Rights of the Father natural Methinks more for the warrant of the two latter cannot be raised to any higher Constitution than humane Appointment but the other of the surrogated Father floweth and followeth the inviolable and unrepealable Ordinance of Almighty God For my part a King designed in such case ought should enjoy his paternal Right no less than Melchisedeck or Abraham I am the more powerfully inclined to this Opinion that I see in holy Writ that it pleased God in his Wisdom and Justice to transfer the Right of the first born to the younger the surrogated was not one whit lessened in his Prerogative and Power but had fully entirely what was due to the first born in whose place he was surrogated Consider this in Iudah when Reubens Right of Primogeniture was forfeited and he with his Posterity invested with it and surrogated in his place See read and consider the Royal Prerogatives by the Spirit of Prophecy bestowed upon Iudah Gen. 49. of which by Gods Grace more largely Quaest. 4. The like may be seen in David whom God preferred to Eliab his elder Brother It is a ruled case in Law Modus acquirendi non tollit jus possidendi the way by which we come to have jus quaesitum as Jurists term it the Right to any thing provided it be lawful otherwise that Maxim is of undoubted Truth Quod ab initio non valuit progressis temporis convalescere non potest long Possession cannot secure an injust Title it is not my purpose now to enter upon Vsucapio or Ius proscriptionis is not prejudiced by the way by which we obtain it Iacob had no less Right to the Birth-right having it by a just Title than Esau. The Jurists give the reason of this Quomodocunque res est acquisita possessio est de jure gentium if a man come at any thing by a legal Title by the Law of Nations that is by the Law of common Equity the Possession or Apprehension is entire and valid Now apply all this when a People disordered are without Government and destitute of a Governour to whom by a Title and Right of Nature it is due condescend to design or chuse one for their Ruler why shall he not should he not enjoy inherit the Right of the deficient Proprietor and seeing the Right Proprietor had this Right by God by Nature how can it be but howsoever the Designation of the Person is from the disordered Community yet the Collation of the Power is from God immediately and from his sacred and inviolable Ordinance And what can be said against modus acquirendi the way by which such a one elected obtaineth this right for seeing God doth not now send Samuels or Elishas to anoint or declare Kings we are in his ordinary Providence to conceive the Designation or Election of the Person is the manifestation of God's Will voluntas signi as the School speaketh just so as when the Church designeth one to sacred Orders In few words take all with you God who made all things is the Author of Order by which all things are preserved without Order there can be no Being but all must either turn to Annihilation or to a confused Chaos God in Scripture is no less the God of Order than the Creator of all things In Heaven amongst the Angels we see it established Amongst all Creatures betwixt the cope of Heaven and the center of the Earth it is a sweet subordination a sweet harmony is seen the Inferiour giving a tacite reverence a due obedience to its Superiour the Superiour having an over-ruling Power with a benign influence upon all Inferiours to it Can we then dream to ourselves that God did leave man without this mean of subsistence that it was Arbitrary to him to appoint and specifie either no Government at all or what kind or spece of Government he pleased Plato in his Republick can tell such a man that he that can think he may subsist without a Governour must either be God or something worse than nothing Hath God provided so for all Creatures in Heaven and Earth that he hath established a Government amongst all and that conform to every one's nature and hath he left man in some respects the most excellent and perfect of all Creatures the Abridgment of the whole World the Microcosme without this established order Do we not see that before the Woman came into the World or a Child was born God fixed Government in the person of Adam Did he not secure it that it should be transmitted to the first born that Government amongst mortal men should be immortal and seeing Sin with much more Misery and Mischief hath brought into the World that men should sometimes be driven from their natural and proper Father King and Sovereign that for their Subsistence in Happiness and plenty and Protection from Evil and Mischief they are forced to chuse one or more and to surrogate him or them in his place to whom by God and Nature it was due to bear rule over them that he or they coming in the place and power of the natural Father or King have his or their Sovereignty not by a voluntary Consent but by a necessary act and that the Power is not by Derivation from the Community but by immediate Donation from Almighty God CHAP. VIII That Sovereignty is not by Derivation from the Community is proved by more Reasons IF there were no more to disprove this popular Tenet That Sovereignty in a King is by Derivation from the Community this is more than enough that it is built upon a false Ground for it presupposeth and taketh as granted that in the Community whether collective of all Individuals or virtual and representative by some in place of all there is inherent a Potestas activa rectiva a ruling active Power which is