A vindication of A discourse concerning the unreasonableness of a new separation on account of the oaths from the exceptions made against it in a tract called, A brief answer to a late discourse, &c. Williams, John, 1636?-1709. 1691 Approx. 78 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 23 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A66431 Wing W2738 ESTC R7770 12528814 ocm 12528814 62727 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A66431) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 62727) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 952:11) A vindication of A discourse concerning the unreasonableness of a new separation on account of the oaths from the exceptions made against it in a tract called, A brief answer to a late discourse, &c. Williams, John, 1636?-1709. [4], 40 p. Printed for Ri. Chiswell ..., London : 1691. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Attributed to John Williams. cf. NUC pre-1956. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699. -- Discourse concerning the unreasonableness of a new separation. Grascome, Samuel, 1641-1708? -- Brief answer to a late discourse. Dissenters, Religious -- Great Britain. 2005-01 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-03 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-04 Emma (Leeson) Huber Sampled and proofread 2005-04 Emma (Leeson) Huber Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A VINDICATION OF A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE UNREASONABLENESS OF A New Separation , On Account of the OATHS , FROM THE Exceptions made against it in a Tract called , A Brief Answer to a Late Discourse , &c. LONDON : Printed for Ric. Chiswell , at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard . MDCXCI . TO THE READER THE last Year there was Publish'd a Discourse concerning the Unreasonableness of a New Separation on account of the present Oaths ; in which the Learned Author endeavoured to prevent that Schism which we were then threatned with , and hath since broke out amongst us ; begun by some few that were dissatisfied about the Oaths , and upon that account quitted their Preferments ; but improved by others ( tho thanks be to God , with little Success ) who are disaffected to the present Government , and take all ways to render it uneasie . To the foresaid Book at last Two Answers have been given ; the one called , A Brief Answer ; the other , An Enquiry into the remarkable Instances of History , used by the Author of the Unreasonableness , &c. The former with much Virulence , and more Heat than Judgment , directly vindicates the New Separation ; in the examination of which I have concerned my self ; and no further with the Second , than the Reasons there insinuated and touched upon , fall in with the former . As for what concerns the Enquiry into the Instances , and their Vindication against the Cavils of that Pretender to English History ( for so I call him , because I find him to be a downright Plagiary from Dr. Brady's Writings ) , I shall leave it to the Author , who Himself in a short time will give the World an Account of that Matter . A VINDICATION OF A Discourse concerning the Vnreasonableness of a New Separation , &c. THE Author of the Brief Answer , toward the Close of his Paper , thus professeth of himself : For many Reasons , I am unwilling to judge severely of my Brethren , who have sworn ; nor hath any Man been more forbearing . If this Champion of the Cause he appears in , had entred the Lists , and begun his Pamphlet with such a Declaration , there might have been some favourable Construction put upon it ; tho' in the process of his Discourse he had been transported beyond his first intention , by a zeal for his own Cause on one hand , and the force of his Adversary's Arguments on the other : But to conclude with an I am unwilling to judge severely , after he had spared neither the Order he professeth himself to be of ; nor his Adversary , whose Character , Dignity , and Learning , he sometimes is pleased to acknowledge , is a sort of refining , not subtil enough to take with the present Age , and a practice too gross to put upon an impartial and considerate Reader . For , as for those he once in an over-flowing sit of Charity calls Brethren , they are in his Dialect a Pack of Jolly Swearers , pag. 2. Such as betray their Consciences for large Preferments , p. 4. And he might have added , when his hand was in , that damn their Souls by the Perjury he charges them with , p. 7. As for his Adversary , He is one , according to the Character this Author frames for him , that is old-excellent at mustering up the Ill Presidents , p. 6. That hath despised all sorts of Persons , as ignorant and silly in respect of himself , p. 11. A Man who lays aside all his Divinity , for a little bad Law , and worse History , p. 15. And , to clinch the whole , thus sets him off ; A learned Doctor , nay ( God be merciful to us ! ) a Bishop , so stiled , of our Church . This , in his Language , is no severe Judgment ; and after all ( if you will believe him ) no man hath been more forbearing than himself . So much shall serve for a Proof of his Candour and Sincerity : let us now try how this huffing Philistine , who thus struts over his Adversary , behaves himself in close fighting . The whole of what he saith , may be reduced to these Three Heads . I. Church Communion and Schism . II. Publick Good. III. Obedience to Authority . §. 1. Of Church-Communion and Schism . The Author of the Discourse concerning the Vnreasonableness , &c. professeth , That he was not a little surprized , 1. That these New Separatists , that express'd so great a sense of Schism in others , should be so ready to fall into it themselves . 2. That they do it upon the account of scruples , when the difference is only about the Resolution of a Case of Conscience , wherein Wise and Good Men may easily differ . To the first , the Author of the Brief Answer replies , They do , not fall , but are forced into it : Which I shall consider in its due place , when he undertakes to prove it . To the second , he gives a spiteful return : But is then a Case of Conscience really so trivial a thing ? And after he hath gravely prov'd the contrary for a Column together , concludes with a special piece of Admonition to his Adversary ; Therefore , whatsoever our Author may think , I shall desire him henceforward to speak more reverendly of a Case of Conscience , &c. But here this Author has over-run the Point ; for the word Only , is not ( as he perversly will have it ) as if a Case of Conscience was not a matter of consequence ; but that the taking or not taking the Oaths , is only a Case of Conscience , not Matter of Doctrine . For the Dispute is not , Whether an Oath be lawful or not ? but , Whether this present Oath be so ? Which being a matter of a Civil Nature , must depend upon the knowledge of the Constitution and Laws of this Realm for its resolution ; which Wise and Good Men may easily differ in , as the Author of the Discourse observes : and so there can be no reason for those that scruple the Oath , to separate from the Communion of those that take it . This premised , that learned Author seasonably prevents and removes the Pleas that may be made for such a Separation . As , 1. When any thing Unlawful is made a Condition of Communion . 2. That it 's unlawful to join with those that have taken the Oaths ; and so have done , and continue to do and defend what they , that refuse Communion , account unlawful . As to the first , the Discourse shews , That the Terms of our Communion are not altered ; and that taking the Oaths is made no Condition of Communion with us . As to the second , It observes , That this is the Scruple about Mix'd Communion , which hath been so long exploded among us . Upon the first , our Author coldly replies , I could have told him forty things which they are not ; and if he should be out in that one he mentions , it would be very unlucky ; and that he is so , I shall endeavour in its proper place to prove . But in the mean time , if amongst the forty things the Oaths are not , they shall not be found to be the Condition of Communion , they can be no reason for breaking off from that Communion . And I grant , he may sooner tell of forty things the Oaths are not , than prove that they are made the Conditions of Communion ; or that They may separate from the Church for such things as are not made Conditions of Communion with it . As to the second , The Case of Mix'd Communion , our Author is very careful to pass it over in silence : and instead of that , borrows a sorry Invective from some of his Friends of the Church of Rome , I could tell him of a man , &c. and in the Answer to their Books , he will find the Reply . But he then takes a step back to make a Reflection upon what he thinks may better suit his purpose : For his Adversary having put a Case , Suppose those who take the Oaths to blame ; if they act according to their Consciences therein , what ground is there for a Separation from them for so doing , unless it be lawful to separate from all such who follow the Dictates of an erroneous Conscience ? and so there will be no end of Separation , &c. Our Author smartly returns upon him ; At this rate ; there will be no end of Tristing and Sophistry ; for if I am bound