Gods appointment where the Text faith hath not the Lord annointed thee to be Governour over his inheritance as also David who was Annointed King by Samuel according to Gods command 1 Sam. 16. 13. Solomon by Zadoc the Priest and Nathan the Prophet 1 King 1. 34. Jeroboam by the Prophet Ahijah 1 King 11. 30 31. all which being performed by the immediate command of God declaring his will and pleasure concerning the advancement of them to their several Power and Preheminence by Extraordinary Revelations do evidence the Right of Royal Investiture to pertain onely to God by whom Kings Raign And that not onely when he doth so declare his will by those Extraordinary means but also when that Power is attained by those ordinary wayes and means which are warranted by Gods word and the Rules of Reason and Equity as in Joas whom Jehoida the Priest made King in pursuance to the promise of God to his servant David that his house should be established for ever Or else these acts of the people are acts of seeming Power or Authority collating this Supremacy and Regal Power upon some person who hath no other Right or Title thereunto neither of Birth-right nor of Revelation from God as upon Absalom Adonijah Jehoadas Judas Theudas and Barchozba who professed himself the Messiah and drew the people into Rebellion against the Roman Emperor which occasioned those wars wherein Jerusalem and the Jewes were destroyed and these acts of the People are execrable sinful and Rebellious and so declared by Gods Judgements thereupon for wheresoever the Scriptures mention the constitution of a King after this manner you shall find that they likewise record not onely the frustration of the peoples endeavours but also that they were frustrated by some heavy and sudden Judgements of God both upon the Usurper whereby he was degraded from his undue honour and the people who presume to confer that honour upon him without a warrant from God and so by that means to obtrude a Deputy upon God of their own and not of Gods Election Whereof we have a lively instance in the madnesse of the People of England in these late times placing forsooth their Lord Protector by those horrible sins of Rebellion and Sacriledge not onely perpetrated against the Right and Power of our late dread Soveraign but even against his Sacred and most Royal Person O Heaven O Earth what satisfaction can be made for that Sacred blood shed to satiate the gluttonous and Sacrilegious lust of Traytors and Rebells who build up Sion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity But surely God will avenge the blood of his Servant crying like the blood of Abel for vengeance These acts of the people in Annointing of Kings are onely mentioned where some of these occasions happened that is where there was an interruption of the ordinary means of conferring the Supremacy by birth-right and Hereditary Succession either by the interposition of Gods just Prerogative in the Advancement of some Person by Extraordinary and Immediate Revelation or else by the usurpation of some who had no right or Title at all but Force and Violence either private of themselves and some few partners wherein God stirred up the people to vindicate the Kings right or Publick of the people but where the Supremacy and Soveraign Power with all the Appendages descended by Birthright there is no mention at all made of the people though the act of Duty and Homage was as necessary to be performed to all who enjoyed the Crown by Hereditary Succession as to Abijah Asa Jehosaphat Jehoram and the rest to whom the people were no less obedient and subject than to those who were appointed by God but I say in those cases the peoples acts of Submission and Homage are not expressed but presupposed as known acts of Duty to those Kings who attained the Supremacy by those ordinary and known means of Birthright And how many Instances are there in Scripture of the inefficacy of the peoples endeavours in this kind as in Aarons and the Israelites honouring and Proclaiming the Golden Calf to be a God and Guide in Moses stead yet did not that popular Election Legitimate that Calfes power and Title Exod. 32. And Absalom was proclaimed King by all the thousands of Israel yet did not that act of the people Legitimate Absaloms Title to the Crown For the Holy Ghost termeth it a Conspiracy when it was at the very height 1 Sam. 15. 12. Shcba had Ten Tribes for him when David had but one and yet was he never termed a King but a man of Belial 2 Sam. 20. Adonijah confesseth that although the faces of all Israel were set on him to make him King yet he never had any just Title or Right to the Kingdom for the Lord had designed it for his Brother Solomon 1 King 2. 