was burdened the more still it spread And indeed what should hinder Religion from thriving in evil Times For the same Religious Duties which are practised with more ease in prosperous are exercised also but with greater honor in an afflicted state of things Nay some of its more eminent Parts and noble Instances are not capable of being exercised at other times It is not Religion then whatever Men may vainly pretend that makes them run into the Breach of Laws and Contempt of Duty lest they should suffer in the profession of it For God and Religion owe them no thanks for such a Course because he is not honored ☞ nor is strengthned and preserved but ruined and destroyed by it But the true and real Cause of such Disobedience whereof God and Religion are only the Color and false Pretence is plainly a great want of Religion and of the Love of God and too great a love of the World and of Mens own selves Mr. Pelling * Ser. on 30. Jan. 1683. on Rom. 13.2 p. 2 3 4. Had not this Duty been a prime part of the Christian Religion we cannot conceive why such great care should have been taken to inform the whole World of it especially in times which afforded not any common encouragement thereunto Were it not a sad Truth that some will believe no more of the Scripture than will serve the present turn we might wonder how it is possible for a Christian to be an undutiful Subject so that it is not either ignorance that can excuse or any allowable Principle of Christianity that can encourage Resistance nor is it Zeal or Conscience that doth it tho that hath been pretended but it is either a haughty and unmanageable Spirit or an hankering after Spoil c. that have been the true Causes of those Riots which have been so vexatious so fatal to Sovereign Princes It being otherwise impossible that Men whose Consciences are so enlightened by God's own Word should be so blind wicked and fool-hardy as to rise up against their Prince at the manifest hazard of the greatest and most intolerable of all Evils for that is the Rebel's portion Damnation By Resistance is meant all undutiful disobedient and contumacious Behaviour and in particular all open forcible and violent Opposition and by the Power is meant not only the Governor's Authority but the Governor himself Shall I take leave to give you a Paraphrase upon my Text. Why ☜ you shall have it not out of any single Commentator But out of an honest Statute of this Realm which makes S. Paul's Divinity to be Law too The Act declares That it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever c. After that he proceeds upon the common Topicks that Power is God's Ordinance c. and how reproachful Rebellion is to the Gospel c. Pag. 25. Usurping and pretending Powers Men may be forced sometimes to be subject unto upon pain of Plunder and Sequestration but the Supreme Power the King is he whom we must not refist upon pain of Damnation Such was the Authority of Claudius Pag. 27. and such were his Ministers ☜ that they would not allow Christians either the Exercise of their Religion or the Liberty of their Native Countries or the protection of their own Houses Pag. 29.30 31. and yet both Claudius and his deputies must be submitted to Obj. But when Religion is established by Law then Resistance is not unlawful Answ 1. Religion was established among the Jews by the municipal Laws of that Country And yet tho several Kings introduc'd Idolatry among them they did not resist or if they rational and it is my Resolution to part with all that this World calls dear even Life it self rather than ever own their i. e. the Papists novel Doctrines for true or submit to their Usurpations or communicate in their idolatrous Worship but yet for all this neither for the Preservation of this our most holy and excellent Religion profess'd here in England nor for the keeping out of Popery it self and then I have named the worst thing that I can will I ever by the Grace of God go beyond the Duty of my Calling and that Station divine Providence hath placed me in nor will I ever lift up my finger or open my mouth against the Lord 's Anointed whatever his Religion be whether he hath any or none whether he be a Nero or a Constantine whether he rules by Law or against it we must not wish him evil no not so much as in our secret Thoughts whatever hard things we suffer from him we must not affront disturb or oppose his Government or resist his Authority and if we have not opportunity of flying from such a Persecution as I now suppose because I would put the worst Case that can happen or cannot by prudence decline it I know no other remedy the Gospel allows us but meek and patient Suffering for our Religion after the example of our blessed Lord and Master This is the plain loyal Doctrine of the Church of England which her Ministers have always preach'd and defended both against Papists and Fanaticks of all sorts and for which such an Outcry and Clamor of late years hath been raised against the Clergy and whenever we teach you otherwise give me leave in God's Name to charge you all to forsake us and despise us at as high a rate as our greatest Enemies can do P. 31. nay if an Angel from Heaven preach any other Doctrine let him be accursed Zeal for the best and the greatest things in the World will not excuse private Mens taking upon themselves to reform publick Abuses either against or without the consent of the supreme Magistrate nor will it hallow any Action for which we have not sufficient Warrant and Authority from God's Word For conclusion of all Would we engage God's favour and protection let us at all times adhere close to our duty as well when it is against our temporal Interest as when it is for it let us inviolably in all things observe the Commands of our Religion not only propose good ends but be as careful to choose lawful means SECT XXXVII I shall conclude this Chapter with the Doctrine of the Whole Duty of Man which Book I look upon as a body of practical Divinity owned by our Church and well spoken of even by our very Adversaries Sund. 14. §. 5. The Civil Parent is he whom God hath establish'd the supreme Magistrate who by a just Right possesses the Throne in a Nation this is the common Father of all those that are under his Authority and therefore we owe him Honor and Reverence c. and Obedience according to the Apostles 1 Pet. ii 13. Rom. xiii 1. and it is observable that these Precepts were given at a time when those Powers were Heathens and cruel Persecutors of Christianity to shew us ☜ That no pretence of the Wickedness of our Rulers can free
will have the words to concern their setting up of Jeroboam and his Successors in opposition to the House of David as appears by their carriage 1 Kings 12.16 when not liking Rehoboam's answer to them they cryed what portion have we in David c. no command or instructions were for ought we find given them by Abijah or any other from God neither did they in what they did consult with God by that Prophet or any other means to know his pleasure therein but what they did was of their own heads out of a rebellious humour of casting off their lawful Sovereigns of the House of David in which God had settled the right of the Kingdom so that tho they so fulfilled the Will and Counsel of God yet they did it not in obedience to them but with contrary intentions and plain disobedience and so were no more justifiable in it than the Jews in murthering Christ than Judas in betraying Innocent Blood that it was determin'd by God. and the setting up of his Successors was a continuance of defection from the House of David and a Rebellion against God. others by setting up Kings without me c. would mean their seeking to Foreign Kings and Princes for help as to the Assyrians and King Jareb ch 5.13 to Aegypt ch 7.11 so forsaking God and their dependence on him and setting up them as Patrons and Protectors to themselves Dr. Fitz Williams Serm. of the duties of fearing God and the King. p. 4 v. p. 5 6. Subjects withdrawing their obedience from their lawful Prince is a denying God's Authority Treason against him is a kind of Sacrilege a revolt from him an Apostacy from God a resisting him an opposing God rebelling against him fighting with God the setting up the title of a Counterfeit Prince against the true one an introducing a plurality of Godheads the obeying of an Usurper Idolatry the slandering his Anointed and his Footsteps a Blaspheming God the blaming his conduct P. 15. a quarrelling with Providence breaking through all Oaths Oaths in which they deposited with them the richest pawn it was possible for them to stake down and gave them the strongest security that others could require of their fidelity and obedience their Salvation Oaths in which they called God's Omniscience to witness these engagements and his justice and power to revenge the breach of them can it be thought that he P. 23. who will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain should connive at the violation of all obligations of duty and fidelity contracted in that name if Men shall be in danger of Hell-fire for calling their Brother Fool shall they be in none for railing against their Superiors invested with Authority from above and acting by a Commission from Heaven St. Peter and St. Jude have taught us that God reserves such who speak evil of dignities unto the day of Judgment to be punish'd in the blackness of darkness for ever Mr. Wagstaffe Serm. Sep. 9. 1683. p. 11 12. It is the glory of our Reformation that as it proceeded by the most peaceable and orderly steps so it held the most peaceable and orderly Doctrins the first Reformers pleaded as the Primitive Christians did that they always paid subjection to the powers set over them that they always complyed with the will of their Rulers where they lawfully might and where they might not they submitted with patience and always chose rather to suffer than to be seditions turbulent and unquiet this was the first Reformation and this the true Protestant Doctrin but alas since that time there hath risen up another Protestant Religion P. 33 34. See also his Serm. July 26. 1685 p. 18 19 21 22 c. and another Reformation c. it is the peculiar glory of the Church of England that it never hath either by Doctrin or Practice in the least encouraged or countenanc'd any thing tending to Treason Sedition or Rebellion it is impossible that any Man so lâ—â—g as he continues in the Communion of the Church of England should be a Matineer or a Traytor Of this Opinion also are the Authors of the Remarks †P. 32 33 34 35. on Popery represented c. as to the deposing Doctrin * Pâ—â—â— Prosecution â—o persecution p 21. See his mod Pharisee p. 4 23. Id misch of Anarchy p. 13. v. p 33 55 56 57 c Exposit 5. Comm. in private devot Ox. 1089. In lib. 4. antiquit p. 294. con loc and of the Catholick balance Dr. Bisby Formy part I wish as well to my Religion as any Man and pray as heartily for the continuance of it but to put by my lawful Prince because I suspect he will call me to account for my Religion and thereby make me worthy of suffering for Christ nay blessed this my Duty my Conscience my Oaths my Religion will not suffer me to do a King supposes a Power Sovereign accountable to none but to God who is the King of Kings and the last Judge of Men. Dr. Ed. Bernard I will obey I will reverence all my Superiors Spiritual and Temporal and in all things not plainly repugnant to God's Word and whenever they command any thing contrary thereto if I may not according to Law Righteousness and Honor appeal to a superior Power on Earth I will patiently submit to their censures and penalties The Oxford Notes on Josephus treat largely of this Subject and say that the Pharisees were the Men who under the doubtful and linsey woolsey Government of the Maccabees brought in these Maxims that the King could do nothing without the High Priest and the Sanhedrim because in weighty matters he used to consult them of his own choice that his luxury and other vices ought to be maturely corrected and that an Aristocracy was a better Government than that of a single Person that they themselves might be concern'd in the Government although in that very Age it was a celebrated Axiome among the Jews that the Majesty of their Kings was so sublime that it ought not to be stoopt to the Senate the King gives judgment but no Man judges him that God only calls the King to account but no mortal Person with many other citations out of the Rabbinical Writers to the same purpose Such Doctrins therefore contrary to the Rights of Kings Josephus would never have vented if he had been less addicted to the Opinions of Hillel and Shammai and had remembred the Golden Times of David and Solomon or the flourishing State of Judea in other Reigns for the Posterity of David down to the Assyrian Captivity exercised a full Power a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as truly such as any that Asia ever saw in all Affairs Sacred and Civil c. beware therefore O you Princes of the Doctrin of the Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites of the Rabbies Jesuits and Presbyterians Dr. South with great smartness censuring the solemn League and Covenant observes these two things
prostrated themselves for in your way of reasoning they have a right to preserve or delight themselves by any course of means and can be best protected by the prevailing side which because it hath more degrees of growing Power has it seems therefore more of right P. 158. thus it is in the choice of every Subject whom you make the Judge of the means to preserve himself to apply himself to the stronger side or for a Company combin'd in Arms and Counsel when an Heir and a Traytor are engag'd in Battel with equal success as was the practice of the Lord Stanley c. at Bosworth-field to give the day to the side they presume will most favour them but there is no tye so strong as that of Religion c. * Vid. 1. part of the Hist p. 93. and whereas Hobbs affirm'd that Covenants are but words and breath and have no force to oblige or constrain any Man but what it has from the Publick Sword he answers that thus the Prince is always in a State of danger P. 160. Society being like a State of Nature managed all by force because he cannot be a day secure of remaining uppermost seeing that the People are taught by you to believe that the right of Authority is a deceit and that every one would have as good a Title if he had as long a Sword for the many headed Beast will throw the Rider when he burthens and galls them Woe to all the Princes upon Earth if this Doctrin be true and becomes Popular if the Multitude believe this the Prince not Armed with the scales of the Leviathan i. e. with irresistible Power can never be safe P. 161. wherefore such as own these pernicious Doctrins destructive to all Societies of Men ☜ may be said to have Wolves Heads as the Laws of old were wont to speak concerning excommunicated Persons and are like those ravenous Beasts so far from deserving our love and care P. 192. that they ought to be destroyed at the common charge if the commands of Christ and his Apostles are not also Laws what means the common Doctrin in the Scripture of suffering for the sake of Christianity We are injoined to take up the Cross and to follow Christ c. Such commands and exhortations to dye rather than to obey Unchristian injunctions are deliver'd in vain yea they deserve the name of Impious if they be not a Royal Law without the stamp of Civil Authority it is therefore your opinion that it is our duty for the sake of outward safety to obey that which is the Law of our Country tho we live among the Heathens rather than to follow dangerous tho Evangelical Counsel This Doctor together with the Lords Bishops of Ely and Bath and Wells and Dr. Hooper were by the King appointed to attend the late Duke of Monmouth before his Execution and the great thing that they with reason prest him to was a particular repentance an acknowledgment that his Invasion was a Rebellion particularly urging him as the Printed account says more than once P. 1 2. if he were of the Church of England to acknowledge the Doctrin of Non Resistance to be true ☞ and therefore I believe that Pulton the Jesuit as †Pulton consider'd p. 67. himself says charg'd him unjustly that when he assisted Sir Thomas Armstrong before his Execution that he did not oblige him to an humble acknowledgment of his Crimes and particularly of the injury done to his King and Country for the * Account of the cons with 〈◊〉 p. â—3 Doctor even in the heigth of Popery thought his Loyalty more valuable than Mr. Meredith's because he as a Son of the Church of England profest he would not rebel against the King notwithstanding he might be of another Religion whereas Mr. M. being of the same Religion could not well separate Loyalty from Interest and ‖ 〈…〉 cons p. 89. avers that he is by Church Principle against resisting the Higher Powers and approves not of the excluding and deposing Doctrin taught in Mr. P's great Lateran Council before there were Jesuits and also after they arose by Bellarmine and Doleman and a long train of others in which some Popes some Synodical Men have pompously march'd To pass by General Complaints Id. exam of 〈◊〉 10 note 〈◊〉 holiness of life p. 243. we may furnish our selves with abundance of instances in the Lives of particular Men of that Communion who have been Infamous for Impiety I shall content my self with a few reflections upon two or three of this sort of Mâ—n with whom the more the World is acquainted the less veneration it will have for them Pope Gregory the Great fawn'd upon the Emperor Mauritius whilst he lived and prospered and own'd him as his Patron and the Maker of his Fortunes even before he had made his own But assoon as the Emperor and his Family were barbarously Murthered by the most Bloody Vassal and Usurper Phocas Gregory insulted over this dead Lion and flatter'd this living Monster and his Immoral Wife Leontia He used such words at his â—surped â—xaltation as he did at that which he called the Conversion of England singing profanely Glory to God in the Highest Let the Heavens rejoyce and the Earth be glad There are many things in the Roman Church it self P. 248. which by helping forward an ill life do in part deface this mark of her Sanctity Such as the Doctrins about Papal Supremacy Which last is very prejudicial to the quiet of the World especially in the Deposing Point concerning which I take leave to use the words of another with Relation to Bellarmine He was * Postscript to transl of 〈…〉 of the Leag p. 15 16 17. himself a Preacher for the League in Paris during the Rebellion there of King Henry IV. Some of his Principles are these following In the Kingdoms of Men the Power of the King is from the People because the People make the King. We hear Bellarmine in another place â—ositively affirming it as Matter of Faith if any Christian Prince shall depart from the Catholick Religion and shall withdraw others from it he immediatly forfeits all Power and Dignity even before the Pope has pronounced sentence on him And his Subjects in case they have Power to do it may and ought to cast out such an Heretick from his Sovereignty over Christians If therefore the Faith of Bellarmine be Faction whatsoever his Church is in it self it is certain as he has made it it can never he found out either as The Church or as A found Church so far as we are to look for it by the Note of Holiness SECT XII Dr. Patrick hath also fully declared his Opinion in this point for besides what hath been cited out of his works in the first part of this History he says Paraphâ— on on Ps 15. p. 75. that he who shall dwell in God's Tabernacle is a
THE HISTORY OF Passive Obedience Since the REFORMATION AMSTERDAM Printed for Theodore Johnson in the Calver-Straet 1689. THE PREFACE HAving always thought that the Doctrine of Passive Obedience or Non-resistance of our lawful Superiors had been a Doctrine founded in the Holy Scriptures recommended to the Christian World by the Precepts and Example of our Blessed Saviour and the Practices of his more immediate Followers which Copy the Church of England hath exactly transcribed to whose immortal Glory it must be said that She alone in contra-distinction both to Papists and Dissenters hath asserted the Principles of Obedience to Princes as the best Ages of Christianity own'd and practised it and having lived so long to see that Doctrine ridicul'd and call'd the Doctrine of the Bow-string and the Assertors and Practisers of it exploded as Old Lacrymists and the matter of fact as to the first Ages of the Reformation denyed while some affirm that the Tenet was no older than Archbishop Laud and was introduced by a few Court Bishops Bishop Saunderson's Preface to Arch-Bishop Vsher of The Power of the Prince and Obedience of the Subject The Apostle saith put them in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers Tit. 3.1 Tho' S. Paul was certainly no Man-pleaser far from seeking himself or from making merchandize of the Word of God or handling it deceitfully for filthy Lucre sake nor were there hopes of Preferment when the Church had no setled Revenue nor was there any Christian Prince in the Universal World but he draws his Arguments from the Ordinance of God the discharge of Duty and a good Conscience the advancement of the Gospel and the honor of the Christian Religion See more in that admirable Preface the better to make way for the attainment and establishing of their own Grandeur by reason of which the Enemies of our Communion both Romanists and others have confidently averred that our Obedience to our Sovereigns is nothing but our Interest and that we have vindicated the Rights of Kings because they have vindicated the Rights of our Church and have prosecuted all that dislik'd our Constitutions I could no longer forbear writing in the behalf of that truth which is eternal and unalterable as are all the Doctrines of Christianity tho we must acknowledg to our shame that they are more illustrious in our Books than in our Lives and shewing that from the infancy of the happy Reformation the Church of England hath always believed and avowed That it is the duty of every Christian in things lawful actively to obey his Superior in things unlawful to suffer rather than obey and in any case or upon any pretence whatsoever not to resist because whoever does so shall receive to themselves Damnation Nor can the Doctrine be unseasonable since no Government can be safe without it Mens Passions naturally inclining them to think well of themselves and to make Complaints of hard Vsage even then when they are most gently treated what Instances have we in the Writings of the last Ages When Parsons in the name of his Party resolving to expose the admirable Reign of Q. Elizabeth renders her worse than the worst of Tyrants and asks Where are the Neroes and Dioclesians where are the Genserics and Hunnerics As if neither Pagan nor Arian Persecutors were as cruel as she And when another Classis of Men blackned one of the best of Men and the best of Princes the Martyr CHARLES I. as the great Enemy of his Country the Invader of the Religion and Liberties of his Subjects and have not former Ages labored under the same Discontents When the disaffected Jews could say We have no portion in David nor any inheritance in the Son of Jesse every man to his tents O Israel And yet that Prince was of Gods own immediate designation and a Man after Gods own heart Now if upon such Pretensions Subjects may right themselves by resisting their lawful Superiours how soon will a fruitful Land be turned into a barren Wilderness and Paradise it self become a Field of Blood And I have with some regret and confusion reflected heretofore that in the Romish Communion Preston Widdrington and Barnes in England VValsh and Caron in Ireland and in Scotland Barclay to omit other Countries all profest Papists and all but Barclay Priests and consequently more obliged to uphold the Grandeur of the Pontifical Chair should honestly and stoutly appear to the Vindication of this Truth which we seem either weary or asham'd of I never wondered to see the Enemies of our Church make a Fasting-day of our Blessed Saviours Nativity as if they were sorry that he came into the World and perhaps with reason because their Actions were so contrary both to his Precepts and Example but I stand amazed to see her Sons disown her Doctrine and Constitutions Did we seriously study the Laws of Providence and consider the indispensible Obligations laid on us of taking up the Cross did we remember that Affliction is the Churches Portion and that not the least Evil may be done to procure the greatest Good this a Aug. de haeres Epiph. Doctrine would be more easily believ'd and more readily embrac'd They were the Gnosticks of the Primitive Church who taught Men to swear and forswear and to sly from Persecution when it was the Lot of Religion And for these among other Reasons I conjecture does b Stillingfleet's Ser. Jan. 30. 168 â— / 9. p. 3. 4. a learned Man of our Church call Simon Magus the Institutor of that vile Sect The Leviathan of the Primitive Church who de stroyed all the differences of good and evil And that probably because as the Leviathan makes himself sport in the waters so the Gnosticks played with Oaths and all Laws divine and human c Id. p. 4. setting a mighty Value upon themselves and having mean and contemptible Thoughts of the Authority which God had established in the VVorld and it may be because he was the Hobbs of that Age who gave being to Opinions contradictory to the whole Tenour of the Gospel For the Gnosticks thought d Id. p. 5. all the Governments of the VVorld to be nothing else but the contrivance of some evil Spirits to abridg Men of their Liberty which God and Nature had given them and that this is the speaking evil of Dignities which they are charged with by S. Jude And the same great Man says e Sermon Novem. 5. 1673. pag. 2 3. that it was one of Machiavel 's Quarrels against Christianity that by its Precepts of Meekness and Patience it rendered Men unfit for such great Undertakings as could not be accomplish'd without something of Cruelty and Inhumanity whereas the old Religions by the multitude of Sacrifices did inure Men to Blood and Destruction and so made them fit for any Enterprize And Machiavel was certainly in the right if Religion were intended only to make Men Butchers or to instruct them in the use of Swords and
first brought from another Country and is no way natural to our own tho the Infection hath been taken by too many who had an ill Temper prepared for it Cons Dr. Jackson's Works Tom. 3. l. 12. ch 8. p. 978. their Loyalty and Peaceableness may be the Fruits of their Education or their good temper but not of their Faith or as Dr. Sherlock says they may be loyal as Englishmen but they cannot be so as Papists Would we therefore judge of the Doctrine of our Church we must consult her Articles Canons publick Homilies publick Offices of Devotion General Orders of her Bishops Censures of her Universities and Writings of her greatest Men who have vindicated her Doctrine and explained her Belief and this Method I shall use to discover what hath been owned by the Church of England as to the Doctrine of Non-resistance or Passive Obedience CHAP. I. The Doctrine of the Thirty nine Articles THE Articles of our Church have been always looked upon as the stated Doctrine of our whole Church to which all her Priests are obliged to make their Subscriptions they are allowed a place in the Body of the Confessions of the Protestant Churches and are highly commended by Foreigners as well as by our own Writers for * Bishop Ridley's Farewel Letter apud Fox tom 3. p. 506. this Church hath in matters of Controversie Articles so penned and framed after the Holy Scriptures and grounded upon the true understanding of God's Word that in short time if they had been universally received says Bishop Ridley the Martyr they should have been able to have set in Christ's Church much concord and unity in Christ's true Religion and to have expelled many false Errors and Heresies wherewith this Church alas was almost overgone Nor is this that excellent Prelate's peculiar Opinion but of the whole Church which ordains †Can. 3. an 1604. That whosoever shall affirm that the Church of England by Law establish'd under the King's Majesty is not a true and Apostolical Church teaching and maintaining the Doctrine of the Apostles let him be excommunicated ipso facto And Can. 5. Whosoever shall affirm that any of the thirty nine Articles agreed in the Synod 1562 are in any part superstitious or erroneous let him be excommunicate ipso facto Anno 1552. In the Convocation held at London Articles of Religion were agreed upon of which the Thirty sixth runs thus The Civil Magistrate is ordained and allowed of God and therefore is to be obeyed not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake And expresly asserts That the Bishop of Rome hath no Jurisdiction in this Realm of England In the Articles of our Church under Queen Elisabeth anno 1562. it runs thus and so continues to this day The Queens Majesty hath the chief Power in this Realm of England and other her Dominions unto whom the chief Government of all Estates of this Realm whether they be Ecclesiastical or Civil in all Cases doth appertain and is not nor ought to be subject to any Foreign Jurisdiction And it is remarkable ‖ Rogers's Praef. to the 39th Artic. that these Articles of 1562. were published in the same year in which the Massacre at Vassey in France was committed by the Duke of Guise and when all the Protestants in the Country were sentenced to Death by the Parliament of Paris It is true this Doctrine is not limited to the particular Case of Subjects taking up Arms but it seems to me by two necessary Consequences to be deduc'd from it 1. Because if the Pope who pretended by a Divine Right had no power over Kings much less have the People any power who pretend to an inferior Right that of Compact 2. Because the Article makes no distinction but excludes all other Power as well as that of the Pope And in truth the Plea is the same on either side the Pope says as long as the Prince governs according to the Laws of God and the Church of which he is the Interpreter so long the Censures of the Church do not reach him and say the People as long as the Prince governs according to the Laws of the Land and of the meaning of those Laws themselves are the Interpreters so long are they bound to be obedient but as soon as the King doth any thing that may contradict the Pope then he is deservedly say the Romanists excommunicate deposed and murdered and when he usurps upon the Peoples Liberties then he ought to be deposed by the Peoples the Arguments on either side are the same and for the most part the Authorities for as * Moderat of the Church of England ann 17. §. 19. p. 481. Dr. Puller well observes both Papists and Dissenters deny the Supremacy of the King one attributes it to the Pope originally the other to the People and the same Arguments that the Pope useth for his Supremacy over Kings the Disciplinarians use for establishing their Sovereignty CHAP. II. The Doctrine of the Injunctions and Canons IN the Infancy of the Reformation under Henry the Eighth for there I begin the Restoration of Religion to her Purity in this Kingdom as Dr. Burnet does †Burnet hist Reform l. 3. p. 226. tom 1. And Fox tom 2. p. 387. Anno 1536. Injunctions were issued out the first of which is That every Man that hath Cure of Souls shall for the Establishment and Confirmation of the King's Authority and Jurisdiction sincerely declare manifest and open for the space of one quarter of a year next ensuing once every Sunday and after that at the least wise twice every Quarter in their Sermons and other Collations that the Bishop of Rome 's usurp'd Power and Jurisdiction having no Establishment or Ground in the Law of God was of most just Causes taken away and abolish'd and that the King's Power is in his Dominions the highest Power and Potentate under God to whom all men within the same Dominions by God's Commandment owe most Loyalty and Obedience afore and above all other Potentates in Earth Now if a King be above all other Powers then he cannot be accountable to any other Power and so ought not to be resisted Anno * Burnet's Collect. of Records p. 181. 1538. came out the Lord Cromwel's Injunctions as they were called wherein the same Duty is injoyned in the same Words This also is the first of the Injunctions of Edw. the Sixth †Sparr Collect. p. 1 2. An. 1547. the Preface to which Injunctions acknowledges that part of them were formerly set out by Henry the Eighth and the rest added by King Edward the Sixth This also was the first of the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth with a very little variation and accordingly in the Articles of Enquiry of Archbishop Cranmer in the Diocess of Canterbury under Edward the Sixth the first is Whether all Persons c. have preach'd against the usurp'd Power of the Bishop of Rome Secondly Whether they have preach'd and
was call'd in which both the Universities most amicably agreed resolving only to give an account of the Proceedings at Oxford in the Years 1â—22 1647 and 1683 the Decree of 1622 was made the 25th of June in full Convocation on this occasion †Antiqu. Oxon. l. 1. p. 326 327 c. Mr. Knight of Broadgate Hall now Pembroke College preaching at S. Peter's in the East on Palm-Sunday upon 1 Kings 19.9 What dost thou here Elijah started this Question Whether it were lawful for Subjects in the defence of themselves when persecuted for Religion to take Arms against their Prince which he held in the Affirmative for which Doctrine when he was convened by the Vice-Chancellor he pleaded the Authority of Paraeus in his Commentary on the xiii to the Romans and the Example of King James who assisted the Rochellers against their King and was for that reason sent to Prison the Vice-Chancellor making the Bishop of St. David's Laud who in May of the same Year had his Conference with Fisher the Jesuit acquainted with it from whom the King was inform'd who ordered Knight and his Sermon to be sent up the Author being committed a Prisoner to the Gate-house in Westminster where he lay two Years and at last by the intercession of one of his Fellow Prisoners with Bishop Williams was releas'd and having ask'd the King's Pardon went into Holland where in a short time he died When Knight was complain'd of the King sent to the Vice-Chancellor to injoin the Students of Divinity to lay the Foundation of their Studies next to the holy Scriptures in the Fathers and Councils and to abstain from the Writings of either Jesuits or Puritans and accordingly the Heads of Colleges the Professors c. met in Convocation the Bishops that were then about the Court having condemn'd the Doctrine and the Books that contain'd it as seditious and contrary to the holy Scriptures the Decrees of Councils and Dictates of the Fathers and to the Doctrine and Constitutions of the Church of England and censur'd among others this Proposition * Proposit 2. v. Antiqu. Oxon. p. 327. That Subjects not private Persons but inferior Magistrates may take Arms to defend themselves the Commonwealth the Church and true Religion against their Sovereign or the superior Magistrate upon these Conditions If 1. The Prince turn Tyrant 2. If he compel his Subjects to commit Idolatry or to blaspheme 3. When any great injury is done 4. If they cannot otherwise be safe in their Fortunes their Lives and Consciences upon condition also 5. That under the pretext of Religion or Justice they do not seek their own advantage and 6. That their Arms be managed with much moderation Moderamine inculpatae tutelae These are the Terms of the Proposition and the Censure of the University runs thus This Proposition is false and seditious and so craftily restrain'd under such Conditions annex'd as every seditious Person may make use of to vindicate himself And the third Proposition which is of the same kind is alike condemn'd so that it is no wonder that Gillespy in the Preface to his Sermon calls this Doctrine the new Oxford Divinity and I wish no worse had been ever broach'd or owned there Nor did the University rest here but withal decreed and declared That according to the Canon of the holy Scriptures Subjects ought by no means forcibly to resist their Prince and that it is not lawful to take Arms either offensive or defensive against the King upon the account of Religion or any other Pretence requiring all the Members of the Convocation to subscribe the Censures and enjoyning all that should be admitted to any Degrees to take an Oath to consent to the determinations of that Convocation while the Commentary of Paraeus was burn'd in the Church-yard of St. Mary's at Oxford at Paul's Cross in London as it was likewise burn'd at Cambridge that University joyning with her Sister of Oxford in the Condemnation of those seditious Doctrines For as a * Doublet Ep. ad Gerh. Voss learned Foreigner who at that time was upon the spot informs that Knight citing for his Opinion the Authority not only of Paraeus but also of Bucanus and Junius Brutus affirming further that it was the Opinion of all the Reformed Divines and illustrating it by this instance that If the King of France should while his Army laid Siege to any Town of the Protestants his Subjects happen to fall by the hand of any of the besieged he was justly slain nor was he that killed him guilty of any crime both the Universities condemn'd the Doctrine and though at Oxford only Paraeus's Book was burn'd yet at Cambridge they also burn'd Bucanus's Common places and Junius Brutus or Hubert Languet's Vindiciae and damn'd the Authors to perpetual Infamy my Author adding that the Cambridge Doctors were the more fierce of the two whether because they hated the Puritans or were the Majority of them at least Remonstrants the Censure of that University Doublet saw when he was at the Commencement it being put into his Hands by him who drew it up upon his promise not to transcribe it What hinder'd it's publication I know not while the same year Dr. David Owen publish'd his Anti-Paraeus seu Determinat de Jure Regio adv David Paraeum at Cambridge anno sc 1622. Octavo in which the Doctrine of Resistance is throughly confuted This Censure and the Execution done upon his Book much troubled the old Paraeus And his Son * Append. in Comment ad Rom 13.5 vit Paraei says that his Father meant what he wrote not of Kings endowed with an absolute power but of such as were admitted to their Crowns upon condition while the illustrious Hugo Grotius thought so well of it that he hath inserted it at large in his Works †Vot pro pace ad Art. 16. p. 661. with a high commendation affirming That the Reverend Memory of King James the first the wisest King of Great Britain and the honor which he owed to the University of Oxford which at that time foresaw the Calamities which England afterward suffered and a just fear lest the pernicious Doctrine might do more mischief ingaged him to reprint the Censure To which Determination Dr. Prideaux Dr. Abbot and the other eminent Men of that time gave their suffrage Anno 1647 June 1. The same famous Academy met in Convocation and declared their Judgment concerning the Solemn League and Covenant and a few of their Reasons why they could not take that Covenant I shall transcribe * Ad calc vit Sanderson p. 174. as they were drawn up by Bishop Sanderson 1. We cannot take the Oath without acknowledging in the Imposers a greater power than for ought appeareth to us hath been in former times challenged †P. 181. 3. We cannot take the Oath without manifest danger of Perjury ‖ P. 182. the Oath being contrary to the Oath of Supremacy by us taken
necessary Erudition of a Christian Man in which the Commentary on the fifth Commandment thus instructs us Subjects be bound not to withdraw their Fealty Truth Love and Obedience towards their Prince for any Cause whatsoever it be nor for any cause they may conspire against his person nor do any thing towards the hinderance or hurt thereof or of his Estate And this they prove out of Rom. 13. Whosoever resists the power resists the ordinance of God and they that resist the ordinance of God shall get to themselves damnation And â—n the sixth Commandment No Subjects may draw their Swords against their Prince for any Cause whatsoever it be So that hereby we see that the Declaration made in the Reign of Charles the Second That it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever c. is no Novel Doctrine but the old Doctrine of the Church of England even in the infancy of its Reformation And again Although Princes which be the Supreme Heads of their Realm do otherwise than they ought to do yet God hath assigned no Judges over them in this World but will have the Judgment of them reserved to himself and will punish them when he sees his time And Ann. 1542. ‖ Id. Coll. of Record n. 26. p. 252. V. Fox to 2 p. 346 347. it is expresly injoin'd by the Bishop of London to his Clergy Item That every of you do procure and provide of your own a Book called The Institution of a Christian Man otherwise called the Bishop's Book and that you and every of you do exercise your selves in the same according to such Precepts as hath been given heretofore or hereafter to be given So that I suppose the Book to have been the whole duty of Man of those days SECT I. The Popish Bishops Tonstal and Stokesly in their Letter to Cardinal Pool * Apud Fox to 2. p. 351 352. prove out of St. Austin St. Chrysostom and other Fathers That a King is accountable to God only for his Faults that he hath no Peer upon Earth being greater than all Men and inferior but to God alone c. and from hence they shew That the Pope's Power and by parity of Argument the Power of the People to depose Kings is a Doctrine that will be to his own Damnation if he repent not whereas he ought to obey his Prince according to the Doctrine of St. Peter and St. Paul nay Bonner himself Ap. eund p. 673. as he wrote the Preface to the Book of true Obedience so in his Sermon at Paul's Cross Ann. 1549. in the beginning of the Reign of Edward the Sixth declares That all such as rebel against their Prince get to themselves Damnation and those that resist the higher Power resist the Ordinance of God and he that dieth in Rebellion is utterly damn'd and so loseth both Body and Soul what pretences soever they have as Corah Dathan and Abiram for Rebellion against Moses were swallowed down alive into Hell although they pretended to sacrifice to God. So much of the Doctrine of the Reformation did even Bonner himself at that time own and this also was the Opinion of the Protestants of that Age for †Ap. eund to 2. p. 592 among the Heresies and Errors collected by the Popish Bishops out of the Martyr Tyndal's Book called the Obedience of a Christian Man this is the fourth he faith fol. 113. that a Christian Man may not resist a Prince being an Infidel and an Ethnick and that this takes away free will or as it is in the ‖ Inter addend Latin Non licere Christiano resistere Principi Infideli Ethnico Tollit libertatem arbitrii Where observe that the Papists look'd upon it as if Tindal had said that it was impossible to do so whereas he only means that a Christian ought not to resist c. for the Words are thus explained ‡ Ibid. St. Peter willeth us to be subject to our Princes 1 Pet. ii St. Paul also doth the like Rom. xiii who was also himself subject to the Power of Nero and altho every Commandment of Nero against God he did not follow yet he never made resistance against the Authority and State of Nero as the Pope useth to do against the State not only of Infidels but also of Christian Princes SECT II. In the Reign of Edward the Sixth the true Religion began to flourish and at that time old Father Latimer was famous for a plain and honest Preacher * Fol. 56. he in his fourth Sermon before the King telling the Audience what Conference he had with my Lord Darsey in the Tower subjoins that when that Lord pleaded that he had been always faithful and had he seen the King in the Field he would have yielded his Sword to him on his Knees he replyed Marry but in the mean season you played not the part of a faithful Subject in holding with the People in a Commotion and Disturbance it hath been the cast of all Traitors to pretend nothing against the King's Person they never pretend the matter to the King but to others Subjects may not resist any Magistrates nor ought to do any thing contrary to the King's Laws And to put the matter out of all doubt in his Afternoon †Matth. xxii 21. Sermon at Stamford he says If the King should require of thee an unjust Request yet art thou bound to pay it and not to resist nor rebel against the King. The King indeed is in peril of his Soul for asking an unjust Request and God will in his due time reckon with him for it but thou must obey the King and not take upon thee to judge him for God is the King's Judge c. and know this that whensoever there is an unjust Exaction laid upon thee it is a plague and punishment for thy Sin. We marvel that we are plagued as we be and I think verily this unjust and unfaithful dealing with our Princes is one great cause of our plague look therefore every Man upon his Conscience ye shall not be judged by worldly Policy at the latter day Archbishop Cranmer in his Letter to Queen Mary whatever his fear might otherwise betray him to do confesses Ap. Fox to 3. p. 672. That the Imperial Crown and Jurisdiction of this Realm is taken immediately from God to be used under him only and is subject unto none but God alone ‖ p. 674. and afterward averrs That as the Pope taketh upon him to give the Temporal Sword to Kings and Princes so doth he likewise take upon him to depose them from their imperial States if they be disobedient to him and commandeth the Subjects to disobey their Princes assoiling the Subjects as well of their Obedience as of their lawful Oaths made unto their true Kings and Princes contrary to God's Commandment who commandeth all Subjects to obey their Kings or their Rulers over them It is not to be denied that this great