to separate from some erroneous conscience , why must it needs be lawful to separate from all ? &c. And here , according to his wont when he has none to oppose him , he states and argues the Point out and out . But this is another of his Blunders . The plain Case is this : His Adversary having just before shew'd the taking of the Oaths to be no Condition of Communion , adds , And if they are not , what colour can there be for breaking Communion on the Account of the Oaths ? And then follows , Suppose they are to blame , &c. That is , If the Oaths are not made a Condition of Communion , what imaginable Cause can there be assign'd for a Separation , unless it be because they are to blame , by acting according to an erroneous Conscience ? and then this will be endless . These general Reflections past , the Author of the Vnreasonableness , &c. takes the Main Point into Consideration ; viz. Whether there be any reason for those Scruples about the Oaths ? For if there be not , it will be granted , That there can be no Obligation for a Separation on the account of them . But it seems that Author was under a great mistake in his taking it for granted ; for our Author stands up in opposition to it , and saith , He hath not fairly and truly stated the Case : For the Question is not nakedly and simply , Whether the Oaths may or may not be lawfully taken ? but , Whether Oaths imposed under such unjust and merciless Penalties , and attended with such fatal Consequences , will not warrant the Non-Swearers in a Separation from such as do ? But this is another of his mistakes ; for nothing can be more plain than that , if there be no reason for the Scruples about the Oaths , there can be no reason for their sake to separate from those that take them : And therefore that Author took the most proper course that could be , to prove the Unlawfulness of the present Separation , from the Lawfulness of taking them . For if the Oaths are Lawful , the Penalties , how unjust and rigorous soever , cannot make them Unlawful : and the Consequences cannot be fatal , if those that are now Non-Swearers , are convinc'd of the lawfulness of the Oaths , and so take them . This brings me to consider his Arguments in justification of the present Separation ; and what he hath said confusedly , I think may be commodiously rank'd under these Three Heads . 1. That the Penalties to be inflicted upon them , want nothing of being a Condition of Communion to them , quatenus Ministers , p. 3 , 4. 2. That their Authority is from Christ , and so no Secular Power can Vnbishop and Vnpriest , or disable them , p. 4 , 5. 3. That they are bound to obey their Bishops and Metropolitan , p. 5 , 6. Arg. 1. The Oaths being imposed under such unjust and merciless Penalties , and attended with such fatal Consequences , will warrant Separation ; and want nothing of being made a Condition of Communion , &c. Now to speak in his way , There may be forty things we know , which may have the same fatal Consequence ; for so it would be if the Clergy should not subscribe to the Service-Book and Articles ; if they should not declare their Assent and Consent to all and every thing contained in the Book of Common-Prayer . And so it would have been in former Kings Reigns , if the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy had not been taken . So that there always was upon this Author's Argument , a sufficient warrant for Non Swearers and Non-Conformers , to Separate from those that did swear and did conform . For Papist and Dissenter will join with him in the Clamour , and each for themselves , as he for his own , will complain of unjust and merciless Penalties . Penalties there are , and they are great , but they are neither unjust or merciless , if the Government is not otherwise to be secured . But it doth not seem that they are unjust and merciless , by his way of representing them ; for as if he did not believe it himself , he is fain to dress them up with all the Sanbenito's of an Inquisition , and the most extravagant aggravations ; for thus he opens the case : — After Six Months warning , and frequent rabling , if we take not the Oaths , we are silenced for Six Months more ; so then ( mark the consequence ) if the Oaths be not taken , all the Churches in England must be shut up . I know not any considerable difference betwixt this and a Popish Interdict ; neither matters it much , whether we lie at the mercy of the Pope or a Parliament , whether God shall be worshipped in the Land , or not , &c. So that it seems by their not taking the Oaths , and their deprivation upon it , we have neither God nor Religion among us , ( in the Phrase of their new Liturgy ; ) or in the Phrase used upon the like occasion by others , the Ark of God is removed , and the Glory departed from our Israel . But though we pity other mens miseries , and could wish that our Brethren were as we are ; yet webless God , that whereas by the Pope's Interdict every Church was required to be shut in the Land , ( as it was for above Six Years in the Reign of King John ) all ours are open : And though the Few that refuse the Oaths , and now remain deprived , are too many , yet that these neither bear the proportion of the 12000 to the 16000 of the Clergy that were outed in Q. Mary's time , ( as M. Parker computes it ) nor of the 2000 to the 10000 , as it 's said was in the Reign of King Charlet II. But to return to the Point , What , saith he , doth this want of being make a condition of Communion to us , quatenus Ministers ? To this I answer , 1. Suppose it to want nothing of being made a condition of Communion to them , as Ministers , yet what is this to the People , of whom , as Church-Members , that is not required ? This is a tender Point , and what he durst not touch upon : For grant that they had cause to separate , yet what would they do without a People ? And how would the People justifie their Separation with the Ministers , upon whom no such Obligations were laid , as on the Ministers ? So that tho the Non-swearing Clergy might lawfully separate without sin from our Communion , yet they must separate alone ; while none of the People could join with them in their Separation , without being guilty of a notorious Schism . For what reason would there have been for the Ministers Separation , if the Oaths had not been required of them ? And what reason can there be then for the Peoples Non Communion , who ( as Church Members ) stand as free from such Obligations , as if no such Revolution as the present had hapned , and no such Oaths had been at all imposed . 2. Though there be this obligation laid upon Ministers , yet what is this Political Security required of them , to their Communion with the Church ? May Persons when grieved by the Secular Power , and deprived of their Livelihoods by an Act of Parliament , revenge it upon the Church ? And will they interdict themselves its Communion , and break it in pieces , because they are thus injured , as they suppose ? 3. If they are not suffered to officiate as Ministers , yet they may still join in the same Communion as Lay-men . To this he answers , If no Lay-Power can make or unmake a Bishop , Priest , or Deacon , then the Charge of our Ministry will still lye upon us , notwithstanding this depriving Act , and necessity will lye upon us to discharge it at our Peril . This leads me to his Second Argument ; but before I proceed to it , let him understand , That he proceeds upon a gross mistake , by confounding Deprivation with Degradation . For what Act is there that doth ( in his Phrase , p. 5. ) Vn Bishop and Vn-Priest men ? All that the Civil Power here pretends to , is to secure it felf against the practices of Dissatisfied Persons , and to try who are such , it requires an Oath of Allegiance to be taken to their Majesties , by all in Office , Ecclesiastical , Civil or Military : And in case of Refusal , by Deprivation to disable such , as far as they can , from endangering the Publick Safety . But if the Clergy so deprived think fit to take the Oaths , they are in statu quo , without any New Consecration or Re-Ordination . Having cleared the Argument of this mistake , I shall now consider it . Arg. 2. A Clergy man's Authority is from God ; and notwithstanding any Civil Act to the contrary , he is bound to take care of his Office , though the most bitter Persecutions attend him for so doing . And therefore if they will warrant a Civil Act to disable us from doing our Duties , they must excuse us , if we have these dreadful apprehensions of the Account we have to give ; That we endeavour to do it as we can at our hazard , when we are not suffered to do it in Communion with them , p. 4. The Sum of his Argument is , That being they receive their Authority from God , no Civil Power can disable them from the exercise of their duty : And if it doth , they are bound to quit the Communion of the Church , where so disabled . The Force of which may be resolved into these Three Questions . Q. 1. Whether a Bishop duly Consecrated , or a Minister duly Ordain'd , may not be lawfully suspended and deprived from the execution of his Office , by the Secular Power , where there is sufficient reason for it ? 2. Whether a Refusal to give Security to the Secular Power for a peaceable behaviour , and Obedience , by Oath , may not be a sufficient reason ? 