the blood Royal Yet is it the very same with that we term Regal Therefore the Holy Ghost to demonstrate unto us that the name did not create any real difference between this Paternal and Regal Government did afterwards in the Penning of the Decalogue use onely the word Father to express all sorts of Government And this indeed is the ground of Monarchy which as a Learned Divine hath well described is a Politick Government instituted and approved by God consisting in the prudential Administration and Exercise of the Supreme Power and Authority of one Person over all other within the same Society for the preservation of Peace and Vnity in order to God's Glory the Kings honour and the Peoples welfare Where we may observe 1. The Efficient cause of Monarchy 2 The End or Final cause thereof The Efficient cause of Monarchy is either Principal or Instrumental The Principal Efficient cause of Monarchy is God by whom all Power is ordained Rom. 13. 1. For God is the universal principal and primary Efficient cause of all things sin only excepted Rom. 11. ult And Gen. 14. 18. there we find a King of Gods own making and His Regal Power of God's own Institution For Sem alias Melchisedec was by Gods special Ordinance a Type of Christ both in his Regal and Sacerdotal Office Heb. 7. 12. And therefore is stiled by the Holy Ghost the King of Righteousness and King of Salem which is Jerusalem where this Melchisedec raigned until Jacob's time And also several persons receiv'd their Regal Investiture from Gods immediate and particular Consignation who had no other Title to that Monarchical Honour and Supremacy as Saul 1 Sam. 10. 1. David 1 Sam. 13. 14. and Solomon 1 King 1. 30. Kings of Israel Jeroboam 1 King 11. 30. Jehu 2 King 11. Kings over the ten Tribes and amongst the Heathens Hazael 1 King 19. 16. was made King of Syria by Gods particular appointment and Cyrus Isa 45. 1. who although a Heathen is there called Gods Annointed Ergo. Obj. But it may be Objected That when the people of Israel asked God for a King He was very angry with them and did declare his dislike thereof by a miraculous Thunder and Rain 1 Sam. 12. 18. Ergo. Sol. To this I Answer that God was not angry with the Peoples desire of a King as in relation to the Object of their desire viz. Monarchy but rather was well pleased therewith being the very Ordinance of God himself Deut. 17. 14 15. and therefore was sanctified to the people with the promise of a blessing 1 Sam. 12. 14. and further confirmed unto them by God himself in his own particular Election of another King viz. King David a man after Gods own heart But as in relation to the end of their desire which was Idolatrous and sinfull laying the hopes of their deliverance from those pressures under which they then groaned upon the King looking for deliverance from him and not from God He was angry with them as God deolared unto Samuel 1 Sam. 1. 7. They have not rejected thee but they have rejected me Imputing more to the power of a King for their deliverance than unto my power so forgetting me their Creator and Preserver And for the further manifestation of the Divine Right of Monarchy God was pleased to sanctifie it with the Blessing of Divine prescription For Monarchy began in Adam and so continued in his Posterity successively until the Flood and after the Earth was again replenished the Church was limited to Sem as aforesaid King of Jerusalem where he Reigned till Jacob was fifty years of Age. Who went down to Egypt with all his posterity and there lived in Bondage and slavery till God raised up Moses their Monarch and Ruler by whose hand he delivered them and after Successively continued that Monarchical Rule over them as is manifest in the holy History of the Israelites even from Moses unto our Saviour Christ King of Kings and the true King of the Jewes Matth. 2. 2. Except where their sin and ingratitude made them incapable and unworthy of the great blessings and favour of the Monarchical Government and brought that heavy curse of Anarchy upon them For whilst there was no King in Israel in those dayes every man did what was right in his own eyes measuring their Actions by the Law of their own Lusts All which enormities the Holy Ghost justly imputeth to the want of a King and Regal Government in Israel Although they had their Synedrim and great Council amongst them Yet it pleased God in all their Captivities and Distresses during those sinful times wherein they wanted a King and Regal Government to raise them up occasional Judges and Monarchs for their occasional deliverances thereby to manifest to them the benefit of Monarchy and how conducent Regal and Monarchical Government was to their constant security and happiness God himself honouring this blessing of Monarchy with many gratious Pactions and promises as to David 2 Sam. 7. To Solomon 1 King 3. yea and to wicked Saul 1 Sam. 12. and Idolatrous Jeroboam 1 King 11. and therefore a token of Gods approbation of that calling of Monarchy as a natural gift and