Contempt and Scorn of the current Doctrine of Passive Obedience Some would ask whether he does not exclude himself from the glorious number of Friends Nor will they be shy of affirming that he does so when they observe that he contends that they forgot their Duty both as good Christians Pag. 3. and good Subjects who declared for the Prince of Orange his now Majesty before the late King actually left the Nation Yet he seems not aware that while he blemishes these with setting up themselves against the Doctrines of Christianity he condemns Pag. 36. not only some of our Clergy but the Church of England for maintaining a Doctrine which he does not deny to be destructive to the Constitution of our Government and to Mankind by which one would be tempted to think that his business is to make Men not only out of love with Crowned Heads but with Christianity it self Pag. 36. As to particular Persons he confesses that the heat of Controversy has misled some of the Church of England to write too much in favour of wicked and tyrannical Princes even to the encouraging them to do worse than otherwise they would Where he taxes their Doctrine of Non-resistance with encouraging Tyranny and such excesses of it as the Tyrant would not otherwise presume upon Pag. 31. Nor does he less condemn the whole Church The Disloyalty says he of two other Parties have made the Church of England take into the contrary Extream and as a Jesuit wish'd it might do her much good in scorn So she had like to have pay'd too dear for the pretence and they who would now again sacrifice her to their Interest and Reputation are to speak softly none of her best Friends They pretend we have not suffered enough for our Religion to justify our Resistance Why according to their Principles we are never to resist whatever we suffer but to suffer on till there is not one left to resist Herein I confess he makes a true Representation of that Principle which himself runs into so naturally that he is not sensible of it But is not this by him judged to be an Extream to be avoided Does he not yeild that the Church of England has been made to take into this Extream out of abhorrence to the other Nay does he not in effect admit that himself and others sacrifice the Church to their own Interest and Reputation while that they may justify their Extream they condemn those who avoided both Scylla and Charibdis in Making to an happy Port along with our Caesar and his Fortune God forbid that it should still be Mens Interest to justify that Extream and let them enjoy the Reputation of never acknowledging an Error tho the most gross and pernicious But what a miserable Defender has our Church which must needs reject such Doctrines and Defences If Church-men are the Church States-men the State Truth may profane or lybel else the Great This Gentleman pretends to have the Scriptures Pag. 35. and all Primitive Antiquity on his side Vid. inf f. to which he would draw in the Church of England which upon a rational Construction cannot be thought to mean more than that we are bound to obey the King 's Legal Commands and not to resist him while he continues King nor has that any thing against the Supposition of a Civil as well as Natural Death And as to the two other Topicks it is to be considered 1. That the Scriptures meddle not with particular Constitutions but give a general Rule for Obedience which is more than bare Non-resistance according to those Constitutions which are God's Ordinance as he authorizes Human Laws in Civil Affairs not contrary to his own And 2. Pag. 3. This Gentleman himself sets aside all Primitve Antiquity when he confesses that in those times the Religion was contrary to the establish'd Laws and so Men could not be persecuted for it against Law at least not so as to come up to our case especially if we take in what he acknowledges farther The Roman Emperors says he under whom they liv'd So Jovian p. 85 86. Julian did persecute them legally vid. p. 91. were absolute independent Princes whose Will was the Law and the Constitution of the Empire differed vastly from that of England so that we are not under the same Obligation they were because our Princes have not the same legal Power as the Roman Emperors had but then I doubt not but we are as much bound to submit to the legal Commands of the King of England as the Primitive Christians to the legal Commands of their Princes But says he this was no part of the Controversy under the Reign of James 2. who had as little Law as Reason for what he did If this be not a giving up all Primitive Antiquity I shall never pretend to understand how words ought to be taken Since therefore neither the Scriptures Primitive Antiquity nor the Doctrine of the Church of England are against them who embrac'd and assisted in the Deliverance which his present Majesty vouchsaf'd us it became not this Gentleman who takes such pains to purge himself from having any hand in it to censure those Worthies who had as not behaving themselves like good Christians and good Subjects Pag. 3. Pag. 3. And to call them a few is almost an equal Reflection upon the honour of the Nation which has never been backward in freeing it self from Tyranny and vvas ready as a Man to act in this King's Service before they were so just as to lay the Crown at his Feet nay before Success had crown'd his glorious Enterprize which almost all were eager to evidence as they had opportunity and I may say of many with Mr. Cowley in his Description of Envy They envy even the Praise themselves bad won That the Body of the Nation were thus forward is manifest in their declaring by their Representatives that the late King had broken the Original Contract vvhich must have been before the Judgment pass'd upon it or ortherwise the Judgment were not warrantable Pag. 25. When the Gentleman vvill allow of no Title in his present Majesty but real Conquest over the Nation as vvell as the late King and lawful meaning lineal Succession either of vvhich Titles he supposes he may claim by he would do vvell to consider 1. That he reflects upon the great Representative of the Nation which founds it upon the others Misgovernment 2. He sets it all aside when he owns that this King does not claim by Conquest nor in truth could he be a Conqueror who was not only invited by those who had a just Ascendant over the Minds of the People but was pray'd for and receiv'd with open Arms by the Nation in general tho indeed such an universal Consent with such Inducements from Gratitude and the common Necessity ought to subdue all Scruples as much as the most real Conquest And this Gentleman must yeild
Peace when he judges it fitting notwithstanding Mens Oaths to defend all the Regal Priviledges they were not bound to defend this especially if the War were against Protestants in which case the Subject would take to himself the Judgment of the Justice or Expedience of the War as much as others do of the necessity of resisting Or suppose yet farther that the late King had discharged his Mercenaries and commanded the Militia by Law establish'd for the Defence of the Kingdom to march and fight against his present Majesty had not this been a legal Command The King 's legal Commands he agrees with me that we are bound to obey yet he with all agrees that it was unlawful to assist the late King against This before he was crown'd How then can the matter be adjusted without yeilding that the late King lost his Regal Power by assuming a Tyrannical one This may suffice to shew that they who resisted the late King did it not out of Principles either Anti-christian or Anti-monarchical and that they who are for the non-resisting Doctrine as it past for current in the last Reign and the foregoing and yet pretend a Zeal for the present Government do but daub with untempered Mortar and as they were not to contribute to the late Revolution so much as in their Prayers but on the contrary were to pray for the late King's Victory over all his Enemies and in effect that God would keep and strengthen him in his Kingdom as well as in that Worship which they could not but know not to be God's true Worship So if that misguided Prince should desert Ireland and return into their Arms for a Punishment of those Opinions which occasioned his Ruine their pretended Loyalty to this King if they prove true to their Principles must fall to the ground And the least puff of Wind adverse to us but prosperous to the Jacobites would blow up that Fire covered with deceitful Ashes to the extinguishing of which I shall readily devote my Service The Lay-Gentleman who has extorted my Reflections by his indecent Censure of the Subjects of this Monarchy who contributed towards the late Revolution thinks it clear that the Doctrine of Passive Obedience is no way concern'd in the Controversies now depending between the Friends and no Friends if not Enemies to their present Majesties having in his vain Imagination put it past question that the Williamites were neither good Subjects under the late Administration nor good Christians and true Members of the Church of England And that his good Christians and true Members are the