45.1 2 3 4. Dan. 2.21 and 5.26 28. Rom. 13.1 and therefore are called the Ministers of God Rom. 13.4 but never the Ministers of the People and God himeself hath called them Gods Psal 82.6 to ascertain us that their Persons are Sacred to him and their Authority of his immediate Delegation and not derived from any voluntary Paction or positive Constitution made and ratified betwixt them and their Subjects which is forfeitable and revocable according to the express or tacite Tenor of the Fundamental Contract as these Men sometimes phrase it And as the first Dominion and Government of Divine Ordination was Monarchical so we have no reason to think that it was God's intention that that Species or Form of Government should be altered and another introduced because we have no instance of any other Government either of his immediate Ordination or Approbation and so far as I am instructed in divine Revelations we have no Rule for the Establishing of any other Form of Government nor direct precept to submit to any other as of his prescribing and when Men prefer their own Inventions before divine Institutions they bring forth as Aaron did a Calf instead of a God The Church of England having determined That the most high and sacred Order of Kings is of divine Right being the Ordinance of God him elf founded in the prime Laws of Nature and clearly established by express Texts both of the Old and New Testaments those pretended Sons of the Church need good foreheads who presume to affirm them to be their Peoples Creatures and to owe their Authority and Power solely to them and ought to exercise no more than they have by their Concession I hope God hath such Grace and Mercy in store for this Church and Kingdom that he will raise up Men of greater Abilities and better Opportunities than can be pretended unto by my self to defend the crowned Heads thereof from such Assailants but if these ensuing Discourses in any measure prove a Countermine to their designments and contribute any degree of assistance towards the Security of the Publick Government I shall ascribe all the Honour thereof unto God and Your Majesties will have no reason to discountenance the Honest though Weak Endeavours of Your Majesties most Loyal Subject LEWES SHARP THE Church of England's DOCTRINE OF Non-Resistance JUSTIFIED and VINDICATED c. ROM 13.2 And they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation THE grand Design of Religion is the Resignation of our selves to God that it may be well with us both in this world and that which is to come and therefore the Appearance of the blessed Jesus is represented as bringing Glory to God on high on Earth Peace good Will towards Men. And the well-being of Mankind in this World greatly depending on the Safety and Peace of publick Societies the Christian Religion hath a special Regard to the Protection and Preservation of them And Civil Authority being under God a most efficacious Instrument thereof signal care is taken for its security that it be not weakened or disturbed in its being and exercise but maintained and observed by all that are subjected thereunto as my Text with its coherence doth abundantly evidence Sect. 1. In the former Verse the Apostle chargeth it as a Duty incumbent on all Mankind to be subject to the Higher Powers Let every Soul every one without exception or reservation be Subject yield Submission and Obedience to the Higher Powers the lawful Possessors and Administrators of Supreme Authority for though the Word Powers be in the Abstract yet we are to understand them concretively as signifying the Persons which exercise Authority And 't is ordinary in Scripture by a Metonymical Phrase to put the Abstract for the Concrete the Adjunct for the Subject which was not here unadvisedly used because the Design of the Apostle is to ascertain us that every Person under Government of what Rank or Order soever he be is obliged to yield Subjection to his legally Supreme Governour howsoever he be qualified for his Religion or moral Deportment Sect. 2. And the Reason he gives doth equally effect all Subjects and equally relate to all that are advanced to Supreme Authority for there is no Power but of God and the Powers that be are ordained of God that is the Original of all Authority is from God and consequently whosoever partakes of it is to be acknowledged as God's Commissioner to rule and govern all that are placed in a State of Subjection to him and although we are to be subject and obedient to the Officer for his Office-sake yet our Subjection and Obedience immediately refers to the Officer himself because we are ruled and governed by the Officer i. e. by a Man invested with and exercising Authority over us and not simply by an Office which abstructively considered is utterly ineffective to all the Purposes of Government as 't is not the Kingship which makes and executes Laws but the King 't is not the Portrieveship or the Constableship viz. the bare Office in either respect but the Portrieve and the Constable which suppress Disorder and administer Justice in any case Sect. 3. When God therefore Commands every Soul to be subject to the Higher Powers he Commands every soul to be subject to that Person or Persons who legally possess and actually exercise by themselves or substitutes the Supreme governing Power or else in effect he Commands nothing at all because the Power abstracted from the Person cannot rule us nor consequently be a Terror to evil Works or a Praise to good Works 't is not simply the Office but the Man in office which is the Minister of God to us for good and which beareth not the Sword in vain but revengeth evil doing All which considered when the Apostle saith in the former part of the Verse to which the Text belongs Whosoever therefore resisteth the Powers resisteth the Ordinance of God his meaning must needs be That whosoever resisteth that Person or Persons who have the Right to Rule and Govern and exercise Dominion and Authority over him he resisteth the Commission and Authority of God himself because the Authority of the Magistrate is an Authority derived from God himself He therefore who affronts and opposeth the Magistrate who is God's Vicegerent affronts and opposeth God himself and then we cannot think it strange that they which thus resist should receive to themselves damnation Here are Three Things which need a little Explication 1. What the Apostle intends by Resistance or they that resist 2. What he intends by Damnation 3. What he intends by Receiving to themselves the damnation spoken of Sect. 4. 1. What the Apostle means by Resistance or they that resist 't is very manifest that Resistance is directly opposed to Subjection and includes all practicing from a Spirit of Averseness Contradiction and Opposition and consequently so far as we refuse to yield subjection to the Authority of the Higher Powers we resist them Now
chusing and so known to be 2 Sam. 16.12 He was for his personal qualification a Man after Gods own Heart Acts 13.22 and fulfilled all his Wills And in his Government over Israel 't is said that be fed or ruled them according to the Imagrity of his Heart and guided them by the Skilfulness of his Hands Psal 78.72 He Fought their Battles with Victorious Successes against their Enemies and managed all Public Affairs to their best Advantage Yet his Son Absolom being an Ambitious Aspiring Prince taking State upon him by his Magnificent Attendants and Departments easily obtained the Popular Reputation of a Brave Spirited Man and by his familiar Compliances and insinuating Discourses and Harangues to the Common People easily endeared himself to them and soon possessed them with hard thoughts of their King and a Perswasion that if his Father David were deposed and he succeeded him in the Throne they should be more tenderly dealt withal and all their Grievances redressed 2 Sam. 15.1 2 3 4. Oh! That he were a Judge in the Land If the Power of Government were in his hand Public Affairs should be so well Accommodated that there should not be a Grievance to be complained of Which plausible Pretence made such deep Impressions on the Minds and Affections of the Giddy Subjects that almost all the Kingdom of Israel conspired with him to make Head against David 'T is said so strong and spreading was the Conspiracy that the People increased continually with Absolom 2 Sam. 15.12 and a Messenger told David that the Hearts of the Men of Israel were after Absolom v. 13. and David's Danger was so Great that though he were a Man of an undaunted Courage and in a Cittadel of Great Strength and well Garrison'd with Valiant and Experienced Souldiers and had many Loyal and Faithful Subjects about him yet for his own Preservation and the Good of the City of Hierusalem he and all that were with him fled before Absolom and his Conspirators 2. Sam. 15.12 13 14. Sect. 17. And although God was manifestly graciously present with David and brought this Rebellious Insurrection to nothing 2 Sam. 18. and 2 Sam. 19. Yet the Men of Israel having been possessed with an Opinion that 't was lawful for them to take up Arms against their King even whilst the Bitter Effects of their former Rebellion and the Sense of the King's Indulgence and Pardon was fresh in their Minds upon some hot words betwixt the Men of Judah and the Men of Israel Sheba sounds a Trumpet of Rebellion and every Man of Israel went up from David and followed after Sheba in a New Rebellion 2 Sam. 20.12 which suggests to us this Observation That Rebels are not obliged by the Indulgences Pardons and Favours of their Princes against whom they have once made Resistance but those who have been Engaged in a Rebellion against their King how remarkable soever their overthrow was and how much soever the Hand of God was against them are so fatally bewitched with the Charmings of Rebellious Principles and Affections that they readily comply with an opportunity of involving themselves in a New Rebellion A Rebellious Disposition is too stubborn to yield to the Victorious Successes of his Prince Conquest and a Pardon will change the Condition but not the Disposition of a Rebel Yea favours will rather exasperate than extirpate their ungovernable Passions And from this instance 't is likewise manifest That if it be warrantable for Subjects in any case whatsoever to make Resistance against the Higher Powers the most Innocent and Righteous Government may easily be disturbed and destroyed Sect. 18. 3. 'T is against Common Reason That the Higher Powers should in any case and upon any pretence whatsoever be resisted with armed Force because the Jus gladij the Power of Arms the Power of making Peace and War doth properly belong to them only The Apostle tells us Rom. 13.4 that he beareth not the Sword in vain Implying that the Supream Power hath right to the Sword and consequently the Subject cannot take the Sword without Invading and Usurping the Right and Propriety of the King That which is proper to the King is inseperable from him and cannot be communicated to his Subjects 'T is a Great Truth which a Learned Man Asserts That the Power of the Sword is Potissima pars Regis the Chiefest Propriety of the Sovereign Power Devest the King of this and he is rather a Nominal than a Real King For whatever Authority he hath he hath no Power to Defend himself Protect his Subjects or to offend his and their Enemies Sect. 19. Now if the Power of the Sword be only in the King it cannot be lawful for his Subjects upon any pretence whatsoever to wrest it from him and turn the Force of it against him because 't is an Usurpation made upon his Propriety and an assuming to them that in which they have no right Who but the King with us is to appoint Martial Officers He shall make Captains over Thousands and Captains over Fifties and he shall go out before them and Fight their Battles 1 Sam. 8.12 No Man or Men but the Supream and Sovereign Power hath Authority to raise Souldiers Levy War and Fight Battles Whosoever therefore maketh use of the Sword in a military sort without Authority derived from thence deserves to perish by the Sword as our Saviour told Peter upon that occasion Mat. 26.51 I pray who had under the Law the Power of the Trumpet by which the People were alarmed and assembled for War but Moses who was the Supream Ruler of the People And when Jonathan by Sauls command smote the Garrison of the Philistines that was in Geba who blew the Trumpet that is caused it to be blown throughout the Land to call the People together for a general Rendezvouz but King Saul 1 Sam. 13.3 4. Sect. 20. War being the Highest Act of Vindicative Justice as it must not be undertaken without a just Cause and very weighty Reasons and for very good Ends and such too as cannot be obtained without it so neither must it be undertaken and engaged in without good Authority to warrant it And the Supream Authority which hath Power to make and execute Laws being the only Authority that can warrant a War and give Men a Lawful Call to it there cannot be a Lawful Assembling and Confederacy for any War without such a Lawful Call and the King having the only Power of the Sword here with us as the Laws of all Ages declare to us he only can call us to engage our selves in a War and therefore certainly we cannot lawfully resist him upon any pretence whatsoever In the Statute of the 25th of Edw. 3d. it is Declared without the Allowance of any Pretence whatsoever to be Treason for any Man or Men whatsoever to Levy War against our Lord the King or to be Adherent to his Enemies giving them any aid or comfort in the Realm or elsewhere And in
of a lawless Violence and Oppression be not the Resistance of a lawful Authority yet the Resistance of a lawless Violence may be so Circumstanced that it may be an unlawful Resistance of him or them that are in a full and unquestionable Possession of a lawful Authority For when the Illegal Acts of Sovereign Princes are by Force of Arms resisted Sovereign Princes themselves as such are also resisted because their Persons and Authority are not actually and indeed divided 'T is true their natural and politic Capacities are distinguishable in our Conceptions but 't is as true that the natural Subsistences of the Sovereign Powers are rever actually seperated from their Sovereign Authority I pray consider for the Illustrations of this if the English Legiance be not due to the King in his natural Capacity and not in his politic Capacity for as the King swears to protect us in our natural Capacities so we swear Legiance to him in his natural Capacity And this is the Reason why by our Law the Compassing and Imagining the Death of the King is High-Treason because his Person being invested with Sovereign Authority he cannot be Murthered in the Eye of the Law under any other Notion Wherefore though the Personal Acts of our Kings are not always Legal Acts and their Commands considered in their Natural Capacities may be such as no good Subject can approve actively submit unto and obey yet they are still the higher Powers which cannot be resisted without the peril of damnation because their personal Subsistences imply an inseperable Investiture with Sovereign Authority And therefore my Lord Coke in Calvins Case tells us that the Natural Legiance due to our Kings in their Natural Capacities from their Subjects is absolute and indefinite not circumscribed by Law but above Law and before Law and consequently indelible and immutable Sect. 87. Because the Authority of our Kings is in their Laws their Offices their Courts where their Persons are not some think that their Persons may be resisted and no Resistance made to their Authority I would have such to consider whence it is that Laws Judicial Courts and Subordinate Officers have their Authority Is it not Originally from the Authority of the King's Person And are not all the Laws Courts and Officers of the Kingdom for that reason called the King's Laws Courts and Officers And can the King communicate Authority without Authority first inherent in himself Certainly that must needs be the most Eminent Authority which is the Source and Fountain of all other Authority according to that Maxim Quicquid efficit tale est magis tale And if the Personal Authority of the King be antecedent to that of his Laws Courts and Officers and derive to them that Authority they partake of then I conceive 't will be no illogical reasoning to infer That the Being and Existence of his Sovereign Authority depends not on them As the King had an Existence before their Constitution so he may likewise after their dissolution God forbid that when a Sovereign Prince hath solemnly promised and sworn to Govern his Subjects according to his Established Laws and to Protect them in their Rights Properties and Priviledges that he should violate his Faith thus given to God and his People yet if he do he is a Sovereign Prince still and the Resistance of him a Resistance of the Ordinance of God because his Authority is from God and hath no Superior under God to controul it nor to whom to forfeit and because the illegal Exercise of his Power doth not disannul his Authority Sect. 88. 4. The Illegal and Destructive Acts of the Sovereign Powers towards their Subjects are not always Inauthoritative Acts. This is evident to the common Sense and Experience of Mankind from the injurious Sentences that are past and Executions that ensue in all sorts of Human Judicatures respectively to the Lives Limbs Liberties and Estates of Subjects The Liberty the Subjects here in England have in some Cases to arrest Judgment and to appeal from an Inferiour to a Superiour Court presumes the Truth of this Now though a Sentence contrary to the true Intention of Law be an unjust Sentence and cannot properly have the Authority of the Law in it yet Subjects in all Parts of the World are obliged by it till it be rescinded and reversed by the Authority of a competent Superiour Judge And if it be a Sentence past or ratified by a Supream Judge from whom there is no appeal the Subject can have no redress but is finally concluded by it how illegal and pernitious soever it be hence that Etiam cum Praetor iniquum pronunciat jus dicit Which is a further Evidence that there is an Authority in Persons Superiour to that in Laws 'T is from the Authority of the Person and not of the Law that a Sentence pronounced according to the Law binds in some Cases and not in others and a Sentence pronounced against Law is reversible in some Cases and not in others Indeed 't is plain that a Sentence pronounced contrary to the End and Intention of Law could have no Authority and Obligatory Force in it were it not from the Authority of the Judge whose act it is Then it will follow Sect. 89. 5. That the Right which Subjects have to preserve themselves in their Properties and Liberties against the unjust and violent Invasions or Usurpations of the Prerogative cannot authorize or warrant them to an active and forcible Resistance thereof For though the higher Powers are not Commissioned to do illegal out-ragious and destructive acts of violence yet they are the higher Powers by Commission and therefore though they abuse their Power the Subjects being no competent Judges thereof they are to be submitted unto without Resistance The High Priest and Elders of the People had no legal Authority to apprehend and secure Jesus Christ as a Criminal and yet he condemned St. Peter's forcible Resistance thereof So when the High Priest commanded St. Paul to be smitten contrary to the Law he acknowledged that notwithstanding that injurious violence offered to him he had no warrant to revile him much less violently resist him and return blow for blow So that those Acts of the higher Powers which are done without Law and against Law being considered conjunctively with the Authors or efficient Causes of them they imply the Presence of a Sovereign Authority with them which is uncontrollable and irresistible Sect. 90. 4. Another Objection which very naturally offers it self from what was last said is this if the very Illegal Acts of all Sovereign Powers be uncontrollable and irresistible then a Despotical is not Distinguishable from a Political Government nor an Arbitrary from a Legal Power nor an Absolute Monarchy from a Monarchy regulated and limited by Established Laws because the Authority of the one in effect is of equal extent with the other and the one as unaccountable and irresistble if he make his Will his Law as the other Ans What
as were taken prisoners dreadfully executed which is seconded by that Oracle of our Laws Sir Edw. Coke Lord Chief Justice in the 3d. p. of his Institutes find a Principle in Law a Rule in Reason and a Trial in Experience that Treason doth ever produce fatal and final destruction to the Offender and never attaineth to the desired End two Incidents inseparable thereunto and therefore let all Men abandon it as the most poisonous Bait of the Devil of Hell and follow the Precept in Holy Scripture Fear God Honour the King and have no Company with the Seditious or at we translate it Meddle not with them that are given to change Prov. 24.21 Sect. 113. But suppose the Rebellion be prosperous and successful that the Rebels be Victors and instead of being drawn to the deserved Gibbet they usurp the Throne and arraign the Sovereign Powers as Criminals before their Tribunal and pronounce and execute that ugly Sentence on them they themselves have merited will they be as free from guilt before God as they will presume themselves secured from the Vengeance of Man No surely they are hainous Sinners against God and shall be punished with an everlasting destruction from the Presence of the Lord for resisting the Powers ordained by him and this is the Apostolical Doctrine professed by the Church of England who thus concludes the first Part of her Homily or Sermon of Obedience to Rulers with reference to my Text. Here let us learn of St. Paul the chosen Vessel of God that all Persons having Souls he excepteth none nor exempteth none neither Priest Apostle nor Prophet saith St. Chrysostome do owe bounden Duty and even in Conscience Obedience Submission and Subjection to the Higher Powers which be set in Authority by God forasmuch as they be God's Lieutenants God's Presidents God's Officers God's Commissioners God's Judges ordain'd of God himself of whom only they have all their Power and all their Authority and the same St. Paul threatneth no less pain than everlasting damnation to all disobedient Persons against all Resisters against this general and common Authority forasmuch as they resist not Man but God not Man's Device and Invention but God's Wisdom God's Order Power and Authority Sect. 114. That this truth may the more evidently appear I will represent unto you 1. The Sinfulness of resisting the Higher Powers with armed Force 2. The Grounds upon which the Decree and Ordination of God to condemn rebellious Resisters to an everlasting destruction is founded 1. That the Sinfulness of Rebellious Resistance against the Higher Powers may the more evidently appear it shall be considered both more generally as 't is directly opposed to Subjection and more particularly as it includes those â—vils which are necessarily antecedent and dispositive to it concomitants with it effects and consequential attendants of it Sect. 115. 1. We will consider the sinfulness of a Rebellious Resisting of the higher Powers more generally as 't is directly opposed in the Text to Subjection in the former Verse As Subjection is a Practical acknowledgment of our Allegiance and bounden Duty to the higher Powers so a violent Resistance of them is a practical disclaiming and renouncing of Submission and Obedience to them and consequently a Defiance made to that Power which is God's Ordinance and a contemning of the Authority of God himself Apostolus cujusque est ut quisque every ones Officer is himself say the Jews Disobedience to the Authority and Resistance against the Person of the Sovereign Ruler or those Commissioned by him who are God's Ministers and Deputy Gods is Disobedience and Resistance against God himself And accordingly Moses told Korah and his Confederates who associated themselves in opposition to Aaron as an Usurper that encroached on the Rights Liberties and Priviledges of the Lord's People that he and all his Company were gathered together against the Lord Numb 16.11 their Conspiracy and Rebellion against the Lord's Officer was against the Lord himself because he acted not in his own name and upon his own account but in God's name and for God's service And elsewhere told them that when they murmured against him and Aaron your murmurings are not against us i. e. only but against the Lord Ex. 16.8 i. e. principally and especially So God himself said to Samuel when the People stubbornly resolved upon another manner of Government than that he had exercised over them as to the external Pomp Grandeur and Succession thereof they have not rejected thee but they have rejected me that I should not Reign over them 1 Sam. 8.7 which is also the Case of all Christ's Ministers as Christ himself assured them Luke 10.16 He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me And elsewhere Jo. 13.20 He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me So that the Officers of God and his Christ are as God and Christ themselves presentiate or represent them exercise not their own but their Authority and therefore the Despisers and Resisters thereof are Despisers and Resisters of the Persons and Authority of God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son And as Moses said to the Oppugnors of Aaron and what is Aaron So say I to the Resisters of the King and what is the King hath not God said that Kings are Gods Psal 82.1 6 And Reign by him Pr. 8.15 or as our Apostle stiles them twice in one Verse after the Text v. 4. they are the Ministers of God his Vice Roys Commissioned to attend his Work continually and God standeth and ruleth by them and judgeth with them Psal 82.1 He therefore that resisteth and fighteth against the King resisteth and fighteth against God himself Acts 5.39 for the Authority and Power of the King is the Authority and Power of God himself and consequently he who rejecteth and deposeth the King doth constructively reject and depose God himself because his Authority not only abstractly in its self but also concretly as inherent in his own Person and executed by him is of God too For as there is no Power or Authority but of God so the Powers the Persons in Authority that be are ordain'd of God whether they are good or bad Sect. 116. 'T is not therefore strange at all that Samuel compares Rebellion to the sin of Witch-craft and affirms it to be such a stubbornness for stubbornness is exegetical of Rebellion as is iniquity and Idolatry 1 Sam. 15.23 Rebellion is as the Sin of Witch-craft and stubbornness is as iniquity and Idolatry Indeed the Rebellion here spoken of was a Matter of Disobedience committed immediately against God himself but yet I conceive very applicable to that committed also immediately against the King because the Authority of the King and of God himself is the self same thing and the formal Reason of Subjection to the one and the other the very same viz. for conscience-sake that
