs which they have common with Christ in the Sufficiency of the Spirit wherewith God endueth them in the Sanctity of their Persons which may not be violated in the Sovereignty of their Power which must not be resisted ☜ By the anointing of Kings God hath taught us that their persons once dedicated to his Service are not only protected by his stretched-out Arm but are and ought to be sacred and secured from the violence and injury of all mens hands mouths and hearts Touch not mine anointed P. 105. saith God by his Prophet which is chiefly verified of Princes whom God anointeth to be the chiefest of his People Neither is violence only prohibited towards them but all offence in speech or thought Yea the very Robes which they wear are sanctified The Sovereignty of their Power will soon appear as well by the persons subjected as by the things committed to their Charge Let every soul be subject c. He that brings an Exception useth but a Delusion says Bernard for who can loose what God hath bound neither is this an Exhortation to Obedience but a plain Injunction You must needs be subject c. You must imports a necessity for conscience declares a Duty to God the danger of resisting being as great as the Commandment of obeying is streight Whosoever resists resists the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves judgment ☜ Dare any man promise himself success and protection in Conspiracy and Treason when the Spirit of God so plainly threatens ruin and condemnation to all that resist whosoever they be To maintain Peace and Tranquillity God hath allowed Kings power over the Goods Lands Bodies and Lives of their Subjects and what private men may not touch without theft and murder that Princes may lawfully dispose as God's Ministers taking vengeance on them that do evil ☞ He that resisteth and dishonoreth them resisteth and dishonoreth the Ordinance of God to his own confusion in this life where Princes are permitted to revenge the wrongs done to them and in the next where God everlastingly punisheth the contempt of his Ordinance What kind of Honor is due to Princes is shortly delivered in that Commandment Honor thy Father Rom xiii 1. The Apostle in this place nameth three things due to Princely Dignity Subjection Honor and Tribute teaching us that Princes must be obeyed with Conscience Reverence and Recompense It is therefore sin to despise or refuse their Laws commanding that which is good and likewise to resist or reproach their Power punishing that which is evil even in our selves Howbeit when Princes cease to command for God or bend their Swords against God whose Ministers they are we must reverence their Power ☞ but refuse their Wills. It is no resistance to obey the greater before the lesser neither hath any man cause to be offended when God is preferred Yet must we not reject their Yoke with violence but rather endure their Swords with patience that God may be Judge between Prince and People with whom is no unrighteousness nor respect of persons The man of sin hath not more grosly betrayed his pride and rage in any thing than in abasing the Honor and abusing the Power and impugning the Right of Princes by deposing them from their Seats and translating their Kingdoms to others by absolving their Subjects from all Allegiance ond giving them leave to rebel by setting his Feet in Emperor's Necks and spurning off their Crowns with his Shooe c. In all which he hath shewed himself like himself to yoke whom God hath freed and to free whom God hath yoked to deject whom God hath exalted and to erect whom God hath humbled to challenge what God hath reserved and to cross what God hath commanded And whatever Citations may be made out of this Learned Prelate's Book Of the true Difference c. Printed at Oxford 1585 in Quarto and the next year at London in Octavo to prove the contrary Yenet the Quoters and some of them I fear wilfully mistaking what he says of such Republicks and States in which upon the Invasion of Sabjects Privileges they are allowed by fundamental written known Compact as in Germany by the Bulla Aurea to resist as if it were applicable to free Monarchies and particularly to England contrary to his own express Assertion * P. 518 519 c. where be proves it at large That the Subjects in England have not that lawful Warrant to draw their Sword without consent of their Prince as the Germans have without consent of the Emperor He also teaches us our Duty agreeable to the holy Scriptures and primitive Antiquity in many places of that Book †P. 339 c. What Question can this be between the Prince and the People whether the Magistrate shall be deposed since God hath expresly commanded the People to be subject to the Sword and not to resist Against which Precept no earthly Court may deliberate ☜ much less determine to break his Law or license the People to frust are his Heavenly Will. It is one thing to disbuâ— then the Conscience from obeying the Evil which a Prince commandeth which a Priest may do and another thing to take the Prince's Sword out of his hand for abusing his Authority which the Priest may not do Manasses was carried Captive out of his Realm in the midst of his furious Idolatry and yet in his absence and misery no man stirred against him but his Kingdom was reserved for him until he was released out of Prison and sent back from Babylon It was therefore not for fear of Death but for regard of Duty that the zealous Priests
