dogmatically to the people committed to his charge we shall find him teaching and exhorting a different Doctrine and Practice from what is here delivered by him of which I shall speak at large hereafter and onely note by the way That the Oration was made long after Julian's death which savoured not very much of humanity and if it were upon occasion of some disappointment as is reported it had as little of Christianity And this will appear a truth that he did exceed as well in the praise of Constantius the first Arian Emperiour as in the dispraise of Julian and the misrepresentation of the Christians in his time All which circumstances considered and no other proof produced our Authour deserves to do publick Penance for abusing the Fathers and Primitive Christians and as he saies the whole Christian world And yet what can Gregory blame in Constantius but that which he calls his Ignorance or Mistake not being aware of his Apostacie And it was too unchristian to blame the Emperour not onely for making him a King but keeping him alive This you say p. 24. is enough to shew that Constantius would never have made Julian Caesar if he had known him to have been such And in my judgment here is as much said to prove that Constantius ought to have slain him when his Brother Gallus was slain Although this was a thing which he repented of in his Death-bed and would undoubtedly be more unworthy of a Christian Emperour to exclude him out of the life than to leave him to a Succession that descended by inheritance to him And if it be such a Bill of Exclusion that you contend for I am sure none of the Fathers nor any good Christian would ever consent to it P. 24. Is an Exclamation against the Emperour having first said that Constantius did far excel all other Kings in Wisdom and Vnderstanding p. 25. and that he was led by the Hand of God into every Counsel and Enterprize what in turning Arian and persecuting Athanasius and other Orthodox Bishops and putting Arians in their seats your wisdom was admired above your power and again your power more than your wisdom but your Piety was valued above them both Then he comes to blame the Emperour as the onely ignorant and inconsiderate person and which of the Devils stole in along with you at that Consult And yet again p. 26. he saies of this first Arian Emperour That he would have parted not onely with his Empire and all that he had in this world even his Life it self for the securitie and safetie of the Christian Religion c. And our Author saies that at his death he shewed with much earnestness the concernment he had for the true Religion p. 28 29. But for ought I yet see Julian's Apostacie was not yet known but he was generally accounted both a pious and a stout man and therefore his repenting of making Julian Caesar was not on the account of Religion but for some other respect Julian having been declared Augustus by his Souldiers who often disposed of the Empire and being then on his march to dispute the Title with Constantius for hitherto Julian kept to the Christian Assemblies and was not known to be a Pagan as you shew from Ammianus Marcellinus p. 28. After that Julian was declared Emperour he still feigned himself a Christian and though in private he performed his Heathenish Rites trusting some few with the secret yet he publickly went to Church on Twelfth-day and after he had been devout at the Service he came away again This was done at Vienna not quite Ten Moneths before the Emperour's death This is all that our Author produceth for the sense of the Fathers and primitive Christians for the Exclusion of Julian his Title was divine his Religion at most onely suspected not know Yet saies our Author p. 30. If this Doctrine concerning the alteration of Succession shall displease any which is contrary to what these Fathers which will not amount to one single person assert with so much vehemencie He thinks it reasonable that first they confute this Doctrine of Exclusion which they dislike And secondly That they would never fetch their Mountebank-Receipts of Prayers and Tears and suchlike encouragements to Arbitrarie Government out of the Writings of these very Fathers This our Author knew could easily be done and therefore he thought to prejudice his Readers against it by calling them Mountebank-Receipts and Antimonarchical Authors and encouragements to Arbitrarie Government Than which I scarce know any thing more profane but the down-right Blasphemie of the Doctrine of Christ and the practice of the best Christians who counted not their lives dear unto them that the Doctrine of the Gospel might not be evil spoken of as if Christianity were an utter Enemie to Caesar or as another Mahomet to establish his Kingdom by the Sword What an easie matter doth our Author think it to impose any falsehood on the Vulgar when he tells them of Fathers and primitive Christians with so much vehemencie asserting the lawfulness of excluding Julian and instead of all other proofs produceth onely a Rhetorical Expression of a person in some passion from which it might be proved as lawful to Murder Julian as to Exclude him from the Succession Hercules tuam fidem But to answer our Author's demand I shall endeavour to confute his Doctrine viz. That the Fathers and Primitive Christians of the whole World were for the Exclusion of Julian from the Empire Iraeneus Tertullian and St. Augustin you have seen to be of a contrarie Judgment 1. The true Christians could not be for it upon your Position That he had a right to it by the Law of Nature and the Hand of God gave it him which you seem to assert 2. It is certain the Arian Fathers were not as hath been alreadie shewn they congratulated Julian's advent to the Kingdom Much less could the Orthodox be for it upon Gregories surmise that Constantius would have excluded him out of the Life as well as the Empire 3. From their behaviour towards Constantius a vehement Arian the Orthodox Fathers shew they were not for Exclusion Constans his Brother was joyned with him in the Empire and he defended Athanasius and the Orthodox Bishops against Constantius yet these Christians never sided with Constans against Constantius they never resisted or sought to depose or exclude him although his Heresie was extreamly dangerous and propagated by Force and Persecution of more eminent Divines than any that suffered under Julian And as our Author says that Poperie is ten times worse than Paganism so I have heard as wise and good men as himself say that Socinianism is as bad as Poperie and the Arians who denied the Deity of the Son and the Holy Ghost were much like our Socinians Mr. Baxter hath so much Charitie as to think that some that died in the Communion of the Church of Rome are Saints in Heaven though he will scarce grant it to
A VINDICATION OF THE Primitive Christians In point of Obedience to their Prince AGAINST The Calumnies of a Book intituled THE Life of Iulian Written by ECEBOLIUS the Sophist As also the Doctrine of Passive Obedience Cleared in Defence of Dr. HICKS Together with an APPENDIX Being a more full and distinct Answer to Mr. Tho. Hunt's Preface and Postscript Unto all which is added The Life of Julian enlarg'd LONDON Printed by J. C. and Freeman Collins and are to be sold by Robert Kettlewell at the Hand and Scepter over against St. Dunstan's Church 1683. TO THE Most Reverend Father in God WILLIAM By Divine Providence Lord Archb p of Canterbury Primate of all England and Metropolitan And one of his Majesties most Honourable Privy-Council c. May it please your Grace ALthough as Solomon says Every thing is beautiful in his season and there was a time when a Cup of cold Water was an acceptable Present to an Emperour yet should I not have presumed to offer so mean a Present to so Great a Person as a little Water in a homely Vessel taken up in haste and disorder as men are wont to do when the Neighbourhood is on fire had it not been that the Fire-brands which I endeavour to extinguish have not onely been scattered up and down among combustible matter through the Nation but that the Boutefeus have been so desperately bold as to throw some of their Fire-balls into the August Assembly of his Majesties most Honourable Privy-Council Such was the Barbarous Celeusma the Answers to Dr. Stillingfleet c. and now a Traiterous Preface and Postscript dedicated by one Tho. Hunt to the Right Honourable John Earl of Radnor c. Lord President of his Majesties most Honourable Privy-Council I am well assured that that Judicious and Noble Lord hath either so contemned those seditious and treasonable Libels as not to vouchsafe them the Reading or if he hath read them that they kindled a just indignation in his loyal breast and condemned them to the fire as designed to set the Nation in a flame The Author tells us truly that the reason of his Dedication was to create a Prejudice and the thing is self-evident that the greatest Adversaries which that Noble Lord hath if at least he hath any for I know he can have none but among the factious and seditious Rabble that are acted by such Seducers could not have offered a greater Affront to a Person of his known Wisdom and Integrity than such a Dedication amounts unto and