of Schism than that which Clergy-men have taken up to keep together a Party which if they give the Word may be and often have been troublesome to Civil Governments Unreasonable Quarrels and Strifes proceeding from Pride and carnal Considerations are the most truly Schismatical And why the Dissenters may not be even with many of them in returning the Censure I see no reason Sure I am they have had more tender Usage than the Dissenters had Their Consciences were to be admitted to labour with Qualms for many Months In which time a great Judgment might be made which side would be uppermost Whereas the poor Dissenters must in an instant be resolved of all their Scruples or yield to a speedy Deprivation without any intermediate Suspension to bring them to consider by feeling a temporary loss Some may think this an uncharitable Insinuation that the Clergy by their Friends prest for so long time till they might see which side would prevail But besides that the Points in question might otherwise soon be determined one way or other this can be no great doubt to them who have heard how many were seized with suddain Scruples upon the flying report of General Maccay's being routed or who consider upon what Ground many of them have prayed for King William which is barely as he is King de facto as appears by their now declining to swear Allegiance to him Considerations for taking the Oath of Allegiance Page 53. And of them who swear Allegiance some at least go upon the same Ground Or if more as his Title is allowed of by the Law and conferr'd with those Formalities of Law and with those usual Ceremonies and Rites which customarily are obsero'd in the most regular Collation of Titles Wherein that Clergy-Man who offers Considerations for taking the Oath of Allegiance leaves a Surmise that our King's Title may not have been according to the strict Rules of Justice as being obtained by due means or conferred without Injustice or Injury done to any Person which he distinguishes from a Title barely allowed of by the Law. Nay Page 46 47. he manifestly supposes that the late King is injured he being God's Ordinance the Minister of God for good not to be resisted and we bound to be subject to him however he demeaned himself in the Exercise of the Government And this he applies equally to wicked Magistrates who act without regard to those Bounds which the Law has set them And even Vsurpers that is to Usurpers both of Power and of Title as long as they are in Possession But herein only is he unequal Page 50. that whereas he tells us that though Princes exert Power without due Title or Commission from God Page 56. that is are Usurpers of Power we are bound to suffer patiently and be subject for Conscience towards God and cannot forceably resist them without Peril of Damnation Yet when he speaks of a King de facto coming in with usual Formalities of Law suppos'd by him to be an Usurper of Title he says that which we translate Damnation Page 57. is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Judgment And Treason against a King de facto is punishable by the Judgment of Death This is Treason by our Law and I do thus offend by levying War against the King for the time being though in favour of a King de jure It may be Judgment to resist the King de facto in favour of a King de jure i. e. it may be an offence which by the Law may render me obnoxious to Judgment And by Consequence a Man may rebel against the King de facto whenever he has Opportunity or fair Prospect of Impunity here and may be subject for Wrath but not for Conscience sake In short if you resist him you shall be hang'd if you resist the other you shall be damn'd Suppose then that the late King encourag'd by them who believe him still to continue King de jure should land here with French and Irish Forces having their Commissions seal'd within the Kingdom Page 34. Not the Power in being while uncapable by being out of Possession to exercise any Act belonging to the Suppeam Power So. Pa. 37. according to this Doctrine neither he nor the Forces commissioned by him are to be resisted Nor is our King to expect Assistance from such Men in other Exigencies Taxes indeed 't is confest are to be paid as a Salary for his protecting them Page 56. for this very cause that he attends continually upon the Government Yet it may be a Question whether they would not think that the others presence might discharge or transfer the Taxes But as for our Endeavours to keep King William in his Station by our Arms according to this Divine It can only be so far our Duty as it is lawful so to do which is as much as to say it is no Duty at all but is left indifferent whether you will exercise your lawful Power or no. Page 56. Nor says he Do I find St. Paul inculcating it as any part of our Subjection to the higher Powers This goes upon the Notion of a certain Leading Man who makes Non-Resistance to be absolute Subjection and as much as can or ought to be required by the Soveraign Power as if active Obedience to lawful Commands were not in the least imply'd in being subject But I take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word which the Apostle uses chiefly to import Action in a regular Discharge of the Duties of an Inferiour to his Supeour and when St. Peter uses the same Word in Relation to every humane Ordinance or Creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I would gladly know whether 't is meant of the Fountain and Derivation of Power or else of the Commands issuing from the Power If the first then the right of the late King