Doctrines to murder Princes are not of the Gospel-Spirit Bishop Hacket's Sermons on Psal xli 9. on the Gowry's Conspiracy p. 740. 741. Surely above all Men if the Clergy be not careful to set forth the honor of this day with great Honour and Solemnity it is their Ignorance or their Negligence Had these furious Sword-men that laid their Weapons to his Throat found an austere Master nay a Tyrant they must have born with it and not touch the Man that bears the Character of the Lord 's Anointed Dr. Sharp before the House of Commons Apr. 11. 1679. p. 35. O may God so inspire you That by your means the Person of his sacred Majesty and the Rights of his Crown may be secured against all wicked Attempts And p. 39. Let us hate all Tricks and Devices and Equivocations both in our Words and in Carriage Let us be constantly and inflexibly loyal to our Prince and let no consideration in the World make us violate our Allegiance to him And in his Sermon preach'd before the Lord Mayor 1680. speaking of the upright Man He is one studiously endeavouring to preserve his Allegiance to his Prince Pag. 19. He is a Man that honors the King that is observant of the Laws that is true to the Government and meddles not with them that are given to change In his Sermon preached at the Yorkshire Feast Feb. 17. 16 79 / 80. p. 17. We may do a great deal of good by our good Examples of Loyalty SECT XXII And to evince that this hath been the unquestion'd Doctrine of all the Members of this Church I shall subjoin many other Testimonies * Bish of Lincoln Principl and Posit p. 7. That England is a Monarchy the Crown Imperial and our Kings supreme Governors and sole supreme Governors of this Realm and all other their Dominions will I believe I am sure it should be granted seeing our Authentick Laws and Statutes do so expresly and so often say it In our Oath of Supremacy we swear That the King is the only supreme Governor supreme so none not the Pope above him and only supreme so none coordinate or equal to him so that by our known Laws our King is solo Deo minor invested with such a Supremacy as excludes both Pope and People and all the World God Almighty only excepted by whom Kings do reign from having any Power Jurisdiction or Authority over him This Book hath its Imprimatur not from any mean hand but from my Lord Bishop of London himself which is to me a plain implication that his Lordship did then own the Doctrine and so we have another Testimony to the Truth †Burnet's Vind. c. printed at Glascow p. 7. c. The Vindication of the Authority c. of the Church is full to this purpose Obj. May not Subjects when opprest in their establish'd Religion defend themselves and resist the Magistrate doth not the Law of Nature direct Men to defend themselves when unjustly assaulted Answ We must distinguish between the Laws of Nature and the Rights and Permissions of Nature now self-defence cannot be a Law of Nature ☜ for then it could never be dispenc'd with without a Sin nay were a man never so criminal he ought not to suffer himself to be killed neither should any Malefactor submit to the sentence of the Judge but stand to his defence by all the force he could raise and it will not serve turn to say for the good of Society he ought to submit for no Man must violate the Laws of Nature were it on never so good a design Christ's dying for us shews that self-defence can be no Law of Nature otherwise Christ who fulfilled all Righteousness had contradicted the Laws of Nature ‖ Pag. 10. He then proceeds to demonstrate that Magistrates derive not their Power from the Surrender of the People for none can surrender what they have not ☜ Take then a multitude of People not yet associated none of them hath power of his own Life neither hath he power of his Neighbor's since no Man out of Society may kill another be his Crime never so great much less be his own Murtherer A multitude of People not yet associated are but so many individual Persons therefore the Power of the Sword is not from the People nor is any of their Delegation but is from God. * Pag. 35. Consider that Christ was to fulfill all Righteousness if then the Laws of Nature exact our Defence in case of unjust Persecution for Religion ☜ he was bound to that Law as well as we for he came not to destroy but to fulfil the Law both by his Example and Precepts if then you charge the Doctrine of Absolute Submission as brutish or stupid or as contrary to the Law of Nature see you do not run into Blasphemy by charging that Holy One foolishly for whatever he knew of the secret Will of God he was to follow his revealed Will in his Actions †Pag. 39. If fighting at that time when Saint Peter drew his Sword for preserving Christ from the Jews were contrary to the Nature of his Kingdom so the Rule of the Gospel binding all the succeeding Ages of the Church no less than those to whom it was first deliver'd what was then contrary to the nature of Christ's Kingdom will be so still * P. 42. I shall add one thing which all Casuists hold a safe Rule in matters that are doubtful viz. That we ought to follow that side of the doubt that is freest from hazard ☞ here then damnation is at least the seeming hazard of resistance therefore except upon as clear evidence you prove the danger of absolute submission to be of the same nature that it may ballance the other then absolute submission as being the securest is to be followed * P. 41. Obj. But he is the Minister of God to thee for good and if they swerve from this they forsake the end for which they were raised up and so fall from the Power and right to our Obedience Answ It is true the Sovereign is a Minister of God for good so that he corrupts his power grosly when he pursues not that design but in that he is onely accountable to God whose Minister he is c. The same Author continued stedfast to this Doctrine when he left Scotland and came into England * Ser. on Jan. 30. 1674 / 5. p. 7. 9. David when Saul was most unjustly hunting his life would not stretch forth his hand against him seeing he was the anointed of the Lord from Almighty God the King had his Power and to him he knew he was to give an account of his Administration Affirming that the Enemies of that Royal Martyr P. 38. by Oaths and Counter-Oaths which they often took had their Consciences so seared as to be past feeling till they threw off all sense of God and Religion and set up professedly
particularly chosen by the People c. but on the other side what mighty danger can there be in suppossing the persons of Princes to be so sacred that no Sons of Violence ought to come near to hurt them Have not all the ancient Kingdoms and Empires of the World flourished under the Supposition of an unaccountable power in Princes No inconvenience can be possibly so great on the supposition of this unaccountable power in Sovereign Princes as the unavoidable Mischiefs of that Hypothesis which places all power originally in the People and notwithstanding all Oaths and Bonds whatsoever to Obedience ☞ gives them the Liberty to resume it when they please which will always be when a Spirit of Faction and Sedition shall prevail among them God Pag. 34. Numb 26.9 interprets striving against the Authority appointed by him to be a striving against himself they who resist resist an Ordinance of God and they who do so shall in the mildest sense receive a severe punishment from him let the Pretences be never so popular the persons never so great and famous nay tho they were of the great Council of the Nation yet we see God doth not abate of his severity upon any of these Considerations nor hath the Christian Doctrine made any Alteration in these things P. 39. It would take up too much time to examine the frivolous Evasions and ridiculous Distinctions by which they would make the case of the Primitive Christians in not resisting Authority so much different from theirs who have not only done it but in spite of Christianity have pleaded for it either they wanted Strength or Courage or the Countenance of the Senate or did not understand their own Liberty P. 40. When all their Obedience was only due to those Principles of the Gospel which made it so great a part of Christianity to be subject to Principalities and Powers and which the Teachers of the Gospel had particularly given them in charge to put the People in mind of Tit. iii. 1. And happy had it been for us if this Doctrine had been more sincerely preach'd and duely practis'd in this Nation * Id. Ser. on Nov. 5. 1673. p. 39. It is the Honor of our Church of England that it asserts the Rights of Princes so clearly and fully without Tricks and Reservations and all that mean honestly love to speak plainly †Id. Ser. on Mat. x. 16. at Whitchall March 7. 167 8 / 9. That there might be no colour for any such Cavil against Christianity as if it gave occasion to many Disturbances of the Civil Government no Religion that ever was did so much enforce the duty of Obedience as Christ and his Apostles did and that upon the greatest and most weighty Considerations for Conscience sake for the Lord's sake for their Religion's sake for consider I pray if the Doctrine of Christ had given encouragement to Faction and Rebellion under pretence of it if S. Peter himself had taken upon him to dispose of Crowns and Scepters or had absolved Christians from their Allegiance even to their greatest Persecutors what Blot had this been even upon the whole Religion such as all the Blood of the Martyrs could never have wash'd out P. 50. It is an intolerable Reproach to Christianity to impute their patient Submission to Authority to their Weakness and want of force which is all one as to say they would have resisted if they durst And the same Author in his Grand Question c. p. 180 181. says That every new Modeller of Government hath something to offer that looks like Reason at least to those whose interest it is to carry it on and if no Precedents can be found then they appeal to a certain invisible thing called the Fundamental Contract of the Nation which being a thing no where to be found may signifie what any one pleases And pag. 75. I am of Opinion That if he i.e. the Author of the Letter c. could be persuaded to produce this Fundamental Contract of the Nation which I perceive he hath lying by him it would not amount to so much as a blind Manuscript Thus also he says in his Book called The Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome truly stated p. 106. The Principles of our Church are directly contrary to them i. e. deposing Principles and our Houses of Convocation would as readily condemn any such damnable Doctrines as the University of Oxford and all the World knows how repugnant such Principles are to those of the Church of England and none can be Rebels to their Prince but they must be false to our Church SECT XXV Dr. Patrick Dean of Peterborough * Paraphr on Prov. 24 21. Take care therefore my dear Child that thy Religion which teaches thee in the first place to worship reverence and obey the great Lord and Governor of all the World make thee humbly obedient to the King as God's Vicegerent here on Earth and have nothing to do with those whose discontent with the present state of things or their love of Novelty makes them affect a change of Government and depart from their duty both to God and Man. †Id. Pref. to the Paraphr on Eccles p. 16. To this purpose the Preface to the Paraphrase on Ecclesiastes cites and confirms the Opinion of Antonius Corranus an excellent Person a learned Spaniard as the Paraphrast justly stiles him concerning that Book of Solomon's This Tractate is truly royal and worthy to be read perpetually in this most turbulent Age both by high and low that from hence Subjects may learn to perform Obedience and the greatest Observance both in word and deed towards their Princes chusing rather to bear and suffer any thing than to attempt Rebellion against them ‖ Id. Per. Annot. on Eccl. 8.2 p 216. It is much safer and easier as well as more honest to submit and be quiet than to contend and unsettle the Peace of Kingdoms tho Princes do not govern as they ought The Verse says Melancthon is a Sentence exceeding worthy of Consideration and Remembrance and then gives the different Interpretations of it and closes all thus ‡ P. 219.220 Some may think that I have dilated too much upon this Verse but they may be pleased to consider how useful if not necessary it is at this time when men begin again to plead the lawfulness of Resistance which is so plainly condemn'd in this place that the most learned Assertors of the Old Cause were extremely puzzled to make it agree with their Principles in the late Times of Rebellion There is one who in his Book called Natures Dowry chap. 21. calls in the Assistance of a great many Hebrew Doctors to help him to another Translation of the Words and yet after all is forc'd to acknowledge that our English is right enough and is content to admit it with this Proviso That the King manage well the Affairs of the Commonwealth
may excuse themselves from their obligations to all the rest Will they plead that the Gospel is not a perfect Rule of Duty and that the inspired Writers did not foresee and provide for all cases c. Upon the same ground they dispense with one Law of Christ they may dispense with as many as they please P. 29. If the Magistrates be Ordained of God then it is no more lawful for an hundred thousand Men to resist him than for twelve and if we are bound to submit for Conscience sake no increase of our numbers or strength can alter the Rule of our Duty or take off the Obligation of Conscience ☜ So that had the Primitive Christians had more potent Arms than Nero or Julian yet no right ever could have accured to them thereby to oppose Gods Ordinance or to proceed against their Conscience P. 30. The Popes of Rome were the first pretenders from Scripture to a right not only of Resisting c. but of Deposing Kings Knox Milton Rutherford c. P. 40. could not have spit ranker venom at Kings or spoke with greater contempt of their Authority than Hildebrand And in another place thus P. 15. It always holds true with respect to the Sovereign Power in any Country what was said by Judge Creshald Legacy p. 5. both like a pious Christian and an able Lawyer concerning the Royal Authority of our Nation that the Jura Regalia of our Kings are holden of Heaven and cannot for any Cause Escheat to their Subjects nor they for any Cause make any positive or actual forcible resistance against them but that we ought to yield to them Passive Obedience by suffering the punishment albeit their commands should be against the Divine Law and that in such Case Arma nostra sunt preces nostrae nec possumus nec debemus aliter resistere for who can lift up his hand against the Lords Anointed and be guiltless And thus the Author of Jeremiah in Baca or a Fast-days Work Published for the Devout Members of the Church of England as a Preservative for all them against Perjury and Rebellion speaks Rebellious Perjuries pag. 40 41 42 43 44. A further branch of Perjury there is which in the late Rebellious days involved a great part of the three Nations over and over Some Popular wicked Men Sons of Belial contrary to the Oath of the Lord upon them rose up against the Lords Anointed drew in against their Allegiance also many and many thousands of the People into that Rebellion and bloody War and when through thy just judgment upon the three Kingdoms for former sins those Perjured Rebellious Men had very far prevailed and imbrued their Hands not only in the common blood of their fellow Subjects but also in the sacred blood of their Sovereign and driven all the Royal Family into Foreign parts the dayly practice was making and taking new Oaths and imposing them upon the People and then both breaking them themselves and compelling others to break them O God! ☜ how many Rebellious Oaths were there framed contrary to that one rightful Oath of Allegiance every of which later Oaths were direct and solemn Perjury The dreadful effects of that Rebellion and those Perjuries we now see and we have all reason to fear the guilt of them will not cease operating to further vengeance upon the Nations for that there are still left therein Men of like wicked Principles But O God! when thou makest inquisition for blood shut not up the innocent with the guilty The Established Church thou knowest all along abhorred and withstood unanimously as one Man those false Treasonable and bloody practices and chose the utmost sufferings rather than joyn therein or in the least comply therewith Notwithstanding we acknowledge the multitude of the Offenders was so great that both the Rebellion and the Perjuries may affect the whole Body of the Nation For if thou wilt by no means hold them guiltless who take thy name in vain what may we all expect SECT XXX Mr. Wake * Serm. at Paris Jan. 30. 1684 / 5. p. 3. Speaking of the Murder of Charles the Marty◠Had an Infidel Nation risen up against him or the chance of War cut him off we should soon have turned our sorrow into joy But that we who were obliged by all the tyes of God and Men to obey him should destroy that life for which we ought not to have refused any hazard of our own that we who were certainly his Subjects and pretend to be Christians too should violate all the Rights of Majesty trample under feet all the Laws of the Gospel this raises those Clouds that obscure so bright a Day P. 10. Long had the Trumpet been blown to War and to Rebellion the Church become Militant and our Pulpits instead of setting forth the Gospel of Peace spoke nothing but Wars and Seditions and Tumults to the People Is there any one among us that by the malignity of his Nature the desperateness of his Fortunes or a misguided Zeal hath been actually concerned in this guilt P. 17 18. Is there any one now present who though unconcerned in that black Parricide is yet involved in any of those Principles that lead to it ☞ hath assisted approved or encouraged those new Rebels the Progeny of the same Old Cause that have again so lately endeavoured to Crown the Son with the like Glory their Ancestors did the Father let me beseech them either to sanctifie the Fast with us or not to join in the Celebration A Crime Pag. 22. which I should doubt had exceeded the Power of any Repentance to expiate had not the Apostles left us an Example by exhorting the Jews to labor for a Forgiveness Pag. 29. even of their crucifying the Lord of Glory Was there ever Villany like this that a Christian Kingdom should break through all those Bonds of Duty and Obedience which the more righteous Heathens have reverenced as sacred and inviolable ☜ that so many Oaths and Vows repeated with that frequency taken with that solemnity should all be insufficient to preserve our Fidelity that Religion and Reformation two things than which none can be more excellent in themselves nor are any more easily and more dangerously abused should be able to cheat us into wickedness which the barbarous Scythians never heard of Wake 's Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England against the Exceptions of Monsieur de Meaux c. Licensed by C. Alston The Peace and Liberty which we enjoy Pag. 88. The Close we do not ascribe to their i. e. the Papists Civility it is God's Providence and our Sovereign's Bounty whom the Church of England has ever so Loyally served whose Rights she asserted in the worst of times When to use our Author 's own words Perjury and Faction for this very cause loaded her with all the Injuries Hell it self could invent But we gloried to
he suffered the most bitter and cruel kind of Death for our sakes and the points of Office of him that is his Vicar are to be in subjection not to command Princes but to acknowledge himself to be under their power and commandment not only when they command things indifferent and easily to be done but also when they command things not indifferent so they be not wicked in checks in scourgings and beatings unto death yea even unto the death of the Cross Indeed these are Christs footsteps Now if it be objected against what hath been said that the Author of the Treatise Gardiner was a virulent Papist I answer this strengthens the Authority for the Testimony of an Enemy to the Truth of Religion is worth an hundred other Witnesses and it is very remarkable that a Romish Bishop should assert the Divine Right and unaccountableness of Kings when his Church teacheth him to believe that the Pope hath power to depose Princes and many of their eminent Writers affirm that all power is originally in and derived from the people And if it be further objected that Gardiner retracted and disowned this Doctrine in the Reign of Queen Mary I grant it and I wish that he and Bonner had been the only men in the world who had altered their Opinions for the worse being prevailed upon by the love of the world which is the root of all evil But Truth is never the less venerable because some Professors of it have turned Apostates Gardiner 's and Bonner 's Reasons * Vide Cranmer's Translat in praef before his Book of unwritten Verities being so pithy and Arguments so strong as neither they themselves nor any other after them shall be able at any time rightly to assoil and answer And it must be observed that before they condemned these their Orthodox Tenets they wilfully broke the Oaths which they had taken in the Days of Henry the Eighth and the venerable Dean * Reproof of Dorman p. 1.6 Lond. 1565. Nowel thus urges the Argument Ask your forsworn Fathers with what face they did give to the King the Title of Supreme Head did swear it to him and so long time continued so calling him If they did not so think as they said and had sworn but dissembled deeply ask of them with what face they played so false dissembling Hypocrites with their Sovereign Lord Ask of them what manner of Subjects they were all that while feigning in face in word in writing yea and taking a Solemn Oath to be with their Prince therein and being in heart and deed on his sworn Enemy his side But if they thought indeed as they pretended in words then ask of them with what face they did change their Copy ☞ and forswear the same and themselves withal so easily afterward yea and compelled all others to be forsworn with them for company Then you shall find who they were that changed their Copy and turned with the Wind as the Weather-cock that so falsly swear reswear trieswear and forswear themselves and not content therewith did by all most terrible Torments and dreadful Deaths compel others to Perjury with them And whoso considers Bonner's juggling Fox Martyrs To. 2. p. 1192 1193. Edit 1610. anno 1547. with King Edward the Sixth's Commissioners about the Injunctions at one time protesting against them at another recanting that his Protestation swearing Obedience to the King receiving his Injunctions giving his assent and consent to the State of Religion then established to the abolishing Images abrogation of the Mass setting up of Bibles in Churches giving the Sacrament in both kinds and such like And then two years afterward anno 1549. on the Death of the Lord High Admiral and the many tumultuous Insurrections of the King's Subjects neglecting to be present or to officiate in his Cathedral at Divine Service and permitting others to frequent the Mass may see his temper throughly and be convinced that his Authority is of no worth while his Reasonings are unanswerable it being unjust that his personal Faults should make void the weight of his Arguments especially when he spake not his own sense but the sense of the whole Church of England which will undeniably appear by the continuation of his story For when Bonner was for his prevarication suspected and complained of and convened before the King's Council among other Injunctions then given him one was that he should personally preach within three weeks after at Paul's Cross And among the special points and Articles that were to be treated of by him in his Sermon this was the first 1. That all such as rebel against their Prince get unto them damnation and those that resist the higher Powers resist the Ordinance of God and he that dieth therefore in Rebellion by the word of God is utterly damned and so loseth both body and soul and therefore those Rebels in Devonshire and Cornwal in Norfolk or elsewhere who take upon them to assemble a Power and Force against their King and Prince against the Laws and Statutes of the Realm and go about to subvert the State and Order of the Commonwealth not only to deserve therefore death as Traitors and Rebels but do accumulate to themselves eternal damnation even to be in the burning Fire of Hell with Lucifer the Father and first Author of Pride Disobedience and Rebellion what pretence soever they have as Corah Dathan and Abirom for Rebellion against Moses were swallowed down alive into Hell altho they pretended to sacrifice unto God. And 4. That our Authority of Royal Power is as of truth it is of no less authority and force in this our young Age than is or was of any of our Predecessors tho the same were much elder as may appear by example of Josias c. How Bonner discharged his Obedience to these Injunctions is not my present Province the Martyrology will inform the Reader but what is already related undeniably proves what was the Doctrine of the Church of England in those Days Anno 1541. was Dr. Robert Barnes martyred Vide his Life prefixed to his Works and at the stake he professed That he never to his knowledge taught any erroneous Doctrine but only those things which the Scripture led him unto and that in his Sermons he never maintain'd any Error nor gave occasion of any Insurrection but with all diligence did study evermore to set forth the Glory of God the Obedience to our Sovereign Lord the King and the true and sincere Religion of Christ desiring the People to bear witness that he detested and abhorred all evil Opinions and Doctrines against the Word of God. And his Writings are agreeable to his dying Protestation In his Supplication to King Henry the Eighth when condemned to die treating of the Cruelties of the Popish Clergy among other things he says If they cannot make a Man a Heretick P. 183. to colour and maintain their Oppression they add Treason against your Grace tho
trouble than Christ himself hath appointed us In St. Luke he giveth us this commandment ye shall possess your lives in patience saith he in the which words he giveth us both commandment what to do and also great consolation and comfort in all troubles he sheweth also what is to be done and what is to be hoped for in troubles and when troubles happen he biddeth us be patient and in no case violently ☜ nor seditiously to resist our persecutors because God hath such care and charge of us that he will keep in the midst of all troubles the very hairs of our heads so that not one of them shall fall away without the will and pleasure of our Heavenly Father Wherefore the Christian Man's Faith must be always upon the Resurrection of Christ p. 150. when he is in trouble and in that glorious Resurrection he shall not only see continual and perpetual joy and consolation but also the victory and triumph of all persecution trouble sin death hell c. the pains also they vex us withal for the time if they tarry with us as long as we live p. 153. yet when death cometh they shall avoid and give place to such joys as be prepared for us in Christ for no pains of the World be perpetual and whether they shall afflict us for all the time of our mortal life we know not for they be the Servants of God to go and to come as he commandeth them But we must take heed we meddle not forcibly nor seditiously to put away the persecution appointed unto us by God ☞ but remember Christ's saying possess your lives by your patience and in this commandment God requireth in every Man and Woman this patient obedience He saith not it is sufficient that other Holy Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Evangelists and Martyrs continued their lives in patience and patient suffering the troubles of this World but Christ saith to every one of his People by your own patience ye shall continue your life Now therefore as our Profession and Religion requireth patience outwardly without resistance and force so requireth it patience of the mind and not to be angry with God although he use us that be his own creatures as him listeth c. Nor is it to be pretermitted that Miles Coverdale Bishop of Exon who published the Letters of Bishop Hooper and other the Martyrs in his Epistle to the Christian Reader praiseth God for these and such other Monuments which he had preserved and brought to light by his singular great providence because the more nigh that mens words and works approach unto the most wholsom sayings and fruitful doings of the old ancient Saints and chosen Children of God which loved not only to hear his word but also to live thereafter the more worthy are they to be esteemed embraced and followed and we have just cause to rejoyce that we have been familiar and acquainted with some of those which walked in the trade of their footsteps for the which cause it doth us good to read and hear not the lying Legends of feigned false counterfeited and Popish Canonized Saints but such true holy and approved Histories Monuments Orations Epistles and Letters as do set forth unto us the blessed behavior of God's dear Servants By which it appears that he was of their opinion in this as well as other Primitive Doctrins of the Reformed Church of England in opposition to the Novel and false assertions of the Church of Rome and so we have another eminent Confessor of those early days of the Reformation attesting the truth in the point of Non-resistance It is also remarkable that at that time the Protestants were no contemptible party of Men in the Nation that Queen Mary had been disinherited by Act of Parliament a Bill of Exclusion past into the formality of a Law and that for illegitimacy as it is their declared that the Crown was given to another by the Will of Edward VI. that Queen Mary was both a Papist and a Persecutor and turn'd the Protestant Bishops out of their Sees even before a Parliament made it Law and yet the Holy Men of those days in their Letters to their Friends and Followers treat only of Patience and Submission to Providence of looking to our Blessed Saviour and suffering without Murmuring as he did and that to resist even the Queen was a damnable sin when they wanted not abettors nor opportunities of conveying their thoughts privately to them and I am sure they were not to seek for courage and resolution who so frankly and undauntedly condemn'd the Popish Superstitions and Idolatries when they had nothing in prospect but Prisons and Executions nay those Protestants who had given their Votes for her Exclusion repented of their crimes while others of the same belief stood by her in her distress and placed her on her Throne SECT III. In the Reign of this Pious and Learned Prince Edward VI. Old Father Latimer * In Coverdale's Collect. of Letters p. 56. that Old True Apostle of our English Nation and of Christ as Bishop Ridley his Fellow Prisoner and Companion in Martyrdom calls him that generous and honest Man who when the Parliament Anno 1539. had confirmed the Six Articles the Whip with Six Cords as they were justly called voluntarily chose to abandon his Bishoprick Godwin's Annals p. 172 173. 229. rather than conform to so unjust a Law and abstained Ten years from Preaching till after the death of Henry VIII he was restored did notwithstanding his great plainness dominari in concionibus filling the Pulpit with a mighty Grace nor was he wanting in those days to bear witness to this Doctrin for in his explanation of that Petition of Our Holy Saviours Prayer Thy will be done he says Our Rebels 4th Serm. on the Lord's Prayer p. 142. Lond. 1635. which rose about two years ago in Norfolk and Devonshire they consider not this Petition they said it with their lips only but not with their hearts Almighty God hath reveal'd his will as concerning Magistrates how he will have them to be honour'd and obey'd they were utterly against it he revealed this his will in many places of the Scripture but especially by St. Peter where he saith 1 Pet. 2.13 subditi estote omni humanae creaturae that is to say in effect be subject to all the common Laws made by Men of Autority by the King's Majesty c. be subject unto them and obey them saith God and here is but one exception that is against God when Laws are made against God and his word then I ought more to obey God than Man ☞ then I may refuse to obey with a good Conscience yet for all that I may not rise up against the Magistrates nor make any uproar for if I do so I sin damnably I must be content to suffer whatsoever God shall lay upon me yet I may not obey their wicked Laws to do them only in
such a case Men may refuse to obey else in all other matters we ought to obey what Laws soever they make as concerning outward things we ought to obey and in no wise to rebel though they be never so hard noysom and hurtful Our duty is to obey and to commit all the matters to God not doubting but that God will punish them when they do contrary to their office and calling therefore tarry till God correct them we may not take upon us to reform them ☞ for it is no part of our duty If the Robels I say had consider'd this think you they would have preferr'd their own will before God's will for doing as they did they prayed against themselves * Id. Serm. on Ep 21. Sund after Trinity p. 196 197 Subjects may not of their own private autority take the sword or rebel against their King for when they rebel they serve the Devil for they have no commission of God so to do but of their own head they rise against God that is against the King to whom they owe obedience and so worthily be punish'd therefore good Christian People beware of rebelling against our Sovereign Lord the King. ‖ Id. 24. Sund after Trin. p. 216. The calling of the Subjects is to be obedient unto the Magistrates not to rebel against them for if they do they strive against God himself and shall be punish'd of him Another cause why Christ was circumcised is Id. Serm. on the Twelfth day p. 291. to be obedient unto common orders therefore he would suffer rather to be circumcised than to give occasion of hurly burly or uproar for the will of the Father was that Subjects should obey Magistrates and keep orders Subjecti estote cuivis potestati be obedient unto them c. look what Laws and Ordinances are made by the Magistrates we ought to obey them and this is to be understood as well in spiritual matters as temporal matters so far forth as the Laws be not against God and his Word When they will move us to do any thing against God then we must say Oportet magis obedire Deo quam hominibus we must be more obedient unto God than Man ☞ yet we may not withstand them with stoutness or rise up against them but suffer whatsoever they shall do unto us for we may for nothing in the World rebel against the Office of God that is to say against the Magistrate CHAP. III. The Doctrine of Passive Obedience in the Reign of Queen Mary SECT I. UPon the Death of King Edward VI. so prevalent were the two Families of Northumberland and Suffolk that they made a great Party to oppose the legal Succession of the Right Heir their abettors being countenanc'd and encouraged by the last Testament of King Edward but as * Cent. 16. p. 1. Fuller rightly observes the Will of the Duke of Northumberland but whatever was done in defence of the Lady Jane Grey was contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of England which taught her Children better and more wholsom Doctrine and though Archbishop Cranmer were one of the Subscribers to that Will and to the Letter sent after Edward the sixth's Death to Queen Mary yet there is much to be said in Apology for him For first Cranmer ‖ Heyl. Hist of the Refor p. 152. Fox Burnet and Godwin c. of all the Privy Council was the last that stood out having at first positively refused to sign the Will and after much reasoning and many arguments urged for the Queens Illegitimation required a longer time of deliberation and at last could be overcome by nothing but the King 's own restless importunity To whom the Archbishop had as he ought a great regard and this his resolution so prevail'd upon his Judges that though at first they committed him to the Tower with the Lady Jane Fox tom 2. p. 1289. and the Duke of Northumberland's Sons for High Treason yet though they prosecuted his Fellow Prisoners on that Statute they let fall their Action against him and prosecuted him only for Heresie to his great joy as Fox relates it The same ‖ p 1698. Author assuring us that Dr. Heath afterwards Archbishop of York did affirm to one of Archbishop Cranmer's Friends that notwithstanding his Attainder of Treason the Queens Determination at that time was that Cranmer should only have been deprived of his Archbishoprick and had a sufficient Living assign'd him with commandment to keep his House without meddling in matters of Religion Secondly that the Archbishop was encouraged so to do * Id. ibid. by the Example of all the Nobles of the Realm and the States and Judges Sir James Hales only excepted for the Lord Chief Justice Mountague had after much ado subscribed the Lawyers especially assuring him that it was no breach of his former Oath so to do And it is well known that if any thing exasperated Queen Mary against him it was not the signing of King Edward's Will but her Mother's Divorce which Cranmer so actively promoted Thirdly The Reasons were specious both from * Hâ—yl Hist Reform ann 1553. p. 151 152. Burn. par 2. p 223. Law and Policy as they were then stiled that both the Sisters were declared illegitimate and that by Act of Parliament and that were they not so yet being but of the half Blood to the King by the Law they could not succeed nor could any Foreigner by the same Law. And that the Duchess of Suffolk had waved her Title and then the Right was in the Lady Jane that this was the only way to preserve the Nation from the Vassalage and Servitude of the Bishop of Rome and from subjecting the Realm to Foreigners if the Sisters should marry out of it Fourthly Par 2 hist l. 1. p. 224. Dr. Burnet affirms that as nothing but the King 's own importunities could prevail on the Archbishop so it 's probable that he signed it only as a Witness and not as Counsellor according to a Distinction then found out by Sir William Cecil Secretary of State. But lastly This act was no Declaration of the Archbishop's Judgment in the Case of the Deprivation Deposition or resisting of Kings against which he protested through the whole tenor of his life He it was that was if not the Author * Fox p. 1697. yet the main Contriver Approver and Publisher of the Book of the Reformation the Catechism with the Book of Homilies as also of the Necessary Erudition of a Christian Man. In which Books the Power of Kings and the Necessity of Obedience together with the wretched Estate of Rebels and such as resist Authority is plainly set forth He calls the Insurrection against †Vide Herbert Hâ—â—â— 3. p. 457 King John as much as others magnifie it and what followed it plain Rebellion And having contrary to that Truth suffered himself to be over-persuaded in this one particular he publickly
resisteth the Ordinance of God. These are our Institutions these Doctrins are illustrious in our Books in our Sermons and in the manners and modesty of our People The same admirable Prelate in his Epistle Dedicatory to Queen Elizabeth before his defence of the Apology is still of the same mind blaming his Adversary Harding for debasing the Majesty of Kings ‖ sol 318.6 Mr. Harding concerning the Majesty and Right of Kings tells us they have their first authority by the positive Law of Nations and can have no more power than the People hath of whom they take their Temporal Jurisdiction as if he would say Emperors and Kings have none other Right of Government than it hath pleased their Subjects by composition to allow unto them thus he says and says it boldly as if God himself had never said per me Reges regnant by me and mine authority Kings bear rule over their Subjects or as if Christ our Saviour had never said unto Pilate the Lord Lieutenant thou shouldst have no power over me were it not given thee from above or as if St. Paul had not said there is no power but only from God they also hold that the Pope is the Head and Kings and Emperors the Feet If this Doctrine may once take root ☜ and be freely received amongst the Subjects it shall be hard for any Prince to hold his Right And in his Defence he declareth himself to be of the same mind part 1. p. 15. Mr. Harding knoweth right well we never Armed the People ☜ nor taught them to rebel for Religion against the Prince if any thing have at any time happen'd otherwise it was either some wilful rage or some fatal fury it was not our counsel it was not our Doctrine we teach the People as St. Paul doth To be subject to the higher powers not only for fear but also for conscience we teach them that whoso striketh with the sword by private authority shall perish with the sword if the Prince happen to be wicked or cruel or burthenous we teach them to say with St. Ambrose Arma nostra sunt preces lacrymae tears and prayers be our weapons and when ‖ p. 16. Harding himself had said that he condemn'd all such attempts that any Subject or Subjects whatsoever of their own private authority should take Arms against their Prince for matters of Religion why replies Jewel except you only the case of Religion Is it lawful by your Grant for the Subject in any other case either of Life or of Government to Arm himself against his Prince and would you thus perswade the People Is this your Religion Is this your Doctrine Anno 1565. Alexander Nowel Dean of St. Pauls set forth his reproof of Mr. Dorman 's proof and in it vindicates the Church of England from the scandalous imputation pr. at Lond. 4 to p. 94 95. that it taught Men to be Rebels Corah Dathan and Abyron rebelled against Moses and Aaron who were specially by God appointed to be their Governors and his Ministers but what appertaineth that to us who do obey our natural Prince appointed by God to be our Governor and all as well Civil Magistrates as Ecclesiastical Ministers of God under our Prince And therefore do we as we must needs renounce the authority of that foreign Usurper of Rome it is you Papists that are the Successors of the Rebels Corah c. who leaving the Obedience due to your own natural Princes for the serving of a Foreign false Usurper of Rome do rebel not only against Moses that is to say your Governor by God appointed but against God himself also we acknowledg that as Moses and Aaron were Gods Ministers by him appointed to govern his peculiar People Israel so hath God likewise appointed to every several Country their Moses and Aaron their Princes and Pastors or Bishops which ought likewise to be obeyed as Moses and Aaron were to be obey'd of the Israelites and that those who do disobey them do sin by Rebellion ☞ p. 96. as did Corah c as we are most far from Rebelling against our natural Sovereign and other of God's Ministers appointed to govern us and therefore no partakers of Corah and his fellows Rebellion so trust we in God to be most far from their most horrible destruction and we give warning to Mr. Dorman c. who for maintenance of a Forein Pharaoh against their conscience as is to be feared do disobey their own natural Prince and that upon a pretence of holiness and spirituality and are therein most like to Corah c. rebelling against their own special Governors by God appointed as they did that they make speed by unfeigned repentance to mollifie God's most just wrath that they follow not Corah c. in horrible damnation as they have followed them in damnable Rebellion Anno 1569. an exhortation to the Queens Majesties poor deceived Subjects of the North drawn into Rebellion by the Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland was printed by allowance and in it they are thus accosted Christians I cannot term you that have defac'd the Communion of Christians and in destroying the Book of Christ's most Holy Testament renounced your parts by his Testament bequeath'd unto you their pretences were the foul disorder of the Realm much impoverish'd far indebted the defrauding of due execution of Justice that no Subject can have his Right by Law but falsly whereas they are better taught far doth the proportion of duty of Subjects to the Prince exceed the duty of Servants to Masters or Children to Parents yea or of Wives to their Husbands the very nearest conjoyning in humane fellowship even so far as a Realm exceeds a private Family but if one of your own Servants Children or Wives should do that without your will nay against your will and express commandment that your Captains and you have attempted without and against the Queens Highness pleasure would you account them good Servants good Children or good Wives if they shall put on armour and weapon and become terrible or threaten force to the Master Father Husband or the rest of the Family if the case were your own you would more mislike it The Prince is the Husband of the Common wealth married to the Realm and the same by ceremony of a ring shall you resist her authority and refuse her blessing and say you be her good children Shall your Captains forsake her Service and say they are good Servants note withal how likely they are to profess a true Religion that hold this Principle ☜ to keep no faith use no loyalty regard no oaths and promises made with attestation of God and avowing themselves to renouncing of Heaven and to eternal damnation they regard no Religion that go so irreligiously to work all is but show and hypocrisie Reed I beseech you the excellent Treatise of Sir John Cheek Knight of the hurt of Sedition there see as in a glass
and Prophets submitted their persons to those wicked Princes whose Idolatry they reproved with the loss of their lives P. 359. If the Prince wilfully maintain Heresie and open Impiety the Bishops are to reprove admonish c. but still they must serve him honor him pray for him and teach the People to do the like ☜ and with meekness enduring what the wrath of the Prince shall lay upon them without annoying his person resisting his power discharging his Subjects or removing him from his Throne Which says he to the Jesuit is your way of censuring Princes P. 366. P. 382. The Church of Christ offers not any Example of resisting and deposing Princes for a thousand years ☜ It is not enough for you to have Laws of your own making to license you to bear Arms against your Prince you must have God's Law for your Warrant or else you may come within the compass of heinous and horrible Rebellion Theoph. P. 384. that is the Protestant Interlocutor That 's the Case which you take in hand that the People may punish the Prince offending as the Prince may the People Phil. i. e. the Jesuit Either the people or none must do it Theoph. And seeing the people may not do it it is evident that God hath reserved the Magistrate to be punished by himself and not given the people power over their Prince P. 502. Do not with violence restrain them but in patience possess your own souls This is the way for all Christian Subjects to conquer Tyrants and this is the Remedy provided in the New Testament against all Persecutions not to resist Powers which God has ordain'd lest we be damn'd but with all meekness to suffer that we may be crowned P. 512. If Princes presume to violate the Dominion which God hath reserved to himself we may not rebel that 's your Jesuitical Doctrine but disobey them in that or any point that is prescribed by man against the will of God and submit our selves to endure persecution for righteousness sake P. 541. If Princes embrace the Truth you must obey them if they pursue Truth you must abide them And these Passages with what hath been formerly cited out of the said Book will I think sufficiently vindicate both the Author and his Doctrine from all that is usually objected against them Especially if we consider that when the Jesuit had quoted Goodman's Book of Obedience as applauding Wyat's Rebellion the Protestant answers It is much that you measure the whole Realm by one man's merit Par. 3. p. 273 274. and more that you draw the words which he spake from the meaning which he had to warrant your Rebellions The party ☞ which you name at the same time took Queen Mary for no lawful Prince which particular and false supposal beguiled him and made him think the better of Wyat's War but our Question is of lawful Princes not of violent Intruders and therefore Goodman's Opinion which himself hath long since disliked is no way serviceable to your Seditions or as it is in the Margin Goodman's private Opinion long since corrected by himself cannot prejudice the whole Realm Goodman did not hold that lawful Princes might be thrust from their Crowns but that Queen Mary was no lawful Magistrate One of his great Arguments against her being taken from her Sex which was made by God as he dreamed uncapable of Government this being one of his and Knox's beloved Paradoxes but he lived to repent and retract them SECT III. To give the King at his entry into England a Specimen of the temper of the Zealots they tender'd him a Petition called the Mille manus Petition as if they would have intermixed their desires with threatnings by telling the King that 1000 Ministers An. 1603. as they loved to be called had influence enough on many thousands of People to incline them to give disturbance to his Government if he did not comply with their requests to which the University of Oxford wrote a full and satisfactory answer wherein they affirm that the Presbyterians allow the King not potestatem Juris p. 29. but only facti while they make him a maintainer of their proceedings but no commander in them and all the while the King submits his Scepter unto the Scepter of Christ and licks the dust of the Churches feet for which they Quote T. C. lib. 1. p. 180. This assertion they condemn together with the other Antimonarchical Antiepiscopal Doctrins of that Petition nor was this the sole judgment of that Famous University but of her Famous Sister at Cambridge whose Epistle is published at the end of that answer and wherein they aver Quicunque Ecclesiae Anglicanae doctrinam vel disciplinam vel ejus partem aliquam legibus publicis stabilitam c. that whosoever shall by writing speaking or any other way publickly oppose the Doctrine or Discipline of the Church of England or any part thereof established by publick Laws shall be uncapable of taking any Degree and suspended from any Degrees he hath formerly taken Dated Octob. 7. 1603. Dr. Anthony Rudd Bishop of St. pr. at Lond. 1604. Davids Preach'd before the King May 13. 1604. on Ps 101. v. 2. and in it gives an account of David's demeanor both before and after he attained the Crown of Israel and among other things he commends him for his patient waiting on God till Saul's Death p. 26 27. David had given proof of his rare patience in his distressed Estate during the expectancy of the Kingdom of Israel for though in that Interim of sundry years attendance after that Samuel had Anointed him ☜ before the Crown fell unto him by the death of King Saul he sustain'd many grievous troubles inconveniences and dangers yet he still possessed his Soul in patience without seeking unlawful means to hasten his own advancement by the making away of his Sovereign Insomuch as though Saul who deadly pursued him was twice by the Providence of God offer'd into his hands that he might have dâ—ne his pleasure with him first in the Wilderness of Engedi and secondly in the desert of Zâ—ph yet he spared his life and did no violence to his Person leaving him to God's Judgment and referring his own cause to God's merciful providence patiently attending the Lord's leisure till he should vouchsafe to come and put him in possession of the Kingdom To King James at his first coming to the English Throne the Learned Dr. Feild was a Chaplain as he was also an eminent Champion for the Church against her adversaries of Rome and his arguments against the Usurpations of the Popes are equally cogent against the Republicans * of the Church l. 5. c 45. p. 610. If they shall say that Sovereign Princes are subject to none while they use their authority well but that if they abuse it they lose the independent absoluteness thereof their saying will be found to be Heretical
