their Ministerial Function to them as an indelible Character which their first Electors could not efface nor any unless it derived from the Supreme Civil Magistrate under whom they lived justly suspend in the Exercise in that the Power doth ever derive from God and by them But for further illustration we will consider it in the more familiar Instances of free Elections And first in Corporations as in a Model or hand contracted which is but expanded and the more stretched out in the highest Governments where the Commons propound the Person for the succeeding Governour the Representatives choose and the Kings Power invests without which Act the rest are but Cyphers without a Figure but having once Caesar's stamp and Image upon it it becomes legitimate current and of value so as none can clip or efface it to lessen his Authority much less displace the Magistrate but orderly by the Power that set him up without much Crime Rebellion and hazard of damnation g Rom. 3. 1 Pet. 2. A second illustration is That the People by free Votes choose their Representatives in our Parliaments yet the Power by which they Elect and that of the Elected is derived from the Kings Writ so as they cannot for any miscarriage or breach of trust in the Person recal their choice or make a new Election in any case without a new Warrant from the Crown but do become instrumental in conferring that which is not at all inherent in them as may more fully appear in the application of those similitudes to Kings where they are Elected in that Almighty God how tyrannous soever they prove uses them but as he did Ashur for the Rod of his Anger h Isa 10.5 when he gives a King in his Wrath i Hos 3. like Saul to scourge the Rebellions of a people not leaving them any just Power to depose him or any remedy or other appeal than to him in Prayer k 1 Sam. 8.18 In that his Providence orders all Actions and Events and suffers no evil of punishment without intitling himself to it For there is no Evil in the Land but I have done it saith he And therefore he accounts repining as impatience resistance by force Rebellion against himself For as the Apostles were Christs Kings are Gods Ministers upon Earth in as near a Relation Nay himself as it were showes that all such Arrows are shot at them wound him when Christ says Saul Saul why persecutest thou me l Act. 9.4 And thus God expresses it both in Moses his case m Num. 16. where he made the dull and patient Earth the common Hackney to all injurious trampling the severe Avenger of his dishonour and so in Samuel's n 1 Sam. 8. though even then by the fore-designation of God o Deut. 7.15 the Peoples free Election was confined to Saul the man that he did choose p 1 Sam 9.15 16 17. For till then God did rule by immediate direction and revelation those he appointed to be their Governours and would not totally cast them off for their revolt but still continued his goodness to them even in his Indulgence of Anger not leaving them to a factious and tumultuous Election but ordered it by immediate command to the person he had fore-appointed till he had settled the succession in David and his Seed q 1 Sam. 16. By it shewing his dis-allowance of all popular and disorderly Elections for even there where he permitted their concurrence in choosing the person in whom all Power should habitually reside and from whom its Actual Administrations should derive he suffered them only to assist Samuel in holding forth the Wax which he had appointed to set his Seal and Image upon but not to give any Impression Nor can it rationally be imagined by any man that is a Christian and acknowledgeth the Sword to be Gods and that he that sheds Man's Blood without his Commission is guilty of Murder how a power of Life and Death should be collated by any Community of Men to one or more when neither divisim nor conjunctim they have power over their own or one anothers lives Nor could ever any pretend to it unless Parents and Heads of Families by Divine Natural and Paternal Right but when derived from God the other way and by his Commission exercised Yet the People may in some sence be said to be the Pipe by which not at all the Spring from which the Power is derived the Hand that holds the Burning-Glass to the Sun no cause of those Rayes of Power that shine upon it and are contracted in it or as the Men that lay out the dry Bones as the Prophet did whilest God breaths the Spirit of Government and animates them for Action In which we must next consider CHAP. II. What Power Kings have and how limited AS I have endeavoured to make it appear by what hath been said that all Power is Originally Fundamentally and Vertually flowing from God and abiding in the King only as its Cistern and Receptacle from whence it is conveyed to us by many Pipes of several sizes Our inquiry must be how it is limited in it Self or Execution For resolution wherein we must go to the Standard of the Sanctuary the Holy Scriptures and there we shall see That when God first gave a King in his Wrath r 1 Sam. 8. the cause of it was the Peoples being not satisfied with the Regal Power