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A49127
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Reflections upon a late book, entituled, The case of allegiance consider'd wherein is shewn, that the Church of England's doctrine of non-resistance and passive obedience, is not inconsistent with taking the new oaths to Their Present Majesties.
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Long, Thomas, 1621-1707.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing L2979; ESTC R9832
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10,302
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20
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of England quâ talis long before he left the Land for the Government being an Office entrusted for Administration according to Laws and the late King's Grandfather having declared to his Subjects in the Star Chamber June 20. 1616. that being sworn to Maintain the Laws of the Land he should be perjured if he should alter them and our ancient Lawyers declaring that Non est Rex ubi dominatur voluntas non lex And that of Fleta Rex non à regnando sed regendo nam Rex est dum bene regit Tyrannus cùm populum opprimit And Spelman of the word Allegiantia that it is a word importing vinculum Arctius inter regem subditos utrosque invicem connectens And the resolution of some very judicious Divines that if one party that is mutually ingaged do violate his obligation the other is not obliged and that that Oath is not to be kept the execution whereof is destructive of the common safety On these grounds many great men may judge that for these and the like causes a Crown may be forseited yet I suppose there are other Foundations layed by those great men in which I do acquiesce As first that the present King being a free Prince and no Subject of the King of England and having a right Title to the Succession to the Crown of England as well in his own right as in right of his Queen whereof he was endeavoured by the subtil arts of Jesuits to be deprived and the present King being also constituted the Head of the Protestant party who were destinated to utter ruin by confederacies against them did for these causes successfully vindicate his Title and the legal Succession and put the Protestant Cause in a fair way of establishment upon which success the late King having deserted first the Government and then the Land and fled to an inveterate Enemy of our Religion and Nation whether through his own or the counsel of the Jesuits to whose conduct he had committed his Conscience and the administration of the Government directly contrary to the Laws of the Land and leaving us under a standing Army wherein was a considerable party of Irish Papists who being left unpaid and ordered to disband were likely to be very injurious to the English Subjects I am convinced that he hath lawfully vindicated the Succession to himself and the Royal Family And secondly I assent to the judgment of my Superiors that the Crown of England being thus made void was rightfully set on the Heads of the present King and Queen and that the present Transactions are much more justifiable than what was done in the Case of Henry the Seventh and acknowledged by Parliament my Reasons whereof I shall give hereafter and shall now give you my Remarks on the Case of Allegiance wherewith I was generally well pleased both with the Matter and Stile and which I hope may have a good effect with many men for their full satisfaction for which I verily believe it was charitably and ingeniously intended by the Author until in the last Page I read this following passage whereupon I began to make my Remarks viz That in the next Reign after King James which all know was that glorious Martyr Charles First when Popish and French Counsels found admission at our Court then arose together the new Principles of Super-conformity in the Church and Super-Loyalty in the State which like a preternatural ferment have ever since disturbed the peace of both and must be again cast out if ever we recover a true English temper or peaceful settlement c. This and some other passages which I shall name made me suspect that he was under some discontent though p. 2. he says he had no angry resentment of his sufferings And p. 19. speaking of the Bishops who petitioned the late King he calls them some of his Bishops And of the Clergy he says p. 31. There have been for some time a Party among us who have appropriated to themselves the Church of England exclusive of their Brethren yet we shall find enough on our side to justifie our Doctrines to be consistent with her Principles And p. 32. That the Principles of Loyalty which obtained in the Church at that time viz. Queen Elizabeth were no other than what he asserts He would prove from the Prayer they are charged with by the Parliament in Queen Mary's Reign That God would turn her heart from Idolatry to the true Faith or else shorten her days and take her quickly out of the way and more to this purpose out of the Journal of Simon D'Eurs of which I doubt not to say that these Assertions are not agreeable to the Doctrine and Practice of the Church of England These passages did a little amuze me as reflecting too severely on the best of Kings and the most discreetly Loyal Church in the World. As for the