who violates them and not by him who was obliged only on Conditions and thereby becomes free of the Obligations not by his own Acts but by him who first broke the Conditions Therefore Supreme Magistrates becoming Tyrants by their own Perjury and breaking their Covenants do free their Subjects from their Oaths and Allegiance and not the People when they deservedly make use of their Power to curb thâ—m and to right themselves That Kings should not be obliged by Law is contrary to all the received Opinions and Sentences taken from the right of Nature by the most profound and judicious Lawyers Eos qui leges ferunt legibus quoquâ—â—btemâ—â—rare quod quisque juris in alium statuerit ipse ut codem jure utatur nihil â—â—perio magis conducere quam ex legibus vivatur dignam denique vocem esse Principem legâ—â—us â—â—se â—ubdâ—tum prâ—fitert Itaque quod alibi à Juris consultis dici videtur Principem esse supra leges aut Principem à Legibus sâ—lutum non nisi de legibus civilibus deque particulari privatorum jure est intelligendum verbi gratia de testamentis de detractione Trebellianae aut Falcidianae non autem de Jure publicâ— ad statum ut dici solet pertinentâ— mulcoque minus de jure naturali aut divino cui quum onâ—â—es singuli homines subjiciantur quatenus homines nati sunt omnino efficitur aut Reges homines non esse aut illos hoc jure teneri CHAP. VI. Principles and Tenets of some Divines and others destructives to all human Societies Kings made and chosen by the People and to them accountable His greatest Authority is in his Courts and not in his Personal Commands The People chuse their Kings and oblige them by Laws which they swear to keep MAchiavel I know and so doth the Ecclesiastical Polititian instruct Princes how they may treat Subjects not as Brethren but as â—â—asts as the basest Beasts of drudgery teaching them by subtilty and by the strength of the Militia to support their own will and to make meer Spunges of the publick Coffers with which his Writings are full fraught Leviathan or Malmsbury Hobs 's Positions or Sentiments smell rank of the same Leaven or more abominable if more abominable can be viz. That the Power of Kings cannot without his consent be transferred to another that he cannot forfeit it that he cannot be accused by any of his Subjects of injury that he cannot be censured by them that he is Judge of Doctrines that he is sole Legislator and Supreme Judge of Controversies chap. 20. p. 102. Some Pulpits also preach much after the same rate viz. That it is the Sacred Priviledge of Kings only for their offences to be exempt from all human Jurisdiction That Kings as such are above the Law That though they transgress yet they are not in the least liable to the censure of any Man no Tribunal under Heaven hath Power to take Cognizance of them or call them into Question p. 5. That they have Power to Dispence with the Laws at their Pleasure p. 7. That for Subjects to question the Actions though offensive or Authority of their Princes is inconsistent with the nature of the Kingly Office and diametrically opposite to the Liberty of the Subject p. 7 8. The Scepter being put into their hands by God Almighty alone and with that the Power he gives them is so great as that he maketh them capable of being accountable to none but God himself according to Prov. 8. 16. By me Kings reign p. 16. That Kings may alter Religion at their pleasure according to the old unalterable Maxime qualis Rex talis lex p. 25. William Clifford 's Sermon preached at Wakefield Octob. 30. 1681. Salmasius more excusably as being a stranger to our Laws dances after the same Pipe That Kings have none to judge them but God only That they are above Laws That by no Law written or unwritten natural or divine can they be made guilty of any ill by their Subjects or towards them In which Positions there is a woundy deal of wicked Policy but not one Iota of true Religion and Piety highly injurious to the Liberty and Happiness of the whole Race of Mankind for whose Happiness and Solace the whole World was created as if a few Princes and Potentates were born like Leviathan only to take their Pastimes in this World to be clothed in Purple and Scarlet to lie upon Beds of Ivory and to stretch themselves upon Couches to chant to the sound of the Vial and drink Wine in Bowles and to nourish their Hearts as in a day of Slaughter and all others to be governed with Whips and Kicks Thornes and Briers and yet we must not so much as mutter or peep against them or say What dost thou Not considering that God that made them in the Womb made these and made them all equal and that they were created out of one and the self-same Clay and redeemed by one and the same precious Blood without respect of Persons and that it was the People that differenced them by making them Kings and Queens and Princes sitting upon Thrones riding in Chariots and on Horses they and their Servants and not they the People What is this but to be brutish in Knowledge That Machiavel and Hobs should belch out such Principles I do not much wonder but that any Protestant Pulpits should Preach out such Doctrines I stand amazed To such the 21st verse of the 10th chapter of Jeremiah may justly be applied the Pastors are become brutish In populo regendo Rex habet superiorem legem per quam factus est Rex Curiam suam viz. Comites Barâ—nes Comites dicuntur quasi socii regis qui habet socium habet Magistrum ideo si Rex fuerit sine fraeno i. e. Sine lege debet ei fraenum ponere Bracton lib. 2. c. 16. â—â—â—ta l. 1. c. 17. In Government Kings have Superiors viz. the Laws by which they are made Kings and his Court of Parliament therefore if Kings are without a Bridle i. e. without the Laws they ought to have Bridles put upon them Every single Person hath his remedy by Law in the Courts of Judicature against Kings how much more just is it reasonable and necessary that if Kings injure all all should have their remedy to Bridle him It 's great simplicity to provide against petty Injuries of Kings against private Persons and yet to be lawless against common and publick injuries whereby they may destroy all without Law that by Law could not injure any single Person As for the Title of Supreme Head and Governor as it is meant of single Persons not of Courts or of the Collective body in Parliament so it is meant in Curiâ not in Camerâ in his Courts that his Majesty is Supreme Head and Governor over all Persons and in all Causes and not in his private Capacity And most truly
and sworn and be accountable to the same Laws and to them from whom they derive their Authority and Power for whose good and benefit and by whom they were first and primarily enacted and constituted Magistrates are created and appointed by Men. Hence Peter calls both Kings and other Magistrates a human Creation or human Ordinance So Hâ—sea 8. 4. They have set Kings up but not by me th â— have made Princes but I knew it not In the Hebrew Commonwealth and Kingdoms only where they had several ways of resorting unto and consulting God Almighty they might and did refer the Nomination of their Kings unto him but concerning other Nations we have received no such like Custom or Mandate The Precept that God himself gave to the Children of Israel for the choice of their King did more especially respect the Qualifications of Kingship than the Nomination of the Person viz. When thou art come into the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee and shall possess it and shalt dwell therein and shall say I will set a King over me like as all the Nations round about me thou shalt in any wise set him King over thee which is a manifest Allowance and Commission to appoint their own Kings whom the Lord thy God shall chuse not personally not by his nomination but according to such and such qualifications viz. one from among thy Brethren shalt thou set King over thee thou maist not set a stranger over thee which is not thy Brother But he shall not multiply Horses neither shall he multiply Wives to himself that his heart turn not away neither shall he greatly multiply to himself Silver and Gold. And it shall be when he sitteth upon the Throne of his Kingdom that he shall write him a copy of this Law in a Book and it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God to keep all the words of this Law and these Statutes to do them that his heart be not lifted up above his Brethren and that he turn not aside from that Commandment to the right hand or to the left to the end that he may prolong his days in his Kingdom he and his Children in the midst of Israel Deut. 17. From hence it is evident under what Laws and Precepts Kings are and ought to govern and if not so qualified and so chosen they can have no just Right to govern Vid. Dr. Sherrock de Officiis c. 4. N o. 8. p. 289. Sometimes the very Form of Government may be vicious and faulty sometimes they that obtain the Power may be so which may proceed from Men and from the Devil And the Devil taking Jesus up into a high Mountain shewed unto him all the Kingdoms of the World in a moment of time And the Devil said unto him All this power will I give thee and the glory of them for that is delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will I give it Hence is he called the Prince of this World John 12. 30. 14. 31. Rev. 13. 2. The Dragon gave unto the Beast Power and his Throne and great Authority yea the God of the World 2 Cor. 4. 4. Wherefore when it is written that there is no Power but of God it is always to be understood not of all Powers whatsoever but of all lawful Powers such as he there described and of the Powers themselves not always of the Persons that have the Power So St. Chrysostom the Powers that are are ordained of God who by his essential Wisdom and Goodness and by the express Warrant of his Ordinance never ordained any but what were good and behooful for the governed therefore the Apostle in this place will be understood of lawful Powers God may and doth permit unlawful Powers for the punishment of wicked doers even by wicked Men which are God's Sword but never ordained such but as his Rod and Scourges Wickedness and Vice and Sin being things inordinate it 's not possible that God should Ordain them and yet be sinful and vitious still he that resisteth the Power viz. lawful Power resisteth the Ordinance of God which Precept equally binds and obligeth Kings as well as Subjects that resist or transgress or obstruct the Laws or endeavour to sham them either by Force or coining Evasions I appeal to Heaven if they that resist Powers not lawful or abusers or overturners of lawful Powers do resist the Ordinance of God or not I do think that no Man in his right senses will say so The Apostle yet makes it more plain that he treats of lawful Powers when he says that Rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil And he is the Minister of God to thee for good for he beareth not the Sword in vain a revenger to execute wrath on them that do evil Who unless Heathens or Persons of profligated Consciences will refuse to be subject to such Powers not only out of fear of punishment but for Conscience sake for without Civil Government not possible to live in Peace and Happiness But what Power what Magistrates soever ordains or acts contrary can never properly be said to be ordained i. e. allowed and approved of God and therefore this is no Precept no Command to yield Obedience to such neither is it any Precept or Command to forbid us prudently to resist defend and right our selves for in such cases we do not resist the Powers but human Errors of Kings and Princes nor the Magistrates that are ordained of God who ought to be such as the Apostles decipher but either Usurpers or Tyrants or betrayers of the Trust reposed in them who yet notwithstanding if they must be termed Magistrates in that only they have Power to vex revenge and ravage over God's People by the very self-same Logick the Devil is our Magistrate Of one thing only there can be but one true definition if therefore Paul doth here rightly define Magistracy and Magistrates as he doth most accurately then certainly by the same words he cannot define Tyranny Oppression Male-Government things Diametrically opposité and contrary one to the other then certainly to such Magistrates only as the Apostles here describes do we owe Subjection Tribute Honour c. and not to their contrary Reasons assigned are For this cause pay you Tribute also for they are God's Ministers attending continually on this very thing render therefore c. The labourer is worthy of his hire and they that hire ought to have their service and work well done so that if Magistrates fail of their Duty Subjects may slacken their Tribute which is given them only as a recompence of their Watchfulness Pains and Care in well Governing Therefore simple and absolute subjection is not here required but subjection with reason subjoyned which reasons are the Rule and Square of our subjection We are often told by our Priests that Prayers and Tears are the Weapons
Sinners his great Enemies As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the Wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live turn ye turn ye from your evil ways for why will ye die Ezek. 33. 11. Would ye would but consider the price and value of this his fondness you wovld never harrass his People as you do God himself thought it worth the Incarnation of his own Son by sending him out of his own bosom and so the Word was made Flesh Joh. 1. 1. of which God gave abundant and signal Testimony when he smote Egypt in their First born and brought oppressed Israel from among them with a strong Hand and stretched out Arm and divided the Red Sea into parts and made Israel to pass through the midst of it but overthrew Pharoah and his Host in the Red Sea who led his people through the Wilderness and smote great Kings and slew famous Kings Sihon King of the Amorites and Og King of Bashan and gave their Land for an Inheritance even an Heritage to Israel his Servant and redeemed them from their Enemies Psal 136. Thus hath God done and thus will God do when he shall stand up in the quarrel of his Covenant and arise to shake terribly the Earth The whole History of the Bible is full of such exemplary punishments and of frequent delivery of his oppressed People And as God so ought all his Vicegerents to be tender and watchful over all their Governed So Moses whom Philo reckons among Kings as doth the Scripture Deut. 33. 5. And he was King in Jesurun for tho he had not the name yet he had the Power and Authority yet even in that Power he was no more Regal then in his Tenderness over the People which was so great towards them that at Tabera because he could not do them so much good us he desired he besought the Lord to kill him out of hand Num. 11. 15. At another time he was so concerned with the fear of their destruction that he requested of God either to forgive them their sin or to blot him out of the book of Life Ex. 32. 32. hereby shewing himself not only the Miracle of Nature as Philo calls him but of Grace too in plighting for them that which was more worth than his life his very Salvation So transcendent is the Example of David who besides that he urgeth it in most Psalms the peace of Jerusalem the salvation of Israel the Felicity of Gods chosen the blessing of the people wrestled with God near the threshing floor of Araunah 2 Sam. 24 16 17 for his mercy and favour towards his People that he cries out It is I even I that have sinned and done this evil c. let thine hand I pray thee O Lord my God be on me and my Fathers House but not on thy people that they should be plagued 1 Chro. 21. 16 17. Consider yet farther how passionately fond God who is jealous even to fury for the good of his people hath demonstrated himself for his People over whom he hath made you his Vicegerents Did he not send his own Son out of his own bosom to take on him the form of a servant and to become obedient unto the shameful death of the Cross both for them and you Can Kings then imagine that if they oppress them by violent perverting of Justice and Judgment or multiply unjust Exactions or chastise them with Whips or Scorpions that they shall escape unpunished I tell them nay that except such Kings that so tyrannize do repent the time will come that they shall bemoan themselves in vain when their groans shall be as the groans of a deadly wounded man and their hopes as the giving up of the Ghost Was not Christ our Common Purchaser Did he not take our Rags our Sores our Diseases our pains upon him Was he not wounded for our transgressions bruised for our iniquities that with his Stripes we might be healed Why do you not then imitate him in being Nursing Fathers not in name only but in deed and in truth to the people and do not oppress and tyrannize over them in denying them just Rights and Liberties by condemning many more Righteous than your selves to Inquisitions Goals Gallies to beg their Bread in strange Countries Chastising them with Whips and Scorpions and with divers sorts of Tortures as grievous as tearing their flesh with the Thorns and Briars of the Wilderness Consider I say well with your selves and that in very good earnest it being your truest Interest and of everlasting Consequence whilst you are on this side Hell and the Grave in which there is no wisdom How contrary do Kings Tyrants act and govern to God Almighty whose Precept and Practice it always hath been and still is to do good for evil and not evil for good as all Tyrants do Hath he not mitigated the rigour of the Law which was once published with thunder fire tempest and darkness by removing the curse from it as it was a killing Letter and Ministry of death And hath he not published it in the hand of a Mediator Doth he not woo us by his Spirit tho we resist it Court us by his Mercies tho we abuse them threaten us in much Mercy by his Judgments to forewarn us to fly from the Wrath to come Doth he not daily cry unto us by his Prophets tho we despise them proffers to teach us tho we stop our Ears to lead us tho we pull away our Shoulders to convert us tho we harden our Hearts and millions more inexpressible Mercies showr'd down daily upon his people committed to your care and charge manifesting his fondness and tenderness over them which considered I cannot but wonder then how his Vicegerents have dared to act quite contrary by returning evil for good by violent perverting of Justice and Judgment and by multiplying unjust exactions on them Have they made their peace with death or their Agreement with Hell can they bribe their Tormentors or can they dwell with devouring fire or everlasting burnings or can they quench the flames of Tophet which is ordained of old yea for Kings it is prepared he hath made it deep and large the pile thereof is fire and much wood and the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it Isa 30. 33. Are Kings the Anointed of the Lord and boast thereof so are the People He suffered no man to do them wrong yea he reproved Kings for their sakes saying Touch not mine anointed and do my Prophets no harm Psal 105. 14 15. Whoso toucheth them toucheth the Apple of his eye Zech. 2. 8. The Lord taketh pleasure in his people so should all Kings and he will put a Sword into their Hands to execute vengeance upon the Heathen and punishment upon the people to bind their Kings with Chains and their Nobles with fetters of Iron to execute upon them the Judgment written this honour have