them by second Causes and without them but because God doth this sometimes by the consent of the People as he transferr'd the Kingdom of Saul to David and the Kingdom of Joram to Jehu and sometimes doth it without the Peoples consent as he transferr'd the Kingdom of the Canaanites to the Jews that of the Medes to Cyrus that of the Persians to Alexander and of many other Kingdoms to the Romans will it therefore follow that it is lawful for the People without God without any express relation of his Will to dethrone their Kings and take from them their Authority ☜ If God and the People make Kings then the People without God and without an express revelation of his Will cannot depose their Kings God is the chief and principal Agent the People are only God's Instrument as therefore the Instrument doth nothing without the Artificer so whither can the People do any thing in this case without God. After this he proves Lib 2. cap. 20. pag. 614 615. that both the Jews and Christians did bear with as their Duty obliged them idolatrous and tyrannical Kings and then adds to this practice of the Church and of all Antiquity the best Interpreter of Scriptures I will subjoin the Institution of Kings All power is of God it is his Ordinance and whoso resists it resists the Ordinance of God From the same God had David and Samuel Solomon and Jeroboam Hezekiah and Ahab Manasses and Josiah Nero and Constantine Julian and Theodosius their Authority of good Kings it is said By me Kings reign Of evil Kings I have given them a King in my wrath Good Kings are given in mercy evill Kings in fury but all are given by God therefore all must be obey'd altho not in all things we must not resist any but must either do that which the King commands justly or suffer what he cruelly inflicts For the Obedience of Subjects falls under the divine Precept natural or moral in the Fifth Commandment which is also confirm'd by Christ in the Gospel by his Precept Give to Cesar the things that are Cesar 's and by his Example who paid Tribute and suffer'd a most shameful Death under Pilate who rather forfeited his Life than he would forfeit his Obedience and by his Apostles Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers to Heathens and infidel Persecutors who endeavour'd to draw their Subjects over to their Infidelity Such a one was Nero such were the rest of the Persecutors and yet these were to be submitted to not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake Fear God honour the King and of this Honour the chiefest part is Obedience These divine Precepts natural moral evangelical are indispensable and bind the Conscience nor is it likely that God and Christ and the Apostles would have deliver'd such Precepts as they would not have to be observ'd by Christians If thy King be good he is thy nursing Father if he be evil he tryes thee if he be a Persecutor he exercises thee if he be godly he is exercised with thee What can a Christian Soul here contemn Will it contemn its nursing Father who affords it Necessaries that it may be brought to Heaven Or will it contemn him who tryes it who exercises it under the Cross that it may shine gloriously in the Kingdom of Heaven The Enemies to this Doctrine are 1. the Anabaptists and Libertines who disown all Magistracy and throw off its Yoak and of Stephen of Hallestat who would have none but good Magistrates obey'd 2. All Seditions Tumults Wars c. by means of which the Christian Religion is evil spoken of among the Heathen as if it were a traiterous Religion and an Enemy to Kings the Name of God is blasphemed and the Enemies of the Gospel encouraged to persecute the Church As to the instance of Athalia Lib. 2. cap. 38. p. 919. he avers that she was Queen only de facto and not de jure having cruelly against Nature slain the Sons of Ahaziah her Son being incited by Ambition that she got the Kingdom by Tyranny without any Right or Title that she kept it by Force and Arms that she was not a lawful Queen but a most wicked Usurper There is a vast difference between a Tyrant that hath a just Title to his Crown and a Tyrant who hath no Right ☞ who hath usurp'd a Kingdom by force if a lawful King turn Tyrant neither his Bishops nor his Nobles nor his People can compel him to rule according to Law God only can restrain him who gives such a King in his fury and for the Sins of a Nation causes a Hypocrite to reign over them for such a Tyrant having a just Title to his Throne is ordained by God and he that resists him resists the Ordinance of God but if any Man usurp a Kingdom by Force and Tyranny he is not a King but an Enemy and it is lawful for any man to resist him as he would do an Enemy Francis Godwin Annâ—â—s of Q. Mary pag. 266 267. Bishop of Hereford publish'd his Annals An. 1616. and therein treating of the Lady Jane's assuming the Crown which he truly says she was forc'd by her Parents and Friends Ambition to accept and which she received with Tears but resigned with Joy and the march of the Duke of Northumberland's Army against Queen Mary to whom the Londoners when they march'd through the City did not wish success he observes the Londoners stood very well affected in Point of Religion so did also for the most part the Suffolk and the Norfolk Men and they knew Mary to be absolute for Popery ☞ but the English are in their due respects to their Prince so loyally constant that no regards no not pretext of Religion can alienate their Affections from their lawful Sovereign whereof the miserable Case of the Lady Jane will anon give a memorable Example for although her Faction had laid a strong foundation and had most artificially raised their Superstructure yet as soon as the true and undoubted Heir did but manifest her Resolution to vindicate her Right this accurate Pile presently fell and dissolved as it were in the twinkling of an Eye and that chiefly by their endeavour of whom for their Religion the Lady Jane might have presumed herself assured And the learned and godly Prelate Ridley who I wish ☜ had not err'd in this matter when he preach'd up the Lady Jane's Title P. 270. was scarce heard out with patience by those who were his particular Charge And as the Earl of Arundel said the Friends of Northumberland had no regard to the Apostolical Rules That Evil must not be done that good may come thereof and that we must obey even evil Princes not for Fear but for Conscience SECT XI Anno 1610. Dr. David Owen the only Batchelour of Divinity publish'd at Cambridge a little Treatise called Herod and Pilate reconciled to shew the Concord of Papist and
