13. 1. Let every Soul be subject unto the Higher Powers To Titus 3. 1. Put them in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers to obey Magistrates And St. Peter as if he had a mind to confirm the very terms of our Canon and contradict his pretended Successor the Pope gives this Charge Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake whether it be to the King as Supream c. 1 Pet. 2. 13. The loose Answers which have been devised to take off the force of these Scriptures and encourage eternal Confusions have been of late so shamefully bassled by many learned Pens that I need not concern my self farther with them only I think it fit they should know what Penalty God's Word hath assigned to Offenders in this kind which being no less than Damnation I cannot but as a Christian wish them Repentance that if possible they may escape it though I cannot without deploring their Condition think of the Observation That Rebellion in this is as the Sin of Witchcraft that both Sins do so bewitch Men and carry away their very Hearts and Souls that they rarely if ever think on Repentaâ—ce on this side Hell and then I fear it will stand them in little stead notwithstanding the comfortable Doctrine which their new High-Priest hath broach'd for the benefit of the damned and to encourage the Living to run the hazard of Damnation If I should examine how the Church in succeeding Times trod in these steps of our Saviour and his Apostles it would be a tedious work and therefore I shall only subjoin some few Citations as a Specimen And I hope I shall be pardoned if I take the liberty to translate since I write only for the Instruction of the Ignorant not for the Information of those who are wiser than my self And in that early Collection of Canons commonly known by the name of the Apostle's Canons we find this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. If any Man against Right do Wrong to the King or Governour let him be severely punished if he be a Clergy man let him be deposed if a Lay man let him be excommunicated Can. 84. In the Fourth Council of Toledo we find both a neat Preamble and smart Canon to this purpose thus Multarum quippe gentium tanta extat perfidia c. So false say they and perfidious are the Minds of many Men that they will not keep that Faith which by Oath they have promised to their King but whilst with their Mouths they profess to swear in their Hearts retain Treachery for they swear Fidelity to their Kings but break their Oaths not regarding the Judgment of God denounced Jer. 7. 8 c. against those who swear by the Name of the Lord falsly What hope can such have in War with their Enemies What other Nations will trust such in Peace What League at this rate can hold them What Pledg or Assurance can they give that they will keep their Faith with their Enemies when they break that Faith which they have sworn to their own Kings Then follows the Canon Whosoever henceforth either of us any of the Spanish People by any Machination or Contrivance shall violate that Oath of Fidelity which he hath sworn for the Safety of his Countrey the State of the Gothick Nation or the Security of his Prince or shall murder his King or divest him of his Authority or by Tyrannical Presumption shall usurp the Throne let him be Anathema in the sight of the Holy Ghost and the Martyrs of Christ and let him be ejected out of the Catholick Church which he hath profaned by his Perjury and let him be debarr'd from all Christian Communion nor let him have any share with the Righteous but let him be condemned to eternal Punishment with the Devil and his Angels And then the whole Clergy and People give their Consent in these Words Whosoever shall go contrary to this Decree let him be Anathema Maranatha i. e. let him receive Sentence of Damnation at the Coming of our Lord Jesus and both he and his Associates have their Portion with Judas Iscariot Amen Certainly Christians had no light Opinion of the Sins of Rebellion and Usurpation when they denounce such a dreadful Sentence against it and I think Christianity is still the same it ever was however the Professors of it may be altered In the Seventh Council of Toledo cap. 1. we have a Constitution to our purpose in these Words Sed quia plerosque Clericos tantae levitatis interdum pravitatis praesumptive ita elevat c. But because many Clergy-men are so pussed up with Vanity and Wickedness that unmindful of the gravity of their Order and their Faith promised by Oath they through a rash Levity consent to the setting up another King their lawful King being living it is sit that such licentiousness should be altogether taken away and utterly extirpated out of our Communion So that if any Lay-man within the bounds of the Countrey of the Goths shall ambiâ—iously attempt the Crown and shall receive any favour or assistance from Clergy-mâ—n and by successâ—ul Wickedness shall prevail in his ambitious Attempt from the time that any Bishop or Clergyman of what Order soever shall have involved himself in such Crime it 〈◊〉 him to remain excommunicate for ever I think here is ipso facto Excommunication with a Witness But if by the prevailing Wickedness of that Prince with whom â—e unjustly agreed the Bishop shall not be able actually to suspend him from Communion yet if he over live the said Prince whosoever shall