BEing one of those Thousands to whom your Lordship's Short Discourse, concerning the Reading his Majesty's late Declaration in the Churches, hath brought Conviction and Contentment; I think it my Duty to give your Lordship my very humble and hearty Thanks, for defending so ma­ny Sons of the Church of England, from the great Sin of Disobedi­ence to God's Vicegerent; into which they might have fallen, with a World of blind Guides, had they not happily been upheld by your Lordship's Example and Discourse, which is indeed very short, but withal very sufficient, for the attaining of those prudent and pious Ends, by which your Lordship was induced to Pen, and Print it.

Together with my said Thanks, I humbly present Another Dis­course to your Lordship's Patronage and Protection, grounded upon the same Text, and the same Authority of St. Peter, which represent­ed it self unto your Lordship as an Anchor whereby to fix and hold fast your Soul, and compose your Conscience, (p. 5.) to which is added the equal Authority of St. Paul, and the yet greater Authority both of the Precept and the Example of our Lord Iesus Christ, who in his Per­son and by his Apostles, hath made Obedience to Higher Powers, and most especially to the Supream, in whatsoever he commands which God does no where forbid, a principal Doctrine of the Gospel; A Fundamental of Christianity; A great Essential to all Religion; And (I crave leave to add,) the very greatest Characteristick, whereby a Genuine Son of our most Holy Mother, The Church of England, is to be known; even our Heartiness of Submission to every Ordinance of man and that as well 1 Pet. 2.13. for the Lord's sake, as for our own; not only for fear of wrath, but for Rom. 13.5. Conscience sake.

Why I chuse to call this a principal Doctrine of the Gospel, a Fun­damental of Christianity, and the great Essential to all Religion, [...] seem to my self to have so many and great Reasons, that if they were [Page 2] every where urged and laid to Heart, (especially by the Parties who are the least aware of them, but most concern'd to take them in,) they might suffice to put an end to those numerous Schisms and Part-takings, which now do threaten to put an end to our whole Religion. Your Lordship knows better than I, that the Doctrine of Obedience to God's Vicegerent upon Earth, is certainly the aptest of any other, (next to That of our Obedience to God Himself, whereof This Do­ctrine is a most necessary Part too,) to keep the Vnity of the Spirit, in the Bond of Peace: and to congregate into one Body the most disjoynt­ed and scattered Members in Church, and State. A Doctrine laid for this purpose by God the Father from the Foundation of the World, and that in the Law of the first Creation. A Doctrine propagated by Moses, as taught by God to teach others. A Doctrine perfect­ed by Christ, as by the Wisdom of the Father, who pray'd his Followers might be One, even as his Father and He were One: which yet without Obedience to this very Doctrine can never be. A Doctrine inculcated and inforced by God the Holy Ghost, as by The Spirit of Love and Meekness, of Peace and Vnion. A Doctrine extended to all Authority upon Earth, not only Regal in the first Place, but Ecclesiastical in the second. A Doctrine in absolute Opposition to the Church and Court of Rome, because to the Hildebrandine Doctrine, Deposing Kings, and freeing Subjects from their Allegiance, and so Authenticating Rebellion against God himself in his Vicegerents. To summ up all, in a Word, There is not a Doctrine in all the Gospel, either more earnestly, or more assiduously, either more plainly, or more expressly prescribed to us, (and that under the pain of Damnation too,) than That of our Vniform Obedience to all that are over us in Authority, and above All, to the Supream, from whom all inferiour and subordinate Authority is derived. I say to All; not only to the Best, (the Good and Gentle) but as well to the Worst, 1 Pet. 2.18. and most Froward Governours.

For with your Lordship's Approbation, I beg leave to say, It is not only most foolishly, but most nefariously pretended, (and that by some in these Dregs of Time, acted by that unclean Spirit, which now is every where working in the Children of Disobedience, that the Piety, or Impiety; the Religion, or Irreligion of them that are over us in the Lord, can either widen or contract our Divine Obligation to strict Obedience. For never was any Incarnate Devil more incomparably impious than those Emperours of Rome, Tiberius, and Nero whom yet our Saviour and St. Paul commanded their Followers to obey, and obey'd themselves. For Obedience to God's Anointed being of Divine [Page 3] Right, strongly founded upon the Will, and the Word of God, and even a Part of our Obedience to God Himself, (whilst it is paid to that Authority which God has commanded us to pay an Obedience to,) cannot possibly be due to the Men, as Men, or to the Good, as they are Good; but to the Magistrates, or Masters, reduplicativè, as they are Such. 'Tis due to the Governors, as they are Gover­nors, and as the Ordinance of God;Rom. 13.1, 2. let their Practices and Opinions be what they will.