the Covenant Printed at Lon. 1640. disproves their pretended conformity with the French Churches in the points of Church Discipline and Obedience to Superiors averring solemnly P. 2. that it was ever far from our wishes that your conformity with the Reformed Churches of France should be misapplyed as a pretence of your expelling your Bishops much less a president for you to take Arms against your Gracious Sovereign P. 37 38. take it for granted that the Orders imposed upon you by His Majesty are Ungodly and Antichristian are you therefore allowed to defend Religion with Rebellion will ye call the Devil to the help of God Sure it is a prodigious kind of Christian Liberty for a Subject to draw his Sword against his Sovereign you that stand so much upon the point of conscience ought ye not to be subject for Conscience sake ☞ Were your Sovereign unjust and froward and his commands injurious unto God had ye instead of our pious defender of the Faith a fierce Dioclesian illud solis precibus patientiâ sanari potest nothing will mend it but prayers and patience it is Beza's counsel to the discontented Brethren of England conformable to that of St. 1 Pet. 3.17 Peter for it is better if the will of God be so that ye suffer for well doing than for evil doing if the Sovereign come to kill the Subject for his Religion the Subject must yield him his throat not charge his Pike against him and this he proves by Calvin's Practice and Writings P. 38 39 40. the Churches of France have lately declared to His Majesties Ambassador there their utter dislike of the Insurrection of Scotland under pretence of a Covenant with Christ P. 41. there can be no just cause to take Arms against a Lawful Sovereign after this he treats of the French Protestants taking Arms P. 46. and concludes that till the Reign of King Lewis the Arms of the Protestants were either justifiable or excusable but their Wars in his time were neither and they prosper'd accordingly P. 48. the French Protestants had to do with a King of a contrary Religion they were incens'd by many wrongs and oppressions they were in danger to lose with their Forts and Towns their Liberty their Religion and their Life the privileges which they enjoyed were rewards of their long Services by the Charter of Rochel when they yielded to Lewis XI it was granted to them that they should be no longer the King's Subjects ☞ than the King should maintain their immunities and yet these true reasons and just fears could not justifie their defensive Arms against their Sovereign but they were condemn'd by the best of their own and of their neighbors and God shewed his dislike by the ill success he gave them And much more to this purpose is to be seen in his answer to Philanax Anglicus and in his Regii sanguinis Clamor ad caelum contra Parricidas Anglicanos Hagae Com. 1652 C. 1. 〈◊〉 5. for that being is du Moulin juniors and not Alexander Morus's as was conjectured affirming with the Apostle that even the Jews would not have Crucified the Lord of Glory had they known him while the Parricides of King Charles I. wittingly and wilfully Murdered their Lawful King and with the King beheaded also the Church of England and brought upon the neighbouring Protestant Churches abundance of Dishonor and much danger while the same madness was imputed to all the Reformation which had only infected a few who falsly called themselves Reformed Nothing hath happened since the beginning of the World more contrary to the glory of God or that hath cast a greater blot upon holy Truth while the Wickedness defends it self by the Doctrin of the Gospel and is said to be perpetrated to vindicate the Protestant Religion to the just indignation and abhorrence of all the foreign Churches for which reason Salmasius P. 7. Heraldus Porree and others wrote smartly both against the Men P. 17. and their villanous Principles It is a Law not only written but born with us and springs from the most pure fountains of Nature That it is a most horrid crime for Subjects to punish their Princes and therefore we do too much honour to Parricides when we use Arguments against them for as Aristotle says they who doubt 1 Top. c 9 whether God is to be worship'd or Parents to be honoured are not to be convinc'd by Reasons but by Scourges and Salmasius hath proved by unanswerable Reasons by divine and human Authority that the Majesty of Kings is unaccountable and that Subjects have no manner of Authority over them Cap. 2. p. 29 30. There is no fallacy of Satan which more prevails upon good Men to engage them in an evil Cause than when Men contrary to God's Word believe that it is lawful to do evil that good may come thereof and that God hath need of our sinful assistance to promote his Kingdom and that whatever is design'd to promote God's Glory immediatly commences good