their Ministerial Function to them as an indelible Character which their first Electors could not efface nor any unless it derived from the Supreme Civil Magistrate under whom they lived justly suspend in the Exercise in that the Power doth ever derive from God and by them But for further illustration we will consider it in the more familiar Instances of free Elections And first in Corporations as in a Model or hand contracted which is but expanded and the more stretched out in the highest Governments where the Commons propound the Person for the succeeding Governour the Representatives choose and the Kings Power invests without which Act the rest are but Cyphers without a Figure but having once Caesar's stamp and Image upon it it becomes legitimate current and of value so as none can clip or efface it to lessen his Authority much less displace the Magistrate but orderly by the Power that set him up without much Crime Rebellion and hazard of damnation g Rom. 3. 1 Pet. 2. A second illustration is That the People by free Votes choose their Representatives in our Parliaments yet the Power by which they Elect and that of the Elected is derived from the Kings Writ so as they cannot for any miscarriage or breach of trust in the Person recal their choice or make a new Election in any case without a new Warrant from the Crown but do become instrumental in conferring that which is not at all inherent in them as may more fully appear in the application of those similitudes to Kings where they are Elected in that Almighty God how tyrannous soever they prove uses them but as he did Ashur for the Rod of his Anger h Isa 10.5 when he gives a King in his Wrath i Hos 3. like Saul to scourge the Rebellions of a people not leaving them any just Power to depose him or any remedy or other appeal than to him in Prayer k 1 Sam. 8.18 In that his Providence orders all Actions and Events and suffers no evil of punishment without intitling himself to it For there is no Evil in the Land but I have done it saith he And therefore he accounts repining as impatience resistance by force Rebellion against himself For as the Apostles were Christs Kings are Gods Ministers upon Earth in as near a Relation Nay himself as it were showes that all such Arrows are shot at them wound him when Christ says Saul Saul why persecutest thou me l Act. 9.4 And thus God expresses it both in Moses his case m Num. 16. where he made the dull and patient Earth the common Hackney to all injurious trampling the severe Avenger of his dishonour and so in Samuel's n 1 Sam. 8. though even then by the fore-designation of God o Deut. 7.15 the Peoples free Election was confined to Saul the man that he did choose p 1 Sam 9.15 16 17. For till then God did rule by immediate direction and revelation those he appointed to be their Governours and would not totally cast them off for their revolt but still continued his goodness to them even in his Indulgence of Anger not leaving them to a factious and tumultuous Election but ordered it by immediate command to the person he had fore-appointed till he had settled the succession in David and his Seed q 1 Sam. 16. By it shewing his dis-allowance of all popular and disorderly Elections for even there where he permitted their concurrence in choosing the person in whom all Power should habitually reside and from whom its Actual Administrations should derive he suffered them only to assist Samuel in holding forth the Wax which he had appointed to set his Seal and Image upon but not to give any Impression Nor can it rationally be imagined by any man that is a Christian and acknowledgeth the Sword to be Gods and that he that sheds Man's Blood without his Commission is guilty of Murder how a power of Life and Death should be collated by any Community of Men to one or more when neither divisim nor conjunctim they have power over their own or one anothers lives Nor could ever any pretend to it unless Parents and Heads of Families by Divine Natural and Paternal Right but when derived from God the other way and by his Commission exercised Yet the People may in some sence be said to be the Pipe by which not at all the Spring from which the Power is derived the Hand that holds the Burning-Glass to the Sun no cause of those Rayes of Power that shine upon it and are contracted in it or as the Men that lay out the dry Bones as the Prophet did whilest God breaths the Spirit of Government and animates them for Action In which we must next consider CHAP. II. What Power Kings have and how limited AS I have endeavoured to make it appear by what hath been said that all Power is Originally Fundamentally and Vertually flowing from God and abiding in the King only as its Cistern and Receptacle from whence it is conveyed to us by many Pipes of several sizes Our inquiry must be how it is limited in it Self or Execution For resolution wherein we must go to the Standard of the Sanctuary the Holy Scriptures and there we shall see That when God first gave a King in his Wrath r 1 Sam. 8. the cause of it was the Peoples being not satisfied with the Regal Power God did exercise over them in his Vice-Royes and Deputies before but distrusting God Almighty when they saw Nahash King of the Children of Ammon come against them that he would not suddenly provide for their deliverance they would have one in readiness always to go up and fight for them Which distrust or despair of theirs who had found so many miraculous Deliverances under God's Government was that which so highly displeased God and not simply the desire of a King yet they neither desired to cast off God's Laws nor his choosing the Person as in Saul nor is it said that the Kingdom of God is cast off at the Election of Saul but they desired more sensible Evidences of Majesty and Glory because Samuel held not forth the outward Pomp Splendour and Majesty of Heathen Kings but as a Type of Christ whose Kingdom was not of this World with Humility as well as Power Upon which God gave them a King after the manner of other Nations r 1 Sam. 8. Dan. 5.18.19 but withal commanded Samuel to let them know what kind of King they desired even Jus Regis and that he should rule by absolute and unlimited Power in regard of Man however he may want the immediate direction and over-ruling Grace of God though not for want of a Rule for direction s Deut 17.2 2 Sam. 23.3 in that t 2 Sam. 22.3 he that ruleth over men must rule as in the fear of God u Ezek. 46.16 17 18. and not oppress the