15. upon all which God manifested the guilt of their sin by sending those fearful judgements both upon the people and the Traitors so exalted To the reason grounded upon that principle quod honor est in honorante non in honorato let it be premised that honour involves a twofold relation The one primarily and per se to that quality or excellency which is found in the person for which he is honoured and esteemed The other secondarily and virtute prioris to the act of honour and estimation whereby we judge well of the person so and so qualified and therefore all acts of honour in the secondary sence are acts of duty as being the effect of that qualification in the person so magnified and honoured So that it is evident the honour and submission which the people exhibite to their King even from this ground and principle of Aristotle are not acts of favour to be conferred and disposed voluntarily at their own will and pleasure but acts of Duty not onely morally as the acts of honour in the premised principle meerly intimates but also by a Divine necessity being thereto obliged by the Law of God And therefore must be performed to such as God esteems worthy of the honour to be his Deputies and not upon such as themselves judge worthy to be their Rulers For you know the people are obliged to exhibite acts of honour and reverence to a Judge but it doth not therefore follow that the people make that man a Judge but he is made such by Letters Patents from the King without asking any consent from the people To St. Peters Testimony I answer that the Apostles expression there relates to the subject of Soveraignty and Power which is the King and those who are over us under him As manifestly appears by the immediate following words of the Text 1 Peter 2. 13 14. Submit your selves unto every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as them that are sent by him as if he had said Submit your selves to every Humane Power and Authority that God hath set over you not onely
God and the King OR Monarchy proved from Holy Writ To be the onely Legitimate Species of Politick Government and the onely POLITY Constituted and Appointed by GOD. Wherein the Phantasied Principles of Supereminencing the Peoples welfare above the Kings Honour and Popular Election of Kings Are manifested to be groundless and unreasonable Briefly Collected by Robert Constable M. A. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 13. 1. VVherefore we must be subject not because of wrath onely but also for Conscience sake Rom. 13. 5. London Printed for W. L at the Crown in Cornhill near the Stocks-Market 1680. To the REVEREND and His Loving Father Robert Constable Dear Father HOW much I am Obliged to you both for my Being and Well-being I desire now to testifie unto the world for though to requite your Love and Bounty be not within the Sphere of my Ability yet since the Apostle commandeth Children to learn to requite their Parents and Nature it self hath taught unreasonable a Creatures this Lesson I shall Endeavour by Gods help to pay that threefold debt of Obedience Reverence and Gratitude which all Children owe to their Parents And therefore I shall ever devote my self unto your Service to whom next under God and my King I owe my self and those Abilities I have both Natural and which through Gods Blessing upon your Liberal Education by a double Apprentiship in two famous and flourishing Societies I have acquired To express therefore my due Observance and gratefull Recognition of your former Care and Cost I here present you with the first = born of all my Labours a brief Collection of the Divine Right of Monarchy evidently deduced e Sacris paginis to be the onely Species of Politique Government and that the people have no Right in the Collation of their King or any Colour to presume to the same The undeniable Right of this Subject absolutely lessens my Endeavours because to prove a Principle is to deny it the force of a Principle But because some in the world are not ashamed to make this Case disputable therefore pregnant with zeal though weak in the Delivery I brought this into the world presuming that the alwaies assented to Truth hereof would strengthen me in my Travel And thus brought forth I beg for it as a true born Son your Baptism Hoping that for the Fathers sake qualis qualis est aequo animo consules And so to the world under your Protection it is committed by Reverend Sir your ever Obedient Son and Humble Servant Robert Constable GOD and the KING GOvernment in general is the Administration and Exercise of that Power and Authority which the Superiour hath over the Inferiour which at the very instant of the Creation of the world took beginning For the very first Creatures which God made being inferiour to him both in Glory and Power became subject unto his Guidance Rule and Government And God who is a God of Peace and Unity to the end to establish and preserve peace and unity amongst his Creatures of different Kinds and Natures did by his Providence and Wisdom create all their kinds in several Degrees of Superiority and Subordination that as one kind did naturally exercise a Rule so the other might as naturally yield Submission and Obedience So that Government being a word of Relation necessarily requires a Correlatum which is Subjection the one not existing without the other And therefore as Government is an undeniable Institution of God as in the Series of the whole Universe is most evident and clear every Creature having a certain Rule Dominion and Dependancy one of anoher so Subjection or Obedience being its necessary Correlate is as undeniably requisite and necessary For the wisdom of God which saw the preservation of the Universe to have a necessary dependance upon the mutual peace and unity of these three several kinds of Creatures viz. the Angelical Intellectual and Natural Agents whereof the Universe was composed and that peace and unity to have the like dependancy upon their Order and Government did likewise see it necessary that the same means should have the same efficacy in the particulars of each of these three species lest confusion in particulars should produce the distruction of the species and by consequence of the Universe For most true is that Saying of Nazianzen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Order is the Mother and preserver of all things Therefore the Lord did not terminate the influence of Order and Government in the species of any of the three several sorts of Creatures but did also originally constitute the particulars of each in different degrees of Superiority and subordination or subjection As amongst the holy Angels we find Arch-Angels 1 Thess 4. 