P. 52. the Judges at Westminster were turn'd out by the Army because being consulted they had given this opinion that to judge the King was against the Laws of England Cap. 5. p. 107. to argue from Providence and Success to the goodness of a Cause is impudent one man is hang'd for that by which another gets a Crown Junius Brutus by expelling the Kings of the Family of Tarquin saved his Country another Brutus by murdering a Tyrant ruined it perhaps the later Brutus did an act of justice when he slew an Usurper but the first was very unjust who drove away a lawful King by the murder of King Charles I. Cap. 6. p. 121. the Parricides taught the rest of the World that Kings may be guilty of breach of trust to their People that the People are their Judges and may condemn and execute them and these Tenets they are not ashamed to own in their Writings that they had freed the World of its old Superstition that Kings are only obnoxious to God and can be punish'd only by him that they had set an example to all other Nations conducive to their safety and to be dreaded by all Tyrants as Cromwel wrote to the Scots after Dunbar fight what an occasion of insulting is hereby given to the Papists to say Cap. 7. p. 135. this is the Religion which brings down Reformation to us from Heaven these are the Men who cry out against the Usurpations of the Popes upon the Crowns and lives of Princes only that they might themselves have that power over Kings when they had snatched it from the Pope But the Papists would suggest this with less fierceness if they remembred that those few who left us in this point went to them and borrowed their Weapons from them C. 8 p. 148. these Monsters do not content themselves with being simple Parricides but they turn Rebellion into a
omnia ad salutem necessaria a point which he durst defend in the worst of times when that Church was so much oppress'd for asserting her Loyalty to God and the King for her agreement with the Primitive Church in not rebelling against the lawful Magistrate and in owning the Jus Divinum of Episcopal Hierarchy and Liturgy To what is quoted out of Mr. Edw. Symmons's Vindication of King Charles in the first part of this History let these Passages be added by virtue of the Canon Romanus Episcopus say the Jesuits Sect 4. p. 46. v. p. 47. the Pope hath power to depose Kings be they Heretical or Catholick of vicious or virtuous lives if in his judgment he finds them unfit and some others more capable of Government and do not these Men believe the Authority of Parliament to be as irresistible as that of the Pope and their Votes to be as full of virtue as his Canons and altogether as authentick even to the deposing of Kings and disposing of their Kingdoms have they not loosen'd People from their Oath of Allegiance to the King and then put them in Arms persuading them that 't is no Rebellion to fight against him Sect. 16. p. 160 161. the next thing they mention wherein they triumph indeed and glory is their late extraordinary success in the Field some perhaps may wonder how these three can agree together great sufferings strange patience and extraordinary good success prosperity and good success which of old went current only among the Papists for a note of the true Church is now admitted also by these Men to be a special mark of the goodness of their Cause but in regard our Religion hath hitherto taught that sufferings and patience were rather the marks of Christ's true Flock than extraordinary success in the World therefore c. these two names of suffering and patience shall from henceforth be rejected and wholly disclaimed P. 168. cons loc as infallible marks of Loyalty and Malignity success is the weakest Argument that can be alledged to prove the goodness of a Cause and the wickedest Men have most used it this Book was written Anno 1645. tho not published till the year 1648. CHAP. VII The History of Passive Obedience under King Charles II. c. SECT I. WHen the execrable Parricide was committed on the Martyr Charles and his Family driven into Exile this Truth did not want its Confessors tho they smarted bitterly for owning it of which number Mr. Sheringham publish'd his accurate treatise of the King's Supremacy wherein as he says in his Introduction he exposes and confutes those Principles and Grounds whereby the Rebels endeavour'd to justifie the War against the King the first of which was that it was lawful for the People to resist their Sovereign and Supreme Governors by force of Arms in case they be Tyrants and bent to subvert the Laws and Religion establish'd or by illegal Proceedings invade the Lives Estates or Liberties of their Subjects This dangerous position he fully and learnedly confutes in his Book proving the Supremacy of our Kings and that they are neither coordinate nor subordinate to the People both by the Statute and common Law of this Land and clearly answers all the objections from either reason or authority concluding all with this remarkable saying P. 118. To speak my desires I wish unfeignedly the Salvation of all the pretended Parliamentarians ☞ but to speak my thoughts I conceive more hopes of the honest Heathen than of any Man that shall dye a Rebel or not make restitution as far as he is able of all that he hath gained by oppression and injustice Mr. Allington in his Grand Conspiracy Sermon 3. p. 106 107. Vid. Serm. 2. p. 60 81. Caiaphas pleaded the exigencies of the State for the Murther of our Saviour and which of us is there that hath not a Caiaphas in his bosom Which of us is there that doth not rather consider the expediency than the justice of