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A24062
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A supply of considerable things, in behalf of the government, omitted in all the late arguings written to Sir J.A.
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J. A.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing A15; ESTC R9870
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4,890
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7
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divine-positive one of which number the Sacraments are it is still unalterable by Subjects nay it may further be said that a Right meerly humane in its Original convey'd over to another is confirmed to the Possessor and his Heirs by a natural-divine Right this is evident from the eighth Commandement forbidding Stealth tho' the ownership came from the act of another Man in its first Creation yet the preservation of it is from the Law of God and the Right is as strong in behalf of Successive Monarchy against the reseizure of the People tho' they cou'd fancy themselves the first Donors and Founders of it as any Title they have to their proper Goods and Chattels ay but say they the case is different for all Government is given by the Subjects with a tacit condition that it shall be manag'd to their best advantage and upon failure it may therefore be reassum'd a tacit condition indeed that was never heard of till the World and Government were so many thousand years old but to give them one exception to their general rule it will not hold good in the Government of a Family And Lycurgus who was no Fool wished some Common-wealth-Statists to make experiment first in their own Houses of that Popular Model which they were contriving for the Spartan Nation how wou'd it think you vex the little Western Grandee if his Wise Son and his own Servants shou'd attempt to Depose him from the management of his Household and Estate by reason of his Male-Administration of both since his Head has been so full of Revenge and Association Another mistake remains more pernicious to the Government than all the rest which I have not seen fully set to rights by any who have argued for the Defendant it is this that the Kingship of England is Elective There are indeed several such like Passages in our old Chronicles written for the most part by Church-men who how they came to speak so I will anon afford you the grounds but that chusing does imply a Power of refusing is against the Principle of the Men of Malmsbury and of Geneva too who make up the far greatest number of Adversaries to our cause for with them Election is necessary so that a man cannot chuse but he must chuse and if the same sort of choice beyond which they claim none as to the things of God will suffice them as to the King we shou'd soon be agreed in the present Affair Suitable to this the Civilians say a man chuses when he wishes or when he is not constrain'd Thus the Israelites chose a King by desiring one before that Saul was appointed by Authority from God and in congratulatory Joy when he was anointed the People shouting God save the King and in assisting him against those that said shall Saul Reign over us and this is as much as can be affirm'd of any Election of our Kings in a peaceable and orderly Coronation this will manifestly appear to you both from the common old form us'd in the Church of Rome when Kings were Crown'd as likewise from a Parliament-Roll clear and full to the purpose the old form is to be seen in the Ordo Romanus antiquus a Book written and us'd above 900 Years ago the particular Office is Entitled The Order for Blessing of a King when he is new rais'd by the Clergy and People to the Kingdom In the fourth Prayer these Words follow Look down upon this thy Servant whom with suppliant Devotion we have chosen to be our King upon these Passages at the Coronation it was that the Church-men-Chroniclers so frequently us'd the Phrase of chusing a King but if the rest of the same Office be taken along to explain these words you will see that in our common way of speaking about choice our Kings have no more been chosen by the Subjects than Saul was by the Israelites for in the first and second Prayers it is said that God hath exalted him to the heighth of the Kingdom Among the Questions propounded by the Metropolitan one is Wilt thou Govern and defend the Kingdom given thee of God according to the justice of thy Fathers then the Bishop turns to the People will you be subject to this Prince and Governor and Establish his Kingdom with firm faithfulness and obey his Commands according to the Apostles Words Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers to the King as Supream then follows the fourth Prayer in which upon their promising to this demand they are said to chuse him King for there is nothing else in this Office in which the People bear a part so that having laid these Proceedings impartially before you I need not industriously shew that the Kingship is from God through a Succession and that the Election of the People is no more than a good liking and Profession of their Allegiance That his Title is from God by Succession appears further out of the Words after Coronation Stand and hold henceforth the place which hitherto thou hast held by Paternal Succession bequeath'd to thee upon Hereditary Right by the Authority of Almighty God So far as to this Office with which the Parliament-Roll wherein Richard the third is said to be chosen King does mightily agree he had as bad a Title as ever wanted a Parliament or an Army to assist it either by their interest or strength and when his counterfeiting was laid aside he appear'd as bad as his Title or as any Usurper who was ever help'd by either yet the Parliament had that regard to the Rights of the Crown that they rather chuse to be his Heralds to derive the Succession though very untowardly down to his Person than to be his Promoters by bestowing a Crown like Popes out of a Plenitude of Power the Record is long but it 's well it may so commonly be met with in Speed's Chronicle the considerable things in the main Roll serve to explain the Election of Richard mention'd in the beginning to mean no more than what the word signifies in the late cited Office their Words are We have chosen you in all that in us is Afterwards follows a Recognition of his Right without their choice The Right and Title which the King has to the Crown is grounded upon the Laws of God and of Nature and also upon the ancient Laws and laudable Customs of this said Realm they then proceed to say why seeing the Title is so grounded they act any thing concerning it the Reason given is That the Court of Parliament is of such Authority and the People of this Land of such a Nature and Disposition as experience teacheth that Manifestation and Declaration of any truth or right made by a Parliament maketh above all other things most faith and certain I have now done what I undertook and within the assigned Bounds remaining according to the duty of the Younger to the Elder your most Faithful and May 9. 82. Affectionate Servant J. A. FINIS
