killing his said Sovereign King Zachariah than what God aforehand had decreed should be done to the House of Jehu for his and their Hypocrisie and Wickedness Yet notwithstanding Shallum's executing God's Decree He was deservedly Condemned for a Traytor and at length Vengeance seized upon him By these and other Instances which might be alledged it is evident That Treason and Rebellion although Commenced upon never so Religious a pretence very seldom if ever went unpunished And therefore we Christians may pertinently urge in this case of Treason and Rebellion what Christ alledged in that of Offences Matth. 18.7 Woe to the World because of Offences for Offences will come but Woe to them by whom the Offence cometh So here Woe to the World because of Treasons and Rebellions for Treasons and Rebellions will happen as long as Youth are not duely Catechised and men are not better and more Loyally Principled But Woe to those Men by whom Seditions Treasons and Rebellions do come For the Divine Nemesis will undoubtedly pursue and over-take them either in this World or in that to come SECT IV. The Proposition proved by Reason and the Common Sentiments of Religion REason and Religion dictate it to be a thing absolutely sinfull and unlawfull for any Subjects whatever High or Low if they be Subjects in Parliament or out of Parliament to Depose their Lawfull Prince And that it is also unlawfull for any Subjects The Bill of Exclusion unlawfull by a Bill of Exclusion or by any other Means to put by the Lawfull Heir from the Crown for fear as was lately pretended He should alter Religion and so bring many Evils upon the Nation Now that it is utterly unlawfull and sinfull for any Subjects to doe thus Reason dictates Because to preclude a Lawfull Heir from the Crown for fear of future Evils which may happen in his Reign and Government is truly 1. Malitious To suppose a fault in the Right Heir before there is one and to Act upon such a Supposal savours of the height of Malice and Dis-ingenuity In truth so to doe in our apprehension is no better than to Hang a Man first and then to Try him afterward 2. Atheistical So to doe is to trust more to Man's Policy than to God's Wisedom more to Man's Care than to God's Providence for the prevention of suture Evils The Holy Scriptures assure us that the Heart of the King and of his Right Heir is in the hand of the Lord Prov. 21.1 and as the Rivers of Water he turneth it whither soever he will But this late Fanatical Doctrine of Deposing Kings and of Excluding the Right Heir from the Crown for want of Grace and for fear of future Evils that may possibly be done by Him speaks the contrary For this their Doctrine avouches for a Truth that the Heart of the King and of his Successour is not in the hand of the Lord Or if it be that then God will not turn it so as to doe any Good to the People And therefore the People especially in Parliament for the Good of the Common-wealth ought to Usurp God's Prerogative and take the Heart of the King and of his Lawfull Heir into their own hands and dispose of it as they the People shall judge best Now What is all this but in effect not onely to Depose and Dethrone an Earthly Prince and his Lawfull Heir but also to Depose and Dethrone Almighty God himself Nay What is it in plain English but for the People to take the Reins of Government out of God's hand into their own and to Rule the World according to their own exuberant fancies Nay What is it at the best but to doe an apparent Evil that a Contingent Good may come on it Which Principle is Antichristian and Condemned for such by Saint Paul who assures us That they who maintain such an irreligious Tenet scil Let us doe Evil Rom. 3.8 that Good may come Their Damnation is just And here it is to be farther noted That if it be as has been proved to be a sin for the Subjects upon any pretence whatever to Depose their King and to Exclude his Lawfull Heir from the Throne for fear of any Evil that may happen through his ill Government Now if this be a sin Then to be sure much more is it a sin for any Subjects to endeavour That a Law might be made to Disinherit the Lawfull Heir of the Crown upon the pretences aforesaid For 1. To make such a Law is truly to make a Law directly to oppose and contradict the unalterable Law of Inheritance which says that the Right Heir by Primogeniture shall Inherit and the other known Law of God That He who hateth Right shall Govern And therefore it was a notorious Sin Opposite to God's Law of Inheritance an Antichristian Act in the late Shaftsburian-Associators to move for a Bill of Exclusion of his present Royal Highness James Duke of YORK from Succeeding in the Throne notwith-standing his undoubted Right thereunto by Primogeniture upon a presumptive jealousie that He would not be a Friend to the true Episcopal-Protestant Religion of the Church of England as now by Law Established For by this Attempt they endeavoured to have set up a New Law of Man against the Ancient Law of God which Commands as we have heard already that the Right Heir shall Govern although he hate Righteousness