set a stranger over thee which is not thy brother 2. By the constant practice of the jews under the Prophets and since And not without this moral reason That one from among themselves being by their consent and suffrages set King over them that what Authority soever they grant unto Kings they may acknowledge to have had it from the People and therefore obliged more readily to imploy all their times studies strengths and endeavours for the good of them who set them over themselves to take the burden of the Government upon their Shoulders and therefore they consent to pay them all Honour allow them great Priviledges and Prerogatives and give them Munificent Tributes and Maintainance for the Support of them and the Governm nt and swearing Allegiance unto their Kings and the Kings swearing unto the People to keep Faith with them in the due performance and execution of the Laws already made and to be made The reason formerly set down doth warrant this viz. No Man hath or can have any lawful Power to Govern Kingdoms and States but he must have it either immediately from God himself which no Man now can possibly pretend unto or by consent of the Paâ—tâ—â—s The Elders of Israel being the representative 1 Sam. 10. 19. of the whole Kingdom for by that name are generally meant Centurions Captains Judges Princes of all the Tribes â—f Israel c. came to Samuel in Ramah desiring a King to 〈◊〉 in and out before 〈◊〉 like the Nations at whose instance Samuel did anoint Saul to be their King neverless Samuel that Saul might know that he was chosen by the People called all the Peâ—â—â— together in Mizpeh by their Tribes and by their Thousands where as if the farmer Election and Anointing had been insignificant they cast lots which â—ell upon the Tribe of Benjamin and Saul the Son of Kish was taken and all the People shouted and said God save the King 1 Sam. 10. 17 c. All which was done at the Peoples instanceâ— And lest the Election of the King should be attributed wholly to the chance of Lots all the People by the advice of Samuel some few grumbling Dissenters excepted having said Shall Saul reign over us 1 Sam. 11. 13. went to Gilgal and renewed the Kingdom there and made Saul King before the Lord in Gilgal ver 14. 15. Which manifests that though Saul was chosen by God himself and also by Lot yet was constituted confirmed and approved by the suffrages of the People God indeed before ever there was a King in Israel knowing that they would reject him and foolishly desire a King like all the Nations round about them prescribed Rules and Laws whereby they ought to Govern Deut. 17. So David Samuel Saul being rejected by God from Reigning over Israel by God's command anointed David at â—ethlâ—m whom God had chosen King over Israel Did David therefore Reign though so chosen by God himself and anointed by his own command No sure he was so far from it that he avoided the presence of Saul hiding himself from him and arming himself with the Sword of Goliah and armed Men against the evil designs which Saul had against him and fled from him wandring up and down and became as it were an exiled and Out lawed Person and was not King till Saul was dead nor then neither until all the People of Judah first chose him King of Judah by their suffrages And seven years after all the Tribes of Israel and all the Elders of Israel came â—o Hebron and made a Covenant with him before the Lord and then they anointed David King over Israel 1 Sam. 16. 13. 1 Chron. 11. 3. 2 Sam. 5. 3. Besides if Samuel's first anointing of David King had formerly made him King then either Saul was thereby deposed or else there were two Kings of Israel at one time which is monâ—â—ous to conceive for according to their Doctrine Kings have no Royal Power from the People but it is manifest David was not King for that after his being so anointed he oâ—ten called Saul the Lord 's anointed and that by the Inspiration of God's Spirit Moreover he neither challenged nor executed any Royal Authority till he was crowned King by all Israel at Hebron but was persecuted and hunted as a Partridge on the Mountains and that as a Rebel to Saul of which he acquitted himself when he had the Life of Saul in his power and yet would not take it which he justly might have done had he been really King and it had been a crime in him being King not to have executed his Royal Authority in doing Justice and Judgment by cutting off Saul a murtherâ—r who killed the Priests of the Lord especially seeing Saul according to such doctrine must be but a private murtherâ—r and David the only lawful King. Whereby it is apparent that not Samuâ—â— s Oil but the consent and suffrages of the People that made both Saul and David Kings Whereby it is apparent that though God appointed David to be their King yet not so Absolute but that he should be under and subject to agreements with his People and make a Covenant with them on tearms to which he should be obliged to perform with them as they with him and this before the Lord by which Covenant he was obliged to keep within the Boundaries which God and the People had set So David was twice anointed 1. By the Prophets by God's command in token of his Election 2. By the instance and suffrages of the People in Confirmation of his being constituted King by them 2 Sam. 4. 11. 5. 13. So it is true that by God Kings Reign yet so as not without the Peoples Consent Approbation and Covenants first had that he may Reign over them for their good Besides Kings receive not their Kingship immediately from God nor the Sword because the People were first girt with the Sword. Moreover will any Christian say that the Kings of Nations who lived without God in the World did Rule and Reign by Gods immediate appointment I trow not The like is observable in Constituting Solomon King who though David 's Son and God chose him to sit upon his Fathers Throne and to be a Father unto him as he had promised David 2. Sam. 7. 13 14 15. And though David had promised his People that Solomon should succeed him and sit upon his Throne yet this was not sufficient and therefore David assembled all the Princes of Israel and the princes of the Tribes and the captains of the companies and captains over the thousands and the stewards over all the substance of the possession of the King and of his Sons with the officers and with the mighty men and with all the valiant men which bear any publick office and as it were the representative of all Israel and consequently had a share in the Government and in the Election unto Jerusalem This great congregation made Solomon the Son of David King
of the Lord renewed the Covenant viz. If yee will fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the Commandment of the Lord then shall both yee and also the King that reigneth over you continue following the Lord your God. But if yee shall still do wickedly yee shall be consumed both you and your King 1 Sam. 12. 14 15 25. By wickedness in this place is most especially meant in that they had rejected the Government which God himself had appointed as best for them and chose a King to be set over them and we rebelled against God. The reason assigned is because they were God's own peculiar People hereby it 's manifest that both King and People were both equally joined in the Stipulation So Asa King of Judah by the Prophecy of Azariah the Prophet congregated all the People viz. Judah and Benjamin where were also many of Ephraim Manasseh and Simeon and made a solemn Covenant to seek the Lord God of their Fathers with all their heart and with all their soul that whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death whether small or great man or woman 2 Chron. 15. 12 13. Deut. 13. 9. 17. 7. Here you see the King himself is not exempted These Examples with those before and those that follow will justifie this Kingdom in all that they have done to free us from unreasonable and cruel Men and Popish Tyranny and also the Auxiliary Expedition of the Prince of Orange to be the most glorious and most righteous Action that ever Prince undertook because he came to help the Lord against the mighty who both at home and abroad had in their imaginations and endeavours designed the Inslaving of all the Protestants of Europe which Action God hath hitherto signalized by prospering his Arms with very little Blood. Whoso is wise and will observe these things shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord Psalm 107. CHAP. X. Whole Kingdoms and Nations have Power to reform Faith equally plighted between King and People ought equally to be kept Care of Religion Peace Justice Safety Liberty c. are incumbent on all the People especially on the Ordines Populi The common and true Cause of Rebellion is abuse of Power not Disobedience to the lawful Commands of Kings Obedience to unjust Commands of Cesars is sin and to assist in such is to make themselves Participes Criminis Opposition to Popes or Kings tyrannizing is not Rebellion against Christ's Vicars or Vicegerents but opposition to wicked Men acting wickedly Defensive Arms justified by Authorities NOW who should have Power to reform things done amiss by Kings but all the People to whom he hath sworn as solemnly as they to him and both to God Almighty who is witness between them So Josiah the King with the Priests Prophets and all the People both small and great went up into the house of the Lord and made a Covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord c. and all the People stood to the Covenant 2. King. 23. 2 3 4. Why should the Common consent of all the People be so solemnly required Why should Israel and Judah be so strictly obliged to the observation of Gods Holy Laws and Commandments Why should they so sacredly promise to be the Lords People unless Power and Authority were given to them also to free themselves from Covenant breaking and from Perjury and to defend Holy Church Wherefore was a Covenant made with the People that they should be the People of God zealous of good Works if they must obey the unjust Commands of Kings it may be to worship strange Gods or to permit monstrous sins to reign among them if it be not lawful to put to their assistance and endeavour to hinder and reform And why should they be blamed or Judgments poured upon them if they have no Power from on High to perform what was so solemnly required and so solemnly promised that God should so solemnly require their Vow and Promise and yet not give them Power and Authority to perform is monstrous to conceive God never requires more than he gives Brick without Straw that is the Property of Pharaoh and his hard Task-masters It s much more agreeable to truth that all Covenants of like nature and purport are equally obliging both to King and People and the care and Authority of each over the other for adjusting of performances is reciprocal and equal it being a Gospel Principle That Gods peculiar People which are his true Church ought to be sollicitous not only to abstain from evil themselves but also to prevent it in otheers A notable Example whereof is before mentioned in the People of Israel Josh 22. who out of abundant Caution minding the Concerns of their Brethren as their own when they heard that the Reubenites Gadites and half the Tribe of Manasseh had erected an Altar not for worshipping as they truly protested but for memorial and witness So fearful they were of Gods Wrath falling on them that they soon dispatched an Embassy to their Brethren to prevent their sin as before Hence it is that the Prophets of old standing in the Gate of the Children of the People whereby their Kings came in and by which they went out did so often put them in mind of their Duty and of keeping Covenant and not only that they should not sacrifice to Baal but that they should destroy both Baal and his Priests and root them out of the Land whether the King will or no for when Ahab had killed the Prophets of God Eliah the Prophet congregated all Israel not tumultuously but by publick Authority and common consent unto Mount Carmel and the Prophets of Baal Four hundred and fifty and the Prophets of the Grove Four hundred which did eat at Jezabels Table and had convinced them of their Idolatry and to be false Prophets the People at his command killed them all at the Brook Kishon 1 King. 18. whereby it appears that the King neglecting his Duty all Israel as obliged ought to discharge theirs On the contrary as often as Kings violated their Covenants or profaned the Worship of God and the People of Israel as we said before of Covenants where the breach of one party manifestly prejudiced the other Covenanters threatning Ruin and Destruction to the Innocent through Negligence sinful Connivance or any other sinister By-end or Respect did not restrain him their Judgments came also upon the People as well for their non-performance as on Kings for theirs which mostly hapned for that the People are more apt to follow the Examples of their Kings than to repent and amend or mind him of the Errors of his ways Wherefore did the Hoast of Israel with Saul and his two Sons fall down slain in Mount Gilboa by the Philistines 1 Sam. 31. Would God think you revenge the Sins of the King upon the People if innocent Far be it from the Judge of all
People and that there is not any one Law either in the old or new Testament that makes any exception or exemption or to free one more than another from censure if a Transgressor either against God or Man. To assert that God hath reserved to his own Tribunal the punishment of Kings and Princes more than others so as to free them from being called to an account and censured here on Earth is a false Maxime without sound reason or good authority Examine the Gospel and see if that doth allow that which the Law doth not and whether the Divine Herald of Liberty inward and outward or civil to all Christians do deliver us up also Captives and Slaves to Tyrant Princes without a power or liberty to extricate our selves from such Slavery and Thraldom We read in the Gospel that Christ at his coming should scatter the Proud Imaginations of their Hearts and put down the Mighty from their Thrones Luke 1. 51 52. but no where that he did establish the Thrones of Tyrants for good government Christ himself was born under Tyrants suffered under them made himself of no Reputation took upon him the form of a Servant and thereby purchased for us an honest and just liberty as to bear with patient minds a necessitated servitude but we no where read that he took away from us our just powers of procuring our own Liberties when oppressed but rather confirmed them Art thou called being a Servant care not for it but if thou mayst be made Free use it rather Ye are bought with a price be not ye the Servants of Men. 1 Cor. 7. 21 23. In vain therefore is the example of Christ brought for our enduring of such servitude who by the price of his Servitude purchased and confirmed our civil Liberties Christ having asked Peter at Capernaum of whom do the Kings of the Earth take Custom or Tribute of their own Children i. e. their Citizens or of Strangers i. e. though under a conquerred condition Peter saith of Strangers Jesus saith unto him then are the Children free notwithstanding least we should offend them pay for me and thee Matt. 17. 25 26 27. Thus much rationally and naturally may from hence be concluded viz. That Christ and Peter as private Persons paid Tribute to Caesar though they had no obligation to pay it nor Caesar any just right to require it yet because they would give no offence but would be at quiet and avoid trouble Christ did command payment But from hence it never can be concluded that whole Kingdoms or Commonwealths being unjustly oppressed with exorbitant Taxes contrary to Law and without their consent are therefore obliged to pay them or that they are thereby forbid or hindred to right and relieve themselves Whether by Children are meant the Citizens or Subjects of Kings according to some or by Children be meant the Children of God the whole Race of Christians according to St. Austin it matters not if Peter was of the Children or Citizens he was therefore free We also Christ testifying are free likewise either as Citizens or as Christians God certainly would never give his Vicegerents or Patres Patriae as they desire to be esteemed authority to oppress those whom he would not tyrannize over himself and for whom he made the whole Creation for their comfort and solace no nor yet so unlimited Powers as that if they did oppress or tyrannize they should by no means for such their Tyranny be questioned which is an absurdity of the same nature as great as the other Is it not a wonderful injury to Gods infinite wisdom grace and goodness towards man to suppose that God should appoint Kingly Government and oblige him to keep Laws for the well government of his Charge as his Vicegerents for whose good he is set over them and yet at the same time if he violate them all he may do it without contradiction till the day of Judgment and to aggrevate the injury they endeavour to support that injury by wresting his own word by coyning evasions and creating subtleties to overshaddow the true and genuine meaning thereof and foysting false glosses upon them No doubt but when a fair opportunity offereth it self to an oppressed People to extricate themselves out of any Tyranny Gods Providence is therein manifested and it s their own fault if they make not use of it Is not Gods Image as manifestly seen in man as Caesars on the Coyn Is not as much respect and regard to be shewed to Gods Image as to Caesars I appeal to all rational men if it be not an injury of the same nature to give Kings and Princes power to do what they list or to swear them to keep Laws and yet in the same breath to leave them accountable to God only at the day of Judgment and so leave the governed to be without remedy Caesars have their Rights and the People have their Rights also Caesars are the Ministers of God to the People for their good and to see that all render to all their reciprocal dues not to take them away from them and in those things wherein they minister otherwise they are not Ministers of God but of the Devil Rom. 13. 