only Persons whose Principles may be relied on now Yet since he will have the Sense of the Church to be known from the Cry of the Clergy and a Bishop supposed to be a Martyr for it may be presum'd to give the Sense of that Truth which he would be thought to attest to the last If this Gentleman will not hear me let him hear the Church for his Conviction in this matter The late Bishop of Chichester's Paper BEing called by a sick and I think a dying Bed and the good Hand of God upon me in it to take the last and best Viaticum the Sacrament of my dear Lord's Body and Blood I take my self obliged to make this short Recognition and Profession That whereas I was baptized into the Religion of the Church of England and sucked it in with my Milk I have constantly adhered to it through the whole course of my Life and now if so be the Will of God shall die in it and I had resolved through God's Grace assisting me to have dy'd so tho at a Stake And whereas that Religion of the Church of England taught me the Doctrine of Non-resistance and Passive-Obedience which I have accordingly inculcated upon others and which I took to be the distinguishing Character of the Church of England I adhere no less firmly and stedfastly to that and in consequence of it have incurred a Suspension from the Exercise of my Office and expected a Deprivation I find in so doing much inward Satisfaction and if the Oath had been tendred at the Peril of my Life I could only have obey'd by Suffering I desire you my worthy Friends and Brethren to bear Witness of this upon occasion and to believe it as the Words of a dying Man and who is now engaged in the most Sacred and Solemn Act of conversing with God in this World and may for ought he knows to the contrary appear with these very Words in his Mouth at the dreadful Tribunal Manu propriâ subscripsi Johannes Cicestrensis This Profession was read and subscribed by the Bishop in the Presence of Dr. Green the Parish Minister who administred Dr. Hicks Dean of Worcester Mr. Jenkin his Lordship's Chaplain Mr. Powell his Secretary Mr. Wilson his Amanuensis who all communicated with him Here 't is observable 1. That the Bishop as fallible as an inferior Clergy-man died in that Opinion which he had profess'd and inculcated in his Life-time so warmly and so often that himself believ'd it Tho it may be a Question Whether he would on his Death-bed have affirmed as he had done in his Pulpit where Mens Affirmations ought to be as solemn as at the last moments of Life Sermon at Tunbridg That they could not enter into Heaven without particular Repentance who in derision were called Ignoramus Jury-men because they would enquire into the Credibility of Witnesses and scorned to enslave themselves to the Directions of Judges or more powerful Influences from White-hall And tho it seems the Tower had not wean'd him from his fondness of Passive Obedience perhaps it did from that which he had express'd towards our then Court's firm League with France while he believ'd it design'd to curb none here but the Fanaticks Vid. the Defence of his Profession concerning Passive Obedience and the new Oaths Ed. Anno 1690. These severe Truths tho in proof beyond Contradiction I should gladly let lie buried with him were not his Ghost still kept walking to do Mischief And if the Authority of a Man's Person or Office shall without any other ground be set up to condemn the far greatest number of Persons of at least equal Credit and Station it is no more than requisite to shew that this Man is not more than others exempted from Errors and the common Incidents to Humanity 2. The Bishop shews that the Doctrine of Passive Obedience which he had inculcated as the Doctrine of the Church of England and which he found himself oblig'd to propagate at his Death is so far concern'd in the Controversies now depending that upon the account or in consequence of holding to it he had incurr'd Suspension and expected Deprivation for not taking the Oath of Allegiance to our present King and Queen wherein he abundantly confutes our Son of the Church And all the Authority which can be deriv'd from the Bishop's Dying-Declaration to prove the Doctrine of Passive Obedience
to be the Doctrine of the Church of England equally proves that this is essential to the Controversies depending between the Friends of the late Government and the happy Subjects of this As a just Corollary from which we may affirm that no Man who is true to the Doctrine of Non-resistance or Passive Obedience can bear Faith and true Allegiance to our King and Queen In consequence to which as I have above shewn such are bound to their Power to assist the late King and to maintain the Regal Rights which he still claims as King of England if they are entrusted with any of our King's Secrets to reveal them to the other and to employ all those Advantages which his Majesty's Favour may give them Preface to the Hist of Passive Obedience towards the advancing that Interest to which they believe themselves unalterably bound And tho our King with the Generosity of Alexander may trust himself with them of whose at least probable Designs he may have certain Information yet no Man need wonder that his Friends offer him the Notice and that they would have that Doctrine extirpated out of the World without vvhich it vvere impossible for him to have an Enemy in the English Nation but a Papist And even among them I dare say all but the bigotted Slaves to their Clergy are sensible of the benefit of his Protection and may encourage themselves in civil Obedience to him who is King over them from the Examples of St. Anselm with other holy Men and the generality of their Clergy who quietly obeyed the Power vvhich protected them without considering whether the Person who administred it stood next in the Line or no. And tho it may be excusable for a dying-Man to justify his own Sincerity to his private Friends yet when the matter vvhich he affirms is of such Consequence to the Peace of that Government which had rescued him and the Church in vvhich he had such a Trust from impending Ruin and afforded it and him sure Protection tho he had disabled himself from farther benefit he ought not certainly to have taken such Pains to transmit his Opinion to the knowledg of the unthinking Vulgar who vvere likely to be influenced by it unless he vvere certain beyond the least shaddow of doubt that this was not only a Truth but of such a nature that the Sin of Ignorance in others were damnable Or else that the Restoration of the late King were preferrable to Submission to this The last I hope his Admirers vvill not say and since the first evidently depends upon Points of Lavv tho ignorance of human Law cannot reasonably excuse before Men who know not the Heart and when the Plea ought to be allowed when not yet there is no doubt but it will before God But who would not be impatient to find our great Law-Casuist Dr. H. to justify his Disaffection to the Government under the Umbrage of the Bishop's Declaration and to boast himself a Confessor to this pretended Martyr vvithout producing more colour for it than a dying-Bishop's Belief that this is in Consequence of adhering to the Religion of the Church of England Had any one publish'd thus much in the Reign of Innuendoes when Dr. H. was the Trumpeter to the Imperial Power in Contradistinction to the Political one he vvould have met with Col. Sydney's Doom who suffered for publishing Hicksian Treason all over his own Study Jovian p. 236. And were Dr. H. to be judg'd by his own Law 't is certain he vvould be pronounc'd a Traitor if the Publication of this Paper vvere prov'd upon him For in his Jovian he says What tends to Treason is Traiterous The Lord Hollis his Book against the Bishop's voting in Capital Cases he says for the same Reason is an impious and treasonable Book because it abounds with Falsifications of Records c. and asserts that the King is one of the three Estates Pag. 237. And the Dialogue between the Tutor and Pulpit is a treasonable Piece because it misrepresents the English Government as if it were a Reciprocal Contract betwixt the King and the People and as if the Parliament ought whether or no the King pleas'd to sit till all Grievances were redress'd and Petitions answer'd By the last of which the Bishops were Traitors for their Proposals to King James And by the former Vid. the Bishops Proposals all those Passive-Obedience-Men are Traitors who publickly maintain an Opinion which necessarily implies that the Right of the last King could not be alter'd or diminish'd for any matter which induc'd King William to undertake our Deliverance If Men of the Doctor 's Opinion will be exasperated for being driven from their Coverts they should consider that they ought rather to be thankful that they are put to no further Mortification while they cease not to give jealousy to the Government by maintaining or patronizing what is inconsistent with that Peace vvhich they are bound to pray for But Dr. H. it should seem Jovian p. 104. now aims at the Glory of taking that boldness and liberty of speaking and acting vvhich he says was common among Confessors