not
impeached for preaching the general doctrine of obedience, and the utter
illegality of resistance upon any pretence whatsoever, but because,
having first laid down the general doctrine as true, without any
exception, _he states the excepted case_, the Revolution, in express
terms, as an objection, and then assumes the consideration of that
excepted case, denies there was any resistance in the Revolution, and
asserts that to impute resistance to the Revolution would cast black and
odious colors upon it. This, my Lords, is not preaching the doctrine of
non-resistance in the _general_ terms used by the Homilies and the
fathers of the Church, where cases of necessity may be _understood to be
excepted by a tacit implication, as the counsel have allowed_,--but is
preaching directly against the resistance at the Revolution, which, in
the course of this debate, has been all along admitted to _be necessary
and just_, and can have no other meaning than to bring a dishonor upon
the Revolution, and an odium upon those great and illustrious persons,
_those friends to the monarchy and the Church, that assisted in bringing
it about_. For had the Doctor intended anything else, he would have
treated the case of the Revolution in a different manner, and have
given _it the true and fair answer_: he would have said that the
resistance at the Revolution was _of absolute necessity, and the only
means left to revive the Constitution, and must be therefore taken as an
excepted case_, and could never come within the reach or intention of
the general doctrine of the Church."

"Your Lordships take notice on what grounds the Doctor continues to
assert the same position in his answer. But is it not most evident that
the general exhortations to be met with in the Homilies of the Church of
England, and such like declarations in the statutes of the kingdom, are
meant only as rules for the civil obedience of the subject to the legal
administration of the supreme power in _ordinary cases_? And it is
equally absurd to construe any words in a positive law to authorize the
destruction of the whole, as to expect that King, Lords, and Commons
should, in express terms of law, declare _such an ultimate resort as the
right of resistance, at a time when the case supposes that the force of
all law is ceased_."[18]

[Sidenote: Commons abhor whatever shakes the submission of posterity to
the settlement of the crown.]

"The Commons must always resent, with t