therefore I doubt not but those fiery Darts which that Author hath shot against so firm a Fortress of Religion and Loyalty will recoil on his own head If men of such fiery tempers have presumed of favour from so Great Persons I cannot but hope for your Graces pardon who have endeavoured though in a hasty and rude manner to extinguish those Wilde-fires which they have kindled for God onely knows how great a matter a little such fire blown as it is with popular breath may kindle if not timely prevented The Devil was wont to carry on his designes formerly as an Angel of Light and then the deluded Instruments deserved some pity But now that he appears in his proper Colours a Noon-day-Devil breathing our flames of fire and a horrible stench none but such as are by his Sorceries and Witchcrafs become his covenanted Servants would seek to bring others under the same sins and condemnation with themselves as being already self-condemned and having sinned away all hopes of mercy from God or man All those Coals of Sedition and Rebellion which were raked up under the Ashes of this ruined Nation and which we might in reason hope had been quite extinguished by the enjoyment of Peace and Truth Prosperity and Plenty for twenty years together have been secretly fomented and are now publickly scattered to cause a New Conflagration I humbly beg your Graces patience to mind the present Age how ready they are to be led over the same Precipices by the same Impostures and by some of the same men by whom the former Age was ruined onely they were led on by degrees and colourable pretences the Snare was not spread in their sight as it is now in ours who are perswaded with open eyes and a dreadful prospect of Rebellion and Damnation before us to cast our selves headlong into them both It was after a long Progress and unhappy success of the former War that John Goodwin and others published his Evangelium Armatum his new Gospel-liberty affirming That the lawfulness of Resistance is now discovered to Gods Church as the necessary means to ruine Antichrist for the Kings of the Earth saith he will never be perswaded to effect this great and holy work and therefore the People must He in the 30 31 32 pages of his Anti-Cavalierism among many other Passages hath these words which every Christian that reads them must abhor Amongst many other Truths which were of necessity to be laid asleep for the passing of this Beast Antichrist unto his great power and authority and for the maintaining and safe guarding of him in the possession thereof this is one of special consideration That Christians may lawfully in a lawful way stand up to defend themselves in case they be able against any unlawful Assaults by what Assailants or by what pretended Authority soever made upon them for had this Opinion been timeously enough and substantially taught in the Church it would certainly have caused an Abortion in Antichrists birth and so have disappointed the Devil of his first-born had not the Spirits and Judgments and Consciences of men been as it were cowed and marvellously embased and kept under and so prepared for Antichrists Lure by Doctrines and Tenets excessively advancing the power of Superiours over Inferiours and binding Iron yokes and heavie burdens on those that were in subjection doubtless they would never have bowed down their backs so low as to let such a Be â—â—…rule over them they would neâ—… have resigned up their Judgements and Consciences into the hands of such a Spiritual Tyrant as he So that you see there was a special necessity for the letting of Antichrist into the world yea and for the continuance of him in his Throne that no such Opinion as this which we speak of whether truth or untruth should be taught and believed I mean which vindicateth and maintaineth the just Rights and Liberties and Priviledges of those that live under authority and subjection to others Whereas now on the contrary that time of Gods preordination and purpose for the downfal of Antichrist drawing neer there is a kind of necessity that those truths which have slept for many years should now be awakened and particularly That God should reveal and discover unto his faithful Ministers and other his servants the just bounds and limits of Authority and Power and consequently the just and full extent of the lawful Liberties of those that live in subjection Evident it
is that they are the Commonalty of Christians I mean Christians of ordinary Rank and Quality that shall be most active and have the principal hand in executing the Judgments of God upon the Whore Consider that place Rev. 18.4 5 6. Now that this service shall be performed unto God by them Christians I mean of under Rank and Quality contrary to the will desires or commands of those Kings and Princes under whom they live it appears by that which immediately followeth v. 9. And whereas the Text saith expresly that the ten Kings shall hate the whore and shall make her desolate and naked and eat her flesh and burn her with fire for God hath put it in their hearts to fulfil his will and to agree and give their Kingdom unto the Beast until the Words of God shall be fulfilled To prevent this Objection because God in his good time will arm the Kings to fight joyntly the Lords battel against the Beast he thus interprets that place I conceive saith he this is not meant of the persons of Kings but of their States and Kingdoms i. e. of the generality of the people under them p. 32. As if the meaning of The Kings shall hate the Beast were The People shall hate their Kings and rebel against them in order to the destruction of Antichrist Nothing is more evident than that this Doctrine which he would promote for the pulling down of Antichrist was that by which Antichrist was advanced to that sublimity of Power which he now hath and by which he is still supported in it unless they will deny the Pope to be Antichrist for this Resistance of lawful Authority is still practised and defended by that Church And how can they blame that Church who teach and practise the same things If ever the Pope be pulled down by the Doctrine and Practice of Resistance of lawful Princes it will be to set up Another in his room Now that the Doctrine which was taught by this wretched man and John Milton the onely two persons that publickly defended the Parricide committed on that incomparable King when he was cast out of his Throne and an Vsurper placed in it is the same which is now revived by these two Authors whom I have under consideration I submit to your Graces judgment and the Consciences of all impartial Readers And to what a prodigious height of Impiety are they come who in such times of Peace under a most gracious and religious Prince and after such experiences of the miserable effects of them shall openly plead for the same Antiscriptural and Antichristian Doctrines and Practices by which these men endeavour at one leap as the Devil did the herd of Swine to plunge the Multitude over head and ears in Rebellion and Confusion And yet to court the People Mr. Hunt tells them in the close of his Preface That Loyalty Religion and the Prosperity and Peace of his Country have entirely conducted his thoughts and guided his hand in this Work whereas if he were not the same person yet he useth the same Arguments as an anonymous Author did in a Tract concerning Mixt and Limited Monarchy That he hath affirmed nothing but what is publickly known for truth That Justice it self will acquit him from having done any thing amiss That he hath encircled himself in his own considerations as in a brazen wall when it is but a brazen face And as for the fears of Rage and Injustice they shall never affect him but I fear the hand-writing of the Laws and the sentence of Justice may one day shake his confidence I joyn Issues with him in his Appeal concerning his Writings and the Reply now made to them and though he have provoked me to say something that may balance the Reputation of Religion and Loyalty c. which he assumes to himself I shall onely say That I am one who have served in the Ministry of the Established Religion for forty years together I have kept my Station and defended my Post against all Assaults I have seen those deplorable times wherein it was counted a daring thing to assert the use of the Lords Prayer in the Publick Assemblies against the Blasphemies of J. O. I have withstood the attempts of Mr. Baxter Humfries Lob and others for the disturbance of our publick Peace And though by age and other infirmities I might claim the priviledge of a Miles Emeritus yet have I engaged once more against these two Incendiaries and having the same cause of Religion and Loyalty to defend I cannot doubt of success against such Aggressors of whom your Grace will find a far different Character from that which they give of themselves for These two Authors like Simeon and Levi are so confederate that they strive who shall exceed the other in doing mischief The one undermines the foundation of the Church in her Ministry The other that of the State in the Royal Authority Again The one plays with the Crown as if it were a Tennis-ball The other derides the Doctrine of the Cross comparing it with