As Sapiens semper incipit a fine saith the Philosopher in that the end sets all a-working let us consider how God in the conveying it out of himself for Administrations in the Political and Civil World did primarily intend the due ordering of things by it according to the rules of Justice Piety and Religion that all might concenter in Gods Glory and Mans Good Order Truth and Justice being the only Foundations and Pillars of Government For as in the lesser World of mixed Bodies due temper and moderation of parts and in the rational World Tranquillity of Soul by the subordination of inferiour Faculties and Passions to the Soveraignty of Reason preserves them so in the great World propriety and enjoyment of our just and native Rights with punishment of Offences which the mind of the Law rule of Justice and Right the measure of all things according to Equity and Reason under the Supreme Head is that which preserves a happy Harmony and sweet Society amongst men And for this end God gave his first Commission to Moses only even Regal Power which before was Natural and Paternal in Adam both for expedition in Affairs of State which could not be acted by many and the prevention of Factions and Schisms that Popular States are always subject unto but this under certain Fundamental Rules though he had immediate Revelation to shape himself by yet with an absolute Power where Gods Law did not restrain him to be derived to all Kings for ever who still are or ought to be the Depositories of that Supreme Authority as to make War and Peace to call and dissolve Assemblies both in State and Church Affairs which as the greatest Essentials of Regality p Num. 10.1 2 8. and 29.1 were only Originally in God himself but since exercised and practised by all succeeding Kings as may appear by multitudes of Scriptures q Jos 1.17 and 34.18 1 Chro. 15. 23.3.6 2 Chro. 15.14 20.21 25.5 34.31.32.33 and the Stories of all Ages so as none durst in former times have refused to come when called by them r Num. 20.13 though for matters of Conscience or a Diana unless some Demetrius or Crafts-man led on the Rout as one observes upon the Text. s Acts 19.4 23 36. Nor is this only of Divine Institution but founded in Nature as hath been shewed in that all the Conjugations of Sinews and Strength meet in the Head the Fountain of Motion from whence all the Members derive their Operations and practised among the Heathen by the Light of that Law only as in Pharaoh t Gen. 41.44 and the Character God gave the Jews of their Kings when they asked one after the manner of the Nations u 1 Sam. 8. From whence we may conclude That Moses had all Monarchical and Absolute Power in respect of the Jews radically in him even Jus Regale w Deut. 33.3 and was in Rectitudine Rex as well in Name as Power x vers 4.5 which afterwards was transferred upon Saul as a Punishment to the People for rejecting it in those God had appointed to conduct them by the immediate assistance of his Holy Spirit But that he ever left or gave Commission for the exercise of this Power to a Community can never be shewed Yet here God leaves not Tyrants to their own unbridled range and rapine as the Wild Beasts of the Forests without a rule both of Direction and Obligation as hath been shewed which ought to be the measure of all just Power y Deut. 17. Gen. 17.6.49.10 though he did foretel what did or should follow for he no sooner establishes the Throne upon David and his Seed but does it under a Covenant of Obedience z 2 Chro. 6.16.7.17 2 Kin. 11.6 Ezech. 37.12 by the fail of which his Crown was forfeited to God only not Men upon any Compact or Condition betwixt him and the People a 2 Sam. 5. Yet had there been a stipulation between them the violation thereof could not have evacuated his Power no more than a Fathers severity b 1 Tim. 6. 1 Pet. 2.18 can cancel a Child's Obedience it being only a peculiar of God's by whom Kings reign c Prov. 8.15 16. to remove and set them up d Dan. 2.21 which made Nazianzen in his first Oration against Julian condemn those that would not depend upon God's Providence and expect the execution of his Counsels upon Wicked Princes whose hearts are in his hands and He turneth them whithersoever he listeth e Prov. 21.1 but would be their own Gods and Deliverers when Tyrants are God's hand upon us for our Sins So Peter Martyr upon Rom. 13. out of Dan. 4. Nay Calvin saith It is our fault if so great a Blessing be turned into our Punishment it being but a just retaliation for our disobedience to God For Secundum merita populi disponuntur corda Rectorum according to the Deserts of a people the hearts of Governours are disposed and the just Judge punisheth the faults of the Prince many times upon them that had caused him to offend saith St. Gregory f Ep. l. 2. Ep. 6. So as we may justly invert that of David a King to his People and say as Wicked Subjects of a pious