most false If we will trust Philosophy Natura nalli dat virtutem sine actu cujus est potentia ejus est actus Aristot. de sornn vigil Potentia sine actu otiosa est inutilis And the Light of Nature teacheth that Deus natura nihil faciunt frustra God and Nature hath not bestowed upon any thing in the Universe a Power which is idle and to no purpose as certainly that Power must be which is never actuated But now this Power of actual ruling was never acted by the Community it was never seen nor exercised by them The collective or diâ—â—usive body comprehends with 〈◊〉 its Verge all and every individual Now how is it imaginable that in all the People in gross in commune this Potestus activa regâ—minis or Potestas activi regiâ—ninis this power of actuating Government is seaâ—ed as in its prime principal and most proper Seat and Subject Government intrinsecally essentially includes in it a specifick Distinction of regentes and recti some to be Governours and some to be governed If all and every one hath this Power above-mentioned where then are those that
the Laws of Society not only for Wrath but for Conscience sake not only whilst they enjoy Peace Plenty Justice and Protection by the Benefit of Governours but also whilst they do suffer under some Inconveniences or accidental Abuses The Reason of which Obligation they make to be this because we cannot enjoy nor reap the sweet Fruits of established Government unless by compact we submit our selves to some possible and accidental Inconveniences from which grounds they extract these Consequences and Consectanes 1. First That after a people have by Contract Compact or Covenant divested themselves of that Power which was primarily and natively in them they cannot without manifest violation and breach of inviolable divine Ordinance and without Breach of publick Faith resume that Authority which they have placed in a King that being united in one it may be enabled sufficiently to protect all and to exert and exercise all necessary acts of Government 2. The second is that it were high Sin to trench upon Sovereign Authority to rob it of its Essentials and native Constitutions 3. Thirdly this ordinance of God is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not without just and urgent Reasons 1. First for if that the primary and native Power which is in all and every one were not united entirely and sovereignly in one it could not have Strength enough to protect all and every one and to do all Acts and parts of necessary Government 2. Next this Ordinance of God is necessary to prevent those fatal and too too ordinary Divisions which attend Multitudes or many endued with equal Power where almost every one upon real or fancied Injuries undertaketh to right himself The Authors of this Opinion add That although before positive Constitution this is not absolutely unjust yet Reason informeth us that it must be fit by some Condition and Agreement to part with this native Right entirely for a greater good which will ensue and to prevent greater Evils which without this cannot be avoided and to restrain our selves from being our own Judges 3. Thirdly that either to resume any part of this Power of which the people have totally divested themselves or to entrench usurp upon or limit it contrary to its Nature is not only to disable Sovereignty from Government and Protection but also to loosen â—he Sinews of all Society no less than of Government by receding from that Compact which subtle disconâ—ented and disaffected men for their own private ends perswade others they might have made more to their own Advantage I was sometime in Love with this Opinion nor do I much condemn it for it enableth Sovereign Authority of a King with an entire and sufficient Power it maketh the Person and Office of the King sacred and inviolable it determineth that it is Sacriledge to denude or divest the King of any part of sacred Royalty and that the attempt or practise of any in this kind is a bad president nay a warrant for the Violation of all Contracts howsoever just upon any pretence whatsoever advantagious it reserveth Kings to the Tribunal of God only it preventeth by the law of Nature the Appointment of God all Seditions and Treasons declaring vim civium in Regem semper injustam all Opposition by force resisting of Kings by Arms whither in a defensive or offensive way to be against God and unlawful How fair soever this Opinion be yet I dare not to aver it nor maintain it for I can never see where holy Scripture or reverend and pious Antiquity hath seated this Sovereignty in the multitude or universitate civium originally or radically tanquam in subjecto primo as in its first Subject Scripture and Fathers speak it clearly frequently that Sovereignty refers to God as to its immediate Author and Donor but that it is underivedly primarily and natively in the Community from thence transferred to the Prince Ne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quidem Lucilianum not one syllable I wish from Scripture or Fathers they would make it appear that after the Peoples Constitution there is a supervenient accessory Ordinance to secure the Prince his Person and Function I leave this and come to prove by Scripture CHAP. II. That God is the immediate Author of Sovereignty in the King and that he is no Creature of the Peoples making WHen we say that Kings are constituted immediately by God and that Sovereignty is by immediate Donation and Collation from God and not from the People conceive us not to mean