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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	bishop_n	church_n	succession_n	2,569	5	10.4652	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65419	A vindication of the present great revolution in England in five letters pass'd betwixt James Welwood, M.D. and Mr. John March, Vicar of Newcastle upon Tyne : occasion'd by a sermon preach'd by him on January 30. 1688/9 ...	Welwood, James, 1652-1727.; March, John, 1640-1692.; Welwood, James, 1652-1727.	1689 (1689)	Wing W1310; ESTC R691	40,072	42

from a more intimate acquaintance than your narrow Theatre could allow you obliges me to do that Justice to the Protestants abroad as to affirm That notwithstanding all the Resistance they made to their Tyrannizing Princes they are as much for Passive Obedience in its true and rational sense as the Church of England it self that is where the Commands of the Sovereign are incompatible with their duty they hold themselves oblig'd to suffer for their disobedience rather than to sin In all their Confessions of Faith they own Magistracy as the Ordinance of God and disapprove opposition to it in execution of Law But they never so far divested themselves of Reason as to yield up their Throats to be cut by their Princes turn'd absolute Tyrants when it was in their power to vindicate their Religion and Liberties by their Sword. That England concurr'd with them in this opinion appears as I told you in my Letter by the mighty protection they vouchsaft them in this their Resistance Moreover which I forgot to tell you in all the Convocations of the Clergy of England at that time there were vast sums given to carry it on and the preamble of ev'ry Act does fairly insinuate the lawfulness of that resistance made by the Protestants abroad against their Princes so that resistance was not only allowed by the Nation but likewise by the Church of England in a full Convocation of its Fathers And if the Church of England assisted so generously in the support of the Protestants abroad at a time when their Religion was Heresie by the Laws of their Country How much rather would these excellent Fathers of the Church have done it if their Religion had been settled by positive and fundamental Laws as it was after by several Edicts and Treaties What you say of the difference of the Government of the Empire and that of England I know but let me tell you as the Golden Bull is the great Barrer against Slavery there the same is the Coronation Oath here and consequently if the Germans may lawfully resist the Emperor or the Rex Romanorum upon breach of that Bull the same may the Representatives and Nobility of England do upon palpable breaches of the Coronation Oath for as the Golden Bull is the great security of the German aggregate Body against the incroachments of the Emperor the same is the Coronation Oath in England against the incroachments of the King. Fourthly You tell me you hold Passive Obedience to be founded on the word of God and maintain'd by the Church of England and contain'd in her Homilies To this I Answer 1. Tell me what opinion was ever broached in the Church without a pretence of Scripture to back it And what gloss can you put upon any Text of Holy Writ to prove your position but what has been a thousand times said and as many times refell'd Yet if you had allowed me a Copy of your Sermon I would have endeavoured to clear the sense of the Texts you make use of which I do not exactly remember so as to make nothing for your purpose And in your doing the one and I the other neither of us would have reason to value our selves upon that score since I fear none of us could outdo what has been again and again done already on that Subject In the mean time let me tell you that the simple stating of the Question solves all the Arguments you can bring from Scripture as I shall make appear in one word anon 2. As to Passive Obedience its being the Doctrine of the Church of England I have told you already that the Fathers of the Church of England contradicted it in Queen Elizabeths Reign And where can we find more authentick records of their Opinion and Doctrine than in the Printed Manifesto's and Acts made in Convocation As to the 39 Articles which is in place of a Confession of Faith and the Homilies wherein you say that Doctrine is maintain'd I 'll make bold to say that Passive Obedience in the narrow sense you take it was not so much as thought on at the time of their Publishing And albeit you should find a way to make them seem to speak for you the simple right stating of thē question answers them sufficiently It would seem to me that the Mitred Clergy and particularly that excellent Prelate My Lord Bishop of London should be at least as well acquainted with the Doctrine of the Church of England as any private Minister in a corner of the Nation and how far they have refell'd your fond Principle appears with a Witness in their committing the Government to the Prince in this juncture and a great many other publick actings If your Passive Obedience be the Principle of the Church of England how few Church of England-men are there in both Houses of Convention at present since they act so diametrically opposite to it And yet I perswade my self these Worthy Patriots would take it ill to be call'd of any other Church 3. To refell your Tenet of Passive Obedience in one word I need no more but to state the case fair and without equivocation thus Whate're can be said from Scripture or the acknowledgment of Protestant Churches Centers all in this viz. That it is unlawful to resist the Magistrate