thae resist the Magistrate shall receive to themselves damnation Rom. 13.2 My second use will be by way of Exhortation First to Inferiours If the God of Heaven hath appointed Magistrates to be as Gods on earth it exhorteth us to honour them Honour the King 1 Pet. 2.17 saith the Holy Ghost Honour to whom honour belongeth Rom. 13.7 There is honour due to our civil as well as to our natural Parents so much is expressed in that standing Law of God the fifth Commandement Exod. 20. Though they are to be honoured as Gods yet not as the true God civil respect is due to them not divine Yet some Roman Emperours out of intolerable pride have affected to be called Gods and commanded others to sacrifice to them This civil honour is to be visible 1. In giving reverence to their persons 2. In yielding obedience to their righteous precepts First in reverencing their persons Magistrates are honoured by God and therefore may well be honoured by us Those who are dignified by God must not be debased by men We ought to honour them in our hearts by standing in aw of them by esteeming them as they resemble God Prov. 24.21 and are in his place to be higher and worthier then others Thou are worth ten thousand of us say they to David 2 Sam. 18.3 The godly people counted King Josiah The breath of their nostrils Lament 4.20 And the Holy Ghost brandeth them for sons of Belial that despised Saul in their hearts though he were a wicked King 1 Sam 10.27 In our carriage we must honour them by rising up to them Job 28.9 by bowing the body to them 2 Sam. 14.20 by silence when they speak Job 29.9 10. Honour is an outward signification of that inward reverend opinion which we have of them for their dignity and greatness They are honoured in our speeches The Patriarchs call Joseph their Lord Gen. 42.10 and themselves his servants vers. 19. Paul calleth Act. 26.25 Most Noble Festus Hester 5.8 If I have found favour in the fight of the King and if it please the King to grant my Petition and to perform my request saith holy Hester to the Heathen King It is reported of the great Grand-father of Fabius Maximus that though he had bean five times Consul and had obtained many triumphs for divers honourable victories yet when his own son was Consul be willingly submitted himself to him served under him as his Lieutenant followed on Horseback his son in his triumphing Chariot But such Heathen will rise up in judgement against many christians Secondly your honouring them must appear by your yielding obedience to their lawful precepts In the Kingdom of Christ this is wonderful saith Zanchy That he willeth and commandeth all Princes and Potentates to be subject to his Kingdom and yet he willeth and commandeth that his Kingdom be subject to Princes and Potentates Tit. 3.1 Put them in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers and to obey Magistrates Subjection note their acknowledgement of obedience to be due and obedience notes the act it self of obeying or the practice answerable to the fore-mentioned principle By Principalities are meant those that have the Supreme power as Kings or chief Magistrates Powers signifie such as exercise delegated authority and hold from those higher Powers as Presidents of Provinces Lieutenants of Counties Judges Justices Maiors c. Now put them in remembrance Men are apt to be forgetful both of obedience to God and the Gods Naturally we are so proud and high that we are unwilling to stoop to those that are higher and therefore we had need to be put in mind of our duties to submit our selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether to the King as Supreme or unto Govenours as unto them that sent by him 1 Pet. 2.14 Good Rulers we must obey saith one as God bad for God But take notice I say Magistrates must be obeyed in their lawful commands If a King saith our Civil Law giveth laws out of his Territories he is not to be obeyed And it Magistrates command what God for biddeth they give laws out of their own Dominions and therefore saith the Divine law they are not to be obeyed God indeed is to be obeyed universally and unlimitedly intuitu voluntat is upon the bare sight of his will but I must examine the laws of men by the laws of God and if they dissonant and disagreeing to Gods laws I must be disobedient to their laws No meer mans Ipse dixit is sufficient Acts 6.29 We ought to obey God rather then men The men of Calicot say some will do whatsoever their Emperours command though it be to worship the Devil as some write they do but we must observe the order of commands Fear God is before Honour the King 1 Pet. 2.17 And again My son fear the Lord and the King Prov. 24.21 And Eccles. 8.2 My son keep the Kings command and that because of the Outh of God which latter words And that because of the oath of God are not only a reason but as is excellently observed a limitation to the precedent Exhortation They are a reason or enforcement It is necessary to give obedience to Magistrates not only out of fear towards them because of their sword but out of conscience towards God because of his vows that are upon us Rom. 13.5 and so it seems to relate to some Covenant and Oath of fidelity which was taken by the people towards their Princes 1 Chron. 