pardon and so may very well pardon their King too because as he hopes better from them they may hope for better from him The common Offices which Charity requires from one private Christian to another are certainly as well due to Kings Subjects must look upon themselves under Obligation to suffer long and to be kind not to behave themselves unseemly not to seek their own not to be easily provoked not to think evil to bear all things to believe all things to hope all things If these Duties were but well discharged towards Princes all the rest that can be truly comprehended under the name of Passive Obedience would be much more easie Let Subjects do these sincerely and heartily and stop a little and think they will soon find that they must yield more and give greater allowances to Princes than to fellow-subjects because they are higher Powers they are ordained of God they bear the Sword they are to execute wrath upon them that do evil and they are to give Praise to them that do good These things are of high consideration and they should beget in the minds of People a great Awe and Veneration for the Persons of Princes for infinite are the Advantages that every single Man receives from the Administration of Justice and the Distribution of Rewards and Punishments What if Praise and Wrath sometimes mistake their way and the first flies to the evil and the latter to the good This is no more than what God 's own Thunder does as far as we can understand The best Marks man may sometimes miss and the worst hit the Mark. When we undertake to vindicate God's Providence we are forced to bring in extrinsick Pleas and when we have done all we confess that we do not understand the reason of Events but we believe that all is well because all comes from God If we did but use a little of like Submission when we examine the Actions of Princes in many Cases we may be content to say that we do not understand thereby we shall shew not only a Reverence to them but a Reverence to God too they are but Men and may oft fail and are always fallible they do mistake but the cause of their Mistakes are mostly from Subjects these design and contrive one against another and misrepresent and the Prince hears from them and sees by them and the Law provides Punishments for those Misrepresenters and acquits the Prince because it seems impossible that one Man should find out such a number of honest and good Men to supply all the Trusts which he is to provide for and never be cheated with one Knave therefore if such a one will crowd in the Prince is abused and it cannot be help'd but the Knave is to be punished and the Prince excused from blame Besides The Work and Business of Princes is the hardest and most difficult that any sort of Men upon Earth have because they have so many to order and so many to defend so many to reward and so many to punish so many that expect from them and so many that must be disappointed in their Expectations so many to deal withal that are false and base and so many that are dull and sluggish so many Knaves and so many Fools Upon these Accounts and many others innumerable Princes ought to have all Favour and all reasonable Allowances in Miscarriages all fair Abatements for Mistakes and Errors in the choice of Ministers and Instruments that are to serve the Interests of the Commonweal For it is certain that all the Laws Rules and Methods of conducting publick Affairs which the Wisdom of Ancestors for thousands of Years have found out will not answer all the Behoofs of a Kingdom Old Rules are oft laid aside other Expedients found out and new Laws made All the Prudence and all the Wisdom in every Age when best imployed is little enough to keep Government steddy and the People in good order to repress the Outrages of the Factious at home and give stop to the Contrivances of ambitious Enemies abroad Princes therefore are to be supported defended excused pleaded for as long as any plausible Pleas can be made for them it is not enough that they are not taxed censured reproached calumniated blackened but there is great reason that they should be gently treated kindly dealt withal the best Construction and the fairest Interpretation is to be put upon theâ—â— Actions Law makes the Persons of Kings sacred and their Actions are not to be examined without great Respect and Veneration If Subjects suffer not altogether according to Rule loss of Goods of Honors of Powers they may and ought to bear it patiently as long as they see any thing like Reason for it if they can but think that the Good of a Nation requires it that the Necessities of humane Affairs will have it or that their Sins against God call for it they do well to indulge themselves in all such meek and humbling Thoughts thereby they will really practise two great Duties of Fearing God and honoring their King Thereby they shew their Abhorrence of Plots and Conspiracies of the Counsels of the Factious and Seditious that they have no part with those who would overturn Kingdoms and States Princes and People Religion and Laws to greaten themselves to advance Projects and Devices Tricks and Humors of their own They shew that they are good Men whilst they submit their private Concerns to the publick Good and they shew themselves to be good Subjects seeing they in reverence to their Prince bear all that which in reason can be thought tolerable They that do this do a great Duty a thing very commendable in it self it is that which God requires all that which the Interests of Princes can need and as much as the Good of a Kingdom can allow The excellent Divines of the Church of England have endeavoured with all Care and Attention to ingraft this upon the Hearts and Minds of their Auditors and they have had extraordinary effects of their Labors for if all things be fairly considered since the beginning of K. James's Reign it may perhaps be found that no Nation in the World did ever deport themselves with greater Submission Resignation and hearty Obedience toward a Prince than this has done View the Actions of his Parliament of the Nobility Gentry chief Burghers reflect upon their Fears and Jealousies and let him that can challenge them for the least provoking Action or neglect of their Duty until all things tended to confound him and them too about the time of the fatal Desertion For what could the late King wish what could he desire Would he be great and powerful formidable to Enemies abroad or Enemies at home He had all things at Pleasure his Parliament gave him Monies beyond Example largely his Nobility raised him Forces the Commonalty readily offered their Lives to serve him he had Hands and Hearts and Purses of all Orders of Men at his Command
