committed all Judgment to the Son c. And therefore herein a good King ought ever to make God's revealed Will and the known Laws of which his sworn Judges are to be the Interpreters the measure and rule of his proceedings and that under pain of Damnation a severity from God infinitely above the coercion of men nor shall their punishment be less who usurp the Exercise of this Justice without his Commission Thirdly Mercy must all derive from the King as a Flower that groweth only in his Garland a Gem which can shine only from the Diadem of Princes For Jus vitae necis a Power of pardoning Condemned Persons and delivering from the Terrour of the Law though in some cases limited as in wilful Murders and the like belongs only to him being there deposited by God himself and in no other Representative whatsoever so that where Regal Government is setled the Execution of any man though wicked and deserving to dye by the Law is wicked if not having the King's Commission for it Fourthly Honour the ennobling of the Blood is to derive from him when Vertue or some Heroick Acts dignifie the Person for without that he that receives it is but a Label which bears the Wax without any impression of the Seal or as a rotten Post that bears a glorious Escutcheon But for the more clear manifestations of this his Ornamenta Regia Regal Ornaments as a Crown a Throne a Scepter and the like with the universally acknowledged Rights to them speak him to be the only Spring from whence it can flow z 2 King 12. â—2 1 Kings 10.8 and ought still to issue in lesser and greater Streams by it to enrich the humble Valleys and make them shew gay when adorned with those Flowers of the Crown for the encouragement of Vertue as he beareth the Sword to cut down Offenders and prevent their growth And as a Testimony hereof the Romans had wont to send to Foreign Kings in League with them an Ivory-Sceptre a Royal Robe and Chair of State a Tacit. Annal. l. 4. to show in Hieroglyphick what they were Fifthly Kings owe an Example of Vertue and Piety to their Subjects in that instruimur praeceptis sed dirigimur exemplis saith Seneca the Actions of great men have a Compulsory Power in them Regis ad exemplum are an Eye-Catechism and as the Basilisk by seeing they many times kill our Vices or by being seen invite us to Vertue Examples being the shortest way of teaching For from that Milk we usually as from our Mothers Breasts suck our good or bad Inclinations b Gal. 2.14 Nay like the first Mover they carry all the Inferiour Orbs with them as the first Deer the Herd When bad Kings with the ill Influence of the Planets kill more deadly than Poyson in Plants because coming from a more glorious Body though the other be more Infectious But herein we in this Nation have the advantage of all others For if ever the Rayes of Vertue had a Power of affimilating others into their own Divine Nature the Beams of Goodness that shine upon us from the Example of our dear Soveraign who as a Combination or Conjunction of Graces both Divine and Moral hath all in himself that a finite and limited Being is capable of must needs have a prevalency over us Or if they make us not better they will make us much worse as they will rise up in Judgment against us to our greater Condemnation And I am confident as he is an Active Example of Vertue so he would be Passive to teach us how to suffer in a good Cause though it were to pass through a Red Sea of his own Blood for the good of his People Pelican-like to nourish us with the Spirits that flow out of his own Breast and by those Beams to reflect a more glorious Lustre than in his Meridian and height of Greatness But not to suffer my Zeal to carry me besides my purpose there is amongst many others one part of Duty most especially incumbent upon Kings For 6. Lastly as Kings reign by God so they should rule for him and the highest good of their People in matters of Religion both in maintaining the Substance and Essential Parts of it in their Vigour and Power by Active Compulsions and Humane Restraints to force the outward man to Obedience in things good in themselves and to prescribe such Rules Methods and Boundaries in things indifferent as may bring all to Uniformity in Worship and may stand as a Wall or Fence to God's Vineyard against the Invasions of the little Foxes of Schisms and Factions And this not only for Decency Order and Significancy but as that without which Religion it self cannot subsist For though they are no parts of it but Circumstantials Essentials in a Well-formed Church cannot be maintained without them no more than a Tree can be preserved to live without its Bark or Majesty in a King without Reverence For that like the Skin to the Body preserves it both in Being and Beauty which occasioned St. Paul's Precept of having all things be done decently and in order that is according to appointment as the Original c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will bear it so Dr. Hammond renders the Words d 1 Cor. 14.40 For take away those Regulations of our Publick Devotions which are as the Hemme that strengthens the Garment and keeps it Uniform all would resolve into Rents and Schisms Chaos and Confusion So as if the Church of God his enclosed Garden be not fenced by good Laws for Conformity all Methods of Devotion are lost and the Bores of the Forrest unruly men of Factious Spirits will soon break in to destroy and root it up and offer nothing but the blind and lame to God in loose and untruss'd postures unbecoming the Greatness of an Earthly Prince in our Addresses to them much more to our God e Mal. 1. by it to make their Superiours bend to them if pertinacious obstinacy could do it when they should bow to their Superiours f Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2. Eph. 4. and 6. according to the Oeconomy of Nature it self where the inferiour Orbs are to be guided and move by the highest Spheres Otherwise the whole Fabrick would be unhinged and fall in pieces or at least grow weak by separation For a Dispensation to several Forms of Worship in one Church would prove an Act rather of Division than Comprehension encrease Emulation and Factions and plant a Seminary for a continued Schism In that there could be no such Encouragement but there would be scandal and a way of seduction in it to all Orthodox Protestants and a Transmigration of Souls amongst themselves from the Father to the Son with Encouragements and Supports from their proâ—use Zeal of the Proselites to their Opinions So as they would strengthen with time in that Novelties never want Courtship and Adorers though the old way is Regia via God's way and
Govern us according to Principles of Common Equity and his revealed Will and such other Rules as the Indulgence of good Princes from whom all other subordinate Powers derive i Exod. 18. 1 Pet. 12. as the Moon borrows her Light from the Sun many times submit themselves to For thus though Monarchical Power be the same in root in all Kings it doth not spread nor grow to one and the same height in regard of Exercise but is with the free determination of their own Wills limited ab externo by some positive Law or Custome which only obliges so far as the Law extends and to that always except it be in Cases of extremity and visible necessity so as this restraint is Moral and Legal in it self and in regard of mixture of persons with the King many times in the Exercise not Supremacy of his Power From whence proceed the Voluntary Suffrages of all those he hath joyned with himself in the fabrication of this Government as in the making of Laws in our Parliaments But this Indulgence of Kings ought to be always free never forced Kings having sometimes the Obligation of an Oath they submit to to bind their Consciences but never of a Militia to bind their Hands if Caesar have his due For though in Democratical and Aristocratical Common-weales the practice be contrary we must consider them only as Governments of Gods Permission as a punishment upon a Nation for For the Transgression of a Land many are the Princes thereof k Prov. 28.2 and not of his Ordination but differing as much in Constitution as a sick and a sound man weakness and perfection and are as a Dwarf in nature if not a perversion of it For the Power of Arms with other things for protection which none else ought to assume are so essential to the being of a King by Divine Institution who owes protection to his people from all violence Foraign and Domestick as well as they him Obedience as he cannot divest himself of them because they are Fundamental and Inherent in his Office and one of those Principles out of which it is elemented l Num. 10. Deut. 33.3.4 1 Sam. 8. 1 Pet. 2. Otherwise he bears the Sword in vain or rather but the Scabbard when others have the Weapon with Endeavours to sheath it in his Bowels Nor is it more impious than unreasonable for to affirm men can convey more than they are invested with or that any should delegate a Power over others lives that hath not an immediate Commission for it from God since no man hath Power over his own nor can shed Blood though under the outward Formalities of Justice without being Guilty of Murder having no just Calling to it the usurpation of an unjust Power being much worse than the most Tyrannical use of the Sword can be in the hands where God hath placed it even in Kings and such as act by Commission from them m 1 Pet. 2.13 14. Ge. 9.5 6. So that as our Saviour said to Peter All they that take the Sword shall perish by the Sword n Mat. 26. because drawn without the consent of the lawful Magistrate o Mat. 22.20 Job 19.11 and if we once come but to say with the Sons of Belial Who is Saul or David that we should serve them that of the Atheist will soon follow p Job 26. Who is the Lord that we should serve him in that those that reject his Ordinances or act not according to them renounce God and then no Superiour will be owned but their own Lusts which always possessed the Throne when Israel had no acknowledged King q Judg. 17. and produced the Effects of Beasts not Men. For as in all Popular States there are many Eyes to discern what is best so there are many Heads to contrive their private Designs many Ambitions to satisfie many Lusts to obey many Injuries to revenge many Mouths to fill and many Hands to fight for Sin 's Empire but Man's Slavery Whereas a good King will restrain those mischiefs and in all just things make Salutem Populi supremam Legem believing he cannot condescend too much to the corresponding Affections of the People In that the favour of the King should be like the Dew upon the Grass r Prov. 19.12 to nourish and refresh them and make them produce Fruits of Obedience to him it being in the Body Politique as in the Natural an equal mixture of those Principles out of which they are elemented an even poyse of humours a due regulation of all the Powers in regard of exercise with symbolizing qualities in each towards one another that preserves a State Upon which grounds the happy constitution of our Kingdom according to the Rules of Equity is founded in three Estates each having a Negative Voice that none might be obliged to any Law but by their own Suffrage for in our Laws as in sounds the Harmony of all makes the Musick So as a middle temper between Supreme Power and Common Interest is that of which our Parliaments are fundamentally composed which have the Legislative and Supreme Power considering the King as a part of them for the making of Statutes as a measure between both as Nerves of a Body Politique and to be as Bonds of a Civil Life in that like the Center in the Circumference they do or ought to stand equal to all parts and with the Pin in the Balance upright to weigh unto every one their due according to Justice and Equity That for the King 's weighty Care and Protection of us we might pay him an ingenuous Subjection not Servitude but Obedience Now though a Derivative Power cannot set new bounds to Soveraign Power it may and ought to stand to keep those the Soveraign Power hath assented to by a Law in all ways but force Prayers and Tears in Extremities being as St. Ambrose saith the only Weapons we have Commission from God to use For in such Cases if they prevail not s 1 King 8. 