the King and People which whether it be only Civil or Natural tacit or in express Words can be taken away by no Agreements violated by no Law rescinded by no Force A Kingdom is nothing else but the mutual Stipulation between the People and their Kings The supream Authority of a Nation belongs to those who have the Legislative Authority reserved to them but not to those who have only the Executive which is plainly a Trust when it is separated from the Legislative Power and all Trusts by their Nature import That those to whom they are given are accountable though no such Condition is specified If the Subject may in no case resist then there can be no Law but the Will and Pleasure of the Prince for whoever must be opposed in nothing may do every thing then all our Laws signify no more than so many Cyphers And what are the Law-makers but so many Fools or Mad-men who give themselves trouble to no purpose For if the King is not obliged to govern by those Laws that they make to what purpose are the People to obey such Laws Whether another has Right to my Goods or if he demand them I have no Right to keep them is all one If the King sue me by pretence of Law and endeavour to take away my Money my House or my Land I may defend them by the Law but if he comes armed to take away my Liberty Life and Religion which are mine by the Laws of God and Man may I not secure them with a good Conscience Every Man has a Right to preserve himself his Rights and Priviledges against him who has no Authority to invade them And this was the Case of Moses who seeing an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew he slew him And Samson made War upon the Philistines for burning his Wife and her Father who were both but private Persons who knew they could have no other kind of Justice against them but what the Law of Nature gives every Man We ought saith the Learned Junius Brutus in his Discourse of Government to consider that all Princes are born Men. We cannot therefore expect to have only perfect Princes but rather we ought to think it well with us if we have gained but indifferent ones therefore the Prince shall not presently be a Tyrant if he keep not measure in some things if now and then he obey not Reason if he more slowly seek the Publick Good if he be less diligent in administring Justice For seeing a Man is not set over Men as if he were some God as he is over Beasts but as he is a Man born in the same Condition with them as that Prince shall be proud who will abuse Men like Beasts so that People shall be unjust who shall seek a God in a Prince and a Divinity in this frail Nature But truly if he shall wilfully subvert the Republick if he shall wilfully pervert the Laws if he shall have no care of his Faith none of his Promises none of Justice none of Piety if himself become an Enemy of his People or shall use all or the chiefest Notes we have mentioned then verily he may be judged a Tyrant that is an Enemy of God and Men And by how much longer he is tolerated the more intolerable he becomes and they may act against him whatever they may use against a Tyrant either by Law or just Force Tyranny is not only a Crime but the Head and as it were the heap of all Crimes therefore is he so much the more wicked than any Thief Murtherer or sacrilegious Person by how much it is more grievous to offend many and all than particular Persons Now if all these be reputed Enemies if they be capitally punished if they suffer pains of Death can any invent a Punishment worthy so horrid a Crime The Laws are the Nerves and Sinews of Society and as the Magistrate is above the People so is the Law above the Magistrate or else there can be no Civil Society He who makes himself above all Law is no Member of a Common-wealth but a meer Tyrant If a Magistrate notwithstanding all Laws made for the well-governing a Community will act plainly destructive to that Community they are discharged either from Active or Passive Obedience and indispensibly obliged by the Law of Nature to Resistance Is it not reasonable and just I should have a right to destroy him who threatens me with Destruction for by the Fundamental Law of Nature Man being to be preserved as much as possible when all cannot be preserved the Safety of the Innocent is to be preferred I say he who having renounced his Reason the common Rule and Measure God hath given to Mankind by endeavouring to destroy me is thereby become as a Beast of Prey and ought to be treated accordingly The Laws says Tully are above the Magistrates as the Magistrates are above the People He who is destructive to the Being of another hath quitted the Reason which God hath given to be the Rule betwixt Man and Man of Justice and Equity hath put himself into the State of War with the other and is as noxious as any savage Beast that seeks his Destruction No Man in Civil Society can be exempted from the Laws of it for if there be no Appeal on Earth for Redress or Security against any Mischief the Prince may do then every Man in that Society is in a State of Nature with him in respect of him Thucidides l. 2. saith Not only those are Tyrants who reduce other into Servitude but much rather those who when they may repulse that Violence take no care to do it but especially those who will be called the Defenders of Greece and the Common Country but yet help not their oppressed Country If a Man may be a Wolf to a Man nothing forbids but that a Man may be a God to a Man as it is in the Proverb Therefore Antiquity hath enrolled Hercules amongst the number of the Gods because he punished and tamed Procrustes Busyris and other Tyrants the Pests of Mankind and Monstets of the World So also the Roman Empire as long as it stood free was often called the Patrocine against the Robberies of Tyrants because the Senate was the Haven and Refuge of Kings People and Nations It is as lawful and more reasonable to prevent the overthrowing of our Religion Laws Rights and Priviledges froâ— any Man or Men whatsoever amongst our selves as from a foreign Power because one acts contrary to the Laws of God and the Country and the other being not subject to the Laws of the Country can be no ways bound by it It was thought no Injustice in the Ship to call out the Prophet when they found he was likely to prove the Wrack of them all and the Almighty shewed he approved of their Act by quieting the Storm when he was gone The Scripture that hath set us none but good Example tells us That some Princes should not
