submit to him as it were in the twinkling of an Eye He was Doctor as you speak Recogniz'd for King by the States of the Realm and the great Body of the Nation submitted to him and took the Oath of Allegiance to him who himself had taken that Oath to Queen Maud and Henry her Son and yet though he had all the Ensigns of Majesty by Coronation and was in full Possession of the Throne which you call a thorough Settlement there were many Gallant Men who would not acquiess in the Publick Judgment of the Nation because it was incompetent and erroneous but after some time opposed him to their utmost as an Usurper although he had Providence on his side Among these was * Dicerem nisi adulatio videretur non imparem fuiss◠Julio Caesari Robertus Christiana Pietate insignis Anno 1139. Robert Earl of Glocester half Brother to Queen Maud who as Malmsbury saith was the most Learned Pious and Valiant Man of his Age. Indeed Robert with a relucting Conscience had done Homage conditionally to Stephen but though he did it upon condition he soon recovered himself and repented of it and took care * Robertus quasi positus in speculâ Rerum providebat exitum ne de juramento quod fecerat sorori erga Deum Homines perfidiae notaretur sedulo cagitabat Anno 1137. to act nothing contrary to his Allegiance to Maud and with the first safe opportunity †Homagio etiam abdicato rationem praeserens quà m injuste id fecerat quia Rex illicite ad Regnum aspiraverat Ipsemet etiam contra Legem egecisset qui post Sacramentum quod sorori dedirat alteri cuilibet ea vivente se manus dare non trubuisset sent Messengers to Stephen to tell him That he renounced his unrigteous Oath of Homage to him and that he had acted contrary to Law in that he was not ashamed to Swear Homage to any Mortal while his Sister was alive And afterwards as I shall shew he could never be brought to turn Subject to Stephen in the greatest extremity when they threatned to take away his Life if he would not The Historians who I believe were sober Men represent Stephen as a ‡ Quamvis ipse jurasset juramentum fidelitatis Imperatrici Henrico filio suo tamen quasi Tempestas invasit Diadema Regni Angliae Qui si legitime Regnum fuisset ingressus Hoveden Qui Rex illicite ad Regnum aspicaverat Malmsbury Sed dum externam vim propulsat Domestica petitur jam manifeste Deo Perjurii poenas ob eo expectente Polyd. Virg. Perjured Usurper and complain of the Perjury of the Times and say that it brought down the Judgment of God upon the Land ‖ Quibus De propitio salubriter actis Rex Angliam Angliae Pacem recepit Annis enim jam plarimis sere nudo Regis nomine insignis tunc recipere vijus est hujus rem nominis quia tunc primo purgata invasionis Tyrannica Macula Legitimi Principis Justitiam inducit Nubrigensis saith that he was but a Nominal King till the Pacification or Agreement made with Henry and that it was that which made him a Real Lawfull and Rightful King Nay the Historians observe in what a signal manner the Judgment of God fell upon the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Salisbury who were the two first that swore Allegiance to him the former not surviving a year to an end and the latter being made a Prisoner by him was miserably vexed by him till he died of Grief Malmsbury tells us That God made him an example to Men not to trust in uncertain Riches which saith he Some Men coveting after concerning Faith have made Shipwreck Anno 1138. He also tells us that Robert Earl of Glocester consulted many Religious Men to know their Opinion if he might quit his Allegiance to his Sister And that they answered He could neither live in this World with Honour nor in Everlasting Happiness in the World to come if he acted contrary to the Oath which he had taken to her I suppose Doctor the Religious Men whom that Learned and Wise Prince consulted as the Guides of his Conscience were as good Men and Casuists as that Age afforded and they being dead yet speak and give Evidence against you for asserting that the Opinion and Reasonings of Some among our selves is against the general sense of Mankind If Mr. Fuller in his Church History represents the mater right all the Arguments which you and your Brethren used for taking the new Oath of Allegiance were then used to justifie Swearing Allegiance to Stephen but Earl Robert to use your words felt not the force of them he had nothing left him but a Stupid and Slavish Allegiance to Maud for when he was promised to be made as great as Stephen the Throne only excepted if he would become his Subject he made this Answer which * Anno 1143. Non sum mei inquit sed alleni juris saith the Historian I desire Posterity may know and admire I am not at my own disposal but under the Right of another but when I shall have power over my self I shall do what the reason of the Case shall direct After this Answer Doctor which he made in defence of his Allegiance to a Queen