of the same much and dangerously corrupted many things may be lawfully done which under a well-setled Government will prove very unlawful For though where there is no outward form of ordinary Vocation and Ordination established that which Volkelius maintains against Swinglius for one that is vitae inculpatae idoneus ad docendum to take upon him the charge of a Minister and do Christ what service he is able may be lawful Yet to do so where there is an Eutaxie in a setled Church must be unjust because amongst other things such an one shall trangress the Rule of Decency and Order 14. Though Christ and his Apostles did deliver unto us all the essential and fundamental Rules of Church-Government and we find them in the Scripture yet many accidentals were left to sanctied reason to be directed to the general Rules And in this respect we must make use of our Christian prudence both in modelling and reforming of Christian Churches But if we stand upon these Rules of prudence in accidentals and circumstantials as of Divine Institution and Obligation we cannot be excused 15. Though there may be several orderly ways and means to attain the chief end of Church-discipline yet those are the best which most observe the essentials of Government and the general Rules and are most effectually conducing to that end 16. Seeing therefore there may be several and different means in respect of accidentals and they severally may attain and reach the end it 's the duty of us all 1. To unite our selves in the bond of Charity 2. Observe the fundamental and essential Rules of Government which are clearly known 3. With a meek humble and pure heart seek out such particulars as are not yet made clear unto us and wherein we may differ for the present till at length we may satisfie one another CHAP. XIV Of the extent of a Particular Church section 1 AFter the examination of the several Titles of such as challenge the supream Power of the Keys and the declaration of mine own Judgment the third thing proposed was the Extent of a particular Church That there is a supream power of the Keys that there is a primary subject of this power that this power is in the Church that it 's disposed in this Church in a certain order and manner in one or more purely or mixtly few if any will deny But that it is disposed in the whole Church after the manner of a free State so that every particular Christian Community is the primary subject of it is not so easily granted though I conceive it as many other worthy and excellent men do to be truth delivered unto us by Christ and his Apostles Yet let this be agreed upon yet there is another difference concerning the bounds and extent of this Church This is not the proper place I confess to handle this particular For extent presupposeth a Church constituted and in being and it 's an accident of the same therefore pars subdita which is the second integral part as of a State so of a Church should first have been spoken of In this point I find a threefold difference for some extend this Church which is the primary subject of the power of the Keys very far and make it to be the universal Church of all Nations Others confine it to be a single Congregation A third party will admit of a Diocess or a Province or a Nation and be contented to stay there This Question if we understand it presupposeth Union and Communion There is an Union and also a Communion in Profession and Worship an Union Mystical an Union in Government external which we call Discipline An Union in Profession and Worship there is and ought to be of all Orthodox Christians in the World. For they all profess the same Faith and worship the same God in Christ hear the same Word celebrate the same Sacraments It 's true they do not neither can they so meet in one place as to partake of the same individual Ordinances for there is no necessity of any such thing Yet whosoever shall refuse to joyn in the same individual Worship of the same God in Christ according to the Gospel when it may be done as when one converseth with Christians in some remote parts he cannot be free from Schism For all refusal of Communion with Christ's Saints and Servants without just and sufficient cause is a Schism So if any party or persons shal not admit of other Christians only upon this account because they agree not with them in some accidentals which are neither necessary nor in themselves considered conducing to Salvation they must needs be Schismaticks For any Separation which hath not sufficient and evident warrant from some Divine Precept is unlawful There is a mystical Union of all true Believers for there is one body one spirit one hope of calling one Lord one faith one baptism one God and Father of all who is above all through all in all Ephes. 4.4 5 6. There is an Union for Government external of this the question is to be understood And this Union is so necessary in every Common-wealth whether Civil or Ecclesiastical that it 's no Common-wealth if it be not one and so one that every particular person especially in a Church be subject to one and the same supream independent Judicatory Concerning the universal Extent there are as you heard before two Opinions They first make one Church the Church of Rome to have power over all other Churches and invests the Bishop of that Church with an universal power of Legislation and Jurisdiction this is a Popish Errour indeed The second Opinion subjects all particular Churches to the universal whereof they are but parts this is no Popery nor do the present Popes and Church of Rome like it This universal Church cannot act but by a general Representative and such a general Representative there yet never was since the Church was enlarged from Sea to Sea and from the River unto the World's end Such a general Council and Court either standing or occasional few I think do expect As for the Councils of Nice Chalcedon Ephesus Constantinople they were no such Councils nor general in proper sence they were confined within the Roman Empire and if well examined they left out several parts of that too The meaning therefore of some who submit particular Churches to the universal is this That so many several parts and particular Churches as can combine in one Synod may in some extraordinary cases and difficulties especially if they be of general concernment submit unto such a Synod as being of greater authority and ability if rightly constituted Yet if these particular Churches have their proper independent Judicatories this submission is but a voluntary act and rather like a Reference or Transaction than any Appeal When and in what cases such References are fit to be made I will not here enquire Besides these Universalists if we
represented to us either immediately by examination of their knowledge and knowledge of their practise either from our own sight or their expressions mediately by the testimony of others who are judged by us to be credible By this the grosly ignorant and such as trade and constantly live in sin and are obstinate and refuse to be reformed are excluded To these must be added such as are grosly erroneous and blasphemers and such as deny plain and saving truth with divers others For all these may have sufficient knowledge and for their lives may be blameless and for their outward carriage eminently just honest holy But that which makes the Question difficult is the difference between such as never were born in the Church nor baptized nor admitted for Christians and those who have been either born in the Church baptized lived and continued Christians by profession or such as upon their profession and promise when they were at age were baptized and admitted Shall their Birth give them right to Baptism and their Baptism right to Membership and the gross ignorance of them born in the Church and baptized make them no Members or deprive them of their native and baptismal Right Or shall it not But suppose they have some knowledge of Christ and the principles of Christianity and yet be Idolaters Covetous Drunkards Railers Incestuous Persons for one that is called a Brother and a real Member of a particular Church may be such as is evident from 1 Cor. 5.11 12. Besides such a Brother may deny to hear the Church as is implied Mat. 18.17 Yet these may own their Baptism profess their Faith in Christ and utterly renounce all other Religions The Question therefore is Whether these and such like are not Members of a Church Christian If they be not how can the Church censure judge them and cast them out Yet such owning their Baptism and the Faith whereinto they were baptized may be censured and if they will not hear the Church may be cast out These are neither Pagans nor Mahumetans nor unbelieving Jews they will abhor them God will judge them as Christians as being baptized as having heard the Gospel as owning Christ and professing their hope to be saved by him though he will say unto them Depart from me ye workers of iniquity These if cast forth do not cease to be Brethren till they renounce Christianity These associate with Christians frequent Christian Assemblies for Divine Worship and usually are under the Ministry and if there be any External Government by their very Baptism owned are Subjects to the Power of the Keys Many as bad as these and some worse were in the Church of the Jews and yet not Loammi but reckoned amongst the people of God till God took away both his Word and Spirit from them The Nicolaitans and the Disciples of Jezabel were as bad as these yet they were Members of the Churches where they lived how else could they be cast out as Christ commands The Valentinians and many of the Gnosticks were worse than these and yet many of them were in and of some Christian Church visible These must be either without or within except we can find a third place for them as they of the Church of Rome have invented Purgatory for such as were not good enough for Heaven or bad enough for Hell. They as I conceive do far better who inclose them within the pale of the visible Church and seek to reform them then they who place them in the outward Court and leave them amongst the Gentiles It were but reasonable that they who are so pure and strict in their new invented way would declare in proper terms their minimum quod sic and make the same evident out of the Scriptures But this they have not done they seem to us whatsoever they are amongst themselves to be Scepticks section 4 As there is a Controversie about Qualification so there is about Separation Separation presupposeth Union and Communion Ecclesiastical For as in Nature there can be no Separation but of things some ways joyned and united so it is in Government both Civil and Ecclesiastical For there cannot in proper sense be any Separation from the Church but of such as have been in a Church Members of a Christian Community or Subjects of an Ecclesiastical visible Polity This Communion is either with the whole as the party governing or with the