God did exercise over them in his Vice-Royes and Deputies before but distrusting God Almighty when they saw Nahash King of the Children of Ammon come against them that he would not suddenly provide for their deliverance they would have one in readiness always to go up and fight for them Which distrust or despair of theirs who had found so many miraculous Deliverances under God's Government was that which so highly displeased God and not simply the desire of a King yet they neither desired to cast off God's Laws nor his choosing the Person as in Saul nor is it said that the Kingdom of God is cast off at the Election of Saul but they desired more sensible Evidences of Majesty and Glory because Samuel held not forth the outward Pomp Splendour and Majesty of Heathen Kings but as a Type of Christ whose Kingdom was not of this World with Humility as well as Power Upon which God gave them a King after the manner of other Nations r 1 Sam. 8. Dan. 5.18.19 but withal commanded Samuel to let them know what kind of King they desired even Jus Regis and that he should rule by absolute and unlimited Power in regard of Man however he may want the immediate direction and over-ruling Grace of God though not for want of a Rule for direction s Deut 17.2 2 Sam. 23.3 in that t 2 Sam. 22.3 he that ruleth over men must rule as in the fear of God u Ezek. 46.16 17 18. and not oppress the
People For no King can do that de jure justly in regard of his Office and Commission yet from thence implying a Tyrant should be exempt from all account to Man and free from any force or resistance though he be exorbitant and that Subjects are in such cases denyed all Appeals but to God as may be proved out of Samuel w 1 Sam. 8.18 Nay against such a King there is no rising up saith Solomon x Prov. 30.31 Eccles 8. To which Calvin agrees in his Comment upon that place for against Tyrannical Acts in a lawful King he allows no resistance in these words Nec quicquam adversus Reges movere licet Tyrannidem exerceant rapinis sint graves subditis nullamque nec Dei nec aequi rectique rationem habeant For Non vestrum est his malis mederi hoc tantum est reliquum Domini opem implorare y Instit l. 4. c. 20. But though we find Jus a Right of security for Kings against all violence as I have observed we find no Jus right for Tyranny and Arbitrary Power which is to be esteemed a sin for which Kings are to account to God and the rather because they are above all Humane Judicature and only under him as the People are under them For which God styles him Lord of Lords and King of Kings And upon this ground though David had sinned against Vriah first in defiling his Bed then in murdering his Person both to be punished with Death by the Law of God in any common man but most in making him sin against his God in Drunkenness by one sin to conceal another he yet was never questioned for those black Deeds but in his Confessions to God cryes out z Psal 51. Against Thee Thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight Quia cum Rex sim saith the Gloss quamvis contra Vriam deliquerim non habeo tamen in terra qui me judicet sed te in Caelo agnosco Judicem meum So also in Psalm Miserere mei Deus written by R. P. and dedicated to Thom. de Trugillo And Joannes Lorinus a Câ—mm in Psal 50. saith to the same sence upon those words Tibi soli peccavi quia solus potest cognoscere aut punire peccatum ipsius qui Rex esset nec superiorem haberet Thus St. Hierom b Ep. 22. 4. Cassia Col. 20. Quia non fuit qui arguere auderet Regem qui posset accusare punire Vtpote cum quo nullus potestate par nedum major esset non est qui audeat dicere Regi Apostata vocareque Judices impios c Job 34.18 nisi velit ipse impius haberi ut Chrysostomus ac Nicetas hoc loco Cyrillus notant In which accord Cyprian d Ad Novatian Ambrose e Serm. 16. iu Ps 118. Clemens Alexandrinus f 4 Storm c. 6. Turracramata 1 Summae de Eccl. 1. Q. 92. ad 6. Though Baronius in his Annals speaking of the Sanhedrim Anno Christi 31. Num. 10. saith That Herod though a King was cited thither for his Cruelty But it was false by the Authority he quotes g Joseph Antiq l. 14. c. 17. in that Josephus denies him to be a King then but saith That he was a Subject to Hyrcanus For when Herod was cited by the Sanhedrim his Father Antipater was living and Hyrcanus then High-Priest and Prince in State and Right who gave him notice of the Confederacy against him in the Synagogue so as Baronius in that Instance as Bishop Mountague infers only shewed his good meaning to extend Papal Authority over Kings Yet Herod in revenge of it took away their lives that convented him when he came to the Crown And it is a Tradition among the Rabbins That when King Jannaeus was commanded by the Sanhedrim to appear and answer before them those who presumed to summon him were shrewdly punished by the Angel Gabriel which although it were perhaps fabulous yet it is certain that the Jews in their Talmud h In Cod. Sanedrim c. 11. have it as a confirmed Maxime Regem suum non judicari nec cuiquam licere in eum testimonium dicere The King was not to be judged or