more in the right now notwithstanding you have possibly another Case in your Eye so that for ought I can see you may be as much out now as you were before and if so what are we the better for your new Discoveries in your Case of Allegiance when you give us so little Encouragement from your being so liable to mistake to believe you 'T is true you have taken a great deal of pains to make the Convocation Book speak as you would make the World think very plain to the Point but how much it serves your turn notwithstanding your nice Distinctions and ringing the Changes between Divine and Humane Entails Legal and Providential Kings and Thorow Settlements c. hath already been demonstrated by more skilful hands But though that Book did you but little service yet there was other Writings that would have done the trick to an hair such as Hobs Baxters Owens and Jenkins c. But I presume your not strengthening your Case c. with quoting those Authors was because their Tenents did not so well agree with the Doctrine of that Church which you pretend to be of But to the Point in hand and the better to inform my self and others I will as well as I can observe some kind of method viz. I will first lay down your providential Hypothesis on which your Case is built and as you have very wisely observed if the World do not judge it a right Rule to go by you know not where to fix one Pag. 24. Secondly I will examine those Texts of Scripture which you quote to prove it Thirdly I will draw up some useful Inferences very necessary for practical Reformers of Church and State But before I proceed Dr. Sherlock's Pre◠I cannot but take notice of that one thing you thought necessary to recant but though it is but one yet it is the only one on which the Case turns c. And truly you were in the right for otherways you had given room for Richard against Baxter c. Besides your Case of Allegiance if compar'd with your Case of Resistance would have been very little to the purpose save only to serve a present Case which has possibly fallen in your Eye And if so 't is but reasonable your Judgment should vary not so much with the Times but according to the different Cases that at different Times chance to fall in your Eye And also 't is but just upon every such occasion to strain I do not mean Conscience but your Art and Skill to make our blessed Lord and the Apostles to go hand in hand with you to gain the Point But now if any Body should ask me this Question viz. How shall we know the Doctor did better understand St. Paul when he writ his Case of Allegiance than he did when he writ his Case of Resistance Let me perish if I could tell what to answer and therefore I leave that Sir to your self and so proceed to what I promis'd viz. the laying down the Hypothesis on which your Case c. is built And I cannot do that better than in the words of a great Man when Time was as I have found them ready drawn up to my hand about 40 Years ago and I dare be bold to say they would have been as good a Preface to your Book as that you have writ and do but read your own Name for his and you will perhaps be pleased to see how exactly it agrees with your own Notions of Providential Rulers and Civil Governments but take them in the Author 's own words and then judge of the matter Mr. Jenkins's Recantation Or his Acknowledgment by way of Petition to the Parliament wherein he confesseth his Sorrow for his acting against the State and the unsutableness of it to his Calling and Profession As also the Parliaments Answer to his Petition as it was printed in the Year 1651. To the Supreme Authority the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England The humble Petition of William Jenkins Prisoner Humbly sheweth THat Your Petitioner is unfeignedly sorrowful for all his late Miscarriages whether testified against him or acknowledged by him and for the great and sinful unsutableness of them to his Calling and Condition That upon earnest seeking of God and diligent enquiring into his Will Your Petioner is convinced that the Alteration of all Civil Governments are ordered by and founded by the wise Providences of God who removeth Kings setteth up Kings ☞ ruleth in the Kingdoms of Men and giveth them to whomsoever he will That the Providences of this God have in the Judgment of Your Petitioner as evidently appeared in the Removing of others from and Investing Your Honours with the Government of this Nation ☞ as every they appeared in the taking away or bestowing of any Government in any History of any Age in the World That he apprehends that a Refusal to be Subjects to this present Authority ☞ under the Pretence of upholding the Title of any upon Earth is a Refusal to acquiesce in the wise and righteous Pleasure of God such an opposing of the Government set up by the Sovereign Lord of Heaven and Earth as none can have Peace either in Acting in or