Passive Obedience IN ACTUAL RESISTANCE. OR, REMARKS UPON A PAPER fixed up in the Cathedral Church of WORCESTER, By Dr. HICKS.  
With REFLECTIONS on the present Behaviour of the Rest of the Family.  And if it should please God for our sins to plague the Church with such ● 〈…〉 full Enemy of Christ, and suffer a Popish Julian indeed to reign ●v●r us, I here declare that I should believe him uncapable of Repentance, and upon that Supp●sition should be tempted to p●●y for his D●st●u●●ion as the only means of Delivering the Church. Hi●ks Jovian. P. 152. 
LONDON: Printed for E. Hawkins. 1691.   

THE PREFACE  
THERE is nothing that settles more the minds of Men inclined to Virtue and Piety, Duty and Allegiance, both to God and man, then to behold a perfect Harmony and Unity among those whom Authority has advanced to high Dignity and Promotions in the Church. For by their Examples, all others in Inferior Orders are Guided and Directed to avoid th● Rocks of Dissent manned Disorder, both in Ecclesiastic and Civil Transa●ions. ●n the other side, there is n●thing that brings a greater Scardal and Reproach upon Religion, then to find those men whose business it should be to Unite and solder the Rifts and Preac●es of contending Opinions, fomen●ing and heightening the discontents of Faction and Diso●edience, and influencing opportunities of Confusion and Disorder; while they unhinge the wavering conduct of People observing and guided by their Presidents, and divide their resolutions by Teaching and Preaching one thing in their Sermons and Writing, and endeavouring to persuade another by the practise of their living. Nor can there be a greater discouragement to those in the highest stations of R●le and Empire, to meet with such disappointments of their best intentions, from those that are least expected to thwart their pious Enterprizes. Such men as these, are like those Evil and Malignant Spirits that bearing Malice to ●ome particular Stru●ture, and new intended Reformations of Building, pull down in the ●ight what the Workmen Erect in the Day time. Others there are, who th● they h●ve taken the Oaths to King William and Queen Mary to save their benefice, yet cannot forbear to show which way their real Wishes bend; while they are so sedulously ●fficious, to appear in their Pulpits upon the 30th. of January, and bestow the Effluviums of their Eloquence upon their Royal Martyr, as they call him, fulsome even to Flattery itself: But only substitute their Hired Deputies upon the Fast proclaimed for the Prosperity of the Arms of King William in actual hazard of his Royal Person, and enterprising more than ever any Monarch of England did since the Memory of History for the Glory of the English Nation, and the Advancement of the Protestant Interest over all Europe.  
But leaving the one to their Merited Deprivations, and the other to the recovery of more sincere considerations: Let the Nation in General, and those that have the most Prejudiced opinion of King William's Conduct, but seriously weigh the great Advantages which may j●stly be expected from the alterations newly made: Let them consider the Wisdom and Integrity of Their Majesties in the choice of the Persons cull▪ d out to supply the Vacancies of the Persons Deprived; They will find them Equal if not superior in all the great Qualifications of Piety, Le●rning and other Abylities required for carrying on the mighty work, for which they are designed. And all this duly considered, they must farther aclowledge His Majesties Exactness in the Prosecution of his Promises and Declarations, not to injure Episcopacy, not to disfigure▪ but to render more Glorious and Conspicuous the Beauty and Splendour of the Church of England: And consequently that there is in th●se ensuing Sheets, a True and real Distinction made between the Disturbers and the Promoters of the Church of England's Unity; With a Hope that the one will see the foulness of their mistake, and with a profound Veneration of the other.   

Passive Obedience IN ACTUAL RESISTANCE.  
THE late Opinion of Passive Obedience, and Non Resistance, so stiffly maintained by the Students in Court-Divinity, and yet so contrary to the Law of Nature, and consequently to the true meaning of Scripture, has been so meritoriously exploded by all men of sense and reason, that nothing now remains but that they should as patiently undergo the punishment of their folly. But they were so well settled in the Reign of Charles the First, and like young Calves skipping and frisking in fat Pastures, were so well pleased with their plentiful Portions, and high Authority, pampered by the King's favour, that it was no wonder they recovered from the Grave of Oblivion, and new filled and furbisht up those rusty Doctrines in his time. And as little to be admired it was, that they continued their Flatteries to King James; for he promised them fair at first, and they were in hopes he would have been as good as his word. But when they saw him falter, and so fully bent to take off their darling Penal Laws, they gave him such a shog with their Passive Obedience, and Non Resistance, that they jostl'd him quiter out of his Throne. However they were still Resistance-Men, because it was not with Cutlaces and Bombs, and Mortar pieces that they withstood him, but only with their Tears and their Prayers excited his Highness the Prince of Orange against him. And so 'tis the Cannon and the Bullets, and the Powder that beats down the wall, and not the Gunner that gives fire. 'Tis a ple●sant thing to see what pains these Ecclesiasti●al chemists took to extract from the Flowers of Scripture their venomous mixtures of Passive Obedience and Non Resistance to benumb and chill the very Souls of the Nation into Thraldom and Bondage; on the other side how they soothed and flattered Tyrannical and Arbitrary Dominion, and set the Law of Nature and Reason at Daggers-drawing with Divine Precept, by the force of straight-lac'd Interpretation to exalt unbounded sovereignty to Babel height, and give it a rampant and unlimited Authority over the Ancient Franchises and Constitutions of a free People. 'Tis no less pleasant to observe how they pinch and straighten the Texts that seem to make for the Court-Sycophantry of Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance, how they kerb and expeditate Christian self-defence, as if the Rules of Reason, Nature, National Safety, and Christianity, were quiter different Things, without any dependence one upon another; but on the other side let loose, dilate, extend, enlarge and display those other Texts that advance Tyrannical Dominion, and Lawless Nimrodism; how they dig and rak out of Act. 17. 7. & Rom. 9. 4, 5. and where there is a King, there is power; and several other Texts as inconsistent with the Doctrines which they teach; such concealed and hidden meanings of their own, which we may be assured those Sacred Writers never dreamed of, to make the people believe, That where a King commanded what was contrary to the Laws of God and Nature, the people were bound to obey with an implicit Passive Obedience; and that the King was not bound to observe the La●s of his Realm, concerning the Subjects Rights and Properties but that his Royal Will and Command in imposing Loans and Taxes without consent of Parliament upon pain of Eternal d●mnation obliged the Subjects Consciences. Thus begging first the Principle, and then with a full cry running down both the Objections and the Opponents as Heretical, Schismatical, Impious, and the Lord knows what himself. But it is our comfort, that they never do this, but wh●n they lie warm within their entrenchments of their Penal Laws, and the satisfaction of having all things go well on their side. For then it is but gratitude to colloque and flatter their Benefactor, though to the uncharitable ruin of all but themselves. However it is impossible, let these Crape▪ Gown Supporters of Arbitrary and Lawless Tyranny, talk till Doomsday, 'tis impossible, I say, that the precepts of Passive Obedience and Non Resistance should be more coercive than the Laws of Charity, which is Vinculum perfectionis, and obliges every individual person to be more solicitous for the safety of a whole Nation, than of any particular Family, how great soever. But these Passive Obedience Gentlemen are so Argus-ey'd that they can spy out every thing in Scripture that seems to uphold irregularly and impiously insulting▪ Will and Pleasure; but so stupidly blind that they can meet with nothing that countenances charitable self-defence against it. How strangely do they wrest, and like Bunglers in their own Art, how oddly do they ●end and tear, instead of taking it workman like asunder, that Particle of Scripture, Touch not mine Anointed, and do my Prophets no harm; whereas there is nothing more plain to common sense, then that that celestial Injunction was laid not upon the people, but upon Kings themselves in reference to the people and their Prophets or Ministers, for whose sake it is said in the foregoing verse, He reproved Kings. Otherwise what non▪ sense had it been to reprove Kings for the sake of his Anointed▪ and in the next verse to bid the people not to whip and wound his Anointed; for so the word Nagang signifies, as well as to Touch. Punishments frequently and unjustly inflicted by Kings, or rather Tyrants, upon their people, but never known in those days to have been practised by the people upon their Kings. But it was a saying that danced pleasantly upon the Tongue in the Chappel-Royal, and without examination seemed a very plausible Text to play with in a Court-Pulpit; and thus having made sure of their Benefactor, and themselves, in the word Prophets, let the people go the Crows. However this single example is enough to show the falsehood of true Court-Divinity in wresting and squeezing out o● Scripture such Interpretations and meanings as the Authors never intended, or indeed which the words will but very unwillingly bear. But where they will have it so, the Scripture itself must be passively obedient to their false Glosses and Comments, though they make it speak never so contrary to itself, and all the rules of celestial Charity, Nature and Reason, which only resembles us to God.  
