Sacro-sancta Regum Majestas OR THE SACRED and ROYAL Prerogative OF Christian Kings Wherein Sovereignty is by Holy Scriptures Reverend Antiquity and sound Reason asserted by discussing of five Questions AND The Puritanical Jesuitical Antimonarchical Grounds are disproved and the untruth and weakness of their new-devised-State-principles are discovered Rom. 13. 1 2. The Powers that be are ordained of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the Powâ—â— resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist â—â—all receive to themselves damnation Dei Gratia Mea Lux. London Printed for Tho. Dring over against the Inner-Temple-Gate in Fleet-street 1680. TO THE DUKE of ORMOND MY LORD PIety and Policy Church and State Prince and Priest are so nearly and naturally conjoyned in a mutual Interest that like to Hippocrates his Twins they rejoyce and mourn flourish and perish live and dye together Sound Reformed Catholick Protestants deny justly such a Subordination of the Prince to the Priest as by any direct or indirect over-ruling Power the Crown and Scepter are under any coactive directive we acknowledge over-ruling Power of the Mitre and that Kings by any Church-man or men whatsoever Pope or Presbytery are censurable dethronable deposable Notwithstanding it is certain Religion hath a mighty Influence upon State Governour and Government that from the happiness and quiet of Religion issueth forth necessarily the happiness and quiet of the Civil State The Heathen did see this that Religion rightly ordered is the Base and Bottom upon which King and State are founded Religion is the cement of all Societies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it bindeth Families together and Cities too and is their greatest splendour and ornament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That one saith Religion is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and a Christian to the same purpose Religio timor Dei solus est qui custodit hominum inter se Societatem Religion and the Fear of God and nothing else preserveth all Societies amongst men Religion teacheth Kings how to rule and Subjects how to obey maketh Obedience complete universal entire in all things not partial in some things onely it teacheth our Reverence Service and Obedience not to be outward with Eye-service but sincere for Conscience sake as in the sight of the Lord. Religion hath a powerful influence upon Laws the Heathen who termed Religion the Cement of all Society calleth it too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Cement the Strength the Vigour the Life of all Laws This made Zoroaster authorise the Laws by Horomasis Zamolxis by Vesta Trismegistus by Mercurius Minos by Jupiter Charondus by Saturnus Draco and Solon by Minerva and Apollo and Numa Pompilius by Aegeria Religion is the Nurse of the Quiet of State and Common-wealth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If all living in one Society and Kingdom were pious and religious none would wrong themselves or others Take it more fully from a Christian Emperour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If Religion be preserved in Peace it rights and facilitates all the rest of the Government Religion is the Walls Strength and Safeguard of King and Kingdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Overthrow me Sion Civitatem Veritatis Sanctitatis and you cannot but overthrow Ierusalem Civitatem justitiae all this is much more and solely verified of the Christian Religion a strange Wonder then it is that so many Achitophels and Achans in the World should promise to themselves undertake to Christian Kings by sacrificing the Church undoing the Solemnity of the Service and Worship of God destroying Christ his Ordinances robbing him of his Patrimony and Right to establish King and Kingdom Peace and Quiet in the Land How is it probable or possible Religion being the Base and Bottom upon which all Happiness of King and Kingdom are grounded and founded the Cement and Bond that tieth all together the Rule of Right ruling the Mother of entire and hearty Obedience the life of Laws the use of Quiet and Strength of all Defence that it being disordered King Kingdom and State can be well and enjoy any kind of Happiness If neither the Dictate of Nature nor sacred Truth revealed in holy Word should confirm this Truth the sad and doleful Experience we find we feel this day in the Acheldama of these Kingdoms has laid it open to our Eyes in Letters of Blood that he that runneth by may read it Consider how since the Sacred Hierarchy the Order instituted by Christ for the Government of his Church constituted by the Apostles and continued against any prevalent Opposition for fifteen Ages and upwards without Interruption hath been opposed that in some places it is totally overthrown in other places disgraced weakened and threatned with Abolition of Root and Branch what is the Condition of Sovereignty and Subject You shall find that the Course against it hath been a preparatory Destructive to Royalty to the Liberty and Propriety of the Subject Many are deceived and think it skilleth not what Government be in the Church it is enough if the Essentials and Fundamentals of Faith and Worship be preserved They are infinitely deceived no Society can subsist without Government and if you destroy the Government neither can the sound Faith nor the true Worship be long maintained The Apostle intimateth this Col. 11. 5. that he joyed to behold their Order and the stedfastness of their Faith in Christ. First their Order then the stedfastness of their Faith in Christ implying where right Order is non maintained stedfastness of Faith in Christ cannot continue A Holy Father to this purpose saith well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Order is the Mother and Security of the Being of all things that have Being Do we not see that the Order and Government of the Roman Church doth this day preserve their Humane Inventions and unwarrantable Superstions in such Safety that alas Truth doth not prevail much upon them are within her Communion and on the other part our Disorder and not setled Government maketh us lose too too much and gain too too little Look a little upon the Parallel and consider how since Episcopacy hath been infested and way too much given to a prevalent Faction what malign Influence this course hath had upon Sovereignty and it will make it appear that the Mitre cannot suffer and the Diadem be secured It was maintained that Episcopacy was none of Christ's Institution it was onely the positive constitution of man Hath not Royalty been thus entertained Do not our Sectaries impudently maintain that Kings are the onely Extract of the People having their Being and Constitution by derivation from them Do they not hold that howsoever Episcopacy is a tolerable government of the Church yet it is mutable at the pleasure of the Church And do they not answerably aver that the collective or representative Body of the Community may upon any real or fancied Exigent mould themselves into an Aristocracie or Democracie Others more desperately have reached higher and give out that the Sacred
to refute the Errour of the Canonists and others who hold that Directum Dominium the direct and primarie power supream whether Civil or Ecclesiastical is in the Pope as Christs Vicar upon earth immediately from Christ derived unto him and from Him to all Kings whatsoever mediately by Dependence and Subordination The Jesuits are ashamed of this and therefore will have the Pope only to have Indirectum Imporium an Indirect Directive and Coercive power over all Kings and States in ordine ad Spiritualia as civil Power and Businesses are related to Religion and Salvation It is a curious subtle quirk and nicity of Scholastick Invention and a jugling Trick to bring all Kings Christian at Least Kingdoms and States into Subordination and Subjection to the transcendent and extravagant power of the Pope nor doth this Expression differ from the other in re in the matter or extent of the Power but in modo rei in the manner of the thing as they claim it And cometh fully home that the Pope by this indirect Right of his related to Religion by which any civil Act or Business whatsoever with his School Formalities he may qualifie with such an Ordination and Relation to Spirituals that directly by this indirect power he may King and Unking at his Pleasure Our Presbyterians if they run not fully in this way they are very near to it I wish we were so happy this time as that we had not to do with other Impugners of Sacred and Royal Authority but Jesuits and Canonists That which we have proposed to our selves in this short ensuing Treatise is to consider the main grounds by which the Jesuit and Puritan endeavour by no less spurious than specious Pretexts of Liberty of the People and Subject of the reforming of Religion purging it from Error preserving it in Purity to rob Kings of their Sacred and divine Right Prerogative making them Derivatives from the People in whom they will have all Supream Power originally and radically primarily seated So that if Kings fail in Performance of their Duty the People may supply it at least in some cases may do it of themselves Nay that Kings are accountable to them as to their Superiours censurable punishable and dethronable too By which the Copy-hold of a Crown is no better than Durante beneplacito plebis or communitatis during the good Will of the Community for by these mens Principles the People are made Judges and may find exigents which will warrant them to resume and to exercise this power Puritan and Jesuit in this not only consent and concur but like Herod and Pilate are reconciled to crucifie the Lords anointed A thousand pities it is that our Sectaries pretending such a Zeal against Popery and who no less maliciously than confidently rub upon sound Protestants the Aspersions of Popery and Malignancy do joyn with the worst of Papists in the worst at least most pernicious Doctrines of Papists But ten thousand times more pity it is that the true reformed and sound Protestant Religion should suffer by such miscreants that sound Protestants should be charged with these Heresies in after Ages We will be forced to disclaim them and say with St. Iohn They were amongst us but were not of us and they have gone out from us It is not warrantable to be so large in our charitable Defence of any as to prejudice the inviolable and sacred Truth of Almighty God Our work is to examine and discuss some new devised State-principles set on foot in this distempered Age which have robbed Church and State of Peace and Happiness which these Kingdoms of late and long Continuance have plentifully enjoyed under the Government of our blessed King and his Predecessors to the Envy of other neighbour Kingdoms and States These may all of them be reduced to five great ones 1. First that Royal Authority is originally and radically in the People from them by Consent derived to Kings immediately mediately only from God That the Collation or Donation of the Power is from the Community The Approbation only from God 2. The second that God is no more Author of Regal than of Aristocratical and Democratical Power of Supreme than of Subordinate and that Dominion which is usurped and not just while it remains Dominion and till it be legally again divested refers to God as to its Author and Donor as much as that which is hereditary 3. The third that Sovereignty and Power in a King is by Conveyance from the People by a Trust devolved upon him and that it is conditionate fiduciary and proportioned according as it pleaseth the Community to entrust more or less 4. The fourth that Royal Power in a King is not simply supreme but in some cases there is a co-ordinate Power or collateral nay that in some cases the King is subordinate to the Community 5. The fifth and last is that the King in some cases may be resisted and opposed by Violence Force and Arms at least in a defensive way These are the main Foundations upon which all those impious Courses are built and which have had such Influence upon disaffected and less knowing Subjects to raise and cherish these Distempers and Rebellions for which all sound-hearted and good Subjects mourn Yet to add the more Lustre to them there be couched under them or added to them a number of specious general Maxims apt to ensnare the popular Faction which we shall by Gods help clear and demonstrate to be Untruths and popular Sophisms as they offer in their own proper place The contrary of what they aâ—firm we hold to be sound Divinity agreeable to the Truth revealed in Scripture consonant to the Tenets and Practice of the ancient Christian Church and grounded upon sound Reason deducted out of nature and the best Institutions of Policy and Government That we may the more orderly proceed we sum up all into five Questions whereof the first is this Whether or not Sovereignty or the Royal Power of a King be independent from all Creatures solely and only dependent from God immediately from him and neither from the Community the diffusive collective representative or vertual Bodie of the People In which by Gods grace we will make it appear that the King is the derivative of the primative King who is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords The second is Whether or not God is no more Author of Royal Power than of Aristocratical or Democratical Of supreme than subordinate Of usurped and not just than of just Government and Regal In which it will appear that by Gods Institution Regal is graced and authorised above others that Aristocracy Democracy and Monarchy are not Species univocae regiminis sed analogicae not univocal Kinds and Species of Government but equivocal at best analogical are howsoever tolerable and not so perfect some way defective and that they degenerate from the true and most perfect Species of Government Monarchy in which is formalis completa gubernandi
School-terms in many places as namely de corrept grat c. 14. De Civit. Dei l. 4. c. 33. l. 5. c. 21. passim And to the very same purpose see Suarez lib. 3. contr Angl. Sect. err c. 2. although in his Application he erreth foully do teach us A thing may be said to be immediately from God three wayes 1. The first is when it is so solely from God as it is from no other and presupposeth no thing ordinary humane or created previous or antecedent before the obtaining of it Such was the Power Moses and Ioshua Saul and David had Such were the Apostles all of them were by God and Christ immediately instituted constituted designed to and invested with Power from above 2. The second way that any thing is said to be immediately from God is when the collation of the Power and investing of the Person in and with such Power is from God as the immediate Author and Donor although there be presupposed or interposed aliquod signum creatum some previous or antecedent Act humane or created The Power Apostolical in Matthias and appointing him to be an Apostle was immediately from Christ although some humane Acts did precede and were interposed before his Constitution as that the Apostles put two apart and did cast lots Neither of these two acts severally nor both joyntly had either vertually or formally in them that efficacy or efficiency to collate upon him the Apostolical Power and Preeminence A world of Instances may be made in this kind A man baptized by Baptism obtaineth Remission of Sins and the Grace of Regeneration yet none is so weak as to say that the immersion in or aspersion of Water effecteth or produceth these excellent Effects of Remission of Sins and Regeneration Lewis the twelfth King of Fraence authorized the Parliament of Paris when one of their number diâ—d or was removed to make choice of another in his place yet none will deny that the Authority and Power of a Judge and Senator is immediately collated upon the Person chosen by and from the King of France A King giveth to a well-deserving Servant the Favour to name any man fitted for Honour to be a Lord Baron or Earl after the Servant to whom the Trust is committed hath designed the Person or man he is made a Lord Baron or Earl Who is so stupid to aver that the Honour of a Lord Baron or Earl is from the Servant a fellow-subject immediately And who dare to deny the Honour is from the King the Fountain of all Honour This is easily discerned for when the act interposed and presupposed to the Production and working of such an Effect is such that of its own Nature it hath no natural Contingency with the effect produced but what it hath by some Resemblance or Constitution We must run to an higher and more eminent Cause of such a Work and Effect of which see more infra c. 13. where we prove that the interposing of an humane Act in the Constitution of a King as Election Succession or Conquest impedeth not the constitution and making of a King to be immediately from God 3. The third way is When titulo creato mediante a mans Right to any thing he hath power of by some ordinary humane Right or Title intervening by which he is invested with a just and full Right to that is collated upon him and the Approbation or Confirmation of this Right is immediately from God so that the possessour in possessing what he hath just Right recognosceth or acknowledgeth in the right of Propriety no Superiour but Almighty God Now to apply this for the first way we maintain not that Sovereignty is in a King immediately from God by extraordinary Revelation without any humane Act or Sign created intervening This was peculiar only to some few The second way we hold that all Kings really so are immediately from God for although some Signum creatum some humane and created act as Election Succession Conquest or what else in that kind is imaginable and possible interveneth to the Designation of the Person yet the real Constitution the Collation of Sovereignty and Royalty is immediately from God for the Act or Condition presupposed or interposed containeth not in it that power to collate Royal and Sovereign Power only by Gods appointment it is inseparably joyned with it or infallibly followeth after it so that it referreth to God as the proper donor and immediate Author As in Baptism if there be nothing repugnant in the Suscipient the baptized hath from God immediately Remission of Sins and Grace of Regenerrtion Or as in Sacred Orders the Designation of the person is from men and an humane Act but the Endowment with supernatural power to act do and exercise supernatural Acts is immediately from God and Christ Matthias his person was designed by the Apostles but Christ only made him truly and really an Apostle Just so in the Constitution of Kings Election Succession Conquest or what else is only Potestas designativa personae but the power of Royalty and Sovereignty is primarily formally and immediately from God That we may conceive things aright in this case we must distinguish three things 1. First The Sovereignty or Royal Power which is forma quaedam the specifick and formal Essence constitutive of a King 2. Next The Person of the King which is Subjectum the seat or that wherein this Sovereignty is inherent 3. Thirdly The Conjunction of the Sovereignty with the Person or the Application of Royal Power and Sovereignty to the Person The first that is Regal Power and Sovereignty is immediately from God and Christ. The second that is the individual Person taken absolutely in its specifick and individual Essence and Existence is from its natural Causes constituent But qua talis considered as a King and such a one that is as Supreme and Sovereign the Deputation or Designation of such an individual person for such a Power is by Election Succession Conquest or any other lawful way by which God in his Providence doth manifest it The third that is the joyning of the Authority to the Person is immediately from God and Christ. Election Succession or Conquest may be said in some Sense remotely and improperly to make or constitute a King although they are not the proper efficient and constituent cause of that Power To say in the third Sense that Sovereignty in the King is immediately from God by Approbation or Confirmation only it is too flat an Expression and doth not sort well with the magnifick Expressions of Holy Scripture as By me Kings reign Prov. 8. 15. The Powers that are are ordained of God Rom. 13. 2. I have said ye are Gods Psal. 82. 8. All Power is given from above John 19. God hath spoken it once twice have I heard it all Power belongeth unto the Lord Psal. 62. 11. According to this Opinion the Sense of those and other such places must be Kings have their
Sovereign Power is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is by God from God under God and God's Appointment irrevocable ordinance irrepealable The three last are the Apostles the first is Solomon's for the Septuagint read the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This variety and plurality of Expressions how Sovereignty is of God and Gods the Spirit of God hath used that none presume sacrilegiously to usurp upon God his Prerogative who hath reserved this peculiarly for himself that all Kings upon Earth should be his immediate Creatures and Deputies by his own Letters Patent authorized Our Adversaries have been much puzled with this Text if they give us a new Bible it is like enough either this Text will be left out or we will have a Gloss upon it to destroy the original Text. It hath so tortured them that I cannot tell you how many ways they have coyned to themselves to elude it I have observed five main ones which I purpose by by Gods Grace to examine and refute quaests 5. now I content my self to take off one in which they please themselves much They say the Apostle speaketh abstractly not concretely of the power it felf not of the person cloathed and invested with the Power it is an ignorant shift Barcley in his Book de Regno who hath deserved well of all Christian Monarchs hath learnedly and truly observed that Saint Paul writing to the Romans did keep the Roman usual Diction in this with whom it was customable and ordinary by Potestates powers in the Abstract to express the persons authorized with this power He refers his Reader to classical and good Authors as to Pliny lib. 29. c. 4. Iuvenal Suet. in Claudio c. 21. Modest. lib. 27. de Pignorib Vlpian lib. 17. SS penult de Aedil edict Tertullian contr gent. I content my self with the Dialect of Canaan in Scripture in which frequently Expressions in the Abstract express existents in the Concrete Col. 1. 16. By him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers By Thrones Dominions Principalities and Powers uncontrovertedly Angels are meant that the Expressions are abstract is clear as the Sun-shine To say Angels were created in abstracto is to send us to search after Platonick Idea's This instance it may be is too sublime let us see then if we can hit upon one nearer us and more fitting for the Purpose in hand I pray them to cast their Eyes upon St. Peter 2. Epist. 2. 10. where giving a Character of the man with whom we have to do he saith That they despise Government are presumptuous self-willed and not afraid to speak ill of Dignities The fellow of this you have Iud. 8. These filthy Dreamers defile the Flesh despise Dominion and speak ill of Dignities In which Passages the words in abstracto Government Dominion Dignities without any Doubt do express the persons of Governours Lords and Kings It is worth your notice taking to consider how zealous St. Peter and St. Iude were for the honour and due of Sovereignty the ray of Divine Majesty upon Earth that they speak so passionately and bitterly against such as professed themselves Christians and did speak Evil of Cajus Caligula Nero monsters of men O with what a zeal would they be inflamed if living now a days they did see what we see and hear what we hear the pretended Levites expressing their Zeal to God Religion Church and State by railing against the Lords anointed the best of Kings in the World The Fathers do use the word so too St. Austin epist. 48. saith Potestas humana saepe est divinae potestati inimica humane power is too often contrary to the Power of God Almighty The holy Father was not so bad a Divine as to think that Potestas in abstracto that Government which is Gods own Ordinance can be in Opposition or Enmity with God St. Austin then infallibly by the word Potestas Power meant him or them who are authorized with power from above If this doth not content our Adversaries I would entreat them to look upon St. Paul's Text and I hope they will find that St. Paul meant by being subject to higher powers to be subject to him who is invested with the Power Doth not he term them v. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rulers Higher Powers then and Rulers are with saint Paul equivalent terms Doth he not after call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ministers immediate and peculiar Servants of God v. 6. and even Nero himself is Gods Minister for thy Good Doth he not say v. 4. That he beareth not the Sword in vain which is non-sense if you conceive it of higher Powers in abstracto The like may be said of paying Tribute c. God did fore-see by his eternal Omniscience how apt man was to coin Distinctions to deceive himself and to wrong Gods Ordinance that mercifully to us he hath expressed in Scripture that both Sovereignty and the person cloathed with Sovereignty are of him by him and from him immediately and this that both the one and the other may be reverenced by us as sacred and inviolable The Apostle speaketh in abstracto Be subject to the Higher Powers The Powers that are are ordained of God He that resisteth c. Again the Spirit of God by Solomon saith In concreto with the Connotation of the Subject By me Kings reign I have said you are Gods c. What shall we judge then of this new-coyned Distinction to make a Difference betwixt the King and his Authority betwixt his personal Will and his Royal and Authoritative Will to pursue his Person with a Cannon-bullet at Edge-hill and to preserve his Authority at London or elsewhere These Fig-tree Leaves will not cover our Rebellion and Treason in the day of our Accounts before the Lord of Lords and King of Kings Remember his strait Charge Touch not mine anointed and do my Prophet no harm CHAP. III. The same Truth is proved by more Arguments from Holy Scripture THE Scripture hath not delivered any truth more purposely more apertly more frequently than this The Spirit of God knew well that if the Sacred Sovereignty of Kings be not preserved Religion Justice and Peace cannot be maintained This is the reason St. Paul gives to perswade us to pray for Kings That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty 1 Tim. 2. 1 2. It is observable that Solomon Prov. 8. speaketh first of the establishment of Government before he speaks of the Works of Creation to intimate it is better not to be at all than to be without Government For the same reason God fixed Government in the Person of Adam before Evah or any else came into the World and how Government shall be and we enjoy the happy fruits of it it is not conceivable except we preserve
that their heart is in the hand of the Lord as a Boat in the Rivers of Waters how God sendeth them in their Expeditions their Wars maketh them in his day his appointed day to set their face against Ierusalem or otherwise casteth his hook in their nostrils to bring them back with shame To this Argument may be referred that when God is to bless a People he sendeth them good Kings the Sons of Nobles when he is to scourge them naughty Kings weak children c. The Testimonies of Scripture for all these are infinite many and obvious which we remit to the Reader 's memory or dilligent search 10. Tenthly Nor is to be passed by that the Sovereign immense Majesty of God is expressed by stiling and denominating him King and his Supreme glory is represented by sitting on a glorious Throne See Isaiah see Daniel and the Prophets Let us beware then that we make not God a Derivative too of the People and a Creature of mens making 11. Eleventhly In the Scripture we read that onely three kinds of men were anointed Kings Priests Prophets Let any give an instance of a fourth besides those three It is granted of all that Priests and Prophets have Sacred Charges and are Sacred Persoâ—s of God's immediate making and Constitution why then shall not Kings have the same Prerogative to be immediately from God Sacred in themselves Sacred in their Charge by Divine Ordinance and Appointment 12. Lastly To close up this first part of our Proof from Scripture it is a strong Reason to perswade Sovereignty Authority and Majesty to be from God immediately and independently from any others in what consideration soever that the irreverence disobedience contempt rebellion or any wrong whatsoever offered to their Persons to their Authority is wrong and contempt offered to God himself See 1 Sam. 8. This made David say Who can touch the Lords Anointed and be innocent This made the Apostle say Rom. 13. 2. Whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist receive to themselves damnation The like Phrase to the first you have of the Sacred Ministry in the Apostles 1 Thess. 4. 8. He therefore that despiseth despiseth not man but God When the People murmured against Moses and Aaron in the Law you have They murmure not against you but me The like you have in Samuel The result of all is That as the Sacred Ministry is by Collation immediately or independently from God although the designation of the Person may be by men and the Church so Kings may be personally designed and deputed to Royalty and Sovereignty by Election Succession Conquest or any other lawful possible way but their Sovereignty and Power is by Donation and Collation immediately and solely from God and refers to him as the only Donor and Author Again as the Person and Function of such as are lawfully invested with Sacred Power and in Sacred Orders is Inviolable and Sacred so are the Persons and Sovereignty of Kings Our order proposed in the beginning of this Treatise chargeth us now to produce our Proofs from Reverend Antiquity But I must beg leave of the Christian Reader to discover the weakness and wickedness of a new-devised trick of our Sectaries That the King is God's but not Christ's Vicegerent CHAP. V. All Christian Kings are dependent from Christ and may be called his Vice-gerents WHereas hitherto by express Scripture and by Arguments from thence by necessary consequence deduced we have proved That Kings and their Sovereignty are immediately dependent from God and dependent from no other Conceive it not so that hereby we seclude Christ and him considered not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 personally as the Second Person in the Trinity but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his Capacity as God-man the Saviour and Redeemer of the World Our Sectaries have found out a quirk or trick rather of late to hold and argue That Kings are Gods not Christ's Lieutenants upon Earth Their purpose is the same in substance with the Romanists although they differ in something for the Romanists and Puritans both of them erect in every Kingdom another Sovereign not onely besides the true Sovereign but also above In this they agree and are like Sampson's Foxes who have their Tails knit together and do carry this Fire-brand to consume Church and State In one other they differ extremely for the Romanist and Iesuit will have it to be the Pope the Puritan and Sectaries fix this Sovereignty in the Presbytery We believe with warrant of Scripture and sound Antiquity that all Crowns and Scepters Kings and States are dependent from Christ the Son of God as he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God and man the Saviour of the World and Head of the Church We intend not at this time to discuss that curious Question Whether or not by Hereditary Right Christ was born King of the Iews We are speaking at this time of Christs Kingdom as the Head of the Church in order to all the Kingdoms of the World The Kingdom we speak of is not what was due to him as the Son of David but as he was the Saviour and Redeemer of David and all the World The right to which he had by Hypostatical Vnion and his perfect Merit and plenteous Redemption Some very Learned men do hold that Christ was not entitled to this Kingdom till his Resurrection and that then he had Ius quaesitum as the Jurists speak There is not much danger to hold this or deny it but with reverence to their great Parts and humble submission to better Reasons I dissent from them and do think however it may be granted that then he came to exercise it fully and perfectly or if you will that a new Title and Right did accrue to him that what he had before by Hypostatical Vnion onely now he had it by another supervenient Right of Merit and so had it duplioi Titulo as Saint Bernard saith of him in another case yet for any thing I could yet see I am of the mind from the first instant and moment of his Incarnation as God-man the Head of his Church By the grace of Hypostatical Vnion he was King of Kings and Lord of Lords It cannot be denied that while he was in the form and state of a Servant in statu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the state of Humiliation as by the no less mysterious than admirable and wise Oeconomy of God the Glory of his Deity did not conspicuously and ordinarily shine thorow the veil of his Flesh no more did this Majesty and Glory of his Sovereignty and Kingdom shine forth to the Eyes of men God in his unsearchable Wisdom having appointed that the Kingdom of God should not come with observation and that the Iews might be rectified in their judgment who did not expect a spiritual King and Deliverer but a Messiah to reign temporally over them and by him to enjoy all external Plenty Peace and
that Power and in no case no exigent had any Power over or above the Prince If what is said be not sufficient let us remember the Story of Valentinian the Emperour when by the Army he was declared Emperour they earnestly begged 〈◊〉 him to joyn Valens his Brother with him in the Empire His answer was ut me ad imperandum eligereti◠in vestra situm erat potestate O milites at postquam me elegistis quod petitis in meo est arbitrio non vestro Vobis tanquam subditis competit parere mihi quae agend◠sunt cogitare O Souldiers before you did make choic◠of me to be Emperour it was in your Power but the Choice being made that which you now desire is in my Power not in yours It is your part and Duty as Subjects to obey it is in my Power to determine upon what is fit for the Government If all we have said cannot work upon our new Statists to forsake their Errour we pray them to consider whether or not this ground laid will not authorize the Corporations and Shires upon male-administration of the Trust committed to their Commissioners in the House of Commons or upon Jealousies and Fears to resume and make void that Trust committed to them and warrant them in case of Defailance to do better for themselves and Country Sure I am Buchanan one of their greatest Authors holds that if a Parliament determine in a matter of Law it can establish nothing but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a preparatory precognition and that the Influence of a legislative Power is not till it be approved and admitted by the Community The Observator fearing this Tenet of Buchana may make void the Orders of the House leaving here his Master and averreth That the Right of the Gentry and Commonalty is entirely in the Knights and Burgesses of the House of Commons and will have their Orders irrevocable A wonder it is that they are so favourable in their own case and so unjust and unequal in the Kings case for if it were granted which is most false that all Power in the King were by Trust devolved upon him from the People what is the Reason of the Difference that he shall not have that Right as entirely as irrevocable as the Commissioners of Counties and Corporations Reason pleadeth more for this in the King than them for otherwise neither Sovereignty nor the person of the Sovereign can be secured nor any act of Government certain but mutable at the pleasure of an erring and inconstant Multitude If any will seriously consider they will find that what they take from the King they give to their Feoffees of Trust to Tables to Parliaments These in case of Necessity have an arbitrary Power the Prince in no case can have it exercise it Those have the entire right of the Community devolved upon them and the people are totally divested of their native Right the King hath his only in a fiduciary way some part is habitually reserved that in some Cases the People may resume it may practise it So in their Church it is not lawful to a Clergy-man to meddle in secular Businesses Their Clergy if they be worthy of name may do meddle in all Treaties of Peace Councils of War in Commissions for reversing fundamental Laws of Church and State in other Kingdoms This their practise is Protestatio contra factum it giveth a Lye to their Profession I think verily in after ages it shall scarce be believed that amongst Christians and such as would be accounted the best of Christians such Paradoxes could be maintained and such monstrous Practises acted with such sacrilegious robbing of Prince and Priest of their sacred Right It is high time for Prince and Priest to strengthen one another and neither of them to think that by making the other à publici odii victima a Sacrifice to malignant Malice to preserve himself It is high time for the People to consider how by such Doctrine and Practises they are plunged in such a bottomless Gulf of Miseries of Calamities that none but dextera excelsi the right hand of the Lord can rescue can deliver them How an arbitrary tyrannical civil Power is put upon them and established in the wrong hand that they dare not pretend to Liberty of Person or propriety of Goods How such a Tyrannical Antichristian Hierarchy of some few Patriarchs Lords over their Consciences make them run into Rebellion and kill both Body and Soul If these things these most fearful of all Judgments cannot awake us it is like we are given over to destruction more for the Terrour and Example of others than that we can expect to see the Glory and Mercy of God return again upon this Church and State Lord of his mercy make us turn to him timely by Repentance that he may turn to us in mercy make his Face shine upon us that we may be saved To return to our purpose In fine Let us still give it to them that Sovereignty is in a King by Derivation from the People and the Conveyance is by Contract or Covenant But then I demand how can this Contract be made void It must be made void either by mutual consent or by a legal Sentence and Iudgment That a Contract may be made void mutuo contrahentium assensu by a mutual accord and consent of the Parties Contracters in Law it holds the ground is Quibus modis contrahitur contractus iisdem dissolvitur and the main thing and binding force in a Contract is the consent of both The refiling of one Party Contractor is not sufficient to void the Contract Necessarily then it is required that both King and People consent to make the Contract void whether a King may do this or not you shall hear more in the following questions The People alone cannot do it This contract as yet is not made void by Royal consent if it be you must make it appear authenticis Tabulis upon evident and written Records I confess e're I put you to these pains I desire you first to produce Tabulas contractûs this Contract which in Law must be evident and faithful and when you do it in any of his Majesties Kingdoms you shall have me to plead for your pretended Right Well then I hope you will not say you have his Majesties Royal Assent although good and wise men regrate that by real deeds out of zeal to Peace and more than fatherly indulgence he hath indulged to your Favours which lessen his Prerogative and which without intrusion upon his Sacred Right you cannot enjoy if Scripture be either the Law or Umpire to determine in this case Seeing I say His Majesties consent to void this Contract cannot be alledged or made appear and the Law determines that De non apparentibus non existentibus eadem ratio or Quod non apparet in jure non est you must have a legal Sentence A Legal Sentence cannot be had without a
inferred from hence This made Buchanan ingeniously maintain that Orders and Laws in Parliament were only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Precognitions till the whole People gave their Consent and had their Influence authoritativè upon the Statutes and Acts of Parliament By this you may know where he put the Legislative Power in the Community and this is with more shew of reason than the Observator's Tenet who holdeth that the Legislative Power is in the Parliament and yet Buchanan is more justifiable for this reason because where Majesty is there is Legislative Power but according to the Observator's mind in the People is the underived Majesty let him then come home to the Scotish Tenet and make it an Article of their new Covenant or new Creed if they will that the Legislative Power is in the People and the Parliaments Orders and Statutes are only preparatory precognitions I know the Observator thinks to salve all this that the whole Power of the Gentry and Commons is entirely transferred from the collective Body to the representative the Parliament To this we answer two things 1. The first is ye and your Brother-assistants the Scots are not of one mind for in the beginning of the Scottish Troubles when the Subjects there were preferring Petitions by their Declarations and Protestations they put all the Power in the collective Body and kept their distinct Tables 2. Next speak ingeniously and candidly Observator shew us the reason of the Difference of the Disparity why the whole entire Power of the Community if any they have should not be totally and entirely derived from the People to the King when they devest themselves of their underived Majesty and invest the King with it no less than the whole entire Power of the whole Kingdom is devolved upon the two Houses and that irrevocably too to hold in the King as in your Knights and Burgesses you are not able to shew it but what with one hand you take unjustly from the King with another but a wrong hand you ascribe to the Parliament It is like in times succeeding and after-ages our wise Kings will learn to know what is their Power Place and Prerogative by that the Parliament hath assumed to them but we are hopeful they will never exercise it with such Cruelty and Tyranny I many times think upon it that as the extravagant Ambition and Usurpation of the Pope of Rome robbing Kings of their sacred Right and assuming to himself such superlative Transcendent Power for himself and his See both in Spirituals and Temporals hath wakened Christian Kings to consider better of their sacred Prerogative and by what he unlawfully and antichristianly assumed to himself in temporalibus to know what Trust God Almighty hath given to his Vicegerents his Kings so I am hopeful if God hath mercy reserved for these Kingdoms and Church right Bounds and Limits will be set to Subjects which will produce happier and sweeter Fruits of Government than we see or feel from these corrival co-equal co-ordinate fansied Powers and Sovereignty and Royalty be better rooted which God of his Mercy grant for the good of his Church the happy estate of the Kingdom and honour and right of our King If what is said be not enough to shew the Weakness of these popular Sophisms I come nearer to the Observator and put it home in a case where I dare promise he will say it is Sophistry By this way of reasoning I will prove there is no better way for the Observator to improve his Wealth than to make over the Right of all he hath to me the Argument will hold good Quod efficit tale est magis tale he that maketh me rich by giving me all his goods moveable and immovable maketh himself richer but the Observator by giving of all his goods my assumption should have been hypothetical for positively I know the Gentleman will not do it to me maketh me rich Ergo he maketh himself more rich This Logick I conceive is not so powerful as to cheat him out of his natural rational Faculty and so cheat him out of all his Lands Chattels and Revenues yet it may be by an order of the House that in some case this Logick may serve to good purpose that the People giving the twentieth the tenth the fifth part or the Moity of their Moneys and Revenues and all their Plate to strengthen the Parliament to advance the good Cause to cherish if we will speak truly and foment this present Rebellion it will not lessen their Wealth but enrich them more because quod efficit tale est magis tale it maketh some rich and consequently the Donors much more rich Certainly if this Logick hold it must be in great request for if this Logick do it not few can see how the Publick Faith can be kept Divinity and Church-rents if you sacrilegiously rob God which God forbid will not do it it must be some Sophism like this some Sophism in this kind that must answer for Publick Faith refund the Moneys borrowed from just Creditors and repay the wise Undertakers qui spem pretio emerunt who have brought their Hogs to a good Market To apply this shortly in few words If I remember rightly this Maxim quod efficit tale est magis tale I learned in the University to be understood de principio formali effectivo of such an Agent as is formally such in it self as is the Effect produced Next that it is such as is effective and productive of it self as when the Fire heateth cold Water it is hot formally in it self and maketh Water hot likewise By which it is necessary that the Quality inherent in the Effect be formally inherent in the Agent for this reason it is that Wine cannot be said to be drunk because drunkenness is no wayes inherent in Wine nor can Wine be capable of it and this made Aristotle qualifie his Maxim quod efficit tale est magis tale modò utrique insit And this insit utrique that it be in both maketh that the Maxim holds not in such Agents who operate by donation for he that is the Donor denudeth himself of the Right and Power of that he giveth to the Donee So here this condition faileth too And consequently if the Right of the King were transferred by Derivation and Donation from the People the Donation devests them totally of it except the King have it by way of loan which to my thinking never any yet spoke Next it is required that there be a Latitude and that that is effected be capable of a Latitude of more and less as when as I said before Fire heateth Water the heat of the Fire is more than the heat of the Water Lastly some add too that the Maxim must be understood ante effectum productum Now all the Argument falleth to the ground for Sovereignty never was nor can be in the Community Sovereignty hath power of Life and Death which none hath over himself and
cannot be darkened or corrupted and our Affections so orderly as they cannot over-rule us in a wrong course to do against that is pious and just I was ever in opinion till now that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be secured from Sin was the onely propriety of God and that it is antichristian in the Pope to lay claim to an absolute Infallibility But this new Policy will find the like in the Parliament the collective Body or Community Thirdly consider attentively and impartially what you hold and you will find it resolve into Infidelity and Impatience Infidelity that we do not trust that God is able to do it Impatience that we will not wait patiently till he do it The Heathen are nearer to Christianity in this than our glorious Reformers Tacitus saith Quomodo sterilitatem aut nimios imbres caetera naturae mal◠ita luxum vel avaritiam dominantium tolerate vitia erunt donec homines sed neque haec continua meliorum interventu pensantur The safest way in the wise Historian's judgment is to endure the Tempests of ill Government patiently as we do other Tempests falling from Heaven while men are faults will be but will not be alwayes lasting and better things will come with compensation of our losses Fourthly It is much better for us that God hath reserved this as a peculiar case to himself to punish Sovereigns and to rectifie their Errours But for us on the other part to usurp upon his Right it is no less than intrusion upon his Divine Prerogative and carrieth along with it Morbum complicatum a number of Sins against many of his most glorious Attributes 1. It wrongeth God in his glorious Wisdom that he hath not prepared such a Remedy for us in this case nay it putteth foolishness upon him that in this case he hath commanded Patience and so left us totally remediless 2. It wrongeth God in his glorious Power by making him weak that by no other means he could set aright what is disjoynted in Church and State 3. It wrongeth his Holiness who for the necessary support of Church and State by these means is necessitated for effecting the Work most concerneth him and his Glory to have and use the help of sinful men nay even of their Sins 4. To what is said add this that this Principle of theirs dishonoureth Christian Religion it turneth Religion into Rebellion Faith into Faction and Christian obedience into disloyal Treason Nothing is more powerful to deter Kings from coming to the profession of Reformed Catholick Religion than to hold that such a Superintendent Power is in People or Parliament to censure and unking Christian Kings Fifthly Christian obedience and Sobriety teacheth us to leave all Evils in Church and State to be redressed by those means God himself hath appointed and when the ordinate means do it not or do to the contrary we are to keep our selves pure possess our selves with Patience and refer the Remedy to God who hath reserved this to himself We ought not to justle God out of his Right Before we have said that Scripture affords no warrant by Precept or Practice to the Community the collective or representative Body to do it But now we add for them to do it by opposing or resisting Sovereignty is in Scripture expresly forbidden Romans 13. 2. Whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Of this more Quaest. 5. We must therefore closely adhere to what God hath commanded not turning to the left hand to obey unlawful things commanded by the Sovereign nor to the right hand with violence to resist lawful Authority Let all Subjects remember that in the day of their Accounts the charge will be to all singly or joyntly considered Who hath required these things at your hands Who hath made you Judges and Executers of matters of so high concernment And though it be pretended and possibly intended too that the work so done shall make much for the glory of God the good of the Church the liberty and happiness of the Subject it will not take us off We must not do evil that good may come of it Rom. 3. 8. To do God a piece of good service against his Will manifested is not to acquit our selves as his humble servants but to prove us his arrogant and proud Masters He is most glorified when his voice is obeyed 1 Sam. 15. 22. God standeth not in need of wicked man nor of his sinful wayes It was a pious Intention Vzza had when he put out his hand to save the Ark from falling yet because it was above his Charge God did strike him presently dead 2 Sam. 6. 6. 1 Chron. 13. 10. It is not enough for these Reformers to be assured in their Consciences that the work they intend and are about tends to a good religious and pious effect but they must have a sufficient Warrant from written Truth that they are warranted and called to this work Sixthly as it is against Piety it is against Prudence and the good of Policy Prudence doth not allow us to lose what real Good we have in present Possession for any future good which we have only in uncertain Expectation By this projected Course of our New-Statist-Divines we loose a good Conscience fall in actual Disobedience and Rebellion against the Lord and his Anointed We refuse Gods Tryal and with an unwarrantable indiscreet and unseasonable Zeal for Religion and our temporary Good come contrary to God and his Commandments We antevert nay shake off the Glory that God expecteth by our Tryals and cannot dare not expect Gods Blessing to our Endeavours If the Root be evil the Fruit can be no better Who may expect a Blessing to a sinful and rebellious Course Doth he allow us to do wrong and seek an Opportunity to do Good God acteth no Evil but only permitteth it and that because he is able to work Good out of Evil which is as inseparably proper to God alone as the immensity of his Power it is infinitely a superlative Presumption for us to presume upon the like We cannot expect any Blessing without a promise and have no Interest in the Promise but when our Acts and Works presuppose Obedience to his Precepts By such a Course as you prescribe we make the precept of God of none Effect Our excuse in this case will prove no better than the Pharisees who taught their Disciples doing things unlawful to say Corban God shall have Profit by it in the good we shall do to Church and State When we come to Judgment our Works shall witness against us and our good Intentions will not save us you know it is commonly and truly said Hell is full of good Intentions and Heaven of good works Seventhly if we look upon the practice recorded in Scripture when Gods people were delivered from Bondage or Captivity or when Grievances in Church and State were rectified and reformed God
