4.19 Otherwise no man shall ever have the Honour and Reward of suffering for and with his Saviour nor have means to manifest and exercise his Faith Patience Fortitude Perseverance in well-doing and many other Graces Answ 3. For the Example brought out of the twelfth of Matthew to prove the human lawfulness of doing an unlawful thing in case of necessity only to preserve a single person as in David which a fortiori from the less to the greater must be the more justifiable for the preservation of a Common-wealth It appears that our Saviour doth approve of his Disciples in gathering the Corn on the Sabbath by David's Example as it was made lawful by an Humane Necessity in a Ceremonial Precept only Nevertheless as Lord of the Sabbath he did then cancel the duty of that Ceremonial Law of not gathering any thing upon that day as appears by the Context Yet our Saviour in citing David's eating the Shew-bread did not free David from the breach of a Ceremonial Precept For the Text saith expresly it was not lawful for him nor those with him to eat it but only for the Priests but urgeth it for the illustration of Gods Indulgence and Mercy to the frailty of his nature in so great a Humane strait under the Law in a thing only malum quia prohibitum that they might the less wonder at his compassionating his Disciples weakness in taking that they might conceive to be against a Ceremonial Precept only and that under the Gospel for the relief of nature in an extremity OBJECTION V. Object 5. Well but if it be not lawful to comply voluntarily with an Vsurped Power by which I may be said to give it countenance and reputation may I not yet act under it in things good or indifferent in their own nature when they are commanded under a Coercive Penalty and that for the preservation of my self and Posterity which the Law of God Nature and Nations oblige to Answ A Passive Submission to the present Power may in some such Cases be lawful For I am not bound to tempt a Temptation nor with the Porpus to seek and hunt the storm where it may be honestly avoided self-preservation being so natural as by instinct it catcheth at any thing that may but stay or support it as a Hop for want of a Pole will clasp and embrace a Nettle to stay it from falling But here we must be cautious and distinguish between the acting of a Magistrate and other inferior Employments which perhaps may be preparatory only to some Administrations of Justice or yet of less importance Yet in case of Magistracy we must distinguish between Causes Criminal and meerly Civil For 1. In Causes Criminal where Blood is by the Law required to expiate the Offence I conceive it wholly unlawful to act in that they must derive their Commission for it from them who have a just Power of conveying it by Divine Commission and the known Laws or else they do not take but wrest and force the Sword out of God's hand and he that so sheds mans blood with it by man shall his blood be shed in that he doth it without any lawful call without which no man can act but in a private capacity and then it were murder in any to kill a Murderer and he that as a Magistrate will do a thing that requires the just Influence of Supreme Power to make it lawful doth tacitely own that Power to be in him or them from whom he derives his Power to act Especially in the Method of proceeding against Malefactors in Criminal Causes where the frame of the Inditement and reading the Commission must be understood an owning a just Power to be in them from whom they derive theirs in that no private person or Community of men unless combined into a lawful Government ever had the Power of Life and death in them For it is by that Power only men justly suffer not the Law which is only a Regulation of the exercise of it so as any man may press the desert of death against a Wicked Malefactor by the Law as preparatory to Sentence and Execution but must not be active in the latter without a just Commission in that all men ought to act in a lawful posture and subordination only For if the Power Originally be invalid it cannot derive a just one by vertue of which men may operate no more than a sulphurous Spring can send forth a sweet stream for with Aristotle Quod deest in causa deest in effectu 2. In cases meerly Civil between Party and Party I am something doubtful how to determine if compelled to accept of a place of Judicature though perhaps in some Cases I may be morally bound from the Object it points at to act without any outward force upon me in the name not vertue of the Usurper where the thing is intrinsically good or hath the countenance of ancient and known Laws but never to the countenancing or upholding of the Power so as I may act under but not for it in such cases And in others when I have refused and resisted it as far as I can with safety to my Person and Fortune I conceive I have taken off all matter of just scandal of giving any countenance to the present Power and rather shew my disapproving of it when force and compulsion only hath determined my choice and that only to a submission in reverence to the Power that is upon me but not to any just Authority in the Imposer which Conscience would oblige unto Nor do I in this consider my self