the blood Royal Yet is it the very same with that we term Regal Therefore the Holy Ghost to demonstrate unto us that the name did not create any real difference between this Paternal and Regal Government did afterwards in the Penning of the Decalogue use onely the word Father to express all sorts of Government And this indeed is the ground of Monarchy which as a Learned Divine hath well described is a Politick Government instituted and approved by God consisting in the prudential Administration and Exercise of the Supreme Power and Authority of one Person over all other within the same Society for the preservation of Peace and Vnity in order to God's Glory the Kings honour and the Peoples welfare Where we may observe 1. The Efficient cause of Monarchy 2 The End or Final cause thereof The Efficient cause of Monarchy is either Principal or Instrumental The Principal Efficient cause of Monarchy is God by whom all Power is ordained Rom. 13. 1. For God is the universal principal and primary Efficient cause of all things sin only excepted Rom. 11. ult And Gen. 14. 18. there we find a King of Gods own making and His Regal Power of God's own Institution For Sem alias Melchisedec was by Gods special Ordinance a Type of Christ both in his Regal and Sacerdotal Office Heb. 7. 12. And therefore is stiled by the Holy Ghost the King of Righteousness and King of Salem which is Jerusalem where this Melchisedec raigned until Jacob's time And also several persons receiv'd their Regal Investiture from Gods immediate and particular Consignation who had no other Title to that Monarchical Honour and Supremacy as Saul 1 Sam. 10. 1. David 1 Sam. 13. 14. and Solomon 1 King 1. 30. Kings of Israel Jeroboam 1 King 11. 30. Jehu 2 King 11. Kings over the ten Tribes and amongst the Heathens Hazael 1 King 19. 16. was made King of Syria by Gods particular appointment and Cyrus Isa 45. 1. who although a Heathen is there called Gods Annointed Ergo. Obj. But it may be Objected That when the people of Israel asked God for a King He was very angry with them and did declare his dislike thereof by a miraculous Thunder and Rain 1 Sam. 12. 18. Ergo. Sol. To this I Answer that God was not angry with the Peoples desire of a King as in relation to the Object of their desire viz. Monarchy but rather was well pleased therewith being the very Ordinance of God himself Deut. 17. 14 15. and therefore was sanctified to the people with the promise of a blessing 1 Sam. 12. 14. and further confirmed unto them by God himself in his own particular Election of another King viz. King David a man after Gods own heart But as in relation to the end of their desire which was Idolatrous and sinfull laying the hopes of their deliverance from those pressures under which they then groaned upon the King looking for deliverance from him and not from God He was angry with them as God deolared unto Samuel 1 Sam. 1. 7. They have not rejected thee but they have rejected me Imputing more to the power of a King for their deliverance than unto my power so forgetting me their Creator and Preserver And for the further manifestation of the Divine Right of Monarchy God was pleased to sanctifie it with the Blessing of Divine prescription For Monarchy began in Adam and so continued in his Posterity successively until the Flood and after the Earth was again replenished the Church was limited to Sem as aforesaid King of Jerusalem where he Reigned till Jacob was fifty years of Age. Who went down to Egypt with all his posterity and there lived in Bondage and slavery till God raised up Moses their Monarch and Ruler by whose hand he delivered them and after Successively continued that Monarchical Rule over them as is manifest in the holy History of the Israelites even from Moses unto our Saviour Christ King of Kings and the true King of the Jewes Matth. 2. 2. Except where their sin and ingratitude made them incapable and unworthy of the great blessings and favour of the Monarchical Government and brought that heavy curse of Anarchy upon them For whilst there was no King in Israel in those dayes every man did what was right in his own eyes measuring their Actions by the Law of their own Lusts All which enormities the Holy Ghost justly imputeth to the want of a King and Regal Government in Israel Although they had their Synedrim and great Council amongst them Yet it pleased God in all their Captivities and Distresses during those sinful times wherein they wanted a King and Regal Government to raise them up occasional Judges and Monarchs for their occasional deliverances thereby to manifest to them the benefit of Monarchy and how conducent Regal and Monarchical Government was to their constant security and happiness God himself honouring this blessing of Monarchy with many gratious Pactions and promises as to David 2 Sam. 7. To Solomon 1 King 3. yea and to wicked Saul 1 Sam. 12. and Idolatrous Jeroboam 1 King 11. and therefore a token of Gods approbation of that calling of Monarchy as a natural gift and blessing requisite to humane perfection for the Lord did never thus directly declare his approbation of any curse or privation of these blessings which was an effect of sin nor of any calling which was grounded thereupon such as that Monkish mendicancy which is used in the Church of Rome For that command of Christ to the young man in the Gospel was principally probatory and all Christs promises made either to him or his Disciples for remuneration of their piety who forsake all for his sake relate primarily and properly to the love of Christ and to such disvaluations and desertions of worldly and natural gifts and blessings onely Accidentally and in a Secundary sense when they come in competition with Christ who is to be preferred above all other things whatsoever although never so dear unto us Matth. 