search all the days of their lives and not be able to discover when or where such a Charter ever was in Being but suppose there were such a Charter who shall be the Interpreter of it and judge how far the Power of the Prince extends it self and during the Dispute how shall the Government be administred doth not this in effect authorize the Subjects to do at pleasure what is right in their own eyes for if they demur against the Prince's Power he is to act at his peril But on the other side the Subject stands on a firm Bottom for his Liberty proves it self this is a Self-evident Principle and when the Subjects pretend it the Sovereign Powers durst not contradict and contest it for in this case every Subject if it be not a Contradiction so to speak is a Sovereign because so far as his liberty is not expresly given away it always remains entire The Sovereigns Power is originally from the Subject but the Subjects Liberty originally from himself the Princes Power is derived from the Subjects Will but the Subjects Liberty from his Nature And wo to that Prince who shall violate and usurp on the Laws and Liberties of Nature Sect. 73. But if every Man by Nature equally partake of Sovereignty then no body can be obliged to Subjection for where all are equal there can be no Subordination neither Superiors non Inferiors and is not he a strange Supreme who hath no body under him Moreover if it be so then every Man is born in a State of Anarchy and the God of Order hath sate no bounds to Mankind the relative Duties of Superiors and Inferiors might never have had any foundation in Nature and were only presumptively from Arbitrary Contracts and Agreements limited and determined by the Fifth Commandment and not only every Nation but every City Town Parish Family may chuse what Government seems best to them yea every particular Person may live independently if he will altogether free from the Circumscriptions of all sorts of governed Societies and if any attempt be made to restrain him without his consent he is oppressed in his natural Liberty And is not this Doctrine of a sovereign Tendency to maintain mutual Amity and Peace amongst Men Sect. 74. 5. That Subjects in political Monarchies and under other Sovereign Powers have Rights Immunities and Priviledges as unalienable Properties without their concurrent consent is very manifest but these do not proceed from any Reservations made in a presumed fundamental Constitution composed and ratified by a mutual Compact and Confederacy betwixt the Sovereign and Subjects but from the Sovereign's Condescentious Acts of Grace which having the Establishment and Security of his Laws he cannot invade and violate without Injustice to his Subjects dishonour to himself provocation to God loss of Reputation with his Allies and Confederates abroad and exposing himself as a Person of no Faith 'T is well observed by Fortescue that the Kingdom of England is not meerly Regal or meerly Politick but partly Regal and partly Politick Regnum Angliae ex Bruii comitivâ Trojanorum in Dominium politicum regale prorupit The Kingdom of England out of Brutus his retinue of Trajans brake out into a politick and regal Dominion And elsewhere tells us Rex Angliae principatu nedum regali sed politico suo populo dominatur the King of England governeth his People not only by a Regal but a politick Principality Ch. 9. So that though the King of England in some cases exercise an absolute and arbitrary Power like a despotick Prince as in making War and Peace Summoning Adjourning Proroguing and Dissolving of Parliaments Coinage of Money c. Yet in other cases he exerciseth a bounded and limited Power as in the imposition and repealing of Laws Taxes and Levies of Mony c. and therefore ought in Conscience to regard his Duty as a Politick King as well as his Power as a Despotick King and such hath been the Moderation of the English Government hitherto that it is acknowledged to be the most easy and safe of any in the World These particulars being duly considered I am confident the forementioned Objection is sufficiently answered and no warrant can thence be taken for Subjects to resist with armed Force the Sovereign Powers Sect. 75. 2. Another Objection near of kin to the former though in different words to plead the Cause of Rebellion is this that all Real Majesty being only in the Community all Personal Majesty is transfused or delegated from thence and consequently the Personal Majesty is nothing but a Trust accountable and forfeitable to the Community and therefore if the Administrators of Sovereign Power abuse their Trust they may not only be resisted but deposed Upon this Ground it was that the Rebellious Lords and Commons when King Charles the First sate up his Standard in the Defence of himself and the Government adjudged it a Breach of his Trust and Treason against the State and Kingdom And answerably one of their Advocates tell us That their Generals Commission to seize the King's Person was a strong Capias utlegatum a Judgment passed against him as out of the Protection of the Kingdom and Aid of the Law And in truth granting what they suppose to be true That the King was not the Officer of God but of the Community received his Authority not from God but them and made War against the Kingdom whose Trustee he was and the inference seems to be rational That Power which is derived from the Civil Constitution being in an Hostile manner employed against it or administred to dissolve and destroy it is forfeited and lost and those who were subjected to it absolved from their Allegiance Ans Having represented this Objection in its full Strength to the best Advantage of the Patrons of it I shall endeavour to assoil it and I doubt not but I shall confute it to the satisfaction of every unprejudiced Person Sect. 76. By a Community these Men understand not a Society of Men actually conâ—enting and formed into a public Government but only a Society of Families and Vicinities voluntarily rationally and justly assembling and associating themselves from mutual benevolence in order to the common Good and Safety thereby putting themselves into an immediate capacity of receiving a public Government under some Form or other such as they themselves shall judge most expedient for them Be it now considered that Sect. 77. 1. This pretended Real Majesty in the Community of a Multitude so associated as hath been said must either be the Product of the Law of Nature or of some positive Law of God or of some human Compact or of some other Cause I will reflect briefly on each of these and if neither of them be assignable as the Ground Reason or Cause thereof I shall be so bold asconclude that 't is a Platonical Idea which hath no existence 1. There is no dictate of Nature which ascribes a greater Authority to a
his Servants This People would not be contented unless God gave them a King as their Neighbouring Nations had to govern them and here the Prophet represents to them how he would demean himself in his Government He would from his Prerogative royal after the manner of the Kings of the Gentiles which was such a King as they desired claim and exercise Power to dispose of their Persons and Possessions as he pleased and how causlesly soever he oppressed them and to what base Drudgeries and dangerous Employments soever he consigned them their case would be remediless for as God would not help and relieve so neither could they lawfully by resistance help and relieve one another his external Magnificence and Pomp would tempt him to very grievous Exactions and how unreasonable and intollerable soever they might seem to be there was no redress to be expected because his Power was irresistible and uncontroulable and from which no appeal could be made verse 18. Ye shall cry out in that day because of your King which ye shall have chosen you and the Lord will not hear you in that day 'T is plain therefore that the Original Charter of that Supreme Power formerly exercised over this People was not lessened and limited by the Translation of it into a Regal Dignity but this manner of Government was more inconvenient for the People because the Grandeur and pompous Magnificence thereof would be more burthensome and oppressive to them Sect. 28. 'T is true their King was not commissioned and authorized by God to deal thus with them unless in case of extream necessity of which he was the sole Judge nor consequently could he do so lawfully and justly for God expresly forbad the Prince to take his Peoples inheritance and to thrust them by Oppression out of their Possessions Ezek. 46.18 And therefore when Ahab was guilty of such a Fact he was condemned and severely threatned for it 1 Kings 21.20 21. this description then of the manner of the King doth not primarily respect his Office but the exercise of his extraordinary Power and which necessarily belongs to all Sovereign Powers and is habitually inherent in them though never exerted for we cannot understand it simply of what the King might de facto actually do because 't is very ordinary for one private Man to oppress another we must therefore understand it of such an effect of Power as carries with it the priviledge of what is righteously and justly done that is it must not be resisted and punished Although he hath not God's approbation yet he hath thus far his tolleration that God forbids his Subjects to resist him and he hath this peculiar Right to himself that what is punishable in others is not so in him which is evidently implied in verse 19. If ye shall cry out in that day because of your King God will not hear you That is God would not allow them to resist or appeal to any Superior Power and to this Sense and Interpretation agreeth that of Solomon Eccl. 8.4 Where the Word of a King is there is Power and who may say unto him what dost thou and elsewhere he speaks of the King against whom there is no rising up Prov. 30.31 Clearly intimating that the Subjects of Israel could not lawfully resist their Kings with armed Force And this was the Reason as St. Augustine observes why David confessing his hainous Sins of Murther and Adultery both capital Crimes faid Against thee only that is God have I sinned Psal 51.4 Because being a King 't was his peculiar Prerogative to be exempted from all the Penalties which were the Effects of humane Power and to be only subject to divine Vengeance And I conceive that of Jezabel to King Ahab implieth so much too 1 Kings 21.7 Dost thou now govern the Kingdom of Israel which being spoken with reference to the obtaining of Naboth's Vineyard suggested to him that being a King he was not obnoxious to the coercive Force or Penalty of any human Law and therefore might do what he would to satisfy and please himself without exposing himself to any legal Danger of Opposition or Resistance Sect. 29. This Truth will further appear from the Consideration of the particular Case of Saul who was the first Person that was invested with the Regal Dignity according