Members amongst themselves as fellow-subjects if a Discipline be setled and it is in Doctrine and Profession or in Worship or in Discipline or in some of these or all But the Communion with the Church in general and with God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son is of an higher kind Communion presupposeth this Separation is either passive or active and voluntary Passive is when any is separated either justly or unjustly from a Christian Society and this may be negative or positive Negative is a non-admission after they had been formerly admitted and this may be done upon sufficient reason or without any just and sufficient cause Positive is a plain ejection of such as are in the Church Separation active is that which is voluntary and as the former so this may be just or unjust and may admit of several degrees according as the Union and Communion is For some separation may be total some partial and of partial some may be greater some less The reason why I take occasion to speak of this subject is because these are times of separation and it were good to know what may be justly done what not either in seperating others by non-admission or ejection or in separating our selves And this is a certain rule that all Union and Communion instituted commanded or approved of God ought to be observed and whosoever shall violate this must needs be guilty there can be no just or sufficient cause to do so The Church of England was formerly a true Protestant and Reformed Church and had the same publick Doctrine the same Form of publick Worship the same publick Discipline Yet because the first Reformation was judged imperfect and many Abuses and Corruptions entered in afterward which did alter it for the worst therefore a further and a new Reformation was thought to be at least expedient if not necessary That the first Reformation in respect of Discipline was imperfect is evident first from the book of Common-Prayer in the Rubrick of the Communion which plainly implies that the ancient Discipline was not and it seems could not at that time be restored and till the restoring of it the Commination must be used Yet it was never restored neither did any seem to seek it Again the imperfection thereof appears by that Book made by the Commissioners in the latter end of the Reign of Edward the Sixth which is called Reformatio legum Ecclesiasticarum Yet that though imperfect was never established nor by the Bishops put in practice The latter Abuses Innovasions Superstitions brought in by the Bishops and
which should be united Some desire to propagate their own Opinions though false unprofitable blasphemous and their design is to draw Disciples after them These prevail the more because they find the minds of many so ready to receive any impression For some have itching ears and every new and strange opinion doth affect and much take with them Few are well grounded in the principles of Christian saving truth so as to have a distinct methodical knowledge of them with an upright humble heart disposed to practise what they know for a distinct knowledge of Fundamentals with a sincere desire and intention to practise and live accordingly are excellent means to avoid Errors for such God will guide in his truth some aim at an higher perfection than this life can reach and boasting of their high attainments insolently censure others or look upon them with scorn and contempt as far below them Some design to make Men Scepticks in all matters of Religion that then their minds being like Matter ready to receive any form they may more easily imprint upon them what they please yet in the issue many of them prove Atheists and enemies to all Religion The grand Politicians and chief Agents who do least appear animate the Design take all advantages watch all opportunities single out the fittest persons and make men even of contrary Judgments and of a temper quite different from themselves instrumental and efficient to their own Ruine yet I hope that God in the end will not only discover but disappoint them All these bandy together and do conspire to destroy the Protestant English interest and it 's a sad thing that Orthodox Christians take little notice of these things but fearfully wrangle about matters of less moment to the great prejudice of the necessaries and substantials of Religion section 5 All this is come upon us for our neglect and abuse of a long continued Peace and the light of the Gospel shining so gloriously amongst us We are guilty but God is just and also merciful and wonderfully wise For he is trying of us to purge away the Tin and dross and he expects that we should search more accurately pray more fervently and more humbly depend upon him whose wisdom is such as that he can and will bring light out of darkness good out of evil and a far more excellent Order out of our confusions The prayers of the upright for this end are made and heard in heaven already and what we desire in due time shall be effected For he will comfort Sion he will comfort all her waste places and he will make her Wilderness like Eden and her Desart like the Garden of the Lord. This indeed is a work to which man contributes little hinders much retards long that Gods hand and Wisdom may the more appear and that he may have the glory In the mean time Christ takes care of the universal Church and the parts thereof converting some confirming others and directing all true believers to eternal Glory and though a storm be raised and the same very terrible yet it 's nothing but we may be confident when we consider the skill and miraculous power of our Heavenly Pilot. section 6 My intention is not to instruct the learned who are more fit to be my Masters yet to these endued with far more excellent gifts I would give occasion and also make a motion to exercise their improved parts and learning in this Subject and do this poor distracted Church of ours a part of the universal some far more glorious service God may make me though very unworthy an instrument of his Wisdom to inform the ignorant and remove their Errors and correct their mistakes It may also through God's Blessing contribute something unto Peace by uniting well affected minds I am enemy to no man yet professedly bent against errors and that not only in others but also in my self if once I know them I am not pre-engaged to any Party but a servant unto truth and devoted unto Peace I wish I may not be prejudicate or partial or precipitate as many do who contend to maintain a Party or a Faction but do not care to search out the truth these do not close up but open the breaches amongst us and make them wider and leave others unsatisfied Our differences be so many and so great that we seem to be uncapable of any Peace yet God can do wonders and we may trust in him who in his time will give us Peace if not on Earth yet certainly in Heaven the place of our Eternal Rest. CHAP. II. Of Government in general and of a Community Civil CHurch-Government presupposeth the Rules of Government in general therefore he that will know the latter must understand the former For he that is ignorant of Government must needs be ignorant of Church-Government and this is the very case of many in our days and this is one cause of many differences amongst us at this time to give some light in this particular I will say something of Government in General the Government of God whereby he more immediately orders man to his final and immortal estate I have according to my poor ability declared in my Theopolitica or Divine Politicks therefore I will confine my discourse to the Government of man by man or rather the Government of God by men set over men For God communicates some measure of his Power to mortal men and such as are entrusted with it become his Vicegerents and bear his name according to that of the Psalmist I have said ye are Gods Psal. 82.6 My design in this Treatise is not to deliver an exact Systeme of Politicks yet I will make use of those rules I find in political writers of better rank but with a reservation of a liberty to my self to vary from them as I shall see just cause To pass by the distinction of Government Monastical and Oeconomical I will pitch upon that which is Political The subject whereof is a Community and Society larger than that of a Family and may be sufficient to receive the form of a Common-wealth section 2 To this end we must observe what Politica which some call the rule of Government of a Politie is 2. What a Politie or Common-wealth 3. What the parts of Politica be Politica or Politicks is the act of well ordering a Common-wealth A Common-wealth is the order of Superiority and Subjection in a Community for the Publick Good. Of Politicks there be two parts the constitution administation of a Common-wealth These Rules are the foundation of the following Discourse and inform us that Politica is an act that is a rule of Divine Wisdom to direct some operations of the Creature for so I understand it here 2. That the Object of this rule is a Common-wealth 3. That the proper act is to direct how to order a Common-wealth aright so that it may attain its proper end 4. That the subject
Man or Angel or any company yet man cannot Man solitary is very imperfect and like a Body which wants some necessary parts God knows this full well therefore he so orders Multitudes of Vicinities that he inclines them by their very constitution to Society for by it they are not only stronger and more able to defend themselves and provide for their safety but also they are better supplyed with necessaries and commodities what one hath not another hath what one cannot do another can what few are not able to effect many may and all much more But that whereby God is the immediate cause of Society is voluntary consent to which he inclines their hearts when he hath once multiplied them and cast them together This consent whether tacit or express is grounded upon Love and good Affection with an intention to do good and just things one for another according to the work of the eternal Law written in their hearts The accidental original is when by divine Providence many from several Countries are cast together in one Place or part of the Earth and that upon several occasions or for several causes these in time grow familiar and acquainted one with another and for mutual Help Safety Benefit cement into one Body and according to the dictate of natural Reason join in one common Interest this some say was the original of the State of Venice at the first Thus the several distinct Communities upon the division of Languages at Babel had their beginning Thus one part of a Community seeking some new place for their habitation becomes a distinct Community of themselves section 7 The Third thing to be considered is who are Members of a Community To say nothing of Municipal Societies Colonies Plantations Provinces Titular Members who are only Cives honorarii this is a general Rule that after a