King and by supposing in the next Paragraph That it was lawfull in a limitted Monarchy But is this the way of arguing against Resistance which not long ago was such a damnable sin especially on the 30th of January I protest to you Dr. should I hear you speak at this tender rate from the Pulpit against Adultery I should think you had a design upon some Ladies in the Congregation and that you intended they should understand by you that you thought it no sin Formerly on the 30th of January Resistance was a most damnable sin and the Doctrine of it Popish Diabolical Doctrine and the sin of the day was the Murder of a King but now it seems Dr. you will not dispute the lawfulness of resisting the King it may be lawfull for any thing you know to the contrary even on the 30th of January the sin of which day now it seems P. 19. lies in the Murder of a Good King who kept the Laws and was a Zealous Patron of the Church of England of a King of such Virtues as are rarely found in meaner Persons nay which would have adorned an Hermet's Cell But had he been a King that had broken the Laws and stretch'd his Prerogative to set up an Ecclesiastical Commission against the Church of England then the killing of him had been no Murder at least no such barbarous Murder But Dr. at this rate of Preaching on the 30th of January Kings and Queens had need take care of themselves for I do not see but they are upon their Behaviour Quam diu bene se gesserint and do not break the Laws but if they do so let them do it at their peril xxix p. 21. For every irregularity in their motions is soon felt and causes very fatal Convulsions in the State or as a much better Subject said by way of Apology for Charles I. There is no time past Judge Jenkins in his Works p. 28. present nor will there be time to come so long as Men manage the Laws but the Laws will be broken more or less So Dr. in your Temple-Sermon to exhort us to pray for Kings you tell us That it is very difficult to govern a Family xxix p. 24 25 26. and that Princes are liable to mistakes like other Men and that they are exposed to misinformations by Court-Flatterers and subject to greater Temptations than other Men But Dr. If it be lawfull to take up Arms against the King in a limitted Monarchy which you were contented to suppose before the House and others of your Brethren plainly assert then God help Kings of such Monarchies xxx p. 23. especially where the Springs and Fountains of Government are poysoned and where the Nation is already divided into Parties both in Church and State Such Kings be they by Providence only or Law and Providence together it matters not they had need look to their hits when their best pretended Friends are willing to suppose it is lawfull to take up Arms against them All your Apologies and Panegyricks upon their Majesties and Exhortations to pray for them can never make them amends for such a supposition and they must indeed stand in need of more and better Prayers than yours if they have no better a Title to the Crown than that of Possession which you have found out for them and that too no longer than they keep the Laws 4. These Dr. to use your own Language are very loose Notions of Government and Obedience and dangerous at such a time as this when so many Malecontents in both Kingdoms complain of the breach of Laws See h. If you will go to Scotland you shall hear two sort of discontented Men clamour loudly against the Government the Jacobite Episcoparians and the Presbyterians the latter are so impudent as to charge King William down right with the breach of the Original Contract and the former complain of torturing Strangers against Law and the Articles of Government of exercising illegal and unheard of Severities upon the complying Clergy worse than Dragooning of abolishing Episcopacy and thereby altering the Constitution of the Government and of the Murder and Massacre of a Laird and his Clan in cold blood after they had laid down their Arms and submitted to the Government And you cannot be ignorant of the Complaints which are made at home by restless and disaffected Spirits of pretended Illegal and Arbitrary Commitments of Men for High Treason and not to mention the Reflections which have been made in and out of Parliament upon Mr. Ashton's Trial you cannot but hear what a din this grumbling and disaffected Faction make of excessive Fines and Bail contrary as they clamour to our English Liberties and the Articles of Government And they bring one Example among others of a poor Boy about thirteen years old who was Arraign'd and Try'd at the Old-Baily and condemned to the Pillory and after he endured this Discipline and many other cruel hardships was Fined at the Court of the Old-Baily above threescore times more than he and his Parents are worth Sir These things considered you should have thundered with your old Zeal and demonstrations against Resistance as a damnable sin and taught Submission and Obedience to their Majesties