not how any Body in the last Reign as well as in this that have wilfully or by chance in keeping ill Company fallen into such a miserable state can get free of it unless by a true and hearty Repentance And Restitution where it can be done is as you use to tell us the only Evidence of its being Sincere And without it I cannot be persuaded but that such must remain in that lamentable state let them be never so prosperous and successful unless you think Success can alter the very Nature of Things which is something difficult to suppose though your Case c. seems to imply it which Case had it came out in a time of such a Thorow Settlement as where there were no Competitors or any to make a Claim I dare appeal to all Mankind Whether it would not have been burnt by the Common Hangman as a Libel against all Established and in your own Words Thorow Setled Governments in the World And whatsoever your private Advantage may be I am sure the Church nor the present State are no great Gainers by it For I am of the Opinion your Case of Allegiance will no more preserve either from the Attempts of wicked and rebellious Wretches in this Reign than your Case of Resistance did in the last And therefore you may spare your pains unless it be to oblige your Bookseller for you know this is a wicked and rebellious Nation which are more apt to follow Example than Precept And therefore you did well in leaping like the Belweather over the Hedge which was I suppose in hopes the rest of the Sheep would follow by the noise only And truly if they do not I can attribute it to nothing more than their being better taught heretofore by your self and others in those Times when People generally thought them both orthodox and honest And if what was said to St. Paul of Learning might be truly said of Honesty I am persuaded most of our Learned Clergy are pretty well in their Wits For if Possession gives a Right they ought for that Reason not to Abdicate their Livings let what will happen for fear People should think they were mad in not acting according to their own Principles But as the World goes we may observe People act not as if Godliness is great Gain but as if great Gain is Godliness And if so we may easily then guess who are the Babes of Grace and the Providential Favorites of Heaven For since as you say there are Providential Kings as well as Kings by Divine and Humane Intail and by your Notions they have Right or no Right but as they shall be by Providence in the Possession then it consequently follows that when ever it happens that a Dispute is between a Legal which I take to be the same as a Divine Right and a Providential or an Accidental one for by your Rule there can be no difference God is then by his Providence if I may so say fighting not only against his Divine Intail but his own Eternal Rule which distinguisheth what is Right and Wrong And also the Doctrine of our Lord and the Apostles viz. the least evil in the World ought not to be done to procure the greatest good For St. Paul positively says Rom. 3.8 They that do evil that good may come of it their damnation is just Which is a dreadful Consideration for all those that act by such pernicious Principles and therefore the Apostle does justly stile such Enemies to the Cross of Christ Phil. 3.8 And indeed so they are and to all Religion and Civil Government that promotes such Providential Notions which seems to run counter to the positive Commands of the Almighty And your self and others of your Coat has often told us We are not to follow Providence contrary to Precept And St. Paul himself which I presume was as great and as knowing as any of you bids us be followers of him 1 Cor. 11.1 no other ways than he was of Jesus Christ Which I think is a good Argument for others dissenting from you when you dissent from your self and the Truths which formerly you have taught But blessed be God though you have Recanted and as it were taken leave of them yet they are nevertheless Truths for that and we know where to find them and it is no small comfort to an honest Christian that no such Republican Principles are to be found in the Doctrines of our blessed Saviour and his Apostles nor in the Canons of our Church notwithstanding the present Opinion and Practices of many of our Churchmen And therefore 't is highly rational what St. Paul adviseth Rom. 16.17 18. Now I beseech you Brethren mark them which cause Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Which we find too true but 't is to be feared they will deceive themselves too at the last and then how significant and to the purpose will it be to ask the Apostle's Question What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed Rom. 2.21 But to draw as you use to say towards a Conclusion I will end where you began viz. with one Observation on the Title of your Book in the following Words c. The Case of Allegiance to Sovereign Powers stated and resolved according to Scripture and Reason and the Principles of the Church of England c. Now as for Scripture I think I have and from your own former Sentiments of it demonstrated that your Case will not stand that Test But then secondly for it 's being agreeable to Reason I shall as being no Pretender to it leave that to those who think themselves the only Criticks and Masters of it But for the third and last it being according to the Principles of the Church of England is so astonishing that I know not well what to answer save only that if it be 't is a Secret that has lay'n a long time concealed as if Providence had not only reserved it for these times but also designed you the happy Instrument of discovering so convenient a Mufftich Providential Doctrine so absolutely necessary in a Christian Church And now I dare appeal to all the proper Judges of Scripture and Reason and the Principles of the Church of England not excepting your self though you set up for one of the chief whether your Case c. have answer'd save only in the price of the Copy your own Expectations which were I presume to convince all Protestants of the Reasonableness of your Providential Hypothesis which you indeed take for granted and drive Jehu-like as if you had receiv'd Heaven's Commission to banish all the contrary Opinions out of the World For you argue with all the Assurance as if it was as plain as a Pike-staff