the Statute of the 13th of Ch. 2d 't is in General Terms Declared Treason to Levy War against the King within the Realm or without And to cut off all Pretences from the Grounds or Nature of the War as Defensive only or as engaged in from the Authority of a Parliament or of the Lords and Commons we have in two several Statutes this Declaration That both or either Houses of Parliament cannot nor lawfully may raise or Levy any War offensive or defensive against the King his lawful Heirs and Successors In which Statutes also the sole Supream Command and Government of the Militia is Declared to be by the Fundamental Law of England ever the undoubted Right of the King And where could it be better placed for the Subjects Interest than in their Sovereign Prince and Supream Governour Sect. 21. There must be in one or other either in some single Person or some Community of Men a Supream and Chief Authority which hath the Principal and Highest Command of the Strength and Military Force of the Nation or else the Military Power will be under no command and consequently the Subjects will not know whom to obey with respect to War and Peace nor no Arms regularly used for the Suppression of Intestine Rebels or the Resistance of Foreign Enemies And who so fit to possess and execute such a Supremacy of Government as the King whose Interest as well as Duty obligeth him to preserve the Persons Estates Rights and Liberties of his People And this Authority by our Original Constitution being seated in the King and by subsequent acts of the Legislative Power Declared to be solely in him it cannot be lawful in any case to resist him because he cannot I say be resisted by an armed Force without Invading the Power of the Sword in which we have no Right and therefore cannot use it against him without the Guilt of Rebellion Sect. 22. 4. 'T is against common Reason that the Higher Powers should in any case and upon any Pretence whatsoever be resisted because all Resistance from Subjects against the Higher Powers is utterly inconsistent with their Relation and Condition for they that resist are not Subject 'T is contradictio in adjecto a meer Solecism to affirm That the Highest Power may lawfully be resisted because the Highest Power cannot have a Superiour and that which hath no Superiour cannot have a Superiour Power exercised over it Where ever there is a Supremacy it is inseperable from a Right to impunity and universally exempts from coercion and correction Where a King then is not obeyed his Majesty is lost He hath not a Principality but an Inferiority in his Country Resistance is coercive and punitive and implies a Superiority For he which resists assaults to controul counteracts to countermand opposeth the Will of his Sovereign to impose upon him his own and consequently starts from the Condition of a Subject and sets himself up in the Throne of Sovereignty Where we acknowgledge a Sovereign Authority there we yeild Subjection and Obedience from the one flows the other as an effect from the Cause but where we resist a Power we disclaim and renounce the Sovereignity of it for we resist it that we may not be under but above it They that resist the King will not be his Subjects but his Superiours will not receive Laws from him but give Laws to him reject his Rod and snatch away his Scepter will not act as Subordinate Instruments but as Principal Agents in the Administration of the Government Sect. 23. But what saith the Prophet Shall the Axe boast it self against him that heweth it Or shall the Saw exalt it self against him that moveth it Isa 10.15 So 't is as absurd and unreasonable that Subjects who are inferiour and ought to be subservient unto the higher Powers should assume to themselves Power to resist them They have a Power and fitness to act in their proper Places in an orderly way of dependency and subserviency to the Sovereign Power but if they resist the Sovereign Power they leave their proper rank and station and will not be where they ought but where they should not be And I am sure God being the God of Order and not of Confusion cannot approve or allow that we should Desert our own proper Places to thrust our selves into anothers We must abide in our proper Seatings and not go up higher and take the Place of our Betters As there is no Power but of God so there is no Power but is Gods and the Subordination of Subjects to their Sovereign being of Divine Ordination the Subordination is to God himself and therefore Subjects are not only obliged quietly to abide under the Predominant Force and Strength of their Sovereign but likewise to make a Voluntary Resignation of themselves their Understandings Wills Powers and Interests to his directive Wisdom and preceptive Will actively obeying what he justly imposeth or passively enduring what he inflicts for Disobedience So that the Allowance of Liberty to Subjects in any case whatsoever to resist their Sovereign is a plain contradiction to the Moral Relation of Subjects to their Sovereign and equally as absurd in the Moral Order of Things as 't is in the Natural and Local Order of Things for the Feet to ascend above the Head Sect. 24. When therefore some learned Men affirm that the King is Major singulis greater than any of his Subjects singly considered but Minor universis less than the whole Body of them collectively considered unless they understand it respectively to the Safety and Welfare of the Community to which the King belongs as a Part and not respectively to the Governing Power thereof 't is false and unreasonable For though the Preservation and Safety of the Community be the Supream Law yet 't is of the Community concretively and not discretively considered the Governing Part as well as the Governed Part is comprehended therein the Preservation and Safety of the one being concatenated unto and included in the other 'T is true every Community considered simply and antecedently to the Constitution of a Government therein is warranted and authorized by the Natural and Positive Law of God to Design and Nominate some particular Person or Persons to be the Rulers and Governours thereof but this is not the Communicating of any Authority or Power that was inherent in themselves before but only the Condition of the Applicatition of that Authority and Power which God as the Fountain and Efficient Cause deriveth to be exercised subordinately to himself by one Man over another And therefore supposing a Community setled under a constituted Government whether we consider the governed Members thereof divisim or conjunctim singly and a part or united and altogether they are one and all equally Subjects and altogether as well as asunder obliged to Subjection and Obedience and accordingly the higher Powers are over Kingdoms and Nations and not meerly over particular Persons Saul was called the Head of
the Tribes of Israel 1 Sam. 15.17 and so successively all that were anointed Kings were Kings over Israel and not only over this and that and the other Israelite And our Laws have ever accounted the King post Deum secundus next to God and solo Deo minor less only than God in his Dominions and vicarius Dei Gods Vice-gerent and not the Peoples Vicar-general And the Oath of Supremacy is designed to agnize the King's Highness to be the only Supream Governour of this Realm And if be be Supream he is subordinate to no Person or Body Politick whatsoever if only Supream he hath no equal or coordinate Authority with his if Governour of this Realm he is over all collectively or representatively considered as well as over particular Families or individual Persons And in the Statute of 24 Hen. 8. ch 12. 't is acknowledged That by divers old Authentick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared that this Realm of England is an Empire and so hath been accepted in the World Governed by one Supream Head and King baving the Dignity and Royal Estate of the Imperial Crown of the same unto whom a Body Politick compact of all sorts and degrees of People divided into Terms and by Names of Spirituality and Temporality being bounden and owing next to God a Natural and humble Obedience he being instituted and furnished by the goodness and sufferance of Almighty God with plenary whole and entire Power Preheminence and Authority c. Here 't is declared that the Body Politick compact of all sorts and degrees of People do owe unto the one Supream Head and King next to God a Natural and humble Obedience And this Plenary Power of his is not derived and entrusted from the People but is instituted and furnished by the goodness and sufferance of Almighty God And answerably when both Houses of Parliament Address themselves 't is not in a Form implying either Superiority or Equality but as humble Petitioners Faithful and Obedient Subjects e. g. in Stat. of Elizabeth 30. we most humbly beseech your most Excellent Majesty your Faithful and Obedient Subjects the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Assembled in Parliament Or thus we your Majesties loving faithful and obedient Subjects representing your three Estates of your Realm of England c. except we should overmuch forget our Duties to your Highness c. do most humbly beseech c. a plain indication that their Parliamentary Authority is not Imperial or Royal but consultive and approbative And by what Chymical Art or Politick Fetch any Man can from hence infer a real Sovereignty or Majesty lodged in some essential Body of Men in contradistinction to the Personal Sovereignty and Majesty of the King which is superiour to that lodged in and exercised by the King and may as opportunity offers warantably resist and evacate it is past my understanding to imagin Sect. 25. I shall conclude this Branch of my Discourse with this request to you I pray consider to what purpose are all those Ornaments of State with which the Wisdom of our Ancestors have invested the Regal Dignity if the Persons that partake of them cannot prorect themselves against the Assaults and Outrages of their Subjects but may be deposed and have a writ of ease served upon them when they think fit to judge the Power entrusted with them forfeited and to revoke it If a Crown cannot secure the Princes Head that wears it nor the Throne he sits on mount him above force and compulsion nor his Scepter awe the seditious and turbulent they are meer pageantries and pompous ostentations of Vanity and have nothing of real magnificence and usefulness in them But as delight is not seemly for a Fool so much less is it seemly for a Servant or a Subject to Rule over Princes Pro. 19.10 which concludes my Argument against the Resistance of Sovereign Princes drawn from the Principles of common Reason Sect. 26. 2. The next thing to be evinced to you is That 't is against the Principles of Religion as well as of Reason to allow Liberty to Subjects to resist the Sovereign Powers with armed Force in any case and upon any pretence whatsoever And that I may do it the more satisfactorily I will shew you both from the Jewish and Christian Constitution that 't is unlawful for Subjects to resist the Supream Powers with armed Force 1. I shall begin with some Reflections on the Jewish Constitution I find that some very learned Men have thought That in some Cafes 't was lawful under the Jewish State to take Arms against the Sovereign Power who notwithstanding affirm'd that 't is utterly unlawful for Subjects so to do under the Christian Constitution Christians being restrained by the peculiar Precepts of the Gospel from that liberty the Law in that case allowed But so far as I can judge this is an indefenceable Opinion for the Christian Constitution doth not introduce a New Foundation of Civil Policy and common Rights nor establish any new Prohibitions for the Defence of just Rights by a lawful Authority And therefore I conclude 't was unlawful for all Subjects under the Old Testament Dispensation to resist the Higher Powers as well as under the New Sect. 27. From Moses to Saul the Government of the Jews was a Theocracy that is God himself was their Supreme Lord and King and immediately exercised a ruling Power over them by Persons of his own Election and Constitution who in all cases of difficulty had immediate recourse to God for direction and accordingly when they grew weary of Samuel's Government who was thus appointed over them they are said to reject God himself 1 Sam. 8.7 and 1 Sam. 10.19 and therefore in all that time the Resistance of the Supreme Power was a Resistance of God himself the only Difficulty then is How the Case stood after Saul was invested with the Kingly Government of that People whether that Sovereign irresistible and unaccountable Authority and Power which was formerly subjected in and exercised by Moses and Aaron and the succeeding Judges and High Priests was translated to them who afterwards were possessed of and exercised the Kingly Authority and Power Sect. 28. For the right Understanding of which we are to consult what God commanded Samuel in his Name to protest to the People of Israel concerning the Kingly Office and Power of which we have an account in 1 Sam. 8.9 to 18. in vers 11. This will be the manner Mishpat the Right say some of the King that shall reign over you He shall take your Sons and appoint them for himself for his Chariots and to be his Horsemen and some shall run before his Chariots And he will take your Daughters to be Confectionaries Cooks and Bakers and he will take your Fields and your Vineyards and your Olive yards even the best of them and give them to his Servants and he shall take your Men Servants and your Maid Servants and ye shall he
every body knows frequently patronize such hazardous Engagements and therefore no body is bound to believe such a Mans Profession where there is so great an odds in the perswasive Motives to War but when a Man prefers Submission before Rebellion his Innocency before his Safety patiently suffers the loss of Life and lays it down obedientially to his Governours as a Sacrifice to his God acquitting all possible earthly interests to safe-guard one spiritual one he makes such a Profession according to Human Judgment as is not capable of a reasonable Suspicion of Imposture and Hypocrisie And this is the middle Way of Subjection to which God directs us betwixt active Obedience and forcible Resistance When we cannot obey actively we can and ought to obey passively Though we cannot obey unlawful commands yet we can be quiet and peaceable yea we may do any thing to prevent and redress grievances except strive against our Governours with armed Force And why this in no case whatsoever is lawful I shall now shew you more particularly from the Principles of Religion Sect. 47.1 Because the higher Powers are of God ordained of him v. 1. and therefore whosoever resisteth them resisteth the Ordinance of God as 't is in the Words immediately preceding the Text. That Human Societies may be setled in peace and quietness God by his Ordinance and Constitution hath provided Government for them and though he hath not peremptorily appointed the particular Species or Form of Government nor by any special Revelation from Heaven immediately designed or nominated the individual Person or Persons who shall be invested with and exercise the Sovereign Authority and Power in every Community of Men as hath been formerly said yet that his appointment of Government might not be fruitless and in vain he hath lain an obligation on all Societies of Men to do such act or acts as shall appropriate unto some Person or Persons the Supremacy of Dominion and Rule and invest him or them with a Propriety and Peculiarity in that Station and Relation and the Person or Persons so entitled to the Sovereign Power may as truly be denominated God's Ordinance as if God by an immediate interposition had declared it so to be Be the Dominion Elective or Hereditary and Successive the Case is the same when once the Sovereign Power is regularly and legally determined and appropriated to one or more all that stand in the Relation of Subjects thereunto are to acknowledge and perform Subjection and Obedience as to God's Ordinance Hence the Supream Ruler is termed in v. 4. of this ch the Minister of God Because he partakes of God's Authority and Power and acts by his Commission in his stead and whoever is obliged to yield Subjection unto God is also obliged to yield Subjection unto him for Gods sake And answerably the Apostle tells us v. 5. that we must needs be subject for conscience sake Which only is obliged by Gods Law And consequently as every single Person seperately considered and the whole Body of the People collectively considered are subject unto God so to the Sovereign Power too and cannot resist the Sovereign Power but they must likewise resist God himself because the Power is given from the Lord and Sovereignty from the most High Wisd 6.3 't is the most High which ruleth in the Kingdom of Men and giveth it to whomsoever he will as Daniel speaks ch 4.25 who acknowledged to Belshazzar ch 5.18 that the most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar his Father a Kingdom and Majesty and Glory and Honour So that the Concurrence of the People in any case to the making of a King hath only a Subserviency to the Designation of his Person and contributes nothing at all towards the Collation of his Power For there is no Power but of God And therefore by him only Authority immediately derived from him do all the Kings in the World Reign and Princes decree Justice who are Supream and Sovereign Kings and Princes Psal 8.15 when therefore 't is said that all the People made Saul King 1 Sam. 11.15 and anointed David King 2. Sam. 2.4 and made Solomon the Son of David King 1 Chron. 29.22 the Meaning is they made a Declaration that they consented and acknowledged that they were their Kings For they were all Kings before by the especial Appointment of God himself and could thereby derive no Authority or Power from the People only this voluntary acknowledgment rendred the Exercise of their Office the more grateful to themselves and the People Which may be as formerly intimated illustrated by the chusing of Mayors Sheriffs Stewards Bayliffs and other Officers in Corporate Towns and Cities where the Persons chosen receive no Office or Authority from the Electors but wholly derive it from the King's Charter So all the higher Powers are God's Ordinance and not the Peoples And therefore the higher Powers are dignified with God's own Name Ps 82.6 I have said ye are Gods Because they are his Vice-gerents and act in his Name and what they so do God doth by them and therefore 't is said He judgeth among the Gods Ps 82.1 and their Throne is called the Throne of the Lord 1 Chr. 29.22 And they are said to judge not for Man but for the Lord 2 Chr. 19.6 which is a convictive Evidence that the Supream Powers depend immediately upon God only for their Dignities and Authorities And hence by the Stile of our Laws the King being the Supream Power is Rex Dei gratia King by the Grace of God because he owes his Sovereign Dominion to God alone and is to be accountable for it only to him And the Statute of 16 Ric. 2. thus declares That the Crown of England hath been so free at all times that it hath been in no earthly subjection but immediately subject to God in all things touching the Regality of the same Crown and to no other And the King being God's immediate Substitute and exercising Dominion and Authority next and immediately under him as he that resisteth the King's Vice-Roy resisteth the King so he that resisteth the King resisteth the Ordinance of God Sect. 48. 2. Because such a Resistance is utterly inconsistent with that aweful reverence and observance the Laws of our Religion exact from us to the higher Powers We are as peremptorily commanded to fear the King as to fear the Lord Pr. 24.21 Fear the Lord and the King And what God hath joyned together we must not put asunder We must fear to displease the one as well as the other fear to displease the King because we fear to displease the Lord For God hath made this fear as properly due to the King as the most Legal Custom or Tribute which is paid to him Rom. 13.7 Render therefore to all their Dues Tribute to whom Tribute Custom to whom Custom Fear to whom Fear Honour to whom Honour And he cannot be restrain'd with this Fear who Assaults his King with Force Elsewhere we are commanded to Honour
this Preamble At the Request of the Commonalty by their Petition made before the King in his Parliament c. so again in 9 Edw. 3. 'T is thus prefaced Whereas the Knights Citizens and Burgesses desired our Sovereign Lord the King in his Parliament by their Petition and many of the Statutes are penned in this Imperial Stile The King Commands The King wills Our Lord the King hath established Our Lord the King hath ordained And of his special grace hath granted c. See 3 Edw. 1. and 6 Edw. 1. and 25. Edw. 3. Statute of Marleburdg 52 Hen. 1. and Statute of Quo Warranto A sufficient Evidence That all our Laws owe their Being to the King's Authority only Sect. 99. 2. All the judicial Courts of England are the King's Courts and derive all their Authority originally from him and are obliged to refer the Exercise of their respective Jurisdictions finally for the Preservation of his Person Crown and Dignity and consequently the High Court of Parliament is the King's Court too and depends on him for that Authority which is there exercised And 't is well observed by my Lord Coke That the King is Principium Caput Finis Parliamenti and answerably in the Parliament writ the King calls it Quoddam Parliamentum nostrum Thereby signifying a Subordination of the Estates convented in Parliament under him sitting there in his Royal Political capacity And consequently the Acts of the Two Houses of Parliament without an impress of Royal Authority are nothing worth to the Purposes of Government 'T is no Argument that the Two Houses of Parliament have a Co-ordination with him in his legislative Authority because he hath restrained himself from the Exercise and Use of it without their Request and Consent for it is no more than a Conditio sine qua non which hath only the Force of a Negative without the Concurrence of which the principal Efficient obtains not its Effect Sect. 100. 3. The Measures or Degrees of all Civil Authority and Power are to be taken either from the express Laws of any State or the immemorial Customs and Prescriptions thereof from a long Possession or from the Oaths the Subjects swear to their Princes This is acknowledged by the Author who pleads for a Co-ordination of the Houses of Parliament with the King in the Legislative Authority of the Kingdom as a proper Rule by which to judge where the Legislative Power of a Nation is lodged and this being impartially attended will evidently discover That the Legislative Power is in the King only For 1. If we consider what the Laws determine we shall find that they ascribe it wholly to the King See to this purpose the afore-quoted Preface to a Statute in 24. Hen. 8. where 't is thus said For by divers Old Authentick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this Realm of England is an Empire and so hath been accepted in the World governed by our Supreme Head and King having the Dignity and Royal Estate of the Imperial Crown of the Same unto whom a Body Politick compact of all sorts and degrees of People divided in Terms and by Names of Spiritualty and Temporalty have been bounden and ought to bear next to God natural and humble Obedience he being also in Statute and furnished by the Goodness and Sufferance of Almighty God not of the People with Plenary whole and entire Power Preheminence Authority Prerogative and Jurisdiction to render and yield Justice and final determination in all Causes Matters and Debates Likewise in the Statute of the 35 of Eliz. this Submission after Non-conformity to divine Service is to be made openly in some Church I do acknowledge and testify in my Conscience that no other Person hath or ought to have any Power or Authority over His Majesty Which Statute was declared to be in full force in the 16 of Ch. 2. 2. This Authority and Preheminence as the former Statute mentioned implies is of immemorial Custom and Prescription and was so far as I can discover never questioned in any Parliamentary Convention of the States till 1642. and then by the Two lower States only too and then the Co ordination in the Legislative Power was asserted to warrant and justify one of the most unreasonable and barbarous Rebellions that ever was in this Kingdom 'T is declared by the Statute of 16 Rich. 2. That the Crown of England hath been so free at all times that it hath been in no earthly Subjection but immediately subject to God in all things touching the Regality of the same Crown and to none other and if to none other then not to the Two Houses of Parliament and in 1 Jam. 1. The High Court of Parliament wherein as they speak the whole Kingdom in Person or Representative was present i. e. all Estates and Degrees call themselves his Majesty's Loyal and Faithful Subjects and declare his Majesty to be their only Liege Lord and Sovereign and agnize their constant Faith Obedience and Loyalty to his Majesty and Royal Progeny And I will be so bold as to challenge this Author to shew from any Parliamentary Record that ever the Two Houses claimed or pretended to a Co-ordination with the King in the Legislative Power till the time above mentioned 3. What can be more evident for the Determination of this matter than the Oath of Supremacy by which every Subject is obliged to testify and declare in his Conscience that the Kings Highness is the only Supreme Governour of this Realm and of all other His Highnesses Dominions and Countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Things or Causes as Temperal as He is Supreme He hath no Superior and as He is only Supreme He can have no equal they that wrest the Supremacy of the King's Government to import only the executive part of Government manifestly subvert the primary Design of the Oath which was to restrain and preserve the King's Subjects from a Submission to the usurped legislative and juridical Authority of the Bishop of Rome So that if the Bishop of Rome pretended to both parts of Government as 't is certain he did and still doth then the Oath directly intends an opposition to both and consequently ascribes the only Supremacy appropriately to the King both respectively to the Legislative and Executive part of the Government Sect. 101. 4. Suppose contrary to all this plain evidence that the legislative Power is lodged between the King and Two Houses of Parliament how will this prove a Superior Authority in them above that in the King Par in Parem non habet potestatem An Equal is no Superior Indeed according to our Authors affirmation here are Two to One which is very great odds if he intended to press to his Service that Maxim Major pars obtinet rationem totius the major part of the Legislators virtually are the whole For this will at the Pleasure of the Two Houses render the Concurrence of the King