16. 25 But I say such curses and privations of Worldly and natural gifts and blessings were never directly and positively honoured with a Sanction of a remunerative promise as Monarchy is in the prementioned Texts And this I hope may suffice to evidence the Primary and principall cause of Monarchy to be God alone Now it rests to speak of the Secondary or Instrumental cause thereof In Crowns as in all other nay much more than in any other Possessions he that entreth not in by the door of Right and Justice is a Thief and a Robber whose intent is but to Rob and Steal whereby to satisfie his own Ambition and Avarice as the constant event hath manifested in all Usurping Traitors Abimelech Absalom Baasha Zimri Omri and many others both Antient and Modern as that Traitor the bane of our English Nation O. Cromwell whose wickedness I fear hath drawn those National Judgements upon us which since we have suffered whose name I call
to the King himself but also to his Ministers and Magistrates although they are his Subjects as well as you for there is no power but of God and whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God And they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation c. Rom. 13. But it doth not at all relate to the Original and Efficient cause of that Power which is God and neither King nor people And now I hope the profanity of that former inference of theirs is perspicuous appearing most damnable being directly contradictory to that express Rule which God himself hath prescribed in this case Exod. 23. 2. Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil neither agree in a controversie to decline after many Where God plainly declares that the universality of the offenders cannot legitimate the fault as appears in the sin in erecting the Golden Calf and Absaloms Conspiracy For though it be a Maxime in Policy that Multitudo peccantium tollit peccatum i. e Poenam peccati and therefore in crimes of the blackest dye the offenders often times escapes their due punishment It is as true a Maxime in Divinity that multitudo peccantium aggravat peccatum i. e. culpam peccati and the more I seduce the more guilt I contract Although the multitude of partakers may secure me from punishment in foro judicii humani yet I am sure to receive the just reward of that sin at Gods Tribunal from which the whole Society of men and Devils cannot secure me But not to bind these nice Disputants to an Argument of Conscience which indeed is scarce to be found amongst them to evince their error let us consider the absurdity and sencelesness of their opinion both in Policy and Reason For if the Major part of the people be Superiour to the King then the Government is not Monarchical but Democratical every species of Policy deriving its Denomination and nature from those that are Invested with the Supremacy But that Democracy is the basest kind of Policy Confusion and Destruction being the conclusion of such a Government both experience and the general consent of all Politians do declare and so asserted both by Jerome and Cyprian and even Calvin himself although a favourer of the Peoples Right in appointing of their King and Monarck divers men have divers minds and meanings and therefore amongst a multitude of Governors Emulation and dissention are no rare springs Nay both Jerome and Cyprian record it for a probatum in daily experience that so many Leaders so many followers so many Rulers so many Factions do tear and rent in pieces the peace and Vnity of all Societies To which agrees Calvin affirming an equality amongst Governours to be the mother of Factions It 's one of our Saviours own Maximes Matth. 3. 24. That a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand but every Democracy must necessarily divide a Kingdom against it self Ergo c. That Democracy must necessary divide a Kingdom against it self is proved from another of Christs own Maximes Matth. 6. 