that of the Great Turks Bow-string The one encourageth Resistance and very modestly insinuates a Reward due to such as shall kill those be they Princes or others who oppose the Religion which they approve of The other more confidently asserts the excluding not of a single Monarch but even Monarchy it self though it be in the glorious Family of the STVARTS as he Ironically calls them Yet so great is the Revolt of our People both from God and the King that these two like Jeroboam's Calves which he set up as well to alter the established Worship as to translate the Kingdom from the Family of David are worshipped by the Rabble from Dan to Beersheba And now I beseech your Grace not to be offended with this Confident Address of an obscure Person who after various tossings having through the great mercy of God escaped Shipwreck in that great Hurricane wherein many thousands more worthy persons perished is still imbarked in that ancient Vessel wherein he hopes to end his days in peace nothing doubting but that God who stilled the raging of that Sea and the madness of that People will also lead us without any harm through those Fires which so many busie-bodies are now kindling against us and that he will preserve us even in the flames at which though we be affrighted as Moses was at the burning Bush yet we shall not be consumed by them Especially while we have such a CAESAR who all his life-time hath been a Favourite of Heaven being born preserved restored guided and supported by a Chain of Miracles And such a principal Member of that Church of Christ embarked with us against which the gates of Hell shall never prevail and having also such a pious and experienced Pilot as your Grace who hath both his Eyes and his Heart to Heaven for his own direction and both his hands to the Helm for the conduct of the People committed to
Bishops who were denied to vote in case of Bloud did joyn or were consulted with And Cambden observes that the same day when the Sentence was pronounc'd against the Queen of Scots it was declared by the Delegates and Judges of the Kingdom That that Sentence should derogate nothing from the Right or Honour of James King of Scots but that he should be in the same Estate Order and Right as if that Sentence had never been given p. 465. So that the whole matter being considered here was no Exclusion of a Popish Successour but rather a tacit confirmation of one that was a Protestant and consequently it must be a great slander on those worthy Bishops by him named that they were zealous for such Acts of Exclusion for the business of the Queen of Scots did concern matters of Treason such as you say might exclude her out of the world as also the Reasons of Sir Simon d'Ewes tended to the taking away of her life and therefore come not home to the Case of Succession nor does Sir Simon tell us whose Reasons they were and I suspect them to be the Opinions of some private person who having spoken all-along in the plural number he discovereth himself at the end in these words God I trust in time shall open her Majesties eyes to see their cruel purposes c. P. 18. You say what another hath said before you That a Bill of Exclusion is a perfect Courtship to these Reasons True if the Heir apparent or presumptive were under the same circumstance with that Queen but 't is perfect Cruelty to endeavour the like Exclusion of a Popish Successour as such onely not onely from his Right but out of his Life And now no man else needs turn his fury or reproaches upon those Bishops you have done that sufficiently As for your Protestation p. 19. that if but one Reason can be given to prove a Bill of Exclusion to be unlawful which will be owned to be a Reason a week after and the owners not be ashamed you do solemnly promise to joyn in renouncing those Old Reformers and readily follow their New Guides and Lights The Apostle gives you a Reason which is of eternal verity viz. We may not do evil that good may come of it And he assures you that the condemnation of such as affirm the contrary is just Rom. 3.8 And to any but an Ignoramus that of Dan. 4.25 may serve as another Reason The most High ruleth in the Kingdom of men and giveth it to whom he will To which adde If it be of God ye cannot overthrow it lest ye be found to fight against God Acts 4.39 And for your renouncing the Old Reformers you have done that with the utmost spite and reproach that all the Wit of a Julian or the Malice of a Colledge of Jesuits could invent as if they had been the Judges and Executioners of the Queen of Scots under the Notion of a Popish Successor Wherefore I would advise our Author to consider what occasion he hath given to the Enemies of that Church whereof I suppose him a Member if not a Priest to reproach her for from this Story of his no doubt it was that the scurrilous and Bedlam-Author of the Pamphlet called Crape-Gownorum hath thus commented It is plain that the Church of England men did hold King-killing or Queen-killing Doctrine which is the same thing so that if Knox Buchanan or Calvin first taught the Speculative part the other meaning those Bishops named by our Author first put it in practice and set the fatal president that others followed that is in the murder of King Charles the first for at that he aims when he threatneth us to let 641 sleep in Oblivion lest we awake 587. intimating that what was done in the process of that War viz. that barbarous Murther perpetrated on the Royal Person of Charles the First may be justified on the Principles of our Reformers Whatever may be told in Gath and published in the streets of Askalon to make those Philistims rejoyce I cannot permit this diabolical Slander to pass without a brand on the Author of it here at home and to vindicate those Worthies and silence our Adversaries the Jesuits and to prevent the ill consequents of this Forgery which may stir up the Phanaticks of this Nation to act over our former Tragedies I shall first relate the matter of fact and the grounds of that Severity which was used against that Queen and shew you the most deliberate Judgment of those Reverend Bishops in the Case of Resisting lawful Authority First As to the matter of fact it is beyond denial that the Queen of Scots married the Lord Darly a Subject to the Crown of England who being slain whether by her consent or not I will not determine but she was questioned by her Subjects for incontinent living the death of her Husband and for Tyranny and was forced to resigne her Crown to her Son then about thirteen months old so that she was no longer a Crowned head After which she raiseth an Army and is defeated by Murray and being imprisoned makes an escape into England where a Council was called to consult how to dispose of her It was resolved that to let her pass into France might prove dangerous and worse to send her back to Scotland And to prevent farther mischief she should not be dismissed from England till she had made satisfaction for the death of her Husband a Subject and Peer of England and for usurping the Arms of England and pretending a Title to the Crown During her restraint here she contrives many Plots against the Peace of the Nation both with France by the Duke of Guise and D'Alva Governour of the Netherlands and at home by the Dukes of Northumberland to whom she promised marriage and Westmoreland who raised a Rebellion in the North for her Rescue both which suffered the first was beheaded the last died in Exile By her instigation a Bull was sent from Rome discharging the Subjects of England from their Obedience to the Queen Then follows the Conspiracy of Tho. and Edw. Stanly Sons to the Earl of Darby Several Invasions were also made in Ireland to disturb that Kingdom by the joynt Counsels of the King of Spain and Pope Gregory the 13th and a swarm of Jesuits are sent into England and contrive with Throgmorton Paget and others for another Insurrection which was prevented The Nobles and Gentry seeing no hopes of Peace through such daily practices entered into an Association to prosecute all those even to death that should attempt any thing against the Queen and prevailed for a closer restraint of her which notwithstanding one Babington conveyed Letters between Her and France and engaged divers to murther the Queen which was discovered to Secretary Walsingham as also the manner how the Queen of Scots conveyed Letters to the Spanish Embassador and other Confederates whereupon fourteen of them were executed and in the Parliament
