or any other Form When instead of a Mushroom the growth of one night that springs perhaps out of the basest Excrements and of such a lazy despondency of Mind as sinks him into the next degree to a Beast making him to have no designs generous and noble to carry him beyond his own felicity we shall have one whose blood is derived to him through the Veins of many Noble Heroick and Vertuous Progenitors who becomes all Spirits refined from those marish and terrene parts which weigh down or raise Vapours to eclipse others of a more base Extraction when they aspire to great and generous actions Nay this makes Princes live in their Posterities when dead and brings reverence to the very Swadling-Cloaths and Cradles of their Successors as if they might Command Obedience before they could speak as Barclay observes Nor can it be imagined but that their high and vertuous Educations should infuse a Gallantry into them above Pride saith the same Author having been always used to the greatest outward Observances and by being so placed above all Contempt so as it cannot but nourish in them higher thoughts than either Hatred Emulation or Avarice produces and free them from those self-reflections private Families are subject to as I have touched before because they are secured against the fears of Competitors in rule and have setled supplies for their wants enjoying in the Stream what others have but in the Cistern and conveying it to their posterity as their Patrimony and Inheritance making them many times Heirs of the Goods of their minds as well as Bodies and to reap the Harvest and crop of all their noble and growing Designs which as Seed sown by them will not perhaps ripen into Fruit in many years after For it is probable such will manure and nurse up with Industry and Care what their Predecessors planted Nor can the Infancy and weakness of a Prince be of so bad a Consequence as a Popular State because he is then in Guardian to the most able and faithful Great Ones or the great Council of the Kingdom it self which the wisest and best of Kings do always make use of to steer their Actions by Nay if that Government should for a time degenerate it is more likely soon to recover and unite again in one when broken into many Interests equally tainted with malignant Influences and self-seeking designs But not with the Mole to lose my self upon the face and superficies of things when I may make my Habitation safe by digging deeper the best Foundations being lowest laid I shall return to my first design and go to the Root of all endeavouring to show that Regal Power was a Plant of Paradise of God's own setting and so of Divine Right and that the Sword which contends with the Scepter and raises it self upon the ruines of just Power cannot be free from all the fore-mentioned sad Effects which must eclipse the Glory of every Nation and leave it no Trophies but such as Pyrrhus once said of his Victories as would undoe the Conquerour and appear best when shrouded under the Vail of true Repentance and offered up again by a holy Restitution to the Altar from which they were sacrilegiously taken Such successes being our greatest vanquishments and leaving us no just Title to make other use of our unjust acquisitions Though Abishai would have preached David into a Murder and Rebellion at once upon no better grounds than Gods delivering Saul into his power o 1 Sam. 26.9.10.24.12 had he not learnt a better Divinity measuring his Actions by Gods revealed Will not outward Events knowing he there writes in Characters shewing us his hand only but not letting us at all read his meaning in them p Deut. 9. 2 Chron. 13.8 But to be a little more plain and perspicuous in so necessary a Truth I shall endeavour as in an Epitome or Index to those many large and learned Discourses that have been written upon this subject to sum up the best Collections I can and to digest them into this Method First To shew that Kings are the Ordinance of and hold their Supreme Power from God not Man and that they are only accountable to him for the use of it Secondly What that Power is and how limited Thirdly That resistance in the Subject against that Power is in no Case warrantable Fourthly What Duties Kings owe to their Subjects Fifthly What the Subject's Allegiance consists in to them First That Kings are the Ordinance of God contrary to that of the Romanists and our new Statists Reges coronas sceptra ab hominibus recipiunt ad eorum placita tenent q Bellarm. lib. 5. de Rom. Pon. cap. 7. So Buchanan r De Jure Reg. apud Scotos Populus Rege praestantior etiam major Rex igitur cum ad Populi Judicium vocatur minor ad majorem in jus vocatur For they are called God's by Institution and Appropriation from God For By me Kings reign saith he s Prov. 8.15 Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2. Jo. 14.30 Hos 13.11 Wis 6.13 and with my holy Oyl have I anointed him t Ps 89.20 not only to rule by but for God too as the most express Character of him upon Earth Which made him lead his people by the hand of Moses and Aaron one Chief in Civil matters the other in things concerning the Priest's Office though with subordination Not one People by many Rulers much less the Ruler by the People but by one in Chief under the