their supream head In the same manner Subjects are subordinate to their Prince and bound to performe obedience to him Now what this power of a King is is not of all sides agreed upon If we looke into the sacred records we may see the manner of the Israelites King to be described And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked of him a King And he said This will be the manner of the King that shall reigne over you he will take your sons and appoint them for himselfe for his chariots and to be his horsemen and some shall run before his chariots And he wil appoint them Captains over thousands and Captains over fifties and will set them to care his ground and to reap his harvest and to make his instruments of war and instruments of his chariots And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries and to be cooks and to be bakers And he will take your fields and your vine-yards and your olive yards even the best of them and give them to his servants And hee will take the tenth of your seede and of your vineyards and give to his officers and to his servants And he will take your men servants and your maid-servants and your goodliest young men and your asses and put them to his work He will take the tenth of your sheep and ye shall be his servants Some from this description of Samuel doe think that the rights of Majestie are set forth So Luthen in Postil super Evang Dom. 23. post Trinit. Conc. 1. Those things saith he which are said to be Caesars Mat. 22.21 are those rights of Kings which are described 1 Sam. 8. Now those things which Christ affirmeth to be Caesars ought of right to be given unto him So Strigelius in 1 Sam. 8. p. 27. Hic dicunt aliqui describi tyrannum non regem c. Sed textus nominal jus regis loquitur de oneribus stipendiorum causâ mpositis Some say that here a tyrant is described not a King and that these things are not so spoken as if the Lord did approve of servitude but the Text saith he doth name the rights of Kings and speaks of burthens imposed by way of Stipend But these with others of the same opinion are much mistaken and deceived For God constituting Judges under him was himselfe in a peculiar manner which never hapned unto any other Nation a King to the Israelites who now did ask a King of him as the other Nations had Hearken saith God to Samuel unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee for they have not rejected thee but they have rejected me that I should not reigne over them Samuel therefore as the Lord commanded him that he might reprehend the rashnesse of this people describes unto them the impune licence the rage and violence of this man whom in stead of God they did desire to be set over them and so in his person of all kings As if the Prophet had said the lust of this Kings licence shall break forth so far that it shall not be in your power to restraine it who yet shall have this one thing betide you to receive his commands and to be obedient to him Insomuch sayth he that ye shall cry out in that day because of your King which ye shall have chosen you and the Lord will not heare you For Kings are exempted from the punishments of humane Lawes and have God only to be their Judge and their avenger The vertue of the Law as Modestinus hath it is this to command forbid permit and punish But no man can command himselfe or be compelled by himselfe or so make a Law that he may not recede from it Lawes are given by Superiours to inferiours but no man is superior or inferior to himself It is impossible therefore for Kings to be bound by their owne Lawes much lesse by the Lawes of their predecessors or the people For an equal hath not power over an equall much lesse an inferiour over a superiour There are three sorts of Civill government according to Aristotle Monarchie Aristocracie and Democracie {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} It is necessary saith he that the chiefe be one or a few or many For all Nations and Cities as that great Secretary of State to many Emperours hath it are governed either by the People or by the Peeres or by the Prince As then in Aristocracie and Democracie it must needs be that the Government be in the hands of some few or many so in Monarchie it is in one mans hands onely whose lawes all men are bound to obey but himselfe none save the Law of God For otherwise it is not a Monarchie but a Polyarchie that is the state of the Peers or People A King subject to Laws saith the Philosopher {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is not a species of a Republike Cicero being to defend King Deiotarus before Caesar begins his oration from the insolencie and novelty of the thing telling him that it was so unusuall a thing for a King to be accused as that before that time it was never heard of C. Memmius a popular man and of great power although he were a most deadly enemie to Nobilitie yet he subscribes to the same opinion For to doe any thing without being questioned is to be a King saith he A Prince saith Ulpian is free from all Lawes Dio his Coaetanie speaks to the same purpose They are free from Lawes saith he as the Latine words doe sound that is from all necessity of the Laws or the necessary observation of the Laws nor are