and although he be a Belial an Idolater And the Law of God is so far from either Deposing a Lawfull King or Precluding the Right Heir as that it will not suffer any Subjects whatever to say Their King is Wicked or that their Princes are Vngodly 2. The Cause of Civil Wars and Sedition To make a Law for the Exclusion of the Lawfull Heir from the Crown is to establish Sedition and Faction by Law And it is not onely to cause but also to perpetuate an Intestine and Civil War by Law as our present most Wise and most Gratious King prudently and too truly urged in his late Declaration giving that for one Reason why neither in Honour nor in Conscience could He give his Royal Fiat unto that unnatural and irreligious Bill of Exclusion For if such a Bill should pass into a Law then there must inevitably follow a Bloudy Civil War Which can please none but them who delight in Bloud and love to sish in troubled waters And which will be worse The said War will in all likelihood continue untill the longest Sword shall have carried all before it And who knows but that Might may once again overcome Right as it did at Worcester Fight and in the late Cruel Rebellion Now Reason assures us That upon passing the Bill of Exclusion into a Law there most certainly will follow a Civil War and that because There will be in the Kingdom two Opposite irreconcilable Abettors for the Crown and their Adherers such as 1. The Right Heir by Primogeniture Excluded and his
and Primogeniture was the Lawfull Heir of the Crown after Queen Elizabeth's Decease in case she should dye without Issue of her own Body And therefore an Act passed Declaring two things scil 1. That Queen Elizabeth was by Birth and Primogeniture the Lawfull Heir of the Crown 2. That whomsoever the said Queen and the Laws of the Realm should declare to be by Descent and Primogeniture her Lawfull Heir and Successour That then He or She so declared should be acknowledged and owned for the Right Heir of the Crown it being declared as was said before that He or She was the Right and proper Heir by virtue of Birth Descent and Primogeniture So that the aforementioned Act of Queen Elizabeth does confirm the Right of Succession to the Imperial Crown of Great Britain to be onely by Lawfull Descent and Primogeniture Secondly But farther If the meaning of that Act of Queen Eliz. 13. c. 1. were otherwise than we apprehend it to be Yet it is well known that That Act of Queen Eliz. 13. c. 1. is Obsoleted and out of Date and was made onely for Queen Elizabeth's Reign and therefore is of no force or validity in these our days And that because in this our day the Right Heir to the Crown by Descent and Primogeniture is well known For if he were not well known then pray what need is there of a Bill of Exclusion to barr and preclude the Right Heir from succeeding in the Throne and that onely as is pretended for fear the supposed Right Heir when once got into the Throne should not Govern well From these Arguings it is evident That the above-mentioned Act of Queen Elizabeth is out of Date and does no ways affect these our times in which there is at least there need be no dispute who at present is the Right Heir by Primogeniture And therefore it cannot be ignorance but as we fear right down Prejudice not to call it Malice in them who are knowing in the Law to urge from that Act of Queen Elizabeth's a Lawfulness to hinder by a Bill of Exclusion the Right Heir from Inheriting the Imperial Crown of England which is his undoubted Right by virtue of his lineal Descent and Primogeniture It will not be impertinent here to add the Observation of some judicious Men How that God never blessed either that Family or that People which have unnaturally dis-inherited the Right Heir And it has been observed by many That although the Law of this Our Kingdom does permit Parents to cut off the Entails of their Estates from their Eldest Sons when prodigal and vitious or otherwise Yet it has been observed That those Families which have taken that Liberty which the Law of the Land has given them and therefore have dis-inherited the Right Heir That they never prospered or continued long but by some evil Accident or other they have been blasted in their Estates or Reputations and in few years have dwindled away into nothing And as thus the Curse and Wrath of God has pursued private Families which have dis-inherited the Right Heirs to their Estates So much more exemplarily has the Wrath of Almighty God visited in a direfull manner those Nations and People which have Rebelliously Deposed their Lawfull Kings and have Dis-inherited the Right Heirs to the Crown And We the Inhabitants of Great Britain have had wofull experience of this Truth For who does not Remember those sad Judgments which afflicted this Our Nation upon the Deposition and Murther of the late Pious Martyr King Charles the First and upon the Exclusion of the Right Heir to the Crown even our present Dread Sovereign King Charles the Second And what Shall we ever yield again to them who Plot to bring down the same or worse Judgments upon us by Excluding the