shall many be made righteous He tels us there that Circumcision is that of the heart and Spirit not in the letter that is men are now to be justified by love the work of the law written in their hearts and not by the observation of the letter according to their owne sence For against such he pronounceth a necessity of such sins as attended such as professed themselves wise saying Thou art inexcusable O man whosoever thou art that judgest for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thy self for thou that judgest doest the same things That is inasmuch as thou takest upon thee to guide others and thy selfe by thine own judgement thou must consequently break Charity the end of the law and so involve thy self in the guilt of thine owne and others sins that must follow thereupon For now we are delivered from the law being dead to that wherein we are held that is being released as heretofore noted of the penalty of observing legal precepts as of immediate divine authority because we should serve in the newness of Spirit that is by love and not in the oldness of the Letter For while we were taking upon us this litteral performance the law of our owne members and concupiscence pointing at private interests caused it to prove to us the law of sin and of death So that then the law of God being to be served with the mind inwardly and not by fleshly wisdom to make it the law of sin it follows that there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus which walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit That is because they that act after the flesh or take upon them self guidance do minde the things of the flesh their owne interests but they that walk after the Spirit mind the things of the Spirit that is being alwayes guided by the fruit of the Spirit inward love they alwayes mind the effects thereof in which they could not err whilst remaining obedient For else authority and law onely defining and measuring in particular acts what is murther adultery theft c. and rating accordingly the punishments thereupon due we should in our particular biassed interpretations commit often the same or worse faults then those we went about to amend And this because God who from himself and in his owne name gave these precepts at first gave also a continual succession of Prophets Urim and Thummim and other divine ways of revealing his pleasure in their interpretation upon doubtful occasions so that being both wayes expresly divine their observance litterally as so was each mans duty then but now being not to be litterally and particularly so construed by private men they break or keep them when they break or keep their substance charity and inward love and are more or less obedient to Superiours therein And therefore although there could be but one truth amidst those different exercises of Christianity between the Jewish and Gentile Churches yet the Apostles being to promote and encourage Christianity all they could and Christians again to obey implicitely in all things not fundamental the one might justly command and the other be also obedient although in things differing and contrary which otherwise in the commanders must have been Heresie on the one side or other And besides must have been Schism and Scandal in each sort of the disagreeing Subjects that in absence of their common head obtruded upon each other their differing constitutions having no other authority to act or impose to the dislike of one another then in relation to their joynt authority as thereby holding of the head under whom they were to be esteemed but as one by means of joint communion and subordination But when done in just pursuance thereof error is avoided for that a divine sentence is in the lips of a King and his mouth transgresseth not in judgement In the original it is in the future tense shall not transgress which I note to avoid the Exposition that might be made against the allowing the judgement of Kings in general to be such as thinking it only appliable to Solomon himself because particularly inspired above others And this place of Solomon is a good comment and confirmation to another of like sort namely to punish the just is not good nor to strike Princes for equity Where we may finde that a Prince in his definition is held the same with a just man as formerly noted in the title of justice and that then we can no more punish or accuse the one then the other for want of justice or equity Upon which reasons Elihu in Iob brings in that saying as a truth universally agreed upon is it fit to say to a King thou art wicked and to Princes ye are ungodly Therefore by the words shall not transgress in judgement we are to understand that they shall not cause subjects to transgress in their obedience because the sentence is divine which in the Original imports divine Oracle or Divination as having whole interest by divine deputation and precept but erroneous it may be and is in him as he stands in relation accomptable to God so far and so often as he againe transgresseth his law who hath whole interest both in those persons and him and all things else For if he take upon him to prescribe rules according to his owne iudgement where God hath made positive ones already or do in those cases left to his care through passion or interest respect himself or some one party above another and not resyect Gods superiour interest before his owne subordinate interest doing by God as he would be done unto he doth not do as he would be done unto For as he would not have his Judges and such as he trusts do the like by him so is he not to deceive and abuse Gods delegation in forgetting that all his power is but usurpation and injustice when not according to the best of his judgement and conscience directed to Gods honor above his owne as also to the general and impartial good of his subjects So that Subjects justice or justification consisting chiefly in submission to the judgement of their Superiour we may well know how to interpret that wise King and Preacher be not righteous over much neither make thy self ever wise why shouldest thou destroy thy self Be not over much wicked neither be thou foolish why shouldest thou dye before thy time By which words we are not to think that either increase of righteousness or wisdome is forbidden or increase of wickedness or folly commended as in themselves but must apply them unto their manner and object of usage and imployment For so in the first verse he that will be so seemingly righteous and wise as to think his owne conscience and discretion sufficient and warranted judges of his actions against or above that of his Superiour he will endanger his owne guilt and destruction by
