Preachers suffered in King James his Time all that he laid upon them and that with patience enough and since his Descrtion they have had no Temptation to speak either of Resistance or Non-resistance for the truth is that this is one of those sort of Doctrines which is in the Text but is not yet got into the Creed it may come into the Pulpit and may be kept out of it it will neither do King nor People good but when external Emergencies call for it In peaceable and quiet Times when Law and Justice flourish and there is little complaining either in House or Street if Preachers harangue upon Non-resistance they puzzle and confound the People and give 'em ill Work to find out possible Causes of Resistance and to examine the Grounds and Reasons for Non-resistance But when the People grow peevish and froward quarrelling and complaining against daring and designing upon the Government then the Doctrine of Non-resistance and S. Paul's Text for it may be brought forth to awe and scare them to terrifie and affrighten them to allay their heat and fury and to bring them to a more discreet Temper to the Exercise of Christian Patience and Modesty Upon this account many have much commended the Labors of the Church of England Divines in the late Times of Contrasts and Oppositions of Plottings and Counter-plottings because they did much good in supporting of the Government and for the restraining of the Madness of People and toward the prevention of Intestine Broils and Civil War But yet seeing the Preaching or not Preaching upon that Subject is matter of Prudence and depends upon times and seasons and many by considerations from whence it may either do good or harm it must be confess'd that Sermons of that sort were not every where received with the like favour and submission Because some feared that great Evil to the Kingdom and Nation might come from them inasmuch as they naturally tended not only to tame and subdue the People by allaying their zeal for their Civil Rights and Interests but likewise they might embolden evil Ministers and Counsellors to set the King upon the pernicious Project of making his advantage of the Subjects good nature and easiness toward the subverting of their Religion Laws Rights and the enslaving of the whole People For that reason many said that the Preachers were too warm and went beyond their boundaries for they ventured sometimes to treat upon matters that were only to be concerted betwixt the King and his People in a Parliament they did not think that the Magna Charta was against the Law of God tho it is not altogether the same with Samuel's Declaration 1 Sam. 8. They did not think that God would damn Men for defending and securing in all just and fair ways those Rights which they have received from their Forefathers by vertue of a National Constitution that has remained one and the same for some Hundreds of years They observed that there is but one Text declaring the damnation of Subjects resisting but there are Hundreds that threaten as highly Kings and Governors and Potentates who are injurious and oppressive of those that are under them Now if Charity govern Men in the choice of that Subject and it be designed to save the Souls of the People from damnation they wished that there were intermixed a little Charity toward the Souls of Kings that they too might be rescued from the damning sin of Oppression And it was thrown our with an under Correction that if Kings would venture against so many Texts upon Gods pardon to enlarge their Powers the People might as well venture against one to preserve their Rights Besides it was somewhat sharply and angrily said by the Men who had been intrusted in Parliaments and in the management of publick Affairs That seeing the Clergy challenged spiritual Powers by vertue of the Text and would not allow Kings or Parliaments to limit abridge or straiten their Rights They might well leave the temporal Power to the Text too which is the Law of the Land and the proper Interpreters of it which is a Parliament and not presume dogmatically to determine against the use of that which at sometimes is the onely natural and necessary means to obtain and secure to themselves Right and Justice Thus Men differed and spake their thoughts freely concerning the usefulness and effects of those Discourses especially as to the point of Prudence in the timing of them But yet whatever they said it is manifest that the Preachers designed no base or mean thing to betray their Countrey their Religion or the Laws to the arbitrary disposition of the King whilst they persuaded to Christian Patience and Submission because the same Men that preached up Non-resistance did with Courage and Spirit enough in proper time and place appear in the behalf of the Laws and the established Religion both against Popery and against all unjust usurpation of the peoples Rights and if at other times they did any thing toward the correcting a tumultuous and rebellious humor to prevent Civil War and Confusion the Nation has the benefit of their labours and all persons of Justice and Equity owe them due thanks But yet our Historian is as angry as if a Hare had crossed him in the way something has happened which he thought not of and who can help that He might have thought better They are in and perhaps he is out for that reason he will think that they have changed their Principles Alas this is gross mistake They did their duty in declaring to the people that they ought not to resist but they never became Warrantees to the late King that in case of Wrong and Injury they would not All the World knows that it is good for a Nation that the People should think that they ought not upon any pretence whatsoever resist their King so that the King does but at the same time remember that Oppression makes a wise Man mad and that an injured people always did and always will endeavour to recover or secure their Rights as well against their King as against their Neighbours He must have rare Skill in Language and Argument who can prevail upon a people to be willing to be Slaves when they may and ought to be free or to stand still and see their Goods taken from them merely because another has a mind to them If they must lose in one kind they expect to gain some other way for generally they are of Saint Peter's mind when he said to our Saviour Matth. 19. 27. We have forsaken all and followed thee what shall we have therefore The Question deserved an Answer and upon it our Saviour gave a most gracious promise of advantages in this World and in the other too Had we the like Promise in the Case of Submission or Non-resistance to Princes who will be Absolute and Arbitrary Divines would have a better Argument and might expect better effects of their
