thing or make the Law which forbids it cease to be a Rule to them No the Laws of God and Men are to be the Rules of conscionable acting The Autority of the Law is the Autority of a Rule And for a Rule it is the best Autority And an humane Law is the best Humane Autority And where Kings neither make nor unmake and repeal Laws alone the King commanding in the Laws is of more Autority to rule the Subjects Actings than the King commanding against them And what doth his Autority give him as to that particular illegal Act Not to be questionable or accountable for it among Men or coercible by Force and armed Opposition And that because for all that act he is still our King and we owe him Subjection Receiving such illegal Acts from our King we must receive them as Subjects And the obligation of continuing Subjects excludes all Liberty of armed Resistance Whence say they in an illegal Act has a Sovereign Prince this Autority From the Fifth Commandment and from all those Commandments that require Submission and Obedience and being subject unto Princes For the plain intent of all those Precepts as may sufficiently appear I think from what I have said on this Argument is to require these to Princes that break as well as to those that keep Laws to unjust as well as to righteous Sovereigns And if God commands us to submit and keep in Subjection to a Sovereign Prince that acts against Laws he must forbid us to resist such for men put off Subjection when they fall to Resisting It may be asked still has he it from the Law of the Land Yes What from the Law he invades Doth the Law give him Autority to break it self No but by all those Laws that declare he incurs no Forfeiture by such Invasions For all those Laws that own and declare such Invader to be still our King determine our Subjection to him and forbid us to resist him For Men are no longer in the state and posture of Subjects when they come to arm against their Sovereigns If a Man suffers illegally they will demand by what Law By none surely for then there is an end of the Illegality But to ask for a Law for his suffering is to ask for something to justifie or make it just in the eye of Law that he should suffer But this is not pretended from the Kings Autority and it is supposed to be an unjust and illegal Suffering But if the King has no Autority to justifie the illegal Suffering has he any Autority to bar the illegal Sufferers resisting Yes the Regal Autority not being lost by that illegal Act but still abiding in him For all he makes a Man suffer against Law he is still his King And that is a Reason against Resisting For by all Law both of God and Man we must be subject to our King And he ceases to be subject that draws his Sword against him CHAP. IX The Reasons of Non resistance And how it makes not Arbitrary Government I Shall only add now in the last place concerning this Non-resistance or not arming against invading Princes required of and practised by the first and best Christians what Regards they were guided by and what Reasons they looked at for this Observance 1. The first and chiefest was in Reverence to God's Ordinance insomuch as those Rulers were Gods Anointed his Ministers or his Vicegerents How can I stretch forth my hand against Saul says David and be guiltle§ seeing he is the Lords anointed 1 Sam. xxvi 9 and c. xxiv 6 And he that resists shall receive Damnation saith S. Paul as resisting the Ordinance of God Rom. xiii 2 And he is the Minister of God wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake v. 4 5. And like to these are the Sayings of the Primitive Fathers for Submission to the persecuting Emperors Tertullian grounds the Duty of Allegiance we owe the Emperor on this that he is deputed by God and has his Power from the same from whom he has his Spirit that he is one quem Deus eligit qui à nostro Deo constitutus i.e. whom God has appointed à Dominus Dei vice Gods Vicegerent or a Lord over us in Gods place and stead whom knowing à Deo constitui to be Gods Ordinance every Christian ought of necessity to love reverence and wish safe This made the Sacredness and Autority of the Emperor in their eyes because as Athenagoras tells Marcus and his Son Commodus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Empire they had received from God The same which Dionysius of Alexandria said afterwards of Valerianus and Gallienus to Aemilian the Praesect And because as Theophilus says in his Book to Autolycus under the Emperor Commodus tho the Emperor is not God yet he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Man ordained of God and under him to do Judgment and Justice And this also is the ground of Subjects Duty and Allegiance in the Doctrine of our Church All Subjects do owe of bounden Duty Obedience Submission and Subjection to the Higher Powers for as much as they be Gods Lieutenants Gods Praesidents Gods Officers c. says the Homily of Obedience Part 1. And again