to that Fundamental Law of the Kingdom of Israel or Judah Deut. 17.15 Thou shalt in any wise set him King over thee whom the Lord thy God shalt chuse For he was chosen by the Lord to be King of Israel and by his special Command anointed to the Kingly Office by Samuel 1 Sam. 9.16 Comp. with 1 Sam. 10.1 and for such recognized by all the People 1 Sam. 10.24 and Ch. 11.15 and that he was exempted in the Exercise of his Regal Office from the Violence of armed Force shall be manifested from the Deportment of David towards him respectively to whom he abused his Regal Power in a most stupendious manner David was by God's special Command ancinted to succeed him in the Throne long before Saul's Death 1 Sam. 16.12 13. which was well known to Saul 1 Sam. 24.20 The Case was this Saul for his Disobedience to God's positive Command was rejected decreed to be rejected from his Kingdom 1 Sam. 13.13 14. But his Kingdom was to continue to him during his life 1 Sam. 26.10 11. that is the Kingdom was translated from Saul's Family and established in Davids Saul henceforward was Tenant if I may so speak for life only of the Kingdom and David was Reversioner in Fee The common Interest therefore of the Kingdom was in an extraordinary manner included in David's Safety and he was obliged to preserve himself for the public Welfare and by the Designation of God himself 't was manifest that the exchange of Saul for David would be for the general Good of the Kingdom Sect. 30. Under all these Circumstances Saul degenerates more and more and is so stubbornly rebellious against the Commands of God that Samuel tells him plainly that God had rejected him from being King and rent his Kingdom from him and given it to one better than he 1 Sam. 15.23 and 28. that is God's Sentence of Rejection was renewed and confirmed against him but not actually executed upon him till he was slain by the Amalekite and to other provocations Saul adds a most unjust malicious ungrateful and inhuman Persecution of David and nothing less than his Death will satisfy him 1 Sam. 20.31 32. and for his sake most barbarously Murthers Fourscore and Five Priests of the Lord And Nob the City of the Priests smote he with the Edge of the Sword both Men and Women Children and Sucklings and Oxen and Asses and Sheep 1 Sam. 22.18 19. which was a most inhuman Fact and afterwards hunted after David as for a Partridge on the Mountains and drove him away from the public Worship of God and did interpretatively say unto him go serve other Gods 1 Sam. 26.19 which
needless but it will also if the King and Lords please render the House of Commons as needless too which may also be the Case of the House of Lords if the King and House of Commons please to have it so For I presume he will have the Co-ordination to be equally lodged in the one as in the other that our Author had any respect to this I cannot affirm but I well remember when the Legislative Authority was pretended unto by the Two Houses that their Advocates pleaded this Maxim for the Justification of what they called Ordinances of Parliament which were of such Authority and Power in the Hands of their subordinate Instruments that they used them to deprive of Life Liberty and Estate and nothing was more frequently urged than Co-ordinata se invicem supplent Co-ordinates ought mutually to supply each others defects So that what the King from Perversness or Ignorance would not do or imposency or restraint could not do with them they presumed they were sufficiently authorized to do without him because the public Interest and Safety must not miscarry or be hazarded for want of supplemental Laws Sect. 104. I know our Author supposeth the King in his Political Capacity to be in another considetation thereof inferior to the Two Houses of Parliament though he will not perhaps say he is so in his Legislative viz. as the Executive part of Government is lodged singly in him because this as he teacheth is a Matter of Trust derived from the Legislative part for which he is accountable and in that capacity the King is a Subject to the Two Houses of Parliament Right Excellent indeed this is not in terms asserted but 't is plainly the intent and drift of it Well! let it be supposed That the Executive Power of the Kingdom is a Trust from the Legislative Power will it not then follow that the King derives a Trust to himself certainly if this Author himself may be believed he hath a share in the Legislative Power and therefore if a Trust be transferred and devolved from thence to him it must be with his concurrence as acting in that capacity Now if he should chance to be unfaithful to himself and violate this Trust to whom in a judiciary way must he be accountable of whom must that Court be constituted that must question the Matter there may be no Houses of Parliament in being and if there be if he disgust their proceedings may he not Adjourn Prorogue or Dissolve them if he think fit and what will become of the Matter then 't is but equal that if all interested in the Legislative Power be concern'd the King himself should be admitted of the Quorum when this matter of Trust comes to be questioned and debated I conceive the Vanity of this pretence That the Executive part of Government is an accountable Trust committed by our Laws to the King will evidently appear to any impartial Man that will but try how to answer these few plain Questions 1. If this Trust be abused is it any part of the Executive Power of the Government to Summon Try Judge and Punish the Abuser thereof 2. In whose Name shall the Process for Summons be issued forth in order to his Tryal 3. What provision hath the Law made for the Arresting of the King's Person to secure his forth coming to Tryal in case he refuse to obey a preceptive Summons 4. Is it not High Treason to imprison the King or by force to take him into a Man's Power yea or but to manifest such a Design by some overt act 5. If he have a fair Tryal according to Law he must be tried by his Peers I pray who are they 6. Who shall be his Judge and pass Sentence 7. What is the Punishment the Law hath ordained for the abuse of this Trust 8. Who shall execute the Sentence pronounced against him 'T is manifest the whole Administration of the Executive Power being confessedly lodged in the King nothing of this can legally be done and therefore 't is impossible that the King 's Executive Power should be a Trust committed to him by his Houses of Parliament for which he ought to be accountable to them or any other earthly Power I hope you would not have our High and Mighty Sovereign Lord the good People of England erect an High Court of Justice which shall be instead of Delators Witnesses Jurors Peers Judges and Executioners I am taught by some that understood the Constitution and Laws of the Kingdom of England very well that the King is not accountable for his Office or Actions to any Court Person or Persons whatsoever and every Man that will but attentively read the Spencer's Case and the Tryals of the Regicides may learn the same Lesson And thus saith the most learned Bracton Sunt sub Rege liberi homines servi omnis sub eo est ipse sub nullo nisi tantum sub Deo Si à Rege petatur cum Breve non currat contra Regem locus erit supplicationi quod factum suum corrigat emendet si non fecerit satis erit ei ad paenam quod Dominum expectet ultorem de chartis Regiis factis Regum nec privatae personae nec Justiciarii debent disputare There are Free-men and Servants under the King and every one is under him and he is under no one but under God only If any thing be to be demanded of the King since a Writ cannot go forth against the King there will be place for petitioning that he would correct and amend his doing if he do not it will be Punishment enough for him that he expect the Lord to be the Avenger of the Royal Grants and Actions of the King neither private Persons or Judges ought to dispute much less to censure and chastise And my Lord Coke in his Compleat Copy Holder hath taught me That the King representeth God's Person on Earth And I presume no Man is so daringly bold as to affirm That God is accountable and censurable for any of his doings Sect. 105. 5. It appears from the very Form and Tenor of the most Excellent Charters of the English Subjects Liberties that the Regal Authority and Power is not a fiduciary Trust from his Subjects and People under any consideration whatsoever Magna Charta it self runs thus Spontanea bona voluntate nostra dedimus concessimus By our free and good will we have given and granted c. not contracted bargain'd and upon good and valuable considerations covenanted and promised but from grace and condescention given and granted See 9 Hen. 3. so when the same Charter was confirmed in King Edward's time it was thus worded Know ye that we of our meer free will have granted to all Free-men these Liberties So in the Statute Quo Warranto 18. Edw. 1. Dominus Rex ad Parliamentum suum de gratia sua speciali propter affectionem quam habet erga Praelatos caeteros
de Regno suo concessit c. The Lord the King of his Parliament from his special grace and for the Affection he hath toward the Prelates and all others of his Kingdom hath granted I appeal to all unprejudiced Men to consider if this be the Language of an accountable Trustee Sect. 106. Coke the Regicide having told his Blood-thirsty Masters That Charles Stuart for so he called his Liâ—ge Lord that King of Blessed Memory stands now that is in their High Court of Justice to give an account of his Stewardship he thus begins to diffect his charge That the Kings of England are trusted with a limited Power to govern by Law and affirms it to be one of the Fundamentals of the Law that the King is not above the Law but the Law above the King And for the Proof of it offer'd the Coronation Oath wherein the King swears to keep and observe the Laws which the People shall chuse And then endeavouring to impute to his Sacred Majesty a Violation of his Fidelity to God and his People concludes him justly condemned by the Fundamental Law of the Nation c. and no wonder of such an Inference for as he tells us Governours are but the Peoples Creatures the Work of their hands to be accomptable as their Stewards and therefore when they prevaricate and abuse their Trust to question by what Law they call them to account is High Treason with a Witness And this is the true Tendency of that Doctrine That all Power is originally from the People and the King 's executive Power a Trust from the Two Houses of Parliament because this makes them as Coke phraseth it his Liege Lords and warrants them to exercise an absolute Power over him 'T is so naturally implied saith he that if a King become a Tyrant that he shall dye for it that this is the first necessary Fundamental Law of every Kingdom which by intrinsical Rules of Government must preserve it self This is just like the Liberty of the People which proves it self whereas the Power of the King must be proved before