convened about that time Throgmorton the two Pagets Englefield Babington Salisbury c. were proscribed So that the Nation being continually alarmed with the news of Invasions Insurrections and Conspiracies during the life of that unfortunate Queen who can blame the Parliament for solliciting the execution of a Just Sentence Of all men living our Author ought not to object it much less to charge the Bishops with that if they had been guilty for which they are ready now to pronounce them Papists as not consenting to the Exclusion of a Popish Successor But secondly what the Judgment of those Reformers was concerning the Doctrine of Resisting lawful Princes on any pretence I shall now demonstrate P. 103 104. of his Book our Author is pleased to recommend the Homilies of our Church to every bodies reading as one of the best Books that he knows in the world next to the Bible as Mr. Hunt had done before him I shall therefore intreat him to judge of the Opinion of our Reformers and Confessors in point of Obedience out of the publick Doctrines set forth by them in that excellent Book In the first Homily against Disobedience and wilful Rebellion they say p 277. If Servants ought to obey their Masters not onely being gentle but such as be froward much more ought Subjects to be obedient not onely to their good and courteous but also to their sharp and rigorous Princes 1 Pet. 2.18 And p. 278. It cometh not of Chance or Fortune nor of the Ambition of Mortal men climbing up of their own accord to Dominion that there be Kings Queens Princes and other Governours over men being their Subjects but all Kings Queens and other Governours are specially appointed by the Ordinance of God P. 279. A Rebel is worse than the worst Prince and Rebellion worse than the worst Government of the worst Prince that hitherto hath been Whatsoever the Prince be or his Government it is evident that for the most part those Princes whom some Subjects do think to be very godly and under whose Government they rejoyce to live some other Subjects do take the same to be evil and ungodly and do wish for a Change If therefore all Subjects that mislike of their Prince should revel no Realm should ever be without Rebellion P. 280. But what if a Prince be evil indeed and undiscreet and it is evident to all mens eyes that he is so I ask again What if it be long of the wickedness of his Subjects that he is so shall the Subjects by their wickedness both provoke God for their deserved punishment to give them an evil and indiscreet Prince and also rebel against him and withal against God who for the punishment of their sins did give them such a Prince Will you hear the Scripture in this point God maketh a wicked man to raign for the sins of the people Again God giveth a Prince in his anger meaning an evil one and taketh away a Prince in his displeasure meaning when he taketh away a good Prince for the sins of the people as in our memory he took away our good Josias King Edward for our wickedness Again God maketh a wise and good King to raign over that people whom he loveth and who love him And again If the people obey God both they and their King shall prosper And for Subjects to deserve through their sins to have an evil Prince and then to rebel against him were double and treble evil by provoking God more to plague them let us either deserve to have a good Prince or let us patiently suffer and obey such as we deserve and whether the Prince be good or evil let us according to the Scriptures pray for him for his continuance and increase in goodness if he be good and for his amendment if he be evil The Bishops that were their Predecessors and our first Reformers in the days of King Henry the Eighth and King Edward the Sixth were of the same judgment as appears in a Book called The Institution of a Christian man whereof Cranmer Ridly and other Martyrs were the Compilers On the Fifth Commandment they say Subjects be bound not to withdraw their Fealty Truth Love and Obedience towards their Prince FOR ANY CAVSE WHATSOEVER ne for any Cause may they conspire against his Person ne do any thing towards the hindrance or hurt thereof nor of his Estate And by this Commandment they be bound to obey all the Laws Proclamations Precepts and Commandments made by their Princes except they be contrary to the Commandments of God With much more to that purpose And on the Sixth Commandment No Subjects may draw their Swords against their Princes FOR ANY CAVSE WHATSOEVER IT BE. And though Princes which be the Supreme Heads of their Realms do otherwise than they ought yet God hath assigned no Judges over them in this world The contrary to this is a Popish Doctrine who think it cause enough to depose a King because he is a Protestant and it is a Lesson which some sorts of Protestants have learnt from them to depose any that is a Papist A Doctrine which all the Reformed Churches have hitherto condemned and yet this is the Sophistry which our Author hath detected to his own shame and the honour of those Worthies whom he hath reproached and if our Author's Politicks should be embraced Kings would be of all men most miserable for if they be Protestants the Papists may depose them and if they be Papists Protestants may resist them which is tantamount P. 19. Is a discourse against the Oath of Allegiance which he forms in an Objection and Answer The Objection is this You are pre-engaged and cannot consent to a Bill of Exclusion if you do you are forsworn having long since sworn Allegiance to the King his lawful Heirs and Successors His Answer Now though the Lawyers tell us an hundred times no man can have an Heir as long as he liveth yet this will not overcome that deceitful prejudice which is occasioned by our common speech Reply Yet our Author presently adds That a man and his Heirs may live at once in the some house and eat and drink together every day I pretend not to the knowledge of Law-terms yet I am confident those Lawyers which penned that Oath did not put it in in vain nor would they make it Treason to conspire the death of the Heir of the Crown of England if there could be no such person in being One clause of that Oath is this I will bear Faith and true Allegiance to his Majestie his Heirs and Successors and him and them will defend to the utmost of my power against all Conspiracies and Attempts whatsoever which shall be made against his or their persons their Crown or Dignity by reason or colour of any such Sentence or Declaration or otherwise and will do my best endeavour to disclose and make known to his Majestie his Heirs and Successors all Treasons and treacherous Conspiracies which I
such as die in the Communion of the Church of England and therefore much less to those that die in the belief of the Socinians who renounce the Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity and the use and efficacie of the Holy Sacraments 4. Constantius himself would never have consented to the Murder of Julian upon due consideration the Murder of others being repented of upon his Death-bed and here is but one Argument for both his Exclusion and his Murder Now although our Author hath sufficiently refuted himself in what hath been said yet because the Calumnie against the Christians of that Age though asserted onely with noise and confidence and as the saying is Fortiter Calumniare aliquid adhaerebit may beget a false opinion both of those Primitive Christians and the Doctrine of Christianitie it self and also infect the present Generation in which too many are glad to hear what power they may exercise on such Governours as are not of their own Judgment I shall in due time enquire strictly into this Authors Opinion concerning Resistance and shew that his whole Fabrick will be crush'd by the authoritie and reason of those very Authors upon whose bare names he seeks to raise it But for this I must desire the Readers patience An Answer to our Author's CHAP. III. Their Behaviour towards him in Words THe Reader may understand that our Author hath done with Julian as a Successor and now shews how the Christians treated him when he was in full possession of the Empire and that by Divine Appointment as he grants And therefore I hope it will be considered that the following Reflections do shew from the practice of the Christians of that Age how the Christians of this may behave themselves towards their lawful Governours And he begins p. 32. with a great varietie of Instances as he calls them of the hatred and contempt of those Christians towards Julian And I shall also desire that the Reader will consider not onely the matters of fact but the lawfulness of such Words and Actions as were spoken and done against Julian A facto ad jus non valet argumentum And then by what number of Christians and of what condition they were that spoke and acted such things as were spoken and acted For we have known in our Age such things spoken and done by no small companie of men against a Prince of known Integrity as will make all sober Christians to be ashamed and confounded at the report of them And if such behaviour of our present Christians shall be a hundred years hence read in our Annals it will be a grand Calumnie against such as were more Loyal and Pious for any Reader to conclude that such was the general practice of the Christians in that Age or that because one discontented Bishop turn'd Apostate and fought against his Prince that all the Bishops and Christians then alive were Rebels P. 33. Of their behaviour you inform us under these three Heads 1. Of their Words 2. Their Actions 3. Their Devotions Of their Words You say they were quit with him for calling them Galilaeans in calling him Idolianus This I confess savours of the Wit of that Age So the Arians called Athanasius Sathanasius so the Pharisees called our Saviour Beelzebub But did they return railing for railing I am sure they taught us to return Blessing and Prayers even to our