1 Sam. 8.18 we must bear the Indignation of the Lord whatever it be because we have sinned against him the submission of his Will being the only way to compass our own t Psal 37. and to be protected by him in the greatest miseries that can fall upon a State u Isa 43.2 in that he is the Lord and besides him there is no Saviour w vers 11. who makes the Army and the Power to lie down together and to rise up no more x vers 17. Thus all Magistrates as in the Septemviri of the Medes and Persians y Dan. 6.14 Esdr 1.19 are Bounders in the Exercise of but are no Sharers Originally in the Supreme Power which is ever to be submitted to though not obeyed in contrary to Divine z Act. 5.29 and sometimes Humane National Laws a Phil. 4. For the just execution of which Magistrates distributive are to take care as the two
Multiplying-Glass though by making too much Window they weaken the Walls and cause Factions and Divisions that the Roof might fall and then I am sure the Frame will not stand long let them seem to underprop it with never so many specious pretences painted but rotten Posts For as the firmness and uniting of the Walls support the Roof so the Roof covers and preserves them from many an ill Blast that would otherwise weaken and overthrow them But I spin this Thread too long on this Subject and therefore I here wind it up and proceed to consider CHAP. IV. What Duties Kings owe to their Subjects with the Excellency of that Government HAving endeavoured to shew as it were in Landskip and dark shadow only the Great and High Prerogatives of Kings not being able perfectly to describe them as they are in themselves without a seeming Court-flattery which yet might be forgiven given in these times and in a Garrison where Peace of Conscience is the only reward of Loyalty I shall further show you the Excellency of Regal Government by its Effects For so as the Sun in Water it is best seen in its Reflections and the just Actions of Pious Kings who are the Fountains of Honour Justice Power and all other regular subordinate motions in the lower Spheres as the Vital Spirits in the Head are of all Natural Operations of the Body are always best seen in their Piety and Moralities the industrious endeavour of which makes their Mitres rather ponderous than glorious as the Emblems of Christian Kings do show in that the Cross is always fixt but superiour to their Crown to the imitation of their Master who was Crowned indeed but with Thorns to teach them how full of vexing Cares and Troubles that Head should be subject to that as the Stern to the Ship is to guide the great Barque of the State not only in Calms but Storms which best prove the Pilot. So as we may consider the Infelicities of Good Kings with respect to this World to be more in the Scale than their happiness when they are not Lords but Stewards not Owners but Dispensers of all their glorious Attributes and Endowments For Regal is that Paternal Power in the fifth Commandment which Philo Judaeus observes confines upon both Tables that their Arms of Protection might extend to the keeping of both and the greater the Trust the more severe the Account In which there stands First a Charge of Power upon each King's Score it being one of God's communicable Attributes how he hath used the Sword God hath put into his hand which St. Peter saith ought to be a terrour to the Evil not to the Good though a Protection to all against private wrongs with the Militia and Power of making War or Peace which is seated in them and inherent by Divine Right k Num. 10. Deut. 17. as well as in our King by the known and established Laws and magna charta l C. 2.6 7. Ed. 7. C. 1. and to the Son m H. 3. succeeding him and though it be regulated in the Exercise n By 13. El. 1. c. 6 1 E. 3. c. 5. 4 H. 4. c. 13 5 H. 4. 11 H. 7. c. 1. 2 E. â— 4. 5 of P. M. â— 3. 4 Jac. c. 1. 22 E. 4. the Parliament never did pretend to give the Power but to declare it And thus Reynolds in his Comment on the 110 Psalm o Upon Ps 110.2 amongst the Jura Regalia proper honours belonging to the Person of the King which none can use but in a subordination to him doth reckon Armamentaria Publica the Magazines of all Military Provisions citing Greg. Tholos p De Repub l. 9. c. 1. Rom. 13. 