shall know or hear of to be against him or any of them And I do farther swear That I do from my heart abhor detest and abjure as impious and heretical this damnable Doctrine and Position that Princes which be excommunicated or deprived by the Pope may be deposed or murthered by their Subjects or any other whatsoever And all these things I plainly and sincerely acknowledge and swear according to these express words by me spoken and according to the plain and common sence and understanding of the same words without any Equivocation or mental Evasion or secret Reservation whatsoever c. Now let any man judge whether you have not taught the Jesuits themselves how to equivocate and to make void that solemn Oath by affirming that there can be no such person as an Heir to the Crown while the King is living Your own distinction of an Heir Apparent and Presumptive seems a sufficient Confutation of your sensless Assertion Besides though it may be true of a Testamentary Heir that he is not actually so till the death of the Testator yet a Legal Heir upon whom an Estate is intailed as the Royal Crown of England is upon the next in Bloud is truly an Heir and ought to inherit And in this Opinion I am confirmed by the Apostle Gal. 4.1 who says That though the Heir as long as he is a child i.e. as long as his Father liveth differeth nothing from a servant yet he is Lord of all and if he be a Son or next in Bloud to a Prince whose Kingdom is hereditary then is he his Heir v. 7. as St. Paul argues You seem to grant that this is the Law-sence of the words Heirs and Successors in an Act of Parliament as in the Duty of Excise granted to the King his Heirs and Successors But an Oath of Allegiance you say ought to be conceived in plain words and in the common sence of those words Which I should think to be that which the Lawyers that penned that Oath and the Lawgivers that enjoyned it did intend and unless you will justifie Papists in their Equivocations and absolve them from the obligation of that Oath it cannot be taken in any other but the Law-sence Well say you if it be so and so it must be let them be sure to keep it in that sence in which they have or should take it at sixteen years of age in the Court-Leet viz. I will be true Liegeman and true faith and troth bear to our Soveraign Lord the King that now is and to his Highness Heirs and lawful Successours Kings and Queens of this Realm of England To which you add this pitiful and worse than Jesuitical Evasion It is plain to every body that no one certain or known person in the world hath any interest at present in the Oath of Allegiance besides his Majesty that now is For which you give this as a Reason which is none at all For who shall be King or Queen of England hereafter none but God himself knows And if God by whom Kings reign had not wonderfully restored his Majesty we should have had none at this time But God by a Miracle hath restored the right Heir against all oppesition Pag. 21. He brings in another Objection against the Bill of Exclusion fetched from the Common-Prayer to which I perceive he is no great Friend viz. No Church of-England-man can be for it with a good Conscience being to the prejudice of his R. H. because we there pray that God would prosper him with all happiness here and hereafter Now by the way no such words as here and hereafter are expressed though we grant they are implied under the word All. But we especially though not onely intend it to that happiness which flows from the Spirit and grace of God and may bring him and all the Royal Family to Gods everlasting Kingdom and as a means thereunto that he would endue them with his holy Spirit and enrich them with his heavenly Grace You say No man in the Communion of the Church of England prays that Prayer more heartily than you do But if you do indeed think him to be a Julian and your self such as those Christians that sayd their Prayers backward that prayed him to death and would not so much as desire his conversion this would certainly be a Curse in the mouth or heart of any Protestant And I hope there are no such in the Communion of our Church though you intimate that they were all such in the Primitive Church and that we should be such also for p. 96. you say You find not one single wish among the Antients for Julian's conversion but all for his down-right destruction It is a good Rule that Pro quibus orandum pro iis laborandum We should by a meek and Christian behaviour inforce our Devotions for 't is the Prayer of the Righteous man that availeth much If we could thorowly inspect the Arguments that prevailed for the reputed defection of that Prince I believe the unchristian behaviour of those who oppose his Succession was most cogent And who knows but our amendment moderation and meekness might yet reclaim him But to pray coldly without faith for what you say p. 22. there is no hope and to act contrary to your Prayers is to beg a denial And I hope many others pray more heartily than you do For when we pray God to indue him with his Holy Spirit c. we pray that he may return to the Protestant Religion and not that he may be exposed to an invincible Temptation and a kind of necessity to extirpate it as you maliciously accuse us Nor are we to distrust the power of divine Grace either to restrain or sanctifie those whom we pray for and so to limit the Holy One of Israel as if he had not the hearts of Kings in his hand or had no rule over the Governours of the world Cambden p. 5. of his Remains reports that when Brithwald the Monk was troubled about the Succession the Bloud Royal being almost extinguished he heard a voice saying The Kingdom of England is Gods Kingdom and God will provide for it And why should not we acquiesce in the same Divine Providence P. 79. You argue against a Popish Successour à possibili because he may be a Persecutor Some have accounted both our present Soveraign and his Father of blessed memory such they sent the One out of the world with an Exit Tyrannus though the meekest and most gracious Prince in the world and what the effects of a Bill of Exclusion as some men would manage it may be is dreadful to consider But as you suppose the Popish Successessour may be so I suppose he may not be a Persecutor And for the proof of this I appeal to your Friend Plato Redivivus who in p. 207. gives an instance in the Prince of Hanover who was perverted to the Roman Church went to Rome to abjure Heresie and returning home
