ought they to suffer if they did obey But because they will not obey their Prince he punishes and they suffer The Prince therefore in this case has no manner of Obedience But let us consider further tho we cannot barter with a Prince and give him Suffering instead of Doing yet we may be obliged to suffer and we may obey in doing and obey in suffering for so doing and that Obedience may be called Passive Obedience tho in truth and reality all the Obedience which we perform in this case is Active For we obey one and suffer from another we obey God and suffer from Man or we obey Man and suffer from God But because God hath commanded us not only to do our Duties but likewise has commanded us in certain cases not only to do but to be ready to suffer for so doing our obedience to this Command of suffering has been called by some Passive Obedience Now this is Great and Noble and speaks an excellency of Spirit which is most admirable for Men to do well and to continue in so doing whatever they suffer upon that account But as it is Noble so it is hard and difficult It is hard to be bound to confess Christ before Men that we may gain Heaven and at the same time to be forced to lose all that we have on Earth for so confessing This sets Body and Soul at variance nay the Soul is confounded in it self whilst hopes and fears engage one another in a severe conflict the one would gain and the other would not lose the one pulls upwards and the other downwards upon this account the thing is difficult But yet we must remember that for all the difficulty it is very practicable because it has been always required and always expected No Philosopher would ever allow him to be a good Man who would flinch from his Duty upon the account of suffering To do so they say is slavish and it is one of the Rules of the Pythagoreans that in the exercise of Vertue a Man must have nothing of the Slave in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he must have no regard for any thing but his Duty Hierocles p. 209. Tully in the 2d of his Offices will not allow it possible for a Man to be just or honest or good who fears either poverty or pain or banishment or death it self so as to be warped from right by the fears of them or by the hopes of any advantages that are contrary to them Horace that very easie Man who can never be thought by a Heathen to be an over-severe directer of Conscience expects from his just and good Man that he should bear up against Tyrant and Rabble and suffer all that their rage and fury can throw upon him and yet not veer in the least from his point but go on in his Duty steddily and firmly Justum tenacem propositi virum Non civium ardor prava jubentium Non vultus instantis Tyranni Mente quatit solidâ This Principle of suffering in a good Cause for the sake of Vertue Goodness and Righteousness or of doing our Duties notwithstanding that we must suffer lies so open and clear to the reason of mankind that Men of worth and honour in every Age could not fail to practise it And we Christians are bound to the observance of this Duty as others were before by the reason of the thing as well as by precepts of Christianity Whatever principle a Man has and whatever he accounts a Duty if he will be true and faithful just and upright it may sometime or other bring him under suffering and he must be content with it because it is base and unworthy in certain cases not to do it it is a betraying of our Consciences a forfeiture of all the good opinion that we can have of our selves Now if this be true and this be called Passive Obedience that must not be looked upon as a peculiar of Christianity or a new Doctrine introduced since our Saviour's days much less can any particular Church appropriate the Rule to it self because it lies in common to all mankind and has sometimes been practised by the little as well as by the great Some perhaps may have just cause to complain of false Casuists and base corrupters of the genuine sense of right Reason and true Christianity but when they have done it they have onely reproved a gross fault they must not expect any great honour for having had a right notion of a plain Truth If we would speak clearly we must confess that our blessed Lord has not heightened this Duty for he can expect no more sufferings than what Pain and Beggery and Death signifie but as a most gracious and tender Master he has made all these much more easie and portable than ever they were before and that in several ways As first by giving us most gracious Promises of Reward in another World in case we are called to suffer Matth. 5. 9 10 11. Secondly By assuring us that assistances of God's grace come in to our help whenever we do suffer Matth. 10. 18 19 Phil. 1. 29. Thirdly By giving us such thoughts of God as are most powerful to support us under all sufferings For what can dismay him that will think with S. Peter that he who suffers as a Christian or suffers according to the Will of God he may commit the keeping of his Soul to God in well doing as unto a faithful Creator 1 Pet. 4. 