degree of submission yet more apparent which was to be given to this high Officer who should succeed in this Divine place of Authority which as it might subject them to many unavoidable miseries when evil Kings came so on the other hand they might foresee much benefit to ensue when good ones came as it proved shortly after in the days of David and Solomon So that untill this latter age of the world that men through vulgar and popular flattery could be brought both to forget Gods precepts and their own reason such Maximes and positions as are now frequent in the mouths of some seditious persons would have been abandoned as undutiful aswell as scorned as ridiculous It would have sounded strange in their ears to have heard men affirm That they had contrived a way of limitation for Kings whereby he should yet have all power left him to do good unto his people but none at all to hurt them and yet such is our present aversion to government that the hasty and inconsiderate swallowing down of such like Maxims for the limitation of Monarchical Power hath been the cause of all our publike disturbances All which right reason must say we are ever in danger of whilst Soveraignty is not entire and perfect in the person it ought to be For what shall he have such power of doing good as it shall not be in the power of others to hinder it if so then supposing him a voluntary Agent you must also suppose that if he think fit he hath power of forbearing it and so doth ill by not doing good Or if he work as an instrument and necessary Agent by the force and impulsion of another then is the power of doing good to be properly ascribed where this direction is because the Ministerial Vertue or Power of the instrument may be thereby implyed other wayes or not at all And so if you make him to carry the same force in the work of government as the Carpenters chizel doth in all his work then how shall a voluntary Agent be imagined such or what is the difference of the Kings power from that of the meanest subject when he must do so as he is directed and no otherwise And so lastly how can that be called good which is done necessarily and unwillingly But these things will be best seen by instance The power of each kingdom is in the Militia now as he that hath power hereof may benefit the kingdom by the invasion of another or by defence of his own and as he may use the same at home in maintenance of laws and equity against opposers so may he thereby do the contrary Whereupon Reason and Experience tells us how ridiculous this their device is For since the Militia must be somwhere and of absolute power if it be not in one mans hand it will be in more What will they then be the neer will they now set some in trust over these again to the end that as those were trusted above the King to hinder him from doing wrong so these again shall have power to be over them that they abuse not that their power which they before had over the King when will they have done setting of watchmen upon watchmen and must they not be men still that they shall so entrust In which respect being alike subject to transgress will they not necessarily be more in danger of injury being now under the power of many then they were before while under one And truely they that thus can fancy a possibility of stating a person in such a condition as he should alwayes have power to do good must next contrive him such a will as he shall be doing it also or else this power is but vain because he may do ill in forbearing it And they again that on the other side would take from him all power to do evil and yet think he may be all this while a voluntary Agent do in both respects seem to me to condemn God Almighty of imprudence or injustice in not governing all men in the world as these would do some in kingdoms That is not knowing how thus to take from men the power of doing ill without taking from them thereby also the power of doing well but suffering sin thus needlesly to raigne in the world Out of what hath been hitherto spoken we may gather the reason both for the establishment of Monarchy and also for annexing unto it those absolute degrees of Soveraignty not to be wrested or alienated from the person of the Prince by any of his subjects who cannot without overthrow of Monarchy be such sharers or engrossers of the Soveraignty as under pretence of bridling him from evil To say unto him what dost thou because he hath power by his Office to do whatsoever pleaseth him To which end we may also see the reason why Oaths of obedience and subjection are by subjects taken as for other ends so in case of resistance to take their part against all others The people being for this very subjection sake called the subjects of such and such Kings And this Oath in regard it is made in Gods name and presence and in regard it is the tye and obligation to maintaine policy and peace and thereby humane preservation the end of God also it is called the Oath of God as aforesaid And therefore to Kings are we to give obedience not onely for wrath but for conscience sake for so Solomon directs it the fear of a King is as the roaring of a Lyon he that provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul it is not a crime in policy onely to disobey and resist him whose wrath is as messengers of death but a sin also against Religion And least any should use their Christian liberty for a cloak to their maliciousness and the better to act their own revenge or ambition pretend that in unlawful commands obedience is not due which once granted how easie would it be to make any thing unlawful we had no minde to obey we are enjoyned to be subject Not onely to the good and gentle superiors but also to the froward for this is thank worthy if a man for conscience towards God endure grief suffering wrongfully for what glory is it if when we be buffeted for our faults we take it patiently but if when we do well and suffer for it we take it patiently this is acceptible with God for even hereunto were we called because Christ also suffered as leaving us an example that we should follow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously What could have been more expresly and rationally said for perfect submission to our superiors then here for first whereas the glory of God consists as amongst other things in the prâ—servation of man and that againe by
