then Allegiance to some supreme Powers and to some Person or Persons by whom it is exercised Subjection from Subjects is always due somewhere under what Form of Government soever Men be by the Law of Nature according to the Reverend Dr. Sanderson Sanderson's Case of the Engagement and that primarily to every Mans Country and consequently to the Sovereign Power thereof For the denial of this does evidently involve a contradiction as that which supposeth the same Person at the same time a Subject and yet no Subject a Subject as being under the Laws and yet no Subject as being discharged from that Duty which those Laws enjoyn Yea more it vertually dissolves while it is denied that Society in the tendency thereof which is established upon and maintained by those Laws For the Obligation of the Law at any time dissolved leaves every Man so long as things continue in that posture sui juris in the equality of Nature so that he may challenge without restraint the liberty of doing what is good in his own Eyes II That this Legal Obedience or Allegiance cannot in the present juncture be actually paid to King James and therefore the Obligation of it so far ceaseth as to its actual performance to him as he is in an actual incapacity to demand or we to give it how due soever according to the Principles mentioned it may be thought to be This Notion here asserted of the Cessation of actual Obedience though promised by an Oath I take to be as to its possibility agreeable to the Determination of the learned Dr. Sanderson in his famous Book De Obligatione Juramenti who therein pronounceth a promissory Oath as to its Obligation to Performance to cease per cessationem materiae when the matter of it ceaseth Now the matter of an Oath Promissory then ceaseth when that which is promised is not payable which may happen either by its becoming either naturally or morally impossible As for instance when the Person to whom the Promise is made ceaseth to be in a capacity to demand or receive what was so promised This I suppose may fall out either totally as in one of the Doctors own Instances it does when the General of an Army to whom a Soldier is obliged by a Military Oath is dead Then it is cassated or made totally void Or partially as to keep to the former instance when the General so sworn to though he be yet alive is notwithstanding in such circumstances as render him for the time as dead which may happen by his being taken Prisoner and shut up so close as that the Soldier can receive no certain Commands from him I could here also if I may without offence add another Case which whether it dissolve such an Obligation totally or partially only let who will determine to wit When such a General voluntarily deserts his Army and especially if he do so to joyn himself with their Enemies so that he cannot in those circumstances be obeyed by the Party he hath deserted without the Breach of an higher Obligation to him or them from or for whom he received his Commission Now I am very much mistaken if one of these Cases run not parallel with ours in the Allegiance promised to King James For plain it is de facto that we can in his present circumstances have no Communication with him nor receive any certain Commands from him how willing soever we might be to serve him being whether by choice or necessity I determin not here wholly in the power of our Nations and Religions professed Enemies without maintaining that dangerous Intelligence which he himself cannot in reason require and which I hope our most dissatisfied Brethren do not think that Allegiance obligeth us at this time to keep with him And I could wish that the later Case propounded did not also run too parallel with ours i. e. That he had not embodied himself with the sworn Adversaries of our Religion as to his Communion as he hath long since and yet notwithstanding that we paid him our true Allegiance always whiles he stayed among us which he himself hath more than once acknowledged And much more that he had not now at last also not only deserted us but likewise armed against us those of that Party who most thirst after our Blood and thereby rendred it farther impossible for any Englishmen especially Protestants to pay him that further Duty which the Oath of Allegiance expresseth by Assistance and Defence which they cannot do according to the preceding Hypothesis without breaking their greater antecedent Oligations to God their Native Country themselves and their Posterity in consistence wherewith all subsequent Obligations must be interpreted to render them lawful For otherwise the Rule is Prior obligatio praejudicat posteriori To clear up this Proposition the more fully let us spend a little time in enquiring particularly into those Acts of Allegiance which may by any one be supposed to be due to King James in his present circumstances and see whether any of them be rationally performable to him by the English Clergy particularly to whose Case this Discourse is chiefly aecommodated The main Duty of our former Allegiance is contain'd in the Words of Assistance and Defence as was before said This is done either by Arms or otherwise to wit by actions more proper to our Function As to the