the Subjects ought to obey it because he hath no more than he hath received from his Sovereign Lords the People which is only founded on positive Law and if he pretend to more than they have given him he usurps upon their Liberty which they have a Right to defend and preserve by force of Arms which being a new Edition of John Coke's Doctrine the Author must needs deserve exceedingly well of the Government and cannot be worthily dealt withal unless highly promoted how agreeable this is to our Legal Constitution I refer to every indifferent Judgment who will compare it with what hath been observed concerned it and shall conclude in the Words of this Author It is indeed clear from the New Testamdnt That the Christian Religion as such gives us no grounds to defend or propagate it by force It is a Doctrine of the Cross and of Faith and Patience under it and if by the Order of Divine Providence and of any Constitution of Government under which we are born we are brought under sufferings for our professing of it we may indeed retire and fly out of any such Country if we can but if that is 〈…〉 must then according to this Religion submit to those sufferings under which we may be brought considering that God will be glorified by us in so doing and that he will both support us under our Sufferings and gloriously reward us for them By Submitting to Sufferings by what follows I hope he means a Submission without Resistance though we are strong enough to make it and then the Safety of the English Government is secured though Religion be our Property and shall chance to be persecuted because by the Constitution of our Government we may not upon any pretence whatsoever take Arms against the King Sest 107. 6. Another Objection is this a King may actually and professedly endeavour to subvert the established Government and overthrow the whole Constitution and set himself to destroy if not all nor the greatest part yet at least very considerable numbers of his People and so plainly counteract the very end of his Authority and Power and will it not be lawful for his Subjects in such a Case to resist him Ans The Sky may fall and then Larks will be good cheap Princes may become Phreneticks and be uncapable of Government and them as in the Case of a Minor that is an Hereditary Prince a Prorex is to be had during the Suspension of the Exercise of his Authority and Power Or they may be so dissatisfied with the Burthensomness of the Government that they may be weary of it Abdicate and Renounce it or they may be so intoxicated and transported with wild and outragious Passions Discontents and Prejudices against their Subjects that they may disclaim the Government of them and indeed do so when instead of administring the Government in order to their Peace and Safety they turn it to their distraction and ruine will not be the Ministers of God for good but hurt to them will not support but destroy the Foundations of their Kingdoms but then with their Subjects and Kingdoms they destroy themselves too and cease to be Princes because they that disclaim the Protection of their Subjects and wilfully resolve to destroy their Dominions can have no right to govern them They can be no Rulers who will leave nothing under them to be ruled by them and then the Resistance of them will not be a Resistance of the Higher Powers but this is a meer Platonical Idea a Case put that perhaps never was nor never is like to have a real Existence in the Nature of things Let these things be considered Sect. 108. 1. Plutarch observes Inest omni populo aliquod malignum contra Imperantes There is in all sorts of People some malignity against their Governours Such is the Pride of Man's heart that he is averse to Subjection our unwillingness to be restrained from following our own Minds and Wills and to be guided and commanded by the Mind and Will of another prejudiceth us against the Ruler of us and this as Mr. Hooker tells us makes Men very attentive and favourable Hearers to suck in any Poyson that is breathed forth against the King or the Governours which are sent forth and anon it mulriplies and every valley and obscure corner is ready to eccho it back again We must therefore be very wary now we give ear to any evil Suggestions concerning the Designs or male-Administrations of the Higher Powers Defamation begets an evil Opinion of the Prince and concludes in disaffection to him and that naturally tends unto and ends in Contempts Abhorrences and Oppositions 2. It hath ever been the Practice of seditious and rebellious minded Men to bestir themselves to ingenerate in the Minds of Subjects Jealousies and Fears concerning the Councels Designs and Administrations of their Princes and to magnify
THE Church of England's DOCTRINE OF Non-Resistance JUSTIFIED and VINDICATED as truly Rational and Christian AND THE Damnable Nature OF Rebellious Resistance REPRESENTED By LEWES SHARP Rector of Morton-Hampstead in Devon Take this for a general Rule That the immortal Policy of a State cannot admit of any Law of Priviledge whatsoever but in some particular or other the same is necessarily broken Sir Walt. Rawleigh LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall MDCXCI FOR Subjects to bear Arms against their Kings Offensive or Defensive upon any Pretence whatsoever is at the least to resist the Powers which are ordained of God And though they do not invade but only resist St. Paul tells them They shall receive to themselves Damnation and the same Constitution and Canon requires all Arch-bishops Bishops and all other inferiour Priests and Ministers that they preach teach and exhort their People to obey honor and serve their King and that they presume not to speak of His Majesty's Power in any other Way than in this Canon is expressed Which Canon the Church ordained and decreed That every Parson Vicar Curate or Preacher upon some one Sunday in every quarter of the Year at Morning Prayer shall in the Place where he serves treatably and audibly read Const Canon Eccles made in 16 Ch. 1. 1640. Can. 1. To their most Excellent MAJESTIES Dread Sovereigns ALthough the greatest Princes with their dependant Governments and Interests are exposed to change yet Truth is not This stands on such a firm Basis that that which was once Truth whether in Rome Geneva or England is still so and will be so for ever And therefore how propitious and indulgent soever the publick Revolution of Affairs may prove to the corrupt Lusts and Interests of Men seditiously minded the Truth will always be their Adversary and bid defiance to them and such is the mighty and irresistible force thereof that it will eventually conquer and triumph over all their Sophistical reasonings and enthrone it self in their Judgments and Consciences for Conversion or Confusion That Catholick Doctrine which is asserted and contended for in these Papers hath been is and will be for a Crown of rejoycing to the Church of England whose Religion being constituted of a stedfast Allegiance to her Princes as well as a constant Devotion to her God it cannot be disclaimed and renounced without a plain Apostacy from her Communion which is matter of abhorrence to all good Christians and yet such is the boldness I had almost said Impudence of some bigotted pirking Fanaticks that for many Months together they have attempted with great diligence to ridicule and expose it to scorn and contempt and one of them having mounted and settled himself in the Seat of the Scornful made it part of his Morning Exercise to insinuate amongst other sediticus Things That the Preaching thereof is one of those national Sins we are to repent of in expectation of national Mercies because a Doctrine designed to enslave the Nation Slavery with them being an equivalent to a restraint from the Liberty of an armed Resistance of their Prince when they shall judge it necessary and themselves well prepared for it Indeed another of them for part of his Morning Exercise assumes the Confidence to publish to the World That they are misrepresented when reported as Enemies to Monarchy because they have given assurance by Oath of their Allegiance to it but if the one be fit to be an Interpreter to the other as no doubt but he is they being of the same Confederacy and bound up in the same bundle together their Allegiance is only during pleasure which they will term so long as your Majesties Behaviours and Administrations are such as they should be that is such as they shall well like and approve of The naked Truth is this their Friendship and Fidelity to your Majesties Persons and Goverments is only founded on what they apprehend to be beneficence to their private Opinions and consequent Affections and Interests for the Proof of which their Deportments under the late Administrations of publick Affairs is an evidence even to a Demonstration their factious Designs and Practices being the sole Standards and Measures of what they repute good and evil all publick Administrations are Objects of their election or reprobation agreeably to that subserviency or contrariety they bear to them So that if you serve them they will serve you but if you oppose and suppress them they will oppose and suppress you if they can Wherefore if your Majesties will be secured from their rebellious Insurrections against your Government you must let them do always that which is right in their own eyes and never displease them Abrogate the Act of Vniformity and the Tests Renounce Supremacy in Causes Ecclesiastical and extirpate Prelacy as well as Popery the continuation of all which with them are national Sins raise up and set on foot the solemn League and Covenant 〈…〉 and bring the Episcopal Clergy to such a Temper that they may pass for Men tollerable in the Church and if no body anger them they will be very quiet But Your Majesties must remember that they are Abhorrors of the Doctrine of Non-Resistance as well as of the Act of Vniformity the Sacramental Test Episcopacy Liturgy and Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Causes and therefore must keep your selves in the posture of Gladiators for if the publick Administrations chance to be oppressive in their Apprehensions and Judgments to their natural civil or spiritual Rights and Priviledges with which they are more richly stored than their Neighbours they will be your Subjects no longer than they are strong enough to be your Masters and the Deposition of your Majesties in order to the Exaltation of their own Discipline which they will call the Scepter of Jesus Christ shall be reputed a Mercy as considerable as a Fifth of November's Deliverance It can be no matter of wonder to your Majesties that those Men who will still have this lain down for a Principle That in all the Disputes between Power and Liberty Power must be proved but Liberty proves it self the one being founded only on positive Law and the other upon the Law of Nature that they caution your Subjects against examining the Matter of Regal Power by the Scriptures for if we are resolved to stick to them as the Rules of our belief and practice in this case we shall find the Power of Kings founded on another Bottom and Constitution than that these Men have invented and commended to the World for the Scriptures do assure us That not only those who reigned over God's own peculiar People did Reign immediately from and by him Acts 7.35 Numb 27.16 18. Judg. 2.16 1 Sam. 10.1 Prov. 8.15 but also that all other Kings are as truly and certainly of his Ordination and Constitution as they were and owe their Authority and Kingdoms immediately to him and not to their Subjects Jer. 27.5 6 7. Isa