an action which of us do not consider whether what we do be not rather secure than conscionable Men who will sacrifice both Judgment Loyalty Conscience and all Honesty to avoid an inconvenience P. 115 116. it is a Law much commended in this Land of ours that no Man shall be tryed but by his Peers now a King must be above the judgment of his Subjects because among them he can have no Peers such an heir as Christ was in the Parable Sermon 4. p. 179. Luc. 20.14 could not be robb'd of his Birth-right nor deprived of his Inheritance but it must be done with violence and that violence could never had hands enough without an Association the Husbandmen without any mask of Religion P. 205. or cloak of Godliness without any pretence of freeing themselves from Tyranny Arbitrary Government or any manner of Oppression they declare clearly what more subtle Rebels would not that the reason they prosecute bought arraign'd and kill'd the heir P. 208 and P. 210 211. it merely was for his Inheritance that the Inheritance may be ours this Lord had power to call the Labourers but the Labourers had none to call him to account Anno 1651. Mr. Jane Father to the present Regius Professor at Oxon if I am rightly informed Printed his Answer to Miltons Iconoclastes and in it fully and on all occasions avers this truth Exam. of the Pref. p. 5. v. p. 11 It is hateful in any to descant on the misfortunes of Princes but in such as have relation to them by Service or Subjection as the Libeller Milton to the late King is the compendium of all unworthiness P. 28 v. p. 34. and unnatural Insolence had His Majesty's faults been as palpable as this Author's falshood it could not diminish his Subjects duty nor excuse the Rebels imprety Rebels never wanted pretensions P. 36 37. but liberty and justice were the common masks of such Monsters so this Man will have the World believe Rebellion is dearer to this Author than Religion and he will rather commend superstitious actions of a blind Age and the very dregs of Popery than want an ingredient to the varnish of that horrid sin P. 39. Superstitious Churchmen had their hands in the old Rebellions and in our days we find they have Successors that teach the People Doctrins of Devils and seduce them from Obedience to those that had the rule over them P. 47. Obedience and Sufferings are the servility and wretchedness which Milton calls the Pulpit stuff of the Prelates we may shortly expect that as these Miscreants have altered State and Church ☜ so they will compose an Index Expurgatorius of the Bible for it cannot be imagined that they will object this heinous crime of Preaching Passive Obedience to the Prelates and leave so many places in the Gospel which command it and themselves need not the Gospel to make Men obedient they have the Sword and this
Ceremony of Religion is abolish'd P. 48 49. if righteousness consists in blaspheming God contempt of his Ordinances and scorning the Doctrin and practice of his Saints these Men may lay some claim to it are they greater practisers of self-denyal who Preach War and Blood rather than obey than those who Preach Passive Obedience and Suffering rather than violence P. 55. Milton is very industrious to find out causes why so many would not be Traytors why could he not fall into the consideration of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy that all Members of parliament take at their entrance ☜ how did he forget the commands of Obedience from God P. 59. repentance is a great reproach among those Rebels the Preaching of that Doctrin is worse to them P. 64. than Passive Obedience It is ridiculous to any judgment uninthral'd that such as Rebel against their King should pretend P. 66. they are not Rebels to God. Christians never thought that any sword drawn against their King did not violate their Loyalty and Allegiance much less that their profess'd Loyalty and Allegiance led them to direct Arms against the King's Person There are many such Passages in the Book Medit. on death p. 257 258. but I shall only quote one more towards the end of it Kings have their Power from God and God gives the Sword yea even to wicked Kings and because the Power is given them for justice it is called the Sword of Justice tho they use it oftentimes to injustice the Scripture forbids us to judge another Man's Servant but this Man will have the Father punish'd by the Child the Master by the Servant the Prince by the People Kings are unaccountable to Men for their actions for if Kings be accountable to Men are not they to whom he is accountable by the Libellers argument not only stronger than the King but stronger than Justice P. 260. divine law forbad all Men to take the Arms of justice without or against the King who is referred to God's justice and justice hath no Arms but his power the Law was above the Emperor Theodosius P. 262 v. loc p. 263. in regard it was his rule but could not make any Person or Society above him it were a profane Oath as well as vain that should be void at the will of the Father this last Age hath brought forth a generation that do God service when they scorn all his Laws and Religion c. SECT II. Bishop Sanderson in his censure of Ascham's Book Printed at London 1650. Upon perusal of Mr. Ascham 's Book you left with me I find not my self in my understanding thereby convinc'd of the necessity or lawfulness of conforming unto or complying with an unjust prevailing Power further than I was before perswaded it might be lawful or necessary so to do viz. As paying Taxes and submitting to some other things in themselves not unlawful by them imposed or