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A49341
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A letter to the Bishop of Sarum being an answer to his Lordships pastoral letter / from a minister in the countrey.
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Lowthorp, John, 1658 or 9-1724.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing L3334; ESTC R5173
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43,367
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44
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A LETTER TO THE Bishop of Sarum BEING AN ANSWER To his LORDSHIPS Pastoral Letter From a Minister in the Countrey Printed in the Year 1690. A LETTER TO THE Bishop of Sarum My LORD YOUR Lorship has given the World so great and so many Instances of your Ability and Proficiency in all kinds of Learning and of your strength of Reasoning upon every Subject That it is the greatest Disadvantage imaginable to any Cause you can Espouse to be so Weakly Argued by you that room is left for an Answer to your Arguments This added to the Scruples I formerly Entertain'd has rais'd in me a more then common Jealousie that the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy in our present Circumstances Defended in your Lordships late PASTORAL LETTER are unjust and that they are Repugnant to the Laws of this Kingdom as well as to the Doctrine of the English Church The first Report indeed that I met with concerning your Lordships Letter together with the Character which I knew was justly due to the Author begat a Confident Expectation in me of being throughly Convinc'd by it and more than half a blind Resolution of adhering to it and complying with that which I am unwilling to call the Iniquity of the Times But alas my Lord as soon as I had with Earnestness and Impatience of being your Convert procur'd and read it I found my self under the greatest Disappointment I ever met with even so great that I cannot forbear doing this Violence to my own Temper which affects nothing so much as Ease and Privacy to Examine and compare it with such Remarks as I had before made for my own satisfaction and give these publique Reasons of my dissent from it I do not entertain the Vanity to believe that any thing I can offer will have so much of weight in it as to Convince your Lordship you have been mistaken for I am very sensible of my own weakness tho my Opinion of the goodness of the Cause prompts me to this unequal Undertaking besides I have Charity enough to hope you have far better Reasons for the Part you have Acted in this Surprising Revolution then those you have here thought fit to Publish But my design is to apply my self to your Lordship as to a Spiritual Physician and to lay open the state of my Disease and the very foundation of my Scruples before you that by Arguing the matter I may attain to the Truth And I doubt not but you will show the Goodness of your Nature as a Man and your Charity as a Bishop whereby you are Oblig'd to lead the Blind and support the Weak so far as to give me and the World some more satisfactory Directions for our Behaviour under these Difficulties of Publique Affairs This being then the design of this Letter I cannot prosecute it in a better Method then to wait on your Lordship from Page to Page and from Paragraph to Paragraph and to point out to you where your Reasons are not Conclusive nor Satisfactory I agree with your Lordship that should the Clergy choose rather to desert their stations Page 2. then swear the Oaths the Minds of the People would be much distracted And I suppose it is for this Reason that the Act particularly points at them to fright them if possible into a Submission to such things as the Doctrine of the Pulpits gave occasion to Believe they would not fail to boggle at But we must not Ez◠13 16 c. to prevent these Distractions sow Pillows under the Arms of the People and Lull them into a false Security I can with a like readiness Agree to the vast Importance of this matter Page 2. §. 1. And that this Consideration ought to move us to a serious Reflection on the Foundation of our Dissent before we fix on a Resolution so prejudicial possibly to the publick Peace Page 3. But it must be also allow'd of as great Importance to consider the Legality of these Oaths before we swallow ' em For it will be an Eternal Scandal on the Church of England if all her Sons conspire for the sake of Interest or Prosperity to take a Solemn Oath inconsistent with their former Oaths with the Doctrine of this Church and of particular Ministers in the discharge of their Cures I am sure a Favourable Providence Page 3. with a hopeful prospect of all Temporal Blessings and the fairest beginnings of the most desirable things we can hope or wish for on Earth are no Arguments for the Legality of any Revolution For if they were who could oppose a Successful Rebellion Or Rev. 13.4.7 since none shall be like the BEAST in the Revelations or be able to make War with him why shall not even the Saints when they be overcome by him be obedient to him and Support his Government Nor does the seeming Security of the Protestant Religion Page 3. and our Civil Liberties weigh more in this particular It is a preposterous way to secure our Religion by overturning the very Foundations of it and undertaking to direct the Allwise Providence in the proper Methods of supporting his own Cause The Fate of Vzzah is a fearful Example of the Divine Wrath against the rashness of those who contrary to his Revealed Will dare put forth their hands to hold up the Ark tho' just at the point to be overturn'd 2 Sam. 6.6 God will be obey'd in all his Commands and have this Honour of his Omnipotency left entire to himself to be avenged of his Enemies his own way Besides my Lord whatever danger we are in from a Popish Tyranny an Irish Conquest and Massacre Page 4. and French Barbarity and Cruelty tho this is neither apparent in it self nor the attempt thereof prov'd upon the King we must remember that they are Dangers of our own making For had all the Members of the Church of England been firm to their Maxims had they persisted in opposing all the violent and ill-advised Designs of the King but at the same time had they been Faithful to his Person and Government and when he open'd his Arms tho late and made such large steps towards a Reconciliation had they then return'd into his Bosome for Protection these things could not possibly have happen'd to us Had the King staid the Laws were such that till they were Repeal'd we were safe And none but our own Brethren who would Communicate with us at the Holy Table could have an Opportunity to break down those Hedges Since therefore we are Cheated into this Distress by our own Negligence and the Cunning Malicious Insinuations of others which however excusable in us as a Humane Failing yet persisted in turns Sin we must be well assur'd that the ways wherein we pursue our Deliverance are just and lawful least God should go on to punish Sin with Sin Page 3. This would be a Curse from God indeed and the certain Fore-runner not only of our Temporal
