or any other Form When instead of a Mushroom the growth of one night that springs perhaps out of the basest Excrements and of such a lazy despondency of Mind as sinks him into the next degree to a Beast making him to have no designs generous and noble to carry him beyond his own felicity we shall have one whose blood is derived to him through the Veins of many Noble Heroick and Vertuous Progenitors who becomes all Spirits refined from those marish and terrene parts which weigh down or raise Vapours to eclipse others of a more base Extraction when they aspire to great and generous actions Nay this makes Princes live in their Posterities when dead and brings reverence to the very Swadling-Cloaths and Cradles of their Successors as if they might Command Obedience before they could speak as Barclay observes Nor can it be imagined but that their high and vertuous Educations should infuse a Gallantry into them above Pride saith the same Author having been always used to the greatest outward Observances and by being so placed above all Contempt so as it cannot but nourish in them higher thoughts than either Hatred Emulation or Avarice produces and free them from those self-reflections private Families are subject to as I have touched before because they are secured against the fears of Competitors in rule and have setled supplies for their wants enjoying in the Stream what others have but in the Cistern and conveying it to their posterity as their Patrimony and Inheritance making them many times Heirs of the Goods of their minds as well as Bodies and to reap the Harvest and crop of all their noble and growing Designs which as Seed sown by them will not perhaps ripen into Fruit in many years after For it is probable such will manure and nurse up with Industry and Care what their Predecessors planted Nor can the Infancy and weakness of a Prince be of so bad a Consequence as a Popular State because he is then in Guardian to the most able and faithful Great Ones or the great Council of the Kingdom it self which the wisest and best of Kings do always make use of to steer their Actions by Nay if that Government should for a time degenerate it is more likely soon to recover and unite again in one when broken into many Interests equally tainted with malignant Influences and self-seeking designs But not with the Mole to lose my self upon the face and superficies of things when I may make my Habitation safe by digging deeper the best Foundations being lowest laid I shall return to my first design and go to the Root of all endeavouring to show that Regal Power was a Plant of Paradise of God's own setting and so of Divine Right and that the Sword which contends with the Scepter and raises it self upon the ruines of just Power cannot be free from all the fore-mentioned sad Effects which must eclipse the Glory of every Nation and leave it no Trophies but such as Pyrrhus once said of his Victories as would undoe the Conquerour and appear best when shrouded under the Vail of true Repentance and offered up again by a holy Restitution to the Altar from which they were sacrilegiously taken Such successes being our greatest vanquishments and leaving us no just Title to make other use of our unjust acquisitions Though Abishai would have preached David into a Murder and Rebellion at once upon no better grounds than Gods delivering Saul into his power o 1 Sam. 26.9.10.24.12 had he not learnt a better Divinity measuring his Actions by Gods revealed Will not outward Events knowing he there writes in Characters shewing us his hand only but not letting us at all read his meaning in them p Deut. 9. 2 Chron. 13.8 But to be a little more plain and perspicuous in so necessary a Truth I shall endeavour as in an Epitome or Index to those many large and learned Discourses that have been written upon this subject to sum up the best Collections I can and to digest them into this Method First To shew that Kings are the Ordinance of and hold their Supreme Power from God not Man and that they are only accountable to him for the use of it Secondly What that Power is and how limited Thirdly That resistance in the Subject against that Power is in no Case warrantable Fourthly What Duties Kings owe to their Subjects Fifthly What the Subject's Allegiance consists in to them First That Kings are the Ordinance of God contrary to that of the Romanists and our new Statists Reges coronas sceptra ab hominibus recipiunt ad eorum placita tenent q Bellarm. lib. 5. de Rom. Pon. cap. 7. So Buchanan r De Jure Reg. apud Scotos Populus Rege praestantior etiam major Rex igitur cum ad Populi Judicium vocatur minor ad majorem in jus vocatur For they are called God's by Institution and Appropriation from God For By me Kings reign saith he s Prov. 8.15 Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2. Jo. 14.30 Hos 13.11 Wis 6.13 and with my holy Oyl have