My Lord, I wish some of our Clergy would pay at least as much Obedience to our present most Gracious and Rightful Sovereign, as they paid (when time was,) to a most Scandalous Usurper; when there lay an Exception to their Obedience, Due to God, rather than Man. But this Exception makes strongly for your Lordship's irrefra­gable Discourse, and now for mine in Pursuance of it: and that by Virtue of the Old Axiome, Exceptio firmat Regulam in non exceptis. So that by this Rule and Reason, that when God and his Deputies do stand in Competition for our Obedience, God must have our whole Active, and his Deputies our Passive Obedience only; It cannot but follow, that when our Governours are Rightful, and do only command what God does no where forbid, or do only forbid what God does no where command us, There we must obey God, by obeying Man: there being no other way of paying God our Obedience in such a Case. For there our Governour's Command is the Command of God also. There the very same Command which is immediately Humane, is also mediately Divine. Seeing we There are commanded by That Autho­rity upon Earth, which in the Old and New Testament God has com­manded us to obey. Nor is there any one Duty, belonging to us, as Men, or Christians, which God is pleased to make a stricter provision for: we are no more commanded to fear God, than to honour the King;1 Pet 2.17. as your Lordship most loyally and most religiously observes, (p. 5.) nor are we more forbidden to worship Idols, than to resist or disobey God's Represen­tative upon Earth.

This (my Lord) I do the rather insist upon, in my common conversa­tion with Men abus'd by these Times, because I am of Opinion with the Learned and Reverend Dr. Sherlock, in his Seasonable Treatise, for Non-Resistance, (more seasonable now than when 'twas first print­ted) that to reproach and vilifie Government (much more fl [...]y to dis­obey it in things not forbidden by God in Scripture) is [...] Degree of The Case of Re­sistance, p. 180. P [...]shed in the Year 1684. Resistance; and none are so weak but they may do that [Page 4] without Valiant Leaders and Force of Arms. Nor can I any more separate the Sin of Disobedience, from some Degree of Resistance of God's Vicegerent, than I can separate Resistance from Rebellion against the Gospel, or a State of Damnation from either of them.

My Lord, I observe, the Lords Commissioners for Ecclesiastical cau­ses, (who are not less able to judge of things than their Inferiours) do call a wilful Omission or Neglect of Dispersing and Reading the Declara­tion, a manifest Contempt of his Majesty's Authority Royal. An Assertion very dreadful, in my Opinion. For a manifest contempt of Supream Au­thority, link'd with an Obstinate Contumacious fomenting Jealousies and divisions, is such a Monster, that the least Errour of Judgment which had been Venial in it self, is by these Aggravations made great and grie­vous; and contracts unto itself as well a diabolical, as damning Quality.

The following short Discourse upon your Lordship's well-chosen Text, may not unfitly be called a Sermon; though never preached in any Pulpit, or in any particular Congregation, either by the Author of it, or by any other Person he ever heard of: but only from the Press to all in general, who may stand in need of such a Preserva­tive from Disloyalty, in times of Trial, and Temptation. Or who pr [...]tend to Fears and Jealousies of a most obliging and gracious Sove­raign, who supports and protects us in all we have, and particularly, in that which is dearest to us, the Great and National Church of England, as it is now, and will be ever (by the Blessing of God, and his Vicege­rent) by Law established. I am as absolutely perswaded, as of any thing in the World, the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against the established Church of England. Our King's Declaration is clearly for it, and as clearly against Three or Four General Councils, as Bellarmine and others think fit to call them. 'Tis also against the Bulla Coenae, and quite against the rigid Practice of the potent French King towards his Protestant Subjects. So that however our present Soveraign may be and continue a Roman Catholick, he cannot possibly be a Papist (in the true Notion of the Word) whilst his Royal Declaration does stand in Force, and affords Liberty of Con­science to all sorts of Haereticks, (as the rigid Papalins make bold to call us.) All Recusants and Dissenters are but permitted. We alone are allowed, who are of the truly Catholick, and Apostolick Church of England, whereof our late gracious King had so transcendent an Esteem, for her Faithfulness and Abhorrence of all the Hildebrandine Doctrines in all degrees, that He thought fit to say to the Cam­bridge University waiting on him at New-Market, Sept. 18. 1681. That He would constantly own and defend the Church of England, as [Page 5] established by Law. Giving them this for his Reason, that there is no other Church in the World, that taught and practised Loyalty so Con­scientiously, as that did. Your Lordship's Assertion is tantamount to it, in the 15th. Page of your Discourse, and from Both I make this Inference; That they who will not obey the King, in whatsoever he commands, which God does no where forbid, are No true Sons of the true Church of England, let their Professions and Pretences[?] be what they will. And if God shall ever permit our ever dear though dread Soveraign, to be provoked out of his Patience, by the Undutifulness of Subjects, (to whom his sacred Majesty hath been the most muni­ficent and meritorious,) to the hazarding of Truth and Peace among us, They will have much to answer for (to use your Lordship's own Words p. 13.) who shall have been the Authors of it. But the great and good God of Heaven and Earth, in whose Hand the King's Heart is, will never suffer him (I believe) through any the greatest provocations, to violate his Promises to the established Church of England. And as our late King of blessed Memory, in his said Printed by Au­thority in the Ga­zette of that time for Publick Vse. Speech at New-Market to that most Learned University, Bid them all be assured that he would never break his Word, notwithstanding whatever Representation either had or should be made of him to the contrary; So, what ever unworthy Jealousies others may have of our present King, and his gracious Promises; yet long Experience being my Mistress to con­vince me by all Injoyments of the King's Truth and Generosity, I do protest unto your Lordship, that could I possibly be willing, I should not be able to distrust him.