16. and Jude v. 9. And amongst the Devils Belzebub the Prince of Devils Matth. 9. 34. And the obedience of Angels I mean not that of the whole species unto God but their obedience unto one another is strongly intimated by Christ in the third Petition of that Prayer which he gave to all Christians as a precept Luk. 2. 11. wherein we desire that our observance of Gods Will here on earth may be such as the Angels perform in heaven But our observance of Gods will is not terminated in the obedience of the species unto God but further comprehends the performance of those duties adhibited in the fifth Commandment between Inferiours and Superiours whether it be in political or paternal Government And amongst the natural Agents which by a natural instinct are dependant and subservient one to another as the Heavens to the Earth the Earth and Heavens to the Plants and these three to Sensible Creatures amongst whom the Lyon is invested with a certain natural Power and Authority over the Beasts of the field the Eagles over the Fowles of the Air and the Leviathan or Whale over the Fish of the Sea And Jerome affirmeth the same order to be observed amongst every particular Society of Sensible Creatures The dumb beasts and wild herds faith he do follow their Leaders the Bees have their King and the Cranes flye after one another like an Alphabet of Letters But this Wisdom and Providence of God in the constitution of Degrees of Superiority and Subordination amongst the particulars of the immediate species of the Universe is most manifest and perspicuous in the species of the Rational Creatures For God in the very first beginning of the world invested Adam Gen. 1. 26. not onely with the Rule and Dominion over all the other Creatures of the world but likewise with a Monarchical Supremacy not onely Oeconomical over the one created family in Paradise but Political over a Society consisting of many families which were to descend of Adam For the same Law which commanded obedience to Parents did oblige all Adams posterity to the performance of this Monarchical obedience to Adam Now although this Government be styl'd most commonly Paternal because all Adams Subjects could derive their Pedigree from
to the King himself but also to his Ministers and Magistrates although they are his Subjects as well as you for there is no power but of God and whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God And they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation c. Rom. 13. But it doth not at all relate to the Original and Efficient cause of that Power which is God and neither King nor people And now I hope the profanity of that former inference of theirs is perspicuous appearing most damnable being directly contradictory to that express Rule which God himself hath prescribed in this case Exod. 23. 2. Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil neither agree in a controversie to decline after many Where God plainly declares that the universality of the offenders cannot legitimate the fault as appears in the sin in erecting the Golden Calf and Absaloms Conspiracy For though it be a Maxime in Policy that Multitudo peccantium tollit peccatum i. e Poenam peccati and therefore in crimes of the blackest dye the offenders often times escapes their due punishment It is as true a Maxime in Divinity that multitudo peccantium aggravat peccatum i. e. culpam peccati and the more I seduce the more guilt I contract Although the multitude of partakers may secure me from punishment in foro judicii humani yet I am sure to receive the just reward of that sin at Gods Tribunal from which the whole Society of men and Devils cannot secure me But not to bind these nice Disputants to an Argument of Conscience which indeed is scarce to be found amongst them to evince their error let us consider the absurdity and sencelesness of their opinion both in Policy and Reason For if the Major part of the people be Superiour to the King then the Government is not Monarchical but Democratical every species of Policy deriving its Denomination and nature from those that are Invested with the Supremacy But that Democracy is the basest kind of Policy Confusion and Destruction being the conclusion of such a Government both experience and the general consent of all Politians do declare and so asserted both by Jerome and Cyprian and even Calvin himself although a favourer of the Peoples Right in appointing of their King and Monarck divers men have divers minds and meanings and therefore amongst a multitude of Governors Emulation and dissention are no rare springs Nay both Jerome and Cyprian record it for a probatum in daily experience that so many Leaders so many followers so many Rulers so many Factions do tear and rent in pieces the peace and Vnity of all Societies To which agrees Calvin affirming an equality amongst Governours to be the mother of Factions It 's one of our Saviours own Maximes Matth. 3. 