repeat in his own Words Saith he There is no Piece of Story which I read with such Pleasure as the Accounts given of the Martyrs for methinks they leave a Fervour upon my Mind which I meet with in no Study that of the Scriptures excepted Say not then They were not able to have stood to their Defence when it appears how great their Numbers were or shall I here tell you the known Story of the Thebean Legion which Consisted of 6666. c. In the Year 1673. the Stories of the Primitive Martyrs and this in particular left a Fervour upon his Mind which he never felt in his usual Studies but in 1687 the Year before the Revolution he stages it for a copious and incredible Legend in his Preface before Lactantius without so much as telling the World that he had been in that common Errour of the Learned and thought the Fable true The Arguments with which he Assaults it are all Negative and such as one would think he could not believe himself First he argues against it from the Silence of Eusebius though (a) Hist Eccl. l. 8. c. 13. Eusebius in his History of the Dioclesian Persecution professes to omit many of the Conflicts of those who suffered in divers Parts of the Empire leaving them to be described by those that were Eye witnesses to them Secondly from the Silence of Sulpitius Severus who mentions not one single Fact of that Persecution saying no more of it than that it continued X Years in which time the whole World was Dyed with the Blood of the Martyrs The Christians then striving for Martyrdom which he saith was more sought for among them than Bishopricks by the ambitious Clergy of his time from whence it came to pass That the World was never so much wasted by any War that stands upon Record in History as by that Persecution successively for X Years in which the Christians had so many Triumphs The Famous Martyrdoms of that time are yet extant which I shall not set down here because I would keep within the small Compass of this little Work This is the short Account of that Persecution in Sulpitius and if the Christians of the Empire then strove for Martyrdom upon the stupid Principle of Non-resistance why might not a Christian Legion under the Conduct of a Non-resisting Leader grow as stupid as other Christians And if all the World which is the Phrase for all the Empire was Dyed with Christian Blood why might not Agaunum have as deep a Tincture as any other Place But Agaunum was in Gaul and Lactantius says he excepts the Gauls from Persecution But the Thebean Legion were Strangers and not Gauls and though Constantius might protect the Gauls he had no Right to protect them or if he had he could not prevent what happen'd to them their Execution being not a State of Persecution but a Casual unforeseen Days-work of Military Discipline on the Edge of Gaul where Constantius was not present to countermand or oppose it But if he had been present he could have had no Authority to have hinder'd it because it was done by the Command of Maximian who was Augustus and as Augustus had Authority over Constantius who was then but Cesar and so by the Dioclesian Constitution of the Empire was subject to his Authority But he saith Lanctantius must needs have heard of so remarkable a Transaction as the Passion of this Legion if it were true Here is the Negative Argument again but I say it might be true and he yet not hear of it For it was but a few hours work of military Discipline in an obscure Corner of the Alps and Lactantius was at that time in Africk where to use his own Argument upon another Occasion (a) A Relation of a Conference had about Religion by Edward Stillingfleet and Gilbert Burnet p. 119. there was neither Printing nor Stages for Pacquets nor Publishing of Mercuries Gazettes and Journals and Men were not wont to amuse themselves at what was doing in the World I could tell him of a Mornings Work in the High-lands of his own Country not much unlike this in Cruelty and done about Three years ago which half of this Nation and of the Clergy themselves have not yet heard of and of those that have if they were to write an History of the Revolution few of them would mention it not excepting our Funeral Orator who I have Reason to think would be content to pass it over in Silence though I do believe Tradition from Father to Son will preserve an Account of it in the Valley of Glancow as it did that of the Thebean Legion till the time of Euchâ—…ius who was the first that committed it to Writing But in one Word the Silence of Lactantius is no Argument against the Truth of it who in his History passed over whole Persecutions which one would think he must needs have heard of and who in the Reign of Dioclesian describing only the Decennial Persecution which began at Nicomedia could not by the terms of his Account mention the Massacre of the Thebean Legion which was done so many Years before No Man would reasonably expect an Account of the fatal and bloody Fight at Edge Hill from an Historian that commences his History from the Tryal of Charles the First or the Restauration of his Son and therefore if our Panegyrist hath no better Arguments against the truth of that Story of the Thebean Legion he may read it still with his old wonted Fervour or if he thinks it worth his pains he may proceed to find out new Arguments against it which such learned Men as Grotius and Vsher have not yet found out but though I have a great Deference for their Authority and that Story upon the Account of it yet I am unconcern'd whether it be Truth or a Fiction and will only put him in Mind that the very Fiction of it proves that the Doctrine of Non-resistance however now exploded by him was the general Belief and Practise of the Antient Christians and a Badg of their Profession in Times of Persecution as much as Baptism it self or any Article in their Creed They call'd it the Doctrine of the Cross and he once pretended to be all Primitive and all Christian for it It used to create a Fervour in his Blood but now he is turned Apostate from it and from the Church of England although he pretends to be a Bishop of it according to his own Words (a) Serm on the 30 of January 1672. p. 36. This Doctrine we justly Glory in and if any who have had their Baptism and Education in our Church have turn'd RENEGADOS from it They prov'd no less Enemies to the Church herself than to the Civil Authority So that their APOSTACY leaves no Blame upon our Church No indeed His Apostacy leaves no Blame on it but however it is such a Blot upon himself that if I were one of those as I profess I am
counted not his Life dear unto him so that he might finish his Ministry but this Man's Doctrine who was his own Patern of Preaching teacheth the Shepherds to fly when the Wolf cometh and to stop the Course of their Ministry when the Exercise of it without a Miracle will cost them their Lives It is only in the Case of a Divine Commission and Miracles to prove it that according to him a Priest or Bishop is to abide all Hazards or to expect extraordinary Assistance and supernatural Supports in their Sufferings contrary to the common Doctrine of Christianity and that in particular of the Church of England which teacheth us that God in suffering Times will give his faithful People suffering Spirits And likewise to the Histories of all Persecutions since Miracles ceased and more especially to our own Martyrology in Queen Mary's Reign His Encomiast * P. 13. tells us That he was little disposed to follow the Paterns of Preaching which former Times set but that he set a Patern to himself And from these Instances I have brought we may see the Truth of what he saith For the Hookers the Sandersons and Hamonds and Pearsons before him never set such Paterns of Preaching as he set himself but such a one it is That I hope it will neither be long nor much followed though his Funeral Orator hopes it will I have exemplified above how contrary the Practice of this unblemished Heroe hath been to his Principles and Doctrine and more particularly to his genuin and orthodox Notion of the Nature of Religion and I now proceed to shew that he hath not followed the generous and laudable Example of another Person in the very Case in which he hath proposed it for Imitation It cannot be denied nor am I much concerned to dissemble it saith he in his Funeral Sermon on Dr. Whitchcot that here he possessed another Man's Place who by the Iniquity of the Times was wrongfully ejected I mean Dr. Collins the famous and learned Divinity Professor of that University during whose Life and he lived many Years after by the free Consent of the College there were two Shares out of the common Dividend allotted to the Provost one whereof was constantly paid to Dr. Collins as if he had been still Provost To this Dr. Whitchcot did not only give his Consent without which the Thing could not have been done but was very forward in the doing of it though hereby he did not only considerably lessen his own Profit but likewise incur no small Censure and Hazard as Times then were And lest this had not been Kindness enough to that worthy Person whose Place he possessed in his last Will he left to his Son Sir John Collins a Legacy of an hundred Pounds One would think that such an heroick Vertue should have followed such a generous Example of his own proposing but as Dr. Whitchcot had Dr. Collins's Place so he had Dr. Gunning's Fellowship at the same Time and never allowed him one Farthing though he was as wrongfully ejected as Dr. Collins and stood in more need of an Allowance than the