lived and governed as he did before without the least animosity of his Subjects for his change or any endeavour to introduce any to his Government or People and dying the last Spring left the peaceable and undisturbed Rule of his Subjects to the next Successour his Brother the Bishop of Osnaburg who is a Protestant Now as Solomon says there is no new thing under the Sun but what hath been may be and if we do our duties we may be the more confident of the success of our Prayers That God will endue the Royal Family with his Holy Spirit c.. You do very naughtily therefore to represent the case as impossible and desperate as if God himself could not or would not order this great affair for the good of his People I am almost perswaded that the sins of the Nation to which this clamour against Succession hath given occasion by planting in the hearts of too many malice bitter enmity revilings and even abhorrence of one another is a greater evil than we are yet like to suffer from a Popish Successor And did we think he might prove to be such a one as he is too boldly represented we do very ill to exasperate and imbitter his Spirit by such Libels Slanders and such unlawful Contrivances as in all probability made Julian worse than he would have been I therefore heartily wish that you had spared that Grinning Complement to use your term which you borrowed from Dr. Howel in his life of Julian That if it stand with his H.'s good liking he would enjoy that Religion to the greatest advantage and take his fill of it at the Fountain-head I shall rather pray he may never go thither There are too many Crowned heads at the devotion of his Holiness already Such Complementers I am sure do not pray heartily that God would prosper him with all happiness here and hereafter What to perswade him to cast himself down over some precipice as Curtis did p. 19. of the Character of a Popish Successour or like that mentioned by our Author to be presented to Cromwel p. 87. that to kill himself is no Murther If it be out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaketh none but men of murtherous intentions will so speak P. 23. You are throughly satisfied you say that the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy are Protestant Oaths as a great Assertor of our Religion and Laws now with God thought fit to term them Sir W.J. I confess was a good Lawyer but how he could call them Protestant Oaths I know not * See L. Cooks Reports N. 7. fol. 6. and fol. 7. in Calvins Case And his Institutes Sect. 94. and 259. The Oath of Allegiance was long before the name of Protestants came up King James onely enlarged it and appointed it to be taken of all in Court-Leets at Sixteen Years of age as you have observed Nor is there any new thing at all in that Oath more than what all Protestant Princes do generally require of their Subjects And as for that of Supremacie it is one of the ancient Regalia of the Kings of England which our Parliaments still defended against the encroachments of the Pope so that the thing was in being long before King Henry the Eighth brought it into a form and he was yet a Popish Prince when he did it And I have read that Queen Mary her self would hardly part with the acknowledgement of her Supremacie It is not peculiar then to Protestants or if it were I am afraid that some who term themselves the true Protestants would be found no great Friends to it For there are many other Sects as well as the Anabaptists who are now called sound Protestants refuse it And the late Sanctions were intended equally against them all I agree with you that we are all bound by them to endeavour in our place to keep out Poperie but not by Rebellion and the bringing in of Confusion As to what you say of twisting a Popish Interest with these Oaths as Julian endeavoured to entangle the Christians There are matters more pertinent and more fully related by St. Gregory Nazianzene than by you There was saith he an Anniversarie-day wherein the Emperour bestowed Donatives of Gold on his Souldiers when at the same time he had provided Fire Frankincense and several persons to perswade the Souldiers to kindle the Incense as an ancient Rite and more becoming the Imperial Dignity By such arts and perswasions many of the inconsiderate Souldiers were circumvented and kindled the Frankincense but at their return and feasting together they drank to each other and with Eyes lifted up and using the Sign of the Cross they made mention of Christ Whereupon one of their Companie said What strange thing is this Do ye call on Christ after you have denied him At which they being astonished said How have we denied him what is your meaning He answered By throwing Frankincense into the Fire which is a denial of Christ Whereat leaping up speedily from their Feast they ran forth as so many distracted men into the Market-place proclaiming We are Christians we are Christians in our hearts Let all men hear us and God above all to whom we live and to whom we will die We have not broken our Covenant with thee O Christ our Saviour nor abjured our blessed Profession If our Hands have offended our Minds are not guilty It was not the Gold but the Emperour's fraud that circumvented us We have put off impiety having been purged in bloud Then hasting to the Emperour and with great