to molest another for his Religion Our Author might have gone for one of the Godly partie in those daies I do not read that there was one Law extended throughout the whole Roman Empire which was almost Vniversal but that several Kingdoms and Cities were governed by their own Laws So were the Jews and Heathen as well as Christian Subjects in their several Cities and remote Provinces As Julian told the Bishops that were of several Perswasions that they should not disturb the publick peace of the Empire and then they might enjoy their own Liberties and Religion Constantine seemed to be almost of a like perswasion for why else did he not suppress the Arian Heresie which from Alexandria infected the whole Empire He did take care to prevent Schism and Sedition among Christians that the administration of the Government might be more easie But this great man banished Athanasius into France where he remained till Constantine his Son recalled him as Eusebius in his Chronologie But what if there were some Edicts for the establishment of Christian Religion in Constantine's days nothing was confirmed by the Senate that was accounted then a needless thing Nor did the Edicts of one Emperour bind another by the same Authoritie as Constantine might have setled the Orthodox Religion Constantius setled the Arian and after him Julian the Pagan Religion I mean by his own Imperial power and Edicts For the Roman Emperour was an Absolute Monarch their Will was a Law as Gregory Nazianzen quoted by you p. 13. The Will and Pleasure of the Emperour is an unwritten Law backed with Power and much stronger than written ones which were not supported by Authority So that though he did not as you term it fairly enact Sanguinary Laws yet had he the Law of the Sword in his hands And I think it was a great mercie of God to the Christians under him that he did not by publick Edicts put the Sword out of his own hands into the hands of his Heathen Magistrates who would have written them all in bloud Therefore Mr. Baxter saies p. 20. of 4th part of his Direct Julian was a protector of the Church from Popular Rage in comparison of other Persecutors though in other respects he was a Plague Valentinian was a right Christian Emperour and when he was chosen the Souldiers were importunate that he should assume another as an Associate in the Empire he tells them It lay in you to chuse me your Emperour but being chosen what you desire is not in your power but mine it belongs to you as Subjects to be quiet and rest contented and to me as your King to consider what is fit to be done Zozomen l. 6.86 Justinian was another good Emperour and he assumed the sole administration of the Empire to himself and demands in his Novels Quis tantae authoritatis ut nolentem Principem possit ad convocandos Patres caetorosque Proceres coarctare Who can claim so great Authority as to constrain the Prince to assemble the Senate against his will And Justinian Novel 105. excepts the Emperour from the coercive power of the Law to whom says he God hath subjected the Laws themselves sending him as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 living Law unto men And the Gloss noteth That the Emperour is the Father of the Law whereupon the Laws also are subject to him When Vespasian was Emperour it was declared by the Senate That he might make Leagues with whom he pleased And though Tiberius Claudius or Germanicus had made certain Laws yet Vespasian was not obliged by them And Pliny in his Panegyrick to Trajan tells him how happie he was that he was obliged to nothing So that the Christians had no more pretence of having the Laws on their side under Julian than under Dioclesian Maximus or Constantius nor did they ever plead them to justifie a Rebellion against him for want of such an Advocate or Leader as our Author Gregory Nyssene tells us also what the power of the King or Emperour was he defines him to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that hath Absolute power in himself no Master nor Equal Cont. Eunomium l. 1. So that our Author 's great Babel is fallen viz. that the Julian Christians had their Religion established by Law and that they were long possessed of it For Laws or no Laws by the Lex Regia the Emperour could reverse the old and establish new as it pleased him and for want of Laws where the word of the Emperour was there was power and none might say to him What dost thou Thus it was with Constantine and Constantius and why not with Julian And now I hope the good Christians of our Age will no longer trust to such broken Reeds as our Author puts into their hands much less that they should take up the Sword which will be no other than a broken Reed also not onely to fail them but to pierce through their sides Now if we should turn the Tables and ask our Author Whether when Jovian and Valentinian were Emperours and had made some new Edicts for the Orthodox Christians as well as against the Arians and Pagans it had been lawful for the Arians or Pagans to rebel in defence of their Religion Or to come nearer home Whether when Queen Mary had established Popery by Law in this Nation it had been lawful for the Papists to have rebelled against Queen Elizabeth they having the Laws on their side yea and questioning her Right of Succession too yet we do not read that they did contrive a General Rebellion though for ought I see our Author would have justified them when he tells us from Zozomen what men may do for the Religion whereof they are well perswaded Or neerer yet when the Long too Long Parliament pretended against the King that their Religion was in danger by Poperie and Superstition their Laws and Liberties invaded by an Arbitrary Power did they well or ill from these pretences to raise that War against the King that turned the Nation to an Aceldama Were the Laws such as could justifie that Rebellion or no If they could not then I am sure they cannot now since the late Act for Treason in the 13th of our King and a Declaration of Parliament That it is not lawful on any pretence whatsoever c And by several Statutes it is declared That the King is the Onely Supreme Governour of his Dominions over all Persons and Causes whatsoever And the power of the Sword or Militia is put into his hands as well by the Law of the Nation as of God and I trust he will not bear it in vain Having thus stript this full-fac'd Bird of a few borrowed and painted Feathers how justly is he exposed to be hooted at by every boy or dealt with as in the Apologue of such another bird that seeing the Pidgeons to be well meated and live securely he would get himself to be coloured and arrayed like one of them and feed among