Political Aphorisms OR THE TRUE MAXIMS OF GOVERNMENT DISPLAYED Wherein is likewise Proved That Paternal Authority is no Absolute Authority and that Adam had no such Authority That there neither is or can be any Absolute Government De Iure and that all such pretended Government is Void That the Children of Israel did often Resist their evil Princes without any Appointment or soretelling thereof by God in Scripture That the Primitive Christians did often Resist their Tyrannical Emperors and that Bishop Athanasius did approve of Resistance That the Protestants in all Ages did Resist their Evil and Destructive Princes Together with a Historical Account of the Depriving of Kings for their Evil Government in Israel France â—â—â—in Portugal Scotland and in England before and sinâ—â— the Conquest By way of Challenge to Dr. William Sherlock and Ten other New Dissenters and Recommended as proper to be Read by all Protestant Iacobites He that being often Reproved hardneth his Neck shall suddenlâ— be destroyed and that without Remedy Prov. 29. 21. LONDON Printed for Tho. Harrison at the West End of the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1690. THE PREFACE AFter all the signal Deliverances God hath vouchsafed to these Brittish Islands and the many eminent Appearances of Divine Providence in our late happy Revolution even to this day one would think no Protestant should repine at this happy and advantageous Change from an Arbitrary to a Legal Monarchy but reckon it his Felicity to have lived to this day to see the Imperial Crown of England worn by a Protestant King and Queen an Happiness which our Fathers wished and longed for in King Charles the first 's and second 's time but could not obtain the evil Consequence thereof this Nation hath sufficiently felt therefore I may well say O thrice happy England didst thou know thy Happiness and hadst an Heart to be thankful for it Who could have thought that notwithstanding the visible hand of God in this unparallel'd Revolution we should still have amongst us a Korah a Dathan and an Abiram a murmuring still in our Streets Our Fore-fathers never bought their Liberty at so cheap a rate as we have done now which makes it so much despised and slighted at present as if Liberty could never be good without wading through a Sea of Blood to obtain it We commend our Fore-fathers for standing up for their Rights and Priviledges without which we should have been Slaves to this day and yet that we should Condemn one another for the same thing though our Religion which is infinitely more dear to us than a few worldly Liberties lies at stake is such an intollerable Folly that succeeding Ages will hardly give Credit to But what is more strange is that some Protestants are for the Restauration of the late King James with the young Impostor the consequence whereof can be nothing less than Slavery and the total Subversion of the Protestant Religion in England as well as the endangering it throughout the World But that the World may see what rare Notions of Civil Government our Murmurers have I shall here set down some of the Sayings of one of their mighty Pillars of Passive Obedience Dr. William Sherlock as they are in his Case of Resistance of the Supreme Powers No Man wants Authority says the Dr. pag. 59. to defend his Life against him who has no Authority to take it away but yet he tells you most learnedly p. 113. that The Prince is the Powers or Authority not the Laws and in p. 198. that The King receives not his Sovereign Authority from the Law and in p. 89. he sayes that there could not be greater nor more absolute Tyrants than the Roman Emperors were and yet they had no Power over the meanest Christian but by an express Commission from Heaven And he tells you further p. 116. that When we resist our Prince we resist the Ordinance Constitution and Appointment of God What Invincible Arguments are these for Passive Obedience which makes God the Author of all the Outrages Cruelties Rapinâ—s and Blood-shed that have been committed in the World by Sovereign Princes but I think the Dr. has taken the right way if there be any to establish the Doctrine of Passive Obedience without reserve St. Peter exhorted the Christians to submit to every Ordinance of Man for the Lords sake which plainly signifies sayes the Ingenious Dr. p. 146. that whatever hand Men may have in Modelling Civil Governments yet it is the Ordinance of God and Princes receive their Power from him What a rare Argument is this for Tyranny Oppression and Idolatry c. for according to the Doctor 's Notion if the Legislative Authority of a Nation should abolish the Christian Religion and set up Paganism Mahometanism and Popery and make never such Unjust and Tyrannical Laws yet it would be the Ordinance of God Since I can hardly find throughout all the Doctor 's Book he knows what any part of