of all Duties of Subjects and particularly of Non-resistance saying They that resist shall receive Damnation as resisting the Powers that be of God and the Ordinance of God and requiring Subjection out of Conscience because they are Gods Ministers So that as to matter of Resistance any other King has the conscionable Bar against it as much as a King of Gods own naming if he be but Gods Minister and Ordinance But now the Power of Kings by humane Titles is Gods Power and God owns this way of coming in and empowers them as much as those that come in by his own personal Nomination declaring that their Power is his Power and that they are his Ministers and Ordinance All which S. Paul says as expresly of the Roman Emperor as he could have said of any Prince immediately call'd out and commission'd by God himself The seditious Jews I conceive were of this Opinion that the Heathen Powers not set up by any Revelations but left to humane Claims were not Kings of Gods making And so were wont to despise and speak slightfully of them Despising Dominion and speaking evil of Dignities as S. Jude says of the Seditious Judaizers v. 8. But S. Paul tells such Men that these Powers were as truly of God as any of their own Nation and that Gods Command for obeying Powers was as much for obeying these as it had been for obeying them There is no power saith he but of God And he that resists the Power resists the Ordinance of God 〈◊〉 the Divine Precept viz. the fifth Commandment or other Precepts that oblige Subjects and empower Princes and give as much Duty to these Heathen Powers as they had done to any among the Jews Rom. xiii 1 2. And like to this of the different ways of their coming in making no difference in our Duties to them we find in other instances In point of Property we come into our Lands and Possessions by an humane Law and Allotment but they came into theirs in Canaan by a divine But yet there is as much Stealing and a breach of the eighth Commandment in taking away our things from us as there was in taking away theirs from them And in case of Servitude the Primitive Masters came by their Servants either as their Captives taken in War or as their Purchase bought with money like their Cattle in the Markets but we by Contract all our Servants voluntarily submitting themselves to us and at their own choice Yet for all this different Rise of Masters Powers when once Servants are got under them the same Gospel Precepts of Diligence Fidelity and not answering again c. do equally oblige in both Cases The Duties respecting either Power or Property depend not on the particular manure of coming in but only on the Rightfulness and Degrees of that Power and Property which any Persons are come in to More Power I grant there is in some Princes and more Liberties to some Subjects than to others according to the difference of Civil Governments and Constitutions But since the Power of the Jewish Kings was a Power limited by Laws as ours is an Invasion of Laws and Rights can no more justifie Resistance in our Case than it did in theirs And to say they did not come into this limited and Legal Power the same way makes no difference as to this business The Scriptures of the New Testament likewise they endeavor to turn off by saying they only bind us not to resist when true Religion has Laws against it but for all those Precepts we may resist when it has a Law on its side If we may do thus when we have a Law for Religion then since Law is as good in one Case as in another when we have a Law for Liberty or Property or any thing else But this as I have shewn is contrary to the sense of those Gospel Precepts and to the Belief and Practice of Gospel and Primitive Times Which tied up the Hands of Christians when they suffered illegal things and were treated by their Governors in numerous and most concerning Points against the Laws Again they say those Precepts were directed against Jews who were not for submitting or paying Allegiance to Foreiners or Heathens Admit they had one Eye against these yet at the same time they had as much against any others that would have run into the same Jewish Practice or have been for making Warlike Resistance to those Powers on any other pretences The thing those Precepts are plainly for securing is Non-Resistance to those Powers notwithstanding any thing that could be alledged against them And as the Jews might pretend in those days that they were Foreiners and Heathens so might others and with as much truth too that they were Invaders of Laws of Rights and Liberties And yet for all these or any other pretences Seditious Spirits should start the Apostles peremptorily injoyn all good Christians to own them still as Gods Ordinance and to forbear all warlike Resistance towards them not only for wrath but for Conscience sake And thus in obedience to those injunctions they all practised at that time as their followers did in the succeeding Persecutions And the Scriptures