their Ministerial Function to them as an indelible Character which their first Electors could not efface nor any unless it derived from the Supreme Civil Magistrate under whom they lived justly suspend in the Exercise in that the Power doth ever derive from God and by them But for further illustration we will consider it in the more familiar Instances of free Elections And first in Corporations as in a Model or hand contracted which is but expanded and the more stretched out in the highest Governments where the Commons propound the Person for the succeeding Governour the Representatives choose and the Kings Power invests without which Act the rest are but Cyphers without a Figure but having once Caesar's stamp and Image upon it it becomes legitimate current and of value so as none can clip or efface it to lessen his Authority much less displace the Magistrate but orderly by the Power that set him up without much Crime Rebellion and hazard of damnation g Rom. 3. 1 Pet. 2. A second illustration is That the People by free Votes choose their Representatives in our Parliaments yet the Power by which they Elect and that of the Elected is derived from the Kings Writ so as they cannot for any miscarriage or breach of trust in the Person recal their choice or make a new Election in any case without a new Warrant from the Crown but do become instrumental in conferring that which is not at all inherent in them as may more fully appear in the application of those similitudes to Kings where they are Elected in that Almighty God how tyrannous soever they prove uses them but as he did Ashur for the Rod of his Anger h Isa 10.5 when he gives a King in his Wrath i Hos 3. like Saul to scourge the Rebellions of a people not leaving them any just Power to depose him or any remedy or other appeal than to him in Prayer k 1 Sam. 8.18 In that his Providence orders all Actions and Events and suffers no evil of punishment without intitling himself to it For there is no Evil in the Land but I have done it saith he And therefore he accounts repining as impatience resistance by force Rebellion against himself For as the Apostles were Christs Kings are Gods Ministers upon Earth in as near a Relation Nay himself as it were showes that all such Arrows are shot at them wound him when Christ says Saul Saul why persecutest thou me l Act. 9.4 And thus God expresses it both in Moses his case m Num. 16. where he made the dull and patient Earth the common Hackney to all injurious trampling the severe Avenger of his dishonour and so in Samuel's n 1 Sam. 8. though even then by the fore-designation of God o Deut. 7.15 the Peoples free Election was confined to Saul the man that he did choose p 1 Sam 9.15 16 17. For till then God did rule by immediate direction and revelation those he appointed to be their Governours and would not totally cast them off for their revolt but still continued his goodness to them even in his Indulgence of Anger not leaving them to a factious and tumultuous Election but ordered it by immediate command to the person he had fore-appointed till he had settled the succession in David and his Seed q 1 Sam. 16. By it shewing his dis-allowance of all popular and disorderly Elections for even there where he permitted their concurrence in choosing the person in whom all Power should habitually reside and from whom its Actual Administrations should derive he suffered them only to assist Samuel in holding forth the Wax which he had appointed to set his Seal and Image upon but not to give any Impression Nor can it rationally be imagined by any man that is a Christian and acknowledgeth the Sword to be Gods and that he that sheds Man's Blood without his Commission is guilty of Murder how a power of Life and Death should be collated by any Community of Men to one or more when neither divisim nor conjunctim they have power over their own or one anothers lives Nor could ever any pretend to it unless Parents and Heads of Families by Divine Natural and Paternal Right but when derived from God the other way and by his Commission exercised Yet the People may in some sence be said to be the Pipe by which not at all the Spring from which the Power is derived the Hand that holds the Burning-Glass to the Sun no cause of those Rayes of Power that shine upon it and are contracted in it or as the Men that lay out the dry Bones as the Prophet did whilest God breaths the Spirit of Government and animates them for Action In which we must next consider CHAP. II. What Power Kings have and how limited AS I have endeavoured to make it appear by what hath been said that all Power is Originally Fundamentally and Vertually flowing from God and abiding in the King only as its Cistern and Receptacle from whence it is conveyed to us by many Pipes of several sizes Our inquiry must be how it is limited in it Self or Execution For resolution wherein we must go to the Standard of the Sanctuary the Holy Scriptures and there we shall see That when God first gave a King in his Wrath r 1 Sam. 8. the cause of it was the Peoples being not satisfied with the Regal Power God did exercise over them in his Vice-Royes and Deputies before but distrusting God Almighty when they saw Nahash King of the Children of Ammon come against them that he would not suddenly provide for their deliverance they would have one in readiness always to go up and fight for them Which distrust or despair of theirs who had found so many miraculous Deliverances under God's Government was that which so highly displeased God and not simply the desire of a King yet they neither desired to cast off God's Laws nor his choosing the Person as in Saul nor is it said that the Kingdom of God is cast off at the Election of Saul but they desired more sensible Evidences of Majesty and Glory because Samuel held not forth the outward Pomp Splendour and Majesty of Heathen Kings but as a Type of Christ whose Kingdom was not of this World with Humility as well as Power Upon which God gave them a King after the manner of other Nations r 1 Sam. 8. Dan. 5.18.19 but withal commanded Samuel to let them know what kind of King they desired even Jus Regis and that he should rule by absolute and unlimited Power in regard of Man however he may want the immediate direction and over-ruling Grace of God though not for want of a Rule for direction s Deut 17.2 2 Sam. 23.3 in that t 2 Sam. 22.3 he that ruleth over men must rule as in the fear of God u Ezek. 46.16 17 18. and not oppress the