they tyed to any written Laws Constantinus Harmenapolus a Greek Interpreter to the same sense thus delivers himself A King is not subjected to Laws that is he is not punished if he offends To which I might adde the common consent of the Interpreters of both Laws unanimously affirming and concluding that a King is to give an account for his offences to God onely and onely before him to justifie his innocencie Excellently Solomon Where the word of a King is there is power and who may say unto him What dost thou And therefore the Wise man in the Wisdome of Solomon thus addresseth his speech unto them Heare therefore O ye Kings learne ye that be Judges of the ends of the earth Give care you that rule the people and glory in the multitude of Nations for power is given you of the Lord and soveraignty from the Highest who shall try your works and search out your counsels Let us heare some of the Fathers about this matter Irenaeus tels us that the Princes of the world having the Laws as the garment of Justice shall not be questioned for those things they shall doe according to Law and Justice nor yet suffer punishment but if they shall practice
Saturne Jupiter and Cecrops of the Garamantes a people of the middle of Lybia Cambyses of the Romanes Romulus from whom at first to L. Tarquinius Superbus and afterwards from C. Julius Caesar to this day they have retained a Monarchie Bellarmine would divine that the Civill power ought to be immediately if not by the Law of God yet by the Law of Nature in the whole multitude as in its subject and from it to be transferred by the same law of Nature to one or more But he much deceives himselfe and others also with such his hallucination For this power of Life and Death is given by Nature unto none None seemes to be Lord of his owne Members much lesse of anothers Onely God who gives Life to Men hath the power of taking it away from them or those to whom by a speciall favour he hath communicated that power And surely your blood of your lives wil I require saith God at the hands of every Beast will I require it and at the hand of Man at the hand of every Mans Brother will I require the Life of Man Whosoever sheddeth mans bloud by man shall his bloud be shed for in the image of God made he man Hence is that precept both of God and Nature Thou shalt not kill But if this power were given by Nature unto men it should surely have been given to one man rather than to all for the command of one man even Bellarmine himselfe being the Judge is the best and most agreeable unto nature but the command of a multitude the worst Now Nature in every thing as the Philosophers will have it doth intend that which is best So that out of the politique society and a certaine forme of Civill Government there is not any Politique or Civill Power given unto men But all consent that all ancient Nations as formerly was spoken did at first obey Kings and that it was the first name of command upon earth Yea as Bellarmine himselfe confesseth Kingdomes are of greater antiquity than Common-wealths In the beginning of States saith Justine the command of People and Nations was in the Kings It must needs be then that Kings not receive their power and authority from the multitude or men but from God onely the King of Kings For it is a Maxime and Principle among the Lawyers that no man can transfer more power upon another than he hath himselfe Nor is this assertion contradicted though you should alledge that Princes as I said before are sometimes chosen by men more often if not alwayes inaugurated by them For hence it is that S. Peter calleth a King {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the ordinance of man which is not so to be understood Causally as if it were excogitated or invented by men but Subjectively because it is exercised by men and Objectively because it is versed about the government of humane society and then Finally because it is constituted by God for the good of men and the conservation of humane policie For the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} doth recall us to God as to the first Author of authority and although Kings are created by men that is erected anointed and inaugurated by them yet the first Creator of Kings is God to whom all creation doth appertaine and from whom all power doth come For there is no power but of God if we will beleeve S. Paul who from his Master tels us that the powers that be 〈◊〉 ordained of God The Finall cause of sover aignty is the glory of God and the happinesse of the subject that a King as the Keeper of the two Tables in the Decalogue with one eye looks up unto God whose Vicegerent he is in advancing and defending Religion and piety and with the other upon his Subjects that they may live in peace and prosperity For this cause saith Epiphanius are powers ordained that all things from God may be well disposed and administred to the good order of government of the whole world This is that goale to which the Princely Champion runs which is no other as Lipsius speaks than the commodity security and prosperity of Subjects And this is the end which S. Paul expresseth when as he saith that the Magistrate is the Minister of God to them for good Where by good we may understand