to Resist them or to fight for their Religion Popery is an abominable and Idolatrous Religion the most corrupt of any Sect or Party that calls it self Christian and the most dangerous to the Souls of Men but 't is a better way to keep it out with our Hands bound to the Stake then stretcht out against our Lawful Sovereign and we shall show our love to Protestancy much better by dying for it our selves if need be then by killing others One Life of our own Sacrificed to it is a Nobler Offering and more acceptable to God and our Saviour than a thousand Victims at the expence of other Mens Lives 2. If Men may not Resist purely for Religion and to defend that yet when they have Law on their sides either for their Religion or any thing else and their Princes who are bound to keep the Law will yet act against it and despoil them of their Civil Rights and Priviledges or invade their Properties and destroy their Religion contrary to Law and to the setled Constitutions of the Kingdom then surely they may forcibly desend their Laws and consequently their Religion or any thing that is thus twisted and complicated with their Laws which it is not in the Princes power to alter or unloose To this I shall return a Treble Answer 1. If the Law had made a Provision and expresly allow'd Resistance when any such Cases should happen however foolish a Constitution that had been yet the Case had been much stronger and the nullity of the allowance not so easie to be made out as in the German Empire there is such a Provision made that if the Emperour invade the Establisht Rights of the Princes who though they are Sovereigns in their own Territories yet are sworn Subjects to him they may take Arms and such a Capitulation there was formerly between the King of Spain and the Low Countries but in our Kingdom there is plainly no such thing and care has been taken that none should imagine that there was any such kind of tacit or implicit condition the Law making an express Declaration to the contrary to wit That it is unlawful to resist upon any account whatsoever which puts the thing out of all manner of dispute that we cannot by Law resist though it be to defend what we have by Law for that would be to act against one express Law whilst we were defending another 2. As long as the Power of the Sword is wholly in the King by the Law of God and of Man who shall ever use or draw it without an authority derived from him From whence else shall any Man have a Commission to raise Companies to array an Army to be a Commander or a General over them and to use that force which is often necessary for the execution of Justice and giving force to Laws for without that they are often but dead Letters and therefore no Man can be the Guardian of the Laws who is not the Keeper of the Sword which is committed to the Prince alone 3. If a Prince will injure his Subjects and invade their Rights nay and their Lives against Law when they have tried all other means they must as Christ did patiently submit to an unjust Sentence rather then resist and as the first Christians did who often complain'd that they were punisht adversus formam adversus naturam judicandi contra ipsus quoque leges Tertull Apologet. c. 2. and that their Persecutors would not let them have the same benefit of the Roman Laws with others aliter in nos quà m in caeteros nocentes disponitis ibid. and yet the great numbers he there tells them they had did not put them upon Resisting and as St. Paul did who though inconsiderately and in Passion he call'd the High-Priest a Whited-wall because when he sat to Judge him after the Law he commanded him to be smitten contrary to the Law Acts 23.3 yet he presently acknowledged his fault and own'd that he should not have so much as spoke evil of a Ruler though he punisht him illegally and contrary to the Law and therefore much less have Resisted him 3. But though the Law of the Land forbids Resistance yet the Law of Nature which no other Law can supersede will allow it for our own necessary defence and Self-Preservation that is such a natural Right as can never be taken from us and no Man can ever be supposed to part withal By this we may take away anothers Life in our own defence and yet fall under no Law of God or Man for it and by this a Prince may be resisted as well as a Robber if he will take away my Goods or my Life as unjustly as he To this I shall Answer Three things 1. The Law of Nature can at most be said only to permit this not to enjoyn it if there were a Right of Nature that allow'd this yet there cannot be a Law that commanded it and obliged us to it but a Man might still part with his Natural Right without any fault and it would be an Heroick instance of Vertue to do so rather to give our own Life or part with any Private Interest of our own then take away the Life of another Man and this to be sure is much the safer side which is out of all danger and undoubtedly lawful when there are great Reasons to fear that Resisting even in that Case may prove Damnable 2. Positive Constitutions may limit and restrain Natural Right in this or any other Case or else all Pacts and Covenants are in vain nay and all Civil Laws whatsoever because they do all of them restrain Men from that which before they had