Persecutors What if the Antiochians libelled him and plaid with his Beard and twitted him with some natural Blemishes and Imperfections whereof he himself gives the world an account in his Misopogon Is that sufficient authority for us to libel our Governours Is it becoming a Christian to deride the bodily Infirmities as the Shape of the Body the Gate the Beard and as you say p. 33. every thing that belonged to him Julian himself shewed more wisdom and humanity in scorning these impotent Reproaches than they did Christianity in seeking by such boyish language to vex every Vein in his Royal Heart p. 66. It is a sign that he had more of moderation than they for had they had his Power by your description of them they wanted no Will utterly to ruine him But I think it more agreeable to Truth though some few over-zealous persons might Lampoon his sorrie Beard as fit to make Ropes of c. that yet the generality were better principled and neither used their Tongues nor their Swords against that Heathen Emperour As for those that did so reproach him Julian tells them truly they had renounced the Laws and him that had the keeping of them i. e. They dealt with him as you say like Barbarians And if the Christians were first in the Transgression it was not like Julian would be long behind them or be less barbarous than they And yet though he could have revenged himself with the Sword he did it onely with the Pen And when he was put into a fit of anger he onely told them as a punishment that he would see them no more Nondum ira quam ex compellationibus probris conceperat emolitâ loquebatur asperiùs se eos asserens postea non visurum Am. Marcell l. 23. I think in this particular one would take them to be the Apostates and not Julian as you say p. 66. P. 36. You give a particular instance of a single man in Berea whose Son warping to the false Religion his Father turned him out of doors and disinherited him who related this whole matter to the Emperour then coming to Berea The Emperour being arrived invited among other Magistrates and Chief men this young man and his Father and set these two next himself and tells the Father that in his mind it was not just to force a mans Judgment otherwise inclined to reduce it to the other side Therefore don't you saies Julian force your Son against his mind to follow your Opinion for neither do I force you to follow mine though I could easily compel you The Father sharpning his Discourse with a Divine Faith answered O King do you speak of this Villain who is hated by God and hath preferred a Lye before the true Religion But saies Julian putting on a vizard of Meekness again Friend leave railing and turning to the young man said I will take care of you my self since I have not prevailed with your Father to do it This Berean deserves the Title of Noble for his Zeal but it reacheth not to a demonstration of what you produce it for p. 35. that the Christians took the freedom to reproach him and his Religion to his face for though he despised his Religion yet for ought that appears he owned his Authority and reverenced his Person bespeaking him by the Title of O King And here is no example for railing words neither from that Noble Berean against Julian nor from Julian against him P. 38. you give another instance of Maris Bishop of Chalcedon who being blind was led to the Emperour as he was Sacrificing to Fortune
Christian Shall the Priviledges which Christian Princes grant us be used as Weapons to fight and rebel against them Was it lawful for the Catholicks to rebel against Constantius when he was a declared Heretick and by great violence promoted that damnable Heresie as Bishop Vsher calls it suppressing and banishing the Orthodox and setting up the Arian Is it not said that if we suffer wrongfully i. e. against Law and Equity and take it patiently this is thank-worthy with God Can you without Sacriledge take away the Crowns from all the Martyrs that died ever since Julians time and tell us they died like Fools or mad men and were felo's de se for not selling their Lives at a dearer rate and like Sampson pull down the Pillars of the Empire with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If I must perish let the whole world perish with me Or can you think that they perished in the next world for perishing in this when Christ tells them he that loseth his life shall save it If it be unjust in the Prince to deprive us of our Rights against the Law of the Land is it not much more so for us to deprive him of his against the Law of God as well as that of the Land too And have we not generally I mean the Clergie at least Subscribed That it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever not of Religion nor of the Laws to take up Arms c. Non debet minor potestas irasci si major praelata sit The Laws of the Land must give place to the Law of God The contrary to all these are the monstrous Consequences of your new distinction that allows of Rebellion when we suppose the Laws of the Land to be on our side I say suppose them for Wars have been raised and maintained on such a false Supposition And if when the Prince declares that he doth and will govern by the known Laws we shall Remonstrate that he doth not and suggest our groundless and unreasonable Fears and Jealousies that he will not who shall be Judge in this Case Shall the people take the Sword in their hands to cut this Gordian-knot and cut us all in pieces We have God be thanked many good Laws for our security and a gracious Prince that hitherto hath and will govern by them but we have one great Law of God and another of the Land that though he should not yet we may not rebel That excessive commendation which our Author gives of Constantius makes me think he hath exceeded also in the dispraise of Julian p. 70. Never any man in this world set his heart so much upon any other thing as he did to see the Christians flourish and to have all the advantages of glorie and power And neither conquered Nations nor a well-govern'd Empire nor great Treasures nor excessive Glorie nor being King of Kings nor all other things which make up other mens notions of Happiness did delight him so much as to have the honour of bringing honour to the Christians and of leaving them established for ever in the possession of Power and Authoritie And yet as it was said of Naaman that mightie man of Valour But he was a Leper so it is recorded of Constantius he was an Arian and persecuted the Church of God I think I have said enough already to confute the insignificant Instances produced by our Author when I gave you the more sober sence of St. Gregorie himself of St. Basil Ambrose and Bernard all which lived when they had the Laws on their side and the best Religion in the world to defend and yet they durst not do it by the Sword if they could have done it for I shall not now question their power Tertullian did assert that of old and the Learned Hammond hath put the truth of it out of question in his Answer to Mr. Stephen Marshal But says our Author p. 70. For Julian who by his Baptism first and entring into Orders after and going to Church after that sufficiently engaged himself to maintain Christianitie to endeavour on the other hand to dispossess them of their Freehold is an insupportable injurie It was so indeed and I would have our Author consider whether for a man that hath been received into the Bosom of the Church and hath eaten of her Bread and approved of her Doctrine to become an Apostate from that holy Profession and expose that Church and Christianity it self to scorn and contempt be not to out-do Julian I shall desire the Reader patiently to look on while I remove those few Blockadoes which our Author hath laid in my way and then I shall attack that inchanted Castle wherein those two Giants think themselves so secure as to laugh at all opposition that can be made against them That of Juventinus and Maximus mentioned a third time in p. 72. is already level'd if there were a Sham-plot against them our Author seems to be one of their accusers for talking too boldly against the Emperour which they utterly denied A second Sham-plot was of Sacriledge p. 72. but I see no man concerned in that neither shall I fight with Shadows as our Author doth P. 73. Old Bracton is conjured up and he presently flies in the face of the Conjurers and tells them that when Laws are made by the consent of the people and the Royal Authority they cannot be altered or destroyed without the joynt consent of all those by whom they were concerned And yet the Laws of Queen Elizabeth for keeping her Subjects in due obedience are exploded as some of the Grievances of the Nation With what face can they plead the Laws of the Land for their security who daily violate and contemn them and teach others to do so And in p. 74. our Author is surprised with the Thebaean Legion which appeared to him as a Legion of Noon-day Devils and he wonders who should raise them up he cries out as that Legion Matth. 8.22 Art thou come to torment us What have we to do with thee O Thebaean Legion what have we to do with their Example No I 'll warrant my Author he shall never die for his Religion as they did he hath parted with that already for fear of what might come And this Thebaean Legion is such a terrible immortal Army as will defeat all Rebels to the worlds end Are we says our Author to go to Mass to morrow or else to have our Throats cut No nor are we to cut our Princes Throat to day for fear lest he should compel us to go to Mass to morrow Such fears were as groundless in the daies of Charles the First as of Charles the Second yet we see what was then done Again Are we under a Sentence of Death according to the Laws of our Country if we do not presently renounce our Religion No but if we presently renounce our Religion as our Author hath done and then contrive a Rebellion we are under a Sentence of a