that never was Crown'd the Lords who brought the Message from Stephen to him began to threaten him with Imprisonment and Death And what reply do you think he made to that Why Slave of Allegiance as he was to Maud he told them with a serene Countenance That he feared nothing less After this again Stephen with the Great Lords came in Person to him but he * Ille velut Pelagi rupes immota stood like a Rock against the Waves protesting to them that he had espoused his Sisters Cause neither out of the prospect of any Worldly advantage nor out of hatred to the King but purely out of Conscience in consideration of his Duty and Oath which the Pope had assured him did tie him to her Obedience Thus Doctor we see that God in the most corrupt times reserves some to bear witness to Truth as the Prophet saith Except the Lord of Hosts had left us a very small remnant we should have been as Sodom and like unto Gomorrah The unnatural Usurpation of Edward III. was so short before his Father's death that there was not time enough for those who abhorred it to signalize their detestation of it But however Doctor there were * Non deerant qui ejus vicem dolentes summae Principes perfidiae ac Edoardum Regem ac Isabellam impietatis criminis notarent Aliqui Optimates Auctore Edmundo Cantii Comite secreta passim jam consilia Sermones deliberāndo Edoardo una conserre ceperunt Polyd. Virg. Ang. Hist lib. 18. Some who lamented the injuries that Edward II. had suffered and were not affraid openly to reproach his Queen
up the Government p. 5. as if intermission of Government were a total giving up of Right so that he cannot claim it again if he returns and yet he grants the case of present danger and just fear This ought not to be pressed too far but that it is indecent to suppose that Kings can be subject to fear that is we must not suppose them to be Men for if they are fear is an humane Passion But he had no just cause of fear I will not dispute that but suppose he was affraid without just cause Doth not fear still make the Action involuntary and save the forfeiture of the Crown and if it doth What difference is there betwixt his first and second withdrawing For it seems he apprehends there was more just cause of fear the second time and therefore will not lay the Accusation there but upon his first going and yet it is a probable Argument that he was affraid at first because Kings do not use to forsake their Kingdoms without Fear But what need of pretending the King's going away if the subversion of his Government and Laws dissolved the Government For it seems he was no King before he went nor to be looked upon as a King but a Destroyer so that whether he had gone or staid the thing had been the same But if the King can do no wrong he can never forfeit his Crown by Male Administration at least an ipso facto forfeiture was never heard of in Kings it is more reasonable to bring him to a Trial than to Judge and Condemn and Depose him without Hearing which is thought hard usage for a Subject But the mischief is they know not how to frame the Indictment where to find Judges and his Peers to try him which is an Argument our Law knows nothing of trying Kings because it hath made no provision for it 8. Your observing Readers laugh at your Confidence in saying xxx p. 22. That the late Revolution hath made no Alterations in the Principles of Government and Obedience And to use your own words Some think your Providential Right a tottering Foundation for the Monarchy that cannot long support it and every jot as tottering as that of the Power of the People which you explode because the People if they get the Supream Power of the King they will plead Providence for it and keep it whether they have naturally a Superior Power over him or no. In page 23. you say It was a wonderful Providence that the generality of Subjects were meerly Passive at the Revolution But they say you used to bemoan the Passiveness of them as sinfull especially in the Clergy particularly you were often heard with great formality to recite some words of Dr. Patrick concerning the silence of the Clergy which you said went like Daggers to your Heart It seems once upon a time you pray'd the Dr. to consider what a dishonour the Clergy's taking the Oath would be to our Religion to which he reply'd that if that were all the Honour of our Religion was gone in the silence of the Clergy at the Prince's Invasion though some of the Clergy were not so silent as that Dr. imagined and when another asked you how you could forbear at that time to Preach up the Duty of Active Assistence as some others had done You answered with a shew of Tears in your Eyes that they were happy Men and striking your Hand upon your Breast you wished you had done so too Page 27. You say There is no appearance of illegal Vsurpations no oppression of the Subjects just Rights nor pretence of Clamour of Persecution