care of those who are put on an inevitable necessity of defending themselves c. How far a man that is assaulted and put on an inevitable necessity of defending himself against the injuries of private men is one thing and what he may do against his Prince of whom you seem to discourse is another In this case we may apply that in Rev. 13.10 He that killeth with the sword shall be killed with the sword This is the patience and faith of the Saints P. 11. This Doctrine of Passive Obedience you say quite alters the Oath of Allegiance which requires you to be obedient to all the Kings Majesties Laws Precepts and Process proceeding from the same I do not find those words in that Oath as set forth by King James but I find what you overlook viz. I will bear Faith and true Allegiance to his Majestie his Heirs and Successors and him and them will defend to the utmost of my power against all Conspiracies and Attempts whatsoever And thus I find more particularly in a Declaration which I believe our Author hath subscribed thus amplified I do declare that it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King And that I do abhor that traiterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are commissionated by him P. 11. After a large Preface little to your purpose telling us That the Church of England reserves her Faith entire for the Canonical books of Scripture which I hope you also do and that she divides her Reverence between the Fathers and the first Reformers of this Church who partly were Martyrs that died for the Protestant Religion and partly Confessors that afterward setled it And now to the business How much the Fathers would have been for a Bill of Exclusion you say we have seen already No not one word of it from the beginning nor I believe any mention of it from one Argument tending to it to the end of the Book from any of the Fathers as will shortly appear But what say our Martyrs Confessors and Reformers First he tells us what some men would have perswaded King Edward to do if they could have had their wills confirmed by Act of Parliament They shewed what they would have done if they could saith our Author They never spake such bad English as our Author doth in his Taunton-Dean Proverb Chud eat more Cheese an chad it which being interpreted is We would rebel if we had power The Duke of Northumberland indeed did cause the Lady Jane Gray's Title to be proclaimed but here the Bishops must be the men that were chiefly engaged in that designe of Exclusion whereas I read not that any of them were ever consulted with nor ever declared any thing to that purpose but in their joynt and most solemn Writings enjoyn the clean contrary as shall now appear P. 12. The Bishops in Queen Elizabeth 's time to whom under God and that Queen we owe the settlement of our Church concurred to the making of that Statute which makes it High-Treason in her Reign and forfeiture of Goods and Chattels ever after in any wise to hold or affirm That an Act of Parliament is not of sufficient force and validity to limit and bind the Crown of this Realm and the descent limitation inheritance and government thereof 13 Eliz. chap. 1. But our Author never considered the grounds and reasons of that Act Ex malis moribus bonae Leges it was the iniquity of those times and the traiterous practices of the Queen of Scots which gave occasion to that Statute for there were many Pamphlets written by Saunders and the Author of Doleman which deni'd the Title of Queen Elizabeth and proclaim'd her an Usurper and the Queen of Scots made actual claim to the Crown of England she assumed the Arms of England and other Regalia and by her Confederates endeavoured to raise a Rebellion and conspired against the life of the Queen for which causes she was condemned as may appear by her Sentence which was passed upon her viz. That divers things were compassed and imagined within this Kingdom of England with the privity of the said Queen who pretended a Title to the Crown of this Kingdom and which tended to the hurt death and destruction of the Royal Person of our Soveraign Queen Cambdens Eliz. p. 464. Leiden 1625. Such practices gave occasion to that Statute to prevent the Mischiefs that might befal Queen Elizabeth and the Nation And that Statute consists of many heads As first Whoever should compass imagine devise or intend the death or destruction or any bodily harm tending to death destruction or wounding of the Royal person of the Queen or deprive or depose her of or from the Stile Honour or Kingly name of the Imperial Crown of this Realm c. or leavy War against her Majesty within this Kingdom or without or move any Strangers to invade this Kingdom or Ireland c. or shall maliciously publish and declare by any printing writing word or sayings that our Soveraign Lady during her life is not or ought not to be Queen of this Realm c. or that any other person or persons ought of right to be King or Queen of the same or that our said Queen is a Heretick or Schismatick Tyrant Infidel or an Vsurper of the said