next Right Heir to the Crown God forbid But rather seeing We of this Nation are made whole and do enjoy Our privileges and immunities our peace and quietness Let us therefore Sin no more by our Rebellion and Sedition Lest a worse thing come unto us For that wholesome Advice which Christ gave to the Impotent Man in the Gospel is very applicable unto England Behold thou art made whole Sin no more by Deposing or Precluding the Right Heir lest a worse thing come unto thee CHAP. IV. That all Subjects ought actively to Obey their Natural and Lawfull Prince in all things which be not positively against some known Law of God although their said Prince be an Heathen an Idolater and Apostate or never so Morally vitious THE Proposition we shall endeavour to prove 1. By the Law of Nature and of Natural Reason which enacts That the Inferiour shall ever be Obsequious and Obedient to his Superiour 2. By the Authority of Sacred Scripture and Divine Reason which Anathematizes all Rebellion and the Authours of it 3. By the Authority and Practice 1. Of honest Loyal Heathens 2. Of Christians Both Primitive and Modern SECT I. The Duty of Obedience to Superiours whether Morally Good or Bad proved by the Law of Nature and of Natural Reason NAtural Reason dictates this Truth to wit That if a King has a Right to Command and Govern then the Subjects have an indispensable Obligation upon them to Obey for Precept and Obedience are naturally concomitant And as Father and Son so Prince and People are Relatu secundum esse not onely Relatives but also Essential Relatives Aristot Polit. l. 1. c. 8. whose very Essence as such consists in a mutual Relation of the one unto the other So that as no man can be said to be a Father who has no Son so no man can be said to be a King who has no Subjects And as all Sons are either Dutifull or Undutifull So all Subjects are either Obedient or Disobedient And as it is a Breach of the Law of Nature for a Son to be undutifull So it is a Breach of the same Law for a Subject to be disobedient For as the non-performance of the Father's Lawfull Commands renders the Son undutifull So the non-performance of the King 's Lawfull Injunctions speaks the Subject Rebellious And whoever denies Obedience to his King does in effect deny him to be King And this is to be noted That by the Law of Nature All Children are strictly obliged to Obey their Parents whether they be Christians or Infidels Good or Bad For in the point of Filial Obedience no Child ought to Dispute the Faith and Religion the Morality or Immorality of his Parents All that he is to consider is that near that essential Relation in which they stand unto him to wit that they are his Natural Parents And therefore without farther dispute They are to be obeyed And as thus the Son So also the Subject in point of Obedience to his Prince is not to dispute nor question the Virtues or the Vices the Religion or Principles of his Prince But solely to consider that essential and indissoluble Relation in which his Prince
Kingdom and that it is your true and unfeigned purpose to amend your lives And this Covenant ye make in the presence of Almighty God the searcher of hearts with a true intention to perform the same as ye shall answer it at the Great day when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed most humbly beseeching the Lord to strengthen you by his holy Spirit to this end and to bless your desires and proceedings with success as may be deliverance and safety to his People and encouragement to other Christian Churches groaning under or in danger of the Yoke of Anti-Christian Tyranny to join in the same or like ASSOCIATION and Covenant to the Glory of God the Enlargement of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and the Peace and Tranquility of Christian Kingdoms and Common-wealths So help you God NOW if any unbyassed and unprejudiced person will but compare these two Covenants together He may easily see and conclude that though the one be larger than the other yet That the Fanaticks took the Plat-form of their Covenant from the Bygot Papists Onely the Papists in their Covenant Swore to Maintain the Ancient Herarchy and to preserve not onely the King but also his Heirs and Issue Whereas the Fanaticks swore to extirpate All Hierarchy And although they swore to preserve the King yet they did not swear to preserve his Lawfull Heir ☞ and Issue for they do not make the least mention of them in their Covenant And it is to be noted farther That although the Fanaticks in their Covenant swore to Preserve and Defend the King's Person and Authority Yet they swore to maintain him onely in his Just Power and Greatness And they made themselves the Interpreters of what was the King's JVST Power and Greatness And farther The Fanaticks in their Covenant swore to Preserve and Defend the King's Person and Authority Onely in Subserviency to the Rights and Privileges of Parliaments and the Liberties of the People and Kingdom All which they in their Covenant put before the Preservation of the King his Person and Authority ☜ Whereas the Truth is this to wit