Constitution which is not chargeable with weakness or wickedness because the Contrivance and Establishment of the most wise and righteous Lord of Heaven and Earth and if God doth not make the best Provision for the Rights Safety and Peace of all Men who willeth the Salvation of them all who will or can Sect. 33. And as it is evident from the instance of Saul that the Abuse of the Regal Power in male-Administration and Tyrannical Usages of the best the most innocent and serviceable Subjects is no forfeiture thereof nor warranty for the Subjects to resist with armed Force and depose their Sovereign so we shall find in the succeeding Generations after the Translation of the Regal Dignity from Saul's to David's Family that how much soever the Regal Power was abused either respectively to Civil or Religious Matters and how much soever God was provoked thereby there was no Tiberty granted or allowed for Resistance or endeavours for a Reformation of corruption in the King or his Officers I shall instance in Solomon and compare his duty with his practice You have the Kings duty described Deut. 17.16 17 18 19. He shall not multiply Horses to himself nor cause the People to return to Egypt to the end that he should multiply Horses forasinuch as the Lord hath said unto you ye shall henceforth return no more that way Neither shall he multiply Wives to himself that his Heart turn not away neither shall he greatly multiply to himself Silver and Gold And it shall be when be sitteth on the Throne of his Kingdom that he shall write him a Copy of his Law in a Book and he shall read therein all the Days of his Life that he learn to fear the Lord his God c. Let us now take a View of Solomons Practice and we shall find that he acted as if he had been under no such restraints and limitations He sent into Egypt for Horses 1 Kings 10.28 He loved strange Women together with the Daughter of Pharoah Women of the Moabites Ammonites Edomites Zidonians Hittites And he had Seven Hundred Wives Princesses and Three Hundred Concubines and his Wives turned away his Heart 1 Kings 11.1 and 2. that is after other Gods v. 4. and seven hundred Wives that were Princesses and three hundred Concubines with their respective Idol Gods could not be supported and maintained in a State of Magnificence at a cheap rate and therefore he made Silver to be in Jerusalem as Stones 1 Kings 10.27 and he had so many Vessels of Gold that their abundance made Gold to be nothing accounted of in his days v. 21. which great Treasure was probably obtained either by heavy exactions from or the great hazards of his Subjects And yet here was no suggestion that there was a justifiable occasion for his Subjects to Rebel and set up another King Indeed God threatned to rend his Kingdom from him because he had not observed the direction of the standing Law of his Kingdom but his Subjects had no Authority to controul or punish him Sect. 34. Yea you shall find that when the Jews were a Conquered People and carried away Captive into Babylon God obliged them to submit to the Sovereign Power thereof Jer. 29.7 seek the Peace of the City whither I have caused you to be carried away Captive for in the Peace thereof ye shall have Peace And in obedience to this command Mordecai discovered the Traitorous Conspiracy of Bigthana and Terish the King's Chamberlains against the King Ahasuerus Esth 2.21 22 23. compt With ch 6.2 and though they were reduced to as great an extremity as ever a People under Heaven were by a Decree obtained by Haman from Ahasuerus to destroy to kill and to cause to perish all Jews both young and old little Children and Women in one day Esth 3.13 and they were a very numerous People and could have made a considerable Defence yet Mordecai durst not think of using armed Force but resolved upon Passive Obedience unless they could obtain a Decree from the King to defend themselves The King's Decree by the Fundamental Constitution of the Medes and Persians was not reversible but must be executed Esth 8.8 Esthers Petition therefore to have the King's Letters devised by Haman to destroy the Jews reversed could not be granted Esth 8.5 but the King grants her a Decree that the Jews which were in every City might gather themselves together and stand for their Life to destroy to slay and to cause to perish all the Power of the People and Province that would assault them Esth 8.11 and being favoured with this liberty of Self-defence the Jews gathered themselves together in their Cities to lay hand on such as sought their hurt and no Man could withstand them for the Fear of them fell upon all the People Esth 9.2 and vers 16. they had rest from their Enemies and slew of their Foes seventy and five thousand And if they who were Captives of War and so well able to defend themselves from the Execution of such an inhuman bloody and undeserved a Decree to destroy them root and branch durst not defend themselves by force of Arms against Regal Power nor those thereby commissioned without liberty and allowance therefrom first granted and obtained what shall we think of those Men by what Spirit are they guided and acted who only from some particular personal or Family-grievances and some public Inconveniences and perhaps Mischiefs betake themselves to armed Force to Resist and Depose their lawful and natural Prince Sect. 35. 2. Having thus proved it utterly unlawful under the Jewish Constitution upon any pretence whatsoever to resist the Higher Powers I shall now likewise as evidently discover the unlawfulness thereof under the Christian Constitution When our Saviour first entered on his Ministerial Office the first Thing he did was to declare the Approach of a New Kingdom and the next to instruct his Disciples That this Kingdom was no Kingdom of this World for 't is said when Jesus began to preach he said Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Mat. 4.17 i. e. By an usual Hebraism an heavenly Kingdom and so called in opposition to earthly Kingdoms implying that this Kingdom which the God of Heaven was by him now setting up and which was never to be destroyed as Daniel had prophesied Ch. 2.44 Was not a Kingdom of this World was not to be founded supported and propagated by the Assumption and Exercise of any Civil temporal Power but was to be introduced and established from the Strength and Power of divine Truth and its own goodness without the help of any Civil Power or worldly Interest being altogether different in its Nature and Constitution and in its design and administration from all earthly and secular Empires Wherefore the Institution and Erection of Christ's Kingdom was no way prejudicial to the Being or Rights of any earthly Kingdom but as the Civil Governments of the World were settled before so they still
continued without any innovation or alteration hereby made Sect. 36. And answerably we find that Christ was so far from challenging to himself an Exemption from Subjection to any in Authority that upon all occasions he readily submitted to them though he were a King yet he was neither Enemy or Rival to any King in the World for his Kingdom and utterly disclaimed all temporal Jurisdictions as unbecoming his designed Kingdom thus when he fed the People by a Miracle and thereby convinced them that he was the Messiah they expected according to the Prediction in Deut. 18.18 they presuming that he was designed to be the Restorer of the Temporal Kingdom and worldly Prosperity to Israel Acts 1.6 projected to make him their King but he foreseeing it immediately withdrew himself from them to prevent their Intendment and to shew them how much he abhorred it John 6.15 and when he was requested to interpose as a Judge to decide and determine a Controversy betwixt two Brethren he protests against it as a Matter foreign to him Luke 12.13 14. and so in the Case of the Woman taken in Adultery and brought before him to be judged by him Joh. 8.3 he plainly declared by his deportment and silence that they attempted to trouble him with impertinent Matters incongruous to the Person he sustained and when the Pharisees and Herodians very ceremoniously addressed themselves to him thinking by the Art of Wheedling to Complement him to resolve an ensnaring Question saying Matt. 22.16 We know that thou art true tell us what thinkest thou Is it lawful to give Tribute unto Casar After they had shewed him their Tribute-mony and told him whose Image and Superscription it had viz. Caesars which was as evident an Argument of the Sovereignty as Legislation or the Execution thereof he makes no inquiry into the Original of Caesar's Dominion or his manner of administring it or what his Prerogatives and Rights were but peremptorily Commands them to render unto Caesar the Things that are Caesars vers 21. Be he who he will and let him govern how he will he must have what of right belongs to him Rom. 13.7 Render unto all their dues Tribute to whom Tribute Custom to whom Custom and agreeably when a Tex was demanded of him as Tribute due to Caesar indeed some very learned Men think it was Tribute-money paid for the Temple Service vide Hammond and if so I conceive it alters not the Case at all though he might have pleaded from the Dignity of his Person as the Son of God an exemption from all obligation to it yet to prevent in the Officers a scandalous Suspicion that he was disaffected to the Rights of the Authority by which it was demanded He obeyed to the Expence of a Miracle Mat. 17.24 25 26 27. and when he was arraigned and tryed for his Life in the Judgment-Hall before Pontius Pilate he did not only own his Authority but chearfully submitted to his bloody and unrighteous Sentence So that he did at no time upon any provocation whatsoever discover that he had any Commission to change the Constitution of any Civil Government whatsoever or abridge the Rights thereof or set it new Measures of Administration and unsettle it in any of its just Claims and Prerogatives Sect. 37. Indeed as soon as he entered on his Mediatory Office he had by the Donation and Deligation of God the Father an absolute Supremacy and general authoritative Power over all Powers in Heaven and Earth Mar. 11.27 Joh. 3.35 and 5.22 27. Joh. 13.3 and 17.2 though he had not the plenary Possession and Execution of it till after his Resurrection and Ascension Mat. 28.18 Phil. 2.9 10 11. Eph. 