11.3 Isai. 19.18 And surely Oaths to Magistrates are to be kept though some slip Oaths as easily as the Monkies do their collars and like the man possessed with the Devil break all those bonds asunder God will have a time to make inquisition for perjury when his roll of curses ten yards long and five yards broad shall rest in the house of him that for sweareth himself and destroy it Zach. 5.2 But the words may be considered as a limitation Keep the Kings command but so that thou do not violate thine Oath and obedience due to God Thy fealty to the Gods must be such as will consist with thy fidelity to God for we are bound to God and his service by Oath and Covenant 1 Pet. 3.21 Psal. 119.106 And no subordinate obedience must make us forget our obedience to him who is Supreme We must obey Rulers usque ad aras as far as Religion will suffer us and no farther My obedience to man must be regulated by a good conscience towards God Dan 3.6 17 18. 1 Sam. 22.17 Act. 5.29 As a subordinate Officer is not to be obeyed when he useth his power against his Prince which he received from his Prince and should have improved for his Prince So neither is a Prince to be obeyed when he useth his power against God which he received from God and should have improved for God As we must give unto Caesar the things that
us 2. Objective As man is the object thereof about them it is exercised It is for the punishment of bad men and encouragement of good men for the deciding differences between man and man 3. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Finaliter As man is the end thereof He is the Minister of God for mans good But these things will not prove Magistracy to be a meer humane Ordinance for in these three respects the Ministry as well as the Magistracy may be said to be an humane Ordinance Man being both the subject object and end thereof yet what sober man ever denyed the ministry to be an Ordinance of God 4. It is Ordinance of man in regard of the kind of it Each Nation having a liberty to choose what form of Government they apprehend most commodious for them Magistracy is Ordained by God though this particular Magistrate or this form of Government be appointed by man The Genus of Magistracy is from God yet the Species whether Monarchy Democracy or Aristocracy may be at the choice of men Further though the Magistrate should be of the Devil a wicked ungodly person yet the Magistracy is of God There is a difference between the Office or Power it self and the manner of exercising it and the means of attaining it The first is alwayes of God but not alwayes the second and third The power of Nero was of God as the Holy Ghost speaketh fully Rom. 13. though he exercised it in a Devillish manner oppressing and killing the good encourageing and acquitting such as were evil The power of our Richard the third was of God though he attained it by ungodly and devillish means the murdering his own Soveraign and Nephew There are four particulars which will clearly demonstrate the truth of this assertion namely That Magistracy is of Divine Authority First Their Commission is from God By me Kings Rule saith God Prov. 8.15 Subordinate Magistrates may have their Commission from men but Supreme Magistrates have their Commissions from God only The Powers that be are ordained of God Rom. 13.1 not simply ordained of God as other things saith a learned Interpreter but specially by precept and command from God There are other things of God saith he as Famine War Sickness Poverty but they are not ordained by Precept Daniel telleth Nebuchadnezzar that God had commissionated him to rule over men Dan. 2.37 38. Thou O King art a King of Kings for the God of Heaven hath given thee a Kingdom power and strength and glory And wheresoever the children of men dwell the beasts of the field and the fowls of heaven hath he given into thy hand and hath made thee Ruler over them all thou art this head of Gold These higher Powers are so clearly from the highest Power that their Throne is called Gods Throne 1 Chron. 29.23 Then Solomon sate on the Throne of the Lord as King instead of David their Scepter is called Gods Scepter and their judgement Gods judgement Deut. 1.17 Ye shall not respect persons for the judgement is Gods Besides we find that several persons received their Regal Investiture from God himself as Saul David Jehu Cyrus which last was by God named and ordained to the government of the Persian Monarchy above sixty years before he was born Isai. 44.28 Isai. 45.1 2. Their command to govern is from God the several Precepts from God to men in high places doth fully speak their power to be of God Why should God command them to rule according to his laws who have no authority to rule at all Jer. 22.2 3. Hear the word of the Lord O King of Judah execute judgement and righteousness and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressed c. If the matter or substance of their rule were unlawful surely God would not own it so far as to prescribe rules for the manner of executing it Now God through the whole Scriptures scattereth many precepts for directions to Princes how they should govern and what they should practice Deut. 17. 