the like punishment be any one of the Clergy or any Christian whomsoever who shall be involved in his errour be thought worthy By the Law of the Fiefs and Feudaries which contain also Empires and Kingdoms a Vassal doth not owe feality or service to his Lord once excommunicated nay he is even absolved of his Oath of Allegiance as may be seen in Lib. 2. Feudor Tit. 28. S. 1. In this Decree of the Senate we meet with two things observable First Thâ—t the King is obliged by an Oath not to permit the Catholick Faith to be violated or infringed the other is That in case he shall be found a violator of this same pâ—omise that he shall incur the censure of Anathema lie and all his complices and adherents Both these do run exactly parallel with the case of K. James for he promised when he came to the Crown That he would not suffer the Religion of the Church of England to be violated by the Papists whose banishment out of the Kingdom had been oftentimes debated he stood not to his word nay he shews himself a Ring leader and authoriser of such who endeavoured might and main the subversion of the said Religion he is therefore made justly sensible of the Parliaments severity in discarding and disowning him By this Deree it is likewise prohibited that none shall ascend the Regal Chair except he be a Catholick The same Synod C. 17. adds moreover Unless by his demeanour and good conversation he be thought fit and worthy to be advanced to Regal authority much more unless he be judged fit upon the account of his orthodox Religion This does very much countenance and justifie the Parliaments proceedings in their Act whereby it is expresly provided that none shall ascend the Throne except he be a favourer at least of the Church of England Now it will not be amiss to hear K. Beccesuinthus in the Eighth Toledo Council confessing that the unrully desires of Kings had need of being checkt and restrained who signed and ratified this Law for himself and Posterity Since then in the Ages successively last past the immoderate unbounded covetousness of Kings hath extended it self to the spoils and incroachments upon the people and that the lamentable Imposition and burthensome Taxes have much augmented their lawful Revenues at length it is revealed to us by divine Inspiration that seeing we prescribe Laws and Statutes of respect and obedience to be observed by the Subjects it is meet we should set some bounds of restraint and temperance to the vitious excesses of Princes Moreover out of our princely clemency and after due consideration as well for our selves as for all those who shall succeed us in our glory we by Gods assistance do enact a Law and do publish and declare that no King upon any private motive or impulse or by any Faction shall take away by force or cause to be taken away any writings or deeds concerning any thing due to another so that he may prove himself unjustly to be Lord of and lay claim to the things so due to them K. James offended against this Law when following his brother Cha. II. his steps he vsolently by Quo Waranto deprived Citizens of their Charters and did in a manner wholly cancel and disannul the Priviledges and Immunities of the Nation King Beccesuinthus was not of these Opinions that Kings were Lawless who enacted a Law for himself and his successors Let us on the other hand return to the Synod prescribing Laws to Kings From hence saith the Synod may Kings convince Men that all things is owing to them and depends on them when they govern all things wisely whence they doubt not but that these things are due not to their Person but to their Power and Dominion 't is Rights that make a King not his Person for to be King does not so much consist in the ordinary meanness of personal qualities as in his honour and sublime grandeur the things then that are due to honour are assistant to honour and what Kings heap up and amass they leave to the Kingdom that forasmuch as the glory of the Kingdom casts a Lustre upon them so they likewise do not imbezle or diminish the Kingdoms glory but render it more glorious besides 't is requisite that those who are constituted Kings should have minds full of care in ruling in acting with a great deal of moderation in decreeing righteous judgment in sparing and having a tender regard to such who are willing to obey in procuring sew parties in siding with fewer A little below that Whilst the vastness of the propriety of Princes includes all in the Bosom of its receivings and nothing but the Princely Belly is stuft all the rest of the Members of the Nation drain'd and exhausted languish and decay for meer lack of sustenance from whence it comes to pass that neither the Commonalty can receive any succour and assistance neither can great ones maintain their dignity because whilst the force of Power hath seized on all the State of the Commonalâ—y are not in a condition to defend the least Rights the Synod do very warily and discreetly prescribe to Kings their duty and do withal neatly decypher to us a Kingdom ruled by a Tyrant such an one as is not to be found in this World The Spaniards grown weary of King Wamba's Government shut him up nolens volens in a Monastry to do penance and compelled him to elect Ervigius Grandee of Spain taking no notice of Theofredus his Son the Twelfth Synod of Toledo was held on purpose to confirm this Ervigius Anno 682. and this is the Language of the Synod And by that means the Peoples hands were loosed from all Bonds and Obligations of an Oath which during