the true Faith is publickly professed any-where and in these Nations which is a Blessing cannot be bought too dear without Cruelty or Persecution For a Nation is constantly in a state of war within it self where one Party is persecuting and ruining another about things which are in themselves indifferent and no ways tend to promote the Publick Good In short There can be no advantage but what the Nation may justly expect from a King so zealous to promote their Good and so able to perform what he undertakes CHAP. XIV Some Considerations touching the Present Affairs BUT it may be objected How can the Nation propose any happiness to themselves by this Revolution since by it they are at so great Expences to maintain a war against so powerful an Enemy Answ. The more powerful the Enemy is the greater was the necessity of this Revolution for if now the Consederates are scarce an equal match for France how easily would they have been over-run if England which is the most favourable that could have been expected had stood Neuter And when they had been subdued what could have hindred the French King being then so Potent both by Sea and Land from Conquering this Island What opposition could the Militia joyned with a few raw and unexperienced Troops for it is this War has made them otherwise tho headed by a Commander of so invincible Courage as the Late King make against his regular and numerous Troops But suppose the French King who is so famous for keeping his Royal word would not have Conquered England when he might what could have hindred the Late King assisted by France from using this Nation as his Cruelty Covetousness Bigotry or Jesuits could have inspired him The French King had he been defective in so fundamental a point of Religion would have obliged him as he did the Duke of Savoy to have Extirpated all the Hereticks England would have been perhaps by this time a rendezvouz of French and Irish Apostolick Dragoons or what is worse a nest of Priests and Jesuits And what milder usage can the Nation expect if the Late King who is under such obligation to France and incensed by as he thinks ill Treatment should return Ought not they except they are ambitious of being Roasted by a Smithfield Fire or are in love with the manly exercise of Rowing in the Gallies to do their utmost endeavour to stop the farther Progress of France which only prevails because their Armies are more numerous If there were more Forces raised the Nation is so far from wanting men that it can spare about Thirty thousand by easing the Parishes of those Idle People who are burthensom to them sufficient to equal those of the French there is no reason to doubt but the English would beat them as they have always done when the Numbers have been any thing near equal and force them to quit other places as shamefully as they did Ireland The misfortune is not that we have now a War with France but that it was so long delayed and whatever the Nation now suffers they wholly owe it to the Two Late Kings who instead of hindring when they might the growing greatness of France did under-hand assist and contribute as far as they durst to increase the exorbitant Power of that Kingdom Though the Charges of the War it is true are burthensome yet they are common to almost all Europe nor are they so great as some people represent them since it does cause little or no alteration in Peoples way of Living the same excess in Apparel and every thing else and the Interest of Money being as low as ever at least it would be so did not the King 's taking up such large Sums at so great an Interest raise the Interest of Money even amongst others are a demonstration of its plenty And the Native Commodities of the Countrey bearing a much better Price than Formerly chiefly by reason so much is taken up for the King's use upon account of the Army or Fleet must more than repay the Countrey for what it contributes to the War The Taxes themselves are not so much a burden as the unequal way of raising them and obliging people to pay so much Money at one time which cannot well be prevented but by an Excise which would make them so easy and so equal that they would hardly be felt But if they were more burthensome then they are then paying of them for some time is absolutely necessary to preserve their All for ever In the Primitive times the Christians especially the Clergy would 〈◊〉 dispose of their own but even what was Dedicated to Pious Uses and sell the Place that belonged to the Altar to redeem a Soul from Slavery Why should they not be now as Zealous to secure Milions of Souls Three Nations and their Posterity from a Bondage both Spiritual and Temporal worse than Egyptian or at least encourage people by their precept and example freely to contribute to a War upon which depends the safety of the Church as well as State a War so holy that if the Cause alone could make them Martyrs all that dye in it are such But to conclude I hope I have demonstrated That it is the duty of all People to bear true Faith and Allegiance to the present Government by Reasons and Arguments which are as firm as Government it self and which will endure as long as it because built upon the same foundation The Good of Societies and which may serve for directions in all Changes and Revolutions as well as for the justification of that happy one which by the Blessing of God upon His Majesties Heroick Endeavours preserves us in the enjoyment of all our Happiness both Spiritual and Temporal FINIS