a Natural Right to and if we cannot by any means be abridged of that then there is an end not only of all Government but of all Property too and Mankind may return into a Wild State of Nature when ever they please 3. Though the Law of Nature allows us to resist private Violence in our own defence yet it does not to resist the Publick Magistrate for that would be destructive of publick good and injurious to the Peace and Welfare of Mankind which the other is not and though I may fairly stand upon my defence when there is only a competition between my own and anothers private good yet I must not do it when the Competition is between the publick good and my own private whoever considers himself as a Member of the vast Body of Mankind or of a particular Kingdom must think it as unreasonable and absurd to prefer his own private good to the publick as to believe a single part to be as great as the whole This is the Prime and Fundamental Law of Nature to promote as far as we are able the publick good and endeavour to increase not so much our own private share as the common and publick stock of Happiness which belongs to the whole Company and Community in which our own is likewise included
THE UNLAWFULNESS OF Stretching forth the Hand TO Resist or Murder PRINCES WITH THE Principal Cases about RESISTANCE CONSIDERED In Two SERMONS The First Preacht upon the Last Thirtieth of January The other upon the Day of Thanksgiving for the Deliverance of the King and Kingdom from the Late Treasonable Conspiracy By WILLIAM PAYNE Rector of St. Mary White-Chappel LONDON Printed by A. Grover for Walter Kittilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-yard 1683. TO THE HONOURABLE Sir WILLIAM SCROGGS Late Lord Chief Justice of ENGLAND My Lord I Could be very glad that I had less Reason to justifie the publishing of these Sermons and that they were altogether as unseasonable as the putting out of Bills to Cure the Plague when no Body is Sick or Dies of it but Treason is a Disease that Rages amongst us and though it be not like the Sweating-Sickness of old a Malady peculiar to English Men yet the plenty and Luxury of our Country may perhaps make us more Subject to it then others Were I able to prescribe any thing however ordinary that was likely to be either a Remedy or an Antidote against it I should think it my Duty as a Lover of the Peace and Salvation of Mankind as a Lover of my King and Country and as a Minister of that Church and Religion which has been often the Mark but never the Author of any Treason and I hope the good meaning of this Endeavour will compound for the weakness of it and its Honesty and Charity cover the Multitude of its Faults and Imperfections I thought my self more then ordinarily concerned to do this when the Infection had so largely spread at our end of the Town and in my own Parish where two of the Conspirators that are Executed and two others that are in the Proclamation had their last Abodes for though this does not like other Contagions begin in Alleys and the Out-parts among the Poor and Ordinary Persons yet the Great ones make it their Business to spread it among those and there it settles and there it generally breaks out Had these Men come to our Churches they had learnt other Principles then what I am afraid they have done elsewhere and that none may be so malitious as to think we calculate our Sermons merely for the present Circumstances as if the Pulpit were but a kind of weather-glass wherein the Doctrine of Obedience to Governours is higher or lower according to the temperature or Variation of outward Affairs I have put out a plain Sermon without any addition or alteration that was Preacht long before the Plot when I little thought of having any such occasion to make it publick I thought then and do so now that those Obvious and Familiar things which every one must use on that Subject would do good but there remained a harder part which was to keep the good Seed I had sowed clear from the Weeds that are apt to grow up and choke it for Treason has stood so long without being cut down especially in the late Times that it has run to seed and scattered its Principles that will not fail to nourish and make it grow again and I thought the only way to destroy it was to pluck up those by the Rootes I know My Lord the Subject will commend it self to your Patronage whose Loyalty to your Prince is so well known to all that as it was always your vertue so it has been sometimes your Crime and who have so well shown your Zeal and Abhorrence of all Plots and Treasons in the late Popish one where your Justice and Eloquence were too hard for the cunningest of Traitors and the Priests found your Reason out-doe their Infallibility yet I should not have presumed to offer these Discourses unto your Lordships hands who is not only so great a Judge but so great a Master of sence and of speaking but that I know your Candour and Mercy is equal to your Judgment so that what has inclined you to approve and encourage me in some other things of this nature will I question not prompt you at least to excuse me in this The Extraordinary kindness and Civility you have been pleased to show me would require a much better Testimony of my Observance and Gratitude then