16 19. These things are beyond Philosophy and they are mighty supports to all Christians who must suffer for well doing These would acquit the justice of God if he had required sufferings as sufferings and made them so necessary means of Salvation that he would accept of none into Heaven but such as came thither as Martyrs through a flaming fire or a Sea of bloud But God is not so fond of suffering as to require them for their own sakes We are not bound like Baal's Priests to cut and flash our selves that we may please our God We are not bound to move others to cut our Throats or to threaten to kill them if they won't kill us as S. Augustine tells the Circumcellions did We ought not to give advantages and opportunities to wicked Men to execute their wicked purposes upon us In times of Persecution we are not bound to go out of our Houses and provoke an inraged multitude to throw us in the Fires or to the Lions This rashness has been condemned by whole Councils though at some time we may and must leave Father and Mother and House and Land and Life it self for Christ's sake and for the Gospels yet at other times we may keep them as well Tho the first Christians Acts 5. 41. did rejoice that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Christs Name and as it is Heb. 10. 34. they took joyfully the spoiling of their goods Yet they did as much rejoice and gave hearty thanks
Rights or to deliver us from doing our Duties 3. We may accept of deliverance and that in ways extraordinary without making the strictest examination of all the niceties doubts scruples which may occur in the case Thus certainly St. Peter did in that remarkable action related Acts 12. He left his Chains his Goal his Guards and followed his Deliverer tho he had all and many more causes for scruple than those which now adays give so much trouble and seem so insuperable For First He was committed to Prison by his King upon that account he might have thought it his Duty to obey in all things lawful and patiently to submit in the rest or else according to the other way of expressing it That what he could not give to his Prince in Active obedience he ought to make up in the Passive Secondly His King went in the way of Justice and designed to bring him to a Tryal Upon that he might have thought that a secret withdrawing of himself would disparage his Cause and in the Opinion of others speak him guilty Thirdly His King acted in behalf of the established Law and Religion Josephus tells us he was one who had a great zeal for the Jewish Constitution Polity and Worship Upon that account St. Peter might think that his King acted from Conscience according to his Duty in prosecuting of him and therefore he was bound at the command of his King to declare plainly and openly upon what grounds he a private person undertook to draw people off from the settlement and a long and most legally established Worship to a new one especially he could not but see what himself taught 1 Pet. 3. 15. That it is the Duty of every Christian to be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh a reason of the hope that is in him Fourthly The Case of his Guards of the Keepers of the Prison-gates was most deplorable he could not but see that his escape would be charged and revenged upon them upon that he might think that he ought not to do evil that good may come of it to save his own life he ought not to give cause and reason for executing of so many innocent Men. Fifthly There is another thing which though much less yet may give matter of scruple for what will not that in this sudden flight it is not likely that he should pay his Jaylor for Fees or Diet. Upon this account he might think that his Honesty would be questioned and he would be accused of doing wrong and defrauding another of his dues and that other Christians who should afterwards be committed would suffer hardship and ill usage for his sake and therefore he had better stay where he was and give his Jaylor and his Prince and the Law all they could require and take from him and so pay down a compleat Passive Obedience in full measure and tale by dying to gratifie his Prince's humor and expect the Reward of his Action from God This he might have thought but he did not for he followed his Deliverer out of the Prison and took care to make good his deliverance by absconding for near five years after as Computers reckon it Had he been under those strait boundaries of Conscience in this case which others think they are Had he had their Rules of Duty could he have seen it to be his Duty to stay in Prison and suffer according to the will of his King he could not have followed his Deliverer though he had been an Angel Gal. 1. 