the Statute of the 13th of Ch. 2d 't is in General Terms Declared Treason to Levy War against the King within the Realm or without And to cut off all Pretences from the Grounds or Nature of the War as Defensive only or as engaged in from the Authority of a Parliament or of the Lords and Commons we have in two several Statutes this Declaration That both or either Houses of Parliament cannot nor lawfully may raise or Levy any War offensive or defensive against the King his lawful Heirs and Successors In which Statutes also the sole Supream Command and Government of the Militia is Declared to be by the Fundamental Law of England ever the undoubted Right of the King And where could it be better placed for the Subjects Interest than in their Sovereign Prince and Supream Governour Sect. 21. There must be in one or other either in some single Person or some Community of Men a Supream and Chief Authority which hath the Principal and Highest Command of the Strength and Military Force of the Nation or else the Military Power will be under no command and consequently the Subjects will not know whom to obey with respect to War and Peace nor no Arms regularly used for the Suppression of Intestine Rebels or the Resistance of Foreign Enemies And who so fit to possess and execute such a Supremacy of Government as the King whose Interest as well as Duty obligeth him to preserve the Persons Estates Rights and Liberties of his People And this Authority by our Original Constitution being seated in the King and by subsequent acts of the Legislative Power Declared to be solely in him it cannot be lawful in any case to resist him because he cannot I say be resisted by an armed Force without Invading the Power of the Sword in which we have no Right and therefore cannot use it against him without the Guilt of Rebellion Sect. 22. 4. 'T is against common Reason that the Higher Powers should in any case and upon any Pretence whatsoever be resisted because all Resistance from Subjects against the Higher Powers is utterly inconsistent with their Relation and Condition for they that resist are not Subject 'T is contradictio in adjecto a meer Solecism to affirm That the Highest Power may lawfully be resisted because the Highest Power cannot have a Superiour and that which hath no Superiour cannot have a Superiour Power exercised over it Where ever there is a Supremacy it is inseperable from a Right to impunity and universally exempts from coercion and correction Where a King then is not obeyed his Majesty is lost He hath not a Principality but an Inferiority in his Country Resistance is coercive and punitive and implies a Superiority For he which resists assaults to controul counteracts to countermand opposeth the Will of his Sovereign to impose upon him his own and consequently starts from the Condition of a Subject and sets himself up in the Throne of Sovereignty Where we acknowgledge a Sovereign Authority there we yeild Subjection and Obedience from the one flows the other as an effect from the Cause but where we resist a Power we disclaim and renounce the Sovereignity of it for we resist it that we may not be under but above it They that resist the King will not be his Subjects but his Superiours will not receive Laws from him but give Laws to him reject his Rod and snatch away his Scepter will not act as Subordinate Instruments but as Principal Agents in the Administration of the Government Sect. 23. But what saith the Prophet Shall the Axe boast it self against him that heweth it Or shall the Saw exalt it self against him that moveth it Isa 10.15 So 't is as absurd and unreasonable that Subjects who are inferiour and ought to be subservient unto the higher Powers should assume to themselves Power to resist them They have a Power and fitness to act in their proper Places in an orderly way of dependency and subserviency to the Sovereign Power but if they resist the Sovereign Power they leave their proper rank and station and will not be where they ought but where they should not be And I am sure God being the God of Order and not of Confusion cannot approve or allow that we should Desert our own proper Places to thrust our selves into anothers We must abide in our proper Seatings and not go up higher and take the Place of our Betters As there is no Power but of God so there is no Power but is Gods and the Subordination of Subjects to their Sovereign being of Divine Ordination the Subordination is to God himself and therefore Subjects are not only obliged quietly to abide under the Predominant Force and Strength of their Sovereign but likewise to make a Voluntary Resignation of themselves their Understandings Wills Powers and Interests to his directive Wisdom and preceptive Will actively obeying what he justly imposeth or passively enduring what he inflicts for Disobedience So that the