the Land and our own Oaths and God himself by his Authority in his Vicegerents by whom these Laws are enacted laies upon us But it is said g. 12. That it makes no difference in this case to distinguish between what God permits and what he does for this distinction does not relate to the events of things but to the wickedness of Men which is the only reason for this Distinction for the Scripture never speaks of God's bare permission of any events but makes him the Author of all the good or evil which happens either to private Persons or publick Societies The events of all things are in his Hands and are ordered and disposed by his Will and Counsel as they must be if God go verns the World but God cannot be the Author of any wickedness cannot inspire Men with any wicked Counsels or Designs nor incline their Wills to the commission of it and therefore this we say God only permits but when it comes to Action he over-rules their wicked Designs to accomplish his own Counsels and Decrees and either disappoints what they intended or gives success to them when he can serve the ends of his Providence by their wickedness and herein consists the unsearchable Wisdom of Providence that God brings about his own Counsels by the free Ministries of Men He permits Men to do wickedly but all events which are for the good or evil of private Men or publick Societies are ordered by him as the Prophet declares Amos 3.6 Shall there be evil in a City and the Lord hath not done it 1. I answer There is no Reason why we should distinguish in this case between the Counsels and Designs of wicked Men and their Actions in the execution of them for God concurs as much to the Physical Operations of the Mind in purposing and contriving Evil as he does to the corporal acts in the bringing it to effect for the Mind is as little capable of thinking as the Body is of moving without God's continual concourse both having a necessary dependance upon him in the exercise of their proper Faculties And the Resolution and Contrivance to do Evil is the event or result of Thought and Consideration as the success in the performance and accomplishment of the Evil designed and resolved upon is the event of the several outward Actions which are done in order to it so that God concerns himself no more in the events which proceed from the exercise of the bodily Powers in bringing about ill Designs than in those which proceed from the Operations of the Mind in the projects and contrivances of Evil he permits both and concurs with both as they are the acts of Natural Causes in the production of their effects but as they have a tendency to Evil he concurs with neither He leaves Men a Liberty of Acting and Thinking and concurs with them accordingly he suffers them to sin and does not take from them the use of their Natural Faculties of Body or Mind though they employ them to ill Purposes and about wrong Objects 2. Evil whether considered Physically or Morally that is as it signifies Affliction or as it signifies Sin is in the Action as well as in the Event and therefore the words of the Prophet Amos are applicable to both alike For not only the Events of all things but the Actions of all Creatures are in Gods hands and are ordained and disposed by his Will and Counsel and by the Doctors arguing in all Actions as well as in all Events there is no distinction between what God permits and what he does which he says relates only to the wickedness of Men and therefore it does not relate to the Actions of Men but only to the wickedness of humane Actions For God gives success he says to wicked Designs when they come to Action he sets up Kings he advances them to the Throne he gives them the Throne Pag. 12 13. that is he goes along with them and assists them in the attainment of the Supreme Power and at last puts it into their hands So that they have his concurrence and assistance as much before the settlement as after it and he that at last gives them the Plenitude of Power gave them all along the opportunity and the means of attaining it For God makes no immediate Donation of it but bestows it upon them by his Providence that is by affording them ways and means to come by it The plain consequence of which must be that God not only suffers Men by wicked means to get into Power and then bestows his Authority upon them but he conduct them in every step they take and at last when they arrive at the Throne he places them in it For what God gives by Providence he does not give all at once but by the several degrees of success by which it is attained and the success of every particular action must be his Gift as much as the event it self And if every Event be of Gods doing every Action must be so too because Events proceed from Actions and are no otherwise done or brought about than by the performance of those Actions which are requisite to produce them and to say that God is the Author of the Event but not of the Action is to say that he is the Author of the Effect but not of the Causes Acting whereas he cannot appoint the Effect without appointing the Cause to Act unless the Effect could be produced without its Cause 3. End and Event are both but relative Terms the end of one sort or series of Actions may be but the begining of another and the Event or Effect of one Enterprise the Cause of another For