4. 7. The Liberty and Freedom of the People is their propriety both by the Law of God and nature born with them and ought not to be defrauded or deprived thereof by any subtilties but the rights and powers of Kings over the People are given them by the People either expressly or implyed and to be always understood for their good the Inscription upon Coins doth not confer any more right to Kings than unto the People it only denotes its intrinsick value and that it is pure and without base mixture or allay Christ therefore in this place did not so much demonstrate Subjects duty towards Kings as to tax the Pharisees who feigned themselves Just Men and took council to entangle him in his talk cogging with him crying Thou art true and teacheth the way of God in truth c. of malice and wickedness designing to betray him by taking hold of his words that so they might deliver him to the power and authority of the Governor Luke 20. 20. and therefore put that captious question to him is it lawful to give Tribute to Caesar or is it not But he knowing their Hypocrisy answered them accordingly Mark 12. 14. 15. Thus sophistically by false reasonings and counterseit glosses on plain Texts of Scripture what is it less or other then to represent the great God of Heaven and of Earth a Deceiver of his People whilst he sets Kings over us as his Ministers for our good and yet at the same time to allow them a Latitude to tyrannize over them at their pleasure without controll Can men gather Figs of Thistles or Grapes of Brambles then may these men gather such false conclusions from such right premisses as cannot yield them It s undeniable that God never gave any Power to
substract from their Princes what they please nostrum est ferre modice Populi voluntates c. It is our duty modestly to submit to the good wills of the People So Tertullian in his Apolegetico to an Ethnick Emperor boklly told him that an Emperor ought not to be called Lord Augustus saith he Imperii formator ne dominum quidem dici se volebat hoc enim Dei est Cognomen c. Augustus was the Founder of the Empire and yet would not be called Lord because it was the Sir name of God Almighty and if he be Father of his Countrey how can he be Lord thereof O but Athanasius the Egyptian Bishop says that it is a most wicked nefarious thing to call Kings of the Earth before Tribunals What then when the Authority of Men though had in great veneration are trumpt up to justify any opinion without producing the grounds and reason of such their opinions it is but magnificum nihil makes a noise and a pudder but neither proves nor convinces Here 's not a word out of Scripture to prove it and in this there 's as little credit to be given to Athanasius as when at the end of his Creed he boldly affirms that that Creed to be the Catholick Faith which except a man believe faithfully he cannot be saved A Creed which many doubt whether he understood it himself or be yet intelligible to any other however to place the certainty of Salvation upon such mysterious expressions believe it quicunque vult I am sure vulgar capacities cannot reach it and they are the greatest part of Christians So St. Ambrose of a Proconsul and Catechumen called to be Bishop of Milan is brought upon the Stage to serve the same turn either unskilfully or flatteringly interpreting against thee only have I sinned Psal 51. 4. who would have all People subject to the Emperor and yet the Emperor be subject to him How did he treat Theodosius the Emperor forbidding him to come into the Church thereby demonstrating himself to be a Novice i. e. newly come to the faith from being a Proconsul and a Catechumen in the Doctrine of the Gospel and lifted up with pride whom at last prostrate at the Bishops feet having obtained his pardon and restored to the participation of holy duties and standing without the Rails magisterially and sawcily told him O Imperator interiora loca tantum Sacerdotihus attributa quae caeteris contingere non licet In this his demeanour he shewed himself rather a high Priest of Jewish Rites and Customs than a true Bishop of the Gospel who ought to be blameless and not lifted up with Pride lest he fall into the condemnation of the Devil I wonder in what Gospel the Bishop found such authority to be his right to treat Emperors after such a rate This Bishop attributed absolute dominion to the Emperor over others but it seems reserved Power over the Emperor to his own Tribe of Prelates and therefore repulsed Theodosius as subject to him saying Coaequalium hominum es Imperator conservorum unus enim omnium Dominus Rex Creator Very well the Murder is now out that mystery which the subtilty and craft Ecclesiastick had long kept in the dark the indiscreet to say no worse Zeal of this otherwise Pious Learned Bishop hath brought to light And this very St. Ambrose being commanded by Valentinian the Emperor to depart the City of Milan refused to obey and being compassed with a company of Armed People he defended himself and House against the Emperors Commanders and so resisted the Supream Powers against which he had taught As to that place of the Psalmist Psal 51. 4. Against thee only have I sinned whereof before certainly every Individual hath the same right to the same Plea and then I appeal unto and adjure all Ecclesiasticks plainly to tell us if Kings should treat their Wives or Daughters after the same rate whether they do really and truly believe that Kings so treating them as David did Vriah did sin only against God and not offend them also Surely they dare not be so confident as to assert it no offence to them and yet such there are If this be currant Doctrine in this particular it will as certainly hold in all other Sins such Priests as preach such Doctrines do manifest themselves to be Priests of Baal rather than Priests of the most High God. What mischiefs such Preachments have done in the Christian world let the world it self be Judg look upon allthe Courts and lives of all Emperors Kings and Princes Christian and tell me if we may not very probably judge by their Lives and Governments that they think their Authority an Immunity from all obedience to the Laws of God and Man and no wonder when such Parasites and Sycophants Preach and Print such Doctrines That evil Kings are constituted by God be it so and so are all other evils shall there be Evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it Amos 6. and yet the same Prophet bids us hate the evil and love the good and therefore for that reason have they God only for their Judge What above all Laws written and unwritten natural and divine and by no Laws to be called to Account by their Subjects and be found guilty though so Wherefore certainly no Law of God forbids it no Law excepts or exempts them Reason Right Justice Religion true Policy and Government reprove all indifferently without distinction or respect of Persons I have not as yet read or known any Law written or unwritten natural or divine brought to forbid the same And why should not reproofs and censures of sin and vices and wrongs be executed against them because forsooth though wicked yet are constituted of God wretched perverse reasonings I have created the Waster to destroy Isaiah 54. 16. Are Destroyers therefore above all Laws Consider well with your selves if the reasons and consequences be not the very same How many Kings in Scripture constituted by God himself have we known punished and that by Men Are not Popes Tyrants in the Church after the same manner constitued by God as prima sedes anemine judicabitur 77 and yet how powerfully can the same men plead for dethroning them and yet plead impunity for Kings Tyrants How ridiculous is it to plead thus against Baal whose Province is conscience only to be removed out of the Church and yet Tyrants over our Bodies Lives and Fortunes Consciences and Liberties must be continued without control If otherwise then Kingdoms and States would be turned topsy turvy be it so if for the better why not If Tyranny and abuse of Power must still continue setled on its Dregs and Lees then Actum est A Dieu to all the happiness of the Governed if things once reduced quo jure quave injuria unto an il habit or figure must they for ever so continue without contradiction God forbids it the same power be it in free States or
the yoak of such Bondage and Impery is likewise according to the Law of Nature virtus vocatur The People for certain were before there could be any King and consequently Kings must be made by the People and therefore are superior to them in some sense according to quicquid efficit tale est magis tale a rule as true in Politicks as in Naturals Produce who can any one Law of God and Nature or any one Rule of Natural Justice by which Usurpers Tyrants perverters of Law and Justice are to be free of punishment and yet the Inferior People to be subject to punishments for Crimes of the same nature The Reason and Law of Government be it Monarchical or Republick is equally natural Kings by Nature are no more Sacred than those seated in the Government of Republicks who nemine contradicente may and ought to be punished and why not Kings when transgressors their Power being given them by the same Persons and for the very self-same ends and purposes the good of the governed To assert the Oaths and Pacts of Kings with their People to be obliging and yet to be unaccountable and unreprovable for any breach of them is with the Cow to give good Milk and then kick it down at one and the same moment to make good Laws and yet to abolish and null them which ought to have dominion over both Kings and People Look into Ancient Histories which strut with examples of Governors Kings and others brought to Judgment and condemned by the People Lacedaemonians Grecians Romans c. formal Governments Victima haud ulla Amplior Potest magisque opima mactari Jovi Quam Rex Iniquus Senec. Frag. See the Edict of Theodosius and Valens Christian Emperors Codex 1. tit 14. De Authoritate Juris Imperatorum pendet Authoritas The Majesty therefore of Cesars must submit to the Laws on which they depend Whoever consults and considers the very severe Laws of the Romans Grecians Lacedaemonians Carthaginians Athenians against the Licentiousness Oppressions Tyranny Insolencies c. of their Emperors and other Magistrates they will find that they were made with all the Sincerity Care Caution and Wisdom that the Understandings and Wisdoms of those several Countries and Ages could afford and that the breach of them were very severely punished Valerius Publicola Collegue of Junius Brutus after their Kings were banished made a Law That when Tyrants by reason of their armed Soldiers could not be brought to Judgment it should be lawful for any Man to resist them by any means and afterwards to give an account of their so doing Such like Appeals and Examples are common amongst most Nations Ambiorix King of the Gauls confessed that the Multitude had no less Power over him than he had over them Tacitus writes of the Germans Nec Germanorum Regibus infinita aut libera potestas erat de minoribus rebus Principes consultant de majoribus omnes Rex aut Princeps auditur Authoritate suadendi magis quam jubendi potestate si displicuit sententia fremitu aspernatur That their Kings had no Infinite or Arbitrary Power c. It is not unworthy our consideration to recount with how great severity and strictest Discipline of Laws and Ordiances both of the Senate and Common Council the Romans did provide against the exorbitant and imperious licentious Government of their Kings beyond all bounds of reason After the expulsion of Tarquinius Superbus the last Roman King all the Citizens of Rome assembled and concluded that their Government under one whom they called King should for the future be settled on two whom at first they called Praetores afterwards Judices then Consules P. Valerius who was chosen Consul with L. Brutus made a Law That it should be lawful for any Man to Appeal from any Magistrate whomsoever to the People esteeming such Appeals as Bridles and Curbs to licentious Governors And some do contend that Appeals during the Reigns of their Kings from them to the People were in use before and that it was so provided by their Pontifical Books which Law was re-inforced again by Muraena the Consul quo tempore Sora Alba coliniae deductae sunt Afterward when the Decemvirate Impery was annulled the People of Rome the better to provide against Arbitrary Government besides the Tribunes of the People who had the Protectorship of the Liberties and Goods of the People made a new Law That if any should create a Magistrate without the intercession of the People or their Tribunes it should be lawful for to kill him Which Duellius the Consul soon after renewed by an other Constitution That whoever created a Magistrate without the benefit of Appeals his Back and Head should pay for it Notwithstanding all these severities yet the Nobles did oppress the Commons and therefore as the only remedy thereof M. Valerius before the first Punick War made a Law called Lex Valeria which among other things did provide That whosoever appealed from another Magistrate should not be punished either Head or Back But yet the Liberty and Goods of the People not being sufficiently secured but that the more mighty did oppress the less powerful the â—icher the poorer M. Valerius the Consul did a third time promulgate a Law with grievous punishments to those who should prohibit Appeals to the greater Tribunal in so much that those who were violently oppressed and condemned he gave the right of Appeal to the People And yet after a few years Caligula on pretence that Suits should not be spun out and wier-drawn too long did inhibite many Appeals Although Appeals the chief protection of the People from Injuries was ratified by so many Laws and yet proved insufficient thereunto therefore Martius Censor made a Law in behalf of the People That no Man should be preferred twice to those higher places And then Fab. Maximus in favour of the People ordained That no Man should in ten years be admitted to the same Place and Authority Then L. Sylla by a Law forbade any Man under great punishments to be a Praetor before he had been a Quaestor or Consul before he had been a Praetor and the same Man not to be advanced again into the same place within ten years deeming the frequent exaltations into Powers would make the Powers not to be endured which Law was afterwards extended unto twenty years There were many Acts also of the Common Council extant by which it was provided That no Man should bear two Magistracies especially that of the Curulis in one year neither the Plebaeian nor the Patritian And all Magistrates were before admittance to be sworn and not to stay therein above five Days except they were sworn and if they carried themselves proudly and insolently in their Government they were to be cast out the first of such was Tarquinius Superbus afterwards Kingship being banished Sergius and Virginius Tribune Consuls and Cn. Manlius and Servilius Cepio Pro-consuls the Senate for their Male-Government caused