form of Government once introduced whosoever are Subjects are Cives Members of that Community and continue such though the form of Government be altered or dissolved For there are degrees of them for some are virtualiter diminutè some formaliter plenè some eminenter Cives Members of a Community that is they are either imperfectly or perfectly such The lowest rank is of such as are not sui juris sed sub potestate alienâ free and in their own Power To this form are reduced Women Children Servants Strangers whether sojourning or inhabiting out of their own Common-wealth some kind of Tenants or Vassals do so much depend upon others that they are not competent Members all these are virtually included in others upon whom they depend Formally and fully Members are all such as being Males of full Age Free Independant have the use of Reason and some competent Estate such Freeholders seem to be with us These become such by Birth Election Manumission Or they are Natural Naturalized Being once such they have Jus suffragii in publicis as our Freeholders have a Vote in chusing their Knights for the Parliament and they virtually give their suffrage in that Assembly by their Representatives Eminenter Cives are such who by reason of their Descent Estates Parts Noble Acts are not once Members but somewhat more as being fit for Honour Offices and Places of Power if once a Common-wealth be constructed section 8 There be amongst others three inseparable adjuncts of a Community as a Community Propriety of Goods Liberty of Persons Equality of the Members Propriety there must needs be and the same Absolute and Independent the reason hereof is because what a Man hath justly acquired is his own by the Law of Nature which a Community doth not take away and further there is no dominium eminens as in a Common-wealth there must necessarily be Liberty of Persons there is because every compleat Member is sui juris and no ways bound by the Rules of a Civil supream Power and this is more than can be in a State once constituted wherein this Liberty is bounded by Allegiance and Laws there is Equality for there is no Superiour or Inferiour in respect of Government because there is no Government no Sovereign no Subject all are fellows Et socii quatenus socii sunt aequales inequality of Superiour and Inferiour Civil ariseth from a form of Government which is sometimes Despotical that it is destructive both of Liberty and Propriety This inequality is consistent with an imparity of Birth Parts Estate for Age for this is from Nature or Providence these Civil Societies may be less or greater both in respect of the number of Persons and extent of Place Neither can the certain number of Persons nor the particular bounds of Place be well determined If it be be too large it cannot so well unite if too little it 's insufficient to protect or provide for it self and so falls under the protection of others section 9 This Community Civil considered abstractively and antecedently to a form of Government not yet introduced or upon a dissolution of a former model or upon a failure of Succession in a time doth virtually contain a Supreme Power and hath a Liberty and Right to determine upon what Form they please so that it be good though it 's true that this Power may be taken from them by a Potent Invader or some other way and here it is to be noted that when a Form of Government is altered or dissolved any Community may remain nay under a Government it retains the nature of a Community as the matter and subject of the Common-wealth wherein every Subject must be considered first as Civis a Member of the Community before he can be conceived as subditus a Member of the Common-wealth This stricter Association of a Multitude to make a particular Community doth no way hinder their Society or Communion with other Communities or with all Mankind upon the Earth so far as is possible in things which may add unto their Happiness CHAP. III. Of an Ecclesiastical Community section 1 HItherto of a Community in general and of a Community Civil that which we call Ecclesiastical follows this in opposition to that which we call Temporal and Civil is Spiritual and is such in respect of Religion for as there are matters of this life which concern us as mortals with relation one unto another so there are matters of God spiritual divine and of a far higher allay there is no Nation or People though rude and barbarous but profess some Religion by the observation whereof they acknowledge their dependance upon a superiour Power and Providence far above that of mortal man yet many contrary to the very light of Nature either worshipped that which was not truly God or with the true God a false Deity or the true God alone without any certain rule and direction from Heaven after the invention of men or the suggestion of the Devil of these there have been many Communities which I will no further mention for these were never called Churches or
Dignity or Honour without any Power The nature of it consists in Power which hath several branches concerning which he relates the Opinion and Judgment of the Philosopher of Historians of the writers of Politicks of Lawyers and in the end delivers his own mind and reduced them to certain Heads in this manner Iura majestatis sunt Majora Defensionis Gubernationis in Minora de aerario colligendo Legibus condendis Magistratibus constituendis The first division is taken from the inequality of these Prerogatives and Rights The second he seems to ground upon these words That our King may judge us and go out before us and fight our Battels 1 Sam. 8.20 Where to Judge seems to signifie to Govern by Law and Officers to go out before us and fight our Battels presupposeth in his Judgment the power of the Militia To these he adds other two concerning the ordering of Religion and Coining of Money Under these general Heads he reduceth many other particulars and so proceeds to handle 1. the greater 2. The less Prerogatives severally and that largely This with the salving of some doubts and confuting some Errours is the Scheme and substance of the whole Treatise divided into three several Books section 8 Leaving every one to his own method I will with submission to better Judgment make bold to deliver my own Majestas est Realis quae potest rempublicam Constituere abolere mutare reformare Personalis quae agit cum exteris De Bello Pace Per Foedera Legationes suis circa divina religionem ordinando humanae leges ferendo exequendo This though not exact may serve the turn and in some measure declare the several branches of this great Power which in it self is but one yet hath many acts and the same different in respect of several and different Objects and Subjects I only mention the chief Heads to which the rest may be reduced for the better and more distinct understanding of it I will more particularly explain my self 1. Therefore Majesty is Reall Personal Real is in the Community and is greater than Personal which is the power of a Common-wealth already constituted For as you have heard before this form of a Common-wealth is virtually in it before it be constituted and their consent is the very foundation of it And this consent whether mediate or immediate tacit or express is so necessary that though a people be conquered yet the Victor cannot govern them as men without their consent Nay more when God designed immediately first Saul then David yet the election and consent of the people did concur with and follow upon the Divine Designation As this Real Majesty is a Power to model a State so it s always inherent and can never be separated insomuch that when a form of Government is dissolved or there shall be a failer of Succession the Power of the Soveraign doth divolve unto them by the law of nature or rather it was always in the people As this Community hath the power of constitution so it hath of dissolution when there shall be a just and necessary cause Hence appears the mistake of Junius Brutus Buchanon Heno and others when they say Ejus est destituere Cujus est constituere if they meant it of the multitude and body of the Subjects as Subjects under a form of Government it can only be true of a Community where they have just and necessary cause Subjects as Subjects cannot do it because of their Subjection and Obligation whereas the Community as a Community is free from any Obligation to any particular Form either from the Laws of God Natural or Positive or from their own Consent or Oaths And though the People in this consideration are bound both by the Natural and Positive Laws of God to constitute a Government if they can yet they are not bound to this Form or that Another Act of this Majesty in the Community is when they see it necessary and just and they have not only Power but Opportunity to do it to alter the Form of the Government this Act as with us is above the Power of a Parliament which may have Personal yet cannot have this Real Majesty For a Parliament doth necessarily presuppose a Form of Government already agreed upon whereby they are made the Subject of Personal Soveraignity Therefore they cannot alter or take away the cause whereby they have their being nor can they meddle with the fundamental Laws of the Constitution which if it once cease they cease to be a Parliament If the Government be dissolved and the Community yet remains united the People may make use of such an Assembly as a Parliament to alter the former Government and constitute a new but this they cannot do as a Parliament but considered under another Notion as an immediate Representative of a Community not of a Common-wealth And thus considered the Assembly may constitute a Government which as a Parliament cannot do which always presupposing the Constitution as such can act only in and for the administration That Community is wise which doth and happy which can keep their Majesty so due unto them as to limit their personal Soveraigns so as not to suffer them to take it from them and assume it to themselves section 9 As there is a real so there is a personal Majesty so called because it 's fixed in some Persons who are trusted with the exercise of it and may and many times do forfeit to God and in some cases forfeit to the Community or the People for when it is said it may be forfeited to the People we must understand that the People is not Plebs the meanest and the lowest rank and but a part of the Community but the whole Community it self as a Community otherwise we may lay the Foundation of all kinds of Tumults Confusions Seditions and Rebellions The Person or Persons trusted with the Majesty and Power are bound to seek the good of the whole People and for that end they are trusted with it and no otherwise Hence the saying Suprema lex salus populi esto The Acts of this Power which it hath a right to exercise are many and that in respect of those without or those within the Common-wealth For agit cum exteris it dealeth and acteth with those without This is not the first but rather the last kind of acting It ariseth from the relation which it hath to other States with which it may have some society though it hath no dependance upon it The Rules of this Acting as it respects themselves and the States with whom they deal are the Laws of Nations Yet the particular Laws of every several State may determine the Rules according to which it will act with or against another State. Because one State may wrong or benefit or strengthen and help another hence it comes to pass that sometimes there is a cause of War. For when by Ambassadours or other
