would gladly know whether those Authors who are so zealous for absolute hereditary Powers can give us an instance of any wise and just people that at the first constitution did give their free and full consent to such a Government They never did nor I think ever can instance in this particular section 10 The second Question is Whether Majesty acquired can be forfeited Where you must note that to forfeit any thing is to lose the right unto it For it 's one thing to lose the right another to lose the possession For as before one may lose his right and retain the possession and lose his possession and yet retain his right Therefore the Question is not de possessionis sed de juris amissione 2. The Question is not Whether they may forfeit to God for that they undoubtedly may but whether they may forfeit unto men 3. Who those Men are to whom it may be so forfeited so as they may take the forfeit and that justly For solution of this Question 1. This I take as a certain rule that whatsoever is given and held upon condition that may be lost and forfeited 2. A right once forfeited falls to the party who gave it and set down the conditions 3. They who from God give Majesty to any person or family at the first before they had any right unto it are the people and community to be governed 4. There is no rational and intelligent people in the World will bind themselves to subjection but upon condition of a just protection No a people conquered will not yield to be the subjects of the Conqueror but upon this condition And though his Sword may take away their lives yet it cannot make them his Subjects without their voluntary submission 5. No wise people if they can do otherwise will so submit themselves as to lose the propriety of their goods the liberty of their persons the enjoyment of their Religion or to be governed by an Arbitrary Power without just Laws 6. Princes Kings and Conquerors may either by themselves or their Ministers of State insensibly encroach and usurp yet these encroachments and usurpations cannot constitute a Right contrary to the fundamental Laws And there can hardly be found any other way whereby many becom absolute and arbitrary Lords but this way 7. The party to which the forfeiture is made is not the Subjects as Subjects but the people and community who only can invest one or more with Majesty and constitute a Government Neither can Magistrates as Magistrates nor any Officers as such take the forfeiture Neither can Parliaments except such as participate in the personal Majesty do any such thing Yet if the Soveraign once forfeit the Subjects cease to be Subjects Nor can a great multitude of these if they make not the whole body either actually or mutually though they cease to be Subjects challenge the forfeiture By this you may easily understand how loosely the Question between Arnisaeus and his party and Buchanan Arthusius Heno Junius Brutus and their adherents is handled 8. It 's certain that Soveraigns by Law who have not the Legislative power in themselves solely and are bound by Oath to govern according to Laws which they themselves cannot make may forfeit 9. Such personal Soveraigns as constantly act not only against the Laws of God and nature but against the fundamental Laws by which they receive and hold their power may and do forfeit And this is one reason why all Tyrants in exercise do excidere jure suo etsi haereditario which Arnisaeus himself affirms Yet as he wisely observes it 's not safe always to take the forfeiture For it is better by petitions prayers to God or patient suffering for a while so that they suffer not the State in the mean time to come to ruine to seek and expect a redress than suddenly to involve the people in blood and hazard the Common-wealth and put it in such a condition as that it shall not be able in any due time to settle Yet a real necessity of defence doth alter the case Hitherto concerning the manner how Majesty may be acquired or lost CHAP. VI. Of Power Ecclesiastical section 1 THE former Rules may easily be applied to a particular Church for it 's a Spiritual Commonwealth and must as such have Governors and them invested with a Supreme Power yet such and of the same nature as the Church is that is Spiritual and Ecclesiastical This Power as all other in Civil States is derivative from Heaven and of a very narrow scantling And that I may be more perspicuous and direct the Reader by some line or thred of method I will say something of the Power 1. As it is Spiritual 2. As Supreme 3. As divisible into several Branches section 2 In the first place it's Spiritual and that in many respects as the Authors of Jus Divinum Ecclesiastici Regiminis have sufficiently demonstrated For the persons rule actions and end are to be considered not under a Civil but a Spiritual notion As stiled by Divines and that according to the Spirit 's language and the phrase of Holy Writ to be Potestas Clavium And the acts thereof are opening shutting or which are the same binding loosing These are Metaphorical terms taken out of the Old into the New Testament For our Saviour did love to use the Spirit 's words The first and chief place where we read these words in a Political sense with reference to Government is that of the Evangelical Prophet And the Key of the House of David will I