Magistrate such a Power as should hinder them from acting for their own Preservation when necessity required it The Magistrate having then his Power from the People it is very certain he can have no more Power than they were capable of giving him or did give him who because people who had no Arbitrary Power over the Lives of one another were not capable of giving it him can have no right to take away the life of any person except it be for the Publick Good Nor can men though at the Command of the Magistrate without being guilty of Murther deprive any of their lives when the good of the Society does no way require it Nay by the mutual Assistance which by the Law of Nature Mankind owe one another they might if he should endeavour to destroy any when it is evident it is no way beneficial to the Publick justly Oppose the Magistrate if Opposing him would not be a greater Damage to the Publick As men could not give the Magistrate a greater Power than they had over the lives of one another so the Power they gave him was not only for the defence and safety of their Lives but to secure them in the enjoyment of their Properties and to judge concerning them by known and impartial Laws Men having no Power to destroy what was beneficial to others could not give him a right to Waste or Impoverish which is the necessary effect of Arbitrary Government where the Uncertainty of the Enjoyment destroyeth all Labour and Industry what God has ordained for the Necessaries or Conveniences of Life They that Assert the Magistrate has more Power than the People could or did give him must prove he has it from God who alone could give it him but God except to the Jews gave no other Law about Government or any other matter but those of Nature And Christ whose Kingdom is not of this World did not give more or take away any Power from the Magistrate So that what ever Power was given him by Man he still enjoys the same without any addition or diminution CHAP. II. Of Passive Obedience THerefore it is very evident That whatever Rights or Liberties men did not part with to their Governors those they have still retained in themselves and no person can have a right to their Obedience in those things wherein they have given him no right to command nor are they which otherwise would be the consequence obliged to pay him more obedience than they owe him but may defend their Rights against any that has no right to take them away In the most Absolute Hereditary Government if the Governor should endeavour to alienate it or any of the essential parts of it to a Stranger he may be justly opposed because the People have not given him such a right nor is a right to dispose of a Government necessary to his governing them but such an endeavour shall be interpreted so far good because Acts are not so to be interpreted as to be of no effect as is in his power to make it good it shall be esteemed a good Resignation By the same if not greater Reason the King in a mixt Government may be opposed if he should endeavour to alienate any of the parts of the Government which are by the Legislative Power annexed to the Crown as in England the Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters is There the People may oppose the King if he should attempt to separate the Supremacy from the Crown especially if he should endeavour to make the Pope Supreme because if they did not oppose him in that Attempt they must either be guilty of High Treason in owning the Pope's Supremacy or be destroyed when the Pope's Supremacy is established for refusing to be guilty of High Treason it being Treason by the Laws to own his Supremacy Whoever owns the Pope's Supremacy is incapable of being himself Supreme in Ecclesiasticals and he that cannot be Supreme in Ecclesiasticals cannot be Supreme in Civils because being united by the Legislative they cannot be enjoyed apart In a mixt Government where the Legislative Power of King Lords and Commons which is the only Supream Power because it gives Laws to all is divided part in the King and part in the People if either part invadeth the other's Right the usurping part may be justly opposed because it invadeth what is the Sovereign Right of another None can have a share in the Legislative Power but who must have a right to defend that Power because any other than a Sovereign Right to the Legislative to which all are Subject would be nonsense and whoever has the Executive Power if he had not a share in the Legislative would be subject to it And he that is intrusted with the Execution of the Laws can have no more Power than the Legislative has given him and where the People have a share in the Legislative they have the same Right to their Privileges viz. the Laws of the Land as the King has to his Prerogatives because the Consent of both is equally necessary to the altering the Laws as it was to the making of them In a mixt Government a King beyond the Limits of his Kingly Power is so far from having a Right to Obedience either Active or Passive that by assuming such an Vnlimited Power he loses all his Legal Power which consists in Governing according to the Laws enacted by the Legislative and by it abdicates the Government for he that ceases to govern according to those Laws by governing Arbitrarily and contrary to Law ceases as much to govern in the eye and intent of the Law as he that ceases to govern at all and by governing Arbitrarily the Constitution admitting of no such Governor destroys the very Essence of his Kingly Power and renounces the only Right he has his Legal Right For no person can have at the same time a Will to rule according to Law and a Will to rule contrary to Law and he that wills the latter cannot will the former and so willingly renounces his Legal Government and by making his Will the Law he assumes the whole Legislative Power to himself which wholly destroys the former Government for a new Legislative is a new Form of Government and if the whole be destroyed the share the King has in it must be so too except a part can subsist when the whole by which and in which he enjoyed his part is dissolved Whereever people have established a mixt Government they are presumed to grant all that is necessary to maintain that Government which could not be if one part had not a Right to hinder the Encroachment of the other It is Nonsence to brag of the Happiness which people enjoy in living under a Limited Monarchy if it had no other Limits than the Will and Pleasure of the King because then he would be as Absolute as the French King or Grand-Siegneur and his Subjects would be as mere slaves as the vilest of theirs since
be no greater Argument than the universal Consent of the Nation that what they so unanimously concurred in was not against their Common Good and nothing but a Danger as Universal as it was great could make all people so desirous of a Revolution And there could be no pretence from the Publick Good of not resisting when Slavery it self was not the end but only in order to extirpate an Heretical Nation which all Popish Princes by their Religion are obliged to do and there was no reason to suppose the late King had not the Design been so notorious less zealous than his Neighbours Where it is notorious that a King has a Design to enslave the Nation there can be no great danger in opposing him because it is impossible for him the Lands and Riches being in so many hands to be able to influence so great a Number of the Gentry and Nobility as shall be sufficient to oppose the Common Interest There is nothing more pernicious to Government than to encourage those that publish such Doctrines as tend to destroy the Rights and Privileges of the people Who are quick-sighted enough to find out the weak side of such Arguments as tend to their hurt and it makes them suspicious that some sudden Designs are carrying on against them and prepares their minds to receive any ill impression against the Government What happened in King Charles the First 's time is an undeniable Instance of this where the encouraging and preferring almost none but such as preached up that Sensless Doctrine created such Jealousies Fears and Mistrusts in the minds of the People of whom too many were irritated by Persecution for Passive-Obedience and Persecution like Brethren in Iniquity go hand in hand that nothing but the Ruin of that Prince could satisfy their Jealousies That Doctrine had like to have produced a more fatal Consequence in his Son's time by encouraging him who had the weakness to think that those who when uppermost were Bigots for it would submit to it when they themselves came to suffer to invade the Rights and Liberties of the People CHAP. III. Of the Publick Good THE Consideration of the Publick Good which is the Supreme Law by which both King and People ought to guide their Actions does oblige Subjects to obey in all things that are in the least disputable and even to acquiesce in whatever a King does if in the whole he promotes the Publick Good It is not barely the breaking a Law or stretching the Prerogative in this or that Point can do any great mischief except it be done with a Design to subvert the Liberties of the People and establish Arbitrary Government In many cases the good of the Whole may require the Laws to give place to the Executive Power because it is impossible upon the account of the infinite variety of Accidents and Circumstances that attend Human Affairs to foresee and by Laws to provide for all the Necessities that concern the Publick Laws can only respect what does generally happen there must be a vast number of Particulars where a rigid Observation of Law must be hurtful and it will be necessary that a Power to Dispense with the Penalties of the Laws should be lodged with the King whose Power cannot be too large if he useth it for the Publick Good The only Enemies to the present Government