of all Duties of Subjects and particularly of Non-resistance saying They that resist shall receive Damnation as resisting the Powers that be of God and the Ordinance of God and requiring Subjection out of Conscience because they are Gods Ministers So that as to matter of Resistance any other King has the conscionable Bar against it as much as a King of Gods own naming if he be but Gods Minister and Ordinance But now the Power of Kings by humane Titles is Gods Power and God owns this way of coming in and empowers them as much as those that come in by his own personal Nomination declaring that their Power is his Power and that they are his Ministers and Ordinance All which S. Paul says as expresly of the Roman Emperor as he could have said of any Prince immediately call'd out and commission'd by God himself The seditious Jews I conceive were of this Opinion that the Heathen Powers not set up by any Revelations but left to humane Claims were not Kings of Gods making And so were wont to despise and speak slightfully of them Despising Dominion and speaking evil of Dignities as S. Jude says of the Seditious Judaizers v. 8. But S. Paul tells such Men that these Powers were as truly of God as any of their own Nation and that Gods Command for obeying Powers was as much for obeying these as it had been for obeying them There is no power saith he but of God And he that resists the Power resists the Ordinance of God 〈◊〉 the Divine Precept viz. the fifth Commandment or other Precepts that oblige Subjects and empower Princes and give as much Duty to these Heathen Powers as they had done to any among the Jews Rom. xiii 1 2. And like to this of the different ways of their coming in making no difference in our Duties to them we find in other instances In point of Property we come into our Lands and Possessions by an humane Law and Allotment but they came into theirs in Canaan by a divine But yet there is as much Stealing and a breach of the eighth Commandment in taking away our things from us as there was in taking away theirs from them And in case of Servitude the Primitive Masters came by their Servants either as their Captives taken in War or as their Purchase bought with money like their Cattle in the Markets but we by Contract all our Servants voluntarily submitting themselves to us and at their own choice Yet for all this different Rise of Masters Powers when once Servants are got under them the same Gospel Precepts of Diligence Fidelity and not answering again c. do equally oblige in both Cases The Duties respecting either Power or Property depend not on the particular manure of coming in but only on the Rightfulness and Degrees of that Power and Property which any Persons are come in to More Power I grant there is in some Princes and more Liberties to some Subjects than to others according to the difference of Civil Governments and Constitutions But since the Power of the Jewish Kings was a Power limited by Laws as ours is an Invasion of Laws and Rights can no more justifie Resistance in our Case than it did in theirs And to say they did not come into this limited and Legal Power the same way makes no difference as to this business The Scriptures of the New Testament likewise they endeavor to turn off by saying they only bind us not to resist when true Religion has Laws against it but for all those Precepts we may resist when it has a Law on its side If we may do thus when we have a Law for Religion then since Law is as good in one Case as in another when we have a Law for Liberty or Property or any thing else But this as I have shewn is contrary to the sense of those Gospel Precepts and to the Belief and Practice of Gospel and Primitive Times Which tied up the Hands of Christians when they suffered illegal things and were treated by their Governors in numerous and most concerning Points against the Laws Again they say those Precepts were directed against Jews who were not for submitting or paying Allegiance to Foreiners or Heathens Admit they had one Eye against these yet at the same time they had as much against any others that would have run into the same Jewish Practice or have been for making Warlike Resistance to those Powers on any other pretences The thing those Precepts are plainly for securing is Non-Resistance to those Powers notwithstanding any thing that could be alledged against them And as the Jews might pretend in those days that they were Foreiners and Heathens so might others and with as much truth too that they were Invaders of Laws of Rights and Liberties And yet for all these or any other pretences Seditious Spirits should start the Apostles peremptorily injoyn all good Christians to own them still as Gods Ordinance and to forbear all warlike Resistance towards them not only for wrath but for Conscience sake And thus in obedience to those injunctions they all practised at that time as their followers did in the succeeding Persecutions And the Scriptures are written for a Rule of Christs Church alike in all times as much to us as they were to former Ages So that these Precepts both of Old and New Testament are as binding upon us as ever they were upon either the Jews or the Primitive Christians And whatever pretences were pleadable in their Case whilst the Inspired