accused by any according to that of Solomon i Prov. 17.26 in that they are not Children of the most Voices but of the most Highest the Peoples approbation serving only ad pompam but not ad necessitatem in a King's Coronation A Reason why Melchisedech was said to have no Father in regard of his Kingly Office because Regal Power is an emanation from the Deity it self Yet this exemption from all Humane Powers here doth not exempt them from the highest Power for then most properly Judgment is mine and I will repay saith the Lord. Be wise now therefore o ye Kings be learned ye that are Judges of the Earth serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce before him with reverence c. lest ye perish from the right way if his Wrath be kindled yea but a little k Psal 2.10.11.12 Nay it is sometimes his greatest severity not to let them be punished here l Hos 4.14 that they might bear the weight of his Wrath hereafter m Heb. 1.12 In that every ones account must be according to the Talents they receive and Great Ones you know are hardly cleared Nay Experience tells us That he who falls from a high Scaffold or Pinacle is in more danger of irrecoverable hurts than he that slips upon a level ground So as this Opinion is no ground for Licentious Exorbitances in Kings but a just stating of the question concerning Regal Power which Originally is one and the same in it self in all States where it is though in many places and according to several Forms limited and regulated in regard of Exercise and Execution only which I shall endeavour to make yet more clear though veritas in profundo as one saith Truth lyeth not in the surface and superficies of things but is almost buryed under the Rubbish of false Opinions or corrupted in the steam before we come to the Fountain it self and being much obscured by Clouds of Errour hath some verisimilia plausible mistakes received and digested by wanton Stomachs which do morbum alere non hominem But it proves a Monster when pertinaciously held For then the truth of God is detained in Unrighteousness n Rom. 1 18. And therefore I will go with St. Basil to the Mine which was the Prophet's and our Saviour's advice to search the Scriptures o Joh. 5.29 Isa 8.20 and endeavour to follow the Vein of Truth as it lyes there where we shall find that all things even Hell it self stand by a subordination and that God did first settle it here in Adam then Moses from them to be derived to all posterities wherein we will farther consider the Power and then the Regulation of it And first for the Power
Repressor of the Tumults of the People which are more raging than the Waves of the Sea k Ps 65.7 For that keeps its bounds when the other will know none l Hos 5.10 11. But here it is but he that resisteth not he that obeyeth not that purchases Damnation For there may be not only a lawful but a necessary Disobedience when the Commands of our Superiours run counter to God's revealed Will m Acts 4.18 19.5.29 as in Daniel and the three Children n Dan. 3.4.5 chap. But even then resist not though a Nero under whom some think St. Paul writ his Epistle to the Romans and a little after felt some sparks of his Persecution o Ep. 3. as he was flagellum Domini p Hos 13.11 by an Ordinative Permission Nay further our submission to such should be ex animo as Aquinas glosses because the command is omnis anima For it is not an Eye but a Heart-service that God requires even to our froward and perverse Masters q 1 Pet. 2.18 Ep. 6.6 knowing that God will both recompence and protect those that suffer according to his Will and commit their Souls to him in well-doing r 1 Pet. 4.19 which made David conclude They that know thy name will put their trust in thee for thou Lord hast not failed them that seek thee but wilt be their refuge in such times of trouble s Ps 9.9 10. Nay the duty of not resisting may also be enforced from the contrary when Christ in saying that If his Kingdom were of this World then would his Servants fight t Joh. 18.36 intimates that we owe our lives for the protection of our King 's just Rights but ought not to do any thing against them or theirs whether concerning the Person or Posterity For after the free Suffrage or Submission of a People to a Successive Monarchy the Son and next in Blood have always a just right to the Crown as in our Kingdom upon the death of his Father though wanting the Ceremony of Coronation which doth but declare not convey the Right Nor is it in the Peoples Power to revoke their former Concessions no more than a Wife when she hath taken a Husband can divorce her self or justly refuse him other duties though he grow froward and unjust And if it were otherwise how should we imitate Christ our General in his Passive Obedience as is commanded u 1 Pet. 2.21 keep our Covenant in Baptism the Epitome of Christian Religion and make many living Christians by one dying Saint in that Sanguis Martyrum est semen Ecclesiae or be Partakers of that Spiritual Good that comes by suffering even the Tryal of our Faith w 1 Pet. 1.7 and Improvement of our Glory So as the contrary Opinion must needs