I anointed him t Ps 89.20 not only to rule by but for God too as the most express Character of him upon Earth Which made him lead his people by the hand of Moses and Aaron one Chief in Civil matters the other in things concerning the Priest's Office though with subordination Not one People by many Rulers much less the Ruler by the People but by one in Chief under the conduct of God himself and by his Authority as may appear in that and all other Instances of Regal Power So as Kings are to be reverenced and distinguished from others in regard of that Natural and Paternal Power God planted in Adam and caused immediately after to derive from many Heads into one Chief in one place a cause of the division of the Nations amongst the Sons of Noah as Monarch of the whole Earth after the Flood u Gen. 10.32 So as Kings are Gods and to be obeyed First In regard of their Attribute of Power For where the word of a King is there is Power w Eccles 8.4 that he might be feared x Pro. 24.21 and who may say unto him what dost thou Secondly In that of Mercy For there is Mercy with him that he may be feared in that he beareth not the Sword in vain y Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2. but doth whatsoever pleaseth him z Eccle. 8.3 1 Sam. 8. in giving gracious Indulgences Thirdly In regard of Majesty and Soveraignty For God expresseth them by those highest Titles saith Calvin a Inst 4. l. cap. 20. to affect us with the awful sence of the Divinity it self and our Duty to them in putting the Glory of his own name upon them For b Ps 82.6 I have said ye are Gods and not only so but decreed and ordained it it shall be so even Gods before Men though Men before God 1st
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING SUPREME POWER AND COMMON RIGHT At first Calculated for the Year 1641. and now thought fit to be published By a Person of Quality LONDON Printed for R. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in S. Paul's Church-yard 1680. TO THE READER THIS little following Treatise concerning the Origination of Paternal Power and the Derivation of all others from it with Reflections upon Regal Government and the Relative Duties both of King and People to each other is for Substance only a Summary Collection from the best Authorities of such necessary and Practical Notions as might have steer'd us in the most benighted and tempestuous times of the late unhappy and almost unparallel'd Rebellion and keep us within the Bounds of Duty and Allegiance both to God and our King But it lost its usefulness being calculated for the high Distempers of that Age only by miscarrying in the Press and for some years irrecoverably concealed and kept from its designed end by one since dead who communicated to me the following Discourse which hath for some years layn in my hands as buried unless something of the like Contagion should break out again and give it a new Resurrection as an Antidote against the spreading of so popular an Infection But now I am prevailed with upon the sad Prospect of things that threaten a relapsing into the like Dangers by Popish Plots and those many Sects Distractions and Divisions amongst us some of whose Principles agree with the rigid Scotch Presbyters and Jesuits in their Tenents concerning the deposing of Kings and the forfeiture of their Regal Power into the People and their Representatives to shew both from Scripture Antiquity the Doctrine Articles Canons Homilies and Liturgy of the Church of England which all agree with our ancient Laws and many late Acts of Parliament That our Kings are only submitted by God to the direction not coaction of Humane Laws as Mr. Faulkner in his Treatise upon that Subject hath lately and most learnedly made appear Yet Kings are not unconfined by the Laws of God and our Kingdom which set just bounds both to King and People to regulate their Actions by as a middle thing between Supreme Power and Common Interest And our Municipal Laws may be straiten'd or enlarged in regard of the Soveraign's Exercise of Power but cannot influence or affect the Power it self which is of God to alter or enervate the nature of it Nor can it oblige to any thing foro divino but what is just in the means as well as good in the end and safe in regard of Humane Prudence by which Rules we have much reason to believe our Superiours as they yet have done will take their measures and neither countenance nor indulge the least evil of sin to avoid the greatest evil of punishment Yet if God for our almost unpardonable provocation and abuse of those many Miracles of Mercy he hath hitherto preserved us by should submit us to the implacable malice of our common Enemies the Papists at home and abroad or to Civil Commotions within our selves to bring us again into Chaos and Disorder in which we may need some assistance for our Conscientious Comportments both with Prudence and