wonder if the Judgment of God follow upon it And they that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation But though this Argument from the Divine Original of Government be so strong an enforcement of this Duty yet the Apostle goes on to tye it harder and that is from its End the Good of the Subject For he is the Minister of God to thee for good And common Sense will tell us that submission to the worst Princes is much more the Interest of the Subject then Rebellion against them So that how much harm soever a Tyrannical Prince may bring upon a Common-wealth he does it more good though it were only by being a Bar against the Miseries of War and Confusion And common experience will confirm the Wisdom of St. Paul's Argument that be the Governors the worst that can be and so they were at that time yet their Government in spite of their own folly and wickedness is highly beneficial to the Common-wealth and in that every private mans Interest and Property is comprehended Now from both these Premises the conclusion is unavoidable Wherefore ye must needs be Subject not only for Wrath but for Conscience sake That is not only for fear of the King and his Laws but out of sense of duty to that God by whose Authority Kings Reign and who has bound upon our Consciences the duty of Subjection to them Now one would think it impossible for Men to escape from the obligation of so clear a Law and so it is till they lay aside the natural Sense and Ingenuity of Mankind and then indeed Mens Consciences are arm'd against all Conviction and so it happens among us that as once much learning made this great Apostle mad so now much Reliligion makes him a Fool. For so we are told that we must not think that he would be so silly as to abett the Wickedness of Tyrants Non ut Neronem aut Tyrannum quemvis alium supra omnem legem paenam constituendo crudelissimum unius Imperium in omnes mortales constabiliret that he would not set up Nero or any other Tyrant above all Law and Punishment and establish the cruel Dominion of one above all And therefore we must distinguish between the King's Person as a Man in Concreto to express it in Mr. Rutherford's words though it is the Sence of all the Monarchomachists and as a King and his Office in abstracto the Person may be resisted though not the Office because if the Person govern not by Law and Justice he ceases to be a Lawful Power But to what purpose is it for God to make Laws if Men may evacuate their force by such Metaphysical Nothings For how can we submit to the Office of a King but by submitting to the King himself If the Office it self could Govern without him then it might be the safest way to stick to the Abstract but seeing it cannot subsist without the Concrete he that commands to submit to the Office commands us to submit to the Man in whom it is or he commands us nothing So that this is really no better then prophane trifling with the Word of God when we are in plain and express terms commanded to make no Resistance to our Governors to get loose from so useful a Law by such childish and senseless Trifles as plainly contradict the Law it self For whereas the only design of such Laws is to preserve the Peace of humane Societies by such evasions as these all Men are left at liberty to disturb it as they please notwithstanding all the Laws in the World that ever were or ever can be made against it And therefore I would advise these Men that can cheat and lullaby their own Consciences with such Rattles as these either to lay aside their Metaphysicks or their Religion because such niceness and subtilty makes it a thing of no Use in the practice of the World For if there were no such Laws at all Men would be under no greater restraint from the Sin then they are now by the most effectual Laws that it is possible for God himself to lay upon them Men that can use such abusive and prevaâ—icating shifts to escape their plain Duty are arrived either to too great Prophaneness or too high Enthusiasm to be admitted to the Rights of common Christianity They serve their Saviour just as they do their Prince they obey him in abstracto and Rebell against him in concreto they submit to his Laws when themselves think it convenient but when they do not they then cease to be his Laws This is the unavoidable result of these thin and precarious distinctions that Religion if Men will shall be of no use or force in the practice of the World But secondly this is down-right Childrens play and make all Laws whatsoever ridiculous when it leaves it to those who are commanded absolute submission to judge when submission is sit and when not Do but once allow that Liberty and after that all the Laws injoyning this Duty can never command any thing For after they have commanded all that can be commanded every Man will be as much at liberty to do what he pleases as he was beâ—ore being sole Judge of the fitness of his Subjection But if he be Judge of that he is not bound and if he be bound he is not Judge but is absolutely bound In our present case what can the Apostles Command signifie when he peremptorily and indefinitly requires subjection to the Higher Powers i. e. say these Statesmen to all Powers that govern by Law and none else This makes the Subjects the Supreme Judges of the Government not the Governors themselves for by