Doctrin of the Church and would fain defend it as the uniform belief of the Reformed much more to the same purpose may be found in the same Book which I recommend to the Reader 's perusal the Learned Author of which wrote after his Father's Copy and therefore I have joyned them together tho according to the exact rules of Chronology I should have given the junior du Moulin a place in the next Reign CHAP. VI. The History of Passive Obedience during the Reign of King Charles the Martyr SECT I. WEre we to judge of the righteousness of any Cause and of its being acceptable to God by the prosperity of its outward circumstances and to intitle Heaven to the owning of all the designs which providence promotes as some Divines both then and since have argued more consonant to the Doctrin of the Alcoran than the Holy Gospel then the most Excellent Prince Charles I. was a vile Malefactor and fell justly a sacrifice to the rage of his rebel Subjects but the true Sons of the Church were of a more Orthodox belief and chose rather to suffer with their Master the Lord 's Anointed than to enjoy the ease and preferments which then were the rewards of perfidiousness and disloyalty as the first part of this History hath amply proved And though Dr. Sybthorp's Sermon called Apostolical Obedience was severely censured nor is it fit to defend every Proposition in it yet the then Bishop of London Dr. George Mountain approved it publickly in Print as a Sermon learnedly and discreetly Preached Testim ante concion and agreeable to the Ancient Doctrin of the Primitive Church both for faith and good manners and to the Doctrin established in the Church of England and therefore under his hand gave authority for the Printing of it Ma. 8. 1627. Mr. Hayes Could any thing privilege Loyalty toward Kings Serm. at St. Mary's Oxon. on Esth 1.15 1624. p. 3 21. Eminence and Alliance might be fair pretences but neither of these could yield Queen Vasthi advantage but what shall any dare to limit Sovereignty and prescribe Majesty it's duty shall he that enjoys the subjection of others by the Law be subject himself to the Law no in no other sense than that of Aquinas not that the Law should lead him by compulsion but lead him by directive persuasion if he conform his actions to the prescript of the Laws it is of his own accord if he do not is he lyable to account Yes but it is only to God against thee only have I sinned says King David Ps 51. those modest times had not the face to capitulate with their Sovereigns the pride of Faction had not yet hatch'd this rebellious Doctrin ☜ that if Kings obey not Laws Subjects have leave to disobey their Kings no let it glory in no Ancienter Author than New Rome and in no better success than confusion and seeing it owes it self to Jesuited Patrons let it be banish'd this Land together with their Persons Mr. Adams When Saul was in David 's hands In 2d ep of Peter pr. 1633. p. 755. his Men alledge God's promise and the advantage concurring and what was David 's charm to allay the fury of those raging Spirits he is the Lord 's Anointed Saul did not lend David so impenetrable an Armour when he ran to encounter Goliah as David lent him in the plea of his Unction not one of the discontented Out-laws durst put forth a hand of violence against him the image and impress of that Divine Ordinance strikes such an awe into the hearts of Men that it makes even Traytors cowards so that instead of smiting they tremble like those whose Office it is to suffer not to do fear God honour the King there was never Man that feared God but he also honored the Prince But let us hear P. 759 c what the Synod of Hell can plead for disobedience how if the Prince be bad an Enemy to truth and goodness a Ravisher a Persecutor raising powers for the extirpation of the Gospel here if ever a Subject may renounce all Allegiance for here is power against power Man against God and the Subject of both left to follow either Answ in this streight some for fear of the King Shipwrack their faith and these are Traytors to God others by a defensive sword in their hand Rebels to the King ☞ there is no question but God must be obeyed even against the King when the King commands things against God. what then shall we resist him with violence no God never Warrants that practice no not against a Prince that denies him there is an active Obedience and a passive I may not execute his impious commands I must suffer his unjust punishments the vices of Men cannot frustrate the institution of God peruse Mat. 5.44 and Rom 12.17 this will tye the Hands of Christian Subjects Samuel offer'd not to depose Saul though the express Sentence of God had cast him off and he was Excommunicated by a higher power than ever came from Rome Saul lived and dyed a King this he illustrates by the examples of the Jews and Primitive Christians and adds what resistance did those Primitive Christians make to those barbarous outrages but praying for the Emperor's life when under the Emperor's command they were bleeding to death neither did they suffer because they were not able to resist but it was their Doctrin c. Christians never prove losers but when they unjustly sight for their own preservation provide we the buckler of patience not a sword when the decree was gone out by Ahasuerus this was their refuge preces lacrymae the Apostles could work miracles yet they resisted not the ordinate powers this charge St. Paul gives the Romans even while Nero was their Emperor a Monster whom divers held to be Antichrist that Religion then cannot be right that pulls down Princes seeing neither Moses in the Old Testament nor Christ in the New nor Levite nor Prophet Apostle nor Disciple either counsell'd or practised against Government which should decide the point that hath cost the Lives of so many Christians and still threatens more Tragedies P. 763. there was never Prince to whom some Belialist took not some exceptions it were ill with Princes if their state depended on the good liking of their Subjects Subjects unfaithful at the heart may be without the suspicion of their Prince but they beheld Rebels in the Court of Heaven we be bound to be subject not only for wrath but for conscience sake In all the time of David 's prosperity there was no news of Shimei he looks like a fair Subject but he that smiles on David in his Throne P. 821. curs'd him in his Flight there is no security in that Subjects Allegiance that hath not God in his Conscience he that poysons the People with the male opinion of their Prince is the most dangerous Traytor to rip up the faults of Kings is bold
who can lift up his hand against the Lord 's Anointed and be innocent 1 Sam. 26.9 or do they consider his commands in the Proverbs of Solomon 24.21 my Son fear God and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change or his counsel in the Book of Ecclesiastes 8.1 I counsel thee to keep the King's commandment and that in regard of the oath of God or because they possibly may pretend that they are exempted from or unconcern'd in the commands of Obedience delivered in the Old Testament do they know and remember the Precept given to all Christians by St. Peter submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake c. or that terrible Sanction of the same command they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation left by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans who then were the miserable Subjects of the worst King the worst Man nay I think I may add truly the worst Beast in the World that so all Rebels mouths might be stopt for ever ☜ and left without all colour and pretence whatsoever to justifie resistance of Sovereign Power Undoubtedly if they did know and consider and lay to heart these places of Scripture or the fearful judgment which befel Corah Dathan and Abiram for this very sin which they now commit and with a high hand still proceed in it would be impossible but their hearts would smite them as David 's did upon an infinitely less occasion and affright them out of these ways of present confusion and eternal damnation SECT III. Dr. 10 Serm. Prâ—at Lon. 16 â— P. 10â— Arthur Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells Magistrates are from God and he resides among them Magistrates must proceed like God God can and will redress the evils that spring from them because he is Sovereign in and over those places and persons which are misgoverned by them P. 131. what is our lesson truly first as Nazianzen advises as near as we can though we cannot as constantly as God not to have a heart and not a heart but to say with King David I have sworn and am stedfastly purposed it were to be wish'd there were such a constancy in our Oaths so many would not retract the Oath of that Allegiance which they owe without an Oath Dr. Sermon at St. Mary's Cambr on Judg. 21.25 1642. p. 27 28 29. Stephens The King's Commission is signed from Heaven by me Kings Reign his Authority is conferr'd by Heaven he is the Anointed of the Lord his power descends from Heaven obedience to him is required from Heaven 1 Pet. 2. it is the will of God that you submit your selves to the Government of your Kings I have heard the Prophet David suspected by some as partial in his own cause just like the Northern Borderers who conceived the Eighth Commandment thou shalt not steal to be none of God's making but foisted in by Henry the Eighth to shackle their thievish fingers but I dare oppose the 13th Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans against the power of Men or Devils which would trample upon the necks of Kings suppose thy King very wicked he hath more need of thy Prayers to make him better suppose him to be a Tyrant he will give thee the fairer occasions to exercise thy virtue of patience suppose him to be a Persecutor he 'll do thee a courtesie he 'll send thee to Heaven by violence Saul was an unnatural Tyrant against his own Son Jonathan P. 30 31. ☞ a bloody Persecutor of the Priest's of God a Sacrilegious Usurper of their Holy Offices a demoniacal furious Man possest with a Devil and on David 's part his life was sought for and by sparing Saul he should undo himself he had all the opportunity that might and security could administer unto him he was Saul 's adopted Son by Michal 's Marriage he was a Successor to the Kingdom by the Prophet's Unction and yet for all this who can lift up his hand c. are we Christians do we know the virtue of an Oath What think we then of the Solemn Oath of our Allegiance an Oath which can receive no dispensation no absolution from any power whatsoever contrary to the assertions of Bellarmine and Parsons is the establish'd Doctrin of the Church of England in the 37 Article the King's Majesty hath the chief Power in this Realm of England and his other Dominions and is not nor ought to be Subject to any jurisdiction whatsoever the six parts of the Homily against Rebellion are so full and apposite that we must either disclaim them from being the Interpreters of the Doctrin of our Church or sit down convinc'd in the manifest truth of this assertion c. Consider seriously against whom would you take up Arms Id. Serm. on Judg. 4.23 p. 78. is it not against the Power against the Ordinance of God they are Men before God but they are Gods before Men. the whole earth combining could not make St. Bernard willingly offend his King and shall the fear of a threatned plundering make us oppose our King shall the common rout persuade me to go to Hell for company 'T is true God sometimes refines his Church in the Furnace of Persecution neither then does he leave it naked and disarm it but what are the Churches weapons St. Ambrose had his dolere potero potero flere his sighs and groans against the Gothish Soldiers St. Bernard fought to death against Lewis of France non scutis aut gladiis sed precibus fletibus prayers and tears were his Sword and Buckler Nazianzen overcame Julian but it was lacrymis ubertim effusis by softning his Adamantine Heart with salt drops from their eyes thence flows the only Sea we can overthrow Pharaoh 's Host in SECT IV. P. H. Corah of the tribe of Levi joyn'd with Dathan c. Sermon at Cambr. 1640. on Numb 16. 3. p. 5 6. of the tribe of Reuben the Levite or Clergy alone would have wanted power and strength the Laity or Reubenite alone could not have had so fair a colour and cloak of Religion to cover their rebellious practices but both join'd together make a strong Faction and a fair show our surest course is to judge Mens Persons by their actions if their actions be unsound and irregular P. 10. 2. p. 11 c. if they gather themselves together against God's express word and commandment against their Prince and Sovereign be their outward appearance never so specious we may assure our selves that they neither fear God nor regard Man but only to serve their own turns if God in absolute and unlimited terms pronounce ☜ whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God I cannot see how the goodness of the end be it Religion or Reformation or the common good can warrant any such resistance from the transgression of God's Ordinance P. 15. cons the place unless these and the like limitations
the Rebel's Catechism wherein he shews that Lucifer was the first Author of Rebellion that the Rebellion even of the heart makes a Man guilty of Damnation in the sight of God much more that of the tongue or the hand that one branch of the Rebellion of the hand is the composing and dispersing of false and scandalous Books and Pamphlets tending to the dishonour of the King the other the taking up Arms against such Persons P. 6 7. cons p. 9 10 11 c. to whose Authority they are subject and it is worth our observation that not only the bearing Arms against the King is declared to be Rebellion by the Law of England but that it was declared to be Rebellion by the chief Judges of this Kingdom at the Arraignment of the Earl of Essex for any Man to seek to make himself so strong that the King should not be able to resist him although he broke not out into open act even defensive Arms are absolutely unlawful in the Subject against his Sovereign in regard that no defensive War can be undertaken but it carrieth with it a resistance in it to those Higher Powers to which every Soul is to be subject we find it thus resolved in Plutarch P. 12. that it was contrary both to positive Laws and the Law of Nature for any Subject to lift up his hand against the Person of his Sovereign with much more to the same purpose The same Author near about the same time See his Ecclesia Vindicata p 645 c Prâ—at Lon. 1681. wrote a Treatise intitled the stumbling-block of disobedience removed to shew that Kings ought not to be controuled by their Subjects either singly or in a body the whole of which learned Treatise as well as his other Vindications of the Doctrins and Rights of our Church will sufficiently repay the Reader 's expence of pains and leisure And in his Sermon on May 29. 1681. it is to be observed that such as draw their Swords upon God's Anointed use commonly to throw away the scabberds also and find no way of doing better but by doing worse no middle way for them to walk in but either to bear up like Princes or to dye like Traytors SECT VI. Of the same belief was Sir John Spelman in his Case of our affairs in Law c. that the Sovereignty is in the King's Person inseparably Pr. Oxf. 1643. p. 15 17 19. and the allegiance of the Subject by Law thereto inseparably annex'd fortifyed and enforc'd by Religion under the severe menace of damnation what streight then of humane Affairs can be so violent as to make Christian Subjects contrary to sworn Faith to Law and to Religion not only to disobey their Sovereign but resist and Invade the Sovereign Rights c. Anno 1641. Sir Tho. Ashton and many others Noblemen and Gentlemen of Cheshire tendred a Remonstrance to the Parliament against Presbyterian Government and in it they affirm that the donation of Sovereign Power is solely from God and so will he have the revocation too he doth not subject them to the question of inferiors but puts a Guard upon their Sacred Persons which to violate though in our own defence is a breach of his command even when persecuted as David was by Saul which precepts are renewed in the Gospel we see our selves bound by Oath to acknowledge and support that Regal Government our Statutes have establish'd our Laws approved History represents most happy to whom all Primitive times yielded full obedience to whose Throne Christ himself yields Tribute whose Persons God will have Sacred whose actions unquestionable whose Succession he himself determines and whose Kingdoms he disposes Tacitus tho a Heathen advises us to bear with the riots and covetousness of Kings as with barrenness and other infirmities of nature for while there are Men there will be vices but they cannot continue long and will be recompenc'd when better come In the 19th year of this King came forth a little book called an Appeal to thy Conscience as thou wilt answer it at the great and dreadful day of Jesus Christ p 2 3 c. the Author of which says that Subjects may not take up Arms against their lawful Sovereign because he is wicked and unjust no tho he be an Idolater and Oppressor 1. Because it were an high presumption in us to limit that command which God doth not limit now our obedience to Superiors is always commanded without limitation 2. We may not think evil of the King much less may we take up Arms against him 3. St. Paul saith recompence to no man evil for evil Rom. 12.19 If to no Man then certainly not to thy King 〈◊〉 That which peculiarly belongs to the Lord thou oughtest not without his Authority to meddle with but vengeance is his 5. Rom. 13. Every Soul none excluded must be subject there is no Power but of God if so then the Power of a wicked Prince is from God and the penalty of resisting is everlasting damnation both of Soul and Body in Hell-fire for ever 6. In Eccl. 8.1 2. the Covenant made by the People to obey their King is called the Oath of God and who dares break this Oath of God 7. God commands Touch not mine Anointed therefore thou mayest not smite him therefore thou mayest not bear Arms against God's Anointed 8. For Subjects to take up Arms against their own King tho an Idolater and an Oppressor is contrary to the practice of God's People in all Ages the Jews and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles and the Primitive Christians 9. God's heavy judgments on those who have taken up Arms against their Prince tho an Idolater and Oppressor ought to be a warning to us how we do the like this is contrary to the Doctrin of the Church of England in her Homilies then he answers the usual objections for resistance resolves several doubts and removes other little scruples and in the close of all passionately advises all Men to return to the Lord and to do their duty P. 51. for 't is strange says he that God's Church can be no way preserved the Subjects liberty no ways maintain'd but by sin who ever heard unless from a Papist that the way to Heaven was through Hell shall we do evil that good may come Rom. 3.8 It would be a very needless labor to cite all the passages to this purpose that occur in the Books written between the year 1644. and the time of the King's Murther and therefore I shall refer the Reader to the Regal Apology Printed 1648. the Kingdoms brief answer to the Declaration of the Commons Pr. 1648. the Plea for the King and Kingdom 1648. with many other Treatises of the same kind only I shall mention Bishop Rainhowe who took the degree of Doctor of Divinity An. 1646. Vid. Bish Rainbow's life p. 41. when his chief Question on which he made his Thesis was Ecclesia Anglicana tenet
Subjects leave to withdraw their obedience from their Sovereign when he hath most need of their assistance so that assoon as any Town City or Province of any Prince's Dominions is invaded by a Foreign Enemy or possess'd by a rebellious Subject that the Prince cannot for the present suppress the Power of the one or the other the People may lawfully resort to those who are over them and for their protection perform all the Offices and Duties of good Subjects to them whereas the duty of Subjects is and all good Subjects believe they owe another kind of Duty and Obedience to their Sovereign than to withdraw their subjection because he is opprest and will prefer poverty and death it self before they will renounce obedience to their natural Prince or do any thing that may advance the service of his Enemies P. 92. surely this woful desertion and defection which hath always been held criminal by all Law that hath been current in any part of the World hath received so much countenance and justification by Mr. Hobbs's Book ☞ that CROMWELL found the submission to those Principles produc'd a submission to him and the imaginary relation between protection and allegiance so positively proclaim'd by him prevailed for many years to extinguish all visible fidelity to the King whilst he persuaded many to take the Engagement as a thing lawful and to become Subjects to the Usurper P. 135 136. as to their legitimate Sovereign Kings themselves can never be punish'd for their casual or wilful errors and mistakes let the consequences of them be what they will but if they who maliciously lead or advise or obey them in unjust resolutions and commands were to have the same indemnity there must be a dissolution of all Kingdoms and Governments but as Kings must be left to God whose Vicegerents they are to judge of their breach of trust so they who offend against the Law must be left to the punishment P. 163. the Law hath provided for them if all Sovereigns be subject to the Laws of Nature because such Laws are divine and cannot by any Man or Commonwealth be abrogated they then are obliged to observe and perform those Laws which themselves have made and promis'd to observe for violation of faith is against the Law of Nature ☞ Nor doth this obligation set any Judge over the Sovereign nor doth any Civil Law pretend that there is any power to punish him it is enough that in justice he ought to do it and that there is a Sovereign in Heaven above him tho not on earth To this great Minister of State I should join Sir Robert Filmer but that it is needless the Enemies of the unaccountableness of Kings having branded him with the mark of a State Heretick for his Orthodox Opinions which among all good Men make his Memory reverend and his works Eminent to which I advise the Reader to make his recourse particularly his short but excellent Treatise of the Power of Kings c. See also Sir William Dugdale's Preface to his view of our late troubles c. The Late Bishop of Chichester Dr. Lake having Aug. 27. 1689. received the Sacrament on his Death-bed did in the presence of Dr. Hicks Dean of Worcester Dr. Green and some others make this protestation being as himself worded it ingaged in the most sacred and solemn act of conversing with God See the Paper and the vindication of it not knowing to the contrary but that he might appear with those very words in his mouth at the dreadful Tribunal That 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 dye in it and had resolved through Gods Grace assisting me to have dyed 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 exspected 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 obeyed by suffering c. Manu propriâ Subscripsit Jo. Cicestrensis To this great Man I should add his bosome Friend Dr. Allestrey who speaks fully and consonant to sound Doctrine on this Head but I must refer the Reader to his Sermon Novemb. 5. 1665. on Luc. 9.55 Vol. 1. p. 127. and Vol. 2. p. 60. and p. 253 276. Thus the acute Dr. Sherlock Some Men pretend great Oppression Serm. on Ps 18.50 p. 2. and Male-Administration of Government though their licentious noises and clamors sufficiently confute it for Men who are most opprest dare say the least of it The Liberties and Properties of the Subject is an admirable pretence to deprive the Prince of his Liberties and Properties Others make Religion the pretence for their Rebellion Religion the greatest and the dearest Interest of all but methinks it is a dangerous way for Men to Rebel to save their Souls when God hath threatned damnation against those who Rebel No Men fight for Religion who have any Religion is a quiet peaceable governable thing it teaches Men to suffer patiently but not to Rebel It is evident it is not Religion such Men are zealous for but a liberty in Religion i. e. that every one may have his liberty to be of any Religion or of none which serves the Atheist's turn as well as the Sectaries but is not much for the honor or interest of true Religion So that whatever the pretences are it is an ambitious p. 3. v. p 6 7. discontented revengeful spirit an uneasie restless fickle and unchangeable humor which disturbs Politick Government and undermines the Thrones of Princes In the time of the Fanatick Plot p. 7 8. p. 11. but to Talk or Write or Preach about Obedience to Government or patient Suffering for a good Cause was to betray the Protestant Interest God may sometimes suffer Treason and Rebellion to be prosperous p. 11. but it can never prosper but when God pleases and it is impossible Rebels should ever know that and therefore it is impossible they should have any reasonable security of Success There is nothing more expresly contrary to the revealed Will of God than Treasonable Plots and Conspiracies against Sovereign Princes Christian Religion indeed is the greatest security of Government both in its Precepts and Examples It requires us to obey our Superiors in all lawful things and quietly to submit and suffer when we cannot Obey And the blessed Jesus who was the Author of our Religion and our great Pattern and Example did himself practise
Griffith Serm. 25. Mar. 1660. called fear God and the King p. 11. v.p. 39. and p. 8 9. If God command one thing and the King should command another then God's command is to be preferred and yet let me tell you that the King is not to be disobeyed for a true Christian is obliged to a twofold obedience Active and Passive Where the King commands things Lawful there yield Active Obedience and know that it is your duty to do them but if he should command such a thing as you may not lawfully do then you must not resist but suffer patiently for your not doing it and that is your Passive Obedience and in both these you may still keep a good Conscience for though God be to be preferred yet God will not have his Anointed to be disobeyed Dr. Jane Dean of Gloucester Ser. at the Consecr of Doctor Crompton Bishop of Oxon p. 30 31 32. Such is the peculiar genius of Christianity that where ever it is either Preacht or Received it can create no jealousie in the State. The ground upon which this Assertion stands is this that it disclaims all title to the Sword but leaves him that takes it to perish with it though it be drawn in defence of Christ himself In the Church then as of old in Israel there was no Smith to provide Swords and Spears though against their persecuting Philistines To obey Authority was taught and practised under a Nero and their Submissions were as unparallel'd as their Provocations And we may truly suppose under the Roman Emperors that had the Doctrine of Obedience been as truly received by their Heathen Subjects as it was Preacht by S. Paul and practised by the believing Romans they had effectually provided for the publick Tranquillity without any further need of Forts and Armies to secure it Dr. Outram The Glory of the King Ser. Jan. 30. 1664. p. 141 149. the Privileges of the Parliament the Liberty of the Subject the Purity of Religion these are written upon the Face of the design The Principle is doing evil that good may come of it and breaking Laws that we may the better observe them These Men went to Rome to whet the Ax and borrowed an Arrow out of the Roman Quiver secretly to shoot the Lord 's Anointed Were the Prince a Nero p. 160. Paul would charge us we should not resist and would charge resistance with damnation Sir Orlando Bridgman at the Tryal of the Regicides says Try. p. 10 12. v. p. 15 52 182 283. I must deliver to you for plain and true Law that no Authority no single Person no Community of Persons not the People Collectively or Representatively have any coercive Power over the King of England And this he proves at large in the same place The Crown of England is and always was an Imperial Crown Now I do not intend any Absolute Government by this It is one thing to have an Absolute Monarchy another thing to have that Government absolutely without Laws as to any coercive Power over the Person of the King. God is my witness what I speak V. p. 13 14. p. 280. V. p. 281 282. I speak from mine own Conscience that is that whatsoever the case was by the Laws of these Nations the Fundamental Laws there could not be any coercive Power over the King. And this he there proves from the obligation of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy c. Mark the Doctrine of the Church of England and I do not know with what spirit of Equivocation any Man can take that Oath of Supremacy Her Articles were the judgment not only of the Church but of the Parliament at the same time And the Queen and the Church were willing that these should be put into Latin that all the World might see the Confession of the Church of England So also Sir Heneage Finch P. 51. then the King's Sollicitor General The King is not accountable to any coercive Power See also the accurate Treatise See also Nalson's Counter p. 35 c. 3â—9 Com. Interest of Kings p. 139 c. p. 3. called the Harmony of Divinity and Law which proves that it is a damnable sin to resist Sovereign Princes and answers all the little objections of the Republicans to the contrary I shall here only mention Mr. Foulu's History of the Plots and Conspiracies of the pretended Saints and briefly transcribe a passage or two out of Dr. Sprat Bishop of Rochester his True account of the horrid Conspiracy At that time under the color of the only true Protestant the worst of all Unchristian Principles were put in Practice all the old Republican and Antimonarchical Doctrines whose effects had formerly proved so dismal were again as confidently owned and asserted as ever they had been during the hottest rage of the late unhappy Troubles p. 21. See p. 41. The Lord R was seduced by the wicked Teachers of that most Unchristian Doctrine which has been the cause of so many Rebellions That it is lawful to resist and rise against Sovereign Princes for preserving Religion p. 43 44. Other Principles were that the only obligation the Subject hath to the King is a mutual Covenant that this Covenant was manifestly broken on the King's part ☞ that therefore the People were free from all Oaths and other tyes of Fealty and Allegiance and had the natural Liberty restored to them of asserting their own Rights and as justly at least against a Domestick as against Foreign Invaders p. 131. v. p. 132. The whole design of A. S's Papers was to maintain That Tyrants may be justly Deposed by the People and that the People are the only Judges who are Tyrants That the general Revolt of a Nation from its own Magistrates can never be called a Rebellion which Positions the Historian calls with great Truth and Justice Villanous Opinions p. 133. and such as if allowed it will be impossible for the best Kings or the most happy Kingdoms in the World to be free from perpetual Treasons p. 164. and Rebellious Plottings But his Majesty hath just reason to acknowledge that the main body of the Nobility and Gentry stood by him so has the whole sound and honest part of the Commonalty so the great Fountains of Knowledge and Civility the two Universities so the wisest and most learned in the Laws so the whole Clergy and all the genuine Sons of the Church of England ☞ a Church whose glory it is to have been never tainted with the least blemish of disloyalty Dr. Pocock In ch 8. Hos 4. p. 388 389. Some Interpreters by Setting up Kings but not by me would understand Saul but that cannot with reason be imagined Others looking on the sin of the Israelites to be their defection from the House of David on which God had intayled the Right and Title of the Kingdom and their changing of the Kinghom and Priesthood of their own heads
Letter Apologet. c. 5. p. 334. The Dean smartly rejoyns By this we might think Mr. Cressy a stranger in his own Country and that he had never heard of the 30. of January or the 29. of May which are solemnly observed in our Church and the Offices joyned with that of the 5. of November and are purposely intended for that very thing ☜ which he denies to be taken notice of by us in such a manner what doth Mr. Cressy think the Renunciation of the Covenant was intended for if not to prevent the mischief of the former Rebellion After his he gives an Historical account of the Controversie in England about the Power of Princes and the Usurpations of the Pope over them p. 348. and having cited Pope Gregory the Seventh's Letter wherein he avers That Kings had their beginnings from Men who gained their Authority over their equals by blind Ambition and intolerable Presumption by Rapines and Murders by Perfidiousness and all manner of Wickedness ☞ He subjoins Is not this a very pretty account of the Original of Civil Power by the Head of the Church The Oath of Allegiance sworn to the Pope p. 366. leaves no room for Allegiance to Princes any more than a person who hath already sworn Allegiance to one Prince hath liberty to swear the same thing to another p. 370. which it is impossible he should keep to both And discoursing of King Stephen he says that his Title being very bad he saw it necessary for him to strengthen it by the Pope's Authority and that during his Usurpation all the Rights of the Crown were lost p. 373. p. 452. Again he says If depriving Sovereign Princes of their Crown and Dignity endeavouring by open Rebellions and secret Conspiracies to take away their Lives be not Treasons there are none such in the World. p. 463. If the Primitive Christians had been guilty of so many horrible Treasons ☞ and Conspiracies if they had attempted to deprive Emperors of their Crowns and absolved Subjects from their Allegiance to them if they had joined with their open and declared Enemies and imployed Persons time after time to assassinate them what would the World have said of their sufferings Would Men of any common sense have said they were Martyrs for Religion but that they dyed justly and deservedly for their Treasons the late Regicides pleaded the cause of God and Religion The Scripture attributes the great revolutions of Government to a particular Providence of God Id. Ser. on 1 Cor. 12.24 25. p. 17. God is the Judge or the Supreme Arbitrator of the Affairs of the World he putteth down one and setteth up another which holds with respect to Nations as well as particular Persons which doth not found any right of Dominion as some fansied till the Argument from Providence was return'd with great force upon themselves but it shews that when God pleases to make use of Persons or Nations as the scourges in his hand to punish People with he gives them success above their hopes or expectations but that success gives them no right Suppose a Prosperous Usurper in this Kingdom Id. ans to the first royal paper p. 23. and vindicat of that ans p. 64. had gained a considerable Interest in it and challenged a Title to the whole and therefore required of all the King's Subjects within his power to own him to be rightful King upon this many of them are forc'd to withdraw because they will not own his Title is this an Act of Rebellion and not rather of true Loyalty ‖ Id. Vindi. p. 37. and ans to the 1st part p. 19. the Doctrins of deposing Princes and absolving Subjects from their Allegiance are errors in matters of practice of the highest importance * Id. ans to 2d royal paper p. 40 55. if fancy only keeps us firm to the Church of England might it not as well have been said that the Protestants of the Church of England adhered to the Crown in the times of Rebellion out of fancy and not out of judgment and that if their fancy chang'd they might as well have joyned with the Rebels as we have cause to be thankful to God when Kings are Nursing Fathers to our Church so we shall never cease to pray for their continuing so and that in all things we may behave our selves towards them as becomes Good Christians and Loyal Subjects and whereas the Defender of the Royal Papers p. 80. argued against this that Subjects were no longer according to this Doctrin to be Loyal than their King is a Nursing Father to their Church the Doctor wipes off the Aspersion by telling him †Vindic. of the ans p. 101. ☜ P. 86. that he had put an ill construction on his words far from the intention of the Author who thinks it a part of a good Christian to be always a Loyal Subject I desire this Gentleman to resolve me whether in the late times of Usurpation this had been good Doctrin that those who enjoy or pretend to Supreme Power are to be judges in their own case if so then it had been impossible for Men to have justified their Loyalty to the Royal Family then very unjustly put out of possession P. 88 89. it is some comfort that our Church is confessed to teach the Orthodox Doctrin of Loyalty and her practice to be conformable thereto in the worst of times and so the Doctor hopes it will always be But it hath been said by some body ☜ that we have nothing peculiar to our Church but our Doctrin of Non-Resistance this might have given occasion to inquire whether the Church which pretends to be infallible doth teach it so Orthodoxly or not or whether those who do think themselves obliged to believe what she teaches are thereby obliged to the strictest Principles of Loyalty ☜ this our Church doth not only teach them as her own Doctrin but which is far more effectual as the Doctrin of Christ and his Apostles and of the Primitive Church which I think ought to have more force on the Consciences of Men P. 99. than the pretence to Infallibility in any Church in the World. ☜ Is it any argument that the constitution of our Government is not firm or that Loyal Subjects cannot be certain of their duty because Men of ill Principles have run away with false notions of a Fundamental contract and coordinate power and whereas it might be objected that propositions as dangerous as those of the Jesuits were held by some among our selves witness those condemn'd at Oxford July 26. 1683. We cannot deny says he but that there have been Men of ill Minds and disloyal Principles Factious and Disobedient Enemies to the Government both in Church and State but have these Men ever had that countenance from the Doctrins of the guides of our Church which the deposing Doctrin hath had in the Church of Rome To
make the Case parallel he must suppose our Houses of Convocation to have several times declared these damnable Doctrins and given encouragement to Rebels to proceed against their Kings and the University of Oxford to have condemn'd them how come the Principles of the Regicides among us to be parallel'd with this Doctrin when the Principles of our Church are so directly contrary to them and our Houses of Convocation would as readily condemn any such damnable Doctrins as the University of Oxford and all the World knows how repugnant such Principles are to those of the Church of England And none can be Rebels to their Prince but they must be false to our Church The same Author in his accurate Preface to the Jesuits Loyalty says P. 1 2. that tho the Jesuits walk in darkness and do mischief his intention was to set such marks and characters upon them that when others see them they might take the wind of them and avoid the infection and that he publish'd the Jesuits Treatises because some poysons lose their force when they are exposed to the open air and thereupon addressing himself to the Jesuits he endeavours to prove two things P. 3. 1. That if you do not renounce the Popes power of deposing Princes and absolving Subjects from their Allegiance you can give no real security to the Government 2. That if you do renounce it you have no reason to stick at the Oath of Allegiance to prove the first he says it is allowed by all Friends to our King and his Government ☞ that the Commonwealth Principles are destructive to it and that none who do own them can give sufficient security for their Allegiance I shall therefore prove that all the mischievous consequences of the Republican Principles do follow upon the owning the Pope's Power of deposing Princes P. 4. Now the mischief of the Commonwealth Principles lay in these things 1. Setting up a Court of Judicature over Sovereign Princes ☞ 2. Breaking the Oaths and Bonds of Allegiance Men had enter'd into 3. Justifying Rebellion on the account of Religion As to the first of setting up a Spiritual High-Court of Justice at Rome it is no satisfaction in this case to distinguish of a direct and indirect power for however the Power comes the effect and consequence of it is the same The question is whether the Pope hath any such Sovereignty over Princes as to be able by virtue thereof to depose them and the Commonwealth's Men do herein agree with you for they do not say that the People have a direct Power over their Princes which were a contradiction in it self for Subjects to command their Sovereigns but only that in case of breach of Trust the People have an indirect power to call their Princes to an account and to deprive them of their Authority but are the Commonwealth Principles the less mischievous to Government because they only assert an indirect Power in the People the main thing to be debated is P. 5. whether Sovereign Princes have a Supreme and Independent Authority Inherent in their Persons or no or whether they are so accountable to others that upon male-administration they may be deprived of their Government the Republicans and Assertors of the Pope's deposing Power are agreed in the Affirmative of the later Question and only differ whether the Power be in the Pope or the People to call Princes to an account and even in this they do not differ so much as Men may at first imagine for however the Primitive Christians thought it no flattery to Princes ☜ to derive their Power immediatly from God and to make them accountable to him alone as being superior to all below him as might be easily proved by multitudes of testimonies yet after the Pope's deposing Power came into request the Commonwealth Principles did so too and the Power of Princes was said to be of another Original and therefore they were accountable to the People Thus Gregory VII not only took upon him to depose the Emperor and absolve his Subjects from their Allegiance but he makes the first constitution of Monarchical Government to be a mere Usurpation upon the Rights and Liberties of the People and did ever any Remonstrance Declaration of the Army P. 6. or agreement of the People give a worse account of the beginning of Monarchy than this Infallible Head of the Church doth What follows from hence but the justifying all Rebellion against Princes which upon these Principles would be nothing else but the Peoples recovering their just Rights against intolerable Usurpations the very worst of our Fanaticks never talk'd so reproachfully of Civil Government ☜ as your Canonized Saint doth their Principles and Practices we of the Church of England profess to detest and abhor I pray Gentlemen tell me what divine assistance this good Pope had when he gave this admirable account of the Original of Civil Government and whether it be not very possible upon his Principles for Men to be Saints and Rebels at the same time I have had the curiosity to inquire into the Principles of Civil Government P. 7. among the fierce contenders for the Pope's deposing Power and I have found those Hypotheses avowed and maintained which justifie all the Practices of our late Regicides Parson's Book of the Succession to the making of which Cardinal Allen Sir Francis Inglefield and other Principal Persons of our Nation concurred being shred into so many Speeches to justifie their Proceedings against our Late Sovereign of Glorious Memory the Book being design'd to exclude King James and thus we see P. 8. the Pope's deposing Power was maintain'd here in England by such who saw how necessary it was for their purpose to defend the Power of Commonwealths over their Princes ☜ either to exclude them from Succession to the Crown or to deprive them of the possession of it The same we shall find in France in the time of the solemn League and Covenant there in the Reigns of Henry III. and IV. for those who were engaged so deep in Rebellion against their Lawful Princes found it necessary for them to insist on the Pope's Power to depose and the People's to deprive their Sovereigns thus Boucher affirms the fundamental and radical Power to be so in the People that they may call Princes to account for Treason against the People and that in such cases they are not to stand upon the niceties and forms of Law but that the necessities of State do supercede all those things If this Man had been of Council for the late Regicides he could not more effectually have Pleaded their Cause our Countryman William Reynolds also Vindicating the Murther of Henry III. says that Obedience to Princes is so far conditional that if they do not their duty their Subjects are free from their obligation to obey them the contrary opinion being against the Law of Nations and the Common reason of Mankind and this is