1 Sam. â—0 16 by them to fence and impail God's Church and Vineyard both from the wild Boar and little Foxes and the persons of men from Injuries and Violence which are the greatest Priviledges we can enjoy in this World as may more clearly appear by the contrary Effects For things are seen carendo magis quam fruendo As in Judges q Cap. 17. where the decay of Religion advancing of Idolatry making Priests of the lowest of the People and all other Civil uncivil Disorders proceeded from the want of this Power in one man and are imputed to it as to the efficient cause though properly malum non habet efficientem sed deficientem causam And therefore we may expect great good from them when so many Evils are occasioned by their want For when there was no King in Israel every man did what seemed good in his own Eyes saith the Spirit of God disenthroning Reason and making Lust their Law and Rapes their boast r Judg. 19. So that by just consequence the having of a good King is the proper Remedy of those Evils who makes his just Power the measure of his Will not his Will the measure of his Power And therefore it is Enacted saith St. Peter in the style of a Law-giver as some observe that all should be subject to him at least in not doing his Lawful Commands be punished by him s Rom. 3 4. Ecclâ—s â— Esdr 7 25 26 27. Rev. 2.20 And so we find it in all the Reigns of the good Kings of Israel for there were no Micha's Idols nor High-places left no Rapines nor Violences suffered no acting of Wickedness under the Countenance of Laws and Acts but as Gods t Ps 82.6 they medled with the Affairs of God as Nursing-Fathers they nourished the Church with the two Breasts of God's Word and Sacraments through the Ministerial Administrations of Priests and as publick Ministers for good u Rom. 13. they restrained all other Uncivil Insolencies not suffering every man to be a King nay more than a King in doing what he list for a King ought not to be a Jeroboam favouring idolatry or any false Worship w 2 Chro. 10.14 but a David Learned Pious and Wise as an Angel of God x 2 Sam. 19.27 that Fraud Injuries and violence might be detected and restrained Innocency relieved Industry encouraged Vertue rewarded and Vice punished Secondly Justice Distributive is owing from a King to all his Subjects as that which establishes his own Throne saith Solomon and keeps the just Boundaries of meum tuum Common Right amongst men out of which as Seeds the large Harvest of Contentions growes For Judicium or Potestas judiciaria is a peculiar of Royalty in that the Administration is from the Prince as the Fountain of all Humane Equity under God deposited in the hands of inferiour Officers y Prâ—v 20.8 For so he is interpretative in them who as his mouth are to publish the Laws and to execute those Acts of Justice and Peace which principally belong to his own sacred Breast So Reynolds still in that place alluding there to that of Joh. 5.22 27. and drawing his Parallel from Christ where he saith The Father hath
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING SUPREME POWER AND COMMON RIGHT At first Calculated for the Year 1641. and now thought fit to be published By a Person of Quality LONDON Printed for R. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in S. Paul's Church-yard 1680. TO THE READER THIS little following Treatise concerning the Origination of Paternal Power and the Derivation of all others from it with Reflections upon Regal Government and the Relative Duties both of King and People to each other is for Substance only a Summary Collection from the best Authorities of such necessary and Practical Notions as might have steer'd us in the most benighted and tempestuous times of the late unhappy and almost unparallel'd Rebellion and keep us within the Bounds of Duty and Allegiance both to God and our King But it lost its usefulness being calculated for the high Distempers of that Age only by miscarrying in the Press and for some years irrecoverably concealed and kept from its designed end by one since dead who communicated to me the following Discourse which hath for some years layn in my hands as buried unless something of the like Contagion should break out again and give it a new Resurrection as an Antidote against the spreading of so popular an Infection But now I am prevailed with upon the sad Prospect of things that threaten a relapsing into the like Dangers by Popish Plots and those many Sects Distractions and Divisions amongst us some of whose Principles agree with the rigid Scotch Presbyters and Jesuits in their Tenents concerning the deposing of Kings and the forfeiture of their Regal Power into the People and their Representatives to shew both from Scripture Antiquity the Doctrine Articles Canons Homilies and Liturgy of the Church of England which all agree with our ancient Laws and many late Acts of Parliament That our Kings are only submitted by God to the direction not coaction of Humane Laws as Mr. Faulkner in his Treatise upon that Subject hath lately and most learnedly made appear Yet Kings are not unconfined by the Laws of God and our Kingdom which set just bounds both to King and People to regulate their Actions by as a middle thing between Supreme Power and Common Interest And our Municipal Laws may be straiten'd or enlarged in regard of the Soveraign's Exercise of Power but cannot influence or affect the Power it self which is of God to alter or enervate the nature of it Nor can it oblige to any thing foro divino but what is just in the means as well as good in the end and safe in regard of Humane Prudence by which Rules we have much reason to believe our Superiours as they yet have done will take their measures and neither countenance nor indulge the least evil of sin to avoid the greatest evil of punishment Yet if God for our almost unpardonable provocation and abuse of those many Miracles of Mercy he hath hitherto preserved us by should submit us to the implacable malice of our common Enemies the Papists at home and abroad or to Civil Commotions within our selves to bring us again into Chaos and Disorder in which we may need some assistance for our Conscientious Comportments both with Prudence and Innocency the ensuing Treatise may be of great use there being things casuistically proposed and resolved with modesty and submission to others Judgments in Relation to the late Rebellion which may some way help