chusing and so known to be 2 Sam. 16.12 He was for his personal qualification a Man after Gods own Heart Acts 13.22 and fulfilled all his Wills And in his Government over Israel 't is said that be fed or ruled them according to the Imagrity of his Heart and guided them by the Skilfulness of his Hands Psal 78.72 He Fought their Battles with Victorious Successes against their Enemies and managed all Public Affairs to their best Advantage Yet his Son Absolom being an Ambitious Aspiring Prince taking State upon him by his Magnificent Attendants and Departments easily obtained the Popular Reputation of a Brave Spirited Man and by his familiar Compliances and insinuating Discourses and Harangues to the Common People easily endeared himself to them and soon possessed them with hard thoughts of their King and a Perswasion that if his Father David were deposed and he succeeded him in the Throne they should be more tenderly dealt withal and all their Grievances redressed 2 Sam. 15.1 2 3 4. Oh! That he were a Judge in the Land If the Power of Government were in his hand Public Affairs should be so well Accommodated that there should not be a Grievance to be complained of Which plausible Pretence made such deep Impressions on the Minds and Affections of the Giddy Subjects that almost all the Kingdom of Israel conspired with him to make Head against David 'T is said so strong and spreading was the Conspiracy that the People increased continually with Absolom 2 Sam. 15.12 and a Messenger told David that the Hearts of the Men of Israel were after Absolom v. 13. and David's Danger was so Great that though he were a Man of an undaunted Courage and in a Cittadel of Great Strength and well Garrison'd with Valiant and Experienced Souldiers and had many Loyal and Faithful Subjects about him yet for his own Preservation and the Good of the City of Hierusalem he and all that were with him fled before Absolom and his Conspirators 2. Sam. 15.12 13 14. Sect. 17. And although God was manifestly graciously present with David and brought this Rebellious Insurrection to nothing 2 Sam. 18. and 2 Sam. 19. Yet the Men of Israel having been possessed with an Opinion that 't was lawful for them to take up Arms against their King even whilst the Bitter Effects of their former Rebellion and the Sense of the King's Indulgence and Pardon was fresh in their Minds upon some hot words betwixt the Men of Judah and the Men of Israel Sheba sounds a Trumpet of Rebellion and every Man of Israel went up from David and followed after Sheba in a New Rebellion 2 Sam. 20.12 which suggests to us this Observation That Rebels are not obliged by the Indulgences Pardons and Favours of their Princes against whom they have once made Resistance but those who have been Engaged in a Rebellion against their King how remarkable soever their overthrow was and how much soever the Hand of God was against them are so fatally bewitched with the Charmings of Rebellious Principles and Affections that they readily comply with an opportunity of involving themselves in a New Rebellion A Rebellious Disposition is too stubborn to yield to the Victorious Successes of his Prince Conquest and a Pardon will change the Condition but not the Disposition of a Rebel Yea favours will rather exasperate than extirpate their ungovernable Passions And from this instance 't is likewise manifest That if it be warrantable for Subjects in any case whatsoever to make Resistance against the Higher Powers the most Innocent and Righteous Government may easily be disturbed and destroyed Sect. 18. 3. 'T is against Common Reason That the Higher Powers should in any case and upon any pretence whatsoever be resisted with armed Force because the Jus gladij the Power of Arms the Power of making Peace and War doth properly belong to them only The Apostle tells us Rom. 13.4 that he beareth not the Sword in vain Implying that the Supream Power hath right to the Sword and consequently the Subject cannot take the Sword without Invading and Usurping the Right and Propriety of the King That which is proper to the King is inseperable from him and cannot be communicated to his Subjects 'T is a Great Truth which a Learned Man Asserts That the Power of the Sword is Potissima pars Regis the Chiefest Propriety of the Sovereign Power Devest the King of this and he is rather a Nominal than a Real King For whatever Authority he hath he hath no Power to Defend himself Protect his Subjects or to offend his and their Enemies Sect. 19. Now if the Power of the Sword be only in the King it cannot be lawful for his Subjects upon any pretence whatsoever to wrest it from him and turn the Force of it against him because 't is an Usurpation made upon his Propriety and an assuming to them that in which they have no right Who but the King with us is to appoint Martial Officers He shall make Captains over Thousands and Captains over Fifties and he shall go out before them and Fight their Battles 1 Sam. 8.12 No Man or Men but the Supream and Sovereign Power hath Authority to raise Souldiers Levy War and Fight Battles Whosoever therefore maketh use of the Sword in a military sort without Authority derived from thence deserves to perish by the Sword as our Saviour told Peter upon that occasion Mat. 26.51 I pray who had under the Law the Power of the Trumpet by which the People were alarmed and assembled for War but Moses who was the Supream Ruler of the People And when Jonathan by Sauls command smote the Garrison of the Philistines that was in Geba who blew the Trumpet that is caused it to be blown throughout the Land to call the People together for a general Rendezvouz but King Saul 1 Sam. 13.3 4. Sect. 20. War being the Highest Act of Vindicative Justice as it must not be undertaken without a just Cause and very weighty Reasons and for very good Ends and such too as cannot be obtained without it so neither must it be undertaken and engaged in without good Authority to warrant it And the Supream Authority which hath Power to make and execute Laws being the only Authority that can warrant a War and give Men a Lawful Call to it there cannot be a Lawful Assembling and Confederacy for any War without such a Lawful Call and the King having the only Power of the Sword here with us as the Laws of all Ages declare to us he only can call us to engage our selves in a War and therefore certainly we cannot lawfully resist him upon any pretence whatsoever In the Statute of the 25th of Edw. 3d. it is Declared without the Allowance of any Pretence whatsoever to be Treason for any Man or Men whatsoever to Levy War against our Lord the King or to be Adherent to his Enemies giving them any aid or comfort in the Realm or elsewhere And in
Constitution which is not chargeable with weakness or wickedness because the Contrivance and Establishment of the most wise and righteous Lord of Heaven and Earth and if God doth not make the best Provision for the Rights Safety and Peace of all Men who willeth the Salvation of them all who will or can Sect. 33. And as it is evident from the instance of Saul that the Abuse of the Regal Power in male-Administration and Tyrannical Usages of the best the most innocent and serviceable Subjects is no forfeiture thereof nor warranty for the Subjects to resist with armed Force and depose their Sovereign so we shall find in the succeeding Generations after the Translation of the Regal Dignity from Saul's to David's Family that how much soever the Regal Power was abused either respectively to Civil or Religious Matters and how much soever God was provoked thereby there was no Tiberty granted or allowed for Resistance or endeavours for a Reformation of corruption in the King or his Officers I shall instance in Solomon and compare his duty with his practice You have the Kings duty described Deut. 17.16 17 18 19. He shall not multiply Horses to himself nor cause the People to return to Egypt to the end that he should multiply Horses forasinuch as the Lord hath said unto you ye shall henceforth return no more that way Neither shall he multiply Wives to himself that his Heart turn not away neither shall he greatly multiply to himself Silver and Gold And it shall be when be sitteth on the Throne of his Kingdom that he shall write him a Copy of his Law in a Book and he shall read therein all the Days of his Life that he learn to fear the Lord his God c. Let us now take a View of Solomons Practice and we shall find that he acted as if he had been under no such restraints and limitations He sent into Egypt for Horses 1 Kings 10.28 He loved strange Women together with the Daughter of Pharoah Women of the Moabites Ammonites Edomites Zidonians Hittites And he had Seven Hundred Wives Princesses and Three Hundred Concubines and his Wives turned away his Heart 1 Kings 11.1 and 2. that is after other Gods v. 4. and seven hundred Wives that were Princesses and three hundred Concubines with their respective Idol Gods could not be supported and maintained in a State of Magnificence at a cheap rate and therefore he made Silver to be in Jerusalem as Stones 1 Kings 10.27 and he had so many Vessels of Gold that their abundance made Gold to be nothing accounted of in his days v. 21. which great Treasure was probably obtained either by heavy exactions from or the great hazards of his Subjects And yet here was no suggestion that there was a justifiable occasion for his Subjects to Rebel and set up another King Indeed God threatned to rend his Kingdom from him because he had not observed the direction of the standing Law of his Kingdom but his Subjects had no Authority to controul or punish him Sect. 34. Yea you shall find that when the Jews were a Conquered People and carried away Captive into Babylon God obliged them to submit to the Sovereign Power thereof Jer. 29.7 seek the Peace of the City whither I have caused you to be carried away Captive for in the Peace thereof ye shall have Peace And in obedience to this command Mordecai discovered the Traitorous Conspiracy of Bigthana and Terish the King's Chamberlains against the King Ahasuerus Esth 2.21 22 23. compt With ch 6.2 and though they were reduced to as great an extremity as ever a People under Heaven