required such as I had a lawful Liberty to have done in the same manner tho they had not been so commanded and seem to me in the conjuncture of present circumstances prudentially necessary to preserve my self or my Neighbour from the injuries of those that would be willing to make use of my Non-submission to mine or his ruin so as it be done with these Cautions 1. Without violation either of duty to God or any other just obligation that lies upon me by Oath Law or otherwise 2. Only in the case of necessity otherwise not to be avoided 3. Without any explicite or implicite acknowledgment of the Justice and Legality of their Power I may submit to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Force but not acknowledge the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Authority or by any voluntary Act give strength assistance or countenance thereunto 4. Without any prejudice unto the claim of the oppressed Party that hath a right Title or casting my self into an incapacity of lending him my due and bounden Assistance If in time to come it may be useful to him towards the recovery of his Right 5. Where I may reasonably and Bonâ Fide presume the Oppressed Power to whom my Obedience is justly due if he perfectly knew the present condition I am in together with the exigency and necessity of the present case and all the circumstances thereof would give his willing consent to such my conformity and compliance So that upon the whole matter and in short I conceive I may so far submit unto the Impositions or comply with the Persons of a prevailing Usurped Power unjustly commanding things not in themselves unlawful or make use of their Power to protect me from others Injuries As I may submit unto comply with or make use of an High way Thief or Robber when I am fallen into his hands and lie at his mercy As for Mr. Ascham's Discourse tho it be handsomly framed yet all the strength of it to my seeming if he would speak out would be in plain English this 1. That Self preservation is the first and chiefest obligation in the World to which all other Bonds and Relations at least between Man and Man must give place 2. That no Oath at least no imposed Oath in what Terms soever express'd binds the Taker further than he intended to bind himself thereby and it is presumed that no Man intended to bind himself to the prejudice of his own safety Two dangerous and desperate Principles which evidently tend first to the taking away of all Christian Fortitude and Suffering in a Righteous Cause 2. To the encouraging of Daring and Ambitious Spirits to attempt continual Innovations with this confidence that if they can by any ways how unjust soever possess themselves of the Supreme Power they ought to be submitted unto 3. To the obstructing unto the Oppressed Party all possible ways and means without a Miracle of ever recovering that just Right of which he shall have been unjustly dispossessed And to omit further instancing 4. To the bringing in of Atheism with the contempt of God and all Religion whilst every Man by making his own Preservation the Measure of all his Duties and Actions maketh himself thereby his own Idol The same excellent Casuist is of this mind in his Case of the engagement the bond of Allegiance whether sworn Vid. loc or not sworn is in the nature of it perpetual and indispensible c. and his Fifth Lecture of the Obligation of Conscience Sect. 11 13 14 16 17 20 21. to which for the sake of brevity I refer the Reader SECT III. To this Eminent Bishop Jenkins Redivivus Lon. 1681 p. 20 21. I shall joyn the Eminent Judge Jenkins To depose the King or take him by force or Imprison him until he hath yielded to certain demands is adjudged Treason in the Lord Cobham 's Case the Law makes not the Servant greater than the Master nor the Subject greater than the King P. 81. for that
rable is a King and Kingdom when every Man that is but audacious enough has a fair pretence if he can but gather force to overturn any settlement that can be in such a case such a Pirate Prince must be always exposed to Tempests King Stephen was none of our worst Princes and one of the most valiant but an Intruder he was and he sped accordingly his reign was the most turbulent of any except that of King John another Usurper c. But be the title of a King P. 18. as good as a Warrant from Heaven can make it be it so undoubted as Hell it self can find no pretence to question it be the King like an Angel of God yet if his Subjects will be Sons of Belial Sons of the Devil so Rebels are called in Scripture Men that will bear no yoke 't is still in their power to be as miserable as they please therefore I commend your strict adherence to your former Protestations P. 27. and to your Oaths of Allegiance take heed of destroying your Country to build your own House destruction and death is not all you are like to get by it take heed of that which follows there is another death to come after ☜ God has warn'd you of it they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation as you would avoid this take heed of that which leads to it thus that great Prelate who as it is justly said of him ‖ Thom. Brown. Ep. praefi conc Jun. 11. 1687. in the whole course of his life and in all the varieties of times and fortune still maintain'd his fidelity to his Prince in an illustrious manner SECT VII And of this opinion was that great promoter of piety and learning Bishop Fell who having in his †On 2 Pet. 3.3 Anno 1675. p. 21 22. Ox. 1675. Sermon before the King asserted that nothing can be so unhappy as Authority when baffled that the Coffee-house rebel is more mischievous than he that takes the Field and that a Prince is sooner murdered with a Label than a Sword and in his * Dec. 22. 