their supream head In the same manner Subjects are subordinate to their Prince and bound to performe obedience to him Now what this power of a King is is not of all sides agreed upon If we looke into the sacred records we may see the manner of the Israelites King to be described And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked of him a King And he said This will be the manner of the King that shall reigne over you he will take your sons and appoint them for himselfe for his chariots and to be his horsemen and some shall run before his chariots And he wil appoint them Captains over thousands and Captains over fifties and will set them to care his ground and to reap his harvest and to make his instruments of war and instruments of his chariots And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries and to be cooks and to be bakers And he will take your fields and your vine-yards and your olive yards even the best of them and give them to his servants And hee will take the tenth of your seede and of your vineyards and give to his officers and to his servants And he will take your men servants and your maid-servants and your goodliest young men and your asses and put them to his work He will take the tenth of your sheep and ye shall be his servants Some from this description of Samuel doe think that the rights of Majestie are set forth So Luthen in Postil super Evang Dom. 23. post Trinit. Conc. 1. Those things saith he which are said to be Caesars Mat. 22.21 are those rights of Kings which are described 1 Sam. 8. Now those things which Christ affirmeth to be Caesars ought of right to be given unto him So Strigelius in 1 Sam. 8. p. 27. Hic dicunt aliqui describi tyrannum non regem c. Sed textus nominal jus regis loquitur de oneribus stipendiorum causâ mpositis Some say that here a tyrant is described not a King and that these things are not so spoken as if the Lord did approve of servitude but the Text saith he doth name the rights of Kings and speaks of burthens imposed by way of Stipend But these with others of the same opinion are much mistaken and deceived For God constituting Judges under him was himselfe in a peculiar manner which never hapned unto any other Nation a King to the Israelites who now did ask a King of him as the other Nations had Hearken saith God to Samuel unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee for they have not rejected thee but they have rejected me that I should not reigne over them Samuel therefore as the Lord commanded him that he might reprehend the rashnesse of this people describes unto them the impune licence the rage and violence of this man whom in stead of God they did desire to be set over them and so in his person of all kings As if the Prophet had said the lust of this Kings licence shall break forth so far that it shall not be in your power to restraine it who yet shall have this one thing betide you to receive his commands and to be obedient to him Insomuch sayth he that ye shall cry out in that day because of your King which ye shall have chosen you and the Lord will not heare you For Kings are exempted from the punishments of humane Lawes and have God only to be their Judge and their avenger The vertue of the Law as Modestinus hath it is this to command forbid permit and punish But no man can command himselfe or be compelled by himselfe or so make a Law that he may not recede from it Lawes are given by Superiours to inferiours but no man is superior or inferior to himself It is impossible therefore for Kings to be bound by their owne Lawes much lesse by the Lawes of their predecessors or the people For an equal hath not power over an equall much lesse an inferiour over a superiour There are three sorts of Civill government according to Aristotle Monarchie Aristocracie and Democracie {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} It is necessary saith he that the chiefe be one or a few or many For all Nations and Cities as that great Secretary of State to many Emperours hath it are governed either by the People or by the Peeres or by the Prince As then in Aristocracie and Democracie it must needs be that the Government be in the hands of some few or many so in Monarchie it is in one mans hands onely whose lawes all men are bound to obey but himselfe none save the Law of God For otherwise it is not a Monarchie but a Polyarchie that is the state of the Peers or People A King subject to Laws saith the Philosopher {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is not a species of a Republike Cicero being to defend King Deiotarus before Caesar begins his oration from the insolencie and novelty of the thing telling him that it was so unusuall a thing for a King to be accused as that before that time it was never heard of C. Memmius a popular man and of great power although he were a most deadly enemie to Nobilitie yet he subscribes to the same opinion For to doe any thing without being questioned is to be a King saith he A Prince saith Ulpian is free from all Lawes Dio his Coaetanie speaks to the same purpose They are free from Lawes saith he as the Latine words doe sound that is from all necessity of the Laws or the necessary observation