These Passive Obedience and Non Resistance Mongers would have been excellent Chaplains to Dionysius of Sicily, Nero, Domitian, Commodus, or Heliogabalus. Their Doctrines of Passive Obedience would have tickled the Ears of such Monsters of Tyranny and Oppression. But it is apparent those other Renowned Emperors, Vespasian, Titus, Trajan, Adrian, Antoninus pus, Mareus Antoninus, and Alexander Severus, would have derided their Sycophantry, and exploded their fawning Definitions of absolute sovereignty, and their idle Assertions of Unaccountableness to none but God. For those Christian Heathens had the true notions of sovereignty and Im●erial Authority; and therefore tho environed with Absolute and Arbitrary Power, they not only acknowledged themselves inferior and accountable to the people, but that they were solely exalted to procure their Good and Happiness; so far were they from upholding those lewd and destructive Doctrines with which our Heathen Christians so imprudently and immorally flatter the Thrones of Tyrannical and Illegal Abusers of their sovereign Dignity. And therefore Trajan upon his Advancement to the Empire, reaching forth his Sword to Saburanus, the Captain of his Guards, Draw( said he) this Sword in my defence, while I do those things that are just; but if I act unjustly, draw it against me. It was the frequent saying of Adrian in the Senate, That he would so behave himself in the Government, that the people should know it was their business which he followed, and not his own. Marcus Antoninus and Alexander Severus professed themselves to be but the Stewards of the public. And Justin the Second, a Christian Emperor, and one who may be thought to have understood the Scripture as well as any of our Passive Obedience rabbis, was so far from thinking himself accountable to none but God, that he publicly affirmed it to be his duty to appear in the Courts of Judicature, if cited by the Law. Theodosius also the Younger, another of the Christian Emperors, caused it to be Enacted as an undeniable Rule, and fit to be acknowledged by all Kings and Emperors, That a Prince was bound to the Laws; and that as the Authority of a Prince depended upon the Authority of the Law, so it was to the Laws that he ought to submit. Which Edict of his remains still unrepeal'd in the Code of Justinian, as a sacred Constitution to be observed by all succeeding Emperors and Kings. Now for a company of Court-Parasites to turn such officious Advocates for Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance, what is it but to set up Paradoxes contrary to the Concessions of the best of Kings and Emperors themselves?  
Ill stewards then are they of sacred Dispensation, that prostitute the Divine Authority of their Function, to pander for Tyrannical Sovereignty, and make it their Business to delve for Arguments out of Scripture, to justify by celestial warrant the Oppression and Usurpations of Wicked, nay the worst of wicked Princes. And as if human Sovereignty were not sufficiently prove of itself, to imbibe the corruptions of lawless control, and the exercise of unlimited Will and Pleasure, they put the stress of all their Pious Endeavours, to encourage wicked Rulers to commit the greatest Impieties under the Sun, by granting them Indulgences out of Scripture, and soothing them up, with being accountable to none but God. And wicked Princes are apt enough to take the Liberty allowed 'em, as being generally of the Welch-man's Opinion. What is this, but on the one side to hearten and embolden Nero to go on and prosper in the Career of his villainies; to murder his Mother, massacre the Nobility, and sacrifice the People to his Will and Pleasure? To bid K. James drive on his unruly Chariot over the necks of the whole Nation; violate his Oaths and solemn Declarations, destroy the Ancient Franchises and Rights of the People, invade their Properties, and destroy their Religion; for to their certain knowledge, neither he nor Nero are accountable to any but God. But on the other side, to amaze the people with vain Terrors, because they are Christians, and Christianity is a Religion of Meekness and Patience, a Religion abhorring Nature and Reason, and therefore brought into the world to overawe them to sit with their arms across, with only Prayers in their mouths, and Tears in their eyes, while a thousand sorts of Violences commit a thousand sorts of Rapes upon their Religion, their Lives and Liberties, which are the dearest Blessings of Mankind upon Earth. Which being the Blessings of Heaven, to which the Favour of Heaven has also given to every man a peculiar Right and Property, established by National and Fundamental Laws, it seems somewhat strange that Heaven should sand him a Religion to cowardice his heart, and manacle his hands from preserving to himself the enjoyment of those Blessings, when ravished from him by a Devil of a man, because advanced to Sovereign Dignity. What is this but to make a distinction between Wickedness and Wickedness, between Crimes and Crimes, villainies and villainies of the same nature; and to give a Toleration for Princes to commit what the poor insignificant Body of a whole Nation must de damned for not suffering? A boisterous and unlimited Tyrant may lift up his hand, and with his mawling Fist lay a whole Kingdom sprawling at his Feet, but a whole Kingdom must not lift up so much as a Finger to defend itself; because that being born Christians, they were born at the same time to Slavery and all the Miseries in the World, if it be the pleasure of one single Person.  
It is a Maxim established in the Church of England, that the Church by the Consent and Determination of General Councils has a power to set up and enjoin several Ceremonies and human Inventions for convenience and Decorum, as they call it. Very good, let it be so; but then it seems very strange at the same time, and a great piece of Hardship upon the Laity, that Christian Body politics shall be debarred the same liberty of Enacting National Laws and Constitutions for the preservation of National Peace and tranquillity; or if Enacted, that they must not be obeyed nor made use of to fetter the rage of an unaccountable Tyrant, but must be confined and imprisoned within the narrow Dungeons of Passive Obedience and Non Resistance, as if the preservation of Christian Societies, and the self defence of a whole Nation depended upon the bare Letter of a Precept, and were to be determined by a Literal Text, devested of all the Conditions which Reason and Morality allow it.  