that their Treaties oblige them no longer than when each King has Possession of his Kingdom Why will they not allow the same reason to hold for Subjects that they should be free from all Obligations to Princes when they no longer receive any Protection from them Seeing that was the only ground and sole cause of their paying them Allegiance and in truth they cannot be any longer obliged then the reason for obliging them holds For why should People be obliged when there is no reason they should be so no Laws can bind any longer than the reason for Enacting them holds good and when the sole reason that made them Laws ceaseth the Laws themselves must so too much more must any particular Law be null and void when not only the reason of keeping it ceaseth but the keeping it does thwart the general intent and design of all Laws which is the good and happiness of the Societies to which all Laws are but means and there is no reason that the means should oblige when the end for whose sake the means were ordained cannot be obtained by those means much less when they become destructive of the sole end for which they were ordained If there were a Law that Ships should sail on such aside of the Channel and the sole reason whether expressed or not were for avoiding the dangerous Sands that were on the other side if the Sands should chance to be removed to the safe side of the Channel the Pilot would be so far from being bound upon the account of that Law to run his Ship upon the Sands that he would break the Law if he kept to the Letter of it and would observe the Law by going contrary to the Letter So again if a Law that required Obedience to one particular Person should happen to be destructive of the Publick good and of fatal consequence to the Community the Letter of the Law would oblige no more in one case than in the other nay the reason of not observing the last would be stronger upon the account of the disproportion of the number But the true meaning and intent of the Law would in one case as well as the other oblige People to act contrary to the letter of the Law and people would be as much bound to pay Obedience where it would be for the Publick Good as in the other case the Ship would be to sail on the safe side of the Channel The occasion of not a few Mistakes in this important Controversie ariseth from mens judging by the same rules tho the reasons are extremely different in cases which concern the Supreme Powers as they do in those which relate to private Persons In cases between private Persons there is a Superior to decide all controversies and to do right and justice for which end he was made their Superior So that if any one by Fraud or Violence possesseth himself of another's Right the Law is open and redress may be had without any danger to the Publick nay The Publick Safety consists in having private mens wrongs redressed But as to the Supreme Powers whatever Right or Titles they have people are obliged to submit to those in Possession because there is no Superior Court as in case of private persons to judge of their Rights and Possession by all Laws gives a man a Right till he be legally dispossessed and if a man cannot be turned out by Course of Law as it is evident he that is in Possession of the Government cannot he ought still to enjoy what he possessed For it is against the Nature of all Civil Societies to appeal to the Sword to prevent which they were instituted Besides Force can never decide Civil Controversies nor can the Sword be a proper Judge of Wrong or Right it can only determine who is the strongest not who has the best Cause and the pretended Remedy would be infinitely worse than the Disease for Civil War as long as it continueth destroyeth all Civil Rights If the next Heir whether Brother or Son should get Possession of the Government by Murdering his King the people instead of giving him that Punishment which by the Law of Nature and God's Positive Law is due to such Crimes are obliged to pay him Obedience to which he can have no other Right but Possession for whilst his King was alive and in Possession of the Government he could have no Right and certainly an Action so barbarous as murdering him that was suppose both his Father and King which is against all Right Law and Justice could never give him any Right or Just Title because it is against all Conscience and Reason that a man should reap any advantage by an Act so monstrously wicked and any Law that should allow a man any benefit by so enormous a Crime would be as sinful it self Nor can a man in any other case reap any advantage by his own Turpitude but here because there is no superior to punish him nor can Obedience be refused him without Injury to the Publick it is peoples Duty instead of punishing him to pay him Obedience And certainly the same Reason will hold for paying Obedience to any that get Possession of the Government since none can get it more unjustly All Legal Rights must depend upon the Laws and all Laws for their Authority upon the Government and when that Government is at an end all the Laws that concern it must be so too and can no more oblige than the English Laws can in a Foreign Countrey because a Power to put Laws in execution whereby people are protected is essential to all Laws because it is essential to all Government on which the Laws depend and without such a Power no Civil Society and by consequence no Civil Laws can subsist No particular Law can bind in those circumstances where all Laws would cease to bind and there is no reason that some Laws should oblige when all Laws