or State who that hath read Scripture or by Experience hath remarked the Temper and Constitution of the Multitude can believe that Almighty God hath committed such a Trust to them Is there one of a thousand if you trust Iob or Solomon amongst them of understanding Was ever any act done by them but in a tumultuary way And is not their Reformation attended with Fury and Violence Impiety against God sacred Persons sacred Places sacred Things Have not these mis-called Reformations been acted prosecuted with open and crying Injustice not only against innocent but well deserving men Secondly I desire them to shew me in Scripture or in Ecclesiastical and authentick Story any popular Reformations of Church or State happy and successful what they alledge in this last Age are the Instances controverted and till they give instances extra propositum not questioned by their Favour they only beg the Question When God established both Policy and Church after the Deliverance of his People from the House of Bondage he would not do it but by Moses his Sovereign Viceroy King of Ieshurun Deut. 33. Ioshua did the like Ios. 24. The Judges raised by God as they delivered the people from their Slavery so they rectified what was amiss in Church and State What Desolations were there in Church and State in Saul's Reign Both State and Church in the Solemnity and Sincerity of the Worship in the days of David came to their Zenith to their highest Perfection aâ—d Beauty Read you I pray you of any doing in it but by David the King with the Advice and Direction of some Church-men Afterwards when it was corrupted who made the Reformation None but he who was King or Sovereign as Ioash 2 Chron. 24. Ezechias 2 Chron. 29 30 31. Iosias 2 Chron. 34. 35. Ezra Esd. To make Covenants against King or Sovereign pretending or intending if you will so the Reformation of Religion where read you it The first Covenant of a people formed into a politick Body is that you read Exod. 34. Had either the Community the collective or representative Body any other hand in it than to obey as Moses King of Ioshurun commanded Ioshua made another Iosh. 24. consider the place and see if either Tables or Parliament framed it urged it You have another 2 Chron. 15. but it is done and pressed by the royal Authority of Asa the King You have another 2 Chron. 34. but it is the Act of Iosiah the King The like you read of Esdra Esd. 10. If any object the Covenant of Iehojada in the Non-age of Ioash Let them be pleased to remember that this was the High Priests act not as High Priest but as Governour to the King By the same Power he did it by which he dethroned Athaliah armed the Subjects and enthroned Ioash Shew me one Covenant in the book of God which was made without the King except it be a Covenant with Hell and Death or as Iudas covenanted with the Iews to sell and betray his Master Or such a Covenant as the Prophet Hosea speaketh of Chap. 10. vers 3 4. For now they shall say we have no King because we feared not the Lord what then should a King do unto us They have spoken words swearing falsely in making a Covenant thus Iudgment springeth up as Hemlock in the furrows of the field Lastly Reflect upon Popular acts invading Sovereignty and attempting Reformation and you will find them as sinful as little successful as Kings of Popular Election It is recorded in Exodus that Moses the Sovereign of the People of Israel being absent forty dayes in the Mountain with God the People notwithstanding that they had lately sworn a lawful Covenant forced Aaron to make them Gods a molten Calf and forsake the true and living God Exod 11. Here you have a glorious popular Reformation in Religion Take another Reformation in the State and see if it be better The People of Israel living under the happy Government of David by the suggestions of Absalom and his fellow-Traytors possessed a Prejudice of David and his Government that Justice was not done and the State might be better ordered assemble without Warrant of the King a Treason if any thing else if we look on Scripture to Absalom under pretence of a Vow shake off David and acknowledge themselves Subjects to Absalom the Traytor the Usurper 1 Sam. 15. The ten Tribes after the death of Solomon supplicate Reboboam for a Redress of their Grievances not answered to their mind rebel against Rehoboam To strengthen their Kingdom and Policy they set up a new Religion make new Priests of their own Their Religion is the same their Fathers attempted in the Wilderness Exod. 32. and this is the second glorious Reformation of Calvesworship what was the issue I pray you it pursued them to their utter extirpation What can be said oâ— that abominable act of the Iews who to save themselves condemned Christ Are not Communities subject to dangerous Inclinations from private Incitements Are not their Representatives subject to mis-leading Factions and ambitions of private ends They are too much transported with the love of a popular estate who can so over-rule their Understandings as to force themselves to think that Communities or their Representative bodies are not molested or transported with corrupt judgments and affections for private ends To conclude Seeing then to establish the People to be the last and best Remedy to rectifie all Errours in State in Church establisheth so many Absurdities and Paradoxes and hath no warrant by Scripture sound Reason or Experience we can neither believe it nor approve it for to aver and affirm that a Community diffusive collective or representative is a perfect Republick to preserve it self and to right what is amiss abstracting the notion of a Republick from the Sovereign Governour or Governours is a notion not imaginable nor ever used by any who ever wrote or spoke right in Policy It secureth the multitude from Errour both in matters concerning Church and State There is neither Precept nor Practice in Holy Writ to warrant that the multitude have such a superintendent Power above their Sovereign Nay Scripture commandeth us the contrary not to assume this Power or to resist the Higher Powers under no less pain than Damnation This Maxim resolves into infidelity that we trust not God can do it or will do it and into Impatience that we will not wait patiently till he do it Christian obedience and Sobriety teacheth us to reserve the rectifying of the Sovereign and his Errours in Government to God himself We must not serve God against his Will nor without an express Warrant for our doing so By doing as our new Statists warrant us we run into Rebellion and lose a good Conscience in dutiful obedience and humble submission and prejudice God of that glory he expects by our tryals We must not do evil that good may come of it nor upon pretences of good intentions and good effects
His Sovereignty and their own Dependency from and Subordination and Subjection to him so it is the good will and pleasure of God that all Subjects should in Testimony of their Subjection to Sovereignty and in true Acknowledgment of their Supremacy contribute some of their Means for the Maintenance and honour of the King this is the Apostles Doctrine Rom. 13. 6. For for this Cause pay you Tribute also for they are Gods Ministers attending continually upon this very thing What can be more fully said They are immediately from God They are Gods Ministers for this Cause then we are bound to pay Tribute And let the for in the Frontispiece of the verse make you reflect your eyes upon that which goeth before and you will find it is not an arbitrary Right they have to this which is given upon them by a voluntary Compact or Grant or extorted by Fear the Apostle sheweth this we do not only for Wrath that is for fear of Punishment for in their Power it is to punish those who will not do this Duty but for Conscience sake This our Lord and Master both taught and practised paying Tribute to Caesar and commanding to render to Caesar the things that were Caesar's due to him as Caesar not by grant or compact from the People And Reason it self evinceth that this Maintenance should be proportioned to that high Degree and Measure as may preserve his Glory and Majesty that it be not lessened or contemned and as may sufficiently enable him to act and effect the happy works and Fruits of Royal Government to preserve all in Peace and Plenty See to this purpose Iustin Martyr Apolog. 2. and St. Chrysostom upon Rom. 13. passim This Doctrine that Kings are immediately from God and independent from all other Creatures whatsoever teacheth also that it is high Rebellion against God to oppose or resist the King This Consequence the Apostle thus deduceth Rom. 13. vers 1. The Powers that be are ordained of God vers 2. Ergo Whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation Pardon me to cite Chrysostom upon the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that obeyeth not the King fighteth against God what do they then that come in Arms against him who by his Law hath established Obedience and not Resistance and the Apostle every where always and upon all Occasions endeavoureth this mainly that our Obedience to Kings is not arbitrary conditional or by compact but necessary and imposed upon us by God Holy Scripture is so careful we oppose not sacred Authority that it hath forbidden it in all it's kinds all it's degrees 1. We are not to think a bad Thought of them in our Hearts Eccles. 10. 20. 2. The Tongue is not to speak Evil of them Exod. 22. 28. Iud. 8. Consequently neither Pen nor Press are to write or print to their Disgrace and Disadvantage 3. We are not with Iudas to lift up our heel 4. David's Heart smote him when he smote Saul's Garment 5. The hand cannot stretch out it self against the Lords Anointed and the Actor be innocent 6. It is to fight against God for he that rebelleth against the King rebelleth against God He that blasphemeth the King blasphemeth God 1. Kings 21. The Prodigal in his Return acknowledgeth he sinned no less against Heaven than his Father God hath taken them in Societatem nominis in societatem numinis Psal. 82. 6. 7. The greatness of the Sin may appear that the greatest of Judgments fall upon Traytors and Rebels Scripture is plentiful in Examples of this kind and all Story witnesseth for it Remember the Story of Rudolph Duke of Suevia who sware Allegiance to Henry the fourth by Pope Hildebrand was loosed from his Oath but miserably died he and before his Death the right hand with which he sware was cut off and say he could to the Bishops This is the hand was lifted up when I sware Allegiance to my Emperour justly cut off for my Perjury and Rebellion for which you are to answer who put me upon this mischievous Course and Rebellion See Aventine and others infinite Examples may be alledged If they escape the Judgment of men by their scarce warrantable Meekness and Clemency God hath Executioners in store and ready for them He will revenge for his own Interest If the King will not do Justice against a Traytor God will make his own Friend do it and if that fail his own Breast or both of them This was Absalom's case 2 Sam. 18. 14. Thy Confederates will do it This was Sheba's case 2 Sam. 20. 22. Before an Executioner be wanting thy own hand shall do it This was Achitophel's case who hanged himself 2 Sam. 17. 23. And Zimri's case too 1 Kings 16. 18. If no man will do it Earth and Hell will do it This was the case of Korah Dathan Abiram and their Complices Numb 16. 23. This is the first Rebellion in Scripture recorded against Prince and Priest And take with you Optatus Bishop of Milevis's note upon it no Sin in Scripture recorded hath a Judgment parallel to this If all Creatures should fail to be Executioners God will do it by his immediate hand from Heaven Psalm 144. 8. To shut up this God allowed no Sanctuary for Treason and Traytors as is manifest in the case of Ioab pulled from the Altar and Justice done upon him Lastly seeing the King is sacred in his Person in his Power in his Royal Christian Prerogative it is high Sacriledge and Intrusion upon God and the King to rob him of any part of his Sacred Right The ancient Church did judge so Hosius writing to Constantius an Arrian Emperour saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Holy Father and the whole Church in his time did account it a Theft and an Opposition to God and his Ordinance by Fraud or Force to cheat or extort from a King any thing due to his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Empire his Sovereignty It was not dreamed of then that an Excellency could be set up against a Majesty or a Coordinate power erected with Sovereignty In the happy time of the Christian Church this was the greatest Robbery the highest Sacriledge the most violent Intrusion upon God and his Anointed The best and readiest way for all Happiness to a Kingdom is when the King considereth that his Greatness and Glory consisteth in the Happiness of his Subjects and proportioneth all his Actions and Government to their Peace and Plenty and the People on the â—ther part when they level their Intentions Actions Enâ—eavours and Obedience to preserve his Sacred Person His Sacred Right and Royal Prerogative Let none â—ivide those things God hath conjoyned When People are thus affected it will move Kings for the good of their People with Saul to be ready to sacrifice Ionathan or with Codrus to dye himself for the Safety of his People or with David in great Judgments from God
made the young dumb Prince speak All men are tied to the maintenance of Sovereign Right none amongst men more than Church-men it is a necessary truth as aptly plentifully and purposely set forth in Gods Word as any else Prince and Priest were once joyned in one Person and are so tied that Alterius Altera poscit opem res conspirat amicè We find onely three Office-bearers anointed by God King Priest and Prophet who then more tied to maintain the Lord 's Anointed and his Right than Priests and Prophets God hath honoured Kings to be the Nurse-fathers of his Church nor when we reflect upon by-gone Story find 〈◊〉 that ever the Church had either Beauty Plenty or Progress but under Monarchy and view this day the condition of the Christian Church under any other Government than Monarchy and we will find her condition but sorry and poor It is the onely Government which is most conntenanced and magnified in Holy Writ And I dare to say that none or all of them who ever writ purposely of Politicks or in an Historical way laid down Political Maxims whether it be Plato in his fancied Republick or Aristotle in his Politicks or Cicero or Livie or Dionysius Halicarnasseus or Cornelius Tacitus or who besides either by Art or Story is most renowned this way have given us so fully so apertly the Right of Monarchy the true prescript of Government and perfect Rule of Obedience to the Subject The Ancient Fathers and Martyrs whilst Emperours were Heathenish and Persecutors have delivered this Doctrine pleaded the Sacred Royal Prerogative of Emperours and with other Truths have sealed this with their Blood Who can deny then but it beseemeth a Divine most of all men to maintain or write of this subject A wonder then it is that some Smatterers in Divinity writing in this subject do borrow Principles from old Poetical Fables and Toyes make premises and infer Conclusions not onely destructive of Monarchy but also contradictory to that Truth Scripture hath revealed Like to them are our Pettifoggers in the Law I reverence Learned Iureconsults who deserved well in this subject who cry out what have Church-men to do to dispute the King 's Right that belongeth to us who are versed in the Laws of the Kingdom and know what Power the Law alloweth the King what not these Ignaroes who are better versed in the Statutes and Acts of Parliament than in the Acts of Christ and his Apostles may even as well go about not to authorize the Book of God except it be warranted by their Law as to aver that the King hath nothing immediately from God nor no Sacred Right but what He hath by Law More learned Lawyers than they can be as Bodin Barclay and others have treated of this matter and made as good Vse of Scripture and Holy Fathers writing as any other Warrant besides It is more than evident then that no men are more obliged no men may be more fitted to maintain the Royal Prerogative of Kings than Divines But Officiis quis idoneus istis I confess my weakness my insufficiency and am forced to have recourse to a Patron worthy of it and able to maintain it I could hit upon no subject more worthy of so great a Personage as you are nor a Patron so worthy so enabled to maintain it and its poor Author as your Lordship Nobles are amongst Subjects the first-born the ennobled amongst the Romans had a badge of a Moon or Crescent in Plutarch's judgment not so much to signifie the instability or frailty of their Place and Honour as to put them in mind to be obedient and loyal to their Prince the Fountain of their high Dignity as the Sun is to the Moon for your high Nobility by a long continued race transmitted to you from most noble Ancestours to write or recite it were as to light a candle to add light to the Sun in his strength in his vertical point and that transmitted so from them and derived to you that in that whole Stem the Root and all Branches who inherited the Honour not any tainted with Disloyalty Nay their Honour is higher some of them have had the honour to dye in the highest Bed of Honour to lose their Lives and great State and Honour for Loyalty to Royalty This is nothing yet but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the splendour of Birth the glory due to those of whom you are descended Nam genus Proavos quae non fecimus ipsi Vix ea nostra voco True Nobility besides these requireth not onely the inheritance of Riches for that is but Antiquae inveteratae Divitiae as Athlary writ to the Senate of Rome with the inheritance of Honour for that it is a Body empty of a living Soul but it is to inherit the Noble Honour of Noble and Generous Ancestours Nobile saith Aristotle id est quod ex bono genere prodit generosum quod à sua natura non degeneravit Herein you all meet for Honour and Virtue do contest for the Excellency but Virtue truly hath the Eminency In you is verified that of the Lyrick Poet. Fortes creantur fortibus bonis Est in juvencis est in equis Patrum Virtus nec imbellem feroces Progenerant aquilae columbam Malice it self how ingeniously witty soever cannot prejudice you in this whose Piety is admirable whose Wisdom and Prudence is above Age above the ordinary and all your Equals a master of your Passions and so experienced in matters of State and Government that it is a wonder to them who know you and incredible to those that have not been eye and ear witnesses Your Heroical magnanimity speaketh it self in your Heroick Martial Acts admired not onely by excellent Commanders not onely for Courage but for Prudence and rare Government by which you gained so much that the valiant Annibals and Scipioes there would rather sacrifice themselves than expose You to Danger and yet you would not act the General but by doing the valiant Acts contemning Dangers and Death beseeming inferiour Officers but worthy of the greatest Caesar. Who can consider aright that more than admirable piece of Prudence in that Treaty of Cessation in such a time and such a case where You were so assaulted with two of the worst extremes of Opinions enraged both of them with the same degree of madness but must say that is true Cicero said de nat deor Nullus unquam magnus vir fuit sine afflatu divino The intelligent and better sort must confess that without a great mercy to us and more than ordinary Favour from God this could not have been effected The better sort are confident the happy Effects of that Work will make many Souls live and Your Honour live for ever These are the Load-stones of all the Honour the Love and Zeal which have necessitated me to take recourse to Your Honour's Patrocine that what is deficient in me and this poor trifling Treatise
may be compensed by that eminent Worth and Perfection is in You. I do confess I have so many ties by personal Favours received above my desert that I were the ingratest of Christians if I did not acknowledge it yet give me leave to speak truth notwithstanding all these Endowments if I had not seen and were not assured that in none in this Age there can be seen more true discreet Zeal to Christ's Church and Loyalty to Your Master our most gracious King I had never presumed to go this way I see it even there and then where and when Satan had erected his Throne and Antipas God and the King 's faithful Servant did fuffer My Lord God hath sent You to us for a comfort in these worst of Christian times who knoweth but at this time You are set at the Helm to help the Lord right his Anointed and to save a poor Church threatned with ruine Go on in Your Piety and Devotion with these Heroical Endowments God hath enabled You and be assured God will heap Honour on you and your Noble Family for ever and reward you with an uncorrupt undefiled and Eternal Crown of Glory Which shall be the fervent and constant Prayers of Your Lordships most humble and bounden Servant I. A. To the Christian Reader CHristian Reader this is an Extemporary Piece which was extorted by the importunity of Friends who prevailed so far with me that I chose rather to expose my Weakness and it to the Censure of the World than uncourteously refuse them To strengthen Truth I was able to bring more Zeal and good Affection than any other Abilities Believe I write nothing but that I am assured of in Conscience in certitudine mentis and which I believe to be really certain in certitudine entis God knows I am far from temporizing and he is of weak apprehension that in this Distemper can expect any great Reward by appearing in Publick to maintain this Sacred Truth Experience teacheth us that it is more advantageous to run the contrary course if a good Conscience could allow it If the method in handling and proposing these five ensuing Questions be not so orderly I beg pardon and that justly because I follow the Order proposed by the Observator If the Diction be not so terse and pregnant I am not able to help it for by nature I am not enabled to delicate and witty Expressions nor have I endeavoured by Industry to help those natural Defects My care was ever to study Truth and Reality more than flowers of Eloquence holding that for one as I am of small reach the better way is rather to be inter reales than inter nominales If there be any tart Expression construe it charitably as fallen by inadvertence from my Pen whereas there was no Gall in my Heart If any will be at pains to examine it critically and to answer it rationally and fully I humbly intreat him to do it in a Christian and Charitable way without Passion for which I shall heartily thank him And if I be not able with as much reason to answer him I shall not be ashamed to retract my Errours and joyn Heart Hand and Pen for him and all Christian Sacred Truth of which kind I hold those which I would maintain to be If any thing in it give thee content thank God for it and pray for Grace and Strength to the weak Author who hath resolved to be a Lover a Professor and a maintainer of Truth according to his Power at whatsoever peril to advance the true Reformed Catholick Religion and what may conduce to the Honour of our Church to the overthrow of that is truly Popery and to the regaining of all erring Sectaries to the Communion of this Church And let all of us put up our hearty and humble Prayers to Almighty God to touch our Hearts that we may endeavour to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace to do good in his good pleasure unto Sion to build up the Walls of Ierusalem to re-establish his Anointed our Sovereign in His Throne and Right to set aright what is disjoynted in Church and State that all of us may be happy here and receive that Crown of Glory which the righteous Judge hath laid up for them that love him his Truth and Christian Peace Si quid novisti rectius istis Candidus imperti si non his utere mecunt Elenchus Questionum Quaestio Prima WHether or not the King be onely and immediately dependent from God and independent from the Body of the People diffusive collective representative or virtual Affirmatur Quaestio Secunda Whether or not God is no more Author of Regal than of Aristocratical and Democratical Power Of Supreme then of Subordinate Command and whether or not that Dominion which is usurped while it remains Dominion and till it be legally divested again refers to God as its Author and Donor as much as that which is hereditaryâ— Negatur Quaestio Tertia Whether or not the nature of conveyance of Sovereignty to the King is by Trust immediately from the People and mediately onely from God and as Fiduciary so Conditionate and proportioned to what measure or portion the People please or is it intirely and immediately by a Trust devolved upon him from the King of Kings Neg. prius Aff. posterius Quaestio Quarta Whether or not be there any Jura Majestatis some Divine Prerogatives intrinsecally inherent in the Kings Crown and Sovereignty which are incommunicable to the Subjects Aff. Where is explained what they be Quaestio Quinta Whether or not in any case upon any reason just or pretended it be lawful for the Subject or Subjects in what Notion soever imaginable singly or joyntly collectively or representatively to oppose the Sacred Authority of the King by Force or Arms or to resist him either in a Defensive or Offensive way Neg. Elenchus Capitum QUESTIONIS PRIMAE THE Preface Page 1. containing the Sum Method and Order of the ensuing Treatise Chap. I. Wherein is maintained that the King is onely and immediately dependent from God and independent from the Body of the People diffusive collective representative or virtual The contrary Opinion is explained the Authors and Asserters some of them with their differences are recited Pag. 9. Chap. II. How that God is the immediate Author of Sovereignty in the King and how he is no Creature of the Peoples making is explained and proved by Scriptures 30. Chap. III. The same Truth is proved by more Arguments from Holy Scripture 57. Chap. IV. That Kings are onely dependent from God and not from the Community is further proved by Scripture The poor shifts of Suarez and Bellarmine are removed who abusing the passage Deut. 17. would have the constitution of the Kings of Israel to relate to the People as its real and proper origine and Cause and the priviledged case onely this that God reserved to himself the designation of the Person of the King 62.
Chap. V. That all Christian Kings are dependent from Christ and may be called his Vicegerents is proved 85. Chap. VI. That the King is solely dependent from God and Christ and independent from all others is proved by the Suffrages of the Holy Fathers 116. Chap. VII That the Government of mankind is established by God and is necessary Jure Naturae is proved by Reason against those that hold that all Government is arbitrary of the voluntary constitution and composition of men 126. Chap. VIII That Sovereignty is not by derivation from the Community is proved by more reasons 141. Chap. IX That Sovereignty is not derived to the King from the People communicativè by communication so that they may resume it in some cases is proved by Reason 154. Chap. X. Wherein the truth of our Tenet is by more Reasons asserted the contrary Errour disproved and the absurdities in the Sectaries Paradox involved are discovered 164. Chap. XI Scripture by Example teacheth us that Kings of the Peoples making have not had Gods blessing but have ruined their Makers 180. Chap. XII Wherein three grounds of our Adversaries are taken off and disproved As 1. That the interposing of an humane act in the constitution of a King doth not hinder the Sovereignty to be immediately from God 2. Next the inconsequence of that Sophism A private man may make away his personal Liberty and enslave himself to another Ergo a People or Multitude may do the like and invest a King with Sovereignty is detected 3. The true sense of Quisque nascitur liber is given and the false gloss of the Adversaris is discovered 189. Chap. XIII The Maxim Quod efficit tale est magis tale or Propter quod unumquodque tale ipsum magis tale or Constituens constituto potior is examined 200. Chap. XIV Other grounds of the Iesuits and Sectaries are removed and disproved as that that neither Scripture nor Nature determine the specification of Government nor do they intimate why this man more than the other or he than a third or these more than those should have the Power of Government And that great one is taken out of the way where by the variety and difference is found in several Monarchies it is more than apparent say they that Monarchy is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the voluntary composition and constitution of man 209. Chap. XV. Wherein is examined the Iesuits Maxim that every Society of Mankind is a perfect Republick and consequently the Community may supply and rectifie the Defects and Errours of Sovereignty And the Puritans too that if there were not such a Power and Superintendency to supply God had left man remediless 230. Chap. XVI Wherein is examined that Maxim Salus Populi suprema Lèx esto And the other that the People may be without a King but a King cannot be without People 248. Chap. XVI As the King hath an high Calling by immediate donation from God so hath He an high Charge with his Prerogative to be as eminent in Sanctity as He is excellent and Sacred in Power 283. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacro-Sancta Regum Majestas OR The Sacred and Divine Right and Prerogative of KINGS The Sum Method and Order of the ensuing Treatise IT is not my Purpose at this time to examine and refute the Opinions and Errours of those who either totally or partially have spoken against Government as the Fratricelli in the Judgment of some who alledging their Independency from man and assuming to themselves an immediate Being or Derivation from Christ no less than the Apostles and every way as perfect would submit and subject themselves to none Our Independent Ministry looks this way Or as the Begardi who did hold that the Government of Superiours was only for the more imperfect but have no Authority over and above the perfect Nec Rex nec Lex justo posita No Superiour No Law for the Saints the holy ones the perfect ones It feareth me this Age fancieth to it self some such thing and have learned it of Korah Dathan and Abiram who have gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and say unto them ye take too much upon you seeing all the Congregation are holy every one of them and the Lord is among them wherefore then lift you up your selves above the Congregation of the Lord. Both these Sects were about the end of the thirteenth Age and beginning of the fourteenth Age. Nor purpose we to meddle with that mad Heresie of the Anabaptists who condemn all Government whatsoever as sinful and unlawful It is an impious blasphemous Error destructive not only of humane Society but mankind it self You may read in it their Antitheses Christi veri falsi published in Transilvania Anno 1568. The seventh of which is That the false Christ hath in his Church Kings Princes Magistrates and the Sword but the true Christ hath none nor alloweth any of those We presuppose all with whom we are to enter in Lists do willingly grant That Government is not only Lawful and Iust but necessary both for Church and Commonwealth Neither intend we to refute that erroneous and pernicious tenet of some who held that Dominium fundatur in gratia that the right of Dominion is founded in Grace or any other supernatural Gift For it is certain it is neither founded 1. In gratia praedestinationis in the Grace of Predestination 2. nor In gratia gratum faciente in that Grace which is in the stating of a man in the actual Condition of Grace and Salvation 3. nor In dono aliquo supernaturali gratiae infuso in any supernatural infused Grace as soundness of Faith and profession of the Truth or I cannot tell what Character of Christianism they fansie to themselves Whether or not the Wâ—ldenses Wioliffe and Hus held any Tenet like to these I cannot now insist to prove or disprove it But sure I am if the Writers of the Roman Church do not wrong some of their own have said some like thing As Henry the Cardinaâ— B. of Ostia who lived about the year 1260. averreth that Soundness of Faith and Profession of the Truth is fundamentum Dominii Armachanus de Paupertate Christi faith that fundatur in gratia gratum faciente Nor will I take the Pains to examine Gerson the Chancellor of the University of Paris who lived in the time of the Councel of Constance who de vita spirit consid 15. and others after following him did hold that the Just did acquire a new Title and Right to what they possess either in Dominion of Propriety or Iurisdiction If any deâ—ire to have more Satisfaction in this point I refer them to the Casuists where they treat de Subjecto Dominii pity it is that too many do confidently hold these or the like Tenets and in a worse sense than Gerson for his Tenet with a little benign Interpretation may pass for tolerable if not warrantable Nor is it fit or pertinent for us now
ratio the most formal and compleat Eâ—â—ence of Government The third is Whether or not Sovereignty and Royalty be in a King by Conveyance of Trust fiduciary and conditionate issuing from the People by a Trust devolved upon him in that portion it pleaseth them to proportion In which will be evident that the Trust of Sovereignty and Government is by God devolved upon the King That all Sovereignty related to God is fiduciary and conditionate but related to the People is absolute The fourth is Whether or not by divine Institution any man or men some few or many have any co-ordinate co-equal or collateral Power with the Sovereignty of Royalty Or whether or not in any case or exigent a King can be subordinate In the Resolution of which Question fitly and conveniently will be discussed that In quo formale Imperii consistit that in which the essence of Sovereignty doth consist and without which it cannot subsist as that it is supreme perpetual and freed from all coercive and coactive Power which the Hebrews call Imperium majus the Politicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The fifth and last is Whether or not in any case it is lawful for Subjects one any more or all to oppose a Prince Quaestio prima Whether or not the King be only and immediately dependent from God and independent from the Body of the People diffusive collective representative or vertual CHAP. I. The Affirmative is maintained the contrary Opinion is explained the Authors and Assertors some of them with their Differences are recited WE hold the Affirmative that the King is only and immediately dependent from Almighty God the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and independent in his Sovereignty and Power from the Community in what Notion soever you conceive it either as a diffusive collective representative or vertual Body The Jesuit and Puritan to depress Kings aver that all Power is originally radically and formally inherent in the People or Community and from thence is derived to the King In the explaining of this Proposition there is amongst those who lay this Foundation for the building of their Babel a great Latitude of Diversity Lately I read in one who is the Author of the Tract concerning Schism and Schismaticks pag. 29. We have believed him that hath told us that in Christ Iesus there is neither high nor low and that in giving Honour every man should be ready to prefer another before himself which saying cuts off all claim certainly of Superiority by Title of Christianity except men think that these things were spoken only to poor and private men Nature and Religion agree in this that neither of them hath an hand in this Herauldry of Secundùm sub supra all this comes from Composition and Agreement amongst themselves I have given you his words I should be glad to be mistaken and crave him Mercy But as I conceive him this Position is worse than any I know of the Jesuits or more moderate Sectaries both of them acknowledge a Necessity of Government is taught by Nature and Grace and that the Distinction of Superiority and Inferiority is the dictate of common Reason and Religion Otherwise neither Nature nor Religion may avoid Confusion or Destruction God who is the God of Order and not of Confusion is the Author of this Herauldry of Secundum sub supra in the whole Universe in Church in State Hath not God in the moral Law taught it Honora Patrem c. Honour thy Father c Do not St. Paul and St. Peter Rom. 13. 1. Pet. 2. 14. v. command this as the Will of God And did not our Saviour practise it and his Apostles after him and after them all the Christian Church You must take away humane Society in Church and State if you take away this Herauldry of Superiority and Inferiority Sure I am the Jesuits do hold that Government is ex jure naturae by the Law of Nature I hope our Sectaries think no worse in this point than the Jesuits I return to the Jesuit and Puritan who are very like-in this Tenet but give me Leave to say for as bad as the Jesuit is in my conceiving the Puritan is worse Let us make a parallel 1. First the Jesuit says that all Power civil is radically and originally seated in the Community or Multitude God having made it the Primum subjectum the first Subject in which it is seated The Puritan joyneth hands here with the Jesuit 2. Next both of them say it is from the Multitude by way of Collation and Donation to one as in Monarchy to some as in Aristocracy to many as in Democracy so that immediately it is from the People and mediately from God and not so much by Collation as by Approbation How the Jesuit and Puritan walk along in an unequal pace See Bellarmine l. de Laicis cap. 6. Suarez Defens Doctrinae Orthod contra Sectam Anglicanam l. 3. 3. Thirdly that the People may change Monarchy into Aristocracy or Democracy or an Aristocracy into a Monarchy or Democracy or è contrae which way you will for ought I know they differ not in this neither 4. But some of our new State-Divines do hold that this Power is derived to the King from the People Cumulativè or Communicativè non Privativè by way of Communication or Cumulation but not by way of Privation that is howsoever the People communicate this Sovereignty to the King by trust yet they denude not themselves of this Sovereignty To make it plain it is in their Opinion no otherwise than as when the King of England appoints a Lieutenant Deputy or High Commissioner of Ireland or Scotland he denudes not himself of his Royal Power but delegates them with Power and Trust for his Service If this be their mind for I cannot conjecture at any other and if they have any other Sense I wish they would make it plain the King is in a poor case by such a derived Power for then as the King of England giving to his Deputy or Deputies that power only cumulativè he cannot by Reason or Law seeing Potior est delegantis quam delegati authoritas that the Principal his Authority is more excellent than he delegate's nor can he be debarred from that right the Law of Nations giveth him Anticipatione concursu or evocatione by procognition his own proper entire Right or Evocation to determine or judge in any thing that concerneth that His Kingdom If they authorize the People so let any that hath common Sense judge in what Condition these new-state-divines do put Kings 4. They aver which maketh me the more inclinable to conceive that to be their mind which before we have expressed that the same Sovereign Power is Howsoever derived from the Community to the King in the people suppletivè that is that if the King be deficient in necessary Duties of Government for the good of the Church and State the People by their innate power may do
and supply it This our Rabbies have not only taught but practised here and elsewhere in his Majesties Dominions yet in my poor reading I have not found any Jesuit although I confess by Deduction out of their Principles this Consequent may be expressed so roundly and right down to say it It is true that Bellarmine saith in his Recognitions lib. 3. q. de Laicis populus nunquam ita suam potestatem in regem transfert quin illam sibi in habitu retineat ut in certis casibus etiam actu recipere possit that the People do never so transfer their power into the King but that they retain it to themselves habitually that in some certain Cases they may resume it I find a Tenet bad enough impious enough sacrilegious enough but he doth not say that this power is transferred only cumulatively Nor doth he talk of any Suppletivè actual supply Only he telleth of an habitual retaining in the People and that upon some cases they may resume it not in every ordinary case nor can they do it It is true Bellarmine expresseth not the case or Cases He knew it to be difficult or would have it it is like to be a reserved case for the Pope of Rome when it pleaseth him to determine or define it But if we may guess at his mind by his Brother Jesuit Suarez read him lib. 3. defens orthod fid c. 3. § 2 and three and there he telleth you that he will have it definite and constant in Law and that extant and evident vel antiquis certis instrumentis vel immutabili consuetudine either by ancient and faithful Records of Law or by unchangeable and not interrupted Custom If this cannot be produced the only case he assigns is Si Rex sua potestate in manifestam civitatis perniciem abutatur If the King evidently apparently abuse his Power and Sovereignty to the total Destruction of his Kingdom let none cavil that we English Civitas the whole Kingdom comprehending King and Kingdom for they that have but the Terms of Policy know that Civitas is the whole Kingdom and State with the King and Civis the true Latin word for a Subject He giveth his Reason why in such a case this is lawful quia potest populus naturali potestate ad se defendendum uti quia hac se nunquam privavit because the People may use that power of self-defence with which nature hath endowed them for they did not divest themselves of this power nor was it transferred upon the King The Result of Suarez's mind is that if there be not Authentical uncontrolable Records or immemorial and not interrupted Customs to determine the Cases the Judges the way of Procedure the Bounds and Extent Quos ultra citraque How far and no fartâ—er there is no case lawful or imaginable but in the abuse of Sovereignty to the total Destruction of King and Kingdom which case as we think howsoever imaginable yet in facto esse it is impossible as we will shew after in the last Question that this is not warrantable By Gods Institution nor doth the Charter of Nature entitle us to this Right of self-defence in this Case to make away nay to resist a King And observe how warily the Jesuit qualifies his case First it must not be a feared or conjectured case of Ruine and Destruction to King and Kingdom but manifest and clear as the Sun-shine Next That not any case of Injustice Oppression or Tyranny doth warrant them to do or act this but a manifest actual overthrowing of the whole Kingdom King and all Subjects Gerson and others of the Parisian Doctors qualifie the case thus 1. That it is necessary that he intend and Attempt the total overthrow and Destruction of the Kingdom 2. Next that a jealousie or conjectural Evidence is not sufficient I must be manifest as evident as it were written with a Ray of the Sun 2. To these two must be added invincible and insuperable Obâ—â—imacy which cannot by humble Reverence Deprecation Supplication or any other means else which becometh a Subject to use in all Reverence Prudence and Submission to a Prince be amended Let God and good men judge if our case this day be so circumstanced and qualified Thirdly it is worth our noting that he speaks not of resuming Sovereignty to the People as to it 's proper owner by which this Resistance or Censure is to be done but of a natural Power of self-defence of which the People and Community were never denuded nor divested That this is the Jesuits mind appeareth yet more clearly by what followeth for saith he it is not lawful to the People to restrain or limit the Power which they have once traâ—â—mitted and committed to the King Quia Lex justitiae non permittit quae docet Legitima pacta non esse rescindendâ— donationem semel absolute factam revocari non posse neque in totum ne ex parte maxime quando onerosa sunt The very Law of Common Equity alloweth not that Contracts and Covenants should be repealed and what is once transferred by Donation may not by the same Law be made void either in whole or in part nay not when the Condition is to the Prejudice of the Donor He adds more That Laws made by a Prince cannot be repealed or made void by the People or Community without the tacite or express Consent and Allowance of the Prince No he adds more that a Prince doth not pendere à populo in sua potestate etiamsi ab ipso eam acceperit quia poterit pendere in fieri non postea pendere in conservari Doth not depend from the People in his Sovereignty and power although he had it from them because saith he while he was a making or to be made King it was of them but to continue to be so it is not from them Let me add with this of Suarez another passage of Bellarmine where he contradicts that he speaketh which before we cited Becognit lib. 3. q. de laicis The Passage you have in his Tract against Padre Paulo where he grants that a People or Community may have some power of approving or rejecting of a Preacher over them while he is a chusing or to be instituted but not after he is chosen or appointed He proveth this thus Quemadmodum saith he exercitus poterat approbare aut reprobare personam quae in Imperatorem proponeretur ubi tamen Imperator factus esset illum judicare non poter at neque in illum ullam habeâ— potestatem As of old amongst the Romans when the Armies or Souldiers did choose the Emperour The Army might accept or reject him that was to be created Emperour but being made Emperour and invested in the Empire the Army was no more his Iudge neither had any Coercive or Coactive Power above him Whilst the Cardinal was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wedded to the Conclusions of the Roman Sea Truth and Honesty fell from