3. Whether if so deprived , he is notwithstanding bound as a private Member to join in Communion with that Church whereof he was a Minister before ; if nothing unlawful be required of him in that Communion ; and not to separate from it ? Q. 1. As to the first , Whether a Bishop duly consecrated , &c. our Author is not very clear ; but if he is to be understood , he takes away all such Power from the Secular Authority . So p. 5. Our Metropolitan , and several other Bishops , are now actually by a secular Act Deprived . But are they Deprived by any Canons , or Canonical Censures of the Church ? And he makes a sutable Distinction betwixt what he allows to the One , and not to the Other : viz. I shall easily grant , that the Secular Power hath often seized Estates , and imprisoned and banished their Persons : but still they were accounted Bishops of Those Churches , and ceased not to discharge their Duty , &c. And p. 6. Our Author will think to tell us Tales , How Emperours have put our Bishops , &c. But it is one thing to act in pursuance of the Canons of the Church , and another thing to act against them , &c. Now , in answer to all this ramble , I shall transcribe what the judicious Mason reply'd to two or three Objections of this kind . [ De Minist . Angl. l. 3. c. 6. ] Object . Is not the Deposition of a Bishop a Spiritual Censure ? how therefore can it be ascribed to Secular Powers ? Answ. The Secular Powers depose a Bishop , not by way of Degradation , but Exclusion . They exclude him , not from his Orders , as if he had them not ; but from the Gift , that he may not exercise it . And not from that neither absolutely , but after a sort ; that he should not exercise his Office , as to their Subjects , nor in their Dominions . Which the holiest Princes in the Best and Primitive Times have often exercised . Object . Can a Prince take away what he cannot give ? Answ. He cannot give , and so cannot take away the intrinsick Power of the Word and Sacraments , proceeding from the Keys of Ordination : but the extrinsical Power and License of exercising the Ministerial Office , received by Ordination , he can in his Dominions confer , and again take away , if the Case so requires . I leave the rest about an Act of Parliament to this Author's perusal , at his leisure . Q. 2. Whether it may not be lawful for the Secular Power to deprive Persons in Orders , for Crimes committed against the State , and particularly , upon refusal to give Security to the Government for their peaceable Behaviour , and Allegiance by Oath ? The General , our Author expresly denies ; and the Particular Case he will not allow , because it 's the reason why the General was maintained . So he saith , p. 5. Neither the Clergy nor People [ in the Primitive Times ] renounced their Bishops , unless they were guilty of such Crimes for which the Censures of the Church did depose them , or the Canons ipso facto deprive them . But where 's the Heresie ? where are any of all these Crimes , for which these our Bishops merit Deposition ; or what just Censure of the Church hath pass'd upon them ? Now I answer with Mason , Where was the Act of the Church , in the Deposition of Abiathar ? And where was the Ecclesiastical Crime he was charg'd with ? And as to the Oaths , I shall answer again in the words of the same celebrated Author : Not without Cause was there a Law made , That all Magistrates , whether Sacerdotal or Civil , should take an Oath , That the Queen [ Eliz. ] was Supreme Governour , and under the pain of Deposition : Which Oath since the Popish Bishops refused , they were deprived of their Honours and Churches : nor undeservedly , because they were presumed to be for the Pope's Supremacy . And the same parity of reason may hold for Administring and Taking the Oath of Allegiance to King William and Queen Mary , since they that refuse to take That , may be presumed to think their Allegiance due to another . And that Author adds further , when the said Oath was tendred to those Bishops by illustrious Persons deputed thereunto , and they would not be perswaded to take it , Episcopatibus suis tandem aliquando juxta legem Parliamentariam sunt abdicati ; which I leave to our Author to English. I think this Case is at an end . Q. 3. Whether if a Person be lawfully deprived of the exercise of his Ministry , he is notwithstanding bound , as a private Member , to communicate in that Church , &c. This our Author denies , for he would have it , that they are bound to continue in the exercise of their Office , to do it as they can , when not suffered to do it in Communion with them . Not suffered , he means without taking the Oaths . The Sum is , That if they are not permitted to exercise their Ministerial Function , they think themselves obliged to set up Conventicles , and maintain a separate Communion . Now this may make two Questions . Whether Ordination obliges such an one to the actual exercise of his Office , when forbid by the Magistrate ? And then whether for the exercise of his Ministry , he may and is obliged to set up and maintain a separate Communion ? 1. Whether Ordination obliges such an one , &c. To this I answer : If a Magistrate may lawfully deprive , ( as I have shewed he may ) then the Clerk may be lawfully deprived . And if lawfully deprived , he is bound to submit to such Deprivation . And that in obedience to the Magistrate , whom we are taught ( as he knows ) not to resist . But to officiate notwithstanding such a Prohibition , is in our way to take up Arms against him ; and in a lower to do what the Pope doth in a higher Station , and to controul his Jurisdiction . Our Author undertakes to tell us what was done in the Primitive Times : but if he had consulted them , he would have found , that when by the Imperial Power Eustathius was put out of Antioch , Athanasius out of Alexandria , and Paulus out of Constantinople , though the Orthodox complained of the Injustice of it , as done upon the malicious suggestion of the Arians , yet they never questioned the Emperour's Power . But supposing that he is not bound in this case ; and that he may as lawfully , and is as much obliged to exercise his Office as ever : Yet what is this to a Separation ? For is he so obliged , that rather than not officiate , he may and ought to break off from Communion with the Church ? It 's agreed to by all , that we are to continue in the Communion of the Church we are of as long as we can ; and that a Separation from it is like a Divorce ; which is the last Extremity , and which nothing can justify but when the Terms of Communion are unlawful . But one deprived of his Ministry may hold Communion with the Church if he will , since there is no change in the Terms , and the Church is as much the same when he is not a Minister in it as when he is : And his officiating as a Minister , being not a Term of Communion , the Communion with it is the same when he is not a Minister as when he is . This was true Doctrine against the Dissenters when time was ; he was a Schismatick who gave this as a reason for his Separation . And if they now proceed on the same Principles with the Dissenters , and take up their Arguments , there is as much reason to charge them with Schism , as they had to charge the Dissenters . Arg. 3. He argues from the Subjection the People and Clergy owe to the Bishops , and the Bishops owe to their Metropolitan : So that if Bishops or Metropolitan be deprived , and others substituted in their room , it will unavoidably necessitate a Schism . Our Author that undertakes to give us an account of the Sense , Judgment , and Practice of the primitive times , would have done well to have given us a touch or two of his Skill that way , by some credible Authorities ; and particularly of such a Subjection of the Bishop to the Metropolitan , to the Confutation of some of St. Cyprian's Epistles : And that Bishops after the Proceedings against them by Imperial Authority , were still accounted Bishops of those Churches they before were Bishops of , — and neither Clergy nor People renounced them , unless they were guilty of such Crimes , for which the Censures of the Church did depose them , or the Canons ipso facto deprive them , as Heresie : or that there is no way to free us from the Subjection and Obedience we owe to them , but either Death , Deprivation , or their own Renuntiation ; which last , he saith , was never accounted commendable in a Bishop . For the Christian World has hitherto been persuaded , that in sitting Cases both Bishops might be deprived , and both Clergy and People discharged of any Obedience owing to them , by a secular Authority : ( as has been shewed ) But if what this Author suggests , be a just Enumeration of all the cases for which Bishops may be deprived ; then there is no case in reserve for the secular Power to forbid or deprive ; and if by the Impetuosity of that Power ( as his Words are ) a Bishop was set over a Church or Diocess , in opposition to one there canonically placed already , it would always in course produce a Schism . This he saith was , and this is the case , for our Metropolitan and several other Bishops are now actually by a Secular Act deprived , and because by a secular Act deprived , and for no Crimes for which the Censures of the Church depose them ; they are Bishops still , and they are bound to take care of their