were by a Decree obtained by Haman from Ahasuerus to destroy to kill and to cause to perish all Jews both young and old little Children and Women in one day Esth 3.13 and they were a very numerous People and could have made a considerable Defence yet Mordecai durst not think of using armed Force but resolved upon Passive Obedience unless they could obtain a Decree from the King to defend themselves The King's Decree by the Fundamental Constitution of the Medes and Persians was not reversible but must be executed Esth 8.8 Esthers Petition therefore to have the King's Letters devised by Haman to destroy the Jews reversed could not be granted Esth 8.5 but the King grants her a Decree that the Jews which were in every City might gather themselves together and stand for their Life to destroy to slay and to cause to perish all the Power of the People and Province that would assault them Esth 8.11 and being favoured with this liberty of Self-defence the Jews gathered themselves together in their Cities to lay hand on such as sought their hurt and no Man could withstand them for the Fear of them fell upon all the People Esth 9.2 and vers 16. they had rest from their Enemies and slew of their Foes seventy and five thousand And if they who were Captives of War and so well able to defend themselves from the Execution of such an inhuman bloody and undeserved a Decree to destroy them root and branch durst not defend themselves by force of Arms against Regal Power nor those thereby commissioned without liberty and allowance therefrom first granted and obtained what shall we think of those Men by what Spirit are they guided and acted who only from some particular personal or Family-grievances and some public Inconveniences and perhaps Mischiefs betake themselves to armed Force to Resist and Depose their lawful and natural Prince Sect. 35. 2. Having thus proved it utterly unlawful under the Jewish Constitution upon any pretence whatsoever to resist the Higher Powers I shall now likewise as evidently discover the unlawfulness thereof under the Christian Constitution When our Saviour first entered on his Ministerial Office the first Thing he did was to declare the Approach of a New Kingdom and the next to instruct his Disciples That this Kingdom was no Kingdom of this World for 't is said when Jesus began to preach he said Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Mat. 4.17 i. e. By an usual Hebraism an heavenly Kingdom and so called in opposition to earthly Kingdoms implying that this Kingdom which the God of Heaven was by him now setting up and which was never to be destroyed as Daniel had prophesied Ch. 2.44 Was not a Kingdom of this World was not to be founded supported and propagated by the Assumption and Exercise of any Civil temporal Power but was to be introduced and established from the Strength and Power of divine Truth and its own goodness without the help of any Civil Power or worldly Interest being altogether different in its Nature and Constitution and in its design and administration from all earthly and secular Empires Wherefore the Institution and Erection of Christ's Kingdom was no way prejudicial to the Being or Rights of any earthly Kingdom but as the Civil Governments of the World were settled before so they still
Power in pulling down and setting up whom he pleaseth are we authorized to pull down our Superiors and to set up our selves because Christ hath redeemed us and made us Free-men of his spiritual Kingdom doth this warrant us to make our selves the Lords and Masters of the World because we must not subject our selves to serve Mens Lusts and Vices must we not therefore submit our selves to their legal Authority and Power because a State of civil Freedom is more eligible than a State of Bondage 't is better to be at our own disposal and liberty than to be in servitude and confined to the Will of another are we therefore to effect and endeavour to be above the Check and Controulment of the Sovereign Powers cannot Men be Masters of themselves but they must be Masters of their Superiors too 't is remarkable how very differently sincere and hypocritical Christians argue from the Principle under Consideration because 't is said That Christians are made free by Christ Joh. 8.36 and therefore every Christian Servant is the Lord's Free-man 1 Cor. 7.22 therefore some hypocritical Christians conclude themselves licensed to cast off all Subjection and Obedience to Magistrates and Masters and to live as discharged from all Conscience of Duty to them though by their present Circumstances constrained and necessitated externally to perform it but on the contrary part sincere Christians obey Governours as free but as servants of the Lord 1 Pet. 2.16 Serve the Lord in obeying their Governours submit themselves the one for Conscience sake to the other the highest Engagement and strongest Bond of Obedience that can be Sect. 61. I appeal to all considering Men if it be reasonable to believe that since Jesus Christ came not into the World to destroy the Law but to fulfill it Mat. 5.17 That is not to evacuate or relax any moral Duty but by his Doctrine and Example to fill up and re-inforce the Authority and obliging Power thereof and to commend his quiet and patient Submission to the injurious Affronts and destructive Violence of the Higher Powers as a Pattern for us to conform unto and imitate 1 Pet. 2.21 I say this considered is it credible that he hath cancelled the Obligation of any moral Duty by his death to his Followers and discharged them from Non-Resistance of the Higher Powers when they are too strong for them Sect. 62. But since 't is generally confessed that the moral Law is of universal and immutable Obligation of which the fifth Commandement is a Part and expresly requires us to Honour our Governours as all will acknowledge how comes it to pass that the Duty of this Commandement should be released or relaxed rather than of any other Is not the Observation of this Commandement of as much account with God as the Observation of the rest Is not the Honour of God and the Safety of human Societies as much concern'd in the keeping of it now as formerly why then should Christians be more limited in the Terms of their Subjection to the Higher Powers and less restrained from resisting them than the Jewish Nation when 't was govern'd by Rulers of God's own immediate Appointment The Authority Necessity Ends and Reasons of it are still the same and how comes it to pass that the Nature Grounds and Reasons of Subjection and Obedience are alter'd and the Pretenders to the Management of the Scepter of Christ must command and dispose that of the King If Conscience as God's Vicegerent must not be forced so neither must the King who represents as my Lord Coke tells us God's own Person Why should not God's Ordinance be as irresistible in the one as in the other the one hath as great a Supremacy over us without us as the other within us Sect. 63. Moreover if we are to be guided and governed by the positive Laws and Constitutions of our own Country as proper Rules and Measures to determine and limit our Allegiance and Obedience then 't is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King and we are to abhor that Traitorous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are commissionated by him as 't is Stat. 14. Ch. 2. And since saith Grotius on Mat. 26.52 there is no Man that doth not favour himself if it be once admitted that private Men being injuriously dealt withall by the Magistrate may repel force with force all places will be full of Tumults the Authority of Laws and Judicatures will be null and void And in his Votum pro pace ad Art 16. He affirms that Subjects ought by no means to resist their King or Prince by force or ought they to take either offensive or defensive Arms against their King or Prince for the Cause of Religion or for any other cause whatsoever and further affirms that no Government can be any longer safe than whilest those who have such Sentiments want strength And how Men that are for resisting the Higher Powers can expect to be owned as Friends to Government and presume on any Trust or Favour from the Administrators thereof I cannot imagine I shall conclude this with the Affirmation of the Church of England in her fourth part of her Homily against willful Rebellion God alloweth neither the Dignity of any Person nor the Multitude of any People nor the Weight of any Cause as sufficient for the which Subjects may move Rebellion against their Princes Sect. 64. I am not altogether ignorant of the Reasonings of some discontented and interested Men to plead for the lawfulness of resisting the Higher Powers with armed Force in some cases and perhaps it may be expected that I should engage my self in the solemn Examination and Confutation of them But having proved from divine Revelation that God hath forbidden it I may warrantably say to every such Reasoner as the Apostle in another case alike depending on the Sovereign Authority of God Rom. 9.20 Nay but Oh Man who art thou that repliest against God Shall not God govern the World as he pleaseth hath he not an absolute and unaccountable Power to impart after what manner and measure he judgeth fit his own Sovereign Authority and Power to his Vicegerents and if God do not limit and restrain the Extent of their Authority and Power who shall we frequently find Jesus Christ and his Apostles endeavouring to impress on Mens Consciences a quick Sense of their Obligations to yield Subjection and Obedience to the Higher Powers but never determining or limiting the manner of obtaining their Titles or the Righteousness of their Prerogatives and Rights or their way of administring and executing them which I take to be a plain Intimation that the Welfare of Mankind and the Safety of all Societies depends on the dutiful and peaceable Deportment of the governed part thereof and that Subjects are principally concerned Conscientiousness to attend their own Duties and to leave the Menageries of the governing part of that
