and not he From whence it is plain that the Prince hath the Sword in both senses from the same hand from which he hath his Robes his Crown and his Scepter He is a Soveraign as Gods Vice-Gerent and Representative and as Gods Vice-Gerent and Representative he is a Soveraign and under both or either character he holds the Sword by the Autority of his Heavenly Master who hath put it in his hand for his Peoples defence and also to be an avenger to execute wrath upon every soul that is disobedient to the Laws which are made to defend his rights against the invasions of his Subjects or he rights of his Subjects against the violence and invasions of one another In both these respects he is an Avenger and God to whom Vengeance and the Power of life and death over men Radically and Originally belongeth hath committed the Sword of War and Justice unto him that he might be Vindex in terris and not only Command but Punish in his stead Hence the Emperor Justinian who according to my first proposition in the first sentence of his Preface to the Pandects solemnly * Deo Autore nostrum gubernante imperium quod no-bis à coelesti Majestate traditum est prae fat I. digest acknowledges that he received his Empire from God doth in the beginning of his Proem to the Institutions assert Arms to be primarily necessary for a Prince in the following words Imperatoriam Majestatem non solum Armis decoratam sed etiam legibus oportet esse armatam The Majesty of a King ought to be fortified and adorned not only with Arms but Laws With Arms in the first place without which his Majesty would be contemptible and his Laws of no force for take away the Teeth and Talons of the Lyon and his Roaring to which Solomon ingeniously compares the wrath of a King shall be no longer terrible but every vile Dog will bark and every silly Ass will bray in his face and lift up his heels against him Hence saith * Prolog tract de leg consuet regn Angl. Glanvil of the Kings of England almost in the words of Justinian Regiam Majestatem non solum armis oportet esse decoratam sed legibus and to this purpose †L. 1. c. 27. Fleta habet Rex in manu suâ omnia jura the King hath all the Laws in his hand materialem gladium qui pertinet ad Regni gubernaculum and the Sword which belongeth to the Government of his Kingdom and saith Bracton in the beginning of his first Book In rege qui reclè regit necessaria sunt duo baec arma videlicet leges there are two things necessary for a King that Governs well Arms and Laws Hence the Laws of this Kingdom which acknowledg the imperial Crown and Jurisdiction of his Realm to be taken immediately from God according to my first Proposition do also according to the second acknowledg the Kings Power over the Militia and that force of Armour belongs unto him by vertue of his Royal Seignory as may be seen in the 7 of Edward I. and in the 13 of our present Soveraign c. 6. where it is declared that the supream disposition of the Militia and of all Forces by Sea and Land and of all Forts and places of strength is and by the Laws of England ever was the right of His Majesty and his Royal Predecessors And if it were not he would not be a real but a meer nominal King in shew a Soveraign or shadow of a Soveraign but in reality a Subject a Spartan King a distressed Prince indeed not Gods but the Peoples unhappy Minister and Servant which his Majesty of his great wisdom knew very well when he told that House of Commons which asked the Militia of him for some weeks that he would not part with it for an hour It was the voice of a King and a Christian he spoke as it became Gods Vice-Gerent and Lieutenant who knew very well from whom he had his Sword as well as his Scepter and that he bore it not in vain but was the Minister of God a Revenger to execute wrath upon him or them that do evil Having now shewed first that sovereign Princes are God's ministers and vicegerents and secondly that as such they have and exercise the supreme power and particularly that of the Sword I now proceed to make some practical Observations upon this Loyal doctrine proper to this meeting and the exigence of these times in which we live First then we may observe what a groundless and blasphemous doctrine it is to assert as the Popish Writers do that the Pope hath all manner of temporal as well as spiritual power given him from God and that he giveth the former to Emperours and Kings to use it under him but so that as his ministers and vicegerents they depend entirely upon him This is the great Palladium of the Popish Cause which hath murthered and deposed so many sovereign Princes and disposed of their Crowns and Dominions This brought Henry the IV. Emperour of Germany on a cold frosty day barefoot and bare headed to Pope Hildebrand's palace this brought the Emperour Frederick the first to hold Pope Adrian the 4th's Stirrop and this set the foot of Pope Alexander the 3d upon his Neck when his Holiness blasphemously misapplyed the words of the