1680. p. 3 4. on Mat. 12 25. Oxf. 1680. Sermon before the Lords exprest his astonishment by what Enchantment but that Rebellion is the sin of Witchcraft Men should be perswaded to disturb their own and the publick Peace forfeit all the advantages they enjoy in a settled Government which cannot be so bad as not to be much better than the confusion which sedition brings and run upon that sudden destruction which the Wiseman says is the end of those who are given to change he continues to give the same advice in his Sermon before the Sons of the Clergy wherein having told them that a great part of them present were the Sons of the persecuted Clergy ‖ On Act. 3.16 p. 61 63 68 69. a sort of Men that hazarded their lives unto the death and their Estates to the greater cruelty and grave of sequestration for the cause of God and of their Prince He adds 't is their glory that in the day of trial they did all they pretended to they forsook Father and Mother Houses Brethren and Sisters and those more endearing names of Wife and Children let it therefore be the strict concern of every one here present to maintain a faithful Loyalty to his Prince and Sovereign It is the peculiar glory of the Church of England ☞ that She above all others Principles her Children in Obedience to Superiors and most supports the ends and interests of Government which had so visible an effect in the late unhappy revolutions that the Royal Martyr who fell a Sacrifice to the misguided zeal of his rebellious Subjects ☞ made it his observation that none forfeited their duty to him who had not first deserted their Obedience to the Church nor can you any way more remarkably approve your selves to be Orthodox in your Religion and good Sons of the Church than if you are Loyal in your Principles and good Subjects to the King. On the 23. of June of the same year Dr. Thomas Bishop of Worcester dyed having two days before sent for a Reverend Divine to whom after he had discours'd an hour about the new Oath of Allegiance which he thought altogether inconsistent with the Doctrin of the Church and his former Oaths he said if my own heart deceive me not and God's grace fail me not I think I could dye at a Stake rather than take this Oath The Earl of Clarendon in his Animadversions on Mr. Cressy 's answer to the Dean of St. Paul's P. 72. as a very competent witness avers that there were very few who did so much as pretend to have a reverence for the Church of England that were ever active in the late Rebellion and that it were to be wish'd rather than hop'd that the Profession of Christian Religion in any Church had that impulsion in it as it ought to have that it preserv'd the Professors of it from entring into Rebellion and the practice of any other iniquity and speaking of Archbishop Cranmer who sign'd King Edward the Sixth's Will he adds if that unhappy P. 80. and ill advised Queen who had just reason to be offended highly with that Archbishop could have found that the Law would have condemn'd him for Treason she rather desired to have had him hang'd for a Traytor than to have him burnt for his Religion but the Law would not extend to serve her turn that way if it would no body would have blamed her for having prosecuted him with the utmost rigor whereas many good Men then did and since have for proceeding the other way with him The Popes who have assumed Authority to depose Princes P. 151 152. have caused more Christian blood to have been spilt more horrible Massacres of Kings and Princes and People than all the Heresies in the World and all other politick differences have produced much the greatest part of this destruction ☜ and ruin proceeded from the perjury of Popes themselves after they had promis'd and sworn to observe such parts and agreements voluntarily entred into by themselves or from the dispensation they granted to others to break their faith and not to perform the contracts they had entred into The same noble Person even when under the displeasure of his Prince and in Banishment thought himself still obliged to be unalterably Loyal as he professes in his Epistle to the King I thank God from the time I found my self under the insupportable burthen of your Majesties displeasure and under the infamous brand of Banishment I have not thought my self one minute absolved in the least degree from the strictest duty to your Person And whereas T. H. in his Leviath p. 114. had affirm'd that the obligation of Subjects to their Sovereign is understood to last as long and no longer than the Power lasts to protect them he rejoins P. 90. hereby he gives
Party have been the great cause of all these inhumane Butcheries yet they have not been the only Actors in them there are another sort of Men who have had their Hands stained with blood and upon what Motives and Principles and to what degrees they have proceeded I refer the Reader to Archbishop Bancroft's dangerous Positions and to the History of Presbytery to satisfic himself Ch. 2 p. 7. 