us in other difficulties if we fall under any which that God in Mercy would avert is the Prayer of Your unknown Servant c. A DISCOURSE CONCERNING SUPREME POWER AND COMMON RIGHT CHAP. I. AS God is a Spiritual King so Kings are Humane Gods his Picture drawn in Little and the most express Image of his Power receiving as the Wax from the Seal all the parts and proportions of the Print in the largest Character in which he shews himself in Civil Administrations So as the endeavour of effacing any part of that just Power where God hath Engraven it in his Deputies is a Spiritual Treason and Rebellion against God himself a Rom. 13. For not only by me but for me Kings Reign saith God b Prov. 8.15 Rom. 13. in that he makes them his hand both to punish and protect by and stiles them for that end nursing Fathers to the Church and State Nor is the Stamp to be despised though it be engraven but in Lead and Iron the Power being the same in him who by the undue exercise of a just Power makes himself a Tyrant as it is in a good King and challenging the same Submission and Obedience in lawful things from us It being not the Wax but the Impression that bears the value as it is Gods And therefore to wrest the Sword out of our Soveraigns hands the best of Princes is as much as we can to dis-enthrone God from his way of Rule amongst us as the Jews did in the person of Samuel For which Reason our Laws give the King a kind of Immortality here in saying he cannot dye because his Power which is from above passes in the intendment of our Laws by a kind of Pythagorean Transmigration always into the next of his Line and upon the failure thereof only it Escheats into the People as to the Election of another person to Reign but never was nor is fundamentally in them in regard of the Power by which they Govern And the wisest People do but as a Pipe not the Spring derivatively pass it into one man to actuate it as the most absolute and perfect Government and that which God only owns For when he saith By me Kings Reign c Prov. 8.15 he implies all other Forms of Government to derive their Pedigree only from men not Divine Institution They have his Permission but Kings only his Commission so as all other lesser Rivulets in the Administration of Justice in their Kingdoms are in them as their Spring derivative from and subordinate to them For the Supreme Power is ever annexed to the Persons of Princes in whom it is seated the Inferiour only to the Offices of subordinate Administrations which are always responsible to him that hath the Supreme Power Else the God of Reason should make a Body without Reason a Head to govern it The contrary Opinion to which clear Truth hath caused the sad Tragedy of these benighted Times and hath ever proved the Seminary of Anarchy and Confusion in all States where it hath taken root and prevailed though it hath for the most part withered and perished in the end as having no true Principles of life and permanency however for some time maintained by Tyranny and Oppression as may be instanced in most of those Popular States that have been since the beginning of the World which were but Weeds no Plants of Gods setting For subordination of Persons which ariseth by degrees should rest when it comes to the Soveraign or all things would wheel into a Confusion But God is a God of
As Sapiens semper incipit a fine saith the Philosopher in that the end sets all a-working let us consider how God in the conveying it out of himself for Administrations in the Political and Civil World did primarily intend the due ordering of things by it according to the rules of Justice Piety and Religion that all might concenter in Gods Glory and Mans Good Order Truth and Justice being the only Foundations and Pillars of Government For as in the lesser World of mixed Bodies due temper and moderation of parts and in the rational World Tranquillity of Soul by the subordination of inferiour Faculties and Passions to the Soveraignty of Reason preserves them so in the great World propriety and enjoyment of our just and native Rights with punishment of Offences which the mind of the Law rule of Justice and Right the measure of all things according to Equity and Reason under the Supreme Head is that which preserves a happy Harmony and sweet Society amongst men And for this end God gave his first Commission to Moses only even Regal Power which before was Natural and Paternal in Adam both for expedition in Affairs of State which could not be acted by many and the prevention of Factions and Schisms that Popular States are always subject unto but this under certain Fundamental Rules though he had immediate Revelation to shape himself by yet with an absolute Power where Gods Law did not restrain him to be derived to all Kings for ever who still are or ought to be the Depositories of that Supreme Authority as to make War and Peace to call and dissolve Assemblies both in State and Church Affairs which as the greatest Essentials of Regality p Num. 10.1 2 8. and 29.1 were only Originally in God himself but since exercised and practised by all succeeding Kings as may appear by multitudes of Scriptures q Jos 1.17 and 34.18 1 Chro. 15. 