an evident mark of God's Ordination whereby this Power is convey'd to a Person and how we shall know it God's Lordship and Sovreignty over us does originally arise from the right of a Creatour In that he is the cause and authour of our being he must necessarily have an absolute dominion over us who are produced and created by him It is he that hath made us and not we our selves says the Psalmist And then it follows regularly in the next words We are his people c. And as he was pleas'd not to produce all men as he did Adam solely and immediately by Himself though he had the residue of the Spirit as the Prophet speaks but to take in man as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Copartner with him in the production of the rest deriving them by Generation one from another He has hereby admitted man likewise into a partnership of his Sovreignty made him naturally a Sovreign over those who receive their being and production from him And thus Parents are petty gods in relation to their children And children have the obligation of creatures upon them in respect unto their Parents And this not onely to their next and immediate parents who beget them but upon the same Tenure for Causa causae est causa causati to their Parent 's Parents Avus Proavus Tritavus Grandfather Great-grandfather and so upwards Every one in the whole Category and Succession of them being a Subalternum genus That is to say a Power in respect of those under them but a Species and Subject still in respect of the Summum Genus the Supreme Parent from whom they flow and by whom they are sent And thus a Family becomes a Kingdom and the King or Pater patriae Father of the Countrey is the very Paterfamilias Master of the Family And as Noah if he were still alive would certainly be Rex Catholicus not in Title onely but in Truth the Catholick or Universal Monarch of the whole World as being the Father of all the Families and Kingdoms now in being So this Universal Monarchy must necessarily expire upon his death and become divided as it was between his three Sons Shem Ham and Japhet None of them being a Father and therefore not a King over the other but every one a Father and absolute in his own Family Shem the elder brother being still but a Brother and so though he had many privileges and priorities even a double portion above the rest as due by his Birthright Yet not necessarily or by the law of Nature to succeed into a paternal power over his brethren no more than he could be a natural Father to them And as here began the distinction of Kings and Kingdoms in these three Brethren and their Families So they all multiplying into many Sons and those Sons into many more who were all after their Fathers deaths as their Fathers before them had been absolute and Independent Monarchs over their respective children Every Family being still a several Kingdom it must needs be that in process of time among so many Kings and Kingdoms all absolute and independent from one another there could not but fall matter of continual and endless Controversie Every lesser Family oppress'd by the greater Every difference with a Neighbour being onely determinable by the sword and to be managed by a bloudy war For the avoiding of which great inconvenience manifestly arising from the multiplicity of Kings and Kingdoms we must suppose That either admonished by God or prompted by right Reason these several Fathers of Families so many of them as were adjoyn'd by any nearness of place and Kindred meeting together in one body and others in another and so of the rest did give up this their absolute power which they had severally before over their own Families into the hands of some one person incorporating themselves and their Families into his Family adopting themselves his children and by uniting their several paternal powers in him alone did thereby make and acknowledge him the common Father of them all And that not personally onely or with limitation to his particular self For then at his death they must have return'd to the same inconveniences as before Which by the greater increase of Families would then become much greater and which therefore they were concern'd the rather and with greater diligence to prevent but to his Heirs after him So making his Family to be a Family of Fathers in their several generations to them and their Families for ever And that this is indeed the true original of Kings and Monarchs all particular paternal powers being really transferr'd and united in them is very evident as Mr. Diggs observes Because else we should be bound to obey our Fathers commands before those of the Kings For divine precept stands in full force Honour thy Father c. Which being as St. Paul says the first commandment with promise and the first in the second Table does certainly in its own weight and obligation and so ought to do in our value and observance out-strip all other after Commandments of the same Nature with it or relating to Man And were not therefore to be set lower in the least by honouring and obeying the King before our Father if it were not certain that the King is more our Father than our Father that does beget us Tam pater nemo est in terris No man is so much our Father as the King And to whom therefore the honour enjoyn'd us towards our Father does most eminently and in the first place upon that very account belong But if this derivation of Kingly Power should not become perhaps so plain and intelligible to ordinary apprehensions as too far removed out of their sight I shall endeavour in a new draught to bring it nearer and by clear and evident instances to facilitate the understanding of it God doth impower a Person or call and ordain him to power by two manner of ways Either mediately or immediately Immediately and by himself so he called Aaron to the Priesthood Saul and after him David to the Kingdom mediately or by right from these as Eleazar and his Sons after him succeeded to Aaron So Solomon and his Sons after him succeeded David in the Kingdom Though all these may be rather said to be immediately call'd by God in as much as in the first investiture and conferring authority on Aaron and David the promise and so the Power was made to them and their seeds for ever Which yet while it was immediately done by God was never so immediately done by him as not to take in the Ministery of men for the doing of it even some known authentick Prophet to convey this message to call and consecrate the person to this authority Thus Moses by God's appointment settles the Priesthood upon Aaron and Samuel the Kingdom upon David And whoever will derive from this claim even this immediate call from God must not pretend I know not
