to own the People for his Brethren 1 King 12.24 You call your selves Christian Kings and Defenders of the Faith but like the Princes of the Gentiles you exercise Lordship over the People and against their Liberties Yea herein you are worse than Gentile Princes for they lorded it over Men but you lord it over Saints the true Nobles of the King of Heaven Acts 17.11 Isa 43.4 You say you are the Chief know then you are the Peoples Servants Matth. 20.27 How dare you force the free-born People of this Land to swear that you are their Lords when the Word of God sayes expresly you are their Servants How much better would it become you to be humble and respective to the People and acknowledge them for your good and favourable Lords as that great Emperour did than to be so haughty as you are as if the People were your slaves when in the mean while you live upon the Wages they give you and are Stipendiaries unto them A Servant honoureth his Master you are the Peoples Servants and ought to honour them You are not ignorant I suppose of that custom of the Roman Emperours to reverence and adore the People How little do you mind your duty to the People what is the service you do them for the wages you receive unless it be to make them slaves to your lusts Let humble David be your pattern who said unto the People That which seems best unto you will I do 2. A Word to subordinate Magistrates and Officers Are Kings themselves the Peoples Servants and must you be Lords What insolent and absurd behaviour have I seen at the Courts of Publick Judicature from Judges Justices yea inferiour Clerks themselves what malepert and saucy language will they give to men whose cloaks they are scarce worthy to carry Sirrah Knave and the like to those whose servants they are and whom they ought to honour But alas what is this to deeds what are you for the greatest part but very Caterpillars and devourers of the Land Is this your service to the People to eat them up as one would eat bread and make a prey of your Masters And you Constables and other Officers who hale men up and down to Prisons for conscience sake because they do what God commands them that beat wound yea kill men who are peaceably assembled to seek the Lord and build up one anothers souls Is this your faithful service to God and the People you were appointed by the Lord to serve the People for their good is this the good you do them But you will say We are commanded by the King and we must do it I answer Whether better to obey God or man judge ye The King commands you and what is his Command to stand against God's God hath said That which is altogether Just shalt thou do Deut. 16.20 And will you do that which is unjust because the King commands you it shews you fear him more than God The King is the People Servants as well as you and will you abuse your Brethren because their Servant bids you Pharaoh commanded the Midwives to kill the male Children Exod. 1.16 but the Midwives feared God and did not as the King of Egypt commanded them ver 17. If you had the fear of God that would teach you not to hale men to Prison where they are kept till they are stisled to death because a wicked King commands you Saul bid his Foot-men kill the Priests but the Foot-men would not put forth their hand to fall upon them 1 Sam. 22.17 You that are Constables and other Officers are you not ashamed to be more base and slavish than Saul's Foot-men Well know assuredly that the righteous Judge will call you to an account for the injury you have done in this kind and perhaps the People too before you are either willing or aware 3. A Word to the People Are Magistrates your servants then learn to be wise and know your Priviledges for time to come and be not frighted out of your Right and Reason at once by those Traitors and Rebels who would make you believe that it is Treason and Rebellion to call them to account for the Treason and Rebellion they are guilty of The People of Israel were wiser than to be frighted out of their Birth-rights by Rehoboams great words And Oh that my Countrymen would understand their Liberty and Duty in this case and not idolize those who are indeed their Servants Be not so foolish as to court your Servants while they make you slaves and put a yoke of iron on your neck For Magistrates who are made and maintained by us to protect us to oppress enslave and murder us is the highest Treason and Rebellion against God and us as all wise men know For our Servants who are sworn to defend us and seek our good thus wickedly to tyrannize over us is most superlative Treason and transcendent Rebellion Oh what a slavish spirit is there upon England at this day that we should suffer our enemies to domineer over us and give them such excessive wages for keeping us in slavery No wonder if this Land become a Chaos when things are turned up-side down Servants become our Masters This is the cause why Tyranny hath so much