upon them spiritual power 5. But the greatest Usurper is the Pope who usurpeth a power both intensively and extensively far greater than is due section 5 As the Power may be acquired so it may be lost For 1. When a Church is so far decayed as not to be able to exercise an independant jurisdiction or order as their association so their power is so much abated 2. When a Church doth wholly cease to be a Church then their power is wholly lost Yet when it 's hindred either by the Magistrate or by schisms and rents in it self so that it cannot exercise it yet it 's vertually in them And many times such is the neglect of Christians that they will not associate nor reduce themselves into Order when they might do it this is a great sin 3. When Representatives turn into a faction and betray their trust they lose their power as Representatives 4. All Officers are divested when for some just cause they are deposed or degraded but this belongs not to this part CHAP. VIII Of the disposition of Power Civil and the several forms of Government section 1 AFter the acquisition both of Civil and Ecclesiastical power follows the disposition of both which will take up a great part of this first Book And 1. Of the manner of disposing Civil Power This Disposition seems to be the same with acquisition because it cannot be acquired but by a certain subject neither can it be said properly to be actually acquired but at the very same time and by this very Act it 's placed in that subject Yet because Power Civil may be so communicated and acquired that it may be disposed of several ways and from these several ways of disposing arise several distinctions and differences of Common-Wealths I thought good to make Disposition a distinct thing from Acquisition and so handle it for the better understanding of this particular I will 1. premise some general Observations 2. Briefly declare the several ways of disposing Majesty and the several forms of Governments 3. Inquire into the Constitution of the Common-Wealth of England 4. Deliver some things concerning our condition in these late times section 2 The Observations are these The 1. which belongs unto that of Acquisition is That no power can be fully acquired till it be accepted of as well as communicated For no man can be bound to be a Sovereign against his will. 2. That Majesty is then disposed when it is placed and ordered in a certain constant subject which thereby may be enabled and bound to protect and govern 3. That to be disposed in this or that subject in this or that manner is accidental to Majesty though to be disposed is essential to a Common-Wealth 4. From the different ways of disposing this Power arise the different kinds as they call them of Common-Wealths For from the placing of it in one or more arise Monarchical Aristocratical and popular States 5. Majesty being the same in general in all States it may be disposed several ways and in several degrees in one or more Hence arise the difference of one Monarchy from another one Aristocracy from another one popular State from another 6. Though it may be a Question whether the disposing of Power in one or more can make a specifical difference yet Monarchy and Polyarchy are taken for different species of Common-Wealths essentially different Majestas disponitur pure in uno despotice hinc imperium section 3 Despoticum Regale monarchicum section 3 Despoticum Regale regaliter pluribus optimatibus hinc Aristocratia Democratia plebe hinc Aristocratia Democratia miste in pluribus hinc Status popularis omnibus hinc Status popularis The knowledge of this Scheme depends upon the difference and distinction of the parts and members of a Community For besides those which are but vertually members there are such as are sui juris independant upon others and these are divided into three Ranks As 1. Such as are only free 2. Such as are of the Nobility 3. Some that are super-eminent The two former are called in Latin Plebs optimates And amongst these optimates there may be very great difference as we find a Pompey or a Caesar amongst the Romans a Duke of Briganza amongst the Portugals who inherited a vast Estate in Lands These are called the Tres ordines the three States or Ranks of the whole Body of the People with us King Peers and Commons The super-eminent are few the Peers more in number yet not very many the Commons are the greatest multitude by far and make up the main body of the Society Yet with us of these there be several degrees and subdivisions Amongst the Commons we find the Freeholders and the Gentry and a great disparity in both Amongst the Peers there is a difference 1. In respect of the manner of acquiring of this Dignity and so some of them are such by ancient tenure amounting to so many Knights-fees some by Writ some by Patent These are called in Latin Barones Feudatarii rescriptitii diplomatici There is another distinction with us of Lords for some are Temporal some Spiritual The highest of these amongst us are those of Royal Extraction In France the Princes of the Blood. In some Countries as in Denmark and some say in Poland there be Peers and Lords which hold in Allodio and these are independant upon the King in divers respects such also the Princes of Germany be for the most part And in those States where such are found the Government usually is Aristocratical These Kings Dukes and Monarchs became such at first either for the antiquity of their Family and their greate Estates or for their super-eminent wisdom and vertue or for their rare exploits in War or Peace For such as are Generals and great Commanders in wars prudent and successful much beloved by Souldiers may do much dethrone Princes set up themselves and if it will not be fairly given they will forcibly take the Crown and sometimes they may deserve it and prove the fittest to wear it These are the three Ranks and Orders of the People section 4 These being known well will give some light to that which follows concerning the disposing of Majesty whether real or personal though all Majesty actually ruling must be in some sense personal First this super-eminent power may be placed Purely in one Purely in more in one and then that the State is called a Monarchy Yet it may be disposed in more than one several ways 1. More absolutely 2. More strictly limitted An absolute Monarch whether Elective or Hereditary is such as hath a full power over his subjects goods and persons as his own so that the people have neither propriety in their goods nor liberty of their persons They are but his servants and little better than slaves such Pharaoh's Subjects when Joseph had purchased their stocks their Lands their persons for the Crown seem to have been This Government is absolutum dominium and
of the same and Scotland vanquished In all our sad divisions which happened from first to last and are not wholly yet ended to this day Two things are worthy the serious consideration of wiser men than I am 1. What party for time past hath been most faithful to the English interest 2. What course is to be taken for to setle us more firmly for time to come For the first we must understand what the English interest is The interest of England is twofold Civil and Ecclesiastical for we are English men and Christians The Civil interest is salus populi Anglicani there is no doubt of that for the peace safety liberty happiness of our dear Country is the end whereat we are all bound both by the written and natural Laws of God to aim The interest Ecclesiastical is the Protestant Religion and the perservation of the substance thereof Prelacy Presbytery Independency much less Antipaedobaptism and other Sects are not essential but accidental to it This being the interest of England we cannot judge of the faithfulness either of the King 's or Parliaments party by the quality of the persons of either side For there were both good and bad on both sides who had their several grounds of adhering to this or that party and their several ends and neither their grounds nor ends good Nor can any man justifie all proceedings and actings of either side both had their errours Nor must we judge of them according to their protestation for both could not by such contrary means attain the same end as both sides protested to maintain the King the Parliament the liberty of the Subject the Laws and the Protestant Religion Neither in this particular must the Laws of the English Constitution and Administration be the rule for both acted not only above the Laws but contrary to the latter of them at least For no Laws could warrant the Parliament to act without the King or the King without the Parliament much less was it justifiable that there should be in one Kingdom two not only different but contrary commands supreme and from different heads and persons This was directly against the very nature of all Common-Wealths which have only one first mover and one indivisible supreme power to animate and act them section 19 The Rule therefore must be the Laws of God as above the Laws of Men and we must consider according to these divine Rules what was the state of the Controversie the justice and equity of the cause made evident and the just necessity of doing that which was done Neither must we look at the cause only as just in it self but also how it 's justly or unjustly maintained For men may use such means as shall never reach the just end intended but also such as may be destructive of the cause it self and raze the very foundation of it Besides all this before a perfect judgment can be made the secret counsels contrivances designs hidden actings of the chief Actors should be known yet these many times lie hid and are not known or if known yet to very few and some of these few cannot found the bottom Many things are charged upon the King as acting against the English interest as Civil as that he dissolves Parliaments without just and sufficient cause that he intermits Parliaments for sixteen years together that having signed the Petition of Right he acts contrary to it imposeth Ship-money calls a Parliament signs the Act of Continuance deserts it calls the Members from it calls another Parliament at Oxford challengeth a negative Voice to both the Houses raiseth a War against it though he was informed that this tended to the dissolution of the Government that whosoever should serve to assist him in