the blood Royal Yet is it the very same with that we term Regal Therefore the Holy Ghost to demonstrate unto us that the name did not create any real difference between this Paternal and Regal Government did afterwards in the Penning of the Decalogue use onely the word Father to express all sorts of Government And this indeed is the ground of Monarchy which as a Learned Divine hath well described is a Politick Government instituted and approved by God consisting in the prudential Administration and Exercise of the Supreme Power and Authority of one Person over all other within the same Society for the preservation of Peace and Vnity in order to God's Glory the Kings honour and the Peoples welfare Where we may observe 1. The Efficient cause of Monarchy 2 The End or Final cause thereof The Efficient cause of Monarchy is either Principal or Instrumental The Principal Efficient cause of Monarchy is God by whom all Power is ordained Rom. 13. 1. For God is the universal principal and primary Efficient cause of all things sin only excepted Rom. 11. ult And Gen. 14. 18. there we find a King of Gods own making and His Regal Power of God's own Institution For Sem alias Melchisedec was by Gods special Ordinance a Type of Christ both in his Regal and Sacerdotal Office Heb. 7. 12. And therefore is stiled by the Holy Ghost the King of Righteousness and King of Salem which is Jerusalem where this Melchisedec raigned until Jacob's time And also several persons receiv'd their Regal Investiture from Gods immediate and particular Consignation who had no other Title to that Monarchical Honour and Supremacy as Saul 1 Sam. 10. 1. David 1 Sam. 13. 14. and Solomon 1 King 1. 30. Kings of Israel Jeroboam 1 King 11. 30. Jehu 2 King 11. Kings over the ten Tribes and amongst the Heathens Hazael 1 King 19. 16. was made King of Syria by Gods particular appointment and Cyrus Isa 45. 1. who although a Heathen is there called Gods Annointed Ergo. Obj. But it may be Objected That when the people of Israel asked God for a King He was very angry with them and did declare his dislike thereof by a miraculous Thunder and Rain 1 Sam. 12. 18. Ergo. Sol. To this I Answer that God was not angry with the Peoples desire of a King as in relation to the Object of their desire viz. Monarchy but rather was well pleased therewith being the very Ordinance of God himself Deut. 17. 14 15. and therefore was sanctified to the people with the promise of a blessing 1 Sam. 12. 14. and further confirmed unto them by God himself in his own particular Election of another King viz. King David a man after Gods own heart But as in relation to the end of their desire which was Idolatrous and sinfull laying the hopes of their deliverance from those pressures under which they then groaned upon the King looking for deliverance from him and not from God He was angry with them as God deolared unto Samuel 1 Sam. 1. 7. They have not rejected thee but they have rejected me Imputing more to the power of a King for their deliverance than unto my power so forgetting me their Creator and Preserver And for the further manifestation of the Divine Right of Monarchy God was pleased to sanctifie it with the Blessing of Divine prescription For Monarchy began in Adam and so continued in his Posterity successively until the Flood and after the Earth was again replenished the Church was limited to Sem as aforesaid King of Jerusalem where he Reigned till Jacob was fifty years of Age. Who went down to Egypt with all his posterity and there lived in Bondage and slavery till God raised up Moses their Monarch and Ruler by whose hand he delivered them and after Successively continued that Monarchical Rule over them as is manifest in the holy History of the Israelites even from Moses unto our Saviour Christ King of Kings and the true King of the Jewes Matth. 2. 2. Except where their sin and ingratitude made them incapable and unworthy of the great blessings and favour of the Monarchical Government and brought that heavy curse of Anarchy upon them For whilst there was no King in Israel in those dayes every man did what was right in his own eyes measuring their Actions by the Law of their own Lusts All which enormities the Holy Ghost justly imputeth to the want of a King and Regal Government in Israel Although they had their Synedrim and great Council amongst them Yet it pleased God in all their Captivities and Distresses during those sinful times wherein they wanted a King and Regal Government to raise them up occasional Judges and Monarchs for their occasional deliverances thereby to manifest to them the benefit of Monarchy and how conducent Regal and Monarchical Government was to their constant security and happiness God himself honouring this blessing of Monarchy with many gratious Pactions and promises as to David 2 Sam. 7. To Solomon 1 King 3. yea and to wicked Saul 1 Sam. 12. and Idolatrous Jeroboam 1 King 11. and therefore a token of Gods approbation of that calling of Monarchy as a natural gift and blessing requisite to humane perfection for the Lord did never thus directly declare his approbation of any curse or privation of these blessings which was an effect of sin nor of any calling which was grounded thereupon such as that Monkish mendicancy which is used in the Church of Rome For that command of Christ to the young man in the Gospel was principally probatory and all Christs promises made either to him or his Disciples for remuneration of their piety who forsake all for his sake relate primarily and properly to the love of Christ and to such disvaluations and desertions of worldly and natural gifts and blessings onely Accidentally and in a Secundary sense when they come in competition with Christ who is to be preferred above all other things whatsoever although never so dear unto us Matth. 