so grosly that this is by any special Ordinance sent from Heaven by the Ministry of Angels or Prophets The Observator if he conceive there is no other way but this whereby the Original of Royalty may be referred to God as the immediate Donor he will grant that there were but some few such as Moses Saul David c. But if he know not that some thing may immediately proceed from God and be his proper work without a Revelation or Manifestation extraordinary from Heaven he is as empty a Divine as I fear in the end he 'll prove a Politician I hope he will grant that howsoever the Designation of a person to Consecration for a sacred Function be by the Church and man yet the power of preaching administrating the Sacraments binding and loosing of Sins is immediately from Christ. To say this Power were derived from any other is not only unsound but blasphemous This Power in its nature is divine spiritual and supernatural and consequently cannot be but from such an efficient The designation of the Person to an holy Function is from man or men but the collation of the Power is immediately from God and Christ and yet this is not by any special Ordinance sent from Heaven by the Ministry of Angels and Prophets That the Apostles are of God and Christ's immediate Constitution none doth deny That Matthias was one Who will controvert That he was designed by men is clear Acts 1. Two were set apart the Decision was by Lots and yet I pray you was not Matthias an Apostle by immediate Constitution from Christ But where read you where find you any special Ordinance sent from Heaven by the Ministery of Angels or Prophets To come to Natural things If the Observator believe with the most part of Divines that the Soul of man is by Creation and Infusion not by propagation and traduction although Man and Nature begetteth the Body disposeth and prepareth it as a fit matter to be conjoyned with the Soul that the Father may well be said to have begotten the Son yet will he acknowledge that the Soul is immediately from God and believe it to be so without any special Ordinance sent from Heaven It were good for our Adversaries to consider that as the Schools see Iac. Almayn de Suprema potestate temporali quaest 2. c. 1. alibi See Gerson Ioannes Parisiensis and others and see St. Austin in re in effect saying the same although not in
from God alone and Independent from all others It may be because Daniel was a great Courtier as Ioseph was with Pharaoh that he might not be judged a time-server a temporizer a complier to vindicate him from Court-flattery God did so many ways so miraculous ways demonstrate this Truth confirm this Truth that Sovereignty Royal Majesty come from Heaven from God immediately What Prophet almost hath not a hint an Expression of this Isay is plentiful in this as you may see in Nebuchadnezzar in Cyrus c. and all Neighbour Princes Ieremy taught it to the Iews to his own Disadvantage The Prophet Hosea or rather God himself by the Prophet with one Breath in one Verse in few words with a dedi and an abstuli hath expressed hath confirmed this Doctrine c. 13. 11. I gave them a King in my Anger and took him away in my Wrath. I gave him I took him away what can you require more I pray give me Leave to observe one thing in the words besides our main purpose for which we cited it He saith dedi eis regem in ira mea I gave them a King in my Anger This King in the judgment of some was Saul according to the mind of others this King was Ieroboam it skilleth not whether the one or the other Both of them were wicked Yet it is said Dedi I gave him and as I gave him so abstuli I took him away None giveth but He None can take away but He. God will admit none to do either the one or the other but himself It is observable too that in giving a bad King it is only said in ira mea I gave him in my Anger but in taking away a bad King it is said abstuli in furore meo I took him away in my wrath what difference is betwixt ira and furor anger and wrath all do know What doth this intimate to us then but to have a bad King is a chastisement Irati Dei of an angry God who is placable But to have no King at all it is a work of Vengeance a token a prognostick of an Implacable God at least hardly placable If you account Iob for a Prophet or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it skilleth not much which way you term him He saith Reges collocat in solio in perpetuum and again Baltheum regum dissolvit the places you have cited before What he speaketh for Sovereignty you shall hear qq 4 5. For Solomon his Suffrage you had before What he saith of the heart of Kings c. Of not resisting Kings you shall hear it in its proper place That a King there is no rising up against him what in the Book of Ecclesiastes he speaketh of his absolute Sovereignty you shall find it in its proper place E're long you shall by Gods grace hear David speak for himself And because we said before that no truth almost in Scripture is more apertly and frequently delivered than the Sovereignty of Kings their creation by God immediately the Historical part is plentiful in this kind In Genesis it is promised to Abraham that Kings shall come of him There it is fixed by Prophecy in the Tribe of Iudah with Iudiciaria and Legislativa potestas with the Scepter and Law-giver In the Law it is fore-told his Duty is prescribed Moses dying prayeth for one onely to rule the People after his death In Iehoshuah his Book you have as compleat as absolute a Monarch as we plead for as by express Scripture in its own place we shall clear by Gods grace In the Book of Iudges the Sophetim the Judges are Monarchs and not once but oftener there it is told us that all Evil was in the Land for want of a King In the Books of Samuel you have not only the Institutions of Kings but Ius Regum expressed To name the Books of Kings and Chronicles is ridiculous In the Books of Ezra c. Look upon Cyrus Darius c. As for the New Testament See how Christ taught it practised it and his Apostles after him to point at this is not necessary If our strait-laced Brethren would be pleased to cast an eye upon Apocrypha I refer them to Ecclesiasticus cap. 6. 