and sinful Injustice and therefore cannot be from God. Dum contra officium facit Magistratus non est Magistratus quippe à quo non injuria sed jus nasci debet and consequently they who resist the tyrannous acts of Kings do not resist the Ordinance of God. What were it less than Blasphemously to charge God with prevaricating with his People if in Authorizing Kings to preserve them should give them liberty without all Politick restraint to destroy them Which is contrary to God's end in the Fifth Commandment that one Man a King should have absolute Power to destroy Millions of Souls and Bodies uncontrolably If the Kings of Israel and Judah were under censures and rebukes of the Prophets and sinned against God and the People in rejecting such rebukes and in persecuting the Prophets and were under and liable to all the Laws of God as all other People though their Subjects were then is their Power not above any Law nor absolute That these matters of Fact are true sit liber Judex Samuel rebuked Saul Nathan David Elias Achab. Jeremiah is sent to Prophecy against the Kings of Judah Jer. 1. 18. and the Prophets practised it Jer. 19. 3. Ahab could not take Naboths Vineyard against his will without the formality of Law and without the help of Men of Belial to boot for which violence offered to Law and Justice in the place where Dogs licked the Blood of Naboth shed by shamming of Laws by Innuendoes and false constructions of Laws the Dogs did lick the Blood of Ahab and did eat that cursed Woman Jezabel by the wall of Jezrael and her Carkass became as dung upon the face of the field A Document to all Kings and Princes for giving any countenance to Violence or Oppression or to shamming any Laws by any irresistable or prevalent Influences and the Inferior Judges ought not to accept the Persons of any in judgment whether small or great for the judgment is the Lords and their office as much of divine right as that of the Kings then certainly we may justly conclude That Kingly Power is neither above Law nor yet absolute for Kings who swear to Govern according to Law it is contrary to common sense nay impossible they should have an illimited or absolute Power either from God or the People for foedus conditionatum or promissio conditionalis mutua facit jus alteri in alterum it 's not to be thought that Kings can at one and the same time and in the same breath justly swear to Govern according to Law and at the same time interpretatively and secondarily swear to Govern absolutely and without Law. If the governed in Senates Parliaments and Dyets may call in question the Acts Previledges Charters and Commissions of Kings granted to any Persons and null and vacate them circumscribe and dock any of their Prerogatives may increase or diminish his Revenue and State may call into question any of his Friends Counsellors or Ministers of State and punish or remove them If the governed may appeal from Kings to Senates Dyets or Parliaments and may not appeal from them to Kings all which may and have been done as the publick Monuments of Laws do testifie who of sound judgment can deny the Power of the People in Dyets Senates and Parliaments to be above that of Kings If in an Interregnum Senates Dyets and Parliaments have Power and which is plain by Histories without regard had to right of Inheritance have created Kings whom they pleased and altered Successions In summ If Dyets Senates Parliaments are the Supreme Council of Nations constituted by the People indued with Power from them to this very thing that they may consult in common of the weighty matters of Kingdoms and common good and Kings therefore created that they should see executed what they did advise and agree upon quis nisi mentis inops can deny upon such plain evidence and demonstration that the People in Parliaments Dyets and Senates are not only co-ordinate and have a share in the Government but are also in some sense and some places superior to them for that they can do more than Kings Kings have their Prerogatives true and very fit they should have So have all other Governments be their Prerogatives what they will Power of the Militia making War and Peace calling of Councils Dyets Synods Senates Parliaments nominating Judges and other publick Officers of Kingdoms c. they are all derived from the People and transferred for their own good and so always expressed or implied If they make ill use of the Militia it 's a breach of trust and no obligation of Obedience and Submission is due if they make ill Leagues the People not bound to confirm or assist if they call Dyets and Parliaments it is not for their peculiar interests but for the good of the whole and nothing done therein can be of force unless the free assent of the convocated be first had Which demonstrates it is the Office and Duty of Kings to call those great Councils as oft as the People see cause and desire it and to continue them till they have the benefit designed And though the Royal Assent be desired it is but for the Honour of the business for what concerns common good safety and liberty they ought to pass by virtue of their Oaths and Office. Non negabimus non differimus cuique jus aut justitiam Chartae Artic. c. 29. Will not Kings deny Justice and may they deny just Laws Not to private Persons and yet to the Representatives of Nations Not in the Inferior Courts and yet in the Supreme They are created and elected Kings that they should do Justice to all indifferently Bracton l. 3. c. 9. Ad hoc creatus electus est ut justitiam faciat universis per eas nimirum leges quas vulgus elegerit Hence in Archivis H. 4. Rot. Parl. N o. 59. Non est ulla Regis Prerogativa quae ex justitia aequitate quicquam derogat Kings have no Prerogative which derogate from Justice and Equity And when Kings have refused to make or confirm Magnas Chartas good Laws they have been compelled by force of Arms and such Laws accounted as good and valid by the best Lawyers the reason given is That they of right and of their own accord ought to have assented unto that which they were forced to do All Courts of Judicatory are Authorized and Confirmed by Parliament in which it is Lawful for the meanest of Subjects to implead Kings in which Courts Judgment is often given against Kings which though endeavoured to be contradicted or countermanded by Kings yet the Judges by the Laws of God and Man and by their Oaths are obliged to refuse their Mandamus's and to give right Judgment for the judgment is the Lords Kings can justly Imprison no Man nor punish any Man nor seize their Goods or Estate without Citation out of Courts where the Judges not Kings have all the Power So
of Christians True but not the only Weapons lawful resistance of unlawful Force is as true which Divines both Popish and Protestants Bellarmine Turrecremata Cajetan Dominicus Soto Franciscus Victorius Pareus Calvin Eccolompadius Beza Martyr Luther Lavator Zuinglius Bucer Padre Paolo eminent for his great Learning Judgment and Faithfulness in all his Writings Bishop Bilson famous for his incomparable works especially for maintaining Christian Subjection against Unchristian Rebellion Willet Dr. Sherrock Bishop Bedel and other Modern Writers innumerable who following one another confirm the same But yet the said Mr. Clifford in the same Sermon pag. 11 12. is pleased with great confidence to Pulpit it That those that hold such Opinions are but a few deluded Creatures in the Church of Rome and a handful of zealous Fools in the reformed Churches a very severe censure on so many great and learned Men. I much wonder at his daring confidence thus to censure and which is worst to imploy his Priesthood and his Pulpit to rail and to delude his Congregation and the World with Paralogisms and false glosses and misapplications of plain Texts of Scripture as he hath done contrary to the very duty of his Priesthood which is to feed us with Wisdom and Knowledge and not to prevaricate and juggle with plain Texts To instance only in that golden Sentence as he calls it of the Psalmist viz. touch not my anointed Psalm 105. 15. which very Text though more particularly spoken of the Seed of Abraham his Servant and of Jacob his chosen yet it is so clearly and undeniably applicable to God's People in general in whom is all his delight and not of Kings in particular that it cannot be denied nay it is a reproof even to Kings themselves viz. He suffered no man to do them wrong yea he reproved Kings for their sakes saying Touch not mine anointed and do my Prophets no harm verse 14 15. which also is reinforced Psalm 149. For the Lord taketh pleasure in his People and will put a two-edged Sword in their Hands to bind their Kings in Chains and their Nobles with Fetters of Iron to execute upon them the judgment written This honour have all his Saints What is this but to betray and smother and reproach Truth it self very ill becoming Priests of the most high God. He hath done as much by other Texts as Psalm 51. 4. 1 Sam. 8. Prov. 8. 15. And indeed most Texts he quotes he dissembles and puts false glosses upon them But let these pass I only wonder how Priests dare be so sawcy with the Word of God. Neither is it true as often objected That infinite scandals would arise and grow from such Doctrines on the Christian Religion but it is true that they would grow out of the contrary for so should Tyranny be brought into Commonwealths which as a publick fault is more pernitious Even as no more is it true that by this Doctrine there would grow confusions in Families Cities and Kingdoms because every one might defend himself from the Sergeants from the Comito in Gallies and from the Prince who would force them to pay Impositions and Taxes not granted by publick consent For indifferences between Princes and Subjects both cannot have right on their sides but of necessity that if they who use force do it lawfully the defence must be unlawful and where the force is unlawful the defence of necessity must be lawful and therefore vim vi repellere licet is always to be understood of that force which is unjusty used And these Doctrines are most especially to be understood of publick Kingdoms Commonwealths free States and Cities and to preach Patience unto such under Tyranâ—â— and Oppression is a Medicine fitter for mad Dogs than for reasonable 〈◊〉 especially Christians for whose sakes God rebukes even Kings saying Touch not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and do my Prophets no harm Psalm 105. 15. To which sort of Remedy no Man â—bound nay rather oftentimes a Man should sin in using it as when the remedy were not only prejudicial to themselves but also to others Another Remedy often urged is Obedience be it so This is a Remedy but when unjust and prejudicial and not only to the Liberty which God hath given to the governed but also to their Lives Goods and Honours they are not bound to use it and by reason of prejudicing another they should sin if they should use it Obedience is a Divine Precept and is to be yielded to a just and holy command but when it is referred to unjust and tyrannical commands it is not good but natural defence doth then succeed in its room Submission to unjust commands is Obedience in name but indeed an extreme disobedience towards God and the governed Gregory II. Quest 7. yields the reason Admomendi sunt subditi ne plus quam expedit sint subjecti ne quum student plus quam necesse est hominibus subjici compellantur etiam vitia eorum venerari That Subjects must be admonished that they make not themselves more subject than is convenient lest they are inforced to flatter them in their Vices whose subjects they make themselves more than they should Besides one abuse of Power and Authority gives a greater scandal to the World and is a cause of greater mischiefs than many disobediences and the Prince as more eminent is much more bound by his greater Obligation to God to do his duty Kings that have a serious intent to live Christianly in good earnest will be careful to observe the Commandments of God and that they be preferred before his own These Doctrines of Resistance and Passive Obedience have of late been very bitterly controverted by our Spiritual Guides and Mr. Miles Barne tells us That it is the duty of private Men to submit their judgments in matters of Religion to the determinations of those whom God hath constituted to be their Spiritual Guides and Governors in his Sermon preached before his Majesty October 17. 1675. which undeniably is false Doctrine and makes us not their Disciples but their Slaves and we are never the nearer the Truth if we do For Prester John may believe with Julian and John of Jerusalem with Jovian both Spiritual Guides and so the Position satisfied and yet the Controversie as indeterminable and as far undesided as before And for certain private Men are no more obliged to believe their Spiritual Guides because such than Spiritual Guides are obliged to believe private Men but both the one and the other are to be believed or disbelieved according to the Doctrines they do deliver are true or false But this is not the only false Doctrine he hath preached Besides his faculty of preaching false Doctrine he excels in the faculty of Railing and dares to Pulpit more against Julian than Michael the Archangel durst do against the Devil for in his Sermon on Luke 19. he tells us That amongst Phanaticks and Atheists transformed into malicious Fiends by the Hellish Divinity of that
