SAINTSHIP No ground of SOVERAIGNTY OR A TREATISE Tending to prove That the SAINTS barely considered as such ought not to GOVERN By Edw Bagshaw Student of Ch Ch ACADEMIA OXONIESIS SAPIENTIA ET FELICITATIS Oxford Printed by H Hall Printer to the Vniversity for T. Robinson 1660. To the Honorable JOHN DORMER Esq A Member of PARLIAMENT Worthy Sir THough the manner of my Life and nature of my Studies doth lead me to affect a more then ordinary Retiredness and Privacy yet I neither am nor ought to be so great a stranger to the passages of Providence amongst us as not to take notice what great things it hath pleased God of late to doe for this Nation if not by compleating our hopes yet at least by preventing our fears and bringing us within some nearer view of Settlement Whilest others therefore are taken up with celebrating the Authors and magnifying the means of our deliverance I have a little made it my businesse to search into the cause of our Danger which if once rightly stated will be a direction for our present Senators to secure themselves against that Rock on which the Ship of the COMMON-WEALTH hath almost been ruined And herein there was no need of any long study for who does not see that the too free venting of all sorts of Opinions and that by all sorts of men how ignorant and unconcerned soever will if not restrained for ever keep us a Divided and consequently make us an Unsetled People Amongst those many Principles which are now let loose upon us to exercise the Faith and Patience of this last Age there is none that I know of which doth either more immediately conduce to the ruine of all Civil Government or had a greater influence in the pretences at least of the Actors upon our late unwarrantable Disturbances then this which I have here endeavored to confute For let this once be granted that our Saviour is a Temporal Prince and that onely those have a right to Govern who have by Faith an Interest in him presently a door is opened to all manner of Rebellion and Treason nay there can be no such Crimes in the World if Religion and a design to advance our Saviours Kingdom be once made the pretence to authorize them Indeed the consequents are so fatall and horrid and the remembrance of Munster Affairs which were acted by the same spirit so fresh Sleid. lib. 10. and recent that it might almost seem needless to endeavor any other confutation then a bare relating of that Story But Sir that I may take here that liberty which you have hitherto always indulged me of speaking my thoughts I never yet looked upon that way of confuting an Error which the Arminian Writers do usually tread in to be either Rational or Convincing I mean by urging the Inconveniences and ill Consequences of the Doctrine we dispute against For it is one Question What is true and another What is convenient and after all those Tragical Inferences wherewith men seek to affright unwary and unobserving Readers yet this will be an eternal Axiome That truth is truth let the consequences be what they will and the more harsh and repugnant any Doctrine if plainly revealed seems unto Naturall Reason the greater is our Faith and the more signall our Obedience if we notwithstanding do submit unto and embrace it In prosecution therefore of this Design which I have laid down to my self as the onely satisfactory way of deciding all Controversies in Divinity I have not inquired so much how dangerous or how destructive and ruinous the contrary Doctrine is as how it is written and so have proceeded by direct proof to shew that their Opinion who would have Soveraignty founded upon that bottom is utterly unscriptural for that it is unreasonable I think none makes any question And therefore I hope this Treatise may be useful for those who erre not knowing the Scriptures and following the sound of words have not leisure nor perhaps ability to look into the sense of them Had I consulted my own credit I might have made this Discourse more plausible by filling up my Pages with the Authority of ancient Writers but I purposely forbore both because those for whose sakes I mainly publish it are not acquainted with any thing of Christianity more then their English Bibles do instruct them in and likewise because I thought it needless having so much of Divine Authority for my Text to croud humane Testimonies into the Margin since such mixtures doe usually make a good Cause suspected Sir Whatever it is I humbly present it to you and doubt not how rude and inartificial soever it seems but it will finde entertainment among those who love seasonable Truths if you please first to honor it with your Acceptance Whose Piety Prudence Integrity and Zeal for your Countrys Liberty and Welfare have as much advanced you in the Esteem and Judgement of all sober and unprejudiced men as your many personal Favours in the Heart and Affections of Worthy Sir Your most obliged and most humbly devoted Servant Edw Bagshaw Ch Ch Jan. 26. 