Psalmist Thou shalt tread upon the Lion and Adder the young Lion and Dragon thou shalt trample under foot It was upon this account of the Pope's pretended universal Sovereignty that King John surrendred this Kingdom to Pope Innocent the 3d that Henry the 2d submitted to the lashes of the Monks of Canterbury and that Henry the 4th of France was whipped in the Person of his Ambassadour Cardinal D'ossat by the Pope and Cardinals at Rome To be short this doctrine makes all Princes the Pope's Vassals and it ought not to be endured by any Loyal Christian Subject as being so unreasonable in it self so destructive to the rights and dignity of sovereign Princes and so contrary to the word of God Our Ancestours themselves were never able to bear it as * Colces instit part 4. p. 13 14. appears from the resolve of the Lords and Commons in Parliament in the 40 year of Edward the 3d who when the Pope by his Ambassadour demanded Homage of the King for his two Kingdoms answered that King John upon whose surrender the Pope grounded his claim could not put his Realm in any such subjection without his peoples consent that it was against his Coronation Oath and that for themselves they could not assent to any thing in Parliament that tended to the disinberison of the King and his Crown and that if the Pope attempted any thing of that nature they would resist him with all their force And in the Stature of Praemunire wherein as I have shew'd the three Estates of this Realm acknowledged the King to be immediately subject to God
their acts conclude those that could not or would not come When you have well considered all these difficult and pâ—rplexed points which attend this hypothesis of placing all power in the People you will easily perceive the excellency of the Scriptural hypothesis above it It is free from all the forâ—mentioned difficulties and absurdities it is more agreeable to the original of Mankind from one single created Father it leaves not so many pretences for Sedition and Rebellion it lays the highest obligations that can be upon the conscience of the Sovereign to rule well In a word it is not onely the most religious but the most rational easie and compleat account of Government to say that sovereign States and Princes are God's ministers and not the peoples that they derive their power from heaven and not from men and particularly that they have the power of the Sword not by donation from the people but by the ordinance of God But in the third place From this Apostolical doctrine about the power and authority of sovereign Princes and States you may perceive what a great sin it is for the subjects of any government upon any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms without authority from the lawfull Sovereign be it in riots tumults or rebellions or any other illegal meetings howsoever called for God hath committed the power of the Sword to the lawfull Sovereign onely and whosoever takes it and useth it without his authority much more against it usurpeth the chief part of the supreme authority and is left by our blessed Saviour to be punished for his usurpation by the Sovereign's Sword Put up thy Sword again saith he unto Saint Peter who drew it to defend his Master against the officers of the persecuting Sanhedrim for all that take the sword shall perish by the sword and to this purpose and almost in the same words saith St. John by way of precaution to the suffering Christians He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword here is the faith and patience of the Saints And accordingly the Apostle tells the Christian subjects of that monster Nero that the Powers that then were were ordained of God and that they who resisted the Power resisted the ordinance of God and should receive damnation or condemnation to themselves To bear the Sword or have the supreme disposition of the Sword is one of the jura majestatis or essential rights of Sovereignty which belongs to the Sovereign by the Imperial laws of all governments and by the same Imperial laws is it made capital to take it up against the Sovereign and our Saviour who came to destroy no man's civil rights but to consirm them was in the first place tender of the Sovereign's rights and of the Laws by which they are established and confirmed them both Render unto Caesar saith he the things that are Caesar's and one part of Caesar's prerogative as a sovereign Prince and indeed the foundation of all the rest was to be accountable to no earthly power nor liable to any coercion or force for were there any other power to which he was accountable or which had a right to resist him by violence or force of armour that power would be Caesar or Sovereign and not he Wherefore had our Saviour given a power to Christian subjects upon the account of Religion or any other account whatsoever to take up Arms against their Sovereign he had set up one Sovereign and one Sword against another in every Government and so had