THE Church of England's DOCTRINE OF Non-Resistance JUSTIFIED and VINDICATED as truly Rational and Christian AND THE Damnable Nature OF Rebellious Resistance REPRESENTED By LEWES SHARP Rector of Morton-Hampstead in Devon Take this for a general Rule That the immortal Policy of a State cannot admit of any Law of Priviledge whatsoever but in some particular or other the same is necessarily broken Sir Walt. Rawleigh LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall MDCXCI FOR Subjects to bear Arms against their Kings Offensive or Defensive upon any Pretence whatsoever is at the least to resist the Powers which are ordained of God And though they do not invade but only resist St. Paul tells them They shall receive to themselves Damnation and the same Constitution and Canon requires all Arch-bishops Bishops and all other inferiour Priests and Ministers that they preach teach and exhort their People to obey honor and serve their King and that they presume not to speak of His Majesty's Power in any other Way than in this Canon is expressed Which Canon the Church ordained and decreed That every Parson Vicar Curate or Preacher upon some one Sunday in every quarter of the Year at Morning Prayer shall in the Place where he serves treatably and audibly read Const Canon Eccles made in 16 Ch. 1. 1640. Can. 1. To their most Excellent MAJESTIES Dread Sovereigns ALthough the greatest Princes with their dependant Governments and Interests are exposed to change yet Truth is not This stands on such a firm Basis that that which was once Truth whether in Rome Geneva or England is still so and will be so for ever And therefore how propitious and indulgent soever the publick Revolution of Affairs may prove to the corrupt Lusts and Interests of Men seditiously minded the Truth will always be their Adversary and bid defiance to them and such is the mighty and irresistible force thereof that it will eventually conquer and triumph over all their Sophistical reasonings and enthrone it self in their Judgments and Consciences for Conversion or Confusion That Catholick Doctrine which is asserted and contended for in these Papers hath been is and will be for a Crown of rejoycing to the Church of England whose Religion being constituted of a stedfast Allegiance to her Princes as well as a constant Devotion to her God it cannot be disclaimed and renounced without a plain Apostacy from her Communion which is matter of abhorrence to all good Christians and yet such is the boldness I had almost said Impudence of some bigotted pirking Fanaticks that for many Months together they have attempted with great diligence to ridicule and expose it to scorn and contempt and one of them having mounted and settled himself in the Seat of the Scornful made it part of his Morning Exercise to insinuate amongst other sediticus Things That the Preaching thereof is one of those national Sins we are to repent of in expectation of national Mercies because a Doctrine designed to enslave the Nation Slavery with them being an equivalent to a restraint from the Liberty of an armed Resistance of their Prince when they shall judge it necessary and themselves well prepared for it Indeed another of them for part of his Morning Exercise assumes the Confidence to publish to the World That they are misrepresented when reported as Enemies to Monarchy because they have given assurance by Oath of their Allegiance to it but if the one be fit to be an Interpreter to the other as no doubt but he is they being of the same Confederacy and bound up in the same bundle together their Allegiance is only during pleasure which they will term so long as your Majesties Behaviours and Administrations are such as they should be that is such as they shall well like and approve of The naked Truth is this their Friendship and Fidelity to your Majesties Persons and Goverments is only founded on what they apprehend to be beneficence to their private Opinions and consequent Affections and Interests for the Proof of which their Deportments under the late Administrations of publick Affairs is an evidence even to a Demonstration their factious Designs and Practices being the sole Standards and Measures of what they repute good and evil all publick Administrations are Objects of their election or reprobation agreeably to that subserviency or contrariety they bear to them So that if you serve them they will serve you but if you oppose and suppress them they will oppose and suppress you if they can Wherefore if your Majesties will be secured from their rebellious Insurrections against your Government you must let them do always that which is right in their own eyes and never displease them Abrogate the Act of Vniformity and the Tests Renounce Supremacy in Causes Ecclesiastical and extirpate Prelacy as well as Popery the continuation of all which with them are national Sins raise up and set on foot the solemn League and Covenant 〈…〉 and bring the Episcopal Clergy to such a Temper that they may pass for Men tollerable in the Church and if no body anger them they will be very quiet But Your Majesties must remember that they