1659. SAINTSHIP No ground of SOVERAIGNTY INtending to prove out of Scripture that the Saints ought not to governe the earth in that sense which is now by some contended for I shall take for the ground of my discourse those words of our Saviour to Pilate Joh. 18.36 when he said My kingdom is not of this world which words are very considerable whether we regard the Person who the Time when or the Manner how they were spoken 1. For the Person who spoke them it was no lesse then our Saviour Christ each of whose speeches how occasionall soever ought to be unto us so many Precepts and Obligations to Duty 2. For the Time when they were spoken it was just then when he was taking his leave of Earth 1 Tim. 6.13 that he witnessed before Pilate a good confession of which this Assertion is the greatest Part so that if the words of dying men do use to make the greatest impressions then ought these of our Saviour even upon that account to quicken our Attention Lastly for the Manner how they were spoken it was not only after a Resolved and seemingly Obstinate silence Marc. 15.5 in so much as the Governour marveiled but in direct Answer to Pilate's Question who was very desirous to know whether our Saviour was King or not so that our Saviour's Purposed and Positive disavowing any Temporall or Earthly Kingdome his redoubling this Assertion in the following part of the verse My Kingdome is not from hence his repeating and insisting upon it againe in the next verse as a bearing witnesse to the Truth ought to convince us that our Saviour was in earnest and therefore the matter is very Considerable If therefore we put all this together viz. the Authority of the Person the Exigence of the time joyned with those Vehement and Reiterated Circumstances wherewith these words are
Accompanied we may from thence conclude that they containe in them a lesson of more then ordinary concernment to us For the more Full and cleare understanding of them Joh. 11.47 we must have recourse to one of the foregoing Chapters where we find that the chiefe Priests and Pharisees being informed of our Saviours Miracles and of that great Resort of Followers unto him which were enough at any time if micheivously inclined to raise a Commotion in the State upon this they presently called a Councell ΣανÎδÏιον or according to the Greeks a Sanhedrim which was the Supreme and Highest Court of Judicature among them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 4. and unto which if Josephus doth rightly informe us even their Kings were Accountable Here being convened they fall to debate about the best Expedient how to cut our Saviour off for fear their tolerating one who was Publickly voiced for King Mat. 21.5 Job 18. and so stiled likewise by himselfe though in a far other sense then they interpreted it might be construed by the Romanes to whom the Jewes were at that time Tributaries as a designe to shake off their Yoke and thereby provoke them to an utter extirpation of the Jewish Policy which untill then notwithstanding their Conquest they had in great measure preserved Entire Thus therefore we find them Argue If we let him alone all men will believe on him v. 48. and the Romanes will come and take away our Place and Nation To this Insinuation which seemed to conclude their Necessity of our Saviour's Death Caiphas addes something by which he endeavors to prove that Unjust Attempt to be not only Necessary but very Plausible too v. 50. and therefore he pleads Salus Populi the Publick Good is urged to palliate this execrable Murther You saith he know nothing at all neither consider that it is expedient one man should dye for the People that the Nation perish not as if he had said You are very Weake and Unskilfull Politicians to boggle at such a Case as this and to debate thus long upon a matter of so easie solution for Right or Wrong the Publick Safety must be provided for and it is a great Folly and want of Foresight to preferre one man's life how Innocent soever before a Nations Welfare In which wicked speech though Caiphas did by God's appointment Prophetically foretell that great good which would redound to the World by our Saviour's Death v. 52. yet as to his own Intention he meant no more then a Justifying of that Accursed and Rom. 3.8 in the Apostle Paul's sense accounted Damnable Maxime viz. That we may do Evill that Good may come thereof which Tenet where-ever it is assented to will be the Mother of those Mischiefs which men have either Felt or Feared I am sure it so far prevailed with that Juncto of Senators that the Text saith From that Time they took Counsell how to put him v. 53. i. e. our Saviour to Death Our Saviour's Death being thus agreed on by the Pharisees and in their deep Policy resolved to be Necessary in respect of the Romanes and very Advantageous too in reference to the Jewes the Contrivers make no long Delay but what they had before so unjustly concluded on we find them presently after as cruelly execute For having by their own Authority apprehended our Saviour and being it seemes debarred to judg of Capitall Causes within themselves it is not say they to Pilate v. 32. lawfull for us to put any Man to Death they hale him before Pilate the Romane Praefect and there with Loud Clamorous Outcries demand Justice against him But lest their Noise should not prevaile with a Romane and therein so far as related to the Jewish Affaires an Unconcerned and Dispassionate Judge with a Formall story in their Mouths disguising the Malice of their Hearts they Article against him as a Malefactour i. e. κακοποιός according to the Importance of the Greek word a seditious Person a Disturber of the State a Subverter