the Reign of the said Wambal were kept fast tyed paying duty and allegiance only to this Prince Lrvigius being at liberty by all demonstrations of acceptable homage whom the very Divine Decree had fore-ordained to the Kingdom and the kind and courteous People in general wisht for wherefore these things considered and in acknowledgment of this favour we are to serve none but God alone and our King Ervigius and we are to be obedient to him and devoted entirely to his Will let us then perform with a ready mind and without reserve endeavour to do whatsoever may conduce to the welfare and security of his Royal Person whatsoever may promote the real Interest of him and his Country Now must we hear Ervigius himself accosting and bespeaking the Fathers of the Synod For this in general I beg of you saith he that whatsoever doth not comport with the Laws of our glory if there be any thing that may seem contrary to justice and equity it may be rectified by your good disposition meekness and judgement The same Ervigius how much he esteemed the decrees of these Councils abundantly shews in the Thirteenth Toledo Synod which he Harangues after this manner for 't
is as clear as the Sun at Noon-day that whatsoever the sacred Assembly of Prelates hath thought fit to be observed is by the special grace of the Holy Ghost ordained and prefixt and settled to all eternity and is inviolably to be observed I beseech you therefore and conjure you the whole Assembly of reverend Prelates and you most excellent Princes and Peers who by your homage and duty to the Court are obliged to sit in this sacred Assembly I command you I say by the Mistery of the holy Trinity that if there be any thing before you shall be judged needful to be decreed or repealed as well what by us hath been offered to your consideration as also what else may have come to your hearing on behalf of the People that you would be careful to decide and clear it with an unanimous vigour of justice accompanied with a due proportion of mercy Ervigius behaves himself before the Synod with abundance of modesty who humbly implores their justice and mercy and laying aside all lostiness of mind sensible of his own in abilities to undertake such a charge submits himself to its censure We do not find it so now a days no no but now you must take notice that the asorementioned Spanish Kings were of the Gothic Race but as to their Religion having renounced Arianisme they became sound and orthodox from the time of Ricared they had likewise won the Kingdom of Spain by force of Arms and the â—ight got by diâ—t of Sword is accounted the best Title by your Civilians Now let us proceed to the French The first that presents himself is Childeric the 3 d. the very last of the Mâ—rovingian Race who was deposed by the Parliament and hurled into a Monastry Now there were present in this Parliament divers Bishops amongst the rest was Boniface a Bishop of Mentz of great reputation who set the Crown on Pepin's Head who was put in the place of Childeric No body can be ignorant of that notable Story of Lewis the pious Son to Charles the Great who in the Synod of Compeign composed of Bishops and Peers of the Realm Anno 833. was tumbled from his Throne and forced into a Monastry Synods in those days were made up usually of the Clergy and the States of the Nation which was much the best way especially in general Councils for it is certain that for the most part the covetousness and ambition of the Clergy commonly corrupt both Divine and Human right Nor after what manner the Capetians were by consent of all the French substituted in the Room of the Carlovingians and how Lewis the Eleventh was surrounded with thirty six Commissioners without whose Advice he could not govern the Common wealth as known to all we omit But what on this Subject is beyond all exception and may stop the Mouth of the Patrons of Tyranny is the Consent of all the Christian Princes in the Convention of Arras The business thus Charles the Seventh whilst he was but yet Dolphin commanded John Father to Philip Duke of Burgundy traiterously to be assassinated thereupon a bloody War arose between the two Princes but at length by the mediation and procurement of the Counsel of Basil and Pope Engenius a Council was called and held at Arras for composing Differences whereunto the noblest part of Europe had resort It was saith Mezeray the noblest and greatest of that Age thither did all Christian Princes except King Henry of England who disputed the Crown of France with Charles send their Agents and Plenipotentiaries and Eugenius his Ambassadors A Peace being once clapt up between the two Princes it was covenanted and agreed upon that if either of the two Princes should not stand to their words but violate the Articles of Agreement that then his Subjects absolved of their Oaths might lawfully send Succours to another Prince against the breaker of the Covenant here you may plainly see that all Princes do unanimously agree in absolving Subjects of their Oaths of Allegiance besides you may see that a Vassal doth covenant with his Lord upon equal Conditions for Philip was Vassal to Charles So much the more is the simplicity of those to be laught at who dare affirm that Princes are not so much as bound by Oath to their Subjects for performance of the Articles of a Treaty when God himself is obliged to fulfill his promises the Lord hath sworn and will not repent and the holy Scriptures declare that all controversies are decided by an Oath as if Princes