that which is an Effect in respect of its Cause is a Cause in respect of its Effect and that which in respect of the means is the Event is the means in respect of another Event If then the Event of all things is from God and therefore gives a Right a Rebel or Usurper would have a Right to every Fort or Castle he gets into his Possession in order to his Thorough Settlement in the whole Kingdom for that in its kind is as truly an Event as a Thorough Settlement it self is in a different kind for he that possesses himself of a Castle has gained his end as much for that time and in that particular design as he that is possessed of a Kingdom has gained his end in the full accomplishment of his desires and designs And when he has his wishes in this perhaps he stops not here but makes this End and Event only a step to another Enterprise upon a Neighbour Kingdom and then the obtaining the first Kingdom is but a means to gain the latter as the several degrees of success were the means of obtaining the first But all other Events whatsoever are as means in Gods Hands and are made use of by him for the bringing about the final Events of things God therefore does not
For tho they were at first introduced by very wicked Practices yet God having vouchsafed to establish them and to invest them with his own Authority they must be obeyed as his Ordinance These things thus stated and cleared the Convocation proceeds to the remaining course of the Jewish History Ch. 29. Can. 29. and shews that the Jews owed Allegiance to the Kings of Persia after their return from Babylon who still continued by God's Appointment a supreme Authority over them And accordingly Jaddus the High Priest when Alexander required him to assist him in his Wars and become Tributary to him returned this Answer Ch. 30. Can. 30. that he had taken an Oath for his true Allegiance to Darius which he might not lawfully violate whilst Darius liv'd But when Alexander 's Authority was setled amongst them the Case was altered Ch. 31. Can. 31. and they then owed him the same Subjection that before they had owed Darius After Alexander's Death the Jews became again a free People he leaving behind him no Successor Ch. 31. but they were miserably oppressed by the bordering Kings of Egypt and Syria especially by Antiochus Epiphanes whose Invasion and Government was most unjust and Tyrannical until Mattathias moved with the monstrous Cruelty and Tyranny of the said Antiochus made open Resistance the Government of that Tyrant being not then either generally received by Submission or setled by Continuance The great disorders amongst the Priests brought many and grievous Afflictions upon the Jews both under the Government of the Grecians and of the Maccabees till at last Pompty took Jerusalem by the Assistance of Hircanus who had been displaced from the High Priesthood Ch. 32 33 34. Can. 32 33 34. his younger Brother Aristobulus getting into his room And tho Hircanus did very wickedly in taking this occasion to revenge himself of his Brother by enslaving his Country yet when the Jews had submitted to the Romans and had yielded themselves up to their Government they were utterly inexcusable in those Rebellions which they afterwards raised and which ended in their own Destruction Having thus far spoken of that mild and moderate Form of Civil Government which God at first establisht throughout the World Ch. 35. Can. 35. and afterwards preserved in some measure amongst the Jews till they by their perverseness and Rebellions brought utter ruin upon themselves they say lastly that Christ is the universal Lord and Governor of the whole Earth and the orders of the several particular Kingdoms and Governments of it as it may best conduce to the designs of his Wisdom and Goodness in the Government of the whole World which is but one universal Kingdom under him The Substance then of what the Convocation says is this First Christ as Creator and Governor of the World established a mild and temperate and fatherly Government which was to continue throughout all Ages in all Parts of the World but the Wickedness of men soon introduced other degenerate Forms either Tyrannical or Popular and these of several Sorts and Denominations Democratical Aristocratical c. 2. God calling Abraham out of Chaldea into Canaan and choosing his Posterity for his peculiar People continued this mild and Paternal Government amongst them and upon all Occasions did himself appoint their chief Governors till at last he ordained that the Government should be Hereditary and entailed it upon David's Posterity so that the Jews were governed all along after that original Form of Paternal Government which God instituted at the first Creation of Mankind and then again confirm'd after the Flood though this Form of Government was much defaced and diminished among the Jews in succeeding times by the great Abuses that crept in among them And in this Government First the Power was solely from God not depending upon the consent either of the Priests or People nor deriving any Authority from any Act of theirs Secondly their Kings had supreme Authority over all Persons and in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil Thirdly their Power was irresistable and they were accountable to God only for it But against this several things might be