Allowance of Liberty to Subjects in any case whatsoever to resist their Sovereign is a plain contradiction to the Moral Relation of Subjects to their Sovereign and equally as absurd in the Moral Order of Things as 't is in the Natural and Local Order of Things for the Feet to ascend above the Head Sect. 24. When therefore some learned Men affirm that the King is Major singulis greater than any of his Subjects singly considered but Minor universis less than the whole Body of them collectively considered unless they understand it respectively to the Safety and Welfare of the Community to which the King belongs as a Part and not respectively to the Governing Power thereof 't is false and unreasonable For though the Preservation and Safety of the Community be the Supream Law yet 't is of the Community concretively and not discretively considered the Governing Part as well as the Governed Part is comprehended therein the Preservation and Safety of the one being concatenated unto and included in the other 'T is true every Community considered simply and antecedently to the Constitution of a Government therein is warranted and authorized by the Natural and Positive Law of God to Design and Nominate some particular Person or Persons to be the Rulers and Governours thereof but this is not the Communicating of any Authority or Power that was inherent in themselves before but only the Condition of the Applicatition of that Authority and Power which God as the Fountain and Efficient Cause deriveth to be exercised subordinately to himself by one Man over another And therefore supposing a Community setled under a constituted Government whether we consider the governed Members thereof divisim or conjunctim singly and a part or united and altogether they are one and all equally Subjects and altogether as well as asunder obliged to Subjection and Obedience and accordingly the higher Powers are over Kingdoms and Nations and not meerly over particular Persons Saul was called the Head of
this Preamble At the Request of the Commonalty by their Petition made before the King in his Parliament c. so again in 9 Edw. 3. 'T is thus prefaced Whereas the Knights Citizens and Burgesses desired our Sovereign Lord the King in his Parliament by their Petition and many of the Statutes are penned in this Imperial Stile The King Commands The King wills Our Lord the King hath established Our Lord the King hath ordained And of his special grace hath granted c. See 3 Edw. 1. and 6 Edw. 1. and 25. Edw. 3. Statute of Marleburdg 52 Hen. 1. and Statute of Quo Warranto A sufficient Evidence That all our Laws owe their Being to the King's Authority only Sect. 99. 2. All the judicial Courts of England are the King's Courts and derive all their Authority originally from him and are obliged to refer the Exercise of their respective Jurisdictions finally for the Preservation of his Person Crown and Dignity and consequently the High Court of Parliament is the King's Court too and depends on him for that Authority which is there exercised And 't is well observed by my Lord Coke That the King is Principium Caput Finis Parliamenti and answerably in the Parliament writ the King calls it Quoddam Parliamentum nostrum Thereby signifying a Subordination of the Estates convented in Parliament under him sitting there in his Royal Political capacity And consequently the Acts of the Two Houses of Parliament without an impress of Royal Authority are nothing worth to the Purposes of Government 'T is no Argument that the Two Houses of Parliament have a Co-ordination with him in his legislative Authority because he hath restrained himself from the Exercise and Use of it without their Request and Consent for it is no more than a Conditio sine qua non which hath only the Force of a Negative without the Concurrence of which the principal Efficient obtains not its Effect Sect. 100. 3. The Measures or Degrees of all Civil Authority and Power are to be taken either from the express Laws of any State or the immemorial Customs and Prescriptions thereof from a long Possession or from the Oaths the Subjects swear to their Princes This is acknowledged by the Author who pleads for a Co-ordination of the Houses of Parliament with the King in the Legislative Authority of the Kingdom as a proper Rule by which to judge where the Legislative Power of a Nation is lodged and this being impartially attended will evidently discover That the Legislative Power is in the King only For 1. If we consider what the Laws determine we shall find that they ascribe it wholly to the King See to this purpose the afore-quoted Preface to a Statute in 24. Hen. 8. where 't is thus said For by divers Old Authentick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this Realm of England is an Empire and so hath been accepted in the World governed by our Supreme Head and