JVS REGIMINIS BEING A JUSTIFICATION OF Defensive Arms IN GENERAL And consequently of Our Late Revolutions AND TRANSACTIONS TO BE THE JUST RIGHT OF THE KINGDOM LICENS'D June 17. 1689. J. FRASER LONDON Printed in the Year MDCLXXXIX Benedictus sit prae caeteris Principibus Wilhelmus Henricus D. G. Magnae Britanniae Franciae Hiberniae REX Qualem nec viderunt Avi nec visuri sunt Nepotes qui advenerit ad Auxilium Jehovae contra potentes Papicolas Antichristianos tyrannorum pessimos Benedicta sit prae caeteris Heroinis MARIA Regina conjux Regni Consors Communicatis Imperii fascibus fruantur illi Sceptro Britannico Parentes liberorum laeti Aurei Seculi Authores Macti virtute conculcate Inimicos Religionis Protestantium Legum Anglorum Libertatum Parliamenti ut nomina vestra eant in Mille saecula sciantque posteri filii nascituri surgentes enarrent filiis suis semper fugiant infesti Osores à conspectu vestro Sic comprecatur sic vovet omni supplex humilitate WILHELMUS DENTON M. D. Majestatum vestrarum subditus humillimus ADVERTISEMFNT TO THE READER THIS Treatise hath been written several Years and kept close because the Government would not bear such Prints and might still have lain snug but that I daily see great endeavours by various Prints and Pamphlets casting false glosses upon a good Cause designing to bring us back to Onyons and Garlick and to Popery the worst of Tyranny Among which Prints the History of Passive Obedience at first view seems to carry in it's Front for its better countenancing of Non-resistance the most flourishing shew of our Articles Injunctions Canons Homiles Liturgy both our Universities Bishops Martyrs Confessors c. Which at first view presents a wonderful and an amazing cloud of Witnesses ready to confound the Doctrine of Resistance and Defensive Arms without farther Inquiry and to make good that enslaving Doctrine of Passive Obedience absolutely absolute without reserve of which I shall make but one or two plain Remarks leaving the rest to better Pens 1. Granting all the Quotations to be true yet are they to be understood of private Men and of private Authority only and not of Ordines Regni States and Kingdoms and Commonwealths 2. Calvin though quoted in this History as an Assertor of such Passive Obedience of which he Treats very Learnedly giving it all its just Allowances and Dimensions yet concludes notwithstanding all those specious Expressions which seem to favour Passive Obedience That he is to be understood always speaking of private Men For if there be at this time any Magistrates for the behalf of the People as the Ephori amongst the Lacedaemonians or Tribunes at Rome as the Demarchi at Athens or the same Power also which peradventure as things are now the Estates have in every Realm when they hold their Dyets Parliaments principle Assemblies he doth not forbid them according to their office to withstand the outragious licentiousness of Kings And farther he affirms That if they wink at Kings wilfully ranging over and treading down the poor Commonalty their dissembling is not without wicked breach of Faith because they deceitfully betray the Liberty of the People whereof they know themselves to be Protectors appointed by the Ordinance of God. Calvin Instit lib. 4. c. 20. par 32. Likewise his Quotation of Dr. Jackson in the Chapter of the Bounds of Christian Obedience will serve his turn as little as that out of Calvin for in the same Chapter p. 929. it being objected to him by the Author of the Prince and Prelate That many besides the Separatists and Enthusiasts many of note in reformed Churches have published in writing that Kings and Princes may in some cases be deposed which saith Dr. Jackson if spoken universally their Doctrine is false and for such condemned by our Church if thus they taught indefinitely only as that some Kings some chief Magistrates may be deposed he knows no Church that justly condemns them But for Divines to determine or dispute what Princes in particular may be deposed or in what cases is matter without their Commission unless commanded by their Princes p. 927. And I think he knew the Doctrine of this and other Churches as well as the Author of this History So Bishop Jewel explains St Paul and himself in the very same Quotation viz. That whosoever striketh with the Sword by private Authority shall perish with the Sword which Opinion if rightly considered is the sense or meaning of all or most of this Historians Quotations and are so to be understood Bishop Bilson how slightly soever represented by this Historian was as profound a Scholar and Divine as ever sate upon that See in his Book of Christian Subjection and Unchristian Rebellion treats of nothing else but of Passive Obedience and Non-resistance at large and no Man better or more solidly in defence of them yet will not rashly pronounce all that resist to be Rebels If a King should go about to subject the Kingdom to a Foreign Realm which happily is not much dissimular to our present constitution and transactions to change the Form of a Commonwealth from Impery to Tyranny or neglect the Laws established by common consent of Prince and People to execute his own pleasure in those and other cases if the Nobles and Commons join together to defend their Ancient Liberties Regiment and Laws they may not well be accounted Rebels very modestly expressed p. 520. And more at large to the same purpose may be read in several places of this Book which Opinion of these great and learned Men are a justification of the present Transactions of our Ordines Regni who have so considerable a share in the Government that no Law can or ought to be made without them And I may truly say without prejudice that those very Authors being all of the Historians own quoting have written as profoundly and solidly for Passive Obedience and Non-resistance as it will bear or that all his other Quotations do or can make out And Bishop Bilson that great Scholar and Divine printed his Book 1585. and dedicated it to Queen Elizabeth of ever blessed Memory whose happy Government was such as she did not think such Resistance unlawful and therefore she soon promoted him to be Bishop of Worcester Anno 1595. and soon after viz. Anno 1597. translated him to Winchester And I think these Men understood the Doctrines Articles Canons Liturgy Homilies Universities c. of this and of other Churches abroad as well as this Historian or as any of the other Authors as he hath named Besides Queen Elizabeth did not only approve the publication of such Doctrines in her Government but being willing to avoid the Curse that bitter Curse of Meroz on her and her Kingdom she gave this farther Testimony and Demonstration by her owning and countenancing such Resistance and by her enâ—ring into Contract with the Protestants of France against the Mighty by sending Mony and
is so natural an obligation that it cannot be dispensed with And for Governors to procure the good of Commonweals is but to do their duty he that is above all should be best of all for Example prevails more than Law and there can be no reason for sin violence or oppression Princes Councils Love and Hate Must do homage to the Law of State The Peoples Safety hath no Mate So King James of happy Memory in his Speech to the Parliament 1603. When I have done all that I can for you I do nothing but that which I am bound to do and am accountable to God upon the contrary For I do acknowledge that the special and greatest point of difference that is between a Rightful King and an Usurping Tyrant is in this That whereas the proud and ambitious Tyrant doth think his Kingdom and People are only ordained for satisfaction of his Desires and unreasonable Appetites the righteous and just King doth by the contrary acknowledge himself to be ordained for the procuring of the Wealth and Prosperity of his People and that his greatest and principle Worldly Felicity must consist in their Prosperity If you be rich I cannot be poor if you be happy I cannot but be fortunate and I protest that your Welfare shall ever be my greatest care and contentment and that I am a Servant it is most true that as I am Head and Governor of all the People in my Dominions who are my natural Vassals and Subjects considering them in numbers and distinct ranks so if we will take the whole People as one Body and Mass then as the Head is ordained for the Body and not the Body for the Head so must a righteous King know himself to be ordained for his People and not his People for him For though a King and People be relata yet there can be no King if he want People and Subjects but there be many People in the World that lack a Head wherefore I will never be ashamed to confess it my principal honour to be the great Servant of the Commonwealth and ever think the Prosperity thereof to be my greatest Felicity 494 495. The reason is demonstrable viz. God not the King made the People and those all equally of one and the self-same Mould but the People make Kings Nature was Father to the People but the People make some of themselves Kings and are the rightful Patrons of all their Power Honours Priviledges and Prerogatives and therefore as God ordained the Sabbath for man and not man for the Sabbath Mark 2. 27 so 〈◊〉 ordained Kings and all other Governors and Governments for 〈◊〉 and not Men for Kings The prospect and foresight of the wise That to be governed by one Mans Will might become the cause of all Mens misery prevailed with them 〈…〉 and 〈…〉 Laws 〈◊〉 all might see their Duties and 〈…〉 There are that 〈◊〉 with great 〈…〉 truth that Kings receive their 〈…〉 according to Prov. 8. 15. and not from the 〈…〉 are set and that they are accountable to nonâ— bu◠〈…〉 on the just Right of all Polâ—â—â—â—k Power 〈…〉 and of Nature and of Reason is originally in the 〈…〉 use thereof from them may be transferred and deligated unto whom 〈…〉 devesting 〈…〉 their Administrator◠〈…〉 them who deligated it and to 〈…〉 countable If such Assâ—â—tor◠〈…〉 old when God by 〈…〉 the People had 〈…〉 Prophets for Rules 〈…〉 much more might have 〈…〉 yet even in those days the 〈…〉 far complied with common consent 〈…〉 change of that Government his own Wisdom 〈…〉 him and his Government 〈…〉 his peculiar People only because they 〈…〉 King over us maugre all that Samuel could 〈…〉 as Solomon was dead all Israel come 〈…〉 King who refusing to be a Servant to the◠〈…〉 for ever threatning that his little finger should be 〈…〉 would whip them with Scorpions c. they soon 〈…〉 have we in David neither have we inheritance in the 〈…〉 and see to thine house David 1 King 12. and then chose 〈…〉 Rehoboam the Son of Solomon But such choice being now quite out of doors and 〈…〉 the least pretence of Title from such Nomination and therefore 〈…〉 can only be meant the institution of the Office and not the designation 〈…〉 and cannot possibly be understood any other ways 〈…〉 instituted hath together with other Governmentâ— th◠〈…〉 And it standeth sure that all Royal Power 〈…〉 in the People as in the first Subject which they may confer on this or that Man with â—â—at â—â—mitations they please and on condition that if conditions be not performed they 〈…〉 Power they intrusted him withal And therefore no King can have 〈…〉 so just Powers as from the suffrages of the People all other Governments 〈…〉 Tyrannies and continued Injuries of which the People may ease themselves when they have just reason and a neat opportunity so to do because their just and natural Right is wrongfully invaded for that naturally no sort of Men have full and lawful Power to command whole politick multitudes of Men and therefore utterly without the Peoples consent they ought not to be at any Man's commandment living This is plain and natural reason and ought to have the stamp of a publick Law. Laws positive are mutable natural not so and therefore these Laws ought to stand unrepealed because they always bind The Kings of Israel and Judâ—â— were not so immediately and absolutely from God as that the People were 〈…〉 excluded from their Right and Power of Electing and Approving and 〈…〉 of them that had been to deprive them of that Power that God and the 〈…〉 Nature had given them to Covenant and Agree with them before they would admit of them that had been to wrong the People and to bind them up from the use of their reason by Covenanting for their own Happiness and against Tyranny in ease they should break Laws and Covenants solemnly made with them by Oath which cannot be broke without Perjury By me Kings reign was only an Index and Declaration of God's Will and Pleasure which doth not take away or destroy the Peoples Right or Liberty Saul was not King so absolutely and so immediately from God that it excluded all Election of the People but was afterwards chosen by Lot by all the People at Mizpeh And all the People shouted and said God save the King 1 Sam. 10. 17 24. and afterwards Behold the King whom ye have chosen Chap. 12. 23. Did not all the Elders of Israel Capitulate and Covenant with David before the Lord in Hebron and then and not till then anointed him King over Israel 1 Chron. 11 13. All the Men of War came with a perfect Heart to Hebron to make David King over all Israel and all the rest also of Israel were of one Heart to make David King chap. 12. 38. Did not all the People of Judah take Azariah who was Sixteen years old and made him King instead of his Father Amaziah 2
sit on Thrones are given unto them by Men as Men chosen from among themselves and if upon just occasion dethroned then they are but as one of themselves again Moreover If God gives Kings to be a ransom for his Church as Pharaoh King of Egypt Isaiah 43. 3. and slay famous Kings as Sihon King of the Amorites and Og King of Bashan Psalm 136. 18 19 20. If he puts a two-edged sword into the hands of his Saints to execute vengeance to bind their Kings in chains and their Nobles with fetters of iron to execute upon them the judgment written Deut. 7. 1 2. This honour have all his Saints Psalm 14. 7 8 9. If God plead with Princes and Kings for having the spoil of the poor of his people in their houses and for beating his people to pieces and grinding the faces of the poor Isaiah 3. 13 14. If God make Babylon and her King a threshing floor for the violence done to the inhabitants of Sion and plead the cause of Sion and take vengeance for her and make Babylon a heap a dwelling-place for Dragons an astonishment and hissing without an inhabitant and make them roar like Lions and yell like Lions whelps Jer. 51. 36 37 38. Then Christian Commonwealth as his People are more precious in the sight of the Lord than Kings because they are Kings Besides Kings are but single Persons and Kingdoms and the Church consists of Millions and certes the Lives Welfare and Happiness of Millions are to be preferred before one though he should be worth Ten thousand of them in respect of outward splendor and pomp for there is no respect of Persons with God for all God's delight is in Saint-ship not in King-ship Besides Nature prompts unto a necessity of Government but not unto Kingly Government for that innumerable People may and do live without a King but there can be no King without a People And the very Essence of Government and Governors is preserved safe and intire in Aristocracy or Democracy in the People though there should be no Kings Besides the People were a People before there was any Government Paternal and Domestick excepted and there is a People where there is no King but there can be no King without a People Take away the People and Dionysius the Sicilian Tyrant will be but a pitiful Pedant Take away the Basis of a Collossus though that of the Sun at Rhodes and the whole Fabrick and Superstructure must necessarily fall to the Ground If the People do but withdraw and re-call their own Powers to its proper center Tarquin will quickly quit Rome Besides How came they to be Kings Were they created of any â—iner dust or were they redeemed by a more precious Blood than any of the rest of the Race of Mankind Dropt they out of the Skies Or sprung they out of the Earth like Mushromes in a night If not so nor so How came they by their Kingly Dignity Even by the choice and gift of the People who make choice of one from among themselves to sit like a Pilot to Steer the Government for the good of the governed and therefore they contribute all their Eyes Ears Hands Feet nay their whole Bodies and Purses to exalt enoble and enable him the better to go in and out before them to judge Uprightly to plead their Causes and to minister Justice indifferently Do Kings misbehave themselves then may also the People withdraw their Eyes Ears Hands Feet Strength Purses and then Kings will be like one of themselves again Seeing therefore Kings are made by the People and for the good of the People and cannot subsist without the People and the end is more to be preferred than the means Why should it seem strange to Christians rational Men that Kingdoms are to be preferred before and to be held Superior unto Kings Kings are given of God as gifts for the preservation comfort and good of his People his Chosen his Inheritance the work of his own Hands and the redeemed of his own Blood to be Nursing-fathers to them and therefore must be of less esteem in the sight of God than those to whom and for whose good and happiness they are given since the gift as the gift is in worth much less than Kingdoms for whose sake Kings were given Besides who by office were obliged to Fight the Kingdoms Battels by going in and out before them and to Jeopard their lives for the safety of the People must be inferior to the People Moreover The Royal Legislative Power is joint and co-ordinate with King and People and consequently the Power also and so no necessity to fetch a Royal Power from Heaven to be immediately infused in them seeing the People have such a Power in themselves The People in all well constituted Kingdoms can and do limit and bind Royal Power by Law and those who can limit and take away can give Power and it is ahsurd to conceive that the People can put restraint upon Powers immediately derived from God. Though Kings command in some sense the People by their executive Power of the Laws above them yet the People have the Original and Natural Power above them because they make Kings and in God's intention Kings are given wholly and intirely for their good and if Kings do not so execute they do as much as in them lieth make void and frustrate the whole design of their Government instituted and established by God and Man and forfeit their right of Governing The People give to Kings a Politick Power for their own safety and quiet living and they keep their Natural Power to themselves of which they cannot devest themselves and they do not break their Covenant nor their Laws when they execute Natural Power for their self preservation The People by their Original or Natural Power make Kings after Kings as when Saul died they made David at Hebron after him Solomon after him Rehoboam and so on And therefore there is more Fountain and Natural Power of Royalty in the People than in David Saul or any King in the World for it is not any where read that Saul or any other King made an other absolute King. Those Tribunals that make Kings must necessarily be above Kings and though there be no Tribunals formally above Kings yet there is naturally and virtually a Power in the People in those who have a joint co-ordinate Power in the Legislative Power and share in the executive part of the Laws as all Officers of Kingdoms have to erect a Tribunal over them It is false and absurd to conceive that any People have or can lawfully resign their whole Liberty into the Hands and Power of any Royal or other Government it being against the Law of God and Nature so to do Obj. Nemo dat quod non habet For the People have not an absolute Power to destroy themselves or to authorize Violence Oppression Injustice or other acts of Tyranny and therefore cannot resign it to