are Abhorrors of the Doctrine of Non-Resistance as well as of the Act of Vniformity the Sacramental Test Episcopacy Liturgy and Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Causes and therefore must keep your selves in the posture of Gladiators for if the publick Administrations chance to be oppressive in their Apprehensions and Judgments to their natural civil or spiritual Rights and Priviledges with which they are more richly stored than their Neighbours they will be your Subjects no longer than they are strong enough to be your Masters and the Deposition of your Majesties in order to the Exaltation of their own Discipline which they will call the Scepter of Jesus Christ shall be reputed a Mercy as considerable as a Fifth of November's Deliverance It can be no matter of wonder to your Majesties that those Men who will still have this lain down for a Principle That in all the Disputes between Power and Liberty Power must be proved but Liberty proves it self the one being founded only on positive Law and the other upon the Law of Nature that they caution your Subjects against examining the Matter of Regal Power by the Scriptures for if we are resolved to stick to them as the Rules of our belief and practice in this case we shall find the Power of Kings founded on another Bottom and Constitution than that these Men have invented and commended to the World for the Scriptures do assure us That not only those who reigned over God's own peculiar People did Reign immediately from and by him Acts 7.35 Numb 27.16 18. Judg. 2.16 1 Sam. 10.1 Prov. 8.15 but also that all other Kings are as truly and certainly of his Ordination and Constitution as they were and owe their Authority and Kingdoms immediately to him and not to their Subjects Jer. 27.5 6 7. Isa
of a lawless Violence and Oppression be not the Resistance of a lawful Authority yet the Resistance of a lawless Violence may be so Circumstanced that it may be an unlawful Resistance of him or them that are in a full and unquestionable Possession of a lawful Authority For when the Illegal Acts of Sovereign Princes are by Force of Arms resisted Sovereign Princes themselves as such are also resisted because their Persons and Authority are not actually and indeed divided 'T is true their natural and politic Capacities are distinguishable in our Conceptions but 't is as true that the natural Subsistences of the Sovereign Powers are rever actually seperated from their Sovereign Authority I pray consider for the Illustrations of this if the English Legiance be not due to the King in his natural Capacity and not in his politic Capacity for as the King swears to protect us in our natural Capacities so we swear Legiance to him in his natural Capacity And this is the Reason why by our Law the Compassing and Imagining the Death of the King is High-Treason because his Person being invested with Sovereign Authority he cannot be Murthered in the Eye of the Law under any other Notion Wherefore though the Personal Acts of our Kings are not always Legal Acts and their Commands considered in their Natural Capacities may be such as no good Subject can approve actively submit unto and obey yet they are still the higher Powers which cannot be resisted without the peril of damnation because their personal Subsistences imply an inseperable Investiture with Sovereign Authority And therefore my Lord Coke in Calvins Case tells us that the Natural Legiance due to our Kings in their Natural Capacities from their Subjects is absolute and indefinite not circumscribed by Law but above Law and before Law and consequently indelible and immutable Sect. 87. Because the Authority of our Kings is in their Laws their Offices their Courts where their Persons are not some think that their Persons may be resisted and no Resistance made to their Authority I would have such to consider whence it is that Laws Judicial Courts and Subordinate Officers have their Authority Is it not Originally from the Authority of the King's Person And are not all the Laws Courts and Officers of the Kingdom for that reason called the King's Laws Courts and Officers And can the King communicate Authority without Authority first inherent in himself Certainly that must needs be the most Eminent Authority which is the Source and Fountain of all other Authority according to that Maxim Quicquid efficit tale est magis tale And if the Personal Authority of the King be antecedent to that of his Laws Courts and Officers and derive to them that Authority they partake of then I conceive 't will be no illogical reasoning to infer That the Being and Existence of his Sovereign Authority depends not on them As the King had an Existence before their Constitution so he may likewise after their dissolution God forbid that when a Sovereign Prince hath solemnly promised and sworn to Govern his Subjects according to his Established Laws and to Protect them in their Rights Properties and Priviledges that he should violate his Faith thus given to God and his People yet if he do he is a Sovereign Prince still and the Resistance of him a Resistance of the Ordinance of God because his Authority is from God and hath no Superior under God to controul it nor to whom to forfeit and because the illegal Exercise of his Power doth not disannul his Authority Sect. 88. 