Gods and so they being but Stewards or Tennants no humane right of prescription can prevail against his original right And in a word to keep his right and our gratitude in continual memory were all those sacrifices and other feasts instituted serving but as so many Indexes and Lessons to shew that the earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof And although we on whom the dregs of Time are come are too prone to forget this everlasting precept of honouring God with our substance yet as a continual remembrance of his undoubted propriety it is our custome and duty as to pray to him for what we want so to thank him for all we receive which thanks in the receit of our ordinary food is called grace as denying all right of our own and acknowledging all to be his grace and bounty Which being so all Societies and men must be looked upon but as Tennant for such term and condition as the Landlord pleaseth So that when this great King after the manner of going into a far country shall be pleased not so immediately to operate in worldly affairs and dispensations but trust the several talents of his bounty to others as namely to Kings from whom he expects account to himself onely as by him onely trusted we are still to acknowledge Gods propriety in them and For this cause are to pay tribute for they are Gods Ministers attending continually upon this very thing That is for to be as Gods unto us aswel in fastening and assuring our proprieties amongst our selves by his laws which could not be else distinguished from the common natural claim to one man more then another by any meer humane right as they are to continue again Gods universal claim and propriety by taking and demanding some part to keep us in continual memory and acknowledgement of Gods supreme right still and of this establishment of propriety by loyalty and obedience And as for Gods acknowledging his Minister herein for himself it is well set forth by that speech of Zelophedads daughters pleading that their inheritances should still remaine in propriety to them because their father had not forfeited them by any rebellion against Gods chief Minister that is against Moses the then King of Jesurun or Israel saying Our father died in the wilderness and was not in the company of them that gathered themselves together against the Lord in the company of Rorah but died in his own sin By which we may plainly perceive that they claim right for continuance of those the proprieties of their family which were by Gods Minister formerly settled because their family had not made any such forfeiture by Rebellion as to cause them to revert again to the first Proprietor God and the Prince Which was the reason why in the case of Naboths vineyard before mentioned Jezabel did advise to have him accused For blaspheming God and the King that under colour of these crimes she might cause that inheritance to return which could not be otherwise done And therefore as Kings are Gods Deputies and Vicegerents to us in representation of his power so are they to be acknowledged his Deputies amongst us in respect of his undoubted and unquestionable propriety even by their receit of such proportions back from their subjects out of those their proprieties by their laws made as those Ministers of God attending continually upon this very thing shall see fit either for advancement of Gods the great owners service or the good of himself or others in order thereunto Which portions in the New Testament are usually included under the general names of custome and tribute because amongst the Romans to whom these taxes and contributions were given they were the usual appellations for publike leavies And this precept of Saint Paul for acknowledging the Prince his paramount propriety under the notion of paying tribute is answerable to another of our Saviours including Caesars propriety in all things under the proper notion of money For in deciding that question of the lawfulness of paying tribute he takes a sure way towards making our proprieties to be Caesars In that calling the piece of money Caesars because it had Caesars image upon it he concludes him to have the same right to all money as to that peice for that all money had his image upon it He doth not say give unto Caesar of your money but give him his own Or give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars concluding that Gods immediate propriety being for the present entrusted and delegated to these in his stead we were now to acknowledge them so far as by our readiness in yeilding of tribute to whom tribute custome to whom custome c. we should thereby amidst our common duties of giving to all their dues give to God his due also And by our readiness in yeilding to his Ministers to this end appointed testifie our proportionable readiness to have done the like to himself in case he had demanded it And demand it no doubt he doth aswel from Christians now as from the Jews formerly nor hath he lost his true right although he be not so immediate in his claim For then because the law was instituted in the time when God himself was King that is had no such direct Officer under him amongst the Jews the acknowledgement of his propriety as under the notion of tenths and offerings was claimed in his own name and God having thereupon disposed of it takes the wrong done in Tythes and offerings as robberies