Innocency the ensuing Treatise may be of great use there being things casuistically proposed and resolved with modesty and submission to others Judgments in Relation to the late Rebellion which may some way help us in other difficulties if we fall under any which that God in Mercy would avert is the Prayer of Your unknown Servant c. A DISCOURSE CONCERNING SUPREME POWER AND COMMON RIGHT CHAP. I. AS God is a Spiritual King so Kings are Humane Gods his Picture drawn in Little and the most express Image of his Power receiving as the Wax from the Seal all the parts and proportions of the Print in the largest Character in which he shews himself in Civil Administrations So as the endeavour of effacing any part of that just Power where God hath Engraven it in his Deputies is a Spiritual Treason and Rebellion against God himself a Rom. 13. For not only by me but for me Kings Reign saith God b Prov. 8.15 Rom. 13. in that he makes them his hand both to punish and protect by and stiles them for that end nursing Fathers to the Church and State Nor is the Stamp to be despised though it be engraven but in Lead and Iron the Power being the same in him who by the undue exercise of a just Power makes himself a Tyrant as it is in a good King and challenging the same Submission and Obedience in lawful things from us It being not the Wax but the Impression that bears the value as it is Gods And therefore to wrest the Sword out of our Soveraigns hands the best of Princes is as much as we can to dis-enthrone God from his way of Rule amongst us as the Jews did in the person of Samuel For which Reason our Laws give the King a kind of Immortality here in saying he cannot dye because his Power which is from above passes in the intendment of our Laws by a kind of Pythagorean Transmigration always into the next of his Line and upon the failure thereof only it Escheats into the People as to the Election of another person to Reign but never was nor is fundamentally in them in regard of the Power by which they Govern And the wisest People do but as a Pipe not the Spring derivatively pass it into one man to actuate it as the most absolute and perfect Government and that which God only owns For when he saith By me Kings Reign c Prov. 8.15 he implies all other Forms of Government to derive their Pedigree only from men not Divine Institution They have his Permission but Kings only his Commission so as all other lesser Rivulets in the Administration of Justice in their Kingdoms are in them as their Spring derivative from and subordinate to them For the Supreme Power is ever annexed to the Persons of Princes in whom it is seated the Inferiour only to the Offices of subordinate Administrations which are always responsible to him that hath the Supreme Power Else the God of Reason should make a Body without Reason a Head to govern it The contrary Opinion to which clear Truth hath caused the sad Tragedy of these benighted Times and hath ever proved the Seminary of Anarchy and Confusion in all States where it hath taken root and prevailed though it hath for the most part withered and perished in the end as having no true Principles of life and permanency however for some time maintained by Tyranny and Oppression as may be instanced in most of those Popular States that have been since the beginning of the World which were but Weeds no Plants of Gods setting For subordination of Persons which ariseth by degrees should rest when it comes to the Soveraign or all things would wheel into a Confusion But God is a God of
their Ministerial Function to them as an indelible Character which their first Electors could not efface nor any unless it derived from the Supreme Civil Magistrate under whom they lived justly suspend in the Exercise in that the Power doth ever derive from God and by them But for further illustration we will consider it in the more familiar Instances of free Elections And first in Corporations as in a Model or hand contracted which is but expanded and the more stretched out in the highest Governments where the Commons propound the Person for the succeeding Governour the Representatives choose and the Kings Power invests without which Act the rest are but Cyphers without a Figure but having once Caesar's stamp and Image upon it it becomes legitimate current and of value so as none can clip or efface it to lessen his Authority much less displace the Magistrate but orderly by the Power that set him up without much Crime Rebellion and hazard of damnation g Rom. 3. 