were both made Censors from the Plebeians which Law Philo the Dictator is said to have made All the Patrician Magistrates even those also of the Pontisicates and Priests were made the Plebeians being first consulted In summ so great was the honour of Tribunitian Power that the People of Rome gave it to Octavius Augustus and then to the Caesars as a special remark of Favour Yet it must not be omitted that though the Consuls and Praetors might be called to account by the Tribunes of the People yet Caesar by the right of his sacred Power was free from all Power of the Magistrates But notwithstanding if he did abuse the Power so conferred upon him or should diminish or infringe the rights of the People or if he did intercede or forbid or compel when or where he ought not or if he did enterprise or endeavour any thing against the good of the People he might be summoned by the Consul or Tribunes of the People and if found guilty he might by their Suffrages be degraded and punished and then he was no more accounted Sacred but Prophane When nine Tribunes of the People with Sp. Crassus lest Magistrates more majorum should be substituted did conspire and confederate against the liberty of the People of Rome Pub. Mutius a Tribune of the People did not only put them out of their Tribuneship but by right and law did Punish them And Tiberius Gracchus the major part of the Tribunes approving deprived Octavius his Colleague in the Tribuneship of his Power for that contrary to the good of the Publick he had interceded or opposed himself The words of the Law by which the Tribunes of the People are made sacred are Tribunum invitum tanquam unum è multis nemo cogito agere neque verberato neque alteri ut verberet imperato neque occidito neque occidi jubeto si quis autem prohibitorum horum quid fecerit impius execrabilisque esto bonaque ejus publicato ad sacra Cereris qui aliquem haec agentium occiderit caedis expiatus esto 3. 66. Lycurgus a Spartan King and of antient Kingly Race famous and celebrated for good Government and for making wise and good Laws designing to establish Kingly Power upon a more sure foundation he thought no way so good and so proper as Plato hath observed as to constitute a Senate or Ephori i. e. the Power of the People greater than that of Kings So thought Theseus Euripideus King of Athens who having vindicated the liberty of the People of Athens to his great glory did estate the Popular Power above the Kingly yet nevertheless left his Kingdom to his Posterity All wise and civilized People have ever esteemed the Laws to be King which it cannot be except it hath Power over Kings Ann. Dom. 429 in the time of Theodosius 2d and Valentinian 3d Florentio Dianysio and Coss upon complaints made concerning Appeals it was answered that saving the reverence of our Majesty we do not disdain to have equal Law or Justice with private Persons L. ult de appell consult Cod. Th. Abest a. Cod. Just And suitable to this was the Answer given to the Messengers of Africk by a Law directed to Volusianus the Praefect viz. It is a resolution worthy the Majesty of a Prince to own himself bound up by the Laws so much doth his Authority depend upon that of the Law and indeed it is a thing greater than Empire to submit the Princes Power unto Laws and by the Oracle of this present Edict so it concludes that which we do not permit to be lawful to our selves we declare to others L. 4. de leg Cod. Just lib. 1. tit 14. So just and temperate was the Government of the Romans under Theodosius and Valentinian the Third Kingly Power so tempered may very well consist with the Liberty of the People It was so tempered and used with the Spartans Thebans Athenians Sicilians and others When all power is given by the People to Kings whereby they obtain that Title yet it is given in trust for them for the safeguard and wellfare and not for the Destruction or Prejudice of the People to have the benefit and freedom of their Laws and not be Slaves O but after this rate Kings reign not by God's but by the Peoples appointment Very true for no Kings now Reign by Gods Personal appointment but by his approbation and allowance only as all other Governours do And as if God did not so govern the People that the People conferred Kingdoms according to the good will and pleasure of God Almighty Though the People of Rome by the lex Regia gave their power to Romulus their first King yet did they not thereby give up themselves to be Slaves for among the same Laws they had their Laws also in favour of themselves And the Emperor Justinian in the very Institutes acknowledgeth that the Caesars Reign according to the lex Regia by the choice and suffrages of the People Populi suffragia sunto Magistratus creanto Leges sciscunto Pacem bellumque jubento And among the fragments the first Law is Jus Populi fuffragia sunto quodcunque postremum Populus jussit id jus ratumque 12 Tabul lege sancitum est v. Calv. 983. 986. When Proud Tarquin bestroad the Throne and violated all the wholsome Laws of Servius and contemned all the Laws of his Predecessors reducing all to Lust Will and Pleasure they soon expelled him and changed their Kingly Government unto Consular and chose Brutus and Valerius for their Consuls who restored the Laws and others restoring the People to their antient and just Rights such were Leges Valeriae Sacrariae Iciliae and others all which did respect the publick good one whereof made by Valeria Brutus being dead was that there should be an Appeal to the People against all Magistrates administring wrongfully and that none should command in Rome but they on whom the People should confer Power so to do who with their Goods were to be accounted Sacred and if any did usurp such Power without their consent it should be capital Calv. p. 1009. Such a Kingdom is by Aristotle called most properly a Kingdom which was among the Spartans where notwithstanding the Popular Power was above the Kingly which cannot be denied where the People paid all Homage Duty Honour and Respect to their Kings though the Power remained with them which they did not ordinarily exercise yet on just occasions resumed and obtained it It is objected that the People having once delegated their Power to Kings forfeit it neither can the People resume it yet these that thus object do confess that the People may resume their delegated Powers from any other kind or form of Government But what makes the difference is past my understanding when Kingly and all other Governments receive their Power from the People on conditions and which they are sworn to observe and keep and why that Power which is only Fiduciary and
who carefully defend and govern the Church and People of God imitating David King of Israel Psalm 101. He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house he that telleth lyes shall not tarry in my sight I will early destroy all the wicked of the land that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the Lord c. The King ought in all truth and sincerity fully and wholly to observe all the Dignities Rights and Liberties of the Kingdom and to reduce them to their Pristine condition The King also ought to do all things in his Kingdom righteously and that by the judgment of the Nobles of the Kingdom and Right and Justice ought rather to bear Rule in a Kingdom than sinful Wills and Pleasures Law is always that which doth right but Will and Pleasure is violence and force is not right And much more to the same purpose by Edward the First to whose Laws also William the Conqueror subscribed Vid. Lambert Collect p. 142. N o 17. The true Religion of God and honest Conversation even of Priests themselves is our chiefest care saith Justinian Novel constit 6. The search of true Religion we find to be the chiefest care of Imperial Majesty Legum Theodos Novel tit 2. de Judaeis Samaritanis So Gregory the Great earnestly exhorted Edelbert unto the first that was Christned of the Saxon Kings in England For this cause the Almighty God brings the good Princes to the Regiment of his People that by them he may bestow the gifts of his mercy upon all that are under them Beda hist Aug. 32. Consider in the Creation we were all created in Adam equal and equally innocent and upright and had we so continued in that state of Innocency there would have been no need of Impery one over another every one would have been a King to himself God and Nature their only Law-givers but lapsed Man sought out many Inventions and broke the Laws both of God and Nature and thereby provoked God to anger and to vengeance and instead of being homo homini Deus as in their fist Creation and state of Innocency they soon became homo homini Lupus which unavoidably introduced a necessity of Government framed by human Wisdom that they may not like Brutes devour one another but live in Unity Wealth Peace and Godliness that they might have Liberty preserved Justice equally distribute◠Honesty upheld Religion and Piety maintained and propagated all which could not be done when the Race of lapsed Mankind was multiplyed but by Laws ordained by Common Consent as sociable Parts united into one Body which Laws in common Prudence and of right do bind each to serve other and all to prefer the good of the whole before what good soever of any particular without which no House no City no Nation can long subsist in any happy condition For to govern and to be governed is not to be esteemed amongst things only necessary but as things profitable also for the benefit and sollace of all Mankind and hath its ground and warrant in Scripture in Nature in Heaven Hell the Creatures Mans nature and Conscience In Scripture by me Kings and consequently all other Forms of Government reign and Princes decree Justice By me Princes rule and Nobles even all the Judges of the earth Pro. 8. 15 16. saith Gods essential wisdom viz. not only by the secret disposition of his Providence but by the express warrant of his Ordinance by Divine Institution not by naked approbation there being no power but of God either by his commission or permission The powers that are i. e. the several Forms of Government are ordained by God Rom. 13. 1 2 3 4 5 6. i. e. politick Power in general is warranted by a Divine Law but the several Forms of Government is by the Law of Nations Princedom Empire Kingdom and Jurisdiction have their Rise from a positive and secondary Law of Nations and not absolutely from the Law of God or of pure Nature which the Lawyers call Secundariò Jus naturale or Jus gentium secundarium In sum Government is immediately from God but this or that Form of Government is immediately from God by the Interposition and Mediation of the publick consent of Kingdoms and States and so the application of the Persons to the Office is wholly in the Governed The several Forms of Government differ not in nature Morally and Theologically speaking the end of all Government being the very self same but only politically and positively For God appointed not Kings absolute and solely Independent but constituted with them also Judges who were equally obliged to judge according to the Law of God. 2. Chron. 19. 6. as Kings 17. Deut. 15. and have a co-ordinate share in the Government because the Judgment is neither the Kings nor the Judges but the Lords and both their Consciences are in immediate subjection to the King of Kings 2 Chron. 19. 6 7. The persons are sometimes Usurpers sometimes Abusers of their Authority as when they tyrannize or oppress such powers God owns not the Rulers that he ordains are not to be a Terrour unto good works but to the evil for they are the Ministers of God to the governed for good revengers to execute wrath upon them that do evil To such Rulers we must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake therefore whosoever resisteth such powers resisteth the ordinance of God And for this cause pay we tribute but not to those that are a terrour to good works the reason subjoyned is for they are Gods Ministers attending continually on this very thing but if they attend not continually on this very thing there is no absolute necessary Obligation expressed incumbent upon us for our Obedience or for our paying of Tribute Sute or Service but rather on the contary It is better to obey God than Man Acts 5. 29. The same Power St. Peter terms human Ordinances Submit your self to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as supreme or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. so that S. Paul and S. Peter run parallel to one and the self same Sense and the Sword in the Magistrates Hand to revenge is not a material Sword to hack and hew kill and slay at pleasure but the Laws made by the common consent are the true Sword so Bishop Bilson to which both Magistrates and People are equally obliged to submit the Magistrates being but the Conduit and Pipe the Administrators not Patrons of the Powers for the sake of order through which and by whom all Laws are to pass and be executed and by the same Texts they have the like Obligation to praise them that do well as to punish those that do ill so David was taught and practised I will not know a wicked person mine eyes
respect not to this life only but to that of a better even to Eternity which no other Lawgivers had therefore Moses exhorted the Israelites that when they should possess the Land whether they were going that they should keep and do the statutes and judgments as the Lord had commanded him and it should be their wisdom and their understanding in the sight of the Nations which shall hear all those statutes and say surely this great Nation is a wise and understanding people And what Nation is there so great that hath Statutes and Judgments so righteous as all this Law which I set before you this day Deut. 4. 4 5 6 7 8. Having declared the necessity usefulness and benefit of Government and the final end thereof it is now requisite to show the true and efficient cause and right of Government where and in whom the just right of appointing Governours and Government is undoubtedly inherent and instated God beyond all contradiction reigns by his own Plenipotentiary Power and doth whatsoevor he pleaseth in Heaven above and in Earth beneath and in the Waters under the Earth Kings and other Governours only precariò at the good will and pleasure of others God by himself Kings by God and the Governed God by his own Jurisdiction Kings by deligated Authority from others the Jurisdiction of God is immense that of Kings limited So the power of God infinite that of Kings not so the Kingdom of God endless boundless that of Kings limited to certain Regions and fading When God sets Kings upon Thrones he sets them there as his Substitutes to go in and out before his people and to do Judgment and Justice 2 Chron. 9. 8. and upon condition that the governed should still be the Lords people 2 King. 11. 17. 2 Chron. 1. 10. So that God still remains Lord and Proprietor of the same People but sets Kings and other Magistrates over them to govern and feed them like good Shepherds not to pill poll and fley them so all good Kings acknowledged as David Solomon Jehosaphat and others So Nebuchadnezzar tho an Ethnick did acknowledge Dan. 2. 47. Hence it necessarily follows that Kings are set over a People to nourish and cherish them as God himself and not to wrong or oppress them So Jehojada made a Covenant between the Lord and the King and the People that they should be the Lords People and between the King also and the People 2 King. 11. 17. In the Inauguration of Joae we read of a holy Covenant between God and the King and the people as it is elsewhere expressed between Jorada the chief Priest and all the people and the King that they should be the people of God. So Josiah and all the people made Covenant with God 2 King. 11. 11. 2 Chr. 23. 13 16. 2 King. 23. from which is to be understood that the high Priest in the name of God covenanted between the Lord and the King and the People that they should be the Lords People and between the King also and the People that God should be truly and purely worshipped by both King and People of Judah And was not the King so to reign that he should suffer the People to serve God according to the Law of God and the People so to obey the King that in the first place they were to obey God and both King and People sworn by Solemn Sacrament in the first place to worship God and keep his Laws matter of Fact doth manifest it And all the People of the Land went into the House of Baal and brake it down his Altars and his Images brake they in pieces c. and restored the Worship of God the sum of the Covenant being that all should worship God and all should take care that God be worshipped according to his own Precepts and Prescript which if they did perform God would be with them and bless them if not then he would destroy them So Moses before his death rehearsâ—th the Conditions of the Covenant made with their Forefathers and all the Blessings and Curses attending the breach or performance thereof Deut. 29. 30 31. commanding them to take the book of the Law and put it in the side of the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God that it may be there for a witness against thee c. Deut. 31. 26 27 28. After Moses was dead God himself constituted Joshua to go in and out before his People on the same conditions Josh 1. which if they transgressed they should be delivered into the hands of the Canaanites One and the self-same Covenant which was made between God and the People under the Judges was made under and with the Kings After Saul was constituted King Samuel said to the People Fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart but if you shall still do wickedly ye shall be consumed both ye and your King Josh 12. 24 25. thereby shewing that God expects as strickt performance of his Laws from Kings as from the People Saul being rejected because he brake Covenant David was constituted King on the same Conditions and so Solomon his Son which Covenant was That if they and their Children kept his Commandments and observed his Statutes they should sit on the Throne of Israel for ever if otherwise they should be destroyed 1 Kings ch 2. ver 12. 2 Chron. 6. 16. ch 7. 17. Hence the Book of the Law found in the Temple in the days of Josiah is called the Book of the Covenant of the Lord which he commanded his People to deliver to the King 2 King. 23. 2. Deut. 7. 18. which Samuel did to Saul 1 Sam. 10. 25. and Josiah accordingly did covenant before the Lord So the Law which was kept in the Ark is called the Covenant of the Lord with the Children of Israel who being delivered from the Babylonish Captivity renewed their Covenantwith God which they had violated 2 Chron. 6. 11. whereby it is manifest that Kings as Vassalls to the Law of God solemnly swear to be obedient thereunto We make a sure Covenant and write it and our Princes Levites and Priests seal unto it Nehem. 9. 38. the breach of which Covenant is a like penal to King and People which is manifested in Saul who for offering Sacrifice and for sparing Agag King of the Amalekites was accounted a Rebel and punished accordingly 1 Sam. 13. 12 13. and thereby taught that Kings if they break the Laws are as truly Rebels as Subjects and that obedience is better than sacrifice thou hast rejected the wâ—rd of the Lord and the Lord hath rejected thee from being King over Israel 1 Sam. 15. 26 27. which crime doth not terminate only in the Persons of Kings so rebelling but is extensive also to their Children So God did rend the Kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and gave ten tribes to his servant Jeroboam because he forsook God and worshipped 〈◊〉 c. 1 King. 11. 32 33.
