A defence of the vindication of the deprived bishops wherein the case of Abiathar is particularly considered, and the invalidity of lay-deprivations is further proved, from the doctrine received under the Old Testament, continued in the first ages of christianity, and from our own fundamental laws, in a reply to Dr. Hody and another author : to which is annexed, the doctrine of the church of England, concerning the independency of the clergy on the lay-power, as to those rights of theirs which are purely spiritual, reconciled with our oath of supremancy, and the lay-deprivations of the popish bishops in the beginning of the reformation / by the author of the Vindication of the deprived bishops.

§ XXXIX. Yet Solomon was in Consci∣ence obliged to be cautions in exercising this Force against the Priest-hood. (Book 39)

But then it is to be considered further 4ly, (by the opinions of those times grounded on Reasons lasting still) Princes, though they had that Power annext to their Office, were notwithstanding obliged in Conscience, to be sparing in the Use of it against such Holy Persons as Abiathar was. Holy places were every where, by the consent of Civilized Nations, allowed the Right of protecting such as fled to them, if they were not guilty of the highest Piacular Crimes. Thus it was in the Case of * 1.1 Adonijah, and others mentioned in the Old Testament. Thus, in the Cases of the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and Supplices, among the Greeks and Romans, The Piaculum Cylonianum among the Athenians was famous. Though † 1.2 Cylon justly deserved what he suffered, yet because some of his party were killed in the Sanctuary, the displeasure of the Deity, on that account, was to be atoned by a Solemn Expi∣ation, which was performed by Epimenides. And if the places were thus reverenced on account of their Consecration, much more the Priests from whom they received it. This is exactly the Reasoning of our Blessed Saviour in a * 1.3 Like Case. Accordingly it was a general Rule: † 1.4 Touch not mine Anointed, for whose sakes even ‖‡ 1.5 Kings also are said

to have been reprov'd. This was the Security of the whole Peculium of Israel, among the many Nations through whom they passed in their Expedition from Aegypt to Canaan. This was the Security of the Prince himself, that none could * 1.6 Stretch out his hand against the Lord's Anointed, and be guiltless, That is, without being guilty of a Piacular Crime. And how could Solomon hope that Assassinates would regard his own Anointing, if himself had violated an Anointing so much greater and Holyer then his own, from whence his own was derived? This reverance also to Holy Persons obtained by the consent of Civilized Nations, which is to us an Argument of the Law of Nations. Aesop as a Person Holy and beloved of the GODS was revenged by them. The like was their Opinion of several Poets also, as Pindar, Stesi∣chorus, &c. And this also was among them Translated to the In∣terests of the Civil Magestrate, The Tribunes of the People among the Romans were first secured by it. Afterwards the Emperours were so also, by having the Tribunitian Power and the Pontificate annexed to their Office. And how far this opinion prevailed, even among the Jews of those Earlier Ages, appears plainly in the Murder of Abi∣meleck and the Priests by Saul. His own * 1.7 Servants could not be prevailed upon to do it. None indeed but † 1.8 Doeg the Edomite, who being of an other Nations might be supposed to have less regard for the Jewish Consecration. And there was particular reason for this revernce to the Priest-hood in the Jewish Governments as it was Theocratical. As it was such, the Magistrate was more particularly obliged to do every thing according to the mind of GOD himself whose Vicegerent he was. And GOD being the principal and Su∣pream Governour, he was as much concerned in every thing, to take care that it were performed according to his pleasure, as every infe∣rior Magistrate is bound, at his peril, to do every thing according to the mind of the Supreme Legislator, rather than his own. This would oblige the Prince to value every thing according to the esteem that GOD was pleased to put upon it. and therefore to make Religi∣on his Principal Care as it was certain GOD did, and to make his own Interest to give way to the Interests of Religion, and the Ho∣nour of his own Function, to the Honour of the Priest-hood, as he would approve himself faithful in the Trusts committed to him. That GOD had given the less Noble Office a more effectual Security, as to this world, against encroachments, he had reason to look on as a Wise provision for the Publick, that where there might otherwise have been the most Specious pretentions, and consequently the greatest Temptations to encroaching, there might be the lesser advantage for it. But it

ought by no means to embolden him to be the first aggressor. He had reason to fear, in those Ages so Famous for the frequency of Divine interpositions, GOD himself might the rather think himself the more obliged, by the Rules of his own Providence, to vindicate the Sacred Power, by how much the more he had left it destitute of Humane Patro∣nage. Uzziah afterwards found it so. This therefore must have obliged Solomom to use the Coercive Power granted him, rather in his own defence, than in a way that might, even in consequence, look like violence to so Holy an Office,

Notes

• * 1.1

  1 Kings I. 50.
• † 1.2

  Thucyd. Lib. 1.
• * 1.3

  St Matt. XXIII. 17, 19.
• † 1.4

  1 Chr. XVI. 12. Ps. CV. 15.
• ‖‡ 1.5

  1 Chr. XVI. 21. Ps. CV. 14.
• * 1.6

  1 Sam. XXIV. 10. XXVI. 9, 11, 23.
• * 1.7

  1 Sam. XXII. 1. 7.
• † 1.8

  v. 18.