upon the account of their Office and Character and not purely upon the account of their Virtues as you used to do in former Sermons And let me tell you Dr. that the most effectual way of serving their Majesties in the Pulpit and especially on the 30th of January is to Preach up the unconditional Duty of Subjects to Kings as Kings xxx p. 23. whether they be good or bad This was the Strict Loyalty and Obedience which you tell us was so earnestly pressed on the Consciences of Men before the Revolution and made the People so passive in it But by your favour Dr. not so passive for not to put you in mind of the vast numbers in the West and the North Mrs. Sherlock her self sent in a Man and Horse to the assistance of the Prince of Orange and whether it was with your Connivance or Approbation God and your own Conscience can best tell But however that was this is certain that it is most for the Interest of Princes as well as most becoming Divines to set the King as a King and not as an Hero before the People and to convince their Consciences of the inviolable Duty which results from their relation to him as Subjects independant of his moral Qualities but the other way of Preaching which you have taken up serves only to beget a precarious and doubtful sense of Duty in the People who as your Sermon before the House shews can soon be made to have the worst Opinion of the best of Kings 5. The Sandersons and Hammonds of former times who guarded the Pulpit from all suspicion of Flattery would never have Preached so much in commendation of their Royal Masters as you have Preached in the praise
hath more offended against the King and the Realm than the King hath done against him or us Thus Sir spoke that Heroick Prelate in the Court of Parliament and his practice was answerable to what he spoke For he chose not the safer but the juster side as all good Men ought to do He knew while he spoke that Bonds and Persecutions would attend him nevertheless he spoke freely and after speaking was committed to Prison and after that was crushed with many other brave Men by the Usurper against whom they rose up Afterwards about the sixth year of his Reign Rich. Scroop A. B. of York with the L. Maubray Marshal of England H. Piercy E. of Northumberland L. Bardolf and * As I suppose the Earls of Salisbury Huntington Glocester the Lords Clarenden Roper with divers other Knights and Esquires and after that the Lord Thomas Piercy Earl of Worcester and Lord Henry Piercy Son and Heir to the Earl of Northumberland many others published an Excommunication and †In the first Volume of Fox's Acts and Monuments in the Reign of H. IV. Remonstrance consisting of several Articles against Henry which they fixed upon the doors of Churches and Monasteries to be read of all It begins thus IN THE NAME OF GOD Amen Before the Lord Jesus Christ Judge of the quick and the dead We not long since became bound by Oath upon the Sacred Evangelical Book unto our Sovereign Lord Richard late King of England that we as long as we lived should bear true Allegiance and Fidelity towards him and his Heirs succeeding him in the Kingdom by just Title Right and Line according to the Statutes and custom of this Realm have here taken unto us certain Articles subscribed in form following to be proponed heard and tried before the just Judge Christ Jesus and the whole World but if which God forbid by Force Fear or Violence of wicked Persons we shall be cast in Prison or by violent death be prevented so as in this World we shall not be able to prove the said Articles as we wish then we do appeal to the High Coelestial Judge that he may judge and discern the same in the day of his Supream Judgment First We depose say and except and intend to prove against Lord Henry Darby commonly called King of England himself pretending the same but without all Right and Title thereunto and against his Adherents Fautors Complices that they have ever been are and will be Traitors Invaders and destroyers of God's Church and of our Sovereign Lord Richard late King of England his Heirs his Kingdom and Commonwealth as shall hereafter manifestly appear In the second Article they declare him forsworn perjured and excommunicate for that he conspired against his Sovereign Lord King Richard In the fourth they recite by what wrong illegal and false means he exalted himself into the Throne of the Kingdom and then describing the miserable State of the Nation which followed after his Usurpation they again pronounce him Perjured and Excommunicate In the fifth Article they set forth in what a barbarous and inhumane manner Henry and his Accomplices imprisoned and murdered K. Richard and then cry out Wherefore O England arise stand up and avenge the Cause the Death and Injury of thy King and Prince if thou do not take this for certain that the Righteous God will destroy thee by strange Invasions and Forreign Power and avenge himself on thee for this so horrible an Act. In the seventh