himself prescribed when he gave them power of ruling and governing If we say that the necessity of human Affairs does require that Princes should be unaccountable in this World it may be allowed so far as that necessity appears but then their Exemption from Check or Controul does not derive from the Source and Origine of their power that is from God but from another Cause which must be fairly made out upon the Compare of Benefits or Mischiefs that happen from the one supposition or the other But when men say that because Kings receive their Power from God they must have no letts from human Constitutions of doing what they will good or bad and then distinguish that though they are uncontroulable unaccountable in this World yet they are accountable to God and must give a strict Account to him and that for the same Reason because they receive their Power from God I should think that such men are unkind to Kings and treat 'em with the most uncouth Courtship in the World For they do in effect tell them this You are great and powerful you may do what you please you have none to fear but God nothing to be affraid of but Hell and Damnation Others are awed by human Laws they are kept in and restrained from doing the Evils they might do they are made better than they would be and so put into a way of Salvation but you Great Princes you are entirely free you may do as you will as you have none above you so you have none to awe you none to give stop to you in all the eruptions of nature or humour but only God and his last dreadful Judgments I should think a Christian Prince should give a Courtier but little thanks for such a Speech as this as he has a Soul to be saved he must rejoyce in God's preventing Grace and give thanks when ever it pleases God to keep him from doing evil and he may likewise be glad if by Laws and human Constitutions his ways were so bounded and fenced in that it might be impossible for him to deviate from Righteousness and Justice so he would be in the ready way of being Happy here and Glorious hereafter As to the Interests of a King of England it is but vain to search into the Source and Origine of his Power how it may be said to be from God or how from the People seeing he has that singular happiness that if he will Act truly his part according to the National Constitution he must appear in the Exercise of his Power altogether Divine like God Himself He is Great and Powerful his Person is Sacred his Actions unquestionable He does good and nothing but good inasmuch as the Powers of Dispensing of Favours and Benefits the Power of Rewarding Advancing Preferring of giving Riches and Honours to the Industrious and Well-deserving the Power of Protecting Defending Relieving Pardoning the poor or miserable are intirely left to Him But then the Power or Impotency of doing Wrong Injury or Evil to others is absolutely taken from Him A King of England as such can do no wrong if he does it he stretches beyond himself and the Man is too hard for the King because according to this National Constitution all those Acts wherein wrong can be done are to be done not by himself but by proper Ministers and Officers who are accountable for the actions which they do or may have done Thus the Kings Person is Sacred and his Actions unquestionable and they that do wrong are answerable to the Law and may suffer according to their demerits This certainly was a happy Contrivance of Wisdom in our Fore-Fathers to secure the Veneration that is due to Princes and withal to provide that goodness and Righteousness may flourish in their Kingdoms The Subject every one of them either by himself or his representative agrees that he will be hanged or Gibbetted submit to the halter or the axe if ever he be mutinous or rebellious against the King His King he will Love and Honour Serve and Obey Fight and be willing to Dye for Him He shall be Great and Powerful Dreadful to Enemies abroad and Dreadful to Enemies at home and have all the Assistances of Men and Moneys to inable him to do all the good his heart can wish for if he will but ask it and that His Majesty may yet be more Bright and Illustrious He in his particular in all his Actions shall be unquestionable unaccountable On the other hand the King agrees that he will Protect and Defend his Subjects Support them in all their Rights he will use their Assistances to beat down and subdue all their Enemies and take Care that they may Live in Peace and Prosperity He will not oppress or trample upon any whether great or little Nay He will not leave it in his own Power to be able to do wrong or injury to them And therefore He will make Laws by his People's Consent in Parliaments He will Conduct the Interest of the Nation by Advice of his Subjects in Council He will Rule by Officers and Judge by Ministers chosen out from amongst themselves and that in all Causes both between themselves and between himself and them who shall pronounce and determine about right and wrong and who is guilty and who is not without the least appeal to him And then lest those Judges as Men should warp aside and think that they may be able by their goodly appearances to bear down right and set up wrong they themselves shall not be impowered to pronounce a Judgment in any Cause but as a Jury of Neighbours Twelve Men chosen out of the Voicenage shall first find it to be After all this The King agrees that Ministers of State Privy Councellors Military Officers Judges