was not Vid. History of Passive Obedience Page 106. as some contend such as no Religion no Law no Fault or Forfeiture can alter or diminish If the last then active Obedience to lawful Commands is required by the very Letter but I cannot see how the same Text should require passive Obedience to unlawful Commands any more than it does active and whoever does not actively obey the lawful ones Page 59. does as much resist the Power nay more than he who resists a Person assuming a Power which never was given him by God or Man. He says farther Nor doth our Law since the Cessation of the Tenure of Knights Service require it personally of all Subjects at least we of the Clergy cannot be concern'd in it because we by so many Statutes are exempted from bearing Arms. Herein he shews that he talks out of his Profession for as to Personal Service whatever might be requisite in Grand Serjeanty by which a Man is to be the King's Champion or the like in his own Person 't is evident Knights Service was not personal for otherwise it
Edifice which they had been building with great Pains But what Rivers can wash away the stain of so much noble Blood as has been offer'd up to this Moloch a meer Figure which some have made to worship Had it not been for this Idol worse than ever the Clowns chose the Earl of Essex Lord Russel and Colonel Sydny had been now alive in their large Capacities for heroic Actions and wholsom Counsels as well as in their immortal Memories and had been as conspicuous now for the reward of their Merit as they have been for their Sufferings Under the Protection of this Figure came out that shadow of a Vindication of the late Magistracy and Government of England The censure of the two Vindications of the Magistracy and Government of England written against the defence of Lord Russels Innocence in Two parts which are more weak and Criminal attempts upon the never-dying Fame of the Ld. Russel than any that he has been prov'd guilty of otherwise than by a Verdict The false colours in the first of these have been sufficiently expos'd by Mr. Hawles and the second Anticipated Both of them out of pretended Zeal for the present Government justify the last and therein condemn this as wanting just Occasion or Foundation and while the Author labours to wash the Blackamore white he bespatters the Innocent and yet after his Thundring pretences to mighty feats all resolves it self into a clearing the then Recorder who pronounc'd Judgment upon the Indictment which was found but the overruling and imposing Judges the complying Jury who in their passive Obedience to the Bench shew'd how much they had profited by that Doctrine the scandalous Evidence and stabbing Rhetorick of the eager Counsel are left to shift for themselves Our Collector I find as impotent in his Heat as the Vindicator Page 118. after all the formidable things which he has produc'd to shew the remediless Case of Mankind by the Encroachments of Princes Page 27. he confesses that where a Government was founded in compact and all priviledges Sacred and Civil contrary to that agreement were invaded this alters the Case while it can no way hold good in Governments where there is no such Compact And herein we are agreed Hi motus animorum atque haec certamina tanta Pulveris exigui jactu composta quiescunt Thus notwithstanding all the flourish of Quotations from Divines he sends us to the Common-Lawyers And one would think he was asleep when he made use of this passage from the witty Dr. Donne Page 40. Though some ancient Greek States which are call'd Regna Laconica because they are shortned and limited to certain Laws and some States in our time seem to have conditional and provisional Princes between whom and Subjects there are mutual and reciprocal Obligations which if one side break they fall on the other Yet that Soveraignty which is a power to do all things available to the main Ends resides somewhere which if it be in the hands of one Man erects and perfects that Pambasilia of which we speak If therefore those Expressions which run highest in maintenance of the unalterable Right of Princes can reasonably be intended only of such as have the Power to do all things available to the main ends of Government without Limitation to certain Laws then they who have not this unlimited Power by the Constitution may be conditional and provisional Princes Should now our Historian strike out all his dead Authors who have expressions of a quite contrary import to what he cites from themselves or others and all those living ones who have contradicted themselves in Words or a series of Actions I assure my self his bulky Book would shrink into a very narrow Compass and yet as it is himself has condemn'd it to lie for wast paper till he proves our Government was not founded in Compact and that there are no Limitations by Laws to make it such an one as Dr. Donne calls Laconic When he produces his Evidence of a Pambasilia here I should think it no difficult task to convince all but himself of his Error I take Judg Brouhgton to be the best Resolver of all Scruples in this kind that ever I met with of a Divine even better than that Great Man who as he has been shewn most of his Mistakes upon the Grand Question by that extraordinary Person lately deceased Dr. Twisden little inferiour to his Brother Sir Roger so I suppose he is by this time satisfied that the Fundamental Contract is not so invisible but it may be found and understood The Collector refers to a Book which I must own never to have been master of written by a Person now of great