needless but it will also if the King and Lords please render the House of Commons as needless too which may also be the Case of the House of Lords if the King and House of Commons please to have it so For I presume he will have the Co-ordination to be equally lodged in the one as in the other that our Author had any respect to this I cannot affirm but I well remember when the Legislative Authority was pretended unto by the Two Houses that their Advocates pleaded this Maxim for the Justification of what they called Ordinances of Parliament which were of such Authority and Power in the Hands of their subordinate Instruments that they used them to deprive of Life Liberty and Estate and nothing was more frequently urged than Co-ordinata se invicem supplent Co-ordinates ought mutually to supply each others defects So that what the King from Perversness or Ignorance would not do or imposency or restraint could not do with them they presumed they were sufficiently authorized to do without him because the public Interest and Safety must not miscarry or be hazarded for want of supplemental Laws Sect. 104. I know our Author supposeth the King in his Political Capacity to be in another considetation thereof inferior to the Two Houses of Parliament though he will not perhaps say he is so in his Legislative viz. as the Executive part of Government is lodged singly in him because this as he teacheth is a Matter of Trust derived from the Legislative part for which he is accountable and in that capacity the King is a Subject to the Two Houses of Parliament Right Excellent indeed this is not in terms asserted but 't is plainly the intent and drift of it Well! let it be supposed That the Executive Power of the Kingdom is a Trust from the Legislative Power will it not then follow that the King derives a Trust to himself certainly if this Author himself may be believed he hath a share in the Legislative Power and therefore if a Trust be transferred and devolved from thence to him it must be with his concurrence as acting in that capacity Now if he should chance to be unfaithful to himself and violate this Trust to whom in a judiciary way must he be accountable of whom must that Court be constituted that must question the Matter there may be no Houses of Parliament in being and if there be if he disgust their proceedings may he not Adjourn Prorogue or Dissolve them if he think fit and what will become of the Matter then 't is but equal that if all interested in the Legislative Power be concern'd the King himself should be admitted of the Quorum when this matter of Trust comes to be questioned and debated I conceive the Vanity of this pretence That the Executive part of Government is an accountable Trust committed by our Laws to the King will evidently appear to any impartial Man that will but try how to answer these few plain Questions 1. If this Trust be abused is it any part of the Executive Power of the Government to Summon Try Judge and Punish the Abuser thereof 2. In whose Name shall the Process for Summons be issued forth in order to his Tryal 3. What provision hath the Law made for the Arresting of the King's Person to secure his forth coming to Tryal in case he refuse to obey a preceptive Summons 4. Is it not High Treason to imprison the King or by force to take him into a Man's Power yea or but to manifest such a Design by some overt act 5. If he have a fair Tryal according to Law he must be tried by his Peers I pray who are they 6. Who shall be his Judge and pass Sentence 7. What is the Punishment the Law hath ordained for the abuse of this Trust 8. Who shall execute the Sentence pronounced against him 'T is manifest the whole Administration of the Executive Power being confessedly lodged in the King nothing of this can legally be done and therefore 't is impossible that the King 's Executive Power should be a Trust committed to him by his Houses of Parliament for which he ought to be accountable to them or any other earthly Power I hope you would not have our High and Mighty Sovereign Lord the good People of England erect an High Court of Justice which shall be instead of Delators Witnesses Jurors Peers Judges and Executioners I am taught by some that understood the Constitution and Laws of the Kingdom of England very well that the King is not accountable for his Office or Actions to any Court Person or Persons whatsoever and every Man that will but attentively read the Spencer's Case and the Tryals of the Regicides may learn the same Lesson And thus saith the most learned Bracton Sunt sub Rege liberi homines servi omnis sub eo est ipse sub nullo nisi tantum sub Deo Si à Rege petatur cum Breve non currat contra Regem locus erit supplicationi quod factum suum corrigat emendet si non fecerit satis erit ei ad paenam quod Dominum expectet ultorem de chartis Regiis factis Regum nec privatae personae nec Justiciarii debent disputare There are Free-men and Servants under the King and every one is under him and he is under no one but under God only If any thing be to be demanded of the King since a Writ cannot go forth against the King there will be place for petitioning that he would correct and amend his doing if he do not it will be Punishment enough for him that he expect the Lord to be the Avenger of the Royal Grants and Actions of the King neither private Persons or Judges ought to dispute much less to censure and chastise And my Lord Coke in his Compleat Copy Holder hath taught me That the King representeth God's Person on Earth And I presume no Man is so daringly bold as to affirm That God is accountable and censurable for any of his doings Sect. 105. 5. It appears from the very Form and Tenor of the most Excellent Charters of the English Subjects Liberties that the Regal Authority and Power is not a fiduciary Trust from his Subjects and People under any consideration whatsoever Magna Charta it self runs thus Spontanea bona voluntate nostra dedimus concessimus By our free and good will we have given and granted c. not contracted bargain'd and upon good and valuable considerations covenanted and promised but from grace and condescention given and granted See 9 Hen. 3. so when the same Charter was confirmed in King Edward's time it was thus worded Know ye that we of our meer free will have granted to all Free-men these Liberties So in the Statute Quo Warranto 18. Edw. 1. Dominus Rex ad Parliamentum suum de gratia sua speciali propter affectionem quam habet erga Praelatos caeteros
de Regno suo concessit c. The Lord the King of his Parliament from his special grace and for the Affection he hath toward the Prelates and all others of his Kingdom hath granted I appeal to all unprejudiced Men to consider if this be the Language of an accountable Trustee Sect. 106. Coke the Regicide having told his Blood-thirsty Masters That Charles Stuart for so he called his Liâ—ge Lord that King of Blessed Memory stands now that is in their High Court of Justice to give an account of his Stewardship he thus begins to diffect his charge That the Kings of England are trusted with a limited Power to govern by Law and affirms it to be one of the Fundamentals of the Law that the King is not above the Law but the Law above the King And for the Proof of it offer'd the Coronation Oath wherein the King swears to keep and observe the Laws which the People shall chuse And then endeavouring to impute to his Sacred Majesty a Violation of his Fidelity to God and his People concludes him justly condemned by the Fundamental Law of the Nation c. and no wonder of such an Inference for as he tells us Governours are but the Peoples Creatures the Work of their hands to be accomptable as their Stewards and therefore when they prevaricate and abuse their Trust to question by what Law they call them to account is High Treason with a Witness And this is the true Tendency of that Doctrine That all Power is originally from the People and the King 's executive Power a Trust from the Two Houses of Parliament because this makes them as Coke phraseth it his Liege Lords and warrants them to exercise an absolute Power over him 'T is so naturally implied saith he that if a King become a Tyrant that he shall dye for it that this is the first necessary Fundamental Law of every Kingdom which by intrinsical Rules of Government must preserve it self This is just like the Liberty of the People which proves it self whereas the Power of the King must be proved before the Subjects ought to obey it because he hath no more than he hath received from his Sovereign Lords the People which is only founded on positive Law and if he pretend to more than they have given him he usurps upon their Liberty which they have a Right to defend and preserve by force of Arms which being a new Edition of John Coke's Doctrine the Author must needs deserve exceedingly well of the Government and cannot be worthily dealt withal unless highly promoted how agreeable this is to our Legal Constitution I refer to every indifferent Judgment who will compare it with what hath been observed concerned it and shall conclude in the Words of this Author It is indeed clear from the New Testamdnt That the Christian Religion as such gives us no grounds to defend or propagate it by force It is a Doctrine of the Cross and of Faith and Patience under it and if by the Order of Divine Providence and of any Constitution of Government under which we are born we are brought under sufferings for our professing of it we may indeed retire and fly out of any such Country if we can but if that is 〈…〉 must then according to this Religion submit to those sufferings under which we may be brought considering that God will be glorified by us in so doing and that he will both support us under our Sufferings and gloriously reward us for them By Submitting to Sufferings by what follows I hope he means a Submission without Resistance though we are strong enough to make it and then the Safety of the English Government is secured though Religion be our Property and shall chance to be persecuted because by the Constitution of our Government we may not upon any pretence whatsoever take Arms against the King Sest 107. 6. Another Objection is this a King may actually and professedly endeavour to subvert the established Government and overthrow the whole Constitution and set himself to destroy if not all nor the greatest part yet at least very considerable numbers of his People and so plainly counteract the very end of his Authority and Power and will it not be lawful for his Subjects in such a Case to resist him Ans The Sky may fall and then Larks will be good cheap Princes may become Phreneticks and be uncapable of Government and them as in the Case of a Minor that is an Hereditary Prince a Prorex is to be had during the Suspension of the Exercise of his Authority and Power Or they may be so dissatisfied with the Burthensomness of the Government that they may be weary of it Abdicate and Renounce it or they may be so intoxicated and transported with wild and outragious Passions Discontents and Prejudices against their Subjects that they may disclaim the Government of them and indeed do so when instead of administring the Government in order to their Peace and Safety they turn it to their distraction and ruine will not be the Ministers of God for good but hurt to them will not support but destroy the Foundations of their Kingdoms but then with their Subjects and Kingdoms they destroy themselves too and cease to be Princes because they that disclaim the Protection of their Subjects and wilfully resolve to destroy their Dominions can have no right to govern them They can be no Rulers who will leave nothing under them to be ruled by them and then the Resistance of them will not be a Resistance of the Higher Powers but this is a meer Platonical Idea a Case put that perhaps never was nor never is like to have a real Existence in the Nature of things Let these things be considered Sect. 108. 1. Plutarch observes Inest omni populo aliquod malignum contra Imperantes There is in all sorts of People some malignity against their Governours Such is the Pride of Man's heart that he is averse to Subjection our unwillingness to be restrained from following our own Minds and Wills and to be guided and commanded by the Mind and Will of another prejudiceth us against the Ruler of us and this as Mr. Hooker tells us makes Men very attentive and favourable Hearers to suck in any Poyson that is breathed forth against the King or the Governours which are sent forth and anon it mulriplies and every valley and obscure corner is ready to eccho it back again We must therefore be very wary now we give ear to any evil Suggestions concerning the Designs or male-Administrations of the Higher Powers Defamation begets an evil Opinion of the Prince and concludes in disaffection to him and that naturally tends unto and ends in Contempts Abhorrences and Oppositions 2. It hath ever been the Practice of seditious and rebellious minded Men to bestir themselves to ingenerate in the Minds of Subjects Jealousies and Fears concerning the Councels Designs and Administrations of their Princes and to magnify
Subjection is refused two ways either by disobedience and acting contrary to the Laws and Edicts of the Higher Powers or else by using Strength and making a violent Opposition against them with armed Force Sect. 5. 1. We may resist and oppose our selves to the Higher Powers by disobedience and counteracting the Laws and Edicts thereof when we unwarrantably refuse Obedience to the Laws of the Higher Powers we break out of the Rank of Subjects and resist the Higher Powers for they that will not be commanded by the Higher Powers are not subject to them and when this is circumstanced with Stubborns the Disobedience is resolute and unreclaimable 't is not only Contempt but Defiance to Authority and they which resist the proper Effect of the Supreme Authority its Laws and Edicts resist the Supreme Authority it self And therefore they sin hainously against God who are not willingly obedient to the lawful Commands of the Higher Powers but counteract them in a Deportment contrary to them because herein they violate and disannul the Commission of God himself The Higher Powers have a Right granted to them from God himself to enact and impose Laws upon us if we therefore refuse Obedience to their Laws we usurp a Superior Authority to that of God himself for we take upon us to Cancel God's Grant to them and herein are Fighters against God as well as Resisters of the Powers which are of of God a Matter well deserving serious consideration Sect. 6. 2. We may resist and oppose our selves to the Higher Powers by force and violence when Subjects contend with Higher Powers by force either defend themselves against them with armed Power or else seek to depose them or to compel them to do though it be what they apprehend they ought to do this being a kind of judiciary act and which carries a vindicative Power with it 't is the most aggravated Resistance that can be made against the Higher Powers and the Resistance here especially condemned by the Apostle in my Text and that against which I shall chiefly direct my Discourse Sect. 7. 2. What the Apostle designs by Damnation 't is evident that by Damnation the Apostle intends some thing Minatory and Penal but what particular kind of punishment the Word immediately denoteth in this place is questioned by some learned Men 't is certain the Original Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes signifieth in the Scriptures a present temporal Punishment from Man and sometimes a future eternal Punishment from God For my part I think with many others both sorts of Punishments are here intended because the Apostles Arguments against Resistance are taken from Considerations which look both ways Ye must needs be subject saith he v. 5. not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake that is not only for fear of punishment from the Higher Powers but also lest by offending God by who 's Authority the Higher Powers are set over you Conscience accuse you which binds to a Condemnation to eternal Death 'T is probable that the way of Rebellion will bring those that are in it to a Gibbet but 't is certain that without Repentance 't will bring them to Hell if they escape a shameful Death from the Higher Powers on Earth they shall not escape the Punishment of eternal Death from the God of Heaven that this is the Intendment of the Apostle seems evident to me For the Apostle having lain down this as a Fundamental Article of the Christian Faith That there is no Power but of God And from that Consideration strictly charged it as an indispensable Obligation upon every Soul to be subject thereunto which cannot be resisted without resisting the Ordinance of God himself he plainly enforceth this Duty with this threatning as the Sanction upon which it was established They that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Now as the Threatnings of which the Mosaical Precepts were established did primarily respect corporeal and temporal Evils so the Threatnings on which the Christian Precepts are established do primarily respect spiritual and eternal Evils And the Apostle elsewhere expresly affirms That wheâ— Vengeance shall be taken on such as obey not the Gospel they shall be punished with everlasting Dâ—struction 2 Thes 1.8 9. By Damnation therefore in the Text we are to understand primarily a Condemnation to eternal Torments in Hell Fire but not exclusively of a Condemnation to those corporeal and temporal Punishments to which Rebels are expose by the Higher Powers Sect. 8. 3. The last thing to be expounded is what 't is for those that resist to receiâ—â— to themselves Damnation the Original Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is variously translated sometiâ—â—â— 't is rendred acquirunt they procure to themselves Damnation this is the great Purchaâ—â—â— Rebels make the Wages they contend and fight for by resisting the Higher Powers is 〈◊〉 bring themselves into a State of Damnation and to make Hell sure to themselves othâ—â—â— render it by accipient they shall receive as our translation hath it that is as Men receâ—â— a painful an intollerable Burden to which punishment is frequently compared 2 Kings 9. â— Isa 23.1 When Subjects resist the Higher Powers they design to free and ease themselâ—â—â— of conceited Burthens and Grievances but the final issue and event of their Resistance 〈◊〉 Submission to an irresistible and insupportable load of Guilt and Misery and this they â—â—ceive to themselves as their proper Portion and Fruit of their own Doings for when they are utterly destroyed they reap nothing but what they have sown nothing is poured upon them but their own wickedness Jer. 14.16 and all the World hath cause to say that they have destroyed themselves and as Solomon speaks by provoking the Higher Powers to Wrath they sinn'd against their own Souls Prov. 20.2 became Executioners to themselves Having thus expounded the Scope and Intent of my Text I shall discourse two Things from it whereof the one is manifestly implied and the other plainly expressed 1. That Subjects must not resist the Higher Powers 2. That they which resist the Higher Powers bring themselves under the Guilt of eternal Damnation Sect. 9. 1. That Subjects must not no Subjects whatsoever may resist the Higher Powers let them be the worst that can be 'T is past all doubt That one Subject may resist the unjust force of another and Sovereign Princes and States may likewise resist the unjust Force Encroachments or Usurpations of other Sovereign Princes and States and the Subjects of one Sovereign Prince and State may in some cases resist the Sovereign Powers of another Kingdom and State but no Subjects of what Quality soever they are or whatever their Provocations be may warrantably resist with armed Force the Higher Powers that are over them whether considered as supreme or commissionated by them and subordinated to them Sect. 10. All the lawful Supreme and Sovereign Powers in the World are God's Officers and although the Specification of the Government and the manner
