him by name in this authority over us Whilst it remained was it not our own was it not in our own power But to go back and withdraw our Allegiance after vows to make enquiry what is Moses and Aaron that we murmur against them Our murmurings and so our disobedience and Rebellions are not against them but against the Lord. Nay to shew that this mediate or more remote way as we call it of our own choice and Election is yet after our choice is made as truely God's act ratified and confirm'd by him as if he had done it immediately and by himself it does in some degrees and Species of it lawfully make null and is preferr'd by God before that authority which he brings us under without our selves Thus the obedience we owe to the authority of our Parents whom we are brought under merely and immediately by God and where he does wholly chuse for us yet ceases and gives way to the duty between the Husband and his Wife which is of our own Election For this cause shall a man leave Father and Mother and cleave to his Wife And by this resemblance of the case between a man and his Wife we shall be able more explicitly to reconcile and unite the mediate and immediate way of God in placing of Rulers over us God did marry Adam and Eve together immediately and by himself Of the rib made he a Woman says the Text and he brought her unto the Man But to others there is a liberty and freedom given them not to marry necessarily this or that man this or that woman but at their own choice and liking But now when they have made their choice determin'd and tyed up this their former liberty in the Marriage-knot God himself has done it and it is even the marriage of this particular man and woman as truely and verily God's act as if He had done it and not Man immediately by himself For so says our Saviour even of these so married Quos Deus conjunxit c. Whom God has joyn'd together so as to be sacred and inseparable therefore but by God himself till death us do part let not man put asunder Now God may be said to marry the King and the children of Israel together as Adam and Eve immediately and by himself by an open and profess'd revelation from Heaven But the rest of the world he has left at liberty as to be married to this or that man so to be govern'd not necessarily by this or that authority this or that King and Family but at their own choice and election But when this choice is once made and determin'd when the People have elected this Man for their King plac'd him as their head and Supreme by sacred Oaths of Allegiance in the presence of God to tye and assure themselves for ever in subjection to him as the Woman to her Husband in the holy estate of Matrimony Vox populi est vox Dei 'T is then as verily God's act as if he had by a voice from Heaven sent a Prophet to anoint this man King over this People The people have no more to doe he is then sacred and unalterable Whom God hath joyn'd together let not man put asunder But now when the People who are one Body as the Woman but yet Corpus fluidum a successive body as we call a River the same river to day as yesterday though there be not one drop of the same water in the Chanel to day which we saw yesterday So the same People though one Generation passeth and another cometh when they I say for the better security of their own times and to provide likewise for this Succession do elect and swear Fealty to the King and his Heirs after him and lawfull Successours Those his Heirs in their several ages and Successions must needs be thought by virtue of this first Election to have the same right and authority conferr'd upon them by God as irreversibly and indispensably as to the people as He who was first plac'd in Supremacy over them Whom God has joyn'd together has the same force here as formerly And as at or by the death onely of every particular King they are freed and at liberty from this particular King as the Woman at the death of her Husband so they cannot be absolv'd from the Succession but by the death and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the whole royal Line and who were of right to succeed Saul was anointed indeed King over Israel onely in his own Person But when God settles it upon David and his seed after him as with us to the King and his Heirs 't is very observable they were not anointed afresh in their several Successions as they need not with us any New and particular election of the people but the Ointment upon the head ran down upon the beard and went down to the skirts of his clothing and so the hem of this royal robe the very farthermost in the Succession has God's anointing viz. the People's lawfull Election upon him Which they cannot reverse though to take place onely as David's actual personal anointing did not prefer him to the Crown till the death of Saul when by the death of those before him it rightly and regularly descends upon him For so the anointing the King with Oil was but an Emblematical ceremony of placing that Person so anointed in Supremacy above the rest from that peculiar quality in Oil to be uppermost and Supreme in all mixtures and therefore the Lord 's anointed in the Old Testament is call'd the Supreme in the New Whether to the King as Supreme 1 Pet. 2.13 which is done viva vice or in words at length in the peoples election And therefore to chuse and to anoint a King or Synonoma's or words of the same signification So in Jotham's parable Judg. 9.8 When the Trees went forth to chuse a King they went forth it is said to anoint a king over them And in the 15 th verse If in truth ye anoint me king over you i. e. make me your King v. 16. And then the anointing Oil was holy as we may reade in several places to shew that the King's Person was by this anointing become sacred His sacred Majesty as we us'd to say not to be prophan'd therefore by rude or common usage Touch not mine Anointed And Who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord 's Anointed and be guiltless In brief God's method in setting up a King was anciently by sending a Prophet with commission to pour Oil upon the head of that Person whom he designed for that Honour Now the People is that Prophet God's sending the Prophet with commission to anoint such a Person is his opening a fair lawfull way and inclining the hearts of the people to the Election of this Person and the peoples voices and suffrages pour'd upon him in the Election is the very holy Oil upon his head whereby he is made Sacred