he breaking his Covenant God became free and discharged of his promise and rent his Kingdom from him The same Jeroboam erecting twâ— Calves in Dan and Bethel became â—in unto the House of Jeroboam even to cut it off and was first punished by the death of his Son and then destroyed it from off the face of the Earth 1 Kings 13. 34. And why Because they kept not God's Covenant The Scripture is full of such Examples of the Kings of Israel and Judah As the Gospel succeeded the Law so Kings Christian are in the place and stead of Jewish Kings and are under the same Covenants the same Pacts and the same Punishments and the same God is the same Revenger of all Perjuries and Perfidiousness and Covenant-breaking As the Jewish Kings were strictly obliged to the observation of the Law so Kings Christian to the observation and propagation of the Gospel unto which they Swear at their Inauguration Herod who ought to have advanced the Kingdom of the Lord Christ fearing Christ himself as a Competitor for his Kingdom condemned him to Death Behold how soon he miserably perished and lost his Kingdom How soon was Julian the Apostate in despight of all his obstinacy and perversness brought to his scornful Exclamation and Acknowledgment of Vicisti Galilae Histories both Sacred and Profane Old and New are full of such fearful Examples which may teach all Kings and Princes That though they set themselves and the Rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed which are his People Psalm 105. 14 15. yet he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh them to scorn and the Lord shall have them in derision and in his due time shall break them with a rod of Iron and shall dash them in pieces like a potters vessel and make all their enemies their foot-stools Psal 2. 100. And they shall confess the Lamb Christ Jesus to be King of kings and Lord of lords and that they that be with him to be the chosen and faithful Rev. 17. 14. It is wonderful and ineffable to consider that the great God of Heaven and of Earth did not create Men only a little lower than the Angels and in his own Image and give them also dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth Gen. 1. 26. but such was his admirable Love to Mankind that he hath in some measure given him a share and part with himself in the External and Worldly Administration and Government of themselves and of the things below in directing them to a Government according to his own Pattern displaied in the Old and New Testament and given them Laws to Govern themselves and Honours and dignifies them with the Title of his own Lieutenants and Vice-gerents nay of Gods I have said ye are Gods c. Psalm 82. 6 7. viz. By me Kings reign and Princes decree justice Prov. 8. 15 16. who in the days of the Prophets and since hath left them unto their own free choice and discretion still observing his Laws and Commands against which no Law can have force And God himself remembring his Covenant the Word which he swore to a thousand Generations became a Pattern to all his succeeding Vicars and Vice-gerents to imitate When he sent Joseph before him into Egypt in his due time to bind Princes at his pleasure and teach his Senators wisdom when he sent Moses his Servant and Aaron whom he had chosen to hector proud Pharaoh King of Egypt and bring out his people Israel with a high hand and stretched out arm and deliver them out of the Iron furnace and Egyptian bondage reproving Kings for their sakes saying Touch not mine Anointed and do my Prophets no harm when he led them through the wilderness by spreading a cloud for their covering and fire to give light in the night when he made the red sea a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left and at the same time overthrew Pharaoh and all his hoast in the midst of the same so that there remained not so much as one of them but brought Israel forth with Gold and with Silver and not one feeble person among their Tribes and gave them the Land of the Heathen for their inheritance and uttermost parts of the Earth for their possession Of such vast and near consequence and concern was the Happiness and Welfare of the People of the Jews though a rebellious generation unto God himself that he used â—his Almighty Power and wrought Miracle after Miracle rather than not deliver them from the Hands of their Enemies and cruel Bondage A notable Document to all Christian Kings who pride themselves and glory in being stiled and esteemed his Vice-gerents to imitate God and his Vice-gerent Moses in all their Governments in keeping Covenants and being in good earnest Nursing-fathers to the governed and carry them in their Bosoms as Nursing-fathers bear their sucking Children and not vex them with their Wyles nor yet with any Oppressions or Tyranny CHAP. III. The true Basis and Foundation of all Governments and right of Legislation is consent of Parties who may delegate and devolve the use of their own power on one or more Persons without devesting themselves of the Supreme Dominion thereof And that common Good is the main end of all Governments Kings made by the People THESE things thus premised I lay this for an undeniable Truth as the Basis of all true Government viz. That Paternal Government excepted to which within their own private Families Nature hath given a Supreme Power throughout the World even from the first Creation thereof and have ever been reputed as Lawful Governors therein no Man nor any number of Men can have compleat Lawful Power or Authority over any number of society of Men but by consent of Men or by immediate appointment of God which position will justice all subsequent Superstructures all other Governments being unnatural violent and usurped and therefore unlawful whereby it is manifest that the whole Right and Power of Government is originally in the Governed who may transfer and vest as much of their own Power as they please on one or more Governors without devesting themselves absolutely of the Supreme Dominion thereof which still remains virtually in them they delegating the Use only not the Patronage and Dominion of their own Power for the better Execution Administration and Regulation of those Laws which by common consent they should make and chuse for the sake of Justice Peace Order and Piety Common good being the main end for which Societies and Governments were instituted by God and Man and without they tend unto that end they are not perfect And in all such delegations salus populi the good of the governed is and so ought to be the Supreme Law and is always so expressed or imployed and so to be undertaken and understood This
Kings receive all Royalty from the People and for behoof of the People and that by a special Trust of safety and liberty expresly by the People limited and by their own Concessions and Oaths ratified as for certain they do then Emperors and Kings cannot be said to have so unlimited and high a property in our Lives Liberties and Possessions or in any things else appertaining to their Crowns as the Governed have in their Dignity or in themselves The safety of Kingdoms is to be valued above any right of any Monarch as the end is to be preferred above the means It is not just nor possible for any Nation so to enslave it self to resign its own Interest to the will of one or many Lords as that they may destroy or abuse it without Injury and yet to have no right to preserve or right it self For since all natural Power is in those that obey they which contract to obey to their own Ruine or Slavery or having so contracted they which esteem such contract before their own preservation are fellonious to themselves and rebels to Nature Livy lib. 1. ab V. C. describing the beginning of the Roman Kingdom Records that among those Hundred named Kings after the Death of Romulus who succeeded and governed that People successively That if they did not please the People it was ordained by common consent that the People should chuse their Kings and that the Authority of the Senate should confirm them It 's manifest that Kings being set up by the People on conditions which if they perform not the People being Convocated according to their distinct Orders and Ranks by the same Authority they had to set up Kings on Tearms and Conditions by the very self-same Authority they may curb and dethrone them which they made good against proud Tarquin their last King. Moreover Seneca observes out oâ— Cicero de Republica that Appeals do lie from the King to the People as in the case of Horatius that killed his Sister who by Delegates appointed by Tullus Hostilius the King was condemned yet was afterwards absolved and quitted by the People Dionysius testifies the same that Romulus when he consulted about settling the Kingdom did declare That the King was the keeper of the Laws yet in the mean time that the Power of creating Magistrates making Laws War and Peace was still left with the People as inherent in them Populi suffragia sunto Magistratus creanto leges sciscunto pacem bellumque jubento Calv. 985. Which farther appears by the History of Collatinus who first was Consul with Brutus that the People by which Title is understood the Plebeian State which now is called the Third State as among the Romans viz. Patritian Equestrian Plebeian had the same Power against the Consuls although they had the Supreme Power when there were no Dictators To this Livy lib. 2. ab V. C. gives Testimony Timens the Consul fearing to be called to Account at the end of his Consulship quitted it But Collatinus the Consul though accused of no crime yet being of the Name and Family of the Tarquins was suspected and removed by the People Hence it is easily gathered that the People would much more use their Authority on any Consul if criminally accused although by the Law they were not to be questioned till their time was ended It 's true after the Decemvirate was constituted which was Anno 302. no Appeal did lie from them to any other Magistrates But when they alternately Governed it was lawful to Appeal from the Judgment or Sentence of one to the Judgment and Sentence of another So far unpleasing was an unlimitted Power to the Romans that at last the Decemvirate was forced to quit their Power It 's true no Appeal lay from the Dictatorship but that Power was never erected but in very perillous times and extreme oppression necessitating and lasted but a very little while Cal. 1050. Semestre scilicet And which is yet more admirable if at any time an Appeal to the People from the Supreme Power of the Dictator was brought he of his own accord consented As may appear by the Transactions between L. Papyrius Dictator 2. Fabias Anno ab V. C. 429. Tho' Julius Caesar violently obtained his Power over the Romans yet would seem and did pretend to have had all his Dignities and Gifts according to the ancient custom from the People for which Usurpation he was afterwards slain So Augustus no Heir of the Empire but adopted by him to be his Successor pretended that he was of right chosen by the consent of the People Neither did Tiberius by any other way succeed him and after him Caligula was chosen by the consent both of the Senate and the People but Claudius first obtained the Empire and the Military Power by Bribes but did not govern without the consent of the People Nero having poysoned him succeeded him and reigning tyrannically the Senate resumed their Power which had a long time slept condemned him as an Enemy to the Roman State By all which it appears that Caesars becoming Tyrants may lawfully be resisted and censured and tho their Empire seem very large by the Lex Regia made for Augustus and confirmed for Vespasian yet it was circumscribed and limited neither was it approved of without exception as long as there were places for Law and Equity So the Athenians when they changed their Democracy into an Aristocracy they set over themselves first Thirty then Ten who abusing their Poower they soon removed and punished them by the same Power by which they created them The Lacedaemonian Kings having been wont to be chosen out of the Family of the Heraclides which Lysander endeavoured to have altered but could not Plutarch their Kings being chosen on Terms and Conditions the People appointed certain called Ephori to be a Bridle to them These Ephori sometimes deposed banished and beheaded till at last Cleomenes the Tyrant traiterously slew them all Zenophon records of the Lacedaemonians that both the Kings and Ephori were wont every Month mutually to swear to each other these in the Name of the People and the King in his own Name That he would govern according to the Prescript of their Laws and that they would keep the Citizens true to him if he kept his Oath This was the Right Power and Practice of the Heathen of which more hereafter Let us now consider the State of the Israelites the most perfect Government in the World if they would have been contented with it for they had God for their only Monarch not only because he was Lord of the whole World but because he chose them to be his peculiar People in that he gave them Laws by Moses and gave them the promised Land by Jeshua who governed them by Judges at which time the Government was Monarchical tho by the Ministry of the Judges which if Kings would now imitate and govern accordingly there would be no need of these
Disputes as it is now most necessary Tho God appointed David King yet he was to be chosen by the People 2 Sam. 5. 1. So Solomon 1 Chron. 29. 22. and tho the Crown of right did belong to David's Family yet the People did choose which of the Family best pleased them and that by a double Obligation as may appear by the History of Joas 2 King. 11. 4. and 17. For the King and the People by a Solemn Oath did promise to God that they would keep his Laws both Ecclesiastical and Civil Afterwards there was another Oath between King and People at which time there was a Right in the People i. e. Ordinibus Populi to call him to Account whom they had ordained King if he performed not his Duty Which is made out by Examples If it were lawful for David to defend himself from the Tyranny of Saul and for the City of Libnah the City of the Priests and inferiour Magistrates only to withdraw themselves from the Obedience of Joram the sixth Successor from David because he had forsaken the Lord God of his Fathers which City belonging to the Priests it is very apparent that their case was far different from that of the Idumaeans which hapned at the same time under the same King for it is not likely that the Edomites withdrew themselves from the Subjection of the Israelites that they might serve God whom they never served but hated him and the Israelites but desired to free themselves from thier Subjection But the Priests and Inhabitants of Libnah not being able to serve two Masters God and the Tyrant threw of his Yoak that they might the better serve God will it not naturally follow that the States of a Kingdom may lawfully defend and free themselves from Tyranny The Fact also of the Rulers over Hundreds with the Captains by the Advice of Joida against Athalia and of the Israelites against Amasia 2 King. 14. 19. whom they slew which was not seditiously but lawfully done for it is no where said that Amasius was slain by his Servants as it hapned to his Father Joas and to Ammon the Son of Manasses but by the common consent of Jerusalem and that not treacherously the end of most Tyrants but by publick force and publick Authority not tumultuously but after he had fled to the City Lachish from whence his Body was carried to the Sepulchers of his Fathers which is confirmed for that after his death we do not read of any Inquisition made how he came to be slain or that any Body was punished or called in question for it either by the People or his Children as there was for Ammon and Joas 2 King. 12. 10. 14. 5. 21. 24. but on the contrary in respect to Kingly Dignity and his Fathers Family they chose Azariah his Son King. Hence we may conclude that the chief States or Ordines of Jerusalem had a rightful Power to choose a King out of the Family of David whom they pleased and when elected him either to eject or punish according as he did or did not observe the Laws So the Danes dethroned and imprisoned Christiern their Tyrant King till he dyed and chose his Uncle in his room It is not unknown how Gustavus Erickson freed himself and his Subjects from their Subjection to the Danes and also how they kept their King Captive for Male-Government which they translated to his Brother To say nothing of England and Scotland Poland keeps its ancient Right of choosing their Kings on certain Terms and Conditions with this Salvo That it may be lawful to be quit of their Oath if the King keep not his as it may appear by their Election of Henry Brother to the King of France which agrees with Bishop Valentine Procurator for the King in that Election who in his Oration to the People publickly made and printed commended them for that they did limit and circumscribe the Power of the King by wise Laws So the Venetians whose General Council hath Authority of choosing their Duke reserving Power to themselves of deposing or punishing them if he endeavour or do any thing Tyrannically So the Venetians constitute their Duke not as an Idol but as a Prince and Monarch from whom without any danger of Tyranny all the Lawful Priviledges and Prerogatives of Kings do issue and flow Now as their General Council have all the Authority of choosing him observing their ancient Rites and Customs used therein so the same Council retain to themselves the Right of deposing or punishing him if he govern Tyrannically without which Power all the rest would signifie little So consider that Wise and Prudent Nation of Spain In the Fourth Council of Toledo cap. 74. held 1144. according to Sigibert's Computation and consisted both of Ecclesiasticks and of the States of that Kingdom it is thus recorded viz. Nullus apud nos sub presumptione regnum arripiat c. Let no Man presume to take upon him the Government of this Kingdom no Man move or stir up Sedition among the Citizens no Man design the Destruction of the King but when the King dies let the Princes and Peers of the Nation with the Priests constitute the Successor in Common Council that whilst Unity and Concord are preserved amongst us no Discord may arise But if this Admonition do not quiet our Minds and move our Hearts to endeavour the common Good then hear our Sentence Whoever of us or of all the People of this Nation shall by any Conjuration or Study violate the Sacrament of his Faith or Allegiance which for the State of his Country and of the Gothick Nation or for the Preservation of the Welfare of the King he had promised or plighted or shall compass the Kings death or divest him of his Power or by any Tyrannical Presumption shall attempt or usurp the Crown Let him be Anathema Accursed in the sight of God the Father and his Angels and from the Catholick Church which by Perjury he hath profaned and from all the Company of Christians with all his Associates in iniquity be for ever debarred because it must needs be that the same Punishment is due to all the Complices and Companions in the same Crimes which we again the second time repeat Quod iterum secundo replicamus dicentes quicunque à modo c. And therefore may it please all here present by your consent to confirm this Sentence the third time by the Universal Clergy or People it is pronounced that whoever shall presume against this our definitive Sentence Let him be Anathema Maranatha i. e. Accursed at the coming of the Lord and that he and his Fellows may have their Portion with Judas Iscariot Amen Wherefore we admonish the whole Church of God and the People that no Man presume to condemn this dreadful Sentence but that they keep their plighted Faith towards our glorious King Sisenand c. And we humbly require thee our present King and all future Princes that