Crown c. these shall he guilty of High-Treason Also if any after thirty days from the Session of this Parliament and in the life of our said Queen shall claim pretend declare or publish themselves or any other besides our said Queen to have Right or Title to have and enjoy the Crown of England or shall usurp the same or the Royal Stile Title or Dignity of the Crown or shall affirm that our said Queen hath not right to hold and enjoy the same such shall be utterly disabled during their natural lives onely to have or enjoy the Crown or Realm of England in Succession Inheritance or otherwise Then follows the Case of Succession That if any person shall hold or affirm that the Common Laws of this Realm not altered by Parliament ought not to direct the Right of this Crown or that our said Queen by the Authority of Parliament is not able to make Laws and Statutes of sufficient force c. as above Yet was not the Queen of Scots condemned upon the Statute of the 13 of Eliz. but on that made in the 27 of her Reign wherein it was provided That twenty four persons at least part being of the Privy Council and the rest Peers of the Realm should by the Queens Commission examine such as should make any open Rebellion or Invasion of this Realm or attempt to hurt the Queens person by or for any pretended Title to the Crown In which Commission I find no Bishop save the Archbishop who at first refused to act nor when the whole Parliament petitioned for the Execution do we find that the
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
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
endure wicked Princes as we do Inundations or Scarcitie which are of Gods sending These you say p. 20. are full and pregnant proofs and I think ad hominem cogent for if as you observe from Eusebius the Empire was to descend as other Paternal Inheritances then it must be more unlawful to resist or exclude a Prince from enjoying his Inheritance than any private person And then surely no sound Christian could have joyned in an Address to Constantius to exclude a person appointed as it were by the Voice of God as you say of Constantine that he was declared absolute Emperour by the 〈◊〉 and long before that by God himself the great King of all p. 21. And St. Augustine says the same viz. God that gave the Empire to Constantine gave it to Julian Onely by the way I do not think that your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither will in the sence of the Greek Fathers bear your interpretation of the Law of Nature for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is often used by Greek Authors for Custom And I believe that Father whom you mention intended no more than a Right of Succession for two or three Generations which carried the name of a Law as it doth also in our Common Law where Consuetudo Lex est And it is well known that when the Heirs of the Emperors have been living the Roman Souldiers have created their Emperours out of Obscure Families but these are no Patterns for us Christians to follow nor for us in this Nation above others For William the Conqueror claimed the Crown not so much by his Sword as by Right of Succession if you will believe the Author of that Fanatical book called The Rights of the Kingdom to King Edward whose Kinsman he was and his Heir by Will as appears by the Laws of St. Edward and William p. 197. So that in this respect the Descent of the Crown of England is much more firm and established than that of the Empire having been continued through more Generations and confirmed by many Laws which whoever shall infringe takes off the Government from its Hinges and leaves all to Confusion For when a private Estate is intailed on a man and his Heirs it is necessary that to bar the Heir and alienate the Estate the original Intail must be cut off and then he that is in possession may dispose of the Inheritance to one or more And perhaps this was the intent of the Bill for Exclusion to make it an Act for the Dissolution of Monarchy and reduce us to a Commonwealth again And it were better we should suffer some Inconveniencies if the Will of God be so which yet are uncertain than against the Will of God to do things unjust and draw more certain troubles on our own heads For in the Contest between the Houses of York and Lancaster when the first alway pleaded the Right of Descent the other alleadged the Acts of Parliaments there were infinite troubles which cost the lives of above 200000 men whereof eight were Kings and Princes forty Dukes Marquesses and Earls besides Barons and Gentlemen and after all the Kingdom fixed on this Maxime Jus Sanguinis nullo Jure dirimi possit i. e. The Right of Bloud cannot be abrogated by any Law And the Author of the Rights of the Kingdom says that in the days of Henry the Third and Richard the First when was a motion of some great men that a Bastard might inherit the Parliament at Merton cried out Nolumus leges Angliae mutare p. 264. Therefore I wonder that the same Author p. 98. making a Supposition That if any one man of all the Commons in Parliament should usurp the Crown with all its dues He mentions not the whole House for that hath been done already What should I what may I do saith he and answers Nothing but mind my Calling and attend the Judgment of the highest Court that I know that may command my Body and Judgement much It is a Maxime in our Law That the King never dies The King and his Heirs are looked on in the eye of the Law as an Individual and to prevent Tumults and Disputes they are joyned in most of those Acts that concern the Dignity of the Crown and publick Peace and the Son hath sometime been Crowned in his Fathers life-time Yet we plead not Providence in the long continuance of the Succession