blessing requisite to humane perfection for the Lord did never thus directly declare his approbation of any curse or privation of these blessings which was an effect of sin nor of any calling which was grounded thereupon such as that Monkish mendicancy which is used in the Church of Rome For that command of Christ to the young man in the Gospel was principally probatory and all Christs promises made either to him or his Disciples for remuneration of their piety who forsake all for his sake relate primarily and properly to the love of Christ and to such disvaluations and desertions of worldly and natural gifts and blessings onely Accidentally and in a Secundary sense when they come in competition with Christ who is to be preferred above all other things whatsoever although never so dear unto us Matth. 16. 25 But I say such curses and privations of Worldly and natural gifts and blessings were never directly and positively honoured with a Sanction of a remunerative promise as Monarchy is in the prementioned Texts And this I hope may suffice to evidence the Primary and principall cause of Monarchy to be God alone Now it rests to speak of the Secondary or Instrumental cause thereof In Crowns as in all other nay much more than in any other Possessions he that entreth not in by the door of Right and Justice is a Thief and a Robber whose intent is but to Rob and Steal whereby to satisfie his own Ambition and Avarice as the constant event hath manifested in all Usurping Traitors Abimelech Absalom Baasha Zimri Omri and many others both Antient and Modern as that Traitor the bane of our English Nation O. Cromwell whose wickedness I fear hath drawn those National Judgements upon us which since we have suffered whose name I call
God and the King OR Monarchy proved from Holy Writ To be the onely Legitimate Species of Politick Government and the onely POLITY Constituted and Appointed by GOD. Wherein the Phantasied Principles of Supereminencing the Peoples welfare above the Kings Honour and Popular Election of Kings Are manifested to be groundless and unreasonable Briefly Collected by Robert Constable M. A. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 13. 1. VVherefore we must be subject not because of wrath onely but also for Conscience sake Rom. 13. 5. London Printed for W. L at the Crown in Cornhill near the Stocks-Market 1680. To the REVEREND and His Loving Father Robert Constable Dear Father HOW much I am Obliged to you both for my Being and Well-being I desire now to testifie unto the world for though to requite your Love and Bounty be not within the Sphere of my Ability yet since the Apostle commandeth Children to learn to requite their Parents and Nature it self hath taught unreasonable a Creatures this Lesson I shall Endeavour by Gods help to pay that threefold debt of Obedience Reverence and Gratitude which all Children owe to their Parents And therefore I shall ever devote my self unto your Service to whom next under God and my King I owe my self and those Abilities I have both Natural and which through Gods Blessing upon your Liberal Education by a double Apprentiship in two famous and flourishing Societies I have acquired To express therefore my due Observance and gratefull Recognition of your former Care and Cost I here present you with the first = born of all my Labours a brief Collection of the Divine Right of Monarchy evidently deduced e Sacris paginis to be the onely Species of Politique Government and that the people have no Right in the Collation of their King or any Colour to presume to the same The undeniable Right of this Subject absolutely lessens my Endeavours because to prove a Principle is to deny it the force of a Principle But because some in the world are not ashamed to make this Case disputable therefore pregnant with zeal though weak in the Delivery I brought this into the world presuming that the alwaies assented to Truth hereof would strengthen me in my Travel And thus brought forth I beg for it as a true born Son your Baptism Hoping that for the Fathers sake qualis qualis est aequo animo consules And so to the world under your Protection it is committed by Reverend Sir your ever Obedient Son and Humble Servant Robert Constable GOD and the KING GOvernment in general is the Administration and Exercise of that Power and Authority which the Superiour hath over the Inferiour which at the very instant of the Creation of the world took beginning For the very first Creatures which God made being inferiour to him both in Glory and Power became subject unto his Guidance Rule and Government And God who is a God of Peace and Unity to the end to establish and preserve peace and unity amongst his Creatures of different Kinds and Natures did by his Providence and Wisdom create all their kinds in several Degrees of Superiority and Subordination that as one kind did naturally exercise a Rule so the other might as naturally yield Submission and Obedience So that Government being a word of Relation