Obedience when the Laws do allow us to make resistance in defence of our Religion our Liberties and Lives Item For insufficiencie not being able to pray ex tempore or to preach without book Witness Dr. Pocock Bishop Sanderson c. Item For administring the Sacrament to all that desired it and for using the Lords Prayer as a Charm Such were the Articles by which a great part of that Clergie was destroyed of whom the world was not worthy With such our Gentleman is still in travel but I hope his labour will be in vain Read some of those Sermons and Treatises which of late years have been published by such as you call young Coxcombs Consider the strains of Piety and Moderation of Reason and Judgement of Industrie and acquired Knowledge and I am confident you will find so little hopes to be believed by others that you will see reason enough not to believe your self Let him talk of the persecution of Julian and other Pagans this which our Author promotes exceeds them all Others did but Occidere Episcopos this man seeks Occidere Episcopatum and under a pretence of pleading and praying for them he contrives how to prey upon them What else meaneth that insinuation which he quotes from Grotius to gain it some Authoritie having bankrupted his own Verso in morem abusu intermitti res ipsas non est infrequens p. 13. of Preface which he applieth to the Episcopal Office Nomen eminentia Episcopalis eorum culpa quibus obtigerat omnem sui perdiderat reverentiam in odium venerat plebis I greatly wondered to hear that Prayer of his against Sacriledge p. 103. He that designs contrives or consents to spoil the Church of any of her Endowments may a secret Curse waste his substance let his Children be Vagabonds and beg their bread in desolate places But when I call to mind Mr. Humphries project for increasing the number of our Bishops whom he would have to be chosen by the several Factions Presbyterian Independent c. and these whether Lay-men or Clergie-men to preside over those Parties it remembred me of a passage of Mr. Hunt's p. 90. of his Postscript where he demands thus Will it be any prejudice that the number of her Bishops be increased and that Suffragans be appointed and approved by the present Bishops c. So that when other Trades fail Mr. Hunt as well as Mr. Humphries may have some hopes of being made Suffragans at least For the Order of Episcopacie may be laid by as he intimates and then some Lay-superintendents may succeed and enjoy their Honours and Revenues Therefore to his Curse I shall add my Prayer for a blessing on Levi Deut. 33.11 Bless Lord his substance and accept the work of his hands smite through the Loins of them that rise up against him and of them that hate him that they rise not again The second Head contains a justification of the late unnatural War p. 6. It is difficult he saith to tell how that late unhappie War began or how it came to issue so tragically in the death of the late King And being to speak in so difficult a case he enters his caution p. 50. I would not be perversly understood by any man as if I went about to justifie our late Wars But it will appear to be Protestatio contra factum P. 102. He says That War would have been impossible if the Churchmen had not maintained the Doctrine that Monarchie was Jure Divino in such a sence that made the King Absolute This was a fiction of Mr. Baxters and through the Loins of the Clergie they strike at the King as if that glorious Prince intended Tyranny But that good Prince was far from any design of ruling by an Arbitrarie power he had no Army nor Mony to raise one but by the contrivance of some men his Father was engaged in an expensive War for the recoverie of the Palatinate which exhausted all the Exchequer and reduced the Royal Family to great necessities and then they failed in their promised Supplies and left him to a precarious way of subsisting and to stretch his Prerogative for the preservation of himself and Family He would have parted with the half of his Power and Prerogative as he often offered to have preserved or restored peace to his Subjects But when he spake to them of Peace they made themselves ready for Battle But were there not some other Doctrines preached in those days which contributed more to the beginning of that War than that of the Divinity of Kings What think you of the Doctrine of the lawfulness of Resistance then preached and printed under the same Arguments as now it is by Mr. Marshal Burton c. What think you of that Doctrine which according to the Jesuits taught That the rise and Original of Government is in the People and that as they gave so they might recall it as they saw cause You know who layeth down the same Principle in a certain Preface That Government is the perfect creature of men in Societie made by pact and consent and not othorwise most certainly not otherwise and therefore most certainly ordainable by the whole Communitie for the safety and preservation of the whole P. 38. of Preface To what tended