1.20 21 22. Psal 3.8 Rev. 11.15 1 Pet. 3.22 Heb. 2.5 6 7 8. Col. 2.10 and which he possesseth and exerciseth with a special respect to subserve the Protection and Salvation of his Church Eph. 1.22 and not to alter the Fundamental Constitution or to abridge and limit the Civil Rights of any Kingdom or State in the World and that special internal and proper Power which he partakes of and exerciseth directly and immediately for the gathering constituting and Government of his Church as such and which he deriveth to those who are to exercise an internal and proper governing Power over it as his commissioned Officers is meerly spiritual and all the Laws of it are enforced only with such Sanctions as are of a spiritual Consideration viz. Such Rewards and Punishments as refer to the Conscience and are apt to govern Mens Souls without laying any restraint on their Bodies or Mulcts on their Estates and therefore can no way interfere with or entrench on the Rights and Prerogatives of a Civil Government Sect. 37. And that discourse which passed betwixt the Lord Jesus and Pontius Pilate when he was arraigned and examined before him is a full evidence that his Kingdom is of a spiritual Nature and to be supported by agreeable means and not to be propugned and defended by the force of Arms you have a large Narrative of it Joh. 18.34 35 36 37. Pilate said to Jesus art thou the King of the Jews vers 33. to which question Christ doth not answer directly but yet makes such an answer as was a sufficient Ground for Pilate to infer that he was a King vers 37. Pilate therefore said to him art thou a King then to which Jesus answered thou sayest that I am a King i. e. thou concludest a right that I am a King I freely acknowledge it and have a Kingdom under my Power wherein my Subjects are to acknowledge my Sovereign Authority to obey my Laws and to depend upon me for Protection and Defence but yet the Potentates of the World had no reason to entertain any jealous Fears least he design to undermine and dissolve or to alter abridge limit or disturb any of the ancient Rights and Customs of their Dominions and Royalties for said he My Kingdom is not of this World vers 36. q.d. my Kingdom hath not such an Original and subsistence as worldly Monarchies have doth not come with Observation as he elsewhere said Luk. 17.19 hath not the Pomp and Splendor of a solemn Court attending it doth not partake of any Civil Authority and Power nor pretend to any Right to vindicate and justify it self by force of Arms but 't is altogether managed in a spiritual Way and protected with spiritual Weapons 2 Cor. 10.4 with the Armor of God and not of Man Eph. 6.11 and therefore Pilate need not fear that his pretensions to a Kingdom would endanger the quiet of the Roman State and Government And for this Christ gives Pilate a very satisfying Reason If my Kingdom saith he were of this World then would my Servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews but now is my Kingdom not from hence q. d. my Servants stand so well affected toward me and my Kingdom that if they did pretend a Right to the Power of the
distinguished into several Communities and canton'd into Kingdoms or Commonwealths but every Man bath indifferently a Right to one part of the World as well as to another and is no more determined to this Kingdom or Community than to that and consequently there can be no Government but by Usurpation in no part of the World without every Man's Consent that is in the World one Man cannot alienate and surrender anothers Right without his Consent Where every Man is equally free if every Man do not equally concur to the Limitation or Resignation of it the Freedom of particulars without Usurpation will still remain entire So that the Iâ—â—â—bitants of England France Spain c. have no more right to determine of Governours Proprieties and Liberties of their respective Countries than the Inhabitants of the East or West-Indies have because by the Law of Nature they have an equal Right unto and Freedom in these Countries But suppose that the Inhabitants of particular Countries have sufficient Power to chuse and establish what Government amongst them they please yet this Principle supposed that all are equal by Nature and every Man is free born it will follow that as the Inhabitants of any Country are changed so there will be likewise answerably a Right and Power to change and alter the Governours and Government thereof and every hour a Variation being produced by the Births of some and Deaths of others there will be in all Countries in the World especially very populous Ones a Right in many Persons to with hold subjection from the present Higher Powers and to advance others in their room or else to remain Lords and Masters of themselves if it be said that the Choice and Contract of the Ancestry bind their Posterity and Fathers and Masters conclude their respective Families this plainly confutes the Principle contended for because by Nature there is neither Non-age Subjection or Servitude but the whole Race of Mankind hath equal Rights and Liberties Or if it be said that the Major part of the People is virtually the Whole or a considerable part of them meeting with no opposition presume the Whole it falls under the like Exceptions with the former for if these had Authority to conclude the rest they were not their Equals but Superiors and could without their consent limit them in their natural Rights and Freedoms which overthrows these Mens beloved Cause This I hope is a sufficient Discovery of the mischievous Consequences of the aforementioned Principle to the Safety of all settled Governments in the World Sect. 70. 3. Although there are sometimes Agreements and Contracts betwixt Sovereign Princes and their Subjects by which they become mutually obliged to each other and the Subjects have their Rights Proprieties and Priviledges as well as Princes their Prerogatives and Preheminencies and none are more strongly bound to perform their Agreements and Covenants than Sovereign Princes not only from Motives of Piety and Justice but also from Reasons of State because the conscientious and strict Observation of them prevents or eradicates all those jealous Fears which ordinarily arise from their Subjects apprehensions of a Power they have to wrong them creates in them a mighty Esteem and Veneration of them strong and vigorous Affections to them a clear and stedfast Confidence in them and renders them couragious resolute stedfast and chearful in their Adherence and Obedience to them yet the Existence of their Sovereignty depends not on it because that which cannot escheat to a Superior is not forfeitable Vnumquodque dissolvitur eo modo quo contrahitur saith our Law Now as it is God alone which sets up Kings and gives them Kingdoms Dan. 2.21 27. Prov. 8.15 Jer. 27.5 6. So 't is God alone that can dethrone and take Kingdoms from them 1 Sam. 28.18 for as Sovereign Princes judge not for Men but for the Lord 2 Chr. 19.6 so neither can they be judged by Men but by God only and 't is his peculiar to execute Vengeance on them for evil doing Rom. 12.19 and as their Power of Life and Death was only from God so it is God only who gave it to them can take it from them Sect. 71. The Supreme Sovereign Power is a simple undivided Thing and can be but one for as in the natural so in the political Body there must be only one common Principle of action it must be one Sovereign Will guided by one directive Judgment assisted by one Power of the Sword which is invested with all the legislative judicial and executive Authority of every Community or else there can be no certain regular Administration 〈◊〉 Affairs amongst them And consequently as the Sovereignty hath no Superior so it can have no equall A conditional Sovereignty is indeed none at all a conditional King is only the Pageant of a King a meer titular nominal King one in appearance officially a King but divested of the Authority and Power proper to it and the Reason is evident because he is a Subject to a Superior Power and is disposed of at anothers Will and Pleasure and he that is subordinated cannot be supreme who but our Superior can prescribe and impose upon us Conditions and Measures of having holding and exercising governing Power and exauctorate and punish us for Non-observance and Disobedience to them but some Mens Brains are so impregnated with Ideas of Bargains and Contracts that they will have all Authority and Subjection to depend upon them and all the relative Duties of Princes and People to be measured and determined by them as if God and Nature had made no provision for the Safety and Happiness of Mankind without them Sect. 72. 4. That no more Authority and Power is to be claimed and exercised by Soreign Princes than can proved and that the Liberty of the Subject proves it self doth not only imply that all Authority and Power is from mutual Contracts and Agreements but also according to the Judgment of such Men that all Authority and Power is radically and originally in every single Person and therefore I take it to be a most groundless and prodigious Presumption If Power must always be proved but Liberty proves it self the Case of the Sovereign is very lamentable and despicable for how is Power to be proved by what Evidence by the Princes own Testimony or by the Testimony of the Subject I know of no Medium and 't is probable partiallity will be pretended and what is to be done then then Might must be Right and then the Prince must to the Wall Ay but there is another way of proving Power and that is by the Fundamental Charter the Original Magna Charta which was by the mutual Agreement and Contract of Prince and People made and established when the Government was at first formed and constituted But what if the very Being of such a Thing be questioned how will it be proved I am apt to believe the Sovereign Prince of England as well as of other Dominions may