good Naturall good Moral good Civill and good Spirituall First the King is the minister of God to his Subjects for their good naturall whenas he makes provision of corn and victuals whereby they may live Secondly he is a minister of God for their good morall when as he doth prescribe such Laws to his Subjects as that they conforming their lives to them may live honestly Thirdly he is the Minister of God to them for good Civill when as by his sword he doth preserve their persons and estates from injury and mainteine the publique peace And lastly he is the Minister of God for good unto them good spirituall when as hee doth advance and maintain Religion and piety and suppresse prophanenesse and superstition The materiall cause of Soverainty is the King and people with which as with its integrall parts it is compleat and absolute and without which it cannot at all subsist The formal cause of it consists in that order which is betweene the King and his Subjects by which he is above them and they under him he commands and they obey he rules and they submit of which as Lipsius saith there is so great a force or necessity rather that this alone is the stay or prop of all humane things This is that same Bond saith Seneca by which the Common-wealth coheres that vitall spirit which so many thousands of men doe draw who otherwise of themselves would be nothing but a burthen and a prey if this soule of command were withdrawn from them This is that same Circaean rod with the touch of which both beasts and men become tame and ruley which of all otherwise head-strong and untractable makes every one obedient and plyable each man with the feare of it A Common-wealth saith Aristotle is a certaine description or order of those men which doe inhabit it The King he is above all others according to that power which God Almighty hath communicated unto him and the Subjects they are under him by the same authority And therefore Princes are called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that is supereminent seated in a more sublime estate And Subjects they are called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} subordinate reduced into order The metaphor is taken from military discipline in which the Commander placed above all others over-looks the whole body whiles every one besides him standing in their ranks keepe their stations Whereupon as souldiers in an Army placed in order are subordinate to their Captain and performe obedience to him as
confirmed it with an oath Now what is more unjust than that a Prince should be bound to maintain and keepe those Laws which it is necessary that they must be either Antiquated or the Common-wealth come to ruine Although all change whatsoever as it is in the Proverb is very dangerous yet that of Laws is most pernicious And yet it is as certaine on the other side that the change of manners doth efflagitate a change of Laws and that there is no Law so honest and inviolable or so deare even by the shew of antiquity it selfe but that necessity so requiring it may ought to receive a change Salus Populi suprema lex esto The peoples safety is the chiefest Law To conclude If that Kings and Princes breaking all bonds of Laws which yet God forbid they should doe falsifie their promises and disrespect their vowes making no account of what they have engaged themselves to by their Protestations yet the people must not rise up in rebellion against them or shake off the yoake of obedience from them seeing they are to have no other than God himselfe to be their Judge and their avenger CHAP. II. THE SVBJECTS LOYALTY OR The duty of Subjects to their Kings HAving in the former Chapter set forth unto you the Royalty of Kings over their Subjects where I have declared their Originall from God and their end next to God their Subjects good and that though they should come short of that end for which they were constituted and ordeined yet they ought not to be cut short by the people under them but are to be reserved to the judgement of God next to whom they are second here upon earth and under whom they have no Superiour being above all Laws of men and themselves a Law unto their Subjects I now come to describe unto you the Loyaltie of Subjects towards their Kings and the peoples duty For a King and Subjects being relatives and the formall cause of a Kingdome consisting in that order which is betweene the King and his Subjects by which he rules and they submit he governe and they be governed he commands and they obey It is very requisite in these miserably distracted times where most men would shake off the yoke of obedience from their shoulders and live as they list without all order That having spoken of Kings and their power over their Subjects I should now say somwhat of Subjects and their duty to their Kings And here that we may the better setforth their duty it will not be amisse to expresse their nature for so knowing what they be we shall the sooner come to know what they must doe Now if wee consult Bodinus about them he will tell us that Subjects are those who are bound to maintain and fight for the dignity safety of their Prince as for themselves and to have the same friends and enemies with their Prince Or as others