manifestly accuse and condemn your selves for it So that nothing hardly I may say was ever permitted by God that was more fully and sufficiently provided against by him Who in farther care of the King's safety and preservation besides the many several and plain Laws both Humane and Divine and your own voluntary wilfull Oaths to this purpose yet lest he should fall into your hands the barbarous bloudy hands of the Army God did damm up the way against it by a complication of Treasons mutually accusing and bearing witness against each other whereby the King was yet as safe from falling into your hands as it was certain you would not condemn your selves For thus your first rising up against the King under the authority of the two houses must plainly condemn your disobedience and Insurrection afterwards against them And your rising up against the two Houses afterwards leaves your former Rebellion against the King without excuse And if this must be still called providence 't will certainly be in this That In your seizing at last upon the King God has brought you to condemn your selves and wash off with your own hands that fucus and paint of a supreme authority in the houses wherewith you did formerly colour your Rebellion against the King and shelter it from being seen and discover'd by the people But then this kind of Providence sure will be far enough from engaging you to that horrid perpetration which pretends to derive from it And if David who had he dispatched Saul out of the way had been instantly rightfull King as being the next undoubted Heir could yet find no such construction to be made possibly of that eminent providence wherein it pleased God to appear to him I can never sufficiently wonder at the quicksightedness of these men who from a permission onely to which they have waded in bloud and wrested from God by desperate impenitent provocations of getting the King into their hands should spy out at this vast distance an evident call to Power and Sovereignty in themselves by taking away his life and thereby an Obligation upon them for so doing David who had a right to the Crown dares not yet possess himself of it by this Act which these men look upon as so meritorious that the very committing of this Act must be rewarded upon them by God with Crowns and Sceptres and Kingdoms and create them a right out of their former Nothing Whereas no Robbery or Murther upon the high-way but has a much better title to Providence And I should hugely condemn the Laodicean temper of that Souldier who after this should be so cold a Christian as not to follow Providence in cutting the throat of every one that falls into his hands Good Sir Secret things belong unto the Lord but those that are revealed unto us and to our Children for ever And whatever God pleases to permit for our tryals we have yet a sure word of prophecy to guide us in our practice Whereto we should doe well to take heed says the Apostle as unto a light shining in a dark place And whereby David you see in the darkness and opportunity of the Cave was yet directed not to quench the light of Israel or stretch forth his hand against the Lord 's Anointed But this whole instance of David though extended to so great a length will easily be voided by you I perceive While granting a difference indeed between your selves and David and so in the ways of God's Providence towards you and him which I so much urge and so clearly demonstrate There is yet a third difference you will reply which I have said nothing of and wherein the advantage lies on your side to so great a degree as will fetch up the other scale and make all even And how contrary soever your actions were his in saving and yours in destroying Yet the vast difference of the subject matter whereon you wrought will easily reconcile them and allow them both to be Religious For to destroy a Tyrant may be an equal act of Piety as to honour and preserve a just King To pull down Babylon is as acceptable a service to God as to uphold the building of Jerusalem Tyrannus a Tyrant we must know therefore does Originally signifie a King the same with Rex or one in Sovereign Power without particularly specifying whether good or bad till Use the great Arbitratour of words and master of language had appropriated it onely to bad Kings whom we call Tyrants Yet with this latitude as comprehending under it Tyrannos titulo those who are tyrannical and unjust in the very obtaining of the Sovereignty as Invaders and Usurpers secondly Tyrannos exercitio those who though good and rightfull Possessours are yet tyrannical and exorbitant in the use of it And to this first part in the distinction viz. As it is taken for those who violently and injuriously Usurp a Sovereignty It holds for true and Orthodox that to destroy such may be an act of equal piety as to honour and preserve a just King And the reason is because indeed it is the same Vna eadémque manus vulnus opémque tulit And while I destroy the Usurper I do plainly in the same act save and defend the true King whose right it is But then Tyrant in the second part of the distinction and as it signifies without impeaching their right or title to the Crown such Sovereign Rulers as oppress the people that are under them there is yet a Noli me tangere upon them to every particular person though highly injured by them and favoured by God as David And a Nolite tangere Christos meos to what conjunctions and combinations of men soever Their persons are sacred and inviolable typified by the Holy Oil wherewith the Kings of Israel were consecrated and appropriated to God and thereby exempted from the common lot in that they were the Lord 's anointed Who can stretch forth his hand c. And though wicked and unjust they be though froward and ungentle we are yet to be subject to them says St. Peter And while they come in at the door by a fair and lawfull claim and not climb in at the windows by violence and forcible Usurpation which is perfectly the character of Thieves and Robbers though they should by this means gain the possession while they sit in Moses's seat by lawfull succession and descent from him we are still to obey and attend unto them though they bind heavy burthens upon our shoulders as our Saviour tells us of those Scribes and Pharisees and grievous to be born Where by the way if you please to take but this one note along with you 't will give some dispatch to the whole difference between us That 't is not the personal wickedness nor yet the cruel and severe impositions of our lawfull Governours that can give us the liberty therefore to refuse and reject them though they be as great Opposers of Christ and