3. Their protection is from God As a King defendeth his inferiour officers in the execution of their offices so the King of Kings defendeth Magistrates in the discharge of their trusts God standeth in the Congregation among the Gods Psal. 82.1 not only to observe whether they offer injuries to others but also to take care that they receive no injuries from others God is a stronger guard to the Judge then any Sheriff And were not he a wall of fire about some worthy zealous Justices many beastly persons who have been curb'd by them and hindered from leaping over the hedges of divine commands would have trampled them under feet if not torn them in pieces It is worthy our observation how exceedingly God manifesteth his power and zeal for the help of Magistrates against all opposition Korah and his company conspire against Moses and Aaron Magistracy and Ministery Numb. 16. and would have brought in Anarchy Indeed both those Ordinances have the same adversaries Those that would level the Ministery making Preachers Jeroboam-like of the lowest of the people and filling the Pulpit as Noahs Ark with creatures clean and unclean will at last level the Magistracy too and make the Throne as low and as common as the Pulpit But observe what God saith of these opposers of Magistracy and Ministery and what God doth to them for his saying That they are gathered together against the Lord vers. 11. They wounded God through the sides of Moses and Aaron They that murmur and conspire against Gods Delegated servants murmur and conspire against God himself And surely God will first or last be too hard for those that thus harden themselves against him For see what he doth to them The Earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up and their houses and all the men that appertained unto Korah and all their goods they and all that belonged to them went down alive into the pit and the earth closed upon them vers. 32.33 God hath strange punishments for such strange principles and practices He will work miraculously but that he will make such as are against Magistrate and Minister exemplary Psa. 18. ult. Great deliverance giveth God to the King The Supreme Magistrate is in great dangers therefore God giveth him great deliverances as he is liable to more harm then others by reason of his place so he may expect if he be godly especially more help then others by reason of the divine promise Be strong and of a good courage be not affraid for the the Lord thy God is with thee whither soever thou goest Josh. 9. Josephus from the extraordinary escape of Titus at the view of the walls of Jerusalem observeth Imperatorum pericula Deum curare That God is the Magistrates guard 4. The subjection of their people to them is from God Every man is by nature a Quaker a Leveller like a Colt unwilling to be bridled like an untamed Heifer
is wise as an Angel of God 2 Sam. 14.20 And Acts 6.15 They beheld his face as if it had been the face of an Angel Farther the great happiness of holy ones in heaven is set forth by their likeness to Angels They shall be as Angels Matth. 22. 30. Now what glorious persons then are Magistrates that have the names of Angels given them Angels are called Dominions Principalities Powers Col. 1.16 Ephes. 1.21 So are Magistrates Jude v. 8. Titus 3.1 Be subject to Principalities and Powers But the Text speaketh more of their dignity Magistrates have not only the highest names of the most honourable visible creatures Men and of the most honourable invisible creatures Angels but of the Creatour of God himself the Fountain and Standard of all Dignity and Honour I have said ye are Gods When Jacob would manifest to Josephs children the extraordinary respect he had for their father he doth it thus My Name be named on them and the Names of my Father Abraham and Isaac Gen. 48.16 It is a great honour to be called the servant of God Paul gloried in this Titus 1.1 So did David more in being a subject to God then a King over men Psal. 36. Title It is a greater honour and favour to be called Gods son Joh. 1.12 1 Joh. 3.1 Is it a mean thing saith David to be the Kings Son in law 1 Sam. 18.23 Magistrates are children of the most High they are sons to the King of Kings But the greatest honour of all is to be called Gods for God to say My name be named on them This is the highest name that can be given Here is a ne plus ultra This is the highest Name which is above all names and as the Diamond to the Ring addeth both vertue and value to whatsoever it is affixed As because Gold is the most precious excellent metal therefore we lay gold over other things we guild peuter brass yea silver it self So because God is the most excellent name it is laid to other things that thereby their worth may be set forth As the Sons of God Job 1.6 The City of God Psal. 46.4 The River of God Psal. 65.9 The Kingdom of God * Now in their dignity Magistrates resemble God in these two or three particulars and therefore are fitly called Gods First in receiving honour from others Honour accompanyeth power as the shadow the body There is naturally in man an aw and respect towards those that are Magistrates They are the Fathers of their Countrey and their subjects like children owe them both obedience and reverence Divine worship is to be given only to God in heaven but civil worship may be given to Gods on earth David speaketh of himself being a King His glory is great in thy salvation Honour and Majesty hast