Eminence and Station with these Words If you charge the Doctrine of absolute Submission as brutish or stupid P. 73. or contrary to the Law of Nature see you do not run into Blasphemy by charging the Holy one foolishly Some would think the Obedience without Reserve required of the Scotch Nation to be but a due Improvement of this But I may refer him to the Laws of our Land common Sense or the same Persons better thoughts for a more generous Idea of this matter And if our learned Rabbies go about to shew that the frightful Representation which Samuel made of the way or manner of future Kings of Israel Page 69. was but the Jus Regium the Fundamental Law of the Kings of Israel Page 78. and that the Kings of England have a Supremacy in their Dominion in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Secular according to the Powers invested in the Jewish Kings under the Law. Wherein indeed I tack together the Proposition of one in Explanation of the other yet if the last meant it in the same sense in which the other explains the Power of the Kings of Israel I may well call for the Pedigree to prove how our Kings derive their Title to this or that Law which makes the Jewish Polity Universal and for a clearer Argument ad hominem I must say that very Author 's own Practice is a sufficient Confutation But if they who are by the great and magnanimous Prince who now fills the Throne called to a more perfect Law of Liberty in this Year of Jubilee refuse to be free I may say that like the Hebrew Servant bought with a price or rather Slave in the same case they should have their Ears boar'd to distinguish them from others who delight not in Slavery And if while Blessings like God Almighty's descend upon the Evil and the Good the Enemies and the Friends to our Peace my Fleece as that of Gideon's remains unwatered with the Dew of Heaven I must consider that even that was to him a Sign of God's Presence And the this should with former Services to the Publick be made matter of Accusation yet ought I not to faint in the Cause of Truth and my Country which amidst many Imperfections and Disadvantages I must avow to the World from the first dawnings of my Understanding ever to have serv'd with Sincerity and the utmost Endeavours of SIR Yours most faithfully c. FINIS
rememember the time when Clergy-Men thought it their Interest to maintain that the Sanction of a meer positive Law lies in the Penalty Vid. Grand Question concerning the Bishops voting in Cases Capital Pag. 68. The Sanction of the Law is ceas'd which was irregularity Pag. 69. If the irregularity be taken away the Sanction is gone And if the Sanction be taken off in a meer positior Law the force of the Law is gone too And therefore this Canon Law which forbids Clergy-Men being present in Capital-Cases and giving Votes therein is wholly taken away by the Reformation Wherefore some would ask what now becomes of the Laws about Conformity the Penalties being taken away Though I must own the late Act to be penn'd with abundant Caution to prevent the Cavils of a nice sort of Men yet it speaks of separate Assemblies for Religious Worship permitted or allowed by it And gives such encouragement to them as to exempt their Preachers from certain secular Employments the better to attend to the Work of their Ministry And tho God Almighty may permit or suffer Sin as he does not necessitate the avoiding it yet he cannot be said to allow it it being difficult to distinguish between allowing and approving much less can he be thought to encourage it Nor can that be thought a Sin against which he has denounced no Judgment especially where he declares there shall be none And if any thing became a Sin by humane Law if that declare there shall be no Penalty one would take it to be a virtual declaring that it ceases to be a Sin unless we can imagine that the Law which frees the Body would ensnare the Mind Nay the Doctor seems to forget that he had called the late Act Page 27. an Indulgence granted the Dissenters in the Page immediately before his Assertion that the Laws do not undertake to justify the Thing he was then speaking of which was the Liberty of Conscience which they give as if it were no Sin Which surely is a palpable Reflection that the Laws give indulgence to Sin. But in charging this Sin of Schism the Doctor here must needs go upon the Supposition that the Terms of Communion with the Church of England are enjoyned by Christ's immutable Law Upon which I dare say the Dissenters will readily join Issue Nor do they belive that Christ has made any Law for England but what he has made for all Mankind Yet the Doctor thinks he had proved them guilty from the Notion of Schism Page 18. it being as he says the strict and proper Notion of Schism for Persons causlesly to rend themselves from the particular Church whereof de jure they are Members If it be causlesly in the Judgment of the Party that divides it were something But according to him the Protestant Dissenters who divide upon Dissatisfaction notwithstanding such real Dissatisfaction without any thing of Malice or Hypocrisy are Schismaticks For he will have their Division to be causless in it self For such to say they agree in Doctrinals it is only upon account of Ceremonies that they separate Vid. Dr. Bringhurst's Sermon before the Ld. Mayor May 26. 