King of Blessed Memory his first years were full of peace till being reduced to some necessities not thrô his own fault but such as by other unhappy circumstances he was reduced to some Malecontents took advantage thereof to drive him to greater the vogue was his being misled by evil Counsellors such as the Archbishop and Strafford who I have reason to believe were as far from Popery or French Counsels as any Ministers of State before or since As for that good Prince I can't without indignation hear that he inclined to Popish Counsels for thô he be termed the head of the Grotian Religion and Grotius for an arrant Papist yet it is well known in what Religion he both lived and died as also did those two great Ministers the Earl and the Arch-bishop of whom Sir Edw. Dearing said That he had smitten the great Champion of the Papists under the fifth rib And though the King married to a French Lady yet he espoused not her Religion much less the Counsels of that Court to which he was alway averse Yet I remember it was said by a late Writer That the Parliament whom he was bound to believe made it their great argument and advantage against the King that he favoured the Papists on which supposition thousands came in to fight for their cause And one Article against the Arch-bishop was That he endeavoured to introduce Popery though Mr. Prynne proved a design of the Papists to cut them both off as their most formidable Enemies And the Relation of Dr. Du Moulin saith That at the death of that good King a known Papist was heard to say That now their greatest Enemy was cut off I think no good man will accuse the Nation of Super-Loyalty in the State when so much real Mischief was wrought by such groundless Jealousies that caused a fatal War against so Religious a Prince and by the same Arts a preternatural Ferment as he says has ever since disturbed the Peace of the State. As to the other head the Super-Conformity that troubled the Church which must be cast out or he
true Members The only thing therefore to be considered is what hath been done as to resistance in this late Revolution how the chief Bishops of the Church behaved themselves under his Reign is fresh in memory that in all lawful things they yielded submission and obedience and in things unlawfully imposed they made no resistance but submitted to even illegal Impositions Fines and Imprisonments until the King 's deserting of them whereby he became as if he were naturally dead the case of Allegiance was altered and utterly ceased It is but vainly objected that the late King was forced to desert the Government which in truth he never intended to administer as he ought which intention was evidently declared notwithstanding his Coronation-Oath by the whole series of his Government having wholly devoted himself to the Counsels of Popish Ministers for the Subversion of the Established Religion and Laws and for the setling of Popery and Arbitrary Government at the cost of his Life wherein being by a wonderful Providence disappointed he chose to desert the Government I say he Chose having declared He would do it or die in the Attempt Now suppose a man doth drink to that excess that he looseth his Reason and in his Drunkenness is guilty of Murder or sets his own House on fire and leaves it in a flame that threatneth the consuming of the Neighbourhood such a person is by the Law adjudged a wilful Criminal and must suffer accordingly And doubtless if men be intoxicated by destructive Opinions tending to their own as well as the destruction of others and by obstinacy in them commit things contrary to the Rules of Religion Law and Reason and draw on themselves a necessity of flying for it such actions shall be accounted voluntary for thus when God gives up wilful Sinners after long continuance in their sins against all the methods of Grace which have been despised by them to follow the hardness of their own Hearts and ungodly Lusts all the sins as well those committed before as after their judiciary hardness shall be imputed to them as their voluntary acts so is it in this case And if the Fires kindled by a drunken man in his fury be quenched and that man becoming more sober shall desire to return again when the Neighbourhood have just cause to suspect he will return again to his former Madness I cannot see that they have any reason to admit of him or to confide in him And that the late King did voluntarily forsake his Kingdom that which the Author says is a material proof viz That the King declared to a Person of Credit That the Queen obtained from him a solemn Oath on the Sacrament on the Sunday That if she went for France on Monday he would not fail to follow her on Tuesday And though his Subjects used some force to hinder his Flight yet they used none to compel him to it I may seem to call in question the Judgment of the present Parliament if I should think their Wise Counsel and Determination stood in need of any farther confirmation I return therefore to shew what I chiefly intended viz. that notwithstanding any thing that hath been done by the Church of England there is no cause to charge her with prevaricating in the Doctrine of Non-resistance But the contrary is insinuated in the Author and other late Writers as where in p. 13. he says In some cases a Defensive Resistance may