His Sovereignty and their own Dependency from and Subordination and Subjection to him so it is the good will and pleasure of God that all Subjects should in Testimony of their Subjection to Sovereignty and in true Acknowledgment of their Supremacy contribute some of their Means for the Maintenance and honour of the King this is the Apostles Doctrine Rom. 13. 6. For for this Cause pay you Tribute also for they are Gods Ministers attending continually upon this very thing What can be more fully said They are immediately from God They are Gods Ministers for this Cause then we are bound to pay Tribute And let the for in the Frontispiece of the verse make you reflect your eyes upon that which goeth before and you will find it is not an arbitrary Right they have to this which is given upon them by a voluntary Compact or Grant or extorted by Fear the Apostle sheweth this we do not only for Wrath that is for fear of Punishment for in their Power it is to punish those who will not do this Duty but for Conscience sake This our Lord and Master both taught and practised paying Tribute to Caesar and commanding to render to Caesar the things that were Caesar's due to him as Caesar not by grant or compact from the People And Reason it self evinceth that this Maintenance should be proportioned to that high Degree and Measure as may preserve his Glory and Majesty that it be not lessened or contemned and as may sufficiently enable him to act and effect the happy works and Fruits of Royal Government to preserve all in Peace and Plenty See to this purpose Iustin Martyr Apolog. 2. and St. Chrysostom upon Rom. 13. passim This Doctrine that Kings are immediately from God and independent from all other Creatures whatsoever teacheth also that it is high Rebellion against God to oppose or resist the King This Consequence the Apostle thus deduceth Rom. 13. vers 1. The Powers that be are ordained of God vers 2. Ergo Whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation Pardon me to cite Chrysostom upon the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that obeyeth not the King fighteth against God what do they then that come in Arms against him who by his Law hath established Obedience and not Resistance and the Apostle every where always and upon all Occasions endeavoureth this mainly that our Obedience to Kings is not arbitrary conditional or by compact but necessary and imposed upon us by God Holy Scripture is so careful we oppose not sacred Authority that it hath forbidden it in all it's kinds all it's degrees 1. We are not to think a bad Thought of them in our Hearts Eccles. 10. 20. 2. The Tongue is not to speak Evil of them Exod. 22. 28. Iud. 8. Consequently neither Pen nor Press are to write or print to their Disgrace and Disadvantage 3. We are not with Iudas to lift up our heel 4. David's Heart smote him when he smote Saul's Garment 5. The hand cannot stretch out it self against the Lords Anointed and the Actor be innocent 6. It is to fight against God for he that rebelleth against the King rebelleth against God He that blasphemeth the King blasphemeth God 1. Kings 21. The Prodigal in his Return acknowledgeth he sinned no less against Heaven than his Father God hath taken them in Societatem nominis in societatem numinis Psal. 82. 6. 7. The greatness of the Sin may appear that the greatest of Judgments fall upon Traytors and Rebels Scripture is plentiful in Examples of this kind and all Story witnesseth for it Remember the Story of Rudolph Duke of Suevia who sware Allegiance to Henry the fourth by Pope Hildebrand was loosed from his Oath but miserably died he and before his Death the right hand with which he sware was cut off and say he could to the Bishops This is the hand was lifted up when I sware Allegiance to my Emperour justly cut off for my Perjury and Rebellion for which you are to answer who put me upon this mischievous Course and Rebellion See Aventine and others infinite Examples may be alledged If they escape the Judgment of men by their scarce warrantable Meekness and Clemency God hath Executioners in store and ready for them He will revenge for his own Interest If the King will not do Justice against a Traytor God will make his own Friend do it and if that fail his own Breast or both of them This was Absalom's case 2 Sam. 18. 14. Thy Confederates will do it This was Sheba's case 2 Sam. 20. 22. Before an Executioner be wanting thy own hand shall do it This was Achitophel's case who hanged himself 2 Sam. 17. 23. And Zimri's case too 1 Kings 16. 18. If no man will do it Earth and Hell will do it This was the case of Korah Dathan Abiram and their Complices Numb 16. 23. This is the first Rebellion in Scripture recorded against Prince and Priest And take with you Optatus Bishop of Milevis's note upon it no Sin in Scripture recorded hath a Judgment parallel to this If all Creatures should fail to be Executioners God will do it by his immediate hand from Heaven Psalm 144. 8. To shut up this God allowed no Sanctuary for Treason and Traytors as is manifest in the case of Ioab pulled from the Altar and Justice done upon him Lastly seeing the King is sacred in his Person in his Power in his Royal Christian Prerogative it is high Sacriledge and Intrusion upon God and the King to rob him of any part of his Sacred Right The ancient Church did judge so Hosius writing to Constantius an Arrian Emperour saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Holy Father and the whole Church in his time did account it a Theft and an Opposition to God and his Ordinance by Fraud or Force to cheat or extort from a King any thing due to his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Empire his Sovereignty It was not dreamed of then that an Excellency could be set up against a Majesty or a Coordinate power erected with Sovereignty In the happy time of the Christian Church this was the greatest Robbery the highest Sacriledge the most violent Intrusion upon God and his Anointed The best and readiest way for all Happiness to a Kingdom is when the King considereth that his Greatness and Glory consisteth in the Happiness of his Subjects and proportioneth all his Actions and Government to their Peace and Plenty and the People on the â—ther part when they level their Intentions Actions Enâ—eavours and Obedience to preserve his Sacred Person His Sacred Right and Royal Prerogative Let none â—ivide those things God hath conjoyned When People are thus affected it will move Kings for the good of their People with Saul to be ready to sacrifice Ionathan or with Codrus to dye himself for the Safety of his People or with David in great Judgments from God
to refute the Errour of the Canonists and others who hold that Directum Dominium the direct and primarie power supream whether Civil or Ecclesiastical is in the Pope as Christs Vicar upon earth immediately from Christ derived unto him and from Him to all Kings whatsoever mediately by Dependence and Subordination The Jesuits are ashamed of this and therefore will have the Pope only to have Indirectum Imporium an Indirect Directive and Coercive power over all Kings and States in ordine ad Spiritualia as civil Power and Businesses are related to Religion and Salvation It is a curious subtle quirk and nicity of Scholastick Invention and a jugling Trick to bring all Kings Christian at Least Kingdoms and States into Subordination and Subjection to the transcendent and extravagant power of the Pope nor doth this Expression differ from the other in re in the matter or extent of the Power but in modo rei in the manner of the thing as they claim it And cometh fully home that the Pope by this indirect Right of his related to Religion by which any civil Act or Business whatsoever with his School Formalities he may qualifie with such an Ordination and Relation to Spirituals that directly by this indirect power he may King and Unking at his Pleasure Our Presbyterians if they run not fully in this way they are very near to it I wish we were so happy this time as that we had not to do with other Impugners of Sacred and Royal Authority but Jesuits and Canonists That which we have proposed to our selves in this short ensuing Treatise is to consider the main grounds by which the Jesuit and Puritan endeavour by no less spurious than specious Pretexts of Liberty of the People and Subject of the reforming of Religion purging it from Error preserving it in Purity to rob Kings of their Sacred and divine Right Prerogative making them Derivatives from the People in whom they will have all Supream Power originally and radically primarily seated So that if Kings fail in Performance of their Duty the People may supply it at least in some cases may do it of themselves Nay that Kings are accountable to them as to their Superiours censurable punishable and dethronable too By which the Copy-hold of a Crown is no better than Durante beneplacito plebis or communitatis during the good Will of the Community for by these mens Principles the People are made Judges and may find exigents which will warrant them to resume and to exercise this power Puritan and Jesuit in this not only consent and concur but like Herod and Pilate are reconciled to crucifie the Lords anointed A thousand pities it is that our Sectaries pretending such a Zeal against Popery and who no less maliciously than confidently rub upon sound Protestants the Aspersions of Popery and Malignancy do joyn with the worst of Papists in the worst at least most pernicious Doctrines of Papists But ten thousand times more pity it is that the true reformed and sound Protestant Religion should suffer by such miscreants that sound Protestants should be charged with these Heresies in after Ages We will be forced to disclaim them and say with St. Iohn They were amongst us but were not of us and they have gone out from us It is not warrantable to be so large in our charitable Defence of any as to prejudice the inviolable and sacred Truth of Almighty God Our work is to examine and discuss some new devised State-principles set on foot in this distempered Age which have robbed Church and State of Peace and Happiness which these Kingdoms of late and long Continuance have plentifully enjoyed under the Government of our blessed King and his Predecessors to the Envy of other neighbour Kingdoms and States These may all of them be reduced to five great ones 1. First that Royal Authority is originally and radically in the People from them by Consent derived to Kings immediately mediately only from God That the Collation or Donation of the Power is from the Community The Approbation only from God 2. The second that God is no more Author of Regal than of Aristocratical and Democratical Power of Supreme than of Subordinate and that Dominion which is usurped and not just while it remains Dominion and till it be legally again divested refers to God as to its Author and Donor as much as that which is hereditary 3. The third that Sovereignty and Power in a King is by Conveyance from the People by a Trust devolved upon him and that it is conditionate fiduciary and proportioned according as it pleaseth the Community to entrust more or less 4. The fourth that Royal Power in a King is not simply supreme but in some cases there is a co-ordinate Power or collateral nay that in some cases the King is subordinate to the Community 5. The fifth and last is that the King in some cases may be resisted and opposed by Violence Force and Arms at least in a defensive way These are the main Foundations upon which all those impious Courses are built and which have had such Influence upon disaffected and less knowing Subjects to raise and cherish these Distempers and Rebellions for which all sound-hearted and good Subjects mourn Yet to add the more Lustre to them there be couched under them or added to them a number of specious general Maxims apt to ensnare the popular Faction which we shall by Gods help clear and demonstrate to be Untruths and popular Sophisms as they offer in their own proper place The contrary of what they aâ—firm we hold to be sound Divinity agreeable to the Truth revealed in Scripture consonant to the Tenets and Practice of the ancient Christian Church and grounded upon sound Reason deducted out of nature and the best Institutions of Policy and Government That we may the more orderly proceed we sum up all into five Questions whereof the first is this Whether or not Sovereignty or the Royal Power of a King be independent from all Creatures solely and only dependent from God immediately from him and neither from the Community the diffusive collective representative or vertual Bodie of the People In which by Gods grace we will make it appear that the King is the derivative of the primative King who is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords The second is Whether or not God is no more Author of Royal Power than of Aristocratical or Democratical Of supreme than subordinate Of usurped and not just than of just Government and Regal In which it will appear that by Gods Institution Regal is graced and authorised above others that Aristocracy Democracy and Monarchy are not Species univocae regiminis sed analogicae not univocal Kinds and Species of Government but equivocal at best analogical are howsoever tolerable and not so perfect some way defective and that they degenerate from the true and most perfect Species of Government Monarchy in which is formalis completa gubernandi
will read their Distinction in answering the very same Objection that Zacharias the Pope both in the Deposition of the one and Constitution of the other had a hand consensivè not authoritativè by â—a naked Assent not by authoritative interposing or Right in this Act. To shut up all this I refer you to one place by viewing of which you shall have explicitly three Iacobus Almayn Iohannes de Parisiis and Ockam all of them Doctors of Paris and breathing the same thing with the Patavin Doctor Marsilius Almayn hath it who writ for Ockam and in the words alledgeth Iohannes de Paris verbatim de Supr Pot. Eccles. Laic q. 2. c. 5. where with Ockam he grants that the Pope for Heresie may depose a King and the people for transgressing against the Commonwealth But that you may conceive all aright he saith Non licet Papae nec propter civile nec propter spirituale crimen deponere nisi de per accidens Et non pertinet ad Papam sententÃaliter deponere Imperatorem licet spectet sententialiter excommunicare finaliter per censuram Excommunicationis eos qui habent Authoritatem deponendi cogere ut illum deponant Et sic de per accidens deponit solummodo non directè The Sense is It is not proper nor lawful to a Pope to depose an Emperour either for any civil or spiritual Crime for Errors in Policy or Religion but only accidentally The Pope may sentence the Emperour with Excommunication but not with Deposition and so upon the bye may move the people or the multitude who have Authority over him to dethrone him And this is done by the Pope not properly but improperly not effectively but consecutively The like he subjoyns concerning the Emperours power over the Pope that if the Pope abuse the power he hath to the Disturbance and Hurt of the civil State the Emperour may forfeit his State confiscate his Goods and so indirectly make move and force those who have power above the Pope which in their Opinion is the whole Church or the Representative which is an oecumenical Council to depose the Pope and institute another To these I might add Gerson and others I refer you to Gerson's Considerations and amongst these that you will read the seventh I have insisted on this especially for two Reasons the one is that you may see these Tenets came not into the World with Luther and Calvin but were long before there was any Word of a Reformer Ioannes de Parisiis lived and taught at Paris in King Philip sirnamed Pulcher and Boniface the eighth's time about the year of our Lord 1296. Willielme Ockam an English born and Regius Professor in Paris who writ his Dialogue at the Request of King Philip and after his Death fled to the Emperour Lewis the fourth died as some think about 1320. Gerson Chancellor of the University of Paris lived in the time of the Council of Constance and died about 1420. And Almayn the first and chief Professor in Sorbon who took upon him the Defence of Willielme Ockam if you will believe Flaccius Illyricus wrote Anno 1512. a book against Cajetan for the Power of a Council above the Pope which was printed Coloniae 1514. All these were prior to Luther or Calvin Our Rabbies then have drawn these Doctrines out of their polluted Cisterns The other Reason is because some too charitably and to the prejudice of Verity interpret the Authors above cited and their Kinsmen If any man will take and hold them to the better Sense I will not be contentious though I profess I cannot see it yet will it appear otherwise that those are not the Tenets of the reformed Catholick Church but the Foppery of Popery See Thomas Aquinas 1. de regim princ c. 6. where he saith Si ad jus multitudinis pertineat sibi providere de rege non injustè ab eadem Rex institutus potest destitui si potestate regni tyrannicè abutatur in which Passage you have that people may make Kings unmake them in case of Tyranny This Book is suspected and for many just and pregnant Reasons not to be Thomas Aquinas's and therefore I refer you to the genuine Thomas 1 2. q. 90. art 3. q. 97. art 3. 22 ae q. 10. art 10. And if I be mistaken of his Sense blame one of his acutest Scholars who avers it Suarez l. 3. defens orth fid adv Sect. Angliae ca. 2. And long before Thomas Aquinà s Pope Zachary taught the French this Doctrine as you may read Avent l. 3. Annal. Boiariae Princeps saith he Populo cujus beneficio possidet obnoxius est Quaecunque n. habet potentiam honorem divitias gloriam dignit aâ—em à populo accipit plebi accepta referat necesse est Regem plebs constituit eundem destituere potest He practised this about the middle of the eighth Age and for ought I know is the first Divine or Pope of Rome either that said so or writ so Some charitably plead for him and shew how averse he was from giving his Consent that at first he writ to disswade them from wronging Childerick who had his Right from God and writ thus to wash his hands in Innocency I will not take pains to vindicate him I leave that Labour to the Popes parasites yet it is worth our noting that when Pipin and his Complices were about this Treason to rob Childerick of his Crown although all things were in him that might perswade to such a Course Childerick being but a weak King a silly man drowned and buried in ease and pleasures childless nor any near to him yet at this time notwithstanding of all those Circumstances the like whereof never I think occurred before so odious a Crime it was to depose and set a King by his Throne though alâ—o all France had almost conspired with him yet fearing that the whole Christian World would cry fie upon them for such an Impiety they had Recourse to the Pope that by a specious shew of his Holiness and the Authority of that holy Church this great Impiety and Treason might be countenanced and go current This President was made a leading case in after Ages both for popish and popular Usurpation to intrude nay to invade upon the Sacred Right of Sacred Kings Nay our Puritans have from hence learned to colour and lustre their ugly Treasons and Seditions with the Cloak of Religion and Righteousness With the intimating of another Opinion of some who make regal Power resident in the People and from thence derived to the King I will close this Chapter Some do hold that all Sovereign power is primarily and naturally in the universitate civium multitude from it derived to the King immediately and mediately from God Who intending the Good Peace and Safety of Mankind which cannot be obtained without preservation of Order hath commanded and by an inviolable Ordinance and Institution appointed all to submit and subject themselves to