Party have been the great cause of all these inhumane Butcheries yet they have not been the only Actors in them there are another sort of Men who have had their Hands stained with blood and upon what Motives and Principles and to what degrees they have proceeded I refer the Reader to Archbishop Bancroft's dangerous Positions and to the History of Presbytery to satisfic himself Ch. 2 p. 7. 8. But tho several Murders and Rebellions have been carryed on by those that call themselves Christians yet neither the Christian Religion nor the Church it self did ever teach any such Doctrin or encourage any such Practice nay there are such Evidences against it that no rational Man that does rightly consider the matter can ever doubt but that she in her judgment and belief wholly condemns all such wicked and ungodly designs And for further satisfaction I will inquire into the flate of the matter P. 9. that all Power and Dominion is Originally from God is not to be doubted but by Atheists and that Governors act in his Name and by his Authority is as unquestionable among Christians now this Power is derived to them either from the Law of Nature which is common to all Mankind or else from positive Revelation and Assignment the first and highest fountain of Supreme Power is founded in that natural Dominion that God hath given Parents over their Children insomuch that if either Adam or Noah who were the common Fathers of us all were now alive P. 10. they ought to be the Universal Monarchs of the World but when the Father dyes and Brothers are scatter'd up and down the World and live independently one of another there can be no natural pretence for one to have Dominion over the other yet the necessity of forming themselves into Societies for mutual defence and traffick will oblige them to enter into Covenants and tho while they are free they may chuse different forms as they shall see best for themselves yet having once chosen and accepted of a Supreme Power they are not at liberty to cast it off again when they please but all the Rights Prerogatives and Jurisdictions which belong to Sovereign Authority are presently by God invested on it who does ratifie all lawful pacts and agreements and requires us strictly and inviolably to observe them tho it may fall out P. 11. that the Person somtime may be chosen by the People or Nobility or Senate yet the Power and Office it self was not made is not given nor can it be limited or bounded by them so as to destroy the Office it self or make it become no Supreme Power one Prerogative whereof is to be irresistible P. 1â— and not to be called to account by any but God. a Prince must use his Subjects as Freemen and not Slaves but if Princes do not their duty we must not revenge our selves for we ought not to be Judges in our own case for God hath told us that Vengeance is his and he will repay P. 13. therefore we must go for vengeance to those whom God hath appointed to execute vengeance in his stead if then our inferior Governors do us wrong we must go to the Superior who are made Revengers to execute wrath upon them that do evil But if the Supreme Powers themselves oppress us they cannot be judg'd by their Inferiors and there will be no other remedy but to leave them to the judgment of God who hath reserved their punishment to himself but tells us he that resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation and 't is better to suffer unjustly in this World than to suffer justly in the World to come for since the last judgment in this World must be somewhere 't is fitter that Children should be committed to the judgment of their Parents and Inferiors to the Supreme than any other way P. 14 15. tho Princes are the Instruments yet it is God's purposes or commands that they put in execution whether they be for good or evil he inclines them to favor and mercy when he is pleas'd to try us with prosperity and kindness again when our sins call for judgment and indignation then he sends forth evil Governors or else permits wicked Men to act according to their own cruel and ambitious minds and the insâ—igation of the Devil but yet in the midst of judgment he does remember mercy they shall not do any harm further than God in his Wisdom shall give them leave and that is no more than is needful for our good so that we are to look upon evil Governors and Superiors that oppress us no other than plagues or violent Storms or Earthquakes sent from God from whence we may run and hide our selves if it be possible and use all reasonable means to save our lives by flight or the like but they are no more to be resisted by violence than any of those natural Evils we must by humiliation and prayer implore God's mercy to us in turning their hearts or some other way sending us deliverance as we do to avert a Plague or an Earthquake P. 16. but God hath given us no natural strength to secure our selves and thereupon will defend us himself and have us wholly therein depend upon his own care this belief it was that filled the World with Martyrs c. this made our Saviour confess to Pilate that he had Power given him from above to crucifie him c. it was upon this account that St. Paul said let every Soul be subject c. and in this sense those Texts and the Authority of Governors were vouched by the Antient Fathers and Councils and there is not one Writer for a Thousand years of any credit in the Church that did ever doubt of P. 17. or question this Doctrin but many of them have declared themselves fully for it that Sovereign Princes had their Authority immediatly from God and were accountable to none but him if they did use it amiss and therefore could not be deposed by any Authority upon Earth whether of Pope or People neither ought they to be resisted by open violence or have their Power wrested out of their hands by any of their rebellious Subjects those also that act in a War without the Commission of the Supreme Power or of the King where he is Supreme have not the Sword given them by God but take it themselves and therefore shall perish with the same And this he confirms as from Scripture so from the Doctrin of the Church and the sense of the Holy Fathers about it P. 40 41. and concludes It were casie to carry the same Doctrin through all Ages of the Church and to produce testimonies especially from the Articles and Canons of the Church of England and the Writings of our Learned Bishops and other Eminent Defenders of our Church but these shall suffice for the present and they are
Emperor while the good Bishop in his Embasly to Maximus carried himself as the Father or Guardian of his Prince ☞ tho he had been provok'd in the most tender part by his Prince's endeavors for the introducing of Arianism others perhaps if they had been in his condition would have look'd upon this Tyrant's Maximus declaring for the truth as such an opportunity that Providence had offer'd for the Preservation of the Faith and since the Empress was of a false Religion and the Emperor was govern'd by her why should they not set up this Maximus as the Protector of the true Faith But Ambrose and the Bishops were of another mind they knew what it was to dye for their Religion p. 346. but did not understand what it was to brigue or to resist and I pray how did the Bishops comply with the Usurper Maximus were any of them instrumental to his advancement did they Preach up his cause and the lawfulness of his revolt did they ever press the People to bring in their Plate and contributions or after his successes and the Murther of Gratian did any of the Bishops justifie the Usurper's Proceedings and Preach and Print in defence of that barbarous Regicide did they flatter him as the preserver of Religion the David the Champion of Israel with much more to the same purpose Dr. Williams Printed his Sermon Preach'd July 26. 1685. Seâ—â—ful 26. 1685. on Rom. 3â—7 8. p. 11. being on the day of publick thanksgiving for the late victory over the Rebels to vindicate the City Clergy and particularly himself who was censured as if the Sermon was not to the purpose of the day and occasion as he says in his Epistle Dedicatory to the Bishop of London Grant this that evil becomes lawful by a good end and when we think our selves secure we make all compacts broken Oaths dissolved all difference betwixt Superiors and Inferiors confounded it exposes the Church and State to every pretender and any one that hath a mind P. 20 21. will never want a reason for Insurrection and Rebellion as no Religion hath more discountenanc'd such Principles and Proceedings than the Christian so no Nations nor Persons have more discountenanc'd the thing than those who have profess'd it it is too notorious to be dissembled for that there have been Rebellions against and depositions of Princes dissolutions of Governments taking and breaking of Oaths and other things apparently evil of that and the like kind done to serve a Cause a Party or a Church is no Mystery now a days Christian Religion teaches the wholsom Doctrin of being subject to the Higher Powers and that they that resist p. 22. shall receive to themselves damnation from the confessions of Faith in all the â—rotestant and Reformed Churches nothing can be drawn p. 23. that will justifie Opposition or Rebellion against Civil Authority but they expresly declare against it when Queen Mary was a known Member of the Roman Church yet the Protestants first joyned with her against the Lady Jane Grey who was invested with the title of Queen and was a Protestant And this particularly is the avowed Doctrin of the Church of England in all its Articles and Homilies at large three of which are against Rebellion Do they find in the Sermons of the Ministers of the Church of England Id. Apol. for the Pulpits p. 3 4. the Doctrines of the Peoples Power over Princes of the lawfulness of resisting their Sovereigns or rather where have the Rights of Princes and the Subjection and Obedience of the People in all lawful Cases and the Non-resistance in any Case ☜ been so much asserted That Loyalty which concerns all of all Perswasions is taught in the Pulpits of the Church of England which obliges them to be as loyal when the Prince is of a different Religion as when he is of the same with them The same Author also in his Difference between the Church of England and the Church of Rome having cited our Articles Homilies c. to prove the chief Power of the King and that he ought not to be resisted and shewn how contrary to this Doctrin the Decrees of the Church of Rome are he subjoins pag. â—1 The Church of England teacheth the King in all his Realms hath Supream Power in all Causes whether Ecclesiastical or Civil For God alloweth neither the Dignity of any Person ☜ nor the Multitude of any People nor the Weight of any Cause as sufficient for the which Subjects may rebel So Dr. Grove in his Examination of Bell. 15th Note viz. Temporal Felicity pag. 393. Since the Power of Deposing Princes hath been openly assumed and frequently practised and never yet condemned by any either Pope or Council since the Doctrin of Equivoeation and many other absurd and Impious Opinions are taught by their Casuists and made use of by their Confessors in directing the Consciences of their Penitents and since these and many more very dangerous Errors do not only escape without a Censure but are approved of and encouraged by their Governors I cannot see how they and their Church can possibly be excused from the Guilt of them Mr. Thomas Stainoe B. D. and Archdeacon of Brecknock preach'd Sept. 6. Ann. 1686. Seem on Rom. 13.5 Epist Ded. before the Lord Mayor and says that he publish'd it That it might be instrumental to convince the People of their Duty to their King because it was for that very reason that he preach'd it That there is no Man so much a ravening Wolf inwardly pag. 3. but he will put on Sheeps Cloathing and tho his Resolutions are bent upon Rebellion yet his Discretion and Prudence will prompt him to pretend Religion The least that can be inferr'd from the words will be a Subjection to lawful Authority and by consequence also to our own Prince For the truth of all which I shall urge no more at present than the tacit Confession of his most avowed and professed Enemies who after all their contrivance of Wit Anger and Malice could at length pitch upon no better expedient to prevent his Right of Accession than a Bill of Exclusion Now such a Bill either presupposes an antecedent Right or it does not if it does not then it must be confess'd that they did most elaborately trifle whilst they took a great deal of pains to bring that about that was already done to their hands If it does then we have what we look for and that is that the Injustice of their Actions does make good the Justice of his Title and affords us a tacit Confession that there was no other way to overthrow that Title but by overturning the very Foundations of the Government it self pag. 7. We are therefore obliged in Conscience to be in subjection to the Superior Powers because God himself commands us so to be God hath given the lawful Magistrate a Title to that Authority pag. 12. to which we
not to be laught out of our Passive Obedience and the Doctrin of Non-Resistance tho even those who perhaps owe the best part of their security to that Principle are apt to make a jest of it SECT XVII Dr. C. 26. §. 1 2 6 8. Pierce Dean of Salisbury in his body of Orthodox Divinity avers that the Church of God consists of a Civil as well as an Ecclesiastical Hierarchy that Magistrates are constituted by a Divine right as well as Priests that he who resists the Magistrate so constituted by God wounds his Conscience deeply in this World and shall be damn'd in the next after which he smartly censures both the Fanaticks and the Jesuits the scandals of Christianity as he calls them condemning the Doctrins of both sorts of them and shewing the unreasonableness of that proposition that Inferior Magistrates may controul a Prince if he does not do his duty since by the Laws of the Land as well as the Laws of God a King can do no harm i.e. that the King is unaccountable inferior only to God and obnoxious only to his Tribunal so that no Mortal much less his Subjects can have any Authority over him Id. exceeding sinfulness of Schism §. 5 6 7 11. v. Ser. on 1 Pet. 2.13 §. 4 5 7 8. Obedience to Magistrates being of Divine Right strongly founded upon the Will and the Word of God and even a part of the Obedience to God himself whilst it is paid to that Authority which God hath commanded us to pay an Obedience to cannot possibly be due to the Men as Men or to the good as they are good but to the Magistrates as they are such 't is due to the Governors as they are Governors and as the Ordinance of God let their Practices and Opinions be what they will. When God and his Deputies do stand in competition for our Obedience God must have our whole active and his Deputies our Passive Obedience only Saving the dignity and priority of the first and great commandment as the ground and foundation of all the rest our Obedience to our Governors and Humane Laws in force among us is as really an Essential and Fundamental of Christianity ☞ and of as absolute necessity to our Salvation as the belief of one God or any other that can be named it being as rigidly commanded by God in Scripture under the very same promises of reward if we obey and under the very same threats of endless punishments if we rebel Dr. Serm. on Tit. 3.1 p. 4 5. c. D. Whitby Chantor of the same Church in the time of the D. of Monmouth Rebelbelliâ—n laid down this position That Christians must be subject to their Civil Magistrates and in no cases are allowed or authorized forcibly to resist or bear Arms against them and this he proves at large from the expressions of the Holy Scriptures from the deportment of David to King Saul that Jeroboam's revolt is by God himself called Rebellion 1 King. 12.19 p. 8 9. for as a Father doth not forfeit his Authority over his Children nor are they freed from that Obedience which they owe him because he deals severely with them so neither can the King i. e. the Father of his Country lose his Authority over his Subjects because he governs them severely or lays afflicting burthens on them the Scriptures of the New Testament expresly call for our subjection Let every Soul be subject saith St. Paul so let him yield subjection to them as never to resist on any provocation temptation or specious pretence whatsoever whence it is clear ☜ p 10. Serm. 〈…〉 13.1 p. 24 26 27 2â— 29 30 31. that by the Christian Doctrin it is unlawful to resist the Higher Powers upon pretence of Male-administration Tyranny Injustice or to rebel for the defence of our Religion against the worst of persecuting Princes for if Resistance in the forementioned cases was a damning sin when can it be excusable after this he answers the common objections from the Coronation Oath and Self-Preservation c. Mr. Long 's Sermon called the causes of Rebellion Preach'd Jan. 13. 1683. on Jâ—â— 4.1 P. 14 15. was Printed by the joint desires of the Bishop of Exon and the Justices of the County of Devon and the Dedication gives an account of an order of theirs that concurs with the Doctrin of the Sermon nor can any complaint of Tyranny or Oppression justifie a War among us did we suffer under some miscarriages in Government some passions and excesses in our Governors neither Scripture nor reason will warrant any resistance Obj. But the Primitive Christians had no Laws to confirm their Religion P. 16. and therefore it was not so lawful for them to defend their Religion by Arms as it is for us Answ It is strange that our Laws should be made a pretence for Resistance which declare that it is not lawful to resist upon any pretence whatsoever then the Subjects are made Judges of the Actions and Conduct of their Governors P. 22 23. I take those and only those who do agree with the Jesuits in Preaching ☜ and propagating Seditious and Traiterous Principles and Practices such as the lawfulness of Resistance and taking up Arms in defence of Religion against the Supreme Magistrate that the Original of the Magistrate's Power is in the People who may call them to an account and Depose and Murder them as they see cause those who have Murdered one King already and use the same Methods to destroy another in a word V. p. 23 26. all such as will not declare that it is unlawful to take up Arms against the King on any pretence whatsoever or that they will not endeavour any alteration of the establish'd Government for such false Prophets as our Saviour bids us to beware of This also is the Doctrin of his Sermon on July 26. 1685. and his Vindication of the Primitive Christians c. Dr. Fuller Chancellor of Lincoln those Men have but little sense of the honor of Christian Religion that abuse its Name Ser. bef the King June 25. 1682. p. 56 c. and pervert its obligations to justifie Sedition and Rebellion who with great pretences and zeal for Christianity forsake her in her more principal commands of meekness patience and submission and defend the Doctrin of Resistance and Disobedience from those Holy Scriptures that have forbidden them under the penalty of Damnation that those Men do little deserve the Character of Reformed who have forsaken our Reformation in its Principal and Fundamental Doctrin of the King's Supremacy and renounced the Protestant Church of England in all her Principles of Christian Loyalty and indeed all the Enemies of the Church of England how distant soever in other points are perfectly united in the Doctrin of disobedience all agreeing in one conclusion against the express commands of Holy Scripture that it is lawful to resist the Higher Powers c. Dr.
Gun-powder nay the Religion of Mahomet is in this respect to be very much preferr'd before the Christian c. And having mention'd Hobbs how am I asham'd to find that his Authority and the Reasons which he derived from Milton and both from Doleman i. e. Parsons the Jesuite are of a sudden so generally received as if the Doctrine were Apostolical and ought to be preached in all the World That Power is originally in the Body of the People that the Foundation of all Government is laid in compact and that the breach of Conditions by one Party dispenses with the Duty of the other tho confirmed by Sacraments Oaths B. Saunderson's Case of a rash Vow §. 9. The several Duties that by Gods Ordinance are to be performed by Persons that stand in mutual relation either to other are not pactional or conditional as are the Leagues and Agreements made between Princes but are absolute and independent wherein each Person is to look to himself and to the performance of the Duty that lies upon him tho the other Party should fail in the performance of his Cons Praelect 5. de Juram and reiterated Promises that a Prince may be opposed in his Politick tho not in his personal Capacity that when Religion is a part of our Property it may be defended and that the Determinations of Providence are to be followed or that the Prosperity of a Cause is a Mark of its goodness And what encouragement hath the owning and complying with such Principles given to many weak and ignorant Persons who cannot distinguish between the steady Doctrines of a Church and the Opinions and Practices of some of her Members to embrace the Roman Faith and Communion I need not declare the Matter of Fact is visible while we are accused that all our former Declarations have been only pretence and juggle and that we have been Loyal no longer than we could get by it I speak this God knows not to upbraid but to deplore and if I could to confute the Calumny and with the deepest sense of the Interests of a poor despised Church which is still and will be the best the most Orthodox and most Primitive of all Christendom Nor is this Account strange and new any otherwise than as it concerns the Church of England as distinct from other Protestants since a Exomologes cap. 12. I confess I wondered that they could hope to make any Christians believe that their Reformation came from the Spirit of Christ when instead of those spiritual Arms of Charity Humility Patience and most indispensible Obedience even to Nero himself by which Christ enabled his Apostles to conquer the World to the belief of the Gospel Calvin and Luther put into the hands of their Sectaries Malice Pride Hatred to suffer for Conscience sake active Resistance against all Authority in a word the very same Weapons which the Devil suggested to Mahomet After the best enquiry I could make I could not find or hear of during our bloody Civil War so much as one single Person of the Presbyterian Calvinist Party but did actively oppose his King nor one single Minister of that Party but was a Trumpet to incite to war. Cons Loc. Cressy makes it one of the most cogent Reasons why he when he vainly thought the Church of England quite destroyed so as never to be restored could not communicate with other Protestant Churches because they tho in that Accusation he falsifies and calumniates as I shall make it appear in the following Discourse taught men That it was lawful to take Arms in defence of Religion and that when Princes persecuted the Truth their Subjects were no longer bound to obey them Nor is Cressy the only Person of the Popish Communion who hath laid this Imputation at the door of the Protestants tho without Reason or Justice while the Romish Church in one of her General Councils determins the Deposition of Princes who are not in all things obedient to her Injunctions And I hope no man can imagin that I intend to promote any disturbance by this Writing 1. Because I only do the office of an Historian not wilfully misquoting any Passage nor citing it contrary to the Authors intention and meaning as far as I understand it and this also must excuse me from being obliged to make good every Argument from Authority or Reason which my Authors use for that Province those of my Authors which are alive are obliged to manage or to acknowledg their Mistakes I intending only to shew the concurrent Testimony of our greatest Men in this momentous Point 2. Because I am told a Dr. Burnet's Royal Martyr page 6. that the Incendiary and Incendiarism were among the much abused words of the late times yet those were the great Incendiaries who kindled God's wrath and that it is from such that we may justly fear the like or rather severer Judgments if our Sins be greater than they were then i. e. When under the specious Pretexts of Liberty and Religion they first opposed and then murdered the Lord 's Anointed 3. Because he who preaches up the Necessity of Suffering and the Unlawfulness of Resisting Superiors and who avers that the Gospel teaches the followers of our Blessed Saviour to dye but not to fight for Religion is little likely to be a Disturber of Government whose Original he acknowledges to be only from Heaven and accountable only to that Tribunal For at last it will be found true that no Government can be safe while those who live under it do not own this Principle That it is not lawful upon any Pretence whatsoever to take Arms against our Lawful Sovereign since he who is Obedient and Loyal only because his Compliance advances his Designs either of Profit Pleasure Honor Revenge or any other Lust as soon as his Point is gained his Duty ceases but he who is obedient to his Sovereign Dr. Tennison Hobbs's Creed p. 159. Except a Man obey for Conscience sake all the Cords of outward Pacts and Covenants will not hold him when he dreams that the Philistines are upon him and that he can deliver himself by force from the power of his Enemies in which number the Prince himself is reckoned by ambitious Subjects out of favor Mr. Pelling's Sermon Jan. 30. 1683. p. 43. Some are for the King as long as he is rich powerful able to maintain their Interest this is the Loyalty of the Leviathan c. because he is God's Vicegerent and because God hath obliged him to be subject not only for wrath but for conscience sake can never be shook from his good resolutions and will be unalterably true to his Oaths and his Duty And when so many Men eminent for their Piety Learning and Station have unanimously agreed in delivering their Sentiments in this Point to say that whatever they said or did was to gratifie or advance their ambitious or covetous Appetites as if their Honesty like Quicksilver in a Weather-glass rose
higher or sunk lower as the day proved clear or cloudy is to bring an unjust Scandal on the Church and her most illustrious Champions Men of great Probity and Wisdom as the greatest Hypocrites and Time-servers in the World who sacrificed their Consciences to their Desires of growing rich and powerful while had the Times been contrary to them they would have owned other Principles This Imputation I shall wipe off and shew that even in the worst of times in the Marian Persecution this Doctrine was publickly own'd and asserted when contrary to the Laws of Nature and Humanity and the Rules of Christian Equity the Protestants were most cruelly harras'd 'T is true the Devil said to God of Job Turn thy hand against him and he will curse thee to thy face but it was the Devil that said it and he was a Lyar from the beginning and so it proved in the Case of Job for when God altered his Methods and treated the good Man as if he had been his Enemy Job was always the same perfect and upright one that feared God and eschewed evil In this Catalogue I purposely omit Bishop Manwaring and Sibthorp in the Reign of CHARLES I. and Bish Parker Cartwright c. in the Reign of JAMES II. because their Authorities were in their own times excepted against as of Men that did not write soberly on the Subject resolving for the most part to appeal to the Writings of such Men who have been and are esteemed the unquestionable true and orthodox Defenders of the Protestant Religion against her Romish Adversaries and if such Authorities will not encline and the Reasons of such eminent Authors perswade the Reader to be of my Opinion I shall only say I am sorry that I have lost my labor THE AUTHORS THE Articles Page 3 Injunctions and Canons Page 4 The Homilies Page 7 The Liturgy Page 10 The Orders of Bishops Page 12 University Censures Page 13 The Institution of a Christan Man Page 19 Bishops Tonstal Stokesly and Bonner Page 20 Tyndal the Martyr ibid. Bishop Latimer Page 21 Arch-Bishop Cranmer ibid. Sir John Cheek Page 22 Martyrs and Confessors in Queen Marys Reign Page 23 Arch-Bishop Sandys Page 26 Bishop Jewel ibid. Bishop Bison Page 27 Mr. Perkins Page 29 Mr. Hooker ibid. Arch-Bishop Bancroft Page 30 Adrian Saravia ibid. King James I. Page 32 Bishop Buckeridge Page 33 Mr. Tho. Cartwright ibid. Arch-Bishop Whitgift Page 34 Dr. Fulke ibid. Bishop Carlton Page 34 Bishop Andrews Page 35 Bishop King ibid. Dr. Jackson Page 36 Dr. Hakewil Page 37 Dr. Bois Page 38 Dr. Donne Page 40 Arch-Bishop of Spalata Page 41 Arch-Bishop Montagu Page 42 Bishop Lake ibid. Mr. Dod Page 43 Bishop Hall ibid. Bishop Davenant Page 47 Arch-Bishop Usher Page 48 Arch-Bishop Bramhal Page 50 Bishop Brownrig Page 52 King Charles I. Page 53 Dr. Hammond ibid. Bishop Ferne Page 54 Mr. Chillingworth Page 55 Dudley Diggs ibid. Sir Edw. Coke Page 58 Dr. Gerhard Longbaine ibid. Ric. Overton Page 59 Bishop Saunderson Page 60 Dr. Bernard Page 63 Mr. Symmons Page 64 Bishop Taylor Page 65 Bishop Kenn Page 66 Dr. Seth Ward B. of Sarum ib. Dr. Lamplu Bishop of Exon Page 70 Bishop Hacket Page 71 Dr. Sharp Page 72 Bishop of Lincoln ibid. Dr. Burnet Page 73 Bishop of S. Asaph Page 78 Dr. Sprat B. of Rochester ib. Mr. Thorndyke Page 79 Dr. Spencer Dean of Ely ib. Dr. Tillotson Page 80 Dr. Stillingfleet Page 81 Dr. Patrick Page 84 Dr. Towerson Page 86 Mr. Scrivener Page 88 Mr. Glanvil Page 91 Dr. Horneck Page 93 Dr. Tennison ib. Dr. Hooper Page 94 Dr. Hascard Page 95 Dr. Falkner ib. Dr. Hicks Page 97 Dr. South ib. Dr. John Moor Page 98 Jeremiah in Baca or a Fast-days Work c. Page 99 Mr. Wake Page 100 Dr. Beveridge Page 102 Dr. Ironside ib. Dr. Isaac Barrow Page 103 Dr. Cave ib. Dr. Dove Page 104 D. Puller ib. Dr. Scott Page 105 University Address presented by Dr. Gower Page 108 Dr. Grove Page 109 Mr. Hesketh Page 110 Dr. Freeman Page 111 Dr. Littleton Page 112 Dr. Morrice ib. Dr. Lake ib. Mr. Lynford Page 113 Mr. Long Page 115 Dr. Fowler Page 116 The Faith and Practice of a Church of England Man Page 117 Mr. Payn Page 118 J. Kettlewell Page 119 Mr. Belling Page 121 Dr. Calamy Page 122 The whole Duty of Man Page 125 Erasmus ib. Grotius Page 126 Beza ib. Luther ib. Calvin ib. Camero Page 127 Is Casaubon ib. Peter du Moulin Page 128 Mons Bochart Page 129 David Blondel ib. Sam. Petit Page 130 Mons Allix ib. Dr. Bourdieu ib. Le droit Souverain c. ib. THE HISTORY OF Passive Obedience Since the REFORMATION INTRODUCTION WHen Judicious Men undertake to determine what are the Doctrines of any Church they do not guide themselves by the Practices nor the Writings of some of her Members but by the Positions which she hath publickly owned and asserted and the Practices that are consonant thereunto this being agreeable to the Counsel of our holy Saviour who when he bids us * Mat. 7.15 16. To beware of false Prophets who came in Sheeps Cloathing but inwardly are ravening Wolves cautions us that we shall know them by their fruits i.e. Not by the Fruits of their Lives but of their Doctrines So does †Serm. Bishop Sanderson interpret the Words and so also does the Dean ‖ Serm. on Nov. 5.1673 p. 28 29. of S. Paul 's We think it most convenient to follow our Saviour's Rules to judge of Mens Pretences how great and haughty soever by the Fruits they produce which Rule is not to be understood concerning the particular Actions of Men which have no respect to their Doctrines for as S. Chrysostom observes many Hereticks have been Men of excellent Lives ' and so on the contrary but we are to understand it of those Fruits which their Doctrines have a direct influence upon and therefore the Rule hath a particular respect to two things by which we are to examine the fairest Pretences 1. The Design they end to 2. The Means made use of for the accomplishing this Design If therefore the Design be quite of another Nature from that of the Gospel if the means be such as are directly contrary to it we may from thence justly infer that how plausible soever the pretences are how fine and soft soever the Sheeps cloathing be that inwardly they are ravening wolves Thus that great Man determines it against the Jesuits in the very case of resisting excommunicating deposing and murdering Princes and so do we all judge concerning the Church of Rome many of her Members are doubtless loyal and peaceable but their Church teaches them otherwise in the famous Lateran Council * M. Payn 's Sermon Sept. 9.1683 pag. 20. Treason in Papists is like original sin to mankind they all have it in their Natures tho many may deny it or not know it But in Protestants it is like the Italian Distemper it was
declared at the least four times in the year That the King's Majesties Power Authority and Preheminence within his Realms and Dominions is the highest Power under God Here the Injunction plainly distinguishes the claim of the Pope from other claims implying that our Church always believed that her Prince's Power was derived immediately from God and that they were superior to all their Subjects either singly or collectively and so were not accountable to them but only to God and among Bishop Ridley's Articles of Visitation An. 1550. one is Whether any do preach or defend that private persons may make Insurrection stir Sedition or compel Men to give them their Goods Anno 1564. being the seventh Year of Queen Elizabeth in the ‖ Sparr Collect. p. 123. Articles for Preaching it is injoyn'd That the Minister move all People to Obedience as well in observation of the Orders appointed in the Book of Common Service as in the Queen's Majesty's Injunctions as also of all other civil Duties due for Subjects to do and that all Preachers Preaching Matters tending to Dissention c. shall be complained At last the Injunctions were called Canons and the first Canon An. 1603. in the first Year of King James is the same in substance with the Injunction of Henry the Eighth Edward the Sixth and Queen Elizabeth and for this reason Can. 55. it is ordained That every Minister should before his Sermon acknowledge the King to be in all Causes and over all Persons supreme Head and Governor in more express terms than were formerly used But particularly I look upon the Canons of the Year 1640. to be a full Explanation of the belief of our Church in this point Now Can. 1. injoyns all former Laws Ordinances and Constitutions formerly made for the acknowledgment and profession of the most lawful and independent Authority of our dread Sovereign Lord the King 's most excellent Majesty to be carefully observed and then descends to give an Explanation of the Royal Power and Authority That the most sacred Order of Kings is of divine Right being the Ordinance of God himself founded in the prime Laws of Nature and clearly establish'd by express Texts both of the Old and New Testament and for any Person or Persons to set up maintain or allow in any their said Realms or Territories respectively under any pretence whatsoever any independent coactive Power either Papal or Popular whether directly or indirectly is to undermine their great Royal Office and cunningly to overthrow that most Sacred Offfice which God himself hath establish'd and so is treasonable against God as well as against the King. For Subjects to bear Arms against their Kings See the Doctrine of these Canons vindicated in Dr. Puller's Moderat of the Ch. of Engl. c. 12. §. 6. p. 34. offensive or defensive upon any Pretence whatsoever is at least to resist the Powers which are ordained of God and though they do not invade but only resist St. Paul tells them plainly They shall receive to themselves Damnation while in the next Paragraph they shew that this Doctrine does not intitle the King to every Man's Estate But against the Synod that made these Canons lies a great Objection tho I should have thought that the hard Censures of it might have been spar'd because no Synod of our Church and perhaps none of any other Protestant Church hath so expresly condemn'd Popery and Socinianism the great Enemies of true Reformed Christianity as this Synod hath done ‖ V. Art. 3.4 that it was not a Lawful Synod because it was continued and sat after the Parliament was Dissolved and was by another Parliament Condemn'd not to answer that that very Parliament that first Condemn'd this Synod ruin'd even the Monarchy it self nor that the Synods of old Provincial or General were not dependent on the meeting of the States at the same time I answer First that these Canons were made and confirm'd in full Convocation of both Provinces of Canterbury and York and the making of Canons being a work properly Ecclesiastical these Canons were made by the Representatives of the whole Clergy of this Kingdom 2. The Canons were confirm'd by the King which was all that was of old required in such Cases and tho the Convocation sat after the Dissolution of the Parliament yet 1. This is not without President even in the happy Days of Queen Elizabeth not to look back into Henry VIII or the primitive Times And 2. the Persons who condemn'd this Synod are well known to have done it to justifie their own Proceedings being resolved to ruine Episcopacy and with it the Monarchy and afterward by their own power they called an Assembly of Divines and What a Confession of Faith what Discipline Rites and Methods did they Establish a Directory among other things out of which they left the Lord's Prayer perhaps because it 't was a Form the Apostles Creed because themselves thought they could make a better and the Ten Commandments because the fifth plainly accused them of Rebellion against their Lawful Prince And it is worth the observing that Sr. Edward Deering's Speeches that were spoken with so much Virulence against this Synod and afterwards Printed were by the Order of the same House who first applauded them decreed to be Burnt by the hand of the Common Hang-man And if it be still objected that the Canons were Reprobated since the Restitution of Charles II. I say that I quote them not as a Law that obliges the Church but as the known Sense of the Church of England at that time CHAP. III. The Doctrine of the Homilies THough the name of Homily hath been look'd upon and censured by unthinking People as ridiculous yet those admirable Sermons made by our first Reformers as a body of practical Divinity and a Confutation of the Errors and Idolatries of the Church of Rome are as Bishop Ridley said of the first Tome of them * Apud Fox To. 3. p. 506. Holy and wholsome Homilies Recommendations of the principal Virtues which are commended in Scripture and against the most pernicious and capital Vices that so alas do reign in this Realm of England These we subscribe to as containing wholsome Doctrine †Dr. Stanley's Faith and Pract. c. 7. p. 192. and every Man hereby sees what Opinions the Clergy are of for they subscribe and assent to the Book of Articles and Homilies and to the Book of Common Prayer Many also have some regard to the Articles of An 1640. They take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and the Test c. and Johnson says That the Book of Homilies is the best Book in the World next the Bible And since a ‖ D. Welw Letter to M. March p. 10. late Author is so bold to say that Passive Obedience in the narrow sense we take it in was not so much as thought on at the time of the publishing the Homilies I must first ask him How he came to be so
well acquainted with the Thoughts of those venerable Men who wrote the Homilies at this distance of time What Communication hath he with the other World or what peculiar Memoirs that have scap'd all the wise Men of our Church who have been conversant with her Records have fallen into his hands And then I will shew that the Expressions of the Homilies are very full and plain and exclusive of all Pretences to take up Arms against our lawful Superiors The Homily or Exhortation to Obedience Burnet's Hist Ref. part 2. l. 1. c. 6. was made An. 1547. in the Reign of K. Edward the Sixth in the second part of which Sermon of Obedience we are told that it is the calling of God's People to be patient and on the suffering side and to render Obedience to Governors although they be wicked and wrong doers and in no case to resist and stand against them Subjects are bound to obey them i. e. Governors as God's Ministers although they be evil not only for fear but also for conscience sake and here good People let us mark diligently that it is not lawful for Inferiors and Subjects in any case to resist and stand against the superior Powers for St. Paul 's words be plain That whoso withstandeth shall get to themselves Damnation Our Saviour Christ and his Apostles received many and divers Injuries of the unfaithful and wicked men in Authority yet we never read that they or any of them caused any Sedition or Rebellion against Authority we read oftne that they patiently suffer'd all Troubles Vexations Slanders Pangs Pains and Death it self obediently without Tumult or Resistance Christ taught us plainly that even the wicked Rulers have their Power and Authority from God and therefore it is not lawful for their Subjects to withstand them although they abuse their Power Let us believe undoubtedly good Christian People that we may not obey Kings if they command us to do any thing contrary to God's Commandments in such a case we ought to say with the Apostle We must rather obey God than Man but nevertheless in that case we may not in any wise withstand violently or rebel against Rulers or make any Insurrection Sedition or Tumults either by force of Arms or otherwise against the Anointed of the Lord or any of his appointed Officers but we must in such case patiently suffer all wrongs and injuries referring the judgment of our Cause only to God and Part 3. of the same Homily Ye have heard before of this Sermon of good Order and Obedience manifestly proved both by Scriptures and Examples that all Subjects are bound to obey their Magistrates and for no cause to resist or withstand or rebel or make any Sedition against them yea although they be wicked men The second Book of Homilies was compiled in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and among them the Homily against Disobedience and wilful Rebellion is full to this purpose * Part. 1. In reading the holy Scriptures we shall find in very many and almost infinite places as well of the Old Testament as of the New that Kings and Princes as well the evil as the good do reign by God's Ordinance and that Subjects are bounden to obey them The further and further any Earthly Prince doth swerve from the Example of the Heavenly Government the greater plague he is of God's Wrath and Punishment by God's Justice unto the Country and People over whom God for their Sins hath placed such a Prince and Governor What shall Subjects do then What a perillous thing were it to commit to Subjects the Judgment which Prince is wise and godly and his Government good and which otherwise as though the Foot must judge of the Head an Enterprize very heinous and which must needs breed Rebellion and is not Rebellion the greatest of all mischiefs A Rebel is worse than the worst Prince and Rebellion worse than the worst Government of the worst Prince that hitherto hath been If we will have an evil Prince when God shall send such a one taken away and a good one in his place let us take away our Wickedness which provoketh God to place such a one over us Shall the Subjects both by their Wickedness provoke God for their deserved punishment to give them an undiscreet and evil Prince and also rebel against him and withal against God who for the punishment of their Sins did give them such a Prince And this Doctrine is excellently inforc'd in the second part of that Homily from the Example of King David in his Carriage towards Saul And one reason perhaps why these old plain Sermons are by some men despised and evil spoken of is because they so heartily recommend this Doctrine of Non-resistance CHAP. IV. The Doctrine of the Liturgy TO our Homilies I subjoin the Liturgy of our Church the most excellent body of publick Prayers that the World owns In the Morning and Evening Service for every day God is said to be the only Ruler of Princes exclusive of both Pope and People To the understanding of which Collect I shall give you the Paraphrase of Dr. Cumber * Compan to the Temple part 1. § 23. p. 171. Ed. Fol. The Church of England is famous above all other Churches for her entire Loyalty to the King which may be seen not only in the Lives of the true Sons thereof but in their Prayers c. †Id. p. 173. God is the only Judge of the Actions of Princes since they are his Servants and Substitutes to their own Master they must stand or fall and are only accountable to his Tribunal and therefore we have so much the more need to pray for them to their great Lord that he would direct them to do well and guide them who are to rule us that this their mighty Prince may be in safety and in peace for if it should be otherwise which God forbid we neither will nor can oppose them having no other Arms against our Prince but Prayers and Tears ‖ Id. p. 174. If he were a Saul or a Nero we should sin in ceasing to pray for him ‡ Id. p. 176. v. p. 225. It is natural to the true Sons of the Church of England to love the King. If a foreign Prince opposes our King he is a Robber if * P. 177. he be a Subject who rises against his Sovereign he hath renounc'd Christianity with his Allegiance ☞ and is to be esteem'd a Troubler of our Israel Therefore whosoever they be that are Enemies to the King and whatsoever the pretence be we wish they may never prosper In the Litany we pray God to deliver us from all Sedition privy Conspiracy and Rebellion and Dr. Cumber †Part 2. § 2. p. 225. says That the Words Rebellion and Schism were put into the Litany since our late unhappy Civil Wars that have given us reason to pray From all Sedition c. In the Greek Liturgies he says it
is thus express'd From Civil Wars c. ☜ but not one Word of this could he ever find in the Roman Missals that have come to his hands it being the peculiar Glory of the Church of England that her Prayers and Practices have always been eminently loyal and Enemies to Treason and Rebellion And he says farther * Ib. p. 226 227. That Rebellion is a sin so contrary to Christianity that though the Primitive Christians had all the Provocations imaginable and Force sufficient they never offer'd to rebel So that they who do rebel have divested themselves of the Christian Principles and almost of their Humanity too In the Prayer for the Parliament We may say of our Princes as Pliny said of the good Emperor Trajan they have freely yielded to rule by those Laws to which nothing but their own goodness could oblige them and doubtless the People of England ought to take it as an Act of Grace that their Kings have consented to govern them on this manner In the Prayer after the Commandments the King is said to be God's Minister and we beg God that all his Subjects duly considering that he hath God's Authority may faithfully serve honor and humbly obey him according to God's blessed Word and Ordinance And this is admirably commented †Id. part 3. §. 4. p. 20. We are to consider that Kings bear God's Name and act by his Power and such as rebel do fight against God oppose his Word and resist his Ordinance c. In the occasional Office for Nov. 5. we pray God That the King may cut off all such workers of Iniquity as turn Religion into Rebellion and Faith into Faction And in the Office for May 29. when we thank God for the Restoration of the Royal Family we beseech God to accept of our unfeigned Oblation of our selves vowing all holy Obedience in Thought Word and Work unto the Divine Majesty and promising in him and for him all dutiful Allegiance to his anointed Servant and to his Heirs for ever And it is also observable the Proclamations relating to those solemn times are appointed to be read which are as full to this purpose as any thing can be and by our Canons when the Minister bids Prayer before his Sermon to continue the belief of this Truth he is bound to exhort the People when they pray to acknowledge the King to be in all Causes and over all Persons next and immediately under God supreme c. CHAP. V. The Orders of our Bishops BY the Orders of our Bishops I mean not so much the particular Injunctions or Enquiries of our Prelates within their own particular Dioceses though of such instances there is no want as I have shewn Chap. 2. from the Articles of Inquiry of Archbishop Cranmer and the Articles of Visitation of Bishop Ridley and could prove from many other such Instances but the general Orders which have been sent from the Metropolitan to the whole Church such Injunctions when obey'd ought to be look'd on as the sense of the whole Church unless we shall impeach either the Makers or the Complyers of dishonest Practices especially when the Adversaries of the Church have given occasion to such Injunctions thus when Knight of whom I shall treat in the next Chapter was censured at Oxford the same Year some Cautions concerning Preachers and Preaching were by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York with the King's Consent as the Law required sent to the several Bishops of their Provinces to be put in execution in their several Dioceses The Directions are dated Aug. 4. 1622. of which the first requires That no Preacher c. shall fall into any set course or common place otherwise than by opening the Coherence and division of his Text which shall not be comprehended and warranted in essence substance effect or natural inference within some one of the Articles of Religion set forth Ann. 1562. or in some one of the Homilies set forth by Authority c. The fourth is That no Preacher of what Title or Denomination soever shall presume from henceforth in any Auditory within this Kingdom to declare limit or bound out by way of positive Doctrine in any Lecture or Sermon the Power Prerogative Jurisdiction Authority or duty of Sovereign Princes or therein meddle with Matters of State and Reference between Princes and People than as they are instructed in the Homily of Obedience and in the rest of the Homilies and Articles of Religion set forth by Publick Authority These Injunctions were again renew'd and reinforc'd in the days of King Charles the Second and in the next Reign and in the Articles of the present Archbishop of Canterbury * July 16. 1638. Art. 7. the Clergy are expresly enjoyn'd That in their Sermons they should four times in the Year at least teach the People That the Kings Power being in his Dominions highest under God all Priests should upon all occasions persuade the People to Loyalty and Obedience to his Majesty in all things lawful and to patient Submission in the rest promoting as far as in them lies the publick Peace and Quiet of the World. And agreeably to this Doctrine were the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy especially the later framed which though particularly made against the Papists yet as Bishop Sanderson well observes where the Reason of making and imposing an Oath is particular Praelect 7. de juram but the words of the Oath are general there the Oath obliges according to the sense of the words in their utmost latitude as says he for Example in the Oath of Supremacy to the making of which the Usurpation of the Pope gave occasion the words being all general do exclude all Persons from exercising that Supreme Power in this Kingdom And every Clergy-man especially ought to reflect how often he hath solemnly profess'd and averr'd That it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King or any commissioned by him c. and to remember that that Declaration was injoyned in opposition to the Doctrines of the year 1641 the Men of which age asserted That the Power of Kings was given them by the People and might be resumed by the Donors that the King was co-ordinate with the States and that his Politick differ'd from his personal Capacity Now the occasion of the making a Law and the preamble of it are look'd on as the best Interpreters of the words of a Law. CHAP. VI. The Censures of our Universities NOR are the Censures of our most famous Universities in this case to be neglected or look'd on slightly it is well known what a Repute the Judgment of the single College of the Sorbone hath at Paris and how much the Authority of the Foreign Universities together with our own sway'd with King Henry the Eighth and persuaded the Christian World to credit the Justice of his Divorce Now I shall not mention the Censure of the Mille manus Petition as it