are written for a Rule of Christs Church alike in all times as much to us as they were to former Ages So that these Precepts both of Old and New Testament are as binding upon us as ever they were upon either the Jews or the Primitive Christians And whatever pretences were pleadable in their Case whilst the Inspired Pen-men told them they were bound not to Resist to be sure those same pretences can never Cancel our Obligation more than it did theirs or make it lawful for us do it We must follow them to Heaven in the same way the Apostles taught and they took or else we are not like to get thither at all CHAP. VI. Of the unlawfulness of Resistance on such Invasions of Rights by our own Laws TO all this which I have hitherto Discoursed from the Obligations both of Jews and Christians I shall now Thirdly In the Thrid Place Note from our own Laws how little Ground there is with us in these Realms to take up Arms against our Sovereigns for any Rights because of their being Legal or for Religion because of its being taken into the Law of the Land For those very Laws which establish our Religion and particularly the Act of Uniformity forbid this way of Defence and declare it unlawful on any Pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King This Declaration was made upon occasion of the Great Rebellion begun in 41. and for preventing any ones falling into the like again And therefore by any Pretence whatsoever it must more particularly include all those Pretences which were given out for taking Arms at that time And those Pretences as may be seen from the Votes and Declararations of that Parliament a brief Account whereof is given in the View of the late
thing or make the Law which forbids it cease to be a Rule to them No the Laws of God and Men are to be the Rules of conscionable acting The Autority of the Law is the Autority of a Rule And for a Rule it is the best Autority And an humane Law is the best Humane Autority And where Kings neither make nor unmake and repeal Laws alone the King commanding in the Laws is of more Autority to rule the Subjects Actings than the King commanding against them And what doth his Autority give him as to that particular illegal Act Not to be questionable or accountable for it among Men or coercible by Force and armed Opposition And that because for all that act he is still our King and we owe him Subjection Receiving such illegal Acts from our King we must receive them as Subjects And the obligation of continuing Subjects excludes all Liberty of armed Resistance Whence say they in an illegal Act has a Sovereign Prince this Autority From the Fifth Commandment and from all those Commandments that require Submission and Obedience and being subject unto Princes For the plain intent of all those Precepts as may sufficiently appear I think from what I have said on this Argument is to require these to Princes that break as well as to those that keep Laws to unjust as well as to righteous Sovereigns And if God commands us to submit and keep in Subjection to a Sovereign Prince that acts against Laws he must forbid us to resist such for men put off Subjection when they fall to Resisting It may be asked still has he it from the Law of the Land Yes What from the Law he invades Doth the Law give him Autority to break it self No but by all those Laws that declare he incurs no Forfeiture by such Invasions For all those Laws that own and declare such Invader to be still our King determine our Subjection to him and forbid us to resist him For Men are no longer in the state and posture of Subjects when they come to arm against their Sovereigns If a Man suffers illegally they will demand by what Law By none surely for then there is an end of the Illegality But to ask for a Law for his suffering is to ask for something to justifie or make it just in the eye of Law that he should suffer But this is not pretended from the Kings Autority and it is supposed to be an unjust and illegal Suffering But if the King has no Autority to justifie the illegal Suffering has he any Autority to bar the illegal Sufferers resisting Yes the Regal Autority not being lost by that illegal Act but still abiding in him For all he makes a Man suffer against Law he is still his King And that is a Reason against Resisting For by all Law both of God and Man we must be subject to our King And he ceases to be subject that draws his Sword against him CHAP. IX The Reasons of Non resistance And how it makes not Arbitrary Government I Shall only add now in the last place concerning this Non-resistance or not arming against invading Princes required of and practised by the first and best Christians what Regards they were guided by and what Reasons they looked at for this Observance 1. The first and chiefest was in Reverence to God's Ordinance insomuch as those Rulers were Gods Anointed his Ministers or his Vicegerents How can I stretch forth my hand against Saul says David and