at least amongst the Protestants are the Asserters of Passive Obedience who tho they think it for the Publick Good to suffer a King to inslave a Nation rather than oppose him yet are so absurd as to think they are obliged in Conscience to disturb the Government that protects them and raise a Civil War tho the consequence should be never so fatal to restore a Prince whose Return would if the War did not compleat the Ruin of the Nation The Falseness and Absurdity of which Opinion I shall endeavour to make manifest And to shew That it is the Indispensable Duty of all that are Protected by a Government to bear True Faith and Allegiance to it I suppose I need not spend many Words to shew the Absolute Necessity of Government for the Good and Well-being of Mankind or that it was for no other reason that men parted with their Liberties for what else could be an Equivalent but for the mutual Defence and Security which they receive by Government which is the sole Design and End of all Laws Punishments and Rewards As this Reason was at first the sole Motive for submitting to particular persons so it is the only reason still for continuing Allegiance to them and when this Reason ceaseth Natural Liberty does return and then men are obliged for the sake of their own Safety and Preservation to pay Allegiance where it is most for their own Interest and Advantage Obedience is due to Government and not to the Person that governs but upon the account and for the sake of it otherwise people might be obliged to pay Allegiance to a King after he had resigned his Regal Oâ—fice It is impossible for a King to lose his Government and not lose the Allegiance of his Subjects because they are Relatives and according to the nature of all Relatives one cannot subsist without the other Natural Relations as that between Father and Son last as long as both Parties Live but Artificial ones if I may so term them as those between Master and Servant King and Subject may be destroyed during their Lives and when these Relations cease all Obligations on both sides cease The Relation between Sovereign and Subjects is destroyed when the Sovereign will no longer Protect his People and so freely withdraws from the Government or when he is deprived of the Power of Protecting them and so is driven from his Government which as to the People for whose sake Government was Instituted has the same effect and they equally lose that Protection and Defence for the sake of which alone Allegiance is paid whether the Sovereign will not or cannot any longer Govern them and is forced to leave his Government in the hands of others whereby those that were his Subjects are as incapable of paying him Allegiance as he is to Protect them and the same Force that will justifie his leaving them will equally justifie their Transferring their Allegiance And since no Society is able to subsist without having Justice Administred and enjoying those other blessings that are derived from Government Either they must by living without Government become a prey to every one or else there is a necessity of preserving themselves by paying Allegiance to the new Government If Obedience were due purely to the Title Subjects would be very great Rebels in refusing to pay Obedience to a Madman with a Legal Title and in placing another in the Throne What other reason can be assigned for removing him but that the good of the Commonwealth requires Obedience to be paid to a Person that can Protect them which since a Madman cannot it is
they are as Christ speaks of the Sabbath made for man and not man for them But in things designed for the Temporal interest of mankind the standard of Good and Evil is the Publick good and things are Commanded or Forbidden as they are either good or hurtful to Mankind and what in some circumstances may be a Duty in others if it prove inconsistent with the Publick good would be a Sin and the contrary a Duty and then acting for the Publick good would not be doing Evil that Good might come of it but by the circumstances altering the case it would cease to be Evil. The design end and intent of all God's Laws is the Worship or Reverence that is due to the Deity and the Love that is due to man The love of God and ones Neighbour our Saviour saith are the Two grand Commandments on which hang all the Law and the Prophets and in a much more eminent manner does the Gospel whose Precepts as they teach the mutual Duty of man towards man are nothing but Love and Charity So that it is evident that no Doctrine can be true that is in the least inconsistent with these Two Commandments the Love of God and of ones Neighbour But how can he be said to love his Neighbour which is an indefinite word and carryeth the sence of an universal who will have vast Numbers sacrificed to the interest of a Single person Or how can it be presumed that God who has declared he is no respecter of Persons and has made all men by Nature equal should act so inconsistently with himself as to require that great Numbers should lose their Lives and be exposed to all manner of Misery for so inconsiderable a trifle as the advancing a single Person to a Post which is attended with as great Cares and Troubles as Honours and Riches or that he should prescribe about Government which could have no other ground for its Institution but the good of the Society I say that he should prescribe such rules as in most Revolutions must tend to their Ruin and Confusion CHAP. V. Of the Law of Nations UPON this foundation of the General good of Societies have certain Rules and Customs been observed by Nations in their intercourse with one another which are called the Law of Nations without which no Correspondence either in Peace or War could be maintained which only by tacite consent and general practice of Nations upon the account of their evident utility and common profit have obtained the force of Laws and are looked on as sacred The Supreme Powers neither by themselves nor Representatives ever met or enacted such Laws nor have other Nations Power to oblige any Sovereign Independant State which cannot be bound to observe these Customs or Practices but as they tend to the General good and advantage of all Societies Every Nation is at Liberty to appoint what Government Laws c. or manage its own Affairs within its self as it thinks best The Laws of Nations relate only to their Commerce and Correspondence one with another and Princes are no other way concerned by the Law of Nations with one another but as they have the Power of making Peace or War and all other Leagues for those Nations they Rule It is not at all material what Right they have to this Power it is sufficient the Nations then own them for their Sovereigns and have intrusted them with this Power it would be an endless as well as useless task for Ambassadors before their admission to prove the just Right their Masters have to those Titles and Powers they assume to themselves All Treaties except they appear to be merely Personal though made with Usurpers will oblige Legal Princes if they succeed and so vice versa and a League made with a Nation when under a King will oblige that Nation provided they continue free though the Government should be changed to a Commonwealth because Leagues are National and made with Princes only upon the account of the Nations they are Representatives of But when they lose this Power and the Nations are no longer concerned in their Acts they lose all manner of Right that did belong to them by the Law of Nations because these Privileges are as Grotius calls them bona Regni and did belong to them only as they were the Publick Persons or Representatives of their respective Nations which when they cease to be they have no more Right to them then they had before they were these Publick Persons But because the same intercourse between Nations will always be necessary which cannot be maintained but with those who have the Supreme Power and they that have that Power must have a Right to those Privileges upon the account of the Nations they Represent and the Dispossessed Princes must with their Kingdoms lose their Right to them because more than one at the same time cannot have the same Right for the same Nation And though some Princes out of design or hatred to their Enemies may allow outed Princes some of those Privileges that belong only to those that have Summum imperium yet they have no Right by the Laws of Nations to claim them but they as well as those that follow their broken fortunes can be esteemed no other than Subjects during their stay to those Kings in whose Dominions they abide where they are so far from having a Power of making Peace or War or any other National Contracts that they cannot without License first obtained from those Princes in whose Dominions they are send any to treat with other Princes or receive any sent by them much less allow them those Privileges which are due to Persons of a Publick Character And it would be unreasonable that Sovereigns should be obliged to allow them or any sent by them those privileges when they are incapable of returning the same And with as little reason can any Prince in anothers Dominions pretend to grant Commissions to private Men of War to disturb the Trade and Commerce of any Nation because he cannot claim in another Prince's Territories a Power which can only belong to the Sovereignty of those Dominions to Judge Condemn or Restore according to the Maritime Laws the Ships and Goods which are taken by those that act by his Commission So that the Privateers themselves would be their own Judges whether what they take was Lawful Prize which in effect would be a power to rob whom they had a mind to Therefore by the Law of Nations all who act by such a Commission are esteemed as Pirates CHAP. VI. Of the Obligation of Human Laws ALL Writers allow That the Leagues and Contracts which Princes make with one another do oblige them to one another no longer then they are in possession of their Kingdoms because the sole reasons of making these Leagues were upon the power each Kingdom had to afford mutual Assistance and benefit to one another and if this be a constant practice with Kings