of the Laws nor are they tyed to any written Laws Constantinus Harmenapolus a Greek Interpreter to the same sense thus delivers himself A King is not subjected to Laws that is he is not punished if he offends To which I might adde the common consent of the Interpreters of both Laws unanimously affirming and concluding that a King is to give an account for his offences to God onely and onely before him to justifie his innocencie Excellently Solomon Where the word of a King is there is power and who may say unto him What dost thou And therefore the Wise man in the Wisdome of Solomon thus addresseth his speech unto them Heare therefore O ye Kings learne ye that be Judges of the ends of the earth Give care you that rule the people and glory in the multitude of Nations for power is given you of the Lord and soveraignty from the Highest who shall try your works and search out your counsels Let us heare some of the Fathers about this matter Irenaeus tels us that the Princes of the world having the Laws as the garment of Justice shall not be questioned for those things they shall doe according to Law and Justice nor yet suffer punishment but if they shall practice
any thing contrary to Law in a tyrannicall manner to the subversion of Justice in this case they are reserved to the judgement of God sinning against him onely Of those things which are committed to Kings by God they are only to give an account unto God So far he Tertullian in his Apologie Rhetorizes it thus We saith he doe invoke the eternall God the true God the living God for the safety of Emperours whom even the Emperours desire above all others to be propitious unto them They know who hath given power unto them who men under them who their owne soules They acknowledge it is God onely in whose power alone they are from whom they are second next him the first before all Gods and above all men Saint Jerome saith of David that he repenting after he had accumulated murther upon his adultery did say to God Against thee onely have I sinned because he was a King and feared not man Before S. Jerome S. Ambrose thus descants on him David sinned as most Kings doe but David repented wept and mourned which most Kings doe not That which private men are ashamed to doe the King was not ashamed to confesse they that are bound by Laws dare deny their sin and disdaine to aske pardon which he implored who was not bound by humane Lawes He was a King he was tyed by no Laws because Kings are free from the 〈◊〉 of transgressions for they are not called to punisment by the Laws being free by the power of their command He did not therefore sin against man because he was not subject to man After him let us confort 〈…〉 lar How far better then is the Emperour 〈◊〉 not tyed to the same Laws and hath power to make other Lawes and in another â—ce there is a command upon Judges that they 〈◊〉 revoke sentence that is once passed upon an offender and shall the Emperour be under the same Law for he alone may revoke the sentence absolve him that is condemned and give him his life Gregorie Arch Bishop of Tours thus speaks to Chelperick King of France If any of us O King shall transgresse the limits of Justice he may be corrected by you but if you shall exceed the same limits who shall question 〈◊〉 for we indeed doe speake unto you and if you will you heare us if you will not who shall condemne you but onely he who hath pronounced him selfe to be Justice it selfe Otto Frisingensis writes to Frederick Oâ—nâ—barius in these words Furthermore whereas there is no person in the world which is not subject to the Laws of the world by being subject may not be enforced onely Kings as being constituted above Laws and reserved to the Judgement of God are not 〈◊〉 by the Laws of men Hence is that testimony of that King and Prophet Against thee onely have I sinned it 〈…〉 then a King not onely nobilitated with magnanimity of spirit but illuminated 〈◊〉 divine grace to acknowledge his Creator to have alwayes in his mind the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and as much as in him lyes to take heed by all means not to fall into his hands For when as according to that of the Apostle to every man It is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God It will be so much the more fearfull for Kings who besides him have none above them whom they may feare by how much above others they may sin more freely Which sayings of the Fathers and other Writers Divine and profane thus premised I cannot but wonder at the stupid ignorance and ignorant wilfulnesse of such men who would make the world believe that it is in the power of the Pope or of the People or of the Peeres to call Kings in question and reduce them to order if they be extravagant And if there be a lawfull cause saith Bellarmine the Multitude may change the Kingdome into an Aristocracie or Democracie and on the contrary as we reade hath beene done at Rome But to speak truly there can be no cause without the expresse command of God either expressed or excogitated for which it may be lawfull for Subjects either to depose or put to death or any other way restrain their King be he never so wicked never so flagitious We doe not deny but this