lay upon his shoulder so he shall open and none shall shut and he shall shut and none shall open Where by Key is meant Dominatio or Potestas gubernandi So Fererius Schindler Mollerus according to the former use do understand it For there it 's said I will commit thy Government into his hand section 3 It 's not material to enquire whether the Power or Key of the House of David was a Power over the Family or of the Family over the Kingdom nor whether Eliakim was a Priest or a Prince over the Palace or the Temple It 's certain David was a type of Christ his House and Kingdom of the Church and his Regal Power of Christ's Regal Supremacy For he hath the Keys of Hell and Death even that Key of David which bindeth the soul and conscience and disposeth of mans spiritual and eternal estate and that by an irrevocable sentence This Power signified by Key or Keys is not Civil but that of the Kingdom of Heaven which he promised first and conveyed afterward upon the Apostles As for the acts of these Keys being exercised they are said to be sometimes shutting and opening sometimes binding and loosing And though these seem to differ yet they are the same and are acts of Government For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to open is to loose as Psal. 102.20 where it 's turned by the
Subject gives essence to the State and constitutes it in being and existence 2. It s the first part for though as superiority and subjection and so Soveraign and Subjects are Relates and in that respect simultaneous yet the Soveraign is not only the first in dignity but in some sort by origination if not as a cause For as paternity in some respect is before filiation so it is in this particular For subjection doth rather follow upon Soveraignty than the contrary And therefore in molding a State they first determine upon a Soveraign whereupon instantly and at the same time follows without any thing intervening subjection 3. This party that is Soveraign is invested with Majesty Civil Where we have two things 1. Majesty an adjunct 2. The subjection invested with it And as Power is the very essence of a Superiour so Majesty is of a Soveraign section 4 Majestas est maxima in civitate potestas Majesty is the greatest power in a Community 1. It s potestas Power 2. Maxima in civitate Potestas est Jus Imperandi Power is a right to govern It 's Jus a Right and in it self is always just and is from some propriety and as the absolute propriety so the absolute power of all things is from God and there is no power but derived from him It 's not Physical but Moral and so nomen juris and may be considered as a faculty or habit which qualifies the Subject to do something which one that hath no power cannot do The proper act of it is to Govern and in Governing to Command so as to bind the party subject to obedience or punishment This Imperium or Command is an act of the Will and presupposeth some act of the Understanding and must needs be ineffectual and in vain without a sufficient coactive force And because the Understanding may be ignorant or erroneous the Will unjust the coactive force act accordingly therefore the understanding of a Superiour as such ought to be directed by Wisdom his commanding Will by Justice and his Executive force by both And that act of Power which is not thus directed is not properly an act of Power nor any such Command of the Jewish Rulers when it was devoid both of Wisdom and Justice and it was so much the more invalid because contrary to an express command of a Superiour Lord and Master even Jesus Christ. This Power is an Excellency and makes the party invested with it like unto God and the greater it is the greater the excellency of him that hath it Though it is in it self good and just as being from God or rather the power of God in the creature intellectual yet it may be exercised either too little or too much For one that is invested with it may do less or more than his power doth warrant him nay he may act contrary to the Rules of divine Wisdom and Justice And such is the imperfection of man that there is no perfect Government in the world but that God doth supply all defects and aberrations For the Judge of all the World will do right and in the final Judgment will compleat all Justice and reward every man according to his works so that nothing in any person Man or Angel but shall be judged section 5 This is Power in general and may be distinguished many ways as into the Power of God or Angels or of men Here we speak of the power of men which is the power of a Father or a Master or an Officer of peace or war by Sea or Land. Again It 's Civil Ecclesiastical and both supream or subordinate The subject now in hand is Majesty Civil which is the greatest power in a Civil Community the power of a Soveraign whereby he is able to bind the whole Community and every Member thereof It 's an act of the publick and universal Will directed by the universal Judgment made effectual by the universal and general coactive force and all this is done according to the Rules of Justice and Wisdom And that the best wisest and most just are most fit to govern To know it the better we must consider 1. The principal and several kinds of acts 2. The qualities of it the particular acts of this power in one Community are numberless yet all