Magistrate whom he calls the Ordinance of Man so that it is plain that God by approving this Human Ordinance approves it as Human and requires obedience to it for the same Reasons that men at first instituted it And it is the power Governors have to do Good that makes them to be not only God's Ordinance and God's Ministers but even Gods for since they are not Gods by nature tho by some peoples arguing one would suppose they though them such or at least Beings in themselves superior to the rest of Mankind it must be for the protection they afford that they are termed so who when they do no longer protect the people cease to be a Human Ordinance and then too they cease to be a Divine one And the same Reasons that obliges people to submit to them when they act for the good of the Society does as much oblige people to oppose them if they design to ruin and destroy them It cannot well be supposed that God who has obliged Mankind to preserve their lives and consequently to use the means that are necessary for that end should require People to suffer themselves to be destroyed to gratify the Lust or Barbarity of a single Person or a few who are by Nature but their Equals and only above them by being in an Office which they erected only for their Convenience Obj. St. Paul makes no manner of exception but declareth Whosoever resists shall receive damnation Ans. The Apostle requireth obedience to Parents in all things so he requireth obedience to Masters Husbands Pastors without mentioning any Exceptions so here the Apostle which was sufficient for his purpose declareth all people ought to obey the Supream Powers without mentioning this exception which from the nature end and design of Government and even from those Reasons which he gives for Obedience does necessarily flow It cannot be presumed that Christ gave Authority to his Apostles to make Slaves of Mankind by giving the Emperors a new Power who before by no Law of God or Nature had such a power over peoples lives All the Power the Roman Government had was immediatly from the people who as it is plain in History by their mutual Consent erected that Commonwealth and what power the Emperors had was given them too by the people who by the Lex Regia conferred it upon them All that can be deduced from Scripture is That obedience is due to those that protect the people and nothing can be plainet than those Texts which require it By which plain and ignorant people may know their duty as well as the learned and wise It would have been inconsistent with the Goodness of God to have required obedience on the greatest penalties and yet leave it so uncertain as the Jacobitish Principles would render it to whom obedience is to be paid What can be more uncertain than generally Titles are And are there not innumerable intricate difficulties about long Possession presumed Consent a just cause for a total Conquest c. If about these Points the Learned do so extreamly differ as any one may perceive that gives himself the trouble to examine what Authors have writ upon it who give good Reasons for destroying one another's Hypothesis but none for confirming their own but what are liable to equal Exceptions what means or possibility have almost all Mankind the unlearned and common people of knowing their duty But it may be objected Though the common people should be mistaken invincible Ignorance will excuse them Ans. Not to dispute how far such Ignorance will excuse them I am sure it is inconsistent with the Infinite Wisdom of God to give such Rules as almost all Mankind are utterly uncapable of understanding or guiding their Actions by But whoever considereth these Texts of Scripture will see the falseness of such impious Reflections and must admire the Goodness of God in laying down Rules so plain that a well-meaning man cannot mistake them But if men will be wiser than God himself and not be content with those Laws he prescribes them but will invent new Rules and new ways or by following the Tradition of the Jewish Priests will disturb the peace and quiet of Human Societies by opposing the Powers that be If by so doing they incur the severest Punishments here as well as Eternal Torments hereafter with those damned ill-natured Spirits the grand Enemies of Mankind who at first possessed men with these Maxims so pernicious to Human Societies they must thank themselves and their too great Subtilty The Primitive Christians all along complied with the Revolution of the Empire and whoever was in possession of it without examing his Title paid him allegiance and thought him invested with God's Authority And as the Goths and Vandals and other barbarous Nations on one hand and the Saracens Turks and Persians on the other without any just cause overturn'd the Roman Empire the Christians were so far from disputing their Titles or refusing to transfer their Allegiance to them that they never scrupled to own their Government If these Pharisaical Notions had then been believed or practised those Nations would have extirpated all the Professors of Christianity as Enemies to Government and Order instead of being converted to their Religion as most of the Northern Nations were Nor do the Christians that now live under the Dominions of the Infidels vary from this Primitive Practice or scruple to transfer their Allegiance to any that gets possession of the Sacred Office of Governing tho the Legal Prince be still alive Did not the Jews though they were commanded by a Divine Law to take a King from amongst their Brethren and God himself had intailed the Crown on the Posterity of David practice the same as they fell under the power of the four great Empires And did they not submit to Alexander without endeavouring to oppose him when Darius to whom they had sworn obedience could no longer protect them I shall add but one Instance more and that shall be of David who thought it not unlawful when Saul designed to take away his life to transfer his Allegiance and fly to Achish King of Gath for protection who made him Keeper of his Head or Captain of his Guard and whilst he was under his protection he thought it his duty to pay all manner of Allegiance to him and tho contrary to his Interest and the hopes he had of being King after Saul's death even to join with the Uncircumcised to invade his own Countrey and to sight against the Lord 's Anointed his late King and Father-in-law and as appeareth by the 1 Sam. 29. 8. was much grieved and humbly expostulateth with the King for not permitting him to attend him in the Battel But what have I done or what hast thou found in thy servant so long as I have been with thee until this day that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my Lord the King Saul by designing to destroy David had
AN ESSAY CONCERNING OBEDIENCE TO THE Supreme Powers AND THE Duty of Subjects in all Revolutions WITH Some CONSIDERATIONS touching the Present Juncture of Affairs LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane MDCXCIV THE CONTENTS THE Introduction Page 1. CHAP. I. Of Government and the Origine of it ibid. CHAP. II. Of Passive Obedience 8. CHAP. III. Of the Publick Good 15. CHAP. IV. Of God's Laws 22. CHAP. V. Of the Law of Nations 26. CHAP. VI. Of the Obligation of Human Laws 29. CHAP. VII Objections answered 34. CHAP. VIII Of Conquest Pag. 37. CHAP. IX Of Possession 24. CHAP. X. Of Protection 44. CHAP. XI Of Oaths of Fidelity 54. CHAP. XII Of the Act of Parliament of the 11 of Hen. 7. 56. CHAP. XIII Of Proofs of Scripture concerning Obedience to those that actually Administer Government 59. CHAP. XIV Some Considerations touching the Present Affairs 66. Books Sold by Richard Baldwin MErcury or the Secret and Swift Messenger Shewing how a man may with privacy and speed communicate his Thoughts to a Friend at any distance The Second Edition By the Right Reverend Father in God John Wilkins late Lord Bishop of Chester Printed for Rich. Baldwin where are to be had The World in the Moon and Mathematical Magick Bibliotheca Politica Or a Discourse by way of Dialogue on these following Questions 1. In what sense all Civil Power is derived from God and in what sense may be also from the people 2. Whether His present Majesty King William when Prince of Orange had a just Cause of War against King James II. 3. Whether the Proceedings of His Present Majesty before he was King as also of the Late Convention in respect of the said King James is justifiable by the Law of Nations and the Constitution of our Government Collected out of the best Authors as well Ancient as Modern Dialogue the Eleventh A Compendious History of the Taxes of France and of the Oppressive Methods of Raising of them An Impartial Enquiry into the Advantages and Losses that England hath received since the beginning of this present War with France Berault's French Grammar The Tragedies of the Last Age consider'd and examin'd by the Practice of the Ancients and by the common sense of all Ages in a Letter to Fleetwood Shepherd Esq Part I. The Second Edition A short View of Tragedy its Original Excellency and Corruption with some Reflections on Shakespear and other Practitioners for the Stage Both by Mr. Rimer Servant to Their Majesties Truth brought to light Or the History of the first 14 Years of King James I In four parts c. Travels into divers parts of Europe and Asia undertaken by the French King's Order to discover a new Way by Land into China c. Liturgia Tigurina or the Book of Common-Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other Ecclesiastical Rites and