admit him to Communion unless at the very Hour of Death and upon sufficient proof of his true Repentance let that Person be liable to the aforesaid Sentence Here you may see that the Church would not suffer even prosperous Villany to rescue Offenders out of her Hands but obliged her Members upon the sâ—verâ—st Penalty upon all Opportunities to make them know themselves What Leâ—iâ—y may for several reasons be used sometimes in such cases belongs not to me to determine only if any think they may be concerned herein I wish they may so think as seriously to repent that they may find both God's and his Church's Mercy From the Concilium Calcuthense I shall cite only part of a Canon though the whole is pertinent enough Let no Man dare to be privy to the murder of a King because he iâ— the Lord 's Anointâ—d and if any Man join in such Wickedness if he be a Bishop or any of the Sacerdâ—tal Order let him be degraded and removed from the Clergy as Judas was from the Apostolick Order and whoever else shall be consenting to such a Sacrilegious Fact he shall perish under the â—ternal bond of an Anathema and coupled with the Traitor Judas shall be burnt in everlasting Fire as it is written not only they who doe but those who consent to the doing such Things shall not escape the Judgment of God It
But to what purpose is all this Stuff Are we to judge of our Constitutions by the blind Tale of a little Historian or the contradictory Saying of an old Moth-eaten Lawyer who wrote in diâ—â—icult Times trod upon Thorns and was under a kind of Necessity to write so as that he might avoid the Rage of the several incensed Parties What a woful Condition are the People of England in if they must look five six seven or eight hundred Years downward for what they are to do now and to learn wherein and how far they are to obey their King Such Things fall in few Hands and are read by fewer and perhaps well considered by fewest of all Will Mr. Johnson have the present State of Affairs reduâ—ed to what was so long since Or will he be content that his Almighty House of Commons should be lâ—id aside because there was no such House at the time from whence he seâ—cheth several of his Authorities or at least not such a House as is now under the prâ—sent Constitutions And therefore I must beg his Pardon if in this case I little regard his far-fetch'd Stories and am bold to tell him that we are not to be ruled or guided by odd Remnants of Antiquity in this matter but by our present Constitution and if he can make that agree with his Old Stories he will go near to carry the Cause but if he cannot then both he and all the Revolutionists will stand for ever condemned by it Now I know not how to come to the knowledg of our Constitutions better than by our Laws and then for a Protestant Kingdom it may be convenient to look so high as the first establishment of Religion under that odd Title and to compare and view the agreement of our Laws all along from the first enterance of the Protestant Religion to the very time of King James's pretended Aâ—dication And here if I go so high as Henry the 8th 〈◊〉 I think I need go no farther than Queen Elizabeth and so trace Things to our own Time we shall thence learn the present Obligations we lay under when this Revolution came upon us I am not willing to create a Quarrel whether Henry the 8th were Papist or Protestant I will freely give the Papists my share in him For he that so â—obb'd the Churches that many Parishes have not Revenues to find a Minister Bread and burnt Protestants because they would not become Papists I think is much fitter for them than for us But be he what he will I cannot find that either he or his Parliament owned Mr. Johnson's Doctrine In the â—â—th of his Reign cap. 12. you will find it thus Enacted Where by divers sundry old Authentick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed That this Realm of England is an Empire and so hath been accepted in the World governed by one â—upream Head and King having the Dignity and Royal Estate of the Imperial Crown of the same unto whom a Body Politick compact of all sorts and degrees of People divided in Terms and by Names of Spirituality and Temporality been boundâ—n and owen to bear next to God a natural and humble Obedience Here a Parliament declares him 〈◊〉 subjects him to none but God and in the next following Words gives him plenary whole and intire Power Pre-eminence Authority Prerogative and Jurisdiction And this they declare to be no new thing but to be taught by old Histories and Chronicles whose authentickness they vouch Now one would think that such authentick Histories and such Vouchers should make a better Authority thâ—n Mr. Johnson's Knighton But it is so well known what Authority Henry the 8th challenged and was owned by his Subjects that I need not insisâ—â—pon it Had our Author come abroad then with his new Inventions he himself perhaps would have found little better usage than Dr. Burnet's Pastoral Letter As for King Edward the Sixth we do not find that he any ways departed from the Authority his Father left him but though a Prince of great Hopes and pious Inclinations yet by the Seducements of some ill Persons about him entered farther upon the Ecclesiastical Authority than ever his Father did how justly I leave others to judge I cannot commend it