by which they shewed the greatness of their Zeal to suffer for God and how much they despis'd that Authority vvhich was over them in Competition with their Duty to God And this may be to retrieve his Reputation for not calling the late King an Idolater Ib. pag. 96 a Bread-worshipper a Goddess-worshipper a Creature-worshipper an Image-worshipper a Wafer-worshipper c. which we might have expected for the making good his Vapour before he came to the Trial. Did his then Silence agree with that supernaturul Courage Pag. 297. which he vvas fully perswaded God would inspire him with And does it not seem odd that the Inspiration should seize him to the Prejudice of that Government under which alone it can reasonably be expected that Protestancy can be supported but should be vvanting in a Popish Reign The Jews had a Divine Caution against receiving even those Prophets who vvrought Wonders if they labour'd to withdraw Men from the Worship of the true God And surely Protestants would not scruple to reject the Doctor 's Pretences to Inspiration Vid. Dr. H. his Raviliac Redivivus which some vvould be ready to ascribe to that Spirit vvhich himself had found out for the fluency of some Mens Prayers or rather to that lying Spirit in the Mouths of the Jewish Prophets which encouraged Ahab to go out to fight for what had formerly been in the Possession of the Crown of Israel 3. The Bishop will have this Doctrine of Passive Obedience to be the distinguishing Character of the Church of England and therein admits that she holds it in a manner differing from all other Protestant Churches And if this be so the acting or believing according to it can be incumbent only upon the unfeigned Assent and Consent-Men But we of the Laity vvho believe our selves to be
true Members of the Church of England may be allowed to act without any regard to that Principle which vvould distinguish us from all other Protestants And how much soever some may be concern'd to keep up the Distinction 't is to be hoped that we shall be more wise and more true to the Interest of the Church universal If as the Bishop says the Religion of the Church of England has taught this and this is the distinguishing Character of this Church vvill not Men say that he makes this Church to have a Religion as well as Ceremonies of its own The Mischief of Separation A Prelate more deservedly eminent tells us That the sign of the Cross is the Right of Admission into the Church of England as Baptism into the Catholick But according to this Bishop the Admission into our Church ought to be upon the Condition of subscribing this Doctrin Jovian p. 227. speaking of the Church of England and himself It is she that taught him to preach up Passive Obedience like a Parasite Sycophant and Murderer Poor Man he suck'd it in with his Mothers Milk which his God-fathers and God-mothers were to have promis'd and vow'd in his Name And then tho he had not like Dr. H. who perhaps herein played the Plagiary from Jovian suck'd in this Religion with his Milk he might well have been baptiz'd into it The Reasons of this Bishop's maintaining and endeavouring to propagate his Opinion to the Disturbance of our present Settlement next to his Obligations to the late King which the first misunderstanding was not to erace were apparently 1. The sourness of the Milk which he had suck'd in from his Nurse or Mother which is known to have a great influence upon the Constitution of the Body and that upon the Mind insomuch that Mr. Dreyden and some other such Philosophers have insinuated that the Soul is nothing else but the Temperament of the Body 2. The prejudice of his Education whereby he was taught to believe this to be part of his Baptismal Vow Which being the only Reason that he has thought fit to bless us with as judging it sufficient in following this Episcopal Authority he who was bred a Pagan ought to be a Pagan still And if we believe a topping Divine of the Church of England Vid. Warley's natural Fanatick dedicated to the then Chancellor of England F. the Pagans can produce better Reasons for their Infidelity not only than any we have yet had for this distinguishing Piece of Religion but than can be brought for Belief in the true God without having recourse to the Scriptures interpreted by the Church But the Church which he complemented being the Church of England the Popery of his Notion went down very glibly at that time as the Authority of this single Bishop does with many now 3. The Weakness of his Judgment which is obvious not only in the wording his dying-Paper in such a manner as either condemns his own Church of Singularity or all others of Corruption in departing from that Religion which she alone has the honour to profess but farther yet if he were in his sound Mind at the subscribing his own or Dr. H. his Confession of Faith he would have reflected that tho he might have done enough to quiet his own Mind he had not us'd due means for informing himself of what he ought to press upon others as a necessary matter of Belief having debated it either with Divines who are but second-hand Casuists for this or else with Lay-men of the Gentleman's Opinion who would maintain the Doctrine of Passive Obedience and yet exclude it out of the Controversy which it has rais'd and keeps up I speak not this without grounds for in debate with a Divine of our Church whose great Worth Learning Moderation and Integrity have justly rais'd him above all degrees in Station the Bishop did frankly confess that he believ'd the Question to issue in a Point of Law And for his Satisfaction he had discours'd with a certain eloquent Person whom he nam'd suppos'd to have suck'd in Law with his Milk as the Bishop did his new Divinity nurss'd up since Queen Elizabeth's days But this Person being one who has acted upon the same Principle and makes it his Glory not to have his Opinion alter'd by his place I think no Man who observes what lame work the Lay-Gentleman has made of endeavouring to reconcile the Doctrine of Passive Obedience with Submission to our present Government will wonder that he could not receive Satisfaction from one who held the same Premises with himself but denies the Conclusion This ground for the Bishop's Pertinaciousness I must own is not evident to all but his consulting Dr. H. is who I may well say is hardened and steel'd in his Profession beyond hopes of Conviction since by the Writer of this Vid. Letter to Jovian Ed. An. 1683. p. 14. he was long since admonish'd of having shamefully abus'd those Authorities on which he relied and of having by his Concessions and Contradictions fully set aside all that he would enforce and this at a time when this Writer ran the utmost hazard by exposing a Man thought so highly to have serv'd them who were in Power and called themselves the Government And when the Doctor by refuting the Objections might have had the Reward as vvell as boast of a Triumph Yet for the Comfort of them vvhom he then trampled upon he had disabled himself of his Sting vvhile he quitted the Authority of a Preacher of God's Law for a partial Reporter and Expounder of Man's His Errors or Perversions as far they concern our present Controversy and Government may be reduced to two Heads 1. The Estate in the Crown and Derivation of it 2. The Rights or Prerogatives of the Crown 1. For the first he says this Kingdom is originally hereditary Preface Pag. 13.11.9.78.5.53.60 Jov. p. 38. Pag. 25. Preface Pag. 55. in an inalienable indivisible lineal Succession by the Original Custom and Constitution of the English Government ty'd to the next of the Blood Or as he has it elsewhere fix'd in one Family and lineally descending in Proximity of Blood With this Hereditary Monarchy an Interregnum or Vacancy of the Throne is inconsistent as also its descending upon two Heirs at once The Succession vvhich he describes he says is from God alone who hath given it to the Royal Family for a perpetual Inheritance and hath by his Providence ordain'd that it should come to one of them after the Decease of another according to Birth-right and Proximity of Blood Pag. 58. But God's Providential Appointment of one to reign he grants not of it self to carry the Right beyond the Person in Possession by such Appointment Wherefore tho God's Providence had often given the Roman Empire to a Man and some of his lineal Descendants after him he contends Pag. 46. that the Roman Empire was not Hereditary but Elective by the Suffrage