Ceremonies usually practised and solemnly performed in all the Churches and Chappels of the City and Canton of zurick in Switzerland c. The Works of the Famous Mr. Francis Rabelais Doctor in Physick Treating of the Lives Heroick Deeds and Sayings of Gorgantua and his Son Pantagruel Translated from the French To which is added Rabelais's Life and a new Key to the whole Work Letters of Love and Gallantry and several other Subjects All written by Ladies With the Memoirs Life and Adventures of a young Lady Written by her self in several Letters to a Person of Quality in Town Vol. 1. Memoirs concerning the Campagne of Three Kings William Lewis and James in the Year 1692. With Reflections upon the Great Endeavours of Lewis the 14th to effect his Designs of James the 2d to Remount the Throne and the proper Methods for the Allies to take to hinder both AN ESSAY CONCERNING Obedience to the Supreme Powers c. The INTRODUCTION THE Design of these Sheets which one would think should be no difficult Task is to persuade People to act for the Good and Prosperity of the Community they are Members of and in which their own is included and to convince them That it is their Duty as well as Interest to bear True Faith and Allegiance to the present Government Which Design that I may the better perform it will be necessary to premise somewhat about Government in general and the Grounds and Measures of Obedience to it by which I hope I shall be able to shew What is the Duty of Subjects not only in the present Juncture of Affairs but in all Changes and Revolutions CHAP. I. Of Government and the Origine of it GOvernment is as it is usually defined The Care of other Peoples Safety which consists in Protecting and securing them from being destroyed or oppressed by one another as well as by Strangers and redressing the Grievances of those that are injured and preventing the like for the future by punishing Offenders In order to which the Governor must have a Right to command the Natural Force of those that expect his Protection to enable him the better to put his Laws and Decrees in execution Tho without Power Government cannot consist yet Power and Government are not one and the same thing a man may be in the Power of another and yet may not be governed by him it is necessary that this Power be made use of for Protection without which it is impossible to be protected so that Protection and Government are the same thing for where people are not protected they are still in the state of Nature and without Government It is Government alone that gives the Form Life and Unity to a Civil Society or Body Politick by which the several Members have their mutual Influence Sympathy and Connection so that to be a Member of a Civil Society and to be under Government is the same thing and to be without Government and to be in the state of Nature are reciprocal and predicated of one another None can pretend to be or claim any Civil Rights as a Member of a Society without owning the actual Government that makes it a Society and they that disown the Government of the Society they live in do outlaw themselves and virtually declare themselves no Members of it because they have reduced themselves to a state of Nature by disowning there is amongst them a common Judge who has a Right to decide their Controversies and redress their Injuries and in whose Determinations they are obliged to acquiesce God who is the Author of every good thing may be said in a more special manner to be so of Government because it is absolutely necessary to the Well-being of Mankind and He by the Law of Nature which obliges mankind to act for their good has instituted it and has since by his Positive Law ratified and confirmed it yet He did not constitute any particular Form of Government but left mankind at liberty to dispose of themselves as they when they instituted Societies thought fit God was so far from taking this Liberty
from any Nation that when he was pleased to take upon himself the Office of King over his own People the Jews he first required their Consent and a Contract between God and the People as is plain by the 19th of Exodus was the Foundation of the Theocracy And since it is not by God's Positive Law That one Form of Government rather than another is any where established there can remain no other way by which any Government can be erected or that one man can have a Right to command over others but by the Law of Nature or by the Consent of the Parties concerned But there is no Law of Nature for any one Form of Government so as to make the rest unlawful or that one person rather than another should have the Sovereign Administration of Affairs Nor can there be any one Law of Nature urged why any particular person should have a Power over so many Millions of different Families with no manner of relation and dependance one upon another and who are by Nature equal being of the same rank promiscuously born to the same Advantages of Nature and to the use of the same common Faculties And therefore it remains That Government must be derived from Consent Object Men are not by Nature free because they are born subject to their Parents who by the Law of Nature have an Absolute Power over them Therefore they could not chuse Governors for themselves Answ. The Power that Parents have over their Children does not extend to their Lives or Properties or hinder them from being free tho they are born in a condition which makes them for some time incapable to exercise their freedom It is the duty of those by whose means they come into the world to take care and provide for them until they are able to provide for themselves which Duty Parents cannot effectually discharge except they have a Power to correct and manage them as they think fit Children are obliged to take the same care for their Parents if they chance by losing their Reason to fall into the same helpless Condition which they cannot perform except they have also in their turn a Power to govern them too and even to use Forcible means when they think it necessary Whoever has the Charge of educating a Child whether he be his Father or a Stranger must have the same Power over him and this a Child tho an Absolute King must be forced to submit to The information of his mind the health of his body and even the necessities of life make it absolutely necessary And if this be not inconsistent with Sovereign Power much less is it with Freedom A man may be said to be by Nature Free as well as Rational tho he be not capable of exercising both until such an Age and the same Age that sets him free from the Power of a Tutor sets him free from the Power of his Parents tho nothing can set him free from that Reverence which is not inconsistent with the state of Freedom which he must for ever owe them But that Filial Reverence does not give his Father or Mother to whom by the Law of God and Nature he is obliged to pay equal Honour and Reverence a Power over his Life and Properties or any Jurisdiction over him Whilst he is part of the Family it is true he must be subject in matters that concern the Family because there can be but one Master in a Family If Parents had an Absolute Regal Power all Civil Government would be unlawful because it would deprive all Fathers of that Paternal Regal Power which by the Law of Nature which is superior to all Human Laws does upon their having Children become their Right and which the Government could no more justly deprive them of than of that Duty and Honour which Children by the same Law of Nature are obliged to pay them and which too if Government were nothing but Paternal Power must belong to it But if this Notion were true this would not give Governors a Power over Parents themselves or over those who have no Parents in being because Paternal Power can affect none but Children And the Supreme Magistrate who does not beget his Subjects can have no Natural nor any other Right to it but as it is conveyed to him by Consent except the First-born from Adam which the Asserters of Paternal Power do affirm hath an Universal Hereditary Right the Absurdity of which Opinion has sufficiently been exposed by a late most Ingenious Author supposing which to be true it is plain that no other can have the same Right so that until that mighty Monarch prove his Claim all the Civil Power that is now in the world must come by Consent and there is nothing but that can give another a greater Power than Parents pretend to over their Children and which Children are obliged to obey even contrary to their Parents Commands and which gives them a Power of Life and Death over their Parents as it frequently happens in Elective Governments which Governments it is visible have their Power from the People and this way too at first must come the Power in all Hereditary Governments for the first of a Family could not have an Hereditary Right Object The Power of Government could not come from the People because they have no Power over their own Lives and therefore could not give that to another which they had not themselves Answ. It is true men having no power over their own Lives could not part with a Power they had not yet Governors will have all the Power which is necessary for the Ends of Government by the Peoples giving them that Power which by the Law of Nature they had over the lives of one another for by that Law every one had a Right to take away the life of another if he could not otherwise secure his own or what was in order to the supporting it and might do the same in defence of any innocent person and could punish any one for injuring him or his neighbours because by it he acted for his own and their security And if Punishment ought then to be inflicted some one must have a Right to inflict it and if any one had a Right all being by Nature equal every one must have the same Right the exercise of which Right men have parted with to their Governors so that they alone have now the only Right to punish with loss of life or any less Punishment in all cases except in those where upon the suddenness of the danger Protection cannot be had from them or where they wholly neglect or are incapable to protect them There mens Natural Liberties still remain and they may in Defence of their own Lives or what is necessary to support them justly take away the lives of the Aggressors And any Law which should take this Power from the people would be null and void because the people never did or could give the