necessarily requires a Correlatum which is Subjection the one not existing without the other And therefore as Government is an undeniable Institution of God as in the Series of the whole Universe is most evident and clear every Creature having a certain Rule Dominion and Dependancy one of anoher so Subjection or Obedience being its necessary Correlate is as undeniably requisite and necessary For the wisdom of God which saw the preservation of the Universe to have a necessary dependance upon the mutual peace and unity of these three several kinds of Creatures viz. the Angelical Intellectual and Natural Agents whereof the Universe was composed and that peace and unity to have the like dependancy upon their Order and Government did likewise see it necessary that the same means should have the same efficacy in the particulars of each of these three species lest confusion in particulars should produce the distruction of the species and by consequence of the Universe For most true is that Saying of Nazianzen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Order is the Mother and preserver of all things Therefore the Lord did not terminate the influence of Order and Government in the species of any of the three several sorts of Creatures but did also originally constitute the particulars of each in different degrees of Superiority and subordination or subjection As amongst the holy Angels we find Arch-Angels 1 Thess 4. 16. and Jude v. 9. And amongst the Devils Belzebub the Prince of Devils Matth. 9. 34. And the obedience of Angels I mean not that of the whole species unto God but their obedience unto one another is strongly intimated by Christ in the third Petition of that Prayer which he gave to all Christians as a precept Luk. 2. 11. wherein we desire that our observance of Gods Will here on earth may be such as the Angels perform in heaven But our observance of Gods will is not terminated in the obedience of the species unto God but further comprehends the performance of those duties adhibited in the fifth Commandment between Inferiours and Superiours whether it be in political or paternal Government And amongst the natural Agents which by a natural instinct are dependant and subservient one to another as the Heavens to the Earth the Earth and Heavens to the Plants and these three to Sensible Creatures amongst whom the Lyon is invested with a certain natural Power and Authority over the Beasts of the field the Eagles over the Fowles of the Air and the Leviathan or Whale over the Fish of the Sea And Jerome affirmeth the same order to be observed amongst every particular Society of Sensible Creatures The dumb beasts and wild herds faith he do follow their Leaders the Bees have their King and the Cranes flye after one another like an Alphabet of Letters But this Wisdom and Providence of God in the constitution of Degrees of Superiority and Subordination amongst the particulars of the immediate species of the Universe is most manifest and perspicuous in the species of the Rational Creatures For God in the very first beginning of the world invested Adam Gen. 1. 26. not onely with the Rule and Dominion over all the other Creatures of the world but likewise with a Monarchical Supremacy not onely Oeconomical over the one created family in Paradise but Political over a Society consisting of many families which were to descend of Adam For the same Law which commanded obedience to Parents did oblige all Adams posterity to the performance of this Monarchical obedience to Adam Now although this Government be styl'd most commonly Paternal because all Adams Subjects could derive their Pedigree from
may do male that is a wrong to himself for which he is accountable to God but he cannot do malum that is any wrong to us by inflicting any thing upon us which is not just and according to our deserts from God whose place the King supplies in Judgement which is the ground of Solomons assertion that The Kings lipps do pronounce Divine sentences and that his mouth transgresseth not in Judgement Proverbs 16. 10. Now therefore upon these grounds of Solomons it is manifest that there is no sence why the people should claim any power over the King by vertue of this Covenant First Because the King is not their Deputy but Gods and every man must accompt to him for his Actions who doth constitute and depute him as when the King doth depute a Judge for any Province or City the people under his Command have no power to question him for any act which they conceive unjust but either by Petition to that Judge or else by their addresses to the King his Master whose trust all corrupt Judges do deceive and not the Trust of the people for they receive not any Power or Authority from the people but from the King And in like manner the people for redress of their grievances from the Kings oppressions must address themselves to the King by Petition and if that prevail not then to God by prayer who is the Kings sole Lord and Master and from whom he receives his Power and whose Trust all Tyrannical Kings break by acts of Injustice which is the ultimum refugium as Samuel declares when he Prophesieth of Sauls Tyranny whereby the people should be grievously oppressed for redresse whereof the people when the King would not hear should cry unto the Lord 1 Sam. 8. 