his Pen. These things I observe not to plead for Jesuits the bane of Christian Peace nor that I think that there is more Honesty in them than in a Puritan but only to put our Sectaries in mind that howsoever their Tenets by Deductions and Consequences are tant ' amount as theirs yet they are more wary and prudent than in their Expressions for I never see how their Communicative and Suppletive by the most benign Sense can suffer so favourable an Interpretation as the Jesuits Tenets do Besides our Sectaries have to consider by how much more they deteriorate and depress Kings committing or appropriating so extravagant a Power transcendent above them to the Community or people who are the weakest in Judgment the most instable in their Resolutions and Conclusions ready to cry to day Hosanna and to Morrow Crucifige ready to cry to Gideon now Reign thou and thy Son for ever over us and incontinent joyn with Sichem and his base Son Abimelech kill his seventy Sons all of them but Iotham who iniraculously by Gods Providence escaped who in Scripture are compared to the raging of the Sea for their Violence and Impetuosity and ever casting up dirt for their Corruption than doth the Jesuit who will not admit people shall do it till the Pope take notice of it as competent Judge by divine Appointment or made umpire by arbitrement For sure I am that the most solid and learned of the Roman Church do hold that Subjects cannot by any be loosed from the Oath of Allegiance till the Pope do it Again I pray you to consider what Encouragement it is for Kings and Monarchs to become Nurse-fathers of the Reformed Church when by our printing and practices we abase them so far as to make them the basest extract can be derived from the Community and that they are deposable and dethronable by the People upon any exigent they judge fitting Will not any understanding Prince chuse rather to submit and subject his Crown to the Popes Mitre than to the Fury and Violence of an untamed Beast Where Piety should be reason and Judgment may be and if all be deficient yet wrath may be sooner in one in him appeased than in a bellua multorum capitum His Avarice or Ambition sooner satisfied than is imaginable of that insatiable Beast of the Community Fifthly Our Gamaliels hold that as this Sovereign Power is originally formally radically inherent in the People so it is Reductive by way of Reduction theirs that is in case of total Defailance of a King and his Posterity or in case a King by just demerit excidat jure suo forfeit his Right This Right reverts and returns to the Community again And in this for ought I know both Jesuit and Puritan conspire only the Jesuit sworn to maintain the exorbitant Pride and Power of Pope reserveth the Interest extravagant of the Pope And as Papelings do it in ordine ad Spirtualia So Presbyterians come well nigh it who will have the King but Custos and Vindex and most put in Execution what the Presbytery or Assembly determines in Gods Case and Cause otherwise you know what they may do Excommunicate c. and what follows upon that you know by joyning the Law and the Gospel Mat. 18. It is Christs Command that an Excommunicate shall be unto thee as an Heathen or Publican and the Tenor of the Law runs Deut. 17. A Stranger shall in no wise reign over thee Because we are sure that our Adversaries in the Roman Church will the next day either strengthen their Tenet asserting it by the Testimony of our men such as they will have us to own without all reason or then that they disclaim this part of the Tenet by which such extravagant Power is given to the People which the Pope may do at Leisure and Pleasure for neither he nor any Council of theirs hath as yet determined it to be de fide and turn it home as a true Brood of reformed Religion which I most fear and with good Reason for when the Jesuits were of late in this our Blessed Kings Reign charged by a Church-man that their Doctrine was seditious and treacherous concerning Kings a Jesuit in Spain was bold to answer that the same Tenets were preached and printed by ours and practised before a Jesuit was or ever they did print gave a Paper with warrand of the Books as Goodman c. and it is well known here what was professed and protested by Father Knot in his Epistle Dedicatory to our Gracious Sovereign before his Book entituled Christianity maintained about the time of the Stirs and Distempers in Scotland Because I say our Enemies are so malicious and subtle to take all possible Advantages to wrong us and our good Cause I aver confidently that those and the like Tenets were never taught nor believed by the sound Protestants of the Reformed Churches but our Sectaries learned them of their Bouchier De justâ abdicatione Hen. 3. Rossaeus peregrinus his de justa reip in principem potestate Hottoman his Francogallia his de jure regn Gal. Mariana and others And for my part I probably conjecture by the Terms they use that they have borrowed their first main Tenet of the Sorbonists and others of that kind who to oppose the Pope his Infallibility in Judgment his unlimited Power and to subject him to a Council did dispute themselves almost out of breath to prove that potestas spiritualis summa was by Christ first and immediately given unitati or communitati fidelium that so the power might never perish the Truth might be ever preserved and that howsoever for the time it was virtually in the Pope yet he had it only from the Community of the faithful communicatively and in case of Defailance in them it was suppletive and in case that the power of the Church was abused to Heresie or Tyranny the Pope was deposable not only censurable by a Council This Question was acutely disputed before about and after the Councel of Constance In the like manner to vindicate the Sovereignty of Kings from subordination or subjection to the Sea of Rome in temporalibus they made the Community of the people the prime first proper and immediate subject of all civil Power intending at this time only to vindicate Princes from the sacrilegious and violent Invasion of the Pope of Rome who most impiously and tyrannically usurped upon them as Gregory Nazianzen says it may well be that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like to a Cooper to right a bowed or crooked stick will bend it too much to the other side to rectifie it so these men to right Princes from the Tyranny of the Pope of Rome run upon the other extreme for the time not considering it as the Fathers to shun the Scylla of Manicheism who imposed an inevitable Fate and Necessity upon all the voluntary actions of man to vindicate mans Will and Freedom from inevitable Necessity and to assert to it it
's native Liberty they did run so far to the other extreme that they ascribed too much to the natural Power and Strength of mans free will and so seemed in heat of Dispute to derogate too much from the Necessity of Grace to our doing good Of which Expressions the Pelagians afterward did make use against the Orthodox Some there be who do maintain these Parisians and others that howsoever they did think Kings and Sovereignty were from the People by their Consent yet that power was immediately from God The maintainers of this Opinion I honour much for their Learning and other excellent parts But give me leave to say it I do not see how it can be maintained though I intend as much as any man to construe all men in the best Sense Do not all of them distinguish inter potestatem Civilem Ecclesiasticam betwixt Civil and Ecclesiastical power that Kings and Emperours have their Civil power at first by Donation from the People but Church-men may be chosen or deputed for sacred Orders or Functions by men but the Donation or Collation of the Power is from God Do they not hold that in fieri Kings are dependent from People but not in facto While they are instituted but not after that they are invested with that Power derived from the Community Do they not maintain that they are immediately from God but in Regard of Approbation That in some in this point they hold the Kings Power his Constitution in fieri is by the Peoples Donation transferring their innate inherent Right upon him which being immediately by God approved of they depend no more in conservari upon the People their Words are Ita quod in possidendo illo scilicet Impèrio nullum recognoscit superiorem praeter Deum that it is so that a King in possessing his Empire and Sovereignty acknowledeth no Superiour but God which in effect is no more than when any man by Industry or Donation acquireth a Right or Propriety if he come well by it he is righteous possessour of it by Gods Confirmation and Approbation yet do they hold too that the people and Community may propter crimen civile politicum destituere principem for a civil Enormity against the Common-wealth depose and dethrone a King And notwithstanding they maintain that the Pope may not cannot for any civil Crime or Transgression no nor for any Spiritual either depose a King nisi de per accidens but accidentally for they hold that the Pope cannot depose sententialiter legally judicially and orderly a King or Emperour although he may excommunicate sententialiter legally and by his own innate Power as they say finaliter or consecutive and by way of Consequence by his Sentence of Excommunication compel or move those that have power to depose him and so accidentally occasionally and by way of Consequence only he does depose not properly by himself or any Power innate and inherent in him And on the other side they hold that the Emperour de per accidens accidentally may depose the Pope for if the Pope abuse his power and place to the Damage of the Empire and Commonwealth the Emperour may forfeit his temporal estate confiscate his Goods and what else he holdeth as the Vassal of the Empire and by this means that those that have Power over the Pope which in their Sense is an Oecumenical a general Council to depose and degrade the Pope So equally keep they the Scales betwixt the Emperour Kings and Pope To demonstrate these Truths by their Grounds and Testimony it appears evidently first that when they distinguish betwixt secular and sacred power sacred they acknowledge supernatural and immediately by Donation from God but secular to be natural humane and ordinary by Donation from the Community Next that they acknowledge God to have no immediate hand in collating secular Power but by way of Approbation Thirdly that they allow the people Authority and Sovereignty not only to censure but to depose Princes as doth also Marsilius monand Patav. ad Ludovic IV. part 1. c. 12. When he hath acknowledged that Moses Ioshua Saul David and such had immediate Institution from God Almighty for other Kings and Governours their Right he saith Provenit immediatè ex arbitrio humanae mentis it is immediately from the free Election and Concession of man Iacobus Almayn in his Tract De suprema Pot. Eccles. Laica q. 2. c. 1. saith expresly in sola approbatione divina fundatur quaecunque potestas jurisdictionis Civilis Laica all secular Power and Jurisdiction is founded in the sole Approbation of God and that you mistake him not he telleth you immediately before that for the Collation of the power it is not but Aliquibus titulis creatis mediantibus by some Right or Title ordinary Scilicet vel titulo successionis vel haereditate vel venditione vel donatione vel aliqua permutatione either by the Right of Succession or the Right of Inheritance or by Alienation or by Donation or by some way of exchange See him more fully cap. 5. ibidem where he giveth you the three ways which all the Sorbonists conceive to compleat all the manner how man may be said to have any thing immediately from God Let me refer you again to another Passage of Marsilius Patavinus de Translatione Imperii cap. 6. Answering that Objection for the Popes power above Emperours and Kings that the Pope Zacharias deposed Childerick and enthroned Pipin ' saith Sed Admonius in gestis Francorum scribit verius Pipinum per Francos legitime in regem electum per regni proceres elevatum per Banifacium quoque Rhemensem Archiepiscopum inunctum Suissione in Monasterio Sancti Medardi Childericus qui tunc sub nomìne Regis in deliciis marcescebat ocio fuit in Monachum tonsuratus Vnde nen illum Zacharias deposuit sed deponentibus ut quidam aiunt consensit Nam talis depositio Regis alterius institutio propter rationabilem causam non ad Episcopum tantummodo neque ad clericorum aliquem aut clericorum collegium pertinet sed ad Vniversitatem civium inhabitantium regionem vel nobilium vel ipsorum valentiorem multitudinem The Result of all is this Pope Zacharias did not chuse Pipin King of France nor unâ—ing Childerick but the Commonalty and Peers of France did both and Boniface Arch-bishop of Rhemes anointed him at Soisson in the Abbey of St. Medard The Pope had no Authority in the one or other but a naked Consent for the deposing of such a King as Childerick who was a stupid and naughty man living beastly in his Pleasures nor the chusing of another as Pipin doth not for most considerable Reasons belong either to any Bishop Church-man or Corporation of Clergy but only to the whole Community of the Subjects or to the Nobles or to the greater and better part of the whole You see here Marsilius speaketh the Language of the Doctors of Sorbon For you
will read their Distinction in answering the very same Objection that Zacharias the Pope both in the Deposition of the one and Constitution of the other had a hand consensivè not authoritativè by â—a naked Assent not by authoritative interposing or Right in this Act. To shut up all this I refer you to one place by viewing of which you shall have explicitly three Iacobus Almayn Iohannes de Parisiis and Ockam all of them Doctors of Paris and breathing the same thing with the Patavin Doctor Marsilius Almayn hath it who writ for Ockam and in the words alledgeth Iohannes de Paris verbatim de Supr Pot. Eccles. Laic q. 2. c. 5. where with Ockam he grants that the Pope for Heresie may depose a King and the people for transgressing against the Commonwealth But that you may conceive all aright he saith Non licet Papae nec propter civile nec propter spirituale crimen deponere nisi de per accidens Et non pertinet ad Papam sententÃaliter deponere Imperatorem licet spectet sententialiter excommunicare finaliter per censuram Excommunicationis eos qui habent Authoritatem deponendi cogere ut illum deponant Et sic de per accidens deponit solummodo non directè The Sense is It is not proper nor lawful to a Pope to depose an Emperour either for any civil or spiritual Crime for Errors in Policy or Religion but only accidentally The Pope may sentence the Emperour with Excommunication but not with Deposition and so upon the bye may move the people or the multitude who have Authority over him to dethrone him And this is done by the Pope not properly but improperly not effectively but consecutively The like he subjoyns concerning the Emperours power over the Pope that if the Pope abuse the power he hath to the Disturbance and Hurt of the civil State the Emperour may forfeit his State confiscate his Goods and so indirectly make move and force those who have power above the Pope which in their Opinion is the whole Church or the Representative which is an oecumenical Council to depose the Pope and institute another To these I might add Gerson and others I refer you to Gerson's Considerations and amongst these that you will read the seventh I have insisted on this especially for two Reasons the one is that you may see these Tenets came not into the World with Luther and Calvin but were long before there was any Word of a Reformer Ioannes de Parisiis lived and taught at Paris in King Philip sirnamed Pulcher and Boniface the eighth's time about the year of our Lord 1296. Willielme Ockam an English born and Regius Professor in Paris who writ his Dialogue at the Request of King Philip and after his Death fled to the Emperour Lewis the fourth died as some think about 1320. Gerson Chancellor of the University of Paris lived in the time of the Council of Constance and died about 1420. And Almayn the first and chief Professor in Sorbon who took upon him the Defence of Willielme Ockam if you will believe Flaccius Illyricus wrote Anno 1512. a book against Cajetan for the Power of a Council above the Pope which was printed Coloniae 1514. All these were prior to Luther or Calvin Our Rabbies then have drawn these Doctrines out of their polluted Cisterns The other Reason is because some too charitably and to the prejudice of Verity interpret the Authors above cited and their Kinsmen If any man will take and hold them to the better Sense I will not be contentious though I profess I cannot see it yet will it appear otherwise that those are not the Tenets of the reformed Catholick Church but the Foppery of Popery See Thomas Aquinas 1. de regim princ c. 6. where he saith Si ad jus multitudinis pertineat sibi providere de rege non injustè ab eadem Rex institutus potest destitui si potestate regni tyrannicè abutatur in which Passage you have that people may make Kings unmake them in case of Tyranny This Book is suspected and for many just and pregnant Reasons not to be Thomas Aquinas's and therefore I refer you to the genuine Thomas 1 2. q. 90. art 3. q. 97. art 3. 22 ae q. 10. art 10. And if I be mistaken of his Sense blame one of his acutest Scholars who avers it Suarez l. 3. defens orth fid adv Sect. Angliae ca. 2. And long before Thomas Aquinà s Pope Zachary taught the French this Doctrine as you may read Avent l. 3. Annal. Boiariae Princeps saith he Populo cujus beneficio possidet obnoxius est Quaecunque n. habet potentiam honorem divitias gloriam dignit aâ—em à populo accipit plebi accepta referat necesse est Regem plebs constituit eundem destituere potest He practised this about the middle of the eighth Age and for ought I know is the first Divine or Pope of Rome either that said so or writ so Some charitably plead for him and shew how averse he was from giving his Consent that at first he writ to disswade them from wronging Childerick who had his Right from God and writ thus to wash his hands in Innocency I will not take pains to vindicate him I leave that Labour to the Popes parasites yet it is worth our noting that when Pipin and his Complices were about this Treason to rob Childerick of his Crown although all things were in him that might perswade to such a Course Childerick being but a weak King a silly man drowned and buried in ease and pleasures childless nor any near to him yet at this time notwithstanding of all those Circumstances the like whereof never I think occurred before so odious a Crime it was to depose and set a King by his Throne though alâ—o all France had almost conspired with him yet fearing that the whole Christian World would cry fie upon them for such an Impiety they had Recourse to the Pope that by a specious shew of his Holiness and the Authority of that holy Church this great Impiety and Treason might be countenanced and go current This President was made a leading case in after Ages both for popish and popular Usurpation to intrude nay to invade upon the Sacred Right of Sacred Kings Nay our Puritans have from hence learned to colour and lustre their ugly Treasons and Seditions with the Cloak of Religion and Righteousness With the intimating of another Opinion of some who make regal Power resident in the People and from thence derived to the King I will close this Chapter Some do hold that all Sovereign power is primarily and naturally in the universitate civium multitude from it derived to the King immediately and mediately from God Who intending the Good Peace and Safety of Mankind which cannot be obtained without preservation of Order hath commanded and by an inviolable Ordinance and Institution appointed all to submit and subject themselves to
the Laws of Society not only for Wrath but for Conscience sake not only whilst they enjoy Peace Plenty Justice and Protection by the Benefit of Governours but also whilst they do suffer under some Inconveniences or accidental Abuses The Reason of which Obligation they make to be this because we cannot enjoy nor reap the sweet Fruits of established Government unless by compact we submit our selves to some possible and accidental Inconveniences from which grounds they extract these Consequences and Consectanes 1. First That after a people have by Contract Compact or Covenant divested themselves of that Power which was primarily and natively in them they cannot without manifest violation and breach of inviolable divine Ordinance and without Breach of publick Faith resume that Authority which they have placed in a King that being united in one it may be enabled sufficiently to protect all and to exert and exercise all necessary acts of Government 2. The second is that it were high Sin to trench upon Sovereign Authority to rob it of its Essentials and native Constitutions 3. Thirdly this ordinance of God is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not without just and urgent Reasons 1. First for if that the primary and native Power which is in all and every one were not united entirely and sovereignly in one it could not have Strength enough to protect all and every one and to do all Acts and parts of necessary Government 2. Next this Ordinance of God is necessary to prevent those fatal and too too ordinary Divisions which attend Multitudes or many endued with equal Power where almost every one upon real or fancied Injuries undertaketh to right himself The Authors of this Opinion add That although before positive Constitution this is not absolutely unjust yet Reason informeth us that it must be fit by some Condition and Agreement to part with this native Right entirely for a greater good which will ensue and to prevent greater Evils which without this cannot be avoided and to restrain our selves from being our own Judges 3. Thirdly that either to resume any part of this Power of which the people have totally divested themselves or to entrench usurp upon or limit it contrary to its Nature is not only to disable Sovereignty from Government and Protection but also to loosen â—he Sinews of all Society no less than of Government by receding from that Compact which subtle disconâ—ented and disaffected men for their own private ends perswade others they might have made more to their own Advantage I was sometime in Love with this Opinion nor do I much condemn it for it enableth Sovereign Authority of a King with an entire and sufficient Power it maketh the Person and Office of the King sacred and inviolable it determineth that it is Sacriledge to denude or divest the King of any part of sacred Royalty and that the attempt or practise of any in this kind is a bad president nay a warrant for the Violation of all Contracts howsoever just upon any pretence whatsoever advantagious it reserveth Kings to the Tribunal of God only it preventeth by the law of Nature the Appointment of God all Seditions and Treasons declaring vim civium in Regem semper injustam all Opposition by force resisting of Kings by Arms whither in a defensive or offensive way to be against God and unlawful How fair soever this Opinion be yet I dare not to aver it nor maintain it for I can never see where holy Scripture or reverend and pious Antiquity hath seated this Sovereignty in the multitude or universitate civium originally or radically tanquam in subjecto primo as in its first Subject Scripture and Fathers speak it clearly frequently that Sovereignty refers to God as to its immediate Author and Donor but that it is underivedly primarily and natively in the Community from thence transferred to the Prince Ne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quidem Lucilianum not one syllable I wish from Scripture or Fathers they would make it appear that after the Peoples Constitution there is a supervenient accessory Ordinance to secure the Prince his Person and Function I leave this and come to prove by Scripture CHAP. II. That God is the immediate Author of Sovereignty in the King and that he is no Creature of the Peoples making WHen we say that Kings are constituted immediately by God and that Sovereignty is by immediate Donation and Collation from God and not from the People conceive us not to mean so grosly that this is by any special Ordinance sent from Heaven by the Ministry of Angels or Prophets The Observator if he conceive there is no other way but this whereby the Original of Royalty may be referred to God as the immediate Donor he will grant that there were but some few such as Moses Saul David c. But if he know not that some thing may immediately proceed from God and be his proper work without a Revelation or Manifestation extraordinary from Heaven he is as empty a Divine as I fear in the end he 'll prove a Politician I hope he will grant that howsoever the Designation of a person to Consecration for a sacred Function be by the Church and man yet the power of preaching administrating the Sacraments binding and loosing of Sins is immediately from Christ. To say this Power were derived from any other is not only unsound but blasphemous This Power in its nature is divine spiritual and supernatural and consequently cannot be but from such an efficient The designation of the Person to an holy Function is from man or men but the collation of the Power is immediately from God and Christ and yet this is not by any special Ordinance sent from Heaven by the Ministry of Angels and Prophets That the Apostles are of God and Christ's immediate Constitution none doth deny That Matthias was one Who will controvert That he was designed by men is clear Acts 1. Two were set apart the Decision was by Lots and yet I pray you was not Matthias an Apostle by immediate Constitution from Christ But where read you where find you any special Ordinance sent from Heaven by the Ministery of Angels or Prophets To come to Natural things If the Observator believe with the most part of Divines that the Soul of man is by Creation and Infusion not by propagation and traduction although Man and Nature begetteth the Body disposeth and prepareth it as a fit matter to be conjoyned with the Soul that the Father may well be said to have begotten the Son yet will he acknowledge that the Soul is immediately from God and believe it to be so without any special Ordinance sent from Heaven It were good for our Adversaries to consider that as the Schools see Iac. Almayn de Suprema potestate temporali quaest 2. c. 1. alibi See Gerson Ioannes Parisiensis and others and see St. Austin in re in effect saying the same although not in
power from below from the People by Contract are ordained of men and only established by God and consequently we must change the Phrase The People have said you are Gods your Power is from below and Saint Paul's ordained of God is no better than confirmed or approved of God Nor is the Title or Right of a King better as related to God than the Title of what any man possesseth titulo humano orcato by humane Right by Contract or otherwise in Rents Moneys Revenues or what else is ordinary in the Commerce and Society civil of men In brief our Sense is The Royal Power and Sovereignty of the King is from God primarily formally immediately The Designation or Deputation of the Person is by Election Succession Conquest c. as Matthias was designed by the Apostles setting of him apart and the falling of the Lord upon him but the Apostolical Power and Preeminence was immediately and solely from Christ. The power of the High-priest-hood in Zadok was from God the Designation of the Person was from Solomon a pregnant proof and Illustration of this appeareth in Iephtah Judg. 4. 5 6 7. The Elders of Gilead and people by Covenant and Contract bring him home agree he be Judge and Governour and yet notwithstanding 1 Sam. 12. 11. The sending of Iephtah is no less given to God solely than the immediate and extraordinary sending of Ierubbaal Bedan and Samuel A Father begetteth the Child but God infuseth the Soul A Woman by her Choice and Consent designeth her Husband but the marital Power and Dominion is only from God for how can she confer or transfer that power which was never fixed in her nay by God and Nature she is to be ruled by her Husband It is more then than manifest that an humane Act may design the Person of a King and that the Power is conferred by God alone There is in true Judgement a main Difference betwixt Potestas deputativa designativa personae Regiae and Potestas collative potestatis Regiae betwixt Applicativum personae ad authoritatem potestatem and applicativum authoritatis ad personam Regis The first may be done by an humane Act as a mans hand may apply a Faggot to the fire but the other in our case is proper to God as the Fire only can make the Faggot burn It appeareth then clearly that Power may and doth come from God alone and immediately without extraordinary Revelation by the Voice of God of Angel or Prophet The Sense and Terms of our Tenet thus cleared we come in the next place to our Proofs from the Holy Scriptures in the first place God in Scripture by frequent pregnant and multivarious Expressions hath so vindicated to himself the making and constituting of Kings that he declareth fully that he will have none to share with him in this Work for he hath told us that Kings and their Sovereignty are by God of God from God that they are Gods The Children of the most High His Servants His Ministers His publick Ministers and Deputies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That their Throne their Crown their Sword their Scepter their Iudgment are Gods c. and hath expressed it in abstracto abstractly of their Royalty their Power and in concreto of themselves with a Connotation of their Persons to intimate that they and all in them their Power their Function their Charge their Person are of divine extract a Constitution of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and consequently to teach us that the Sovereign Authority of the King and the Person of the King both of them are sacred inviolable God in his Omniscience and Prescience did foresee that the Sons of Adam would be like to their Father in Transgression that nothing will content them but to be like God and before they fail they will justle him out of his Right run upon the Guiltiness of divine Vsurpation challenging to themselves the Prerogative of the Almighty Pope and People Anti-christ-like exalting themselves above all that is called God The Iesuit this day pleased for the Pope the Puritan for the People that he or they have underived Majesty by which they may enthrone or dethrone make or unmake Kings at their pleasure We begin first with the Law In which as God by himself prescribed the Essentials Substantials and Ceremonials of Piety and his Worship gave order for Justice and Piety so he commanded the appointing and constituting of the King to be reserved as a priviledged case a proper Prerogative for himself Deut. 17. 14 15. c. When thou shalt say I will set a King over me like as all the Nations about me Thou shalt in any wise set him King over thee whom the Lord thy God shall chuse A Law sufficient to prove our Conclusion that the King and his Power are originally and immediately from God dependent from him alone and independent from all others The Power and Sovereignty is expressed in the words Set over thee This Thee is collective and includeth all and every one so Scripture knew not this new state-devised principle That Rex est singulis major universis minor above every one severally but subordinate to all joyntly The person is expressed in concreto in the Words Whom the Lord thy God shall chuse Neither is it to be slightly passed by that so peremptorily emphatically and authoritatively it is right-down said Thou shalt in any wise set him King over thee c. Which peremptory Precepts dischargeth the People all and every one diffusively collectively representatively or in what capacity else is imaginable in them to intend attempt or practise the appointing of a King but to leave it entirely and totally to Almighty God Here we must take off some shifts which Iesuits Puritans and others make to elude this and other Texts of this kind 1. The first is That this was a priviledged case of the Iewish King So Suarez lib. 3. c. 2. defens orthod Fid. cont Sect. Angl. So Soto l. 4. de Instit. q. 2. art 1. So Navarrus cap. Novit Notab 3. num 33. 147. and many more as Abulensis and others The Sectary averreth the same Both of them strengthen their Argument by these Maxims Exempla specialia non valent ad inferendum regulam universalem imo solent esse exceptiones à Regula To the same purpose they adduce that Maxim of the Iurists Valet Argumentum à speciali ad inferendam regulam universalem or Exceptio firmat regulam in non exceptis The Sum and Sense is that extraordinary singular special and priviledged cases are not firm and valid antecedents to infer a general ordinary and ruled case that if we cannot make it appear that all Kings are from God by immediate Constitution the priviledged case of the Iews will infer no necessary Conclusion Suarez in the place above cited goeth a little further affirming that God amongst the Jews did reserve as peculiar to himself the election onely of the King but
that His Constitution or the collation of Royal Power was from the People properly immediately and that because the words run in the Text Deut. 17. 14 15. that the People shall set him King over them and him only whom the Lord they God shall chuse Bellarmine saith just the same To remove this first shift we deny both the one and the other We deny first that it was a proper case for the Jews to have their Kings immediately constituted and appointed by God The Scripture is for us that all Kings all Sovereign Powers are immediately from God Prov. 8. 15. By me Kings reign saith a King and the wisest of Kings and a King who had good reason to say so for if the People had right to constitute or make a King it had not been King Solomon but King Adonijah Adonijah durst say to King Solomon's Mother Thou knowest that the Kingdome was mine and that all Israel set their faces on me that I should reign 1 Kin. 2. 15. Solomon saith not of himself singularly That he reigned by God but indefinitely universally By me Kings that is all Kings reign The first two words Per me By me contain in them the Donor the Author the Efficient the Constituent of Kings and Sovereignty Possibly you will say this By me is spoken of Wisdom it is true but that Wisdom is to be taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not for an Accident or Quality but for something subsistent personally And this Solomon's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chochmach in the sense of the most Learned both Ancient and Modern is St. Iohn's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ioh. 1. 1. Saint Iohn's Word Christ the Son of God the brightness of his Glory and the express image of his Person Heb. 1. 2. The Text demonstrateth it for his Wisdom by which Kings reign is that Wisdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the right reading for the Original word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kanan possedit nor will the Greek reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bring home the Arrains conclusion which the Lord possessed in the beginning of his way before his Works of old vers 22. Which was set up from everlasting from the beginning or ever the Earth was v. 3. The Wisdom by which Kings reign is the same that was created of all things Kings are from God the Father but by the Son as from the Father by the Son all Spiritual blessing in heavenly things come to us so the greatest of Temporal Blessings By him we have Kings the best Blessing here for without them neither Godliness nor Honesty 1 Tim. 2. 2. This Per is Christ's Preposition It is worth your notice taking that Solomon saith not By the People Kings reign had it been so you know who had been King and not Solomon Nor he saith not By the High-Priest Kings reign you know he was engaged in Adonijah's Treason no He saith not By Israel nor by Abiathar nor by Zadoc nor by David nor by Nathan Kings reign But there is a Per me which is exclusive of all and to whom onely it is proper and peculiar to make Kings and to make Kings reign Solomon excludes Pope and People State and Presbytery He vindicates the creation of Kings no less to Christ than the creation of things This â—er me by me imparts not a naked Permission as if Kings by importunity of People were given way to as some blasphemous mouths and Pens have said and written and that Monarchy of all Governments is the least acceptable to God and to People most inconvenient Ignorants or malicious or both they are who dare to say so Monarchy was the first Government God ordained in the World and is yet founded in paterno Why if it be otherwise was it promised to Ahraham as the highest pitch and reach of Temporal Blessings that Kings should come of him Why doth God Ezech. 16. upbraiding the multitude of the People reckon in the last place as the highest of his Favours Temporal That they prospered into a Kingdom Why doth St. Peter urge obedience to the King because that is the Will of God 2 Pet. 11. 15. Why doth St. Paul say that he is tibi in bonum for thy good and for my good and for the good of all Saint Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Higher Power is nothing else but St. Peter's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the King that is Supreme So Chrysostom Ambrose Haymo and others interpret it and the Government then when Saint Paul writ that Epistle was Monarchical They be a cursed brood who do maintain that this per me Reges regnant This By me Kings reign is a per me iratum by me in anger to punish a stiff-necked and rebellious People The Queen of Sheba knew it was per me propitium By me in Mercy and was better taught and sounder in this point of Divinity than the great Gamaliels amongst our Sectaries for she saith to Solomon Because the Lord thy God Loved Israel to establish them for ever therefore made he thee King over them to do judgment and justice 1 Chron. 9. 8. This per me implieth then that they are of Gods making and in mercy Kings are given to us This per me by me implieth Kings are God's and Christ's Derivatives and that God and Christ are their Institutives from God the Father by the Son their Commission their Power their Sovereignty for this cause St. Paul calleth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word is very pregnant and signifieth an Ordinance by high Authority not revocable nor repealable In which sense it is usually read in classical Authors Sacred and Prophane So Sinesius useth the word in Epist. ad Theoph. So Aristotle in his Problems Sect. 28. 50. Lucilius Epigr. 2. So Appian in 2. and Plutarch in Marcello useth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for established Decrees of Sovereignty The word from which it is derived is so used Acts 28. Stephanus a Learned Graecian is of that mind that in this very place Rom. 13. 2. it signifieth so much The Emphasis of this per me is not yet fully explained That wonder of Piety and Learning Doctor Andrews Late Bishop of Winchester hath well observed that the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bi in me and yet beareth well in me and per me the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beth signifying both So that the meaning is Kings are first in him and so come forth from him as that they are in him He parallels it a little with that passage in the Gospel My Father in me and I in him Christ in them as his Deputies They in Christ as their Author and Authoriser he by their Persons then by his Power The other two words of the Text Kings Reign contain in them the Charter the Donation Kings is in the number of many in the plural number Solomon although the wisest of men and Kings and King of Israel knew not this time what our new Doctors know that it was a priviledged
case for the Kings of Israel to Reign by immediate Constitution or Election from God from Christ. Solomon speaks it indefinitely In the Schools it is a currant Maxim that Indefinita propositio aequipollet universali an indefinite proposition is equivalent to an universal except they can shew where in Holy Writ it is limited it is restrained It lieth on them to prove it for affirmanti incumbit probatio He who affirms is bound to prove it Logick and Law both of them require it The Iurist saith Vbi Lex non distinguit nemo distinguere debet where the Law it self distinguisheth not we are not to distinguish Solomon then saith universally of all Kings By me Kings reign that is that their Right their Power their Sovereignty is immediately from God by Christ. I am glad that in this Text we met with Reges Kings in terminis terminantibus in express terms Nor is it to be slightly passed by that you have it in concreto the King with his Sovereignty He saith not Per me Regia potestas by me Royalty Sovereignty but Per me Reges by me Kings to intimate that Royalty is sacred and the Person invested with this Royalty too Solomon for all his Wisdom reached not the Subtilty of this Age to distinguish betwixt the King his Personal Will and Condition and Royal Power abstractly considered in it self If you will have it plainly These Rabbies have found out a Distinction with which the Spirit of God was not acquainted The word Regnant They reign hath its own force that not onely their Commission is by immediate Derivation from God and so they may say He it is that hath made us and not we our selves Gratia Dei sumus quod sumus By Gods Grace we are what we are and so justly do write themselves every one of them King by the Grace of God and so their Title is rightly from God and their actual Reigning is of him too They are not onely Reges Kings by him in actu signato as invested with this Power from above but they Reign by him in actu exercito their Commands are by him The actual exercise of their Power is to be considered as God's Power exerted by them His Deputies If you please to take it larger yet To regnare in fieri in facto in conservari To reign to have a right to it by Institution and Constitution to exercise this Power by Commission to have it longer or shorter time all is Per me By me and no other Dat aufert Regna He giveth and taketh away Crowns at his pleasure The Law teacheth us ejusdem est destituere cujus instituere none can unmake a King but he only who can make him Let the Law plead for it self stand not for it Sure I am it is good Divinity In Iob c. 26. 7. We read with St. Hierome and that without wronging the Original in the sense Reges â—ollocat in Solio in perpetuum He placeth Kings in the Throne for ever And again c. 13. 18. Solvit Baltheum Regum He taketh them from their Throne or as it â—s Psal. 89. 44. He casteth down their Crown to the ground The result of all is what can you conceive of a King in abstracto or concreto in his Person or in his Sovereignty of his Power habitual or actual of his Right or the Exercise of it of his making his continuing his un-kinging all is per me from God immediately by Christ and this in Solomon's expression is verified of all Kings whatsoever A further proof both to fortifie what is said and to bring home our main Conclusion we adduce from Rom. 13. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the Powers that be are ordained of God Beza â—rendreth the words Quaecunque autem sunt potestates sunt à Deo ordinatae The old Interpreter nearer to the Original turneth it thus Quae autem sunt à Deo ordinatae I am very inclinable to think that those words relate onely at least principally to Sovereignty and that Monarchical I do not deny but that by analogy and accommodation they may be accommodated to all Power whatsoever The Reasons enforcing me are First because they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expresly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 High or Eminent Powers 2dly if we will admit St. Peter to interpret St. Paul we will find S. Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are S. Peter's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Kings that are Supreme 1 Pet. 11. 13. 3. Thirdly the Apostle St. Paul adding Ordained of God or under God cannot so properly be understood of Subordinate Power for that is not by immediate Derivation from God but immediately from the higher Power or the Kingâ— that is Supreme and mediately from God which made Saint Peter call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Governours and such as are sent by the King who iâ— Supream 1. Pet. 11. 14. Fourthly many Learned interpreters conceive the Words so as Saint Chrysostomâ— Ambrosius or Hilarius Diaconus or whom else you will under the name of Ambrosius Haymo and otherâ— c. Lastly When St. Paul writ this Epistle thâ— Government at Rome was Monarchical Nero theâ— reigned This thus established Let us observe in the nexâ— place that the Apostle speaketh Vniversally that all Supreme Monarchical and Royal Power is ordianed oâ— God immediately Beza sticks not to render the words into a Proposition universal affirmative Quaecunque autem sunt potestates sunt à Deo ordinatae The Apostles own Expression is full enough pregnantâ— enough The Relative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must in good Grammar 〈◊〉 referred to the antecedent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joyn thâ— words cited with the words immediately preceeding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for there is no power but of God and then you shall have this Conclusion by undenible Consequence naturally resulting from the Premises There is no supreme or Royal Power but from God alone and consequently he is the sole Donot and Sovereignty relates to him as to its immediate Author Do not our Sectaries reason thus from the Passage Gal 2. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Knowing that a 〈◊〉 is not justified by Works but by Faith alone that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the equivalent of an exclusive and so conclude that we are justified by Faith alone Why then will they refuse that this passage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a perfect exclusive and is tant ' a mount as that no Supreme power is by man or other means but from God alone If they shake the Force of this Argument their strong hold for Justification is overthrown We observed before how that in the next verse those higher Powers are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the established unrepealable Ordinance of God And so presumptuous are we now a-days as to repeal Gods most irrevocable decrees No wonder we are so insolent seeing we presume to mend the Creed and Magnificat Now joyn Saint Paul and Solomon together and you have that
to the King his Sacred Sovereignty inviolably This I say made God in Scripture non obiter raro accidenter not in a passing way occasionally or rarely or accidentally to command this Duty of Loyalty and Obedience to Kings Sacred in their Functions in their Persons Almighty God hath in commanding this Duty in holy Writ kept the same course he kept in setting down Essentials and Fundamentals of Faith and Worship If any be pleased to be at the pains to observe it I doubt if they will find any thing so peremptorily and frequently commanded and with so much reason urged The Lord knew how averse corrupt man is to give to the Lords Anointed his due without the special Grace of God or an over-ruling strong Providence People cannot be kept in Subjection David magnifieth it as one of the highest and most powerful of Gods blessings towards him that he delivered him from the strivings of his People Psal. 18. 43. and as ingenuously he acknowledgeth that it is God alone who subdueth his People under him Psal. 144. 2. God accounteth Rebellion against them Rebellion against himself and ordinarily in Scripture you have God and the King inseparably joyned and the Duties to both enjoyned 1 Pet. 2. 17. Fear God Honour the King Prov. 24. 21. My Son fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change This is purposely done not onely to intimate the greatness of the Sin of Disobedience Disloyalty and Rebellion but also to express the near Alliance Kings have with God and the strait conjunction betwixt them and God that nothing intervenes to divide or sever them which God hath put together let none put asunder We have proved that God in the Law hath reserved to himself as his own right the Constitution of Kings We have proved sufficiently that this was not a priviledged case of Gods People under the Law because Solomon indefinitely and consequently universally averreth That all Kings reign by God in Christ. Because Saint Paul hath delivered the same truth That there is no Supreme Power but from God alone and so from him alone that he admitteth no Corrival to share with him Thus you have three Arguments for our purpose We come now to the fourth Which is this Scripture right down teacheth us that all Kings whatsoever have their Free-hold from Almighty God alone Of Pharaoh King of Egypt it is said Exod. 9. 7. I have raised thee up Elisha from God designed anointed and constituted Hazael King over Syria 2 King 8. 13. Here you see that the Kings of Egypt and Syria are no less of Gods making than the Kings of Israel Are not Pharaoh Abimelech Hiram Hazael Hadad no less honoured with the compellation of Kings than David Saul or Ezekiah Be they what they will Gods creatures they are and of his making onely Ier. 29. 9. God doth honour Nebuchadnezzar by naming him his servant His servant conceive it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of excellency The same compellation it is which God giveth to David a King according to his own heart Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon my Servant If what we have said cannot suffice let them turn over to Isai. 45. 1 2. Thus saith the Lord to his Anointed 'to Cyrus whose right hand I have holden to subdue Nations before him and I will loose the loyns of Kings to open before him the two leaved gates and the gates shall not be shut I will go before thee and will make the crooked places strait I will break in pieces the gates of brass and cut asunder the bars of Iron And I will give thee the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places that thou mayest know that I the Lord which call thee by thy name am the God of Israel A proof able enough to stop the Devils mouth What Cyrus was is well known he hath Iosiah's honour to be named well nigh an hundred years before he was born and named by his individual Name he is dignified with the Royal compellation of the Lords Anointed his Honour his work and all is from God and that immediately How much might be said if we pleased to insist to prove our point But leaving this I come to our fifth Argument which is That in the Book of God we are told Dominus dat aufert regna that there be no Kingdom but of his giving no Kings but of his making no King unking'd but by his doing We ended our last Argument with Cyrus we begun the proof of this with him too Esdr. 1. 2. It is recorded by the Holy Spirit Thus saith Cyrus of Persia the Lord of Heaven hath given me all the Kingdomes of the Earth and he hath charged me to build him an House at Ierusalem which is in Iudah You read the same 2 Chron. 36. 22 23. I am very inclinable to believe that Cyrus knew this charge from the Prophecy of Isaiah 44. 28. He is my shepherd and shall perform all my pleasure even saying to Ierusalem thou shalt be built and to the Temple thy foundation shalâ— be laid And again cap. 45. 13. I have raised him uâ— in righteousness and I will direct all his wayes he shall build my City and let go my Captives not for price nor râ—ward saith the Lord of Hosts If this will not rectifie the perverse rebellious Tenet of Puritan and Jesuit I despair of doing it I know they will tell me it is an extraordinary case this is their ordinary poor shift that serveth them in many cases if they would consider it aright they might see how careful God has been by extraordinary Works and Manifestations and reiterated Precepts and Practices ordinary to right their extravagant and extraordinary Tenets and Humours If they can be satisfied we refer them to Dâ—n 2. 19 20 21. And Daniel will teach them in the judgment of God that to give and remove Kings and Kingdoms is the sole and properly peculiar work of God When God had revealed to Daniel Nebuchadnezzar's Dream with the Interpretation of it he thanketh God and saith vers 20. Blessed be the Name of God for ever and ever for Wisdom and Might are his vers 21. And he changeth the times and the seasons he removeth Kings and setteth up Kings Again vers 37. He saith Thou O King art a King of Kings for the God of Heaven hath given thee a Kingdom Power Strength and Glory vers 20. and 21. He ascribeth the setting up and removing of Kings no less to God than Wisdom infinite and Omnipotency which are Divine Attributes incommunicable And vers 37. He vindicates this as proper and peculiar to the God of Heaven that Earth and earthly men can have no part in it Daniel in whom was the spirit of the holy Gods Daniel whom no secrets troubled Daniel in whom was wisdom like the wisdom of Gods reached not this high point to know that in the People was an underived Majesty to be derived to