commandment to the right hand or to the left to the end that he may prolong his days in his Kingdom Deut. 17. 16 20. If they so Reign then by me Kings reign is well applied but if they walk contrary then they are no more God's Vice-gerents but the Devils For God never gave encouragement to Princes to work wickedness or to oppress or harrass Subjects but punished them for not Governing righteously The Premisses considered will certainly yield this undeniable conclusion That because God hath given the governed Power and Instruction whom to set Kings over them viz. this Man not that one from among their Brethren not a stranger which is not their Brother therefore the People have a Power to chuse this or that Man for their King. The Reasons are clear for that God's Law doth not impower an Ignis fatuus a non-ens nor can God's Law countenance or abet an unlawful Power or an unlawful Action but interdict it Besides there being now no immediate inspired Prophets as Samuel or Elisha to anoint David not Eliab Solomon not Adoniah nor any Man by Natures Law born with a Regal Diadem on his Head or Scepter in his Hand It must necessarily follow That Kings must have their Power from the suffrages and consent of the governed if they will Govern Lawfully and not be Usurpers And it was so from the first Institutions of publick Government For when the World began to multiply and reciprocal Injuries Injustices and Oppressions did increase among them the Light of Nature and common Sense did dictate unto them That there was no way to prevent and redress all evils of Oppression Injustice c. incident to the whole Race of Mankind but to come to an Agreement and Composition among themselves by Constituting some kind of publick Government and by submiting themselves thereunto And that unto whom they granted Power and Authority by them the Peace Tranquility and happy Estate of all might be procured Men always knew that when Force and Injury was done they might by the Law of Nature defend themselves They likewise knew by the Instinct of Nature that howsoever Men might seek their own profit and happiness yet if this were done with Injury unto others it was not to be suffered but by all Men and all good Means to be withstood They knew also by the same Light that no Man might in Reason take upon him to determine his own Right and therefore debates and troubles would be endless except they gave their common consent all to be ordered by some whom they should agree upon without which consent there were no Reason that one Man should take upon him to be Lord or Judge over another and therefore for manifestation of this their Right and peaceable Contentment on all sides the Assent of them who were to be governed became absolutely necessary So Judicious Hooker and all prudent Authors writing of Government CHAP. VII Whole Kingdoms to be preferred before Kings Deputators to be preferred before Deputies Kings are not immediately from God but from the People who may limit and bind Royal Power as they please The People give only their Politick Power to Kings reserving their Natural Power for self-preservation and happiness which they cannot resign nor deligate without sin Law acknowledgeth no Supremacy nor Sovereignty but according to Law. Covenants have been made with Kings both under the Law and since and are equally binding both to King and People The People cannot absolutely and unaccountably resign their whole Power to Kings without sin manifestly thereby breaking Covenant first made with God. SEeing Kings are constituted and appointed by the People and for the People to preside over them and manage their own Government and to defend them by going in and out before them to fight their Battels and to see that Judgment be impartially and indifferently administred it naturally and undeniably follows that whole Kingdoms are to be preferred before the Kings thereof as the good of the whole is to be preferred before the good of any part Mr. John Turner in his Sermon September 9. 1683. though he extends Passive Obedience and Prerogative far beyond their just limits yet ingeniously confesseth That the Interest of Nations is to be preferred before the Interest or Welfare of any one Man and grounds it on the Prophecy of Caiphas John 11. 45 50. That it is expedient that one man should die for the People and that the whole Nation perish not which he accounts a sure word of Prophecy that is the Testimony of God himself that a greater Interest of Mankind is to be preferred before a lesser p. 20 21. Such force there is in conferring Authorities that they who receive Authorities are necessarily to be esteemed inferior to those who give them Potiphar the Aegyptian set Joseph over all his Family Nebuchadnezar set Daniel over all the Province of Babylon Dan. 2. 48. Darius set One hundred and twenty Presidents over his Kingdom and yet did not devest themselves of the Dominion of their own Power and Authority So the People set Kings over them as chief Ministers of their Government without devesting themselves of the vertual Power and Dominion thereof Which title of Minister good Kings refuse not to acknowledge but imbrace and for some Ages among the Roman Emperors none unless manifest Tyrants such as Nero Domitian Caligula would be called Lords And therefore Holy Writ stiles them Shepherds to feed them Psalm 78. 79 71 72. Captains to defend them and go in and out before them Ministers of God for their good Rom. 13. 4. Nursing-fathers to carry them in their bosoms as a Nursing-father beareth the sucking Child Numb 11. 12. Isaiah 49. 23. A Kingdom or Commonwealth may be compared to a Ship where the Master chuseth the Pilot who is chosen to steer the Ship in its right course that it strike not on the Sands nor against the Rocks in which imployment as all the rest so the Master himself obeys and submits to the Pilot who notwithstanding is Servant to the Ship and to the Masters So Kings are in the place of Governing but the People in the place or right of Dominion Besides a Common-wealth when Christian is the inheritance and anointed of the Lord Psalm 105. 15. made of the same Mould redeemed with the same precious blood as Kings are Act. 20. 28. and whose deaths are precious in his sight and the destruction but of one of them is the violation of God's own Image Gen. 9. 6. And therefore the death and destruction of a Kingdom considered as a Church of an innumerable company of Men is of more concern with the Almighty than the death of a King. For Kings are not God's Inheritance nor his Chosen nor the Sheep of his Pasture nor the Redeemed of his Son because Kings but as they are the created Images of God in common with all other Men their Subjects And all those high and mighty Titles Prerogatives and Priviledges by which they
any Government no more have Kings for neither God nor the Law of Nature hath given any such Power to Men. And God gives Kings as a Blessing and happily as the best of Governments but if thereby the state of Slavery must uncontrolably be intailed upon them as it necessarily must be if they renounce their whole Liberty it 's a Curse rather than a Blessing but they can no more give it away than they can give away their rational Nature and deny themselves to be reasonable Creatures for it is a Power natural to preserve themselves essentially adhering to every created Being Besides they cannot resign their whole Power as Priests would have them without manifest sin God having made an express Covenant with all the People of Israel that they should be his peculiar People and he would be their God the purport of which Covenant was That all the People should take care that he should be purely worshipped throughout all the Land which Power they cannot resign to Kings unaccountably and absolutely without manifest breach of Covenant and so sin in breaking Covevant with God and thereby provoking his wrath and indignation would pull down Vengeance upon whole Kingdoms Of which more fully hereafter O! Sovereignty is not in the People no more than a whole Kingdom can be one Man Sovereignty being the Abstract and Sovereign being the Concrete What then yet the Power of giving Sovereign Power to this or that Man according to Laws is naturally and radically in the People Obj 〈◊〉 May 4 Car. 1628. the Commons having framed a Petition of Right to be presented to his Majesty and desiring the Concurrence of the Lords they made this addition viz. We present this our humble Petition to your Majesty with the care not only of our own â—â—berties but with due regard to leave intire that Sovereign Power wherewith your Majesty is trusted for the Protection Safety and Happiness of the People Which tearms of Sovereign Power were so distasteful and chagreen to the Commons that they would by no means admit of them alledging for their justification That they seemed to be another distinct Power from the Power of the Law They were never used in any Parliamentary Petition or Magna Charta or in any Confirmation thereof If they should grant it it would seem to imply a Sovereign Power above our known and established Laws which are well known to the Kingdom but they know no Sovereign Power It was a new thing and they would by no means have it inserted into the Petition And the Statute of Magna Charta did bind the King and all his Sovereign Power Upon which ground it was left out Besides Titles of Supreme and Sovereign are verba Solemnia words of course titular and complemental relating only to their Persons but confers no Power what Sovereign Power Kings have are given and limited by Laws of common consent and not absolute What other Laws of Sovereignty there are of right belonging to them nemo sit is past all understanding Absolute Sovereignty in Kings hath no warrant by any Law of God or Nature that belongs to God only who is Lord of all Kingdoms of the Earth and therefore there is no Sovereign Power wherewith Majesty is intrusted either by God or Man but only that which is for the Protection Safety and Happiness of the People which is the Suprema Lex and the cause is very reasonable for that uncontrolable Authority easily degenerates into Tyranny And that Sovereign Power which is in all Governments is in the Legislative Power of that Government settled by Laws of common consent And King James in his Speech to the Parliament March 1609. stigmatizeth Power not bounded by Laws with the black Character of Tyranny yea Tyranny accompanied with Perjury Obj. The People have not Power of life and death What then No more have Kings until impowered by Laws of common consent yet the Power of life and death is eminently and virtually in the People collectively taken though not formally yet they have Power over their own lives radically and virtually for that they may subject themselves to Magistracy and to Laws made by common consent the violation of which may be capital and sanguinary And Kings have no other lawful Power over the lives of their Subjects but by Laws made by like common consent That under the Law and since there have been mutual and reciprocal Covenants between King and People is without all dispute and beyond all contradiction 2 Sam. 5. 3. 1 Chron. 11. 3. 2 Chron. 23. 2. 2 Kings 11. 17. And that they were as equally and reciprocally binding is as true else Why should such Covenants be made publickly before the People if Kings did not in the Covenant tye and oblige themselves to the People And why so solemnly to be made before the Lord in the House of God if not intended to be kept or might uncontrolably break them at pleasure Was God to be called upon and to be a Witness to a figment nay to a cheat Ab sit no all the Covenants mentioned in Holy Writ whether between God and Kings or between Kings and People are mutual I will be your God and you shall be my Poople Levit. 26. 12. The Covenant is so strictly mutual that if the People break the Covenant God is freed from his part of the Covenant Zach. 11. 10. All Covenanters are under a Law before Men. So if Kings break Covenant with their People the People are freed of their Obligation to them If the Oath of God be broken as the Covenant between Abraham and Abimelech Gen. 21. 22 23. Jonathan and David 1 Sam. 18. 3. So the Spies profess to Rahab in the Covenant that they made to her Josh 2. 20. And if thou utter this our business we will be quit of thine Oath which thou hast made us to swear The Obligation of Kings in their Oaths and Covenants to the governed floweth from the peculiar Obligation National betwixt them and the governed and bindeth Kings as Kings for that such Oaths and Covenants are entred into and taken in relation to Government only and therefore are not taken meerly as Men as some vainly suppose but as Kings or as they are to be Kings over them because it is the specifick act of Kings that they are to be obliged unto to Govern the People in righteousness and holiness with their Royal Power which is given them by the People for no other end and they undoubtedly sin before God if they break their Oaths and Covenants made with the Common-wealth And to assert otherways is to suppose Kings to be under no Law of God and so consequently make them either above God or coequal with him which is no other than down-right Blasphemy Therefore it is undoubtedly true that Kings Covenanting with the People to Govern according to the Laws of God and their own municiple Laws and on that Condition receive Thrones Crowns Tributes c. from them and are