for Conscience take and yet as some among us observe according to your own bafled Hypothesis of Right to Government their Majesties Possession of the Throne is not legal and by consequence how rightful soever you pretend to make it in the Eye of Providence it is an Usurpation in the Eye of the Law And then as for Persecution for Conscience sake these Men say That of all Men it least became you to assert That there was no pretence to complain of that who confidently said That the late Revolution was the greatest Scheme of Vilany that ever was contrived and not long since had such an high Opinion both of their Consciences and their Cause and pretended to believe that they were persecuted not only for Conscience but Righteousness sake They say they are both the same they were as when you were one of them and though you have changed the Names of them since you changed your Opinion yet they think that they still retain their old Nature and have as much to say for themselves as you could say for them then Then they say you took it ill to be told by the Writers of the Times That it was not Conscience but Shame Peevishness Stubbornness and other causes of prejudice that made the Non-Swearers stand out And to remove this scandalous Imputation from your self and your Brethren you went on purpose to the Excellent Bp. of Chichester to put him upon making his Death-Bed Declaration at which the Government was so offended but since you took the Oath it is no matter of Conscience or Difficulty and it is now dwindled into a Gnat nay into Nothing which was a Cammel before Methinks you might remember the great difficulty with which many thousands that took the Oath took it and call to mind the lower sense in which they took it only to live peaceably and quietly and how others took it in this sense only as a Temporary Oath And if so many Mens Consciences would not let them take it but in such qualified senses Why should it not be pure Conscience in these Men to take it in no sense at all You know the Secret of Dr. Scot why he refused the Bishoprick of Chester it was because his Conscience would not let him take the Oath of Homage to K. W. and Q. M. and if that Oath was an insuperable difficulty to an honest and well informed Conscience in him Why should not the new Oath of Allegiance be so to these Men who think thar at least they have a pretence to complain that they are persecuted and suffe-for Conscience sake They say farther that any Government may persecute by Law as well as against it and that there is little or no difference between being oppressed and ruined by unjust Laws or unjustly against Law Nay any Persecution is the greater they say for having Law to support it and that Conscience is Conscience whether it suffer against Law by a Tyrant or by Tyrannical Laws I remember there is something to this purpose somewhere in your Case of Resistance and then as to the Cause for which these Men suffer no Man they say had a more full Persuasion of the Justice of it than your self They say you scarce had patience to hear your best Friends argue against it in favour of the Oath that you told Mr. Maur you cold as soon
Estates of the Realm This Doctour I fear is the Spirit and these the Principles generally speaking of the Refugees and this Spirit and these Principles of which they give so many Signs obliged the King for his own Security to send their Ministers out of his Kingdom but he did not send them away empty he did not send them to the Galleys as you know who did What I have said Doctour is out of justice and not out of kindness to the French Monarch I am none of those that wish he may prevail and bear all before him like a Torrent but I do not like that he should be ignorantly and partially traduc'd by every soul mouth'd Pulpitier when were it not for his invincible Mistake in Religion he would be thought even by you one of the bravest Princes that ever wore a Crown Nor have I any ill Will at his Protestant Subjects I have been as great a Reliever of them in proportion to my Ability as any other Man in the Kingdom and should be glad to see a Vindication of them that I might have a better Opinion of them I grant the King hath persecuted them with very great Severity and made havock of their Church and am as sorry as you can be for it and for the Cause of it but then are there no persecutors among the Confederate Princes Look about you Doctor set the Acts and Edicts and Executions of other Princes against his and then you will find that other Protestants besides the French have been dragoon'd and lost their Estates their Lives their Liberties and their Countrey for Conscience sake In short the French Apologists tell us that the King persecuted them because they intended to persecute him This their own Consciences can tell them whether it be true or no and if it be true then their destruction is of themselves and they have