23.3.6 2 Chro. 15.14 20.21 25.5 34.31.32.33 and the Stories of all Ages so as none durst in former times have refused to come when called by them r Num. 20.13 though for matters of Conscience or a Diana unless some Demetrius or Crafts-man led on the Rout as one observes upon the Text. s Acts 19.4 23 36. Nor is this only of Divine Institution but founded in Nature as hath been shewed in that all the Conjugations of Sinews and Strength meet in the Head the Fountain of Motion from whence all the Members derive their Operations and practised among the Heathen by the Light of that Law only as in Pharaoh t Gen. 41.44 and the Character God gave the Jews of their Kings when they asked one after the manner of the Nations u 1 Sam. 8. From whence we may conclude That Moses had all Monarchical and Absolute Power in respect of the Jews radically in him even Jus Regale w Deut. 33.3 and was in Rectitudine Rex as well in Name as Power x vers 4.5 which afterwards was transferred upon Saul as a Punishment to the People for rejecting it in those God had appointed to conduct them by the immediate assistance of his Holy Spirit But that he ever left or gave Commission for the exercise of this Power to a Community can never be shewed Yet here God leaves not Tyrants to their own unbridled range and rapine as the Wild Beasts of the Forests without a rule both of Direction and Obligation as hath been shewed which ought to be the measure of all just Power y Deut. 17. Gen. 17.6.49.10 though he did foretel what did or should follow for he no sooner establishes the Throne upon David and his Seed but does it under a Covenant of Obedience z 2 Chro. 6.16.7.17 2 Kin. 11.6 Ezech. 37.12 by the fail of which his Crown was forfeited to God only not Men upon any Compact or Condition betwixt him and the People a 2 Sam. 5. Yet had there been a stipulation between them the violation thereof could not have evacuated his Power no more than a Fathers severity b 1 Tim. 6. 1 Pet. 2.18 can cancel a Child's Obedience it being only a peculiar of God's by whom Kings reign c Prov. 8.15 16. to remove and set them up d Dan. 2.21 which made Nazianzen in his first Oration against Julian condemn those that would not depend upon God's Providence and expect the execution of his Counsels upon Wicked Princes whose hearts are in his hands and He turneth them whithersoever he listeth e Prov. 21.1 but would be their own Gods and Deliverers when Tyrants are God's hand upon us for our Sins So Peter Martyr upon Rom. 13. out of Dan. 4. Nay Calvin saith It is our fault if so great a Blessing be turned into our Punishment it being but a just retaliation for our disobedience to God For Secundum merita populi disponuntur corda Rectorum according to the Deserts of a people the hearts of Governours are disposed and the just Judge punisheth the faults of the Prince many times upon them that had caused him to offend saith St. Gregory f Ep. l. 2. Ep. 6. So as we may justly invert that of David a King to his People and say as Wicked Subjects of a pious Prince Let thy Judgments O Lord fall upon us but that innocent Lamb what hath he done that he should become a Sacrifice for us who ought to sacrifice our selves for him since it is our Rebellions against Thee that have occasioned in us this Rebellion against so good a Prince g 2 Sam. 21.1 that by them thou mightest take occasion to be the more severe in thy Judgments upon our Nation However let us consider there is something good in the highest Tyranny and ever to be preferred to Anarchy For when there was no King in Israel every one did oppress his brother and act after the Lust of his own heart not only rejecting their Civil but Spiritual Obedience to God h Jud. 17.2.17.6.18 whereas the Oppression of a Tyrant most commonly extends but to some so as the good or evil Estate of Israel seemed to depend upon the having or not having a King And having thus shewed how the Power of Kings is absolute without dependency upon their Subjects though limited in regard of their Soveraign God I shall proceed to the exercise of it and shew how that may be bounded and moderated by Compact the Indulgence of good Princes and municipal Laws What that Power is and how limited 2. I say as God is Goodness and Power and every perfection in himself so he communicates of them in some degree to all though most to Kings his moving Statues upon Earth especially of those Attributes which most concerns the dispensation of Mercy Justice and Judgment to the World For Kings are maxime proxime seconds to God as Tertullian saith above all others and as it were his immediate Deputies upon Earth to
Exercise and sometimes by National and Municipal Laws through the Indulgence of good Princes yet Kings are never subject to the Coactive but Directive Power of them and answerable unto God only as David was e Psal 51. not to man for their violation from whom they hold their Commission f Prov. 8.25 Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2. Hos 13.11 And therefore by Precept they are exempt in their Persons from all other Powers g Prov. 21.3 8.15 Eccles 8. 1 Pet. 2. Rom. 13. as immediately designed by God in their individual persons to be obeyed h Deut. 17.15 Job 3.6 7. 34.30 Hos 13.11 Wisd 6.3 with a brand and desert of punishment upon all those that resist or rebel against them i 1 Sam. 8. Num. 16. 2 Sam. 1.4 15.15 as if done against God k Rom. 13. when our Prayers Tribute Reverence Assistance and Obedience are an Homage we owe them though Wicked and Tyrants where the Divine Providence concurs with other just mediate instrumental ways for the making their Titles lawful l 1 Tim. 2.2 Jer. 25.9 29.7 Dan. 3.21 Gen. 20.27 Mat. 22.21 1 Sam. 8. 24. 1 Pet. 2.27 as they are God's breathing Images the Mortal Pictures of the Immortal God saith Optatus even Gods before men m Ps 82.6 though men before God First By Analogie Secondly Deputation Thirdly Participation So Tertullian n Lib. de Scapul Cyrill o Epist ad Theod. prefix lib. advers Julian Hierom p Ad Pap. Anâ—i Greg. l. 9. decret 1 Tim 3.3 c. Nay this truth hath been derived to us from all Antiquity as well as Scripture and was never contradicted till the Romanists and Schismaticks like Simeon and Levi Brethren in Iniquity as Samson's Foxes concurred though looking contrary wayes to the setting all Cristendom on Fire by it and broached the contrary Doctrine As Buchanan q De Jure Regis apud Scotos and Bellarmine r De Rom. Pont. l. 5. though all antiquity be against them as Calvin acknowledgeth s Inst l. 4. c. 20. and as appears by multitudes of Authors both ancient and Modern t Glos Incog in Ps 50. R.P. dedicated to Tho. de Trugil Loranus in Ps 50. Hieron Ep. 22. 