of himself But although these tenths and offerings as Gods gift to them instituted by that Law which was still to continue were to remain to the Priests and Levites unalterably without the impeachment of those Kings that succeeded inasmuch as they had their taxes besides yet now amongst Christians whom that Law binds not as positive but as natural those Tythes where they are collected are or should be paid to Princes in the first place as Gods next Ministers And although Princes do upon just grounds appropriate them to the Clergies maintenance yet in acknowledgement of his headship and propriety above them also he hath tenths fifteens c. reserved from them again And this is done to each King under the Gospel even as King that is as Christs Deputy after the example of Abraham Who on the behalf of the Levites paid Tythes of all he had For as Melchisedeck the King of righteousness and of peace was a Type of our Saviour unto whom all kingdoms do belong so do the tenths and tributes as Gods and Christs right belong to Kings their Deputies now unto whose Office that of High Priest is subordinately annexed Whereupon as Kings are Tenants to God for their whole territories be they greater or less so are the people again Tenants to him according to their several allotments and trusts Upon which ground we may observe that as every Prince hath the whole power and propriety of all within
Tribes for want of a common Head exercising over one another as men of renown the whole earth came to be filled with violence For although each Family had its Government within it self and so all men within one Government or other yet since there wanted a definitive sentence or Monarch to unite these Governors amongst themselves they were in the true estate of Anarchy But to Noah and his sons that were to people the world afterwards as these mischiefs were well known so were they avoided For after that the earth came to be so fully inhabited that now Families must interfere one upon another and could not part peaceable as Abraham and Lot did we finde them under Kings as a necessary form for preservation of mankinde Which blessed Government was ever accompanied with Gods promises of fruitfulness as before recited But if by accident they were removed these people were in the sense of Antiquity if without Kings without Government also and in the estate of Anarchy and confusion And thereupon we finde it threatned Isa. 7.16 that before the overthrow of Judah and Israel the Land should be forsaken of both her Kings And so much as will suffice to convince Anarchy to be absence of Monarchy is in Holy Writ implyed when in the inter-regnum of the Judges it is said there was no King in Israel but every man did that which was righteous in his own eyes And yet were all men at the same time subject to the Fathers and chief of their Tribes as appears by the act of the Danites they had also the same Laws they had before for their direction But because there was now no single judge who might interpret and inforce this Law and give direction and command in chief it was reckoned a state of Anarchy The like at that time was imputed to the men of Laish and made a reason of their easie destruction for there was no Magistrate in the Land that might put them to shame in any thing Where by Magistrate in the singular number or heir of restraint for so the original will bear we may conceive their want of Monarchy was intended for it was always esteemed as a wo to a Land when many were the Princes thereof And indeed is the punishment of rebellion for casting off the one first head and so making many in their divided Factions and Tribes And again the state thereof is in the Text counted as preserved by having one Prince called there a man of understanding and knowledge Meaning one of such capacity as can act by himself and not leave the kingdom to be governed by others after Democratick principles They that think understanding and knowledge was here more pointed at then the unity of the person will be then troubled to finde why the plurality of Princes should be disliked since in that respect many understanding men must in quantity be more then one And again likely it was for one single person to want it and almost impossible for a number of any greatness whereupon it might upon that supposition have been set down but by many men of understanding c. But the truth is the curse and malediction is in the word many or else many understanding Princes might have been a blessing as well as one But why this one Prince is here set down on the other side as a man of understanding is because Princes that want understanding are great oppressors and so could not be counted as the preservers of Countries Whereas we shall never finde the having of one Prince as one to be otherwise given then as a blessing nor of many as many and that in supreme Authority at once to be otherwise given then as a punishment It being for the inconvenience of being governed by Democratick principles in the interim of any Monarchs insufficiency that makes the nonage and other disabilities of Princes come to be esteemed the Lands woe For if at all the equal Government of Peers or People either independently amongst themselves or as joyntly sharing therein with the King had been good or commendable then this nonage of the King which must necessarily produce it should not