from God alone and Independent from all others It may be because Daniel was a great Courtier as Ioseph was with Pharaoh that he might not be judged a time-server a temporizer a complier to vindicate him from Court-flattery God did so many ways so miraculous ways demonstrate this Truth confirm this Truth that Sovereignty Royal Majesty come from Heaven from God immediately What Prophet almost hath not a hint an Expression of this Isay is plentiful in this as you may see in Nebuchadnezzar in Cyrus c. and all Neighbour Princes Ieremy taught it to the Iews to his own Disadvantage The Prophet Hosea or rather God himself by the Prophet with one Breath in one Verse in few words with a dedi and an abstuli hath expressed hath confirmed this Doctrine c. 13. 11. I gave them a King in my Anger and took him away in my Wrath. I gave him I took him away what can you require more I pray give me Leave to observe one thing in the words besides our main purpose for which we cited it He saith dedi eis regem in ira mea I gave them a King in my Anger This King in the judgment of some was Saul according to the mind of others this King was Ieroboam it skilleth not whether the one or the other Both of them were wicked Yet it is said Dedi I gave him and as I gave him so abstuli I took him away None giveth but He None can take away but He. God will admit none to do either the one or the other but himself It is observable too that in giving a bad King it is only said in ira mea I gave him in my Anger but in taking away a bad King it is said abstuli in furore meo I took him away in my wrath what difference is betwixt ira and furor anger and wrath all do know What doth this intimate to us then but to have a bad King is a chastisement Irati Dei of an angry God who is placable But to have no King at all it is a work of Vengeance a token a prognostick of an Implacable God at least hardly placable If you account Iob for a Prophet or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it skilleth not much which way you term him He saith Reges collocat in solio in perpetuum and again Baltheum regum dissolvit the places you have cited before What he speaketh for Sovereignty you shall hear qq 4 5. For Solomon his Suffrage you had before What he saith of the heart of Kings c. Of not resisting Kings you shall hear it in its proper place That a King there is no rising up against him what in the Book of Ecclesiastes he speaketh of his absolute Sovereignty you shall find it in its proper place E're long you shall by Gods grace hear David speak for himself And because we said before that no truth almost in Scripture is more apertly and frequently delivered than the Sovereignty of Kings their creation by God immediately the Historical part is plentiful in this kind In Genesis it is promised to Abraham that Kings shall come of him There it is fixed by Prophecy in the Tribe of Iudah with Iudiciaria and Legislativa potestas with the Scepter and Law-giver In the Law it is fore-told his Duty is prescribed Moses dying prayeth for one onely to rule the People after his death In Iehoshuah his Book you have as compleat as absolute a Monarch as we plead for as by express Scripture in its own place we shall clear by Gods grace In the Book of Iudges the Sophetim the Judges are Monarchs and not once but oftener there it is told us that all Evil was in the Land for want of a King In the Books of Samuel you have not only the Institutions of Kings but Ius Regum expressed To name the Books of Kings and Chronicles is ridiculous In the Books of Ezra c. Look upon Cyrus Darius c. As for the New Testament See how Christ taught it practised it and his Apostles after him to point at this is not necessary If our strait-laced Brethren would be pleased to cast an eye upon Apocrypha I refer them to Ecclesiasticus cap. 6. 1 2 c. Hear ye Kings c. Give ear you that rule the People and glory in the multitude of Nations for Power is given you of the Lord and Sovereignty from the Highest c. Yet fearing this Passage will not be current enough among our Sectaries I point at two passages of David till we hear him speak more fully The one is Psal. 21. 3. Thou settest a Crown of pure Gold upon his head The other is Psal. 84. 44. Thou hast made his Glory to cease and cast his Throne down to the ground I do confess ingenuously it is a great wonder tâ— me how any man that readeth the Scripture attentively doth not heartily and without scruple acknowledge that Kings and Sovereignty are independent from all and onely derived from God and that this truth is not onely verified of the Kings of the Iews but all Kings whatsoever Which truth we are hopeful we have confirmed clearly yet will proceed to add more reasons and to remove some more of their poor evasions CHAP. IV. That Kings are onely dependent from God and not from the Community is more proved by Scripture The poor shifts of Suarez and Bellarmine are removed who abusing the passage Deut. 17. would have the Constitution of the Kings of Israel to relate to the People as its real and proper Origin and Cause and the priviledged Case onely this that God reserved to himself the designation of the Person of the King THis other shift of Suarez and Bellarmine in the Title of the Chapter expressed is as poor a one as the other nor can it hold when it is examined by Scripture and Reason Both the Iesuits and the Puritans their Disciples build this quirk upon the naked perverted letter of the Text that Deut. 17. â—4 15. it is said of the People that they set the King â—ver them and upon Gods part it is said Him shalt â—hou set over thee whom the Lord thy God shall chuse Ergo say they the Constitution is the Peoples the Election of the Person is Gods It is a lame Consequence for the words Constitues super te Thou shalt set over thee are not to be understood of Constitution by collating or transferring from them to the King Majesty and Sovereignty but of Constitution by way of Approbation or of accepting of him as King acknowledging him as a King reverencing and obeying him as King whom God hath both designed and constituted by himself King In this Sense we grant a Constitues super te a setting over thee and because this is the last act in constituting a King that puts that in fieri in facto esse quasi ultima dispositio inducens formam as the last Disposition which induceth the form in the matter by a
synecdochical and tropical Speech it is so usually spoken Nor is it unusual to the Spirit of God in Scripture to speak this way for it is said 1 Cor. 6. The Saints judge the World Now it is certain that the Judgment of the Saints is only by approving or consenting to Christs Judgment which is his only authoritativ◠properly and their act in that great Judgment at the last day is only to approve or consent rather to the righteous Judgment of their Lord yet Scripture standeth not to say The Saints shall judge the World To judge by Authority is only proper to God the Father by the Son to whom the Father hath given all Judgment and this leaveth no place no Power to the Saints to dissent The like holdeth in the Instance proposed That this is to be conceived so which is our sixth Argument to confirm that Kings and their Sovereignty are immediately from God is more than apparent that Almighty God in Scripture vindicateth to himsel◠all the Acts real and imaginable which are necessary for the making of Kings If the Iesuit make much of the Letter of the Text Deut. 17. where it 's said The Lord should chuse the King and the People set the King over them Let us consider how the Practice interprets the Letter of the Law it is an infallible Maxim with Jurists Praxis optimus Legis interpres Practice is the best Commentary of Law and it is no less a ruled case that the first president is a ruling case to all following in that kind Come then take the first Instance in Saul the first elected and constituted King by the Tenor of this Law In the practice the Phrase is varied and turned over the Election is given to the People the Constitution to God 1 Sam. 12. 13. Behold the King saith Samuel whom you have chosen and desired and behold the Lord hath set a King over you This Election of the People can be no other but their Admittance or Acceptance of the King whom God had chosen and constituted as the words Whom you have desired imply Scripture telleth us that Saul's Election and Constitution was 1 Sam. 9. 17. when God said to Samuel Behold the man whom I spake to thee of the same shall reign over my people and when Samuel took a Viol of Oyl powred it upon his head kissed him and said Is it not because the Lord hath anointed thee to be Captain over his Inheritance 1. Sam. 10. 1. Where you have Samuel as Priest and Prophet anointing doing Reverence and Obeisance to him and ascribing to God that he did appoint him Supreme and Sovereign over his Inheritance The same again is totally given to God 1 Sam 12. 13. The Lord hath set a King over you The Expression and Phrase is the same with that you have of Christ and his Kingdom Psal. 2. 6. I have set my King upon my holy Hill of Sion I am confident none will be so sacrilegiously impudent as to give to Church to man or Angel Creature or Creatures any share in any act of constituting Christ King over his Church and for his Church and in order to it over all the Kingdoms of the World By what is said of this first practice it is more than evident that God in that Law of making Kings Deut. 17. did vindicate as proper and peculiar to himself the Designation of the person of the King and the investing of him in royal Power and Sovereignty The People then were only to admit and accept of their King by God so designed and constituted and to yield all Reverence Obedience and maintenance necessary It was not arbitrary to them to admit or reject Saul so designed so constituted by God himself immediately reject him they could not Yet God in his wise prudent Dispensation of all things judged it expedient to complete and consummmate this Work by the Acceptation Consent and Approbation of the people Vt suaviori modo that by the smoother way he might thus encourage Saul to the undergoing of this hard Charge and make his People the more heartily without grumbling or scruple Reverence and obey him As by his Providence he doth all things powerfully so he disposeth of all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the good of man in a sweet and mild way This Admittance possibly added something to the Solemnity of Saul's investing but nothing to the essential or real Constitution as the Intimation of a Law which in Laws I think hath more Interest than this Admittance here it hath no Influence upon a Law made by supreme Power yet it is useful it Puts the Subjects in mala fide makes them inexcusable if they contravene Or this Admittance was and is as the Imperialists say truly of the Popes Confirmation of the elected Emperour good ad pompam but not requisite ad necessitatem Or if you will speak with the Romanists that the confirmation is of the Pope once elected is ad solennitatem not ad necessitatem for the Solemnity not simply necessary Or to come more near and with more certainty and truth it is like the Coronation of an hereditary King which is only for solemnity not for Necessity for before that Ceremony and Solemnity his Title is as good as after it and any act of royal Power and Jurisdiction done before his Coronation is as valid as any done as after his Coronation Or if you will it is like the Enthronization of a Bishop or installing of a Canon o◠Prebend in a Cathedral Church Scripture maketh this Good plentifully elsewhere for it punctually ascribeth all Acts essentially constitutive of Kings immediately to God In one full word the making of a King is given to God 1 Kings 3. 7. And now O Lord my God thou hast made thy Servant King instead of David my Father The providing of a King is given to God 1 Sam. 16. 1. I have provided me a King The King in a proper and peculiar way is called Gods King Psal. 18. 50. Great deliverance giveth he to his King God exalteth them Psal. 89. 19. I have exalted one chosen out of the People Not the People but God findeth Kings out ibid. vers 20. I have found David my Servant Neither Priest nor Prophet nor People really anoin◠Kings God anointeth them ibid. vers 20. With mine holy Oyl have I anointed him That we conceive them not to have their Prerogative from Pope or People Priest or Prophet not they but God adopteth them ibid. vers 27. I will make him my first-born That he may cry unto him Thou art my Father my God vers 26. To shew their nearer and straiter Alliance they are taken in societatem nominis numinis potestatis into a communion of his Majesty his Name Power it is said Psal. 82. 6. I have said ye are Gods To shew their Generation their Procreation their Derivation there is a dixi to this too I have said ye are all of you the Children of the most High
not terrae filii Cadmus off-spring sprung out of the Earth Kings then are not made provided chosen found exalted anointed adopted by Saints by People by Pope by Presbytery by any diffusive collective representative virtual Body of the Community but by and of God alone for their Power their Sovereignty they are dii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elohim the manner of Propagation Derivation Communication is by Filiation by Adoption they are filii Excelsi the Sons of the most High and for eminency above all they are the first born this is the Language of Canaan it is the Language of Ashdod to say that a King is minor universis singulis major Scripture Reason speak the contrary primogenitus the first-born is not above every Brother severally but if there were thousands millions numberless numbers he is above all in Dignity in Precedency in Power It is statuted by God in the beginning of the World that the younger Brother and Brethren all of them sub te erit appetitus ejus tu dominaberis illius Vnto thee or subject unto thee shall be his desire and thou shalt rule over him Gen. 4. 7. To return a little to the Practice of the Law in constituting David King you find it was not the diffusive the collective Body of Israel that found David chose him exalted him anointed him c. It was God alone it was not the Elders of Bethlehem his own City neither they nor the other knew of it 1 Sam. 16. 4. Nor were the Saints sharers in this work with God they knew nothing of it Psal. 89. 19. Nay not Samuel the Prophet had it been he it had not been King David but King Eliab It is worthy of our labour to take notice how the anointing of Kings is wholly attributed to God in Scripture and other Kings besides the Kings of Iudea are called The Lords Anointed Which is more than evident by what is before expressed the phrase of Scripture is very emphatical They are anointed with his holy Oyl the Act is his He anoints The holy Oyl is his He anoints with his Oyl this Oyl is sacred too it is not every Oyl but his Oyl and his sacred Oyl Sacred Oyl it is which how it can be so denominated and come from the People as its first subject and Seat its Origine and Source is not conceivable in Reason Sacred it is in three respects First from a sacred Fountain a sacred Efficient from God himself 2. Next for its sacred Influence upon the Person it makes the Person of the King Sacred 3. For its influence upon the Charge the Function his Power his Authority is Sacred too And both the Person and the Charge are Supreme which is most fitly resembled in the Sacramental Ceremony of Oyl put Oyl in whatsoever Liquor you will it swimmeth above in the surface Now all this is so intirely and solely given to God that neither Priest nor People Pope nor Presbytery have any part in it Psal. 89. 20. With mine holy Oyl have I anointed him God finds the Oyl and the hand to do it You will say Samuel's hand did it The Principle of the Law will take away this Scruple Quod quis facit per alium facit per se What one doth by another he doth that by himself Samuel was onely the Delegate God was the Principal and Delegant and in reason the Act must be referred to the Principal The Oyl was God's too not from the Apothecaries shop nor the Priest's Vial this Oyl descended from the Holy Ghost who is no less the true Olive than Christ is the true Vine Yet I pray you mistake it not to account it of the holy Oyl of Gratia gratum faciens Saving Grace as some Fanaticks and Fantasticks fondly imagine this is a sacred Oyl to make the Person and Function Sacred as we have said Our seventh Argument to prove that Sovereignty in a King is immediately from God and not from the diffusive collective representative or virtual Body of the Community is that all Royal Ensigns and Acts of Kings are ascribed to God If Kings were the Derivatives of the People and Community in whom is that fansied underived Majesty how comes it to pass that the holy Spirit hath not in any place or syllable of Scripture intimated it and how cometh it to pass that in such a particular way and enumeration all are given to God 1. Their Crown is of God by putting it on their head Isai 62. 3. The Royal Diadem is in the hand of the Lord. Psal. 21. 3. Thou puttest a Crown of pure Gold upon his head Hence it was that the Emperour's Coin of old was printed with an hand coming out of Heaven and putting it on their head The very Heathen did term them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as having and holding their Crowns from God Their Sword is God's and he girdeth them with it David Professeth so much Psal. 18. 39. For thou hast girded me with strength the Sword is the Emblem of strength unto the Battel See Iudges 7. 17. 3. Their Scepter is the Scepter of God Exod. 4. 20. and 17. 9. The Hebrew word Sebet signifieth no less Scepter than Rod. It is a miraculous one too We read onely of two miraculous Rods Moses's and Aaron's By Moses's rod what wonders were wrought in Egypt and what a Miracle was it that the rod of Aaron budded and none else of the twelve Tribes and for what purpose was it that God made both the one and the other miraculous Was it not to manifest to the World that the Sovereign Power of a King as Moses was King of Ieshurun and high Sacred Power of the High Priest and the Tribe of Levi were not by Derivation by Translation by Communication from the People but immediately independently from God himself He is well nigh out of his Wits that will make any thing miraculous the Work and Effect of the Multitude 4. Their judgment is the judgment of the Lord 2 Chron. 19. 6. Again 5. Their Throne is the Throne of God 1 Chron. 19. 21. The ancient Fathers and Councels used the same diction they called 1. Their Writings sacri apices 2. Their Presence sacra vestigia 3. Their Majesty sacra Majestas 4. Their Words their Commands divalis jussio The Law speaketh the same Language and whatsoever goods belonged to them they are called res sacrae See Brissonius his Lexicon lib. 7. in the Sacras Being that in Holy Scripture in reverend Antiquity and in the Law all their Ensigns all their Royal Acts their Persons their Right their Goods are denominated Sacred and given to God himself how can our new Statists against the expressions of the Holy Spirit of the Holy Fathers and of Jurists honour Kings no better but to call them Derivatives of the People Is this to ennoble them No truly it disgraces Kings it maketh them the basest Extract of the basest of Rational Creatures the Multitude the Community It is certainly untrue
if it be not blasphemous against God and the King to fix as in its first seat and receptacle an underived Majesty in the Community where there is not one of a thousand an intelligent and knowing man It is certainly high Treason against God and the King A world of Reasons to prove that Kings are independent from all and solely dependent from God may be brought from Scripture but because we intend brevity and haste to other things we point at some few to be considered and enlarged by the judicious Reader himself As first to whom can it be more proper to give the Rule over men than to him who is the onely King truly and properly of the whole World 2. Next God is the immediate Author of all Rule and Power that is amongst all his Creatures above or below why then should we seclude him from being the immediate Author of Government of Empire amongst men 3. Thirdly Man in the state of Innocency in his first Creation received Dominion and Empire over all the Creatures below Gen. 1. 28. Replenish the Earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the Sea and over the Fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the Earth Again after the Fall Gen. 9. 2. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every Beast of the Earth and upon every Fowl of the Air upon all that moveth upon the Earth and upon all the Fishes of the Sea into your hand are they delivered Can we be so stupid as to acknowledge the dominion over all the Creatures below is given to man immediately from God and to deny that the most noble and excellent Government by which man hath Power and Empire over men is not from God by his Institution and Constitution but by the Compact and Contract the Composition and Constitution of men 4. Fourthly To demonstrate their immediate derivation from God that their Power is immediately from him is more than apparent by this reason They who exercise the Judgment of God must needs have their Power to judge from God But so it is that Kings by themselves and their Deputies exercise the Judgments of God The Proposition is sure and is both confirmed and illustrated by considering how that Church-men are rightly said to have received their Ministerial Power from God and Christ because God by them reconciles the World to himself and saves mankind 2 Cor. 5. 17 18 19 20. 1 Tim. 4. 16. How is it imaginable that they can be said to judge in God's place and not receive the Power from God The assumption is as evident by express words of Scripture see Deut. 1. 17. 2 Chron. 19. 6. Let no man stumble at this that Moses in the one place and Iosaphat in the other speak to subordinate Judges under them this weakeneth no wayes our Argument for it is a ruled Case in Law Quod quis faâ—cit per alium faciâ— per se all Judgments of inferiour Judges are in the Name Authority and by the Power of the Supreme and are but communicatively and derivatively from the Sovereign Power 5. Fifthly Not onely their Power is of God their Iudiciaria potestas but the very Execution of it They are the Ministers of God in the execution of their Charge and Power ergo their Charge and Power is immediately from God All the testimonies of Scripture wherein they are called Gods confirm the Antecedent and especially those where the Supreme Governour is called the Servant the Minister the Angel the Publick Servant of God Doth not this Argument hold in the Ministry Doctors and Preachers of the Church discharging their Charge are called the Ambassadours the Legates the Ministers of God and from hence we conclude necessarily that the Ministry is from God and Christ. The Apostle Saint Paul Rom. 13. 4 5 6. calleth the Supreme Magistrate thrice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and pregnantly expresseth that the King in the execution of his Charge is doing Service to God vers 4. He is the Minister of God to thee for good But if thou do that which is evil be afraid for he beareth not the Sword in vain Again He is the Minister of God a Revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil Again vers 6. For they are Gods Ministers attending continually upon this very thing The Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is well rendred attending continually and is in its nature Active and so looketh to the execution of his Charge properly In the Book of Wisd. cap. 6. 5. The Author attributeth to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Kings and Rulers the Ministery onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There can be no Argument better to prove that both their Sovereign Power and execution of it is from God than that properly and primarily God Almighty is King and all Kings related to him are onely equivocally so for he is Rex regum Dominus dominantium 1 Tim. 6. 15. Revel 1. 5. 21. 27. 19 20. 17. 14. He is King of Kings and Lords of Lords 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 truly so Kings upon Earth are only such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more in Resemblance than Reality and betwixt the one and the other the Kings of Heaven and Kings on Earth no more proportion than is betwixt Heaven and Earth a thing finite and infinite For this cause Scripture Mark 10. 41. speaketh no better of Kings and Princes on Earth than that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not so much truly men that have Empire and Rule as such that appear to be so from whence then shall we derive Sovereignty and Royalty but from that true Royalty and Sovereignty in God alone 6. Sixthly the Power and Grace by which they are inabled for so high a Charge and Employment is only from Almighty God then by necessary Consequence the Charge must be solely and only from him The Connexion is natural for in right Reason to whom can it be due to give a Charge of this Concernment properly but only to him who is able to give the Endowments and hability for that Charge Now that the Endowment is from God immediately the sacramental Ceremony of anointing sheweth it and that exactly they are called the Lords Anointed We need not use symbolical Arguments seeing the Schools allow them no convincing force the Holy Spirit hath given it to us in plain and natural Terms right down Of Otâ—niel the first Judge after Ioshua it is said Iudges 3. 10. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and he judged Israel The like you have spoken of Saul after that he was anointed and appointed King of Israel 1 Sam. 10. 11. and elsewhere The same is said of David 1 Sam. 17. Very knowing men in Divinity interpret the Passage Prov. 20. 12. The hearing Ear and the seeing Eye the Lord hath made even both of them that the Facility to rule well and the Grace to obey
Rulers both of them are of God immediately by the hearing Ear understanding the actual Obedience of the Subject and by the seeing eye the actual Government and Empire of the Sovereign the interpretation is according to the analogy of sacred and divine Truth If any be contentious to hold it is not the native Sense of the Text we will not contest or contend unnecessarily seeing we have plain places to the same Purpose David professeth and acknowledgeth that the Subjection of his People to him was the immediate Work of God Psal. 144. 2. The like see 1 Sam. 10. 26. when Saul was constituted King some despised him but those whose hearts God had touched followed and reverenced him 7. Seventhly where Sovereign power is as in Kings there is Authority and Majesty a ray of divine Glory But this cannot be found in people they cannot be the subject of it whether you consider them joyntly or singly If you consider them singly it cannot be for this is not to be found in every individual and according to our Antimonarchical Sectaries all by native Right are equally equal born with a like Freedom If it be not in the People considered singly it cannot be derived from them being considered joyntly for all the Contribution in this compact and Contract which they fancie to be humane Composition and voluntary Constitution is only by a Surrender of the native Right every individual hath in himself from whence then can this Majesty and Authority be derived Again where the Obligation is amongst equals by Compact and Contract Violation of the Faith plighted in the Contract cannot in proper Terms be called Disobedience or Contempt of Authority it is no more but a receding from and Violation of that which was promised as it may be in States or Cantons confederate Nature Reason Conscience Scripture teach that Disobedience to sovereign Power is not only Violation of Truth Breach of Covenant but also high Disobedience and Contempt That this Authority is in Princes it is evident by sense by Experience by Scripture by the Confession of the Heathen The passage we did alledge before proveth this 1 Sam. 10. 26. To that Passage add that cap. 11. that when Saul hewed a Yoke of Oxen in pieces and intimated that whosoever came not forth after him so it should be done as to his Oxen such was the Authority that the Text saith The Fear of the Lord fell on the People and they came out with one Consent 1 Sam. 11. 7. This is well expressed by Iob cap. 12. vers 18. He looseth the Bond of Kings and girdeth their Loins with a Girdle By the first Expression He looseth the Bond of Kings Iob meaneth that when God is to cast off Kings and to throw their Honour in the dust He looseth their Authority and bringeth them and it in Contempt By the other Phrase and girdeth their Loyns with a Girdle Iob intimateth that when he is to preserve Kings and their Rights that he strengthneth them with Authority and maketh people reverence them That this is the meaning you may conceive it by what he saith v. 21. He poureth Contempt upon Princes and weakneth the Strength of the Mighty By this Authority and Majesty Solomon invested in Royalty dissipated Adonijah and all his treacherous Complices The Heathen have observed that in Princes there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something divine above the reach of man which cannot be derived from them If we may believe prophane Story this Majesty was so eminent in Alexander the Great that it was a Terrour to his Enemies a Power strong enough to compose seditious Counsels and Attempts a powerful Load-stone to draw the Counsels of his most experienced Commanders to imbrace and obey his Counsels his Commands Some Stories write that this Majesty was resplendent upon great Exigents in the Eyes of Scipio What was that which kept Pharaoh from lifting up his hand against Moses who charged him so boldly with his Sins denounced and brought so terrible so great Plagues upon him What was 〈◊〉 I pray you but this Authority and Majesty resplendent in him which was a curb to the Tyranny of his Malice and Power When Moses did speak face to face with God in the Mount and when he came down that his Face shined so that the People could not behold it till it was covered with a Veil what else was it but this resolendent Glory of Majesty Exod. 34. What else was it that repressed the Fury of the People enraged against Gideon for destroying their Idol but this Majesty Iudg. 6. And as by Gods Ordinance we set that the Fear and Terrour of man is upon all the Creatures living below Gen. 9. So what else can this Fear and Reverence which is innate in the Hearts of all Subjects towards their Sovereigns be but the Ordinance unrepealable of God and the natural Effect of that Majesty in Princes with which they are endowed from above 8. Eighthly this seemeth or rather is an Argument unanswerable to prove sovereign Power to be independently and immediately from above That Sovereign Power is armed with Pâ—â—estus vitae necis Power of Life and Death which cannot flow or issue from man for no man hath it None can lay claim to it but the living God the Author of Life who killeth and giveth Life again That Sovereign Power hath this power is so certain as it cannot be denied Gen. 9. in the restoring of the World after the Flood 1. First God reiterates the Blessing of increasing and multiplying v. 1. The same which in his Bounty he bestowed on Adam and Evah Gen. 1. 28. 2. Next he establisheth mans Sovereignty over the Creatures here beneath v. 2 3. 3. Thirdly he establisheth the civil Government v. 5 6. where first he challengeth the Power to himself in one main thing explicitly in the punishing or shedding of mans Blood to Death but implicitly in all Government for the parts of Government being all homogeneous of one kind we must refer all to one Origine which is God The words are v. 5. Surely the Blood of your Lives will I require at the hand of every Beast will I require it and at the hand of man and at the hand of every mans Brother will I require the Life of man In which words clearly it is told the Right is Gods primarily properly thrice in the words God vindicates it I will require it I will require it I will require it Lest any should think that God is to do it immediately by his own hand and not otherwise v. 6. it is added Who so sheddeth mans Blood by man shall his Blood be shed again for in the Image of God made he man Here is the Institution of Sovereignty and here the Sovereign is invested as Gods Deputy to punish the Slayer of man by Death I hope none will conceive it so that any man whatsoever may do this and is invested with this Power This were a mighty disorder and Confusion
Happiness Nevertheless such was the merciful and bountiful dispensation of God in this cloudy and dark Oeconomy that sometimes thorow the thick and dark cloud of his Flesh and Infirmity some little rayes of his immense Majesty did appear as in his miraculous Operations even so in the same manner at many times and by many acts his Sovereignty was manifested and that he was truly King it was evidenced At his Birth The Wise men who came from the East worshipped him in his Swadling-clouts They are in Scripture and by the constant not interrupted course of the Church to this day commended for it In his Ministry he entred Ierusalem in Royal Pomp His Disciples and a great multitude did him obeysance gave him Royal Honour and when the Iews grumbled at it he told them that it was not onely just but necessary That if they and the People did hold their Peace the Stones would proclaim him King and do him Royal Homage In his Arraignment when he is to lay down his Soul for his Sheep he avouched himself before Pilate a King Pilate demands the Question Art thou a King Pilate understood not any Kingdom in his Question but a temporal one a Spiritual Kingdom in his conception was a meer Notion Fancy Chimaera Christ without dissimulation equivocation or mental reservation ad mentem interrogantis answereth he was a King Matth. 27. 11. Mark 15. 2. He had it written upon his Cross. Buried He had his Grave sealed as a King These things thus premised we come to prove that Kings are Christs Vicegerents and Lieutenants upon the face of the Earth 1. Our first proof is the place we insisted much in before Prov. 8. 15. by what is said it is more than apparent that By me Kings reign hath this Sense By me Wisdom the Son of God the Word that was made Flesh Kings reign you may find many Reasons by reviewing the most learned and most pious Bishops Sermons Dr. Andrews whose Memory shall ever be in everlasting Benediction 1. First Prov. 30. 4. This Wisdom is called the Son of God 2. Next this preposition Per By it is the proper and peculiar preposition of Christ. 3. Thirdly it is not very congruous that as by Christ we have all Blessings spiritual in heavenly things so by him we have Kings his Derivatives constituted the best and most eminent of temporal Blessings 4. Fourthly Christ he is Wisdom and by him all Blessings issuing from Mercy Kingdoms subsist more by Wisdom than by Power why shall we not then from this Wisdom establish Kings and their Sovereignty The proper Work of Wisdom is ordinare to order and to establish Order Why then shall not all Monarchy refer its Origine to this Wisdom 5. Lastly the original word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bi is both in me per me in me and by me to intimate as we said before that Kings are first in him and so come forth from him and yet come so forth from him that they are in him Christ in them as his Deputies They in him as their Author and Authorisâ—r He by their Persons They by his Power 2. Our second Proof we bring from that Scripture averreth that Christ is not only King of his Church but in Order to his Church King over all the Kings and Kingdoms of the Earth Christs Kingdom over his Church Psal. 11. 6. 15. in these words expressed I have set my King upon my holy Hill Sion Over the whole World in these Words v. 8. I shall give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for thy Possession which is not to be scantled by conceiving it only of the calling of the Gentiles to the Communion of his Church but also of his Sovereignty over all the Earth and Kings of the Earth This Ordinance is by Appointment and a decree irrepealable v. 7. I will declare the Decree The words I shall give thee demonstrate that this potestas is not aeterna interna that eternal Power which is inseparable from him as God but data externa a given and bestowed Power which is not conceivable in Christ but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as man or God-man our Saviour and Redeemer 3. A third Proof may be this that as this was foretold by Prophecy so in the Fullness of time it was really effected and accomplished Matth. 28. 18. Our Saviour saith All Power is given to me in Heaven and in Earth The word Given sheweth this Power is fixed in that Capacity by which he is our Saviour all Power in Heaven and Earth universally is expressed all Power and by Distribution exegetically amplified all Power in Heaven and Earth which will not admit nor permit that we exclude Sovereignty in Kings Vbi Lex non distinguit nemo distinguere debet Let our Adversaries shew where Kings and their Crowns are exempted or excepted from this all Power in Earth 4. Fourthly the Apostle St. Paul Heb. 1. 5. telleth us that God hath appointed the Son by whom he hath spoken to us in the last days Heir of all things If this Inheritance be not over Kings we are infinitely mistaken and if Kings refer not their Right to him as Donor they have no just Title 5. Fifthly The Scripture to take away all Cavils hath given us this Truth in terminis terminantibus in plain and express Terms Revel 1. 2. Jesus Christ the faithful Witness the first begotten of the dead is The Prince of the Kings of the Earth that again cap. 11. 27. He ruleth them with a Rod of Iron That this is meant appliable at least to Kings see and read it Psal. 11. 9. Revel 19. 12. On his head you have many Crowns an Embleme of his Sovereignty over all Kings and that all are his Deputies his Substitutes To what is said add that of St. Paul 1 Tim. 6. 15. He is the only Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords That The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a note of Excellency Revel 17. 14. The Lamb he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings Revel 19. 16. And he hath on his vesture and on his Thigh a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords Observe the words attentively How characteristically this Power is given to the Lamb to Iesus to the faithful Witness That it is written on his Thigh on his Vesture which qualifie this Power as his Due as he is the Head and Saviour of his Church It is worth your notice taking that this name is written upon his Thigh that we may learn two things the one is That this Power is fixed in Christ-man The other is That all Kings are De femore Christi from him by Generation Reason pleadeth for this Truth 1. First what is more suitable and convenient than that all Kings of all Ages should issue from him who is Rex saeculorum A King whose Kingdom endureth throughout all Ages It is the highest Dignity of Crowns to hold of this Crown
2. Next is it not prophesied by Isaiah that Kings shall be the Nurse-fathers of his Church Reges erunt nutritii tui Is it not fit then that they hold their Crowns of Christ Is it not fit that Kings be taught so much that with the more Alacrity and Zeal they may advance the good of Christs Kingdom 3. Thirdly our Divines do acknowledge that by men in sacred Orders Christ doth rule his Church mediately in those things which primely concern Salvation And that by Kings their Scepter and Power he doth protect and preserve his Church and what concerns the external Government in Order and Decency How then can it be denied that Kings in this latter Sense are no less the immediate Vicegerents of Christ than Bishops Priests and Deacons in the former Look upon the Interpretations are given by the best and most able of our Divines upon 1 Cor. 15. 28. 4. Fourthly what is the reason that all Christian Emperours and Kings glory in the Sign of the Cross and place it upon the Top of their Sacred Crowns It is not only by this Symbolum Christianismi this ancient badge of Christianity to witness that they are Christians and not ashamed of the Cross of Christ but also to acknowledge that they have received and hold their Crowns of him Much more might be said to this purpose but for brevities sake and judging what is said to be sufficient to prove all Kings to be Christ's Vicegerents we spare with more Reasons to transgress upon the Patience of the understanding Reader Some have shunned to speak thus that Kings are Christ's Vicegerents upon Earth fearing that because of the Popes unjust Challenge to be Christs universal Vicar upon Earth it should usher in a Subordination of the Crown to the Miâ—re They scruple without just cause What need we to be afraid to speak with Scripture It is high Presumption in the Pope to challenge to himself the Title or Right of Christs universal vicar upon Earth by divine Right There is no colour almost or shew of Reason for it either in Scripture or reverend Antiquity The Pope the Bishop of Rome hath no more by Divine Right what he may have by positive Ecclesiastical Right it is not pertinent for us now to examine and discuss no higher Priviledge except it be in extent than the meanest Bishop in the World in his Diocess Doth not St. Hierom say Omnis Episcopus sive Romae fuerit sive Eugubii sive Constantinopoli sive Rhegii sive Alexandriae sive Tanis ejusdem est meriti ejusdem Sacerdotii The learned and holy Father compareth with the three great Patriarchs priviledged at that time by Ecclesiastical Canons aboveâ— all others with the Patriarchs of Antioch and the Honorary Patriarch of Ierusalem three of the meanest Bishops next adjacent to them the Bishops of Eugubium Rhegium and Tanais and averreth that by divine Right they had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal Right equal Power Nor doth that hold better that the Pope would make his transcendent and extravagant Jurisdiction over all to be grounded upon a fancied Eminency in St. Peter above his fellow Apostles ordinarie in him extraordinarie in them personal and temporarie in them but so fixed in Peter's Person that it is transmissible to his Successor and he forsooth whether God will or not must be the Pope of Rome This Paradox is against Scripture sacred Antiquity and sound Reason It is not fit now to prove it only to satisfie the judicious Reader I content my self with the Suffrage of that Holy Father and Martyr S. Cyprian who de unit Eccles. or singular Prelator saith Hoc utique erant caeteri Apostoli quod erat Petrus pari consortio praediti honoris potestatis He knew not these Differences these Novators have coyned and forged upon the Anvil of their own Hearts His Judgment was all the Apostles no less than Peter were endowed in Order to their Apostolical Charge with the same Endowment of Power and Priviledges of Honour Would God both sides in this and other Controversies would submit to the Judgment and Determination of the holy Fathers I wave the accurate discussing of these points they require more time and a more fit place To what is said I add that although we would give to the Pope of Rome to be Christ's immediate universal Vicar in spiritualibus in spiritual things there is no Danger and so to shun this Inconvenience we need not be so shie as to forbear to call Kings Christs Vicegerents Christs Lieutenants For if we should grant the Antecedent the Pope is Christs universal Vicar upon Earth which is certainly as false as Falshood it self it is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lame Consequence to make this inference Ergo all Kings Crowns are subordinated and subjected to the Pope and his Mitre Their own Authors who advance his Power as high as Lucifer do acknowledge that all power that was in Christ Secundum quod homo as he was man was not collated upon St. Peter They confess moreover that all the Power that was in St. Peter was not by him transmitted to his spurious and usurping Successor They all with one Mouth profess that potestas Excellentiae quae in solo homine Christo fuit that Power of Excellency which is solely peculiar to and personal in Christ was not communicated to St. Peter They clear and prove it by specification of instances Saint Peter say they could not confer the Effect and Efficacy of the Sacrament without the Sacrament it self nor could he institute Sacraments of himself or in his own name or others than Christ himself did institute Do they not all of them give and grant that Saint Peter did not transmit the Power of doing Miracles to all his Successors So then although it were granted that the Pope were Christ's Vicar universal it will not necessarily follow that in this that Christ is King of Kings the Pope is his first immediate and universal Vicegerent I wish the Pope who claimeth so near alliance and contingency to Christ would learn of Christ to be meek and humble in heart and so not onely should he find rest to his own Soul but a great deal of more rest and quiet should be both in Church and State It is very considerable that in Scripture it is recorded that whilst our Saviour was Minister Circumcisionis the Minister of Circumcision he both practised and taught that it was God's Ordinance that the Mitre submit to the Crown and the Shepherd's Crook to the Scepter Scarce well come into the World when he taught this by his Practice flying from Herod's Persecution to Egypt who might have commanded Legions of Angels against him to destroy him if it had not been that it was fitter he should teach us true Obedience as at his Word they published his Birth to Shepherds and sung that glorious Anthem Gloria in Excelâ—is Some it is probable may judge this to be the Act and Fact rather of Ioseph
and Mary than of Christ and that they out of their Fear and Weakness not able to do better did flee Herod and his malicious intent If any think so let him consider that he hath not learned as yet that all Christ's Actions and Passions are full of Mysteries and nothing acted or suffered by him in which there was not an over-ruling wonderful Providence of God in Mercy and Wisdom and withal let him consider that all his Acts and Sufferings are our Instructions But leaving this Did he not in his Ministry teach and practise it Teach it when he commanded to render to Caesar the things that are Caesars when he convinced the Iews who would gladly have shaken off Caesar and his Right arguing that they were by God's Law bound to pay Caesar Tribute because he was their King and this he proved by their Coin which with all sound knowing Politicians is inter jura Majestatis which was printed with Caesar's Face and Superscription Again in his Death Did not our Saviour Christ acknowledge Pilate's Power that is the Roman of which he was Deputy to be from above Did he not rebuke Peter who with his Sword would have in a Defensive way saved him from those bloudy Persecutors Did he not tell him He that killeth by the Sword shall perish by the Sword that is Peter although thou think thou hast a good cause that thou wilt defend me and by resisting open force preserve me thy Master thy Saviour deceive not thy self it is not lawful by Arms in the best Cause for my Cause for my Life to resist Lawful Authority if thou kill in my Defence thou art worthy to suffer Death by the Sword by him that beareth the Sword not in vain When Peter over-reached himself in this distempered zeal cut off Malchus his Ear Christ before that Offence should have been done by any of his in his company for his Cause will be at the pains to cure this wound miraculously Would God Pope and Papeling Jesuit and Sectary Puritan and Presbyterian would fix their hearts upon these Practices of Christ by a singular Wisdom of God so clearly and fully recorded practised in Christ's Nativity Childhood practised and taught in his Ministry practised and taught when he was a dying when he was looking Death in the face at which time the most sinful man will neither dissemble nor temporize I doubt much if in any act of Christ during his coming into the World and his going home again to his Father you can instance any to parallel this to exceed it sure I am you cannot And what I pray you can the Pope challenge more than to be Minister Evangelii a Minister of the Gospel as our Lord was Circumcisionis of the Circumcision He shall never be accounted with me the true Vicar of Christ who teacheth contrary to Christ and practiseth contrary to his Practices Me thinketh he looketh more like and hath nearer alliance with the man mentioned 2 Thes. 2. Who exalteth himself above every thing is called God It is very considerable likewise that in the Apostolical Creed which is so full so brief and nothing in it but what is necessary to be believed to Salvation that I say in this short Creed Pontius Pilate whose memory is accursed by the Spirit of God which ruled his Church in setting this down is recorded It is not for his Honour certainly but for our good and edification that there it is said Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate that we may learn if we expect Salvation by Faith in Christ we must submit to Authority by obedience to what they command if it be lawful and submitting humbly and suffering if Authority urge that which is unlawful and against God And that this we are bound to although the Magistrate be as opposite to Christianity as a Heathen and the Cause for which we suffer be for Christ and his Church We will never help Christ nor his Church by Arms against Authority or Religion by Rebellion If our Sectaries give us a new Creed it will concern them near with the expunging of Christs descent to Hell and the Communion of Saints to raze out this He suffered under Pontius Pilate If their Practices be so contradictory to Christ's they cannot but consequutivè by consequence be destructory of the Christian Faith where the Reward of those are to be expected you know too well It were better for you not only to expunge Christ's Descent into Hell but to annihilate Hell it self which by a close Committee you may resolve upon if your omnipotent power can be able to do it I mean your fansied coordinate power which you have of late erected against Sovereignty fixed in the Lord 's Anointed as in the Church you have erected Altar against Altar God open your Eyes to see your monstrous Sins and Errours and to give to you and to us all true Repentance that the fearful vengeance of God overtake us not and in the World to come be forced by sensible eternal and horrible pains to acknowledge the Truths which now we reject although plainly in Scripture declared in the most Authentick Apostolical Creed determined and by the current and not interrupted suffrage of the Fathers above seven hundred years believed Lord have mercy upon us and turn his Wrath and fearful Indignation from us I dare not to express what I fear when I look upon these outrages committed against Sacred Truth How God and his Word are abused His Sanctuary defiled His Ordinances repealed Mischief framed by the Law Sacred Persons violated and the Lords Anointed fearfully rebelled against My resolution is to dissolve unto Tears and Prayers and with my Master say daily say hourly Lord forgive them for they know not what they do The weakness of this Assertion that Kings are not Christ's Vicegerents we have as we hope sufficiently proved It is high time now to discover the wickedness of it The purpose they have by this and the like Assertions is to reserve the managing of all Religious Affairs in their largest latitude to themselves vindicating it as peculiar and proper quarto modo to their Conventicles Presbyteries and Assemblies This Sovereignty they make so Sovereign and Independent that all Kings and Sovereigns whatsoever must submit to it This Sovereignty Ecclesiastical may restrain and constrain the King at pleasure It may repeal his Laws correct his Statutes reverse his Judgments It may establish its own urge Obedience Cite Convent and Censure in case of Disobedience And if they be not of Power to execute what they decree they may call for or command the help and assistance of the People in whom is that underived Majesty and to this purpose may promise covenant swear to stand to the maintenance of their Fancies against all whatsoever and to defend each another contra omnes mortales with their Goods Lands Fortunes Honours Lives to admit no divisive motion which is real and to be such if the Authority of this Church declare it