Pen-men told them they were bound not to Resist to be sure those same pretences can never Cancel our Obligation more than it did theirs or make it lawful for us do it We must follow them to Heaven in the same way the Apostles taught and they took or else we are not like to get thither at all CHAP. VI. Of the unlawfulness of Resistance on such Invasions of Rights by our own Laws TO all this which I have hitherto Discoursed from the Obligations both of Jews and Christians I shall now Thirdly In the Thrid Place Note from our own Laws how little Ground there is with us in these Realms to take up Arms against our Sovereigns for any Rights because of their being Legal or for Religion because of its being taken into the Law of the Land For those very Laws which establish our Religion and particularly the Act of Uniformity forbid this way of Defence and declare it unlawful on any Pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King This Declaration was made upon occasion of the Great Rebellion begun in 41. and for preventing any ones falling into the like again And therefore by any Pretence whatsoever it must more particularly include all those Pretences which were given out for taking Arms at that time And those Pretences as may be seen from the Votes and Declararations of that Parliament a brief Account whereof is given in the View of the late
World p. 11. l. 33. r. that it is but fit p. 14. l. 17. r. this external Force p. 23. l. 6. in the Margin r. cited p. 3. p. 29. l. 15. in the Margin r. Apol. p. 6. c. 13. p. 38. l. 18. in the Margin r. c. l. 4. p. 39. l. 8. r. Romans p. 43. l. 29. r. to bear p. 46. l. 16. r. which no Judge and l. 25 in the Margin r. convenit eum p. 51. l. 21. in the Margin r. Vindemiam p. 52. l. 11. r. Persecutors p. 65. l. 1 r. manner p. 66. l. 24. r. third p. 67. l. 29. r. Houses p. 68. l. 17. r. not on p. 71. l. 7. r. Salvo p. 79. l. 1. r. Sue for it in CHRISTIANITY A DOCTRINE OF THE CROSS PAssive Obedience to Sovereign Powers is keeping under their Obedience when we suffer wrongfully at their hands If they command things against the Law of God or of the Land we ought not or if against the inviolable Liberties which Laws have secured against the Prerogative in their respective Kingdoms we need not ordinarily be Active in doing what we are bidden In other things a just and lawful Authority must have Active Obedience But when they come to punish against Laws or for such things as with a safe Conscience their Subjects could not act in they are still to continue under their Obedience and in a state of Subjection And this is by being Passive or not rising up to Resist and Levy War against them They may seek to guard off the unjust Suffering by Petitioning by claiming the help of Law from Courts of Justice whilst there are any Provisions for help yet untryed therein or by any other fitting ways consistent with Subjection But not by running to Arms when all other ways fail and by lifting Soldiers for no Man will stand in Arms by himself against him to defend their own Rights against their lawful Sovereign Whilst a Prince is our lawful Sovereign Obedience must be Due to him and whilst we are under his Obedience we must be Passive and have no liberty in this sort to resist him This Doctrine of Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance seems both most plainly prescribed by the Precepts and most sutable to the Spirit and Genius of Holy Religion The Fifth Commandment under the name of Honor injoyns both Reverence and Support of Princes as our Politick Fathers But when Subjects make War upon them instead of paying Fear and Reverence they are plainly in a state of bidding Defiance and when the Sword is unsheathed against them that is evidently not for their Support but for the beating and pulling of them Down Put them in mind saith S. Paul to obey Magistrates But there is most visibly an end of Obedience when things are come to this pass and Men under command cannot possibly do any thing more contrary to shewing Obedience than to rise and fall upon their Commanders Submit says S. Peter to every ordinance of man Yea Let every soul be subject saith S. Paul But what becomes of submission when they fall thus to resisting For every Man must needs be sensible he doth no longer submit to another when he stands up to resist and fight against him Christianity is a Doctrine of the Cross which is one of its Distinguishing Marks nothing in account thereof being more necessary more proper and praise-worthy than for Christians to take up and bear Crosses Whence came those Crosses so much as from the Persecuting Powers And if the Crosses which Christians profess to bear are such as Persecuting Sovereigns lay on it is plain they profess not to Resist which is out of the way of bearing but to shew Passive Obedience under them For there is an end of taking up and bearing Crosses when instead of taking up and bearing Men set themselves with all their might to shake them off or beat them back again These passages and such like do sufficiently bear out the Duty of Non-Resistance even to the most ordinary Understandings if they will but attend to them Besides that S. Paul has told us in express terms that they who resist the Higher Powers shall receive to themselves damnation