they depose against him for putting to death not only Lords Spiritual and other Religious Men but also divers of the Lords Temporal there Named for which they pronounce him Excommunicate In the ninth they say and depose that the Realm of England never flourished nor prospered after he Tyrannically took upon him the Government of it And in the last they depose and protest for themselves and K. Richard and his Heirs the Clergy Commonwealth of the whole Realm that they intended neither in Word nor Deed to offend any State of Men in the Realm but to prevent the approaching Destruction of it and beseeching all Men to favour them and their Designs whereof the first was to exalt to the Kingdom the true and lawfull Heir and him to Crown in Kingly Throne with the Diadem of England Upon publishing these Articles much people resorted to the Archbishop but he being circumvented by the Earl of Westmoreland who pretended to join with him dismissed his Forces at his persuasion upon which he was immediately made Prisoner and beheaded at York with the Earl Marshal and divers York shire Gentlemen and Citizens of York who had joined with him The Earl of Northumberland and Lord Bardolph escaped and held out two years longer before they were crushed by the Usurper but at last they were both slain Fighting in the Field against him You see Doctor in this Remonstrance how the Archbishop and Lords that joined with him contrary to the general sense of Mankind unking'd this Providential King for want of a Legal Title and Remonstrated against him as a Perjured Traytor and Vsurper and when he lay upon his Death-bed he himself also began to be of their Opinion contrary to the general sense of Mankind when his guilty Conscience forced him to tell his Son That he had no good Title to the Crown but he not inferior to his Father in Ambition snatched it from his Pillow and plainly told him That as he had got it by the Sword so by the Sword he would keep it And in truth Doctor your Title by Providence against Law is Sword Title and your Providential Kings Sword-Kings for in all Kingdoms the Sword is King where their lawfull Prince is not the Sword or Supream Force Rules all and that Supream Crushing Force which by God's permission gets and keeps possession makes your Providential Kings 12. I have hitherto shewed you what Opinion many Wise and Considering Men had of Henry IV. and his Reign for want of Legal Right and Title And I now proceed to shew the sense that a whole Parliament had of him and of his Son and Grand-Son's Succession the latter sitting in the Throne This appears from Roll. Parl. 39 Henry VI. as it is in Cotton's Abridgement or rather from the Record at large as it is to be seen as it was lately printed in an Answer by a skillful and faithful hand to The unreasonableness of the new Separation upon account of the Oaths This Roll gives an account how Richard Duke of York Father of Edward IV. brought to the Parliament Chamber in writing not a Petition but a Claim to the Crown of which Henry had been long fully and quietly possessed and his Title which was only Succession by Birth-right being fully made appear it was the Opinion of all the Lords that it could not be defeated That single Title by Proximity of Blood was thought sufficient to supersede all the patch'd Titles of Henry and all that could be said in
turn Arian as take it and another Gentleman That you had considered all that had been written or could be said for taking of it and that you were sure if you should take it you should never rest till you had gone to the same place where you took it and vomit it up again You told another you thought if you should take it you should be tempted to destroy your self after you took it and wondered that the Government should impose an Oath upon Men's Consciences which would make them hate it for imposing of it nay so confident were you then that you suffered for Righteousness that you took the Courage to tell your Murmuring Wife That she would lose her Reward for Suffering but you should have yours and to another you said with an Accent that impressed the words upon his Memory Our Sufferings if any thing can will save the Church and stand upon Record for it against the Papists in times to come and help to attone the displeasure of God Nay you then thought the Justice of your Cause so plain and the other so indefensible that laying one of your Hands upon the other you said unto a Person of Quality These Hands should restore King James but that my Wife hath tied them up from Writing And another of your common sayings was We have a very good Cause but lose it for want of a Press A Man famous for such sayings concerning the Cause when you were a Sufferer for it should have more Discretion if not more Respect for his old Brethren than to go about to rob them of the Glory of their Sufferings The Testimony of a good Conscience is all they have left to support them under their Calamity and it is very hard to