not not only be lawful but a necessary Duty P. 14. Whatever Grievance is without or contrary to Law the Subject is not bound to bear it and we are not bound to yield Passive Obedience to the King. That in some unhappy Circumstances which he mentioneth the Subjects will be excusable before God if they use so much Resistance as he hath made necessary for preserving the Government and themselves Pag. 18. He mentioneth the deposing of Edward II. and Richard II. to prove that the Nobles and Commons of England may remove a King from his Government Pag. 26. When the Kingdoms of the World are become Christ's by incorporating his Religion among their Civil Rights then we may use any Expedients for the Defence of our Religion which we may use in defending any Priviledges of our Civil Establishment And p. 27. If it was lawful for the People of England in an extream necessity to remove a King whose Government was become inconsistent with the Publick Weal and to set up another by whom the Publick Interest may be secured it is lawful still notwithstanding our Oaths or Declation These Positions are so far from any consistency with the Church Homelies that they were the grounds on which the War against King Charles the first was carried on and on which the prevailing People and Souldiery destroyed him and might have set up Cromwel to be their King. Pag. 33 34. Having mentioned divers instances for Resistance he concludes Such were the Principles of the Church of England in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and King James And p. 32. That the Principles of Loyalty were no other at that time than what he had asserted we may easily satisfie our selves from that Form of Prayer they are charged with by the Parliament in Queen Mary 's Reign viz. That God would turn her heart from Idolatry to the true Faith or else shorten her days and take her quickly out of the way Now certainly this Form of Prayer was not in the Church-Liturgy but it is as certain that they were the Foamings of some Extemporary Zealots in their Conventicles concerning which the Act 1º 2º Phil. and Mary says Such a Prayer was never heard or read of to be used by any good Christian man against any Prince though he were a Pagan The Church of England had learnt to pray for them that persecute them to bless and not to curse their Enemies especially Kings and those that were in Authority I shall therefore commend the Author to Mr. Prynne for his information what sort of People used this Form of Prayer p. 65. of his Second Part of The Loyalty of Pious Christians where he says That Queen Mary 's zealous Protestant Bishops Ministers and Subjects likewise made constant Prayers for her but some over zealous Anabaptistical Fanaticks using some unchristian Prayers against her That God would cut her off and shorten her days occasioned this special Act against such Prayers And p. 66. he adds These Prayers were much against and directly contrary to the Judgment of Archbishop Cranmer Bishop Farrer Bishop Hooper Rowland Taylor John Philpot John Bradford Edward Crome John Rogers Laurence Sanders Edward Laurence Miles Coverdale Bishop of Exon and others of our godly Protestant Bishops and Ministers who soon after suffered as Martyrs And perhaps the rather for this Provocation for in their Letter May 8. 1554. they profess That as obedient Subjects we shall behave our selves towards Queen Mary and all that be in Authority and not cease to pray to God for them that he would govern them all generally and particularly with the Spirit of Widsom and Grace and so we heartily pray and desire all men to do in no point consenting to any kind of Rebellion or Sedition against our Soveraign Lady but where they cannot obey but must disobey God there to submit themselves with all patience and humility to suffer what the will and pleasure of the Higher Powers shall adjudge And Bishop Hooper wrote his Apology against the slanderous Reports made of him that he should encourage and maintain such as cursed Queen Mary wherein he vindicates his Innocency and Loyalty in praying for Queen Mary Now how ingenuously these things are objected to the first Reformers of the Church to cast a Scandal on them I leave to the impartial Reader to judge as also whether the Doctrines and Practices of such as dissented from her which are neither seasonable nor grateful to be now recounted can give our Governours better security for their Allegiance than that which the Author calls Super-Loyalty And I am confident it cannot be suspected that that Church which opposed that Floud of Arbitrary Power which was breaking in upon them refusing the publishing of that Declaration which would have owned the Dispensing Power to their great hazard and did so innocently and patiently wait for the salvation of the Lord will cast off their Super-Loyalty to our present most gracious King and Queen whom God and the Nation have so wonderfully established For my part I think that although on the present occasion and emergencies we do part with some extraordinary supplies we shall make a very advantageous Bargain and cheap Purchase of the Re-establishment of our Religion Laws and Liberties which were so nigh to a total Subversion And for the preservation whereof if it had been lawful we should not have counted our Bloud too dear FINIS