this other Doctrine That the Authoritie of the King was in the two Houses when they had frighted away his Person That the King was Singulis major but Vniversis minor That Episcopacy was an Antichristian Order and to be stub'd up root and branch That the King Court and Bishops were designing to bring in Popery That our Liturgy was but the Mass-book translated These Doctrines with such Remonstrances Votes and Ordinances began that unhappy War The Associations made in City and Country seizing the Forts and Magazines and Royal Navy and answering all his Messages of Peace with reproaches of his Male-administrations This is that which you call the English Loyalty When they sent out Armies to fight him when they had him Prisoner and voted no more Addresses they were if you will believe them or Mr. Hunt his Majesties most Humble and Loyal Subjects still Such as these I could as easily prove to be the Doctrines of those times as that they are the Opinions and Practices of too many in these our days though most absurd and dangerous as they are now published by too many besides our two Authors P. 20. Pref. There is little reason to charge the guilt of the unexpiable Murther of our late Excellent King upon Presbyterie which was not thought of here in England till the War was begun And p. 21. Sure this Gentleman hath read very little or dissembleth very much Mr. Cambden in the Life of Queen Elizabeth is full of the Projects and Practices of such as planted the Geneva-Discipline here in England what troubles they occasioned to the Government both in Church and State and what deserved punishments some of them received as Penry and Vdal
care of those who are put on an inevitable necessity of defending themselves c. How far a man that is assaulted and put on an inevitable necessity of defending himself against the injuries of private men is one thing and what he may do against his Prince of whom you seem to discourse is another In this case we may apply that in Rev. 13.10 He that killeth with the sword shall be killed with the sword This is the patience and faith of the Saints P. 11. This Doctrine of Passive Obedience you say quite alters the Oath of Allegiance which requires you to be obedient to all the Kings Majesties Laws Precepts and Process proceeding from the same I do not find those words in that Oath as set forth by King James but I find what you overlook viz. I will bear Faith and true Allegiance to his Majestie his Heirs and Successors and him and them will defend to the utmost of my power against all Conspiracies and Attempts whatsoever And thus I find more particularly in a Declaration which I believe our Author hath subscribed thus amplified I do declare that it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King And that I do abhor that traiterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are commissionated by him P. 11. After a large Preface little to your purpose telling us That the Church of England reserves her Faith entire for the Canonical books of Scripture which I hope you also do and that she divides her Reverence between the Fathers and the first Reformers of this Church who partly were Martyrs that died for the Protestant Religion and partly Confessors that afterward setled it And now to the business How much the Fathers would have been for a Bill of Exclusion you say we have seen already No not one word of it from the beginning nor I believe any mention of it from one Argument tending to it to the end of the Book from any of the Fathers as will shortly appear But what say our Martyrs Confessors and Reformers First he tells us what some men would have perswaded King Edward to do if they could have had their wills confirmed by Act of Parliament They shewed what they would have done if they could saith our Author They never spake such bad English as our Author doth in his Taunton-Dean Proverb Chud eat more Cheese an chad it which being interpreted is We would rebel if we had power The Duke of Northumberland indeed did cause the Lady Jane Gray's Title to be proclaimed but here the Bishops must be the men that were chiefly engaged in that designe of Exclusion whereas I read not that any of them were ever consulted with nor ever declared any thing to that purpose but in their joynt and most solemn Writings enjoyn the clean contrary as shall now appear P. 12. The Bishops in Queen Elizabeth 's time to whom under God and that Queen we owe the settlement of our Church concurred to the making of that Statute which makes it High-Treason in her Reign and forfeiture of Goods and Chattels ever after in any wise to hold or affirm That an Act of Parliament is not of sufficient force and validity to limit and bind the Crown of this Realm and the descent limitation inheritance and government thereof 13 Eliz. chap. 1. But our Author never considered the grounds and reasons of that Act Ex malis moribus bonae Leges it was the iniquity of those times and the traiterous practices of the Queen of Scots which gave occasion to that Statute for there were many Pamphlets written by Saunders and the Author of Doleman which deni'd the Title of Queen Elizabeth and proclaim'd her an Usurper and the Queen of Scots made actual claim to the Crown of England she assumed the Arms of England and other Regalia and by her Confederates endeavoured to raise a Rebellion and conspired against the life of the Queen for which causes she was condemned as may appear by her Sentence which was passed upon her viz. That divers things were compassed and imagined within this Kingdom of England with the privity of the said Queen who pretended a Title to the Crown of this Kingdom and which tended to the hurt death and destruction of the Royal Person of our Soveraign Queen Cambdens Eliz. p. 464. Leiden 1625. Such practices gave occasion to that Statute