8. and he could never have prevailed upon himself to have believed that an Angel of God would have moved him to act contrary to his Duty He accepted of deliverance and the whole Church that then was blessed God for it and in like cases so may and ought others to do and that without penetrating into all the grounds of nicety and scruple which Men seldom do but when they design to seem extraordinary and then usually they refine upon Morality and set down Rules of Duty which neither Humane Nature can bear nor Christianity requires and for the most part they are against the good of Societies and do alike mischief to Kings as to Subjects Seeing then we are not by Gods Law so abandoned to the will and humor of a Man though he be our King but that when he proceeds in Methods of doing wrong and injury of ruling by Power against Law we may flee from him we may plead our Cause and Right against him we may pray to God to give a stop to him and we may accept of deliverance from him We must say that the modern Doctrine of Passive Obedience is stretched beyond its bounds for we are not obliged to make it our business to give and pay him that which he has no right to take we are not obliged to put our selves into his way and give him opportunity to cut our throats We are not obliged not to move others to intercede for us and if they can with justice to defend and preserve us we are not obliged to refuse a deliverance if it comes to us But if Force prevails and we are to be knock'd down by Violence against Right and Justice we must take care to fall as decently as we can submitting to God's Providence and giving all respects to our King as far as our Case will allow if our Calamity comes from him For this will bring credit to our Memories and to our Religion and may do good to others who shall be in our condition by appeasing of wrath and displeasure how unjustly soever conceived against them or us I will end this Discourse with one Remark upon the Case of Isaac He was a noble instance of a very extraordinary Obedience he submitted entirely to the Will of his Father and of his King for Abraham was both to him but yet the Praise of that wondrous Action related Gen. 22. falls to the Father and not to the Son Much is said of Abraham's Faith and little of Isaac's Obedience whatever other Reasons there are for it one is very obvious and plain That it might not be a President from whence Kings might measure their Rights and Subjects their Duties So much of Obedience Active and Passive The next thing to be treated of is the Doctrine of Non-resistance This our Historian tells us has been avowed by the Church of England ever since the Reformation Preachers and Writers have declared for it and that with a great deal of warmth and much advantage especially in latter days Upon this Account he would have it thought That Men have swerved from their Principles and that this Doctrine as well as the other is more illustrious in Writings than in Lives Now this Censure I challenge to be very hard and unreasonable because it does not appear that those Men who preached up Non-resistance before have ever preached for Resistance since nor have they who persuaded others to Non-resistance resisted themselves The
have an Historian or Advocate for the Cause of King James who thinks to be friend him by telling the World that so many of the chief of the Clergy for so long time together did preach Passive Obedience Now it is as clear as the day that there can be no exercise of this Duty nor ought there be any popular Exhortation to it but at such a time when there is a very ill Prince and a miserable People what then would our Author have does he design to publish an everlasting blot upon the memory of the late King James does he design to tell the World that he was resolved to do mischief to his People That nothing could correct or retain him That he would go on tho the Pulpits sounded out Passive Obedience and his People were taught that there was no hope of Justice or Equity from him and that they must think of suffering and dying rather than obey him This is severe it will furnish out a worse Character of King James than any of his Adversaries have yet given him it will justifie the Recession of his People from him and show to Posterity how it came to pass that so easily and suddenly he fell to the ground For who can read all these so many Pleas Advices Instructions Exhortations to Passive Obedience but he must reflect upon the Causes and Reasons of them and if he does so he will be forced to think that at that time wicked Counsels governed and lawless Violence prevailed and that the whole Nation was clouded with a dismal Appearance of Oppression Persecution and Tyranny For seeing that a Prince ruling by Law and with Justice cannot be put off with any thing less than Active Obedience and nothing can exercise the Passive Obedience of Subjects but vile and base and wicked Commands contrary to Law and Religion we must either blame those Preachers for amusing their Auditors with needless Thoughts of unjust Sufferings or we must blame the late King for giving too much cause for just and reasonable fears of them Now what can be said in his behalf to acquit him no Man has yet told us But our Historian has effectually vindicated the Preachers he every where commends them and their Writings this he tells us was well said that excellently that incomparably He likes their Doctrine and finds no fault in the timing of it and likely enough he had reason to believe the Doctrine as proper to the Time in which it was delivered as it was true in it self If so the late King is again deserted by this Historian as well as by the rest of his People and his Cause like himself falls to the ground for why must he do ill things and why must he load his People with dreads of worse Why did not all this noise about Passive