doe describe them Subjects are a part of the Common-wealth which are obliged to the supreme power even to all that they have and for this cause it is that they doe enjoy all the priviledges of the Weale publike This is the nature of a Subject But then if any should aske me who are Subjects as well as what are Subjects I must again have recourse to the Politicians who do give us to understand that by the name of Subjects we are to take notice of the multitude of men which are governed or rather who submit themselves to be governed And in this name we must comprehend all and every one of what state and condition soever they be that are in that City Provance Countrey where a Magistrate is the head For so many as do belong to a Common-wealth doe appertaine to the one part of it viz. They are referred to be either Magistrates or Subjects whence it follows that the name of Subject is more general than that of Citizen specifically and properly so called although in writers we finde them to bee promiscuously used For he that is a partaker with others of publike honour and dignity is properly a Citizen but hee that partakes onely of burthens and taxes not as wel of honours and dignity in the Common-wealth where he resides lives is not a Citizen but a Subject They are termes contrariant not reciprocall Every Citizen is a Subject but every Subject is not a Citizen There is also another disagreeing respect for a Citizen is so called in respect of his native Countrey or Common-wealth where he is borne or to which he is ascribed But he is a Subject in respect of that Magistrate which he obeyes wheresoever he is Now men are said to be Subjects two manner of wayes either by their nativity and birth or by their dwelling and habitation That a mans nativity and birth doe make him to be a Subject is plainly evidenced ex L. assumptio 6. 1. ad Municip Filius Civitatem ex quâ pater ejus originem duxit non domicilium sequitur A sonne follows the City from which his Father doth derive his originall not his house And if a man be born of parents of divers Cities he follows the condition of his father not of his mother L. Municip 1. 2. F.eod. The house or dwelling in which any doth fixe and settle the seat of his fortunes doth make him a Subject But what space of time is required to contract a house or dwelling the Interpreters of Law doe varie Because in this thing the Laws and manners of every particular Common-wealth is to be respected Agreeable to this is that distinction of the Jurisperites who discriminate Subjects by a naturall and a voluntarie obligation He is a Subject say they by a naturall obligation who is borne under the jurisdiction and in the Dominions of that Magistrate to whom he is subject And he is a Subject by a voluntary obligation who willingly and spontaneously offers himselfe to any Magistrate and acknowledgeth him for his supreame head although he be not born within his territories and dominions To which two sorts of subjects we may not without good reason adde another species viz. such a one as being vanquished in warre is made subject to him that did subdue him For when a Prince or Magistrate overcomes any in a lawfull War they are then made subject to his jurisdiction and power But be they subjects these or any other wayes they are bound whosoever they be that are subjects to yeeld obedience to him who is their Prince and Governour If any should doubt of the truth of this assertion because the contrary doctrine is now broached and published by our Novel Divines let him but consult the Apostle to the Romanes unlesse perchance for the same tenet he be held a Malignant and he will satisfie him Let every soule saith he submit himself unto the higher powers They are his expresse words {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} In which universall precept
proceeded no lesse severely against Rebels But most strict is that Law of God promulged by the mouth of the Apostle Therefore whosoever resisteth the Power c. resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation that is as all Divines expound it temporall here and without repentance eternall hereafter And as for those that doe calumniate and derogate from the Power c. of Princes here by their seditious words and scandalous writings although perhaps they may escape the hands of men yet they shall never avoid the judgements of God from whose all-seeing eye of Providence nothing can bee hid against whose omnipotent Power nothing can resist and by whose most just judgements no wickednesse can goe unpunished No lesse wittily then pithily St. Ang. For whereas the doctrine of the Apostle doth make mention of these earthly powers he doth insinuate into our apprehensions even the parts of the heavenly judgement For whenas hee doth enjoyne us to obey the Lawes of the world hee doth necessarily admonish us to take heed of the world to come If thou wilt not saith he feare the Powers doe that which is good which is as much to say If thou wilt not fear the judgement to come then eschew evill and doe good whilest thou art here Therfore we ought to take heed performe the first forme of this Constitution which wants the lawes of this life that we may exclude keep from us that fore-judgement