vested in any just capacity for the doing any distributive Justice so as to force a Conscientious Submission from any to my Determinations but only as an Arbitrator to mediate a just end of differences which the necessity of the times all other Channels by which Justice as a stream should derive to us being wholly obstructed enforces all men to a voluntary and free submission unto And therefore with these Limitations it may perhaps be lawful so as neither by Oath or Acting I own the exercise of the Supreme Power as just in them that assume it nor endeavour to countenance or support it which Cautions all Callings of men especially Commissioned Officers are to observe under an unlawful and usurped Power that possesses only an usufructuary and gubernative one to rule without any just propriety in the Legislative Power to which none can pretend but such as are commissioned by God according to his revealed Will and possess their Titles by a lawful and civil Right For in an unlawful posture of subordination none can have a just Power derived Though as I said perhaps in some cases where I am morally bound to a thing intrinsically good I may act in the name not Power of the Usurper Neither do those abused Texts p Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2.13 oblige us further for God cannot breath hot and cold in the same words i. e. countenance
recovery of his just Rights Answ In this case Faithfulness implying Trust Duty and Active Obedience as in the Revelations Be faithful unto Death and I will give thee a Crown of Life and so understood in Common Notions you ought not to do it For though you cannot pay the Debt of an Operative Allegiance to the right Owner it is not in your Power to transfer his Right to another the Duty of Subjects to their Kings deriving from God's Precept not Man's Donation so as it falls not under the consideration of things Arbitrary Obedience being simply good or evil as it is objected And therefore all I conceive we can do in this case lawfully is but the giving of a Negative Assurance not to act any thing against them so long as we remain under their protection which once made we ought to be faithful in the observing till our condition be enlarged by Exchange Ransom or some other way of Providence which ever presumes the means to be lawful as well as the end good For this is but a submission to my fate with an Improvement of my Condition no restraint of my Power but the exercise of it for a time a prudent Election of the least evil of Punishment without any Ingredient of the evil of sin For so we may keep Loyal and strengthen in the Habit when suspended in the Act and interrupted in the mafestation of the Duty a wrong possession de facto never cancelling the Owners right de jure but engages all honest mens Compassions to the oppressed and Prayers for their restitution and not with the Pagan Indians to worship the Devil ne noceat or for the Temptations of Greatness or Power q Mat. 4. So as our Oaths and Engagements must be always as the Casuists determine 1. Super re licita 2. In bonum finem 3. Never contra pactum aliquod prius initum which the equity of the thing and some just occasion may again call me to upon a former tye or Obligation for if otherwise taken they engage us only to an hearty Repentance for having taken them And all this we ought to do out of an humble and reverential awfulness to the Person and Commands of our King not servile Affection as not consisting with a noble and ingenuous nature but a filial one issuing from love For this is grounded upon the Law of Nature and should be filial as Power it self is Paternal r Lev. 19.3 Pro. 14.21 And therefore my Son saith Solomon fear God and the King for as the King to God so the Subjects are to the King and he is a middle thing in regard of just Power between them and God Nay he is so much Gods nay God to us in regard of the immediate Power and delegation he hath from God that Josephus to distinguish Monarchical Government from all others framed by men calls it Theocratie that of God which in the Inventory of all Blessings of this life was by Ezekiel accounted the greatest Ezek. 16.3 And as a Beam from the Sun it is so inseparable from the person where it is once legally setled in a King and his Progenitors as it is with us owned both by the Articles of our Church Canons Homilies Laws and Oaths both of Supremacy and Allegiance that nothing but death can divide them For though some Kings have been deposed by Rebellions and others forced to resign their Crowns as Edward the Second see Baker's Chronicle they were never divested of the Habit of Power de jure but only deprived of its exercises de facto And though that of Resignation can hardly be justifiable in any case it ought never to be done but to his lawful Successor as it was in the Instance mentioned without throwing off God as in the rejection of Samuel where his Providence had otherwayes settled the Right in that where the Divine Constitution hath placed the Supremacy in any God still expects from him a just managing of that Power for the advancement of his Glory and good of his people which he can never cast off no more than a Father Wife or Child can discharge themselves from the