externum hominem by coactive Power or externam gubernationem Ecclesiae the external Government of the Church in appointing the use of things arbitrary and indifferent and what else is of this strain are so due to the Prerogative of the Crown as that we must not rob him of it nor may the Priest without highest Rebellion against God intrench or usurp upon the King A King in the State and Church is a mixed Person not simply Civil but Sacred too They are not only Professores fidei Professors of the Truth that they have in the Capacity of a Christian but they are also Propugnatores fidei Defenders of the Faith which is proper to them in the Capacity of a King What is the meaning of that that in Scripture they are honoured with more than the Stile of a Son of the Church they are called by Isaiah or rather God himself The Nurse-fathers of the Church This is not to be so scantled as if there were no more Influence from Kings upon the Church but by Honour and Riches other great men may and have done the like it is meant by some Influence from their Crown their Sword their Scepter What meaneth that Charge Psal. 2. 10 11 12. Be wise O ye Kings serve the Lord with Fear kiss the Son left he be angry and ye perish from the way When his Wrath is kindled but a little I will believe Saint Austin more than all the glorious pretended Reformers of this happy Reformation or Deformation rather writing to Boniface Quomodo enim saith he Reges Domino serviunt nisi ea quae contra jussa Domini fiunt religiosâ severitate prohibendo atque plectendo Aliter n. servit quà homo est aliter quà etiam Rex est Quia homo est ei servit fideliter vivendo quia vero etiam Rex est servit leges justa praecipientes contraria prohibentes convenienti vigâ—re sanciendo Sicut servivit Ezechias Lucos templa idolorum excelsa quae contra praecepta Dei fuerunt constructa destruendo Sicut servivit Iosias talia ipse faciendo Sicut servivit Rex Ninivitarum universam civitatem ad placandum Dominum compellando Sicut servivit Darius idolum frangendum in potestatem Danieli dando inimicos ejus Leonibus inferendo Sicut servivit Nebuchadnezzar de quo jam diximus omnes in regno suo positos à Blasphemando Deo legi terribili prohibende In hoc ergo serviunt Domino Reges in quantum Reges cum ea faciunt ad serviendum illi quae non possunt facere nisi Reges The Passage is plain and hath more for the Right of Kings than Iesuit or Puritan will allow them who will have them to be Ministri and Executores their Servants to put in Execution what they ordain and command To make Pope or Presbytery as the immediate Vicegerents of Christ and to authorize them with a coactive or a coercive Power to confirm their Orders to force him to repeal his own Laws and in case of Defailance or Refusal after Remonstrance is made or Supplication as they call it although possibly presented on the point of a Sword or Pike to stir up people against the Lords anointed to Sedition to Rebellion howsoever they deceive the simpler sort to make them believe they dye Martyrs is truly the Disgrace of Religion the highest of Treasons against God and man and to make poor People die Traytors to both If you make two Sovereigns in one Kingdom Independent one from another there is no more Peace or Quiet to be expected than was in Rebecca's Womb whilst Iacob and Esau did strive for the Prerogative of the first born Nay if you make the Sovereign and Supreme managing of Religion and religious Affairs to depend upon and properly belong either to any foreign power without the Kingdom as to the Pope or to any Power domestick within it as to the Presbytery or Assembly you commit and entrust to their managing the greatest and highest Affairs of Kingdom and State and if you take from the King the Regiment in Religion you take from him that which in its own nature is the mainest the chiefest and most excellent thing in Government as may appear by what is subjoyned Religion is the Base and Bottom on which all the Steadiness and Happiness of King and Kingdom are seated Religio Timor Dei solus est qui custodit hominum inter se societatem It is Religion and the Fear of God alone which preserveth all Society and consequently King and Kingdom Lactant. de Ira Dei c. 12. Religion is the Base and it is the Cement too of all other Societies besides this Plutarch saith that Religion is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which bindeth all Societies together and giveth Strength to all Laws Religion it hath a mighty Influence upon Laws it worketh hearty sincere and compleat Obedience Religion rightly ordered maketh the Prince rule well and people yield true real and perfect Obedience This made Aristotle say Polit. l. 7. c. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first care in Policy should be that of Religion and things divine Religion rightly ordered is the Preserver Nurse and Defence of the Quiet of King and State I say Religion rightly order'd for Superstition is a mad and madding thing Seneca ep 24. Superstitio error insanus est Trismegistus saith apud Lactant. Institut lib. 11. c. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Piety and the fear of God is the safety and only Defence of all things Religion in Sum is the only thing to make private and publick Affairs to prosper Which thing being infallibly true it must necessarily follow that Religion is the most important of all Affairs of State and Kingdom How can it then subsist and consist with Reason that the King shall have no more hand or Power in Religion than to execute at the Command of Pope or Presbytery To do it or do worse Christ did never institute such a Sovereignty in Ecclesiastical persons either Pope or Sectaries Independent from King and Sovereign with which they are invested with Power from Christ from above immediately If it were so the Pope or Presbytery were in better Condition than the King The Ecclesiastical Sovereignty hath the Souls in subjection under no less Sanction than with Assurance of Salvation eternal in case of Obedience and Damnation eternal in case of Disobedience and both of them to be extended both to Soul and Body Religion is seated in the Soul and is a mighty Ruler there the civil Sovereignty holdeth only a dead Dominion over the Bodies That Sovereignty which hath the Soul in Subjection the Conscience at his Devotion must over-rule Royal Civil Sovereignty and shall be able at any time so to limit weaken lessen yea disable it that it shall be no more fearful abroad nor glorious and powerful at home with it's Subjects than the spiritual Sovereignty shall permit It is most true and consonant to our
ab actu exercito ad actum signatum or contrarywise will not always hold or to reason à potentia secunda ad primam vel è contra from the Difference in the Exercise to conclude a Difference or Disparity in the first Capacity is inconsequent To be rational in the first Capacity and natural Power is essential to all men and equal in all but in the use the Exercise of the rational Faculty there is a vast Disparity because of a great Latitude in different actual Ability Nature admits a great Variety in the use and exercise of her natural Powers that all are not alike fitted and enabled for the second Acts. In the first Capacity nature is so just so equal so indulgent to all that the native first radical power being of it self in indivisibili is equal in all no less in homine tenuissimi sensûs in the least knowing man than in him who in Sharpness of Wit approacheth nearest to Angelical and Noetical Spirits Take another Instance the face of man is not much above a Span in Length or Breath yet what an immense Variety is there in the faces of men Naturalists and Moralists do hold and not without great shew of Reason that from the first to the last man every individual hath his own proper peculiar face Can Suarez or any other from this Variety in the antecedent bring home this Conclusion in the Consequent Ergo a face is not natural to man but something casual or accidental The Result is we must pitch upon some things natural which are uniform in all and which yet admit in the multivarious Wisdom of God and large work of nature some room and place of Variety which Variety doth neither abolish nor destroy the Essentials We will find the like in Monarchy that all of them are uniform in their Essentials and accidental Varieties do not prove them to be of humane Composition or Constitution If Instances in things natural do not the Business let me entreat the Iesuit and Puritan to look upon moral things where they will find the like Vltio scelerum that gross enormous Crimes are to be punished with a condign proportioned Punishment is the Ordinance of God of Nature and common Equity This Truth is undenyable Is there not a great Variety and Difference in the measure and manner of the Punishment in different Kingdoms and Nations Theft somewhere is punished by Death somewhere by Restitution and that of Restitution somewhere twofold somewhere threefold some fourfold c. somewhere it is punished by Slavery somewhere one way somewhere another way Infinite Instances of this kind might be adduced Can you from hence conclude that the Punishment of Theft is not an inviolable Order and Ordinance of Almighty God and common Equity But that it hath all its Entity and Being by influence from humane Appointment A Country Clown would jeer you for this We deny not but Gods Works are uniform in their Essentials it a ut nec augeri nec minui possunt that if you take the least part of the Essentials if Essentials may truly be said to have parts from them they perish yet this may well subsist with some more some less power in the actuating or exercising of this natural uniform Power No understanding Iesuit will deny but acknowledge that Episcopacy with all its essential Power is immediately from God and of his Institution and yet may it not be that in actu exercito in the exercise of this Power some Bishops may have more some less power in actuating that which they are not restrained from but may do ex vi ordinis by their sacred native Power A Bishop ex vi ordinis by his inherent Power of Consecration may ordain every where in the World as many Priests as many Deacons as he will yet may he not be restrained that he shall not do it without his own Diocess May he not by the same Power ordain a Priest without a Title or Cure and yet may he not be restrained by positive Consent and Constitution that he shall not do it Is not the case possible and probable that Bishops of one particular Church may be more restrained than Bishops of another particular Church Can Suarez or any other than conclude from this Variety in the Exercise of Episcopacy that Episcopacy with it's radical Power is not immediately from God and Christ He hath more Learning and Candor than will allow him to be so absurd The Sectary feeleth no hurt by this Stroke Well let us come home to him I demand of the Sectary whether or not a Minister made I dare not say a Priest in sacred Orders or ordained by Imposition of hands this Christian Practice is Antichristianism now a-days hath not all the Power naturally inherent in him that any other Minister whosoever or wheresoever else I am confident none of them will deny it Again may he not be restrained to do no Ministerial act as to Baptize Preach c. but within his own Parish unless he be otherwise licensed No moderate Sectary if any such be doth deny this Come on In some cases of Jurisdiction I fear the Term offends the Ears and Stomach of the Precisian in some cases of Discipline I say of which by Gods Law and his calling excuse me to keep their own Diction he hath full Power within his Charge may he not be so restrained that some reserved cases this Phrase I fear be offensive that some points of Discipline be reserved as peculiar for the Classis the Presbytery and that their Judgment is only to be executed by the Parish Pope This is a known case amongst them Again may there not be some points of Discipline and Doctrine too reserved as proper and peculiar for a Provincial And again some of that high Strain and Concernment that they cannot be cognosced or determined but by a general Assembly of such a monstrous Composition a Tragelaphus such as never Christ instituted nor Christian Church knew All this holds with their Tenets their Practices Further I demand may it not be that in particular National Churches as the Church of Germany the Church of France the Church of Scotland are in these cases reserved respectively as we expressed before that there may be a great Variety and Difference Now notwithstanding of all those Restraints by which Ministers so evidently and actually differ in the exercise and actuating of their Ministerial Charge and Function The Sectary that understands himself aright will be very loath to have the Conclusion brought home that the Ministerial Power is all by humane Institution by humane Composition Contract or that his Calling is humane only conventional only pactional only As he answereth for himself I hope he will furnish us an Answer how to take off this Argument so much triumphed in both by him and his spurious Father the Jesuit I take the Observator to be a Lay Gentleman and it may be as the times are he careth not much for