Suffering for And Your Petitioner looks upon it as his Duty to yield to this Authority all active and chearful Obedience in the Lord even for Conscience sake To promise he being required Truth and Fidelity to it and to hold forth the ground of his so doing to any as God shall call him thereunto c. The rest relates only to his particular Condition and Imprisonment an Inlargement from which he very humbly and submissively prayed for which was granted him in the following Words Resolved that Mr. ☞ Jenkins be pardoned both for his Life and Estate and that Mr. Attorny General be required to prepare the Pardon to be passed under the Great Seal of England and that his Body be forthwith discharged from Imprisonment and his Estate from Sequestration Which extraordinary Favour he obtained through the Mildness of that Government to poor Delinquents And here give me leave to observe viz. Had such a Case been printed in Oliver's time it would have posed a good Divine no dispraise to your self to know whether you had taken your Notions of Providence from Mr. Jenkin's Petition or he his from your Case of Allegiance For in truth they are so very like that it creates a just Supposition of your being one of his Pupils And this is the first Thing I promised viz. The laying down the Hypothesis on which the Foundation of your Case c. stands And I will appeal to all Mankind Whether this Providential Principle would not serve for the French King the Grand Signior nay a Marssinello or a Protestant Joyner provided he could but get enough of the Mob on his side to knock out the Brains of their Opposers the better to instruct them to whom the Sovereign Power do
he says elsewhere Whether it be right in the sight of God Acts 4 19. to hearken unto you more than unto God judge ye So that if Ordinances or Allegiances of Man be set up contrary to those of God we are not to take notice of them though they had all the Powers of the Earth and Hell joyned with them for their Authority But Secondly We ought to consider the Rightful and Lawfulness of the Authority that commands a Submission to their Ordinances c. unless it can be supposed there was never any but such in the World Which I am pretty sure you will never grant by reason it would condemn both the Law and the Sense of all the Judges in England touching the Rebellion in King Charles the First and Second's Time which I perceive cost you some Time and Pains to get over and yet could not without Blundering and making a downright Contradiction For notwithstanding all those Distinctions you make to shew the Difference between that and the present as you call it thorough Settlement yet it does not serve your turn for whatever Cromwell and his Adherents designed either to alter or destroy all Laws and Religion yet agreeable to the Principles you go upon that makes no Difference but he had as he was the Supreme Magistrate as good a Title to our Allegiance according to your Sense of the Higher Powers as King Charles II. had before he Abdicated the Kingdom after his defeat at Worcester All which no doubt God for the Sins of this Nation suffer'd his Judgments then to begin at his own House and with his own People which brings me to the Approbative and the Permissive Will of God which was always by your selves made use of for our not taking Measures by the prosperous Success of Things and the Prosperity of the Wicked The Consideration of which made the Prophet Jeremiah as it were Reason the Case with God himself Jere. 12.1.2 Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee yet let me talk with thee of thy Judgments Wherefore doth the way of the Wicked prosper Wherefore are all they happy that deal very Treacherously Thou hast planted them yea they have taken root they grow yea they bring forth fruit thou art near in their Mouth and far from their Reins And this Prosperity of the Wicked had likewise startled a great many good Men and David himself was one of that Number till he went into the Sanctuary Ps 7â— 17 and considered there was an After-reckoning to account for And then he could tell us of their being set in Slipery Places and that their Prosperity was rather a Curse than a Blessing to ripen them for Destruction in Vindication of God's Righteous Dealing with Wicked and Rebellious Wretches A notable Instance of this we have in the Case of Absalem where God permitted his Insinuations Oh that I were Judge in the Land c. to prevail so far as he not only stole the Hearts but the Allegiance also of his Father's Subjects and the wisest of his Father's Counsellors went over to him insomuch that at last he attempted not only to take the Crown from his Father's Head but persued him likewise to take no doubt his Life also And had not God himself stept in between by defeating the Counsel of Achitophel he had peradventure being both able and willing gained his point I