be guiltle§ seeing he is the Lords anointed 1 Sam. xxvi 9 and c. xxiv 6 And he that resists shall receive Damnation saith S. Paul as resisting the Ordinance of God Rom. xiii 2 And he is the Minister of God wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake v. 4 5. And like to these are the Sayings of the Primitive Fathers for Submission to the persecuting Emperors Tertullian grounds the Duty of Allegiance we owe the Emperor on this that he is deputed by God and has his Power from the same from whom he has his Spirit that he is one quem Deus eligit qui à nostro Deo constitutus i.e. whom God has appointed à Dominus Dei vice Gods Vicegerent or a Lord over us in Gods place and stead whom knowing à Deo constitui to be Gods Ordinance every Christian ought of necessity to love reverence and wish safe This made the Sacredness and Autority of the Emperor in their eyes because as Athenagoras tells Marcus and his Son Commodus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Empire they had received from God The same which Dionysius of Alexandria said afterwards of Valerianus and Gallienus to Aemilian the Praesect And because as Theophilus says in his Book to Autolycus under the Emperor Commodus tho the Emperor is not God yet he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Man ordained of God and under him to do Judgment and Justice And this also is the ground of Subjects Duty and Allegiance in the Doctrine of our Church All Subjects do owe of bounden Duty Obedience Submission and Subjection to the Higher Powers for as much as they be Gods Lieutenants Gods Praesidents Gods Officers c. says the Homily of Obedience Part 1. And again all Subjects are bound to obey them yea though they be evil and that for Conscience sake as Gods Ministers Though they be wicked and abuse their Power yet therefore it is not lawful for their Subjects to withstand them because even wicked Rulers have their Power and Autority from God Homily of Obedience Part 2. Now all these are Reasons not to Resist the worst as well as the best Kings the infringers of Rights as well as the maintainers of them For all Men rightfully invested with Power are Gods Ministers his Anointed and his Ordinance however they employ their Power The bad are as well as the good at their worst as well as at their best times Saul is the Lords Anointed as well as David Zedekiah as well as Josiah Nero Domitian Dioclesian or other bloody Persecuting Emperors as well as the most just and godly Kings The same that gave the Power says S. Austin to Marius gave it also to C. Caesar he that conferred it on Augustus gave it also to Nero he that bestowed it on the Vespasians Father and Son those most obliging Emperors bestowed it also on Domitian so infamous for his Cruelties And not to particularize any further he that set up Constantine the Christian Emperor set up Julian too who Apostatized from Christ. In reading the Holy Scriptures says our Church in the Homily against willful Rebellion we shall find in very many and almost infinite Places as well of the Old Testament as of the New that Kings and Princes as well the evil as the good do Reign by Gods Ordinance c. They have their Power and Authority from God says the Homily of Obedience and are
World p. 11. l. 33. r. that it is but fit p. 14. l. 17. r. this external Force p. 23. l. 6. in the Margin r. cited p. 3. p. 29. l. 15. in the Margin r. Apol. p. 6. c. 13. p. 38. l. 18. in the Margin r. c. l. 4. p. 39. l. 8. r. Romans p. 43. l. 29. r. to bear p. 46. l. 16. r. which no Judge and l. 25 in the Margin r. convenit eum p. 51. l. 21. in the Margin r. Vindemiam p. 52. l. 11. r. Persecutors p. 65. l. 1 r. manner p. 66. l. 24. r. third p. 67. l. 29. r. Houses p. 68. l. 17. r. not on p. 71. l. 7. r. Salvo p. 79. l. 1. r. Sue for it in CHRISTIANITY A DOCTRINE OF THE CROSS PAssive Obedience to Sovereign Powers is keeping under their Obedience when we suffer wrongfully at their hands If they command things against the Law of God or of the Land we ought not or if against the inviolable Liberties which Laws have secured against the Prerogative in their respective Kingdoms we need not ordinarily be Active in doing what we are bidden In other things a just and lawful Authority must have Active Obedience But when they come to punish against Laws or for such things as with a safe Conscience their Subjects could not act in they are still to continue under their Obedience and in a state of Subjection And this is by being Passive or not rising up to Resist and Levy War against them They may seek to guard off the unjust Suffering by Petitioning by claiming the help of Law from Courts of Justice whilst there are any Provisions for help yet untryed therein or by any other fitting ways consistent with Subjection But not by running to Arms when all other ways fail and by lifting Soldiers for no Man will stand in Arms by himself against him to defend their own Rights against their lawful