of its Administration may be determined and limited and the Individual Person or Persons Family or Families who shall be the Subjects Recipients of governing Authority and Power may be designed and nominated by the Interposition and Consent of the whole Community over which they preside and rule yet their Authority and Power is originally and immediately from God alone 't is here as in the Case of Marriage the Authority and Power of the Man over the Woman is originally and immediately from God but the determination of the particular Person who shall be this or that Womans Husband proceeds from the free Election and Consent of the Woman and although by a Pre-contract she may limit the Exercise of his Authority and Power respectively to her Estate and Proprieties yet she annot bound his Matrimonial Authority and Power over her Person nor will his abuse hereof be a Forfeiture of it to her And the Supreme Authority and Power with which all Sovereign Princes and States are invested being originally and immediately from God â—â—one and not communicated and derived at all from the Community there can be no â—â—rfeiture made by any male-Administration to the Community be the Contracts reâ—â—ectively to its kind of existence and manner of its exercise what they will what as not gotten by Vertue is not loseable by Vice nor can it by any abuse whatever escheat to the Power and Disposal of the Community they cannot take â—â—ay that which they did not give 't was therefore well said by Tacitus Principi sumâ—um rerum arbitrium dii dederunt subditis obsequii gloria relicta est God hath invested the â—â—ince with Sovereign Power leaving to Subjects the Glory of Obedience To the same purpose is at of Salust impunè quid vis facere hoc est regem esse He that will do a thing without fear 〈◊〉 Punishment he acts the part of a King For as Mark Anthony urged in Herod's case If he 〈◊〉 accountable for what he hath done as a King he could not be a King And the Reason is â—â—ause the Supreme Power is only under God and to be accounted for to him alone And â—â—all endeavour agreeably hereunto to prove to you That the Doctrine of Non-Resistance of Supreme Powers is founded on immutable Grounds of Reason and Religion And when there is â—â—inty of the Bond of Obedience to the Higher Powers from the Principles of Reason and Religion from the Necessities of common Equity and Order and the Interest of Conscience and Christian Duty there must needs be a very strong Obligation which is the Case of Non-Resistance against the Higher Powers as by Law established among us Sect. 11. 1. I will endeavour to evince that the Allowance of Liberty to Subjects to resist the Sovereign Power is against the Principles of Common Reason and that in divers Particulars 1. 'T is against Common Reason That the Higher Powers should be resisted by armed Force of Inferiours and Subjects because the Allowance of such a Thing would render all setled Government impracticable and indeed impossible and consequently destroy all the Means devisable for Administring Public Justice securing Private and Public Rights and Properties and preserving the Peace and Prosperity of all Human Societies The Primary End of all Government is to procure and preserve the Peace of Human Societies and where this cannot be sufficiently provided for the Government is null'd and destroyed which is the Case under consideration For if it be allowable for Subjects in any case and upon any pretence whatsoever to resist the Sovereign Powers with armed Force then it follows that they have a right to judge in what cases 't is fit for them to submit and in what cases 't is fit and lawful for them to resist and then the Subjects are the Supream Judges of the Government and their Governours which undeniably implies that the Subjects are bound to Subjection only so long as they themselves think fit and consequently may claim and exercise Authority and Judicature over their Governors and pass Judgment upon them and their Government whensoever they shall think it needful or requisite so to do And being to judge for themselves 't is very probable they will judge favourably for themselves And whereever the Supremacy of Judgment resides there is the Sovereign Authority and Power wherefore if the Higher Powers may be judged by their Subjects they are not Supream but Subordinate and Rule meerly precariously even so long and no longer than their Superiour Judges will give them leave so to do And when Men are in effect Subject to no Authority and Power but that of their own Judgments and Wills a Foundation is laid for a General and Great Confusion Where all will be Sovereigns who shall be the Subjects Where all are to command there are none to obey Let us allow Men Liberty to judge for themselves when 't is fit they should be subject to the Higher Powers and when 't is not and they may at Pleasure dissolve any Government in the World There is therefore no one Law so beneficial to the Subject as this Fundamental Law of Sovereignity That 't is unresistible and unaccountable for its determinations and from which there is no appeal For though a Society may be Governed by Mutual Consent and Agreement yet let Sovereign Authority and Power be lodged in one or many Persons it must be absolute and uncontroulable or else those Differences and Controversies which arise in that Society can never be decided and finally determined And whatever unthinking Men may fancy the Security of the Public Government from the Resistance of its Subjects is the best Security of every Mans Liberty Property and Safety Sect. 12. Let the Public Government be once Invaded and Confronted by the Open Resistance and Defiance of its Subjects and we are unavoidably and immediately in a State of War and then no Man hath any thing he can call his own and all the Admistrations of Justice are stopped and in truth all Laws lay dead and are ineffective to the Purposes of Government Wherefore if we set aside all regard to Duty and Honesty and do but consider our own interest quiet and safety we shall find Submission to the worst Government more for the Ease and Security of the Subject than Rebellion and War Let any Man of Common Ingenuity and Sense consider if a State of War be not the most defenceless and deplorable condition in the World for in such a Case no Mans Private Interest can be secured against the Injuries and Violences of other Men and when a Man hath lost his Proprieties and Safety what hath he more to lose And yet this is the Case when Men endeavour to shake off Submission to the Higher Powers by a Forcible Resistance of them they pull down all those inclosures by which their own Quiet Propriety and Safety were defended and protected Sect. 13. Let the Men of Politicks who pretend very highly to a Zeal for the
as it was an horrible wickedness in Saul so a great Temptation I mean of an apt tendency to provoke David to defend himself by armed Force He might have pretended that Saul had violated all the Bonds of Reason and Religion He had not only murthered great numbers of his innocent common Subjects but also of the Lord's Priests as if he designed an extirpation of God's public Worship and that he had not only Self-preservation to engage him to a Resistance but also that the common Rights of all the Kingdom challenged his Protection Sect. 30. This was really David's case and yet when God put Saul once and again under the Power of David's Hands all the Use that he made of it was to convince Saul that he was his Faithful and Loyal Subject and though he had suffered many and great Injuries causlesly from him yet no provocation should induce him to do his Sovereign any harm Indeed David's Servants and Followers were forward enough to perswade him to dispatch him out of the way as a Fact that would make way for the accomplishment of God's gracious Promise to David and the whole Kingdom But David abhors the Motion and crys out God forbid that I should do this thing to my Master the Lord 's anointed to stretch forth mine hand against him And the Reason which restrain'd him was founded on this Fundamental Law of Sovereignty That 't is not to be resisted or controuled by armed Force Seeing he is saith he the Lord 's anointed 1 Sam. 24.4 5 6. c. And so when Abishai would have smote Saul he forbad it for the same Reason 1 Sam. 26.8 9. Abishai said to David when they found Saul sleeping within a Trench God hath delivered thine Enemy into thy hand this day now therefore let me smite him I pray thee with the Spear even to the Earth at once I will not smite him the second time and David said to Abishai destroy him not for who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord's anointed and be innocent or guiltless q.d. He is our King and hath from the Lord a Noli me tangere on him and the Hand of Violence cannot be laid on without Sin and a fearful Expectation of divine Vengeance Which Words did not proceed from cowardly Fears or ignorant Scrupolity but from Conscience of Obedience to God and clear Motives of Duty to the King For David was a Man of invincible Courage and being a Prophet could not but be well instructed in his Duty and 't is said of him that he was not only wiser than his Enemies but also wiser than all his Teachers Psal 119.98 99. and wiser than all the Servants of Saul 1 Sam. 18.30 And 't is highly probable that he Penn'd about the same time the 54th and 57th Psalm as the Titles of them intimate and consequently that he was directed in what he did by the special Conduct of God's Holy Spirit and well understood both his Duty and Interest and if you consult the 23d and 24th Verses of this Chapter you shall find that he made very comfortable Conclusions from his Loyal Deportment in the Case The Lord said he render to every Man his Righteousness and his Faithfulness for the Lord delivered thee into mine hand to day but I would not stretch forth mine hand against the Lord's anointed and behold as thy life was much set by this day in mine eyes so let my life be much set by in the Eyes of the Lord and let him deliver me out of all Tribulation And his commanding Death to be executed on the Amalckite which slew Saul though Saul was mortally wounded before and 't was done at his own request to save him from further Torture and Disgrace and to preserve the Regalia is a further Evidence that David thought it an unlawful thing to assault his King with armed Force and his question to the Amalekite manifestly implies it How wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the Lord's anointed 2 Sam. 1.14 15. Sect. 31. But perhaps you may think That the very Ceremony of Anointing being done by God's special Command was that which bound up David's Hands and priviledg'd Saul from violent Resistance and Coercion because this is every where mentioned as the moving Cause of David's restraint from defensive and offensive Resistance 'T is manifest That the Priests as well as Saul were Anointed by God's Command and yet that did not exempt from being accountable for their Actions and free them from the Danger of coercive Force and Punishment It was not therefore barely the Ceremony of Anointing but the Sovereign Authority thereby signified which priviledg'd him from Resistance His Anointing was no addition to his Power but only signified God's Designation Constitution and Approbation of his Power 'T was the Nature of his Regal Dignity and Power and not the manner of collating or conferring it which exempted from coercion and correction 'T is the Essence and not the Ceremonies of Things which constitutes and denominates them For Ceremonies are things extrinsecal both to Being and Operation And although Saul and David who were the first of their respective Families that were invested with Regal Dignity were anointed yet such as succeeded by Inheritance to the Kingdom as Jehosaphat Hezekiah Josiah were not anointed and yet had as much Authority as their Predecessors and as great Priviledges Sect. 32. Those Arguments which are ordinarily drawn from the Armed Men which were with David and over which he was Captain 1 Sam. 22.2 and Ch. 23.13 which are called Helpers of the War 2 Chr. 12.1 And from his residing at Keilah a place fit to be garrison'd 1 Sam. 23.7 8 9 10 11. to prove that 't was lawful for David to resist Saul with armed Force are nothing to the purpose for David being Son-in-Law to a King expectant of the Crown in which he was like to meet with Opposition subject to private Assaults and needing good Intelligence to prevent a Surprise from Saul and his public Enemies 't was highly expedient that he should have a considerable Retinue about him to be as a Life-guard to him and to be in a readiness to serve him whensoever God by his Providence should call him to succeed in the Throne neither doth the Peoples Rescue of Jonathan from the Death his Father threatned to inflict upon him 1 Sam. 14.44 45. in the the least discover any hostile Violence offer'd to the King much less that they might lawfully assault him with armed Force Their act was an act of Mediation and not of Coercion And a learned Man observes that the Orginal Word translated they rescued him signifies they redeemed him That is Jonathan's Life by Saul's Vow being forfeited to God the People by a general Consent substituted an offering to God for the Vow according to the Law in such a Case Lev. 27.2 and so 〈◊〉 Jonathan from Death not by forcing Saul but by appeaâ—ing Goâ— This was the Case under the Jewish
Constitution which is not chargeable with weakness or wickedness because the Contrivance and Establishment of the most wise and righteous Lord of Heaven and Earth and if God doth not make the best Provision for the Rights Safety and Peace of all Men who willeth the Salvation of them all who will or can Sect. 33. And as it is evident from the instance of Saul that the Abuse of the Regal Power in male-Administration and Tyrannical Usages of the best the most innocent and serviceable Subjects is no forfeiture thereof nor warranty for the Subjects to resist with armed Force and depose their Sovereign so we shall find in the succeeding Generations after the Translation of the Regal Dignity from Saul's to David's Family that how much soever the Regal Power was abused either respectively to Civil or Religious Matters and how much soever God was provoked thereby there was no Tiberty granted or allowed for Resistance or endeavours for a Reformation of corruption in the King or his Officers I shall instance in Solomon and compare his duty with his practice You have the Kings duty described Deut. 17.16 17 18 19. He shall not multiply Horses to himself nor cause the People to return to Egypt to the end that he should multiply Horses forasinuch as the Lord hath said unto you ye shall henceforth return no more that way 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 be sitteth on the Throne of his Kingdom that he shall write him a Copy of his Law in a Book and he shall read therein all the Days of his Life that he learn to fear the Lord his God c. Let us now take a View of Solomons Practice and we shall find that he acted as if he had been under no such restraints and limitations He sent into Egypt for Horses 1 Kings 10.28 He loved strange Women together with the Daughter of Pharoah Women of the Moabites Ammonites Edomites Zidonians Hittites And he had Seven Hundred Wives Princesses and Three Hundred Concubines and his Wives turned away his Heart 1 Kings 11.1 and 2. that is after other Gods v. 4. and seven hundred Wives that were Princesses and three hundred Concubines with their respective Idol Gods could not be supported and maintained in a State of Magnificence at a cheap rate and therefore he made Silver to be in Jerusalem as Stones 1 Kings 10.27 and he had so many Vessels of Gold that their abundance made Gold to be nothing accounted of in his days v. 21. which great Treasure was probably obtained either by heavy exactions from or the great hazards of his Subjects And yet here was no suggestion that there was a justifiable occasion for his Subjects to Rebel and set up another King Indeed God threatned to rend his Kingdom from him because he had not observed the direction of the standing Law of his Kingdom but his Subjects had no Authority to controul or punish him Sect. 34. Yea you shall find that when the Jews were a Conquered People and carried away Captive into Babylon God obliged them to submit to the Sovereign Power thereof Jer. 29.7 seek the Peace of the City whither I have caused you to be carried away Captive for in the Peace thereof ye shall have Peace And in obedience to this command Mordecai discovered the Traitorous Conspiracy of Bigthana and Terish the King's Chamberlains against the King Ahasuerus Esth 2.21 22 23. compt With ch 6.2 and though they were reduced to as great an extremity as ever a People under Heaven were by a Decree obtained by Haman from Ahasuerus to destroy to kill and to cause to perish all Jews both young and old little Children and Women in one day Esth 3.13 and they were a very numerous People and could have made a considerable Defence yet Mordecai durst not think of using armed Force but resolved upon Passive Obedience unless they could obtain a Decree from the King to defend themselves The King's Decree by the Fundamental Constitution of the Medes and Persians was not reversible but must be executed Esth 8.8 Esthers Petition therefore to have the King's Letters devised by Haman to destroy the Jews reversed could not be granted Esth 8.5 but the King grants her a Decree that the Jews which were in every City might gather themselves together and stand for their Life to destroy to slay and to cause to perish all the Power of the People and Province that would assault them Esth 8.11 and being favoured with this liberty of Self-defence the Jews gathered themselves together in their Cities to lay hand on such as sought their hurt and no Man could withstand them for the Fear of them fell upon all the People Esth 9.2 and vers 16. they had rest from their Enemies and slew of their Foes seventy and five thousand And if they who were Captives of War and so well able to defend themselves from the Execution of such an inhuman bloody and undeserved a Decree to destroy them root and branch durst not defend themselves by force of Arms against Regal Power nor those thereby commissioned without liberty and allowance therefrom first granted and obtained what shall we think of those Men by what Spirit are they guided and acted who only from some particular personal or Family-grievances and some public Inconveniences and perhaps Mischiefs betake themselves to armed Force to Resist and Depose their lawful and natural Prince Sect. 35. 2. Having thus proved it utterly unlawful under the Jewish Constitution upon any pretence whatsoever to resist the Higher Powers I shall now likewise as evidently discover the unlawfulness thereof under the Christian Constitution When our Saviour first entered on his Ministerial Office the first Thing he did was to declare the Approach of a New Kingdom and the next to instruct his Disciples That this Kingdom was no Kingdom of this World for 't is said when Jesus began to preach he said Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Mat. 4.17 i. e. By an usual Hebraism an heavenly Kingdom and so called in opposition to earthly Kingdoms implying that this Kingdom which the God of Heaven was by him now setting up and which was never to be destroyed as Daniel had prophesied Ch. 2.44 Was not a Kingdom of this World was not to be founded supported and propagated by the Assumption and Exercise of any Civil temporal Power but was to be introduced and established from the Strength and Power of divine Truth and its own goodness without the help of any Civil Power or worldly Interest being altogether different in its Nature and Constitution and in its design and administration from all earthly and secular Empires Wherefore the Institution and Erection of Christ's Kingdom was no way prejudicial to the Being or Rights of any earthly Kingdom but as the Civil Governments of the World were settled before so they still
continued without any innovation or alteration hereby made Sect. 36. And answerably we find that Christ was so far from challenging to himself an Exemption from Subjection to any in Authority that upon all occasions he readily submitted to them though he were a King yet he was neither Enemy or Rival to any King in the World for his Kingdom and utterly disclaimed all temporal Jurisdictions as unbecoming his designed Kingdom thus when he fed the People by a Miracle and thereby convinced them that he was the Messiah they expected according to the Prediction in Deut. 18.18 they presuming that he was designed to be the Restorer of the Temporal Kingdom and worldly Prosperity to Israel Acts 1.6 projected to make him their King but he foreseeing it immediately withdrew himself from them to prevent their Intendment and to shew them how much he abhorred it John 6.15 and when he was requested to interpose as a Judge to decide and determine a Controversy betwixt two Brethren he protests against it as a Matter foreign to him Luke 12.13 14. and so in the Case of the Woman taken in Adultery and brought before him to be judged by him Joh. 8.3 he plainly declared by his deportment and silence that they attempted to trouble him with impertinent Matters incongruous to the Person he sustained and when the Pharisees and Herodians very ceremoniously addressed themselves to him thinking by the Art of Wheedling to Complement him to resolve an ensnaring Question saying Matt. 22.16 We know that thou art true tell us what thinkest thou Is it lawful to give Tribute unto Casar After they had shewed him their Tribute-mony and told him whose Image and Superscription it had viz. Caesars which was as evident an Argument of the Sovereignty as Legislation or the Execution thereof he makes no inquiry into the Original of Caesar's Dominion or his manner of administring it or what his Prerogatives and Rights were but peremptorily Commands them to render unto Caesar the Things that are Caesars vers 21. Be he who he will and let him govern how he will he must have what of right belongs to him Rom. 13.7 Render unto all their dues Tribute to whom Tribute Custom to whom Custom and agreeably when a Tex was demanded of him as Tribute due to Caesar indeed some very learned Men think it was Tribute-money paid for the Temple Service vide Hammond and if so I conceive it alters not the Case at all though he might have pleaded from the Dignity of his Person as the Son of God an exemption from all obligation to it yet to prevent in the Officers a scandalous Suspicion that he was disaffected to the Rights of the Authority by which it was demanded He obeyed to the Expence of a Miracle Mat. 17.24 25 26 27. and when he was arraigned and tryed for his Life in the Judgment-Hall before Pontius Pilate he did not only own his Authority but chearfully submitted to his bloody and unrighteous Sentence So that he did at no time upon any provocation whatsoever discover that he had any Commission to change the Constitution of any Civil Government whatsoever or abridge the Rights thereof or set it new Measures of Administration and unsettle it in any of its just Claims and Prerogatives Sect. 37. Indeed as soon as he entered on his Mediatory Office he had by the Donation and Deligation of God the Father an absolute Supremacy and general authoritative Power over all Powers in Heaven and Earth Mar. 11.27 Joh. 3.35 and 5.22 27. Joh. 13.3 and 17.2 though he had not the plenary Possession and Execution of it till after his Resurrection and Ascension Mat. 28.18 Phil. 2.9 10 11. Eph. 1.20 21 22. Psal 3.8 Rev. 11.15 1 Pet. 3.22 Heb. 2.5 6 7 8. Col. 2.10 and which he possesseth and exerciseth with a special respect to subserve the Protection and Salvation of his Church Eph. 1.22 and not to alter the Fundamental Constitution or to abridge and limit the Civil Rights of any Kingdom or State in the World and that special internal and proper Power which he partakes of and exerciseth directly and immediately for the gathering constituting and Government of his Church as such and which he deriveth to those who are to exercise an internal and proper governing Power over it as his commissioned Officers is meerly spiritual and all the Laws of it are enforced only with such Sanctions as are of a spiritual Consideration viz. Such Rewards and Punishments as refer to the Conscience and are apt to govern Mens Souls without laying any restraint on their Bodies or Mulcts on their Estates and therefore can no way interfere with or entrench on the Rights and Prerogatives of a Civil Government Sect. 37. And that discourse which passed betwixt the Lord Jesus and Pontius Pilate when he was arraigned and examined before him is a full evidence that his Kingdom is of a spiritual Nature and to be supported by agreeable means and not to be propugned and defended by the force of Arms you have a large Narrative of it Joh. 18.34 35 36 37. Pilate said to Jesus art thou the King of the Jews vers 33. to which question Christ doth not answer directly but yet makes such an answer as was a sufficient Ground for Pilate to infer that he was a King vers 37. Pilate therefore said to him art thou a King then to which Jesus answered thou sayest that I am a King i. e. thou concludest a right that I am a King I freely acknowledge it and have a Kingdom under my Power wherein my Subjects are to acknowledge my Sovereign Authority to obey my Laws and to depend upon me for Protection and Defence but yet the Potentates of the World had no reason to entertain any jealous Fears least he design to undermine and dissolve or to alter abridge limit or disturb any of the ancient Rights and Customs of their Dominions and Royalties for said he My Kingdom is not of this World vers 36. q.d. my Kingdom hath not such an Original and subsistence as worldly Monarchies have doth not come with Observation as he elsewhere said Luk. 17.19 hath not the Pomp and Splendor of a solemn Court attending it doth not partake of any Civil Authority and Power nor pretend to any Right to vindicate and justify it self by force of Arms but 't is altogether managed in a spiritual Way and protected with spiritual Weapons 2 Cor. 10.4 with the Armor of God and not of Man Eph. 6.11 and therefore Pilate need not fear that his pretensions to a Kingdom would endanger the quiet of the Roman State and Government And for this Christ gives Pilate a very satisfying Reason If my Kingdom saith he were of this World then would my Servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews but now is my Kingdom not from hence q. d. my Servants stand so well affected toward me and my Kingdom that if they did pretend a Right to the Power of the