only hint these Matters because you lay a great Stress upon Providence giving a Success c. and if he had succeeded as such Things has been I suppose none but what is ripe for Bedlam would have attributed it to the Will of God any other way than it is his Will that we Kill or Steal or break any other of his Commandments which we see he permits every day to be done And I could put you in mind of another instance which far exceeds that of Absalom where Almighty God was pleased to permit a Company of Rebels and Traytors I may Lawfully so call them by reason many of their Names remain still upon Record to proceed so far as not only Resist but Imprison nay put I had almost said Crucifie to Death their true Liege Lord and King and then like wicked Ahab took Possession of the Vineyard and all by such Providential Principles as yours and Hobbs's 'T is true you would by a nice Distinction make a Difference between his and yours but it is so much like all the rest that it will not pass Muster And therefore all such Loyalty and Allegiance that is built upon such weak Foundations must needs like the House built upon the Sands tumble down upon the least Storm that shall arise Mat. 7.27 But to speak in your own Phrase is not this to build with Stubble and daub with untempered Mortar So that the more that is laid upon such rotten Foundations do only serve at last but to make the bigger heap of Rubbish For if Power and Success be a sign of providence prospering an undertaking then as to Right there can be little or no difference between the Thief and the honest Man for Providence are as it were alike to both only She gives one Money or Goods but not a sufficient strength to defend them and gives another none but power enough to take them Ay but say you this will not hold in little petty Robberies because a Man may be call'd to an account by human Laws that is you say the Reason but you tell us God is not confined to human Laws Ca. Pa 4. And therefore what he doth by Providence will hold in small matters as well as great And I presume if there be any difference in breaking the 8th Commandment he that steals the most must be the greater Transgressor unless you think that quantity lessens the quality of the Crime And as to that I presume you know what a Pyrate when accused said to Alexander the Great I says he Rob but in a single Ship but Thou with great Fleets and Armies For which bold Answer as some say Alexender pardon'd him And it was but reasonable for they both acted by one and the same providential Principle of Power and Success giving a Right Ca. pa. 7. And I am afraid the Golden Farmer might be infected with some such Notions of Providence from his being so successful in his undertakings for almost as People say 30 Years together which made him as the Ordinary told us not like the Doctrin of Restitution But all that think so and are fond of such Covenant Doctrin and do believe them true I would advise them to read and consider well the 21st verse of the 50th Psalm These things hast thou done and I kept silence Thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thy self but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes Or Eccles 8.11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the hearts of the Sons of men are fully
set in them to do evil From which it is evident That Prosperity and Success is no sign of God's approving the wicked Ways and Designs of bad Men especially when his own Sacred Laws are broken to gain their Ends For if we will not allow a difference between the permissive and approbative Will of Heaven then as I before observed God must be the only Author of all Evil and how much that borders upon if not the same thing we call Blasphemy I shall leave it to your self to judge There is one place more I remember you quoted to prove your Case c. and that is our Saviour's Answer to that ensnaring Question of the Pharisees and Herodians Mat. 22.17 Is it lawful to give Tribute unto Cesar or not But our Saviour well knowing their Designs gave them an Answer according Render therefore unto Cesar the things that are Cesars and unto God the things that are Gods When they heard these words they marvelled and left him And well they might for his Answer was no more to their purpose than it is to yours For what relation had this Answer to your Notion of Possession and Success giving a Right unless you had proved Cesar had no legal Right and so was according to your own distinction but a de facto and not a legal and rightful Emperor Besides Tribute may be paid where Allegiance is not due as many in Flanders and Savoy and other places are too sensible of and therefore our Saviours was a fit Answer to their own answering the Question our Lord asked them when they brought unto him a Peny And he said unto them Whose is this Image and Superscription They say unto him Cesars So that it