Sovereign Whilst a Prince is our lawful Sovereign Obedience must be Due to him and whilst we are under his Obedience we must be Passive and have no liberty in this sort to resist him This Doctrine of Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance seems both most plainly prescribed by the Precepts and most sutable to the Spirit and Genius of Holy Religion The Fifth Commandment under the name of Honor injoyns both Reverence and Support of Princes as our Politick Fathers But when Subjects make War upon them instead of paying Fear and Reverence they are plainly in a state of bidding Defiance and when the Sword is unsheathed against them that is evidently not for their Support but for the beating and pulling of them Down Put them in mind saith S. Paul to obey Magistrates But there is most visibly an end of Obedience when things are come to this pass and Men under command cannot possibly do any thing more contrary to shewing Obedience than to rise and fall upon their Commanders Submit says S. Peter to every ordinance of man Yea Let every soul be subject saith S. Paul But what becomes of submission when they fall thus to resisting For every Man must needs be sensible he doth no longer submit to another when he stands up to resist and fight against him Christianity is a Doctrine of the Cross which is one of its Distinguishing Marks nothing in account thereof being more necessary more proper and praise-worthy than for Christians to take up and bear Crosses Whence came those Crosses so much as from the Persecuting Powers And if the Crosses which Christians profess to bear are such as Persecuting Sovereigns lay on it is plain they profess not to Resist which is out of the way of bearing but to shew Passive Obedience under them For there is an end of taking up and bearing Crosses when instead of taking up and bearing Men set themselves with all their might to shake them off or beat them back again These passages and such like do sufficiently bear out the Duty of Non-Resistance even to the most ordinary Understandings if they will but attend to them Besides that S. Paul has told us in express terms that they who resist the Higher Powers shall receive to themselves damnation All this was true say the Advocates of Resistance at those times and in those Cases for which these Rules were given But those were where the wills of Governors were Laws or where the Laws brought Crosses not where the Laws as it is with us are a Cover against them Religion it self say they doth not authorise Resistance but Civil Right doth And if Religion is by Law made a Civil Right we may Resist for it as we may for other Civil Rights and Properties Not being bound by any of these Precepts to bear Crosses which the Law keeps off Nor tyed to submission under invasion of Civil Rights which carry with them a power to rise in Defence thereof This Plea is set up as the main strength of those that argue against the Doctrine of Passive Obedience And my design is particularly to Discuss it and to inquire whether the Precepts and Obligations to Passive Obedience were given and kept with an exception of these Invasions of Civil Rights or with a design to bind under them and as a Rule to Christians whilst they suffered such Invasions This way of Warlike Resistance is a very hazardous course and thereby Men extremely expose their own Persons And that which tempts them thus to hazard themselves as the most serious are wont to profess is their Affection for Religion Like as that which is given out to justifie them therein is its being made a Civil Right or Legal Constitution And I shall endeavour to shew them that Religion gets no good by it so they are mistaken in the way of shewing their Affection And that its being a Civil Right will not warrant them therein so they will miss also of their Justification The former I shall not pass over without saying so much as I think sufficient to undeceive the honest and well meaning But the clearing of the later is what I principally design CHAP. I. No Arming against Sovereign Powers in love for Religion TO take off the pretence and temptation to war-like Resistance against the Soveraign Powers for the sake of Religion I shall shew in the first place that this Rising in Arms is no wise expression of Mens care and kindness for true Religion Religion is an internal thing It doth not hang without us as the things of the world but is inward in the mind It is lodged in our hearts and is to dwell upon our Spirits The Kingdom of God is within you says our Saviour Luk. xvii 2 It consists in a New Nature and the Renewal of the mind says S. Paul Rom. xii 2 It lies in Faith and Obedience which are Spiritual and internal things Their Power and Excellence take life from and are seated in the inner Man though they are expressed and made visible in the