Civil Government is and least he should take an established Religion to be no part thereof I shall make bold to tell him that when a Religion is established by the Legislative Authority of any Nation it becomes part of the Civil Government and is to be defended and supported by the Administrator of that Government The Dr. hath many more as rare Arguments as these but for brevity sake I omit them these being sufficient to shew upon what rock this sort of Men build their Notions of Passive Obedience I challenge all the New Dissenters in England and all the Conformists who have sworn Allegiance to their Majesties only as King and Queen De Facto but more particularly Dr. Will. Sherlock Shadrach Cook John Leke Dr. Francis Thompson Person Dr. Audley Will. Gefford of Suffolk John Hart of Tanton Wood Cuff John Norris of Cambridge Richard Stafford and the Author of the History of Passive Obedience together with Sir R. Lestrange and all his Pupils to Answer the following Tract I desire these Learned Men to resolve me this Case of Conscience Whether or no those who joyned with or assisted the Prince of Orange upon his Arrival are not guilty of Rebellion and whether or no those Divines and Laicks who invited him over are not more guilty of Rebellion according to the Doctrine of Passive Obedience without reserve as being the first Cause thereof than they that joyned with him upon his first Arrival and whether upon the Bishops refusing to disown their inviting him over it does not follow that they did invite him over and upon their refusing to subscribe to the form of an Abhorrence of the Invitation it did not plainly imply that they disowned the Doctrine of Passive Obedience and allowed the resisting of Arbitrary Power and when they desired the Prince of Orange our present King to take upon him the Administration of the Government it did not imply that King James had deserted the Government and that the Throne was thereby become Vacant The reason why I take this
whatsoever whereas by giving up themselves to the absolute Arbitrary Power of any Man they have disarm'd themselves and armed him to make a Prey of them when he pleases I have been the longer in speaking of the State of Nature and the natural Instinct to Society and Government for that it is the Fountain of all the rest that ensueth in a Common-wealth but if we respect God and Nature as well might all the diversity of Governments which have been and now are in the World have followed one Law as so different but that neither God nor Nature which is from God hath prescribed any of those particular Forms but concurreth or permitteth such which the Common-wealth appoints Can any Man say that God and Nature did not concur as well with Italy when it had but one Prince as now when it hath so many and the like with Germany and also with Switzerland which was once one Common-wealth under the Dukes and Marquesses of Austria and now are divided into thirteen Cantons or Common-wealths under popular Magistrates of their own England also was first a Monarchy under the Britains and then a Province under the Romans and after that divided into seven Kingdoms at once under the Saxons and after them of the Danes and then the Normans and then the French and now a Monarchy again under the English and all this by God's Providence and Permission who suffered his own peculiar People the Jews to be under divers manner of Governments at divers times at first under Patriarchs Abraham Isaac and Jacob then under Captains as Moses Ioshua and the like then under Judges as Othoniel Ehud and Gideon then under High Priests as Eli and Samuel then under Kings as Saul David and the rest then under Captains and High Priests again as Zorobbabel Iudas Maccabeus and his Brethren until the Government was lastly taken from them and they brought under the Power of the Romans And last of all that God does concur with what Magistrate or Magistrates the Community thinks fit to appoint is plain by the Testimony of holy Scripture as when God said to Solomon By me Kings rule and Nobles even all the Iudges of the Earth Prov. 8. 16. that is by his Permission they govern tho chosen by the People and St. Paul to the Romans avoucheth that Authority is not but of God and therefore he that resisteth Authority resisteth God Rom. 13. which is to be understood of Authority Power and Jurisdiction in it self according to the Laws of every Country All Politick Societies began from a voluntary Union and mutual Agreement of Men freely acting in the choice of their Governours and Forms of Government All Kings receive their Royal Dignity from the Community by whom they are made the Superiour Minister and Ruler of the People Aristotle Cicero Augustin Fortescue and all other Politicians agree that Kingdoms and Common-wealths were existent before Kings for there must be a Kingdom and Society of Men to govern before there can be a King elected by them to govern them and those Kingdoms and Societies of Men had for the most part some Common Laws of their own free Choice by which they were governed before they had Kings which Laws they swore their Kings to observe before they would crown or admit them to the Government as is evident by the Coronation-Oaths of all Christian and Pagan Kings continued to this Day The Safety of the People is the Supreamest Law and what they by common Consent have Enacted only for the Publick Safety they may without any Obstacle alter when things require it by the like common Consent The lawful Power of making Laws to command whole Politick Societies of Men belongeth so properly unto the same intire Societies that for any Prince or Potentate of what kind soever upon