brought down their Ruine upon their own Heads The Bishop of St. Asaph who foretold the Downfall of their King hath now foretold his Conversion and their Restitution It is some Months ago since he foretold that this would happen within a year God grant his Prediction may prove true it would make his Majesty a Constantine to his People But yet I fear that would not satisfie some Men nor reconcile their ulcerated Minds to him unless with the Popish Religion he quitted the Interests of King James This Doctor is another crowned Head against whom you love to croak All your malicious Speeches and Slanders of him and particularly those in your first and second Letter concerning the French Invasion are filed up in Heaven and shall be brought in Evidence against you at the great Day of Judgment when without publick and bitter Repentance you will appear at the left Hand with Cromwell Bradshaw Cook Milton and Thom. Good win and be sent with those Worthies of the Old Cause into your own place You cannot be content with sober and wise Men among your Brethren to say nothing of him or when you speak to speak of him as they do with Decency and Respect but you fall upon him as the Mob did at Feversham with a brutal Rage without any Regard to his Royal Name and Person or to her Majesty and the Princess whom you dishonour in reproaching of him For let me tell you Doctor the Disgrace of the Chief always terminates in the Clan and the Men of Honour will tell you they are bound to revenge it as soon as they have the Opportunity 16. In this Sermon you also upbraid him with his Misfortunes which no good Man can think of without the greatest degree of Compassion scornfully calling him the late unfortunate Prince It is true Doctor he is unfortunate but you should have remembred what Solon said of Croesus and that what happens to Kings may also happen to Divines You live now in great Prosperity and State but God may yet bring you down He can when he pleases take off the Wheels of your Chariot turn your Silver Candelesticks into Brass and your Wax Candles into Tallow and reduce you even beyond your first principals yet before you dye I wish this may not happen to you nor none of those who insult over the Calamities of that unfortunate Prince but if it do so remember you saw the Anguish of his Soul and had no Pity for him and then say therefore if this Distress come upon us One of the Nine Men when he heard him pitied had the Barbarity to say Why what matter is it He is but a Bastard St. Alban 's Bastard and it is great pity that her Majesty had not been told of it before he put on his Lawn Slieves We commonly say Misfortunes are no Crimes and before you upbraid him with them again remember his Father the Martyr of the Church of England was unfortunate before him and had this also added to the rest of his Misfortunes that he was reviled and had in derision by such Sons of the Earth as you But God supported him by his Grace and made him more than Conqueror and the same God which supported the Father hath also upheld the Son under his Misfortunes which let me tell you had never come upon him had you and your Brethren the Clergy done their Duty as some of them did And therefore methinks you should take no pleasure in ripping up his Misfortunes which are your Crimes He was unfortunate in you more than in his Lay Subjects You might have saved him as well as your Religion if you would have preached but half as much for him as you did for that but your general Silence in the needfull time betrayed him to all his Misfortunes and Now such as you among your Brethren are very sorry that they are not greater and mad against the suffering Remnant because they do not renounce him in his Misfortunes and murmur against God that hath preserved him and laid Help upon one that is mighty for him a mighty Prince who hath long maintain'd more Legions than the Roman Empire did at the highest Pitch of Greatness and who perhaps one day like Augustus and Trajan may inscribe upon his Medals coined upon such glorious Occasions REX PARTHIS REX ARMENIS DATVS for God seldom raises Princes to that Greatness but he hath something extraordinary for them to doe I must also remind you of another great Blessing which God who remembers Mercy in Judgment has bestowed upon him and thereby enabled him the better to bear the loss of his Kingdoms He hath given him of his most virtuous Queen a Royal * See the Observator published Monday Aug. 21. and Wednesday Aug. 23. 1682. Son and Daughter by whom I trust the Royal Family will be multiplied into many Branches and come to be restored to its antient Rights and Glory The Seed of the Royal Martyr is in them and I hope it is no Crime to pray that God would give them the sure Mercies of David and let them grow up like