Imperial Prerogative more and more till by degrees they had swallowed up most of that which by the allowance of the Lex Regia at first remain'd of the Powers and Prerogatives of the People and Senate Nay not content thus to incroach on all that seemed to carry any competition in point of Power when they had taken from them almost all the Authority of Governors they would not permit them to rest safe in the Rights and Immunities of Subjects or keep in their Administration to the known Laws and Justice of the Empire For they were very heinous and notorious Invaders of the Lives and Properties of the Roman Subjects and those too of highest Dignity as may appear to any that will read the Lives of Tiberias Caligula Claudius Nero who sway'd all in the days of Christ and his Apostles But what say the Prince and the Preachers of the Gospel of Peace to the Subjects of the Empire under these Invaders of Rights and Properties or Ravishers of Liberties as the phrase of some now is Render to Caesar the things which are Caesars says our Saviour to the Jews under Tiberius towards the end of his Reign and in his worst times Mat. xxii 21 Whoever resists resists the ordinance of God and shall receive damnation Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake says S. Paul to those at Rome Rom. xiii 2.5 And submit for the Lords sake to every ordinance of man whether to the King as supreme or to Governors who are sent by him says S. Peter to the strangers or converted Jews thro Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and those parts 1 Pet. ii 13 14. And this charge he laid on them and was instant in it when their Countrymen were busily meditating a Revolt which was abetted by those in the Provinces as well as acted by those in Judea as Dio says and that from under Nero the worst of invading Tyrants and monster of men this Epistle being writ as Dr. Lightfoot conjectures in the eleventh year of Nero when the Jews had begun those Commotions the factious spirits had been so long driving on it being the year before Cestius Gallus laid siege to Jerusalem which a few years after was taken and destroy'd by Vespasian These were the Rules of Christian Subjection under all the aforesaid Emperors whereby the Christians of that and of the ensuing Ages were to govern themselves And these do not teach taking up Arms against invading Princes but passive Obedience or Non-resistance under them And that at a time when the invasion of Rights was most crying and notorious and in the tenderest points both of Life Power and Fortunes And when they had not merely the nature of Right to plead as implying a power as some say now of forcible Defence even against the Prince himself should he offer to infringe it But when also says the Pastoral Letter tho I think the Lex Regia and the erection of the Empire had taken the force of that off they had the Lex Valeria or Valerian Law to secure those Rights That is a Law of Valerius from this and other such like Laws passed in his Consulship sirnamed Publicola as Livy says who upon the Expulsion of the Kings and change of Government to a popular state enacted That it should be lawful for any one to kill him who took upon him any Magistracy without the Peoples order and consent And indeed the meaning of all the Gospel Precepts of taking up the Cross Patience and Non-resistance must needs be meant of Invaders of Rights whether natural or civil matters not much as I shall shew afterwards For where are the Crosses what place for Patience or what provocation to Resistance under the Maintainers of Rights or righteous Rulers There is difference between the Patience and Non-resistance of Criminals and the Patience and Non-resistance of Christians That is when they suffer according to Right this when against Right that when they suffer for ill this when for good and rewardable things If when ye suffer for your faults ye take that patiently what glory is it to you But if when ye do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently that is acceptable with God 1 Pet. ii 19 20. So that to pretend we are for Passive Obedience and yet not to be for suffering but resisting when our Rights are invaded seems as much as to say we are always for it but when we are call'd to use it Good Kings will not punish but reward good men and well-doers and that will afford but very little tryal of their Passive Obedience Under the Successors of these Emperors the Persecutions of the Christians were carried on still by the breach of Rights Not only the Rights of God and Religion as all their Persecutions were a reverse of his Orders and usurping a Power to punish and torment his servants for obeying him But by a breach of the Rights of the Empire too To clear this I observe that though the Roman Emperor had a very large and extensive Power much wider than is injoyed by our Kings and as absolute by the Lex Regia as could well consist with the Government of a Free People yet was this Imperial Power to be administred by stated Laws and to consist with popular freedoms and immunities In several things