Worship which though not contain'd in Scripture were us'd in the Primitive Church which is an Individium vagum which some confine to the Life-time of the Apostles some extend to the whole first three Centuries some even to this according to the Doctrine of Infallible Tradition Suppose for Example that in such Assemblies as are form'd with or without leave of the Civil Power the Sign of the Cross be used as a Symbol of dedicating to the Service of Christ those who are let into Catholick Communion and this they judg useful to the present and according to the Primitive Church it will be a Question Whether the retaining of this against a particular Interdict of the Civil Power which is supposable at least is to be justifi'd upon these Grounds Put this Argument into Form and you will find he has more or less in his Conclusion than in his Premises Rightly taken I conceive it lies thus If the Gospel contains a Divine Establishment of Publick Christian Service such Publick Christian Service as has therein Divine Establishment no Authority upon Earth hath any right to prohibit But the Gospel does contain a Divine Establishment of Publick Christian Service Therefore such Publick Christian Service as has therein Divine Establishment no Authority upon Earth has Power to prohibit This being taken for granted he proceeds What no Authority upon Earth has right to prohibit may be done or perform'd notwithstanding the Interdict of the Civil Power But such Service ut supra no Authority upon Earth hath right to prohibit therefore it may be perform'd notwithstanding the Interdict of the Civil Power But he concludes contrary to the Laws of Arguing That those Christians who rightly worship God in the True Catholick Communion according to the Apostolical and Primitive Church have a right to hold such Assemblies for the Christian Worship as appear useful for the Church's Good Now if hereby he means that they who worship God according to the Scriptures even though taking in the Practice of the Apostles have not this Right unless they do it in the manner us'd till or at the end of the first three hundred Years after Christ which is the modestest acceptation of Primitive Times Here by adding of Circumstances his Conclusion has really less than the Premises because it ties up them whom the Scripture has left free and takes from the Authority of Scripture where the Foundation was laid and undermines it by going to support it with the specious words of Apostolical and Primitive which still are of doubtful Acceptation Whereas some believe that no manner of Worship is to be term'd Primitive which was not truly Apostolical that is us'd by the Apostles themselves others call every thing within those three Centuries at least Primitive and therefore Apostolical But to be sure here is a very false way of Arguing if he uses any or else 't is gratis dictum But take it for an Argument and then to his purpose there is more in the Conclusion than in the Premises for the Premises are only of such Publick Service as is contain'd and establish'd in the Gospel and thence he would conclude that whatever has been practis'd in the Primitive Church in the Publick Service of God may be continued notwithstanding the Interdict Nay he would go farther That they may in their Assemblies practise according to their own Judgment of what is useful for the Church's Good If it be said that he means no more than that they may hold such Assemblies for Christian Worship as appear useful that is of Five besides a single Family 22 Car. 2. c. 1. or more as appears useful if he means not that they may assemble and worship in such a manner as appears useful he excludes the Worship out of the Assembly and then it may be a Silent Meeting if the Civil Power please and is less than his Premises warrant I must confess he seems to intend the amusing rather than satisfying his Readers by putting in the true Catholick Communion for he must mean either that what-ever Publick Service is according to the Apostolical and Primitive Church is in true Catholick Communion and so vice versa that what-ever is in true Catholick Communion is according to the Apostolical and Primitive Church so that the Church becomes the Rule to the supplanting of Scripture or else that to worship God rightly and warrantably notwithstanding a Civil Interdict 't is not enough to be according to the Apostolical and Primitive Church unless it be in the true Catholick Communion that is with such Terms of Communion as Christ himself or his Apostles made Catholick and universally obliging and indeed in this sense though he has not observ'd it he comes up fully to the Force of his Argument The great Sanderson whose Judgment where it was according to that lumen siccum the general want of which is to be deplored is of great Authority has gone about to split the Hair between two Extreams in relation to Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and lays down what he says is most consentaneous to the Doctrine of the Church of England and moreover to the Laws of the Kingdom Sanderson de Obligatione Conscientiaa Pag. 209. Quod Doctrinae Ecclesiae Anglicanae Regni insimul Legibus maximè sit consentaneum Which by the way is an insinuation that the Church of England holds some Doctrine not consentaneous to Law and it may be the Canons of 1640 might be instanced in Now his Notion is that the jus condendi Leges Ecclesiasticas that is the Legislative Power in Ecclesiastical Affairs is in the Bishops Presbyters and other Persons duly elected by the Clergy of the whole Kingdom and duly assembled in a lawful Synod Upon this I would be bold to ask the Question Pag. 188. How this agrees with his Concession That the King is Supream Head and Governour over all Persons and Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil since his own Argument is That he who is Supream has the Power or Right to make Laws But the King is Supream wherefore P. 192. according to him the King and not the Clergy hath this Power This I think is the unforc'd Consequence from his other Assertion Potestatem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 esse potestatem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hoc est jus ferendi leges quae obligant totam communitatem esse penes eum solum Pag. 186. sive sit is singularis persona ut in statu Regiminis Monarchici sive plures ut in aliis qui cum summâ potestate toti communitati praest Nay he argues that it must needs be so in reason Praecipuus actus gubernationis praecipuam requiret potestatem c. Est autem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sive legum latio actus gubernationis supremus praecipuus Non ergo potest exerceri nisia persona habente aut saltem in virtute ex authoritate habentis supremam authoritatem jurisdictionem in communitatem sibi
the Political Constitutions of this Nation made in the compleat Exercise of the Soveraignty I am sure says he in this Realm the Soveraign cannot wrong nor injure his Subject Pag. 226. but contrary to the Political Laws where perhaps he may serve himself of Mr. Hobbs his Distinction Leviathan f. 98. that his Soveraign may commit Iniquity but not Injustice or Injury in the proper Signification And thus a King of England has Right to make his Subjects Slaves when he pleases Tho this naturally follows from the Doctor 's Tenets yet one would have thought that in Prudence this frightful Consequence should have been left for others to find out were it not that there was some reason to believe that by such Prints and Preachments the People had been sufficiently prepared for Slavery But here indeed the Doctor admirably distinguishes that this is with relation to particular Persons whom he may destroy one by one Pag. 192. or Company by Company yet he has no Right to enslave the whole People by altering the Constitution of the Government from a Civil into a Tyrannical Dominion c. Yet even in this Case he allows of no Resistance but that still being upon Supposition that the Power which was restrained in the Exercise a Power to act and not to act was vested absolutely in the Soveraign till he proves it so here all his Authorities from Scripture Homilies or elsewhere fall beside the Question which is of one assuming an absolute or imperial Power when the Constitution gave no more than Political one Vid. Fort. de laudibus Legum Angliae according to his own Quotation out of Fortescue explain'd by the whole course and design of that admirable Vindication of our Laws After all he owns the whole to be a Controversy of Law that all the Laws of Men are the Laws and Ordinances of God And so God's Law places the absolute Soveraignty where-ever Man's Law does Wherefore from the whole it follows 1. That Lawyers are the best Casuists in this Point 2. That if our Law requires true Allegiance to be paid to the King in Possession and allows of all Constitutions made by him with Consent of Lords and Commons duly represented then the new Oath of Allegiance is required by an Ordinance of God and they who refuse it fight against God For the not obeying lawful Authority is evidently more a resisting God than the forcibly opposing a pretence to Authority neither deriv'd from God nor Man This Inference I must own will not reach those Passive-Obedience-Men who believe that Monarchy is the only Govenment of Divine Right or that human Choice or Constitutions cannot intervene in the disposal of the Soveraignty nor yet Dr. H. his own Notion of the Original Entail of the Crown But till the Doctor has answer'd the Letter formerly address'd to him or rejoin'd to Mr. Johnson I should think this enough for his Conviction tho I do not expect that he will confess it For the keeping up a Reputation with a Party in hopes to become an Head is a probable means for making good Terms for ones self And then the Party