this Preamble At the Request of the Commonalty by their Petition made before the King in his Parliament c. so again in 9 Edw. 3. 'T is thus prefaced Whereas the Knights Citizens and Burgesses desired our Sovereign Lord the King in his Parliament by their Petition and many of the Statutes are penned in this Imperial Stile The King Commands The King wills Our Lord the King hath established Our Lord the King hath ordained And of his special grace hath granted c. See 3 Edw. 1. and 6 Edw. 1. and 25. Edw. 3. Statute of Marleburdg 52 Hen. 1. and Statute of Quo Warranto A sufficient Evidence That all our Laws owe their Being to the King's Authority only Sect. 99. 2. All the judicial Courts of England are the King's Courts and derive all their Authority originally from him and are obliged to refer the Exercise of their respective Jurisdictions finally for the Preservation of his Person Crown and Dignity and consequently the High Court of Parliament is the King's Court too and depends on him for that Authority which is there exercised And 't is well observed by my Lord Coke That the King is Principium Caput Finis Parliamenti and answerably in the Parliament writ the King calls it Quoddam Parliamentum nostrum Thereby signifying a Subordination of the Estates convented in Parliament under him sitting there in his Royal Political capacity And consequently the Acts of the Two Houses of Parliament without an impress of Royal Authority are nothing worth to the Purposes of Government 'T is no Argument that the Two Houses of Parliament have a Co-ordination with him in his legislative Authority because he hath restrained himself from the Exercise and Use of it without their Request and Consent for it is no more than a Conditio sine qua non which hath only the Force of a Negative without the Concurrence of which the principal Efficient obtains not its Effect Sect. 100. 3. The Measures or Degrees of all Civil Authority and Power are to be taken either from the express Laws of any State or the immemorial Customs and Prescriptions thereof from a long Possession or from the Oaths the Subjects swear to their Princes This is acknowledged by the Author who pleads for a Co-ordination of the Houses of Parliament with the King in the Legislative Authority of the Kingdom as a proper Rule by which to judge where the Legislative Power of a Nation is lodged and this being impartially attended will evidently discover That the Legislative Power is in the King only For 1. If we consider what the Laws determine we shall find that they ascribe it wholly to the King See to this purpose the afore-quoted Preface to a Statute in 24. Hen. 8. where 't is thus said For by divers Old Authentick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this Realm of England is an Empire and so hath been accepted in the World governed by our Supreme Head and King having the Dignity and Royal Estate of the Imperial Crown of the Same unto whom a Body Politick compact of all sorts and degrees of People divided in Terms and by Names of Spiritualty and Temporalty have been bounden and ought to bear next to God natural and humble Obedience he being also in Statute and furnished by the Goodness and Sufferance of Almighty God not of the People with Plenary whole and entire Power Preheminence Authority Prerogative and Jurisdiction to render and yield Justice and final determination in all Causes Matters and Debates Likewise in the Statute of the 35 of Eliz. this Submission after Non-conformity to divine Service is to be made openly in some Church I do acknowledge and testify in my Conscience that no other Person hath or ought to have any Power or Authority over His Majesty Which Statute was declared to be in full force in the 16 of Ch. 2. 2. This Authority and Preheminence as the former Statute mentioned implies is of immemorial Custom and Prescription and was so far as I can discover never questioned in any Parliamentary Convention of the States till 1642. and then by the Two lower States only too and then the Co ordination in the Legislative Power was asserted to warrant and justify one of the most unreasonable and barbarous Rebellions that ever was in this Kingdom 'T is declared by the Statute of 16 Rich. 2. That the Crown of England hath been so free at all times that it hath been in no earthly Subjection but immediately subject to God in all things touching the Regality of the same Crown and to none other and if to none other then not to the Two Houses of Parliament and in 1 Jam. 1. The High Court of Parliament wherein as they speak the whole Kingdom in Person or Representative was present i. e. all Estates and Degrees call themselves his Majesty's Loyal and Faithful Subjects and declare his Majesty to be their only Liege Lord and Sovereign and agnize their constant Faith Obedience and Loyalty to his Majesty and Royal Progeny And I will be so bold as to challenge this Author to shew from any Parliamentary Record that ever the Two Houses claimed or pretended to a Co-ordination with the King in the Legislative Power till the time above mentioned 3. What can be more evident for the Determination of this matter than the Oath of Supremacy by which every Subject is obliged to testify and declare in his Conscience that the Kings Highness is the only Supreme Governour of this Realm and of all other His Highnesses Dominions and Countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Things or Causes as Temperal as He is Supreme He hath no Superior and as He is only Supreme He can have no equal they that wrest the Supremacy of the King's Government to import only the executive part of Government manifestly subvert the primary Design of the Oath which was to restrain and preserve the King's Subjects from a Submission to the usurped legislative and juridical Authority of the Bishop of Rome So that if the Bishop of Rome pretended to both parts of Government as 't is certain he did and still doth then the Oath directly intends an opposition to both and consequently ascribes the only Supremacy appropriately to the King both respectively to the Legislative and Executive part of the Government Sect. 101. 4. Suppose contrary to all this plain evidence that the legislative Power is lodged between the King and Two Houses of Parliament how will this prove a Superior Authority in them above that in the King Par in Parem non habet potestatem An Equal is no Superior Indeed according to our Authors affirmation here are Two to One which is very great odds if he intended to press to his Service that Maxim Major pars obtinet rationem totius the major part of the Legislators virtually are the whole For this will at the Pleasure of the Two Houses render the Concurrence of the King
Subjection is refused two ways either by disobedience and acting contrary to the Laws and Edicts of the Higher Powers or else by using Strength and making a violent Opposition against them with armed Force Sect. 5. 1. We may resist and oppose our selves to the Higher Powers by disobedience and counteracting the Laws and Edicts thereof when we unwarrantably refuse Obedience to the Laws of the Higher Powers we break out of the Rank of Subjects and resist the Higher Powers for they that will not be commanded by the Higher Powers are not subject to them and when this is circumstanced with Stubborns the Disobedience is resolute and unreclaimable 't is not only Contempt but Defiance to Authority and they which resist the proper Effect of the Supreme Authority its Laws and Edicts resist the Supreme Authority it self And therefore they sin hainously against God who are not willingly obedient to the lawful Commands of the Higher Powers but counteract them in a Deportment contrary to them because herein they violate and disannul the Commission of God himself The Higher Powers have a Right granted to them from God himself to enact and impose Laws upon us if we therefore refuse Obedience to their Laws we usurp a Superior Authority to that of God himself for we take upon us to Cancel God's Grant to them and herein are Fighters against God as well as Resisters of the Powers which are of of God a Matter well deserving serious consideration Sect. 6. 2. We may resist and oppose our selves to the Higher Powers by force and violence when Subjects contend with Higher Powers by force either defend themselves against them with armed Power or else seek to depose them or to compel them to do though it be what they apprehend they ought to do this being a kind of judiciary act and which carries a vindicative Power with it 't is the most aggravated Resistance that can be made against the Higher Powers and the Resistance here especially condemned by the Apostle in my Text and that against which I shall chiefly direct my Discourse Sect. 7. 2. What the Apostle designs by Damnation 't is evident that by Damnation the Apostle intends some thing Minatory and Penal but what particular kind of punishment the Word immediately denoteth in this place is questioned by some learned Men 't is certain the Original Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes signifieth in the Scriptures a present temporal Punishment from Man and sometimes a future eternal Punishment from God For my part I think with many others both sorts of Punishments are here intended because the Apostles Arguments against Resistance are taken from Considerations which look both ways Ye must needs be subject saith he v. 5. not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake that is not only for fear of punishment from the Higher Powers but also lest by offending God by who 's Authority the Higher Powers are set over you Conscience accuse you which binds to a Condemnation to eternal Death 'T is probable that the way of Rebellion will bring those that are in it to a Gibbet but 't is certain that without Repentance 't will bring them to Hell if they escape a shameful Death from the Higher Powers on Earth they shall not escape the Punishment of eternal Death from the God of Heaven that this is the Intendment of the Apostle seems evident to me For the Apostle having lain down this as a Fundamental Article of the Christian Faith That there is no Power but of God And from that Consideration strictly charged it as an indispensable Obligation upon every Soul to be subject thereunto which cannot be resisted without resisting the Ordinance of God himself he plainly enforceth this Duty with this threatning as the Sanction upon which it was established They that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Now as the Threatnings of which the Mosaical Precepts were established did primarily respect corporeal and temporal Evils so the Threatnings on which the Christian Precepts are established do primarily respect spiritual and eternal Evils And the Apostle elsewhere expresly affirms That wheâ— Vengeance shall be taken on such as obey not the Gospel they shall be punished with everlasting Dâ—struction 2 Thes 1.8 9. By Damnation therefore in the Text we are to understand primarily a Condemnation to eternal Torments in Hell Fire but not exclusively of a Condemnation to those corporeal and temporal Punishments to which Rebels are expose by the Higher Powers Sect. 8. 