or any other Form When instead of a Mushroom the growth of one night that springs perhaps out of the basest Excrements and of such a lazy despondency of Mind as sinks him into the next degree to a Beast making him to have no designs generous and noble to carry him beyond his own felicity we shall have one whose blood is derived to him through the Veins of many Noble Heroick and Vertuous Progenitors who becomes all Spirits refined from those marish and terrene parts which weigh down or raise Vapours to eclipse others of a more base Extraction when they aspire to great and generous actions Nay this makes Princes live in their Posterities when dead and brings reverence to the very Swadling-Cloaths and Cradles of their Successors as if they might Command Obedience before they could speak as Barclay observes Nor can it be imagined but that their high and vertuous Educations should infuse a Gallantry into them above Pride saith the same Author having been always used to the greatest outward Observances and by being so placed above all Contempt so as it cannot but nourish in them higher thoughts than either Hatred Emulation or Avarice produces and free them from those self-reflections private Families are subject to as I have touched before because they are secured against the fears of Competitors in rule and have setled supplies for their wants enjoying in the Stream what others have but in the Cistern and conveying it to their posterity as their Patrimony and Inheritance making them many times Heirs of the Goods of their minds as well as Bodies and to reap the Harvest and crop of all their noble and growing Designs which as Seed sown by them will not perhaps ripen into Fruit in many years after For it is probable such will manure and nurse up with Industry and Care what their Predecessors planted Nor can the Infancy and weakness of a Prince be of so bad a Consequence as a Popular State because he is then in Guardian to the most able and faithful Great Ones or the great Council of the Kingdom it self which the wisest and best of Kings do always make use of to steer their Actions by Nay if that Government should for a time degenerate it is more likely soon to recover and unite again in one when broken into many Interests equally tainted with malignant Influences and self-seeking designs But not with the Mole to lose my self upon the face and superficies of things when I may make my Habitation safe by digging deeper the best Foundations being lowest laid I shall return to my first design and go to the Root of all endeavouring to show that Regal Power was a Plant of Paradise of God's own setting and so of Divine Right and that the Sword which contends with the Scepter and raises it self upon the ruines of just Power cannot be free from all the fore-mentioned sad Effects which must eclipse the Glory of every Nation and leave it no Trophies but such as Pyrrhus once said of his Victories as would undoe the Conquerour and appear best when shrouded under the Vail of true Repentance and offered up again by a holy Restitution to the Altar from which they were sacrilegiously taken Such successes being our greatest vanquishments and leaving us no just Title to make other use of our unjust acquisitions Though Abishai would have preached David into a Murder and Rebellion at once upon no better grounds than Gods delivering Saul into his power o 1 Sam. 26.9.10.24.12 had he not learnt a better Divinity measuring his Actions by Gods revealed Will not outward Events knowing he there writes in Characters shewing us his hand only but not letting us at all read his meaning in them p Deut. 9. 2 Chron. 13.8 But to be a little more plain and perspicuous in so necessary a Truth I shall endeavour as in an Epitome or Index to those many large and learned Discourses that have been written upon this subject to sum up the best Collections I can and to digest them into this Method First To shew that Kings are the Ordinance of and hold their Supreme Power from God not Man and that they are only accountable to him for the use of it Secondly What that Power is and how limited Thirdly That resistance in the Subject against that Power is in no Case warrantable Fourthly What Duties Kings owe to their Subjects Fifthly What the Subject's Allegiance consists in to them First That Kings are the Ordinance of God contrary to that of the Romanists and our new Statists Reges coronas sceptra ab hominibus recipiunt ad eorum placita tenent q Bellarm. lib. 5. de Rom. Pon. cap. 7. So Buchanan r De Jure Reg. apud Scotos Populus Rege praestantior etiam major Rex igitur cum ad Populi Judicium vocatur minor ad majorem in jus vocatur For they are called God's by Institution and Appropriation from God For By me Kings reign saith he s Prov. 8.15 Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2. Jo. 14.30 Hos 13.11 Wis 6.13 and with my holy Oyl have I anointed him t Ps 89.20 not only to rule by but for God too as the most express Character of him upon Earth Which made him lead his people by the hand of Moses and Aaron one Chief in Civil matters the other in things concerning the Priest's Office though with subordination Not one People by many Rulers much less the Ruler by the People but by one in Chief under the conduct of God himself and by his Authority as may appear in that and all other Instances of Regal Power So as Kings are to be reverenced and distinguished from others in regard of that Natural and Paternal Power God planted in Adam and caused immediately after to derive from many Heads into one Chief in one place a cause of the division of the Nations amongst the Sons of Noah as Monarch of the whole Earth after the Flood u Gen. 10.32 So as Kings are Gods and to be obeyed First In regard of their Attribute of Power For where the word of a King is there is Power w Eccles 8.4 that he might be feared x Pro. 24.21 and who may say unto him what dost thou Secondly In that of Mercy For there is Mercy with him that he may be feared in that he beareth not the Sword in vain y Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2. but doth whatsoever pleaseth him z Eccle. 8.3 1 Sam. 8. in giving gracious Indulgences Thirdly In regard of Majesty and Soveraignty For God expresseth them by those highest Titles saith Calvin a Inst 4. l. cap. 20. to affect us with the awful sence of the Divinity it self and our Duty to them in putting the Glory of his own name upon them For b Ps 82.6 I have said ye are Gods and not only so but decreed and ordained it it shall be so even Gods before Men though Men before God 1st