24. That a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand but every Democracy must necessarily divide a Kingdom against it self Ergo c. That Democracy must necessary divide a Kingdom against it self is proved from another of Christs own Maximes Matth. 6. 24. No man can serve two Masters much lesse three or four hundred masters but in every Democracy there are at least two Masters And therefore no man can be a true Subject or servant in such a Common-wealth but as Christ faith must necessarily be factious by loving one and hating all others and adhering to one and rebelling against others And therefore it is observed that in Christs time when Esay had prophesied that there should be an Universal peace over the whole Earth that then there was not any kind of Polarchy in any Kingdom in the world because in its own nature every Polarchy is inconsistent with Peace and Unity the end and conclusion thereof being absolute ruine and desolation the common fate of all divided Kingdoms except God in his mercy prevent the same by the reducement of such a Government to a Monarchy a manifest experience whereof we have both in the Athenian Syracusan Lacedemonian and Roman Common-wealths whose Polarchical Dissentions occasioned many Intestine Wars and Tragical Conflicts which in fine must necessarily have produced the ruine and desolation of them all if the opportune reducement of those Polarchies to a Monarchy had not prevented it Lastly every individual member of the same Society is obliged to exhibit acts of Obedience and Loyalty to their Lawful Prince as the former part of this distinction of these subtile Logicians intimate allowing the King to be Major singulis but upon what grounds they deny his Authority in Vniversis I leave to the Censure of every rational Judgement seriously considering this deduction Peter is obliged to exhibit acts of obedience to his Prince so Paul so John and so every individual member of the same Society Ergo according to that Logical Maxime a particularibus ad universale valet consequentia they all in universal are obliged to exhibit acts of Obedience to their King To the second Inference viz. That the King doth receive and enjoy this honour onely by vertue of a stipulation or Covenant between himself and the people and therefore if the King doth violate this Covenant and break the Trust reposed in him by the people that then the people are absolved from their Allegiance grounded upon that Trust and Covenant and may Lawfully provide for their own safety and welfare either by Resistance Deposition Dethronement or any such means as themselves judge to be most conducent to their own security To this I answer that this Covenant its true implyeth a mutual engagement of the parties therein concern'd but the parties primarily and originally concerned are God upon the one party and the people upon the other party as Moses declareth when he reciteth that Original and general Covenant which is indeed the ground of all other particular Covenants Lev. 26. Deut. 28. And therefore Solomon Eccles 8. 4. maketh this Covenant a ground why people should obey the Kings Commandments not as the Kings but as Gods Commandments whose Vicegerent the King is for where the word of the King is there is power and who shall say unto him what doest thou for the Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord as the Rivers of water he turns it which way soever he will Prov. 21. 1. And therefore the King is onely the deputative party assigned by God and intrusted by him for the performance of the Covenant upon Gods part either for a vengeance or recompence to the people as the Lord himself judgeth of their merits And though the King may spare the wicked and persecute the Righteous even unto death as Pilate did our Saviour yet even in that the King doth but execute Gods Decrees as the Holy Ghost doth declare concerning that unjust Judgement of Pilates Acts 4. 28. for Pilate did nothing but what God had Determined before to be done For every mans judgement is from the Lord Prov. 29. 26. and not from the Judge or Ruler So that in a word the King
may do male that is a wrong to himself for which he is accountable to God but he cannot do malum that is any wrong to us by inflicting any thing upon us which is not just and according to our deserts from God whose place the King supplies in Judgement which is the ground of Solomons assertion that The Kings lipps do pronounce Divine sentences and that his mouth transgresseth not in Judgement Proverbs 16. 10. Now therefore upon these grounds of Solomons it is manifest that there is no sence why the people should claim any power over the King by vertue of this Covenant First Because the King is not their Deputy but Gods and every man must accompt to him for his Actions who doth constitute and depute him as when the King doth depute a Judge for any Province or City the people under his Command have no power to question him for any act which they conceive unjust but either by Petition to that Judge or else by their addresses to the King his Master whose trust all corrupt Judges do deceive and not the Trust of the people for they receive not any Power or Authority from the people but from the King And in like manner the people for redress of their grievances from the Kings oppressions must address themselves to the King by Petition and if that prevail not then to God by prayer who is the Kings sole Lord and Master and from whom he receives his Power and whose Trust all Tyrannical Kings break by acts of Injustice which is the ultimum refugium as Samuel declares when he Prophesieth of Sauls Tyranny whereby the people should be grievously oppressed for redresse whereof the people when the King would not hear should cry unto the Lord 1 Sam. 8. 