Sanctions Then it was first That Burton in a seditious Sermon compared that excellent Prince to Julian and his Chapel to Julian's Altar And tells the same storie of Maris Bishop of Chalcedon who called Julian Atheist and Apostate to his face as our Author hath done in print That Male-content having been admitted to the Kings Chappel for a while and defeated of a Bishoprick to which he aspired turned Apostate and defamed the whole Order as Antichristian He had served that excellent Prince in his Closer and missing of the Preferment in the Court for his turbulency being banished thence he began to court the People and sought it in the Camp not being ashamed to profess himself an old out-cast Courtier worn our of favour and Friends there which was the reason that he became a Professed enemy both to King and Court Then it was that he made his Pulpit a Drum to beat up for Sedition and War Prynne Bastwick Leyton and many others took the Alarm and dipping their Pens in Gall made way for the Sword that glutted it self with so much bloud He presumes to dedicate his Seditious Harangues as so many Fire-brands to the Houses of Parliament where finding too much combustible matter he made such a flame as warmed him a little but made a general conflagration through the three Kingdoms Had it not been much better that two or three such Boutefeus had suffered according to their deserts than that the whole Nation should fall a Sacrifice to those Idols of a Seditious party There wanted not then good Laws against such disturbers of the publick peace The Statute of Westm the first provided That no man should publish or tell any false News whereby discord or occasion of discord or slander may grow between the King and his People or Nobles And a Statute was made the second of Richard 2. ch 5 for punishing counterfeiters of false news and lyes of Prelates Earls Dukes c. of things which by them were never spoken to the slander of the Prelates c. And the punishment was left to the discretion of the King and Council And old Bracton records this ancient usage Si quis Machinatus fuerit vel aliquid fecerit c. If any one shall contrive or do any thing against the life of the King or to make Sedition in his Army or shall give consent or counsel thereto although they effect not the mischief which they designed he shall be guilty of Treason And accordingly one John Bonnet a Wool-man was drawn and hanged for scattering seditious Libels in London In the 4th year of Hen. 5. as Stow relates Sir William Stanly a person of great valour was condemned and executed as a Traitor for saying less than our Author doth That if he thought Perkin Warbeck to be the undoubted Son of Edward the 4th he would never bear Arms against him And in the 9th year of H. 7. Bagnal Scot Heath and Kennington who had taken Sanctuary in St. Martins le grand were taken out and three of them executed for forging Seditious Bills to the slander of the King and Council The like proceedings were made against Barrow Greenwood Penry Vdal and many others who were condemned and some of them executed for the like Seditious Writings against Queen Eliz. and her Government concerning which I shall present to our Authors Her Majesties Proclamation By the QUEEN A Proclamation against certain Seditious and Schismatical Books and Libels c. THE Queens most Excellent Majesty considering how within these few years past and now of late certain seditious evil-disposed persons towards her Majesty and the Government established for causes Ecclesiastical within her Majesties Dominions have devised written printed or caused to be seditiously and secretly published dispersed sundry schismatical and seditious Books diffamatory Libels and other phanatical Writings amongst her Majesties Subjects containing in them Doctrine very erroneous and other matters notoriously untrue and slanderous to the State and against the godly reformation of Religion and Government Ecclesiastical established by Law and so quietly of long time continued and also against the persons of Bishops and others placed in authority Ecclesiastical under her Highness by her authority in railing sort and beyond the bounds of all good humanity All which Books Libels and Writings tend by their scope to perswade and bring in a monstrous and apparent dangerous Innovation within her Dominions and Countries of all manner of Ecclesiastical Government now in use and to the abridging or rather to the overthrow of her Highness lawful Prerogative allowed by Gods Law and established by the Laws of the Realm and consequently to reverse dissolve and set at liberty the present Government of the Church and to make a dangerous change of the form of Doctrine and use of Divine Service of God and the Ministration of the Sacraments now also in use with a rash and malicious purpose also to dissolve the Estate of the Prelacy being one of the three ancient Estates of this Realm under her Highness whereof her Majesty mindeth to have such a reverend regard as to their places in the Church and Commonwealth appertaineth All which said lewd and seditious practices do directly tend to the manifest wilful breach of great number of good Laws and Statutes of this Realm inconveniencies nothing regarded by such Innovations In consideration whereof her Highness graciously minding to provide some good and speedy Remedy to withstand such notable dangerous and ungodly Attempts and for that purpose to have such enormous Malefactors discovered and condignly punished doth signifie this her Highness misliking and indignation of such dangerous and wicked Enterprizes and for that purpose doth hereby will and also straightly charge and command that all persons whatsoever within any her Majesties Realms and Dominions who have or hereafter shall have any of the said seditious Books Pamphlets Libels or Writings or any of like nature already published or hereafter to be published in his or their custody containing such matters as above are mentioned against the present Order and Government of the Church of England or the lawful Ministers thereof or against the Rites and Ceremonies used in the Church and allowed by the Laws of the Realm That they and every of them do presently after with convenient speed bring in and deliver up the same unto the Ordinary of the Diocess or of the place where they inhabit to the intent they may be utterly defaced by the said Ordinary or otherwise used by them And that from henceforth no person or persons whatsoever be so hardy as to write contrive print or cause to be published or distributed or to keep any of the same or any other Books Libels or Writings of like nature and quality contrary to the true meaning and intent of this her Majesties Proclamation And likewise that no man hereafter give any instruction direction favour or assistance to the contriving writing printing publishing or dispersing of the same or such like
your sence nor for being reduced to a State of Bondage through the Wilderness of a new War We are for standing still keeping our places and doing our duties and wait for the Salvation of God Though we were by the wickedness of unreasonable and cruel men deprived of our Moses yet God hath sent us a Josua and with him are the Priests of the Lord and the Ark of his Covenant to which we doubt not the swelling streams of Jordan will give way and we shall yet pass to Canaan on dry land Now let the Reader judge who do abuse the Scripture to serve their turn as Mr. Hunt doth advise p. 46. P. 35. Mr. Hunt becomes an Advocate for a sort of Gibeonites that they may have an act of Comprehension and represents them as a very harmless and friendly people The Dissenters says he have neither power nor will to destroy our RELIGION or Government they are already of our Church and it is expected that they should be Petitioners to the Bishops for their intercession towards the obtaining some indulgence in some little matters that they may bring them into an intire communion with us And again That they are in profession as Loyal as any that boast themselves true Sons of the Church of England p. 19. But though some profess an irreconcileable hatred even in their pleas for Peace the great question is what their practice is and hath been Postscr p. 89. Can any man imagine says he that any prejudice can accrew to the Church of England if she did enlarge her Communion by making the Conditions of it more easie And p. 90. Is it fit that the Peace should be hazarded or the Nation put with reason or without