voluntary aspect information or commandement of the King but on that immediate subjection of their conscience to the King of Kings And their Iudgement which they execute is the Lords immediatly and not the Kings and so the comparison halteth Arg. Our 10th Arg. If the King dying the Iudges inferiour remaine powers from God the Deputies of the Lord of Hoasts having their power from God then are they essentially Iudges yea and if the estates in their prime representators and leaders have power in the death of the King to choose and make another King then are they not Iudges and Rulers by derivation and participation or unproperly but the King is rather the Ruler by derivation and participation then these who are called inferiour Iudges Now if these Iudges depend in their Sentences upon the immediat will of him who is supposed to be the only Iudge when this only Iudge dyeth they should cease to be Iudges for Expirante mandatore expirat mandatum because the Fountaine Iudge drying up the streames must dry up Now when Saul dyed the Princes of the Tribes remaine by Gods institution Princes and they by Gods Law and Warrant Deut. 17. choose David their King 11. If the King through absolute power doe not send inferiour Iudges and constitute them but only by a power from the people and if the Lord have no lesse immediate influence in making inferiour Iudges then in making Kings then is there no ground that the King should be sole Iudge and the inferiour Iudge only Iudge by derivation from him and essentially his Deputy and not the immediate Deputy of God But the former is true ergo so is the latter And first that the Kings absolute Will maketh not inferiour Iudges is cleare from Deut. 1. 15. Moses might not follow his owne will in making inferiour Iudges whom he pleased God tyed him to a Law v. 13. that he should take wise men known amongst the people and fearing God and hating covetousnesse And these qualifications were not from Moses but from God and no lesse immediatly from God then the inward qualification of a King Deut. 17. and therefore it is not Gods Law that the King may make inferiour Iudges only Durante beneplacito during his absolute will for if these Divine qualifications remaine in the seventy Elders Moses at his will could not remove them from their places 2. That the King can make heritable Iudges more then he can communicate faculties and parts of judging I doubt riches are of fathers but not promotion which is from God and neither from the East nor the West That our Nobles are borne Lords of Parliament and Iudges by blood is a positive Law 3. It seemeth to me from Esay 3. 1 2 3 4. that the inferiour Iudge is made by consent of the people nor can it be called a wronging of the King that all cities and Burroughs of Scotland and England have power to choose their owne Provests Rulers and Majors 4. If it be warranted by God that the lawfull Call of God to the Throne be the election of the people the call of inferiour Iudges must also be from the people mediatly or immediatly So I see no ground to say that the inferiour Iudge is the Kings Vicegerent or that he is in respect of the King or in relation to supreme Authority only a private man 12. These Iudges cannot but be univocally and essentially Iudges no lesse then the King without which in a Kingdome Iustice is Physically unpossible and Anarchie and violence and confusion must follow if they be wanting in the Kingdome But without inferiour Iudges though there be a King Iustice is Physically unpossible and Anarchie and confusion must follow c. Now this Argument is more considerable that without inferiour Iudges though there be a King in a Kingdome Iustice and safety are unpossible and if there be inferiour Iudges though there be no King as in Aristocracy and when the King is dead and another not Crowned or the King is Minor or absent or a captive in the enemies Land yet justice is possible and the Kingdome preserved the Medium of the Argument is grounded upon Gods Word Num. 11. 14 15. when Moses is unable alone to judge the people seventy Elders re-joyned with him 16. 17. so were the Elders adjoyned to helpe him Exo. 24. 1. Deut. 5. 23. c. 22. 16. Iosh 23. 2. Iudg. 8. 14. Iudg. 11. 5. Iudg. 11. â—â— 1 Sam. 11. 3. 1 King 20. 7. 2 King 6. 32. 2 Chro. 34. 29. Ruth 4. 4. Deut. 19. 12. Ezech. 8. 1 Lament 1. 19. then were the Elders of Moab thought they had a King 2. The end naturall of Iudges hath been indigence and weaknesse because men could not in a society defend themselves from violence therefore by the light of nature they gave their power to one or more and made a Iudge or Iudges to obtaine the end of selfe preservation But Nature useth the most efficacious meanes to obtaine its end but in a great society and Kingdome the end is more easily attained by many Governours then by one only for where there is but one he cannot minister Iustice to all and the farther that the children are removed from their father and tutor they are the nearer to violence and unjustice Iustice should be at as easie a rate to the poore as a draught of water Samuel went yearely through the Land to Bethell Gilgall Mizpeh 1 Sam. 7. 16. and brought Iustice to the doores of the poore So were our Kings of Scotland obliged to doe of old but now justice is as deare as gold it is not a good argument to prove inferior Iudges to be only Vicars and Deputies of the King because the King may censure and punish them when they pervert judgement 1. Because the King in that punisheth them not as Iudges but as men 2. That might prove all the Subjects to be Vicars and Deputies of the King because he can punish them all in the case of their breach of lawes QUEST XXI What power the People and States of Parliament have over the King and in the State IT is true the King is the head of the Kingdome but the States of the Kingdome are as the temples of the head and so as essentially parts of the head as the King is the crown of the head Assert 1. These Ordines Regni the States have been in famous Nations so there were fathers of families and Princes of Tribes amongst the Jewes The Ephori amongst the Lacedemonians Polyb. hist l. 6. The Senate amongst the Romanes The forum Superbiense amongst the Arragonians The Parliaments in Scotland England France Spaine 2 Sam. 3. 17. Abner communed with the Elders of Israel to bring the King home And there were Elders in Israel both in the time of the Judges and in the time of the Kings who did not only give advice and counsell to the Judges and Kings but also were Iudges no lesse then
1. 15 16 17. 2 Chron. 19. 6 7. made Iudges and therefore they are no more to be restrained not to conveene by the Kings power which is in this accumulative and auxiliarie not privative then they can be restrained in judgement and in pronouncing such a sentence as the King pleased and not such a sentence Because as they are to answer to God for unjust sentences so also for no just sentences and for not conveening to judge when Religion and Iustice which are fallen in the streets calleth for them 3. As God in a law of nature hath given to every man the keeping and selfe-preservation of himselfe and of his brother Caâ—n ought in his place to be the keeper of Abel his brother So hath God committed the keeping of the Commonwealth by a positive law not to the King only because that is impossible Num. 11. 14 17. 2 Chron. 19. 1 2 3 4 5 6. 1 Chron. 27. 4. If the King had such a power as King and so from God he should have power to breake up the meeting of all Courts of Parliament Secret Councell and all inferior Iudicatures And when the Congregation of gods as Ps 82. in the midst of which the Lord standeth were about to pronounce just judgement for the oppressed and poere they might be hindred by the King and so they should be as just as the King maketh them and might pervert judgement and take away the righteousnesse of the righteous from him Esa 5. 23. because the King commandeth And the cause of the poore should not come before the Iudge when the King so commandeth And shall it excuse the Estates to say We could not judge the cause of the poore nor crush the Priests of Baal and the idolatrous Masse-Preltes because the King forbad us So might the King breake up the meeting of the Lords of Session when they were to decerne that Naboths vineyard should be restored to him and hinder the States to represse Tyranny And this were as much as if the States should say We made this man our King and with our good will we agree he shall be a Tyrant For if God gave it to him as a King we are to consent that he enjoy it 5. If Barclay and other flatterers have leave to make the Parliament but Counsellers and Advisers of the King and the King to be the only and sole Iudge 1. The King is by that same reason the sole Iudge in relation to all Iudges the contrary whereof is cleere Num. 11. 16. Deut 1. 15 16 17. 2 Chron. 19. 6. Rom. 13. 1 2. 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. Yea but say they the King when he sendeth an Ambassadour he may tye him to a written Commission and in so far as he exceedeth that he is not an Ambassadour and cleare it is that all inferiour Iudges 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. are but sent by the King ergo they are so Iudges as they are but messengers and are to adhere to the Royall pleasure of the Prince that sent them Ans 1. The Ambassadour is not to accept an unjust Ambassage that fighteth with the Law of nature 2. The Ambassadour and the Iudge differ the Ambassadour is the King and States Deputy both in his call to the Ambassage and also in the matter of the Ambassage for which cause he is not to transgresse what is given to him in Writ as a Rule but the inferiour Iudges and the high Court of Parliament though they were the Kings Deputies as the Parliament is in no sort his Deputy but he their Deputy Royall yet it is only in respect of their call not in respect of the matter of their Commission for the King may send the Iudge to judge in generall according to the Law and Iustice and Religion but he cannot depute the sentence and command the conscience of the Judge to prononnce such a sentence not such the inferiour Iudge in the act of judging is as independent and his conscience as immediatly subject to God as the King therefore the King owes to every sentence his approbative suffrage as King but not his either directive suffrage nor his imperative suffrage of absolute pleasure 6. If the King should sell his Country and bring in a forraigne Army the estates are to convene to take course for the safety of the Kingdome 7. If David exhort the Princes of Israel to helpe King Solomon in governing the Kingdome in building the Temple 2 Chron. 32. 3. Ezechiah tooke counsell with his Princes and his mighty men in the matter of holding off the Assyrians who were to invade the Land if David 1 Chron. 13. 1 2 3 4. consult with the Captaines of thousands and hundreds to bring the Arke of God to Kireath jearim if Solomon 1 King 8. 1. Assemble the Elders of Israel and all the Heads of the Tribes and the chief of the fathers to bring the Arke of the Tabernacle to the congregation of the Lord. And Achab gather together the States of Israel in a matter that nearely concerned Religion If the Elders and people 1 King 20. 8. counsell and decree that King Achab should hearken to Benhadad King of Syria and if Ahasuerus make no Decrees but with consent of his Princes Ester 1. 21. nor Darius any Act without his Nobles and Princes if Hamor and Schechem Genes 34. 20. would not make a Covenant with Iacobs Sons without the consent of the men of the City and Ephron the Hittite would not sell Abraham a buriall place in his Land without the consent of the children of Heth Gen. 23. 10. Then must the estates have a power of judging with the King or Prince in matters of Religion Iustice and Government which concerne the whole Kingdome but the former is true by the Records of Scripture ergo so is the latter 8. The men of Ephraim complaine that Iephtah had gone to warre against the children of Ammon without them and hence rose warre betwixt the men of Ephraim and the men of Gilead Iud. 12. 1 2 3. and the men of Israel â—iercely contend with the men of Iudah because they brought King David home againe without them pleading that they were therein dispised 2 Sam. 19. 41 42 43. which evinceth that the whole States have hand in matters of publick government that concerne all the Kingdome and when there is no King Iudg. 20. The chiefe of the people and of all the Tribes goe out in battell against the children of Benjamin 9. These who make the King and so have power to unmake him in the case of Tyranny must be above the King in power of Government but the Elders and Princes made both David and Saul Kings 10. There is not any who say that the Princes and people 1 Sam. 14. did not right in rescuing innocent Ionathan from death against the Kings Will and his Law 11. The speciall ground of Royalists is to make the King the absolute supreame giving all life and
King not the people and the sense is The Kingdome is really some time in such a case that the Soveraigne must exercise an Arbitrary Power and not stand upon private mens interests or transgressing of Lawes made for the private good of individualls but for the preservation of it selfe and the publicke may break through all Lawes This he may in the case when suddaine forraine invasion threatneth ruine inevitably to King and Kingdome a Physitian may rather cut a Gangreened member then suffer the whole body to perish The Dictator in case of extreame dangers as Livie and Dion Halicarnass shew us had power according to his owne Arbitrament had a soveraigne Commission in peace and war of life death persons c. not co-ordinate not subordinate to any Ans It is not an Arbitrary power but naturally tyed and fettered to this same supreame Law Salus populi the safety of the people that a King breake through not the Law but the letter of the Law for the safety of the people as the Chyrurgion not by any prerogative that he hath above the Art of Chyrurgery but by necessity cutteth off a Gangreened member thus it s not Arbitrary to the King to save his people from ruine but by the strong and imperious Law of the peoples safety he doth it for if he did it not he were a murtherer of his people 2. He is to stand upon transgression of Lawes according to their genuine sense of the peoples safety for good Lawes are not contrary one to another though when he breaketh through the letter to the Law yet he breaketh not the Law for if twenty thousand Rebells invade Scotland he is to command all to rise though the formality of a Parliament cannot be had to indict the war as our Law provideth but the King doth not command all to rise and defend themselves by a Prerogative Royall proper to him as King and incommunicable to any but to himselfe 1. There is no such dinne and noise to be made for a King and his incommunicable Prerogative for though the King were not at all yea though he command the contrary as he did when he came against Scotland with an English Army the law of Nature teacheth all to rise without the King 2. That the King command this as King it is not a particular positive Law but he doth it as a man and a member of the Kingdom The law of Nature which knoweth no dreame of such a Prerogative forceth him to it as every member is by Natures indictment to care for the whole 3. It is poore hungry skill in this New Statist for so he nameth all Scotland to say that any Lawes are made for private interests and the good of some individuals Lawes are not Lawes if they be not made for the safetie of the people 4. It is false that the King in a publike danger is to care for himselfe as a man with the ruine and losse of any Yea in a publike calamitie a good King as David is to desire he may die that the Publique may bee saved 2 Samuel 24. 17. Exâ—dus 32. 32. It is commended of all that the Emperour Otho yea and Richard the 2. of England as M. Speed saith Hist of England p. 757. resigned their Kingdomes to eschew the effâ—sion of blood The Prelate adviseth the King to passe over all lawes of Nature and slay thousands of innocents and destroy Church and State of three Kingdomes for a straw and supposed Prerogative Royall Now certainly Prerogative and Absolutenes to doe good and ill must be inferior to a Law the end whereof is the safetie of the People For David willeth the pestilence may take him away and so his Prerogative that the People may be saved 2 Sam. 24. 17. for Prerogative is cumulative to doe good not privative to doe ill and so is but a meane to defend both the Law and the People 2. Prerogative is either a power to doe good or ill or both If the first be said it must be limited by the End and Law for which it is ordained A meane is no farther a meane but in so far as it conduceth to the end the safetie of all If the second be admitted It is Licence and Tyrannie not power from God If the third be said both reasons plead against this that Prerogative should be the Kings end in the present warres 3. Prerogative being a power given by the mediation of the people yea suppose which is false that it were given immediately of God yet it not a thing for which the King should raise war against his Subjects for God will aske no more of the King then he giveth to him The Lord reapeth not where he soweth not If the Militia and other things be ordered hitherto for the holding off Irish and Spanishe invasion by Sea and so for the good of the Land seeing the King in his own person cannot make use of the Militia he is to rejoyce that his Subjects are defended The King cannot answer to God for the justice of warre on his part It is not a case of conscience that the King should shed blood for to wit because the under-Officers are such men and not others of his choosing seeing the Kingdome is defended sufficiently except where Cavaliers destroy it And to me this is an unanswerable argument that the Cavaliers destroy not the Kingdomes for this Prerogative Royall as the principall ground but for a deeper designe even for that which was working by Prelates and Malignants before the late troubles in both Kingdomes 4. The King is to intend the safetie of his People and the safety of the King as a Governour but not as this King and this man Charles that is a selfe end a King David is not to looke to that for when the people was seeking his life and crown he saith Ps 3. 8. Thy blessing upon thy People He may care for and intend that the King and Government be safe for if the Kingdome be destroyed there cannot be a new Kingdome and Church on earth againe to serve God in that generation Psal 89. 47. but they may easily have a new King againe and so the safetie of the one cannot in reason be intended as a collaterall end with the safetie of the other for there is no imaginable comparison betwixt one man with all his accidents of Prerogative and Absolutenesse and three Nationall Churches and Kingdomes Better the King weep for a Childish triâ—le of a Prerogative than Poperie be erected and three Kingdomes be destroyed by Cavaliers for their own ends 5. The Dictators power is 1. a fact and proveth not a point of Conscience 2. His power was in an exigence of extreme danger of the Commonwealth The P. Prelate pleadeth for a constant absolutenesse above Lawes to the King at all times and that jure Divino 3. The Dictator was the Peoples creature ergo the Creator the People had that soveraigntie over him 4. The
praying and frequent advice and counsell from the whole Reformed Churches are to the P. P. a negative faith and devote imaginations it s a lye that Episcopacie by both sides was ever agreed on by Law in Scotland 39. And was it a heresie that M. Melvin taught that Presbyter and Bishop are one function in Scripture and that Abbots and Priors were not in Gods book dic ubi legis and is this a proof of inconsistency of Presbyteries with a Monarchie 40 It is a heresie to the P. P. that the Church appoynt a Fast when King James appoynted an unseasonable Feast when Gods wrath was upon the Land contrary to Gods word Esa 22. 12 13 14. and what will this prove Presbyteries to be inconsistent with Monarchies 41. This Assembly is to judge what Doctrine is treasonable what then Surely the secret Counsell and King in a constitute Church is not Synodically to determine what is true or false Doctrine more then the Roman Emperor could make the Church Canon Act. 15. 42. M. Gibson M. Black preached against King James his maintaining the Tyranny of Bishops his sympathizing with Papists and other crying sins and were absolved in a generall Assembly shal this make Presbyteries inconsistent with Monarchie Nay but it proveth only that they are inconsistent with the wickednesse of some Monarchies and that Prelates have been like the four hundred false prophets that â—lattered King Achab and these men that preached against the sins of the King and Court by Prelates in both Kingdomes have been imprisoned Banished their Noses ript their cheâ—ks burnt their eares cut 43. The Godly men that kept the Assembly of Aberdeen An. 1603. did stand for Christs Prerogative when K. James took away all generall Assemblies as the event proved and the King may with as good warrant inhibit all Assemblies for Word and Sacraments as for Church Discipline 44. They excommunicate not for light faults and trifles as the Lyar saith our Discipline saith the contrary 45. This Assembly never took on them to chose the Kings Counsellours but these who were in authority took K. James when he was a child out of the Company of a corrupt and seducing Papist Esme Duke of Lennox whom the P. P. nameth Noble Worthy of eminent indowments 46. It is true Glasgow Assembly 1637. voted down the High Commission because it was not consented unto by the Church and yet was a Church Judicature which took upon them to judge of the Doctrine of Ministers and deprive them and did incroach upon the Liberties of the established lawfull Church judicatures 47. This Assembly might well forbid M. John Graham Minister to make use of an unjust decree it being scandalous in a Minister to oppresse 48. Though Nobles Barons and Burgesses that professe the truth be Elders and so Members of the generall Assembly this is not to make the Church the House and the Common-wealth the Hangings for the constistuent Members we are content to be examined by the patern of Synods Act. 15. v. 22 23. Is this inconsistent with Monarchie 49. The Commissioners of the generall Assembly arâ— 1. A meer occasionall judicature 2. Appointed by and subordinate to the Generall Assembly 3. They have the same warrant of Gods Word that Messengers of the Synod Act. 15. v. 22. 27. hath 50. The historicall calumnie of the 17. day of December is known to all 1. That the Ministers had any purpose to dethrone King James and that they wrote to John L. Marquesse of Hamilton to be King because K. James had made defection from the true Religion Satan devised Spotswood and this P. P. vented this I hope the true history of this is known to all The holiest Pastors and professors in the Kingdom asserted this Government suffered for it contended with authority only for sin never for the power and Office These on the contrary side were men of another stamp who minded earthly things whose God was the world 2. All the forged inconsistency betwixt Presbyteries and Monarchies is an opposition with absolute Monarchie and concludeth with alike strength against Parliaments and all Synods of either side against the Law and Gospell preached to which Kings and Kingdoms are subordinate Lord establish Peace and Truth Farewell The Table of the Contents of the Book QUEST I. VVHether Government be by a divine Law Affirmed Pag. 1. How Government is from God Ibid. Civill Power in the Root immediately from God Pag. 2. QUEST II. Whether or no Goverment be warranted by the Law of nature Affirmed Ibid. Civil societie naturall in radice in the root voluntary in modo in the manner Ibid. Power of Government and Power of Government by such and such Magistrates different Pag. 2 3. Civil subjection not formally from natures Law Pag. 3. Our consent to Laws penal not antecedently naturall Ibid. Government by such Rulers a secondary Law of nature Ibid. Family Government and politike different Ibid. Government by Rulers a secondary Law of nature Family Government and Civil different Pag. 4. Civil Government by consequent naturall Pag. 5. QUEST III. Whether Royall Power and definite Forms of Government be from God Affirmed Ibid. That Kings are from God understood in a fourfold sense Pag. 5 6. The Royall Power hath warrant from divine institution Pag. 6. The three forms of Government not different in spece and nature P. 8. How every form is from God Ibid. How Government is an ordinance of man 1 Pet 2. 13. Pag. 8 9. QUEST IV. Whether or no the King be onely and immediately from God and not from the people Prius distinguitur posterius prâ—rsus Negatur pag. 5. How the King is from God how from the people Ibid. Royall Power three wayes in the people P. 6 10. How Royall Power is radically in the people P. 7. The people maketh the King Ibid. How any form of Government is from God P. 8. How Government is a humane ordinance 1 Pet. 2. 3. P. 8 9. The people creat the King P. 10 11. Making a King and choosing a King not to be distinguished P. 12 13. David not a King formally because anointed by God P. 14 15. QUEST V. Whether or no the P. P. proveth that Soveraignty is immediately from God not from the people p. 16. Kings made by the people though the Office in abstracto worâ— immediately from God P. 16. The people have a reall action more then approbation in making a King P. 19 Kinging of a person ascribed to the people P. 20. Kings in a speciall manner are from God but it followeth not Ergo not from the people P. 21. The place Prov. 8. 15. proveth not but Kings are made by the people P. 22 23. Nebuchadnezzar and other heathen Kings had no just Title before God to the Kingdom of Judah and divers other subdued Kingdoms P. 26 27. QUEST VI. Whether or no the King be so allanerly from both in regard of Soveraignty and Designation of his person as he is no wayes from the people
Babylon my servant and will set his throne upon these stones that I have hid and he shall spread his royall pavilion over them And thus God made him a Catholick King and gave him all Nations to serve him Jer. 27. 6 7 8. though he was but an unjust Tyrant and his sword the best title to those crownes 2. The King is said to be from God by way of naked approbation God giving to a people power to appoint what Government they shall thinke good but instituting none in speciall in his Word This way some make Kingly power to be from God in the generall but in the particular to be an invention of men negatively lawfull and not repugnant to the Word as the wretched Popish ceremonies are from God But we teach no such thing let Maxwell free his Master Bellarmine and other Iesuites with whom he sideth in Romish Doctrine we are free of this Bellarmine saith that politick power in generall is warranted by a Divine law but the particular formes of politick power he meaneth Monarchie with the first is not by Divine right but de jure gentium by the law of nations and floweth immediately from humane election as all things saith he that appertein to the law of Nations So Monarchie to Bellarmine is but an humane invention as Mr. Maxwell his Surplice is and D. Ferne sect 3. p. 13. saith with Bellarmine 3. A King is said to be from God by particular designation as he appointed Saul by name for the crown of Israel Of this hereafter 4. The Kingly or Royall office is from God by divine institution and not by naked approbation for first we may well prove Aarons Priesthood to be of divine institution because God doth appoint the Priests qualification from his familie bodily perfections and his charge And we take the Pastor to be by divine law and Gods institution because the Holy Ghost 1 Tim. 3. 1 2 3 4. describeth his qualification so may we say that the Royall power is by divine institution because God mouldeth him Deut. 17. 15. Thou shalt in any wise set him King over thee whom the Lord thy God shall choose one from amongst thy brethren c. Rom. 2 13. There is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained of God 3. That power must be ordained of God as his own ordinance to which we owe subjection for conscience and not only for feare of punishment but every power is such Rom. 13. 4. To resist the Kingly power is to resist God 5. He is the Minister of God for our good 6. He beareth the sword of God to take vengeance upon ill-doers 7. The Lord expresly saith 1 Pet. 2. 17. Feare God honour the King v. 13. Submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as supreme 14. or unto governours as unto those that are sent by him c. Tit. 3. Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers and so the fift Commandement layeth obedience to the King on us no lesse then to our parents Whence I conceive that power to be of God to which by the morall law of God we owe perpetuall subjection and obedience 8. Kings and all Magistrates are Gods and Gods deputies and lieutenants upon earth Ps 82. 1. 6 7. Exod. 22. 8. Exod. 4. 16. and therefore their Office must be a lawfull ordinance of God 9. By their Office they are feeders of the Lords people Ps 78. 70. 71. 72. the shields of the earth Ps 47. 9. nursing fathers of the Church Ps 49. 23. Captaines over the Lords people 1 Sam. 9. 19. 10. It is a great Iudgement of God when a Land wanteth the benefit of such ordinances of God Esay 3. 1 2. 3. 6 7. 11. The execution of their office is an act of the just Lord of heaven and earth not onely by permission but according to Gods revealed Will in his Word their judgement is not the judgement of men but of the Lord 2 Chron. 19. 6. and their Throne is the Throne of God 1 Chron. 19. 21. 12. Hiâ—rom saith to punish murtherers and sacrilegious persons is not bloud-shed but the ministery and service of good Lawes So if the King be a living law by Office and the law put in execution which God hath commanded then as the Morall Law is by divine institution so must the Officer of God be who is Custos vindex legis divinae the keeper preserver and avenger of Gods Law and Basilius this is the Princes Office Vt opem â—erat virtuti malitiam vero impugnet when Paulinus Treverensis Lucifer Metropolitane of Sardinia Dionysius Mediolanensis and other Bishops were commanded by Constantine to write against Athanasius they answered Regnum non ipsius esse sed dei aquo acceperit the Kingdom was Gods not his as Athanasius saith Optatus Milevitanus helpeth us in the cause where he saith with Paul VVe are to pray for heathen Kings The genuine end of the Magistrate saith Epiphanius is ut ad bonum ordinem universitatis mundi omnia ex deo bene disponantur atque administrentur But some object if the Kingly Power be of divine institution then shall any other government be unlawfull and contrary to a divine institution and so we condemne Aristocracy and Democracy as unlawfull Ans This consequence were good if Aristocracy and Democracy were not also of divine institution as all my arguments prove for I judge they are not Governments different in nature if we speake Morally and Theologically onely they differ politically and positively nor is Aristocracy any thing but diffused and inlarged Monarchy and Monarchy is nothing but contracted Aristocracy even as it is the same hand when the thumb and the foure fingers are folded together and when all the five fingers are dilated and stretched out and where ever God appointed a King he never appointed him absolute and a sole independent Angell but joyned alwaies with him Iudges who were no lesse to judge according to the Law of God 2 Chron. 19. 6. then the King Deut. 17. v. 15. And in an obligation morall of judging righteously the conscience of the Monarch and the conscience of the inferiour Iudges are equally with an immediate subjection under the King of Kings for there is here a co-ordination of consciences and no subordination for it is not in the power of the inferiour Iudge to judge Quoad specificationem as the King commandeth him because the judgement is neither the Kings nor any mortall mans but the Lords 2 Chronicles 19. 6 7. Hence all the three formes are from God but let no man say if they be all indifferent and equally of God societies and Kingdomes are left in the dark and know not which of the three they shall pitch upon because God hath given to them no speciall direction for one rather than for another But this is easily answered that a