reducible to one And that is the wise and just Government and ordering of the Community yet this is divided and subdivided by the Authors of Politicks And the several Branches of this Power are called Jura Majestatis Praerogativa Regalia c. The distinction of these Rights are made according to the several acts of Majesty conversant about several different Objects and according to the diversification of the Objects is the diversity and difference of these Rights I might here relate both the number and the method of these Rights of Majesty as delivered by Angelicus Bodin Clapmarius Grotius Bisoldus Arnisaeus and others if it were either needful or useful The Civilians and sometimes though seldom the Casuists mention them Yet hardly two of them agree either in the method or the number or the particular names of them section 6 Yet not to neglect them all attend how handsomly and briefly Grotius reduceth them to a certain Order Qui regit civitatem eam regit per se circa universalia in legibus condendis abolendis singularia alios magistratus publica circa actiones Belli pacis res vectigalia dominium eminens Privata ad publicum ordinata quae sunt res inter privatas quas dirimi oportet propter pacem Curatores Yet this is far short of some others and indeed no ways accurate The Civilians some of them reduce them into Order according to the several acts of this power which are acts of Grace Justice Bisoldus doth distinguish of Majesty and informs us that it 's Real Personal Real in the People personally in the Prince He understands by the People the Community and under God that is the primary subject of it wherein it virtually resides and out of which by the constitution it is educed It hath power to form a State where there is none and if after a form once introduced the Order be not good they may alter it What the Rights of personal Majesty is he tells us but what those of real Soveraignty be he saith nothing Majesty so naturally belongs unto the Community that upon a failer of succession or a dissolution it divolves to them and that People is not wise which parts wholly with it and absolutely alienates it as the Romans are said Lege Regiâ to have done if necessity or some very weighty cause required it not section 7 We might in this particular expect much from Arnisaeus who hath composed a whole Treatise of this subject in which he informs 1. Of the name 2. Of the nature of Majesty For 1. The name may be given to such as have nothing of the thing and so be a meer Title 2. It may signifie
let us keep communion and heartily serve our God humbly imploring his Divine Majesty in the name of Christ to open our eyes and sanctifie our hearts that at length we may be united in the same Judgement and Affection and with one Mind and with one Mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. section 8 After the consideration of a Congregational extent as too narrow and of an Universal as too large I proceed to say something of a National extent as a man between The Congregationalist will censure it as too great by far the Universalist as too little by much Yet I shall willingly as in other things refer my self to the Judgement of Moderate Pious Judicious Impartial Men Let them condemn me or acquit me as they shall see just cause First it must be remembred that the subject of this whole Treatise is the Government of men by men under God and Jesus Christ our Blessed Saviour Of Gods more immediate Government I have spoken in my Divine Politicks where I shew it 's Monarchical Supream Universal and cannot be bounded to any part of the whole Universe For he being immense and not only virtually but actually present in all places at all times is only fit to govern all Nations and the whole World as the Universal Soveraign but this is far above the power not only of Men but of Angels Therefore whatsoever he doth in Heaven we know that when through his blessing mankind was multipled and especially after the Flood and had replenished the Earth they were divided into several Societies and were subject to several independent Tribunals We never find them under one neither do we in his word or works read of a Catholick King over all Nations nor of an Universal Bishop over all Churches Howsoever some have pretended such a Title yet they could never shew their Patent subscribed by the Hand of Heaven But suppose they could have acquired the possession of the whole earth which never any did yet no one Man no one Council no one Consistory had been able sufficiently to manage so vast a power and in any tolerable manner to govern all mankind at one time living upon Earth It seemed good indeed to our wise God both in former and latter times to enlarge the power of some States and especially that of the Romans Yet that very Empire of so large extent took in but a little part of the whole Earth and this appears plainly now since by Navigation some of the remote parts of the Globe and both the Hemispheres thereof have been discovered Yet in the greatest extent it was thought by some of their wisest Princes the best Policy Cogere terminos Imperii to limit and bound it because they thought the body of too big a bulk to be well ordered either by Prince or Senate or People or by all together But to return to the matter in hand the Question is Whether a