That neither the Rights and Privileges of Parliaments nor the Liberties of the People can possibly be preserved and maintained Without the constant Preservation of the King his Person and Authority his Heirs and Successours in his and their full Rights and Royal Prerogatives For The King is the Life of the Kingdom He alone by his Prerogative gives Life and Being to Parliaments and with the Breath of his Mouth can and does Annihilate them at his pleasure He is the Spring and Fountain Head of all the Peoples Liberties they are all the Results and Effects of his Donations upon Condition of their Fealty and Loyalty to him For in England whatever Lands Immunities and Privileges the Subjects enjoy They hold all à Capite from the King and his Heirs And therefore to depose and destroy the King and his Heirs or to infringe their ancient Rights and Prerogatives is truly to destroy the Subjects just Title to their Liberties and Enfranchisements All which Liberties depend upon their Allegiance to the King and his Lawfull Heirs But we will deseant no farther on these Rebellious Engagements and Covenants either of Papists or of Fanaticks Onely we will take leave to add this scil That if according to * Beaufr c. ◠p. 52. Beaufrons the Protestants that is to say the Episcopal Men of the Church of England be as indeed they are like the Papists in all that is Good in the Papists Then we may on the other hand avouch for a Truth that the Fanaticks are like the Papists in all or most things which are †Ibid. p. 46 to p. 51. Bad in the Papists And therefore if Beaufrons would have us to love the Papists for what they are like unto us Then Reason tells us That we ought to Dissent from both Papists and Fanaticks in what they are contrary to us and ever to Abhor their Treasonable Practices of Covenanting against our Lawfull Princes and their Heirs upon pretence of Tyranny Idolatry want of Grace or the like for He that hateth Righteousness Job 34.17 18. shall and ought to Govern nor is it Lawfull to say unto a King Thou art Wicked nor unto Princes Ye are Vngodly CHAP. VII The chief Cause of Rebellion among Christians is a Belief of that false Position scil That Temporal Dominion is founded in Grace Maintained by the Papists and Fanaticks REbellion among Heathens and irreligious Men commonly arises from Pride and Ambition from * Jam. 4.1 Lust Envy and Malice from Discontents Oppression and Tyranny But Sedition and Rebellion among Religious Men who profess Christianity and pretend to tenderness of Conscience to Grace and Holiness ordinarily yea chiefly if not wholly arises from a persuasion and firm belief of that very false Doctrine and Position stifly maintained both by Papists and Fanaticks scil Dominium Temporale Fundatur in Gratia That Temporal Dominion is Founded in Grace And that onely the Godly ought to Reign and Govern upon Earth Before we proceed to disprove the asoresaid Position It will be necessary to inform the weaker sort of men what is generally meant by Grace to wit The Gifts and Graces of the Holy Ghost Such as 1. A Faith in Christ a Belief of the Christian Religion Without which Belief every Man is an Infidel 2. All Moral Vertues wrought in us by the Holy Ghost concurring with our own endeavours such as Sobriety Prudence Justice Love Meekness c. Sanctification and Holiness of Life and Manners Without which every Man is Morally wicked The Fanaticks both Classical Congregational and Anabaptists to doe them Right by Grace do commonly mean A Conversion unto God a firm Faith in Christ Sanctification and Holiness of Life and other Gifts and Graces of the Holy Ghost And farther By Grace they all mean A firm Belief of the Truth of their own several ways of Church-Government in opposition unto the Hierarchy And whoever is not of their Way and Persuasion is looked upon by them as no better than an Heathen and Publican or one Vngodly and wanting Grace And therefore if he that is not of their way and persuasion Be a King or Magistrate and will not come over to them and Declare that He has Grace and is in the number of the Godly if he will not doe so then He has no Right to Rule and Govern over them nor to impose Laws upon their Consciences but they may Lawfully Resist such a Prince or Magistrate And that because according to them All Temporal Dominion is founded in Grace The Papists in like manner by Grace mean not onely a Faith in Jesus Christ c. But also and primarily a firm Belief of the Pope's Supremacy and of the Church of Rome's Authority over all others in the Christian World And whoever denies the Pope's Supremacy or denies the particular Church of Rome to be the Onely Catholick