of a lawless Violence and Oppression be not the Resistance of a lawful Authority yet the Resistance of a lawless Violence may be so Circumstanced that it may be an unlawful Resistance of him or them that are in a full and unquestionable Possession of a lawful Authority For when the Illegal Acts of Sovereign Princes are by Force of Arms resisted Sovereign Princes themselves as such are also resisted because their Persons and Authority are not actually and indeed divided 'T is true their natural and politic Capacities are distinguishable in our Conceptions but 't is as true that the natural Subsistences of the Sovereign Powers are rever actually seperated from their Sovereign Authority I pray consider for the Illustrations of this if the English Legiance be not due to the King in his natural Capacity and not in his politic Capacity for as the King swears to protect us in our natural Capacities so we swear Legiance to him in his natural Capacity And this is the Reason why by our Law the Compassing and Imagining the Death of the King is High-Treason because his Person being invested with Sovereign Authority he cannot be Murthered in the Eye of the Law under any other Notion Wherefore though the Personal Acts of our Kings are not always Legal Acts and their Commands considered in their Natural Capacities may be such as no good Subject can approve actively submit unto and obey yet they are still the higher Powers which cannot be resisted without the peril of damnation because their personal Subsistences imply an inseperable Investiture with Sovereign Authority And therefore my Lord Coke in Calvins Case tells us that the Natural Legiance due to our Kings in their Natural Capacities from their Subjects is absolute and indefinite not circumscribed by Law but above Law and before Law and consequently indelible and immutable Sect. 87. Because the Authority of our Kings is in their Laws their Offices their Courts where their Persons are not some think that their Persons may be resisted and no Resistance made to their Authority I would have such to consider whence it is that Laws Judicial Courts and Subordinate Officers have their Authority Is it not Originally from the Authority of the King's Person And are not all the Laws Courts and Officers of the Kingdom for that reason called the King's Laws Courts and Officers And can the King communicate Authority without Authority first inherent in himself Certainly that must needs be the most Eminent Authority which is the Source and Fountain of all other Authority according to that Maxim Quicquid efficit tale est magis tale And if the Personal Authority of the King be antecedent to that of his Laws Courts and Officers and derive to them that Authority they partake of then I conceive 't will be no illogical reasoning to infer That the Being and Existence of his Sovereign Authority depends not on them As the King had an Existence before their Constitution so he may likewise after their dissolution God forbid that when a Sovereign Prince hath solemnly promised and sworn to Govern his Subjects according to his Established Laws and to Protect them in their Rights Properties and Priviledges that he should violate his Faith thus given to God and his People yet if he do he is a Sovereign Prince still and the Resistance of him a Resistance of the Ordinance of God because his Authority is from God and hath no Superior under God to controul it nor to whom to forfeit and because the illegal Exercise of his Power doth not disannul his Authority Sect. 88. 4. The Illegal and Destructive Acts of the Sovereign Powers towards their Subjects are not always Inauthoritative Acts. This is evident to the common Sense and Experience of Mankind from the injurious Sentences that are past and Executions that ensue in all sorts of Human Judicatures respectively to the Lives Limbs Liberties and Estates of Subjects The Liberty the Subjects here in England have in some Cases to arrest Judgment and to appeal from an Inferiour to a Superiour Court presumes the Truth of this Now though a Sentence contrary to the true Intention of Law be an unjust Sentence and cannot properly have the Authority of the Law in it yet Subjects in all Parts of the World are obliged by it till it be rescinded and reversed by the Authority of a competent Superiour Judge And if it be a Sentence past or ratified by a Supream Judge from whom there is no appeal the Subject can have no redress but is finally concluded by it how illegal and pernitious soever it be hence that Etiam cum Praetor iniquum pronunciat jus dicit Which is a further Evidence that there is an Authority in Persons Superiour to that in Laws 'T is from the Authority of the Person and not of the Law that a Sentence pronounced according to the Law binds in some Cases and not in others and a Sentence pronounced against Law is reversible in some Cases and not in others Indeed 't is plain that a Sentence pronounced contrary to the End and Intention of Law could have no Authority and Obligatory Force in it were it not from the Authority of the Judge whose act it is Then it will follow Sect. 89. 5. That the Right which Subjects have to preserve themselves in their Properties and Liberties against the unjust and violent Invasions or Usurpations of the Prerogative cannot authorize or warrant them to an active and forcible Resistance thereof For though the higher Powers are not Commissioned to do illegal out-ragious and destructive acts of violence yet they are the higher Powers by Commission and therefore though they abuse their Power the Subjects being no competent Judges thereof they are to be submitted unto without Resistance The High Priest and Elders of the People had no legal Authority to apprehend and secure Jesus Christ as a Criminal and yet he condemned St. Peter's forcible Resistance thereof So when the High Priest commanded St. Paul to be smitten contrary to the Law he acknowledged that notwithstanding that injurious violence offered to him he had no warrant to revile him much less violently resist him and return blow for blow So that those Acts of the higher Powers which are done without Law and against Law being considered conjunctively with the Authors or efficient Causes of them they imply the Presence of a Sovereign Authority with them which is uncontrollable and irresistible Sect. 90. 4. Another Objection which very naturally offers it self from what was last said is this if the very Illegal Acts of all Sovereign Powers be uncontrollable and irresistible then a Despotical is not Distinguishable from a Political Government nor an Arbitrary from a Legal Power nor an Absolute Monarchy from a Monarchy regulated and limited by Established Laws because the Authority of the one in effect is of equal extent with the other and the one as unaccountable and irresistble if he make his Will his Law as the other Ans What
Invading the legal Rights Properties Liberties and Priviledges of the Subject and Subversion of the established Religion and Tolleration yea Introduction of Idolatrous Worship c. As every English Man knows who is but competently instructed in the pretended Motives of that Rebellion to which these Laws directly refer but 't is further said for the countenancing of this apocryphal Sense of the Declaration aforesaid That when there seems to be a Contradiction betwixt two Artioles in our Constitution as there seems to be betwixt the publick Liberty of the Nation and the renouncing of all Resistance in case it be invaded we are to examine which of the two is most evident and most important and to fix upon that and the publick Liberty of the Nation being the most Plain and most Important of the two the Article against Resistance ought to be softned that it do not destroy the other But to the States of England who certainly are the most Competent Judges in this case there seemed no contradiction but a very fair consistency betwixt these two Articles and to every unprejudiced Man who is not captivated to an Hypothesis from Passion and Interest The Renunciation of resistance upon any pretence whatsoever is as evident an Article in our Constitution as can be expressed in Words and being directly designed for the Preservation of publick Order and Peace and the Security of the Government it is not easily imaginable how any Article should exceed the Importance of it Yes but that of the Publick Liberty may because the Chief Design of our whole Law and of all the several Rules of our Constitution is to secure and maintain it This passage sounds like the Shibboleth of the Scotish Kirk for so it is translated in the Third Article of the solemn League and Covenant We shall endeavour with our Estates and Lives mutually to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of the Parliament and the Liberties of the Kingdoms and to preserve and defend the King's Maiesty's Person and Authority in the Preservation and Defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms Where the Preservation and Defence of the King's Majesty's Person and Authority is not only limited to the Preservation and Defence of the true Religion and Liberâ—ies of the Kingdoms but sate in order after the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament and Liberties of the Kingdoms as the less evident and less important Matter to be attend and â—ndeavoured This is rare Policy Men of a lower Elavation in that Science which we â—all plain meaning Men do ordinarily believe that the Chief Design of our whole Law â—nd all the several Rules of our Constitution is to secure and maintain the Ends of Government Order and Peace and consequently the Government it self and how Order and â—eace can be preserved and maintained and the Government secured when the Subjects â—e authorized and allowed in cases which they being Judges seem evident and â—â—portant â—â—ough to them to disturb the one and resist the other with force of Arms I â—â—nnot apâ—â—ehend because ordinarily the Majority of Subjects have not that veneration fâ—â— their Goâ—â—rnours and respect for the public Welfare becomes them but are suspicious and creduâ—â—â—s and led more by rash Passions and feigned Interests than by wise Judgment and the â—â—blick Safety But suppose the Liberties of the Nation must be acquitted or the Command of God violated what is the Subjects Duty then And therefore as I do not believe that the Terms King Sovereign Supreme so frequently used in our Laws are equivocal Ones so neither do I believe that the Law which requires a Renunciation of Resistance upon any pretence whatsoever is of an equivocal signification but intends that the Subject mean honestly when he declares against Resistance without exceptions or reserves because 't is a Thing unworthy of the Wisdom and Honour of our Government to impose a Law of an equivocal signification and such an Interpretation can serve no good end Sect. 97. 5. Another Objection against Non-resistance and to warrant and encourage the taking of Arms against the Kings of England in case they exceed their limited bounds is this The Supreme Power must still be supposed to be lodged with the legislative Power and not with the executive Power when that is appropriated to a distinct Subject from the Legislative Now 't is certain that the executive Part of the English Government is lodged singly in the King so that the whole Administration of that is in him but the Legislative is lodged between him and the Two Houses of Parliament so that the Power of making and repealing Laws is not singly in the King but only so far as the Two Houses concur with him Wherefore the Power of the King is fiduciary only nothing but a Trust and all Trusts saith this Author by their nature import that those to whom they are given are accountable and consequently censurable and punishable and therefore the Kings of England may be resisted with force of Arms and deposed and then dealt withal if under equal guilt as other Criminals guilty of the most Capital Offences Ans That a distinction is to be made between the Legislative and Executive part of Power is not to be doubted but whether this Author have rightly applied it is to be questioned and from as plain evidence as any in the World to be denied for the Legislative Authority of the English Government is not divided into distinct hands from the Executive but lodged in the same Subject even in the King of England only Sect. 98. 