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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	government_n	king_n	kingdom_n	6,632	5	5.9933	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77374	The vvounded conscience cured, the weak one strengthned, [sic] and the doubting satisfied By way of answer to Doctor Fearne. Where the main point is rightly stated, and objections throughly answered for the good of those who are willing not to be deceived. By William Bridge, preacher of Gods Word. It is ordered this 30. day of January, 1642. by the committee of the House of Commons in Parliament, concerning printing, that this answer to Dr. Fearnes book be printed. John White. The second edition, correced and amended. Whereunto are added three sermons of the same author; 1. Of courage, preached to the voluntiers. 2. Of stoppage in Gods mercies to England, with their [sic] remedies. 3. A preparation for suffering in these plundering times.	Bridge, William, 1600?-1670.	1643 (1643)	Wing B4476A; ESTC R223954	47,440	52

bound to it because he receiveth this power originall I speake not in opposition ●o God but I say originally from the people themselves as appears by the government of the Judges and Kings of Israel which government this Doctor saith was Monarchicall the best plat-forme for England For Judges 8. 22. The men of Israel come unto Gideon to make him their King and Judges the 9. 6. They gathered together and made Abimeleck their King and Judges 11. 8 9 10 11. The people covenanted with Jephtha and made him their King and as for Saul though he was designed by God to the Kingdome yet the people themselves chose the kinde of their government first when they said Give us a King to rule over us after the manner of the Nations After that God had annointed Saul it is said 1 Sam. 11. 15. And all the people went to Gilgall and there they made Saul King before the Lord in Gigall and as for David though he was annointed King by Samuel yet we finde that he continued a Subject unto Saul after that and the 2. of Sam. 2. He came unto Hebron and there the men of Judah were and there they anointed David King over the house of Judah v. 4. After that he was thus annointed by Judah to be King over them yet he did not rule over Israel till the other tribes also went out and made him King over them 1 Cron. 12. 38. It is said that all these men of warre came with a perfect heart to Hebron to make David King over all Israel as for Solomon though he was designed by God to the Kingdome yet it is said of him also 1 Chro. 29. 22. that all the Corgregation did eat and drinke before the Lord and they made Solomon the son of David King the second time and annointed him unto ●he Lord to be the chiefe Governour Solomon being dead the second of the Chron. 10. 1. It is said of Rehoboam that he went to Shechem where all Israell came to make him King and in the second of Sam. 16. 18. it is said thus And Hushai said unto Absolon God save the King God save the King and Absolon said unto Hushai Is this thy kindnesse unto thy friend why wentest thou not with thy friend And Hushai said unto Absolom againe nay but whom the Lord and this people and all the men of Israel chuse his will I be and with him will I abid● ● that wee see that these Monarchs both of the Judges and Kings ● Israel were chosen and entrusted by the people and had their powe● of governing from them 3. The Parliament also is immediatly trusted b● the people and Common-weal with the safety thereof as wel as the King though not to be King for they are the officers of the Kingdom and therefore chosen immediatly by the people and not designed by the King an● this kinde of officers was in Davids time also there were some Officer● then that were the Kings Officers his Cooks his Bakers the steward o● his house and the like Others were the officers of the Kingdome called the Elders and heads of the Tribes which though they were under him yet were they with him trusted in the affairs of the Kingdome whom therefore he did consult with in the great affaires of the State 1 Chron. 13. 1● wherefore seeing the King is to looke to the safety of the Kingdome and that because he is trusted therewith by the people and the Parliament ar● as well trusted by the people with the safety of the land it is their duty i● case of danger to looke to it which they are not able to do● and mak● good their trust unlesse they have power to take up Arms against an enemy when the Prince is misled or defective 4. From the being of a Parliament As it is a Parliament it is the highest Court of Justice in the Kingdome therfore hath power to ●●nd for by force those that are accused before them that they may come to thei● triall which power if I mistake not inferiour Courts have much more the highest 'T is out of doubt agreed on by all that the Parliament hath a power to send a Sergeant at Armes to bring up such an one as is accused before them and if they have a power to send one Sergeant at Arms then 20. if 20. be accused then a 100. if there be a 100. accused then a thousand if there be a thousand accused then tenne thousand if there be tenne thousand accused and so more or lesse as occasion serves for there is the same reason for two as for one and for 4. as for 2. and for a 100. as for 20. and for a 1000. as for a 100. and take away this power from the Parliament and 't is no longer a Parliament but the King● and his forefathers have by law setled these libertie● of Parliament and therefore according to Lawes they have a power to send for by force those that are accused to be tried before them which they cannot do unlesse they raise an army when the accused are kept from them by an army 5. From the common trust reposed on Princes and the end thereof which is to feed their people Psal 78. 