belong especially when they are strong enough to Crush them into Obedience For that is it seems one Rule you go by to know when a Government is thoroughly settled Pag 6. But thanks be to God he hath given us a better for if Power to Crush be a sufficient one then no body can deny but Marssinello's was a thorough Settlement in Naples And though his Reign was but short yet his Power was great and he did Crush all that opposed him and had he not met with a Stroke from a Providential Hand which possibly thought Killing no Murther he might have lived to have given Laws like a Conqueror to that great and populous City And by your and Mr. Jenkin's Hypothesis a Divine Right for so doing Which brings me to the second Thing I promised viz. The examining those Texts of Scripture which you quote to prove your new Doctrines by And though those are several yet the main stress of the point lies on Romans 13.1 2. Pag. 19. Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers For their is no Power but of God the Powers that be are ordained of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Now I must confess since you have taken leave of your own Judgment of the Apostle's meaning in that Place it will be the more difficult to convince you by reason it will not perhaps sute so well with the present Case that you have in your Eye However from a knowledge of your humble Christian temper of not thinking your self too old to learn I will presume to attempt it Pres though I know at the same time my self uncapable and therefore am inclinable to believe you had far more perswasive Reasons for Recanting your former Tenets than what you are pleased to give us in Print But to the point 'T is true the Apostle requires a Subjection to the Higher Powers c. but can it be imagined that the Apostle means by the Higher Power any that shall attain or get possessed of it by Force or Violence which your Case according to your present understanding of the Apostle seems to imply Or by Subjection a transferring an Allegiance which becomes due only to a Rightful and Lawful Prince to another which has no other Right to be so but Power to Crush c. then it is rational to conclude There never was any such Thing as an Usurpation in the World and though some have waded to the Throne in Blood and their Crimes have been of a Crimson dye yet their being but once fixt there they become Innocent and as White as Snow And being invested with your Authority must not only be submitted to but owned as a True and Rightful Liege Lord and Sovereign And all for this Reason viz. They that Resist shall receive to themselves Damnation And yet with your good leave I suppose this word Resistance is not to be understood in such a Latitude as you would have us understand that of Power For then the Refusal of our Prince's Command let it be what it will would entitle a Man to Damnation For he that refuseth the Commands of his Prince doth resist Dan. 3 21. as Shadrach Meshach and Abednego for which they were all cast into a fiery Furnace which was indeed the heighth of Passive Obedience yet I believe no Body supposed them to be in that miserable state for disobeying the King's Command From which I observe as I have heard divers of your Function say we are not in many places of Scripture to take our blessed Saviour or the Apostles words in a strict literal Sense but according to the best Exposition that agrees with the general Scope and Design of the Gospel and then I am sure it is both natural and rational to understand that place of St. Paul viz. There is no Power but of God c. must be all legal and rightful Power which must certainly be imply'd as your self once thought you had sufficiently proved That there is no Power but of God is true indeed for God being Omnipotent there cannot be any Power but by his permissive or approbative Will which was always allowed of as a Divine Distinction of God's Will and without it how harsh and untunable would several Texts of the Bible sound in the Ears of a good Christian as for Instance Amos 3.16 Shall there be Evil in the City and I the Lord hath not done it And now to take this place in the Sense that you do the Apostle of Power is certainly to make God the first and prime Cause of all Evil that shall be done in a City or indeed any where else which Notion may serve well enough for an Atheist but how well it becomes any Body that pretends to Religion do you judge I pray how many Rapes and Robberies and cruel Murders I pray God they be not owing to such horrid Notions of Power giving a Right have been barbarously committed lately in our City and Liberties of London which Almighty God has been pleased to suffer and permit to be done by the powers of Hell and wicked Men