have been reckoned as in it self a woe But so we shall finde it undenyably to be accompted if we look into the third chapter of Isa. where God threatens the Jews to give them Children to be their Princes and Babes to rule over them And in the next verse tells the consequential punishment that should follow the Anarchical rule of others in their names and rooms viz. and the people shall be oppressed every one by another and every one by his neighbor And there being want of power in the person that should be the fountain of power and Government it shall soon follow in the inferior relations so that the childe shall behave himself proudly against the ancient and the base against the honorable But then because these mischiefs had been by them observed to rise from want of Monarchical power a man shall take hold of his Brother of the house of his Father saying Thou hast cloathing be thou our Ruler and let this ruine be under thy hand But because God had determined to punish them they shall be herein denyed also Which desolation to follow the absence or inability of the Monarch is again expressed in the twelfth verse viz. as for my people children are their oppressors and women rule ever them under which notions of women and children oppressors we are to conceive persons disabled in the execution of their Governments themselves through personal disability and want of power and judgement For since we cannot think women and children could do it most in their own persons we must thereupon conceive their punishment oppression to arise from that divided Aristocratick way of Government which the Nobility or others should act by reason of this want of superior restraint Whereupon in the following verses God in the disability or absence of his Deputy undertakes the cause of the oppressed himself The Lord standeth up to plead and standeth up to judge the people the Lord will enter into judgement with the ancient of his people and the Princes thereof for ye have eaten up the vineyard the spoile of the poor is in your houses what mean you that you beat my people to pieces and grinde the faces of the poor saith the Lord of hosts And if we look into the New-Testament and the time of our Saviour we shall finde not onely this malediction actually removed from the world by the presence of him that came not to destroy mens lives but to save them but it will also appear that this error and absurdity of Polarchy was by that time so well known that the fountain of truth makes the impossibility of its right in Government amongst men to be the medium of his Argument against admission of any equality in our subjection to
his dominions from God and he thereupon called King of such or such a Countrey so are all lands held or to be held again of the Soveraign after one tenure or other nor can any alienation though never so independent exclude his power from making use thereof upon publike occasion whereby to answer his great trust to God in respect of his service or for general benefit of his people nor from his own occasions leading that way also The which was well proved by our Saviours example who sending for another mans Ass bad his Disciples bring him away without other legal satisfaction or answer to any for their so doing Then that the Lord hath need of him Which speech of our Saviours will the more directly prove each Kings indisputable propriety if we consider the time and occasion whereupon he useth it to wit that he never used it but upon occasion of expressing himself in his Kingly right and Office in his riding in state to Jerusalem and there exercising kingly power Plainly declaring that as no private possession can disimpropriate the publike Lord so may this grand proprietor redemand the same not only to answer the more publike charges of the Commonwealth but upon occasion of his own Royal support also In pursuance of which Original Right and Claim or of doing what he will with his own as we find God during the Theocrity making Laws of restraint both for the use and bequest of mens proprieties so may we observe it still to remain of unquestionable right to his supreme Deputy to do the like by their Laws and Edicts in the disposal of such part of that kingdoms property which particular subjects by Laws under him hold in their hands From whence we may call property That share of the Commonwealth which by the Law is held in severalty to the possessor free from the dispose of any but the law-maker himself Which thing as it is by them done by power from God because the earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof so cannot he lose the hold and claim of general right but the Subject must loose his right of particular propriety also which is derived from him by vertue thereof But for a plainer example of Gods claiming his propriety and particularly of power to impose tribute in acknowledgment thereof we may observe the same fully set down in the 31 Chap. of Numb In which God as their present King imposing such a leavy and tribute upon the people both of persons and goods as he saw fit did thereupon become a plain and warrantable president for his succeeding Deputies to take the like from their subjects also even as his Ministers attending for this very thing that is to receive Gods due in acknowledgement of that propriety and protection they by Gods blessing enjoy under them In which