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A50351 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. Dei gratia mea lux. Maxwell, John, 1590?-1647. 1689 (1689) Wing M1385; ESTC R217399 195,288 341

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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
and Mary than of Christ and that they out of their Fear and Weakness not able to do better did flee Herod and his malicious intent If any think so let him consider that he hath not learned as yet that all Christ's Actions and Passions are full of Mysteries and nothing acted or suffered by him in which there was not an over-ruling wonderful Providence of God in Mercy and Wisdom and withal let him consider that all his Acts and Sufferings are our Instructions But leaving this Did he not in his Ministry teach and practise it Teach it when he commanded to render to Caesar the things that are Caesars when he convinced the Iews who would gladly have shaken off Caesar and his Right arguing that they were by God's Law bound to pay Caesar Tribute because he was their King and this he proved by their Coin which with all sound knowing Politicians is inter jura Majestatis which was printed with Caesar's Face and Superscription Again in his Death Did not our Saviour Christ acknowledge Pilate's Power that is the Roman of which he was Deputy to be from above Did he not rebuke Peter who with his Sword would have in a Defensive way saved him from those bloudy Persecutors Did he not tell him He that killeth by the Sword shall perish by the Sword that is Peter although thou think thou hast a good cause that thou wilt defend me and by resisting open force preserve me thy Master thy Saviour deceive not thy self it is not lawful by Arms in the best Cause for my Cause for my Life to resist Lawful Authority if thou kill in my Defence thou art worthy to suffer Death by the Sword by him that beareth the Sword not in vain When Peter over-reached himself in this distempered zeal cut off Malchus his Ear Christ before that Offence should have been done by any of his in his company for his Cause will be at the pains to cure this wound miraculously Would God Pope and Papeling Jesuit and Sectary Puritan and Presbyterian would fix their hearts upon these Practices of Christ by a singular Wisdom of God so clearly and fully recorded practised in Christ's Nativity Childhood practised and taught in his Ministry practised and taught when he was a dying when he was looking Death in the face at which time the most sinful man will neither dissemble nor temporize I doubt much if in any act of Christ during his coming into the World and his going home again to his Father you can instance any to parallel this to exceed it sure I am you cannot And what I pray you can the Pope challenge more than to be Minister Evangelii a Minister of the Gospel as our Lord was Circumcisionis of the Circumcision He shall never be accounted with me the true Vicar of Christ who teacheth contrary to Christ and practiseth contrary to his Practices Me thinketh he looketh more like and hath nearer alliance with the man mentioned 2 Thes. 2. Who exalteth himself above every thing is called God It is very considerable likewise that in the Apostolical Creed which is so full so brief and nothing in it but what is necessary to be believed to Salvation that I say in this short Creed Pontius Pilate whose memory is accursed by the Spirit of God which ruled his Church in setting this down is recorded It is not for his Honour certainly but for our good and edification that there it is said Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate that we may learn if we expect Salvation by Faith in Christ we must submit to Authority by obedience to what they command if it be lawful and submitting humbly and suffering if Authority urge that which is unlawful and against God And that this we are bound to although the Magistrate be as opposite to Christianity as a Heathen and the Cause for which we suffer be for Christ and his Church We will never help Christ nor his Church by Arms against Authority or Religion by Rebellion If our Sectaries give us a new Creed it will concern them near with the expunging of Christs descent to Hell and the Communion of Saints to raze out this He suffered under Pontius Pilate If their Practices be so contradictory to Christ's they cannot but consequutivè by consequence be destructory of the Christian Faith where the Reward of those are to be expected you know too well It were better for you not only to expunge Christ's Descent into Hell but to annihilate Hell it self which by a close Committee you may resolve upon if your omnipotent power can be able to do it I mean your fansied coordinate power which you have of late erected against Sovereignty fixed in the Lord 's Anointed as in the Church you have erected Altar against Altar God open your Eyes to see your monstrous Sins and Errours and to give to you and to us all true Repentance that the fearful vengeance of God overtake us not and in the World to come be forced by sensible eternal and horrible pains to acknowledge the Truths which now we reject although plainly in Scripture declared in the most Authentick Apostolical Creed determined and by the current and not interrupted suffrage of the Fathers above seven hundred years believed Lord have mercy upon us and turn his Wrath and fearful Indignation from us I dare not to express what I fear when I look upon these outrages committed against Sacred Truth How God and his Word are abused His Sanctuary defiled His Ordinances repealed Mischief framed by the Law Sacred Persons violated and the Lords Anointed fearfully rebelled against My resolution is to dissolve unto Tears and Prayers and with my Master say daily say hourly Lord forgive them for they know not what they do The weakness of this Assertion that Kings are not Christ's Vicegerents we have as we hope sufficiently proved It is high time now to discover the wickedness of it The purpose they have by this and the like Assertions is to reserve the managing of all Religious Affairs in their largest latitude to themselves vindicating it as peculiar and proper quarto modo to their Conventicles Presbyteries and Assemblies This Sovereignty they make so Sovereign and Independent that all Kings and Sovereigns whatsoever must submit to it This Sovereignty Ecclesiastical may restrain and constrain the King at pleasure It may repeal his Laws correct his Statutes reverse his Judgments It may establish its own urge Obedience Cite Convent and Censure in case of Disobedience And if they be not of Power to execute what they decree they may call for or command the help and assistance of the People in whom is that underived Majesty and to this purpose may promise covenant swear to stand to the maintenance of their Fancies against all whatsoever and to defend each another contra omnes mortales with their Goods Lands Fortunes Honours Lives to admit no divisive motion which is real and to be such if the Authority of this Church declare it