such whatsoever to suppress whatsoever is contrary to the good intended in this Covenant and association if it be in their power so that this Sovereign maketh every man armatum magistratum to be armed with Power and the way left to himself for ought we know it may be Ravilliac's way or Guido Faux's way Surely here is a Despotical Sovereignty and more than ever was challenged by any the Turk or King of Spain without Europe This is to tyrannize over mens Souls for no man must be suffered to live or enjoy any Freedom or Life there who dissenteth in the least point of their voluminous Greed from them and if he assist not with his Monies his Arms his Hands to the loss of his Life for his Religion he is either Prelatical or Papistical and for his affection to the States a word incompatible with Monarchy and of highest Treason he is at best a Malignant At pleasure of this Sovereignty every man must give the Quota this Sovereignty prescribeth the Twentieth the Tenth the Fifth part c. must give loan of what moneys they have by them or upon Bank for the good Cause upon security of the Publick Faith a non ens which is like if God prevent it not to ruine the Reformed Orthodox Catholick Faith and moral Faith and Truth amongst men or what other they specifie and ordain What a vast Sovereignty is this the extent of it is immense for nothing shall be without the Sphere of this Power which hath no motion but eccentrick no Person without the verge of this Scepter And good reason for all this for this is God and Christ's Institution this Sovereignty is the indâ—vidual companion of the Gospel the holy discipline the discipline of Christ half the Kingdom of Christ the undoubâ—ed Note of the Church the eternal Counsel of God it is 〈◊〉 Scepter of the Son of God You see the Effect of it whâ—aâ— happy what a glorious Reformation it hath brought with it the like was never seen since the Apostles dayes this Reformation will pull down Antichrist from his Throne the hearing of the beginning of it how it enlarges it self now to be sworn too in England will make the Pope of Rome and his Cardinals knees smite one against another Quid verba audiam cum facta non videam Judge of the Tree by its Fruits as our Master hath taught us and we will find all their good words are as Jurists say Protestatio contraria facto solemn Protestations liberal Promises you know whose custom this is but slack Performances Would to God that had been allâ— no a world of mischiefs have followed upon it and it is to be feared that what is past is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beginnings of troubles The most glorious Church amongst the Reformed the staff and strength of Reformed Religion is broken in shivers where all things are lawful except to serve God and all Sects all Schisms allowed except the Orthodox Truth and Ordinances of God This Reformation is written in Letters of Bloud acted with the greatest Cruelty against not onely Innocent but Deserving men with Calumnies Rapine Robbery Cruelty that Father Mother and young ones if they have not been starved with hunger and cold have been exposed to extreamest indigency contempt and mockery I dare to say no Persecution that ever was can parallel this Persecution for Impiety Injustice and Cruelty What heart bleedeth not to see these Kingdoms happy before to the Envy of other Kingdoms and States to be the mocking-stock of the World that the Canaanite and Perizzite rejoyceth to look upon our Misery to see the Desolation standing in the Holy place and those Kingdoms of late the desire of all the Earth turned into an Akeldama and no other fruit of this glorious Reformation but to kill Christians for Christ's sake and to plunder for Religions sake Lord forgive them for Christ's sake and remove our Sins and those fearful Judgments and I beg pardon of the Reader for this Digression or Regret which I have poured out with a sad heart and wish them no worse than speedy Repentance For all we have said of this Antichristian Sovereignty whereby the Puritan and Factious would exalt the Presbytery and Representative Body above all that is called God Let no man imagine that we ran to the other Extreme to privilege a King from the direction and just Power of the Church or that we would encourage him or set him on like Vzziah to intrude upon Sacred actions proper to Ecclesiastical Persons Ex vi ordinis In direction by the Word administration of the Sacraments binding and loosing in interiori foro conscientiae or in exteriori by the Spiritual Censures annexed to the Keys Sure I am no pious or knowing King as blessed be God our Sovereign is will by right of his Crown which he holdeth immediately of Christ usurp upon this but on the contrary as a Son of the Church will submit to the Church his Mother or rather Christ in Church-men reconciling him to God Elsewhere by Gods Grace if God give us Life and Leisure in a several Treatise by it self we intend to lay open this point In sum briefly we say that men in Sacred Orders In rebus purè spiritualibus in things meerly and intrinsecally of themselves Spiritual have from Christ immediately a directive and authoritative Power in order to all whatsoever although ministerial onely as related to Christ But this giveth them no Coercive Civil Power over a Prince either per se or per accidens either primarie or secundarie either principaliter or consecutive directâ— or indirectè simple or absolute that either the one way or the other directly or indirectly absolutely or respectively by it self or in ordine ad spiritualia any or many in sacred orders Pope or Presbytery can convent cite censure in case of Defailance Supply and in case of not obeying what God in Scripture hath commanded to covenant associate swear and take Sacrament upon it to resist him oppose him and force him to submit to the Scepter of Christ. This Power over man God Almighty useth not much less hath he given it to man Psal. 110. His People are a willing People Suadenda non cogenda religio nihil minùs Religionis quà m Religionem cogere Nor doth that spiritual Power which entirely we give to Bishops Priests and Deacons rob the King as he is the nursing Father of the Church of the power Christ hath endowed him with as a Christian King in externa gubernatione Ecclesiae We must not look on Kings as on others of the Flock of Christ although we may neither preach nor administer the Sacraments nor bind nor loose nor give sacred Orders nor excommunicate these are things only proper to Priests Primi secundi ordinis of the first and second Order and Degree Yet the exercise of these things freely within his Kingdom what concerneth the decent and orderly doing of all and what concerns
externum hominem by coactive Power or externam gubernationem Ecclesiae the external Government of the Church in appointing the use of things arbitrary and indifferent and what else is of this strain are so due to the Prerogative of the Crown as that we must not rob him of it nor may the Priest without highest Rebellion against God intrench or usurp upon the King A King in the State and Church is a mixed Person not simply Civil but Sacred too They are not only Professores fidei Professors of the Truth that they have in the Capacity of a Christian but they are also Propugnatores fidei Defenders of the Faith which is proper to them in the Capacity of a King What is the meaning of that that in Scripture they are honoured with more than the Stile of a Son of the Church they are called by Isaiah or rather God himself The Nurse-fathers of the Church This is not to be so scantled as if there were no more Influence from Kings upon the Church but by Honour and Riches other great men may and have done the like it is meant by some Influence from their Crown their Sword their Scepter What meaneth that Charge Psal. 2. 10 11 12. Be wise O ye Kings serve the Lord with Fear kiss the Son left he be angry and ye perish from the way When his Wrath is kindled but a little I will believe Saint Austin more than all the glorious pretended Reformers of this happy Reformation or Deformation rather writing to Boniface Quomodo enim saith he Reges Domino serviunt nisi ea quae contra jussa Domini fiunt religiosâ severitate prohibendo atque plectendo Aliter n. servit quà homo est aliter quà etiam Rex est Quia homo est ei servit fideliter vivendo quia vero etiam Rex est servit leges justa praecipientes contraria prohibentes convenienti vigâ—re sanciendo Sicut servivit Ezechias Lucos templa idolorum excelsa quae contra praecepta Dei fuerunt constructa destruendo Sicut servivit Iosias talia ipse faciendo Sicut servivit Rex Ninivitarum universam civitatem ad placandum Dominum compellando Sicut servivit Darius idolum frangendum in potestatem Danieli dando inimicos ejus Leonibus inferendo Sicut servivit Nebuchadnezzar de quo jam diximus omnes in regno suo positos à Blasphemando Deo legi terribili prohibende In hoc ergo serviunt Domino Reges in quantum Reges cum ea faciunt ad serviendum illi quae non possunt facere nisi Reges The Passage is plain and hath more for the Right of Kings than Iesuit or Puritan will allow them who will have them to be Ministri and Executores their Servants to put in Execution what they ordain and command To make Pope or Presbytery as the immediate Vicegerents of Christ and to authorize them with a coactive or a coercive Power to confirm their Orders to force him to repeal his own Laws and in case of Defailance or Refusal after Remonstrance is made or Supplication as they call it although possibly presented on the point of a Sword or Pike to stir up people against the Lords anointed to Sedition to Rebellion howsoever they deceive the simpler sort to make them believe they dye Martyrs is truly the Disgrace of Religion the highest of Treasons against God and man and to make poor People die Traytors to both If you make two Sovereigns in one Kingdom Independent one from another there is no more Peace or Quiet to be expected than was in Rebecca's Womb whilst Iacob and Esau did strive for the Prerogative of the first born Nay if you make the Sovereign and Supreme managing of Religion and religious Affairs to depend upon and properly belong either to any foreign power without the Kingdom as to the Pope or to any Power domestick within it as to the Presbytery or Assembly you commit and entrust to their managing the greatest and highest Affairs of Kingdom and State and if you take from the King the Regiment in Religion you take from him that which in its own nature is the mainest the chiefest and most excellent thing in Government as may appear by what is subjoyned Religion is the Base and Bottom on which all the Steadiness and Happiness of King and Kingdom are seated Religio Timor Dei solus est qui custodit hominum inter se societatem It is Religion and the Fear of God alone which preserveth all Society and consequently King and Kingdom Lactant. de Ira Dei c. 12. Religion is the Base and it is the Cement too of all other Societies besides this Plutarch saith that Religion is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which bindeth all Societies together and giveth Strength to all Laws Religion it hath a mighty Influence upon Laws it worketh hearty sincere and compleat Obedience Religion rightly ordered maketh the Prince rule well and people yield true real and perfect Obedience This made Aristotle say Polit. l. 7. c. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first care in Policy should be that of Religion and things divine Religion rightly ordered is the Preserver Nurse and Defence of the Quiet of King and State I say Religion rightly order'd for Superstition is a mad and madding thing Seneca ep 24. Superstitio error insanus est Trismegistus saith apud Lactant. Institut lib. 11. c. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Piety and the fear of God is the safety and only Defence of all things Religion in Sum is the only thing to make private and publick Affairs to prosper Which thing being infallibly true it must necessarily follow that Religion is the most important of all Affairs of State and Kingdom How can it then subsist and consist with Reason that the King shall have no more hand or Power in Religion than to execute at the Command of Pope or Presbytery To do it or do worse Christ did never institute such a Sovereignty in Ecclesiastical persons either Pope or Sectaries Independent from King and Sovereign with which they are invested with Power from Christ from above immediately If it were so the Pope or Presbytery were in better Condition than the King The Ecclesiastical Sovereignty hath the Souls in subjection under no less Sanction than with Assurance of Salvation eternal in case of Obedience and Damnation eternal in case of Disobedience and both of them to be extended both to Soul and Body Religion is seated in the Soul and is a mighty Ruler there the civil Sovereignty holdeth only a dead Dominion over the Bodies That Sovereignty which hath the Soul in Subjection the Conscience at his Devotion must over-rule Royal Civil Sovereignty and shall be able at any time so to limit weaken lessen yea disable it that it shall be no more fearful abroad nor glorious and powerful at home with it's Subjects than the spiritual Sovereignty shall permit It is most true and consonant to our
purpose that Cicero saith Orat. in Verr. 5. Omnes Religione moventur men are naturally swayed that way Religion hangeth we may see it in the furious Superstition of those Distempers It is not verified this day in our eyes that a multitude vana Religione capta melius vatibus quam ducibus paret suis misled with an erroneous Religion will obey and follow mad Priests sooner than their lawful and religious Prince they will part with what is dearest to them to advance their Designs their Desires they will throw away their Ear-rings to cast their molten Calves they will not spare to sacrifice their Children with the King of Edom or to cut themselves with Knives like to the Priests of Baal People thus madded and set on edge by mad Sectaries and Sheba's Circumcellion-like will act all Mischief spare neither Crown nor Mitre Ephodâ— nor Diadem things sacred or civil fancying strongly with themselves that they fight the Lord's Battels for Religion for Liberty and dying in Rebellion as men raging in a Feaver to dream they die Martyrs when they die Traytors to God and to his anointed Diodorus Sicul. lib. 6. cap. 10. relateth a Story very apposite to this Purpose that the Priests of Iupiter in the Island Meroe compassed with the River Nilus by this Sovereignty kept the People of Aethiopia in so superstitious Obedience so absolute and blind Dependance upon them that at Pleasure they commanded the killing of the King by their own Subjects none of them daring to deny or delay to put in Execution what the Priests commanded this continued long till Ergamenes a wise King of Aethiopia sensible of this damnable and impious extravagant Sovereignty waiting his Opportunity secretly surprized them all Priests and Profession We need not refer you to the Gâ—erman Writers and Italian that you may see what Mischiefs the Popes unjust Challenge of Sovereignty above Emperours hath wrought in the World nor to Ioseph lib. 2. de bell Iud. ca. 12. or to Florus his Slave Ennus by name who pretending an immediate Dependency from God wrought so much Disturbance to Rome in power Flor. lib. 3. cap. 16. Nor need I refer you to the Turkish Annals to learn what mischief upon this ground Shacoen Lis wrought or to Leo to read what mischief Elmahel with the people of Morocco wrought against Abraham their native King See Leo lib. 2. and if you will lib. 3. where you have the Story how upon this ground Chenim Mannal made the King of Fess to quit to him the Kingdom of Toâ—osma Heathenish Turkish Jewish Christian stories witness that where a Sovereignty religious independent is erected within a Kingdom or without it the temporal and civil must submit We need not I say refer you to these Stories Jewish Ethnish or Turkish we may see the doleful Effects this Tenet with it's practice hath brought upon these Kingdoms The Calamities which the Authors and Abettors of these Paradoxes have brought upon us and the present Distemper and Distress we are cast into if they surpass not certainly in their due Proportion are equal to those we have recorded in authentick Story were set on Foot betwixt Gregory the seventh and Henry the fourth betwixt Innocent the fourth and Frederick betwixt Boniface the eighth and Philip King of France The Puritan and Presbytery by their independent Ecclesiastical Sovereignty will act as much Mischief e're it be long if God in mercy stop not the Current of their Fury and Malice as in many Ages past the Pope of Rome hath done by his unjust and usurped Tyranny over and above Kings It feareth me the Tragedies of Munster and this time shall never be forgotten Let the Christian Reader whose Affection is right and whose judgment is not perverted judge how happy was our case when Gods Ordinance had place had Power Prince and Priest had their sacred due right what Plenty Peace what Happiness King and Kingdoms did enjoy and rejoyce in And on the other part let him reflect his Thoughts and consider how since this Sovereignty Ecclesiastical hath been elsewhere erected maintained how here a Sovereignty civil co-ordinate collateral to royal Sovereignty is set up And withal let the judicious Reader see how both the one and the other do concur to the Destruction of Episcopacy to the lessening certainly if not the total overthrowing of Monarchy but differ extreamly in this Sovereignty Ecclesiastical for in one Kingdom the Presbytery the Assembly is so Sovereign so independent in Ecclesiastical and spiritual things that it giveth Laws Orders to the Sovereign Prince and Parliament and demandeth as due a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Confirmation of them civil Sanction and Execution upon Refractories and Delinquents In the other the co-ordinate Power erected over-ruleth controuleth and at Pleasure directeth what they in their infallible Judgment and answerable Jurisdiction judge Orthodox in Faith right for the Worship and orderly for Canons of Government The last medleth in spiritualibus in things meerly spiritual and ecclesiastical in ordine ad civilia in order to the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdoms The other hath so enlarged its Jurisdiction and Sovereignty ecclesiastical that it trencheth upon and medleth with things meerly civil but in ordine ad spiritualia as related to Religion and the Church Both the one and the other are of equal Extent for this in ordine ad civilia on the one part and in ordine ad spiritualia on the other are such relative and respective Terms and Distinctions as can admit and authorise Church-men to do act and meddle in matters of State of highest Concernment and Lay-men again to do the like in things most spiritual and by divine Right reserved for men in sacred Orders So long as such Tenets are maintained with Practices accordingly strengthened we cannot expect God's Blessing on Church or State To both the one and the other God may justly say Quis haec requisivit à vobis Who hath required these things of your hands and where God's Ordinance is not and his own Ordinance is infringed that men intrude upon that is not their Right or usurp upon sacred Right his Blessing is not to be expected Again we aver confidently till this Babel be beat down there will never be peace nor Quiet in Church or Kingdom nor shall private men enjoy the Fruits of their Labours in Peace If this co-ordinate usurped and new-fancied Sovereignty usurp so much upon God and the Churches Right we shall become a mocking stock to the Roman Church If the other independent ecclesiastical Sovereignty obtain it is not to be doubted but that Immunity Ecclesiastical of sacred Persons and their Goods shall not only be established but also raised to a higher Strain and Pitch than Romanists do claim it This I say cannot but undoubtedly follow upon their Principles and Practices if there were not some hope that those Creatures whom God never made and Christ never instituted Lay Elders I mean oppose not and retard the
aeternum regni ejus non erit finis And he shall reign in the House of Iacob for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ therefore receiving the Throne of David hath translated it and hath given it to the Sacred Kings of Christians In St. Athanasius his mind Christian Kings are Christ's Vicegerents and sit Deputies upon his Throne Take the Suffrage of many together all the Fathers of the Councel of Arminium writing to Constantius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Relative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 referreth to the Antecedent Iesus Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sense is By Christ thou reignest and hast dominion over all the World Liberius speaketh thus to Constantius the Emperour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All know that Constantius was an Arrian a great Persecutor of the Orthodox who maintained the Deity of Christ. Liberius writing to him admonisheth him not to fight against Christ who had given him the Empire nor to be so unthankful unto him as to be impious against him Seeing then that Scripture Antiquity and Reason stand for this Truth that Kings are Christ's Vicegerents upon Earth let us not be deceived with the no less fond than new devised distinction of our Novators and Sectaries who by differencing betwixt God's Vicegerents upon Earth and Christ's Vicegerents upon Earth intend nothing else but to throw down-Crowns and Royal Diadems and lay them at the foot of Presbytery and Assembly and to set up a Tribunal of their own a Sovereignty Ecclesiastical to domineer over all Powers else whatsoever I wish they would here remember that passage which otherwise and in another case they pervert and abuse sufficiently Matth. 20. 25 26. Princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them and they that are Great exercise Authority upon them but it shall not be so among you Or that of St. Bernard to Eugenius the Pope Indicitur ministerium interdicitur ministerium Let any who will duly consider what enormous extravagant Sovereignty hath been acted by the Presbytery how much the intrinsecal right of Sovereignty hath been restrained and lessened and it feareth me you will hardly find so much acted by all the Popes since Hildebrand's time as by them in this short space I leave this and come in the next place to prove by the Testimony of Fathers that Kings are not the Derivatives of the People CHAP. VI. That the King is solely dependent from God and Christ and independent from all others is proved by the suffrages of the Holy Fathers THE Holy Fathers and Martyrs in the prior and purer Age of the Church knew no other Doctrine they spake no other Language We begin with Clemens Romanus Constit. l. 7. c. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fear or honour the King knowing that He is ordained or constituted by the Lord. It may be it will be told us this is a spurious Clemens and not the genuine that was Bishop of Rome and if we alledge Ignatius it is to be feared he 'll fare no better for a great Scholar but no great Divine hath very now rejected all we have of him I will therefore give some Testimonies from such against whom this exception lyeth not See Irenaeus lib. 5. advers haeres c. 20. where at large he proveth That Kingdoms are not of the Devil but that all Kings relate to God as to their first and immediate Origine Donor Author adduceth some of the pregnant Testimonies of Scripture which we have alledged before giveth the Devil a Lye who durst to challenge to himself the right to dispose of all Kingdoms Luke 4. 6. Our new Anti-monarchical Statists had need to consider this and whose Children they make the People to whom they gave the Right and Power to dispose of Kings and Kingdoms at pleasure S. Irenaeus is so zealous so fervent of God and the King 's Right and Prerogative that he will not admit the good and Heavenly Angels to this Honour nor will he admit that Saint Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 13. 1 2. Higher Powers are Angelical but that the Apostle meant it de his a clear and full commentary to St. Peter's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Ep. 2. 14. quae secundum homines sunt potestates of Humane and Royal Sovereignty To this add that the Father in the place alledged armeth Kings with entire Sovereignty and that necessarily to restrain the corruption of man where he also expresseth the infinite good cometh to mankind by Government and leaveth Sovereigns delinquents to the Iudgment and Tribunal of God All these Points you will find by the Father where amongst other things to our purpose he saith most appositely and pregnantly Cujus enim jussu nascuntur homines hujus jussu Reges constituuntur apti his qui in illo tempore ab ipsis regnantur Quidam enim illorum ad correctionem utilitatem subjectorum dantur conservationem Iustitiae Quidam autem ad timorem poenam increpationem quidam autem ad illusionem contumeliam superbiam quemadmodum digni sunt Dei â—usâ—o judicio c. This place is certa sedes dogmatis sententiae Patris a proper place from which we may draw warrantably the Fathers Tenet concerning the Author and Donor of Sovereignty Here the Holy Father is proving That the Devil is not the Author of Kings and Sovereign Power He referreth all to God the immediate Author and Origine of Royalty If the Church of Christ at this time and he with it had believed with our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 opposers of Monarchy That all Power was radically primarily and independently inherent in People and from them derived to Kings this was a fit place to express it and we see he knew no more but Cujus jussu nascuntur homines hujus jussu reges constituuntur c. and it is worthy of our notice taking that God maketh and sendeth Kings as in his wise Providence he thinketh for the Punishment of our Sins or in his Mercy and Bounty to bless us when we walk in his ways Tertullian speaketh in the same Idiome writing ad Scapulam he saith Christianus nullius est hostis nedum Imperatoris quem sciens à Deo constitui necesse est ut ipsum diligat revereatur honoret salvum velit cuâ—â—toto imperio quousque saeculum stabit tamdiu etiam stabit Colimus ergo Imperatorem sic quomodo nobis licet ipsi expedit ut hominem à Deo secundum quicquid est 〈◊〉 Deo constitutum solo Deo minorem Hoc ipse volet 〈◊〉 eâ—im omnibus major est dum solo vero Deo minor est The sense of it is A Christian is Enemy to none much less to King and Emperour whom he knoweth to be of Gods Constitution and so is necessarily bound to love reverence and honour him to whom with his Empire he wisheth all Safety for when that perisheth it is like
the World will be at an end We honour the Emperour therefore so much as we are allowed by Gods Law and as much as is expedient for him as the man who is next to God himself Tertullian had not learned in those times that the Emperour or King was Vniversis minor and whatsoever he was reduplicativè by Reduplication as Emperour He was such a one by Gods Donation and Collation and was and is inferiour to none to any or many but to God alone This Divinity of the ancient Church is point blank opposite to the Divinity of these latter times Turn to him again in his Apologetick against the Gentiles cap. 30. where he saith Nos enim pro salute aeterna Deum vocamus aeternum Deum verum Deum vivum quam ipsi Imperatores propitium sibi propter caeteros mallent Sciunt quis illis dederit Imperium Sciunt qui homines qui animas Sentiunt enim Deum esse solum in cujus solius sunt potestate à quo sunt secundi post quem primi ante omnes Inde est Imperator unde homo antequam Imperator inde potestas illi unde Spiritus What can be more emphatically spoken God in Tertullians Divinity is no less immediate Author and Creator of Sovereignty than of the Soul of man In Preeminence they are next to God above all their Authority subordinate too co-ordinate with none Rex qua Rex reduplicativè a King as King essentially hath no Constituent but only the King of Heaven Kings are solely and entirely reserved to the Judgment to the Tribunal of Almighty God It feareth me if Tertullian were living now a-days he would be traduced as a Court-parasite Optatus Bishop of Milivis was of the same Faith He writeth ◠lib. 3. contr Parmen Super Imperatorem non est nisi solus Deus qui fert Imperatorem Quot verba tot argumenta a short a most powerful Expression There is none above the Emperour the King but God alone not any not many not the diffusive the collective the Representative the virtual Body the reason is in natural reason strong Almighty God only hath made him Emperour made him King Athanasius his Suffrage and Testimony you have before cap. 5. and with him you have Hosius in epist. ad Solit. vit agent writing and averring constantly confidently to Constantius an Arrian Emperour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hath given to thee the Kingdom the Sovereignty If you will have Athanasius alone take his Testimony from his own Mouth in his Apology to Constantius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But thanks to the Lord who gave to thee the Empire Saint Chrysostom lived and died in the same Faith You may read him Tom. 6. according to Sir Henry Savil's Edition Orat. 40. Orat. 2. to the People of Antioch There at that time he was Presbyter when by a tumultuary uproar the Statues of Theodosius were broke and reproachfully-abused The holy man after a most passionate and plentiful Regret expresseth the Riot thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it was a wound so open that no hand could cure it Then exhorteth all with Iob to sit upon the dung-hill to mourn that they were left to themselves to fall into so high a Transgression O! what Expressions what Exclamations what Regrets had been by that holy Father if he had seen what we see to day and heard what we hear He subjoyneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He the Emperour who is so reproachfully abused hath none upon Earth comparable to him in honour He is the head nay if any thing be imaginable that can be higher than the Head he is apex vertex the Top of the Head the Crown and that not of one every one any or many but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all upon Earth Saint Hierom homologates and confirms what they say commenting upon Dan. 2. upon these words He changeth Times and Seasons c. Non ergo miremur saith he si quando cernimus regibus reges regnis regna succedere quae Dei gubernantur mutantur finiuntur arbitrio causasque singulorum novit ille qui conditor omnium est saepè malos reges patitur suscitari ut mali malos puniant Saint Hierom ' s mind is fully this that Kings and Kingdoms have their Constitution Change and destitution by the sole royal Pleasure of God And that in all he is no less the Author than he is Creator of all Finally that not only good Kings are of God's making but bad Kings too and that to punish our Sins No man hath spoken more home than Saint Augustine look upon him l. 4. de Civit. Dei c. 33. Deus ille felicitatis Author quia solus verus deus est ipse dat regna terrena bonis malis Neque hoc temerè quasi fortuitò quia deus est non fortunà sed pro rerum ordine tempore occulto nobis notissimo sibi In which Passage St. Austin vindicates the making of Kings absolutely to God by a reason unanswerable Quia solus verus deus est because he alone is the true God The meaning is you may as well deny him to be the only true God as rob him of this Prerogative of making Kings and in his Sense he or they that assume this power to themselves intrude sacrilegiously upon God's Right He amplifieth this shewing Kings are not casual by hap-hazard but causal God in his wise and unsearchable Providence sending bad or good Kings according to the Exigence of time and the people to bless or punish He resolves all in a docta ignorantia a mysterious way that howsoever we cannot reach the way nor find the reason why it is so yet is well known to God to which we are religiously to submit and not curiously and presumptuously to enquire Turn to him again l. 5. de Civ Dei c. 21. Non tribuamus dandi regni atque imperii potestatem nisi vero Deo ille igitur unus verus Deus qui nec judicio nec adjutorio deserit genus humanum quando velit quantum voluit Romanis regnum dedit qui dedit Assyriis vel etiam Persis Qui Mario ipse Caio Caesari Qui Augusto ipse Neroni Qui Vespasiano vel patri vel filio suavissimis Imperatoribus ipse Domitiano crudelissimo ne per singulos ire necesse sit qui Constantino Christiano ipse Apostatae Iuliano Hoc planè Deus unus verus regit gubernat ut placet A Passage able to stop the Devil's Mouth observe in it first that Saint Augustine will not admit that Kings and Kingdoms are derived from Pope Presbytery or People but of him alone who i◠Deus verus unus the true and only God 2. Next that he will admit no more search but to be content with his placet Will to give it to whom he will an◠in what Extent for Power and Time he will Thirdly in Saint Austin's mind this is not only
verified of the Iewish Kings but of the Assyrian Persian Roman and all others besides Fourthly Saint Austin knew not this new devised quirk of potestas in abstracto â—oncreto of Power abstractly considered from the Person in which it is fixed but in concreto he averreth that both the Power and Person invested with the Power are of God Fifthly it is worth our notice taking that the holy Father specifieth only Empire and Monarchy Sixthly the Extent is most observable this Conclusion or Maxim of Saint Austin's holds well of all Kings whatsoever they be Heathen or Jewish or Christian if Christian bad or good sound in the Faith or Hereticks if Heathen whether good moral men or Persecutors See and consider how wisely and fitly he makes a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a coupling together 1. of Marius and Caius Caesar. 2. Of Augustus and Nero Flavius the Father and Titus the Son with Domitian 3. Of Constantine the sound Christian and Iulian the Apostate Seventhly lastly it 〈◊〉 â—ost observable that he will have all of all sorts to be entirely given to God Non tribuamus nisi vero Deo dandi regni atque imperii potestatem This non nisi vero Deo admits no sharer no copartner He is not content to say it once but resumeth it again and with an Emphasis a greater Strength of Expression Haec planè Deus unus verus regit gubernat ut placet It is unus verus Deus and the way of bestowing ut placet This holy Father is most plentiful for this Truth for Brevities sake I refer you to his 2. Tom. Epist. 54. ad Maced and to his 6. Tractat. upon St. Iohn's Gospel Tom. 9. passim The ancient Popes and Bishops of Rome lived and died in this Faith See Anastasius Epist. unic ad Anastas Imperat. Liberius's Testimony is above cited Symmachus writing to Anastasius the Emperour saith Memento te hominem esse ut possis rectè uti concessa tibi divinitus potestate Remember saith the holy Bishop that thou art but a man that thou mayst use aright that power which God hath given thee Leo in his Epistle to Leo the Emperour which in the Tomes of the Councels is 73. Magnum ergâ— vobis est ut diademati vestro de manu Domini addatur corona fidei de hostibus Ecclesiae triumphetis c. Leo knew no better but that his temporal Diadem was no less set upon his Head by the hand of God immediately than the Crown of Faith and that God made him to triumph over the Enemies of the Church yet because a cavelling Spirit such as our Sectaries are inspired with may cloud this Passage by an amphibolous Construction I gave you a plain one Epist. 13. writing to Pulcheria the Empress where he saith Sicuti Spiritu sancto didicistis illi per omnia potestatem vestram subjicitis cujus munere protectione regnatis Saint Leo knew not that there was any co-ordinate Power with the Emperour He knew he was solely and immediately subordinate to God to whom he ought of due to submit and subject himself and that with good reason because by his immediate Gift and Collation he had the Empire and by his Power was protected in his Government The holy Bishop raiseth this so high as to intimate it is a Doctrine taught by the Holy Spirit let the World and good men judge then what Spirit teacheth the different or contrary Doctrine Stephanus the sixth writing to Basilius the Emperour saith that He carried the Image of Christ himself upon Earth vide Baron Tom. 10. Anno 885. n. 11. It is like enough the Church then did not stand to call Emperours Christ's Vicegerents In brief in sum Was it not the usual Benediction the holy Popes of Rome used writing to Emperours and Kings to wish to them Grace all Health and Happiness In eo per quem Reges regnant in God and by God by whom Kings onely reign It were easie for us to adduce numbers of Councels to prove this truth The Councel of Toledo Tolet. 6. c. 14. Nefas est in dubium ejus deducere potestatem cui omnium gubernatio supremo constat delegata judicio It is an impious thing and unlawful to call in question his Power to whom to rule over all is by Divine Judgment and Decree collated Amongst the Councels of Paris you have one which after that it hath produced many Testimonies of Scripture and namely some of those we cited above to prove the immediate constitution of Kings by Almighty God concludeth thus Constat ergo quia non actu non voto neque brachio fortitudinis humanae sed virtute imò occulto judicio dispositionis divinae regnum confertur terrenum This expression is worthy to be set in Letters of Gold the Fathers there met together will not have the coming at Kingdoms to be from any act humane any desire or endeavour humane any Power humane but from the Power of God and the wise the secret disposing of God in his over-ruling Providence If it could add any thing to what is said we might have a cloud of Witnesses of Humane and Heathen Writers who have been more consonant to sound Divinity in this Tenet than Puritan or Jesuit or our new Sectaries They never imagined Majesty to be of so low a Birth as to be begotten of any thing below see Ovid. Fast. lib. 5. Homer calls all Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iupiter is little enough in his conceit to be their Nurse-father Plautus termeth all Kings Humanos Ioves Plutarch not unlike Saint Paul in this calleth the King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Minister of God not the Servant of the People Elsewhere he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the living Image of God upon Earth the image of his Power his Wisdom his Sovereignty Dio lib. 33. of a King speaketh thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dio knew no subordination to any or many he did think a King was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that over himself and all and controulable by no Law that he was not to be called to an account by men Because I value not these Testimonies at that rate as to sway the Judgment where better Proofs are not from Holy Scripture and Church leaving them and having sufficiently by Authority Sacred and Ecclesiastical proved our Conclusion and overthrown the Principle of Jesuit and Puritan I come to see whether Reason pleadeth more for them or for us CHAP. VII That the Government of mankind is established by God and is necessary de Jure Naturae is proved by Reason against those that hold that all Government is Arbitrary of the voluntary constitution and composition of men THE Jesuit doth willingly acknowledge that Government in thesi in genere in its abstract and generical conception is de jure Divino de jure Naturae is by God's establishment and by the necessary and uncontroulable dictate of Nature howsoever it is
yet meet in a strange Land or some Territory not inhabited this case presupposed I demand Whether or not this Populus inconditus would not condescend presently and necessarily to some Sovereign Power to govern and protect them who can deny it Again if all these were descended from one or sprung up from one root and their common Father were with them would Nature Equity and Humanity necessitate them to submit to him and that from him it should be hereditarily transmitted to his first-born and so forward who doubteth of this Well I change the case take them not onely as inconditus populus a disordered People which is conceivable where a Head is but as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without one common Ruler that is when they are a farrago Naetionum and diversarum familiarum a confused mixture of more Nations more Families when they have not one common Father If they condescend that one shall have Sovereign Power over all and so by consent shall be surrogated in the place of the common Father and that this Sovereignty shall be transmitted to his eldest Son and so forth From whence is this Power Necessity forceth them to a Government without it they can have neither Society nor Safety nor Peace nor Happiness but all their part is onely to design or declare the man which is onely potestas designativa potestas deputativa but the Power is onely from Almighty God the potestas collativa the Authority the Sovereignty is of God from God God's The reason is evident the Substitute must have it by the same hand by the same means he had it in whose place he was substituted By what is said he cometh in the place of a common Father and the Father's right is immediately from God and of God I am ashamed to resume again that the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the eminent Powers that be are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ordinances the authoritative Establishments of God no less than the Authority of a Father above his Son or of a Wife above her Husband is of God and from God immediately and do not refer to the Wife or Children as their immediate Donor and Author God hath spoken once twice have I heard it that Power belongeth to the Lord Psal. 62. 11. If you love to hear St. Chrysostom speak read his words in a proper place upon Rom. 13. where he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sum and sense of all is this Because paritie in Honour and Power always worketh War and Contention God to prevent this Mischief hath ordained many kinds of Powers and as many kinds of Subjections as the man to have Power over his Wife a Father to have Power over the Son a King to rule and Subjects to obey And this is not only apparent amongst men but also in the very body of every man where some members are superiour to other in Worth and Power to command the Inferiour This established Order hath place amongst irrational Creatures as Bees and Cranes do follow one Flocks and Herds do the same In the Sea this is to be seen where many Fishes do follow one as King war with him against others and go following him to places far distant from home Anarchy the want of Order and Government is altogether and always evil the Mother and Cause of all Confusion and Mischief The Result of all is Government is necessary as for the Subsistence of all Creatures so especially for the good and comfortable Society of men This is not left arbitrary to men but is by the inviolable Ordinance of God established Now if it fall forth so that a multitude disordered dispersed by any unavoidable Necessity be without Government nature over-ruled by Gods inviolable Ordinance forceth them to submit and subject to some to govern them and to have Sovereignty over them whether they resolve upon one upon some few or many The Designation of the person or persons is from this disordered rout but it is God who investeth them with the Sovereign Power We clear it thus as Posito generationis fundamento when a Father begetteth a Child consequitur ex ordinatione divina institutione vel naturali vel morali subjectio filii ad patrem it is necessary by the inevitable Ordinance of Almighty God that the Son begotten be subject to the Father So it is by moral divine Institution that when any People have deputed and designed the Person or Persons of the Government or Governours the Collation and Donation of this Power and Sovereignty is from God effectivè effectually and from the Community but consecutivè because consequitur ad electionem populi ex divina ordinatione collatione it followeth and is inseparably conjoyned by God and his Appointment Take the like A woman marriageable in her own Power maketh choice of a man to be her Husband her Choice and Consent giveth not to him marital Power but this Right and Prerogative of the Husband is from Almighty God for who dare say that in the woman is primarily and radically marital Power Consider yet a little more the King elected to be a Sovereign to such a headless a disordered Multitude as we presuppose is surrogated in the place of a common Father to the whole Community over which he is to bear rule The Scripture expresseth him so Exod. 20. Command 5. Honora patrem Honour thy Father The Heathen conceived it so See Aristotel Ethic. lib. 8. c. 10. and Polit. lib. 1. c. 2. Homer Odys 1. from which two Consequents unavoidable are deduced 1. First as the natural Father suppose that Adam were living had he not just Title to the Monarchy of the World receiveth not any paternal Right Power or Authority from his Posterity or those are come of his Loyns but hath this from God and the ordinance of Nature which is jus divinum as we have said no more can the Father surrogated in the place and power of the natural Father he said to receive his Right his Power his Sovereignty from the Community 2. The second Consequent and Consequence is that according to the maxim of the Law Surrogatus gaudet privilegiis ejus cui surrogatur and Qu◠succedit in locum succedit in jus the Person surrogated hath all the Power the Priviledge the Person had Right to in whose place he is surrogated When a man hath no Son by Nature or Issue of his own a Son adopted is entituled to all the Right Power Revenue was transmissible to a Son begotten of his own Body A base born Son legitimated is invested with all the Right Title Honour Inheritance was due to a lawful begotten Son The reason is evident is pregnant both the one and the other the adopted Son and the base Son legitimated are surrogated into the place of the lawful and natural begotten Son Why then I pray you shall not should not the surrogated Father by Election enjoy the Priviledges and
Rights of the Father natural Methinks more for the warrant of the two latter cannot be raised to any higher Constitution than humane Appointment but the other of the surrogated Father floweth and followeth the inviolable and unrepealable Ordinance of Almighty God For my part a King designed in such case ought should enjoy his paternal Right no less than Melchisedeck or Abraham I am the more powerfully inclined to this Opinion that I see in holy Writ that it pleased God in his Wisdom and Justice to transfer the Right of the first born to the younger the surrogated was not one whit lessened in his Prerogative and Power but had fully entirely what was due to the first born in whose place he was surrogated Consider this in Iudah when Reubens Right of Primogeniture was forfeited and he with his Posterity invested with it and surrogated in his place See read and consider the Royal Prerogatives by the Spirit of Prophecy bestowed upon Iudah Gen. 49. of which by Gods Grace more largely Quaest. 4. The like may be seen in David whom God preferred to Eliab his elder Brother It is a ruled case in Law Modus acquirendi non tollit jus possidendi the way by which we come to have jus quaesitum as Jurists term it the Right to any thing provided it be lawful otherwise that Maxim is of undoubted Truth Quod ab initio non valuit progressis temporis convalescere non potest long Possession cannot secure an injust Title it is not my purpose now to enter upon Vsucapio or Ius proscriptionis is not prejudiced by the way by which we obtain it Iacob had no less Right to the Birth-right having it by a just Title than Esau. The Jurists give the reason of this Quomodocunque res est acquisita possessio est de jure gentium if a man come at any thing by a legal Title by the Law of Nations that is by the Law of common Equity the Possession or Apprehension is entire and valid Now apply all this when a People disordered are without Government and destitute of a Governour to whom by a Title and Right of Nature it is due condescend to design or chuse one for their Ruler why shall he not should he not enjoy inherit the Right of the deficient Proprietor and seeing the Right Proprietor had this Right by God by Nature how can it be but howsoever the Designation of the Person is from the disordered Community yet the Collation of the Power is from God immediately and from his sacred and inviolable Ordinance And what can be said against modus acquirendi the way by which such a one elected obtaineth this right for seeing God doth not now send Samuels or Elishas to anoint or declare Kings we are in his ordinary Providence to conceive the Designation or Election of the Person is the manifestation of God's Will voluntas signi as the School speaketh just so as when the Church designeth one to sacred Orders In few words take all with you God who made all things is the Author of Order by which all things are preserved without Order there can be no Being but all must either turn to Annihilation or to a confused Chaos God in Scripture is no less the God of Order than the Creator of all things In Heaven amongst the Angels we see it established Amongst all Creatures betwixt the cope of Heaven and the center of the Earth it is a sweet subordination a sweet harmony is seen the Inferiour giving a tacite reverence a due obedience to its Superiour the Superiour having an over-ruling Power with a benign influence upon all Inferiours to it Can we then dream to ourselves that God did leave man without this mean of subsistence that it was Arbitrary to him to appoint and specifie either no Government at all or what kind or spece of Government he pleased Plato in his Republick can tell such a man that he that can think he may subsist without a Governour must either be God or something worse than nothing Hath God provided so for all Creatures in Heaven and Earth that he hath established a Government amongst all and that conform to every one's nature and hath he left man in some respects the most excellent and perfect of all Creatures the Abridgment of the whole World the Microcosme without this established order Do we not see that before the Woman came into the World or a Child was born God fixed Government in the person of Adam Did he not secure it that it should be transmitted to the first born that Government amongst mortal men should be immortal and seeing Sin with much more Misery and Mischief hath brought into the World that men should sometimes be driven from their natural and proper Father King and Sovereign that for their Subsistence in Happiness and plenty and Protection from Evil and Mischief they are forced to chuse one or more and to surrogate him or them in his place to whom by God and Nature it was due to bear rule over them that he or they coming in the place and power of the natural Father or King have his or their Sovereignty not by a voluntary Consent but by a necessary act and that the Power is not by Derivation from the Community but by immediate Donation from Almighty God CHAP. VIII That Sovereignty is not by Derivation from the Community is proved by more Reasons IF there were no more to disprove this popular Tenet That Sovereignty in a King is by Derivation from the Community this is more than enough that it is built upon a false Ground for it presupposeth and taketh as granted that in the Community whether collective of all Individuals or virtual and representative by some in place of all there is inherent a Potestas activa rectiva a ruling active Power which is most false If we will trust Philosophy Natura nalli dat virtutem sine actu cujus est potentia ejus est actus Aristot. de sornn vigil Potentia sine actu otiosa est inutilis And the Light of Nature teacheth that Deus natura nihil faciunt frustra God and Nature hath not bestowed upon any thing in the Universe a Power which is idle and to no purpose as certainly that Power must be which is never actuated But now this Power of actual ruling was never acted by the Community it was never seen nor exercised by them The collective or diâ—â—usive body comprehends with 〈◊〉 its Verge all and every individual Now how is it imaginable that in all the People in gross in commune this Potestus activa regâ—minis or Potestas activi regiâ—ninis this power of actuating Government is seaâ—ed as in its prime principal and most proper Seat and Subject Government intrinsecally essentially includes in it a specifick Distinction of regentes and recti some to be Governours and some to be governed If all and every one hath this Power above-mentioned where then are those that