18. other means of remedy than which the Prophet Samuel did not dream of nor could prescribe to the people to make use of and whereas if he had conceived resistance to be Lawful he might soon have found out that way and have the people so to provide for their own security Secondly Because the people never receive Injustice from the King if they look upon themselves for the Judgment is the Lords who cannot do injustice nor break the Covenant upon his part although his Minister and Deputy may fail and offend in the execution of his Office in his own particular which is his own guilt As a Hangman that Executes the just sentence of death upon a Malefactor if in doing his office his intentions have not reference to the sentence of Justice but the satisfaction of some private grudge or some Covetous Design or the like that Officer is guilty of Murther although the Malefactor receive from his hand nothing but his due deserts And thus much I hope sufficiently declares the error and vanity of that opinion that the peoples consent and approbation are the ordinary and instrumental means and causes of that Supremacy and Soveraign Power which doth Preheminence the Monarch above all others within the same Society Now it rests to speak of that opinion which and that most certainly imputeth the Secondary and Instrumental cause of Monarchy and Regal Dignity to Birth-right and Hereditary Succession the Efficacy whereof Holy Writ doth manifest Preheminencing the first born above all his Brethren in Honour and Possessions as the Lord declared to Cain Gen. 4. 7. nor was it in the Fathers power either for love or hatred to alter the Law of the first born and to transmit the Honour and Inheritance due to him to his younger Brother Deut. 21. 15. and in that statute which the Lord himself made ordering the descent of honours and possessions Num. 27. the Lord doth direct that they be conferred by Birthright and Hereditary Succession and not by the Election or Discretion either of Moses or the people But more specially to our Case the Lord was pleased to honour it with the promises of perpetuating these Honours and Royal Dignities unto any Family which were alwayes grounded upon the perpetuation of the Royal Issue in giving Sons that should sit upon the Throne as appears in his promises to David 2 Sam. 7. 12. to Solomon 1 King 9. 4. to Jehu 2 King 10. 30. and most manifestly upon Jacobs Prophesie which upon this very ground Entailed the Crown and Scepter unto Judah until Shiloe came Gen 49. 10. The performance of which gratious promise was executed in Abijam who succeeded Rehoboam and Asa him Jehosaphat him and Jehoram him and so in the rest as the Sacred Chronicle doth at large relate who all inherited the Crown by vertue of this Birth-right without the concurrence of any other cause or meancs And this may suffice as touching that Instrumental and ordinary means viz. Gratious whereby God doth advance a man to the Regal Diadem Dignity and Honour and which is a constant Rule for us to Judge of whereby to acknowledge this Soveraignty and yield our obedience The other Instrumental means of this Supremacy which creates a Right and Title to the Crown is Vindicative and that is Sword and Conquest which the Lord declareth to be one of the severest and heaviest of his Curses and Judgements upon a Nation Lev. 26. 25. And the Lord styled the victorious King of Assyria Isa 10. 5. The Rod of his wrath and staffe of his Indignation because by his sword he was resolved to pour out the Vials of his fierce wrath upon the Ten Tribes for their Idolatries and abominations Quest It may be here demanded whether Conquest be a Lawful and good Title and whether any King who doth claim from thence be a Lawful King or onely an Usurper Answ Conquest in it self makes no better Title to a Crown than Ahab had to Naboths Vineyard or than the Robber hath to the Travellers purse For as it is an affliction and punishment to the passive party so it is a sin and Injustice in the active party and directly contrary to the Law of God which prohibits all injuries to our neighbours but yet such a Title may be legitimated and made Lawful by the declaration of Gods will concerning the same Now Gods will in this case is declared two wayes First Extraordinarily by immediate Revelation and so Jeroboams Jehues and Nebuchadnezzars Titles were Legitimated The second Ordinarily by the Extinguishment of the Royal Family which is a Declaration of his wrath and vengeance upon that House and so the Lord did Legitimate Baasha's Title as himself acknowledgeth by the Extinguishment of Jeroboams House 1 King 15. 29. Now where the Lord hath declared his will by either of these wayes the Conquerers Title is good and Legal and all those who claim from that Conquerer are Lawful Kings But where the Conquerers Title is not Legitimated by one of these two wayes the Conquerer is but a meer Usurper and it is not onely Lawful but a necessary duty in the people to resist him and to use their utmost endeavours for the Deposition of that Usurper and