‡ P. 201 202. We are not satified in being obliged to preserve the King's person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and the Liberties of the Kingdom forasmuch as 1. No such limitation of our Duty in that behalf is to be found either in the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance which no Papist would refuse to take with such a Limitation nor in the Protestation nor in the Word of God. 3. Such a Limitation leaves the Duty of the Subject at so much loosness and the safety of the King at so great uncertainty ☞ that whensoever the People shall have a mind to withdraw their Obedience they cannot want a pretence from the same for so doing 4. Hereby we make our selves guilty of an actual and real diminution of his Majesties Power and Greatness which in the same Breath we call the World to witness with our Consciences that we had no thought to diminish c. P. 210 211. The Tyranny and Yoke of Antichrist if laid upon the Necks of Subjects by their lawful Sovereigns ☜ is to be thrown off by Christian Boldness in confessing the truth and patient suffering for it not by taking up Arms or violent resisting the higher Powers Pag. 217 Because some have inferred from the very Order that the Defence of the King's Person and Authority ought to be with subordination to the preservation of the Rights and Privileges of Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdom therefore we cannot take this Oath Especially being told in a late Pamphlet P. 219. that the King not having preserved the Liberties of the Kingdom c. as of duty he ought is thereby become a Tyrant and so ceaseth to be a King and consequently that his Subjects cease to be Subjects and ow him no longer Subjection which Assertion since we heartily detest as false and scandalous in the Supposition and in the Inference seditious and devilish we dare not by subscribing this Article give the least countenance thereto And that we may take the Covenant in our own sense is contrary to the nature and end of an Oath which must be full of simplicity P. 223. contrary to the end of Speech c. and will bring a scandal upon our Religion that we practise that our selves that we condemn in the Paqists viz. Swearing with Jesuitical Equivocations and mental Reservations that we play fast and loose with God in as much as what we swear to day in one sense we may swear the direct contrary to morrow in another P. 225. And if this would fatisfie the Conscience we might with a good Conscience not only take the Covenant but even subscribe to the Council of Trent also yea and to the Turkish Alcoran P. 229. if the King should not protect us but neglect his part too having power and ability to perform it his voluntary neglect ought not to free us from the faithful performance of what is to be done on our part Ann. 1683. July 21. in a full Convocation many opinions were condemn'd that had been publish'd in diverse Books and writings in English and also in the Latin tongue P. 2. repugnant to the holy Scriptures decrees of Councils writings of the Fathers the Faith and profession of the Primitive Church and also destructive of the Kingly Government the safety of his Majesties Person the publick Peace the Laws of Nature and Bonds of Humane Society as Proposition 1. All civil Authority is derived originally from the People Proposition 2. There is a mutual compact tacit or express between a Prince and his Subjects and if he perform not his Duty they are discharged from theirs Proposition 3. P. 3. that if Lawful Governours become Tyrants or Govern otherwise than by the Laws of God and Man they ought to do they forfeit the Right they had unto their Government Prop. 7. Self-preservation is the Fundamental Law of Nature and supersedes the Obligation of all others when they stand in competition with it Prop. 8. The Doctrine of the Gospel concerning patient suffering of Injuries is not inconsistent with violent resisting of the higher Powers in case of Persecution for Religion Pr. 9. P. 4. There lies no obligation upon Christians to Passive Obedience when the Prince commands any thing against the Laws of our Country and the Primitive Christians chose rather to die than to resist because Christianity was not yet settled by the Laws of the Empire And besides the Condemnation of the Doctrines the Books of Milton P. 7. Baxter Goodwin Owen Johnson c. were ordered to be publickly burnt by the Hand of the Marshal in the Court of the Schools as Books that were fitted to deprave Mens Manners stir up Seditions and Tumults overthrow States and Kingdoms and lead to Rebellion Murther of Princes and Atheism it self And a Prohibition issued forbidding the Reading any of the said Books under great Penalties This Decree was drawn up by Dr. Jane Dean of Glocester and the King's Professor of Divinity at Oxon and subscribed by the Vicechancellor other Professors and the whole Convocation And pursuant to this Decree Parkinson a Fellow of Lincoln-College for maintaining that the Right and Foundation of all Power was in the People that Kings are accountable for their Maleadministration c. And particularly that King Charles the First was justly put to death for making War upon his Subjects was an 1684. expelled the University And it is observable that our excellent Homilies that so expresly require Obedience to Princes and condemn Rebellion and Resistance upon any pretence whatsoever were Printed at the Theatre the same year that the abovementioned Decree was made CHAP. VII The Opinions of Learned Men. WHen Men would know what are the Sentiments of any Church in her Articles or Sanctions the most rational Course is to make inquiry among those who were concern'd in making them or those who may be presumed best to understand them by reason of their nearness to the time their acquaintance with the Compilers or their extraordinary Sagacity and Honesty and of suchpersons in the Church of England must we make Inquiry concerning the Doctrine of Obedience and Non-resistance In * Burn. hist Ref. part 1. l. 3. p. 245. the Days of Henry the Eighth when the Reformation began to dawn an 1537. a Convocation was held upon the Conclusion of which there was Printed an Explanation of the chief Points of Religion signed by nineteen Bishops eight Arch-Deacons and seventeen Doctors of Divinity and Law in which there was an Exposition of the Creed the Ten Commandments c But this was but a rude Draught the beauteous Stroaks were given it †Id. p. 286. anno 1540. when a select number of Bishops sate by Virtue of a Commission from the King confirm'd in Parliament among which were Cranmer Ridley Redman and other extraordinary men their first work was to draw up a Declaration of the Christian Doctrine for the
nevertheless he sat up and dictated his sense of it but the Earl was on a sudden by reason of the fight hurried away and whether the King had the Paper or no I cannot learn but the original or a Copy of it was by some zealous Man supprest no doubt because it condemn'd taking up Arms on the specious pretences of Religion and Liberty And according to his Sentiments was his usage he being plundred by the Parliament Army as well as the other so called Malignants SECT XI There was no little Clash between Arch-Bishop Laud and Bishop Davenant about other points but in this they agreed * Davenant deter qu. 4. p. 22. He that taketh the sword shall perish by the sword i. e. He that usurps the Sword he that uses it without permission from the King who by God's Ordinance bears the Sword now who can believe that a Prince will give leave to draw his own Sword against himself all others ought to abstain from laying hands on him whose punishment God hath by a certain special priviledg reserv'd to himself the antient Christians being harass'd with most grievous persecutions never fled to these indirect means Pag. 23. but defended the Church by those means which God hath appointed viz. by the tears of her Christians the preachings of her Priests and the sufferings of her Martyrs and what Suarez say * V. p. 24. That there is no need of a Superiour Power to keep the Pope in order because Christ will in an especial manner in this case provide for his Church may be with much greater reason said of Kings Christ himself will in a more Eminent manner defend his Church not onely against the cruelty of persecutors but also against the gates of Hell. Resistance is unlawful and contrary to God's Ordinance for St. Paul says it is a sin and worthy of eternal damnation to resist the Powers ordained of God. Put the case that Princes will not only not purge the Church of Heresies and false worship but what is worse * Id. qu. 12. p. 58. will defend those corruptions by their Authority yet in this case the people ought not to reform 1. Because God requires from Subjects to suffer whatsoever the Magistrate can inflict rather than desert the true Religion but not to compel the Magistrate for Religion is to be defended not by killing others but by dying for it our selves not by cruelty but by patience not by wickedness but by fidelity says Lactantius 2. When the people undertake such an action without the Prince's consent it is Rebellion now evil is not to be done that good may come thereof let such Men take to themselves whatever Names they please they are Traytors not Christians L. there will be great danger in so doing for should they get the Power they cannot make Laws * Qu. 17. What shall be able to keep a Man within the duty of a good Subject who will not be bound by Oaths †Qu. 30. Criminals of the Superiour Order i.e. Kings c. God hath reserv'd to his own Court and Judgment SECT XII I will not quote Arch-Bishop Laud because the Adversaries to this Doctrine aver that it was of his inventing but instead of him I will call for an unquestionable witness Arch-Bishop Usher who expresly order'd * Clavi Trabales p. 52. That Loyalty should according to the Canon be four times every year preach'd to the people while his actions were a plain Comment upon his Opinions I need not mention the regard the forein Protestant Divines had to him and the Romanists too especially Cardinal Richelieu as well as those of our own Country * Apud eund Sanders pref to the Bishop's Book While I inform the Reader that in the beginning of our most unhappy Commotions the Lord Deputy of Ireland Strafford desired the Primate Usher to declare his judgment publickly concerning those Tumults which he did in two Sermons at christ-Christ-Church in Dublin on Eccles 7.2 Whereupon the Deputy signified it would be acceptable to the King to print the Sermons or to write a Treatise on the Subject the latter the Arch-Bishop made choice of and sent it into England with an intent to have it printed as the Martyr Charles design'd that his Subjects might receive the satisfaction from the same as himself had done In the time of the Usurper Cromwel it was not thought fit to be printed lest it might have been perverted to the support of his Power For by this time the flatterers of that great Tyrant had learn'd by a new device upon the bare account of Providence without respect to the justice of the Title the only right and proper foundation to interpret and apply to his advantage whatsoever they found either in the Scriptures or in other Writings concerning the Power of Princes or the duty of Subjects profanely and sacrilegiously taking the Name of that holy Providence of God in vain and using it onely as a stalking Horse to serve the lusts and interests of ambitious Men. In the first part of that learned Treatise the Bishop proves that the Power of the Prince is from God and that * Part. 1. §. vi p. vi Our Government is a free Monarchy because the Authority resteth solely in the person of the King whereupon it is declar'd that the King is the onely Supreme Governour of these Realms in all Causes whatsoever which could not stand if either the Court of Parliament it self or any other power upon Earth might in any cause over-rule him I say any Power whither forein or domestick and then * §. 28. He discourses at large as of the original of Regal power from Heaven so of the Law of the King proceeding in the second part to treat of the Obedience of the Subject * V. p. 109. 111 134 c. In which he plainly shews that whither the Power be good or bad whosoever does resist it by withdrawing his service from it or denying Tribute or not giving that honour to it which he ought to give resisteth the Ordinance and disposition of God by whose appointment they bear Rule * P. 145. 146. Quest But how are Subjects to carry themselves when such things are enjoined as cannot or ought not to be done R. surely not to accuse the Commander but humbly to avoid the command and when nothing else will serve the turn as in things that may be done we are to express our subjection by active so in things that cannot be done we are to declare the same by passive obedience without resistance and repugnancy such a kind of suffering being as sure a sign of subjection as any thing else whatsoever He P. 147 c. that consults with flesh and bloud will hardly be induc'd to admit this Doctrine of passive Obedience and therefore if he will learn this Lesson he must make choice of better Masters and listen in the first place to Solomon Prov. 3.5
Religion I shall name but two Examples Tertullian tells the Emperor that his Cities Islands Castles Councils Armies Regiments and Companies the Palace the Senate the Courts of Judicature were filled with Christians and yet they submitted to Persecution And we read that the Thebean Legion consisted of six thousand six hundred sixty and six persons every Man Christian when they submitted to the Decimation of Maximinian for Religion MISHPAT HAMELEK Pag. 63. the Jus Regium the Fundamental Law of the Kings of Israel What then is the meaning of Mishpat hamelsk Surely it imports thus much that if all this hard usage should come upon them they might cry unto the Lord 1 Sam. viii 18. but that it would not dissolve Jus Regium the Right of Sovereignty or enable them to resist their Kings or rebel against them That Pretence Pag. 67. that after a lawful Sovereign is established the Power still remains in the People in the diffused Body of them or their Representatives to alter the Government as they please it is in respect of Policy and Government what the Sin of the Holy Ghost is to Religion These were their secret Griefs Pag. 69. for a Redress whereof they make a party in the Parliament they gain to them two hundred and fifty Men famous in the Parliament Men of Renown and in order to their ambitious Designs they remonstrate against Moses Numb xvi 13. and their Declaration was this Pretence which we are upon that all the Congregation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were holy and that Moses and Aaron had lifted up themselves above them that is that their power was a contrivance of themselves not an Ordinance of God that notwithstanding what God had done to settle the Civil and Ecclesiastical Power it remained still in the People or their Representatives assembled together Now the Scripture tells us that since the World began God was never more highly provoked than upon this occasion Numb xvi 32. When he heard this he was wrath and greatly abhorred them he invented a new thing in the World for their sakes for the Earth opened and swallowed up Dathan and covered the congregation of Abiram It tells us Pag. 71. in effect that Might is Right that every thing is just or unjust good or evil according to the pleasure of the prevailing Force whom we are to obey till a stronger than he cometh or we be able to go through with Resistance That in reference to this Life Pag. 71. Obedience is a matter of Wit and Prudence and after Life there remain for us no Concernments How stramineous is this Theory compared with the Christian Theory which speaks in this wise Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers It is but a little while since the Anointed of the Lord Pag. 74. the holiest the wisest the best of Kings was taken in the Snares of Men pretending to Reformation and sacrificed to the fury of Men possessed by an evil Spirit from the Lord. It is but a very little while since the Lamentation of Jeremy was in the mouth of all the Faithful in the Land Pag. 74. Lam. ii 9. Our Kings and our Princes were amongst the Gentiles It may be all these things have been done Pag. 75. that the Sayings of our Saviour might be fulfilled Matth. 18.7 ibid. 6. It cannot be but that Offences will come but woe be to them by whom they come it were better that a Mill stone c. It may be God suffered the late Rebellion to prevail Pag. 76. that he might not leave himself without witness but shew forth his Wonders in our days in the miraculous Restitution of our gracious Sovereign and the Church Surely these things were suffered Pag. 77. that the Faith and Patience and Loyalty of the Church of England might be made bright and glorious by the Flames of Persecution and that in the day when God shall have given our most gracious Sovereign the hearts or necks of all his Enemies it may not repent him of the kindness he hath shewn to Religion and Government in lifting out of the Dust the despised Head of that only Church for ought I know which makes Obedience without base Restrictions and Limitations an Article of its Religion Bish of Exeter's Serm. before the House of Lords Nov. 5. 1678. Certainly their Authority who lived in the Primitive Light and who bear witness to their own disadvantage teaching Submission to Magigrates though absolute Tyrants and who never took up any Arms against them but Prayers and Tears ought to beget in us a conformity to those innocent times when Christianity gained as much by Patience as 't is now like to lose by Rebellion The Emperors for the first three hundred years after Christ for the generality were very bad but especially to the Christians they were bloody and cruel and yet we never read of any Insurrection of the Christians against them tho they were in a condition to do it The Thebean Legion were all Christians when the Emperor commanded the whole Army to offer Sacrifice to false Gods they removed their Quarters that they might if possible avoid the occasion of displeasing the Emperor He summons them a second time to perform that Worship they return an humble denial The Emperor not content with that Answer puts them to a Decimation to which they submit with much chearfulness and dye praying for their Persecutors Not to trouble you with many Witnesses of this Truth take one for all Tertullian who wrote his Apologetick as the sense of the whole Church he makes there a bold Challenge and desires them to produce if they can any one Example of any Christian taking part with Rebels such as Cassius Niger and others were No he tells them the Christians were better instructed than to hold Resistance lawful Nos judicium Dei suspicimus c. We with patience submit and kiss the Rod that scourgeth us Though they have no just cause to torment us yet there is too much cause why we should suffer We must acknowledge our Sins against God and he may punish us in what way he thinks fit however resist we must not And again in his thirty seventh Paragraph of that Apologetick he tells the Emperor That his Cities Istands Castles Councils Armies his Palace and Courts of Judicature were fill'd with Christians Sic non deesset nobis vis Copiarum If we had a mind we could not want force to resist but we dare not save our Bodies to the eternal loss and perdition of our Souls We wish to the Emperor a long Life an happy Reign a valiant Army a faithful Council a sober People and a quiet World. Such as these were their Wishes towards their Emperors tho Heathens and Persecutors Thus you see the Minds of Christ his Apostles and the Primitive Christians in that great Point of Obedience to Magistrates Therefore they who raise Tumults abett Rebellions set on foot Plots and Conspiracies teach
☜ and bear all the ill administration that might be in the Government but never to rise in Arms upon that account * Id. third Letter to the E. of Middl. p. 168. I will do that which I think fit for me to do to day though I were sure to be assassinated for it to morrow but to the last moment of my life I will pay all duty and fidelity to his Majesty * Ans to the New Test c. p. 48 49. The Church of England may justly expostulate when she is treated as seditious after she hath rendred the highest Services to the Civil Authority that any Church now on Earth hath done she hath beaten down all the principles of Rebellion with more force and learning ☜ than any body of Men hath ever yet done and hath run the hazards of enraging her Enemies and losing her Friends even for those from whom the most learned of her Members knew what they might expect We are the only Church in the World that carries these principles to the highest We acknowledg that some of our Clergy miscarried in it upon King Edward's death yet at the same time others of our Communion adhered more steadily to their Loyalty in favour of Queen Mary than she did to the promises that she made to them The Laws of Nature are perpetual P. 51. and can never be cancell'd by any special Law so that if these Gent. own so freely that this is a Law of Nature that every individual might fight in his own defence they had best take care not to provoke Nature too much P. 52. As we cannot be charg'd for having preach'd any seditious Doctrine so we are not wanting in the preaching of the duties of Loyalty P. 55. even when we see what they are like to cost us Of all the Maximes in the World there is none hurtful to the Government in our present circumstances than the saying That the King's promises and the people's fidelity ought to be reciprocal and that a failure in the one cuts off the other for by a very natural consequence the Subject may likewise say that their Oaths of Allegiance being founded on the assurance of his Majesty's protection the one binds no longer than the other is observed and the Inferences that may be drawn from hence will be very terrible if the Loyalty of the so much decryed Church of England does not put a stop to them But for that we may cite the Testimony of the Right Reverend Bishop of S. Asaph in his Seasonable Discourse c. We are Members of a Church Pag. 4. which above all other Constitutions in the Christian World enforces the great Duties of Obedience and Submission to the Magistrate and teaches to be subject not only for Truth but Conscience sake And among other Motives which he mentions in the behalf of the Established Religion The fourth says he is this The Safety of the King's Person and the Prerogative of the Crown which hath no higher or more necessary Appendent than his Supremacy in his Dominion in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Secular according to the Powers invested in the Jewish Kings under the Law ☞ and exercised by the first Christian Emperors To whom we may add the Right Reverend Doctor Sprat in his Sermon before the House of Commons Jan. 30. 1677 / 8. by them ordered to be Printed Where speaking of King Chalres the Martyr Who saith he not only by his Birth had a Successive Right to the Crown which he could not forfeit but also by his Personal Vittues might have deserved another Title to it if his Crown had been elective and as his Murderers impudently pretended at the Disposal of his Subjects pag. 3. So that he terms him the Vicegerent of God's Power ibid. pag. 44. He pleaded and prayed for his Enemies at the Bar of Heaven which only was above him And pag. 47. May all of us be most industriously watchful that the same Schismatical Designs and Antimonarchical Principles which then inspired so many ill Men misled some good Men and cost our good King so dear may not once more revive and insinuate themselves again under the same or newer and craftier Disguises and find an opportunity to attempt the like mischiefs And in another Sermon of his at White-Hall Pag. 44 45. December 22. 1678. Let us withdraw our thoughts and lift up our minds to the imitation of the most Christian Examples As of our Saviour himself so of his Apostles and Disciples in the first and therefore the best Ages How were they zealous for the Glory of God Not by violence or malice or revenge against any not eve nagainst their Oppressors but only by their own Labors and Prayers and Patience and Magnanimity in suffering How were they zealous in respect to their Temporal Governors Not to resist for conscience sake but rather to be subject for that very reason not by open Rebellion not by private Machinations but in blessing and serving and submitting to their Emperors tho they were Idolaters and obeying them in all things except their Idolatry Whom to imitate is our Duty SECT XXIII Mr. Thorndyke * Apud Falkner's Christian Loyalty p. 429. from the Instance of the Maccabees avers that it was lawful for Subjects to take Arms in Defence of their Religion under the Jewish State tho in that he be mistaken but expresly condemns taking Arms upon that or any other pretext under the Christian State. Dr. Spencer †Serm. at S. Mary's Cambr. Jun. 28. 1660 p. 4. the now Dean of Ely The Gospel doth very sparingly meddle with State matters but when it doth it engageth to Obedience by as obliging Principles as it doth to Religion even a Principle of Conscience we must be subject for conscience-sake not barely for safety's sake and a principle of highest fear They that resist shall receive to themselves damnation A Doctrine taught the World in the Type long before by that Fire and Earthquake which destroyed the Opposers of lawful Authority Numb xvi 33 34. P. 11 12. God hath attested unto Sovereignty by suffering none of his Servants in Scripture few or none in story to be guilty of willful opposing lawful Authority We find many a wicked Man guilty of this Sin but as Reverence to other Divine Commands wore off in time as the power that exalteth it self above all that is called God obtained in the world so to this among the rest of Obedience to lawful Authority P. 14. The Heathens used to reproach the Gospel on this account but the Pulpit was never intended to be a Circle in which to raise up the evil Spirits of Sedition and State-Commotions no Religion in the Doctrine of it so greatly secures the Power of Kings and the Peace of States ☜ as the Christian doth we are bound by the Gospel to be obedient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. ii 18. to the crookedest and frowardest Masters
careful our blessed Saviour was to pay all due respects to any person invested with Authority and that St. Peter recommends a meek behaviour even towards them from whom we receive hard measure P. 94. That such a continued respect and practice of duty to Governours even under hard usage is that which Conscience to God will oblige to perform This duty of respectful submission is not founded upon the good temper of our Superiours but upon the Authority they receive from God and the Precepts which God hath thereupon given to us P. 97. Obj. But if Religion be concern'd and in danger doth it not behove every good Man to be zealous c. Ans 1. It is requisite he should be zealous in the diligent exercise of a holy Life and in frequent and devout prayer c. But he must not be active as an evil doer in giving himself the liberty to behave himself undutifully towards his Superiours 2. Religion can never be so in danger that God can need any sinful practices of Men to uphold his interest his Kingdom is not so weak that it cannot stand without the affistance of the works of the Devil P. 99. 3. Religion can never be opposed with greater enmity and malicious designs than it was when our Saviour suffered and yet then he reviled not P. 100. nor allow'd St. Peter's rashness The Jews aimed utterly to root out the Christian Name and there were great oppositions against Religion even fiery Tryals 1 Pet. 4.12 When yet Saint Peter requires Christians to follow the Example of our Lord's patience and meekness and to reverence Superiours 4. True zeal for Religion consists in pious and holy living not in passionate and sinful speaking To Dr. Falkner I should join his Pupil Dr. Sherlock but his Book of Non resistance is so strong and his arguments from Scripture so cogent that it is needless to make any extracts out of it and till his Adversary writes both a more becoming and a more demonstrative Answer it will be still by all wise Men look'd upon as unanswerable SECT XXIX Among the unanswerable Treatises I also reckon Dr. Hicks the Dean of Worcester's Jovian for unless scurrility confidence and a desertion of the main Argument may pass for an Answer the Reply that is yet extant deserves no Rejoinder Out of that Elaborate Commentary on the Doctrine of Passive Obedience I shall only quote one passage because it is a History of the Author's Principles and Resolution I had rather dye a Martyr than a Rebel P. 259 and I resolve by God's assistance neither to turn Papist nor Resist but if I cannot escape I will suffer according to the Gospel and the Church of England and I will Preach and Practise Passive Obedience after the example of the Prophets and Martyrs who suffered against Law and in my most melancholy prospect of things I can comfort my self with the hopes of a reward for dying at a Stake which he shall never have for dying in the Field To this purpose also the Sermon at Bow-Church Jan. 30. 1681 / 2. Together with the same Author's Artillery Sermon are worth the perusing Dr. South I have read heretofore of some Serm. 2. p. 80 81. that having conceived an irreconcileable hatred of the Civil Magistrate prevailed with Men so far that they went to resist him even out of Conscience and a full perswasion and dread upon their spirits ☜ that not to do it were to desert God and consequently to incur Damnation Now when Mens rage is both heightened and sanctified by Conscience the War will be fierce for what is done out of Conscience is done with the utmost activity and then Campanella 's Speech to the King of Spain will be found true Religio semper vicit praesertim armata which sentence deserves seriously to be considered by all Governors and timely understood lest it come to be felt P. 212. P. 236. We have seen Rebellion commented out of Rom. xiii He that makes his Prince despised and undervalued blows a Trumpet against him in Mens Hearts c. * See Dr. Freeman's Ser. before the L. Mayor 1682. p. 8. P. 242 243. To imagine a King without Majesty a Supreme without Sovereignty is a Paradox and direct contradiction The Church of England glories in nothing more than that she is the truest friend to Kings and to Kingly Government of any other Church in the World. It is the happiness of some Professions and Callings that they can equally square themselves to and thrive under all Revolutions of Government but the Clergy of England neither know nor affect that happiness and are willing to be despised for not doing so And so far is our Church from encroaching upon the Civil Power as some who are back-friends to both would maliciously insinuate that were it stript of the very remainder of its privileges and made as like the Primitive Church for its bareness as it is already for its Purity it could chearfully and what is more Loyally want all such Privileges and in the want of them pray that the Civil Power may flourish as much and stand as secure from the assaults of Fanatick Anti-Monarchical Principles grown to such a dreadful height during the Churches late confusions as it stood while the Church enjoyed those Privileges Dr. Serm. on Heb x. 36. p. 2. John Moor. Our Saviour was the first that did effectually recommend this Passive Virtue to the World and furnished Men with such true Arguments to bear their Cross as made the most afflicted state not only supportable but to be preferred before the happiness of this life P. 16 17. A good Man when he is persecuted for his Religion neither deserts it nor by any unlawful means defends it He will not renounce his Faith to escape Persecution and yet he dreads by resisting of Authority to promote the cause of Religion P. 19. it being a blasphemy against the Divine Wisdom and Power to suppose God can stand in need of our sins to bring to pass his most glorious designs and this he says of those who under pretence of defending their Rights or Religion resist lawful Authority He then in whom this virtue of Patience dwells keeps a due regard to the commands laid upon him to submit himself to the Supreme Powers and he dares not lift up his Hand against the Lords Anointed ☞ nor Levy War upon the most plausible account whatsoever nay to him it cannot but seem a wonder that the Doctrin of Resistance should have gone down so glibly with any who have read the New Testament and are baptised into the Christian Faith. All Resistance to the Supreme Authority is unlawful The Popes of Rome being the first pretenders from Scripture to a right to resist the Civil Power P. 20 21. c. And it is most certain that by the same Argument they would take off their obligation to this plain Christian Duty they
suffer for our Duty to him then ☜ and shall not fail should there ever be occasion to do it again And we have this Testimony from our King which no time nor malice shall be able to obliterate That the Church of England is by Principle a Friend to Monarchy and I think cannot be charged to have ever been defective in any thing that might serve to strengthen and support it And in the Tract It is said in the Gospel Pag. 72. that Michael the Archangel disputing with the Devil would not bring any railing Accusation against him but was content to say to him only The Lord rebuke thee Because he looked upon God as him to whom Judgment and Vengeance belonged and yet we see that the Sons of Adam are bold and desperate enough not only to condemn but to destroy Dignities which they ought to reverence and to ruin them together with whole States as their fancy leads them Agreeable to what Dr. Dr. Beveridge's Serm concerning the Excellency and Usefulness of the Common Prayer Nov. 27. 1681. Pag. 34. l Beveridge hath upon the like occasion What our grand Adversary had done before by the Papists he afterwards brought about again by other means in the Reign of King Charles the First For by what kind of Spirit the Common Prayer was then cast out you all know and some of you found by woful experience All that I shall say of it is only this That the same Spirit that then stirred up them so violently against the Common Prayer stirred them up at the same time to rebel against their King contrary to all Law and Justice And whether that was the Spirit of Christ or Antichrist God or the Devil judge you Dr. Ironside * Serm. at Court Nov. 23. on 1 Pet. 4.15 p. 1 6. P. 8 9. S. Peter gives this Injunction as an Apostle not as a Statesman Of all Principles Obedience to Magistrates the great Eye-sore and the Execution of Justice the Support of the World will be always necessary to be taught and pressed upon the Conscience We are forbidden all kind of Revenge when others injure us in our Names Goods or Persons This was the Doctrine of our Saviour and this was the Practice of our Saviour Revenge is God's and he executes it 1. Immediately by himself and that sometime in this World always in the next 2. Mediately by the Power deputed to Men and the Magistrates are called Gods in that respect pag. 21. Suffer we must for Truth not defend or propagate it by violence and in this agree the Harmony of Confessions in all Reformed Churches whatsoever some turbulent Spirits of Scotland have written to the contrary pag. 27. Inferiors have no Right to meddle with Superiors at all unless it be to defend and obey nothing else no not so much as to counsel unless called to it much less to reprove sawcily pag. 32. or contumeliously to expose c. It is very observable how particular the Apostles are in laying out the respective Duties of Inferiors Obedience in this World is the great thing the Sins of Superiors are remitted to the other World ☞ and then great Men shall be greatly tormented p. 35 36 37 38. The Acts of the Apostles and the Life and Death of Christ are perfect submission to the Imperial Laws It is therefore a true and wise saying ☞ Sedition is worse than Murther and it is pity the Saying is found so often in the Alcoran and so seldom to be met with in the Practice of Christians There be three sins in the New Testament which are threatened with signal Judgments in this Life 1. The first is doing evil that good may come thereof such men's damnation saith the Apostle is just 2. Profaning the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper 3. Profaning the Supreme Powers they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation That is these three sins make men liable not only to the Divine Wrath hereafter for so all sins without repentance expose to damnation but usually they are also attended with signal Judgments in this life and so let it be upon all the Troublers of the Earth that our Kings may be at rest and that we may lead a quiet life in all Godliness and Honesty SECT XXXI Dr. Isaac Barrow †Vol. 1. Serm. 10. p. 135. Are Princes bad or do they misdemean themselves in their Administration of Government or Justice We may not by any violent or rough way attempt to reclaim them for they are not accountable to us or liable to our Correction Do they oppress us or abuse us do they treat us harshly or cruelly persecute us We must not kick against them nor strive to right our selves by resistance We must not so much as rail or inveigh against them we must not be bold or free in taxing their Actions we must forbear even complaining and murmuring against them ☜ we must not so much as curse them in our thoughts To do these things is flat impiety against God and an invasion of his Authority who is the King of Kings and hath reserved to himself the prerogative of judging of rebuking of punishing Kings when he findeth Cause These were the Misdemeanors of those in the late times discovering therein great profaneness of mind and distrust of God's Providence as if God being implored by Prayer could not or would not had it been needful without such irregular Courses have redressed those Evils in Church or State which they pretended to feel or fear Pag. 136. In the primitive times prayers and tears were the only Arms of the Church whereby they long defended it from ruin and at last advanced it to a most glorious prosperity So Dr. Cave ‖ Primitive Christian part 3. ch 4. p. 321. There is scarce any particular instance wherein the primitive Christianity did more triumph in the World than in their exemplary Obedience to the Powers and Magistrates under which they lived honoring their persons revering their power paying their Tribute obeying their Laws wherein they were not evidently contrary to the Laws of Christ and when they were submitting to the most cruel Penalties they laid upon them with the greatest calmness and serenity of Soul Pag. 329 330. c. They were not patient for want of Power and because they knew not how to help it Julian's Army which was almost wholly made up of Christians ☞ withstood him only with prayers and tears accounting this saith S. Greg. Naz. to be the only Remedy against Persecution Pag. 351. I verily believe that had the Primitive Christians been no better Subjects than their Emperors were Princes had they practised on them those bloody Artifices which have been common among those that call themselves the only Catholicks that barbarous Dealing would have been a greater Curb to the flourishing of the Gospel ☞ than all the ten Persecutions for how could an impartial Heathen ever have believed
their Doctrine to have been of God had their Actions been so contrary to all the Precepts of Natural Divinity And in this matter does the Learned Dr. Dr. Dove's Serm. before the Sons of the Clergy 1687. Dove vindicate the Integrity of our Church in a few but as significant Words as any of his Brethren when speaking of some who suffered much for their Constancy to the Faith and their Fidelity to the Crown he terms them Two inseparable Notes of a genuine Son of the Church of England Dr. Puller * Moderat of the Ch. of Engl. ch 12. § 5. Other Sects deny the King's Supremacy in Matters Ecclesiastical either claiming a Power of Jurisdiction over him or pleading a Privilege of Exemption from under him where as the Clergy of the Church of England like good Christians and good Subjects neither pretend to any Jurisdiction over the Kings of England nor withdraw their Subjection from them †Sect. 6 7. And then he vindicates that Expression of Can. 1. of the Synod 1640. That the Order of Kings is most high and sacred The Moderation of our Church doth not favour any Doctrines or Practices which are prejudicial to the safety of human Society in general It doth no where pretend to remit the Divine Laws or dispense with Oaths or transfer the Rights of Kingdoms c. Contrariwise it requires of all of its Communion to give the King such Security of their Allegeance and Fealty as may be a sufficient Security to his Government ‖ Chap. 17. The Romanists and Separatists extremely agree in their Principles against the Civil Magistrate according to that of Bishop Lany * Bishop Lany's Serm. on 1 Thess 4.11 The Papists and Presbyterians hunt in Couples against the King's Power and Supremacy It is admirable to see how the Commonwealths Men in the times of the late Rebellion received their Principles from the ancient and modern Writers of the Jesuits and other Papists and still agree with them in most of the Republican Doctrines and Tendencies of them to the like Practices Both deny the Supremacy of the King one attributes it to the Pope originally the other to the People and the same Arguments which the Pope useth for his Supremacy over Kings the Disciplinarians use for establishing their Sovereignty The Pretence of the King's Authority against his Person was hatch'd under the Roman Territories and was made use of in the Holy League of France The Rules for making a King to be a Tyrant and then ceasing to be a King that it may be lawful to attempt any thing against his Person and Life are so much the same §. 20. that they cannot be more I need not here relate how many Doctrines of the Romanists tend to dissolve the very Bonds of relative Duty one towards another absolving People from their Oaths and Allegiance No Faith to be kept with Hereticks c. How do many Principles of our Enthusiasts and Separatists tend to destroy the Relations of King and Subject Bishop and People c. SECT XXXII Dr. Scott * Serm. July 26. 1685. p. 2. P. 13 14. Absalom accomplish'd his design partly by declaiming against the Maleadministrations of his Father's Government partly by promising them a thorough Reformation if ever he arrived to be a Judge in Israel Every Man knows or might easily know if he were not extremely wanting to himself that his King is the Vicegerent of his God and that being so he is indispensibly obliged by all the ties of Reason and Religion to submit to his Will and reverence his Person and bow to his Authority and that he cannot lift up his hand against him without fighting against God himself the Truth of which is as obvious to our natural Reason and as plainly asserted in holy Scripture as of any Proposition in Religion ☜ so that I dare boldly affirm a Man may find as many Pretexts for any Vice whatsoever even for Drunkenness Whoredom or Perjury as ever were made for Rebellion and were I to set up for a publick Patron of Wickedness I hardly know a Villany in nature so black and monstrous which I could not more plausibly recommend to Mens Reason and Consciences than this of Resistance against lawful Authority which is such a complication of Villanies such a loathsome mixture of hellish Ingredients as is enough to nauseate any Conscience but a Devil 's And tho Conscience and Religion are the Colors it usually marches under yet is the imposture of this Pretence so fulsome and bare-fac'd that no Man in his Wits can be innocently abused by it for certainly that Man must have a great mind to rebel his Will must have a strong Byass of Pride or Discontent Faction or Ambition in it that in despite of all the evidence from Reason and Scripture to the contrary can persuade himself that it is lawful for him and much less P. 15 16. that it is his duty to lift up his hand against his Sovereign And therefore for Men to appeal to God in a Cause so apparently wicked is not submissively to refer themselves to him but openly to mock and affront him and to make a vexatious Appeal to God's Judgment again in a Case which he hath so often and so expresly judged already is a common Barretry 't is not to consult but to tempt him and under pretence of submitting to his determinations openly to defie his Authority in effect it is to appeal from his Will to his Providence and to bespeak him to declare himself against his own Declarations In the case of Rebellion there is not only a peremptory Disobedience to those Laws of God which require our dutiful Submission to our lawful Superiors ☞ but also a direct Renuntiation of the divine Authority it self for all Sovereign Power is immediately founded in the Dominion of God who being the supreme Lord of the World no person can have right to govern in his Kingdom under him but by Commission from him Kings therefore are only accountable to him P. 17.18 and if so then for any of their Subjects to presume to call them to account by a publick form'd resistance is to arraign God's own Authority and invade his peculiar it is to thrust him out of his Throne and set themselves down in it and then to summon his Authority before them and require it to submit its awful Head to their imperious doom and sentence While therefore we behave our selves factiously and rebelliously towards those whom God hath set over us we live as Out-laws in the Kingdom of God without any respect to that visible Authority by which he governs the World and if this be so then for Subjects to rebel against their Prince is neither better nor worse than to appeal to God against his own Authority and to put this impious Case to him Whether it be he or they that have the Right of Governing the World. I profess * Id. Serm.