1 Pet. 2. A second illustration is That the People by free Votes choose their Representatives in our Parliaments yet the Power by which they Elect and that of the Elected is derived from the Kings Writ so as they cannot for any miscarriage or breach of trust in the Person recal their choice or make a new Election in any case without a new Warrant from the Crown but do become instrumental in conferring that which is not at all inherent in them as may more fully appear in the application of those similitudes to Kings where they are Elected in that Almighty God how tyrannous soever they prove uses them but as he did Ashur for the Rod of his Anger h Isa 10.5 when he gives a King in his Wrath i Hos 3. like Saul to scourge the Rebellions of a people not leaving them any just Power to depose him or any remedy or other appeal than to him in Prayer k 1 Sam. 8.18 In that his Providence orders all Actions and Events and suffers no evil of punishment without intitling himself to it For there is no Evil in the Land but I have done it saith he And therefore he accounts repining as impatience resistance by force Rebellion against himself For as the Apostles were Christs Kings are Gods Ministers upon Earth in as near a Relation Nay himself as it were showes that all such Arrows are shot at them wound him when Christ says Saul Saul why persecutest thou me l Act. 9.4 And thus God expresses it both in Moses his case m Num. 16. where he made the dull and patient Earth the common Hackney to all injurious trampling the severe Avenger of his dishonour and so in Samuel's n 1 Sam. 8. though even then by the fore-designation of God o Deut. 7.15 the Peoples free Election was confined to Saul the man that he did choose p 1 Sam 9.15 16 17. For till then God did rule by immediate direction and revelation those he appointed to be their Governours and would not totally cast them off for their revolt but still continued his goodness to them even in his Indulgence of Anger not leaving them to a factious and tumultuous Election but ordered it by immediate command to the person he had fore-appointed till he had settled the succession in David and his Seed q 1 Sam. 16. By it shewing his dis-allowance of all popular and disorderly Elections for even there where he permitted their concurrence in choosing the person in whom all Power should habitually reside and from whom its Actual Administrations should derive he suffered them only to assist Samuel in holding forth the Wax which he had appointed to set his Seal and Image upon but not to give any Impression Nor can it rationally be imagined by any man that is a Christian and acknowledgeth the Sword to be Gods and that he that sheds Man's Blood without his Commission is guilty of Murder how a power of Life and Death should be collated by any Community of Men to one or more when neither divisim nor conjunctim they have power over their own or one anothers lives Nor could ever any pretend to it unless Parents and Heads of Families by Divine Natural and Paternal Right but when derived from God the other way and by his Commission exercised Yet the People may in some sence be said to be the Pipe by which not at all the Spring from which the Power is derived the Hand that holds the Burning-Glass to the Sun no cause of those Rayes of Power that shine upon it and are contracted in it or as the Men that lay out the dry Bones as the Prophet did whilest God breaths the Spirit of Government and animates them for Action In which we must next consider CHAP. II. What Power Kings have and how limited AS I have endeavoured to make it appear by what hath been said that all Power is Originally Fundamentally and Vertually flowing from God and abiding in the King only as its Cistern and Receptacle from whence it is conveyed to us by many Pipes of several sizes Our inquiry must be how it is limited in it Self or Execution For resolution wherein we must go to the Standard of the Sanctuary the Holy Scriptures and there we shall see That when God first gave a King in his Wrath r 1 Sam. 8. the cause of it was the Peoples being not satisfied with the Regal Power God did exercise over them in his Vice-Royes and Deputies before but distrusting God Almighty when they saw Nahash King of the Children of Ammon come against them that he would not suddenly provide for their deliverance they would have one in readiness always to go up and fight for them Which distrust or despair of theirs who had found so many miraculous Deliverances under God's Government was that which so highly displeased God and not simply the desire of a King yet they neither desired to cast off God's Laws nor his choosing the Person as in Saul nor is it said that the Kingdom of God is cast off at the Election of Saul but they desired more sensible Evidences of Majesty and Glory because Samuel held not forth the outward Pomp Splendour and Majesty of Heathen Kings but as a Type of Christ whose Kingdom was not of this World with Humility as well as Power Upon which God gave them a King after the manner of other Nations r 1 Sam. 8. Dan. 5.18.19 but withal commanded Samuel to let them know what kind of King they desired even Jus Regis and that he should rule by absolute and unlimited Power in regard of Man however he may want the immediate direction and over-ruling Grace of God though not for want of a Rule for direction s Deut 17.2 2 Sam. 23.3 in that t 2 Sam. 22.3 he that ruleth over men must rule as in the fear of God u Ezek. 46.16 17 18. and not oppress the
