and Son of Impiety and Injustice Edmund the Great Earl of Kent with some other persons began to Conspire against them Which Q. Isabel who deserves the name of Jesabel perceiving privately encouraged the Keepers of her Husband to murder him but his Son coming to Maturity of Understanding avenged his blood on Mortimer his Mother's Minion and his Accomplices whom the Lords of Parliament with his assent adjudged and condemned to be executed as Traitors for murdering the King after he was deposed The Queen her self also had like to have been questioned and in the Roll 4 Edw. III. which gives an account of this matter he is stiled by all the Lords and the young King himself their King and Leige Lord. And in the 21 R. II. N. 64 65. the Revocation of the Act for the two Spencers Restitution in the Parliament of 1 Edward III. was repealed because made at such a time by King Edw. III. as his Father being very King was Living and Imprisoned These two Acts of Parliament Doctor do not at all agree with your Reasonings for the Providential King but they agree most exactly with the Reasonings of Some Men which you say contradicts the general sense of Mankind For as Mr. Pryn well observes they shew that Edw. II. was King de jure or King in the Eye of the Law as much after his Deposition as before it and by consequence that his Deposition by the Estates who had no Authority to Depose him was a void Act and if he was very King when he was in Prison and his Regnant Son's King and Leige Lord at the time of his murder as the aforesaid Acts declare him then Doctor I fear it will follow that a pure Providential K. in Possession is no King at all 11. But from this Usurpation let us pass to that of Henry IV. who was set up by Providence and the Estates of the Realm who took upon them to depose Richard II. and place Henry in his Throne But Henry being conscious to himself that he wanted Legal Right though he had all the Right that Providence could give him yet not daring to trust to such an airy Tite nor his false pretences of being the right Heir caused Richard to be murdered but between his Deposition and Murder Thomas Merks Bishop of Carlisle a Brave and Godly Prelate preferring his Duty before his Safety took the courage to make a Speech in Parliament against the Validity of Richard's Deposition and the Justice of Henry's Election and if you please Doctor to read this Speech as it is at large in our Historians you will find in spight of all your prejudice that he was a very Wise and Considering Man and entirely of these Mens Opinion and produced those Reasons for it which you say Contradict the general sense of Mankind in all Revolutions The first part of his Speech is to prove that a King may not be deposed by his Subjects for any imputation of negligence and Tyranny and to make this out clearly he brings an ugly Arbitrary distinction betwixt Kings in a Popular or Consular State which really have not Regal Rights but are subject to a Superior Power and Kings in whom the Sovereign Majesty is as it formerly was in the Kingdoms of Israel and Judea c. and now is in the Kingdoms of England Spain France and Scotland c. in which the Sovereignty or Supream Authority is in the King After this distinction which Some among us now use he asserts that in such Kingdoms where the Sovereignty is by Law in the King although the Prince for his Vices be unprofitable to his Subjects yea hurtfull yea intollerable yet they cannot lawfully harm his Person or hazard his Power by Judgment or by Force because neither one nor all the Magistrates have any Authority over him from whom all Authority is deriv'd and whose only presence doth silence and suspend all inferior Jurisdictions and Power and as for force saith he what Subject can attempt assist or counsel or conceal Violence against his Prince and not incurr the high and heinous Crime of Treason Then he proceeds to prove this as you do in your Case of Non-resistance from Examples of Saul and Ahab in the Old Testament and many Texts of Scripture Then he proceeds to answer the great Objection thus Doth the King enjoyn Actions contrary to the Law of God We must neither wholly Obey nor violently Resist but with a constant courage submit our selves to all manner of Punishment and shew our subjection by enduring and not performing Oh how shall the World be pestered with Tyrants if Subjects may Rebel upon every pretence of Tyranny How many good Princes may be suppressed by those by whom they ought to be supported If they Levy a Subsidy or other Taxation it shall be claimed Oppression if they put any to Death for Traiterous attempts against their Persons it shall be exclaimed Cruelty if they do any thing against the lust and liking of the People it shall be proclaimed Tyranny Having shew'd as his words are that King Richard was deposed without Authority Then he proceeds to shew that Henry had no Title First Not as Heir to Richard which he pretended for then he ought to stay till King Richard was dead but then if K. Richard was dead it was well known there were Descendents from Lionel Duke of Clarence whose Offspring had been declared in the High Court of Parliament next Successor to the Crown in case K. Richard should die without Issue Secondly Not by Conquest because a Subject can have no right of Conquest against a Sovereign where the War is Rebellion and the Victory High Treason Nor thirdly by K. Richard's Resignation because he made it in Prison where it was exacted of him by force and therefore it had no force or validity to bind him Nor last of all by Election for saith he we have no Custom that the People at pleasure should Elect their King but they are always bound unto him who by Right of Blood is Rightfull Successor much less can they make good or confirm that Title which is before Usurped by violence Then he saith that the deposing of Edw. II. which the Barons produced for an Example to depose Richard was no more to be urged than the Poisoning of K. John or the Murdering any other lawful Prince and that we must live according to Laws and not according to Example and that the Kingdom however then was not taken from the lawfull Successor Then after saying many other things he concludes thus I have declared my mind concerning this Question in more words than your Wisdom yet fewer than the weight of the Cause requires and boldly conclude that we have neither Power nor Policy either to depose King Richard or to Elect Duke Henry into his Place and that K. Richard still remaineth our Sovereign Prince and that it is not lawfull for us to give Judgment upon him and that the Duke whom you call King