they would hold their Lives and Properties by no other Tenure than the Pleasure of the King who is absolute But it may be asked Who shall judge between them if either should usurp the Right that belongs to the other I answer None can judge as a superior in whose sentence both sides must acquiesce because that would suppose some one superior to the Supreme Legislative Power Or if the Judges of the Land should have an Absolute Power to determine in these matters and people should be obliged to submit to whatever they decrâ—e they could make either Party the Supreme Legislative Power or themselves by declaring themselves to be so None as a Superior can call him to an account who has a share in the Legislative but he may be resisted as well as any other that should invade the Sovereign Rights of others with which he has nothing to do Where people have not parted wiâ—h their Rights it must be presumed they have retained a Power to judge whether those Rights are invaded or else the design of preserving those Rights would be to no purpose But it may be objected Tho it be no Treason or any manner of Injury or Injustice for People to defend their Rights against a King that has no Right to take them away yet for their own sakes people are obliged to submit to his Arbitrary Government because opposing him might create a War more destructive than all the effects of his Arbitrary Power But what King would resign his Government rather than oppose a Rebel And if a single person thinks he is not obliged to part with his Civil Right how can he expect that Millions were it possible it could be for their common good should part with theirs Since too every one of them has the same Right to their Priviâ—eges the Laws of the Land as he has to his Crown why should they be more obliged to suffer their own rather than a Foreign Prince to destroy their Rights Since the attempt is a greater Crime in him because he breaks his Oath and the Trust that is reposed in him and is guilty of the highest Ingratitude to the People who have given him so much Power By the same Argument good men ought not to resist Robbers and Pirates And if a man should be obliged to quit all for fear of bloodshed how bravely would the good of mankind be promoted and what a blessed Peace would the world enjoy which would consist in Violence and Rapine and which would only be maintained for the interest of Robbers and Oppressors Whoever does but consider the Poverty the Misery the Hardship people undergo in Absolute Monarchies where the generality not only want Conveniences but even the Necessaries of Life and how by Tyranical Government the Richest and most Flourishing Countries as for instance those under the Turkish Empire are depopulated and almost turned to desarts so that the Inhabitants are thin and few as well as wretched and barbarous and whoever compares them with those that live under Mixt Governments where the Inhabitants are generally above twenty to one to what the others are abounding with all manner of Conveniences and Pleasures of life or does but consider the happy condition that Greece and a great number of other places enjoyed when they were Free States and what they now suffer or has but read Bp. Burnet's Remarks on Italy Rome and Switzerland must be convinced That it is not the Interest of a Nation to let their King be Arbitrary and that they cannot pay too dear for preserving their Liberties In making themselves Absolute Kings act against their own Safety as well as the Good of the People because a Mixt Government is not only best for the Subjects bnt for the Security of Kings They being oftner Deposed and Murthered as all the Histories of the World do testify in Absolute than in Limited Monarchies Can any one think that the United Provinces in spite of the long War they had to maintain their Privileges are not as Populous Rich and Potent and upon all accounts in as flourishing a condition as they would have been had they been possessed with the Doctrine of Passive Obedience and tamely submitted to the Encroachments and Arbitrary Power of Spain Had the Doctrine of Passive-Obedience been all-along practised Mankind would have been in a more slavish condition than any now are that live under the most Tyranical Governments it is the fear that people may by ill usage be provoked to violate this Doctrine that keeps the greatest Tyrants within some bounds and makes them govern more mildly and moderately than otherwise they would It is I think no great Argument of the Goodness of an Opinion when the not observing it or even the very probability of breaking it has preserved mankind in a much better condition than they would have been had the Supreme Powers been certain that that Doctrine would have been inviolably observed The English who are the freest Nation in the world cannot consider the Happiness they enjoy in comparison of those that live under Absolute Monarchies without having a just Veneration for their Noble Ancestors who have tho not without the expence of their best blood secured to them those Liberties they now enjoy And the present Age would have strangely degenerated had they not been as zealous to have transmitted the same down to their Posterity Most of the European Nations were once Masters of the same Freedom the English still enjoy Those great Swarms of people that came out of the North and subdued most part of Europe upon settling themselves in the Countries they conquered made their Generals Kings and their Chief Officers their Concilia Magna or Parliamenta without whose Consent no Laws were made or scarce any thing of Importance done Which Government the English have best preserved being a Nation too tenacious of their Liberties to be Complimented out of them and as they to their Cost have found who have attempted it of too great a Courage to be Forced out of them It cannot then justly be concluded to be against the Publick Good of the Nation to oppose Arbitrary Government because more lives might perhaps have been lost by it than by the Tyranical Government of all the Kings since the Conquest because those Kings were not Absolute and when they endeavour'd to be so were always opposed But had it not been thought lawful to oppose them and they had been as Absolute as the Doctrine of Passive Obedience would have permitted them I would ask whether then for that is the true state of the question the Nation would have been as Populous and as Rich as it is at present by preserving its Liberties and opposing all Usurpation There is I think no reason to doubt if Arbitrary Government had prevail'd but that the Countrey would have been reduced to as poor and as beggarly a condition and would as much have been depopulated as any Province under the Turkish Empire There can
their Duty to pay Obedience to another that can Is not a Person that has lost his Government as unable to Protect the People as he that has lost his senses And would not the indeavouring to restore him by violent means be more pernicious to the Publick than suffering a Madman in the Throne For though the incapacity proceeds from different Causes the one being a Natural the other a Moral one yet the reason the Publick good is the same for not endeavouring to Restore one as it is for Deposing the other Though the next of Kin may have a right to be a Guardian to a Minor yet if admitting him would prejudice the affairs of the Minor he ought to be denied that Right or rather that Right ceaseth because it is against the interest and advantage of the Minor for whose sake alone he was appointed Guardian So in matters of Government which is an Office that had no other grounds for its being instituted but the good of the People who are always in their Minorities and such Sovereign Curators are constantly necessary for the management of their Affairs Any particular Person 's Right to that Office must cease if he cannot be admitted without great prejudice to the Minors and as the number is disproportionate between one and a whole Nation and as the lives of a number of Persons are to be valued before the interest of a single Minor so much stronger will the Argument hold in behalf of the People and the greater will the Crime be in attempting to admit any Person into that Office when it cannot be done without involving the Nation in manifest Ruin Therefore in most cases where one King has Power enough to turn another out of his Kingdom and get into his Throne it is highly probable he will be able to keep it against any Opposition from the Person he Conquered So that they who set up for his Interest expose themselves to certain Ruin and Destruction But though it might so happen that they might succeed in the Attempt yet since it could not be done without a manifest injury to the Nation by Disturbing the Peace and Quiet of it by causing the Effusion of so much Blood Rapine Desolation and those intolerable Calamities which Civil War does produce it would be so far from being a Duty that it would be a sin of the first magnitude to Attempt it it would be contrary to the greater and prior obligation which they owe to the Publick For none can have a Right inconsistent with the Publick Good which is the only Fundamental Law of all Societies contrary to which no Law and consequently