or follow my business at home But if the King commands me abroad to serve him it is now a good work and my Duty to go abroad and serve him And so in other like cases But will some say What if the King should command us any thing that is unlawful What then must our Obedience be I answer 1. The King cannot be conceived to command us that is any men in our circumstances and conditions any thing but what he commands according to Law that is he can be conceived to command us nothing but what the Law commands And I must stand to it our Laws are good nay they are most excellent at least I could never find an ill one amongst those now in force This Supposition therefore is you see unreasonable and not to be put But you will say What if an ill Law should be made and our Obedience to it required These things are not in themselves impossiible I answer Under our Constitution and as the Frame of our Government stands if they be not impossible yet God be blessed they are most highly improbable and most unlikely But 2. And which for ever answers all There are few of us but have heard there is a double Obedience which may be paid to Governours Active or Passive Where the thing commanded is lawful to be done we ought to do it we owe active Obedience Eccles viii 2. I counsel thee to keep the Kings Commandment and that in regard of the Oath of God Thy Allegiance binds thee to it But in case the thing commanded be unlawful that is against any plain Command of God or that thou without Fraud or Dissimulation apprehendest and believest it to be so there is then passive Obedience that thou art to pay that is thou must meekly and patiently submit thy self to suffer whatever Penalty the Lawgiver thinks fit to inflict for the breach of his Law We may petition and supplicate for Forbearance and Mercy but in case we cannot obtain it we may not resist For whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation Rom. xiii 2. This is the Doctrine of St. Paul and it ever has been the Doctrine of our Church See the Book of Homilies And thus as to the first branch of Honour due to the King the Honour of Obedience A second Honour which we owe to him is that of Fealty and Allegiance The word Fealty signifies only Fidelity or Faithfulness and what the particulars of the Faith we owe to our Sovereign Lord the King are we know all of us by the Oath of Allegiance In particular as we are not to be false Traytors our selves so neither are we to connive at or conceal those whom we have reason to suspect to be such And hereunto we are all of us bound First By the Oath aforementioned which that none may think an Imposition upon us or contrary to the Laws of God or to our Christian Liberty behold it in the very Kingdom of Judah that is in the Kingdom which of all ever on Earth was that of Gods most peculiar Erection and Care We had just now one proof of it out of Ecclesiastes I counsel thee to keep the Kings Commandment by reason of the Oath of God that Oath we cannot well conceive to be any other than the Oath of Allegiance which they to whom he speaks had taken to their King and particularly to King Solomon the Penman of that Book But in 1 Chron. last 24. You have both the time and manner or ceremony of taking it Then Solomon sat on the Throne of the Lord as King instead of David his Father And all the Princes and the mighty Men and all the Sons of King David gave the Hand under Solomon so the Text runs in the Hebrew as you may see in the Margin of your Bibles And what that kind of speech signifies you may learn out of the Story of Abrahams Servant Gen. xxiv 2 3. Put I pray thee saith Abraham to his Servant thine Hand under my Thigh and I will make thee swear by the Lord the God of Heaven and the God of Earth The giving the Hand under one was the Ceremony of a most solemn Oath By the Lord that is By Jehovah the God of Heaven and the God of Earth So again when Jacob was dying in the Land of Egypt he sent for his Son Joseph and said unto him Put I pray thee thine Hand under my Thigh and deal kindly and truly with me Bury me not in Egypt but I will lie with my Fathers c. And he said swear unto me and he sware unto him Genes xxvii 29 30 31. So that this their giving their Hand under King Solomon was swearing to him in person their Faith and Allegiance You see then Divine Warrant for an Oath of Allegiance And hereby first I say are we bound to pay our King the Honour of Fidelity for this Oath we have all of us taken or if any of us be so young as not to have taken it such are to be minded that we here all of us call our selves English-men And every English-man is born as I may say with the Oath of Allegiance in his mouth our Fathers took it and stand bound for us and we therefore bound in them 2. We are bound hereto by the Principles of Equity and Justice those common grounds of the Laws of Nations and indeed the true Law of Nature We expect Protection from the King his Laws and Government and God be blessed we do enjoy it Now is it not just that as we have Safety from him so he should have Security from us What Nation is there which gives not this Security to their Government Indeed it is the very Bond of Government without which it cannot subsist but all must run into