Nor have these mighty Champions of Passive Obedience and Non Resistance adventured only to come with Scripture in their mouths gloss'd and fitted for their turns with a double and contradictory sense and meaning, and to publish their Sermons and Treatises loaden with Quotations to make others guilty of their own follies; but there is a certain fiery Gentleman among the rest, who undertaking to be the Don Quixot of Passive Obedience and Non R●sistance, has taken upon him to encounter the very Common Law of the Land, and in a Science altogether foreign from his Function, as if he had been made a sergeant of the Coif at the same time that he Commenced D. D. to erect the Standard of his own Opinion above Westminster-Hall, and the Four Inns of Courts at once. But he deals as ill favour'dly with the Laws of the Land, as he does by the precepts of Scripture, while he cries up the bare Letters, but most partially suppresses the tacit and implied Conditions and Covenants upon which all Laws are grounded. Thus while Monsieur D. D. labours to erect the Supremacy of the English Kings into Absolute sovereignty unaccountable, and not to be resisted, he quotes several scraps of Acts and Statutes, which are true as to the subjection of the English Monarchs to none but God in reference to any foreign Power whatsoever, but are untruths when they exalt their Absolute sovereignty above the Laws of the Land. To which the most eminent Judges and Expounders of the English Laws and Constitutions all agree the English sovereigns to be subject▪ and consequently accountable; and if accountable to the Law, then not to God only. Rex habet superiorem Deum, item Legem, per quam factus est Rex, item curiam suam, viz. Comites & Barones. All which is in part acknowledged by their so much admired Royal Martyr himself in his Answer to the XIX. Propositions; whose Works the Doctor forgot to prefer as the best Book next to the Bible, before the Church Homilies. But these petty shifts in making use of Sentences parceled out to maintain bad theme, and as bad Arguments, and embattel'd against the true sense and meaning of the Laws themselves▪ are purposed Infidelities, which as they better become a Sophister than a Divine, so are they but feeble Pillars to support a weaker Cause, and are become so trite and common, that they meet with Confutation in every Coffee-House and Barbers Shop.  
But none, to say Truth, have given such Whirrets and Cornubbes to this Doctrine of Passive Obedienc● and Non Resistance, then the asserters of it themselves. Thus while the Doctor was haring and staring, and toiling and moiling for his two Minions Passive Obedience and Non R●sistance, he could not but let fall some stabbing sentences that fetch blood from his two Darlings, and opening the Windows of his Heart, discover a certain mixture of something else besides Prayers and Tears, and that there were some seeds of anger and provocation, which when Christian Patience could no longer brook it, would turn again and rebel against Injurious Passive Obedience. For tho in his Fawning Court-Gallantry he is so much for Passive Obedience and Non Resistance, yet in his more testy humour, he says, 'Tis one thing to be for the Succession, and another thing for a Popish Succ●ssor; it is one thing to be for the Monarchy, and another to be for a Popish Monarch. And, further says he, th●re are many for the former, who as hearty pray to God to prev●nt the latter, as for their daily Bread. Now I would fain know whether a Popish Successor would not take it as ill to be prayed out of his Right, as to be beaten from his hopes. The meaning and intention is the same of them that pray so hearty, as of them that make use of Swords and Guns; and the effect is the same to be prayed, as to be beaten out of a Throne; the one is disobedience and resistance in p●t●nti●, the other in act●; Prayers and Tears beget murmuring, and murmuring begets vi & armis; Groaning and sighing are the forerunners of Drums and Trumpets, as Hollow Winds are the forerunners of Earthquakes. And therefore, believe it, these were dubious Expressions of Monsieur D. D's, and how far they might have been stretched by the Comment of an Innuendo when time was, is no slight Question.  
But the Doctor mounts a step higher, and speaking of the Nicknames which the pleasanter sort of Christians gave to Julian, he puts the Question, What Injuries did they do him? Nay, says he, there are many would think it rather their duty, than any breach of it, to tell not only a Popish Prince, but a Popish King to his face, did he openly profess the Popish Religion, That he was an Idolater, a Bread-worshipper, a Goddess-worshipper, a Creature-worshipper, an Image-worshipper, a Wafer-worshipper, &c. And why we may not think the Doctor would not have thought it his duty to have been one of the Number, had he done it to King Jam●s, especially when he did it not to the Man nor the King, but to an Apostate from the Protestant Faith, an Idolater, there is no reason to doubt; since as he says, the Christian Religion allows a Confessor to call such a one so to his very face. Now will any man believe that King James would have thought it no injury, no breach of Passive Obedience to have been called all these Nicknames to his face, or that he would have made the Doctor's nice distinction between the Man, and the King, and the Apostate, and the Idolater? Would not King James have rather looked upon such sort of language as this, as a pretty sort of Tinder to fire a dis●ontented party? Does the Doctor believe that Cyprian observed the strict rules of Passive Obedience, or that he would not have made use of other weapons then his Tongue and his Pen, when he called Decius the Emperor, Tyrant, and Raging Tyrant? and D●metrianus the Procunsul of Asia, Impious, mad, raging, blind, deaf and brute? No— he says he does not justify the Father for that contumelious way of speaking. But what does he say against either him or Calaritanus for calling Constantius heretic, Murderer, Apostate, Impi●us, Antichrist, liar, Executioner, Enemy and D●spiser of God? Just nothing at all; But charges it all upon the peevish, morose temper, and monastic M●nn●rs of the ●ather. Language more ill becoming a private D. D. to give a Bishop and Father of the Primitive Church, then any which the Primitive Fathers gave the Tyrants against whom they wrote, while the Doctor takes upon ●im, when he can say nothing else, to blacken the zeal of the Primitive Fathers with the scurrilous names of peevish, morose temper, and monastic manners. But the Doctor was a man of foresight; he foresaw that there would be a necessity for Ecclesiastical Disobedience and Resistance in a short time, and therefore cunningly brought these Examples of the Primitive Fathers upon the Stage of his Book, to give the Coffee-House Levites a Loop-hole to creep out at, and justify their calling King William Usurper and Tyrant, Invader and Oppressor, which tho it be contrary to the Rules of Passive Obedience in the Doctor's strict sense in behalf of King James and the French King, yet may be allowed when the Doctor shall insinuate a permission that it may be used in a Patriarchal Latitude against King William.  
And as if this were not sufficient, he tells those modest Gentlemen, that there is a thing called Parrhesi●, or Christian boldness, which was always loo●t upon as an effect of Divine zeal and fervent love of God, with which when persons were inspired, they used ordinarily to show it in th● freedom of their speech before Kings and G●vernours, especially such as they knew to be spiteful Enem●●s of their religion▪ A pleasant way of arguing for Passive Obedience, by bringing examples of Christians and Martyrs that defied the Enemies of their Religion openl● to their Faces. As if by the Doctor's permission it might be lawful for Christians to smite Kings and Governours, the Enemies of their Religion, with their Tongues, but not with their hands; and because he does not find that they followed their words with blows, because it was not in their power, to assert that people who expressed their minds after that daring and resolute manner, could believe it unlawful to have been as violent with their hands as with their tongues. If words in the Law are said to be seditious, as frequently they are, no men could be more seditious in words then the Christians mentioned in the Doctor's Examples; and if so seditious in words, why should the Doctor believe they would not have been as seditious indeed and thrown off his miserable shackles of tame and cowardly Passive Obedience and Non Resistance, would their condition have allowed it? However, what they could not do themselves, 'tis plain that they encouraged others to do when opportunity served. Otherwise what signified all their Tongue-resistance, which did 'em no good in the world, but by venting their passion as in female revenge, and was no more then railing against their Superiors, mere scolding at their death, more becoming women than men. Certainly Monsieur D. D. had a very ill opinion of the Histories of those times, as if they had been written only to record their scurrilous language, the invectives of those eminent Christians, and the discharges of their inveterate s●leen and malice against Authority, by making an insignificant noise like Swine upon a Butchers block, when they knew not how to help themselves. It remains then, that those Histories were penned to encourage others by the Generous Examples of the Primitive Bishops and Christians, in resisting the Tyrants of those times, to the utmost of their power, to be no less courageous in resisting wicked Kings and Rulers with their Bodies armed with Steel, and the advantages of superior ability, as they had done with bodies only armed with unarmed Zeal and Piety.  