of their Majesties before their Faces without any regard to their Modesty which is undoubtedly as great as any of their other Virtues But since you took the Oath it hath been a great part of your Study and Employment to write Panegyricks on them and Satyrs against their Father whereof the true reason was long since observed upon another occasion by Aeneus Sylvius which is this That the Providential King in Possession hath Bishopricks and Deanries at his disposal but the Legal King out of Possession hath nothing to bestow 6. There is yet another passage in your Sermon before the House which I beg you to reflect upon it is in the tenth page where you say that it is an amazing Providence that God should expose the greatest Example of Piety and Virtue that had sat upon the English Throne to such Indignities and Sufferings Indeed Sir according to your new Doctrine which denies the distinction betwixt God's permission and appointment a Man may be overwhelmed with amazement to think that God should so expose him but it is no such matter of amazement to a Master in Israel to think he should suffer or permit them to be so exposed according to that excellent Doctrine which you formerly taught in a Sermon entitled Some seasonable Reflections on the late Plot. There you tell us in the 11. page That although God doth many times permit things to be done or else no Man could ever be guilty of any sin yet his forbidding it is an argument he doth not approve of it and no Man can reasonably expect success in Plotting against his Prince but he who certainly knows that God for some wise ends and hidden reasons will suffer such a villany to take effect which no Man can know without a Revelation You Printed this Sermon since you published your Case of Non-resistance by which you truly proved by this distinction that Athaliah and Nuncle Cromwel were not the Ordinance of God and unless you fly to this distinction again you will never get out of your amazement but if you retreat to the Sanctuary of this old distinction you will be able to unfold the Mystery of Providence and solve the difficulties of it in such hard cases as that of the Royal Martyr where God for wise Reasons of his own doth only suffer Rebels and Regicides to succeed in their wicked designs but he doth not approve of what they do nor declare by the events of his Providence that he orders appoints or authorizes whot is done by them Were that so indeed as you teach in your Case of Allegiance and suppose to be true in your Temple Sermon a Man might well be amazed and perplexed into a Labyrinth of difficulties and absurdities and to rid his mind of them be tempted rather to think there was no God But this distinction removes all perplexities and sets the mind at ease and freedom And Dr. I appeal to your own Conscience if it doth not often obtrude it self upon your thoughts since you disclaimed it and whether your Understanding so perplexed with amazing Providences is not often ready to embrace it whether you will or no Indeed it overthrows the whole Fabrick of your Allegiance to their Majesties upon the Providential Hypothesis but your learned Adversaries have made it good against you e. from p. 5. to p. 15. b. from p. 32. to p. 39. c. ch p. 6. d. from p. 62. to p. 82. and before you Preach up the Divine Right of Providence again read the places in them cited in the Margent and when you have read them lay your Hand on your Heart if it be not hardened and repent for having revived an old repudiated Doctrine which will prove Antichrist to reign by God's Authority and that he is the Auhor of all Successful Wickednesses in the World 7. When I first began to put Pen to Paper I did not intend to dwell so long upon your Sermon before the House but there are so many loose passages in it and so obnoxious to some among our selves that I cannot but take notice of them and shew you how they expose you for them In the justification of the Prince of Orange's Undertaking you tell us That he was no Subject of England P. 19. To which they reply that you knew this before you took the Oath and used to say that the Prince though he was not the King 's Subject yet ye was his Enemy and that we ought to have aided the King against him as such And whereas you tell us that he was an Independent Prince they observe that according to your Principle of Possession he was no Prince at all but that the French King had been long Prince of Orange by a Providential Right As for what you say of his Relation to the Crown and securing the Succession they tell you to expose your weak way of arguing that Absolom was related to the Crown of David that the Crown hath suffered much by its Relations and that the Law is the best security for the Succession And then as for the Reflection you make upon the Greatest Sufferers who you tell us were well satisfied with the Prince's undertaking and could not be persuaded to declare their Abhorrence of it They say if that were true it did not become you to expose them for it who were greatly offended at the Bishop of London for the Speech which he made to his Highness at St. James's and who told a great Sufferer to whom you complained of his Lordship that you repented of every pleasing thought you had of the Prince's coming and beg'd God's pardon that you among the rest of the Clergy had not exhorted the people to assist the King against him You also went so far in opposing the Prince as to print an Answer to Dr. Burnet's Enquiry into the present State of Affairs which he wrote to facilitate the Prince's Access to the Crown You also wrote an Apology for the Non-Swearers which you could not new answer if it were in print and yet without considering that you were one of them and what Decorum you ought above all others to keep in speaking of them you bring this malicious Reflection over again in your first Letter concerning the French Invasion But there will be an Answer to it which will sufficiently vindicate them and shew what a Sycophant you are and therefore I shall pass it over here In the 20th page you endeavour to excuse those who were more active in the Revolution undoubtedly to flatter some of the most active Members who you say At that time while the King continued with us thought no more than to obtain a free Parliament and then you tell us That the King would not stand Trial but disbanded his Army withdrew his Person and lest no Authority behind him To all which Dr. I must beg leave to confront what I find in your Answer to Dr. Burnet's Enquiry Sometimes his withdrawing his Person and Seals is a giving
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