former I suppose no Man of that Calling will think himself obliged personally to bear Arms for him For an entire freedom herein was always allowed us by the Law which excuseth all Persons in Holy Orders from being required to do so in any case So that whatever is at any time done of that nature by any of them must needs be in this case not a matter of Duty but a meer Supererogation of Loyalty a perfectly voluntary and free-will Offering It would be no other even to a Prince that had most highly deserved of us and one whom in the prospect of the Success of his Arms we could cordially trust with all our dearest Interests And therefore it is not to be supposed that any considering Person of that Order how militarily disposed soever he may be otherwise will think fit personally to give one who surely hath not so obliged us and the Success of whose Arms at present we cannot safely Trust this sort of Assistance or Defence though he should call for it and much less to offer it when unasked For what were this indeed as things now stand but out of an over-eager desire of shewing an extravagant piece of Passive Obedience to out-act the Circumcellions themselves and assist barbarous Irish Tories and French Dragoons so as to enable them in the issue to advance us to the too fondly affected Crown of an unwarrantable Martyrdom Is it in the next place supposed by any that Preaching and Praying for King James are Duties indispensably incumbent upon them by vertue of their Allegiance If so I desire them to consider that
those times to his Majesty K. C. II. advanced to the Bishoprick of Lincoln Now these things they could not have done especially with the allowance of such Spiritual Guides had the Principles of the Church of England been then understood to be so rigorous in Matters of this Nature as those of our present dissatisfied Brethren in their Casuistical Divinity are The very Engagement but now mentioned which was then generally swallowed by those that would have taken it very ill to have been thought no true Sons of the Chureh of England and divers of whom were notwithstanding even when rigorous Conformity was at the highest after the Return of K. C. II. thought worthy to be advanced to some of the most eminent Bishopricks and other Dignities of the Church of England was thought then by those that by it lost their Places out of Conscience of their Duty to the King to be unlawful as being a new Promise of Allegiance to Vsurpers and if it were so as they apprehended was certainly such an one with a witness as we use to speak in comparison of that which the present Oath requires For the Obedience by this Oath required is expressed by its proper Name the Notation whereof imports a limited legal Obedience only whereas the words True and Faithful in the Engagement ran so large as not to insinuate the least Intimation of any legal Bounds to the Duty promised This is to a K. and Q. that to a Common-wealth this can only at the worst be supposed to be Injurious to the Right of one King by transferring it to another Whereas that overthrew the Throne it self and destroyed the Right of all future Kings yea and Parliaments too by excluding out of the Government them and the whole House of Lords And by consequence it is probable in an high Degree that those who allowed and defended the taking of that Engagement in the Circumstances of those Times as not inconsistent with the Principles of this Church would if they were now alive do no less in favour of the taking this Oath especially by such as are of our Brethrens Principles and so cannot be supposed to take it in the more rigorous when the words will fairly bear a milder and more moderate Sense which the said Dr. Sanderson allows to the takers of the Engagement even though the Imposers intended it so long as they declared not that they did so in another of a more disputable nature and higher Obligation And now having dispatched this Proposition also I proceed to the Tenth and last which is X. That the Primitive Christians not only in our Saviours and his Apostles days as had been made evident by many learned Pens but also for several Ages after them have governed themselves in point of actual Allegiance by these Measures That our Saviour and his Apostles did so even when the Titles both of the Civil and Ecclesiastical Governors Bishop of Sarum his Pastoral Letter were either notoriously Faulty or at best suspicious enough is abundantly proved by the learned Pen of a reverend Bishop of this Church lately And for the Christians of subsequent Ages if what Tertullian says of them be true That throughout the Empire the Christians were so numerous that they filled the Cities Isles Castles Camp Senate c. to that Degree that as he tells the Persecutors the very Secession or Departure of so many Persons from the Societies to which they belonged into any place out of the Roman Territories though they did nothing else to their prejudice would have made a vast Solitude such as would have endangered the Roman Empire Supposing I say this to be true it is a great Evidence to me that in all the Contests which then fell out sometimes every other or at least every third or fourth year betwixt several