70. He chose David his servant an● tooke him from the Sheep-fold to feed his people Jacob and his inheritance in Israel The end why the people have trusted the Prince is the s●fety and security of the Kingdome the safety and welfare of the State not that the King might be great and the Subjects slaves Now if a people should have no power to take up armes for their owne defence because they had trusted the Prince therewithall then by that trust they intended to make themselves slaves For suppose the King will let in a common enemy upon them or take his owne subjects and make the● slaves in Gallies if they may not take up armes for their owne defence because they had trusted their Prince therewithall what can this be but by their trust to make themselves slaves unto him 2. The caution that is to be premised is this notwithstanding all that I have said yet I doe not say that the subjects have power to depose their Prince neither doth our assertion or practice enforce such an inference Object But if the power of the Prince be derived from the people then they may take away that power againe Resp It followes not neither shall the people need to thinke of such an inference Indeed if the power were derived from the people to the Prince firstly and that the people should be so strait-laced that they should have no power left to defend themselves in case of danger when the Prince is misled or unfaithfull then the people might be occasioned to thinke of deposing their Prince but though the power of the Prince bee originally from them yet if they have so much power left as in times of danger to looke to their owne preservation what need they

power or such as conquerours use as he did Sect. 1. professe that he was much against arbitrary government But I wish the Doctor would be pleased to consider his own principles as he delivers them in these papers for he sayes that the Roman Emperours were absolute Monarchs and did indeed rule absolutely and arbitrarily and that they did make themselves such absolute Monarchs by conquest Then he sayes this Crowne of England is descended by three conquests And therefore if one conquest is a reason for the arbitrary government of the Emperour he cannot but thinke though he conceale his minde that his government also ought to be much more arbitrary What else remaines in this Section I have either spoken to it already or shall more aptly in the following Discourse Sect. III. THe Doctor saith That for the proving this power of resistance there is much speech used about the Fundamentals of this power which because they lye low and unseen by vulgar eyes being not written laws the people are made to beleeve that they are such as they that have the power to put new laws upon them say they are Ans Herein he turnes the Metaphor of Fundamentalls too far as if because the fundamentals of a house cannot be seen therefore the fundamentall laws cannot be seen which are not therefore called Fundamentall because they ly under ground but because they are the most essentiall upon which all the rest are built as fundamentall points of Religion are most seen and yet fundamentall Secondly he sayes these fundamentals are not written lawes The Parliament say they are and produce severall written lawes for what they do The Doctor and those that are of his sense say they are not who should the people be ruled by in this case but by the Parliament seeing the Doctor himselfe saith none are so fit to judge of the lawes as they Then the Doctor saith Those that plead for this power of resistance lay the first ground worke of their Fundamentals thus The power is originally in and from the people and if when by election they have intrusted a Prince with a power he will not discharge his trust then it falls to the people or as in this kingdome to the two Houses of Parliament the representative body of this Kingdome to see to it they may re-assume the power This is the bottome of their fundamentals as they are now discovered to the people Ans We distinguish as he doth the power abstractively considered from the qualifications of that power and the designation of a person to that power The power abstractively considered is from God not from the people but the qualifications of that power according to the divers waies of executing in severall formes of government and the designation of the person that is to worke under this power is of man And therefore the power it selfe we never offer to take out of Gods hand but leave it where we found it But if the person intrusted with that power shall not discharge his trust then indeed it falls to the people or the representative body of them to see to it which they doe as an act of selfe-preservation not as an act of jurisdiction over their Prince It is one thing for them to see to it so as to preserve themselves for the present and another thing so to re-assume the power as to put the Prince from his office As for example Suppose there be a ship full of passengers at the sea in the time of a storme which is in great danger to be cast away through the negligence and fault of the Steers-man the passengers may for their own present safety that they may not be all cast away desire