King having the Dignity and Royal Estate of the Imperial Crown of the Same unto whom a Body Politick compact of all sorts and degrees of People divided in Terms and by Names of Spiritualty and Temporalty have been bounden and ought to bear next to God natural and humble Obedience he being also in Statute and furnished by the Goodness and Sufferance of Almighty God not of the People with Plenary whole and entire Power Preheminence Authority Prerogative and Jurisdiction to render and yield Justice and final determination in all Causes Matters and Debates Likewise in the Statute of the 35 of Eliz. this Submission after Non-conformity to divine Service is to be made openly in some Church I do acknowledge and testify in my Conscience that no other Person hath or ought to have any Power or Authority over His Majesty Which Statute was declared to be in full force in the 16 of Ch. 2. 2. This Authority and Preheminence as the former Statute mentioned implies is of immemorial Custom and Prescription and was so far as I can discover never questioned in any Parliamentary Convention of the States till 1642. and then by the Two lower States only too and then the Co ordination in the Legislative Power was asserted to warrant and justify one of the most unreasonable and barbarous Rebellions that ever was in this Kingdom 'T is declared by the Statute of 16 Rich. 2. That the Crown of England hath been so free at all times that it hath been in no earthly Subjection but immediately subject to God in all things touching the Regality of the same Crown and to none other and if to none other then not to the Two Houses of Parliament and in 1 Jam. 1. The High Court of Parliament wherein as they speak the whole Kingdom in Person or Representative was present i. e. all Estates and Degrees call themselves his Majesty's Loyal and Faithful Subjects and declare his Majesty to be their only Liege Lord and Sovereign and agnize their constant Faith Obedience and Loyalty to his Majesty and Royal Progeny And I will be so bold as to challenge this Author to shew from any Parliamentary Record that ever the Two Houses claimed or pretended to a Co-ordination with the King in the Legislative Power till the time above mentioned 3. What can be more evident for the Determination of this matter than the Oath of Supremacy by which every Subject is obliged to testify and declare in his Conscience that the Kings Highness is the only Supreme Governour of this Realm and of all other His Highnesses Dominions and Countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Things or Causes as Temperal as He is Supreme He hath no Superior and as He is only Supreme He can have no equal they that wrest the Supremacy of the King's Government to import only the executive part of Government manifestly subvert the primary Design of the Oath which was to restrain and preserve the King's Subjects from a Submission to the usurped legislative and juridical Authority of the Bishop of Rome So that if the Bishop of Rome pretended to both parts of Government as 't is certain he did and still doth then the Oath directly intends an opposition to both and consequently ascribes the only Supremacy appropriately to the King both respectively to the Legislative and Executive part of the Government Sect. 101. 4. Suppose contrary to all this plain evidence that the legislative Power is lodged between the King and Two Houses of Parliament how will this prove a Superior Authority in them above that in the King Par in Parem non habet potestatem An Equal is no Superior Indeed according to our Authors affirmation here are Two to One which is very great odds if he intended to press to his Service that Maxim Major pars obtinet rationem totius the major part of the Legislators virtually are the whole For this will at the Pleasure of the Two Houses render the Concurrence of the King
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
distinguished into several Communities and canton'd into Kingdoms or Commonwealths but every Man bath indifferently a Right to one part of the World as well as to another and is no more determined to this Kingdom or Community than to that and consequently there can be no Government but by Usurpation in no part of the World without every Man's Consent that is in the World one Man cannot alienate and surrender anothers Right without his Consent Where every Man is equally free if every Man do not equally concur to the Limitation or Resignation of it the Freedom of particulars without Usurpation will still remain entire So that the Iâ—â—â—bitants of England France Spain c. have no more right to determine of Governours Proprieties and Liberties of their respective Countries than the Inhabitants of the East or West-Indies have because by the Law of Nature they have an equal Right unto and Freedom in these Countries But