proceed from Infidelity or distrust when we will be our own God's Deliverers and not rely upon Providence for the Event in all Distresses in only using such means as by his word are warrantable And the Weapons of our Warfare we know are not Carnal but Spiritual x 1 Cor. 10.4 2 Tim. 4.7 even our whole Panoplie being but the Girdle of Verity the Breast-plate of Righteousness the Sword of the Spirit the Helmet of Salvation and Shield of Faith y Eph. 6. by which we overcome the World z 1 Joh. 5.4 And therefore Tertullian in his Apology against forcible entrance a Text. 37. begins with an Absit and concludes We must rather be slain than slay our Superiours So Ambrose b L. 5. Ep. ad Aurent Prayers and Tears are our only Weapons And to that purpose speaks St. Cyprian c Ad Demetriad Gregory Nazianzen d Orat. 2. in Julian with all the concurrence of the Primitive times Nor are we to submit for fear unless filial or want of force but Conscience sake Nor can the New-minted Jesuitical Distinctions of differing between the Person and the Power in their Rebellions by placing it in the People and the Administration of it only in the King absolve their Consciences from the Guilt who de facto have resisted in our times it being but a Popish Riddle such as their Transubstantiation in which they turn the substance of the Regality of Kings into a mere Chymera a fancyed nothing and make Accidents to subsist without a Subject the Supreme Power without his Person a Paradox that neither the Gospel nor the Law can unriddle For they speak the contrary in making the Supreme Power inseparable from the Person of a King e 1 Pet 2. especially ours which is setled as well by Municipal as Divine Law as may appear by all the Laws of this Kingdom both Customs and Acts as well as by the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance f Cook fol. 36. 37. which condemn such Monsters of Opinion to be illegitimate g See Cook fol. 8. 35. So Pref. 4. part fol. 1. Bract. l. 1. c. 8. fol. 5. 6. 16. Ri. 2. cap. 5.24 Hen. 8. C. 12. D. c. Stu. f. 43. Dier 29. Co. 11.90.93 1 Eliz. c. 1. 5. Eliz. 1. Cook Calvin's Case f. 11. Exilium Henricide Spencer 1 Edw. 3. 3 Edw. 25. Calv. B. â—0 Cook 4. Parl. Inst fol. 46. 7 fol. 30. 2 fol. 15. 1 Jacob. c. 1.10.33 Hen. 8.21 And if the unhappiness of evil times and men have de facto done otherwise and deposed or destroyed or rejected their Princes they are to expect no Lawrels nor Trophies for it the memory and monuments of them being best buryed in Oblivion In that such Victories ought to be ashamed of themselves for though such ways may seem right to a man the end thereof are the ways of death h Prov. 14.2.16.25 And thus having taken the Timber that grows upon other Mens Soyles and squared it into a less Model for use gathered the choicest Flowers out of other mens Gardens and made them into a Nose-gay fit for every hand to refresh the Spirits of such as are fainting under the persecution of these times for their Loyalties there being little of mine but the Thread that binds them drawn my Oar out of others Mines to melt it into a small Wedg or Ingot that every one might carry a stock of Knowledg about him as a Counter-Charm to those seducing Spirits now raised among us to withdraw men from their due Obedience I desire every one to treasure up something for their use and having proved all Power to be of Divine Right and only subject to limitation in regard of Exercise with a security against Force though a Nebuchadonozor or a Jeroboam i Jer. 29 7. Hos 13.11 be over us I shall proceed to speak of the Duty of Kings in which I shall not say much since all are Doctors and read Lectures upon that subject being all Eye for without none for within to take notice of the slips and failings of their Prince which they always behold in a
What then is their guilt who make or put on their own Shackles and twist the Halter for the strangling of themselves by departing from that Rule Though we may in lawful Actions submit to the Power of Usurpers especially when seconded with some Coercive Penalty as in paying of Taxes compounding for ones own Estate in case of sequestration c. where the least evil of Punishment only falls under Election yet we ought not otherwise to countenance such a Party for these ensuing Reasons which may contribute some directions for men to walk by in the sad and Labyrinthian turns of these times by shewing the unreasonableness of any such Complyance or Dissimulation by our Actings And 1. First All compliance in an unlawful thing or that which I believe so and every Act of Dissimulation ought to be avoided as it is opposite to sincerity and truth which God commands in every Word and Act there being nothing so contrary unto him as a Lye nor so destructive of Humane Society in that our Words are our common Coin and ought to bear the stamp of the heart both in regard of our Commerce with men and Tribute we pay in them to God u Psal 5. Rev. 21.27 nay to our own happiness w Aug. c. 3. Tom. 3. Tho. Aquinas 2. 