18. other means of remedy than which the Prophet Samuel did not dream of nor could prescribe to the people to make use of and whereas if he had conceived resistance to be Lawful he might soon have found out that way and have the people so to provide for their own security Secondly Because the people never receive Injustice from the King if they look upon themselves for the Judgment is the Lords who cannot do injustice nor break the Covenant upon his part although his Minister and Deputy may fail and offend in the execution of his Office in his own particular which is his own guilt As a Hangman that Executes the just sentence of death upon a Malefactor if in doing his office his intentions have not reference to the sentence of Justice but the satisfaction of some private grudge or some Covetous Design or the like that Officer is guilty of Murther although the Malefactor receive from his hand nothing but his due deserts And thus much I hope sufficiently declares the error and vanity of that opinion that the peoples consent and approbation are the ordinary and instrumental means and causes of that Supremacy and Soveraign Power which doth Preheminence the Monarch above all others within the same Society Now it rests to speak of that opinion which and that most certainly imputeth the Secondary and Instrumental cause of Monarchy and Regal Dignity to Birth-right and Hereditary Succession the Efficacy whereof Holy Writ doth manifest Preheminencing the first born above all his Brethren in Honour and Possessions as the Lord declared to Cain Gen. 4. 7. nor was it in the Fathers power either for love or hatred to alter the Law of the first born and to transmit the Honour and Inheritance due to him to his younger Brother Deut. 21. 15. and in that statute which the Lord himself made ordering the descent of honours and possessions Num. 27. the Lord doth direct that they be conferred by Birthright and Hereditary Succession and not by the Election or Discretion either of Moses or the people But more specially to our Case the Lord was pleased to honour it with the promises of perpetuating these Honours and Royal Dignities unto any Family which were alwayes grounded upon the perpetuation of the Royal Issue in giving Sons that should sit upon the Throne as appears in his promises to David 2 Sam. 7. 12. to Solomon 1 King 9. 4. to Jehu 2 King 10. 30. and most manifestly upon Jacobs Prophesie which upon this very ground Entailed the Crown and Scepter unto Judah until Shiloe came Gen 49. 10. The performance of which gratious promise was executed in Abijam who succeeded Rehoboam and Asa him Jehosaphat him and Jehoram him and so in the rest as the Sacred Chronicle doth at large relate who all inherited the Crown by vertue of this Birth-right without the concurrence of any other cause or meancs And this may suffice as touching that Instrumental and ordinary means viz. Gratious whereby God doth advance a man to the Regal Diadem Dignity and Honour and which is a constant Rule for us to Judge of whereby to acknowledge this Soveraignty and yield our obedience The other Instrumental means of this Supremacy which creates a Right and Title to the Crown is Vindicative and that is Sword and Conquest which the Lord declareth to be one of the severest and heaviest of his Curses and Judgements upon a Nation Lev. 26. 25. And the Lord styled the victorious King of Assyria Isa 10. 5. The Rod of his wrath and staffe of his Indignation because by his sword he was resolved to pour out the Vials of his fierce wrath upon the Ten Tribes for their Idolatries and abominations Quest It may be here demanded whether Conquest be a Lawful and good Title and whether any King who doth claim from thence be a Lawful King or onely an Usurper Answ Conquest in it self makes no better Title to a Crown than Ahab had to Naboths Vineyard or than the Robber hath to the Travellers purse For as it is an affliction and punishment to the passive party so it is a sin and Injustice in the active party and directly contrary to the Law of God which prohibits all injuries to our neighbours but yet such a Title may be legitimated and made Lawful by the declaration of Gods will concerning the same Now Gods will in this case is declared two wayes First Extraordinarily by immediate Revelation and so Jeroboams Jehues and Nebuchadnezzars Titles were Legitimated The second Ordinarily by the Extinguishment of the Royal Family which is a Declaration of his wrath and vengeance upon that House and so the Lord did Legitimate Baasha's Title as himself acknowledgeth by the Extinguishment of Jeroboams House 1 King 15. 29. Now where the Lord hath declared his will by either of these wayes the Conquerers Title is good and Legal and all those who claim from that Conquerer are Lawful Kings But where the Conquerers Title is not Legitimated by one of these two wayes the Conquerer is but a meer Usurper and it is not onely Lawful but a necessary duty in the people to resist him and to use their utmost endeavours for the Deposition of that Usurper and