suppose that the Inhabitants of particular Countries have sufficient Power to chuse and establish what Government amongst them they please yet this Principle supposed that all are equal by Nature and every Man is free born it will follow that as the Inhabitants of any Country are changed so there will be likewise answerably a Right and Power to change and alter the Governours and Government thereof and every hour a Variation being produced by the Births of some and Deaths of others there will be in all Countries in the World especially very populous Ones a Right in many Persons to with hold subjection from the present Higher Powers and to advance others in their room or else to remain Lords and Masters of themselves if it be said that the Choice and Contract of the Ancestry bind their Posterity and Fathers and Masters conclude their respective Families this plainly confutes the Principle contended for because by Nature there is neither Non-age Subjection or Servitude but the whole Race of Mankind hath equal Rights and Liberties Or if it be said that the Major part of the People is virtually the Whole or a considerable part of them meeting with no opposition presume the Whole it falls under the like Exceptions with the former for if these had Authority to conclude the rest they were not their Equals but Superiors and could without their consent limit them in their natural Rights and Freedoms which overthrows these Mens beloved Cause This I hope is a sufficient Discovery of the mischievous Consequences of the aforementioned Principle to the Safety of all settled Governments in the World Sect. 70. 3. Although there are sometimes Agreements and Contracts betwixt Sovereign Princes and their Subjects by which they become mutually obliged to each other and the Subjects have their Rights Proprieties and Priviledges as well as Princes their Prerogatives and Preheminencies and none are more strongly bound to perform their Agreements and Covenants than Sovereign Princes not only from Motives of Piety and Justice but also from Reasons of State because the conscientious and strict Observation of them prevents or eradicates all those jealous Fears which ordinarily arise from their Subjects apprehensions of a Power they have to wrong them creates in them a mighty Esteem and Veneration of them strong and vigorous Affections to them a clear and stedfast Confidence in them and renders them couragious resolute stedfast and chearful in their Adherence and Obedience to them yet the Existence of their Sovereignty depends not on it because that which cannot escheat to a Superior is not forfeitable Vnumquodque dissolvitur eo modo quo contrahitur saith our Law Now as it is God alone which sets up Kings and gives them Kingdoms Dan. 2.21 27. Prov. 8.15 Jer. 27.5 6. So 't is God alone that can dethrone and take Kingdoms from them 1 Sam. 28.18 for as Sovereign Princes judge not for Men but for the Lord 2 Chr. 19.6 so neither can they be judged by Men but by God only and 't is his peculiar to execute Vengeance on them for evil doing Rom. 12.19 and as their Power of Life and Death was only from God so it is God only who gave it to them can take it from them Sect. 71. The Supreme Sovereign Power is a simple undivided Thing and can be but one for as in the natural so in the political Body there must be only one common Principle of action it must be one Sovereign Will guided by one directive Judgment assisted by one Power of the Sword which is invested with all the legislative judicial and executive Authority of every Community or else there can be no certain regular Administration 〈◊〉 Affairs amongst them And consequently as the Sovereignty hath no Superior so it can have no equall A conditional Sovereignty is indeed none at all a conditional King is only the Pageant of a King a meer titular nominal King one in appearance officially a King but divested of the Authority and Power proper to it and the Reason is evident because he is a Subject to a Superior Power and is disposed of at anothers Will and Pleasure and he that is subordinated cannot be supreme who but our Superior can prescribe and impose upon us Conditions and Measures of having holding and exercising governing Power and exauctorate and punish us for Non-observance and Disobedience to them but some Mens Brains are so impregnated with Ideas of Bargains and Contracts that they will have all Authority and Subjection to depend upon them and all the relative Duties of Princes and People to be measured and determined by them as if God and Nature had made no provision for the Safety and Happiness of Mankind without them Sect. 72. 