powers is to resist the Ordinance of God and so to resist God himself and this wounds the Conscience and layes us under a fear of God his revenging Justice A Christian is bound to perform civil duties upon grounds of Religion God's Command binds the Conscience to keep men's righteous Laws Here is another Argument from the rule of Justice which is 7 Arg. ab aequo to render to every one his due and here he reckons up four particulars of civil obâ—dience according to the degrees of civil powers or the several Orders and Offices of men in power Render tribute to whom tribute is due viz. to the Prince his Treasurers Custome to whom custome is due To the Prince his Farmers and Collectours Fear to whom fear is due viz. to the Prince his Deputies to Governours Judges Justices Officers sent by him while they act in their places under him according to the Prince his declared will and the power derived to them and vested in them by the Laws as they are Ministers of Justice Lastly render honour to whom honour is due viz. to the Person and Authority of the Prince or cheif Ruler as Saint Peter commands honour the King Now Tribute is that which is charged upon and paid out of a man's possession and estate Custome is properly that which is paid out of Merchandize or Traffick exported or imported Fear is an acknowledgment of the power ordained by God and a care not to offend it lest we incur blame and punishment Honour is a due inward affection toward him whom we judg worthy of reverence and respect either for his vertue or for the eminency of his place or for his beneficence toward us or upon some other just consideration and an outward due signification and testification of our inward reverence and respect toward him honour is due to the powers especially the higher powers because of their Office and Place as to our civil Parents by vertue of God's command Honour thy Father Honour comprehends reverence fear subjection obedience love and thankfulness Thus I have dispatched the Doctrinal part of this my discourse I have stated the duty of subjection to Magistrates telling you that it imports mainly reverence and obedience and shewing you what reverence is and what it is to obey Now whereas I assigned this limitation of our universal obedience viz. it must be in the Lord in all things according to the mind of God only so far as God his Word gives us command or allowance to act This is the limitation which the Scripture suggesteth and in many place holdeth forth and therefore cannot be justly offensive to any nor will it offend any good Magistrate who acknowledgeth God to be his Superiour and the Supream Law-giver and desires that God should be honoured above all And whereas touching the binding power of humane Laws in the Conscience I determined That the Laws of men bind not the Conscience directly and immediately nor universally and unlimitedly nor absolutely as the Laws of God do but only by the intervention of God's Command and as they are grounded upon and derived from and agreeable to the Eternal Law the Law of God and I concluded That no voice but God's Voice is to be heard in the Conscience as commanding there and binding indispensibly to obedience This determination is warranted by Scripture and therefore not to be quarrelled with Concerning the whole I shall shew you what was the sence and Conscience of our late King Charles the First as he expresseth himself in that Book of his Entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Portraiture of his Sacred Majesty his words are these I have often declared how little I desire that my Lawes and Scepter should entrench on God his Soveraignty who is the onely King of mens Consciences and yet he hath laid such restraint upon men as commands them to be subject for Conscience sake giving no men liberty to break the Law established further then with meekness and patience they are contented to suffer the penalty annexed rather than perturb the publick peace And again Next to fear God is honour the King next to it not before it Thus our late Soveraign I now come to a word or two of Application Application The first Use shall be for Confutation 1 Confutation First of Papists and Popish Doctrine Of Papists 1. Of that horrible and hellish Doctrine That it is lawful and meritorious to murther Princes in the quarrel of Religion justifying abetting and applauding the heinousest Treasons against the highest Powers upon earth Doth God say Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers and shall the Pope teach Subjects to murther their Princes and to blow up Parliaments c. for the advantage of the Catholick Cause as they call it Doubtless saith a learned Divine The Romish Religion is the most horrid Rebel in the world 2. There is another false absurd idle Doctrine of theirs hereby confuted viz. this That the Pope and his Bishops and Clergy who call themselves Spiritual are exempted from subjection to civil Magistrates both as to their persons in the tryal of Ecclesiastical Civil and Criminal Causes and as to their purses and possessions in paying Tributes Whereas the Apostle here chargeth every Soul to be subject to the higher powers to the powers ordained of God and Christ we read paid tribute for himself and Peter Act. 25.11 and Paul pleaded before the civil Magistrate