republick appoint Rulers to governe them is not an action indifferent but a Morall action because to set no Rulers over themselves I conceive were a breach of the fift Commandement which commandeth government to be one or other 2. It is not in mens free will that they have government or no government because it is not in their free will to obey or not to obey the acts of the Court of nature which is Gods Court and this Court enacteth that societies suffer not mankind to perish which must necessarily follow if they appoint no government also it is proved else where that no Morall acts in their exercises and use are left indifferent to us so then the aptitude and temper of every Common-wealth to Monarchy rather then to Democracy or Aristocracy is Gods Warrant and nearest call to determine the wills and liberty of people to pitch upon a Monarchy Hic nunc rather then any other forme of Government though all the three be from God even as single life and Marriage are both the lawfull Ordinances of God and the constitution and temper of the body is a calling to either of the two nor are we to think that Aristocracy and Democracy are either unlawfull Ordinances or mens inventions or that those societies which want Monarchy doe therefore live in sins But some say that Peter calleth any form of Government an humane Ordinance 1 Pet. 2. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore Monarchy can be no Ordinance of God Answ Rivetus It is called an Ordinance of man not because it is an invention of man and not an Ordinance of God but respectu subjecti Piscator Not because man is the efficient cause of Magistracie but because they are men who are Magistrates Diodatus Obey Princes and Magistrates or Governours made by men or amongst men Oecumenius an humane constitution because it is made by an humane disposition and created by humane suffrages Dydimus presides presidents made by men Cajetanus Estius Every creature of God as Preach the Gospel to every creature in authority But I take the word every creature of man to be put 1. Emphatically to commend the worth of obedience to Magistrates though but men when we do it for the Lords sake Therefore Betrandus Cardinalis Ednâ—â—sis saith he speaketh so for the more necessity of merit and Glossa Ordinaria saith Be subject to all powers Etiam ex infidelibus incredulis Even of infidels and unbeleevers Lyranus For though they be men the image of God shineth in them and the Syriack as Lorinus saith leadeth us thereunto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lechullechum benai anasa Obey all the children of men that are in authority 2. It is an Ordinance of men not effectively as if it were an invention and a dream of men But 2. subjectively because exercised by man 3. Objectively and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the good of men and for the externall mans peace and safety especially Whereas Church-Officers are for the spirituall good of mens souls And Durandus saith well Civill power according to its institution is of God and according to its acquisition and way of use it s of man And we may thus farre call the forms of Magistrates an humane Ordinance That some Magistrates are ordained to care for mens lives and matters criminall of life and death and some for mens Lands and estates some for commodities by Sea and some by Land and Magistrates according to these Determinations or humane Ordinances QUEST IIII. Whether the king be only and imediatly from God not from the people THat this question may be the clearer we are to set down these Considerations 1. The question is Whether the Kingly Office it self come from God I conceive it is and floweth from the people not by formall institution as if the people had by an act of reason devised and excogitated such a power God ordained the power it is from the people onely by a virtuall emanation in respect that a community having no Government at all may ordain a King or appoint an Aristocracie But the question is concerning the designation of the person Whence is it that this man rather then this man is crowned King and whence is it from God immediatly and onely that this man rather then this man and this race or family rather then that race and family is chosen for the Crowne or is it from the people also and their free choise for the Pastor and the Doctors Office is from Christ onely but that Iohn rather then Thomas be the Doctor or the Pastor is from the will and choice of men the Presbyters and people 2. The Royall power is three wayes in the people 1. Radically and virtually as in the first subject 2. Collativè vel communicativè by way of free donation they giving it to this man not to this man that he may â—ule over them 3. Limitatè They giving it so as these three acts remain with the people 1. That they may measure ouâ— by ounce weights so much Royall power and no more and no lesse 2. So as they mâ—y lâ—â—◠〈…〉 and set banks and marches to the â—xccrcâ—â— 3. That â—â—y give it ouâ— conditionatè upon this and this condition that tâ—â—y take again to themselves what they gave ouâ— upon condition â—â—â—â—â— condition be violated The first I conceive is cleere 1. 〈…〉 â—â— every â—â—ing creature have radically in them a power of 〈…〉 â—o defend themselves from violence as we see Lyons have 〈…〉 soâ—â— beasts have hornes some clawes men being reasonable creatures united in societie must have power in a more reasonable and honorable way to put this power of warding off violence in the hands of one or moe Rulers to defend themselves by Magistrates 2. If all men be borne as concerning civill power alike for no man commeth out of the wombe with a Diadem on his head or a Scepter in his hand and yet men united in a societie may give crown and scepter to this man and not to this man then this power was in this united societie but it was not in them formally for they should then all have been one King and so both above and superiour and below and inferiour to themselves which we cannot say therefore this power must have been virtually in them because neither man nor communitie of men can give that which they neither have formally nor virtually in them 3. Royalists cannot deny but Cities have power to choose and create inferiour Magistrates ergo many Cities united have power to create an higher Ruler for Royall power is but the united and superlative power of inferiour Judges in one greater Judge whom they call a King 2 Conclus The power of creating a man a King is from the people 1. Because those who may create this man a King rather then this man they have power to appoint a
disposed of by the composed contracts of men but by the immediate hand and worke of God Hos 13. 11. I gave them a King in my anger I tooke him away in my wrath Iob He places Kings in the throne c. Ans Here is a whole Chapter of seven pages for one raw argument ten times before repeated 1. to Exod. 9. 7. I have raised up Pharaoh Paul expoundeth it Rom. 9. to prove that King Pharaoh was a vessell of wrath fitted for destruction by Gods absolute Will and the Prelate following Arminius with treasonable charity applyeth this to our King Can this man pray for the King 2. Elisha anoynted but constituted not Hazael King and foretold he should be King and if he be a King of Gods making who slew his sicke Prince and invaded the Throne by innocent bloud judge you I would not take Kings of the Prelates making 3. If God give to Nebuchadnezer the same still of the servant of God given to David Ps 18. 1. 116. 16. and to Moses Ios 1 2. all Kings because Kings are men according to Gods heart Why is not royalty then founded on grace Nebuchadnezer was not otherwise his servant then he was the hammer of the earth and a tyrannous conquerour of the Lords people and all the Heathen Kings are called Kings But how came they to their Thrones for the most part as David and Hezekiah but God anointed them not by his Prophets they came to their Kingdomes by the peoples election or by blood and rapine the latter way is no ground to you to deny Athaliah to be a lawfull Princesse she and Abimelech were lawfull Princes and their soveraignty as immediatly and independently from God as the soveraignty of many heathen Kings See then how justly Athaliah was killed as a bloody usurper of the throne this would licence your brethren the Iesuites to stab heathen Kings whom you will have as well Kings as the Lords anointed though Nebuchadnezer many of them made their way to the Throne against all Law of God and man through a bloudy patent 4. Cyrus is Gods anointed and his Shepheard too ergo his Arbitrary government is a soveraignty immediatly depending on God and above all Law it is a wicked consequence 5. God named him neare a hundreth yeare ere he was borne God named and designed Judas very individually and named the Asse that Christ should ride on to Ierusalem Zach. 9. 9. some moe hundred yeares then one What will the Prelate make them independent Kings for that 6. God giveth Kingdomes to whom he will What then this will prove Kingdomes to be as independent and immediatly from God as Kings are for as God giveth Kings to Kingdomes so he giveth Kingdomes to Kings and no doubt he giveth Kingdoms to whom he will so he giveth Prophets Apostles Pastors to whom he will and he giveth tyrannous conquests to whom he will and it is Nebuchadnezer to whom Daniel speaketh that from the Lord and he had no just title to many Kingdomes especially to the Kingdome of Iudah which yet God the King of Kings gave to him because it was his good pleasure and if God had not commanded them by the mouth of his Prophet Ieremiah might they not have risen and with the sword have vindicated themselves and their own liberty no lesse then they lawfully by the sword vindicated themselves from under Moab Iudges 3. from under Iabin Iaakin King of Canaan who twenty yeares mightily oppressed the children of Israel Iudges 4. now this P. Prelate by all these instances making Heathen Kings to be Kings by as good a title as David and Hezekiah condemneth the people of God as rebells if being subdued and conquered by the Turke and Spanish King they should by the sword recover their owne liberty and that Israel and the saviours which God raised to them had not warrant from the law of nature to vindicate themselves to liberty which was taken from them violently and unjustly by the sword but from all this it shall well follow that the tyranny of bloudy conquerours is immediatly and only dependent from God no lesse then lawfull soveraignty for Nebuchadnezers soveraignty over the people of God and many other Kingdomes also was revenged of God as tyranny Ier. 50. 6. 7. and therefore the vengeance of the Lord and the vengeance of his Temple came upon him and his land Ier. 50. 16 17. 18. 28 29. 30. It is true the people of God were commanded of God to submit to the King of Babylon to serve him and to pray for him and to doe on the contrary was rebellion but this was not because the King of Babylon was their King and because the King of Babylon had a command of God so to bring under his yoak the people of God So Christ had a Commandement to suffer the death of the Crosse Iohn 10. 18. but had Herod and Pilate any warrant to crucifie him none at all 7. He saith Royalties even of Heathen Kings are not disposed of by the composed Contracts of men but by the immediate hand and worke of God But the Contracts of men to give a Kingdome to a person which a Heathen community may lawfully doe and so by contract dispose of a Kingdom is not opposite to the immediate hand of God appointing Royalty and Monarchy at his owne blessed liberty Lastly he saith God tooke away Saul in his wrath but I pray you did God onely doe it then had Saul because a King a Patent Royall from God to kill himselfe for so God tooke him away and we are rebells by this if we suffer not the King to kill himselfe Well pleaded QUEST VI. Whether the King be so from God onely both in regard of his Soveraignty and of the designation of his person to the Crown as that he is no waies from the people but by meere approbation Dr. Ferne a man much for Monarchy saith Though Monarchy hath its excellency being first set up of God in Moses yet neither Monarchy Aristocracy nor any other forme is jure divino but we say saith he the power it selfe or that sufficiency of authority to governe that is in a Monarchy or Aristocracy abstractly considered from the qualification of other formes is a flux and constitution subordinate to that providence an ordinance of that Dixi or silent word by which the world was made and shall be governed under God This is a great debasing of the Lords anoynted for so soveraignty hath no warrant in Gods Word formally as it is such a government but is in the world by providence as sin is and as the falling of a Sparrow to the ground whereas Gods Word hath not onely commanded that government should be but that fathers and mothers should be 2. and not only that politick Rulers should be but also Kings by name and other Iudges Aristocraticall should be Rom. 13. 3. Deut. 17. 14. 1 Pet. 2. 17. Prov. 24. 21. Prov. 15. 16. 3. If
Jepthah a bastard and the sonne of an harlot should be Iudge as that Gideon should be Iudge God vindicateth to himselfe that he giveth his people favour in the eyes of their enemies but doth it follow that the enemies are not agents and to be commended for their humanitie in favouring the people of God So Psal 65. 9 10. God maketh corne to grow therefore clouds and earth and sun and summer and husbandry contributeth nothing to the growing of corne But this is but that which he said before We grant that this is an eminent and singular act of Gods speciall providence that he moveth and boweth the wills of a great multitude to promote such a man who by nature commeth no more out of the wombe a crowned King then the poorest shepherd in the land and it is an act of grace to endue him with heroick and royall parts for the government But what is all this doth it exclude the peoples consent in no wayes So the works of supernaturall grace as to love Christ above all things to beleeve in Christ in a singular manner are ascribed to the rich grace of God but can the Prelate say that the understanding and will in these acts are meere patients and contribute no more then the people contributeth to Royall authority in the King and that is just nothing by the Prelates way And we utterly deny that as water in baptisme hath no action at all in the working of remission of sinnes so the people hath no influence in making a King for the people are worthier more excellent then the King and they have an active power of ruling and directing themselves toward the intrinfecall end of humane policie which is the externall safety and peace of a societie in so far as there are morall principles of the Second Table for this effect written in their heart and therefore that royall authoritie which by Gods speciall providence is united in one King and as it were over-gilded and lustered with Princely grace and royall endowments is diffused in the people for the people hath an after-approbative consent in making a King as Royalists confesse water hath no such action in producing grace QUEST IX Whether or no Soveraigntie is so from the people that it remaineth in them in some part so as they may in case of necessitie resume it THe Prelate will have it Babylonish confusion that we are divided in opinion Jesuites saith he place all Soveraigntie in the communitie Of the Sectaries some warrant any one subject to make away his King and that such a worke is no lesse to be rewarded then when one killeth a wolfe Some say this power is in the whole Communitie some will have it in the collective body not conveened by warrant or writ of Soveraignty but when necessitie which is often fancied of reforming State and Church calleth them together Some in the Nobles and Peeres some in the three Estates assembled by the Kings writ some in the inferour Iudges I answer If the Prelate were not a Iesuite himselfe he would not bid his brethren take the mote out of their eye but there is nothing here said but which Barclaius said better before this Plagarius To which I answer We teach that any private man may kill a a Tyrant voyd of all title and a great Royalist Barclaius saith so also And if he have not the consent of the people he is an usurper for we know no externall lawfull calling that Kings have now or their familie to the Crown but only the call of the people all other calls to us are now invisible and unknown and God would not command us to obey Kings and leave us in the darke that we shall not know who is the King the Prelate placeth his lawfull calling to the Crown in such an immediate invisible and subtile act of omnipotencie as that whereby God conferreth remission of sinnes by sprinkling with water in baptisme and that whereby God directed Samuel to annoint Saul and David not Eliab nor any other brother It is the Devill in the P. P. not any of us who teach that any private man may kill a lawfull King though tyrannous in his government For the subject of Royall power we affirme the first and ultimate and native subject of all power is the Communitie as reasonable men naturally inclining to a societie but the ethicall and politicall subject or the legall and positive receptacle of this power is various according to the various constitutions of the policie In Scotland and England it is the three Estates of Parliament in other Nations some other Iudges or Peeres of the Land The Prelate had no more common sense for him to object a confusion of opinions to us for this then to all the Common-wealths on earth because all have not Parliaments as Scotland hath all have not Constables and Officials and Churchmen Barons Lords of Councell Parliaments c. as England had But the truth is the Communitie orderly conveened as it includeth all the Estates civill have hand and are to act in choosing their Rulers I see not what priviledge Nobles have above Commons in a Court of Parliament by Gods law but as they are Iudges all are equally Iudges and all make up one congregation of Gods But the question now is if all power of governing the Prelate to make all the people Kings saith if all Soveraignty be so in the people that they retaine power to guard themselves against Tyranny And if they reteine some of it habitu in habit and in their power I am not now unseasonably according to the Prelates order to dispute of the power of lawfull defence against tyranny but I lay down this maxime of Divinitie Tyranny being a worke of Sathan is not from God because sinne either habituall or actuall is not from God the power that is must be from God the Magistrate as Magistrate is good in nature of office and the intrinsecall end of his office Rom. 13. 4. for he is the Minister of God for thy good and therefore a power ethicall politick or morall to oppresse is not from God and is not a power but a licentious deviation of a power and is no more from God but from sinfull nature and the old serpent then a license to sinne God in Christ giveth pardons of sinne but the Pope not God giveth dispensations to sinne 2. To this adde If for nature to defend it selfe be lawfull no Communitie without sin hath power to alienate and give away this power for as no power given to man to murther his brother is of God so no power to suffer his brother to be murthered is of God and no power to suffer himselfe à fortiori far lesse can be from God Here I speake not of physicall power for if free will be the creature of God a physicall power to acts which in relation to Gods law are sinfull must be from God But I now follow
say God the King of Kings who immediately maketh Kings may and doth transferre Kingdomes to whom he will and when he putteth the sword in Nebuchadnezers hand to conquer the King and Kingdome of Iudah then Zedikiah or his sonne is not King of Iudah but Nebuchadnezer is King and God being above his Law speaketh in that case his Will by conquests as before he spake his Will by birth this is all can be said Ans They answer black treason in saying so for if Ieremiah from the Lord had not commanded expresly that both the King and Kingdome of Judah should submit to the King of Babylon and serve him and pray for him as their lawfull King it had been as lawfull to them to rebell against that Tyrant as it was for them to fight against the Philistimes and the King of Ammon but if birth be the just and lawfull title in foro Dei in Gods Court and the only thing that evidenceth Gods Will without any election of the people that the first borne of such a King is their lawfull King then conquests cannot now speake a contrardictory Will of God for the question is not whether or not God giveth power to Tyrants to conquer Kingdomes from the just Heires of Kings which did raigne lawfully before their sword made an empty Throne But whether conquest now when Jeremiahs are not sent immediatly from God to command for example Britaine to submit to a violent intruder who hath expelled the lawfull Heires of the royall Line of the King of Britaine whether I say doth conquest in such a violent way speake that it is Gods revealed Will called Voluntas signi the will that is to rule us in all our Morall duties to cast off the just Heires of the blood Royall and to sweare homage to a conquerour and so as that conquerour now hath as just right as the King of Britaine had by birth This cannot be taken off by the wit of any who 1. maintaine that conquest is a lawfull title to a Crowne and 2. that royall birth without the people election speaketh Gods regulating Will in his Word that the first borne of a King is a lawfull King by birth for God now a daies doth not say the contrary of what he revealed in his Word If birth be Gods regulating Will that the Heire of the King is in Gods Court a King no act of the conquerour can anull that Word of God to us and the people may not lawfully though they were ten times subdued sweare homage and allegiance to a conquerour against the due right of birth which by Royalists Doctrine revealeth to us the plaine contradictory Will of God It is I grant often Gods Decree revealed by the event that a conquerour be on the Throne but this Will is not our rule and the people are to sweare no Oath of Allegiance contrary to Gods Voluntas signi which is his revealed Will in his Word regulating us 4. Things transferrible and communicable by birth from father to sonne are onely in Law those which Heathen call bona fortunae riches as lands houses monies and heritages and so saith the Law also These things which essentially include gifts of the mind and honour properly so called I meane honour founded on vertue as Aristotle with good reason maketh honour praeminum virtuâ—is cannot be communicated by birth from the father to the sonne for royall dignity includeth these three constituent parts essentially of which none can be communicable by birth 1. The royall faculty of governing which is a speciall gift of God above nature is from God Solomon asked it from God and had it not by generation from his father David 2. The royall honour to be set above the people because of this royall vertue is not from the wombe for then Gods spirit would not have said Blessed art thou O Land when thy King is the sonne of Nobles Eccles 10. 17. this honour springing from vertue is not borne with any man noâ— is any man borne with either the gift or honour to be a Iudge God maketh high and low not birth Nobles are borne to great estates if judging be heritage to any it is a municipall positive law I now speake in point of conscience 3. The externall lawfull title before men come to a Crowne must be Gods Will revealed by such an externall signe as by Gods appointment and warrant is to regulate our will but according to Scripture nothing regulateth our will and leadeth the people now that they cannot erre following Gods rule in making a King but the free suffrages of the States choosing a man whom they conceive God hath endued with these royall gifts required in the King whom God holdeth forth to them in his Word Deut. 17. now there be but these to regulate the people or to be a rule to any man to ascend lawfully in foro Dei in Gods Court to the Throne 1. Gods immediate designation of a man by Propheticall and Divinely inspired unction as Samuel annoynted Saul and David this we are not to expect now nor can Royalists say it 2. Conquest seeing it is an act of violence and Gods revenging Justice for the sinnes of a people cannot give in Gods Court such a just title to the Throne as the people are to submit their consciences unto except God reveale his regulating will by some immediate voice from Heaven as he commanded Iudah to submit to Nebuchadnezer as to their King by the mouth of Ieremiah now this is not a rule to us for then if the Spanish King should invade this Iland and as Nebuchadnezer did deface the Temple and instruments and meanes of Gods Worship and abolish the true worship of God it should be unlawfull to resist him after he had once conquered the Iland neither Gods Word nor the Law of nature could permit this I suppose even by grant of adversaries now no act of violence done to a people though in Gods Court they have deserved it can be a testification to us of Gods regulating Will except it have some warrant from the Law and testimony it is no rule to our conscience to acknowledge him a lawfull Magistrate whose sole law to the Throne is an act of the bloody instrument of divine wrath I meane the sword That therefore Iudah was to submit according to Gods Word to Nebuchadnezer whose conscience and best warranted calling to the Kingdome of Judah was his bloody sword even if we suppose Ieremiah had not commanded them to submit to the King of Babylon I thinke cannot be said 3. Naked birth cannot be this externall signification of Gods regulating Will to warrant the conscience of any to ascend to the Throne for the Authors of this opinion make royall birth equivalent to divine unction for David anoynted by Samuel and so anoynted by God is not King Saul remained the Lords anoynted many yeares not David even anoynted by God the peoples making him King at Hebron
founded upon divine unction was not the only externall lawfull calling that we read of that David had to the Throne then royall birth because it is but equivalent only to divine unction not superiour to divine unction it cannot have more force to make a King then divine unction And if birth was equivalent to divine unction what needed Ioash who had royall birth be made King by the people and what needed Saul and David who had more then royall birth even divine unction be made Kings by the people and Saul having the vocall and infallible testimony of a Prophet needed not the peoples election the one at Mizpeh and Gilgall and the other at Hebron 5. If royall birth be as just a title to the Crowne as divine unction and so as the peoples election is no title at all then is it unlawfull that there should be a King by election in the world now but the latter is absurd so is the former I prove the Proposition because where conquerours are wanting and there is no King for the present but the people governing and so much confusion aboundeth they cannot lawfully appoint a King for his lawfull title before God must either be conquest which to me is no title and here and in this case there is no conquest or if the title must be a Propheticall word immediatly inspired by God but this is now ceased or thirdly the title must be royal birth but here there is no royall birth because the government is popular except you imagine that the society is obliged in conscience to goe and seek the sonne of a forraine King to be their King But I hope that such a royall birth should not be a just title before God to make him King of that society to which he had no relation at all but is a meere stranger Hence in this case no title could be given to any man to make him King but onely the peoples election which is that which we say And it is most unreasonable that a people under popular Government cannot lawfully choose a King to themselves seeing a King is a lawfull Magistrate and warranted by Gods Word because they have not a King of royall birth to sit upon the throne Mr. Symmons saith that birth is the best title to the Crowne because after the first of the family had been anoynted unction was no more used in that family unlesse there arose a strife about the Kingdome as betwixt Solomon and Adonijah Ioash and Athalia the eldest sonne of the predâ—cessor was afterward the chosen of the Lord his birth-right spake the Lords appointment as plainly as his fathers unction Ans It is a conjecture that unction was not used in the family after the first unction except the contest was betwixt two Brethren that is said not proved for a King 23. 30. when good Iosiah was killed and there was no contest concerning the Throne of that beloved Prince the people of the Land took Iehoahaz his son and anointed him and made him King in his fathers stead and the Priests were anointed Levit. 6. 22. yea all the Priests were anointed Num. 3. 8. yet read we not in the History where this or this man was anointed 2. In that Adonijah Solomons elder Brother was not King it is clear That Gods anointing and the peoples electing made the right to the Crown and not birth 3. Birth de facto did design the man because of Gods speciall promises to Davids house but how doth a typicall discent made to David and some others by Gods speciall promise prove that birth is the birth-right and lawfull call of God to a Crown in all after ages For as gifts to reign goeth not by birth so neither doth Gods title to a Crown go M. Symons A Prince once possessed of a Kingdome coming to him by inheritance can never by any upon any occasion be dispossessed thereof without horrible impietie and unjustice Royall unction was an indeloble Character of old Saul remained the Lords anointed till the last gaspe David durst not take the right of Government actually into him although he had it in reversion being already anointed thereunto and had received the spirit thereof Answ That is the question If a Prince once a Prince by inheritance cannot be dispossessed thereof without unjustice For if a Kingdom be his by birth as an inheritance transmitted from the father to the son I see not but any man upon necessary occasions may sell his inheritance but if a Prince sell his Kingdom a very Barelay and an Hug. Grotius with reason will say he may be dispossessed and dethroned and take up his indeleble Character then 2. A Kingdom is not the Princes own so as it is unjustice to take it from him as to take a mans purse from him the Lords Church in a Christian Kingdom is Gods heritage and the King onely a shepheard and the sheep in the court of conscience are not his 3. Royall unction is not an indeleble Character for neither Saul nor David were all their dayes Kings thereby but lived many dayes private men after divine unction while the people anointed them Kings except you say 1. That there were two Kings at once in Israel 2. And that Saul killing David should have killed his own Lord and his anointed 4. If David durst not take the right of Government actually on him then divine unction made him not King but onely designed him to be King the peoples election must make the King M. Symons addeth He that is born a King and a Prince can never be unborn Semel Augustus semper Augustus yea I beleeve the eldest son of such a King is in respect of birth the Lords anointed in his fathers life time even as David was before Sauls death and to deprive him of his right of reversion is as true unjustice as to dispossesse him of it Answ It is proper onely to Jesus Christ to be born a King sure I am No man bringeth out of the womb with him a Scepter and a Crown on his head Divine unction giveth a right infallibly to a Crown but birth doth not so for one may be born here to a Crown as was hopefull Prince Henry and yet never live to be King The eldest son of a King if he attempt to kill his father as Absolom did and raise forces against the lawfull Prince I conceive he may be killed in battell without any unjustice 2. If in his fathers time he be the Lords anointed there be two Kings and the heir may have a son and so there shall be three Kings possibly four all Kings by divine right The Prelate of Rochester saith The people and nobles give no right to him who is born a King they onely declare his right Answ This is said not proved A man born for an inheritance is by birth an heir because he is not born for these Lands as a mean for the end but by the contrary these Lands
Assert Meere conquest by the sword without the consent of the people is no just title to the Crowne 1. Because the lawfull title that Gods Word holdeth forth to us beside the Lords choosing and calling of a man to the Crowne is the peoples election Deut. 17. 15. all that had any lawfull calling to the Crowne in Gods Word as Saul David Solomon c. were called by the people and the first lawfull calling is to us a rule and paterne to all lawfull callings 2. A King as a King and by vertue of his Royall Office is the Father of the Kingdome a Tutor a Defender Protector a Shield a Leader a Shepheard an Husband a Patron a Watchman a Keeper of the people over which he is King and so the Office essentially includeth acts of fatherly affection care love and kindnesse to those over whom he is set so as he who is cloathed with all these relations of love to the people cannot exercise those officiall Acts on a people against their will and by meere violence Can he be a Father and a Guide a Patron to us against our will and by the sole power of the bloudy sword a benefit conferred upon any against their will is no benefit Will he by the awsome dominion of the sword be our father and we unwilling to be his sonnes an head over such as will not be menbers will he guide me as a Father an Husband against my will he cannot come by meere violence to be a Patton a Shield and a defender of me through violence 3. It is not to be thought that that is Gods just Title to a Crowne which hath nothing in it of the essence of a King but a violent and bloody purchase which is in its prevalency in an oppressing Nymrod and the cruellest tyrant that is hath nothing essentiall to that which constituteth a King for it hath nothing of Heroick and Royall wisedome and gifts to governe and nothing of Gods approving and regulating will which must be manifested to any who would be a King but by the contrary cruelty hath rather basenesse and witlesse fury and a plaine reluctancy with Gods revealing Will which forbideth murther Gods Law should say Murther thou and prosper and raigne and by the act of violating the sixt Commandement God should declare his approving Will to wit his lawfull call to a Throne 4. There be none under a Law of God who may resist a lawfull call to a lawfull Office but men may resist any impulsion of God stirring them up to murther the maniest and strongest and cheife men of a Kingdome that they may raigne over the fewest the weakest and the young and lowest of the people against their will therefore this call by the sword is not lawfull If it be said that the Divine impulsion stirring up a man to make a bloody conquest that the ire and just indignation of God in Iustice may be declared on a wicked Nation is an extraordinary impulsion of God who is above a Law and therefore no man may resist it Ans then all bloody Conquerors must have some extraordinary revelation from Heaven to warrant their yeelding of obedience to such an extraordinary impulsion And if it be so They must shew a lawfull and immediate extraordinary impulsion now but it is certaine the sinnes of the people conquered and their most equall and just demerit before God cannot be a just plea to legitimate the Conquest for though the people of God deserved vastation and captivitie by the Heathen in regard of their sinnes before the throne of Divine Iustice yet the Heathen grievously sinned in conquering them Zach. 1. 15. And I am very sore displeased with the Heathen that are at ease for I was but a little displeased and they helped forward the affliction So though Iudah deserved to be made captives and a conquered people because of their idolatry and other sinnes as Ieremiah had prophecied yet God was highly displeased at Babylon for their unjust and bloody Coneuest Jer. 50. 17 18 33 34. c. 51. 35. The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon shall the inhabitants of Zion say and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea shall Jerusalem say And that any other extraordinary impulsion to be as lawfull a call to the Throne as the peoples free election we know not from Gods word and we have but the naked word of our Adversaries that William the Conquerour without the peoples consent made himselfe by blood the lawfull King of England and also of all their posteritie And that King Fergus conquered Scotland 5. A King is a speciall gift of God given to feed and defend the people of God that they may lead a godly and peaceable life under him Isal 78. v. 71 72. 1 Tim. 2. 2. as it is a judgement of God that Israel's without a King for many dayes Hos 3. 4. and that there is no Iuâ—ge no King to put evill doers to shame Iudg. 19. 1. but if a King be given of God as a King by the acts of a bloody Conquest to be avenged on the sinfull land over which he is made a King he cannot be given actu primo as a speciall gift and blessing of God to feed but to murther and to destroy for the genuine end of a Conqueror as a Conqueror is not peace but fire and sword If God changâ— his heart to be of a bloody Vastator a father Prince and feeder of the people ex officio now he is not a violent Conquerour and he came to that meeknes by contraries which is the proper worke of the omnipotent God and not proper to man who as he cannot worke miracles so neither can he lawfully worke by contraries and so if Conquest be a lawfull title to a Crown and an ordinary calling as the opponents presume every bloody Conquerour must be changed into a loving father Prince and feeder and if God call him none should oppose him but the whole Land should dethrone their own native Soveraigne whom they are obliged before the Lord to defend and submit to the bloody invasion of a strange Lord presumed to be a just Conqueror as if he were lawfully called to the Throne both by birth and the voyces of the people And truly they deserve no wages who thus defend the Kings Prerogative royall for if the sword be a lawfull title to the crown suppose the two Generals of both Kingdomes should conquer the most and the chiefest of the Kingdome now when they have so many forces in the field by this wicked reason the one should have a lawfull call of God to be King of England and the other to be King of Scotland which is absurd 6. Either conquest as conquest is a just title to the crown or as a just conquest If as Conquest then all conquests are just titles to a Crown then the Ammonites Zidonians Canaanites Edomites c. subduing Gods people for