All this was true say the Advocates of Resistance at those times and in those Cases for which these Rules were given But those were where the wills of Governors were Laws or where the Laws brought Crosses not where the Laws as it is with us are a Cover against them Religion it self say they doth not authorise Resistance but Civil Right doth And if Religion is by Law made a Civil Right we may Resist for it as we may for other Civil Rights and Properties Not being bound by any of these Precepts to bear Crosses which the Law keeps off Nor tyed to submission under invasion of Civil Rights which carry with them a power to rise in Defence thereof This Plea is set up as the main strength of those that argue against the Doctrine of Passive Obedience And my design is particularly to Discuss it and to inquire whether the Precepts and Obligations to Passive Obedience were given and kept with an exception of these Invasions of Civil Rights or with a design to bind under them and as a Rule to Christians whilst they suffered such Invasions This way of Warlike Resistance is a very hazardous course and thereby Men extremely expose their own Persons And that which tempts them thus to hazard themselves as the most serious are wont to profess is their Affection for Religion Like as that which is given out to justifie them therein is its being made a Civil Right or Legal Constitution And I shall endeavour to shew them that Religion gets no good by it so they are mistaken in the way of shewing their Affection And that its being a Civil Right will not warrant them therein so they will miss also of their Justification The former I shall not pass over without saying so much as I think sufficient to undeceive the honest and well meaning But the clearing of the later is what I principally design CHAP. I. No Arming against Sovereign Powers in love for Religion TO take off the pretence and temptation to war-like Resistance against the Soveraign Powers for the sake of Religion I shall shew in the first place that this Rising in Arms is no wise expression of Mens care and kindness for true Religion Religion is an internal thing It doth not hang without us as the things of the world but is inward in the mind It is lodged in our hearts and is to dwell upon our Spirits The Kingdom of God is within you says our Saviour Luk. xvii 2 It consists in a New Nature and the Renewal of the mind says S. Paul Rom. xii 2 It lies in Faith and Obedience which are Spiritual and internal things Their Power and Excellence take life from and are seated in the inner Man though they are expressed and made visible in the
in Laws that say themselves they do not except any Cases And this the foresaid Declarations do in this point of Resistance declaring it to be unlawful to take up Arms against the King on any Pretence whatsoever Yea being made with a particular Eye against these Pretences of Invasion of Laws Religion c. So that they must needs be understood to comprehend and not to except them as I noted before Besides Military Resistance of Sovereign Powers stands forbid by the Letter not only of our Laws but also of Nature and Scripture the Fifth Commandment and other Scripture Precepts calling indispensibly for Subjection and Obedience which bars all such Resistance to Sovereign Princes from all Persons and at all times And there is no pleading Equity to exempt any Cases from the Generality of their Expressions For there is no urging Equity against Natural Duties In mere Positives or in things of mere Human Obligation it may have more Place But in Matters of intrinsick Goodness and Natural Obligation it has none They are standing Rules that admit of no exception and the Plea of Equity must always and only be for the keeping but never for the breaking of them No Man must ever pretend Equity for leave to commit Murder or Adultery or to Steal or to Rebel or to Transgress any other Law of Nature For the main care of Equity is to make these Duties inviolable and so the Argument to be drawn from thence is in every Case to Act according to them but in no Case to Act against them The Pretence for Equities exempting some Cases from the Prohibitions of Resistance is for the safety of Subjects because say some no Man can owe so much Duty to his Prince as not to have a Salve for his Safety especially for his Life But what a Man owes or is oblig'd to by the Law of Nature not only to his Prince but to the meanest Fellow-Subject or to any of Mankind is without any such Salvo even for Life and he may not transgress such Natural Duty towards them tho it were to save his Life It not being lawful to Steal or Murder or commit Adultery or Transgress any other Natural Duties against our Neighbours no not when we are the most put upon it and tempted thereto to save our selves I add whatever People spurr'd on by a desire of Revenge may vainly fancy in Favor of their own Passions that Equity sets more by Submission in all Cases than by this desired Liberty of Resistance Its first Precept about this Matter is whatever the Governor be to have Government kept up which is by holding on Submission that is always cast off by Resisting And this not only in Regard to Gods Authority whereto it calls for Justice and Submission tho in an evil Prince but also in