16. 25 But I say such curses and privations of Worldly and natural gifts and blessings were never directly and positively honoured with a Sanction of a remunerative promise as Monarchy is in the prementioned Texts And this I hope may suffice to evidence the Primary and principall cause of Monarchy to be God alone Now it rests to speak of the Secondary or Instrumental cause thereof In Crowns as in all other nay much more than in any other Possessions he that entreth not in by the door of Right and Justice is a Thief and a Robber whose intent is but to Rob and Steal whereby to satisfie his own Ambition and Avarice as the constant event hath manifested in all Usurping Traitors Abimelech Absalom Baasha Zimri Omri and many others both Antient and Modern as that Traitor the bane of our English Nation O. Cromwell whose wickedness I fear hath drawn those National Judgements upon us which since we have suffered whose name I call
to the King himself but also to his Ministers and Magistrates although they are his Subjects as well as you for there is no power but of God and whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God And they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation c. Rom. 13. But it doth not at all relate to the Original and Efficient cause of that Power which is God and neither King nor people And now I hope the profanity of that former inference of theirs is perspicuous appearing most damnable being directly contradictory to that express Rule which God himself hath prescribed in this case Exod. 23. 2. Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil neither agree in a controversie to decline after many Where God plainly declares that the universality of the offenders cannot legitimate the fault as appears in the sin in erecting the Golden Calf and Absaloms Conspiracy For though it be a Maxime in Policy that Multitudo peccantium tollit peccatum i. e Poenam peccati and therefore in crimes of the blackest dye the offenders often times escapes their due punishment It is as true a Maxime in Divinity that multitudo peccantium aggravat peccatum i. e. culpam peccati and the more I seduce the more guilt I contract Although the multitude of partakers may secure me from punishment in foro judicii humani yet I am sure to receive the just reward of that sin at Gods Tribunal from which the whole Society of men and Devils cannot secure me But not to bind these nice Disputants to an Argument of Conscience which indeed is scarce to be found amongst them to evince their error let us consider the absurdity and sencelesness of their opinion both in Policy and Reason For if the Major part of the people be Superiour to the King then the Government is not Monarchical but Democratical every species of Policy deriving its Denomination and nature from those that are Invested with the Supremacy But that Democracy is the basest kind of Policy Confusion and Destruction being the conclusion of such a Government both experience and the general consent of all Politians do declare and so asserted both by Jerome and Cyprian and even Calvin himself although a favourer of the Peoples Right in appointing of their King and Monarck divers men have divers minds and meanings and therefore amongst a multitude of Governors Emulation and dissention are no rare springs Nay both Jerome and Cyprian record it for a probatum in daily experience that so many Leaders so many followers so many Rulers so many Factions do tear and rent in pieces the peace and Vnity of all Societies To which agrees Calvin affirming an equality amongst Governours to be the mother of Factions It 's one of our Saviours own Maximes Matth. 3. 24. That a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand but every Democracy must necessarily divide a Kingdom against it self Ergo c. That Democracy must necessary divide a Kingdom against it self is proved from another of Christs own Maximes Matth. 6. 