of all men were most free from Courtship and Flattery they especially the Prophet Daniel did Honour and Worship even Heathen-Kings and frequently saluted them with this Pathetical Option VIV AT REX O King Live for ever Which is all one with God save the King In like manner St. Paul did Honour Noble Festus the Roman Governour and King Agrippa who were no Christians And the same Apostle exhorts Titus Bishop of Crete Tit. 3.1 to put All Men in mind of being subject to Principalities and Powers to obey Magistrates whether Christians or Heathens good or bad and to be ready to every good work And in Hebr. 13.17 the Jews are Commanded to obey all that had Rule over them Which Rulers over them in the State were the Roman Emperours and Deputies who were at that time inveterate Enemies to Christianity Our Blessed Saviour himself Commands all Men Christians especially to give unto Caesar what is Caesar's as well as to God what is God's And the Law of God and of Man tells us that Honour and Obedience is Caesar's due therefore it must be paid And St. Paul writing to the New-converted Romans at Rome charges them to be subject to Caesar and the Higher Powers And he gives this Reason for the necessity of their Obedience to wit Because there is no power but of God and that Rom. 13.1 2. Whosoever resisteth the Powers resisteth the Ordinance of God and he that risisteth shall receive to himself Damnation And the very same pious Doctrine of Loyalty does St. Peter teach 1 Pet. 2.13 Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake whether it be to the King as Supreme or to Governours as unto them which are sent by him And v. 18. St. Peter adds as the Whole Duty of Man this Injunction Fear God Honour the King Thereby according to Beaufrons plainly intimating unto us this excellent Truth scil That if we will not peaceably submit to every Ordinance of the King * Beaufrons c. 8. p. 89. as to things Lawfull but become Mutinous and Rebellious then notwithstanding our high profession of Religion and of fearing God we neither Fear God nor Honour the King for as God is ever to be Feared so the King is ever to be Honoured Unto these Instances of Holy Writ pleading for Obedience to Kings and to the Supreme Magistrates we may add that Loyal Decree which the Reubenites and Gadites and the half Tribe of Manasseh made For they all were so zealous for Obedience unto Joshua their Supreme Magistrate as that they Decreed Josh 1.18 That whosoever Disobeyed Joshuah's Commands and would not hearken unto his words in all that he commanded he should be put to Death The Prophet Samuel terms Rebellion no better than Witchcraft 1 Sam. 15.23 So that according to him Whosoever Rebells has forsaken God and is gone over Volunteer to the Devil and is carrying on his works of Darkness Nor may we pass over in silence that smart check which the Heathen Sanballat gave though most undeservedly unto Loyal Nehemiah saying What is this thing that ye doe Nehem. 2.19 Will ye Rebell against the King Will ye Rebell that is to say in the Negative No surely ye will not offer to Rebell against the King For your Jewish Religion which ye say is the onely true Religion in the World teaches you otherwise and instructs you better to wit That although the King be in your opinion no other than an uncircumcised Heathen and as you believe an Idolater Yet for all this ye ought according to your own Religion not to Rebell against him From these Proofs in Canonical Scriptures we may rationally argue and conclude with the truly Loyal Archbishop Laud and others of the Church of England scil That all the Commands of a King Heyl. in Vit. Archb. Laud. p. 310. which are not upon the first Inference and Illation contrary to some clear passage of the Word of God or to some evident Sun-beam of the Law of Nature are precisely to be obeyed SECT III. The Proposition That All Lawfull Kings whether Morally good or bad ought to be obeyed proved by the Authority and Practice of honest Heathens HItherto we have heard the Divine Oracles amply declaring the Subjects Duty peaceably to Obey their Lawfull Kings and their Successours whether Papists or Protestants Heathens or Christians Good or Bad. The very same Truth and Duty we find urged and confirmed by the Authority and Practice of mere Heathens who were guided onely by the glimmering Light of their Natural Reason even such as they did not onely teach but also practise Loyalty and Obedience to their Lawfull Princes Hesiod discoursing on the Benefits of Kingly Government tells his Reader that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesiod Theog c. unto the King the People do all most dutifully look waiting for his Word of Command They being fully assured that seeing their prosperity is his happiness He therefore will order all things right according to the Rules of Justice And when King Jupiter was Dethroned by the Rebellious Titanes then the Loyal Party mustered up their Forces and humbly tendering their Services to him their King They all unanimously entred into a solemn Vow that they would fight his Cause and never sheath their Swords untill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. they had vanquished all his Enemies and had restored him to his Imperial Crown and Dignity Theocritus enlarging himself on the Praise and high Commendations of King Ptolemaeus says He was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most happy of all men not onely in that He being King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theocr. c. was the care and