Care of the Subjects own Good Which amidst all the hazards Men may think the Doctrine of Non-Resistance to be attended withal is much more and much safer in this Constancy of Submission and Non-Resistance than it would be in the contrary Liberty of Resisting and running to Arms on the foresaid Pretences Lastly that Equity doth not exempt from this Non-Resistance is plain because it is a general Principle and what exemption it gives would be General under all Governments absolute as well as limited and in all times and Places one having as much Claim to Natural Equity as another has And so there would have been Exemption thereby under the Roman Emperors fancied tho without Ground to have been absolute and arbitrary Governors and in the Primitive Scripture Times as well as under our Kings and in this present or the preceding Age. Whereas our Blessed Saviour and his Holy Apostles and the Primitive Saints plainly admit of no exemption under those Emperors And the Managers of this Plea own there was none nor allow any Liberty of Resisting under any absolute and arbitrary King They appeal likewise from these Declarations of our Laws to the Nature of our Constitution and the end of our Frame and think it will justifie that Resistance which these Sayings and Declarations of Law Condemn But as to our Constitution thereby the Supremacy is fixed solely in the King and therein is an express denyal of all Coercive Power over him and a Declaration or Maxim that he can do no Wrong what he doth being by Ministers and they only and not he being accountable in any Court here for the same All which leaving neither Fault imputable to him to deserve it nor Autority in any others to Try and Judge him for the same must needs bar all Forfeitures of the Crown The whole power of the Militia or of Listing Soldiers the Law declares to be only in him And loudly asserts the unlawfulness and Treasonableness of all Levying War against him Nay that even the Parliament themselves as I noted have no Power to make any War either Offensive or Defensive against him And in a Government of this Frame owning one irresistible Sovereign and thus carefully excluding all taking Arms against him I do not see whence any should hope to fetch this Liberty of Resisting And as for the end of that part of our Constitution which lies in securing our Liberties and Properties that is plainly with limitation and so far only as they can be secured to Subjects continuing Subjects i.e. in Consistence with Submission which is thrown off by Military Resisting They are to be secured thereby to the Subjects of these Realms so far as they can be secured under a Sovereign and irresistible Prince as our Constitution makes ours to be and by Men keeping to their Duty and Obedience CHAP. VII Of Passive Obedience under Invaders of Natural Rights And these as Defensable by Arms as Civil Rights HAving hitherto shewn that the Invasion of Civil Rights and Laws gives no exemption from the Gospel Duties of Obedience and Non-Resistance which I think I have made pretty plain both from the Case of Jews and Gentiles and from our own Laws themselves I now proceed to shew in the Fourth and last place that if this defensibleness of Legal Rights would exempt us a like Defensibleness of Natural Rights would as well have exempted all other Subjects of Sovereign Powers And so contrary to what the Advocates of Resistance themselves affirm would have left no such Duty in the World as Passive Obedience The true Christian and Thank worthy Passiveness as S. Peter observes not being that of Malefactors who suffer for their real Faults but of Righteous Persons and Well-Doers who cannot suffer but by an Invasion of Rights or unrighteous usage All Oppressors invade Mens Natural Rights if they have no Civil Laws to make them Civil Rights That Ruler who has no Civil Laws to guide him is yet bound to guide himself by the Law of Nature and Reason Now Nature makes Right and Wrong and appoints Laws for them Else by the mere Law of Nature there could be no such thing as
thing or make the Law which forbids it cease to be a Rule to them No the Laws of God and Men are to be the Rules of conscionable acting The Autority of the Law is the Autority of a Rule And for a Rule it is the best Autority And an humane Law is the best Humane Autority And where Kings neither make nor unmake and repeal Laws alone the King commanding in the Laws is of more Autority to rule the Subjects Actings than the King commanding against them And what doth his Autority give him as to that particular illegal Act Not to be questionable or accountable for it among Men or coercible by Force and armed Opposition And that because for all that act he is still our King and we owe him Subjection Receiving such illegal Acts from our King we must receive them as Subjects And the obligation of continuing Subjects excludes all Liberty of armed Resistance Whence say they in an illegal Act has a Sovereign Prince this Autority From the Fifth Commandment and from all those Commandments that require Submission and Obedience and being subject unto Princes For the plain intent of all those Precepts as may sufficiently appear I think from what I have said on this Argument is to require these to Princes that break as well as to those