the restitution of their Lawful Soveraign to his just Rights as Jehojada and the people restored Jehoash by the Deposition and Murther of Athaliah after she had Raigned peaceably for six years 2 King 11. and as the people restored Vzziah by the Deposition of those Conspirators who slew his father Amaziah after they had Raigned peaceably eleven years 2 Chron. 26. Quest If it be not Lawful for a people to Elect their own King nor any means assigned by God for Collation of this honour but either Birth-right or Conquest what is to be done when the Royal Family is Extinct and no Conquerer doth claim and where a mixt multitude amongst whom there is no Relation of Blood to Preheminence one above the rest do consent to make a Plantation and to Erect a new Commonwealth Ans Samuel hath set us a President in this case 1 Sam. 10. 20 21. For though the Lord had revealed his will to Samuel concerning his own Election and appointment of Saul to be King 1 Sam. 9. 15. yet because Samuel foreknew that King should be a Tyrant to plague the people for their Idolatrous Trust in a King he concealed that Revelation and would not nominate their King lest the people should afterwards when they suffered by Sauls oppression blame Samuel for appointing him but used the means of Lots to declare the will and pleasure of God in Electing of a King unto the people And the like was used by the Eleven Apostles when they had no warrant from God to Appoint or Elect another Apostle nor durst presume to confer that High calling upon any man without a warrant from God as you may read Acts 1. 23. So that in both those cases mentioned in this question we are to use the means of Lots for that means is likewise warranted by God where his will is not otherwise known and declared Prov. 16. 33. but the peoples Election is absolutely unlawful as the premises I hope have sufficiently manifested either in those or any other cases And this of the Efficient Causes of Monarchy The End or Final Causes thereof are either Principal and that is Gods Glory and the Kings Honour or less Principal and that is the Subjects welfare The principal End of Monarchy is either as the Schoolmen term it Originans which is Gods Glory or Originatus that is the Kings Honour Now concerning the Original Principal End which is Gods Glory it is to be understood that we do not speak of it here in its extent and latitude as it is the universal end of all things but onely as it is limited to Monarchical Actions and Duties in which sence Gods Honour and the Kings are not really but modally onely different both of them consisting in the very same Duties and are of the same Nature in reference to Monarchy For all excellency worth and goodness is radically and essentially in God from whom is communicated Personae honoratae that worth and goodness for which he is honoured and esteemed And therefore this Politick honour which Preheminences the Monarch above all others in the same Society is that excellency which God communicates to him enabling him for the execution of the Duties of his Calling in the Rule and Government of his people and subjects and with a Power to constitute and Enact Laws and Statutes for the Publick good and benefit of the Common-wealth and with power to execute the same Lawes either by remunerating the integrity of pious and just men according to the merits of their service and obedience or by correcting and punishing the Delinquences of Disobedient and evil men For a Seditious person seeketh onely evil and a cruel messehger shall be sent against him Prov. 17. 11. Obj. But it may be objected that seeing the Kings Honour is subsequent to Gods Glory it being the chief principal End of Monarchy that then when the Kings Commands are contrary to Gods we may resist Sol. We may resist his Commands but not his Power for in those Cases we must obey God by an Active the King onely by a Passive Obedience For which we have the president of the Apostles themselves Acts 4. 5. who did refuse to obey the Commands of the Rulers prohibiting them to preach in the Name of Jesus but yet submitted to their power in yeiding themselves to be imprisoned and beaten according to the commands of the Rulers So that they obeyed both God and the Magistrate the first by doing the latter by suffering For Rom. 13. we must needs be subject not onely for wrath but also for Conscience sake by Christs example who needed not to have submitted to Pilate or the Jews for wrath for he was able to overthrow them all with a blast of the breath of his mouth but yet to honour the Substitute and Deputy of his Father he submitted to their power Acts 4. 