Obedience awaken him Why did he not give stop to his Proceedings when his People owned so loudly their fears of Mischief Could he think it a small thing to make his People miserable or to be thought one that would do so All this was intimated by those Sermons and Tracts From thence he ought to have taken warning to desist and his Counsellors ought to have persuaded him to it for certainly popular Discourses about Passive Obedience are as instructive to a Prince to move him from designs of doing ill as they are to the People to engage them to be willing to suffer wrong From hence I am forced to blame our Historian for perpetuating the Memory of these Discourses it were for the honor of the late King that they were forgotten Those excellent Divines would never have revived past Actions or the grievous sad Thoughts which they had when they composed or delivered their excellent Arguments and Persuasions for Passive Obedience They could wish from their Souls that they never had occasion for them tho they are ready to morrow to write the same things upon the same grounds which with good reason they hope that they are not like to see as long as they live Why then does the Historian take pains to collect all these things together He can do no Service to the late King by it and he does not seem to design the Honor of the Preachers It is hard to guess his meaning but if he tempts out an ill Thought he must blame himself He gives us nothing else to think but that he might be one of the Adepti one of those who knew the Secret for in the late Times they tell us there was a Secret The Ministers of State they say who knew the Resolves of the Court to be harsh and severe made it their business to persuade Men to preach and talk up Passive Obedience that what could not be done by the Power of the King might be gained by the easie Submissions of the People This was Machiavel to purpose It is sad and lamentable that so excellent a Doctrine should be abused by such designs of naughty Men. If our Author was one of their Instruments and knew what he did he can neither excuse himself to God nor Man I will undertake for our excellent Divines whom he commends and I and all others must do the same that they were never thought so base as to be trusted with the Knowledge of such a pernicious Design They out of Honesty and Sincerity preached against Rebellion and persuaded Men rather to suffer than obey evil Commands but they would not for all the World that the innocent and conscientious should be cheated of their Lives and Fortunes by any Discourses of theirs Therefore when it was proper they preached up this Doctrine but when it was not they let it alone because they would not have the People to rebel nor would they give Encouragement to such as might be willing to oppress them in both these things they did their Duty both to the King and to the People It had been well if others would have done the same and spoke as plainly to the King as they did to the People But it was very ill done if done at all to persuade the King that the People of England were so subdued by the Doctrine of Passive Obedience grown so tame and easie that he might do what he would pull down and set up what Religion what Law he pleased It is certain that all the Preachers in the World could never persuade them to this for tho the People be Loyal and willing enough that the King should have his Dues yet they were never thought a Nation of Asses fit only to bear Burdens As they are not born Slaves and by the Constitution of the Nation ought not to be made Slaves so they have more Spirit and Wit than to suffer themselves to be cheated into Slavery Their Forefathers for many Ages have made a difference between the King and his Counsellors tho they would suffer the one yet they would not suffer the other and certainly the Men of this Age should not be thought so dull
himself prescribed when he gave them power of ruling and governing If we say that the necessity of human Affairs does require that Princes should be unaccountable in this World it may be allowed so far as that necessity appears but then their Exemption from Check or Controul does not derive from the Source and Origine of their power that is from God but from another Cause which must be fairly made out upon the Compare of Benefits or Mischiefs that happen from the one supposition or the other But when men say that because Kings receive their Power from God they must have no letts from human Constitutions of doing what they will good or bad and then distinguish that though they are uncontroulable unaccountable in this World yet they are accountable to God and must give a strict Account to him and that for the same Reason because they receive their Power from God I should think that such men are unkind to Kings and treat 'em with the most uncouth Courtship in the World For they do in effect tell them this You are great and powerful you may do what you please you have none to fear but God nothing to be affraid of but Hell and Damnation Others are awed by human Laws they are kept in and restrained from doing the Evils they might do they are made better than they would be and so put into a way of Salvation but you