nor the Law of the Land upon which for other matters you lay the stress of your whole Discourse but upon the Law of God Deut. 17.8 where it was ordained as a Statute of Judgment i. e. say Fagius and Munster a firm and immutable Law and as the Vulgar Sanctum Lege perpetua That IF A MAN DYE WITHOVT CHILDREN THE INHERITANCE MVST BE GIVEN TO HIS BRETHREN And Ainsworth from Solomon Jarchi says The Brother of him that was dead or his Brothers seed shall inherit All this hath been observed by the Law of Nations where Kingdoms are hereditary That as it is unjust so it hath been always unhappie to alter the Succession and even in private estates the disinheriting the right Heir hath been very much condemned and unfortunate And yet p. 22. you say the Fathers had the Conscience to set aside such a Title They could not do it with a good Conscience the thing being in it self evil for as the Law of God forbids to countenance a poor man in his Cause so doth it also to defraud the rich or follow a multitude to do evil neither to speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment None of us would judge it reasonable to be deprived of his right contrary to Law and why then should we think it lawful to deprive another of that right to which we owe the preservation of our own Athenagoras more clearly shews what was the consent of the Fathers in this case We pray for your Empire and that the Son as it is just may succeed in his Fathers Throne And yet they both were Pagans But what would the Consent of Fathers and the sense of the primitive Christians signifie against the Decree and Laws of Heaven who cannot more plainly declare his will to us than by the voice of Nature by his written Word by pointing out as by his finger in his Providence in making Heirs to Kingdoms as well as other Estates by a long and legal discent and as St. Augustine said God that gave the Empire to good Constantine gave it also to Julian So Tertullian Inde est Imperator unde Homo antequam Imperator And Irenoeus By whose command they were born Men by his they are ordained Kings And yet all this Crack of the Fathers and Primitive Christians and p. 31. the whole Christian world produceth nothing but a flash of Rhetorick from an Invective in Gregory Nazianzen against Julian from which if we appeal to the same Author in a more temperate and Christian Zeal when he delivered himself
are and not else Now I humbly conceive seeing the Writ De Haeretico comburendo is taken away in time and the Laws protect us in our Religion it is a needless thing to go to Smithfield and there be burnt for an Heretick It is better if it pleased God that we should die as Hereticks if with St. Paul we truly worship God in a way that is so called than to go to Tyburn and be hanged as Traitors and Regicides For though that Law be taken away yet the Law of God stands firm which enjoyns us to submit our selves not onely for fear but for Conscience sake and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Peter in the case of our submission for Conscience sake as well as for fear of wrath is determined by St. Paul with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye must needs be subject P. 77. And so far it is fit to inform the Popish Crew lest they should be mistaken in the good Protestant Religion of our good Church as Coleman calls it I pray let them not be informed that we obey more for fear than for Conscience sake No nor that we are afraid to dye for our Religion of God call us to do it As to your Parenthesis that we have no apprehension of persecution from any other quarter I tell you we have felt a greater persecution in our Age from Geneva than from Rome and if the one have since the Reformation in this Nation killed a thousand the other have slain ten thousand Your next Reflection is on the Pulpit-law as you say the Lord Faulkland called it of Sibthorp and Manwaring and complained it had almost ruined the Nation That noble Lord was indeed a great lover of his Religion and Country and therefore was an enemy to Arbitrary Government But when he perceived that the outcry against Arbitrarie power in the King was made with a designe to grasp it into other mens hands and they began to exercise it not onely on the Gentry Clergie and Nobility of the Land but the Royal Family also he repented and so faithfully adhered to the King in defence of his Authority that he lost his life in the Quarrel It was the Pulpit-law in 41. and 42. that destroyed us and brought in Arbitrary Power But how near doth our Author come to put a border of Treason on his impolitick discourse p. 78. where he says The Arbitrary Doctrine of those times to which both he and Mr. Hunt impute the beginning of the Late War did not bring any great terrour with it it was then but a Rake and served onely to scrape up a little paltrie passive money But now it is become a Murdering-piece loaden with I know not how many bullets Who are they I wonder that preach up such an Arbitrarie Power or who are they that make such a Murdering-piece of it Is it not rather a Fiction of some men who would find a pretence for a second War For if as Mr. Hunt says p. 52. That the Panick fear of a change of the Government that this Doctrine to wit of Arbitrary Power before 41. occasioned and the Divisions it made among us was the principal cause of the Late War is it not evident that the same fears are now made Panick or Popular to prepare the hearts of the People for another War What else mean the bleatings of the Sheep and the lowing of Oxen the Vulgar Murmurs and loud Cries of the Multitude as if it were intended we should be ruled by a Standing Armie and That his Majesties Guards are a grievance That the dissolution of a Parliament gave us cause to fear that the