of Government an Enemy of Cesar an Ambitious Affecter to be in Fact as well as in Title King of the Jewes which False and scandalous Charge we have insinuated by John but is at large expressed by Luke ch 23.2 we found say they this fellow perverting the Nation and forbidding to give Tribute unto Cesar saying that he himselfe is Christ a King Pilate hearing this Accusation which if True strook so immediatelyat Cesar's power and the Gravity and seeming Sanctity of our Saviours Accusers would not let him suspect it to be False he therefore waving all other suggestions hastily askes our Saviour whether he was King or not v. 33. Art thou sayes he the King of the Jewes To which Question our Saviour returnes an Answer in the words I have already alleaged wherein he intimates that he was indeed a King and that he had a Kingdome but that his Kingdome was of such a Nature as Pilate need not be Jealous of nor apprehend any danger from it as if it were intended to enterfere or Justle with Cesar's Soveraignty for saith he my Kingdome is not of this Word As if he had said I am indeed a King and I have a Kingdome but you need not fear any Disturbance to your Secular Interests by setting up of my Kingdome amongst you for though it be in the World it is not of the world nor hath any Commerce or Society either with the Power or Policy thereof This being the Plaine and Direct meaning of our Saviour's words I shall briefly explaine what Kingdome it is that our Saviour meanes when he saies my Kingdome c. I find in Scripture that our Saviour is called a King upon a four-fold account 1. By Power Thus he is King of the World Heb. 1.1 2. and hath a sover aignty Paramount being one God with the Father and the same Power by which he made the World he daily exerts for the continuing and preserving of it 2. By Birth thus he was King of the Jewes being Heire apparent to the Crown and lineally descended from David in whom the Kingdom was vested with a promise of its perpetuity from him according to the flesh our Saviour came and therefore had a Star to adorn and declare his Nativity God herein seeming to comply with the Opinions of those who think the Heavens are more then ordinarily concerned in the Affairs of Princes and therefore strange Appearances and unusual Comets do attend both their birth and death For nothing else for ought we know but the Prodigy of that Blazing Star without any more immediate Instinct did excite the curiosity of the Eastern Magi to go and see that Person whose Nativity was in so wonderful a manner celebrated Where is say they he that is born King of the Jews for we have seen his Star in the East i. We have descryed a Star of an unusual Aspect but yet such an one as
of such as oppose them But our Saviour took not this course If Iohn 18.27 saith he my kingdom were of this world then would my servants fight intimating that to make way for Religion by force to lay down a Principle which must needs imbroil the World in Blood and Confusion is not Religion but Rapine a Sacrilegious design to make Christianity the strict Professors of it odious For who will not suspect the truth of that Religion which despairing of its own Excellence and hopeless of a better reward eggs on its followers to take up with Worldly Honor and under the notion of Sanctity leaves the Throne exposed to the Invasion of every Hypocritical Pretender At in initio non fuit sic Our Saviour taught us no such Doctrine nor did his Apostles leave us such a patern Therefore Lastly That Saintship gives no right to Civil Empires appears from the practice of the Apostles and other Professors of Christianity in the Purest and most Primitive Times Presently after our Saviours Ascension when by Peters Ministry so many thousands were converted we doe not finde him Preaching them into a Tumult or raising a Party among the People upon the score of our Saviours being a Temporall Prince to whom all men were to pay their Civill Allegeance but he onely bids them Act. 111.29 Repent and be converted that their sins might be blotted out And such Doctrine as this might be Preached without any impeachment to Caesars Power Again when the chief Priests and Rulers did forbid the Apostles to Preach in the Name of Christ as being madded with envy that one whom they had lately so ignominiously Crucified should yet finde so much reputation among his Followers The Apostles upon this doe not combine to strengthen themselves and under pretence of setting up Christs Kingdom make a commotion in the State but they presently fell to their Prayers Act. 11.29 Now Lord say they behold their threatnings and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy Word They onely beg courage to speak and patience to suffer and as for promoting Christs Throne in any other sense they seem altogether secure and careless As the Apostles so did their Proselytes behave themselves so farre from aiming at greatnesse or from seeking to improve their Conversion to the oppression of others so farre from depriving others of their Possessions because they were ungodly that they sold their own and therein literally fulfilled that command of our Saviour of Sell all and follow me which the Professors of our Times are so farre from practising that they are rather apt to do the clean contrary We reade indeed