Seditions Bloudshed Confusion Anarchy And therefore 3. We are bound to pay our King the Honour of Faith and Allegiance in our own Defence There are many who pretend and have long pretended God forgive them to be afraid of their Property Liberties and Religion My Brethren what can more certainly and fatally expose or destroy all these than Civil Wars And Civil Wars must needs immediately come in upon us if any of us at least any number of us start or swerve from our Allegiance Our King under God alone is able to protect us our Properties Liberties Religion and besides his Force Power he has manifested to the World Courage Will and Resolution enough to protect us In standing stedfast therefore we secure and preserve our selves and ours but if we stagger or fall off which God forbid we may weaken him but we shall destroy our selves I will add no more on this Point I trust I do not need Thus then as to the second branch of Honour due to the King the Honour of Fealty and Allegiance and our Obligations thereto The third follows Thirdly then We owe to our King by the Laws of Christ the Honour of Supplies and of paying Tribute Kings
impress'd upon the poorest which whoso observes or acknowledges must needs pay an Esteem and Respect that is an Honour thereto But in the present case more signally Kings are Gods Image doubly or trebiy First as Men by Creation Then as Christians by Regeneration And further by by their Office as Gods Vicegerents They represent him and are as in the place of God within their Dominions and Countries They are the Ordinance of God Rom. xiii 2. the Ministers or immediate Agents of God ver 4. and therefore frequently in Scripture called Gods twice even in one Psalm lxxxii 1 and 6. Now because greater Excellency cannot be in any than in God therefore to no other belongs greater or equal Honour And because Kings on Earth are Gods Vicegerents therefore to none on Earth is greater Honour due than unto Kings so much reason for this Duty do the very terms in which it is expressed most evidently and intimately import But it is requisite we take a more distinct view of the particulars which this comprehensive general in the Text doth involve We will therefore expresly put the Question What are the great Branches of that Honor which by the Christian Law Subjects ow to their Prince In answer whereto I conceive the sum of all may be reduced to the save following heads 1. We owe to our King by the Law of Christ the Honour of Obedience And for proof hereof because some people will admit nothing to be our Duty which is not plainly made so by one of the Ten Commandments I could be content at present to go no further than the Fifth Commandment Honour thy Father and Mother Civil as well as Natural Thy King as well as Parents That Father and Mother ought to be interpreted here with this Latitude I prove from hence that there is no other of the Ten Commandments which will take in the Sixth of these Seven Precepts which the Jewish Doctors call the Precepts of the Sons of Noah and tell us they were in the world as the great Rule of Life or Manners long before Moses's Law That Precept is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Judgments or Obedience to the Civil Magistrate and must I say be included in the Fifth Commandment or else which is not credible is totally omitted and reducible to none Whence would follow that the Law written by Gods own Finger were more imperfect than the Traditionary one which was in the world before it which I presume all whom I have to deal with abhorr to think Then that the Honour here required will extend to Obedience there can be no clearer proof than the most exemplary instance of the Rechabites keeping this Commandment in observing their Father Rechabs Injunctions so much celebrated by God himself Jer. xxxv so that in short they who contend for withdrawing Obedience to Kings out of the List of Christian Duties as far as in them lies take away a main branch of one of the Ten Commandments But if we please to look into the New Testament and will take satisfaction thence of our Christian Duty as I think is most proper we need not go so far about Hear what Doctrine St. Paul requires Titus whom he ordained Bishop of Crete to preach to his Flock Tit. II. last and III. 1. These things saith he speak and exhort with all Authority Let no man despise thee Put them in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers and what he means by that Subjection immediately he expresses in the next word To obey 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our Translators indeed have rendred To obey Magistrates And if we understand the words as we ought and as parallel places enforce of submitting our selves or being obedient to the King as Supream and Governours or Magistrates as sent by him 1 Pet. II. 13 14. there is no danger in the Translation But if any of us should be infected with the Humour of some men that there is a sort of Magistrates which are coordinate or all taken together superiour to the King and that 't is these Magistrates only which we owe Obedience to and another kind of Honour may serve the King then it is fit we be admonsht that the word Magistrates is not in the Original