Doctor did But there is one Thing more to be said for the Honour of Dr. Witchcot which he took no notice of and it is this That he had Dr. Collins's Consent to take his Place which he himself had not from Dr Gunning to take his and yet he was very angry at him for resuming his Fellowship from him at the Restauration This would pass for a Blemish in any other Man's Life but Dr. Tillotson's or if it would not methinks his taking the Archbishop's Place not only without but against his Consent should pass for a Blemish in his Life He having not only got him extruded by Force out of it but thereby made himself the Author and Architect of a most scandalous and outragious Schism which will not only be an everlasting Blot upon his Memory but if not healed an everlasting Blemish upon the Church Methinks he might have so far followed Dr. Whitchcot's Example and to have made him an offer of some Allowance though he had refused it as I am sure he would have done But far from doing that he behaved himself towards him with the greatest Inhumanity as appeared from expressing his Joy unawares to Dr. Beveridge for the glorious Device of the Writ of Intrusion thinking the Doctor had come to talk with him as one that had excepted the Bishoprick of Wells but when he found that he came to excuse himself from the Acceptance of it he turned Pale upon reflecting he had discovered too much He also suffered his Grace's Steward and Nephew Mr. Sancroft who kept Possession at Lambeth for his Uncle to be Imprisoned and Fined though he might have prevented both if he would and yet lest him not a Legacy for reparation of his great Fine as Dr. Whitchcot did to Sir John Collins though he had all the Fruits and Profits of the Archbishoprick from the time of the Deprivation to the time that he took Possession thereof And it is further observable That as he enjoyed the Place of of one who was deprived by those who had usurped the Authority of Charles the First and that of another but of vaster Consequence who was deprived by the Power of those who had first deprived K. James the Second so he took the Place of a third a Minister in Suffolk who was Legally ejected by the Bartholomew Act upon the Return of Charles the Second Which shews That he was a Man of all Times and all Governments Right or Wrong and which in truth makes him look more like a Vicar of Bray than an Heroe in Vertue and will in most Mens Opinion take him down from that tall Character into an ordinary Man But to return again to Dr. Whitchcot's Funeral Sermon there is another Passage in it which all the Men I ever spoke with that heard or read it took for a Reflection upon the Church of England in the following Words He disclaimed Popery and as Things of near affinity with it Superstition and Usurpation upon the Consciences of Men. I know one Clergy-man who had a fair Respect for him before that from this time would never defend his Reputation And the most learned Mr. Dodwel who indeed is a great Example of heroick Piety and Vertue was much offended with this Passage and went on purpose to him to let him know what just Offence he had given by it but notwithstanding he printed it again in his Third Volume of Sermons with the Reflection in the Italick Character which further proves what I said before That how tender soever he was to the Dissenters and extensive in his Charity to them he had not such tenderness for true Church-men nor such a Loathness to offend these as those I now come to the Character of Orthodoxy which our Preacher gives of him in telling us of the (a) P. 2. convincing Arguments by which he so clearly proved the Truth and
sweet and delicious Doctrine (c) 1 Tim. 1.9 10. for the Lawless and Disobedient for the Ungodly and for Sinners for the Unholy and Prophane for (d) Voces Graecae eos significare possunt qui citra necem parentes percusserunt idemque valent quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut notant Suidas Hesych Eustath Polisynops in locum Murtherers of Fathers and Murtherers of Mothers for Man-slayers for Whoremongers for them that defile themselves with Mankind for Man-stealers for Lyars for perjured Persons or any other Things that is contrary to sound Doctrine And accordingly when it was first Published the Atheists and Deists and Socinians of the Town carried it about them to shew it in all Places glorying every where in the Doctrines of it and extolling the Author for a Man who durst speak Truth and set Mankind free from the Slavish Notion of eternal Torments and saying they believed most of our Clergy-men were of the same Opinion if they durst speak out I tell this the rather to provoke the Convocation to purge themselves of the Scandal this Sermon hath raised upon them by a publick Censure of it their own Honour and the Honour of the Church and the Care they have of Peoples Souls obligeth them to do it Nay the People have a Right to demand and require it in God's Name of them and the not doing of it I think in my Conscience will be such an heinous Sin of omission as may justly provoke God to forsake the Church of England as he forsook the Seven Asian Churches and make it as desolate as them Nay furthermore I dare be bold to say That had this Man lived in that Age when the Bishops rose up and deposed Paulus Samosatenus for his Blasphemies they would have deposed him for his For to apply the Words of the Apostle upon another Occasion If Christ the great Doctor and Legislator of his Church and Judg of all Men at the last Day after all his Doctrines and Threatnings concerning Hell-Torments is not obliged to execute them accordingly then is your Preaching O ye Clergy vain and our Faith vain yea and you are found false Witnesses of God because you have testified that he will inflict eternal Torments although he is free to do what he will and may please whether he will inflict them or no. This is the natural Reflection which every Clown will make upon the Clergy upon this Man's Doctrine of Hell Torments and therefore it is to be hoped they will make haste to Anathematize it and that there is more than ordinary Cause for them to do so will appear from this following Story which I had from a Learned Clergy-man of great Sincerity concerning the Secret of this damnable Opinion The first Author of it among us was an old Sceptick of Norwich who wrote a Book of the Subject which he used to put into the hands of others to proselyte them to his Opinion When he put it into the hands of this Clergy-man upon whose Authority I tell this Story he protested to him That he had Converted Dr. Tillotson and Five or Six Divines more most of which are now in great Places of the Church I wish I could have seen that Treatise of his to compare it with this Sermon of Hell Torments and then I should have seen whether the Author of it borrowed it thence as some of his Friends have assured me he borrowed his Rule of Faith in answer to Mr. Serjeant's Sure Foooing from the Discourses of the Learned Dr. Cradock who designed to answer that Book I have said a great deal on the Occasion of this wretched Sermon but one Thing more I must Remark and it is this (a) P. 156. He tells us That if God intended his Threatnings of Hell Torments should have their Effects to deter Men from Sinning it cannot be imagined that in the same Revelation which declares these Threatnings any intimation should be given of the Abatement or Non-execution of them But for God's sake what need God be so careful not to intimate that which this Man could find out Or why would it weaken his Laws more or take off the Edge and Terrour of his Threatnings for him to intimate this Abatement than for his Ministers to do it And therefore to turn his own Conclusion in his own Phrases upon himself Was it not a very impious Design in him and a betraying Men into misery not only to intimate this Abatement but to teach it and by Arguments in a set Discourse to go about to perswade Men into a Belief of it Had he lived in the Days of that Great and Apostolick Archbishop whose Works he hath Licensed to be published with the just and glorious Title of Martyr he and his Sermon had not passed so free from Censure Oh may that English Cyprian's Primitive Apostolical Spirit of Orthodoxy and Discipline fall upon our English Clergy that God may bless them and delight to do them and the Church good and make them as much the Veneration and Glory as latitude in Projects and Opinions loosness in Discipline and departing in Practice from their Principles have made them the Scorn and Contempt of the World From his Sermon on Hell Torments I pass to that preached at Whitehall in April 1680. upon Joshua 24.15 In which the following Passage though levelled at the Papists gave great Offence to very many both of the Church and Dissenting Communions I cannot think till I be better informed which I am always ready to be that any Pretence of Conscience warrants any Man that is not extraordinarily Commissioned as the Apostles and first Publishers of the Gospel were and cannot justify that Commission by Miracles as they did to affront the Established Religion of a Nation although it be false and openly draw Men off from the Profession of it in contempt of the Magistrate and the Laws All that Persons of a different Religion can in such a Case reasonably pretend to is to enjoy the private Liberty and Exercise of their own Consciences and Religion for which they ought to be very thankful and to forbear the open making of Proselytes to their own Religion though they be never so sure they are in the Right till they have either an extraordinary Commission from God to that purpose or the Providence of God make way for it by the Commission or Connivance of the Magistrate This is down-right Hobbism and a witty Lord standing at the King's Elbow when he spake it said Sir Sir do you hear Mr Hobs in the Pulpit In truth according to this Doctrine there 's no stemming the Torrent of any Errour or Irreligion no not of Idolatry it self when it happens to be Regnant and get the Civil Sanction And it severely reflects not only upon the Honour of the Orthodox Bishops and Clergy in the Arian Reigns but on the Memory of the most celebrated Reformers in most Countries And should God permit Popery to