Pulpit it that if they do break their Covenants yet they are accountable to none but God What is this less than like false Prophets to create Subtilties and coin Evasions to rob Kingdoms of their Laws Liberties and Religion and to seduce and betray Kings to the pit of Hell even to Tophet it-self A very trick to tempt Kings to break Covenants and Perjure themselves CHAP. VIII Judges-not less essentially Judges and the immediate Vicars of God than Kings What Powers and Prerogatives Kings have they have them from the People The Peoples Prerogatives They are to be governed by Laws of their own making quas vulgus eligerit JUdges are not less essentially Judges and the immediate Vicars of God than Kings They who judge in the room of God and exercise the judgment of God are as essentially Judges and the Deputies of God as Kings Inferior Judges appointed by King Jehosaphat were commanded by him to take heed what they did for yee judg not for man but for the Lord 2 Chron. 19. 6. By which it appears that they were Deputies in the place of the Lord and not the Kings Deputies in the formal and official acts of Judging and so owned by the King himself If they were not then Kings might command his Judges as his Servants to give what Judgment they pleased but Kings ought not to guide or limit the Consciences of Inferior Judges because the Judgment is not the Kings but the Lords the reason is demonstrable for that Kings have no Authority to command any other to do that as King for the doing whereof he hath no Power from God himself Moses appointed Judges but not as his Deputies to judge and give Sentence as subordinate to Moses for the judgment saith he is the Lords not mine Deut. 1. 17. and their directions to guide them in judgment is from God himself by Moses viz. ye shall not respect persons in judgment c. Yet the Judges may quodam sensu be termed Deputies of the Kings because they have their external call from them If Kings are to be obeyed because they are Powers from God so are Inferior Magistrates also for they also are Powers ordained of God. By me Kings reign and Princes decree justice By me Princes rule and Nobles even all the Judges of the earth Prov. 8. 15 16. By which it is apparent that the Power of Judges Nobles Princes c. all Officers of the Kingdom not of the King is as really and truly from God as that of Kings and differs not in nature from that of Kings but secundum magis minus only both being Powers ordained of God and to resist either is to resist the Ordinance of God both being Minister of God for the good of the governed both obliged so to Govern that the governed for whose good they are equally intrusted may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty 1 Tim. 2. 2. and to judge righteously between every Man and his neighbour and not to respect persons in judgment but to hear the small as well as the great and not to be afraid of the face of men and the judgment administred by all is Gods 2 Chron. 19. 6. Deut. 17. 19 20. Isaiah 1. 17. and God owneth inferior Judges as a Congregation of Gods Psalm 82. A Senate of Kings not so stiled any where Yet all are equally called Gods John 10. 35. and that rightly for as Kings are God's Deputies by the mediation of the People so inferior Judges are God's Deputies also by the mediation of Kings and of the People and we find that Judges were some time chosen by the People So Jepthah was made Judge then Jepthah went with the Elders of Gilead and the People made him Head and Captain over them Judg. 11. 11. But that God gave Power of Tyrannizing to Kings so as they cannot be resisted or called to an account which he gave not to Judges cannot be made out by any Scripture What Scripture doth warrant that the People might rise up in Arms to defend themselves against Moses Gideon Ely Samuel and other Judges should they have Oppressed or Tyrannized over the People Or that it is not lawful to resist the most Tyrannical Kings of Israel Judah and yet lawful to resist Oppressing and Tyrannical Judges But certainly God Almighty that made the whole Creation not only for his own Glory but also for the Good and Happiness of the whole Race of Mankind would never give any Power to Kingly or any other Form of Government to Oppress and Tyrannize over the governed uncontrolably and unaccountably whose Blood is always precious in his sight and in whom is all his delight It is monstrous so to conceive and derogatory to the very Mercy Justice and Purity of God that he should Create the whole World for the Comfort and Solace of Mankind in general without respect of Persons and yet at the same time subject them to Kings to be used as slaves or which is as bad not to be resisted or not to be accountable to any human Power if they at any time should Tyrannize Certainly such Opiniators and Preachers of such Doctrines do as much as in them lies to frustrate and defeat the whole design of the Creation which was designed for the benefit joy and delight of the whole Race of Mankind in general and by this Doctrine it shall be at the pleasure of every pettish haughty Prince to make every Principality every Kingdom an Aceldama a Golgetha an Iron Furnace an Egyptian Slavery what not Which God the Great and Wise Creator abhors and manifested his Wrath and Indignation against it by pouring his severe and manifold Judgments upon that very Nation which pleaded nay hectored for his Prerogative so long with God himself till he overwhelmed him and all his Hoast with his Prerogatives in the red Sea. Obj. Abstracta concretis sunt puriora perfectioria The Powers that Kings have they have it from the People who make them Kings and they having no absolute Power over themselves cannot contribute any such Power to Kings The Powers that the People have are only Natural and Legal and Political viz. to make and submit to such Laws as may preserve themselves in Peace and Godliness and from unjust Violence and Oppression by the Conduct and Management of good Rulers Now absolute Power above a Law is a Power to do ill and to destroy Nations which no People have it being against Nature that any should have a Power by the Law of Nature which is the Law of God to destroy themselves Therefore though the People should invest Kings with all the Power that they have yet if Kings Tyrannize over the People to their hurt and destruction they usurp a Power which the People never gave them it not being in their Power to give them the Power it self being against the Law of Nature and consequently against the Law of God for that all acts of Tyranny are Oppression
the manner of the Kingdom he wrote it in a Book which Book say the Hebrew Doctors the Kings either tore or burnt that they might more freely tyrannize Though the Pulpits do not march quatuor pedibus along with Leviathan in his Dogma's of Arbitrary Power in Kings and Princes of quod libet licet in the Twentieth Chapter of his Second Part and elsewhere sparsim yet they go hand in hand with him thus far That if Kings do act contrary to the Laws of God and Nature and of Man yet they are responsible and accountable to none but to God himself Whereas there is not one plain Text or Syllable in the whole Bible maugre all false glosses that concludes any thing for Kings being unaccountable unto human Judgments or that they have an absolute Power or Divine Prerogative So that in summ The Pulpits and Leviathan are so far agreed as to dogmatize Lyes and false Doctrines for to justifie that Kings maugre all mutual and reciprocal Laws Pacts and Covenants may act and govern how they please And to justifie and assert that they ought not so to Govern but to observe the Laws of God of Nature and of Men but yet if they do not they are notwithstanding responsible and accountable to none on Earth but to God only for their so doing which in truth differ in their consequences no more than Herring-men do from Fisher-men and both stink in the Nostrils both of God and of all good Men as destructive to the well being and good Government of all human Societies and have no sound Foundation in the Law of God of Nature or of Reason but are contrary to them all for sans doubt they that have Authority to give and apply Power to this or that Person have Authority also to consure his Actions against the Law of Nature 1. Self-preservation than which nothing is more dear and which Nature seeks by all means and endeavours to preserve as inviolable is common to a Man with all other Animals if you tread but upon a Worm it will turn and if it have a Sting or a Fangue or a Poison have at you 2. Then whatsoever may conduce to its other Happiness of its well-being it labours to obtain them and to avoid the contrary and to hate and revenge the Opposers so that vim vi repellere is as natural to Man as to all other Animals Other Laws of Natural consequence implanted and grafted in him in his first Creation for the better Reglement of Communities throughout the whole World as to do good to all to hurt no Innocents to keep Covenants Promises and Contracts faithfully to contribute their utmost to procure the Happiness of the whole of that Kingdom that Commonwealth or that Society or Community whereof they are Members All which are utterly confounded and destroyed by such Leviathan Pulpit Doctrines 3. It 's against the Law of Men and Nations for where ever there are Laws between Kings and People wherein Salus Populi is ever to be presumed to be the Supreme Law for that God made the whole Creation not only for the Necessities but for the Delights also of the whole Race of Mankind in general and equally without respect of Persons solemnly made and sworn unto by mutual consent there they do mutually reciprocally and solemnly bind each other And the Sword placed in the Magistrates hand is not as the material Sword in the hand of Alexander not to untie but to cut the Traces of that fatal Gordian Chariot but the establisht Laws are the true Sword to which both King and People must submit and be responsible if otherwise making of Laws were but Leonis Catulum alere vid. Eras Adag p. 1. 709. For as the Sword of the Spirit is the Word of God so the Sword of Magistrates are the Laws of God and of Man All which Rights and Priviledges of Mankind are utterly destroyed if this Doctrine be good Doctrine Oaths between King and People being of the same nature with that between Rahab and the Spies which if not performed by her they were to be quit of the Oath which She had made them to swear For Kings though in Title in the execution of Laws and in many Prerogatives they are singulis majores yet in the main they are universis minores the reason is irrefrigable for that the People make Kings and not Kings the People And the like reason Christ is the everlasting Head of the Church because Christ made and ordained the Church to be his peculiar People and not the Church Him the Head of them In Paternal Government which is indisputable there the Fathers beget the Children and not the Children the Father and they owe him Obedience though morose and bitter to them yet if he prove a Tyrant over them their Obligation to him is cancelled and if he Murder any of them he himself shall suffer Death Nature gives Fathers to the People but the People make Kings to themselves and therefore Kings are constituted for the People and not the People for Kings Some places of Scripture are urged though of very little force when brought to the Test and well examined As first let my Sentence come forth from thy presence let thine Eyes behold the things that are equal Psalm 17. 2. What hath this Text to do more particularly with the Government between Kings and their People than with all other troubles and afflictions that Mankind in general is subject unto c. being as applicable to every particular Person persecuted and in troubles as to King David here in confidence of his Integrity craveth defence of God against his Enemies and so may any Body else but it proves nothing that Kings if they oppress their Subjects shall be accountable to none but to God Almighty It doth prove that any oppressed King or not King may appeal unto God to plead their Cause and Protect and Defend them And if it be lawful so to Pray it is lawful to put to their own helping Hands to relieve themselves by any lawful means and endeavours and pray to God to bless their endeavours and so by their prayers and endeavours to co-operate together 't is an Appeal to God to judg between him and his Enemies And is it not lawful nay the duty of all States and Kingdoms to make the like Appeals and Supplications to God Almighty It 's probable that David wrote this Psalm when he was troubled and persecuted by Saul even after he was anointed of God and because he did then make Supplications and Appeal to Jonathan for his life if there be iniquity in me slay me thy self for why shouldst thou bring me to thy Father Will it follow therefore that court was to be made to Jonathan only I doubt not This is a great Example and Encouragement to those that are falsly accused to appeal to God by Prayers and Supplications for help and the reasons that follow are great viz. thine Eyes behold the things that are
Kingdoms being devolved on one or more chosen from among the Governed if abused naturally returns unto them again who by their good will pleasure and suffrages conditionally conferred it on them and they cannot devest themselves of it Power from them who injures others by the most just law must pass unto them who suffer the Injuries for all Men are equally tied by Laws than which nothing can be more just mortal Gods to do what they list without control there are none among us Without all peradventure they who have right to constitute Magistrates over themselves by devolving and deligating their own power on them to manage and govern them according to their own Laws to see them executed according to the simplicity and sincerity wherewith they were made without shams or tricks or shaping or wresting them to wrong ends and purposes which they are obliged by Oaths the most sacred tye among mortals to observe To them of necessity and of just right doth belong the right of examining and censuring their Actions and of calling them to an Account and to deal with them accordingly Vide Judicium Lutheri Theologorum I. C. Wittiber-gentium de hac questione Tom. Jenens Germ. ap 384 ad p. 396. Martyr comm in cap. 1. Jud. p. 37. cap. 3. p. 60 61. No Law forbids it no Law excepts them Reason Justice and God himself command all Transgressors to be punished without respect or difference of Persons CHAP. XIII Duty of Kings who have Authority from Men. The Right of Legislation The Law of Nature is the Law of God. Kings accountable The Laws and Practices of Antient Kingdoms Roman Grecian Lacedaemonian Carthaginian what severe Laws they made against Arbitrary Power IF Kings did rightly consider as they ought to do their own true interest both in respect of this world and the next they would con their High Prerogative-assertors very little thanks for such their exaltations thereof but would rather esteem them as the very worst Friends they have for whilst they magnify Kingly Powers unto the Skies above the Laws and are not accountable for Mal-government they thereby alarm their Subjects to awaken out of the supposed Dreams of their just Liberty and Interest and to provide for themselves and to shake off the bondage of such unlook'd for Servitude wherewith they would seem to surprize them by such Doctrines And whilst they teach such Infinite Power to be the Right of Kings they thereby render that power to be the more intollerable Whilst they teach Kingly Power to be Omnipotent they excite the People to throw it off rather than to submit to so unjust domination to be the Right of Kings whom they have set over themselves for their good and comfort and not for their vexation As all Kingdoms and Republicks have their Authority in these our days by the Laws of Men to govern so they are obliged by the strictest Bonds of divine and humane Laws to manage their Government in the first place to the glory of God observing his Commandments in general to fear him to walk in all his ways and to love him then to order the Government aright for the good of the Governed by well ordering of Laws according to their simple meaning and true intent without shamming or tricking exemplary encouraging and exhorting their Subjects to Honesty Piety and Justice punishing all such as trangress Gods Commandments especially those of the Decalogue for this Power is not Arbitrary nor given them for their own use only to manage as they please but for the good and benefit of the Governed which they are obliged to do by the Laws of God and Man. Preachments and apprehensions to the contrary may cause even Saints to be misguided and to act beside their Rule and to deem themselves Arbitrators of the Government wherewith they are intrusted by the true Patrons thereof and confirmed and ratified as necessary for the good of the governed by God himself for that over a multitude of People consisting of many and sundry Families as every politick Society doth impossible it is that any should have compleat lawful Authority but by consent of Men or immediate appointment of God who hath power over all and who by the natural Law hath made all subject The lawful Power of making Laws to command whole Politick Societies of men belongeth so properly unto the same intire Societies that for any Emperor Prince Potentate or Captain General of what kind soever on earth to exercise the same of himself or to act contrary to Laws made by publick consent and not either by express Commission immediately and personally received from God unto which it is now utterly impossible that any just pretence can be made or else by authority derived from their consent upon whose Persons they impose Laws it is not better than down right Tyranny Laws nor Powers there can be none lawful which publick approbation hath not made so and the publick power of all Societies is above every Individual contained in the same Societies of what quality soever they be I may confidently divine that no People ever were or ever will be well pleased with Governours that mind more their own benefit pomp and pride of Life than the good and solace of the governed it being the natural and fundamental right of the Governed to deligate as much of their own power without devesting themselves thereof as they think fit to Kings or Republicks subject nevertheless to the trusts reposed in them to be always improved and imployed for the welfare of the Governed All People generally bear and are contented with a moderate Yoak but from too heavy a bondage all naturally endeavour to free themselves by all means though indirect The History of Nodus Gordianus is applicable to all humane tyes and obligations of Governments and sometime or other will have the same fate Therefore it is very indiscreet Zeal in any and much more in Ministers of the Gospel to preach up such Prerogatives to be in the hands of Princes which are always prone to end in the dishonour of God and in publick confusion Lycurgus a Spartan King observing his Neighbouring Princes struggling to get all Power into their hands and thereby ruining themselves and their Citizens he thought it his wisest course to take the Senate to be his Consort in Government and the Power of the Ephori as a check upon himself whereby he established and transmitted a firm Kingdom to himself and his Successors for many Generations Likewise the moderation of Theopompus King of the Lacedaemonians who lived more than One hundred years after Lycurgus was such that he constituted the popular Government of the Ephori above his own Regal Power and gloried that he had left and established a more firm and durable Kingdom to his Children and Posterity No inconsiderable examples if rightly considered nor unworthy to be imitated No Law ever established one Man King and Lord above all Laws neither could they