Kingdom Power Strength Glory and Majesty More absurd is that that they with brazen-face affirm this Majesty in a King is derived onely cumulativè communicativè so that the People are not devested of it but that in certis casibus in some cases which if they be not real People shall fansie them at pleasure this same Sovereignty and Majesty is resumable An old Philosopher would laugh at him who would presume to say that a matter passive actuated and perfected by Union with a Form could at pleasure shake off that specifick and individual Form and marry it self to another they may with as good reason say that a Husband hath Marital Power from his Wife and to gratifie that Sex with which they are very prevalent they may endow every Wife with that Power to resume her Freedom and to marry to another at pleasure A third reason against this Paradox in State and Divinity is this there is no warrant in Scripture nor doth Nature teach that God hath fixed all Government Sovereignty and Majesty in the Community as in its prime and proper subject The fittest opportunity to evidence this Right and Prerogative of the People was certainly when Saul was anointed and appointed the first King of Israel Till this time God did retain the Government in his own hands and actuated it by the hands of Moses Ioshua c. as his Viceroyes and Deputies the Text of Scripture is plain in this 1 Sam. 8. 7. God saith to Samuel They have not rejected thee but me Again 1 Sam. 10. 18. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel I brought Israel out of Egypt and delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians and of them that oppressed you Verse 19. And you have this day rejected your God who himself saved you out of your adversities and tribulations and ye have said unto him nay but set a King over us Again 1 Sam. 12. 12. And when you saw that Nahash the King of the Children of Ammon came against you ye said unto me nay but a King shall reign over us when the Lord your God was your King To these passages joyn Gideon's words Iudges 8. 23. When they offered the Kingdom hereditary to him and his Posterity he replied I will not rule over you neither shall my Son rule over you The Lord shall rule over you These places prove clearly a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God's ruling of this People by his substituted Deputies When this extraordinary way and peculiar to this People onely was to cease and a King to be established over them like to the Kings of other Nations it was most opportune and high time to declare this Native inherent right of the People in whom is this National and fancied underived Majesty and to leave them by their right to transfer their right upon him whom they judged most fitting and able to be King But here Ne mu Lucilianum not one syllable for it not the least insinuation Nay you have point blank the contrary a virtual destructory of this imagined and conceited Right as at large before we have expressed and cleared for Scripture vindicateth to God as proper and peculiar to himself the Designation of the Person of Saul and the collation and bestowing of Royal Sovereignty It is worth your notice that Scripture recordeth that after he was designed and declared King The Spirit of God came upon him which without wronging the letter of the Text may be interpreted of God's Grace enabling him for the charge The very Heathen did acknowledge that in Kings there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something from above bestowed above the ordinary stream of Endowments incident to man which how it may subsist with a derivation of all their Majesty and Power from the multitude let them judge who have not made a Divorce betwixt themselves and sound Reason and Judgement By no means let us neglect to observe that God when he designed Saul to be King collated upon him Royalty he left no other act to his People but to admit him which was not left to their voluntary determination to admit or reject him at pleasure Nor is that to be over-leap't that God would not allow them by compact and contract to make their own conditions to limit and enlarge their King at pleasure but gave himself to the subject jus Regis the Law of the King to which the Subjects were to submit in the hardest case He prescribed Lex imperandi a Law and Rule to Kings to rule and reign by Deut. 17. But at the admittance of Saul he giveth Legem parendi the Subject a Law of Obedience and Patience 1 Sam. 8. which is so peremptory in the extremest acts of Tyranny and Oppression that no other Remedy is left but Prayers and Tears Patience and crying to the Lord in the day of Trouble and Oppression Of this by God's Grace more hereafter qq 3 4 5. A fourth Argument against this popular Errour and Deceit is this if all Sovereignty and Supreme Power were originally inherent in the People and from thence derived to the King then undoubtedly Democracie were the best of all Governments The reason is pregnant that spece and kind of Government which cometh nearest to its original must be sounder and more perfect but Democracie which is the Government of many cometh nearer to the multitude than Aristocracie where some few of the better sort or than Monarchy where one hath the Supremacy and Government The nearer to the Fountain the Stream runneth more pure and clear This Argument cannot well be taken off and it is a strong Argument changing the terms in the assumption for Monarchy it proyeth the excellency of Monarchy above all Governments because it approacheth nearest to the Government of God and God himself who is the Author of all Government as the Argument before is made the Conclusion is most false because howsoever all Writers of Politicks in many things concerning Policy differ as much amongst themselves as Clocks or our Sectaries yet all unanimously accord and agree in this that of all Government Democracie and popular Government is the worst and do prefer Aristocracie to it by many stages which likewise enforceth our Argument for the excellency of Monarchy for the farther you recede from Monarchy as in Democracie the worse the Government is and the nearer you approach to it as in Aristocracy the Government is the better Some have a nearer approach to one than many and many are at a greater distance with one than some few which things duely considered and rightly pressed will bring home the Conclusion that Formalis completa gubernandi ratio est in Monarchia the proper specifick formal and complete essence of Government is in the Sovereignty of one Review and consider all Politicians whom you will they will grant that Suprema potestas est in indivisibili posua â—upremacy and Sovereignty is an indivisible and undivided Entity How can you share it then amongst more or many Nay
this forceth them to make Aristocracie which is the Government of more than one and Democracie which is of many that they must be considered as unum analogiâ— one by analogy not univocally and properâ—y so judgd then of the force of our Argument For any reason I yet apprâ—â—end or can guess at if Sovereignty were primtively fixed in a multitude and from thence derived to any or many I cannot judge but that Democracie is the onely spece of Government warranted by Divine Institution and that all other kinds of Government are unlawful and their Acts sinful or if any should attempt to change Democracie into Monarchy it were an high impiety which things how they may be admitted let our new State-Divines consider and declare Sure I am Saint Austin was of the opinion that a corrupted Democracie without sin might be changed into Monarchy See him lib. 1. de liber arbitr c. 6. where he saith Si depravatus populus rem privatam Reip. praeferat atque habeat vaenale suffragium corruptusque ab â—is qui honores amant regnum in se factiosis consceleratisque committat nonne item rectè si quis tunc extiterit vir bonus qui plurimum possit adimat huic populo potestatem dandi honores in paucorum bonorum vel etiam unius redigat arbitrium Euod Et ita rectè Saint Austin and Euodius agree in this that if they who bear Rule in Democracie do corrupt Justice and put the Government into corrupt mens hands and such as are factious a good powerful man upon such an exigent may mould the Government into an Aristocracie or Monarchy Good Saint Austin for all his Learning and Piety knew not the Jesuit and Puritans ground that all Sovereignty and Supremacy all Majesty underived was in the multitude and that in their Power it is to change the Government to what guise they will he knew not that this was to rob the People of their native and proper Right when one man should reduce Democracie without the consent of the People to Monarchy or Aristocracie nor knew he that it was an unjust and Sacrilegious intrusion upon God's Right in the People to do it without their Act their Consent their Compact To this you may add another Testimony of that Father which virtually implieth the same you may read it lib. 9. de Civ Dei c. 21. where speaking of the declination of the Government of Rome from the second Carthage War and the restoring of Rome to her glory by Augustus coming to the Empire he saith Hoc toto tempore usque ad Caesarem Augustum qui videtur non adhuc vel ipsorum opinione gloriosum sed contentiosum exitiosum planè jam enervem ac languidam libertatem omnimodo extorsisse Romanis ad regale arbitrium revocasse cuncta quasi morbidâ vetustate collapsum veluti instaurasse ac renovasse Rempublicam The Passage is very considerable The purpose of the Holy Father is to take off that foul aspersion which the Heathen put upon Christ and Christian Religion that all mischief came into the World since they were heard of He proveth by the Roman story that greater mischief before was upon the Romans and that from the second Carthaginian War the Roman Grandeur was in its declination and decaying and at and about the coming of Christ in the World was restored again to its Magnificence and Splendour by the happy Monarchy and Empire of Augustus Caesar which happy change Saint Austin commends he condemns it not and so do the Heathen Writers which the Father could never have done if he had been of the mind that no man cometh rightly by Sovereignty but by derivation from the People It is not onely Saint Austin's but other holy Fathers observation that God in his wise Providence disposed so of the Government of the World as to put the best and greatest part of the World under the Monarchy of one that thus he might facilitate the progress of the Gospel throughout the World It is foretold in Scripture that Kings shall be the Nurse-fathers of the Church our Opposites cannot shew the like of Aristocracies and Democracies nor this day do we see it or in Ancient storie find it recorded It is most like Foelicitas temporalis Happiness temporal under Augustus the sweetest of Emperours came into the World with Foelicitas aeterna and spiritualis with eternal happiness when our King and Saviour came into the World Of this more q. 2. Our fifth Argument to prove that Sovereignty in a King is not from the Community or multitude is this If this Sovereignty be natively inherent in the Multitude it must be proper to every individual of the Community if it be so and must be so according to their Tenet which is enforced by that other as groundless and false State-maxim which they hold and maintain that Quisque nascitur liber every one is born a Free-man in the Forrest then it will necessarily follow that the Generation and Posterity of those who have first contracted with their elected King are not bound to that covenant but upon their Native Right and Liberty may start aside appoint another King and that without breach of covenant or any just Title in the King of their Fathers to force or reduce them to his obedience an excellent way devised to preserve King and Kingdom in Peace and Safety Might not the Posterity of Ioshua and the Elders living in his time who contracted with the Gibeonites to incorporate them although in a serving condition have made void their Fore-fathers covenant And if this be true How cometh it to pass that the Progeny of Ionadab did hold themselves bound to keep the prescript and strict Rule of their Father The Rechabites it seemeth had not learned this point of Native Liberty CHAP. IX That Sovereignty is not derived to the King from the People communicativè by Communication so that they may resume it in some Cases is proved by reason ALthough we would give to our Sectaries which we will never grant that all Sovereignty in a King is derived from the people immediately yet we deny and with good reason that it is not by Communication so that they may at pleasure or upon some necessary exigent in certain cases resume it so that habitually they retain it and are not totally divested of it but in some case of Defailance suppletivè they may exercise it and supply thâ— Defects of Government in the King Erecting Tables authorizing Parliaments appointing close Commiitees making and sealing subscribing and swearing Covenants c. Their ground is because all Sovereignty is by voluntary Consent and Compact derived from the People to the King This we have sufficiently disproved to strengthen this they equivocate in a Maxim Constituens constituto potior est the constituent is above the constituted in Dignity and Power If they knew any thing in Law or were ruled by Reason they could know that there be two sorts of
Constitutions 1. The one is when Constitutio ab initio est voluntatis ejus effectus perpetuo pendet à voluntate constituentis when the Constitution is voluntary at first flowing from the free elicite act of the Will and whose Effect and Force dependeth ever from the Liberty and free Will of the Constituent as when a King maketh a Viceroy or Judge durante beneplacito enduring Pleasure or when a man maketh a Legacy and leaveth so much to such a one after his death he may make it void to morrow if Death prevent him not except he hath appended the last Codicil as Lawyers speak in such like things Voluntas hominis est ambulatoria a man's Will is not denuded of it's Liberty to reâ—ile or change the Will of man being as Philosophers speak Domina sui actûs Mistress and Queen of all her elicite and commanded Acts. It is a ruled Case in Law Nulla obligatio consistere potest quae à voluntate promittentis statum accipit No Obligation can absolutely tye where all its Strength dependeth merely upon the free Will of him that promiseth 2. The other Constitution is Quae ab initio est voluntatis posteà verò effectum habet necessitatis which at the first is by the free Elect and commanded Act of the Will but afterward is attended with an Effect of Necessity that maketh it irrepealable irrevocable as when a man maketh over the Right of his proper Goods to another this is at first a voluntary Action but the Donor having denuded himself of jus proprietatis of his entire Right and the Donee hath jus possessionis hath apprehended Possession this act is firm and stable whether the way of making over be titulo lucrativo or titulo onerosa freely done by gift or for money and as good in Exchange or any other way lawful this act is no ways revocable although it be made to the Disadvantage of the Donor If any should attempt to resume this again it were an Act against common Equity Scripture pleadeth for this Truth Psal. 15. 4. He shall dwell in the Mountain of the Lord whoâ— sweareth to his hurt and changeth not Ananias and Sapphira might without Sin have kept their Goods which they consecrated to God and his Church if they had not interposed the act of devoting or consecrating them but this done to detain but a part of it and it may be for some exigent case of Necessity they preconceived it was high Sacriledge and they payed dear for it Acts. 5. There can be no civil Commerce no Truth or Faith in dealing in bargaining if you open this back door than when a man hath contracted covenanted to his Disadvantage he may resume it and put himself in statu quo If it were granted that Royalty in a King were by Contract betwixt him and his People and resumable by the People upon the Appearance of Disadvantage it cannot stand but in all inferiour Contracts of less Concernment the like should hold Is there any act more freely done than when a woman not subject to paternal Authority of perfect Age under no Guardian maketh Choice of an Husband and as she fancyeth And I pray you may she afterward shake him off at Pleasure God forbid By Moses Law we know the Husband for Jealousie or Discontent might have given to his Wife a Bill of Divorcement that the Woman had the like Power we read it not In Gods case which most nearly concerneth himself in the case of Idolatry the Husband was bound to dilate accuse and witness against his Wife the Father against the Children but there is no Charge to the Wife to accuse or witness against the Husband or the Children against the Father a clear Evidence how God Almighty would have the Inferiour in Reverence Duty and Obedience to carry towards the Superiour that if Idolatry against God otherwise could not be made appear God would have no Remonstrance this way God chused rather to suffer in his own Cause than that lawful Authority should be wronged Deut. 13. The tye betwixt King and People Prince and Subject is greater is stricter than any betwixt man and Wife Father and Son If our Adversaries will believe Iurists they were of a contrary Opinion and did not imagine that the People transferring all their Right upon the Prince did habitually or in any case retain it or any part of it that in case of male-administration they might supply it and in any Exigent resume it or make over the Right to whom they would over-lording their Prince but that they were totally and irrevocably invested with all power conceivable to be in the People Although this Opinion hath not the Truth of all the Kings Right in it divinely enough yet is it a safer Opinion than that of late days hath been taken up and maintained Vlpian a renowned Jurist L. 1. ad Sc. Tupil saith Quod principi placuit legis habet vigorem utpote cum lege Regia quae de ejus imperio lata est populus ei in eum omne suum imperium potestatem conferat Vlpian knew no better but that The legislative Power was in the Prince and that because the King is entirely invested with all the Power and Empire was in the People It is probable he reflecteth upon the Democratical Government which was before the Empire and so determineth that what Sovereignty was in the Democracy was with its full Extent as entirely and properly in the Prince Vlpian reserveth no Power to the People for the saith expresly Populus ei in eum omne suum Imperium potestatem confert which ground laid it is absurd to say that in any case or upon any Exigent the people or Communinity diffusive collective or representative can re-estate themselves into that Sovereignty so entirely irreversibly made over Ex ore duum trium Take another witness for in Law Singularis testis nullus and a great one too Bartolus ad L. Hostes. 24. F. de eapt post saith Tertio modo indicitur bellum publicum quando indicitur à populo Ramano vel ab Imperatore in quem translata est omnis jurisdictio populi Romani Bartolus knew not any Power was reserved in any Case or Exigent to the People and if you consider him well upon the place cited the Militia and Iura belli belong to the Prince To these two add Seneca who knew no mixed government but only three Speces Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy Epist. 4. he writeth thus Interdum populus est quem timere 〈◊〉 interdum si ea civitatis disciplina est ut plurima per Senatum transigantur gratiosi in ea timentur viri interduâ— singuli quibus potestas populi in populum data est Seneca who knew not Monarchy to be from God immâ—diately knew so much that coming from the People the King was so invested with the Power of the People and Power over the People that the People were totally divested of
competent Iudge Who is this Judge For my part I know none but Almighty God the King of Kings If you say that the Judge is the diffusive Body or the Collective or the representative which I see not how it can be conceived without the Head the King yet at this time I yield it to you in your own notion and virtual Body I oppose that cannot be are they not all Subjects Are they not all under his Protection Have they not all sworn or should swear Allegiance and Supremacy How then can they be imagined in any other capacity than of a Subject How in any other notion relation or consideration but as the other Party Contractor in this imaginary notional and fancied Contract How can it with Law with Justice with Reason subsist that you shall be in your own Cause in your own Case in a matter of so high a Concernment Judge Witness and Party The highest that any as yet have gone is to fancy a coordinate Power with the Sovereignty of a King which in effect is a very bull and is as much as to say Supreme and not Supreme Sovereign and not Sovereign King and no King I deny not but that it may be proved if that your Practice may interpret your Power that you have run farther and reach higher in your Sovereignty than any King any Monarch in Europe except you speak of the King of Spain's Power over all his Dominions without Europe Never any of them claimed more but paternum Imperium but with grief we see this new Doctrine hath erected Despoticum herile Imperium I say the most you have claimed to your representative Body and that maimed too is a coordinate Power which in Law in Reason runneth upon equal upon coequal terms Now in Law Par in parem non habet Imperium an Equal cannot Lord or Judge over an Equal much less an Inferiour may usurp it above a Superiour Amongst many other reasons why our Lord Ioh. 8. would not sentence the Adultress that was taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is not an unprobable one that although he knew her guilty as God and as Man gratiâ visionis yet he would not act the Judge and Witness Omnis Christi actio nostra instructio Learn of him to be meek and humble nay just too and challenge not to be Judges Accusers and Witnesses in your own cause Imperial Law and Ecclesiastical both condemn it nay the very Light of Nature made Africanus disclaim to be against the Defendant Judge Accuser and Witness The Casuits when they dispute and resolve the Case how a Judge shall proceed in Judgment when to his private knowledge he knoweth contrary to that is like to be adduced and the Judge tyed to determine secundum allegata probata that in such a case he may if another competent Judge may be found exuere personam publicam personam Iudicis and witness for Truth that Justice be not prejudiced Fie for shame that Iesuits Romanists and Casuists althey hold many of our puritanical Principles yet are not so impudent as our Puritans and Sectaries To hasten to more Proofs of the Truth we maintain give me leave to tell you that I think or fancy at least that this Opinion that Sovereignty is seated in the Community every individual having its share which by Derivation from all and every one is concentred in the Person of the King is not unlike that Dream of Democritus and other Philosophers who fancyed to themselves that the whole Vniverse was composed and diversified by a casual Concourse of what I know not fantastical and imaginary Atomes CHAP. X. Wherein the Truth of our Tenet is by more reasons asserted the contrary Error disproved and the Absurdities in the Sectaries paradox involved are discovered THis Tenet that a King hath his Sovereign Power communicativè not privativè from the people that he is so invested with it that the People have it habitually suppletively and may resume it in some exigent cases giveth nothing to the King but only an empty and void Title which is not only resumable at peoples Pleasure but so coarctated and bounded with Limits and Conditions of their own devising that simul semel at the same Instant and Moment he both receiveth Empire and Sovereignty and layeth down the Power to rule and determine in matters which concern either the private or publick good At the same Instant without prejudice or derogating from the honour of Royalty be it spoken a King becometh a Monster an Hermaphrodite composed of a Sovereign and a Subordinate of a King and a Subject Again by this they hold I see not how they can difference a King from a Magistrate which with all understanding and knowing Politicians are distinguished by their different specifick Entity and Being Nay a Magistrate is stated into a safer and better Condition than a King for the Magistrate is to exercise Judgment and Jurisdiction by known Statute and custom Law the King is censurable deposable at the Pleasure of the Multitude as they fancy him to have transgressed The Magistrate cannot be censured be punished but by Law the meanest the basest of Subjects may arrest cite convene the King before the undèrived Majesty of the Community he may be judged by the arbitrary Law that is in the Closet of their Hearts and that not only for real Misdemeanour for real male-administration but upon fansied apprehended Fears and Jealousies and these not evident by any apparent Act or Attempt but intended If this be not to seat themselves upon the Tribunal of God who hath reserved as peculiar to himself to judge and discover mens Hearts and Intentions I know not what else can be it except it be that those Seraphical Doctors make so bold with Almighty God to unfold the Secrets of Predestination and to define who are the Elect who the Reprobate Any man that hath nothing left but common Sense will chuse rather to live the most private and obscure Life than to expose and oppose himself with an idle nominal Title of Honour to the most corrupt and corrupted Judgments and Affections of an ignorant injust and indiscreet Multitude I pray you when neither the true Grandeur and Splendour of Majesty nor the sacred Power of Empire nor the highest Pitch of Reverence and Obedience due to so sacred a Function and so sacred a person can shelter and protect him who can be so demented as not only to embrace an empty Title Ixions cloud but run the hazzard of total Ruine and perpetual Disgrace I know what will be answered good Kings are in no Danger this Terrour is only a Terrour a Curb to bad Kings The contrary this day appears and ordinarily the best of Kings are most in danger Who knoweth not how ambitious factious and discontented Spirits are most ingenious and solicite where no real and just Challenge can be made against a good King by specious and spurious Pretexts to incense and inflame with Fury the
a worse an unlawful hand The Effects are more bitter the Charge is infinitely above all we or our Predecessors did complain of in many past Ages the pressures are intended and multiplied and total ruine to the Kingdom is threatned onely this difference is observable that where before with a less bountiful Duty Religion and Royalty Justice and Peace might have been maintained nothing could be obtained to strengthen Sovereignty but now we are become so lavish so prodigal we give twenty ten five parts of our Goods our Revenues spare not our Jewels our Ear-rings to make up a molten Calf so apt so prone is our corrupt Nature to a wicked course And whereas before we were like Rachel in the streets in our shops crying we are undone with Subsidies Monopolies c. saying with Micah we are robbed of our Silver which either we made or were to make our god now in pressures voluntarily undergone which infinitely transcend all pressures before seen or felt we are as speechless as the unworthy Servant in the Gospel In this we are not unlike to little children who when they fall of themselves and hurt themselves pitifully cry not at all but if any touch them and they fall wth little or no hurt they cry out bitterly You see then how easie it is upon this ground maintained by our Sectaries our Adversaries to disquiet State and Kingdom to unking Kings at pleasure And that it is so would to God the Lecture is read to us this time in the deplorable state of this Kingdom did not with much grief and sorrow make it appear to the least-seeing Eye and did not cry it aloud in the deafest Ear. That the best of Kings most pious and just in themselves and of sweetest temper are liable to these mischiefs this black day of ours confirmeth it by-gone Stories evidence it Was there ever a meeker a milder Governour upon Earth than Moses the meekest of men sensible of no injury done against himself zealous of wrongs done to God and quick enough when Aaron was wronged Was there ever a greater Treason hatched and set on foot against any than him Corah Dathan and Abiram with two hundred and fifty Princes of the Congregation lead the People to Sedition then to Rebellion telling him in his Face he and the Tribe of Levi took too much upon them God to vindicate Sacred Sovereignty did interpose by a miraculous way never heard of before that the Heads are swallowed up living in Body and Soul into Hell a fearful Example the first Rebellion we read of and so exemplarily punished that Optatus Bishop of Milevis writing against Parmenian observeth that the like is not to be found to be read again in Scripture To Moses add David not onely a man but a King according to God's heart and one as apt and inclinable to pardon offences committed against his Person that the like you find not except it be the Example we have this day before our Eyes yet what Treasons were intended acted and attempted against him Scripture doth plentifully record Zedekiah was not one of the worst Kings of Iudah yet was he so over-ruled or over-awed rather by his Lords and Councellours that he confesseth of himself The King was not he that could withstand them that he was forced to deliver up Ieremiah the Servant and Prophet of God into the hands of their Power and Malice Many more may be adduced Augustus the sweetest of Heathen and Roman Emperours Titus the love and delight of mankind were tossed and beaten with the same Tempests It is infallibly then certain that the best of Kings cannot be secured where this Tenet of our Adversaries is maintained especially when Divines do preach it as a Truth revealed from Heaven to aver that Rebellion is obedience nay a necessary Duty which God commandeth and Jurists and Lawyers hold it is consonant to Justice the established and practised Laws and Customs of the Land the Divine secureth their Consciences and the Jurist their Estates and Persons that they are put out of all fear of Evil here or in the Life to come They will find at last that those blind Guides with their People misled will fall in the ditch God have mercy upon the poor multitude who are deceived the Deceivers have need of great Repentance before they can have mercy with God or should find it with the King What a fearful thing it is to put Princes and the best of Princes most usually under this Tyranny that the People may lord over them needeth no other confirmation but to consider a multitude in its nature which is either the cruellest or tamest of Beasts Quod non audent singuli audent universi Livie telleth us that this is the natural temper and constitution of a multitude Vt serviat humiliter aut dominetur superbâ—â— Libertatem quae media est nec spernere modicè nec habere sciunt Et non fermè desunt irarum ministri indulgentes qui avidos atque intemperantes plebeiorum animos ad sanguinem caedes irritant We need not English it the Expression is full in what we have said In sum by these new-devised State-principles no Kingdom no State can be long in quiet in peace no Kings no Governours can be secured by these Maxims we may change Kings and Governours as often as Moons learn the Policy of the Goths and practise it too that if we be not successful in War or have not a plentiful Year or be troubled and infested with any Tempest more than ordinary all may be laid upon the misfortune demerit or mis-government of the King and he Ionas-like thrown into the Sea to appease the Tempest another enthroned to live and reign no longer than we please A goodly Tenure for a Kiug Another Argument I bring against this Paradox which is this by this Principle if it hold good all Title to a Kingdom by right of Conquest is made void for this cannot be said to be derived from the Community by contract and voluntary consent Notwithstanding Scripture is clear and full for the lawful Title of a Sovereign by Conquest Otherwise we must deny David's Title over Aram and other Neighbour conterraneous Kingdoms to Israel God by his Prophet Ieremy commanded submission subjection and obedience to Nebuchadnezzar and enjoyned them to pray for him and for Peace to his Government I hope none will deny his Right to be just and that by no other Title than Conquest Our Saviour did submit to Caesar's Government over the Iews paid Tribute and by his Ius Regale his Royal Prerogative of Coin proved Caesar's just Title that he silenced the Iews as much at that time miscarried that by their Native Liberty and God's special Favour they were not to submit to any stranger as we are now adayes upon our fancied Conceits The Jesuits will not deny that Conquest by War is Iustus modus acquirendi Imperium a right way to come by a Crown if the War be justly waged and
grounded upon a good cause for proof see Bellarmin de translat Imper. and Suarez in his Book which we have often cited in this little Treatise It is easie to bring a great many more Arguments to destroy this erroneous Tenet pernicious to mankind it self onely because we are weary of it give me leave in the Close to shew you that it is morbus complicatus a Disease a Distemper made up of the confluence of many together and that it hath involved within or adherent to and coherent with it a great many Absurdities contrary to Truth in Sacred Scripture revealed to sound Reason and Policy I shall onely point at them and leave the enlarging of them to the judicious Reader 1. First it is absurd to say and maintain in true Philosophy that the Community is primum subjectum the first Seat and Subject in which Sovereignty is immediately fixed How can it be said so seeing in them it was never found never actuated never exercised Vana est potentia quae nunquam reducitur in actum 2. Next this Principle presupposeth the most excellent of Creatures Men to be like Cadmus off-spring de terrâ nati sprung out of the Earth Iuvenes aquilone creati or which is worse in origine like to the most imperfect of living Creatures Animalia de putredine orta Creatures coming from Corruption it self which Paradoxes how well they sute with the Excellency of humane Condition and which is more with the Goodness and Wisdom of God in the Creation of all and lastly how consonant to sacred Truth in Scripture revealed if these be well considered then I am hopeful our new Statists will forsake their Errour 3. Thirdly this Tenet of our Sectaries presupposeth that all men coming into the World are Iure or privilegio naturae by the Right and Priviledge of Nature originally born equal independent one from another without desparity or Difference one from another This is contradictory to the word of God that teacheth God did fix Government in Adam before the Woman was made or Children begotten by him Is not every one that cometh into the World begotten of a Father Is he not thus by the Law of God and Nature to submit and subject himself in Reverence and Obedience to his Father Is he not then so far from having original Power inherent in himself that he hath not his own Original being in the Capacity of Nature but from his Father How then can he be freed from Subjection to his Father And if his Father be subject to another is he not by the same Law subject to his Father's Superiour Who can make this Subordination void except he will ranverse the Ordinance of God and Nature Where then is the Truth of this deceiving Maxim which worketh so much mischief Quisque nascitur liber every man is born a free-man in the Forrest Are they not subordinate subject to their pre-existent Father and to his Superiour too if he have any Is not the Female Sex by the Ordinance of God and Nature inferiour and subordinate to the male Doth not Nature teach that the Wife by the Law of Nature is subject to the Husband If you will believe Aristotle in his Politicks he telleth you that a man of weak Understanding is subject to him who is more intelligent and prudent and if I forget not that he is naturâ servus 4. Fourthly this ground presupposeth Anarchy to be de facto pre-existent really and actually before Order and Government Christians must believe that as God created all things in numero pondere mensurâ in a compleat Perfection of all things every Creature having its own intrinsecal Weight and Worth not only in it's own due Proportion and measure but in a measure orderly disposed for it's Accord and Being with the Universe and must believe accordingly that he hath disposed of all things in that Order which establisheth an unrepealable Government by which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole Universe and every spece and individual in the Universe is preserved and continued in it's happy natural Being Who then can be so stupid to think that God Almighty sends man in the World destitute of this Order and Government which is necessary for the happy Being of the Abridgment of the World for whom it was made in a secondary respect If the whole world without this Order could not but return to a confused Chaos and Mass and from thence to an Annihilation what other can be the Condition of Mankind without order established to preserve it See Chrysostom's Testimony upon Rom. 13. cited above If they will speak philosophically they must confess Habitus est naturâ prior privatione the Habit in nature is presupposed to be existent before the Privation How come we then from our new-state-Philosophers to hear that Anarchy was in Nature was in the world before Government 6. Fifthly by the same Ground by Consequence it will as necessarily follow that Ius paternum jus maritale the lawful Authority of a Father over his Children and a Husband over his Wife are derived from the Children and Wife and that Children and Wife in some cases may resume their Power derived from them and their native Liberty If any aver so he is Flagris dignus to be cudgelled not to be answered 6. Sixthly this Tenet if it be not blasphemous it is certainly sacrilegious for to say that Power is radically originally fundamentally inherent in the Community or as the observator saith that in the people is an underived Majesty robbeth God and Christ of his Glory Scripture declareth them to be the immediate Authors of all Sovereignty Glory and Majesty as we proved above Doth not Scripture express the immense Sovereignty of God and Christ over the World and Church by the Compellation of King If you will have Kings then to be the Derivatives of the People take heed you make not God and Christ the Derivatives of Derivatives which any pious mind will be loth to think 7. Seventhly when the King 's Right is made to be such that the same Sovereign Power is habitually retained in the People and the Power in some cases is resumable How can you make the King's Title complete Law is against it when the Donor is dans retinens as Jurists speak giving a right yet retaining it he maketh not over a full and entire Right nor can the Donee lay just claim to it It is a maxim without Exception among them Nulla obligatio consistere potest quae à voluntate promittentis statum accipit the Donor is not tyed to make his Bond and Gift good if at pleasure he may resume it as we spoke before 8. Lastly leaving many Absurdities more untouched in the last place we place it which in our Judgment moveth us most to abhor it that you which believe this Tenet must either give us new Bibles or find out new Commentaries to the Bible for what you say is right down opposite and contradictory to
all the Bibles we have as yet seen our Bibles say Dixi dii estis I have said that is God himself ye are Gods filii Excelsi omnes and all of you are Children of the most high your Bibles or some as authentick as ours must say Diximus dii estis filii terrae omnes we the People have said ye are Gods and all of you sprung from us from the Earth We may say no more with Scripture Dominus dat aufert regna the Lord giveth and changeth Crowns and Kingdoms but it is the People that do it It must no more be thought upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Powers that be are ordained of God nay they are ordained of the People David was far mistaken who said Power belongeth unto the Lord. For Christ's Potestas data de super saying that Power is from above and by Donation from above we must have it changed unto a Potestas data de subter that all Power is given from below infinite more of this kind may be adduced Let me intreat our Brethren to consider how sacrilegious a thing it is to rob God of his Glory who hath said My Glory I will not give to another how tender he is of his divine Prerogative to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords not only by his Power over-ruling them but also effective endowing them with Royalty from above how dishonourable a thing it is to place it in so wrong a hand so base a prime Subject how they disgrace Kings and Sovereignty referring them to so base an origine how they put them in so ticklish and lubrick Condition that better being any thing than a King how by this mean they secure neither their Persons nor Functions nor either can be truly or appellatively sacred how they open a door to all disquiet in State in Church to all Sedition and Rebellion how they lead People on a way destructory to themselves nay to humane Society and consequently any Being at all how finally they serve the Prince of Disorder and run head-long and head-strong to Perdition from which good Lord deliver both them and us CHAP. XI Scripture by Examples teacheth us that Kings of Peoples making have not had God's Blessing but have ruinated their Makers IF any will look upon Scripture with ordinary Observation and Judgment it will appear that when people have presumed by themselves to set up a King of their own neither he nor they have been happy in that work There is reason enough for it how can a Blessing be expected when and where God and Christ are robbed of their Right and the People presumptuously usurp and sacrilegiously intrude upon them The first King the people of Israel had after that they were formed into a politick Body is Moses who Deut. 33. is termed King of Ieshurun To speak truly the Government then and till Saul's days was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God retaining the Government in his own hands and actuating it by his Deputies and Vice-Roys The People had no hand in making him King He was far from them when God sent him to be King over Israel That his Right was just his Government successful none will deny The next named King is Abimelech the base Son of Gideon and as basely created King too Israel did offer an hereditary Title of the Crown to Gideon after that he had vindicated them from the Tyranny and Oppression of the Midianites He did refuse it he knew that was not the right way of purchase nor Gods appointed time come Iudg. 8. 22. After his Death the Bastard is made King the first King we read of in Scripture who was the Creature of the People Iudg. 9. Consider how this Work is hatched perfected and what is the end of it He sets the work on foot by his alliance the men of Sichem to do for their own Bloud and Brood He useth an Argument that was strong enough in those dayes better that he one and alone should reign over them than the seventy Sons of Ierubbaal It seemeth that the World was not then so much out of love with Monarchy nor doated so much upon Aristocracy as we do now in this declining Age. A special mean to enable Abimelech for the Crown and to effect this unlawful Royalty they agree to enrich him with Sacrilege by spoiling their God's Temple and taking out of it threescore and ten pieces of Silver To make all sure a Covenant is made it is sworn too They were so much in love with this new Covenant that they called their God Baal Berith the Lord of the Covenant They will have God to own the Covenant or then they Idoled the Covenant so much that they would renounce God if he would not be Baal Berith the God of the Covenant What followeth upon all this Abimelech enriched by Sacriledge strengthened by his Alliance the Sichemites they bound to him not onely by the Bonds of Nature but by a tye of a Sacred Covenant a Vow interposed all Israel over-awed come to his side and the first Act of their Power and goodness is Murther they murther the seventy lawful Sons of Ierubbaal the engaged in mischief knew there was no safety but to take away the right Stock root and branch Yet God miraculously preserved Iotham not onely to denounce Gods vengeance against them both the men of Sichem and Abimelech the contrivers of this mischievous Plot but to see it executed You see then the first popular King I mean of the Peoples making beginneth his work I mean his purchase of the Crown with Sacriledge a Covenant and cruel Murther and innocent shedding of bloud Look upon the Success He is made he is constituted King with an uniform an universal consent an universal and uniform Consent is no sure Argument that the course so established is warrantable and approved by Almighty God Look upon more yet Abimeleeh becometh strong flourisheth reigned over Israel three years Iudg. 9. 22. well near Antichrists time of endurance he Kings it royally successfully Judge not then of a course by a speedy a universal a successful success to conclude it is Gods work and marvellous in our eyes It is hard to work great Works but with great Time our Nature is averse from that the Devil and the World do contribute their Wisdom and Power to impede a good Work It is not so in bad courses Moses could scarce discipline the People of Israel in the space of forty years in the School of the Wilderness to obey God but in forty dayes they were able enough to erect Idolatry and practise it The Apostle Saint Paul wondereth that the Galatians were so quickly turned from the truth of the Gospel But to reclaim them from their Errours was as toilsome and longsome pains and travels as a woman hath to bring forth a child Although Vengeance be delayed it will come at last it cometh with leaden feet but hath
Distempered Age cryed up are not Gods Ordinance and most unhappy in the end howsoever for a time when God is to punish a Nation they may have some seeming Success and some lasting Durance God in his Wisdom giving way to them to punish our Sins and to try our Constancy in his Truth Both the one and the other Story prove that these Courses when they prevail are the worst of Judgments If you joyn them and be pleased to parallel them with our times you will find a full 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 remonstrance and resemblance with us in many fit Resemblances my Prayer to God is to give us all Repentance and that speedily lest the like or worse befall us when we shall have neither Opportunity nor Place nor Power to help it and too late acknowledge our Errour All Divines do rightly hold that Omnis Christi actio nostra instructio never was any thing acted by Christ which hath not in it something to instruct us in Christian Knowledge and Duty That Christ was truly a King born we proved it before The wise men did him royal Homage while he was in his swadling-cloaths he entered Ierusalem in royal Pomp and Magnificence When his Disciples honoured him by the name of King he did not refuse it when the Iews were offended at it he told them it was not just but also necessary and if all should fail in that Duty the Stones would proclaim him King and do him Homage he avouched it before Pilate when he was looking Death in the Face by a special Direction of Gods Providence it was written upon the Cross The Altar where he offered that propitiatory and expiatory Sacrifice His Grave was sealed as Kings Tombs use to be from the Cradle to his Cross from his Mothers Womb till he is buried in all the times of his Life his Royalty and Kingdom is manifested Notwithstanding of all when the people would have made him a King he disclaimed it he would have none of it When by commission and trust he might have been Arbiter umpire betwixt two brethren differing about the moitie of their inheritance he refused it Many reasons for it but without all controversie this is one to teach all Christians that Sovereignty cannot be derived from the people from the Communitie He would have none of that dignity from them he chose rather to want it than to have it from a wrong hand It is evident by what we have said that sacred Truth as revealed to us in Scripture as understood by the Fathers and Martyrs of the Primitive Church and sound Reason doth plead for the truth we maintain That Sovereignty and Royalty in a King is by immediate dependency derivation and collation from God and Christ who are Kings of Kings and Lords of Lords and it is not onely a simple Errour but pernicious sacrilegious and derogatory to the Honour of God and Christ to make it to be derived and transferred from the underived Majesty of the People and that in such a measure by such a tenor that they have it in what portion what proportion they will bestow it with no more certainty and security than to be Tenants at will to be enthroned dethroned kinged unkinged at their pleasure Having said enough although but little in regard of what may be said to establish the positive part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we come now to take off 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their pretended grounds and principles upon which they build â—his their Babel And these onely in this question which have nearest alliance and contingency with this â—irst Question the rest we will take off in discussing â—nd debating the subsequent Questions as they are most proper and homogeneous to them and every one in â—ts proper place CHAP. XII Wherein three grounds of our Adversaries are taken off and disproved As 1. That the interposing of an Humane Act in the constitution of a King doth not hinder the Sovereignty to be immediately from God 2. Next the inconsequence of that Sophism a private man may make away his Personal Liberty and enslave himself to another Ergò a People or multitude may do the like and invest a King with Sovereignty is detected 3. The true sense of Quisque nascitur liber is given and the false Gloss of the Adversaries is discovered THE Jesuit is so learned that he knoweth and acknowledgeth that an Humane Act may be interposed and the Effect wrought produced may be the immediate Work of God the ignorance of the Sectary and weak Christians stumble at it for nothing is more frequent in the mouthes of the vulgar and less knowing sort where hath God manifested from Heaven that such or such a one is King and the Observator himself conceiveth the sensâ— of our Tenet that the King is immediately of Gods appointment and constitution cannot in any other Notion be verified except we can shew a particular Revelation for every King invested with Sovereignty by a Revelation from Heaven It feareth me he will take 〈◊〉 ill if we marshal him with the vulgar and less-knoâ—â—ing sort and yet without Disparagement to his othâ—â— Abilities we must conceive him to be a small Intelligent in Divinity if he conceive that no Power can 〈◊〉 in man by Gods immediate working except he 〈◊〉 shew him a Revelation from Heaven by the Ministeâ— of Angels or some extraordinary Prophet In stating the Question we cleared this point sufficiently to an understanding man yet give me leavâ— for the better Satisfaction of the weaker coctam reponeâ— cramben to resume and repeat some of that we havâ— said with some Additions and Illustrations It is not to be denied but in the ordinary Consâ—â—â—tution of Kings some humane act interveneth and 〈◊〉 interposed as Election Succession Conquest â— yet this may very well subsist with the immediaâ—â— Collation of royal Power from God to make thâ—â— plain consider that a thing is said to be immediate 〈◊〉 from God two ways First when it is done by Goâ— sine quocunque signo creato sine quacunque dispositioâ— praeveniente that no created Sign or previous Dispoâ—â—tion interveneth or precedeth the work done Thâ— nothing is immediately said to be from God bâ— what is by immediate Manifestation from himself 〈◊〉 by the extraordinary Ministery of Angel or Prophet as 〈◊〉 Moses was made Captain over Israel Saul and Dâ—â—vid were made Kings of Israel 2. Next when Goâ— worketh or effecteth the work yet so as some Disposition sign or created act is previous and antecedent to or coherent with the work effected By Baptism the baptized obtaineth Remission of Sins and Renovation of Nature This Effect is immediately wrought by God himself The reason is evident because Aspersion of or Immersion in water of their own nature cannot take away the Stain and Guilt of Sin nor state the baptized in the state of Adoption and Regeneration The School expresseth it barbarously yet pregnantly enough Deus concurrit ad God is concurrent and