will remain Sacred and Venerable whatever I have proved him to be nor lose any more of the respect which is due to it because he is a Bishop than human Nature can lose of the Honour and Dignity which is due to it because he is a Man Though Bishops turn Rebels and make Rebels and Outlaws Bishops yet I must reverence the Function by reason I think it of Divine Institution But notwithstanding all my Reverence for it I think it ought not to be a Cover and Protection for ill Men who pervert whole Nations and Churches especially for insolent and cruel Men who persecute their Brethren for no other Reason but because they profess and practise the same Doctrines which they themselves formerly taught the People and because they have endeavoured to convince the World by their Books That these Men are Apostates and have done both our Church and Religion much more harm than they can do it good These are the Traytors to that very Order which some of them have Usurped and seem ready to give up the uninterrupted Succession upon which the Priesthood depends if they may but by gaining one Sort of Dissenters better secure their Baronies and Revenues which they mind more than the Honour of their Order or the Catholick Rights of the Church What else means their Courting at such a fulsom Rate those in one Kingdom who have destroyed it in another Why else are they so ready to treat it away under a Pretence of Union with Dissenters and in Complement to Foreign Churches Why contrary to former Times do they suffer some French Ministers who have not had Episcopal Ordination to Preach and Administer the Sacraments at the Church in the Savoy and its Dependences which by the Act of Uniformity is a Member of the Church of England What means this new Discovery of Comprehension in so many of the late Funeral Sermons which the Convocation rejected Why do they exhort Lay-men to support and Clergy-men to comply with Presbytery in Scotland as I have shewed our Preacher and his Heroe did Or lastly What means the new Hypothesis of * See the Book of the Revelation paraphrased with Annotations on each Chapter Lond. printed by Rich. Wellington at the Lute in St. Paul's Churchyard 1694. Witnessing Churches That because the Churches in Savoy and France which have no Bishops have born their Testimony against Popery therefore Bishops by uninterrupted Succession and Priests of Episcopal Ordination which have been the signal Blessing of the Church of England are not necessary to the Church At the Rate that Annotator writes in very many Places of his Book and Preface we must blend our pure Orders and Priesthood not only with Ministers who derive their Mission from Presbyters but with Ministers who derive them ultimately from meer Lay-men as many of the first Reformers both in France and Savoy were Nay at this rate of talking I know not what is necessary to Christianity either as a Sect professing Doctrines or a Society which Antiquity so much undervalued by him called the Catholick Church For Anabaptists Quakers and Socinians have born their Testimony against Popery and will bear it and therefore in his wild way of Writing not only Bishops but Priests nor Episcopal Orders only but all Orders with Infant Baptism and the Lord's Supper may be parted with as Temporary Ordinances for comprehension of all Sects that pretend to be Christian and witnesses against the Church of Rome Nay this dangerous Hypothesis of the witnessing Churches may for any Thing I see to the contrary be improved to the Advantage of the Jews to prove them to be the Church of God For they have born and will bear their Testimony against Popery and great Numbers of them have died Martyrs against it in the Inquisition I need but mention the Mahumetans who abhor Popery for its Image-Worship and the Invocation of Saints as much as the Witnessing Churches And therefore it is a mad way of arguing to cure us of our Fondness as he is pleased to call it for our uninterrupted Episcopal Succession because the Witnessing Churches have the Misfortune to want it This is the Argument of the Fox in the Fable who had lost his Tail and had Men argued in this manner in the Primitive Times they might have laid aside both the Sacraments in the Church because great Numbers of Catechumens died Martyrs or Witnesses against the Idolatry of Rome Pagan which notwithstanding all the Comments and Annotations of some Men I believe was much more Abominable than that of the modern Papal Rome This Annotator I take to be one of those Men who drive on for Comprehension and with those Latitudinarians it was and more particularly Dr. Tillotson that Dr. Sherlock (a) Temple Serm. upon the Death of the Queen p. 16 17. saith Their Majesties and more particularly the Queen who had more leisure for such Thoughts were inspired with great and pious Designs to serve the Church of England whatever some Men might suspect though it may be not perfectly in their own way But why does he not tell us what this way was And whether it was consistent with his Queries his Book of Union and Communion and his Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet's unreasonableness of Separation from the Church of England Dr. Bates the Non-conformist tells us (b) Sermon upon the Death of the Queen p. 20. It was to unite Christians in Things essential to Christianity but he doth not tell us what those Essential Things were or whether they were Things Essential to Christianity as a Society as well as a Sect. But I desire plainly to know what those Things were which they thought Essential to Christianity and in which they were to be United For I am afraid they had a Design to form an Union against the Catholick Church and in order to it give up some Things as not Essential which many as learned and good Men as Dr. T. and these Doctors would have thought Essential to Christianity and that their parting with them would have involved in it a parting with the Lord's Day and Infant Baptism nay all Baptism and the Lord's Supper with the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity and have done no good Office to the Power of the Keys nor to the Divine Authority of the holy Scriptures which depends so much upon Tradition That they themselves alone are not alone sufficient to prove it without the Testimony of the Church It was my Design in writing these Discourses to aim at all the Men of this broad Way of Union as well as against those Two whom I have detected and thereby to warn the rest of the Clergy against them For God be thanked the main Body of our Clergy are Men of quite different Spirits they do not persecute their old Brethren for their strict Doctrines but pity and help to support them They know by Experience how hard it was for Conscience to overcome the Difficulties of the new Oath and therefore
Funeral Sermon and I shall proceed to discourse upon it in the same Order and begin with that which he will think the severest Part of it which is to shew That though what he said of the late Dean of Canterbury were true yet no Man ought as I believe few will believe it upon his Authority because he hath so contradicted himself and the most serious Parts of his own Writings and is so apt to write his own Fancys and Inventions for truth and to write with Biass and Partiality to serve a Turn to prevaricate and play Tricks with his own and other Mens Work to let himself be transported with Passion which hinders him from writing in cool Blood and is not a whit also behind Varillas in that bold Quality (a) Reflexions on Varillas p. 15. which he tells him he loves not to set down by its proper Name To prove this Charge which I have drawn up against him I must now and then mention Things which are not commonly known of him beginning with that Circular Letter which he sent to all the Bishops of Scotland above 20 Years ago In this Letter he boldly reflected upon them and the Clergy for frequenting the Court and great Mens Houses for keeping of Coaches though the Primate was the only Person that kept a Coach among them and for converting the Money of their Ecclesiastical Revenues to their own proper Uses The several Copies of this Letter were all or most of them written in his own hand writing that which I saw was left in England by the worthy Primate of his Name when he was Archbishop of Glascow and among others it was read by Dr. Stillingfleet Dr. Fowler and Dr. Hascard who pretended to lose it and I appeal to them not only for the Truth of these few Reflexions which I remember in it at this distance but for the Impudence of the whole Letter which I heard one of them say he could not have believed unless he had seen Not long after the Writing of this Letter he came to London where the Reflexions above-mentioned and others were the common Topicks of his Discourses upon the Clergy Dr. Outram once