to prevent the Mischiefs that might befal Queen Elizabeth and the Nation And that Statute consists of many heads As first Whoever should compass imagine devise or intend the death or destruction or any bodily harm tending to death destruction or wounding of the Royal person of the Queen or deprive or depose her of or from the Stile Honour or Kingly name of the Imperial Crown of this Realm c. or leavy War against her Majesty within this Kingdom or without or move any Strangers to invade this Kingdom or Ireland c. or shall maliciously publish and declare by any printing writing word or sayings that our Soveraign Lady during her life is not or ought not to be Queen of this Realm c. or that any other person or persons ought of right to be King or Queen of the same or that our said Queen is a Heretick or Schismatick Tyrant Infidel or an Vsurper of the said Crown c. these shall he guilty of High-Treason Also if any after thirty days from the Session of this Parliament and in the life of our said Queen shall claim pretend declare or publish themselves or any other besides our said Queen to have Right or Title to have and enjoy the Crown of England or shall usurp the same or the Royal Stile Title or Dignity of the Crown or shall affirm that our said Queen hath not right to hold and enjoy the same such shall be utterly disabled during their natural lives onely to have or enjoy the Crown or Realm of England in Succession Inheritance or otherwise Then follows the Case of Succession That if any person shall hold or affirm that the Common Laws of this Realm not altered by Parliament ought not to direct the Right of this Crown or that our said Queen by the Authority of Parliament is not able to make Laws and Statutes of sufficient force c. as above Yet was not the Queen of Scots condemned upon the Statute of the 13 of Eliz. but on that made in the 27 of her Reign wherein it was provided That twenty four persons at least part being of the Privy Council and the rest Peers of the Realm should by the Queens Commission examine such as should make any open Rebellion or Invasion of this Realm or attempt to hurt the Queens person by or for any pretended Title to the Crown In which Commission I find no Bishop save the Archbishop who at first refused to act nor when the whole Parliament petitioned for the Execution do we find that the
two-fold death one by the Law of God and another by the Law of Man The Thebaean Legion so frighted our Author that he cannot get them out of his mind Poor men they were to sacrifice or be sacrificed They never heard the Doctrine of Resistance preached to them but professed another Doctrine which they received according to the commandment of Christ and practised after his example suffering patiently for well doing They never were in Scotland to learn that there was a reward due to them that should kill tyrannical Princes They never had the examples of a Christians killing Julian and being commended for it in Ecclesiastical History These glorious lights and atchievements were reserved for our blessed Age whereof notwithstanding the Scripture foretold that in the latter days there should be traitors heady high minded lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof And many such who have called themselves good Protestants have made a shift to die in Rebellion under the pretence of their Religion But the comfort is as our Author says That can never happen to us but by our own treacherie to our Religion in parting with those good Laws which protect it and in agreeing to those that shall destroy it What needs then all these Celeusma's and barbarous clamours of Ho-up against a Popish Successor which may never come or if he should can never do us hurt without our own consent Queen Mary her self could not so much as out a Parish-Priest till she had procured a Parliament for her turn and still kept the Church-lands and by Parliament had the Supremacy setled on her as far as any of her Predecessors enjoyed it And if such things can never happen but by our treachery in parting with those good Laws as protect our Religion and agreeing to such as shall destroy it why are we so willing to part with those whereby that otherwise-impregnable Fortress and Bulwork against Popery is preserved and to make new ones for Comprehension Indulgence and Toleration even of Popery it self as well as other Sects and Factions which is the ready way cast up by our Adversaries to bring us to confusion When it is come plainly to this Dilemma That we must agree to obey our Superiors or perish we must agree among our selves as Brethren or be swallowed up by a common Enemie Yet no Law of God or man can prevail to keep us in obedience to our Governours or Charity among our selves Is not this as neer a way to ruine as our Adversaries can chalk out P. 76. It is a general Notion among the Fathers that we ought to spare our persecutors and not suffer them to be guilty of Murder Gregory gives that as a very good reason of Marcus his flight from Arethusa Gregory gives a better reason than that viz. that he was moved by that Precept of our Saviour Matth. 