4. That no more Authority and Power is to be claimed and exercised by Soreign Princes than can proved and that the Liberty of the Subject proves it self doth not only imply that all Authority and Power is from mutual Contracts and Agreements but also according to the Judgment of such Men that all Authority and Power is radically and originally in every single Person and therefore I take it to be a most groundless and prodigious Presumption If Power must always be proved but Liberty proves it self the Case of the Sovereign is very lamentable and despicable for how is Power to be proved by what Evidence by the Princes own Testimony or by the Testimony of the Subject I know of no Medium and 't is probable partiallity will be pretended and what is to be done then then Might must be Right and then the Prince must to the Wall Ay but there is another way of proving Power and that is by the Fundamental Charter the Original Magna Charta which was by the mutual Agreement and Contract of Prince and People made and established when the Government was at first formed and constituted But what if the very Being of such a Thing be questioned how will it be proved I am apt to believe the Sovereign Prince of England as well as of other Dominions may
the Apostle said concerning the Difference betwixt the Condition of the Jew and of the Gentile that the Jew had the advantage and profit much every way Rom. 3.1 2. that may I say concerning the different Condition of the aforementioned sorts of Government a Political Legal limited Government hath much advantage and profit every way above that which is Despotical Absolute and Arbitrary and therefore no Man which wisheth well to his Country and sincerely desires the Safety ease and contentment either of the Sovereign or his Subjects will contribute in the least Degree any Assistance by word or deed towards the Abolition of the former and Introduction of the latter but yet supposing the Sovereign Power of the latter irresistble and the Sovereign Power of the former resistible by the Subjects thereof and it will be the most desirable because it is invested with an unappealable Authority and consequently is sufficiently provided for the Decision and Determination of all Controversies and the Preservation of the Peace of the Community which is not the Case of the other as hath been formerly observed And I am sure the Danger of Anarchy is as terrible and more than that of Tyranny Now for the confutation of the foregoing Objection let these particulars be considered Sect. 91. 1. Though a Political Prince who is obliged to regulate his Power by his known Laws made and Established with the Consent and Approbation of his Subjects may from a presumption of the uncontrollableness and irresistibility of his Power abuse his Power in Arbitrary Administrations thereof governing as if his private Will and not his public Laws were to be the Measure of his Government yet this cannot alter the Fundamental Constitution of the Government and make his Will a Law to his Subjects and therefore though they must not actively resist his Power yet they are not obliged actively to own and obey it And 't is very improbable that any Prince in the World who is well in his Wits will augment his Power by Usurpation when his Government will be as safe by a Legal Administration endeavour to obtain any End of Government by Force and against the Consent of the Subjects which is obtainable by Law and with their Consent Princes ordinarily are not so meanly skilled in the Politics but they know and consider too That he hath most Power over his Subjects who is most powerful in them And in truth all the Strong Holds in a Kingdom will have nothing of Security in them for the Sovereign when he hath dismantled this Sect. 92. 2. Though a Political as well as a Despotical Prince can do no wrong which is censurable and punishable by any Human Law for though he be obliged in Honour Equity and Conscience to Conduct himself and Administrations by the directive Power of the Law yet he is not under the corrective and coercive Power of it not only because he who can make and repeal the Law and pardon the Transgression thereof is greater than the Law and above it but also because he hath no Superiour to judge and execute any legal punishment on him yet those Commissioned by him are accountable and punishable for Illegal Administrations and cannot serve his private Will contrary to his Laws without exposing themselves to the Condemnation of evil doers And though the King may for a Time interpose an Illegal Exercise of his Power to suspend the Law and to defend and rescue then from the Coaction and Vengeance of it yet he may after due consideration of the Nature of the Thing prefer the Honour of his Government before the Protection of the Transgressors of his Law and chuse rather to justifie his Legal Will than to shew indulgence to his Passionate Humor And in case such Malefactors should escape Condign Punishment during the whole Reign of the Prince that employs them yet 't is great odds but his Successor