King and by supposing in the next Paragraph That it was lawfull in a limitted Monarchy But is this the way of arguing against Resistance which not long ago was such a damnable sin especially on the 30th of January I protest to you Dr. should I hear you speak at this tender rate from the Pulpit against Adultery I should think you had a design upon some Ladies in the Congregation and that you intended they should understand by you that you thought it no sin Formerly on the 30th of January Resistance was a most damnable sin and the Doctrine of it Popish Diabolical Doctrine and the sin of the day was the Murder of a King but now it seems Dr. you will not dispute the lawfulness of resisting the King it may be lawfull for any thing you know to the contrary even on the 30th of January the sin of which day now it seems P. 19. lies in the Murder of a Good King who kept the Laws and was a Zealous Patron of the Church of England of a King of such Virtues as are rarely found in meaner Persons nay which would have adorned an Hermet's Cell But had he been a King that had broken the Laws and stretch'd his Prerogative to set up an Ecclesiastical Commission against the Church of England then the killing of him had been no Murder at least no such barbarous Murder But Dr. at this rate of Preaching on the 30th of January Kings and Queens had need take care of themselves for I do not see but they are upon their Behaviour Quam diu bene se gesserint and do not break the Laws but if they do so let them do it at their peril xxix p. 21. For every irregularity in their motions is soon felt and causes very fatal Convulsions in the State or as a much better Subject said by way of Apology for Charles I. There is no time past Judge Jenkins in his Works p. 28. present nor will there be time to come so long as Men manage the Laws but the Laws will be broken more or less So Dr. in your Temple-Sermon to exhort us to pray for Kings you tell us That it is very difficult to govern a Family xxix p. 24 25 26. and that Princes are liable to mistakes like other Men and that they are exposed to misinformations by Court-Flatterers and subject to greater Temptations than other Men But Dr. If it be lawfull to take up Arms against the King in a limitted Monarchy which you were contented to suppose before the House and others of your Brethren plainly assert then God help Kings of such Monarchies xxx p. 23. especially where the Springs and Fountains of Government are poysoned and where the Nation is already divided into Parties both in Church and State Such Kings be they by Providence only or Law and Providence together it matters not they had need look to their hits when their best pretended Friends are willing to suppose it is lawfull to take up Arms against them All your Apologies and Panegyricks upon their Majesties and Exhortations to pray for them can never make them amends for such a supposition and they must indeed stand in need of more and better Prayers than yours if they have no better a Title to the Crown than that of Possession which you have found out for them and that too no longer than they keep the Laws 4. These Dr. to use your own Language are very loose Notions of Government and Obedience and dangerous at such a time as this when so many Malecontents in both Kingdoms complain of the breach of Laws See h. If you will go to Scotland you shall hear two sort of discontented Men clamour loudly against the Government the Jacobite Episcoparians and the Presbyterians the latter are so impudent as to charge King William down right with the breach of the Original Contract and the former complain of torturing Strangers against Law and the Articles of Government of exercising illegal and unheard of Severities upon the complying Clergy worse than Dragooning of abolishing Episcopacy and thereby altering the Constitution of the Government and of the Murder and Massacre of a Laird and his Clan in cold blood after they had laid down their Arms and submitted to the Government And you cannot be ignorant of the Complaints which are made at home by restless and disaffected Spirits of pretended Illegal and Arbitrary Commitments of Men for High Treason and not to mention the Reflections which have been made in and out of Parliament upon Mr. Ashton's Trial you cannot but hear what a din this grumbling and disaffected Faction make of excessive Fines and Bail contrary as they clamour to our English Liberties and the Articles of Government And they bring one Example among others of a poor Boy about thirteen years old who was Arraign'd and Try'd at the Old-Baily and condemned to the Pillory and after he endured this Discipline and many other cruel hardships was Fined at the Court of the Old-Baily above threescore times more than he and his Parents are worth Sir These things considered you should have thundered with your old Zeal and demonstrations against Resistance as a damnable sin and taught Submission and Obedience to their Majesties upon the account of their Office and Character