And then for Queen Mary all Dignities Prerogative Royal Power Pre-eminence Priviledges Authorities and Jurisdictions are as fully wholly absolutely and entirely invested in her as in her Father or any her Predecessors by the Statute 1 Mariae Par. Sec. Cap. 1. To avoid tediousness I shall only touch upon such Statutes as speak home to this purpose and now we come to that which all sorts of Persons except Papists as with one Month stile the best Reign I mean the admired times of Queen Elizabeth in the first Year of whose Reign the Oath of Supremacy was enacted or rather revived in which amongst others are these two things asserted 1st That the Queen's Highness is the only Supream Governour of this Realm and of all other her Highness's Dominions and Countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Things or Causes as Temporal 2dly That no Foreign Prince Person I relate State or Potentate hath or â—ught to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Pre-eminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm By the first her own Subject's Hands are tied up by the second the Usurpations of Foreignes are excluded She could not be Supream much less only Supream if any Men or body of Men in her own Dominions had a Superior Power to depose her and it being not only their Duty but they also farther obliged by Oath to assist and desend her in this Supremacy and this Oath and Statute being transmitted in force to all her Successors any attempt by them to the contrary must necessarily be invalid and unlawsul And those who have a mind to know the Penalties which the Law insticts on Offenders in this kind may at their leisure read them in the same Statute Let us now desâ—â—â—d from the Reign of Queen Elizabeth to that of King James the First and in the Act of Recâ—grâ—tion Anno 1. Jac. 1. cap. 1. after a long dutiful and humble Prâ—â—mble it is thus said We being bounden thereunto both by the Laws of God and Man do recognize and acknowledg and thereby express our unspeakable Joys That immediately upon the Dissolution and Decease of Elizabeth late Queen of England the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England and of all the Kingdoms Dominions and Rights belonging to the same did by inherent Birth-right and lawful and undoubted Succession descend and come to your most excellent Majesty as being lineally justly and lawfully next and sole Heir of the Blood-Royal of this Realm as is aforesaid And that by the Goodness of God Almighty and lawful Right of Descent under one Imperial Crown your Majesty is of the Realms and Kingdoms of England Scotland France and Ireland the most potent and mighty King and by God's
Goodness more able to protect and govern us your Loving Subjects in all Peace and Plenty than any of your noble Progenitors and thereunto we most humbly and faithfully do submit and oblige our Selves our Heirs and Posterities for ever until the last drop of our Bloud be spent And do beseech your Majesty to accept the same as the First-Fruits in this High Court of Parliament of our Loyalty and Faith to your Majesty and your Royal Progeny and Posterity for ever Which if your Majesty shall be pleased as an Argument of your gracious Acceptation to adorn with your Majesty's Royal Assent without which it can neither be compleat and perfect nor remain to all Posterity according to our most humble Desires as a Memorial of your Princely and tender Affection towards us we shall add this also to the rest of your Majesty's unspeakable and inestimable Benefits Here they plainly acknowledg these two things 1st That the Crown descends by Proximity of Bloud and that immediately even before any Ceremony of Coronation or otherwise so that there can be no Inter-regnum or Vacancy of the Throne And accordingly it is a Maxim in Law that Rex non moritur 2dly That the assent of the King is that which gives the Life Being and Vigour to Laws without which they are of no force Now how the late Proceedings which were directly against both these can be valid ought to be made very clear at least it ought to be better proved than by the capricious Opinion of one single private Person against a full and lawful Parliament In the Third Year of the same King James was Enacted the Oath commonly called the Oath of Allegiance not but that the same thing was practised before though not in the same Words which may be tendered to any above the Age of eighteen which restraining the Subject not only from deposing but from offering the least violence or harm to the King and obliging all Subjects so faithfully to assist their King against both Domestick Traitors and Foreign Usurpers and being so directly contrary to and utterly inconsistent with Mr. Johnson's Doctrine I think fit to insert it here at large I A B do truly and sincerely acknowledg profess testifie and declare in my Conscience before God and the World That our Sovereign Lord King James is lawful and rightful King of this Realm and of all other His Majesty's Dominions and Countries and that the Pope neither of himself nor by any Authority of the Church or See of Rome or by any other means with any other hath any Power or Authority to depose the King or to dispose of any of his Majesty's Kingdoms and Dominions or to authorise any Foreign Prince to invade or annoy him or his Countries or to