would have no obligation as they would not oblige if there were no Power to put them in execution because men when there is no Power to restrain them from acting as they have a mind to would be in the state of Nature and consequently without any Laws but those of Nature Without a Coercive Power the Laws become a dead Letter or at best but Advice so that there can be no Laws that can oblige people to act against the present Powers because by being against the present Powers they cease to be Laws If a Law that should oblige people not to pay Obedience to the actual Possessors of the Throne had they not a Legal Title to it were not in its own nature null or could subsist after that Government to which it required Obedience was destroyed it would be void upon account of its Impiety because as long as the Legal Princes continue dispossessed which might extend to some Centuries it would overturn all Government and all Civil Society which are instituted for the good
proved But between Independent Nations where force on one side is lawful where there is no superior Judge to determin the differences or to judge whether force were justly imposed both sides either thinking or pretending they are in the Right all Leagues and Covenants by whatever forcible means obtained are valid and the Good of Mankind which is a sufficient Reason does require it should be so otherwise Wars would be perpetual or not to be ended but by the utter Ruin of the Weaker or Conquered Party because there could be no manner of Agreement or Peace between them if they had a Liberty under pretence of Force of breaking their Promises whenever they had an opportunity In all such cases it is Lawful to Promise there being no Superior as amongst private persons to take from them the Liberty of making such Contracts and the Good of Mankind does oblige People to fulfil those Lawful Promises They cannot properly be said to be forced to Promise because it was in their power to avoid Promising Nor is their Consent Conditional but Absolute and it is their greater Good either presumed or real that obliges them to make such Contracts For the same reason all Prisoners of War are obliged to stand to their Paroles and to pay whatever they promise for their Liberties The reason is the same for paying Allegiance to the New Government whether by a just or unjust way the old one was dissolved and Mankind have all along equally submitted to Conquerors whether the Cause of Conquest were Just or not As few Conquerors have had a Just Cause for all the Mischiefs they have done The reason for Submission is not how one Man gets others into his Power or whether he had a just Cause of destroying the former Prince's Power but whether they consent to be Governed by him after they are in his Power It is for their own sake and not for his that they submit to his Government They may act against their own Good in not submitting to the Conqueror but they deny him no Right if they do not submit It is not the Conquest it self let it be never so just but the after-consent that makes them Subjects A Just Cause of War may make it no injustice to Dethrone a King becanse he gave sufficient Provocation but how can one Prince's injuring another absolve Subjects of their Oaths of Allegiance and give the Injured Prince a Right to Command them who if he hath any Right besides their Consent when he has put them into a capacity to Consent must have it before the Conquest for mere Force cannot give or take away a Right it can only put him in Possession of his Right and if he had any Right to their Allegiance before Conquest I cannot see but that in Conscience they were bound to Transfer their Allegiance and join with him against their former Prince who by giving a just cause of War had Forfeited his Crown Though the Nation be not Conquered yet no reason can be urged for submitting to Conquerors but what will hold as strongly for paying Allegiance to the present Government Has not the Late King as much lost his Power to Protect the People as if he had been driven out by Conquest Is it not the Present Government alone that makes the People a Civil Society Is it not by it that they are Protected in their natural Rights or can claim any Legal ones which are the only reasons which oblige People to submit to Conquerors And are not they that endeavour to disturb it as much within the power and reach of the Government as if they were Conquered And has not the King and Parliament as Absolute a Power as any Conqueror The only difference is That without feeling any of those fatal Miseries which attend Conquest they enjoy the Protection of the Government and owe their Preservation to it and the Nation instead of losing any of their Rights and Liberties enjoy greater and are secured from the worst of Slaveries which otherwise they had inevitably fallen into So that they have infinitely stronger obligations to pay Allegiance than if they had been Conquered to which their Zeal and Loyalty ought to be proportionable CHAP. IX Of Possession ALL Writers I think allow That after a Possession of a long continuance though they extreamly differ how much time is necessary a Right does accrue to the Possessor though there are some of the Right Line still in being If it be unjust to pay the first Possessor Obedience I cannot see how a long Possession can alter the case A continuance in an injustice may make the injustice greater but not alter the nature of things and make the greatest Wrong to be Right Though all things are done in Time yet Time it self