that when the Christians increased there was an Accusation forged against them Acts 17.6 as if they were Men who turned the World upside down who acted contrary to the Decrees of Caesar saying There is another King one Jesus And Paul is by Tertullus expresly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a very Pest i. Act 24. a Turbulent Unquiet Spirited man and a Raiser of Sedition which Calumny how false and ungrounded it was Paul shews at large in his Apology by averring to their faces that they could not prove the things which they had alleaged against him ver 13. And afterwards he is fully acquitted by Festus the Roman Deputy They sayes he to Agrippa brought against him no Accusation of such things as I supposed i. of Treason Act. 25.8 of Sedition or Rebellion of Preaching Disobedience or non-payment of Tribute to Caesar for such crimes as these were properly under the Governors Cognizance and none of these it seems were so much as imputed unto Paul whereas had he so Preached up Christ as to affirm that Jesus was not onely a King but that whoever did not submit to him ought immediately to be put out of Office whereby there would never be such a Crime as Treason if Religion were once made the pretence to justifie it Had this I say been Paul's Doctrine I suppose Festus neither would nor durst have been so favorable in his Censure And to put the matter out of question on that Apostles part though none was more zealous then he for the advancing of Christs Kingdom in the right-sense yet none was more strict and severe in the enjoyning of Obedience unto all Powers over us of what Religion soever unlesse we think men can be worse then Nero and Caligula were who Raigned about his time And the Apostle gives a reason for it which will hold true in all Ages Rom. 13. viz. because Authority is from God Power by what Arts soever it is gained and by what persons soever it is exercised yet when it is once acknowledged and sworn too it is to be looked upon by us as nothing else but a Ray of Gods Soveraignty and therefore to be accounted Sacred Nor can any pretence of zeal or mask of Religion justifie Rebellion more now then heretofore but the more piety appears to disguise it the more monstrous it is Since in effect it onely sets up Christ against himself and makes his Kingdom what he would not have it to be a kingdome of this World The very same command and to the same purpose is enforced by Peter 1 Pet. 11.12 That they might by their obebedience and meeknesse put to silence the ignorance of foolish men who censured them as evil doers The Word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very same which was charged upon our Saviour and it signifies in the Hellenistical Phrase State-Incendiaries Incompatible with Civill Government and the like which would have proved a very true and upright censure in case the Christians of those Times had so owned Christ for their King as upon his account to withdraw their obedience from their Civil Soveraigns The more apt therefore profane men were to mis-interpret the Kingdom of Christ the more carefull that Apostle would have Professors to be not to give any such occasion of offence Suitable to the Doctrine of these two great Apostles was the practice of the Primitive Christians down from our Saviours till long after Constantines time as I could easily prove out of the most Ancient Records (a) Tertul. Apulog Orig contra Cels c. but that we live in an Age when such kinde of Learning is by those who least understand it accounted little lesse then madnesse and that we may know which way the World is going Ignorance begins once more to be the Mother of Devotion I shall therefore draw to a close for such as Scripture will not satisfie I do not intend to confute by humane Testimony which is not onely fallible but for the most part false And I wish all that are at leasure to peruse this short Treatise would make this use of it as to look after the Spirit rather then the Splendor of Christianity For it is evident to all that know any thing of Church Story that so much as
heir of all the Land of Canaan yet the time for the accomplishment of that promise not being yet come he refused to receive the Cave of Macpelah to make use of it for a burying place until he had paid a valuable consideration in money for it Obj. If any shall here object that Abraham at that time wanted power to make good his claim and therefore was content to buy what otherwise he might have forced Ans The vanity and falshood I will adde too the impiety of this Plea appears from hence in that we finde David afterwards using the very same terms of observance and respect unto Araunah a Jebusite 2 Sam. 21. one neither of the same Nation nor Religion with himself Which instance serves very much to clear the question in hand for David was not onely a Saint by priviledge if that signified any thing to give a right but a King by power and might have forced it nay he was commanded by God to make use of that very place to sacrifice in and therefore might have pretended an inspiration to justifie his violent seizure and besides to make the matter a little more fair and plausible he whom David dealt with was an Heathen and for ought we know an Idolater Yet all these advantages did not make David swerve from the Rules