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING SUPREME POWER AND COMMON RIGHT At first Calculated for the Year 1641. and now thought fit to be published By a Person of Quality LONDON Printed for R. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in S. Paul's Church-yard 1680. TO THE READER THIS little following Treatise concerning the Origination of Paternal Power and the Derivation of all others from it with Reflections upon Regal Government and the Relative Duties both of King and People to each other is for Substance only a Summary Collection from the best Authorities of such necessary and Practical Notions as might have steer'd us in the most benighted and tempestuous times of the late unhappy and almost unparallel'd Rebellion and keep us within the Bounds of Duty and Allegiance both to God and our King But it lost its usefulness being calculated for the high Distempers of that Age only by miscarrying in the Press and for some years irrecoverably concealed and kept from its designed end by one since dead who communicated to me the following Discourse which hath for some years layn in my hands as buried unless something of the like Contagion should break out again and give it a new Resurrection as an Antidote against the spreading of so popular an Infection But now I am prevailed with upon the sad Prospect of things that threaten a relapsing into the like Dangers by Popish Plots and those many Sects Distractions and Divisions amongst us some of whose Principles agree with the rigid Scotch Presbyters and Jesuits in their Tenents concerning the deposing of Kings and the forfeiture of their Regal Power into the People and their Representatives to shew both from Scripture Antiquity the Doctrine Articles Canons Homilies and Liturgy of the Church of England which all agree with our ancient Laws and many late Acts of Parliament That our Kings are only submitted by God to the direction not coaction of Humane Laws as Mr. Faulkner in his Treatise upon that Subject hath lately and most learnedly made appear Yet Kings are not unconfined by the Laws of God and our Kingdom which set just bounds both to King and People to regulate their Actions by as a middle thing between Supreme Power and Common Interest And our Municipal Laws may be straiten'd or enlarged in regard of the Soveraign's Exercise of Power but cannot influence or affect the Power it self which is of God to alter or enervate the nature of it Nor can it oblige to any thing foro divino but what is just in the means as well as good in the end and safe in regard of Humane Prudence by which Rules we have much reason to believe our Superiours as they yet have done will take their measures and neither countenance nor indulge the least evil of sin to avoid the greatest evil of punishment Yet if God for our almost unpardonable provocation and abuse of those many Miracles of Mercy he hath hitherto preserved us by should submit us to the implacable malice of our common Enemies the Papists at home and abroad or to Civil Commotions within our selves to bring us again into Chaos and Disorder in which we may need some assistance for our Conscientious Comportments both with Prudence and Innocency the ensuing Treatise may be of great use there being things casuistically proposed and resolved with modesty and submission to others Judgments in Relation to the late Rebellion which may some way help us in other difficulties if we fall under any which that God in Mercy would avert is the Prayer of Your unknown Servant c. A DISCOURSE CONCERNING SUPREME POWER AND COMMON RIGHT CHAP. I. AS God is a Spiritual King so Kings are Humane Gods his Picture drawn in Little and the most express Image of his Power receiving as the Wax from the Seal all the parts and proportions of the Print in the largest Character in which he shews himself in Civil Administrations So as the endeavour of effacing any part of that just Power where God hath Engraven it in his Deputies is a Spiritual Treason and Rebellion against God himself a Rom. 13. For not only by me but for me Kings Reign saith God b Prov. 8.15 Rom. 13. in that he makes them his hand both to punish and protect by and stiles them for that end nursing Fathers to the Church and State Nor is the Stamp to be despised though it be engraven but in Lead and Iron the Power being the same in him who by the undue exercise of a just Power makes himself a Tyrant as it is in a good King and challenging the same Submission and Obedience in lawful things from us It being not the Wax but the Impression that bears the value as it is Gods And therefore to wrest the Sword out of our Soveraigns hands the best of Princes is as much as we can to dis-enthrone God from his way of Rule amongst us as the Jews did in the person of Samuel For which Reason our Laws give the King a kind of Immortality here in saying he cannot dye because his Power which is from above passes in the intendment of our Laws by a kind of Pythagorean Transmigration always into the next of his Line and upon the failure thereof only it Escheats into the People as to the Election of another person to Reign but never was nor is fundamentally in them in regard of the Power by which they Govern And the wisest People do but as a Pipe not the Spring derivatively pass it into one man to actuate it as the most absolute and perfect Government and that which God only owns For when he saith By me Kings Reign c Prov. 8.15 he implies all other Forms of Government to derive their Pedigree only from men not Divine Institution They have his Permission but Kings only his Commission so as all other lesser Rivulets in the Administration of Justice in their Kingdoms are in them as their Spring derivative from and subordinate to them For the Supreme Power is ever annexed to the Persons of Princes in whom it is seated the Inferiour only to the Offices of subordinate Administrations which are always responsible to him that hath the Supreme Power Else the God of Reason should make a Body without Reason a Head to govern it The contrary Opinion to which clear Truth hath caused the sad Tragedy of these benighted Times and hath ever proved the Seminary of Anarchy and Confusion in all States where it hath taken root and prevailed though it hath for the most part withered and perished in the end as having no true Principles of life and permanency however for some time maintained by Tyranny and Oppression as may be instanced in most of those Popular States that have been since the beginning of the World which were but Weeds no Plants of Gods setting For subordination of Persons which ariseth by degrees should rest when it comes to the Soveraign or all things would wheel into a Confusion But God is a God of