King had no more business for Parliaments Hunt p. 22. and p. 60. of our Author That Parliaments should sit till they have done that for which they were called i. e. says our Author in his Marginal Note till all Grievances are redressed and Petitions answered And then for ought I know they might sit for ever and so no more need of a King What means the denying him a Supply when Tangier was like to be lost and not onely with-holding their own but denying him to dispose of his Credit or Revenues for his just occasions What mean our new Associations and Bandying into Parties and advice even to the Clergie not to suspend all the legal securitie they have upon the life of our present King Hunt p. 49. All these strongly argue that they have a suspition of Arbitrary Power and that by our Author's confession was in 41 and therefore may be suspected to be made use of now as an incitement to Rebellion And though our Author p. 78. confesseth That the malignitie of this Doctrine cannot be discovered under his Majesties gracious Reign yet he thinks fit to put him in mind of the Securitie he hath given the Nation by his Coronation-Oath which all Protestant Princes value look upon as Sacred and likewise of many gracious Promises that he will govern according to Law All this caution argueth more than Suspition it looks like an Accasation though I know no defect but the neglect of executing the Laws against Transgressors But if it do not fall out in his Majesties Reign it will appear in its colours and we may feel the sting of it if it please God so sharply to punish us for our sins as to let us fall under a Popish Successour p. 78 79. We have I confess deserved such a punishment for kicking against our Protestant Princes but by the blessing of God we may not have such a One For who shall be King or Queen of this Realm of England hereafter you tell us none but God himself knows p. 21. of the Preface But you tell us of another may be the Successor may be a Papist and then he may persecute but he may not be or if he be so yet I have proved he may not persecute and our Author hath granted p. 75. That it can never happen but by our own Treacherie c. Such a formidable Persecution as you suggest is a thing impracticable and morally impossible it hath never yet been acted by any Prince Papist or Heathen the Marian Tempest did not so destroy Protestants though it had been but newly planted but in Queen Elizabeth's Reign it grew up again and covered the Land in a few days Now to disturb our Peace and Settlement with two such may be 's as are more likely may not be to suppose such things as are morally impossible is unreasonable and to fear where no fear is saith Mr. Hunt p. 250. But such suppositions as our Author makes ought not at all to be supposed for there is greater hurt to be feared from them as Mr. Faukner says p. 545. of his Christian Loyaltie than from the thing supposed since it is much more likely that such designes should be imagined and believed to be true when they are false as they were in the unjust Outcries against our late gracious Soveraign than that they
should be certainly true And every good man yea every reasonable man may have as great confidence that no such Case will really happen as can be had concerning the future state and condition of any thing in this world For which he there gives many Reasons to which I refer the Reader and proceed P. 80. In this case says our Author all Protestants cannot flie and many may be perswaded not to flie And men are taught that the Gospel doth prescribe no other remedy but slight allowing no other means between denying and dying for the Faith It is certain this is the special remedy prescribed by our Saviour though there be other means which may be as effectual as this Prayers and Tears and Fasting and Humiliation have done mighty wonders When God by Joel cap. 22. threatned his People with an Enemie great and strong there hath not been ever the like neither ever shall be even to the years of many Generations the chief means prescribed by God himself you may see was this vers 12. Therefore now saith the Lord turn ye unto me with all your heart and with fasting weeping and mourning who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him And vers 17. Let the Priests the Ministers of the Lord weep between the Porch and the Altar and let them say Spare thy people O Lord and give not thy Heritage to reproach that the heathen should rule over them Wherefore should they say among the heathen Where is their God Then will the Lord be jealous over his Land and spare his people I hope our Author will not deride such Lachrymists if he do Solomon tells him who will laugh at him when calamitie comes on him Prov. 1. Again Supplications and Petitions to our Kings may have the desired success for hitherto the Kings of England have been merciful Kings nor have any of them taken delight in shedding bloud or designed the general ruine of their people their own interest being bound up in theirs Magnanimo satis est prosâ—…asse Besides it is the duty of the Chief Clergie to reprove them with meekness and lowliness to mind them of a Superiour Potentate who will judge all men without respect of persons which is excellently done by Gregory Orat. 17. You govern together with Christ and reign with him you are the Image of God and should imitate him in shewing mercie and not the Devil in exercising crueltie but should remember that he hath a Master in Heaven who will so judge him as he doth the people committed to his charge That whole Oration is worthy your perusal When Theodosius had made a great slaughter among the Thessalonians to the number of seven thousand and coming afterward to the Church St. Ambrose shuts the doors against