thou put upon him Psal. 21.5 Joseph when advanced to be a Ruler in Egypt rideth in the second Chariot and hath one crying befor him Bow the knee The most high God that giveth them Kingdoms doth also give them Glory and Majesty and honour Dan. 5.28 29. God indeed hath the greatest honour as the Supreme Governour and Law-giver but Magistrates receive it upon his account as they are his Representatives and Vicegerents When I went out to the gate saith Job that is to the place of administring justice for that work was done in the gates as Ruth 4.1 Job 5.4 Psal. 127.5 the young men saw me and hid themselves and the aged arose and stood up the Princes refrained talking and they laid their hands on their mouths Job 29.8 9. My son saith Solomon fear thou the Lord and the King Prov. 24.21 God is the proper object of fear hence the Greeks call him fear but the Gods because invested with his authority and intrusted with the administration of his Kingdom upon earth are also to be feared as Superiour to us though inferiour to God Secondly their dignity appeareth and in this they resemble God also in giving Laws to others Magistrates have power to enact laws for the encouraging of vertue and discouraging of vice for the preservation of peace among their people Zanchy saith There are three offices of the Magistrate whereof one is to ordain laws for the worship of God and the welfare of men There is indeed one Supreme and absolute Law-giver James 4.12 whose will and word must be the rule of others laws Besides in spirituals none can give laws to bind the conscience but God Isa. 33.21 In that sense The Lord is our Judge the Lord is our Law-giver but in external policy the Laws of men are to be observed And they have power to make such laws as are sutable unto and convenient for the wealth and safety of their Dominions The end of Magistracy sheweth their legislative authority for neither will piety be promoted nor the publike good procured or peace preserved without it And questionless God would never have injoyned Subjects to obey if Magistrates had not power to command Laws are the walls and Bulwarks of a Nation which in a great part may secure it against invasions from abroad and insurrections at home The standing Militia which protecteth the lives of the people The hedge which keeps men in from oppressing their neighbours The deeds and evidences which give us a right and title to our estates They are the nerves and sinews of the Body Politick or as Physick to the natural body to prevent diseases and purge out ill humours Man is by nature an untamed Heifer loathing the yoke of subjection prone to rage and rebel so that he needeth all means imaginable to rule and restrain him The wise Governour of all things hath therefore thought fit not only to give Christians a natural law and moral law from himself but also positive laws from men that this threefold cord which is not easily broken may bind him fast And this surely speaketh Magistrates to be like God for even the Heathen themselves would ascribe their laws to some one of their Gods Zoroastres who gave laws to the Persians ascribed them to Oromazen Trismegistus among the Aegyptians ascribed his Laws to Mercurius Lycurgus who gave laws to the Lacedemonians would make Apollo the Author of them Solon and Draco among the Aehenians said that Minerva was their Law-giver So almost in every Nation they who had the Legislative Power ascribed the invention of their laws to their false gods But the Word of God which is a perfect rule for all men doth impower Magistrates to make laws not according to their lusts but agreeable to his revealed will Thirdly The dignity of Magistracy wherein they likewise are like to God consisteth in their executing the Law In punishing the nocent and acquitting the innocent Execution is the life of the Law the lustre and glory of the Prince the security of the good people A Law unexecuted is like a sword without an edge for no use or service And
which cannot indure the yoke of subjection It is therefore through the wonderful working of God that a few persons or sometimes one man as head should rule such a monstrous body as the multitude If he that ruleth the boisterous waves of the Sea and shuteth them up with bars and doors Psal. 65.7 did not put forth the same Almighty power in quieting the spirits and stilling the tumults of the people it could never be done Well might David say It is God that subdueth my people under me Psal. 144.12 The multitude is an unruly monster It was a true saying of that brutish Emperour Tiberius to one that applauded his felicity in attaining the power of so large an Empire O said he you know not what a Beast the Empire is how unruly and untoward how head-strong and hard to be tamed The multitude is a Beast with many heads saith another cut off one nay many yet there will millions remain still Now that one should keep millions in awe how could it be if there were not a divine constitution in an humane person The Devil is such an enemy to mans peace and welfare and every mans nature so opposite to rule and restraint that if there were not somewhat more then humane in Magistracy one man would be a Beast nay a Devil to another and be no whit kept under by the higher Powers But we see clearly God hath put such a