thing hath been done at Rome as Bellarmine confesseth but by what right let him look to it We must not look so much what hath been done at Rome as the Romane Laws advise us as what ought to be done But Bellarmine doth affirme that the King is above the people and that he acknowledgeth no other beside 〈…〉 his 〈…〉 temporall things But to returne whe◠〈…〉 The power of a King over his people is expressed by Samuel to which they must of necessity 〈…〉 without resistances Not that the King was to 〈◊〉 so by right as Samuel had told the Israelites 〈◊〉 would for the Law of God did prescribe 〈◊〉 a far more differing forme of Government Then shâ—ls in any wise set him 〈…〉 whom the Lord thy God shall choose saith Moses But he shall not 〈…〉 to himselfe nor cause the people to returne into Egypt to the end that he should multiply horses forasmuch as the Lord hath said unto you Ye shall henceforth returne no more that way Neither shall he multiply 〈◊〉 himselfe that his heart turne 〈…〉 neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold But because it was the common custome of the Kings of the Nations whose example they desired to imitate in asking of a King as other Nations had so to doe For Samuel doth not speak to him that should be their King but to the people that desired a King Yea and he wrote this Law of a Kingdome which he there describes in a 〈◊〉 and put it before the Lord that is into 〈…〉 of the Covenant that it might be for 〈…〉 all for ever and a testimony to their posterity of those things which he had foretold Joseph l. 6. Antiq. Judaic c. 5. Where yet we must distinguish between the rash and gready desire of Kings and the utility and necessity of Common-wealths If a King spurred on by a private desire and ravenous lust of having doth claime such things as are there described he deales unjustly and tyrannically but if the safety and necessity of the Common-wealth so requiring he demands those things then he doth not unjustly if he doth use his Kingly power Againe we must distinguish also betweene the thing and the manner of the thing If a King in exacting these things doth observe a just and lawfull manner and without compulsion violence doth require the help of his subjects as their labours tenths and tributes for the supporting of the State and necessity of his Kingdome he cannot be said 〈◊〉 be a tyrant or deale injuriously But if he shall goe beyond the bounds of Necessity and â—egality
Saturne Jupiter and Cecrops of the Garamantes a people of the middle of Lybia Cambyses of the Romanes Romulus from whom at first to L. Tarquinius Superbus and afterwards from C. Julius Caesar to this day they have retained a Monarchie Bellarmine would divine that the Civill power ought to be immediately if not by the Law of God yet by the Law of Nature in the whole multitude as in its subject and from it to be transferred by the same law of Nature to one or more But he much deceives himselfe and others also with such his hallucination For this power of Life and Death is given by Nature unto none None seemes to be Lord of his owne Members much lesse of anothers Onely God who gives Life to Men hath the power of taking it away from them or those to whom by a speciall favour he hath communicated that power And surely your blood of your lives wil I require saith God at the hands of every Beast will I require it and at the hand of Man at the hand of every Mans Brother will I require the Life of Man Whosoever sheddeth mans bloud by man shall his bloud be shed for in the image of God made he man Hence is that precept both of God and Nature Thou shalt not kill But if this power were given by Nature unto men it should surely have been given to one man rather than to all for the command of one man even Bellarmine himselfe being the Judge is the best and most agreeable unto nature but the command of a multitude the worst Now Nature in every thing as the Philosophers will have it doth intend that which is best So that out of the politique society and a certaine forme of Civill Government there is not any Politique or Civill Power given unto men But all consent that all ancient Nations as formerly was spoken did at first obey Kings and that it was the first name of command upon earth Yea as Bellarmine himselfe confesseth Kingdomes are of greater antiquity than Common-wealths In the beginning of States saith Justine the command of People and Nations was in the Kings It must needs be then that Kings not receive their power and authority from the multitude or men but from God onely the King of Kings For it is a Maxime and Principle among the Lawyers that no man can transfer more power upon another than he hath himselfe Nor is this assertion contradicted though you should alledge that Princes as I said before are sometimes chosen by men more often if not alwayes inaugurated by them For hence it is that S. Peter calleth a King {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the ordinance of man which is not so to be understood Causally as if it were excogitated or invented by men but Subjectively because it is exercised by men and Objectively because it is versed about the government of humane society and then Finally because it is