the Emperor was bound up to the consent of the Subject not having a plenary Power to act alone without the concurrence of the Senate Such was the Consecrating of any new God which as Tertullian notes was not to be done nisi à Senatu probatus without the approbation of the Senate On which account though on the credit of Letters he received out of Palestine declaring his Divinity Tiberius was for it and brought it into the Senate as that Father observes with the prerogative of his Suffrage yet the Senate refusing our Saviour Christ was not admitted into the List of the Roman Deities To say nothing now how by the Original Constitution he was to bring before them several great matters of State as about raising Taxes and Soldiers and answering Ambassadors and the like as I observed before Such also was that Creation of Magistrates reserved at first by the Lex Regia to the Senate and People the Emperor as Head of the Senate giving his Suffrage which Tiberius first took away from the People in the Assembly of their Tribes to restrain it to the Senators as is observed by Tacitus and which Caligula was afterwards for restoring to them as we are told by Suetonius The Imperial Power was Established by Law in Augustus on his Speech to deliver it up to the Senate and People as I shewed before And cannot be thought to have been such a Power as should set aside all their Laws since in that very Speech he exhorted them firmly to retain and make no change in their received Laws as Dio says
publick Enemies and the like against the now exploded Doctrine of Faith and Patience and Non-resistance under the fiery tryal of the primitive Persecutions But those blessed Martyrs and Confessors had not so learned Christ. These illegal Invaders of Rights and bloody Persecutors of Religion they still own'd and suffer'd as Gods Vicegerents And as our Lord himself and his blessed Apostles taught and practised so these their true Followers took care even in such Violators of Rights never to resist the Ordinance of God which by S. Paul has Damnation annex'd to it but to submit to them not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake They stuck to the Faith and Laws of Christ with Courage and Resoluteness and bore and broke all the unjust violence of the persecuting Powers with Patience and never countenanced or joyn'd in any of the numerous Insurrections made against them tho they had so much Temptation to it for their own fleshly ease as appears from Tertullian Origen Cyprian c. in the forecited Testimonies And the like will be done by all others who are for trusting their Souls with theirs and think them safer in those primitive and first taught ways than in any of the so much fancied and magnified new Inventions CHAP. V. Of passive Obedience under Invasions of Legal Rights among the Jews AGreeable to this belief and practice of the Christians under the New Testament was that also of the Jews under the Old Testament in this case This was seen in their Carriage towards those Kings both in Judah and Israel who introduced and set up an Idolatrous Worship To bring in or to maintain Idolatry was an Invasion upon the Law of their Land as well as upon the Rights of God Yea and that in a point which may seem the very ground and bottom of their Law and among the most fundamental as many now to move Stirs would have taught them in the Jewish Constitution For the Civil State of Jury was at first a Theocracy The true God was not only their God whom they were to observe in regard to another World but their King too under whom they were incorporated and to unite together as a Society of this World As a Polity of this World they were Gods People who modell'd their Constitution and prescribed them their Laws from whom and in whose Name was Legislation and Judicature and who as their supreme Orderer and Director was to be consulted for Peace and War The Law of Moses whom Longinus calls the Legislator of the Jews was the Law of their Land And this Law was a political Covenant betwixt them and the true God all to be observ'd in keeping under him not in Defection from him Hence the going to serve other Gods is by way of eminence call'd working Wickedness in breaking or transgressing his Covenant Deut. 17.2 3 c. And accordingly Moses having the two Tables of the Law in his hands which he calls the Tables of Gods Covenant with the Jews brake both the Tables before their eyes when he saw them fallen from the Worship of God to the Golden Calf Thereby noting the Covenant to be broken by Idol Worship and that these Laws or Tables were a Charter or Covenant to incorporate them under the true God not under Idols Deut. 9.17 And answerably on any such defection such Inquisition and Procedure both towards Seducers and Seduced was appointed thereby without any Allowance of Misprision or Concealment even of the dearest person as is proper for the highest State Crime c. 13. and c. 17. So that for any King to go to set