mutual duty of those Relations so long as they continue Nor is this slightly to be passed over when the single duty of fear due to the King s Eccl. 12.13 is comprehensive of all others for as Love it is a Catholick Grace runs through all our Actions and is a Watch upon them for their Regulation or as the Life and Soul that animates them and the more it is free the more it dilates to shew it self saith Irenaeus in just duties and makes our Filiation under the Gospel of much more liberty than the condition of Servants under the Law as it imports a voluntary Reverence or Worship for so Fear and Reverence in the Language of the Spirit speak the same thing t Eccl. 1. Ps 5.7 compared with Ps 132.7 Ps Ps 95. Mal. 1.6 But to test our selves in this duty we may know it by our fear of God which includes it as God will know that is take notice of our fear of him by that to our Superiours As in Abraham's Sacrifice where though intuitively and eternally he knew that Abraham feared him yet he would not own it but from the evidence of his outward expressions u Gen. 22.13 And thus our Saviour would only take notice of St. Peter's love to him by feeding his Flock w Joh. 2 P. 17. though he well knew his Affections before which was also the reason of Job's Tryals x Job 1. Nor is this a slight Argument as a Reverend Divine observes but grounded upon an impregnable Reason and Syllogism framed by the Spirit of God y 1 Joh. 4. who concludes by a Topick rule That if we love not the general Image of God in our Brethren whom we do see we cannot love God whom we do not see but in such Shadows and Representations And if by my want of Affection and Charity to my Brother and the fruit of it God concludes against my love to him he will do it much more for the want of our duty of fear to our King who is not only his general but the particular and peculiar Image of his Divine Power and Glory to whom fear is originally due which made Jacob to say of his Lord Esau z Gen. 32.10 vidi faciem ut faciem dei And Moses a Num. 16. Exo. 16.8 Your murmurings are not contra nos sed contra Jehovam Nay thus God himself saith of the ten Tribes revolt b 2 Chr. 13.8 they resisted the Kingdom of God in David's Son and to Samuel c 1 Sam. 8.7 non te sed me So as our failings in this or any other way to our Prince is a disobedience to God himself as their hearts are said to be in his hands by appropriation Therefore my Son says he not Sons give me thy heart d Pro. 24.21 in exchange
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
have it used by any hand to which he conveyes it not by Humane which is always accompanied with Divine Right And so it is to be esteemed of according to God's revealed Will who never instituted other Government for Civil Regiment but commands it as other Spiritual Functions in the Church for Divine Administration there being no happy State in the perfection of Government without a Lawful King nor Glorious Church without Episcopacy Nor can any other justly intitle themselves to the having a Divine Precept or Institution for their Practise So as if others have the esse they want the bene esse of Government though men have found out many other inventions for both And therefore whosoever resist their Lawful Rulers by force purchase to themselves Damnation as they oppose the Ordinance of God though in wicked ones yet Rulers if wicked are to expect the same Reward For saith Bucer the word Subject signifies a fall and absolute Subjection to Rulers and forbids all force because as another observes u upon Tit. 3. to be subject is to obey and the rather because in the worst Government of any King the protection we receive from it doth more than ballance the Evils we perhaps might suffer under another Form w Jud. 17. And therefore saith the Apostle let every Soul as well Spiritual as Temporal be subject to Kings as the best Form of Ruling in whom by Gods Ordination the Habit of all Power resides though the Act be in his Ministers in all Causes though not over them but their Persons as Supreme and qui tentat accipere tentat decipere saith Bernard So as none but those that swear falsly in making a Covenant and fear not the Lord will say what should a King do to us x Hos 10.3 4. When as it is in the Fable of Beasts all should agree to choose the Lion for their King rather than have none For praestat unum timere quam multos And therefore it is probable God in his Providence to prevent Inter-regnums the mischiefs that did follow upon having no King y Judg. 17. and the tumultuousness of Popular Elections did settle Regal Powers in a succession of Blood first in David though promised to Abraham and prophesied of to Judah z Gen. 17.6.49.10 1 King 11.14 Jer. 41.1 2 Chro. 22.10 So as that Position of the Romanists and our new Statists Simeon and Levi Brethren in Iniquity that Princes are made by the People because made by the consent of the People and that People Originally make the Magistrate not the Magistrate the People is most false yet thus Parsons in his Dolman and many others broached that seditious Position with divers of the same nature to stir up the People against Queen Elizabeth perswading them they had power to dispose of the Crown and might depose her and