24. No man can serve two Masters much lesse three or four hundred masters but in every Democracy there are at least two Masters And therefore no man can be a true Subject or servant in such a Common-wealth but as Christ faith must necessarily be factious by loving one and hating all others and adhering to one and rebelling against others And therefore it is observed that in Christs time when Esay had prophesied that there should be an Universal peace over the whole Earth that then there was not any kind of Polarchy in any Kingdom in the world because in its own nature every Polarchy is inconsistent with Peace and Unity the end and conclusion thereof being absolute ruine and desolation the common fate of all divided Kingdoms except God in his mercy prevent the same by the reducement of such a Government to a Monarchy a manifest experience whereof we have both in the Athenian Syracusan Lacedemonian and Roman Common-wealths whose Polarchical Dissentions occasioned many Intestine Wars and Tragical Conflicts which in fine must necessarily have produced the ruine and desolation of them all if the opportune reducement of those Polarchies to a Monarchy had not prevented it Lastly every individual member of the same Society is obliged to exhibit acts of Obedience and Loyalty to their Lawful Prince as the former part of this distinction of these subtile Logicians intimate allowing the King to be Major singulis but upon what grounds they deny his Authority in Vniversis I leave to the Censure of every rational Judgement seriously considering this deduction Peter is obliged to exhibit acts of obedience to his Prince so Paul so John and so every individual member of the same Society Ergo according to that Logical Maxime a particularibus ad universale valet consequentia they all in universal are obliged to exhibit acts of Obedience to their King To the second Inference viz. That the King doth receive and enjoy this honour onely by vertue of a stipulation or Covenant between himself and the people and therefore if the King doth violate this Covenant and break the Trust reposed in him by the people that then the people are absolved from their Allegiance grounded upon that Trust and Covenant and may Lawfully provide for their own safety and welfare either by Resistance Deposition Dethronement or any such means as themselves judge to be most conducent to their own security To this I answer that this Covenant its true implyeth a mutual engagement of the parties therein concern'd but the parties primarily and originally concerned are God upon the one party and the people upon the other party as Moses declareth when he reciteth that Original and general Covenant which is indeed the ground of all other particular Covenants Lev. 26. Deut. 28. And therefore Solomon Eccles 8. 4. maketh this Covenant a ground why people should obey the Kings Commandments not as the Kings but as Gods Commandments whose Vicegerent the King is for where the word of the King is there is power and who shall say unto him what doest thou for the Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord as the Rivers of water he turns it which way soever he will Prov. 21. 1. And therefore the King is onely the deputative party assigned by God and intrusted by him for the performance of the Covenant upon Gods part either for a vengeance or recompence to the people as the Lord himself judgeth of their merits And though the King may spare the wicked and persecute the Righteous even unto death as Pilate did our Saviour yet even in that the King doth but execute Gods Decrees as the Holy Ghost doth declare concerning that unjust Judgement of Pilates Acts 4. 28. for Pilate did nothing but what God had Determined before to be done For every mans judgement is from the Lord Prov. 29. 26. and not from the Judge or Ruler So that in a word the King
may do male that is a wrong to himself for which he is accountable to God but he cannot do malum that is any wrong to us by inflicting any thing upon us which is not just and according to our deserts from God whose place the King supplies in Judgement which is the ground of Solomons assertion that The Kings lipps do pronounce Divine sentences and that his mouth transgresseth not in Judgement Proverbs 16. 10. Now therefore upon these grounds of Solomons it is manifest that there is no sence why the people should claim any power over the King by vertue of this Covenant First Because the King is not their Deputy but Gods and every man must accompt to him for his Actions who doth constitute and depute him as when the King doth depute a Judge for any Province or City the people under his Command have no power to question him for any act which they conceive unjust but either by Petition to that Judge or else by their addresses to the King his Master whose trust all corrupt Judges do deceive and not the Trust of the people for they receive not any Power or Authority from the people but from the King And in like manner the people for redress of their grievances from the Kings oppressions must address themselves to the King by Petition and if that prevail not then to God by prayer who is the Kings sole Lord and Master and from whom he receives his Power and whose Trust all Tyrannical Kings break by acts of Injustice which is the ultimum refugium as Samuel declares when he Prophesieth of Sauls Tyranny whereby the people should be grievously oppressed for redresse whereof the people when the King would not hear should cry unto the Lord 1 Sam. 8. 