on Prov. xxiv 21. Ep. ded P. 17 19 20 c. with the same sincerity as I would confess my Soul to God that my design in this Discourse was only to promote the Peace and Happiness of Men. These are the ways of knowing Men when they are given to change 1. When Men who have actually chang'd the Government already begin to re-advance their old Methods and Principles it 's a certain sign they are given to change 2. When Men make that a pretence for publick Clamor and Bustle which themselves have little or no claim to or regard for that is Religion it 's a certain sign they are given to change 3. When Men pretend Religion or publick Reformation but pursue it by sinful and indirect means it 's a certain sign c. Now Religion is as great an Enemy to Lying and Rebellion as it is to Popery 4. When under pretext of reforming the Government ☜ Men reproach and vilifie the Persons of their Governors 5. When Men shift their Principles with their Interests and to serve a turn can comply at one time with that which they condemn at another Tho in following our Principles we may sometimes indanger our worldly Interest and fall under the disgrace of a Rabble and the Persecutions of a prevailing Faction yet our very Enemies will be forc'd to revere and honor us to acknowledge that we are constant and brave and honest and resign'd to our own Principles 6. and lastly When Men who in the ordinary course of their Conversation are proud and quarrelsome and impatient of Contradiction set up Pretences of Religion against the Government †Id. Serm. on Rom. xiii 1. p. 25 26. Consider that upon our faithful Subjection to our Prince the safety of our Religion depends for there is nothing in the World can more indanger our Religion than our making it a pretence for Rebellion for hereby we inevitably expose it to the hatred of Princes and do what lies in us to arm their Power against it ‖ Id. Artillery Serm. p. 31. If you be courageous from a Principle of Righteousness you will honor the King as well as fear God and obey his Ordinances for God's sake you will never conduct a rebellious design under the sacred Banner of Religion nor pretend Loyalty to God to cover your Disloyalty to his Vicegerent you will never press the Scriptures to fight against the King Pag. 32. nor arm his political against his personal Capacity nor assume his Authority to cut off his Head nor on the other hand will you ever allow him to be unking'd by the sentence of a domineering Prelate c. In a word you will never confront those loyal Admonitions of S. Peter and S. Paul with the treasonous Canons of the Councils of the Ungodly nor levy Arms against your Prince upon that counterfeit Commission of his being pronounc'd a Heretick by a Congregation of Impostors who would fain fetch Pretences for their Treasons and Rebellions from the most loyal and peaceable Religion that ever was The ADDRESS of the University of Cambridge presented by Dr. Gower then Vicechancellor Sept. 18. 1681. to the King at Newmarket Sacred SIR WE your Majesties most faithful and obedient Subjects of the University of Cambridge have long with the greatest and sincerest joy beheld what we hope is in some measure the effect of our own Prayers the generous Emulation of our Fellow Subjects contending who should first and best express their Duty and Gratitude to their Sovereign at this time especially when the seditious Endeavours of unreasonable Men have made it necessary to assert the ancient Loyalty of the English Nation and make the World sensible that we do not degenerate from those prime Glories of our Ancestors Love and Allegiance to our Prince That we were not seen in those loyal Crowds but chose rather to stand by and applaud their honest and religious Zeal we humbly presume will not be imputed to the want of it in our selves either by your Majesty or your People for Sir it is at present the great honor of this your University not only to be stedfast and constant in our Duty but to be eminently so and to suffer for it as much as the Calumnies and Reproaches of factious and malicious Men can inflict upon us And that they have been hitherto able to do no more than vent the venom of their Tongues that they have not proceeded to Plunder and Sequestration to violate our Chappels rifle our Libraries and empty our Colleges as once they did next to the over-ruling Providence of Almighty God is only due to the Royal Care and Prudence of your most sacred Majesty who gave so seasonable a check to the arbitrary and insolent Undertakings But no earthly Power we hope no Menaces or Misery shall ever be able to make us renounce or forget our Duty We will still believe and maintain That our Kings derive not their Titles from the People but from God that to him only they are accountable that it belongs not to Subjects either to create or censure but to honor and obey their Sovereign who comes to be so by a fundamental hereditary Right of Succession which no Religion no Law no Fault or Forfeiture can alter or diminish Nor will we ever abate of our well-instructed Zeal for our most holy Religion as it is professed and established by Law in the Church of England that Church which hath so long stood and still is the envy and terror of her Adversaries as well as the beauty and strength of the Reformation It is thus Dread Sir that we have learned our own and thus we teach others their Duty to God and the King in the conscientious discharge of both which we have been so long protected and encouraged by your Majesties most just and gracious Government that we neither need nor desire any other Declaration than that Experience for our assurance and security for the future In all which Grace and Goodness Great Sir we have nothing to return we bring no Names and Seals no Lives and Fortunes well capable of your Majesties Service or at all worthy of your Acceptance nothing but Hearts and Prayers Vows of a zealous and lasting Loyalty Our Selves and Studies all that we can or ever shall be able to perform which we here most sincerely promise and most humbly tender at your Majesties feet a mean and worthless Present but such a one as we hope will not be disdained by the most gracious and indulgent Prince that Heaven ever bestowed upon a People SECT XXXIII Dr. Grove * Short def of the Church and Clerg of Engl. p. 81. p. 84. This is the main occasion for which so many of the Conformists are clamor'd against they are presently branded for medling with matters of State if they do but teach their Hearers to be obedient to Magistrates and are not furnish'd with Jesuitical Distinctions to shew in what Cases it may be lawful
to take up Arms against the King. They are not enamour'd with every fine Project that may be set on foot neither do they admire those for the wisest of all that think themselves excellent at new modelling of States They suppose the King's Title may be good enough tho they do not know exactly how many Acres of Land may be held sufficient to confer a Right to the Sovereign Power They understand very well that there will be some casual Miscarriages in the administration of all humane Affairs but they esteem it more becoming wise and good Christians to bear with those we are acquainted with than to hazard the infinite mischiefs and inconveniences of a change which it is impossible either to foresee or prevent and therefore among the great Uncertainties and Vicissitudes of these earthly Concerns they are verily persuaded that our common Safety will be best preserved by a pious dependance upon the divine Providence which they are not ashamed to own tho they should be laugh'd at for it by a few conceited scoffing Politicians Mr. Hesketh †Serm. on Jan. 30. bef Lord Mayor 167◠/ ◠p. 10. Cons also his Serm. on 1 Pet. 2.15 p. 10 11 c. An. 1684. P. 13 14. Subjects are as equally obliged to assist their Kings in all straights and dangers as not to resist or rise up against them to bring them into the same and their failure in the first is as criminal as their doing the second and only differs from it as the Cause from the Effect for therefore some Men are encouraged to attempt the latter because others are negligent and failing in the former Some Men are apt to claim the honor of Loyalty if they do not actually resist their King as others that venture their Lives and Fortunes to assist and vindicate them against those that do resist them But how pernicious this is to the Safety of Kings and how contrary to the true notion of Loyalty will soon be made appear All Nations have ever held the Persons of Kings to be sacred and he that considers those Oaths that Subjects bind themselves in to Princes will clearly see that thereby they are obliged not only not to do violence to them themselves but to do all that in them lies that others also may not do it And when Duty is tied on men by Oaths there to fail in it is not only common guilt P. 17. but died with a Perjury Tho much may be said for David's being actually in Arms against Saul considering some Circumstances yet considering the whole matter we may safely pronounce of it that it was certainly unjustifiable for there were safer ways of avoiding the Displeasure and Anger of Saul than by raisng an Army of Out-laws and vicious Persons and appearing in actual Rebellion against him But if none of this were true yet the least Evil that can be said is that he yielded not that Assistance unto Saul which he might have done and by which possibly he might have averted Saul's sad Fate c. P. 22. I think it neither difficult nor injurious to shew the Doctrines of the late Usurpers to be but the Transcripts of what the later Jews do fabulously report of the Power of their Sanhedrim over Kings P. 22. ☞ P. 35.37 The Parricide of Charles I. was committed by Men who must first offer Violence to their own Consciences chase all remains of Justice and Compassion out of their own Breasts before they could do this Murther and cease wholly to be Men that they might commence Devils for truly I do not know how they can expect a better Name whom no ties of Laws no Bands of Conscience no Obligations of Oaths can hold Were our Religion chargeable with this Fact there needed no other thing to be pleaded against it this alone could bar all its pretences of being a Christian for ever for it is most certain the Religion of the Blessed Jesus can be chargeable with no such thing nay it is most obvious that it takes all possible care to prevent them that it secures Subjection and chearful Obedience to Kings by the strongest ties possible and makes it impossible for a true Christian to become Rebel upon any pretence whatsoever Whatever Religion doth contrary to this P. 37 38. is by that only Argument detected to be perfectly Antichristian I could easily make manifest how very unsafe all of them make the condition of things and upon what weak and slippery grounds they found Subjection to them It is the honor of the Church of England that her Doctrines in this case are truly Christian and Primitive And it is certain when she fails to be so i. e. loyal she ceases to be degenerates from her self and doth justly forfeit their i. e. Prince's Protection Dr. Freeman * Sermon before L. Mayor 1682. on Psalm 34.12 13 14. P. 8. He that makes his Prince to be undervalued and despised raises a Rebellion against him in mens breasts beats him out of his Subjects hearts and fights him out of their Affections and having once dispossess'd him of this his strongest Hold 't will be no hard matter to strip him of all his other Garrisons neither his Person nor his Government can hope to be long in safety when once they have wounded his Honour and put his Reputation to flight but in the Name of God! What do people of this temper propose to themselves Do they think that their Governours are not Men of passion and infirmities as well as others Do they not know that the Employments they are engaged in are so infinitely various and difficult that they are scarce capable to be managed with that evenness and exactness as may exclude all inconveniences And is it not certain that how ill soever the administration of publick Affairs may at any time be under lawful Governours 't is yet far more tolerable than even the reformation of an usurping Populacy Dr. Littleton's Sermon at a Solemn meeting of the Natives of the City and County of Worcester p. 17. Blessed Jesu This Evangelium Armatum this Sanguinary Doctrine was no Gospel of thy making no Doctrine of thy teaching Thy Doctrine was sealed with no bloud but that of thy own who wast the teacher of it and that of thy Apostles and Martyrs who were the propagators of it and though thou said'st thou camest not to send peace but a Sword yet that Sword was not designed to fight with but to suffer by it was a Sword of a passive not of an active persecution as to thy Disciples by which they were to fall victims themselves and not to sacrifice the lives of others And p. 18. May God ever preserve his gracious Majesty and Us the sinful People of this Land from such villanous Attempts of his and our Enemies I am heartily sorry that any who delight to wear the name of Protestants should give a just occasion for such a Charge D. Morrice Chaplain to
that to do evil though for our own preservation instead of procuring our peace and settlement would be most likely to unsettle and ruin us for having once broken down the fences of Duty which are placed about us who can tell where we shall stop or abide Having allowed our selves the liberty of doing one sinful action we may easily be prompted on to commit a thousand for the same pretences will justifie all sins alike and if for the sake of Religion a Tumult may lawfully be raised a Rebellion also may be promoted c. SECT XXXIV Mr. Long is so well known for his Zeal in this good Cause to all that have seen his answer to Johnson and Hunt his no Protestant but a Dissenters Plot and other such Treatises that it is wondered that of late he should own himself the Author of the Solution of the Popular Objections c. In which he musters up for unanswerable Arguments the very same Objections of Julian of Persecuting according to and against Law c. which himself had formerly so luckily both answered and exploded But he tells us that St. Austin wrote his Retractations in which he corrected his errors and he might have told the World too that Bellarmine wrote his Recognitions in which he multiplies and confirms his Heterodoxies I shall therefore briefly represent his former Judgment out of one of his Printed Sermons * On Sept. 9. 1683. p. 13. Rebels should shew so much of ingenuity and serious Penitence as the Sorcerers did Act. xix 19. Who burnt their Books for I dare aver that there are more Arguments for Resisting of Lawful Princes which they cannot but know is threatned with damnation Rom. xiii 2. in the Books of some who term themselves true Protestants than are in all those which are written by such as they justly condemn for Idolatrous and Trayterous Papists P. 19. What greater encouragement can be given Men pretending to Religion and Conscience than when their Guides ☜ to whom they have committed the Conduct of their Souls shall Prophesie lyes in the name of God and urge them to Rebellion by Scripture and Examples They are like them in the Gospel whom no Bonds or Chains could restrain from practising the mischief they had imagined No Obligation of Laws of Conscience of Fear or Favour no Oaths or Promises could hold them but they mock God himself that they may the more unsuspectedly destroy his Vicegerent Pag. 22. If the Principles allowed of in any Community of Men ☞ do countenance the Resisting Deposing and Mur hering of Princes be it on pretence of Heresie or Tyranny or for the good of the Kirk reforming Abuses or redressing Grievances though there be but a few Actors yet all are Criminals When Absalom was Sacrificing at Hebron P. 25 26. the Conspiracy was strengthned saith the Text. It seems that Absalom had his Levites and these were they that strengthned the Rebellion By him the People were instructed in their great Priviledges and Power that there is Idolatry and Superstition in the Church Oppression and Tyranny in the State that they ought to shake off these Yoaks of Bondage and vindicate themselves into the glorious liberty of the Sons and Daughters of God. P. 27 28. One tells the People That they are the Original of Authority ☞ That it is not against Scripture or the practice of the Primitive Christians violently to resist the Higher Powers when they Persecute them for Religion and when the Prince commands against the Laws of the Country that Success justifies a good Cause and to pursue it is to comply with the Will of God and the Conduct of Providence Vnder such Doctrines as these the Presses have sweat the Church hath groaned the Peoples souls been led Captive in Chains of darkness and under these this horrid Conspiracy hath been hatched The Devil himself when he appeared in the Mantle of Samuel never did nor could teach Saul more pernicious Doctrine than this Philostratus saith that the murther of Domitian was more owing to the Doctrine of Appollonius than the Hands of Stephanus and Parthenius who slew him Dr. Fowler * Design of Christianity chap. 16. The most calm meek peaceable gentle and submissive temper recommended in the Gospel did mightily declare it self in the Primitive Christians that though they were for the most part sorely Persecuted yet saith Tertull there was never any uproar or hurlyburly among them nor was this owing to necessity as is plain from Tertullian and the History of the Thebaean Legion Chap. 24. p. 346. It is the most strange and unaccountable thing for Men in defence or favour of that way of Religion which they take to be most truly the Christian to do that which is essentially and in its own nature evil for these things are quite contrary to the design of Christian Religion Pag. 248 249. What Villanies are there which the Pope and his Proselytes have stuck at committing for the propagation of their Religion Such as exciting Subjects to take Arms against their lawful Sovereigns to whom they are obliged in the Bonds of most solemn Oaths c. I would I could say that of all that are called Christians the Papists only are lyable to this charge but alas It is too manifest to be denyed or yet dissembled that not a few of those that profess enmity to Popery are sadly guilty though not equally with the Papists in this particular SECT XXXV The Author of The Faith and Practice of a Church of England Man. I pay all Men their dues all Officers Chap. 3. p. 63 64. and Offices in Church and State according to St. Paul's command Rom. xiii I pay all Honor and Service to the King as God's Vicegerent and I cannot endure to hear him evil spoken of P. 66. I consider my self as to all the Capacities and Relations that I am in the World and endeavour to behave my self suitably to them Which Duties are fully exprest in the excellent Book of the Whole Duty of Man and I am sure that excellent Book plainly asserts the Doctrine of Non-resistance I look upon Government and Magistracy as one of the most sacred things in the World Chap. 6. p. 137 138 139. 140. for it is of God's Appointment Of all kinds of Government I like Monarchy which seems naturally to derive it self from paternal Authority And if there be any Right on Earth surely Monarchy hath Right with us and hath at least as good a Title to all its Powers Rights and Privileges as any of its Subjects can have to their Honors Properties and Estates The Monarchy of England being always esteemed as truly an hereditary and successive a Monarchy as any in the World not liable to be disposed alienated or sold nor depending on any Election Choice or Approbation of the People And according to this method our present King enjoys the Crown who hath as I believe the truest and most
Majesty fill all places with Slaughters Burnings of Towns and Robberies and run headlong into the contempt of all things Civil and Sacred to omit other Writers when I seriously reflected upon the tumultuary reformations in many Countries and the seditious Writings of Buchanan Knox Goodman Whittingham Junius Brutus and others I saw reason to cease my wonder at the accusation tho I can never enough admire the forehead of the Accusers who at the same time that they impeach'd the Protestants were themselves guilty of Writing most Traiterous Libels and promoting Sedition and Rebellion as much as in them lay against their lawful Sovereign But whomsoever this accusation might concern in those days I am sure it did not touch the Church of England of whose Loyalty her adversary Christopher Goodman gives a fair testimony Of Obed. ch 3. p. 30. Prat Gen. 1558. even when he complains of it The most part of Men says he yea and of those who have been both Learned and Godly and have given worthy testimony of their Profession to the Glory of God have thought and taught by the permission of God for our Sins that it is not lawful in any case to resist and disobey the Superior Powers but rather to lay down their Heads and submit themselves to all kinds of Punishment and Tyranny and in the Margin he sets this note this is dangerous Doctrin And tho it may be expected that every Age will produce such Boutefeau 's yet the Doctrin of the Cross and the benefits of a patient suffering of injuries will I hope be always so well understood in the World that all the attempts of the Jesuits and their Journeymen for it is from their shop that these Wares come will prove vain and the true Catholick Doctrin of Passive Obedience will be still owned still honored and when God calls to the performance of is practised the Christian Religion is soft and gentle its Foundation was laid in the blood of its institutor and our Holy Saviour the superstructure cemented with the blood of an innumerable Army of Martyrs and adorn'd with the patience of the Saints and the more truly reformed Christianity is the more like it grows to those admirable examples the more meek and humble it is and the better prepared for a state of suffering but when Mammon finds a way into the House of God and the Baptismal Vow is forgotten when Men depend on their own Arts and distrust Gods Providence when they dare fight for Religion because they are afraid to dye for it and can allow themselves to do evil that good may come thereof it is no wonder if Christianity be blended with the World and made a pretence to serve the ends of pride and covetousness of ambition and revenge Sir Will. Temple's Obs on the Netherl c. 1. p. 57. according to the observation of a wise Statesman with respect to the Netherlands that whereas the Spanish and Italian Writers attribute the Revolutions in the Low Countries to the change of Religion c. That Religion without mixtures of ambition and interest works no such violent effects and produces rather the examples of constant sufferings than of desperate actions How truly Ancient and Primitive the Doctrin of Passive Obedience is comes not within the limits of this present History but may be hereafter considered by deducing it through the Writings and Practices of the earliest Christians down to the days of King Henry VIII But those times in the esteem of John Goodwin were times of ignorance and the truth was but in its dawn and by a glimmering light Men were easily led out of their way for he says that the Primitive Christians and among them he must include the Apostles Anti-Cavalerism Sect. 6. tho guided by the Spirit of God which led them into all truth knew nothing of this useful Doctrin of Resistance that God had hid this liberty from the Primitive Christians of the Subjects Power and right to resist their Superiors which he hath manifested to us the commonalty of Christians doing contrary to the will of their Superiors being the Men that must have the Principal hand in executing God's judgments upon the Whore. Rev. 18 4 5. and as John Goodwin slanders the Ancient Fathers as a company of ignorant Men so John Milton accuses the first Reformers as the genuine assertors of the Doctrin of Resistance for Salmasius having truly alledged that the Doctrin of the Sacred and Inviolable Authority of Princes was preserved pure and uncorrupt in the Church till the Bishops of Rome attempted to set up a Kingdom in this World Paramount to all Kings and Emperors Milton replies Defens pro pop Angli p. 33. that Salmasius strove in vain to transfer the guilt upon the Pope which all free Nations every Religion all the Orthodox take upon themselves and that he had as many Adversaries in this point as there were most excellent Doctors of the Reformed Church While a third Writer boldly affirms Author of plain English p. 7. that the Doctrin of Non-Resistance is contrary to the Fundamental Liberties of the Nation and that they undid the Kingdom who required the Oath contrary to the Fundamental Liberty of the Nation whereby they would make the King and them who are commissioned by him to be as irresistible as there severity against Dissenters would argue the imposers infallible Thus in the Opinion of such Writers Passive Obedience was the weakness of the Ancient Christians and a sign they were under a lower dispensation and that to assert it necessary in this more inlightned Age is to contradict the most eminent Reformers and the Fundamental Liberties of Nature and if after all this some Men should be so resty as to quote St. Paul to the Romans for their submission to Princes Ubi sup p. 38. Goodman says that Men are deceived into this submission by misunderstanding this place of St. Paul and such like It behoveth every Soul to be subject to superior Powers because there is no Power but of God for the Powers that be are ordained of God and therefore he that resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God which words he elsewhere thus comments Ch. 9. p. 410 c. that they require Obedience only to such Magistrates whom God hath ordained over us lawfully according to his word which rule in his fear according to their Office as God hath appointed and that Tyrants Idolaters Papists and Oppressors are not God's Ordinance if so Satan must be obeyed and his Infernal Powers for they are Powers and have their Powers also from God and yet we must resist the Devil for the Magistrate is ordained for good and to such only must every Person be subject and Obedient Such unhappy Commentaries do some Men write even on Holy Scripture it self when their Interests incline their minds to wrest the Sacred Oracles it were easie to prove this from Pope Hildebrand down through the School-men to the present time
as also to shew how Men by degrees came to despise then to speak evil and at last with violence to oppose Kings but that it would swell this Preface to too great a bulk While I must profess I have met with an honester and more Christian account of our duty in the Heathen Epictetus whose words will serve for an excellent Commentary on St. Peter not only to the good and gentle Enchirid. c. 3â— p. 29 30. ed. Ox. but also to the froward we must suit our duties to our respective relations Have we a Father we are commanded to take care of him to yield to him in every thing if he gives us ill Language if he beats us we must bear with him but our Father is an ill Man did nature give thee a relation to him as he is good or rather as he is a Father no other Man can hurt thee unless thou wilt thy self Nor shall I mention how dissonant to our Laws the resisting of Kings is that is an undertaking recommended to the Gentlemen of the long Robe while I further observe that many of the Sermons that recommend Non-Resistance were Printed at the desire of the Two Houses of Parliament others at the request of the Lord Mayor c. and all with Licence which gives us the suffrages of all concern'd in the publishing the discourses as well as the Preacher to which if we joyn the multitude of Addresses I mean not of the life and fortune of Dissenters who never cryed Hosannah one day but when they intended to cry Crucifie the next but of those who profess'd themselves true Sons of the Church we cannot wish for a more full and particular Evidence I have not always tyed my self to the very words of the Authors I cite especially not to a literal translation which savors of a mean pedantry but I have no where wilfully falsified their meaning or lessened their force and having thus accounted for the equity seasonableness and integrity of this second Part I conclude with that Passage of Mr. Philpot 's Letter Apud Coverdale's collect p. 217. that every good Man ought not to hide his Faith but to edifie the Church of God by a true confession for as St. Paul writeth to the Romans the belief of the heart justifieth to acknowledge with the mouth maketh a Man safe so he rendreth the Passage and he that walketh uprightly walketh safely For while the little policies of crafty Men will at last expose and ruin them integrity will be its own security I have taken care Sir to correct the Errata of your first part as of this second while I hope you or some Friend for you will give speedily due correction to your many answerers as one of them hath been already silenc'd who by a Method peculiar to this Age undertake to confute a History not by proving the falsifications of the Author or disproving the matter of fact but by shewing reasons why what was said by some Men seven years ago ought to be unsaid and retracted in this present juncture as if the change of Mens circumstances necessarily brought with it a change of that truth which I thought eternal and unchangable I am Yours c. ADVERTISEMENT The Historical and Miscellaneous Tracts of the Reverend and Learned Dr. Peter Heylyn containing I. Ecclesia Vindicata Or the Church of England justified 1. In the Way and Manner of her Reformation 2. In Officiating by a Publick Liturgy 3. In prescribing a set Form of Prayer to be used by Preachers before their Sermons 4. In her Right and Patrimony of Tythes 5. In retaining the Episcopal Government 6. And the Canonical Ordination of Priests and Deacons II. The History of the Sabbath in two Parts III. Historia Quinquarticularis Or an Historical Declaration of the Judgment of the western Churches and more particularly of the Church of England in the five Controverted Points reproach'd in these last times with the Name of Arminianism IV. The Stumbling-block of Disobedience and Rebellion proving the Kingly Power to be neither Co-ordinate nor Subordinate to any other upon Earth To which are added V. A Treatise de jure Paritatis Episcoporum Or a Defence of the Right of Peerage of the English Bishops And an account of the Life of the Author To be Sold by the Booksellers A Catalogue of Author's STephen Gardiner and Bonner P. 2 Dr. Râ—bert Barnes the Martyr P. 5 Necessary Frudition of a Christian Man P. 9 William Trâ—daâ—e the Martyr P. 11 The Postil set out an 1550. P. 15 Bernard Gilpin P. 17 Bishop Hâ—â—per the Martyr P. 18 Bishop Coverdale P. 22 Bishop Latymer the Martyr P. 23 Archbishop Cranmer the Martyr P. 25 Judge Montague P. 29 Sir James Hales P. 30 The Norfolk and Suffolk Protestants P. 31 The Lady Jane Grey and the D. of Suf. P. 32 Bishop Rilley the Martyr P. 33 Bradford the Martyr P. 34 Laurence Saunders the Martyr P. 35 George Marsh the Martyr P. 36 Mr. Philipet the Martyr ibid. The Franâ—furt Confessors viz. Sâ—ory Barlow Cox Becon Bale Parlâ—â—urst Grindal Sandys Nâ—wel Wâ—â—m Jewel c. ibid. Thomas Beâ—on P. 39 The Homily against Râ—bellion P. 43 Bishop Jewel ibid. Alexander Nâ—wel P. 45 The exhortation to the North. Reb. P. 46 Antonius Corranus P. 47 Dâ— â—â—ng P. 49 Barthol Clerk. P. 50 Bishop Babington ibid. Dr. Laurence Humfreys P. 53 Archbishop Banerâ—â—t P. 37 54 Dr. Eâ—des P. 55 Bishop Mâ—reton P. 50 Mr. Greenham P. 60 Archbishop Abâ—â—t P. 61 Bishop Barlow ibid. Francis Merbury P. 62 Dr. John Doâ—e P. 63 King James P. 64 Sir John Hayward P. 65 Bishop Bilson P. 71 Gâ—dman's Recantation P. 74 Oxf. answ to the mille manus petition P. 75 Bishop Rudd ibid. Doctor Field P. 76 Bishop Overal's Convocation Book P. 77 Deus Rex P. 82 Gabriel Powel P. 84 Oliver Ormerod ibid. Albericus Gentrlis P. 85 Bishop Andrews P. 88 Rich. Thomson P. 90 Dr. Collins ibid. Isaac Casaubon P. 92 Bishop Prideaux P. 95 Bishop Buckeridge P. 98 Bishop Godwin P. 100 Dr. David Owen P. 101 Dr. John Downham P. 104 〈◊〉 Dawes ibid. Dr. Bois P. 105 Bishop Ablet ibid. Bishop Bayly P. 107 Dr. Crackemherp ibid. Dr. Featly P. 108 Pet. du Moulin Sen. P. 109 Pet. du Moulin Jun. P. 111 Bishop Mountaine P. 115 Mr. Hayes ibid. Mr. Adams ibid. Author of a Discourse of Supreme Power and Common Right P. 117 Sam. Oates ibid. Mr. Robert Bolton ibid. Mr. Faringdon P. 119 Mr. Chillingworth ibid. Bishop Lake P. 120 Dr. Stephens ibid. P. H. P. 121 Dr. Swadlyn P. 122 Dr. Holyday ibid. Mr. Berkâ—nâ—ead P. 123 Bishop Henry King. ibid. Dr. Gardiner P. 124 Dr. Mayne P. 125 Dr. Heylin P. 126 Sir Jo. Spelman P. 127 Sir Tho. Ashton ibid. An Appeal to thy Conscience P. 128 Mr. Symmons P. 129 Bishop Rainbowe ibid. Mr. Sheringham P. 130 Mr. Allington ibid. Mr. Jane P. 131 Bishop Sanderson P. 132 Judge Jenkins P. 134 Dr. Stewart ibid. Bishop Brownrig ibid.