Churches , and their Churches to live in Subjection to them . This Subject cannot be thorowly handled without passing some Limits I desire not to transgress , though the way that he has handled it in , and the small Deference he gives to , nay the Contempt he casts upon the secular Power , concerning it self and interposing in the case , deserves a severe Rebuke ; and which is so far from doing any real Service to the Right Reverend Persons he takes upon him to defend , that it would be to their Disadvantage , had not the Impertinency of the Person plainly discovered , there are none of them in his Counsel . But to return to our Author , suppose the case be as he represents it , how comes this to necessitate a Schism with us ? Is it because these venerable Persons stand deprived ? Then it is not because of any thing unlawful in the Church , but because of the Bishops that suffer by the State , a Schism may warrantably be made by the Clergy and People . Is it not for that reason alone , but because others are to be substituted in their room ; then why is there a Separation before it ; and his Argument proceeds upon this , that they are bound to join and go along with the Bishops . Why must this necessitate a Schism to all ? For are those Diocesses and Clergy , who have their Bishops , equally involved in the same case with those that are deprived of theirs ? Or why must it necessitate a Schism , when the Metropolitan and Bishops deprived , declare their Aversion to any such Separation ? This Argument will serve either way ; for if the Clergy and People are obliged to submit to and obey their Bishops , and the Bishops their Metropolitans ; Then those that are of the Province and Diocesses , where their Metropolitan and Bishops have taken the Oaths , are obliged to adhere to their Metropolitan and Bishops , and may as warrantably and as much ought to separate from these that set themselves against Authority , and refuse to swear Allegiance to it , as they on the other side think they may and ought to separate from those that do comply with it . Again if they are obliged thus to go with their Metropolitan and Bishops ; then if the Metropolitan and Bishops , notwithstanding their Deprivation , continue in the Communion of the Church , then they are obliged also to continue ; and if they separate when those don't separate , they must by his Argument become Schismaticks . Lastly , If they separate because they proceed ( as he saith ) according to the Sense , Judgment , and Practice of the Ancient Church : I would fain understand , when the Christians ever refused Communion with a Church , because of Matters of State ; or divided from others , because those they divide from thought it lawful and their Duty to swear Allegiance to the Sovereign Power ? In fine , a Schism it must be , and a Schism they are resolved to make , let there be a reason or none for it : And ( as Truth will out ) so he hath at last revealed the Mystery , and after all the pretences they make , that it 's for not deserting God his Church and their Duty ; there seems to be something else at the bottom , and whether it be so or no , I leave the Reader to judg by what he tells us we must expect , and why : viz. Though they may go clothed in Purple and fine Linen ( as some others would have done , or thought to have done , had the happy days of the last Reign continued ) and fare sumptuously every day , whilst care is taken that we may be starved ; yet they must expect to be Pelted , and then Men will speak and write their Minds freely . For in vain do you imagine , that when Men have nothing to lose , they have any thing to fear . No Sirs , if nothing else will do it , we will humble you , and throw such a Fioe into your Church by the Schism we will make ; that you may be sensible you have provoked Men of Spirit , and that if we cannot have Purple and fine Linnen , and sumptuous Fare with you , will make you as miserable as our selves . Look you to it , for betwixt Dissenter and Dissenter , we will grind you to Death , and make you rue that ever we left your Church ; or that the Government hath made us thus uneasy under it . This I take to be but a just Comment on this bold Text of his : But let him and those of his Mind cherish this malignant humour . I am confident no wise or good Man but will think those that are of this Kidney had better be out of the Church than in it : They are such as there was no great reason to oblige , when in our Communion , nor to fear ( threaten as they will ) when out of it . But as for those whom by their frantick Zeal and fair Pretences they delude , we ought to pity and to pray for them , and with Meekness to shew them their Error . Whether our Author hath stated the case righly , I shall , with him , leave to indifferent Persons to judg : but if he hath not ( as I think has been sufficiently proved ) then , to use his Words , they may wash their Hands with Pilate , but they cannot wipe of the Crime of Schism , they are by this new Separation justly charged with . §. II. Of the Publick Good. But now he opens a new Scene . Before he considered the case with respect to the Church , but now he comes to consider it with respect to the State. His Design before was to vindicate themselves , if he could , from a Schism , and to charge it upon us : But now his Design is to expose the Arguments for the Oaths , and to make those that take them guilty of Perjury . In order to which , he thus states the case for his Adversary ; The whole stress of his Discourse , saith he , is founded on this single Point . That the Consideration of the publick Good , doth dissolve the Obligation of an Oath to a Sovereign Prince , rightfully claiming . For this he must mean , if he will speak to the Purpose . In Opposition to this , he saith , That no Pretence of publick Good whatsoever can warrant us to destroy a lawful King , or take off the Obligations of an Oath , whereby we have bound our selves in all things lawful and honest to obey him . And he immediately adds , The contrary our R. Author undertakes to prove ; which I cannot reflect upon without Grief ; because it seems to me a task , which would much better become a Committee-Man , or Sequestrator , than a Divine of the Church of England . And certainly so it would , if the Author of the Discourse had undertaken to prove what he here charges him with , viz. That the publick Good will warrant us to destroy a lawful King , &c. But all the while this Man cannot believe himself , and therefore he returns to the Consideration of the Proposition concerning the dissolving of an Oath for the sake of the publick Good : or as the Discourse words it , p. 7. The publick Good is the true and just Measure of the Obligation in publick Oaths . Against which he saith , If we should grant that he had proved it in Thesi , yet he has no where so much as offered to prove it in Hypothesi , and apply it to our particular case . Surely our Author never read the Book he pretends to answer , or if he did , he must have a bad Memory , or a very bad Conscience : for the Discourse thus proceeds upon it , p. 3. I shall enquire into two Things . 1. The Nature and Measure and Obligation of political Oaths in general . 2. The Difficulties which relate to our Oaths in particular ; upon the last of which he spends two thirds of the Book . And now let us see what our Author has to offer in Confutation of what is rightly called the single Point , in the Discourse , about the Obligation of Political Oaths , and the Influence the Consideration of the publick Good has in them . I shall try , in his Phrase , to bring his rambling Arguments into some order ; and what he has to say is , 1. That the publick Good is impracticable and liable to be abused . 2. Who shall be the Judg ? 3. What is the publick Good ? I hope he will give me leave to begin with the last , if not for the sake of reason and true order , yet for the quaint Expression of his Friend , that publick or common Good is a common Notion , and signifies nothing unless it be stated and explained , Inquiry , p. 10. 