conduct of God himself and by his Authority as may appear in that and all other Instances of Regal Power So as Kings are to be reverenced and distinguished from others in regard of that Natural and Paternal Power God planted in Adam and caused immediately after to derive from many Heads into one Chief in one place a cause of the division of the Nations amongst the Sons of Noah as Monarch of the whole Earth after the Flood u Gen. 10.32 So as Kings are Gods and to be obeyed First In regard of their Attribute of Power For where the word of a King is there is Power w Eccles 8.4 that he might be feared x Pro. 24.21 and who may say unto him what dost thou Secondly In that of Mercy For there is Mercy with him that he may be feared in that he beareth not the Sword in vain y Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2. but doth whatsoever pleaseth him z Eccle. 8.3 1 Sam. 8. in giving gracious Indulgences Thirdly In regard of Majesty and Soveraignty For God expresseth them by those highest Titles saith Calvin a Inst 4. l. cap. 20. to affect us with the awful sence of the Divinity it self and our Duty to them in putting the Glory of his own name upon them For b Ps 82.6 I have said ye are Gods and not only so but decreed and ordained it it shall be so even Gods before Men though Men before God 1st
Spirits and render them rather Conquerours than Supplicants But I hope God will not submit his own Glory and our King to such an Eclipse when nothing but necessity can make it lawful Though probably such a Scheme by some may be set and calculated for our Horizon when his Majesty's Complyance to some things has made them rather impose more than acquiesce in what they desired for he that once gives Ground ever loses more in his Retreat unless it be to rally again with some Reserves to maintain his own Right more vigorously so as we ought still to contend to Blood for our King's Freedom in his Actings against such Especially those whose Principles are for Resistance and Rebellion not Submission in things that are contrary to their seditious Principles that hold it lawful to murder the King if not the man in whom the Regal Power is vested by dispoiling him of all his Regalia and Essentials of Royalty which were to un shakel mad-men and set them free to Fury and Rage perhaps for the destruction of those that endeavoured their recovery and preservation and not to strike Sparks into those Brands that need be quenched but they heighten all into a Flame Besides it were unsafe to the Publick Peace to permit the Factious Separatists who are yet as Sand without Morter weak dispersed and loose to gather into Combinations and Confederacies by which they 'll know their own strength and take advantage of others weakness to compass their own end whose end is only like Oyl among other Liquors to be uppermost and bring all into a subjection to them and to be able perhaps to give not ask Dispensations Nay it would reflect dishonour and disgrace upon our Government and Governours and Discouragement to all Orthodox Professors not to maintain what hath been prosperously practised among us since the Reformation and hath had the Influences of Heaven to give it a Prolifick Vertue in producing a Loyal Zealous and Pious People to beautifie their Professions And therefore Christian Kings should not be out-done by a Heathen inspired by God to it but send out a Decree that whosoever will not do th Law of God and the King's Law let him have Judgment without delay whether it be to Death or to Banishment or to Confiscation of Goods or to Imprisonment s Ezr. 7.25 26 27. which was in part practised by the Kings of Israel t 2 Chro. 15.12 13 14 15. 29. â—0 31. 34.31 â—2 â—3 1 Chron. 23. and ought much more to be done under the Gospel that hath more of light and direction in it to walk by lest Liberty should turn into Licentiousness in holding things contrary to the Analogy of Faith and against the Rules of Charity Purity Loyalty Sobriety and Expedience to the disturbance of the Peace and Unity of the Church which Good and Pious Kings ought always to prevent or restrain by wholesom and Penal Laws of Regulation to encourage or fright their People the more to their Duties and Obedience which I shall in the next place touch upon with a light and unskilful Pencil CHAP. V. Of the Debt and Allegiance Subjects owe to their Princes NOW that we may pay and retribute the Native Rights rightly which we owe to the Person upon whom God hath fixt the Sacred Character of Supremacy let us endeavour to set a true value and estimate upon the great benefits we receive by him when we either find in the foot of the Account all the Glory of Religion and happiness of a free People if he Governs well summed up in him or when ill not only the Exercise of many Christian Graces in us God commanding our Submission to him but sometimes the highest Crown of Martyrdom when we suffer for Christ and a Good Cause and are not only ready with St. Paul to do but dye for his Name u Acts 21. For by it we may make Tyrants and our greatest Enemies to become our best Friends if we can but improve those holy advantages for our Spiritual Good and make our Spirits when extracted from the more earthly parts in all outward enjoyments to multiply our