to shew the Value he sets on his Laws his readiness to redress the Grievances of his Subjects from former Male-administrations of Government and to ingratiate himself with them as all over of Righteousness and tender of their Legal Liberties will offer them as a Sacrifice to public justice And therefore not only all honest Men but also all worldly wise Men and Men of Fortunes will upon this account take heed how they engage themselves in the Execution of the King's Will against his Laws I do not doubt but the Kings of England will consider what the Learned Bracton said that Ipse Rex non debet esse sub homine sed sub Deo sub Lege quia Lex facit Regem The King himself ought not to be under Man but under God and under the Law because the Law makes the King His meaning is not that the King derives his Authority as King from the Law for then the Principal Efficient cause of Governing Administrations would owe its being to the Instrumental Cause thereof but the true Intent of that learned Author and of Fleta too who concurs with him in that expression is this that the Law declares and publisheth to the Subject who is their rightful King and so supports and maintains him as King in their acknowledgments and by the Observation of which he distinguisheth himself from a Tyrant who Governs without a due regard had to Law And in this respect I think my Lord Coke spake not amiss when he told King James the First That the Law sate the Crown upon his Head And there is no such ready Way to keep and hold the Crown there as to keep and hold fast to that Law which sate it there Sect. 93. 3. As the Power of Sovereign Princes is from the Lord so their hearts are in his hand and he over-ruleth them to the best Purposes and will not permit them unless provoked by our sins to become illegal scourges to us 1 Per. 3.13 Who is he that will 〈…〉 if ye be followers of that which is good 'T is generally acknowledged that when the Apostles Epistle was written to the Romans that the Government of that Empire was Despotical and managed with such an Arbitrary Absoluteness that it was highly Tyrannical and yet the Apostle tells them that the Powers that be are ordained of God And forbids them resistance under the pain of condemnation And tells them that Rulers are not i. e. by their Office ought not to be a Terrour to good Works but to the Evil. And least they should say as many among us are apt to do 't is true the good should be protected countenanced and encouraged but we can have no assurance thereof from the Constitution of the Government our Rulers may make their lust a Law and what a Case shall we be in then The Apostle anticipates this Objection by assuring them That performing their duties they shall obtain the Success desired v. 3. Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same For he is the Minister of God to thee
conflicts within from the Turbulency of their own unruly and domineering Passions and Lusts have kindled coales in their own bosoms and are at odds with themselves cherish the Insurrections and Rebellions of their Passions and Lusts against the Sovereign Powers of Reason and Conscience then they are disposed to make quarrels oppositions disorders and tumults and confusions in that Community to which they are related For they which stubbornly resist and reject the Dominion Authority and Dictates of their own Reasons Judgments and Consciences they will never bear a due reverence and regard to the Dominion Authority and Edicts of others 'T is not evil usages from without so much as evil Principles from within which make Men make-bates and bontifieus Indeed the Tyrannies and Oppressions of Princes may occasion but exorbitant and rancorous Passions and Lusts are the prime efficient Causes of Seditions Mutinies and Rebellions against the higher Powers And what is the state of Men thus addicted and exercised The Apostle tells us that Hatred envyings variance strife Seditions are the manifest Works of the Flesh and they that do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Gal. 5.19 20 21. Sect. 121. 4. A rebellious Resistance of the Sovereign Power proceeds from covetousness If Covetousness be the root of all Evil 1 Tim. 6.10 'T is the Root of this too A covetous Man is ever ready to catch what he can and if he might have his Will he would have the Possession and Power of all that is And though the impulses of covetousness are not so loud and clamorous so raging and furious as the motions of wrathful passions are yet they are more strong and uncontrolable and not less cruel and barbarous as the instances of Ahab and Judas evince For covetousness doth not only imply the Engagement of the lower and lighter Part of the Affections which are eager and violent for a Fit but also the deliberate and steady-bent of the Will which is the most imperious and self-determining faculty of the Soul And therefore he that will be rich runs on his Course without fear or wit 1 Tim. 6.19 and cares not what legal Establishments and Foundations he overturns and removes so he may obtain those Ends his greedy Appetite fastens on and pursues 'T is gain is his godliness and to serve his Interest he will tread down the Authority of God and Man like the Mire of the Streets And how doth God account of such a disposed Man He reckons him as an Idolater a most horrible and detestable Offender one that hath not any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God Eph. 5.5 Col. 3.5 Gal. 5.20 21. Sect. 122. 