1. What is this publick Good ? Our Author enters upon this Point in a fit of Quixotism ; I desire to know of our Author where this Divine Beauty dwells , whom all our Knights Errants run mad for , and fill the World with Blood and Slaughter ? And he answers for him in a very Metaphysical strain ; She is generally made a delicate fine thing in the Abstract , a separate invisible Being , distinguish'd from all personal Interest and Benefit . Now with his good leave , I desire to know of him , where these Platonick Gentlemen live , that doat thus upon Ideas and Abstracts , and run mad for such a separate and invisible Being , which they call Publick Good ; that is , in his phrase , good for no body . For I am apt to fancy no body will be found to be for that any more than himself . But let 's see whether he that keeps out of this mad Crew , ( as he calls it ) and that is willing to put in for a share in it , comes off with any better Success ; and whether after all the Knowledg he pretends to have of this Divine Beauty , he can better describe it ? Publick Good , saith he , is a personal Good , and that which makes for the welfare of every one in the Community ; and which every Man hath or ought to have a share in . Or if you would have it in the same Quixotian strain , She is a most sweet-natur'd Creature , that doth good to all , &c. To do him right , as to the Notion he is not alone ; for the same way goes the Inquirer , p. 10. Now I very much question this their Notion of Publick Good. I grant that every particular Person hath his share and right in the Publick . But , 1. That is not as a particular Person , but as a Member of the Publick . And he actually shares in it , when his particular Good and the Good of the Whole , or the General Good , meet together : but if they are separated , and become inconsistent , it then becomes a personal and private Good. 2. Publick Good is so far from comprehending in it the Good of every Individual , or of every Party of Men , that the particular Good of Persons , Parties and Corporations is often destroyed for the Good of the Publick ; and they are often undone for the preservation and benefit of the Community : For as the Inquiry ( though in contradiction to himself in the Sentence just before ) saith , If it be such a Good ( or rather such an Evil ) as is only for the benefit of a Party , and , in respect of the whole , of the least or a small number , [ and much more of a particular Person ] 't is impossible it should be a Publick Good. So that if personal Good and publick Good may be and often are inconsistent , the publick Good is not a personal Good. 3. Publick Good , that makes for the welfare of Every one in the Community , is a Divine Beauty indeed , but it 's a delicate fine thing in the Abstract , an invisible Being , not to be met with in this lower World. And when we speak of it as it is , it 's in the Discourser's . Language , a General Good only . And therefore after all , I shall make bold to conclude in that Author's words , [ Discourse p. 9. ] The Right of a Person is not to be taken as distinct from the Publick Good. For if it be inconsistent with it , there is no ground to set up a personal Interest against a Publick Good. 2. He argues against Publick Good 's being the measure of the Obligation of publick Oaths ; because it 's impracticable and very liable to be abused . Thus our Author ; How specious soever any Proposition may seem in the Theory ; yet , it ought not to be esteemed right or found , if it be impracticable , without filling the World with perpetual Troubles and Confusions , p. 8. And so he runs on for several Columns together in a rant against the Mischiefs this Pretence has ushered into the World , p. 10. The Sum of all which is , That Publick Good doth not take off the obligation of publick Oaths , or make it lawful to take New , because this Doctrine is impracticable ; and it 's impracticable , because it 's very liable to be abused . Now besides the Inconsequence of this , this is a way of arguing that may serve against any thing ; and if we put Publick Justice , or Laws , or Religion , or Reformation , into the place of Publick Good , it will hold in any of them as well as the other . As for Example , the Doctrine of reforming the Church [ how corrupt soever ] is very liable to be abused ; for the greatest part of Mankind being wicked and credulous against their Governours , under this pretence a sort of Knaves , with active Fools , may at any time cry up a Reformation , and overturn any Establishment , &c. But he may say , it 's not the publick Good that doth this Mischief , and makes it impracticable , but the pretence of it . But how shall we know when it really is so , and when so in pretence ? Our Author is silent in the case , but the Inquirer has an Answer ready ; Nothing can be a Publick Good to any Nation , where the exercise and practice of it is not warranted by the Law , Custom , and Constitution of that Nation , p. 11 , & 20. And with him agrees the Author of the Discourse , p. 8. ( excepting in the Nothing can ) The Laws , Rights and Customs , are the Standard of the Publick Good of a Country . But then these Two differ about the Constitution , and that is not a Controversy here to be entred into . The Use I make of it is , That the Publick Good is still the measure of the Obligation of Political Oaths , as is at last acknowledged even by the Inquirer . But yet , if after all I should deny the Inquirer's Proposition , that Nothing can be a Publick Good , but &c. and should say , that the Publick Good is above all Law and Custom , I conceive I should not mistake . For what made Custom , Law and Constitution , but the Publick Good ? And if a Case should happen , which never happened before , in which the Publick Good is so far concerned , that without some extraordinary Course be presently taken , the Nation and Government will be destroyed , I do not question , but this Case will as much require the Care of the Nation , as any Case now doth require the making of a Law , for which there was no Law before : Or as it 's requisite , that there should be a Chancery to adjust those Matters , to which the Letter of the Law doth not reach . For there are such things as Necessity , Equity , and Reason of State , which are Law all over the World ; and that are as much the Standard by which all Laws and Customs , in extraordinary Cases and Events , are to be adjusted ; as Law and Custom are the Standard by which all ordinary Cases are to be determined , and which are the settled measures of the Obedience we owe to Governours . Such a Case was that in Poland , when Henry of Valois in haste and with secrecy left the Throne vacant . A Case extraordinary , and which they had no Law to govern them in , but they had that which is a Law to Law ; Necessity and the Preservation of the Nation , that soon taught them what was to be done . This brings me to consider . 3. Who shall be the Judg ? that is , Either who shall Judg when the Publick Good is invaded , and when the Laws , Customs and Constitutions , are violated ? Or , who shall judg what 's fit to de done in such a case , by way of Remedy ? As to the former , the Case before us is supposed to be notorious , and what has an evident tendency to the Destruction of the Government : Of which some things are of that Nature , as they are destructive of Government where-ever they are , as the Desertion of a Kingdom ; or the natural Incapacity of the Governour by Lunacy , &c. Other things there are which are destructive of the National Constitution , and such amongst us has been thought to be an absolute and universal Power of dispensing with the Laws . Now , when the Cases are notorious , this Author might as well have asked , who shall be the Judg , whether the Banks are broken down in an Inundation ; or whether there is a Breach in the Walls when they see the Enemy press through it ; or the City in the Power of the Enemy , when they see the Fortifications of it dismantled ? But who shall be the Judg , that is again , by way of Remedy ? Here our Author thus puts the Case , either that must be the Supream Governour , or some other Man or Body of Men , or the Mobile . The former he chuses for himself ; the second he argues out of the way ; and the third he gives to his Adversary : For thus he concludes ; After all the matter comes to the Mobile , and every Man must judg for himself : — And have not we extreamly mended the matter , by putting it into the Power of every Subject to depose his King ; or at least to endeavour it to his utmost , in case he apprehends it will be for the publick Good ? p. 9. As to the first of these the Supreme Governour , the case we are upon immediately concerns himself ; and then either there must be no Judg , or he cannot be the Judg. For suppose the Controversy be about the Succession and Title ; suppose about an Incapacity , a Desertion and Vacancy ; suppose it be about the Violation and Destruction of the Government and Constitution designed by him ; or the Nature and Obligation of the Oaths to him . This is not only to make him a personal Judg in his own case , ( which the Law permits net in Suits of Law betwixt Prince and Subject ) but to set him above himself , and in our Author's Phrase , to set a Supream above a Supream . And then the Question should be put , not who is the Judg , but whether there is any Judg ? But I readily grant that the Supream Governour has no Supream , and whatever has been done in a case extraordinary , doth no more make a Convention or Parliament Judges , ( properly so called ) than that the Parliament is equal to the King , because he can make no Laws without them . As for the Case of the People , our Author writes as if he had never read his Adversary , who after he had resolved the Point into the Common Good , saith , I do not hereby go about to set up the Power of the People over Kings , which is in effect to overthrow Monarchy ; for then the whole Soveraignty would lie in the People , and Kings would be but their Servants , p. 18. And therefore there is the third case remaining , which is that of a Body of M●n ; and thus the Question is put in the Discourse : Whether the Law of our Nation doth not bind us to Allegiance to a King and Queen in actual Possession of the Throne , by consent of the Three Estates of the Realm : And whether such an Oath may not lawfully be taken , notwithstanding any former Oath , p. 8. This he undertakes to prove , p. 13. as that 's no other than the Consent of the People , whose true Representatives they are , as he shews . To this our Author has nothing to say ; but the Inquirer , that he may seem to say somewhat , took what served his turn , and left out the rest : ( to use his own Words ) For this Adversary having said , p. 18. If there be a Rule , the general Consent of the People joyned with the Common Good seems to have been that , which our Ancestors pretended to : he presently runs out upon this in a vehement Expostulation ; Where or how can all the People meet ? As if the Author he opposes thought of no less than the numbring of the People from Dan to Beersheba : Or as if there was no way of taking the General Consent but by an Vniversal Assembling . He that quoted what was just before and after , could not miss the Explication there given ; The Consent of the People that is the Three Estates of the Realm , &c. p. 19. and elsewhere . I might think here of closing the Discourse upon Publick Good , when he himself grows weary of it ; but to give an Answer to what remains , it 's fit with him to return to it . The Author of the Discourse towards the beginning , treating of the Nature and Measure of the Obligation of political Oaths , shew'd . 