in fear of it or a Kingdom turned into a Shambles for a Ceremony or a Ritual in our publick Worship c. What is it the Advocate of these men pleads for hath he full instructions from his Clients doth he know their minds and what will give them satisfaction What he contends for hath by several men of the Church been granted to them Why may not say you standing at the Sacrament be granted And the signing with the Cross in Baptism be dispensed with when desired When the Dean of St. Pauls and the Bishop of Cork have made some overtures for conceding these things Mr. Baxter answers the first that he made them sibi suis for the advantage of himself and others of his own Perswasion and without taking any notice of them in the latter answers his Discourse with scorn and contempt But our Liturgie must also be altered for their sakes p. 91. you would have more Offices and those we have not so long though some complain they are too many and too short already And for the Rubrick that must be altered not for the present onely as general scruples shall arise and that may be to the worlds end But to answer more particularly you say the Dissenters have neither power nor will to destroy our Religion and Government Answ When they were less considerable for their numbers than now being as you say four fifths of the Nation they had both power and will to effect both What hath been done may be done and Mr. Baxter justly feared that they were Nati ad bis perdendam Remp. Anglicanam That they are the trading and wealthie part of the Nation is generally boasted by themselves We know Mr. Baxter urgeth in the name of his Brethren that there are many hainous sins in our present Constitution that hinder their Conformitie the taking off of which will be an acknowledgement of our guilt and their justification As for the prejudice that may accrue by altering the conditions of our Communion you give us a fair warning p. 93. telling us of the Church of Rome that their Doctrine of Comprehension is so large that they destroy their Religion to increase the number of their Professors by granting the demands of some we shall but encourage others and make them presume to be Judges in their case and quarrels And we have found by sad experience the inconvenience of admitting such as the Country-conformist and the Author of the Life of Julian into our Communion And you say p. 35 and 36 of the Preface That the King and States of the Realm will never suffer so excellent an Ecclesiastical Constitution as we enjoy to be subverted Yet the Dissenters project in Mr. Humphrey's Half-sheet intended to be presented to the Parliament doth certainly tend to her destruction as hath been shewed elsewhere And if the King and States will not admit an alteration you know the Bishops cannot and if the States will not and the Bishops cannot ought not they that would make themselves wiser than their Rulers to submit notwithstanding their scruples against a Ceremony rather than to hazard or disturb the peace of the Kingdom And is it not an unjust complaint of yours of turning it into a Shambles for a Ceremony or a Ritual And to conlude if as you observe p. 92. a discourse managed with almost irresistible Reason Candour Temper and Address be matter of exasperation and they turn again and be more confirmed in their separating way what condescentions will reclaim them P. 36. It is added That absurd Opinion that Dominium fundatur in gratia is charged on those that are for the Exclusion of the Duke And they think that by pronouncing that absurd piece of Latine they have at once put to silence and shame all reasons of Nature Religion and State that urge and require it How we can maintain the Negative against the Papists if we should practise the same as they do on this Position I cannot perceive and therefore we must charge it impartially on all that deserve it Bishop Davenant admits it for good Latine and I think that you quarrel at the words to avoid the sence of the Thesis which that learned Bishop maintained against the Papists concluding that the Pope could not challenge the power of Deposing Kings by any Title but that of Antichrist whose Founder was Hildebrand who like Satan claimed a power to dispose of all the Kingdoms of the World And you your self think that our Saints ought not to do so We come now to the Postscript which he hath told us was written for the sake of our young Divines those good-natur'd Gentlemen who doubtless will return his Civilities His pretence is to answer some Objections that were made against them but in truth they are his own accusations of them which he prosecutes with all the might and malice he can upon this ground because the Bishops must be made out of them and being so bad already he hath foretold how much worse it will be when they sell their Liberty for that Preferment It is said then p. 1. our Author knows by whom That they affirm it to be in the power of a Prince by Divine Right to govern as he pleaseth That the power of the Laws is solely
take away their good names which like precious Oyntment I hope will send forth the better savour for being thus Chafed Alas we are not so very Dolts but that we know such little Arts to be the daily practice of every Sycophant and Tale-bearer who being minded to disgrace a person useth the same method as Mr. Hunt doth toward the Clergie first to invent then to spread abroad and aggravate their supposed faults or personal infirmities as pretended Friends For thus they insinuate Do you know such a person and do you hear nothing concerning him There is a strong Report that he hath done such and such evil things as will ruine him and all his Family I am heartily sorrie to hear such things of him but they cannot be hid or denied I am much troubled to hear of such gross miscarriages He was in a very good Way and had many advantages of benefitting himself and others but he hath abused them and outlived them all and his high Place and Calling doth but discover his nakedness the more and will precipitate his ruine It could hardly enter into my belief that a person that knows and professeth better things could ever have been guiltie of such Crimes And perhaps you will be as incredulous as I was but they are too true I perceive it is not all gold that glisters How a man may be deceived by an outward form and fucus of Honestie and Religion I thank God I am undeceived my self and hope others will be so too He is a very Wolf in Sheeps clothing a Persecutor of the Righteous who seemed a Preacher of Righteousness c. Have no fellowship or communion with him he is in the very gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity If such Insinuations are vile and odious in a vulgar mouth against a single person how much more vile are they in the printed Harangues of a man of understanding against the whole Order of the Clergie with a malicious designe first to disgrace and then to destroy them Either this Gentleman is well acquainted with the Vniversities and the generality of those that from thence are admitted to the Priesthood or not If he be not he is inexcusable for printing such Scandals against them if he be he cannot but know that there was never better Discipline in the Vniversity never greater Circumspection used concerning such as are admitted to Holy Orders than now there is and that if ever Clerus Anglicanus est stupor Mundi it was true that the English Clergie were the admiration of the world it is so now And therefore the Author of these oblique Reflections strikes at all the Heads of the Vniversities and at all the Bishops in their several Diocesses as if they were the Causers and Promoters of all these Disorders I do therefore appeal first to his own Conscience whether the far greater number both in the Vniversitie and in the Clergie be not men of Learning Integrity Piety and Loyalty and then he should in justice have given them such a character as the major part doth deserve Denominatio sumitur à majore And then I appeal to the testimony of more equal and indifferent men And such a one I take Dr. Burnet to be who for his late Writings had the Thanks of the Nation in a Parliament-way and he deserved it if he had written nothing else but the Testimony which he gives of the present Clergie God hath not so left this Age and Church but there is in it a great number in both the Holy Functions who are perhaps as eminent in the exemplariness of their lives and as diligent in their labours as hath been in any one Church in any Age since Miracles ceased The humility and strictness of life in many of our Prelates and some that were highly born and yet have far outgone some others from whom more might have been expected raiseth them far above censure though perhaps not above envie And when such think not the daily instructing their Neighbours a thing below them but do it with as constant a care as if they were to earn their Bread by it when they are so affable to the meanest Clergie-men that come to them when they are nicely scrupulous about those whom they admit into Holy Orders and so large in their Charities that one would think they were furnished with some unseen ways these things must needs raise great esteem for such