no Legal Right which is built upon Law can be valid to which as to a center each man's Actions ought to tend because the more universal any good is the more it ought to be imbraced and Societies could not subsist but must necessarily fall into a state of War and Confusion if every man should prefer the advantage of any particular Person before the Good of the whole As every particular Person 's interest must yield to the general Good of the Society so must that of a particular Society submit to the more universal Good of all Societies and no Principles can be true however they may serve a particular turn that if generally practised would be against the Good of all Societies but nothing can be more destructive and pernicious to all human Societies than those Principles which assert that Allegiance must be only Paid to him that hath a Legal Title because it must oblige vast numbers in all Revolutions to be destroyed for the sake of a single Person rather than submit to another who is in the same station and by whose Power they might be Governed and Protected It is a Doctrine of most dangerous consequence and if embraced would destroy the best part of Mankind and fill the whole world with Blood and Confusion for in such Revolutions which frequently happen what Government will suffer its Enemies the more still the more dangerous to enjoy equal privileges with its dutiful Subjects thereby enabling them to destroy that Government which by all tyes of Conscience they must think themselves obliged to as Subjects to its Enemies The safety and quiet of their peaceable Subjects as well as self preservation will oblige the Supreme Powers to extirpate them for it is impossible for men of these Principles if they act accordingly to live quiet under a Government which they suppose has no Legal Right because their actions are not in their own power but in that of the Dispossessed Prince who has the same Indispensable Right to Command them as he had before he was outed of the Throne Therefore they are obliged whatever they promise or whatever specious pretences they make to act contrary to them when either his Interest or Commands do require it Can it be supposed that when men submitted to Government because it was absolutely necessary for their Preservation that they submitted on such terms as should oblige them in so many cases to run into those inconveniences which they desired to shun rather than live in peace and quiet under a Government which does actually Protect them Nothing can justifie such Principles except the Misery and Destruction not the preservation of human Societies be the Supreme Law or that it is a sin to act for the general Good of a Society and a Duty in the People to expose themselves to certain destruction rather then act for their own good in a matter which was solely Instituted for their good A man may be obliged to suffer rather than act against his Duty but that he should be obliged to suffer rather than do his Duty in promoting the general good of the Nation is to me a strange Paradox If it be a Duty to act for the Publick good and the general interest of a Society and if the more Universal the good be the more it ought to be sought for then the means that are necessary to this duty or end must be as necessary as the end it self because the end prescribes the means So that if the paying Obedience to the Present Government be for the good and happiness of the Nation it must be a Duty in every one to do it and on the contrary if endeavouring to disturb the present Settlement and to Restore the Late King be as I think no Protestant can doubt it to the disadvantage and against the good and interest of the Nation it must be a sin And can there be more dreadful consequences than what in all human probability must happen upon Unsetling the Present Government to our Estates Liberties and Lives and what ought to be dearer than all to our Holy Religion Except Popery and French Tyranny which include in them Slavery both of Body and Soul are to be courted at the expence of a Civil War The paying Obedience to those that are in Possession is a Doctrine that tends so much
ought to make him satisfaction and if he can without any damage to the Publick ought to place him in that condition he was in before he made him uncapable to Protect the People who then for the sake of Protection which they receive from him are obliged to pay him Obedience The having a Right to be restored by the Usurper is the only Right a Prince that is unjustly Deprived of his Regal Office can pretend to And when I speak of his Legal Right I mean nothing but this by it Amongst the Jews though none could have a Legal Right but one of their own Nation because they were obliged by God himself to chuse a King from amongst their Brethren and God afterward 2 Chron. 23. 3. entail'd the Crown upon the Posterity of David yet when these were disabled to Protect the people by their being in the Power of Strangers it was so far from being a Crime that it was their Duty notwithstanding the Divine Legal Right any of their Brethren could pretend to to pay Allegiance to them though for the most part they were Usurpers having no just Cause to conquer them CHAP. VIII Of Conquest IF the Supreme Powers upon the suddenness of the Attempt or by any other reason become uncapable of Defending or Securing to them the Lives and Goods of their Subjects they are as to those particular Cases in the state of Nature and by their own Authority may justly take away the Lives of any that Assault them There can be no reason why if in all other cases no Protection can be had from those they have consented to be Protected by they are not in the state of Nature and by consequence at Liberty to pay Allegiance to those who have a Power to Protect them And this is consonant to the sence and practice of Mankind ever since there has been Government in the world who when their former Governors had lost the Power of Protecting them thought themselves notwithstanding any Tyes Oaths or Laws that might be pretended to the contrary free from any Obligation as to them and because they could not subsist without Government they have always consented to pay them Allegiance who had the Power to Protect them And there are no Nations in the world but have seldomer or oftener practised it and this is perhaps the foundation of all the Governments which are now extant And this practice does not only obtain as to whole Nations but even to less places as to Towns and Castles which never scruple to pay Allegiance to their new Masters though they change them more than once in a Campaign I wonder what powerful Reasons never before discover'd to the world and for ought I can see by their Writings still undiscovered have now obliged private persons to deviate from the universal practice of Mankind in refusing to pay Allegiance to the present Government which alone has the power to protect them The answer to this is That Conquest gives the prevailing Powers a right and that people submit to them as to Conquerors but the English are no conquered Nation which though it is nothing to the purpose as I shall immediatly shew is I confess a great truth The King was so far from invading and conquering the Nation that it was to secure their Rights and Priviledges that he exposed his Sacred Person to such dangers But according to their own Principles one of these two they must grant for there is no medium That the Late King either freely parted with his Government and if so there can be no manner of pretence for paying him Allegiance or that he was driven out by a Superior Force which in other terms is being conquered So that then according to these Principles His Present Majesty must have a right to whatever King James possessed Conquest in it self and barely considered can give no manner of Right for what obligation can lye on a Nation to pay obedience to any one for battering down their Towns killing their Inhabitants destroying their Countrey and in short for doing all manner of Outrages Must a Nation as a grateful return for these kindnesses be obliged to pay him all manner of obedience Can any man in his senses think these Injuries can give the Actor of them a title to peoples obedience or that mere force can give a right for then every one that was stronger than another would have a right to govern him Conquest by destroying the power the former King had to protect his Subjects sets them at liberty from any obligation they owed him because they owed none to him but upon the account of being protected by him The Conqueror does not by this get a right to their Allegiance because to free people from the power of another and to have a right to command them himself are different things They being once free from Government and by consequence in the state of Nature nothing can give the Conqueror right to their Allegiance but their own Consent By which it appears that Mankind hath been often in the state of Nature and considering the often Changes and Revolutions there could be few or no legal Governments in the world if in such Circumstances all ties to their former Governors were not absolutely dissolved But here it may be objected That their Consent was not voluntary but forced and therefore could not obâ—ige them or give the Conquerors a right The conquered may in a sense be said to be forced to what they did because they are bound by a moral Necessity to act for their own preservation and happiness and for that reason they were obliged to leave the state of Nature and be governed by him that had the power to Protect them none are forced to be Protected against their own Wills they by the former Government 's dissolution were reduced to a state of Nature and if the Prince under whose Power they are will not afford them his Protection they would still remain in that state but they by claiming civil Rights which they can only enjoy by his Governing them and referring their common Differences to be decided and their Grievances to be redressed by him or those that Act by his Authority have put themselves out of the state of Nature and have freely owned his Government by their Actions which were voluntary for they were not forced to have recourse to him for Protection in their Natural Rights or obliged to claim any Civil ones and this is looked upon by Mankind as a free and voluntary consent the most part of whom have no otherways than by their actions owned any Government Though their consent was obtained by forcible means yet that would not destroy the validity of it It is true in a Civil Society all Contracts obtained by Force are void but then the Force ought to be proved for the presumption is against it and Judges declare for a validity of a Contract if the Forcible means which were used to obtain it are not