4. The Illegal and Destructive Acts of the Sovereign Powers towards their Subjects are not always Inauthoritative Acts. This is evident to the common Sense and Experience of Mankind from the injurious Sentences that are past and Executions that ensue in all sorts of Human Judicatures respectively to the Lives Limbs Liberties and Estates of Subjects The Liberty the Subjects here in England have in some Cases to arrest Judgment and to appeal from an Inferiour to a Superiour Court presumes the Truth of this Now though a Sentence contrary to the true Intention of Law be an unjust Sentence and cannot properly have the Authority of the Law in it yet Subjects in all Parts of the World are obliged by it till it be rescinded and reversed by the Authority of a competent Superiour Judge And if it be a Sentence past or ratified by a Supream Judge from whom there is no appeal the Subject can have no redress but is finally concluded by it how illegal and pernitious soever it be hence that Etiam cum Praetor iniquum pronunciat jus dicit Which is a further Evidence that there is an Authority in Persons Superiour to that in Laws 'T is from the Authority of the Person and not of the Law that a Sentence pronounced according to the Law binds in some Cases and not in others and a Sentence pronounced against Law is reversible in some Cases and not in others Indeed 't is plain that a Sentence pronounced contrary to the End and Intention of Law could have no Authority and Obligatory Force in it were it not from the Authority of the Judge whose act it is Then it will follow Sect. 89. 5. That the Right which Subjects have to preserve themselves in their Properties and Liberties against the unjust and violent Invasions or Usurpations of the Prerogative cannot authorize or warrant them to an active and forcible Resistance thereof For though the higher Powers are not Commissioned to do illegal out-ragious and destructive acts of violence yet they are the higher Powers by Commission and therefore though they abuse their Power the Subjects being no competent Judges thereof they are to be submitted unto without Resistance The High Priest and Elders of the People had no legal Authority to apprehend and secure Jesus Christ as a Criminal and yet he condemned St. Peter's forcible Resistance thereof So when the High Priest commanded St. Paul to be smitten contrary to the Law he acknowledged that notwithstanding that injurious violence offered to him he had no warrant to revile him much less violently resist him and return blow for blow So that those Acts of the higher Powers which are done without Law and against Law being considered conjunctively with the Authors or efficient Causes of them they imply the Presence of a Sovereign Authority with them which is uncontrollable and irresistible Sect. 90. 4. Another Objection which very naturally offers it self from what was last said is this if the very Illegal Acts of all Sovereign Powers be uncontrollable and irresistible then a Despotical is not Distinguishable from a Political Government nor an Arbitrary from a Legal Power nor an Absolute Monarchy from a Monarchy regulated and limited by Established Laws because the Authority of the one in effect is of equal extent with the other and the one as unaccountable and irresistble if he make his Will his Law as the other Ans What
chusing and so known to be 2 Sam. 16.12 He was for his personal qualification a Man after Gods own Heart Acts 13.22 and fulfilled all his Wills And in his Government over Israel 't is said that be fed or ruled them according to the Imagrity of his Heart and guided them by the Skilfulness of his Hands Psal 78.72 He Fought their Battles with Victorious Successes against their Enemies and managed all Public Affairs to their best Advantage Yet his Son Absolom being an Ambitious Aspiring Prince taking State upon him by his Magnificent Attendants and Departments easily obtained the Popular Reputation of a Brave Spirited Man and by his familiar Compliances and insinuating Discourses and Harangues to the Common People easily endeared himself to them and soon possessed them with hard thoughts of their King and a Perswasion that if his Father David were deposed and he succeeded him in the Throne they should be more tenderly dealt withal and all their Grievances redressed 2 Sam. 15.1 2 3 4. Oh! That he were a Judge in the Land If the Power of Government were in his hand Public Affairs should be so well Accommodated that there should not be a Grievance to be complained of Which plausible Pretence made such deep Impressions on the Minds and Affections of the Giddy Subjects that almost all the Kingdom of Israel conspired with him to make Head against David 'T is said so strong and spreading was the Conspiracy that the People increased continually with Absolom 2 Sam. 15.12 and a Messenger told David that the Hearts of the Men of Israel were after Absolom v. 13. and David's