nor indeed in any Translation that I can find before those of Calvin Geneva And whether put in only that the Text might more expresly favour the popular Government here may be worth consideration This only I avow the Text naturally runs thus Put them Quomodo hic se habeat Magni Erasmi versio mihi compertum non est nec enim ed manum est ut consulam Certe quod Erasmus in Annotatis suis aliique eum forsan secuti asseruerint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proprie esse parere Magistratibus id gratis dictum est Nam cum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sit ad Literam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Principium Principatum Imperium soneâ— non Magistratus reddendum potius foret parere imperie vel principatui At hoc prius positum erat quam proxime viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cujus rei memor forte Interpres vulgatus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reddâ—dit dicto obedire nihilo sane felicius Constat enim ex usu Novi Test 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significare simpliciter parere obedire Videatur Actorum cap. v. 29 32. xxvii 21. in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers and to obey There is no other Object specified of Obedience but that before named of Subjection And if we will have any critical difference betwixt the two Verbs To be subject and To obey the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies more strictly Being subject out of necessity and for Wrath as our Apostle elsewhere expresses it and this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To obey voluntarily and out of choice for Conscience sake It is Promptè libenter ex animo obedire says Cornel à Lapide And thus taken as thus it ought to be taken there cannot be a Text more express for any Christian Duty than this is for Obedience to Kings But some of you haply have by this time cast your Eyes on the last words of the Verse it is said not only Put them in mind to be subject and obey but to be ready to every good work And this limits our Obedience Yes and God forbid but all Obedience to Man should be constantly charged with this Reserve or Condition its consistency with our Obedience to God Children obey your Parents in the Lord Ephes vi 1. not in things by God forbidden and so this Text is express you see as to our Obedience to the King that we obey and be ready in every good work Yet we must know Actions in themselves but indifferent become good works when done in Obedience to lawful Authority such as I hope none of us doubt His Majesties to be As for instance It is an indifferent action generally taken whether I go abroad
particulars of that Honour we are to pay the King by the Law of Christ The Honour of Obedience of Faith and Allegiance of Supplies and Tributes of Candour and charitable Thoughts and lastly of our Prayers of all kinds Obj. 1. And all this is true will some say yes it were fit too to be practised were Kings such as they should be Answ 1. As to this vile Suggestion which it is too plain many more men harbour than dare speak out I might only give again the same Answer I have formerly given and say in one word we can find no fault in our King but what is more the three Nations than his own Guilt Our former Crimes therefore and the Effects they have had upon him cannot but most iniquitously and unchristianly be made Arguments for withdrawing our present Duties Answ 2. But once again Secondly Consider I pray you the Text and Context the emphasis both bear the Time in which and the Persons to which both were spoken and if we have not such an Answer hence to this Objectin as will make us all ashamed so much as to think of withholding any branch of the Honour mentioned due to our King I am much mistaken As to the Time it is most certain this Epistle must be writ either in the time of Claudius or Nero's Empire according to Baronius in the formers be it under whichsoever of the two they were both not only Heathens and Enemies to Christianity but villanously vitious Then as to the Persons if we consider to whom the Apostle directs these his Commands not only in general to all the Christian multitude but more especially to the dispersed Christian Jews in Pontus Asia c. this contributes further to the utter avoiding all the force can be conceived in this Objection The Jews we know were a people peculiarly chosen by God and by him priviledged above all Nations amongst other Promises made them that of dominion over the Nations was one especially eyed by them and nothing did they expect more constantly or passionately by the Messias then temporal Empire But even to this people and to the Christian that is the best part of them doth the very Apostle of the Circumcision preach Subjection Honour and Obedience even towards Heathen Emperours and Princes Now weigh the whole Emphasis Was it thus particularly and expresly commanded to the primitive that is the purest and most excellent Race of Christians that have lived in any ages of the world that they should be dutiful and obedient to their Princes though the worst of men Were these same Commands too in common without any exemption imposed upon the Jews that