constituted by God for the good of men and the conservation of humane policie For the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} doth recall us to God as to the first Author of authority and although Kings are created by men that is erected anointed and inaugurated by them yet the first Creator of Kings is God to whom all creation doth appertaine and from whom all power doth come For there is no power but of God if we will beleeve S. Paul who from his Master tels us that the powers that be 〈◊〉 ordained of God The Finall cause of sover aignty is the glory of God and the happinesse of the subject that a King as the Keeper of the two Tables in the Decalogue with one eye looks up unto God whose Vicegerent he is in advancing and defending Religion and piety and with the other upon his Subjects that they may live in peace and prosperity For this cause saith Epiphanius are powers ordained that all things from God may be well disposed and administred to the good order of government of the whole world This is that goale to which the Princely Champion runs which is no other as Lipsius speaks than the commodity security and prosperity of Subjects And this is the end which S. Paul expresseth when as he saith that the Magistrate is the Minister of God to them for good Where by good we may understand good Naturall good Moral good Civill and good Spirituall First the King is the minister of God to his Subjects for their good naturall whenas he makes provision of corn and victuals whereby they may live Secondly he is a minister of God for their good morall when as he doth prescribe such Laws to his Subjects as that they conforming their lives to them may live honestly Thirdly he is the Minister of God to them for good Civill when as by his sword he doth preserve their persons and estates from injury and mainteine the publique peace And lastly he is the Minister of God for good unto them good spirituall when as hee doth advance and maintain Religion and piety and suppresse prophanenesse and superstition The materiall cause of Soverainty is the King and people with which as with its integrall parts it is compleat and absolute and without which it cannot at all subsist The formal cause of it consists in that order which is betweene the King and his Subjects by which he is above them and they under him he commands and they obey he rules and they submit of which as Lipsius saith there is so great a force or necessity rather that this alone is the stay or prop of all humane things This is that same Bond saith Seneca by which the Common-wealth coheres that vitall spirit which so many thousands of men doe draw who otherwise of themselves would be nothing but a burthen and a prey if this soule of command were withdrawn from them This is that same Circaean rod with the touch of which both beasts and men become tame and ruley which of all otherwise head-strong and untractable makes every one obedient and plyable each man with the feare of it A Common-wealth saith Aristotle is a certaine description or order of those men which doe inhabit it The King he is above all others according to that power which God Almighty hath communicated unto him and the Subjects they are under him by the same authority And therefore Princes are called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that is supereminent seated in a more sublime estate And Subjects they are called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} subordinate reduced into order The metaphor is taken from military discipline in which the Commander placed above all others over-looks the whole body whiles every one besides him standing in their ranks keepe their stations Whereupon as souldiers in an Army placed in order are subordinate to their Captain and performe obedience to him as
ד ×” ד ×— ד Royalty Per me Reges regnant Quam bonum est conuenire Regem Populum conuenire Loyalty Subdite estate Potestati Superem 〈…〉 ROYALTY AND LOYALTY or A short Survey of the Power of Kings over their Subjects and the Duty of Subjects to their Kings Abstracted out of Ancient and later Writers for the better Composeing of these present Distempers And humbly presented to ye Consideration of his â—Ma tie and both Howses of Parliament for the more speedy effecting of a Pacification by Ro Grosse 〈…〉 By Gods Comand Wee rule this Land Wee are all Yours And what is Ours CHAP. 1. THE KINGS ROYALTIE OR The Power of KINGS over their SVBIECTS AT the first there was no distinction or difference of men one man was as good as another But afterwards some excelling others in desert were preferred before others in place Nature saith Gregorie did produce all men alike but the order of their ments varying occult dispensation did prefer some before others But this distinction which happened from Sin is rightly ordered by the just judgement of God that because all men doe not goe the same course of Life one man should be governed by another St. Augustine saith that God would not that man a rationall creature made after his owne Image should domineere over any but Irrationall Creatures not man over man but man over beasts Hence it was that those first just men were constituted rather Pastors of Sheepe than