of eternall death in the other life because those whom this temporall punishment doth not take hold of here there that eternall punishment wil follow with insufferable torment hereafter Amongst other examples of the judgements of God upon rebellious gainsaying and disobedient Persons we have that dreadfull and horrible example of Corah Dathan and Abiram in the holy Scriptures which the Spirit of God sets downe as a warning to us that we fall not into the like contradiction lest wee fall into the like condemnation Of whom Optatus Milevitanus writing against the Donatists who did refuse to obey their Magistrates as too many of the Smectymnuan rout Antipodian state doe now amongst us thus delivers himselfe Schisma summum c. That Schisme is a great evill you your selves cannot deny and yet without the least feare you doe imitate your most desperate Ring-leaders Corah Dathan and Abiram nor will you set before your eyes or once take it into your hearts that this evill is both prohibited by the word of God and revenged with a most grievous judgement And a little after The Congregation of Ministers and the Sacrilegious multitude that was soon to bee confounded did stand with their inter dicted and forbidden Sacrifices time for repentance was denied and withheld from them because their fault was such as it deserved no pardon A command of hunger was laid upon the earth which presently opened her greedy jawes upon them that caused division amongst the people and with an insatiable mouth did swallow up the contemners of Gods word In a moments space the earth clave asunder to deuoure those fore-named separatists it did swallow them up then was closed againe upon them And lest they should seeme to receive a courtesie by their soddain death as they were not worthy to live so they were not vouchsafed to die Upon a suddaine they were cast into the prison of Hell and so buried before they were dead St. Aug. having occasion to speake of the same Separates cap. 29. of the wonders of the holy Scripture speaks to the same purpose cap. 30. of the same book he doth thus enlarge his Meditations Again the next day the whol multitude gathered themselves together against Moses and Aaron as guilty of blood and would have slain them in revenge of those that were killed But here both Moses and Aaron come before the Tabernacle of the Congregation and again the wrath of the Lord went forth and raged amongst the rebellious people And againe Aaron at the command of Moses filling his Censer with fire from off the Altar ran into the midst of the Congregation and standing between the living and the dead the plague was stayed A just judgement inflicted on both that they who did inwardly burne with the fire of Anger against their lawfull Princes should now outwardly perish with the burning flame of most deserved vengeance he that in his heart had forgiven the offence of his brethren by his footsteps others being defended the fire from Heaven durst not consume But they that died of the plague that day were 1400. whom the wrath of the Lord consumed Wherefore to draw to a conclusion as the Apostle admonisheth and comandeth We must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for Conscience Because as S. Peter saith this is the will of God that with well doing wee may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men as free not using our Liberty for a cloake of maliciousnesse but as the servants of God For although as S. Aug. hath it we are called to that kingdom where there shall be no such powers yet while wee live here in our journey thither untill such time as wee shall come to that Age where there shall be an annihilation ceasing of all Principalitie and Power let us cheerefully and willingly undergoe our condition according to the order of humane things not dealing feignedly and hypocritically and so doing we shall not so much obey man under whose command we are as God who doth command us to be obedient to them Therefore to use S. Peters words He that will love life and see good daies let him refraine his tongue from evill and his lips that they speake no guile let him eschew evill and doe good let him seeke Peace and ensue it Let him beare in mind that commandement of God Thou shalt not revile the Gods nor curse the Ruler of thy people And not forget the councell of the Preacher Curse not the King no not in thy thought for a bird of the ayre shall carry the voice and that which hath wings shall tell the matter But let him embrace the councell of king Solomon not only the wisest of Kings but of all other men My son saith he feare thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change for it is our Saviours saying who is truth it selfe and ought to be beleeved before all our pretended Reformadoes whosoever shall take up the Sword especially against Gods annoynted contrary to the word of God shall perish with the Sword And thus having gathered certaine flowers out of the garden of Divinity Philosophy History and Policy to make a Crowne for Royalty and a nosegay for Loyalty there wants nothing now but that same thread of Charity which the Apostle casseth {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the bond of perfection to constringe and binde