is a known Maxim that the King of England never dies This Kingdom knows no interregnum But when the Predecessor Ceases Then the Successor begins to Reign And therefore in all the Revolutions which have happen'd in England it is remarkable that the Right of Inheritance was always the Claim tho' often unjustly apply'd to the Person Thus K. Henry the Fourth Cott. Rec. 1 H. 4. P. 388. so soon as the Resignation of K. Richard the Second was read and the Sentence of Deposition was pronounc'd immediately stood up and CLAIM'D the Kingdom and Crown of England c. as his INHERITANCE descending by RIGHT from K. Henry the Third Nay even the Election of that Bloody Vsurper K. Richard the Third See the Record at large Cot. Rec. 1. R. 3. Page 709. by the Three Estates out of Parliament the only Precedent for our late Convention which was also confirm'd by a succeeding Parliament was grounded upon his RIGHT TITLE and ESTATE c. to and in the Crown c. by the Laws of God and Nature and also by the ancient Laws c. of this Realm c. And therefore it was Decreed c. That he was the very undoubted King c. as well by RIGHT of Consanguinity and INHERITANCE as by Election The Recognition of the Parliament to K. James the First is yet more full For they acknowledge 1 Jac. 1. c. 1. That IMMEDIATELY upon the Dissolution and Decease of Elizabeth late Queen of England the Imperial Crown of the Realm c. did by INHERENT BIRTH-RIGHT and Lawful and Vndoubted SUCCESSION descend c. to his Majesty From which and many other Passages in our Laws and Histories it is Evident that by the Constitution of this Government the Crown immediately devolves to the Heir by a Lineal Haereditary Right of Succession So that there is no room for either a Convention or a Parliament to appoint or determine the Successour because he is actual King before they can even Assemble to proclaim him much less to make such a Decision as manifestly supposes or makes an Interregnum and breaks the Succession by excluding the known Rightful Heir But I perceive your Lordship is positively in the Right Page 26. and that you have Examin'd the Nature of Civil Societies in general according to the Roman Law and the Nature of the English Government from the Laws and History of England with so much Care that you understand our Constitution much better then our Legislators themselves and may therefore be allowed to Contradict them as oft as you please But methinks some maintainers of a contrary Opinion deserve more Consideration from an English Bishop then your Lordship here seems willing to afford them It is a very bold Censure that at once reaches the Compilers of the Homilies a whole Vniversity and the Repeated Convocations of the Clergy and that charges all these Ornaments of the Church of England with want of Learning or Care to understand the Constitution of our own Government and of the Necessary Knowledge of the Degrees of Submission which are due from the Subjects to our Kings for all these agree that a Supream Power is lodg'd with them which Exempts them from being call'd to an Account Page 26. or Resisted by their People 1. Your Lordship sometime ago thought it Answer sufficient to the Bishop of Oxford to show that his Assertions were repugnant to the Doctrine of this Church as Exprest in the Homilies And prest it justly enough upon him that he must either Renounce our Church Enquiry into the Reasons for Abrogating the Test Art 35. and all he Possest in Consequence of his having Sign'd her Articles wherein it is Declar'd that the Homilies contain a Godly and wholesome Doctrine or else that he must Answer his own Plea Your Lordship has Subscrib'd them as well as He And if you continue of the same Opinion you too must either Retract or Resign For they lay this down for an Universal Principle That Kings and Princes Hom. against Reb. Par. 1. as well the EVIL as the GOOD do Reign by GOD's ORDINANCE and a little lower declare their Original to be neither by Chance and Fortune nor by Ambition but that they are SPECIALLY appointed by the ORDINANCE of GOD. They hence Conclude that when God gives a People an EVIL Prince he does it for the punishment of their Sins and that we are therefore bound to Obey such least after we have provok'd God by our Wickedness to place them over us by Rebelling against them we be found to Rebel also against God And to shew the reasonableness of this Opinion they add What a Perilous thing were it to Commit unto the Subjects the Judgment which Prince is Wise and Godly and his Government Good and which is Otherwise As though the Foot must Judge the Head But they carry the Case further and suppose the Prince to be Evil indeed and also evident to all Mens Eyes that he is so What 's to be done to have such an Evil remov'd from us Their Answer is Let us take away our Wickedness which provok'd God to place such a one over us and God will either displace him or of an Evil Prince make him a Good Prince so that we first will change our Evil into Good But to obviate all Objections that can be rais'd they go on thus Ib. Par. 2. Shall not we especially being so Good Men as we are Rise and Rebel against a Prince HATED of GOD and GOD's ENEMY and therefore likely not to prosper either in Peace or War but to be Hurtful and PERNICIOUS to the COMMON-WEALTH No. What shall we then do to an EVIL to an UNKIND Prince our KNOWN MORTAL and DEADLY ENEMY HATED of GOD HURTFUL to the COMMON-WEALTH c Lay no VIOLENT HAND upon him saith good David but let him LIVE till GOD appoint and work his End either by NATURAL DEATH or in War by LAWFUL ENEMIES not by TRAITEROUS SUBJECTS Lastly since the Redress of the Common-Wealth and the Defence of Religion are the usual Pretences for all Insurrections Ib. Par. 4. they have carefully prepar'd fit Antidotes against these Pests Against the former this Rebellion is the greatest Ruin and Destruction of all Common-Wealths and against the later this The TRUTH of the Gospel though it cost them their LIVES that Teach it is able to maintain the True Religion In a word 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 the Subjects may move Rebellion against their Princes I shall only observe upon all this that let the Pretence of taking Arms against the King be what it will the Compilers of these Homilies call it in plain Terms nothing less then Rebellion And therefore since this Doctrine is Calculated for the Meridian of England before I can submit to Swear the New Oaths whereby I should be oblig'd as much