Prince Let thy Judgments O Lord fall upon us but that innocent Lamb what hath he done that he should become a Sacrifice for us who ought to sacrifice our selves for him since it is our Rebellions against Thee that have occasioned in us this Rebellion against so good a Prince g 2 Sam. 21.1 that by them thou mightest take occasion to be the more severe in thy Judgments upon our Nation However let us consider there is something good in the highest Tyranny and ever to be preferred to Anarchy For when there was no King in Israel every one did oppress his brother and act after the Lust of his own heart not only rejecting their Civil but Spiritual Obedience to God h Jud. 17.2.17.6.18 whereas the Oppression of a Tyrant most commonly extends but to some so as the good or evil Estate of Israel seemed to depend upon the having or not having a King And having thus shewed how the Power of Kings is absolute without dependency upon their Subjects though limited in regard of their Soveraign God I shall proceed to the exercise of it and shew how that may be bounded and moderated by Compact the Indulgence of good Princes and municipal Laws What that Power is and how limited 2. I say as God is Goodness and Power and every perfection in himself so he communicates of them in some degree to all though most to Kings his moving Statues upon Earth especially of those Attributes which most concerns the dispensation of Mercy Justice and Judgment to the World For Kings are maxime proxime seconds to God as Tertullian saith above all others and as it were his immediate Deputies upon Earth to
Govern us according to Principles of Common Equity and his revealed Will and such other Rules as the Indulgence of good Princes from whom all other subordinate Powers derive i Exod. 18. 1 Pet. 12. as the Moon borrows her Light from the Sun many times submit themselves to For thus though Monarchical Power be the same in root in all Kings it doth not spread nor grow to one and the same height in regard of Exercise but is with the free determination of their own Wills limited ab externo by some positive Law or Custome which only obliges so far as the Law extends and to that always except it be in Cases of extremity and visible necessity so as this restraint is Moral and Legal in it self and in regard of mixture of persons with the King many times in the Exercise not Supremacy of his Power From whence proceed the Voluntary Suffrages of all those he hath joyned with himself in the fabrication of this Government as in the making of Laws in our Parliaments But this Indulgence of Kings ought to be always free never forced Kings having sometimes the Obligation of an Oath they submit to to bind their Consciences but never of a Militia to bind their Hands if Caesar have his due For though in Democratical and Aristocratical Common-weales the practice be contrary we must consider them only as Governments of Gods Permission as a punishment upon a Nation for For the Transgression of a Land many are the Princes thereof k Prov. 28.2 and not of his Ordination but differing as much in Constitution as a sick and a sound man weakness and perfection and are as a Dwarf in nature if not a perversion of it For the Power of Arms with other things for protection which none else ought to assume are so essential to the being of a King by Divine Institution who owes protection to his people from all violence Foraign and Domestick as well as they him Obedience as he cannot divest himself of them because they are Fundamental and Inherent in his Office and one of those Principles out of which it is elemented l Num. 10. Deut. 33.3.4 1 Sam. 8. 1 Pet. 2. Otherwise he bears the Sword in vain or rather but the Scabbard when others have the Weapon with Endeavours to sheath it in his Bowels Nor is it more impious than unreasonable for to affirm men can convey more than they are invested with or that any should delegate a Power over others lives that hath not an immediate Commission for it from God since no man hath Power over his own nor can shed Blood though under the outward Formalities of Justice without being Guilty of Murder having no just Calling to it the usurpation of an unjust Power being much worse than the most Tyrannical use of the Sword can be in the hands where God hath placed it even in Kings and such as act by Commission from them m 1 Pet. 2.13 14. Ge. 9.5 6. So that as our Saviour said to Peter All they that take the Sword shall perish by the Sword n Mat. 26. because drawn without the consent of the lawful Magistrate o Mat. 22.20 Job 19.11 and if we once come but to say with the Sons of Belial Who is Saul or David that we should serve them that of the Atheist will soon follow p Job 26. Who is the Lord that we should serve him in that those that reject his Ordinances or act not according to them renounce God and then no Superiour will be owned but their own Lusts