How these Examples brought by the Doctor▪ and worse applied, did work with him, is no great matter; but presently after he seems to take a distaste at Passive Obedience and Non Resistanc●, by a long recital of the Reasons why there was no hope of Julian's being recoverable, and one that had the malice of a Devil against Christ, and the Christian Religion, and that there were good grounds upon that presumption to pray for his destruction, and after his death in that unnatural apostasy, to lod● him in H●ll. Upon which consulting St. Gregory who called Julian a Jeroboam in apostasy, a Pharaoh for hardness of Heart, an Ahab in Cruelty, and a nabuchadnezzar for sacrilege; and finding that the Christians having such good grounds to despair of the Conversion of such a complicated Tyrant, prayed for his destruction, he conceives such a sand against Passive Obedience and Non Resistance, that he levels 'em both with the Earth, after he had set 'em upon the pinnacles of all his Greek and Latin to fall down and worship him. For, says he, I● it should please God for our sins to plague the Church with such a spiteful Enemy of Christ, and suffer a Popish Julian indeed( without question he means King James) to reign over us, I here declare, That I should believe him uncapable of Repentance, and up●n that supposition be tempted to pray for his destruction, as the only m●ans of delivering th● Church. He might as well have added when his hand was in, and after his death, for his unnatural apostasy from the Protestant Faith, to lodge him in Hell. Here is the Pail and the Milk of Passive Obedience and Non Resistance kicked down both at once with one jerk of the Doctor's heel. Here the Great Rabbi of Passive Obedience and Non Resistance has declared his temptations to pray for King James's destruction, and lodge him in Hell. Truly King James is extremely bebolding to him for providing him such a warm lodging in the other world, and he could not in Gratitude but give him a good bishopric in this upon his return. But to palliate the matter, he declares again, that he would do nothing but pray against him, he would not bring Squadrons against him. But this is mere stuff. For certainly should King James suspect, there were any that were praying for his destruction, he would as soon sand to gag their mouths, as to manacle the hands of those that were taking Arms against him; as having more reason to fear those that were killing his soul, and lodging him in Hell, than those that were only aiming to dethrone his Body. This is Passive Obedience and Non Resistance with a vengeance, the Quintissence of Divine Charity, to pray a man Soul and Body into Hell without scruple, but to make it a piece of Conscience to resist him in the career of his wickedness on Earth, though it might turn perhaps to his Salvation. For it is not the first time that affliction has brought a lawless Tyrant to serious repentance, and excused him in all probability from the Tophet which the Doctor's Prayers would have prepared for King James. Upon my word I think 'twas the best thing that ever King James did in his life, to abdicate the Kingdom for fear of being prayed into the bottonles Pit by his Passive Obedience and Non Resistance Clergy.  
But for all this, he goes on and says he would have rather died than resisted King James, or those that were put in authority under him. Nevertheless all the world admires how he should come to be so tender-hearted to his Popish Julian, whom he would have prayed into Gehenna, and yet be so contumacious in resisting King William, and those in Authority under him, when Divines as worthy and as learned as himself, allow him to be as lawful a King as King James; and those in Authority under him, as legal Magistrates as any under his Popish Julian. For against King William in the persons of his Magistrates, he shut the door of Worcester Cathedral with the same fury that Bishop Babylas shut the door of the Church of Antioch against Julian; though for different reasons, as you shall hear by by the sequel.  
All the world knows when James the II. came first to the Crown, with what large promises and solemn Declarations he caressed the Church of England, that both Bishops and others of the Clergy, generally thought themselves secure under the Protection of his Royal Promises. But these Halcyon days did not long last; for the King, a declared Papist, over-ruled by his own Bigotry, and his Popish Councellors, and hastening to bring in Tyranny and Popery, soon began to over turn the whole Frame of the Government, and commit those Rapes and Violences upon the Religion and Laws of the Nation, that threatened the ruin both of Church and State. Nevertheless, neither Nobility nor Gentry stirred, nor were the Clergy moved, till the Nobility and Gentry on the one side understanding the King had promised a part of his Kingdom as their share to those he had solicited to assist him in the destruction of his Protestant Subjects, and that an Impostor was to be put upon the Nation to deprive the next Heir of the Crown; and the Clergy on the other side finding their Rights and Freeholds tyrannically invaded to make way for the Popish Priesthood, began to look seriously about ' em. What then became of Passive obedience and Non Resistance I cannot tell; but certain it is, that they withdrew themselves for a time. The Gentlemen of Maudlin college withstood the Popish Julian with a generous courage to the utmost of their power, till the doors of their Freeholds were forced open by the King's Arbitrary Commissioners, more like House-breakers, than Ministers of a Prince. Several of the Bishops also, some out of a real abhorrence of such Illegal violences, others fearing more the loss of their Preferments then their Religion and Liberties, yet all agreeing in the unlawfulness of the King's Commands to red his Declaration for Liberty of Conscience, not only refused to red 'em themselves, but forbid the Clergy in their several dioceses to do it. For which contempt of Passive Obedience being first sent to the Tower, and afterwards tried as Criminals and Contemners of the Kings Persi●n Edicts, and beginning to feel the scorching heat of the High Commission, they closed with the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom, then in deep Consultations how to stop the Torrent of Slavery and Popery, which was rolling in upon the Nation; and joined with them in their last Results to call in his then Royal Highness the Prince of Orange, by Armed Force, to deliver the Nation from Idolatry and Thraldom: For so run the very words of his Highness's Declaration, To the doing of which( meaning the Maintenance of the Protestant Religion, and the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom) we are most earnestly solicited by a great many Lords, both Spiritual and Temporal, &c.  
Upon these Invitations, so contrary to the Chappel-Royal and Bow-Sermon Doctrine of Passive Obedience, with a Generosity and Magnanimity no less Christian then Princely, with extraordinary hazard of his Person, and at a vast expense, his Highness lands in England, and rescues the Implorers of his Aid, from the Paws of the Bear and the lion. On the other side, the Oppressor of their Religion, Laws, and Liberties, Abdicates the Kingdom; and then it was, that the Lords Spiritual again joined with the Lords Temporal, and at Guildhall, after they had taken away the Keys of the Tower from King James's Lieutenant, and delivered them to the Lord Lucas, to keep for the Prince of Orange which was certainly one of the greatest acts of Treason that could be committed against K. James, to dispossess him of the chiefest Magazine of his Ki●gdom, declare th●ir unanimous R●s●lution to apply th●ms●lves to his Highn●ss the Prince of Orange, and to assist h●m with their utmost endeavours to procure a Free Parliament; then which t●ey knew there could be nothing more dread●ul, or more abominable to K. James. And farther they declare, That if there were any thing more to be by th●m p●rs●●m●●, for promoting his Highness's generous Intentions f●r th● public Good, th●y would be ready to do it, as ●cc●sion sh●●ld r●q●ir●. And with this Declaration, subscribed by the Archb●shops of Canterbury and York, and the Bishops of Wi●chest●r, As●ph, Ely, Roffen, and Peterborough, and so destructive to K. James's Interest, and consequently to Passive Obedience, the Bishop of Ely was sent, with others, to attend his Highness.  
In pursuance of this Declaration, the Lords Spiritual join a third time with the Lords Temporal and Commons assembled at Westminst●r● and in a Declaration, bearing date, Die Martis, 12 Feb. 168●, resolve, That the Prince and Princess of Orange be declared King and Queen of England, &c. pray the said Prince and Princess of Orange to accept the same; abrogate the Oaths of Allegiance and S●premacy, and appoint other Oaths in their stead, to be taken to King W●lliam and Queen Mary.  