1 2 c. Hear ye Kings c. Give ear you that rule the People and glory in the multitude of Nations for Power is given you of the Lord and Sovereignty from the Highest c. Yet fearing this Passage will not be current enough among our Sectaries I point at two passages of David till we hear him speak more fully The one is Psal. 21. 3. Thou settest a Crown of pure Gold upon his head The other is Psal. 84. 44. Thou hast made his Glory to cease and cast his Throne down to the ground I do confess ingenuously it is a great wonder tâ— me how any man that readeth the Scripture attentively doth not heartily and without scruple acknowledge that Kings and Sovereignty are independent from all and onely derived from God and that this truth is not onely verified of the Kings of the Iews but all Kings whatsoever Which truth we are hopeful we have confirmed clearly yet will proceed to add more reasons and to remove some more of their poor evasions CHAP. IV. That Kings are onely dependent from God and not from the Community is more proved by Scripture The poor shifts of Suarez and Bellarmine are removed who abusing the passage Deut. 17. would have the Constitution of the Kings of Israel to relate to the People as its real and proper Origin and Cause and the priviledged Case onely this that God reserved to himself the designation of the Person of the King THis other shift of Suarez and Bellarmine in the Title of the Chapter expressed is as poor a one as the other nor can it hold when it is examined by Scripture and Reason Both the Iesuits and the Puritans their Disciples build this quirk upon the naked perverted letter of the Text that Deut. 17. â—4 15. it is said of the People that they set the King â—ver them and upon Gods part it is said Him shalt â—hou set over thee whom the Lord thy God shall chuse Ergo say they the Constitution is the Peoples the Election of the Person is Gods It is a lame Consequence for the words Constitues super te Thou shalt set over thee are not to be understood of Constitution by collating or transferring from them to the King Majesty and Sovereignty but of Constitution by way of Approbation or of accepting of him as King acknowledging him as a King reverencing and obeying him as King whom God hath both designed and constituted by himself King In this Sense we grant a Constitues super te a setting over thee and because this is the last act in constituting a King that puts that in fieri in facto esse quasi ultima dispositio inducens formam as the last Disposition which induceth the form in the matter by a
subsist nor act what is fitting and convenient to its Nature In this Subordination do we not see that from the lowest we ascend to a Superiour from one Superiour to another till at last we come to One Supream which receiveth nothing to better it from any Inferiour at all but only due Reverence and Obedience and notwithstanding hath a powerful and benign Influence upon all beneath it From whence I pray you is this but from the sacred and inviolable God of Nature The impartial may judge how much this pleadeth for the Excellency of Monarchy and how like it is to that Order God hath established in the Vniverse Look up to Heaven consider those blessed and happy Angels in the Heavens is there not there this established Order with this Subordination and probably is consummated at last in an excellent one supereminent to all For this I will not contentiously contend Order and Superiority with Inferiority I am confident no intelligent moderate Divine will deny How can it then be conceived that God hath left it to the simple Consent and Composition of man to make and establish a herauldry of Sub and Supra of one above another which neither Nature nor the Gospel doth warrant To leave it thus arbitrary that upon this presupposed Principle mankind may be without Government at all which Paradox cannot be maintained seeing without Order which naturally and intrinsecally includeth in it a Priority and Posteriority a Superiority and Inferiority a Sub and Supra neither Being nor happy Being can be preserved which Happiness is more requisite for man by that he is a rational Creature and more necessary for us here than for the intellectual Spirits of Angels in Heaven who have the Presence and Direction of Almighty God in whose Presence they stand and whose Commands they expect and perform Nor is it probable to my poor thinking that when God Almighty in the Government of all things under the Cope of Heaven I mean bodily hath made the Superiour to have by his established Ordinance a native inherent Superiority with a powerful and benign Influence upon its â—nferiour which is no ways derived from the Inferiour by Communication in what proportion it will and resumable upon such Exigents as the inferiour listeth hath left to the multitude the Community the Collective the representative or virtual Body to derive