the restitution of their Lawful Soveraign to his just Rights as Jehojada and the people restored Jehoash by the Deposition and Murther of Athaliah after she had Raigned peaceably for six years 2 King 11. and as the people restored Vzziah by the Deposition of those Conspirators who slew his father Amaziah after they had Raigned peaceably eleven years 2 Chron. 26. Quest If it be not Lawful for a people to Elect their own King nor any means assigned by God for Collation of this honour but either Birth-right or Conquest what is to be done when the Royal Family is Extinct and no Conquerer doth claim and where a mixt multitude amongst whom there is no Relation of Blood to Preheminence one above the rest do consent to make a Plantation and to Erect a new Commonwealth Ans Samuel hath set us a President in this case 1 Sam. 10. 20 21. For though the Lord had revealed his will to Samuel concerning his own Election and appointment of Saul to be King 1 Sam. 9. 15. yet because Samuel foreknew that King should be a Tyrant to plague the people for their Idolatrous Trust in a King he concealed that Revelation and would not nominate their King lest the people should afterwards when they suffered by Sauls oppression blame Samuel for appointing him but used the means of Lots to declare the will and pleasure of God in Electing of a King unto the people And the like was used by the Eleven Apostles when they had no warrant from God to Appoint or Elect another Apostle nor durst presume to confer that High calling upon any man without a warrant from God as you may read Acts 1. 23. So that in both those cases mentioned in this question we are to use the means of Lots for that means is likewise warranted by God where his will is not otherwise known and declared Prov. 16. 33. but the peoples Election is absolutely unlawful as the premises I hope have sufficiently manifested either in those or any other cases And this of the Efficient Causes of Monarchy The End or Final Causes thereof are either Principal and that is Gods Glory and the Kings Honour or less Principal and that is the Subjects welfare The principal End of Monarchy is either as the Schoolmen term it Originans which is Gods Glory or Originatus that is the Kings Honour Now concerning the Original Principal End which is Gods Glory it is to be understood that we do not speak of it here in its extent and latitude as it is the universal end of all things but onely as it is limited to Monarchical Actions and Duties in which sence Gods Honour and the Kings are not really but modally onely different both of them consisting in the very same Duties and are of the same Nature in reference to Monarchy For all excellency worth and goodness is radically and essentially in God from whom is communicated Personae honoratae that worth and goodness for which he is honoured and esteemed And therefore this Politick honour which Preheminences the Monarch above all others in the same Society is that excellency which God communicates to him enabling him for the execution of the Duties of his Calling in the Rule and Government of his people and subjects and with a Power to constitute and Enact Laws and Statutes for the Publick good and benefit of the Common-wealth and with power to execute the same Lawes either by remunerating the integrity of pious and just men according to the merits of their service and obedience or by correcting and punishing the Delinquences of Disobedient and evil men For a Seditious person seeketh onely evil and a cruel messehger shall be sent against him Prov. 17. 11. Obj. But it may be objected that seeing the Kings Honour is subsequent to Gods Glory it being the chief principal End of Monarchy that then when the Kings Commands are contrary to Gods we may resist Sol. We may resist his Commands but not his Power for in those Cases we must obey God by an Active the King onely by a Passive Obedience For which we have the president of the Apostles themselves Acts 4. 5. who did refuse to obey the Commands of the Rulers prohibiting them to preach in the Name of Jesus but yet submitted to their power in yeiding themselves to be imprisoned and beaten according to the commands of the Rulers So that they obeyed both God and the Magistrate the first by doing the latter by suffering For Rom. 13. we must needs be subject not onely for wrath but also for Conscience sake by Christs example who needed not to have submitted to Pilate or the Jews for wrath for he was able to overthrow them all with a blast of the breath of his mouth but yet to honour the Substitute and Deputy of his Father he submitted to their power Acts 4. 28. which is the Ground of Nazianzens advise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We must submit to good Kings as to the Lord himself to bad Kings for the Lords sake And Solomon Eccles 10. 