that keep Laws to unjust as well as to righteous Sovereigns And if God commands us to submit and keep in Subjection to a Sovereign Prince that acts against Laws he must forbid us to resist such for men put off Subjection when they fall to Resisting It may be asked still has he it from the Law of the Land Yes What from the Law he invades Doth the Law give him Autority to break it self No but by all those Laws that declare he incurs no Forfeiture by such Invasions For all those Laws that own and declare such Invader to be still our King determine our Subjection to him and forbid us to resist him For Men are no longer in the state and posture of Subjects when they come to arm against their Sovereigns If a Man suffers illegally they will demand by what Law By none surely for then there is an end of the Illegality But to ask for a Law for his suffering is to ask for something to justifie or make it just in the eye of Law that he should suffer But this is not pretended from the Kings Autority and it is supposed to be an unjust and illegal Suffering But if the King has no Autority to justifie the illegal Suffering has he any Autority to bar the illegal Sufferers resisting Yes the Regal Autority not being lost by that illegal Act but still abiding in him For all he makes a Man suffer against Law he is still his King And that is a Reason against Resisting For by all Law both of God and Man we must be subject to our King And he ceases to be subject that draws his Sword against him CHAP. IX The Reasons of Non resistance And how it makes not Arbitrary Government I Shall only add now in the last place concerning this Non-resistance or not arming against invading Princes required of and practised by the first and best Christians what Regards they were guided by and what Reasons they looked at for this Observance 1. The first and chiefest was in Reverence to God's Ordinance insomuch as those Rulers were Gods Anointed his Ministers or his Vicegerents How can I stretch forth my hand against Saul says David and be guiltle§ seeing he is the Lords anointed 1 Sam. xxvi 9 and c. xxiv 6 And he that resists shall receive Damnation saith S. Paul as resisting the Ordinance of God Rom. xiii 2 And he is the Minister of God wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake v. 4 5. And like to these are the Sayings of the Primitive Fathers for Submission to the persecuting Emperors Tertullian grounds the Duty of Allegiance we owe the Emperor on this that he is deputed by God and has his Power from the same from whom he has his Spirit that he is one quem Deus eligit qui à nostro Deo constitutus i.e. whom God has appointed à Dominus Dei vice Gods Vicegerent or a Lord over us in Gods place and stead whom knowing à Deo constitui to be Gods Ordinance every Christian ought of necessity to love reverence and wish safe This made the Sacredness and Autority of the Emperor in their eyes because as Athenagoras tells Marcus and his Son Commodus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Empire they had received from God The same which Dionysius of Alexandria said afterwards of Valerianus and Gallienus to Aemilian the Praesect And because as Theophilus says in his Book to Autolycus under the Emperor Commodus tho the Emperor is not God yet he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Man ordained of God and under him to do Judgment and Justice And this also is the ground of Subjects Duty and Allegiance in the Doctrine of our Church All Subjects do owe of bounden Duty Obedience Submission and Subjection to the Higher Powers for as much as they be Gods Lieutenants Gods Praesidents Gods Officers c. says the Homily of Obedience Part 1. And again all Subjects are bound to obey them yea though they be evil and that for Conscience sake as Gods Ministers Though they be wicked and abuse their Power yet therefore it is not lawful for their Subjects to withstand them because even wicked Rulers have their Power and Autority from God Homily of Obedience Part 2. Now all these are Reasons not to Resist the worst as well as the best Kings the infringers of Rights as well as the maintainers of them For all Men rightfully invested with Power are Gods Ministers his Anointed and his Ordinance however they employ their Power The bad are as well as the good at their worst as well as at their best times Saul is the Lords Anointed as well as David Zedekiah as well as Josiah Nero Domitian Dioclesian or other bloody Persecuting Emperors as well as the most just and godly Kings The same that gave the Power says S. Austin to Marius gave it also to C. Caesar he that conferred it on Augustus gave it also to Nero he that bestowed it on the Vespasians Father and Son those most obliging Emperors bestowed it also on Domitian so infamous for his Cruelties And not to particularize any further he that set up Constantine the Christian Emperor set up Julian too who Apostatized from Christ. In reading the Holy Scriptures says our Church in the Homily against willful Rebellion we shall find in very many and almost infinite Places as well of the Old Testament as of the New that Kings and Princes as well the evil as the good do Reign by Gods Ordinance c. They have their Power and Authority from God says the Homily of Obedience and are