Plain therefore it is, That the ●overnment by King James was dissolved by the help of the Clergy; that they were the first that b●oke the Laws of Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance, and by their generous Examples at that time, not only encouraged the Army to desert King James, but the Generality of the Nation to assist the Prince of Orange. But no sooner were they thus delivered and rid of all the fears, no sooner were King William and Queen M●●y advanced to their Throne by their Assistance, Advice and Procurement, but as if the Spirit of the great Nevil, Ea●l of Warwick, had intermixed itself with their malcontented Souls, and that they would be thought the Setters up and Pullers down of Kings, they take a Peek at their own Acts and Deeds, repent of the Good they did, and with an unparalleled Ingratitude repined at the merited Enthronement of a Prince that made 'em happy, to be again the Slaves of an Abdica●ed Pap●st, whom in part themselves dethroned, for seeking their destruction. Their Oppressor is become their ●arling and their Deliverer their Oppressor: Passive Obedience must be the French Mode to befriend King Ja●e, but altogether out of fashion to King William: Oaths must be inviolably observed to Tyrants that have justly forfeited their Dominion, but refused to Virtuous Princes, that Rule with Gentleness and Moderation, for the Welfare and Safety of their People. Subjection must be denied to the latter, but Non-Resistance must be the Protection of the former: Obey those Higher Powers that are set over you for Wrath, and to punish the good, and cherish the wicked; but pour out your Maledictions, drink Healths to the Confusion of those Dignities that are advanced to punish the wicked, and cherish the good.  
How these Contradictions both in Nature and Divinity disturbed the gentle Progress of His Majesties Affairs, and what strange Ferments the ●ullen Moroseness, and peevish Example of Ecclesiastical Grandeur in some persons, raised in the Breasts of their Admirers, both Clergymen and others that were governed by their Conduct, to the hazard of Ranversing that comely Order which began like the beams of morning, to beautify the face of Three Kingdoms; how they encouraged Rebellion and Treason, even to the making Offers of the Kingdom to the most prodigious of Foreign Tyrants, and betraying the Naval Strength of the Nation into his hands; and what Plots and Conspiracies the Corruptions of Eli's Divinity engendered, is too fresh in memory, and needs no farther confirmation, than what the Jacobite Malice of men, empoisoned by Superior Example, pours out every day against Their Majesties and the Government.  
The Wisdom of the Parliament therefore foreseing the mischievous Consequences of such moody Exemplars, and willing to prevent 'em by a speedy and effectual Remedy; as they had, by taking the appointed Oaths, acknowledged K. William an● Q Mary themselves, resolved to bring those State-Dissenters to State-Conformity, or else to remove those unhappy Land-marks, that only directed their Observers to steer a wrong course, and endanger the shipwreck of the Common weal. And to that purpose, by a public Act prefixed a day for such as refused to take the Oaths, to do it, or else to be deprived of their Preferments. But whether it were out of a certain pride that some men have, not to suffer an ●nforcement of their Judgments; or a private disdain, that the world should think they had been in the wrong; whether it were Mistake or Passion, private Interest or ill Design, they still continued obstinate; and their obstinacy grew daily more and more a public mischief to the Government, by confirming the Enemies of it in their perverse opinion, That it is unlawful, or will be prejudicial to them to submit to it: Unlawful, in respect of its Authority, which bad Presidents embolden them to question, m●gnis cum subeant animos authoribus—; and prejudicial, in respect of the fears which the same bad Examples instill into their minds, of some sudden Change, which their Ringleaders knew to be at hand. Which staggerings in Opinion, Fears and Jealousies, as they never want to be improved by the Enemies of the Government, so they ●ail not to be the continual sources of Treason and Rebellion; and indeed have been the causes of all our late and present distractions. Unfortunate Religion! That if any dismal Revolution determine the ●a●e of these Three Kingdoms, through the Mistake or Obstinacy of her Professors, bewailing Posterity must be enforced to lay it at her door!  
But notwithstanding that the Law became in force long since notwithstanding there was nothing enjoined by a Prince, who without the Consent of Parliament, or contrary to their Advice, sought to constrain a Submission contrary to the Law; but that it was the Parliament and the King, that unanimously, for the Preservation of the Government, e●join'd the taking of such Oaths, which the assembled Wisdom of the Kingdom, deemed just and reasonable for the public Good: His Majesty, according to his wonted Goodness, with a Patience equal to his Fortitude, brooked the daily Indignities and Contempts that were cast upon his Government, and the continual mischiefs which they produced, in hopes that his Lenity and Time would have at length convinced 'em of their Obstinacy. But finding no fruit of his Endurance, but that public Exigency would no longer permit him to suffer the Baffles of pretended Scruple, he was unwillingly constrained at last, not to act according to his Will and Pleasure, as did K. James in his High Commission, but to put the Establishd Law of the Land in Execution.  
In pursuance of which determination, so fairly built upon such just and necessary Grounds, accordingly the Archbishop of Canterbury, together with some other Bishops and Deans, were lately, and but lately, deprived of their Spiritual Preferments; but with such a special care taken to supply their Vacancies, as may suffice to convince all the world, of his Majesties Pious Resolutions, rather to advance the Honour of Episcopal Government, then to pull it down For if men of Worth and Learning have been so unfortunate as to stand in their own light, and to suffer the unhappy inconvenience of a just Deprivation, for adhering to the exploded Interest of an Abdicated Papist and Subverter of their Religion, Laws, and Liberties, and disowning the lawful Authority of theirs and the Nation's implored Deliverer in the height of Distress; His Majesty has been no less solicitous to pick and cull from out a plentiful number. Persons no less particularly Eminent for Learning and Piety; whom Scandal may repined at, but never envy, while their unblemished Reputation towers so ●ar above the reach of O●loquy.  
Here, one would have thought, was a fair occasion offered, for the great Champions of Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance, to have shown their readiness to obey the Precepts of their own Doctrine; but to omit the eluctancies of others not so remarkable, what will the world think of the most Zealous and most Celebrated Bo●nerges of all the Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance Knights-Errant, who would have rather di●d, than resisted Julian, when they shall hear how impatiently he took his being required to surrender his deanery of Worcester? How he stormed, foamed, fumed, and swagger'd against Sovereign Authority, and tore the very Curtain of his Stall for Madness and Vexation? And in what a rage he signified his vain fury to the Sub Dean, and the rest of the Prebendaries! 'Tis comical, and deserves to be here inserted, to show the Spirit of a Passive Obedience, and Non-Resistance Doctor, when once he comes to be touched to the quick. I'll assure you, the Doctor's no Snail, as you shall find by what follows.  
To Dr. John Jephcot, Sub-Dean of this Cathedral Church of Worcester, and Dr. George Benson, Mr. William Hopkins, and Mr. Ralph battle, Prebendaries of the same; and to all the other Prebendaries and Members of this Cathedral Church of Worcester, as if expressly here name; and to Mr. John Price, the Chapter-Clerk, and to all others whom these presents may concern, George Hicks, D. D. and Dean of this Cathedral Church, sendeth Greeting.  