1689. The spirituality of God's Worship under the Gospel being a necessary qualification of it some Men may possibly scruple without any Malice or ill Design some Rites or Vsages in the Worship of God as being contrary to its Spirituality Nothing but Order and Decency may be designed by them or some external Ornaments for the Service of God and by a fair and rational Interpretation they may be so us'd without being impediments to the purity and spirituality of Divine Worship yet seeing all Men cannot have the same sense of these things and seeing what a Man scruples he can never be edified by it we are to consider the infirmities of our Brethren for Order and Decency here is best when they are in subservency to Edification seemeth says he so far from excusing the Thing it really maketh it worse But since Men are not apt to make due Allowances for humane Infirmities till the Case comes to be their own it may not be amiss to put it so as may affect some of our present Clergy For them to rend themselves from their People and to intermit or wholly leave off their Ministry causlesly must needs be as Schismatical and as great a Breach of the Political Union as for the People causlesly to separate from them But we say and are ready to prove that they who are suspended or may be depriv'd for refusing to take the Oath of Allegiance to King William and Queen Mary causlessly rend themselves from their People If they say that they really scruple Why should causless Scruples excuse them from Schism and not the more ignorant Laity If it is so far from excusing the last that it makes it worse that they scruple not upon account of Doctrinals the same will return upon them whose Scruples are founded upon a supposed knowledg of humane Law in which they are evidently mistaken And herein the Point turns the stronger upon them that whereas the Law with great Equity gives Indulgence to Consciences scrupulous about Religious Worship and doubtful of the Power of humane Laws concerning it the Law neither does nor can without Injury to the Publique give Indulgence to them who unless they give reasonable Assurance of Fidelity are to be look'd upon as of a contrary Allegiance and so no Friends to the Power which protects them And this is the rather to be believed because no Man who will take any promisory Oath can scruple swearing Allegiance now but upon Supposition that the subject matter of his former Oath remains and the late King still continues his Leige Lord according to the Laws of the English Government For Allegiance must follow the Law it being nothing more than the Fidelity and Obedience which the Law requires Were it more we should swear our selves Slaves and the King Absolute Though in relation to a future State it may be too severe to charge all Men of Understanding with the immediate and obvious Consequences of what they hold many being better than their Principles Yet it may be as needful for Civil Governments to judg accordingly as to preferve themselves But as poor Dissenters are suppofed to be shut out of God's Church and depriv'd of all the ordinary means of Salvation because of their Mistakes 't is requisite thus to turn the Question upon them who cast the first Stone And some will be ready to suggest that Obstinacy Vanity to be at the Head of a Party an Expectation of being considerable enough to be bought off too great Pride to acknowledg an Error or the like are more truely Ingredients in the Clerical Schism than Malice or Hypocrisy in that which the Laity are aspers'd with But to return to our Doctor He had own'd that Christ's Mystical Body is an Aggregation or Collection of all throughout the Face of the
Earth who embrace the Faith he hath delivered From St. Austin he tells us Schismaticks are not to be look'd upon as Christians And yet they who agree in the same Faith and separate or are driven or kept out only upon the account of Ceremonies nor are charg'd with want of Charity are Schismaticks with him and that though many of them were bred up under other Pastors and cannot be faid to have rent themselves from the Church of England This indeed must be said for him that though St. Austin and other antient Fathers make no Degrees of Schism and knew of none but in such as divide out of Malice or Hypocrisy or at least from such terms as Christ required Our Doctor makes Degrees of Schism without Authority from the Apostles or the Fathers He tells us some are greater Schismaticks than others yet the least are guilty of the Sin of Schism And so perhaps we may find a Schism which is not a Rent from God's Church nor a Breach of Charity among Christians And then I would gladly know how the Nature of Schism remains And indeed it is evident that as he applies the Name of Schismaticks to them who embrace the Faith Christ has deliver'd and whom he cannot in general charge with dividing from other Christians out of Hypocrify or Malice he imputes Schism to them who certainly remain true Members of God's Church and maintain that Bond which unites them to their Fellow-Christians Yet notwithstanding all the seeming Softnings 't is plain the Doctor will not allow such to be true Members of God's Church For he says to be a Member of the Catholick 't is necessary to be of some particular Church Nor can it be deny'd that he charges the Protestant Dissenters with failure of what is necessary to being of the Catholick Church And though in the Choice of Churches he restrains it to such as God may be acceptably served in Yet I shall foon shew he makes it absolutely necessary to be of some visible Church and therein agrees with the Papists and differs only in that he will have the Church of England so called that is they who are united under the same Ecclesiastical Polity to be the Church Yet some would think that as Christ's mystical