resolution casting their Gold at his Feet said We have not receiv'd a Donary O Emperour but a Condemnation You called us not to receive marks of Honour but a brand of Ignominy Let your Souldiers receive such Largesses slay and sacrifice us to Christ to whose Empire onely we submit our selves Revenge one fire with another and reduce us to dust for the dust that we have cast into the fire Cut off those hands which we have unhappily stretched out and those Feet that carried us to it Give your Gold to such as may not repent the receiving it Christ alone sufficeth us whom we value above all things Having said thus and informing others of the fraud and exhorted them to recover themselves out of this snare and satisfie Christ even with their Bloud The Emperour though highly provoked would not make a publick slaughter of them who as much as in them lay were desirous of it he commanded them to be banished Methinks here is much of the resolution of the Thebaean Legion who voluntarily offered themselves to death rather than have the guilt of kindling Incense though without any evil intention at the command of the Emperour From whence I gather that these Heroick Christians thought themselves under the same obligation in Julian's time as the Thebaeans did in that of Maximian Which is your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such an errour in your foundation as we shall
Bishops who were denied to vote in case of Bloud did joyn or were consulted with And Cambden observes that the same day when the Sentence was pronounc'd against the Queen of Scots it was declared by the Delegates and Judges of the Kingdom That that Sentence should derogate nothing from the Right or Honour of James King of Scots but that he should be in the same Estate Order and Right as if that Sentence had never been given p. 465. So that the whole matter being considered here was no Exclusion of a Popish Successour but rather a tacit confirmation of one that was a Protestant and consequently it must be a great slander on those worthy Bishops by him named that they were zealous for such Acts of Exclusion for the business of the Queen of Scots did concern matters of Treason such as you say might exclude her out of the world as also the Reasons of Sir Simon d'Ewes tended to the taking away of her life and therefore come not home to the Case of Succession nor does Sir Simon tell us whose Reasons they were and I suspect them to be the Opinions of some private person who having spoken all-along in the plural number he discovereth himself at the end in these words God I trust in time shall open her Majesties eyes to see their cruel purposes c. P. 18. You say what another hath said before you That a Bill of Exclusion is a perfect Courtship to these Reasons True if the Heir apparent or presumptive were under the same circumstance with that Queen but 't is perfect Cruelty to endeavour the like Exclusion of a Popish Successour as such onely not onely from his Right but out of his Life And now no man else needs turn his fury or reproaches upon those Bishops you have done that sufficiently As for your Protestation p. 19. that if but one Reason can be given to prove a Bill of Exclusion to be unlawful which will be owned to be a Reason a week after and the owners not be ashamed you do solemnly promise to joyn in renouncing those Old Reformers and readily follow their New Guides and Lights The Apostle gives you a Reason which is of eternal verity viz. We may not do evil that good may come of it And he assures you that the condemnation of such as affirm the contrary is just Rom. 3.8 And to any but an Ignoramus that of Dan. 4.25 may serve as another Reason The most High ruleth in the Kingdom of men and giveth it to whom he will To which adde If it be of God ye cannot overthrow it lest ye be found to fight against God Acts 4.39 And for your renouncing the Old Reformers you have done that with the utmost spite and reproach that all the Wit of a Julian or the Malice of a Colledge of Jesuits could invent as if they had been the Judges and Executioners of the Queen of Scots under the Notion of a Popish Successor Wherefore I would advise our Author to consider what occasion he hath given to the Enemies of that Church whereof I suppose him a Member if not a Priest to reproach her for from this Story of his no doubt it was that the scurrilous and Bedlam-Author of the Pamphlet called Crape-Gownorum hath thus commented It is plain that the Church of England men did hold King-killing or Queen-killing Doctrine which is the same thing so that if Knox Buchanan or Calvin first taught the Speculative part the other meaning those Bishops named by our Author first put it in practice and set the fatal president that others followed that is in the murder of King Charles the first for at that he aims when he threatneth us to let 641 sleep in Oblivion lest we awake 587. intimating that what was done in the process of that War viz. that barbarous Murther perpetrated on the Royal Person of Charles the First may be justified on the Principles of our Reformers Whatever may be told in Gath and published in the streets of Askalon to make those Philistims rejoyce I cannot permit this diabolical Slander to pass without a brand on the Author of it here at home and to vindicate those Worthies and