up other Gods in Jury was not only to act illegally or break thro Laws and Statutes among them but to undermine the very bottom of all their Laws and break in upon the main and most important things in the Jewish Law or Constitution Now Ahab suppressed the Worship of the true God in Israel which was the legal and establish'd Religion banish'd and put to death the Prophets extirpated the Professors in Appearance so far as that they seem'd even clean gone to Elijah himself And having pull'd down the Worship of God prescribed by Law set up the Worship of Baal that was forbid by Law and all by his own Authority Here was mere Will and Power over-ruling Laws and illegal Invasion and arbitrary Power in the most tender and fundamental points and all this acted to the highest Extremities and with greatest Outrage But yet all this would not authorize their levying War and rising in Arms against this impious and illegal Invader of Religion and Laws Even Elijah whose Spirit goes further in opposition and return of ill than Christs doth calling down fire from Heaven to consume those that were sent to take him yet opposes all this only by freedom of Confession and saves himself by flight and enjoys his Soul in Patience and seeks Redress by Prayers and Trust in Providence But never sollicits nor seeks to stir up the many Thousands in Israel both Priests and People who possibly might have some Remains of Faith and Zeal for the Lord of Hosts to defend their legal and establish'd Worship and keep out Heathenism against their King by Insurrection and Rebellion But wicked idolatrous and illegally administring Ahab and his House were to hold his Crown till God himself who is the rightful Judge of Princes expresly deposed and disauthorized them and not by mere course of Providence but by particular Nomination and the anointing of a Prophet set Jehu upon his Throne What more common among the Kings of Israel and Judah than to persecute the true Worship of God and to set up and impose a false one in its stead All the Kings of Israel were open and plain Idolaters And so were several of the Kings of Judah Particularly Ahaz shut up the doors of the House of the Lord fell to the Abomination of the Heathen and made him Altars in every corner of Jerusalem And Manasseh brought the Heathen Idols into the very Temple of Jerusalem excluding and banishing the true God whole Worship was setled by Law from his own House and setting up the Abomination of Idols which the Law forbad in the most publick places Here is legal Truth arbitrarily turned out and illegal Error as arbitrarily set up even in the authorized and most publick places the Churches and Temples of the Land And this against all Religion and National Laws even those that in the style of many now to stir up Insurrection would be call'd most essential to the Civil Constitution it self and which were not dependant on the King either to make or to repeal them But Elijah and Elisha Micha and Isaiah and all the other holy Prophets who of all persons were the fittest as the Trump of God to sound to Arms and call men to rise in Gods Cause yet when sent to cry out against this dishonor of God and breach of Laws they did it only as
mostly not by any written Laws but by their own Reason and Equity yet even then were the Laws of God and Nature always to be a Rule to them in their Administrations Besides all the Power of People and the Liberty of resuming their primitive natural Rights and standing up to right themselves when wrong'd by their Governors is grounded by the Advocates for Resistance on the Original Contract whereby in the first Framing and Constitution of every Government when the People as they say parted each with their native Liberty and set Governors over them they every where made these Reserves for themselves This Original Contract is the last Ground when things are run up to the top of all Peoples rising in Arms against unjust Powers thus reassuming the Autority they had formerly intrusted when they see it misemployed and deposing those Kings who had abused their Trust. Now this Original Contract particularly as to our own Nation will not be pretended I believe to be any where extant upon publick Record And the rather for that in Magna Charta it self the grand Record of our Liberties those Liberties are not fetch'd from the Peoples own Reserves as if originally we came by them that way but from the Kings Grants and Donations Of our free and mere Will we have given and granted to our Bishops c. and to all Free Men of our Realm these Liberties following to have and to hold to them and their Heirs of us and our Heirs for ever says the Charter And much less I think are we to expect any Records of such Reserves under the first and most ancient Governments For under them the People were so far from making or recording any such fancied Reserves of Rights and Privileges that they had not any Record of Laws but what were in their Princes