may shift for themselves And this the Doctor may do the more honourably having dropp'd some Expressions which a Man of less Art and Subtilty than himself may easily turn to the Service of the Government that is uppermost In the mean while the poor Bishop either through the Prevalence of his Distemper the Weakness of his Judgment or Violence of the Doctor 's Importunity has been induced to subscribe a Paper which may do much harm among them to vvhom a Bishop's dying vvords concerning matters of vvhich he was no competent Judg are of more weight than the clearest Reasons The Censure of the Observations upon Mr. Johnson's Remarks P. 6. You have sign'd a kind of Post-humous Apology for your Judges and almost justified the Inhumanity of your Sentence and most undeniable Authorities Upon the Bishop's Principle of affected or acquired I am sure unnatural Religion the scurrilous Observator upon Mr. Johnson's Remarks chews the Cudd in repeating his delight in those Sufferings vvhich are more the Reproach of some of either Gown than Mr. Johnson's vvhich however this vain Writer if Humanity and the Consciousness of his own Deserts could give leave vvould justify ex post facto but out of his great Tenderness allows him the choice of Death as a gentle Commutation of Penance Upon this Principle he imputes to that extraordinary Person perfidious Apostacy from the Church of England and the abdicating his Religion together with his King threatens the Nation with Judgments because they have not kept their Master the Lord 's Anointed Vid. Tit. Page and charges all them who having sworn Allegiance to the late King swear now to this with Perjury Pag. 14. in swearing a direct Contradiction to what was lawfully sworn before as if we might not without danger of contradicting the former Oath go upon the Supposal that there may be a Civil as well as Natural Death of a King that an Oath sworn to a Person as legal King and in relation to the Laws has no force when the Law is either subverted or altered or that the Law may transfer Allegiance from the Person in Possession to a Successor legal by the Constitution of the Government without need of Absolution from any Power whatever Dr. H. would teach this younger Brother that paying Allegiance to such a Successor is part of the Oath tho indeed there is a Question between us what Succession the Constitution requires or warrants Jov. Pref. p. 53. The Doctor contends that Faith and Allegiance is promised to the possible Heirs according to the ordinary Rule of Succession the Original and Fundamental Custom of this Realm to which he gives the addition of Hereditary Vid. Pref. to Predictions of Nostredamus Grebner c. If therefore as I have formerly shewed at large and now in the following Treatise our Allegiance has been duly transferr'd according to the Original and Fundamental Custom of this Realm whether Hereditary or not or how far still being subject to that Custom then this removes all danger of Contradiction and necessity of Papal or other Absolution But the Spirit of Contradiction is a Disease which assimulates whatever comes in its way and it may be very dangerous to meet this Zealot in his Paroxisms lest he drive you to the Wall and force you to confess that a legal King and a Tyrant are but the same under different Names and that the maintaining Tyranny is imply'd in swearing to defend all the Rights of this Imperial Crown and Political not Despotical Monarchy I am not enough dispos'd for Sport to observe all the Follies of his Invective but I am sure the Government will not allow Mr. Johnson's sound Assertion Pag. 3. that no Man can authorize himself in Abatement of the Guilt of denying that Authority which made the Oath since that
dimittere But if no Act which is ineffectual in Law will justify the withdrawing Allegiance then none of the Instances will hold for to that purpose they are equally ineffectual Yet who doubts but the King doing what in him lies to alien his Kingdom gives pretence for Foreign Usurpations as King John did to the Pope's And whoever goes to restore the Authority of the See of Rome here be it only in Spirituals endeavours to put the Kingdom under another Head than what our Laws establish and to that purpose aliens the Dominion Vid. Bellarm. how the Pope hooks in Temporals in ordine ad Spiritualia Nor can it be any great Question but the aliening any Kingdom or Country part of the Dominion of England will fall under the same Consideration which will bring the Case of Ireland up to this where the Protestants had been disarm'd and the Power which was arm'd for the Protection of the English there Vid. Leges S. Edwardi put into the Hands of the Native Papists nor is it now likely to be restor'd to its Settlement at home or dependance upon England without vast Expence of Blood and Treasure Even the Author of Jovian owns Dr. Hick 's his Jovian p. 280. Ib. p. 192 193. that the King's Law is his most Authoritative Command and he denies that the Roman Emperor had any Right to enslave the whole People by altering the Constitution of the Roman Government from a Civil into a Tyrannical Dominion or from a Government where the People had Liberty and Property into such a Government as the Persian was and the Turkish now is c. No Clergy-man of the last or foregoing Reign having treated of Civil Government with more Temper and Judgment and yet with greater Applause of the warmest Men of his own Gown Falkner 's Christian Loyalty Ed. An. 1679. than the Learned Mr. Falkner of Lyn I shall be the longer in giving an account of his Discourse of Christian Loyalty which will prove an Authority on my side beyond what could be hop'd for considering the time when his Book came out with License and a Dedication to the Archbishop of Canterbury it being when Mr. Johnson by way of Composition against a threatned Suspension was oblig'd to drink his Coffee at home lest he should inlighten his Brethren who fill'd all places of publick Resort with their Pulpit-Law and the Dictates of their Guide Sir Roger. I must own that Mr. Falkner was in some things carried away with that Tide which if any of that Cloth besides Mr. Johnson had the Courage to stemm they had at least the good fortune to be less observ'd but the shewing wherein the Author of Christian Loyalty gave too much way to the Fashion or the Noise may yield farther strength and light to that Truth which will arise out of those very Clouds with which he might think requisite to obscure it His Treatise is in two Parts in the first he vindicates and endeavours to explain the Oath of Supremacy 1. In relation to the Regal Power as it is receiv'd in our Church or at least by Church-men or as it is acknowledged by our Laws 2. As the Oath renounces all Foreign Jurisdiction the last of which falls no otherwise under Consideration here than as it shews the King's Duty to preserve his Ecclesiastical as well as Civil Supremacy and not to alienate either In the second part this Worthy Author considers the publick Declarations against Subjects taking Arms. Page 14. 1. In the first he rightly affirms That the asserting the Supremacy of Government is never design'd meaning I supppose by the Law in any wise to violate either Divine or Christian Institutions or to assert it lawful for any Prince to invade that Authority and Right which is made particular thereby whether in Matters Temporal or Spiritual Where by Christian Institutions Page 3. 't is plain that we are to understand the Ecclesiastical and Civil Laws of Christian States or the Laws of others not contrary to Christianity and thus he deservedly blames them who nourish false Conceptions and mistaken Opinions concerning the CIVIL POWER beyond due Bounds exalting it so high as not to reserve that Respect which belongeth to God and Christian Institutions Page 15. and rightly observes that the Supremacy does not exclude the Subject from a real Propriety in his own Estate And that there are some Kingdoms where without any Disparagement to the Supremacy of their Prince Page 11. they are govern'd by the fixed Rules of the Civil Law and others where other Laws established by their Predecessors are standing Rules Page 391. And particularly in relation to the People of this Realm he says in the second Part The English Constitution doth excellently and effectually provide against injurious Oppressions Of which more in its place 1 Canon An. 1640. However I cannot but here observe that even the Canons of 1640. which he receives as speaking the Sense of the Church of England own that the Subject has a Propriety but withal say that Tribute Custom and Aid and all manner of necessary Support and Supply are due to Kings from their Subjects by the Law of God Nature and Nations yet tho it is the Duty of Subjects to supply the King it is part of the Kingly Office to support his Subjects in the Propriety and Freedom of their Estates Still it seems subject to the King's Judgment of necessity which is right Sibthorpism and Manwarinism afterwards eccho'd to by the Courts at Westminster in the Resolution about Shipmoney and of late in that of the Dispensing Power I think in two things what Mr. Falkner writes upon the first Head lies open to Exception 1. That generally by Civil Power Page 356. he seems to mean the Person of the King and that not according to his own Definition of a King which he says doth denote the Royal Person who governs which himself owns to be according to the respective Limitations in those places where they govern many having the Title of a King Page 339. who had not such Royal Power as is allowed by our Constitution but he ascribes to a King generally speaking and particularly to ours such a Soveraignty as carries with it the absolute and arbitrary Exercise of that Civil Power whereby a Nation is govern'd Thus he asserts with St. Austin That Subjests may and ought to obey their Prince's Commands where they are certain Page 302. that what he commands is not against the Command of God And hence he attributes to the Kings of England even more Power than he allows to the Roman Christian Emperors as will soon appear And it appears that this is not only a casual dash with his Pen Page 123. for having before in one place spoken of the business of the Civil Power describ'd by St. Peter Page 131. in another he mentions the Authority with which he supposes Kings and Princes to be