transfer the Kingdom to the Infanta of Spain and since that time both Junius Brutus Buchanan and others like Sampson's Foxes have joyned with the Jesuits in this though standing as Extreams in other things But this Opinion as a most Reverend Divine of our Church hath shewed hath no Foundation in Reason nor Scripture For saith he from the Canon the Powers that be are ordained of God And how can man give the Sword the power of Life and Death over others that hath not power to take away his own life by any Natural or Divine Right For as hath been said no man can convey to another what he hath not himself So that Power wheresoever placed is an Emanation from God immediately and so to be obeyed only where orderly setled and constituted For the Powers that be saith the Apostle a Rom. 13. whether by Election or Inheritance Compact or just Conquest being once legally established are of God and may not be disturbed by their Subjects in a way of Arms or Force for any Impiety Tyranny or Oppression whatsoever they having no Power over the person once invested in and discriminated by the Power all Kings have by God's Ordination for in all changes men can only choose the person but never give the Power As Silver that is mere Plate if it be tendered for exchange may be taken or left at the liberty of him to whom it is offered but when once stampt by the King and Coyned becomes currant and not to be refused Or as Acts of Parliament whilest Voted by the two Houses have to this time been only Consents but after the King's concurrence Statutes that bind the persons that Voted them and all others and not to be altered by them without his assent So in Governments or Governours as soon as any are created by man whether Kings Elective or by Succession even St. Peter's Humane Creatures are by St. Paul called God's Ordinance b Rom. 13. and not to be resisted nor altered at the Will of the Electors who irrevocably part with their own Right as the Jewish Servant by boring made himself a Slave For if there remained in them a Power dormant to over-rule and unmake them whom they have once submitted to then where were decency and order c 1 Cor. 14. Nay what Tumults Disorders and Massacres would arise from it when Revenge would remove the one or Ambition Faction and the like set up another to compass their own ends like Herodet a Persian King who being a cruel Tyrant when he could not find out a Law to warrant his unlawful Actions found out another that he might do what he list And those that fear not God and the King conjunctim as one in regard of Divine Relation and Institution are given to such changes d Prov. 24.21 though Christ himself as man gave the example of submission and acknowledgment of the Divine Right of Caesar's and his Deputy Pilate's Power e Mat. 17.27 Joh. 9.11 the conviction of which Truth fetcht the Confession of it from a Popish Divine f Royard in Dom in 1. Advent Rege constituto non potest Populus jugum subjectionis repellere And though Bellarmine lays it as a Position as cited by Suarez g Li. 3. c. 3. p. 224. That the People never so give up the Act of Power unto the King but that they retain the Habit still in themselves it is contradicted by Suarez h Defend Fid. Cath. l. 3. c. 3. p. 225. in these words Non est simpliciter verum Regem pendere in sua potestate a Populo etiamsi ab ipso eam acceperit for he adds Postquam Rex legitime constitutus est supremam habet potestatem in his omnibus ad quae accipit etiamsi a Populo illam acceperit So Cuneris i L. de Offic Princi Principis sive Electione sive Postulatione vel Successione vel belli jure Princeps fiat Principi tamen facto divinitus potestas adest Otherways there would be Sword against Sword whereas God hath made but one because for one hand and will still be a
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
Spirits and render them rather Conquerours than Supplicants But I hope God will not submit his own Glory and our King to such an Eclipse when nothing but necessity can make it lawful Though probably such a Scheme by some may be set and calculated for our Horizon when his Majesty's Complyance to some things has made them rather impose more than acquiesce in what they desired for he that once gives Ground ever loses more in his Retreat unless it be to rally again with some Reserves to maintain his own Right more vigorously so as we ought still to contend to Blood for our King's Freedom in his Actings against such Especially those whose Principles are for Resistance and Rebellion not Submission in things that are contrary to their seditious Principles that hold it lawful to murder the King if not the man in whom the Regal Power is vested by dispoiling him of all his Regalia and Essentials of Royalty which were to un shakel mad-men and set them free to Fury and Rage perhaps for the destruction of those that endeavoured their recovery and preservation and not to strike Sparks into those Brands that need be quenched but they heighten all into a Flame Besides it were unsafe to the Publick Peace to permit the Factious Separatists who are yet as Sand without Morter weak dispersed and loose to gather into Combinations and Confederacies by which they 'll know their own strength and take