3. The last thing to be expounded is what 't is for those that resist to receiâ—â— to themselves Damnation the Original Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is variously translated sometiâ—â—â— 't is rendred acquirunt they procure to themselves Damnation this is the great Purchaâ—â—â— Rebels make the Wages they contend and fight for by resisting the Higher Powers is 〈◊〉 bring themselves into a State of Damnation and to make Hell sure to themselves othâ—â—â— render it by accipient they shall receive as our translation hath it that is as Men receâ—â— a painful an intollerable Burden to which punishment is frequently compared 2 Kings 9. â— Isa 23.1 When Subjects resist the Higher Powers they design to free and ease themselâ—â—â— of conceited Burthens and Grievances but the final issue and event of their Resistance 〈◊〉 Submission to an irresistible and insupportable load of Guilt and Misery and this they â—â—ceive to themselves as their proper Portion and Fruit of their own Doings for when they are utterly destroyed they reap nothing but what they have sown nothing is poured upon them but their own wickedness Jer. 14.16 and all the World hath cause to say that they have destroyed themselves and as Solomon speaks by provoking the Higher Powers to Wrath they sinn'd against their own Souls Prov. 20.2 became Executioners to themselves Having thus expounded the Scope and Intent of my Text I shall discourse two Things from it whereof the one is manifestly implied and the other plainly expressed 1. That Subjects must not resist the Higher Powers 2. That they which resist the Higher Powers bring themselves under the Guilt of eternal Damnation Sect. 9. 1. That Subjects must not no Subjects whatsoever may resist the Higher Powers let them be the worst that can be 'T is past all doubt That one Subject may resist the unjust force of another and Sovereign Princes and States may likewise resist the unjust Force Encroachments or Usurpations of other Sovereign Princes and States and the Subjects of one Sovereign Prince and State may in some cases resist the Sovereign Powers of another Kingdom and State but no Subjects of what Quality soever they are or whatever their Provocations be may warrantably resist with armed Force the Higher Powers that are over them whether considered as supreme or commissionated by them and subordinated to them Sect. 10. All the lawful Supreme and Sovereign Powers in the World are God's Officers and although the Specification of the Government and the manner
the Statute of the 13th of Ch. 2d 't is in General Terms Declared Treason to Levy War against the King within the Realm or without And to cut off all Pretences from the Grounds or Nature of the War as Defensive only or as engaged in from the Authority of a Parliament or of the Lords and Commons we have in two several Statutes this Declaration That both or either Houses of Parliament cannot nor lawfully may raise or Levy any War offensive or defensive against the King his lawful Heirs and Successors In which Statutes also the sole Supream Command and Government of the Militia is Declared to be by the Fundamental Law of England ever the undoubted Right of the King And where could it be better placed for the Subjects Interest than in their Sovereign Prince and Supream Governour Sect. 21. There must be in one or other either in some single Person or some Community of Men a Supream and Chief Authority which hath the Principal and Highest Command of the Strength and Military Force of the Nation or else the Military Power will be under no command and consequently the Subjects will not know whom to obey with respect to War and Peace nor no Arms regularly used for the Suppression of Intestine Rebels or the Resistance of Foreign Enemies And who so fit to possess and execute such a Supremacy of Government as the King whose Interest as well as Duty obligeth him to preserve the Persons Estates Rights and Liberties of his People And this Authority by our Original Constitution being seated in the King and by subsequent acts of the Legislative Power Declared to be solely in him it cannot be lawful in any case to resist him because he cannot I say be resisted by an armed Force without Invading the Power of the Sword in which we have no Right and therefore cannot use it against him without the Guilt of Rebellion Sect. 22. 4. 'T is against common Reason that the Higher Powers should in any case and upon any Pretence whatsoever be resisted because all Resistance from Subjects against the Higher Powers is utterly inconsistent with their Relation and Condition for they that resist are not Subject 'T is contradictio in adjecto a meer Solecism to affirm That the Highest Power may lawfully be resisted because the Highest Power cannot have a Superiour and that which hath no Superiour cannot have a Superiour Power exercised over it Where ever there is a Supremacy it is inseperable from a Right to impunity and universally exempts from coercion and correction Where a King then is not obeyed his Majesty is lost He hath not a Principality but an Inferiority in his Country Resistance is coercive and punitive and implies a Superiority For he which resists assaults to controul counteracts to countermand opposeth the Will of his Sovereign to impose upon him his own and consequently starts from the Condition of a Subject and sets himself up in the Throne of Sovereignty Where we acknowgledge a Sovereign Authority there we yeild Subjection and Obedience from the one flows the other as an effect from the Cause but where we resist a Power we disclaim and renounce the Sovereignity of it for we resist it that we may not be under but above it They that resist the King will not be his Subjects but his Superiours will not receive Laws from him but give Laws to him reject his Rod and snatch away his Scepter will not act as Subordinate Instruments but as Principal Agents in the Administration of the Government Sect. 23. But what saith the Prophet Shall the Axe boast it self against him that heweth it Or shall the Saw exalt it self against him that moveth it Isa 10.15 So 't is as absurd and unreasonable that Subjects who are inferiour and ought to be subservient unto the higher Powers should assume to themselves Power to resist them They have a Power and fitness to act in their proper Places in an orderly way of dependency and subserviency to the Sovereign Power but if they resist the Sovereign Power they leave their proper rank and station and will not be where they ought but where they should not be And I am sure God being the God of Order and not of Confusion cannot approve or allow that we should Desert our own proper Places to thrust our selves into anothers We must abide in our proper Seatings and not go up higher and take the Place of our Betters As there is no Power but of God so there is no Power but is Gods and the Subordination of Subjects to their Sovereign being of Divine Ordination the Subordination is to God himself and therefore Subjects are not only obliged quietly to abide under the Predominant Force and Strength of their Sovereign but likewise to make a Voluntary Resignation of themselves their Understandings Wills Powers and Interests to his directive Wisdom and preceptive Will actively obeying what he justly imposeth or passively enduring what he inflicts for Disobedience So that the Allowance of Liberty to Subjects in any case whatsoever to resist their Sovereign is a plain contradiction to the Moral Relation of Subjects to their Sovereign and equally as absurd in the Moral Order of Things as 't is in the Natural and Local Order of Things for the Feet to ascend above the Head Sect. 24. When therefore some learned Men affirm that the King is Major singulis greater than any of his Subjects singly considered but Minor universis less than the whole Body of them collectively considered unless they understand it respectively to the Safety and Welfare of the Community to which the King belongs as a Part and not respectively to the Governing Power thereof 't is false and unreasonable For though the Preservation and Safety of the Community be the Supream Law yet 't is of the Community concretively and not discretively considered the Governing Part as well as the Governed Part is comprehended therein the Preservation and Safety of the one being concatenated unto and included in the other 'T is true every Community considered simply and antecedently to the Constitution of a Government therein is warranted and authorized by the Natural and Positive Law of God to Design and Nominate some particular Person or Persons to be the Rulers and Governours thereof but this is not the Communicating of any Authority or Power that was inherent in themselves before but only the Condition of the Applicatition of that Authority and Power which God as the Fountain and Efficient Cause deriveth to be exercised subordinately to himself by one Man over another And therefore supposing a Community setled under a constituted Government whether we consider the governed Members thereof divisim or conjunctim singly and a part or united and altogether they are one and all equally Subjects and altogether as well as asunder obliged to Subjection and Obedience and accordingly the higher Powers are over Kingdoms and Nations and not meerly over particular Persons Saul was called the Head of