not come as he said to save mens lives but to destroy them and as he spoke in another sense not to send Peace upon the earth but a Sword But instead of that as I said before he hath confirmed the rights of Sovereignty and the Imperial laws of every sovereign government which make it capital to resist the Sovereign and it is by these Laws which I may call the first Table of every government and by the Gospel which confirms them that passive obedience or non-resistence becomes the double duty of Christian subjects who cannot take up the Sword against their Sovereign without resisting God whose Minister he is and making themselves justly liable to the stroak of that Sword which God hath put in his hand For God to whom vengeance or punishment belongeth hath made him a revenger to execute wrath uâ—â—n his subjects that doe evil but he hath not made them revengers to execute wrath upon him Had he done so he had set up two instead of one Sovereign in every Government but on the contrary as his wisedom and honour obliged him he hath reserved wicked Princes and Tyrants for his own punishment and hath allowed their subjects no Arms against them but the Arms of the Catholique and Apostolical Church even the Primitive Artillery of prayers and tears Perhaps this may seem a very harsh doctrine to some inconsiderate people at first hearing but if they well consider that the resistence of the Subjects brings greater evils upon the publick than the tyranny of the most wicked Sovereign they will find that the doctrine of passive obedience is founded in the highest reason and that we are bound to praise the wisedom and goodness ness of God who hath forbidden us a remedy which is infinitely worse than the disease I need not send you far off to prove what I say for in this little Island since the beginning of the Reformation there hath been perhaps as much Christian bloud shed in pretended defensive Wars by the Anti-Episcopal Reformers as in the first ten famous Persecutions throughout the Roman Empire and more men slain in the least set battel of the late Rebellion which was also called a Defensive War than by the tyranny of all the Kings of this Nation since the Crown was set upon the Conquerour's Head But in the fourth place To pass over many other usefull observations as what a strong obligation this doctrine lays upon the consciences of all Christian States and Princes and how unjustly the faithfull Ministers of this Church are hated and aspersed for preaching of it up as if they designed to flatter their Prince into a Tyrant and enslave the People I say to pass over these considerations which would effectually vindicate the Church and Clergy of England and discover the malice of their factious enemies we may see how much it is the special duty of all inferiour Magistrates whether Civil or Military to take care that they employ not their power which they have from their Sovereign against him or doe any thing that may make his just Government uneasie upon his shoulders much less that may tend to the disinherison of his Crown the destruction of his Regality or the diminution of his legal authority and power I make this observation because it hath been and I am afraid still is a principle among our new Reformers that the inferiour Magistrates have their power immediately from God though they are chosen unto it by
A DISCOURSE OF THE Souveraign Power IN A SERMON PREACHED AT St. Mary Le Bow Nov. 28. 1682. Before the Artillery Company OF LONDON And now Published at their Desire By GEORGE HICKES D.D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY LONDON Printed for John Baker Printer to the Honourable Society at the Three Pigeons in St. Paul's Church-yard 1682. To the Right Honourable Sir William Pritchard Lord Mayor of the City of LONDON And President of the Artillery COMPANY To the Honourable Sir James Smith Knight and Alderman Vice-President To the Right Worshipful Sir Matthew Andrews Treasurer As also to the Right Honourable Duke of Albermarle Earl of Oxford Earl of Arundel Lord Falkland To the Honourable and Right Worshipful STEWARDS Henry Guy Esq William Legg Esq Sir William Dodson Kt. Charles Duncomb Esq And to the whole Court of Assistants Field-Officers Captains and Gentlemen Professing and Exercising Arms in that Renowned and Honourable Society Right Honourable IN Obedience to your Desire I have Published this Discourse which I Preached before you on your late Anniversary Solemnity and if it may contribute to the further Satisfaction of any who are already Loyal or the Conviction and Reformation of such as are not truly so I shall be thankful to God for Blessing so mean a Performance with such happy success The Subject I am sure is suitable to the Occasion upon which it was Preach'd and very necessary for the Times but yet I fore-see it will displease some Men whose Displeasure indeed I do not value because their Favour is not to be obtained by any Minister of the Church of England