10.23 When you are persecuted in one City flee ye to another and p. 88. he foresaw that if he had tarried the people might for his defence have risen against the Officers and Souldiers of the Emperour and if they had died then they had been felo's de se To prevent their destruction therefore as well as the guilt of their Persecutors he quietly yielded himself into their hands and though he endured great torments yet as if he had been a felo de se is he as little pitied by Gregory as by his Persecutors for Gregory having noted that this Mark was one of them that saved Julian's life when Gallus was slain for this one thing saith Gregory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he suffered those things deservedly and was worthy to have suffered more This Passive Obedience is an abominable thing In the same p. he relates a passage of Chrysoslom and infers from it that David meant no more than onely to prevent the effusion of innocent bloud as appears by the several opportunities he had to cut off Saul but the sense of his duty made him to abhor the least thought of it This I like so well that I shall transcribe a little more concerning David's behaviour towards Saul out of the excellent Book of Homelies P. 287. Now let David answer to such demands as men desirous of Rebellion do use to make Shall not we being so good men as we are rise and rebel against a Prince hated of God and Gods enemy and therefore likely not to prosper either in war or peace but to be hurtful and pernicious to the Commonwealth No saith good and godly David Gods and such a Kings faithful Subject and so convicting such Subjects as attempt any Rebellion against such a King to be neither good subjects nor good men But say they Shall we not rise and rebel against so unkind a Prince nothing considering and regarding our true faith and painful Service nor the safe guard of our posterity No saith good David whom no such unkindness could cause to forsake his due Obedience to his Soveraign Shall we not say they rise and rebel against our known mortal and deadly enemy that seeks our lives No saith good David who had learned that lesson which our Saviour afterward plainly taught that we should do no hurt to our fellow-subjects though they hate us and be our enemies much less to our Prince though he were our enemy Shall not we assemble an Army of such good fellows as we are and by hazarding our lives and the lives of such as stand with us and withal hazarding the State of our Country remove so naughty a Prince No saith godly David for I when I might without assembling force without tumult or hazard of any mans life or shedding a drop of blood have delivered my self and Country of an evil Prince yet would I not do it Are not they say some lusty and couragious Captains that do venture to kill and depose their King being a naughty Prince and their mortal enemy They may be as couragious as they list yet saith godly David they can be no good or goodly men that so do for I not onely have rebuked but commanded him to be stain as a wicked man which slew King Saul my enemy though he being weary of his life desired that man to slay him What shall we then do to an evil and unkind Prince an enemy to us hated of God hurtful to the Commonwealth c. Lay no violent hands upon him saith good David but let him live until God appoint and work his end by natural death or in War by lawful enemies not by traiterous subjects So far our Homily and if good and godly men answered No to all these Questions they are not of the godly party though they call themselves so who answer Yea to them although it be not against a wicked malicious and Apostate Prince as Saul was but a pious and gracious one P. 77. We are to suffer persecution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if need be as St. Peters words
his People Therefore we must take away all pretences of the lawfulness of Resistance or we must grant All pretences to be lawful that the People shall judge so to be Therefore the Scripture hath forbidden resistance in any case as our Law grounded on Scripture and Reason hath also done on any pretence whatsoever It had been enough to oppose Bishop Vsher's sole Judgment against our Author's Bishop Vsher of the power of Princes p. 214. The patience of the Saints was not onely seen in the Primitive Persecutions but continued as well under the Arian Emperours who retaining the name of Christians did endeavour with all their power to advance that damnable Heresie but also under Julian himself who utterly revolted from the very profession of the Name of Christ. Sr. Augustine observed the same on Psal 124. Julian was an Infidel an Apostate and Idolater yet Milites Christiani servierunt Imperatori Insideli Christian Souldiers served this Heathen Emperour When they came to the Cause of Christ they would acknowledge no Lord but him in Heaven but when he said Go forth to fight Invade such a Nation they presently obeyed They were subject to their Temporal Lord for his sake that was their Eternal Lord. The Arian Persecution by Constantius who had also Apostatized from the true Faith was as violent and of much longer continuance than that of Julian yet though the Christians had then as you pretend the Laws on their side they made no resistance I am constrained to repeat this again because I meet with a contrary Assertion in Mr. Hunt p. 153. I must remember him saith he out of Socrates Eccl. Hist l. 2. c. 38. when the Souldiers of the Arian Emperour Constantius were by his command sent to enforce them to become Arians they took Arms in defence of their Religion Where I perceive as great a Lawyer as Mr. Hunt is he hath taken honest John Milton into his Consult who says Chap. 44. of the Primitive Christians Idem bellum Constantio indixerunt quantum in se erat Imperio vita spoliarunt That they waged War with Constantius and as much as in them lay spoiled him of his Life and Empire This being said by Milton how notoriously false soever Mr. Hunt is ready to assert the truth of it and makes an offer of as good Authoritie for it as ever Milton did for the Kings Condemnation as will appear by the History This passage refers us to a horrible Relation of the Arian Persecution acted by Macedonius who procured Edicts from that Emperour to force the Christians to the Arian infidelity The History begins chap. 27. Macedonius after the death of Paul Bishop of Constantinople who was banished first and then slain in exile by the Arians Athanasius hardly escaping them enters on those Churches who having