Sacro-sancta Regum Majestas OR THE SACRED and ROYAL Prerogative OF Christian Kings Wherein Sovereignty is by Holy Scriptures Reverend Antiquity and sound Reason asserted by discussing of five Questions AND The Puritanical Jesuitical Antimonarchical Grounds are disproved and the untruth and weakness of their new-devised-State-principles are discovered Rom. 13. 1 2. The Powers that be are ordained of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the Powâ—â— resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist â—â—all receive to themselves damnation Dei Gratia Mea Lux. London Printed for Tho. Dring over against the Inner-Temple-Gate in Fleet-street 1680. TO THE DUKE of ORMOND MY LORD PIety and Policy Church and State Prince and Priest are so nearly and naturally conjoyned in a mutual Interest that like to Hippocrates his Twins they rejoyce and mourn flourish and perish live and dye together Sound Reformed Catholick Protestants deny justly such a Subordination of the Prince to the Priest as by any direct or indirect over-ruling Power the Crown and Scepter are under any coactive directive we acknowledge over-ruling Power of the Mitre and that Kings by any Church-man or men whatsoever Pope or Presbytery are censurable dethronable deposable Notwithstanding it is certain Religion hath a mighty Influence upon State Governour and Government that from the happiness and quiet of Religion issueth forth necessarily the happiness and quiet of the Civil State The Heathen did see this that Religion rightly ordered is the Base and Bottom upon which King and State are founded Religion is the cement of all Societies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it bindeth Families together and Cities too and is their greatest splendour and ornament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That one saith Religion is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and a Christian to the same purpose Religio timor Dei solus est qui custodit hominum inter se Societatem Religion and the Fear of God and nothing else preserveth all Societies amongst men Religion teacheth Kings how to rule and Subjects how to obey maketh Obedience complete universal entire in all things not partial in some things onely it teacheth our Reverence Service and Obedience not to be outward with Eye-service but sincere for Conscience sake as in the sight of the Lord. Religion hath a powerful influence upon Laws the Heathen who termed Religion the Cement of all Society calleth it too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Cement the Strength the Vigour the Life of all Laws This made Zoroaster authorise the Laws by Horomasis Zamolxis by Vesta Trismegistus by Mercurius Minos by Jupiter Charondus by Saturnus Draco and Solon by Minerva and Apollo and Numa Pompilius by Aegeria Religion is the Nurse of the Quiet of State and Common-wealth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If all living in one Society and Kingdom were pious and religious none would wrong themselves or others Take it more fully from a Christian Emperour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If Religion be preserved in Peace it rights and facilitates all the rest of the Government Religion is the Walls Strength and Safeguard of King and Kingdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Overthrow me Sion Civitatem Veritatis Sanctitatis and you cannot but overthrow Ierusalem Civitatem justitiae all this is much more and solely verified of the Christian Religion a strange Wonder then it is that so many Achitophels and Achans in the World should promise to themselves undertake to Christian Kings by sacrificing the Church undoing the Solemnity of the Service and Worship of God destroying Christ his Ordinances robbing him of his Patrimony and Right to establish King and Kingdom Peace and Quiet in the Land How is it probable or possible Religion being the Base and Bottom upon which all Happiness of King and Kingdom are grounded and founded the Cement and Bond that tieth all together the Rule of Right ruling the Mother of entire and hearty Obedience the life of Laws the use of Quiet and Strength of all Defence that it being disordered King Kingdom and State can be well and enjoy any kind of Happiness If neither the Dictate of Nature nor sacred Truth revealed in holy Word should confirm this Truth the sad and doleful Experience we find we feel this day in the Acheldama of these Kingdoms has laid it open to our Eyes in Letters of Blood that he that runneth by may read it Consider how since the Sacred Hierarchy the Order instituted by Christ for the Government of his Church constituted by the Apostles and continued against any prevalent Opposition for fifteen Ages and upwards without Interruption hath been opposed that in some places it is totally overthrown in other places disgraced weakened and threatned with Abolition of Root and Branch what is the Condition of Sovereignty and Subject You shall find that the Course against it hath been a preparatory Destructive to Royalty to the Liberty and Propriety of the Subject Many are deceived and think it skilleth not what Government be in the Church it is enough if the Essentials and Fundamentals of Faith and Worship be preserved They are infinitely deceived no Society can subsist without Government and if you destroy the Government neither can the sound Faith nor the true Worship be long maintained The Apostle intimateth this Col. 11. 5. that he joyed to behold their Order and the stedfastness of their Faith in Christ. First their Order then the stedfastness of their Faith in Christ implying where right Order is non maintained stedfastness of Faith in Christ cannot continue A Holy Father to this purpose saith well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Order is the Mother and Security of the Being of all things that have Being Do we not see that the Order and Government of the Roman Church doth this day preserve their Humane Inventions and unwarrantable Superstions in such Safety that alas Truth doth not prevail much upon them are within her Communion and on the other part our Disorder and not setled Government maketh us lose too too much and gain too too little Look a little upon the Parallel and consider how since Episcopacy hath been infested and way too much given to a prevalent Faction what malign Influence this course hath had upon Sovereignty and it will make it appear that the Mitre cannot suffer and the Diadem be secured It was maintained that Episcopacy was none of Christ's Institution it was onely the positive constitution of man Hath not Royalty been thus entertained Do not our Sectaries impudently maintain that Kings are the onely Extract of the People having their Being and Constitution by derivation from them Do they not hold that howsoever Episcopacy is a tolerable government of the Church yet it is mutable at the pleasure of the Church And do they not answerably aver that the collective or representative Body of the Community may upon any real or fancied Exigent mould themselves into an Aristocracie or Democracie Others more desperately have reached higher and give out that the Sacred
made the young dumb Prince speak All men are tied to the maintenance of Sovereign Right none amongst men more than Church-men it is a necessary truth as aptly plentifully and purposely set forth in Gods Word as any else Prince and Priest were once joyned in one Person and are so tied that Alterius Altera poscit opem res conspirat amicè We find onely three Office-bearers anointed by God King Priest and Prophet who then more tied to maintain the Lord 's Anointed and his Right than Priests and Prophets God hath honoured Kings to be the Nurse-fathers of his Church nor when we reflect upon by-gone Story find 〈◊〉 that ever the Church had either Beauty Plenty or Progress but under Monarchy and view this day the condition of the Christian Church under any other Government than Monarchy and we will find her condition but sorry and poor It is the onely Government which is most conntenanced and magnified in Holy Writ And I dare to say that none or all of them who ever writ purposely of Politicks or in an Historical way laid down Political Maxims whether it be Plato in his fancied Republick or Aristotle in his Politicks or Cicero or Livie or Dionysius Halicarnasseus or Cornelius Tacitus or who besides either by Art or Story is most renowned this way have given us so fully so apertly the Right of Monarchy the true prescript of Government and perfect Rule of Obedience to the Subject The Ancient Fathers and Martyrs whilst Emperours were Heathenish and Persecutors have delivered this Doctrine pleaded the Sacred Royal Prerogative of Emperours and with other Truths have sealed this with their Blood Who can deny then but it beseemeth a Divine most of all men to maintain or write of this subject A wonder then it is that some Smatterers in Divinity writing in this subject do borrow Principles from old Poetical Fables and Toyes make premises and infer Conclusions not onely destructive of Monarchy but also contradictory to that Truth Scripture hath revealed Like to them are our Pettifoggers in the Law I reverence Learned Iureconsults who deserved well in this subject who cry out what have Church-men to do to dispute the King 's Right that belongeth to us who are versed in the Laws of the Kingdom and know what Power the Law alloweth the King what not these Ignaroes who are better versed in the Statutes and Acts of Parliament than in the Acts of Christ and his Apostles may even as well go about not to authorize the Book of God except it be warranted by their Law as to aver that the King hath nothing immediately from God nor no Sacred Right but what He hath by Law More learned Lawyers than they can be as Bodin Barclay and others have treated of this matter and made as good Vse of Scripture and Holy Fathers writing as any other Warrant besides It is more than evident then that no men are more obliged no men may be more fitted to maintain the Royal Prerogative of Kings than Divines But Officiis quis idoneus istis I confess my weakness my insufficiency and am forced to have recourse to a Patron worthy of it and able to maintain it I could hit upon no subject more worthy of so great a Personage as you are nor a Patron so worthy so enabled to maintain it and its poor Author as your Lordship Nobles are amongst Subjects the first-born the ennobled amongst the Romans had a badge of a Moon or Crescent in Plutarch's judgment not so much to signifie the instability or frailty of their Place and Honour as to put them in mind to be obedient and loyal to their Prince the Fountain of their high Dignity as the Sun is to the Moon for your high Nobility by a long continued race transmitted to you from most noble Ancestours to write or recite it were as to light a candle to add light to the Sun in his strength in his vertical point and that transmitted so from them and derived to you that in that whole Stem the Root and all Branches who inherited the Honour not any tainted with Disloyalty Nay their Honour is higher some of them have had the honour to dye in the highest Bed of Honour to lose their Lives and great State and Honour for Loyalty to Royalty This is nothing yet but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the splendour of Birth the glory due to those of whom you are descended Nam genus Proavos quae non fecimus ipsi Vix ea nostra voco True Nobility besides these requireth not onely the inheritance of Riches for that is but Antiquae inveteratae Divitiae as Athlary writ to the Senate of Rome with the inheritance of Honour for that it is a Body empty of a living Soul but it is to inherit the Noble Honour of Noble and Generous Ancestours Nobile saith Aristotle id est quod ex bono genere prodit generosum quod à sua natura non degeneravit Herein you all meet for Honour and Virtue do contest for the Excellency but Virtue truly hath the Eminency In you is verified that of the Lyrick Poet. Fortes creantur fortibus bonis Est in juvencis est in equis Patrum Virtus nec imbellem feroces Progenerant aquilae columbam Malice it self how ingeniously witty soever cannot prejudice you in this whose Piety is admirable whose Wisdom and Prudence is above Age above the ordinary and all your Equals a master of your Passions and so experienced in matters of State and Government that it is a wonder to them who know you and incredible to those that have not been eye and ear witnesses Your Heroical magnanimity speaketh it self in your Heroick Martial Acts admired not onely by excellent Commanders not onely for Courage but for Prudence and rare Government by which you gained so much that the valiant Annibals and Scipioes there would rather sacrifice themselves than expose You to Danger and yet you would not act the General but by doing the valiant Acts contemning Dangers and Death beseeming inferiour Officers but worthy of the greatest Caesar. Who can consider aright that more than admirable piece of Prudence in that Treaty of Cessation in such a time and such a case where You were so assaulted with two of the worst extremes of Opinions enraged both of them with the same degree of madness but must say that is true Cicero said de nat deor Nullus unquam magnus vir fuit sine afflatu divino The intelligent and better sort must confess that without a great mercy to us and more than ordinary Favour from God this could not have been effected The better sort are confident the happy Effects of that Work will make many Souls live and Your Honour live for ever These are the Load-stones of all the Honour the Love and Zeal which have necessitated me to take recourse to Your Honour's Patrocine that what is deficient in me and this poor trifling Treatise
may be compensed by that eminent Worth and Perfection is in You. I do confess I have so many ties by personal Favours received above my desert that I were the ingratest of Christians if I did not acknowledge it yet give me leave to speak truth notwithstanding all these Endowments if I had not seen and were not assured that in none in this Age there can be seen more true discreet Zeal to Christ's Church and Loyalty to Your Master our most gracious King I had never presumed to go this way I see it even there and then where and when Satan had erected his Throne and Antipas God and the King 's faithful Servant did fuffer My Lord God hath sent You to us for a comfort in these worst of Christian times who knoweth but at this time You are set at the Helm to help the Lord right his Anointed and to save a poor Church threatned with ruine Go on in Your Piety and Devotion with these Heroical Endowments God hath enabled You and be assured God will heap Honour on you and your Noble Family for ever and reward you with an uncorrupt undefiled and Eternal Crown of Glory Which shall be the fervent and constant Prayers of Your Lordships most humble and bounden Servant I. A. To the Christian Reader CHristian Reader this is an Extemporary Piece which was extorted by the importunity of Friends who prevailed so far with me that I chose rather to expose my Weakness and it to the Censure of the World than uncourteously refuse them To strengthen Truth I was able to bring more Zeal and good Affection than any other Abilities Believe I write nothing but that I am assured of in Conscience in certitudine mentis and which I believe to be really certain in certitudine entis God knows I am far from temporizing and he is of weak apprehension that in this Distemper can expect any great Reward by appearing in Publick to maintain this Sacred Truth Experience teacheth us that it is more advantageous to run the contrary course if a good Conscience could allow it If the method in handling and proposing these five ensuing Questions be not so orderly I beg pardon and that justly because I follow the Order proposed by the Observator If the Diction be not so terse and pregnant I am not able to help it for by nature I am not enabled to delicate and witty Expressions nor have I endeavoured by Industry to help those natural Defects My care was ever to study Truth and Reality more than flowers of Eloquence holding that for one as I am of small reach the better way is rather to be inter reales than inter nominales If there be any tart Expression construe it charitably as fallen by inadvertence from my Pen whereas there was no Gall in my Heart If any will be at pains to examine it critically and to answer it rationally and fully I humbly intreat him to do it in a Christian and Charitable way without Passion for which I shall heartily thank him And if I be not able with as much reason to answer him I shall not be ashamed to retract my Errours and joyn Heart Hand and Pen for him and all Christian Sacred Truth of which kind I hold those which I would maintain to be If any thing in it give thee content thank God for it and pray for Grace and Strength to the weak Author who hath resolved to be a Lover a Professor and a maintainer of Truth according to his Power at whatsoever peril to advance the true Reformed Catholick Religion and what may conduce to the Honour of our Church to the overthrow of that is truly Popery and to the regaining of all erring Sectaries to the Communion of this Church And let all of us put up our hearty and humble Prayers to Almighty God to touch our Hearts that we may endeavour to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace to do good in his good pleasure unto Sion to build up the Walls of Ierusalem to re-establish his Anointed our Sovereign in His Throne and Right to set aright what is disjoynted in Church and State that all of us may be happy here and receive that Crown of Glory which the righteous Judge hath laid up for them that love him his Truth and Christian Peace Si quid novisti rectius istis Candidus imperti si non his utere mecunt Elenchus Questionum Quaestio Prima WHether or not the King be onely and immediately dependent from God and independent from the Body of the People diffusive collective representative or virtual Affirmatur Quaestio Secunda Whether or not God is no more Author of Regal than of Aristocratical and Democratical Power Of Supreme then of Subordinate Command and whether or not that Dominion which is usurped while it remains Dominion and till it be legally divested again refers to God as its Author and Donor as much as that which is hereditaryâ— Negatur Quaestio Tertia Whether or not the nature of conveyance of Sovereignty to the King is by Trust immediately from the People and mediately onely from God and as Fiduciary so Conditionate and proportioned to what measure or portion the People please or is it intirely and immediately by a Trust devolved upon him from the King of Kings Neg. prius Aff. posterius Quaestio Quarta Whether or not be there any Jura Majestatis some Divine Prerogatives intrinsecally inherent in the Kings Crown and Sovereignty which are incommunicable to the Subjects Aff. Where is explained what they be Quaestio Quinta Whether or not in any case upon any reason just or pretended it be lawful for the Subject or Subjects in what Notion soever imaginable singly or joyntly collectively or representatively to oppose the Sacred Authority of the King by Force or Arms or to resist him either in a Defensive or Offensive way Neg. Elenchus Capitum QUESTIONIS PRIMAE THE Preface Page 1. containing the Sum Method and Order of the ensuing Treatise Chap. I. Wherein is maintained that the King is onely and immediately dependent from God and independent from the Body of the People diffusive collective representative or virtual The contrary Opinion is explained the Authors and Asserters some of them with their differences are recited Pag. 9. Chap. II. How that God is the immediate Author of Sovereignty in the King and how he is no Creature of the Peoples making is explained and proved by Scriptures 30. Chap. III. The same Truth is proved by more Arguments from Holy Scripture 57. Chap. IV. That Kings are onely dependent from God and not from the Community is further proved by Scripture The poor shifts of Suarez and Bellarmine are removed who abusing the passage Deut. 17. would have the constitution of the Kings of Israel to relate to the People as its real and proper origine and Cause and the priviledged case onely this that God reserved to himself the designation of the Person of the King 62.