under the form of the City and Empire of Rome as it was divided into Kingdoms and united again to that one City under that Ecclesiastical head yet we are to learn thereby that it is the evil principles both in relation to Spirituals and Civils which ruled most eminently in that Form that is intended and that every other Form that partakes of them is so far forth guilty of the same condemnation And doubtless the greater condemnation is due to any State or Person that shall condemn that principle in that or any other gross appearance and yet shall maintain the same themselves in a more refined and hyprocritical way And what 's this evil principle But that implicit faith in Spirituals and implicit obedience in Civils by which the Governours both of Church and State have held that Holy seed in bondage and hindred the improvement of that image of God in holiness and righteousness which was so much defaced in the first fall And that this did reign eminently in our former Government is apparent enough by those principles which denyed any Power to bound or limit the King against his will or to be above the Church in the interpretation of Scriptures to a particular man's conscience And I wish I could as well excuse these powers that succeed as I could condemn the former But this onely is to be said That if that Zeal were right it will lead the same persons on to the destruction of what is of the same corruption in themselves and others under their power And if the Lord do not perswade their hearts to condemn themselves he will raise up others to condemn them as they have done those before them And though this remedy may seem to you worse than the disease yet there is none that can establish any in so absolute a way as to prevent the danger of these kind of disturbances The strongest Babel that can be devised to keep a people from being scatter'd into these confusions is that form of absolute Monarchy and that in an hereditary way But yet that must admit of an opportunity for a justifyable resistence and so of all the evil consequences which we would so much avoid For suppose the King to be so absolute yet he may be either a Fool or Mad or otherwise distemper'd so as to command those things which are absolutely destructive to that Society which he is bound to preserve In such a case there must be some Council or single Person that must govern the Common-wealth in his stead for a time at least Now if this be so there then they must also judge when he is in such a condition or in any other as destructive and how long he continues therein and not he himself who will be still the more incapable of owning his disability by how much he is really disabled But suppose the restoring the old form of Government would restore that absolute peace and happiness to the Nation which is desired yet the means which is maintain'd to bring it about is worse than the want of it For that principle which makes it absolutely necessary for the people to expose their lives and fortunes for it and to keep those Oaths and Covenants which were made to it with that hazard will make them lose their very being to gain a well-being and be never the nearer it neither For if the people in this scatter'd and disarmed posture should hold an avowed allegiance to the former Government they expose themselves all to the Sword as Traytours to this And if they shall have such a reserve in their hearts whilst they pretend an acknowledgement to This that can avail nothing to the Other 's legal right but render those people the more inexcusable that shall be taken in such double dealing For my own part I have been as much afraid as any of giving the least encouragement to any thing that has been set up by these extraordinary ways But I doubt I have missed many opportunities of doing good by that nicety And when the Lord has once declared his will by a full Possession and seconded it with so many signal Providences I think we may doe well to cease fighting against his Prerogative which is to dispose of the Kingdoms of men to whom he pleases and not to be asked what he does though he should give them to the basest of men And truely I have found it but the fleshly and beastly part in me that has murmured at these changes and will not look up to Heaven to ascribe all power to that wise Watcher and Disposer of all things Methinks if that fourth Chapter of Daniel were seriously perused it should hint something that might be for our satisfaction in this point THE REPLY SIR AFter so long a demurr to which I was invited first by your own commands I should think the season wholly past for a Reply onely that the Royalty and Prerogative of that Cause for which I plead falls by no means under the commensuration of time nor can be prejudiced by any Intervals or Interregnums whatsoever according to that known Maxime in our Law Nullum tempus occurrit Regi And therefore the Vote for Non-addresses being now recalled and superseded by word of mouth when I was last with you I take the freedom to examine your Letter But still preserving the especial Favour and Charity of your design in sending it to me whole and unquestioned SECTION I. And first to begin with Jael who stands in the Tent door and entrance of your Letter She being in Arrears as you remember