thir owne imperiall Statutes have writt'n and decreed themselves accountable to Law And indeed where such account is not fear'd he that bids a man reigne over him above Law may bid as well a savage beast It follows lastly that since the King or Magistrate holds his autoritie of the people both originally and naturally for their good in the first place and not his owne then may the people as oft as they shall judge it for the best either choose him or reject him retaine him or depose him though no Tyrant meerly by the libertie and right of free born men to be govern'd as seems to them best This though it cannot but stand with plaine reason shall be made good also by Scripture Deut. 17. 14. VVhen thou art come into the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee and shalt say I will set a King over mee like as all the Nations about mee These words confirme us that the right of choosing yea of changing thir owne goverment is by the grant of God him self in the people And therefore when they desit'd a King though then under another forme of goverment and though thir changing displeasd him yet he that was himself thir King and rejected by them would not be a hindrance to what they inended furder then by perswasion but that they might doe therein as they saw good 1 Sam. 8. onely he reserv'd to himself the nomination of who should reigne over them Neither did that exempt the King as if hee were to God onely accountable though by his especiall command anointed Therefore David first made a Covnant with the Elders of Israel and so was by them anointed King 1 Chron. 11. And Jehoiada the Priest making Jehoash King made a Cov'nant between him and the people 2 Kings 11. 17. Therefore when Roboam at his comming to the Crowne rejected those conditions which the Israelites brought him heare what they answer him what portion have we in David or inheritance in the son of Jesse See to thine own house David And for the like conditions not perform'd all Israel before that time deposd Samuell not for his own default but for the misgovement of his Sons But som will say to both these examples it was evilly don I answer that not the latter because it was expressely allow'd them in the Law to set up a King if they pleas'd and God himself joynd with them in the work though in some sort it was at that time displeasing to him in respect of old Samuell who had governd them uprightly As Livy praises the Romans who took occasion from Tarquinius a wicked Prince to gaine their libertie which to have extorted saith hee from Numa or any of the good Kings before had not bin seasonable Nor was it in the former example don unlawfully for when Roboam had prepar'd a huge Army to reduce the Israelites he was forbidd'n by the Profet 1 Kings 12.24 Thus saith the Lord yee shall not goe up nor fight against your brethren for this thing is from me He calls them thir brethren not Rebels and forbidds to be proceeded against them owning the thing himselfe not by single providence but by approbation and that not onely of the act as in the former example but of the fitt season also he had not otherwise forbidd to molest them And those grave and wise Counsellors whom Rehoboam first advis'd with spake no such thing as our old gray headed Flatterers now are wont stand upon your birth-right scorne to capitulate you hold of God and not of them for they knew no such matter unless conditionally but gave him politic counsel as in a civil transaction Therefore Kingdom and Magistracy whether supreme or subordinat is calld a human ordinance 1 Pet. 2. 13. c. which we are there taught is the will of God wee should submitt to so farr as for the punishment of evill doers and the encouragement of them that doe well Submitt saith he as free men And there is no power but of God saith Paul Rom. 13. as much as to say God put it into mans heart to find out that way at first for common peace and preservation approving the exercise therof els it contradicts Peter who calls the same autority an Ordinance of man It must be also understood of lawfull and just power els we read of great power in the affaires and Kingdomes of the World permitted to the Devill for saith he to Christ Luke 4. 6. all this power will I give thee and the glory of them for it is deliverd to me and to whomsoever I will I give it neither did hee ly or Christ gainsay what hee affirm'd for in the thirteenth of the Revelation wee read how the Dragon gave to the beast his power his seat and great autority which beast so autoriz'd most expound to be the tyrannical powers and Kingdomes of the earth Therfore Saint Paul in the forecited Chapter tells us that such Magistrates hee meanes ' as are not a terror to the good but to the evill such as beare not the sword in vaine but to punish offenders and to encourage the good If such onely be mentiond here as powers to be obeyd and our submission to them onely requird then doubtless those powers that doe the contrary are no powers ordaind of God and by consequence no obligation laid upon us to obey or not to resist them And it may be well observd that both these Apostles whenever they give this precept express it in termes not concret but abstract as Logicians are wont to speake that is they mention the ordinance the power the autoritie before the persons that execute it and what that power is lest we should be deceavd they describe exactly So that if the power be not such or the person execute not such power neither the one nor the other is of God but of the Devill and by consequence to bee resisted From this exposition Chrysostome also on the same place dissents not explaining that these words were not writt'n in behalf of a tyrant And this is verify'd by David himself a King and likeliest to bee Author of the Psalm 94. 20. which saith Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee And it were worth the knowing since Kings and that by Scripture boast the justness of thir title by holding it immediately of God yet cannot show the tâ—me when God ever set on the throne them or thir forefathers but onely when the people chose them why by the same reason since God ascribes as oft to himself the casting down of Princes from the throne it should not be thought as lawful and as much from God when none are seen to do it but the people and that for just causes For if it needs must be a sin in them to depose it may as likely be a sin to have elected And contrary if the peoples act in election be pleaded by a King as the act of God and the most just title to