Sword and might warrantably oppose force to force from worldly Powers they would in a military Way have assisted and defended me against the Jews when they apprehended and dealt with me as a Malefactor but they could not pretend any Commission from me to repel with armed Force the most injurious and violent Usage from the Higher Powers for I did expresly forbid it vers 11. Put up thy Sword into thy Sheath said he there to St. Peter who rashly from a wild and ungoverned Zeal drew it in his defence Sect. 38. If you compare the Evangelists together you shall find that Christ's Disciples asked him If they should smite with the Sword Luk. 22.49 and St. Peter probably being naturally somewhat too eager and having an extraordinary tenderness for his Master's Person and perhaps a little leavened with an expectation of a temporary Kingdom without staying for an Answer drew his Sword and smote of Malchus the High Priest's Servants Ear who was likely most forward and busy in seizing of Christ and what was the Event our Saviour for the Reparation of the Injury miraculously pieced it up again to his head vers 51. and severely reprimands Peter for his bold and unwarrantable Action vers 52. Put up thy Sword again into his place and he gave him a Reason for it which obliged him and will have an unlimited and universal Obligation on all Subjects to the End of the World for all they that take the Sword shall perish by the Sword Which Words as you may learn from the Margine of your Bibles have reference to Gen. 9.6 and Rev. â— 10 and are in truth part of the moral Law and clearly intimate that when private Persons not authorized by the Higher Powers do use the Sword in a vindicative and destructive Way they are Murderers let their pretensions be what they will and must expect their allotment Vengeance is mine saith the Lord Rom. 12.19 I will repay and none but such as are commissioned by God can wield the Sword of Justice and claim a Power of Life and Death over Men which Private Subjects cannot pretend And if St. Peter's Resistance not of Caesar himself or the High Priest himself but only of Inferiour Officers Commissioned by them for the Preservation of Christ and Christianity too for the Assailants aimed at the Destruction of both and this done too rashly and indeliberately without any prepensed prejudice and malice be so blamable and an usurpation upon God's prerogative because he was a Subject and had no claim to the Power of the Sword I 'm sure no Man in the same Relation can have a warrantable Ground to avenge himself on his Sovereign Lord the King or resist his Commissioned Officers Sect. 39. And our Saviour having chid and threatned Peter into Obedience he presently declares to him that it was a plain Resistance to the Nature of the Design he was to accomplish in the World to attempt the Defence or Promotion of it by armed Force and Violence Jo. 18.37 to this end saith he was I born and for this cause came I into the World that I should bear witness unto the Truth every one that is of the Truth heareth my Voice q. d. my Kingdom is to subsist by the Power of the Truth and not by the Power of the Sword and all that are heartily zealous for the Truth will voluntarily submit themselves to my institutions And that I have no mind to Rescue my Person and settle my Kingdom by Force of Arms levied against the Powers of the World thou mayest infer from hence for thinkest thou said Christ to Peter that I cannot now pray to my Father and he shall presently give Twelve Legions of Angels Mat. 26.53 Who owed Subjection and Obedience to no earthly Powers and so were fitter Assistance in such a Case than Peter and the rest of his Disciples were Wherefore if it had been necessary proper or agreeable to that constitution of Things he was about to Establish he could have relieved himself without St. Peter's help with a forcible Resistance but that would not effect his Ends but destroy them For how then said he shall the Scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be Mat. 26.54 Which foretold that he should quitely and patiently without any resistance submit himself to all sorts of ignominious and cruel sufferings from the Legal Powers of the World Is 53.3 to 8. Sect. 40. And as Christ preached and practiced the Doctrine of Non-resistance so did his Disciples and Followers also St. Paul in the first Verse of this Chapter where the Text is chargeth every Soul to be subject to the Higher Powers All Men of what Rank Order Degree or Quality soever the whole Body of the People as well as every individual Person which he enforceth with irresistible Reasons for there is no Power but of God the Powers that be are ordained of God whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God And the Roman Power of Government was at this time probably in Nero's hand who was not only an Heathen but also a Man most prodigiously Tyrannical a fierce and barbarous Enemy to Christians and their Religion and such a Monster of Villany and Wickedness as hath scarcely been known in the World and St. Peter taught the same Doctrine Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him for the Punishment of evil Doers and for the Praise of them that do well for so is the Will of God that with well-doing you put to silence the Ignorance of foolish Men 1 Pet. 2.13 14 15. and as the Apostles taught others to do so they themselves did They submitted themselves to the Civil Powers where ever they came honoured their Persons and obeyed their Laws unless inconsistent with their Obedience unto God and then they chose rather to obey God than Man Acts 3.29 and when punished for disobedience to unreasonable and unjust Laws they suffered with great serenity and submission of Mind without passionate Perturbations or bitter Reflections or appearance of any Inclination to Resistance When they were injuriously imprisoned Acts 4.3 and beaten Acts 5.41 they did not exclaim revile or calumniate but went away rejoycing So when Herod had butchered St. James and consign'd St. Peter to the same Portion there was no spreading of Libels raising of Tumults or confederation of Factions in the City but they possessed their Souls in Patience and Prayers and Tears were their only Weapons of Defence And certainly there is scarce any particular Instance wherein Christianity did more triumph in the World than in their exemplary Submission to the Civil Powers especially in the patient Endurance of unjust Penalties on their Persons and Possessions Sect. 41. And hereby they declared an acknowledgment That God had decreed and predestinated them as they were Christians to be conformed to the Image of his Son in his
search all the days of their lives and not be able to discover when or where such a Charter ever was in Being but suppose there were such a Charter who shall be the Interpreter of it and judge how far the Power of the Prince extends it self and during the Dispute how shall the Government be administred doth not this in effect authorize the Subjects to do at pleasure what is right in their own eyes for if they demur against the Prince's Power he is to act at his peril But on the other side the Subject stands on a firm Bottom for his Liberty proves it self this is a Self-evident Principle and when the Subjects pretend it the Sovereign Powers durst not contradict and contest it for in this case every Subject if it be not a Contradiction so to speak is a Sovereign because so far as his liberty is not expresly given away it always remains entire The Sovereigns Power is originally from the Subject but the Subjects Liberty originally from himself the Princes Power is derived from the Subjects Will but the Subjects Liberty from his Nature And wo to that Prince who shall violate and usurp on the Laws and Liberties of Nature Sect. 73. But if every Man by Nature equally partake of Sovereignty then no body can be obliged to Subjection for where all are equal there can be no Subordination neither Superiors non Inferiors and is not he a strange Supreme who hath no body under him Moreover if it be so then every Man is born in a State of Anarchy and the God of Order hath sate no bounds to Mankind the relative Duties of Superiors and Inferiors might never have had any foundation in Nature and were only presumptively from Arbitrary Contracts and Agreements limited and determined by the Fifth Commandment and not only every Nation but every City Town Parish Family may chuse what Government seems best to them yea every particular Person may live independently if he will altogether free from the Circumscriptions of all sorts of governed Societies and if any attempt be made to restrain him without his consent he is oppressed in his natural Liberty And is not this Doctrine of a sovereign Tendency to maintain mutual Amity and Peace amongst Men Sect. 74. 5. That Subjects in political Monarchies and under other Sovereign Powers have Rights Immunities and Priviledges as unalienable Properties without their concurrent consent is very manifest but these do not proceed from any Reservations made in a presumed fundamental Constitution composed and ratified by a mutual Compact and Confederacy betwixt the Sovereign and Subjects but from the Sovereign's Condescentious Acts of Grace which having the Establishment and Security of his Laws he cannot invade and violate without Injustice to his Subjects dishonour to himself provocation to God loss of Reputation with his Allies and Confederates abroad and exposing himself as a Person of no Faith 'T is well observed by Fortescue that the Kingdom of England is not meerly Regal or meerly Politick but partly Regal and partly Politick Regnum Angliae ex Bruii comitivâ Trojanorum in Dominium politicum regale prorupit The Kingdom of England out of Brutus his retinue of Trajans brake out into a politick and regal Dominion And elsewhere tells us Rex Angliae principatu nedum regali sed politico suo populo dominatur the King of England governeth his People not only by a Regal but a politick Principality Ch. 9. So that though the King of England in some cases exercise an absolute and arbitrary Power like a despotick Prince as in making War and Peace Summoning Adjourning Proroguing and Dissolving of Parliaments Coinage of Money c. Yet in other cases he exerciseth a bounded and limited Power as in the imposition and repealing of Laws Taxes and Levies of Mony c. and therefore ought in Conscience to regard his Duty as a Politick King as well as his Power as a Despotick King and such hath been the Moderation of the English Government hitherto that it is acknowledged to be the most easy and safe of any in the World These particulars being duly considered I am confident the forementioned Objection is sufficiently answered and no warrant can thence be taken for Subjects to resist with armed Force the Sovereign Powers Sect. 75. 