id	author	title	date	pages	extension	mime	words	sentence	flesch	summary	cache	txt
A59833	Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.	Observations upon Mr. Johnson's remarks, upon Dr. Sherlock's book of non-resistance	1689		.xml	application/xml	8281	127	28	Thus by laying the Scene under another Reign , we may take a just Estimate of the unaccountable Partiality we are guilty of in our own Cause , whereas there ought to be legitima personarum mutatio in order to the true understanding and practising the greatest and the most comprehensive Rule of Righteousness , Whatsoever you would that men should do unto you , do you even so unto them : Now if all the Priests in the Church of Rome were just such Casuists as you are , and all the People of that Communion could believe them , and would be directed by them , you might as well shackle the Hellespont , and commit the Sea to the Gate-House , or make any other Gotham-Act to hedge in these Cuckows ; for they upon this principle bid the same defence to any Law , Oaths or Tests that the power or wit of man can make , that you have done ( with less reason ) to Cambridge , and the Church Julia shall spead the rest ; the Heathen Poet corrects the Christian Priest. You say ( Page the sixth of your Preface ) that if King James had been a rightful King when he took Possession of the Crown ( as he was not but a publick Enemy ) he has since that time broken the Fundamental Contract : In these words there is one of the boldest and most notorious Falshoods that ever was broach'd , for he was certainly rightful King after the Death of his Brother , even though your malicious insinuation from his outliving him , had ( which it has not ) either weight or truth in it : The very Votes of both Houses of Convention acknowledge so much when they insisted upon the Abdication , without ever calling his Title into question ; besides if he had no right to succeed in the Throne , your Lord and the other Gentlemen of the Exclusion were much in the wrong ; had you made as much appear then , as you confidently assert now , you had sav'd the two Houses a great many angry debates , and the important Fortress of Tangier had been still in our hands , and undemolished ; and the lower House knew the importance of that place very well when they set the Bill of Exclusion upon it's head as the price of its Relief or Redemption rather ; and what necessity there was to shut out by Law , one that by Law had no right to come in , surpasses my discerning : yet farther , you prayed for him as King as oft as you did your duty in reading Common-Prayer ; now Men of mettle are seldom Hypocrites , and I cannot persuade my self you could in your Prayers to God acknowledge him to be King , whom in your Conscience you did not think rightfully and lawfully to be King : All prevarication is disengenuous and cannot become a Christian , much less one that waits at the Altar , and still less in the Service of God ; so that this consequence is self-evident , either you were a Hypocrite then , or worse now : As for what you say of his being excluded by three successive Houses of Commons , you might as well have told us that he was excluded by the Diet at Ratisbone , or the Swiss Cantons , for their Power was as great to exclude him as that of the Commons of England alone without the consent of the King and Lords : you have made as much of it as the case will bear , when you tell us it was a Caveat , and I suppose you know the Nature of a Caveat so well as not to stand in need of information what manner of treatment they commonly meet with in all places where they are entred .	cache/A59833.xml	txt/A59833.txt