12. and in his due time will relieve the oppressed and afflicted If we make diligent and exact Scrutiny into other Relations of human and civil dependencies our Judgments may be assisted for the more clear apprehending of truths of Government wherein we shall find some obligations between them so strictly enjoyned that they cannot be violated without the brand of Impiety as between Parents and Children Husband and Wife Master and Servant Col. 3. 18 19. 20 21 22. Job 31. 13. between whom although by the Laws of God and Man there be many reciprocal Duties yet are they nothing if weighed in a just Ballance in comparison to what Kings themselves owe to God and the Governed who are also the Church of Christ for what ever injury is done to a Christian Commonwealth is at the same time done against the Church of God whereof Christ is Head and King and those whom we call Kings thereof are but his Substitutes and Vicegerents and ought to govern as he hath commanded and as he will do when he shall come again in Glory to reign on Earth Besides they are constituted and ordained by the Governed under Conditions Covenants and Agreement not that themselves may live at ease only and command and rule at Pleasure but as Gods Vicegerents and as Trustees and Administrators of the Governed to rule and govern according to his and their own Laws quas vulgus eligerit for what a madness should we esteem it in human Affairs if Deputies Viceroyes and Lieutenants of Earthly Kings should for their own private ends and interest prefer them before the Honour Glory and Service of their Kings They who so administer Affairs take not right measures of their Masters Glory and the Peoples good but comply with the flatteries of their own Lusts their particular Advantages sinful Ends and interests or hatred furiously transporting them to the publick ruin privati Commodi vel odii pertinacia in publicum exitium stimulante Tacit. lib. 1. hist Private Interest and concerns saith Livy always have and always will hinder publick good Councils privatae res semper officere officientque publicis consiliis Livy lib 22. The Heathen taught only by the light of Nature could discern the truth of these things and have left Monuments thereof on their Tombs and Coins They doubted not saith Valerius that Empires were made to serve holy Purposes and that all things even such where the Lustre of Supreme Majesty was to appear were to be placed after Religion Kings Princes and Governours being partakers of the same human Nature in common with their Subjects are equally obliged by the same Laws of God and Nature to keep Faith and Covenant the common Law of Nature with them and therefore the Obligation of keeping Faith and Covenant is equally obligatory both to Prince and People As by the Law of Nature so by the Law of God Covenants are inviolably to be kept and not broken by either Prince or People And as Covenants between God and the King and between God and the People so between Kings and the People which as they are most solemnly made so they are as sacredly to be kâ—pt and that under great Menaces Pains and Penalties God hath given his â—ord that â—e will never break his Covenant Jud. 2. 1. and Psal 89. 34. My Covenant I will not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my Mouth and requires and expects the like punctual performance from his Vicegerents and bitterly curses those that do infringe and break plighted Faith and Agreements Cursed be the Man that obeyeth not the words of this Covenant Jâ—r 11. 31. and God for the breach of Covenant gave the Princes of Judah and the Princes of Jerusalem the Eunuchs and the Priests and all the People of the land into the hands of the Enemies and into the hands of them that sought their lives and their Bodies for meat unto the Fowls of Heaven and to the Beasts of the Earth Jer. 34. 19 20. Besides God is no respecter of Persons Kings and Peasants are all alike to him all the Works of his own Hands all made of the same Mould all redeemed with the same previous Blood all his own Images and Temples and shall stand in an equal distance before his Tribunal who will judge all breakers of Covenant whether Kings or Peasants according to his own Righteous Judgment Neither Kings nor People have any Priviledge or Prerogative to break Covenant and they that do be they Kings or be they People are justly esteemed Rebels to the Laws and Covenants and the injured Persons have just Cause to right and defend themselves if oppressed by such Violation Kings accounting themselves as Gods Ministers and Vicegerents and Fathers of their Countries ought so to govern in good earnest and they being placed on their Thrones as such by the People ought to keep Laws and Covenants punctually with them and which they cannot break or sham without being perjured and becoming guilty of Tyranny and Oppression No Kings nor Princes can be so indulgent nor so really fond and ambitious of their Peoples Love and Welfare as God is of the Love of Mankind like as a Father pittieth his Children so the Lord pittieth them that fear him Psal 103. 13. testified by his making them a little lower than the Angels and crowning them with Glory and Honour and giving them Dominion over the works of his Hands and by putting all things under their Feet all Sheep and Oxen c. Psal 8. And indeed the whole Creation for his own Glory and the good and Solace of Mankind Did he not command Moses to carry his people in his Bosom as a Nursing Father beareth his sucking Child Num. 11. 12. Can a Woman forget her sucking Child that â—he should not have compassion on the Son of her Womb yea they may forget yet will not I forget them Isa 49. 15. If God hear but Ephraim bemoaning himself how passionately doth he expostulate with himself Is Ephraim my dear Son is he a pleasant Child For since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still therefore my Bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord Jer. 31. 20. Doth God who is Lord alone of all the Kingdoms of the Earth make known his excessive fondness of his People by such Bowels of Compassion How then dare his Vicegerents requite evil for good contrary to Gods own Commands and Practice and not seek the Good and Welfare of their People without having Hearts harder than the nether Millstone Again How shall I give thee up O Ephraim How shall I deliver thee O Israel my Heart is turned within me my Repentings are kindled together Hos 11. 9. Tho you will neither turn nor repent yet how shall I give thee up So desirous is he of his Peoples Repentance that he beseecheth them till he is weary of repenting Jer. 15. 6. even passionately with Oaths doth he expostulate with
who carefully defend and govern the Church and People of God imitating David King of Israel Psalm 101. He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house he that telleth lyes shall not tarry in my sight I will early destroy all the wicked of the land that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the Lord c. The King ought in all truth and sincerity fully and wholly to observe all the Dignities Rights and Liberties of the Kingdom and to reduce them to their Pristine condition The King also ought to do all things in his Kingdom righteously and that by the judgment of the Nobles of the Kingdom and Right and Justice ought rather to bear Rule in a Kingdom than sinful Wills and Pleasures Law is always that which doth right but Will and Pleasure is violence and force is not right And much more to the same purpose by Edward the First to whose Laws also William the Conqueror subscribed Vid. Lambert Collect p. 142. N o 17. The true Religion of God and honest Conversation even of Priests themselves is our chiefest care saith Justinian Novel constit 6. The search of true Religion we find to be the chiefest care of Imperial Majesty Legum Theodos Novel tit 2. de Judaeis Samaritanis So Gregory the Great earnestly exhorted Edelbert unto the first that was Christned of the Saxon Kings in England For this cause the Almighty God brings the good Princes to the Regiment of his People that by them he may bestow the gifts of his mercy upon all that are under them Beda hist Aug. 32. Consider in the Creation we were all created in Adam equal and equally innocent and upright and had we so continued in that state of Innocency there would have been no need of Impery one over another every one would have been a King to himself God and Nature their only Law-givers but lapsed Man sought out many Inventions and broke the Laws both of God and Nature and thereby provoked God to anger and to vengeance and instead of being homo homini Deus as in their fist Creation and state of Innocency they soon became homo homini Lupus which unavoidably introduced a necessity of Government framed by human Wisdom that they may not like Brutes devour one another but live in Unity Wealth Peace and Godliness that they might have Liberty preserved Justice equally distribute◠Honesty upheld Religion and Piety maintained and propagated all which could not be done when the Race of lapsed Mankind was multiplyed but by Laws ordained by Common Consent as sociable Parts united into one Body which Laws in common Prudence and of right do bind each to serve other and all to prefer the good of the whole before what good soever of any particular without which no House no City no Nation can long subsist in any happy condition For to govern and to be governed is not to be esteemed amongst things only necessary but as things profitable also for the benefit and sollace of all Mankind and hath its ground and warrant in Scripture in Nature in Heaven Hell the Creatures Mans nature and Conscience In Scripture by me Kings and consequently all other Forms of Government reign and Princes decree Justice By me Princes rule and Nobles even all the Judges of the earth Pro. 8. 15 16. saith Gods essential wisdom viz. not only by the secret disposition of his Providence but by the express warrant of his Ordinance by Divine Institution not by naked approbation there being no power but of God either by his commission or permission The powers that are i. e. the several Forms of Government are ordained by God Rom. 13. 1 2 3 4 5 6. i. e. politick Power in general is warranted by a Divine Law but the several Forms of Government is by the Law of Nations Princedom Empire Kingdom and Jurisdiction have their Rise from a positive and secondary Law of Nations and not absolutely from the Law of God or of pure Nature which the Lawyers call Secundariò Jus naturale or Jus gentium secundarium In sum Government is immediately from God but this or that Form of Government is immediately from God by the Interposition and Mediation of the publick consent of Kingdoms and States and so the application of the Persons to the Office is wholly in the Governed The several Forms of Government differ not in nature Morally and Theologically speaking the end of all Government being the very self same but only politically and positively For God appointed not Kings absolute and solely Independent but constituted with them also Judges who were equally obliged to judge according to the Law of God. 2. Chron. 19. 6. as Kings 17. Deut. 15. and have a co-ordinate share in the Government because the Judgment is neither the Kings nor the Judges but the Lords and both their Consciences are in immediate subjection to the King of Kings 2 Chron. 19. 6 7. The persons are sometimes Usurpers sometimes Abusers of their Authority as when they tyrannize or oppress such powers God owns not the Rulers that he ordains are not to be a Terrour unto good works but to the evil for they are the Ministers of God to the governed for good revengers to execute wrath upon them that do evil To such Rulers we must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake therefore whosoever resisteth such powers resisteth the ordinance of God And for this cause pay we tribute but not to those that are a terrour to good works the reason subjoyned is for they are Gods Ministers attending continually on this very thing but if they attend not continually on this very thing there is no absolute necessary Obligation expressed incumbent upon us for our Obedience or for our paying of Tribute Sute or Service but rather on the contary It is better to obey God than Man Acts 5. 29. The same Power St. Peter terms human Ordinances Submit your self to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as supreme or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. so that S. Paul and S. Peter run parallel to one and the self same Sense and the Sword in the Magistrates Hand to revenge is not a material Sword to hack and hew kill and slay at pleasure but the Laws made by the common consent are the true Sword so Bishop Bilson to which both Magistrates and People are equally obliged to submit the Magistrates being but the Conduit and Pipe the Administrators not Patrons of the Powers for the sake of order through which and by whom all Laws are to pass and be executed and by the same Texts they have the like Obligation to praise them that do well as to punish those that do ill so David was taught and practised I will not know a wicked person mine eyes