us by it to efface all that is of God amongst men both outward Majesty and Piety when Regal Power as it conveys it self from the Father to the Son to a kind of immortalizing it self here is the legitimate Issue of God himself descended from him for the good and preservation of Men in a safe and religious course of life and ever bears his Stamp and Image in regard of the Power though the Persons that bear it sometimes when they think not themselves safe under the Guard of their own Vertues and Peoples Affections place their security in their strength and their happiness rather in a Power to hurt than in a just care to preserve their Subjects whose hearts they should account their best Treasury and surest Magazines and so degenerate into Tyrants and make that which is life to become death to us as S. Paul saith in another case Yet even then they are to be submitted to upon rational grounds and that Government is to be chosen before any other though Caesar's Image and Superscription were not stampt upon it by Divine Ordinance All others being but Counterfeits of it and of a more base allay little Money in great Medals when this like the noblest Coins contains much in little But as there are many snares beset the Throne of Majesty though there is nothing on Earth so near the Deity nor so commodious for the well-ordering of Humane â—ocieties the best Princes sometimes fall into great perplexities and difficulties because perhaps wanting the Meander's Thread of free and honest Admonitions and Advice to extricate themselves or by having their Ears dull'd with Flattery that Court-Earwig or too tender to endure the too searching air of an ingenuous spirit which speaks his own Duty not his Soveraigns Affections Man having lost the felicity of being a Law to himself that should keep him from transgressing the limits of equal Justice to any other hath cause to submit himself to Monarchical Government as the most silken Rein and gentle Bit he can take on to restrain him in his deviations and startings out of the right way of common Equity though under an ill King rather than a Popular State or Elective Kingdom which make a great show and glorious ostentation of Liberty though it is but Paint artificially laid on like Absalom's m 2 Sam. 15. a Varnish of Piety and publick Utility only to hide a Thraldom For they are the greatest Servitudes imaginable when submitted to and are accompanied with the greatest Mischiefs like the back-doors in great Houses having many in-lets to Disorder more than the other and possess only n Hos 8.4 an Usufructuary and Gubernative Power to Rule without any just Propriety in the Legislative which none can pretend to but such as are Commissioned from God according to his revealed Will and possess their Crowns by a lawful Civil Right as in this Kingdom since the Conquest For first as a good Author observes to me Succession in one Man a King disarms the Ambition of all daring and aspiring Spirits who would be at the Stern every one a Pilot though they wrack the Ship through their Civil Contentions Nay it takes away that ground of Emulation that might justly be among men of one level equals in Worth Birth and ennobled Vertues to ascend the Throne and hinders the fomenting of Factions amongst those that in other Governments have the Suffrages to Elect to the Supreme Power or any other eminent Place Secondly It prevents the exhausting of the Publick Treasure many times which those temporary Rulers are ever guilty of holding it unnatural not to feather a Nest for their own young ones though by the pluming all others and a weakness to live like Gods and dye like ordinary Men And many Drains new-made you know will insensibly take away more water than one Stream where it is always full Sea Thirdly It cures the windy swelling Tympany of Pride in those temporary Rulers that are always in travel to bring forth a thing of their own shaping to succeed them in their Government though against the Rules of it and who so fit a Pourtraict as some of their own Issue or Kindred as may appear in some of the Roman Emperours and most Popular States who rather than fail in it have nursed and raised up their design not only with the Milk of Flattery and many vitious practices and indulgences the making of Factions by the toleration of all evils but fed and brought it to perfection with the blood of Civil Wars and exhausting their Countries Treasure in Bribes and Profuseness ever legitimating all undue ways to keep what they have no Title to but by their Crimes even to the subversion of Religion with Jeroboam not only in making Calves for but of the People never wanting specious pretences to prop and uphold their rotten Pile though not trusting to them For you shall always find such Usurping Tyrants maintain the Martial Sword when once unsheathed to Oppression that the Sword might maintain them and protect them against the just revenge of an injured People Fourthly Elective and Popular States as a breach in a Sea-bank let in a deluge of confusion the Effect of Arbitrary Power which in such a tottering condition is never maintained but by greater wickedness as Cataline said than that which first formed it And therefore read all Stories and you shall find that few Common-wealths and such Kingdoms have ever been happy for present felicity or continuance not having had the poor comfort of being ruined by their Gods but Men by their Servants not Masters or else Aetna-like they have been always wasting themselves by fire in their own Bowels Pride Envy and Avarice ever blowing it up into the flames of a Civil War where there are many equal Competitors or Pretenders to Soveraignty So as not the best and fittest who will not ascend by such winding steps but the most potent gain those Dictatorships all which are just Punishments for endeavouring to form the Weapons of our strength draw the Model and Materials of Government out of our selves Our own Reasons when clouded with Passion Interest and Prejudice not consulting with Religion nor suffering God that made the House to order it For when we so leave our Religion for our Reason we lose both Reason and Religion Which would oblige us to think our selves safer under the protection of God's Ordinances in whose hands are the hearts of Kings the restraints of Conscience than by any outward Force or Humane Providence without them For by God's appointment Gods they are and as the Head from whence all Veins distribute their Spirits equally with respect to the higher and inferiour Members in a Body Politick maintain a happy Commerce and Traffick betwixt it and the most remote parts Direction and Protection descending whilst Love and Obedience ascend But besides this have we not more Reason to expect happiness from a lineal Succession in Kings than the Election of Men to that