likely that I am for King William and think him as truly and as much King as ever King James was We do not stand in the same light we do not think of the same things and so we differ And had we lived in many other Periods of time it is very likely that we might have differed too Had we lived when Saul was made King over Israel I know not but he might have been against him and I for him At Saul's death it is probable that he might have been for Saul's Son Ishbosheth and I for David At David's death he might have been for Adonijah and I for Solomon For Adonijahs Appearances are very taking he was the eldest Son then living of King David he was a goodly Personage and his Fathers Darling 1 Kings 1 6. Yet my Solomon reigned and the People obeyed with a very good Conscience and that though he himself was somewhat suspitious of his Title for he did not trust to his Anointing by King David's order but got himself to be made King a second time 1 Chron. 29. 22. But to go on Let us pass over the instances of Rehoboam and Jeroboam of Zimri and Omri and many others who gave occasions to like difficulties Suppose we had lived in the days when Jehu took possession of the Kingdom of Israel it is very possible that he might have been for Joram or Joram's Son or some of the Family of Ahab and it is as possible that I might have been for Jehu he for a King according to the modern Phrase de jure and I for a King de jure and de facto too For he was a Conqueror tho' not of the People neither he nor they ever thought so yet of the King he was and so if the Cause of the War was just his Title was certainly good Some think he was a Rebel I am not concerned to dispute that Point but if he were he came to the Throne in the same way that Jeroboam did who was the first beginner of that Kingdom and so could transmit to his Successors no more Title to the Regal Dignity than he had himself Be that as it will let my Adversary be for Joram or Joram's Son and I for Jehu he has the Point of Loyalty to a late King on his side and I the Point of Loyalty to my God on my side both great Pleas. But at such a time mine seems at least to me to be the better because there is something in Religion that tyes me faster to my God than any thing else can tye another to his Prince Now if an Ahab or a Joram will not only be disloyal to their God but require me and use all the Tricks and Slights in the World to gain me and the rest of the People to a like Disloyalty if he will daringly and boldly trample upon the Religion established by Law if he will require absolute Obedience and Obedience without Reserve and make his Will the Law and me without Law or pretence to Law his Slave Why must I in such a Case as this be against my God and against my self for one who has the Name of King but has thrown away from him all that which should and all that which can speak him in the Exercise of true Kingly Power over Israel I cannot tell but some may think me in the wrong for declaring to be for God and Jehu against Baal and Joram but if I am I may be rectified by being informed that either now there is or ever was such a man who could perswade himself that any one true Servant of the God of Israel in those days did not heartily close in with Jehu and submit to his Government or that any Worshipper of Baal who was so in reality did do it and then there could be no Grumbletonians in those days except the Halters those that were betwixt God and Baal and could be very indifferent whether they worshipped the one or the other Thus we must see that the things which are have been of old there are difficulties in human Affairs and men have had great Grounds to differ about the Subject of Regal Power and so about the Object of Non-resistance and that not only in Israel but as might be easily shewn among the Assyrians Persians Romans Britains English and very much in this Nation since the Norman Conquest Now this difficulty may be an Argument to move Men not to be over-positive in determining that Damnation in the strict sense shall be the Portion either of the one or the other in case he acts sincerely according to his best knowledge whether he stands up for his King or his God whether he stands to Defend a former King in the Rights he had or another who takes possession upon the supposition of a Desertion or a Conquest Whether he be willing to have continued or to have been made a Slave and lose his civil Rights and the Exercise of the true Religion or whether he had rather to have been made free and so let easily into his Rights by the Assistance of another who might justly do it and if he would might have left 'em in full enjoyment of their folly and misery Thirdly As to the Punishment here denounced by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Damnation whether nothing less can or ought to be understood by it but downright Hell or Eternity of Torments Here many things ought to be well weighed before we determin positively in so great a point As 1. That all Men agree that there are different Senses of this Word in Scripture 2. Commentators do much differ and contend about the true meaning of it in this place And tho' Dr. Hammond be resolute in this assertion yet by the multitude of Objections which in his Notes he labours to answer he shews that his Opinion was neither general nor clear 3. That as the Commentators differ so the interpreters seem somewhat to differ too For what is in King James's Translation shall receive to themselves Damnation is in the Bishops Bible Translated in Queen Elizabeth's time shall receive to themselves Judgment Some may think that both these words signify the same But if they cast an Eye upon another Text Rom. 5. 16. they will hardly do it for these we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that is rendred in the Bishops Translation for the fault came unto Condemnation but in King James's it is for the Judgment was to Condemnation Fault or Judgment here is not the same with Damnation or Condemnation but that which leads to it And if we look into 1 Tim. 5. 12. it will be worthy of a little remark That tho' the Translators differ in the former places yet they intirely agree to render here the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Damnation but if you look into St. Chrysostome and most of the old Writers and Dr. Hammond himself you will find that Hell-punishment is by no means to be understood in that Text.