respect not to this life only but to that of a better even to Eternity which no other Lawgivers had therefore Moses exhorted the Israelites that when they should possess the Land whether they were going that they should keep and do the statutes and judgments as the Lord had commanded him and it should be their wisdom and their understanding in the sight of the Nations which shall hear all those statutes and say surely this great Nation is a wise and understanding people And what Nation is there so great that hath Statutes and Judgments so righteous as all this Law which I set before you this day Deut. 4. 4 5 6 7 8. Having declared the necessity usefulness and benefit of Government and the final end thereof it is now requisite to show the true and efficient cause and right of Government where and in whom the just right of appointing Governours and Government is undoubtedly inherent and instated God beyond all contradiction reigns by his own Plenipotentiary Power and doth whatsoevor he pleaseth in Heaven above and in Earth beneath and in the Waters under the Earth Kings and other Governours only precariò at the good will and pleasure of others God by himself Kings by God and the Governed God by his own Jurisdiction Kings by deligated Authority from others the Jurisdiction of God is immense that of Kings limited So the power of God infinite that of Kings not so the Kingdom of God endless boundless that of Kings limited to certain Regions and fading When God sets Kings upon Thrones he sets them there as his Substitutes to go in and out before his people and to do Judgment and Justice 2 Chron. 9. 8. and upon condition that the governed should still be the Lords people 2 King. 11. 17. 2 Chron. 1. 10. So that God still remains Lord and Proprietor of the same People but sets Kings and other Magistrates over them to govern and feed them like good Shepherds not to pill poll and fley them so all good Kings acknowledged as David Solomon Jehosaphat and others So Nebuchadnezzar tho an Ethnick did acknowledge Dan. 2. 47. Hence it necessarily follows that Kings are set over a People to nourish and cherish them as God himself and not to wrong or oppress them So Jehojada made a Covenant between the Lord and the King and the People that they should be the Lords People and between the King also and the People 2 King. 11. 17. In the Inauguration of Joae we read of a holy Covenant between God and the King and the people as it is elsewhere expressed between Jorada the chief Priest and all the people and the King that they should be the people of God. So Josiah and all the people made Covenant with God 2 King. 11. 11. 2 Chr. 23. 13 16. 2 King. 23. from which is to be understood that the high Priest in the name of God covenanted between the Lord and the King and the People that they should be the Lords People and between the King also and the People that God should be truly and purely worshipped by both King and People of Judah And was not the King so to reign that he should suffer the People to serve God according to the Law of God and the People so to obey the King that in the first place they were to obey God and both King and People sworn by Solemn Sacrament in the first place to worship God and keep his Laws matter of Fact doth manifest it And all the People of the Land went into the House of Baal and brake it down his Altars and his Images brake they in pieces c. and restored the Worship of God the sum of the Covenant being that all should worship God and all should take care that God be worshipped according to his own Precepts and Prescript which if they did perform God would be with them and bless them if not then he would destroy them So Moses before his death rehearsâ—th the Conditions of the Covenant made with their Forefathers and all the Blessings and Curses attending the breach or performance thereof Deut. 29. 30 31. commanding them to take the book of the Law and put it in the side of the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God that it may be there for a witness against thee c. Deut. 31. 26 27 28. After Moses was dead God himself constituted Joshua to go in and out before his People on the same conditions Josh 1. which if they transgressed they should be delivered into the hands of the Canaanites One and the self-same Covenant which was made between God and the People under the Judges was made under and with the Kings After Saul was constituted King Samuel said to the People Fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart but if you shall still do wickedly ye shall be consumed both ye and your King Josh 12. 24 25. thereby shewing that God expects as strickt performance of his Laws from Kings as from the People Saul being rejected because he brake Covenant David was constituted King on the same Conditions and so Solomon his Son which Covenant was That if they and their Children kept his Commandments and observed his Statutes they should sit on the Throne of Israel for ever if otherwise they should be destroyed 1 Kings ch 2. ver 12. 2 Chron. 6. 16. ch 7. 17. Hence the Book of the Law found in the Temple in the days of Josiah is called the Book of the Covenant of the Lord which he commanded his People to deliver to the King 2 King. 23. 2. Deut. 7. 18. which Samuel did to Saul 1 Sam. 10. 25. and Josiah accordingly did covenant before the Lord So the Law which was kept in the Ark is called the Covenant of the Lord with the Children of Israel who being delivered from the Babylonish Captivity renewed their Covenantwith God which they had violated 2 Chron. 6. 11. whereby it is manifest that Kings as Vassalls to the Law of God solemnly swear to be obedient thereunto We make a sure Covenant and write it and our Princes Levites and Priests seal unto it Nehem. 9. 38. the breach of which Covenant is a like penal to King and People which is manifested in Saul who for offering Sacrifice and for sparing Agag King of the Amalekites was accounted a Rebel and punished accordingly 1 Sam. 13. 12 13. and thereby taught that Kings if they break the Laws are as truly Rebels as Subjects and that obedience is better than sacrifice thou hast rejected the wâ—rd of the Lord and the Lord hath rejected thee from being King over Israel 1 Sam. 15. 26 27. which crime doth not terminate only in the Persons of Kings so rebelling but is extensive also to their Children So God did rend the Kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and gave ten tribes to his servant Jeroboam because he forsook God and worshipped 〈◊〉 c. 1 King. 11. 32 33.
the second time and anointed him unto the Lord to be chief Governour and Zadock to be Priest 1 Chron. 28. 1. 29. 22 24. Solomon being dead all Israel came to Sechem to make Rehoboam King 1 Kings 12. 11. 2 Chron. 10. 1. Amaziah being slain Uzziah his only Son was made King by all the people 2 Chron. 26. 1. To what tended that saying of Hushai unto Absalom nay but whom the Lord and this people and all the men of Israel chuse his will I be and with him will I abide 2 Sam. 16. 18. but to demonstrate that that King is rightly and lawfully constituted King whom the People chuse And all the men of Sechem gathered together and all the house of Millo went and made Abimelech King Judg. 9. 6. And he that was over the house and he that was over the city the elders also and bringers up of the children sent to Jehu saying We are thy servants and will do all that thou shalt bid us we will not make any King do thou that which is good in thine eyes 2 Kings 10. 5. And all these men of war that could keep rank came with a perfect heart to Hebron to make David King over all Israel and all the rest also of Israel were of one heart to make David King 1 Chron. 12. 28. Several times the making of a King is ascribed and given to the People viz. Wherefore is it recorded Deut. 17. 14. when thou shalt say I will set a King over me if it were not their Right and Power to make a King and without such Power no Law could be imposed on them Not to make a stranger King and yet to chuse one of their Brethren is certainly a warrant from Heaven to chuse beyond contradiction All the congregation made Jeroboam King over Israel 1 Kings 12. 20. So they have power both to make and not to make a King over themselves and also to limit and bound their Kings to what conditions they please or else to fall from them as the people of Israel did from Rehoboam and chuse another 1 Kings 12. 19. Nor was Saul himself formerly King as soon as Samuel had anointed him nor yet because another Spirit was infused in him no not until all Israel chose him King at Mizpeh Jehoash and Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord and the king and the people that they should be the Lord's people and between the king also and the people 2 Chron. 23. 16. By all which it appears that though Kings were so constituted and influenced by the Prophets from God himself yet not so absolutely as to exclude common consent but that they were to be under Covenants and Agreements with the People whereunto they were equally strictly and reciprocally obliged to performance and that their just right of admitting Governors over them was reserved unto them upon their own Tearms and Conditions even then and certainly much more now seeing God doth not now immediately interpose in any such choice the same right by the Law of God and Nature is so undeniably in them that it cannot be denied unto them And all Kings Governing otherwise than by the consent of the People are but Intruders Usurpers and Tyrants And whoever violates those Covenants in a high degree are undoubtedly Rebels to the Law and whoever commits any unjust force against the Law the defence must necessarily be just and warrantable before God and Man. Consult prophane Histories and it will be found the Power and Liberty of the People is asserted and defended and practised accordingly even among the Heathens And in all well-governed Kingdoms the Children did not succeed their Parents until the People by their Magistrates had de novo invested them by the Diamond and Scepter In Christian Kingdoms which to this day Reign by succession the same is evident The Kings of France Spain c. are all Inaugurated and Crowned by the Peers Patritians and Magistrates representatives of the Kingdom no otherwise than the Emperors of Germany are by the Princes Electors thereof and the Kings of Poland by the Vayvodes or Palatines Neither is their Kingly Honour owned in the free Cities till so Crowned Constituted and Confirmed neither was the time of their Reign computed but from the day of their Inauguration which manifestly appears in the Kingdom of France and other Kingdoms where the States often preferred a Kinsman before a Son a younger Son before an elder which Kingdom by the Authority of the People was translated from one to another without regard had to the right Heir As to the Franks before they came into France it 's manifest that their petty Kings were subject to the Ordines Populi as Julius Caesar testifieth lib. 5. c. 8. f. 57. De bello Gallico Whilst Ambiorix Catileucus Eburonum rex i e. King of a People inhabiting between the Rhyne and the Mose the People of Leige or Luke beyond Brabant in a certain Oration rehearsing the words saith That such is his Empire that the People have not less right against and over him than he over them Ut non minus in se juris multitudo quam ipse in multitudinem The same also appears by the words of Vercingentorix Arvernorum Rex a People of France by the River of Loyer defending his Cause in a publick Assembly as it is recorded by the same Caesar lib. 7. c. 4. Afterwards the Franks and the Gauls became one under the name of Franco-Galli who although they chose their Kings first out of the Family of Merovey then out of the Posterity of Charles the Great and after out of the Successors of Hugh Capet yet from the beginning they so constituted their Monarchy that their Kings did not Reign only by the right of Succession but were also chosen Consensu Ordinum Regni And such was the Oath of the Franco Galli Kings according to Aymoinus lib. 5. c. 23. which Charles the Bald spoke Quia sicut isti venerabiles Episcopi c. Because you venerable Bishops have proclaimed me chosen to the Government for your safety and profit know ye that I will preserve the Honour and Worship of God and of holy Church and of every one of you according to your Ranks and Qualities and according to my Knowledge and Power will honour and keep safe And to every one both Clergy and Laiety preserve and maintain Law and Justice that Kingly Honour and Obedience of the People may be preserved and defended as your Fore-fathers did to my Predecessors justly and faithfully And so the Sons of Pepin Charles the Great anno 751. Lewis the Third and Carloman anno 768. Bastards to Lewis and no regard had to the Institution of Lewis's Will who had named Endes for Regent and so were both Crowned Kings Lewis the Idle Son or Brother to Carloman takes upon him to be King but not being acknowledged by the States as they were ready to dispossess him he died Charles the Second called the Gross Emperor
them when limited to Kings but must consider them as things meerly Divine the greatest tye in the World above all human Laws Consent and Comprehension then all Nations are equally Slaves and born to no more Liberty than the Subjects of Rex Asinerum whose Wooden Shoes and Canvas Breeches proclaim what a blessedness it is to be born under a meer divine Prerogative But the surest Basis of all right Government is common consent and the most just and honourable End is common good and not such a divine Prerogative as none can understand nor possible for any Mortal to prove God is not more the Author of Regal then of Democratical Aristocratical or any other Form of Government or Power nor more the Author of Supreme than of Subordinate Powers Subordinate Magistrates have their Power as much from God as Kings have and as responsible to God only as they and yet their Powers are not beyond human reprimand and determination Laws are not now to be understood to be any special Ordinances immediately sent from Heaven as of old by the Ministry of Angels or Prophets they now can be nothing else amongst Christians but the Pactions and Agreements of such and such Politick Societies and Power nay the very Essence of Power is so Originally inherent in the People that they cannot justly without injury to God and Natures Law devest themselves wholly of it and it is nothing else but the Might and Vertue which such or such a Society of Men contains in it self and when by such and such Laws of Common consent and Agreement it is derived and deligated into such and such Hands God confirms that Law and so Man is the free natural and voluntary Author the Law is the Instrument and God is the Establisher of both All other Powers not derived from common consent of the People are but Sophisticate and Adulterate in all Princes and they that imbrace such Powers imbrace a Cloud instead of a Juno The Fountain or Efficient Cause of Power is most certainly in the Governed And from hence the inferrence is just That Kings though singulis majores yet are universis minores for if the People be the true efficient cause of Power as undeniably they are its a Rule both in Nature and Politicks quicquid efficit tale est magis tale Hence it 's manifest that as the Governed are the efficient cause so they and their happy estate and condition are the final end of all Governments And it were strange nay monstrous that in conferring and deligating their own Power and Vertue to this or that Man or to these or those Persons to command in Chief for Order and Regulation sake only should