who will not be false to his own Profession and utterly decline the Preaching upon these Doctrines and Duties which I have here plainly Taught But you have not so Learned Christ as appears by the Entertainment which this unpolished Sermon hath found among you meerly for the Truths sake Your Approbation will be Protection sufficient both to it and the Author who Presents it unto you with all due Observance wishing a daily increase of such Obedient and Dutiful Subjects to His Majesty as you are to whose firm and active Loyalty next unto God's and our Governours Vigilant Care and Providence we owe our present Order and Peace I am Right Honourable Your most Obedient Servant George Hickes A SERMON Preached before The Artillery Company Rom. 13.4 He beareth not the Sword in Vain for he is the Minister of God The context before and after is this Wilt thou then not be afraid of the Power do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same For 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 for he is the Minister of God a Revenger to Execute wrath upon him that doth evil ALtho there now are and have been for above Two thousand years many Forms of Civil Government in the World yet all Historians Scared or Civil that write of the times near unto the Flood assure us that Monarchies were every where erected in those Ages and that Kings were then the Soveraigns of the Earth Popular Governments whether by the whole body of the People as in Democracies or in a Select number of the Chief as in Aristocracies were then in the Wombs of their special causes being afterwards introduced either by the compact and agreement of Men free to choose their own Government as in new Colonies and Dispersions or else by Rebellion as in the famous Commonwealth of Rome which at first was Governed by †Urbem Romam à principio reges habuere Tacit. Kings after the most Primitive Form and then after the Rebellion of Brutus Valerius and Collatinus by the ★ S. P. Q. R. four great Letters the Senat and People of Rome and at last again by Kings upon whom first under the name of ★ Nomine principis sub imperium accepit Tacit. Prince and then under the Titles of Emperor and Augustus the Senat and People not able to secure the publick Peace without a Soveraign Head conferred all their Power and as the Greek and Latin Historians observe really made them Kings altho to prevent offence on both sides they must not forsooth be so called It was under Claudius the 5th or Nero the Sixth of these Emperours that St. Paul wrote this Epistle unto the Romans in which it is to be observed that he asserts the Roman Emperor to be the Minister of God altho he was chosen by the Army or the People or sometimes by both for even in Elective Monarchies where the People choose the Soveraign he hath not his Authority from his Electors but from God as in Oeconomical Government the Prince of the Family if I may so speak hath not his Autority as an Husband from the Wife who chose him for her Husband nor the Autority of a Master from the Servant who chose him for his Master But his Conjugal and Despotical Autority are both from God who hath made the Husband the head of his Wife as Christ is the head of the Church and the Master Lord and Commander over his Servants whom they are to count worthy of all Honour and be Obedient unto them as unto Christ The choice indeed of the Husband and Master is from the Wife and Servant but the Power of them both is from God they were free as to their choice but aster it they are not free as to their subjection nor can they disobey them without disobeying God Just so is it in Elective Monarchies the People or their Deputies may choose the Man whom they will have for their Prince but they do not give him his Autority that he hath from God upon their Election which made Valentinian when the Army that chose him Emperor cry'd out that he should take a partner in the Government answer them upon this principle thus †Sozom. L. 6. C. 6. It was in your Power Souldiers to choose me for your Emperor but now you have chosen me that which you demand is not in your Power but mine you ought to be quiet as Subjects and I as an Emperor to consider what is fit to be done And accordingly the Apostle here in my text asserts Claudius or as it is more likely Nero the Emperor who was chosen by the Army and Senat not to be their Minister or to have any Ministerial or Fiduciary Power under them but to be the Minister of God over them and as such to have the Power of the Sword He beareth not the Sword in Vain for he is the Minister of God According to which explication of the words I shall undertake to prove two propositions First That Soveraign Princes are Gods Ministers and Vice-Gerents and Reign by his special ordinance and appointment and Secondly That as such they have and exercise the Supream Power and particularly the Power of the Sword And these two Propositions being proved