2. Another Objection near of kin to the former though in different words to plead the Cause of Rebellion is this that all Real Majesty being only in the Community all Personal Majesty is transfused or delegated from thence and consequently the Personal Majesty is nothing but a Trust accountable and forfeitable to the Community and therefore if the Administrators of Sovereign Power abuse their Trust they may not only be resisted but deposed Upon this Ground it was that the Rebellious Lords and Commons when King Charles the First sate up his Standard in the Defence of himself and the Government adjudged it a Breach of his Trust and Treason against the State and Kingdom And answerably one of their Advocates tell us That their Generals Commission to seize the King's Person was a strong Capias utlegatum a Judgment passed against him as out of the Protection of the Kingdom and Aid of the Law And in truth granting what they suppose to be true That the King was not the Officer of God but of the Community received his Authority not from God but them and made War against the Kingdom whose Trustee he was and the inference seems to be rational That Power which is derived from the Civil Constitution being in an Hostile manner employed against it or administred to dissolve and destroy it is forfeited and lost and those who were subjected to it absolved from their Allegiance Ans Having represented this Objection in its full Strength to the best Advantage of the Patrons of it I shall endeavour to assoil it and I doubt not but I shall confute it to the satisfaction of every unprejudiced Person Sect. 76. By a Community these Men understand not a Society of Men actually conâ—enting and formed into a public Government but only a Society of Families and Vicinities voluntarily rationally and justly assembling and associating themselves from mutual benevolence in order to the common Good and Safety thereby putting themselves into an immediate capacity of receiving a public Government under some Form or other such as they themselves shall judge most expedient for them Be it now considered that Sect. 77. 1. This pretended Real Majesty in the Community of a Multitude so associated as hath been said must either be the Product of the Law of Nature or of some positive Law of God or of some human Compact or of some other Cause I will reflect briefly on each of these and if neither of them be assignable as the Ground Reason or Cause thereof I shall be so bold asconclude that 't is a Platonical Idea which hath no existence 1. There is no dictate of Nature which ascribes a greater Authority to a
of a lawless Violence and Oppression be not the Resistance of a lawful Authority yet the Resistance of a lawless Violence may be so Circumstanced that it may be an unlawful Resistance of him or them that are in a full and unquestionable Possession of a lawful Authority For when the Illegal Acts of Sovereign Princes are by Force of Arms resisted Sovereign Princes themselves as such are also resisted because their Persons and Authority are not actually and indeed divided 'T is true their natural and politic Capacities are distinguishable in our Conceptions but 't is as true that the natural Subsistences of the Sovereign Powers are rever actually seperated from their Sovereign Authority I pray consider for the Illustrations of this if the English Legiance be not due to the King in his natural Capacity and not in his politic Capacity for as the King swears to protect us in our natural Capacities so we swear Legiance to him in his natural Capacity And this is the Reason why by our Law the Compassing and Imagining the Death of the King is High-Treason because his Person being invested with Sovereign Authority he cannot be Murthered in the Eye of the Law under any other Notion Wherefore though the Personal Acts of our Kings are not always Legal Acts and their Commands considered in their Natural Capacities may be such as no good Subject can approve actively submit unto and obey yet they are still the higher Powers which cannot be resisted without the peril of damnation because their personal Subsistences imply an inseperable Investiture with Sovereign Authority And therefore my Lord Coke in Calvins Case tells us that the Natural Legiance due to our Kings in their Natural Capacities from their Subjects is absolute and indefinite not circumscribed by Law but above Law and before Law and consequently indelible and immutable Sect. 87. Because the Authority of our Kings is in their Laws their Offices their Courts where their Persons are not some think that their Persons may be resisted and no Resistance made to their Authority I would have such to consider whence it is that Laws Judicial Courts and Subordinate Officers have their Authority Is it not Originally from the Authority of the King's Person And are not all the Laws Courts and Officers of the Kingdom for that reason called the King's Laws Courts and Officers And can the King communicate Authority without Authority first inherent in himself Certainly that must needs be the most Eminent Authority which is the Source and Fountain of all other Authority according to that Maxim Quicquid efficit tale est magis tale And if the Personal Authority of the King be antecedent to that of his Laws Courts and Officers and derive to them that Authority they partake of then I conceive 't will be no illogical reasoning to infer That the Being and Existence of his Sovereign Authority depends not on them As the King had an Existence before their Constitution so he may likewise after their dissolution God forbid that when a Sovereign Prince hath solemnly promised and sworn to Govern his Subjects according to his Established Laws and to Protect them in their Rights Properties and Priviledges that he should violate his Faith thus given to God and his People yet if he do he is a Sovereign Prince still and the Resistance of him a Resistance of the Ordinance of God because his Authority is from God and hath no Superior under God to controul it nor to whom to forfeit and because the illegal Exercise of his Power doth not disannul his Authority Sect. 88. 4. The Illegal and Destructive Acts of the Sovereign Powers towards their Subjects are not always Inauthoritative Acts. This is evident to the common Sense and Experience of Mankind from the injurious Sentences that are past and Executions that ensue in all sorts of Human Judicatures respectively to the Lives Limbs Liberties and Estates of Subjects The Liberty the Subjects here in England have in some Cases to arrest Judgment and to appeal from an Inferiour to a Superiour Court presumes the Truth of this Now though a Sentence contrary to the true Intention of Law be an unjust Sentence and cannot properly have the Authority of the Law in it yet Subjects in all Parts of the World are obliged by it till it be rescinded and reversed by the Authority of a competent Superiour Judge And if it be a Sentence past or ratified by a Supream Judge from whom there is no appeal the Subject can have no redress but is finally concluded by it how illegal and pernitious soever it be hence that Etiam cum Praetor iniquum pronunciat jus dicit Which is a further Evidence that there is an Authority in Persons Superiour to that in Laws 'T is from the Authority of the Person and not of the Law that a Sentence pronounced according to the Law binds in some Cases and not in others and a Sentence pronounced against Law is reversible in some Cases and not in others Indeed 't is plain that a Sentence pronounced contrary to the End and Intention of Law could have no Authority and Obligatory Force in it were it not from the Authority of the Judge whose act it is Then it will follow Sect. 89. 5. That the Right which Subjects have to preserve themselves in their Properties and Liberties against the unjust and violent Invasions or Usurpations of the Prerogative cannot authorize or warrant them to an active and forcible Resistance thereof For though the higher Powers are not Commissioned to do illegal out-ragious and destructive acts of violence yet they are the higher Powers by Commission and therefore though they abuse their Power the Subjects being no competent Judges thereof they are to be submitted unto without Resistance The High Priest and Elders of the People had no legal Authority to apprehend and secure Jesus Christ as a Criminal and yet he condemned St. Peter's forcible Resistance thereof So when the High Priest commanded St. Paul to be smitten contrary to the Law he acknowledged that notwithstanding that injurious violence offered to him he had no warrant to revile him much less violently resist him and return blow for blow So that those Acts of the higher Powers which are done without Law and against Law being considered conjunctively with the Authors or efficient Causes of them they imply the Presence of a Sovereign Authority with them which is uncontrollable and irresistible Sect. 90. 4. Another Objection which very naturally offers it self from what was last said is this if the very Illegal Acts of all Sovereign Powers be uncontrollable and irresistible then a Despotical is not Distinguishable from a Political Government nor an Arbitrary from a Legal Power nor an Absolute Monarchy from a Monarchy regulated and limited by Established Laws because the Authority of the one in effect is of equal extent with the other and the one as unaccountable and irresistble if he make his Will his Law as the other Ans What