advantage of others weakness to compass their own end whose end is only like Oyl among other Liquors to be uppermost and bring all into a subjection to them and to be able perhaps to give not ask Dispensations Nay it would reflect dishonour and disgrace upon our Government and Governours and Discouragement to all Orthodox Professors not to maintain what hath been prosperously practised among us since the Reformation and hath had the Influences of Heaven to give it a Prolifick Vertue in producing a Loyal Zealous and Pious People to beautifie their Professions And therefore Christian Kings should not be out-done by a Heathen inspired by God to it but send out a Decree that whosoever will not do th Law of God and the King's Law let him have Judgment without delay whether it be to Death or to Banishment or to Confiscation of Goods or to Imprisonment s Ezr. 7.25 26 27. which was in part practised by the Kings of Israel t 2 Chro. 15.12 13 14 15. 29. â—0 31. 34.31 â—2 â—3 1 Chron. 23. and ought much more to be done under the Gospel that hath more of light and direction in it to walk by lest Liberty should turn into Licentiousness in holding things contrary to the Analogy of Faith and against the Rules of Charity Purity Loyalty Sobriety and Expedience to the disturbance of the Peace and Unity of the Church which Good and Pious Kings ought always to prevent or restrain by wholesom and Penal Laws of Regulation to encourage or fright their People the more to their Duties and Obedience which I shall in the next place touch upon with a light and unskilful Pencil CHAP. V. Of the Debt and Allegiance Subjects owe to their Princes NOW that we may pay and retribute the Native Rights rightly which we owe to the Person upon whom God hath fixt the Sacred Character of Supremacy let us endeavour to set a true value and estimate upon the great benefits we receive by him when we either find in the foot of the Account all the Glory of Religion and happiness of a free People if he Governs well summed up in him or when ill not only the Exercise of many Christian Graces in us God commanding our Submission to him but sometimes the highest Crown of Martyrdom when we suffer for Christ and a Good Cause and are not only ready with St. Paul to do but dye for his Name u Acts 21. For by it we may make Tyrants and our greatest Enemies to become our best Friends if we can but improve those holy advantages for our Spiritual Good and make our Spirits when extracted from the more earthly parts in all outward enjoyments to multiply our Joyes so that were there not a higher Principle to move us our own Interest and self-advantage the delight and complaisance of a quiet Conscience should naturally incline us to an holy gratitude to God for them and oblige us to all proportionable returns unless we will have the inanimate and irrational Creatures to rise up against us in Judgment For thus the Rivers run back into the Lap of their Natural Mother and offer up their streams there as a just Tribute for having sucked and derived their nourishment from her Breasts Thus the dull and heavy Earth doth put forth her self in an early Spring to make an Offering of her Fruits to man for his labour and cost bestowed on her and sends up an Incense to Heaven confest of the Spirits of her richest Flowers in thanks for her fruitful Showers and sweet Influences by which they grow and flourish Nay the most unnatural of all Birds the Raven became Elias his Caterer out of a natural gratitude to God as some have observed for feeding her young ones when she left them And therefore let not these become in this reasonable Creatures and we Men become Beasts nay worse by our unthankfulness for Blessings by Afflictions but most when we fail in our Duties to our Superiours for their benefits to us the contrary being enjoined by God who because Princes are to rule for him takes care for them and no sooner provides for his own Worship but for their Honour w Ex. 20.2 3 1â— still coupling them with himself through all the Scripture as x Prov. 24.21 Mat. 22.21 1 Pet. 2.17 Fear God honour the King that so both Law Prophets Apostles nay the Son of God himself might enforce it as a Duty upon us as a learned Father of our Church observes But not to loose my self in this Sea we will follow the several streams that run into it and shew how they all meet there And First of Obedience 1. The first great Out-rent and Homage we are to acknowledge our subjection in is Obedience in lawful Commands For so St. Paul to Titus y Tit. 3.1 commenting as it were upon the 13th Chapter to the Romans expounds it And as the Learned observe the very word Subjects signifies Obeyers in the Original as an Essential Ingredient into an happy Government which with Solon is ever most glorious Si Populus Magistratui obediat Magistratus autem legibus But then this duty must be rooted in Conscience and spring from thence in that we must obey for the Lord's sake terminating it in him because the bond to Civil Obedience is from Divine Ordinance and that not only to the good but froward Masters z 1 Pet. 2.18 Eph. 6. And then let it spread into every duty even in all things a Col. 3.20 Actively or
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