operates nothing This Mistake as a great many others are is occasioned by the parallel men draw between private Persons who are tyed up by Laws that are Enacted by the Supreme Powers and the Supreme Powers themselves By the Laws of most Nations if private men neglect to make a Legal demand of their Rights in a certain time appointed by the Laws they lose them and a Right does accrue to the possessor but this depends upon a Law Enacted by the Supreme powers who have a Right to dispose of private Estates as they judge best for the publick good whose Laws can oblige none but their own Subjects But what authority have the Subjects or the possessor to dispose of the Legal Prince's Rights Besides it might justly be imputed to a private man 's own neglect if when the Law is open he does not recover his Right It may well be presumed he hath relinquished it But that cannot be said of a Prince who has no Court of Justice to appeal to or any other likely way to recover his Right yet by bearing the Arms and Title and by other ways still asserts his Right How numerous are the instances of Princes possessed of Territories belonging to others and who have been so for a great many years Yet none dare affirm the Subjects that pay them allegiance are and have been all along Traitors To give but one instance amongst hundreds The Kings of England have a Right to the Kingdom of France and have constantly claimed it by causing themselves to be stiled Kings of France and by bearing the Arms of that Crown yet none will condemn the French as Traitors who have all along paid allegiance to the French Kings But if the Kings of England by tract of time have lost their Right to the Obedience of the French and before that time it was Treason for those of that Nation to pay allegiance to the French Kings I should be glad to know what Month or Year it ceased to be Treason for it is a thing of mighty consequence to know how long it is Treason to obey a King in possession and when it becomes Treason not to obey him In short if a King can have a
proper way to make them amends If there be no other way to make reparation to their injured King but by engaging the Nation in Civil Wars they ought not to attempt making him reparation by such unlawful ways The not restoring a Person to the Crown that he is unjustly deprived of can only be considered when the publick is no longer concerned in his Actions and the Affairs of the Nation are managed by other hands as an injury to a single person and the greatness of the injury is to be judged not by the value of the thing it self but what he that is unjustly deprived of it suffers by the loss of it What is absolutely necessary for the subsistence of one person may be but superfluities to another and as the Widows Mites were greater Charity than what the Rich out of their Abundance gave so the Robbing her of them because she could less spare them would have been a greater injury and consequently a greater sin than Robbing a Rich man that could better spare it of a thousand times as much Tyrants it is true rob great numbers of the conveniences and very often of the necessaries of Life but Usurpers only hinder single persons from enjoying not the necessaries or conveniences of Life but Superfluities because all the necessaries and even conveniences of life can be had without a Crown Yet the Usurpers without all dispute if they can without any injury to the publick ought to restore the Government to those from whom they do unjustly wrest it but if they do not Subjects for the sake of Government to which Sacred Ordinance Obedience by God himself as well as man is annexed ought to submit Christ and his Apostles make no distinction but command Obedience to all in possession by annexing God's Authority to the Office of Governing CHAP. XIII Of Proofs of Scripture concerning Obedience to those that actually Administer Government CHRIST in the Directions he gave Mat. 23. to his Disciples and to the multitude about their Behaviour to the Scribes and Pharisees requires Obedience to be paid them only upon the account of Possession saying The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses's seat all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do and gives no other reason for this great Obedience in doing and observing whatever they command but because they sat in Moses's seat that is were possessed of Moses's Authority who in the Theocracy was the Chief Magistrate Not that the Scribes and Pharisees had so great a power as Moses but as far as they did enjoy his Seat Throne and Authority so far they were to be Obeyed They were then the greatest as well as chiefest part of the grand Sanhedrin which in all causes where the Romans had left the Jews to their Liberty had the Supreme Power both in Civil and Ecclesiastical matters There were not in the Jewish Republick two distinct independant Powers one for Civil another for Ecclesiastical Causes If the people were then obliged to pay so great Obedience barely upon the account of Possession why may not the same direction serve for a standing rule to the multitude in all times And not only to the Inferiors but even to the Supreme Magistrate himself Christ requires Obedience upon no other account but that of possession If Caesar be in possession of the Empire as it did appear by his Coining of Money and Stamping his Image upon it that being a mark of Sovereignty and Empire but not of any Legal Title to it then Caesar is to have Tribute and all other parts of Allegiance paid him And St. Paul