A SUPPLY OF CONSIDERABLE THINGS In behalf of the GOVERNMENT Omitted in all the late ARGUINGS Written to Sir J.A. SIR YOU know my Thoughts well enough about what has been lately Written of the English Constitution of Government but seeing I affirm'd some things with short Intimations of Reasons I owe you this larger Discourse which yet shall be bounded within the compass of a Letter He that wrote against Plato Redivivus gave an excellent account from Records of the ancient Exercise of our King's Prerogative but hath left untouch'd the learned part about the Opinions and Reports from Plato and Aristotle concerning the Seat of Soveraign Power It must be said in behalf of the Answerer that those Considerations were of less moment but seeing his opposite Author wou'd it may be rather derive something like a Divine right from those Books than any other you shall see how little countenance the Soveraignty of the People or of any upper part of them receives from these Philosophers Plato whom he wou'd have alive again in him speaks in his Politicus plain and short of Monarchy and Democracy for a certain Reason I will give you his Saying in his Greek tho' that may make a Letter look like a School-Boys Epistle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Monarchy being joyn'd to good written Laws is the best of all Governments and the worst of all lawful Governments is that of the Common People I hope he has enough of our Plato into whom that the Rumper were reviv'd wou'd be a very good wish but I doubt he and his Fellows will quarrel with these Academicks almost as much as they do with our University-men for spoiling their Pupils with Monarchical Principles for Aristotle Plato's Schollar talks like his Tutor for he in this third Book of a Common-wealth treating of Government mixt of Aristocracy and Democracy adds his Judgment against it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But it is better says he that a single Person who is careful should have the Government I am now to observe a more considerable error of this Gentleman who seems rather inclin'd to be a Deposer than with his Great Name-sake to be call'd a Make-King he says that among the Jews the Supreme Power was not in a Single Person Where was it then When the Lord was their King upon which account Josephus calls their Government a Theocracy and else-where the Single Judges that rul'd are stil'd by him Monarchs and the Institution of Kingly Government which was not to begin among them till Almighty Power had setl'd 'em in the Promis'd Land was from himself so the Charge is given Deut. 17.15 Thou shalt in any wise set him King over thee whom the Lord thy God shall chuse So that the People desiring afterwards a King was not evil in it self but only as to the Tumultuary and distrustful manner when God was their King and the Prophet his Deputy who brought them Orders immediately from the Mouth of God That the Supream Power was in the King is plain to those who know the large Prerogatives of Eastern Monarchs for like these were the Kings of Israel and Judah the People said we will have a King over us that we also may be like all the Nations And God commands Samuel Hearken to their Voice and make them a King and the Subjection into which they enter'd was but like that of the Neighbouring Eastern Nations so that what we have in the common reading the manner of the King 1 Sam. 8. is well render'd by the LXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Rightful Law a Word us'd by them frequently concerning the Laws of God himself The Affinity of things now calls to thought what has been said to and fro about Patriarchs Whether Monarchy was founded in them and thence Deriv'd The notion has been improv'd into a just and regular discourse by that Worthy Gentleman Sir Robert Filmer to whom too we are beholden for a Book ascrib'd to Mr. Hales very convincingly written concerning the Sin against the Holy Ghost The Argument I would add to his affirmative part of the Question is from the general apprehension of the Jews who in the midling Ages of the Roman Emperors had tho' they were a Scatter'd People a Monarch under the Name of Patriarch his Monarchy was successive in the Family of Gamaliel of whom St. Luke speaks He had about him a Council for Government and Officers appointed to receive Tribute from the Jewish Nation wheresoever dispers'd a pretty full account of this we have from Epiphanius by Birth a Jew and the rest is supplied from the Civil Law What that Father says of the Patriarch is in the 30th Heresy to wit of the Ebionites About the same time St. Hierom speaks of a Patriarch as the Supream Magistrate of the Jews in his Commentary on Isaiah saying that in them was fulfill'd what is Prophesy'd in the third Chapter I will give Children to be their Princes and Babes shall rule over them I lay the more weight upon these two Witnesses because one by Birth and Education the other by Study and Conversation so well understood what they said In the Civil Law we find Theodosius the Emperor confiscating their collected Tribute and forbidding it to be gather'd hereafter nor can it be thought that the payments were only charitable Contributions for publick Pious Uses for you may read in the same Code that it was demanded as Crown-gold There are two principal things understood among Learned Men and Civilians by the aurum coronarium either what was payed by Vanquish'd Nations to their Conquerors or with reference to the Crown to new-created Emperors let it be one or the other still it proves that the Jews esteem'd their Patriarch to be a successive Monarch Another considerable thing of which an account shou'd deservedly be given is about the Divine Right of Monarchy this wants no other defence but to be rightly understood The Assertion has been Raillery to a sort of Witts and Half-States-men none of whom shew their knowledge of its meaning for the Divine-Right or Law is either voluntary-divine or natural-divine The first takes its Original from the Will of God the other has its Foundation in the necessity and inward goodness of the thing upon which God's Will is certainly added so that to say without any subdistinction that Monarchy is jure divino is no more than that it is an Institution accompanied with the Authority of God's Will and that our Proposition is true in this large sence appears from the ' foremention'd Words in Deuteronomy and from that of Solomon's Proverbs by me Kings Reign but to resolve upon whether sort of Divine right Monarchy is founded wou'd be a Subtilty useless to the Affairs of the World it being a sure rule that whatever carries along with it the approving Will of God can only by this plainest Declaration be taken away or alter'd so that if Monarchy did not oblige under the nature of a Moral Law but as a