become forfeited for Mal-government should not return unto them who delegated it as well from Kings as from Consuls Senates Tribunes Duumvirates Triumvirates Decemvirates Ephori or any other form of Government is past all understanding It is also scornfully objected this is to be a Duke of Genoa a Duke of Venice not a King. They who have so mean conceits of such Governments which in reality are as much approved and allowed by God as Kingly even by the same Scripture are not worthy to preside in any Government If the Opinion of the Millenaries be true and Christ shall come and reign upon the earth 1000 Years will he not do all things for the good of the Governed Will not his eyes be on the faithful of the Land and on them that excel in virtue will he not hate the works of them that turn aside will he know a wicked Person except to condemn him will he suffer them that have High Looks or Proud Hearts will not his eyes be on the faithful of the Land that they may dwell with him shall not they that walk in a Perfect way serve him shall they that work Deceit dwell in his House or they that tell Lies tarry in his sight and will he not destroy all the Wicked of the Land and cut off all wicked doers from the City of the Lord And cannot Kings do the same whether their power be absolute from God or delegated from the People Hath not Christ been among us already as him that serveth and shall his Vicegerents think it below them to be like their Master Were it not the most desirable condition in the World for Kings Christian to be so seated on Thrones as it could not possibly be in their power to do the least injury to the meanest of their Subjects and yet do good to all Would not this be a condition acceptable in the sight of God and Man would not they thereby become Deliciae humani Generis as once Titus was Will nothing please but quod libet licet their Wills and Pleasures to be their Laws that Justinian-like when instigated by an Imperious Whorish Comedian Theodora they may securely commit Outrages and Cruelties sans nombre or when tickled with a Dancing Herodias shall take off any Head though of a John Baptist or when in the midst of Adulterous Embraces shall betray the strength of a Nation to a Dalilah at pleasure and all these uncontrollably When the Romans had cashiered Proud Traquin their King and in him Kingship they delegated their Power on Two Consuls to be check one upon the other that if one exceeded or abused his Power he might be curb'd by the other and though both should agree to usurp or extend the power given to the prejudice of the People yet both Consuls and all other Magistrates were to be obedient to the Senate whenever the Patricians and People thought fit which was always had in esteem as the Peoples Champion and Defender of their Rights and Laws Tull. orat pro Sestio The like subject were the Decemviri and all other the Magistrates to the Senate insomuch that sometimes the Counsuls were esteemed Enemies before they quitted their Consulship and the Senate took Arms against them So War was raised by the Authority of the Senate against Anthony the Consul for his misdemeanors during his Consulship On the contrary Trajan that Excellent Emperor believing him to have been sent from Heaven to redeem them from the slavery of former Tyrants and to restore unto them their antient Liberties when he gave the Sword the Ensign and Badge of Majesty and Power unto Saburanus Praefect of the Praetorian Cohorts saying Accipe hunc Gladium pro me si recie agam sin aliter in me magis quod moderatorem omnium vel errare minus fas est Use this Sword for my Defence whilst I govern as I ought if otherwise to my Destruction Comite Cestriae Gladium Sancti Edvardi qui Curtein dicitur ante regem bajulante in signum quod comes est Palatii Regem si oberret habeat de Jure Potestatem cohibendi suo sibi scilicet Cestrensi Constabulario ministrante virgâ— Populum cum se incrdinate ingereret subâ—rahente Matth. Paris lib. 3. p. 563. N. 10. At the Marriage of Henry III. King of England with Elianor Daughter of Raymund Earl of Provence the Earl of Chester carried the Sword of St. Edward called Curtein before him in token that he was Master of the Palace and that he had publick Authority to curb the King if he erred The same Ensign of publick Authority is continued to this very day before the Kings of England King Charles II. at his Coronation being set in a rich Chair under a glorious Cloth of State Sir Gilbert Talbot Knight Master of the Jewel-House presented the Sword of State also the Sword called Curtana and two other Swords to the Lord High Constable who took and delivered them to the Lord High Chamberlain and laid them on the Table before the King. The like Powers had the Masters of the Palace in France and other Countries It is plain that though that great and just Emperor Traj an had so great Power conferred on him yet was so just as to appoint a Judge though inferior to him over his Actions How much more just therefore was he when he superior in Power having all the Armies and Conquests at his beck and consequently could not be forced to obey the Senate or People yet would do it in respect of his Office and Duty to his Delegators and thereby acknowledge them to be his superior of whom Pliny in his Panegyrick saith That senatus ut susciperet quartum Consulatum rogavit jussit Which are words of Command and they that might Command might Judge and Censure So Marcus Aurelius the Emperor when Cassius the Praefect of Syria endeavoured to deprive him of his Kingdom offered himself to the judgment of the Senate and the People of Rome as it should seem best unto them Now who could better judge of Kingly Power than such just and upright Kings and in their own Cause Certainly by the Law of Nature all good Kings have the Senate or the People both for their Peers and Superiors in some Kingdoms though Tyrants hated both of God and Man will neither have Superior nor Peer As of old Laws the Law of Nature guiding by force were devised so when Laws came to be despised and slighted by the same Law of Nature there must recourse be had unto force again so to think is just and prudent so to do is true courage so to think and do is the height of a prudent vertue This remains indelible in Nature That the Senate or People are always Superior in some Countries to Kings good or bad the reason is natural for that the People do transfer their own Power or to speak yet more properly the use and exercise of some of their own Power unto Kings the
Power it self still virtually remaining in themselves of which they cannot so totally devest themselves but the Spring and Fountain thereof will still remain in them which is demonstrable for that in making Laws their consent is still required as absolutely necessary The nearer we approach and imitate Natures Laws the more demonstrable is the Power of the People above the Power of Kings their Power being only derived from the same People as a Stream from the Fountain It is as evident that the People if free do not simply but hypothetically transfer their Power unto Kings neither undeed can they by the Law of Nature but only conditionally and for the sake of Order of common Justice Peace and Liberty from which if Kings do deviate it is always to be understood that the People have transferred no such Power and indeed transferred nothing because they transferred it only for certain good ends and purposes Nature so guiding which ends if frustrated or perverted the very Pacts and Delegations themselves are ipso facto voidable nay void at the pleasure of the Senate or People and therefore the People must consequently be superior to Kings who though singulis Majores yet in true construction of Law and Equity are universis Minores In a popular State it is generally acknowledged that Magistrates placed by the People may be censured by the People and in an Aristocracy by the Optimacy and yet it 's held monstrous that Kings should be called to account in some Countries which if true concludes thus much certainly true That they are more than brutishly foolish ever to admit of any such Government which most certainly renders them slaves at the will of Kings How comes it to pass that Kings only of all other Governors must Reign unquestionable uncensured uncontrolable Do Men born under such a Regiment naturally become so desperately sottish and bruitish as to love slavery better than freedom Why do they then prescribe them Laws and conditions of Governing and Oaths for the more certain performance of them at their first admittance That they might with the better grace jeer and scorn and enslave them Or that they only of all the Sons and Daughters of Men might have liberty to break Laws and perjure themselves impuné Or be left only to the Judgment of the great day Where 's the great difference and distance between Kings and popular Magistrates Title only excepted Which Title the very People gave them for the better Grace Adornment and Majesty of their own Government The same Power and Authority is transferred unto Kings and unto popular Magistrates by the People both one and the other sworn alike to observance of the Laws and the obliged to obey not one nor the other any longer than quamdiu id bene gesserit Who makes the difference If any God hath already decided it on behalf of the popular Magistracy by his own example who of his own infinite Wisdom Authority and Goodness towards Mankind instituted Judges as the best Form of Government but appointed Kings in Wrath and Anger and Indignation and at the foolish instance of a froward and rebellious People and as a punishment on them who had rejected him and his Government and rebelled against him whereby it is manifest that Kingship was first ordained as a punishment not as the best Government To assert absolute Dominion to be in Kings from the example of Fathers and of Masters of Families hath no ground in Nature Scripture Reason Aristotle in the beginning of his Politicks condemns that Opinion of there being but little difference in the similitude between a Kingdom and a Family Regnum à familia non numero solum sed specie differt For Fathers beget their Children And the People beget or create their Kings and not Kings the People And Fathers provide for their Children but the People provide for Kings not only for their Necessaries but for Superfluities for their Magnificence and for their Grandeur And according to Diodorus 11 o. Kingdoms of old were wont to be given not necessarily to the Sons of Kings but to them in whom did appear most apparent signs and tokens of Love and Kindness towards the People and of common good So Justin Principio rerum gentium nationumque imperium penes reges erat quos ad fastigium hujus majestatis non ambitio Popularis sed spectata inter bonos moderatio provehebat Whereby it plainly appears that Paternal and Hereditary Impery subscribes and is subservient to Virtue and to the Right of Nations Which Original of Kingly Dominion both Reason and Cause are most especially natural for which very cause and reason Men did first assemble and agree on a Government not that one should insult and domineer over all the rest but whosoever did injure another there should be a Law and a Judg amongst them for the defence and recompencing the injured Primus Rex Agis ab Ephoris est morte mulctatus 192. Ob. Rex non est nisi unus sit unicus If so then many that were Kings of England were not To let pass many of the Saxons who had many Peers in their Government either Sons or Brothers It 's manifest that Hen. II. of the Norman Race reigned with his Son. Consentire vultis de habendo ipsum regem 193. Quod opus non foret si regnum jure esset haereditarium apud Reges usurpatio pro Jure saepissime obtinet In the Creation of our Kings the Archbishop asks the People four times Consentire vultis de habendo ipsum regem After the Roman Custom vultis jubetis hunc regnare Of which there was no need if the King had an absolute independent Right of Inheritance Therefore as William the Conqueror took an Oath of Allegiance from the People after the Battel of Hastings so the People took his Oath that he would keep Faith with them c. After which when he broke his Faith with the People they took Arms again then he most solemnly swore again That he would observe and keep the Ancient Laws of England if he tyrannized over them it was not jure belli but jure perjurii And when he died he declared Neminem Anglici regni eonstituo haeredem lib. Cadomens inde jus belli jus haereditarium cum ipso mortuo Gulielmo sepultum est Rex non potest facere injuriam quod scelerate interpretantur Non est injuria quod facit Rex quia in eo non punitur If it be demanded by what Authority Kings may be indicted and censured It 's answered by the same Authority by the same Men and the same Laws that delegated their Power to create them King and that by the self-same reason Kings have no Power but what they have received from the People and therefore they must have Power over Kings and by the Law of St. Edward Kings not governing righteously lose the very name of King and it denies him to be a King. It is never to be forgotten
that in the beginning all Power did flow from the People and still doth which Tully excellently demonstrates De lege Agraria Cum omnes potestates Imperia curationes ab úniverso Populo proficisci convenit tum eas profecto maxime quae constituuntur ad populi fructum aliquem commodum in quo universi delegant quem populo maxime consulturum unusquisque ' studio suffragio suo viam sibi ad beneficium impetrandum munire possit Seeing all Powers Commands Curations i. e. potestas seu munus administrandi bona do proceed and flow from the People then those more especially which are constituted and do respect the good and benefit of the People in which the universality do chuse them whom they judge will most especially study and procure their good and every one by their study and suffrage may have easie access to obtain Justice and Favours And all Lawyers do agree and hold That all Laws repugnant to the Laws of God of Nature or of Reason are not to be accounted as Laws And whereas the Power of judging was Originally in the People and the English by no Lex Regia have at any time transferred it out of themselves no King of England hath been wont or hath Power to judge any Man unless by the known and approved Laws Fleta lib. 1. c. 17. What Power Kings have are given to them by the People that they may know by the Authority to them committed that they may do nothing contrary to the Law and keep our Laws but not impose their own Laws on us and the Kings Power is really and truly in the Courts of Law wherein the People by their Juries have their share also And their chief Power is in their Senates and Parliaments who have a Right and Authority over all Courts and Powers in all which Courts Kings may both sue and be sued and the reciprocal Causes to be indifferently tried according to established Laws If at any time Kings act any thing contrary to Laws they act then as private Men or as Tyrants and not by any Authority transferred on them by God or Man so to do Hence Bract. l. 1. c. 8. Non est Rex ubi dominatur voluntas non Lex c. 1. 3. c. 9. Rex est dum bene regit tyrannus dum populum sibi creditum violenta opprimit dominatione c. ibid. Exercere debet Rex potestatem Juris ut vicarius minister Dei potestas autem injuriae Diaboli est non Dei. Cum declinat ad injuriam Rex Diaboli minister est As nothing contrary to the Laws of God and Reason can be accounted a Law so neither can a Tyrant be a King nor a Minister of the Devil be a Minister of God seeing therefore Law is but the product of right Reason and Obedience is due to Kings as the Ministers of God so by the same Reason and Law Tyrants and Ministers of the Devil may be censured and resisted Either the People to be governed have a Right and Power to chuse their own Governor or they have not If they have not then Kings chosen by them are not Kings but Usurpers and Oppressors If they have Power to chuse then they have Power to oblige him to what Conditions they please and to keep them and if they fail of performing then they are free of the Covenant as it was between Rahab and the Spies FINIS ERRATA PAge 6. line 18. dele it ibid. l. 50. for Iliad r. Myriad p. 9. l. 11. f. doth only r. not only ib. l. 38. f. the way r. the right way p. 11. l. 15. f. our r. your ib. f. Black-guard r. Peasants p. 13. l. 3. dele and. p. 14. l. 28. f. this r. those p. 17. l. 23. f. Zalencus r. Zaleucus p. 16. l. 43. r. St. Edward p. 22. l. 20. r elegerit alibi ib. l. 58. r. Martyrs p. 24. l. pen. f. the r. thy p. 25. l. pen. dele to p. 28. l. 25. dele in the Posterity of ibid. l. 31. f. did r. should p. 30. l. 22. f. taking r. taken ibid. l. 58. dele hundred p. 31. l. 17. f. Timens r Fabius ib. l. 32. r. Fabius p. 33. l. 24. f. or r. and. ib. l. 46. f. never r. ever p. 42. l. 12 r. Commonwealth p. 43. l. 38. dele Obj. p. 44. l. 46. f. necesset r recesset p. 46. l. 10. r. elegerit p. 47. l. 16. r. perfectiora p. 48. l. 35. r. differemus cui quam p. 51. l 43. dele we p. 56. l. 41. f. magis r. majes ib. l. 46. r. saies p. 57. l. 57. f him r. them ib. l. 33. r. proscribed p. 60. l. 38. dele the second no. p. 61. l. pen. f. beareth r. bear p. 62. l. 47. after yet r. God. p. 63. l. 19. r. prepossessed p. 69. l. 27. f. ye r. yea p. 75. l. 18. f. his r. their p. 76. l. 5. in the Contents f. returns r. return ib. 5. in the Chapter f. was r. were ibid. l. 33. f. lawful r. unlawful p. 78. l. 19. f. Proplancio r. pro Plancio p. 82. l. 7. r. is seated p. 87. l. 23. f. Florentio Dianysio and Coss r. Florentio Dianysio Coss ibid. l. 35. f. Valerius r. Valeria In 4â— printed 158â— Arlstotle Pindarus Tuâ—â—y Plato alias Lex Regia v. Dr. Sherrock c. 4. n. 9. p. 282 283. Lex P. Vallerii 2. Martii Fab. Maximi Scyllae C. Gracchi plebiscitum Lex Annaria c. Vid. A. A. A. lib. 4. cap. 6. p. 181.