which always possessed the Throne when Israel had no acknowledged King q Judg. 17. and produced the Effects of Beasts not Men. For as in all Popular States there are many Eyes to discern what is best so there are many Heads to contrive their private Designs many Ambitions to satisfie many Lusts to obey many Injuries to revenge many Mouths to fill and many Hands to fight for Sin 's Empire but Man's Slavery Whereas a good King will restrain those mischiefs and in all just things make Salutem Populi supremam Legem believing he cannot condescend too much to the corresponding Affections of the People In that the favour of the King should be like the Dew upon the Grass r Prov. 19.12 to nourish and refresh them and make them produce Fruits of Obedience to him it being in the Body Politique as in the Natural an equal mixture of those Principles out of which they are elemented an even poyse of humours a due regulation of all the Powers in regard of exercise with symbolizing qualities in each towards one another that preserves a State Upon which grounds the happy constitution of our Kingdom according to the Rules of Equity is founded in three Estates each having a Negative Voice that none might be obliged to any Law but by their own Suffrage for in our Laws as in sounds the Harmony of all makes the Musick So as a middle temper between Supreme Power and Common Interest is that of which our Parliaments are fundamentally composed which have the Legislative and Supreme Power considering the King as a part of them for the making of Statutes as a measure between both as Nerves of a Body Politique and to be as Bonds of a Civil Life in that like the Center in the Circumference they do or ought to stand equal to all parts and with the Pin in the Balance upright to weigh unto every one their due according to Justice and Equity That for the King 's weighty Care and Protection of us we might pay him an ingenuous Subjection not Servitude but Obedience Now though a Derivative Power cannot set new bounds to Soveraign Power it may and ought to stand to keep those the Soveraign Power hath assented to by a Law in all ways but force Prayers and Tears in Extremities being as St. Ambrose saith the only Weapons we have Commission from God to use For in such Cases if they prevail not s 1 King 8. 1 Sam. 8.18 we must bear the Indignation of the Lord whatever it be because we have sinned against him the submission of his Will being the only way to compass our own t Psal 37. and to be protected by him in the greatest miseries that can fall upon a State u Isa 43.2 in that he is the Lord and besides him there is no Saviour w vers 11. who makes the Army and the Power to lie down together and to rise up no more x vers 17. Thus all Magistrates as in the Septemviri of the Medes and Persians y Dan. 6.14 Esdr 1.19 are Bounders in the Exercise of but are no Sharers Originally in the Supreme Power which is ever to be submitted to though not obeyed in contrary to Divine z Act. 5.29 and sometimes Humane National Laws a Phil. 4. For the just execution of which Magistrates distributive are to take care as the two
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
4.19 Otherwise no man shall ever have the Honour and Reward of suffering for and with his Saviour nor have means to manifest and exercise his Faith Patience Fortitude Perseverance in well-doing and many other Graces Answ 3. For the Example brought out of the twelfth of Matthew to prove the human lawfulness of doing an unlawful thing in case of necessity only to preserve a single person as in David which a fortiori from the less to the greater must be the more justifiable for the preservation of a Common-wealth It appears that our Saviour doth approve of his Disciples in gathering the Corn on the Sabbath by David's Example as it was made lawful by an Humane Necessity in a Ceremonial Precept only Nevertheless as Lord of the Sabbath he did then cancel the duty of that Ceremonial Law of not gathering any thing upon that day as appears by the Context Yet our Saviour in citing David's eating the Shew-bread did not free David from the breach of a Ceremonial Precept For the Text saith expresly it was not lawful for him nor those with him to eat it but only for the Priests but urgeth it for the illustration of Gods Indulgence and Mercy to the frailty of his nature in so great a Humane strait under the Law in a thing only malum quia prohibitum that they might the less wonder at his compassionating his Disciples weakness in taking that they might conceive to be against a Ceremonial Precept only and that under the Gospel for the relief of nature in an extremity OBJECTION V. Object 5. Well but if it be not lawful to comply voluntarily with an Vsurped Power by which I may be said to give it countenance and reputation may I not yet act under it in things good or indifferent in their own nature