before and the occasion of offence I do not find how what you have laid down here in her name can pass for good payment and make all even For my exception against your instance of Jael was this That what was done by her indeed as an Act of great Faith in believing the Word of God and acknowledging that right which the Children of Israel had to the Land of Canaan and so accordingly helping them against an Usurper and Oppressour who by the express Word of the Lord was sentenced to be destroyed should be so far perverted and abused by you as to urge her way and manner onely of doing it viz. by Dissimulation and Treachery to justifie the same practices now of Lying and Treason c. for the bringing about what you please to call and fancy a good Work To this I answered Admitting but not granting that Jael did well not onely bonum but benè what she thus did for it might be a weakness and failing in her for any thing the Scripture says to the contrary And that so it was we shall afterwards evince Yet it will not at all follow that the same way though to as good an end is lawfull or practicable now For that there is this vast difference between us and her That in her time and to her she being not a Jew it must be remembred and so not concerned or acquainted with
warrant serv'd upon your selves But if this plea of Israel's right against Canaan as previous and preceding to God's warrant will not be granted though founded as you see upon so good reason and such great authority Yet Fourthly That which makes a manifest difference between you and Israel and so takes off the instance from being at all usefull to you plainly declaring that there cannot be that Divine warrant in you or any of you to pull down our Babel as you please to call the Established Government of our Church and Kingdom as God gave the people of Israel against the Canaanites is this For that you could not possibly doe it having so many sacred ties and obligations upon your souls to the contrary but by ways and means which the Spirit of God hates and disavows Whereas the Israelites if they had not a former right yet having no former tye of subjection or Allegiance to Canaan here was room left for the Spirit of God to bestow it upon them as having no sacred bond that is to say They not being tied up before by the Spirit of God against it Which when once they are As particularly by their Oath to the Gibeonites though these Gibeonites were formerly within their Charter or Commission and though this Oath was wrested from them by guile as you pretend once Kings were at the peoples disposing and these Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance wrested from the people by mere encroachments yet then they are so fast tied as no former donation on God's part to them which certainly is equal at least to your mistaken prophecies nor no opportunities and advantages they had afterwards against them which were as great every day as you have against us at this day and which are the onely ground whereon you build your dispensation could dispense with it But the violation of this Oath taken by the Fathers in the days of Joshua so jealous and tender is God of his honour in the matter of Oaths so severe an Avenger against them that falsify his Name is punished upon the Children of the Third or Fourth generation in the days of David And therefore however you might pretend perhaps an extraordinary warrant dormant from God against Spain and in your present expedition to the Indies if the ill success has not already cancell'd it Yet blessed be God there cannot be here so much as a pretence in that you are already tied up by God against it that is to say Under the seal and Oath of God I counsel thee to keep the King's commandment and that in regard of the Oath of God And whatever inconveniences and disadvantages you groan'd under in the former Government you were to wait with patience upon God for a redress Who as he had brought you into these bonds and under this Government without your sin So could no doubt without your sin for he has no need of a wicked man and would if it had seemed good in his sight have released you from it by turning the heart of the King whose heart particularly for this reason it is said is in the hand of the Lord or else by cutting off the King and so the Royal line by any of his arrows as Pestilence immediately by his own hand or War from abroad instrumentally by the hand of others or what other way might seem best to his Divine Wisedom Onely you of all others could not be lawfully the authours or instruments of his change God does no where side with perjury nor has given any man licence to sin or commission to doe wickedly But is a swift witness against the false Swearer and most sadly and severely reckons for it in his own people as whereby his Name is blasphemed and his truth and Gospel evil spoken of and rejected among the Heathen And from hence it is that Nebuchadnezzar coming up the first time against Jerusalem The King of Judah and his people were no where reprov'd by God or his Prophets for resisting and standing out against him but surely did their duty in it though God was not pleased to bless their endeavours but for their former sins and provocations deliver'd them into his hand But when Zedekiah after an Oath taken to Nebuchadnezzar finds an opportunity to cast off the yoke and rebelled against him he rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar it is said who had made him swear by God Then Nebuchadnezzar coming up a second time against Jerusalem God by the Prophet Jeremiah warns both Zedekiah and the people not to strike a stroak or think of holding out the City against him Which Zedekiah still refusing is accordingly punished with a sore destruction whereof God himself is pleased to give this account He rebelled against him viz. Zedekiah against Nebuchadnezzar in