2. Let us consider the sinful and pernicious Evils which are Concomitants with a rebellious Resistance of the higher Powers and we shall further discover the hainous and Damnable Nature thereof 1. Idleness is one Concomitant of a rebellious Resistance Rebels are some of those busie-bodies the Apostle speaks of 2 Thes 3.11 Who work not at all and are mischievous as well as useless Better in the Earth than on it For starting out of their proper Place they are a Burden to it Rebels are of that sort of Men of whom Seneca complained who spent their time either nihil agendo aut aliud agendo aut male agendo in doing nothing at all or nothing to the purpose of advantage or nothing but evil they never do what they should do And partaking with the Sodomites in their abundance of idleness Ezek. 16.49 they deserve to share with them in their measure of wrath and vengeance Sect. 123. 2. Neglect of Family duties is another concomitant of a rebellious Resistance Rebels neither attend for the present a Provision for the Bodies or Souls of their Wives and Children or any other who have a dependance on them And hereby making themselves worse than Infidels 1 Tim. 5.8 't would be strange if they should not be in a state of Damnation Sect. 124. 3. Forsaking the solemn worshipping Assemblies of God's People is another Concomitant of a rebellious Resistance Rebels assemble themselves in Troops but not in the House of God Their Congregations are seperations from religious Assemblies Their exercises interruptions yea dissolutions of the holy Congregations of the Faithful When they meet the Shepherds are divided from their Flocks and their Flocks scatter'd and perhaps butcher'd and their Sanctuaries laid wast and made desolate And when Men like Cain go out from the Presence of the Lord wilfully excommunicate themselves from the ordinary and standing means of Salvation we have no reason to think that God will by a miraculous Act of Sovereign Grace deliver them from damnation Sect. 125. 4. Hypocrisie is another Concomitant of a rebellious Resistance Rebels will not seem to be as they are nor to do as they do but like the Spies the high Priests and Scribes sent to entrap Christ They fame themselves just Men Luk. 20.20 pretend they act by a lawful Authority in a just and weighty Cause for a good and necessary End and have set up their Banner in the Name of the Lord of Hosts Psal 20.5 and engaged not themselves herein till they saw Matters reduced to an undoing extremity and will use this last Remedy for the redress of public Grievances without prejudice to the Innocent or injury to any Man observing all along the direction of St. John the Baptist Luke 3.14 alas good Men they are for a Pacification without contending and if Matters in difference were fairly adjusted they would put off their Animosities with their Arms. Whereas their hearts are set upon mischief cover red Inclinations with a pale Face and under specious Pretences of defending and preserving the public Safety and Welfare creep into opportunities to hazard and destroy them And such Hypocrisies are so hateful unto God that he makes the evil Portion of Hypocrites the Standard of the severest punishments allotted to Sinners as if Hell were primarily designed for them Mat. 24.51 and our Saviour comparing the Priests and Elders to the Son in the Parable that said I go Sir but went not the Emblem of an Hypocrite tells them That Publicans and Harlots go into the Kingdom of God before them Mat. 21.30 31. Sect. 126. 5. Lying Defamation is another Concomitant of a rebellious Resistance Rebels ever have will and do stretch their Mouths and shoot their Arrows even bitter words of detraction and reproach against the higher Powers Oh! said Absolom when his Head was filled with seditious and rebellious Projections and Designs That I were made Judge in the Land that every Men that hath any Suit or Cause might communto me and I would do him justice 2 Sam. 15.4 insinuating that justice was not so saithfully and seasonably so universally and impartially administred as it might and ought to be and should be were it in his Power A manifest endeavour to undermine the reputation of his Fathers Government in the Opinion of his Subjects and to