told me that he entertain'd him as I remember at the first Visit which he gave him upon the subject of Clergy-mens haunting of Courts and Noble-mens Houses but the next day the good Doctor hapning to take the Air in St. James's Park saw his young Reformer in the Mall walking and stalking with Two or Three Foreign Ministers and this with some other Observations which he and some others made of his Plying at Court particularly at St. James's and being seen above all Divines about the Town in Noble-mens Houses and in their Coaches made him lose his respect for him and presage Things of him in some ominous Expressions which have since come to pass The World knows very well how contrary the whole Course of his Life hath been and still is to these Self denying Pretensions and particularly as to the Levying and Taking Fines for Church Lands and Converting them to his own and not to the Churches use which he condemns in his (a) P. 80. History of the Rights of Princes It must needs lessen the Credit of any Writer thus to be at Variance with himself and to practise contrary to what he would impose upon others One cannot but suspect such a Man for a Pharisee who is for tying Burthens upon other Men which he will not bear himself and so much Enthusiasm and Hypocrisy as must go to make a Clergy-man discern Motes in his Brethrens Eyes and not see the Beam in his own will easily incline him to write for a Party to side with Interest against Truth to set up Heroes and Heroick Examples for his own Cause and to flatter their Memories as indecently as the French Clergy in his Opinion did the French King who he (b) Pref. to the History of the Rights of Princes p. 96. tells us Considered more what were the Highest Things that could be said of him than what was either true in it self or suitable to the Gravity and Sincerity of their Profession It must needs astonish a Man to read so many Passages in this Book I mean his History of the Rights of Princes which have now a very scurvy Aspect upon him and shew how disagreable the Practices of the Bishop are to the Precepts and Censures of the Doctor and how the one do thwart and contradict the other But because the large Field of Matter I have in view against him will not let me insist upon them I desire my Reader at his leisure to cast his Eyes upon the (c) P 7 11. 14. 30 32. 34 48. 73. 80. 88. 97. 117. 118. 138. 161. 203. 226. 293. 320. Pages cited in the Margent and thereupon to make a little Reflexion and then I am confident he will be apt to think That as little Credit is due to him as he (d) P. 8. of the History of the Rights of Princes saith is to the Greek Writers who when they like a Bishop praise him so unreasonably and reproach others so incredibly that it is hard to tell what we ought to believe But God be thanked that is not our Case yet for let him or others like him praise some or reproach others of our Bishops as they please we know both them and what to believe and will take care to transmit Truth unto Posterity From that I fear now invisible Manuscript and the History of the Rights of Princes let us proced to his modest and free Conference between a Conformist and a Nonconformist Printed at Glascow in Seven Dialogues 1669. In the Seventh Dialogue he tells the Noncon That the first Precedent in History for Subjects fighting upon the Account of Religion was Pope Gregory the Seventh who armed the Subjects of Germany against the Emperour Henry the Fourth and that the latest is the Holy League of France from which our whole Matter saith he seems transcribed and then asks Noncon If he was not ashamed in a Matter of such importance to symbolize with the worst Gang of the Roman Church for saith he the better Sort condemn it And I think we have much more Reason after the Writing of this to ask him the same Question and if he had any Conscience or Shame one would think he should be ashamed to symbolize with them and to see himself and the greater part of the Church of England if they can now be said to be of the Church of England follow the Example of the worst part of the Church of Rome Methinks he should blush now at this just Reflexion if Something as bad as he thinks the Order (a) Pref. to the History of the Rights of Princes p. 39. did not set him above the Modesty of Blushing and make that of Pasquin as true of himself as he says it is of the Archbishop of Paris (b) Ibid p. 41. Pudebit sed non
broken loose from the common Measures of Honesty and Shame and to pay his Reader in false Coin which he truly tells Varillas is more Criminal in History than in other Matters and the least I can say of this pretended Willingness of Luther to make up the Difference between those of Ausbourg and them of the Helvetian Confession by a middle Opinion is what he saith of Varillas That it is all Vision his own Invention and composed out of his own Imagination to serve the popular Design of Comprehension which Dr. Sherlock bemoaned before he took the Oaths That it was still carried on by our Latitudinarians to the indangering of every Thing that hath been received for Catholick and Fundamental in Christianity in the purest Ages of the Church Indeed Comprehension and in order thereunto an universal unlimited Toleration was for many Years the great Diana of our Funeral Preacher and those who doubt of this may soon satisfy themselves in his old Acquaintance Mr. Papin's (b) P. 410. 414. 419. 420. 421. 422. Book entitled La tolerance des Protestants c. in which he vindicates what he had written for Toleration in a former Book entitled La Foi reduite à ses justes bornes and a great part of his Vindication of it consists in Copies of Dr. Burnet's Letters wherein he highly commends the ' foresaid Book and another more extravagant in Latin on the same Subject written by Strimesius But the horrour Papin had of this boundless Latitude which our Church of England Universalist Approved and which as he observes ends in absolute Scepticism gave him a Pretence of turning Romanist to take Sanctuary in the Authority of the Church And now I am upon the Subject of Latitude I will beg leave of the Reader to tell him a Story of Toleration or Comprehension for the Difference sometimes is not great between them which in the end will touch a little on our Preacher of whom I must observe once for all That it is his Opinion that (c) Reflections on the History of Varillas p. 7 8. an Historian who favours his own Side is to be forgiven though he puts a little too much Life in his Colours when he sets out the best Side of his Party and the worst of those from whom he differs and if he but slightly touches the Failures of his Friends and severely aggravates those of the other Side though in this he departs from the Laws of an exact Historian yet this Biass is so Natural that if it lessens the Credit of the Writer yet it doth not blacken him This shews how apt he is to favour his own Friends and his own Party beyond what is just and true and being a known Latitudinarian by his own Rule we can never safely trust him when he commends or defends any of his Friends of that Side And it was upon the Score of Latitudinariism and mystical Devotion that he loved to extol Dr. Layton though by some Canons he hath cited in his History of the Rights of Princes he was an Usurper of the See of Glascow as Dr. Tillotson was esteemed to be in a more offensive Degree of the See of Canterbury But to return to his admired Dr. Layton he was so great a Libertine in Comprehension that he freely offered to receive the ejected Presbyterian Ministers without Episcopal Ordination if they would come in and to transact all Things in the Government of the Church with his Presbyters by plurality of Suffrages strictly speaking as if he were no more than a Presbyter among them Archbishop Burnet into whose Chair he intruded told Dr. Gunning Bishop of Ely this Story of his Intruder and he wondering that any Bishop should give up that Power without which he could not act as Bishop asked Dr. Burnet of the truth of it which he positively denied This denial of his obliged the good Archbishop for his Vindication to refer Bishop Gunning to a Book which he had left with a Friend for the truth of what he had told him of the comprehensive Latitude of Dr. Layton I saw the Book and remember it was printed at Glascow and it so fully satisfied the Bishop that he took it home with him but before he went made some Reflections on the want of Ingenuity in Dr. Burnet and concluded his Animadversions upon him with a Trick he shew'd himself It relates to a Book called Naked Truth which the Bishop intended to answer Dr. Burnet among others hearing of it come to wait upon him and when that Discourse arose between them he asked the Bishop upon what Scheme he intended to make his Answer He who was one of the most frank and communicative Men in the World told him how he would answer it from Part to Part which the Doctor observing with Design carried every Thing away and being a swift and ready Writer printed his Answer to it before the other had finished his I said before that he was also an Admirer of * I suppose he is the Angelical Man of whom he speaks such hyperbolical Things in the plural Number and promises a particular Account of him in his Pref. before Bedel's Life Dr. Layton upon the Account of mystical Devotion for he was an Enthusiast of the first magnitude and it was a great Mischance that this Preacher preached not his Funeral Sermon And as upon that Account he admired him so was he wonderfully taken