great power with the Emperour stirred up as great Wars and Cruelties between the Christians themselves as any that were acted by the Tyrants and he got his impious actings to be confirmed by the Emperours Edicts Presently he proclaims the Edicts in all the Cities and the Souldiers are enjoyned to assist him The Orthodox are banished not onely from their Churches but their Cities Then they constrain the people against their wills to communicate with the Arians and used as great violence as ever any of those used that forced the Christians to the worshipping of Idols applying Whips Tortures and all kind of Cruelties Some were Sequestred of all their Goods others Banished many died under their Torments and those that were to be Banished were slain in the way These Cruelties were practised throughout all the Cities of the East-part of the Empire especially at Constantinople This Persecution when Macedonius was made Bishop was increased more than before of which Socrates in chap. 38 gives a fuller relation p. 142 Edit Valesii That he then persecuted not onely Catholicks but the Novatians also who agreed with the Catholicks in the Consubstantiality Both were oppressed with intolerable mischiefs Agellius the Bishop of the Novatians is forced to flee but many eminent for their piety were apprehended and tormented for refusing to communicate with them and after other Tortures they gagg'd their Moueths with Wood and forced their Sacrament into them which was to those good men the greatest torment of all They also forced the Women and Children to receive their Baptism If any resisted they used Whips Bonds Imprisonment and other cruelties of which it shall suffice to relate one or two instances leaving the Auditors to judge by them of the inhumane actings of Macedonius and his Party Such Women as would not communicate with them they first squeezed their Breasts in a Box and then cut them off some with Iron and others with Causticks of scalding Eggs. A new kind of torment never used by the Heathen against us Christians was invented by these who professed Christianity These things I am informed of saith Socrates by Auxanontes a very old man a Presbyter of the Novatian Church who before he was made Presbyter endured many indignities being cast into Prison with one Alexander a Paphlagonian and beaten with many stripes whereof this Alexander died in prison but Auxanontes lived to endure more torments I have not time to translate the entire History which may be read in that Chapter I shall therefore come to that part of it related to by Mr. Hunt which is thus Macedonius hearing that in the Province of Paphlagonia especially at Mantinium there were such a multitude of Novatians as could not be expelled by the Arian Ecclesiasticks procures four Companies of Souldiers to force them to turn Arians They in defence of their Sect armed themselves with despair as with Weapons and gathering together in a Body with Hooks and Hatchets and what Weapons were at hand met the Souldiers in which scuffle many of the Paphlagonians and neer all the Souldiers were slain This I heard saith Socrates from a Paphlagonian that was in the Fight And he adds that the Emperour himself was offended with Macedonius for this action I should indeed have wondered at the confidence of Mr. Hunt in accusing from this story the Orthodox for arming themselves in defence of their Profession when it was onely a rout of Novatians that were by the Arian crueltie driven to despair that defended themselves against them But I am so transported at another saying of his that I have no admiration of any thing else how false or pernicious soever You shall find it p. 192. of his Treatise concerning the Succession where having suggested that if the D. be not excluded he doth certainly make us miserable and mincing the matter a little saying We exclude onely his Person not his Posteritie he is not afraid to add And we will not entail a War upon the Nation though for the Sake and Interest of the glorious Familie of the STVARTS The speech is so heinous that it cannot admit any aggravation Well may such men as he and his Plagiary seek to
193. as it is marked in my Copy is verbatim this Speaking of the Duke Let him attempt the Crown notwithstanding an Act of Parliament for his Exclusion he is all that while but attempting to make us miserable if he be not excluded he doth it certainly we exclude onely his Person not his Posterity And WE WILL NOT ENTAIL A WAR VPON THE NATION THOVGH FOR THE SAKE AND INTEREST OF THE GLORIOVS FAMILY OF THE STVARTS Is not this spoken Dictator-like Did Cromwel say more when he bragg'd that he had the Parliament in his pocket Then We will have this and we will not have that We will proclaim the Family of the Stuarts Traitors and we will have our own will His premise is this If the Duke be not excluded he doth certainly make us miserable by entailing a War upon the Nation which may be false if the ancient Proverb be true Gen. 22.12 In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen it was spoken when the knife was lifted up to make Isaac a Scrifice and we know that the burning bush was not consumed But the Conclusion is certainly most impious We will not entail a War up-the Nation though for the sake and interest of the glorious Family of the Stuarts To let pass that Irony of THE GLORIOVS FAMILY OF THE STVARTS The plain sence of the words to a Logician is this Rather than not exclude the Duke of York who will certainly make us miserable we will exclude the glorious Family of the Stuarts This is as much as need to be said at present to cure the preiudice of a deluded and unthinking people as Mr. Hunt calls them Had. Mr. Hunt's Preface and Postscript come to my hands before I had well-nigh finished my Answer and sent some sheets to the Press the rest being called