such Wars are Traitors by the fundamental Laws of this Kingdom and have been so adjudged in two Acts of Parliament 11 Richard 2. and 1 Henry 4. And that such persons ought to suffer as Traitors These with other particulars charged upon him seem directly contrary unto the civil Interest of the Kingdom Again to Marry a Popish Lady upon Articles directly contrary to the Laws of England and the Protestant Religion established by Law to entertain Twenty eight Popish Priests with a Bishop to tolerate Mass in the Court to receive Three Agents from the Pope one after another Pisano Con Rosetti to maintain the Queen-mother to engage the generality of the People of England to retard the relieving of Ireland to admit divers of the Popish Irish Murtherers and Rebels into his Army to call our English Forces sent to relieve the poor distressed Protestants of Ireland out of that Nation and employ them against the Parliament of England to suffer some of the Heads of the Irish Rebels to be so near his Person to endeavour to bring in the Duke of Lorrain with his Forces into this Nation to contract with the Irish Rebels upon condition to enjoy their Religion to furnish him with Ten thousand Irish Rebels to strengthen his party in England with divers other acts like unto these is conceived to be not only inconsistent with but plainly destructive of the English Protestant Interest And if this be true it must needs be so Yet it might be said that the King endeavoured to maintain his own regal Power the Episcopacy and Liturgy established by Law and that he did not oppose the Parliament but a seditious party in the Parliament and other Sectaries whose principles were destructive both of all civil and also Ecclesiastical Government and without the judgment of able Lawyers and learned Divines he did not undertake the War either against Scotland or England or any other It 's true that of those who adhered to the King and liked not the Parliaments proceeding there were some consciencious persons who judged the King an absolute Monarch and did not like many things done by that party yet they thought it the Duty of Subjects to suffer and that it was no ways lawful to resist But the Casuists say That Ignorantia excusat a tanto non a toto their Ignorance might make their Crime less yet no ways free them from all Guilt It was not Invincible they might easily have known that the King of Enland was no absolute Monarch seeing he could not impose any Subsidy upon the Subject nor make or repeal a Law without the Parliament neither could he by his Letters or personal Command revoke the Judgment of any Court. And though they might be Civilians or read Foreign Writers which take our Kings for absolute Sovereigns yet no ancient Lawyers no Parliaments did declare them to be such Nay they might have known that they themselves obeying the King 's personal Commands disobeyed him as King and that serving him in the Wars they were guilty of High Treason against the Kingdom and against the King's Crown and Dignity Of these Royalists some have been high and cruel against their Brethren the Parliamenteers and have censured them
let us keep communion and heartily serve our God humbly imploring his Divine Majesty in the name of Christ to open our eyes and sanctifie our hearts that at length we may be united in the same Judgement and Affection and with one Mind and with one Mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. section 8 After the consideration of a Congregational extent as too narrow and of an Universal as too large I proceed to say something of a National extent as a man between The Congregationalist will censure it as too great by far the Universalist as too little by much Yet I shall willingly as in other things refer my self to the Judgement of Moderate Pious Judicious Impartial Men Let them condemn me or acquit me as they shall see just cause First it must be remembred that the subject of this whole Treatise is the Government of men by men under God and Jesus Christ our Blessed Saviour Of Gods more immediate Government I have spoken in my Divine Politicks where I shew it 's Monarchical Supream Universal and cannot be bounded to any part of the whole Universe For he being immense and not only virtually but actually present in all places at all times is only fit to govern all Nations and the whole World as the Universal Soveraign but this is far above the power not only of Men but of Angels Therefore whatsoever he doth in Heaven we know that when through his blessing mankind was multipled and especially after the Flood and had replenished the Earth they were divided into several Societies and were subject to several independent Tribunals We never find them under one neither do we in his word or works read of a Catholick King over all Nations nor of an Universal Bishop over all Churches Howsoever some have pretended such a Title yet they could never shew their Patent subscribed by the Hand of Heaven But suppose they could have acquired the possession of the whole earth which never any did yet no one Man no one Council no one Consistory had been able sufficiently to manage so vast a power and in any tolerable manner to govern all mankind at one time living upon Earth It seemed good indeed to our wise God both in former and latter times to enlarge the power of some States and especially that of the Romans Yet that very Empire of so large extent took in but a little part of the whole Earth and this appears plainly now since by Navigation some of the remote parts of the Globe and both the Hemispheres thereof have been discovered Yet in the greatest extent it was thought by some of their wisest Princes the best Policy Cogere terminos Imperii to limit and bound it because they thought the body of too big a bulk to be well ordered either by Prince or Senate or People or by all together But to return to the matter in hand the Question is Whether a national Community of Christians may not lawfully be subjected to one supream Judicatory Ecclesiastical To understand the Question the better it 's to be observed 1. That a Community of Christians may be said to be national several ways or in several respects as 1. When all the Christians of one and the same Nation do associate and unite in one body 2. When these Christians are the major part of the people 3. When the whole Nation or the generality thereof have received and do profess the same Christian Faith. I will here suppose the major part or generality to be Christians and the association and incorporation to be made by a tacit or explicit consent which sometimes may be confirmed by the Laws of the Supream Power Yet this generality may be so understood as that there may in the same Nation be found Turks or Mahumetans Pagans Atheists Jewes which cannot be of this body and that also there may be some Schisms and Separatitions amongst such as profess themselves Christians and sometimes they may be none This in my sense is a national Community of Christians and a Church-confident before any form of external Discipline be introduced 2. When I speak of subjection I do not say that they are always in all Nations bound by any Divine Precept to be so but that they may and that lawfully according unto the Scriptures 3. I understand that this subjection so as that every several member be subject not to one man or one party but to the whole and that either properly taken or virtually for a Representative of the whole which shall have power in the name of the whole body to make Canons and in Judgement to receive last Appeals 4. I understand the Question of Nations indefinitely taken for if any be of so vast extent as that one independent Court may be either insufficient or inconvenient I rather exclude then include such For suppose all Tartary should be counted one Nation or all Chinae I conceive they are too large 5. I mention only a national Community for if that be granted the Classical and Provincial must needs come in The Congregational party I know holds the Negative And here upon the by I will take the liberty for to answer Mr. Parker's seventh argument for his Congregational way It 's taken from Politicks and to this purpose That as little States are more easily and better governed then great ones so is a Congregational Church which is but of a narrow compass than a Classical Diocesan or Provincial or National which is far greater Answ. Though less Communities may be better governed than one too great yet a great one of moderate extent may be better governed and defended than one that is too little For Gods one peculiar People and Nation which was first under Judges then under Kings was subject to one Supream Tribunal for a long time above five hundred Years and afterwards it was divided into two Yet it was better governed under one than under two when subject to one individual Tribunal than when to two but of this more hereafter section 9 For the confirmation of this we must note 1. That there is no Divine Precept in the New Testament which particularly determines either the extent of place or number of persons to which a particular independent Church is confined we do not find their either the minimum or maximum quod sic Therefore some Latitude must needs be granted 2. That the History of the New Testament doth not reach those times wherein it pleased God to fulfil those Prophesies which promised That Kings should become Nursing-fathers and Queens Nursing-mothers of the Church and she should suck the breasts of Kings who should come unto her light 2. When one should become a thousand and a small one a strong Nation I saith the Lord will hasten it in its time Where one saith he alludes to the Creation which he finished in six days hastening and could not rest and keep his Sabbath till all was ended and