and not purely upon the account of their Virtues as you used to do in former Sermons And let me tell you Dr. that the most effectual way of serving their Majesties in the Pulpit and especially on the 30th of January is to Preach up the unconditional Duty of Subjects to Kings as Kings xxx p. 23. whether they be good or bad This was the Strict Loyalty and Obedience which you tell us was so earnestly pressed on the Consciences of Men before the Revolution and made the People so passive in it But by your favour Dr. not so passive for not to put you in mind of the vast numbers in the West and the North Mrs. Sherlock her self sent in a Man and Horse to the assistance of the Prince of Orange and whether it was with your Connivance or Approbation God and your own Conscience can best tell But however that was this is certain that it is most for the Interest of Princes as well as most becoming Divines to set the King as a King and not as an Hero before the People and to convince their Consciences of the inviolable Duty which results from their relation to him as Subjects independant of his moral Qualities but the other way of Preaching which you have taken up serves only to beget a precarious and doubtful sense of Duty in the People who as your Sermon before the House shews can soon be made to have the worst Opinion of the best of Kings 5. The Sandersons and Hammonds of former times who guarded the Pulpit from all suspicion of Flattery would never have Preached so much in commendation of their Royal Masters as you have Preached in the praise
that Right be in the King Senate or the People And to these saith he we are to reckon the Tutors and Guardians of young Princes as Jehoiada was to Joash when he deposed Athaliah From these Men whom you did not know I proceed to some of your Acquaintance and I hope Doctor you will not take it ill to hear them speak The first shall be Dr. Stillingfleet now Bp. of Worcester who is reputed a wise and considering Man and Writer that did not use to write Contradictions to the general Sense of Mankind and yet in several places of his * Vid. p. 58 80 81 83 85. Grand Question he hath asserted that several Acts of Parliament made by Edward III. in his Father's life time and by Henry IV. were null and void because they were Usurpers or in your Language Providential but not Legal Kings And in his Sermon before the Commons Novemb. 13. 71. He tells them that Providence doth not found any Right of Dominion but onely shews that when God pleases to make use of persons as Scourges he gives them Success above their hopes but Success gives them no Right The next is Dr. Burnet who in the first Part of the History of the Refarmation speaks of Henry IV. as a Traitor and Usurper and how doubtfully he speaks of Providence in his Sermon before the Prince at St. James's you may remember as well as I. The third is Dr. Comber who as I hear confesseth that he and others went too far but however I that think the Doctor as good an Author before as since the Revolution will not balk his Authority especially since he hath retracted nothing publickly and he saith on the Collect for the King That his Friends are our Friends and his Enemies our Enemies for whoever attempts to smite the Sheepherd seeks to destroy the Sheep and he is a mortal Foe to the whole Nation I know nothing so common with Rebels and Usurpers as to pretend Love to those they would stir up against their lawfull Prince but it appears to be Ambition and Covetousness in the latter end and such Persons design to rise by the fall of many thousands Or if Religion be the ground of the Quarrel besides our late sad Experience Reason will tell us that War and Faction Injustice and Cruelty can never lodge in those Breasts where that pure and peaceable Quality doth dwell If it be a foreign Prince that opposeth our King he is a Robber and unjust to invade his Neighbour's Rights If he be a Subject who riseth against his Sovereign he hath renounced Christianity with his Allegiance and is to be esteemed a troubler of our Israel Therefore whosoever they be that are Enemies to the King or whatsoever the pretence be we wish they may never prosper in that black Impiety of unjust Invasion or unchristian Rebellion How like a Saint and an excellent Casuist doth the Doctor write here but how this agrees with his Speeches Letters and Actions since the Insurrection at York Time and Opportunity of Printing will shew The fourth is Dr. Tennison who had occasion to consider your Doctrine long before it was yours in his Book entituled the Creed of Mr. Hobbs examined In his Epistle dedicatory to that Book saith he Mr. Hobbs hath framed a Model of Government pernicious in its consequence to all Nations and injurious to the Right of his present Majesty for he taught the People soon after the Martyrdom of his Royal Father that his Title was extinguished when his Adherents were subdued