for with all expedition that the Printer might not be prejudiced by the edition of other Tracts on this subject I should have taken a more particular view of all that is contained in them whereas I can now onely cursorily make a few Remarks and leave the Reader to judge Ex ungue leonem We live saith he p. 150. in an Age of mystery and prodigie producing things monstrous and unnatural and our language must be agreeable to the things we speak And so it is very obscure and yet unnatural But I shall endeavour to drag this Author to the light and present him with his three heads The first is his Invective against the Clergy This poureth forth flouds of Contempt upon the whole Order The second is his Justification of the late Vnnatural War and this Head breaths out an horrible and infectious stink The third his endeavour to promote another such War as that was And this Head casteth out Firebrands and Swords to alarm and arm all the Malecontents in the Nation for a resistance of their Governours I know he doth not want his lurking holes and Subterfuges to hide these monstrous deformities but all in vain Treason will out and Magna est veritas prevalebit The first Head breaths out a contempt of the Clergie to which he makes way by a Preamble that will rather aggravate than excuse the Crime 1. Our Author complains that his honest design as he calls it to serve the Church hath been by many perverted p. 1. of the Preface and p. 5. that some have endeavoured to set his two Discourses viz. his Argument for Bishops and his Postscript at variance that the first was written to set off the latter with some advantage and that the Author designed to get from the Argument a more pardonable libertie of inveighing against the Church-men in the Postscript Habetis consitentem Reum Doubtless the Argument did not effect that grateful Acknowledgement from the Bishops which he expected They knew him perhaps to be a mercenary man one that had or would write as much falsely against them as he had done truly for them if it might tend to his better advantage and therefore he was resolved to pull down what he had built up and to seek more beneficiary Patrons Let us therefore consider who they were that thus resented and complained of Mr. Hunt p. 5. If it had been says he the conceit of the Popish Faction onely and not also of those Gentlemen whom I principally designed to serve and in them the Church of England c. Here it is as plain as if it had been written with a Sun-beam that he means the Bishops who were mostly if not onely concerned in that Argument But how maliciously doth he suggest that they were influenced by the Popish Faction who p. 6. he says had corrupted some of our Church-men with Principles that subvert our Government and betray the Rights of our people They have debauched the manners of our Church-men and lessened their Athoritie and Esteem with the people The Order is inslaved by collation of Preferments upon less worthy men Qui beneficium accepit libertatem amisit Is not this a stout Advocate for Bishops that tells the world that those of that Order indefinitely are contemptible slaves that have sold their Libertie for Preferment that they are corrupted in their Principles to the subverting of our Government and betraying the Rights of the people and so debauched in their manners as that they have lessened their esteem and authoritie with the people Is not this the old Censor Morum or Cato Redivivus And is it possible that a learned man should thus prevaricate and contradict himself so grosly as it were in the same breath Let not Mr. Hunt think to evade this and say he speaks this of our younger Divines of which we shall hear enough by and by to make all good mens ears tingle at the horrid falsehood of it he speaks this of the Order and particularly of the dignified men of that Order of these it is that he speaks p. 7. for he is not yet come to his distinction of young and old Divines those that are inslaved by the Preferment they have and those that seek Preferment by other arts of which anon That they lick up the Vomit of Popish Priests and whatever is said maliciously by them against the first Reformers is daily repeated by now come in our young Clerks out of the Pulpit with advantages of immodestie and indiscretion Now for our young Divines whom p. 50. of the Postscript he calls good-natur'd Gentlemen of the Clergie Tom Triplet is the onely young man that I knew who was so lasht after he came from the University Old Gill never laid on so unmercifully as this Demagogue doth p. 9. We have a sort of young men that have left nothing behind them in the Vniversitie but the taint of a bad example and brought no more Learning with them thence than what serves to make them more assured and more remarkable Coxcombs who will undertake to discourse continually of the Interest of Religion of which they have no manner of sense and of the
c. It is not possible but this Gentleman hath heard of if not read the things controverted between Archbishop Whitgift and T. C. between the judicious Hooker and Mr. Travers and Bishop Bilsons dangerous Positions P. 21. He jumps with Mr. Baxter in his Opinion That the Parliament in the course of the War which was managed says he by such means and measures as were necessary and possible in their distress pray'd aid of the Scottish Nation They refused them any assistance except they would enter into their Covenant AND AFTER THE COVENANT WAS THVS IMPOSED THEY STILL RETAINED THE ENGLISH LOYALTY remonstrated against the Kings feared Murther and declared out of their Pulpits against the Actors of that detestable Tragedy If they did preach against his Murther out of Loyalty and Conscience why had they not preached against Fighting and pursuing him with fire and sword where he might have fallen as one of his Subjects