lay to hold in Vassallage of the Pope as well as by other his Exorbitances yet was not set aside till the Nation was necessitated to it by the Success of his Usurpations and Ravages to which as he was encouraged and enabled by the Influence of the Pope's Authority over the less honest or less discerning so he thereby lost all means of gaining Trust from his People for the future The Earls and Barons of England having without any Writ from the King given one another notice of meeting demonstrated that they engag'd not out of any Affectation of Change but meerly to secure those Liberties which were their due by the Constitution for they agreed to wage War Mat. Pa. f. 339. and renounce Allegiance to him only in case that he would not confirm those Liberties which were contain'd in the Laws of Hen. 1. and the ancient Laws of King Edward the Confessor That they might proceed with such Deliberation as became them they appointed another Meeting for a peremptory Demand declaring that if he then refus'd them they would compel him to Satisfaction by seizing his Castles nor were they worse than their words and their Resolutions had for a while their desir'd Effect in obtaining a Confirmation of their Liberties which tho they were as forceable in Law before and his Promise to maintain them as little to be credited as ever yet his open Violation of them after his own solemn acknowledging them and granting that Petition of Right was likely to cast the greater Load upon him and his Courtiers when they should act to the contrary and to take from their side numbers of well-meaning Men who otherwise might be cheated with a pretence of Prerogative The Pope as was to be expected soon absolv'd the King and encourag'd him to break those legal Fetters which was ipso facto an Absolution to the People of more effect in Conscience than the Pope's ipso facto Excommunications They being thus discharged the wiser and sounder part of them stoutly casting off the Authority both of King and Pope proceeded to the Election of another King Lewis the Dauphin of France Mat. Par. lib. Addit An. 1216. The Account in Matthew Paris of a Debate which the French King and his Advocate or Attourny-General held with the Pope's Nuncio who would have disswaded the Dauphin's Expedition against King John the Pope's sworn Vassal is so exactly parallel to the Case now in question that many who will allow us no Precedent of ancient Times will be ready to say that some words at least were foisted in since our present happy Settlement The French King as became a Monarch spake his mind in few words Si aliquando fuit verus Rex postea Regnum forisfecit per mortem Arthuri de quo facto damnatus fuit in Curiâ nostrâ Item nullus Rex vel Princeps potest dare regnum suum sine assensu Baronum suorum qui regnum illud tenentur defendere If ever he were King he afterwards forfeited his Kingdom by killing Arthur of which Fact he was condemned in our Court. Besides no King or Prince can give his Kingdom without the Assent of his Barons who are bound to defend it That is to preserve the Kingdom against the King who has parted with it or any Demisee as appears by his Advocate 's Enlargement to whom he left the rest after himself had granted all Kingly Power to have this implied Limitation Mat. Par. Addit f. 281. The Advocate goes on addressing himself to the King Domine Rex Res notissima c. May it please your Majesty It is a thing well known to all that John called King of England was condemned to death in your Court for his Treachery to his Nephew Arthur whom he slew with his own Hands And was afterwards by the Barons of England for his many Homicides and other Enormities there committed rejected from reigning over them Whereupon the Barons waged War against him Ne regnaret super eos reprobatus ut ipsum solio regni immutabiliter depellerent that they might drive him from the Throne of the Kingdom never to return Moreover the said King without the Assent of his great Men gave his Kingdom to the Pope and the Church of Rome to receive it again to be held under the yearly Tribute of a thousand Marks Dare non potuit potuit tamen dimittere eam And altho he could not give the Crown of England to any one without his Barons he might demise it or devest himself of it which as soon as he resign'd he ceased to be King and the Kingdom was vacant without a King Therefore the vacant Kingdom ought not to have been administred without the Lords What difference between the Kingdoms being vacant without a King and the Throne vacant Vacans itaque Regnum sine Baronibus ordinari non debuit unde Barones elegerunt Dominum Ludovicum ratione Uxoris suae c. By reason of which the Barons chose Lord Lewis upon the account of his Wife whose Mother the Queen of Castile was the only Survivor of all the King of England's Brothers and Sisters This was so true and so convincing that the most plausible Return which the Pope's Nuncio could make to it was that King John had been sign'd with the Cross for the Service of the Holy Land and that therefore by the Constitution of a General Council he ought to have Peace and be under the Pope's Protection for four Years And you may be sure that the French King would not interrupt him in his Journey thither but was well satisfied that his Son should supply his place in England Who tho he had been received not only as one that rescued the Nation from King John's enormous Tyranny but as one that was in the Right of his Wife entitled to the Priviledg of the English Blood Royal and so duly chosen according to the standing Law of this Monarchy as has been mentioned and will hereafter more fully appear Vid. sup inf Yet the Clergy and all who were so weak as to be led by them in Civil Affairs being against Lewis Mat. Par. f. 384. as he stood excommunicated by the Pope besides it having been made known by the Death-bed-Declaration of one of Lewis his Confidents that his Master had evil Designs against those very Men who were the chief Instruments in his Advancement and that he look'd upon them who fought for him as Traitors he through the uncertainty and indifference of his Friends more than the strength of his Enemies was oblig'd to quit the Kingdom to Hen. 3. Object This would lead me to the particular Consideration of the Barons Wars with H. 3. were it not needful first to remove an Objection against their Proceedings with his Father which tho not founded on the Histories of the same Age may seem to have weight from the Authority of Divines of later times The Homilies pass this Censure upon
them Had English Men at that time known their Duty to their Prince Homilies the sixth Sermon against wilful Rebellion last Ed. 383. set forth in God's holy Word would English Subjects have sent for and receiv'd the Dauphin of France with a great Army of French-Men into the Realm of England would they have sworn Fidelity to the Dauphin of France breaking their Oath of Fidelity to their natural Lord the King of England and have stood under the Dauphin's Banner display'd against the King of England To which I answer 1. That our Church pretends not to Infallibility nor will it be any Imputation upon it to have err'd in relation to Fact or the Constitution of the Government without regard to which it is not to be suppos'd that the Fathers of our Church would apply the Duty of Subjects set forth in God's Word Pseudomartyr Chap. 6. p. 172. And I doubt not but Dr. Donne Dean of St. Paul's in the time of C. 1. very well understood the Scriptures and our Homilies and yet he tells us that some ancient Greek States are call'd Laconica because they were shortned and limited to certain Laws And some States in our time seem to have conditional and provisional Princes between whom and Subjects there are mutual and reciprocal Obligations which if one side break they fall on the other This he supposes to be where-ever there is not a Pambasilia in the hands of one Man that is