to be Officers or at the best Representatives and not challenge to themselves alone the Original power of the Keys Let the People not be wronged or any ways deprived of that right which is theirs by the Rules of the Gospel 4. Let us make our Christian associations neither greater nor less than Christ allows us and which may be fittest for a good administration 5. Let 's not impose upon others any form or model of Church Government which is not agreeable to Christs Institution nor assert those things to be of Divine Authority which are not clearly grounded upon some Divine Precept 6. In things not necessary either to Salvation or the good of the Church or not plainly conducing to the edification thereof le ts grant a latitude And in such things though we may differ in judgment yet le ts agree in affection and in charity bear one with another till we be better informed 7. Let the Nation continue divided into Counties as it is and the Divisions of the Church be made accordingly or some other way if any better may be found out 8. Let the primary subject of the power of the Keys to be the whole and exercised by the best in every Precinct but let the highest causes and the most difficult cases with the Nomothetical part be reserved for the general Representative In all this the assistance of the State is to be implored and we must do nothing to the prejudice of their just power nor give them any causes of jealousies or suspitions 9. Some special care must be taken not only for the edification of the more knowing and professing Christians but also for the instruction of the ignorant and reformation of the prophane and scandalous and this latter is the more difficult work This cannot be done so well by Itinerants as by fit persons fixed in their several charges 10. The chief interest of the Nation as Christian is as you formerly heard the substance of the Protestant religion which consists not in Episcopacy or Presbytery or Independency nor meerly in a separation from the Church of Rome as corrupt and parted from the purity and simplicity of the Gospel for this is but negative but in certain positives of Doctrine Worship and Discipline clearly agreeable to the Gospel Neither need we go to lay a new Foundation but consider what the former Doctrine Worship and Discipline was and retain the best reject the superfluous rectifie that which was amiss and supply and perfect the defects When all this is done it were good that some forms of these established by Authority may be made publick yet so that all these may be plain and clear and consonant to the Gospel By doing thus we might testify to the world that we continue Protestants and reformed Christians and that our design was reformation and not confusion and abolition of saving truth amongst us The summ of this Discourse is Christ hath given the power of the Keys the Church to which it 's given is the primary subject and is bound to exercise it by her Officers and Representatives for the Churches good For as the Apostolical so this power was given for edification not destruction 2 Cor. 10.8 CHAP. XV. Of subjection in general and the subjects of a Civil State. section 1 IN the former part I have according to my poor ability declared 1. What the Act of Government is 2. That the subject of it being a Common-wealth both Civil and Ecclesiastical it hath two parts 1. The Constitution 2. The Administration of the same 3. That the matter of a Common-wealth is the Community and the Form and Order of Superiority and Subjection 4. That there are two integral parts of a Common-wealth 1. Pars imperans the Soverain 2. Pars subdita the Subject 5. What the power of a Soveraign is how it is acquired how disposed and that both in a Civil State and Church Now according to order comes in Pars subdita to be considered both in a Civil and an Ecclesiastical notion What a Subject in a Civil State is cannot be known in particular except we know the nature of subjection in general The word in Greek which signifies to be subject is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be subordinate For subjection presupposeth order not physical and local but moral of Superior and Inferiour That which makes a Superiour is power and power over another which is not invested with it in which respect he is inferiour in relation to him that hath power over him And so soon as God hath made one Superiour to another instantly the party inferiour is bound to subjection which is a thing due unto this Superiour God hath set him in a place under not above nor in the same rank and by this very placing of him he is made a subject by Divine Ordination And this is the first degree of subjection from which follows an obligation to active and voluntary submission And this obligation ariseth not only from this that the power over him is Gods not as he is Creatour meerly and the Author of Nature as Suarez doth express it nor only as he is a Supream Lord by Creation and Preservation committing some measure of his Power to man but also from this that he commandeth man to submit Actual subjection is an acknowledgment of this power in such a person and a voluntary submission This voluntary submission is a duty and that which God requires in the word honour in the fifth Commandment and the Apostle from God when he saith Let every soul be subject to the higher powers This submission is 1. A resigning up of their own understanding will and power unto the understanding will and power of his Superiour so far as God hath made him Superiour By this submission he becomes his Vassal and Servant and renounceth other Lords and Masters in that kind Upon this submission follows either an obligation to obey just commands or to suffer upon disobedience There are several kinds and also degrees of this objection there is a subjection of Children to Parents Servants to Masters Wives to Husbands Schollars to their Teachers Souldiers to their Commanders People unto their Soveraigns and of all unto God. And because he is Supream and we are wholly both in his power and under it alone therefore subjection in the highest degree and a total and an absolute resignation of our selves unto him and him alone is due And the truth is no submission or subjection is due to any other but all to him For when we submit to other higher and lower lawful powers we submit unto him in them who participate some portion of his power not of their own For there is no power but of God nay there is no power but which is Gods. This subjection is not meerly to be under the predominant force and strength but also under the directing Wisdom and the justly commanding will of another Thus far of subjection in general section 2 The subjection
is not bound to obey because he subjected himself according to the Laws of Wisdome and Justice Yet in such cases he being a subject as a Subject must be willing to suffer and not resist the power for though the power be just and we are bound to submit yet we are not bound to obey the unjust Laws of a just power The Apostles would not obey the unjust commands of their Rulers yet they did not resist their power but rather suffered though unjustly persecuted By this subjection the Subject is bound to maintain their higher Powers for the publick good and safety For this cause therefore saith the Apostle pay you Tribute also for they are Gods Ministers attending continually upon this thing Rom. 13.6 By this Subjection he is further bound to hazard not only his Estate but his Life and Person for the Soveraign and the State in a time of publick danger And all this must be done not for fear but Conscience sake For subjection is a duty required by the Moral Law of God and must be performed out of love and in obedience unto God and cannot be performed by any so fully as by a sincere Christian. And though we must pray for all men yet especially must we pray for them 1 Tim. 2.1 And in praying for them we pray for our selves and for our own peace Honour also is due from Subjects to their Soveraigns by reason of their eminent Dignity which ariseth from their power Contrary to these are dishonouring reviling or vilifying the Higher Power disobedience to their just Laws denying of Tribute and other dues refusing to hazzard Person or Estate for the Publick safety revolting and infidelity keeping Intelligence with Enemies open Rebellion and Resistance of their Power secret Treasons and Conspiracies against their Person or other ways directly or indirectly And the greatest Treason and Rebellion and Infidelity is that against the State it self and real Majesty the next is that against personal Majesty in the general Representative of the whole Community the next to that is that against the person or persons upon whose safety the Peace and Happiness of the People much depends And that which is against Government in general is far greater than that which is only against this or that form in particular Treason against Laws is more hainous than Treason against persons and Treason against the Fundamental Laws than Treason against Laws for Administration This Treason against the Fundamentals was charged upon the Earl of Strafford and the personal Commands of the King could no ways excuse him Yet it was not thought fit that the Judgment past upon him should be made a Precedent for Inferiour Courts because none but a Parliament could judge of and declare the Constitution and what was against it and what not section 4 And here I might take occasion to speak of Subjection unto Usurped Power and acting under it of the continuance of this Obligation unto Subjection and the dissolution of it of the Obligation of the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance the Protestation the Covenant and Engagement in respect of such as have taken them Of the Civil Wars of late how far they tended unto the Dissolution of the Government and how far they did actually dissolve it Whether the warlike resistance made by the Parliament against the King's Commissions and his party was Rebellion and whether there was any legal certain Power that could justly challenge Subjection or induce an obligation to it since the commencement of the War or whether the Power continued in the Parliament till the Members thereof were secluded whether the Act of Alteration was a sufficient ground of Obligation or whether any of the Alterations made since can be sufficient for that purpose But the distinct discussion hereof would require a great Volume which I intend not Neither if I should presume to deliver my judgment in these particulars is there any probable hope of giving satisfaction seeing so many men of Eminent Parts and Learning do so much differ in them I can and I shall pray that God would open our Eyes to see the Truth and unite our Hearts in Love one towards another 1. For Usurpation few do distinguish between the Usurpation and manner of Acquisition and the power itself For Power is Gods and is always just though it may be both acquired and exercised unjustly There are also several kinds oâ— Usurpation whereof some may be apparently unjust and some doubtful And there is scarcely any power now in the Kingdoms and States of this World but were Usurped either by the present Possessors or some of their Predecessors Neither can the tract of time make them lawful without some rational consent either tacit or express and something of Divine Providence besides For supream power personal cannot be usurped and possessed by any man without the Will of God not only permitting but acting and giving it too not that he approves mans sin or can do any thing unjust but for Reasons just and good known many times only to himself and not to us For God hath made use of Usurpers for to execute his judgements and to do as much Justice as many lawful Successors or Possessors and may bless them temporally for their good service and yet punish them for their Ambition and unjust manner of seeking Power By this he no ways doth warrant or encourage or give the least liberty to any one to usurpe power unlawfully We must in this point put a great difference between those Usurpations which are contrary to the Moral Laws of God and such as are only disagreeing with humane Institutions which many times may be unjust Suppose we desire to have an Usurper or Usurpers removed yet we must consider whether removal may not do a far greater mischief than our submission can possibly do When we do submit we must not so much look upon the unjust manner of acquiring the power as at the power itself which is from God and we must consider the necessity which Divine Providence hath brought us into seeing he gives us no power or opportunity to right our selves in respect of humane Titles or free our selves from such as we conceive Usurpers under whom he many times enjoys Protection Peace Justice and the Gospel It 's no Wisdom to be so ready and rash as to call every one Usurper which did not obtain his power according to the Fancies and Idea's of our own Brain and to deny all power when as they know that if there should not be power and in the hands of some and the same exercised too all would come to ruin and they themselves could not escape It may be observed that the greatest Usurpers themselves are readiest to charge those with Usurpation which have justly dispossessed them Yet for all this we must not justifie Usurpation that is truly and really Usurpation neither must we swallow Gudgeons comply with every party and sail with every wind as some are ready to do Yet