Why not against his Imprisonment there the Covenanters were the Loyal Party the ROYALISTS were the REBELS and the guilt to be sure says he belongs to the Rebelside p. 21. And as it was in the beginning of that War so it is now and by our Authors principles so it will be ever they that with their lives and fortunes adhere to their Prince though he be neither Apostate or Tyrant are pronounced Rebels And they who fight against him on any pretence whatsoever are the true English Loyalists I would not have them called the true Protestants lest the Papists should insult over them and prove themselves more Loyal Subjects It is another very memorable speech of Mr. Hunt's p. 171. Speaking of the Bill of Exclusion If this Bill do not pass they will take him for a wicked King too and will say he hath no lawful Issue to succeed him for his own Sins and many other remarks of wickedness they will make upon him What he means by the word too may be explained by the I and we which he speaks of just before and now of others too that will count the King wicked c. It is somewhat obscure also to guess what he means when he says the passing of the Bill is the onely means of the Kings Salvation from their traiterous designs and again p. 172. If he will follow the Counsel of that excellent Bill he may live long and see good days As if he could not be safe without it Of such obscure places we may conjecture by those other plain ones wherein he hath manifested how great respect he hath for his Majesty and the Royal Family Nor indeed can we expect better things from a Republican who speaking of our Kings Father as he calls him sans Ceremony makes him and his Party the Delinquents and upbraids him with all the Calamities which a Rebellious people brought upon him and adds p. 55. If there were twenty Trojans derived from one Stock that had reigned in an uninterrupted Succession Two immediate Successors that should have their Reigns successively attended with civil Wars were enough to efface their own and the glories and merits of such Ancestors And so if another Rebellion should succeed which God forbid farewel to the glorious Family of the Stuarts For notwithstanding the glories of that great Prince his unhappy death and the admired devotions of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the stories of the Calamities of his people all his three Kingdoms involved in War during his Reign which is a lye by thirteen years and the remembrance of them will be with some men of the same bran with Mr. Hunt i.e. not very loyal a stain and a diminution of the glories of the Royal Family p. 53. Although others more loyal do think that it added another Crown to them more glorious than the other three i. e. the Crown of Martyrdom In Princes says Mr. Hunt their Calamities are reckoned among the abatements of their Honour and meer Misfortunes are Disgraces and have the same influence on the minds of the common people as they have on Mr. Hunt's as real faults and male administrations So that the Royal Martyr who suffered so many barbarous Indignities with invincible patience and Christian fortitude must suffer another Martyrdom in his Reputation and the Regicides be renowned because of their success as men of real Vertues and Patriots of their Country Careat successibus Opto Quisquis ab eventu facta nefanda putat I cannot perceive any instance of the least respect to the Royal Family except that deference which he bestows on Dr. Titus Oates and Captain Bedlow the Kings Evidence on whom he writes a full Panegery p. 24 25. which he thus concludes The undoubted truth of their Evidence hath given them the civil respect of all honest men and will give the Doctor the publick honours of the Nation in due time For my part I live at too great a distance from such men to ken them aright and I would commend Mr. Hunt's own Rule to them that know their conversation whereby to judge of them p. 52. of the Preface That their vertue of Loyalty will bear the same proportion as their other vertues do to the Canon of Morality To this Head of justifying the former War belongs his Apologie for such as were then called Presbyterians which he as a faithful Advocate and Orator still prosecutes P. 13. Pref. Our old Puritans and late Dissenters he excepts onely the Fools and Knaves sent among them and spirited by the Roman Priests have not disliked the Episcopal Government If all the Covenanters and others that disliked the Episcopal Government were Fools and Knaves spirited by the Romish Priests we have great reason to be jealous of the present Dissenters as such and the rather because you tell us p. 19. of a vile sort of Presbyterians in Scotland with whom some in England do conspire who have deservedly put that name under eternal infamie by their turbulent and contumacious carriage against the Kingly Authority Yet even for these this Gentleman makes an Apologie First in respect of their scrupulositie p. 86. Though the scruples of Nonconformists be as he thinks groundless and unreasonable and often moves his passion against them yet upon consideration he thinks their scrupulosity may be of God and that some men are by him framed to it Take courage then all you men of Scruples the Good Old Cause is still Gods Cause he hath provided this your scrupulosity saith this Stoick as a bar and obstacle in the natures and complexions of DEVOVT MEN against any Innovations whatsoever that dangerous ones may not steal upon the Church for the better maintaining the simplicity and purity of the Christian Religion and Worship Bene dixisti Thoma But thus the Predestinated Thief could plead for himself that he was born under the thievish Planet Mercury and could not resist his fate Steal he must and repent of it he could not nor be sorry for his fault though he were to be hanged for it This pilfering