1 Sam. 12. 24. only feare the Lord 25. But if yee doe still wickedly yee shall be consumed both yee and your King And this case â— grant is extraordinary yet so as Iunius Brutus proveth well and strongly that Religion is not given only to the King that he only should keepâ— it but to all the inferiour Iudges and people also in their kind but because the estates never gave the King power to corrupt Religion and presse a false and Idolatrous worship upon them therefore when the King defendeth not true Religion but presseth upon the people a false and Idolatrous Religion in that they are not under the King but are presumed to have no King eatenus so farre and are presumed to have the power in themselves as if they had not appointed any King at all as if we presume the body had given to the right hand a power to ward off strokes and to defend the body if the right hand should by a Palsie or some other disease become impotent and be withered up when ill is comming on the body it is presumed that the power of defence is recurred to the left hand and to the rest of the body to defend it selfe in this case as if the body had no right hand and had never communicated any power to the right hand at all So if an incorporation accused of Treason and in danger of the sentence of death shall appoint a Lawyer to Advocate their cause and to give in their just defences to the Iudge if their Advocate be stricken with dumbnesse because they have losed their legall and representative tongue none can say that this incorporation hath loosed the tongues that Nature hath given them so as by Natures law they may not plead in their own just lawfull defence as if they had never appointed the foresaid lawyer to plead for them The King as a man is not more obliged to the publick and regall defence of the true Religion then any other man of the land but he is made by God and the people King for the Church and people of God's sake that he may defend true Religion for the behalfe and salvation of all If therefore he defend not Religion for the salvation of the soules of all in his publick and royall way it is presumed as undeniable that the people of God who by the law of nature are to care for their own soule are to defend in their way true Religion which so nearly concerneth them and their eternall happinesse 2 Assert When the covenant is betwixt God on the one part and the King Priests and people on the other part it is true if the one performe for his part to God the whole duty the other is acquitted as if two men be indebted to one man ten thousand pounds if the one pay the whole summe the other is acquitted but the King and People are not so contracting parties in covenant with God as that they are both indebted to God for one and the same sum of compleat obedience so as if the King pay the whole summe of obedience to God the people is acquitted and if the People pay the whole summe the King is acquitted for every one standeth obliged to God for himselfe for the people must doe all that is their part in acquitting the King from his Royall duty that they may free him and themselves both from punishment if he disobey the King of Kings Nor doth the Kings obedience acquit the people from their duty And Arnisaeus dreamed if he believed that we make King and People this way partie contractors in covenant with God Nor can two co-partners in covenant with God so mutually compell one another to doe their duty for we hold that the covenant is made betwixt the King and the People betwixt mortall men but they both bind themselves before God to each other But saith Arnisaeus It belongeth to a Pretor or Ruler who is above both King and People to compell each of them the King to performe his part of the covenant to the people and the people to performe their part of the covenant to the King Now there is no Ruler but God above both King and People But let me answer The consequence is not needfull no more then when the King of Iudah and the King of Israel make a covenant to perform mutuall duties one to another no more then it is necessarie that there should be a King and superior Ruler above the King of Israel and the King of Iudah who should compell each one to doe a duty to his fellow King for the King and People are each of them above and below others in divers respects The People because they create the man King they are so above the King and have a virtuall power to compell him to doe his duty and the King as King hath an authoritative power above the People because Royaltie is formally in him and originally and virtually only in the People therefore may he compell them to their duty as we shall heare anon and therefore there is no need of an earthly Ruler higher then both to compell both 3 Assert We shall hereafter prove the power of the people above the King God willing And so it is false that there is not mutuall coactive power on each side 4 Assert The obligation of the King in the covenant floweth from the peculiar obligation nationall betwixt the King and the Estates and it bindeth the King as King and not simply as he is a man 1. Because it is a covenant betwixt the people and David not as he is the sonne of Jesse for then it should oblige Eliab or any other of Davids brethren yea it should oblige any man if it oblige David as a man but it obligeth David as a King or as he is to be their King because it is the specifice act of a King that he is obliged unto to wit to governe the people in Righteousnesse and Religion with his Royall power And so it is false that Arnisaeus saith that the King as a man is obliged to God by this covenant not as a King 2. He saith by covenant the King is bound to God as a Man not as a King But so the man will have the King as King under no law of God and so he must either be above God as King or coequall with God which are manifest blasphemies for I thought ever the Royalists had not denyed but the King as King had been obliged to keep his oath to his subjects in relation to God and in regard of naturall obligation so as he â—mneth before God if he breake his covenant with his people though they deny that he is obliged to keep his covenant in relation to his Subjects and in regard of politique or civill obligation to men Sure I am this the Royalists constantly teach 3. He would have this covenant so made with men as it obligeth not the King to men
sword is given by God to Kings and Iudges and if Adam had had any such power to kill his sonne Cain for the killing of his brother Abel it had been given to him by God as a power politike different from a fatherly power for a fatherly power as such is formally to conserve the life of the childaen and not to take away the life yea and Adam though he had never sinned nor any of his posteritie Adam should have been a perfect father as he is now indued with all fatherly power that any father now hath yea should not God have given the sword or power of punishing ill doers since that power should have been in vaine if there had been no violence nor bloodshed or sinne on the earth for the power of the sword and of lawfull warre is given to men now in the state of sinne 4. Fatherly government and power is from the bosome and marrow of that fountaine law of nature but Royall power is not from the law of nature more then Aristocraticall or Democraticall power D. Ferne saith Monarchie is not jure divino I am not of his mind nor yet from the law of Nature but ductu naturae by the guidance of nature Sure it is from a supervenient commandement of God added to the first law of nature establishing Fatherly power 5. Children having their life and first breathings of nature from their parents must be in a more intire relation from their father then from their Prince Subjects have not their Being naturall but their civill politique and peaceable well-being from their Prince 6. A father is a father by generation and giving the being of nature to children and is a naturall head and root without the free consent and suffrages of his children and is essentially a father to one childe as Adam was to one Cain but a Prince is a Prince by the free suffrages of a community and cannot be a King to one only and he is the politique head of a civill Corporation 7. A father so long as his children liveth can never leave off to be a father though he were mad and surious though he be the most wicked man on earth Qui genuit filium non potest non genuisse filium what is once past cannot by any power be not passed a father is a father for ever But by confession of Royalists as Barclay Hug. Grotius and Arnisaeus and others grant if a King sell his subjects by sea or land to other nations if he turne a furious Nero he may be dethroned and the power that created the King under such expresse conditions as if the King violate them by his owne consent he shall be put from the Throne may cease to be a King and if a stronger King conquer a King and his subjects Royalists â—ay the conquerour is a lawfull King and so the conquered King must also lawfully come downe from his Throne and turne a lawfull captive sitting in the dust 8. Learned Polititians as Bartholomeus Romulus Defens part 1. num 153. Ioannes de Anania in c. fin de his qui fil occid teach that the father is not obliged to reveale the conspiracy of his son against his Prince nor is he more to accuse his son then to accuse himselfe because the father loveth the sonne better then himselfe D. Listi quidem Sect. Fin. quod met caus D. L. fin c. de cura furiosi and certainly a father had rather dye in his own person as choose to dye in his sonnes in whom he affecteth a sort of immortality In specie quando non potest in individuo but a King doth not love his subjects with a naturall or fatherly love thus and if the affections differ the power which secondeth the affection for the conservation either of being or well being must also differ proportionally The P. Prelate objecteth against us thus stealing word by word from Arnisaeus When a King is elected Soveraigne to a multitude he is surrogated in the place of a common father Exod. 20. 5. Honour thy father then as a naturall father receiveth not Paternall right power or authority from his sonnes but hath this from God and the ordinance of nature nor can the King have his right from the community 2. The maxime of the Law is Surrogatus gaudet privilegiis ejus cui surrogatur qui succedit â—n locum succedit in jus The person surrogated hath all the Priviledges that he hath in whose place he succeedeth he who succeedeth to the place succeedeth to the right the adopted sonne or the bastard who is legittimated and commeth in the place of the lawfull borne sonne commeth also in the priviledges of the lawfull borne sonne a Prince elected commeth to the full possession of the Majesty of a naturall Prince and Father for Moduâ— acquirendi non tollit naturale jus possidendi saith Arnisaeus more fully then the poore Plagiarius the manner of acquiring any thing taketh not away the naturall possession for how ever things be acquired if the title be just possession is the Law of Nations then when the King is chosen in place of the father as the father hath a divine right by nature so must the King have that same and seeing the right proprietor saith the Pamphleting Prelate had his right by God by nature how can it be but howsoever the designation of the person is from the disordered community yet the collation of the power is from God immediatly and from his sacred and inviolable ordinance And what can be said against the way by which any one elected obtained his right for seeing God doth not now send Samuells or Elisha's to anoynt or declare Kings we are in his ordinary providence to conceive the designation of the person is the manifestation of Gods Will called Voluntas signi as the Schooles speake just so as when the Church designeth one to sacred orders Ans 1. He that is surrogated in the place of another due to him by a positive Law of man he hath Law to all the priviledges that he hath in whose place he is surrogated that is true He who is made Assignee to an Obligation for a summe of money hath all the rights that the principall party to whom the Bond or Obligation was madâ— he who commeth in the place of a Major of a City of a Captaine in an Army of a Pilot in a ship of a Pope hath all the priviledges and Rights that his predecessors had by Law Jus succedit juri persona jure predita personae jure preditae So the Law so far as my reading can reach who professe my selfe a Divine but that he who succeedeth to the place of a father by nature should injoy all the naturall Rights and Priviledges of the person to whom he succeedeth I beleeve the Law never dreamed it for then the adopted sonne comming in place of the naturall sonne hath right to the naturall affection of the father if any should adopt
farre lesse can he lawfully sell men and give away a whole Kingdome to the hurt of his successours for that were to make merchandize of the living Temples of the Holy Ghost And Arnisaus de authorit Princip c. 3. n. 7. saith Servitude is praeter naturam beside nature he might have said contrary to nature l. 5. de stat homin Sect. 2. Iust de jur perso c. 3. Novel 89. but the subjection of subjects is so consonant to nature that it is seen in Bees and Cranes Therefore a dominion is defined a facultie of using of things to what uses you will Now a man hath not this way an absolute dominion over his beasts to dispose of them at his will for a good man hath mercy on the life of his beast Prov. 12. 10. nor hath he dominion over his goods to use them as he will because he may not use them to the dammage of the Commonwealth he may not use them to the dishonour of God and so God and the Magistrate hath laid some bound on his dominion And because the King being made a King leaveth not off to be a reasonable creature he must be under a Law and so his will and lust cannot be the rule of his power and dominion but law and reason must regulate him Now if God had given to the King a dominion over men as reasonable creatures his power and dominion which by Royalists is conceived to be above Law should be a rule to men as reasonable men which would make men under Kings no better then bruit beasts for then should subjects exercise acts of reason not because good and honest but because their Prince commandeth them so to doe and if this cannot be said none can be at the disposing of Kings in politick acts liable to Royall government that way that the slave is in his actions under the dominion of his master The Prelate objecteth out of Spalato Arnisaeus and Hug. Grotius for in his booke there is not one line which is his own except his raylings 1. All government and superioritie in Rulers is not primely and only for the Subjects good for some are by God and Nature appointed for the mutuall and inseperable good of the superiour and inferiour as in the government of husband and wife or father and sonne and in herili dominio in the government of a Lord and his servant the good and benefit of the servant is but secondary and consecutively intended it is not the principall end but the externall and adventâ—tious as the gaine that commeth to a Physitian is not the proper and internall end of his art but followeth only from his practice of Medicine Ans The Prelates logick tendeth to this some government tendeth to the mutuall good of the superior and inferior but Royall Government is some government ergo nothing followeth from a major proposition Ex particulari affirmante in prima figura Or of two particular propositions 2. If it be thus formed every maritall government and every government of the Lord and servant is for the mutuall good of the superiour and inferiour But Royall Government is such ergo c. the assumption is false and cannot be proved as I shall anon cleare 2. Obj. Solomon disposed of Cabul and gave it to Hiram ergo a conquered Kingdome is for the good of the conquerour especially Ans Solomons speciall giving away some Titles to the King of Tyre being a speciall fact of a Prophet as well as a King cannot warrant the King of England to sell England to a forraine Prince because William made England his owne by conquest which also is a most false supposition and this he stole from Hugo Grotius who condemneth selling of Kingdomes 3 Object A man may render himselfe totally under the power of a Master without any conditions and why may not the body of a people doe the like even to have peace and safety surrender themselves fully to the power of a King A lord of great Mannours may admit no man to live in his Lands but upon a condition of a full surrender of him and his posterity to that lord Tacitus sheweth us it was so anciently amongst the Germans and the Campanians surrendered themselves fully to the Romans Answ What compelled people may do to redeem their lives with losse of liberty is nothing to the point such a violent Conquerour who will be a father and a husband to a people against their will is not their lawfull King and that they may sell the liberty of their posteritie not yet born is utterly denied as unlawfull yea a violentated father to me is a father and not a father and the posteritie may vindicate their own liberty given away unjustly before they were born Qua omne regnum vi partum potest vi dissolvi Object 4. But saith Doct. Fern these which are ours and given awaâ— to another in which there redoundeth to God by donation a speciall interest as in things devoted to holy uses though after they be abused yet we cannot recall them Ergo If the people be once forced to give away their liberty they cannot recall it far lesse if they willingly resign it to their Prince Answ This is not true when the power is given for the conservation of the Kingdom and is abused for the destruction thereof for a power to destruction was never given nor can it by rationall nature be given 2. Mortifications given to religious uses by a positive law may be recalled by a more divine and stronger law of nature such as is this I will have mercy and not sacrifice Suppose David of his own proper heritage had given the Shew-bread to the Priests yet when David and his men are famishing he may take it back from them against their will Suppose Christ man had bought the Corns and dedicated them to the Altar yet might he and his Disciples eat the Ears of Corn in their hunger The vessels of silver dedicated to the Church may be taken and bestowed on wounded Souldiers 2. A people free may not and ought not totally surrender their liberty to a Prince confiding on his goodnesse 1. Because liberty is a condition of nature that all men are born with and they are not to give it away no not to a King except in part and for the better that they may have peace and justice for it which is better for them hic nunc 2. If a people trusting in the goodnesse of their Prince inslave themselves to him and he shall after turn Tyrant a rash and temerarious surrender obligeth not Et ignorantia facit factum quasi involuntarium Ignorance maketh the fact some way unvoluntary for if the people had beleeved that a meek King would have turned a rouring Lyon they should not have resigned their liberty into his hand and therefore the surrender was tacitely conditionall to the King as meek or whom they beleeved to be meek and not to a
to take the people of Gods fields and vineyards and olive-yards and give them to their servants Was it a just fault that Hybreas objected to Antonius exacting two tributes in one yeer that he said If thou must have two tributes in one yeer then make for us two Summers and two Harvests in one yeer This cannot be just if all be the Kings the King taketh but his own 4. Subjects under a Monarch could not give alms nor exercise works of charity for charity must be my own Isai 58. 7. Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry c. Eccles 11. 1. Cast thy bread into the waters and the Law saith It is theft to give of another mans to the poor yea the distinction of poor and rich should have no place under a Monarchie he onely should be rich 5. When Paul commandeth us to pay tribute to Princes Rom. 13. 6. because they are the Ministers of God he layeth this ground That the King hath not all but that the subjects are to give to him of their goods 6. It is the Kings place by justice to preserve every man in his own right and under his own fig-tree Ergo It s not the Kings house 7. Even Pharaoh could not make all the victuall of the land his own while he had bought it with money and every thing is presumed to be free Allodialis free land except the King prove that it is bought or purchased L. actius C. de servit aqua Joan. And. m. C. F. de ind hosti in C. minus de jur 8. If the subjects had no proprietie in their own goods but all were the Princes due then the subject should not be able to make any contract of buying and selling without the King and every subject were in the case of a slave Now the Law saith L. 2. F. de Noxali act l. 2. F. ad legem aquil When he maketh any Covenant he is not obliged civilly to keep it because the condition of a servant he not being sui juris is compared to the state of a beast though he be obliged by a naturall obligation being a rationall Creature in regard of the law of nature L. naturaliter L. si id quod L. interdum F. de cond indebit cum aliis 2. The subject could not by Solomon be forbidden to be suretie for his friend as King Solomon doth counsell Prov. 6. 1 2 3. he could not be condemned to bring on himself poverty by sluggishnesse as Prov. 6. 6 7 8 9 10. nor were he to honour the Lord with his riches as Prov. 3. 9. nor to keep his Covenant though to his losse Psal 15. 4. nor could he be mercifull and lend Psal 37. 26. nor had he power to borrow nor could he be guiltie in not paying all again Psal 37. 21. For subjects under a Monarch can neither perform a duty nor fail in a duty in the matter of Goods If all be the Kings what power or dominion hath the subject in disposing of his Princes Goods See more in Petr. Rebuffus tract congruae portionis num 225. pag. 109 110. Sed quoad dominiumrerum c. QUEST XVII Whether or not the Prince have properly a fiduciarie and ministeriall power of a Tutor Husband Patron Minister head father of a family not of a Lord or dominator THat the power of the King is fiduciarie that is given to him immediatly by God in trust Royallists deny not but we hold that the tâ—ust is put upon the King by the people 2. We deny that the people give themselves to the King as a gift for what is freely given cannot be taken againe but they gave themselves to the King as a pawne and if the pawne be abused or not used in that manner as it was conditionated to be used the party in whose hand the pawne is intrusted faileth in his trust 1. Assertion The King is more properly a Tutor then a Father 1. Indigencie is the originall of Tutors the Parents dye what then shall become of the Orphan and his inheritance he cannot guide it himselfe therefore nature devised a Tutor to supply the place of a father and to governe the Tutor but with this consideration the father is Lord of the inheritance and if he be distressed may sell it that it shall never come to the sonne and the father for the bad deserving of his sonne may dis-inherite him but the Tutor being but a borrowed father cannot sell the inheritance of the pupill nor can he for the pupills bad deserving by any dominion of Justice over the pupill take away the inheritance from him and give it to his owne son so a Community of it selfe because of sin is a naked society that can but destroy it selfe and every one eate the flesh of his brother therefore God hath appointed a King or governour who shall take care of that community rule them in peace and save all from reciprocation of mutuall acts of violence yet so as because a trust is put on the Ruler of a community which is not his heritage he cannot dispose of it as he pleaseth because he is not the proper owner of the inheritance 2. The Pupill when he commeth to age may call his Tutor to an accompt for his administration I doe not acknowledge that as a truth which Arnisaeus saith De authoritate prin c. 3. n. 5. The Common-wealth is alwaies minor and under Tutory because it alway hath need of a curator and governour and can never put away its governour but the pupill may grow to age and wisedome so as he may be without all Tuâ—ors and can guide himselfe and so may call in question his Tutor and the pupill cannot be his Iudge but must stand to the sentence of a superiour Iudge and so the people cannot judge or punish their Prince God must be Iudge betwixt them both But this is 1. a begging of the question every comparison halteth no community but it is Major in this that it can appoint its owne Tutors and though it cannot be without all Rulers yet it may well be without this or that Prince and Ruler and therefore may resume its power which it gave conditionally to the Ruler for its owne safety and good and in so farre as this condition is violated and power turned to the destruction of the Common-wealth it is to be esteemed as not given and though the people be not a politique Iudge in their owne cause yet in case of manifest oppression nature can teach them to oppose defensive violence against offensive a community in its politique body is also above any Ruler and may judge what is manifestly destructive to it selfe Obj. The Pupill hath not power to appoint his owne Tutor nor doth he give power to him so neither doth the people give it to the King Ans The Pupill hath not indeed a formall power to make a Tutor but he hath vertually
a legall power in his father who appointeth a Tutor for his sonne and the people have vertually all Royall power in them as in a sort of immortall and eternall fountain and may create to themselves many Kings Asser 2. The Kings power is not properly and univocally a Maritall and husbandly power but only Analogically 1. The Wife by nature is the weaker Vessell and inferiour to the man but the Kingdom as shall be demonstrated is superiour to the King 2. The Wife is given as an helpe to the man but by the contrary the man here is given as an helpe and father to the Common-wealth which is presumed to be the wife 3. Maritall and husbandly power is naturall though it be not naturall but from free election that Peter is Anae's Husband and should have been though man had never sinned but Royall Power is a politick constitution and the world might have subsisted though Aristocracy or Democracy had been the only and perpetuall governments So let the Prelate glory in his borrowed Logick he had it from Barclay It is not in the power of the Wife to repudiat her Husband though never so wicked she is tyed to him for ever and may not give to him a bill of Divorcement as by Law the Husband might give to her if therefore the people sweare loyalty to him they must keep though to their hurt Ps 15. Aas There 's nothing here said except Barclay and the Plagiarie prove that the Kings Power is properly a Husbands power which they cannot prove but from a Simile that crooketh but a King elected upon conditions that if he sell his people he shall lose his Crown is as essentially a King as Adam was Evahs Husband and yet by grant of parties the people may devorce from such a King and dethrone him if he sell his people but a Wife may never devorce from her Husband as the Argument saith And this poore Argument the Prelate stole from Dr. Ferne part 2. Sec. 3. pag. 10 11. 2. The keeping of Covenant though to our huâ—t is a penall hurt and losse of goods not a morall hurt and losse of Religion Assert 3. The King is more properly a sort of Patron to defend the people and therefore hath no power given either by God or man to hurt the people and a Minister or publick and honourable servant Rom. 13. 4. for he is the Minister of God to thee for good he is the Common-wealths servant objectively because all the Kings service as he is King is for the good safety peace and salvation of the people and in this he is a servant 2. He is the servant of the people Representatively in that the people hath impawned in his hand all their power to doe Royall service Obj. He is the servant of God ergo he is not the peoples Servant but their soveraigne Lord. Ans It followeth not because all the service the King as King performeth to God they are acts of Royalty and acts of Royall service as terminated on the people or acts of their Soveraigne Lord and this proveth that to be their Soveraigne is to be their servant and watch-man Object 2. God maketh a King only and the Kingly power is in him only not in the people Ans The Royall power is only from God immediatly Immediatione simplicis constitutionis solum a Deo solitudine primae causae by the immediation of simple constitution none but God appointed there should be Kings but 2. Royall power is not in God nor only from God immediatione applicationis regiae dignitatis ad personam nec a Deo solum solitudine causae applicantis dignitatem huic non illi in respect of the applying of Royall dignity to this person not to this Object 3. Though Royall power were given to the people it is not given to the people as if it were the Royal power of the people and not the Royall power of God neither is it any other waies bestowed on the people but as on a beame a channell an instrument by which it is derived to others and so the King is not the minister or servant of the people Ans It is not in the people as in the principall cause Sure all Royall power that way is only in God but it is in the people as in the instrument and when the people maketh David their King at Hebron in that same very act God by the people using their free suffrages and consent maketh David King at Hebron so God only giveth raine and none of the vanities and supposed gods of the Gentiles can give raine Ier. 14. 22. and yet the Clouds also give raine as nature as an organ and vessell out of which God powreth down raine upon the dry earth Amos 9. 5. and every instrument under God that is properly an instrument is a sort of Vicarious cause in Gods room and so the people as in Gods roome applyeth Royall power to David not to any of Sauls sonnes and appointeth David to be their Royall Servant to governe and in that to serve God and to doe that which a Communitie now in the state of sinne cannot formally doe themselves and so I see not how it is a service to the people not only objectively because the Kings Royall service tendeth to the good and peace and safety of the people but also subjectively in regard he hath his power and Royall authoritie which he exerciseth as King from the people under God as Gods instruments and therefore the King and Parliament give ouâ— Lawes and Statutes in the name of the whole people of the Land And they are but flatterers and belye the Holy Ghost who teach that the people doe not make the King for Israel made Saul King at Mizpeh and Israel made David King at Hebron Object 3. Israel made David King that is Israel designed Davids person to be King and Israel consented to Gods act of making David King but they did not make David King Ans I say not that Israel made the Royall dignitie of Kings God Deut. 17. instituted that himselfe but the Royalist must give us an act of God going before an act of the peoples making David King at Hebron by which David of no King is made formally a King and then another act of the People approving only and consenting to that act of God whereby David is made formally of no King to be a King This Royalists shall never instruct for there be only two acts of God here 1. Gods act of annointing David by the hand of Samuel and 2. Gods act of making David King at Hebron and a third they shall never give But the former is not that by which David was essentially and formally changed from the state of a private subject and no King into the state of a publike Judge and supreme Lord and King for as I have proved after this act of annointing of David King he was designed only and set
loved so now Gods love from whence he communicateth his Image representing his owne holinesse commeth nearer to his most speciall love of election of men to glory 5. If God give Kings to be a ransome for his Church and if he slay great Kings for their sake as Pharaoh King of Aegypt Esa 43. 3 and Sihon King of the Amorites and Og King of Bashan Ps 136. 18 19 20. if he plead with Princes and Kings for destroying his people Esa 3. v. 12 13 14. if he make Babylon and her King a threshing-floore for the violence done to the inhabitants of Zion Ier. 51. 33 34 35. then his people as his people must be so much dearer and more precious in the Lords eyes then Kings because they are Kings by how much more his Justice is active to destroy the one and his Mercy to save the other Neither is the Argument taken off by saying the King must in this question be compared with his owne people not a forraigne King with other forraigne people over whom he doth not Raigne for the Argument proveth that the people of God are of more worth then Kings as Kings and Nebuchadnezer and Pharoah for the time were Kings to the people of God and forraigne Kings are no lesse essentially Kings then Kings native are 6. Those who are given of God as gifts for the preservation of the people to be Nurse-fathers to them those must be of lesse worth before God then those to whom they are given since the gift as the gift is lesse then the party on whom the gift is bestowed But the King is a gift for the good and preservation of the people as is cleare Esa 1. 26. And from this that God gave his people a King in his wrath we may conclude that a King of himselfe except God be angry with his people must be a gift 7. That which is eternall and cannot politically die yea which must continue as the dayes of heaven because of Gods promise That is more excellent then that which is both accidentall temporarie and mortall But the People is both eternall as People because Eccles 1. 4. one generation passeth away and another generation commeth And as a people in covenant with God Ier. 32. 40 41. in respect that a People and Church though mortall in the individuals yet the Church remaining the Church cannot dye but the King as King may and doth dye It is true where a Kingdome goeth by succession the Politicians say the man who is King dyeth but the King never dyeth because some other either by birth or free election succeedeth in his roome But I answer 1. People by a sort of necessity of nature succeedeth to People generation to generation except Gods judgement contrary to nature intervene to make Babylon no people and a land that shall never be inhabited which I both believe and hope for according to Gods word of Prophecie But a King by a sort of contingencie succeedeth to Kings for nature doth not ascertaine us there must be Kings to the worlds end because the essence of Governours is kept safe in Aristocracie and Democracie though there were no Kings And that Kings should necessarily have been in the world if man had never fallen in sinne I am not by any cogent argument induced to beleeve I conceive there should have been no Government but these of Fathers Children Husband and Wife and which is improperly Government some more gifted with supervenient additions to nature as gifts and excellencies of Engines Now in this point Althusius polit c. 38. n. 114. saith the King in respect of office is worthier then the people but this is but an accidentall respect but as the King is a man he is inferior to the people But 8. he who by office is obliged to expend himselfe and to give his life for the safety of the people he must be inferior to the people So Christ saith the life is more then rayment or food because both these give themselves to corruption for mans life so the beasts are inferiour to man because they die for our life that they may sustaine our life And Caiaphas prophesied right that it was better that one man die then that the whole Nation perish Joh. 11. v. 50. and in nature Elements against their particular inclination defraud themselves of their private and particular ends that the Commonwealth of Nature may stand as heavy elements ascend light descend lest nature should perish by a vacuitie And the good shepherd Ioh. 10. giveth his life for his sheep So Saul and David both were made Kings to fight the Lords battels and to expose their lives to hazard for the safetie of the Church and people of God But the King by office is obliged to expend his life for the safety of the people of God he is obliged to fight the Lords battels for them to goe betwixt the Flock and death as Paul was willing to be spent for the Church It may be objected Jesus Christ gave himselfe a Ransome for his Church and his life for the life of the World and was a gift given to the world Ioh. 3. 16. 4. 10. and he was a meane to save us And so what arguments we have before produced to prove that the King must be inferior to the people because he is a ransome a meane a gift are not concludent I answer Consider a meane reduplicatively and formaliter as a meane and secondly as a meane materially that is the thing which is a meane 2. Consider that which is only a mean and ransome and gift and no more and that which beside that it is a meane is of a higher nature also So Christ formally as a meane giving 1. his temporall life 2. for a time 3. according to the flesh For 1. the eternall life 2. of all the Catholike Church to be glorified eternally 3. not his blessed Godhead and glorie which as God he had with the Father from eternitie In that respect Christ hath the relation of a servant ransome gift and some inferioritie in comparison of the Church of God and his Fathers glory as a meane is inferior to the end but Christ materially in concreto Christ is not only a meane to save his Church but as God in which consideration he was the immortall Lord of life he was more then a meane even the author efficient and Creator of heaven and earth and so there is no ground to say that he is inferiour to the Church but the absolute head King the chiefe of ten thousand more in excellencie and worth then ten thousand millions of possible worlds of men and Angels But such a consideration cannot befall any mortall King because consider the King materially as a mortall man he must be inferior to the whole Church for he is but one and so of lesse worth then the whole Church as the thumbe though the strongest of the fingers yet it is