in express terms requires Obedience to the powers that be and declares there is no Power but what is from God The Jews being influenced by the Priests and Pharisees who because they were obliged by their Law to place no Stranger over them scrupled to pay obedience to the Roman Emperors because they were Strangers and not capable of a Legal Right not considering the Law did not oblige them but when it was in their own choice and not when they were under the power of the Romans to whom for the sake of protection they were obliged to pay obedience St. Paul to take away these scruples assures them all Powers are from God If St. Paul had only meant Legal Powers since none but Jews were capable of being such he had confirmed the Jews in their Error But the reason why St. Paul obliges men to submit will demonstrate that all actual Rulers are meant and none but they because they alone are a Terror to evil works and a Praise to the good none but the actual Ruler is a Minister of God a Revenger to execute wrath upon him that does evil or a Minister of God for good What can more fully demonstrate that the reason of obedience is for the benefits men receive by Government And what makes the Crime of Resisting them so great is because men Oppose those by whom they receive so many advantages It is because they have the power of the Sword which includeth all manner of Punishment by which they secure and protect their Subjects from all manner of injury and violence of ill men and being Ministers of God for good includeth all the good they receive both to their Persons and Properties for which cause you pay tribute also for they are God's ministers continually attending upon this very thing It is their dispensing these advantages to Mankind that makes them God's Ministers and God's Ordinance the Scripture affirming those things that are necessary for the good of Mankind to come from God as plowing and sowing Isaiah 28. from Verse the 23d to the 29th If it once be known as the discovery cannot be difficult who it is that beareth the Sword who administers Justice who Rewards and who Punisheth if the Apostle's word is to be taken subjection is not only due to him for Wrath but for Conscience-sake and the same Apostle exhorts That prayers be made for Kings and all in Authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty These reasons can only concern those that have actual Power and Authority by whose protection those that live under them may lead such lives and if it be our duty to pray that we may lead such Lives it must be our duty to enable them that have Authority over us to secure us in the enjoyment of a quiet and peaceable Life Do the Principles or Practices of the Jacobites suit with this Doctrine who instead of Praying for those in Authority make it their business by opposing them to destroy not only our Quiet and Peace and even all Godliness and Honesty too by endeavouring to set up again a Popish Governor and by consequence to introduce a Religion whose Principles are destructive of true Godliness and Honesty as well as the Peace and Quiet of the Professors of them And St. Peter for the same reason requires people to submit to the Supream
of mankind and which Nature hath qualified man for by making him a Sociable Creature Can any man in his senses think that a particular Prince's Interest can stand in competition with the very Being of Human Societies and the Preservation and Safety of the People Is it not absurd to suppose that Legal Rights that owe their Being to Civil Societies should oblige people to put an end to Civil Societies and that Laws that are but the Rules of Government should destroy Government it self or that Human Laws should be able to destroy the Law of Nature or take away that Natural Right which people have to act for their own good and preservation which is a Right that is superior to all Human Laws and for the sake of which all Human Laws were made All Human Laws are made cum sensu humanae imbecillitatis nor do Legislators themselves design they shall oblige in case of great and pressing Inconveniences but allow that a moral Necessity does destroy the Vertue and Force of them The Good and Interest of the People is the Supreme Law to which the Rights and Titles of Princes must submit and where it is for the good of the Nation that they should be governed by such a particular person That person best and most Legal Right because it is built upon the Supreme and Fundamental Law of all Societies And whoever designedly breaks this most Sacred Law may justly be accounted a Rebel and as the Crime would be greater in them than others if they who are hired by Travellers to protect them from Robbers should rob them themselves so if Princes who are intrusted by the people with Power in order to Protect the Society should make use of that Power to the Detriment of the Society the Crime in them would be so much the greater by how much more they are obliged to act otherwise CHAP. VII Objections answered Object UPON supposition that the Good of the Society is the Grand Vltimate Law yet these Principles which require Obedience to the Possessor cannot be true because they are against the Peace and Happiness of Nations by encouraging Rebellion against all Princes in obliging people to pay the same Allegiance even to those that unjustly depose them Answ. These Principles are so far from being destructive to the Peace and Quiet of Nations or encouraging Rebellion against their Governors that they require Obebience to all in Possession upon