2 qu. 10. Art 1. yet when Words and Actions are of a double signification and that no other is defrauded mis-led or justly scandalized by them a man may use them by way of design though Opus exterius naturaliter significat intentionem x Aquin. 2. 2. qu 111. Art 1. 2. Aug in Ps 25. as the Woman 's of Tekoah to David y 2 Sam. 14. and Nathan z 2 Sam. 12. 2. Secondly as it takes away the Glory and Crown of Martyrdom and Suffering for God and a Good Cause and prevents the exercise and manifestation of Faith Patience Perseverance and many other saving Graces contrary to St. Peter and St. Paul in their whole Epistle Yet where there is a lawful means to preserve my self I am bound to use it but not to tempt God by a temptation in making dissimulation or outward complyance a way to preserve my self or Estate by for that were to allow to every man a retreat in all Tryals and hold it forth as the Horns of the Altar by which he may be saved and place truth in unrighteousness though neither Law nor Gospel ever allowed of such a Dispensation as to deny a truth or speak or act a Lye for self-preservation but Elisha denyed it to Naaman the Syrian a 2 King 5. The Prophet's Go in Peace being nothing but a Civil Farewel to him no toleration for his bowing in the Temple of Rimmon though he professed an uprightness of heart to the true God Nay St. Paul reproved it in St. Peter b Gal. 2. though but in an Act of Omission a not doing what he might at some other times lawfully have forborn even a not conversing with the Gentiles because then proceeding from a servile fear it proved scandalous and of ill Example And if Christ the Morning-Star vincenti dabitur be only given to them that overcome what hope can they have that yield before the fight 3. Thirdly All seeming outward Approbation of or consent to any thing that is evil makes us guilty of all the whole Chain of Sins the first Link draws along with it For if a Robbery in one occasion a Rape in his Companion and that a Murther in a third the first Approbation and Complyance in an unlawful King and Confederacy in one evil makes all three guilty of all those sins So if I but once give up my person to a free and voluntary Obedience to any unlawful Power usurping the Crown in any thing that conduces to the support of it though not my heart I do with Peter deny my own Master ore si non corde and not only forsake David for Absolom but become guilty of our unnatural Rebellion and the Innocent Blood it occasioned the expence of with all its train of Vices As Jerusalem by countenancing the Persecution of the Prophets in her time became guilty of the Blood of all the Righteous that had been slain in that Cause from the first Martyr Abel to the Death of Zacharias c Mat. 23.34 35. For as I may be guilty of murthering one that overlives me if I comply with the Wicked in designing of it though it fail in the Event or but countenance it in the Attempt so may I by an after Approbation be guilty of a Murther committed a thousand years before And therefore we are commanded to separate from Babylon in Practice and Communion if we will not partake of her sins and punishments d Rev. 18. as Daniel did from the Nation he lived in though but in a Negative Precept e Dan. 3. For what Communion can light have with darkness in what is ill Christ with Belial if we will keep our selves void of offence towards God and towards Man f Acts 24. Thyatira's countenancing of Jezabel being as hateful as Laodicea's lukewarmness g Rev. 2. 3.20 So that we ought to reprove and not become guilty of others Crimes by a tacite complyance but fearing God and the King as Solomon commands h Prov. 20.19 avoid them that are given to change Loyalty into Licentiousness Religion into Prophaneness Piety into Policy Oblations into Ablations i Prov. 20.25 Mic. 3.8 Acts 5.3 5. Rom. 2 22 known Laws into Arbitrary Orders Monarchy into Anarchical Tyranny a Virgin into an Harlot whose house is the way of Hell going to the Chambers of Death k Prov. 7.27 by the prostitution of Religion Law and Right For know saith Solomon man's iniquity shall take and hold him in the Cords of Death l Prov. 5. that wilfully doth what is evil in it self evil in his Opinion or generally esteemed so of the best men m Phil. 4.8 whether in thought or act n Jer. 17. Jam. 1.15 4. Fourthly We are the rather to avoid all such Compliance and Dissimulation and to walk with all circumspection in regard of Man's proneness to follow a Multitude to do evil and to run upon the Byass of Popularity or self-interest Especially since the Example of great men hath not only a perswasive but compulsory Power in it o Gal. 2. For he that in Authority countenances one Thief makes many Nay he will soon do what he should not that doth all he may lawfully not considering Expedience So as rather than for to prejudice or scandalize others we ought to suffer all things p 2 Tim. 2.10 and rather expose our selves to all personal hazards in a strict walking and self-denyal than comply willingly with the Apostatizing Practice of these times charactered by St. Paul q 1 Tim 3. and St. Jude and not only avoid every appearance of evil but every lawful Action that may be an inlet to a