ratio the most formal and compleat Eâ—â—ence of Government The third is Whether or not Sovereignty and Royalty be in a King by Conveyance of Trust fiduciary and conditionate issuing from the People by a Trust devolved upon him in that portion it pleaseth them to proportion In which will be evident that the Trust of Sovereignty and Government is by God devolved upon the King That all Sovereignty related to God is fiduciary and conditionate but related to the People is absolute The fourth is Whether or not by divine Institution any man or men some few or many have any co-ordinate co-equal or collateral Power with the Sovereignty of Royalty Or whether or not in any case or exigent a King can be subordinate In the Resolution of which Question fitly and conveniently will be discussed that In quo formale Imperii consistit that in which the essence of Sovereignty doth consist and without which it cannot subsist as that it is supreme perpetual and freed from all coercive and coactive Power which the Hebrews call Imperium majus the Politicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The fifth and last is Whether or not in any case it is lawful for Subjects one any more or all to oppose a Prince Quaestio prima Whether or not the King be only and immediately dependent from God and independent from the Body of the People diffusive collective representative or vertual CHAP. I. The Affirmative is maintained the contrary Opinion is explained the Authors and Assertors some of them with their Differences are recited WE hold the Affirmative that the King is only and immediately dependent from Almighty God the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and independent in his Sovereignty and Power from the Community in what Notion soever you conceive it either as a diffusive collective representative or vertual Body The Jesuit and Puritan to depress Kings aver that all Power is originally radically and formally inherent in the People or Community and from thence is derived to the King In the explaining of this Proposition there is amongst those who lay this Foundation for the building of their Babel a great Latitude of Diversity Lately I read in one who is the Author of the Tract concerning Schism and Schismaticks pag. 29. We have believed him that hath told us that in Christ Iesus there is neither high nor low and that in giving Honour every man should be ready to prefer another before himself which saying cuts off all claim certainly of Superiority by Title of Christianity except men think that these things were spoken only to poor and private men Nature and Religion agree in this that neither of them hath an hand in this Herauldry of Secundùm sub supra all this comes from Composition and Agreement amongst themselves I have given you his words I should be glad to be mistaken and crave him Mercy But as I conceive him this Position is worse than any I know of the Jesuits or more moderate Sectaries both of them acknowledge a Necessity of Government is taught by Nature and Grace and that the Distinction of Superiority and Inferiority is the dictate of common Reason and Religion Otherwise neither Nature nor Religion may avoid Confusion or Destruction God who is the God of Order and not of Confusion is the Author of this Herauldry of Secundum sub supra in the whole Universe in Church in State Hath not God in the moral Law taught it Honora Patrem c. Honour thy Father c Do not St. Paul and St. Peter Rom. 13. 1. Pet. 2. 14. v. command this as the Will of God And did not our Saviour practise it and his Apostles after him and after them all the Christian Church You must take away humane Society in Church and State if you take away this Herauldry of Superiority and Inferiority Sure I am the Jesuits do hold that Government is ex jure naturae by the Law of Nature I hope our Sectaries think no worse in this point than the Jesuits I return to the Jesuit and Puritan who are very like-in this Tenet but give me Leave to say for as bad as the Jesuit is in my conceiving the Puritan is worse Let us make a parallel 1. First the Jesuit says that all Power civil is radically and originally seated in the Community or Multitude God having made it the Primum subjectum the first Subject in which it is seated The Puritan joyneth hands here with the Jesuit 2. Next both of them say it is from the Multitude by way of Collation and Donation to one as in Monarchy to some as in Aristocracy to many as in Democracy so that immediately it is from the People and mediately from God and not so much by Collation as by Approbation How the Jesuit and Puritan walk along in an unequal pace See Bellarmine l. de Laicis cap. 6. Suarez Defens Doctrinae Orthod contra Sectam Anglicanam l. 3. 3. Thirdly that the People may change Monarchy into Aristocracy or Democracy or an Aristocracy into a Monarchy or Democracy or è contrae which way you will for ought I know they differ not in this neither 4. But some of our new State-Divines do hold that this Power is derived to the King from the People Cumulativè or Communicativè non Privativè by way of Communication or Cumulation but not by way of Privation that is howsoever the People communicate this Sovereignty to the King by trust yet they denude not themselves of this Sovereignty To make it plain it is in their Opinion no otherwise than as when the King of England appoints a Lieutenant Deputy or High Commissioner of Ireland or Scotland he denudes not himself of his Royal Power but delegates them with Power and Trust for his Service If this be their mind for I cannot conjecture at any other and if they have any other Sense I wish they would make it plain the King is in a poor case by such a derived Power for then as the King of England giving to his Deputy or Deputies that power only cumulativè he cannot by Reason or Law seeing Potior est delegantis quam delegati authoritas that the Principal his Authority is more excellent than he delegate's nor can he be debarred from that right the Law of Nations giveth him Anticipatione concursu or evocatione by procognition his own proper entire Right or Evocation to determine or judge in any thing that concerneth that His Kingdom If they authorize the People so let any that hath common Sense judge in what Condition these new-state-divines do put Kings 4. They aver which maketh me the more inclinable to conceive that to be their mind which before we have expressed that the same Sovereign Power is Howsoever derived from the Community to the King in the people suppletivè that is that if the King be deficient in necessary Duties of Government for the good of the Church and State the People by their innate power may do
Happiness Nevertheless such was the merciful and bountiful dispensation of God in this cloudy and dark Oeconomy that sometimes thorow the thick and dark cloud of his Flesh and Infirmity some little rayes of his immense Majesty did appear as in his miraculous Operations even so in the same manner at many times and by many acts his Sovereignty was manifested and that he was truly King it was evidenced At his Birth The Wise men who came from the East worshipped him in his Swadling-clouts They are in Scripture and by the constant not interrupted course of the Church to this day commended for it In his Ministry he entred Ierusalem in Royal Pomp His Disciples and a great multitude did him obeysance gave him Royal Honour and when the Iews grumbled at it he told them that it was not onely just but necessary That if they and the People did hold their Peace the Stones would proclaim him King and do him Royal Homage In his Arraignment when he is to lay down his Soul for his Sheep he avouched himself before Pilate a King Pilate demands the Question Art thou a King Pilate understood not any Kingdom in his Question but a temporal one a Spiritual Kingdom in his conception was a meer Notion Fancy Chimaera Christ without dissimulation equivocation or mental reservation ad mentem interrogantis answereth he was a King Matth. 27. 11. Mark 15. 2. He had it written upon his Cross. Buried He had his Grave sealed as a King These things thus premised we come to prove that Kings are Christs Vicegerents and Lieutenants upon the face of the Earth 1. Our first proof is the place we insisted much in before Prov. 8. 15. by what is said it is more than apparent that By me Kings reign hath this Sense By me Wisdom the Son of God the Word that was made Flesh Kings reign you may find many Reasons by reviewing the most learned and most pious Bishops Sermons Dr. Andrews whose Memory shall ever be in everlasting Benediction 1. First Prov. 30. 4. This Wisdom is called the Son of God 2. Next this preposition Per By it is the proper and peculiar preposition of Christ. 3. Thirdly it is not very congruous that as by Christ we have all Blessings spiritual in heavenly things so by him we have Kings his Derivatives constituted the best and most eminent of temporal Blessings 4. Fourthly Christ he is Wisdom and by him all Blessings issuing from Mercy Kingdoms subsist more by Wisdom than by Power why shall we not then from this Wisdom establish Kings and their Sovereignty The proper Work of Wisdom is ordinare to order and to establish Order Why then shall not all Monarchy refer its Origine to this Wisdom 5. Lastly the original word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bi is both in me per me in me and by me to intimate as we said before that Kings are first in him and so come forth from him and yet come so forth from him that they are in him Christ in them as his Deputies They in him as their Author and Authorisâ—r He by their Persons They by his Power 2. Our second Proof we bring from that Scripture averreth that Christ is not only King of his Church but in Order to his Church King over all the Kings and Kingdoms of the Earth Christs Kingdom over his Church Psal. 11. 6. 15. in these words expressed I have set my King upon my holy Hill Sion Over the whole World in these Words v. 8. I shall give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for thy Possession which is not to be scantled by conceiving it only of the calling of the Gentiles to the Communion of his Church but also of his Sovereignty over all the Earth and Kings of the Earth This Ordinance is by Appointment and a decree irrepealable v. 7. I will declare the Decree The words I shall give thee demonstrate that this potestas is not aeterna interna that eternal Power which is inseparable from him as God but data externa a given and bestowed Power which is not conceivable in Christ but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as man or God-man our Saviour and Redeemer 3. A third Proof may be this that as this was foretold by Prophecy so in the Fullness of time it was really effected and accomplished Matth. 28. 18. Our Saviour saith All Power is given to me in Heaven and in Earth The word Given sheweth this Power is fixed in that Capacity by which he is our Saviour all Power in Heaven and Earth universally is expressed all Power and by Distribution exegetically amplified all Power in Heaven and Earth which will not admit nor permit that we exclude Sovereignty in Kings Vbi Lex non distinguit nemo distinguere debet Let our Adversaries shew where Kings and their Crowns are exempted or excepted from this all Power in Earth 4. Fourthly the Apostle St. Paul Heb. 1. 5. telleth us that God hath appointed the Son by whom he hath spoken to us in the last days Heir of all things If this Inheritance be not over Kings we are infinitely mistaken and if Kings refer not their Right to him as Donor they have no just Title 5. Fifthly The Scripture to take away all Cavils hath given us this Truth in terminis terminantibus in plain and express Terms Revel 1. 2. Jesus Christ the faithful Witness the first begotten of the dead is The Prince of the Kings of the Earth that again cap. 11. 27. He ruleth them with a Rod of Iron That this is meant appliable at least to Kings see and read it Psal. 11. 9. Revel 19. 12. On his head you have many Crowns an Embleme of his Sovereignty over all Kings and that all are his Deputies his Substitutes To what is said add that of St. Paul 1 Tim. 6. 15. He is the only Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords That The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a note of Excellency Revel 17. 14. The Lamb he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings Revel 19. 16. And he hath on his vesture and on his Thigh a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords Observe the words attentively How characteristically this Power is given to the Lamb to Iesus to the faithful Witness That it is written on his Thigh on his Vesture which qualifie this Power as his Due as he is the Head and Saviour of his Church It is worth your notice taking that this name is written upon his Thigh that we may learn two things the one is That this Power is fixed in Christ-man The other is That all Kings are De femore Christi from him by Generation Reason pleadeth for this Truth 1. First what is more suitable and convenient than that all Kings of all Ages should issue from him who is Rex saeculorum A King whose Kingdom endureth throughout all Ages It is the highest Dignity of Crowns to hold of this Crown
such whatsoever to suppress whatsoever is contrary to the good intended in this Covenant and association if it be in their power so that this Sovereign maketh every man armatum magistratum to be armed with Power and the way left to himself for ought we know it may be Ravilliac's way or Guido Faux's way Surely here is a Despotical Sovereignty and more than ever was challenged by any the Turk or King of Spain without Europe This is to tyrannize over mens Souls for no man must be suffered to live or enjoy any Freedom or Life there who dissenteth in the least point of their voluminous Greed from them and if he assist not with his Monies his Arms his Hands to the loss of his Life for his Religion he is either Prelatical or Papistical and for his affection to the States a word incompatible with Monarchy and of highest Treason he is at best a Malignant At pleasure of this Sovereignty every man must give the Quota this Sovereignty prescribeth the Twentieth the Tenth the Fifth part c. must give loan of what moneys they have by them or upon Bank for the good Cause upon security of the Publick Faith a non ens which is like if God prevent it not to ruine the Reformed Orthodox Catholick Faith and moral Faith and Truth amongst men or what other they specifie and ordain What a vast Sovereignty is this the extent of it is immense for nothing shall be without the Sphere of this Power which hath no motion but eccentrick no Person without the verge of this Scepter And good reason for all this for this is God and Christ's Institution this Sovereignty is the indâ—vidual companion of the Gospel the holy discipline the discipline of Christ half the Kingdom of Christ the undoubâ—ed Note of the Church the eternal Counsel of God it is 〈◊〉 Scepter of the Son of God You see the Effect of it whâ—aâ— happy what a glorious Reformation it hath brought with it the like was never seen since the Apostles dayes this Reformation will pull down Antichrist from his Throne the hearing of the beginning of it how it enlarges it self now to be sworn too in England will make the Pope of Rome and his Cardinals knees smite one against another Quid verba audiam cum facta non videam Judge of the Tree by its Fruits as our Master hath taught us and we will find all their good words are as Jurists say Protestatio contraria facto solemn Protestations liberal Promises you know whose custom this is but slack Performances Would to God that had been allâ— no a world of mischiefs have followed upon it and it is to be feared that what is past is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beginnings of troubles The most glorious Church amongst the Reformed the staff and strength of Reformed Religion is broken in shivers where all things are lawful except to serve God and all Sects all Schisms allowed except the Orthodox Truth and Ordinances of God This Reformation is written in Letters of Bloud acted with the greatest Cruelty against not onely Innocent but Deserving men with Calumnies Rapine Robbery Cruelty that Father Mother and young ones if they have not been starved with hunger and cold have been exposed to extreamest indigency contempt and mockery I dare to say no Persecution that ever was can parallel this Persecution for Impiety Injustice and Cruelty What heart bleedeth not to see these Kingdoms happy before to the Envy of other Kingdoms and States to be the mocking-stock of the World that the Canaanite and Perizzite rejoyceth to look upon our Misery to see the Desolation standing in the Holy place and those Kingdoms of late the desire of all the Earth turned into an Akeldama and no other fruit of this glorious Reformation but to kill Christians for Christ's sake and to plunder for Religions sake Lord forgive them for Christ's sake and remove our Sins and those fearful Judgments and I beg pardon of the Reader for this Digression or Regret which I have poured out with a sad heart and wish them no worse than speedy Repentance For all we have said of this Antichristian Sovereignty whereby the Puritan and Factious would exalt the Presbytery and Representative Body above all that is called God Let no man imagine that we ran to the other Extreme to privilege a King from the direction and just Power of the Church or that we would encourage him or set him on like Vzziah to intrude upon Sacred actions proper to Ecclesiastical Persons Ex vi ordinis In direction by the Word administration of the Sacraments binding and loosing in interiori foro conscientiae or in exteriori by the Spiritual Censures annexed to the Keys Sure I am no pious or knowing King as blessed be God our Sovereign is will by right of his Crown which he holdeth immediately of Christ usurp upon this but on the contrary as a Son of the Church will submit to the Church his Mother or rather Christ in Church-men reconciling him to God Elsewhere by Gods Grace if God give us Life and Leisure in a several Treatise by it self we intend to lay open this point In sum briefly we say that men in Sacred Orders In rebus purè spiritualibus in things meerly and intrinsecally of themselves Spiritual have from Christ immediately a directive and authoritative Power in order to all whatsoever although ministerial onely as related to Christ But this giveth them no Coercive Civil Power over a Prince either per se or per accidens either primarie or secundarie either principaliter or consecutive directâ— or indirectè simple or absolute that either the one way or the other directly or indirectly absolutely or respectively by it self or in ordine ad spiritualia any or many in sacred orders Pope or Presbytery can convent cite censure in case of Defailance Supply and in case of not obeying what God in Scripture hath commanded to covenant associate swear and take Sacrament upon it to resist him oppose him and force him to submit to the Scepter of Christ. This Power over man God Almighty useth not much less hath he given it to man Psal. 110. His People are a willing People Suadenda non cogenda religio nihil minùs Religionis quà m Religionem cogere Nor doth that spiritual Power which entirely we give to Bishops Priests and Deacons rob the King as he is the nursing Father of the Church of the power Christ hath endowed him with as a Christian King in externa gubernatione Ecclesiae We must not look on Kings as on others of the Flock of Christ although we may neither preach nor administer the Sacraments nor bind nor loose nor give sacred Orders nor excommunicate these are things only proper to Priests Primi secundi ordinis of the first and second Order and Degree Yet the exercise of these things freely within his Kingdom what concerneth the decent and orderly doing of all and what concerns