Danger was so Great that though he were a Man of an undaunted Courage and in a Cittadel of Great Strength and well Garrison'd with Valiant and Experienced Souldiers and had many Loyal and Faithful Subjects about him yet for his own Preservation and the Good of the City of Hierusalem he and all that were with him fled before Absolom and his Conspirators 2. Sam. 15.12 13 14. Sect. 17. And although God was manifestly graciously present with David and brought this Rebellious Insurrection to nothing 2 Sam. 18. and 2 Sam. 19. Yet the Men of Israel having been possessed with an Opinion that 't was lawful for them to take up Arms against their King even whilst the Bitter Effects of their former Rebellion and the Sense of the King's Indulgence and Pardon was fresh in their Minds upon some hot words betwixt the Men of Judah and the Men of Israel Sheba sounds a Trumpet of Rebellion and every Man of Israel went up from David and followed after Sheba in a New Rebellion 2 Sam. 20.12 which suggests to us this Observation That Rebels are not obliged by the Indulgences Pardons and Favours of their Princes against whom they have once made Resistance but those who have been Engaged in a Rebellion against their King how remarkable soever their overthrow was and how much soever the Hand of God was against them are so fatally bewitched with the Charmings of Rebellious Principles and Affections that they readily comply with an opportunity of involving themselves in a New Rebellion A Rebellious Disposition is too stubborn to yield to the Victorious Successes of his Prince Conquest and a Pardon will change the Condition but not the Disposition of a Rebel Yea favours will rather exasperate than extirpate their ungovernable Passions And from this instance 't is likewise manifest That if it be warrantable for Subjects in any case whatsoever to make Resistance against the Higher Powers the most Innocent and Righteous Government may easily be disturbed and destroyed Sect. 18. 3. 'T is against Common Reason That the Higher Powers should in any case and upon any pretence whatsoever be resisted with armed Force because the Jus gladij the Power of Arms the Power of making Peace and War doth properly belong to them only The Apostle tells us Rom. 13.4 that he beareth not the Sword in vain Implying that the Supream Power hath right to the Sword and consequently the Subject cannot take the Sword without Invading and Usurping the Right and Propriety of the King That which is proper to the King is inseperable from him and cannot be communicated to his Subjects 'T is a Great Truth which a Learned Man Asserts That the Power of the Sword is Potissima pars Regis the Chiefest Propriety of the Sovereign Power Devest the King of this and he is rather a Nominal than a Real King For whatever Authority he hath he hath no Power to Defend himself Protect his Subjects or to offend his and their Enemies Sect. 19. Now if the Power of the Sword be only in the King it cannot be lawful for his Subjects upon any pretence whatsoever to wrest it from him and turn the Force of it against him because 't is an Usurpation made upon his Propriety and an assuming to them that in which they have no right Who but the King with us is to appoint Martial Officers He shall make Captains over Thousands and Captains over Fifties and he shall go out before them and Fight their Battles 1 Sam. 8.12 No Man or Men but the Supream and Sovereign Power hath Authority to raise Souldiers Levy War and Fight Battles Whosoever therefore maketh use of the Sword in a military sort without Authority derived from thence deserves to perish by the Sword as our Saviour told Peter upon that occasion Mat. 26.51 I pray who had under the Law the Power of the Trumpet by which the People were alarmed and assembled for War but Moses who was the Supream Ruler of the People And when Jonathan by Sauls command smote the Garrison of the Philistines that was in Geba who blew the Trumpet that is caused it to be blown throughout the Land to call the People together for a general Rendezvouz but King Saul 1 Sam. 13.3 4. Sect. 20. War being the Highest Act of Vindicative Justice as it must not be undertaken without a just Cause and very weighty Reasons and for very good Ends and such too as cannot be obtained without it so neither must it be undertaken and engaged in without good Authority to warrant it And the Supream Authority which hath Power to make and execute Laws being the only Authority that can warrant a War and give Men a Lawful Call to it there cannot be a Lawful Assembling and Confederacy for any War without such a Lawful Call and the King having the only Power of the Sword here with us as the Laws of all Ages declare to us he only can call us to engage our selves in a War and therefore certainly we cannot lawfully resist him upon any pretence whatsoever In the Statute of the 25th of Edw. 3d. it is Declared without the Allowance of any Pretence whatsoever to be Treason for any Man or Men whatsoever to Levy War against our Lord the King or to be Adherent to his Enemies giving them any aid or comfort in the Realm or elsewhere And in