24. No man can serve two Masters much lesse three or four hundred masters but in every Democracy there are at least two Masters And therefore no man can be a true Subject or servant in such a Common-wealth but as Christ faith must necessarily be factious by loving one and hating all others and adhering to one and rebelling against others And therefore it is observed that in Christs time when Esay had prophesied that there should be an Universal peace over the whole Earth that then there was not any kind of Polarchy in any Kingdom in the world because in its own nature every Polarchy is inconsistent with Peace and Unity the end and conclusion thereof being absolute ruine and desolation the common fate of all divided Kingdoms except God in his mercy prevent the same by the reducement of such a Government to a Monarchy a manifest experience whereof we have both in the Athenian Syracusan Lacedemonian and Roman Common-wealths whose Polarchical Dissentions occasioned many Intestine Wars and Tragical Conflicts which in fine must necessarily have produced the ruine and desolation of them all if the opportune reducement of those Polarchies to a Monarchy had not prevented it Lastly every individual member of the same Society is obliged to exhibit acts of Obedience and Loyalty to their Lawful Prince as the former part of this distinction of these subtile Logicians intimate allowing the King to be Major singulis but upon what grounds they deny his Authority in Vniversis I leave to the Censure of every rational Judgement seriously considering this deduction Peter is obliged to exhibit acts of obedience to his Prince so Paul so John and so every individual member of the same Society Ergo according to that Logical Maxime a particularibus ad universale valet consequentia they all in universal are obliged to exhibit acts of Obedience to their King To the second Inference viz. That the King doth receive and enjoy this honour onely by vertue of a stipulation or Covenant between himself and the people and therefore if the King doth violate this Covenant and break the Trust reposed in him by the people that then the people are absolved from their Allegiance grounded upon that Trust and Covenant and may Lawfully provide for their own safety and welfare either by Resistance Deposition Dethronement or any such means as themselves judge to be most conducent to their own security To this I answer that this Covenant its true implyeth a mutual engagement of the parties therein concern'd but the parties primarily and originally concerned are God upon the one party and the people upon the other party as Moses declareth when he reciteth that Original and general Covenant which is indeed the ground of all other particular Covenants Lev. 26. Deut. 28. And therefore Solomon Eccles 8. 4. maketh this Covenant a ground why people should obey the Kings Commandments not as the Kings but as Gods Commandments whose Vicegerent the King is for where the word of the King is there is power and who shall say unto him what doest thou for the Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord as the Rivers of water he turns it which way soever he will Prov. 21. 1. And therefore the King is onely the deputative party assigned by God and intrusted by him for the performance of the Covenant upon Gods part either for a vengeance or recompence to the people as the Lord himself judgeth of their merits And though the King may spare the wicked and persecute the Righteous even unto death as Pilate did our Saviour yet even in that the King doth but execute Gods Decrees as the Holy Ghost doth declare concerning that unjust Judgement of Pilates Acts 4. 28. for Pilate did nothing but what God had Determined before to be done For every mans judgement is from the Lord Prov. 29. 26. and not from the Judge or Ruler So that in a word the King
Gods appointment where the Text faith hath not the Lord annointed thee to be Governour over his inheritance as also David who was Annointed King by Samuel according to Gods command 1 Sam. 16. 13. Solomon by Zadoc the Priest and Nathan the Prophet 1 King 1. 34. Jeroboam by the Prophet Ahijah 1 King 11. 30 31. all which being performed by the immediate command of God declaring his will and pleasure concerning the advancement of them to their several Power and Preheminence by Extraordinary Revelations do evidence the Right of Royal Investiture to pertain onely to God by whom Kings Raign And that not onely when he doth so declare his will by those Extraordinary means but also when that Power is attained by those ordinary wayes and means which are warranted by Gods word and the Rules of Reason and Equity as in Joas whom Jehoida the Priest made King in pursuance to the promise of God to his servant David that his house should be established for ever Or else these acts of the people are acts of seeming Power or Authority collating this Supremacy and Regal Power upon some person who hath no other Right or Title thereunto neither of Birth-right nor of Revelation from God as upon Absalom Adonijah Jehoadas Judas Theudas and Barchozba who professed himself the Messiah and drew the people into Rebellion against the Roman Emperor which occasioned those wars wherein Jerusalem and the Jewes were destroyed and these acts of the People are execrable sinful and Rebellious and so declared by Gods Judgements thereupon for wheresoever the Scriptures mention the constitution of a King after this manner you shall find that