aim at any thing but at their own Good and Happiness both in the first and last place Or to express it in another Dialect the Publick Power and Authority of all Societies is above every individual contained in the same Societies of what quality soever Kings or not Kings All Imperial and Royal Dignities are instituted by the Commonwealth to preserve it self and not erected to preserve Royal Dignity otherwise or farther than it conduces to the Honour Safety and Happiness of the Commonwealth And that which is the End is far more honourable and valuable both in Nature and Polity than that which is the Means which leads us to the transcendent Law of Salus Populi to which all Imperial and Prerogative Laws are justly subservient and were they not conducing to those ends they were neither necessary nor yet expedient Plea of Force or Conquest cannot acquit Princes of that which is due to the People who are the Authors and Ends of all just Power for meer force ought not to alter Laws of Nature or frustrate the tenor of Laws of God or Man and if it could yet there were more reason why the People might justifie force to re-gain their undeniable Rights and Franchises than the Imperialists might to subvert the same It being unnatural that any Nation by it's own inherent and natural Virtue and Prowess should meerly establish Tyranny and countenance Slavery and to make that which is most Excellent subservient to that which is most Vile or to advance one from among themselves to the Throne that they themselves might be brought under Axes and Harrows Even Heathen Princes that have been Absolute have acknowledged themselves Subject and Servants to the Publick and born for that service as being well satisfied Populi rem esse non suam No Captain-General hath such unlimited and uncircumscribed Power but that if he should turn his Cannon upon his Soldiers they were ipso facto absolved of all Oaths of Allegiance and bound by a higher Duty both to God and Nature to preserve themselves by Resistance and Defence such tacite and implicite Trusts and Reservations are in all Publick Governments though of the most Absolute Nature and there must be these necessary conditions viz. that the Governed be Safe Free and Happy There is in all Laws a literal and an equitable sense No Government did ever give Power to their Kings for their woe but for their happiness If by the Letter of the Law Kings mis-improve their Power against the equity thereof then they give liberty to the commanded to refuse Obedience to the Letter for the Law taking abstract from its Original Reason End and Equity becomes a Shadow without a Substance a Body without a Soul which distinction if not allowed the very end of all Laws which is to minister impartial Justice indifferently to every Man and to give bounds and limits to the exorbitant wills of Princes and Governors will be disappointed Salus Populi being the Suprema Lex Execution of Laws according to their Equity and Reason is the Spirit that gives life to Authority the Letter kills Equity is so naturally implied in all Laws that are not meerly imperial from the Analogie that all bodies Politick hold with the natural whence all Government and Governors borrow a proportionable respect except we deem Obedience binds Men to cut their own Throats or their Neighbours For Kingdoms must not be without means to preserve themselves which always is intrusted in some certain hand with a Power to provide in an orderly way for the good and safety of the whole All the Priviledges Prerogatives and Authorities conferred on Kings by any People are but as so many Trusts reposed in them to improve for the good and glory of King and Kingdom and not to abuse or use at their own pleasure what ever the exegency of the Kingdom should be If that were so all our Laws would signifie little and therefore if Kings Govern not according to Equity and the Trusts reposed in them that Nation or it's Representatives may demand an Account and Redress For Kingdoms by no Law of God or Nature are to be left without a power and means to preserve themselves The Charter of Nature entitles all Subjects of all Countries to safety and freedom by its Supreme Law. If
expressed to which the King himself did assent and by his Diploma approved of it Which Transaction if violated by him all his Subjects Feudataries c. both present and to come shall neither obey nor serve him but shall rather be subject to obey the Duke of Burgundy and his Successors Such was the issue of the violation of Royal Faith plighted And may not all Kingdoms expect the just performance of their Oaths and Stipulations made by their Kings at their Inaugurations who are thereby made the Keepers and Protectors of their Laws And what better Issue can any Kings expect that violate their Oaths and Trusts though by Wiles and Shams and Royal Influences only on Judges and other Officers of their Kingdoms through whose Hands the management of Laws do pass Judges Sheriffs Justices of the Peace Constables Privy-Counsellors Juries c. In summ The chief Impery is so in Kings and other Supreme Magistrates that if they transgress the Laws and turn Tyrants and will not be governed by just Laws unto which they have Sworn it is the just right of Inferior Magistrates and Ordines regni to hinder their Tyranny and reduce the Government to its Pristine State and Condition And in so doing they are so far from being seditious or rebellious as that they do but their Duty to God and their Country as by the above-recited examples appeareth The truth of which appears by many reasons 1. By the Law of Nature on which depends the preservation of all human Societies of which there can be no doubt In all Pacts and Contracts mutually made and consented unto the same Parties by whom the Obligation was made have the same Power to dissolve the same as often as just Reason shall require So they that have Power to create Kings have Power also to curb and censure them So if the Essential Conditions of the Contract for which the Contract was made be manifestly violated and broken the Contract as between Rahab and the Spies is absolutely void Let those that hold Kings accountable to God only shew if they can any Nation so foolish and unwise that willingly and wittingly without force or fear ever submitted so absolutely to any King or Government that they did not expresly or tacitely provide for their own safety and good by observance of their own good Laws It a Conqueror oblige the conquered by Oaths then according to the Civil Law that those that are extorted by force and unjust fear ought not to be accounted Lawful I confess the Pulpits Preach a contrary Doctrine but it is not possible that irreligious or unnatural Conditions got by force unjust fear fraud or wicked practices should be binding or esteemed as Lawful it being a general Rule of right and just founded on the common Principles of Nature so firm and jure that nothing that is manifestly adverse and repugnant to the Laws of Nature can be held for right and just amongst Men. This is generally to be understood of Pacts manifestly unjust or irreligious which no Man can justly require nor any Man justly submit unto though required Such was the reproachful condition required of them of Gabesh Gilead by Nahash the Ammonite that he might thrust out all their right eyes 1 Sam. 11. 2. Such and worse was the condition required by Antiochus the cruel Tyrant of the Citizens of Jerusalem viz. that they should abjure the true religion 1 Macc. 1. 51. In such cases where the conditions of Temporal estate are only heard and Religion not concerned it is better to have respect to their Oath than to their Lives But when Religion is concerned Oaths must be very strictly observed Though all God's Covenants and Promises are Yea and Amen yet are they all tacitely or expresly conditional so that if they keep not Covenant with God God will not keep Covenant nor Promise with them So though God did solemnly swear unto the children of Israel that he would bring them into that very good land that floweth with milk and hâ—â—y yet suffered he none of them to enter but Caleb who was of another spirit and Joshua doubtless yee shall not come into the land concerning which I swear to make you dwell therein Numb 14. 30. and ye shall know my breach of promise or altering of my Purpose verse 34. I the Lord have said I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation that are gathered together against me verse 35. and that justly because they first broke with him Nehâ—m 9. 16 17 18. there being always some tacite or explicite condition expressed or implied in all such Promises as well as Threatnings Therefore as to one and the other God hath given us this general Rule not only with particular Persons but with Nations Jer. 18. 7 8 9 10. At what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation or concerning a Kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destory it if that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil I will repent of the evil I thought to do unto them So when ever I shall speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom to build and to plant it if it do evil in my sight that it obey not my voice then will I repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them i. e. will not do it Whereupon St. Jerom saith Non ergo quod pollicetur Deus statim futurum est sed in eos sua promissa implet qui custodiunt mandaâ—a illius Covenants and Promises on Conditions are equally obliging whoever fails the other is free It is the same amongst Men that are in mutual Stipulation and Covenant whoever first breaks Covenant is a Rebel to the Law and the other is â—râ—e For which cause God blamed and punished Zedekiah the last King of the Family of David for that contrary to his Oath he fell from the King of the Chaldeans As I live saith the Lord surely in the place where the King dwelleth that made him king whose oath he despised and whose covenant he brake even with him in the midst of Babylon he shall die Ezek. 17. 16. ver per 110. And Zedekiah not only by his Oath but by the express Command of God he and his were to be subject to the King of Chaldaea which circumstances made Zedekiah guilty of that Defection and of Perjury I like not that Subjects should on every breach of Oath withdraw their Obedience and depart from their Oath neither do I approve of that Proverb Fragenti fidem fides frangatur cidem but on the contrary do deem it unlawful to break Faith justly plighted but I do deny that Subjects do violate their Faith against Tyrants if they keeping within their own Bounds and Province do use their utmost to make Tyrants keep their Conditions agreed on and hinder them from breaking of them For the Rule is general That Contracts and Covenants either plainly expressed or tacitely to be understood are broken and dissolved by him
any Government no more have Kings for neither God nor the Law of Nature hath given any such Power to Men. And God gives Kings as a Blessing and happily as the best of Governments but if thereby the state of Slavery must uncontrolably be intailed upon them as it necessarily must be if they renounce their whole Liberty it 's a Curse rather than a Blessing but they can no more give it away than they can give away their rational Nature and deny themselves to be reasonable Creatures for it is a Power natural to preserve themselves essentially adhering to every created Being Besides they cannot resign their whole Power as Priests would have them without manifest sin God having made an express Covenant with all the People of Israel that they should be his peculiar People and he would be their God the purport of which Covenant was That all the People should take care that he should be purely worshipped throughout all the Land which Power they cannot resign to Kings unaccountably and absolutely without manifest breach of Covenant and so sin in breaking Covevant with God and thereby provoking his wrath and indignation would pull down Vengeance upon whole Kingdoms Of which more fully hereafter O! Sovereignty is not in the People no more than a whole Kingdom can be one Man Sovereignty being the Abstract and Sovereign being the Concrete What then yet the Power of giving Sovereign Power to this or that Man according to Laws is naturally and radically in the People Obj 〈◊〉 May 4 Car. 1628. the Commons having framed a Petition of Right to be presented to his Majesty and desiring the Concurrence of the Lords they made this addition viz. We present this our humble Petition to your Majesty with the care not only of our own â—â—berties but with due regard to leave intire that Sovereign Power wherewith your Majesty is trusted for the Protection Safety and Happiness of the People Which tearms of Sovereign Power were so distasteful and chagreen to the Commons that they would by no means admit of them alledging for their justification That they seemed to be another distinct Power from the Power of the Law They were never used in any Parliamentary Petition or Magna Charta or in any Confirmation thereof If they should grant it it would seem to imply a Sovereign Power above our known and established Laws which are well known to the Kingdom but they know no Sovereign Power It was a new thing and they would by no means have it inserted into the Petition And the Statute of Magna Charta did bind the King and all his Sovereign Power Upon which ground it was left out Besides Titles of Supreme and Sovereign are verba Solemnia words of course titular and complemental relating only to their Persons but confers no Power what Sovereign Power Kings have are given and limited by Laws of common consent and not absolute What other Laws of Sovereignty there are of right belonging to them nemo sit is past all understanding Absolute Sovereignty in Kings hath no warrant by any Law of God or Nature that belongs to God only who is Lord of all Kingdoms of the Earth and therefore there is no Sovereign Power wherewith Majesty is intrusted either by God or Man but only that which is for the Protection Safety and Happiness of the People which is the Suprema Lex and the cause is very reasonable for that uncontrolable Authority easily degenerates into Tyranny And that Sovereign Power which is in all Governments is in the Legislative Power of that Government settled by Laws of common consent And King James in his Speech to the Parliament March 1609. stigmatizeth Power not bounded by Laws with the black Character of Tyranny yea Tyranny accompanied with Perjury Obj. The People have not Power of life and death What then No more have Kings until impowered by Laws of common consent yet the Power of life and death is eminently and virtually in the People collectively taken though not formally yet they have Power over their own lives radically and virtually for that they may subject themselves to Magistracy and to Laws made by common consent the violation of which may be capital and sanguinary And Kings have no other lawful Power over the lives of their Subjects but by Laws made by like common consent That under the Law and since there have been mutual and reciprocal Covenants between King and People is without all dispute and beyond all contradiction 2 Sam. 5. 3. 1 Chron. 11. 3. 2 Chron. 23. 2. 2 Kings 11. 17. And that they were as equally and reciprocally binding is as true else Why should such Covenants be made publickly before the People if Kings did not in the Covenant tye and oblige themselves to the People And why so solemnly to be made before the Lord in the House of God if not intended to be kept or might uncontrolably break them at pleasure Was God to be called upon and to be a Witness to a figment nay to a cheat Ab sit no all the Covenants mentioned in Holy Writ whether between God and Kings or between Kings and People are mutual I will be your God and you shall be my Poople Levit. 26. 12. The Covenant is so strictly mutual that if the People break the Covenant God is freed from his part of the Covenant Zach. 11. 10. All Covenanters are under a Law before Men. So if Kings break Covenant with their People the People are freed of their Obligation to them If the Oath of God be broken as the Covenant between Abraham and Abimelech Gen. 21. 22 23. Jonathan and David 1 Sam. 18. 3. So the Spies profess to Rahab in the Covenant that they made to her Josh 2. 20. And if thou utter this our business we will be quit of thine Oath which thou hast made us to swear The Obligation of Kings in their Oaths and Covenants to the governed floweth from the peculiar Obligation National betwixt them and the governed and bindeth Kings as Kings for that such Oaths and Covenants are entred into and taken in relation to Government only and therefore are not taken meerly as Men as some vainly suppose but as Kings or as they are to be Kings over them because it is the specifick act of Kings that they are to be obliged unto to Govern the People in righteousness and holiness with their Royal Power which is given them by the People for no other end and they undoubtedly sin before God if they break their Oaths and Covenants made with the Common-wealth And to assert otherways is to suppose Kings to be under no Law of God and so consequently make them either above God or coequal with him which is no other than down-right Blasphemy Therefore it is undoubtedly true that Kings Covenanting with the People to Govern according to the Laws of God and their own municiple Laws and on that Condition receive Thrones Crowns Tributes c. from them and are