As Sapiens semper incipit a fine saith the Philosopher in that the end sets all a-working let us consider how God in the conveying it out of himself for Administrations in the Political and Civil World did primarily intend the due ordering of things by it according to the rules of Justice Piety and Religion that all might concenter in Gods Glory and Mans Good Order Truth and Justice being the only Foundations and Pillars of Government For as in the lesser World of mixed Bodies due temper and moderation of parts and in the rational World Tranquillity of Soul by the subordination of inferiour Faculties and Passions to the Soveraignty of Reason preserves them so in the great World propriety and enjoyment of our just and native Rights with punishment of Offences which the mind of the Law rule of Justice and Right the measure of all things according to Equity and Reason under the Supreme Head is that which preserves a happy Harmony and sweet Society amongst men And for this end God gave his first Commission to Moses only even Regal Power which before was Natural and Paternal in Adam both for expedition in Affairs of State which could not be acted by many and the prevention of Factions and Schisms that Popular States are always subject unto but this under certain Fundamental Rules though he had immediate Revelation to shape himself by yet with an absolute Power where Gods Law did not restrain him to be derived to all Kings for ever who still are or ought to be the Depositories of that Supreme Authority as to make War and Peace to call and dissolve Assemblies both in State and Church Affairs which as the greatest Essentials of Regality p Num. 10.1 2 8. and 29.1 were only Originally in God himself but since exercised and practised by all succeeding Kings as may appear by multitudes of Scriptures q Jos 1.17 and 34.18 1 Chro. 15. 23.3.6 2 Chro. 15.14 20.21 25.5 34.31.32.33 and the Stories of all Ages so as none durst in former times have refused to come when called by them r Num. 20.13 though for matters of Conscience or a Diana unless some Demetrius or Crafts-man led on the Rout as one observes upon the Text. s Acts 19.4 23 36. Nor is this only of Divine Institution but founded in Nature as hath been shewed in that all the Conjugations of Sinews and Strength meet in the Head the Fountain of Motion from whence all the Members derive their Operations and practised among the Heathen by the Light of that Law only as in Pharaoh t Gen. 41.44 and the Character God gave the Jews of their Kings when they asked one after the manner of the Nations u 1 Sam. 8. From whence we may conclude That Moses had all Monarchical and Absolute Power in respect of the Jews radically in him even Jus Regale w Deut. 33.3 and was in Rectitudine Rex as well in Name as Power x vers 4.5 which afterwards was transferred upon Saul as a Punishment to the People for rejecting it in those God had appointed to conduct them by the immediate assistance of his Holy Spirit But that he ever left or gave Commission for the exercise of this Power to a Community can never be shewed Yet here God leaves not Tyrants to their own unbridled range and rapine as the Wild Beasts of the Forests without a rule both of Direction and Obligation as hath been shewed which ought to be the measure of all just Power y Deut. 17. Gen. 17.6.49.10 though he did foretel what did or should follow for he no sooner establishes the Throne upon David and his Seed but does it under a Covenant of Obedience z 2 Chro. 6.16.7.17 2 Kin. 11.6 Ezech. 37.12 by the fail of which his Crown was forfeited to God only not Men upon any Compact or Condition betwixt him and the People a 2 Sam. 5. Yet had there been a stipulation between them the violation thereof could not have evacuated his Power no more than a Fathers severity b 1 Tim. 6. 1 Pet. 2.18 can cancel a Child's Obedience it being only a peculiar of God's by whom Kings reign c Prov. 8.15 16. to remove and set them up d Dan. 2.21 which made Nazianzen in his first Oration against Julian condemn those that would not depend upon God's Providence and expect the execution of his Counsels upon Wicked Princes whose hearts are in his hands and He turneth them whithersoever he listeth e Prov. 21.1 but would be their own Gods and Deliverers when Tyrants are God's hand upon us for our Sins So Peter Martyr upon Rom. 13. out of Dan. 4. Nay Calvin saith It is our fault if so great a Blessing be turned into our Punishment it being but a just retaliation for our disobedience to God For Secundum merita populi disponuntur corda Rectorum according to the Deserts of a people the hearts of Governours