him and minds him of his Cruelty and tells him That from dust he came and to dust he shall return Let not therefore the brightness of thy clothes hide from thee the weakness of thy flesh that is under them Thy subjects are of the same metal with thee and serve the same Lord wilt thou with those hands which yet drop with the bloud of Innocents receive the bodie of the Lord Depart and refuse not this sentence which the Lord doth ratifie in Heaven This wrought so with him that he repented and with much ado obtained Absolution The Church of Liege wrote an Epistle to Pope Paschal when he perswaded Robert Earl of Flanders to rebel against the Emperour and invade his Dominions wherein they told the Pope That Princes must be admonished and reproved gently and if they will not amend are to be left to the just judgment of God Omne sub Regno graviore Regnum Reges in ipsos imperium est Jovis To the Assertion of an unnamed Doctor That the Gospel prescribes no other remedy but flight against the Persecutions of a lawful Magistrate our Author answers p. 80. It is one thing what the Gospel prescribes what it allows another As if the Gospel did allow any thing contrary to its Precepts This is that the Author would be at for none ever questioned but things in their nature indifferent and expedient are allowed by the Gospel without an express command But that which this Author contends for is Resistance of a lawful power in case of persecution which is against many express Precepts of the Gospel The Gnosticks held it lawful for the avoiding of persecution to deny Christ and to comply with either Jews or Gentiles And to resist the Ordinance of God rather than to suffer persecution will be interpreted a denial and betraying of our Religion i. e. of Christ himself An Argument of so low a Spirit as falls beneath the courage of a Heathen or the hearty professors of any Religion Seneca says of his wise man Placebit ei ignis per quem bona fides collucebit That he will embrace the Fire rather than betray his Faith And the Stoick says Tormenta à me abesse velim sed si sustinenda fuerint ut me in illis fortiter animosè honestè geram optabo How is the valour of a Souldier known but by following his Commander with a generous contempt of death and shall the Christian Souldier that hath so good a Captain be the onely coward and follow his Master at a distance and utterly forsake him when any Conflict is at hand When therefore he demands by what Law we must die I answer By the Law of God rather than resist a lawful Power we must submit to the Will of God and our Saviour who have promised that he that loseth his life shall preserve it Luke 17.33 and if we suffer we shall also reign with him 2 Tim. 2.12 And herein Christ himself hath given us an example 1 Pet. 2.21 that we should walk in his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth yet when he was reviled he reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously And to such a Passive Obedience we are called saith the Apostle And it is not our calling onely but an act of Grace and good will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 given to us as to believe in Christ so to suffer for Christs sake Phil. 1.29 which they that refuse to do are said to deny Christ So that there is little difference between resisting the Command and Ordinance of Christ and denying him the sin is the same and the punishment also which St. Paul says is Damnation P. 82. As for the Kings Prerogative I dare not be so bold with that as you are the Disputes between that and Priviledge have cost us dear already if it were as well known as other parts of the Law are you would not make so bold with it though you set light by some other Laws But even other parts of the Law which are very well known and approved are yet disobeyed despised and opposed as well as the Kings Prerogative and
when he faithfully loves him who reigns by Gods authoritie P. 151. Mr. Hunt hath another Observation that deserves a special remark Neither will we saith he make use in our defence of the Papists excluding the King of Navarre a Protestant King in France no more than we will allow the French to murder a Protestant Minister because we execute a seditious traiterous Roman Priest Ans It is well known the Romish Priests are not executed in England upon the account of their Religion but for such crimes as are made Treason by the Laws of our Land And if the Protestants were not executed but upon the breach of such Laws the cause of Complaint would be less than now it is But why on your Principles a Protestant Prince may not be excluded by Papists who perhaps are as fully perswaded of the truth of their Religion as we are of ours and do aver that Salvation is not to be attained in any Communion but that of their own Church I see no sufficient reason For they may as well plead that Dominion is founded in Grace as you do and that may equally justisie both parties in case of Resistance i. e. it can justifie neither And the consequences of that Act of Exclusion may dread us from doing the like For when the Guises and other contrivers of the Holy League as they called it had by great importunitie prevailed with the present King Henry the Third to agree to the Exclusion of Henry the Fourth the dreadful slaughters of the Subjects on both sides were not the onely evil consequences that ensued but the Guisian Faction grew so insolent as to affront and distress the King himself so far that fearing his own destruction he was constrained to joyn his Partie to that of the King of Navarre to whose Exclusion he had consented that he might preserve himself from being excluded by the prevailing Faction So that your Quere p. 153. Whether if the Crown should devolve upon a Roman