pain of Damnation but if neither the fear of Eternal Punishment in the life to come nor the severest that can be afflicted upon them in this can secure people from rebelling I must confess my Ignorance I know nothing that can It is the Duty of all Subjects to do their utmost to defend the Government that is but a just return and what is due for its protecting and defending them But if by the Chance of War or any other way it should lose the Power of Protecting them they are not obliged to have their Throats cut rather than pay Allegiance to that Government by whose Favour and Protection they subsist and enjoy what they have And that Prince is very unreasonable and acts against the rules of Humanity as well as Charity who when he is able no longer to Protect the People would rather have them destroyed then own that Government that can Nothing can justify such an inhuman and barbarous Opinion except it can be proved that men entred into Societies barely for the sake and interest of a single Person and that if his pleasure or profit require it Millions of Lives must be indispensably sacrificed This is to place Men in a worse condition than the Beasts are if they are in Conscience obliged to lose their Lives to gratifie the unlimited Pride Ambition Revenge or Interest of a single Person It is strange that any English-men who are the Freest Nation in the world should have such Notions of themselves that they are no other then the King's Properties Though it is but reasonable that men who design to bring the most insupportable Slavery on themselves should qualifie themselves for it by Notions and Principles so much below the dignity of human Nature These Principles are so far from being any ways prejudicial to Mankind that it is they alone which in all Revolutions can secure human Societies and make Governments easie and safe both to Kings and Subjects by putting an end to those otherwise endless Disputes of Titles And Princes may without Fears or Jealousies mind the Publick good because it secureth them who are in Possession against all Pretences The most that can be Objected Is that a Prince that has once lost his Dominions may by these Principles chance to lose the hopes of ever recovering them again A Prince that is unjustly expelled ought to acquiesce if he has no way of Recovering his Kingdom but by disturbing the Peace and Quiet of a Nation he ought not to make use of such Unlawful means for the Recovery of his Kingdom and certainly others can have no reason to act against the good of the Community for his Interest when he himself is obliged not to act The interest of a Prince is only more Sacred then another's when that of the Publick is involved in it but when that is no longer concerned in his actions he ceaseth to be the Publick Person and is but upon equal terms with other private men and ought as well as any other to acquiesce rather than disturb the Quiet or Peace of a Nation And there is then the same reason for not endeavouring to Restore him as there was at first for not turning him out All the ill consequences that can happen in this case are that the less hopes Princes have of being Restored by such Unlawful means the more careful it 's hoped they will be in Governing the Commonwealth and more afraid of Arbitrary Illegal Practices Object If all Persons how unjustly soever they get a Crown have the same Right their Consent to the Obedience of the People then there can be no such thing as an Vsurper Answ. He who without any just Cause destroys the Right that any Prince hath to the Allegiance of his Subjects by making him uncapable to Protect them and Protects them himself may be called an Usurper Though the People by the former Prince's losing his Power to Protect them are reduced to the State of Nature and by consequence free from any Allegiance and may Lawfully or rather are obliged every one else being out of a capacity to Protect them to consent to be Governed by him who has the Power to Protect them who being so Chosen has the only Right a King can have the Consent of the People who are as much obliged to Obey him as they are any King whatever The former King is so far then from being their Legal King that he is no King at all nor has any manner of Right to their Allegiance It is true the Usurper having done him an Injury
Magistrate whom he calls the Ordinance of Man so that it is plain that God by approving this Human Ordinance approves it as Human and requires obedience to it for the same Reasons that men at first instituted it And it is the power Governors have to do Good that makes them to be not only God's Ordinance and God's Ministers but even Gods for since they are not Gods by nature tho by some peoples arguing one would suppose they though them such or at least Beings in themselves superior to the rest of Mankind it must be for the protection they afford that they are termed so who when they do no longer protect the people cease to be a Human Ordinance and then too they cease to be a Divine one And the same Reasons that obliges people to submit to them when they act for the good of the Society does as much oblige people to oppose them if they design to ruin and destroy them It cannot well be supposed that God who has obliged Mankind to preserve their lives and consequently to use the means that are necessary for that end should require People to suffer themselves to be destroyed to gratify the Lust or Barbarity of a single Person or a few who are by Nature but their Equals and only above them by being in an