proved But between Independent Nations where force on one side is lawful where there is no superior Judge to determin the differences or to judge whether force were justly imposed both sides either thinking or pretending they are in the Right all Leagues and Covenants by whatever forcible means obtained are valid and the Good of Mankind which is a sufficient Reason does require it should be so otherwise Wars would be perpetual or not to be ended but by the utter Ruin of the Weaker or Conquered Party because there could be no manner of Agreement or Peace between them if they had a Liberty under pretence of Force of breaking their Promises whenever they had an opportunity In all such cases it is Lawful to Promise there being no Superior as amongst private persons to take from them the Liberty of making such Contracts and the Good of Mankind does oblige People to fulfil those Lawful Promises They cannot properly be said to be forced to Promise because it was in their power to avoid Promising Nor is their Consent Conditional but Absolute and it is their greater Good either presumed or real that obliges them to make such Contracts For the same reason all Prisoners of War are obliged to stand to their Paroles and to pay whatever they promise for their Liberties The reason is the same for paying Allegiance to the New Government whether by a just or unjust way the old one was dissolved and Mankind have all along equally submitted to Conquerors whether the Cause of Conquest were Just or not As few Conquerors have had a Just Cause for all the Mischiefs they have done The reason for Submission is not how one Man gets others into his Power or whether he had a just Cause of destroying the former Prince's Power but whether they consent to be Governed by him after they are in his Power It is for their own sake and not for his that they submit to his Government They may act against their own Good in not submitting to the Conqueror but they deny him no Right if they do not submit It is not the Conquest it self let it be never so just but the after-consent that makes them Subjects A Just Cause of War may make it no injustice to Dethrone a King becanse he gave sufficient Provocation but how can one Prince's injuring another absolve Subjects of their Oaths of Allegiance and give the Injured Prince a Right to Command them who if he hath any Right besides their Consent when he has put them into a capacity to Consent must have it before the Conquest for mere Force cannot give or take away a Right it can only put him in Possession of his Right and if he had any Right to their Allegiance before Conquest I cannot see but that in Conscience they were bound to Transfer their Allegiance and join with him against their former Prince who by giving a just cause of War had Forfeited his Crown Though the Nation be not Conquered yet no reason can be urged for submitting to Conquerors but what will hold as strongly for paying Allegiance to the present Government Has not the Late King as much lost his Power to Protect the People as if he had been driven out by Conquest Is it not the Present Government alone that makes the People a Civil Society Is it not by it that they are Protected in their natural Rights or can claim any Legal ones which are the only reasons which oblige People to submit to Conquerors And are not they that endeavour to disturb it as much within the power and reach of the Government as if they were Conquered And has not the King and Parliament as Absolute a Power as any Conqueror The only difference is That without feeling any of those fatal Miseries which attend Conquest they enjoy the Protection of the Government and owe their Preservation to it and the Nation instead of losing any of their Rights and Liberties enjoy greater and are secured from the worst of Slaveries which otherwise they had inevitably fallen into So that they have infinitely stronger obligations to pay Allegiance than if they had been Conquered to which their Zeal and Loyalty ought to be proportionable CHAP. IX Of Possession ALL Writers I think allow That after a Possession of a long continuance though they extreamly differ how much time is necessary a Right does accrue to the Possessor though there are some of the Right Line still in being If it be unjust to pay the first Possessor Obedience I cannot see how a long Possession can alter the case A continuance in an injustice may make the injustice greater but not alter the nature of things and make the greatest Wrong to be Right Though all things are done in Time yet Time it self operates nothing This Mistake as a great many others are is occasioned by the parallel men draw between private Persons who are tyed up by Laws that are Enacted by the Supreme Powers and the Supreme Powers themselves By the Laws of most Nations if private men neglect to make a Legal demand of their Rights in a certain time appointed by the Laws they lose them and a Right does accrue to the possessor but this depends upon a Law Enacted by the Supreme powers who have a Right to dispose of private Estates as they judge best for the publick good whose Laws can oblige none but their own Subjects But what authority have the Subjects or the possessor to dispose of the Legal Prince's Rights Besides it might justly be imputed to a private man 's own neglect if when the Law is open he does not recover his Right It may well be presumed he hath relinquished it But that cannot be said of a Prince who has no Court of Justice to appeal to or any other likely way to recover his Right yet by bearing the Arms and Title and by other ways still asserts his Right How numerous are the instances of Princes possessed of Territories belonging to others and who have been so for a great many years Yet none dare affirm the Subjects that pay them allegiance are and have been all along Traitors To give but one instance amongst hundreds The Kings of England have a Right to the Kingdom of France and have constantly claimed it by causing themselves to be stiled Kings of France and by bearing the Arms of that Crown yet none will condemn the French as Traitors who have all along paid allegiance to the French Kings But if the Kings of England by tract of time have lost their Right to the Obedience of the French and before that time it was Treason for those of that Nation to pay allegiance to the French Kings I should be glad to know what Month or Year it ceased to be Treason for it is a thing of mighty consequence to know how long it is Treason to obey a King in possession and when it becomes Treason not to obey him In short if a King can have a
proper way to make them amends If there be no other way to make reparation to their injured King but by engaging the Nation in Civil Wars they ought not to attempt making him reparation by such unlawful ways The not restoring a Person to the Crown that he is unjustly deprived of can only be considered when the publick is no longer concerned in his Actions and the Affairs of the Nation are managed by other hands as an injury to a single person and the greatness of the injury is to be judged not by the value of the thing it self but what he that is unjustly deprived of it suffers by the loss of it What is absolutely necessary for the subsistence of one person may be but superfluities to another and as the Widows Mites were greater Charity than what the Rich out of their Abundance gave so the Robbing her of them because she could less spare them would have been a greater injury and consequently a greater sin than Robbing a Rich man that could better spare it of a thousand times as much Tyrants it is true rob great numbers of the conveniences and very often of the necessaries of Life but Usurpers only hinder single persons from enjoying not the necessaries or conveniences of Life but Superfluities because all the necessaries and even conveniences of life can be had without a Crown Yet the Usurpers without all dispute if they can without any injury to the publick ought to restore the Government to those from whom they do unjustly wrest it but if they do not Subjects for the sake of Government to which Sacred Ordinance Obedience by God himself as well as man is annexed ought to submit Christ and his Apostles make no distinction but command Obedience to all in possession by annexing God's Authority to the Office of Governing CHAP. XIII Of Proofs of Scripture concerning Obedience to those that actually Administer Government CHRIST in the Directions he gave Mat. 23. to his Disciples and to the multitude about their Behaviour to the Scribes and Pharisees requires Obedience to be paid them only upon the account of Possession saying The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses's seat all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do and gives no other reason for this great Obedience in doing and observing whatever they command but because they sat in Moses's