sending his Ambassadours into Egypt that they might give him horses and much people Shall he prosper shall he escape that does such things Or shall he break the Covenant and be delivered Where you may observe not his wicked design not his ambitious or self-ends are condemned in breaking of it for his end was possibly pious and good might colour I am sure for far more Justice and Religion than can be pretended in your case But his very breach of the Covenant his falsifying his Oath is that which is there urged against him as that which let his end be what it will can never be authoriz'd or countenanc'd by the good spirit can never be capable of God's blessing upon it For that is the force or meaning of the words put interrogatively or by way of Question to put it out of Question Shall he escape that does such things Talia not Taliter Shall he break the Covenant and be deliver'd i. e. it is utterly impossible Neither he nor any other shall ever receive a blessing from God upon such practices and therefore sure can never be authorizd by God to doe them An Oath being both in God and men for confirmation and an end of all strife 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that there might not be room left for a word more to be said against it And therefore God though he sometimes alters his word or promise as having always a tacite condition imply'd 1 Sam. 2.30 Yet never his Oath Heb. 6.17 Psal 89.34 And pray consider how far short it would fall of this end if there were place left for this pretension of God's Spirit against it Which if it be true at any time might be so always or at least always might be so pretended whereby strife would become undeterminable and there would be no end at all of contention But whenever I plead this breach of Oath how evident and apparent soever against any man Or whenever the Magistrate proceeds to punish it in the falsest and most perjur'd person we must both run this hazard of fighting against God Which as it blunts and turns the edge of God's sword in the hand of the Magistrate by this inextricable uncertainty and
manifestly accuse and condemn your selves for it So that nothing hardly I may say was ever permitted by God that was more fully and sufficiently provided against by him Who in farther care of the King's safety and preservation besides the many several and plain Laws both Humane and Divine and your own voluntary wilfull Oaths to this purpose yet lest he should fall into your hands the barbarous bloudy hands of the Army God did damm up the way against it by a complication of Treasons mutually accusing and bearing witness against each other whereby the King was yet as safe from falling into your hands as it was certain you would not condemn your selves For thus your first rising up against the King under the authority of the two houses must plainly condemn your disobedience and Insurrection afterwards against them And your rising up against the two Houses afterwards leaves your former Rebellion against the King without excuse And if this must be still called providence 't will certainly be in this That In your seizing at last upon the King God has brought you to condemn your selves and wash off with your own hands that fucus and paint of a supreme authority in the houses wherewith you did formerly colour your Rebellion against the King and shelter it from being seen and discover'd by the people But then this kind of Providence sure will be far enough from engaging you to that horrid perpetration which pretends to derive from it And if David who had he dispatched Saul out of the way had been instantly rightfull King as being the next undoubted Heir could yet find no such construction to be made possibly of that eminent providence wherein it pleased God to appear to him I can never sufficiently wonder at the quicksightedness of these men who from a permission onely to which they have waded in bloud and wrested from God by desperate impenitent provocations of getting the King into their hands should spy out at this vast distance an evident call to Power and Sovereignty in themselves by taking away his life and thereby an Obligation upon them for so doing David who had a right to the Crown dares not yet possess himself of it by this Act which these men look upon as so meritorious that the very committing of this Act must be rewarded upon them by God with Crowns and Sceptres and Kingdoms and create them a right out of their former Nothing Whereas no Robbery or Murther upon the high-way but has a much better title to Providence And I should hugely condemn the Laodicean temper of that Souldier who after this should be so cold a Christian as not to follow Providence in cutting the throat of every one that falls into his hands Good Sir Secret things belong unto the Lord but those that are revealed unto us and to our Children for ever And whatever God pleases to permit for our tryals we have yet a sure word of prophecy to guide us in our practice Whereto we should doe well to take heed says the Apostle as unto a light shining in a dark place And whereby David you see in the darkness and opportunity of the Cave was yet directed not to quench the light of Israel or stretch forth his hand against the Lord 's Anointed But this whole instance of David though extended to so great a length will easily be voided by you I perceive While granting a difference indeed between your selves and David and so in the ways of God's Providence towards you and him which I so much urge and so clearly demonstrate There is yet a third difference you will reply which I have said nothing of and wherein the advantage lies on your side to so great a degree as will fetch up the other scale and make all even And how contrary soever your actions were his in saving and yours in destroying Yet the vast difference of the subject matter whereon you wrought