Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A29535
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Seasonable reflections on a late pamphlet entituled A history of passive obedience since the Reformation wherein the true notion of passive obedience is settled and secured from the malicious interpretations of ill-designing men.
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Bainbrigg, Thomas, 1636-1703.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing B474; ESTC R10695
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44,461
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69
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Emption by Descent or Conquest And as it is betwixt the Man and his Beast so at least it must be allowed to be betwixt a King and his People If a King will treat them frowardly make no due Provisions for their Good but will treat them arbitrarily just as he will and that because he wills it according to humour he must not expect what he wishes from them how or in what manner soever he receives his Power over them Thus let Power be owned to come from God let it be confessed that He is the Source and Original of it yet I think no Man can fetch from thence any Ground for the assertion of either Destructive or of Arbitrary Proceedings in Government a King may however have bounds and limits ways and methods fixed to him wherein he may or may not profitably and effectually exert the Operations of it and the consequences of his own Actions whether they be good or bad commendable or blame-worthy will be imputable chiefly and primarily to himself But after all this What if Power may in some Sense be said to depend upon the People tho' it comes originally from God yet it may come immediately to one certain Person by the people and as God is said to make Kings so the people may be said to make them too I know that this Language is thrown off with scorn and contempt and represented in several Prints as most odious How this comes to pass I can't tell for it must be owned that in the Old Testament amongst God's own people this way of speaking was very current and familiar in all the Revolutions of State the people are said to make their King Thus it was in the Case of Saul 1 Sam. 11. 15. He was indeed Anointed by Samuel but that Action was done in secret his own Servant was not permitted to see it 1 Sam. 9. 27. and 1 Sam. 10. 1 2. The Instruction that he then had was not to challenge the Kingdom by Vertue of God's Gift but to do as occasion served 1 Sam. 10. 7. and tho' he be said to be chosen of the Lord 1 Sam. 10. 24. yet he was said to be made King by the people 1 Sam. 11. 15. And all the People went to Gilgal and there they made Saul King before the Lord. Thus too David was made King by the Men of Judah over the House of Judah 2 Sam. 2. 4. and David himself owns that the Men of Judah Anointed him 2 Sam. 2. 7. and Ishbosheth at the same time was made King over all the rest of Israel by Abner 2 Sam. 2. 9. After the Death of Ishbosheth David was again Anointed by the people 1 Chron. 11. 3. and made King by the people 1 Chron. 12. 38. So was Solomon 1 Chron. 29. 22. and Rehoboam 2 Chron. 10. 1. and Jeroboam 1 King 12. 20. They called him to the Congregation and made him King over all Israel Thus it was with Omri 1 King 16. 16. and with Joash 2 Chron. 23. 11. and Vzziah 2 Chron. 26. 1. This is the plain way of speaking in our Translation and so it is in the vulgar Latin and in the Hebrew Text and that these were not empty Words but that real effects for the producing of Power did depend upon this Action of the People we must needs think because we see in two instances that at the same time they made their King they made Provisions for the Restraining and Limiting of his Actions for that I guess must be the sense of that League or Covenant or Contract which then he made with them and they with him This we find was done between King David and 〈◊〉 people and King Joash and the people This we find was done by King David 2 Sam. 3. 21. and ◠Sam. 5. 3. and 1 Chron. 11. 3. and by King Joash 2 King 11. 17. and likely enough by Solomon when he was made King the second time 1 Chron. 29. 21. and possibly enough this was done at the Inauguration of each of their Kings But whether this be so or no it is not so material as to ingage us or others in Dispute and Controversy That we are now to promote and seek for is Peace and Unity that Brotherly Love and Christian Charity may abound amongst us we must do what we can to advance the good of our Countrey People and Nation to secure our Religion that we may continue to serve God in simplicity and sincerity as for Nicety and Notion men may think and if they will speak either this way or the quite contrary If Passion and Animosity Heat and Anger be laid aside we may allow men to say That Power is only from God That Resistance is a dangerous thing and in most Cases very ill That Passive Obedience well explained is a Duty And they on the other hand may be content not to urge and discourse these Doctrines in such a way as must give us to fear and suspect that trick and design are carrying on that we are to be amused first and then fooled and cheated And why may it not be presumed That henceforth no man will dare to move the People of this Land Lords and Commons to submit their Birth-rights all the Interest they have in Life and Fortune to Arbitrary Disposals from none of those wheedling Topicks neither from the Doctrine of Passive Obedience nor that of Non-Resistance nor yet that of the Origin of Power For seeing the Reverend Clergy now Assembled in Convocation stand up so resolutely to keep and maintain all the particularities of their Rule that they will not part with the least Title of their Establishment though desired by the King and perhaps too by the greatest part of the Nation It is very likely that the Example may be taking and a Parliament or the Body of the People may be as zealous to hold their own as others are to hold theirs and it is very possible that there should be every jot as great Reason for it For certainly it may be thought that the principal and essential parts of this National Constitution may be of more Value than the Disposition of things indifferent in Ecclesiastical Affairs I should think it somewhat worse to be hanged right or wrong than right or wrong to lose the satisfaction of wearing a Surplice And another man may be more willing to permit his Child to be Baptized without the Sign of the Cross than to consent that he will be dragoon'd whenever his King pleases only for this Reason Because he does not change his Religion and become Papist Mahometan or what you will Here I must stop not daring to proceed nor yet daring to exhort my Betters but yet I must say that it were to be wish't that every one of greater or lesser degree would cast a few serious Thoughts upon those Words of our Saviour Luke 19. 42 43 44. Saying If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes For the dayes shall come upon thee that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee and compass thee round and keep thee in on every side And shall lay thee even with the ground and thy children within thee and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation FINIS