28. which is the Ground of Nazianzens advise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We must submit to good Kings as to the Lord himself to bad Kings for the Lords sake And Solomon Eccles 10. 20 makes this more evident where he extends the Honour and reverence due to Kings unto the very thoughts and imaginations of the heart notwithstanding they were both Fools Tyrants and Idolaters for when Solomon prohibited the cursing of the King yea even in the thought he was not ignorant that Saul had been a Tyrant himself an Idolater and that his Son Rehoboam who should succeed him was a fool Object You will say what must men then think and believe manifest lyes must we neither say nor think that those Kings are evil and wicked which manifest themselves to be such in all their actions such as the Scriptures record for most infamous and notorious finners Sol. Kings in reference to their duty towards God may be more wicked than other men because they may offend in a double capacity First In their Natural by transgressing Gods Commandments which do oblige them equally as they do other men Secondly In their Politick as Gods Deputies by breach of that Trust which God hath reposed in them for Ruling and Governing of his people according to Justice and Equity But in reference to their duty towards us they cannot do wicked things as before shewed so that the words of Solomon are to be understood onely of Kings in reference to the exercise of their Power upon us which whether it be for good or hurt is still from God And therefore we may not think them evil and unjust to us for the Judgement is not theirs but Gods Prov. 26. 29. who cannot be unjust Now as God did deligate unto Kings a Power over our persons in his Ordinance for their Primary power and Authority so did he likewise give them a Power over our Estates for the Magnificent Maintenance and support of that Honour which is their Secondary honour of Maintenance and Revenue Which was the ground of Christs command Matth. 22. 21. to render a Tribute of our Goods to Caesar intimating that this temporal honour of Tribute was by vertue of Gods Deligation as due unto Caesar as the spiritual honour of Praise and Worship was unto God And upon the same ground St. Paul commands to render Custome and Tribute to Kings not as a gift and favour but as a due and just debt Rom. 13. 7 and gives this reason for it because they are Gods Ministers appointed to supply his place in Ruling and Judging us And seeing God hath transferred the greater power to Kings viz. over our lives by putting the sword into his hands the Apostle thence concludes their Investiture with the less viz. a Power over our Estates and the like Power we see exercised by Pharao in that Ordinance for storeing up a fifth part of all the Corn in Egypt for seven years together which Law was Enacted by Pharao upon the single Counsel of Joseph with the Approbation onely of Pharao's servants or Council and not by the general consent of the people Gen. 41. 34. neither can we pretend this Law to be Tyrannical for it proceeded from the wisdom of God who in this business directed the mind of Joseph Gen. 45. 57. nor can any man imagine but the State and magnificence of Saul David Jeroboam and others who of private persons and others were advanced by God himself to Regal Honour and Dignity was supported by this means of Custome and Tribute nor do I find any particular Law or Statute for the particular endowment of those Kings but onely that general Right and Prerogative which they derive from God Investing them with a Power over both our Persons and Estates And now I hope our obedience either Active or Passive being a necessitated Duty and incumbency upon us as the premises do sufficiently declare to be performed both from our Persons and Estates to our Lawful King and Monarch doth absolutely manifest the peoples welfare to be the less principal end of Monarchy which though it be really distinct from the Kings honour yet is indeed a meer result and product of the same For Salus populi can never be effected or energated by any other means but those which in the first place do effectuate and energate the Kings honour whether we look upon the Monarchical Actions of King or Subjects both which are versant about the same object and matter onely in a divers manner For the King is Interested onely in the Active part of Government by Enacting and duly Executing of Lawes for Gods Glory his own honour and the peoples welfare the people in the Passive part of Government by their obedience and submission to such Laws and Commands of the King the violation whereof is a direct means of Dishonour to God and the King and of Ruine and of Destruction to the people FINIS * Quicquid est quod dat patri filius utique minus est quia hanc ipsam dandi facultatem patri debet Seneca lib. 3. †1 Tim. 5. 4. a The Stork * St. Leonards Colledge in St. Andrews in Scotland and Graies Inne in London lib. de Moderatione in disp Servand Ad rusticum Monachum * Jerom. cap. 1. ad Titum Ep. ad Evagrium