will easily reconcile them and allow them both to be Religious For to destroy a Tyrant may be an equal act of Piety as to honour and preserve a just King To pull down Babylon is as acceptable a service to God as to uphold the building of Jerusalem Tyrannus a Tyrant we must know therefore does Originally signifie a King the same with Rex or one in Sovereign Power without particularly specifying whether good or bad till Use the great Arbitratour of words and master of language had appropriated it onely to bad Kings whom we call Tyrants Yet with this latitude as comprehending under it Tyrannos titulo those who are tyrannical and unjust in the very obtaining of the Sovereignty as Invaders and Usurpers secondly Tyrannos exercitio those who though good and rightfull Possessours are yet tyrannical and exorbitant in the use of it And to this first part in the distinction viz. As it is taken for those who violently and injuriously Usurp a Sovereignty It holds for true and Orthodox that to destroy such may be an act of equal piety as to honour and preserve a just King And the reason is because indeed it is the same Vna eadémque manus vulnus opémque tulit And while I destroy the Usurper I do plainly in the same act save and defend the true King whose right it is But then Tyrant in the second part of the distinction and as it signifies without impeaching their right or title to the Crown such Sovereign Rulers as oppress the people that are under them there is yet a Noli me tangere upon them to every particular person though highly injured by them and favoured by God as David And a Nolite tangere Christos meos to what conjunctions and combinations of men soever Their persons are sacred and inviolable typified by the Holy Oil wherewith the Kings of Israel were consecrated and appropriated to God and thereby exempted from the common lot in that they were the Lord 's anointed Who can stretch forth his hand c. And though wicked and unjust they be though froward and ungentle we are yet to be subject to them says St. Peter And while they come in at the door by a fair and lawfull claim and not climb in at the windows by violence and forcible Usurpation which is perfectly the character of Thieves and Robbers though they should by this means gain the possession while they sit in Moses's seat by lawfull succession and descent from him we are still to obey and attend unto them though they bind heavy burthens upon our shoulders as our Saviour tells us of those Scribes and Pharisees and grievous to be born Where by the way if you please to take but this one note along with you 't will give some dispatch to the whole difference between us That 't is not the personal wickedness nor yet the cruel and severe impositions of our lawfull Governours that can give us the liberty therefore to refuse and reject them though they be as great Opposers of Christ and
him that is thus set up by God though he should be the basest of men and they could bring a charge against him of Tyranny and misgovernment twenty years 'T is a right this onely reserved in the hands of God He ruleth in the Kingdoms of men And therefore to shew his Power and exemplify his way of deposing Kings in Nebuchadnezzar and disposing of Kingdoms he does not for all Nebuchadnezzar's baseness though the basest of men arm his subjects against him while he continued to be their King this is none of God's way but he first takes away his capacity to govern by turning him into a beast And then they who were formerly his subjects while he was himself upon this great and evident change cease to be so and accordingly drive him from among men Which is exactly parallel to what we said before in the Case of Idiotism and down-right madness whereby the King degenerates and ceases to be a reasonable creature He can be no longer a King that is not a man God who onely could by taking away his reason hath depos'd him from his royalty God hath depos'd him and not man And to shew that this is it alone which did unking him viz. The same that did plainly and evidently unman him Nebuchadnezzar no sooner returns to be a man but his Kingdom returns unto him again All his former failings and miscarriages all the Inter regnum and seven years possession of the Kingdom in other hands does not prejudice his title or prevent him of his Crown From the basest of men nay from a very beast he is again become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Etymologist derives the word the basis and foundation and support of the people The baseness of man is no obstruction against the dignity and dominion of God Thus shall it be done to the man whom God delighteth to honour All his baseness is immediately covered and swallowed up in that excellency and Majesty put upon him by God But this makes nothing for the baseness of the means whereby God is by you suppos'd to doe this We make no peradventure at all but that this present Usurper though base enough in his first extract and original being one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the lowest of the lower house men and who has made himself much baser by his daring and dissembl'd villany whereby he is become without a rival the basest of men and at least the image of Nebuchadnezzar's beast may yet be dignified by God with Sovreignty and Dominion Is any thing too hard for the Lord Has he not ways and means enough to entitle him to it if it seemed good in his eyes either by a voice from Heaven and setting the people at liberty from their former Allegiance and then disposing their suffrage on him or by bringing him into allyance with the Royal Family or the like Onely we say and sure against that there can be no pretence made from the fourth of Daniel that the price of bloud is not to be cast into the Treasury of the Lord. Rebellion Murther and the like are not to be put upon his account or to be