throne of the Lord as King instead of David his father 1 King 1. 13. It is called Davids throne because the King is the Deputy of Iehovah and the judgement is the Lords I prove the assumption Inferiour Iudges appointed by King Iehoshaphat have this place 2 Chro. 19. 6. The King said to the Iudges Take heed what ye do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for ye judge not for man but for the Lord then they were Deputies in the place of the Lord and not the Kings Deputies in the formall and officiall acts of judging 7. Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon you take heed and do it for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God nor respect of persons or taking of gifts Hence I argue If the Holy Ghost in this good King forbid inriour Judges wresting of judgement respecting of persons and taking of gifts because the judgement is the Lords and if the Lord himself were on the Bench he would not respect persons nor take gifts then he presumeth that inferiour Iudges are in the stead and place of Jehovah and that when these inferiour Iudges should take gifts they make as it were the Lord whose place they represent to take gifts and to do iniquitie and to respect persons but that the holy Lord cannot do 2. If the inferiour Iudges in the act of judging were the Vicars and Deputies of King Jehoshaphat he would have said Judge righteous judgement Why For the judgement is mine and if I the King were on the Bench I would not respect persons nor take gifts and you judge for me the supreme Judge as my Deputies but the King saith They judge not for man but for the Lord. 3. If by this they were not Gods immediate Vicars but the Vicars and Deputies of the King then being meer servants the King might command them to pronounce such a sentence and not such a sentence as I may command my servant and deputy in so far as he is a servant and deputie to say this and say not this but the King cannot limit the conscience of the inferiour Iudge because the judgement is not the Kings but the Lords 4. The King cannot command any other to do that as King for the doing whereof he hath no power from God himself but the King hath no power from God to pronounce what sentence he pleaseth because the judgement is not his own but Gods And though inferiour Iudges be sent of the King and appointed by him to be Iudges and so have their externall call from Gods deputy the King yet because judging is an act of conscience as one mans conscience cannot properly be a deputy for another mans conscience so neither can an inferior Iudge as a Iudge be a deputy for a King therefore the inferiour Iudges have designation to their office from the King but if they have from the King that they are Iudges and be not Gods deputies but the Kings they could not be commanded to execute judgement for God but for the King and Deut. 1. 17. Moses appointed Iudges but not as his deputies to judge and give sentence as subordinate to Moses For the judgement saith he is the Lords not mine 6. If all the inferiour Iudges in Israel were but the deputies of the King and not immediately subordinate to God as his deputies then could neither inferiour Iudges be admonished nor condemned in Gods word for unjust judgement because their sentence should be neither righteous nor unrighteous judgement but in so far as the King should approve it or disapprove it and indeed that Royalist Hugo Grotius saith so That an inferiour Iudge can do nothing against the will of the supreme Magistrate if it be so When ever God commandeth inferiour Iudges to execute righteous judgement it must have this sense Respect not persons in judgement except the King command you crush not the poor oppresse not the fatherlesse except the King command you I understand not such policie Sure I am The Lords commandments rebukes and threats oblige in conscience the inferiour Iudge as the superiour as is manifest in these Scriptures Jerem. 5. 1. Isai 1. 17 21. and 5. 7. and 10. 2. and 59. 14. Jere. 22. 3. Ezek. 18. 8. Amos 5. 7. Micah 3. 9. Habak 1. 4. Levit 19. 15. Deut. 17. 11. and 1. 17. Exod. 23. 2. Grotius saith It is here as in a Categorie the middle Spece is in respect of the Superiour a Spece in respect of the inferiour a Genus so inferiour Magistrates in relation to these who are inferiour to them and under them they are Magistrates or publike persons but in relation to superiour Magistrates especially the King they are private persons and not Magistrates Answ Jehoshaphat esteemed not Iudges appointed by himself private men 2 Chron. 19. 6 7. Yee judge not for men but for the Lord. 2. We shall prove that under Iudges are powers ordained of God 3. In Scotland the King can take no mans inheritance from him because he is King But if any man possesse Lands belonging to the Crown the King by his Advocate must stand before the Lord-Iudges of the Session and submit the matter to the Laws of the Land and if the King for propertie of Goods were not under a Law and were not to acknowledge Iudges as Iudges I see not how the subject in either Kingdoms have any proprietie 4. I judge it blasphemie to say That a sentence of an inferiour Iudge must be no sentence though never so legall nor just if it be contrary to the Kings will as Grotius saith He citeth that of Augustine If the Consul command one thing and the Emperour another thing you contemn not the power but you choose to obey the highest Peter saith He will have us one way to be subject to the King as to the supreme sine ulla exceptione without any exception but to these who are sent by the King as having their power from the King Answ When the Consull commandeth a thing lawfull and the King that same thing lawfull or a thing not unlawfull we are to obey the King rather then the Consull so I expone Augustine 2. We are not to obey the King and the Consull the same way that is with the same degree of reverence and submission for we owe more submission of spirit to the King then to the Consul but magis minus non variant speciem more or lesse varieth not the natures of things but if the meaning be that we are not to obey the inferiour Iudge commanding things lawfull if the King command the contrary this is utterly denyed But saith Grotius The inferiour Judge is but the Deputie of the King and hath all his power from him therefore we are to obey him for the King Answ The inferiour Iudge may be called the Deputy of the King where it is the Kings place to make Iudges because he hath his externall call from the King and is Iudge in
the Kings no the Spirit of God saith no such matter the Iudgement executed by those inferiour Iudges is the Lords not a mortall Kings ergo a mortall King may not hinder them to execute Iudgement Obj. He cannot suggest an unjust Sentence and command an inferiour Iudge to give out a sentence absolvatory on cut-throates but he may hinder the exocution of any sentence against Irish cut-throates Ans It is all one to hinder the execution of a just sentence and to suggest or command the inferiour Iudge to pronounce an unjust one for inferiour Iudges by conscience of their Office are both to judge righteously and by force and power of the sword given to them of God Rom. 13. 2 3 4. to execute the sentence and so God hath commanded inferiour Iudges to execute Iudgement and hath forbidden them to wrest Iudgement to take gifts except the King Command them so to doe Master Symmont The King is by the Grace of God the inferiour Iudge is Iudge by the grace of the King even as the man is the image of God and the woman the mans image Ans This distinction is neither true in Law nor conscience not in Law for it distinguisheth not betwixt Ministros regis ministros regni The servants of the King are his domesticks the Iudges are Ministri regni non regis the Ministers and Iudges of the Kingdome not of the King The King doth not show grace as he is a man in making such a man a Iudge but Iustice as a King by a Royall Power received from the people and by an Act of Iustice he makes Iudges of deserving men he should neither for favour nor bribes make any Iudge in the Land 2. It is the grace of God that men are to be advanced from a private condiâ—ion to be inferious Iudges as Royall Dignity is a free gift of God 1 Sam. 2. 7. The Lord bringeth low and lifteth up Ps 75. 7. God puâ—tâ—th downe one and seteth up another Court flatterers take from God and give to Kings but to be a Iudge inferiour is no lesse an immediate favour of God then to be King though the one be a greater favour then the other Magis honos and Majoc honos are to be considered 9. Arg. Those powers which differ gradually and per magis minus by more and lesse only differ not in nature and spece and constitute not Kings and inferiour Iudges different univocally But the power of Kings and inferiour Iudges are such therefore Kings and Inferiour Iudges differ not univocally That the powers are the same in nature I prove 1. by the specifice acts and formall object of the power of both for 1. both are power ordained of God Rom. 13. 1. to resist either is to resist the ordinance of God v. 2. both are by Office a terrour to evill workes v. â—3 3. both are the Ministers of God for good 2. Though the King send and give a call to the inferiour Iudge that doth no more make the inferiour Iudges powers in nature and spece different then Ministers of the Word called by Ministers of the Word have Offices different in nature Timotheus Office to be Preacher of the Word differeth not in specie from the Office of the Presbytery which layed hands on him though their Office by extension be more then Timothies Office 3. The peoples power is put forth in those same acts when they choose one to be their King and supreame Governour and when they set up an Aristocraticall Government and choose many or more then one to be their Governours for the formall object of one or many Governours is Iustice and Religion as they are to be advanced 2. The forme and manner of their opperation is brachio seculari by a coactive power and by the sword 3. The formall acts of King and many Iudges in Aristocracy are these same the defending of the poore and needy from violence the conservation of a Community in a peaceable and a godly life 1 Tim. 2. 2 Iob 29. 12 13. Esay 1. 17. 4. These same Lawes of God that regulateth the King in all His Acts of Royall Government and tyeth and obligeth his conscience as the Lords Deputy to execute Iudgement for God and not in the stead of men in Gods Court of Heaven doth in like manner tye and oblige the conscience of Aristocraticall Iudges and all inferiour Iudges as is cleare and evident by these places 1 Tim. 2. 2. not only Kings but all in authority 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are obliged to procure that their subjects leade a quiet and peaceable life in all godlinesse and honesty All in conscience are obliged Deut. 1. 16. to judge righteously between every man and his brother and the stranger that is with them 17. Neither are they to respect persons in judgement but are to heare the small as well as the great nor to be affraid of the face of men the judgement administred by all is Gods 2. Chro. 19. 6. All are obliged to feare God Deut. 17. 19. 20. to keepe the words of the Law not to be lifted up in heart above their brethren Esay 1. 17. Ier. 22. 2 3. Let any man show me a difference according to Gods Word but in the extention that what the King is to doe as a King in all the Kingdome and whole Dominions if God give to him many as he gave to David and Solomon and Ioshua that the inferiour Iudges are to doe in such and such Circuits and limited places and I quit the cause so as the inferiour Iudges are little Kings and the King a great and delated Iudge as a compressed hand or fist and the hand stretched out in fingers and thumbe are one hand so here 4. God owneth inferiour Iudges as a congregation of Gods Ps 82. 1. 2. for that God sitteth in a congregation or Senate of Kings or Monarches I shall not beleeve till I see Royalists shew to me a Common-wealth of Monarches convening in one Iudicature all are equally called Gods Ioh. 10. 35. Exod. 22. 8. if for any cause but because all Iudges even inferiour are the immediate Deputies of the King of Kings and their sentence in Iudgement as the sentence of the Iudge of all the earth I shall be informed by the P. Prelate when he shall answer my reasons if his interdicted Lordship may cast an eye to a poore Presbyter below and as wisedome is that by which Kings raigne Prov. 8. 15. so also v. 16. by which Princes Rule and Nobles even all the Iudges of the earth all that is said against this is That the King hath a Prerogative Royall by which he is differenced from all Iudges in Israel called jus regis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for saith Barclay The King as King essentially hath a Domination and power above all so as none can censure him or punish him but God because there be no thrones above his but the throne of God The Iudges
of Israel as Samuel Gedeon c. had no domination the dominion was in Gods hand 2. Wee may resist an inferior Iudge saith Arnisaeus otherwise there were no appeale from him and the wrong we suffer were irreparable as saith Marantius And all the Iudges of the earth saith Edw. Symmons are from God more remotely namely mediante Rege by the mediation of the Supreame even as the lesser starres have their light from God by the mediation of the Sun To the first I answer There was a difference betwixt the Kings of Israel and their Iudges no question but if it be an essentiall difference it is a question for 1. The Iudges were raised up in an extraordinary manner out of any Tribe to defend the people and vindicate their libertie God remaining their King the King by the Lords appointment was tyed after Saul to the Royall tribe of Judah till the Messiahs comming God tooke his own blessed libertie to set up a succession in the ten tribes 2. The Iudges were not by succession from father to sonne the Kings were as I conceive for the typicall eternitie of the Messiahs throne presignified to stand from generation to generation 3. Whether the Iudges were appointed by the election of the people or no some doubt because Iepthah was so made Iudge but I thinke it was not a law in Israel that it should be so but the first mould of a King Deut. 17. is by election But that God gave power of domineering that is of Tyrannizing to a King so as he cannot be resisted which he gave not to a Iudge I thinke no Scripture can make good For by what Scripture can Royalists warrant to us that the people might rise in armes to defend themselves against Moses Gideon Eli Samuel and other Iudges if they should have tyrannized over the people and that it is unlawfull to resist the most Tyrannous King in Israel and Iudah Yet Barclay and others must say this if they be true to that principle of Tyranny That the jus Regis the law or manner of the King 1 Sam. 8. 9 11. 1 Sam. 10. 25 doth essentially difference betwixt the Kings of Israel and the Iudges of Israel but we thinke God gave never any power of Tyranny to either Iudge or King of Israel and domination in that sense was by God given to none of them 2. Arnisaeus hath as little for him to say the inferior Magistrate may be resisted because we may appeale from him but the King cannot be resisted quia sanctitas Majestatis id non permittit the sanctitie of Royall majestie will not permit us to resist the King Ans That is not Pauls argument to prove it unlawfull to resist Kings as Kings and doing their office because of the sanctitie of their Majestie that is as the man intendeth because of the supreme absolute and illimited power that God hath given him But this is a begging of the question and all one as to say the King may not be resisted because he may not be resisted for sanctitie of Majestie if we beleeve Royalists includeth essentially an absolute supremacie of power whereby they are above the reach of all thrones lawes powers or resistance on Earth But the Argument is Resist not because the Power is of God But the inferiour Magistrates power is of God 2. Resist not because you resist Gods ordinance in resisting the Iudge But the inferior Iudge is Gods ordinance Rom. 13. 1. Deut. 1. 17. 2 Chro. 19. 6. 3. Mr. Symmons saith all Iudges on earth are from the Kings as starres have their light from the Sun I answer 1. Then Aristocracie were unlawfull for it hath not its power from Monarchie Had the Lords of the Philistims have the States of Holland no power but from a Monarchie Name the Monarch Have the Venetians any power from a King Indeed our Prelate saith from Augustine Confess lib. 3. cap. 8. Generale pactum est societatis humana obedire Regibus suis It is an universall covenant of humane societie and a dictate of nature that men obey their Kings I beg the favour of Sectaries saith â—he to shew as much for Aristocracie and Democracie Now all other governments to bellies borne at Court are the inventions of men But I can shew that same warrant for the one as for the other because it is as well the dictate of nature that People obey their Iudges and Rulers as it is that they obey their Kings And Austin speaketh of all Iudges in that place though he name Kings for Kingly government is no more of the law of nature then Aristocracie or Democracie nor are any borne Iudges or Subjects at all There is a naturall aptitude in all to either of these for the conservation of nature and that is all Let us see that men naturally inclining to Government incline rather to Royall Government then to any other That the P. Prelate shall not be able to show For fatherly government being in two is not Kingly but nearer to Aristocracy and when many families were on earth every one independent within themselves if a commune enemy should invade a tract of Land governed by families I conceive by natures light they should incline to defend themselves and to joyne in one politique body for their owne safety as is most naturall but in that case they having no King and there were no reason of many fathers all alike loving their own families and selfe preservation why one should be King over all rather then another except by voluntary compact so it is cleare that Nature is nearer to Aristocracy before this contract then a Monarchy and let him shew us in multitudes of families dwelling together before there was a King as cleare a warrant for Monarchy as here is for Aristocracy though to me both be lawdable and lawfull ordinances of God and the difference meerely accidentall being one and the same power from the Lord Rom. 13. 1. which is in divers subjects in one as a Monarchy in many as in Aristocracy and the one is as naturall as the other and the subjects are accidentall to the nature of the power 2. The Starrs have no light at all but in actuall aspect toward the Sun and they are not lightsome bodies by the free will of the Sunne and have no immediate light from God formally but from the Sun so as if there were no Sun there should be no Starres 3. for actuall shining and sending out of beames of light actusecundo they depend upon the presence of the Sun but for inferiour Iudges though they have their call from the King yet have they gifts to governe from no King on earth but only from the King of Kings 4. When the King is dead the Iudges are Iudges and they depend not on the King for their second acts of judging and for the actuall emission and putting forth their beames and raies of justice upon the poore and needy they depend on no
the Kings and Iudges which I shall make good by these places Deut. 21. 19. The rebellious Son is brought to the Elders of the Citie who had power of life and death and caused to stone him Deut. 22. 18. The Elders of the Citie shall take that man and chastise him Iosh 20. 4. But beside the Elders of every Citie there were the Elders of Israel and the Princes who had also judiciall power of life and death as the Iudges and King had Josh 22. 30. Even when Ioshua was Iudge in Israel the Princes of the Congregation and heads of the Thousands of Israel did judicially cognosce whether the Children of Reuben of Gad and of halfe the tribe of Manasseh were apostates from God and the Religion of Israel 2 Sam. 5. 3. All the Elders of Israel made David King at Hebron and Num. 11. They are appointed by God not to be the advisers only and helpers of Moses but v. 14 17. to beare a part of the burden of ruling and governing the people that Moses might be eased Jeremiah is accused c. 26. 10. upon his life before the Princes Iosh 7 4. The Princes sit in judgement with Ioshua Iosh 9. 15. Ioshua and the Princes of the Congregation sware to the Gibeonites that they would not kill them The Princes of the house of Israel could not be rebuked for oppression in judgement Mic. 3. 1 2 3. if they had not had power of judgement So Zeph. 3. 3. And Deut. 1. 17. 2. Chron. 19. 6 7. They are expresly made Iudges in the place of God And 1 Sam. 8. 2. without advise or knowledge of Samuel the supreme Iudge they conveene and ask a King and without any head or superior when there is no King they conveene a Parliament and make David King at Hebron And when David is banished they conveen to bring him home againe when Tyrannous Athalia reigneth they conveene and make Ioash King and that without any King And Iosh 22. there is a Parliament conveened and for any thing we can read without Ioshua to take cognisance of a new Altar It had been good that the Parliaments both of Scotland and of England had conveened though the King had not indicted and summoned a Parliament without the King to take order with the wicked Clergie who had made many idolatrous Altars And the P. Prelate should have brought an argument to prove it unlawfull in foro Dei to set up the Tables and Conventions in our Kingdome when the Prelates were bringing in the grossest idolatrie into the Church a service for adoring of Altars of Bread the worke of the hand of the Baker a God more corruptible then any god of silver and gold And against Achabs will and minde 1 King 18 19. Elias causeth to kill the Priests of Baal according to Gods expresse law It is true it was extraordinary but no otherwise extraordinary then it is at this day When the supreme Magistrate will not execute the judgement of the Lord Those who made him supreme Magistrate under God who have under God soveraigne libertie to dispose of crownes and kingdomes are to execute the judgement of the Lord when wicked men make the law of God of none effect 1 Sam. 15. 32. so Samuel killed Hagage whom the Lord expresly commanded to be killed because Saul disobeyed the voyce of the Lord. I deny not but there is necessitie of a cleere warrant that the Magistrate neglect his duty either in not conveening the States or not executing the judgement of the Lord. 3. I see not how the conveening of a Parliament is extraordinarie to the States for none hath power ordinary when the King is dead or when he is distracted or captive in another land to conveene the Estates and Parliament but they only and in their defect by the law of Nature the people may conveene But 4. If they be essentially Iudges no lesse then the King as I have demonstrated to the impartiall Reader in the former Chapter I conceive though the State make a positive law for Orders cause that the King ordinarily conveene Parliaments Yet if we dispute the matter in the court of Conscience the Estates have intrinsecally because they are the Estates and essentially Iudges of the Land ordinary power to conveene themselves 1. Because when Moses by Gods rule hath appointed seventie men to be Catholike Iudges in the Land Moses upon his sole pleasure and will hath not power to restraine them in the exercise of judgment given them of God for as God hath given to any one Iudge power to judge righteous judgement though the King command the contrary so hath he given to him power to sit down in the gate or the bench when and where the necessitie of the oppressed people calleth for it For 1. the expresse commandement of God which saith to all Iudges Execute judgement in the morning involveth essentially a precept to all the Physicall actions without which it is impossible to execute judgement As namely if by a divine precept the Iudge must execute judgement ergo he must come to some publique place and he must cause partie and witnesses come before him and he must consider cognosce examine in the place of judgement things persons circumstances and so God who commandeth positive acts of judgeing commandeth the Iudges locomotive power and his naturall actions of compelling by the sword the parties to come before him even as Christ who commandeth his servants to preach commandeth that the Preacher and the People goe to Church and that he stand or sit in a place where all may heare and that he give himselfe to reading and meditating before he come to preach And if God command one Iudge to come to the place of judgement so doth he command seventie and so all Estates to conveen in the place of judgement It is objected That the Estates are not Iudges ordinary and habitually but only Iudges at some certaine occasions when the King for cogent and weighty causes calleth them and calleth them not to judge but to give him advise and counsell how to judge Ans 1. They are no lesse Iudges habitually then the King when the common affaires of the whole Kingdome necessitateth these Publique Watchmen to come together for even the King judgeth not actually but upon occasion 2. This is to beg the question to say that the Estates are not Iudges but when the King calleth them at such and such occasions for the Elders Princes and Heads of families and Tribes were Iudges ordinarie because they made the King And 2. the Kingdome by God yea and Church Iustice and Religion so far as they concerne the whole Kingdome are committed not to the keeping of the King only but to all the Iudges Elders and Princes of the Land And they are rebuked as evening wolves lyons oppressors Ezech. 22. 27. Zaca 3. 3. Esa 3. 14 15. Mic. 3. 1 2 3. when they oppresse the people in judgement So are they Deut.
Leopard or a Nero and a Julian then hath God given actu primo a power to a King as King to inslave the people and slock of God redeemed by the blood of God as the slaves among the Romans and Iews who were so under their masters as their bondage was a plague of God and the lives of the people of God under Pharaoh who compelled them to work in brick and clay 2. Though he cut the throats of the people of God as the Lionnesse Queen Mary did and command an Army of souldiers to come and burn the Cities of the Land and kill man wife and children yet in so doing he doth the part of a King so as you cannot resist him as a man and obey him as a King but must give your necks to him upon this ground because this absolute power of his is ordained of God and there is no power even to kill and destroy the innocent but it is of God so saith Paul Rom. 13. If we beleeve Court-Prophets or rather Lying-Spirits who perswade the King of Britain to make war against his three Dominions Now it is clear that the distinction of bound and free continued in Israel even under the most tyrannous Kings 2 Kings 4. 1. yea even when the Iews were captives under Ahasuerus Esther 7. 4. And what difference should there be between the people of God under their own Kings and when they were captives under Tyrants serving wood and stone and false gods as was threatned as a curse in the Law Deut. 28. 25 36 64 68. If their own Kings by Gods appointment have the same absolute power over them and if he be a Tyrant actu primo that is if he be indued with absolute power and so have power to play the Tyrant then must the people of God be actu primo slaves and under absolute subjection for they are relatives as lord and servant conquerour and captive It is true they say Kings by office are fathers they cannot put forth in action their power to destroy I answer it is their goodnesse of nature that they put not forth in action all their absolute power to destroy which God hath given them as Kings and therefore thanks are due to their goodnesse for that they do not actu secundo play the Tyrant for Royalists teach that by vertue of their office God hath given to them a Royall power to destroy Ergo The Lords people are slaves under them though they deal not with them as slaves but that hindereth not but the people by condition are slaves so many Conquerours of old did deal kindely with these slaves whom they took in war and dealt with them as sons but as Conquerours they had power to sell them to kill them to put them to work in brick and clay so say I here Royall power and a King cannot be a blessing and actu primo a favour of God to the people for the which they are to pray when they want a King that they may have one or to praise God when they have one But a King must be a curse and a judgement if he be such a creature as essentially and in the intention and nature of the thing it self hath by office a Royall power to destroy and that from God for then the people praying Lord give us a King should pray make us slaves Lord take our Libertie and power from us and give a power illimited and absolute to one man by which he may if he please waste us and destroy us as all the bloody Emperours did the people of God Surely I see not but they should pray for a temptation and to be led in temptation when they pray God to give them a King and therefore such a power is a vain thing Argum. 5. A power contrary to justice 2. To peace and the good of the people 3. That looketh to no law as a rule and so is unreasonable and forbidden by the Law of God and the Civill Law L. 15. filius de condit Instit cannot be a lawfull power and cannot constitute a lawfull Iudge but an absolute and unlimited power is such How can the Iudge be the Minister of God for good to the people Rom. 13. 4 If he have such a power as a King given him of God to destroy and waste the people Argum. 6. An absolute power is contrary to nature and so unlawfull for it maketh the people give away the naturall power of defending their life against illegall and cruell violence and maketh a man who hath need to be ruled and lawed by nature above all rule and law and one who by nature can sin against his brethren such a one as cannot sin against any but God onely and maketh him a Lion and an unsociall man What a man is Nero whose life is poesie paintry Domitian only an Archer Valentinian only a Painter Charles the 9th of France only an Hunter Alphonsus Dux Ferrariensis only an Astronomer Philippe of Macedo only a Musitian and all because they are Kings This our King denyeth when he saith Art 13. There is power legally placed in the Parliament more then sufficient to prevent and restraine the power of Tyranny But if they had not power to play the Lions it is not much that Kings are Musitians Hunters c. 7. God in making a King to preserve his people should give liberty without all politick restraint for one man to destroy many which is contrary to Gods end in the fift Commandement if one have absolute power to destroy soules and bodies of many thousands 8. If the Kings of Israel and Iudah were under censures and rebukes of the Prophets and sinned against God and the people in rejecting these rebukes and in persecuting the Prophets and were under this Law not to take their neighbours wife or his Vineyard from him against his will and the inferiour Iudges were to accept the persons of none in Iudgement small or great and if the King yet remaine a brother notwithstanding he be a King then is his power not above any Law nor absolute for what reason 1. He should be under one Law of God to be executed by men and not under another Law Royalists are to shew a difference from Gods Word 2. His neighbours brother or subjects may by violence keepe back their Vineyards and chastity from the King Naboth may by force keepe his owne Vineyard from Achab by the Lawes of Scotland if a subject obtaine a Decree of the King of violent possession of the Heritages of a subject he hath by Law power to cast out force apprehend and deliver to prison these who are Tenants brooking these Lands by the Kings personall Commandement If a King should force a Damsell she may violently resist and by violence and bodily opposing of violence to violence defend her owne chastity Now that the Prophets have rebuked Kings is evident Samuel rebuked Saul Nathan David Elias King Achab.