20 makes this more evident where he extends the Honour and reverence due to Kings unto the very thoughts and imaginations of the heart notwithstanding they were both Fools Tyrants and Idolaters for when Solomon prohibited the cursing of the King yea even in the thought he was not ignorant that Saul had been a Tyrant himself an Idolater and that his Son Rehoboam who should succeed him was a fool Object You will say what must men then think and believe manifest lyes must we neither say nor think that those Kings are evil and wicked which manifest themselves to be such in all their actions such as the Scriptures record for most infamous and notorious finners Sol. Kings in reference to their duty towards God may be more wicked than other men because they may offend in a double capacity First In their Natural by transgressing Gods Commandments which do oblige them equally as they do other men Secondly In their Politick as Gods Deputies by breach of that Trust which God hath reposed in them for Ruling and Governing of his people according to Justice and Equity But in reference to their duty towards us they cannot do wicked things as before shewed so that the words of Solomon are to be understood onely of Kings in reference to the exercise of their Power upon us which whether it be for good or hurt is still from God And therefore we may not think them evil and unjust to us for the Judgement is not theirs but Gods Prov. 26. 29. who cannot be unjust Now as God did deligate unto Kings a Power over our persons in his Ordinance for their Primary power and Authority so did he likewise give them a Power over our Estates for the Magnificent Maintenance and support of that Honour which is their Secondary honour of Maintenance and Revenue Which was the ground of Christs command Matth. 22. 21. to render a Tribute of our Goods to Caesar intimating that this temporal honour of Tribute was by vertue of Gods Deligation as due unto Caesar as the spiritual honour of Praise and Worship was unto God And upon the same ground St. Paul commands to render Custome and Tribute to Kings not as a gift and favour but as a due and just debt Rom. 13. 7 and gives this reason for it because they are Gods Ministers appointed to supply his place in Ruling and Judging us And seeing God hath transferred the greater power to Kings viz. over our lives by putting the sword into his hands the Apostle thence concludes their Investiture with the less viz. a Power over our Estates and the like Power we see exercised by Pharao in that Ordinance for storeing up a fifth part of all the Corn in Egypt for seven years together which Law was Enacted by Pharao upon the single Counsel of Joseph with the Approbation onely of Pharao's servants or Council and not by the general consent of the people Gen. 41. 34. neither can we pretend this Law to be Tyrannical for it proceeded from the wisdom of God who in this business directed the mind of Joseph Gen. 45. 57. nor can any man imagine but the State and magnificence of Saul David Jeroboam and others who of private persons and others were advanced by God himself to Regal Honour and Dignity was supported by this means of Custome and Tribute nor do I find any particular Law or Statute for the particular endowment of those Kings but onely that general Right and Prerogative which they derive from God Investing them with a Power over both our Persons and Estates And now I hope our obedience either Active or Passive being a necessitated Duty and incumbency upon us as the premises do sufficiently declare to be performed both from our Persons and Estates to our Lawful King and Monarch doth absolutely manifest the peoples welfare to be the less principal end of Monarchy which though it be really distinct from the Kings honour yet is indeed a meer result and product of the same For Salus populi can never be effected or energated by any other means but those which in the first place do effectuate and energate the Kings honour whether we look upon the Monarchical Actions of King or Subjects both which are versant about the same object and matter onely in a divers manner For the King is Interested onely in the Active part of Government by Enacting and duly Executing of Lawes for Gods Glory his own honour and the peoples welfare the people in the Passive part of Government by their obedience and submission to such Laws and Commands of the King the violation whereof is a direct means of Dishonour to God and the King and of Ruine and of Destruction to the people FINIS * Quicquid est quod dat patri filius utique minus est quia hanc ipsam dandi facultatem patri debet Seneca lib. 3. †1 Tim. 5. 4. a The Stork * St. Leonards Colledge in St. Andrews in Scotland and Graies Inne in London lib. de Moderatione in disp Servand Ad rusticum Monachum * Jerom. cap. 1. ad Titum Ep. ad Evagrium
God to Record with me when I remember makes my flesh tremble stupifies all my senses to think flesh and blood should be guilty of such execrable Acts the perpetration whereof Hell with all its damnable Crue scarcely could or ever did exceed But the prodigious guilt of this Miscreant so much exceedeth the mild point of my pen that in the further process I should but lessen my own resentments and seem to favour that which is the fittest subject for the greatest Satyre in the world The instrumental cause of Monarchy is the secondary means which God makes use of for the immediate collation of this Supremacy upon any man whereby to Intitle him to the Regal Diadem and that either Extraordinary when God doth declare his will by extraordinary revelation and that either for a blessing to his people over whom he placeth him by making him a Minister of his favours and mercies or for the Executioner of his Judgements for the punishment of the peoples sins Or Ordinary when God doth advance a man to this Regal Dignity and Honour by those ordinary wayes and means which are constant Rules for us to judge of whereby to acknowledge this Soveraignty and yeild our obedience and this likewise either when the Soveraign Power is attained by those ordinary wayes and means which are approved and warranted by the word of God