all Subjects are bound to obey them yea though they be evil and that for Conscience sake as Gods Ministers Though they be wicked and abuse their Power yet therefore it is not lawful for their Subjects to withstand them because even wicked Rulers have their Power and Autority from God Homily of Obedience Part 2. Now all these are Reasons not to Resist the worst as well as the best Kings the infringers of Rights as well as the maintainers of them For all Men rightfully invested with Power are Gods Ministers his Anointed and his Ordinance however they employ their Power The bad are as well as the good at their worst as well as at their best times Saul is the Lords Anointed as well as David Zedekiah as well as Josiah Nero Domitian Dioclesian or other bloody Persecuting Emperors as well as the most just and godly Kings The same that gave the Power says S. Austin to Marius gave it also to C. Caesar he that conferred it on Augustus gave it also to Nero he that bestowed it on the Vespasians Father and Son those most obliging Emperors bestowed it also on Domitian so infamous for his Cruelties And not to particularize any further he that set up Constantine the Christian Emperor set up Julian too who Apostatized from Christ. In reading the Holy Scriptures says our Church in the Homily against willful Rebellion we shall find in very many and almost infinite Places as well of the Old Testament as of the New that Kings and Princes as well the evil as the good do Reign by Gods Ordinance c. They have their Power and Authority from God says the Homily of Obedience and are
Confessors not as Ring-leaders to Rebellion They never attempted this course for redress nor stirr'd up the People to defend God and the Laws against their Kings by armed Resistance or by Deposing of those impious and arbitrary Princes To descend now from Religion when taken into the Law and made a Civil Right to Property Saul persecuted David not in any way of Law and Justice but of mere wilful Fury and Cruelty to shed his innocent Blood as he had already done by the Blood of a Number of Priests without any regard either to the Innocence of the Men or the Sacredness of their Function This sure was an Invasion of Rights not only the common Rights of Humanity but of their Civil Rights of the sixth Commandment saying Thou shalt not kill which was not only the Law of God but the Law of their Land or of Jury Now whilst Saul was acting thus against Law and invading Rights doth David think he has lost all claim to his former Submission and may be looked on thenceforward and opposed as a mere unauthorized person No but owns him for the Lords anointed at that very time and thereupon that he could not do against him what was unlawful against one of that Character and Denomination How can I stretch forth my hand against him and be guiltless seeing he is the Lords anointed 1 Sam. xxvi 9 Like as afterwards whilst Pilate was passing an unjust Sentence in a Case of Blood and that against his own Conscience and Confessions our Lord still owns him as one that had Power over him from above Jo. xix 11 Such likewise was the breach of Property when Ahab against all Law and Justice seized Naboth's Vineyard together with his Life which was a much more valuable Freehold And when Jezabel fill'd all places with illegal Executions keeping alive the Priests of Baal whom the Law utterly and inexorably destroy'd and destroying all the Prophets of the Lord she could find good Obadiah venturing his life to hide and maintain an hundred of them by Fifties in a Cave from her fury all whom the Law protected And when the Kings and Princes of Judah and Israel were complained of by Isaiah for Exactions and Oppressions and perverting of Justice As others were by Jeremy Ezekiel Hosea Amos Micha Zephaniah c. for Grinding the Faces of their Subjects shedding innocent Blood and turning aside the Poor in the Gate from their Right But tho here was breach of Laws and legal Properties yet was this never allow'd as a just Pretence for the injured Subjects by force of Arms to do themselves Right and rebel against such invading Princes The holy Prophets talked of no Forfeitures of Crowns or Depositions of Kings or discharge of Duty and Allegiance on these Accounts but refer'd them to God the Supreme Judge to right them against their invading Sovereigns This in those days was their Maxim as it is in the Words of Rabbi Jeremiah No creature may judge the King but the holy and blessed God alone Some indeed think to turn by the Scriptures of the Old Testament forbidding this Resistance among the Jews as of no force with us because they had Kings immediately delegated by God either in Answers from the Cloud of Glory or Unction by Prophets And what was there forbid against such a King they think is only of force under others who come in by like special prophetical Delegation Now as to this it solves not the Argument from the Dueness of Non-resistance