likewise are Men ordained Kings And so Tertullian after him Thence is the Emperor from whence he was a man before he was Emperor thence he hath this Autority from whence he hath his breath And again We must of necessity reverence the Emperor as one that our Lord hath chosen so that we may reasonably say that Caesar is rather ours than yours as being ordained by our God Apol. c. 30.33 and in another place a Christian is an Enemy to no man much less to the Emperor whom he knows to be appointed by God ad Scapul This was current Divinity among the Christians under the Pagan and Persecuting Emperors and what it was after they turned Christians may be seen in the Apology of St. Athanasrus unto Constanius especially from these words O Almighty Lord eternal King the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ thou by thy word hast given the Empire to thy servant Constantius It would be endless to cite more Autorities to confirm this Doctrine out of the Fathers I will rather shew how it hath been taught by our own Acts and Authors of our own Soveraigns the Kings of the English * Sir Orland Bridgmans speech to the Regicides p. 12 13 14. Empire to whom God hath given this †Granmers Letters to Qu. Mary Imperial Crown the Statute of Praemunire lb. K. 2. c. 5. declares that the Crown of England is so free that it is in no Earthly Subjection but immediately subject to God in all things touching the regality of the same And the Parliament in the 25 H. 8.21 made this recognition unto his Majesty that his Graced Realm had no Superiour under God but only his Grace and 24 H. 8. c. 12. and that next unto God they ought him a Natural and Humble Obedience And long before this our Ancient and learned Lawyer Bracton did declare that the * L. 1 de rer divis c. 2. King is the Vicar and Minister of God and Christ that he †L. 2. c. 22. hath neither equal nor Superiour and that * L. 1. de ver divis c. 8. every Soul is under him but he is under none except only God As for Ecclesiastical Autorities it would take up too much time to recite them all The * Canon 36. Art 1. Church is to admit none into holy orders but such as will first subscribe that the Kings Majesty next under God is the only Supream Governor of all his Realsm and Dominions and in the Book of †see hom about obedience part 1. and against wilful Rebell p. 1. Homilies besides the assertion of this Doctrine about Soveraign Princes in general our late Soveraign King James is acknowledged for the high gift of God To conclude this head from hence it comes to pass that our Kings as the learned * In Epistolâ ad virun Ampl. D. Morley Bochart observed are stiled by the Grace of God and that the Royal Motto is Dieu et mon Droit and accordingly this Church which is so Pure and Primitive in her Loyalty hath taught her Children to Pray Almighty God whose Kingdom is everlasting and Power infinite have mercy upon the whole Church and so rule the heart of thy Chosen Servant Charles our King and Governour that he knowing whose Minister he is may above all things seek thy Honour and Glory and that we and all his Subjects duly considering whose Autority he hath may faithfully serve honor and humbly obey him in thee and for thee according to thy blessed Word and Ordinance Yes according to the word of the Apostle in my text who saith that the beareth not te Sword in Vain because he is the Minister of God II. Having now shewed that Soveraign Princes are Gods Ministers and Vice-Gerents and Reign by his special appointment I proceed to shew in the second place that under that Character they have and exercise the Supream Power and particularly the Power of the Sword This latter Proposition is a very easy and discernable consequence from the former and may be illustrated from the nature of subordinate Magistrates who are the Kings Ministers appointed under him as he is appointed under God As for example the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland is the Kings Minister and Vice-Gerent and by consequence under that character he hath and exercises the Supream Power in the Government of that Kingdom both Civil and Military both that of the Scepter and that of the Sword which the King hath committed unto him In like manner Soveraign Princes being as I have shewn Gods Lieutenants and Vice-Gerents within their several Realms and Dominions they Reign under that Sublime character and as his Representiatives have and exercise all Jurisdiction and in particular that of the Sword accordingly as the Apostle saith he beareth not the Sword in Vain for he is the Minister of God a revenger to execute wrath or punishment upon him that doth evil Were men of the temper of the Angels who obey their Superiours purely for Conscience-sake then it would be sufficient for Princes that they had the commanding without the Punishing Power but since most men are subject more for Fear than Conscience it is highly necessary that the Soveraign should be furnished with the Coercive and Vindicative Power which