Repressor of the Tumults of the People which are more raging than the Waves of the Sea k Ps 65.7 For that keeps its bounds when the other will know none l Hos 5.10 11. But here it is but he that resisteth not he that obeyeth not that purchases Damnation For there may be not only a lawful but a necessary Disobedience when the Commands of our Superiours run counter to God's revealed Will m Acts 4.18 19.5.29 as in Daniel and the three Children n Dan. 3.4.5 chap. But even then resist not though a Nero under whom some think St. Paul writ his Epistle to the Romans and a little after felt some sparks of his Persecution o Ep. 3. as he was flagellum Domini p Hos 13.11 by an Ordinative Permission Nay further our submission to such should be ex animo as Aquinas glosses because the command is omnis anima For it is not an Eye but a Heart-service that God requires even to our froward and perverse Masters q 1 Pet. 2.18 Ep. 6.6 knowing that God will both recompence and protect those that suffer according to his Will and commit their Souls to him in well-doing r 1 Pet. 4.19 which made David conclude They that know thy name will put their trust in thee for thou Lord hast not failed them that seek thee but wilt be their refuge in such times of trouble s Ps 9.9 10. Nay the duty of not resisting may also be enforced from the contrary when Christ in saying that If his Kingdom were of this World then would his Servants fight t Joh. 18.36 intimates that we owe our lives for the protection of our King 's just Rights but ought not to do any thing against them or theirs whether concerning the Person or Posterity For after the free Suffrage or Submission of a People to a Successive Monarchy the Son and next in Blood have always a just right to the Crown as in our Kingdom upon the death of his Father though wanting the Ceremony of Coronation which doth but declare not convey the Right Nor is it in the Peoples Power to revoke their former Concessions no more than a Wife when she hath taken a Husband can divorce her self or justly refuse him other duties though he grow froward and unjust And if it were otherwise how should we imitate Christ our General in his Passive Obedience as is commanded u 1 Pet. 2.21 keep our Covenant in Baptism the Epitome of Christian Religion and make many living Christians by one dying Saint in that Sanguis Martyrum est semen Ecclesiae or be Partakers of that Spiritual Good that comes by suffering even the Tryal of our Faith w 1 Pet. 1.7 and Improvement of our Glory So as the contrary Opinion must needs proceed from Infidelity or distrust when we will be our own God's Deliverers and not rely upon Providence for the Event in all Distresses in only using such means as by his word are warrantable And the Weapons of our Warfare we know are not Carnal but Spiritual x 1 Cor. 10.4 2 Tim. 4.7 even our whole Panoplie being but the Girdle of Verity the Breast-plate of Righteousness the Sword of the Spirit the Helmet of Salvation and Shield of Faith y Eph. 6. by which we overcome the World z 1 Joh. 5.4 And therefore Tertullian in his Apology against forcible entrance a Text. 37. begins with an Absit and concludes We must rather be slain than slay our Superiours So Ambrose b L. 5. Ep. ad Aurent Prayers and Tears are our only Weapons And to that purpose speaks St. Cyprian c Ad Demetriad Gregory Nazianzen d Orat. 2. in Julian with all the concurrence of the Primitive times Nor are we to submit for fear unless filial or want of force but Conscience sake Nor can the New-minted Jesuitical Distinctions of differing between the Person and the Power in their Rebellions by placing it in the People and the Administration of it only in the King absolve their Consciences from the Guilt who de facto have resisted in our times it being but a Popish Riddle such as their Transubstantiation in which they turn the substance of the Regality of Kings into a mere Chymera a fancyed nothing and make Accidents to subsist without a Subject the Supreme Power without his Person a Paradox that neither the Gospel nor the Law can unriddle For they speak the contrary in making the Supreme Power inseparable from the Person of a King e 1 Pet 2. especially ours which is setled as well by Municipal as Divine Law as may appear by all the Laws of this Kingdom both Customs and Acts as well as by the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance f Cook fol. 36. 37. which condemn such Monsters of Opinion to be illegitimate g See Cook fol. 8. 35. So Pref. 4. part fol. 1. Bract. l. 1. c. 8. fol. 5. 6. 16. Ri. 2. cap. 5.24 Hen. 8. C. 12. D. c. Stu. f. 43. Dier 29. Co. 11.90.93 1 Eliz. c. 1. 5. Eliz. 1. Cook Calvin's Case f. 11. Exilium Henricide Spencer 1 Edw. 3. 3 Edw. 25. Calv. B. â—0 Cook 4. Parl. Inst fol. 46. 7 fol. 30. 2 fol. 15. 1 Jacob. c. 1.10.33 Hen. 8.21 And if the unhappiness of evil times and men have de facto done otherwise and deposed or destroyed or rejected their Princes they are to expect no Lawrels nor Trophies for it the memory and monuments of them being best buryed in Oblivion In that such Victories ought to be ashamed of themselves for though such ways may seem right to a man the end thereof are the ways of death h Prov. 14.2.16.25 And thus having taken the Timber that grows upon other Mens Soyles and squared it into a less Model for use gathered the choicest Flowers out of other mens Gardens and made them into a Nose-gay fit for every hand to refresh the Spirits of such as are fainting under the persecution of these times for their Loyalties there being little of mine but the Thread that binds them drawn my Oar out of others Mines to melt it into a small Wedg or Ingot that every one might carry a stock of Knowledg about him as a Counter-Charm to those seducing Spirits now raised among us to withdraw men from their due Obedience I desire every one to treasure up something for their use and having proved all Power to be of Divine Right and only subject to limitation in regard of Exercise with a security against Force though a Nebuchadonozor or a Jeroboam i Jer. 29 7. Hos 13.11 be over us I shall proceed to speak of the Duty of Kings in which I shall not say much since all are Doctors and read Lectures upon that subject being all Eye for without none for within to take notice of the slips and failings of their Prince which they always behold in a