have it used by any hand to which he conveyes it not by Humane which is always accompanied with Divine Right And so it is to be esteemed of according to God's revealed Will who never instituted other Government for Civil Regiment but commands it as other Spiritual Functions in the Church for Divine Administration there being no happy State in the perfection of Government without a Lawful King nor Glorious Church without Episcopacy Nor can any other justly intitle themselves to the having a Divine Precept or Institution for their Practise So as if others have the esse they want the bene esse of Government though men have found out many other inventions for both And therefore whosoever resist their Lawful Rulers by force purchase to themselves Damnation as they oppose the Ordinance of God though in wicked ones yet Rulers if wicked are to expect the same Reward For saith Bucer the word Subject signifies a fall and absolute Subjection to Rulers and forbids all force because as another observes u upon Tit. 3. to be subject is to obey and the rather because in the worst Government of any King the protection we receive from it doth more than ballance the Evils we perhaps might suffer under another Form w Jud. 17. And therefore saith the Apostle let every Soul as well Spiritual as Temporal be subject to Kings as the best Form of Ruling in whom by Gods Ordination the Habit of all Power resides though the Act be in his Ministers in all Causes though not over them but their Persons as Supreme and qui tentat accipere tentat decipere saith Bernard So as none but those that swear falsly in making a Covenant and fear not the Lord will say what should a King do to us x Hos 10.3 4. When as it is in the Fable of Beasts all should agree to choose the Lion for their King rather than have none For praestat unum timere quam multos And therefore it is probable God in his Providence to prevent Inter-regnums the mischiefs that did follow upon having no King y Judg. 17. and the tumultuousness of Popular Elections did settle Regal Powers in a succession of Blood first in David though promised to Abraham and prophesied of to Judah z Gen. 17.6.49.10 1 King 11.14 Jer. 41.1 2 Chro. 22.10 So as that Position of the Romanists and our new Statists Simeon and Levi Brethren in Iniquity that Princes are made by the People because made by the consent of the People and that People Originally make the Magistrate not the Magistrate the People is most false yet thus Parsons in his Dolman and many others broached that seditious Position with divers of the same nature to stir up the People against Queen Elizabeth perswading them they had power to dispose of the Crown and might depose her and transfer the Kingdom to the Infanta of Spain and since that time both Junius Brutus Buchanan and others like Sampson's Foxes have joyned with the Jesuits in this though standing as Extreams in other things But this Opinion as a most Reverend Divine of our Church hath shewed hath no Foundation in Reason nor Scripture For saith he from the Canon the Powers that be are ordained of God And how can man give the Sword the power of Life and Death over others that hath not power to take away his own life by any Natural or Divine Right For as hath been said no man can convey to another what he hath not himself So that Power wheresoever placed is an Emanation from God immediately and so to be obeyed only where orderly setled and constituted For the Powers that be saith the Apostle a Rom. 13. whether by Election or Inheritance Compact or just Conquest being once legally established are of God and may not be disturbed by their Subjects in a way of Arms or Force for any Impiety Tyranny or Oppression whatsoever they having no Power over the person once invested in and discriminated by the Power all Kings have by God's Ordination for in all changes men can only choose the person but never give the Power As Silver that is mere Plate if it be tendered for exchange may be taken or left at the liberty of him to whom it is offered but when once stampt by the King and Coyned becomes currant and not to be refused Or as Acts of Parliament whilest Voted by the two Houses have to this time been only Consents but after the King's concurrence Statutes that bind the persons that Voted them and all others and not to be altered by them without his assent So in Governments or Governours as soon as any are created by man whether Kings Elective or by Succession even St. Peter's Humane Creatures are by St. Paul called God's Ordinance b Rom. 13. and not to be resisted nor altered at the Will of the Electors who irrevocably part with their own Right as the Jewish Servant by boring made himself a Slave For if there remained in them a Power dormant to over-rule and unmake them whom they have once submitted to then where were decency and order c 1 Cor. 14. Nay what Tumults Disorders and Massacres would arise from it when Revenge would remove the one or Ambition Faction and the like set up another to compass their own ends like Herodet a Persian King who being a cruel Tyrant when he could not find out a Law to warrant his unlawful Actions found out another that he might do what he list And those that fear not God and the King conjunctim as one in regard of Divine Relation and Institution are given to such changes d Prov. 24.21 though Christ himself as man gave the example of submission and acknowledgment of the Divine Right of Caesar's and his Deputy Pilate's Power e Mat. 17.27 Joh. 9.11 the conviction of which Truth fetcht the Confession of it from a Popish Divine f Royard in Dom in 1. Advent Rege constituto non potest Populus jugum subjectionis repellere And though Bellarmine lays it as a Position as cited by Suarez g Li. 3. c. 3. p. 224. That the People never so give up the Act of Power unto the King but that they retain the Habit still in themselves it is contradicted by Suarez h Defend Fid. Cath. l. 3. c. 3. p. 225. in these words Non est simpliciter verum Regem pendere in sua potestate a Populo etiamsi ab ipso eam acceperit for he adds Postquam Rex legitime constitutus est supremam habet potestatem in his omnibus ad quae accipit etiamsi a Populo illam acceperit So Cuneris i L. de Offic Princi Principis sive Electione sive Postulatione vel Successione vel belli jure Princeps fiat Principi tamen facto divinitus potestas adest Otherways there would be Sword against Sword whereas God hath made but one because for one hand and will still be a