the Apostle said concerning the Difference betwixt the Condition of the Jew and of the Gentile that the Jew had the advantage and profit much every way Rom. 3.1 2. that may I say concerning the different Condition of the aforementioned sorts of Government a Political Legal limited Government hath much advantage and profit every way above that which is Despotical Absolute and Arbitrary and therefore no Man which wisheth well to his Country and sincerely desires the Safety ease and contentment either of the Sovereign or his Subjects will contribute in the least Degree any Assistance by word or deed towards the Abolition of the former and Introduction of the latter but yet supposing the Sovereign Power of the latter irresistble and the Sovereign Power of the former resistible by the Subjects thereof and it will be the most desirable because it is invested with an unappealable Authority and consequently is sufficiently provided for the Decision and Determination of all Controversies and the Preservation of the Peace of the Community which is not the Case of the other as hath been formerly observed And I am sure the Danger of Anarchy is as terrible and more than that of Tyranny Now for the confutation of the foregoing Objection let these particulars be considered Sect. 91. 1. Though a Political Prince who is obliged to regulate his Power by his known Laws made and Established with the Consent and Approbation of his Subjects may from a presumption of the uncontrollableness and irresistibility of his Power abuse his Power in Arbitrary Administrations thereof governing as if his private Will and not his public Laws were to be the Measure of his Government yet this cannot alter the Fundamental Constitution of the Government and make his Will a Law to his Subjects and therefore though they must not actively resist his Power yet they are not obliged actively to own and obey it And 't is very improbable that any Prince in the World who is well in his Wits will augment his Power by Usurpation when his Government will be as safe by a Legal Administration endeavour to obtain any End of Government by Force and against the Consent of the Subjects which is obtainable by Law and with their Consent Princes ordinarily are not so meanly skilled in the Politics but they know and consider too That he hath most Power over his Subjects who is most powerful in them And in truth all the Strong Holds in a Kingdom will have nothing of Security in them for the Sovereign when he hath dismantled this Sect. 92. 2. Though a Political as well as a Despotical Prince can do no wrong which is censurable and punishable by any Human Law for though he be obliged in Honour Equity and Conscience to Conduct himself and Administrations by the directive Power of the Law yet he is not under the corrective and coercive Power of it not only because he who can make and repeal the Law and pardon the Transgression thereof is greater than the Law and above it but also because he hath no Superiour to judge and execute any legal punishment on him yet those Commissioned by him are accountable and punishable for Illegal Administrations and cannot serve his private Will contrary to his Laws without exposing themselves to the Condemnation of evil doers And though the King may for a Time interpose an Illegal Exercise of his Power to suspend the Law and to defend and rescue then from the Coaction and Vengeance of it yet he may after due consideration of the Nature of the Thing prefer the Honour of his Government before the Protection of the Transgressors of his Law and chuse rather to justifie his Legal Will than to shew indulgence to his Passionate Humor And in case such Malefactors should escape Condign Punishment during the whole Reign of the Prince that employs them yet 't is great odds but his Successor to shew the Value he sets on his Laws his readiness to redress the Grievances of his Subjects from former Male-administrations of Government and to ingratiate himself with them as all over of Righteousness and tender of their Legal Liberties will offer them as a Sacrifice to public justice And therefore not only all honest Men but also all worldly wise Men and Men of Fortunes will upon this account take heed how they engage themselves in the Execution of the King's Will against his Laws I do not doubt but the Kings of England will consider what the Learned Bracton said that Ipse Rex non debet esse sub homine sed sub Deo sub Lege quia Lex facit Regem The King himself ought not to be under Man but under God and under the Law because the Law makes the King His meaning is not that the King derives his Authority as King from the Law for then the Principal Efficient cause of Governing Administrations would owe its being to the Instrumental Cause thereof but the true Intent of that learned Author and of Fleta too who concurs with him in that expression is this that the Law declares and publisheth to the Subject who is their rightful King and so supports and maintains him as King in their acknowledgments and by the Observation of which he distinguisheth himself from a Tyrant who Governs without a due regard had to Law And in this respect I think my Lord Coke spake not amiss when he told King James the First That the Law sate the Crown upon his Head And there is no such ready Way to keep and hold the Crown there as to keep and hold fast to that Law which sate it there Sect. 93. 3. As the Power of Sovereign Princes is from the Lord so their hearts are in his hand and he over-ruleth them to the best Purposes and will not permit them unless provoked by our sins to become illegal scourges to us 1 Per. 3.13 Who is he that will 〈…〉 if ye be followers of that which is good 'T is generally acknowledged that when the Apostles Epistle was written to the Romans that the Government of that Empire was Despotical and managed with such an Arbitrary Absoluteness that it was highly Tyrannical and yet the Apostle tells them that the Powers that be are ordained of God And forbids them resistance under the pain of condemnation And tells them that Rulers are not i. e. by their Office ought not to be a Terrour to good Works but to the Evil. And least they should say as many among us are apt to do 't is true the good should be protected countenanced and encouraged but we can have no assurance thereof from the Constitution of the Government our Rulers may make their lust a Law and what a Case shall we be in then The Apostle anticipates this Objection by assuring them That performing their duties they shall obtain the Success desired v. 3. Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same For he is the Minister of God to thee
God may be pleased in having his Will fulfilled Rebellion and Stubbornness against the King are of the like Nature with the Sins of Witch-craft iniquity or Superstition as some Translate it and Idolatry against God because they partake of the same Commerce with the Spirit that worketh in the Children of Disobedience alike averse to Subjection and Obedience to the Institutions and Commands of God and alike addicted to the vain Imaginations and Reasonings of their own depraved Minds and alike resolved to fulfil their own Wills in contradiction to the Will of God And as Witch-craft Superstition and Idolatry ascribe the Honor and Glory that is due to God to another so a Rebellious and Stubborn Resistance of the Sovereign Powers is an usurping and arrogating of that Superiority and Vindicative Authority over the Sovereign Powers which belongs to God alone the Subjects assuming the Glory of the Divine Authority and punitive vengeance to themselves and when Offenders are under the like Guilts they must expect the like Alotment of Punishment And accordingly Vatablus on the Place thus Paraphraseth it Tam grave peceatum est tam gravis punitio ei debetur So that if Witch-craft Superstition and Idolatry put Men into a State of Damnation so doth Rebellion And the Church of England Declares in express Terms That eternal Damnation is prepared for all impenitent Rebels in Hell with Satan the first Founder of Rebellion and grand Captain of all Rebels And cells us that the Rebels themselves are the very Figures of Fiends and Devils and as they be followers of Lucifers Rebellion so shall they be of his Damnation in Hell undoubtedly partakers In part 3d. of Serm. against wilfut Rebellion And in the same Homily affirms That all sins possible to be committed against God or Man be contain'd in Rebellion And how horrible a sin against God and Man Rebellion is cannot possibly be expressed according to the greatness of it And what punishment can be too great for so great an offence Sect. 117. That the Truth hereof may the more manifestly be discovered we will consider a Rebellious Resistance of the Sovereign Powers in its Antecedent Concomitant and Consequent sinful Evils From which it will appear that Rebellion is not a singular or one only Sin but the whole Puddle and Sink of all Sins as our Church teacheth us in the Sermon afore-quoted 1. Let us consider a Rebellious Resistance of the Sovereign Powers in its antecedent dispositive sinful Causes and Preparations and we shall find it a Stream issuing from a very filthy Fountain and and of a very hainous Nature meritorious of an answerable punishment Sect. 118. 1. A Rebellious Resistance of the Sovereign Power proceeds from a Luciferian pride and presumption Pr. 13.10 Only by pride cometh contention Proud and Ambitious Rebels would be above all and under none Like Tyre they set their Hearts as the Heart of God Ezek. 28.2 saying with insolent Nineveh Zep. 2.15 I am and there is none beside me They conceit themselves so superlatively excellent that they will own no Superiours or Equals So much Lords and Masters of themselves that they are not only sufficient to protect preserve and defend themselves but also to cast down and domineer over all that are near them especially such as are set above them or would be competitors with them And what is the State of such proud ones before God Truly be knoweth them afar off Ps 138.6 scorneth such scorners Pr. 3.24 resists and counteracts them Jam. 4.6 and therefore they are sure to have a fall and that a terrible low one too they fall into the Condemnation of the Devil 1 Tim. 3.6 Sect. 119. 