national Community of Christians may not lawfully be subjected to one supream Judicatory Ecclesiastical To understand the Question the better it 's to be observed 1. That a Community of Christians may be said to be national several ways or in several respects as 1. When all the Christians of one and the same Nation do associate and unite in one body 2. When these Christians are the major part of the people 3. When the whole Nation or the generality thereof have received and do profess the same Christian Faith. I will here suppose the major part or generality to be Christians and the association and incorporation to be made by a tacit or explicit consent which sometimes may be confirmed by the Laws of the Supream Power Yet this generality may be so understood as that there may in the same Nation be found Turks or Mahumetans Pagans Atheists Jewes which cannot be of this body and that also there may be some Schisms and Separatitions amongst such as profess themselves Christians and sometimes they may be none This in my sense is a national Community of Christians and a Church-confident before any form of external Discipline be introduced 2. When I speak of subjection I do not say that they are always in all Nations bound by any Divine Precept to be so but that they may and that lawfully according unto the Scriptures 3. I understand that this subjection so as that every several member be subject not to one man or one party but to the whole and that either properly taken or virtually for a Representative of the whole which shall have power in the name of the whole body to make Canons and in Judgement to receive last Appeals 4. I understand the Question of Nations indefinitely taken for if any be of so vast extent as that one independent Court may be either insufficient or inconvenient I rather exclude then include such For suppose all Tartary should be counted one Nation or all Chinae I conceive they are too large 5. I mention only a national Community for if that be granted the Classical and Provincial must needs come in The Congregational party I know holds the Negative And here upon the by I will take the liberty for to answer Mr. Parker's seventh argument for his Congregational way It 's taken from Politicks and to this purpose That as little States are more easily and better governed then great ones so is a Congregational Church which is but of a narrow compass than a Classical Diocesan or Provincial or National which is far greater Answ. Though less Communities may be better governed than one too great yet a great one of moderate extent may be better governed and defended than one that is too little For Gods one peculiar People and Nation which was first under Judges then under Kings was subject to one Supream Tribunal for a long time above five hundred Years and afterwards it was divided into two Yet it was better governed under one than under two when subject to one individual Tribunal than when to two but of this more hereafter section 9 For the confirmation of this we must note 1. That there is no Divine Precept in the New Testament which particularly determines either the extent of place or number of persons to which a particular independent Church is confined we do not find their either the minimum or maximum quod sic Therefore some Latitude must needs be granted 2. That the History of the New Testament doth not reach those times wherein it pleased God to fulfil those Prophesies which promised That Kings should become Nursing-fathers and Queens Nursing-mothers of the Church and she should suck the breasts of Kings who should come unto her light 2. When one should become a thousand and a small one a strong Nation I saith the Lord will hasten it in its time Where one saith he alludes to the Creation which he finished in six days hastening and could not rest and keep his Sabbath till all was ended and
of the Ministers in the Church of the New Testament Thus Dr. Andrews 8. That most Reformed Churches have Bishops or Superintendents and something answerable to Bishops The design of all this seems to be this to prove that Episcopacy and Hierarchy are Apostolical and Universal Yet none of these produce any clear divine Testimony for this much less any divine Precept to make this Regiment to be of perpetual and universal Obligation Neither doth any of them all tell us distinctly what the power of Bishops of Metropolitans of Patriarchs was nor whether they exercised their power as Officers or Representatives or by an immediate Jus divinum derived from Christ unto them All that can be made clear is that some kind of Bishops may be lawful and have been ancient and of good use tho' of no necessity As for the Hierarchy it 's meerly Humane and being at first intended for Unity was in the end the cause of the most bloody Schisms that ever were in the Church and an occasion of intolerable Ambition Emulation and Contention section 10 Subjects Ecclesiastical being distinguished and divided must be educated and so I come to Education and Institution Tho' spiritual Education be far more useful and necessary yet we find most men more careful to improve their Children for this World than the World to come The reason is they seek these earthly things more than God's Kingdom love the World more than God and prefer their Bodies