Pretenders to the Imperial Throne so that divers times the several Armies in several Provinces set up Two or Three at once the Christians who inhabited those Provinces did take the Military Oath and pay their Allegiance each of them to that Person who was invested with the Imperial Robes in the Parts where they severally lived when once he assumed that Dignity and did not trouble themselves to enquire whether any that was set up in any other Province had a better Title than their own Emperour had Which is that as I conceive which Tertullian elsewhere means when he tells Scapula the Lieutenant of the Emperour who then lived in Africa that none of the Christians were ever convicted to have been Albinians or Nigrians or Cassians in all those Turns which fell out under those Competitors for the Crown from whom their Partisans were so named He means not certainly that none of them were in the Garisons or Armies of Claudius Albinus or Pescennius Niger who strugled with the Emperour Severus or of Avidius Cassius who contested with the Emperour Verus for this had been contrary to what he asserted elsewhere that they filled their Garrisons and Armies as before but only that they were none of the Contrivers or Plotters of those Wars which were by those Competitors set on foot nor active Sticklers for the Parties then made for those says he that were upon that account called Albinians and Nigrians c. were the Men of their own Heathenish Religion that Swore by the Genius of their Emperours which Christians refused to do And when any of the several Competitors conquered though possibly his Right were more disputable then that of the Pretender who was overcome yet they adhered even to him when once setled upon the Throne And for this I think I have evident proof from the view of the Emperours whose Cause Tertullian owns in that Defence of his but now quoted especially one of them Severus who raised the Sixth Persecution against the Christians It is evident that Tertullian commends the carriage of the Christians in their Obedience to Severus because he mentions Pescennius Niger and Claudius Albinus as the Heads of those Factions which for opposing him were then odious to Severus and denies the Christians to have been their Partisans against him Whence it is plain that they acquiesced in Severus his Title although it be evident that his Title till Conquest confirmed it was the worst of two of his Competitors For Herodian tells us that immediately upon the Death of Pertinax Julian First and then Pescennius Niger were chosen Emperors and set in the Throne by their Souldiers before Severus his Title was set on foot by his Troops So that Severus himself was while the Contest lasted more truly a Rebel against Niger then Niger against him But whilst Niger delays and revels at Antioch Severus coming to and mastering Rome the Senate confirmed him Emperour and then all the Christians acquiesced in him and became peaceably his good and loyal Subjects Whence it appears plain that the Principle of the Christians then was That they were obliged to be Subjects to whatever Prince God by his
supposing them such yet they can be no otherwise such than as all others are that are so by vertue of an Affirmative Precept and so can be no otherwise obliging at least as to the circumstances of their Actual Exercise than as all things so commanded are and therefore do not bind us ad semper as the Schools speak That is they are not necessarily to be done at all Times whatever the consequences of them may be but the actual performance of them thus and thus and at this or that season is to be governed by circumstances and where those are such that the mischief that will probably be done is greater than the good that is likely to be consequent on so doing 't is then unlawful to do them because unseasonable This in general But let us further view them particularly 1. As to Preaching for K. J. If Preaching up his present Cause be meant thereby and declaring all those that are in Arms against him for their own Defence in Ireland together with the English Forces sent hence to assist them Rebels and incurring the penalty of Damnation for such Resistance it is to make our selves Judges of a War which we can never hope convincingly to prove unlawful except upon the supposition of an unlimited Right in the Prince to dispose universally of his Subjects as to Religion Laws Liberties and Lives as he pleaseth and the Duty of all that are within his Dominions tamely to suffer them all to be taken from them upon the Obligation of the Doctrine of Non-resistance And what can we hope for upon the preaching of this Doctrine be it never so true at this time of Day under such universal Prejudice against it that can rationally make amends for the Inconveniences necessarily attendant upon it not only to our Persons from the Laws in being which under the highest Penalties forbid us so to do but also to the whole Nation if our Doctrine should contrary to all rational probability be entertained by any considerable numbers For what could the Issue then be but the raising of a bloody Civil War in the bowels of it and that War if it should end in a Conquest on the side which by