Course who are invested with sacred power to determine Truth in Controversies and Mysteries of highest Concernment in Councels to establish Canons to prescribe a Form of Worship a Catechism to have the power of the Keys in all censures Ecclesiastical in sum in all things Ecclesiastical to have no less power no less a Voice not only deliberativè but decisivè than Priests or Ministers as they are pleased to call them these Lay Elders are debarred from nothing but only publick Preaching and Administration of the Sacraments Baptism and the Eucharist it is expected if the independent Ministery another Head of this Hydra become the prevalent part they will justle the Presbyterian out of this and restore all the Laity who in their Divinity are no less the Lords anointed than Prince Priest or Prophet There is some hope I say that these Lay Elders a non ens in Scripture and never known to Antiquity will curb them that they shall not have way for such a vast Immunity finding already by sad and feeling Experience what a measure of Patience is required to bear their Insolency and what Prudence is necessary to disappoint their ambitious and pragmatical ends There is enough said to lay open the weakness and wickedness of this Antichristian tenet that Kings are God's but not Christ's Vicegerents They cry out much against the Pope to whom they do better service than they are aware of I pray God they were as real and true Enemies to Popery as moderate and Orthodox Protestants are whom the Pope feareth more than them and with just reason and seeing I have not much hope that what is said will work much upon them let me tell them that in their Tenet and Practice they are worse than the good Popes were and I dare say all to Gregory the Great hear it from his mouth and startle not at it he was a better Christian than any of your Sect or Sectaries thus he writeth Lib. 3. Epist. 61. to Maurice the Emperour Dominus meus fuisti quando adhuc Dominus omnium non eras Ecce pro me respondebit Christus dicens Ego te de notario countem excubitorum de comite Caesaerem de Caesare Imperatorem feci Sacerdotes meos manui tue commisi tu à servitio meo milites tuos substrahis Ego quidem jussioni vestrae subjectus legem vestram per divers as terrarum partes transmitti feci Et quia lex ipsa omnipotenti Deo minimè concordat ecce per suggestionis meae paginam Serenissimis Dominis nuntiavi utrobique ergo quae debui exolvi qui Imperatori obedientiam praebui pro Deo quod sensi minimè tacjii And in another Epistle written to Theodor. Epist. 64. He saith Valdè mihi durum videtur ut ab ejus servitio milites suos substrahat qui ei omnia tribuit dominari non solum militibus sed etiam sacerdotibus concessit Maurice was no bad Emperour and Gregory certainly was a good Bishop yet Maurice had commanded that none serving in his Wars or any Officer whatsoever accountant unto him should be admitted either to Sacred Orders or a Religious Monastical Life without his special Warrant Reason may plead for the equity of this charge because by the Bounty and Beneficence of Christian Emperours men in sacred Orders and Religious Persons had admirable Priviledges which might make his Armies weak by flying to sacred Orders and Religious Life and exempt Accountants from doing what was due in civil Justice ex Indulto Imperatorum not ex jure Divino by the gratuite concession of Princes and no direct Warrant from God or his Word Whatever this was in it self which Maurice commanded Gregory to keep and to intimate to all his Suffragan Bishops and to be published in all Churches within the verge of his Jurisdiction certain it is in St. Gregory's judgment it was unlawful and sinful for he saith Lex ipsa omnipotenti Deo minimè concordat and again Valdè durum mihi videtur yet what did he He made this Ordinance of the Emperour 's to be published throughout all his Churches here is Obedience and although it did belong properly and peculiarly to him as Bishop to admit any qualified by God Almighty to sacred Orders He submits to the restraining Ordinance of Sovereign Authority and I am confident did not transgress He pleadeth for no immunity to any sacred Person in sacred Orders nay he bringeth in Christ himself saying Sacerdotes meos manui tuae commisi I have committed to thy trust to thy power my Priests and in this case which is Spiritual enough and necessary enough for ought I can conceive at least that part of it of admitting of able men to sacred Orders he humbly obeys he pleads not that he was Christ's Vicegerent and Maurice only Goâ—'s he objects not Vzzia's attempt to sacrifice he â—onfesseth or rather bringeth in Christ speaking thus He calls him not onely His Lord but Dominus omnium the Lord of all without restraint he averreth that not onely he had by God Dominion over Souldiers but over all sacred Persons in sacred Functions Ei omnia tribuit dominari non solùm militibus sed etiam sacerdotibus concessit He knew no remedy else but per suggestionis paginam by humble supplication submiss admonition to tell the Emperour it was not right he professed his obedience and that not by compulsion an extorted a coacted one Quod debui exolvi Imperaâ—ori obedientiam praebui as he was bound he obeyed and for his humble Remonstrance he speaketh no less rightly than modestly Et pro Deo quod sensi minimè tacui He knew no more lay upon him than in humility and submiss freedom with Reverence to tell and admonish what he thought fit The poor man knew not that as Christ's Vicegerent in Christ's Kingdom he was to oppose to supplicate petition and if there were not a recalling a repealing of the Imperial Edict that they might excite the People to covenant swear and at last to present a Petition upon the point of a Pike by right as he was Christ's Vicegerent This holy man knew not this Divinity it was never heard of in his age nor any since the World began it sprang not up till many Ages after that that malicious one did sow Popple among the good Wheat of Christ's Field for a thousand years after Christ the independent Sovereignty Ecclesiastical of the Pope was never known in the Christian Church The Presbyterian Sovereignty not â—till fifteen hundred and above were run out The Parochian Pope or independent Sovereign in every Parish Christ's Vicegerent except Almighty God right in mercy what is disjoynted in Church and State is like to put the Presbyterian and Pope out of doors I may add a world of Testimonies of the Fathers who expresly call Kings Christs Vicegerents upon Earth Athanasius in the Sermon of the Blessed Virgin explaining that of the Psalm Et regnabit in domo Iacob in
erring and deceived Multitude who loath things present and at hand and promise to themselves foolishly greater and better things by a Change Not unlike to a man sick of a burning and raging Fever imagineth this or that Bed he lyeth in is the cause of his Pain change him to another Bed in his Fancy he expects to recover Health yet is disappointed and putteth himself in a worse Condition It is easie for subtle and crafty Spirits to make people apprehend so because of the present sense of some little Pressures or Incommodities in the Government Which is unavoidable here because we are not to expect to enjoy a Plato's Republick or a More 's Vtopia an Eutopia indeed that were Heaven upon Earth that is there is no Government no where so compleatly perfect that it wanteth altogether its Incommodities and none so imperfect which hath not with it it 's own Commodities I may say of the most perfect and best ordered Government what the Father 's said against the Pelagians Omnis nostra perfectio imperfecta perfectio there is none so happy that hath not with the greatest Commodities some Incommodities and so we may say with the Comick aut haec cum illis habenda aut illa cum istis admittenda We must resolve to endure some Inconveniencies in the best Government rather than disturb and destroy Government and lose the excellent and sweet Fruits we have by it Hence they press upon the weaker and less Understanding but more numerous People the present seen and felt Inconveniences and possess them with Fears and Jealousies of more and greater ensuing dangers Fraus in parvis saith Livie sibi fidem praestruit ut cum operae-precium est magnâ cum mercede fallat that they ought not to lie under these Burdens and to be nakedly exposed to more imminent Dangers lest unprovided they be taken up and destroyed When these Male-contents have laid this Foundation then they raise the work by liberal undertaking and like the Devil their Father promise to the gulled people Matth. 4. Omnia haec tibi dabo to deliver them from all their Pressures incumbent Burthens and imminent fansied Dangers The People by their big words and promises conceive great Hopes cry up those Achitophels those Absalons those Shebaes as the only Worthies upon whom should be devolved the whole Trust and Care of State and Kingdom of Reformation of State of Church To entertain these false Hopes which are but false Conceptions Molaas they personate such as had no private ends were only publick Souls resolved to spend themselves nay offer themselves a Sacrifice for the People they speak as smooth as Absalon and will be thought to desire nothing but Piety and Purity in the Church and Justice Peace Liberty and plenty in the State When the multitude are thus bewitched then they advance the Work they desire the Assistance of the numerous and popular part to bring this glorious Reformation to effect pretending the Glory of God the Purity of Religion the Liberty of the Persons and the Propriety of the Goods of the Subjects The poor people follow Absalon in his Treason usurping the Crown pretending he is about to offer a great Sacrifice to God but intended to pull the Crown from his Fathers head Nemo repentè fuit turpissimus when they have thus gained the popular Affection and are Masters of their Hearts and Lives They strike not first at Royalty but express their Zeal and Courage in accusing the great States-men of purpose to leave the good Prince naked and destitute of all Good Counsel and by fierce accusing of them and charging them with all the Evils they fancy in the Government to flow from the Influence their Counsels and Courses have upon Sovereignty they prove themselves innocent to the World They hope having set them by their places they shall make place for themselves to make King and Government at their own Devotion and before they fail in this another Government they will erect They set on the furious multitude against men not only innocent but well deserving making the people believe that they are the Authors and Abettors of all Evil and Mischief whether real or fancyed present and that these are the only Rubs stand up betwixt them and an happy Government If they can make no relevant Endictment no legal proof against them before some of them be not gone new Laws new Presidents shall be made never to be a leading case hereafter and others shall suffer first as Papistical but if that appear not then as Praelatical but if this cannot be charged upon them a high Crime truly to be accounted a maintainer of that Order Christ hath established to preserve his Church they are Incendiaries in State Malignants in Church disaffected to the true Protestant which what it is but negatively we could never yet know for ten of them cannot agree upon a positive Faith Religion And such say the Achitophels of this time are the close Enemies of Church of State of Religion c. and so much the more dangerous because they carry their malignant Purposes Designs and Courses so closely that no Proofs can be made against them The People thus engaged thus by Fury enraged cry out crucifie them crucifie them are made guilty and run so far upon the score as they cannot be taken off again If it fall forth so that these Worthies miss their ends and others succeed in the places of the displaced then they cry out the malignant Party prevaileth still The Pilots are changed not the Tempest There is no Remedy Power must do it the Kingdom must put it self in a Posture of Defence Salus Populi the Safety of all of Religion of Liberty of Property and what is dear to us calleth for it for it is extremus necessitatis casus it hath come to the last Push But I pray you who are the competent Judges to determine that our case is such None else but those Worthies those who are animated with a publick Soul who are dead to private ends have no more life but what is to be spent for the Publick for the safety of it who have already as good Patriots layed their Lives their Honours their Fortunes at the stake There must then be a Power in some hands God knoweth the worst and that have least right to command men raise Arms seize all Ammunition command what Supplies of money is necessary for so great so glorious a Reformation to rectifie what is amiss to right what is disjoynted in Church and State to repell the dangers incumbent and imminent otherwise they are not sufficiently enabled for the great Work the preservation of the King and Kingdom Church and State Law and Liberty and what else is really or imaginably dear to us In end an Arbitrary Government that terrour of all popular terrours is introduced is practised true Sovereignty and Royalty is wrested from the true Sovereign and the thing we fear most is placed in a wrong
inferred from hence This made Buchanan ingeniously maintain that Orders and Laws in Parliament were only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Precognitions till the whole People gave their Consent and had their Influence authoritativè upon the Statutes and Acts of Parliament By this you may know where he put the Legislative Power in the Community and this is with more shew of reason than the Observator's Tenet who holdeth that the Legislative Power is in the Parliament and yet Buchanan is more justifiable for this reason because where Majesty is there is Legislative Power but according to the Observator's mind in the People is the underived Majesty let him then come home to the Scotish Tenet and make it an Article of their new Covenant or new Creed if they will that the Legislative Power is in the People and the Parliaments Orders and Statutes are only preparatory precognitions I know the Observator thinks to salve all this that the whole Power of the Gentry and Commons is entirely transferred from the collective Body to the representative the Parliament To this we answer two things 1. The first is ye and your Brother-assistants the Scots are not of one mind for in the beginning of the Scottish Troubles when the Subjects there were preferring Petitions by their Declarations and Protestations they put all the Power in the collective Body and kept their distinct Tables 2. Next speak ingeniously and candidly Observator shew us the reason of the Difference of the Disparity why the whole entire Power of the Community if any they have should not be totally and entirely derived from the People to the King when they devest themselves of their underived Majesty and invest the King with it no less than the whole entire Power of the whole Kingdom is devolved upon the two Houses and that irrevocably too to hold in the King as in your Knights and Burgesses you are not able to shew it but what with one hand you take unjustly from the King with another but a wrong hand you ascribe to the Parliament It is like in times succeeding and after-ages our wise Kings will learn to know what is their Power Place and Prerogative by that the Parliament hath assumed to them but we are hopeful they will never exercise it with such Cruelty and Tyranny I many times think upon it that as the extravagant Ambition and Usurpation of the Pope of Rome robbing Kings of their sacred Right and assuming to himself such superlative Transcendent Power for himself and his See both in Spirituals and Temporals hath wakened Christian Kings to consider better of their sacred Prerogative and by what he unlawfully and antichristianly assumed to himself in temporalibus to know what Trust God Almighty hath given to his Vicegerents his Kings so I am hopeful if God hath mercy reserved for these Kingdoms and Church right Bounds and Limits will be set to Subjects which will produce happier and sweeter Fruits of Government than we see or feel from these corrival co-equal co-ordinate fansied Powers and Sovereignty and Royalty be better rooted which God of his Mercy grant for the good of his Church the happy estate of the Kingdom and honour and right of our King If what is said be not enough to shew the Weakness of these popular Sophisms I come nearer to the Observator and put it home in a case where I dare promise he will say it is Sophistry By this way of reasoning I will prove there is no better way for the Observator to improve his Wealth than to make over the Right of all he hath to me the Argument will hold good Quod efficit