Discourses But seeing the Non-resisters have no promise of Pardon for their other sins and so of Salvation the Non-resisters who have forsaken all must come to S. Peter's Query and ask What shall we have therefore And the Resisters who have saved all will hope to escape damnation as well for that sin as for all the rest It must be confess'd that there are many and good arguments from Reason from Policy from Law from Scripture for Submission or Non-resistance of Kings and that of bad as well as good and in most cases too But when the main stress of the Assertion is laid upon one Text of St. Paul which threatens no less than damnation to the Offenders against that Point there must be great care taken to fix the true sense of the Text or else Men will deduce from thence very incredible things which will easily be discovered to be false and so instead of recommending a Duty they will blemish it and beget in the people a disgust to it And who knows but some of the inferiour Clergy in the late times might offend in this kind seeing it was generally said that they had too great a regard for a busie Writer who then presumed to lay down monstrous and destructive Principles against the National Constitution and yet dared to challenge to himself the Title of being a gentle Guide or humble Hinter to those Gentlemen Tho he and they did make great use of that Text yet both might be mistaken in the sense of it it is not unlikely and it is possible that their mistakes in the event may have done good to the Nation for extravagant Discourse like harsh Physick many times operates the quite contrary way from what was designed After all their noise and pudder I must say that I do not find that Men have spoken clearly either the Nature of the Sin or the Weight of the Punishment They do not tell us what Resistance signifies nor yet who are the particular and onely Objects of a damning Resistance nor yet lastly whether Damnation in the Text speaks nothing less than downright Hell and Eternity of Torments for many sins may be in their nature damnable but they that have committed them need not presently be concluded certainly to be damned Denials Refusals Oppositions made against Opinions Desires Demands especially if others be solicited to join in with the Opposers may in a large sense be said to be Resistances but yet such actions may be far enough from being damning sins or else many times woful must be the condition of Privy Counsellors of Parliament Men Lords and Commons and of Judges who will not allow of Kings Patents which are against Law Suppose such a Case should have happened amongst us which once was betwixt Ahab and Naboth must he that acted Naboth's part be damned for refusing to part with or exchange his Inheritance Or suppose such another clownish Churl as Nabal who sent the unmannerly answer to David or had it been to Saul a King in possession If in consequence to that Answer when the Commissioned Officers came against him to kill and spoil him and all his he had appealed to Law and stood upon his defence till the matters were brought to a legal Trial he might be said then to have resisted and therefore perhaps he might have deserved to have been whipped for his sauciness but it is somewhat too much to think that he must needs be damned for it But David's case is much worse when his Master sought his life he listed Soldiers and seised upon strong Holds and stood upon his defence in a way that looks like open defiance so far was he from submitting or surrendring himself to Saul's Officers or Saul himself and after all we do not find that he repented of this Sin or begg'd God's pardon for it What now can we have no hopes of God's mercy toward David Must he for that resistance certainly be damned or if he had a particular Dispensation from God yet I fear his Soldiers had not and their case must then be deplorable for the reason and justice of Gods proceedings in the case was the same always and St. Paul's Text does not seem to speak a new designment of God to raise the Interests of Kings higher and subject the People lower than they were before Something therefore for David's sake should be thought on that the Text should be so limited that we may have some hopes for him and for his Soldiers too But yet we have a nearer Case that is piteous and deserves some thoughts and that is the Case of George Walker poor Man he is one of Solemon's wise Ones who by his wisdom has saved his City He has done a brave Action and all that hear it commend and admire it excepting the late King's Soldiers and perhaps in their hearts they admire him too But after all the praises and commendations of the generality of Mankind and those coming freely and sincerely upon the supposition of true Interest without design of daubing or flattering the great and the proud must I say this Man after all this be thrown into Hell and damned as one of the worst of Miscreants Such judgments as these will confound the genuine and most delightful Idea's that Men have of God's Goodness and Wisdom they may serve perhaps to adorn a Discourse for absolute Reprobation or upon the excellency of damning for damnings sake without regard to Sin but they can have little other use for glory to God or Man for good of King or People These and many other Cases ought to be well considered before we fix the Sence of the Text because as in all Sciences one Truth agrees with another so in the Interpretation of Scripture every single Text that stands by it self must be expounded according to the Analogy of Faith that is the general Agreement of the rest But Secondly There is further Matter of Consideration about the Person that is to have the Benefit of Non-resistance it is many times very difficult to discover who He is and it would be hard if upon a Mistake in that point the erring Person should be damned in the strict sence of the Word There is something that governs in human Affairs beyond the Thoughts and Imaginations of Men the Wheel goes smoothly on but of a sudden meets with a rub and the Carriage perhaps is overturned the headless Multitude then stare and wonder and say the like was never seen before and yet the like has oft happened What seemed to be ruled is over-ruled and then men seek for their Rule and know not where to find it Thus men are almost fatally confounded they think and act contrary to one another and yet each believes himself in the right and that he has strength and clearness of Reason on his side It s very possible that our Historian is still for King James and thinks him now as truly King of England as he was before And it is very