objected from Examples among the Jews which they answer by shewing that in those instances God's particular Warrant and Commission had been revealed as in the Case of Ahud and Jehu or that his Will and Command was fulfilled in their maintaining that Hereditary Succession which he had appointed by deposing an Usurper and setting up the Rightful Heir and this was what Jehoiada did 3. As for other degenerate sorts of Government though they ought not to have been introduced yet when by never so sinful Arts and Practices by Usurpations from abroad or by Factions and Rebellions at home they had any where been throughly setled as the Governments of Babylon and Egypt and Rome were they must be submitted to because where the Original Paternal Government was extinct the Authority thereby devolved upon the Possessors of the supreme Power in these degenerate Forms whether they were Tyrannical or Republican because the supreme Governour of the World would not suffer so great a Part of Mankind to be without any rightful Government for so long a time and yet so they must be unless he either authorize these degenerate Forms upon the Extinction of the Paternal Original Government or restore it by an over-ruling Providence 4. When the Jews themselves were by God's Judgment upon them for their Sins placed under such degenerate kinds of Government they were to pay the same Submission to those Governors that they did to their own Kings they might not depart out of Egypt without Pharaoh's leave first obtained unless God would have warranted them to do it by his express Direction and Command they must not submit to Alexander whilst Darius lived and no Oppression of the Romans was a sufficient excuse for their rebelling against them This being the Sense of the Convocation it will not be difficult to understand what they mean by a thorough Settlement Their Words are these And when Ch. 28. having attained their ungodly Desires whether ambitious Kings by bringing any Country into their Subjection or disloyal Subjects by their Rebellious rising against their natural Sovereigns they have established any of the said degenerate Forms of Government amongst their People the Authority either so unjustly gotten or wrung by Force from the True and Lawful Possessor being always God's Authority and therefore receiving no Impeachment by the Wickedness of those that have it is ever when any such Alterations are throughly setled to be reverenced and obeyed c. These Words being an inference from the Particulars before related in this Chapter we must judg of them from the occasion and design of the whole Chapter and from the particular instances alledged in it First the design of the Chapter is to shew what Obedience is due to Kings or other supreme Magistrates where that mild and temperate Government which had been the Subject of
whatsoever other undoubted Title by the Constitution of the Kingdom is alive and requires them to bear Faith and Allegiance to him The Sum of what can be said in the Affirmative seems to be this That as it is shewn at large in the Convocation Book Christ has reserved the Government of the World and the disposal of Kingdoms entirely to himself and can make or dispose Kings as he pleaseth notwithstanding any Claim Right Title or Interest which they can challenge to their Kingdoms and as he first ruled the world by frequent Revelations and Prophecies so since these are ceased he doth it by his Providence only for he always retains the same immediate Inspection with human affairs but now manifests his Pleasure and gives out his Commands as Governor of the world by the Declarations of his Providence that is by the Success and Event of things for he could not govern the World as supreme Lord and King of it or which is all one he could not require our Obedience in Compliance to his disposal of Kingdoms if his Will were not some way or other discovered to us and this being now the only way whereby he discovers it we must acquiesce in the Events of his Providence so as to obey Christ the Supreme Governor of the world in the Person of him whosoever he be whom he has set over us making no enquiry into the Justice of the Cause or into the means by which the Person now fully possessed of another Princes Power and Dominions came so possessed of them For God can take away and transfer any Right or Title as he pleaseth and the Conduct of his Providence in a Thorough Settlement of the Government is a sufficient evidence that he has transferred it because it is the only evidence we now can have And therefore we ought to look upon the Person thus setled as invested with God's Authority and to pay him a full and entire Allegiance as his Vicegerent with the same Submission and upon the same Reasons as if he had commanded us to do it by an express and immediate Revelation since his Providence is now the only Revelation or Manifestation of his will that we can expect and it must be instead of all other Revelations to us This seems to be the full of what can be fairly offered in the Affirmative and it is liable to the following Difficulties I. By Gods Providence must be understood either his Permission in concurring with Natural Causes to produce their Effects or his Appointment First If he only suffer or permit a thing to be done without denying his Concourse or interposing