only to be contended for g St. Jude Ep. and preserved by our Act of Uniformity And in this respect Kings and Queens are chiefly styled Nursing Fathers and Nursing Mothers to the Church Fathers for Provision and Protection Mothers for their tenderness and care when as by little Stratagems and Circumventions they bring their Children to an habituated Obedience and keep Dangers from them by some outward and extraordinary Confinements both for Honesty and Order h 1 Cor. 14.40 So as Kings have no meaner a depositum committed to them than the Crown and Throne of God and Christ in the Church For they are as the Lions about the Throne to secure and guard it and as Law-givers in indifferent things i Deut. 33.4 5. though subject to the direction of their Laws and are with David to prescribe Rules for fixed Services and Devotions k 1 Chro. 23. and with Josiah to compel to Religious Duties and Laws of his commanding as is before exprest l 2 Chro. 34.33 as Hezekiah did m 2 Chro. 29. 30. 31. which Constantine the first Christian Emperour imitated n Euseb de vita Constant l. 2. c. 37 38 39. But they never as Praxiteles the Painter made the silly People worship the Image of his Strumpet under the Title of Venus imposed the Visions of their own Fansies nor licensed the crude and unnourishing Vapours of others empty Wits upon the credulous People it being below the Majesty of Truth and Religion but according to the sincerity of God's Law not suffering their Lusts to guide them which ever bring unconstancy with them and make the Soul like a distempered Body never well in any position or condition For then men like Bees from one Flower to another will be ever flying from one Change and Vanity to another and not find enough to satiate the intemperate desire of change So as it can be neither agreeable to Religion nor Prudence for a King to suffer variety of Postures and Forms in the outward Exercise of Religion for what is good is to be obeyed for it self what indifferent in Obedience to his Command when in middle things Supreme Power chiefly consists And 1. For Religion Kings ought to maintain it in its Essentials and Purity without any Indulgence or Dispensations to any as that only which can maintain them o Prov. 16.12 20 28. And such Josephs will be Store-houses in their Kingdoms and as Elijah Chariots and Horse-men for their security there being no guard to that of Piety and Zeal for God's Glory which they are entrusted to preserve even both Tables of the Law and are not to bear the Sword in vain which is put into their hands for that use Compulsion being necessary where Commands are contemned q Luk. 14.23 Rev. 2.2 6 14 15 20. Ch. 3.15 16. Nor doth Christ's Permission of the Tares to grow give any just Power of Toleration to Princes by God's Law in known Evils or pertinacious contumacy to lawful Commands but only permits mixed Assemblies where by reason of outward Conformity none can discriminate the truly pious from the Hypocrite by which he yet doth not forbid their Eradication absolutely but for fear the good Seed also should be destroyed when a Connivance to known Errours in Doctrine or to pertinacious Non-conformists in indifferent things would make the Magistrate contract the guilt of their Crimes Judg. 5.23 by confirming the one in their mistaken Doctrines and the other in their superstitious believing indifferent things unlawful even to an adoring the Idol of their own Fancy uncharitably censuring of all others even the Church and Government it self though it bring Hell out of Heaven in a pretence of Devotion and the Devil upon God's Shoulders to rule amongst us in Samuel's Garment by the silly Charms of a seducing Spirit through the warmth of Zeal when it wants the light of Knowledge to guide it though like the Volatil Spirits of Poysons when unconfined by not being luted up in some Viol or Vessel it evaporates into an Airy being of use only to infect others that suck it in by a nearness of Conversation So as some Ingredients of a seeming Cruelty in our Laws will prove the most Soveraign Mercy to reduce and recover them and preserve the sound from their Contagion if tempered in a proportion to their Crimes by pecuniary Mulcts or other Confinements saving some by Compassion others by Fears r Jude ver 22.23 when the violation of any just Law if wilfully done is unlawful Nay the least minute Atome or Airy Omission if habitual may become the greatest Crime if done with Scandal and Contempt to Authority in that the Transgression is against Gods Ordinance that requires Obedience to the Commander not in the value of the thing commanded by him it being no less Treason to coyne a Farthing that has the King's stamp upon it than a piece of Gold according to our Saviours Rule in that He that offends in one wilfully is guilty of the breach of all the Commandments when upon equal Temptations he would break the rest for one little wilful Sin like the first drop in an Orifice will usher in more and dispose the whole Body to such Evacuations and Eruptions 2. In Prudence there ought to be no Indulgence as to the Publick Exercise of any false Religion or variety of Forms in outward Worship For what Unity Decency or Order can there be in setting up one Congregation against another when Order is the Bond of Peace that keeps us in Unity For once break that or tye but with a slip-knot and all will be dissolved and come to Confusion which is the Womb of all Rebellion and Schisms Nay it were to depose Reason the Supreme Monarch and Enthrone the Inferiour Members which should submit and not impose And certainly the giving Ground in such a Duel would give Courage and Insolency in the Enemy to press for more and the Pale of Law that has a breach once made in it will let out all the Beasts of the Forrest to Rapine and Prey to the loss of good Subjects but not to the making any better So as however wise Princes may inlarge any thing that is too strait in matters of Discipline they will never let Clamour or the Unjust Discontents of any Midwife in what they call Reformation and much less a Toleration of all Sects and Errours Nor can the King expect a Harmony amongst Antipathies by permitting several Forms in one settled Government though the want of Power to maintain his own Laws may force him to unreasonable Condescensions for then a Dam against that Current would but enrage it to greater Violences yet in such a Case I conceive he ought rather to make a General Rule of Conformity for all if possible than Differing-ones to Parties by it to lay asleep and bury all Animosities the other would maintain and like Oyl upon Paper would rather harden than soften such Rebellious