when they are commanded under a Coercive Penalty and that for the preservation of my self and Posterity which the Law of God Nature and Nations oblige to Answ A Passive Submission to the present Power may in some such Cases be lawful For I am not bound to tempt a Temptation nor with the Porpus to seek and hunt the storm where it may be honestly avoided self-preservation being so natural as by instinct it catcheth at any thing that may but stay or support it as a Hop for want of a Pole will clasp and embrace a Nettle to stay it from falling But here we must be cautious and distinguish between the acting of a Magistrate and other inferior Employments which perhaps may be preparatory only to some Administrations of Justice or yet of less importance Yet in case of Magistracy we must distinguish between Causes Criminal and meerly Civil For 1. In Causes Criminal where Blood is by the Law required to expiate the Offence I conceive it wholly unlawful to act in that they must derive their Commission for it from them who have a just Power of conveying it by Divine Commission and the known Laws or else they do not take but wrest and force the Sword out of God's hand and he that so sheds mans blood with it by man shall his blood be shed in that he doth it without any lawful call without which no man can act but in a private capacity and then it were murder in any to kill a Murderer and he that as a Magistrate will do a thing that requires the just Influence of Supreme Power to make it lawful doth tacitely own that Power to be in him or them from whom he derives his Power to act Especially in the Method of proceeding against Malefactors in Criminal Causes where the frame of the Inditement and reading the Commission must be understood an owning a just Power to be in them from whom they derive theirs in that no private person or Community of men unless combined into a lawful Government ever had the Power of Life and death in them For it is by that Power only men justly suffer not the Law which is only a Regulation of the exercise of it so as any man may press the desert of death against a Wicked Malefactor by the Law as preparatory to Sentence and Execution but must not be active in the latter without a just Commission in that all men ought to act in a lawful posture and subordination only For if the Power Originally be invalid it cannot derive a just one by vertue of which men may operate no more than a sulphurous Spring can send forth a sweet stream for with Aristotle Quod deest in causa deest in effectu 2. In cases meerly Civil between Party and Party I am something doubtful how to determine if compelled to accept of a place of Judicature though perhaps in some Cases I may be morally bound from the Object it points at to act without any outward force upon me in the name not vertue of the Usurper where the thing is intrinsically good or hath the countenance of ancient and known Laws but never to the countenancing or upholding of the Power so as I may act under but not for it in such cases And in others when I have refused and resisted it as far as I can with safety to my Person and Fortune I conceive I have taken off all matter of just scandal of giving any countenance to the present Power and rather shew my disapproving of it when force and compulsion only hath determined my choice and that only to a submission in reverence to the Power that is upon me but not to any just Authority in the Imposer which Conscience would oblige unto Nor do I in this consider my self vested in any just capacity for the doing any distributive Justice so as to force a Conscientious Submission from any to my Determinations but only as an Arbitrator to mediate a just end of differences which the necessity of the times all other Channels by which Justice as a stream should derive to us being wholly obstructed enforces all men to a voluntary and free submission unto And therefore with these Limitations it may perhaps be lawful so as neither by Oath or Acting I own the exercise of the Supreme Power as just in them that assume it nor endeavour to countenance or support it which Cautions all Callings of men especially Commissioned Officers are to observe under an unlawful and usurped Power that possesses only an usufructuary and gubernative one to rule without any just propriety in the Legislative Power to which none can pretend but such as are commissioned by God according to his revealed Will and possess their Titles by a lawful and civil Right For in an unlawful posture of subordination none can have a just Power derived Though as I said perhaps in some cases where I am morally bound to a thing intrinsically good I may act in the name not Power of the Usurper Neither do those abused Texts p Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2.13 oblige us further for God cannot breath hot and cold in the same words i. e. countenance