which the but taking the foregoing Text in your sense of Power c. and it frees them all by charging the Crimes upon God himself which to me appears little less than Blasphemy and it would make an honest Christian's heart tremble with the thought of such a Notion And then again in the Cases of Pharaoh where it is said God hardned Pharaoh 's heart Now I know not what you may think but it is the Opinion of great Divines that those Words ought not to be taken in a literal Sense but that God knowing the baseness and falseness of his heart did permit the Sorcerers and Magicians of Egypt to imitate Moses and Aaron with their Enchantments which deluded Pharaoh to that degree that he thought it was nothing but the pure effects of Magick only he thought Moses and Aaron to be better Conjurers than the rest and so his heart became hardned through the belief it was all but a Trick And in like manner it may be said God hardens all our hearts when he through our high Provocations withdraws his Divine Spirit which no doubt was Pharaoh's Case from us and delivers us up to strong Delusions insomuch that we believe a Lye though in truth it proceeds from our own wilful stubbornness in not being governed by the truth of his Word which is the everlasting Rule we ought to be ruled by And if we once forsake that 't is but just that God should forsake us and then 't is no wonder if with Pharaoh we cry Who is the Lord that we should obey his voice We know not the Lord neither will we c. Ex. 5.2 From all which as one Text explains another 't is reasonable to conclude that St. Paul's requiring Subjection to all Powers his meaning is all lawful Powers
and as demonstrable as any Point in the Mathematicks and that your self was never in the Right as to your Providential Rulers till this happy Juncture c. But what makes it more acceptable at present is the advantage the Protestant Religion has gained by your not complying with the Providential Settlement till such time as you were in danger to have lost all which no doubt was likewise the Providential Occasion of your more earnest seeking of God and making inquiry into not the revealed but the secret Will of God which is a Note beond Elah touching those matters without which the Church of ENGLAND perhaps might have continued another Century or two without the happiness of such a convenient Doctrine And that which makes it so to you is worth observing for if hereafter some ill Men which neither understands you nor Hobbs should throw it in your Dish that you writ in defence of King William and Queen Mary's Right c. You may truly answer it was no more for them than it was for Captain Tom or any Body else that can get into the Saddle for there your Providence centers them And when they are so fixt they cannot as you say be without the Divine Authority so that you need never write more on that Subject for 't is impossible for any Government to trump up that your Case c. will not as well serve as it does the present for which I think our most Gracious King and Queen have no great Cause to thank you But if they do not there are others that will viz. our Common-wealth Friends only I must tell you by the way they are angry with you for two things The first is that you did not sooner meet with their spiritual Shuff to the heavy A Christian And the second for your making it a Church of England Doctrine when their Belief of the contrary was one of the chief Reasons of their deserting from it But now you have taken down as to that Point the Partition-wall and if you would be but as kind in other matters as they think of less moment no doubt you might bring them all within the Pale c. And truly since you have been so generous as to part with your darling distinguishing Doctrine of constant steady and unsophisticated Loyalty to your Prince which you learned from the Principles of your Church as the London Clergy pleased to say * London Gazette Febr. 16. 1684. in their Address to the late King James I think it would not be amiss for so great a good to gratifie them with the rest without which 't is to be feared they will still stick where they did stick and you know how closely they always stuck to the Interest of the Crown and the Church and therefore it would be worth while to gain to you so considerable a number of Friends But as our Lord told the Scribes and Pharisees you are so nice and exact in paying of Mint and Cumin that you omit the more weighty things of the Law viz. Justice Mercy and Truth c. though indeed neither is to be left undone And yet if ever it could be thought convenient I confess this is the only time to judge it tolerable if not necessary to settle as in Scotland a Religion suitable to the Inclinations of the People and that may possibly fill up the Vacancies of those that cannot swallow your Turkish Providential Pill notwithstanding its being so nicely and Philosophically prepared and gilded over by so famous a Christian Doctor But the Experiment is altogether new and till of late hardly amongst us known but never practised by good Christians and therefore the Apostle may very justly upbraid us as he once did the Galatians Gal. 3.1 O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the Truth c. And truly unless we are so we could not be so grosly imposed upon as to be whiffled about with every new wind of Doctrine To prevent which Solomon I think gives the best Advice in the World Prov. 24.21 My Son fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change But I will conclude all with an