charge of the Supreme God But also he was happy in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All his Subjects were Obedient and Conformable to his Government and were not factious and tumultuous nor given to Seditious Talk nor to Idleness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But every man kept his own Station and peaceably followed his own business And at last he religiously concludes his Panegyrick on the said King with this pathetical Epiphonema 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theocr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 17. God save King Ptolemy Phocylides in his Admonitory Poem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cautions all men especially Subjects that are under an Oath of Obedience punctually to keep their Faith and Allegiance And that Because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. God hates a perjured person It is Remarkable That Fabius Maximus after he had been Consul five times became Obedient to his Son Suessa who was promoted to that high Office And when some jealousie arose that He had contemned the Authority of his said Son for that upon his first approach into his Son's Presence He did not bow the Knee nor did him that Honour and lowly Reverence which was due to his Consulary Dignity Fabius presently corrected the mistake assuring his Son the Consul that He did not forbear to give
they be evil not onely for Fear but also for Conscience-sake c. Our Saviour Christ himself and his Apostles received many and divers injuries of the unfaithfull and wicked men in Authority yet we never reade that they or any of them caused any Sedition or Rebellion against Authority we reade oft that they patiently suffered all troubles vexations slanders pangs and pains and Death it self obediently without Tumult or Resistence They knew that the Authority of the Powers was God's Ordinance and therefore both in their Words and Deeds they taught ever Obedience to it and never taught nor did the contrary c. We may not obey King Magistrates or any other though they be our own Fathers if they would Command us to doe any thing contrary to God's Commandments Ibid. p. 74. In such a case we ought to say with the Apostle We must rather obey God than Man But nevertheless in that case we may not in any-wise withstand violently or Rebell against Rulers or make any Insurrection Sedition or Tumults either by force of Arms or otherwise against the Anointed of the Lord or any of his Officers But we must in such cases patiently suffer all wrongs and injuries p. 75. referring the judgment of our Cause onely to God And elsewhere our Church says What shall Subjects doe then Serm. against Rebellion 1 Part. shall they obey valiant stout wise and good Princes and condemn disobey and rebell against Children being their Princes or against undiscreet and evil Governours God forbid For what a Perillous thing were it to commit unto the Subjects the judgment which Prince is Wise and Godly and his Government good and which is otherwise as though the Foot must judge of the Head And enterprize very heinous and must needs breed Rebellion Serm. against Wilfull Rebellion 1st Part. p. 279. This is you see the Pious and Loyal Doctrine of the Protestant Church of England which she received from Christ and his Apostles and from the Primitive Christians concerning the Subjects absolute Obedience to Kings and All in Authority whether Good or Evil. And the said Loyal Doctrine was ever preached and practised by the Protestants in England we mean those who owned the King's Supremacy in opposition unto Popery and Fanaticism for there never was nor are any other * Beausrons c. 1. Protestants in the World but such who protest for and defend the King's Supremacy This Doctrine of absolute Obedience was practised as well as preached by the Bishops Martyred in Queen Mary's days and by the most Reverend Jo. Whitgift Archbishop of Canterbury and by the most Reverend William Laud late Archbishop of Canterbury who suffered Death by the late Rebels for nothing more than for maintaining this Primitive Doctrine of absolute Obedience to the King And since it has been urged upon the Peoples practice by several Learned Men of this our Church particularly by Dr. Faulkner in his Christian Loyalty And by the Right Reverend Seth Lord Bishop of Sarum in his most Learned Sermon before the King on Nov. 5.1661 against Resistence of Lawfull Powers Some of his Lordships words are these If harsh Administration of Power will exempt Men from Obedience p. 60. at that time when Claudius or Nero was Roman Emperour why should the Holy Ghost move St. Paul to write to the Romans scil Rom. 13.2 They that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation And p. 67. that other pretence scil That after a Lawfull Sovereign is established Ibid. p. 67 68. the Power still remains in the People in the dissused Body of them or their Representatives to alter the Government as they please it is in respect of Policy and Government what the sin against the Holy Ghost is to Religion it destroys the foundations