make the World believe they have no pretence to that and that there are no Grievances P. 23. unless Monarchy and the Church of England are remaining Grievances This was bravely said by Ecebolius for Fifteen Hundred Pounds a Year but whether there are Grievances or no Grievances Suffering for Conscience or no such Sufferings these Men are persuaded that it is not only for the Church but for the Monarchy and Royal Family that they suffer and that neither that nor these can long subsist nor any lasting Peace or true Loyalty be established among us but upon the Moral and Political Principles for which they are persuaded they witness a good Confession before God and Men. As for your Principles they think them of all other the most vile and selfish and to be detested of all Sovereign States and Princes that have any better Title than Possession For your Principles allow Subjects though tied with never so many Oaths to turn to an Usurper as fast as he gains Power before he is settled in the Throne and after he is settled in it by pure force they oblige them to transfer their whole Allegiance to him and therefore you deceived her Majesty when in the Dedication of your Book of the Last Judgment you professed to her with all the sincerity which the Subject requires That you were her most faithful Subject and Servant For a faithful Subject will adhere to his Sovereign in times of Adversity as well as Prosperity and serve him when he is out as well as when he is in the Throne with Life Limb and Terrene Honour But your Allegiance by your Principles is a Flattering Shifting and Time-serving Allegiance which you would carry with your Prayers from her Majesty to her greatest Enemies and begin to Flatter and Serve them from the first moment you came under their Power Such Faithful and Obedient Subjects as you are like to Summer Flies you 'll make a great shew and buz for your King in fair Weather when the Sun shines but in Storms and Tempests you will hide your Heads in the long Night-time or Winter of Adversity you will say If he cannot defend himself let him go and if he go as many brave Kings have been forced to do why then Doctor you are not Men of stupid and slavish Loyalty to your old Master but like the Gnat in the Fable you 'll fly to Court in Swarms to caress your new dear Providential Master and transfer your Allegiance to him for fear of being Crush'd 9. From your Sermon before the House I beg leave good Doctor to make some Reflections upon your Temple-Church Sermon in which as in your Fast-Sermon before the Queen you speak the Truth but not the whole Truth on the Subject of Prayer especially of publick Prayer * P. 8 9. by the Bishop and Ministers and whole Congregation You tell us That †P. 9. Prayers are the most Noble Exercise of Charity and that they are most acceptable to God because they are offered up in the Spirit of Charity And in your Fast Sermon you tell us That ‡ P. 26 27. Faith and Prayer are more powerful than Arms and that fervent and importunate Prayers are the most sure way to Conquer our Enemies and to prevail with God for a Blessing upon our Arms. Now Doctor all this as Some observe was said a thousand times in the great Rebellion when the Preachers of the Times made God a Party to their Wickedness and ascribed all their Success to Prayer They cited Gideon and Barach and Samson and Hezekiah as you ‖ f s p. 26 27. do But then after the Restauration our Church Divines used to observe that Justice as well as Charity was necessary to make Prayers acceptable to God and that the Fanatick Preachers though they talked so much of Prayer and of Faith and Charity and Fervency in Prayer and produced the Worthies of Scripture for Examples to shew the power of Prayer yet they never said one word of Justice without which Faith in Prayer is but a false Enthusiastical Persuasion Fervency Enthusiastical Heat all pretences to Charity Hypocrisie And Prayers themselves tho' never so frequent or long but an Abomination to the Lord. Dr. Patrick is very large on this Subject in his Jewish Hypocrisie which I commend to all Men's reading for his sake In that Discourse he shews at large how the Spirit of Pharisaisme was long regnant in the Jewish Church before the time of the Pharisees and that it consisted in a Great but Hypocritical Zeal for Fasting and Praying and all Religious Duties and under that Cloak to commit Injustice Rapine and Oppression as our Lord observed of the Pharisees That they devoured Widows Houses and for a pretence made long Prayers To this purpose our Clergy used generally to preach on Publick Fasts and Thanksgivings and truly there is so much Hypocrisie regnant in the World that they did well in doing so but now of late as if Astraea were returned from Heaven and the Golden Age restored we have either nothing or very little said of Justice upon Publick Fasts and Thanksgivings of Justice the most Difficult as well as Divine Virtue without which there is no Charity nor