may be called the Sword of Justice and without which all his Laws and Orders would be vain precarious and insignificant words and writings meer Cobwebs which the Wasps and Hornets that swarm in all Governments would insultingly break through And were men also like the good Angels free from evil passions would they be quiet in the several ranks and stations in which God hath set them then Soveraign Princes like Arch-Angels who are secure from the insurrections of their Subjects would be safe without the Sword but since Pride Envy and Discontent make men envy their Superiours and strive to snatch the Crowns from off their Princes heads since there are Lucifers in all Kingdoms and the Dragon and his Angels will in all worldly Governments be still fighting with Michael and his it is absolutely necessary that the Soveraign be furnished with the Supream Command Government and Disposition of the Militia or Military Forces which may be called the Sword of War Furthermore it is necessary for the Soveraign to bear the Sword of War not only to defend himself from his own Rebellious Subjects but to defend both himself his people from the invasions of other Soveraigns for it is not upon Earth as it is in Heaven where one Principality can live without danger or jealousie of anothe but in all Earthly Kingdoms there must be military Societies Preparations ready to oppose foreign violence actual and Potential Forces some every where as the Historian speaks in equis Armis ad subita belli excubantes and if this Power of levying War and providing Arms and Forces did belong to any other person than him whom God hath appointed for Soveraign that person would be Soveraign
they also promised and bound themselves to defend the King's Crown and Regality against the Papal Jurisdiction and to live and dye with the same And in the 35 Hen. VIII 11. the first oath of Supremacy which acknowledges the King supreme Head upon earth under God was also formed against the Papal Jurisdiction which made Arch-Bishop Cranmer in Queen Mary's days refuse to answer the Bishop of Glocester who sate in judgment upon him by commission from Rome for which refusal he apologized in a Letter to the Queen urging his Oath of Allegiance to the contrary and telling her Majesty that it could not but grieve the heart of any natural Subject to be accused as he was of his own Sovereign within her own Realm before an outward Judge But in the second place we may observe what an absurd doctrine it is and how disagreeable to Christian divinity to assert that the sovereign Power is radically and originally seated in the People and derived from them upon the Prince I deny not but that God by his providence may invest the sovereign Power in the body of the people as sormerly in Athens and now in the Cantons of Switzerland and that as formerly in Sparta they may commit the exercise of it unto a single person under the character of King but then such Kings are onâ—ly equivocal Kings Kings in name but in reality Subjects and have the People for their sovereign Lord who in these unhappy governments as Themistocles calls them in his Epistles are indeed the Ministers of God and ought to be obey'd not onely for wrath but also for Conscience-sake But the opinion that I am speaking against is this that the People are the fountain and foundation of all power and dominion which is understood to be derived from them even upon those whom Custom calls sovereign Princes who are but their trustees or siduciary ministers with whom they have at least a virtual contract and if they do not perform their trust by not using their power to the ends for which they received it or abuse it to contrary ends then they forfeit the power and authority with which they were entrusted by them and ought to be answerable for their defaults I am confident this doctrine cannot be strange to any man that hath cast his eyes never so little upon the seditious Pamphlets of these or the late times It is expressed or implyed taught or insinuated in most of them which infect the unwary the unthinking Vulgar with this Popish principle of Rebellion before they are aware I call it a Popish principle because the Papists of all Christians first taught it to arm the subjects at their pleasure against their Sovereign and by that means to revenge themselves upon the Princes that would not submit unto the Pope And indeed there never was any doctrine better sitted and invented to destroy Monarchiâ—s than this is for as the unchristian opinion that Episcopacy is an usurpation over the Church makes many people sit so uneasy and discontented under the Episcopal Jurisdiction and hate Bishops So this unchristian doctrine which makes sovereign and independent Princes Usurpers over the peoples liberties must also make all people that believe it uneasy and discontented under Monarchical government and secretly disaffected to the Princes in whose Realms they live This we find by experience in this