KNow Ye, That whereas the Office, Place, and Dignity of Dean of this Cathedral Church of Worcester, was given and granted unto me for a Free-hold, during my Natural Life, by Letters Patents under the Broad Seal of K. Charles II. of Happy Memory, who had an undoubted Right to confer the same: And whereas I the said George Hicks, in Obedience to the said Letters Patents, was duly installed into the same Office and Free-hold during my Natural Life, according to the undoubted Laws of the Realm; and according to the said undoubted Laws, which had all the Essentials of Law, have for several years peaceably enjoyed the same: And whereas I am given to understand, That my Right to the said Office and Dignity has of late been called in question, and that one Mr. Talbot, M. A. pretends a Title to the same,  
Now Know ye therefore, and every one of you, That I the said George Hicks, desiring no advantage may be taken against me, by not claiming what I conceive to be my just Right, and that lest thereby I may seem to yield my Legal Title as determined, I do hereby publicly protest and declare, That I do claim a Legal Right and Title to the said Office and Dignity of Dean, against the said Mr. Talbot, and to all other persons pretending Title to the same; and that I am not conscious of any Act or Misdemeanour, the Conviction whereof if any such were▪ should or can determine my said Right; but do conceive that I was and still do continue the only Rightful and Legal Dean of this Cathedral Church of Worcester, and that I do not any way r●linquish my said Title, but shall, God willing, use all just means which the Laws of this Realm allow, for the Pres●rvation and Recovery thereof.  
And accordingly, as much as in me li●s, and I may la●fully do, I do hereby require you the Sub-Dean, and Prebendaries, and all other Members of this Church, with the Chapter-Clark Officers, and every one of you, to take notice of this my Declaration: And farther, by all the Legal Authority I have, I require you and every one of you, by the respective Duty which I conceive you owe me, as your only Lawful Dean of this Church, and your Lawful Superior, That you do no Act or Thing relating to the Premises, whereby you may impeach or hinder my Right to the said Office and Dignity of this Cathedral Church: And if it should so happen, that you or any of you, shall do or attempt any Act or Acts, Thing or Things, to me as Dean of the said Cathedral Church,  
I do hereby expressly diss●nt thereto, and in my own defence Protest against the same, as of no force against this my declared Right to the Office, Place, and Dignity of Dean of this Cathedral Church.  
Given under my Hand and Seal, the 2d day of May, in the Year of our Lord, M DC XCI. signed and sealed in the presence of 

Ralph tailor, D. D.  
Henry Panting, A. M.  
John Cheatle, N. P.  
George Hicks.    
Heavens! who could have thought that Christian Lamb-like Passive Obedience could have flustred and blustred, and ranted, and hectored at this rate? Here's, Help, help, Gentlemen, help, the Trojans are a coming—; call this Preb●ndary, and t'other Prebendary; ring the Bells backward, the Philistines are upon me; as if he were raising the Posse Comitatus of the Church, to defend his deanery. Here's Declare, and Protest, and Claim, and Do if ye dare, as if it had been Midsummer-Moon with Passive Obedience and Non Resistance. One would have thought, according to the Doctor's Divinity, that if an Imperial Sovereign, accountable to none but God, should have required him to surrender his deanery, he would have given him his vicarage of Barking also. He tells the Excellent Author of Julian, that he may do as he pleases, he may Preach and practise Resistance, the Doctor was r●solved t● Preach and practise Passive Obedience after the example of th● Jewish Prophets and Martyrs. But whatever the Doctor resolved, the Dean is not of his opinion: He bel●eves it his duty as a●l can, to be as true to his Office and Freehold, as a Spaniel in a C●ach-box to his Master; come but near the Forewheel, and he falls a bark●ng presently. Tell not him of what he said when he was a mere London Minister; he had his deanery given him by K. Charl●s the Second, of Blessed Memory, for writing his Jovi●n, and it shall cost him a fall, but he'll keep it for his sake He has soun●ed his Trumpets, and now for a W●stminster-Hall-War between hi● and his Majesty: For he declares, That he will use all just means which the Laws of the R●alm allow for the Preservation and Recovery of his ●ost Office. By which public Declaration he has actually set at defiance the Imperial Sovereign of England, whom, to use his own Quotations, he allows to be a Free, Unconditional, and In●ependent Sovereign, exempted from all Coe●tion, and against whom his Subjects have no remedy, but Moral Persuasion. Which by the Interpretation of all Indictments, would be said to be done of his Malice forethought, and as one that had not the Fear of God before his eyes. More then this; would not any body think Passive Obedience and Non Resistance out of their wits, to hear 'em raving and threatening to take the Law of an uncontrollable Sovereign, whom they have set above the Law, and whom the Common and Statute Laws of every Empire forbid the Subject to resist? As if Suing and Impleading, or threatening to Sue and Implead an Imperial Sovereign, were no Resistance of his Authority. Nay, supposing that an Imperial Sovereign should forget his Duty to his Heavenly Master, to whom he is only accountable, for such is the Doctor's Supposition of Their Majesties for Depriving him of his ●ffic●; yet Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance are positively of opinion, That the Subject must only withstand him with supplications and ●ears. Was it ever known that Tears and Supplications signified Law-suits and Actions in Westminster-Hall before? And what a pleasant thing it w●●ld be 〈…〉 d the judge ask the Plaintiffs Counsel▪ who they were for, to he●r them reply, the● were for Tears and Supplications? What h●ve Passive Obedience and Non-Res●●tance to do to be seen w 〈…〉 th●●r Gr●●n Bag● quarreling with uncontroula●le sovereignty 〈◇〉 a Bar of Justice or Injustice? For let the King be in the right or in the w 〈…〉 it should be all one to them, they ought to submit ac●o●ding to the Doctrine of their Chaplains. T●s very true, but there 〈…〉 General Rule which has not an excep●●on: For it 〈◇〉 G●●g● H●●ks be deprived of his De●nry of W●r●●st●r t●● Passive Obe 〈…〉 〈◇〉 Non Resistance may take he ●t a grace, and it is no disobe●●en●e or act of Resistance either for them, or their Ad●●rents, T●ars a●d Supplications, to take their course f●r the recovery of it; but in no other case whatever. A strange judgement upon the Ass●●ters of bad Causes, to be constrained themselves to pull down the structures of their false Divinity which they had with so much toil and labour erected!  
However, he was installed according to th● undoubted Laws of the Realm, nor was he conscious of any Act or misdemeanour that could determine his Right. What is all this to the purpose? For granting still that the Doctor is injured, If it be once admitted( to repeat his own Quotations once more) that private men when they are injured by the Magistrate may forcibly resist him, there would be no force of Laws and Judicatures, because all men are ●apt to favour themselves: Wherefore reason compels us to confess, that Oppression is to be endured, least too much Liberty follow u●on the contrary. And the examples of the Ancient Christians teach us? That any Vi●lence is to be endured, which the supreme Power lays upon us upon the Account of Religion. Certainly the Doctor never thought that these Quotations would have risen up in judgement so 〈…〉 ruly against him, when he threatened His Majesty with a Yellow Wax Rebellion for the recovery of his deanery. He that formerly would rather die a Martyr then a Rebel( which was once his 〈◇〉 by the Grace of God) makes no scruple now to brandish his Draconal ●ury against Sovereign Authority; and Summons the whole Chapter of W●rc●ster to be witnesses of his Claims and Pr●test●tions to pr●s●rve and recover a Forf●ited Office▪ which the Imperial Law of the Lan● re●uired him to surrender. Surely threats and menaces were never the language of Passive Obediance and Non-Resistance; till the Doctor put it into their mouths. out of a Confidence, that he was no way Conscious of any Act or Misdemeanour that could determine his Right. Whereas at the same time he could not but be conscious to himself, of being an Oppugner of the Imperial Law of the Land, and consequently a Disturber of the Government.  