it whatever these do or Command it is of no Authority then as the Subjects judge it Legal and if they do not they are at liberty to Resist and Rebel And if this be so St. Paul would deserve to be laughed at for being so serious in enforcing a Law that can never bind whilst he commands Subjection or Non-resistance to higher Powers when the Subjects after that have full Power in themselves to determine to what higher Powers they will or will not resist Such Non-sence lyes at the bottom of all Rebellion for if Men are at all bound to submit to their Governours they are bound to submit to all if not to all then not to any because the Power of Resistance is by this poor Republican Principle at last wholly left to their own Judgment and then they are subject to no Authority but themselves and their own Wills But thirdly if a King ceases to be the higher Power or to be a Lawful King whenever he does not act according to Law or whenever his Subjects shall apprehend so how is it possible there should be any settled Government or Society among Mankind when it is so plainly impossible but that there must be miscarriages as long as Kings are Men and much more misapprehensions of the Government as long as the People
for the most part made Denisons of those Cities where they inhabited and there were very few that were not as well as St. Paul free of some City or other And then these Jews or most of them to whom this Epistle was written were as proper Subjects to the Government under which they lived as if they had been Natives of the Province Certainly Men must be arrived to a very slight regard towards their own Consciences that dare shuffle away the Obligation of such severe and Sacred Laws of God himself with so much violence to their own Understandings For it was impossible that Men of Common Sense much less of Learning and Acuteness could satisfie themselves with such trifling pretences But so it ever was and so it ever will be that as certain as Religion is at the top of all Rebellion Atheism and Prophaneness is at the Bottom §. VII But to what purpose do I take all this pains to prove the Duty of Non-resistance from the Laws of God the Obligations of Conscience and the Nature of Christianity when that only convinces the Hildebrandists of their Impiety and Apostacy from the Christian Faith For what care they for that Religion is the least of their thought or concernment and though they make it the flourish to all their pretences it is not for any kindness to that but only to amuse the Common People and dazle them as Men catch Larks with Looking-Glasses into their Party both against themselves and their Governours And it is evident that the Patriots and Ring-leaders of Faction have no other measures of Conscience in the Case then only interest reason of State and the good of the Common-wealth And here they applaud and admire themselves with one busie and plausible pretence that this Doctrine of absolute Submission proceeds from a natural dulness and want of that Sense that all Men of wit and courage ought to have of their Native Liberty and serves no End but only the encouragement of Tyranny inviting Princes that are of themselves ill-inclin'd to insult over our Tameness and how much soever they trample upon us and our Liberties they know we must not only endure all but like Spaniels resent it well Now though a wise Man would not refuse Subjection to a good natur'd or a generous Prince yet what Man of any Spirit can with any patience see a whole Kingdom enslaved to the insolence or the folly or the luxury of one Man That say they is not to submit to Government for that always takes care of the Publick Good but instead of that it betrays the Common-wealth to Tyranny and Arbitrary Oppression Now to give the utmost that these Pretenders to Politicks and Innovation can alledge not only to justifie but to admire themselves and the wisdom of their Proceedings I will freely grant that it may and often does fall out that Princes may be weak or wicked or negligent unskilful and unfaithful in their Government that they may injure Multitudes of Private Persons and neglect the Publick that their Follies and Vices may endanger a whole Nation and that the case is somewhat hard that all the good People in it must be bound in Duty and Conscience to assist and uphold that Power with Lives and Fortunes that is nothing but Load and Oppression This indeed is an hard case and an inconvenience that must sometimes though but rarely be felt by being under Government But alas there are many more hard cases in the World and much heavier inconveniences if we cast it off So that setting aside all regard to Duty and consulting only Interest and though we care not to be honest yet if we will be but a little wise and take a true account of our own quiet and security let these shrewd Men of Politicks only consider whether it will not be more easie to bear this heavy Burthen then to cast it off with Violence to the Government and whether by removing one present inconvenience we do not run our selves into more greater and more lasting That is the only point of Wisdom and Politiques in this case whether submission to the worst Government be not more easie to the Subject then War and Rebellion And this I think will be evident to any Man of Common Sence if we only