1. All the Laws of England are the King's Laws receive their denomination from him only and therefore all offences committed against them are principally and ultimately said to be committed against the King and his Crown and Dignity for although the Matter perhaps of all Laws in some latter Ages is prepared by the Two Houses of Parliament and no Law is or can be enacted without their concurrent Approbation and Consent yet every Law receives its formal Being and Obligation from the Authority of the King only and no Law is repealed but by his Authority only The Authority of the Two Houses is the Authority of Councellors and not of Legislators as Judge Jenkins saith and Sir W. Rawleigh tells us That that which is done in Parliament is done by the Kings absolute Authority The Three Estates do but advise as the Privy Council doth which advice if the King embrace it becomes the King 's own Act in the one and the King's Law in the other And therefore when they have addressed themselves to the King in order to the enacting or abrogating of a Law they have prefaced it in a petitionary Stile as acting in the capacity of Loving and Loyal Subjects Sir Edward Coke tells us 4 Inst p. 25. That in Ancient time all Acts of Parliament were in form of Petitions For instances thus 't was in 1 Edw. 3. When Magna Charta was confirmed there you shall find
this Preamble At the Request of the Commonalty by their Petition made before the King in his Parliament c. so again in 9 Edw. 3. 'T is thus prefaced Whereas the Knights Citizens and Burgesses desired our Sovereign Lord the King in his Parliament by their Petition and many of the Statutes are penned in this Imperial Stile The King Commands The King wills Our Lord the King hath established Our Lord the King hath ordained And of his special grace hath granted c. See 3 Edw. 1. and 6 Edw. 1. and 25. Edw. 3. Statute of Marleburdg 52 Hen. 1. and Statute of Quo Warranto A sufficient Evidence That all our Laws owe their Being to the King's Authority only Sect. 99. 2. All the judicial Courts of England are the King's Courts and derive all their Authority originally from him and are obliged to refer the Exercise of their respective Jurisdictions finally for the Preservation of his Person Crown and Dignity and consequently the High Court of Parliament is the King's Court too and depends on him for that Authority which is there exercised And 't is well observed by my Lord Coke That the King is Principium Caput Finis Parliamenti and answerably in the Parliament writ the King calls it Quoddam Parliamentum nostrum Thereby signifying a Subordination of the Estates convented in Parliament under him sitting there in his Royal Political capacity And consequently the Acts of the Two Houses of Parliament without an impress of Royal Authority are nothing worth to the Purposes of Government 'T is no Argument that the Two Houses of Parliament have a Co-ordination with him in his legislative Authority because he hath restrained himself from the Exercise and Use of it without their Request and Consent for it is no more than a Conditio sine qua non which hath only the Force of a Negative without the Concurrence of which the principal Efficient obtains not its Effect Sect. 100. 3. The Measures or Degrees of all Civil Authority and Power are to be taken either from the express Laws of any State or the immemorial Customs and Prescriptions thereof from a long Possession or from the Oaths the Subjects swear to their Princes This is acknowledged by the Author who pleads for a Co-ordination of the Houses of Parliament with the King in the Legislative Authority of the Kingdom as a proper Rule by which to judge where the Legislative Power of a Nation is lodged and this being impartially attended will evidently discover That the Legislative Power is in the King only For 1. If we consider what the Laws determine we shall find that they ascribe it wholly to the King See to this purpose the afore-quoted Preface to a Statute in 24. Hen. 8. where 't is thus said For by divers Old Authentick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this Realm of England is an Empire and so hath been accepted in the World governed by our Supreme Head and King having the Dignity and Royal Estate of the Imperial Crown of the Same unto whom a Body Politick compact of all sorts and degrees of People divided in Terms and by Names of Spiritualty and Temporalty have been bounden and ought to bear next to God natural and humble Obedience he being also in Statute and furnished by the Goodness and Sufferance of Almighty God not of the People with Plenary whole and entire Power Preheminence Authority Prerogative and Jurisdiction to render and yield Justice and final determination in all Causes Matters and Debates Likewise in the Statute of the 35 of Eliz. this Submission after Non-conformity to divine Service is to be made openly in some Church I do acknowledge and testify in my Conscience that no other Person hath or ought to have any Power or Authority over His Majesty Which Statute was declared to be in full force in the 16 of Ch. 2. 2. This Authority and Preheminence as the former Statute mentioned implies is of immemorial Custom and Prescription and was so far as I can discover never questioned in any Parliamentary Convention of the States till 1642. and then by the Two lower States only too and then the Co ordination in the Legislative Power was asserted to warrant and justify one of the most unreasonable and barbarous Rebellions that ever was in this Kingdom 'T is declared by the Statute of 16 Rich. 2. That the Crown of England hath been so free at all times that it hath been in no earthly Subjection but immediately subject to God in all things touching the Regality of the same Crown and to none other and if to none other then not to the Two Houses of Parliament and in 1 Jam. 1. The High Court of Parliament wherein as they speak the whole Kingdom in Person or Representative was present i. e. all Estates and Degrees call themselves his Majesty's Loyal and Faithful Subjects and declare his Majesty to be their only Liege Lord and Sovereign and agnize their constant Faith Obedience and Loyalty to his Majesty and Royal Progeny And I will be so bold as to challenge this Author to shew from any Parliamentary Record that ever the Two Houses claimed or pretended to a Co-ordination with the King in the Legislative Power till the time above mentioned 3. What can be more evident for the Determination of this matter than the Oath of Supremacy by which every Subject is obliged to testify and declare in his Conscience that the Kings Highness is the only Supreme Governour of this Realm and of all other His Highnesses Dominions and Countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Things or Causes as Temperal as He is Supreme He hath no Superior and as He is only Supreme He can have no equal they that wrest the Supremacy of the King's Government to import only the executive part of Government manifestly subvert the primary Design of the Oath which was to restrain and preserve the King's Subjects from a Submission to the usurped legislative and juridical Authority of the Bishop of Rome So that if the Bishop of Rome pretended to both parts of Government as 't is certain he did and still doth then the Oath directly intends an opposition to both and consequently ascribes the only Supremacy appropriately to the King both respectively to the Legislative and Executive part of the Government Sect. 101. 4. Suppose contrary to all this plain evidence that the legislative Power is lodged between the King and Two Houses of Parliament how will this prove a Superior Authority in them above that in the King Par in Parem non habet potestatem An Equal is no Superior Indeed according to our Authors affirmation here are Two to One which is very great odds if he intended to press to his Service that Maxim Major pars obtinet rationem totius the major part of the Legislators virtually are the whole For this will at the Pleasure of the Two Houses render the Concurrence of the King
to the very utmost every miscarriage in any kind Thus when Absolom designed a Rebellion and to usurp the Crown He cast iniquity upon the King Psal 55.3 Comp. with 2 Sam. 15.3 4 foreseeing that having once taken off the Peoples Affections from the King he might easily take his Throne and Crown from him too For who will obey him whom he affects not to please nor fears to offend many will cry up a formed and protested endeavour to subvert the constituted Government when there is nothing in the Case but some disputable and doubtful point determined in prejudice to their private Sentiments or Interests or some particular illegal Fact or Facts done in favour to the Prerogative and Disadvantage of the Subjects either through mistake or partiallity without any design at all to make an alteration in the Fundamental Government much less to overthrow the whole Constitution or some semblance and appearance of an innovation which was the Case of the Reubenites Gadites and half Tribe of Manasseh when they built an Altar over against the Land of Canaan their Brethren the Children of Israel were so alarm'd with it that they presently call a Council of War and from a meer jealousy and suspicion of an evil intention they charge them with Rebellion against God and themselves and seem resolved to offer them as a Sacrifice on their own Altar Jos 22. and Mens Fears from misgrounded Jealousies do more often disturb and hurt Kingdoms than their Princes designs and endeavours to make any considerable alteration in the Government do 3. An outragious transport of Passion in a Prince which proves destructive to the Persons and Proprieties of some of his Subjects is not an habitual disclaiming or virtual renouncing of the Protection of his Subjects nor consequently is it a ground for a warrantable Resistance of him with armed Force Though Saul most inhumanly murdered Fourscore and Five Priests at once and smote Nob. the City of the Priests with the Edge of the Sword stew Men Women and Children and Sucklings and Oxen and Asses and Sheep 1 Sam. 22.18 19. yet that did not exauctorate him and expose him to be dealt withal as a common Enemy to his Subjects So though David by murdering Vriah forfeited the Favour of God yet he did not forfeit his Kingdom by it to his Subjects and put the Sword he had abused out of his own hand into theirs So when Joram King of Israel in a fit of fury sent a Messenger for the Head of that eminently holy and innocent Prophet Elisha he would not have forfeited his Crown by it though his Command