his Almighty Power to prevent it this by no means proves his Approbation of the Event or Success of it For he permits all the Wickedness that is committed in the World and suffers the worst men to prosper many times in their evil Courses Secondly If by Gods Providence be meant his Appointment this may signifie First that he from all Eternity decreed to permit the Event and designed and ordained it to advance his own Glory and to bring about some good to Mankind by it And so the Treachery of Judas was appointed Act. 2.23 that is God had decreed to suffer it to come to pass and had ordained it when come to pass for the Salvation of Mankind And there can be no doubt but the final Issue and ultimate event of all the worst Actions is ordained of God and approved of by him but the Case before us is of an intermediate and subordinate End which must be judged of whether it be good or bad by the Nature of the thing and not by any success or event That all will at last conclude in some good End in the long Series and Chain of Causes and Events which are ordained by God's Decree is most certain but then this doth not prove that the intermediate Causes and Events are approved of by him but we must enquire into the Justice of the Cause whereby we can only know whether the Event be pleasing to him or not Secondly By Gods Providence as it signifies his Appointment may be meant his Will or Command And this Will or Command is either for the doing of a thing or for our Submission and acquiescence in it after it is done His command for the doing of a thing cannot be known before the Event but by the Justice of the Action or by Revelation to neither of which the Doctor pretends And the Event cannot discover to us God's command to do a thing which is already done and past and I have in part shewn and shall more fully shew afterwards that it can as little discover to us his Approbation of the thing done or that it is his Will that we should acquiesce and submit to it II. Whereas it is said that since God now governs the World only by his Providence we must of Necessity acquiesce in the Event of things or else we should disobey him in not submitting to his disposal of the Governments of the World First God governs the World so as to require no Duty or Act of Obedience now of us but what the Laws of Nature or of Scripture enjovn And because Revelations are ceased it seems requisite that he should have revealed it in the Scriptures if he had required us to acquiesce in the Events of things and to look upon the most unjust Usurper as invested with his own Authority when he is once gotten into Possession of the Throne I say this seems necessary to have been revealed since Natural Reason cannot dictate it to us for in Gods permission of all othersort of Injustice in the World we never imagine that any Right can accrue to the Injuring Person by it Secondly God by his Power and Wisdom so orders things as to make the most unjust actions subservient to the Ends of Justice and Righteousness but not to reward Usurpation with the Investiture of his own Authority or to turn wrong into right And all that we learn from Scripture concerning God's Providence is that we must rely upon it for Protection in the performance of our known Duty and by consequence that we are to regard the Justice only of a Cause not the Success of it III. This would make it unlawful for any Prince who is dispossessed or excluded from the Throne to wage War against the Usurper in defence of his own Right For he is supposed to have no longer any Right after the Usurper is in full Possession because that Right which God gives to the Usurper the Lawful King must be divested of unless there can be two opposite Sovereign Authorities at the same time and both from God who severally retain the whole and entire Right at once to the same Kingdom But we read that David waged War against Ish-bosheth who was possessed of the Kingdom of all Israel for two years and against the Jebusites who were in possession of Jerusalem and he was in continual Wars before he
the Terms of it And he may invest the King with his own Authority and make him as irresistible as if he had himself nominated him and not conferred upon him his Authority by any intervention of Subordinate Means I need not mention that in Ordination and in the Sacraments and in all the Dispensations of God's Grace and Authority under the Gospel Human Acts intervene from whence it is obvious to conclude That since in things of the highest and most Spiritual Nature God requires Human Acts and does by them confer his Grace and Power the irresistible Authority of Kings can be never the more doubtful or questionable because the People's Consent and Submission is ordinarily required to the conveiance of it in the first Erections of Kingdoms for God acts as powerfully and effectually by the Ministeries of Men as by an immediate Command or Designation 2. The Absurdities then which he would prove to arise from the asserting a Necessity of a Legal Right in them who are now invested with God's Authority are all upon a false Supposition 1. He argues If the Authority be wholly derived from the People who shall binder them from the taking it away when they see fit Vpon these Principles there can be no Hereditary Monarchy one Generation can only choose for themselves