silence our Adversaries the Jesuits and to prevent the ill consequents of this Forgery which may stir up the Phanaticks of this Nation to act over our former Tragedies I shall first relate the matter of fact and the grounds of that Severity which was used against that Queen and shew you the most deliberate Judgment of those Reverend Bishops in the Case of Resisting lawful Authority First As to the matter of fact it is beyond denial that the Queen of Scots married the Lord Darly a Subject to the Crown of England who being slain whether by her consent or not I will not determine but she was questioned by her Subjects for incontinent living the death of her Husband and for Tyranny and was forced to resigne her Crown to her Son then about thirteen months old so that she was no longer a Crowned head After which she raiseth an Army and is defeated by Murray and being imprisoned makes an escape into England where a Council was called to consult how to dispose of her It was resolved that to let her pass into France might prove dangerous and worse to send her back to Scotland And to prevent farther mischief she should not be dismissed from England till she had made satisfaction for the death of her Husband a Subject and Peer of England and for usurping the Arms of England and pretending a Title to the Crown During her restraint here she contrives many Plots against the Peace of the Nation both with France by the Duke of Guise and D'Alva Governour of the Netherlands and at home by the Dukes of Northumberland to whom she promised marriage and Westmoreland who raised a Rebellion in the North for her Rescue both which suffered the first was beheaded the last died in Exile By her instigation a Bull was sent from Rome discharging the Subjects of England from their Obedience to the Queen Then follows the Conspiracy of Tho. and Edw. Stanly Sons to the Earl of Darby Several Invasions were also made in Ireland to disturb that Kingdom by the joynt Counsels of the King of Spain and Pope Gregory the 13th and a swarm of Jesuits are sent into England and contrive with Throgmorton Paget and others for another Insurrection which was prevented The Nobles and Gentry seeing no hopes of Peace through such daily practices entered into an Association to prosecute all those even to death that should attempt any thing against the Queen and prevailed for a closer restraint of her which notwithstanding one Babington conveyed Letters between Her and France and engaged divers to murther the Queen which was discovered to Secretary Walsingham as also the manner how the Queen of Scots conveyed Letters to the Spanish Embassador and other Confederates whereupon fourteen of them were executed and in the Parliament
justifie resistance of lawful Powers having in effect not onely drawn the Sword but cast away the Scabbard We are told of one that was ready to kick an Emperour and of others that play'd with his Beard but this is little less than kicking at the Crown and striking a blow at the root to render the whole Family as glorious as they made the Father of it Unless he can give some other sence of it than this Rather than not exclude the D. we will exclude the glorious Family of the Stuarts And in what sence he calls it a glorious Family needs his explication But will the Exclusion of the D. as certainly prevent our misery as his Succession effect it Did you never read how zealous some Priests and Pharisees were for a Bill of Exclusion against a far better person John 11.47 48. What do we for this man doth many Miracles if we let him thus alone all men will believe on him the Romans will come take away both our place nation And did not the passing that Bill make way for the Romans to bring all their fears on their own heads And was not our late dear King excluded from Crown Kingdom and life upon such fears and was that a means of our Peace and Happiness I wish I could say our fears now are as false as they were then We have his R. H. Declaration for our Security viz. That the Members of the Church of England are the best supporters of the Crown Insomuch that if it fall to him to be concerned he will ever countenance and preserve them and it And p. 225. Why may we not suppose that a Popish Successor will defend his Regalia against the Pope Our Ancient Kings did so in the Reign of Rich. 2.16 c. 5. In a Statute of Praemunire the Parliament declares That the Crown of England against the Encroachments of the Pope hath been so free at all times that so hath been in no earthly subjection but immediately subject to God in all things touching the Regalty of the same Crown and to none other And God defend say they that it should be submitted to the Pope and the Laws and Statutes of the Realm be by him defeated and avoided at his will in perpetual destruction of the Soveraignty of the King our Lord his Crown Regalty and of all his Realm And I hope his Royal Highness will say as they did God defend Moreover the Commons say That the things so attempted viz. purchasing Bulls from Rome executing Judgments given in the Court of Rome translating of Prelates out of the Realm or from one Preferment to another be clearly against the Kings Crown and Regalty used and approved of the time of all his Progenitors Wherefore they and all the siege Commons of the same Realm will stand