as he explains it that Soveraignty which is a Power available to the main ends One of the main ends of Government must needs be making Laws and levying Taxes if that be not vested in any single Person he has not the Pambasilia and if he have not the Pambasilia according to him he is but a conditional or provisional Prince and if he be a conditional Prince the Obligations between him and his Subjects are mutual and reciprocal and the Subjects may take the advantage of a failure on the Prince's side History p. 40. This being taken from an Authority cited in the History of Passive Obedience since the Reformation shews what Limitations may be put upon those Passages in the Homilies which seem like the late King's Declaration to Scotland to require Obedience without reserve Vid. sup c. 2. Mr. Falkner as appears above had carried the Point as high as the Homilies have done and yet he admits that if those extraordinary Cases happen which as he contends ought not to be suppos'd in such Cases Subjects may resist notwithstanding Oaths for Passive Obedience without any such Exception in the words 2. Whatever Obligation may be upon the Clergy from their Assent and Consent none is given by the Laity and they may do all that is requisite to make them true Members of the Church of England without being concluded by the Opinion of Church-men about Civil Government 3. Even Clergy-men look upon the very Articles but as Articles of Peace that they may not disturb the Government by publick maintaining what is contrary to them but surely cannot think that they are oblig'd to disturb the Government for the sake of any matter meerly as it is contain'd in the Articles or Homilies 4. The Doctrinal matter contain'd in the Homily That a natural Lord is not to be resisted may be true and yet this may not in the least condemn resisting an unnatural Tyrant And the Application of their Doctrine to the Case of inviting and joyning with Lewis may have been grounded upon a false State of the fact as if King John had done nothing whereby he truely ceased to be King And that they went upon a false state of the Fact is the rather to be believed because Archbishop Parker Antiquitates Brit. f. 148. by whom we may well gather the sense of these Fathers tho' he admits King John to have been an ill Man and to have joyn'd with the King of France against his Natural Lord and King R. 1. yet will have it that he was justifiable in his Actions against his Rebellious Subjects and excuses his very Abdication in resigning his Crown to the Pope as an act of mere necessity being compell'd to it by the Artifice and Turbulency of the Clergy Ib. f. 131. Eodem annno Alexander Papa Turonense Concilium celebravit cui Arch. Prelati Angliae Regis permissione licentiâ interfuerunt ac à dexâ—ris Papae Thomas cum suis suffraganeis a sinistris verò Ebor. Arch. cum solo Dunelm Episcopo sederunt ibi Capto de Ecclesiasticâ quadam super regiam libertate pertinaciter retinendâ concilio A Papâ ocyus dimissi in Angliam reversi sunt Post hoc Turonense concilium cum omnibus pene in rebus Clerus se a populo disjunxisset cepit in Angliâ de Regni atque sacerdotii authoritate atque vi multo varioque sermone disceptari factaque perturbatio gravis de prerogativâ atque privilegiis ordinis Clericalis which he observes to have carried on a separate Interest divided from the Nation ever since the Council of Tours in the year 1163. But Stephen Archbishop of Canterbury in King John's time is to be presum'd better acquainted with the Justice of the Arms on either side than Archbishop Parker or the Composers of the Homilies upon that King 's gathering Forces against his Barons the Archbishop tells him that he would break the Oath that he took at his Absolution si absque judicio Curiae suae contra quempiam bella moveret Mat. Par. f. 137. if he wag'd War against any body without the judgment of his Court referring it seems to that part of his Oath wherein he Swore That He would judge all his Men according to the just judgment of his Court Nay farther yet Mat. Par. f. 268. King John had brought over Forces against his Barons from Poictou Gascony and Flanders before they had recourse to any Foreigners 5. The Case of Swearing Allegiance to Lewis cannot be brought as a parallel to Swearing Allegiance to our present King and Queen because Lewis was never receiv'd by the whole Collective or Representative Body of the Nation the last of which has receiv'd and declar'd for King William and Queen Mary upon a solemn Judgment given by them the proper Judges of the Fact That the late King had broken the Original Contract and thereby ceased to be King CHAP. VI. The Barons Wars in the time of H. 3. particularly considered H. 3. Crown'd by a Faction Had no right but from Election as his Father had That no right could descend to him from his Father Lewis while here as much King as H. 3. Three express Contracts enter'd into by H. 3. besides the Confirmations of the Great Charter Those applied to the consideration of the Wars Three of them under such as seem like the Roman Tribunes of the People Dr. Falkner's Objection against those Wars answer'd The Answer confirm'd by a full instance in the time of E. 1.
upon the Innocent Prince E. 5. in whose Name he first took the Government upon him and either terrified or cheated the People into a Compliance with his Pretences Tho I have not the vanity to believe that any thing of my own can weigh with them who have thought otherwise before especially if they have listed themselves on a Side contrary to that which no Disadvantages can make me repent of Yet I cannot but hope that the Authorities which I have produc'd will occasion some consideration till they are either evaded or disprov'd And being all legal Objections are answered nor can any scruple of Conscience be here pretended without much less against Law What hinders but that we should exert our utmost in the Service of that Lawful Government from which we receive Protection and may expect Rewards for vertue at least the Defence of it if we do not madly quit the ground which we have gain'd from them who have hitherto made Vertue the greatest Crime Wherefore for us now to look back after we have set our hands to the Plow would be not only to distrust that Providence which has given such a wonderful Encouragement to Perseverance but were enough to tarnish all our Actions with the Imputation of making the publick Interest a Pretence for carrying on our own 'T is an happiness indeed when they are twisted and thrive together But the Cause is such as a man ought not to fear to dye nay to starve for it And how improsperous soever a man's endeavours for this may prove yet it may be a comfort to have sown that Seed which may grow up for the benefit of future Ages Nor ought he to repine because another man hath guilded over his Name by what he has got by the ruin of his Country or may have insinuated himself again into Opportunities to betray it Let it be enough for him how much soever slighted and contemn'd while he lives to embalm his Memory by a steddiness to Truth and the Interest of his Country not to be shaken by cross accidents to himself or the Publick Cause Let him still act uniformly while others live in perpetual Contradictions or Varieties their Actions and their Principles thwarting themselves or each other or varying with the State-weathercocks Let them violate the Laws out of Loyalty unchurch all Protestant Churches but their own out of Zeal against Popery narrow the Terms of Communion to spread the National Religion confine all advantages to that Communion for the Publick Good make their King the Head of a Party to strengthen his hands against his Enemies Deliver up Charters and Retake them gelt of their Noblest Priviledges in performance of their Oaths to preserve them fight against their King and yet urge the Obligation of Oaths requiring an unalterable Allegiance to his Person assert that the Power is inseparable from him and yet may in his Absence without his Consent be transferr'd to a Regent not to be Reassumed when he should think fit to return grant that he has broken the Contract yet contend that he retains that Power which he received from the Contract Or that tho the Contract be broken the Throne is not vacant Or if it be vacant yet an Heir has a Right and so it is vacant and not vacant at the same time Or that after one has broken a Condition upon which he took an Estate to himself and his Heirs in Fee-Simple or Tail another shall enjoy it as Heir to him and that in his Life-time invite a Deliverer yet reject the Deliverance Upon such Principles as these I find an Eminent English Prelate censur'd as a Deserter of his Church for going about Letter to the B. of L. according to his great Learning to justifie the Oaths taken to the present Government And thus the Cause of J. 2. is made the Cause of the Church of England Certain it is whatever is now pretended 't is more difficult to justifie the taking up or promoting Arms against a Deliverer than an Oppressor And if Arms against the last were lawful even with the prospect of involving Thousands in the Miseries of War much