Breasts not so much as stipulating for any Rules whereby they would be govern'd but trusting and submitting themselves to the Justice and Discretion of their Rulers as I have noted of the first Kings But this Contract is fetch'd from the common Reason and Nature of things there being no other way possible as these Men say whereby Civil Government should take Rise Now the Nature of things is one and the same to all Times and Places And common Reason must be as common to East as West to the Persians and Romans under those more absolute Powers as to the Goths or Germans or other Northern Nations who have provided better for popular Liberties And therefore if common Reason and the Nature of things will carry such an Original Contract the ground of Resistance for us it would have done as much for them And if it was not sufficient to authorize Resistance in their Case as these men themselves affirm asserting them to have been under a tye of Conscience to Passive Obedience it cannot suffice any more to do it in ours Common Reason and Nature of Government gives equal provision to all and as much Original Contract to the Subjects of absolute Emperors as to those of legal Monarchs who whatever Liberties and Provisions they have more have them not from common Reason but the special limitations of their own Laws So that on this account we must not take more liberty to our selves or make our Case in point of Resistance different from theirs CHAP. VIII No Resistance on Pretence that acts against Law are inautoritative BUT when our Rulers invade us against Right say some What Authority is there in their Invasions Has any Man Authority to invade our Rights And if our Governors have no Authority for their Invasion since we are to be subject only to Authority is there any Obligation on us for Submission And may we not make Resistance against unautoritative Acts A Liberty for Resistance needs not Superiority but Parity for we may defend our selves against our Equals And when Kings act illegally and invade Rights in those Acts say some they have no Authority and Acts done against Law which are the Rule of the Polity are politically powerless So that we may resist them in such Case as we may our Equals they acting there without Authority which is the same as private Persons No say I under those illegal Actings they are still Kings and Sovereigns Tho there be no Authority derived into the Action which if it be against the Laws of God and the Land is condemn'd and vacated not authorized and enforced by either of them yet the Authority abides still in the Person And as to the dueness of Non-resistance in such illegal Actings the Question is not whether the illegal Act has any Authority but whether the Sovereign that acts so retains his Authority For Passive Obedience is due to the Person in Authority and whatever liberty we might otherwise take to oppose such an Action we must keep passive under such a Person If for all his illegal Act he is still thy Father the fifth Commandment says Honor and obey him If he retains his Authority over us and continues to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Higher Power S. Paul tells us that in Conscience towards God we must needs be subject to him And whilst we are to be subject we must not resist for when once we fall to warlike Resisting there is an end of Subjection So that it is not enough to say the Illegality doth disauthorize the Action or hinder it from being binding unless it also disauthorize the Person and make a Forfeiture of his Authority over us For whilst his Authority lasts we are bound to continue his Subjects and that tyes us to be passive in such Cases Now a King may keep his Autority for all he doth some inautoritative and illegal Actions He doth not lose Power by abusing his Power or stretching to make it more nor make away that real Autority which he has by going beyond it in an unautoritative Act or pretending to some Authority which he has not What Autority have any Sovereign Powers to make Laws against the true Religion If their Autority is from God I am sure he has given them no Commission to forbid what he has commanded They go quite against the Rule of Legislation when they employ it in making Laws against him And those Laws carry no binding Force from God along with them to oblige Subjects to their Observance So that if by inautoritative Acts be meant Acts against the Rule of Administration or without any real Right to warrant the King himself in commanding and to oblige others to obey them all Laws are inautoritative Acts which are made against the true Religion But yet they that urge this Objection will not say that any Kings forfeit their Crowns or ease their Subjects of the Duty of Passive Obedience by making persecuting Laws Nay they say there is a necessity of not resisting but being passive under them because they have such Laws whereby to persecute them What is the real and intrinsick Authority or