of the peace and safety of men and makes that to be the Artifice of Man which is the Ordinance of God How much God abhorred this pretence will appear in the case of Corah and his Company The Reverend Dr. Tillotson Dean of Canterbury in his Letter to the late Lord Russel has these expressions to wit That the Christian Religion doth plainly forbid the Resistence of Authority That though our Religion be established by Law yet in the same Law which establishes our Religion it is declared That it is not Lawfull upon any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms c. Besides that there is a particular Law declaring the Power of the Militia to be solely in the King and that ties the hands of Subjects though the Law of Nature and the General Rules of Scripture had left us at liberty which I believe they do not because the Government and Peace of Humane Society could not well subsist upon those Terms As thus these abovementioned Persons so indeed all the learned Men of the Church of England who have wrote any thing largely of the Subjects Duty towards their Prince have unanimously declared contrary to the Factious Authour of Julian the Apostate scil That all Lawfull Kings and their Lawfull Heirs by Primogeniture of what Religion or Manners soever Good or Bad they be ought successively to Reign and Govern and to be honoured and obeyed by all their Subjects either Actively by chearfully doing whatever they shall Command or Passively by humbly and peaceably submitting to whatever punishment their said Princes shall think fit to inflict upon them for not obeying their Royal Commands Actively And if any Prince should after he is seated in the Throne prove Tyrannical we may not Rebell nor plot his Deposition But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazian Orat 1. c. Our onely Remedy is what was Nazianzen's and the Christians in the Reign of Julian the Apostate to wit Prayers Fastings and Tears This was the practice of the Primitive Christians and ever has been the Profession and Practice of the Protestant Church of England And therefore whoever lives in Rebellion against his Lawfull Prince and dies in and for the same without publick and hearty Repentance Acknowledgment and Confession to God and to Man of that his Rebellion or secret plotting of Rebellion Neither does such a man live nor any true way can he be said to dye in Communion with the Protestant Church of England But as he lived So he dies either a Popish or a Fanatick Recusant And No Protestant And thus died most of the late Fanatical Associatours and Rebels inasmuch as most of them died without the least expression of their sorrow and penitence for and without humble and publick Confession of their Horrible Plot and Treason for which they were Condemned As appears by their own Papers given to the Sheriffs and Published by Authority And here it will be requisite that we as far as we are able undeceive the people and tell the Naked Truth to wit That the abovementioned Persons abused the World and imposed upon the ignorant people a notorious falsity when at their Executions they declared they died Protestants and in
(a) Ita nihil mali contra Imperatorem faciebat Nicomedensis Patricius qui Edictum publicè propositum concerpsit Melancth in Dan. c. 6. p. 101. Edict although the said Edict was possibly not so good as the generality of Reformers would have had it For that passionate and rash Action was no other than Rebellion against the Emperour's Person and Authority And the man might as Lawfully have torn into pieces the Emperour's Person as his Edict And in truth the countenancing such a Rebellious Action does very much encourage disaffected men unto a General Rebellion For if it be Lawfull for One private man then is it Lawfull for every man to Rebell and in like manner to tear the King's Proclamations Laws and Edicts into pieces Which to affirm or to doe is directly contrary to the Doctrine of the Gospel and to the Profession and Practice of the Apostles and Primitive Christians Unto the above-mentioned Foreign Writers we will add The late and present Covenanters and Fanatical Associatours of both Scotland and England Whose Disloyal and Factious Tenents and Positions the Famous and Loyal Vniversity of Oxford have Sum'd up and have printed them with the Authours of them and have by a Vote of their Congregation on July 24. 