from it self and communicate Sovereignty whether in one or few or more in that measure and Proportion pleaseth them which they may resume at Pleasure at least in such exigent Cases which sometimes really may be but oftner are fancyed to be such because upon these Grounds presupposed Reverence and Obedience cannot but be uncertain and the Sovereign disabled from giving and Communicating that Influence which is necessary for the Preservation of all and every Inferiour I humbly entreat those who are contrary minded to consider seriously how Almighty God in the Creation of man before the Woman was made of him and for him and before he had any Child or Subject to govern fixed Authority and Power for Government in the person of Adam This to aver that Government was fixed in a Governour before he had over whom he was to bear rule is no Paradox in Philosophy if I pleased to insist philosophically to clear it nor a more strange thing to consider than when a Posthumus one born after the death of his Father by right inheriteth his Fathers Honour and Revenues Is it not very considerable that God did not make Evah of the Earth as he did Adam but made her of the man and declareth too made her for man It is more than probable then God in his Wisdom did not think it fit that he was able to do it I hope none dare to deny to make two independents and liked best of all Governments of Mankind The Sovereignty of one and that with that Extent that both Wife and Posterity should submit and subject themselves to him If Adam had not fallen Divines doubt not but Government had been Government without Subordination is not conceivable nor Subordination without the real Relations of Superiority and Inferiority It is not to be controverted if Adam had never fallen Aristocracy or Democracy or mixed Government had never been existent or apparent in the world What spece of Government had been then I pray you tell me it Et eris mihi magnus Apollo If then in statu instituto in the State of Innocency and Perfection God Almighty did establish Government and fix it in Adam before his wife was created or a subject born is it not by this evident that God judged it in his Wisdom better that neither Woman nor Posterity should be than that one should not be to rule all The Argument concludes à minori ad majus from the less to the more if it was necessary in the state of innocency to establish it thus by Gods own Decree how much more in statu pâ—ccati in our decayed and corrupted state by Sin And yet more to assure us that this Sovereignty was not personally fixed in Adam nor that it was lost by Adam's Fall or that the state of Sin requireth as more convenient for it another spece of Government by more than one after the Fall it is declared transmissible from Adam to the first-born Gen. 4. Sub te erit appetitus ejus dominaberis ei Let any man judge then whether or not with reason it can be said that this establishment of Sub and Supra Subject and Sovereign be the onely constitution of man And withal by the way let any indifferent man judge what may be said for Monarchy its excellency and conveniency above other species of Government of which anon Quest. 2. Yet for all this let none misconstrue me as though I condemn Aristocracy and Democracy as unlawful Governments I am certainly assured that when the Apostle said The Powers that be are ordained of God Rom. 13. 2. and the emphasis the force of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is authoritativè as we told before he recalleth us to the first order and establishment of Almighty God mentioned in Scripture And by this we may be led on to consider how Monarchia fundatur in paterno jure how Monarchy is founded in paternal Sovereignty and the best way to find out jura Majestatis the Sovereign's Prerogative is to consider well what in Scripture what in Nature we find to be the true and natural right of a Father onely probably because of mans corruption and untowardness by reason of Sin it is like God hath allowed more to Sovereign Power to enable and secure it Again To enlarge our selves a little more to clear this Point seeing it is possible nay not onely possibly but actually it hath fallen out so that because of mens sins and by Gods Judgments following Sin a multitude may be divided from their natural Sovereign be dispersed by a War a Persecution or some other necessity imaginable and
His Sovereignty and their own Dependency from and Subordination and Subjection to him so it is the good will and pleasure of God that all Subjects should in Testimony of their Subjection to Sovereignty and in true Acknowledgment of their Supremacy contribute some of their Means for the Maintenance and honour of the King this is the Apostles Doctrine Rom. 13. 6. For for this Cause pay you Tribute also for they are Gods Ministers attending continually upon this very thing What can be more fully said They are immediately from God They are Gods Ministers for this Cause then we are bound to pay Tribute And let the for in the Frontispiece of the verse make you reflect your eyes upon that which goeth before and you will find it is not an arbitrary Right they have to this which is given upon them by a voluntary Compact or Grant or extorted by Fear the Apostle sheweth this we do not only for Wrath that is for fear of Punishment for in their Power it is to punish those who will not do this Duty but for Conscience sake This our Lord and Master both taught and practised paying Tribute to Caesar and commanding to render to Caesar the things that were Caesar's due to him as Caesar not by grant or compact from the People And Reason it self evinceth that this Maintenance should be proportioned to that high Degree and Measure as may preserve his Glory and Majesty that it be not lessened or contemned and as may sufficiently enable him to act and effect the happy works and Fruits of Royal Government to preserve all in Peace and Plenty See to this purpose Iustin Martyr Apolog. 