Bishops and seem to give some hopes of better times Of all this I may be allowed to speak the more freely since I am led to it by none of those Bribes either of Gratitude or Fear or Hope which are wont to corrupt men to say what they do not think But I were much to blame if in a Work that may perhaps live some time in the world I should onely find fault with what is amiss and not also acknowledge what is so very commendable and praise-worthy And when I look into the inferiour Clergie there are chiefly about this great City of London so many so eminent both for the strictness of their Lives the constancie of their Labours and plain way of Preaching which is now perhaps brought to as great a perfection as ever was since men spoke as they received it immediately from the Holy Ghost the great gentleness of their Deportment to such as differ from them their mutual love and charity and in a word for all the qualities that can adorn Ministers or Christians that if such a number of such men cannot prevail with this debauched Age this one thing to me looks more dismally than all the other affrighting symptoms of our condition That God having sent so many faithful Teachers their labours are still so ineffectual If any man think the Doctor speaks partially let him hear Mr. Hunt's own Testimonie p. 48. of the Postscript Our Age is blessed with a Clergie renownedly learned and prudent And p. 105. he commends our Church for the purity of her Doctrine prudence of her Discipline and her commendable decent and intelligible Devotion This Testimony is true and therefore they who contradict it cannot be too sharply rebuked But what reason can be conceived for these contradictory proceedings This Gentleman I conceive might fancie himself to be Chairman of the Committee for Trial of Ministers and hath taken his Measures for proceeding in that case from the practice of his Predecessors who formed Articles of the like nature against the Clergie of that Age. Imprimis For adhering to the King against his Parliament Item For preaching a necessitie of obedience to the King as Supream and thereby endeavouring to introduce an Arbitrary Power Item For disobeying the Votes and Ordinances of Parliament for demolishing of Superstition and keeping out of Popery Item For defending Episcopacie and Liturgie for not keeping the daies of Fasting and Humiliation appointed to crave a blessing on the Parliaments Forces and the days of Thanksgiving for defeating the Kings designs Item For preaching up Passive
humour was in his nature from the God of Nature and who hath resisted his Will The same Argument will the lascivious man who was born under the Planet of Venus and the Rebel and Murtherer who was born under Mars use in their defence as the scrupulous and obstinate who were born under Saturn And so any vice may be defended and the whole blame transferred on God who sent them into the world with such inclinations But on second considerations our Author might have told them that these wicked dispositions were the effects of the corruption of their natures contracted and propagated by original sin and that there is yet so much light from Nature but much more from the Grace of God as to discover and assist them in the correction of these unreasonable and ground less affections and passions and not to encourage them in them by telling them they are from God and infused into devout men that they may put a bar to such dangerous Innovations that are stealing on the Church and for the maintenance of the simplicity and purity of the Christian Religion and Worship This is a New Plea to encourage them to a New Rebellion as well as to justifie the Old And we know what slender pretences scrupulous and obstinate persons are wont to lay hold on to defend themselves in very unlawful practices in such cases as are confessedly unreasonable and dangerous and to which they have a natural inclination The Vulgar need a Curb to restrain them and not a Spur to provoke and haste them on When therefore you ask p. 86. What affrightment all this while either to Church or State from this weak and pitiful scrupulosity Where lies the Treason or Sacriledge Let our Author consult the History of the late War and Experience which some say is the Mistriss of Fools may resolve him It is no more agreeable to a scrupulous man about a Ceremony of the Church to depose and murder his lawful Prince than for a man of a nice Conscience to be impiously wicked p. 33. Pref. Yet Mr. Baxter and others will tell you that the greatest Impieties and Outrages have been committed by such men as pretended niceness and scruples of Conscience for their justification And who they were that would strain at Gnats and swallow Camels our Saviour told us long since But to return Upon this very Ground of a natural complexion c. p. 19. of the Preface he would excuse a vile sort of Presbyterians in Scotland as he calls them who have deservedly put that name under eternal infamy by their turbulent and contumacious carriage against the Kingly Authority Which yet he there says is not imputable so much to Presbytery as to the barbarous Manners and rough Genius of that Nation And is it not strange that neither the Learning and Knowledge of that Nation which afforded some men of all Ages of great excellency and which usually emollit mores nec sinit esse feros doth correct the brutish dispositions of men nor the power of Godliness and purity of Doctrine and Worship to which especially in latter times they pretended beyond all other Nations and was proposed by them and accepted by some of our own Nation as the great Rule next to if not above the Word of God for our Reformation could so far reform them as to teach them Obedience to their lawful Princes but they must still remain infamous as our Author observes for Disloyalty and a barbarous Treatment of their Kings And is it not yet more strange that we who are of a better Genius should learn of them who as you note do boast of one hundred and fifty Kings in succession in that Kingdom and you certainly aver that they really imprisoned deposed and murdered fifty at least before the time of Mary Queen of Scots that such an Original should be proposed to the English Nation that their Chronicles may also be defiled with the bloud of their Kings As for what you say p. 20. Pref. concerning the Queen of Scots that her prosecution was promoted by the English Bishops which putrid Vomit the Author of Julian's Life licked up and hath disgorged again to make the whole Nation stink I have said enough to vindicate the Bishops from that foul Aspersion It being designed by the Wisdom of the Parliament and by them justified for many Treasonable actions and Insurrections by her practised and contrived for which she was legally condemned not as a Queen nor as a Popish Successour much less as our Queen but as a professed Enemy to her Majestie that then happily reigned over us from whom she actually claimed the Crown and endeavoured by force to usurp it And she having first resigned her Crown and came hither for protection which she forfeited by her frequent practices of Treason was tried and condemned as the Wife of a Subject of this Land And happie had it been for this Nation if they had never learnt any other Regicide than this Fictitious one wherewith the Bishops are chiefly charged for no other reason that I can divine but because they will not give consent to another more unexcusable action now This rash Assertion of yours destroys all that laudible endeavour which you have worthily attempted for the vindication of our Bishops in other matters this is a Scandalum Magnatum with a witness and I hope you have yet so much ingenuity as to put your self to the voluntarie Penance of a Recantation the slander being so notoriously false And I am perswaded that the convictions of your Conscience will not give you any rest till you have made them as publick satisfaction as the injury you have done them is I proceed now to the third Head of his Discourse which leads me to shew the endeavours used to engage the Nation in a second unnatural War And I shall begin with that Speech of this Author p. 52. of Postscript The panick fear of the change of the Government that this Doctrine of the Divinitie of Kings occasioned and the divisions it made among us was the principal cause of the late War And p. 102. That War would have been impossible if the Church-men had not maintained the Doctrine that Monarchie was Jure Divino in such a sence as made the King absolute and they and the Church in consequence perished by it Now you have heard already how loudly the young Divines are accused for preaching this Doctrine And how false soever the Accusation be the Nation is called to stand upon her guard and the Royal Standard is feigned to be set up and perhaps the Seditious partie are really listed and associated And every man is called on to declare for what Partie he will engage The Neuters are accursed the Associators declared to be such as retain the old English Loyaltie after the taking of the Covenant and all that oppose these betrayers of their Religion their Countrie and the Laws yea they are told p. 149. that they ought not to subject