consider what we lose and what we gain by it First we lose our own safety and all that we gain is that loss For all Government is the first security of every Man 's private Interest against the Injuries and Violences of all other Men and that will make it highly useful and beneficial at all times though never so ill administred For were it not for fear of Authority every Man would be exposed a Prey to all Men and all Mankind would unavoidably fall into a State of War then which State nothing can be more defenceless and deplorable and yet nothing but Government preserves us from it So that when we shake off our Duty and Submission to that we put our selves and our Families out of all security against the Violence of all the World beside And therefore it was both a wise and a witty custom that Sextus Empiricus reports to have been among the old Persians that the People upon the death of any of their Kings were allowed five days Anarchy that by the Mischiefs Slaughters Rapines Oâ—â—rages committed in that short Interval they might be convinced of the Usefulness and Necessity of Government and set the greater esteem upon the succeeding Prince And if Men would but consider the great Usefulness of the worst Government that it is a defence and protection of their own private Interests against the Invasions of wicked Men that would soon prevail with them to bear all the inconveniencies of a bad Government rather then blow up themselves and Fortunes together with it For whosoever resists the Government does what in him lies to destroy it and when that is done he has not only endanger'd but certainly lost his own security So great a gainer is every Subject that will take upon him to reform the Government by force that he pulls up the very Fence by which his own Inclosure and Propriety is secured Nay though himself may be so wise as to sit down patiently under an oppressive Government yet if he do but encourage this Doctrine of the Lawfulness of resistance to Princes he exposes himself as well as the Government to all the Assualts of Usurpers For if it be Lawful for other Subjects though they think it not wise for themselves to take up Arms against the Prince his Authority is thereby made too weak and ineffectual to be their Protection they are exposed to the dangers of War and lye wholly at last at the mercy of a Conquering Army and that is the Result of all the Pleas for Resistance upon any pretence whatsoever that they all conclude in Anarchy and Confusion And if we will but take the Experience of our own or other Ages the case
habitual course of their Lives do such things for the disturbance both of Church and State as are plainly inconsistent with any sense or design of integrity I know pride and passion may Transport Men into strange actions but then those are as great Crimes themselves as any that they can hurry them into But that they should carry Men that mean honestly into such a constant course of life as no Charity can reconcile with any Principles of Integrity is the thing that I say lies beyond my comprehension Thus in our particular Case of Non-resistance which is one of the greatest Cases of Conscience in the World thô there is not nor cannot be a clearer Precept in all the Bible then this of St. Paul's against all manner of Resistance to Sovereign Princes yet has this unhappy Man so stated the bounds of due Obedience and lawful Resistance from its Authority as in the result of all not only to evacuate all its Obligation but to make it the very Warranty from Heaven of all Popular Rebellions Thus he tells us plainly that all resistance is not here forbidden though the Apostle says in express terms that whoever resists shall be damn'd and that I think is all Resistance For there is a Resistance contrary to Subjection and that is forbidden And there is a Resistance not contrary to Subjection and that is not forbidden Now he that can Reconcile Resistance and Subjection together may at the same time be a Rebel and a good Subject especially as Mr. B. has stated it For having distinguisht between Resistance lawful and unlawful he makes it lawful in so many Cases and unlawful in so few as makes it so in all Thus Thes. 340 he says That if a Prince Command his Subjects beyond his Limits resistance in such a case is not to resist the Power but the Will of a private Man The very same Assertion with Rutherford's that if he govern according to Law we are bound to submit but if he exceed those bounds that the Law has left him then Resistance and Rebellion are no sins Such a wilful blindness is it in these Men that that they cannot see the middle way of subjection that lies between Obedience and Resistance for when I cannot Obey I can and ought to Submit but Resist I cannot without Rebellion And that is the Subjects Duty in all unlawful Commands though he cannot obey he can be quiet and peaceable nay he can do any thing to remove or redress the Grievance but resist the Government When a Kingdom is blest with good Laws it concerns Subjects to be tender of their Preservation by all fair and regular means but if they once Rebel against their Prince in defence of their Laws they lose both by the Dissolution of the Government for when that is gone and it is certain that all Rebellion aims at its destruction the Laws lye dead and can do them