were obliged to resemble God Almighty in respect of his power and not in respect of his faithfulness and veracity But not to deviate too much from our present purpose If it were lawful for Subjects to levy War against their Prince for violating his word past to a Foreiguer I cannot see why it should be deemed an hainous offence to spurn and resist Tyranny when they themselves are galled and oppressed The Brittish History likewise furnisheth us with a long series of Examples of this Nature but too great a Prolixity especially in matters of themselves otherwise plain and evident is tedious and troublesome Let one therefore and that very considerable in its self suffice which is this John surnamed Sans terre or without Land King of England and Duke of Brittain standing excommunicate by Pope Innocent the III. and his Subjects absolved from their Oath of Allegiance the Kingdom of England was devolved upon Philip the August Now Philip relying upon this donation of the Pope having fitted out a huge Navy was just ready to fall upon and Invade England when John by his submission and obsequious compliance regained the Pope's favour Neither did Philip for all that desist from his enterprize for he gave his Consent that the Nobility of England should choose Lewis his Son Husband to Jone K. John's Niece for their King and should Crown him in London accordingly the Matter proceeded to Suit and Tryal before the Pope still a great favourer of John the Ambassadors of Lewis who solioited his Cause at Rome mainly urged that John was never Leige King because he was condemned by the Peers of France to have his Head cut off for the Murder committed on the person of Arthur his Nephew moreover that if he were a King yet that he had notwithstanding forfeited his Crown by turning a Tyrant and that it was Tyranny as they said to subvertand destory the Regal Power the death of John stops the Proceedings and ends the Difference and his Son Henry placed in his stead Pray let the French take special notice of this Passage who are out of humour and ill satisfied at the last Revolution and Change of the British Empire and if they are wise let them take warning whilst they may by their own consession Tyranny quite overthrows Kingly Power and it evidently appears by their own Example that the Throne of a Tyrant may justly and lawfully be possessed by another and in
tear it self in pieces or otherwise in like manner it is no less cruelty to the Spiritual sight of reason to behold the Parts of the Body politick to be divided and persecure one another as a Sovereign his Subjects and there is in effect a persecution in this when they interfere and deprive one another of their Offices and Rights for naturally every thing depends and maintains its own right and doth repel a violent Action done to it by violence Vim vi repellere licet 't is lawful to give a Man as good as he brings hence it is manifest that they are in the wrong who tell Lords that all is their own and that they may do what they please and are uncontroulable and unaccountable if they assume and appropriate to themselves without any just Title thereto whatsoever appertains to the Subject But what 's the meaning of this that violence can do all things and what will follow from thence why the same inconvenience will follow as if the Head should attract to it self all the Blood Spirits and Marrow and Substance of all the other Members and what would be the event of this but that it must prove it 's own ruin and destruction And a little below that adds I confess I dont understand whence this error proceeded for to assert this would be to cause Men tamely to submit like Sheep and set Superiors like ravening Wolves over them or to let fly Kites amongst Chickens Like as Poyson kills the human Body so Tyranny is a Poyson and Mischief that brings infallable ruin and destruction to not only the Body politick but to the Regal also For a Tyrant who by hook or by crook appropriates all to his own advantage is very unnatural it being manifestly contrary to Civil Society of which Aristotle in the fifth Book of his Politicks hath spoken more at large and may be comprized in this Distich Pauca Sciant de se diffidunt sint egeni Sic rege subditos dire Tyranne tuos A Tyrant would have his Subjects to know little to mistrust themselves and to be indigent this is extreamly contrary to a right Regal Power which chiefly aims at this that Subjects should be powerful wise and knowing c. for what worse thing could the Peoples mortal enemy or even the infernal devise then necessitate them to be poor and divided one would much rather choose to be without a Prince than have such a one as the Fable goes of the Frogs who had a Scorpion for a King that devoured them all And yet a little further again we conclude saith he that if the Head or any other Member of Civil State should chance to fall into such an inconvenience as to desire to lick up this deadly poyson of Tyranny each Member in its particular Station should use his outmost endeavour to prevent and obviate the same by all expedients convenient to that purpose And a little further And therefore the Person who abuseth it meaning the Power aforementioned is rightly served if he be divâ—sted of it Wherefore it is plain these Men who presume to lead their King or Prince into so foul an Error or into a condition of Tyranny deceive them and are their very Enemies The same Author in his Ten Considerations against Flatterers of Princes saith It is a mistake to say that a