Rain under the pretence of Obedience to the Magistrates whom we ought to obey although they be wicked But such much learn of Christ to give to Cesar that that is Cesar's and to God that that is due to God And with S. Peter to obey the higher Powers in the Lord albeit they be evil if they command nothing contrary to God's Word otherwise we ought not to obey their Commandments although we should suffer death therefore as we have the Apostles for our Examples herein to follow who answered the Magistrates as we ought to do in this case not obeying their wicked Precepts saying Judg ye whether it be more righteous that we should obey men rather than God. Nor was this Doctrine peculiar to these few Confessors in that general Persecution for Rogers the Proto-Martyr of that Reign Dr. Taylor of Hadley Crome Laurence and others as appears by the first * page 23. Part of this History were of the same mind the contrary Doctrine among those who called themselves Protestants being then hardly hatch'd or but just out of the Shell Thus the Primitive Martyrs who never declined going to a Stake unanimously declared that no man of their Society was imprisoned or brought to suffer as a Traytor against the Government for they had learnt to dye not to fight for Religion SECT VI. It cannot be denied that John Knox was an early Opposer of this truly Christian Apostolical and Primitive Practice as the account of the Troubles of * v. first part of Hist page 25 / 6. Francfort declares But we ought withal to consider what our most worthy Primate Archbishop Bancroft well observes †Danger Posit c. lib. 2. c. 1. that whereas such dangerous Doctrines as these The Authority which Princes have is given them from the People and upon occasion the People may take it away again That evil Princes by the Law of God ought to be deposed That when Magistrates cease to do their Duties in deposing evil Princes then God gives the Sword into the Peoples hands and such other like dangerous Positions as he truly calls them were owned by the Genevians and many of the English that were fled to Geneva in the Reign of Queen Mary ' that the rest of the learned Men that fled in that Queens Reign as John Scory William Barlow Richard Cox Thomas Becon John Bale John Parkhurst Edmond Grindal Edwin Sandys Alexander Nowel Robert Wisdom John Jewel and very many more having no great affection to Geneva bestow'd themselves in Germany especially at Zurich Basil and Francfort and maintain'd the Reformation of the Church of England in King Edward 's time ☜ they used in their holy Assemblies the form of Service and order of Ceremonies which were then establish'd and they utterly misliked and condemned the aforesaid Propositions as very seditious and rebellious according to the judgment of all the Reformed Churches for ought I can learn both in Germany and elsewhere except Geneva and her Offspring besides they of Francfort as it appeareth notwithstanding their grief that they were constrain'd to leave their Country for their Conscience yet in the midst of all their Afflictions they retained so dutiful Hearts to Queen Mary imitating therein the Apostles and Disciples of our Master as that they could not endure to hear her so traduced into all Hatred and Obloquy as she was by the other sort Mr. Knox coming upon occasion from Geneva to Francfort was by these grave Men accus'd of Treason as he himself confesseth for Matters that he had publish'd in print against their Sovereign and the Emperor and was fain thereupon to fly thence to Geneva So that by this and the former Letter of Bradford c. we may plainly see what was the uniform Belief of the English Confessors in those days of Persecution both those who were in England and those who had fled thence for Righteousness sake and for a good Conscience Nor can I find any true Son of our Church that asserted the contrary Doctrine unless we must except Bishop Poinet in his short Treatise of Politick power and true obedience in which it is Thetically laid down that it is lawful to depose an evil Governor and to kill a Tyrant But I cannot believe the Book to be his 1. Because Printed as I think after his death Anno 1556. he dying at Strasburg April 11. of the same year and the Preface to his Book seems to acknowledg it 2. Because if I conjecture aright by the character Printed at Geneva where two years afterward Anno sc 1558. both Knox's first blast of the Trumpet against the Regiment of Women and Goodman's Book of Obedience first saw the light and Ant. Gilbie's admonition to England and Scotland to call them to repentance and thirdly because it wants that learning and acumen that discover themselves illustriously in his other Writings and the Doctrine is contrary to that Bishop's Practices l. 2. hist Reform p. 271. Dr. Burnet acquitting Bishop Poinet of having any hand as he was accused in Sir Thomas Wyatt's Rebellion and how easie is it in a disturbed Age for Zealots to Father on a dead Bishop such Tenets as he neither own'd nor defended but if after all this Bishop Poinet be the genuine Author of that Treatise it is but the example of one and that no Old Man for he died before he was forty maintaining a Paradox against all the other the venerable Martyrs and Confessors of that time SECT VII Among those pious Exiles Thomas Beacon was one who having been in the beginning of Queen * Fox tom 2. p. 1281. Mary's Reign committed to the charge of the Lieutenant of the Tower with Bradford and Vernon went afterwards into Germany whence upon Queen Elizabeth's advancement to the Crown he with many other Exiles return'd into this Kingdom I shall at present omit what he in his Anthology out of the Works of Lactantius hath cited out of that Father and give an account of what he declares to be his own Sentiments In his Governance of Virtue Sect. Tom 1. oper f. 263. Lond 1564. against Rebellion and Disobedience he thus instructs us If the Devil that old Enemy of Mankind and troubler of all good orders go about to put in thy head that the Magistrates and High Powers do not their duty in the right Government of a Common-wealth ☜ but too much cruelly oppress their Subjects and that therefore they may justly rise and rebel against them and take upon thee of thy own private authority to redress things that are amiss in the Common-wealth take heed that thou by no means consentest to his most subtle and wicked temptation whereby he goeth about to throw thee into everlasting damnation both of Body and Soul besides the shameful death that thou shalt have in this World and the loss of all that ever thou hast but content thy self with thy vocation labour diligently and quietly for thy living to maintain peace
☜ for if upon abuse of mdependent Authority they that have it lose and forfeit it ipso facto then authority and abuse of authority at least extreme abuse of it cannot stand together which is contrary to that of St. Augustine where he saith nee tyrannicae factionis perversitas laudabilis erit de bono consugali c. 14. si regiâ clementâ—â— tyrannus subditos tractet nec vituperabilis ordo regiae potestatis si rex crudelitate tyrannicâ saeviat aliud est namque injustâ porestate justè velle uti aliud est justâ potestate injustè velle uti i. e. â—â—ther shall the perversness of Tyrannical Usurpation ever be praise worthy ☞ though the Tyrant use his Subjects with all Kingly clemency nor the order of Kingly Power be ever subject to just reprehension thâ—ugh a King grow fierce and cruel like a Tyrant for it is one thing to use an unlawful Power lawfully and another thing to use a lawful Power unrighteously and unjustly SECT IV. After the happy discovery of the damnable Gun-powder Treason and the just execution of the wretched miscreants that were engaged in it the Parliament met at Westminster which had been first summoned Anno 1603. and with it a Convocation the Members of which reslecting upon the horrid design of Garnet and his Accomplices thought themselves in justice to their Sovereign and their own Principles obliged when they met to censure and condemn such Doctrins as led Men to such Rebellious Practices hereupon the Prolocutor of the lower house Dr. Overall then Dean of St. Pauls afterwards Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield then of Norwich whose vast learning gives him a character beyond all that can be said of him here drew up a Treatise which being reviewed by the Upper House of Convocation was mutually agreed on and declared to be the Sense of the Church of England in that very Svnod which made the Canons that as yet are lookt upon as the Code of our Church a Manuscript of which Acts This Book is since Printed by W. Kettilby an 1690. lib. 1. c. 2. and Canons having been happily put into my hands I cannot but think my self obliged to transcribe some Passages that discover the belief of our Church representative at that time They positively assert that God having created our first Parents and purposing to multiply their seed into many Generations for the replenishing of the World with their Posterity did give to Adam for his time and to the rest of the Patriarchs and chief Fathers successively before the Flood Authority Power and Dominion over their Children and Offspring to Rule and Govern them adding further Can. 2. if any Man shall affirm that Men at the first without all good Edacation or civility ran up and down in Woods and Fields as wild creatures resting themselves in Caves and Dens and acknowledging no Superiority one over another until they were taught by experience the necessity of Government and that thereupon they chose some among themselves to order and rule the rest giving them power and authority so to do and that consequently all civil Power Jurisdiction and Authority was first derived from the People and disorder'd Multitude or either is originally still in them or else is deduc'd by their consents naturally from them and is not God's Ordinance originally descending from him and depending upon him he doth greatly err Thus they account for the Government of the old World nor did the Flood alter the nature of Authority or alienate the Rights of Princes for say they If any Man shall affirm Can. 6.11 that the civil Power and Authority which Noah had before the Flood was by the deluge determin'd or that it was given unto him again by his Sons or Nephews or that he received from them the Sword of his Sovereignty or that the distribution of the World to his three Som did depend upon their consents or received from them any such authority as without the same it could not lawfully have been made or that this Power c. did not proceed from God or were not properly his Ordinance but that they had the same from the People their Offspring he doth greatly err Besides it is generally agreed upon cap. 16. that obedience to Kings and Civil Magistrates is prescrib'd to all Subjects in the 5th Commandment Ex 20.12 where we are enjoyn'd to Honour our Parents whereby it follows that subjection of Inferiors unto their Kings and Governors is founded upon the very law of Nature and consequently that the sentence of Death awarded by God himself against such as shewed themselves incorrigibly disobedient to their Parents or cursed them or struck them was likewise due unto those who committed any such offences against their Kings and Rulers being the Heads and Fathers of their Commonâ—ealths and Kingdoms which is not only apparent by way of consequence but likewise by example practice and precept as where Shimei is judged to die for cursing of David the Lords Anointed where David himself appointed by God to succeed King Saul would not be induced by any perswasions to lay violent hands upon his Master the King. If any Man therefore shall affirm Câ—n. 16. that it was lawful in the Old Testament either for Children or Nephews to have been disobedient to their Fathers being their chief Governâ—rs from the Creation till Moses 's time or afterward either for the Children of Israel either under Moses Joshua the Judges or their Kings to have been disobedient to them in their lawful commandments or to have murmured or rebelled against them or that it was in those times more lawful unto Subjects for any cause whatsoever either to curse their Princes Kings or civil Governors ☞ or to bear arms against them or to depose them from their Kingdoms or Principalities or to lay violent hands upon their Persons than it was in the said times lawful upon any occasion for Children either to have cursed their Parents or to have rebelled against them when they did reprove or correct them or to have withdrawn themselves from their subjection saying unto them they being private Men we will be no more your Children or you shall be no more our Fathers or bearing civil authority over them we will depose you from your Government over us and will be no longer ruled by you or to have offered any violence to them or to have beaten them and much less to have murder'd them he dâ—th greatly err After this they deduce the Scheme of Paternal and Regal Government through the several Ages of the Church down to the time of the Jewish Kings and when they considered the case of Uzziah who for offering to burn Incense on the Altar which was peculiarly the Priests Office was by God smitten with leprosie â— 1. Can 22 they aver if any Man shall affirm that Azariah and the other Priests used or that they lawfully might have used any violence or force against the
the hearts of Princes like Rivers of Waters You know how before the coming of Christ the Jewish Church by the command of Ahasuerus was to be destroy'd Esth 4. both young and old c. here the whole Church by the barbarous designment of Ahasuerus seem'd to be in the very Jaws of death yet they take no arms they consult not how to poyson Ahasuerus or Haman they animate no desperate Person suddenly to stab them but there was only great sorrow among them and fasting and weeping c. This Book gave so much disgust to a party of Men in this Kingdom that they could not be quiet till something was Printed under the name of an answer to it tho every Pamphlet that is so called does not deserve that name and to make it pass the more plausibly it assumes the same title Deus Rex and is said to have been Printed at Colen An. Dom. 1618. the Author of which tho unquestionably a Papist as appears by many passages in the Book affirms p. 13. that the Scots had undoubtedly the true spirit of the Gospel who profess'd and for it he quotes Knox 's History of the Scotch Church that they would be Subjects to no one unless they could enjoy their desired Reformation p. 19. and that the former Dialogue falsly asserts that Kings have their Power only from God and are accountable only to him and that the duty of Subjects cannot be dissolv'd if the King turns Tyrant Infidel Heretick or Apostate and that Kings are not to be deposed or resisted unless by prayers and tears tho they are fall'n into so much impiety and madness as to seek the ruin of the Church and the destruction of Religion Which Assertions the Author condemns but with no reason and a great deal of injustice while he owns and improves the Romish Doctrins of resisting and deposing Princes in many places so easily are Men inclined to be despisers of Dignities and blasphemers of Dominions Gabriel Powel says De Adiaplyris Lond. 1606. c 8. §. 34 p. 69 that when St. Paul bids us be obedient for conscience sake that he means we must no way offend the Magistrate by rebelling against him but that we must keep a good Conscience in his sight who hath set the Magistrate over us ‖ §. 93. p. 71. for his Power is from God and to the just praise of our Reformation he adds * c. 9 Sect. 35. p. 79 that no Church in Europe reform'd her self more orderly than the Church of England in which nothing was done tumultuarily by force and arms or by fraud but all alterations were made by the supreme Power of the Nation agreeable to the Word of God and the Example of the Primitive Church Oliver Oâ—mered in his picture of a Papist It is not lawful for Subjects to attempt the murthering of their Sovereign for Religion sake or for any pâ—etence whatsoever Go with cresset and torchlight throughout the whole Book of God and throughout the spacious volumes of the Ancient Fathers and tell me whether any Priest Levite Evangelist Apostle Ancient Father ever hath taught counsell'd and much less practised the like I say not against Lawful Magistrates ☜ but tyrannous Rulers and such as were reprobated of God p. 176. the Prophet Isaiah complain'd of the Exactions and Oppressions of the Kings of Israel shew'd them their faults and admonish'd them of God's vengeance but he did not animate encourage and incite the People to avenge themselves of their Princes and to lift up Arms against them the Prophets Amos Micah and Zephaniah give sufficient testimony that the Rulers in their times were very wicked Men and such as did grind the faces of the Subjects and yet all this notwithstanding they did not advise the Subjects to mutiny or rebel against their Princes When Rome was pure and primitive you shall find p. 179. the arms of the Church were tears and prayers but now they are degenerate from their former purity and openly threaten the lives of Kings the ancient Romans shall in judgment rise against you and condemn you for they conspired not the death of Pagans Infidels and Tyrants that made havock of the Church of God c. SECT VI. Among these Divines I will place one Civilian the famous Albericus Gentilis who tho Born in Italy yet lived long in England the King's Professor of the Laws in the most Famous University of Oxon of which he was one of the greatest Ornaments I shall not mention what he says on this subject in his Books de Jure belli since he hath undertaken it professedly in his three Royal Disputations London 1605. 4 to as he calls them in the first of which treating of the absolute power of a King wherein his Notions are very agreeable to the Sentiments of his Master King James in his true law of free Monarchies to which he refers he affirms that he is absolutely supreme p. 9 10 17. who acknowledges nothing above him but God to whom only and not to any other he is to render an account he confesses there were some Magistrates improperly called Kings such as the Kings of Sparta and of Egypt to which last there were laws set how far they should walk and how often bath themselves who might be accus'd when they were dead and being convicted be denied decent Burial but those do not deserve to be called Kings whose Subjects pay them no more obedience than they please A Prince is a God upon Earth his Power is greater than either that of a Father of old over his Children or that of a Master over his Servants All Princes are feudataries to God p 17. to whom they ought to render an account of their Government who is their only Judge p. 34. 't is a Maxim in the Civil Law Princeps legibus solutus est a Prince is free from laws the Greek Interpreters understand it of his freedom from Penal Laws for a Prince hath no Judges who can compel him others that he is exempt from the coaction not from the direction of the law but all agree against any force to be used against him This and much more to this purpose the Reader will meet with in that first disputation while the third treats largely how unjust any violence is p 39. p. 100. which Subjects use against their King by King he says he means such a Prince as hath no Superior no Judge or Governor over him he means also a lawful Prince not a Tyrant but such a lawful Prince who rules Tyrannically i.e. seeks the destruction of the Commonwealth It is a fundamental and unquestionable Law that Men ought to honour their Prince p. 101 102. and not to speak evil of him and that what injuries ought not to be done to a Parent parad 3. ought much less to be done to a Prince but no Man says Tully can take away the life of his Father without
infant Age of the Church whom Tortures made happy Infamy glorious the Contempt of Gold rich and the Crown not of a Kingdom but Martyrdom made august And as Truth is the same in all Climates so was this learned Man in whatsoever place Providence fixt for when he came into England he had the same Notions as fully appears by his Epipistle to Fronto Ducaeus written Ann. 1611. wherein discoursing of S. Gregory Nazianzen's Observation of old that Mens preposterous Zeal had destroy'd their Charity he adds But Good God! Pag. 82 Lond. 1611. Had the Father lived in our Age what Complaints would he have made To see so many Men acted by a preposterous Zeal under the pretext of Religion and Piety most wickedly and irreligiously not only break the Peace of the Church about Trifles but undertake Rebellions Treasons most cruel Massacres of innocent People overthrowing of lawful Governments and the Murther of Princes this is your privilege at this time of day as he addresses himself to the Roman Catholicks that not only the grave Citizens and Senators of a Nation assembled in a general Convention tho what they should do of this kind is unlawful but even the Mobile assume to themselves a Power of Abdicating Kings forfeiting their Kingdoms and giving them to whom they please and of abolishing all Laws under the pretext of Piety which Villany no Religion tho never so profane and impious except yours meaning the Popish ever allows P. 100 c. or hath ever formerly allowed Garnet 's chief Crime was that he had either forgotten or neglected S. Paul 's Advice consenting to the doing of evil that good might come thereof this he ought not to have done had he demonstrated himself a true follower of Jesus Christ for what Precept or Example bad he of our holy Saviour for his so doing Who was a Lamb without blemish and reprov'd the preposterous Zeal of James and John the Apostles with You know not what spirit you are of i. e. You think your Zeal is commendable which hates the Samaritans and would destroy them but I do not require such a cruel sanguinary and destructive Zeal from my Followers what I require is Charity that is Patient Edifying and which covers a multitude of Sins this I approve of and this I would have practised by those to whom I am to leave my Peace This he would not have done had he remembred P. 104 105. how severely our holy Saviour chastised Peter when he rashly cut off Malchus 's Ear. But Zealots are very seldom removed from their purposes by any consideration of Laws either divine or humane whatever School teaches this Doctrine is not Christian it is the School of Antinhrist and of Satan for the Devil was a Murderer from the beginning ☞ a true Abeddon and Apollyon but the Doctrine of our holy Saviour Jesus Christ is perfectly contrary to this for he prescribed no other remedy to his Disciples against all manner of Injuries but Flight Patience and Prayers that rejoycing in hope being patient in Tribulation and praying continually as the Apostle advises they might triumph over all their Adversaries These were the only Arms that the Apostles used wherever they laid the foundations of the Gospel these were the only Weapons which the Fathers of the ancient Church only knew no man took Arms or raised Rebellion against his Prince these were the fruits of the Hildebrandine Doctrine which flyes at the Crowns of Emperors Kings and Princes c. SECT IX Against this modest and learned Epistle of Isaac Casaubon did Eudaemon Johannes write which Dr. Prideaux * Pr. at Oxford 1614. c. 2. p. 76. afterward the King's Professor of Divinity and Bishop of Worcester answered in which he compares the Jesuits and Buchanan and Knox together branding them justly with the name of Traytors as King James had done before him and avers P. 107. that the Popish Writers bred in the School of Hildebrand call a lawful King a Tyrant if excommunicated by the Pope whereas a Tyrant according to the Doctrine of the Sorbon and of the Men of ancient sincerity and simplicity is opposed to a lawful Prince and signifies one who hath invaded an Empire that is not his own by Force and evil Arts and then adds If an Apostate should reign in France P. 109. or England who exceeded Julian or the Grand Signior it is not the duty of his Subjects to dethrone him For who can lift up his hand against the Lord's anointed and be innocent ☜ Did the Israelites attempt any thing against Nebuchadnezzar or the Christians against Julian and the Heathen Emperors Did they use any other Weapons besides their Prayers and their Tears Let us use these Arms and if the King do amiss let us expect when God will punish him let not his Subjects tumultuously oppose him And whereas Mariana had affirmed P. 123. that when Princes openly invade the Rights of their Subjects and there is no other way left to maintain the publick Safety then it is lawful to take Arms and murder Kings he replies here is no mention made of the Patience of the Subjects the just Judgments of God the Obligation of Oaths the sacred Authority of Princes conferr'd on them immediately by God the Duty of Subjection not only when we live easie under the Government for our Profit but when we suffer under it for Conscience sake by the Maxims of the Jesuits P. 130 131. the People are made the King's Judges to enquire into his Faults and to punish him as they think fit when he does amiss What difference is there if this be true between the Rights of Princes and their Subjects A Subject breaks the Laws and he is punish'd by the King the King violates his Promises and his Subjects tell him We will not have this Man longer to rule over us Admirable security of the Persons and Crowns of Princes We obey our Princes for Conscience sake P. 60. we believe them to be immediately constituted by God if they rule well they are God's greatest Blessing if they degenerate into Apostasie or Tyranny they are God's Scourges to punish the Sins of a People as * Rom. 13. and in 1 Pet. 2. Calvin says truly If a King abuse his Power he shall render an account to God in time but for the present he doth not lose his Authority We urge not Compact but we pour out our Prayers our Bishops do advise not threaten †Id. Serm. on Gowry's Conspir p. 4 6 7. The same learned Bishop in his Sermon on the 5th of August at S. Maries before the University preaches the same Doctrine When occasion is offer'd howsoever they otherwise strive to appear good Subjects Traytors will be ever ready to vent their Treasons Hypocritical Traytors watch their times and are ready to vent their Villany upon the least advantage In the 2 Kings 19.37 where we read that Adrammelech and Sharezer slew their
the Covenant Printed at Lon. 1640. disproves their pretended conformity with the French Churches in the points of Church Discipline and Obedience to Superiors averring solemnly P. 2. that it was ever far from our wishes that your conformity with the Reformed Churches of France should be misapplyed as a pretence of your expelling your Bishops much less a president for you to take Arms against your Gracious Sovereign P. 37 38. take it for granted that the Orders imposed upon you by His Majesty are Ungodly and Antichristian are you therefore allowed to defend Religion with Rebellion will ye call the Devil to the help of God Sure it is a prodigious kind of Christian Liberty for a Subject to draw his Sword against his Sovereign you that stand so much upon the point of conscience ought ye not to be subject for Conscience sake ☞ Were your Sovereign unjust and froward and his commands injurious unto God had ye instead of our pious defender of the Faith a fierce Dioclesian illud solis precibus patientiâ sanari potest nothing will mend it but prayers and patience it is Beza's counsel to the discontented Brethren of England conformable to that of St. 1 Pet. 3.17 Peter for it is better if the will of God be so that ye suffer for well doing than for evil doing if the Sovereign come to kill the Subject for his Religion the Subject must yield him his throat not charge his Pike against him and this he proves by Calvin's Practice and Writings P. 38 39 40. the Churches of France have lately declared to His Majesties Ambassador there their utter dislike of the Insurrection of Scotland under pretence of a Covenant with Christ P. 41. there can be no just cause to take Arms against a Lawful Sovereign after this he treats of the French Protestants taking Arms P. 46. and concludes that till the Reign of King Lewis the Arms of the Protestants were either justifiable or excusable but their Wars in his time were neither and they prosper'd accordingly P. 48. the French Protestants had to do with a King of a contrary Religion they were incens'd by many wrongs and oppressions they were in danger to lose with their Forts and Towns their Liberty their Religion and their Life the privileges which they enjoyed were rewards of their long Services by the Charter of Rochel when they yielded to Lewis XI it was granted to them that they should be no longer the King's Subjects ☞ than the King should maintain their immunities and yet these true reasons and just fears could not justifie their defensive Arms against their Sovereign but they were condemn'd by the best of their own and of their neighbors and God shewed his dislike by the ill success he gave them And much more to this purpose is to be seen in his answer to Philanax Anglicus and in his Regii sanguinis Clamor ad caelum contra Parricidas Anglicanos Hagae Com. 1652 C. 1. 〈◊〉 5. for that being is du Moulin juniors and not Alexander Morus's as was conjectured affirming with the Apostle that even the Jews would not have Crucified the Lord of Glory had they known him while the Parricides of King Charles I. wittingly and wilfully Murdered their Lawful King and with the King beheaded also the Church of England and brought upon the neighbouring Protestant Churches abundance of Dishonor and much danger while the same madness was imputed to all the Reformation which had only infected a few who falsly called themselves Reformed Nothing hath happened since the beginning of the World more contrary to the glory of God or that hath cast a greater blot upon holy Truth while the Wickedness defends it self by the Doctrin of the Gospel and is said to be perpetrated to vindicate the Protestant Religion to the just indignation and abhorrence of all the foreign Churches for which reason Salmasius P. 7. Heraldus Porree and others wrote smartly both against the Men P. 17. and their villanous Principles It is a Law not only written but born with us and springs from the most pure fountains of Nature That it is a most horrid crime for Subjects to punish their Princes and therefore we do too much honour to Parricides when we use Arguments against them for as Aristotle says they who doubt 1 Top. c 9 whether God is to be worship'd or Parents to be honoured are not to be convinc'd by Reasons but by Scourges and Salmasius hath proved by unanswerable Reasons by divine and human Authority that the Majesty of Kings is unaccountable and that Subjects have no manner of Authority over them Cap. 2. p. 29 30. There is no fallacy of Satan which more prevails upon good Men to engage them in an evil Cause than when Men contrary to God's Word believe that it is lawful to do evil that good may come thereof and that God hath need of our sinful assistance to promote his Kingdom and that whatever is design'd to promote God's Glory immediatly commences good P. 52. the Judges at Westminster were turn'd out by the Army because being consulted they had given this opinion that to judge the King was against the Laws of England Cap. 5. p. 107. to argue from Providence and Success to the goodness of a Cause is impudent one man is hang'd for that by which another gets a Crown Junius Brutus by expelling the Kings of the Family of Tarquin saved his Country another Brutus by murdering a Tyrant ruined it perhaps the later Brutus did an act of justice when he slew an Usurper but the first was very unjust who drove away a lawful King by the murder of King Charles I. Cap. 6. p. 121. the Parricides taught the rest of the World that Kings may be guilty of breach of trust to their People that the People are their Judges and may condemn and execute them and these Tenets they are not ashamed to own in their Writings that they had freed the World of its old Superstition that Kings are only obnoxious to God and can be punish'd only by him that they had set an example to all other Nations conducive to their safety and to be dreaded by all Tyrants as Cromwel wrote to the Scots after Dunbar fight what an occasion of insulting is hereby given to the Papists to say Cap. 7. p. 135. this is the Religion which brings down Reformation to us from Heaven these are the Men who cry out against the Usurpations of the Popes upon the Crowns and lives of Princes only that they might themselves have that power over Kings when they had snatched it from the Pope But the Papists would suggest this with less fierceness if they remembred that those few who left us in this point went to them and borrowed their Weapons from them C. 8 p. 148. these Monsters do not content themselves with being simple Parricides but they turn Rebellion into a
rable is a King and Kingdom when every Man that is but audacious enough has a fair pretence if he can but gather force to overturn any settlement that can be in such a case such a Pirate Prince must be always exposed to Tempests King Stephen was none of our worst Princes and one of the most valiant but an Intruder he was and he sped accordingly his reign was the most turbulent of any except that of King John another Usurper c. But be the title of a King P. 18. as good as a Warrant from Heaven can make it be it so undoubted as Hell it self can find no pretence to question it be the King like an Angel of God yet if his Subjects will be Sons of Belial Sons of the Devil so Rebels are called in Scripture Men that will bear no yoke 't is still in their power to be as miserable as they please therefore I commend your strict adherence to your former Protestations P. 27. and to your Oaths of Allegiance take heed of destroying your Country to build your own House destruction and death is not all you are like to get by it take heed of that which follows there is another death to come after ☜ God has warn'd you of it they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation as you would avoid this take heed of that which leads to it thus that great Prelate who as it is justly said of him ‖ Thom. Brown. Ep. praefi conc Jun. 11. 1687. in the whole course of his life and in all the varieties of times and fortune still maintain'd his fidelity to his Prince in an illustrious manner SECT VII And of this opinion was that great promoter of piety and learning Bishop Fell who having in his †On 2 Pet. 3.3 Anno 1675. p. 21 22. Ox. 1675. Sermon before the King asserted that nothing can be so unhappy as Authority when baffled that the Coffee-house rebel is more mischievous than he that takes the Field and that a Prince is sooner murdered with a Label than a Sword and in his * Dec. 22. 1680. p. 3 4. on Mat. 12 25. Oxf. 1680. Sermon before the Lords exprest his astonishment by what Enchantment but that Rebellion is the sin of Witchcraft Men should be perswaded to disturb their own and the publick Peace forfeit all the advantages they enjoy in a settled Government which cannot be so bad as not to be much better than the confusion which sedition brings and run upon that sudden destruction which the Wiseman says is the end of those who are given to change he continues to give the same advice in his Sermon before the Sons of the Clergy wherein having told them that a great part of them present were the Sons of the persecuted Clergy ‖ On Act. 3.16 p. 61 63 68 69. a sort of Men that hazarded their lives unto the death and their Estates to the greater cruelty and grave of sequestration for the cause of God and of their Prince He adds 't is their glory that in the day of trial they did all they pretended to they forsook Father and Mother Houses Brethren and Sisters and those more endearing names of Wife and Children let it therefore be the strict concern of every one here present to maintain a faithful Loyalty to his Prince and Sovereign It is the peculiar glory of the Church of England ☞ that She above all others Principles her Children in Obedience to Superiors and most supports the ends and interests of Government which had so visible an effect in the late unhappy revolutions that the Royal Martyr who fell a Sacrifice to the misguided zeal of his rebellious Subjects ☞ made it his observation that none forfeited their duty to him who had not first deserted their Obedience to the Church nor can you any way more remarkably approve your selves to be Orthodox in your Religion and good Sons of the Church than if you are Loyal in your Principles and good Subjects to the King. On the 23. of June of the same year Dr. Thomas Bishop of Worcester dyed having two days before sent for a Reverend Divine to whom after he had discours'd an hour about the new Oath of Allegiance which he thought altogether inconsistent with the Doctrin of the Church and his former Oaths he said if my own heart deceive me not and God's grace fail me not I think I could dye at a Stake rather than take this Oath The Earl of Clarendon in his Animadversions on Mr. Cressy 's answer to the Dean of St. Paul's P. 72. as a very competent witness avers that there were very few who did so much as pretend to have a reverence for the Church of England that were ever active in the late Rebellion and that it were to be wish'd rather than hop'd that the Profession of Christian Religion in any Church had that impulsion in it as it ought to have that it preserv'd the Professors of it from entring into Rebellion and the practice of any other iniquity and speaking of Archbishop Cranmer who sign'd King Edward the Sixth's Will he adds if that unhappy P. 80. and ill advised Queen who had just reason to be offended highly with that Archbishop could have found that the Law would have condemn'd him for Treason she rather desired to have had him hang'd for a Traytor than to have him burnt for his Religion but the Law would not extend to serve her turn that way if it would no body would have blamed her for having prosecuted him with the utmost rigor whereas many good Men then did and since have for proceeding the other way with him The Popes who have assumed Authority to depose Princes P. 151 152. have caused more Christian blood to have been spilt more horrible Massacres of Kings and Princes and People than all the Heresies in the World and all other politick differences have produced much the greatest part of this destruction ☜ and ruin proceeded from the perjury of Popes themselves after they had promis'd and sworn to observe such parts and agreements voluntarily entred into by themselves or from the dispensation they granted to others to break their faith and not to perform the contracts they had entred into The same noble Person even when under the displeasure of his Prince and in Banishment thought himself still obliged to be unalterably Loyal as he professes in his Epistle to the King I thank God from the time I found my self under the insupportable burthen of your Majesties displeasure and under the infamous brand of Banishment I have not thought my self one minute absolved in the least degree from the strictest duty to your Person And whereas T. H. in his Leviath p. 114. had affirm'd that the obligation of Subjects to their Sovereign is understood to last as long and no longer than the Power lasts to protect them he rejoins P. 90. hereby he gives
these Laws p. 14. v. loc and p. 21 22 c which he gave to us Under the most barbarous and persecuting Emperors no Christian ever suffered as a Rebel they gave no other disturbance to the Government than by confessing themselves Christians and suffering for it Their numbers indeed were very formidable but nothing else The same Doctor wrote his Case of Resistance when the Doctrine of Non-Resistance and Passive Obedience were not Confuted but laught out of Countenance Ep. Ded. p. 109. When whoever hath been so hardy as to assert the Doctrine of Non Resistance hath been thought an enemy to his Country one who tramples on all Laws who betrays the Rights and Laberties of the Subject and sets up for Tyranny and Arbitrary Power p. 3. In this accurate Treatise he proves 1. That God himself set up a Sovereign and iresistible power in the Jewish Nation and that during all that time v. p. 13 14. it was unlawful for Subjects upon any pretence whatsoever to resist their Princes 2. That our Saviour taught the same Doctrine both by his Example and Precepts as did also St. Peter and St. Paul. p. 133. The sum of St. Paul's Doctrine is this that all Men whatever their rank and condition be must be subject to Sovereign Princes i. e. must obey all their just and lawful commands and patiently submit even to their unjust violence for Sovereign Princes are made and advanced by God and therefore he that resisteth resisteth not Man but God and how prosperous soever such Rebels may be in the World they shall not escape the Divine Vengeance and Justice which will follow them into another World They shall receive to themselves damnation p. 221. The last Judgment weighs down all other considerations and certainly Rebellion may well be said to be as the sin of Witchcraft when it so inchants Men that they are resolved to be Rebels though they be damned for it So Dr. H. Bagshaw Serm. on Isa 1.26 p. 8. Should Magistrates omit Works of Justice and Mercy they are no more Gods but Idols nay the worst sort of Idols that being made to represent do yet foully reproach Divine Power but should People resist libel or abuse them and so strive to deface the marks of their greatness they strike at the Majesty of the Supreme We may all learn Duty from considering that God is the founder of human Government So also the learned Dr. Faulkner V. Christian Loyalty l. 1. c. 5. p. 183 184. The truth is Maximus was a Rebel and had wicked murdered Gratian the Emperor and invaded the Territories of Valentinian and for this cause S. Martin though often requested for a long time refused to come to his Table and avoided all converse with him and did also foretel his ruin And Marcellinus Socrates Theodoret and Sozomen in their Histories often give him the stile of Maximus the Tyrant And Symmachus a Roman Senator was found guilty of Treason by Theodosius for publishing a Panegyrick upon Maximus S. Ambrose not only refused Maximus the salutation of a Kiss from him but withdrew himself from those Bishops who Communicated with him c. Chap. 6. p. 233. The same Author confuteing the claim of the Pope to this Kingdom on the account of the surrendry made by King John to Pandulphus the Pope's Legat adds I shall chuse to observe in general that this Case is the same as if any Seditious persons or Usurpers should by fraud or force reduce the King to straits and difficulties and should then by like methods gain a promise from him that he should be under their Government and shall order the Affairs of his Realm in complyance with them and subjection to them Now all such Acts are wholly void and utterly unobligatory Because 1. No part of Royalty can be gained by Possession upon an unjust Title against the right Owner upon a sure Title this being a parallel Case to a Thief being possest of an honest Man's Goods 2. No Sovereign King unless by voluntary relinquishing his whole Authority to the next Heir can transfer his Royal Supremacy to any other person whomsoever c. p. 383. v. loc Another ground of Subjects security though they may not take Arms against their Sovereign is from God being the Judg and Governor of the World and shall not the Judgment and Authority of God over Princes be thought valuable and considerable though he is more righteous and more able to help the oppressed than any Judge upon Earth p. 393. V. p. 395 397 456 457 463 490 491. Unless all things be in utter confusion and Anarchy it is not possible but that there must be acknowledged such an Authority which none have power of resisting but this can no where be so well placed for the Subjects Interest as in their Sovereign Prince and Supreme Governor Christians are Baptized into that Doctrine which makes great provision for the security of Kings and against all manner of resistance But though the directions of our Religion be plain History will acquaint us that there have been many contrary Practices as matters of Fact. But these are no more to be urged against the Rules of Duty in this than in other Actions of disobedience and swerving from God's Commandments p. 507. It was truly observed by Barclay that Valentinian the younger who was an Arian might as easily have been Resisted and Deposed by the Catholick Christians as any King or Emperor whatsoever if they would have undertaken any such thing for then the strength of the Eastern part of the Empire was then in the Hands of Theodosius who was a zealous promoter of the True Faith the Western Empire was over-run by Maximus an Enemy to the Arians The Army of Valentinian then at Milan were so disaffected to the Emperor that they declared they would go over to those Ambr. Ep. 33. ad Marcellin to whom S. Ambrose should direct them unless the Emperor would Communicate with them who embraced the True Faith. But in this case Theodosius protected and assisted Valentinian and S. Ambrose disclaimed all resistance against him and espoused his Interest to the utmost against Maximus Herbert Lord Bishop of Hereford Pr. Lond. 1688. in his Defence of the Reading the late Declaration asserts the same Truth for though he pleads for the Reading of the Decclaration p. 5. Because when we are bid to Honor the King we ought to observe that express command of God in every thing that is not expresly contrary to the word of God or at least most evidently deduced from it so that every common understanding must needs see it p. 15. Yet he subjoyns that it is impossible that a true Son of the Church of England should have any disloyal thoughts in his Heart his Principles commanding him unto intire Obedience either Active or Passive without any Equivocation or Mental Reservation whatsoever SECT VIII Dr. Matthew