in Courts and each particular Jury-man shall be questionable and accountable punishable for any corruption oppression wrong or injury that by Law he shall be found guilty of and that as much as rebells are which too has actually been done in several Reigns How Venerable and Divine is this whole Disposition and Order of Affairs What appearance is there of Wisdom and Goodness that is of God in it If a Prince would be Great he must be Good and if he keep to these Methods he must be both And if a People would have happiness in this World they must either find it in such a Constitution as this or seek it in Vtopia Why then do Men trouble themselves to seek for the Source and Origine of Power and think they do much in shewing that it comes from God and God only Whereas we have here before us Power running down from the Fountain-head a long way and in all its course like it self the same it was pure and clean and in all its appearances Divine and God-like it acts just as God would have it and tends to all those glorious Ends for which God gave it and to which God requires and
Rights or to deliver us from doing our Duties 3. We may accept of deliverance and that in ways extraordinary without making the strictest examination of all the niceties doubts scruples which may occur in the case Thus certainly St. Peter did in that remarkable action related Acts 12. He left his Chains his Goal his Guards and followed his Deliverer tho he had all and many more causes for scruple than those which now adays give so much trouble and seem so insuperable For First He was committed to Prison by his King upon that account he might have thought it his Duty to obey in all things lawful and patiently to submit in the rest or else according to the other way of expressing it That what he could not give to his Prince in Active obedience he ought to make up in the Passive Secondly His King went in the way of Justice and designed to bring him to a Tryal Upon that he might have thought that a secret withdrawing of himself would disparage his Cause and in the Opinion of others speak him guilty Thirdly His King acted in behalf of the established Law and Religion Josephus tells us he was one who had a great zeal for the Jewish Constitution Polity and Worship Upon that account St. Peter might think that his King acted from Conscience according to his Duty in prosecuting of him and therefore he was bound at the command of his King to declare plainly and openly upon what grounds he a private person undertook to draw people off from the settlement and a long and most legally established Worship to a new one especially he could not but see what himself taught 1 Pet. 3. 15. That it is the Duty of every Christian to be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh a reason of the hope that is in him Fourthly The Case of his Guards of the Keepers of the Prison-gates was most deplorable he could not but see that his escape would be charged and revenged upon them upon that he might think that he ought not to do evil that good may come of it to save his own life he ought not to give cause and reason for executing of so many innocent Men. Fifthly There is another thing which though much less yet may give matter of scruple for what will not that in this sudden flight it is not likely that he should pay his Jaylor for Fees or Diet. Upon this account he might think that his Honesty would be questioned and he would be accused of doing wrong and defrauding another of his dues and that other Christians who should afterwards be committed would suffer hardship and ill usage for his sake and therefore he had better stay where he was and give his Jaylor and his Prince and the Law all they could require and take from him and so pay down a compleat Passive Obedience in full measure and tale by dying to gratifie his Prince's humor and expect the Reward of his Action from God This he might have thought but he did not for he followed his Deliverer out of the Prison and took care to make good his deliverance by absconding for near five years after as Computers reckon it Had he been under those strait boundaries of Conscience in this case which others think they are Had he had their Rules of Duty could he have seen it to be his Duty to stay in Prison and suffer according to the will of his King he could not have followed his Deliverer though he had been an Angel Gal. 1. 8. and he could never have prevailed upon himself to have believed that an Angel of God would have moved him to act contrary to his Duty He accepted of deliverance and the whole Church that then was blessed God for it and in like cases so may and ought others to do and that without penetrating into all the grounds of nicety and scruple which Men seldom do but when they design to seem extraordinary and then usually they refine upon Morality and set down Rules of Duty which neither Humane Nature can bear nor Christianity requires and for the most part they are against the good of Societies and do alike mischief to Kings as to Subjects Seeing then we are not by Gods Law so abandoned to the will and humor of a Man though he be our King but that when he proceeds in Methods of doing wrong and injury of ruling by Power against Law we may flee from him we may plead our Cause and Right against him we may pray to God to give a stop to him and we may accept of deliverance from him We must say that the modern Doctrine of Passive Obedience is stretched beyond