Great Princes you are entirely free you may do as you will as you have none above you so you have none to awe you none to give stop to you in all the eruptions of nature or humour but only God and his last dreadful Judgments I should think a Christian Prince should give a Courtier but little thanks for such a Speech as this as he has a Soul to be saved he must rejoyce in God's preventing Grace and give thanks when ever it pleases God to keep him from doing evil and he may likewise be glad if by Laws and human Constitutions his ways were so bounded and fenced in that it might be impossible for him to deviate from Righteousness and Justice so he would be in the ready way of being Happy here and Glorious hereafter As to the Interests of a King of England it is but vain to search into the Source and Origine of his Power how it may be said to be from God or how from the People seeing he has that singular happiness that if he will Act truly his part according to the National Constitution he must appear in the Exercise of his Power altogether Divine like God Himself He is Great and Powerful his Person is Sacred his Actions unquestionable He does good and nothing but good inasmuch as the Powers of Dispensing of Favours and Benefits the Power of Rewarding Advancing Preferring of giving Riches and Honours to the Industrious and Well-deserving the Power of Protecting Defending Relieving Pardoning the poor or miserable are intirely left to Him But then the Power or Impotency of doing Wrong Injury or Evil to others is absolutely taken from Him A King of England as such can do no wrong if he does it he stretches beyond himself and the Man is too hard for the King because according to this National Constitution all those Acts wherein wrong can be done are to be done not by himself but by proper Ministers and Officers who are accountable for the actions which they do or may have done Thus the Kings Person is Sacred and his Actions unquestionable and they that do wrong are answerable to the Law and may suffer according to their demerits This certainly was a happy Contrivance of Wisdom in our Fore-Fathers to secure the Veneration that is due to Princes and withal to provide that goodness and Righteousness may flourish in their Kingdoms The Subject every one of them either by himself or his representative agrees that he will be hanged or Gibbetted submit to the halter or the axe if ever he be mutinous or rebellious against the King His King he will Love and Honour Serve and Obey Fight and be willing to Dye for Him He shall be Great and Powerful Dreadful to Enemies abroad and Dreadful to Enemies at home and have all the Assistances of Men and Moneys to inable him to do all the good his heart can wish for if he will but ask it and that His Majesty may yet be more Bright and Illustrious He in his particular in all his Actions shall be unquestionable unaccountable On the other hand the King agrees that he will Protect and Defend his Subjects Support them in all their Rights he will use their Assistances to beat down and subdue all their Enemies and take Care that they may Live in Peace and Prosperity He will not oppress or trample upon any whether great or little Nay He will not leave it in his own Power to be able to do wrong or injury to them And therefore He will make Laws by his People's Consent in Parliaments He will Conduct the Interest of the Nation by Advice of his Subjects in Council He will Rule by Officers and Judge by Ministers chosen out from amongst themselves and that in all Causes both between themselves and between himself and them who shall pronounce and determine about right and wrong and who is guilty and who is not without the least appeal to him And then lest those Judges as Men should warp aside and think that they may be able by their goodly appearances to bear down right and set up wrong they themselves shall not be impowered to pronounce a Judgment in any Cause but as a Jury of Neighbours Twelve Men chosen out of the Voicenage shall first find it to be After all this The King agrees that Ministers of State Privy Councellors Military Officers Judges in Courts and each particular Jury-man shall be questionable and accountable punishable for any corruption oppression wrong or injury that by Law he shall be found guilty of and that as much as rebells are which too has actually been done in several Reigns How Venerable and Divine is this whole Disposition and Order of Affairs What appearance is there of Wisdom and Goodness that is of God in it If a Prince would be Great he must be Good and if he keep to these Methods he must be both And if a People would have happiness in this World they must either find it in such a Constitution as this or seek it in Vtopia Why then do Men trouble themselves to seek for the Source and Origine of Power and think they do much in shewing that it comes from God and God only Whereas we have here before us Power running down from the Fountain-head a long way and in all its course like it self the same it was pure and clean and in all its appearances Divine and God-like it acts just as God would have it and tends to all those glorious Ends for which God gave it and to which God requires and