1683 Decreed That their said Fanatical and Seditious Positions and Doctrines Oxfords Decree and the Books containing them be publickly Burnt by the hand of their Vniversity-Marshall in the Court of their Schools Some of which Seditious Positions were these that follow 1. That if Lawfull Governours become Tyrants or Govern otherwise than by the Laws of God and Man they ought to do they forfeit the Right they had unto their Government Lex Rex Jo Milton Jo. Goodwin Rich. Baxter H. C. And we will add 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aliàs Jo. Blackbdell 2. That the Sovereignty of England is in the Three Estates scil King Lords and Commons The King has but a co-ordinate Power and may be over-ruled by the other two Lex Rex Hunton of limited and mixed power Rich. Baxter H. C. And note that they took this false Doctrine from Calvin Beza and the rest abovementioned 3. That Proximity of Bloud and Birth-Right give no Title to Rule or Government and that it is Lawfull to preclude the next Heir from his Right and Succession to the Crown Lex Rex Doleman Julian Apostate and we may add the Votes of the late Associatours against the present Duke of York's Succession to the Crown of England 4. That it is Lawfull for the Subjects without the Consent and against the Command of the Supreme Magistrate to enter into Leagues Covenants Associations for defence of themselves and their Religion Solemn League and Covenant and the late Association 5. That the Presbyterian Government is the Sceptre of Christ's Kingdom to which Kings as well as others are bound to submit And the King's Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Affairs asserted by the Church of England is injurious to Christ the sole King and Head of his Church Altare Damascenum Cartwright Travers add Presbyt General Assembly in Scotaland 1592. Jam. Guthry's first Speech to the Parliament in Scotland 6. That wicked Kings and Tyrants ought to be put to death and if the Judges and Inferiour Magistrates will not doe their Office the power of the Sword devolves to the People if the major part of the people refuse to exercise this power then the Ministers may excommunicate such a King after which it is Lawfull for any of the Subjects to kill him as the people did Athaliah and Jehu Jezabell Buchanan Knox Goodman Gilby 7. That King Charles the First was Lawfully put to death and his Murtherers were the Blessed Instruments of God's glory in their generation Jo. Milton Jo. Goodwin Jo. Owen and we will add John Blackbdell aliàs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By these and the like Instances which may be brought it is proved to a very Demonstration That the wicked Doctrine and Practice of Resisting Lawfull Kings and of Deposing and Killing them and of Excluding their Right Heirs from Succeeding in their Thrones for ill Government Heresie or want of Grace is Grounded on Fanaticism And was never preached nor practised by any Episcopal Protestants but onely by the Papists and Fanaticks who ever denied The King's Supremacy The English Churche's Episcopacy CHAP. VI. A Paralle or A Brief and True Account of some Plots and Treasons of Papists and Fanaticks against the Kings and Queens of England since the Reformation and Abrenunciation of Popery EVER since the Abrenunciation of the Pope's Jurisdiction in England the Papists and Fanaticks have gone hand in hand in plotting and raising Sedition and Rebellion against our Kings and Queens upon the Pretence of Religion As for instance The Papists having Sir Francis Bygott for their General raised War against King Henry the Eighth for his being a Protestant and for Marrying a Lutheran The Fanaticks having Sir Thomas Wyat for their Commander made War against Queen Mary for her being a Papist and for Marrying a Papist The Papists Humfrey Arundell being their chief Captain Rebelled at Excester in Devonshire upon the account of Religion in King Edward the Sixth's Reign exclaiming bitterly against Protestantism The Fanaticks Robert Kett being their chief Leader made War and Rebelled at Norwich in Norfolk against the same King Edw. the Sixth under the pretence of Religion exclaiming Loudly against Popery The Papists plotted several times but were not able to effect the Deposition and Death of Queen Elizabeth a Protestant The Fanaticks plotted and effected the Deposition and Expulsion of Mary Queen of Scotland a Papist The Papists plotted the Alteration of the Protestant Religion that they might introduce Popery in Queen Elizabeth's Reign The Fanaticks in her Reign plotted the Alteration of the established Protestant Religion Some as Cartwright Travers c. that they might bring in their Genevan-Discipline Others as Hacket Barrow Brown Coppinger Penry Thacker c. that they might usher in their Libertinism Enthusiasm and Donatism The Papists plotted to alter Religion and to destroy King James by Gunpowder and other ways The Fanaticks particularly George Brook Henry Brook Lord Cobham Lord Gray of Wilton c. joyning in Conspiracy with the two Popish Priests Watson and Clark plotted to destroy King James to alter Religion to subvert the State and to procure Foreign Invasion The Papists in Ireland upon the account of Religion openly Rebelled against King Charles the First and most barbarously Massacred thousands of his Protestant Subjects thereby endeavouring to bring in Popery The Fanaticks in England and Scotland upon the account of Religion openly Rebelled against the same King Charles the First and caused a bloudy Civil War in which thousands of the King 's Loyal Subjects were Butchered and Murthered they hoping thereby to extirpate the established Protestant Religion and to bring in their Genevan Presbytery or Belgick Consusion The Papists in France Murthered King Henry the Third and King Henry the Fourth of that