and we know that Aaron the high Priest was subject to Moses the chief Magistrate yet these men as if they were higher than high Priests and before Peter and better than Apostles must forsooth be exempted from subjection to any civil Powers Secondly Our Text and Doctrine serves for Confutation of Donatists and Millenaries and Quakers and some Anabaptists who look for the abolishing of all Magistracy that Christ alone may reign among the Saints who cry down Magistrates and deny that they have any coercive punitive Power that cry up an equality and parity among Christians holding that Christians need no Magistrates and that they need not be subject to any And why so What do they plead for this opinion of theirs and for their denial of subjection i. e. reverence and obedience to Magistrates Object They say that they are the Lord his Freemen and that it is against Christian liberty for Christians to be under the power of any but Christ who is their only King who hath made them free and that they must not be the servants of men Answ The Liberty unto which Christ doth free his people in this life is inward and spiritual Gospel liberty is a liberty from sin a liberty unto duty a liberty to serve God in our order place and station a liberty from the yoke of Ceremonies c. and surely civil subjection to Superiours is not inconsistent with such spiritual liberty Indeed the Apostle Paul discourseth largely of Christian liberty and yet he doth more than
in all his Commands as well as his Executions should act as the Minister of God urging onely what God would have urged and punishing accordingly Prevaricatio legati nulla est potestas So that none of these arguments for subjection to Magistrates are pressed nor is any thing in this discourse held forth to abet or countenance such an antichristian and disingenuous maxime That Subjects are bound to yield absolute obedience to their Supericurs as some atheistically and absurdly conceit or do dissemblingly and dishonestly for their own ends professe themselves to be of this Judgement or at least are of such practice as if they did judg themselves obliged to obey all the commands of their Superiours though against Conscience nor can any thing that hath been said for ought I can see be honestly or rationally interpreted as reflecting at all upon those who do not because they dare not in some cases yield active obedience viz. in that which seemeth to them to be contrary to the mind of God and so is against the light of their own Consciences To justifie the wicked and condemn the just are alike abomination to the Lord. Well This is a third ground of the point or a third Argument to enforce the duty of Subjection to Magistrates because they that will not be subject but resist the Powers shall receive to themselves judgement punishment the Magistrate being appointed by God to be a terrour to evil works 4. Here is a fourth Argument 4 Arg. ab utili taken ab utili from the profitable effect and fruit of due obedience to the Magistrate It is good for us to do that which will turn to our praise But now to obey the powers ordained of God will turn to our praise It is therefore good for us to obey the powers Do that which is good i. e. hold fast Innocency and do vertuously in conformity to good Laws and thou shalt have praise of the power This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 praise signifies here approbation and remuneration if thou beest an obedient subject thou shalt be approved of and rewarded by the Magistrate Thus Governours are said to be sent for the punishment of evil doers and the praise of them that do well 1 Pet. 2.14 and so this word is to be interpreted in that saying of the Apostle Then shall every man 1 Cor. 4.5 i. e. every godly man every faithful man have praise of God The Lord Christ the Judge shall in that day give publick Testimony to his innocency and give him the reward promised Note this by the way This should bear up and quiet the Spirits of Christ his faithful Servants when they are reproached by men and reviled as Hereticks and Seditious persons or Phanatiques or Rebels and cast out and injuriously dealt with Let them commit their cause to Christ their Judge of whom they shall have praise and glory Well honest vertuous conscientious obedient Subjects shall lose nothing by it but shall reap the benefit of innocency and vertue and due obedience in the Lord they shall be commended and rewarded for it by the good Magistrate And this Argument for subjection and obedience is fortified with an intimation of this special end of Magistracy and duty of the Magistrate For he is the Minister of God to thee for good If thou dost that which is good behaving thy self orderly in a conformity to good Laws then he is the Minister or servant of God appointed and impowered to countenance and reward thee 5. 