such Preaching we assist consequentially destructive to all those dear Enjoyments which as we are Christians and English-men are now secured to us under the Protection of the present Constitution and the Forces raised by it Besides that it would be a very difficult thing for us upon clear grounds to determine the lawfulness or unlawfulness of a War the Justice whereof depends on so many Intrigues of Circumstances in the first Original of it whence our measures must be taken which Men of our Profession cannot be throughly acquainted with the Truth or Falshood of For which of us can demonstratively make out against all contradiction the Legitimacy of the P. of W. though any of us in our own Judgments possibly might incline to that opinion as I believe most of us once did when he was so declared by the publick Authority then in being and therefore according to the direction of the Law in that case we inserted his Name or Title at least in the publick Liturgy which yet we must be able to do if we will undertake to condemn the invasion of his now-Majesty then Prince of Orange to preserve the Right his Princess had to the succession who if the Child were Illegitimate or Supposititious was the next in the Royal Line to whom it did belong as unlawful I speak this only to shew how unmeet it is for us in the Pulpit to ground Doctrines of such great importance to Salvation or Damnation to our People upon supposal of such things which we cannot Infallibly know to be true or such which as to matter of Fact our People not one it may be to a thousand dissenting will tell us to our teeth as soon as we come out of the Pulpit they never did nor can believe And undoubtedly our caution in things of this nature is not disallowed but rather encouraged and directed by our Saviours Example who himself in deciding a Question of Conscience in a Case that concerned Caesar by the very manner of delivering his Judgment therein declared himself studiously cautious of giving offence on both sides And though he determined it for the Emperor yet had we not an Instance of his own practice to warrant the interpreting him that way we could hardly gather it convincingly from his words alone But I suppose I need not very earnestly press this Point upon our Brethren who by their practice generally have shewn their Caution therein and seem thereby to grant my Assertion That preaching for K. J. in the present Circumstances is a piece of Allegiance the obligation whereunto ceaseth q d e. d. 2. Next as to Praying for him if it be a Duty it is to be performed either in private or publick or both And in both these supposing still that for him imports for the success of his present Arms I doubt not but to shew the cessation of this piece of Allegiance unto him too For to do this in publick it lies too much under the same inconveniences and disadvantages and much more so with the former of preaching for him for any of us to look upon our selves as obliged by Allegiance so to do And as to our private Devotions although any of us should think it our Duty to pray for him in his personal circumstances to wit for Gods sanctifying his afflictions to him his Conversion to the true Religion and preservation of him from evil accidents nay suppose some one think it his Duty to go farther and pray for his Restitution it self it contributes not much to the stating the Question in hand whether such private sentiments as to the former sorts be determined to be branches of the cessant Duty to K. J. or no. But as to the last his Restitution it will certainly deserve any Protestants serious consideration whether in Conscience he can satisfie himself even in his privatest Devotions to make his applications to Heaven for the assisting a Person to return to his former Estate whose Interest and Inclinations too except one could be certainly assured that he is become a true Convert and so hath disclaimed them are directly contrary to the true Interest of that Religion which of all in the World he is perswaded that God whom he makes his Applications to most approves and owns and hath made it appear that he doth so most remarkably of late by so strange a concatenation of Providential Intrigues throughout all Europe for the securing it as hardly any Age can shew the like Wherefore for any Christians of the Protestant Profession and especially of this Nation to endeavour though but by a secret wish to obstruct the progress of those great Affairs which in the Prospect of their probable Issue promise the whole Protestant Cause and chiefly in these Parts so fair were in all such in