tale est magis tale he that maketh me rich by giving me all his goods moveable and immovable maketh himself richer but the Observator by giving of all his goods my assumption should have been hypothetical for positively I know the Gentleman will not do it to me maketh me rich Ergo he maketh himself more rich This Logick I conceive is not so powerful as to cheat him out of his natural rational Faculty and so cheat him out of all his Lands Chattels and Revenues yet it may be by an order of the House that in some case this Logick may serve to good purpose that the People giving the twentieth the tenth the fifth part or the Moity of their Moneys and Revenues and all their Plate to strengthen the Parliament to advance the good Cause to cherish if we will speak truly and foment this present Rebellion it will not lessen their Wealth but enrich them more because quod efficit tale est magis tale it maketh some rich and consequently the Donors much more rich Certainly if this Logick hold it must be in great request for if this Logick do it not few can see how the Publick Faith can be kept Divinity and Church-rents if you sacrilegiously rob God which God forbid will not do it it must be some Sophism like this some Sophism in this kind that must answer for Publick Faith refund the Moneys borrowed from just Creditors and repay the wise Undertakers qui spem pretio emerunt who have brought their Hogs to a good Market To apply this shortly in few words If I remember rightly this Maxim quod efficit tale est magis tale I learned in the University to be understood de principio formali effectivo of such an Agent as is formally such in it self as is the Effect produced Next that it is such as is effective and productive of it self as when the Fire heateth cold Water it is hot formally in it self and maketh Water hot likewise By which it is necessary that the Quality inherent in the Effect be formally inherent in the Agent for this reason it is that Wine cannot be said to be drunk because drunkenness is no wayes inherent in Wine nor can Wine be capable of it and this made Aristotle qualifie his Maxim quod efficit tale est magis tale modò utrique insit And this insit utrique that it be in both maketh that the Maxim holds not in such Agents who operate by donation for he that is the Donor denudeth himself of the Right and Power of that he giveth to the Donee So here this condition faileth too And consequently if the Right of the King were transferred by Derivation and Donation from the People the Donation devests them totally of it except the King have it by way of loan which to my thinking never any yet spoke Next it is required that there be a Latitude and that that is effected be capable of a Latitude of more and less as when as I said before Fire heateth Water the heat of the Fire is more than the heat of the Water Lastly some add too that the Maxim must be understood ante effectum productum Now all the Argument falleth to the ground for Sovereignty never was nor can be in the Community Sovereignty hath power of Life and Death which none hath over himself and
the Community conceived without Government all as equal endowed with Natures and native Liberty of that Community can have not power over the Life of another and so your Maxim may be turned home again upon your self for if the People be not tales such by Nature as have such Power they cannot constituere tales make such that is Kings endowed with such Power But sure it is as it is said they have not power of Life and Death to take away their own Life or anothers Ergo it must be from God the living God the God of Life Seeing you make so good Use of your Logick give me leave to practise Logick upon a more sure Maxim which is this omnis effectus est in efficiente vel eminenter vel formaliter whatever is in the Effect that must be in the Efficient either formally or in a more eminent and superlative way But there is something in a King which is not in People either eminently or formally Ergo the People are not the Efficient and constituent of a King The minor and the assumption is clear The King hath the Power to take away the Life of man which is not in the People whether you take them severally and singly for no man hath Power or may kill himself or whether you take them joyntly for if none hath power over his own Life much less over his Neighbour's and your grounds besides presuppose that all men are equal amongst themselves That the Sovereign hath this Power who is so mad as to deny it Gen. 9. Rom. 14. He bears not the Sword in vain Lastly this Maxim quod efficit tale est magis tale constituens constituto potior holdeth well with our tenet Thus he that maketh Kings and endoweth them with Power is much more a King himself and hath much more Power But God and Christ make Kings Ergo. The Assumption is clear for God is King of Kings and Lord of Lords to him all Power belongeth here then utrique inest and for the other recipit magis minus it is certain for the Power of all Kings upon Earth that ever was are or shall be have no more measure and proportion to his Power than a drop of Water to the Ocean his Power is like the light of the Sun their Powers but a borrowed Light like to that in the Moon and Stars The King's Power related to God is not univocal it is onely equivocal or analogical and that to be doubted of too for Philosophy telleth us finiti ad infinitum nulla datur proportio It is more than apparent then that this Maxim is onely abused by the Deceivers of this Time to make themselves and the People both of them miserable And the Maxim will conclude that the Sheba's and Shimei's these Authors and Incendiaries of Rebellion are more miserable and shall receive if not in this Life yet in that is to come without extraordinary repentance a greater condemnation for they kill both Body and Soul They make the simpler sort of People miserable by setting them on upon rebellion against God and his Anointed to the destruction of State Soul and Body temporally and eternally to the reproach and disgrace of Christian Catholick Reformed Religion and infallibly by necessity of consequents and necessity of consequence they make themselves most miserable for quod efficit tale ipsum est magis tale CHAP. XIV Other grounds of the Iesuit and Sectary are removed and disproved as that that neither Scripture nor Nature determines the specification of Government nor do they intimate why this man more than the other or he than a third or these more than those should have the Power of Government And that great one is taken out of the way whereby the variety and difference is found in several Monarchies It is more than apparent say they that Monarchy is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the voluntary composition and constitution of man OUR Sectaries have borrowed as we told you before their great Ordinance of battery against Sovereignty from the Jesuits Magazine any who is read in them knoweth well enough how they triumph in those Arguments crying out till they be hoarse again 1. First Neither Scripture nor Nature teacheth that Monarchy Aristocracie and Democracie or any other imaginable spece and kind of Government is the necessary Government of Humane kind and society but that the specification and determination is Arbitrary and of the constitution of man To this same purpose is that other Neither the Law of God nor Nature demonstrate why this man more than the other he than a third why these more than those should have the Sovereign Power 2. Another great piece of Battery is that that there is such a multiplicity of variety and differences of Kings and Royal Power in the Kings of the World look say they upon Spain France Britain c. that this must necessarily argue Kings are of Peoples making and their Power is in that portion and proportion as it pleaseth the People to entrust them 3. The third is All Humane Societies are perfect Republicks and as they have in them originally a Power to appoint their Government and Governours so they have a Power to preserve themselves and in case of mis-government they may resume their Natural Native and Original Power rectifie by themselves what is amiss otherwise it must be that God and Nature have left them remediless The first two we will handle in this Chapter the last in the ensuing To answer the Jesuit first in gross to all however he be wary enough in all his courses yet in pressing these Arguments against Monarchy to prove that Monarchy is by Humane Institution and Constitution and not by immediate collation from God he is not so prudent for mutatis mutandis with a little change losing nothing of their force these Arguments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 retorted and turned home upon the Jesuit will bring home the Conclusion that the Pope is not of Divine Institution hath not infallible and universal Jurisdiction but is somewhere and by some censurable in case of mis-government First I pray you is it demonstrable by the letter of Scripture or by necessary and evident Consequences and Consequents deducible that the Pope of Rome ought and should be Universal Monarch of the Christian Militant Church Christ's Vicar in the External Government in the Church the true Successour to the ordinary Power and Place of Saint Peter and secured from all Errour in Points of Faith Worship and Manners That ever Saint Peter himself had so much neither Scripture nor Antiquity speak for it nay they speak the contrary And if it were granted to Saint Peter where have we warrant in Scripture or sound Antiquity that the Pope of Rome and none else is the true and lawful Successour of St. Peter We will allow them that if by Antiquity they can make it appear that it is so we will yield what they demand But as they frame the Argument
cannot be darkened or corrupted and our Affections so orderly as they cannot over-rule us in a wrong course to do against that is pious and just I was ever in opinion till now that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be secured from Sin was the onely propriety of God and that it is antichristian in the Pope to lay claim to an absolute Infallibility But this new Policy will find the like in the Parliament the collective Body or Community Thirdly consider attentively and impartially what you hold and you will find it resolve into Infidelity and Impatience Infidelity that we do not trust that God is able to do it Impatience that we will not wait patiently till he do it The Heathen are nearer to Christianity in this than our glorious Reformers Tacitus saith Quomodo sterilitatem aut nimios imbres caetera naturae mal◠ita luxum vel avaritiam dominantium tolerate vitia erunt donec homines sed neque haec continua meliorum interventu pensantur The safest way in the wise Historian's judgment is to endure the Tempests of ill Government patiently as we do other Tempests falling from Heaven while men are faults will be but will not be alwayes lasting and better things will come with compensation of our losses Fourthly It is much better for us that God hath reserved this as a peculiar case to himself to punish Sovereigns and to rectifie their Errours But for us on the other part to usurp upon his Right it is no less than intrusion upon his Divine Prerogative and carrieth along with it Morbum complicatum a number of Sins against many of his most glorious Attributes 1. It wrongeth God in his glorious Wisdom that he hath not prepared such a Remedy for us in this case nay it putteth foolishness upon him that in this case he hath commanded Patience and so left us totally remediless 2. It wrongeth God in his glorious Power by making him weak that by no other means he could set aright what is disjoynted in Church and State 3. It wrongeth his Holiness who for the necessary support of Church and State by these means is necessitated for effecting the Work most concerneth him and his Glory to have and use the help of sinful men nay even of their Sins 4. To what is said add this that this Principle of theirs dishonoureth Christian Religion it turneth Religion into Rebellion Faith into Faction and Christian obedience into disloyal Treason Nothing is more powerful to deter Kings from coming to the profession of Reformed Catholick Religion than to hold that such a Superintendent Power is in People or Parliament to censure and unking Christian Kings Fifthly Christian obedience and Sobriety teacheth us to leave all Evils in Church and State to be redressed by those means God himself hath appointed and when the ordinate means do it not or do to the contrary we are to keep our selves pure possess our selves with Patience and refer the Remedy to God who hath reserved this to himself We ought not to justle God out of his Right Before we have said that Scripture affords no warrant by Precept or Practice to the Community the collective or representative Body to do it But now we add for them to do it by opposing or resisting Sovereignty is in Scripture expresly forbidden Romans 13. 2. Whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Of this more Quaest. 5. We must therefore closely adhere to what God hath commanded not turning to the left hand to obey unlawful things commanded by the Sovereign nor to the right hand with violence to resist lawful Authority Let all Subjects remember that in the day of their Accounts the charge will be to all singly or joyntly considered Who hath required these things at your hands Who hath made you Judges and Executers of matters of so high concernment And though it be pretended and possibly intended too that the work so done shall make much for the glory of God the good of the Church the liberty and happiness of the Subject it will not take us off We must not do evil that good may come of it Rom. 3. 8. To do God a piece of good service against his Will manifested is not to acquit our selves as his humble servants but to prove us his arrogant and proud Masters He is most glorified when his voice is obeyed 1 Sam. 15. 22. God standeth not in need of wicked man nor of his sinful wayes It was a pious Intention Vzza had when he put out his hand to save the Ark from falling yet because it was above his Charge God did strike him presently dead 2 Sam. 6. 6. 1 Chron. 13. 10. It is not enough for these Reformers to be assured in their Consciences that the work they intend and are about tends to a good religious and pious effect but they must have a sufficient Warrant from written Truth that they are warranted and called to this work Sixthly as it is against Piety it is against Prudence and the good of Policy Prudence doth not allow us to lose what real Good we have in present Possession for any future good which we have only in uncertain Expectation By this projected Course of our New-Statist-Divines we loose a good Conscience fall in actual Disobedience and Rebellion against the Lord and his Anointed We refuse Gods Tryal and with an unwarrantable indiscreet and unseasonable Zeal for Religion and our temporary Good come contrary to God and his Commandments We antevert nay shake off the Glory that God expecteth by our Tryals and cannot dare not expect Gods Blessing to our Endeavours If the Root be evil the Fruit can be no better Who may expect a Blessing to a sinful and rebellious Course Doth he allow us to do wrong and seek an Opportunity to do Good God acteth no Evil but only permitteth it and that because he is able to work Good out of Evil which is as inseparably proper to God alone as the immensity of his Power it is infinitely a superlative Presumption for us to presume upon the like We cannot expect any Blessing without a promise and have no Interest in the Promise but when our Acts and Works presuppose Obedience to his Precepts By such a Course as you prescribe we make the precept of God of none Effect Our excuse in this case will prove no better than the Pharisees who taught their Disciples doing things unlawful to say Corban God shall have Profit by it in the good we shall do to Church and State When we come to Judgment our Works shall witness against us and our good Intentions will not save us you know it is commonly and truly said Hell is full of good Intentions and Heaven of good works Seventhly if we look upon the practice recorded in Scripture when Gods people were delivered from Bondage or Captivity or when Grievances in Church and State were rectified and reformed God