obliged to the People for the just performance of the same Omnis promittens facit alteri cui promissio facta est jus in promittentem Whoever maketh a Promise to another giveth to that other a right or jurisdiction to challenge the performance of the same Promise But if Rehoboam will make his little finger thicker than his Fathers loins and chastise Israel not with whips only but with Scorpions And will send Adoram to gather tribute without the common and free consent of Israel Israel will stone such Ministers to death and will rebel as in the Text or fall away as in the Margin recesset saith St. Jerom defecerunt say Junius and Tremelius from the house of David and will make Jeroboam King over all Israel as they justly might and without the just imputation of Rebellion And though Rehoboam did raise 180000 Men intending by Force of Arms to bring the Kingdom again to Rehoboam the Son of Solomon yet God would countenance no such act and therefore forbade them by Shemaiah the man of God 1 Kings 12. 19. 2 Chron. 11. 12. Which demonstrates that if Kings keep not Covenants with their People they may withdraw their Tribute and Obedience and chuse another King or another Government and be no Rebels This is not to assert or justifie that for every act of Male government or a few acts of Tyranny or Oppression Kings may be dethroned and devested of their Royal Power but upon supposition that the Violencies Oppressions and Tyrannies are of such a Nature as that thereby the whole intention and ends of the Covenants and Agreements made with the People for the Government of themselves viz. the safety of the People the Laws of God and of the Commonwealth are thereby endangered to be frustrated and that on presumption of such usages and outrages the People would never have conferred their Crowns upon them David held Saul for his Prince and acknowledges him to be the Lord 's anointed so long as the People had not recalled their grant of Royal Dignity so that no single Person though Six hundred Men with him may lawfully Assassinate any King. All Governments are likened to the History of the Gordian Knot which if not so hard tied but that the People may have some ease some relaxation they ordinarily are willing to endure some reasonable bonds but if excessive they ever have and I doubt ever will endeavour to free themselves though by means indirect If the People as God's Instruments Crown Kings on Conditions that he will rule them according to God's Word then are Kings made Kings by the People conditionally and are but adopted Fathers Tutors Politick Servants or Royal Watch men of the Commonwealth and the Royal Honour and Royal Tributes given to them are Rewards of their Labours and Kingly Hire and so expressed by Paul Rom. 13. 6. For this cause pay you Tribute also there is their Wages for they are God's Ministers attending continually upon this very thing Qui non implet conditionem a se promissam cadit beneficio The People setting of Kings over themselves is an act warranted by God himself Deut. 17. 15. Rom. 13. 1 2. Which act though done without written Conditions or Oaths and only by a Vive le Roy or God save the King yet even such choice can never be understood or interpreted an Investiture of them with an Absolute but with a Conditional Power for that such a Power is against the Law of God and Nature a preposterous and absurd Power to do good and yet to work wickedness impune Besides the Common Law of Mankind allows all Donors to Interpret and Expound their own meaning why they Crowned Kings over them and why they give such large Tributes so great Priviledges and Prerogatives and certainly they will never Interpret that they conferred Royal Power on them to Oppress Persecute and Destroy themselves without controul and leave themselves without a remedy The Covenant made by Asa and all Judah and Benjamin 2 Chron. 15. 13. that whosoever would not seek the Lord God of their Fathers should be put to death whether small or great man or woman Which did equally oblige the King as also the Princes and People to performance And therefore Asa as in duty bound removed Maacha his Mother from being Queen because she had made an Idol in a grove which Asa also cut down stampt it and burnt it at the brook Kidron verse 14. Diodorus Siculus lib. 17. saith that the Kings of Persia were under an Oath and that they might not change the Laws and so were the Kings of Egypt and Aethiopia The Kings of Sparta which Aristotle calleth just Kings renew their Oaths every Month. Romulus so covenanted with the Senate and People Carolus V. Austriachus sweareth he shall not change the Laws without the consent of the Electors nor make new Laws nor dispose of any thing of great concern belonging to the Empire without the publick consent 1 Sam. 8. 11. This will be the manner of the King who shall reign over you which place is brought to prove the absolute Power of Kings and the unlawfulness of Resistance Which words being rightly interpreted can have no such meaning It only declares what the Manner and Custom was what they would do not what of right they might do For God had long before in Deuteronomy prescribed them what Laws they should Govern by and in this place is only described the Tyranny of Kings what they would do not what they might justly do And to aver that God hath given Power to Kings to Tyrannize Worry Oppress and Destroy Subjects is Blasphemy for God hath not given nor can give any Moral Power to do wickedly which is License to sin against his own Law which is inconsistent with his Holiness and therefore no such Power can be from God. And all best Expositors declare the Law of Kings to be described in Deut. 17. And in 1 Sam. 8. is described the usurpation and tyranny of Kings So it only demonstrates their wicked Usages or Customs not a Law prescribed by God. And it is obvious to common sense that God by his Prophet in this place was not instructing Kings in their Duty but by fore-telling the Israelites the evil of Punishment that they should suffer under tyrannous Kings thereby terrifying them if possible from their wicked purpose of seeking a King and thereby reject not Samuel only but God himself and farther menacing and declaring That in the day when they should cry out because of their King that the Lord would not hear them verse 18. And therefore God did protest against their unlawful course yet nothing at all would prevail nay but we will have a King over us verse 19. If Samuel in this place did not dehort them from Kingly Government how could they be said to refuse to hear the Voice of Samuel In summ All God's Covenants are Yea and Amen and so ought his Vice-gerents to be And for Priests to
of the Lord renewed the Covenant viz. If yee will fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the Commandment of the Lord then shall both yee and also the King that reigneth over you continue following the Lord your God. But if yee shall still do wickedly yee shall be consumed both you and your King 1 Sam. 12. 14 15 25. By wickedness in this place is most especially meant in that they had rejected the Government which God himself had appointed as best for them and chose a King to be set over them and we rebelled against God. The reason assigned is because they were God's own peculiar People hereby it 's manifest that both King and People were both equally joined in the Stipulation So Asa King of Judah by the Prophecy of Azariah the Prophet congregated all the People viz. Judah and Benjamin where were also many of Ephraim Manasseh and Simeon and made a solemn Covenant to seek the Lord God of their Fathers with all their heart and with all their soul that whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death whether small or great man or woman 2 Chron. 15. 12 13. Deut. 13. 9. 17. 7. Here you see the King himself is not exempted These Examples with those before and those that follow will justifie this Kingdom in all that they have done to free us from unreasonable and cruel Men and Popish Tyranny and also the Auxiliary Expedition of the Prince of Orange to be the most glorious and most righteous Action that ever Prince undertook because he came to help the Lord against the mighty who both at home and abroad had in their imaginations and endeavours designed the Inslaving of all the Protestants of Europe which Action God hath hitherto signalized by prospering his Arms with very little Blood. Whoso is wise and will observe these things shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord Psalm 107. CHAP. X. Whole Kingdoms and Nations have Power to reform Faith equally plighted between King and People ought equally to be kept Care of Religion Peace Justice Safety Liberty c. are incumbent on all the People especially on the Ordines Populi The common and true Cause of Rebellion is abuse of Power not Disobedience to the lawful Commands of Kings Obedience to unjust Commands of Cesars is sin and to assist in such is to make themselves Participes Criminis Opposition to Popes or Kings tyrannizing is not Rebellion against Christ's Vicars or Vicegerents but opposition to wicked Men acting wickedly Defensive Arms justified by Authorities NOW who should have Power to reform things done amiss by Kings but all the People to whom he hath sworn as solemnly as they to him and both to God Almighty who is witness between them So Josiah the King with the Priests Prophets and all the People both small and great went up into the house of the Lord and made a Covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord c. and all the People stood to the Covenant 2. King. 23. 2 3 4. Why should the Common consent of all the People be so solemnly required Why should Israel and Judah be so strictly obliged to the observation of Gods Holy Laws and Commandments Why should they so sacredly promise to be the Lords People unless Power and Authority were given to them also to free themselves from Covenant breaking and from Perjury and to defend Holy Church Wherefore was a Covenant made with the People that they should be the People of God zealous of good Works if they must obey the unjust Commands of Kings it may be to worship strange Gods or to permit monstrous sins to reign among them if it be not lawful to put to their assistance and endeavour to hinder and reform And why should they be blamed or Judgments poured upon them if they have no Power from on High to perform what was so solemnly required and so solemnly promised that God should so solemnly require their Vow and Promise and yet not give them Power and Authority to perform is monstrous to conceive God never requires more than he gives Brick without Straw that is the Property of Pharaoh and his hard Task-masters It s much more agreeable to truth that all Covenants of like nature and purport are equally obliging both to King and People and the care and Authority of each over the other for adjusting of performances is reciprocal and equal it being a Gospel Principle That Gods peculiar People which are his true Church ought to be sollicitous not only to abstain from evil themselves but also to prevent it in otheers A notable Example whereof is before mentioned in the People of Israel Josh 22. who out of abundant Caution minding the Concerns of their Brethren as their own when they heard that the Reubenites Gadites and half the Tribe of Manasseh had erected an Altar not for worshipping as they truly protested but for memorial and witness So fearful they were of Gods Wrath falling on them that they soon dispatched an Embassy to their Brethren to prevent their sin as before Hence it is that the Prophets of old standing in the Gate of the Children of the People whereby their Kings came in and by which they went out did so often put them in mind of their Duty and of keeping Covenant and not only that they should not sacrifice to Baal but that they should destroy both Baal and his Priests and root them out of the Land whether the King will or no for when Ahab had killed the Prophets of God Eliah the Prophet congregated all Israel not tumultuously but by publick Authority and common consent unto Mount Carmel and the Prophets of Baal Four hundred and fifty and the Prophets of the Grove Four hundred which did eat at Jezabels Table and had convinced them of their Idolatry and to be false Prophets the People at his command killed them all at the Brook Kishon 1 King. 18. whereby it appears that the King neglecting his Duty all Israel as obliged ought to discharge theirs On the contrary as often as Kings violated their Covenants or profaned the Worship of God and the People of Israel as we said before of Covenants where the breach of one party manifestly prejudiced the other Covenanters threatning Ruin and Destruction to the Innocent through Negligence sinful Connivance or any other sinister By-end or Respect did not restrain him their Judgments came also upon the People as well for their non-performance as on Kings for theirs which mostly hapned for that the People are more apt to follow the Examples of their Kings than to repent and amend or mind him of the Errors of his ways Wherefore did the Hoast of Israel with Saul and his two Sons fall down slain in Mount Gilboa by the Philistines 1 Sam. 31. Would God think you revenge the Sins of the King upon the People if innocent Far be it from the Judge of all