46. So St. Chrysost in Ps 50. as cited by Cyril So Cyprian ad Novatian Ambros Serm. 16. in Ps 118. Clemens Alex. l. 4. c. 6. Turrecre 1 Sum. de Ec. 1. Q 92 Which ought to convince our late Statists the Corahs Dathans and Abirams of these times of their Errours and satisfie all men that the person in whom the Supreme Power is placed cannot by any Tyrannical Act or Introducing Heresie forfeit his Right and that none ought nor can Conscientiously obey it in another that assumes or accepts it from an unjust Collation though for the best ends imaginable Yet if the Objection be still framed and pressed as I suppose it is by the Actors in our present troubles the sad effects whereof are but the Airy Off-spring of their Platonick Speculations a wild and wise folly they may receive a further satisfaction from our known Laws as may be seen in Bracton and all our ancient Sages the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance and our King 's just Title acknowledged by all Carolus Dei Gratia not by the Peoples Suffrage his Coronation not making but declaring him King only Nor ought it to be otherwise in Popular States where by Universal Suffrage and consent the People have lawfully placed the exercise of the Supreme Power in many retaining the esse perhaps not bene esse of Government there being no rising up or opposition lawful against the Supreme Power or those we conceive lawful Magistrates u Rom. 13. Now upon these grounds that the Supreme Power is not Originally Fundamentally and radically in the People but in that single Person God hath by Prescription Succession and Inheritance or other Humane Rights commissioned for it there is no just means of assuming it into the People and their transferring it upon any nor can any such act be lawful whether by the Pomp and Artifice of a pretended Justice or the Power of the Sword both which do but heighten the Crime according to the weight of Circumstances in either the one clothing the Devil in the Robes of Justice and Majesty the other making the Sword the unjust Arbitrator over the Lives Liberties and Fortunes of many innocent persons without any lawful Power w Mat. 26. Joh. 10.10 and against all our known Municipal Laws when in such a case no Title of Conquest can ly for that must be ever grounded upon a just War which is alwayes constituted of these essential parts 1. A Just Power 2. A Just Cause 3. Just means to prosecute it None of which can concur in Subjects taking up Arms against their lawful Soveraign or Warrant Obedience to any other without countenancing Injustice Violence Oppression c. x Mat. 26. 22 24. Joh. 19.10 which is in no case lawful no dispensation being lawful to any Action that partakes of the nature of sin For with the Hypocrite to do a seeming good to let in or countenance any evil for the most pious ends is but to bring in Religion upon the Devil's Shoulders and follow a seeming Triumph to Hell So as all that can be done under such a Government is but a prudent submission to the Power in things indifferent without giving any countenance to the Authority that imposes it or just scandal to our weak Brethren For then even lawful and indifferent things in their nature are not at all times expedient to be done saith St. Paul y 1 Corin. 6.12 as in the Instances of eating or not eating z 1 Corin. 8.13 but we may or may not according to several Circumstances For 1. A thing indifferent may become ineligible unto me in regard of use or exercise where a lawful Power interposeing determines my choice either way if the thing be equally indifferent and stand like the Pin in the Ballance in an even poyse all Obedience to the Supreme Magistrate depending in its just latitude upon things indifferent to be done or omitted upon which ground as a learned man observes God made choice of a Fruit in Paradice indifferent in its own nature to be eaten or refused for the tryal of man's Obedience in the State of Innocency to teach us that the interposing of a Command from a just Authority ought in all things indifferent to determine our choice and by making it a duty takes off all just cause of scandal to others for in this way scandal is taken not given in the other I am guilty of Disobedience to my Superiour a Rom. 13. as my Magistrate of scandal to him as my Brother and of ill example to all if I do the contrary Though my choice may nay ought to be determined in the use of an indifferent thing rather than break a rule
4.19 Otherwise no man shall ever have the Honour and Reward of suffering for and with his Saviour nor have means to manifest and exercise his Faith Patience Fortitude Perseverance in well-doing and many other Graces Answ 3. For the Example brought out of the twelfth of Matthew to prove the human lawfulness of doing an unlawful thing in case of necessity only to preserve a single person as in David which a fortiori from the less to the greater must be the more justifiable for the preservation of a Common-wealth It appears that our Saviour doth approve of his Disciples in gathering the Corn on the Sabbath by David's Example as it was made lawful by an Humane Necessity in a Ceremonial Precept only Nevertheless as Lord of the Sabbath he did then cancel the duty of that Ceremonial Law of not gathering any thing upon that day as appears by the Context Yet our Saviour