For we are not to suppose, but to be assured, That His Majesty was in the right and the Doctor in the wrong; and that the Injury which the Doctor pretends to be done him, and under which he shelters himself, like the Romans under their Testudo; that he might the more securely assail the Justice of the Government, was but the merited execution of the Law upon him, for his contempt of the ●overeign Authority of the Nation. A braving attempt of one single D●an, which renders the whole Thebaean Legion with all their Armed Force and Strength but punies to Dr. Hick's. For the King exacted nothing from him, but what the Law enjoined; a Law enacted by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons of England Assembled in Parliament, and confirmed by the Royal Assent. Which Law having abrogated the Oaths of Supr●macy and Allegiance, appointed other Oaths to be taken in their stead to Their present Majesties, and a Declaration to be made, repeated and subscribed by every Archbishop, and all other Persons having any Ecclesiastical Dignity, bnfice, or Promotion before the First of August, 1689. And that if any Archbishop, or Bishop, or ther Ecclesiastical Person, &c. neglected or refused to take the said Oaths, and subscribe the said Declaration before the said First of August, they should be Suspended for Six Months; and if they neglected or refused to take the said Oaths, and subscribe the said Declaration, within the said Six Months, then to be utterly deprived of their said Offices, Dignities, and Promotions, &c.  
They that red the Law, will find it to be as good English and as plain to be understood, as any Sermon that ever the Doctor preached. Nor was ever the Law so rigorous, but that it gave them time sufficient to consider of it, from May till August before Suspension, and Six Months a●ter, before Deprivation. But neither the Doctor, nor his Passive Obedience Brethren, could be brought to understand this English; they had such a yearning after their Popish Julian, in whose abdication they had been so Passive-Obediently Instrumental, that their own Doctrines became Heathen Greek to them, and Oaths abrogared by the Law. were preser'd before Oaths which the Law peremptorily commanded; and in contempt of the Government they set up themselves upon the mounts of their preferment, like the Calves of Dan and Bethel, for Examples to be idolised by the People, and to prepare them for new confusions and revolutions. They would neither obey the Law themselves, nor suffer others to obey it, as if King James had bribed or reconverted 'em to his Interest. And therefore in the proud conceit of their hearts, that the People would dance after their Pipes, they lay moodily gangrening the minds of the multitude, with the corroding Presidents of their Obstinacy and sullen behaviour to the Government. They were no An●borites that lived in Pillars; they were not men so ignorant of worldly politics, but that they knew their Examples tended to public mischief, highly prejudicial to their present Majesties, greatly to the advantage of King James. They could not but know, that their neglect, and afterwards their absolute refusal to take the Oaths and subscribe the Declaration enjoined by the Law, was a contempt and disowning of their Majesties Government, and the Authority of the Parliament; and that the Example of their contumacy discouraged and ●nfeebl'd the strength of their Majesties Friends, and put the Sword of Disobedience and Rebellion into the grasp of their most inveterate Enemies▪ They could not but know, that King James had a great Party in the Nation, that would take all the advantages imaginable of their wa●p●sh moroseness, to call it by no other name, to improve it to the subversion of their Majesties Interest: And lastly they could not but understand, that the Expressions of the Bishop of Ely in a clandestine Hostility with his Majesty, relating to his Elder Brother, and the rest of the Family, were in some measure such unhappy detectors of the Reason of their Behaviour, that King James and his two Achitophels Peters and J●ff●ries would have made severer Comments upon ●em, and perhaps have Innuendo'd 'em to their absolute destruction had they been written to an Enemy of theirs; yet neither Policy, nor all the pious precepts of the Thebean Legions Passive Obedience could pr●vail, but that they would continue to stand in defiance not so much of their Majesties, but of the Imperial Law of the Land; as if they had had some prospect of another Revolution in view, which they believed their Majesties dreaded, and therefore durst not put the Law in execu●ion against 'em  
Certainly such Provocations such grounds of suspicion as these, augment●d by consequent Conspiraci●s of several of the s●me Coat, and their Applications to the Grand Enemy of the English name, were sufficient to justify their Majesties, after they had with-held their just indignation beyond the sufferance of Lenity itself, to deal by these his secret Enemies no worse then they themselves had dealt by their Protestant Friends and Brethren in former times.  
For the Bishops and others of the Dignified Clergy▪ in the beginning of Charles the Seconds Reign, finding several worthy pious and painful Protestant Divines that only varied from them in some few indifferent Ceremories, which however they well knew those Gentlemen would never admit into those Co●gregations over which they pr●sided, in possession of several benefice and Spiritual Promotions which they thought those of their own Society wanted, and consequently better deserved, furbish'd over the Liturgv with some few superficial Emendations, and then in the year 1662, procar'd a Law under the specious Title of an Act for the Uniformity of public Prayers, &c. By which all Ministers then in possession of any Ecclesiastical benefice or Spiritual Promotions were enjoy●'d to comform, red and declare their Assent to the said Book of Common-Prayer before Battholom●w-day next after the first of May in the same year, or else to be deprived of their Spiritual Promotions, and all Patrons and Donors were authorized to present or colla●e to their several Rights and Titles, as if the offending Incumbe●ts had been dead  
By virtue of this Law several Orthodox Protestant Divines were ejected out of their ●iveli●oods, and sent a grazing with their Wives and Children, not for any disobedience to the Government, not because they refused to take the Oaths to King Charles, but because they would not submit to the will and pleasure of the prevailing Hierar●hy of those times, who had got a Law made, only to engross all the Livings and Ecclesiastical Promotions in the Kingdom into their own Hands. However because it was an Enacted Law, we heard of no Grumbling or Mumbling among those D●priv'd Gentlemen, there was no incensing of the people against their sovereign, no threatening to take the Law of the King, nor putting their Parishes in an Uproar, as the Doctor would have done at Worcester; but every one submitted with a Passive-Obedience and Non-Resistance, so exemplary, as merited no less to have been quoted in J●●ian, as any of the long Ci●ations which the Doctor has brought to prove his Assertions. And so imparient were the Law-procurers at that time to have the Livings of the Nonconforme●s voided, that they would not allow them a minute longer than Barth●lom●w-Day, without some lawful Impediment to be approved by the Ordinary of the place that is to say, by a judge in his own Cause. Whereas the present offenders against a Law of Necessity, Enacted for the pu●lick safety of their Majesties Persons, and the Government, and the preservation of of the whole Kingdom, and indeed the whole Empire of the British Crown, had above a years time to repent, after the forfeiture of the Act, before their Majesties could resolve to give Order for a Total Deprivation.  
But it was high time at length for Their Majesties to punish a Contumacy, which they found no charms of Lenity, Mildness and a long Sufferanc● could molline. It was time for their Majesties to remove Elder Brothers, and Younger Brothers, and the Rest of the Family, and such as bid open defiance to their Government and dared their Indignation to their Faces. The ill con●●quences of their superior obstinacy had been too fatal already to th● Kingdom in the Miscarriage of a potent Fleet, for ●heir Majesties any longer to defer the exerting their sovereign Authority by the Removal of the Refractory, that the Kingdom might goody ●here were others of equal Piety, of equal Worth and Learning, and equally unblameable in their Lives and Reputations that were not of their Opinions, but that they durst to own both his Caus● and his Government; that King William and Queen Mary w●●●ed not Persons of Sanctity and Ability to render the Church of England as Glorious in their Reign, as in the Reigns of Charles the Second, or James the Second; and that the Scrupling of an Oath to Enthrone King William and Queen Mary, because they h●d formerly sworn to an Oath and Promise breaking Prince, whom for that Reason the Nation has rejected, was but a false glittering Character of Church-of-England Loyalty.  