on the other hand we must not be too scrupulous and pretend Conscience and yet make our Fancy or some humane Constitutions our Rule and adhere unto them as though they were Divine Institutions For some whilst they refuse either to submit or act under a power in their conceit usurped they become guilty of more hainous Sin and when they presume they are faithful to some personal Majesty they prove unfaithful to Real and their own dear Country preferring the Interest of some Person or Family or persons before the good of the whole body of the people to whom they owe more than to any other And whosoever will not be faithful unto his own Country cannot be faithful to any form of Government or personal Governours Yet whosoever will handle this point accurately must first define what Usurpation in general is 2. How many kinds and differences of Usurpation there be and 3. What the particular Usurpation is against which he argues and 4. State the particular Case with all the Circumstances section 5 The continuance and dissolution of a Legal Power is also to be observed As for real Majesty it always continues whilest the Community remains a Community and subjection to this is due till it be destroyed Subjection to personal Majesty in a Representative cannot in just things be denied till a latter Representative make their power void The personal Majesty of a King with us requires subjection whilst he lives and governeth according to Law but upon his Death or upon Tyranny likewise or acting to the dissolution of the Fundamental Constitution he ceaseth to be a Soveraign and the Obligation as to him ceaseth A Parliament turning into a Faction acting above their Sphere wronging King or People cannot justly require nor rationally expect for Subjection And though private persons cannot yet the people by a latter and well ordered Parliament may both judge them and call the Exorbitant Members to account When a personal Soveraign cannot protect his Subjects because their Lives Persons and Estates are in the power of another he cannot rationally require subjection but for the time at least he should be willing to free them from Allegiance and to let them make the best terms they can for themselves But voluntary Revolt or Rebellion cannot free them from this Obligation to their lawful Soveraign In a word so many ways as Majesty and Soveraignty may be lost so many ways this Obligation may be dissolved Yet in all these Dissolutions Subjects must remember that their Obligation to God and their Country doth continue when not only Personal Soveraigns but also the Forms of Government are altered There are just Causes and Reasons of the Dissolution of this Obligation and there are also unjust pretences and grounds of denying Subjection If any one of an innovating humour or desire of alteration or discontent with their present Governours or conceits of false Titles or an intention to advance some of their own party or a belief that any forraign Prince or Priest can absolve them from their Allegiance or that their Soveraigns are wicked or do not administer justly or are Tyrants when they are not or in any such like case shall seek to cast off the Yoke and think themselves free they must needs be guilty and cannot be excused Those are the greatest Offenders who are Enemies to Government it self under pretence of liberty or impunity in their Crimes vailed under the notion of self-preservation or a reformation of some things amiss section 6 The Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy could alter nothing in the Constitution and both did presuppose our Allegiance due to England according to the fundamental Laws and could neither take it away nor add any thing unto it The Parliament by them might declare what was the Duty of every Subject The occasion of them both are well known the end was to exclude all forraign Power in matter of Religion and civil Right in both which the Pope had usurped formerly and might do so for future times especially seeing many Subjects did incline so much unto the Sea of Rome They seemed to bind the Subjects taking them not only to the present Kings or Queens but their Heirs and Successors For the King might have Heirs and Successors and he might have no Heirs and yet have Successors For Queen Elizabeth had no Heir or Heirs but a Successor she had Yet because the Crown is not entailed by common Law and the fundamental Rule as some tell us therefore none is a Successor till he be designed and actually invested and acknowledged and till then the Oaths were not administred to be taken by any particular subject The Oath taken to the former Prince if once removed by Death or some other way though it expressed Heirs and Successors was not thought sufficient it must be taken anew unto the present Successor by Name Yet if the Crown had been entailed or the King 's proper Fee by Inheritance this seems to be needless One reason of these words inserted seems to be this that seeing Succession and Election was usually in a Line it was intended by them to exclude Pretenders and all Power of the Pope or any other to dispose of the Crown when the former Possessor was removed or deceased yet they did not so tye us to be faithful unto the Power of England to be exercised by King Peers and Commons as that it were unlawful to be true and faithful unto the Community of England though under another form The Obligation to our Country was far higher and fidelity to it was due by the Laws of God and Nature so that we must seek the good thereof though the Government was altered Fidelity unto the Community is first due Fidelity to it under some form of Government was the second Fidelity unto it as under that form by King Peers and Commons was the third Fidelity unto the person of the King is the last and presupposeth the former whosoever understands and takes them otherwise perverts the true meaning and makes them unlawful The Protestation and Covenant were made in a time of danger and distraction and did include or presuppose the former Obligations yet the Protestation superadded something concerning the Protestant Doctrine of the Church of England to be maintain'd and the Covenant something of Discipline as to be performed and both extended to the preservation of the peace and union of the three Kingdoms Neither of them did allow any unlawful means to compass these ends Neither of them could take away our Obligation to our Country and destroy our English Primary Interest but it remains entire and since all the alterations made afterwards we are as much as ever bound to seek and promote the same and whosoever will refuse to do so upon pretence of these Oathes the Protestation and the Covenant he is Traytor to the common good of the Nation For as there is a positive so there is a negative Infidelity For though such did not use
is great danger to the Common-wealth therefore as every thing is armed with some power to defend it self so a sufficient strength is required in every political Body for to continue the safety thereof And this is a Sword not only of Justice but of War. This Sword of War especially cannot be well managed without a sufficient skill which cannot be had without instruction exercise and experience Hence the Art Military is not only useful but necessary in every well ordered State. One thing especially requisite in this profession is to have good Commanders men of valour and prudence able to lead and instruct others God himself would have Israel his own people a Warlike Nation Therefore after that he had given them possession of the Land of Canaan he left some certain Nations unsubdued only that the Generations of the Children of Israel might know how to teach them War at least such as knew nothing before of it Judg. 3.1 2. Those who lived in the times of Joshua were well experienced but the Generation following had no experience neither could they learn any without some Enemies constantly to exercise them Therefore though Wars be heavy Judgements yet it 's the will of God there should be warlike dissentions and that for many ends 1. To punish the wickedness of the World. 