never gave warrant to the Community or to the Sanhedrim but did it by his own high hand or authorized a Sovereign and put it in his Heart and Power to do it Look upon the Bondage of Aegypt which lasted 250 years God did not use or authorize the People to deliver themselves by a strong hand but sent and authorized Moses Exod. 3. 10. Come now saith the Lord and. I will send thee a calling he had Authority from God he had and it proved successful Some pious and learned men are of the Opinion that when Moses rescued the Israelite and killed the Aegyptian he did offer himself a Protector and Deliverer to his Nation but that for his unwarrantable Intention and Attempt he was forced to flee and with forty years Penance and Repentance wash away that Guiltiness As I dare not condemn them confidently yet I trust such is their Charity to allow me in Modesty to dissent from them First because I hold it a good rule not rashly to condemn the extraordinary Acts of the Saints when they are not evidently in Scripture condemned it is Saint Austin's Rule Next because of Saint Stephen's Testimony who Acts 7. expresseth so much that this was a praeludium an Evidence that God was to send him to be their Deliverer I am certainly assured that God did not think it a fit way by Moses and the People of Israel's Sword to work his Deliverance But forty years after sent Moses cloathed with his immediate Commission to command Pharaoh his Vicegerent to let his people go and authorized Moses his Vice-Roy over his own People that so the Peoples obedience to his Servant Moses and to the word delivered in his Name might be without check or wrong of Conscience in regard of their Allegiance It is very observable and conducible to our Purpose that God did not deliver his people by the wisdom of Moses or strength of the People or any act that way of theirs but did with an high hand by his own immediate Might and Power God thereby declaring to us that before he would authorize his own People to do it which had been a bad president for ever for Rebellion he would rather put himself to pains to work extraordinary and wonderful Miracles So in the Book of the Iudges when the people were delivered over into the hands of their Enemies because of their Sins He never warranted and authorized the ordinary Judges or Community to be their Deliverers but the Text saith expresly that when they groaned under their Oppression and repented of their Sins God raised up a Iudge Is not this a real proof God will not have inferiour Judges or the Community to rectifie what is amiss but we must in patience wait till he provide lawful means some Sovereign power immediately sent by himself to do it in which course in his ordinary Providence he will never be deficient although the extraordinary way be ceased if we will repent us truly of our Sins and wait in patience for the Salvation of our God Is it not worth your Labour to observe when the gracious Deliverance came to Israel from the Captivity of Babylon which lasted seventy years that his people had no hand no part in it not to contribute the least Auxiliary help but God effected it by the hand of Cyrus his Anointed immediately and totally Appeareth it not clearly by this how careful God hath been in his Providence that People may not right themselves by their own doing not when they are under greatest Pressures highest Oppressions For what were the Kings of Babylon but to speak in our Adversaries diction Tyranni cum titulo Who acquired Sovereignty over them by Conquest their Consent being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 voluntarily involuntarily Lastly for these popular Reformations lately so much cryed up as the best the most divine the most warrantable methinks are most unwarrantably magnified It is not to be denied but people are much taken with such Doctrines and are very ambitious to be Reformers of Church and State And subtle factioâ—s Spirits have great Advantages to work on the People and their weak Understandings for there can be no Government either in Church or State so eminently perfect where something might not be wished to be amended No Government is so commodious which is not attended with some Incommodities that as the Comick saith aut haec cum illis habenda aut illa cum his amittenda sunt from those Inconveniences in Government crafty and discontented men take occasion to press upon the weaker sort which is most numerous the present Inconveniences shew them their Interest how in Conscience they are bound and by God warranted to put to their hand promise them not only a share in the glorious Work of Reformation but also to free them from all Errours and Pressures to mould and frame such an Vtopia in the State and such a Paradise of the Church that shall not want any thing but Christ to come and reign actually and personally amongst them which they expect as I hear and have defined the time When people are deceived thus and transported these Achitophels Absaloms and Sheba's desire the Assistance of the people to bring this happy Change about They obtain it engage their Souls by Oaths Covenants and Perjury and engage them so much in Treason and Rebellion that Life State Fortune and Honour lie at the Stake come off they cannot By which means they get into their hands surreptitiously an arbitrary Power the thing they most feared most abhorred and practise it too And although the people are made to believe that they all and the whole are interressed yet really and truly some few domineer They command what Supplies they will of Men Arms and Monies seize all Forts press all Horses c. and that in that way in that quantity they think necessary which must be obeyed otherwise they are not sufficiently enabled to bring about such a great Work Reformation of Church and State and Preservation of the people This is the way by which these Principles find easie Admittance upon popular Affections but cunning Subtilty doth so abuse them that they are cheated out of their Wits and follow Courses destructive to themselves and bring upon them the Evils they most feared It is not reason that will right these deceived and abused Fools 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Misery will be the first competent Instructor to undeceive them The Doctrine and Reasons we first bring to the contrary of this Tenet we know assuredly they will not relish them but the contrary use will be made to incense a mad people and make them more mad yet Truth forceth us to speak for Vbi resipuerint when they come to their Wits they will curse their Gamaliels and forsake their Principles First then I demand of those who so magnifie popular Reformations as the only best most perfect and absolute Remedies of what is amiss in Church
fidei but they are bound to another as propugnatores fidei that is to see that the Purity of Faith and Worship be preserved with that Solemnity and Decency of sacred Places sacred Things sacred Persons sacred Gestures as God hath prescribed and the holy Catholick Church hath practised and allowed The Preservation of the sacred Right and Prerogative royal is that secureth and preserveth the Right and Liberty of the Subject and it is the maintaining and preserving of God's and holy Church's Right that preserveth Kings and their Crowns Happy is the King who with David can say Psal. 26. 8. Lord I have loved the Habitation of thy House and the place where thine Honour dwelleth upon this he may with David confidently pray vers 9. Gather not my Soul with Sinners nor my Life with bloody men If the King's delight be in the Sanctuary of the Lord although Trouble fall upon him yet Help will come to him out of the Sanctuary that will save both him and his Crown Psal. 20. The highest Honour the greatest Happiness that ever David attained to was to bring back again the Ark of God to leave a great Treasure for building of the Temple 1 Chron. 13. 15. 28. and to raise the Church and establish the Worship and Order in it's height of Perfection 1 Chron. 24. 25 26. when he finished this Work he rejoyced more than ever Then he said Psal. 84. 10. A day in thy Courts is better than a thousand elsewhere it was better be a door-keeper in the house of the Lord than to dwell in the Tents of Wickedness It was this that made God send to his King Deliverance out of his Troubles Psal. 18. vers ult It was this that established his House and Kingdom for ever it was this that crowned him with a Crown of pure Gold here and of immortal Glory in Heaven Kings at their Coronation offer their Crowns Scepters and Swords to God at his Altar and receive them from thence the one Ceremony signifieth that their Sovereignty cometh to them immediately from God the other signifieth that they offer all first for the Service of God It is a Vow or Dedication of themselves and their Power for the Advancement of Gods Glory To this add that this is solemnly sworn by them to maintain the Purity of the Faith and Worship and the Priviledges and Rights of holy Church and lastly all is sealed with the receiving of the Sacrament off the Altar What then can free Kings from these Ties And how fearful a thing is it for them to be principal Actors or accessary to bad Counsels and Courses to give up a Church or to wrong Christ and his Rights There be a great many that practise Machiavel's Politicks affirming Princes are no more tyed to Church and Religion than as both of them are subordinate and subservient to the politick Government and good Temporal These are truly Atheists who Ierobâ—am like care not at all for God nor Religion who abuse them to their own private ends they may for a short time flourish but in the end God will root out them and their Posterity and their Memory shall be had in Execration as Pilate is remembred in the Creed and Iudas recorded in the Gospel There be others who seem more moderate whose Counsels are no less pernicious because they seem to speak in a favourable and more specious way like to the Devil transforming himself into an Angel of Light these advise Kings to maintain a Worship an Order a Church but that it is not best to be too sumptuous and prodigal in the Maintenance or endowing the Church richly nor is it necessary punctually and precisely to adhere to all Gods Ordinances and in some cases say they a Prince at some Times at some Exigences may give way to the undoing of some Ordinances of God and Christ he may permit some of the Beauty and Solemnity of the Worship to be eclipsed devest the Church and Church-men of some Priviledges and Rights which by immemorial Possession they and their Pedecessors have enjoyed and to which besides Dedication and Consecration the Church is by all positive Civil Law and Right entituled no less if not more than Noblemen Gentlemen Corporations or any Subject or Subjects whatsoever These Counsels for a time may prevail and the Church may be a little for a little time suppressed and depressed but if God have Mercy in Store for that Kingdom it will not continue long These Achitophels tell Kings that if Moses's ten Commandments the Apostles twelve Articles of the Creed and the six Petitions of the Lord's Prayer be preserved it skilleth not for other things whether Bishop or no Bishop whether good Christians preach and do ministerial Acts or only men in sacred Orders authorised by Consecration and Imposition of hands whether any Solemnity in the publick Worship or not whether in sacred Church consecrated or in a private House or Barn whether Christ have a Patrimony or his Servants be allowed only a Competency at the Disoretion of Lay-men c. These Counsels and Courses if they be not repented forsaken and the Church righted will prove destructive to Kings to their Crowns to their Posterity and to their Authors and Abettors King Saul for ought we read did not restrain nor pollute the Worship he found nor took from their Priests what was their due but it is manifest he did neglect God and his Church his Worship and his Servants had less Esteem of God's Servants than of any of his Subjects besides and yet this is punished with the Forfeiture of Crown and Kingdom to him and his Posterity and God provideth a man a King according to his Heart to right the Church to order the Service aright which established his Kingdom and Crown for ever The Church was the Alpha and Omega of his Government he consecrated the beginning of his peaceable Reign with bringing home the Ark he spent the most of his Reign in ordering and establishing the Service of God with it's Solemnity and ended his Life and Reign exhorting Solomon to do the like to build the Temple and leaving by Legacy a great immense Treasure consecrated to this purpose If any will look upon these Counsellors he will find that they have a mighty Zeal and Care of their own Honour and Wealth how much they remit their Zeal towards God and his House they intend it as much for themselves and what concerneth their private they will not willingly dwell but in Houses of Cedar and can see the Ark of God within Curtains this maketh them that they can suffer the Church to be spoiled if by her Spoils they or theirs can be enriched Christians they cannot be whatsoever they profess they are in a contrary a contradictory way to Christ of him it was said The Zeal of thine House hath eaten me up of them it is verified that their Zeal hath eaten up the house of God If these men can enjoy their own make
to be powerful Intercessors with God to remove his Plagues to say Quid meruere oves what have the poor sheep done smite me and my Fathers house 2 Sam. 24. Like to the good shepherd to lay down his life for his sheep Ioh. 10. And this will work â—in the People such zeal and affection to their Sovereign that they will be ready to lose Lands Riches Honour Life before their King suffer in Honour in his Sacred Power Sacred Right and Sacred Person If the Head â—e well the Body fareth the better and when the Body is in good health and constitution the Head is the better less trouble no pain For proof of this I refer you to that noble passage of Iustin Martyr cited before quaest respons ad Orthod q. 138. Read the whole passage it is an expression in de propria in a convenient and proper place In Sum the Result of all is that from this truth that Kings are immediately from God and Christ independent from all others there issueth a great many excellent and useful Corollaries as first That the excellency of their Dignity is not a motive if it be well weighed to make them swell Lucifer-like in Pride for the weight of their great and difficult Charge will force them of all men to be most humble Officiis quis idoneus istis Their Crowns are dependent from Christ and his Crown and truly considered are onely Crowns of thorns such as Dionysius said an understanding man would not take up if it were lying at his feet Secondly as Kings are nearer to God than any Creatures in the low Universe so are they tied to approach nearest to him in Holiness and all Humane and Christian Perfection Thirdly they are bound to all care endeavour and zeal for Christ's Glory his Truth the Sincerity and Solemnity of his Worship and that not onely as men and Christians but as Kings and Fathers of the State and Nurse-fathers of the Church Fourthly howsoever exempted from Humane Law and coercion yet they are to live and reign according to the Law and Prescript of God and Christ which if they transgress they shall receive Punishment proportionable to their high Dignity and according to their Demerit for betraying the high Trust put upon them Fifthly Although the Royal Right be not founded in saving holiness and sanctity but is sacred in another respect by a delegate Power and Trust yet the way to secure their Crowns their Posterity in the Right transmissible from them and to make their Kingdoms happy is to live piously in Private and Publick Devotions and to intend at first and do it most in their Sacred Government Sixthly next to Almighty God the highest Honour Reverence and Obedience is due to him Seventhly and Maintenance from their Subjects proportioned to their high Dignity and to inable them to act and do what is necessary and expedient for God's Glory the good of the Church and Peace Plenty and Protection of the Subject Eighthly to resist him oppose him in thought word or deed is Rebellion against God himself Ninthly it is high Sacrilege and not onely Royal but Divine Usurpation to trench upon the Kings Sacred Right To shut up all that concerneth this first Question I humbly beg pardon to intreat in all reverence my Lord the King to look upon a Speech of St. Augustine worthy of the reading and meditation of all and the best of Christian Kings he will find it Tom. 5. lib. 5. de Civ Dei cap. 24. which verbatim is thus Reges foelices eos dicimus si justè imperant siâ—inter linguas sublimiter honorantium obsequia nimis humiliter salutantium non extollantur sed se homines esse meminerint suam potestatenm ad Dei cultum maxime dilatandum Majestati ejus famulam faciant si Deum timent diligunt colunt si plus amant illud regnum ubi non timent habere consortes si tardiùs vindicant si facilè ignoscunt si eandem vindictam pro necessitate regendae tuendae Reip. non pro saturandis inimicitiarum odiis exerunt si eandem veniam non ad impunitatem iniquitatis sed ad spem correctionis indulgent si quos asperè aliquando coguntur decernere misericordiae lenitate beneficiorum largitate compensant si luxuria tantâ— eis est castigatior quanto possit esse liberior si malunt cupiditatibus pravis quam quibuslibet gentibus imperare si haec omnia faciant non propter ardorem inanis gloriae sed propter charitatem foelicitatis aeternae si pro suis peccatis humilitatis miserationis orationis sacrificium Deo suo vero immolare non negligunt Tales Christianos principes dicimus esse foelices interim spe postea re ipsa futuros cùm id quod expectamus evenerit O golden expressions worthy to be set in Letters of Gold with most precious Stones and Diamonds and then put upon all Royal Crowns It is a short but a thousand-fold better expression of what we have said Plato Aristotle Cicero Xenophon in his fancied Cyropaedia had never the like it is worth all they have said all they have written on this subject in this kind Let me add a word or two to our selves who are Subjects Let us learn to give to the Lord 's Anointed his due if we will approve our selves good Christians like to our Master the Lord Iesus Christ like to his Apostles like to the ancient and holy Fathers and Martyrs of the Church Let us never deceive our selves like to the Iews who claimed to be the Sons of Abraham when they wrought the Works of their Father the Devil Ioh. 8. Let us not shame our selves and Reformed Catholick Religion by turning Religion into Rebellion and Faith into Faction and deter all Kings in the Christian World to come to the Profession of Reformed Truth and Communion of our Church And that this may be done the more successfully Let us all pray LOrd hear our King in the day of trouble The Name of the God of Jacob defend him Send him help out of the Sanctuary and strengthen him from Sion Remember all his Offerings and accept his burnt Sacrifices Give him according to his own Heart and fulfil all his Councel that we may rejoyce in thy Salvation Teach us his Subjects to fear thee and the King and not to meddle with them are given to change Continue the Loyal in Revâ—rence Obedience and Subjection Reduce the Sons of Belial to their Obedience make thy Spirit fall upon all that we may say thine are we O King and on thy side that the Peace and Beauty of thy Sion may be restored thine Anointed with his Sacred Right re-seated upon his Throne the bleeding wounds of the Land may be bound up the Peace of the Kingdom re-established 〈…〉 soever else is disjoynted may be set aright Do it do it good Lord not for us or for our merits but for thy Names sake the All-sufficient merits of thy Son and 〈…〉 of our Lord and Saviour IESVS CHRIST And let everâ— good Christian all loyal-hearted Subjects who pray for the Peace of Sion and building up of the walls of Ierusalem say Amen Soli Deo Gloria FINIS Eurypides in Bacch Idem ibidem Plutarch Lactant. de ira Dei cap. 1. Rom. 13. Plutarch Xenophon in Cyropoedia lib. 8. l. 16. in qualibet de Episc. Cleric C. Theod. Iustinian Novel 42. Trismegistus apud Lactantium l. 2. Instit c. 16. Gr. Naz. Orat. de mod in disp servanda Plutarch in Probl. Prob. 72. Cassiod l. 8. Var. c. 19. 1 de nat anim c. 1.