Joyes so that were there not a higher Principle to move us our own Interest and self-advantage the delight and complaisance of a quiet Conscience should naturally incline us to an holy gratitude to God for them and oblige us to all proportionable returns unless we will have the inanimate and irrational Creatures to rise up against us in Judgment For thus the Rivers run back into the Lap of their Natural Mother and offer up their streams there as a just Tribute for having sucked and derived their nourishment from her Breasts Thus the dull and heavy Earth doth put forth her self in an early Spring to make an Offering of her Fruits to man for his labour and cost bestowed on her and sends up an Incense to Heaven confest of the Spirits of her richest Flowers in thanks for her fruitful Showers and sweet Influences by which they grow and flourish Nay the most unnatural of all Birds the Raven became Elias his Caterer out of a natural gratitude to God as some have observed for feeding her young ones when she left them And therefore let not these become in this reasonable Creatures and we Men become Beasts nay worse by our unthankfulness for Blessings by Afflictions but most when we fail in our Duties to our Superiours for their benefits to us the contrary being enjoined by God who because Princes are to rule for him takes care for them and no sooner provides for his own Worship but for their Honour w Ex. 20.2 3 1â— still coupling them with himself through all the Scripture as x Prov. 24.21 Mat. 22.21 1 Pet. 2.17 Fear God honour the King that so both Law Prophets Apostles nay the Son of God himself might enforce it as a Duty upon us as a learned Father of our Church observes But not to loose my self in this Sea we will follow the several streams that run into it and shew how they all meet there And First of Obedience 1. The first great Out-rent and Homage we are to acknowledge our subjection in is Obedience in lawful Commands For so St. Paul to Titus y Tit. 3.1 commenting as it were upon the 13th Chapter to the Romans expounds it And as the Learned observe the very word Subjects signifies Obeyers in the Original as an Essential Ingredient into an happy Government which with Solon is ever most glorious Si Populus Magistratui obediat Magistratus autem legibus But then this duty must be rooted in Conscience and spring from thence in that we must obey for the Lord's sake terminating it in him because the bond to Civil Obedience is from Divine Ordinance and that not only to the good but froward Masters z 1 Pet. 2.18 Eph. 6. And then let it spread into every duty even in all things a Col. 3.20 Actively or
or lawful Magistrate in Israel Nay even in Popular States so natural a thing is Monarchy in what hands soever the Power is one Finger will still as in natural Bodies be found longer than the rest and become a Kingly Tyrant by his over-swaying Interest And therefore let us not cast Pelion upon Ossa heap Sin upon Sin by countenancing such mushroom Alterations Nay he that is not against them is with them in this case and so becomes guilty of their unfruitful deeds of Darkness if not discountenancing and preventing them by all lawful wayes according to that of the Apostle t 1 Thes 5. avoid all appearance of evil by appearing to disallow of it never concurring actively with it though we suffer to Bonds and death For that will in the end prove our Crown of rejoycing though the Absoloms of these times would with fair and specious pretences seduce us from our Allegiance For it is better in this Case contrary to David's choice to fall into the hands of Men embalmed with Innocence to preserve our names from Infamy and our Souls from Damnation than into the hands of God besmeared with the Leprosie of Sin that must needs cause his rejection of us But if the Despisers of God and their King will still pertinaciously maintain the black and horrid Sins of Oppression Sacriledge Murder and the like not only deposing but despoyling them as the greatest Delinquents of all their just Patrimonies and Rights by plundering the one and vilifying the other in all things sacred whether Places Persons or Revenues sanctified and discriminated by Gods own Institution by prophaning his Sanctuaries and despising his Priests and Ordinances d Lam. 31. Ps 74. they may be assured of a certain if not swift destruction to overtake them from the Authority of the like Precedents in all Ages and the Word of God it self For their Posterity here like a Plague-sore in the Body growing out of their own putrefaction their soul and ulcerous Sins as the meritorious cause of Judgments will hasten them Nor can they account themselves free from the other's guilt who have not acted in their Crimes if they have not some way opposed them e Judg. 5.23 according to their several Callings and Capacities being bound to it by the Laws of God the Kingdom and that of Natural Obligation to their Civil Parents and common Charity to their engaged Brethren in that Damnation will be chiefly pronounced against Sins of Omission at the last day which I express not to upbraid any but to convince them by it to make them steer a more safe course in Emergencies of the like nature if any shall hereafter happen making God's Law the Compass by