people peculiarly priviledged as it would seem to the contrary Nay were they as by name required to be subject and obedient to all the Kings of the Nations they should live under Were the Sons of God as I may stile them thus required to yield Subjection to Aliens and men without God in the world and can now any of us think that upon some private Reasons of our own we may forbear or do not owe like Duty to our Native Liege-Lord and Sovereign the same a moâ—â— Gracious Wise Just and Virtuous Prince for shame let us banish out of our Souls such Suggestions Object 2. But it may be further urged 'T is not impossible that a Princes Title may be disputable and what will you say in such a case Are we to obey Intruders against tht rightful Heir Answ 1. I answer first there was never any Title so just and indisputable but some unreasonable men have contested it We find by the sacred Story that when God appointed Kings by immediate nomination from Heaven there arose certain men Sons of Beliel who refused to own them yet was their Title no less Divine and just for all that But as to the Title of our present Sovereign I protest before God I cannot see any colour any shadow of plausible appearance that can be brought against it What man of any Face Reason or Conscience can disbelieve our late Gracious Kings voluntary Protestation both by Word of Mouth and under his Hand to his Privy Council and after publisht to the World Consider at what time it was made on what Inducements possible it could be made Had he not the Affections of a Father as well as of a Brother Was he likely to gain any thing by violating Honour and Conscience in avowing a falshood Or could any thing but Justice Care of his Peoples Peace and Safety together with pure Conscience and an entire regard of Truth move him to give his Royal Word Hand and in a sort Oath and that of his own accord to attest the No-title of the present Rebellious Pretender and the most just and full Title of our present Sovereign Lord and King This one thing in may apprehension must for ever stop the mouths and satisfie the Minds of any that will hear Reason Answ 2. Again as to all that can be done by way of Ratification or to speak more properly Recognition of our Sovereigns just Title has it not been done If you consider the way of his coming to the Crown can it at all be said that he set up himself Was he not immediately recognized and proclaimed by the Nobility Privy Council and the whole body of his People as far as then appeared from the chief City of his Kingdoms throughout City and Country every where in the whole three Kingdoms Then to wave the Solemnities of his most August Coronation have not the full Houses of Parliament recognized declared and avowed him as their only right-Lord and King Are not all degrees and sorts of men concluded in and by their Representatives in Parliament 'T is rescinding and giving the Lye to our own act nay pardon the expression 't is Rebellion against the Laws and Statutes of the Realm against Acts of Parliament if such a thing as Rebellion against them be possible as well as Rebellion against the King for us to stagger or be falling off now But I hope I did not need to have been so particular and earnest in this place However the matter coming in my way I was unwilling to be wanting to my Duty and that any of you should be wanting to yours Wherefore to enforce now what I have been so long teaching and asserting dâ—e Honour to our King let us now consider the other point remaining the Connexion betwixt these two Duties Fear God honour â—he King The putting them thus immediately together seems to suggest that if we do fear God we shall honour the King and that by giving him all these branches or kinds of Honour mentioned Now the general Ground of this Conclusion is that the Fear of God is an universal and invariable Principle of most impartial Obedience to the whole Law of Christ He who fears God makes no such difference between the Commands of God as to account any small or such which he may wave at pleasure without
must not be kept poor for this is the way to make them useless and to expose both them and their Subjects to the common Enemies of both You know whose Command it is Render unto Cesar the things that are Cesars and unto God the things that are Gods Matth. xxii 21. The Justice of which debt the Apostle gives us an account Rom. xiii 6. For this cause pay we Tribute also for they are Gods Ministers attending continually upon this very thing the thing he had spoken of in the fourth Verse namely the publick Good or in his language to minister to every one for good for the private good of each who doth good and for the publick good of all by executing Wrath upon such as do evil Now there is no greater burden than the perpetual Care Toil and Difficulty which lies on Kings and Persons in the highest Power in reference to such Administration of Justice and other like publick affairs And if our own private business and concerns cannot be carried on without Expence what must be the Charge of the Concerns of a Kingdom Wherefore as the undergoing such publick Cares and perpetual Anxieties deserves a publick and ample Reward greater Wealth and Revenues than