their Posterity having as much Right to choose as they had And what Right had my Ancestors three or four hundred Years ago to choose a King for me These are the Absurdities he would bring all Men to who are not of his Opinion And upon the same wrong Supposition would afterwards prove that Passive Obedience is altogether inconsistent with any but his present Principles though he has effectually proved it upon other Principles in his Case of Resistance And if he will now suppose that by his former Principles nothing more can go to the making of a King whether he comes in by Conquest or Usurpation upon Defect of a better Claim by any other or by Compact or an Hereditary Right than the bare Choice and Consent of the People this is a little too much to be granted and yet if this be denyed all his Inferences fall of themselves to the Ground The thing to be proved is That Kings have not their Authority from God unless they be set up only by the Divine Providence without any respect to Human Law and Right which can never be proved unless it be shewn That God cannot or will not set up Kings in a way consistent with the Laws of Kingdoms and with the Consent and voluntary Submission of Subjects The Bond of Matrimony is never the sooner dissolved because Marriages are not made in Heaven as they say but Men and Women are at their Liberty and have a Power of choosing whether they will marry this or that Person or will not marry at all God may appoint the Persons and prevent or over-rule the Consent of the Parties and he has sometimes done it Gen. 24. He can appoint Kings and set aside the ordinary Forms and Laws of Government but this doth not prove That he will always do it nor that we are ever to expect it now much less may we conclude That he cannot or will not concur with Human Acts intervening and give them his own Sanction God certainly can and ordinarily does convey Power and Authority as effectually by concurring with Men and ratifying what they do as if he did it immediately himself unless we will say That God does nothing but Miracles and that subordinate Causes do every thing else without him But to use the Doctor 's own Words God not only places a single Person in the Throne P. 14. but entails it on his Family by Human Laws and makes the Throne a Legal Inheritance And after all the only difference between the Doctor and his Adversaries is That he says God's Providence makes Kings by Conquest or by Submission and long successive Continuance of Power or by Human Laws or against Human Laws because if Providence did not make Kings he could not prove that it unmakes them But those of the contrary Opinion deny neither the absolute Power of God nor the Effects of his Providence in setting up and putting down Kings but they suppose that unless it be when God declares that it is his Will to act by an Absolute Power without any regard to the Laws of Men he does not raise up and depose Kings in a way that is contrary to the Constitution of their Kingdoms so as to absolve Subjects from the Allegiance which the Laws of their Country require but so orders and disposes things that Kings shall as long remain invested with his Authority as they have a Legal Right 2. The Notion of a Legal Right he says P. 25. must ultimately resolve it self into the Authority of the People to make Kings which it is unjust for God himself to over-rule and alter For a legal Entail is nothing more than the Authority of the People and if the People have such an uncontroulable Authority in making Kings be doubts they will challeng as much Authority to unmake them too That is as we were told before no Man is bound by his Ancestors Act and every Man too may undo what he has done himself when he thinks fit It has been already shewn that tho' the Prerogatives of Kings and the Constitutions of Kingdoms may be contrived and agreed upon by Men yet God gives Kings a Right to govern according to them and supreme and irresistible Authority to enable and secure them in the Administration of their Kingdoms P. 14. and entails the Thrones on their Families by Human Laws And though God may over-rule and alter the Rights of Princes yet his Providence is no sufficient Evidence that he intends to do it If we once knew it were his Will all Human Laws must forthwith give Place to it but since his Providence is not a Declaration of his Will in this Matter we must keep to the Observation of Human Laws and of our Oaths grounded upon them But to suppose the most and the worst that can be said If the People did set up Kings by Consent and Compact this is no Argument that they may depose them For a People who consent to the setting a King over them must consent to set one over them with Supreme Authority and the Supreme Authority is that which hath no Superiour and therefore cannot be resisted For if the Supreme Authority may be resisted then to be sure all Inferiour Authority may be resisted too and so all Government must be dissolved for want of any sufficient Authority to manage it It follows then That there must be a Supreme Authority somewhere in all Governments and in a Kingdom this Supreme Authority must be in the King and a People who upon this Supposition should make a King must choose one in whom they place the Supreme Authority that is who is irresistible at least unless they reserve