in citing David's eating the Shew-bread did not free David from the breach of a Ceremonial Precept For the Text saith expresly it was not lawful for him nor those with him to eat it but only for the Priests but urgeth it for the illustration of Gods Indulgence and Mercy to the frailty of his nature in so great a Humane strait under the Law in a thing only malum quia prohibitum that they might the less wonder at his compassionating his Disciples weakness in taking that they might conceive to be against a Ceremonial Precept only and that under the Gospel for the relief of nature in an extremity OBJECTION V. Object 5. Well but if it be not lawful to comply voluntarily with an Vsurped Power by which I may be said to give it countenance and reputation may I not yet act under it in things good or indifferent in their own nature when they are commanded under a Coercive Penalty and that for the preservation of my self and Posterity which the Law of God Nature and Nations oblige to Answ A Passive Submission to the present Power may in some such Cases be lawful For I am not bound to tempt a Temptation nor with the Porpus to seek and hunt the storm where it may be honestly avoided self-preservation being so natural as by instinct it catcheth at any thing that may but stay or support it as a Hop for want of a Pole will clasp and embrace a Nettle to stay it from falling But here we must be cautious and distinguish between the acting of a Magistrate and other inferior Employments which perhaps may be preparatory only to some Administrations of Justice or yet of less importance Yet in case of Magistracy we must distinguish between Causes Criminal and meerly Civil For 1. In Causes Criminal where Blood is by the Law required to expiate the Offence I conceive it wholly unlawful to act in that they must derive their Commission for it from them who have a just Power of conveying it by Divine Commission and the known Laws or else they do not take but wrest and force the Sword out of God's hand and he that so sheds mans blood with it by man shall his blood be shed in that he doth it without any lawful call without which no man can act but in a private capacity and then it were murder in any to kill a Murderer and he that as a Magistrate will do a thing that requires the just Influence of Supreme Power to make it lawful doth tacitely own that Power to be in him or them from whom he derives his Power to act Especially in the Method of proceeding against Malefactors in Criminal Causes where the frame of the Inditement and reading the Commission must be understood an owning a just Power to be in them from whom they derive theirs in that no private person or Community of men unless combined into a lawful Government ever had the Power of Life and death in them For it is by that Power only men justly suffer not the Law which is only a Regulation of the exercise of it so as any man may press the desert of death against a Wicked Malefactor by the Law as preparatory to Sentence and Execution but must not be active in the latter without a just Commission in that all men ought to act in a lawful posture and subordination only For if the Power Originally be invalid it cannot derive a just one by vertue of which men may operate no more than a sulphurous Spring can send forth a sweet stream for with Aristotle Quod deest in causa deest in effectu 2. In cases meerly Civil between Party and Party I am something doubtful how to determine if compelled to accept of a place of Judicature though perhaps in some Cases I may be morally bound from the Object it points at to act without any outward force upon me in the name not vertue of the Usurper where the thing is intrinsically good or hath the countenance of ancient and known Laws but never to the countenancing or upholding of the Power so as I may act under but not for it in such cases And in others when I have refused and resisted it as far as I can with safety to my Person and Fortune I conceive I have taken off all matter of just scandal of giving any countenance to the present Power and rather shew my disapproving of it when force and compulsion only hath determined my choice and that only to a submission in reverence to the Power that is upon me but not to any just Authority in the Imposer which Conscience would oblige unto Nor do I in this consider my self vested in any just capacity for the doing any distributive Justice so as to force a Conscientious Submission from any to my Determinations but only as an Arbitrator to mediate a just end of differences which the necessity of the times all other Channels by which Justice as a stream should derive to us being wholly obstructed enforces all men to a voluntary and free submission unto And therefore with these Limitations it may perhaps be lawful so as neither by Oath or Acting I own the exercise of the Supreme Power as just in them that assume it nor endeavour to countenance or support it which Cautions all Callings of men especially Commissioned Officers are to observe under an unlawful and usurped Power that possesses only an usufructuary and gubernative one to rule without any just propriety in the Legislative Power to which none can pretend but such as are commissioned by God according to his revealed Will and possess their Titles by a lawful and civil Right For in an unlawful posture of subordination none can have a just Power derived Though as I said perhaps in some cases where I am morally bound to a thing intrinsically good I may act in the name not Power of the Usurper Neither do those abused Texts p Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2.13 oblige us further for God cannot breath hot and cold in the same words i. e. countenance