more are they in Defence of that Power which has restor'd those Liberties which the other Invaded and reassured the Publick Peace And whoever first engaged and now draw back not only brand themselves for Traitors but make it evident that Ambition Revenge or some ungenerous Design animated their Undertakings And as I doubt not but they will meet with their due Reward perhaps that Success which has attended the Heroical Actions of our present King may go further with such men to keep them to their Duty than the most demonstrative Proofs of Right which they generally measure by the Event And as no Cause or Action is just in their eyes which is not prosperous they in the language of the Poet are always on the side of the gods But few are in this Point such Philosophers as Cato Victrix causa Diis placuit sed victa Catoni FINIS APPENDIX N. I. Vid. sup CAP. I. F. 4. Thô those Authors which I have referr'd to in the Book have sufficiently expos'd Sir Robert Filmer's Notions yet the following Observations made by me some Years since upon the first applying of my Thoughts to such Studies may be more suited to meaner Capacities at least they who will not give themselves time to read those Elaborate Treatises may be diverted with this Summary of Inconsistencies which Numbers swallow down as blind Men do Flies Sir Robert Filmer and some of our Divines plaid against one another in relation to Ecclesiastical and Civil Power and Sir Robert against Himself SInce Sir Robert Filmer's Writings are recommended to the World by the Elogium of the Infallible Dr. Heylin Vid. Heylin 's Ep. to Sir Ed. Filmer Certamen Ep. p. 208. Ut sup Cap. 1. that Man that professed in print that he could not reckon the early Death of the Wonder of his and following Ages Edw. the 6 th for an Infelicity to the Church of England Pref. to Hist of Ref. You cannot but think that this his Monarch in Politicks whose Death he laments was not so ill principled in himself nor inclin'd to embrace such Counsels but that his Affections to the Church were as exemplary as his Books have manifested them to be to the State But me-thinks Dr. Heylin by subscribing to Sir Robert's Judgment in Politiques and consequently to his Anarchy of a mixt Monarchy does thereby confess that the Church is wholly subject to the Law of the State and that the Civil Power is comprehensive of the Ecclesiastical the dividing of the Power being utter Anarchy and Confusion Nay that excellent Discourse call'd Patriarcha Ep. to Sir Edw. Filmer which the Doctor by way of Prophesy for I am sure 't is not to be imagin'd in the way of Nature tells us would when publish'd give such satisfaction to all our great Masters in the Schools of Polity that all
so happe as God forbidd but also it is so penall that if such ill Chaunce shuld unfortunately befall it makith Traytors of those that will clayme their Inheritance although their intent were but to try their Titles And it is a Learninge by the Common Lawes of England that longe hath ben so receyvid that in every such case as eny of these happen no Exposition is to be allowed but the Lawe willith us to cleve to the Letter without eny further wrestinge therof then the Letter naturally and strictly will reache unto So that if it be not a stricte observation of the Letter according to his natural entent in any of these cases the Common Lawe allowith it not And the rather the Lawe is precise herin for that it is a newe Statute which seldome ar taken by equite in eny point because they ar all pennyd at large As for Example I will remember one or twoe which may suffice to such as be Learnyd to search for other of lyke effect wherof ther ar not a few In Anno 1. of Kinge Edward the 6 th ther was a Statute made That if eny were condemnid for the stealinge of Horses and Mares they should lose their Clergy and because the words Horses and Mares were the plurall nombre it was taken not to extende to one Horse or to one Mare And so for that cause a new Statute was made Anno 2. of the same K. that made lyke Lawe for stealinge one Horse or one Mare And the chief cause of this was because it is a Penall Statute in takinge from a Man that wherby his Lyfe might be savid In K. Richard the 3 ds Tyme there was a Statute made to Auctorize Cest a que use to enter vpon his Feoffees and make Feoffementes And it was in question in Anno 9. of H. the 7 th yf he made a Letter of Atturney whether this were good by the Statute and lefte therfore a doubtfull question by reason the Statute gyveth auctoryte onely which must in all poyntes be observed And ther is a greate deale more coulour to make that Feoffement goode being by Letter of Atturney then to make this Will to this purpose goode not signed with the Kinges owne Hande For if eny other put his Hande therunto and not the Kinge himself then it is signed with an other Hande and not the Kinges Hande And yf I gyve Auctorytie to my Executors to sell my Landes and say no further then yf they sell the same by Wrytinge or without Wrytinge it is sufficient but if I adde these wordes That they shall sell my Landes so that they do it by Wrytinge signed with their proper Handes yf now they sell the same and th' one cause the Residue in all their presence to wryte all their Names as thoughe every one had severally subscrybed I hold it no question but this Sale is not good for they must pursue their Auctorytie strictlye and otherwyse it is of no effect And consyderinge as is partly before remembryd how greate a mater it was to committe such a Trust it were a greate lacke and slander to the whole Parliament to thinke that they wold condiscend to the committinge of so high and weightie a Confidence as wherof the whole Estate and Weale of the Realme shuld depend but that they did forsee that their doinges therein shuld not be blynded by a Wrytinge signed with a Stampe The same thing was urg'd by Lethington the Secretary of Scotland in a Letter to Sir Will. Cecil Appendix to the 2d Vol. of the Hist of the Ref. F. 269. which might be put vnto either when the Kinge was voyde of Memory or els when he was deceassid as indeed it after happenyd as most manifestly appeeryd by open declaration made in Parliament by the late L. Paget and others that King Henry did not signe it with his owne Hande as it is playne and probable inough by the Pardon obteynid for one William Clerke for puttinge the Stampe vnto the sayde Will after the Kinge was departid and who doubtith but yf his meaninge had ben such so to haue disposed of the Crowne but that he wold have put this mater out of doubte by signifyenge the same with his owne proper Hande And touchinge the two chief Examples that ar brought foorth the one of the 21 and 33 of K. H. th' Eight wherby K. H. was aucthorized to gyve his Royall Assent to Actes of Parliament by his Letters Patentes and so foorth and th' other for that Queene Mary omittyd the style that was apoyntid by Parliament in 35 of H. th' Eight in her Parliament Writts howe little they make to the matter every Man may judge For the Statutes of 21 and 33 of H. 8. were only made in affirmance of the Common Lawe and such a Royal Assent wold suffice by Letters Patents without eny assurance thereof by the Signe And this Statute was but to put such matter out of question for if the Common Law had ben such before there is no doubt but that he must haue signed every Patent with his proper Hande and so these Cases are no way lyke And touchinge the seconde yf the Statute that conteynith the King's Style be well consyderid there wold be made thereof no such Collection For the same apoyntith a punishment to such Subjects as of purpose depryve the K. of the Realm of that Stile But there is no doubt but the Writts that wantyd the Stile were in Lawe sufficyent and the Parties that made the same punishable So that these Examples cannot be wrestid to serve eny whit for the purpose And where ther is made a great mater by reason the Will was inrollid in the Chancery and Constats thereof made under the Broade Seale and the Legacyes thereof in all poyntes performyd To that may be answerd That all that is therein affirmed may easily be confessed and yet it proovith nothinge to th' intent applied for it was his Will is ever he condescendid thervnto though he did never signe it with his Stampe nor with his Hande and a goode and a perfect Will to all Entents and Purposes whereof he had by Common Lawe Authoritye to make his Will of But it is not or cannot be the more a perfect Will to this respect or purpose vnlesse he did execute the auctoritie apoyntid by the Statute of 35 of H. 8. as is before remembryd Since then the Duke had a Wyfe lyvinge when he maryd the Frenche Queene and by the Statute ther is nothinge to be Claymid onles K. Henry had passed eny things either by his Letters Patentes under the Broade Seal of Englande or ells by his last Will signed with his most gracious Hande And that it is trewe that he had a Wyfe lyvinge when he maryd the Frenche Queene that so if it were requisite or hereafter may be there mought be avouchid more then one with much other matter touchinge that poynt of Illegitimacion and Inhabilitie as well in