imagin'd as God's way for the authorizing and impowering any person Hast thou kill'd and also taken possession was yet far enough from entitling Ahab to Naboth's Vineyard And sure would have been of as little force if Naboth had contriv'd the sentence and usurp'd upon King Ahab God's Providence was indeed very visible and remarkable etiam Deo digna in setling the Government of this Land upon the Family of the STEUARTS by taking away one King and two Queens successively by his own hand without children Edward the sixth Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth the onely posterity of Henry the eighth without the contrivance and beyond the thought and expectation of Men. And yet farther He brought our late King to the Throne which he was never born to by taking away his elder Brother in the hopes and strength and prime of his years And was not his Providence as visible upon this when in the rout and overthrow of his Army at Worcester He who was the onely man aim'd at was the onely man well nigh that escaped This was the Lord's doing and it was marvellous in our eyes Whereas now for the outing and rejecting of them dispossessing and discarding of the Royal Family so much owned by God by so many steps and gradations with so many arts and methods provided for by him what do we meet withall but the wickedness and impiety of men and that indeed as visible and eminent as God's Providence was before for the advancement of them God raised them to the Throne as it were without man immediately by himself and man has pull'd them down without God So plainly and manifestly without God that no pretence is laid to God's work in the matter but that which is the most opposite and contrary to it which does really profess God at the greatest distance and abhorrence from it Your thriving and prospering in your sin Sin when it is finished bringeth forth Death And sure God is never so expresly angry and offended at us never removed so far from us never leaves us so wholly to our selves as when he suffers us to complete our wicked purposes SECTION XI And thus Sir having run through your whole Letter and duly consider'd every part of it that could be any where improv'd into an Objection I should think it a fit season to take my leave But when I look back and find this Reply swelled to such a monstrous bulk beyond the pittance and proportion of an Epistle which is all I designed I have no way to bring my self into shape now but by stretching it wider and so set up for a little Volume Which gives me scope therefore holding my self still to the subject matter before me to review again the title of Possession as it stands pleaded by Mr. Ascham and so downwards from that Text of St. Paul Let every Soul be subject to the higher powers For there is no power but of God The powers that be are ordained of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God And they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Here the great Emphasis is laid upon the Powers that be Which eo Nomine in that they be however they come so to be are acknowledg'd by the Apostle say they to be ordain'd by God and then under pein of Damnation not to be oppos'd or resisted by us Si violandum est jus regni causâ violandum est Thus much the Heathens who knew not God were contented sometimes to bid for a Kingdom even the price and forfeiture of common Justice But these saints are the first men I believe that ever profess'd such love to a Crown as to bragg of the bargain and think it a huge penyworth at the loss and utter damnation of their Souls For so they expresly do while they strive
God because not conferr'd by his Order They have set up Kings says He but not by me they have made Princes but I knew it not And then it follows aptly in the next words Of their Silver and their Gold have they made themselves Idols An Idol-king on the Throne and an Idol-god in the Temple An Idol-king that can neither doe good nor evil that has no just power for the punishment of evil doers or for the praise of them that doe well Because set up but not by me because made a Prince without my knowledge in a way which I never authoriz'd nor approv'd But the Lord knoweth the way of the Righteous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those which are rightly Powers whatever else they miss and fail in are certainly regular in this That they are ordered and ordained by God And as the Apostle has fully explicated and explained the meaning of this Phrase When he derives the Power from God onely and beaten back all those shameless impudent Pretenders who would nestle themselves under the generality of those Terms by farther adding That this Power is ordained of God To be a Power from God is not to make our selves so or be authorized by any other Officers or Army but to be ordained of God Yet because these restless contenders will nodum in Scirpo quaerere and catch hold on any Bulrush to save themselves from drowning or rather indeed from discerning the Truth and being saved To be ordain'd of God here say they and to be The Ordinance of God v. 2. is nothing else but To be decreed and ordained of God from all Eternity to such a power and to be invested with it in time by virtue of this Ordinance or Decree Which title we justly challenge say they being now actually possessed of it which certainly we could not be either without or against God's Decree Not to plunge my self into the vast Ocean of God's secret Counsels and Decrees whose Name being secret we are thereby forbidden to enquire after Cam vides velatam quid inquiris in rem absconditam This Tree of knowledge is certainly the forbidden fruit And in the search whereof it is much easier to loose our eyes than find an issue as being the most immense and inscrutable treasury of an infinite and incomprehensible Wisedom Yet thus much we may venture to assert That either all