while he is lawfully such because he is Gods Vicegerent within his own Iurisdistion But when by his maleversations he divests himself of that Office and assumes a contradictory Character by trampling upon Laws and endeavouring to subvert the fundamental constitutions of the State contrary to his Coronation Oath in this case in my humble opinion He is no more justly a Magistrate nor the object of our Obedience and sua culpa amittit Imperium Upon which the Primores Regni and the Representatives of the People may lawfully fill up the Throne vacated by such palpable incroachments This being the State of the case all the Texts of Scripture you can produce for Obedience to Magistrates are to be natively understood and in a Logical propriety of predication asserted of Obedience to Magistrates when they are justly and lawfully such but the Relatives do not meet when the Magistrate by his own fault becomes dispossest of the Office. There is one thing more I would have you to take notice of to clear this head and it 's this There is a great difference betwixt resisting the Magistrate when he tramples upon the Religion and Liberty of any part of his Subjects in the execution of the Laws made against them and his doing of it in contradiction to Fundamental Laws already made in their Favours As for example albeit I should acknowledge that in Nero's time it had been unlawful for the Christians to resist him because Christianity was at that time contradictory to the Laws of the Empire Yet I cannot perswade my self but in case the Laws at that time had not only established the Christian Religion as the Religion of the Empire but had

evil doers nor Ministers of God for our Good except in the sense that afflictions and plagues are and so they are defective in the necessary Qualities of these higher powers to whom Subjection is enjoin'd in the Text. In your seventh paragraph after some expressions becoming the gravity of a Divine you will needs vindicate once more your not making any distinction when you term'd self defence an old Phanatick principle and the reason you give is because the Apostle made none in your Text. By the same reason you would make but a sorry comment upon many places of Scripture to instance one for all our Saviour commands us to swear not at all Now would it be here impertinent to distinguish betwixt the kinds of Oaths in order to explain what Oaths are lawful and what not because our Saviour made no distinction You have unluckily stumbled upon the Euripus in contradicting me for saying that it flow'd and ebb'd ten or twelve times in the natural day and you very confidently allow it no frequenter tides then the River Tyne This in any other would be called an unaccountable mistake the fewest motions any Author allows it being five Tides in the four and twenty hours And that my account is true I refer you to Sir George Wheelers Travels where that ingenious Gentleman gives you an exact Scheme of the ebbing and flowing of this Streight as he had it upon the place from Father Babin and the Millers thereabouts When upon this score you satyrically envy the happiness of Travellers I think such men as you are much more happy then they if Claudians description of the happy man of Verona be good For it seems he took Benacus lake for the Ocean and you take measures of all the Seas of the World by the River of Tyne Next you tell me you expected from me a great many Citations out of the Roman Law for resistance of higher powers and because of your dissapointment you charm me with four Heroick Lines Sir I did indeed tell you the Roman Laws fixt a great many boundaries to the Magistrates power and that the Tribunitial Office was lodg'd in the Plebeians for that very cause I also told you the Romans were of all People the most impatient of Slavery and gave you a hint why after the Government of Rome became more despotick the Emperours were oblig'd to confound the Tribunitial power with the Imperial dignity and all this you wisely pass over It were to transcribe too great a part of the civil Roman Law to instance all the Laws and Sentences against Arbitrary Government But let these two suffice at present The first is of Theodosius the younger Cod. Iustin. lib. 1. tit 24. Princeps tenetur The Prince is bound to the Laws on the Authority whereof his Authority depends and to the Laws he ought to submit The second is of Constantinus Leo in Bizantin pro communi The end of a King is the general good which he not performing he is but the counterfeit of a King. These two I rather instance because the first is a more ample commentary upon Trajans expression to the Praetor than I can my self agree to And the second a clear cofirmation of what I said in stating of the question that Princes divest themselves of that sacred Character by their trampling upon Laws As to your Rhyming albeit you have aped Cleveland in a great many expressions of kindness to my Countrey and have coppied verbatim out of one of his Letters that raillery of the Mares eating Thiftles yet you come not altogether up to the Stile of that ingenious Poet in your lofty Verses In the end of this Paragraph you tell me that my two last Paragraphs are such an Augean Stable of unkind falsities as will tire Hercules to clear and because they contain no Argument you vouchsafe them no other answer but get thee behind me Satan I acknowledg that in these Paragraphs I take notice of more than one single Augean Stable but you know with whose furniture Replenish'd And pray Sir is 't a falsity that you entail'd no less then damnation upon these that meddled with the Kings