which does not derive from the Text but from previous thoughts which Men have entertained concerning Slavery and Freedom As they are affected to the thing so they judge that they find Argument for it Now I for my part am for the later interpretation because I have a good Opinion of Liberty or Freedom but if another prefers slavery and thinks he has Argument from that Text to be a Slave let him be a Slave and let him enjoy his Opinion of the thing and of the Text too I shall not hinder him But I must say it would be an undecency in him to call my understanding into question for differing from him because I have the highest Probability the Concurrence of the Wisest and the best in all Ages on my side But yet this may be done because when Men leave common Sense and seek for extraordinary Notion they usually grow froward and troublesome Tacitus remarks in the 14th of his Annals that some who had got into their Heads that flight of the Stoicks That a Wise Man was a KING presently begun to be busy and medling and very scornful of others Ea male intellecta arrogantes faciebat turbidos It is pity that such little things should give disturbance to Kingdoms and Nations but it cannot be help't for it is Opinion that governs Men and it is not what is great but what is thought to be great that stirrs them A little before the fatal overthrow of Jerusalem there were many warm Persons in it who had their Heads full of Fancies and particular Notions and for the sake of them they could run upon the most desperate Enterprizes but they would not know the things that belonged to their Peace Pliny has a saying that has much puzzled Physicians and Criticks He says that Men die of Sapience or Wisdom per Sapientiam Mori The Physicians find no such Distemper in their Books but guess that he means a Phrensy Something there is that gets into Mens heads which seems to them that have it to be high Wisdom but to others a meer Phrensy which is extreamly mortal and pernicious Solomon so long ago advised properly against it and it were to be wish'd that his Councel might yet be taken He says Ecclesiastes 7. 16. Be not Righteous overmuch neither make thy self overwise why shouldest thou destroy thy self It is hard to think that Men should be either over-righteous or over-wise but if Men will affect impracticable Notions without sufficient Grounds and look upon them as their Righteousness or their Wisdom and that meerly because these are against themselves and destructive of themselves they may well enough be said to be over-righteous and over-wise Thirdly The Third thing to be spoken of is the Origination of Power and this is a Subject which I could willingly omit because I judge it for the Interest of a Nation both King and People that the People have as High and as Reverend Thoughts as they can both of their King and his Power Let them think that they have their King from God and that he has his Power from God and let him think so too all this tends to good because it will make him in the Exercise of his Power to Act in the fear of God and by vertue of that fear to abstain from wrong and to do Justice And it will awe the People with a dread of their King's Majesty and of their God's and so keep them from being froward and peevish mutinous and rebellious whilest they believe themselves in such actions not only to be offenders against the Law of the Land but sinners against the Will and Pleasure of God Upon this Account I could willingly chime in with the Compiler of this History and with him fault Hobbs and Milton and Doleman or Parsons and with him declare against those Doctrines That Power is originally in the Body of the People and that the Foundation of all Government is laid in compact as he says in his Preface And I could say with him in his conclusion pag. 132. That Power is only from God These may be allowed him or let pass without altercation so that Men use them according to their natural tendency for the Support of Righteousness Justice and Goodness But if these be used to dazzle and amuse People that others may have advantage to Rob and Spoil them If by vertue of these a passage is made to let in upon a Nation a lawless Power Wrong Injury and Tyranny If Law Religion common Sense must all be laid aside and one of the best framed Polities in the World must be subverted by ill consequences and forced Pleas deduced from these Doctrines we may certainly have Liberty to examin both the Principle and the Deductions we may consider what the one will bear and how the other is laid upon it If we must be Slaves it is all one to us whether we be made such in the way of Hobbs or of this Historian it is all one whether a King has his Power from God or from the People if he must be absolutely absolute and be obeyed without reserve without consideration of Law and Right And if a King must be a Monster altogether Arbitrary meer Will acting at pleasure without bounds or limits he may as well be made such by the People as by God and of the two the People are the more likely to make the Monster because God is always Wise and Good and all his Actions are Just and Right and therefore as there is more of God in Power there should be more of Goodness and Righteousness in the Exercise of it It seems therefore a Design ill laid to challenge for Princes an infinite Power of doing what they will without Check or Controul from National Constitutions because their Powers come from God or to be zealous to fetch all the Powers of Princes from God for this purpose that they may do evil things securely that they may do what they please right or wrong without danger or hazard without stop or lett If we believe the Apostle Rom. 13. The Powers that come from God and are ordained of God are not they cannot be a Terror to good Works but according to this way of discoursing they are as terrible to the good as to the bad and that for this Reason because they come from God Had Princes that singular Excellency of Nature which God has that they neither would nor could do evil they might then be allowed to act as he does according to the good pleasure of their Wills without Controul But if we assert that they may do evil they may oppress rob spoil kill murther and do all the base things which any other man can do for which they have no License or Power from God why may they not then have some stops from human Constitutions to lett and hinder them from doing those things which God never gave them power to do and to keep them in those Methods of acting which God