Passively obeying the Lawful submitting our Persons though not our Actions to the rest b Act. 5.29 to our King as he is Pater Patriae c 1 Pet. 2.17 of all others the Supreme Head for only in rebus mediis Lâ—x posita est Obedientiae because as I noted before in things necessary by any Divine Law we ought to obey though no Humane Authority command them in things unlawful we ought not to obey though commanded and are only to obey for the Commands sake not the things commanded in things indifferent which only become unlawful because forbidden and are not forbidden because unlawful For such Obedience is not only accepted with but rewarded of God as in the Recabites Jer. 35. and can only keep us in a serene and calm temper in the Body politick so as a frown will not appear in the face of that great Ocean by the raging of Waves and madness of the People nor will a wrinckle show it self to abate its beauty 2. We owe Honour to him and that as justly as Fear to God himself being commanded to pay it to God in the Man not to the Man but as he represents God And this as the Flags and main Sails of a Ship doth not only deck and adorn the Throne but makes it bear up in all Weathers nay as the Bark the Tree doth preserve it in all its other Rights For let us but once slight or contemn the Person in saying what is this Moses that takes so much upon him d Num. 9. and we shall soon despise his Power nay God himself as represented in the King or Supreme e 1 Sam. 1.8 Upon which ground it is probable that God and the King are linked together Fear God Honour the King f 1 Pet. 2.17 to teach us that their Precepts are not two but one and the same in Root though the Fruit we must pay them is different And therefore St. Paul in commanding all to submit to the higher Powers concludes to whom you owe Honour g Rom. 13.7 as to a Father or to God for Gods command h Isa 49.23 and this in our thoughts not to blaspheme them i Eccl. 10.20 in our words not to deprave them k Ex. 22.28 Acts 22.5 Jude 8. nor speak evil of them in all our Actions to reverence them as Gods upon Earth his Chair of State wherein Divinity it self is Enthroned l Ps 8â— 6 2 Sam. 14.10 Num. 12.10 16.32 though in the Person of a Wicked man For though he forfeit his claim to double Honour due to them that rule well m 1 Tim. 5. one to his Place another to his Vertues he cannot devest himself of nor justly be denyed that Honour Fear Subjection c. which Subjects as a debt and duty must everpay to his Office and Supremacy as a most learned Divine hath observed 3. We owe Tribute both of our Persons and Purses First of our Persons for the just defence of our King and his just Rights This is implyed in those words of our Saviour My Kingdom is not of this World else would my Servants fight n Joh. 18.36 1 Tim. 22. As also in respect of the Power of Life a King has over his Rebellious Subjects that would not submit to his Government o Luke 19.27 which though a Parable may from the Application inforce it And it may be further proved from his just Power of making War and Peace p Num. 10. as hath been shewed fully from Scripture and our Law-books Secondly To this we must add the Tribute of our Purses in that Money is one of the Pillars of Power and the Nerves of War Majesty without it being but the shadow of Regality and without Power but a Speculative Greatness that hath the Vision of gallant things but no means to detain them because wanting of that Soul which should animate that otherwise dead and useless thing to Action And therefore God hath provided against the Galilites and Herodians q Act. 5.37 Mark 12.17 Mat. 22.16.21 in one and the same Command resolving upon that Common Rule of Justice suum cuique for neither but against both those that would give all to God and no Tribute to Caesar or all to Caesar and nothing to God divorcing those he hath joined together by saying Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's r Mat. 22.21 Upon which ground as I conceive Dr. Reynolds still observes s Ps 110. pag. 128. Bona adespota incerti Domini vectigalia census c. Concealments Tributes Customs and the like are Testifications of Homage and Fidelity belonging to the Personal Prerogative of Princes and are as the Apostle saith due unto them t Rom. 13.6 7. Thus Solomon levyed and the Princes with whom he held Correspondence payed Tribute u 1 Kings 4.21 9.21 10.10 Deut. 20.16 Nay Christ himself paid it by his Command to Peter though he was at the cost of a Miracle for it w Mat. 17.27 even to a Tiberius a Wicked Prince though it was the only Miracle he ever wrought in money matters as peculiar to Princes whereas all his others concerned the general necessities of mankind And we may further observe the justness of it from the Latine word Reddite not Date importing that it is not only lawful to pay but unlawful to with-hold it as a due nay it should be willingly the Offering of a free-heart x 2 Cor. 9.71 So as Legal Customs y Luke 3.3 Taxes or Homage z 1 Sam. 17.25 2 Kings 15.19 20. Fines a Est 7.26 Confiscations b Ezr. 10.8 are the just Rights of our Superiours But extraordinary Impositions cannot legally be now laid upon us in any case but visible and immergent necessity without the consent of both Houses of Parliament it having been the Wisdom of our Predecessors by the Indulgence of good Kings to keep the Purse and the Power by Municipal Law divided to prevent all Tyranny and Exorbitancy in the use of either And if we owe these Assistances to our lawful Soveraign how are they guilty against God of a High Rebellion that reject and oppose him in their Superiour and do not endeavour by just duty to prop but undermine his Throne For if a Negative Obligation not to aid him be unlawful where God commands assistance what is their Crime but as the Sin of Witch-craft that enter into an Engagement against him who is to them God amongst men in the visible Character of his Power when all others are only Men before God So as he never countenanced any other Government than what was Monarchical deposited and summed up in one Person exercising the Power though not always possessing the name of King As appears by that of Judges where it is said every one did what they list when there was no King that is no supreme Judge