the King 1 Pet. 2.17 Fear God Honour the King Where the Fear of God is lain as the Foundation of a Mans actings towards the King Honour to the King will be the Superstructure Piety necessarily disposeth to Loyalty because our obligations to God comprehend our obligations to the King and the prime Perswasive Motives to discharge our Duty to the King are inferr'd from the Duty we owe to God Hence we are required to submit to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake whether it be to the King as Supream or unto Governors as to those that are sent by him why For so is the Will of God 1 Pet. 2.13 14. and so in the Place before quoted v. 7. of this ch we must be subject for conscience sake Wherefore the most visible and immediate Evidence we can possibly give for our fearing of God is that we Honour the King And for my part I cannot but fear That they who do not obey the King who is a visible God that they do not heartily obey God who is an invisible King For he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen 1 Joh. 4.20 Sect. 49. Those whom God haith raised into a Communion with himself in the Eminency of his Authority and Power and are exercised in high Employments under him they are to be raised high in our Estimations of them and are to be held in great reputation for God's sake but how can we value them highly whom we violently oppose As he honours his Father and Mother who submits to their Government so he dishonours them who resists and rejects it He that did but uncover his Fathers nakedness which exposed him to contempt and scorn though he did not try Masteries with him was cursed Gen. 9.25 and Solomon tells us that the Eye that mocketh at his Father and disdaineth to obey his Mother the Ravens of the Valley shall pick it out and the young Eagles shall eat it Pr. 30.17 that is they shall come to an untimely death and be denied Burial as Traitors to the Paternal Government of our Country are and thereby exposed to be devoured by ravenous Birds And the Stubborn and Rebellious Son which would not obey the Voice of his Father and Mother tho' he did not Assault them with Force of Arms endeavour to thrust them out of doors or to subject them to his disorderly passions yet he was to be condemned by the Elders and stoned to Death Deut. 21.21 and can you believe that he is less faulty that dishonours and disobeys his civil Parents who are the nursing Fathers of his Country than he which dishonours and disobeys his natural Parents Whatsoever is essential to the Paternal Power belongs to the Regal and whatsoever Authority is in a dispersed manner found amongst any sort of inferiour and subordinate Rulers is cumulatively and in much larger proportions seated in the King and if lesser Governours are to be honoured with reverend esteem and submiss obedience than à Fortiori they that partake of Regal and Sovereign Dignity are not to be dispised and resisted Sect. 50. Yea God is so far from allowing us Liberty of using Force of Arms and doing Evil to the Ruler of our People that he forbids us to speak evil of him Exod. 22.28 Acts 23.5 and if we must hold our Tongues from Violence I 'm sure we must hold our Hands from Violence against him I take this to be an unanswerable Argument for Non-resistance for if it be unlawful to dishonour and affront the King with words 't is much more so to do it with blows When St. Jude characterizeth some of the worst Men and vilest Hereticks of that Age he describes them by this infallible Mark of infamous Criminals That they despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities v. 8. Yet further God doth not only restrain from doing and speaking evil but also from thinking evil of the King Eccl. 10.20 Curse not the King no not in thy thought If we must not curse him we must not curb him if we must not wish him any harm we must not destroy him And 't is a received Rule for the Interpretation of all Scripture Prohibitions of sin That when any sin is expresly forbidden the contrary Duty is implicitely commanded When therefore we are forbid to speak evil of the King we are commanded to speak honourably of him And when we are forbid to curse him we are commanded to bless him That is to acknowledge his Excellency magnifying him as worth ten thousand of us 2 Sam. 18.3 pray for his welfare crying out God save the King 1 Sam. 10.24 2 Sam. 16.16 2 Kings 11.12 2 Chron. 23.11 and to minister to him in all Offices of well-doing for him to the utmost of our Power saying with Mephibosheth Let them take all that the King may be at his House in Peace 2 Sam. 19.30 and answerably we are commanded not to meddle with them that are given to change Pro. 24.21 that is with seditious spirited Men who affect to make innovations in Matters of Government to the Disturbance of the King's Peace And if we must not break the King's Peace I 'm sure we must not break his Head much less his Heart and destroy him quite out of the Way by Insurrections and Rebellions upon any Pretence whatsoever Sect. 51. 3. Because such a Resistance is directly contrary to that peaceable mindedness which the Christian Religion requires from all that embrace and profess it The Wisdom that is from above is peaceable as well as pure Jam. 3.17 the Christian Religion which maketh wise unto salvation makes all that partake of it lovers of peace and haters of contention and strictly and strongly obligeth them to pursue the one and shun the other It commands us to study to be quiet 1 Thes 4.11 to follow Peace with all Men Heb. 12.14 and if it be possible and as much as in us lyeth to live peaceably with all Men Rom. 12.18 to pray that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives 1 Tim. 2.2 if there are therefore any busie-bodies amongst us Religion doth not employ them if there be Controversies Schisms and Rebellions amongst us Religion doth not raise or grant indulgences to them if there be contentions and warrings Religion doth not blow the Trumpet or beat up the Drum foment and encourage them but engageth all its Powers to set up as a Bulwork against them a quite contrary disposition to them and where they prevail they destroy all those affections and lusts which incline and irritate to wars and fightings Gal. 5.19 to 25. and will allow nothing to be done through strife and vain glory Phil. 2.3 yea further the Christian Religion is so far from countenancing a violent Resistance of injurious Superiours that it forbids a vindictive Resistance of equals Mat. 5.38 ye have heard saith our Saviour that it hath been said an Eye for an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth
but I say unto you that ye resist not evil that is in the Apostles words that ye render not evil for evil 1 Thes 5.15 but whosoever soever shall smite thee on the right Cheek turn to him the other also the Mosaical Religion was so rigorous that it did admit a Retaliation And the Jewish Doctors affirmed that a Private Man might revenge himself provided his revenge taken were but equally proportioned to the Injury received But the Evangelical Dispensation condemneth this severity and softens all that submit to it into such meekness gentleness patience and forbearance that they readily prefer a quiet Submission to an Injury before a passionate Execution of Revenge and will take two blows rather than retaliate one suffer the greatest wrong rather than do the least part with their Clokes as well as their Coats remit their Rights rather than use their Liberty as a cloke of Maliciousness to implead before the Magistrate and if they are compelled to go a Mile beyond their proportion and legal share they will go two rather than contend and resist yea they will go as far as the Shoes of the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace can carry them Mat. 5.39 40 41. and the contrary Practice of the froward and litigious Corinthians was smartly reprehended by the Apostle 1 Cor. 6.5 6 7. there is utterly a Fault among you because ye go to Law one with another why do ye not rather take wrong Why do ye not rather suffer your selves to be defrauded And he tells them that he spake this to their shame And good reason they had to be asham'd of it for wrathful malicious and revengeful Prosecutions are most directly contrary to the Spirit Scope and Design of Christianity which consists in self-denial taking up of the Cross patience meekness mutual forbearance loving our Enemies blessing them that curse us doing good to them that hate us praying for them that despitefully use us forgiving trespasses against us and overcoming evil with good And as we are to agree with our Adversaries and forgive them so we are to do all we can to bring others to the same temper and communion with us in this case and therefore the Peace-makers as well as the meek and peaceable are blessed Mat. 5.9 blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the Children of God and if Peace-makers are blesled then Peace-breakers are cursed and if Peace-makers shall be mentioned as the Children and Imitators of God then Peace-breakers shall be mentioned as the Children and Imitators of the Devil Sect. 52. These things duly considered I conceive it may be warrantably concluded that 't is unlawful for Subjects in any case whatsoever to resist the Sovereign Power with armed Force How so If they ought not to be overcome of evil must not be prevailingly provoked by the injurious deportments of Private Persons like themselves to avenge themselves but must refer the Work of Vengeance to God and his Vice-gerents to whom it alone belongs then certainly they cannot be allowed to avenge themselves on their Rulers who are Public Persons and only have the Sovereign Right to the Sword of vindictive Justice Where a lesser Power is forbidden a greater cannot be allowed he that hath not Liberty to Assault his Brother cannot have a Commission to beat his Father or Rebel against his Prince he that must not usurp the Sovereign Power against an equal or an inferiour must not usurp it to turn it against the Sovereign himself If this were allowed Sovereign Powers would be the most despicable Subjects in the World they would be exposed to those revenges from which all the rest of Mankind are exempted The Apostle tells us Jam. 1.20 that the wrath of Man worketh not the righteousness of God that is under what disguises soever the vindictive Wrath of Man appeareth it never executeth any part of Justice which God requireth or approveth but worketh all manner of evil For where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work Jam. 3.16 for he loveth transgression that loveth strife Pro. 17.19 and he will surely do what he loveth to do Sect. 53. 4. Because such a Resistance is utterly destructive to that Passive Obedience Chistianity exacts from us to the higher Powers 'T is evident that we owe Passive as well as Active Obedience to the higher Powers Where there is a Sovereign Power there is a Power of Life and Death and the Subjects are equally obliged to submit to it in both respects When God gave Nebuchadnezzar a Kingdom and Majesty for the Majesty that he gave him all People trembled and feared before him Whom he would he slew and whom he would he kept alive and whom he would he set up and whom he would he pulled down Dan. 5.18 19. and all Sovereign Princes and States in the World partake of the like Authority and Power and their Subjects ought to own and submit themselves thereunto Fear being the most Commodious Instrument of Civil Government the Observation of Human Laws is ordinarily enforced with greater or lesser Penalties as best subserve their several Ends and Uses If therefore the directive Part of the Law be violated the Penal is to be executed on the Transgressor And it sometimes happens that Rulers which ought to be a terrour to Evil Works are on the contrary a terrour to Good Works For by enacting Laws contrary to the Law of God they repute those Traitors to their King who are Loyal to their God and condemn the Just whom God justifieth and having as much Power to punish the violation of Laws as to enact them their Subjects are bound to submit thereunto without Resistance And though this be an abuse of their Power and they have no warranty from God for it yet 't is their own Power they abuse and their Subjects must suffer it and can pretend to no right by armed Force to resist and redress it because there cannot be a lawful Superiour Power to that which is Supream Now in such a Case when we durst not yield and perform an active Obedience in doing what is commanded because such a Submission to Man is a Rebellion against God we must yield and perform a Passive Obedience in submitting patiently and quietly to the punishment inflicted because such a Submission to Man is a Resignation of our selves to God and a partaking with Jesus Christ as our Fore-runner in his sufferings which the Apostle expresly calls suffering as a Christian 1 Pet. 4.16 Sect. 54. If any Man suffer as a Murtherer or a Thief or as an evil-doer or as a busie-body in other Mens Matters he suffers for that which the Magistrate is bound to punish and what glory is it if when ye are buffeted for your faults ye take it patiently Alas there is nothing Heroically great and singular in such a kind of suffering nothing peculiar to the Spirit of a Christian nothing of special reference to an imitation of the innocent Jesus in the
Ground and manner of his sufferings who from a Principle of self-denial took up his Cross and meerly from a Conscientious Submission to the appointment of his Father gave himself into the Hands of the higher Powers to be dealt withal as they pleased When a Man suffers no more than what he deserves and common Justice requires there is nothing of commendation or gloriation in it but if when ye do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God And this is thank-worthy if a Man for Conscience towards God endure grief suffering wrongfully 1 Pet. 2.19 20. and ch 4.15 he suffers only as a Christian who suffers wrongfully for well-doing and then follows Christ's steps in conforming to the Manner of his sufferings when his sufferings are a probation to his patience but no provocation to his revenge will not defend himself from an unjust punishment by an undutiful Resistance Sect. 55. 'T is to be considered by every Christian That Jesus Christ was sent into the World and dwelt amongst us to be the Example of our Religion as well as the Teacher of it And there is such an exact concordance betwixt his Doctrine and Practice that the latter is a Practical Demonstration of God's determinate and unchangeable Method of dispensing eternal life and glory to the Children of Men. As Christ was brought to glory so must they and no otherwise Rom. 8.29 30. for whom he God did fore-know fore-approved and fore-acknowledged for his he also did predestinate fore-appointed according to the Purport of the Gospel to be conformed to the Image of his Son that he might be the first Born amongst many Brethren Moreover whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified In which Words is represented the Method Order and Degrees of God's Decrees Dispensations and Transactions for the Effecting of our Salvation according to the Terms of the Gospel and they shew the inviolable connexion betwixt God's acceptance of us as objects of his special love and our conformity unto Christ and that according to the immutable ordination of God whosoever answers the Call of the Gospel and obtains justification and glorification according to the Purport and Tenour of it he must resemble Christ in his doings and sufferings And this is likewise the express Doctrine of Christ himself Mat. 16.24 If any Man will come after me let him take up his Cross and follow me No wearing of a Crown with him but by bearing his Cross after him Luke 26.16 ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter so and upon such Terms into his glory And our way of enterance thereinto is the same Luke 22.29 therefore I appoint unto you a Kingdom after the same manner and upon the same Terms as my Father hath appointed unto me And is it not enough for the Disciple to be as his Master and for the Servant as his Lord Mat. 10.15 can we reasonably expect greater honours exemptions and priviledges than our Lord and Master had And may we not be well enough contented to be allowed admittance into the Kingdom of Heaven the same way with him This is the Evangelical stated way of Salvation and to a Conformity hereunto are all Christians called because Christ also suffered for them leaving them an example that they should follow his steps 1 Pet. 2.21 who when he was oppressed and afflicted opened not his Mouth when he was reviled reviled not again but was brought as a Lamb to the Slaughter and as a Sheep before her Sharers is dumb so open'd he not his Mouth Isa 53.7 Acts. 8.32 1 Pet. 21.23 and as he restrained himself from evil words as well as blows against the higher Powers so must we and however Tyrannically the higher Powers abuse their Office and Authority acknowledge with him that their Power is given them from above Joh. 19.11 and submit thereunto without Resistance as to the Appointment of God saying with him the Cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it Joh. 18.11 Who calleth the most harmless Christians sometimes thus to suffer for well doing from the higher Powers but never to a violent Resistance of them Sect. 56. You cannot but well know and I would also have you to consider well the Case of Shadrach Meshach Abednego and Daniel who when they were prohibited to pray to the living God and commanded to Worship dead Idols by the Heathenish Persecutors of God's Church though they utterly refused to yield an Active Obedience to their commands yet they yielded a Passive Obedience to their Sovereign Powers without repining reviling or opposing yea they prayed for them and blessed them Dan. 6.21 Which is an Argument that they did not believe that any persecutions injurious usages or oppressions from the Sovereign Powers could exempt or discharge them from subjection to them and warrant a destructive Resistance of them and though their sufferings were in their Circumstances unavoidable and they really wanted sufficient Strength to redress and help themselves against the overpowering Force of their Persecutors and Oppressors yet the manner of their submission thereunto plainly declared that they accounted themselves as appointed and called of God by a suffering Condition to bear witness to his Truth and to demonstrate to the World that suffering was better and more eligible than sining and to give a Proof that they did not believe that God did authorize and allow any of his Servants to threaten reproach revile or resist their Rulers how hardly injuriously and cruelly soever they are treated by them but requires them to reverence their Persons acknowledge their Authority and patiently to submit to their Power when 't is exercised to the utmost Evil to them Sect. 57. And this Gospel-Call to a quiet and patient Submission to the injurious infliction of punishment from the Higher Powers is was and ever will be a Vindication of the Christian Religion from the false and scandalous Imputations charged on it by its Enemies and Persecutors who do did and will reproach it as an Engine contrived and designed for the Disturbance and Subversion of Civil Empires and Dominions Both Jews and Gentiles traduced Jesus Christ as no Friend to Caesar represented his Doctrine as dangerous to the State Joh 19.12 and reputed the Gathering of Churches the Dissolution of Kingdoms or in their own Words a turning of the World upside down Acts 17.6 That is an inversion of Order a pulling down of Rulers and the setting up of Subjects in their room which Stratagem was and may be marvellously successful to bring the Christian Religion into disgrace with the Civil Powers who are ever very watchful to endeavour to their utmost to reject and suppress all those Doctrines which they suspect to be prejudicial and destructive to their Authority and Government and how can this slanderous Imputation to the Christian Religion be more effectually confuted than by
Power in pulling down and setting up whom he pleaseth are we authorized to pull down our Superiors and to set up our selves because Christ hath redeemed us and made us Free-men of his spiritual Kingdom doth this warrant us to make our selves the Lords and Masters of the World because we must not subject our selves to serve Mens Lusts and Vices must we not therefore submit our selves to their legal Authority and Power because a State of civil Freedom is more eligible than a State of Bondage 't is better to be at our own disposal and liberty than to be in servitude and confined to the Will of another are we therefore to effect and endeavour to be above the Check and Controulment of the Sovereign Powers cannot Men be Masters of themselves but they must be Masters of their Superiors too 't is remarkable how very differently sincere and hypocritical Christians argue from the Principle under Consideration because 't is said That Christians are made free by Christ Joh. 8.36 and therefore every Christian Servant is the Lord's Free-man 1 Cor. 7.22 therefore some hypocritical Christians conclude themselves licensed to cast off all Subjection and Obedience to Magistrates and Masters and to live as discharged from all Conscience of Duty to them though by their present Circumstances constrained and necessitated externally to perform it but on the contrary part sincere Christians obey Governours as free but as servants of the Lord 1 Pet. 2.16 Serve the Lord in obeying their Governours submit themselves the one for Conscience sake to the other the highest Engagement and strongest Bond of Obedience that can be Sect. 61. I appeal to all considering Men if it be reasonable to believe that since Jesus Christ came not into the World to destroy the Law but to fulfill it Mat. 5.17 That is not to evacuate or relax any moral Duty but by his Doctrine and Example to fill up and re-inforce the Authority and obliging Power thereof and to commend his quiet and patient Submission to the injurious Affronts and destructive Violence of the Higher Powers as a Pattern for us to conform unto and imitate 1 Pet. 2.21 I say this considered is it credible that he hath cancelled the Obligation of any moral Duty by his death to his Followers and discharged them from Non-Resistance of the Higher Powers when they are too strong for them Sect. 62. But since 't is generally confessed that the moral Law is of universal and immutable Obligation of which the fifth Commandement is a Part and expresly requires us to Honour our Governours as all will acknowledge how comes it to pass that the Duty of this Commandement should be released or relaxed rather than of any other Is not the Observation of this Commandement of as much account with God as the Observation of the rest Is not the Honour of God and the Safety of human Societies as much concern'd in the keeping of it now as formerly why then should Christians be more limited in the Terms of their Subjection to the Higher Powers and less restrained from resisting them than the Jewish Nation when 't was govern'd by Rulers of God's own immediate Appointment The Authority Necessity Ends and Reasons of it are still the same and how comes it to pass that the Nature Grounds and Reasons of Subjection and Obedience are alter'd and the Pretenders to the Management of the Scepter of Christ must command and dispose that of the King If Conscience as God's Vicegerent must not be forced so neither must the King who represents as my Lord Coke tells us God's own Person Why should not God's Ordinance be as irresistible in the one as in the other the one hath as great a Supremacy over us without us as the other within us Sect. 63. Moreover if we are to be guided and governed by the positive Laws and Constitutions of our own Country as proper Rules and Measures to determine and limit our Allegiance and Obedience then 't is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King and we are to abhor that Traitorous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are commissionated by him as 't is Stat. 14. Ch. 2. And since saith Grotius on Mat. 26.52 there is no Man that doth not favour himself if it be once admitted that private Men being injuriously dealt withall by the Magistrate may repel force with force all places will be full of Tumults the Authority of Laws and Judicatures will be null and void And in his Votum pro pace ad Art 16. He affirms that Subjects ought by no means to resist their King or Prince by force or ought they to take either offensive or defensive Arms against their King or Prince for the Cause of Religion or for any other cause whatsoever and further affirms that no Government can be any longer safe than whilest those who have such Sentiments want strength And how Men that are for resisting the Higher Powers can expect to be owned as Friends to Government and presume on any Trust or Favour from the Administrators thereof I cannot imagine I shall conclude this with the Affirmation of the Church of England in her fourth part of her Homily against willful Rebellion God alloweth neither the Dignity of any Person nor the Multitude of any People nor the Weight of any Cause as sufficient for the which Subjects may move Rebellion against their Princes Sect. 64. I am not altogether ignorant of the Reasonings of some discontented and interested Men to plead for the lawfulness of resisting the Higher Powers with armed Force in some cases and perhaps it may be expected that I should engage my self in the solemn Examination and Confutation of them But having proved from divine Revelation that God hath forbidden it I may warrantably say to every such Reasoner as the Apostle in another case alike depending on the Sovereign Authority of God Rom. 9.20 Nay but Oh Man who art thou that repliest against God Shall not God govern the World as he pleaseth hath he not an absolute and unaccountable Power to impart after what manner and measure he judgeth fit his own Sovereign Authority and Power to his Vicegerents and if God do not limit and restrain the Extent of their Authority and Power who shall we frequently find Jesus Christ and his Apostles endeavouring to impress on Mens Consciences a quick Sense of their Obligations to yield Subjection and Obedience to the Higher Powers but never determining or limiting the manner of obtaining their Titles or the Righteousness of their Prerogatives and Rights or their way of administring and executing them which I take to be a plain Intimation that the Welfare of Mankind and the Safety of all Societies depends on the dutiful and peaceable Deportment of the governed part thereof and that Subjects are principally concerned Conscientiousness to attend their own Duties and to leave the Menageries of the governing part of that