operateth with his Ordinance and by his Influence supervenient of his Grace and Power effecteth that which Baptism in its nature abstractly cannot produce So as remission of sin and regeneration consequitur ad Baptismum followeth with and is conjoined with Baptism The School giveth us the way to discern it when it is so and that is whensoever Signum creatum the interposed act or previous disposition hath no natural contingency with the effect the work wrought must be produced by some supervenient extrinsecal more eminent agent which is God Schoolmen do confess that the Sacraments do not confer grace Vi naturali Physicâ inhaerente by their natural intrinsecal and inherent Power but Vi morali supernaturali superveniente extrinsecâ but by some extrinsecal supervenient Power The like you may observe in sacred Orders it is confessed amongst all understanding and sound Divines that by Admission into sacred Orders the admitted receiveth a supernatural Power in supernatural things for supernatural ends This is not done without the interposing of an humane Act the Imposition of the Bishops hands and yet it is most certain this is not done by the Bishops act it is the Power of God concurring and cooperating with his own Ordinance In moral things you may see the like a man marrying a woman becoming her head and Lord there precedeth this Power and Right a created humane Act the voluntary Consent of the Woman yet it cannot be said that her Consent endoweth or investeth the man with this marital Right it floweth from and followeth immediately the inviolable Ordinance of Almighty God and this tye is so strict so perpetual by the same Ordinance that it cannot be made void but by God himself No man can put asunder whom God hath joyned together This holds in the Constitutions of Kings Some humane act as Election Succession or Conquest is interposed but none of them hath any natural Contingency with Sovereignty and Majesty that by their intrinsecal Power they can collate it produce it work it or effect it The Collation must necessarily then be immediately from God and the same way as in sacred Orders This was the Sense of the ancient Church who ordinarily institute a Parallel betwixt Prince and Priest that as the Priest hath his sacred power spiritual immediately from God so the Prince hath his sacred Sovereign temporal power independently from any other and solely dependent from God Hear them speak it in their own words Hosius spoke so to Constantius the Emperour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide Athanas. epist. ad Solit. vit agent The Sense is Hosius acknowledgeth that Kings and Emperours have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sovereignty and Royalty as independently as immediately from God as Bishops and Priests have the trust which is peculiar to them ex vi ordinis and averreth that it is no less Intrusion upon God surreptitiously to invade the Kings Right his Prerogative than for any not called to the Ministery to intrude upon the sacred Function and Charge of Bishop or Priest The Passage is excellent 1. Kings are Kings quà Kings reduplicativè immediately from God and by his Donation of Power 2. As Priests have a Power incommunicable to any besides so Kings have their Sovereignty incommunicable to Subjects or any else 3. That to rob or surreptitiously to steal from Kings their sacred Prerogative is sacrilegious Usurpation presumptuous Intrusion upon God himself no less if no more than for a Lay-man to intrude upon the holy Function and Charge of Bishop or Priest Neither Athanasius nor Hosius nor any Father else understood but that Princes had their Power as immediately from God as Church-men in sacred Orders To the Greek Fathers joyn the Latin Saint Austin de Civit. Dei lib. 4. cap. 33. saith Solus verus Deus dat regna terrena bonis malis c. neque hoc temere neque fortunâ Sed pro rerum ordine ac tempore occulto nobis notissimo sibi It is the only true God none else man nor Angel that giveth Kingdoms and that not only to good but to bad Kings And this is not done casually by hap-hazzard but in Wisdom conform to the Exigency of the time of men living in the time How it cometh that sometimes bad men are Kings sometimes good men it is of his Wisdom in a secret Dispensation most evidently known to himself hid to us but for all this always just I wish our Sectaries would hear and believe this Lecture of Saint Austin's certain I am the holy and learned Father knew they came not to their Crowns but by some interposed act of Election Succession Conquest c. notwithstanding he will have all their Sovereignty Majesty and Power solely from God Symmachus the Pope writing to Anastasius the Emperour speaketh thus Tu defer Deo in nobis nos deferemus Deo in te which words formally and explicitly imply that Royalty in Kings is to be reverenced and obeyed as in Gods immediate Vicegerents upon Earth as God is to be obeyed in Church-men his immediate Vicegerents in the work and supernatural Acts and Effects of the Gospel To this Patriarch add the Suffrage of another great one Cyril of Alexandria lib. 11. in Ioh. cap 13. where amongst other things to this purpose he saith Et homines quidam à Deo accipiunt ut aliis possint dominari Review again that excellent Passage of the Council of Paris lib. 2. cap. 5. Constat ergo quia non actum non voto neque brachio fortitudinis humanae sed virtute iâ—â— occulto judicio dispensationis divinae regimen confertur terrenum It is in the opinion of these Fathers in this Council assembled that no act humane whatsoever which is interposed in the Constitution of a King maketh him King but only virtus occultum judicium dispensationis divinae the Power the secret and incomprehensible Judgment of God in his unsearchable Dispensation Review the Passage 1 Sam. 12. v. 11. And the Lord sent Ierubbaal and Bedan and Iephtah and Samuel c. Here you see the sending of Iephtah to be Judge is no less given to God than the sending of Gideon and Samuel whose calling was by extraordinary Revelation Compare this Passage witâ— Iudges 11. There you will find that Iephtah came to be Judge by a Covenant made betwixt him and the Gileadites Here you have an interposed Act and a great one that seemeth to serve much for your purpose you have a Covenant a Compact Yet notwithstanding the Lord to shew this Act this Compact this Covenant contributed nothing to make him Judge the Lord himself in authorizing him as Judge vindicateth it no less to himself than when extraordinarily he authorized Gideon and Samuel 1. Sam. 12. v. 11. a place an Argument unanswerable which bringeth home two Conclusions the one that the Authority and Power is from God the other that whatsoever act intervening if it were a Covenant it contributeth nothing to Authority cannot weaken it
cannot repeal it By Scripture then and Antiquity it is clear that the interposed act humane whatsoever it be whether Election Succession Conquest or any other lawful way doth not collate the Power but design or declare the person and letteth not the Power to be of immediate Collation from Almighty God as when the Church designeth or declareth a man for a sacred Function it is God only who bestoweth the supernatural Power Faculty and Ability Or it is in some case like to that when our King sendeth the honourable Order of the Garter to a Duke or Prince abroad by the hand of a Gentleman the Gentleman intimateth it to the person honoured but the bestowing or collating of the honour is from the power of the King the sole and proper Fountain of that Honour Let this suffice to remove their first scruple we come next to examine that which both Jesuit and Puritan make much of that is A private and individual Person may make away his own native and proper Liberty and enslave himself to a Lord and Master from hence they conclude Ergo a Community or Multitude may surrender their own native Liberty to one or more to rule over them See Bellarmine pressing this Argument lib. de Laicis cap. 6. and Suarez lib. 3. defens Doctr. Orthod cont Sect. Anglic. If we would grant all this yet this much we will gain that as a singular Person when he hath made away his Liberty to another he cannot resume it no although he hath made his bargain in a hard condition disadvantageous to himself then although we give that their consequence is good which we will never grant it will by as necessary consequence follow that when the People have devested themselves of that Power naturally inherent in them and invested one or more with it they cannot resume it no not though they have made it to their own disadvantage It may be they will tell us Argumentum à simili in dissimili non concludit that an Argument built upon a Similitude concludeth not in the point of Dissimilitude We will yield to them this with both our hands and upon the same ground we rejoyn that there is a wide disparity and difference betwixt the two 1. First because it is certain Nemo nascitur naturâ servus None by Nature cometh in the World in the condition of a Slave Nature in this is equally Indulgent to all But on the other side it is as true Nemo nascitur liber ab Imperio No man is born in that condition to be free from Government but with his natural Being cometh into the World subject to some Every man is born subject to his Father of whom immediately he hath his Existence in Nature and if his Father be the subject of another he is born a Subject to his Father's Superiour 2. Next there is another great difference Every man by Nature hath an immunity and liberty from despotical and herile Empire and in this may say Possum facere de meo quod volo I have this privilege by the Law of God and Nature that I am enslaved to none and consequently without his own voluntary act making away this native and natural liberty he cannot be devested of it and in his bargain and covenant may more and less enslave himself but on the other side God and Nature have laid a necessity upon all men coming into the World subesse imperio to be subject to Government Again because this Government this Empire this Sovereignty cannot protect us sufficiently to make us enjoy the sweet fruits of happy Government Peace Righteousness Plenty Godliness and Honesty except it be entirely endowed with Sovereign Power to act its Duties preserve it self protect us Almighty God as he investeth the Sovereign with entire Sovereignty so hath he set the bounds of it defined it otherwise such is the corruption and natural repugnancy of every one to it that forthwith it should be rent in pieces It is accidental to any to render himself a Slave it is occasioned either by Force as when one is taken by an Enemy he is Mancipium Servus or otherwise some extreme necessity and indigency forceth one to enslave himself to sell his Liberty to redeem him from Debt Death or any ignominious and intolerable condition to state himself in a more tolerable one In brief it is some supervenient necessity that forceth man to make away his native and natural Liberty à servitute but subesse imperio to submit and subject to lawful Government congruous to the condition of man and necessary and convenient for the happy Being of man is natural is necessary by the inviolable Ordinance of God and Nature This answer to their second Sophism cleareth the sense of their Maxim so much cryed up and so much abused Quisque nascitur liber every one is born a free man that we need not insist much upon it yet to make the general sense of the Maxim appear and to discover their adulterate and bastard sense we say it is most true that Quisque nascitur liber à servitute Every man is born a free man from slavery but Nullus nascitur liber ab imperio none is born exempted from the subjection of lawful Government without a subordination and subjection to a Superiour Christ as man was not exempted from this It is recorded in Scripture Luke 11. 51. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He did subject himself to Ioseph his putative Father and Mary his true Mother the word in the original is the same which the Apostle useth Rom. 13. 1. commanding obedience and subjection to Higher Powers It were very fit our opposites would consider what Power the Father had over the Children by the Law of God and Nature that to redeem himself from Debt from any distressed state and condition he might have enslaved his Children begotten of his Body If this Power was not by the right of Nature by the warrant of God I can see no other for it could not be by a mutual and voluntary act of Father and Children To shut up all in few words give me leave to put you in mind that the Stoicks observe three Notions of servitus of Service and Subjection 1. The one is when a man contrary to native and natural Liberty is made a Slave to a Lord or Master this they call servitutem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when a man hath power to command use dispose another man's Person as his other Goods at pleasure for this cause the Scripture standeth not to call a Servant his Master's Money 2. The other is when a man's Person is confined or committed that he is deprived of living at liberty as he lists as Criminals or Debtors this kind of servitude they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when the liberty of going where we will or doing what is lawful at pleasure is taken from us 3. The third is a Servitude as they call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consisting in Subordination in
the first sense every man is born free in the second sense some onely by misdemeanour or misgovernment are restrained from the liberties of free Subjects In the third sense no man is born free but subject to his Father and to his Father's Father his Father's Sovereign so that all are born tyed to Obeisance and Duty of Allegiance and seeing Christ fulfilled so all righteousness that he subjected and submitted himself to his Parents and to Caesar too we must deny to be Christians if we deny that we are born under the tye of Allegiance Of these three enough we haste to consider some more of their Popular Maxims and Sophisms CHAP. XIII The Maxim Quod efficit tale est magis tale or Propter quod unumquodque tale ipsum magis tale or Constituens constituto potior is examined ROssaeus and Brutus and after them the Observator have abused this Maxim infinitely to the great abuse and wronging of Sovereignty and to advance the Subject above the King the disorderly rout of the multitude above the Lord 's anointed The Observator enunciates it thus Quod efficit tale est magis tale that which maketh any thing such or such is in it self much more such or such he assumes but the People make the King give him all the Power and Majesty he hath Ergo the people are above the King c. Aristotle pronounceth the maxim thus Propter quod unumquodque est tale illud ipsum est magis tale Rossaeus Brutus Bouchier and others give us it thus Constituens constituto potior the Constituent is more excellent than the constituted but the People are Constituents of Royalty Ergo c. Howsoever they differ in the Expression they agree in the Sense let us examine it It were fitter to reserve this to our fourth Question but seeing the Observator maketh it his first Ground we resolve to shew the weakness of it here We premise this although we would grant their major their Maxim in the greatest and most vast Latitude of their Conception the Argument concludes not against us for the Assumption is as false as Falshood it self we have proved that the people in no notion imaginable whether diffusively or collectively or representatively taken are either the Efficients or Constituents or Donors or Authors Sovereignty or Sovereigns we might therefore without hurt to the Cause we maintain grant their Maejor their Maxim Yet that we may undeceive the simpler sort we will a little scan the Truth and proper Sense of the maxim and major It is no less truly than usually spoken Qui versatur generalibus versatur dolosè there is no readier a way to deceive the ignorant and little knowing people than by abusing general Maxims which are current extending their Force farther than they can reach If Commons and almost all even of better place and understanding were not too violently zealous for and impatient of Instrusion upon or Violation of their supposed Rights and Liberties and were not by the Corruption of Nature too too apt and facile to entertain Suggestions which are plausible to their Fancy and Humour and withal were not wanting to themselves in Moderation they could neither trust nor magnifie so much such specious deluding and deceiving Sophisms nor would they so madly and closely adhere to their Masters and Teachers of such Doctrines as to be inflamed with Fury to become mad in Impiety and Rebellion with such Impetuosity that they cease not till they become their own Instruments to ruine themselves totally and to bring upon themselves the imaginary and groundless Evils that they most fear from others Philosophy teacheth us that all such general Maxims must be bounded and limited with their own true Limitations and Qualifications otherwise they conclude not necessarily firmly I learned of Aristotle in the School that this maxim Propter quod unumquodque est tale illud ipsum est magis tale requireth necessarily before it bring home the Conclusion two Conditions 1. The t'one is Vt utrique insit that what you are to conclude be both of them in the efficient and effect 2. The t'other is Vt recipiat majus minus that that is really in both and predicated of both have such a Latitude that it hath a Capacity of more and less Without these Limitations the Maxim will conclude too much which in right Logick is the equivalent of that to conclude nothing Seeing we intend a popular way that the shallowest may understand it let us prove what we say by Instances to the contrary by examples to the contrary It is against Sense and Experience to conclude This maketh such a thing such Ergo it self is much more such for by the same way I reason What maketh any thing drunk that is much more drunk but Wine maketh a man drunk Ergo Wine is much more drunk This concludes not the reason is because a man may be drunk but Drunkenness is neither inherent in Wine nor accident to Wine This is taken off then by that Limitation Vâ—rique non inest Again Scintilla ignis ab ictu silicis a little Spark of Fire from a Flint-stone falling into a Magazine of Powder putteth the whole Magazine into a Fire and that the Town or Castle will it follow hence Ergo that little Spark of Fire from the Flint is a greater Fire than when a whole City is a Fire I know to this may be answered a greater Fire it is when the Castle is in Fire but no more Fire the Difference being only in degrees of Extension not of Intension as Philosophers speak next that the scintil from the Flint-stone is magis tale more so than the City inflamed or the Castle incensed because it is so effectivè formaliter both formally in it self and effectively the cause of the other the other set on fire by it is only formaliter formally so because this is not so easily intelligible by every ordinary Reader I speak more plain The Parliament cannot like these Maxims of the Observators and if they see and judge right they must make an Order against them and this especially for by this Ground it will follow inevitably and necessarily that the Counties and Corporations of England may make void all their Commissions given to the Knights and Burgesses of the house of Commons and send others in their place Nay more will follow that they cannot make orders and Laws but that the Counties and Corporations may make much more undo what they do repeal what they establish establish and enact the contrary Frame the Argument The Constituent is better and higher in place and dignity than the constituted but the Counties and Corporations are the Constituents of the Knights of Shires and Burgesses in the House of Commons Ergo they may void their Commissions Ergo they may change the Commissioners send others in their place Ergo they may repeal their Orders establish other Laws contrary and contradictory to theirs c. and many more Absurdities may be
the Community conceived without Government all as equal endowed with Natures and native Liberty of that Community can have not power over the Life of another and so your Maxim may be turned home again upon your self for if the People be not tales such by Nature as have such Power they cannot constituere tales make such that is Kings endowed with such Power But sure it is as it is said they have not power of Life and Death to take away their own Life or anothers Ergo it must be from God the living God the God of Life Seeing you make so good Use of your Logick give me leave to practise Logick upon a more sure Maxim which is this omnis effectus est in efficiente vel eminenter vel formaliter whatever is in the Effect that must be in the Efficient either formally or in a more eminent and superlative way But there is something in a King which is not in People either eminently or formally Ergo the People are not the Efficient and constituent of a King The minor and the assumption is clear The King hath the Power to take away the Life of man which is not in the People whether you take them severally and singly for no man hath Power or may kill himself or whether you take them joyntly for if none hath power over his own Life much less over his Neighbour's and your grounds besides presuppose that all men are equal amongst themselves That the Sovereign hath this Power who is so mad as to deny it Gen. 9. Rom. 14. He bears not the Sword in vain Lastly this Maxim quod efficit tale est magis tale constituens constituto potior holdeth well with our tenet Thus he that maketh Kings and endoweth them with Power is much more a King himself and hath much more Power But God and Christ make Kings Ergo. The Assumption is clear for God is King of Kings and Lord of Lords to him all Power belongeth here then utrique inest and for the other recipit magis minus it is certain for the Power of all Kings upon Earth that ever was are or shall be have no more measure and proportion to his Power than a drop of Water to the Ocean his Power is like the light of the Sun their Powers but a borrowed Light like to that in the Moon and Stars The King's Power related to God is not univocal it is onely equivocal or analogical and that to be doubted of too for Philosophy telleth us finiti ad infinitum nulla datur proportio It is more than apparent then that this Maxim is onely abused by the Deceivers of this Time to make themselves and the People both of them miserable And the Maxim will conclude that the Sheba's and Shimei's these Authors and Incendiaries of Rebellion are more miserable and shall receive if not in this Life yet in that is to come without extraordinary repentance a greater condemnation for they kill both Body and Soul They make the simpler sort of People miserable by setting them on upon rebellion against God and his Anointed to the destruction of State Soul and Body temporally and eternally to the reproach and disgrace of Christian Catholick Reformed Religion and infallibly by necessity of consequents and necessity of consequence they make themselves most miserable for quod efficit tale ipsum est magis tale CHAP. XIV Other grounds of the Iesuit and Sectary are removed and disproved as that that neither Scripture nor Nature determines the specification of Government nor do they intimate why this man more than the other or he than a third or these more than those should have the Power of Government And that great one is taken out of the way whereby the variety and difference is found in several Monarchies It is more than apparent say they that Monarchy is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the voluntary composition and constitution of man OUR Sectaries have borrowed as we told you before their great Ordinance of battery against Sovereignty from the Jesuits Magazine any who is read in them knoweth well enough how they triumph in those Arguments crying out till they be hoarse again 1. First Neither Scripture nor Nature teacheth that Monarchy Aristocracie and Democracie or any other imaginable spece and kind of Government is the necessary Government of Humane kind and society but that the specification and determination is Arbitrary and of the constitution of man To this same purpose is that other Neither the Law of God nor Nature demonstrate why this man more than the other he than a third why these more than those should have the Sovereign Power 2. Another great piece of Battery is that that there is such a multiplicity of variety and differences of Kings and Royal Power in the Kings of the World look say they upon Spain France Britain c. that this must necessarily argue Kings are of Peoples making and their Power is in that portion and proportion as it pleaseth the People to entrust them 3. The third is All Humane Societies are perfect Republicks and as they have in them originally a Power to appoint their Government and Governours so they have a Power to preserve themselves and in case of mis-government they may resume their Natural Native and Original Power rectifie by themselves what is amiss otherwise it must be that God and Nature have left them remediless The first two we will handle in this Chapter the last in the ensuing To answer the Jesuit first in gross to all however he be wary enough in all his courses yet in pressing these Arguments against Monarchy to prove that Monarchy is by Humane Institution and Constitution and not by immediate collation from God he is not so prudent for mutatis mutandis with a little change losing nothing of their force these Arguments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 retorted and turned home upon the Jesuit will bring home the Conclusion that the Pope is not of Divine Institution hath not infallible and universal Jurisdiction but is somewhere and by some censurable in case of mis-government First I pray you is it demonstrable by the letter of Scripture or by necessary and evident Consequences and Consequents deducible that the Pope of Rome ought and should be Universal Monarch of the Christian Militant Church Christ's Vicar in the External Government in the Church the true Successour to the ordinary Power and Place of Saint Peter and secured from all Errour in Points of Faith Worship and Manners That ever Saint Peter himself had so much neither Scripture nor Antiquity speak for it nay they speak the contrary And if it were granted to Saint Peter where have we warrant in Scripture or sound Antiquity that the Pope of Rome and none else is the true and lawful Successour of St. Peter We will allow them that if by Antiquity they can make it appear that it is so we will yield what they demand But as they frame the Argument
against us they must give us this in Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in express terms or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by immutable and pregnant consequence If Scripture plead not so much for the Pope it is more than certain that Nature is as mute as a Fish in it Who ever dreamed that Nature dictates that for the good and happy preservation of the Church there must be one Universal Authoritative Infallible Head and this man to be the Pope of Rome Next let them shew to us where in Scripture or otherwise by irrefragable Demonstration it can be made appear that Gregory the fifteenth or Vrban the eighth or any else should be Pope more than any other Again let us give to Bellarmine his Tenet which he maintains lib. 5. de Pontifice Romano where he endeavours to prove That the Pope is authorized with an indirect Power over and above Kings in order to Spiritual things That the Church is a perfect Republick which God hath not left destitute to provide for its safety and preservation If Bellarmine will extract from hence this Consequence Ergo the Pope the Head of the Church in case of Tyranny Heresie or Apostacy for the good of the Church may censure punish dethrone a King Why may we not more formally more powerfully conclude against Bellarmine thus The Catholick Church diffusively or collectively taken is a perfect Republick which God hath not left destitute of Power or means to provide for her Safety in case of Danger and Deficiency Ergo in case of male-administration by the Pope in case of Deficiency which are possibly incident to the Pope and consistent with his infallibility ex Cathedra The Community of Christians may supply his Defects rectifie his Disorders and why not excathedrate him too Otherwise God hath left his Church remediless The Romanists must acknowledge the strength of the Argument to be alike pressing on the one hand no less than the other or then they must fore-goe these ratiocinations More of this in the next ensuing Chapter Having premised this general Answer let us now answer to every one of them apart And to the first Argument which is framed thus Neither the Law of God or Nature determines that Monarchy is the Government or Aristocracy the Government or Democracy the Government or why one more than another and some few more than many should have the Supremacy Ergo the donation of the Power the collation of Supremacy is by Derivation from the People to the Governour or Governours To the first Argument I say I answer thus It is an inconsequence because although I would grant all the antecedent and that the specification of the Government the People designing if ever any People were so really to be free of all Government because it is imaginable let us grant it as real either one to have the Sovereignty over them as in Monarchy or some few of the better sort as in Aristocracie or many as in Democracie it will not follow Ergo Sovereignty in one few or many is by derivation and donation from them Because their act in this is onely Designatio Personae or Personarum to appoint one Person or more or many Persons to be Governour or Governours for the Government The collation of the Power Consequitur ad designationem ex donatione ordinatione divinâ followeth upon this designation and deputation of the Person or Persons from the immediate donation and ordination of God As when such and such men are designed to Holy Orders and Functions the Designation of the Person and Persons is the work and act of the Church but the collation of the Power is the proper peculiar and immediate Work and act of God as all knowing Divines do willingly acknowledge To reason à potestate designativa deputativa personae personarum from the Power which designeth and deputeth a Person or Persons for a Charge ad potestatem collativam authoritatis to the power of collating or giving the Power it self is the Sophism and caption which the School calleth à figura dictionis where there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a proposing in the Antecedent in one kind and a concluding in the Consequent in another and different kind A Woman may design the Person of the Man who is to be her Husband but marital Right and Power is collated by God immediately and issueth necessarily from his Ordination That other Sophism maketh no better Paralogism although Suarez taketh it for a Demonstration unanswerable The force of the Argument briefly is this If Sovereignty in a King were immediately from God then Power Royal could not chuse but be Uniform in all Kings but this holdeth not for there is such a latitude of Variety that some Kings have more some less with a great deal of difference in the Point and Power of Sovereignty Before we answer this I entreat the Christian Reader to consider that we maintain not we plead not at this time for a Despotical Sovereignty which is Dominium herile an absolute Power such as the Great Turk this day exercises over his Subjects or the King of Spain hath over and in all his Territories without Europe We maintain onely Regiam potestatem quae fundatur in paterna such Royal Paternal Sovereignty as blessed be God we and our Ancestors have lived long and happily under This as it hath its Royal Prerogatives inherent naturally in the Crown and inseparable from it so it trencheth not upon the Liberty of the Person or the Propriety of the Goods of the Subject but in and by the lawful and just Acts of Jurisdiction Next I desire the Courteous and Judicious Reader to remember that when we plead for the Sovereignty of Kings we understand such onely who are truly and really Kings not Titulo tenus by compellation onely as were the Lacedaemonian Kings Executors only of the Decrees and Pleasure of the Ephori which was truly an Aristocracy no Monarchy Then the Argument is this that which is of that Condition and Temper that it may be enlarged or straitned that which actually and experimentally is found various and different it cannot be such by any Constitution of nature or Institution from God But Monarchy is such Ergo. Here Suarez cryeth out Clarum est indicium hujus veritatis quòd haec Regia potestas non sit aequalis in omnibus regibus neque cum iisdem proprietatibus durationis perpetuitatis successionis similibus The major of this Syllogism or Sophism rather must be some way better qualified otherwise it will conclude nothing or too much which is the equivalent in the rules of Right and sound reasoning to that to conclude nothing In the same manner I reason every man hath not a little measure of Knowledge Reason Discourse c. but some are more some are less knowing men some more some less rational c. Ergo Knowledge Reason Discourse c. are not natural to man The Consequence is lame because to Reason
the one way of Episcopacy nor the other way of Presbytery nor the third of Independency nor any other way imaginary or imaginable in the Church we must therefore some other way satisfie him Then let me entreat him to consider what Variety and Difference is found in oeconomical Government if he will look upon the exercise either of marital or paternal Power View it if in different Kingdoms in diverse Nations he find not and acknowledge a great immense Variety or will he look upon both at home not almost one Family uniform and alike with another and that according to the various Temper of Fathers and Husbands their different Abilities some being more indulgent some more rigorous some keeping the equal mean Some being more intelligent knowing and prudent some of less Knowledge Prudence and Government The Observator will find some wives like Sarah with Reverence and Submission calling their Husbands Lord some Michols lording over their Husbands some Fathers like Eli too too indulgent to their Children others like Iob happily and piously breeding his Children and sacrificing for them when they are feasting In brief look upon the oeconomy of all Families within your Knowledge and you shall find that in Government not one looks like another Doth it then from hence follow necessarily that paternal or marital Authority is not from God and Nature but appointed at the pleasure and Constitution of men The result of all is this That seeing in things natural things moral things ecclesiastical and spiritual and in things oeconomical this accidental and supervenient Variety in their exercise destroyeth not the true Essence and inseparable Essentials of the things themselves but naturally they are uniform and equally the same So in the different Monarchies of the World the Disparity and Difference of the exercising of monarchical power which is accidental maketh them not specifically and essentially different and diverse What these prime radical essential Constitutives of Monarchy are it will be proper to express quaest 4. We content our selves with three which are agreed upon to be in all Speces of Sovereign Power whether Aristocratical Democratical or Monarchical The 1. First is that it is Potestas suprema that it is subordinate to none but Almighty God dicit negationem superioris in terris it admitteth no coordinate collateral coequal or corrival Power 2. Next it is Perpetua potestas a perpetual Power He cannot fall from his Sovereignty but whilst he lives he is the Lords Anointed 3. Thirdly the Power of all Monarchs and of every Monarch is Legibus soluta subject to no over-ruling Power of man Conceive it not so that Kings are free from the direction of and obligation to the Law of God Nature and common Equity but from Coercion humane or any humane coactive Power to punish censure or dethrone them The Hebrews call these and what particulars come within their verge Majus Imperium the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and where those are equal in all Monarchy no accidental variety can change the nature of Monarchy in all and every one of them As for other particulars virtually and naturally included in these three howsoever in actu signato in their first capacity they be propriè propriissimè radically and properly in Sovereignty and in Monarchies yet in actu exercito in the exercise of them they may be entrusted to the Subject Ita ut non defluat radix supremae potestatis so that they have it onely by Delegation and Trust communicativè by communication not privativè not so that these Delegates are invested so with it as the King is totally divested Who can deny but Iudiciaria potestas the Power to judge in all Causes Criminal Civil which concern the Subjects and Kingdom is inherent essentially in the Crown and Scepter of the King and the King to ease his burthen and that Justice may the more readily and easily be done intrusteth his Judges with it And here is not the Trust less and more as it pleaseth the King to give it Is it not different in some onely for such and such Cases and Causes in others for some others different And doth there not lie to the King extrema appellatio the last Appeal or if that be not to make Justice more expedite is there not the equivalent reserved that the Party hurt may by Petition and humble Remonstrance make his Case and Cause evident to the King that he in his Sovereignty may redress what is wrong and punish the Judge abusing his Trust By which it is more than apparent that this and the like Restraints the King putteth upon the exercise of his Native Power is onely ad minuendam solicitudinem not ad minuendam Majestatem to facilitate his Charge and not to denude or disrobe himself of that Sacred Right and Prerogative God hath given to him as his Vicegerent upon Earth Again it is not slightly to be passed by that there be many Kings many times too indulgent Fathers to their People and Subjects who give away too much of their Sacred Right which when Subjects have come at being more than they should zealous of their Liberty will not part with it again but detain it sacrilegiously If a man could be allowed to speak truth in this distempered Age it may be said without sin against God or crime of laese-majesty against King or People that where Monarchy has been too much straitened and weakened by loss of its natural and native Prerogative it hath been done by imprudent at least inconsiderate acts of too good Princes and of voluntary concession and in the end as they prove derogatory to Sovereignty so they prove destructive to the Peace and Protection the Liberty and Propriety of the Subject Review all the Grants of Princes in this kind and you shall find upon Authentick Record that they be meer Concessions of grace If as much could be shewn upon as faithful and unquestionable Record to prove our King a pactional and conventional Prince your Plea should be more specious in the Eyes of the World And if you could by authentick Evidence make it appear that such bounds and limits are put to Sovereignty as it is more than manifest that what you claim is by acts of voluntary Humanity you should do somewhat which probably would take the People more but I must tell you withal you totally destroy Monarchy and must say right down our gracious Sovereign is no Monarch which is against Reason Sense all Records extant and the universal testimony of all knowing men in other Kingdoms and States It is great Discourtesie to change Princes acts of grace bestowed upon Subjects into acts of Duty and Debt nor is it a ready way to obtain more grace to prove unthankful and not acknowledge prior graces received Lawyers and Jurists do tell you that from actus humanitatis voluntatis from acts of Courtesie and voluntary Concession you may not reason to conclude actum necessitatis an
Jesuits all for ought I know do ascribe this to the Community The Sectaries do differ infinitely some warrant any one Subject any individual Person to make away a King in this case and that such a work is no less to be rewarded than when one killeth a ravenous Wolf Some will have it in the whole Community with the Jesuit Some will have it in the Collective Body but how not met together by the Warrant or Writ of Sovereign Authority but when necessity which is often fancied and imaginary of reforming State and Church calleth them together Some will have the Power in the Nobles and Peers of the Land Some in the three States assembled by the Kings Writ Some in the inferiour Judges In sum every one fancieth it to himself as he resolveth to Idol or serve corruptly the humour and state of the People where he liveth When these Classical Authors agree in one they will make us think their Tenets â—ounder and their courses more warrantable which I never hope to see because this Spirit of Discord God hath put as a Judgment upon all Masters of Errours I dispute not whether this Power be in the Community or in the Collective Body or in the Peers and Nobles or in the inferiour Judges or in the Parliament or where else you can imagine it for I know no where it is to punish or curb Sovereignty but in Almighty God Onely I demand of the Jesuit and Sectary that seeing wheresoever they put it they make it the last remedy the onely remedy to supply all Defect to redress all Wrongs to set aright whatever is dis-joynted in Church or State The Subject of this superintending Power must be secured from errour in Iudgment from errour in Practice and how happy are we now that in these late dayes we have a Pope in Temporalibus who is no less assisted and endowed with the gift and grace of Infallibility than the Pope of Rome determining ex Cathedra He is too much in love with a Community or with Nobles or with Parliaments or with inferiour Judges c. who thinketh or judgeth that they or any of them are secured from Errour in the reformation of State or Church But on the other side if the Multitude the Peers the Judges the Parliaments are liable to Errour and many times actually do err when they err in this glorious work of Reformation of Church and State doth not the perfect condition of a perfect Republick require that there be some authorized with a superintendent Power to rectifie their Errours and to punish their misdemeanours otherwise God hath left Church and State remediless they must name this Remedy and by all appearance this must be the Sovereign again and so Impius ambulat in circuitu If they will say that to eschew such a ridiculous regress and circle betwixt King and People and People and King and to shun Ne detur progressus in infinitum that if the Community or Parliament err the remedy is to be left to the Wisdom and Justice of God Why will not the Sectary acknowledge that it is as fit when the Sovereign transgresseth against the right Rules of Government that People and Subjects submit in Patience and wait till God send a Remedy either rectifying or removing the bad Governour Where ever you place this Superintending Power above a King I care not much for it is but an Idea by this same Power they who are authorized with it by God and Natures Right may call a King to account censure and punish him for any errour or misdemeanour whatsoever for any one act of injustice Why might not the People of Israel or Peers or Sanhedrim c. have convented David before them judged and punished him for his Adultery with Bathsheba and his murther of Vriah The Romanists and greatest part of Antimonarchical new Statists do acknowledge no case lawful but either in Heresie or in Apostasie or in Tyranny the first two the Romanists would have it to the Popes Power and at his Discretion the last of Tyranny all of them do qualifie thus Vt sit universalis manifesta cum obstinatione that it be in such Tyranny onely which is intended endeavoured attempted for the whole and total destruction of the Publick which cannot fall into the thoughts and attempts of any but a mad man What is recorded in story of Nero his wish in this kind may be rather judged the expression of a transported Passion than a fixed Resolution Next this case must be evident and clear as the Sun-shine at Noon-day Thirdly it must be joyned with such pervicacy and obstinacy that it is inseparable and invincible by any ordinary humble Remonstrance and Supplication to the contrary Although we give it that it were lawful in a case so qualified for the Community or any else to resume their Power and use it to remedy themselves and to rectifie what is amiss which we cannot grant we are very confident that all the Wit of the Opposites cannot make it appear that their case is such at this time Upon their grounds we see not how by sound reason not onely in such case as is expressed onely but also in every case of male-administration whatever it be they who have this pretended and fancied Power may not use and exercise this superintendent and transcendently extravagant Power I pray you if this Superintending Power in the People Peers or Parliament c. resumable in the exigent of great necessity be the onely means and last remedy allowed and so necessary that without it neither Church nor State can be preserved in their integrity how cometh it to pass that we have neither Precept nor Practice for it in Holy Writ Deus Natura non desunt in necessariis God and Nature are not deficient in things primely necessary Nothing can be conceived more necessary for State and Church than such a Remedy If then we cannot hit upon express and clear warrant by Precept or Practice in Scripture for a matter of so high and necessary concernment who can be so stupid in a Pythagorean way to believe this upon an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon your Rabbies bare assertion or trust it upon an Anabaptistical Enthusiasm There is nothing more certain than that there is not any thing in Scripture tending that way If it be our Adversaries are bound to produce it for affirmanti incumbit probatio He that affirms it to be so is bound to make his proof appear Next this tenet argues too great a confidence of our selves as if to be left to our own natural Providence were the onely sufficient competent and perfect means of Safety and Redress of Church and State We hereby presume upon our own strength that by our selves we are able to rectifie and preserve both Church and State It is Arrogancy too for hereby we are puffed up with an overweening conceit of our own Piety and Integrity as if our Judgment were so sound as that it