Kingdom where this most unscriptural and absurd doctrine is taught unscriptural I call it because it is so contrary to the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament which assert such wicked Princes as Tiberius Nebuchadnezzar Claudius and Nero to be the ministers of God and commamds allegiance both in subjection and non-resistence unto them upon that account And as it is most contrary to the Scriptures and the whole strain of primitive Christian Writers so is it in it self chargeable with many absurdities and difficulties which the maintainers thereof cannot answer For first if the sovereign Power be radically and fundamentally seated in the people then there is but one sort of sovereign government in the World viz. Democracy and by consequence all other Sovereigns whether Senates or Princes are Usurpers and ought to be reduced or deposed Secondly They cannot tell us upon this hypothesis whether the supreme Power belongs to all the people promiscuously that have the use of reason without any regard to Sex or condition or onely to qualified persons to Men onely and men of such a condition and sort If men onely have a share and interest in the supreme Power by whose order and authority or by what Salique law of Nature were Women excluded from it who are as usefull members of the Commonwealth and as necessary for humane societies as the men are Who gave the men authority to deprive them of their birthright and set them aside as unsit to meddle with Government when Histories teach us that they have weilded Sceptres as well as Men and Experience shews that there is no natural difference between their understandings and ours nor any defects in their knowledge of things but what Education makes But admitting that the sovereign Power is onely in the Men then they are as hard puzled to tell us whether it bâ— in all the men that have the use of reason promiscuously or onely in qualified persons of such an age estate or condition If all then young and old masters and servants fathers and children poor and rich must have an equal share and suffrage in the Government which would make an intolerable confusion but if they say some and once set limitations then they can never tell by what order or authority those without the limits which must be the more numerous part of the people are shut out from the Government and from the concerns of the Commonwealth of which they are the greatest part But lastly let us suppose as most of these Commonwealths-men do that the Wife is included with her Husband the Child with the Parent and the Servant with the Master yet what provision is hereby made for all emancipated persons such I mean as have neither husbands parents nor masters must they come in for a share of the Government or not or must onely masters of Families have the whole management and if they must must the poor and rich those that have estates and those that have none have an equal share and interest in it or if they must not whence arises the inequality or who is it that hath authority to give some more power and some less Or if you will suppose a great Number of people not yet under any contract or regular association who can have power to convene them together to appoint times or places for meeting to preside in their assemblies to determine arising doubts to draw up articles of agreement form the scheme of the future Government compute voices and the like and then in their assemblies will the supreme Power rest in the Major or in the wiser or better part and shall
I shall make some practical inferences from this Loyal Doctrin proper to this Audience and the exgence of the Times in which we live I. First then that Soveraign Princes are Gods Ministers and Vice-Gerents and Reign by his special ordinance is plain from many express texts of the Old and New Testament which are the Loyallest as well as the Divinest Books in the World I will begin with the Old Testament whose Autority were it not of divine inspiration ought upon the account of its antiquity to preponderate with us above any other Volume in the World There as †l. 5. c. 24. Irenaeus observes God saith in the 8th Ch. of the Book of Poverbs By me Kings Reign and Princes decree justice by me Princes rule and Nobles even all the Judges of the Earth Hence Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon is called Gods Servant or Minister Jerem. 