Community to which they belong to the over-ruling Providence of God to whose Superintendency and Controulment they are only obnoxious However that you may be assured that I do not think their Arguments unanswerable I shall with all faithfulness to the best of my skill propound them and then confute them Sect. 65. 'T is objected That all Men being equal by Nature every Man is born free and exempted from Subordination Wherefore Civil Society and Government must proceed only from a Compromise or Contract by which Governours and Governed stand mutually obliged to each other according as it is provided by their Agreement or Contract and consequently the Subjects Liberty is no further restrained than was limited by the Contract and if it be questioned how far the Prerogative and Power of the Ruling part extends that must be proved but Liberty will prove it self and if the Higher Powers fail in Faithfulness and Justice on their parts the Contract is violated and null and the Subjects are absolved from their Allegiance and may resist and depose them Answ Although what hath been occasionally already said concerning the Original of the Authority and Power of Sovereign Princes be a sufficient Amulet against and confutation of this Objection yet because it is a very popular One and therefore in great reputation with too many amongst us I will endeavour in divers particulars to evince the Vanity and Weakness of it Sect. 66. 1. This Objection presumes Mankind in a State of meer Nature which is a meer Figment Had all the People in the World their Beings and Existences immediately from God by Creation these Men would in appearance have some warrant to affirm that all Men are equal by Nature and free from a Subordination to each other but since all the People except Adam and Eve naturally descend from Parents and so depend on them respectively to their Generation and Preservation it is so far from being certain that every Man is born free i. e. exempted from a Condition of Subjection to a Superior that 't is most certain no Man ever was or can be so free-born because every Man as born of a Woman is naturally under the paternal Dominion and if the fifth Commandment be not a moral Law and a prime Dictate of Nature I know not what Law is so Although Eve had not as great a Dependance on Adam for her Being and Existence as Children have on their natural Parents there being an immediate and supernatural Interposure of the divine Power to her production yet the Apostle argues the Reasonableness of the Womans Subordination from thence and the Order and End of her Creation 1 Cor. 17.7 8 9. an essential equality therefore doth not infer antecedently to all Contracts and superinduced legal Provisions an exemption from Subordination 'T is true a Woman now becomes a Man's Wife by her own Consent yet her Subjection to her Husband is from the divine Ordination and the Law of her Creation and that is to be the formal Reason and Motive of her Obedience Eph. 5.22 as soon as there was more than one Person in the World it was God's express Ordinance that there should be a Subordination Gen. 3.16 And certainly Adam's Dominion over his Children had the same Sanction with that over his Wife and as every Man now hath the same Dominion Adam originally had over his Wife as the Apostle proves 1 Cor. 14.34 Eph. 5.22 23. so every Man hath the same Dominion over his Children Adam originally had the same Right and Reason of Dominion being derived to his Posterity And such is the Propriety of Parents in their Children and Dominion over them that they could with God's Approbation as well as political Constitution sell and transfer them into the Possession and under the Dominion of others Exod. 21.7 Neh. 5.2 and 8. beside this Sect. 67. 'T is very evident That a Subordination among Men is from the Dictate of Nature and not meerly from the Arbitrary pacts of Men for what more natural to us than to incline unto and endeavour our own safety quiet and comfort and what means more absolutely necessary to obtain it than a friendly and peaceable Society and converse with our Neighbours and what more indispensably necessary to render Society and Converse friendly and peaceable sweet and comfortable safe and happy than Order and Government and therefore it must be natural and reasonable for every Man to submit himself to Order and Government as his Duty and Interest for though Nature do not dictate and determine who individually except in the Cases of the paternal and marital Dominion shall be actually invested with and exercise Sovereign Authority in a Society or Community yet it obligeth to a Subordination as having the most natural and proper Tendency to secure the Welfare of Mankind and to establish every Community in Safety and Happiness and to procure and mantain among Men mutual Benevolence and Confidence they cannot by nature be free and at liberty whether they will be subject to Government or not who are by nature inclined to Society and obliged to maintain the Ends of Government mutual Defence and Preservation Order and Peace Sect. 68. 2. Adam by divine Sanction being invested with Dominion over his Children this by divine prescription was continued in actual exercise not only Oeconomically but politically in the Fatherhood of his posterity to the Flood and from thence to the Confusion of Language at Babel and when Noah's Posterity was scattered abroad upon the face of all the Earth and the Encrease of particular Families was so numerous that they enlarged and spread into whole Nations so that partly by the Confusion of Languages and partly by their own carelesness and partly from the just Judgment of God it was not discoverable where the original and principal Right of paternal Dominion was lodged God by his gracious Providence so order'd it that the Paternal Government was transferr'd into Regal we no were find the least Intimation in the Scriptures that the People either diffusively collectively or representatively taken were any way concerned in the transferring or conveyance of governing Power or that they had or made any pretension of a Right to it and if it be not utterly incredible yet it cannot but be somewhat wonderful that every Man being born to an equal freedom from Subjection and nothing could be made a Property to any Person without every Man's Consent that Government should be established in all Parts of the World as we find it was and no representation made of the concurrent Consent of the People to it if they were the only Original Founders and Erecters of it Sect. 69. I would have these Men who so earnestly contend that all governing Power is originally equal in all and alike derived from the Consent of the whole People to consider if this be not a direct way to bring Confusion all the World over for by the Law of Nature the habitable World is not
distinguished into several Communities and canton'd into Kingdoms or Commonwealths but every Man bath indifferently a Right to one part of the World as well as to another and is no more determined to this Kingdom or Community than to that and consequently there can be no Government but by Usurpation in no part of the World without every Man's Consent that is in the World one Man cannot alienate and surrender anothers Right without his Consent Where every Man is equally free if every Man do not equally concur to the Limitation or Resignation of it the Freedom of particulars without Usurpation will still remain entire So that the Iâ—â—â—bitants of England France Spain c. have no more right to determine of Governours Proprieties and Liberties of their respective Countries than the Inhabitants of the East or West-Indies have because by the Law of Nature they have an equal Right unto and Freedom in these Countries But suppose that the Inhabitants of particular Countries have sufficient Power to chuse and establish what Government amongst them they please yet this Principle supposed that all are equal by Nature and every Man is free born it will follow that as the Inhabitants of any Country are changed so there will be likewise answerably a Right and Power to change and alter the Governours and Government thereof and every hour a Variation being produced by the Births of some and Deaths of others there will be in all Countries in the World especially very populous Ones a Right in many Persons to with hold subjection from the present Higher Powers and to advance others in their room or else to remain Lords and Masters of themselves if it be said that the Choice and Contract of the Ancestry bind their Posterity and Fathers and Masters conclude their respective Families this plainly confutes the Principle contended for because by Nature there is neither Non-age Subjection or Servitude but the whole Race of Mankind hath equal Rights and Liberties Or if it be said that the Major part of the People is virtually the Whole or a considerable part of them meeting with no opposition presume the Whole it falls under the like Exceptions with the former for if these had Authority to conclude the rest they were not their Equals but Superiors and could without their consent limit them in their natural Rights and Freedoms which overthrows these Mens beloved Cause This I hope is a sufficient Discovery of the mischievous Consequences of the aforementioned Principle to the Safety of all settled Governments in the World Sect. 70. 3. Although there are sometimes Agreements and Contracts betwixt Sovereign Princes and their Subjects by which they become mutually obliged to each other and the Subjects have their Rights Proprieties and Priviledges as well as Princes their Prerogatives and Preheminencies and none are more strongly bound to perform their Agreements and Covenants than Sovereign Princes not only from Motives of Piety and Justice but also from Reasons of State because the conscientious and strict Observation of them prevents or eradicates all those jealous Fears which ordinarily arise from their Subjects apprehensions of a Power they have to wrong them creates in them a mighty Esteem and Veneration of them strong and vigorous Affections to them a clear and stedfast Confidence in them and renders them couragious resolute stedfast and chearful in their Adherence and Obedience to them yet the Existence of their Sovereignty depends not on it because that which cannot escheat to a Superior is not forfeitable Vnumquodque dissolvitur eo modo quo contrahitur saith our Law Now as it is God alone which sets up Kings and gives them Kingdoms Dan. 2.21 27. Prov. 8.15 Jer. 27.5 6. So 't is God alone that can dethrone and take Kingdoms from them 1 Sam. 28.18 for as Sovereign Princes judge not for Men but for the Lord 2 Chr. 19.6 so neither can they be judged by Men but by God only and 't is his peculiar to execute Vengeance on them for evil doing Rom. 12.19 and as their Power of Life and Death was only from God so it is God only who gave it to them can take it from them Sect. 71. The Supreme Sovereign Power is a simple undivided Thing and can be but one for as in the natural so in the political Body there must be only one common Principle of action it must be one Sovereign Will guided by one directive Judgment assisted by one Power of the Sword which is invested with all the legislative judicial and executive Authority of every Community or else there can be no certain regular Administration 〈◊〉 Affairs amongst them And consequently as the Sovereignty hath no Superior so it can have no equall A conditional Sovereignty is indeed none at all a conditional King is only the Pageant of a King a meer titular nominal King one in appearance officially a King but divested of the Authority and Power proper to it and the Reason is evident because he is a Subject to a Superior Power and is disposed of at anothers Will and Pleasure and he that is subordinated cannot be supreme who but our Superior can prescribe and impose upon us Conditions and Measures of having holding and exercising governing Power and exauctorate and punish us for Non-observance and Disobedience to them but some Mens Brains are so impregnated with Ideas of Bargains and Contracts that they will have all Authority and Subjection to depend upon them and all the relative Duties of Princes and People to be measured and determined by them as if God and Nature had made no provision for the Safety and Happiness of Mankind without them Sect. 72. 4. That no more Authority and Power is to be claimed and exercised by Soreign Princes than can proved and that the Liberty of the Subject proves it self doth not only imply that all Authority and Power is from mutual Contracts and Agreements but also according to the Judgment of such Men that all Authority and Power is radically and originally in every single Person and therefore I take it to be a most groundless and prodigious Presumption If Power must always be proved but Liberty proves it self the Case of the Sovereign is very lamentable and despicable for how is Power to be proved by what Evidence by the Princes own Testimony or by the Testimony of the Subject I know of no Medium and 't is probable partiallity will be pretended and what is to be done then then Might must be Right and then the Prince must to the Wall Ay but there is another way of proving Power and that is by the Fundamental Charter the Original Magna Charta which was by the mutual Agreement and Contract of Prince and People made and established when the Government was at first formed and constituted But what if the very Being of such a Thing be questioned how will it be proved I am apt to believe the Sovereign Prince of England as well as of other Dominions may
search all the days of their lives and not be able to discover when or where such a Charter ever was in Being but suppose there were such a Charter who shall be the Interpreter of it and judge how far the Power of the Prince extends it self and during the Dispute how shall the Government be administred doth not this in effect authorize the Subjects to do at pleasure what is right in their own eyes for if they demur against the Prince's Power he is to act at his peril But on the other side the Subject stands on a firm Bottom for his Liberty proves it self this is a Self-evident Principle and when the Subjects pretend it the Sovereign Powers durst not contradict and contest it for in this case every Subject if it be not a Contradiction so to speak is a Sovereign because so far as his liberty is not expresly given away it always remains entire The Sovereigns Power is originally from the Subject but the Subjects Liberty originally from himself the Princes Power is derived from the Subjects Will but the Subjects Liberty from his Nature And wo to that Prince who shall violate and usurp on the Laws and Liberties of Nature Sect. 73. But if every Man by Nature equally partake of Sovereignty then no body can be obliged to Subjection for where all are equal there can be no Subordination neither Superiors non Inferiors and is not he a strange Supreme who hath no body under him Moreover if it be so then every Man is born in a State of Anarchy and the God of Order hath sate no bounds to Mankind the relative Duties of Superiors and Inferiors might never have had any foundation in Nature and were only presumptively from Arbitrary Contracts and Agreements limited and determined by the Fifth Commandment and not only every Nation but every City Town Parish Family may chuse what Government seems best to them yea every particular Person may live independently if he will altogether free from the Circumscriptions of all sorts of governed Societies and if any attempt be made to restrain him without his consent he is oppressed in his natural Liberty And is not this Doctrine of a sovereign Tendency to maintain mutual Amity and Peace amongst Men Sect. 74. 5. That Subjects in political Monarchies and under other Sovereign Powers have Rights Immunities and Priviledges as unalienable Properties without their concurrent consent is very manifest but these do not proceed from any Reservations made in a presumed fundamental Constitution composed and ratified by a mutual Compact and Confederacy betwixt the Sovereign and Subjects but from the Sovereign's Condescentious Acts of Grace which having the Establishment and Security of his Laws he cannot invade and violate without Injustice to his Subjects dishonour to himself provocation to God loss of Reputation with his Allies and Confederates abroad and exposing himself as a Person of no Faith 'T is well observed by Fortescue that the Kingdom of England is not meerly Regal or meerly Politick but partly Regal and partly Politick Regnum Angliae ex Bruii comitivâ Trojanorum in Dominium politicum regale prorupit The Kingdom of England out of Brutus his retinue of Trajans brake out into a politick and regal Dominion And elsewhere tells us Rex Angliae principatu nedum regali sed politico suo populo dominatur the King of England governeth his People not only by a Regal but a politick Principality Ch. 9. So that though the King of England in some cases exercise an absolute and arbitrary Power like a despotick Prince as in making War and Peace Summoning Adjourning Proroguing and Dissolving of Parliaments Coinage of Money c. Yet in other cases he exerciseth a bounded and limited Power as in the imposition and repealing of Laws Taxes and Levies of Mony c. and therefore ought in Conscience to regard his Duty as a Politick King as well as his Power as a Despotick King and such hath been the Moderation of the English Government hitherto that it is acknowledged to be the most easy and safe of any in the World These particulars being duly considered I am confident the forementioned Objection is sufficiently answered and no warrant can thence be taken for Subjects to resist with armed Force the Sovereign Powers Sect. 75. 2. Another Objection near of kin to the former though in different words to plead the Cause of Rebellion is this that all Real Majesty being only in the Community all Personal Majesty is transfused or delegated from thence and consequently the Personal Majesty is nothing but a Trust accountable and forfeitable to the Community and therefore if the Administrators of Sovereign Power abuse their Trust they may not only be resisted but deposed Upon this Ground it was that the Rebellious Lords and Commons when King Charles the First sate up his Standard in the Defence of himself and the Government adjudged it a Breach of his Trust and Treason against the State and Kingdom And answerably one of their Advocates tell us That their Generals Commission to seize the King's Person was a strong Capias utlegatum a Judgment passed against him as out of the Protection of the Kingdom and Aid of the Law And in truth granting what they suppose to be true That the King was not the Officer of God but of the Community received his Authority not from God but them and made War against the Kingdom whose Trustee he was and the inference seems to be rational That Power which is derived from the Civil Constitution being in an Hostile manner employed against it or administred to dissolve and destroy it is forfeited and lost and those who were subjected to it absolved from their Allegiance Ans Having represented this Objection in its full Strength to the best Advantage of the Patrons of it I shall endeavour to assoil it and I doubt not but I shall confute it to the satisfaction of every unprejudiced Person Sect. 76. By a Community these Men understand not a Society of Men actually conâ—enting and formed into a public Government but only a Society of Families and Vicinities voluntarily rationally and justly assembling and associating themselves from mutual benevolence in order to the common Good and Safety thereby putting themselves into an immediate capacity of receiving a public Government under some Form or other such as they themselves shall judge most expedient for them Be it now considered that Sect. 77. 1. This pretended Real Majesty in the Community of a Multitude so associated as hath been said must either be the Product of the Law of Nature or of some positive Law of God or of some human Compact or of some other Cause I will reflect briefly on each of these and if neither of them be assignable as the Ground Reason or Cause thereof I shall be so bold asconclude that 't is a Platonical Idea which hath no existence 1. There is no dictate of Nature which ascribes a greater Authority to a
Multitude as such than to one individual Person Authority is no natural or moral property or adjunct of a Multitude as such or as so assembled A Multitude so affociated will partake of a greater Physical Power than a particular Person but not of a greater Moral Power 2. There is no divine Constitution for it If God have by any supernatural Revelation ordained that so it must be let that be evinced and I will be thankful for the Information acknowledge my ignorance and recant my Error Though it be not a Truth in so many words expressed in the sacred Scriptures nor plainly and palpably inferrable from them yeâ— if it be but remotely and secretly insinuated in them and only inferrable and evincible bâ— a close and diligent Engagement and exercise of the Understanding Reason and Judgment I shall with all faithfulness apply my sef unto them for the Discovery thereof 3. There is no human compact either express or implicite that can produce it The Men leavened with this Principle laying great stress on Human Contracts and Agreements in all probability will assign compact as the Ground or Cause of this pretended real Majesty Now I think it is a very reasonable Request to desire them to inform us what that compact is which produceth and constituteth this real Majesty Or when the Multitude so associated did agree and contract that collectively considered they should be the primary Subject of real Majesty or Sovereign Authority 1. It could not before their association for antecedently to that they were in a state of dispersion and could make no Confederacy 2. This compact could not be made meerly by their association for their association in its self was not a compact but a preparative disposition to it 3. Neither could this compact be made after their association for if it were so then either before they actually formed themselves into a Governed Society or else afterwards 1. Not before they were actually formed into a Governed Society because they who have no Governing Authority themselves cannot delegate Governing Authority to others nor impose Laws and punish the Violation of them as the Objection supposeth the Community can do 2. Not after they are actually formed into a Governed Society because that essentially supposeth Subordination and consequently as such cannot be that Community which is the Subject of the real Majesty pretended unto in the Objection for liberty of Persons and equality of Members are two inseperable adjuncts of that Community as the Patrons of this Objection affirm In every Governed Society as such there is Pars regens Pars subdita and 't is utterly incompetible with the Notion of a Governed Society to conceive thereof abstractively from a subjected Part and compounded only of Rulers Which things premised considered I shall conclude that the real Majesty of a Community so termed in contradistinction to the Personal Majesty of the Ruling Part is a meer Figment of some sick brained Pretenders to the Politicks For 4. There can be no other cause assignable of a real Majesty than those above mentioned and therefore I believe 't is a meer Figment Sect. 78. 2. This Hypothesis under consideration is not only irrational but contradictious to its self for it presumes that the real Majesty of the Community is an incommunicable property or right thereof and yet that it is by paction and conditional donation transferred and delegated to some Member or Members thereof and so constituted a Personal Majesty The real Majesty of the Community which is the effential Majesty by a pactional Charter being transfused and derived to an individual Member or some Members of the Community exists a Personal Majesty which with what depends upon it in the Objection is evidently contradictious to its self For the real Majesty of the Community must be incommunicable and still remain entire or else the Personal Majesty cannot be subordinated to it as an accountable and forfeitable Trust as these Men tell us it is And had not the real Majesty of the Community a distinct Being and Existence from Superintendency and Supremacy over the Personal Majesty it could not exercise any judicative or executive Power over the Personal Majesty as the Objectors suppose it may How it should be transferred and delegated and yet be incommunicable I cannot apprehend If these Men will adventure to say that the real Majesty of the Community is omnipotent and creates the Personal Majesty at will and pleasure and answerably can so annihilate it they will say something but yet nothing but what is ridiculous as well as incredible Sect. 79. 3. This Doctrine of a Real Majesty in the Community doth finally resolve it self into this Principle That the major Part of every Community is the Orignal and principal Subject of Royal Authority and consequently may assume to themselves the Administration of all Government whensoever they judge it necessary or expedient so to do And the major Part of every Community being ordinarily the worser Part Is not Mankind according to this Principle in an hopeful condition by the Laws of Nature to be well Governed 'T is seldom the worst Men are good Governours And 't is obvious to common Sense that Children and Servants are far more numerous then Parents and Masters and is it not a becoming Thing that Children and Servants should give Law unto and correct at pleasure their Parents and Masters 'T is but reasonable that these Men of Politicks should experiment this Discipline first at home in their own Families before they adventure to commend it to more Public Societies Sect. 80. 4. Though this and the former Objection are grounded on Supposals equally absurd and false and are equally designed to subjugate the Sovereign Authority of Princes to the Power of their Subjects yet like other Errors they contradict each other for if all Men be equal by Nature and partake of equal Liberty then the Association or an assembly of a Multitude nor indeed of all the People in the World cannot by the Law of Nature claim a Superiority over any particular Person whatsoever because the Law of Nature and the Rights thereof are immutable and consequently though a Multitude may by Force suspend and restrain the exercise of a particular Persons Rights and Liberties yet they cannot justly alienate or abrogate them Wherefore if there be any Authority in a Multitude Superiour to that of every particular Person it must be derivative from some Politick Human Constitution and not from any natural Right immediately subjected in a Multitude as such however assembled Sect. 81. 5. Suppose it to be true That the major part of the People of the English Nation or any other populous Country had Right to chuse their Rulers and to constitute a Form of Government how and where should they be assembled to such a purpose How could they be Summoned so that all should be obliged to appear such a Day at such a Place to such an End How could the Matter be debated