with Labbades Writings and would have perswaded the Duke of Lauderdale to send for him into Scotland One of his greatest London Friends hath also cold me what Pains he and some others formerly took to correct the Enthusiasm of his Temper and keep him from plunging himself into mystical Divinity And when he was Professor at Glascow he was got so far into a Fit of it that he set up for an Ascetick and once being in the Archbishop's House and discoursing with his Daughter upon some common Subject all on a sudden he leaped out of his Chair and with a Tone Look and Gesture all Extatick and Enthusiastical said Words to this Effect Now am I sure of my Salvation now am I sure that if the Earth should open and swallow me up this moment my Soul would go to Heaven I had this Story from the good Archbishop and I mention it because I have observed in very many Instances how Enthusiasm with its Religious Heats makes those in whom it is prevalent do the same ill Things that Atheism in the same degree makes others do They are indeed Depravations of the Mind very different in their Nature and Theory but they agree in the same unrighteous Practices and have a tendency to act the same Evils For if the Atheist does Evil because he believes not the Enthusiast will upon a thousand Occasions believe he may do any Evil. If the one sticks at no Means though never so wicked the other thinks the Goodness of the End will sanctify the most wicked Means In a word They both
contrary to every part of it as I shall shew in some signal Instances which were blemishes in his Life and will remain such Blots upon his Memory as no Apology will ever be able to wash out My first Instance shall be in his Apostacy from his own avowed Principle and Doctrine of the Church of England the once venerable Doctrine of Non-Resistance or Passive Obedience in which our Church hath taught her Children how they should behave themselves towards Men and approve themselves towards God if she and they should come to be persecuted for the Tryal of their Faith as the purest Churches and best Christians have been in former Ages He did not only (a) In his Subscription to the Book of Homilies subscribe to the Truth of this Doctrine and in the Profession of the Truth of it declare it unlawful to take up Arms against the King upon any Pretence whatsoever but pressed it upon the Consciences of Living and Dying Men And when he preached against Popery he asserted it not only in the most serious manner that good Divines use to do the most important matters of Christiany but with that Strength and Clearness which our Preacher saith is his peculiar Talent In his Letter to my Lord Russel in Nâ—wgate which the Reader will find in the (b) N. 3. Appendix he told his Lordship who did not believe that Doctrine what a great and dangerous Mistake he was in and that his disbelief of it which was but a Sin of ignorance before he was Convinced of the Truth of it became a Sin of a more heinous Nature after his Conviction and called for a more deep and particular Repentance and that if he dyed in a disbelief of it he was like to leave the World in a Delusion and false Peace and pursuant to this in his last Prayer with his Lordship on the Scaffold he said Grant Lord that all we who survive by this and other Instances of thy Providence may learn our Duty to God and the King What could a Man have said more in behalf of any Doctrine of the Christian Religion Or what could he have done more to convince the World he was in good Earnest than to publish it after he said it And yet in his Thanksgiving Sermon (c) Jan. 31. 1688. preached at Lincolns Inn he tells us That our Deliverance then the Phrase of the Revolution was the Lord's doing although it was brought about by the utter Violation of that Doctrine and the whole Duty of Subjects which results from it and then reciting the Strange means by which it was brought about We must not saith he here forget the many Worthies of our Nation who did so generously run all hazards of Life and Fortune for the Preservation of our Religion and the Asserting our Ancient Laws and Liberties Behold the Preacher at Lincolns Inn and the Confessor in Lincolns Inn Fields contradicting one another The Confessor told my Lord Russell That the Christian Religion plainly forbids the Resistance of Authority and that the same Law which established our Religion declares it not lawful to take up Arms upon any Pretence whatsoever But the Preacher now turned Apostate from the Confessor commends the many Worthies as he calls the Traytors and Rebels of our Country for soliciting a Foreign Prince and the Creature of another State to invade their own Sovereign's Dominions and assisting of him in the Undertaking till they had driven him out of his Kingdoms He saith It was generously done of them to run all hazards of Life and Fortune and he might have added of their Salvation too for the Preservation of our Religion and Liberties although he had told the World before that our Laws forbid the Preservation of them by those means nay that the Laws of Nature and the Rules of Scripture had not left us at Liberty to use them which was in effect to say That neither our Laws would have our Religion nor our Religion have it self preserved by the Means those Worthies used for its Preservation The Belief of the Lawfulness of Resisting when our Rights and Liberties should be invaded was a Sin of a dangerous and heinous Nature in my Lord Russel but the Practice of it was laudable in I know not how many Lords and Gentlemen more for preserving our Religion Laws and Liberties by it and if any of them since are gone out of the World in a Delusion and false Peace he is one of those Divines who more especially must Answer to God for it For it was after a close Consult with him and one or two more that a Motion was made in the House of Lords for Appointing a Day of Thanksgiving to God for having made his Highness P. O. the glorious Instrument of delivering this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power And then it was that our English Worthies as well as the Heroe under whom they acted were applauded in the Pulpits for the Success of that Glorious Enterprize which to think or speak of in a slighting manner was in his Opinion to be guilty of the foulest and blackest Ingratitude both to God and them One would wonder how any Christâ—an Man but more especially how a Christian Preacher should so plainly contradict himself and his most serious Doctrines and yet have the Confidence since to Reprint them as if he had never said nor done any Thing inconsistent with them Hear therefore what he saith of Religion our dear and holy Religion which the Worthies of our Nation run such an Hazard to preserve (a) Serm. preached on the Fifth of Nov. 1678. and Reprinted 1691. As for Religion the very Heathens always spoke of it as the great Band of human Society and the Foundation of Truth and Fidelity and Justice among Men. But when Religion once comes to supplant moral Righteousness and to teach Men the absurdest Things in the World to Lye for the Truth and to Kill Men for God's sake when it serves to no other Purpose but to be a Bond of Conspiracy to inflame the Tempers of Men to a greater Fierceness and to set a keener Edge upon their Spirits and to make them ten times more the Children of Wrath and Cruelty than they were by Nature then surely it loses its Nature and ceases to be Religion For let any Man say worse of Atheism and Infidelity if he can And for God's sake what is Religion good for but to reform the Manners and Dispositions of Men to restrain human Nature from Violence and Cruelty from Falshood and Treachery from Sedition and Rebellion Better it were there were no revealed Religion and that human Nature were left to the Conduct of its own Principles and Inclinations then to be acted by a Religion which inspires Men with so wild a Fury and prompts them to commit such Outrages and is continually supplanting Government and undermining the Welfare of Mankind In short such a Religion that teaches Men to propagate and advance and he might have