the Steers-man to stand by and cause another to stand at the Sterne for the present though they doe not put the Steers-man out of his office And this is our case we doe not say that the Prince not discharging his trust the people and Parliament are so to re-assume the power as if the Prince were to be put from his Office which the Doctor not distinguishing thus would obtrude upon us but only that the Prince being abused by those that are about him whereby the charge is neglected the people or representative Body may so looke to it for the present setting some at the sterne till the storme be over lest the whole suffer ship wracke And herein the Doctor does exceedingly wrong us disputing against us as if we went about to depose our King which we contend not for nor from these principles can be collected Then the Doctor saith That however the fundamentalls of this government are much talked of this is according to th●n the fundamentall in all Kingdomes and governments for they say power was every where from the people at first and so this would serve no more for the power of resistance in England then in France or Turkey Ans If it be the fundamentall in all Kingdomes and Governments then it seemes it does not lye so low and unseen as the Doctor said before because all the world sees it Secondly whereas he saith this will serve no more for power of resistance in England then in France or Turkey he seemes to insinuate that France and Turkey have no such power of resistance but who doth not know that the Protestants in France are of this judgement with us and practise witnesse that businesse of Rochell Then the Doctor saith we will cleare up these two particulars whether the power be so originally chiefly from the people as they would have it Then whether they may upon just causes re-assume that power and saith first of the originall of power which they would have to be so from the people as that it shall bee from God only by a permissive approbation Ans If the Doctor takes Power for Magistracie it self and sufficiencie of authority to command or coerce in the governing of a people abstractively considered as distinguished from the qualification of that power according to the divers waies of executing it in severall formes of government and the designation thereof unto some person then I do not beleeve there is any man in the Parliament whom the Doctor especially disputes against or of those who write for them that hold that the power is from the people and by permission and approbation onely of God neither can they for in that they contend so much for the Parliament it argues they are of opinion that authority and power in the abstract is from God himselfe and for the designation of a person or qualification of the power according to severall forms of government the Dr. himself grants it in this Section to be the invention of man and by Gods permissive approbation Then the Doctor comes to prove this by 3. arguments That power as distinguished from the qualification thereof and designation is of divine institution Ans Wherein he might have saved his labour in those three arguments for none doth deny

of faith and learn how to use it to live by it when our lands our stocks our trades our friends our wit our shifts as the ordinary means of our livelihood shall faile us That we may live not onely above our fears and troubles and doubts but above the world above our selves in God and in Christ in whom vve may see supply to all our vvants satisfaction to all our desires and have recompense for all our losses and every thing that may make for our good and welfare light in our darknesse life in our death strength in our weaknesse riches in our poverty and comfort our selves that we serve a Master that will one day right all our wrongs reckoning the injuries that be done to his as done to himselfe so that we should not think much to part with our Country our Children our Possessions our life if the world will take them from us for Christ and his Gospels sake All these and much better than these shall be restored to us one day and vve may say thus to our selves yet I am not miserable so long as my Redeemer is happy he lives and I shall live vvith him men may take from me my goods but they cannot rob me of my grace they may banish me from my Countrey but not from Heaven take from me my life but not my happines no my faith my heaven my soul my happines is in his keeping that will safely preserve them for me and me for them But I fear I have held thee too long in the porch I shall now open thee the door and let thee in praying God to make those lessons as profitable to thee as the Authors desire vvas they might both in his preaching them and his vvillingnesse to have them published for publike good I. A. AN INTRODVCTION Vnto the Treatise necessary for all good Subjects to understand c. I Have perused Doctor Fearne his booke intituled The resolving of Conscience wherein I finde that he hath exceedingly mistaken the question the question in truth is whether the Parliament now hath justly taken up arms we affirme it he denies it and withall slips into another question whether it be lawfull for the Subjects to take ● armes against their King But if he will so propound the question ●en I must preface these two or three distinctions and one caution First at the subject is considered two waies either unitivè conjunctively OR divisivè divisively The Subject considered ●●visively hath alwayes applied himselfe to prayers and