amongst them Suffrages gathered or any other Circumstance regularly ordered Some are old others sick others are under age of discretion c. and cannot come but equally interested with those that do and how shall those that are thus absent be concluded by the Votes and Acts of those that are present This Principle therefore is impracticable and morally impossible as well as the former and equally pernicious as well as vain Sect. 82. 6. Again let it be supposed that Sovereignty is Originally and Fundamentally inherent in the People either distributively collectively or representatively considered do they not divest themselves of it when by mutual agreement and paction a Mode of Government is Formed and Established When they have contracted to be ruled by such and such Legislators with Laws so and so conditioned and their Rights so and so limited and confined may they at pleasure re-assume their Original Power if upon Tryal they like not the Constitution disannul their Contract and make void all Laws depending on it If they can Governours and Governments are the most precarious Things in the World If they cannot then the higher Powers are uncontrollable and irresistible Sect. 83. 3. Another Objection which makes a deep Impression on Mens Minds and hath a very powerful influence to dispose them under real or conceited grievances to resist the Sovereign Powers is this if every Man from the Natural Principle of self-love be obliged to preserve and defend himself by Force of Arms against violent Aggressors as he is because no recourse can be had to the ordinary Formalities of Law for Protection then when the higher Powers become violent Agressors as they do when without and against Law they Invade their Innocent Subjects Rights and deal with them as Criminals their Subjects may warrantably resist them in defence of themselves Properties and Liberties Surely say they the Resistance of a lawless Violence and Oppression is no Resistance of a lawful Authority And if by many and positive express Laws the Subjects have Properties and Liberties reserved to them as their Rights then they must have a Right to preserve them against the illegal Invasions of the Prerogative and consequently may oppose Force to Force in such a Case Ans To desire and endeavour by all lawful means the Preservation of our selves and our just Rights and Interests is unquestionably from the dictate of Nature but to defend our selves and Interests by assaulting all sorts of injurious and violent Aggressors with Force of Arms is not so though they Invade so secretly and assault so violently that there is no place for an appeal to the Formalities of Law for Protection and Reparation because from such Aggressors there may be some such injuries as are tollerable from common humanity Pr. 19.11 and 14.29 and 20.3 Reasons of Religion Mat. 5.39 and for a publick Good 1 Cor. 3.5 I take this to be a Maxim of eternal Truth That self-defence must not in any case stand in Competition with the public Safety The Principle of Self-preservation must not be so exercised as to divest us of all Respect due to our Relations but we must consider our selves as Members of a Society and Subjects to Government as well as Men and act accordingly A Man as such by the Law of Nature may have Liberty to do that which by the positive Law of that Society to which he belongs may be Treason yea and which as he is relatively considered may be superceded by a Superiour Law of Nature for all private Interests being included in the Public and the Safety of every particular Part comprehended in the Safety of the whole the Respect due to the Public and the whole is to be the Standard and Measure and consequently to over-rule the Respect due to any private or particular security whatsoever This premised I shall refer my Answer to the forementioned Objection to several particulars Sect. 84. 1. How Men can be obliged from the Principal of Self-preservation to resist the injurious and destructive Dealings of the higher Powers by repelling Force with Force when such Resistance in the very Nature of the Thing evidently tends to the dissolution of the Government and consequently not only to the Distraction but also to the Destruction of the whole Community is not easily to be apprehended nor at all to be believed Surely 't is better that one Member be destroyed than the whole Body And 't is also in its self very evident that That which is most advantageous to the public Settlement and the Safety of the Community is of best Accomodation to the Subjects Preservation and Interest which is the Case as hath been shewed of the irresistibility and uncontrollableness of the higher Powers Sect. 85. 2. The Objection is a very plain begging of the question for it supposeth that the higher Powers may by their illegal Administrations doing Things without Law or against Law divest themselves of their Authority and thereby put themselves in the just reputation of their Subjects into the State and Condition of violent Aggressors and answerably may be so dealt withal as if no difference were to be made betwixt a Thief a Cyclops an Hungry Irish Wolf a Canibal a Mauritanian Lion and the higher Powers and those Commissioned by them when they persecute the Subjects Persons and Invade their Civil or Religious Rights without and against Law Indeed this is not the Doctrine of the Bow string but 't is such as only becomes a Chaplain to the Rumpers and Oliver's High Courts of Justice And if you consult the Statute called Exilium Hugonis which enumerates the Offences of the Two Spencers against the State and the Sentence of the Parliament against them you will find these among the other damnable Tenets of theirs there condemned viz. That they caused a Bill or Schedule to be Published containing That Homage and Legiance is due to the King rather in relation to the Crown than absolutely to his Person because no Regiance is due to him before the Crown be vested upon him and that if the King do not govern according to Law the Leiges in such a Case are bound by their Oath to the Crown to remove him either by Law or Rigour Do not the Books and Pamphlets of our Demagogues speak the same Language in effect May not Parents oppress their Children with unjust violence as well as Sovereign Powers their Subjects And may Children in such a Case stretch forth their Hands against their Parents and be innocent If the Authority of Parents will exempt them from the Active Resistance of their Children why should not also that of Magistrates exempt them in the like Case from the Active Resistance of their Subjects This is a Doctrine which makes Wives Children and Servants as well as Subjects Witnesses Jurors Judges and Executioners in their own Cause An Excellent Method to abet and promote a Legal Authority and to maintain public Order Justice and Peace Sect. 86. 3. Although the Resistance
for good And as he is so by the Designation of God so he shall actually and eventually be so to those who submit themselves dutifully and peaceably as becometh good Men and Christians to his Government Pro. 16.12 It is an abomination to Kings to commit wickedness for the Throne is established by righteousness And God doth implicitly say to every King as he did by Abijah to Jeroboam If thou wilt bearken unto all that I the Lord command thee and wilt walk in my ways and do that which is right in my sight to keep my Statutes and Commandments then will I be with thee and build thee a sure House 1 Kings 11.30 31 38. Sect. 94. It cannot be denied but they may pretend an exemption from the obligatory Force and coercive Power of all Laws of their own making but they cannot pretend so respectively to any Laws of God's making and imposing nor from the checks and restraints of their own Reasons and Consciences If therefore they usurp upon the Rights of their innocent and dutiful Subjects and in defiance to their Oaths to God and promisâ—â—y Engagements to their Subjects exercise a destructive or oppressive Power respectively â—o their Persons Proprieties Liberties and Priviledges they cannot reflect on themselves aâ—d illegal excises of Power without tremendous apprehension of the Divine Justice and Vengeance remonstrances upbraiding reproaches and severe censures and condemnation of that Judge which God hath immediately substituted within their own Breasts to pass â—entence in his Name And as it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Heb. 10.31 so a wounded Spirit who can bare Pro. 18.14 Surely that Prince will mâ—â—e a very bold adventure who shall usurp an Arbitrary Power that will render his coâ—â—ition so dangerous and troublesome How can he expect to live in Peace and Safety who lives without regard to the Bonds thereof Tyrannizing Adonibezek was Tyrannically dealt withal and forced to acknowledge God's Justice therein Judg. 1.7 As I have done so God hath required me And how terribly did God revenge on Ahab the spilling of Naboth's innocent Blood and the spoiling of his Vineyard 1 King 21.19 and 22.58 and was not insulting Nebuchadnezzar driven from Men and made to eat Grass as Oxen and his Body wetten with the Dew of Heaven till his Hairs were grown like Eagles Feathers and his Nails like Birds Claws Dan. 4.33 and was not persecuting Herod eaten of Worms till be gave up the Ghost Acts 12.23 In a word how can any Prince hope that God will protect him or his Subjects obey him who makes Conscience of discharging his Duty to neither Isa 33.1 Wo to thee that spoilest and wast not spoiled and dealest treacherously and they dealt not treacherously with thee when thou shalt cease to spoil thou shalt be spoiled and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously they deal treacherously with thee A fair warning is this to all that are oppressively and treacherously inclined Wherefore though it be not impossible that a Political Prince whose Power is limited in the Administration of his Government should shake off the restraints of his established Laws and refuse to regulate his Power thereby and consequently assume and exercise an absolute and arbitrary Power yet 't is exceedingly improbable that he will do so and by a long Succession of Princes here in England for near two thousand Years having never found it so we have no reason to be disturbed much less distracted with fears concerning it Let the worst be supposed and yet we have relief in Psal 37.5 7. Sect. 95. 4. The States of England who have ever been very tender of the Legal Liberties of their Country and very watchful to prevent all Encroachments of the Prerogative on the Subjects Rights and Proprieties and upon all due occasions have manifested aversation unto and detestation of absolute and arbitrary Power have yet acknowledged and ratified it as a standing Law That 't is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King and that 't is a Traitorous Position That we may take Arms by his Authority against his Person or against them commissionated by him Which to all unprejudiced Men is an unquestionable Argument That the States of England did not believe That 't is not inconsistent with the Nature of a limited Sovereign Power to be uncontroulable and irresistble with armed Force Sect. 96. To enervate this invincible Argument from our Legal Constitution for Non-Resistance a learned Man thus dictates to us That all general Words how large soever are still supposed to have a tacite Exception and Reserve in them if the Matter seems to require it Which being spoken with express reference to the Matter under consideration seems to me an imputation of such Collusion to the venerable States of the Nation as is altogether unworthy of that Character they ought to have in the Reputation of the whole World Let it bâ— supposed that the English Parliaments may warrantably impose Laws for the regulating of the Subjects deportment towards their Sovereign Prince composed in the most comprehensive Words devisable which are yet to be understood according to a legal Intentioâ— with Exceptions and Reservations and there is no doubt to be made that the Subject being left to spell out the equitable Intention of such Laws but they will find out such Eâ—ceptioâ—s and Reservations as shall in effect render all such Laws frivolous to the purpâ—â—â— of the King's Preservation respectively both to his natural and political Capacity And I pâ—â—sume to that this is a Rule of good Accomodation to subserve some Jesuitical Doctriâ—â— and Praâ—â—ices which by all good Men ought to be exploded and condemned This Authoâ—â— Rule of Construction being observed respectively to the Case under consideration the 〈◊〉 Intent of â—â—posing this Declaration That 't is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to 〈◊〉 Arms againâ—â— the King c. must be this excepting and reserving some Cases which ought 〈◊〉 be suspected and are too odious to be named Now those Cases which ought not to be suspected and are too odious to be named being no where mentioned or explained in this or any other Act of Parliament 't is evident that 't is left to the Subjects to put what Interpretation thereon they please provided they will affirm that the Prince hath done what they suspected he would not do and that he hath done a Thing very odious and abominable to them and if a Law subject to such an Intepretation become serviceable to the Security of any Prince or Government 't will be beside the Intention of the Imposer and the Matter under consideration in that Act of Parliament is so far from seeming to require such Exceptions and Reservations that they are an evident subversion of the Design of it which was to prevent the taking of Arms against the King upon pretences of the most odious Things imaginable such as is the Vsurping an Arbitrary Power
resisted Ans Although such an Act of Surrender and Alienation would be in its self null because an Act done against the common Right and Interest of the Community and in its self inauthoritative yet being a manifest Protestation that such a Prince refuseth to govern his Subjects he exauctorates himself by it for no Man can be a Governour who refuseth to govern And by alienating of his Kingdom he ipso facto dethrones and enslaves himself and being degraded to the Condition of a private Man and a resistance of him is no resistance of the Sovereign Power And although such reasoning Suppositions as are contain'd in these two last Objections suppose nothing in being but something only in possibility and are rather to be reckoned among Imaginations which Subjects may have than Actions which Princes do yet seditious-minded Men from Suppositions of possible innovating Designs and secret Leagues insinuate and impress on the Subjects Minds such suspicions of their Princes as Sect. 110. Thus I have finished what I designed for the Vindication of my Doctrine from the Objections ordinarily made against it And here I cannot but with great regret and lamentation observe to you that some among us who should preach the Doctrine of bearing the Cross patiently in case of persecution from the Higher Powers seem to endeavour to perswade Subjects to a Submission to them no longer then they are too weak for resistance I know they will take this for a Slander because they are for resistance only when the Persecution is without and against Law But I look on this as a ridiculous Evasion for the Higher Powers have no more Authority to make and execute persecuting Laws than they have to persecute without and against Laws I am sure they are under stronger Obligations to regulate their Government by the Laws of God and Nature than by the positive Laws of their Country and if the Supremacy of their Power will exempt from resistance notwithstanding their governing Administrations be a Violation of the former 't will do so too if violations of the latter also because God that restrains from resistance in the former Case doth not allow or permit it in the latter for most assuredly God is as much for the Observation of the Laws of his own making as he is for the Observation of any Laws of Mens making and will have us much more tenderly to resent a Defiance to the Authority of his Laws than a Defiance to the Authority of human Laws because of a wiser and more righteous Contrivance and more excellent and useful in order to our Safety and Happiness Sect. 111. If we must not resist the Higher Powers then we must submit to them and obey them They misunderstand the Apostle Paul saith Mr. Baxter that think by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is meant only violent Resisters meer Disobedience may make a Man a Resister in the Apostles Sense it is Anti-subjection or breaking out of the Rank of Subjects which the Text forbids and he that unwarrantably disobeyeth may do that though he forcibly resist not And in truth that Supremacy of Power which God hath ordained to be inherent in some above others will be vain to the Purposes of Government if it be not owned and acknowledged in a practical Submission and active Obedience Passive Obedience or a quiet Submission to a Penalty inflicted supposeth the Failure of Active Obedience either really due or challenged as due and ever implieth a Faultiness in the Sufferer or in the Inflicter thereof an offending Subject or a persecuting Magistrate and is never undergone by an innocent Man but when the Sovereign cannot be obeyed unless God be dishonoured and then only is properly denominated Obedience in a divine Construction when the Penalty suffered is not deserved and the divine Authority is preferred before the abused Authority of Man The primary End of all Laws is for the Regulation of our Actions and Manners either to restrain us from disorders and doing what is evil or to direct us to promote and do what is good and therefore the Law cannot be satisfied and fulfilled without an active Compliance and Obedience The Sanction of Laws with the Threatnings of Penalties is but a subordinate Means to this end and the Law-giver is then best pleased when the Fear thereof prevents the hurt as he intended it should do To conceit that we have discharged our Duties to our Superiors because we have peaceably submitted our selves to those Penalties are allotted to the Transgressors of their Laws is to think that Devils and damned Spirits who are despisers of God's Laws do perform their Duties to God because they suffer for their offences according to their deserts We cannot therefore approve our selves to God or Man without an active Obedience to the Higher Powers in all things which their Authority warrants them to require from us The Church of England's Doctrine of Non-Resistance Justified and Vindicated c. Rom. 13.2 And they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation THE next Doctrine to be discoursed is as plainly expressed as the former is implied in the Text and 't is this They that resist the Higher Powers bring themselves under the Guilt of eternal Damnation As they that obey the Gospel Precepts shall be saved Heb. 5.9 So they that disobey them shall be damned 2 Thes 1.8 9. Now as the Evangelical Doctrine exacts Subjection to the Higher Powers so it forbids Resistance and therefore all rebellious Resisters of them deserve to be damned and without repentance shall eventually and actually be damned Sect. 112 Some Men have labour'd hard to restrain the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated Damnation to a temporal Mulet or Punishment from the Magistrate only as if Resistance were only a dangerous Incentive to the Magistrate and no hazardous provocation to God at all By their Doctrine if a Rebel be strong enough he is safe enough Or if he escape apprehension and legal execution by flight or any other way of prevention he may bless himself in Peace If the Terrors of the Magistrate seize him not the Terrors of the Lord shall not reach him but if resistance of the Higher Powers be a Resistance of the Ordinance of God and a Contempt of the Authority of God as well as of Man why should not God be offended as well as the Magistrate and the Offender stand guilty of Damnation before the Tribunal of God as well as before the Tribunal of Man 'T is not often that Rebellions are prosperous and successful and therefore the Church of England exhorts us in her Sermon against willful Rebellion in Part the Fourth saying Turn over and read the Histories of all Nations look ever the Chronicles of our own Country call to mind so many Rebellions of old time and some yet fresh in memory ye shall not find that God ever prospered any Rebellion against their natural and lawful Prince but contrariwise that the Rebels were overthrown and slain and such
God may be pleased in having his Will fulfilled Rebellion and Stubbornness against the King are of the like Nature with the Sins of Witch-craft iniquity or Superstition as some Translate it and Idolatry against God because they partake of the same Commerce with the Spirit that worketh in the Children of Disobedience alike averse to Subjection and Obedience to the Institutions and Commands of God and alike addicted to the vain Imaginations and Reasonings of their own depraved Minds and alike resolved to fulfil their own Wills in contradiction to the Will of God And as Witch-craft Superstition and Idolatry ascribe the Honor and Glory that is due to God to another so a Rebellious and Stubborn Resistance of the Sovereign Powers is an usurping and arrogating of that Superiority and Vindicative Authority over the Sovereign Powers which belongs to God alone the Subjects assuming the Glory of the Divine Authority and punitive vengeance to themselves and when Offenders are under the like Guilts they must expect the like Alotment of Punishment And accordingly Vatablus on the Place thus Paraphraseth it Tam grave peceatum est tam gravis punitio ei debetur So that if Witch-craft Superstition and Idolatry put Men into a State of Damnation so doth Rebellion And the Church of England Declares in express Terms That eternal Damnation is prepared for all impenitent Rebels in Hell with Satan the first Founder of Rebellion and grand Captain of all Rebels And cells us that the Rebels themselves are the very Figures of Fiends and Devils and as they be followers of Lucifers Rebellion so shall they be of his Damnation in Hell undoubtedly partakers In part 3d. of Serm. against wilfut Rebellion And in the same Homily affirms That all sins possible to be committed against God or Man be contain'd in Rebellion And how horrible a sin against God and Man Rebellion is cannot possibly be expressed according to the greatness of it And what punishment can be too great for so great an offence Sect. 117. That the Truth hereof may the more manifestly be discovered we will consider a Rebellious Resistance of the Sovereign Powers in its Antecedent Concomitant and Consequent sinful Evils From which it will appear that Rebellion is not a singular or one only Sin but the whole Puddle and Sink of all Sins as our Church teacheth us in the Sermon afore-quoted 1. Let us consider a Rebellious Resistance of the Sovereign Powers in its antecedent dispositive sinful Causes and Preparations and we shall find it a Stream issuing from a very filthy Fountain and and of a very hainous Nature meritorious of an answerable punishment Sect. 118. 1. A Rebellious Resistance of the Sovereign Power proceeds from a Luciferian pride and presumption Pr. 13.10 Only by pride cometh contention Proud and Ambitious Rebels would be above all and under none Like Tyre they set their Hearts as the Heart of God Ezek. 28.2 saying with insolent Nineveh Zep. 2.15 I am and there is none beside me They conceit themselves so superlatively excellent that they will own no Superiours or Equals So much Lords and Masters of themselves that they are not only sufficient to protect preserve and defend themselves but also to cast down and domineer over all that are near them especially such as are set above them or would be competitors with them And what is the State of such proud ones before God Truly be knoweth them afar off Ps 138.6 scorneth such scorners Pr. 3.24 resists and counteracts them Jam. 4.6 and therefore they are sure to have a fall and that a terrible low one too they fall into the Condemnation of the Devil 1 Tim. 3.6 Sect. 119. 2. A Rebellious Resistance of the Sovereign Power proceeds from discontent Subjects dislike their Rank and Station they think themselves to be as well accomplished to be Men of Place and to make a Figure in the Government as the best of them all and 't is an hard Case that they should be only Creatures of Burden set in the World to be commanded and controlled have Freedom of Will without Freedom of Practice confined to the imperious Impositions of other Mens Wills and Pleasures who under no consideration intrinsical to the human Nature are any thing better than themselves And if the Public Administrations happen to be contrary to their particular humors and private interests and their Persons fall under any Public Disgrace their dissatisfaction is heightened and their condition becomes intolerable to them and their only Remedy to ease themselves and have their Wills is to rise up against the higher Powers and to contend with them for the Preheminence And what is this but a Contention with God to have their Wills in contradistinction to his Will They will not allow the Lord of all Things to do with his own as he pleaseth but they will prescribe unto God how and where to place them and will not be pleased unless God value them and prefer them according to that rate they set on their own worth and serviceableness The Lord himself called the Children of Israel who murmured against Moses and Aaron Rebels Numb 16.41 comp with ch 17.10 because their discontent did lead to Rebellion and end in it But how doth the Lord take it at mens hands when they grudge and are not satisfied with their condition Truly such Men being conformed to the Image of Satan they wander up and down under God's Curse seeking rest and finding none Ps 59.15 and St. Jude reporting the Reasons and manner of Christs Process to execute the last Judgment upon all that are ungodly v. 15. he numbers the Murmurers i. e. discontented Persons in the fore-front of them all as the Chieftains among all that are ungodly and marked out for the vengeance of eternal fire v. 16. Sect. 120. 2. A Rebellious Resistance of the Sovereign Power proceeds from a Spirit of Envy Malice Strife and Contention Hab 1.3 There are that raise up strife and contention Busie-bodies that love to Fish in troubled Waters And these are invidious minded Men whose Eyes are evil because God is good are grieved vexed and tormented because other Men are more at ease and better accommodated and contented than themselves trouble their own Flesh and rot their very Bones that others excel and are in any thing their Superiours and that they may disquiet and disturb others which they think stand in the Way as Obstacles to their Designs they will engage themselves in the most difficult and hazardous enterprizes Envyings strifes contentions factions and seditions are solemnly coupled together as near a Kin and springing one from the other 1 Cor. 3.3 2 Cor. 12.20 Gal. 5.20 what invidious and quarrelsom spirited Men cannot challenge and obtain by merit they will endeavour to accomplish by fraud force and violence Jam. 4.1 from whence come warrings and fightings among ye Come not they hence even from your lust which war in your members When Men are discomposed and disordered with