27.5 6. I have made the Earth and given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me and now I have given all these Lands into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon my Servant and all Nations shall serve him and his Son and his Sons Son untill the very time of his Land come and then many Nations and great Kings shall serve themselves of him Accordingly when Daniel spoke unto him he said Thou O King art a King of Kings for the God of Heaven hath given thee a Kingdom Power and Strength and Glory Chap. 2.37 and afterwards speaking of him unto Belshazzar his Son he said O thou King the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy Father a Kingdom and Majesty and Glory and Honor and for the Majesty that he gave him all People trembled and feared before him whom he would he slew and whom he would he kept alive and whom he would he set up and whom he would he pulled down According to this Doctrine also God calleth Cyrus his Shepherd and Anointed the very Titles which he gave the Kings of Israel whom he set over his own People Thus saith the Lord I am the Lord that maketh all things that Stretcheth forth the Heavens alone that saith of Cyrus he is my Shepherd and Thus saith the Lord to Cyrus his Anointed I have even called thee by thy name I have surnamed thee tho thou hast not known me I have chosen to instance in these two Pagan Kings rather than in the Kings of Israel because you may see that there is no difference among Soveraign Princes as to the Divinity of their Title but that the Sacred Order of Kings in general is the Ordinance of God And therefore God to Lecture this Doctrine more Emphatically unto us hath together with the Soveraign Autority communicated unto them his own name Thou shalt not revile the Gods saith God nor curse the ruler of thy People and saith the Psalmist Ps 82. God standeth in the Congregation of the Mighty he Judgeth among the Gods and I have said ye are Gods and all of you are Children of the most high In allusion to which saith our Saviour in his own defence Is it not written in your Law I said ye are Gods and if he called them Gods about whom the word of God was spoken say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the World thou blasphemest because thou sayest I am the Son of God That is as much as to say if Kings who arc Anointed and sent by God are called Gods and the Sons of God then how can it be blasphemy in me who am the Messias himself sent from God to say I am his Son Yes Kings are petty Gods who Govern men upon Earth as Michael and Gabriel Govern their Angels in Heaven by immediate delegation from God Their Soveraignty is an Image of his Soveraignty their Majesty the Figure of his Majesty and their Empire a similitude of his Empire they are Supream on Earth as he is in Heaven they derive not their Autority from their Subjects for that would be a contradiction as he derives not his from his creatures but from him alone they derive it they are his Lieutenants and Trustees the honor or dishonor we do them terminates in him who gives them their Scepters and sets them as the Scripture saith he set Solomon upon his own Throne and made him King for the Lord his God 1 Chr. 29.23.2 Chr. 9.8 This is further evident out of the New Testament from that solemn acknowledgment which our blessed Saviour as a Subject of the Empire made of the Soveraign Power of Tiberius whom he owned by paying the Tribute which was due unto him for the Minister of God For for this cause saith the Apostle pay you Tribute also because they are Gods Ministers attending continually upon this very thing To which I shall only add the verses before and after my text Let every soul be subject to the higher powers for there is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained of God whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Wilt thou then not be afraid of the Power do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same for 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 for he is the Minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil Wherefore you ought to be subject not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake Here you see how Emphatically the Apostle styleth the Power the Ordinance and the Potentate or Ruler the Minister of God And according to this Apostolical lesson the Primitive Christians did acknowledge the Autority of their persecuting Emperors to be derived from God †Ad Antol. L. 1. Theophilus Bishop of Antioch saith I will honor the Emperor but not adore him I dore the true God knowing that by him the Emperor is ordained And to the same purpose again He is not himself God but a man appointed by God and after a sort entrusted by God with the Oeconomy of the Empire So * Legat. pro Christ Athenagoras Addressing his speech to Marcus Antoninus and his Son Commodus to you saith he the power of all things is committed you have received the Empire from above So * L. 8. Origen tells Celsus that it was not the Heathen God Saturn but God who Governeth all things that setteth up Kings and giveth them Power to Reign and * Eccles Hist l. 7. c. 11. in Eusebius Dionysius of Alexandria saith in the name of the Christians we worship and adore the one God who hath committed the Kingdom to out Sacred Emperors Valcrianus and Gallienus And * l. 5. c. 24. Prenoeus Bishops and Martyr after a particular proof of this Doctrine by many texts of Scripture and this of mine among the rest concludes with these words By whose Command Kings are born Men by his Command