2. A Rebellious Resistance of the Sovereign Power proceeds from discontent Subjects dislike their Rank and Station they think themselves to be as well accomplished to be Men of Place and to make a Figure in the Government as the best of them all and 't is an hard Case that they should be only Creatures of Burden set in the World to be commanded and controlled have Freedom of Will without Freedom of Practice confined to the imperious Impositions of other Mens Wills and Pleasures who under no consideration intrinsical to the human Nature are any thing better than themselves And if the Public Administrations happen to be contrary to their particular humors and private interests and their Persons fall under any Public Disgrace their dissatisfaction is heightened and their condition becomes intolerable to them and their only Remedy to ease themselves and have their Wills is to rise up against the higher Powers and to contend with them for the Preheminence And what is this but a Contention with God to have their Wills in contradistinction to his Will They will not allow the Lord of all Things to do with his own as he pleaseth but they will prescribe unto God how and where to place them and will not be pleased unless God value them and prefer them according to that rate they set on their own worth and serviceableness The Lord himself called the Children of Israel who murmured against Moses and Aaron Rebels Numb 16.41 comp with ch 17.10 because their discontent did lead to Rebellion and end in it But how doth the Lord take it at mens hands when they grudge and are not satisfied with their condition Truly such Men being conformed to the Image of Satan they wander up and down under God's Curse seeking rest and finding none Ps 59.15 and St. Jude reporting the Reasons and manner of Christs Process to execute the last Judgment upon all that are ungodly v. 15. he numbers the Murmurers i. e. discontented Persons in the fore-front of them all as the Chieftains among all that are ungodly and marked out for the vengeance of eternal fire v. 16. Sect. 120. 2. A Rebellious Resistance of the Sovereign Power proceeds from a Spirit of Envy Malice Strife and Contention Hab 1.3 There are that raise up strife and contention Busie-bodies that love to Fish in troubled Waters And these are invidious minded Men whose Eyes are evil because God is good are grieved vexed and tormented because other Men are more at ease and better accommodated and contented than themselves trouble their own Flesh and rot their very Bones that others excel and are in any thing their Superiours and that they may disquiet and disturb others which they think stand in the Way as Obstacles to their Designs they will engage themselves in the most difficult and hazardous enterprizes Envyings strifes contentions factions and seditions are solemnly coupled together as near a Kin and springing one from the other 1 Cor. 3.3 2 Cor. 12.20 Gal. 5.20 what invidious and quarrelsom spirited Men cannot challenge and obtain by merit they will endeavour to accomplish by fraud force and violence Jam. 4.1 from whence come warrings and fightings among ye Come not they hence even from your lust which war in your members When Men are discomposed and disordered with
conflicts within from the Turbulency of their own unruly and domineering Passions and Lusts have kindled coales in their own bosoms and are at odds with themselves cherish the Insurrections and Rebellions of their Passions and Lusts against the Sovereign Powers of Reason and Conscience then they are disposed to make quarrels oppositions disorders and tumults and confusions in that Community to which they are related For they which stubbornly resist and reject the Dominion Authority and Dictates of their own Reasons Judgments and Consciences they will never bear a due reverence and regard to the Dominion Authority and Edicts of others 'T is not evil usages from without so much as evil Principles from within which make Men make-bates and bontifieus Indeed the Tyrannies and Oppressions of Princes may occasion but exorbitant and rancorous Passions and Lusts are the prime efficient Causes of Seditions Mutinies and Rebellions against the higher Powers And what is the state of Men thus addicted and exercised The Apostle tells us that Hatred envyings variance strife Seditions are the manifest Works of the Flesh and they that do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Gal. 5.19 20 21. Sect. 121. 4. A rebellious Resistance of the Sovereign Power proceeds from covetousness If Covetousness be the root of all Evil 1 Tim. 6.10 'T is the Root of this too A covetous Man is ever ready to catch what he can and if he might have his Will he would have the Possession and Power of all that is And though the impulses of covetousness are not so loud and clamorous so raging and furious as the motions of wrathful passions are yet they are more strong and uncontrolable and not less cruel and barbarous as the instances of Ahab and Judas evince For covetousness doth not only imply the Engagement of the lower and lighter Part of the Affections which are eager and violent for a Fit but also the deliberate and steady-bent of the Will which is the most imperious and self-determining faculty of the Soul And therefore he that will be rich runs on his Course without fear or wit 1 Tim. 6.19 and cares not what legal Establishments and Foundations he overturns and removes so he may obtain those Ends his greedy Appetite fastens on and pursues 'T is gain is his godliness and to serve his Interest he will tread down the Authority of God and Man like the Mire of the Streets And how doth God account of such a disposed Man He reckons him as an Idolater a most horrible and detestable Offender one that hath not any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God Eph. 5.5 Col. 3.5 Gal. 5.20 21. Sect. 122. 2. Let us consider the sinful and pernicious Evils which are Concomitants with a rebellious Resistance of the higher Powers and we shall further discover the hainous and Damnable Nature thereof 1. Idleness is one Concomitant of a rebellious Resistance Rebels are some of those busie-bodies the Apostle speaks of 2 Thes 3.11 Who work not at all and are mischievous as well as useless Better in the Earth than on it For starting out of their proper Place they are a Burden to it Rebels are of that sort of Men of whom Seneca complained who spent their time either nihil agendo aut aliud agendo aut male agendo in doing nothing at all or nothing to the purpose of advantage or nothing but evil they never do what they should do And partaking with the Sodomites in their abundance of idleness Ezek. 16.49 they deserve to share with them in their measure of wrath and vengeance Sect. 123. 2. Neglect of Family duties is another concomitant of a rebellious Resistance Rebels neither attend for the present a Provision for the Bodies or Souls of their Wives and Children or any other who have a dependance on them And hereby making themselves worse than Infidels 1 Tim. 5.8 't would be strange if they should not be in a state of Damnation Sect. 124. 3. Forsaking the solemn worshipping Assemblies of God's People is another Concomitant of a rebellious Resistance Rebels assemble themselves in Troops but not in the House of God Their Congregations are seperations from religious Assemblies Their exercises interruptions yea dissolutions of the holy Congregations of the Faithful When they meet the Shepherds are divided from their Flocks and their Flocks scatter'd and perhaps butcher'd and their Sanctuaries laid wast and made desolate And when Men like Cain go out from the Presence of the Lord wilfully excommunicate themselves from the ordinary and standing means of Salvation we have no reason to think that God will by a miraculous Act of Sovereign Grace deliver them from damnation Sect. 125. 4. Hypocrisie is another Concomitant of a rebellious Resistance Rebels will not seem to be as they are nor to do as they do but like the Spies the high Priests and Scribes sent to entrap Christ They fame themselves just Men Luk. 20.20 pretend they act by a lawful Authority in a just and weighty Cause for a good and necessary End and have set up their Banner in the Name of the Lord of Hosts Psal 20.5 and engaged not themselves herein till they saw Matters reduced to an undoing extremity and will use this last Remedy for the redress of public Grievances without prejudice to the Innocent or injury to any Man observing all along the direction of St. John the Baptist Luke 3.14 alas good Men they are for a Pacification without contending and if Matters in difference were fairly adjusted they would put off their Animosities with their Arms. Whereas their hearts are set upon mischief cover red Inclinations with a pale Face and under specious Pretences of defending and preserving the public Safety and Welfare creep into opportunities to hazard and destroy them And such Hypocrisies are so hateful unto God that he makes the evil Portion of Hypocrites the Standard of the severest punishments allotted to Sinners as if Hell were primarily designed for them Mat. 24.51 and our Saviour comparing the Priests and Elders to the Son in the Parable that said I go Sir but went not the Emblem of an Hypocrite tells them That Publicans and Harlots go into the Kingdom of God before them Mat. 21.30 31. Sect. 126. 5. Lying Defamation is another Concomitant of a rebellious Resistance Rebels ever have will and do stretch their Mouths and shoot their Arrows even bitter words of detraction and reproach against the higher Powers Oh! said Absolom when his Head was filled with seditious and rebellious Projections and Designs That I were made Judge in the Land that every Men that hath any Suit or Cause might communto me and I would do him justice 2 Sam. 15.4 insinuating that justice was not so saithfully and seasonably so universally and impartially administred as it might and ought to be and should be were it in his Power A manifest endeavour to undermine the reputation of his Fathers Government in the Opinion of his Subjects and to