had been actually executed as he really intended it should which was a Matter so circumstanced that 't is sometimes objected as an Argument to justify the Resistance with force the illegal Persecutions of the Higher Powers In Kings 2. Ch. 6.32 'T is said That while Elisha sate in his House with the Elders the King sent a Man from before him but ' ere the Messenger came to him he said to the Elders See how this Son of a Murtherer hath sent to take away my Head look when the Messenger cometh shut the door and hold him fast at the door Hence they infer that for the Preservation of our Lives from the illegal Persecution of the Higher Powers we may make an active Resistance against them and those commissioned by them but the Matter duly considered we shall find that the Premises are not of sufficient strength to support the Conclusion For 't is manifest from the Text that Elisha in this very business acted Prophetically because by an extraordinary instinct and suggestion he discerned the Messengers approaching towards him and by the same Prophetick Inspiration he discerned that Joram repented him of his rash and bloody Command so that the shutting the Door to prevent the Execution of the King's Command was to fulfil the King's Will as well as to preserve his own Life and therefore adds as a Reason why he would have them shut the Door and hold the Messenger fast at the Door for is not saith he the sound of his Masters feet behind him That is is not the King himself following him close at his heels to revoke his cruel Command and what was done by extraordinary Inspiration is to be no rule for ordinary Practice Moreover there is a vast difference betwixt the Resistance of a particular Act arising from a Princes passionate Rashness and a Resistance of a deliberate Act exercised from his Office juridically circumstanced the former may proceed from Love and Loyalty e. g. when a Subject shall interpose to withold his Princes hands from murdering himself or another or a Woman to defend and preserve her self from ravishment c. but to resist him in a particular unjust Act by such a Force and Violence as implies a nullity in his Regal Power and is inconsistent with a State of Subjection is utterly forbidden by God though Ahab murdered Naboth and took possession of his Vineyard with the highest Abuse of Justice in the World yet that was not a nullifying of his Regal Authority and could not warrant his Subjects to take Arms against him to revenge it So every illegal Sentence of Death executed on any Subject in England is a Murther committed and so would the King's slaying of an innocent Subject by his own immediate hand and yet no resistance is to be made in such a Case because God hath expresly forbid it and the publick Peace and Safety is to be preferred before the Preservation of a particular Person and the Reparation of a private Injury 4. The Being of Government in our consideration is carefully to be distinguished from the well-being thereof and the principal Ends thereof from the Subordinate or that which is of necessity required to the common good from that which is necessary for the good of particular Persons and some particular sorts of Men and likewise we are carefully to distinguish betwixt that Administration of Government which is only destructive in some particular Act or Acts from that which is in the main habituated bent and drift of it destructive to the Being and principal Ends of Government So long as the Being and principal Ends of the established Government are maintain'd and secured and the publick and common Good and Welfare regarded and promoted and the habitual main and stated design and endeavour of the Higher Powers is directed and applied for the Protection and Benefit of the Community they do not disclaim nor renounce the Government nor set themselves to overthrow the Constitution and therefore cannot be resisted without the Danger of Damnation Sect. 109. Another Objection is this Suppose a King by Bargain and Sale or from meer will and pleasure or any other means really alienate transfer deliver up and subject his Kingdom to a Stranger or any other who cannot have a successive Right to it by his desertion or abdication of the Government may he not in such a Case be
in such a State of Anarchy and Confusion For though the former like a Tempest may do considerable mischief here and there in some particular Cases and Instances the latter like a Deluge or epidemical Disease will carry down and destroy all that stand before it And thus it was determined by Fronto the Consul in Nerva's Reign Melius est sub his esse sub quibus nihil licet quam sub quibus omnia 't is better to be subject unto them under whom nothing is lawful than under them under whom all things are lawful That is the severest Restraints are more eligible than a boundless Liberty because 't is better and safer to be exposed to the danger of suffering than to the danger both of finning and suffering So that a rebellious Resistance breaking down and levelling the Boundaries of Government and Laws doth as it were let Hell loose upon us hearten and encourage all sorts of licentiousness and wickedness amongst us and bring us under a kind of present Damnation and fill us with Confusion and Terror round about Wherefore as one said of an ungrateful Man Ingratum dixi omnia dixi I have called him ungrateful and so have called him all that is naught So say I of a rebellious Man his guilt is so complicated that he is compounded of all that is naught Sect. 135. 3. The next thing to be considered is the Grounds upon which the Decree and Ordination of God to condemn rebellious Resisters of the Higher Powers to an everlasting destruction is founded O the Depth saith the Apostle Rom. 11.33 34. both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God how unsearchable are his Judgments and his Ways past finding out for who hath known the Mind of the Lord or who hath been his Councellor intimating that it becomes us rather to admire than to enquire into the Reasons of his Purposes Ways and Actings For He giveth not account is not obliged to account of any of his matters as Job speaks Ch. 33.13 and therefore it will be no absurdity to resolve the Reason of the Matter under consideration principally into the Sovereign Council and Pleasure of God's Will So he hath done even because so it pleased him to do Mat. 11.25 and this is as firm a Ground as the Mind of Man can rest or acquiesce on For God alone knows what becomes him to do and we may be sure that all his Ordinations and Dispensations are such as well beseem his infinite perfection in Knowledge and Wisdom Goodness and Righteousness and therefore he doth not will not cannot decree or do any thing amiss Wherefore God having expresly declared that they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation we cannot be much concerned by searching to find out the particular Reasons of this divine Constitution Sect. 136. But since God is pleased from his incomprehensible Grace to condescend to an Appeal sometimes to the Reason of his People to judge of the Equity of his Dealings especially in Matters of a Penal Nature Isa 5.3 Mic. 6.3 I shall endeavour to discover to you the particular Reasons of this Decree and Ordination from that Revelation as I conceive God himself hath made thereof to us And they are these Sect. 137. 1. Because a rebellious Resistance of the Higher Powers is a protested Defiance to God's own Order and a practical Condemnation and Subversion of it This reason is plainly assigned in the Words immediately precedent to the Text They that resist resist the Ordinance of God and therefore they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation God that made and preserveth all the World is essentially the absolute Sovereign Lord thereof The great King over all the Earth Psal 47.2 the Lord of Lords and King of Kings Rev. 17.14 He is exalted as Head above all 2 Chr. 29.11 and he as the most High ruleth in the Kingdom of Men and giveth it to whomsoever he will Dan. 4.25 and all Dominions serve and obey him Dan. 7.27 Act as his Ministers and Officers as 't is vers 4. and 6. of this Chapter Wherefore respectively unto God Obedience is the Duty and Work of all the World and as all that Authority and Power with which Men are invested to make and execute Laws is derived from him and to be administred in his Name so all that Subjection and Obedience which is exacted as due thereunto is from the Constitution of his Will 1 Pet. 2.15 and to be observed and performed for his sake vers 13. or as our Apostle in vers 5. of this Chapter for Conscience sake or from a Sense of that Duty we owe to the Sovereign Authority and Dominion of God himself Let the Ranks and Orders of Men be what they will Rulers or Ruled as their several Stations and Conditions are of God's appointment who will not have all to stand on the like Level but pulleth down some and setteth up others will have some to command and others to obey so their several Duties respectively to each other as well as to himself are of his prescription and injunction and consequently as Rulers cannot abuse their Authority and Power without violating the Trust committed by God to them and usurping upon the Authority and Power of God himself pretending to more than they partake of from him and have Commission to execute in his Name so neither can Subjects refuse Subjection and Obedience due to their Rulers without a Violation of a Trust from God and a confronting of his Authority and Power For the Authority and Power of their Rulers is the Authority and Power of God himself as hath formerly been proved and consequently a striving and contending against the Higher Powers is a fighting against God himself and they who presumptuously endeavour to destroy and trample on the Authority and Power of their Governours endeavour to destroy and trample on the Authority and Power of God himself and is not this a provoking of God to jealousy a Presumption that they are higher and stronger than he 1 Cor. 10.22 and doth such presumption deserve less than a State of Damnation 't is the Duty of all to submit unto God and to be contented yea well pleased with all that he requireth of them or imposeth on them and therefore it must needs be extreamly sinful and provoking to strive and fight against him Isa 45.9 Wo unto him that striveth with his Maker For when any man walketh contrary unto God God will also walk contrary unto him Lev. 26.23 24. and when the Contrariety of the Engagement and Action on the Sinners part is attended with the Perversness and Obstinacy of a rebellious Resistance the contrariety on God's part will be in fury vers 28. i. e. a contrariety to the utter-Destruction of the Rebel the fullest and compleatest Punishment Sect. 138. 2. Because a rebellious Resistance of the Higher Powers is a Sin of deliberate Choice inveterate Passion strong and confirmed Resolution a Conscience wasting Sin or in Tertullian's Words