bring his Person into disgrace as one not well affected to justice and the public welfare and consequently not so fit for Government as himself Which Copy is transcribed by Rebels in all Times and Ages they very industriously reproach the Footsteps The Councils Measures and Actings of the Lords anointed Psa 98.51 represent the Designs and Manageries of the higher Powers as dangerous burdensom and useless partly from a deficiency in their integrity and faithfulness and partly from their imprudence and carelesness disabled for the exercise of Rule and Government Which is an Artifice to expose them to the malevolent jealousies and contempt of their Subjects the readiest way to undermine and weaken their Authority and Power and to debase and destroy their Persons For when they are libelled traduced arraigned and sentenced in their Subjects thoughts affections and judgments and become despised Persons and Ministers of Government and have no respect or awe in their Subjects hearts their hands will easily be engaged against them to fight them out of the Throne and to banish them out of all their Dominions For who will be subject and run hazards to maintain that which he despiseth And Rebels being ever Men that carry tales to shed blood as the Prophet speaks Ezek. 22.9 they are not only cursed by God as he is that slandereth his Neighbour privily Deut. 27.24 but deserve an everlasting confusion for slandering the Powers ordained of God Isa 38.11 Sect. 127. 6. Hatred is another Concomitant of a rebellious Resistance Rebels are Enemies to the higher Powers and enemies resist and fight to kill and destroy And he that hateth his Neighbour in his heart is a Murtherer and ye know no Murtherer hath eternal life abiding in him 1 Joh. 3.15 the Seed of eternal Death and of eternal Life cannot abide in a prevalent Degree in the same Subject at the same Time As ill will never speaks well so it never doth well but at the same Time it thrusts all love and respect to the higher Powers from Men it pusheth them forward to defie and destroy 'em ranks them with Cain mustereth and marcheth them under the Conduct and Command of the great Destroyer whose name is Abaddon and Apollyon Rev. 9.11 Sect. 128. 7. Revenge is another Concomitant of a rebellious Resistance Rebels are not for giving place unto to withdraw themselves from those provoked against them and refer the punishment of the injuries done unto them unto God and to overcome evil with good but they are for avenging themselves design and endeavour a wrathful retribution of evil and mischief to the higher Powers from whom they have felt or fear at least as they pretend oppressive and injurious usage Rebels will revenge evils feared as well as evils inflicted They are as impatient under the Belief of a plotted Mischief against them as of one executed upon them And indeed more often rebel and resist to prevent a conceited contrived Evil than to remove a real Evil endured And God having expresly forbidden us to resist Evil and avenge our selves because vengeance is his peculiar a part of distributive Justice which alone belongs to him and such as are Commissioned by him Rom. 12.9 and 13.4 what a notorious Usurpation is Rebellion upon the Prerogative Royal of God himself which forceth the Sword out of Gods band to turn it against those into whose hands God himself hath put it for the Conservation of human Societies and Guardianship of Laws and good Order And hath not God great vengeance especially for such as take vengeance with a spiteful heart Ezek. 25.15 Sect. 129. 8. Murder is another Concomitant or if you will effect of a rebellious Resistance So many Men as are slain in a Rebellion so many Murthers are there committed For whether Rebels kill or are killed they are Murtherers If they kill others they spill the Blood of the Innocent If they themselves are killed they are the efficient meretorious Causes of their own deaths If they neither kill or are killed but survive the Rebellion and come off by Victory or Escape yet they are Murtherers because the Action they engaged in had both a natural and moral tendency thereunto which is a Matter to be well considered by all such as are any way concerned in an unlawful War And surely if God will require the Blood of Mens Lives at the hand of every Beast Gen. 9.5 he will make a strict Inquisition after it when it is spilt by one of the same Nature with themselves Psal 9.12 and without repentance will not pardon it 2 Kings 24.4 but hath threatned that they shall perish by the Sword Mat. 26.52 and have their part in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone Rev. 21.8 Sect. 130. 9. An audacious presumption on the gracious and righteous Providence of God is another Concomitant of a rebellious Resistance When Men contend against each other with Force of Arms and put themselves into a State of War they appeal from Man to God and refer the Equity and Justice of the Cause contended for to his arbitration and umpirage expecting protection and prosperity according to the integrity of their hearts and righteousness of their quarrel Jos 22.22 wherefore though Rebels violate and trample on all the Restraints of Nature and the Laws of God and Man yet they solemnly appeal unto God and with stupendious security and boldness depend on his help and assistance for the Preservation of their Persons and the good success of their Cause The Prophet tells the Heads of the House of Jacob and the Princes of the House of Israel that they abhorred judgment and perverted all equity and built up Sion with Blood and judged for reward and yet they leaned upon the Lord and said is not the Lord amongst us and none evil can come upon us Mic. 3.9 10 11. thus rebellious fools rage against God and his substitutes and are confident Pr. 14.16 presume they shall speed well though God hath as expresly forbid them to do what they have engaged themselves to do as he did the Israelites when he said to them Deut. 1.41 Go not up neither fight for I am not among you and like those Israelites they refuse to be convinced of the Evil of their Engagments and go on presumptuously in their Rebellion as if God had a great Favour for them and were obliged to bless them with Success encouraging themselves herein by reflecting on those eminent deliverances and victories God vouchsafed to his choicest Servants in his own Cause Which is a tempting of God with such pride and stoutness of heart Is 9.9 2 Pet. 2.10 as incenseth him to such a Degree against them that his jealousie even smoaks against them for it so that He lays all the Curses that are written in his Book upon them and will blot out their Names from under Heaven Deut. 29.19 20. Now a rebellious Resistance being concatenated and mustered with such a Troop of damning Sins is it not reasonable to
in such a State of Anarchy and Confusion For though the former like a Tempest may do considerable mischief here and there in some particular Cases and Instances the latter like a Deluge or epidemical Disease will carry down and destroy all that stand before it And thus it was determined by Fronto the Consul in Nerva's Reign Melius est sub his esse sub quibus nihil licet quam sub quibus omnia 't is better to be subject unto them under whom nothing is lawful than under them under whom all things are lawful That is the severest Restraints are more eligible than a boundless Liberty because 't is better and safer to be exposed to the danger of suffering than to the danger both of finning and suffering So that a rebellious Resistance breaking down and levelling the Boundaries of Government and Laws doth as it were let Hell loose upon us hearten and encourage all sorts of licentiousness and wickedness amongst us and bring us under a kind of present Damnation and fill us with Confusion and Terror round about Wherefore as one said of an ungrateful Man Ingratum dixi omnia dixi I have called him ungrateful and so have called him all that is naught So say I of a rebellious Man his guilt is so complicated that he is compounded of all that is naught Sect. 135. 3. The next thing to be considered is the Grounds upon which the Decree and Ordination of God to condemn rebellious Resisters of the Higher Powers to an everlasting destruction is founded O the Depth saith the Apostle Rom. 11.33 34. both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God how unsearchable are his Judgments and his Ways past finding out for who hath known the Mind of the Lord or who hath been his Councellor intimating that it becomes us rather to admire than to enquire into the Reasons of his Purposes Ways and Actings For He giveth not account is not obliged to account of any of his matters as Job speaks Ch. 33.13 and therefore it will be no absurdity to resolve the Reason of the Matter under consideration principally into the Sovereign Council and Pleasure of God's Will So he hath done even because so it pleased him to do Mat. 11.25 and this is as firm a Ground as the Mind of Man can rest or acquiesce on For God alone knows what becomes him to do and we may be sure that all his Ordinations and Dispensations are such as well beseem his infinite perfection in Knowledge and Wisdom Goodness and Righteousness and therefore he doth not will not cannot decree or do any thing amiss Wherefore God having expresly declared that they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation we cannot be much concerned by searching to find out the particular Reasons of this divine Constitution Sect. 136. But since God is pleased from his incomprehensible Grace to condescend to an Appeal sometimes to the Reason of his People to judge of the Equity of his Dealings especially in Matters of a Penal Nature Isa 5.3 Mic. 6.3 I shall endeavour to discover to you the particular Reasons of this Decree and Ordination from that Revelation as I conceive God himself hath made thereof to us And they are these Sect. 137. 1. Because a rebellious Resistance of the Higher Powers is a protested Defiance to God's own Order and a practical Condemnation and Subversion of it This reason is plainly assigned in the Words immediately precedent to the Text They that resist resist the Ordinance of God and therefore they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation God that made and preserveth all the World is essentially the absolute Sovereign Lord thereof The great King over all the Earth Psal 47.2 the Lord of Lords and King of Kings Rev. 17.14 He is exalted as Head above all 2 Chr. 29.11 and he as the most High ruleth in the Kingdom of Men and giveth it to whomsoever he will Dan. 4.25 and all Dominions serve and obey him Dan. 7.27 Act as his Ministers and Officers as 't is vers 4. and 6. of this Chapter Wherefore respectively unto God Obedience is the Duty and Work of all the World and as all that Authority and Power with which Men are invested to make and execute Laws is derived from him and to be administred in his Name so all that Subjection and Obedience which is exacted as due thereunto is from the Constitution of his Will 1 Pet. 2.15 and to be observed and performed for his sake vers 13. or as our Apostle in vers 5. of this Chapter for Conscience sake or from a Sense of that Duty we owe to the Sovereign Authority and Dominion of God himself Let the Ranks and Orders of Men be what they will Rulers or Ruled as their several Stations and Conditions are of God's appointment who will not have all to stand on the like Level but pulleth down some and setteth up others will have some to command and others to obey so their several Duties respectively to each other as well as to himself are of his prescription and injunction and consequently as Rulers cannot abuse their Authority and Power without violating the Trust committed by God to them and usurping upon the Authority and Power of God himself pretending to more than they partake of from him and have Commission to execute in his Name so neither can Subjects refuse Subjection and Obedience due to their Rulers without a Violation of a Trust from God and a confronting of his Authority and Power For the Authority and Power of their Rulers is the Authority and Power of God himself as hath formerly been proved and consequently a striving and contending against the Higher Powers is a fighting against God himself and they who presumptuously endeavour to destroy and trample on the Authority and Power of their Governours endeavour to destroy and trample on the Authority and Power of God himself and is not this a provoking of God to jealousy a Presumption that they are higher and stronger than he 1 Cor. 10.22 and doth such presumption deserve less than a State of Damnation 't is the Duty of all to submit unto God and to be contented yea well pleased with all that he requireth of them or imposeth on them and therefore it must needs be extreamly sinful and provoking to strive and fight against him Isa 45.9 Wo unto him that striveth with his Maker For when any man walketh contrary unto God God will also walk contrary unto him Lev. 26.23 24. and when the Contrariety of the Engagement and Action on the Sinners part is attended with the Perversness and Obstinacy of a rebellious Resistance the contrariety on God's part will be in fury vers 28. i. e. a contrariety to the utter-Destruction of the Rebel the fullest and compleatest Punishment Sect. 138. 2. Because a rebellious Resistance of the Higher Powers is a Sin of deliberate Choice inveterate Passion strong and confirmed Resolution a Conscience wasting Sin or in Tertullian's Words
Crimen Devoratorium Salutis a Sin that devours Salvation that destroys all right to it hope of it and fitness for it The Despisers of Government who are not afraid to speak evil of Dignities and then by a Parity of Reason Rebellious Resisters of them too are of the Number of those presumptuous and self-willed unjust Ones who are chiefly reserved unto the Day of Judgment to be punished 2 Pet. 2.9 10. and those addicted to Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions Murthers Envyings and such like manifest Works of the Flesh which is evidently the Case of Rebels shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Gal. 5.19 20 21. Rebellious Resisters are Criminals which imagine mischief upon their Beds set themselves in a way that is not good and do not abhor evil as the Psalmist speaketh Psal 30.4 they conceive and plot the Matter betake themselves to Consultations and Debates concerning it weigh Circumstances and fore-cast Events contrive the most convenient Method of executing it and their Hearts are fully bent and set on it they resolutely determine to bring it to the Birth and to give it to their Power its utmost perfection by the actual Perpetration of it and most indulgent adherence to it and if such a Scene of wickedness doth not infer a damnable Guilt what can 'T is not a thing done from a Child-like weakness of Ignorance Inadvertency Surprise and suddain Surreption but from the Strength of a Man from the serious Proposal Consideration Reason Judgment and Attention of the Mind the settled Choice and Determination of the Will the Audacity and Stoutness of the Heart and the Vigor and Activity of the Affections which is a Temper and Deportment of Spirit utterly inconsistent with Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ and consequently the Predominancy of it denominates the Subjects thereof in a State of Damnation Sect. 139. 1. Infer Then by the Rule of Contraries Adue Subjection to the Higher Powers is an Argument of a State of Salvation as a State of Disobedience and Resistance to the Higher Powers is a State of Disobedience and Resistance to the Spirit and Purport of the Gospel so a State of Subjection and Obedience to the Higher Powers is a State of Subjection and Obedience to the Spirit and Purport of the Gospel and that is a State of Acceptation with God and Salvation by Jesus Christ I do not mean that all that do not habitually or actually in a rebellious Manner resist the Higher Powers are in a State of Salvation but I mean all that are obedientially subject to them are so i. e. that conscientiously honour their Persons as the Ministers of God and submit to their Government in a constant Course of Obedience to their Laws and Administrations so far as they are for the publick Good for God's sake and with chearfulness and thankfulness according to the Will and Constitution of God pay tribute to them as their due for that Protection and Safety under God they partake of from them For as love is the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.10 so is Subjection to the Higher Powers in a right qualified Sense too for there being but one Authority in the World viz. Gods he that sincerely submits to his Authority as such in one thing is habitually principled and disposed to do so in every thing the Reason of his Obligation is of an universal extent and force and equally engageth him to every signification thereof and therefore if he willingly submit himself in one thing he will do so in every thing A qua tenus ad omne valet consequentia As he that offendeth in one point of the Law is guilty of all Jam. 2.10 Offendeth against the same Authority which enacted and ratified all the rest though the Violation of one is not formally and expresly a Violation of all the Law yet 't is virtually and reductively so because it reflects Contempt on the Authority of God upon which the obliging Force of the whole Law depends and is an affronting of the Sovereignty Wisdom and righteousness of God manifested in all the rest these attributes of his being as much concerned in the Establishment of the one as of all the rest So he that is really subject unto and observeth rightly one of God's Laws Ordinances and Institutions as such hath respect thereunto for the sake or the divine Authority therein expressed and makes the fulfilling of the Will of God the prime Motive and Reason of his Obedience he hath virtually and reductively submitted unto and observed all the rest because the same Motive and Reason which determines and governs his respect to the One is of equal Obligation Power and Influence to determine and govern his respect to all the rest When a sincere respect to the Sovereign Authority of God hath a predominant Power and Dominion in a Man's Mind and Heart it bringeth him to God's Foot disposeth him to devote and resign himself to the Will of God in all things seeketh not his own Will but the Will of God as Christ did Joh. 5.30 saying with him not my will but thy will be done Luk. 22.42 and not as I will but as thou wilt Mat. 26.39 and not that I will but what thou wilt Mark 6.36 and with St. Paul what wilt thou have me to do Acts 9.6 i. e. He is readily prepared to fulfil all God's Wills throughly furnished to walk before God unto all pleasing and to be fruitful in every good Word and Work Wherefore he that sincerely honours the King for God's sake and as his Minister he sincerely fears God because the one is necessarily founded and implied in the other and God hath so concatenated them unto and complicated them in each other that they are no more seperable from one another than Light from Sun beams Sect. 140. 2. Infer Then they who engage themselves in a rebellious Resistance of the Higher Powers run a desperate Hazard they are very near the Condemnation of the Devil himself they put their Lives in their hands and are in Death's often and if they dye in actual commission of this Sin they pass into the other World under the actual Guilt thereof and there will be judged and confined to a Condition as unalterably miserable as the Devils of Hell are in as they could not repent of it before they died because they died in the actual Commission of it so neither can they repent of it after they are dead because there is no such work to be done in the other World If the Work God hath given us to do in order to a blessed Immortality be not finished in this life there is nothing to be done in order to it in the next There every one must receive the Things done in his Body according to that be hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5.10 the final Sentence refers not to any thing done after the seperation of the Soul from the Body but to what was done in the Body only for the Life to come is the proper State of Rewards and Punishments and not of probation and trial He therefore that dyes impenitently dies unpardonably Sect. 141. And this is not only the Case of Rebels who are cut off in the very Act of Rebellion but of all other wilful Sinners who dye in the actual Commission of Sin their unrepented guilt passeth with them into the other World and there everlastingly abides upon them and renders their Condition desperate so that the Case of all impenitent Sinners becomes by death immutable for he that departs this Life dead in Trespasses and Sins or is in his Soul dead towards God as every one is that dies under the Power and Dominion of Sin he is translated into that state of Sin and Misery from which there is no redemption because the Justice of God hath actually seized him and executed the irrevocable Sentence of the Law upon him The Day of Grace and Life expire together Psal 95.8 when Death comes Judgment immediately follows Heb. 9.27 and then the State of the Sinner is unchangeable He shall never return to another life of trial and have means afresh to bring him to repentance and to correct the Errors and Miscarriages of his former life but in the place where the Tree falleth there it shall be Eccles 11.3 as his Condition was when Death cut him down so it shall be without alteration to all Eternity Sect. 142. How warily and circumspectly then should we carry it in our Deportments in all manner of Conversation we may dye in the Commission of the next voluntary Act of Sin or in the wilful Omission of the next Duty and so put our selves beyond the possibility of Repentance and shall we be so mad as to put it to the adventure whether it will be so or no Wherefore all that put themselves into a State of War are especially obliged to consider well what they do and to be well assured that they never engage themselves in battle against the Higher Powers to whom they owe Subjection lest they fall by the Edge of the Sword render their Sin unpardonable and themselves for ever uncapable of a Title to heavenly Felicity and Glory Sect. 143. Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ are the great Gospel-terms of the Remission of our Sins and the Salvation of our Souls Acts 20.21 and Ch. 2.38 Mark 16.16 and these are confined and limited only to this World and are not at all performable in the next Wherefore if we sin when there is no place for the Interposition and Exercise of these Graces which are peculiar to this present life our Condition will be irremedilesly miserable final and wilful Impenitency and Infidelity is the grossest Self-murther And he that dies a wilful Rebel dies in the damned State of the Devil FINIS