or lawful Magistrate in Israel Nay even in Popular States so natural a thing is Monarchy in what hands soever the Power is one Finger will still as in natural Bodies be found longer than the rest and become a Kingly Tyrant by his over-swaying Interest And therefore let us not cast Pelion upon Ossa heap Sin upon Sin by countenancing such mushroom Alterations Nay he that is not against them is with them in this case and so becomes guilty of their unfruitful deeds of Darkness if not discountenancing and preventing them by all lawful wayes according to that of the Apostle t 1 Thes 5. avoid all appearance of evil by appearing to disallow of it never concurring actively with it though we suffer to Bonds and death For that will in the end prove our Crown of rejoycing though the Absoloms of these times would with fair and specious pretences seduce us from our Allegiance For it is better in this Case contrary to David's choice to fall into the hands of Men embalmed with Innocence to preserve our names from Infamy and our Souls from Damnation than into the hands of God besmeared with the Leprosie of Sin that must needs cause his rejection of us But if the Despisers of God and their King will still pertinaciously maintain the black and horrid Sins of Oppression Sacriledge Murder and the like not only deposing but despoyling them as the greatest Delinquents of all their just Patrimonies and Rights by plundering the one and vilifying the other in all things sacred whether Places Persons or Revenues sanctified and discriminated by Gods own Institution by prophaning his Sanctuaries and despising his Priests and Ordinances d Lam. 31. Ps 74. they may be assured of a certain if not swift destruction to overtake them from the Authority of the like Precedents in all Ages and the Word of God it self For their Posterity here like a Plague-sore in the Body growing out of their own putrefaction their soul and ulcerous Sins as the meritorious cause of Judgments will hasten them Nor can they account themselves free from the other's guilt who have not acted in their Crimes if they have not some way opposed them e Judg. 5.23 according to their several Callings and Capacities being bound to it by the Laws of God the Kingdom and that of Natural Obligation to their Civil Parents and common Charity to their engaged Brethren in that Damnation will be chiefly pronounced against Sins of Omission at the last day which I express not to upbraid any but to convince them by it to make them steer a more safe course in Emergencies of the like nature if any shall hereafter happen making God's Law the Compass by which they sail even Heavenly Influences not sublunary Agitations However I hope they will keep themselves from a countenancing of or complyance with the Persons and Actings of those that usurp the Supreme Power both in regard of Scandal to others and contracting Crime upon themselves by avoiding all Appearances of Evil f 1 Thes 5. when Vertue and Vice border so upon one another are so near in their Confines and so contiguous as the least excess or defect makes a Natural Action many times an unnatural disorder and a thing indifferent in it self become the parent of a great Sin Therefore he cannot be innocent that holds Communion with those that are guilty of such high Crimes in any thing that seems to countenance them though God's Service be a thing pretended as in their Thanksgivings and Humiliations so St. Augustine g Serm. 6. de verb. Dom. For two will not walk together unless they agree saith the Prophet h Amos 3.3 So as it is the duty of every Christian not to betray the truth by his Silence or Countenance but to contend for it against all Actions that seem to favour the successes of an unjust Cause grounded in Rebellion or tending to the maintaining an Usurped Power i Judg. 3.11 And therefore we ought by separating from them k 2 Cor. 4.17 to reprove their Errours l Eph. 5.7 11 15. in that our Actions have a Tongue in them as well as the Corn Earth and other inanimate Creatures m Psal 19. So that though Humiliations and Thanksgivings are Pious and Religious Duties in themselves yet when called to advance any unjust Interest or to countenance it our presence there intitles us to their Sin though we abhor it and the Minister at that time preach against it in that the end for which it was commanded terminates and specificates the Duty in all ordinary and publick Interpretation and makes us give by our presence Offence to the Innocent confirm the Wicked and partake of their Crimes so as Disobedience in that case is better than Sacrifice n 1 Sam. 15. Nay I may not only appropriate others Sins o Psal 50.28 by Countenance Approbation or Imitation while living but may be guilty of Sin in others many thousand years after I am dead as well as I did Sin before I was born when they sin by Example or Infusion derived from me For as the long precogitation upon any sin with delight makes it an old and inveterate one before it be produced into Act so another's repetition of any sin by my Example or Authority though committed many Ages hence makes it a new sin to me and to increase my Damnation as is deduced most justly by Divines from the Parable of Dives p Luke 16. who reflected upon himself not his Brethren in his charity And therefore let us walk with all preciseness q Psal 119.53.63 hating Evil with a perfect hatred and doing nothing that either may be made an Argument to confirm others in any evil way or action by our complyance or be matter of just scandal to the Innocent and suffering Party especially if our Judgments approve it not For if I ought not to do a good Action nor favour a good Cause if not of Faith r Rom 14. I am much less excusable in countenancing an ill one my Judgment in any thing dissenting So that none can conscientiously and voluntarily act with those that usurp the exercise of Supreme Power in any Kingdom in any thing that gives countenance to such an Authority or is conducing to the establishing or maintaining of it without contracting the guilt of all those sins and irregularities the others smoothed their way by to that assumed Greatness For there are so many ways to contract others Crimes as Junius and Piscator observes s On Isa 10.1 that the very Scribe or Notary of an unjust decree though but instrumental in it is threatned with a Curse a woe being pronounced both against them that decree unrighteous decrees and that write grievous things which the other prescribed as the Prophet expresses it For we are commanded to walk honestly toward them that are without t 1 Pet. 2.12 not giving the least scandal in any thing