prevailed both in Church and State the People are not careful to preserve that Power God and Nature hath given them but suffer Magistrates and Ministers which by the Word of God are their Servants to encroach upon their Rights till at last they come to be their Lords This midwiv'd Lord Bishops into the world The Churches grew negligent and suffered the Ministers to take their Power from them and when once they had let it go they could not recover it again And is it not the very same in Politick affairs when People are so void of reason as to give their own Power into the Magistrate's hands or let him encroach upon their Liberties can they expect any other but that he will be their Lord and they shall be his Vassals But that I may close up this Particular understand Parliaments are the Peoples servants we send them up as our Trustees to make Laws for our good if they make Laws for our hurt to oppress and injure us they are faithless and treacherous servants and ought to be dealt with accordingly The King Judges Justices Mayors Constables and all other Magistrates or Officers are our servants to protect us and secure us from Violence and Oppression if they break their Trust and oppress us the Law of God and Nature allows us to call our servants to account punish them according to their deserts and turn them out of our service CHAP. VI. Treating of some general Duties which Magistrates are obliged to 1. To Answer the End of Government 2. Keep and fill up their Relation 3. Observe the Law of God themselves 4. Exercise Justice 5. and protect the Land THe Duty of Magistrates falls next under consideration and
I confess hath been traditionally handed from one to another and been received by those who see more with other men's eyes than their own But whereas it is pretended that Tyrants do us some good in defending us from Theeves and Murderers I cannot apprehend that it is but Gratis dictum for they are so far from defending us from them that they make Theeves and Murderers by destroying Trade and oppressing the People with unreasonable Taxes and Exactions and being patterns to others in Profuseness and Prophaness they daily encrease the number of Theeves and Murderers in the Land yea wicked Governours are the principal Cause of Theeves and Murderers 2. And no wonder they should make Theeves and Murderers for they are Captains and Leaders of that Troop Theeves and Murderers learn of them What are those cruel Exactions that they lay upon us to maintain their Lusts but publick Thefts and doth not the Blood of the poor Innocents cry out against them as Murderers yea surely the Voice of the Blood of those hundreds these men have murdered by filthy Prisons for obeying God's Commands cryes aloud against them Tyrants are the greatest Theeves and Murderers of all 3. We are not at all beholding to them for suppressing or punishing Theeves and Murderers now and then For first They are Partial some Theeves and Murderers they will not punish but if they have Money they may be easily set at Liberty by one subtil Evasion or other Secondly Those they do punish are most of their own making as I shewed before Thirdly And they encrease more continually hang one and make two And Fourthly They do worse themselves than those they do punish And Lastly If we were rid of Tyrants and Oppressing Governours we could take care our selves to set up such as would execute Justice impartially and neither rob nor murder us themselves nor suffer others to do it both which these wicked Rulers do 4. But the reason why we are commanded to be subject to Magistrates is not because they do us some good but because they are Servants to us for good Rom. 13.4 It is a madness to say they are Servants to us for good because they do some good Would you say he were a Servant for good to his Master that would rob him and take away his goods to spend upon his lusts and lay violent hands upon him if he should reprove him because he would work sometimes and keep other Theeves out of the house he is a Servant for good that fulfils his Relation and performs the duty of a Servant And so it is concerning the Magistrate if he do that good which a publick Servant to the People is bound to do he is a Servant to them for Good If he oppress enslave impoverish persecute them though he may do some good yet he is not a Servant to them for good and they owe him no subjection An oppressing Magistrate neither keeps his Relation of a Servant to the People nor answers the End for which he was made Their Good but makes himself their Lord and seeks their hurt and the little good he doth doth not compensate for the great Evil. We are commanded to be subject to the Magistrate not because of some good he doth but because he is a Servant to us for good indefinitely that is all the good which his Office enjoyns him to do us 5. The Apostle gives this reason why we should not resist the Magistrate because we