of every individual and particular Person singly for our good from God they are sent for our good to us they come If Kings were not we should be as the Fishes of the Sea the greater destroying the smaller or as the Beasts of the Forest the strong destroying the weaker Hab. 1. 14. Saint Chrysostom explaining these words 1 Tim. 2. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where the Apostle saith that we may live a quiet and peaceable life that is to say saith the holy Father Our Security subsists in their Safety It is worthy your notice taking that in the Book of Iudges where it is recorded that all disorder was in the Church and State the reason is so often given and repeated Because in those dayes there was no King in Israel you read it cap. 17. 6. 18. 1. 19. 1. 21. 25. Which words import not simply that there was no Government in those dayes none can be so stupid to imagine it but the Spirit of God intimateth two things to us 1. The one is that they wanted Monarchy the most excellent of Governments 2. The other is that the Government then Aristocratical was so weakened that in Church and State nothing was sound the grossest Enormities did abound and there was no strength in Authority to right it Review the story There was no King this time and consequently there was all mischief this time and therefore a fit time to shake off the old and bring in a new Religion Micah and his old doting Mother will have a Religion of their own an Idol of their own a trencher-Chaplain of their own there is nothing to let it No matter for sacred Orders if a Levite may be had it is better otherwise it skilleth not much The reason is given in the Text In diebus illis c. in those ill dayes there was no King in Israel I wish we were so happy that these Times of ours had no resemblance with that time Well but it is no great matter for Religion if every man can enjoy his Liberty his Honour his Peace live in Safety what is Religion to us If this be Religion these Times want not Professours too too many It will not rest here although every man have liberty or licence rather in Anarchy to have and to profess what Religion he will the same Scripture telleth us where no King is Rapine and Spoil will be where no King is plundering will be good Justice every man's Lands Revenues and Chattels may be fortiter occupantis the stronger may disseize the weaker you shall have the Tribe of Dan to spoil too Nor is this all The men of Gibeah will abuse the Levite's Wife nay do it avowedly abuse her to death it is no great danger to act and do what mischief you will where no King is No man's Soul Wife Life or Goods can be secured where no King is Idols may be erected Murder may be acted and allowed Men robbed of their Goods and all this good Service for the glory of God and the good Cause Consider again how universal these Mischiefs are you have a Micah a private man Gibeah a City Dan a Tribe all out of order and course Religion is defaced Justice is abused Honesty and Civil moral Conversation is shaken off Dishonesty Impiety Uncleanness are avowed Again consider Micah was at Mount Ephraim in the midst of the Land Gibeah was at one end of the Countrey and Dan at the other so that these Mischiefs were not confined to one corner but were spred over all the Land And seeing Scripture repeats it let us repeat it too all these Disorders all these Mischiefs were because in those dayes there was no King in Israel Turn it over again No better way to keep Religion sincere and incorrupt mens Lives and Wives Honour Goods and Possessions in Safety to secure them from Murder Abuse Oppression than by Kings No doubt Priests there were then but either they would not serve at all or then the Priests were over-awed by the disorderly and sinful multitude Hos. 4. or did prescribe their Text give them Commentaries taught them what to say what to preach No doubt in those dayes Judges they had but Justice was not done or if done at pleasure otherwise Judges were posted and signed with a nigrum theta marked to be stoned by a rascally multitude Though Priests be in the Church and Judges be in the Land they are not able to guard the Publick or Private from wrong wherefore it is most consonant with Scripture to say Salus Regis suprema Populi salus the Safety of the King and his Divine Royal Prerogative is the safest Sanctuary for the People Vbi non est gubernator populus corruet so readeth St. Hierom Solomon's words I refer my self in this to the Consciences and Experience of the King's Subjects what hath been the security or comfort they have had in Person State or Goods since the Lords Anointed the best of Kings hath been wronged O if they durst speak O if they would speak The Prophet Hoseah cap. 3. 4. threatneth as the greatest of Judgments in this world That the children of Israel shall be many dayes without a King Listen I pray you to what followeth and without a Prince that is there shall be no Nobility and what more and without a Sacrifice that is there shall be no Religion no true Priest The same Prophet cap. 10. 3. sheweth they shall have no King because they feared not the Lord. The Prophet Ieremy Lam. 11. 9. lamenteth first that their Kings were captives then that they had no Nobility for their Princes were captives too then the Law is no more Justice is gone with the King and then the Prophets find no Vision from the Lord Religion is gone too Will not all this lead us to better thoughts a better esteem of Salus Regis of the Safety of the King the preferring of his Divine Right and Royal Prerogative It may be our Zealots account those Prophets no better than Court Parasites Cyprian or some other ancient Author masked under his Name summeth up shortly but pithily the happiness of People in a King de 12 abusionib Saeculi cap. 9. in fine Est pax populorum tutamen patriae imm●nitas plebis munimentum gentis cura languorum gaudium hominum temperies aeris serenitas maris terrae foe●unditas solatium pauperum c. The words are plain enough they need no interpretation What mean they then who magnifie this Maxim Salus Populi suprema Lex esto Let the Safety of the People be the Supreme Law to call it in a narrow sense abstracting à salute R●gis from the safety of the King The transcendent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all Politicks the Paramont Law that giveth Law to all Laws whatsoever that the Law of Prerogative it self is subservient to this Law and were it not conducing thereunto it were not necessary nor expedient Some more superlatively excessive commendations the
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 co●s●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 with●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 ge●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