are disposed and the just Judge punisheth the faults of the Prince many times upon them that had caused him to offend saith St. Gregory f Ep. l. 2. Ep. 6. So as we may justly invert that of David a King to his People and say as Wicked Subjects of a pious Prince Let thy Judgments O Lord fall upon us but that innocent Lamb what hath he done that he should become a Sacrifice for us who ought to sacrifice our selves for him since it is our Rebellions against Thee that have occasioned in us this Rebellion against so good a Prince g 2 Sam. 21.1 that by them thou mightest take occasion to be the more severe in thy Judgments upon our Nation However let us consider there is something good in the highest Tyranny and ever to be preferred to Anarchy For when there was no King in Israel every one did oppress his brother and act after the Lust of his own heart not only rejecting their Civil but Spiritual Obedience to God h Jud. 17.2.17.6.18 whereas the Oppression of a Tyrant most commonly extends but to some so as the good or evil Estate of Israel seemed to depend upon the having or not having a King And having thus shewed how the Power of Kings is absolute without dependency upon their Subjects though limited in regard of their Soveraign God I shall proceed to the exercise of it and shew how that may be bounded and moderated by Compact the Indulgence of good Princes and municipal Laws What that Power is and how limited 2. I say as God is Goodness and Power and every perfection in himself so he communicates of them in some degree to all though most to Kings his moving Statues upon Earth especially of those Attributes which most concerns the dispensation of Mercy Justice and Judgment to the World For Kings are maxime proxime seconds to God as Tertullian saith above all others and as it were his immediate Deputies upon Earth to
a course of sin w Isa 1. 8. Defendendo For he that defends or maintains a bad Cause or Action espouseth the guilt of it in that He that justifyeth the Wicked or condemneth the Just is abominable before or unto God x Prov. 27.15 and becomes the greater sinner in that it hath more of deliberation and perhaps less of Temptation in it than the other had 9. Praecedendo By giving ill example For if I pluck up the first pale in anothers Inclosure and engage others by my Example to lay it waste and common I am guilty of their Trespass as he that wilfully makes or inlarges any cuts in a Sea-bank is liable to repair the damages any receives by those Waters For thus Jeroboam made Israel to sin saith the Text even exemplum dando as well as imperando and Peter the Jews y Gal. 2. And to these I might add many other ways as a learned Divine hath observed to me by which we derive others sins upon our selves but is not this enough to make us vigilant over our Souls since there are so many Avenues for sin to approach us and that it is of so subtil and insinuating a nature as tho the Guards be never so well kept it will sometimes enter by a false pass or glide in by the advantage of that gloomy darkness that over-shadows the best men So as we need add ballast to our sail Examination to every Action to poise and prove it by it being a safe and noble no melancholy thing as one wittily observes to be always in ploughing weeding and worming a Conscience in removing Straws as well as Loggs occasions of Temptations by trying and testing every thought word and work to make them currant by filing the Iron and melting the Ore to clear and smooth the greatest difficulties lest our spungy souls apt to receive any Liquor suck in and embrace any sin swell us into such an immense body of sin as through custom or impenitency should become too big to enter into the Bethesda of Christ's Blood when what comes there is ever cleansed and cured And therefore though prudence in declining evils of punishment be commanded z Mat. 10.16 it must always be with Innocency So as prudens simplicitas is the greatest Policie and best Fort to retreat to in all dangers when the least ungirting a man's self or allowed liberty in any thing evil by outward complyances or disguises is but a prostitution of him to contempt and would insecure the Interests of all men and make all things uneasie to them in matters of Trust and Confidence the period as one saith of cares and only Pillow of rest for man's Spirit when a pleasing entertainment to the Senses may as a Chamber of death and Magazine of Corruption become by its stench Poyson to the Brain and surely no man is the better for anothers artificial sweetness that feels the noisomness of his putrid and corrupted Lungs break in upon him through the thin Cloud of a perfumed breath And he that strowes a Pits mouth with Flowers and covers it with an Icy-crust instead of a Cristal Pavement for others fall and ruine hath but more of Artifice not less of Malice than a professed Enemy but is more dangerous