need not fear him if we do well but shall have praise of him vers 3. now though a Tyrant may possibly do some good yet we cannot have praise of him when we do well nay we carry our Liberties and Lives in our hands when we go about the best Duties We cannot meet together to serve God as he hath commanded us but we are in danger of the loss of our Liberties Livelihoods nay and Lives also for many have caught their Deaths in Prisons of late Therefore this pretence of some good is but a meer airy notion instead of an Argument 6. And lastly The Apostle gives this for the reason why we are to be subject to Magistrates and pay them Tribute because they continually attend upon this thing that is doing justice and seeking our good vers 6. not because we receive some good from them as the pretenders affirm but because they make it their work and continual endeavour to do us good Assidue incumbentes some render it but I suppose it might better be rendred fortiter instantes the word denotes vehement perseverance they put all their might and strength constantly to the performance of their Duty But be that neglects the greatest part of his Duty and is careless in his Office or continually oppressing us though he may possibly do some good hath no right to subjection or tribute from the People So that you see plainly what kind of Power God hath forbid us to resist and what Rulers he hath commanded us to be subject unto A Power that is just rational and profitable to us but an unjust arbitrary tyrannical or oppressive Power he hath not commanded us to be subject unto Rulers Magistrates that execute Justice punish evil doers praise them that do well and are Servants to us for good we must needs be subject unto for Conscience sake but no command to submit to Tyrants or Oppressors The same answer is to be made to that in 1 Pet. 2.13 14. that though the Apostle commands us to submit to such Governours as are sent for the punishment of evil doers and praise of them that do well yet he doth not command us to submit to such as punish us for doing well or oppress us And so we are to understand all other Scriptures that speak of obedience and subjection to Magistrates they mean righteous Magistrates not Oppressors 2. A second Argument to prove that we owe the Magistrate no passive obedience in case of Tyranny or Oppression but may lawfully resist him is this That which the Law of Nature teacheth all men to do cannot be unlawful But Nature teacheth to resist all that come to Oppress or Injure us as well the Magistrate as others Therefore it cannot be unlawful If a Magistrate should offer violence to any Womans chastity and unless she should yeeld her Body to him threaten to kill her will not Nature it self teach her to resist him and defend her self if she can If a Magistrate who ought to Protect me and my Relations will come to Murder my Wife and Children doth not Nature command me to defend them and resist him Nature teacheth all creatures to resist injury and defend themselves one way or other and who would be so childish as to affirm that Reason teacheth men to lay aside Self-defence and suffer others to destroy us under a pretence of Authority If we consult with Reason it will tell us that the wickedness of a Magistrate in oppressing us who is our Servant to protect us is far
assert our Liberties and Priviledges to make Laws for the Glory of God and our Good these our Servants conspire against their Masters and have wickedly robbed us of our Power and shared it among themselves we are no more bound to submit to their unjust and most prefidious Acts than a Master is bound to stand still and let his Servant give away his Goods and undoe him What Authority had a Parliament to give away our Birthrights to enslave the Corporations and Counties that sent them up to assert their Freedoms and to expose us to the lusts of wicked Oppressors to give away the Militia of the Land to the King to he disposed of for our slavery for who knowes not that it is put into the hands of bloody Papists and Sons of Cruelty and Oppression in most parts of the Land Did God give them this Authority who dares so to blaspheme Did the People give them any such Commission not in the least and therefore I conclude they had no authority at all to do it That they have no authority from the People I make good thus 1. There is no People can be supposed to be so destitute of reason and such Enemies to themselves their Little-ones and Posterity as to send up Trustees to enslave them and undoe them to give away their Birthrights and Priviledges to expose their Lives Liberties and Estates to Tyranny 2. If any People should be so foolish to send up Trustees with a Commission of this nature yet it were unlawfully done it were against the Law of God and Nature and the Grant it self null and void It were a wicked and treacherous thing for any man to give away the Power of preserving his own but