2. and St. Chrysostom upon Rom. 13. passim This Doctrine that Kings are immediately from God and independent from all other Creatures whatsoever teacheth also that it is high Rebellion against God to oppose or resist the King This Consequence the Apostle thus deduceth Rom. 13. vers 1. The Powers that be are ordained of God vers 2. Ergo Whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation Pardon me to cite Chrysostom upon the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that obeyeth not the King fighteth against God what do they then that come in Arms against him who by his Law hath established Obedience and not Resistance and the Apostle every where always and upon all Occasions endeavoureth this mainly that our Obedience to Kings is not arbitrary conditional or by compact but necessary and imposed upon us by God Holy Scripture is so careful we oppose not sacred Authority that it hath forbidden it in all it's kinds all it's degrees 1. We are not to think a bad Thought of them in our Hearts Eccles. 10. 20. 2. The Tongue is not to speak Evil of them Exod. 22. 28. Iud. 8. Consequently neither Pen nor Press are to write or print to their Disgrace and Disadvantage 3. We are not with Iudas to lift up our heel 4. David's Heart smote him when he smote Saul's Garment 5. The hand cannot stretch out it self against the Lords Anointed and the Actor be innocent 6. It is to fight against God for he that rebelleth against the King rebelleth against God He that blasphemeth the King blasphemeth God 1. Kings 21. The Prodigal in his Return acknowledgeth he sinned no less against Heaven than his Father God hath taken them in Societatem nominis in societatem numinis Psal. 82. 6. 7. The greatness of the Sin may appear that the greatest of Judgments fall upon Traytors and Rebels Scripture is plentiful in Examples of this kind and all Story witnesseth for it Remember the Story of Rudolph Duke of Suevia who sware Allegiance to Henry the fourth by Pope Hildebrand was loosed from his Oath but miserably died he and before his Death the right hand with which he sware was cut off and say he could to the Bishops This is the hand was lifted up when I sware Allegiance to my Emperour justly cut off for my Perjury and Rebellion for which you are to answer who put me upon this mischievous Course and Rebellion See Aventine and others infinite Examples may be alledged If they escape the Judgment of men by their scarce warrantable Meekness and Clemency God hath Executioners in store and ready for them He will revenge for his own Interest If the King will not do Justice against a Traytor God will make his own Friend do it and if that fail his own Breast or both of them This was Absalom's case 2 Sam. 18. 14. Thy Confederates will do it This was Sheba's case 2 Sam. 20. 22. Before an Executioner be wanting thy own hand shall do it This was Achitophel's case who hanged himself 2 Sam. 17. 23. And Zimri's case too 1 Kings 16. 18. If no man will do it Earth and Hell will do it This was the case of Korah Dathan Abiram and their Complices Numb 16. 23. This is the first Rebellion in Scripture recorded against Prince and Priest And take with you Optatus Bishop of Milevis's note upon it no Sin in Scripture recorded hath a Judgment parallel to this If all Creatures should fail to be Executioners God will do it by his immediate hand from Heaven Psalm 144. 8. To shut up this God allowed no Sanctuary for Treason and Traytors as is manifest in the case of Ioab pulled from the Altar and Justice done upon him Lastly seeing the King is sacred in his Person in his Power in his Royal Christian Prerogative it is high Sacriledge and Intrusion upon God and the King to rob him of any part of his Sacred Right The ancient Church did judge so Hosius writing to Constantius an Arrian Emperour saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Holy Father and the whole Church in his time did account it a Theft and an Opposition to God and his Ordinance by Fraud or Force to cheat or extort from a King any thing due to his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Empire his Sovereignty It was not dreamed of then that an Excellency could be set up against a Majesty or a Coordinate power erected with Sovereignty In the happy time of the Christian Church this was the greatest Robbery the highest Sacriledge the most violent Intrusion upon God and his Anointed The best and readiest way for all Happiness to a Kingdom is when the King considereth that his Greatness and Glory consisteth in the Happiness of his Subjects and proportioneth all his Actions and Government to their Peace and Plenty and the People on the â—ther part when they level their Intentions Actions Enâ—eavours and Obedience to preserve his Sacred Person His Sacred Right and Royal Prerogative Let none â—ivide those things God hath conjoyned When People are thus affected it will move Kings for the good of their People with Saul to be ready to sacrifice Ionathan or with Codrus to dye himself for the Safety of his People or with David in great Judgments from God