Successor we could justifie the dethroning of him which the Author of Julian resolves we may not though the French Papists could not be justified in rejecting the King of Navarre requires no long consideration Tum tua Res agitur partes cum proximus Ardet I cannot omit another bold attempt of Mr. Hunt in his Preface where he conjures up the old Smectymnuan Monster of Curse ye Meroz to affright all men from an accursed Nutralitie to bring them into the blessed Association It was a wise Law of Solon saies he that if the Commonwealth at any time should be divided into Factions that the Neuters should be noted with infamie And that you may know what he means he addes If all that are TRVE PROTESTANTS and TRVE LOVERS OF OVR GOVERNMENT would declare themselves on the behalf of our Religion and Government in such terms as befit honestmen and as the exigencie of our present state shall require we shall find the numbers of Addressers reduced to the Dukes Pensioners and Creatures And again Our Traitors would disappear if we had no Neuters And to slur the proceedings of his Majestie against E. S. he says that the name of E. S. in the Abhorrences of the Nation were but like the name of John-a-Styles and John-an-Oakes in putting a fictitious Case So that it is most evident that he invites and threatens all men that refuse to joyn in an Association and to what that tends the Nation is indisserently well satisfied already If not the Comments which these men make upon that Text the Authors and Instruments which they make use of such as were the most notorious Incendiaries in our late War some Jesuites and eminent Factors for Rome some Regicides that died in their impenitencie these and the present endeavours to act over all the Tragedies that were plotted by them a second time may fully convince us that there is Mors in Olla some deadly Colloquintida that hath so imbittered and poisoned such sort of Writings I must beg the Readers pardon that I have not been more particular in my Remarks on Mr. Hunt his Book came but lately to my hands a part of mine being first in the Press and the rest called for so that I made it onely an Essay to provoke some more eminent persons of his own Gown to chastise him according to his demerit who have more health and help more time and advantages than I have And all that love their Religion and Peace will abhor such persons as by the same Methods the same Libels and pretences of Arbitrarie Government and Poperie the same Arguments as were used to defend the War and the Murder of Charles the First seek to involve us in another such and rather than not effect it will employ and associate with any sort of Fanaticks Jesuits and Regicides such as Doleman White and Milton their great Exemplar and Tutor I cannot stand to give this Age a character of that Pest of the former I mean this Milton whose very Sores and Impostumes these Authors suck and spit them out to poyson the People He was one that wrote against the whole Ministrie and their Maintenance that would have Divorces practised on every slight occasion And when I shall say that against his knowledge and Conscience he maliciously opposed the best of Kings I need say no more to prove him the worst of men That Mercenarie wretch was I confess a man of more than ordinarie parts and when he came in his Chap. 4. to defend the Doctrine of Resistance and Regicide against that Argument of Salmasius which proved that none of the Christians before St. Augustine's time did practise or allow of resisting the lawful Magistrate though a Heathen or an Arian he stretched his Wit and his Reading so far as to bankrupt the reputation of them both as will evidently appear in my Answer to the same Arguments which both Mr. Hunt and our Author have borrowed from him And because it hath been creditably reported that Milton died a Papist and it is certain that he had been at Rome and was there caressed by some great men Cardinals and others I shall desire the Reader to consider with me whether that defence which he makes of the Popish Doctrine for deposing of Kings in the same Chapter be not a probable Argument of the truth of that Report For thus saith Milton chap. 4. p. 47. As to what concerns the Pope against whom you DECLAIME MANY THINGS TO NO PVRPOSE I give you libertie to talk till you are hoarse yet that which you assert so largely to take with the vulgar and unlearned That every Christian was subject to their Kings whether they were just or whether they were Tyrants until the power of the Pope was acknowledged to be greater than that of the King and till be absolved Subjects from their Oaths of Fidelitie I have shewn that to be most false by many examples Nor doth that seem more true which you say in the last place that Pope
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
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
Obedience when the Laws do allow us to make resistance in defence of our Religion our Liberties and Lives Item For insufficiencie not being able to pray ex tempore or to preach without book Witness Dr. Pocock Bishop Sanderson c. Item For administring the Sacrament to all that desired it and for using the Lords Prayer as a Charm Such were the Articles by which a great part of that Clergie was destroyed of whom the world was not worthy With such our Gentleman is still in travel but I hope his labour will be in vain Read some of those Sermons and Treatises which of late years have been published by such as you call young Coxcombs Consider the strains of Piety and Moderation of Reason and Judgement of Industrie and acquired Knowledge and I am confident you will find so little hopes to be believed by others that you will see reason enough not to believe your self Let him talk of