before their Souls we should provide for both yet for the one far more than the other For what will it avail us to be temporally rich and spiritually poor to gain the World and lose our Souls This therefore is a special work of the Church to educate her Children and nurse them up for Heaven and the Magistrate Christian is bound to further her in this work Adam tho' Lord of the whole Earth and one who might give his Chrildren far greater Estates in Land than any man ever could yet brought them up not in idleness but honest labour But his principal care was to teach them how to serve their God and when they were at age to bring their Offerings before him God saith of Abraham I know him that he will command his children and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him Gen. 18.19 Joshua saith As for me and mine house we will serve the Lord Josh. 24.15 It was the command of God that Israel should diligently teach their Childrin the words of God and talk of them when they sit in their houses and when they went abroad and at their lying down and rising up Deut. 6.7 How often doth Solomon exhort to this duty and earnestly perswade all especially Children to hearken unto understand remember and constantly follow the Instruction of their Parents and their Teachers This was the care of Moses of Joshua the Judges and good Kings of Judah For this end the Priests Levites and Scribes were ordained of God and the Schools of the Prophets were erected for this work This was one prime work of the Levite to teach Jacob God's Judgments and Israel his Laws Deut. 33.10 This same commandment of spiritual Education is repeated in the New Testament Parents must bring up their Children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. This was the great work of Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastours and Teachers For they must not only pray but teach and labour not only for conversion but the edification of the Churches children Every Christian should help and further one another in this work As Parents in their Families should have knowledge and be able to instruct their Children so all Schools should have a care to inctruct the Schollars not only in Languages and humane Learning but also in the saving Doctrine of Salvation This was the reason why by the Canons of the Church they were bound to Catechise the Children committed to their charge The Universities and Colledges were bound to this likewise and were Seminaries not only for Lawyers Philosophers and Physitians but especially for Divines who though they improved their knowledge in Arts and Languages yet it was in subordination to their diviner and more excellent Profession To this Head belongs correction good example and prayer For the principal Teacher is the Spirit who must write God's truth in the heart and make all means of Education effectual The publick and principal Officers trusted by Christ with this work are the Ministers of the Gospel whose work is not meerly and onely to preach and expound but to catechise In these works we are either very negligent or imprudent For we should plant and water and pray to God for the encrease we should lay the foundation and build thereon yet some will do neither some will preposterously water before they plant and build before they lay the foundation and so do Christ little service and the Church little good Some â—ake upon them the Charge and are insufficient Men may teach by word or writing By word first the principle should be methodically according to the ancient Creeds and Confessions be taught this is the foundation Without this Sermons Expositions reading of Scriptures and Books of Piety will not be so profitable and edifying as they might be People should be taught to believe the saving and necessary truths of the Gospel obey his commands pray for all blessings and mercies and especially for the Spirit that their faith may be effectual their obedience sincere and also to receive the Sacrament aright and make right use of their Baptism Expositions should be plain and clear that the people may not only hear but understand and be moved by the truth understood Sermons should be so ordered as that the Texts proposed and the Doctrines and divine Axiomes thereof may be cleared understood according to the drift and scope of the Spirit And the application should be pertinent to inform the understanding with the truth and remove errours and when that is done to work effectually upon the heart and make it sensible of sin past and pertinent by the precepts the comminations and the promises to comfort and raise up the soul dejected and this especially by the promises of the Gospel and upon motives to exhort to duty and upon reasons restrain from sin This Ordinance and means of divine institution is much abused many ways by instilling of erroneous and novel opinions with which the people are much taken if delivered with good language by impertinencies digressions quaint terms and formalities But of these things I have spoken in my Divine Politicks This institution is so necessary that without it the Church cannot subsist nor the Government thereof be effectual section 11 Thus you have heard that the subject or as some call it the object of Politicks is a Common-wealth the subject whereof is a Community