18. other means of remedy than which the Prophet Samuel did not dream of nor could prescribe to the people to make use of and whereas if he had conceived resistance to be Lawful he might soon have found out that way and have the people so to provide for their own security Secondly Because the people never receive Injustice from the King if they look upon themselves for the Judgment is the Lords who cannot do injustice nor break the Covenant upon his part although his Minister and Deputy may fail and offend in the execution of his Office in his own particular which is his own guilt As a Hangman that Executes the just sentence of death upon a Malefactor if in doing his office his intentions have not reference to the sentence of Justice but the satisfaction of some private grudge or some Covetous Design or the like that Officer is guilty of Murther although the Malefactor receive from his hand nothing but his due deserts And thus much I hope sufficiently declares the error and vanity of that opinion that the peoples consent and approbation are the ordinary and instrumental means and causes of that Supremacy and Soveraign Power which doth Preheminence the Monarch above all others within the same Society Now it rests to speak of that opinion which and that most certainly imputeth the Secondary and Instrumental cause of Monarchy and Regal Dignity to Birth-right and Hereditary Succession the Efficacy whereof Holy Writ doth manifest Preheminencing the first born above all his Brethren in Honour and Possessions as the Lord declared to Cain Gen. 4. 7. nor was it in the Fathers power either for love or hatred to alter the Law of the first born and to transmit the Honour and Inheritance due to him to his younger Brother Deut. 21. 15. and in that statute which the Lord himself made ordering the descent of honours and possessions Num. 27. the Lord doth direct that they be conferred by Birthright and Hereditary Succession and not by the Election or Discretion either of Moses or the people But more specially to our Case the Lord was pleased to honour it with the promises of perpetuating these Honours and Royal Dignities unto any Family which were alwayes grounded upon the perpetuation of the Royal Issue in giving Sons that should sit upon the Throne as appears in his promises to David 2 Sam. 7. 12. to Solomon 1 King 9. 4. to Jehu 2 King 10. 30. and most manifestly upon Jacobs Prophesie which upon this very ground Entailed the Crown and Scepter unto Judah until Shiloe came Gen 49. 10. The performance of which gratious promise was executed in Abijam who succeeded Rehoboam and Asa him Jehosaphat him and Jehoram him and so in the rest as the Sacred Chronicle doth at large relate who all inherited the Crown by vertue of this Birth-right without the concurrence of any other cause or meancs And this may suffice as touching that Instrumental and ordinary means viz. Gratious whereby God doth advance a man to the Regal Diadem Dignity and Honour and which is a constant Rule for us to Judge of whereby to acknowledge this Soveraignty and yield our obedience The other Instrumental means of this Supremacy which creates a Right and Title to the Crown is Vindicative and that is Sword and Conquest which the Lord declareth to be one of the severest and heaviest of his Curses and Judgements upon a Nation Lev. 26. 25. And the Lord styled the victorious King of Assyria Isa 10. 5. The Rod of his wrath and staffe of his Indignation because by his sword he was resolved to pour out the Vials of his fierce wrath upon the Ten Tribes for their Idolatries and abominations Quest It may be here demanded whether Conquest be a Lawful and good Title and whether any King who doth claim from thence be a Lawful King or onely an Usurper Answ Conquest in it self makes no better Title to a Crown than Ahab had to Naboths Vineyard or than the Robber hath to the Travellers purse For as it is an affliction and punishment to the passive party so it is a sin and Injustice in the active party and directly contrary to the Law of God which prohibits all injuries to our neighbours but yet such a Title may be legitimated and made Lawful by the declaration of Gods will concerning the same Now Gods will in this case is declared two wayes First Extraordinarily by immediate Revelation and so Jeroboams Jehues and Nebuchadnezzars Titles were Legitimated The second Ordinarily by the Extinguishment of the Royal Family which is a Declaration of his wrath and vengeance upon that House and so the Lord did Legitimate Baasha's Title as himself acknowledgeth by the Extinguishment of Jeroboams House 1 King 15. 29. Now where the Lord hath declared his will by either of these wayes the Conquerers Title is good and Legal and all those who claim from that Conquerer are Lawful Kings But where the Conquerers Title is not Legitimated by one of these two wayes the Conquerer is but a meer Usurper and it is not onely Lawful but a necessary duty in the people to resist him and to use their utmost endeavours for the Deposition of that Usurper and