threatning 4. To be a King and an absolute Master to me are contradictory a King essentially is a living Law An absolute man is a creature that they call a Tyrant and no lawfull King yet doe I not meane that any that is a King and usurpeth absolutenesse leaveth off to be a King but in so far as he is absolute he is no more a King then in so far as he is a Tyrant But further the King of England saith in a Declaration 1. The Law is the measure of the Kings Power 2. Parliaments are essentially Lord Iudges to make Lawes essentially as the King is ergo the King is not above the Law 3. Magna Charta saith the King can doe nothing but by Lawes and no obedience is due to him but by Law 4. Prescription taketh away the title of conquests Obj 3. The King not the Parliament is the Anoynted of God Ans The Parliament is as good even a Congregation of Gods Psalme 82. 1. Obj. 4. The Parliament is the Court in their Acts they say with consent of our Soveraigne Lord. Ans They say not at the Commandement and absolute pleasure of our Soveraigne Lord. 2. He is their Lord materially not as they are formally a Parliament for the King made them not a Parliament but sure I am the Parliament had power before he was King and made him King 1 Sam. 10. 17 18. Obj. 5. In an absolute Monarchy there is not a resignation of men to any will as will but to the reasonable will of the Monarch which having the law of reason to direct it is kept from injurious acts Ans If reason be a sufficient restraint and if God hath laid no other restraint upon some lawfull King yee reason Then is Migistracy a lame a needlesse ordinance of God for all Mankind hath reason to keepe themselves from injuries and so there is no need of Iudges or Kings to defend them from either doing or suffering injuries But certainly this must be admirable If God as Author of nature should make the Lyon King of all beasts the Lyon remaining a devouring beast and should ordaine by nature all the sheepe and Lambs to come and submit their corps to him by instinct of nature and to be eaten at his will and then say The nature of a beast in a Lyon is a sufficient restraint to keepe the Lyon from devouring Lambs Certainly a King being a sinfull man and having no restraint on his power but reason he may thinke it reason to allow rebells to kill drowne hang torture to death an hundred thousand Protestants men women infants in the wombe and sucking babes as is clere in Pharaoh Manasseh and other Princes Obj. 6. There is no Court or Iudge above the King ergo he is absolutely supreame Ans The Antecedent is false The Court that made the King of a private man a King is above him and here are limitations laid on him at his Coronation 2. The States of Parliament are above him to censure him 3. In case of open Tyranny though the States had not time to conveen in Parliament if he bring on his people an hoast of Spaniards or forraine Rèbells his owne conscience is above him and the conscience of the people farre more called conscientia terrae may judge him in so farre as they may rise up and defend themselves Obj. 7. Here the Prelate borrowing from Grotius Barclay Arnisaeus or it s possible he be not so farre travelled for Doct. Ferne hath the same Soveraignty weakned in Aristocracy cannot do◠its worke and is in the next place to Anarchy and confusion When Zedekiah was over Lorded by his Nobles he could neither save himselfe nor the people nor the Prophet the servant of God Ieremiah nor could David punish Ioab when he was over-awed by that power he himselfe had put in his hand To weaken the head is to distemper the whole body if any good Prince or his Royall Antecessors be cheated of their sacred right by fraud or force he may at his fittest opportunity resume it What a sinne is it to rob God or the King of their due Ans Aristocracy is no lesse an ordinance of God then Royalty for Rom. 13. 1. and 1 Tim. 2. 1. All in Authority are to be acknowledged as Gods Vice-gerents the Senate the Consuls as well as the Emperour And so one ordinance of God cannot weaken another nor can any but by a lawlesse Animall say Aristocracy bordereth with confusion but he must say Order and Light are sister Germanes to confusion and darknesse 2 Though Zedekiah a man voyd of God were over-awed with his Nobles and so could not help Ieremiah it followeth not that because Kings may not do this and this good therefore they are to be invested with power to doe all ill if they doe all the good that they have power to doe they 'l finde way to helpe the oppressed Jeremiahes and because power to doe both good and evill is given by the Divell to our Scottish Witches it s a poore consequent that the States should give to the King power absolute to be a Tyrant 3. A State must give a King more power then ordinary especially to execute Laws which requireth singular wisdom when a Prince cannot alwayes have his great Councell about with him to advise him But 1. That is power borrowed and by loan and not properly his own and therefore it is no sacriledge in the States to resume what the King hath by a fiduciary Title and borrowed from them 2. This power was given to do good not evill David had power over Joab to punish him for his murther but he executed it not upon carnall fears and abused his power to kill innocent Vriah which power neither God nor the States gave him But how proveth he the States took power from David or that Ioab took power from David to put to death a murtherer that I see not 3. If Princes power to do good be taken from them they may resume it when God giveth opportunity But this is to the Prelate Perjury that the people by Oath give away their power to their King and resume it when he abuseth it to Tyranny But it is no perjurie in the King to resume a taken away power which if it be his own is yet lis sub judice a great controversie Quod in Cajo licet in Nevio non licet So he teacheth the King That Perjurie and Sacriledge is lawfull to him If Princes power to do ill and cut the whole Land off as one neck which was the wicked desire of Caligula be taken from them by the States I am sure 1. This power was never theirs and never the peoples and you cannot take the Princes power from him which was never his power 2. I am also sure the Prince should never resume an unjust power though he were cheated of it P. Prelate It is a poor shift to acknowledge no more for the
Royall Prerogative then the Municipall Law hath determined as some smatterers in the Law say They cannot distinguish betwixt a Statute Declarative and a Statute Constitutive but the Statutes of a Kingdom do declare onely what is the Prerogative Royall but do not constitute or make it God Almightie â—â—th by himself constituted it It is laughter to say the Decalogue was not a Law till God wrote it Answ Here a profound Lawyer calleth all smatters in the Law who cannot say that non ens a Prerogative Royall that is a power contrary to God and mans Law to kill and destroy the innocent came not immediately down from Heaven but I professe my self no Lawyer but do maintain against the Prelate that no Municipall Law can constitute a power to do ill nor can any Law either justly constitute or declare such a fancie as a Prerogative Royall so far is it from being like the Decalogue that is a Law before it be written that this Prerogative is neither Law before it be written nor after Court Placebo's have written for it for it must be eternall as the Decalogue if it have any blood from so noble a house 2. In what Scripture hath God Almightie spoken of a fancied Prerogative Royall P. Prelate Prerogative resteth not in its naturall seat but in the King God saith Reddite not Date render to Kings that which is Kings not give to Kings it shall never be well with us if his annointed and his Church be wronged Answ The Prelate may remember a Countrey Proverb He and his Prelates called the Church the scum of men not the Church are like the Tinkers dogs they like good company they must be ranked with the King And 2. Here a false Prophet It shall never be well with the Land while Arbitrary power and Popery be erected saith he in good sense P. Prelate The King hath his right from God and cannot make it away to the people Render to Caesar the things that are Caesars Kings persons their Charge their Right their Authority their Prerogative are by Scriptures Fathers Iurists Sacred inseparable Ordinances inherent in their Crowns they cannot be made away and when they are given to inferiour Judges it is not ad minuendam majestatem sed solicitudinem to lessen Soveraign Majesty but to case them Answ The King hath his right from God What then not from the people I read in Scripture The people made the King Never That the King made the people 2. All these are inseparably in the Crown but he stealeth in Prerogative Royall in the clause which is now in question Render to Caesar all Caesars And therefore saith he Render to him a Prerogative that is an absolute power to pardon and sell the blood of thousands Is power of blood either the Kings or inherent inseparably in his Crown Alas I fear Prelates have made blood an inseparable accident of his Throne 3. When Kings by that publike power given to them at their Coronation maketh inferiour Iudges they give them power to judge for the Lord not for men Deut. 1. 17. 2 Chron. 19. 6. Now they cannot both make away a power and keep it also for the inferiour Iudges conscience hangeth not at the Kings girdle he hath no lesse power to judge in his sphere then the King hath in his sphere though the Orb and circle of Motion be larger in compasse in the one then in the other and if the King cannot give himself Royall Power but God and the people must do it how can he communicate any part of that power to inferiour Judges except by trust Yea he hath not that power that other men have in many respects 1. He may not marry whom he pleaseth for he might give his body to a Leper woman and so hurt the Kingdom 2. He may not do as Solomon and Achab marry the daughter of a strange god to make her the mother of the heir of the Crown He must in this follow his great Senate 2. He may not expose his person to hazard of Warres 3. He may not go over Sea and leave his Watch-Tower without consent 4. Many Acts of Parliament of both Kingdoms discharge Papists to come within ten miles of the King 5. Some pernicious Counsellours have been discharged his company by Laws 6. He may not eat what Meats he pleaseth 7. He may not make Wasters his Treasurers 8. Nor Delapidate the Rents of the Crown 9. He may not dis-inherit his eldest son of the Crown at his own pleasure 10. He is sworn to follow no false gods and false religions nor is it in his power to go to Masse 11. If a Priest say Masse to the King by the Law he is hanged drawn and quartered 12. He may not write Letters to the Pope by Law 13. He may not by Law pardon seducing Priests and Iesuites 14. He may not take Physick for his health but from Physitians sworn to be true to him 15. He may not educate his heir as he pleaseth 16. He hath not power of his children nor hath he that power that other fathers have to marry his eldest son as he pleaseth 17. He may not befriend a Traytor 18. It is high Treason for any woman to give her body to the King except she be his married wife 19. He ought not to build sumptuous Houses without advice of his Councell 20. He may not dwell constantly where he pleaseth 21. Nor may he go to the Countrey to Hunt farlesse to kill his subjects and desert the Parliament 22. He may not confer honours and high places without his Councell 23. He may not deprive Iudges at his will 24. Nor is it in his power to be buried where he pleaseth but amongst the Kings Now in most of these twenty four points private persons have their own liberty far lesse restricted then the King QUEST XXIV What power hath the King in relation to the Law and the people And how a King and a Tyrant differ Mr. Symmons saith That Authoritie is rooted rather in the Prince then in the Law for as the King giveth Being to the inferiour Iudge so he doth to the Law it self making it authorizable for propter quod unum-quodque tale id ipsum magis tale and therefore the King is greater then the Law others say That the King is the Fountain of the Law and the sole and onely Law-giver Assert 1. The Law hath a twofold consideration 1. Secundum esse paenale in relation to the punishment to be inflicted by man 2. Secundum esse legis as it is a thing legally good in it self In the former notion it is this way true Humane Laws take life and being inway to be punished or rewarded by men from the will of Princes and Law-givers and so Symmons saith true Because men cannot punish or reward Laws but where they are made and the will of Rulers putteth a sort of stamp on a Law that it bringeth the Common-wealth under guiltinesse
if they break this Law But this maketh not the King greater then the Law for therefore do Rulers put the stamp of relation to punishment on the Law because there is intrinsecall worth in the Law Prior to the Act of the will of Law-givers for which it meriteth to be inacted and therefore because it is authorizable as good and just the King puteth on it this stamp of a Politique Law God formeth Being and morall Aptitude to the end in all Laws to wit the safetie of the people and the Kings will is neither the measure nor the cause of the goodnesse of things 2. If the King be he who maketh the Law good and just because he is more such himself then as the Law cannot crook and erre nor sin neither can the King sin nor break a Law This is blasphemy Every man is a lyer a Law which deserveth the name of a Law cannot lie 3. His ground is That there is such majesty in Kings that their will must be done either in us or on us A great untruth Achabs will must neither be done of Elias for he commandeth things unjust nor yet on Elias for Elias fled and lawfully we may slie Tyrants and so Achabs will in killing Elias was not done on him Assert 2. Nor can it be made good that the King only hath power of making Lawes because his power were then absolute to inflict penalties on Subjects without any consent of theirs and that were a dominion of Masters who command what they please and under what paine they please And the people consenting to be ruled by such a man they tacitely consent to penaltie of laws because naturall reason saith An ill-doer should be punished Florianus in l. inde Vasquez l. 2. c. 55. n. 3. Therefore they must have some power in making these lawes 2. Jer. 26. It is cleare The Princes judge with the people A nomothetick power differeth gradually only from a judiciall power both being collarerall meanes to the end of Government the peoples safetie But Parliaments judge ergo they have a nomothetick power with the King 3. The Parliament giveth all supremacie to the King ergo to prevent Tyrannie it must keep a coordinate power with the King in the highest acts 4. If the Kingly line be interrupted if the King be a Childe or a Captive they make Lawes who make Kings Ergo this nomothetick power recurreth into the States as to the first subject Obj. The King is the fountaine of the law and Subjects cannot make Lawes to themselves more then they can punish themselves He is only the Supreme Answ The People being the fountaine of the King must rather be the fountaine of Lawes 2. It is false that no man maketh lawes to himselfe Those who teach others teach themselves also 1 Tim. 2. 12. 1 Cor. 14. 34. though Teaching be an act of authoritie But they agree to the penaltie of the Law secondarily only and so doth the King who as a father doth not will evill of punishment to his children but by a consequent will 3. The King is the only Supreme in the power ministeriall of executing lawes but this is a derived power so as no one man is above him but in the fountaine-power of Royaltie the States are above him 5. The Civil law is cleare that the laws of the Emperor have force only from this fountaine because the People have transferred their power to the King Lib. 1. digest tit 4. de constit Princip leg 1. sic Vlpian Quod Principi placuit loquitur de Principe formaliter qua Princeps est non qua est homo legis habet vigorem utpote cum lege Regia quae de imperio ejus lata est populus â—i in eum omne suum imperium potestatem conferat Yea the Emperour himselfe may be conveened before the Prince Elector Aurea Bulla Carol. 4. Imper c. 5. The King of France may be conveened before the Senate of Paris The States may resist a Tyrant as Bossius saith de Principe privileg ejus n. 55. Paris de puteo in tract syno tit de excess Reg. c. 3. Divines acknowledge that Elias rebuked the halting of Israel betwixt God and Baal that their Princes permitted Baals Priests to converse with the King And is not this the sinne of the Land that they suffer their King to worship Idols and therefore the Land is punished for the sinnes of Manasseh as Knox observeth in his Dispute with Lethington where he proveth that the States of Scotland should not permit the Queen of Scotland to have her abominable Masse Hist of Scotland l. 4. p. 379. edit an 1644. Surely the power or Sea-Prerogative of a sleepie or mad Pilot to split the ship on a rock as I conceive is limited by the Passengers Suppose a father in a distemper would set his own house on fire and burne himselfe and his ten sonnes I conceive his Fatherly prerogative which neither God nor Nature gave should not be looked to in this but they may binde him Yea Althusius polit c. 39. n. 60. answering that That in Democracie the people cannot both command and obey saith It is true secundum idem ad idem eodem tempore But the people may saith he choose Magistrates by succession Yea I say 1. they may change Rulers yearely to remove envie A yearely King were more dangerous the King being almost above envie Men incline more to flatter then to envie Kings 2. Aristotle saith polit l. 4. c. 4. l. 6. c. 2. The people may give their judgement of the wisest Obj. Williams B. of Ossorie Vindic. Reg. A Looking-glasse for Rebels saith p. 64. To say the King is better than any one doth not prove him to be better then two and if his supremacie be no more then any other may challenge as much for the Prince is singulis major A Lord is above all Knights a Knight above all Esquires and so the People have placed a King under them not above them Ans The reason is not alike for all the Knights united cannot make one Lord and all the Esquires united cannot make one Knight but all the People united made David King at Hebron 2. The King is above the people by eminencie of derived authoritie as a Watchman and in actuall supremacie and he is inferior to them in fountaine-power as the effect to the cause Object 2. The Parliament saith Williams may not command the King Why then make they supplications to him if their Vote be a Law Ans They supplicate ex decentia of decencie and conveniencie for his place as a Citie doth supplicate a Lord Major but they supplicate not ex debito of obligation as beggars seeke almes then should they be cyphers 2. When a Subject oppressed supplicateth his Soveraigne for justice the King is obliged by office to give justice And to heare the oppressed is not an act of grace and mercie as to give
wisedome for in many and in the people there must be more wisdome then in one man but rather corruption of nature and reciprocation of injuries that created Kings and other Iudges 9. The King shall better compasse his end to wit the safetie of the people with limited power placent mediocria and with other Iudges added to helpe him Num. 11. 14 16. Deut. 1. 12 13 14 15. then to put in one mans hand absolute power for a sinfull mans head cannot beare so much new wine such as exorbitant power is 10. He is a base flatterer who saith The King cannot choose but earnestly and carefully endeavour his own and the peoples happinesse that is the King is an Angel and cannot sinne and decline from the duties of a King Of the many Kings of Judah and Israel how many chose this All the good Kings that have been may be written in a gold ring 11. The peoples safetie dependeth indeed on the King as a King and a happy Governour but the people shall never be fattened to eat the winde of an imaginarie Prerogative Royall 12. Weake Government that is a King with a limited power who hath more power about his head nor within his head is a strong King and farre from Anarchy 13. I know not what he meaneth but Arminius his Masters way and words are here for Arminians say That being in the damned eternally tormented is no benefit it were better they never had being then to be eternally tormented and this they say to the defiance of the Doctrine of eternall Reprobation in which we teach That though by accident and because of the Damned their abuse of being and life it were to them better not to be as is said of Iudas yet simpliciter comparing being with non-being and considering the eternity of miserable being in relation to the absolute liberty of the Former of all things who maketh use of the sinfull being of Clay-vessells for the illustration of the glory of his Iustice and power Rom. 9. 17 22. 1 Pet. 2. 8. Iude v. 4. It is a censuring of God and his unsearchable Wisedome and a condemning of the Almighty of cruelty God avert blasphemy of the unspotted and holy Majesty who by Arminian grounds keepeth the Damned in life and being to be fuell eternally for Tophet to declare the glory of his Iustice But the Prelate behoved to goe out of his way to salute and gratifie a proclaimed enemy of free Grace Arminius and hence he would inferre That the King wanting his Prerogative Royall and fulnesse of absolute power to doe wickedly is in a penall and miserable condition and that it were better for the King to be a Tyrant with absolute liberty to destroy and save alive at his pleasure as is said of a Tyrant Dan. 5. v. 19. then to be no King at all And here consider a Principle of Royalists Court faith 1. The King is no King but a lame and miserable Iudge if he have not irresistable power to wast and destroy 2. The King cannot be happy nor the people safe nor can the King doe good in saving the needy except he have the uncontrollable and unlimited power of a Tyrant to crush the poore and needy and lay wast the mountaine of the Lords inheritance such Court-ravens who feede upon the soules of living Kings are more cruell then Ravens and Vultures who are but dead carcasses Williams B. of Ossarie answereth to the Maxime Salus populi c. No wise King but will carefully provide for the peoples safety because his safety and honour is included in theirs his destruction in theirs And it is saith Lipsius egri animi proprium nihil diu pati Absolom perswaded there was no justice in the Land when he intendeth Rebellion And the poore Prelate following him spendeth pages to prove that Goods Life Chastity and Fame dependeth on the safety of the King as the breath of our nostrills our Nurse-father our Head corner-stone and Judge c. 17. 6. 18. 1. The reason why all disorder was in Church and State was not because there was no Iudge no Government none can be so stupid as to imagine that But because 1. They wanted the excellentest of Governments 2. Because Aristocracy was weakened so as there was no right No doubt Priests there were but Hos 4. either they would not serve or were over-awed no doubt in those daies they had Iudges but Priests and Iudges were stoned by a rascally multitude and they were not able to rule therefore it is most consonant to Scripture to say Salus regis suprema populi salus The safety of the King and his Prerogative Royall is the safest sanctuary for the people So Hos 3. 4. Lament 2. 9. Ans 1. The question is not of the Wisedome but of the Power of the King if it should be bounded by no Law 2. The flatterer may know there be more foolish Kings in the world then wise and that Kings misled with Idolatrous Queenes and by name Achab ruined himselfe and his posterity and Kingdome 3. The salvation and happinesse of men standing in the exalting of Christs Throne and the Gospell ergo every King and every man will exalt the Throne and so let them have an incontrollable power without constraint of Law to doe what they list and let no bounds be set to Kings over subjects by this Argument their owne wisedome is a law to leade them to Heaven 4. It is not Absoloms mad Male-contents in Britane but there were really no justice to Protestants all indulgence to Papists Popery Arminianisme Idolatry printed Preached professed rewarded by Authority Parliaments and Church Assemblies the Bulwarkes of Iustice and Religion were denyed dissolved crushed c. 5. That by a King he understandeth a Monarch Iudg. 17. and that such a one as Saul of Absolute power and not a Iudge cannot be proved for there were no Kings in Israel in the Iudges daies the Government not being changed till neare the end of Samuels Government 6. And that they had no Iudges he saith It is not imaginable but I rather beleeve God then the Prelate Every one did what was right in his owne eyes because there was none to put ill doers to shame Possible the Estates of Israel governed some way for meere necessity but wanting a supreme Iudge which they should have they were loose but this was not because where there is no King as P. P. would insinuate there was no Government as is cleare 7. Of tempered and limited Monarchy I thinke as honourably as the Prelate but that absolute and unlimited Monarchy is excellenter then Aristocracy I shall then beleeve when Royalists shall prove such a Government in so farre it is absolute to be of God 8. That Aristocracy was now weakened I beleeve not seeing God so highly commendeth it and calleth it his own reigning over his people 1 Sam. 8. 7. The weakening of it through abuse is not to a purpose more then the abuse
people and so what he doth to the hurt of his subjects he doth it not as King 2. The Law saith Qui habet potestatem constituendi etiam jus adimendi l. nemo 37. l. 21. de reg jure Those who have power to make have power to unmake Kings 3. What ever the King doth as King that he doth by a power borrowed from or by a fiduciary power which is his by trust the Estates who made him King He must then be nothing but an eminent servant of the State in the punishing of others If therefore he be unpunishable it is not so much because his Royall power is above all Law-coaction as because one the same man cannot be both the punisher and the punished and this is a Physicall incongruity rather then a Morall absurdity So the Law of God layeth a duty on the inferiour Magistrate to use the sword against the murtherer and that by vertue of his Office but I much doubt if for that he is to use the sword against himselfe in the case of Murther for this is a truth I purpose to make good that suffering as suffering according to the substance and essence of passion is not commanded by any Law of God or nature to the sufferer but only the manner of suffering I doubt if it be not by the Law of Nature lawfull even to the ill doer who hath deserved death by Gods Law to fly from the sword of the lawfull Magistrate only the manner of suffering with patience is commanded of God I know the Law saith here That the Magistrate is both Iudge and the Executor of the sentence against himselfe in his owne cause for the excellency of his Office Therefore these are to be distinguished whether the King Ratione demeriti jure by Law be punishable or if the King can actually be punished corporally by a Law of man he remaining King and since he must be a punisher himselfe and that by vertue of his Office In matters of goods the King may be both Iudge and punisher of himselfe as our Law provideth that any subject may plead his owne heritage from the King before the inferiour Iudges and if the King be a violent possessour and in Mala fide for many yeares by Law he is obliged upon a Decree of the Lords to execute the sentence against himselfe Ex officio and to restore the Lands and repay the dammage to the just owner and this the King is to doe against himselfe ex officio I grant here the King as King punisheth himselfe as an unjust man but because bodily suffering is meere violence to nature I doubt if the King ex officio is to doe or inflict any bodily punishment on himselfe Nemo potest a seipso cogi l. ille a quo 13. § Assert 6. There be some Lawes made in favour of the King as King as to pay tribute The King must be above this Law as King True but if a Noble man of a great rent be elected King I know not if he can be free from paying to himselfe as King tribute seeing this is not allowed to the King by a Divine Law Rom. 13. 6. as a reward of his worke and Christ expresly maketh tribute a thing due to Caesar as a King Matth. 22. v. 21. There be some solemnities of the Law from which the King may be free Prickman D. c. 3. n. 78. and he relateth what they are they are not Lawes but some circumstances belonging to Lawes and Prickman answereth to many places alledged out of the Lawyers to prove the King to be above the Law Maldorus in 12. Art 4 5 9 96. will have the Prince under that Law which concerneth all the Common-wealth equally in regard of the matter and that by the Law of nature but he will not have him subject to these Lawes which concerneth the subjects as subjects as to pay tribute He citeth Francisc a Vict. Covarruvia and Turrecremata He also will have the Prince under positive Lawes such as not to transport victualls not because the Law bindeth him as a Law But because the making of the Law bindeth him Tanquam conditio sine qua non even as he who teacheth another that he should not steale he should not steale himselfe Rom. 2. But the truth is this is but a branch of the Law of Nature that I should not commit Adultery and Theft and Sacriledge and such sinnes as nature condemneth if I shall condemne them in others and doth not prove that the King is under the coactive power of Civill Lawes Vlpianus l. 31. F. de regibus saith The Prince is loosed from Lawes Bodine de Repub. l. 7. c. 8. Nemo imperat sibi No man commandeth himselfe Tholosanus saith Ipsius est dare non accipere leges The Prince giveth Lawes but receiveth none De Rep. l. 7. c. 20. Donellus Lib. 1. Comment c. 17. distinguisheth betwixt a Law and a Royall Law proper to the King Trentlerus Volum 1. 79. 80. saith The Prince is freed from Laws and that he obeyeth Laws de honestate non de necessitate Vpon honesty not of necessity Thomas P. 1. q. 96. Art 5. and with him Soto Gregorius de Valentia and other Schoole-men subject the King to the directive power of the Law and liberate him of the coactive power of the Law Assert 7. If a King turne a Paricide a Lyon and a waster and destroyer of the people as a man he is subject to the Coactive power of the Lawes of the Land If any Law should hinder that a Tyrant should not be punished by Law it must be because he hath not a superiour but God for Royalists build all upon this but this ground is false because the Estates of the Kingdome who gave him the Crowne are above him and they may take away what they gave him as the Law of Nature and God saith If they had knowne he would turne Tyrant they would never have given him the sword and so how much ignorance is in the contract they made with the King as little of will is in it and so it is not every way willing but being conditionall is supposed to be against their will 2. They gave the power to him only for their good and that they make the King is cleare 2 Chron. 23. 11. 1 Sam. 10. 17 24. Deut. 17. 14 15 16 17. 2 King 11. v. 12. 1 King 16. 21. 2 King 10. 5. Iud. 9. 6. 2. 2 Chron. 26. 18. fourescore valiant men of the Priests withstood Vzziah in a corporall violence and thrust him out and cut him off from the house of the Lord. And 2. If the Princes place doe not put him above the Lawes of Church-Discipline Matth. 18. for Christ excepteth none and how can men except and if the rod of Christs lips smite the earth and stay the wicked Esay 11. 4. and the Prophets Elias Nathan Ieremiah Esaiah c. Iohn Baptist Iesus Christ and his
because he hath sinned against humane societie either through the scandall of blasphemie or through other heynous sinnes he hath defiled the Land Now this is incident to the King as well as to some other sinfull man To these and the like heare what the excommunicated Prelate hath to say 1. They say he meaneth the Jesuites Every societie of men is a perfect Republick and so must have within it selfe a power to preserve it selfe from ruine and by that to punish a Tyrant He answereth A societie without a Head is a disorderly rout not a Politique body and so cannot have this power Ans 1. The Pope giveth to every Societie Politick power to make away a Tyrant or hereticall King and to un-king him by his brethren the Jesuites way And observe how Papists of which number I could easily prove the P. Prelate to be by the Popish doctrine that he delivered while the iniquitie of time and dominion of Prelates in Scotland advanced him against all worth of true learning and holinesse to be a Preacher in Edinborough and Iesuites agree as the builders of Babylon It is the purpose of God to destroy Babylon 2. This answer shall inferre that the Aristocraticall Governors of any free State and that the Duke of Venice and the Senate there is above all Law and cannot be resisted because without their Heads they are a disorderly Rout. 3. A Politicall societie as by Natures instinct they may appoint a Head or Heads to themselves so also if their Head or Heads become ravenous Wolves the God of Nature hath not left a perfect Societie remedilesse but they may both resist and punish the Head or Heads to whom they gave all the power that they have for their good not for their destruction 4. They are as orderly a body Politique to unmake a Tyrannous Commander as they were to make a just Governonr The Prelate saith It is alike to conceive a Politique body without a Governour as to conceive the naturall body without a Head He meaneth None of them can be conceivable I am not of his minde When Saul was dead Israel was a perfect Politique body and the Prelate if he be not very obtuse in his head as this hungry peece stollen from others sheweth him to be may conceive a visible Politicall societie performing a Politicall action 2 Sam. 5. 1 2 3. making David King at a visible and conceivable place at Hebron and making a Covenant with him And that they wanted not all Governors is nothing to make them Chymera's unconceivable For when so many families before Nimrod were governed only by fathers of families and they agreed to make either a King or other Governors a Head or Heads over themselves though the severall families had government yet these consociated families had no government and yet so conceivable a Politique body as if Maxwell would have compeared amongst them and called them a disorderly rout or an unconceivable Chymera they should have made the Prelate know that Chymera's can knock down Prelates Neither is a King the life of a Politique body as the soule is of the naturall body The body createth not the soule but Israel created Saul King and when he was dead they made David King and so under God many Kings as they succeeded till the Messiah came No naturall body can make soules to it selfe by succession Nor can Seas create new Prelates alwayes P. Prelate Jesuites and Puritans differ infinitely We are hopefull God shall cast down this Babel The Iesuites for ought I know seat the superintendent power in the Communitie Some Sectaries follow them and warrant any individuall person to make away a King in case of defects and the worke is to be rewarded as when one killeth a ravenous Wolfe Some will have it in a collective body but how not met together by warrant or writ of Soveraigne Authoritie but when fancie of reforming Church and State calleth them Some will have the power in the Nobles and Peeres some in the three Estates assembled by the Kings Writ some in the inferior Iudges I know not where this power to curbe Soveraigntie is but in Almighty God Ans 1. Iesuites and Puritans differ infinitely true Jesuites deny the Pope to be Antichrist hold all Arminian doctrine Christs locall descension to hell all which the Prelate did preach We deny all this 2. We hope also the Lord shall destroy the Jesuites Babel the â—uburbs whereof and more are the Popish Prelates in Scotland and England 3. The Jesuites for ought he knoweth place all superintendent power in the Communitie The Prelate knoweth not all his brethren the Iesuites wayes but it is ignorance not want of good will For Bellarmine Beucanus Suarez Gregor de Valentia and others his deare fellowes say That all superintendent power of policy in ordine ad spiritualia is in the man whose foot Maxwell would kisse for a Cardinals Haâ— 4. If these be all the differences it is not much the Community is the remote and last subject the representative body the nearest subject the Nobles a partiall subject the Iudges as Iudges sent by the King are so in the game that when an Arbitrary Prince at his pleasure setteth them up and at command that they judge for men and not for the Lord and accordingly obey they are by this power to be punished and others put in their place 5. A true cause of convening Parliaments the prelate maketh a Fancie at this time it is as if the theeves and robbers should say a Iustice Court were a fancie but if the Prelate might compeare before the Parliament of Scotland to which he is an out-law like his father 2 Thess 2. 4. such a fancie I conceive should hang him and that deservedly P. Prelate The subject of this superintending power must be secured from errour in judgement and practise and the community and States then should be infallible Ans The consequence is nought no more then the King the absolute independent is infallible 2. It is sure the people are in lesse hazard of Tyranny and selfe destruction then the King is to subvert Lawes and make himselfe absolute and for that cause there must be a superintendent power above the King and God Almighty also must be above all P. Prelate The Parliament may erre then God hath left the state remedilesse except the King remedy it Ans There 's no consequence here except the King be impeccable 2. Posteriour Parliaments may correct the former 3. A State is not remedilesse because Gods remedies in sinfull mens hands may miscarry But the question is now whether God hath given power to one man to destroy men subvert Lawes and Religion without any power above him to coerce restraine or punish P. Prelate If when the Parliament erreth the remedy is left to the Wisedome of God why not when the King erreth Ans Neither is Antecedent true nor the consequence valid for the sounder part may resist and it is