added preserve its self by means so evidently contrary to the very Nature and End of Religion This is Dr. Tillotson's fam'd Character of Religion and not to descant in long Applications upon it I desire my Reader to consider if it is not as applicable to the New as to the Old Fifth of November and the Worthies of the Protestants as well as the Popish Religion who conspired against James the Second as these did against James the First Tell me O ye Worthies of the Church of England who have hazarded your Lives and Fortunes to preserve our Religion Is it more lawful to Plot and Rebel for holy Church of England than for holy Church of Rome And is it not as much Priestcraft in our Divines to applaud you as Worthies for so doing as it was in the Pope to compare the Duke of Guise and his Partizans to those Jewish Worthies Jephtha Gideon and the Maccabees and do you not despise them for their sordid Flattery of you in open Contradiction to their own Doctrines and the Principles of that Religion which they pretend still to profess May I not say with Dr. Till against himself (a) Serm. Vol. 3. p. 77. That a Miracle is not enough to give Credit to a Man who teaches Things so contrary to the Nature of Religion and that (b) P. 20. the Heathen Philosophers are better Casuists than he This he said of the Jesuists and the Casuists of the Church of Rome for maintaining the Lawfulness of deposing Kings and subverting Government and yet without Blushing he maintained the Lawfulness of this in commending you But this is but one Instance of acting in contradiction to his own Doctrine when the appointed time of tryal came there are many more so well known that I need not mention them For indeed his whole Practice since the Revolution hath been one Series of Apostacy and by which he hath not only dishonoured his Memory and made all his other Good be evil spoken of but been a Scandal to our holy Church and Religion to which our Preacher saith he was such an Honour given the Enemies of them great occasion to Triumph their best and most stedfast Friends great occasion of Grief and Shame And lastly tempted loose and unprincipled Men to turn Atheists and ridicule our Priesthood and Religion and this he hath been told of in such different manners that I do not wonder (c) Fun. Serm. p. 27. it sank deep into him and had such influence upon his Health I cannot imagine but that one Letter which was sent to his Lady for him superscribed for Dr. Tillotson must needs disquiet him very much if he received it and read it It is written throughout with a serious Air and every Line of it speaks to his Conscience and because I know the worthy Gentleman who wrote it and that it is a full and clear Proof of what I have said I present my Reader but more especially the Preacher of his Funeral Sermon with a few Paragraphs of it if he will have the Patience to read them It begins thus (d) Letter p. 2. Sir I shall preface what I am about to say with an Assurance That I have formerly had the greatest Veneration for you as well for your Piety as good Sense and Learning that my Notions of Government are so large that the first Thing I ever doubtfully Examined that had your Name affixed to it was your Letter to my Lord Russel But your Actions since do less quadrate with that Opinion and seriously make me address my self to you to know how you reconcile your present Actings to the Principles either of Natural or Revealed Religion especially how you reconcile them with the Positions and Intentions of that Letter and consequently whether you have a Belief of God and the World to come (a) P. 5. But to come to your more particular Case I beseech you to publish some Discourse if you can clear Things to demonstrate either your Repentance of what you wrote to my Lord Russel or the Reasons that make that and what you now do consistent and that you with the usual Solidity with which you treat upon other Subjects justify the Proceedings and explain the Title of K. W. I know no Body hath a stronger and clearer Head and if you have Truth on your Side you can write unanswerably God's Glory and the Reputation of the Protestant Religion is at Stake Your own good Name calls for it and more especially because you have accepted a most Reverend and Devout Man's Archbishoprick A Man who hath given Evidence how unalterably he is a Protestant A Sufferer formerly for the Laws and Church of England and a Sufferer for those very Principles upon which that Letter to my Lord was written for those very Principles which you disputed for when he had so short a time to Live Nay which you remember'd him of even upon the Scaffold with the dreadful Commination of eternal Woe Really Sir if there be any Truth if there be any Vertue if there be any Religion what shall we say to these Things What will you say to them You must be at the Pains to clear this matter that we may not believe the Boundaries of Right and Wrong the Measures of Violence and Justice quite taken away that we may not be tempted to (b) P. 7. speculative and from thence to practical Atheism This Change has made many sober Men sceptical and gone further towards the eradicating all the Notions of a Deity than all the Labours of Hobs and your part in it hath I confess more stagger'd me than any one Thing else I have been ready to suspect That Religion it self was a Cheat and that it was a Defect in my Un-Understanding that I could not look through it For I think if I can know my Right-hand from my Left our present Government stands upon Foundations that contradict all those Discourses which you as well as others have lent to Passive Obedience The excessive Value I have for you for your Knowledg your Judgment your largeness of Spirit your Moderation and many other great Qualities that have signaliz'd your Name once made you one of the greatest Ornaments of the Christian Church Apostacy from what you preached and wrote pretended to believe and would have others believe shake me so violently in the first Credenda of Religion That I beseech you if you think it necessary upon no other Account that you will publish such a Discourse at least for the Satisfaction of mine and other Men's Consciences who I can assure you of my own Knowledg lie under the same Scruples with my self have the same Scruples in relaion to the Government and the same Temptations to question Religion it self upon your Account (a) P. 8. I beg of God Almighty to lay an happy constraint upon me â—o do what may be most for his Glory and the Good of these Nations and I earnestly supplicate him that
St. Ambrose and St. Augustin but more especially one that desired to be an Orthodox Divine should methinks have well studied the Clements the Ignatius's the Polycarps the Irenaeus's the Tertullians and the Cyprians who (c) Ibid. he saith were the Glories of the Golden Age of the Church He had better by much have studied all them than all the Ancient Philosophers and had he went into all the best Things of those Fathers as it seems he did into all the best Things of Bishop Wilkins I need not fear to say he had been a much surer Guide as well as a more learned and profound Divine and had not been so ready at all times to treat away those Things with Dissenters which give such an Advantage to the Church of England above all the Reformed and more particularly enable her to answer that unhappy Question of our common Adversaries Where is your Mission The not being able to answer which as we can do hath contributed more to the Ruin of the French Reformed Church than all the late Persecution For he would have learned in those Fathers who lived nearest to the Times of the Apostles that Bishops were their Successors and next under Christ the Heads of their particular Dioceses From whom the Presbyters derived their Powers and to whom they and the People were to be subject for Christ's sake Had he thoroughly learned and imbibed this Doctrine which is best learned from those Fathers he would in all likelihood have been as loth to part from it as those the Latitudinarian Projectors are apt to call narrow and angry Men because they are not for Treaties of Comprehension with Dissenters upon such Terms as are not consistent with the Catholick and Apostolick Tradition concerning Episcopacy and Episcopal Ordinations and which if yielded to would be of more dangerous Consequence to the Religion we profess than all our Dissenters are or can be Notwithstanding all this our Preacher cannot but tell us (a) P. 17. of his tender Method of treating with Dissenters and of his Endeavours to extinguish that Fire and to unite us among our selves But he doth not tell us what were the Principles and Terms of Union upon which we were to be united nor how many of the Dissenters were to be taken in I can tell one Project which will take them all in and Roman Catholicks with them and that is to comprehend all who will subscribe to the Divine Authority of the Scriptures and all the Doctrines contained therein And if he shall say That such a Comprehension is too wide and such an Union more than all Divisions I am afraid when we shall know what this Man 's tender Method of Union or pious Designs as (b) Temp. Ch. Serm. preached Dec. 30. 1694 p. 17. Dr. Sherlock calls them were there will be Reason to say the same Thing of it and them For I make no difficulty to confess to the Reverend Doctor That I am one of those many Thousands who suspect his admirable Primates pious Designs of serving the Church his own way For he was always for blending of Orders under Pretence of Union and since he commenced admirable Primate he was wont to advise the Scottish Episcopal Clergy-men to submit to their Presbyterians and do all Acts of Compliance to their pretended Authority which was in effect to advise them not only to commit the highest Act of Disobedience and Schism against their own Bishops but to abjure Episcopacy with those who detest and abjure it as an Antichristian Usurpation over the Church of God The good Lord of his Mercy deliver his Church from such admirable Primates and Bishops as are Traytors to their own Order and from such tender Methods of Union and pious Designs of serving the Church as they may without breach of Charity be supposed to have Our Preacher as well as his Heroe may be numbred among those pious Designers for going to wait upon the Duke of Hamilton when he was last in London some days before he went for Scotland He took upon him to tell his Grace That he would ruin his Interest if he did not stick fast to the Presbyterian Cause for they began to fear that he was not for it to them And thereupon he advised him as he regarded his own Standing and the Kings Favour to be sure to promote the Presbyterian Interest This the Duke told to a Person of Honour before he left the Town And now hear O ye * See the Pref. before Bedel's Life Clements Ignatius's Polycarps Deny's Irenaeus's and Cyprians of the Golden Age of the Church was not this