Chapter we shall finde the tribute owned by God six several times as the Lords tribute although it were given away to others even to the Levites his then immediate Ministers for receit thereof And as this maxim that God and the Prince are proprietors of all things is in it self most true so if people would rightly consider it it is by God upon good ground established for their benefit because as every one is most careful of his own so the Prince looking upon the possessions of the whole subjects and of every one in particular as his will be more circumspect to encrease and preserve them then when they aim to recover or possess any propriety or power more fully shall set him at strife within his own Dominions For Princes as such should have nothing in the dispose of subjects exempt from their Power but Honor. For this he can never have by force and without their consents or the most or best of them and therefore he will study by Complacency Justice and meritorious deeds towards them to be daily acquiring this so precious a Jewel And they will finde that whilst he is to make his sole imployment after the search of this onely that their common and respective benfits will be necessarily sought whereas by putting him to struggle for other things which they cannot keep justly from him his care will be neglected and the mischief of Civil disturbance inevitably will follow And when all is done men are but abused by an affectionate conceit of the word For propriety can never be in that degree they fancy and if it be not at the dispose of one Prince it must be of more For since Laws are but the will and sentence of the Lawmakers and since proprieties are also but the sentence of Law it will follow that proprieties of particulars are but the proprieties of the publike person that is in soveraignty and power though not in present act yet so as that soveraign may reduce his power to act as he shall see fit And hence it is namely to debar Princes from occasion of seeking farther that such large revenews are allowed in all kinds that through their power of interpreting law the judge of propriety they need not covet beyond what they have to their own use already For to allow those that have the particular proprieties aright to judge the rule of propriety is not only partial but to themselves prejudicial opening by that gap to soveraignty an occasion to perpetual Civil war For since every particular propriety is but parcel of the publike that is of the general propriety of that particular kingdom if that publike have not a person of whole equal interest herein thereby of whole and equal in the particulars hereof how can the whole be duly regarded since particular proprietors can have no aim but what is respective to themselves But let us enquire a little farther into these things make them plain by instance and consideration of some sorts of publike good and of the manner how particular subjects come to have their proprieties therein That stock of honor which each kingdom hath one in respect of another no man doubts but the same is at the Prince his dispose onely that is who shall be more honorable then others and so also for matter of Offices and of power and command over one another For if these things should not all be appropriated to subjects as from him the general proprietor how should they proceed with Justice or agree in sharing them to themselves would not each one to encrease his particular propriety be so covetously contentious as to destroy thereby the stock of the whole propriety But the reason why Princes cannot be in the particular propriety of riches such immediate dispensors as in Honors Offices c. but must refer them to divers other Magistrates to be managed according to his general pleasure signified by Law is for that land and the fruit thereof riches being continually necessary for each subject in particular to have the business of continual allotment thereof would be so great that one person could
do I believe but those that through interest and partiality would decline obedience to the present Prince would yet on their parts expect his protection in case any violence should be offered But men are led to misconceive of actions of this nature for want of due regard how the same person stands accountable for what he doth herein according to that different condition he stood in at the time of doing Whosoever shall oppose or make insurrection against that Prince that is in present possession and under whose protection he lives he and all that side with him are all that while not onely guilty of the sin of rebellion before the divine Tribunal but before that political Tribunal also wherein this Prince doth preside Whereas all those that do assist this their present Soveraign are to be counted loyal both by Law of God and Man But if divine providence or permission have given such success to any subject as to deprive the present Prince and to seat himself in the Regal Throne from that time both he and those that took his part cease to be rebels as to the political Tribunal for any thing they shall act afterwards but both of them stand Criminals before God as for their rebellion past And he also so far as he is an Usurper stands accountable both there and in his own Conscience for al those injuries which are or shall be committed in his present usurpation as wel by himself as