of Charity in the doing or not doing it as in the Instance before of eating or not eating of Flesh at any time to the scandal of my weak Brother b 1 Cor. 8. when free in the aequilibrium of choice Yet if any necessity of nature or other great prejudice to my Person or Fortune depends upon my not eating I ought to eat Flesh though to the scandal of another rather than impair my health or bring any great mischief upon my self by the Omission of it For there though the thing be indifferent in it self it is not so to me such Natural or Moral Necessity interposing From whence I conceive I may safely conclude against the former Objection That no conscientious Obedience is due to such an exercise of Power as is there proposed no nor submission in indifferent things if done with scandal to others because not imposed by a lawful Power to determine my choice yet where my personal freedom self-preservation or any great prejudice to my Estate in which my Posterity is concerned be put into the Scale to weigh against an unwilling scandal I may submit for that alters the case in relation to Conscience though not the nature of the thing for there I owe a prudent submission when by the rule of Charity which is but to love my Neighbour as my self I am to prefer the well being of my self and mine to an offence taken by not willingly given to another where a compulsory Injunction and Power inforceth my submission to an indifferent thing it being agreeable to the Law of God Nature and Nations to preserve my self by all lawful ways OBJECTION III. Object 3. If it be so that honest and well-meaning men may not be in any case voluntarily instrumental under an usurped and unlawful Power to the executing the known Laws by which distributive Justice between Party and Party Religion Peace and Propriety may be maintained and perhaps some advantages gained by which they may much improve the Interest of their lawful Soveraign which they prefer in their wishes to their own Being and that if they decline a making use of such opportunities and that all men should walk by the same Rule there must necessarily follow Oppression Atheism and Anarchy the Womb of all Confusion that would reduce all things into the first Chaos so as nothing but darkness and disorder would cover the Earth which their Omissions may contract the guilt of when in acting with the present Power for these ends they do but choose the least of Evils and have no thought of doing the least Evil and so may act Answ As I said The least Evil is not to be committed nor allowed to produce the greatest good c Rom. 3.8 and that there the choice is not between Evils of Punishments where the least may be chosen but between an Evil of Sin which I have proved an outward Compliance in an Unjust Cause or with an Usurped or unlawful Power especially against a just claim to be and no Sin being as the Schools determine in the number of things eligible Malum non est in numero eligibilium propter aliud bonum in that actus peccati non est ordinabilis in bonum finem So Thomas Aquinas d 2. 2. Qu. 110. Art 3. And upon the Egyptian Midwives and Rachels Pious Ly it is concluded by St Augustine e sup Ps 5. Peter Lombard f Lib. 3. dist 38. and Thomas Aquinas d 2. 2. Qu. 110. Art 3. That no man ought to tell a Ly to preserve a Life nor for any Spiritual Good Though St. Augustine saith wittily g Tract 5. Tom. 9. super Joan. Nemo habet de suo nisi mendacium peccatum when all truth comes from the Fountain of it God h Eccles 7. Jam. 1. And St. Ambrose i Tom. 4. upon those words Quis ex vobis arguit me de peccato Omne mendacium fugiendum est tam in verbis quam in operibus c. all outward dissimulation is to be avoided when Opus exterius naturaliter significat intentionem k Aquin. 2. 2. Qu. 111. Art 11. Qu. 111. Art 2. And we should be the more careful not to make Hell the way to Heaven Vice to introduce Vertue when even lawful Actions become sins if done with scandal to others and that some higher end or duty determine not my choice in them as I have determined in another case of Conscience concerning Actions in themselves indifferent For the least defect or excess makes a lawful Action become sinful and a willing countenancing of any sin draws on the toleration of all and like the Spirits in the Blood will soon run through the whole Body of sin For with Aquinas l 2. 2. Qu. 110. Art 2. veritas aequalis est cui per se opponitur magis minus So as in doubtful Cases Gerson's rule is good m Par. 2. Reg. mor. Ab omni actu cui non est necessario astrictus teneatur desistere where scandal may be given OBJECTION IV. Object 4 Ay but Salus Populi est Suprema Lex So as I may act voluntarily with and under an usurped Power though against legal settlements and known Laws for the preservation of the Common-wealth and that by a Law of necessity which gives the Law to all Laws and warrants the doing of that which otherwise is unlawful for by this our Saviour seems to justifie his Disciples gathering Ears of Corn on the Sabbath-day and urges the Authority of David's Example for it n Mat. 12. Answ 1. It is true that Salus Populi est Suprema Lex in reference to Humane and Municipal Laws for so Kings in whom the Supreme and Legislative Power resides may for the good of their People in great Exigents act besides nay against the known National Laws of their Kingdom but not contrary to any Divine Sanction Answ 2. I acknowledg that necessity is a very powerful Argument both before God and man to excuse not justifie an ill Action For so God himself the Supreme Law-giver hath sometimes been pleased in a Gracious Condescention to man's infirm condition to dispence with his own Laws as well as Kings with theirs in Cases of great necessity as may be instanced But this hath been ever in things only mala quia prohibita evil because forbidden as in Ceremonial and Judicial Laws never in any thing that is malum in se prohibitum quia malum evil in it self and forbidden because specifically so Such as are Schisms Heresies Idolatry Rebellion Usurpation Oppression Murder Sacriledg and the like for in these God never leaves his Servants without a just way of extricating themselves from any such necessity of acting by enabling them to dare to dye rather than do any thing that in its nature is evil and by suffering according to the Will of God to commit the keeping of their Souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithful Creator o 1 Pet.