If a Canker be in Hand or Foot before it Gangrene the whole Body we will condescend to the cutting of them off In this sense which we have explained Salus populi suprema lex esto is a Law that hath no Iniquity in it but hath a good just and equitable Sense Yet it is not to day onely or yesterday that this Maxim hath been abused to work much mischief This mis-understood Principle or Law put Christ to death The Scribes and Pharisees High-Priests and Sanhedrim avouched It was necessary that one should dye for the People the High-Priest spoke it not knowing how in a Prophetical sense it was necessary but meaning that Salus populi required it the whole Land and all of them were in danger And in this case with the influence of this Law it was enough to alledge their authority and unanimous coâ—sâ—nt They were not tied to proofs They had a Law of which they were Interpreters or if not they had a Legislative power by which for Salus Populi Christ must dye When Pilate found him innocent their answer was sufficient If he were not a Malefactor we would not have delivered him unto thee Salus populi or nothing else was the Law the Paramount Law the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all Politicks to which Pilate's Power delegate from the Romans was subservient But what was the effect of this work wrought by this Paramount Law It wrought the utter extirpation of them and their Posterity The over-ruling voices of the High-Priests Scribes and Sanhedrim forced Pilate to crucifie the God of Glory against his heart his Conscience This was high Injustice in him he acknowledged Christ's Innocency and knew that for Envy they delivered him up Ioh. 19. 6. Matth. 27. 18. He knew besides that without his Authority he could not be condemned If we could or would seriously look upon this Example and make right Use of it it would deter us from making too much of such deceitful and deceiving Maxims which in the end will lead us to our total destruction and overthrow It was this Salus populi that made Saul to spare against Gods command Agag and the Amalekites It was this that seduced Zedekiah made his Lords over-rule and over-awe him and clap up Ieremiah in the Dungeon It is a great mistake in which a great and Learned man in this Age doth gather from the words of a King to his Nobles Behold he is in your power for what is the King that he can do any thing against you That the Kings of Iudah by some Power equal to them or above them might be counter-manded The expression is de facto not de jure intimating that the good King was so over-awed by his Lords that he could not protect the Lords Servant the Prophet Ieremiah although he knew he was bound to it and willing too When a good King is put in such a case the state of King and Kingdom are in greatest danger There is enough said to discover the grand Impostures of this abused Maxim Salus populi suprema lex esto for by what is said it appeareth 1. That it is not to be conceived in that large sense as if all Governours and Government were principally for the good of those are governed it holds not in Marital nor Despotical nor in Royal Government by Conquest 2. Next it taketh as granted in the sense of our Adversaries that the compleat and adequate end of Government is Salus populi which is an Errour for it is Salus Regis populi and Salus Regis hath the first place without which Salus populi cannot be It hath the Prerogative like to the first Table and Salus populi as the second To destroy the Prerogative and Royal Power is to bring ruine to our selves 3. Thirdly it is spoken in ordine ad alias Leges non ad Regem in order to other Laws not to prove the King the Extract of the People or that by them he is coerced But that in case of extreme necessity the King for his own and the Kingdoms Safety may break thorow all other Laws as he thinketh fit in his Discretion to preserve himself and Kingdom 4. Fourthly in the sense our Adversaries use it it cannot but disquiet King and Kingdom upon real or fancied Fears and Jealousies 5. Fifthly misapplied and misunderstood it hath been the Mother of much mischief 6. Lastly let every Subject and Christian within his Majesties Kingdoms consider and remember how he is bound by Nature and Grace to Salus Regis to maintain the Kings Right Priviledges and Prerogatives besides that all of any Quality and the better sort have taken an Oath to maintain it With which how any can dispense I profess I see not I know not We need not spend much time or pains in taking off that other abused Principle A King cannot be withâ—ut the People but the People may be without a King with its Consequence Ergo the People are more excellent than the King for what is already said taketh away the strength of this Argument and Consequence for if they will resolve their Antecedent thus or frame their Argument thus The People may be without a Governour or Government Ergo c. The Antecedent is most false and so can bring home no Conclusion at all We have proved already better not to be at all than to be without Government and for this cause God fixed Government in one and appointed a Governour before ever there were People in the World to be governed Cicero doth tell us this lib. 3. de Legibus Nihil porro tam aptum est ad Ius conditionemque Naturae quam Imperium sine quo nec domus ulla nec civitas nec geâ—s nec hominum universum genus stare nec rerum natura omnis nec ipse mundus potest I know what the Sectary and Jesuit will rejoyn the People may be under Aristocracie or Democracie in a happy condition Ergo without Monarchy or a King I do not blame Aristocracie or Democracie as unlawful Governments God sorbid for then all their acts of lawful Government could not chuse but be sinful but that they are univocal species of Government with Monarchy I can never be induced to believe as by Gods Grace we will demonstrate it Quaest. 2. Governments they are but defective If man had never fallen into Sin Aristocracie had never been known nor Democracie seen in the World nor were they at first It was the corruption of Monarchy produced them into the world Monarchy by God in Scripture is much countenanced magnified of Aristocracie or Democracie you have not one Word in Holy Writ to commend them That a People under Aristocracie or Democracie may have some tolerable subsistence I deny it not but that they can be in an happy condition I doubt of it especially for the Church whose condition can never be happy under any Government but Monarchy for proof I appeal to all by-gone Ages in the Christian
Church and pray our Adversaries to shew us where the Church is in Plenty and Honour where Aristocracy is the Government In Scripture it is prophecied Ecce Reges erunt nutritii tui That Kings shall be the Nurse-fathers of the Church there is no word to that sense for any Government besides Monarchy If they make use of this Argument to prefer Aristocracy or Democracy to Monarchy there reasoning is not sure and concludes not no more than when I reason thus a man may walk without Legs of bone and flesh for he may walk on wooden Legs if he hath lost his Natural Legs with the blow of a Canon or by a Gangrene or he may walk upon Crutches if he be a Cripple Ergo wooden legs and artificial or Crutches are better than the natural legs and feet man is born with In brief no Society can subsist without Government the best of Governments is Monarchy and People cannot be happy except the King and Monarchy be proportioned to that height of Power Honour and Wealth as He be able to secure Himself and Subjects from all Mischief Iniquity and Disorder and the Good Safety and Happiness of the Subject is naturally and necessarily involved in the sacred Right and Prerogative of the King That whosoever conceiveth that the Good of the People can subsist with lessening and weakening the Right of the King is as if he should imagine to see the Branches of a Tree bud flourish and bring forth Fruit when they are broken o◠from the root or to see a River of running living Water divided from the Source and Fountain of living Water or to apprehend that the Ray of the Sun can inlighten when it is separated from the Body of the Sun Let never a King imagine his Happiness can subsist or consist without the Happiness Peace and Plenty of his Subjects and let not us that are Subjects imagine that we can be happy or preserve our Right our Liberty our Property if we account not the Lords Anointed the breath of our Nostrils and value his Right His Prerogative at a higher rate than our Lives These are by God and Nature so involved mutually one in another that without destruction to both they cannot be put asunder CHAP. XVII A King is bound to be as eminent in Sanctity as He is excellent and high in Power THere be a great many more of these new State-devised Principles with which our Antimonarchical Sectaries intoxicate the Vulgar as that Protection and Subjection are of equal extent That a mixture and temperature of the three proper Species of Government is the best of Governments which if it be not rightly understood is a most dangerous Position and in the sense many conceive it it is not Temperamentum Regiminis but Turbamentum That Plus vident oculi quà m oculus That Rex est universis minor singulis major That the Charter of Nature intitles us to our defence against Kings That Rex est propter populum That a King at his Coronation sweareth and covenanteth with his Subjects which if he perform not he is punishable dethronable That in a Monarchy The Legislative Power i◠communicable to the Subject and is not radically in Sovereignty in one but in more That Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari approbari debet and a great many more all which by Gods help we shall examine in the subsequent Questions as every one of them offereth it self in its own proper place We now come shortly to point at the great Charge of the King as we have before proved the Excellency of his Sacred Charge and Person What we have said of the Excellency of Kings that they are the derivatives of God from him by generation his first-born God's upon Earth c. If it be rightly weighted it will humble them in the presence of God in their own esteem and not suffer them to swell in Pride it tieth them to a proportionable Sanctity and eminency in Holiness and Integrity as far in degree above the Ordinary as they are exalted in State and Honour above the Sons of men Isocrates writing to Nicocles saith to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sense is the same we have expressed already the higher in Honour they are tied to a higher perfection in Virtue Saint Austin saith well Tom. 8. enarrat in Psal. 137. Quantò sublimitas altior est tantò periculosior est Ideoque Reges quantò sunt in majori sublimitate terrenâ tanto magis humiliari Deo debent Kings as related to men are Gods in order to Almighty God they are frail and mortal men Psal. 82. 6. They are gods on Earth yet onely gods of the Earth and are no less if not more accountable to God than any other men whatsoever He trieth their works searcheth out their Counsels and if they judge not aright Horribly and speedily he will come upon them a sharp judgment shall be to them that are in High places Mercy will soon pardon the meanest but mighty men shall be mightily tormented Wisd. 6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. For he who is Lord over all shall fear no man's person neither shall he stand in awe of any man's Greatness for he hath made small and great and careth for all alike No Difference there is betwixt a Prince and a Peasant except only in this that as the Prince is higher than all so his Crime and Sin is above all and his Punishment will be proportioned to the like and answerable Height Princes being derived immediately from God and with that honour to be the first-born Children of God and Sons of the most high what Measure of Holiness what Degree of Righteousness is required in them so highly advanced They should be holy as their heavenly Father is holy They should be perfect as their Father in Heaven is perfect and this not only in their private Conversation as Christians but also in their publick Government as Fathers of the Kingdom and Nurse-fathers of the Church Nothing addeth more to the Disgrace of a wicked man than when we reflect upon him as descended from a noble and high Stem Solomon saith Prov. 16. 12. It is an Abomination for Kings to commit Wickedness and the fear of the Lord is the Glory of the King No Foundation of a King so sure as Obedience to him that made the King Nothing more dangerous in a King than Rebellion against God Happy are Kings when they resolve with David Psal. 85. 8. I will hearken what the Lord will say unto me But above all Kings are bound to advance Piety and that both in their private and publick Devotions and in their publick Government They ought to be more frequent in their private Devotions than any else and in the publick to be most reverent in their Gestures that their practice in Piety in Devotion in private in publick may be exemplary Regis ad exemplum totus componitur orbis This Duty they owe to God as professores