its bounds for we are not obliged to make it our business to give and pay him that which he has no right to take we are not obliged to put our selves into his way and give him opportunity to cut our throats We are not obliged not to move others to intercede for us and if they can with justice to defend and preserve us we are not obliged to refuse a deliverance if it comes to us But if Force prevails and we are to be knock'd down by Violence against Right and Justice we must take care to fall as decently as we can submitting to God's Providence and giving all respects to our King as far as our Case will allow if our Calamity comes from him For this will bring credit to our Memories and to our Religion and may do good to others who shall be in our condition by appeasing of wrath and displeasure how unjustly soever conceived against them or us I will end this Discourse with one Remark upon the Case of Isaac He was a noble instance of a very extraordinary Obedience he submitted entirely to the Will of his Father and of his King for Abraham was both to him but yet the Praise of that wondrous Action related Gen. 22. falls to the Father and not to the Son Much is said of Abraham's Faith and little of Isaac's Obedience whatever other Reasons there are for it one is very obvious and plain That it might not be a President from whence Kings might measure their Rights and Subjects their Duties So much of Obedience Active and Passive The next thing to be treated of is the Doctrine of Non-resistance This our Historian tells us has been avowed by the Church of England ever since the Reformation Preachers and Writers have declared for it and that with a great deal of warmth and much advantage especially in latter days Upon this Account he would have it thought That Men have swerved from their Principles and that this Doctrine as well as the other is more illustrious in Writings than in Lives Now this Censure I challenge to be very hard and unreasonable because it does not appear that those Men who preached up Non-resistance before have ever preached for Resistance since nor have they who persuaded others to Non-resistance resisted themselves The
have an Historian or Advocate for the Cause of King James who thinks to be friend him by telling the World that so many of the chief of the Clergy for so long time together did preach Passive Obedience Now it is as clear as the day that there can be no exercise of this Duty nor ought there be any popular Exhortation to it but at such a time when there is a very ill Prince and a miserable People what then would our Author have does he design to publish an everlasting blot upon the memory of the late King James does he design to tell the World that he was resolved to do mischief to his People That nothing could correct or retain him That he would go on tho the Pulpits sounded out Passive Obedience and his People were taught that there was no hope of Justice or Equity from him and that they must think of suffering and dying rather than obey him This is severe it will furnish out a worse Character of King James than any of his Adversaries have yet given him it will justifie the Recession of his People from him and show to Posterity how it came to pass that so easily and suddenly he fell to the ground For who can read all these so many Pleas Advices Instructions Exhortations to Passive Obedience but he must reflect upon the Causes and Reasons of them and if he does so he will be forced to think that at that time wicked Counsels governed and lawless Violence prevailed and that the whole Nation was clouded with a dismal Appearance of Oppression Persecution and Tyranny For seeing that a Prince ruling by Law and with Justice cannot be put off with any thing less than Active Obedience and nothing can exercise the Passive Obedience of Subjects but vile and base and wicked Commands contrary to Law and Religion we must either blame those Preachers for amusing their Auditors with needless Thoughts of unjust Sufferings or we must blame the late King for giving too much cause for just and reasonable fears of them Now what can be said in his behalf to acquit him no Man has yet told us But our Historian has effectually vindicated the Preachers he every where commends them and their Writings this he tells us was well said that excellently that incomparably He likes their Doctrine and finds no fault in the timing of it and likely enough he had reason to believe the Doctrine as proper to the Time in which it was delivered as it was true in it self If so the late King is again deserted by this Historian as well as by the rest of his People and his Cause like himself falls to the ground for why must he do ill things and why must he load his People with dreads of worse Why did not all this noise about Passive Obedience awaken him Why did he not give stop to his Proceedings when his People owned so loudly their fears of Mischief Could he think it a small thing to make his People miserable or to be thought one that would do so All this was intimated by those Sermons and Tracts From thence he ought to have taken warning to desist and his Counsellors ought to have persuaded him to it for certainly popular Discourses about Passive Obedience are as instructive to a Prince to move him from designs of doing ill as they are to the People to engage them to be willing to suffer wrong From hence I am forced to blame our Historian for perpetuating the Memory of