teares using no her remedy and of this we speake not but conjunctively considered ●ate-wise so he now doth and 't is lawfull for him thus to take up arms ●condly the Subject may be said to take up armes either as an act of ●f preservation or as an act of jurisdiction exercised towards his Prince ●e first way we say it is lawfull the second way we contend not for ●irdly the Subject is said to take up armes against the King either as a●nst the Kings person and of this we do not speak or as against the ●ngs commandment for their own preservation so we affirm it and then ●r position is That it is lawfull for the Subjects conjunctively considered to take up The position ●nes for selfe-preservation against the Kings commandement where ●o things are to be cleared First that this is the case of the Parliament ●condly that this is lawfull for them to do first this is their case for as any reasonable by-stander may observe there are 3 grounds of this the proceeding the one is to fetch in Delinquents and such persons as a● accused before them to be legally tried in that highest Court of the Kingdome the second is to defend the State from forraigne invasion who se● more into the danger then we do the third is to preserve themselves a● the Countrey from the insurrection and rebellion of Papists and that th● is lawfull we prove by divers reasons some drawn from nature som● from Scripture some from the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome some from the being of Parliaments and some from the common tru● reposed on Princes First from nature It is the most naturall worke in the world for ever● thing to preserve it selfe Naturall for a man to preserve himselfe naturall for a Community and therefore when a Common-weale shall chu● a Prince or a State-officer though they trust him with their welfare the that act of their trust is but by positive law and therefore cannot destro● Iacob Almain de auth ecclesi● apud Gerlon the naturall law which is selfe-preservation Cum humana potest is supra j● naturae non ●●istit seeing that no humane power is above the law of n●ture Secondly from Scripture the Word of God saith expressely in 1 Chr● 12. 19. That David went out against Saul to battaile yet he was Sau● subject at that time for the Lord of the Philistims sent him away sayin● he will fall to his Master Saul which Text I bring not to prove that Subject may take up armes against the King person but that the Subject may take up armes against those that are malignant about the Kings person notwithstanding the Kings command to the contrary which becaus● this of David is said to be against Saul and that Davids heart smote hi● for cutting off the lap of Sauls garment the meaning therefore must nee● be that he went out in battell against those that attended upon Sau● strengthned by Sauls authority notwithstanding Sauls command to th● contrary And in the new Testament Rom. 13. 1 We are commanded to subject to the higher Powers now the Parliament being the highest Cou● of Justice in this Kingdome as King James saith in his Basilicon Doron must needs be the higher powers of England though the King be s●preme yet they have the high power of declaring the law as this Doct● Fearne confesseth being most fit to judge what is law They therefor● declaring this to be the fundamentall Law of the Kingdome for the su●jects to defend themselves by forcible resistance notwithstanding t● Kings command to the contrary it is the duty of all the subjects to be ●bedient to these higher powers Thirdly from the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome It is according to the fundamentall Laws of the Kingdome yea written and not unseene Lawes That the Parliament are trusted by the Common-weale with the welfare and security thereof whence I doe reason thus If it be the duty of the King to looke to the safety of the Kingdome and that because he is trusted therewith by the Common-weale then if the Parliament be immediatly trusted by the Common-weale with the safety thereof as well as the King though not so much then are they to looke to it and to use all meanes for the preservation thereof as well as the King But so it is that the Prince is bound to looke to the safety and welfare of the Kingdome as is agreed by all and secondly therefore he is

revolt from allegeance which hath possessed well neare tenn● Tribes of the twelve and yet in page 21. he tells us of a vote passed by ● few upon the place that this worke of resistance is not carried on with a generall and unanimous consent and yet here he saith ten tribes of twelv● are for it In examining the causes of this war and resistance the Dr. saith To speake truth Religion and liberties can be no other then the pretences of this war the King having fortified them with so many acts of his grace passed this Parliament that they cannot be in that danger that is pretende● for the raising of this war It must be something that his Majesty indeed doth deny for which the contention is raised which we shall finde to be his power of armes his power of denying in Parliament the government of the Church and the revenue of it which he is bound by oath to maintaine as by law they are established Ans This is a very bold assertion and scandalous to charge a Parliament in the face of the world with hypocrisie but how doth this agree to the Drs. owne principles who doth declaime against me● for their uncharitablenesse in not beleeving the Kings Protestations Is this then no uncharitablenesse in