improvements added to it likewise doth reciprocally engage by Oath also to his Father to remain under his Government and in his Family and assist him in the preservation and utmost improvement of that Estate while he lives and in a word to be deficient in no Duty incumbent on him by vertue of that ne'ar relation and obliging kindness But the Father after these mutual Engagements thus passed not provoked by any undutiful Demeanour of his Son but out of an irregular affection unto some stranger who hath insinuated himself into his favour by sordid slattery and false suggestions doth not only carry himself towards his Son in a strange unfatherly and unnatural way of rigour and useth him more like a slave then a child but also even openly and barefacedly attempts to disinherit him at his death by cutting off the legal entail of those antient Lands from him and to make the injury more remediless endeavours in his own life time to possess that Person whom he hath entertained this new kindness for of the whole Estate by surrendering all his Deeds and Evidences relating to it together with his own Person also into his hands and absolute Power So that now the Son can no longer either perform the matter of his Oath to him or indeed come at him in the circumstances wherein he is without inevitable danger of his own life from the malicious attempts of his competitor too much encouraged in them also by his Father whose Interest it is to destroy him as the only Person from whom he expects at the Fathers death to be disturbed in his ill-gotten and unjust Possessions Now here I would fain know why upon the Doctors Grounds the Son notwithstanding the obligation of natural Duty though confirmed also by an Oath may not think himself at liberty under such unexpected and surprising disappointments from his Fathers alteration towards him to such an high degree of unnatural and unjust dealing which he no way foresaw nor could foresee when he made that Oath to him and why he may not accept of the tendred Protection and assistance of some other near Relation or any one indeed who hath so great a kindness as to afford it him and is able probably to support him against such an outragious Injury both as to the safety of his Person by removing into his Family and also as to the Estate by strengthening him so far as lawfully he may by all the assistance he can give for the securing at least of that Inheritance which is rightfully his in the Reversion and cannot legally be alienated from him even while his unnatural Father is yet living Yea why he may not if demanded for the security of him who adventures so far on his behalf to create himself so great Enmities also give his generous Protector and Guardian the utmost assurance that he can require even that of an Oath like that which he gave his Father himself concerning the performance of all that Duty whiles he thus continues under his Roof and enjoyes the benefit of his Guardianship which had continued due to his Father if he had continued a Father to him to his dying day The Case if I am not much mistaken seems thus far very fair on the Sons side especially if in the mean while of the necessary cessation of his actual Duty to his Father he perform no positive Act of undutifulness to him who hath so disobliged him by way of retaliation and be dispositively ready to return to all that duty again which he formerly paid him in case he change his mind towards him restore him to his former Circumstances and give him that rational security that in such a case is requisite to assure him against any future relaps into the like unnatural designs and attempts against him Let now this Case be seriously considered by those who are most dissatisfied provided they be not over-byassed by contrary Interests as it makes too unhappy a Parallel to our late and present Circumstances and I am in great hope that they will at least see cause to judge tenderly concerning some ambiguous actions of those who have by extraordinary methods even against their Inclinations hitherto sacred to them yea to all of us and our Posterity after us too those dear Enjoyments and Reversions which were lately even upon the Point of being lost for ever if not also farther to thank that great Deliverer whom God hath gratiously by extraordinary Providence sent them and us and last of all to give him all that legal security which he hath reason to expect that whiles they sit safe under his shadow they will not undermine the Tree from which it comes but demean themselves with that fidelity to him which so great a favour deserves The obtaining of which fair and reasonable things as till I am otherwise convinced I must judge them to be at the hands of our yet unsatisfied Brethren is that which I have all along endeavoured in this discourse which now I think it time to end being afraid that I have too long exercised my Readers Patience with its prolixity But I must not dismiss it without sending this short Prayer along with it That God will vouchsafe to speed it with a success answerable to the sincerity of my Intentions therein for the satisfaction of all those for whom it was designed whether exceptious Friends or serupulous Brethren or prejudicated Enemies to the Cause I plead and make us all either cordially unanimous in it or whiles we cannot be so more charitable each to other in our differences of Opinion then according to the unhappy Fate which amongst us in England too commonly attends all Controversies we are wont to be That our common Enemies may not have the pleasure of seeing us do that by our own imprudent unseasonable and unchristian Divisions which without them all the Intrigues of Hell it self in conjunction with the Designs and Arms of France and its Adherents I hope in God shall never he able to do Amen and Amen FINIS