Prince is nothing beholding to his Subject during his Reign because it is agreeable as well to Divine Right as to natural Equity and Justice and also to the chief Intent and Design of Dominion that as the Subjects are to yeild Fealty Assistance by Taxes or otherwise and homage to their Liege Lord so likewise the Lord on his part ows faith and protection Nay and if so be the Prince in an obstinate manner persist in his wronging and persecuting them de facto then this natural rule is Vim vi repellere licet holds good and takes place as does that of Seneca in his Tragedies also Nulla adeo grata est victima quam Tyrannus At the end of this Consideration he yet adds therefore Kings who in an Arbitrary manner exact such grievances call them their Rights no otherwise than the Pagan Idols are called Gods not because they are indeed so but because they are called so by them Thus far the Chancellor of the University of Paris then which nothing could have been spoken more pithily and elegantly or more seasonably to cur present purpose indeed it concerns both People and Princes that Kings should be good proficients in the School of so great a Master There is one Man whom all Europe knows is but a poor Scholler in it Now let that famous civil Lawyer Bartolus come out and speak his mind It is a just Cause saith he that would have a tyrannical Government laid aside and as a just cause that is for a just Regiment Some later Writers bring up the Rear Bellarm. Peron Francise Torrensis and Hen. Holden To suffer saith the first an Heretical or a pagan infidel King endeavouring to bring Men over to his Sect it is to expose Religion to evident danger and Christians are not obliged nor ought to tollerate a King that is an Infidel when Religion lies at stake for when Divine Right seems to clash with the Human then indeed we must stick fast to the Divine Right omitting the other but now it is of Divine Right to maintain and prâ—serve Religion and Faith which is but one only and not many but it is of Human Right to have such or such an one for King The same Author in another place thus delivers himself For albeit we ought to give obedience to a King whilst he is a King yet it is not Jure Divino that we should not abrogate or change the Constitutions of a Kingdom nor deprive a King of it let him do what he will And again I taught you but just now that when we have once this or that King set over us we are bound to obey him jure Divino so long as he sits upon the Throne but that it was not de jure Divino that he should always so long as he lives sit on the Regal Throne for it may so come to pass that either he himself may Abdicate his Regal Power or may be brought low being overcome by some other King or may be deposed upon some other account as for Heresie or the like now by what means soever he ceaseth to be King obedience and homage likewise ceaseth to be due to him A Man would swear Bellermin had written these things on purpose against King James's caâ—e Peronius comes next who in a Speech of his he made to the States General at Blois maintains stiffly that a King may be discharged from his Office but as well became a Parasite of the Pope he leaves this Game to be played by him and not by the People whom he terms the Beast with many Heads as if a General Council in
this Trust and Charge upon them and after they have once acquitted themselves of it they are no longer the Representives of the Person of the Church the Church it self ever remains superiour to the Pope and at such time as she thinks good to lay down the Authority of a Pope she may commit it to the Cardinals but that Regal Power draws its origin from the People if the business needed proving it might be without much ado demonstrated from the very Coronation of the French Kings For after this manner doth the Archbishop speak to him when he anoints him Maintain that State and Dignity in which you are placed to succeed your Father by the Law of Inheritance by divine Providence by our present delivering it to you VIII Besides there was ever a great difference between Subjects and Servants Subjects are always looked upon in the Scripture as Sons and Brethren but Servants are accounted as the vilest and most abject of Mortals now then if you ascribe Absolute Power to Princes this difference and distinction would be quite out of doors because the Power of Lords over Servants cannot be greater then Absolute nay and Subjects would be in a much worse condition then Servants for as much as the Power of Lords over Servants cannot be called Absolute If the Authority of Justinian the Emperour may be of any moment in this matter But at this time saith he it shall not be lawful for any Man whatsoever within our Empire without some cause approved of by the Laws to exercise any unreasonable excessive cruelty upon his Servants for by the order of Antoninus whosoever shall slay his Servant without cause shall have no less punishment inflicted on him then if he had killed another mans but even too great and extraordinary sharpness and austerity of Lords and Masters was restrained by the Order of the aforesaid Prince for Antoninus being consulted by some Governours of Provinces about such Servants who took refuge in the Temple or fled to the Statue of the Prince gave order that if the cruelty of Lords and Masters should appear intollerable that they should be compelled to sell their Servants upon good Conditions and the price to be given to the Masters and all the reason in the World for it is