and that the Parliament had the Right for this very reason because it had Possession And in Art 8. p. 156. first Edit It is not for you to pretend to Loyalty who place Right in Force and teach the People to assist the Usurper with active Compliance against a dispossessed Prince and not merely to live at all adventure in his Territories without owning the Protection by unlawfull Oaths or by running into Arms against the dethron'd Sovereign And p. 157. I say then again that you give Encouragement to Usurpers and also when Civil Disorders are on foot as it happens too frequent in all States you hereby move such People as are yet on the side of their lawfull Prince whose Affairs they see declining streightway to join themselves to the more prosperous Party and help to overturn those Thrones of Sovereignty to which a while before they prostrated themselves The People thus mis-instructed will imitate those Idolatrous Heathens who for some years worshipped a Goddess made fast unto a Tree but assoon as the Tree began by Age and Tempest to appear decaying they paid no farther devotion to their Deity neither would they come within the shadow of the Oak or Image You see Doctor how this Author wrote then against Hobbs just as some among Vs write now against you and as well as you are acquainted with him yet I believe he would swell as big at you as at the sight of any Jacobite if you should tell him that the most sober and considering Men rejected his Reasonings as contradictory to the general sense of mankind The last Authority Doctor is your Great and Dear Self who not long since was a Man of those Reasonings and that Opinion by which some among our selves have the impudence since you were of another Judgment to contradict the general sense of Mankind I shall not trouble you with a review of your Writings before the Revolution but take you as you were almost two years after it whilst you were under the stupid Dispensation of slavish Loyalty nor as yet had discover'd the Mysteries of Providence but were as zealous as any of these Men to deferd Laws and legal Rights against the Events of it but whether factiously or not factiously as you * Vindic. p. 79 80. pretend some matters of Fact will shew I shall not insist on the half Sheet you published at the sitting down of the Convention against making the P. of Orange King but onely observe that then you supposed the Throne to be full and asserted That the Estates then convened could not give him the Crown because it was not theirs to give A little after this you wrote the Answer to Dr. Burnet's Enquiry which I mentioned before in which you assert in opposition to the Doctor that King James was a King not by governing well but by Birth right and could no more cease to be King by governing ill than a Traitor or a Rebel cease to be a Subject And this you proved from the paternal Relation of a Father who never cease to be a Father how great a Tyrant soever he be You also challenged the Doctor there to shew you any Law of God or our Country which upon any Cause dissolves our Allegiance and asserted that the Descent of the Crown must be governed by the Laws of the Land I must here tell the Reader that this Answer of yours was never published lest he should lose his labour in
the Proconsular Asia both in Books and Coins The Community of Asia coined a fine new Medal to the memory of Germanicus and Drusus which on the Reverse within a Lawrel Crown hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they also coined Medals in memory of a Temple which they consecrated to Rome and Augustus with COM on one side of the Temple and ASIAE on the other but I never read of any thing done by the Community of Europe and would be glad to be informed what the Nature and Constitution of it is where it holds its Dyets when it chuses the Europarcha and in what place its Members or their Deputies meet But it may be Doctor by the Liberties of Europe you mean those of the Confederate Part of Europe and if you do then excepting our own Countrey I pray tell me where the People live better or enjoy greater Liberties than they do in France In France truly the common People go in wooden Shoes and in most of the foreign Confederate Countries they have the Liberty to go barefoot in France they have whole Canvass or other mean Cloathing and in many of the Confederate Countries they are half naked and if indeed King Lewis were such an Oppressour of Liberties then the Common People and Burghors and Clergy of the Spanish Netherlands would not so favour him and desire to come under his Government as we are informed they do The Spanish Clergy underhand commend him to their People and the Clergy and learned men of his own Kingdom admire him and this shews at least that he is good to the Clergy and maintains their Privileges and Revenues and that Doctour I tell you is maintaining our Religion in their Style as