discharge any of his Subjects of their Allegiance and Obedience to his Majesty or to give licence or leave to any of them to bear Arms raise Tumults or to offer any Violence or Hurt to his Majesty's Royal Person State or Government or to any of his Majesty's Subjects within his Majesty's Dominions Also I do swear from my Heart That notwithstanding any Declaration or Sentence of Excommunication or Deprivation made or granted or to be made or granted by the â—ope or hiâ— Successors or by any Authority derived or pretended to be derived from him or his See against the said King his Heirs or Successors or any Absolution of the said Subjectâ— from their Obedience I will bear Faith and true Allegiance to his Majesty his Heirs and Successors and him and them will defend to â—he uttermost of my Power against all Conspiracies and Contempts whatsoever which shall be made against his or their Persons their Crown and Dignity by reason or colour of any such Sentence or Declaration or otherwise and will do my best endeavour to disclose and make known unto his Majesty his Heirs and Successors all Treasons and Traiterous Conspiracies which I shall know or hear of to be against him or any of them 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 murdered by their Subjects or any other whatsoever And I do believe and in Conscience am resolved that neither the Pope nor any Person whatsoever hath Power to absolve me of thiâ— Oath or any part thereof which I acknowledg by good and full Authority to be lawfully ministred unto me And do renounce all Pardons and Dispensations to the contrary And all these things I do plainly and sincerely acknowledg and swear according to these express Words by me spoken and according to the plain and common Sense and Vnderstanding of the same Words without any Equivocation or Mental Evasion or Secret Reservation whatsoever And I do make this recognition and acknowledgment heartily willingly and truly upon the true Faith of a Christian So help me God If foolish wicked Men did not make their Reservations and endeavour to put Tricks even upon God whom they call to be a Witness of the Truth of what they swear and an Avenger if they swear falsly there would need nothing more to coâ—â—in Subjects in their Loyalty But still to improve this matter farther 7 Jac. 1. cap. 6. an Act tells us That this Oath tends only to the Declaration â—f such Duty as every true and well-affected Subject not only by Bond of Allegiance but also by the Commandment of Almighty God ought to bear to his Majesty his Heirs and Successors So that though this Act obliges all Persons of the Age of eighteen Years upon pain of incurring a Praemunâ—â—â— to take this Oath if tendered yet it gives us to understand that it is only a super added Obligation to secure our lawâ—ul Prince and keep the Subject to his Duty and that though the Oath be not taken yet the natural Allegiance of every Subject binds him to the same thing And though it was principally yet not only made with relation to the Bishop of Rome but to all others as expressing that Allegiance which obliges Subjects to stand by their Prince against all his Opposers Enemies and Underminers whatsoever I do not know that any Foreign Powers the Pope excepted so much as pretend to a Right to depose lawful Princes nor did even the Prince of Orange when he came over pretend to any such Power by his Declaration and it seems to me to be no better than an impudent Contradiction when Men acknowledg that no Foreign Power can depose a lawful Prince to say that his own Subjects who by the Laws of God and Man owe him Allegiance and are bound with the utmost hazard of their Lives to defend him may do it And it see us to me worth Observation that Dr. Stillingfleet in his Preface to the Jesuit's Loyalty proves that the Pope deposes Princes upon Common-wealth Principâ—es Now I would willingly know upon what Principle the Doctor hath
pretend to the same nor can nor lawfully may raise or levy any War offensive or defensive against his Majesty his Heirs or lawful Successors c. And in the same Act the grounds of contrary proceedings they call Rebellious Principles the Governments set up against the lawful King they stile usurped Governments and the effect of such doings they say was almost the Ruine and Destruction of this Kingdom But what was wanting then we have just cause to fear will be made up now we are within a little of leaving out the almost and are upon the very brink of utter Ruine and Destruction Now if the sole Supream Government was in King James and the whole power and disposition of the Militia and all Forts and places of Strength were undoubtedly his Right and no War offensive or defensive may be raised against him then all those places were wrongfully taken from him and all the present Rebellions Proceedings and Usurpations are as void as the former It were no hard matter to heap up many other Statutes to this purpose but I think these sufficient for this was the Constitution when King Charles the Second died this was the state of the Government when King James the Second his lawful Successor entred upon it and all these Acts were in their full force when he was driven away and they assert maintain keep up and secure his Right and Supream Power as well against his own Subjects as Foreigners And therefore the