with the wine of the Cup of Babells fornications are so madde and the ten Emperours are so madde who wasted their faithfullest subjects P. Prelate If there be such a power in the Peeres resumable in the exigent of necessity as the last necessary remedy for safety of Church and State God and nature not being deficient in things necessary it must be proved out of the Scripture and not taken on trust for Affirmanti incumbit probatio Ans Mr. Bishop what better is your Affirmanti incumbit c then mine for you are the affirmer I can prove a power in the King limited onely to feed governe and save the people and you affirme that God hath given to the King not only a power officiall and Royall to save but also to destroy and cut off so as no man may say Why doest thou this Shall we take this upon the word of an excommunicated Prelate Profer tabulas Iohn P. P. I beleeve you not Royall power is Deut. 17. 18. Rom. 3. 14. I am sure there is there a power given to the King to doe good and that from God Let John P. P. prove a power to doe ill given of God to the King 2. We shall quickly prove that the States may represse this power and punish the Tyrant not the King when he shall prove that a Tyrannous power is an Ordinance of God and so may not be resisted For the law of Nature teacheth If I give my sword to my fellow to defend me from the murtherer if he shall fall to and murther me with my own sword I may if I have strength take my sword from him Prelate It is infidelitie to thinke that God cannot helpe us and impatience that we will not wait on God When a King oppresseth us it is against Gods wisdome that he hath not provided another meane for our safetie than intrusion on Gods right 2. It is against Gods power 3. his Holinesse 4. Christian Religion that we necessitate God to so weake a meane to make use of sinne and we cast the aspersion of Treason on Religion and deterre Kings to professe Reformed Catholike Religion 5. We are not to justle God out of his right Ans I see nothing but what D. Ferne Grotius Barclay Blackwood have said before with some colour of proving the consequence The P. Prelate giveth us other mens arguments but without bones All were good if the States coercing and curbing a power which God never gave to the King were a sinne and an act of impatience and unbelief And if it were proper to God only by his immediate hand to coerce Tyrannie 2. He calleth it not Protestant Religion either here or elsewhere but cautelously giveth a name that will agree to the Roman Catholique Religion For the Dominicans Franciscans and the Parisian Doctors and Schoolemen following Occham Gerson Almain and other Papists call themselves Reformed Catholiques 2. He layeth this for a ground in 3 or 4 pages where these same Arguments are againe and againe repeated in terminis as his second Reason p. 149. was handled ad nauseam p. 148. his 3. Reason is repeated in his 6. Reason p. 151. He layeth I say down this ground which is the begged Conclusion and maketh the Conclusion the Assumption in 8 raw and often repeated Arguments to wit That the Parliaments coercing and restraining of Arbitrarie power is rebellion and resisting the Ordinance of God But he dare not looke the place Rom. 13. on the face other Royalists have done it with bad successe This I desire to be weighed â—â—d I retort the Prelates argument But it is indeed the triviall Argument of all Royalists especially of Barclay obvious in his 3. Booke If Arbitrarie and Tyrannicall power above any Law that the lawfull Magistrate commandeth under the paine of death Thou shalt not murther one man Thou shalt not take away the vineyard of one Naboth violently be lawfull and warrantable by Gods word then an Arbitrarie power above all Divine lawes is given to the keeping of the Civill Magistrate And it is no lesse lawfull Arbitrarie or rather Tyrannicall power for David to kill all his Subjects and to plunder all Jerusalem as I beleeve Prelates and Malignants and Papists would serve the three Kingdomes if the King should command them then to kill one Vriah or for Achab to spoile one Naboth The essence of sinne must agree alike to all though the degrees varie Of Gods remedie against Arbitrary power hereafter in the Question of Resistance but the confused ingine of the Prelate bringeth it in here where there is no place for it His 7. Argument is Before God would authorize Rebellion and give a bad president thereof for ever he would rather worke extraordinary and wonderfull miracles and therefore would not authorize the people to deliver themselves from under Pharaoh but made Mosesâ— Prince to bring them out of Egypt with a stretched-out arme nor did the Lord deliver his people by the wisdome oâ— Moses or strength of the people or any act that way of theirs but by his own immediate hand and power Ans I reduce the Prelates confused words to a few for I speake not of his Popish tearme of Saint Steven and others the like because all that he hath said in a book of 149 pages might have been said in three sheets of paper But I pray you what is this Argument to the Question in hand which is Whether the King be so above all Lawes as People and Peeres in the case of Arbitrarie power may resume their power and punish a Tyrant The P. Prelate draweth in the Question of Resistance by the haire Israels not rising in armes against K. Pharaoh proveth nothing against the power of a Free Kingdome against a Tyrant 1. Moses who wrought miracles destructive to Pharaoh might pray a vengeance against Pharaoh God having revealed to Moses that Pharaoh was a Reprobate But may Ministers and Nobles pray so against King Charles God forbid 2. Pharaoh had not his Crown from Israel 3. Pharaoh had not sworne to defend Israel nor became he their King upon condition he should maintaine and professe the Religion of the God of Israel Therefore Israel could not as free Estates challenge him in their supreme Court of Parliament of breach of oath and upon no termes could they un-king Pharaoh He held not his Crown of them 4. Pharaoh was never circumcised nor within the Covenant of the God of Isrdel in profession 5. Israel had their lands by the meere gift of the King I hope the King of Britaine standeth to Scotland and England in a fourefold contrary relation All Divines know that Pharaoh his Princes and the Egyptians were his Peeres and People â—nd that Israel were not his native Subjects but a number of strangers who by the lawes of the King and Princes by the meanes of Joseph had gotten the land of Goshen for their dwelling and libertie to serve the God of Abraham to whom they prayed in their
Tyrannicall power if he make captives and slaves of them as the Kings of Chaldea made slaves of the people of Israel What Because God useth another mean Ergo This mean is not lawfull It followeth in no sort If we must use no means but what the captive people did under Cyrus we may not lawfully flie nor supplicate for the people did neither P. Prelate You read of no Covenant in Scripture made without the King Exod. 34. Moses King of Iesurum neither Tables nor Parliament framed it Joshua another Iosh 24. and Asa 2 Chron. 15. and 2 Chron. 34. and Ezra 10. The Covenant of Iehojada in the non-age of Ioash was the High Priests Act as the Kings Governour There is a covenant with Hell made without the King and a false Covenant Hos 10. 3 4. Answ We argue this negatively This is neither commanded nor practised nor warranted by promise Ergo It is not lawfull But this is not practised in Scripture Ergo It is not lawfull It followeth it Shew me in Scripture the killing of a Goaring On who killed a man the not making battlements on an house the putting to death of a man lying with a Beast the killing of seducing Prophets who tempted the people to go a whoring and serve another God then Jehovah I mean a god made by the hand of the Baker such a one as the excommunicated Prelate is known to be who hath Preached this Idolatry in three Kingdoms yet Deut. 13. This is written and all the former Laws are divine Precepts shall the Precept make them all unlawfull because they are not practised by some in Scripture By this I ask Where read yee that the people entered in a Covenant with God not to worship the Golden Image and the King and these who pretend they are the Priests of Iehovah the Church-men and Pelates refused to enter in Covenant with God By this argument the King and Prelates in non-practising with us wanting the precedent of a like practice in Scripture are in the fault 2. This is nothing to prove the conclusion in question 3. All these places prove it is the Kings dutie when the people under him and their fathers have corrupted the worship of God to renew a Covenant with God and to cause the people to do the like as Moses Asa Iehoshaphat did 4. If the King refuse to do his dutie where is it written That the people ought also to omit their dutie and to love to have it so because the Rulers corrupt their wayes Ierem. 5. 31 To renew a Covenant with God is a point of service due to God that the people are obliged unto whether the King command it or no. What if the King command not his people to serve God or What if he forbid Daniel to pray to God Shall the people in that case serve the King of Kings onely at the nod and Royall command of an earthly King Clear this from Scripture 5. Ezra 5. had no commandment in particular from Artaxerxes King of Persia or from Darius but a Generall that Ezr. 7. 23. Whatsoever is commanded by the God of Heaven let it be diligently done far the house of the God of Heaven But the Tables in Scotland and the two Parliaments of England and Scotland who renewed the Covenant and entered in Covenant not against the King as the P. P. saith but to restore Religion to its ancient Puritie have this expresse Law from King James and King Charles both in many Acts of Parliament that Religion be kept pure Now as Artaxerxes knew nothing of the Covenant and was unwilling to subscribe it and yet gave to Ezra and the Princes a warrant in generall to do all that the God of Heaven required to be done for the Religion and house of the God of Heaven and so a generall warrant for a Covenant without the King and yet Ezra and the people in swearing that Covenant failed in no dutie against their King to whom by the fifth Commandment they were no lesse subject then we are to our King just so we are and so have not failed but they say The King hath committed to no Lievtenant and Deputie under him to do what they please in Religion without his Royall consent in particular and the direction of his Clergy seeing he is of that same Religion with his people whereas Artaxerxes was of another Religion then were the Iews and their Governour Answ Nor can our King take on himself to do what he pleaseth and what the Prelates amongst whom these who ruled all are known before the World and the Sun to be of another Religion then we are pleaseth in particular But see what Religion and Worship the Lord our God and the Law of the Land which is the Kings revealed will alloweth to us that we may swear though the King should not swear it otherwayes we are to be of no Religion but of the Kings and to swear no Covenant but the Kings which is to joyn with Papists against Protestants 6. The strangers of Ephraim and Manasseh and out of Simeon fell out of Israel in abundance to Asa when they saw that the Lord his God was with him 2 Chron. 15. 9 10. And sware that Covenant without their own Kings consent their own King being against it If a people may swear a Religious Covenant without their King who is averse thereunto far more may the Nobles Peers and Estates of Parliament do it without their King And here is an example of a practise which the P. Prelate requireth 7. That Jehojadah was Governour and Vice-Roy during the nonage of Joash and that by this Royall Authoritie the Covenant was sworn is a dream to the end he may make the Pope and the Arch-Prelate now Vice-Royes and Kings when the throne varieth The Nobles were Authors of the making of that Covenant no lesse then Iehojadah was yea and the People of the Land when the King was but a childe went unto the house of Baal and brake down his Images c. Here is a Reformation made without the King by the people 8. Grave Expositors say That the Covenant with death and hell Esay 28. was the Kings Covenant with Egypt 9. And the Covenant Hos 10. is by none exponed of a Covenant made without the King I heard say this Prelate Preaching on this Text before the King exponed it so But he spake words as the Text is falsly The P. Prelate to the end of the Chapter giveth instance of the ill-successe of Popular Reformation because the people caused Aaron to make a Golden Calf and they revolted from Rehoboam to Ieroboam and made two Golden Calves and they conspired with Absolom against David Answ If the first example make good any thing neither the High-Priest as was Aaron nor the P. Prelate who claimeth to be descended of Aarons house should have any hand in Reformation at all for Aaron erred in that and to argue from the peoples sins to deny their power is no
is to resist the Ordinance of God as Royalists say from Rom. 13. 1 2 3. And we know to resist Gods ordinances and Gods Deputy formaliter as his Deputy is to resist God himselfe 1 Sam. 8. 7. Mat. 10. 40. as if God were doing personally these Acts that the King is doing and it importeth as much as the King of Kings doth these Acts in and through the Tyrant Now it is blasphemy to thinke or say that when a King is drinking the blood of innocents and wasting the Church of God that God if he were personally present would commit these same acts of Tyranny God would avert such blasphemy and that God in and through the King as his lawfull Deputy and Vicegerent in these acts of Tyranny is wasting the poore Church of God If it be said in these sinfull acts of Tyranny he is not Gods formall Vicegerent but only in good and lawfull acts of Government yet he is not to be resisted in these acts not because the acts are just and good but because of the dignity of his Royall Person Yet this must prove that these who resist the King in these acts of Tyranny must resist no ordinance of God but only that we resist him who is the Lords Deputy though not as the Lords Deputy what absurd is there in that more then to disobey him refusing active obedience to him who is the Lords Deputy but not as the Lords Deputy but as a man commanding beside his Masters Warrant 5. That which is inconsistent with the care and providence of God in giving a King to his Church is not to be taught Now Gods end in giving a King to his Church is the feeding safetie preservation the peaceable and quiet life of his Church 1 Tim. 2. 2. Esa 49. 23. Psal 79. 71. But God should crosse his own end in the same act of giving a King if he should provide a King who by office were to suppresse Robbers Murtherers and all oppressors and wasters in his holy Mount and yet should give an irresistible power to one crowned Lyon a King who may kill a thousand thousand Protestants for their Religion in an ordinary Providence and they are by an ordinary law of God to give their throats to his Emissaries and bloody executioners If any say The King will not be so cruell I beleeve it because actu secundo it is not possibly in his power to be so cruell 2. We owe thanks to his good will that he killeth not so many but no thanks to the nature and genuine intrinsecall end of a King who hath power from God to kill all these and that without resistance made by any mortall man Yea no thanks God avert blasphemie to Gods ordinary providence which if Royalists may be beleeved putteth no barre upon the illimited power of a man inclined to sinne and abuse his power to so much crueltie Some may say the same absurditie doth follow if the King should turne Papist and the Parliament all were Papists in that case there might be so many Martyrs for the truth put to death and God should put no bar of providence upon this power then more then now and yet in that case the King and Parliament should be Iudges given of God actu primo and by vertue of their office obliged to preserve the people in Peace and Godlinesse But I answer If God gave a lawfull officiall power to King and Parliament to worke the same crueltie upon millions of Martyrs and it should be unlawfull for them by armes to defend themselves I should then think that King and Parliament were both ex officio by vertue of their office and actu primo Iudges and Fathers and also by that same office Murtherers and Butchers Which were a grievous aspersion to the unspotted Providence of God 6. If the Estates of a Kingdome give the power to a King it is their own power in the fountaine and if they give it for their own good they have power to judge when it it used against themselves and for their evill and so power to limit and resist the power that they gave Now that they may take away this power is cleare in Athaliahs case It is true she was a Tyrant without a Title and had not the right of Heaven to the Crown yet she had in Mens Court a title For supposing all the seed Royall to be killed and the peoples Consent we cannot say That for these sixe yeares or thereabout she was no Magistrate 2. That there were none on the Throne of David at this time 3. That she was not to be obeyed as Gods Deputie But grant that she was no Magistrate yet when Iehoash is brought forth to be crowned it was a controversie to the States to whom the Crown should belong 1. Athaliah was in possession 2. Iehoash himselfe being but seven yeares old could not be Iudge 3. It might be doubted if Ioash was the true sonne of Ahaziah and if he was not killed with the rest of the blood Royall Two great Adversaries say with us Hugo Grotius de jur belli pacis l. 1. c. 4. n. 7. He saith He dare not condemne this if the lesser part of the People and every one of them indifferently should defend themselves against a Tyrant ultimo necessitatis praesidio The case of Scotland when we were blocked up by Sea and Land with Armes The case of England when the King induced by Prelates first attempted to bring an Army to cut off the Parliament and then gathered an Army and fortified Yorke and invaded Hull to make the Militia his own sure is considerable Barclay saith The People hath jus se tuendi adversus immanem saevitiem Advers Monarchomach l. 3. c. 8. A power to defend themselves against prodigious crueltie The case of England and Ireland now invaded by the bloody Rebels of Ireland is also worthy of consideration I could cite hoasts more QUEST XXIX Whether in the case of Defensive warre the distinction of the person of the King as a man who can commit acts of hostile Tyrannie against his Subjects and of the Office and Royall power that he hath from God and the People as a King can have place BEfore I can proceed to other Scripture-proofes for the lawfulnesse of Resistance this Distinction rejected by Royalists must be cleered This is an evident and sensible distinction The King in concreto the Man who is King And the King in abstracto the Royall office of the King The ground of this distinction we desire to be considered from Rom. 13. we affirme with Buchanan that Paul Rom. 13 speaketh of the office and duty of good Magistrates and that the text speaketh nothing of an absolute King nothing of a Tyrant and the Royalists distinguish where the Law distinguisheth not against the Law l. pret 10. gl Bart. de pub in Rem and therefore we move the question here Whether or no to resist the illegall and Tyrannicall will
of the man who is King be to resist the King and the ordinance of God we say no Nor doe we deny the King abusing his power in unjust acts to remaine King and the Minister of God whose person for his royall office and his Royall Office both are to be honoured reverenced and obeyed God forbid that we should doe so as the sonnes of Belial imputing to us the doctrine of Anabaptists and the doctrine falsely imputed to Wicliffe That Dominion is founded upon supernaturall grace and that a Magistrate being in the state of mortall sin cannot be a lawfull Magistrate we teach no such thing The P. Prelate sheweth us his sympathy with Papists and that he buildeth the Monuments and Sepulchres of the slaine and murthered Prophets when he refusing to open his mouth in the Gates for the righteous professeth he will not purge the Witnesses of Christ the Waldenses and Wicliffe and Husse of these notes of disloyalty but that these acts proceeding from this roote of bitternesse the abused power of a King should be acknowledged with obedience active or passive in these unjust acts we deny 1. Assert It is evident from Rom. 13. That all subjection and obedience to higher powers commanded there is subjection to the power and office of the Magistrate in abstracto or which is all one to the person using the power lawfully and that no subjection is due by that text or any Word of God to the abused and Tyrannicall power of the King which I evince from the Text and from other Scriptures 1. Because the Text saith Let every soule be subject to the higher powers But no powers commanding things unlawfull and killing the innocent people of God can be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 higher powers but in that lower powers 1. He that commandeth not what God commandeth and punisheth and killeth where God is personally and immediatly present would neither command nor punish is not in these acts to be subjected unto and obeyed as a superiour power though in habit he may remaine a superiour power for all habituall all actuall superiority is a formall participation of the power of the most high 2. Arnisaeus well saith That of Aristotle must be true It is against nature that better and worthier men should be in subjection to unworthier and more wicked men but in this when Magistrates command wickednesse and killeth the innocent the non-obeyers eatenus in so far are worthier the commanders whatever they be in habite and in office actually or in these wicked acts are unworthier and inferiour and the non-obeyers are in that worthier as being zealous adherents to Gods Command and not to mans will I desire not to be mistaken if we speake of habituall excellency godly and holy men as the Witnesses of Christ in things lawfull are to obey wicked and Infidell Kings and Emperours but in that these wicked Kings have an excellency in respect of office above them but when they command things unlawfull and kill the innocent They doe it not by vertue of any office and so in that they are not higher powers but lower and weak ones Laertius doth explain Aristotle well who defineth a Tyrant by this That he commandeth his subjects by violence and Arnisaeus condemneth Laertius for this Because one Tyrannicall action doth no more constitute a Tyrant then one unjust action doth constitute an unjust man But he may condemne as he doth indeed for this also Covarruvias pract quest c. 1. and Vasquez Illustr quest l. 1. c. 47. nu 1. 12. for this is essentiall to a Tyrant to command and rule by violence If a lawfull Prince doe one or more acts of a Tyrant he is not a Tyrant for that yet his action in that is Tyrannicall and he doth not that as a King but in that act as a sinfull man having something of Tyrannie in him 2. The Powers Rom. 13. 1. that are ordained of God as their author and efficient But Kings commanding unjust things and killing the innocent in these acts are but men and sinfull men and the power by which they doe these acts a sinfull and an usurped power and so far they are not powers ordained of God according to his revealed Will which must rule us Now the authoritie and officiall power in abstracto is ordained of God as the Text saith and other Scriptures doe evidence And this Polititians doe cleare while they distinguish betwixt jus Personae and jus Coronae the power of the Person and the power of the Crown and Royall office They must then be two different things 3. He that resisteth the power that is the officiall power and the King as King and commanding in the Lord resisteth the Ordinance of God and Gods lawfull constitution v. 2. But he who resisteth the Man who is the King commanding that which is against God and killing the innocent resisteth no ordinance of God but an ordinance of Sin and Sathan for a man commanding unjustly and ruling Tyrannically hath in that no power from God 4. They that resist the power and Royall office of the King in things just and right shall receive to themselves damnation ver 3. but they that resist that is refuse for Conscience to obey the man who is the King and choose to obey God rather then men as all the Martyrs did shall receive to themselves salvation And the 80 valiant men the Priests who used bodily violence against King Vzzahs person and thrust him out of the house of the Lord from offering incense to the Lord which belonged to the Priest only received not damnation to themselves but salvation in doing Gods will and in resisting the Kings wicked will Arg. 5. The lawfull Ruler as a Ruler and in respect of his office is not to be resisted because he is not a terrour to good workes but to evill and no man who doth Good is to be afraid of the Office or the Power but to expect praise and a reward of the same v. 3. But the man who is a King may command an idolatrous and superstitious Worship send an Army of Cut-throats against them because they refuse that Worship and may reward Papists Prelates and other corrupt men and may advance them to places of State and Honour because they kneele to a Tree-Altar pray to the East adore the letters and sound of the word Jesus teach and write Arminianisme And may imprison deprive confine cut the eares and rip the noses and burne the faces of those who speake and preach and write the truth of God and may send Armies of Cut-throats Irish Rebels and other Papists and malignant Atheists to destroy and murther the Iudges of the Land and innocent defenders of the Reformed Religion c. The Man I say in these acts is a terrour to Good workes an incouragement to Evill And those that doe Good are to be afraid of the King and to expect no praise but punishment and vexation from him Ergo this
we yeeld obedience to the person c. and the Prelate hath as much learning as to coppy out of Fern and Barclay Arniseus and others these words and the like but hath not wit to adde the sinewes of these Authors reason and with all this he can in his Preface call it his own and provoke any to answer him if they dare whereas while I answer this excommunicated Pamphletter I answer these learned Authors from which he stealeth all he hath and yet he must perswade the King he is the onely man can defend his Majesties Cause and the importunity forsooth of friends extorted this peece as if it were a fault that this Delphick Oracle giving out railings and lies for responses should be silent 2. Not we onely but the Holy Ghost in terminis hath this distinction Act. 4. 19. and 5. 29. We ought to obey God rather then men Them Rulers for of Rulers sitting in judgement is that speech uttered commanding and tyrannizing over the Apostles are men contradistinguished from God and as they command and punish unjustly they are but men otherwise commanding for God they are Gods and more then men 2. From Theophylact also or from Chrysostome on Rom. 13. we have this The Apostle speaketh not say they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. Soveraigntie or Royaltie doth not properly reign or bear the sword or receive praise and this accident doth not bear a sword nor do we think or Paul speak Rom. 13. of the abstracted Jew of power and Royaltie subsisting out of its subject nor dream we that the naked accident of Royall Authority is to be feared and honoured as the Lords anointed the person or man who is the King and beareth the Crown on his head and holdeth the scepter in his hand is to be obeyed accidentes are not persons but they speak non-sense and like brute beasts who deny that all the kingly honour due to the King must be due to him as a King and because of the Royall dignity that God hath given to him and not because he is a man for a Pursevants son is a man and if a Pursevants son would usurpe the throne and take the Crown on his head and the scepter in his hand and command that all souls be subject to such a superior Power because he is a man the Lawes of Scotland would hang a man for a lesse fault we know and the P. Prelate was wont to edifie women and converted souls to Christ with such a distinction as objectum quod and objectum quo in the Pulpits of Edenburgh and it hath good use here we never took abstract Royalty to be the King The Kings of Scotland of old were not second notions and we exclude not the person of the King yet we distinguish with leave of the P. Prelate betwixt the person in linea physica we must take physica largly heer and in linea morali obedience fear tribute honour is due to the person of the King and to the man who is King not because of his person or because he is a man the P. Prelate may know in what notion we take the name Person but because God by the peoples election hath exalted him to Royall dignity and for this cause ill doers are to subject their throats and necks to the sword of the Lords Annoynteds executioner or hangman with patience and willingly because in taking away the head of ill doers for ill doing he is acting the Office of the Lord by whom he Raigneth but if he take away their heads and send out the long-tusked Vultures and Boares of Babylon the Irish Rebells to execute his wrath as he is in that act a mis-informed man and wanteth the authority of Gods Law or mans Law he may be resisted with Armes For 1. If Royalists say against this then if a King turne an habituall Tyrant and conduce an hundred thousand Turkes to destroy his subjects upon meere desire of revenge they are not to resist but to be subject and suffer for conscience I am sure Grotius saith If a King sell his subjects he loseth all title to the Crowne and so may be resisted and Winzetus saith A Tyrant may be resisted and Barclay It is lawfull for the people in case of Tyranny to defend themselves Adversus immanem saevetiam against extreame cruelty and I desire the Prelate to answer how people are subject in suffering such cruelty of the higher power because he is Gods ordinance and a power from God except he say as he selleth his people and barbarously destroyeth by Cut-throat Irishes his whole subjects refusing to worship Idolls he is a man and a sinfull man eatenus and an inferiour power inspired by wicked counsell not a King eatenus not a higher power and that in resisting him thus the subjects resist not the ordinance of God Also suppone King David defend his Kingdome and people against Iesse his naturall father who we suppose cometh in against his sonne and Prince King David with a huge army of the Philistimes to destroy him and his Kingdome if he shall kill his owne native father in that warr at some Edge-hill how shall he preserve at Ierusalem that honour love that he oweth to his father by vertue of the fifth Commandement Honour thy father and thy mother c. Let them answer this except King David consider Iesse in one relation in abstracto as his father whom he is to obey and as he is a wicked man and a perfidious subject in another relation and except King David say he is to subject himselfe to his father as a father according to the fifth Commandement and that in the act of his fathers violent invasion he is not to subject himselfe to him as he is a violent invader and as a man Let the Royalist see how he can answer the Argument and how Levie is not to know his father and mother as they are sinfull men Deut. 33. 9. and yet to know and honour them as Parents and how an Israelite is not to pitty the wife that lyeth in his bosome when she inticeth him to goe a whooring after strange Gods but is to kill her Deut. 13. 6 7 8. and yet the husband is to love the wife as Christ loved his Church Eph. 5. 25. If the husband take away his wives life in some mountaine in the holy Land as Gods Law commandeth let the Royalists answer us where is then the meritall love he owes to her and that respect due to her as she is a wife and a helper But let not the Royalist infer that I am from these examples pleading for the killing of Kings for lawfull resistance is one thing and killing of Kings is another the one defensive and lawfull the other offensive and unlawfull so long as he remaineth a King and the Lords Anoynted But if he be a murtherer of his father who doth counsell his father to come to a place of danger where he may be killed and
tyrannous Ruler remaining a power ordained of God to summon legally and set before his tribunall the servants of God that he may kill them and murther them unjustly that same legall power he hath to murther them For if it be a legall power to kill the innocent and such a power as they are obliged in conscience to submit unto they are obliged in conscience to submit to the legall power of citing for it is one and the same power Now if resistance to the one power be unlawfull resistance to the other must be unlawfull also and if the law of self-defence or command of Christ warrant me to disobey a tyrannous power commanding me to compeir to receive the sentence of death that same Law farre more shall warrant me to resist and deny passive subjection in submitting to the un-unjâ—st sentence of death 2. When a murtherer self-convicted fleeth from the just power of a Judge lawfully citing him he resisteth the just power ordained of God Rom. 3. Ergo by the same reason if we flee from a tyrannous power we resist that tyrannous power and so by Royalists ground we resist the ordinance of God by flying Now to be disobedient to a just power summoning a malefactor is to hinder that lawfull power to be put forth in lawfull Acts for the Judge cannot purge the land of blood if the murtherer flee 3. When the King of Israel sendeth a Captaine and fifty Lictors to fetch Elisha these come instructed with legall power from the King if I may lay fetters on their power by flight upon the ground of self-preservation the same warrant shall allow me to oppose harmelesse violence for my owne safety 4. Royalists hold it unlawfull to keepe a strong hold against the King though the Fort be not the Kings house and though that David should not have offended if he had kept Keilah against Saul Dr. Ferne and Royalists say it had beene unlawfull resistance What more resistance is made to Royall power by wals interposed then by Seas and miles of earth interposed Both are physicall resistance and violent in their kinde QUEST XXXI Whether or no self-defence against any unjust violence offered to the life be warranted by Gods Law and the Law of Nature and Nations SElfe-preservation in all creatures in which is nature is in the creatures sutable to their nature The Bull defendeth it selfe by its hornes the Eagle by her clawes and bill it will not follow that a Lambe will defend it selfe against a Wolfe any other way then by flying So men and Christian men doe naturally defend themselves but the manner of self-defence in a rationall creature is rationall and not alwayes meerely naturall therefore a politique communitie being a combination of many natures as neither grace farre lesse can policy destroy nature then must these many natures be allowed of God to use a naturall self-defence If the King bring in an Army of forraigners then a politique community must defend it selfe in a rationall way Why Self-defence is naturall to Man and naâ—urall to a Lamb but not the same way A Lamb or a Dove naturally defend themselves against beasts of another kinde onely by flight not by re-action and re-offending But it followeth not that a man defendeth himselfe from his enemy only by flight If a robber invade me to take away my life and my purse I may defend my selfe by re-action for reason and grace both may determine the way of self-preservation Hence Royalists say a private man against his Prince hath no way to defend himselfe but by flight Ergo a community hath no other way to defend themselves but by flight 1. The antecedent is false Dr. Ferne alloweth to a private man supplications and denying of Subsidies and Tribute to the Prince when he imployeth Tribute to the destruction of the Common-wealth which by the way is a cleere resistance and an active resistance made against the King Rom. 13. 6 7. and against a Commandement of God except Royalists grant tyrannous powers may be resisted 2. The consequence is naught for a private man may defend himselfe against unjust violence but not any way he pleaseth The first way is by supplications and apologies he may not presently use violence to the Kings servants before he supplicate nor may he use re-offending if flight may save David used all the three in order 1. He made his defence by words by the mediation of Ionathan when that prevailed not he tooke himselfe to flight as the next but because he knew flight was not safe every way and nature taught him self-preservation and reason and light of grace taught him the meanes and the religious order of these meanes for self-preservation Therefore he addeth a third He took Goliahs sword and gathered six hundred armed men and after that made use of an hoast Now a sword and armour are not horsing and shipping for flight but contrary to flight so re-offending is Policies last refuge A godly magistrate taketh not away the life of a subject if other means can compasse the end of the Law and so he is compelled and necessitated to take away the life so the private man in his naturall self-defence not to use re-action or violent re-offending in his self-defence against any man farre lesse against the servants of a King but in the exigence of the last and most inexorable necessity And it is true that M. Symmons faith Sect. 11. pag. 35. Self-defence is not to be used where it cannot be without sinne It is certaine Necessity is but a hungry plea for sinne Luke 14. 18. but it is also true re-offending comparatively that I kill rather then I be killed in the sinlesse Court of Natures spotlesse and harmelesse necessity is lawfull and necessary except I be guilty of self-murder in the culpable omission of self-defence Now a private man may flie and that is his second necessity and violent re-offending is the third meane of self-preservation But with leave violent re-offending is necessary to a private man when his second meane to wit â—light is not possible and cannot attaine the end as in the case of David if â—light doe not prevaile Goliahs sword and an host of armed men are lawfull So to a Church and a community of Protestants men women aged sucking children sick and diseased who are pressed either to be killed or forsake Religion and Jesus Christ â—light is not the second meane nor a meane at all because 1. not possible and therefore not a naturall meane of preservation For 1. the aged the sick the sucking infants and sound Religion in the posteritie cannot flee â—light here is physically and by natures necessity unpossible and therefore no lawfull mean What is to nature physically unpossible is no lawfull mean 2. If Christ have a promise that the ends of the earth Psal 2. 8. and the Isles shall be his possession Esa 49. 1. I see not how naturall defence can