those that obey him Whereas they again that were by the Laws of God and man to be accounted loyal to the former Prince in respect of that obedience they then gave him as their present higher power shall become now rebels to this if while they live under his Government and Jurisdiction they pay not that respect and obedience which is to Soveraignty due and they do therein stand accountable as Criminals aswel before the divine Throne as that of their present Soveraign To the present Soveraign I say this subjection must be given if at all we will allow subjection as a duty to be acted and not as a bare contemplative vertue onely For in this case as obedience is due to the higher power even because it is so so must it be actually given to him that is actually seised thereof who onely having present power to command and also to punish in case of refusal must be understood to be the true object of obedience and subjection not onely for wrath but also for Conscience sake â—nd whose resistance as the resistance of the Ordinance of God makes that party a Criminal not onely in respect of judgement hereafter but also in respect of that present Judiciary power wherein the Prince is now seated For this tribute of subjection must be held as legally due to that person in whose name the Laws are enforced and executed as the payment of other tribute doth belong to that Image and Circumscription which is stampt upon the Coyn which was enjoyned to Caesar a stranger by birth and religion and one that had not so much as legal title at home and yet being acknowledged by him that had all title it will thereupon make the duty of subjection to the present power much more apparent But then again although those that now take part with the present power are to be accounted loyal in all thy do in his obeisance whilst he continues their Soveraign and on the contrary those that were formerly loyal are now to be held for Criminals for what they act contrary to their present supremacy yet are they to be lookt upon with this difference in relation to their actings past Those that were loyal cannot justly be punished by him that succeeds for any opposition against him before he was possessed for that were to discourage and punish loyalty Whereas those that took part for setting up a new power having all that while no lawful Authority for what they did are for all those acts legally punishable by the deposed Prince in case he shall be restored none but he having power to pardon what was done against his Jurisdiction onely For certainly as caths of Alleageance and other ties of duty were given to Princes by Subjects with respect and in relation to that power they then held even so must Subjâ—â—â—s be held Criminals to that power for all disloyal acts done while that power was up even as they must also be criminals when they do oppose that which succeeds And it will concern every new Prince even in point of prudence to be careful hereof And although he cannot in discretion and good nature but be exemplar in depressing and rewarding some few that have more eminently opposed or assisted him yet generally to punish or discourage such as have been true to the former established Government onely because they have been so and to reward such as sided for alteration onely because they did so will be found of most dangerous consequence not onely to himself but to the publike peace also by leaving a president for necessitous and discontented persons to attempt the like innovations for the future upon the like incouragements and hopes of reward Upon due regard of the necessary rendring this obedience to the present Prince in order to duety and maintainance of publike peace and in tenderness of the indemnity of Subjects for so doing was that most gracious and beneficial Law made by that most prudent and politick Prince of our Nation Henry the seventh enacting that none should be questioned as Traytors for any thing done in obedience to the present King This most wise Prince had well considered how often the subjects of this Land had been punished even for being true Subjects by such as being wholly swayed by sense of self-interest and revenge did herein deal otherwise by them then themselves would in like case be dealt by For they would not themselves have been content that their followers should for their loyalty to them be so used by such as should again succeed in this power and much less would they be content that any should withdraw their subjection from themselves now in present power under colour of the better Title of another And much less yet would they have been content if themselves had been in the condition of subjection to any Prince and had therein been constantly loyal that this former Prince having now neither occasion to imploy or means to maintain them elsewhere should ingratefully stomack and reckon as a fault that necessary livelihood he were now forced to seek in his native Country under the protection and obeisance of another He foresaw that while that way of claim by Title was pleadable amongst the Subjects themselves that they were not onely still at a loss for want of true evidence herein but the whole Kingdom perpetually infested with Civil war by that disagreement that must happen thereabout whilst Subjects might upon this pretence be no subjects by withdrawing obedience from the present subjector to