else but the spleene of a frustrated Faction For how can that pretended counsell bee either sound or faithfull when they that give it see not for madnesse and vexation of their ends lost that those Statutes and Scriptures which both falsly and scandalously they wrest against their Friends and Associates would by sentence of the common adversarie fall first and heaviest upon their owne heads Neither let milde and tender dispositions be foolishly softn'd from their dutie and perseverance with the unmasculine Rhetorick of any puling Priest or Chaplain sent as a friendly Letter of advice for fashion sake in private and forthwith publish't by the Sender himselfe that wee may know how much of friend there was in it to cast an odious envie upon them to whom it was pretended to be sent in charitie Nor let any man bee deluded by either the ignorance or the notorious hypocrisie and selfe-repugnance of our dancing Divines who have the conscience and the boldnesse to come with Scripture in their mouthes gloss'd and fitted for thir turnes with a double contradictory sense transforming the sacred veritie of God to an Idol with two faces looking at once two several ways and with the same quotations to charge others which in the same case they made serve to justifie themselves For while the hope to bee made Classic and Provinciall Lords led them on while pluralities greas'd them thick and deepe to the shame and scandall of Religion more then all the Sects and Heresies they exclaime against then to fight against the Kings person and no lesse a party of his Lords and Commons or to put force upon both the Houses was good was lawfull was no resisting of Superiour powers they onely were powers not to be resisted who countenanc'd the good and punish't the evill But now that thir censorious domineering is not suffer'd to be universall truth and conscience to be freed Tithes and Pluralities to be no more though competent allowance provided and the warme experience of large gifts and they so good at taking them yet now to exclude and seize on impeach't Members to bring Delinquents without exemption to a faire Tribunall by the common Nationall Law against murder is now to be no lesse then Corah Dathan and Abiram He who but erewhile in the Pulpits was a cursed Tyrant an enemie to God and Saints laden with all the innocent blood split in three Kingdomes and so to bee sought against is now though nothing penitent or alter'd from his first principles a lawfull Magistrate a Sovrane Lord the Lords Annointed not to bee touch'd though by themselves imprison'd As if this onely were obedience to preserve the meere uselesse bulke of his person and that onely in prison not in the field and to disobey his commands denie him his dignitie and office every where to resist his power but where they thinke it onely surviving in thir owne faction But who in particular is a Tyrant cannot be determind in a generall discourse otherwise then by supposition his particular charge and the sufficient proofe of it must determine that which I leave to Magistrates at least to the uprighter sort of them and of the people though in number lesse by many in whom faction least hath prevaild above the Law of nature and right reason to judge as they finde cause But this I dare owne as part of my faith that if such a one there be by whose Commission whole massacres have been committed on his faithfull Subjects his Provinces offerd to pawne or alienation as the hire of those whom he had sollicited to come in and destroy whole Cities and Countries be hee King or Tyrant or Emperour the Sword of Justice is above him in whose hand soever is found sufficient power to avenge the effusion and so great a deluge of inuocent blood For if all humane power to execute not accidentally but intendedly the wrath of God upon evill doers without exception be of God then that power whether ordinary or if that faile extraordinary so executing that intent of God is lawfull and not to be resisted But to unfold more at large this whole Question though with all expedient brevity I shall here set downe from first beginning the originall of Kings how and wherefore exalted to that dignitie above their Brethren and from thence shall prove that turning to tyranny they may bee as lawfully deposd and punishd as they were at first elected This I shall doe by autorities and reasons not learnt in corners among Schismes and Herisies as our doubling Divines are ready to calumniate but fetch 't out of the midst of choicest and most authentic learning and no prohibited Authors nor many Heathen but Mosaical Christian Orthodoxal and which must needs be more convincing to our Adversaries Presbyterial No man who knows ought can be so stupid to deny that all men naturally were borne free being the image and resemblance of God himselfe and were by privilege