put us to flee even all Protestants and their seed and the weak and sick whom we are obliged to defend as our selves both by the Law of nature and grace I read that seven wicked nations and idolatrous were cast out of their land to give place to the Church of God to dwell there but shew me a warrant in natures Law and in Gods word that three Kingdomes of Protestantâ— their seed aged sick sucking children should flee out of England Scotland Ireland and leave Religion and the Land to a King and to Papists Prelates and bloody Irish and Atheists and therefore to a Church and community having Gods right and mans law to the land violent re-offending is their second mean next to supplications and declarations c. and flight is not required of them as of a private man Yea flight is not necessarily required of a private man but where it is a possible mean of self-preservation violent and unjust invasion of a private man which is unavoidable may be obviated with violent re-offending Now the unjust invasion made on Scotland in 1640. for refusing the Service-book or rather the idolatry of the Masse therein intended was unavoidable it was unpossible for the Protestants their old and sick their women and sucking children to flee over sea or to have shipping betwixt the Kings bringing an army on them at Duns-law and the Prelates charging of the Ministers to receive the masse-book Althusius saith well Pol. c. 38. n. 78. Though private men may flee but the estates if they flee they do not their duty to commit a country religion and all to a Lion Let not any oâ—ject we may not devise a way to fulfill the prophecy Psal 2. 8 9. Isa 49. 1. it is true if the way be our own sinfull way nor let any object a Colony went to New-England and fled the persecution Answer True but if fleeing be the onely mean after supplication there was no more reason that one Colony should go to New-England then it is necessary by a divine law obligatory that the wholâ— Protestants in the three kingdomes according to Royalists Doctrine are to leave their native country religion to one man to popish Idolators Atheists willing to worship idols with them and whethere then shall the Gospel be which we are obliged to defend with our lives 2. There is Tutela vitae proxima remota A meer and immediat defence of our life and a remote or mediat defence when there is no actuall invasion made by a man seeking our life we are not to use violent re-offending David might have killed Saul whâ—n he was sleeping and when he cut off the lap of his garment but it was unlawfull for him to kill the Lords Anointed because he is the Lords Annoited as it is unlawfull to kill a man because he is the Image of God Gen. 96. except in case of necessity The magistrate in case of necessity may kill the malefector thought his malefices do not put him in that case that he hath not now the image of God now prudency and light of grace determineth When we are to use violent re-offending for self-preservation it is not left to our pleasure In a remote posture of self-defence we are not to â—se violet re-offending David having Saul in his hand was in a remote posture of defence the unjust invasion then was not actuall not inavoidable not a necessary mean in human prudence for self-preservation for King Saul was then in a habituall not in an actuall pursuit of the whole Princes Elders and judges of Israel or of a whole community and Church Saul did but seek the life of one man David and that not for religion or a nationall pretended offence and therefore he could not in conscience put hands on the Lords anoynted but if Saul had actually invaded David for his life David might in that case make use of Goliahs sword for he took not that weapon with him as a Cypher to boast Saul it is no lesse unlawfull to threatten a King then to put hands on him and rather kill or be killed by Sauls emissaries Because then he should have been in an immediate and nearest posture of actuall self-defence Now the case is farre otherwayes between the King and the two Parliaments of England and Scotland for the King is not 1. Sleeping in his emissaries for he hath armies in two kingdomes and now in three kingdomes by sea and land night and day in actuall pursuit not of one David but of the estates and a Christian community in England and Scotland and that for Religious Lawes and Liberties for the question is now betweene Papist and Protestant between Arbitrary or Tyranicall government and law-government and Therefore by both the Lawes of the politique societies of both Kingdomes and by the Law of God and nature we are to use violent re-offending for self-preservation and put to this necessity when armies are in actuall pursuit of all the Protestant Churches of the three Kingdoms to actuall killing rather then we be killed and suffer Lawes and Religion to be undone But saith the Royalist Davids argument God forbid that I stretch out my hand against the Lords Annoynted my Master the King concludeth universally that the King in his most Tyrannous acts still remaining the Lords Anoynted cannot be resisted Ans 1. David speaketh of stretching out his hand against the person of King Saul no man in the three Kingdomes did so much as attempt to do violence to the Kings person But this argument 2. is inconsequent for a King invading in his own Royall person the innocent subject 1. Suddainly 2. Without colour of Law and reason 3. Unavoidably may be personally resisted and that with opposing a violence bodily yet in that invasion he remaineth the Lords Annoynted 2. By this argument the life of a murtherer cannot be taken away by a Judge for he remaineth one endued with Gods image and keepeth stil the nature of a man under all the murthers that he doth but it followeth no wayes that because God hath indowed his person with a sort of Royalty of a Divine image that his life cannot be taken and certainly if to be a man endued with Gods image Gen. 6. 9 10. and to bee an ill doer worthy of evill punishment are different to be a King and an ill doer may be distinguished The grounds of self-defence are these A woman or a young man may violently oppose a King if he force the one to adultery and incest and the other to Sodomy Though Court-flatterers should say the King in regard of his absolutenesse is Lord of life and death yet no man ever said that the King is Lord of chastity faith and oath that the wife hath made to her husband 2. Particular nature yeelds to the good of universall nature for which cause heavie bodies ascend aerie and light bodies descend If then a wilde Bull or a goaring Oxe
may not be let loose in a great market-confluence of people and if any man turne so distracted as he smite himselfe with stones and kill all that passe by him or come at him in that case the man is to be bound and his hands fettered and all whom he invadeth may resist him were they his owne sons and may save their owne lives with weapons much more a King turning a Nero King Saul vexed with an evill spirit from the Lord may be resisted and farre more iâ— a King indued with use of reason shall put violent hands on all his subjects kill his son and heire yea any violently invaded by natures law may defend themselves and the violent restraining of such an one is but the hurtingof one man who cannot be virtually the Common-wealth but his destroying of the community of men sent out in warres as his bloody emissaries to the dissolution of the Common-wealth 3. The cutting off of a contagious member that by a Gangrene would corrupt the whole body is well warranted by nature because the safety of the whole is to be preferred to the safety of a part Nor is it much that Royalists say the King being the head destroy him the whole body the Comon-wealth is dissolved as cut off a mans head the life of the whole man is taken away Because 1. God cutteth off the spirits of tyrannous Kings and yet the Common-wealth is not dissolved no more then when a Leopard or a wilde Boare running through children is killed it can be the destruction of all the children in the land 2. A king indefinitely is referred to the Common-wealth as an adequat head to a Monarchicall Kingdome and remove all Kings and the politique body as Monarchicall in its frame is not Monarchicall but it leaveth not off to be a politique body seeing it hath other Judges but the naturall body without the head cannot live 2. This or that tyrannous King being a transient mortall thing cannot be referred to the immortall Common-wealth as it is adequat correlate They say the King â—ever dieth yet this King can dye an immortall politique body such as the Common-wealth must have an immortall head and that is a King as a King not this or that man possibly a tyrant who is for the time and eternall things abstract from time onely a King 4. The reason of Fortunius Garcias a skilfull Lawyer in Spaine is considerable Coment in l. ut vim vi ff de justit jure God hath implâ—nted in every creature naturall inclinations and motions to preserve it selfe and we are to love our self for God and have a love to preserve our selves rather then our neighbour and Natures law teacheth every man to love God best of all and next our selves more then our neighbour for the Law saith Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe then saith Malderus com in 12. q. 26. tom 2. c. 10. concl 2. The love of our selfe is the measure of the love of our neighbour But the rule and the measure is more perfect simple and more principall then the thing that is measured It is true I am to love the salvation of the Church it comming neerer to Gods glory more then my owne salvation as the wishes of Moses and Paul do prove and I am to love the salvation of my brother more then my owne temporall life but I am to love my owne temporall life more then the life of any other and therefore I am rather to kill then to be killed the exigence of necessity so requiring Nature without sin aimeth this as a truth in the case of losse of life Proximus sum egomet mihi Ephes 5. 28 29. He that loveth his wife loveth him selfe for no man ever yet hated his owne flesh but nourisheth it and cherisheth it even as the Lord the Church As then nature tyeth the dam to defend the young birds and the Lyon her whelps and the husband the wife and that by a comparative re-offending rather then the wife or children should be killed yea hee that is wanting to his brother if a robber unjustly invade his brother and helpeth him not is a murtherer of his brother so farre Gods spirituall law requiring both conservation of it in our person and preservation in others The forced Damsell was commanded to cry for help and not the Magistrate onely but the neerest private man or woman was to come by an obligation of a divine Law of the seventh Commandement to rescue the Damsell with violence even as a man is to save his enemies Oxe or his Asse out of a pit And if a private man may inflict bodily punishment of two degrees to preserve the life and chastity of his neighbour far rather then suffer his life and chastity to be taken away then he may inflict violence of foure degrees even to killing for his life and much more for his owne life So when a Robber with deadly weapons invadeth an innocent traveller to kill him for his goods upon the supposition that if the Robber be not killed the innocent shall be killed Now the question is which of the two by Gods morall Law and revealed will in point of conscience ought to be killed by his fellow for we speake not now of Gods eternall decree of permitting evill according to the which murtherers may crucisie the innocent Lord of glory by no morall Law of God should the â—â— just robber kill the innocent traveller therefore in this exigence of providence the traveller should rather kill the robber If any say by Gods morall Law not one should kill his fellow and it is a sin against the morall Law in either to kill other I answer If a third shall come in when the robber and the innocent are invading each other for his life all acknowledge by the sixt Commandement the third may cut off the robbers arme to save the innocent but by what Law of God he may cut off his arme he may take his life also to save the other for it is murther to wound unjustly and to dismember a man by private authority as it is to take away his life If therefore the third may take away the robbers member then also his life so hee doe it without malice or appetite of revenge and if he may doe it out of this principle Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe because a man is obliged more to love his owne flesh then his neighbours Ephes 5. 28. and so more to defend himselfe then to defend his neighbour then may he oppose violence to the robber As two men drowning in a water the one is not obliged by Gods Law to expose himselfe to drowning to save his neighbour but by the contrary hee is obliged rather to save himselfe though it were with the losse of his neighbours life As in war if souldiers in a strait passage be pursued on their life nature teacheth them to flee if one fall his fellow
Parliament 4. He dâ—clared both Kingdoms Rebels 5. Attempted in his Emissaries to destroy the Parliament 6. And to bring in a forraigne enemie And the Law saith An imminent danger which is a sufficient warrant to take up Armes is not strokes but either the terrour of Armour or threatning Glossator in d. l. 1. C. Vinde vi ait non esse verbera expectanda sed vel terrorem armorum sufficere vel minas hoc esse imminâ—ns periculum L. Sed si quemcunque in princ ff ad leg Aquil. l. 3. quod qui armati ff de vi vi armata is qui aggressorem C. adlegem C. adlegem Corneli In most hainous sinnes conatus the endeavour and aime etiamsi effectus non sequatur puniridebet is punishable Bartoln in l. Si quis non dicam rapere The King hath aimed at the destruction of his Subjects through the power of wicked counsellors and we are to consider not the intenton of the workes but the nature and intention of the work Papists are in armes their religion the Conspiracy of Trent their conscience if they have any their malice against the convenant of Scotland which abjureth their Religion to the full their ceremonies their Prelates lead and necessitate them to root out the name of Protestant Religion yea and to stab a King who is a Protestant Nor is our King remaining a Protestant and adhering to his oath made at his Coronation in both kingdomes Lord of his own person master of himself nor able as King to be a King over Protestant subjects if the Papists now in armes under his standard shall prevail The King hath been compelled to go against his own oath and the Lawes which he did swear to maintaine The Pope sendeth to his popish armies both dispensations bulls mandats incouragements The King hath made a cessation with the bloody Irish and hath put arms in the hands of Papists Now he being under the oath of God tied to maintain the Protestant Religion he hath a metaphysically subtle pearcing faith of miracles who beleeveth armed Papists and Prelates shall defend Protestants their Religion and these who have abjured Prelats as the lawful sons of the Pope that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as the law saith Quilibet in dubio praesumitur bonus L. merito praesumi L. non omnes § à Barbaris de re milit Charity beleeveth not ill So Charity is not a foole to beleeve all things So saith the Law Semel malus semper praesumitur malus in eodem genere C. semel malus de jure gentium in 6. Once wicked is alwayes wicked in that kind Marius Salamonius I. C. in L. ut vim at que injuriam ff de just jure We are not to wait on strokes the terrour of armour omnium consensu by consent of all is sufficient n. 3. If I see saith he the enemy take an arrow out of the Quiver before he bend the bow it is lawfull to prevent him with a blow cunctatio est periculosa The Kings comming with armed men to demand the Five Members into the House of Commons is very symbolicall and Warre was printed on that fact he that runneth may reade His comming to Hull with an Armie saith not he had no errand there but aske what it was in the clock See Novellus that learned Venetian Lawyer in a Treatise for defence he maketh continuatam rixam a continued upbraiding a sufficient ground of violent defence He citeth Doctores Comniter in L. ut vim ff de just jure Yea he saith Drunkennesse defens n. 44. Error n. 46. Madnesse n. 49 50. Ignorance n. 51. 52. Impudence n. 54. Necessity n. 56. Lasciviousnesse 58. Continuall reproaches 59. The fervour of anger 64. Threatning 66. Feare of imminent danger 67. Iust grief doe excuse a man from homicide and that in these he ought to be more mildly punished Quia obnubilatum mancum est consilium Reason in these being lame and clogged Ambros l. 1. offic Quinon repellit injuriam à socio cum potest tam est in vitio quam ille qui facit And as Nature so the Law saith When the losses are such as can never be repaired as Death Mutilation lesse of Chastity Quoniam facta infecta fieri nequeunt things of that kinde once done can never be undone we are to prevent the enemy l. Zonat. tract defens par 3. l. in bello § factae de capit notat Gloss in l. si quis provocatione If the King send an Irish Rebell to cast me over a bridge and drowne me in a water I am not to do nothing while the Kings emissary first cast me over and then in the next room I am to defend my self but nature and the law of self-defence warranteth me if I know certainly his ayme to horse him first over the bridge and then consult how to defend my selfe at my own leasure Royalists object that David in his defence never invaded and persecuted Saul yea when he came upon Saul and his men sleeping hee would not kill any but the Scottish and Parliaments Forces not onely defend but invade offend kill and plunder and this is cleerely an offensive not a defensive warre Answ There is no defensive warre different in spece and nature from an offensive warre if we speake physically they differ onely in the event and intention of the heart and it is most cleare that the affection and intention doth make one and the same action of taking away the life either homicide or no homicide If a man out of hatred deliberately take away his brothers life he is a murtherer eatenus but if that same man had taken away that same brothers life by the flying off of an Axe head off the staffe while he was hewing timber he neither hating him before nor intending to hurt his brother he is no murtherer by Gods expresse Law Deut. 4. 42. Deut. 19 4. Ioshua 20. 5. 2. The cause betweene the King and the two Parliaments and betweene Saul and David are so different in this as it is much for us Royalists say David might if he had seene offending to conduce for selfe-preservation have invaded Sauls men and say they the case was extraordinary and bindeth not us to selfe-defence and thus they must say for offensive weapons such as Goliahs sword and an hoast of armed men cannot by any rationall men be assumed and David had the wisdome of God but to offend if providence should so dispose and so what was lawfull to David is lawfull to us in self-defence he might offend lawfully and so may we 2. If Saul and the Philistims ayming as under an oath to set up Dagon in the land of Israel should invade David and the Princes and Elders of Israel who made him King and if David with an hoast of armed men he and the Princes of Israel should come in that case upon Saul and the Philistims sleeping if in that case David might not lawfully
have cut off the Philistims and as he defended in that case Gods Church and true Religion if he might not then have lawfully killed I say the Philistims I remit to the conscience of the Reader Now to us Papists and Prelates under the Kings banner are Philistims introducing the Idolatry of Bread-worship and Popery as hatefull to God as Dagon-worship 3. Saul intended no arbitrary government nor to make Israel a conquered people nor yet to cut off all that professed the true worship of God nor came Saul against these Princes Elders and people who made him King only Davids head would have made Saul lay downe Arms but Prelates and Papists and Malignants under the King intend to make the Kings sole will a Law to destroy the Court of Parliament which putteth Lawes in execution against their Idolatry and their ayme is that Protestants be a conquered people and their attempt hath been hitherto to blow up King and Parliament to cut off all Protestants and they are in Armes in divers parts of the Kingdome against the Princes of the Land who are no lesse Judges and deputies of the Lord then the King himselfe and would kill and do kill plunder and spoyle us if we kill not them And the case is every way now betweene Armies and Armies as betweene a single man unjustly invaded for his life and an unjust invader neither in a naturall action such as is self-defence is that of policy to be urged none can be Judge in his owne cause when oppression is manifest one may be both agent and patient as the fire and water conflicting there is no need of a judge a community casts not off nature when the judge is wanting nature is judge actor accused and all Lastly no man is Lord of his owne members of his body m. l. liber homo ff ad leg Aqui. nor Lord of his owne life but is to be accountable to God for it QUEST XXXII Whether or no the lawfulnesse of defensive warres hath its warrant in Gods word from the example of David Elisha the eighty Priests who resisted Uzziah c DAvid defended himselfe against King Saul 1. by taking Goliahs sword with him 2. by being Captaine to six hundred men yea it is more then cleare 1 Chron. 12. that there came to David a hoast like the hoast of God v. 22. to help against Saul exceeding foure thousand v. 36. Now that this hoast came warrantably to help him against Saul I prove 1. because it is said ver 1. Now these are they that came to David to Ziglag while he kept himselfe close because of Saul the son of Kish and they were amongst the mighty men helpers of the warre and then so many mighty Captains are reckoned out v. 16. There came of the children of Benjamin and Iudah to the hold of David v. 19. And there fell some of Manasseh to David 20. As he went to Ziglag there fell to him of Manasseh Keâ—â—h and Jozabad Jediâ—l and Michael and Elihu and Zilthai Captaines of the thousands that were of Manasseh 21. And they helped David against the band of the rovers 22. At that time day by day there came to David untill it was a great hoast like the hoast of God Now the same expression that is ver 1. where it is said they came to help David against Saul which ver 1. is repeated ver 16. ver 19 20 21 22 23. 2. That they wartantably came is evident because 1. the Spirit of God commendeth them for their valor and skill in war ver 2. ver 8. ver 15. ver 21. which the Spirit of God doth not in unlawfull wars 2. Because Amasai v. 18. The Spirit of the Lord comming on him saith Thine are we David and on thy side thou son of Jesse peace peace unto thee and peace to thy helpers for thy God helpeth thee The Spirit of God inspireth no man to pray peace to those who are in an unlawfull warre 3. That they came to Davids side onely to be sufferers and to flee with David and not to pursue and offend is ridiculous 1. It is said ver 1. They came to David to Ziglag while he kept himselfe close because of Saul the son of Kish And they were amongst the mighty men helpers of the warre It is a scorne to say that their might and their helping in warre consisted in being meere patients with David and such as fled from Saul for they had beene on Sauls side before and to come with armour to flee is a mocking of the word of God 2. It is cleare the scope of the Spirit of God is to shew how God helped his innocent servant David against his persecuting Prince and Master King Saul in moving so many mighty men of warre to come in such multitudes all in Armes to help him in warre Now to what end would the Lord commend them as fit for Warre men of might fit to handle shield buckler whose faces are as the faces of Lyons as swift as the Roes on the Mountaines ver 8. and commend them as helpers of David if it were unlawfull for David and all those mighty men to carry Armes to pursue Saul and his followers and to doe nothing with their armour but flee Judge if the Spirit of God in reason could say All these men came armed with bowes ver 2. and could handle both the right hand and the left in slinging stones and shooting of arrowes and that ver 22. all these came to David being mighty men of valour and they came as Captains over hundreds and thousands they put to flight all them of the valleyes both toward the East and toward the West ver 14 15. and that David received them and made them Captains of the band if they did not come in a posture of warre and for hostile invasion if need were For if they came onâ—ly to suffer and to slee not to pursue Bowes Captaines and Captaines of Bands made by David and Davids helpers in the warre came not to help David by flying that was a hurt to David not a help It is true M. Symmons saiâ—h 1 Sam. 22. 2. Those that came out to David strengthened him but he strengthened not them and David might easily have revenged himselfe on the Ziphites who did good will to betray him to the hands of Saul if his conscience had served him Answ 1. This would inferre that these armed men came to help David against his conscience and that David was a patient in the businesse the contrary is in the Text 1 Sam. 26. 2. David became a Captaine over them and 1 Chron. 12. 17. If ye come peaceably to help me my heart shall be knit to you ver 18. Then David received them and made them Captains of the band 2. David might have revenged himselfe upon the Ziphites True but that Conscience hindred him cannot be proved To pursue an enemie is an act of a Councell of Warre and he saw
holy things from him especially since by the law the leper was to be put out of the congregation Ans 1. He contradicteth the text it was not a resistance by words for the text saith they withstood him and they thrust him out violently 2. He yeeldeth the cause for to withdraw the holy things of God by corporall violence and violently to pull the censer out of his hand that he should not provoke Gods wrath by offering incense to the Lord is resistance and the like violence may by this example be used when the King useth the sword and the Militia to bring in an enemy to destroy the kingdom it is no lesse injustice against the second table that the King useth the sword to destroy the innocent then to usurpe the câ—nsor against the first table But Doctor Ferne yeeldeth that the censor may be pulled out of his hand lest he provoke God to wrath Ergo by the same very reason a fortiore the Sword the Castles the Sea-ports the Militia may be violently pulled out of his hand for if there was an expresse Law that the leper should be put out of the congregation and therefore the King also should be subject to his Church-censor then he subjecteth the King to a punishment to be inflicted by the subjects upon the King Ergo the King is obnoxious to the coactive power of the law 2. Ergo subjects may judge him and punish him 3. Ergo he is to be subject to all Church-censors no lesse then the people 4. There is an expresse law that the leper should be put out of the congregation What then flattering court Divines say the King is above all these lawes for there is an expresse law of God as expresse as that ceremoniall on touching lepers and a more binding law that the murtherer should die the death Will Royalists put no exception upon a ceremoniall law of expelling the leper and yet put an exception upon a Divine morall law concerning the punishing of murtherers given before the law on Mount Sinai Gen. 6. 9. They so declare that they accept the persons of men 5. If a leper King could not actually sit upon the throne but must be cut off from the house of the Lord because of an expresse law of God these being inconsistent that a King remaining amongst Gods people ruling and raigning should keep company with the Church of God and yet be a leper who was to be cut off by a Divine law from the Church now I perswade my self that far lesse can he actually raigne in the full use of the power of the sword if he use the sword to cut off thousands of innocent people because murthering the innocent and fatherles and Royall governing in Righteousnesse and Godlinesse are more inconsistent by Gods law being morally opposite then remaining a governour of the people and the disease of leprosie are incompatible 6. I think not much that Barcley saith cont Monar l 5. c. 11. Vzziah remained King after he was removed from the congregation for leprosie 1. Because that toucheth the question of dethroning Kings this is an argument brought for violent resisting of Kings and that the people did resume all power from Vzziah and put it in the hand of Iotham his son who was over the Kings house judging the people of the land ver 21. And by this same reason the Parliaments of both Kingdomes may resume the power once given to the King when he hath proved more unfit to governe morally then Vzziah was ceremonially that he ought not to judge the people of the land in this case 2. If the priests did execute a ceremoniall law upon King Vzziah Far more may the three estates of Scotland and the two houses of Parliament of England execute the morall law of God on their King If the people may covenant by oath to rescue the innocent and unjustly condemned from the sentence of death notoriously known be to tyranous and cruel then may the people resist the King in his unlawfull practises But this the people did in the matter of Ionathan M. Symmons saith pag. 32. and Doctor Ferne § 9. 49. That with no violence but by prayers and teares the people saved Jonathan as Peter was rescued out of prison by the prayers of the Church King Saul might easily be intreated to break a rash vow to save the life of his eldest son Ans 1. I say not the common people did it but the people including proceres regni the Princes of the land and captaines of thousands 2. The text hath not one word or syllable of either prayers supplications or teares but by the contrary They bound themselves by an oath contrary to the oath of Saul 1 Sam. 14. 44. and swear ver 45. God forbid as the Lord liveth there shal not one hair of his head fall to the ground so the people rescued Ionathan The Church prayed not to God for Peters deliverance with an oath that they must have Peter saved whether God will or no. 2. Though we read of no violence used by the people yet an oath upon so reasonable a ground 1. without the Kings consent 2. contrary to a standing law that they had agreed unto ver 24. 3. contradictory to the Kings sentence and unjust oath 4. spoken to the King in his face all these prove that the people meaned and that the oath ex conditione operis tended to a violent resisting of the King in a manifestly unjust sentence Chrysostom hom 14. ad Pop. Antioch accuseth Saul as a murtherer in this sentence and praiseth the people So Iunius Peter Martyr whom Royalists impudently cite so Cor. à lap Zanch. Lyra and Hug. Cardinalis say it was Tyranny in Saul and laudable that the people resisted Saul and the same is asserted by Iosephus l. 6. antiquit c. 7. so Althus Polyt c. 38. n. 109. We see also 2 Chron. 21. 10. That Libnah revolted from under Iehoram because he had forsaken the Lord God of his fathers It hath no ground in the text that Royalists say that the defection of Lybnah is not justified in the text but the cause is from the demerit of wicked Iehoram because he made defection from God Libnah made defection from him as the ten tribes revolted from Rehoboam for Solomons idolatry which before the Lord procured this defection yet the ten tribes make defection for oppression I answer where the literall meaning is simple and obvious we are not to go from it The text sheweth what cause moved Libnah to revolt it was a town of the Levites and we know they were longer sound in the truth then the ten tribes 2. Chron. 13. 8 9 10. Hos 11. 12. Lavater saith Iehoram hath pressed them to idolatry and therefore they revolted Zanch. Cor. à Lap. saith this was the cause that moved them to revolt and it is cleare ver 13. he caused Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go a whoring from God and no doubt tempted
whole Land cannot formally be accused for non-resistance when the whole Land are oppressors for then they should be accused for not resisting themselves 14. The King ought to resist the inferiour judges in their oppression of the people by the confession of Royalists then this argument cometh with the like force of strength on themselves let them shew us practice precept or promise in the Word where the King raised an Armie for defence of Religion against Princes and people who were subverting Religion and we shall make use of that same place of Scripture to prove that the Estates and people who are above the King as I have proved and made the King may and ought to resist the King with the like force of Scripturall truth in the like case 16. Royalists desire the like president of practice and precept for defensive warres but I answer let them shew us a practice where any King of Israel or Judah raised an Armie of Malignants of Phylistims Sydonians Ammonites against the Princes of Israel and Judah conveened in an Assemblie to take course for bringing home the captived Arke of God and vindicating the Lawes of the Land and raised an Armie contrary to the knowledge of the Elders Princes and Judges to set up Dagon or tollerate the worship of the Sydonian gods and yet Princes Elders Judges and the whole people were obliged all to flee out of Gods land or then onely to weep and request that the King would not destroy souls and bodies of them and their innocent posterities because they could not in conscience imbrace the worship of Dagon and the Sydonian gods when the Royalist can parallel this with a precedent we can answer there was as smal apparency of precedency in Scripture except you flee to the law of nature that 80 Priests the Subjects of King Vzziah should put in execution a penall Law against the Lords Annoynted and that the inferiours and subjects should resist the Superiour and that these Priests with the Princes of the land should remove the King from actuall government all his dayes and crown his son at least make the father their Prince and superiour as Royalists say as good as a Cypher Is not this a punishment inflicted by inferiours upon a superiour according to the way of Royalists Now it is clear a worshipping of bread and the Masse commanded and against law obtruded upon Scotland by influence of the counsell of known Papists is to us and in it self as abominable as the worshiping of Dagon or the Sydonian Gods and when the Kingdom of Scotland did but conveen supplicat and protest against that obtruded Idolatry they were first declared rebels by the King and then an army raised against them by Prelates and Malignants inspired with the spirit of Anti-christ to destroy the whole land if they should not submit soul and conscience to that wicked service QUEST XXXV Whether or no the suffering of the Martyrs in the Primitive Church militate against the lawfulnesse of defensive wars ROyalists think they burden our Cause much with hatred when they bring the Fathers and ancient Martyrs against us So the P. Prelate extracted out of other Authors testimonies for this and from I. Armagh in a Sermon on Rom. 1. 3. pag. 20 21. So the Do. of Aberdeene The Prelat proveth from Clem. Alexand. l. 7. c. 17. That the King is constituted by the Lord. So Ignatius Answ 1. Except he prove from these Fathers that the King is from God onely and immediately he proveth nothing Obj. 2. Iren. l. 5. adv haer c. 20. proveth that God giveth Kingdomes and that the devill lied Luk. 4. and we make the people to make Kings and so to be the children of the Devill Answ If we denyed God to dispose of Kingdomes this man might alledge the Church of God in England and Scotland to be the sons of Satan But Gods Word Deut. 17. 18. and many other places make the people to make Kings and yet not devils But to say that Prelates should crowne Kings and with their foule fingers anoint him and that as the Popes substitutes is to make him that is the sonne of perdition a Donor of Kingdoms also to make a man with his bloodie sword to ascend to a throne is to deny God to be the disposer of Kingdoms and Prelats teach both these Obj. 3. Tertul. Apol. c. 30. Inde est Imperator unde homo antequam imperator inde potestas illi unde spiritus God is no lesse the Creator of Soveraigntie then of the soul of man Answ God onely maketh Kings by his absolute soveraignty as he onely maketh high and low and so onely he maketh Mayors Provosts Bailiffes for there is no power but of him Rom. 13. Ergo Provosts and Bailiffes are not from men The Reader shall not be troubled with the rest of the testimonies of this poore Plagiarie for they prove what never man denyed but Prelats and Royalists to wit that Kings are not from Gods approving and regulating will which they oppose when they say Sole Conquest is a just title to the Crowne But they deserve rather an answer which Grotius Barclay Arnisaeus and Spalato alledge as Obj. 1. Cyprian Epist 1. Non est fas Christianis armis ac vituori se adversus impetum persecutorum Christians cannot by violence defend themselves against persecutors Answ If these words be pressed literally it were not lawfull to defend our selfe against murtherers but Cyprian is expresly condemning in that place the seditious tumults of people against the lawfull Magistrate Obj. 2. The Ancients say he was justly punished who did rend and teare the Edict of Dioclesian and Maximinus Euseb l. 7. Hist Eccles c. 5. Answ To rend an Edict is no act of naturall self-defence but a breach of a positive commandment of the Emperors and could not be lawfully done especially by a private man Object 3. Cyprian Epist 56. Incumbamus gemitibus assiduis deprecationibus crebris haec enim sunt munimenta spiritualia tela divina quae protegunt And Russinus l. 2. c. 6. Ambrosius adversus reginae Iustinae Arianae furorem non se manu defensabat aut telo sed jejuniis continuatisque vigiliis sub altari positus Answ It is true Cyprian reputed prayers his armour but not his onely armour Though Ambrose de facto used no other against Iustina the places say nothing against the lawfulnesse of selfe-defence Ambrose speaketh of that armour and these meanes of defence that are proper to Pastors and these are prayers and teares not the sword because Pastors carry the Arke that is their charge not the sword that is the Magistrates place Object 4. Tertullian Apolog. c. 37. saith expresly that the Christians might for strength and number have defended themselves against their persecutors but thought it unlawfull Quando vel una nox pauculis faculis largitatem ulâ—ionis po et operari si malum malo dispungi penes nos liceret sed absit