with our said Lord the King and his Crown and Regalty in the Cases aforesaid and in all other cases attempted against him and his Crown and Regalty in all points to live and to dye And moreover they pray the king and him require by way of Justice that he would examine all the Lords in the Parliament as well Spiritual as Temporal severally and all the Estates of the Parliament how they think of the Cases aforesaid which be so openly against the Kings Crown and in derogation of his Regalty how they will stand in the same cases with our Lord the King in upholding the rights of the said Crown and Regalty The like promises were made by the Lords Temporal and Spiritual and the default was to be punished by a Praemunire which is To be put out of the King protection and their Lands and Tenements Goods and Chattels forfeited to the King and that they be attached by their bodie if they may be found and brought before the King and his Council there to answer to the Cases aforesaid c. Now if these professed Papists did so resolutely and unanimously contest the Regalia against the Pope what greater zeal and resolution may we justly expect from a Protestant Parliament for such we may have if it be not our own fault if the Pope or any Agents of his should attempt to destroy the foundations of our established Religion and Laws Moreover in the days of Queen Mary we read how much time and what contrivances and largesses it cost that Queen to form a Parliament to lier liking though then the Nation were mostly Papists and how much they contended still for the Regalia against the Pope and reserving of Abby-lands c. to the Purchasers nor when all was done did any man suffer without publick process in form of Law there were no throats cut nor bloudshed by private Messengers or Assassinates as we are taught to expect from every Justice of Peace and Tything man p. 85. and by I know not what Janizaries and that we shall be slain to see what Grimaces we make p. 89. Besides the number that suffered in her five years were not comparable to the number that have been slain in one hours fight during the Rebellion nor indeed to those that were Martyred for their Religion and Loyalty by illegal proceedings in the Mock-Courts of Justice during that Vsurpation the number of the Marian Martyrs being not above three or four hundred though they were too many Now a Wise man should look back upon the mischiefs that have befallen the Nation by resisting the lawful Prince and the endeavours to alter the Succession from the right Heir as well as forward upon the mischiefs that may never be and which upon a supposition of a Popish Successour are aggravated almost beyond a possibilitie of being effected Remember what it cost the Nation when the Succession to the Crown was disputed between the Houses of York and Lancaster There perished in that War as Historians do account two Kings one Prince ten Dukes two Marquesses twentie one Earls twentie seven Lords two Viscounts one Lord Prior one Judge one hundred thirtie nine Knights four hundred twentie one Esquires and of the Gentrie and Commons an incredible number So that in such cases the Remedie is generally worse than the Disease I have not said this God is my witness to abate the just and honest care of the Nation to keep out Poperie by such timely provision as his Majestie and his great Council shall see most probable but to allay the inordinate Hearts which may set the whole Kingdom in a sudden flame onely to prevent the fear of the suffering a Trial of our Faith if God should call us to it And I cannot consider without some horror what sore and long Wars and Devastations may follow upon a Bill of Exclusion as well as on a Popish Successor And if of two evils the least is to be chosen I should rather if the Will of God so be submit to my lot how hard soever under such a One than that the whole Nation should be rent in pieces again either by a Rebellion at home or Invasions
Zachary did abselve the French from their Oath of Allegiance his reason is for Hottoman a French-man and a Lawyer denieth that Chilperick was deposed by the Popes authoritie or that his Kingdom was given to Pepin but that all this was transacted by the authoritie of the great Council of that Nation as appears by ancient Annals which shew that there was no need of absolving the Subjects from that Oath which also Pope Zachary utterly denied for in the French Histories it is recorded as Hottoman and Girardus witness That the French did from the beginning reserve to themselves a power as of chusing so of deposing their Kings and that they were not wont to swear any other Fidelitie to the Kings whom they created than that they would yield them Faith and Allegiance if their Kings did perform that which they also swore to do So that if the King by male-administration first broke his Oath there was no need of the Pope the perfidiousness of the King having absolved the subjects from their Oath Yet lest this Invention of Milton's own should not be of weight to clear his Holiness he brings the Popes infallible testimonie for himself Pope Zachary says he who you say did arrogate that authoritie to himself excuseth it and lays it on the People for the Popes words are these If the Prince be obnoxious to the People by whose beneficence he possesseth