of Charity in the doing or not doing it as in the Instance before of eating or not eating of Flesh at any time to the scandal of my weak Brother b 1 Cor. 8. when free in the aequilibrium of choice Yet if any necessity of nature or other great prejudice to my Person or Fortune depends upon my not eating I ought to eat Flesh though to the scandal of another rather than impair my health or bring any great mischief upon my self by the Omission of it For there though the thing be indifferent in it self it is not so to me such Natural or Moral Necessity interposing From whence I conceive I may safely conclude against the former Objection That no conscientious Obedience is due to such an exercise of Power as is there proposed no nor submission in indifferent things if done with scandal to others because not imposed by a lawful Power to determine my choice yet where my personal freedom self-preservation or any great prejudice to my Estate in which my Posterity is concerned be put into the Scale to weigh against an unwilling scandal I may submit for that alters the case in relation to Conscience though not the nature of the thing for there I owe a prudent submission when by the rule of Charity which is but to love my Neighbour as my self I am to prefer the well being of my self and mine to an offence taken by not willingly given to another where a compulsory Injunction and Power inforceth my submission to an indifferent thing it being agreeable to the Law of God Nature and Nations to preserve my self by all lawful ways OBJECTION III. Object 3. If it be so that honest and well-meaning men may not be in any case voluntarily instrumental under an usurped and unlawful Power to the executing the known Laws by which distributive Justice between Party and Party Religion Peace and Propriety may be maintained and perhaps some advantages gained by which they may much improve the Interest of their lawful Soveraign which they prefer in their wishes to their own Being and that if they decline a making use of such opportunities and that all men should walk by the same Rule there must necessarily follow Oppression Atheism and Anarchy the Womb of all Confusion that would reduce all things into the first Chaos so as nothing but darkness and disorder would cover the Earth which their Omissions may contract the guilt of when in acting with the present Power for these ends they do but choose the least of Evils and have no thought of doing the least Evil and so may act Answ As I said The least Evil is not to be committed nor allowed to produce the greatest good c Rom. 3.8 and that there the choice is not between Evils of Punishments where the least may be chosen but between an Evil of Sin which I have proved an outward Compliance in an Unjust Cause or with an Usurped or unlawful Power especially against a just claim to be and no Sin being as the Schools determine in the number of things eligible Malum non est in numero eligibilium propter aliud bonum in that actus peccati non est ordinabilis in bonum finem So Thomas Aquinas d 2. 2. Qu. 110. Art 3. And upon the Egyptian Midwives and Rachels Pious Ly it is concluded by St Augustine e sup Ps 5. Peter Lombard f Lib. 3. dist 38. and Thomas Aquinas d 2. 2. Qu. 110. Art 3. That no man ought to tell a Ly to preserve a Life nor for any Spiritual Good Though St. Augustine saith wittily g Tract 5. Tom. 9. super Joan. Nemo habet de suo nisi mendacium peccatum when all truth comes from the Fountain of it God h Eccles 7. Jam. 1. And St. Ambrose i Tom. 4. upon those words Quis ex vobis arguit me de peccato Omne mendacium fugiendum est tam in verbis quam in operibus c. all outward dissimulation is to be avoided when Opus exterius naturaliter significat intentionem k Aquin. 2. 2. Qu. 111. Art 11. Qu. 111. Art 2. And we should be the more careful not to make Hell the way to Heaven Vice to introduce Vertue when even lawful Actions become sins if done with scandal to others and that some higher end or duty determine not my choice in them as I have determined in another case of Conscience concerning Actions in themselves indifferent For the least defect or excess makes a lawful Action become sinful and a willing countenancing of any sin draws on the toleration of all and like the Spirits in the Blood will soon run through the whole Body of sin For with Aquinas l 2. 2. Qu. 110. Art 2. veritas aequalis est cui per se opponitur magis minus So as in doubtful Cases Gerson's rule is good m Par. 2. Reg. mor. Ab omni actu cui non est necessario astrictus teneatur desistere where scandal may be given OBJECTION IV. Object 4 Ay but Salus Populi est Suprema Lex So as I may act voluntarily with and under an usurped Power though against legal settlements and known Laws for the preservation of the Common-wealth and that by a Law of necessity which gives the Law to all Laws and warrants the doing of that which otherwise is unlawful for by this our Saviour seems to justifie his Disciples gathering Ears of Corn on the Sabbath-day and urges the Authority of David's Example for it n Mat. 12. Answ 1. It is true that Salus Populi est Suprema Lex in reference to Humane and Municipal Laws for so Kings in whom the Supreme and Legislative Power resides may for the good of their People in great Exigents act besides nay against the known National Laws of their Kingdom but not contrary to any Divine Sanction Answ 2. I acknowledg that necessity is a very powerful Argument both before God and man to excuse not justifie an ill Action For so God himself the Supreme Law-giver hath sometimes been pleased in a Gracious Condescention to man's infirm condition to dispence with his own Laws as well as Kings with theirs in Cases of great necessity as may be instanced But this hath been ever in things only mala quia prohibita evil because forbidden as in Ceremonial and Judicial Laws never in any thing that is malum in se prohibitum quia malum evil in it self and forbidden because specifically so Such as are Schisms Heresies Idolatry Rebellion Usurpation Oppression Murder Sacriledg and the like for in these God never leaves his Servants without a just way of extricating themselves from any such necessity of acting by enabling them to dare to dye rather than do any thing that in its nature is evil and by suffering according to the Will of God to commit the keeping of their Souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithful Creator o 1 Pet.