of common Justice but up he went with all his Retinue to Araunah in a suppliant posture that he might buy his threshing floor And when Araunah frankly offered to give it him the Spirit of God hath recorded it not as an act of Justice in him but of Royal Bounty Araunah ver 23. as a king gave unto the King Obj. It useth to be urged against this that the Israelites which were Gods People did destroy the Canaanites and inherit their Land Answ But the Answer is easie That as God did not choose them to be his people because they were more holy then others but meerly because he had set his heart upon them So neither did he give them the Land of Canaan upon the account of their Saintship but onely to make good his promise unto Abraham and by their hands to avenge himself of the Canaanites whose iniquitys were then full and ripe for vengeance This reason is expresly given by Moses himself Deut. 9.5 Not for thy righteousness saith he or for the uprightness of thy heart doest thou go to possess their Land but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee and that he may perform the word which the Lord sware unto thy Fathers God indeed is the great Proprietor of all things but yet he hath given the Earth without distinction to all the Sons of Men onely reserving to himself this Right That when they do ingratefully abuse his gift he doth always dispossesse them and give their inheritance unto others but though this be the method of Gods Judgements yet it doth not excuse any people from a transcendent Crime who take upon them to be the executors of Gods Decrees against the wicked Joshuah therefore whilest he was in the hottest pursuit of that promised Possession never pleaded any thing to justifie his actings but the particular command of God who bad him go and destroy those Nations this alone made it a pious War which otherwise would have been nothing else but a publick Robbery We finde also that when God as the supream Disposer gave to the Israelites the Land of Canaan he at the same time expresly forbids them to meddle with the Land of the children of Ammon but had relation to God given them any right that Land would have equally belonged to them with the other Deut. 11.17 When thou comest saith he nigh unto the children of Ammon distress them not nor meddle with them for I will not give thee of the Land of the children of Ammon any possession because I have given it unto the children of Lot for a possession Where we see the children of Lot though Idolatrous yet were not to be disturbed in their possession because the same God who said to the children of Israel Goe Possesse Canaan said to the Children of Lot Goe Possess the Land of Ammon Whereby as to their civil Claims and temporal Rights God makes no distinction betwixt the one though his own peculiar and the other though a profane and Idolatrous people But if Heathen unregenerate men have upon the account of their being men a Title to other things then certainly to Dominion much more which serves onely to secure our other Priviledges and is if rightly stated nothing else but a consequent of Propriety I shall therefore conclude this first Argument which I think abundantly convincing with that remarkable Controversie between God and the Jews concerning their obedience to Nebuchadnezzar The Jews though undoubted possessors of Canaan yet after they were by Nebuchadnezzar conquered and to preserve some little remains of Liberty and Livelyhood had taken an Oath of Fealty and Allegiance to him we finde upon some reason of State they were presently induced to break it and God as speedily threatens to avenge it severely upon them Ezek. 17. The sad condition of that Oath how it was a Covenant only to enslave themselves and their Posterity for ever God himself doth declare thereby to prevent their Objection v 13 14. The King of Babylon saith he hath taken of the Kings seed i. Zedekiah and made a Covenant with him and taken an oath of him that the Kingdom might be base that it might not lift it self up i. e. that it might for ever quit the pretence of being a Free People and truckle under the Dominion of the Chaldeans This Yoke then which nothing can be more insupportable and to which the Jews had been so long unaccustomed they presently shook off for it follows in the next Verse But he i. Zedekiah rebelled with what success we have too much reason in this Nation to read and tremble (a) 〈◊〉 Armies Plea c. v. 18 19. Seeing he despised the oath by breaking the Covenant when loe he had given his hand i. with hands lifted up had solemnly ratified it he shall not escape Therefore as I live saith the Lord my Covenant which he hath broken and my Oath which he hath despised will I recompense upon his own head From which sad place others perhaps will draw other inferences but I shall collect onely these three things 1. That in every Oath God is a Party and will be sure to punish the violater of it though men may break their Oathes with as much ease as Samson did his Wit hs yet God will be sure to keep his and he hath sworn to Punish 2. When once a man hath sworne he cannot resume againe that naturall Liberty which he was before possessed of because by his owne voluntary Act he hath devested himselfe of it and thereby bound himselfe over to Divine vengeance if he do not performe