which they sail even Heavenly Influences not sublunary Agitations However I hope they will keep themselves from a countenancing of or complyance with the Persons and Actings of those that usurp the Supreme Power both in regard of Scandal to others and contracting Crime upon themselves by avoiding all Appearances of Evil f 1 Thes 5. when Vertue and Vice border so upon one another are so near in their Confines and so contiguous as the least excess or defect makes a Natural Action many times an unnatural disorder and a thing indifferent in it self become the parent of a great Sin Therefore he cannot be innocent that holds Communion with those that are guilty of such high Crimes in any thing that seems to countenance them though God's Service be a thing pretended as in their Thanksgivings and Humiliations so St. Augustine g Serm. 6. de verb. Dom. For two will not walk together unless they agree saith the Prophet h Amos 3.3 So as it is the duty of every Christian not to betray the truth by his Silence or Countenance but to contend for it against all Actions that seem to favour the successes of an unjust Cause grounded in Rebellion or tending to the maintaining an Usurped Power i Judg. 3.11 And therefore we ought by separating from them k 2 Cor. 4.17 to reprove their Errours l Eph. 5.7 11 15. in that our Actions have a Tongue in them as well as the Corn Earth and other inanimate Creatures m Psal 19. So that though Humiliations and Thanksgivings are Pious and Religious Duties in themselves yet when called to advance any unjust Interest or to countenance it our presence there intitles us to their Sin though we abhor it and the Minister at that time preach against it in that the end for which it was commanded terminates and specificates the Duty in all ordinary and publick Interpretation and makes us give by our presence Offence to the Innocent confirm the Wicked and partake of their Crimes so as Disobedience in that case is better than Sacrifice n 1 Sam. 15. Nay I may not only appropriate others Sins o Psal 50.28 by Countenance Approbation or Imitation while living but may be guilty of Sin in others many thousand years after I am dead as well as I did Sin before I was born when they sin by Example or Infusion derived from me For as the long precogitation upon any sin with delight makes it an old and inveterate one before it be produced into Act so another's repetition of any sin by my Example or Authority though committed many Ages hence makes it a new sin to me and to increase my Damnation as is deduced most justly by Divines from the Parable of Dives p Luke 16. who reflected upon himself not his Brethren in his charity And therefore let us walk with all preciseness q Psal 119.53.63 hating Evil with a perfect hatred and doing nothing that either may be made an Argument to confirm others in any evil way or action by our complyance or be matter of just scandal to the Innocent and suffering Party especially if our Judgments approve it not For if I ought not to do a good Action nor favour a good Cause if not of Faith r Rom 14. I am much less excusable in countenancing an ill one my Judgment in any thing dissenting So that none can conscientiously and voluntarily act with those that usurp the exercise of Supreme Power in any Kingdom in any thing that gives countenance to such an Authority or is conducing to the establishing or maintaining of it without contracting the guilt of all those sins and irregularities the others smoothed their way by to that assumed Greatness For there are so many ways to contract others Crimes as Junius and Piscator observes s On Isa 10.1 that the very Scribe or Notary of an unjust decree though but instrumental in it is threatned with a Curse a woe being pronounced both against them that decree unrighteous decrees and that write grievous things which the other prescribed as the Prophet expresses it For we are commanded to walk honestly toward them that are without t 1 Pet. 2.12 not giving the least scandal in any thing
Exercise and sometimes by National and Municipal Laws through the Indulgence of good Princes yet Kings are never subject to the Coactive but Directive Power of them and answerable unto God only as David was e Psal 51. not to man for their violation from whom they hold their Commission f Prov. 8.25 Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2. Hos 13.11 And therefore by Precept they are exempt in their Persons from all other Powers g Prov. 21.3 8.15 Eccles 8. 1 Pet. 2. Rom. 13. as immediately designed by God in their individual persons to be obeyed h Deut. 17.15 Job 3.6 7. 34.30 Hos 13.11 Wisd 6.3 with a brand and desert of punishment upon all those that resist or rebel against them i 1 Sam. 8. Num. 16. 2 Sam. 1.4 15.15 as if done against God k Rom. 13. when our Prayers Tribute Reverence Assistance and Obedience are an Homage we owe them though Wicked and Tyrants where the Divine Providence concurs with other just mediate instrumental ways for the making their Titles lawful l 1 Tim. 2.2 Jer. 25.9 29.7 Dan. 3.21 Gen. 20.27 Mat. 22.21 1 Sam. 8. 24. 