Prerogative are weakened so that he cannot command and protect To reason from the one part of the end of Monarchical Government the Safety and the Good of the Subjects to the Destruction or weakening of the other part of the end of the power of Sovereignty and the royal Prerogative is the Sophism which the School calleth à divisis Nor can we imagine a possible or probable Existence of the good and right of the Subject without a pre-existence of the entire Sovereignty and Prerogative in the King this is easily demonstrable if we consider what was the prime end of the Institution or Constitution of Kings By uniform and universal Consent it is acknowledged to be for this purpose primely to preserve people in Peace Plenty and Safety If the King then be not authorised and furnished with sufficient power to work this effect how can the People expect it By the Suffrage of our anti-monarchical opposites it is granted that the Multitude and People were at first necessitated to submit themselves unius imperio to the Government of one King and to commit themselves their Lives their Laws their Fortunes to his Trust and Power because they knew such was their Weakness that they had not Wisdom enough to rule themselves to foresee and prevent Dangers nor Power enough to protect them from wrong of the more powerful either living amongst them or nearly adjoyned to them And for this cause in their Opinion accorded that for Honour and Power he should be sufficiently enabled to act and perfect all these acts of Government and to effect and produce those ends his own and their Happiness nor doubted they to entrust him with Majesty the word Majesty speaketh two things summum honorem summam potestatem supremest Honour and supremest Power being assured that his Interest was so involved in theirs that he could not chuse but most earnestly and carefully endeavour this end by which premisses which are their own it is most certain that Salus Populi the Safety of the People issueth from Salus Regis the Safety of the King no less than the Life of the natural Body from the Soul that enliveneth it notwithstanding we think they should speak more divinely if with the dialect of holy Scripture they would say that Almighty God knowing that no Society of mankind could be nor Happiness in that Society without Government ordained for this and that Government should be and the Governours entirely endowed and enabled with Power and Honour to do it and that conformable to his own Government at first he in Paradise fixed this Government in the person of one Adam and provided for the Continuance and Succesâ—â—on of it that it should be transmitted to the first-â—orn in defailance of the Father God knew it well â—hat it was better not to be at all than to be without Government and that weak Government is the â—quivalent of Anarchy and no Government Saint Paul knew not how Quiet Peace Godliness or Honesty â—ould be without Government I do think our Puriâ—ans are not so much in love with School-tenets as to â—old that Quovis modo esse nay Poenale esse is better quà m non esse seeing Scripture hath spoken the contrary that it is better never to have been born better that a mill-stone were put about their neck and cast into the Sea than to be in a poenal condition and that some shall seek to dye for ease but shall not find it Heathen Politicians tell us Tyrannis potior Anarchiâ Tyranny is better than no Government Scripture is plain and powerful enough for this truth that no safety can be to mankind without the safety of Sovereignty and of the Prerogative of Governour and Government Exod. 20. It is the first Precept of the second Table Honor a patrem c. Honour thy Father where by Father is principally according to the Commentaries of Ancient and Modern Divines meant the King then followeth Thou shalt do no murder Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not steal c. To intimate to us that neither Life nor Chastity nor Goods nor Honour nor Fame nor any thing else can be preserved except the King have his Right The expressions of Scripture are admirably emphatical to import that in the King and his strength is all our Safety our Life our Happiness The King is called Lament 4. 20. The breath of our nostrils this place it seemeth alludeth to that Gen. 11. 7. He is called the Head of his Subjects 2. Sam. 21. 17. He iâ— the light of his People 2 Sam. vers 2. He is their Shepherd and Pastour Psal. 78. 71. The Heathen call Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are the Nurse-fathers of the Church Isai. 49. 23. and 40. 26. The King is the Head-stone of the corner Psal. 118. 23. The same in the State that Christ is in the Church Isai 28. 16. 1 Pet. 11. 6. The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implieth as much that he is the very bottom and foundation upon which the publick good of the whole State and the private good of every one is founded and built Excellent expressions they be diametrally opposed to the Divinity and Policy of this miserable Age. The King is the breath of our nostrils then no Life without him He is our Head then all Life Sense and Perfection in him all Motion from him and the influence of his Government he is our Light nothing then but Egyptiacal darkness and blindness without him without his Government he is our Shepherd then no maintenance no entertainment without him he is the Corner-stone then nothing but he can tye mankind together in a peaceable and comfortable Society nay he is the Foundation the Corner-stone and Head-stone of the Corner upon whom all is built and grounded in whom all are conjoyned and by whom all are protected Turn it over again take away the King you take away our Life our breath weaken him we faint we pant hurt the Head you distemper all the Body weaken the Head and you feeble both hand and foot and all parts and members of the Body smite the Shepherd and the Flock will be scattered if the foundations be destroyed what can the Righteous do If the corner-stone be pulled out the side-walls and whole Fabrick must fall if the Head-corner-stone be removed there is no protection against the Tempest but Rain and storm will spoil the whole Building Saint Paul hath a short but a most pithy expression of the good issueth from the Supreme Power upon all Rom. 13. 3. Tibi in bonum he is the Minister of God to thee for good this Indefinite Tibi to thee implieth as much as the Minister of God by his immediate Ordinance and Ordination is for thy good whosoever thoâ— be be thou Nobleman be thou Gentleman be thou Citizen be thou Countrey-man be thou Church-man be thou Lay-man he is for the good of all of the whole Politick Body joyntly and he is for the good
Observator and others gives unto this Maxim which how they cohere with what we have brought from Scripture and said by its warrant I humbly submit to the intelligent to the impartial Reader and come to consider the no less lame than extravagant consequences the Observator deduceth from this mis-understood and abused Maxim They be four which when we look upon them inwardly are such as never Saint of God nor sound Politician thought of before we shall follow him in his order The first Consequence that he knits with this Antecedent The Safety of the People is the Supreme Law is an Ergo The King is bound in duty to promote all and every one of his Subjects to all happiness Certainly there is more in the Conclusion than is vertually included in the Premisses for when Salus Populi the Safety of the People to which the King is tied to conclude omnis foelicitas populi all happiness of the People and with that large extent to all and every one may well be answered with a non sequitur that the Consequence is lame the reason is clear Salus populi may subsist without Foelicitas Populi Foelicitas dicit quid majus the Safety of the People may subsist without the Felicity of the People for Felicity of the People is the Safety of the People and somewhat more I demand of the Observator and his Complices who ever heard that either by the Law of God Nature or common Equity the King is bound to promote all and every of his Subjects to all Happiness God is not so rigorous a Task-master nor is the notion of the word protect either in it's native or used Sense to which the King is bound so large as to tye him to promote all and every Subject to all happiness It is not imaginable the tenderest-hearted Father or Mother can do this to their best beloved Child nor doth God or Nature require it Doth the Observator by such Consequences intend to make a Kings charge intolerable God injust to impose it a King unable to do it and resolves to condemn all Kings who do not so provide for the Happiness of all and every one of his Subjects in the highest measure Who will deny but every King is bound to level all his Actions Intentions and Endeavours for the Peace Plenty and Safety of his Subjects in common But to put this Burthen on the King which neither he nor his Fathers were able to bear is too hard a measure We may expect this from his Goodness and Bounty we cannot charge it upon him as necessary and incumbent to him of Duty Are not all and every one of Subjects by Duty and Oath tyed to Salus Regis to provide for his Safety Honour Wealth and Power Are not we sworn to it in the Oath of Allegiance to assist and defend all Priviledges Preeminences and Rights belonging to His Highness his Heirs and Successors or annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm If all have not taken this Oath all born in his Majesties Dominions are bound to it of all it may be actually exacted and the Statute 5. Eliz. cap. 1. ordains that all Barons Knights Citizens Burgesses elected for the Parliament who shall not take the Oath of Allegiance made 1. Eliz. at their Entry in the Parliament House shall have no Voice in Parliament but be construed as if they had never been elected and suffer such Pains and Penalties as if they had presumed to sit in Parliament without Election Return or Authority By this Oath mentioned in the Statute they are bound to bear Faith and true Allegiance to the Queens Highness her Heirs and lawful Successors and to their Power assist and defend all Iurisdictions Priviledges Preeminences and Authorities belongging to the Queens Highness her Heirs and Successors or united and annexed to the imperial Crown of this Realm or likewise by their Oath 3. Iac. being bound to defend him and his lawful Successors to the uttermost of their Power against all Conspiracies and Attempts whatsoever which shall be made against his Person Crown and Dignity by reason of any Sentence or Declaration flowing from the Pope or otherwise and to their best Endeavour to discover and make known to his Majesty his Heirs and Successors all Treasons and trayterous Conspiracies which they shall know or hear to be against him or any of them Here you see all Subjects and every one to the uttermost of their Power are bound to assist and defend the Kings Right and Prerogative and that none can enter the Houses of Parliament till actually they swear it will it therefore from hence follow that all and every one of his Majesties Subjects at least such as have entered the Houses of Parliament all and every one of them are for-sworn who have intended or attempted any thing besides or who intending or doing it hath not raised him to the highest degree and pitch of Honour Glory and Power In this case I am hopeful the Observator like Iudah will be more favourable to himself and his Patrons than he is in the other to his Sovereign Who before these new Statists that ever wrote the Charge of a King bound him to promote all and every one of his Subjects to all kind and highest Degree of political and temporal Happiness Is it in the Power of the most puissant Monarch upon Earth to advance all his Subjects capable and deserving men to the highest pitch of Happiness and Honour Parcius ista viris c. To shut up all that concerneth this first absurd Consequence drawn from this abused Maxim I intreat the Observator to remember that Almighty God did never judge it fit to entrust the People with their own Safety but in a subordinate way hath committed this Trust to his Anointed his Vicegerent upon Earth from whence issueth this Consequence that Salus Regis est salus populi The Safety of the King is the Safety of the People as Salus Animae is salus Corporis the Safety of the Soul is the Safety of the Body The Fathers judged it so see Iustin Martyr quaest resp ad Orthod q. 138. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This holy Father knew no other case of a Kingdom than that the King is the Soul and the Subjects the Body Let the Observator judge then where the Safety is most considerable and learn from Salust Animi imperio corporis servitio utimur or from Tacitus Nempe iis that is Imperatoribus dii Imperium dedere nobis obsequii gloria relicta est And the Heathen will learn him to acknowledge that the Honour and Safety of the King his Glory and entire Prerogative is the Transcendent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all Politicks the paramont Law that giveth Law to all Laws concerning private men their Lives Estate and Honour and that all Subjects are to promote the Sovereign Right and Prerogative to the utmost of their Power as the publick Soul of the Kingdom and the Breath of their
Nostrils The second Corollary which the Observator deduceth out of this Principle Salus populi suprema lex esto is that it were strange if the people subjecting themselves to command should aim at any thing but their own Good in the first and last place This Consequence presupposeth two Errors the one is that the people are the immediate Authors and Donors of Sovereignty which we have already refuted the other is that the Conveyance of Sovereignty is by Trust and that in that Portion and proportion the people please the error of which we will by God's grace discover in our third Question To take this off briefly I ask of the Observator that seeing God hath ordained Rule and Subjection and directeth mankind to their greatest Convenience by Government and seeing God and Nature teach and all do acknowledge that the Good Plenty Peace and Safety of the people cannot be effected or attained to except the King be proportioned to so high a degree of Honour Wealth and Power that as Father he may protect all administrate Iustice secure from Oppression and Sedition at home and from Invasion abroad and have Main tenance proportionable to these ends whether or not in Order of Nature in the first place it is necessary that this Power Honour and Maintenance be secured to the King without which we cannot expect Safety Peace or Good to the Subject Except we have made a Divorce betwixt our selves and Reason we must grant this Truth If you will trust Saint Chrysostom hear him speak it upon Rom. 13. upon these words He is the Minister of God for good unto thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In which words two things are expressed first that the King is immediately sent from God the other is that he is sent for our Good no Safety then for us without him and for both Respects we are to honour him for all Good which we have by our Industry is by Influence from his Government and he is a co-worker with us and auxiliary in it If this be not enough turn to him upon the words Not only for Wrath but for Conscience sake where he saith that the King is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is the procurer of Peace and Base and bottom of all politick economy Innumerable good things come by Princes Government to the Society of men which if you take away there can be no Cities no Right to Lands or Revenues no House and Family can subsist no Commerce and Trade can be had all shall be overturned the stronger devouring the weaker To St. Chrysostom's Suffrage joyn St. Augustine tom 9. tract 6. in Ioh. Tolle jura Imperatorum quis audet dicere mea est illa villa aut meus est ille servus aut domus baec mea est and a little after Per jura Regum possidentur possessiones the result is this if you take away the Right of Kings none dare say the Lands are mine this Servant is mine or I have Right to this House It is by the right of Kings that all our Rights and Possessions are secured It is more than manifest then that the Right of King and Subject the Safety of King and Subject are naturally conjoyned and so intimately involved the one in the other that in the moral Notion they may be esteemed identically the same no less than Soul and Body make up one identical personal Subsistence or at least se mutuò ponunt tollunt destroy the Kings Right and Good and with the same Act the same blow you destroy the Subjects too If you provide not for the Safety of the King you cannot possibly secure the Safety of the People What God hath conjoyned let none put asunder Let it never then again be spoken or heard by Christians that the good of the Subject is the Alpha and Omega in Government and demandeth by right the first and last place The third Consequence is this That the King looking upon the whole State reflecting upon what Graces he hath granted or may grant to his People he cannot merit of it and what he hath granted if it be for the good of his People it hath proceeded but from his meer Duty Well by the Observator we see the King is placed in no better condition than a Servant nay an unprofitable Servant for when he has done all he can do he was onely done his Duty By these means Grace is not a fit compellation for Kings Acts of Iustice he may do but no Acts of Grace O misera Regum sors On the other part the People are stated in that sublime condition that they may supererogate with their Prince by doing many Acts of Bounty Favour and Grace By this Assertion a Prince is disabled from doing any courtesie to his Subjects Before this miserable distempered Age was it ever heard but that it was the greatest happiness of a King that he was able and his greatest glory to oblige his People by Acts of Grace Bounty and Courtesie But now the World is so turn'd topsie turvy that when he has done all he is able he hath onely discharged the duty of a faithful and trusty Servant Turn the Tables and then see what you will judge of the throw Do not all we Subjects owe Duty to the King Are we not tied to advance his Honour Yet upon extraordinary Services we believe we can deserve well both of King and Countrey Will you not Observator allow the King the like measure This Conceit is a popular Deceit and not virtually onely but also really destroys the ground of Beneficence in a King and the duty of Gratitude in a Subject By this it appeareth that it is a naked nay an hypocritical Complement when both Houses in Parliament after Graces granted present their humble thanks and heartily acknowledge His Majesties gracious Favours Must not the like hold betwixt a Father and his Family And shall we by these grounds be constrained to acknowledge all the Acts of a Father to his Family to be no better than Acts of meer Justice and Duty In the Dialect of Scripture and Heathen Writers Homer Odyss 9. Kings are Fathers And yet the Observator standeth not to say That the Father is more worthy than the Son in Nature and the Son is wholly a Debtor to the Father and can by no merit transcend his Duty nor challenge any thing as due from his Father for the Father doth all his Offices meritoriously freely and unexpectedly We will not be at pains now to examine this onely I demand if this hold according to his Judgment in a Father of a Family how comes it to pass that it holds not in Patre Patriae in the Father of the Kingdom The obligation to Pater Patriae to the Father of the Kingdom is stronger is straighter than to Pater Familiae to our natural Father And the School doth teach us and all Divines besides for ought I know that we are bound to love the King appreciativè by
esteem more than our selves although we cannot do it intensivè with the same intension and degree of affection David's Subjects said to him Thou shalt not go forth with us to battel for thou art better than a thousand of us that is in sound meaning than all of us The Observator hath a quirk or trick rather for this that the King is not a Father to his People taken universally but singly Nothing could be said more absurdly I pray you is not the Father of many Sons no less Father universally to all than to every one Is not the King bound no less to protect all his Subjects universally than to protect every one severally singly Are not all bound no less universally than singly to honour the King 's sacred Person obey his sacred Commands and contribute to the maintenance of his Honour Wealth and Power to assist and defend him in all Difficulties If you will not acknowledge a subjection upon all universally how can you tye the King to a protection of all universally In Philosophy this is most absurd for hereby you make tot civitates in regno quot subditos as many Kingdoms as there be particular and single Subjects because the King and every Subject make up a perfect City or Kingdom If it were not more absurd in Divinity and contrary to God's Ordinance we would not plead much nor press much the Absurdities of Philosophy Saul and David in the holy diction of Scripture are called Heads and Captains of all the Tribes and People of God Let never these consequences be more heard 4. The fourth consequence is as impious and absurd as the other three which is this That a Prince ought not to account it a strength and profit to him which is a loss and wasting to the People I agree to this with all my heart but that which followeth I cannot relish nor ought he to think that perisheth to him which is granted to the People This is most false Hath not the King his own Right from Almighty God Can he make it away without betraying Gods Right and the Trust he hath put upon him he being God's Vicegerent onely and Feoffee in trust How can the Subject be free of Sacrilegious guiltiness to take it from him if lavishly or inconsiderately he will make it away This is not onely robbing of Sovereignty of its due but Divine usurpation and intrusion upon Almighty God What one hath by trust from another he cannot intitle another to it till he have warrant from him who hath given the Trust. That the King hath some right incommunicable to the Subject is so manifest that he that will deny it must deny Scripture Our Lord and Master in the Gospel hath commanded to Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars as unto God the things that are Gods This word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Render imports something peculiar nay it hath more in it that if we will detain it if we have assumed it or would assume it that by Christs Precept we are to restore him to his Right again This the word Render intimates and commands and consequently the King cannot part with it and if the Subject hath usurped upon this Right it is high Sacrilege to detain it In this sense Kings their Persons their Charge their Right their Authority their Prerogative are by Scripture by Fathers by Jurists called Sacred because by Gods sacred Ordinance they are inherent in their Crowns inseparably adherent to their Scepters which if he grant away he is no more King than the Body is a living Creature after the separation of the Soul and the Robbers and Cheaters of Kings out of these Rights are Regicides Nor are these Prerogatives onely for the Excellency Preheminency and Honour of the King above his Subjects but also to enable him for actuating his high Charge to Gods Glory and the Subjects good These as we shall by Gods Grace speak Quaest. 4. are as the Lawyers speak In indivisibili posita quae distrahi non possunt alienari non possunt minui non possunt that are so indivisible in themselves and naturally and intrinsecally inherent in the Crown in his Sovereignty and Supremacy that they cannot be made away or so communicated to the Subject ut defluat radix supremae potestatis to divest himself of them ad minuendam Majestatem to lessen Sovereign Majesty although by Trust and delegate Power the Execution may be entrusted to others ad minuendam solicitudinem to ease him of unsupportable burthen These are fitly resembled by the Royal Crown from which if you take away the least part you spoil it so in its nature and shape that it is no more a Crown as King Iames of blessed Memory and others have well expressed By what is said I refer it to the Judgment of any that hath reason or common sense whether or not it be true that a King cannot make away to the Subject any of his Right without disadvantage for by what we have said it is more than apparent that he hath a Right personally inherent in himself and his Successors as a depositum a trust from God which he cannot part with without betraying the Trust God hath committed to him with which the Subject cannot meddle without Sacrilege in the highest kind and which cannot be done without disabling Sovereignty from doing that Service to God and his People with which he hath charged him Lest any mistake us I resume what before I have said That we maintain not that our King by this Right from Almighty God hath Dominium despoticu◠or herile we plead onely for paternum that is that 〈◊〉 the Subject cannot without Sacrilege Royal and Divine Usurpation trench upon Sacred Prerogative of the King no more can the King by any Right from Almighty God trench upon the Liberty of the Person and the Propriety of the Goods of his Subjects without presupposal of a lawful act of Iurisdiction That is if any or many of his Subjects transgress against him his Laws or common Equity he may commit their Persons take from them their Lives seize upon their whole or a part of their State proportionable to the demerit of their Offence Our Gracious Sovereign blessed be God for it will never wave that saying of Seneca's Imperium unius Proprietas singulorum The Sacred Prerogative is the Kings but it derogateth not from the Liberty and Property of the Subject it must be entirely secured that it may secure our Liberty and Property How unequal and partial are we to think the King may prodigally waste away his Prerogative and we may lawfully invade it because no Grant made to his People perisheth to him and yet upon the other part will maintain that the King cannot trenoh upon our Liberty and Property without highest Tyranny and Oppression Medio tutissimus ibis Hold both practise both Let the King have his and the People their Right and Peace shall be upon Israel King and People have
If a Canker be in Hand or Foot before it Gangrene the whole Body we will condescend to the cutting of them off In this sense which we have explained Salus populi suprema lex esto is a Law that hath no Iniquity in it but hath a good just and equitable Sense Yet it is not to day onely or yesterday that this Maxim hath been abused to work much mischief This mis-understood Principle or Law put Christ to death The Scribes and Pharisees High-Priests and Sanhedrim avouched It was necessary that one should dye for the People the High-Priest spoke it not knowing how in a Prophetical sense it was necessary but meaning that Salus populi required it the whole Land and all of them were in danger And in this case with the influence of this Law it was enough to alledge their authority and unanimous coâ—sâ—nt They were not tied to proofs They had a Law of which they were Interpreters or if not they had a Legislative power by which for Salus Populi Christ must dye When Pilate found him innocent their answer was sufficient If he were not a Malefactor we would not have delivered him unto thee Salus populi or nothing else was the Law the Paramount Law the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all Politicks to which Pilate's Power delegate from the Romans was subservient But what was the effect of this work wrought by this Paramount Law It wrought the utter extirpation of them and their Posterity The over-ruling voices of the High-Priests Scribes and Sanhedrim forced Pilate to crucifie the God of Glory against his heart his Conscience This was high Injustice in him he acknowledged Christ's Innocency and knew that for Envy they delivered him up Ioh. 19. 6. Matth. 27. 18. He knew besides that without his Authority he could not be condemned If we could or would seriously look upon this Example and make right Use of it it would deter us from making too much of such deceitful and deceiving Maxims which in the end will lead us to our total destruction and overthrow It was this Salus populi that made Saul to spare against Gods command Agag and the Amalekites It was this that seduced Zedekiah made his Lords over-rule and over-awe him and clap up Ieremiah in the Dungeon It is a great mistake in which a great and Learned man in this Age doth gather from the words of a King to his Nobles Behold he is in your power for what is the King that he can do any thing against you That the Kings of Iudah by some Power equal to them or above them might be counter-manded The expression is de facto not de jure intimating that the good King was so over-awed by his Lords that he could not protect the Lords Servant the Prophet Ieremiah although he knew he was bound to it and willing too When a good King is put in such a case the state of King and Kingdom are in greatest danger There is enough said to discover the grand Impostures of this abused Maxim Salus populi suprema lex esto for by what is said it appeareth 1. That it is not to be conceived in that large sense as if all Governours and Government were principally for the good of those are governed it holds not in Marital nor Despotical nor in Royal Government by Conquest 2. Next it taketh as granted in the sense of our Adversaries that the compleat and adequate end of Government is Salus populi which is an Errour for it is Salus Regis populi and Salus Regis hath the first place without which Salus populi cannot be It hath the Prerogative like to the first Table and Salus populi as the second To destroy the Prerogative and Royal Power is to bring ruine to our selves 3. Thirdly it is spoken in ordine ad alias Leges non ad Regem in order to other Laws not to prove the King the Extract of the People or that by them he is coerced But that in case of extreme necessity the King for his own and the Kingdoms Safety may break thorow all other Laws as he thinketh fit in his Discretion to preserve himself and Kingdom 4. Fourthly in the sense our Adversaries use it it cannot but disquiet King and Kingdom upon real or fancied Fears and Jealousies 5. Fifthly misapplied and misunderstood it hath been the Mother of much mischief 6. Lastly let every Subject and Christian within his Majesties Kingdoms consider and remember how he is bound by Nature and Grace to Salus Regis to maintain the Kings Right Priviledges and Prerogatives besides that all of any Quality and the better sort have taken an Oath to maintain it With which how any can dispense I profess I see not I know not We need not spend much time or pains in taking off that other abused Principle A King cannot be withâ—ut the People but the People may be without a King with its Consequence Ergo the People are more excellent than the King for what is already said taketh away the strength of this Argument and Consequence for if they will resolve their Antecedent thus or frame their Argument thus The People may be without a Governour or Government Ergo c. The Antecedent is most false and so can bring home no Conclusion at all We have proved already better not to be at all than to be without Government and for this cause God fixed Government in one and appointed a Governour before ever there were People in the World to be governed Cicero doth tell us this lib. 3. de Legibus Nihil porro tam aptum est ad Ius conditionemque Naturae quam Imperium sine quo nec domus ulla nec civitas nec geâ—s nec hominum universum genus stare nec rerum natura omnis nec ipse mundus potest I know what the Sectary and Jesuit will rejoyn the People may be under Aristocracie or Democracie in a happy condition Ergo without Monarchy or a King I do not blame Aristocracie or Democracie as unlawful Governments God sorbid for then all their acts of lawful Government could not chuse but be sinful but that they are univocal species of Government with Monarchy I can never be induced to believe as by Gods Grace we will demonstrate it Quaest. 2. Governments they are but defective If man had never fallen into Sin Aristocracie had never been known nor Democracie seen in the World nor were they at first It was the corruption of Monarchy produced them into the world Monarchy by God in Scripture is much countenanced magnified of Aristocracie or Democracie you have not one Word in Holy Writ to commend them That a People under Aristocracie or Democracie may have some tolerable subsistence I deny it not but that they can be in an happy condition I doubt of it especially for the Church whose condition can never be happy under any Government but Monarchy for proof I appeal to all by-gone Ages in the Christian
Church and pray our Adversaries to shew us where the Church is in Plenty and Honour where Aristocracy is the Government In Scripture it is prophecied Ecce Reges erunt nutritii tui That Kings shall be the Nurse-fathers of the Church there is no word to that sense for any Government besides Monarchy If they make use of this Argument to prefer Aristocracy or Democracy to Monarchy there reasoning is not sure and concludes not no more than when I reason thus a man may walk without Legs of bone and flesh for he may walk on wooden Legs if he hath lost his Natural Legs with the blow of a Canon or by a Gangrene or he may walk upon Crutches if he be a Cripple Ergo wooden legs and artificial or Crutches are better than the natural legs and feet man is born with In brief no Society can subsist without Government the best of Governments is Monarchy and People cannot be happy except the King and Monarchy be proportioned to that height of Power Honour and Wealth as He be able to secure Himself and Subjects from all Mischief Iniquity and Disorder and the Good Safety and Happiness of the Subject is naturally and necessarily involved in the sacred Right and Prerogative of the King That whosoever conceiveth that the Good of the People can subsist with lessening and weakening the Right of the King is as if he should imagine to see the Branches of a Tree bud flourish and bring forth Fruit when they are broken o◠from the root or to see a River of running living Water divided from the Source and Fountain of living Water or to apprehend that the Ray of the Sun can inlighten when it is separated from the Body of the Sun Let never a King imagine his Happiness can subsist or consist without the Happiness Peace and Plenty of his Subjects and let not us that are Subjects imagine that we can be happy or preserve our Right our Liberty our Property if we account not the Lords Anointed the breath of our Nostrils and value his Right His Prerogative at a higher rate than our Lives These are by God and Nature so involved mutually one in another that without destruction to both they cannot be put asunder CHAP. XVII A King is bound to be as eminent in Sanctity as He is excellent and high in Power THere be a great many more of these new State-devised Principles with which our Antimonarchical Sectaries intoxicate the Vulgar as that Protection and Subjection are of equal extent That a mixture and temperature of the three proper Species of Government is the best of Governments which if it be not rightly understood is a most dangerous Position and in the sense many conceive it it is not Temperamentum Regiminis but Turbamentum That Plus vident oculi quà m oculus That Rex est universis minor singulis major That the Charter of Nature intitles us to our defence against Kings That Rex est propter populum That a King at his Coronation sweareth and covenanteth with his Subjects which if he perform not he is punishable dethronable That in a Monarchy The Legislative Power i◠communicable to the Subject and is not radically in Sovereignty in one but in more That Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari approbari debet and a great many more all which by Gods help we shall examine in the subsequent Questions as every one of them offereth it self in its own proper place We now come shortly to point at the great Charge of the King as we have before proved the Excellency of his Sacred Charge and Person What we have said of the Excellency of Kings that they are the derivatives of God from him by generation his first-born God's upon Earth c. If it be rightly weighted it will humble them in the presence of God in their own esteem and not suffer them to swell in Pride it tieth them to a proportionable Sanctity and eminency in Holiness and Integrity as far in degree above the Ordinary as they are exalted in State and Honour above the Sons of men Isocrates writing to Nicocles saith to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sense is the same we have expressed already the higher in Honour they are tied to a higher perfection in Virtue Saint Austin saith well Tom. 8. enarrat in Psal. 137. Quantò sublimitas altior est tantò periculosior est Ideoque Reges quantò sunt in majori sublimitate terrenâ tanto magis humiliari Deo debent Kings as related to men are Gods in order to Almighty God they are frail and mortal men Psal. 82. 6. They are gods on Earth yet onely gods of the Earth and are no less if not more accountable to God than any other men whatsoever He trieth their works searcheth out their Counsels and if they judge not aright Horribly and speedily he will come upon them a sharp judgment shall be to them that are in High places Mercy will soon pardon the meanest but mighty men shall be mightily tormented Wisd. 6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. For he who is Lord over all shall fear no man's person neither shall he stand in awe of any man's Greatness for he hath made small and great and careth for all alike No Difference there is betwixt a Prince and a Peasant except only in this that as the Prince is higher than all so his Crime and Sin is above all and his Punishment will be proportioned to the like and answerable Height Princes being derived immediately from God and with that honour to be the first-born Children of God and Sons of the most high what Measure of Holiness what Degree of Righteousness is required in them so highly advanced They should be holy as their heavenly Father is holy They should be perfect as their Father in Heaven is perfect and this not only in their private Conversation as Christians but also in their publick Government as Fathers of the Kingdom and Nurse-fathers of the Church Nothing addeth more to the Disgrace of a wicked man than when we reflect upon him as descended from a noble and high Stem Solomon saith Prov. 16. 12. It is an Abomination for Kings to commit Wickedness and the fear of the Lord is the Glory of the King No Foundation of a King so sure as Obedience to him that made the King Nothing more dangerous in a King than Rebellion against God Happy are Kings when they resolve with David Psal. 85. 8. I will hearken what the Lord will say unto me But above all Kings are bound to advance Piety and that both in their private and publick Devotions and in their publick Government They ought to be more frequent in their private Devotions than any else and in the publick to be most reverent in their Gestures that their practice in Piety in Devotion in private in publick may be exemplary Regis ad exemplum totus componitur orbis This Duty they owe to God as professores
God and do not from this fear preserve the Right of God and his Church protect and promote the Ordinances of God and advance the Worship and its Solermity Nor will bad Counsellors excuse them in the Day of their Accounts nor will the Counsellors escape just Judgment and it is like God will make the same People a Rod to scourge them whom they have followed and given way to with the loss of a good conscience and offence against God As Princes the Sons of the most High and Vicegerents of Christ upon Earth are bound to Piety in their personal carriage above other and to procure and protect it in their publick Government so they are bound in their private and publick Conversation and Government to be excellently righteous The Derivative naturally resembleth its Primitive God from whom they are by immediate Derivation hath no pleasure in wickedness neither doth evil dwell with him Psal. 5. 4. Kings hold their Scepters from Christ The Scepter of Christ's Kingdom is a right Scepter He loveth righteousness and hateth wickedness Psal. 45. 6 7. They are by generation from the Father Psal. 89. They issue from the thigh of Christ Rev. 17. 14. 19. 14. They degenerate then if they be not righteous If Kings live and govern piously and justly their Thrones shall be established their Crowns secured and their Posterity be blessed Prov. 25. 5. By righteousness the Throne is established The good of this will redound to the whole Kingdom Prov. 29. 4. The King by Iudgment establisheth the Land but he that receiveth gifts overthroweth it Foelix Respublica in qua qui imperat timet Deum See God's charge to Kings Ier. 22. 1 2 3. Execute ye judgment and righteousness and deliver the oppressed c. vers 4. For if ye do this thing indeed then shall there enter in by the gates of this House Kings sitting upon the Throne of David riding in chariots and on horses he and his servants and his people vers 5. But if you will not hear these words c. vers 7. I will prepare destroyers against thee c. David the King knew this Psal. 33. 16. There is no King saved by the multitude of an host How then vers 18. The eyes of the Lord are upon them that fear him upon them that hope in his mercy He practised it Psal. 61. 4. I will abide in thy Tabernacle for ever I will trust in the covert of thy wings The meaning is his constant purpose and practice should be holy and just and to advance Piety and Righteousness from this issueth that confidence he subjoyneth vers 6. Thou wilt prolong the King's life and his years as many Generations vers 7. He shall abide before God for ever O prepare Mercy and Truth which may preserve him See Psal. 72. wholly Prov. 20. 8. 29. 4 14. 16. 12 13. This Truth believed by Kings that they are immediately sent from God and Vicegerents upon Earth is a ground of great Confidence in God in their greatest Troubles which usually are great and frequent for as the tallest Cedars they are exposed to the Violence of greatest Tempests their only way is to run to God for Protection and Deliverance They may lay claim to it more than any God is the Principal they only Lieutenants and subordinate more favour is allowed to them greater Protection promised to them Psal. 89. 26. He that is the King shall cry unto me Thou art my Father my God and the Rock of my Salvation Also I will make him my first born David Psal. 44. 4. approacheth to God in this Confidence Thou art my King O God command Deliverance for Jacob. A Subject claimeth Protection from the King as his Due so may the King from his Lord and Master Solomon upon this ground that God had set him upon the Throne of David begged Government and Judgment to go out and in before his People 1 King 3. The Lord did not refuse it but in his Bounty supererogated what was fit for his more Magnificence God hath a secret and unknown way in directing and guiding Princes and no less admirable a way in guarding their Persons and delivering them out of all their Troubles Prov. 21. 1. The heart of the King is in the hand of the Lord as the Rivers of Waters He turneth it whithersoever he will Psal. 18. vers ult Great Deliverances giveth he to his King and sheweth Mercy to his Anointed c. The Heathen have acknowledged in Kings some Heroici impetus some strange and extraordinary Inspirations and Directions seconded with as admirable Successes and Protection that a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in them something extraordinary above that God in his ordinary Providence by Direction or Protection vouchsafeth upon others I refer you to read and meditate what you have written 2 Kings 19. 25 27. and Isai. 42. 1 27. and you will doubt no more of this Truth This day is this Truth fulfilled in our Ears we have before our Eyes such a wonderful over-ruling Direction and Protection of our Sovereign in this Rebellion that we must acknowledge it is the Lords work and marvellous in our Eyes Psal. 118. This Truth is a strong Motive to perswade Subjects to all Duty First to honour reverence and obey the King next to God and above all others The Fear of God and the King are immediately conjoyned and enjoyned together in Scripture Prov. 24. 21 22 23. My Son fear God and the King c. 1 Pet. 11. 17. Fear God honour the King See Tertullian to this purpose in the places we cited before and Gregory Nazianzen Orat. 20. which is a funeral Oration for Basil the great The Moral Law hath mixt to the duty we owe to God in the first Table placed in the first place Honora patrem Honour the King What Divinity then can it be which this miserable unhappy Age hath invented and vented that the Fear of God and the King are inconsistent and the best Badge of a Christian is to oppose the just and lawful Demands and Commands of Kings This is none of Christs his Apostles nor ancient Christians and Martyrs Doctrine What Christian heart can be so hard as not to mourn for this and cry out with that holy Martyr Polycarp Good Lord for what times hast thou reserved me Again this Truth that Kings are Gods Vicegerents sent by immediate Commission from him tyed us to maintain our Kings in Honour Wealth and Power proportioned to so high a Calling This the word Honora patrem honour thy Father naturally in the Diction and Dialect of the Scripture imports 1 Tim. 5. 17 21. Almighty God although his Immensity be attended with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an able sufficiency and all Felicity yet hath he sequestrated and set a-part some persons peculiarly for his sacred Service some place for his publick Worship and some Quota of our Revenues and Industry that all men may acknowledge
to be powerful Intercessors with God to remove his Plagues to say Quid meruere oves what have the poor sheep done smite me and my Fathers house 2 Sam. 24. Like to the good shepherd to lay down his life for his sheep Ioh. 10. And this will work â—in the People such zeal and affection to their Sovereign that they will be ready to lose Lands Riches Honour Life before their King suffer in Honour in his Sacred Power Sacred Right and Sacred Person If the Head â—e well the Body fareth the better and when the Body is in good health and constitution the Head is the better less trouble no pain For proof of this I refer you to that noble passage of Iustin Martyr cited before quaest respons ad Orthod q. 138. Read the whole passage it is an expression in de propria in a convenient and proper place In Sum the Result of all is that from this truth that Kings are immediately from God and Christ independent from all others there issueth a great many excellent and useful Corollaries as first That the excellency of their Dignity is not a motive if it be well weighed to make them swell Lucifer-like in Pride for the weight of their great and difficult Charge will force them of all men to be most humble Officiis quis idoneus istis Their Crowns are dependent from Christ and his Crown and truly considered are onely Crowns of thorns such as Dionysius said an understanding man would not take up if it were lying at his feet Secondly as Kings are nearer to God than any Creatures in the low Universe so are they tied to approach nearest to him in Holiness and all Humane and Christian Perfection Thirdly they are bound to all care endeavour and zeal for Christ's Glory his Truth the Sincerity and Solemnity of his Worship and that not onely as men and Christians but as Kings and Fathers of the State and Nurse-fathers of the Church Fourthly howsoever exempted from Humane Law and coercion yet they are to live and reign according to the Law and Prescript of God and Christ which if they transgress they shall receive Punishment proportionable to their high Dignity and according to their Demerit for betraying the high Trust put upon them Fifthly Although the Royal Right be not founded in saving holiness and sanctity but is sacred in another respect by a delegate Power and Trust yet the way to secure their Crowns their Posterity in the Right transmissible from them and to make their Kingdoms happy is to live piously in Private and Publick Devotions and to intend at first and do it most in their Sacred Government Sixthly next to Almighty God the highest Honour Reverence and Obedience is due to him Seventhly and Maintenance from their Subjects proportioned to their high Dignity and to inable them to act and do what is necessary and expedient for God's Glory the good of the Church and Peace Plenty and Protection of the Subject Eighthly to resist him oppose him in thought word or deed is Rebellion against God himself Ninthly it is high Sacrilege and not onely Royal but Divine Usurpation to trench upon the Kings Sacred Right To shut up all that concerneth this first Question I humbly beg pardon to intreat in all reverence my Lord the King to look upon a Speech of St. Augustine worthy of the reading and meditation of all and the best of Christian Kings he will find it Tom. 5. lib. 5. de Civ Dei cap. 24. which verbatim is thus Reges foelices eos dicimus si justè imperant siâ—inter linguas sublimiter honorantium obsequia nimis humiliter salutantium non extollantur sed se homines esse meminerint suam potestatenm ad Dei cultum maxime dilatandum Majestati ejus famulam faciant si Deum timent diligunt colunt si plus amant illud regnum ubi non timent habere consortes si tardiùs vindicant si facilè ignoscunt si eandem vindictam pro necessitate regendae tuendae Reip. non pro saturandis inimicitiarum odiis exerunt si eandem veniam non ad impunitatem iniquitatis sed ad spem correctionis indulgent si quos asperè aliquando coguntur decernere misericordiae lenitate beneficiorum largitate compensant si luxuria tantâ— eis est castigatior quanto possit esse liberior si malunt cupiditatibus pravis quam quibuslibet gentibus imperare si haec omnia faciant non propter ardorem inanis gloriae sed propter charitatem foelicitatis aeternae si pro suis peccatis humilitatis miserationis orationis sacrificium Deo suo vero immolare non negligunt Tales Christianos principes dicimus esse foelices interim spe postea re ipsa futuros cùm id quod expectamus evenerit O golden expressions worthy to be set in Letters of Gold with most precious Stones and Diamonds and then put upon all Royal Crowns It is a short but a thousand-fold better expression of what we have said Plato Aristotle Cicero Xenophon in his fancied Cyropaedia had never the like it is worth all they have said all they have written on this subject in this kind Let me add a word or two to our selves who are Subjects Let us learn to give to the Lord 's Anointed his due if we will approve our selves good Christians like to our Master the Lord Iesus Christ like to his Apostles like to the ancient and holy Fathers and Martyrs of the Church Let us never deceive our selves like to the Iews who claimed to be the Sons of Abraham when they wrought the Works of their Father the Devil Ioh. 8. Let us not shame our selves and Reformed Catholick Religion by turning Religion into Rebellion and Faith into Faction and deter all Kings in the Christian World to come to the Profession of Reformed Truth and Communion of our Church And that this may be done the more successfully Let us all pray LOrd hear our King in the day of trouble The Name of the God of Jacob defend him Send him help out of the Sanctuary and strengthen him from Sion Remember all his Offerings and accept his burnt Sacrifices Give him according to his own Heart and fulfil all his Councel that we may rejoyce in thy Salvation Teach us his Subjects to fear thee and the King and not to meddle with them are given to change Continue the Loyal in Revâ—rence Obedience and Subjection Reduce the Sons of Belial to their Obedience make thy Spirit fall upon all that we may say thine are we O King and on thy side that the Peace and Beauty of thy Sion may be restored thine Anointed with his Sacred Right re-seated upon his Throne the bleeding wounds of the Land may be bound up the Peace of the Kingdom re-established 〈…〉 soever else is disjoynted may be set aright Do it do it good Lord not for us or for our merits but for thy Names sake the All-sufficient merits of thy Son and 〈…〉 of our Lord and Saviour IESVS CHRIST And let everâ— good Christian all loyal-hearted Subjects who pray for the Peace of Sion and building up of the walls of Ierusalem say Amen Soli Deo Gloria FINIS Eurypides in Bacch Idem ibidem Plutarch Lactant. de ira Dei cap. 1. Rom. 13. Plutarch Xenophon in Cyropoedia lib. 8. l. 16. in qualibet de Episc. Cleric C. Theod. Iustinian Novel 42. Trismegistus apud Lactantium l. 2. Instit c. 16. Gr. Naz. Orat. de mod in disp servanda Plutarch in Probl. Prob. 72. Cassiod l. 8. Var. c. 19. 1 de nat anim c. 1.