expedient for the Common-wealth that none make ill use of what he hath The words of this Extract sent to Aelius Martianus are these the Power and Authority of Lords over Servants ought to be just and blameless nor ought any Person whatsoever to be defrauded of his right but it mightily concerns Masters to see that redress be not denied to those who shall lawfully require it for hardships hunger thirst or intollerable injury M. Antoninus seems in these Clauses to Counsel and Advice Servants and Subjects to take their parts against Tyrants Wherefore take cognisance of the Complaints of those of the Family of Julius and Sabinus who have fled for Refuge to the Sacred Statue and in case they be either more hardly used and intreated then justice requires or if you shall judge them ignominously wronged and abused venire jube cause them to be sold so that they may never any more fall into their Lords clutches and if he shall prove to act otherwise then becomes a subject and shall not submit to this my Ordinance let him understand that I shall execute the severity of the Law against him for such a default This constitution of the Emperors doth altogether correspond with the Law of God by which it is commanded that if any one shall deprive a Man-servant or a Maid-servant of one Eye yea or but of a Tooth then he shall be forced to grant them their liberty Exod. 21. 26 27. God likewise commands that if any one induced by Poverty shall sell himself he shall not be reckoned as a bond Servant but as an hired Servant and a Sojourner he was to serve till the Year of Jubile and then to depart both he and his Children with him he shall return to the Possession of his Fathers he and his Children for they are my Servants which I brought forth out of the Land of Aegypt they shall not be sold as Bonds-men Thou shalt not rule over them with â—igour but shalâ— fear thy God You see that for some certain reasons that is to say for cruelty for hunger or upon the account of insâ—fferable wrongs that Servants might by Gods appointment and by the Emperors Constitutions which have now the force of Laws be exempted from their Masters commands and injunctions Why may not then Subjects be withdrawn from and dispensed of their duty to Princes unsit to bear sway From the Second Book also of the Fiefs or Feudaries Tit. 26. 5. it appears that the Lord is no less capable to commit an act of Treason against the Vassal than is the Vassal against the Lord which if it shall so happen the Lord loseth all his right over the Vassal no nor is that Power of Fathers over Sons Absolute neither though it be founded upon the Law of Nature for a Son is discharged from the Duty to a Farther that with cruelty and beyond all reason misuseth him or if the Father shall thunder out disinheritance against the Son the Laws shall carefully inquire into the occasions of disinheriting and if it be upon â—light Grounds or unadvisedly done that disinheriting shall be lookt upon as null and of none effect Last of all if all Subjects be but Servants what becomes of Peers withcut whom a King cannot try a Peer but if the King hath need of Peers in passing Sentence by Votes what signifies your Absolute Power truly I am even ashamed of those Persons who professing themselves Christians have a flighter opinion of Humanity then the Heathens have It is taken for granted amongst all the asserters and maintainers of Absolute Power by Barklay Grotius yea and by Salmatius the most daring and boldest of them all that the People did not part with or make over all their right to the Prince as for example they did not transfer all their right of chusing to himself a Successor in case the whole Royal Family be extinct Salmatius himself agrees with us in this matter Where the Seed of the Royal Line saith he in hereditary Kingdoms is quite extinct in such case the Power returns to the People to whom it may be lawful afterwards to confer the like Government upon another Person or change it into another form neither did the People grant to the King the right of Allienating the Crown or making it belong to anothers Dominion and that for the publick Good and Advantage for fear least some Stranger or other unfit Person should be set over the People Charles the VI. is a pregnant example of this who at such time as he abandoned Charles the VII his Son and declared and appointed Henry King of England his Son-in-Law Heir to the Crown this disowning and grant was
Prophet Samuel of those things Kings would do preter contra officium besides and contrary to their Duty and not altogether without precedent yet they did not for all that alter their mind at length God wearied by their improbrious Demands granted them Saul for their King I cannot imagine what advantage the Parasites of Tyrants can infer from hence that can in any wise justifie and authorize their Cause Salmasius is not ashamed to assert that by those Admonitions whereby he tried to reduce them to better obedience and to reclaim them from their erronious Practices to a sound mind did intimate and point at Regal Power which was not known to the Israelites As if God should ordain the immoral and irregular Lusts of Princes to be the Standard of governing and had a mind that they should be exempted from his Law and unaccountable for what they did To what purpose did he then establish a proper and peculiar Law for Kings as we described before by which â—aw they were commanded to have Moses's Law near them to apply themselves carefully to the learning of it to