him charging the Houses with pretending one thing and intending another Is not conscience a● well bound to be charitable and to beleeve the Protestations of th● Parliament as those papers that come out in the name of the King and hath the Parliament and Houses carried themselves so unworthily and basely that under pretence of Religion we should think● they gape after the revenues of the Church O where is this man● charity And if the King be bound by oath as the Dr. saith to maintaine the government of the Church as by Law established yet h● is no more bound by vertue of that oath to maintaine that government then any other Law of the Kingdom and as for other Laws i● the King and Parliament thinke fit to repeale them they may ye● without breach of the Kings oath so in this also Then the Doctor comes in the 25. page to open himselfe some what more freely concerning the government of the Church b● Bishops where he saith That it is such a government which t●● Church alwaies had since the first receiving of the Christian faith in th● land and of all other governments simply the best the abolishing wher● of the King hath reason by power of Armes to divert To which I answer First that if the Doctor looke into the story of Queen Maries time he shall finde that suffering Protestant Churches which by reason of persecution were faine to lye hid in London were governed by Elders and Deacons That is simply the best government of the Church which is chalked and ruled out by the Scripture as the Doctor will confesse and if this government bee so I wonder that those that are so much for it should bee of that judgement that there is no particular forme of Church-government laid downe in the word which judgement they must needs bee of unlesse they will hold that the government of other Churches is sinfull and contrary unto the word which they are loth for to doe And truly if this government be simply the best the best hath the worst successe for there is no government in all the Churches of Christendome that hath had so many Sects and Schismes or occasioned so much separation from the Churches of Christ as this hath done There are many Sects and divisions in the low Countries but none of them departing from the Protestant Church there by reason of the Church-government or discipline but by reason of doctrine Let any man but seriously consider the Protestant Churches in Switzerland France Holland Germany Scotland and hee shall easily observe that there is no such separation or division made from the Churches by reason of the church-Church-government stablished in them as hath been here in England by reason of this Diocesan government And if any man shall say this bad successe here is rather to bee imputed to the wickednesse of the Governours then the corruption of government Why should hee thinke that the Governours in England are more wicked then in other Protestant Churches if the government itselfe did not give scope to their wickednesse And if the government of Diocesan Bishops bee of all governments the best wee wonder that Christ and his Apostles should not appoint it surely they appointed some government in the Church and what they appointed was ●ure Divino and so best whereas this was never counted Iure Divino till of late But if this government bee simply the best it will abide triall in its due time and place but that it should be so good as that the abolishing thereof the King hath reason by power of Armes to divert this is strange Now the Doctor shewes himselfe that hee had rather the Kingdome should be embrewed in a bloody warre then Episcopacie should be put downe and that will stirre up the King to an unnaturall civill warre for the upholding of that order Judge yee O all Englishmen whether it be better for you to have this order taken away then for the whole Kingdome to lie imbrewed in their owne gore In the conclusion of this Section the Doctor complaines That the Kings Speare and Cruse and necessary Ammunition and provisions are taken away not restored though often demanded contrary saith hee to the example of David who having taken the Speare and the Cruse from Saul his King restored them againe before they were demanded 1 Sam. 26. Ans But though Sauls Speare was restored before it was demanded yet not before Saul had humbled himselfe to David saying I have sinned returne my sonne David for I will no more doe thee harme because my soule was pretious in thine eyes this day Behold I have played the foole and have erred exceedingly vers 21. Whereupon David arose and said vers 22. Behold the Kings Speare let one of the young men come over and fetch it Neither is mention here made of restoring the Cruse Some other things the Doctor hath in this Section wherein hee doth rather charge then prove but mens knowledge may sufficiently answer to those things SECT VII IN this last Section the Doctor tells us That though Conscience could be perswaded that it is lawfull to make a defensive resistance yet it can never be perswaded that the King is such as the people must bee made to believe he is for indeed it concernes all such as will resist upon the principles now taught to render their Prince odious to his people under the hatefull notions of Tyrant subverter of Religion and Lawes a person not to be trusted or at least as one seduced to such evill designes by wicked counsels that hee will bring in Popery that hee will not stand to his promises Ans These are sad charges but how groundlesse God and the world knowes