Office which they erected only for their Convenience Obj. St. Paul makes no manner of exception but declareth Whosoever resists shall receive damnation Ans. The Apostle requireth obedience to Parents in all things so he requireth obedience to Masters Husbands Pastors without mentioning any Exceptions so here the Apostle which was sufficient for his purpose declareth all people ought to obey the Supream Powers without mentioning this exception which from the nature end and design of Government and even from those Reasons which he gives for Obedience does necessarily flow It cannot be presumed that Christ gave Authority to his Apostles to make Slaves of Mankind by giving the Emperors a new Power who before by no Law of God or Nature had such a power over peoples lives All the Power the Roman Government had was immediatly from the people who as it is plain in History by their mutual Consent erected that Commonwealth and what power the Emperors had was given them too by the people who by the Lex Regia conferred it upon them All that can be deduced from Scripture is That obedience is due to those that protect the people and nothing can be plainet than those Texts which require it By which plain and ignorant people may know their duty as well as the learned and wise It would have been inconsistent with the Goodness of God to have required obedience on the greatest penalties and yet leave it so uncertain as the Jacobitish Principles would render it to whom obedience is to be paid What can be more uncertain than generally Titles are And are there not innumerable intricate difficulties about long Possession presumed Consent a just cause for a total Conquest c. If about these Points the Learned do so extreamly differ as any one may perceive that gives himself the trouble to examine what Authors have writ upon it who give good Reasons for destroying one another's Hypothesis but none for confirming their own but what are liable to equal Exceptions what means or possibility have almost all Mankind the unlearned and common people of knowing their duty But it may be objected Though the common people should be mistaken invincible Ignorance will excuse them Ans. Not to dispute how far such Ignorance will excuse them I am sure it is inconsistent with the Infinite Wisdom of God to give such Rules as almost all Mankind are utterly uncapable of understanding or guiding their Actions by But whoever considereth these Texts of Scripture will see the falseness of such impious Reflections and must admire the Goodness of God in laying down Rules so plain that a well-meaning man cannot mistake them But if men will be wiser than God himself and not be content with those Laws he prescribes them but will invent new Rules and new ways or by following the Tradition of the Jewish Priests will disturb the peace and quiet of Human Societies by opposing the Powers that be If by so doing they incur the severest Punishments here as well as Eternal Torments hereafter with those damned ill-natured Spirits the grand Enemies of Mankind who at first possessed men with these Maxims so pernicious to Human Societies they must thank themselves and their too great Subtilty The Primitive Christians all along complied with the Revolution of the Empire and whoever was in possession of it without examing his Title paid him allegiance and thought him invested with God's Authority And as the Goths and Vandals and other barbarous Nations on one hand and the Saracens Turks and Persians on the other without any just cause overturn'd the Roman Empire the Christians were so far from disputing their Titles or refusing to transfer their Allegiance to them that they never scrupled to own their Government If these Pharisaical Notions had then been believed or practised those Nations would have extirpated all the Professors of Christianity as Enemies to Government and Order instead of being converted to their Religion as most of the Northern Nations were Nor do the Christians that now live under the Dominions of the Infidels vary from this Primitive Practice or scruple to transfer their Allegiance to any that gets possession of the Sacred Office of Governing tho the Legal Prince be still alive Did not the Jews though they were commanded by a Divine Law to take a King from amongst their Brethren and God himself had intailed the Crown on the Posterity of David practice the same as they fell under the power of the four great Empires And did they not submit to Alexander without endeavouring to oppose him when Darius to whom they had sworn obedience could no longer protect them I shall add but one Instance more and that shall be of David who thought it not unlawful when Saul designed to take away his life to transfer his Allegiance and fly to Achish King of Gath for protection who made him Keeper of his Head or Captain of his Guard and whilst he was under his protection he thought it his duty to pay all manner of Allegiance to him and tho contrary to his Interest and the hopes he had of being King after Saul's death even to join with the Uncircumcised to invade his own Countrey and to sight against the Lord 's Anointed his late King and Father-in-law and as appeareth by the 1 Sam. 29. 8. was much grieved and humbly expostulateth with the King for not permitting him to attend him in the Battel But what have I done or what hast thou found in thy servant so long as I have been with thee until this day that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my Lord the King Saul by designing to destroy David had