for those many hearts I have submitted unto you when you shall appear in Power and Majesty and this to speak the near ground of Relations between God and his Vice-gerent and instruct us that we ought to be Sons to the King in our Duties if we will be Heirs to God and Inheritors of his Glory For as in that where he said The Poor ye shall have always among you Christ did not only foretel but propose it as a Glass to represent God's bounty to us and an Object for the exercise of ours to him so in promising Kings should be our Nursing-Fathers he doth as it were promise us some Beams of his Majesty and Goodness should shine through that Glass and always be amongst us for the comfort of his people and commands our Reflections of Gratitude and Obedience to himself in them For when we look upon the Actions of Kings we terminate not our selves in their persons but the power of God working in them when lawfully deputed which makes the Schooles call Rebellion Sacriledge in that King's Persons are sacred and that God is opposed and violated in them who hath given them a right of propriety in Power not an usufructuary one only such as one King may gain in another's Kingdom by a just War yet of right he ought only to hold it till Reparation be made for the first Injury done and the Expence he hath been forced upon for the Vindication of himself and his Rights OBJECTION IX Object 9. But if a Nation be invaded when under an Vsurped Power by a Foreign King or People without either just Title or Ground of War I ought to assist the Vsurper in the defence of it Answ In this Case I ought only to joyn with any Force to defend my self and the Kingdom against any such Invasion so as I neither fight for the Usurper's Interest and Establishment nor against those of my lawful Soveraign But out of this Bough many Branches spring that afford Fruit of excellent taste and nourishment could I but gather and press them but I leave them for an abler hand and period my Lines and the Reader 's trouble in what I have exprest already In which Resolutions if I have been too severe and rigid I shall willingly and readily retract my errour upon the Evidence and Conviction of better Reasons For I only hold forth this Glow-worm-shine and little twilight to afford some glimmering in these benighted times by which men may guess at the way they should choose to walk in though difficult and rugged and to provoke some of the great Luminaries who had a fixation in the Orb of our late glorious Church or other Orthodox Divines Stars too though of a lesser magnitude to send forth some clearer Beams and more wholesom Influences both to guide and refresh us in this Wilderness we walk in inhabited rather by Beasts than rational Creatures there being no subject more proper and useful to these times wherein if we should but see Diogenes in his buisie search and ask what he strove to find he would answer Hominem quaero Nay I confess I am wholly excentrick in my motion being out of my own Sphere and have nothing but Pious Intentions and a Holy Zeale for a Rachel's Mantle to cover this weak Essay with and to hide it from the severe censure of a more exact Inquisition Only the Rule I propose to my self is in all doubtful and controverted Cases of Conscience to determine in that which is the strictest and hath most of self denial in it in regard of the proneness of Man's Nature to strain his Fetter and pass his Bounds and because the least sin like the falling of the first drop in the Orifice or the first Sand in the Hour-Glass disposeth to and prepares the way for more and many times if allowed proves the most dangerous in that it refers more to Infinity it self and grows into Habits because repeated without notice or purpose of limitation when great devastating Sins Allarms the Soul to a speedy discounting them by repentance and as great Fish-bones that are not easily swallowed stick in the mouth and are spit out again How Conscientious then ought we to be in every Action since the doing of an Act good in it self becomes sin to me if I be not fully perswaded of the lawfulness of it and the Complyance with others in any thing that is evil in it self though I do believe it lawful makes their sin become mine For so St. Augustine e Serm. 6. de verb. dom saith the Scriptures do attribute to one what he acts by or approve of in another's person Thus the Prophet attributes the Murder of Naboth to Ahab in saying Thou hast killed him f 3 King 20. because he disallowed it not when done though it was not he but Jezabel that contrived and acted it without his knowledge And thus the Jews are charged by St. Peter to have killed the Lord of Life though they did it not actually nor was it lawful for them as they confessed to put any man to death yet their guilt was more than the Romans in that they had Malice in their hearts to prosecute it when the other had hands only dipt in his Blood Therefore walk saith the Apostle with all Circumspection or Preciseness as the word bears it g Eph. 5.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 recoyling from all sorts of Evils in their first approach as the Blood in the Body will do from any apprehended danger to fortifie the most vital parts For if we must account for every vain thought h Jam. 4. Jer. 4.14 though thought be so near nothing as no man can think what it is how should we avoid the least act of scandal to our Brethren or complyance in the most minute sin when the smallest sins many times prove more dangerous than greater as is before expressed For like Worms they get insensibly into the heart of the Fruit and destroy it when the great Birds that fall upon the Tree are watched and driven away Thus small Distempers many times kill where a strong Feaver would not in that they infuse their Venom by gentle insinuations not to be discovered when the other by Assaults gives Allarm to our watchfulness Nay great sins discounted or not repeated are not so dangerous as the least multiplyed without our care or notice in that as I said they refer more to infinity it self when augmented without purpose of limitation For thus our pale-fac'd weak but repeated sins become many times more deadly than our scarlet and impudent ones repented of Therefore let us be so far from making little account of great sins as to make great account of little ones For if the owning or patronizing the least minute Atom aiery sin be so dangerous and when alone sits in State and draws a whole Train of Vices after it what hope is there of those men who on the contrary are so far from making great account