this which is the only one I can pay at present and therefore must beg you to accept it from My Lord Your most Obedient and most Obliged Servant William Payne A SERMON UPON THE Thirtieth of JANVARY 1683. Being the Day of the Martyrdom OF King Charles I. 1 SAM 26.9 For who can stretch forth his Hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless RELIGION as it makes Provision for us in another World and is the only Means to secure us a good State after this Life a future and eternal Happiness for our Souls so 't is that also upon which the present Welfare the Comfort and Felicity of this Life does chiefly depend 't is that which supports the World and preserves the Peace and Order the Quiet and good Settlement of it 't is that which sets a Guard about our Lives and all our Enjoyments and restrains Mankind from ravening and devouring one another 'T is that which is the main Strength the true Foundation of Government which supports the Princes Throne and Guards it like an Angel from the Sons of Violence and as it obliges us to all those Duties of Right and Justice that are necessary for the Good and Welfare of all Mankind so it especially secures and maintains the Rights of Princes and Governours which cannot be violated without the greatest Mischief and the most pernicious Consequences to the World David who was the most singular Example of all Religion and Piety to God who was the great Example and Teacher of it to the Jewish Church and who has left such Memorials and Monuments of it as make up a great part of the Devotion and Worship of all Christians Him was God pleased to make as great an Example of Loyalty to his Prince and of Duty and Obedience to his Sovereign and that purely from the same Principles of Religion and Conscience that made him so to God He had the least Reason otherwise to be so to his Prince that could be well imagined Who sought to take away his Life unjustly he hunted him as a Partridge upon the Mountains and intended to make him a Prey to his unreasonable Fury and Displeasure Who would have taken away that Right which God had expresly given him and deprived him of the Succession to the Crown which Heaven had entituled him to Who destroyed all his Friends he could light of and murdered fourscore and five of the Priests of the Lord in one day upon his account 1 Sam. 22.18 Who put a whole City to the sword Man Woman and Child v. 19. and exercised all the Acts of Cruelty and Injustice to him and all those that favoured him How much less than all this would have served some Men
lives in 4. As Resistance of our Governours is against the Examples and the Principles of Christianity and also contrary to the Constitution of our own Government so 't is contrary also to Reason and Equity and most prejudicial to the Good of the World and the Welfare of Mankind For what would be the Effect of it but perpetual Tumult and Disorder Confusion and Anarchy Government was designed for the publick Benefit of the World and next to the Being of a God and a Providence 't is that which preserves and is the greatest Blessing to Mankind which secures our Lives from Violence our Estates from Rapine and is a common Fence or Hedge that encloses whatever we enjoy in Safety and Security and if it were lawful to break this down upon every Pett and Distaste against our Governours we should but lay all open and in Common again and become a Prey and a Spoil to the most strong and crafty If we might resist and fall to Force and Violence whenever we liked not what was done by our Superiours then we should be no longer Subjects than we thought fit our selves Their Authority over us should last no longer than we our selves judged it to suit with our Interest or Humor or Inclination and then it would be impossible to provide either for Peace or Justice or attain any of the Ends for which Government was designed and establish'd It is possible indeed that some Inconveniencies may happen sometimes to Mankind by their Governours abusing their Power and Authority and using it to serve their own Wills and Pleasures rather than publick Good and the Welfare of those who are under them This I question not but may happen and often has so and did so especially under those Emperours to whom yet the Scripture commanded Obedience and Non-resistance but there is much less Mischief likely to befall Mankind from thence then there would if they should be allowed to disobey and resist as they thought fitting It is not possible to prevent all manner of Inconveniencies and secure our selves against all possible Evils in this World but whatever great ones Mankind may lie open to from the Princes abuse of his Power to the vioalting of his Subjects Rights and Properties yet there would be abundantly more and greater if either upon our Mistakes or Jealousies or the unreasonable Fears and Pretences of designing and unpeaceable Men it were lawful to resist and make a forcible Opposition against our Governours And for this very Reason I question not but that God who designs the greatest good to Mankind that here we are capable of has thus fix'd and determined it and if Men would well confider it they might see the Reasonableness and Equity and even the Necessity of its being so but I haste to the