Earth to exercise the same of himself and not by express Commission immediately and personally received from God or else by Authority derived at first from their Consent upon whose Persons they impose Laws it is no better than meer Tyranny Laws they are not therefore which Publick Approbation hath not made so Hooker 's Eccl. Pol. l. 1. § 10. Whosoever says Aristotle is governed by a Man without a Law is governed by a Man and by a Beast As every Man in the delivery of the Gift of his own Goods may impose what Covenant or Condition he pleases and every Man is Moderator and Disposer of his own Estate So in the voluntary Institution of a King and Royal Power it is lawful for the People submitting themselves to prescribe the King and his Successors what Law they please so as it be not Unreasonable and Unjust and directly against the Rights of a Supream Governour No Man can be born an Absolute King no Man can be a King by himself no King can Reign without the People Whereas on the contrary the People may both be and are by themselves and are in Time before a King By which it appears that all Kings were and are constituted by the People because by the Law of Nature there is no Superiority one above another and God has no where commanded the World or any part thereof to be governed by this or that Form or by this or that Person therefore all Superiority and Authority must and does proceed from the People since by the Law of God and Nature there is no Superiority one above another Aristotle saith That the whole Kingdom City or Family is more excellent and to be preferred before any Part or Member thereof Succession was tolerated and appointed in the World to avoid Competition and Inter-regnum and other Inconveniences of Election 'T is plain from what hath been said that all Government proceeds from the People Now I will prove that they have Authority to put back the next Inheritors to Government when unfit or uncapable to Govern And also to dispossess them that are in lawful Possession if they fulfil not the Laws and Conditions by which and for which their Dignities were given them and when it is done upon just and urgent Causes and by Publick Authority of the whole Body the Justice thereof is plain as when the Prince shall endeavour to establish Idolatry contrary to the Laws of the Land or any Religion which is repugnant to the Scripture as Popery c. or to destroy the People or make them Slaves to his Tyrannical Will and Pleasure For as the whole Body is of more Authority than the Head and may cure it when out of order so may the Weal-Publick cure or purge their Heads when they are pernitious or destructive to the Body Politick seeing that a Body Civil may have divers Heads by Succession or Election and cannot be bound to one as a Body Natural is which Body Natural if it had Ability to cut off its aking or sickly Head and take another I doubt not but it would do it and that all Men would confess it had Authority sufficient and Reason so to
own door By which it follows that Passive Obedience to unjust Violence is a Sin but resisting such Violence is no Sin but the Duty of every Man The first Duty that I owe is to God the second to my self in preserving my self c. the third to my Parent and Soveraign in obeying them in all things reasonable and lawful By all the Precepts in Scripture which require Obedience to Parents Homage and Obedience is as due to the one as to the other for 't is nowhere said Children obey your Father and no more the Mother is mentioned before the Father in Lev. 19. 3. Ye shall fear every Man his Mother and his Father Sure Solomon was not ignorant what belonged to him as a King or a Father when he said My Son hear the Instructions of thy Father and forsake not the Law of thy Mother And our Saviour says Matth. 15. 4. Honour thy Father and Mother And Ephes. 6. 1. Children obey your Parents c. If Paternal Authority be an absolute Authority I ask Whether it be in the eldest of the Family if so Whether a Grandfather can dispense with his Grand-Child's paying the Honour due to his Parents by the fifth Commandment 'T is evident in common Sense the Grandfather cannot discharge the Grand-Child from the Obedience due to his Parents neither can a Father dispense with his Child's Obedience due to the Laws of the Land therefore the Obedience required to Parents in Scripture is not to an absolute Authority for there can be no absolute Authority where there is an Authority above it With what Folly and Ignorance do some assert That the Kings of England are Absolute as proceeding from William the Conqueror To which I answer That a Conqueror has no right of Dominion much less any Absolute Authority over the Wife and Children of the Conquered or over those who assisted not against him Conquest may claim such a Right as Thieves use over those whom they can master which is a Right of Tenure but no Tenure of Right Conquest may restore a Right Forfeiture may lose a Right but 't is Consent only that can transact or give a Right There is no other Absolute Power than over Captives taken in a just War If the Possession of the whole Earth was in one Person yet he would have no Power over the Life or Liberty of another or over that which another gets by his own Industry for Propriety in Land gives no Man Authority over another William the Conqueror made a League or Compact with the Nobles and Lords of the Land to the performance of which he takes an Oath to observe the ancient Laws of the Realm established by his Predecessors the Kings of England and especially of Edward the Confessor as likewise did Henry the First with the Emendations his Father had made to them Stephen who succeeded