My Lord, when I observed the different Judgments, of Seven Bi­shops on one side, and Six of another, I stood pendulous for a time between Six and Seven; like an hovering Piece of Iron between two Loadstones; But after due Deliberation, (like that of your Lord­ship p. 4.) I thus determin'd within my self, That supposing (though not granting) Both sides to be Erroneous, it would concern me, (if I must err) to err as safely as might be possible;▪ and of Two supposed Evils to take the Least. If (thought I) the Six Bishops are in an Errour, their Errour is on the Right hand, because on the side of strict Obedience to the Lord's Vicegerent, for the Lord's sake, though in a doubtful, or undue Instance. But if the Seven Bishops are in an Errour, their Errour is on the Left hand, because on the side of Dis­obedience to God's Vicegerent, (not for the Lord's, but) for the Law of the Land's sake, as all but the Iudges and other great Lawyers do expound it. Now this Left handed Errour (if an Errour) is an [Page 6] Errour with a Witness; and like Sinon's Trojan Horse in the Se­cond Aeneid of Virgil, carries an Army of Destroyers within its Bowels, and endangers the very Palladium; after the Loss of which Security, Down goes our Troy: For St. Paul grounds Obedience to the Higher Powers among Men, upon their being all of God, not only permitted, but ordained of God, and thence infers, That whosoever resisteth the Power, Rom. 13.1, 2. [...] resisteth the Ordi­nance of God. And, they that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation. This would have frighted me into m [...] Loyal­ty, if the ingrafted Law of Nature, and the Law of all Nations, and the Law of the Land also, (antecedently to my Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy) had not most sweetly, though invicibly induced me to it.

Hence, (My Lord) I took my final Resolution, to follow my King, with my Obedience, through thick and thin, usque ad Aras, though not a whit farther. And rather to mark the unerring Judgments of St. Peter, and St. Paul, and of those great Divines, now with God, Dr. Hammond, and Bishop Sanderson (two the most exact Casuists in all the World) and now at last of your Lordship also; than the more obnoxious Judgments of all the other Bishops of Christendom, which are, or shall be. I do expect to be a Sufferer from the one side, or the other, at least of Obloquy and Railing, (for hereunto we are appointed, 1 Pet. 2.21.) But my Study is for whom, and for what to suffer. If I suffer for doing well, from the Sons and Daughters of Disobedience, I suffer wisely, and as a Christian; and St. Peter does assure me, This is acceptable with God, (v. 20.) yea, This is Thank wor­thy, (v. 19.) But if I suffer for a scandalous Recalcitration and Disobe­dience to God's Vicegerent, and follow a Multitude into the Pit, I only suffer as a Fool, and an Evil Doer. And for all that shall follow, must thank my self; am not worthy of Thanks from God, seeing, I would not (like the Israelites, 1 Sam. 8.7.) That God himself should reign over me by his Vicegerent.

Now that God will ever bless, and reward your Lordship for your Loyalty, with a Continuance of the Blessings you now enjoy, even the Blessings in the Left and in the Right Hand of Wisdom, Riches, and Honour, and Length of Days, is, and shall be ever the Vote and Suf­frage of