second thing which is chiefly here meant by stretching out the Hand and that is the murdering and taking away the Life of God's anointed and 't is that for which our Nation does Penance this day and is the greatest Reproach to our Nation and Religion The horrible Guilt of this I shall represent in two Particulars 1. From the Consideration that he was God's anointed which was that which made David not dare to do so impious a thing i. e. one appointed or ordained of God as all Princes and Governours are For there is no Power but of God the Powers that be are ordained of God Rom. 13.2 that is that Authority by which King 's Reign and Princes decree Justice is immediately from God as the Fountain of all Power and Authority and the chief Sovereign of the World from whom all others do truly receive theirs The Word anointed was used from the Custom of anointing Princes by God's Command as a Ceremony of Investiture and Inauguration of them to their Government but it is given also to those to whom God hath given Sovereign Power and Authority without that as Cyrus is called the Lord's anointed Isa 45 1. tho' the way of anointing was not in use among the Persians God as he was pleased to imprint his own Image and Likeness upon Humane Nature so to Princes and Governours he communicates some of his own Power and Greatness and Majesty and they are his immediate Deputies and Vicegerents commissionated as it were to govern and rule and order this Lower World and therefore are stiled Gods and have the Name even of Elohim given them Psal 82.6 and then if it be a kind of resisting God and a resisting the Ordinance of God to resist them what is it to murder and take away the Lives of these Earthly Gods those who are anointed and commissionated ordained and appointed by God himself If it be accounted Treason by Humane Laws to kill a Judge or a Justice upon the Bench or an Inferiour Magistrate in the persormance of his Office because he bears the Person as it were of the King then is it not Crimen laesae Majestatis divinae a Treason against God and of the highest Nature to destroy and murder one that is God's immediate Deputy and Commissioner and an Officer appointed to govern such a part of the World under him 2. It has all the Guilt in it of the most horrid Murder for such is taking away the Life of any Man without a just Power and Authority and this is committed only to the Governour by God who is the Lord of Life and of Death and as this is wholly derived from God and plainly shews that the Magistrate has this his Power wholly from him and not from the People because they who have not Power over their own Lives can never give that to the Prince which they have not themselves and therefore this jus Gradii this Power over Mens Lives must come immediately from God to the Magistrate and since God has declared that Vengeance is his Rom. 12.19 especially that Vengeance which appears in all Capital Punishments the Ruler must be his Minister to execute Vengeance in this manner and to this Degree to all that do such Evil as deserves it Rom. 13.4 For he is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Revenger by an Authority received immediately from God and not from Men who have not such a Power and Dominion over themselves and therefore cannot transfer it to him from whence therefore shall the People or the whole Community challenge to themselves this Power over the Life of their Sovereign since the Power over their Lives is committed to him only by God As the pretending this is the usurping upon the Divine Authority so 't is the most horrid and villanous Murder in the World not only of a Man who bears the Image of God which was the reason given against Homicide Gen. 9.6 but of a King who bears the Image of God upon another Account also as he has some Rays of the Divine Majesty and Greatness and Authority communicated to him above other Men and it is no way an Abatement but an Aggravation of the Crime to
and never to think that our own private and particular interest is to be put in the Ballance with that and there is nothing more strong against Resistance which would not fail to bring in the greatest publick Mischief to avoid a less and more private one then this very Consideration which is the true measure however large of Moral good and evil and the very Foundation of all the Laws of Nature 4. If neither upon the account of Religion nor Laws nor yet Self defence it be lawful to resist the Prince then Mankind is left in a Remediless Case and Condition and must lie open to the continual Encroachments and Tyrannies of their Governours and notwithstanding all Laws for their security yet if they must not stand up to defend and if need be to fight for those Laws they are in the same condition as if they had none for the Prince may break those Spiders Webs when he pleases and only use them as a Snare to catch others in he may enslave and murder us when he pleases if he may not be Resisted when he thinks fit to do so To which I Answer 1. We must never expect to find out a Remedy against all possible Inconveniencies in this World in this low and imperfect State we shall always be subject to some publick as well as private Evils the body politick will never be free from all manner of