no Service And therefore there is no one Law so beneficial to the Subject as the Fundamental Law of Sovereignty that it is irresistible the security of the publick Government is the last security of every Man's Liberty and Property But if it be once invaded we are immediately in a state of War and then no Man can have any thing that he can call his own But of that when I come to discourse of the Reason and the Wisdom of Non-resistance here it is enough to observe that these Men are so perverse as to acknowledge no middle way between actual Obedience and actual Rebellion whereas the peculiar design of these Precepts is to fix our duty when we cannot obey in Submission or Nonrestance But here Mr. B. has a subtle Notion that will baer out his Innocence though he wade up to the Knees in Blood and to the Elbows in Rebellion and that is That not obeying is the first and chiefest resisting and therefore if one be Lawful so is the other and then whenever we cannot Lawfully Obey we may Lawfully Resist An admirable Notion this to set all the World on fire to make no difference between meer Non-obedience and cutting of Throats for that I take it is making some kind of Resistance yet by Mr. B's Principle bare not obeying is more so being The first and chiefest act of Resistance What cannot these Men break their Consciences to that can out of the duty of Passive Obedience infer the Obligation or at least the Lawfulness of actual Resistance because forsooth Passive Obedience is the first and chiefest act of actual Resistance I pray God deliver his Church from such Apostate Divines and his Anointed from such Rebel Subjects But now are we come to the very Fort-Royal of the Presbyterian Rebellion Thesis 352. If a Nation that is as he all along explains himself its representative Body wrong their King it is not Lawful for him to right himself by War because it is against the Common Good of which the Representatives are the only Judges by Thesis 356 357 358 367. That is to say that supposing the Parliament of Forty One had offer'd the King all those Injuries and Indignities that he so justly complained of yet when he went about to recover and assert his Soveraignty by force of Arms it was fighting against the Common Good and Representative Body of a Nation in which all Men are bound to Resist him because they are all bound by nature to defend the Common Good How helpless and deplorable is the condition of poor Princes when they are wrong'd they may not defend themselves whilst their Subjects may not only take away their Swords but tye their Hands and if they please to disable them forever cut them off too for the Common Good This is Fourty One true blew and I think a cast beyond it But what has a King no Remedy No none at all against the Representative Body of a Nation Methinks he might Dissolve them No says he That is but to betray the Trust of the Common-wealth Is there then no Remedy to ease themselves Yes yes If their injury be too great to be born they may lay down their Crowns at pleasure Crowns are â—ot like Lands that Men hold primarily Jure Domini They are not primarily the matter of Propriety Government is a means to Publick Good When any Man's possession of the Crown does cease to be a means to the Publick Good and this without the Peoples injury it is then his Duty to resign it and no injury to be deprived of it for the means is no means when it is against the End If a Nation injuriously deprive themselves of a worthy Prince the hurt will be their own and they punish themselves but if it be necessary to their Welfare it is no injury to him Thank you good Mr. B. this is right Presbyterian courtesie to Kings to grant them leave to rid themselves of the Trouble of their Crowns and to revenge themselves too of their Rebellious Subjects by depriving them of a
St. Cyprian is as express for Passive Obedience join'd with Loyal Prayers as any of his Predecessors Nemo nostrum quando apprehenditur reluctatur necâ—â—se adversus injustam violentiam vestram quamvis nimius copiosus noster sit Populus ulciscitur Innocentes nocentibus cedunt insontes paenis cruciatibus acquiescunt None of us when he is apprehended resists and though our numbers are great and considerable we do not think of revenging our selves against your unjust Oppressions the Innocent submit to the Guilty and sit down quietly under Pains and Tortures And then a little after this he adds That though we are treated thus barbarously yet we cease not to pray for the expulsion of your Enemies for seasonable Rains for removing or abating publick Calamities begging of God day and night with the greatest importunity for your peace and safety that are our Persecutors And in this time they were so tender of doing any thing offensive to the Civil Government or any way contrary to their Commands that they judged it not lawful for a Christian that was banisht for his Religion to return into his own Country without the leave and warrant of Authority So that St. Cyprian reckoning up in his Epistle to the Confessors in the Decian Persecution divers scandals that some of them had given to the Christian Church particularly of some that lived in continual Debauchery and Uncleanness either from their very Baptisme or their Confession next to these he tells them Alius in eam Patriam unde extorris