well as ours You blame him also for destroying and extirpating his Protestant Subjects but would you blame him if he did it because they had a design to destroy and extirpate him You formerly said in one of your Sermons that If the Consciences of Subjects will serve them to rebell for Religion Reflexions on the Discovery of the late Plot p. 15. it seems a very hard Case if the Conscience of the Prince must not allow him to hang them for their Rebellion And so Sir if the Consciences of Subjects will serve them to extirpate their King it is very hard if he comes to the knowledge of it that he may not be beforehand with them and extirpate them The French King is no stranger to the Civil Wars of France he knew what Principles and Persons had been the cause of most of them and as sensible as he is of his own Greatness yet he knew he was not a Match to Confederate Enemies without and Rebels within at the same time Wherefore he thought it for the safety of his Crown and Kingdoms to send the Trumpeters of Rebellion betimes out of his Kingdom who since have sollicited all the Princes of Europe against him and plainly shewn that if they did not know what Spirit they were of he did I must here beg pardon O ye humble and holy Souls of Ramus Charpenter Moulin Amyrault and Bouchart You indeed were not fighting Evangelists but there were few such as you in times past and fewer of late among the French Protestants who would prefer the Cross before the Sword The Attempt and Actions of some of them this Summer have justified their King and discovered the Secret of his Severity against them as Monsieur Louvois did some time since to an English Lord to whom he appointed a time on purpose to discourse on that Subject and then assured him that his Master had discovered a dangerous Correspondence betwixt his Protestant Subjects and the Dutch and that to prevent the ill Consequences of it had once clapt up a hasty Peace with them and found he could not be safe in the next War whenever that should happen unless he first subdued them The Conversation we have had with them doth confirm this Opinion of their King they are generally known to be for the cursed Doctrine of Resistence and for my part I never heard but of * The Author of a Book entituled Traite du Pourvoir absolu des Princes Soveraines c. one of them that was against it The rest openly avow it as Jurieux in Holland and Allix now Canon of Salisbury who although he had begg'd leave of King James to dedicate a †The Title of the Book is Reflexious sur les Cinque Livres de Moyse It was printed at London 1687 But the Dedication of it bears date Dec. 12. 1636. In that he declares that the Favours which his Majesty had done to thâ—se of their Nation who sought for Repose under the shadow of his Scepter were so great and the Manner in which his Majesty had signalized his Compassion towards them had had such Effect on the Spirits of his Subjects that all the World ought to abhor them if they had not a lively sense of his Benefits and did not endeavour to signalizâ— an Eternal Gratitude to him Then he proceeds to make a solemn Protestation in his own name and the name of his suffering Countreymen of a profound Submission to his Majesty's Commands and an inviolable fidelity to his Service acknowledging that he was the greatest Instrument that God had chosen to protect and comfort 〈◊〉 in their Miseries and that it was to God that they applied themselves in â—tiâ—ual Obligations of most ardent Vows for his Prosperity And in the Conclusion begs leave that his Maiesty would accept the weak Efforts of his Zeal and permit him to style himself his Majesty's most humble and most obtaine Subiect and Servant P. Allix But forgetting all this when the Bishops were in the Tower he said to one of his Acquaintance What do the Temporal Lords mean Why do they not fly to 〈◊〉 Book to him in token of his Gratitude and the Gratitude of his Countreymen for the Protection and the Kindness they had received from him yet upon the Revolution he did all he could to suppress the Dedication in which he had set forth his Majesty's Praises and railed against him in his distress with all the Rage that a Tongue could do that was set on fire of Hell That King was not ignorant of their Spirit no more than their own for when the Bishops interceded with his Majesty for a Brief in their Behalf My Lords said he Perhaps if you know these Men as well as I you would not ask this of me but you shall see I am a Christian and that I can doe good to them that hate me These Men I know are mine Enemies but nevertheless I will not onely grant them a Brief that my People may relieve them but I will also relieve them my self And as he foretold it came to pass for they listed in great numbers against him and help'd to drive him out of his Kingdom of Ireland although Doctour he had your Title of Providence to it and was recognized by the