Infirmities and Diseases any more then the body Natural such a Temperamentum ad pondus can never be expected in either as shall keep them from all illness at present or corruption at the last There can no more be a perfect Government such as we would fain imagine to our selves then there can be a perfect Circle or streight line such as Mathematicians suppose Matter and Mankind will not be brought to that exactness but that some unevenness and irregularity will belong to both and if we should go about to pare all those off the incapacity of the Subject would not admit it and we should probably by our trying make them much worse then they were before an endeavour to patch up and amend the necessary Imperfections that attend this our present State has made them commonly much greater and wider as Paracelsus kill'd himself in his Youth by endeavouring to make himself Immortal The Papists to prevent all possibility of Errour in Divine things which God has not and I 'm sure Man cannot make such a Provision against as they would have have brought in an Infallible Teacher into the Church as a necessary and plausible Expedient to keep out all Heresie and Errour that else we might be subject to fall into and see the good of this notable device of theirs it has brought more Errors and more dangerous and incurable ones into Christianity then it would ever have had without it The Projectors of the late times would have the Prince accountable to the People to prevent the ill use of his Power and Authority but never was more Mischief done then by that Traiterous Device and the People could never have been in a worse case under the most grievous Tyranny then under such Anarchy and Confusion They who should take account of the Prince like the Ephori or the Tribunes who should take account of them and who again of them we must run into an infinite Circle or we must stop somewhere and where ever we do we shall be just in the same case There must be unaccountable Sovereignty somewhere whatever Politick Absurdities we may think follow from it as there must be an indivisible part of matter at the last whatever Difficulties Philosophy may charge it with 2. A Legal Constitution especially so good an one as our own is a great security to us This makes a Kingdom like a curious and well-made Machine fitly framed and joined together in its several parts the Prince is the greater Wheel and the first Principle of Motion in it and the Law is like a Pendulum that evens and regulates that Motion and though notwithstanding that he should happen to be irregular yet he would hardly be able to spoil the whole Mechanism and make all the under wheels and other parts move contrary to their true make and shape which the Law has given them the subordinate Officers are not bound to act illegally and would not easily be brought to it against their Oaths and their Interests when they know they may be punisht here and shall be damned for it hereafter and whilst the Hands and the Legs are to execute the Commands of the Head though they must not rise up against that yet that cannot when it pleases put them into an unnatural motion and distortion But though the Machine might be disordered a little by some great shake and concussion yet while it is so strong and so well made it would come right again in a little time and fall into its true make and proper Motion Res nolunt diù malè administrari Things would not stand long bent by an illegal force but would by degrees unloosen themselves by a kind of natural Elasticity which the Law gives them 3. God's Providence and Government of the World is the best security in this and all other Evils we are subject to If Parents will grieve their Children and be bitter against them if Princes will injure their Subjects and Tyrannize over them if a more powerful Prince will like a greater Pyrat Rob and Spoil his Neighbours and make a Prey of them 't is God alone they must appeal to and expect to be righted at his Tribunal Princes are God's immediate Officers and Lieutenants and he will take particular inspection over them that they abuse not his People committed to their Charge to him alone they are accountable and therefore he who has exempted them from the Cognizance of others will take the Matter into his own hands and not suffer their faults to go unpunisht But who art thou O Subject who Judgeth thy Prince To his own Master he standeth or falleth To him they have given a Pledge by their Oaths and if they break those Satis est quod Deum expectent ultorem It is sufficient that he to whom Vengeance belongeth is the Avenger of all such and this he is in so terrible a manner that nothing has felt his Anger more dreadfully then a Tyrant's Conscience no body has had more Horrours and Fears more Stroaks of a Divine Nemesis upon him then he that has used his Power to cruel and unjust Designs the meanest of his Vassals has not felt so much Torment and so many Racks from him as he has done from his own Mind nor has any half so much reason to fear his Power as he has to be afraid of Gods that great Patron of Justice and Great Governour of the World who ruleth the raging of the Sea and the Madness of the People will set bounds also to the Power and Injustice of Princes and so far as is