Apostolical Councel in a Man that bears your holy Character Could he do any Thing more unworthy of it than to advise a Prince of his Country to support those and stick to these who have declared your Holy Order to be Antichristian and abolished it as an Usurpation and deprived your Successors as much as in them lies for Usurpers over the Church of God Nay let all Men that read this Story consider it a little in its just Consequences and Reflections upon this wretched Man as he is a Bishop and a Bishop who formerly asserted the Office of a Bishop to be an Apostolical Institution Read what he hath wrote for it in his Preface to Bishop Bedel's Life It is not possible to think that a Government can be Criminal under which the World received the Christian Religion and that in a Course of many Ages in which as all the Corners of the Christian Church so all the Parts of it the Sound as well as the Unsound that is the Orthodox as well as the Hereticks and Schismaticks agreed The Persecutions that then lay so heavy upon the Church made it no desirable Thing for a Man to be exposed to their first Fury which was always the Bishops Portion And that in a Course of many Centuries in which there was nothing but Poverty and Labour to be got by the Employment There being no Princes to set it on as an Engin of Government and no Synods of Clergy men gathered to assume that Authority to themselves by joynt Designs and Endeavours And can it be imagined that in all that glorious Cloud of Witnesses to the Truth of the Christian Religion there should not so much as one single Person be found on whom either a Love of Truth or an Envy of the Advancement of others prevailed so far as to declare against such an early and universal Corruption if it is to be esteemed one When all this is complicated together it is really of so great Authority that I love not to give the proper Name to that Temper that can withstand so plain a Demonstration For what can a Man even herited with all the Force of Imagination and possessed with all the Sharpness of Prejudice except to the Inference made from these Premisses That a Form so soon introduced and so wonderfully blest could not be contrary to the Rules of the Gospel
which I commiserate from my heart but am much more concerned that you do not leave the World in a Delusion and false Peace to the hindrance of your Eternal Happiness I heartily Pray for you and beseech your Lordship to believe that I am with the greatest Sincerity and Compassion in the World My Lord Your Lordships most Faithful and Afflicted Servant J. Tillotson Printed for R. Baldwin 1683. No. IV. To the KING' 's most Excellent Majesty James the Second c. The Humble Address of the Bishops and Clergy of the City of London WE your Majesties most humble and Dutiful Subjects do heartily condole your Majestie 's loss of so dear a Brother of Blessed Memory And do thankfully adore that Divine Providence which hath so Peaceably setled your Majesty our Rightful Sovereign Lord upon the Throne of your Ancestors to the joy of all your Majesties good Subjects And as the Principles of our Church have taught us our Duty to our Prince so we most humbly thank your Majesty for making our Duty so Easie and pleasant by your gracious assurance to defend our Religion established by Law which is dearer to us than our Lives In a deep sence whereof we acknowledg our selves for ever bound not only in Duty but gratitude to contribute all we can by our Prayers our Doctrine and Example to your Majesties happy and prosperous Reign And with our most sincere promises of all Faith and Allegiance do humbly implore the Divine goodness to preserve your Majesties Person and to establish your Throne in this World and when he shall be pleased to Translate you hence to bestow on you an Eternal Crown of Life and Glory No. V. IN the Name of God Amen Before the Lord Jesus Christ Judge of the Quick and Dead We long since became bound by Oath upon the sacred Evangelical Book unto our Sovereign Lord Richard late King of England That we as long as we lived shall bear true Allegiance and fidelity towards him and his Heirs succeeding him in the Kingdom by just Title Right and Line according to the Statutes and Custom of this Realm have here taken unto us certain Articles subscribed in form following to be proponed heard and tryed before the just Judge Christ Jesus and the whole World But if which God forbid by force Fear or violence of wicked Persons we shall be cast in Prison or by violent Death be prevented so as in this world we shall not be able to prove the said Articles as we wish Then we do appeal to the high Celestial Judge that he may judge and discern the same in the day of his supream Judgment First we depose say and except and intend to prove against Henry Darby commonly called King of England himself pretending the same but without all Right and Title thereunto and against his adherents fautors Complices that they have ever been are and will be Traytors Invaders and Destroyers of God's Church and of our Sovereign Lord Richard late King of England his heirs his Kingdom and Common-wealth as shall hereafter manifestly appear In the Second Article they declare him Forsworn Prejured and Excommunicate for that he conspired against his Sovereign Lord King Richard In the Fourth they recite by what wrong illegall and false means he exalted himselfe into the Throne of of the Kingdom and then describing the miserable State of the Nation which followed after his Usurpation they again pronounce him Perjured and Excommunicate In the Fifth Article they set forth in what a Barbarous and inhuman manner Henry and his Accomplices Imprisoned and Murthered K. Richard and then cry out wherefore O England arise stand up and avenge the Cause the Death and injury of thy King and Prince If thou do not take this for certain that the Righteous God will Destroy thee by strange Invasions and foreign Power and avenge himself on thee for this so horrible an Act. In The Seventh they depose against him for putting to Death not only Lords Spiritual and other Religious Men but also divers of the Lords Temporal there Named for which they pronounce him Excommunicate In the Ninth they say and depose that the Realm of England never Flourished nor Prospered after he Tyrannically took upon him the Government of it And in the Last they Depose and protest for themselves and K. Richard and his Heirs the Clergy and Commonwealth of the whole Realm that they intended neither in word nor deed to offend any State of men in the Realm but to prevent the approaching Destruction of it and beseeching all men to favour them and their designs whereof the First was to Exalt to the Kingdom the true and lawful Heir and him to Crown in Kingly Throne with the Diadem of England No. VI. THat all Parliaments and Ambitious selfe seekers in them who under pretence of publick Reformation Liberty the Peoples ease or welfare have by indirect Surmise Policies Practices Force and new Devices most Usurped upon the Prerogatives of their Kings or the Persons Lives Offices or Estates of such Nobles great Officers and other Persons of a contrary Party whom they most dreaded maligned and which have imposed new Oaths upon the Members to secure perpetuate and make irrevocable their own Acts Judgments and unrighteous Proceedings have always proved most abortive successless pernicious to themselves and the activest Instruments in them The Parliaments themselves being commonly totally repealed null'd and the Grandees in them suppressed impeached condemned destroyed as Traytors and Enemies to the Publick in the very next succeeding Parliaments or not very long after That Kings Created and set up meerly by Parliaments and their own Power in them without any true Hereditary Title have seldom answer'd the Lords and Commons Expectations in the Preservation of their just Laws Liberties and Answers to their Petitions yea themselves at last branded for Tyrants Traytors Murderers Usurpers Their Posterities impeached of High-Treason and disinherited of the Crown by succeeding Kings and Parliaments of c. From these Three last Observations we may learn that as Parliaments are the best of all Courts and Councils when duly Summoned Convened Constituted Ordered and kept within their Legal Bounds So they become the greatest Mischiefs and Grievances to the Kingdom when like the Ocean they overflow their banks or degenerate and become through Sedition Malice Fear or Infatuation by Divine Justice promoters of corrupt sinister Ends or Accomplishers of the private Designs and ambitious Interests of particular Persons under the disguise of Publick Reformation Liberty Safety and Settlement No. VII ALtho' it can no way be doubted but that His Majesty's Right and Title to these Crowns and Kingdoms is and was every way Compleat by the Death of His most Royal Father of Glorious Memory without the Ceremony and Solemnity of a Proclamation Yet since Proclamations in such Cases have been always used to the end that all good Subjects might upon this Occasion testify their Duty and Respect And since the Armed Violence and