directs the Use of it It exerts it self to those Purposes for which St. Paul tells us 1 Tim. 1. 9. That the Law of God was made not for the Righteous to oppress them but for the Lawless and Disobedient to beat them down to shame as well as punish them In these Methods a King may be strong and mighty able to throw down and cast down strong Holds and Imaginations and all that exalteth it self against God and Goodness and Himself too If then men will have us to say that Power comes from God and only from God we may well allow it because we know that Nature and an inclination to sociable living and Order come from God and only from him all these are good and God is the Giver of all good things and besides we find so much of goodness both for King and People in this National Constitution that we may well think that God himself by his Providence did influence our Fore-Fathers to agree and fix upon it But now if men from this speculative Notion of Power descending down from God will draw and force out Consequences and by vertue of them will set up and pull down at pleasure make new Frames of Government and Schemes of Policy If they will say that this excellent Disposition of Affairs must be thrown down and the English Law be laid aside and right and wrong become mutable at pleasure if they will say that Kings of England must be absolute and obeyed without Reserve and all this only for this Reason because their Power comes from God I hope that they will expect that we should beg their Pardons they may think that we judge their Logick deceives them and that they left their Aristotle too soon A Philosopher once undertook to demonstrate that it was impossible there should be any such thing as Motion and he talk'd prettily upon the Subject but all the while he talk'd men of plain sense laught at him for his vain design yet however he went on demonstrating and they laughing So it is Men engaged in a bold Adventure will go on whether they have or have not hope of Success If Men would but consider fairly they must see that there is a vast distance between their Principle and their Consequence it does not follow that because God gives Power therefore Kings must be free to do what they please or that they cannot be restrained by National Constitutions to exert their power in particular ways and methods For who knows but the Limitations and Restrictions of power may come from God too for there are no more miraculous Attestations to the Divine Origine and descent of the one than there is of the other And it would be agreeable to God's goodness to do it because Power is in it self a very flexible thing that may be bent and bowed this way or the quite contrary it is like unto Nature which as it came from God was very good but as the man who had that Nature and was therewith made upright sought out many Inventions So the King who has from God the power may do the same The man thought many of his own Inventions to be his Nature and to come from God and a King may think many of his to be his power and to come from God Therefore as God gave new Laws to limit and bind in the man and his Nature so he may and it were agreeable enough to his Goodness if he should in the Course of his Providence direct and order Affairs so that there might be Limitations and Restrictions given to the King and his Power But besides according to the usual Course of things God generally gives Bounds to Power according to which it shall or shall not operate and therefore as he makes one Power so he makes another answerable to it as he makes the Agent so he makes the Patient as he makes Fire so he makes combustible Matter to receive it and to feed it or else the Fire will soon go out God gives to men Power over the Beasts of the field but if a man will command any one of them he must treat 'em in ways agreeable to their Natures and make them to find that it is good to be commanded He that comes on the blind or the sore side of his Horse may have a kick and he that will vex and fret his Dog may have a Bite and none in such a Case will blame either the Horse or the Dog but the indiscreet Master God gives to Kings Power over men their Subjects but if a King will treat his Subjects just as the indiscreet Master does his Horse or his Dog he can hope for no better Returns than what the other finds Men and Beasts by the Frame of their Natures are in this much alike you have them you loose them they come to you or run from you just as you treat them give them kind Usage and fair Treatment they both will follow and serve and endeavour to please but if they find that they must be abused kick'd and starved if they find nothing but the Effects of Wrath or Contempt that they must be trampled upon each of them will get off and shift for it self and seek a more easie and comfortable State of Beeing Now this Temper whether in subject Man or subject Beast coming from God as well as Power in governing King or governing Man the one of these must be suted and accommodated to the other and must proceed in all Actions upon the supposition of it and as it is the Mans part to find out the proper Ways to gain upon the Beast to win him and make him his own fit for his Service so it is the King's part to find out and to use a due and proper Managery for his People by which he may bring them in to himself and beget in them Trusts and Confidences towards him God makes a Power in one to lay on and in another to bear but he that lays on must consider what the other can bear or else house and all manner of impositions will come to the Ground and possibly overthrow and ruine him in the Downfall Every Power has some Bounds and natural proper ways of exerting it self whereby it becomes effectual and of use He that would have Food from Cows or Cloathing from Sheep or Service from Horses or Dogs he must provide for them that first they may do well for themselves before they can do well for him he must therefore feed them and defend them from Fears and Affrightments such as usually hinder them from attending to their own Necessities and Interests But he that will not give 'em whereon to feed or if he does puts Wolves and Lyons amongst them to scare and terrifie them must never expect good or benefit from them Thus it was and ever will be what way soever the Man came to have Power over them right Titles to them whether that was from God or man by Donation or