1. That the Obligation was not barely from the Oath , but from somewhat antecedent to it , p. 4. 2. That the Publick Good is that Antecedent , the main End chiefly concerned in the Obligation ; and the Obligation to Magistrates is to be in Subordination to that end . p. 5. 3. That an Antecedent and Superiour Obligation voids that which is subsequent and inferiour , when they contradict each other . So that if an Oath to the Person is truly inconsistent with the Welfare of the People , the Obligation cannot continue . That this is so in other cases , he shews ; there being no Relation of Mankind one to another , but there is some good Antecedent , which is the just measure of that Obligation they stand in to each other . Thus he describes it to be between Parents and Children . ( 1. ) On the Childrens part to Parents : insomuch that if a Vow to God ( which is as solemn a thing as an Oath ) hinders that Good which Children are bound to do to Parents , it ceaseth to oblige , as our Saviour declares . To this our Author replies : His Comparison of a Vow and an Oath is nothing to the purpose ; for whoever thought that either an Oath or a Vow bound a Man contrary to his real Duty ? The Sin in such a case is in making them , not in breaking them , p. 13. I answer ; The Instance is to the purpose ; for if the procuring and preserving the publick Good be a Duty ; and what a Person hath vowed or sworn , be destructive of it ; then the Oath cannot oblige , no more than a Vow not to feed or maintain a Parent , and the Jurant is discharged of the Obligation . And whereas he saith , The Sin is in making them , &c. That is true where the matter is unlawful in it self ( as when the Jews bound themselves to kill St. Paul ) But the Case may happen so , that it may be not only lawful , but a Duty to break that Vow or Oath , which was lawful in its own Nature ; or rather the Obligation comes to cease ; because by change of Circumstances or of the original reason of that Oath , that which was lawful may become unlawful . Thus it was in things sacred and dedicated to the Service of God , and which could not be alienated from it without Sacriledg , and yet it was lawful to apply them otherwise in case of Necessity , as our Saviour's case of the Shew-bread proves . And so it may happen in the case before us , when that which was before for the Publick Good , and which it was lawful to swear to maintain , may afterwards come to be plainly destructive of it ; and so the same reason that there was for swearing to maintain it , may be for the setting it aside . The want of this Consideration led this Author into a Mistake , when he saith , Let our Author speak out , and tell me , that taking an Oath of Allegiance to a lawful Prince is contrary to my Duty , and then , &c. For it might be lawful and his Duty to take an Oath to a lawful Prince ; but it follows not that no case could ever happen , in which the Obligation of such an Oath ceases . It was lawful for Jaddus the High-Priest and the rest of the Jews to swear Allegiance to Darius as long as he lived : And yet when Alexander came with a powerful Army against them , and Darius was in no Capacity of defending them , it was lawful , and , as they thought , their Duty , for the Preservation of their Country and themselves , to go out to meet him , and to transfer their Allegiance to him ; and certainly they thought themselves discharged from their former Oath to the one , when they took it to the other . So true is that which the Author of the Discourse observes ; That the Resolution of Conscience in this case doth not depend upon the Will and Pleasure of the Person to whom the former Oath was made , but upon the Grounds on which it was made , and from which it had its force to oblige : And if those cease , the Obligation of the Oath ceases together with them , p. 13. ( 2. ) It is so on the Parents part to Children , as the same Author shews ; So that if Parents , instead of regarding the Good of their Children , do openly design their Ruin , none will say but that they are bound to take care of their own Welfare , &c. To this our Author replies : 1. I know not what a Madman may do , but none will suppose that a Parent in his right Wits will do thus ; as it is both unnatural and unreasonable to think , that a King should contrive the Destruction of his Subjects , without whom he hath none to reign over or assist him . This I grant is unnatural , and unreasonable in it self , but not unreasonable to think ; for the World too often finds that the Passions , and Lusts , and Interests of Men make them do things unreasonable and unnatural . And our Saviour tells us , how far the Hatred Persons have to the true Religion may transport them , when the Fathers shall betray and deliver their Children to Death . And if it is so on the part of a Natural , it may be as well supposed on the part of a Political Parent . That he saith is unreasonable to suppose , because a King by the Destruction of his Subjects , leaves himself none to reign over , or assist him . But whoever was so mad as to mean this , when he puts the case of a Prince's destroying his Nation ; for then he must come to do it with his own hand , and his Nation must in Caligula's way have little more than one Neck to serve his Barbarity . But they thereby mean his Design to destroy the Government , and to destroy those that will not comply with , or oppose such a Design : He choosing rather to have no Subjects than what shall not be his Slaves ; or in the modish way of a neighbouring Prince , that will not be of the same Religion with himself . 2. He saith , The Author should have told us , that the Children , in such a Case , might have taken away all the Father's Subsistence , and done their utmost endeavour to starve him , or cut his Throat ; and no doubt but this had been an excellent Comment on the Fifth Commandment . But why should that Author be obliged thus to have told us ? For suppose the Father would alienate the Estate from his Children , which is entail'd upon them ; and designs to adopt a Stranger into that Relation , and substitute him in their Place : Suppose again , that a Father has several Tenants that hold of him by ancient Tenures , and by which Tenures , and performing the Conditions belonging to them , their Lands are as much their Propriety , as the Land of Inheritance is their Lord's ; and that he notwithstanding seeks to destroy their Tenures , because they oppose him in his Designs against his Children , or in that absolute Power over them which he aims at : Suppose again , that rather than not compass his Designs , he seeks the destruction of his Children , and of the Tenants that adhere to them for their own mutual Preservation and Security : Is there no Mean to be found , but either to let the Father out , and starve his Children , or that the Children must take away all the Father 's Subsistance , and do their utmost to starve him ? No Mean , but to let the Father cut the Throat of his Children , or that the Children must cut the Throat of their Father ? And may not a Son withdraw from his Parents immediate Care , ( as the Discourse saith ) and forsake his House , when he cannot stay there but upon the hard terms of being destroyed , or of resigning up the Title of his Inheritance to a supposititious Heir ? Or , may not the Son take possession of his Father's House , and the Estate of Inheritance , which the Father abandoned , rather than he would oblige himself to continue the Estate in his Family , and suffer the Tenants to hold their Lands by any other Tenure than that of during Pleasure ? May he not , I say , then enter upon the Estate , rather than suffer the House to fall , and the Lands to be wasted , and the Tenants undone for want of a Supervisor and Possessor ? And may he not keep the Possession against his Parent in his own , his Families , and Tenants Right , when he comes with an armed Force of Rapperies to enslave his Children and Tenants , and exercise an absolute Power over them , or else destroy them ? And may not all this be done , and the Fifth Commandment stand in its full force ? If not , we must burn our Law-Books , and take new Measures from these Gentlemen that despise and reproaeh the Common Good , as an Engine fitted ( in his phrase ) to overturn any Government ; and that whilst they pretend to plead for Law , set up a meer Arbitrary Power . The third Instance in the Discourse of the Relation of Mankind one to another , is that of Masters and Servants , Victors and Captives ; in which the Author proves there is a regard had to the benefit of those who are in Subjection . Here our Author interposes ; I know not , saith he , to what purpose he so labours to prove that a Natural Equity or Common Right is due to Subjects , yea even to Slaves : For whoever thought , that being under Government , Metamorphos'd us into Beasts , or worse . It 's the first time ( though there was reason enough for it before ) that this Author confesses his Ignorance ; and it 's pity he should be sent away uninformed . 