Body or Church Universal is a Collection of all throughout the Face of the Earth who embrace the Faith Christ has delivered Wherein according to this Doctor himself Visibility is by no means essential to the being of the Church-Universal for embracing the Faith is a pure Act of the Mind so the Church of England as it is a part of the whole is a Collection of them who embrace that Faith in England Every part must be in some place but it would not cease to be a part if there were no other part upon the place to join with And therefore a single Person may make as true a part of Christ's Body as the greatest Numbers But examine the ground for the Imputation of Schism upon our Protestant Dissenters Page 18. because they causlessly divide or rend themselves from that Church of which de jure they are Members Page 16. This he had explained before where he says that I call every Mans particular Church not which it may be he himself doth call so but which the lawful Authority of the Country where he liveth hath made so Now I would gladly know by what Law Dissenters are still obliged to comform to the Ceremonies of our Church and in that respect to become Members Is it because the Law leaves others the Possession of the material Churches made with Hands Page 18. This indeed I think he offers at when he tells us how they under whose spiritual Conduct such Persons put themselves can satisfy their own Minds he knows not But I should think they might say Are Ye Ministers of the Gospel So are We. Are Ye to take care of the Flock over which Christ hath made you Overseers So are We. Nay what if they should say Your Bishops look over the Clergy and not the Flock Vid. The Prayer in the Lyturgy for Bishops and Curates and at the Consecration of Bishops Bishops the Pastors of the Church Your inferior Clergy are not Pastors but Curates to the Bishops Wherefore we are ready to enter upon the Trial which of us are most properly Pastors of Christ's Institution Vid. The same Protestant Principles Or what if they should say farther Your Bishops Lord it over the Flock and contrary to the Apostolick Example and the antient usage in England claim a Power of making Laws Canons and Constituons in the Church without the Laity Vid. Spelm Council de modo tenendi Synodos apud Anglos with this only difference among them that some place the Power in every single Bishop and so far are Independants others in the Episcopal Colledg Vid. Protestant Principles Licens'd or Assembly of all the Bishops in a Kingdom The last of which I think is most agreeable to their Notion who are only for a National Church Vid. Protestant Principles the others seem not aware that according to them every distinct Diocess makes a Church And if it should fall out that the primitive Diocesses were but single Assemblies of them who worship'd God in the same place with one Heart and one Mind Vid. Clackson's Primitive Episcopacy though with different Postures then every Protestant Congregation may chance to put in for as compleat a Church as any and others may be as great Schismaticks in refusing to Communicate with them as they for not Communicating with others The Doctor indeed speaking of the Dissenting Ministers receiving those whom he takes de jure to be Members of the Church of England Pag. 18. They under whose spiritual Conduct such Persons put themselves Na be no where takes the Ministers for Brethren says How opposite soever they may be to the Pope in other matters in this his Vsurpation they agree with him and can no more be justify'd in it than he And thus in the Spirit of Meekness and with many gentle stroakings to the Laity the Preachers are call'd Usurpers the hearers Schismaticks For my part waving the Question about a compleat Pastor and the due Government of the Church I should rather fear that the Charge of Schism might be retorted upon them whoever they are who so far usurp upon Christ's Office as to make more or other Terms of Communion than Christ hath made And whosoever insist upon Conformity to other Terms I should think to be real Schismaticks howmuch soever others suffer under the Name Sure I am Schism lies in something else besides causless Separation from external Communion for other wise the Apostle would never have charg'd it upon them who continued in the same external Communion as did the Corinthians to whom alone he appli'd the word If the Apostle applied this to them who continued the same external Communion and never to them who divided
had been impossible for a Man who held several Knights Fees to have discharged the Duty of his tenure Even where there was no Knight's Service antiently and since its being taken away all Men have been and yet are oblig'd to provide Arms and the Bodies of Men either their own or others for the Defence of the Kingdom according to their Estates real or personal Nor have the Clergy any Exemption for this Neither do the Acts establishing a Militia discharge any Man from this which is a Duty at Common Law of which the Confessors Law and the Statute of Winchester are declaratory But what ever Exemption Clergy-men have it is because of their Attendance in their Ministerial Office upon which account the dissenting Ministers have the like Exemption by the late Statute What then if any of our Clergy decline swearing Allegiance till the time of Deprivation incurs may and will they still exercise their Function If they may and will why might not they as well who were turn'd out by the Bartholomew Act If they may not or will not what Exemption can they claim more than Lay-men If