Henry made a Compact and promiseth a Meloration of their Laws according to their Minds William Rufus Henry the First and Stephen get the Consent of the People by promising to grant them their usual Laws and ancient Customs Henry the First Richard the First King John and Richard the Second oblige themselves at their Coronations to grant them and then the People consented to own them as their King and Richard the First and King John were conjured by the Arch-bishops not to take upon them the Crown unless they intended to perform their Oaths If any King refused so to do the Nobles thought it their Concern to hinder his Coronation till he had either made or promised this Engagement What can be more absurd than to say That there is an absolute Subjection due to a Prince whom the Laws of God Nature and the Country have not given such Authority as if Men were made as so many Herds of Cattel only for the Use Service and Pleasure of their Princes But some do object That the anointing of Kings at their Coronations makes their Persons Sacred Unquestionable and Irresistable for any Tyrannical or Exorbitant Actions whatsoever To which I answer That every Christian's Baptism is a Sacrament of Christ's Institution a Spiritual Unction and Sanctification which makes a Person as sacred yea more holy than the Anointing of Kings can or doth of it self that being no Sacrament a Truth which no Christian can without Blasphemy deny And yet no Christian is exempted from Resistance Censure or Punishments according to the nature of his Crime and therefore the Anointing of Kings at their Coronations cannot do it it being a Ceremony of the Jews not instituted by Christ or any ways commanded to be continued by the Apostles or their Successors it signifying only the chusing or preserring one before another and so became the Ceremony of consecrating to any special Office and so was ordinarily used in the enstalling Men to Offices of any Eminency The Reign of a good King resembles that of Heaven over which there is but one God for he is no less beloved of the Vertuous than feared of the Bad and if human Frailty could admit a Succession of good Kings there were no comparison Power being ever more glorious in one than when it is divided 'T is not the Title of a King but the Power which is the Laws which is invested in him which makes the difference betwixt him and other Men in the executing of this Power his Person is sacred and not to be resisted he being above every Soul contained in the same Society and therefore cannot be resisted or deprived of his Office by any part or by the whole Community without the greatest Sin of Robbery and Injustice imaginable If a Government say some may be disturbed for any unlawful Proceedings of the Governour or his Ministers how can any Government be safe To which I answer That it is not lawful for every private Man to fly into the Bosom of his Prince for he is no competent Judg be he of never so great a Quality else a King was the most miserable Man living lying at the Mercy of every desperate Fellow's Censure It is impossible for one or a few oppressed Men to disturb the Government where the Body of the People do not think themselves concerned in it and that the Consequences seem not to threaten all yea when it does yet the People are not very forward to disturb the Government as in King Charles the Second's time when the Charters were condemned and seized upon in order to make us Slaves and the Laws perverted to the loss of many innocent Lives and many other Oppressions too many to insert and yet no body offered to disturb the Government I say till the Mischief be grown general and the Designs of the Rulers become notorious then and then only will the People be for righting themselves Whosoever either Ruler or Subject by Force goes about to invade the Rights of either Prince or People and lays the Foundation for overturning the Constitution and Frame of any just Government he is guilty of the greatest Crime I think a Man is capable of being to answer for all those Mischiefs of Blood Rapine and Desolation which the breaking to pieces of Governments brings on a Country and he who does it is justly to be esteemed the Common Enemy and Pest of Mankind and is so to be treated accordingly and how far the late King James was guilty of this I leave the World to judg FINIS The Author's Advertisement JUST as I had finished this Book I received a Reply to my former Book which I thought to have Answered but finding the Arguments to be Frivolous and Weak and my necessary Avocations allowing me but little time therefore I forbore answering it ADVERTISEMENTS THe Doctrine of Passive Obedience and Jure Divino disproved Price 1 d. The Letter which was sent to the Author of the Doctrine of Passive Obedience and Jure Divino disproved c. Answered and Refuted Wherein is proved That Monarchy was not Originally from GOD. That Kings are not by Divine Appointment but that all Government proceeds from the People That the Obedience required in Scripture is to the Laws of the Land and no otherwise That Resisting of Arbitrary Power is Lawful That the Oath of Allegiance to the late King James was dissolved before the Prince of Orange our present King landed That upon the non-performance of an Oath on one side the other becomes void is plainly prov'd from several Examples in Scripture That Protection is the only Cause of Allegiance and that Obedience or Allegiance is due to the present Government is proved from Scripture Law and Reason And those Texts of Scripture which relate to Government or Monarchy are Explained Price stitch'd 6 d. Both written by the same Author and printed for Tho. Harrison