Observation of one remarkable Passage in your Preface in the following Words viz. I prayed heartily to God that if I were in a Mistake he would let me see it that I might not forfeit the Exercise of my Ministry for a mere Mistake and I thank God I have received that Satisfaction which I desired Which I presume no Body doubts And I suppose the foregoing Words are to satisfie the World that you received better satisfaction from your hearty praying to God than from the Convocation-Book If not why is it made use of as an Argument of freeing you from a supposed Doubt for you were or you were not satisfied before your praying c. Now if you were then it was needless and impertinent to pray to God to let you see your Mistake when there was none If not then 't is plain your Satisfaction was not owing to B. Overill's Book but to your hearty praying c. But after all how shall any other Body be satisfied that your Satisfaction in that Case was owing to your praying to God c. Or that he was pleased to illuminate your Understanding so as to give a better Exposition of Rom. 13. than you had done heretofore in your Case of Resistance But give me leave to put a Case Suppose a Man had a mind or inclination to do some particular thing which is Ill in its own Nature or perhaps he is in some doubt whether it be or no but the better to inform his Judgment he goes and prays heartily to God for a Satisfaction touching the Lawfulness of the Matter though possibly he might be resolved to do it before After which finding his desires more strong and his inclination to do it rather increased than abated is he then to take it for granted that God has answer'd his Request and that he is sure he is in the Right in doing the said Ill or doubtful Thing If so then Cromwel and others of the Regicides that murder'd Charles I. was in the Right also for divers of them made use of the same Plea And Harrison at his Tryal seem'd to be angry at those Words in his Indictment Of not having the Fear of God before his Eyes but by the Instigation of the Devil c. For he said He always had the Fear of God before his Eyes and sought him Night and Day with Tears till he received like you such Satisfaction as be desired And so consequently it was the Lord's Work as it was called in those Days though done by the ways of the Devil But we all know this ridiculous Plea would be admitted before an earthly Tribunal and whether it will before an heavenly one do you judge For then I am afraid it will be to little purpose our saying We thought or we believed and heartily prayed and received such Satisfaction as we desired that we were in the Right though at the same time perhaps we were conscious of breaking God's positive Commands Mat. 7.22 23. And though we should press the matter yet further as our Lord says Many will say to me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name cast out Devils and in thy Name do many wonderful Works And then I will profess unto them I never knew you depart from me that work Iniquity From all which 't is rational to conclude That the receiving of such a Satisfaction as you and others before you talk of after praying c. is not a sufficient Reason for their doing any thing they have a mind to do unless it be in its own Nature good and not contrary to the written Word of God which is a better Rule to direct us in those matters than any such Phanatical Enthusiastick Notions I do not mean of praying to God which without doubt nothing if sincere can be better but drawing from thence such unwarrantable Consequences which you cannot but know have been made use of as a colour for the worst of Villanies and I am persuaded there are few but believe you were as well satisfied as to your Mistake before as after praying c. for what relation had such sort of Cant to Mr. Jenkins and your Turkish Predestinarian Hypothesis for if that were ever true it will always remain so if neither ne nor you had never preachd or pray'd in your Lives And supposing it true in spite of all your nice Distinctions there is no successful Villany that has been done since the Creation but may be justifi'd Nay the very Surrender of Mons to the French King by the same Rule must be thought very just and reasonable because he having set down before it armed with your Authority of having Power to crush them into Obedience and by shutting your Reasons into the Town Pag. 6. gave the Inhabitants a Mathematical Demonstration of his having a Providential Title to be their Lawful King and Governor Pag. 6. without intrenching upon the K. of Spain's legal Right for he as well as the late King James may recover it again if he can From which Argument we may infer That the same Providence that removes a Prince from his Crown and Legal Rights or Them from him may as in King Charles the Second's Case restore them again without Wrong being done to any Body all the while because as you say 't is the work of Providence and the Person in Possession is always in the Right Which I confess is good News for great Princes though bad for little ones for if Strength and Force be the only determination of Right and Wrong Religion and Laws will quickly become useless and then I am sure your Profession as well as mine will be none of the best But such wise and great Men as you may say what they please But for my part I could as easily be persuaded that there is no God as believe his most holy Commandments may be broke for the publick Good or that we may follow our own scanty Notions of Providence contrary to Precept FINIS