and destructive to all Humane Society so as dissimulation is in no case to be allowed being ill in it self and the parent of so many mischiefs Quest 1. But admit God should for our Sins give us up for a time to the Arbitrary Tyranny of our State-Deformers and permit de facto a change in the face or rather a total Metamorphosis in our Government how far may we obey Answ Why then men may in reference to their Power while it continues and they command lawful things obey but not to the Authority For once admit of a Conscientious Obedience as due to an Usurped Power no State in the World shall ever be free from the Treacherous Practises and daring Attempts of ambitious Spirits or be left means to recover their just Rights if lost when Power of Arms ought only to support the just Power of Princes and not by Power to set up an Illegal and Usurped one Yet Conquest sometimes if grounded upon a just War which cannot be between King and Subjects may challenge a Conscientious Obedience as well as a King that comes to a Crown by a just descent as ours yet the persons of such many times raise a Title from common Humane and Municipal Laws also to their Subjects Obedience and many times by a mixture of both Humane and Divine weave the strongest Thread men being always more ready and prone to conform to their own than God's Laws And therefore it was the wisdom of our former Monarchs comprehensively to engage their People in the several Representatives to all those Statutes they were to be governed by constituting their Parliaments of the three Estates of Men Clergy Nobles and Commons by that temper and even poyse of Power in regard of the exercise of it to bring in all to a chearful Obedience when their known Laws were the known Boundaries and middle things between Supreme Power and Common Right By this exrtacting as it were the purest Essence and Spirits out of all other Forms of Government to make one perfect one including the rest as man doth the Inferiour Creatures having reason proper to himself sense common with Bruits and Vegetation with Plants for thus we have Monarchy in our King Aristocracy in the House of Peers and Democracy in the House of Commons And to prevent any exorbitancies in any one all must concur to the making any Law with the King's assent not otherwise and let him that affects either Arbitrary Power or Parity but begin it in his own house and he will never wish it should spread into the State of which he is a Member Quest 2. But may I not act under an Vsurped Power or a Power I conceive to be so nor seemingly comply to preserve my self Answ No not in any case to own the Authority but Power I am passive under some compulsion and that in lawful things OBJECTION II. Object 2. But if a People depose their lawful King for a Tyrannical and exorbitant use of a just Power or to preserve Religion it self be it by War or otherwise and by assuming the Power place it in many or one that wholly imployes it for the maintenances of the true Religion and just exercise of the known Laws may I lawfully and conscientiously obey him Answ That it is not lawful to acknowledge such an Authority just and in that notion to obey it because the Supreme Power in any one Person is derived from God and is Paternal founded in Adam upon Natural and Paternal Principles never collated by man but is absolute and unlimitted in regard of Humane Influences upon it in its first collation c 1 Sam. 8. though limited in respect of Divine Precept d Deut. 17. in regard of
People For no King can do that de jure justly in regard of his Office and Commission yet from thence implying a Tyrant should be exempt from all account to Man and free from any force or resistance though he be exorbitant and that Subjects are in such cases denyed all Appeals but to God as may be proved out of Samuel w 1 Sam. 8.18 Nay against such a King there is no rising up saith Solomon x Prov. 30.31 Eccles 8. To which Calvin agrees in his Comment upon that place for against Tyrannical Acts in a lawful King he allows no resistance in these words Nec quicquam adversus Reges movere licet Tyrannidem exerceant rapinis sint graves subditis nullamque nec Dei nec aequi rectique rationem habeant For Non vestrum est his malis mederi hoc tantum est reliquum Domini opem implorare y Instit l. 4. c. 20. But though we find Jus a Right of security for Kings against all violence as I have observed we find no Jus right for Tyranny and Arbitrary Power which is to be esteemed a sin for which Kings are to account to God and the rather because they are above all Humane Judicature and only under him as the People are under them For which God styles him Lord of Lords and King of Kings And upon this ground though David had sinned against Vriah first in defiling his Bed then in murdering his Person both to be punished with Death by the Law of God in any common man but most in making him sin against his God in Drunkenness by one sin to conceal another he yet was never questioned for those black Deeds but in his Confessions to God cryes out z Psal 51. Against Thee Thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight Quia cum Rex sim saith the Gloss quamvis contra Vriam deliquerim non habeo tamen in terra qui me judicet sed te in Caelo agnosco Judicem meum So also in Psalm Miserere mei Deus written by R. P. and dedicated to Thom. de Trugillo And Joannes Lorinus a Câ—mm in Psal 50. saith to the same sence upon those words Tibi soli peccavi quia solus potest cognoscere aut punire peccatum ipsius qui Rex esset nec superiorem haberet Thus St. Hierom b Ep. 22. 