Tyranny which Conspiracy though acted so very privately and as it were by stealth yet blamed neither by God nor Man but justified by all Writers both Sacred and Prophane and the success answered the end designed As the King so all Israel as one Man the several Cities as parts of the Kingdom and their Magistrates did covenant with God to keep his Laws c. Joshua when old and near his end congregated all Israel in Sechem in the Presence of the Lord for the Ark of the Covenant was there and called for the Elders of Israel and for their Heads and for their Judges and for their Officers and they presented themselves before God Josh 24. 1. And he said unto them fear the Lord and serve him c. and the People answered and said God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other Gods ver 14. 16. And Joshua said unto the People ye are witness your selves that you have chosen you the Lord to serve him And they said we are Witnesses ver 22. So Joshua made a Covenant with the Lord that day and set them a Statute and an Ordinance in Sechem And Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God and took a great Stone and set it up there under an Oak that was by the Sanctuary of the Lord and Joshua said unto all the People Behold this Stone shall be a Witness unto us for it hath heard all the words of the Lord which he spake unto us it shall be therefore a Witness unto you least you deny your God ver 24 25 26 27. Hence it is evident that as every individual Person so more especially all Officers in a Kingdom that have any publick Authority ought every one in their several stations to take care that God's Law be fulfilled and of the Peoples happiness which Officers are Officers of the Kingdom from whom they have their Authority according to Laws of their own making and to them they are accountable If the Ark of God be to be brought back then all of the Congregation of Israel are to be summoned and consulted and to give their help 1 Chron. 13. 2 Chron. 15. So if a Temple be to be built to the Lord the chief of the Fathers and Priests of the Tribes of Israel and the Captains of Thousands and of Hundreds with the Rulers are summoned and moved to offer willingly 1 Chron. 29. So that there is no power committed to Kings to alter or change the Laws Covenants or Worship of God. So in the Covenants under Joah and Josiah between God the King and the People all the Kingdom were present and all were particularly bound to keep and stand to the Covenant so that not the King only but the Kingdom nor the Kingdom in general only but all the Parts thereof promise Faith and Allegiance to God Almighty Not the King only but Israel not Israel only but the Cities and chief Governours of them did secretly bind themselves to God to do him homage and leige Services against all Infractors of his Laws 2 Kin. 11. 23. 2 Chron. 23. For Example Libnah revolted from Jehoram because he had forsaken the Lord God of his Fathers 2 Chron. 21. 10. So Mattathias and all they that fled from the Persecution of Antiochus joyned themselves together and smote sinful men in their anger and wicked men in their wrath and they pursued after the proud men and the work prospered in their hands So they recovered the Law out of the hand of the Gentiles and out of the hand of Kings neither suffered they the sinner to triumph 1 Macc. 2. 42 47. saying We will not hearken to the Kings word to go from our Religion either to the right hand or to the left verse 22. So his Son Judas Maccabeus was valiant for the truth and fought for the People and the Sanctuary so prosperously Deo favente against Antiochus that he recovered Jerusalem and restored the pure worship of God from the Gentiles 1 Macc. 3. Though others took part and were obedient to Antiochus and they fell together with the Persecutor for their so doing by the edg of the Sword. When Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord he sold them into the hand of Jabin King of Canaan whom they served twenty years a fair prescription for a Kingdom worshipping strange Gods among whom especially were the Tribes of Reuben Ephraim Benjamin Dan Asser c. who adhered to Jabin Nevertheless Deborah who judged Israel at that time levied force with the assistance of the other Tribes of Zabulon Napthaly and Issachar over whom they made Barack Captain and went along with them being ten thousand men and discomfited the Hoast of Sisera Captain of Jabin and restored the true Worship of God to Israel and then sang Deborah c. Judg. 4. 5. Happily some may say that these Facts of Deborah Jael Mattathias and Libnah ought not to be drawn into imitation and practice as being stirred up by motions extraordinary like that of Phineahs and the Book it self but Apochypha and not so Authentick as Scripture What then It 's certain that not only the King but all Israel and the parts thereof viz. the several Cities and their Magistrates as in Josh 24. covenanted before God and did swear to worship the true God according to his Law which Covenant is expresly in force to this day in all Christian Kingdoms where King and People Covenant each with other and tacitely or interpretatively also where Kings Rule Vi Armis or by fraud or any other unjust way which is down-right Tyranny The People are the People of God and obliged in the first place to God and then to the Kingdom and to the King and though the King have the formality and executive part of Power all Writs Executions Proclamations c. issuing in his Name yet the People have the true Dominion originally Sunt enim universa in Regis Imperio non in Patrimonio Seneca lib. 7. de Benef. c. 6 7. Omnia Rex imperio possidet singuli dominio Consult all Histories search all Antiquity and you will find the true cause of all Rebellion in all Ages and in all Countries to have risen originally and most especially from the abuse of Power first and not from the disobedience of Subjects to the lawful commands of Kings If Kings command unlawful things as they have no Authority so to do so Subjects have no Obligation to obey When Covenants between Prince and People are of such a nature as cannot be broken or violated by either King or People without doing manifest Injury to the other The injured party may seek his Redress and Relief though it be vim vi repellendo which is always to be understood of unjust Force For if the Force be unjust the Defence must be lawful and contrariwise if the Force be just the Defence must be unlawful So that Kings and Princes if transgressors are as truly Transgressors and Invaders
against their Kingdom and their Laws as the People are against them and the Laws when they transgress Do Subjects obey the commands of their Princes which they may lawfully command and which they of right ought to obey without intrenching on God's commands Do they pay them Tribute Sute and Service not contrary to God's Laws as they ought So to obey Cesar is just lawful and praise-worthy But to obey Cesar's exceeding their just bounds commanding without warrant of Law affecting and designing a greater Impery without the consent of the governed or if they invade or violate the Laws of God perverting the right Worship of God who is above all Kings and Governments it is unjust and to assist Cesar's in such cases is unlawful and they that do make themselves partakers of other Men's Crimes Anno Domini 1300. Pope Boniface VIII challenged some Regalia which belonged unto Phillip the Fair King of France whereupon Philip sharply reproved the Pope by his Letter even in those days when the Pope was accounted the Vicar of Christ on Earth and Head of the Universal Church according to Communis error Juris loco erat Notwithstanding the Sorban answered That both King and Kingdom might safely withdraw themselves from their Obedience to the Pope without any guilt of Schism because not Separation but the Cause made Schism and that they did not oppose the Vicar of Christ but a wicked Man guilty of many Crimes Sieur de Mezerai Annales Franciae Archivae Camerae Ratiociniorum Lutet L. Barbar Ph. de Senat. If the Cause be just the Separation is from the high Priest or Bishop not from the Church Or more properly from Boniface not from the high Priest Unless such distinctions and discriminations are allowed for true and Authentick how can the Souls of whole Kingdoms be distinguished and separated from the Church If Kings invade the Rights of God Almighty and oppress his People who are the Temple of God with servitude denying their Rights Priviledges and Liberties which God hath given them and for which Christ died we may much more use the same distinction and in opposition to such Kings or rather Tyrants we may justly say That not the King but the Tyranny is opposed Anno 1408. Benedict XIII did grieviously oppress the Gallican Church with Tributes and Exactions whence a Convocation of the French Clergy being called by Charles VI. they decreed That the King and Kingdom ought not to obey Benedict as being an Heretick and Schismatick and unworthy of any honour which the States of the Kingdom allowed and the Parliament of Paris approved by their Arrest Annales Car. 6. Monstreletus Moreover they whom Benedict did excommunicate as Enemies of the Church they judged them forthwith absolved of such Excommunications and that thereby they were not excluded or deprived of any Benefit or Priviledge of the Church Ibid. The like we read to have been done as at other times in France so in other Kingdoms Which evidently shews That if Kings and Princes or States do tyrannize or extend their Power beyond it's just bounds Subjects may without any just imputation of Delinquency or Rebellion withhold their Tributes withdraw themselves from their Obedience or resist their Tyranny It being one thing to resist an evil Pope another thing to resist the Church one thing to resist a King another thing to resist a Kingdom or Tyranny We read That Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah and made a King over themselves And Libnah revolted from Jehoram 2 Kings 8. 20 22. yet after the true Worship of God was restored we find Libnah numbred among the subjects of Ezekiah Chap. 19. 8. If this distinction be of force when the Pope who arrogantly assumes to himself Superiority over Kings and Princes invades their Rights or the Rights of the Church is it not much more just if Princes I might say Vassals invade the Rights and Regalia of the great God of Heaven and of Earth It stands therefore sure that Princes commanding unlawful things or forbidding Holy things or introducing a False or Idolatrous worship the People or rather Parliaments Dyets Senates the several Officers or inferior Magistrates having a share in the Government and intrusted with the common concerns of the Kingdom by the People both may and ought to hinder or resist unlawful commands All or at least the Governing Magistrates of Kingdoms and Cities as first impowered by God and then constituted by Princes by Authority derived from the People ought to promote in their several Stations and Provinces first the Glory of God and of Holy Church and then the Good and Welfare of Kingdoms Cities and Free States and if they do not it is in them Crimen laesae Magistatis and they become participes criminis by such their sinful connivence Let us now consider what Bishop Bilson Bishop of Winchester as learned and as honest a Bishop and as sound a Divine as ever sate on that See and who hath written a most learned Treatise of the difference between Christian Subjection and Unchristian Rebellion in the days of Queen Elizabeth The Romans did not love the name of King and the Commonwealth of Venice Millan Florence and Genoa are of the same mind many States have Governors for Life and for Years and yet a Sovereignty still remaining in the People or Senate or in the Prelates and Nobles that elect or assist the Magistrate who hath his Jurisdiction allotted and prefixt unto him and may be resisted and recalled from any tyrannous excess by the general and publick consent of the whole State. In Germany the Emperor himself hath his bounds appointed him which he may not pass by the Laws of the Empire and the Princes Dukes and Cities that are under him have Power to use and govern the Sword as God's Ministers in their own charges And though for the Maintenance of the Empire they be subject to such orders as shall be decreed in the Convent of all their States and according to that direction are to furnish the Emperor with Men and Mony for his necessary Wars and Defences yet if he touch their Policies infringe their Liberties or violate the Specialties which he by Oath and Order of the Empire is bound to keep they may lawfully resist him and by force reduce him to the Ancient Government or else repel him as a Tyrant and set another in his place by the Right and Freedom of their Country Bilson's Subjection p. 513. Zuinglius saith That if the Empire of Rome or any other Sovereign should oppress the Truth and they negligently suffer the same they shall be charged with contempt no less than the Oppressors themselves Zuingl lib. 4. Epist Zuing. Occol f. 186. And elsewhere when Kings rule unfaithfully and otherwise than the Rule of the Gospel prescribeth they may with God be deposed as when they punish not wicked Persons but especially when they advance the ungodly and idle Priests such may be deprived of their Dignity as Saul
them to quit Magistracy and to lay down their Ensigns thereof before the time appointed Which C. Gracchus by another Ordinance of Common Council confirmed and also provided that if any one was discharged of his Magistracy for unworthiness was thereby rendred uncapable of future preferment to the like neither were the greatest commands to continue if they transgressed on the Liberty or Right of the People Magistrates and Honours in the Government were forbidden to be continued above one year by the Lex Annaria But Julius Caesar by a Law established That the Praetorian Provinces should not continue above a year nor the Consul above two years Tiberius did not easily take away Honours from them on whom he had conferred them presuming that the fat Flies would not pill and pole the People so much as the lean And when their Magistracy was ended they were not to expect a Successor till thirty days were expired by the Lex Cornelia and then they were to render an account of their Government by the Lex Julia. And therefore we read of many Consuls and Praetors condemned after their Government ended Among the Grecians we find that he that could not give a good account of his Stewardship Alogii teneretur Among the Athenians it was so provided by a Law That the Governors of their Commonwealth yea and their very Priests were subject to render an account thereof to the People The Carthaginians forbade their Governors Wine during their Government lest thereby they should be deceived Among the Thebans there was a Law That no Man should be a Governor of the publick that had not given his Trade over ten years The Bythinians that no Man under thirty years old should be admitted a publick Governor which Augustus reduced to twenty two years old And if at any time after their Magistracy was ended they refused to resign their Empire to the Successor or would continue to have the Fasces carried before them beyond the just time it was a capital Crime against the People The like was among the Thebans And yet it is recorded That Epaminondas the Theban studying the good of his Country did continue in his Praetorship and refused to deliver up his Army to his Successor designed at a time when he had by force of Arms torn the Lacedaemonians to pieces and Civil Wars lest if he had quitted his Praetorship his former Successes had been frustrated for which being condemned the People notwithstanding by common consent absolved and quitted him So severe was the Discipline of the