Majesty on Princes that their people are afraid of their fury reverence their persons and submit to their authority He that readeth the wonderful strength of the Horse how his neck is cloathed with thunder how the glory of his nosthrils is terrible how he paweth in the Valley and goeth out to meet the armed men how he mocketh at fear and is not affrighted nor turneth back from the sword Job 39.19 to 26. He that considereth the power of the Elephant how he moveth his tail like a Cedar how his bones are like strong pieces of brass and like bars of Iron c. Job 40.15 to 24. when he observeth how these strong fierce creatures are ridden and ruled by weak man and turned about at his pleasure will presently conclude the reason to be this because God hath put the fear and dread of man upon every beast of the field Gen. 6.2 So truly he that beholdeth many millions of men subject to the word to the command of one when they have strength enough to overthrow thousands must needs acknowledge that it is the Lords doing and it ought to be marvellous in their eyes Secondly If Magistrates be Gods and that by the appointment of the living God I have said ye Gods It informeth us That they are guilty of great impiety that contemn and diisesteem Magistracy they vilifie those whom God doth dignifie and fight against God in endeavouring to pull down that order and that ordinance which he himself hath set up Such men by denying rule and authority seem to be beasts and to put off all humanity For places without some in power would be rather wildernesses then Cities and the Inhabitants rather herds of Beasts then Societies of men There are two sorts of men guilty of this sin First those that in their Principles deny Magistracy to be from God There have in several ages been some that because they themselves were subjects and inferiours would therefore deny all Soveraignty and Superiority The Donatists whom Augustine undertaketh were of that opinion And so were the Anabaptists and Libertines in Germany who armed the rude multitude against their Magistrates and were opposed by Luther And truly in our dayes there are some who against the light both of Nature and Scripture affirm Government to be a work of darkness Though it be written in the fleshly tables of their hearts and in the tables of stone by the finger of God That Fathers and Mothers civil as well as natural must be honoured yet they are so wicked and blind that they will not see or read it In the Apostles dayes there were ungodly men that turned the grace of God into lasciviousness despisers of Dominions Jude vers. 8. such as aimed at Anarchy according to Calvins Comment and the over-throw of all Authority being proud they scorned rule and being licentious they were impatient of restraint First Order is needful to them that are in a state of innocency Angels who continue in their estate of integrity differ in point of Superiority Michael the Archangel Jude v. 4. Michael speaketh the name of his person and Archangel the nature of his office There are Thrones Dominions Principalities Powers different degrees among those Angelical spirits Surely if such order be conducible to the happiness of perfect Angels it is the more desirable for the happiness of imperfect man And if there be such order in heaven it is no part of our bondage to have some order on earth and therefore the Grecians do upon good ground use the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to signifie Superiority or Government which in its proper and native acception signifieth principium to set forth the antiquity of government which had a being assoon as the world had a beginning * 2. Order and Superiority are needful to them that are in a state of Apostacy the more wild man is the more need he hath of a yoak the more heady our Horses are the more we curb them Unruly persons for their own good as well as for others require restraint The hearts of wicked men are like the Sea which cannot rest but is ever casting up mire and dirt Now what a deluge would the boisterous waves of their unsanctified wills and affections cause if there were no banks of Magistracy to bound them and keep them in If some men were not Gods to others most men would be Devils to others Sin must be discouraged evil doers must be punished humane Society must be preserved the good must be protected our liberties and properties must be defended justice must be executed the poor must be relieved wholesome laws must be maintained and how can either of these be done without Magistrates Many fear not sin nor the God of Heaven and if it were not for suffering from the Gods on earth their lusts should be their law and they would deprive the innocent of their liberties estates and lives and turn the places where they live into Acheldema's fields of blood nay make the earth worse in some respects then hell for in hell there is no oppression as no injustice no guilty person freed and no guiltless person punished but had these men their wills it should be so upon earth 3. Again Order or Magistracy is not only necessary to those that are in a state of nature but to those also that are in a state of grace Titus 3.1 2. Rom. 13.1 2. When they begin to be servants to God they do not cease to be subjects to the Gods Christianity doth not