4.19 Otherwise no man shall ever have the Honour and Reward of suffering for and with his Saviour nor have means to manifest and exercise his Faith Patience Fortitude Perseverance in well-doing and many other Graces Answ 3. For the Example brought out of the twelfth of Matthew to prove the human lawfulness of doing an unlawful thing in case of necessity only to preserve a single person as in David which a fortiori from the less to the greater must be the more justifiable for the preservation of a Common-wealth It appears that our Saviour doth approve of his Disciples in gathering the Corn on the Sabbath by David's Example as it was made lawful by an Humane Necessity in a Ceremonial Precept only Nevertheless as Lord of the Sabbath he did then cancel the duty of that Ceremonial Law of not gathering any thing upon that day as appears by the Context Yet our Saviour in citing David's eating the Shew-bread did not free David from the breach of a Ceremonial Precept For the Text saith expresly it was not lawful for him nor those with him to eat it but only for the Priests but urgeth it for the illustration of Gods Indulgence and Mercy to the frailty of his nature in so great a Humane strait under the Law in a thing only malum quia prohibitum that they might the less wonder at his compassionating his Disciples weakness in taking that they might conceive to be against a Ceremonial Precept only and that under the Gospel for the relief of nature in an extremity OBJECTION V. Object 5. Well but if it be not lawful to comply voluntarily with an Vsurped Power by which I may be said to give it countenance and reputation may I not yet act under it in things good or indifferent in their own nature when they are commanded under a Coercive Penalty and that for the preservation of my self and Posterity which the Law of God Nature and Nations oblige to Answ A Passive Submission to the present Power may in some such Cases be lawful For I am not bound to tempt a Temptation nor with the Porpus to seek and hunt the storm where it may be honestly avoided self-preservation being so natural as by instinct it catcheth at any thing that may but stay or support it as a Hop for want of a Pole will clasp and embrace a Nettle to stay it from falling But here we must be cautious and distinguish between the acting of a Magistrate and other inferior Employments which perhaps may be preparatory only to some Administrations of Justice or yet of less importance Yet in case of Magistracy we must distinguish between Causes Criminal and meerly Civil For 1. In Causes Criminal where Blood is by the Law required to expiate the Offence I conceive it wholly unlawful to act in that they must derive their Commission for it from them who have a just Power of conveying it by Divine Commission and the known Laws or else they do not take but wrest and force the Sword out of God's hand and he that so sheds mans blood with it by man shall his blood be shed in that he doth it without any lawful call without which no man can act but in a private capacity and then it were murder in any to kill a Murderer and he that as a Magistrate will do a thing that requires the just Influence of Supreme Power to make it lawful doth tacitely own that Power to be in him or them from whom he derives his Power to act Especially in the Method of proceeding against Malefactors in Criminal Causes where the frame of the Inditement and reading the Commission must be understood an owning a just Power to be in them from whom they derive theirs in that no private person or Community of men unless combined into a lawful Government ever had the Power of Life and death in them For it is by that Power only men justly suffer not the Law which is only a Regulation of the exercise of it so as any man may press the desert of death against a Wicked Malefactor by the Law as preparatory to Sentence and Execution but must not be active in the latter without a just Commission in that all men ought to act in a lawful posture and subordination only For if the Power Originally be invalid it cannot derive a just one by vertue of which men may operate no more than a sulphurous Spring can send forth a sweet stream for with Aristotle Quod deest in causa deest in effectu 2. In cases meerly Civil between Party and Party I am something doubtful how to determine if compelled to accept of a place of Judicature though perhaps in some Cases I may be morally bound from the Object it points at to act without any outward force upon me in the name not vertue of the Usurper where the thing is intrinsically good or hath the countenance of ancient and known Laws but never to the countenancing or upholding of the Power so as I may act under but not for it in such cases And in others when I have refused and resisted it as far as I can with safety to my Person and Fortune I conceive I have taken off all matter of just scandal of giving any countenance to the present Power and rather shew my disapproving of it when force and compulsion only hath determined my choice and that only to a submission in reverence to the Power that is upon me but not to any just Authority in the Imposer which Conscience would oblige unto Nor do I in this consider my self vested in any just capacity for the doing any distributive Justice so as to force a Conscientious Submission from any to my Determinations but only as an Arbitrator to mediate a just end of differences which the necessity of the times all other Channels by which Justice as a stream should derive to us being wholly obstructed enforces all men to a voluntary and free submission unto And therefore with these Limitations it may perhaps be lawful so as neither by Oath or Acting I own the exercise of the Supreme Power as just in them that assume it nor endeavour to countenance or support it which Cautions all Callings of men especially Commissioned Officers are to observe under an unlawful and usurped Power that possesses only an usufructuary and gubernative one to rule without any just propriety in the Legislative Power to which none can pretend but such as are commissioned by God according to his revealed Will and possess their Titles by a lawful and civil Right For in an unlawful posture of subordination none can have a just Power derived Though as I said perhaps in some cases where I am morally bound to a thing intrinsically good I may act in the name not Power of the Usurper Neither do those abused Texts p Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2.13 oblige us further for God cannot breath hot and cold in the same words i. e. countenance