to Jewish or Israelitish Kings for that was as due to those that wanted as to those that had these immediate Nominations It was as due to Ahab and all those other Kings of Israel that were such Invaders of Laws and Rights as I observed as to Jeroboam or to Jehu And yet among the Kings of Israel Jeroboam and Jehu alone had this prophetical Nomination all the rest coming in by humane Titles like the Kings of other Nations And as due to Hezekiah and Josiah and all the other Kings of Judah that were Kings by descent as to Saul or David who were set up by immediate Message from God And yet after David and Solomon the Crown in Judah went by the course of Descent in the Royal Blood without any Interposition so far as we can see in Scripture of Gods personal Nomination Even in Joash's Case who was set up against Athaliah after six years possession no such thing was pretended Jehoiada the Priest who managed that Revolution not pretending for young Joash any Message of a Prophet or Answer from the Cloud of Glory which had that been their method of setting up Kings in those days he as chief Priest should have consulted but only his heritable Right according to the Constitution of Jury or being of the House of David Besides Non-resistance and other Duties to Sovereign Governors do not depend upon the method or way of coming into Power but only on that rightful Power and Authority they are come into Honor thy Father obey Magistrates submit to the King as supreme be subject to the Higher Powers and other like Sayings of Scripture requiring these Duties look only at the Authority If a Man is the true Father the rightful Power and the lawful King they ask no more to make all these due to him making no difference whether he comes to have this Right by an Humane Title or by a Divine Now all that Gods personal Nomination doth is as other personal Titles do to fix the Power in a certain person It gives no inlargement of Power or greater extent of Prerogative And not widening or enlarging the Authority it can make or call for no more Duty And accordingly these Duties were as much the due of those Kings that came in by humane Titles among the Jews as of those who were personally named by God himself And they are as due to any Kings of other Nations as they were to Jewish Kings For Government is instituted of God for all Nations as well as Jury And Obedience to Governors is a natural Duty So that Subjects of all Governments are call'd to pay these Duties as much as the Jewish Subjects were Now to bid men be subject and submissive and obedient and not to resist and the like are as plain and full as I noted at first as the most ordinary Understandings need to be taught against all Resistance What said God more than this against Resistance to the Jews when he named any King himself Nay if we come to make Comparisons where are the Sayings against it under any such Kings so numerous and express And these are as plain if Men are willing to understand what God plainly tells them when spoken in case of a Roman Emperor who had a humane Title as they would have been in case of Saul who had a divine Title They are due to any persons as having Gods Authority and being his Vicegerents Thus S. Paul notes
Legality of a Sentence grosly unjust and apparently contrary to Law I mean not only contrary to Legal Forms as a Judgment would be without a Jury but contrary to those particular Laws in any Case which the Judge proceeding in Form ought to pronounce by A Man comes to a Judge and Jury to have Law or the benefit of those particular Laws which he grounds his Claim upon And the Judge is to pass Sentence according to these Laws and to give what the Laws give him And I suppose those Laws do not authorize this Sentence if it grosly and corruptly perverts what they say In this Case if they authorize what the Judge says I think they must no longer authorize what they say themselves since his Saying is directly contrary to theirs And accordingly instead of authorizing they will reverse it so soon as they fall into the hands of a more upright Judge and Jury that will find and pronounce aright So that here is a Sentence against the Laws that should have ruled it which not having the Laws concern'd therein to autorize and bear it out if Autority must come from Law I think will be an inautoritative Act. But I imagine these Objectors do not believe he ceases thereupon immediately to be a Judge which would vacate all the Sentences he passes afterwards Or that the aggrieved Parties have Remedy any other way than by legal Appeals Wherein if they can find no Redress at last from the Supreme Power it self yet are they not thereby set loose from being any longer his Subjects nor have any Discharge as I think is confess'd on all hands from their Passive Obedience How many illegal and unautoritative Acts were done by Saul and Ahab Ahaz and Manasse and other ill Kings among the Jews which yet