things which befall here on Earth however foreseen and foreknown by God are not all of them so necessarily constrain'd by any degree of God's to fall out as they do but that some of them at least as to any such Decree might fall out otherwise than they do Or else that it is lawfull nay pious and necessary in us to oppose some events which God has decreed The reason of the consequence is plainly this Because we are commanded to oppose the being of some things which yet actually are and continue to be Whereupon it follows that either they are without a Decree according to my first Proposition Or else that we are bound to resist some things which God has decreed as was said in the Second Either of these Propositions being granted as one of them must for that both cannot be false it will follow that either your possessing of the Place is no sure Evidence of God's decree or supposing it to be so yet that you are not thereby secured from Opposition and Resistence Nay that our duty and piety to God may urge us perhaps notwithstanding to root you out Thus Diseases and Invasions though both from God and according to your Tenet from God's Decree are yet to be repuls'd by Force and Physick And who knows whether the Decree to remove you again be not as fix'd and pressing as that whereby at present you stand possessed Be not high minded but fear But to take away all seeming force of this Objection To be ordain'd by God and the ordinance of God cannot be here understood barely of his Decree For the words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which an easie Graecian must needs know derive themselves from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non mandato aliquid instituo says Beza on the words not to command or decree but ordino or in ordinem dispono to place or to dispose in Order Thus the Centurion in the Gospel is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 plac'd or rank'd under Authority Thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Order and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disorder and confusion And thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must not signifie an Ordinance as that is taken Vsu forensi for a Statute or Decree but properly Ordination and accordingly the Latine translations both Beza's and Vulgar have Ordinatae sunt and Ordinationi as that word is used in the Ecclesiastical acception for the placing or admitting of a Person by some formality or other into such or such an Order So that ordained by God here is to have ordination and is the same with what the Apostle terms in another place called of God No man takes this honour to himself but he that is called of God Where called of God we see is manifestly opposed to taking it of himself and so cannot be the same thing And how then can we ground or imagine God's Decree or Call or Ordination upon this argument which is of all other the most evident bar against it No man is so clearly and evidently not the rightfull Power as he that takes it unto himself and pleads and challenges it upon that Title Inasmuch as standing still or not acting is more competible or less contrary to God's Call and Ordination than running on Ones own head For some men have been call'd or sent or ordain'd by God which have delayed to go and act But no man that took it to himself that run upon his own head was ever call'd or impower'd by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They that take the sword are adjudged already by our Saviour to perish by the Sword Not onely to bear it in vain which is enough to take them off from being a rightfull Power For he beareth not the sword in vain but to bear it manifestly against themselves and to become their own Executioners by it Which they can onely fence by plainly denying our Saviour and St. Paul That whereas they speak of taking the Sword and taking honour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Ones self in opposition to God's call it is utterly groundless must these men say there cannot possibly be any such thing The having of honour is a certain evidence of being call'd by God And possessing of the Sword does manifestly entitle one to the power of it And therefore leaving them a while to try it out with God and his Word I must be allow'd upon this Authority to suppose their Possession turn'd out of doors And then the onely task remaining for me is to find out something to fill up the place that may be
and irresistible Where first the suffrage of the people is the Oil of the Prophet Which as the Prophet might not be pouring out first upon this Person and then upon that as often as he pleases but onely when God sends him So nor are the People impower'd to reject this and elect a New King but when God gives them commission that is to say when a fair vacancy and utter extinction is made of the Person and Family whom they had formerly chosen In the mean time the Prophet has nothing to doe with the Oil nor have the People any voice or suffrage whereby to confer Sovreignty on any And secondly as in the anointing with Oil the Prophet that pour'd the Oil yet was not he that gave the power but the means and Messenger onely by whom it was conveyed And therefore was himself subject to the King as soon as he was thus anointed by him So the People in their election and impowering any by their suffrage are not to be lookt upon as the Authours and Donours of the power but the means and instrument onely whereby God conveys it to this Person There is no power but of God Neither the Prophet nor the People had Jus vitae necis Power of Life and Death over others much less over themselves and not having it cannot be supposed to bestow it Nihil dat quod non habet which therefore must needs be deriv'd to him from a higher original And the People in their fullest freest convention when they are most the People