turn it over and over again continually and to that intent it came to pass Samuel delivered the Law written to Saul then chosen to be King which he punctually observed threatning him no less than he did the People with utter destruction if he should depart from it For he spoke to Israel in these words Behold God hath set him a King over you obey and serve God ye and the King who is set over you otherwise you and your King shall perish which doubtless put these words in King James the I. his mouâ—h when he drew up Instructions for his Son Whom saith he does the reading and searching of the Scriptures more nearly concern than Kings themselves forasmuch as in that portion of Scripture which makes first mention of the most excellent Kings of Israel we find that they were not only invited and perswaded but expressly enjoyned to be diligent in reading of and meditating upon the Holy Scriptures Alas how sew of the Kings and ' Queens except William and Mary did ever think this Duty incumbent upon them Yet Grotius behaves himself much more modestly than doth Salmasius for he owns that those intimations and warnings of Samuel were so many Predictions of future Events and not a description of Regal Right For although Divine Providence did more tenderly indulge and encourage the Israelitish Kingdom than other Kingdoms for the Messiah's sake who was to spring from the Royal Stock of Israel yet that other Kingdoms should be ordered according to the same Model would by no means follow from hence Salmasius doth not stick to say That Saul and David were immediately ordained and appointed of God that other Kings were but mediately only Therefore nobody should wonder why they were more sacred and more inviolable than other Kings But if we consider this well this distinction will be of little force nor can any Argument drawn from hence serve their turn for God granted them such a King as they required and they demand a King like to the Kings of other Nations and not a King of a new institution as I may so say such an one as never was in the world before God therefore grants them such an one as they desire If then Kings of other Nations could be dethroned no body can reasonably question but that the Kings of Israel might be so likewise Therefore the matter must come again to be tryed by the Law both of Nature and Nations neither did the two Tribes at all doubt of it when in Rehoboham's time they shook off the Yoke and placed Jeroboham over themselves neither did their Crime so much consistin that as togetherwith rejecting Rehoboham they forsook also the Temple and Worship of God neither was any other thing in the mind of those forty who betook themselves to the Cave of Engedi with David nay they pretended to have a more desperate design in their heads as touching this matter than had the two Tribes for they perswaded him to make use of the opportunity put into his hand to rid himself from the persecution of the Son of Kis by making him away Of the same opinion was also Abishai one of David's Worthiâ—s and Brother to Joab who stealing privily into Saul's Tent with David who found Saul sleeping within the Trench and his Speer sticking in the Ground at his Bolster took it up and offered his service to David saying Let me smite him I pray the with the Spear even to the Earth at once and I will not smite him the second time Now if any one shall narrowly examine the History of Saul and David he will undoubtedly find that the so strenuous Assertors of Tyranny have read the Scriptures whereunto they so confidently appeal but very carelesly and cursorily for even Saul himself never took himself inviolable or not to be medled withall for after this manner spoke he to David producing a piece of the Skirt of his Robe Thou art more righteous than I for thou hast rewarded me good whereas I have rewarded thee evil thou hast shewed this day how that thou hast dealt well with me for as much as when the Lord had delivered me into thy hand thou killedst me not For if a man find his Enemies will he let them go away free wherefore the Lord reward thee good for that thou hast done unto me this day Neither did Saul boast of or value himself upon his Unction nor much insist upon his inviolability nay he ingeniously confesseth that he was subject to the fate of other Mortals and that he had saved his life he owned this wholly to the magnanimous clemency and kindness of David and not to his own Majesty and Dignity Now had the Royal Power as a peculiar â—adge and Characteristical mark of distinction secured Saul from all attempts upon his Person how chanced it that the four hundred and Abishai understood nothing of that Prerogative only David by his prophetical Spirit was able to pry into that business nor in truth could Saul have this Prerogative whatsoever it was either from the Law of Nature or of Nations for then it would have been made known to all but he had it only by a Special Grant and Favour which in all probability was revealed to David by God alone Now the Son of Jesse had plainly signified that the life of the Son of Kis was in his hand and that he was at his mercy for thus spake he unto him The Lord delivered thee unto me nor did I lay hands upon thee He sâ—ilâ—s him indeed the Anointed of the Lord and confesseth that in consideration of this Unction he was induced to spare his life Yet it does not therefore follow that he was inviolable for if any one will refuse or delay upon any account to put a thing in execution you must by no means infer from