did not unking them And by the Roman Emperors as I have shown which yet did not disrobe them of their Purple or free the poor oppressed Christians and other Subjects of the Empire from being subject to and passive under them Among these are instances enow as may appear from what is said above of illegal Acts against the Autority of all Laws both of God and of their own Realms And yet of the Sovereigns who were the illegal Actors still retaining their Sovereign Autority and holding the Sufferers in their former state of Subjects and under an obligation of Conscience to Passive Obedience And this is a clear proof that God tho he has given Rules to higher Powers which are Duties of Governors and according to which at the great Day he will judge them himself Yet has not made these Rules of exercising Power Conditions of their holding Power or Grounds of Forfeiture He himself under the most enormous Breaches of these Rules having plainly declared by the inspired Pen-men of those Princes that broke them that they were still in Autority and that their Subjects as they would answer the contrary to him were to keep in their Obedience and Duty to them notwithstanding So that wheresoever any Forfeiture of Crowns comes in it must be by some special provisions in a Peoples own Laws And where Law makes a Forfeiture it will make a Prince forfeit in a legal way by appointing some superior Power to try the Fact and judicially to declare the Forfeiture But I do not conceive how there can be any legal way of forfeiting where the Prince is declared by Law to be the Sole Supreme Now if unautoritative Acts do not disautorize the person and make him sink into a private Man but for all them a King continues still to be a King where is the Argument for Resistance from such inautoritative Acts Yes say they when unjust Acts have no Autority in virtue of Self-defence we may resist and defend our selves against them True where there is no other hindrance to resisting and defending our selves by Arms but what is to be looked for in the Action But Resistance and warlike Defence tho it be for an Action must be of some Person And what if there is something to bar such Resistance in the Person As I think the Law appoints in the Persons of Father and Mother when it declares he shall surely be put to death that smiteth them Exod. xxi 15 And in the Persons of Higher Powers when it calls us to honor to keep subject and not to resist them So there is something in his person to keep out all Resistance and arming against our Sovereign The Argument for not resisting or making a warlike Defence against him is because he is King And then what takes off this and can be an Argument for Resistance must be something that doth unking him And since such unautoritative Acts are no Forfeitures of Crowns 't is plain whatever other Immunities they are a ground of they are no ground of levying War or armed Resistance This I take to be a very good and sufficient Ground and I think it is the true Ground of Submission and Passive Obedience under illegal Violence and Persecutions The illegal Act I conceive has nothing in it self to bar Self-defence having no Autority to bear out and inforce it as may seem either from God or Man Not from God for if his Law carries his Autority and where doth he display his Autority if not in his Laws what is against his Law is against his Autority Nor from Man for the same Reason of its being against humane Laws which carry their Autority But the Autority of the Person is a Bar to this way of Defence against our Sovereign And when the Sovereign will do such illegal Acts tho he has no Autority to justifie himself therein nor to make his unrighteous or illegal Commands really obligatory and binding yet because he is a Person under whose Autority and Obedience we all are this will be the effect of them Seeing Subjects under Government can have no Remedy but what keeps the order of Government and must be content with so much as keeping to that Order allows till God alter his mind we can have no present Redress And being his Subjects we cannot go to arm against him to defend or right our selves And this is Passive Obedience So that when the irreligion or illegality of the Command exempts us from any Obligation to active Performance this Autority of his Person doth notwithstanding lay on us an Obligation of keeping under his Obedience and making no warlike Resistance And on these Grounds it will be easie to give a rational and plain Answer to those Questions which the Disputers for Resistance shall think most posing about the Authority of Kings when they act against Laws If it be asked What is a Kings Autority when he doth such illegal Acts 'T is just the same it was before he did them for as he doth not get so he doth not lose any rightful and real Autority thereby But what doth his Autority give to the illegal Act or Order Doth it authorize the Subjects in an illegal