8. But tho several Murders and Rebellions have been carryed on by those that call themselves Christians yet neither the Christian Religion nor the Church it self did ever teach any such Doctrin or encourage any such Practice nay there are such Evidences against it that no rational Man that does rightly consider the matter can ever doubt but that she in her judgment and belief wholly condemns all such wicked and ungodly designs And for further satisfaction I will inquire into the flate of the matter P. 9. that all Power and Dominion is Originally from God is not to be doubted but by Atheists and that Governors act in his Name and by his Authority is as unquestionable among Christians now this Power is derived to them either from the Law of Nature which is common to all Mankind or else from positive Revelation and Assignment the first and highest fountain of Supreme Power is founded in that natural Dominion that God hath given Parents over their Children insomuch that if either Adam or Noah who were the common Fathers of us all were now alive P. 10. they ought to be the Universal Monarchs of the World but when the Father dyes and Brothers are scatter'd up and down the World and live independently one of another there can be no natural pretence for one to have Dominion over the other yet the necessity of forming themselves into Societies for mutual defence and traffick will oblige them to enter into Covenants and tho while they are free they may chuse different forms as they shall see best for themselves yet having once chosen and accepted of a Supreme Power they are not at liberty to cast it off again when they please but all the Rights Prerogatives and Jurisdictions which belong to Sovereign Authority are presently by God invested on it who does ratifie all lawful pacts and agreements and requires us strictly and inviolably to observe them tho it may fall out P. 11. that the Person somtime may be chosen by the People or Nobility or Senate yet the Power and Office it self was not made is not given nor can it be limited or bounded by them so as to destroy the Office it self or make it become no Supreme Power one Prerogative whereof is to be irresistible P. 1â— and not to be called to account by any but God. a Prince must use his Subjects as Freemen and not Slaves but if Princes do not their duty we must not revenge our selves for we ought not to be Judges in our own case for God hath told us that Vengeance is his and he will repay P. 13. therefore we must go for vengeance to those whom God hath appointed to execute vengeance in his stead if then our inferior Governors do us wrong we must go to the Superior who are made Revengers to execute wrath upon them that do evil But if the Supreme Powers themselves oppress us they cannot be judg'd by their Inferiors and there will be no other remedy but to leave them to the judgment of God who hath reserved their punishment to himself but tells us he that resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation and 't is better to suffer unjustly in this World than to suffer justly in the World to come for since the last judgment in this World must be somewhere 't is fitter that Children should be committed to the judgment of their Parents and Inferiors to the Supreme than any other way P. 14 15. tho Princes are the Instruments yet it is God's purposes or commands that they put in execution whether they be for good or evil he inclines them to favor and mercy when he is pleas'd to try us with prosperity and kindness again when our sins call for judgment and indignation then he sends forth evil Governors or else permits wicked Men to act according to their own cruel and ambitious minds and the insâ—igation of the Devil but yet in the midst of judgment he does remember mercy they shall not do any harm further than God in his Wisdom shall give them leave and that is no more than is needful for our good so that we are to look upon evil Governors and Superiors that oppress us no other than plagues or violent Storms or Earthquakes sent from God from whence we may run and hide our selves if it be possible and use all reasonable means to save our lives by flight or the like but they are no more to be resisted by violence than any of those natural Evils we must by humiliation and prayer implore God's mercy to us in turning their hearts or some other way sending us deliverance as we do to avert a Plague or an Earthquake P. 16. but God hath given us no natural strength to secure our selves and thereupon will defend us himself and have us wholly therein depend upon his own care this belief it was that filled the World with Martyrs c. this made our Saviour confess to Pilate that he had Power given him from above to crucifie him c. it was upon this account that St. Paul said let every Soul be subject c. and in this sense those Texts and the Authority of Governors were vouched by the Antient Fathers and Councils and there is not one Writer for a Thousand years of any credit in the Church that did ever doubt of P. 17. or question this Doctrin but many of them have declared themselves fully for it that Sovereign Princes had their Authority immediatly from God and were accountable to none but him if they did use it amiss and therefore could not be deposed by any Authority upon Earth whether of Pope or People neither ought they to be resisted by open violence or have their Power wrested out of their hands by any of their rebellious Subjects those also that act in a War without the Commission of the Supreme Power or of the King where he is Supreme have not the Sword given them by God but take it themselves and therefore shall perish with the same And this he confirms as from Scripture so from the Doctrin of the Church and the sense of the Holy Fathers about it P. 40 41. and concludes It were casie to carry the same Doctrin through all Ages of the Church and to produce testimonies especially from the Articles and Canons of the Church of England and the Writings of our Learned Bishops and other Eminent Defenders of our Church but these shall suffice for the present and they are