1 Pet. 2.27 as they are God's breathing Images the Mortal Pictures of the Immortal God saith Optatus even Gods before men m Ps 82.6 though men before God First By Analogie Secondly Deputation Thirdly Participation So Tertullian n Lib. de Scapul Cyrill o Epist ad Theod. prefix lib. advers Julian Hierom p Ad Pap. Anâ—i Greg. l. 9. decret 1 Tim 3.3 c. Nay this truth hath been derived to us from all Antiquity as well as Scripture and was never contradicted till the Romanists and Schismaticks like Simeon and Levi Brethren in Iniquity as Samson's Foxes concurred though looking contrary wayes to the setting all Cristendom on Fire by it and broached the contrary Doctrine As Buchanan q De Jure Regis apud Scotos and Bellarmine r De Rom. Pont. l. 5. though all antiquity be against them as Calvin acknowledgeth s Inst l. 4. c. 20. and as appears by multitudes of Authors both ancient and Modern t Glos Incog in Ps 50. R.P. dedicated to Tho. de Trugil Loranus in Ps 50. Hieron Ep. 22. 46. So St. Chrysost in Ps 50. as cited by Cyril So Cyprian ad Novatian Ambros Serm. 16. in Ps 118. Clemens Alex. l. 4. c. 6. Turrecre 1 Sum. de Ec. 1. Q 92 Which ought to convince our late Statists the Corahs Dathans and Abirams of these times of their Errours and satisfie all men that the person in whom the Supreme Power is placed cannot by any Tyrannical Act or Introducing Heresie forfeit his Right and that none ought nor can Conscientiously obey it in another that assumes or accepts it from an unjust Collation though for the best ends imaginable Yet if the Objection be still framed and pressed as I suppose it is by the Actors in our present troubles the sad effects whereof are but the Airy Off-spring of their Platonick Speculations a wild and wise folly they may receive a further satisfaction from our known Laws as may be seen in Bracton and all our ancient Sages the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance and our King 's just Title acknowledged by all Carolus Dei Gratia not by the Peoples Suffrage his Coronation not making but declaring him King only Nor ought it to be otherwise in Popular States where by Universal Suffrage and consent the People have lawfully placed the exercise of the Supreme Power in many retaining the esse perhaps not bene esse of Government there being no rising up or opposition lawful against the Supreme Power or those we conceive lawful Magistrates u Rom. 13. Now upon these grounds that the Supreme Power is not Originally Fundamentally and radically in the People but in that single Person God hath by Prescription Succession and Inheritance or other Humane Rights commissioned for it there is no just means of assuming it into the People and their transferring it upon any nor can any such act be lawful whether by the Pomp and Artifice of a pretended Justice or the Power of the Sword both which do but heighten the Crime according to the weight of Circumstances in either the one clothing the Devil in the Robes of Justice and Majesty the other making the Sword the unjust Arbitrator over the Lives Liberties and Fortunes of many innocent persons without any lawful Power w Mat. 26. Joh. 10.10 and against all our known Municipal Laws when in such a case no Title of Conquest can ly for that must be ever grounded upon a just War which is alwayes constituted of these essential parts 1. A Just Power 2. A Just Cause 3. Just means to prosecute it None of which can concur in Subjects taking up Arms against their lawful Soveraign or Warrant Obedience to any other without countenancing Injustice Violence Oppression c. x Mat. 26. 22 24. Joh. 19.10 which is in no case lawful no dispensation being lawful to any Action that partakes of the nature of sin For with the Hypocrite to do a seeming good to let in or countenance any evil for the most pious ends is but to bring in Religion upon the Devil's Shoulders and follow a seeming Triumph to Hell So as all that can be done under such a Government is but a prudent submission to the Power in things indifferent without giving any countenance to the Authority that imposes it or just scandal to our weak Brethren For then even lawful and indifferent things in their nature are not at all times expedient to be done saith St. Paul y 1 Corin. 6.12 as in the Instances of eating or not eating z 1 Corin. 8.13 but we may or may not according to several Circumstances For 1. A thing indifferent may become ineligible unto me in regard of use or exercise where a lawful Power interposeing determines my choice either way if the thing be equally indifferent and stand like the Pin in the Ballance in an even poyse all Obedience to the Supreme Magistrate depending in its just latitude upon things indifferent to be done or omitted upon which ground as a learned man observes God made choice of a Fruit in Paradice indifferent in its own nature to be eaten or refused for the tryal of man's Obedience in the State of Innocency to teach us that the interposing of a Command from a just Authority ought in all things indifferent to determine our choice and by making it a duty takes off all just cause of scandal to others for in this way scandal is taken not given in the other I am guilty of Disobedience to my Superiour a Rom. 13. as my Magistrate of scandal to him as my Brother and of ill example to all if I do the contrary Though my choice may nay ought to be determined in the use of an indifferent thing rather than break a rule