2. To let men know how sweet a blessing Peace is 3. To be a Nursery and School of breeding gallant men especially when he by them intends to do some great work In consideration of these things its good that any State in time of peace not only chuse Captains train Souldiers provide Arms but also send some into forraign Wars to learn experience Of this part of Institution as also of that of Learning you may read at large in Contzen Polit. lib. 4. lib. 10. Of the Laws of War Grotius may be consulted That some Wars are lawful especially such as are necessary and undertaken for our defence there 's no doubt and not only defensive but offensive arms may be justified out of the Holy Scriptures and from the Example of Abraham Joshua many of the Judges and David who were excellent Commanders under whom many gallant men served when God intended to ruin Judah he threatens to take away the mighty Man Esay 3.2 It 's a sad presage when the Gentry and Nobility of a Nation become vicious and effeminate and this was one cause of that heavy Judgment of God which many of them suffered in the late Wars Wherein England gained great skill and experience both by Sea and Land yet with the woful expence of much of her own blood And how happy had we been if so much valour had been manifested in the ruine of the Enemies of Christ and his Gospel Whosoever desires to understand more of this Subject as belonging to Politicks let him read Military Books If this be so necessary for the defence and safety of an earthly State how much more is the spiritual Militia necessary for the defence of our Souls section 18 There is another profession and the same useful for many things but in particular for to enrich the State it s that of Merchandise and Traffick These Merchants are of several sorts some deal in petty Commodities and sell by parcels some are for whole sale but the chiefest are such as are great Adventurers and Trade by Sea and Traffick with all Nations These are the great Monyed Men of the World who have great Princes and whole States their Debtors These furnish us with Rarities and Varieties of the Earth and enrich us with the Commodities of East and West South and North and the remotest parts of the World. These make new discoveries and might furnish us with many rare inventions Books and Arts but most intend rather private gain than publick good It were to be wished that our luxurious and wicked expences were turned another and better way to maintain Schollars in those Countries where they maintain Factours for the improvement of Learning and the propagation of Religion The King of Spain and the Jesuites are the only Politicians in this kind though it be a Question whether this profession be not derogatory to Nobility Yet King Solomon and Jehosaphat were Adventurers in Corporations and great Cities these Tradesmen and Merchants have their several Companies and their Orders and are called by some Systemes which cannot be well regulated without some Laws of the Soveraign power CHAP. XVI Of Subjects in an Ecclesiastical Politie section 1 OF subjection in general and subjection to a Civil Power I have spoken and because there is an Ecclesiastical power and subjection due unto it therefore order requires that I conclude the first part of Politicks with the explication of the nature of spiritual subjection and subjects This spiritual relation and duty arising from it presupposeth subjection 1. Absolute to God as Creatour and Preserver 2. To him as Redeemer 3. To Christ as Head and Universal Administratour of the Church and to him as having instituted an Ecclesiastical Discipline and promising to every particular Church using the Keys aright in their judical proceedings to be with them so as to make their judgment effectual and that what they bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven and what they loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven So that this subjection is due to the power of Christ in every particular visible Church For when a multitude of Christians associate and according to the Rules of Christ erect an independent Judicatory it s the duty of every one in that Association to submit unto it if he will be a Member of the same and enjoy the benefit of that external Government and by the very institution of Christ though there be no solemn Confederation they are bound so to do This subjection is different from that which is due from the people to their proper Pastours The power external of the Keys as you heard is 1. In the whole Church particular according to the extent as the primary subject of the same 2. In the Representative exercising this power 3. In the Officers The Representative is either general to which every particular person must submit or particular to which the particular Members of that Association and Division are bound to submit and none else Submission is due unto the Officers according to their intensive and extensive power and no further The Rule and Measure of this subjection are the special or general precepts of Christ and his Apostles and if a Church or its Representatives or Officers transgress these precepts they cannot justly challenge any submission as due unto them In this respect its necessary there should be Canons to regulate both the fundamental and also the derivative power and the same agreeable to the Gospel The want of these and the observation thereof may be an occasion if not a cause of separation whereof the Church it self may be guilty and will prove so to be This subjection ariseth from this
as some say at the King's command and that without Law and Authority of Parliament were confessed by many and exclaimed against generally and divers charged the Bishops as guilty of Usurpation And how could they be less when they imposed the reading of the Book of Sports and Recreations on the Lord's Day and punished divers Ministers refusing to read it and which was not tolerable the Rule of their Proceedings in the Exercise of their Power were Canons never allowed by Parliament besides the business of Altars and bowing towards them which had no colour of Law. Many began to set up Images in their Churches and innovate in Doctrine In consideration of all these things a Reformation if it might be had was thought necessary not only for the perfection of the first but also for to cut off the late introduced Corruptions and prevent the like for the future An opportunity seemed to be put into the hands of a Parliament with an Assembly of Divines for Advice to do this A Reformation they promise begin to act in the way and the expectation was great But instead of perfecting the former Reformation they cause a new Confession of Faith and new Catechisms to be made instead of the former Litany and Set-form of Worship a new Directory is composed and allowed for Discipline the Episcopal Power is abolished and the former Government dissolved the Presbyterian way and that very near to that of Scotland is agreed upon So that whatsoever was formerly determined by Law is null and void In the end all that was done in Doctrine Worship and Discipline in a time of War without and against the mind of the King did vanish was rejected by many and received by few and such an Indulgence under pretence of favouring tender Consciences was granted that every one seemed to be left at liberty Hence sprang so many Separations and Divisions that England since she became Christian never saw the like There were Divisions in Doctrine so many as could not be numbred and men were in their judgments not only different but contrary And the former Errours pretended to be great were few in number far less noxious in quality to these latter which were very many and some of them blasphemous and abominable All the old damned Heresies seemed to be revived and raked out of Hell and the more vain and blasphemous the Opinion was it was by some the more admired For Worship instead of some Ceremonies or Superstitions at the worst all kind of Abominations brake out of the bottomless Pit. Some professed high Attainments and Dispensations to the contempt of Sabbaths Sacraments and Scripture it self Some turned Ranters as though the old abominable Gnosticks had been conjured up from Hell. Some become Seekers till they lost all Religion Some were Quakers and most rude uncivil inhumane Wretches deadly Enemies of the Ministery and most violent Opposers of the Truth and some no ways ill affected but otherwise well disposed people seemed to be suddenly bewitched as the Galatians were and could give no Reason nor Scripture for the Separation and Alterations To be Anabaptists seemed to be no Offence in comparison of the former For Discipline some adhered to the Prelatical Form and refused Communion with the Presbyterian Party who with the Scottish Kirk thought their way to be the pattern in the Mount. The Congregational was of another mind and stood at as far a distance from them on one hand as the rigid Prelatical Party did on another Yet in all this God preserved an Orthodox Party who retained the substance of the Protestant Religion with moderation and these are they whom God will bless and make victorious in the end For all these came to pass and were ordered by Divine Providence to discover the Frailty of all the Wickedness of some the Hypocrisie of others to mainifest the Approved to confirm the Sincere and let men know what a blessing Order and Government in Church and State must needs be Here are many Separations some passive but many active As for the Quakers Seekers Above-Ordinance-Men Ranters their Separation under pretence of greater Purity is abominable The Antipedobaptists and the Catabaptists cannot justify themselves and in the end it will appear The Dissenting Bretheren and Congregational Party after they began to gather Churches with the rigid Prelatists and Presbyterians cannot be excused They who actually concurred to procure a Liberty and Indulgence especially the Zealots in that work who had a design to promote their own way have much to answer for and their account will be heavy And surely they are no ways innocent who took away the former Laws and Government before they had a better and in their own power effectually to establish them And whosoever departed from the former legal Doctrine Worship and Discipline in any thing wherein it was agreeable to the Word of God must needs be worthy of blame as also those who took an ill course to introduce that which was better They who will not Communicate with others or refuse to admit unto Communion with themselves in all parts of Worship such as are Orthodox and not changeable with Scandal are Offenders and cannot be free from Schism in some degree The Usurpations of the Bishops and the Innovations made by them and their Party together with their Negligence and Remisness in the more material parts of Discipline gave no little cause of Divisions and Separations To be hasty high rigid in Reformation is a cause of many and great Mischiefs This Church of England upon the first Reformation within a few Years brought forth to God even under that imperfect Reformation many precious Saints and glorious Martyrs And after the Persecution how did she multiply and yield as many able and godly Ministers and gracious Servants of God as any Church in the World of that compass And all those good Children were begotten nursed and encreased whilst under one supreme independent national Judicatory And though the first Reformation was imperfect and the Church in some things corrupted and many Members of the same without sufficient cause persecuted by some of the ungodly and unworthy Bishops yet for any of the Subjects and Members to separate from her without some weighty cause must needs be a sin A Reformation might have been made without pulling down the whole Frame and opening a way to the ensuing Divisions Imperfection is no sufficient cause to separate from that Church wherein any person receives his Christian being or continuance or growth of that being neither is every kind of Corruption No Church but hath some defects but hath some corruptions and no man should depart from any Christian Society further than that Society is departed from God. To depart and divide upon conceits of greater purity and perfection or out of a spirit of Innovation or in any thing which is approved of God and not contrary to his Word cannot be lawful Let every one therefore reflect upon the former Divisions and