especially his Wise his Children and Posterities Lives Liberties and Estates because both the Law of God and Nature oblige a man to preserve all these to give away the power of self-defence from my self is most abominable treachery to my self To give it away from my Wife and Children is most cursed and unnatural treachery to them and if a man should give away this Power to another yet the other hath no right to it by that grant it is as if it had been never given There are two infallible Maximes which make this good Whatever a man gives if it were not in his power to give it is not obliging But it is not in our power to give away self and family-defence and therfore if a man should do it yet the grant were not obliging Another Maxime as certain is that Against the Law of God or Nature nothing binds But to give away the Power of Self and Family-defence to a King or Parliament or both or to any other Person or Persons is against the Law of God and Nature And therefore if a People should be so ignorant as to do it yet it doth not at all bind them Suppose a Man should give the King or Parliament an absolute Power over himself his Wife and Children and they should come to ravish his Wife or murder his Children before his face were he bound to stand still and suffer it no such thing the Law of God and Nature binds him to rescue his Wife and Children if it be in his power notwithstanding that unlawful Act of his in giving them away before The Parliament had no Authority from God to betray our Rights and Liberties for God ordained Magistrates not for our hurt but good Rom. 13.4 They could have no authority from us because the Law of God and Nature obligeth us to defend them and therefore there is indeed nothing but a pretence of Authority which is as meer a cheat as any in the world and we have the same right to all our Freedoms and Priviledges that we had before they gave them from us and as soon as we can it is not only our Liberty but Duty for the sake of our Wives Children and Posterity to resume them again and to turn these unfaithful Stewards out of our Service with wages suitable to their merits The Lawyers say there are some cases wherein though the King make a Grant to a person by his Letters Patent yet nothing passeth to the Patentee I am sure if Scripture or Reason or both may give Judgement in our case though the Parliament have given away our Birthrights perfidiously to the King yet nothing passed of right to the King thereby The Parliaments giving our Birthrights to the King is just of as much force as if the Convocation of Prelates or Council of Bishops should give our souls to the Devil they have as much Power to do the latter as the Parliament have to do the former for both are against the Law of God and Nature and the King hath just as much right to our Liberties by the Parliaments Donation as the Devil hath to the souls of those whom the Bishops excommunicate and curse Let us not be such Children in understanding as to be frighted with a Pretence of Authority to oppress us for they have no other Authority but what is derived from the Devil and our perfidious Servants the Parliament who have sold us for nought CHAP. VIII I Come from the Power due to the Magistrate to the Tribute and I shall resolve this as I did the former 1. Positively 2. Negatively 1. Positively First So much Tribute as is necessary for prosecuting the Ends of Government viz. the Glory of God and Good of the People that is due to the Magistrate and the People are in justice bound to render unto him Secondly So much as is suitable to the Relation he is in Servants must have sufficient Wages to perform their Service yea it is their due in point of Equity Magistrates are our Servants and Wages competent to their Office is their due from us Many Towns Cities and Nations have been destroyed because their Magistrates had not Wages enough to perform their Service Constantinople was made a prey to the Turk by the Covetousness of the Citizens who would not furnish the Emperor with Money sufficient for the defence of the City Thirdly So much Tribute as is necessary for the several Duties of Magistrates is due to them to carry on Justice and protect the Land which varies according to the greatness of their trust and various Emergencies of publick affaires which is the rule by which the Magistrates Wages is to be proportioned 2. Negatively What-ever Tribute is indeed hurtful to the People is not due to the Magistrate because it is contrary to the End for which Magistracy was ordained he was made for their good therefore they are not bound to maintain him to their hurt If a Magistrate will have a Tax to maintain a standing Army which shall keep the People in slavery they are not bound to pay it because it is for their hurt If a Tax should be levied for building Pauls or any other Superstitious business which is burdensome to the People they are not bound to pay it