is plain our Saviour bidding them give unto Cesar the things that are Cesars and unto God the things that are Gods is not to your purpose for our Saviour we find in lesser matters declines being a Judge And one of the company said unto him Master Lu 12 14. speak unto my Brother that he divide the Inheritance with me And he said unto him Man Who made me a Judge or a Divider over you And so in like manner in the other Case without determinating the Point which indeed was the only thing that the Pharisees expected that so they might entangle him in his talk and therefore he answer'd them v. 18. Why tempt ye me ye Hypocrites c. which was as much as to say You know well enough those things before you ask you have Rules and Laws which I came not to destroy but to fulfil c. and then gave the aforesaid Answer on purpose to frustrate their expectations and to put them in mind of what was due to God as well as to Cesar So that our Lord's Answer was no more a giving of new Rules to know what are Cesars and what are Gods than to what sort of Cesars they become due well knowing God's Word is sufficient to instruct us how to determin that Case And so according to my promise I have briefly examin'd those Texts of Scripture which you urged in favour of your Case of Allegiance c. But having as you see compared them with others they do not appear in my judgment to favor it all and therefore what remains is the third and last thing viz. to draw from your Notion of Providence and Success giving a Right some useful Inferences very necessary for practical Reformers both of Church and State And first of all If Power and Success gives a Right c. than those sort of People we call Grumbletonians for I believe there is no Government without Heaven permitting them as the Canaanites were amongst the Children of Israel as Thorns in their sides may take comfort from this wholsom and as you call it providential Doctrin for notwithstanding they are in a state of damnation as the providential Instruments of our happy by your all the while they are a plotting and contriving to resist the higher Powers c. Yet if they have the good Fortune or Providence should permit them to get uppermost I presume then their Case may be altered especially as to this World but what it may be in the next you have not as yet in your Case told them But Secondly this Doctrin promiseth the like Consolation to all the chief Heads of all the Mobilees in all Governments though never so thorowly setled in the World And a Captain Tom if he can but preach or persuade as Marsinello did enow of his Gang to espouse his Cause and Interest he may for ought I can see purchase as good a Title to a Crown as he has to his Commission and if he succeeds by your Rule who dare question his Right since you have given it the Divine Stamp which puts me in mind of what a great Poet said in the Character of a Noble Peer who preached to the Mob much such sort of Doctrin and I will make bold they being much to the Point in hand to transcribe them only to let you see how good Wits jump He preaches to the Crowd that Power is lent Midal p. 6. But not convey'd to Kingly Government That Crowns Successive bear no binding Force That Coronation Oaths are things of Course Maintains the Multitude can never Err And sets the People in the Papal Chair The Reason's obvious Interest never lyes The most have still their Interest in their Eyes The Power is always theirs and Power is ever wise Almighty Crowd thou shortens all Dispute Power is thy Essence Wit thy Attribute Not Faith nor Reason make thee at a stay Thou leap'st o're all Eternal Truths in thy Pindarick way Athens no doubt did Righteously decide When Phocian and when Socrates was try'd As Righteously they did those Dooms repent Still they were wise whatever way they went Crowds Err not tho to both Extremes they run To kill the Father and recall the Son Some think the Fools were most as Times went then But now the World 's o'r-stockt with prudent Men. The Common Cry is even Religion's Test The Turks is at Constantinople best Idols in India Popery at Rome And our own Worshiy only true at home And true but for the time 't is hard to know How long we please it shall continue so This side to day and that to morrow burns So all are God Almighty's in their turns A tempting Doctrin plausible and new What Fools our Fathers were if this be true Who to destroy the Seeds of Civil War Inherent Right in Monarchs did declare And that a lawful Power might never cease Secured Succession to secure our Peace Thus Property and Sovereign sway at last In equal Balances were justly cast But this new Jehu spurs the hot-mouth'd Horse Instructs the Beast to know his Native Force To take the Bitt between his Teeth and flie To the next head-long Sleep of Anarchy And how agreeable this part of the Peer's Character of preaching to Mobilees was to his