the persecution of Julian and other Pagans this which our Author promotes exceeds them all Others did but Occidere Episcopos this man seeks Occidere Episcopatum and under a pretence of pleading and praying for them he contrives how to prey upon them What else meaneth that insinuation which he quotes from Grotius to gain it some Authoritie having bankrupted his own Verso in morem abusu intermitti res ipsas non est infrequens p. 13. of Preface which he applieth to the Episcopal Office Nomen eminentia Episcopalis eorum culpa quibus obtigerat omnem sui perdiderat reverentiam in odium venerat plebis I greatly wondered to hear that Prayer of his against Sacriledge p. 103. He that designs contrives or consents to spoil the Church of any of her Endowments may a secret Curse waste his substance let his Children be Vagabonds and beg their bread in desolate places But when I call to mind Mr. Humphries project for increasing the number of our Bishops whom he would have to be chosen by the several Factions Presbyterian Independent c. and these whether Lay-men or Clergie-men to preside over those Parties it remembred me of a passage of Mr. Hunt's p. 90. of his Postscript where he demands thus Will it be any prejudice that the number of her Bishops be increased and that Suffragans be appointed and approved by the present Bishops c. So that when other Trades fail Mr. Hunt as well as Mr. Humphries may have some hopes of being made Suffragans at least For the Order of Episcopacie may be laid by as he intimates and then some Lay-superintendents may succeed and enjoy their Honours and Revenues Therefore to his Curse I shall add my Prayer for a blessing on Levi Deut. 33.11 Bless Lord his substance and accept the work of his hands smite through the Loins of them that rise up against him and of them that hate him that they rise not again The second Head contains a justification of the late unnatural War p. 6. It is difficult he saith to tell how that late unhappie War began or how it came to issue so tragically in the death of the late King And being to speak in so difficult a case he enters his caution p. 50. I would not be perversly understood by any man as if I went about to justifie our late Wars But it will appear to be Protestatio contra factum P. 102. He says That War would have been impossible if the Churchmen had not maintained the Doctrine that Monarchie was Jure Divino in such a sence that made the King Absolute This was a fiction of Mr. Baxters and through the Loins of the Clergie they strike at the King as if that glorious Prince intended Tyranny But that good Prince was far from any design of ruling by an Arbitrarie power he had no Army nor Mony to raise one but by the contrivance of some men his Father was engaged in an expensive War for the recoverie of the Palatinate which exhausted all the Exchequer and reduced the Royal Family to great necessities and then they failed in their promised Supplies and left him to a precarious way of subsisting and to stretch his Prerogative for the preservation of himself and Family He would have parted with the half of his Power and Prerogative as he often offered to have preserved or restored peace to his Subjects But when he spake to them of Peace they made themselves ready for Battle But were there not some other Doctrines preached in those days which contributed more to the beginning of that War than that of the Divinity of Kings What think you of the Doctrine of the lawfulness of Resistance then preached and printed under the same Arguments as now it is by Mr. Marshal Burton c. What think you of that Doctrine which according to the Jesuits taught That the rise and Original of Government is in the People and that as they gave so they might recall it as they saw cause You know who layeth down the same Principle in a certain Preface That Government is the perfect creature of men in Societie made by pact and consent and not othorwise most certainly not otherwise and therefore most certainly ordainable by the whole Communitie for the safety and preservation of the whole P. 38. of Preface To what tended this other Doctrine That the Authoritie of the King was in the two Houses when they had frighted away his Person That the King was Singulis major but Vniversis minor That Episcopacy was an Antichristian Order and to be stub'd up root and branch That the King Court and Bishops were designing to bring in Popery That our Liturgy was but the Mass-book translated These Doctrines with such Remonstrances Votes and Ordinances began that unhappy War The Associations made in City and Country seizing the Forts and Magazines and Royal Navy and answering all his Messages of Peace with reproaches of his Male-administrations This is that which you call the English Loyalty When they sent out Armies to fight him when they had him Prisoner and voted no more Addresses they were if you will believe them or Mr. Hunt his Majesties most Humble and Loyal Subjects still Such as these I could as easily prove to be the Doctrines of those times as that they are the Opinions and Practices of too many in these our days though most absurd and dangerous as they are now published by too many besides our two Authors P. 20. Pref. There is little reason to charge the guilt of the unexpiable Murther of our late Excellent King upon Presbyterie which was not thought of here in England till the War was begun And p. 21. Sure this Gentleman hath read very little or dissembleth very much Mr. Cambden in the Life of Queen Elizabeth is full of the Projects and Practices of such as planted the Geneva-Discipline here in England what troubles they occasioned to the Government both in Church and State and what deserved punishments some of them received as Penry and Vdal