1. It was necessary , because though being under Government ( rightly so called ) doth not metamorphose us into Beasts ; yet mere Absolute Power comes very near it . 2. It was to the Purpose , because the Author of the Discourse had undertaken to prove , that there is no Relation of Mankind one to another , but there is some Good antecedent , which is the just measure of that Obligation they stand in to each other . Thus it is , saith he , between Parents and Children , Masters and Servants . Oh , but , saith our Author , he should have proved , that because the Subject has a Common Right , therefore he can receive no wrong ; that is , he should have proved Non-sence and Inconsistencies . Or ( as he goes on ) if be do [ receive wrong ] or apprehend he shall , then he may cry out , The Publick Good , and raise Rebellion , and overturn any Government : that is , because he has received a private Injury ( in which the Publick is not concerned ) he may cry out the Publick Good : It 's well he before told us the Publick Good is a personal Good , or else I should have fil'd this up for a new Blunder . The 4 th Relation mentioned in the Discourse is that between Princes and their Subjects : where the Author proved , that the Good of the whole is the just measure of the Obligation they stand in to each other . 1. From what the strictest Casuists have allowed under a State of Vsurpation . 2. From the nature of Political Oaths , which are Reciprocal . As to the first of these . 1. In the foregoing Paragraph our Author will needs have his Adversary to have borrowed the worst of Mr. Hobbs ' s Principles to patch up his Discourse , though he confutes him . And here he will have him displeased with the Casuists , though they agree with him in the main Point , about Publick Good , as he there recites their opinion . It is not denied , saith he , by the strictest Casuists in these matters , but that under a State of Vsurpation , notwithstanding their Oaths to a rightful Prince , Men are bound to do those things which tend to the Publick Safety , as well as their own . Now what 's this but to prove ( as far as that Author intended it for ) that the Publick Good is the measure of the Obligation , because the strictest Casuists in those matters do not deny , &c. But however our Author will have it so that they have displeased him ; and he gives a very surprizing reason for it , for thus he goes on : In another Paragraph He ( the Author of the Discourse ) discovers the reason of his Displeasure to be this , that they have not allowed them to do every thing in a State of Vsurpation , which they might do under their lawful Sovereigns . If I had never read more than two Pages of the Discourse , I durst have adventured as much as our Author would have laid , sometime since , that King William would never pass the Boyn , that there is no such Paragraph , and no such reason in the whole Book : and I dare now vouch after I have read it , that there is no more any such Paragraph , than that King William is still on the other side of the Boyn ; or died of the Wound he received there . But since the Casuists will not be of his Mind , that Author will it seems be even with them ; for ( if our Author be to be credited ) he roundly condems them all , for founding it on the presumptive Consent of the absent Prince : but it is his own Mistake , for quite contrary , they found the presumptive Consent of the Absent Prince upon the Publick Good. After all it seems by his own Confession , that the Casuists and his Adversary agree , that under a State of Vsurpation Men are bound to do those things , which tend to the Publick Safety : but they disagree about the reason it 's founded upon : For saith the Discourse , the Casuists found it ( that is , the Obligation Men are under in that State , to do what 's for the Publick Safety ) upon a presumptive Consent of the absent Prince . But that 's his own Mistabe , saith our Author ; for quite contrary , they found the presumptive Consent of the absent Prince upon the Publick Good. What a Penance have I to undergo , that must teach a Man his A B C ; and that puts C for A , and B for C ; ( for it 's no better with him here ) . We are now not enquiring , upon what the Consent of the absent Prince is founded ; but upon what the Casuists found their Opinion of the Obligation that lies on Mankind to do what tends to the Publick Good under a Usurpation . The former indeed the Casuists found upon the Publick Good , but the latter they found upon the presumptive Consent of the Prince , as is evident from what he himself quotes out of Bishop Sanderson . The Case then is that those Casuists found their opinion of doing what tends to the publick Safety under an Usurpation , immediately on the absent Prince's Consent ; and remotely by him , and for his sake , on the Publick Good. But now the Author of the Discourse thinks this to be a Mistake ; for , saith he , The true Reason is , that Men are in the first place bound to promote the Publick Good , and consequentially and with respect to it , to regard the Will of their Princes , who are appointed by God and Nature for that end . And if such be rendred uncapable of doing it , yet the Obligation on others remains . 2. The Discourse proves , that the Publick Good is the true and just measure of the Obligation of Political Oaths ; in that the Oaths are reciprocal . Whereas if only the Good of the Persons , to whom the Oaths of Allegiance are made , were to be our Rule , there would be no mutual Oaths . This that Author proves from the Word Allegiance ( which originally signifies a Contract ) and from Glanvil and Bracton , &c. Now this was a noble Subject for our Author to have tried his Skill upon , but as if he had the Spirit of Clinias upon him , he shuts his Eyes , and runs backward from the naked . Weapon as far as he can : At last he is to be found three Pages behind , calling upon no less than two of the Holy Apostles to defend him , p. 12. for thus he saith , To secure the Law on his side , he cites Glanvil and Bracton , but forgets what St. Peter and St. Paul said . Let him take his share with the Lawyers , I will venture my Soul with the Apostles . A good thought ! if the Lawyers go one way and the Apostles another . But I never read that St. Paul and St. Peter differed in this matter from Glanvil and Bracton ; and that those Holy Apostles ever determined against them , that Political Oaths were not reciprocal ; or that the Publick Good is not the true and just measure of the Obligation of such Oaths . However by this conceit , he has got rid of a troublesom task ; I need not , saith he , now answer the Citation : but how his as and his so come to be a reason for it , I don't well understand . However I dare pass my word for his Adversary ( who , he saith , has changed his Divinity for a little bad Law ) that he has so much Divinity and Law yet left , as ( no less , than our Author ) never to be persuaded , that it was lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to rebel , or to countenance Rebellion against a Sovereign Prince ; and I am as sure that it is still , as he is , that not long since it was both the Doctrine of the Church of England , and the Law of the Land : which brings me to the last Point . §. III. Of Obedience to Authority . After our Author had wearied himself ( as he professeth ) with discoursing of the Publick Good , and ruined the main Point , that he might yet render it , as Jerusalem , so uncapable of Recovery , that not one Stone should be left upon another that should not be thrown down ; he resolves to give a brief Answer . ( to make good the Title of his Book ) to such other things in the Discourse that may require it . Some of which , as belonging to the Subject of Publick Good , I have already considered . Amongst these , he selects the Answer that is returned in the Discourse to the History of Passiv Obedience . And here I thought , if any where , I should have found him bold and forward to support the Credit of that main Pillar of their Cause ; but as if he was sensible of his own Weakness , he crys out abominably of the Answer to it , shifts it off with a silly Comparison ; and as if he had raised a Spirit he could not conjure down ; runs back as far as he can , without running out of the Book , to the case of Vows ( which is before considered ) and then as one confounded , bounces forward again , and concludes , I do not remember any thing more in his Discourse material , except a numerous heap