these Discourses it were for the honor of the late King that they were forgotten Those excellent Divines would never have revived past Actions or the grievous sad Thoughts which they had when they composed or delivered their excellent Arguments and Persuasions for Passive Obedience They could wish from their Souls that they never had occasion for them tho they are ready to morrow to write the same things upon the same grounds which with good reason they hope that they are not like to see as long as they live Why then does the Historian take pains to collect all these things together He can do no Service to the late King by it and he does not seem to design the Honor of the Preachers It is hard to guess his meaning but if he tempts out an ill Thought he must blame himself He gives us nothing else to think but that he might be one of the Adepti one of those who knew the Secret for in the late Times they tell us there was a Secret The Ministers of State they say who knew the Resolves of the Court to be harsh and severe made it their business to persuade Men to preach and talk up Passive Obedience that what could not be done by the Power of the King might be gained by the easie Submissions of the People This was Machiavel to purpose It is sad and lamentable that so excellent a Doctrine should be abused by such designs of naughty Men. If our Author was one of their Instruments and knew what he did he can neither excuse himself to God nor Man I will undertake for our excellent Divines whom he commends and I and all others must do the same that they were never thought so base as to be trusted with the Knowledge of such a pernicious Design They out of Honesty and Sincerity preached against Rebellion and persuaded Men rather to suffer than obey evil Commands but they would not for all the World that the innocent and conscientious should be cheated of their Lives and Fortunes by any Discourses of theirs Therefore when it was proper they preached up this Doctrine but when it was not they let it alone because they would not have the People to rebel nor would they give Encouragement to such as might be willing to oppress them in both these things they did their Duty both to the King and to the People It had been well if others would have done the same and spoke as plainly to the King as they did to the People But it was very ill done if done at all to persuade the King that the People of England were so subdued by the Doctrine of Passive Obedience grown so tame and easie that he might do what he would pull down and set up what Religion what Law he pleased It is certain that all the Preachers in the World could never persuade them to this for tho the People be Loyal and willing enough that the King should have his Dues yet they were never thought a Nation of Asses fit only to bear Burdens As they are not born Slaves and by the Constitution of the Nation ought not to be made Slaves so they have more Spirit and Wit than to suffer themselves to be cheated into Slavery Their Forefathers for many Ages have made a difference between the King and his Counsellors tho they would suffer the one yet they would not suffer the other and certainly the Men of this Age should not be thought so dull
pardon and so may very well pardon their King too because as he hopes better from them they may hope for better from him The common Offices which Charity requires from one private Christian to another are certainly as well due to Kings Subjects must look upon themselves under Obligation to suffer long and to be kind not to behave themselves unseemly not to seek their own not to be easily provoked not to think evil to bear all things to believe all things to hope all things If these Duties were but well discharged towards Princes all the rest that can be truly comprehended under the name of Passive Obedience would be much more easie Let Subjects do these sincerely and heartily and stop a little and think they will soon find that they must yield more and give greater allowances to Princes than to fellow-subjects because they are higher Powers they are ordained of God they bear the Sword they are to execute wrath upon them that do evil and they are to give Praise to them that do good These things are of high consideration and they should beget in the minds of People a great Awe and Veneration for the Persons of Princes for infinite are the Advantages that every single Man receives from the Administration of Justice and the Distribution of Rewards and Punishments What if Praise and Wrath sometimes mistake their way and the first flies to the evil and the latter to the good This is no more than what God 's own Thunder does as far as we can understand The best Marks man may sometimes miss and the worst hit the Mark. When we undertake to vindicate God's Providence we are forced to bring in extrinsick Pleas and when we have done all we confess that we do not understand the reason of Events but we believe that all is well because all comes from God If we did but use a little of like Submission when we examine the Actions of Princes in many Cases we may be content to say that we do not understand thereby we shall shew not only a Reverence to them but a Reverence to God too they are but Men and may oft fail and are always fallible they do mistake but the cause of their Mistakes are mostly from Subjects these design and contrive one against another and misrepresent and the Prince hears from them and sees