4. Cassia Col. 20. Quia non fuit qui arguere auderet Regem qui posset accusare punire Vtpote cum quo nullus potestate par nedum major esset non est qui audeat dicere Regi Apostata vocareque Judices impios c Job 34.18 nisi velit ipse impius haberi ut Chrysostomus ac Nicetas hoc loco Cyrillus notant In which accord Cyprian d Ad Novatian Ambrose e Serm. 16. iu Ps 118. Clemens Alexandrinus f 4 Storm c. 6. Turracramata 1 Summae de Eccl. 1. Q. 92. ad 6. Though Baronius in his Annals speaking of the Sanhedrim Anno Christi 31. Num. 10. saith That Herod though a King was cited thither for his Cruelty But it was false by the Authority he quotes g Joseph Antiq l. 14. c. 17. in that Josephus denies him to be a King then but saith That he was a Subject to Hyrcanus For when Herod was cited by the Sanhedrim his Father Antipater was living and Hyrcanus then High-Priest and Prince in State and Right who gave him notice of the Confederacy against him in the Synagogue so as Baronius in that Instance as Bishop Mountague infers only shewed his good meaning to extend Papal Authority over Kings Yet Herod in revenge of it took away their lives that convented him when he came to the Crown And it is a Tradition among the Rabbins That when King Jannaeus was commanded by the Sanhedrim to appear and answer before them those who presumed to summon him were shrewdly punished by the Angel Gabriel which although it were perhaps fabulous yet it is certain that the Jews in their Talmud h In Cod. Sanedrim c. 11. have it as a confirmed Maxime Regem suum non judicari nec cuiquam licere in eum testimonium dicere The King was not to be judged or accused by any according to that of Solomon i Prov. 17.26 in that they are not Children of the most Voices but of the most Highest the Peoples approbation serving only ad pompam but not ad necessitatem in a King's Coronation A Reason why Melchisedech was said to have no Father in regard of his Kingly Office because Regal Power is an emanation from the Deity it self Yet this exemption from all Humane Powers here doth not exempt them from the highest Power for then most properly Judgment is mine and I will repay saith the Lord. Be wise now therefore o ye Kings be learned ye that are Judges of the Earth serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce before him with reverence c. lest ye perish from the right way if his Wrath be kindled yea but a little k Psal 2.10.11.12 Nay it is sometimes his greatest severity not to let them be punished here l Hos 4.14 that they might bear the weight of his Wrath hereafter m Heb. 1.12 In that every ones account must be according to the Talents they receive and Great Ones you know are hardly cleared Nay Experience tells us That he who falls from a high Scaffold or Pinacle is in more danger of irrecoverable hurts than he that slips upon a level ground So as this Opinion is no ground for Licentious Exorbitances in Kings but a just stating of the question concerning Regal Power which Originally is one and the same in it self in all States where it is though in many places and according to several Forms limited and regulated in regard of Exercise and Execution only which I shall endeavour to make yet more clear though veritas in profundo as one saith Truth lyeth not in the surface and superficies of things but is almost buryed under the Rubbish of false Opinions or corrupted in the steam before we come to the Fountain it self and being much obscured by Clouds of Errour hath some verisimilia plausible mistakes received and digested by wanton Stomachs which do morbum alere non hominem But it proves a Monster when pertinaciously held For then the truth of God is detained in Unrighteousness n Rom. 1 18. And therefore I will go with St. Basil to the Mine which was the Prophet's and our Saviour's advice to search the Scriptures o Joh. 5.29 Isa 8.20 and endeavour to follow the Vein of Truth as it lyes there where we shall find that all things even Hell it self stand by a subordination and that God did first settle it here in Adam then Moses from them to be derived to all posterities wherein we will farther consider the Power and then the Regulation of it And first for the Power