Rebellion under a pretence of lawful Obedience 3. Lastly For other inferiour employments in things absolutely in their own nature lawful men may as an Act of Submission under a Power comply passively though no Beam of any just Power appear in the Person commanding so as it be involuntary and with a publick owning the dislike of it Nay there may be perhaps a voluntary and yet lawful acting in some such Capacities in things of an inferior nature when men do it rather by permission of than commission from the Usurpers of the Supreme Power having their Call only from the ancient and known Laws of the Kingdom as Constables Bailiffs c. OBJECTION VI. Object 6. Well if it be not lawful to countenance or any way support an unjust Power it is not lawful to pay Taxes Customs Excise c. when imposed and to maintain a War against a Just Title Answ Every Voluntary Act herein is sinful and not to be done in that the matter manner and end ought to be good in every Action And in this case though it may be in some cases lawful to submit to such Payments I ought rather to dye than do any thing willingly that may advance those ends for which it is designed But then if the demand of it comes seconded with a Power and direction to levy ten times as much if refused the state of the question is altered and directs me to an act of prudence in chooseing the less evil of punishment which will be rather a weakening than strength to the Usurper who would make an advantage by my refusal without contracting the guilt of the Tyrants misapplying it For the compulsion in the Law it self looks only at the money not the employment of it and directs my choice to what is least penal and takes off all just cause of scandal when my intentions in paying are as far distant from his in receiving as Heaven from Hell And though this particular case be hardly to be found amongst the Casuists it is thus resolved in other Notions to which I will propose a Parallel or two for illustration never questioned or condemned by any I suppose as unlawful having Universal Consent and Practise for it But first I shall answer another Objection OBJECTION VII Object 7. It is true every Act hath only so much of sin as it hath of the will in it but here what you do cannot be said to be meerly Passive or Involuntary but a mixed Action partly constrained and partly free and so in some measure sinful as involving your consent Answ I confess man in all things works as a rational Creature and doth nothing but of choice his will being never forced as Natural Agents are from the impulse of a Foreign Power so that it is his choice not necessity which fixes him be the thing in its nature eligible or not but this happens not in this case For if the question were whether I would pay Taxes c. to the ends proposed or loose all I ought to part with all and my Life too rather than do it But if it be reduced to this Will you give me so much money or let me take all you have or ten times as much then the choice is meerly between evils of punishment in which the Law of Nature obliges me in prudence to choose the least as also the Law of Charity and is so universally understood to free me both from scandal and sinister interpretations Compulsion in Law never implying more than submission to the Act and then when all Power of resistance is taken from me and no liberty of Election left whether I will part with so much Money or not but that my liberty is limited to one Object only the evil of suffering in a less or greater degree I may pay the Money assessed without any check of Conscience in sensu diviso abstracted from all ill but not in sensu composito as parting with it to a sinful end Nor doth the intention of the Imposers though it binds not in Usurped Powers extend further than to our submission to the payment of the Money they require though they declare the end for which they intend it or else to undergo the Penalty they require as may appear by all the Ordinances of these times And for Parallels to this 1. Consider That if Thieves assault me upon a way and swear to kill me if I will not give them a Bond for an hundred pounds to be employed for the corrupting of some Virgins Chastity or other Wicked end and will have it inserted in the Conditions I am to subscribe I ought not to do it for a World But if the condition be only to pay so much Money I may yield to it as a ransom for my life For it then becomes a choice of the least evil of punishment only without countenancing or contracting any evil of sin which I am obliged to by the Law of self-preservation especially when my Actions declare no more 2. Consider If a lawful King disputing his just Rights against the actual Invasion of his Rebellious Subjects shall place all his Treasure and Magazines in some strong Garrison there to be kept as the Nerves and Sinews of his War as Pillars and Supports of his Royalty and intrust them into some Loyal hand to keep and defend them for his Service they cannot be delivered up to his Enemies to prove his Masters Ruine when designed for his strength without great sin till held and disputed beyond all probability of longer defence or hope of relief because something of his Soveraigns Interest remains still in his Power But when it can be no longer kept by force it is a duty upon him both for the preservation of himself and the Loyal Party with him to surrender upon Capitulation rather than become a wilful Sacrifice all Election being taken from him but that of the less evil of punishment when he only parts with what he cannot keep to preserve himself for some fairer opportunity of serving his King which proportion holds in our payment of Taxes when the demand is seconded by a Compulsory Power For there Natural Equity permits a Passive Submission and in things not absolutely necessary by Divine Sanction as in observing the Rules and Canons of the Church in Ceremonies Forms of Prayer and Liturgies c. For there Omissions are no acts of Contempt nor just cause of scandals if we are forced to it OBJECTION VIII Object 8. Well admit that it be not lawful voluntarily to obey but passively only to submit to the Impositions of those that usurp an unjust Power I may yet to ransome my person in case of restraint or Imprisonment and to enjoy the benefit of Laws and protection of the present Government engage to be true and faithful to them rather than to continue both in Misery and Incapacity of ever paying that Tribute of Homage and Allegiance I owe my just Soveraign either in aiding or assisting to the
of little sins as they make little or no account of great ones and yet assume the disguise of Piety as the hating of Idolatry when they commit Sacriledg i Rom. 2.22 by it and their Hpocrisie making themselves more guilty than they could be in the thing they abhor For as one says wittily the Idolater is but mistaken in his God the other thinks God is mistaken in him the one dishonours the other undeifies his God Yet the men of our times who make themselves the only Church of God and reprobate those who are of the true Church are not only guilty of this but many other crying sins which they not only Act but Enact as a Law as Blood-shed Oppression Prophanation of God's Rights and Ordinances by which you may know them not to be yet born of God k 1 Joh. 3. for those sin not not such great known sins not with a deliberate purpose to sin And therefore let us neither adhere to their Persons how seemingly holy soever they are in other things nor countenance that Cause that causes so many crying Disorders and Impieties For as St. Cyprian saith ea non est Religio sed dissimulatio quoe per omnia non constat when as Religion teacheth us to walk in an orderly sincere universal and uniform observance of all God's revealed Will and so walking to persevere For they and they only who are constant unto death shall enjoy a Crown of Life which I heartily wish to the greatest Enemies of God our just Cause and our Persons beseeching God that though they send us through a red