1. That those Serm. at St. Mary's Oxf Jan. 30. 1660. and before the King Jan. 30. 1661. who promise Obedience to the King only so far as he preserves the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom withal reckoning themselves Judges of what Religion is true what false and when these Liberties are invaded and when not do by this put it within their own Power to judge when Religion Faith and Liberties are Invaded as they think convenient and from such judgment to absolve themselves from their Allegiance 2. That those very Persons who thus covenanted had already from Pulpit and Press declared the Religion establish'd in the Church of England and then maintain'd by the King to be Popish and Idolatrous and withal that the King had actually Invaded their Liberties was there any thing in the Book of God to warrant this Rebellion Why yes Daniet dreamed a Dream and there is also somthing in the Revelation concerning a Beast and a little horn and a fifth Viol and therefore the King ought undoubtedly to dye ☜ others plead providential dispensations God's work it seems must be regarded before his Word as if when we have a Man's Hand-writing we should endeavour to take his meaning by the measure of his foot we have lived under that model of Religion in which nothing hath been counted impious but Loyalty nothing absurd but restitution the Church of England is the only Church in Christendom we read of whose avowed Practices and Principles disown all resistance of the Civil Power and with the saddest experience and truest Policy and reason will evince it self to be the only one that is durably consistent with the English Monarchy let Men look back into its Primitive Doctrin and it's History and they will find neither the Calvin's nor the Knox's the Junius Brutus's the Synods nor the Holy Common-wealths on the one side nor yet the Bellarmin's nor the Mariana's on the other SECT IX And here it is necessary to mention the several Addresses that own the same Doctrin and I shall begin with that of the two Universities that of Oxford runs thus being according to an Act of Convocation dated Febr. 21. 1685. May it please your Majesty c. We your Majesty's most dutiful c. as we can never swerve from the Principles of our Institution in this place and our Religion by Law establish'd in the Church of England which indispensibly binds us to bear all Faith and true Obedience to our Sovereign without any restrictions or limitations so we presume to assure your Majesty that no consideration whatsoever shall be able to shake that stedfast Loyalty and Allegiance which in the days of your Blessed Father that Glorious Martyr and in the late times of discrimination stood here firm and unalterable to your Royal Brother and your Self under the sharpest trials and that we shall constantly by God's assistance with our utmost zeal and sidelity improve all those advantages wherewith God and your Majesty have intrusted us in this ancient nursery of Learning to promote the quiet happiness and security of your Majesties Reign over us Thus also the University of Cambridge in their Address tendred by the Vice-Chancellor Gaznum 2019. c. Mar. 23. 1684. We do with all humble submission present to your Sacred Majesty our unfeigned Loyalty the most valuable Tribute that we can give or your Majesty receive from us this is a Debt which we shall be always paying and always owing it being a Duty naturally flowing from the very Principles of our Holy Religion by which we have been enabled in the worst of times to breed as true and stedy Subjects as the World can shew as well in the Doctrine as Practice of Loyalty from which we can never depart Many other Addresses Gaz num 2008. 2012. 2013. 2016. 2018 c. of the same kind were made by the University of Dublin by the Bishop and Clergy of the City of London the Bishop and Clergy of Chester the Bishops of Bath and Wells and of Hereford and in truth of all the Dioceses I think in England Scotland and Ireland besides such as were tendred by Lords Lieutenants Grand Juries and particular Societies For which Sense of the Nation in those days I must refer the Reader to the Prints while I only subjoin the memorable Close of the Address tendered by the Bishop Vicar-General and the Clergy of the Cathedral and City of Bristol The Church of England is peculiarly indeared to us for that above all that is called Religion in the World it twists Piety with Loyalty and without Reserve Recognizeth your Sacred Majesty as the Sovereign and Supreme Power within your Majesties Realms and Dominions against whom there is no rising up and only less than God himself According to the Dictates of that most excellent Religion we abhor all those Antimonarchical Persons and Principles which would either exclude Princes from their just Rights or disturb the peaceable enjoyment of them And we earnestly beseech the King of Kings that your Majesties Throne may not only be Established but raised still higher upon the ruins of those that shall endeavour to Subvert or Supplant it SECT X. Dr. Stillingfleet Origin Brit. c. 5. p. 319. inquiring into the Reasons why the Saxons were called into Britain by Vortigern quotes Gildas who affirms That after the Britains found themselves deserted by the Romans they set up Kings of their own and soon after put them down again and made Choice of worse in their room Adding it is plain that he supposes that the Britains in that Confusion they were in took upon them without regard to their Duty to place and displace them But withal he observes that then the Britains were left to their full liberty by the Roman Empire that there was no Line remaining to succeed in the Government nor so much as to determine their Choice which made them so easily to make and unmake their Kings who lost their Purple and their Lives together This must needs breed insinite confusions among them and every one who came to be King lived in perpetual fear of being served as others had been before him And the natural Consequence of this jealousie of their own Subjects was looking out for assistance from abroad which I doubt not was one great reason of Vortigern 's sending for the Saxons hoping to secure himself by their means against his own People although it proved at last the ruin both of himself and his People And whereas Cressy in his answer to my Lord of Clarendon's Vindicaon of the Dean of S. Pauls had objected That days of Thanksgiving were kept for the discovery and prevention of such personal Treasons as the Gunpowder Treason but none for the Deliverance of the whole Kingdoms from almost an Universal Rebellion as if their were no necessity of requiring from any a retraction of the Principles of Rebellion or a promise that they shall not be renewed Answ to the
of other Mens sins that will retain their integrity and rather than do would suffer evil P. 〈…〉 what can there do These are they that are so pityed in the Text down then ☞ down to the place of darkness from whence it came with that Antichristian Principle that it is lawful for the People upon the ill managers and abuse of their Power by Arms and force to depose and punish their Princes this once admitted layeth the Ax to the Root of all Civil Society c. Dr. 〈…〉 p. 37. Nath. Hardy D. R. The Enemies of the King accuse him for being a Traytor to his People which was so far from being true that it was impossible since he never received any trust from them after which addressing himself to the Lord Mayor and his Brethren he adds you have taken care that Rebellion may be destroyed in that which was its Principal Engine the illegal League and Covenant and in its rotten Principles those Doctrins which give Power to the two Houses of Parliament in some cases to take up Arms without and against the Kings command and distinguish between the Personal and Politick capacity of the King as to the point of resistance c. Dr. Serm. before Lord Mâ—yer Fâ—â— 11. 16 Sâ— p. 22 24. Goodman Kings are God's Vicegerents and he maintains and upholds them in their Offices under himself a King hath the Stamp and Character of Divine Authority upon him it is the Divine Providence that is the Peoples caution and security against the weaknesses passions and extravagances of Princes so that they shall not need to resort to Arms or any seditious and unlawful means in their own defence we use to appeal to an Higher Court when we are opprest in an inferior Judicatory and this is our proper refuge when our Rights and Properties are invaded to look up to God the Supreme Potentate of the World that he will restrain the exorbitances of his Ministers P. 25 26. God is the King of Kings the safety of Religion Liberty and Property are mighty Concerns but certainly they are not too great a Stake to trust in the hands of God unless the means we use be as certainly and manifestly lawful as the cause we pretend to shall be just and honorable we shall but provoke Providence instead of subverting it P. 34. let the People be quiet not listen to noice and rumors but be sure to Banish all disloyal thoughts of resorting to irregular means for the asserting their pretensions Is not God in the World c. SECT XIII Dr. Burnet in his modest and free conference †Printed Ann. 1669. p. 6 7. Shew me one place in either Testament that warrants Subjects fighting for Religion you know I can bring many against it yea tho the old dispensation was a more carnal and fiery one than the new one is yet when the Kings of Israel and Judah made Apostasie from the Living God into Heathenish Idolatry some of the Kings of Judah polluting the Temple of Jerusalem as did Ahaz and Manasseh so that God could not be Worship'd there without Idolatry yet where do we find the People resisting them or falling to popular Reformations neither do the Prophets that were sent by God ever provoke them to any such courses and you know the whole strain of the New Testament runs upon suffering it seems you are yet a Stranger to the very design of Religion which is to tame and mortifie nature and is not a natural thing but supernatural therefore the Rules of defending and advancing it must not be borrowed from nature but grace are not Christ's injunctions our Rule Since then he forbad his Disciples to draw a Sword for him with so severe a threatning that whosoever will draw the Sword shall perish by the Sword this must bind us and what he says to Pilate on this head my Kingdom is not of this World c. is so plain language P. 24. that I wonder it doth not convince all Pope Gregory VII Armed the Subjects of Germany against Henry IV. the Emperor upon the account of Religion because the Emperor laid claim to the Investiture of Bishops they being then Secular Princes and this prospering so well in the hands of Hildebrand other Popes made no bones upon any displeasure they conceived either against King or Emperor to take his Kingdom from him and free his Subjects from their Obedience to him the Authors who plead for this are only Courtiers Canonists and Jesuits now are you not ashamed in a matter of such Importance to symbolize with the worst gang of the Roman Church for the soberer of them condemn it yet fill Heaven and Earth with your clamors Burn. Vind. of the Authority c. of the Ch. of Scotland ad Lector if in some innocenter things the Church of England seem to symbolize with them one great rule by which the peace and order of all humane Societies is maintain'd and advanc'd is Obedience to the Laws and submission to the Authority of those whom God hath set over us to govern and defend us to whose commands if absolute Obedience be not paid ever till they contradict the Laws of God there can be neither peace nor order among Men now it cannot be denyed to be one of the sins of the Age we live in that small regard is had to that Authority God hath committed to his Vicegerents on Earth the Evidence whereof is palpable since the bending or slackning of the Execution of Laws is made the measure of most Mens Obedience and not the Conscience of that duty we owe the commands of our Rulers for what is more servile and unbecoming a Man not to say a Christian than to yield obedience when overawed by force and to leap from it when allured by gentler methods hence it appears how few there are who judge themselves bound to pay that reverence to the Persons and that Obedience to the commands of those God hath vested with his Authority which the Laws of Nature and Religion do exact and the root of all this disobedience and contempt can be no other but unruly and ungovern'd Pride which disdains to submit to others and exalts it self above those who are called Gods ☜ the humble are tractable and obedient but the self-will'd are stubborn and rebellious yet the heigth of many Mens pride rests not in a bare disobedience but designs the subverting of Thrones and the shaking of Kingdoms unless governed by their own measures Among all the Heresies which this Age hath spawned there is not one more contrary to the whole design of Relligion and more destructive of Mankind than is that Bloody Opinion of defending Religion by Arms and of forcible resistance upon the colour of preserving Religion ☞ the Wisdom of that policy is earthly sensual devilish savouring of a carnal unmortified and impatient mind that cannot bear the Cross nor trust to the Providence of God and
enough to convince any sober Man that the Ancient Christians did never dream that either the Pope or the People did give Kings their Authority or had any Power to depose them and authorize their Subjects to take up Arms against them with or without their Authority much less to set up others in their stead or reserve their Power in their own hands but did believe that their Authority and Power is wholly from God and therefore must be obeyed according to his Ordinance and that they never can be deposed either by the People or People or any other Authority upon Earth Dr. Dove Sermon on Nov. 5. 1680. p 4 5. They that dare imagin evil against the King in their Bed-chamber will not stick to countenance Rebellion against him in the Camp for the malice of Treason like fire concealed will either find or force its passage this is the usual Prologue to all trayterous designs P. 21. to calumniate the Government and speak evil of dignities to repreach the one and make it odious by traducing the other and rendring them contemptible we may learn by experience that God for the better Government of the World thinks it fit to make Rebels and Traytors the most memorable examples of vengeance and judgment search the Scriptures and turn over the Annals of all Ages you shall scarce meet in story with a seditious Innovator or a Rebel who hath not ruined himself Id. Ser. bef Lord Mâ—yor Sept. 29. 1682. p. 15. If a Man can help Men to an evasion from the duty of Obedience he shall have followers enough this is a certain sign that tho Men know their duty yet they do not love to hear it for certainly obedience to Magistrates is one of those things that accompany Saivation and if they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation then surely we may safely affirm and that without any breach of charity or stretching beyond our line that they who oppose them in lawful things or refuse to obey them in the same without a timely repentance and reformation are in danger of it P. 17. tho David was next heir to the Crown and already anointed to it tho Saul thirsted for his blood and persecuted him by force and fraud tho he had the hearts of the People and Saul was given up into his hands so that he could as easily have slain him as have cut his skirt yet this was that which kept him from so great iniquity that he was the Lord's Anointed P. 18. the Authority is still from God tho it be placed in the bands of a sinful Man and it loseth not its essence by the accession of personal miscarriages c. disobedience hath all that is base in it P. 24. and Rebellion contains a whole conjugation of wickedness of which there seems to be an indelible sense in all Mens minds since even they who love the thing do usually hate the name of Rebels and such as are conscious of the guilt would gladly avoid the reproach of it a plain indication of guilt as guilt is a manifest argument of sin and wickedness P. 25. 't is a sin next to blasphemy to speak evil of dignities a degree of profaneness to disobey them ☜ and intolerable iniquity to rebel against them it is as bad in its own nature as murder or theft being as expresly forbidden as these and in its consequence 't is far more mischievous c. this sin debauches the conscience P. 26. and hardens Men in impiety so that it is rare very rare to find a repenting Rebel it is directly opposite to the Spirit and Power of Christianity it makes the very profession of Religion odious and despicable it is contrary to the example of Christ the Blessed Apostles and Primitive Christians there have been many pretences made for disobedience and resistance P. 27. v. p. 28. one hath libelled the Primitive Christians ascribing their meekness and submission to necessity so Bellarmine another that the Apostles in prescribing Obedience only flatter'd the Emperors so Salmeron a third hath taught that the Doctrin of resistance was a mystery bid from the first Ages and reserved for these last days of greater light so Jo. Goodwin thus the Gospel it self is belyed to countenance that which it every where condemns we have a Church P. 30. whose Doctrin Discipline and Government is Apostolical and Primitive defective in nothing so much as the Obedience of her Members unless it be the exercise of her Discipline this Church was always famous for her untainted fidelity and loyalty to the Crown oh that our lives were as good as our Religion c. SECT XVI Dr. Henry Maurice The Ancient Christians knew how to dye better than to dispute Ser. on Jan. 30. 1681. p. 2 12 30 c. cons 1st pt hist p. 112. but none understood yet how to rebel for their Religion how then are we departed from this ancient and reasonable practice no Faction did ever insult a Prince they did not mean to destroy but now to return to the blaspheming of the Church of Rome if community of name be not so much to be regarded as agreement in Doctrin our accusers will be found to have a greater part in these Sectaries than we for both agree in the Fundamentals of Rebellion and the lawfulness and merit of Resisting the Higher Powers There are Men in the World that honor such as Martyrs P. 180. that were executed for murdering their King I hope they were neither Bishops nor Episcopal Men that were so fond of Canonizing those Murderers for Martyrs P. 318. when Chrysostome saw the Civil Power against him he would not contend but endeavoured to steal away to prevent contention and what his favorers did when they began a Mutiny they did it against his will and against all his entreaties and obsecrations to the contrary did not the Primitive Christians meet to serve God p. 326. and suffer'd Martyrdom for it but did they ever enter into Covenants and Practices against the State in all the lamentable distractions of the Church by the Arians we find no Orthodox Bishop animate the People against the Government p. 327. what Persecution soever they suffer'd but on the contrary restraining all tendences to Rebellion and withdrawing themselves when the popular favor towards them grew inordinate p. 32â— p. 337. and uncontrolable Whoever animated the People to resist Julian what a number of worthy learned Ministers of the Church of England were turned out to make vacancies for the Non-Conformists in the days of Rebellion who were to instruct the People in new Mysteries of Religion which their old Pastors had not the conscience or ability to teach them i.e. of the lawfulness of Rebellion we read of St. Ambrose's zeal against the Arians of his popularity of his charity c. but not a word of his Sedition p 34â— or his forcible resistance of the
Strength hath made it possible and so at length the Robbers Sword and Pistol will come to be the only Standard of Justice all other Power must be cancell'd and we must come at last to make the Power of doing wrong to be the only measure of Equity and Right All these things are at least true pag. 28. when there is any Person in being to whom the Title or Succession of the Supremacy does belong which blessed be God is our Case at present And therefore that great Argument which was brought to vindicate the Usurpation of the successful Rebels in the late Wars namely that the People were not bound to adhere to their Prince when the Prince was disabled to defend the People supposes no other Obligation upon Subjects than mere Interest and so evacuates and makes null all Obligations of Conscience We shall therefore before we part from this Inference fix it as a certain Rule by which every conscientious Subject may and ought to guide his Practice That so long as there is any Person of the Royal Race ☜ to whom by the Course of Succession according to the Tenor of the Law of the Land the Crown does belong so long we have a lawful Supremacy and so long we shall be bound in Conscience to be in Subjection 3. Are we bound to be subject to the Higher Powers for Conscience sake and does the Obligation of Conscience come only from God Then I do infer that to bind the People to be in Subjection to their Prince there is no necessity of any Bargain or Contract between them and the reason is because that Obligation that binds the Subject to Obedience in this Case is founded immediately and directly upon the Law of God. Lastly Are we obliged to be subject to the Higher Powers out of Conscience pag. 31. and is this Obligation â—id upon our Conscience by God Then I do infer That no worldly Inconventence that we can possibly suffer by such our Subjection can be a sufficient warrant for our Resistance And the Reason is plain and easie because our secular Interest be it what it will can never be a sufficient Counterpoise to our Duty and he that will break God's Commands because it is for his secular Advantage can at best but make that foolish Bargain in the Gospel that is to gain the whole world and in exchange for his Purchâ—se to lose his own Soul. Mr. Wake is also of the same mind Answ to the B. of Oxâ—â—'s Reasons l. 34 c. for when the Bishop of Oxon charges the Church of England as if she set up the Charge of Idolatry as a Standard against Monarchy he replies That it is a Calumny upon the whole Body of the Reformed and that he might dare venture to say that there is not the least reason to be apprehensive of Violence he knows very well how free the Christians of the Three first Centuries were in laying the very same Charge against the Gentile World and yet we do not find that ever they shewed themselves the less obedient to their Emperors upon the account of it And tho I am verily perswaded that the Romanists are guilty of Idolatry yet I thank God I am not conscious to my self of one Disloyal Thought to my King. And what I can thus truly profess in my own behalf I doubt not but I may do for all others the true and genuine Members of the Church ☞ and who by being such must I am sure by Principle be obedient Subjects As for this Author he has made a broad Sign that he intends to leave us by insinuating that the Charge of Idolatry ought to be followed by Blowes We who do protest against certain Practices as idolatrous do also protest against violating Loyalty upon the account of Religion Did we indeed profess that of Idolatry which some others do of Heresie that it is a sufficient ground for the Excommunicating of a King and the absolving his Subjects of their Allegiance had we ever been caught not in Oatesian Conspiracies but in real Plots against our Sovereign upon this account there might then have been just cause for such an insinuation But whilst our Principles are so loyal that we have even been laught at for our asserting them it was a very unreasonable apprehension to think that the Charge of Idolatry should in the bottom have been the design against the Monarchy which we have so often declared and in the Person of our present King have shewn we think our selves obliged to support whatever his Religion be who is to sit upon the Throne The truth is when I consider how heinous a Suggestion this is and what little Foundation there is either from our Principles or our Practices to support it I am under some temptation to reply to this Author Nemo hoc potest credere nisi qui possit audere and this I hope may serve for my excuse if I have at this time appear'd in defence of a Charge in which every true Member of the Church of England is so highly concern'd Let the same Mind be in us pag. 15 16. which was also in those Primitive Christians before mention'd Let us still be careful to maintain the Character of the best Subjects as we have long asserted the most Loyal Principles that as the Prosperity of our King makes up a considerable part of our daily Prayers so by a sincere discharge of all humble Obedience towards him he may effectually see that excepting only our Duty towards God we are much more forward and ready to do his Majesty effectual Service than any Man can be whose Loyalty is not supported by Religion We set before our People the Examples of the Primitive Christians with what an humble Obedience they submitted themselves to their idolatrous Emperors and underwent the most cruel Persecutions for their Religion sake even when they had Power sufficient to have asserted their Faith and to have destroyed both the Idolaters and their Idols together and by these Maxims we exhort them to walk God be thanked Id. 2d Def. against the Bish of Condem est Part. p. 75 76. the Pulpits Zeal hath ever been employed to keep up in the Subjects that Duty which by God's Command they owe to their Prince and nothing is at this day next to our Zeal for our Religion more our desire and endeavour than to make Men Loyal to their Sovereign Our Pulpits still speak the same Principles of Subjection ☞ they ever did We are neither asham'd of the Doctrin of Passive Obedience nor afraid of its Practice tho some of your accquaintance have endavoured to laugh both that and us out of countenance Our steadiness to our Religion shall never make us fail in our Duty to our King. In one word We will both by our Preaching and Actions make it our business to fulfil that great Evangelical Precept of rendering unto Cesar the things that are Cesar 's and unto
God the things that are God ' s. Dr. Fowler There is nothing more certain than that for any of us to be false Dâ—sign of Christianity p. 243 251 252. and perfidious to be ungovernable rebellious or seditious upon the account of Religion it self is most unsufferable and inexcusable For if it be lawful to behave our selves after this manner upon any account whatever Religion would be the most useless thing in the World and if this were lawful upon the account of Religion only ☜ I will not stick to say that it will not be more useless and unprofitable than mischievous and hurtful Nor would the Christion Religion it self be worthy our profession if it would give us leave upon any design to allow our selves in the forementioned Immoralities or in any one whatsoever Thus to do is no other than to be irreligious to promote Religion to be unchristian to do service to Christianity and therefore to go the directest way to destroy it by the means we use for its preservation Thus to do is to oppose the Interests of our Religion to that of our Souls Id. Discour of Christian Liberty p. 175. â—ee his Discourse of Offences p. 9 10 11. and to cast these away in the defence of that It is come to that sad pass that preaching Obedience to Authority is as unacceptable Doctrin as can be to even many great Pretenders to Christianity altho it be done never so prudently and agreeably to the express Doctrin of our Saviour and his Apostles And the Notion of Obedience for Conscience sake seems almost lost among not a few which is one of the great Sins for which we have too great reason to fear there is a heavy Scourge near us Mr. Evans A moderate Man when the Honor of God or the King when Religion Sermon of Moderat 1682. p. 12. and the Welfare of his Country lye at stake then thinks it a most worthy and weighty occasion of imploying his Zeal and Activity in their Service of defending them with Courage and Resolution with his Life and Fortunes He never breaks the second Table to preserve the first nor make use of any ways to secure Religion that are contrary to or destructive of its Principles What Men esteem great Falshoods pag. 23. and call Toryism and Popery are really as true as Gospel pag. 34. I will conclude all with this Remark We may and shall if we do not timely take up bring in Popery by a heady and extravagant Zeal against it ☜ and ruin and enslave our selves by our fierce and passionate Contentions for Liberty Property and Safety p. 48. Give me the Man that is honest and constant to his Principles and to what he professes whatsoever Party or Perswasion he is of he is much more valuable to me than he that plights his Faith to the Church and gives all the Security that can be taken for his Conformity to it and then after he hath wound himself into its Communion and Preferments plays booty and acts like a Non-Conformist These are the treacherous Friends that like Vipers prey upon the Bowels of their Mother and betray her as Judas did our Lord with a Kiss Dr. Comber in his Religion and Loyalty Sec. Edit 1683. p. 8 3. v. pag. 12 13 c. If the Church of England did make worldly Interest the sole measure of her Actions they would never consider what was honest but only what was expedient and never stick at ill means to accomplish that which they account good Ends. We of this Church are perhaps the only Christians since the Primitive Ages who never dispens'd with our Loyalty to serve our worldly Ends. And if this do not commend our Policy I am sure it declares our Honesty and Integrity and must needs recommend us to all good Men as those who prefer our Duty and our Conscience before all earthly Advantages p. 39. No Religion in the World teaches and practises more Loyalty than that which is truly called Protestant and we doubt not but that if ever his R. H. should attain the Crown he will not blame our Church for that which was the Opinion of those who endeavoured to subvert it after they had renounc'd all Communion with it pag. 52. especially when it is further considered how constantly the true Protestants of the Church of England have loved and how faithfully they have served the Royal Family in all Fortunes how closely they have adher'd to the Interests thereof upon all Occasions so that whoever were true Sons of this Church our Kings have always reckon'd them their certain and undoubted Friends And when a Rebellion was designed against the blessed Father of his Royal Highness the Contrivers of it found it necessary first to seduce Men from the Church of England before they could engage them in so wicked an Action p 〈…〉 And since the happy Restoration they have incurr'd the Hatred of the bigotted Fanaticks for their perpetual standing for the King's Prerogative and their zealous promoting his and his Royal Highness's Interest The Pamphlets written in defence of the Bill of Exclusion p. 57. â—â— frequently transcribe whole Passages out of Doleman's Book Take some of their accursed Principles The Commonwealth hath Power to chuse their own fashion of Government as also to change it upon reasonable Causes The Commonwealth hath Power not only to put back the next Inheritors upon lawful occasions but also to dispossess them that have been lawfully put in possession if they fulfil not the Laws and Conditions by which and for which their Dignity was given them The Republick may cure or cut off their Heads if they infest the rest Princes are subject to Law and Order and the Commonwealth which gave them their Authority for the good of all may also restrain or take the same away again if they abuse it to the common evil The whole Body to superior to the Prince neither so giveth the Common-wealth her Authority and Power up to any Prince that she depriveth herself utterly of the same when need shall require to use it for her defence for which she gave it The Prince's Power is not absolute but delegate from the Commonwealth and is given with such Conditions and Oaths on both Parties as if the same be not kept by either Party the other is not bound With many other such Popish Positions So also the Apost Prâ—â— p. 4 5. and it is very observable that this wicked Libel of Doleman was in part reprinted Anno 1648. under the feigned Title of Several Speeches deliver'd at a Conference concerning the Power of Parliaments to proceed against their King's form of Government pag. 61. But the Protestant Church of England is not only better in all other accounts but doth hold teach and practise Loyalty above all others in the World the Divines thereof generally holding Monarchy to be of divine Right and Allegiance to be an Obligation on
the Conscience and indispensible because the King's Power is from God pag 62. to whom only Kings are accountable They pray for him three or four times by Name in all their solemn Offices their Sermons are frequent and pressing upon this Theme and their Books are numerous against Papists and their factious Scholars for the Right of Kings yea and their Actions being always Loyal do justifie they sincerely believe as they teach Dr. Sec. Edit ad Lectorem Pelling's Apostate Protestant Those Republicans who were the Movers of the Bill of Exclusion very well knew that by the sam ePower which they pretended to have to dispose of the Heir they might pretend afterwards to have to devest and destroy the Possessor of the Crown And I will presume to declare on my own and my Brethrens behalf too without begging their pardon that we still act ☞ and by the Grace of God resolve stedfastly to act upon the same loyal Principles wherewith we have hitherto endeavor'd to season the Kingdom The People cannot but be tickled at the heart p. 6 7. when they are told that they have a Sovereign Power in them which they did not dream of that they can make and unmake Kings that Crowns and Scepters lye at their Worship's Feet must make Court to them for Succession and that they can if they will bar them out and come like the Tribunes of the People of Rome with an uncontroulable Veto I am grieved at the heart and 't is enough to raise the indignation of every honest Man to find that so many among us do so inconsiderately not to say maliciously run altogether upon this Jesuit's Principles c. V. p. 9 10 11. p. 14. Doleman confidently insists on this that the Crown is not a bare Inheritance but an Inheritance accompanying an Office of trust and that if a Man's defects render him uncapable of the trust he hath also forfeited the Inheritance and from this Principle he concludes that even a true King may be deposed when he answers not the trust which the People had reposed in him This Jesuitical Doctrin did not long ago cost one of our Kings his Throne and his life too I pray God it be not so chargeable to another but t is ominous when pretending Protestants will be nibling at such Jesuitical Principles Observe that the Power of Deposing a King P. 19. naturally follows from the Doctrin of the People's Power to chuse one if any of our Clergy hold our Kings to be Divine they hold no more than what all Christians have ever held P. 21. V. p. 24 25. P. 33 34. v. loc p. 36. no more than what the Church of England hath declared no more than what the Laws of our Country do own and will bear them out in Doleman is positive that Princes may lawfully be deposed and he observes too is a remarkable instance as he calls it that God hath wonderfully concurred for the most part with such judicial Acts of the Commonwealth against their evil Princes not only in prospering the same but by giving also some notable Successor in the place of the deposed had Father Parsons been alive in our days perhaps he would have instanc'd in that blessed Bird Oliver Cromwell among the rest I happen'd to read a new Assemblies Catechism called a Political Catechism p. 38. v. p. 40 41 c. and I found it as full of the Jesuit's Venom as if it had been spit out of Doleman's own Mouth these are some of the Principles in it word for word 1. That the Government being a regulated Monarchy the King is not above the Law but is accountable to the Law and not to God only 2. That whatsoever is done by the King without and beyond the limits of the Regulation is not Regal Authority 3. That to resist the notorious transgressions of that regulation is no resisting the Regal Authority that the immediate Original of the King's Power is from the People and many other such Principles upon which the late Rebellion was raised and maintained After this he proceeds to shew that the little arts made use of to evade the obligations to Passive Obedience have been also borrowed from the Jesuits and to vindicate Dr. Hicks's Sermon on that Subject as also to shew the Parallel between the Jesuit and the Puritan particularly in their disobedience to Government violation of Oaths c. And then subjoins that when once Men are Jesuited P. 50. they will never stick at any manner of wickedness Lying Libelling Sedition defaming of Government Perjury c. you see how basely partial these Folks are in their ordinary censures P. 51. let a Man be a true Friend to the King and to the Establish'd Government and presently forsooth he is a Papist let him resuse to do evil that good may come tho that was St. Paul's way and he is called a Papist let him be for subjection to a Lawful Prince ☜ and when time serves for Passive Obedience and he is a Papist with a witness but let these Men profess the Faith and Doctrins of the Jesuits let them lye and equivocate like the Jesuits let them violate Oaths v. p 52 53 57 58. or construe them in their own sense like the Jesuits let them dispense with one another in doing any wickedness that is serviceable to their cause as the Jesuits do yet who but they the true Protestants we dare not be dishonest unless we will be Hypocrites nor be Rebels P. 54. unless we will be damn'd Some in Solomon's time were given to change out of 〈◊〉 strange kind of levity and inconsistency of mind Id. Serm. on Prov 24.21 1632. p. 25. and therefore some Expositors render the place thus cum inconstantibus with Men that are fickle and unsteady in their Loyalty would we not think it strange that Men who have shewed their fidelity all along Men who have acted taught suffered and ventur'd their Lives for the sake of Majesty should such I say start aside and suffer themselves to be wheadled into Faction at last Truly we might wonder at it the less when we consider that it was the case of several Men in the Reign of David and especially two very eminent Persons Abiathar the Priest and Joab that brave Commander the former had been David's secret and sure Friend and the later had not turn'd after Absalom both of them had been faithful hitherto but when Adonijah usurp'd the Kingdom both of them were concern'd in that Plot the Priest turn'd an Apâ—state and the General a Renegado upon what provocations I do not know nor can I gather any reason thereof unless it be that I now have mention'd a strange inconstancy of Spirit in Men who in David's Old Age thought it their best cunning to take up the Persian custom and worship the Rising Sun. Thus the Letter to a dissenter on occasion of the Declaration of Indulgence We are
Sclater What a joy will it be to thy Spirit and a lightning to thy Heart Royal pay paymaster on Rom. 2.10 p. 6 7 1â— when thou canst say thou didst not cowardly yield tho thou hast been disarm'd sequestred decimated and unrewarded for it 't was of God's mercy to be kept faithful to the righteous cause of God and the King when there were so many temptations to witdraw us from our Loyalty Fidelity and Loyalty is in a more especial manner required in a Subject towards his Sovereign 't is Treason in a Subject to fight against his Sovereign but how long must this Fidelity last a day or two or so Oh no I this Commandment is like that heavy saying in Matrimony till death us do part Dr. Hickman Serm. before Lâ—rd Mayor Juâ— 27. 1680 p. 17 18. The honor of God and the defence of his Worship are glorious Undertakings yet even here the excess of zeal is a crime and the great importance of the end cannot justifie any unlawfulness in the means the will of God as it is exprest in his Word is the standard of good and evil and he will not suffer his eternal Laws to be violated tho in his own defence if it should please him to give his and our Enemies such advantage over us as may endanger the exercise of our Religion we have our Prayers and other lawful endeavours for our redress but we must not defend our Church by an unlawful return of evil for evil nor like our Adversaries commit any Act of Impiety or Injustice tho under the most specious pretence of fighting the Battels of the Lord The goodness of the Cause here is so far from justifying the Act that it only aggravates the offence when a Law is violated or any injustice done for the sake of our Religion both the scandal and the Crime become conspicuous they are then laid at the door of our Church and bring a publick and perpetual blot upon our cause P. 19 v. p. 20 33. what can our Religion profit us or what honor can it bring to the Almighty when our Sacrifice comes polluted with blood and violence of its own how can it attone for our transgressions therefore it is necessary to obey not only for wrath ☞ but also for Conscience sake St. Peter who was the first that drew his Sword In his Master's quarrel was the first that denyed his name and forsook his cause and doubtless whosoever fights for his Religion against his Prince can never pass the muster without a Romish dispensation Mr. Ser. at Bath Aug. 7. â—631 p. 4 5 c. Jos Pleydall Arch-Deacon of Chichester Plebeians and Hobbists proceed upon one and the same Principle making the People the Fountain of all Power whereas Subjects owe a natural and inviolable Allegiance but if a Prince prove a Tyrant does he not by Male-administration forfeit the trust reposed in him in whose Opinion in the Opinion of Mariana or Knox Hobbs or Bradshaw i. e. in the judgment of Papists P. 8. Sectaries Atheists or Rebels 't is impossible there should be a Rebellion while the Principles of the Church of England are revered and owned that Kings may be Deposed and Murdered P. 11. we may reckon under the Apostles strange and monstrous Doctrins or rather under his Doctrins of Devils Mr. Assize Ser. p. 21 22. v. p. 5 78 16. Kimberley No pretences of Conscience or Religion can Authorize our Resistance of the lawful Powers which God hath set over us they never knew what it was in the times of the Primitive Christianity to oppose expel or destroy any Pagan Persecuting Arian or Apostate Emperor Mr. Assize Ser. p. 21. Jemmat None but God can absolve Subjects from that Allegiance and Obedience which they owe to their natural Lords neither the Male administration of Government nor their own fears jealousies nor the decay of Trade no nor the hazard of Religion it self can justifie the Acts of Rebellion they to whom God hath given his own Power are accountable to none but himself c. Mr. Serm. on 2 Chr. 13.5 p. 6. v. p. 8 15 18. Camfield The King is in the highest place and highest power and consequently all in his Dominions Every Soul of them are obliged to be subject to him none may presume to judge or resist him violently there can be nothing justifyable on the Subjects part but obedience and Submission the rest must be referred to God alone the only Ruler of Princes c. Mr. Ser. at York Aug 3. 1685. p. 16 24. 〈◊〉 loc Stainforth We have great reason to pity and pray for Kings for the eminency of their Station and uncontroulableness of their Power if Princes are bad Men and oppress their Subjects against reason and against Law we have no reason left us but Prayers to God in whose hands are the hearts of Kings Whatsoever Injuries they heap upon us whatsoever Violences and Persecutions we suffer under them we must not suffer our Passions to rise and swell againvt them much less must we take up Arms and by force resist their Persons or Authority P. 34. Those who take up Arms against their Sovereign's Authority fight against Heaven Mr. Graile Rector of Blickling in Norfolk publish'd four Sermons Lond. 1685. P. 44 45. For Loyalty to our Prince is a thing commanded by God himself together with Piety and Devotion towards himself yea and commanded in the very next place to it so that the one is a part an inseparable part a very considerable part of the other And it follows from hence by an apparent Consequence that Mens Disloyalty is a clear indication of their irreligion if they fear not the King they fear not God. ☜ If any Man seem to be religious and bridles not his Tongue from speaking evil of Dignities or Higher Powers Jam. 1.26 2 Pet 2.10 Rom. 13.2 P. 53 54 55. that Man's Religion is vain and 't is much more so if he holds not his hands from resisting these Powers Our Law will have no Error no Injustice no Folly no Imperfection whatsoever to be found in the King. All the States of the Realm joyned together all the Nobles and Commons and the whole Body of the People have not a Power and Authority equal to his For otherwise he would not be the King of a Kingdom but of single Men separately taken P. 56. The King is no substitute of the People but the Minister of God and his Power is the Ordinance of God. It is a contradiction to be Sovereign and to have a Superior The Lords P. 57. both Spiritual and Temporal together with all the Commons assembled in Parliament do by a solemn Oath acknowledg the King to be Supreme and themselves to be his Subjects And they have in publick Statutes particularly declared That both or either Houses of Parliament cannot nor lawfully may raise or levy any War offensive or
defensive ☜ against his Majesty his Heirs and lawful Successors Neither is the King accountable to them or to any other besides God These are the Essentials of Sovereignty There is but one Case wherein a good and loyal Subject will refuse to obey his Prince and that is p. 60 61 v. p. 66 96 97 119 120 154. when such Obedience will by no means consist with his Obedience to God But there is no Case whatsoever wherein he dares either to resist or reproach the Person or Authority of the King or to offer any Indignity to him To fight against him is to fight against God whom the King represents upon any pretence whatsoever it cannot be done without open Perfidiousness and Rebellion Such are Monsters of Men and are as natural brute Beasts made to be taken and destroyed So S. Peter describes them 2 Pet. 2.10 12. Mr. David Jenner in his Prerogative of Primogenitures * Lond 1635 P. 48. asserts the same Cause Altho the Law of God is indeed above all Kings and if they wilfully transgress the same they are all accountable unto God and unto God only for the same yet in this Kingdom of England no Statute Law is or can be above the King because it was the King that first gave life and being to the Law of the Land the King by his Royal Assent made the Law to be what it is viz. a Law But the Law of the Land did not make the King to be what he is viz. a King for the King was King before the Law. That the Doctrin and Practice of Deposing lawful Kings P. 122. and Excluding the right Heir from succeeding in the Throne for his being an Heretick Idolater ☜ tyrannical and wicked is grounded upon nothing but Popery and Fanaticism Mr. Hancock in his Answer to the Viscount Stafford's Memoires Lond. 1682. p. 31. I could make it evident that the same Maxims of Political Divinity the same Arguments and many times the same Phrases and Expressions are to be found in the Heads of both Factions I know 't is disputed whether the Ring-Leaders of Sedition among us poyson'd the Jesuits or the Jesuits them but I do not envy the Bishops of Rome the Honor of having first poyson'd them both with Antimonarchical Doctrins If Milton the great Oracle of one of the Factions had own'd himself to be a Papist there had been no reason to wonder at the Impiety of his Doctrins which he either did or might have learnt from the Popes and greatest Divines of the Roman Church It was truly alledg'd by Salmasius that the Doctrin of the sacred and inviolable Authority of Princes was preserved pure and uncorrupt in the Church till the Bishops of Rome attempted to set up a Kingdom in this World paramount to all Kings and Emperors but he with his usual Confidence acquits the Popes and charges his Antimonarchical Principles on Luther Zuinglius Calvin Bucer Martyr Parcus and all the Reformed Divines Bellarmine P. 50. Parsons Creswel Suarez c. are the Men that furnish'd the leading Faction among us with Principles and Precedents with Arguments and Texts of Scripture ☞ out of whom they either did or might have derived the Grounds of the War against the King of erecting an High Court of Justice and of bringing him to the Block John Goodwin P. 53. in one of his Pamphlets hath this remarkable Expression As for offering Violence to the Person of a King or attempting to take away his Life we leave the Proof of the lawfulness of it to those profound Disputers the Jesuits P. 166 c. I have fairly represented those Doctrins and Principles which strike at the very root of our establish'd Religion and Government with the Arts and Instruments which have been used by the prevailing Faction of the Roman Church for the Subversion of them ☞ And I know no stronger Argument against the truth and goodness of any Religion than that it supplants moral Righteousness and serves to be a Bond of Conspiracy allowes of Sedition and Treachery Injustice and Cruelty for how can that Religion be from God which maketh Men unlike to God as had or worse than if they were left to the Principles and Inclinations of their own Natures Of the Church of England I will only say It hath establish'd the Right of Kings upon such sure and unalterable Foundations that it is the Interest as well as the Duty of the Civil Power to support and defend it Mr. Animadv on Ob. Ch. Govern. Preface Smalridge Certainly that Doctrin which invades the just Rights of Princes can hope but for few Proselytes among those who have constantly defended them in their Writings asserted them in their Decrees and upon all occasions vindicated them with their Swords For we do not lye open to the imputation of a condition'd and distinguishing Loyalty who have shewed our readiness to imitate the glorious Examples of our Fathers and were prepar'd had not God's good Providence prevented our Service to have transcribed that Copy lately at Sedgmore which they set us formerly at Edg-hill And in truth our steady Fidelity to the Prince is so unquestionable that our Enemies have been pleased to ridicule what they could not deny and have made Passive Obedience bear a part in our Character when the Muse hath been enclin'd to Satyr Thus also the Person of Quality who wrote the Reasons Why a Protestant should not turn Papist P. 30 31. I am then quite out of conceit with your Religion since I cannot embrace it without endangering my Loyalty by reason of the Deposing Doctrin in case I live up to the pitch of its real Principles But 't is all one to me so long as I remain a Protestant what Religion my Prince is of tho I could wish he were of the same I profess because his Authority over me and my indispensible Obligation to submit to him do not depend upon his Opinion or Religion but upon his Birth-right yet have we not reason to doubt if the zealous sort of Roman Catholicks would not think it lawful to take Arms against their Prince turn'd a Heretick since the French League against Henry the 4th was upon this very account styled Holy and had I not been particularly acquainted with the Principles of the Church of Rome I had never conceived how it came to pass that such great Numbers of learned and well-meaning Men too could be guilty of such a horrible wickedness as that was and forget themselves so far as to pretend Holiness in an open Rebellion against their lawful Prince I am then more satisfied with the Loyalty of a Protestant especially of the Church of England who acknowledgeth the Prince to be a Supreme Governour over all his Subjects and Sovereign Judg in all Cases than with that of a Roman Catholick who seems to set limits to his Power by such restrictions as neither Reason nor Scripture can warrant Mr. Pomfret