they likewise record not onely the frustration of the peoples endeavours but also that they were frustrated by some heavy and sudden Judgements of God both upon the Usurper whereby he was degraded from his undue honour and the people who presume to confer that honour upon him without a warrant from God and so by that means to obtrude a Deputy upon God of their own and not of Gods Election Whereof we have a lively instance in the madnesse of the People of England in these late times placing forsooth their Lord Protector by those horrible sins of Rebellion and Sacriledge not onely perpetrated against the Right and Power of our late dread Soveraign but even against his Sacred and most Royal Person O Heaven O Earth what satisfaction can be made for that Sacred blood shed to satiate the gluttonous and Sacrilegious lust of Traytors and Rebells who build up Sion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity But surely God will avenge the blood of his Servant crying like the blood of Abel for vengeance These acts of the people in Annointing of Kings are onely mentioned where some of these occasions happened that is where there was an interruption of the ordinary means of conferring the Supremacy by birth-right and Hereditary Succession either by the interposition of Gods just Prerogative in the Advancement of some Person by Extraordinary and Immediate Revelation or else by the usurpation of some who had no right or Title at all but Force and Violence either private of themselves and some few partners wherein God stirred up the people to vindicate the Kings right or Publick of the people but where the Supremacy and Soveraign Power with all the Appendages descended by Birthright there is no mention at all made of the people though the act of Duty and Homage was as necessary to be performed to all who enjoyed the Crown by Hereditary Succession as to Abijah Asa Jehosaphat Jehoram and the rest to whom the people were no less obedient and subject than to those who were appointed by God but I say in those cases the peoples acts of Submission and Homage are not expressed but presupposed as known acts of Duty to those Kings who attained the Supremacy by those ordinary and known means of Birthright And how many Instances are there in Scripture of the inefficacy of the peoples endeavours in this kind as in Aarons and the Israelites honouring and Proclaiming the Golden Calf to be a God and Guide in Moses stead yet did not that popular Election Legitimate that Calfes power and Title Exod. 32. And Absalom was proclaimed King by all the thousands of Israel yet did not that act of the people Legitimate Absaloms Title to the Crown For the Holy Ghost termeth it a Conspiracy when it was at the very height 1 Sam. 15. 12. Shcba had Ten Tribes for him when David had but one and yet was he never termed a King but a man of Belial 2 Sam. 20. Adonijah confesseth that although the faces of all Israel were set on him to make him King yet he never had any just Title or Right to the Kingdom for the Lord had designed it for his Brother Solomon 1 King 2. 15. upon all which God manifested the guilt of their sin by sending those fearful judgements both upon the people and the Traitors so exalted To the reason grounded upon that principle quod honor est in honorante non in honorato let it be premised that honour involves a twofold relation The one primarily and per se to that quality or excellency which is found in the person for which he is honoured and esteemed The other secondarily and virtute prioris to the act of honour and estimation whereby we judge well of the person so and so qualified and therefore all acts of honour in the secondary sence are acts of duty as being the effect of that qualification in the person so magnified and honoured So that it is evident the honour and submission which the people exhibite to their King even from this ground and principle of Aristotle are not acts of favour to be conferred and disposed voluntarily at their own will and pleasure but acts of Duty not onely morally as the acts of honour in the premised principle meerly intimates but also by a Divine necessity being thereto obliged by the Law of God And therefore must be performed to such as God esteems worthy of the honour to be his Deputies and not upon such as themselves judge worthy to be their Rulers For you know the people are obliged to exhibite acts of honour and reverence to a Judge but it doth not therefore follow that the people make that man a Judge but he is made such by Letters Patents from the King without asking any consent from the people To St. Peters Testimony I answer that the Apostles expression there relates to the subject of Soveraignty and Power which is the King and those who are over us under him As manifestly appears by the immediate following words of the Text 1 Peter 2. 13 14. Submit your selves unto every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as them that are sent by him as if he had said Submit your selves to every Humane Power and Authority that God hath set over you not onely