other the Calamities of many Years last past have hitherto deprived us of any opportunity wherein we might express our Loyalty and Allegiance to His Majesty We therefore the Lords and Commons now Assembled in Parliament together with the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Council-Men of the City of London and other Free-Men of this Kingdom now present do according to our Duty and Allegiance heartily joyfully and unanimously acknowledge and proclaim that immediately upon the Decease of our late Sovereign King Charles I. the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England and of all the Kingdoms Dominions and Rights belonging to the same did by inherent Birth-Right and lawful undoubted Succession descend and come to His most Excellent Majesty King Charles II as being lineally justly and lawfully next of the Blood-Royal of this Realm and that by the Goodness and Providence of Almighty God He is of England Scotland and Ireland the most Potent Mighty and Undoubted King And thereunto We most humbly and faithfully do submit and oblige our selves our Heirs and Posterities for ever No. VIII An Account of several Considerable Services that have been done to the Government by vertue of the Powers given by the Act for Printing since the last Continuation thereof Feb. 13. 1692 shewing That there have been Five Private Presses and many Treasonable Pamphlets and Libels discover'd and seiz'd within less than Two Years viz. OCtober 29. 1692. Discover'd and Seiz'd a Private Press with a Libel near the Greek Church by So-Ho The Persons employ'd made their Escape May 2. 1693. Discover'd and Seiz'd another Private Press in S. James's street with 34 several Treasonable Pamphlets and Libels the Titles of which are as follow An Historical Romance of the War The Jacobites Principles vindicated A Vindication of the deprived Bishops Two Letters to the Author of Solomon and Abiathar A Vindication of some among our selves Eucharisticon or a Comment upon the Fast. The Humble petition of the Common People of England to the Parliament The Auction or Catalogue of Books A Letter to Mr. Samuel Johnson His Majesty's Speech with Reflections The Resolution of a Case of Conscience The People of England's Grievances A Specimen of the State of the Nation New Court-Contrivances or more Sham-plots A Bob for the Seamen An Answer to Dr. King 's Book A Dialogue between Sophronius and Philo-Belgius A Letter to Dr. Tillotson A French Conquest neither desirable nor practicable Lex Ignea or the Justice of the House of Commons for advancing a Title to the Crown by Conquest A second Letter to the Lord Bishop of Litchfield and Coventry occasion'd by a Letter to him from the Bishop of Sarum A New Song with Musical Notes The Sea-Martyrs A New Scotch Whim. A List of Ships lost or damag'd since 1688. His Majesty's Speech November the 4th with Explications The Bell-man of Piccadilly to the Princess of Denmark The Earl of Pembroke 's Speech about the Lords in the Tower Some Paradoxes presented for a New-Years-Gift from the Old Orthodox to the New serving for an Index to the Revolution Remarks upon the present Confederacy King William 's Speech to the Cabinet-Council Considerations upon the second Canon June 1693. Another Private Press seiz'd in Westminster with the late King James's Declaration and several other Libels About the same time another Private Press seiz'd in Long-Acre Jan. 17 1695. Discover'd and Seiz'd another Private Press in Peticoat-Lane in Spittle-Fields with the several Seditious and Treasonable Pamphlets following viz. A Ballad entitled The Belgic Boor. A Parallel between O. P. and P. O. Reflections on a Letter from S. Germains The humble Address to both Houses of Parliament Remarks on a Paper to restore the late King James Happy be Lucky or a Catalogue of Books c. Delenda Carthago or the true Interest of England c. A Dialogue between A. and B. two plain Country Gentlemen concerning the Times A Petition of the Prisoners in the Savoy shewing them to be neither Traytors nor Pyrates A Persuasive to Consideration and one Form of a Letter to Sir John Trenchard All which were found in the Custody of one James Dover a Printer committed to Newgate for the same Besides the above-recited Libels against the State many Heretical and Socinian Books have been seized and stopt particularly one Entitled A brief and clear Confutation of the Trinity which was publickly burnt by Order of both Houses of Parliament and the Author prosecuted And one other is lately taken with its Author call'd A designed End to the Socinian Controversie or a Rational and plain Discourse to prove That no other Person but the Father of Christ is God most High There have been Three Persons found guilty of High-Treason that were the Printers at some of the Private Presses above-mention'd one of which named William Anderton was Condemned and Executed There are Three Presses at least known to be lately remov'd from Public Printing-Houses in London into Private One from the House of one Bonny another from from one Astwood and another from one Andrew Sowle all Printers If the Design of these Persons who mannage these Presses were to do Lawful Work they may do that openly at home without Hazard or Disturbance It must therefore be concluded that they are gone into Private to Libel the Government Now Considering how absolutely necessary this Act for Printing hath been and is for the Security of the Common Peace and Good of the Nation It is hoped That this Honourable House will continue the same till they shall have leisure to take into their Consideration the Reasonableness of the Objections that may be made against the present Act or any Clause therein contain'd For should this be discontinu'd and the Press be but for a while without Restraint His Majestie 's Government would be left Defenceless against His Secret Adversaries at Home whilst he is hazarding His Royal Person Abroad against the Common Enemy the Consequences of which may prove so Fatal as not to admit of a Future Remedy No. IX A Catalogue of Books not yet Answer'd VIndiciae Juris Regii Being an Answer to the Enquiry into the Measures of Submission and Obedience c. A Discourse of the Sense of the Word Allegiance A Defence of the Vindication of the Lord Bishop of Chichester's Declaration An Answer to the Bishop of Sarum's Pastoral Letter which was burnt by the hands of the common Hangman An Answer to the Letter to a Bishop An Answer to the Historical Part of the Unreasonableness of a New-Separation Christianity a Doctrin of the Cross An Answer to Dr. Sharp's Funeral Sermon at S. Giles's A Vindication of some among our selves c. The Loyal Martyr Vindicated An Answer to Dr. King's Book An Answer to a late Pamphlet Entitled Obedience and Submission to the present Go-Government demonstrated from Bishop Overal 's Convocation-Book with a Postscript An Answer to Dr. Sherlock's Vindication of Allegiance due to Sovereign Princes An Answer to a Letter to Dr. Sherlock written in Vindication of that part of Josephus his History which gives the Account of Jaddus's Submission to Alexander against An Answer to the Vindication of the Divines of the Church of England who have taken the Oaths from the charge of Rebellion and Pruerjy An Answer to a Piece Entituled Obedience and Submission to the present Government The Title of an Vsurper after a thorough Settlement examined In Answer to Dr. Sherlock's Case of Allegiance due to Sovereign Powers The Duty of Allegiance setled upon its true Grounds according to Scripture Reason and the Opinion of the Church In Answer to a late Book of Dr. William Sherlock Entitled The Case of Allegiance due to Sovereign Powers c. Written by Mr. Kettlewel Dr. Sherlock's Case of Allegiance consider'd with some Remarks on his Vindication An Examination of the Arguments drawn from Scripture and Reason in Dr. Sherlock's Case of Allegiance and his Vindication of it ERRATA In the Preface PAge 2. l. 15. r. those l. 17. r. such publick l. 31. d. then p. 3. l. 3. from the bottom after up r wâ—…h p. 6. l. 3. d. alone l. 14. r. very in marg r. another and for Prebendary r. Prebend In the Book PAge 4. l. 5. r. works l. 28. after others r. contained in this Letter l. 34. for stalking r. talking p. 5. l. 36. for them r. whom p. 8. marg b. for qu'ile r. qu'ils p. 12. l. 2. r. the account p. 13. marg a. r. 1674 5 l. 32. for safest r. softest p. 19. l. 8. r. delated p. 20. l. 9. for Court r. Cause p. 21. l. 26. r. IN SACRAMENTO p. 22. l. 9. before of r. often l. 10. before his r. all p. 23. l. 15. put the comma after speaking l. 24. after and r. as I l. 30. r. came p. 26. l. 3. from the bottom before Men r. even p. 27. l. 10. r. truly l. 27. r. bear p. 29. l. 31. for Pope r. Paidre p. 31. l. 25. r. Molini p. 35. l. 4. from the bottom for of the r. for the p. 38. l. 13. d. and p. 39. l. 9. before justify r. would p. 44 l. 32. after asserting r. in effect l. 33. after between r. Sin p. 52. l. 18. for and r. as l. 23. r. accepted p. 53. l. 5. from the bottom instead of for r. of p. 54. l. 14. after insist r. so much p. 55. l. 13. for sacrificed r. crucified p. 57. l. 17. r. helped p. 58 l. 5. r. allowances p. 59. l. 19. after it r. only p. 60. l. 25. r. giving p. 65. l. 20. after many r. sects l. 24. for more r. worse p. 66. l. 6. after designers make a full stop l. 10. instead of for it r. fiâ—m l. 20. after to r. those p. 67. l. 28. for hate r. rate l. 35. d. an p. 69. l. 23 r. those p. 71. l. 11. r betakes p 73. l 5. from the bottom after Religion r was it not for makeing it a cloak for Ambition Avarice Robbery and Murther p. 75 l 14. after as r. some suspect p. 77. marg r. N. V. p. 81. marg Socrat. Hist Eccl. lib. 3. cap. 8. l. 15. after also r. hid p. 79. l. 20. after Revolution r. in words l. 21. d. said p. 83. l. 37. for them r. they p. 84. l. 10. r. they had all â—d to be l. 28. r. tells us p. 86. l. 17. r. the other p. 87 l. 36. r. vindicator