you fore-saw that these of all others are the fittest instruments for the work And by so much the more proper and necessary for the doing of it by how much they are the more inexcusable with those against whom it is done Though after all perhaps this wary discourse of dangers and difficulties may be found in the end but a mere skare-crow The Usurpation is not so firmly setled as not to be removed but by the Faith of miracles Scalpello aperitur ad magnam libertatem via puncto constat securitas And not being built upon the likeing of the people which yet at the best gives but a sandy and uncertain foundation much less can it always hover in the Air. The Devil may keep it a while upon the wing as he did Simon Magus to the astonishment of all But upon Peter's Prayers the Devil is conjur'd down and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Simon styles himself the great one in power falls and tumbles headlong with him into Hell Onely there is one farther offer made yet to hold him up and secure him in his high flying And that is from Success in these words SECTION IX The Lord having once declared his mind say you by a full possession and seconded it with so many signal providences we may doe well to cease from fighting against his Prerogative c. Where God's hand has been so very manifest in the work we may not dare to lift up a finger against it That the hand of God has been very eminent and remarkable in those severe judgments that have overtaken us he must be perfectly blind that does not see and a very formal down-right Atheist that will not acknowledge And indeed can there be evil in a City or in a Nation and the Lord hath not done it Affliction comes not forth of the dust neither does trouble spring out of the ground A sparrow falls not to the ground without your Father much less doth a whole Nation Whosoever is the rod his is the hand that smites us Which yet cannot be supposs'd therefore to justify or acquit the instruments who being Agents likewise as well as instruments not merely passive but active and operative in the judgments must be accountable for every such action of theirs in that rank and relation wherein God has placed them among mankind And so what is just and righteous in God to doe as having a Sovreignty and Lordship over all his creatures may yet be sinfull and damnable in men to act against their Equals and Superiours What is just and righteous in God to whom I am guilty may yet be wicked and damnable in men before whom I am innocent Let every man says St. Paul wherein he is called therein abide with God Though I may doe God's work indeed and serve his End and the interests of his Church as whatever we doe we cannot doe otherwise his infinite wisedom disposing and improving our worst actions to those ends even the crucifixion of Christ to his greater glory and the Salvation of mankind yet we abide not we work not with God in any action how fair and specious soever that carries us out of our calling or disturbes that subjection and subordination wherein God has placed us And sure for the success which follows upon such actions that being ex post facto can never be our Commission for the doing of them No nor secondly any mark or Testimony of God's approbation to them when done First because it is common and indifferent to all actions good and evil according to that of Solomon No man knows either Love or Hatred by all that is before him All things come alike to all There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked and therefore no judgment to be made from thence If the trumpet give an uncertain sound says St. Paul who shall prepare himself for the battel How shall we call that the voice of God or what can we rely upon in an uncertain insignificant sound But then Secondly the alteration of God's Oeconomy since the days of Solomon now that a greater than Solomon is here does yet farther weaken the argument from success as much more enclining the contrary way And being lookt upon through the glass of the Gospel it does rather prejudice and condemn that cause on whose side it stands Lo these are the ungodly these prosper in the world and these have riches in possession Son remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things While in the mean time sufferings and afflictions are measured out for the lot of the righteous In the world ye shall have tribulation says our Saviour All that will live godly in Christ Jesus says St. Paul shall suffer persecution And then mark what follows in the next words But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived The godly shall be persecuted by the wicked and so made better but evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse namely for want of persecution For so the Context and Coherence of the words does plainly expound it Being deceived themselves and deceiving others by reason of the low estate of the Godly and their own great power above them and prosperity against them Sutable to that saying of Solomon The prosperity of Fools shall destroy them And indeed success is a bait so proportion'd and well relishing to our palate that the Saints of God Job David Jeremy and the rest have been in danger to be snared by it If it were possible it would seduce the very Elect. And therefore no marvel if the men of the world find some savour and lay so much weight upon it Thus in the Turkish divinity Prosperum scelus virtus vocatur We reade of Selimus justifyed and approved by them for deposing and destroying his Father Nam rerum exitus satis docuit saith the Historian illum quod fecit divino fecisse instinctu coelitùs fuisse proedestinatum The prosperous event did sufficiently declare him to be predestinated and set on by God While in the mean time unfortunate Bajazet who took up arms to defend his life against his brother is bitterly execrated and accursed by them merely upon this account because he was unfortunate and thrived not in the attempt And surely the Providence of God in this Turkish doctrine and those great and flourishing Empires which the worshippers of Mahomet have attained unto from very mean and inconsiderable beginnings did design as by a standing grand Exemplar superadded to this word to take off Christians from gazing after success or applauding themselves at any time in faction or division among themselves by this argument which must plead for the common enemy of Christendom and if throughly received and relyed upon advance Mahomet above Christ And just it is that those who still take pleasure in unrighteousness qui Turcam gerunt in pectore as Erasmus's phrase is should be condemn'd to a Turks