Sea of our own Blood to our Heavenly Canaan and with Mahomet's Tomb hang us between Heaven and Earth as unworthy of either they may yet become Instruments of restoring Peace and Truth in this Kingdom and account those fair and spotless Lillies greater Ornaments to thâ—iâ— Garlands than all their Roses of Bloody Trophies And that they may make God and the Kingdoms good the only Centre and Circumference of all their Thoughts Words and Actions truly repenting of their Sins that by Gods Mercy they may obtain Pardon for them and not be left in hardness of Heart Blindness and Impenitence a Judgment beyond all Judgments as it is a Judgment that hath no sense of Judgment and yet hath both Sin and Punishment in it And though they have resolved all Law into the Sentence of the Sword and almost all Gospel into the private whispers of a seducing Spirit God in Mercy keep them from the destruction of the one and afford them Mercy in the other for their Conviction and Amendment and let not the Spiritual Lethargy of Sin any longer stupifie their Consciences but awaken them to an active endeavour of repairing their Errours and restoring of God's Truth that their Souls may be saved 5. Lastly Prayer is the great Out-rent and Homage the Subject as a duty ows his Soveraign Now as Prayer is the top-Branch of all our Duties to God and the most prevailing Oratory for his Blessings upon a Nation we must pray for them as men but first as Kings that we may lead a peaceable and quiet life under them in all Godliness and Honesty l 1 Tim. 2. And therefore in the practice of that Duty I shall wind up my Discourse Humbly beseeching God that as he hath given us a Caesar for Piety exemplary for Prudence as an Angel of God knowing both good and evil who by day as a Cloud and as a Pillar of Fire by night doth go before us to direct comfort and refresh us in all our wearisom marches and hard sufferings not refusing to wade through another red Sea though tinctured with his own Blood for the regaining and maintaining of Truth and Peace amongst us that God would give us Grace truly to value so great a Blessing in our King and for his Fatherly Kindness to us to pay all filial Obedience to him And let us never cease humbly to pray thee O Lord still to establish the Crown upon the Head of him and His Posterity till Shiloh come Plead thou this Cause of our King O Lord or rather thine own Cause and fight against those that fight against Him hate them not so much as not to seem to hate them at all by letting them still prosper in their Wickedness but correct them to amend them here that they may not be condemned hereafter and make Him the more Pious by His Pressures the more just by their Oppressions and every way the better for and more glorious by His Sufferings Make His Enemies as the Dust before the Wind and the Angel of the Lord scattering them but upon His Head let His Crown ever flourish And thou who art the Supreme Goodness so temper thy Justice we beseech thee as to make thy Strokes become Mercies to Him that He may read thy favour in thy frowns and not turn thy Rod into a Serpent thy Antidote into Poyson but make thou it like Aaron's in the end to bud and bring forth the blessing of a happy Peace to Him and us Yet let Him not so value Peace as to prefer it to Truth for a just War is better tban an unjust Quiet but as His and our Sins have let in one so make our Sufferings by and Sorrows for them to fit us for the Blessing of the other and us by following Righteousness to find a happy rest In the mean time sanctifie and preserve Him from all the Artificial Vnderminings and open Violence of Bloody and Wicked Men prepare him for all Events and give him an holy use of all thy varied Judgments and make Him to make a pious advantage of His Enemies and they to become His best Friends when by sucking the Venom and Poyson out of their Injuries He can by a charitable forgiveness turn them through God's Mercies into the richest Cordial Spirits to refresh His Soul with in His greatest Conflicts and Faintings And ever give Sentence with Him O God and defend His Cause against the Vngodly Let not the Justice of it sink under the weight of the Sins of His Party nor the not only acted but enacted Rebellion Sacriledge and Oppression of His Enemies separate any longer betwen them and thee nor us from one another but unite us all in inward Affections and the Bond of an outward Peace and that we may maintain truly zealous hearts to our God Loyal to our Soveraign and loving one towards another Protect Him by thy Power against all His Adversaries guide Him by thy Grace in all His Actions bring him to His Throne again with Happiness Safety and Honour re-establish Him in all His iust Rights and grant that all those committed to His charge may lead a peaceable and quiet life under Him in all Godliness and Honesty and that as He hath always defended thy Faith so thy Faith may still defend Him and He make it His Endeavours to restore thy Worship to its ancient Purity thy Church and Ministers to their ancient Glory and Himself and Kingdom to a happy and established Peace And for this end calm O Lord the raging of the Sea and the madness of His Pepole bound their Passions turn their outward Form into the substance of Religion let all their Schisms end in a Charitable Accord their Errours in Truth their Rebellion in Loyalty that as they have requited Him Evil for Good and Hatred for His Good-will they may now have hearts to repent of their Evils done and he one to forgive those he hath suffered by them Still preserve Him a Faithful Servant to thee though His Subjects be false to Him and ready to undergo the greatest Injuries rather than to consent to the least Sin Give Him a heart to part with all for thee but nothing of thine and though they would Vn-King Him by their Demands let Him not Vn-man Himself in His Condescentions depose the just Soveraignty of Reason in Himself nor prefer any preservation to that of His own Conscience but in all things to preserve His Subjects just Rights without enslaving Himself or His. Make thy Will O Lord the Rule of His and thy Glory and thy Self the Centre and Circumference of all His Thoughts Words and Actions Give Him a free submission to thee in all Events extricate Him from all His troubles carry Him through all Difficulties increase in him all saving Graces subdue in Him all Corruptions pardon all His Sins sanctifie unto Him all Afflictions guide him in all His wayes supply Him in all His wants lay no more upon Him than He may be able to bear but with the Temptation give Him a means to escape even the Snares of Sin and Malice of His Enemies and make Him not only be ready to suffer but to dye for the name of JESUS in Affections and Habit ever yet never in Act a Martyr unless for the advancement of thy Glory and His by one dying Man to make many living Saints to encrease the joyes of the Saints in Heaven though it would take from us the greatest upon Earth Give Him O Lord a dry Victory over all His Enemies and not the Temptation of a Bloody Conquest But if by those Issues thou wilt recover our weak and dying State come again with healing in thy Wings and once more restore what we have lost and give what is wanting to the manifestation of thine own Glory So be it Lord JESVS Amen Amen FINIS