5 Arg. a devito Now there is in these very words an Argument for subjection i. e. reverence and obedience to Magistrates The Magistrate is in his place God's servant for the Subject's profit for the advantage of God's people This is the end of God his Ordinance Magistracy and this is the duty of God his Officer the Magistrate and this is the care and employment of good Magistrates to make good this end of their Office and Power improving it for the good of their Subjects Rulers and Magistrates are the Ministers of God to us for good for good natural and moral and civil and spiritual to presere our lives and liberties and to secure to us that which we do rightfully possess and enjoy to repress vilence and defend us from the malice and oppression and rapine and cruely of unreasonabe and vitious and licentious men to restrain vice and wickedness and to encourage and promote Vertue and Piety and to maintaine true Religion and the purity of Doctrine and Worship c. Christian Rulers are set over us by God to care for us in every respect that under them we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty Oh what a blessing is a Vertuous and Religious King from whom under God * Nutrix Ecclesiae Pater Patriae his Subjects receive the benefit of Religion and Justice who is the Church's Nurse and the Common-wealth's Father O what a benefit is it to live under a Pious Righteous settled Government such a Government is as one saith like Nebuchadnezzar's Tree whose leaves are fair and fruit much affording meat and shadow and sweet rest Now is there not upon account of all this a just challenge of subjection i. e. reverence and obedience to Magistrates Our comforts from them and enjoyments by means of them call upon us to be subject to them The Rivers acknowledge their receipt of waters from the Sea by emptying themselves again into it and the Trees receiving nourishment from the earth give back their leaves again to dress and feed the Earth Let us think how we are bound to a retribution to the higher Powers and let our Subjection be answerable to our obligation 6. 6 Arg. a necessario The Apostle argues a necessario This is another reason why a we should be subject because it is necessary that we be so not only for the avoiding of punishment but also for the keeping of a good Conscience Ver. 5. Ye must be subject not onely for wrath but for Consciencesake So that here is a double reason or demonstration of the necessity of subjection to the Powers 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is necessary for wrath because of wrath for the avoiding of wrath not only the wrath of the civil Magistrate which we should be fearful to provoke against our selves but especially for fear of the wrath of God that we incur not his displeasure 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Subjection to the powers is necessary for Conscience sake that we may have a good and quiet Conscience for to obey the powers is to obey God and observe his Command so that obedience procures or begets a good Conscience which is the approbation of our own mind judging rightly and witnessing to us that we have done well approving our selves to God and men Whereupon followes a gladness of the heart resisting in this approbation and testimony Contrarily to oppose the
in other matters because they indulge their own humours taking up unadvisedly that which best likes them or may suit best with their carnal aims and interests not weighing things in the Scales of an unbiassed Judgement or in the ballance of the Sanctuary not impartially considering which is the best indeed If we do consider we must needs be convinced that the way of God his appointment is better than the wayes that are of man's invention and that God is to be obeyed rather than man therefore let us consider Counsel 2 2. Let us not shut our eyes against the light or harden our hearts against conviction so as to give our vote for or give our selves up to any other Worship pleasing to the flesh or favoured by the times against clear Demonstrations of the betterness or bestness and onely goodness of this Worship in spirit and in truth Let us prefer in our judgements and adhere in affection and practice to that which appears really to be the best Consulting with flesh and blood and advising with carnal reason and attending to carnal policy is that which doth strangely blind mens eyes and byass their judgements carrying them the wrong way if this be best why should I enter into a consultation Whether it be better for me to fix here or elsewhere Counsel 3 3. When in our judgement we prefer this true spiritual Worship before other Worships let us single it out to our selves and single our selves out to it disclaiming all Worship that comports not with true Gospel-worship David having chosen the way of truth hated every false way Counsel 4 4. Let us resolve as to single our selves out to true spiritual Worship with a denial of all false hypocritical carnal sophisticated superstitious will-worship so to stick to it against all discouragements and opposition with a denyal of shame and fear resolving through God and by the help of grace herein to keep a good conscience Counsel 5 5. Let us be careful religiously and zealously to act that true spiritual Worship which we are convinced is the only good Worship and which we make choice of and resolve to stick to O let us be true Worshippers in practice as well as in judgement and profession seriously and zealously worshipping God in spirit in truth Let us labour to get our minds and hearts more renewed and let us see that our Religion be not defective in the vital parts that there be spirit and life true heart-devotion and fervency of affection in our Worship Let us manage holy