Supremacy Authority and Right being still his as all proceedings against him are null in Law and condemned by it so all Persons thus unlawfully divesting him of that his rightful Supremacy and Authority have incurred the Centure of the fore cited Canon made pursuant to these Constitutions and must be adjudged to stand ipso facto excommunicate I am not insensible that by a certain side-wind an Objection may be here brought in which both Prerogative and Commonwealth-men have as it served their Turn insisted on That the Statute-Law is super-induced and to be in force according to the tenour of the old preceding Laws and Customs of England and if repugnant to them void if obscure and doubtful to be explained by them And I am informed that the Paltry I should have said the Poultrey Doctor in his private Pleas in making Converts or rather Perverts doth farther alledg That the Statute-Law is utterly insignisicant in it self and that we are wholly to be guided by antecedent Laws and Customs Whether he means by this to warrantize Rebellion by the worst of Precedents or would have all swallowed up in the Prerogative I cannot tell for he is as much for William as he was against King James so tempting a thing is even the bare hopes of a Bishoprick But against this I desire these few things may be considered 1st I humbly request this bold Doctor or any of his Complices to tell me in plain English Whether the august Court of Parliament which is brought together with so much Charge appears in such State and is stiled the highest Court in the Kingdom sits in all that Formality and Solemnity only to devise New-Nothings or to make Rattles and Baubles for Fools and Children For if his Objection be true I see not what they do more but must be the meerest piece of Pageantry that ever was 2dly It is observable that this Argument if not first trump'd up yet was most warmly managed in the time of King Charles the First when the matter of the Petition of Right was under debate and though they threw Dust in one another's Eyes and amused the Kingdom with sine Harangues about old blind antecedent Laws which no Body knew what to make of yet when they come to pen the Statutes they fairly leave them all to shift for themselves and found it wholly upon preceding Statutes as any Man may there see to his satisfaction 3 Car. 1. in initio 3dly That the fore-cited Statutes are so far from expressing any thing obscurely or doubtfully that they are as intelligible plain and easie as if they had been written with a Beam of the Sun Lastly and which indeed is most considerable all or most and the most pertinent of the fore-mentioned Statutes are not meerly constitutive but declaratory not barely telling us what for the future should be Law but informing us what by the old antecedent Laws were the undoubted Rights of the Crown and rule of Succession and indeed I can discover but two ways whereby the Crown can succeed according to our Constitutions viz. either bâ— Proximity of Bloâ—d in a lineal Succession or by the last Will and Testament of the present rightâ—ul Prince in Possession ratified in Parliament both which are mentioned in the Act of Settlement 35 Hen. 8. and made a rule of Succession for ever 1 Eliz. cap. 3. neither of which will do our Adversaries any Service And thus I think I have given as fair and full an answer to Mr Johnson as he hath done to the rest of his Brethren and the Obstacles being now removed may justly proceed to the Canon which declâ—res all such Persons as deny the Supremacy of their lawful King to be excommunicate ipso facto As to which I shall consider these several particulars First That this Canon is no Novelty but pursuant to and taking pattern from other Canons of the Church of Christ made all along for the security of Princes Secondly What is meant by Excommunication ipso facto Thirdly What is the State and Condition of Persons excommunicate Fourthly What ought to be the Behaviour of other Christians towards such as stand â—xcommunicate Lastly the particular restraint here laid as to reconciling such Persons who are censured by this Canon As to the first Christianity which not only teacheth but obligeth us to do good for evil took care of the Supremacy of the Supream Powers even when they were Persecutors but when Kings and Queens became Nursing Fathers and Nursing Mothers and took the Church into their Protection defending the Persons not only as Subjects but Christians and backing the Canons and Censures of the Church with Civil Laws and Penalties from thâ—nce the Church became bound not only in Duty but in Gratitude to contribute all she could to the protection of that lawful Government which protected her and to render the Civil Laws and Penalties more aweful and effectual did farther enforce them as occasion required but especially for the security of lawful Princes with the Threats and Terrors of Divine Vengeance which by Authority committed to her by God she had power to denounce against such Offenders The Doctrine of Obedience to lawful Powers has been a part of Christianity from its very first entrance into the World even then when it was the greatest Sufferer under them Thus our Blessed Saviour teacheth the Seditious Jews Mat. 22. 21. Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are Gods Thus his Apostle St. Paul to the Romans