remain still in the condition of the People as the Prophet in the case before in a degree that is to say of Subjection and Inferiority to the King set over them That there may be indeed a King as there is a Duke of Venice inferiour to the Senate and Body of the People we have before acknowledged But such an One is as I have said abusively call'd a King And the arraying him with royal Title and denying him the power of it is but the same piece of mocking as when Herod cloathed our Lord in purple and put a Reed in his hand viz. a Sceptre that must bow and give way at every blast of the People The colours that wash off were never laid in Oil. He that is truely a King is as truely Supreme And that Ours in this Kingdom is truely and rightly such if it be not granted before may be proved evidently by the Oil of his anointing and so at large from the body of our Laws and most undeniably from that particular Law which with so much pena 〈…〉 y does urge and require it of us to swear in express Terms That the King's Highness is Supreme in these Realms And lest there might be room left for copeing or joyning others in Supremacy with him to intermingle other liquors with this Holy Oil by fansying a Coordination between the King and his Parliament as was once pretended It is yet more plain and full in the words of the Oath The King's Highness not onely is Supreme but the onely Supreme Governour in this Realm And being so it is thereby evident that all the sacredness and immunities of the Lord 's anointed in the Old Testament All the Honours and Prerogatives which are affixed to the Higher Powers in the New Whether to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Paul or to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Peter do truely and properly belong unto him His non-possession will not allow us in a non-subjection Honour and Custome and Tribute says Saint Paul not where these are claim'd but where these are due And to be subject for conscience sake as we are enjoyn'd never respects how high or how low our King is how near or how far off but has the same force upon us even when we have least reason to be afraid of his wrath And therefore to drive this to the quick Saint Paul's sword has two edges The first against the Romanists who upon the Pope's account and in obedience to him do take liberty of disobeying their King Against these in the first words Let every soul be subject to the higher powers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says S. Chrysostome on the place though he be a Prophet or Apostle The Pope is included in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every soul and so falls himself as to any thing in his Papacy under subjection The Higher Powers referr'd to in this place being plainly not the Ecclesiastical but the Civil Magistrate not the power of the Keys but of the Sword as he is describ'd in the fourth verse For he beareth not the Sword in vain not the Rod or Keys of Excommunication but the Sword of Execution And then Secondly against those Popular Partisans who derive from the people and rebell upon their account Every Soul will fetch them in too as comprehending under it Singula generum genera Singulorum All sorts and every one of all sorts which is not the Supreme And they that resist says the Apostle though they be as many as can be comprehended under the word They. Which sure will reach from Dan to Beersheba and include the whole people though being a They so numerous and so great a Multitude they may possibly prevail so far as to make sure of him from calling them to account or avenging himself upon them Yet they shall not escape the vengeance of God They shall receive to themselves Damnation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because they have taken the Sword and taken Honour to themselves to themselves likewise they shall receive Damnation The pretence of Rebellion is always indeed for the Common good but the Design being wholly for themselves for their own advantages and preferments to ingross the Wealth and Royalty to themselves just it is that they should receive to themselves Damnation that is to say in so full ample and infinite a measure as if Damnation which is the common portion of the wicked were ingross'd and appropriate onely to themselves THE END Rom. 4.15 Acts 17.30 Col. 3.9 1 Thes 4.6 Mat. 5.33 Psal 15.5 2 King 1.10 Luke 9.56 1 Cor. 13.3 John 14.6 Num. 33.19 Heb. 8.6 Heb. 7.12 Luk. 9.55 Exod. 32.28 29. 1 Tim. 3.3 Tit. 1.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 5.20 2 Cor. 5.17 Gen. 17.14 Gal. 5.2 v. 4. 1 Cor. 11.26 Joh. 3.3 1 Cor. 6.12 1 Cor. 7.38 Act. 19.30 1 Cor. 9. Acts 16.1 Gal. 5.2 Heb. 5.12 Heb. 6.1 1 Cor. 11. v. 16. Res Dei Ratio Tertul. 1 Tim. 1.3 Heb. 8.13 Rom. 3.8 1 Tim. 4.2 2 Tim. 3.4 1 Tim. 6.4 Epiph. lib. 2. contr Haeres Tom. 2. haer 66. S. Aug. Ser. de Tem. 105. Tom. 10. Montac Appar pag. 10. Eccles 8.2 2 Chron. 36.13 Ezech. 17.15 Heb. 6.16 1 Cor. 14.33 2 Cor. 10.4 2 Thes 2.8 ◠Sam. 24. Heb. 11.33 Deut. 29.29 Lex erat Qui Tyrannum occiderit Olympionicarum praemium capito quam volet sibi rem à Magistratu deposcito Maegistratus ei concedito Pet. Aevod 6.9.1 Multa etiam exempla enumerat Tyrannicidarum qui praemiis honoribus afficiebantur pag. 695. Quaere De Concil Constantiensi 〈…〉 ss 15. Mat. 23. Joh. 10. Chrysoft in loco cit per Montac pag. 258. 2 Chron. 23. 1 Tim. 2.13 Gen. 9.6 1 Cor. 15.27 Deut. 17. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Chrysosto in Isa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Sam. 12.12 Ezek. 16.13 14. 1 Sam. 8. Rom. 12.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quid enim plano aditur excelsum Senec. ad Ser. cap. 1. Phil. 4.11 1 Tim. 6.6 Prov. 24.11 1 Tim. 5.8 Seneca Act. 8.9 1 Cor. 7.24 2 Thes 2. Luk. 4.6 Rom. 13. Ephes 2.2 Hos 8.4 Heb. 5.4 Rev. 19.20 Col. 3.24 Wis 8.1 Exod. 30.31.39.38 Psal 89.20