It would have savoured much more of Christian candour, and Honest Ingenuity, to have acknowledged their weakness at first, and to have of their own accords resigned those Dignities and Promotions, which they could not preserve to themselves with a safe Cons●ien●e without disturbing the public tranquillity, and giving encouragement to Mutiny and Rebellion, rather then to render themselves Criminal to the Government, and expose themselves to the disgrace of a forcible Deprivation by the Law, which makes them fall unpitied by all, but those that are of the same leaven with themselves. For the case is altered now; the Nation in General finds the benefit of the Change; and therefore they must not think to gain that Applause, to meet with those Shouts and Acclamations, which accompanied their suffering Glory, when with a noble Courage and Generosity, they withstood the lawless Commands of an insulting Prince, as in the foul Resistance of lawful Sovereignty. Then they were looked upon as the stout Oppugners of Tyranny, Popery, and Slavery, and the Impregnable Champions of the Laws, Protestant Religion, and their Country. They are now degraded for contemning the Law, disowning the Sovereign Authority of King and Parliament, for favouring and contributing to the designs of Popery and Slavery, and for brooding and fomenting Civil Discord and Rebellion, by which they have justly merited the misfortune that is befallen them.  
For what confidence could Their Majesties have in Persons that were continually hoaning after their Popish Julian, and promoted his Interest; but had so small a value for the true Interest of their own Country, the Protestant Religion, and the welfare of all Europe, as to prostrate it at the feet of King James, and Lewis the 14th. Rather it would have been looked upon as a weakness in the Government, to have such sourly grumbling and disaffected Spirits in the highest Stations of Ecclesiastical Preferment, where their powerful Influences have the greatest Opportunities to operate Mischief, and assist the Designs of the Common-Enemy. To suffer this, would be to suffer Aaron to perk above Moses, to concede their Ecclesiastical Independency, and to grant 'em the claim of their Popish Predecessors to be exempt from the Civil Jurisdiction. privileges which the Laws of this Kingdom would never allow in the most bigoted Ages of Popery, much less under a Protestant Dominion.  
'Tis very true, they did put forth a sort of a Paper, called, A Vindication of the Archbishop, and several other Bishops from the Imputations and Calumnies, cast upon them by the Author of the Modest Enquiry, wherein they deny and disavow all Plots charged upon them in General; and in particular, their presenting of any Memorial to the French King, and their keeping any Correspondence with Monsieur Croissy; but when we see Fr. Ely subscribed to the same Vindication, we can hardly believe a Tittle of what we red; nay, the very Porters in the Street cry out Equivocation and Jesuitism. For say they very learnedly, how could a Bishop of the Church of England, deny and disavow Plots and Correspondencies, when afterwards it came to light by Letters under his own hand, that he was in an actual Correspondence with King James, and consequently with the French King? And indeed, when the Bishop gives such an Emphatical Character of his Elder Brother, and the rest of the Family, it causes a vehement suspicion, that he spoken much more Truth than the Vindication. Nay, it may justly be thought that our hussing Dean of Worcester himself was one of the Family mentioned. All his desires and wishes, it seems, were for K. James; he was the Object of his Persian Adoration; for him he made his secret Vows, and prayed in his heart; and such was his confidence of a sudden Change, that when some of his best Friends discoursed him about taking the Oaths to K. William and Q. Mary, and prest him to his Duty; he made 'em answer, That if he must be compelled to take the Oaths, he would stay till the last minute; that is to say, till either K. James were dead, or else that all his hopes of his Popish princes Return were quiter vanished and confounded; and that this was his meaning, was so apparent to his Friends, that they could not forbear telling him, that such a Hesitation was not out of any Conscience, but only a politic waiting, to see which of the two would get the better, K. William or K. James. Such Persons as these, and the rest of the Family, deserved indeed to hold deaneries, and sit upon the pinnacle of the Church under K. William and Q. Mary, that were so ready to fall down and worship K. James. Certainly Posterity will wonder to red, that Men of Conscience, and Piety, Lights of the first Magnitude, and such bigoted Doctors of Passive-Obedience and Non-resistance, should think themselves wronged and injured, by being deprived for Resistance and Disobedience to a Sovereign Prince, upon no other reason, but because he had r●scu'd their Religion, their Laws and Liberties, from the yawning Jaws of Popery and Slavery. It will be the astonishment of succeeding Ages, to hear, that Protestant Bishops and Deans should make it their choice to be the chief Instruments for carrying on and promoting the Designs of a Popish Abdicated Prince at home, while th●ir lawful Sovereign was venturing his Life abroad, and all that Men call dear, to repair the Breaches of a Protestant Church▪ and redeem the lost honour of a Protestant Nation, of both which they pretended to be Members. And indeed it is a present Mystery, that the Author of Jovian in particular, should be so resolute in his passive Submission to K. James, and so testy in his Disobedience to K. William. For before he came to the Crown, be tells us, That if it should please God to suffer a Popish Julian to r●ign ●ver us, rather than he should prove a Julian indeed to undermine our Religion by crafty Arts, and tempt us out of it by worldly Honours and Endeavours, he h●artily wished for the Churches good, that he might rather prove a Maximin, or Dioclesian, he means a down right Persecut●r, th● he had been the Proto-martyr of the Cause. What could J●b himself have spoken more passive obediently? But the Doctor was then writing for a deanery, and these prostitutions of his Pen were then as pat for his purpose as could be. Besides, he had so entrenched himself in the Dukes favour by his fawning and flatteries, and belying his temper to the World, that he knew th●re was no fear of his being a M●rtyr in K. James's time. For in one part of his Jovian he will not only allow the Duke to be no Papist, but extols him for the swe●tness of his Disp●sition. For, says he, As the talking of Spirits and Goblins, mighti●y influences the Imaginations of Children, and mak●s them fancy them to be in the Room so all this noise of a Popish Successor, and the presuming and supposing what Cru●lties he will do, make the People not only tak● it for granted▪ that his R. H. is really a Papist, but that h● is bigoted into the worst Principles of Popery, into a bloody persecuting Hum●ur, so that he will do nothing but assassinate his Protestant Subjects, were he once up●n the Throne. But whoever thus represent him, as they a●● contrary to all Rules of candour and Christian Charity. S● they contradict the belief ●f many as good Protestants as themselves, who have the honour to know him, and his temper better then they do. What reason had this Doctor to fear a Martydom in K. James's time? These were flatteries and wilfully mistaken Characters that deserved a deanery. But when the Doctor h●d purchased it so dearly with the ignominy of false Court-Adulation, why he would part with it again for a Scruple of Conscience, of which he seemed to have so little when he fawned upon a Popish Prince, is a kind of Riddle only to be solved by his Resolution to use all his endeavours for the preservation and recovery of it.  
He had therefore together with the rest of the Family, done far better, to use the words of his own Corrollary, and more l●ke Primitive Christians and Ministers of the Passive-Church of England, to have struck to their Principles laid down in the Doctors Jovian, then by their Examples of Disobedience to K. William and Q. Mary. to raise the fears▪ and disquiet the Minds of the fearful and impatient Multitude. And the Doctor himself had acted less contrary to Rules of Cand●r and Int●grity to his King and Country, had he re●anted his weak and unlucky Character of K. James, so notoriously contradicted by the Breaches of his Oaths and Decla●ations, by his Western-Cruelti●s▪ the Tyranny of his Inquisition, and his inveterate Maudlin College Prosecutions; and remov●d his Passive-Obedience from a P●pish Julian that had forfeited his Dominion, to a King and Queen advanced to the Th●one in their own Right, by the general Choice of the N●tion. Had the Doctor and r●st of the Family consulted these Considerations, they might have Preserved their Stations and Preferments with Applause and Honour, of which they are now Depriv●d with shane and Disgrace.  
THE END.