his Kingdom the People that make the King may depose him So that the result of all is the Pope and Fanatick are agreed in this Principle The Majestas realis is in the People as Bellarmine with Buchanan do assert and They that create the King may destroy him with the same breath How industrious this Mercenarie man is to vindicate the Pope whenas his own Creatures acknowledge that he was the Dux Gregis the grand Instrument of dethroning that King and sharing his Inheritance In a Dialogue between Theophilus a Christian and Philander a Jesuit Bishop Bilson p. 418. of Christian Subjection brings in Theophilus saying Your Law doth not stick to boast that Zacharias deposed Childerick King of France and placed Pepin in his room Philander answers And so he did Theoph. Who says so besides you Philand Platina saith Ejus authoritate regnum Franciae Pipino adjudicatur By Zachary 's authoritie the Kingdom of France was adjudged to Pepin And Frisingensis affirmeth that Pepin was absolved from the Oath of Allegiance by Pope Steven which he had given to Childerick and so were the rest of the Nobles of France and then the King being shaven and thrust into a Monasterie Pepin was anointed King which you think much the Pope should do in our days Theoph. Zachary was consulted with whether it might lawfully be done or no he did not openly intermeddle with the matter whatever his privie practices were though many of your Bishops and Monks to grace the Pope make it his onely act But hear Zachary 's own words when Volorade and Burchard were sent to understand his judgment I find saith he in the sacred storie of Divine Scripture that the people fell away from their wretchless and lascivious King that despised the Counsel of the Wise men of his Realm and created a sufficient man of themselves King This was likely the case of Jeroboam who had a special Warrant from God God himself allowing their doings All power and rule belongs to God Princes are his Ministers and therefore chosen for the people that they should follow the Will of God and not do what they list All that he hath as Power Glorie Riches Honour and Dignitie he receiveth of the People the People create the King and may when the cause requireth forsake the King It is therefore lawful for the Franks refusing this Monster Childerick to chuse one able in War and Peace by his wisdom to protect and keep in safetie their Wives Children Parents Goods and Lives This is the Popes Divinitie saith Bishop Bilson that Kings have their power of the People which the Scripture saith they have from God Now as to the Annals of France it is true that the Pope had not intirely grasped the power of deposing Princes in those days but made use of other Instruments yet this was done say the Annals Pontifice prius consulto as Sabellicus and the Gloss in verb. Deposuit i. e. deponentibus consensit The true reason was this Pepin was a man on whom the Pope relied to quell the Lombards and defeat the Grecians that he and Pepin might divide the Spoils of the West as it came to pass for the Emperour was turned out of Italy Now let the Reader judge how diligent an Advocate Milton is for the Pope that notwithstanding his own words advising it and the testimonie of his own creatures affirming it and the matter of fact and the event demonstrating it would yet excuse him from having a hand in deposing of that French King And is this a fit Guide for our Modern Writers Is it not possible as our Author says but to take many things from Doleman in the case of Succession and many more from Milton when you would irritate or defend the People of England in case of Resistance and Regicide Have the Boutefeus of this Age nothing to set the Nation into a flame but those Firebrands which were rak'd up in the Ashes of that prosligate Villain Milton who pleaded the Cause of the Pope Gratis and for money that of Good God! what a Spirit of Rebellion is spread over the Land when as it was observed by Dr. Heylen at the beginning of the last unnatural War No times were more full of Odious Pamphlets no Pamphlets more aplauded nor more dearly bought than such as do most deeply wound those Powers and Dignities to which the Law hath made us subject Methinks we are like the man in the Gospel Matth. 12.44 out of whom the unclean Spirit being cast out it walked up and down through drie places seeking rest and finding none then said he I will return to my house from whence I came out and finding it emptie swept and garnished he taketh with him seven other Spirits more wicked than himself and they enter in and dwell there and the last state of that man is worse than the first Deus avertat Omen I beg my Readers pardon that I may animadvert a little on these Libellers and acquaint them that to their Progenitors we owed the kindling fomenting and inflaming those late Wars that made us a confusion at home a scorn and a reproach abroad Prynne Burton and Bastwick were like so many Foxes let loose and encouraged like the Priests and Preco's of Mars to scatter Fire-brands through the Nation Nor would the times permit a little water to be sprinkled for the quenching of them but fed them with oyl The Laws were silenced and out-lawed then as they are now as if indeed we were inter Arma there wanted not scourges to punish them but an arm to inflict the legal