those of any private man so the Necessiities of publick Business require greater Treasures to discharge them Hence I say is most evident the Justice of the case that Tributes and Supplies should be paid to Kings Let them be paid then will some say by them that reap the great benefit of the Government but how will it be proved to be every mans Duty to pay them The Answer is easie 1. Who reaps not the benefit of the Government and particularly the benefit of Protection by the Laws both as to his Person Fortunes Liberty good Name and the like except he have deserved otherwise He owes therefore for these his share towards the defraying the publick Expences But there is yet a farther Answer 2. We must know the King has the same right to such Supplies as we speak of to Tributes and his Revenues as any of us have to our Estates Nam propriae Telluris herum natura neque illum Nec me nec quenquam statuit Nature gives no man a property to his House or Lands or like possessions It is the Law that determines and sets out each mans property And the same Law that metes out to me what is mine assigns to the King what is his The same Law that gives me liberty to traffick to buy up and export and import Commodities allots to the King his Customes and it is as much a breach of the eighth Commandent whatsoever some men think of it to steal Custome as to pick a mans pocket of the two in some regard a greater I know the ordinary Evasion many have with which they do not so much quiet as for a while cheat or stifle their Consciences The Laws in this case say they are penal if we submit to the Penalty of the Law as we are content to do when we are caught which I must suspect and they who say it would do well to consider whether they so contentedly submit to legal Forfeitures as they pretend in this plea if we submit to the Penalty say they we are guiltless we have fulfilled the Law I utterly deny this and so will any man who understands any thing of Casuastical Divinity The Law by commanding me to do what will secure me from Penalty or Forfeiture commands me not to incur that Penalty or Forfeiture if therefore I wittingly incur it I break the Law except there were more particular Salvo's than I have seen in any of our penal Laws But because some will not understand this in the general let me put a particular case Suppose a man by defrauding the King of some comparatively small Dues incurs a Forfeiture which undoes him Who now is guilty of undoing this man the Law or himself If he would have honestly paid the King such Dues as he might have done and yet been an honest Gainer which was the thing commanded by the Law and by the Law his Duty he had been in a good condition but he chooses to break the Law and so has undone himself Is he not now doubly gulty first of a sin against the Law and the King Secondly is he not in some measure a Felo de se at least a Robber of himself and Family and the Guilt must needs bear its proportion and be Guilt still though not so great in case of lesser Penalties and Forfeitures Wherefore we see we owe the King the Honour of Supplies Custom or Tribute Fourthly We owe him the Honour of Candour and charitable Construction of thinking and speaking the best we can of him and all his actions You never knew a person who truly honoured another but he would be so far from thinking vilely of his indifferent actions mean of such actions which might be capable of being done wisely or to a good end as well as otherwise that he would find out excuses for his bad ones I pray you let us all pay our Prince this Honour at least let none of us be guilty of interpreting to the worst such Counsels and Actions the reasons of which we do not yet and perhaps it is not fit we should at present understand This very practice besides that it is most certainly our Duty to our King would be no small service to our selves and neighbours for it would prevent a multitude of those causeless but very tormenting Fears and Jealoufies nay even many divers reports too which are very frequent all over the Kingdoms But this I have formerly otherwise prest Lastly We owe to our King the Honour of our Prayers * These passages were put in when the Sermon was preached a second time in another place and on another occasion and of our Praises too in his behalf True Honour and Love are inseparable And 't is most sure no person of any serious Religion ever honoured and loved any man whom he did not pray for * and in whose good he would not cordially rejoyce and praise God for it Remember that most solemn passage of the Apostle 1. Tim. II. 1 2 3. I exhort therefore first of all that Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of Thanks be made for all men for Kings and for all that are in Authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and Honesty For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour It is plain hence that in the settling of the Service of God in the Church of Ephesus one of St. Pauls first and chiefest cares one of his strictest Injunctions was that all sorts of Prayers should be offered up in the behalf of Kings which I have otherwise more largely discoursed and therefore for the present more briefly pass We see then now the main