for the governed as heretofore noted even for the necessary preservation of those relations according to that saying If I be a father where is mine honor if I be a Master where is my fear For although a willing and hearty service be most acceptable and onely rewardable as to the doer yet the benefit of others will many times be gained by the deed itself Whereas a known impunity will by example and as it finds hope to attain the like procure common detriment both by neglect of the deed it self and by common invitation to disobedience But if the subject from his own or others experience once find that his obedience in respect of other damages and inforcements in the Princes power is unavoidable he must be supposed even through discreet willingness to submit and then through custom of so doing to arrive at last at a state of natural willingness in obedience it self experience telling us that steadiest loyalty is in such subjects as have been used to greatest subjection and most discontents and rebellions in such Families and Kingdoms where children and subjects have been most free And it will ever be a most certain truth that that obedience which must unavoidably be given will ever in equal things be more ready free and unreluctant then that which may have hopes of avoidance CONCLUSION BUt it is now time to have done having perhaps as much tyred others as my self in these tedious discourses driven so vehemently on to the cure of that evil which while men are men can never enter into a steady thought should be wholly done For when all is said Government will have its faults and when in the rule of nature we see it sometimes come to pass that the stobborness of the matter is such as will not admit of that form which to her policy in general or to the production of some more perfect creature were in particular species necessary but that pestilence murrains mildews c. to the destruction of men beasts and vegitables as also monstruous and imperfect shapes incident to the generation of each race and kind do sometimes happen why should we wonder at ineffectualness herein when besides matter there is a perpetual aversion of will in the governed and alas the while the workmans skill or care in this is too often so to seek that through his default also the malady is increased Since therefore nothing in this life can be to us perfect and without its inconveniences we can only call that Government good which is best and which upon tryal hath fewest and least settled mischiefs as not arising from its form but contingent accidents in its ministration and this is that which I have propounded as the drift of this whole Treatise Yet then again as the many unavoidable diseases of our natural bodies are not at all to discommend or excuse the Physicians care and pains for their mittigation or removal so I hope in this grand disease of the politique Body called Civil War although I cannot attain to a perfect or constant cure yet if the application of those remedies I have proposed shall sometimes cause diversion and sometimes mittigation I shall have comfort in my labours But in this as all things else we must leave the success to God whose work alone it is to still as the raging of the Sea so the madness of the people Even that mad and raging humor of liberty which being blown to a rebellious height by the breath of seditious Oratory as seas by the wind it is none other then if in our natural bodies the allurement of our pallats should tempt us to that food which should bring us to a feavor And as these surfeits seldom come but from such things as are best and then again loathing of that very thing doth follow so in the politique constitution though nothing more necessary and commodious then peace yet nothing more incident to mans fickle nature then in a giddy thirst for variety to grow weary thereof which as a thing bringing Kingdoms and States to their fatal periods no otherwise then bodily surfeits and sicknesses do single persons to their natural deaths shall we say that as they are permitted for the punishment of our sins which we can never want so to this end also And then shall we say that not so much in consideration of ours or our progenitors sins as that the will of God might be made manifest are these things befallen us Shall we say that since none of themselves can be called righteous or good that it may therefore be a reason that wickedness and vice are thus suffered as to the estating us good by comparison and that even again in Government as to the adorning loyalty and other civil vertues disobedience and rebellion is permitted also and to make us thereby more sensible and thankful when peace shall again be restored But be the reasons what they will our duties of obedience and submission being plain enough it is our parts to look to that and to leave these hidden things to God whose judgements are unsearchable and â—is ways past finding out For sure I am that however God for the punishing of a sinful people permit their Princes as he did David in the fact of numbring to fall upon such unwarrantable acts as may bring on their punishments yet can this punishment never warrant any active resistance of his Authority Or be the King not good as David was but such another as Saul was yet since he is our King and the Lords anointed who can without sin lift up their hand against him And why should we be more impatient of enduring those punishments from God that come from the hands of evil Kings then those of pestilence famine or the like that come more immediately from nature since all come from the same hand and to the same end the punishment of our sins And since God owns the giving of them in his anger and the having their hearts in his hand and turning them wheresoever he pleaseth why should we think of resisting one more then another Thus is wicked Pharoahs heart hardned and his subjects the â—gyptians thereby plagued And thus as aforesaid is good Davids heart stirred up to number the people and these people thereupon punished with pestilence And who would have thought a three years famine so long after Sauls death should be the punishment of surviving subjects for a past fact of zeal done by a King so long dead Or that the house of Jehu and his people by consequent should be threatned with Gods punishment for the execution of that his justice upon the house of Ahab three hundred years after the fact done when as yet the very fact it self was so plainly appointed and warranted by divine authority In which examples of Kings sins being made causes of punishing peoples sins with plagues pestilence famine civil war or the like I would know if resisting of Kings had not been resisting of God or