by them and the Law provides Punishments for those Misrepresenters and acquits the Prince because it seems impossible that one Man should find out such a number of honest and good Men to supply all the Trusts which he is to provide for and never be cheated with one Knave therefore if such a one will crowd in the Prince is abused and it cannot be help'd but the Knave is to be punished and the Prince excused from blame Besides The Work and Business of Princes is the hardest and most difficult that any sort of Men upon Earth have because they have so many to order and so many to defend so many to reward and so many to punish so many that expect from them and so many that must be disappointed in their Expectations so many to deal withal that are false and base and so many that are dull and sluggish so many Knaves and so many Fools Upon these Accounts and many others innumerable Princes ought to have all Favour and all reasonable Allowances in Miscarriages all fair Abatements for Mistakes and Errors in the choice of Ministers and Instruments that are to serve the Interests of the Commonweal For it is certain that all the Laws Rules and Methods of conducting publick Affairs which the Wisdom of Ancestors for thousands of Years have found out will not answer all the Behoofs of a Kingdom Old Rules are oft laid aside other Expedients found out and new Laws made All the Prudence and all the Wisdom in every Age when best imployed is little enough to keep Government steddy and the People in good order to repress the Outrages of the Factious at home and give stop to the Contrivances of ambitious Enemies abroad Princes therefore are to be supported defended excused pleaded for as long as any plausible Pleas can be made for them it is not enough that they are not taxed censured reproached calumniated blackened but there is great reason that they should be gently treated kindly dealt withal the best Construction and the fairest Interpretation is to be put upon theâ—â— Actions Law makes the Persons of Kings sacred and their Actions are not to be examined without great Respect and Veneration If Subjects suffer not altogether according to Rule loss of Goods of Honors of Powers they may and ought to bear it patiently as long as they see any thing like Reason for it if they can but think that the Good of a Nation requires it that the Necessities of humane Affairs will have it or that their Sins against God call for it they do well to indulge themselves in all such meek and humbling Thoughts thereby they will really practise two great Duties of Fearing God and honoring their King Thereby they shew their Abhorrence of Plots and Conspiracies of the Counsels of the Factious and Seditious that they have no part with those who would overturn Kingdoms and States Princes and People Religion and Laws to greaten themselves to advance Projects and Devices Tricks and Humors of their own They shew that they are good Men whilst they submit their private Concerns to the publick Good and they shew themselves to be good Subjects seeing they in reverence to their Prince bear all that which in reason can be thought tolerable They that do this do a great Duty a thing very commendable in it self it is that which God requires all that which the Interests of Princes can need and as much as the Good of a Kingdom can allow The excellent Divines of the Church of England have endeavoured with all Care and Attention to ingraft this upon the Hearts and Minds of their Auditors and they have had extraordinary effects of their Labors for if all things be fairly considered since the beginning of K. James's Reign it may perhaps be found that no Nation in the World did ever deport themselves with greater Submission Resignation and hearty Obedience toward a Prince than this has done View the Actions of his Parliament of the Nobility Gentry chief Burghers reflect upon their Fears and Jealousies and let him that can challenge them for the least provoking Action or neglect of their Duty until all things tended to confound him and them too about the time of the fatal Desertion For what could the late King wish what could he desire Would he be great and powerful formidable to Enemies abroad or Enemies at home He had all things at Pleasure his Parliament gave him Monies beyond Example largely his Nobility raised him Forces the Commonalty readily offered their Lives to serve him he had Hands and Hearts and Purses of all Orders of Men at his Command
each strove to outvy the other in Loyalty and Dutifulness He had the best opportunity that ever Man had to be great if he could have been contented to have been King of England or would have considered that he was a King of Englishmen Why should he think his People to be Fools or Rascals that they would part with their Laws or Religion for an Humor merely because he thought that they might be as well without them Their Forefathers had for many Ages past laboured hard to get their Laws fixed fairly and evenly betwixt Prince and People for the good of both And their Religion at the Reformation had singular Advantages to be cleansed from all the Corruptions which Folly and Vanity had brought upon other Churches and the Professors of it have in all Times since been as industrious and curious to find out and as free and impartial to discover any thing that looked like Mistake or Error in the first Settlement as ever Men were We have all that Christ and his Apostles taught all