Carthaginians That if the Emperor or Captain General had followed ill Counsel though the success proved happy yet was he to die the shameful death of the Cross for it The Romans when their Captains had through rashness or unskilfulness lost a Battel they were fined and banished By the Law also first made by Valerius Publicola it was provided That whoever received not their Impery or Magistracy from the People should lose their Heads which also was observed by the Athenians who admitted no Magistrates but who were chosen either by lot or publick or common suffrages So great was the Care Industry and Endeavours of the Ancients to prevent the Insolency and Oppression of Magistrates as to bind them up by strictest Laws and Oaths A. A. A. lib. 4. c. 6. p. 181 182. It may be true what some Authors have asserted That at the beginning of the Roman State there were no Laws made by the common Prescript of the People but what their Kings or Generals of their Armies did prescribe that was to be taken and observed for Law. The cause might be reasonable for that they having the Power of the Army they might force obedience as they pleased having by that means the command of punishing and rewarding and also of hearing and determining the Causes Complaints Criminations c. of the Citizens In process of time this Imperial and Tyrannical Government found some redress from Romulus and other Kings by the Leges Curiatae but more especially by Servius Tullius in which though the People were not consulted yet the Senate was and thence they were called Leges Sacratae by which their Kings also were bound Which at first being made without any due or regular order they were collected and reduced into order by Papyrius and then that Collection was called Jus Papyrianum But when Kings would not be bound by those Laws and therefore were banished then the Right and Power of Legislation was conferred on the Consuls and Annual Magistrates and whilst it lasted by the advice of the Senate the Laws were brought to the People for their stamp which being obtained they remained firm and uncorrupted Et quodcunque postremum Populus jussit id jus ratumque 12 Tabb lege sancitum est v. Calv. Dict. 993. Neither the Consuls only but the Dictators the Praetors the Aediles the Censors might make Laws for the People which being proclaimed by the command of the People were established and therefore all from the highest to the lowest were bound to the observance of them But if the People did not approve of them or the Senate did not receive them they were then of no force The Cryer by the Authority and Command of the Dictators Consuls or Praetors brought the Laws to the People the Scribe also going before and subjecting the same to the People it was then confirmed and that which by that Law was provided for the People were made the Author of and being made and Proclaimed and Engraven in Brass and laid up in the Treasury of the Rolls or Records it bound all High and Low Rich and Poor so firmly that if any one did any thing contrary thereunto it might appear on Record that it was done contrary to right and the transgressors might justly be mulct or fined But if any thing were to be added or substracted to the same Law before it was proposed in the Market-place and before it was ingraven in Brass it might easily be done afterwards not But if any one otherwise well deserving Person of the Publick were to be indulged for the breach of some Law the Senate desiring and the People commanding he might be absolved after the manner of the Lacedaemonians But Alexander Severus the Emperor would make no law sacred without the Council of Twenty of the ablest Civil Lawyers and Fifty of the other most Prudent Persons first had which Ordinance the Antients distinguished into jus fas the jus had respect to things humane and temporal fas unto things divine But it is observable that not only the Laws published by the consent of the People were sacred but also the Orders made by Common Council and by the Senate Edicts of Magistrates the Authorities and Responses of the Lawyers and the Decrees of Princes and Cases already adjudged to have the force of Laws in which all civil Right consists There were also Plebiscita Laws of the Common People which upon the demand of the Tribunes of the People
become forfeited for Mal-government should not return unto them who delegated it as well from Kings as from Consuls Senates Tribunes Duumvirates Triumvirates Decemvirates Ephori or any other form of Government is past all understanding It is also scornfully objected this is to be a Duke of Genoa a Duke of Venice not a King. They who have so mean conceits of such Governments which in reality are as much approved and allowed by God as Kingly even by the same Scripture are not worthy to preside in any Government If the Opinion of the Millenaries be true and Christ shall come and reign upon the earth 1000 Years will he not do all things for the good of the Governed Will not his eyes be on the faithful of the Land and on them that excel in virtue will he not hate the works of them that turn aside will he know a wicked Person except to condemn him will he suffer them that have High Looks or Proud Hearts will not his eyes be on the faithful of the Land that they may dwell with him shall not they that walk in a Perfect way serve him shall they that work Deceit dwell in his House or they that tell Lies tarry in his sight and will he not destroy all the Wicked of the Land and cut off all wicked doers from the City of the Lord And cannot Kings do the same whether their power be absolute from God or delegated from the People Hath not Christ been among us already as him that serveth and shall his Vicegerents think it below them to be like their Master Were it not the most desirable condition in the World for Kings Christian to be so seated on Thrones as it could not possibly be in their power to do the least injury to the meanest of their Subjects and yet do good to all Would not this be a condition acceptable in the sight of God and Man would not they thereby become Deliciae humani Generis as once Titus was Will nothing please but quod libet licet their Wills and Pleasures to be their Laws that Justinian-like when instigated by an Imperious Whorish Comedian Theodora they may securely commit Outrages and Cruelties sans nombre or when tickled with a Dancing Herodias shall take off any Head though of a John Baptist or when in the midst of Adulterous Embraces shall betray the strength of a Nation to a Dalilah at pleasure and all these uncontrollably When the Romans had cashiered Proud Traquin their King and in him Kingship they delegated their Power on Two Consuls to be check one upon the other that if one exceeded or abused his Power he might be curb'd by the other and though both should agree to usurp or extend the power given to the prejudice of the People yet both Consuls and all other Magistrates were to be obedient to the Senate whenever the Patricians and People thought fit which was always had in esteem as the Peoples Champion and Defender of their Rights and Laws Tull. orat pro Sestio The like subject were the Decemviri and all other the Magistrates to the Senate insomuch that sometimes the Counsuls were esteemed Enemies before they quitted their Consulship and the Senate took Arms against them So War was raised by the Authority of the Senate against Anthony the Consul for his misdemeanors during his Consulship On the contrary Trajan that Excellent Emperor believing him to have been sent from Heaven to redeem them from the slavery of former Tyrants and to restore unto them their antient Liberties when he gave the Sword the Ensign and Badge of Majesty and Power unto Saburanus Praefect of the Praetorian Cohorts saying Accipe hunc Gladium pro me si recie agam sin aliter in me magis quod moderatorem omnium vel errare minus fas est Use this Sword for my Defence whilst I govern as I ought if otherwise to my Destruction Comite Cestriae Gladium Sancti Edvardi qui Curtein dicitur ante regem bajulante in signum quod comes est Palatii Regem si oberret habeat de Jure Potestatem cohibendi suo sibi scilicet Cestrensi Constabulario ministrante virgâ— Populum cum se incrdinate ingereret subâ—rahente Matth. Paris lib. 3. p. 563. N. 10. At the Marriage of Henry III. King of England with Elianor Daughter of Raymund Earl of Provence the Earl of Chester carried the Sword of St. Edward called Curtein before him in token that he was Master of the Palace and that he had publick Authority to curb the King if he erred The same Ensign of publick Authority is continued to this very day before the Kings of England King Charles II. at his Coronation being set in a rich Chair under a glorious Cloth of State Sir Gilbert Talbot Knight Master of the Jewel-House presented the Sword of State also the Sword called Curtana and two other Swords to the Lord High Constable who took and delivered them to the Lord High Chamberlain and laid them on the Table before the King. The like Powers had the Masters of the Palace in France and other Countries It is plain that though that great and just Emperor Traj an had so great Power conferred on him yet was so just as to appoint a Judge though inferior to him over his Actions How much more just therefore was he when he superior in Power having all the Armies and Conquests at his beck and consequently could not be forced to obey the Senate or People yet would do it in respect of his Office and Duty to his Delegators and thereby acknowledge them to be his superior of whom Pliny in his Panegyrick saith That senatus ut susciperet quartum Consulatum rogavit jussit Which are words of Command and they that might Command might Judge and Censure So Marcus Aurelius the Emperor when Cassius the Praefect of Syria endeavoured to deprive him of his Kingdom offered himself to the judgment of the Senate and the People of Rome as it should seem best unto them Now who could better judge of Kingly Power than such just and upright Kings and in their own Cause Certainly by the Law of Nature all good Kings have the Senate or the People both for their Peers and Superiors in some Kingdoms though Tyrants hated both of God and Man will neither have Superior nor Peer As of old Laws the Law of Nature guiding by force were devised so when Laws came to be despised and slighted by the same Law of Nature there must recourse be had unto force again so to think is just and prudent so to do is true courage so to think and do is the height of a prudent vertue This remains indelible in Nature That the Senate or People are always Superior in some Countries to Kings good or bad the reason is natural for that the People do transfer their own Power or to speak yet more properly the use and exercise of some of their own Power unto Kings the
that in the beginning all Power did flow from the People and still doth which Tully excellently demonstrates De lege Agraria Cum omnes potestates Imperia curationes ab úniverso Populo proficisci convenit tum eas profecto maxime quae constituuntur ad populi fructum aliquem commodum in quo universi delegant quem populo maxime consulturum unusquisque ' studio suffragio suo viam sibi ad beneficium impetrandum munire possit Seeing all Powers Commands Curations i. e. potestas seu munus administrandi bona do proceed and flow from the People then those more especially which are constituted and do respect the good and benefit of the People in which the universality do chuse them whom they judge will most especially study and procure their good and every one by their study and suffrage may have easie access to obtain Justice and Favours And all Lawyers do agree and hold That all Laws repugnant to the Laws of God of Nature or of Reason are not to be accounted as Laws And whereas the Power of judging was Originally in the People and the English by no Lex Regia have at any time transferred it out of themselves no King of England hath been wont or hath Power to judge any Man unless by the known and approved Laws Fleta lib. 1. c. 17. What Power Kings have are given to them by the People that they may know by the Authority to them committed that they may do nothing contrary to the Law and keep our Laws but not impose their own Laws on us and the Kings Power is really and truly in the Courts of Law wherein the People by their Juries have their share also And their chief Power is in their Senates and Parliaments who have a Right and Authority over all Courts and Powers in all which Courts Kings may both sue and be sued and the reciprocal Causes to be indifferently tried according to established Laws If at any time Kings act any thing contrary to Laws they act then as private Men or as Tyrants and not by any Authority transferred on them by God or Man so to do Hence Bract. l. 1. c. 8. Non est Rex ubi dominatur voluntas non Lex c. 1. 3. c. 9. Rex est dum bene regit tyrannus dum populum sibi creditum violenta opprimit dominatione c. ibid. Exercere debet Rex potestatem Juris ut vicarius minister Dei potestas autem injuriae Diaboli est non Dei. Cum declinat ad injuriam Rex Diaboli minister est As nothing contrary to the Laws of God and Reason can be accounted a Law so neither can a Tyrant be a King nor a Minister of the Devil be a Minister of God seeing therefore Law is but the product of right Reason and Obedience is due to Kings as the Ministers of God so by the same Reason and Law Tyrants and Ministers of the Devil may be censured and resisted Either the People to be governed have a Right and Power to chuse their own Governor or they have not If they have not then Kings chosen by them are not Kings but Usurpers and Oppressors If they have Power to chuse then they have Power to oblige him to what Conditions they please and to keep them and if they fail of performing then they are free of the Covenant as it was between Rahab and the Spies FINIS ERRATA PAge 6. line 18. dele it ibid. l. 50. for Iliad r. Myriad p. 9. l. 11. f. doth only r. not only ib. l. 38. f. the way r. the right way p. 11. l. 15. f. our r. your ib. f. Black-guard r. Peasants p. 13. l. 3. dele and. p. 14. l. 28. f. this r. those p. 17. l. 23. f. Zalencus r. Zaleucus p. 16. l. 43. r. St. Edward p. 22. l. 20. r elegerit alibi ib. l. 58. r. Martyrs p. 24. l. pen. f. the r. thy p. 25. l. pen. dele to p. 28. l. 25. dele in the Posterity of ibid. l. 31. f. did r. should p. 30. l. 22. f. taking r. taken ibid. l. 58. dele hundred p. 31. l. 17. f. Timens r Fabius ib. l. 32. r. Fabius p. 33. l. 24. f. or r. and. ib. l. 46. f. never r. ever p. 42. l. 12 r. Commonwealth p. 43. l. 38. dele Obj. p. 44. l. 46. f. necesset r recesset p. 46. l. 10. r. elegerit p. 47. l. 16. r. perfectiora p. 48. l. 35. r. differemus cui quam p. 51. l 43. dele we p. 56. l. 41. f. magis r. majes ib. l. 46. r. saies p. 57. l. 57. f him r. them ib. l. 33. r. proscribed p. 60. l. 38. dele the second no. p. 61. l. pen. f. beareth r. bear p. 62. l. 47. after yet r. God. p. 63. l. 19. r. prepossessed p. 69. l. 27. f. ye r. yea p. 75. l. 18. f. his r. their p. 76. l. 5. in the Contents f. returns r. return ib. 5. in the Chapter f. was r. were ibid. l. 33. f. lawful r. unlawful p. 78. l. 19. f. Proplancio r. pro Plancio p. 82. l. 7. r. is seated p. 87. l. 23. f. Florentio Dianysio and Coss r. Florentio Dianysio Coss ibid. l. 35. f. Valerius r. Valeria In 4â— printed 158â— Arlstotle Pindarus Tuâ—â—y Plato alias Lex Regia v. Dr. Sherrock c. 4. n. 9. p. 282 283. Lex P. Vallerii 2. Martii Fab. Maximi Scyllae C. Gracchi plebiscitum Lex Annaria c. Vid. A. A. A. lib. 4. cap. 6. p. 181.