and the Rules of Reason and Equity Or when the same is attained by Violence and Injustice and such cursed wayes and means as are repugnant to the word of God and the Rules of Justice and Equity The dispute of the former would be arrogant and impious for the extraordinary wayes of God are far above our Judgement and further above our imitation God never intending such for a president whereby to frame our Actions but onely our Submissions thereunto And therefore I shall insist upon those ordinary wayes and means which are the rule of our Actions in this kind which as I have said is twofold Either when attained by violence and injustice and repugnant to the word of God and the Rules of Justice and Equity which is called Vindicative Or when it is attained by those ordinary means which are approved and warranted by the word of God and this is called Gratious Concerning which there are two opinions the one propugned by some that the Right of the Royal Investiture pertaineth to the people The other and that most certainly is imputed to Birthright and Hereditary Succession Their Arguments whereupon they ground the former opinion are partly instantial and partly rational The instances alleadged for the propugnation hereof are the Inaugurations of those Kings which the Scriptures mention to be made or Annointed by the people as Saul 1 Sam. 11. 15. All the people of the Land came to Gilgal to make him King And David whom all the men of Juda Annointed King at Hebron 2 Sam. 2. 4. And afterwards was Annointed King over Israel at Hebron by all the Tribes of Israel 2 Sam. 5. 3. And Solomon who was likewise Annointed by the people 1 Chron. 29. 20. And Jeroboam whom the people made King 1 King 12. 20. And Vzziah whom the people of the Land made King 2 King 14. 21. And Jehoahas who although he was the second Son of Joshuah was made King by the people in his fathers stead 2 Chron. 23. 20. The reason they ground this opinion upon is taken from that Aristotelian principle Honor est in honor ante non in honorato And therefore the honour say they and Submission which Kings receive is originally in the people And therefore they think it not reasonable that the people should be obliged to give obedience and yield honour to any person but him whom they think and judge worthy of it and so manifest their Judgement of his worth by their Election of him to be their King and Soveraign And lastly they add St. Peters Testimony 1 Pet. 2. 13. who terms Regality an Ordinance of Man which were false if it did proceed from God and not from the people for then it were an ordinance of God and not of Man Now from these grounds they deduce two damnable because Rebellious Consequences and Corollaries 1. That though the King be Major singulis yet he is Minor universis and therefore that is no Rebellion but duty in the people to resist and oppose the King nay to depose and dethrone him where the people judge it necessary in relation to the defence of their own safety 2. That the King doth receive and enjoy this honour onely by vertue of a stipulation or Covenant between himself and the people And therefore if the King do violate this Covenant and break the Trust reposed in him by the people by any acts which are destructive ad Salutem populi whereof they presuppose themselves to be Judges that then the people are absolved from their Allegiance grounded upon that Trust and Covenant and may Lawfully provide for their own safety and welfare either by resistance deposition dethronement or any such means as themselves shall judge thereunto conducent Now to confute this opinion concerning the Peoples Right and Power in this Regal Investiture and in answer to the Arguments alleadged for the propugnation thereof and to those damnable and execrable inferences grounded thereupon we must know that these acts of the People mentioned in the premised instances of Scripture of making and Annointing Kings are Either acts of Homage and Duty by way of acknowledgement and testification of the Supremacy already Legally confirmed upon the person to whom these duties are performed which in Scripture are expressed upon two several occasions The one where God did confer this Supremacy and Regal Honour by any extraordinary wayes and means as in Saul David Solomon and Jeroboam The other where God used their means for the vindication of the Kings just Title against an Usurper as in Joas whom Jehoida the Priest and the Captaines and the people crowned and annointed King in the Temple restoring him to his just Rights which had been usurped by his Grandmother Athaliah 2 King 11. 12 13. And in Hosiah the son of Amaziah whom the people restored to his just Power which the Conspirators who slew his Father had usurped And in both these cases the acts of the People are good and Lawful and approved by God being declared to be the will of God upon the former occasion extraordinarily upon the latter ordinarily And indeed is nothing else but the peoples necessitated assent and manifestation of joy for that blessing which God hath bestowed upon them and therefore bound to perform all acts of obedience and Loyalty to him so Invested whereunto they do by this act of theirs silently and implicitely promise and engage And not by this act of theirs stipulating or adding any Authority or Supremacy to the person so inaugurated as in those instances if severally and seriously considered will appear For 1 Sam. 10. 1. we find Saul and that by