governours of men that even so God might insinuate both what the order of the Creatures did require and what the merit of Sinne had deserved If men had continued in their first integrity and state of innocencie there had beene no use of Emperours or Commanders every man would have seemed a King unto himselfe nor would he have had any other Law-giver than God and Nature But when this could not be obtained and the perversenesse of degenerous man-kind grew such as that breaking the bonds of all Lawes they left nothing unattempted which did not tend to the height of impiety there was a great necessity of Magistrates without whose prudence and diligence a City could not then consist and by whose description and putting men into order the government of each Common-wealth is still continued and preserved Hence came the command of man over men without which as Cicero saith neither House nor City nor Nation nor Mankind nor the nature of things nor the World it selfe can subsist For to governe and be governed is not onely according to Aristotle amongst those things that are necessary but those things that are profitable And to use St. Chrysostoms words in our dialect If you take away judiciall Tribunals you take away all order of Life For as a Ship cannot but miscarry without a Pilot and an Army cannot march in due number or decent order without a Captain So without a Governour a City cannot be well ordered and without a King a Kingdome must needs come to ruine If you take a King from his Command or Authority from a King we shall live a more beastly life than irrationall creatures some biting and devouring others he that is Rich him that is Poore he that is strong him that is weaker he that is fierce him that is milder so farre and to this purpose the golden-mouthed Chrysostome With whom is agreeable that of the Scriptures In those dayes there was no King in Jsraell and what follows every one did that which was right in his own eies Iud. 17.6 So that as Tacitus hath it it is better to be under an evil Prince than under none The Tragoedian tels us that there is no greater evill than Anarchie it brings all things to confusion it ruines Cities layes waste Houses overthrows Armies but the submissive and due obedience of true Subjects doth preserve both life and fortunes An Empire now being constituted amongst men it must needs be that one or more must have the preheminence The former is called a Monarchie or a Kingdome the latter an Optimacie or State of the People A Kingdome then which is most proper to us is the Command or Soverainty of one man for the good of all I will not dwell long in describing the causes of it I would they were as well observed as they are knowne or better knowne that they might be the better observed All power over the Creature is originally in God the Creator but out of his goodnesse to Mankind communicated to Man above all others So that God is the onely Author and efficient Cause as of Things so of Kings For however there are divers wayes to attaine to the Princely Scepter as some have mounted the Imperiall Throne by force and armes others by the command of God have been designed Kings as David Hazael Jehu and others of which you may reade in the holy Scriptures others have been elected Princes by the Suffrages of the people and others borne in purple by hereditary right to a Kingdome Yet it is most certaine that whether by these or any other wayes men doe ascend the Chaire of State they have their power whatsoever it is solely from God and ought to use it to the glory of God and the good of their Subjects Seneca tells us that Nature at first did invent a King which is to be seen both in Animals and in Inanimates For the Bees Cranes and other living creatures have their Kings or Commanders So among foure-footed beasts the Lyon and amongst Birds the Eagles doe excell In Inanimates likewise the same is evident the Sun amongst the Stars the fire amongst the elements sight amongst the senses gold amongst metals wine amongst liquids have the precedencie And to speak truth under God the Law of Nature is a speciall cause for to effect and perfect Monarchie It is certaine faith that great States-man amongst the Romans that all ancient Nations did at first subject themselves to Kings and that was the first name of Government upon earth The Jews had a Monarchie from Saul to Zedekiah as may be seen in sacred Histories The Assyrians from Nimrod to Sardanapalus The Medes from Arbaces to Astyages The Persians from Cyrus to Darius the son of Arsamus The Macedonians from Caranus to Perseus Herodotus testifyeth of the Egyptians that they could be at no time without a King and therefore they did voluntarily carry the rods before them and submit themselves to be ruled by them The first King so far as may be gathered from Antiquity was called Menes The same custome was also prevalent among other Nations The first King of the Indians was Alexander of the Trojans Trojus of the Danes the first that was King was Graemus Brito of the Britains Fergusius of the Scots Craco of the Polonians Attilas of Hungary Zechus of Bohemia Pharamundus of France and Pelagius of Spain The first Kings that are celebrated of the Grecians were