work with a holy heavenly mind giving God the kernel of spiritual Devotion as well as the shell of Adoration and let us be pleased with the simplicity of Gospel-Ordinances and delight in the simple pure plain institutions of Christ and let us in our practice keep as close as may be to Gods Commands not turning aside to the right hand or to the left Let us be Scripture-men in this point making the Scripture both the Foundation and Rule of our Worship and adhering thereunto Then we shall be sure and constant in our way For as the truth is the same yesterday and to day and for ever so will the Scripture-man be of the same mind and the same frame and the same practice in Religion whereas they who build not upon this foundation will be like that Bishop of Alexandria who was called Euripus because of his ebbing and flowing his going this way and that way in matters of Religion For a Bishoprick he would swear to the Nicene Council and then to keep his place when the Tyde turned he would again forswear it But he that fixeth upon God's Word will be constant and this constant man shall have peace shall have peace in Christ as our Saviour saith to his Disciples though in the world he may have tribulations Gal. 6.16 As many as walk according to this Rule peace be unto them And that you may enter into and persevere in a right course of true Gospel-worship such as is pleasing to God 1. There must be a sincere desire to be true worshippers and so a seeking unto God by prayer to have your judgement rightly informed and well settled in this matter and to have your hearts carried to true and spiritual Worship and to be guided and managed by the Spirit of God in your Worship Beg of God that you may understand and affect and act that which is right 2. We must captivate our own fleshly wisdom and carnal reason which may judge this or that Worship to be lawful and convenient and prudential and approvable though not the very best Corrupt reason must not be set up in the place of a Judge to give sentence in the matters of God nor must it be suffered to dispute Christ his Commands but this must be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ Where we have a clear Word we must learn to obey without reasoning not examining the matter by the judgement of corrupt reason Our corrupt minds will reason against duty and reason us off from it therefore reason must be subjugated to the Word of God to the Law of Christ 3. We must labour to work out of our hearts all inordinate love of earthly things Hag. 1.2 4. We shall find Haggai 1. that the peoples care and love to build their own houses made them to neglect the building of God's house Thus Covetousness put the Pharisees upon corrupt interpretations oâ— the Scripture When mens hearts are set upon the world they will part from their Religion rather than their Riches and they will take up any Worship for their wordly advantage When men delight more in the glory of their own houses than in the spiritual beauty of Ordinances no wonder if they stand little upon Christ his order Counsel 6 6. We must not attend to carnal policy which will make us to suit our selves to the times for the keeping of our selves in credit and in outward prosperity Some mens consciences are as a learned man hath well noted like Diogenes his Tub Mr. A. B. to be turned every way from the Sun and to the Sun and according as the wind blows Carnal respect is a Loadstone to a number of men Fac me Episcopum Romanum ero Christianus Make me Bishop of Rome said he once and I will be a Christian The carnal Politician so that he may be great and in favour with the Times will be for any Worship of any profession or party Carnal policy will make men to alter for their own carnal ends therefore we must take heed of this Counsel 7 7. That we may pitch upon the way of true spiritual Worship 〈◊〉 and may be fixed in it we must get our spirits fortified against temptations reproaches and persecutions There will be Scare-crows and there will be snares and our hearts naturally are fearful and we are too apt to catch at baits and to joyn with the world Now therefore here iâ—
is the destruction of good order and a breach of the publick peace and matter of scandal or an occasion of sinning unto others A very learned and Orthodox Writer hath these distinctions among others in the discussion of this great question which we are now in hand with Well Determ now to conclude something in Answer to this Inquiry Whether humane Laws or the Commands of men do bind the Conscience Concerning which I lay down this in General Humane Laws do and do not bind the Conscience For the understanding of this we must with Aquinas distinguish of Laws he tells us That Laws of humane Position or Sanction are either Righteous or Vnrighteous and thus he concludes Justae leges humanae obligant in soro Conscientiae ratione legis aternae c. The righteous Laws of men have a binding power in the Conscience as they are grounded upon derived from and agreeabe to the Eternal Law the Law of God and no further for only God's Laws do simply and per se bind the Conscience But unrighteous Laws saith he bind not in the Court of Conscience Leges auteminjustae non obligant c. unless in some cases as for the avoiding of scandal and with respect to the publick peace c. Yea