which does not derive from the Text but from previous thoughts which Men have entertained concerning Slavery and Freedom As they are affected to the thing so they judge that they find Argument for it Now I for my part am for the later interpretation because I have a good Opinion of Liberty or Freedom but if another prefers slavery and thinks he has Argument from that Text to be a Slave let him be a Slave and let him enjoy his Opinion of the thing and of the Text too I shall not hinder him But I must say it would be an undecency in him to call my understanding into question for differing from him because I have the highest Probability the Concurrence of the Wisest and the best in all Ages on my side But yet this may be done because when Men leave common Sense and seek for extraordinary Notion they usually grow froward and troublesome Tacitus remarks in the 14th of his Annals that some who had got into their Heads that flight of the Stoicks That a Wise Man was a KING presently begun to be busy and medling and very scornful of others Ea male intellecta arrogantes faciebat turbidos It is pity that such little things should give disturbance to Kingdoms and Nations but it cannot be help't for it is Opinion that governs Men and it is not what is great but what is thought to be great that stirrs them A little before the fatal overthrow of Jerusalem there were many warm Persons in it who had their Heads full of Fancies and particular Notions and for the sake of them they could run upon the most desperate Enterprizes but they would not know the things that belonged to their Peace Pliny has a saying that has much puzzled Physicians and Criticks He says that Men die of Sapience or Wisdom per Sapientiam Mori The Physicians find no such Distemper in their Books but guess that he means a Phrensy Something there is that gets into Mens heads which seems to them that have it to be high Wisdom but to others a meer Phrensy which is extreamly mortal and pernicious Solomon so long ago advised properly against it and it were to be wish'd that his Councel might yet be taken He says Ecclesiastes 7. 16. Be not Righteous overmuch neither make thy self overwise why shouldest thou destroy thy self It is hard to think that Men should be either over-righteous or over-wise but if Men will affect impracticable Notions without sufficient Grounds and look upon them as their Righteousness or their Wisdom and that meerly because these are against themselves and destructive of themselves they may well enough be said to be over-righteous and over-wise Thirdly The Third thing to be spoken of is the Origination of Power and this is a Subject which I could willingly omit because I judge it for the Interest of a Nation both King and People that the People have as High and as Reverend Thoughts as they can both of their King and his Power Let them think that they have their King from God and that he has his Power from God and let him think so too all this tends to good because it will make him in the Exercise of his Power to Act in the fear of God and by vertue of that fear to abstain from wrong and to do Justice And it will awe the People with a dread of their King's Majesty and of their God's and so keep them from being froward and peevish mutinous and rebellious whilest they believe themselves in such actions not only to be offenders against the Law of the Land but sinners against the Will and Pleasure of God Upon this Account I could willingly chime in with the Compiler of this History and with him fault Hobbs and Milton and Doleman or Parsons and with him declare against those Doctrines That Power is originally in the Body of the People and that the Foundation of all Government is laid in compact as he says in his Preface And I could say with him in his conclusion pag. 132. That Power is only from God These may be allowed him or let pass without altercation so that Men use them according to their natural tendency for the Support of Righteousness Justice and Goodness But if these be used to dazzle and amuse People that others may have advantage to Rob and Spoil them If by vertue of these a passage is made to let in upon a Nation a lawless Power Wrong Injury and Tyranny If Law Religion common Sense must all be laid aside and one of the best framed Polities in the World must be subverted by ill consequences and forced Pleas deduced from these Doctrines we may certainly have Liberty to examin both the Principle and the Deductions we may consider what the one will bear and how the other is laid upon it If we must be Slaves it is all one to us whether we be made such in the way of Hobbs or of this Historian it is all one whether a King has his Power from God or from the People if he must be absolutely absolute and be obeyed without reserve without consideration of Law and Right And if a King must be a Monster altogether Arbitrary meer Will acting at pleasure without bounds or limits he may as well be made such by the People as by God and of the two the People are the more likely to make the Monster because God is always Wise and Good and all his Actions are Just and Right and therefore as there is more of God in Power there should be more of Goodness and Righteousness in the Exercise of it It seems therefore a Design ill laid to challenge for Princes an infinite Power of doing what they will without Check or Controul from National Constitutions because their Powers come from God or to be zealous to fetch all the Powers of Princes from God for this purpose that they may do evil things securely that they may do what they please right or wrong without danger or hazard without stop or lett If we believe the Apostle Rom. 13. The Powers that come from God and are ordained of God are not they cannot be a Terror to good Works but according to this way of discoursing they are as terrible to the good as to the bad and that for this Reason because they come from God Had Princes that singular Excellency of Nature which God has that they neither would nor could do evil they might then be allowed to act as he does according to the good pleasure of their Wills without Controul But if we assert that they may do evil they may oppress rob spoil kill murther and do all the base things which any other man can do for which they have no License or Power from God why may they not then have some stops from human Constitutions to lett and hinder them from doing those things which God never gave them power to do and to keep them in those Methods of acting which God