that the Primitive Fathers recommended as Christian Doctrine We can part with nothing as the Papists own because all we profess is pure and simple Christianity and if we would take in what they have superadded we must submit to a most heavy Burden of gross Cheats and Errors But yet the late King would try he would make the Experiment whether we would be willing to part with our Laws and our Religion he would use his Art and Policy to get them from us and he has had the unhappy Fate of Projectors Upon this Account our Historian is not satisfied with what we have done or suffered He thinks himself concerned to lay before us so many Sayings of our eminent Divines on purpose to convince us that we have not yet fulfilled all the Measures of a Passive Obedience he would have it thought that we have apostatised from the Doctrine of this Church or as he says that this Doctrine is more illustrious 〈◊〉 our Books than in our Lives The Truth is we are not hanged the Northern Heresie is not yet extirpated we are not put into the condition of French Refugees that we should be forced to leave our Goods and fly from our Country to save out Lives Our Church is preserved and we are delivered from the Rage and Fury of petulant Enemies We bless God for this If he be grieved let him find out that Fool who is willing to be hanged to gratifie his Humor with a scurvy Sight or to put him into a better Mood Neither can God nor Man please some Persons Passive Obedience is a Duty but it is no further a Duty than God hath made it to be so it is large enough of it self it will not endure to be put upon the Tenters if you stretch it never so little you will make that which is good in it self to be stark naught it is a Vertue as long as it stands upon its own grounds if it steps beyond those it is no longer a Vertue but a Fury We must Obey we confess and submit to Suffering as far as God and Reason call for it as far as publick Good and the Constitution of the Government requires it But must we not only submit but court Suffering must we expose our selves to it run upon it make it our care and business to find it A certain Divine has said and Hand in Margin directs us to note it That Obedience we must pay either active or passive if we can't do one we must the other But it was not his Mind that we should pay Sufferings just as we do Money go at a certain Time and Place and tender it and then be sure to give good Coin and full Tale. We may not pay we may escape we may get away from mischief our Savior has given us leave when they persecute uâ— in one City to 〈◊〉 into another Can any Man be so barbarous as to blame the French Refugees for following that Rule of our Saviour They have fled out of the Dominions of their Prince and saved their Lives and if they could they would have saved their Fortunes â—oo and not paid him one Farthing of that Passive Obedience Do they sin in this Are they disobedient for this Men submit to the Outrages of a Prince and so they do to a Fever or the Plague and tho they submit to God's Providence under those Calamities yet they use all fit and proper means to lessen to abate them and if possible to be recovered from them In the utmost Extremities of Subjects and highest Insults of Princes against Religion and Right many things may and ought to be done 1. They may make their Defences and plead their Causes Thus did S. Peter and thus did S. Paul and thus did the Primitive Fathers when they could be heard and when they could not they published their Apologies and made the People Judges between their Prince and them by disclosing the merits of their Cause to all the World Our Savior himself encouraged them to this by promising to give them a Mouth and Wisdom which all their Adversaries could not gainsay He promised them too the best Advocate that can be the Holy Spirit to speak in them and for them and that too when Rulers and Governors Kings and Princes should appear against them Matt. x. 18. 20. Ye shall be brought before Governors and Kings for my sake Take no thought what ye shall speak for it is not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father Our Reverend Bishops when of late they were brought before Judges I think for Christ's sake and the Gospel's sake they did not wholly abandon themselves to the Will of their Prince nor so act as if they thought it Duty forthwith either to do or to submit either to pay him Active or Passive Obedience for when they could not do the first they did what they could to avoid the second They stood upon the Defence and used the best Mouths and best Wisdoms the best Pleaders and Advocates in the Nation to justifie their Actions to clear up their Innocence And tho that Vindication of themselves did more affect the Interests of the late King than if they had raised up Arms against him yet do I not hear that any one of them has repented of it nor do I see cause why he should 2. But then further they may pray to God to find a way for their Deliverance All grant that Preces Lachrymae Prayers and Tears are Weapons which the Christian always may and upon all occasions ought to use but yet the Stretchers of this Doctrine ere they are aware seem to extort these from us for if it be our Duty to give unto our Prince either so much in Active Obedience or in lieu of that so much as is equivalent in his Opinion of Passive we cannot pray to God for deliverance because we cannot pray to God to free us from giving to our Prince his