Forts Army Revenue c. Seeing not only in that Sermon but in your first Letter you repeat it in express words Was there no matter of Argument in what I told you of your rash Censures being levelled no lower than a Crown'd Head Was it not proper for you to answer what I said in relation to you charging me with Scandalum Ecclesiae for checking your inveighing against the Nobility of England Is it a falsity that you neither preach'd your self not would allow your Pulpit to others on the Thanksgiving day appointed for the late mighty Deliverance When you cannot but know that all honest Men of the Place exclaim'd against you for it And you know best what it meant instead of a Sermon on that day to have read in one of the Churches the Homily against Rebellion I am loth to rake up any more of the dung of this your Augean Stable since the naming of Particulars might occasion such Consequences as I do not wish you And my silence herein should oblige you to a blush for your manner of treating me But when you call all these things falsities you put me in mind of the Nature or rather Epologue of that Animal who darkning his own Sight by shutting his head into a hole fancies himself invisible to others Above all things I cannot dream how you came by the Office of an Exorcist I took it for one of the Orders of the Romish and not of the Reform'd Church but I confess I 'm oblig'd to you for a great many things I never knew before Now because your heavy charge of Rebellion was so clearly levell'd against the Nobility and Gentry of England for their medling with the late King's Forts Castles c. And by ther Resisting his Forces which more then once you say is but an other name for Rebellion It were easie to demonstrate that the Nobles and People of England have not only done so before in former ages but depos'd their Tyranizing Princes and alter'd the direct and Lineal Succession of the Crown tho they justly adher'd to the Royal Blood I shall only give you one instance of each of these As to their Resistance and medling with Forts c. We have the famous instance in King Henry the III. from whom the Magna Charta was obtain'd by the Nobles and People of England by the edge of their Swords Of the second Richard II. was a memorable Example where neither the fresh remembrance of his excellent Father nor his own promises of amendment could save him from having fourteen Articles of Maleversation exhibited against him and then deposed Of the altering the direct Lineal Succession we have a paramount instance in Cooke 4. inst p. 36.39 where notwithstanding Iohn de Beaufort Son to Iohn of Gaunt was in his Legitimation formally and expresly excluded from the Crown of England yet the Parliament entail'd the Crown upon Henry VII heir of Lyne to this Iohn of Beaufort and to the heirs of King Henry's Body and that even before his Marriage with Princess Elizabeth of the Family of York who in Cook 's opinion had the nearest right to the Crown in her own Person As to your last Paragraph I deserved to be laught at if I had troubled my self with a formal answer to your Physical questions as you call them Yet methinks I should have had more thanks for giving you a hint of your Distemper without a Fee then to have my words repeated otherwise then I wrote them For I spoke nothing of the principal Cause of diseases but told you that a Redundancy of Choler with a little of adust Melancholly produces more Tragedies in the Body of Man then the Iuice of the Pancreas is capable to do and perhaps you find it so to your own cost Let us not quarrel for the honor of the discovery of the Circulation of the Blood. If you be pleased to compare Andreas Cisalpinus and Harvey together I hope you will alter your opinion and if you send to me for the former it may ease you of a Pisa or Oxford journey Before I leave this I cannot but admire your skill in the Belles Letters for I have often read that Laurels were wreath'd about the Victors head but that they were stuck in their bosoms I owe it to your discovery I expected you would rather have bestowed it on Solomon then on Cisalpinus which I gave you a fair opportunity to do but when any thing of Divinity comes in the Play you are as silent as the Moon in an Eclipse to use your own words tho I knew not before she was more silent at time then any other and would be gladly informed what Language at other times she Speaks As to our Law Question I am not much concern'd on either side being in no great hazard of being either a Vicar or his Curat You know the reason why I proposed it and you may do in it as your Christian Wisdom shall dictate to you But what a wretched notion have you of the term Iure Divino when you confound it with not being contrary to the Law of God And that you fall not into so gross a mistake a second time I refer you to the excellent and learned Author you named his Irenicon where you may learn a better definition of it After so Learned an Answer to my Letter I expected one to my Postscript and thought you might perhaps teach the World some middle way betwixt the poor Protestants of Ireland's Resisting King Iames and their tamely yielding up their Throats to be cut but this so seasonable a Secret you keep to your self Thus I have done with you and your Letter and never any of Loyolla's Sect injoyn'd a more nauseous Penance on their Votaries then I on my self in giving you an Answer Take it as the last you shall be troubled with from SIR Your humble Servant James Welwood ERRATA Page 11. Line 14. for in this read in Thesi. p. 16. l. 27. for Barly r. Barclay p. 22. l. 27. for bold fright r. bodily fright