above all the creatures borne to command and not to obey and that they livd so till from the root of Adams transgression falling among themselves to doe wrong and violence and foreseeing that such courses must needs tend to the destruction of them all they agreed by common league to bind each other from mutual injury and joyntly to defend themselves against any that gave disturbance or opposition to such agreement Hence came Citties Townes and Common-wealths And because no faith in all was found sufficiently binding they saw it needfull to ordaine some authoritie that might restraine by force and punishment what was violated against peace and common right This autoritie and power of self-defence and preservation being originally and naturally in every one of them and unitedly in them all for ease for order and least each man should be his owne partial judge they communicated and deriv'd either to one whom for the eminence of his wisdom and integritie they chose above the rest or to more then one whom they thought of equal deserving the first was calld a King the other Magistrates Not to be thir Lords and Maisters though afterward those names in som places were giv'n voluntarily to such as had bin authors of inestimable good to the people but to be thir Deputies and Commissioners to execute by vertue of thir intrusted power that justice which else every man by the bond of nature and of Cov'nant must have executed for himselfe and for one another And to him that shall consider well why among free persons one man by civill right should beare autority and jurisdiction over another no other end or reason can be imaginable These for a while governd well and with much equitie decided all things at thir owne arbitrement till the temptation of such a power left absolute in thir hands perverted them at length to injustice and partialitie Then did they who now by tryall had found the danger and inconveniences of committing arbitrary power to any invent Lawes either fram'd or consented to by all that
will bless us and be propitious to us who reject a King to make him onely our leader and supreme governour in the conformity as neer as may be of his own ancient government if we have at least but so much worth in us to entertaine the sense of our future happiness and the courage to receave what God voutsafes us wherin we have the honour to precede other Nations who are now labouring to be our followers For as to this question in hand what the people by thir just right may doe in change of government or of governour we see it cleerd sufsiciently besides other ample autority eev'n from the mouths of Princes themselves And surely they that shall boast as we doe to be a free Nation and not have in themselves the power to remove or to abolish any governour supreme or subordinate with the government it self upon urgent causes may please thir fancy with a ridiculous and painted freedom fit to coz'n babies but are indeed under tyranny and servitude as wanting that power which is the root and sourse of all liberty to dispose and oeconomize in the Land which God hath giv'n them as Maisters of Family in thir own house and free inheritance Without which natural and essential power of a free Nation though bearing high thir heads they can in due esteem be thought no better then slaves and vassals born in the tenure and occupation of another inheriting Lord Whose government though not illegal or intolerable hangs over them as a Lotdly scourge not as a free goverment and therfore to be abrogated How much more justly then may they fling off tyranny or tyrants who being once depos'd can be no more then privat men as subject to the reach of Justice and arraignment as any other transgressors And certainly if men not to speak of Heathen both wise and Religious have don justice upon Tyrants what way they could soonest how much more mild and human then is it to give them faire and op'n tryall To teach lawless Kings and all that so much adore them that not mortal man or his imperious will but Justice is the onely true sovran and supreme Majesty upon earth Let men cease therfore out of faction and hypocrisie to make outcrys horrid things of things so just and honorable And if the Parlament and Military Councel do what they doe without president if it appeare thir duty it argues the more wisdom vertue and magnanimity that they know themselves able to be a president to others Who perhaps in future ages if they prove not too degenerat will look up with honour and aspire toward these exemplary and matchless deeds of thir Ancestors as to the highest top of thir civil glory and emulation Which heretofore in the persuance of fame and forren dominion spent it self vain-gloriously abroad but henceforth may learn a better fortitude to dare execute highest Justice on them that shall by force of Armes endeavour the oppressing and bereaving ofReligion and thir liberty at home that no unbridl'd Potentate or Tyrant but to his sorrow for the future may presume such high and irresponsible licence over mankind to havock and turn upside-down whole Kingdoms of men as though they were no more in respect of his perverse will then a Nation of Pismires As for the party calld Presbyterian of whom I beleive very many to be good faithful Christians though misled by som of turbulent spirit I wish them earnestly and calmly not to fall off from thir first principles nor to affect rigor and superiority over men not under them not to compell unforcible things in Religion especially which if not voluntary becomes a sin nor to assist the clamor and malicious drifts of men whom they themselves have judg'd to be the worst of men the obdurat enemies of