they say still their Character is indelible Is no Duty annexed to the Character But is not this fine Doctrine to be insinuated now as if no Man were obliged to endeavour by Arms to keep our King in his Station Or if other Men are at least not Clergy-men But that if you resist him by Arms nothing but want of Success can make it criminal Sure I am that egregious Pattern of Christian fortitude Mr. Johnson on whom this Author reflects was degraded by his Brethren and delivered over to the secular scourge for less than this When I consider how earnestly this Man presses taking the Oaths I cannot but think of the Advice said to be given by the late King to his Friends here That as many of them as can should get into Offices And we may hence observe what is to be expected from those Clergy-Men who take the Oath of Allegiance with a Protestation that they do it barely as to a King de facto their Loyalty may vie with St. Beckets who was for swearing to the King with a salvo jure to the Pope whether such ought to be suffer'd to spread their Doctrines with a Face of Authority and what Punishments they deserve who accept of such Protestations I submit to my Superiors But sure I am this will not be enough in Law to keep their Livings unless they are favour'd by an undue entry upon Record Yet who can chuse but wonder how from the same Text a Clergy Man should enforce the Obligation of submitting to a Tyrant in the exercise of Power upon pain of Damnation and yet make the Penalty less in the case of resisting one who is really God's ordinance as he is a Minister of Good but in his opinion wants Title though the Law be on his side This can be for no other Reason but that whatsoever becomes of the State Vid. pag. 41 without condemning the Doctrine of Non-resistance Church-Men must not recede from their darling-Notion of Non-resistance And rather than they should be thought Ecclesiastical Weather-cocks the State must be turn'd round again into Confusion Nor do they care how much they reflect upon those noble Patriots who invited this King when he was Prince Ibid. and appeared in Arms with him for the Protestant Cause If they can but free their Coat from the necessity of retracting those Slavish Doctrines Vid. Jovoan In all soveraign Governments the Subjects are and ought to be slaves if if the King pleases which though many of them have renounced in their Actions they would still justify in Principle And as it is to be presum'd that every Man will act according to his Principle when he has an inviting Opportunity I leave it to all impartial Men to consider which are most likely to be true to the present Government they who believe the Soveraign Power inseparable from the Person of the late King that they were in a State of Damnation who offered to resist his Arbitrary Usurpations that themselves are exempted from assisting this Government with their Persons or their Arms in the utmost Extremity and may resist when they are likely to escape temporal Judgment Or they who are ready to hold to the Death that our present King has as good a Title as ever King of England had Which has already been evinced in some Measure And did the Men of Scruples vouchsafe to produce any colourable Objection History of Passive Obedience considered Vid. Preface should be farther Indeed a certain injudicious Author has with a plain evil Design against the present Settlement heapt up Numbers of Quotations to prove that it is a Truth as eternal and unalterable as any Doctrine of Christianity that a Superior is not in Things unlawful to be resisted upon any pretence whatsoever in the utmost extent of which Assertion Ibid no sort of Superior Justice of the Peace or other is to be resisted even where he acts without colour of his Office. But what he drives at is that Men ought to be unalterably true to their Oaths and suppos'd Duty to the late King at leasthe will allow of no discharge in Law sufficient Hist pag. 54. unless the late King give an express release and according to his Quotation out of Dr. Hammond's practical Catechism History pag. 54. will have the Duty of Allegiance to continue where the suppos'd legal Soveraign doth still claim his Right to his Kingdoms and to the Allegiance of his Subjects no way acquitting them from their Oaths or laying down his Pretentions though for the present he be overpower'd This I am sure he will never prove to be the steady Doctrine of that Church Preface which he calls poor and despised and of whose Interests he pretends to the deepest sense while he would render it such by keeping it too firmly attach'd to the Interest of the late misguided and unfortunate King let him if he can squeez this sense out of its Articles or Homilies Certain it is he is far from bringing a cloud of Witnesses to his imaginary eternal verity Few of the passages which he cites enforce more than Obedience to lawful Authority some indeed and chiefly Persons now alive let fall expressions through inadvertency or prevalence of strong Temptations which 't is to be hoped that many of them have repented of since their later Discourses and Practices notoriously contradict them and surely little proof of the steady Doctrine of a Church can be had from such Inconstancy I must own that this Collection is to one purpose very useful for some of them wanted to be thus Admonish'd of their frailty and 't will be happy for them if this Humiliation can expiate for that poison which has infected many beyond Remedy from the Antidote they now yield while out of the Eater comes forth Meat and themselves pull down that