seat that is were possessed of Moses's Authority who in the Theocracy was the Chief Magistrate Not that the Scribes and Pharisees had so great a power as Moses but as far as they did enjoy his Seat Throne and Authority so far they were to be Obeyed They were then the greatest as well as chiefest part of the grand Sanhedrin which in all causes where the Romans had left the Jews to their Liberty had the Supreme Power both in Civil and Ecclesiastical matters There were not in the Jewish Republick two distinct independant Powers one for Civil another for Ecclesiastical Causes If the people were then obliged to pay so great Obedience barely upon the account of Possession why may not the same direction serve for a standing rule to the multitude in all times And not only to the Inferiors but even to the Supreme Magistrate himself Christ requires Obedience upon no other account but that of possession If Caesar be in possession of the Empire as it did appear by his Coining of Money and Stamping his Image upon it that being a mark of Sovereignty and Empire but not of any Legal Title to it then Caesar is to have Tribute and all other parts of Allegiance paid him And St. Paul in express terms requires Obedience to the powers that be and declares there is no Power but what is from God The Jews being influenced by the Priests and Pharisees who because they were obliged by their Law to place no Stranger over them scrupled to pay obedience to the Roman Emperors because they were Strangers and not capable of a Legal Right not considering the Law did not oblige them but when it was in their own choice and not when they were under the power of the Romans to whom for the sake of protection they were obliged to pay obedience St. Paul to take away these scruples assures them all Powers are from God If St. Paul had only meant Legal Powers since none but Jews were capable of being such he had confirmed the Jews in their Error But the reason why St. Paul obliges men to submit will demonstrate that all actual Rulers are meant and none but they because they alone are a Terror to evil works and a Praise to the good none but the actual Ruler is a Minister of God a Revenger to execute wrath upon him that does evil or a Minister of God for good What can more fully demonstrate that the reason of obedience is for the benefits men receive by Government And what makes the Crime of Resisting them so great is because men Oppose those by whom they receive so many advantages It is because they have the power of the Sword which includeth all manner of Punishment by which they secure and protect their Subjects from all manner of injury and violence of ill men and being Ministers of God for good includeth all the good they receive both to their Persons and Properties for which cause you pay tribute also for they are God's ministers continually attending upon this very thing It is their dispensing these advantages to Mankind that makes them God's Ministers and God's Ordinance the Scripture affirming those things that are necessary for the good of Mankind to come from God as plowing and sowing Isaiah 28. from Verse the 23d to the 29th If it once be known as the discovery cannot be difficult who it is that beareth the Sword who administers Justice who Rewards and who Punisheth if the Apostle's word is to be taken subjection is not only due to him for Wrath but for Conscience-sake and the same Apostle exhorts That prayers be made for Kings and all in Authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty These reasons can only concern those that have actual Power and Authority by whose protection those that live under them may lead such lives and if it be our duty to pray that we may lead such Lives it must be our duty to enable them that have Authority over us to secure us in the enjoyment of a quiet and peaceable Life Do the Principles or Practices of the Jacobites suit with this Doctrine who instead of Praying for those in Authority make it their business by opposing them to destroy not only our Quiet and Peace and even all Godliness and Honesty too by endeavouring to set up again a Popish Governor and by consequence to introduce a Religion whose Principles are destructive of true Godliness and Honesty as well as the Peace and Quiet of the Professors of them And St. Peter for the same reason requires people to submit to the Supream
the true Faith is publickly professed any-where and in these Nations which is a Blessing cannot be bought too dear without Cruelty or Persecution For a Nation is constantly in a state of war within it self where one Party is persecuting and ruining another about things which are in themselves indifferent and no ways tend to promote the Publick Good In short There can be no advantage but what the Nation may justly expect from a King so zealous to promote their Good and so able to perform what he undertakes CHAP. XIV Some Considerations touching the Present Affairs BUT it may be objected How can the Nation propose any happiness to themselves by this Revolution since by it they are at so great Expences to maintain a war against so powerful an Enemy Answ. The more powerful the Enemy is the greater was the necessity of this Revolution for if now the Consederates are scarce an equal match for France how easily would they have been over-run if England which is the most favourable that could have been expected had stood Neuter And when they had been subdued what could have hindred the French King being then so Potent both by Sea and Land from Conquering this Island What opposition could the Militia joyned with a few raw and unexperienced Troops for it is this War has made them otherwise tho headed by a Commander of so invincible Courage as the Late King make against his regular and numerous Troops But suppose the French King who is so famous for keeping his Royal word would not have Conquered England when he might what could have hindred the Late King assisted by France from using this Nation as his Cruelty Covetousness Bigotry or Jesuits could have inspired him The French King had he been defective in so fundamental a point of Religion would have obliged him as he did the Duke of Savoy to have Extirpated all the Hereticks England would have been perhaps by this time a rendezvouz of French and Irish Apostolick Dragoons or what is worse a nest of Priests and Jesuits And what milder usage can the Nation expect if the Late King who is under such obligation to France and incensed by as he thinks ill Treatment should return Ought not they except they are ambitious of being Roasted by a Smithfield Fire or are in love with the manly exercise of Rowing in the Gallies to do their utmost endeavour to stop the farther Progress of France which only prevails because their Armies are more numerous If there were more Forces raised the Nation is so far from wanting men that it can spare about Thirty thousand by easing the Parishes of those Idle People who are burthensom to them sufficient to equal those of the French there is no reason to doubt but the English would beat them as they have always done when the Numbers have been any thing near equal and force them to quit other places as shamefully as they did Ireland The misfortune is not that we have now a War with France but that it was so long delayed and whatever the Nation now suffers they wholly owe it to the Two Late Kings who instead of hindring when they might the growing greatness of France did under-hand assist and contribute as far as they durst to increase the exorbitant Power of that Kingdom Though the Charges of the War it is true are burthensome yet they are common to almost all Europe nor are they so great as some people represent them since it does cause little or no alteration in Peoples way of Living the same excess in Apparel and every thing else and the Interest of Money being as low as ever at least it would be so did not the King 's taking up such large Sums at so great an Interest raise the Interest of Money even amongst others are a demonstration of its plenty And the Native Commodities of the Countrey bearing a much better Price than Formerly chiefly by reason so much is taken up for the King's use upon account of the Army or Fleet must more than repay the Countrey for what it contributes to the War The Taxes themselves are not so much a burden as the unequal way of raising them and obliging people to pay so much Money at one time which cannot well be prevented but by an Excise which would make them so easy and so equal that they would hardly be felt But if they were more burthensome then they are then paying of them for some time is absolutely necessary to preserve their All for ever In the Primitive times the Christians especially the Clergy would 〈◊〉 dispose of their own but even what was Dedicated to Pious Uses and sell the Place that belonged to the Altar to redeem a Soul from Slavery Why should they not be now as Zealous to secure Milions of Souls Three Nations and their Posterity from a Bondage both Spiritual and Temporal worse than Egyptian or at least encourage people by their precept and example freely to contribute to a War upon which depends the safety of the Church as well as State a War so holy that if the Cause alone could make them Martyrs all that dye in it are such But to conclude I hope I have demonstrated That it is the duty of all People to bear true Faith and Allegiance to the present Government by Reasons and Arguments which are as firm as Government it self and which will endure as long as it because built upon the same foundation The Good of Societies and which may serve for directions in all Changes and Revolutions as well as for the justification of that happy one which by the Blessing of God upon His Majesties Heroick Endeavours preserves us in the enjoyment of all our Happiness both Spiritual and Temporal FINIS