God and his Church nor to dart against the actions of thir brethren for want of other argument those wrested Lawes and Scriptures thrown by Prelats and Malignants against thir own sides which though they hurt not otherwise yet tak'n up by them to the condemnation of thir owne doings give scandal to all men and discover in themselves either extreame passion or apostacy Let them not oppose thir best friends and associats who molest them not at all infringe not the least of thir liberties unless they call it thir liberty to bind other mens consciences but are still secking to live at peace with them and brotherly accord Let them beware an old and perfet enemy who though he hope by sowing discord to make them his instruments yet cannot forbeare a minute the op'n threatning of his destind revenge upon them when they have servd his purposes Let them feare therefore if they bee wise rather what they have don already then what remaines to doe and be warn'd in time they put no confidence in Princes whom they have provokd lest they be added to the examples of those that miserably have tasted the event Stories can inform them how Christiern the second King of Denmark not much above a hundred yeares past driv'n out by his Subjects and receavd againe upon new Oaths and conditions broke through them all to his most bloody revenge slaying his chief opposers when he saw his time both them and thir children invited to a feast for that purpose How Maximilian dealt with those of Bruges though by mediation of the German Princes reconcil'd to them by solem and public writings drawn and seald How the massacre at Paris was the effect of that credulous peace which the French Protestants made with Charles the ninth thir King and that the main visible cause which to this day hath sav'd the Netherlands from utter ruine was thir finall not beleiâ—ing the perfidious cruelty which as a constant maxim of State hath bin us'd by the Spanish Kings on thir Subjects that have tak'n armes and after trusted them as no later age but can testifie heretofore in Belgia it self and this very yeare in Naples And to conclude with one past exception though farr more ancient David after once hee had tak'n armes never after that trusted Saul though with tears and much relenting he twise promis'd not to hurt him These instances few of many might admonish them both English and Scotch not to let thir owne ends and the driving on of a faction betray them blindly into the snare of those enemies whose revenge looks on them as the men who first begun fomented and carri'd on beyond the cure of any sonnd or safe accommodation all the evil which hath since unavoidably befall'n them and thir King I have something also to the Divines though brief to what were needfull not to be disturbers of the civil affairs being in hands better able and more belonging to manage them but to study harder and to attend the office of good Pastors knowing that he whose flock is least among them hath a dreadfull charge not performd by mounting twise into the chair with a formal preachment huddl'd up at the od hours of a whole lazy week but by incessant pains and watching in season and out of season from house to house over the soules of whom they have to feed Which if they ever well considerd how little leasure would they find to be the most pragmatical Sidesmen of every popular tumult and Sedition And all this while are to learne what the true end and reason is of the Gospel which they teach and what a world it differs from the censorious and supercilious lording over conscience It would be good also they liv'd so as might perswade the people they hated covetousness which worse then heresie is idolatry hated pluralities and all kind of Simony left rambling from Benefice to Benefice iike ravnous Wolves seeking where they may devour the biggest Of which if som well and warmely seated from the beginning be not guilty t were good they held not conversation with such as are let them be sorry that being call'd to assemble about reforming the Church they fell to progging and solliciting the Parlament though they had renouncd the name of Priests for a new setling of thir Tithes and Oblations and double lin'd themselves with spiritual places of commoditie beyond the possible discharge of thir duty Let them assemble in Consistory with thir Elders and Deacons according to ancient Ecclesiastical rule to the preserving of Church discipline each in his several charge and not a pack of Clergie men by themselves to belly cheare in thir presumptuous Sion or to promote designes abuse and gull the simple Laity and stirr up tumult as the Prelats did for the maintenance of thir pride and avarice These things if they observe and waite with patience no doubt but all things will goe well without their importunities or exclamations and the Printed letters which they send subscrib'd with the ostentation of great Characters and little moment would be more considerable then now they are But if they be the Ministers of Mammon instead of Christ and scandalize his Church with the filty love of gaine aspiring also to sit the closest and the heaviest of all Tyrants upon the conscience and fall notoriously into the same sins whereof so lately and so loud they accus'd the Prelates as God rooted out those immediately before so will he root out them thir imitators and to vindicate his own glory and Religion will uncover thir hypocrisie to the open world and visit upon thir own heads that curse ye Meroz the very Motto of thir Pulpits wherwith so frequently not as Meroz but more like Atheists they have mock'd the vengeance of God and the zeale of his people The End Jer. 48. 10. Prov. 12. 10.