of Instances , and in the Van comes the unfortunate Vortigern ; which with a little Wipe he sends , as that Prince was , out of the way ; and then as if he had been inspired at Montsorrel , takes a leap from p. 13 , to p. 34. of the Discourse : and there he meets with somewhat which was not material enough to be remembred : But it seems his Adversary being so elevated about the Determination of our Saviour , of paying Tribute to Tiberius , that he in Zeal cannot forbear to call the Non-Swearers Perjured and Apostates ; Our Author conceives he may without any Reflection upon his own Memory call him to an account for it ; if it were only for a notable Remark he makes upon it , viz. Some Men surely are not only priviledged , but admired for speaking Contradictions . I was thinking for some time , where this Contradiction might be , and Dunce as I was , began to look backward and forward for it , whereas I perceived at length it was that the Discourse charged the Non-Swearers with Perjury . But bating the Contradiction , we know who has been sufficiently quit with him for it , in the like charge upon the Jolly Swearers . After I had found out this Conceit , I was at a loss again to find out the Paragraph where this Contradiction was : and at length discovered it , but found withal our Author true to himself ; who for ought I see , may ( in his own Words ) be priviledged , but I doubt not admired , for his many blundering Mistakes : of which this is one , for he might as well have said , and with as much credit to his own Understanding , that his Adversary called the Non-Swearers Jews , as Perjured and Apostates . For indeed what is said in the Discourse of Perjured and Apostates , is applied to that People , and only to them . The Words are these : As to the dreadful charge of Perjury and Apostacy which some have made use of against those who hold it lawful to take the Oaths — it would have had more Appearance of Reason , if the Pharisees had urged it against our Saviour's Resolution of the Case about Tribute-Money . After this manner : For , had not God by his own Law setled the Government amongst them ? &c. What can it be then less than Perjury and Apostacy to give any Countenance to such an open Violation of this Law ? Who would not pity this Writer of Controversy that cannot see into the Connexion of an Argument for ten lines backward or forward ? for what reason I will not determine . But now comes on a Flourish of Learning ; for by an unhappy Parenthesis the Discourse has of Velleius Paterculus about the Senate , he understood there was , I will not say such an Author in the World , but such a Passage in that Author ( for he was sensible he might trust his Adversary in that matter ) and here he bears up to him , fights him with his own Weapon . To be short , saith he , I think the Testimony of Velleius to be better than our Author's , tho he so scornfully reject him ; as if his Adversary had set his own say-so against that of Velleius , whereas he had proved the c●ntrary , from Suetonius , Dio and Tacitus ; and therefore might well say , Whatever Velleius Paterculus pretends . We are at last drawing to a close , and therefore he resolves to give his Adversary a parting Blow or two . He boasts , saith he , what he had gained upon the account of the Jews paying Tribute , but it will impose upon none but Fools and Partizans , and I will give it no particular Answer . Merciful Man ! because he misrepresents the case both of the Jews and Tiberius . But it would have been some Satisfaction in this suspicious Age to have given an Instance or two ; or else there are a sort of troublesom Inquirers , that will be apt to believe that the best , reason he had why he would not give a particular Answer was , because he could not . As now it will be asked , Wherein doth the Discourse misrepresent the case of the Jews ? Was it that Darius was any other than a de factó King over them ? or that they did not swear Allegiance to him as long as he lived ? Or , did they notwithstanding , not submit to Alexander , and enter into his Service , and transfer their Allegiance to him ? Where again doth the Discourse misrepresent the Case of Tiberius ? Had he any Right to the Empire ? or had he at first any other Title than from the Pretorian Band and Legions ? Or , did not the Senate and People swear to him at last , though he was in the Throne before , and a notorious Usurper of it ? But though our Author lets his Adversary go for once with his Misrepresentations scot-free ; yet by the vertue of some few Particulars he has in reserve , he questions not but to put him to the rout ; and then let him ( sorry Man as he is , that when girding on his Harness , boasts himself as he that putteth it off ) reckon his Gains ; And they are these four . 1. That none should rule over the Jews but one of their own Brethren , was designed as a Blessing , and their being given up to a Foreign Power , was a Judgment , &c. What then ? Therefore they might not lawfully transfer their Allegiance from their own Blood to a Foreigner . If that be the Consequence , what becomes of Nehemiah who served as Governour under Artaxerxes ? What of Jaddus and the Jews of his time with their Oath of Fidelity to Darius ? &c. If they did well , the Question is , ( as it 's in the Discourse ) On what Right that Oath is founded ? 2. He pleads , They were under a State of Conquest . What follows , but that therefore their Allegiance to their Royal Stem was so far at an end ; or they might lawfully transfer their Allegiance to a Foreigner ? What now becomes of Succession ? 3. He urges , That the Question to our Saviour , was not concerning Oaths but Tribute , which he grants all Casuists do allow , may be paid even to an Vsurper . But he knows , what use and what Gain too his Adversary made of this ; the Question is ( saith the Discourse ) Whether any Act of Subjection be lawful or not ? If it be lawful to testify it one way , why not another ! If in paying Tribute , why not in solemn promising to pay it ? If in promising , why not in swearing , i.e. in calling God to witness that I do it ? Thus far then we may go , we may swear to pay Tribute ; but on what account ? Is it not as a Token of Allegiance , i.e. as a Duty owing on the account of Protection ? &c. If this way of arguing will impose upon none but Fools and Partizans ; why doth not our Author who is to be sure no Partizan , shew that he is no Fool by answering it , and preventing Fools from being imposed upon by such a shew of reasoning as here seems to be ? 4. He saith , That at that time no Man had jus potius , nor had there been any prior Oaths taken in bar against Tiberius ; so that though he calls him an Vsurper , I know not where he will find one with a better Title . 1. He saith no Man had jus potius , a better Right . Surely the Author turn'd over the Page before , where he will find that Agrippa Posthumus was then living , one much nearer to Augustus , and that seemed designed by him to succeed him . Surely again there was a jus potius in the Senate , from whom even Augustus was willing to receive it ; and upon those Rights , the whole was an Invasion ; and which was as much as if it had been the Right of a particular Person . 2. No prior Oaths . What thinks he of the Oath of Jaddus to Darius , when yet he went over to Alexander ? What thinks he of the Obligation to the Senate , as to the present Case ? 3. He saith , I know not where he will find a better Title : that is , than one who intruded himself into the Throne without any Pretence in the World , without the leave of Senate or People . So that in all respects there was hardly a worse Title in the Universe . But for once I will adventure to set a better Title before him , and that is of one , that when wrong'd by a neighbouring Prince and Relative , and by one resolved against giving him any Satisfaction , to the securing that Right which he had to the Throne after his Decease , and a quiet Possession of it , took up Arms to right himself ; upon whose Approach the other left his Throne and Kingdom , which the injur'd Person with the consent of the Estates of the Kingdom entered upon . Now if Allegiance was lawfully sworn to a Tiberius , a Man of as little Right to the Empire , as of little Vertue : what is not then lawful and due to one that has such a Right and Title to it ? To conclude : If our B. Saviour did allow Tribute to be paid to Tiberius , and there is so little difference between Tribute and an Oath ( as the Discourse hath shewn ) our Author might have saved his impudent Slander against his Adversary , ( which I will not repeat ) who , as if he was run mad with the Sectaries he speaks of in Solomon's Phrase , casteth Firebrands , Arrows and Death . Toward the beginning our Author saith of himself , I have taken a safer course in this matter to appear before the Tribunal of Heaven , than the Jolly Swearers , p. 2. But when I reflect upon his Disingenuity and hard Censures , &c. I thought surely he was then in earnest ( which his scornful Title he gives his Brethren there , seems not reconcileable to ) he forgot himself for ever afterward ; and litttle thought of the Tribunal 〈◊〉 another World ; or that there were any amongst Mankind to inmind ( 〈◊〉 knows the word ) or to call him to an account here for such gross Prevarications . FINIS .