saith he f those Laws of men be unrighteous per contrarietatem ad bonum Divinum as contrary to Divine good or the Law of God as if Rulers should make Laws binding to an Idolatrous Profession or Worship or to any thing contrary to the Law of God We are bound in Conscience not to obey such Laws it is meet that we should obey God rather than men And in another place he hath this conclusion 2da 2dae qu. 104. Art 5. Subditi in iis tantummodo Superioribus suis obedire tenentur in quibus ipsi Superioribus subjiciuntur in quibus ipsi Superiores sublimioris potestatis praecepto non adversantur This in General Particularly for a full determination of the Question there might be many distinct conclusions laid down according to the diverse distinctions of Persons or Powers that make Laws or give Commands with respect to the diversity of the Subject about which they are as relating to the matters Civil or Ecclesiastical but I shall adde only a few words 1. Negatively 2. Affirmatively Negatively I lay down these three Positions 1. Mens commands oblige not the Conscience directly and immediately as God's Commands do but by the intervention of God's Command It is the command of God that binds my Conscience to observe any command of man Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man 1 Pet. 2 1â— Eccles 8.10 for the Lord's sake saith the Apostle Peter Keep the Kings Commandment and that in regard of the Oath of God i. e. not onely for fear of man but also and chiefly for fear of wronging thy Conseience toward God 2. Humane Laws bind not the Conscience universally and unlimitedly as the Laws of God do I must examine the constitutions of men by the Laws of God and see whether they be righteous or no whether they be not contrary to God's Law and if I find them so I am bound in Conscience to deny active obedience 3. The Commands of men do not bind absolutely as the Laws of God do There may be a due subjection in some cases unto man by suffering the penalty though obedience be withholden The result of all is this That no voice but the Voice of God must be heard in the Conscience as commanding there and binding indispensibly to obedience and let me add this That it is antichristian for men to set up their own Will as a rule of sin and duty to take it upon them to give Laws to the Conscience This is St. Paul his Character of Antichrist that he as God 2 Thes 2.4 sitteth in the Temple of God i. e. in the Church he sitteth as God i. e. saith Diodate making himself absolute Lord of Consciences bringing them to his obedience The setting up of another Law-giver then Christ is properly Antichristianism What saith Calvin As long as the Pope exerciseth Tyranny over the Conscience we shall not cease to call him Antichrist nay we shall go further saith he and call them members of Antichrist who take such snares upon their Consciences Now Affirmatively and positively concerning this question of the binding power of humane Laws in the Conscience I conclude thus That all Laws and Commands of men in Power to which the order of the Power doth rightfully and duly extend it self are to be obeyed for Conscience sake and all such constitutions of men as are fundamentally or reductively and interpretatively the Commands of God or which enjoyn that which hath allowance from the Word of God all such have a binding power in the Court of Conscience not directly and immediately indeed upon account of man's ordination as they are humane Ordinances but as they are God his Laws propounded and enforced by a civil sanction and as they fall in duty under that general Command of obeying those that are over us in the Lord. Prop. Now I come to prove and demonstrate the point which hath been opened That every soul must be subject to the higher powers i. e. every person must reverence and obey Rulers and Magistrates Proof This duty lies clearly and fully in the Text but see further proof My Son fear thou God Prov. 24 2â— Tit. 3.1 and the King Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers to reverence and obey Magistrates 1 Pet. 2.13 14. Submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake whether it be to the King as Supream or unto Governours as to them that are sent by him and to this subjection God boweth the hearts of Subjects God saith David Psal 144. subdueth my people under me Thus the people of Israel were subject to Joshua their cheif Magistrate Josh 4.14 They reverenced him They were obedient to him All that thou commandest us Josh 7.16 17. we will do and whithersoever thou sendest us we will go as we bearkned to Moses in all things so we will hearken unto thee onely the Lord thy God be with thee as he was with Moses This last clause only the Lord c. seems to be a restriction and wary honest interpretation of their promise and engagement to Joshua Junius reads it thus Tantum videto Videto ut Deus tibi adsit sicut Moschi tu ab eo non recedas c. c. only see that God be with thee as he was with Moses guiding thee and dictating commands to thee and that thou depart not from God but keep close to his Commands as Moses did They would have Joshua to know that they were not so rash as to engage themselves unlimitedly to obey him in all things in case he should command any thing according to his own will and lust but so farre forth as