factus est regreditur ut deprehensus non quasi Christianus sed quasi nocens pereat Another returns back into his Countrey from whence he had been commanded into Banishment where if he be apprehended let him know that he suffers not as a Christian but as a Malefactor From all which passages it is evident beyond all contradiction that it was the unanimous sense of all the most eminent Doctors of the ancient Church that nothing was more contrary to the whole frame and constitution of Christianity then resistance to the Civil Government in any case whatsoever and that in case of Persecution and Oppression for it Passive Obedience was their indispensable duty which upon any provocation to violate any way was judged no less a Crime then renouncing the Christian Faith It were easie to have collected a vast number of passages out of the Writings of the Ancients to the same purpose and divers such Collections have been made by Learned Men but I have selected these peculiar passages out of my own little observation because they do not only give us their Opinion but the ground upon which they build it from the reason and the nature of their Religion and that gives it a perpetual and unalterable Obligation in all times and cases and how various soever the Affairs of the World may be yet this duty can never be alter'd by any change of circumstances because it is as unchangeable as the nature of our Religion so that as long as Christianity lasts it must for ever equally oblige all Christians under all circumstances and in all conditions Neither do they teach the Doctrine of Non-resistance meerly as Doctors of the Christian Church as it is a Law of their Religion but as Philosophers or men that understood the Interest of Mankind and the Original of Government For the reason which they unanimously alledge for it is this that all Governments in the World are every where fix't by the Providence of the Supreme Governor of it and for that reason they take it to be their Wisdom as well as their Duty peaceably to acquiesce in the settled and establish't Government how ill soever administred and leave the punishment of its ill-administration by particular persons to him from whom they received their Authority Now this Doctrine of Non-resistance or Submission being so universally taught and that upon such unalterable principles and reasons one would think it enough to set it above all manner of exception or evasion And yet such is the perverseness of the several Anti-Christian Factions of Christendom that they break through all these Restraints into all the licentiousness of Rebellion But this they do with that impudence against the common sense of Mankind and that violence to their own Consciences that they would have done much more prudently to have wholly slighted and rejected the Authority of the ancient Lacrymists then admitting it to make so poor and dull a mistake from its obligation For they all agree in this one slender and inconsistent Plea that this Doctrine was only suited to their present necessity because they then wanted power to make resistance That is to say in one soft and friendly word that they were a Race of the rankest Knaves and Fools that ever appeared among Mankind That when our Saviour had strictly forbid it as inconsistent with the nature of his Religion and the Fundamental Doctrine of the Cross. That when the Apostles reinforced the same precept with all the earnestness and all the motives in the World particularly out of duty to God and their Religion And that when the whole succession of Christians from their time to After-ages profess'd and practiced the same duty upon the same Principles To tell us after all this that 't is all Hypocrisie and Dissimulation nothing but a Primitive Jesuitical Trick to blind their Governors with fine Stories of the unlawfulness of taking up Arms in their own defence when the only reason of it was that they had no Arms to take up and that it was nothing but sufficient strength and ability to resist that kept them off from actual Rebellion This is such a contradiction to all their avowed Protestations to the Notoriety of the matter of Fact itself to all their Apologies and to their own defiance of so durty a surmize as amounts to no better account then giving them all the open Lye and for that reason I think it would have been much better to have at first once for all trampled upon the Authority of such tame Creatures then to shift it off with such a senseless and shameless Evasion And upon that account I suppose it was that it was at last forsaken in our late Rebellion and new pretences devised in its stead but of such a daring boldness and blasphemy against Heaven itself that they would sooner affright a wise man to hear them then puzzle a Fool to answer them and those are the prophane Pleas of the Independants to justifie his Majesties Murther viz. New Discoveries and Revelations from Heaven it self It seems the Villany was so horrid in itself that nothing less could bear out their confidence in committing it then the immediate Authority of God himself And thus they are not ashamed to tell us That the Doctrine of Non-resistance was not a seasonable priviledge for that age and therefore not discover'd because it would have hindred the birth of Antichrist whose coming into the World