ut igni humano vindicetur divina secta aut doleat pati in quo probetur Si enim hostes extraneos non tantum vindices occultos agere vellemus deesset nobis vis numerorum copiarum Answ I will not goe about to say that Tertullian thought it lawfull to raise Armes against the Emperour I ingeniously confesse Tertullian was in that errour But 1. something of the man 2. Of the Christians Of the man Tertullian after this turned a Montanist 2. Pamelius saith of him in vit Tertul. inter Apocrypha numeratur excommunicatus 3. It was Tertullians error in a fact not in a question that he believed Christians were so numerous as that they might have fought with the Emperours 4. M. Pryn doth judiciously observe 3. part soveraigne power of Parl. pag. 139 140. He not onely thought it unlawfull to resist but also to flee and therefore wrote a booke de fuga and therefore as some men are excessive in doing for Christ so also in suffering for Christ Hence I inferre that Tertullian is neither ours nor theirs in this point and we can cite Tertullian against them also I am sumus ergo pares Yea Fox in his Monum saith Christians ranne to the stakes to be burnt when they were neither condemned nor cited 4. What if wee cite Theodoret fol. 98. De provid Who about that time say that evill men reigne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through the cowardlinesse of the subjects as the Prelate saith of Tertullian I turne it If Theodoret were now living he would goe for a Rebell About that time Christians sought help from Constantine the Great against Lycinius their Emperour and overthrew him in battaile And the Christians being oppressed by the King of Persia their owne King sent to Theodosius to help them against him 2. For the man Tertullian in the place cited saith The Christians were strangers under the Emperour Externi sumus and therefore they had no Laws of their owne but were under the Civill Laws of Heathen till Constantines time and they had sworne to Iulian as his souldiers and therefore might have and no doubt had scruples of conscience to resist the Emperour 2. It is knowne Iulian had huge numbers of Heathen in his Armie and to resist had beene great danger 3. Wanting Leaders and Commanders many prime men doubting of the lawfulnesse thereof though they had beene equall in number yet number is not all in warre skill in valorous Commanders is required 4. What if all Christians were not of Tertullians minde 5. If I would go to humane testimonies which I judge not satisfactory to the conscience I might cite many The practice of France of Holland The Divines in Luthers time as Sleidan 8. c. 8. 22. resolved resistance to be lawfull Calvin Beza Pareus the German Divines Bucanus and an hoast might be produced QUEST XXXVI Whether the power of Warre be onely in the King IT is not hard to determine this question The Sword in a constitute Common-wealth is given to the Judge supreme or subordinate Rom. 13. 4. He beareth not the sword in vaine in the Empire the use of Armour is restricted to the Emperour by a positive Law so the Law saith Armorum officia nisi jussu Principis sunt interdicta lib. de Cod. de Lege 1. Imperat Valentinian nulli nobis inconsultis usus armorum tribuatur ad 1. Jul. Mai. l. 3. Warre is a species and a particular the sword is a generall Assert 1. The power of the sword by Gods Law is not proper peculiar to the King only but given by God to the inferiour Judges 1. Because the inferiour Judge is essentially a Judge no lesse then the King as is proved and therefore he must beare the sword Rom. 13. 4. 2. Not Moses onely but the Congregation of Israel had power of life and death and so of the sword Numb 35. 12. The manslayer shall not die untill he stand before the Congregation in judgement ver 24. Then the Congregation shall judge betweene the slayer and the avenger of blood Deut. 22. 18. The Elders of the City shall take that man and chastise him 21. The men of the Citie shall stone her with stones Deu. 17. 5. Deu. 19. 12 13. v. 18 19 20 21. Deu. 21. 19. Then shall his father and his mother bring him to the Elders of his City 21. And the men of the City shall stone him with stones 1 King 21. 11. The Elders and Nobles that were inhabitants in his City stoned Naboth 3. Inferiour Judges are condemned as murtherers who have shed innocent blood Esay 1. 21. Psal 94. 5. 6. Ier. 22. 3. Ezek. 22. 12. ver 27. Hosea 6. 8. Zephan 3. 1 2 3. Ergo they must have the power of the sword hence upon the same grounds Assert 2. That the King onely hath the power of warre and raising Armies must be but a positive civill Law For 1. by divine right if the inferiour Judges have the sword given to them of God then have they also power of Warre and raising Armies 2. All power of warre that the King hath is cumulative not privative and not distructive but given for the safety of the Kingdome as therefore the King cannot take from one particular man the power of the sword for naturall self-preservation because it is the birth-right of life neither can the King take from a community and Kingdome a power of rising in Armes for their owne defence If an Armie of Turks shall suddenly invade the Land and the Kings consent expresse cannot be had for it is essentially involved in the office of the King as King that all the power of the sword that he hath be for their safety or if the King should as a man refuse his consent and interdict and discharge the Land to rise in Armes yet they have his Royall consent though they want his personall consent in respect that his office obligeth him to command them to rise in Armes 2. Because no King no Civill power can take away Natures birth-right of self-defence from any man or a community of men 2. Because if a King should sell his Kingdome and invite a bloody Conquerour to come in with an Armie of men to destroy his people impose upon their conscience an Idolatrous Religion they may lawfully rise against that Armie without the Kings consent for though Royalists say they need not come in asinine patience and offer their throats to cut-throats but may flee yet two things hindereth a flight 1. They are obliged by vertue of the first Commandement to re-man and with their sword defend the Cities of the Lord and the King 2 Sam. 10. 12. 1 Chron. 19. 13. for if to defend our Country and children and the Church of God from unjust invaders and cut-throats by the sword be an act of charity that God and the Law of Nature requireth of a people as is evident Prov. 24. 11. and if the fift Commandement oblige the
Land to defend their aged Parents and young children from these invaders and if the sixt Commandement lay on us the like bond all the Land are to act works of mercy and charity though the King unjustly command the contrary except Royalists say that we are not to performe the duties of the second Table commanded by God if an earthly King forbid us and if we exercise not acts of mercy toward our brethren when their life is in hazard to save them wee are murtherers and so men may murther their neighbour if the King command them so to doe this is like the Court-faith 2. The Kings power of warres is for the safety of his people if he deny his consent to their raising of Armes till they be destroyed he playeth the Tyrant not the King and the law of Nature will necessitate them either to defend themselves seeing flight of all in that case is harder then death else they must be guilty of self-murther Now the Kings commandement of not rising in Armes at best is positive and against the nature of his Office and it floweth then from him as from a man and so must be farre inferiour to the naturall Commandement of God which commandeth self-preservation if wee would not be guilty of self-murther and of obeying men rather then God So Althusius Polit. c. 25. n. 9. Halicarnas l. 4. Antiq. Rom. Aristo Pol. l. 3. c. 3. 3. David tooke Goliahs sword and became a Captaine a Captaine to an hoast of armed men in the battaile and fought the battailes of the Lord 1 Sam. 25. 28. and this Abigal by the spirit of prophecy as I take it saith ver 29 30 31. 1 Sam. 22. 2. 1 Chron. 12. 1. 2. 3. 17. 18. 21. 22. not onely without Sauls consent but against King Saul as he was a man but not against him as hee was King of Israel 4. If there be no King or the King be minor or an usurper as Athalia be on the Throne the Kingdome may lawfully make war without the King as Iudges cap. 20. The children of Israel foure hundred thousand footemen that drew sword went out to warre against the children of Benjamin Iudah had the power of the sword when Iosiah was but eight yeares old in the beginning of his reigne 2 King 22. 1 2. and before Iehoash was crowned King and while he was minor 2 King 11. there were Captaines of hundreds in armes raised by Iehoiada and the people of Iudah to defend the young King It cannot be said that this is more extraordinary then that it is extraordinary for Kings to die and in the interregnum warres in an ordinary providence may fall out in these Kingdoms where Kings goe by election and for Kings to fall to be Minors Captives Tyrannous And I shall be of that opinion that Mr Symmons who holdeth That Royall birth is equivalent to divine unction must also hold that election is not equivalent to divine unction for both election and birth cannot be of the same validity the one being naturall the other a matter of free choise which shall infer that Kings by election are lesse properly and analogically onely Kings and so Saul was not properly a King for he was King by election but I conceive that rather Kings by birth must be lesse properly Kings because the first King by Gods institution being the mould of all the rest was by election Deut. 17. 18. 19. 20. 5. If the estates create the King and make this man King not this man as is clear Deut. 17. 18. and 2 Chron. 5. 1 2 3 4. they give to him the power of the Sword and the power of War and the Militia and I shall judge it strange and reasonlesse that the power given to the King by the Parliament or estates of a free Kingdom such as Scotland is acknowledged to be by all should create regulate limit abridge yea and anull that power that created it self hath God ordained a Parliamentary power to create a Royal power of the sword and war to be placed in the King the Parliaments creature for the safety of Parliament and Kingdome which yet is destructive of it selfe D. Ferne saith that the King summoneth a Parliament and giveth them power to be a Parliament and to advise and counsell him and in the meane time Scripture saith Deut 17. 18 19 20. 1 Sam. 10 20 21 22 23 24 25. 2 Sam. 5. 1 2 3 4. that the Parliament createth the King heir's admirable reciprocation of creation in policie and shall God make the mother to destroy the daughter The Parliamentarie power that giveth Crown Militia sword and all to the King must give power to the King to use sword and war for the destruction of the Kingdome and to annull all the power of Parliaments to make unmake Parliaments and all Parliamentary power what more absurd Obj. 1. Symmons Loyall Subj Pag. 57. These phrases 2 Sam. 9. 1. When Kings goe forth to warre and Luk. 14. 31. What King going forth to warre speak to my conscience that both offensive and defensive warre are in the Kings hand Answ It is not much to other men what is spoken to any mans conscience by Phrase and customes for by this no States where there be no Kings but government by the best or the people as in Holland or in other Nations can have power of war for what time of yeare shall Kings goe to war who are not Kings and because Christ saith A certaine housholder delivered talents to his servants will this infer to any conscience that none but a housholder may take usurie And when he saith If the good man of the house knew at what houre the thiefe would come he would watch shall it follow the sonne or servant may not watch the house but onely the good man Obj. 2. Ferne pag. 95. The naturall Bodie cannot move but upon naturall Principles and so neither can the Politique Bodie move in Warre but upon Politique reasons from the Prince which must direct by Law Answ This may well be retorted the Politique Head cannot then move but upon politique reasons and so the King cannot move to wars but by the Law and that is by consent of Parliament and no Law can principle the head to destroy the members 2. If an Armie of cut-throats rise to destroy the Kingdome because the King is in lacking in his place to doe his duty how can the other Judges the States and Parliament be accessorie to murther committed by them in not raising armies to suppresse such robbers Shall the inferiour Judges be guilty of innocent blood because the King will not doe his duty 3. The politique body ceaseth no more to renounce the principles of sinlesse nature in self-defence because it is a politique body and subject to a King then it can leave off to sleep eat and drink and there is more need of politique principles to the one then the other 4. The Parliaments and Estates of both
the Lord and sent by the supreme judge their father Samuel then it was sin to resist many inferiour Judges that were Lyons and even Wolves under the Kings of Israel and Iudah so they judged for the Lord and as sent by the Supreme Magistrate But the difference was in this that judges were extraordinarily raised up of God out of any tribe as he pleased and were beleevers Heb. 11. 32. Saved by faith and so used not their power to oppresse the people though inferiour judges as the sons of Eli and of Samuel perverted judgment and therefore in the time of the judges God who gave them saviours and judges was their King but Kings were tied to a certaine tribe especially the line of David to the Kingdom of Iudah 2. They were hereditary judges not so 3. They were made and chosen by the people Deut. 17. 14. 15. 1 Sam. 10. 17 18 19 20. 2 Sam. 5. 1 2 3. as were the Kings of the nations and the first King though a King be the lawfull ordinance of God was sought from God in a sinfull imitation of the nations 1 Sam. 8. 19 20. and therefore were not of Gods peculiar election as the judges and so they were wicked men and many of them yea all for the most part did evil in the sight of the Lord and their law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their manner and custome was to oppresse the people and so were their inferiour judges little Tyrants and lesser Lyons Leopards evening Wolves Ezech. 22. 27. Mic. 3. 1 2 3. Esa 3. 14 15. And the Kings and inferiour judges are onely distinguished de facto that the King was a more Catholick oppressour and the old Lyon and so had more art and power to catch the prey then the inferiour judges who were but whelps and had lesse power but all were oppressors some few excepted and Samuel speaketh of that which Saul was to be de facto not de jure and the most part of the Kings after him and this Tyranny is well called jus regis the manner of the King and not the manner of the judges because it had not been the practice custome and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the beleeving judges before Sauls Reigne and while God was his peoples King 1 Sam. 8. 7. to oppresse 3. We grant that all other inferiour judges after the people cast off Gods government and in imitation of the nations would have a King were also lesser Tyrants as the King was a greater Tyrant and that was a punishment of their rejecting God and Samuel to be their King and judge 4. How shall Arnisaeus prove that this manner or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the King was potestas concessa a power granted I hope granted of God and not an abuse of Kingly power for then he and Royalists must say that all the acts of Tyranny ascribed to King Saul 1 Sam. 8. 11 12 13 14. by reason of which they did cry out and complaine to God because of their oppression was no abuse of power given to Saul Ergo it was an use and a lawfull use of power given of God to their King for there is no medium or mids betwixt a lawfull power used in morall acts and a lawfull power abused and indeed Arnisaeus so distinguisheth a King and a Tyrant that he maketh them all one in nature and spece He saith a Tyrant doth quod licet that which by Law he may do and a King doth not these things quae licent which by Law he may do but so to me it is clear a Tyrant acting as a Tyrant must act according to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 law of the King and that which is lawfull and a King acting as a King and not doing these things that are lawfull must sin against his office and the power that God hath given to him which were to commend and praise the Tyrant and to condemne and dispraise the King 3. If this Law of the King be a permissive Law of God which the king may out of his absolute enesse put inexecution to oppressâ— the people such as the law of a bill of divorcement as Arnisaeus Barcklay and other Royalists say then must God have given a Law to every King to play the Tyrant because of the hardnesse of the Kings heart but we would gladly see some word of God for this The Law of a bill of Divorcement is a meere positive Law permitted in a particular exigent when a husband out of levity of heart and affection cannot love his wife therefore God by a Law permitted him out of indulgence to put her away that both he might have a seed the want whereof because of the blessed seed to be borne of woman was a reproach in Israel and though this was an affliction to some particular women yet the intent of the Law and the soul thereof was a publique benefit to the Common-wealth of Israel of which sort of Lawes I judge the hard usage permitted by God to his people in the Master toward the servant and the people of God toward the stranger of whom they might exâ—ct usury not toward their brethren to be But that God should make a permissive Law that Ieroboam might presse all Israel to â—iâ—ne and worship the Golden Calves and that a King by Law may kill as a bloody Nero all the people of God by a Divine permissive Law hath no warrant in Gods word Judge reader if Royalists make God to confer a benefit on a land when he giveth them a King if by a Law of God such as the Law for a bill of Divorcement the King may kill and devour as a lawfull absolute Lion six kingdoms of nations that professe Christ and beleeve in his name For if the King have a divine law to kill an innocent Ionathan so as it be unlawfull to resist him he may by that same law turne bloodier then either Nero Iulian or any that ever sucked the paps of a Liones or of any of whom it may be said Quaeque dedit nutrix ubera Tigris erat and he shall be given as a plague of God ex conditione doni to the people and the people inasmuch as they are gifted of God with a King to feed them in a peaceable and godly life must be made slaves now it wanteth reason that God will have a permissive Law of murthering the Church of Christ a Law so contrary to the publique good and intrinsecall intention of a King and to the immutable and eternall law of Nature that one man because of his power may by Gods permissive Law murther millions of innocents Some may say It is against the duty of love that by Nature and Gods Law the husband owes to the wife Ephes 5. 25. that the husband should put away his wife for God hateth putting away and yet God made a Law that a husband might give his wife a bill of divorce and so put her away and by the same
Because Kings are Gods bearing the sword of vengeance against seditious and bloody Prelates and other ill-doers But Christ God-Man the Mediator and Head of the body the Church hath neither Pope nor King to be head under him The sword is communicable to men but the Headship of Christ is communicable to no King nor to any created shoulders 2. The Iesuite maketh the Pope a King and so this P. Prelate maketh him in extent the Bishop of Bishops and so King as I have proved But we place no Soveraigntie in Presbyteries but a meere ministeriall power of servants who doe not take on them to make Lawes and Religious Ceremonies as Prelates doe who indeed make themselves Kings and Law-givers in Gods house P. Prelate We speake of Christ as Head of the Church Some think that Christ was King by his Resurrection jure acquisito by a new title Right of merit I think he was a King from his conception Ans You declare hereby that the King is a ministeriall Head of the Church under the head Christ All our Divines disputing against the Popes headship say No mortall man hath shoulders for so glorious a head You give the King such shoulders But why are not the Kings euen Nero Iulian Nebuchadnezzar Belshazer Vicegerents of Christ as Mediator as Priest as Redeemer as Prophet as Advocate presenting our prayers to God his Father What action I pray you have Christian Kings by office under Christ in dying and rising from the dead for us in sending down the Holy Ghost preparing mansions for us Now it is as proper and incommunicably reciprocall with the Mediator to be the only Head of the body the Church Col. 1. 18. as to be the only Redeemer and Advocate of his Church 2. That Christ was King from his conception as Man borne of the Virgin Mary suteth well with Papists who will have Christ as Man the visible Head of the Church that so as Christ-man is now in heaven he may have a visible Pope to be Head in all Ecclesiasticall matters And that is the reason why this P. Prelate maketh him head of the Church by an Ecclesiasticall right as we heard and so he followeth Becanus the Iesuite in this and others his fellowes P. Prelate 1. Proofe If Kings reigne by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per in and through Christ as the Wisdome of God and the Mediator then are Kings the Vicegerents of Christ as Mediator But the former is said Prov. 8. 15 16. as D. Andrewes of blessed memorie Ans 1. Denies the major All beleevers living the life of God ingrafted in Christ as branches in the tree Job 15. 1. 2 should by the same reason be Vicegerents of the Mediator so should the Angels to whom Christ is a head Col. 2. 10. be his Vicegerents and all the Iudges and Constables on earth should be under-Mediators for they live and act in Christ yea all the Creatures in the Mediator are made new Rev. 21. 5. Rom. 8. 20 21 22. 2. D. Andrewes name is a curse on the earth his writings prove him to be a Popish Apostate P. Prelate 2. Christ is not only King of his Church but in order to his Church King over the Kings and Kingdomes of the earth Ps 2. 5. 8. 3. Math. 21. 18. To him is given all power in heaven and earth ergo all Soveraigntie over Kings Ans 1. If all these be Christs vicegerents over whom he hath obtained power then because the Father hath given him power over all flesh to give them life eternall Ioh. 17. 1. 2. then are all beleevers his Vicegerents yea and all the damned men and Devils and Death and Hell are his Vicegerents for Christ as Mediator hath all power given to him as King of the Church and so power Kingly over all his enemies to reigne while he make them his footstoole Ps 1 10. 1. 2. to break them with a rod of iron Ps 2. 9. 1 Cor. 15. 24 25 26 27. Revel 1. 18. 20. v. 10 11 12 13 14 15. And by that same reason the P. Prelates 4. and 5. Argument fall to the ground He is heire of all things ergo all things are his Vicegerents What more vaine He is Prince of the Kings of the earth and King of Oggs of Kings of his Enemies ergo Sea and Land are his Vicegerents P. Prelate Kings are nurse-fathers of the Church ergo they hold their crowns of Christ 3. Divines say that by men in sacred Orders Christ doth rule his Church mediately in those things which primely concerne salvation and that by Kings their scepter and power he doth protect his Church and what concerneth externall pompe order and decencie Then in this latter sense Kings are no lesse the immediate Vicegerents of Christ than Bishops Priests and Deacons in the former Ans Because Kings hold their Crownes of Christ as Mediator and Redeemer it followeth by as good consequence Kings are submediators and under-Priests and Redeemers as Vicegerents Christ as King hath no visible Royall Vicegerents under him 2. Men in holy Orders sprinkled with one of the Papists five blessed Sacraments such as Antichristian Prelates unwashed Priests to offer sacrifices and Popish Deacons are no more admitted by Christ to enter into his sanctuary as governours then the Leaper into the Campe of old and the Moabite and Ammonite were to enter into the congregation of the Lord Deut. 23. 3. therefore we have excommunicated this P. Prelate and such Moabites out of the Lords house 2. What be the things that doe not primely concerne salvation the P. Prelate knoweth to wit Images in the Church Altar worship Antichristian Ceremonies which primely concerne damnation 3. I understand not what the P. Prelate meaneth that the King preserveth externall Government in order and decency in Scotland in our Parliament 1633. the prescribed Surplice and he commanded the Service-booke and the Masse-worship The Prelate degradeth the King here to make him onely keep or preserve the Prelates Masse-Clothes they intended indeed to make the King but the Popes servant for all they say and do for him now 4. If the King be vicegerent of Christ in prescribing Laws for the externall ordering of the worship and all their decent symbolicall Ceremonies What more doth the Pope and the Prelate in that kinde He may with as good warrant Preach and Administrate the Sacraments P. Prelate Kings have the sign of the Crosse on their Crowns Answ Ergo Baculus est in angulo Prelates have put a crosse in the Kings heart and crossed Crown and Throne to Really Some Knights some Ships some Cities and Burroughes do carry a crosse are they made Christs vice-gerents of late By what antiquity doth the Crosse signifie Christ Of old it was a badge of Christians no Religious Ceremony and is this all The King is the vicegerent of Christians The Prelates we know adore the Crosse with Religious worship so must they adore the Crown P. Prelate Grant that the
Pope were the Vicar of Christ in spirituall things it followeth not Ergo Kings Crowns are subject to the Pope for Papists teach that all power that was in Christ as man as power to work miracles to institute Sacraments was not transmitted to Peter and his successors Answ This is a base consequence Make the Pope head of the Church the King if he be a mixed person that is half a Church-man and Christs Vice-gerent both he and Prelates must be members of the head Papists teach that all in Christ as man cannot be transmitted to Peter but a Ministeriall Catholike Headship say Bucanus and his fellows was transmitted from Christ as man and visible head to Peter and the Pope P. Prelate I wish the Pope who claimeth so neer alliance with Christ would learn of him to be meek and humble in heart so should he finde rest to his own soul to Church and State Answ The same was the wish of Gerson Occam the Doctors of Paris the fathers of the Councels of Constance and Basil yet all make him head of the Church 2. The Excommunicate Prelate is turned Chaplain to Preach to the Pope the Soul-rest that Protestants wish to the Pope is That the Lord would destroy him by the Spirit of his mouth 2 Thes 2. 8. But P. Prelates This wish is a Reformation of accidents with the safety of the subject the Pope and is as good as a wish That the Devill remaining a Devill may finde rest for his soul all we are to pray for as having place in the Church are supposed members of the Church The Prelate would not pray so for the Presbytery by which he was ordained a Pastour 1 Tim. 4. 14. though he be now an Apostate It is gratitude to pray for his lucky father the Pope What ever the Prelate wish we pray for and beleeve that desolation shall be his Soul-rest and that the vengeance of the Lord and of his Temple shall fall upon him and the Prelates his sons P. Prelate That which they purpose by denying Kings to be Christs Vice-gerents is to set up a Soveraignty Ecclesiasticall in Presbyteries to constrain Kings repeal his Laws correct his Satutes reverse his Judgements to cite convent and censure Kings and if there be not power to execute what Presbyteries decrees they may call and command the help of the people in whom is the underived Majestie and promise and swear and covenant to defend their fancies against all mortall men with their Goods Lands Fortunes to admit no divisive motion and this Soveraign Association maketh every private man an armed Magistrate Answ You see the Excommunicate Apostats tusles against the Presbytery of a Reformed Church from which he had his baptism fiath ministery 1. We deny the King to be the head of the Church 2. We assert that in the Pastors Doctors and Elders of the Church there is a Ministeriall power as servants under Christ in his authority and name to rebuke and censure Kings that there is revenge in the Gospel against all disobedience 2 Cor. 2. 6. and 10. 6. The rod of God 1 Cor. 4. 21. The rod of Christs lips Isai 11. 4. The Scepter and Sword of Christ Revel 1. 16. and 19. 15. The Keyes of his Kingdom to binde and loose open and shut Matth. 18. 17. 18. and 16. 19. 1 Cor. 5. 1 2 3. 2 Thes 3. 14 15. 1 Tim. 1. 19. and 5. 22. and 5. 17. And that this power is committed to the Officers of Christs house call them as you will 3. For reversing of Laws made for the establishing of Popery we think the Church of Christ did well to declare all these unjust grievous decrees and that woe is due to the Iudges even the Queen if they should not repent as Isai 10. 1. And this P. must shew his teeth in this against our Reformation in Scotland which he once commended in Pulpit as a glorious work of Gods right arm And the Assemble of Glaskow 1637. declared That Bishops though established by Acts of Parliament procured by Prelates onely Commissioners and Agents for the Church who betrayed their trust were unlawfull and did supplicate That the ensuing Parliament would annull these wicked Acts. They think God priviledgeth neither King nor others from Church-Censures the P. Prelates imprisoned and silenced the Ministers of Christ who preached against the publike sins the blood oppressions unjustice open swearing and blasphemy of the holy Name of God the countenancing of Idolaters c. in King and Court 4. They never sought the help of the people against the most unjust standing Law of authority 5. They did never swear and covenant to defend their own fancies For the Confession and Covenant of the Protestant Religion translated in Latin to all the Protestants in Europe and America being termed a fancie is a clear evidence That this P. Prelate was justly excommunicated for Popery 6. This Covenant was sworm by King James and his house by the whole Land by the Prelates themselves And to this fancy this P. Prelate by the Law of our Land was obliged to swear when he received degrees in the Universitie 7. There is reason our Covenant should provide against divisive motions The Prelates moved the King to command all the Land to swear our Covenant in the Prelaticall sense against the intent thereof and onely to devide and so command Iudge what Religion Prelates are of who will have the Name of God prophaned by a whole Nation by swearing fancies 8. Of making private men Magistrates in defending themselves against cut-throats Enough already Let the P. Prelate answer if he can P. Prelate Let no man imagine me to priviledge a King from the direction and just power of the Church or that like Uzzah he should intrude upon sacred actions exviordinis in foro interno conscientiae to Preach or Administrate Sacraments c. Answ Uzzah did not burn Incense ex vi ordinis as if he had been a Priest but because he was a King and Gods anointed Prelates sit not in Councell and Parliament ex vi ordinis as temporall Lords The Pope is no temporall Monarch ex vi ordinis yet all are intruders So the P. P. will licence Kings to administer Sacraments so they doe it not Ex vi ordinis P. P. Men in sacred Orders in things intrinsecally spirituall have immediatly a directive and authoritative power in order to all whatsoever although ministeriall only as related to Christ but that giveth them no coercive civill power over the Prince perse or per accidens directly or indirectly that either the one way or the other any or many in sacred Order Pope or Presbytery can cite and censure Kings assocîate Covenant or sweare to resist him and force him to submit to the Scepter of Christ This power over man God Almighty useth not much lesse hath he given it to man Ps 110. His people are a willing people Suadenda non cogenda religio Ans 1. Pastors
Prerogative pardoneth a murtherer and he killeth another innocent man and out of the same ground the King pardoneth him again and so till he kill twenty for by what reason the Prerogative giveth one pardon he may give twenty there is a like reason above Law for all This act of Absolute Royaltie is such an act of murther as if a shepherd would keep a Woolf in the fold with the sheep he were guilty of the losse of these sheep Now an act of destroying cannot be an act of judging far lesse of a supreme Iudge but of a supreme Murtherer 7. Whereas he is called Absolute Prince and Supreme Judge in all Causes Ecclesiasticall and Civill It is to be considered 1. That the Estates professe in these acts not to give any new Prerogative but onely to continue the old power and that onely with that amplitude and freedom which the King and his Predecessors did enjoy and exerce of before the extent whereof is best known from the Acts of Parliament Histories of the time and the Oaths of the Kings of Scotland 2. That he is called Absolute Prince not in any relation of freedom from Law or Prerogative above Law whereunto as unto the norma regula ac mensura potestatis suae ac subjectionis meae He is tyed by the Fundamentall Law and his own Oath but in opposition to all forraign Iurisdiction or principalitie above him as is evident by the Oath of Supremacie set down for acknowledging of his power in the first Act of Parliament 21. K. Iam. 6. 3. They are but the same expressions giving onely the same power before acknowledged in the 129. Act. Parl. 8. K. Iam. 6. And that onely over Persons or Estates considered Separatim and over Causes but neither at all over the Laws nor over the Estates taken Conjunctim and as convened in Parliament as is clear both by the two immediately subsequent Acts of that Parliament 8. K. Iam. 6. Establishing the Authority of Parliaments equally with the Kings and discharging all Iurisdictions albeit granted by the King without their Warrant as also by the Narrative Depositive words and certification of the Act it self otherwayes the Estates convened in Parliament might by vertue of that Act be summoned before and censured by the Kings Majestie or His Councell a Iudicatory substitute be subordinate to and censurable by themselves which were contrary to sense and reason 4. The very termes of Supreme Iudge and in all Causes according to the nature of Correlates presupposeth Courts and judiciall Proceedings and Laws as the ground work and rule of all not a freedom from them 5. The sixth Act of the twenty Parliament K. Iac. 6. Cleerly interpreteth what is meant by the Kings Iurisdiction in all Spirituall and Ecclesiastick Causes to wit to be onely in the Consistoriall Causes of Matrimony Testaments Bastardy Adulteries abusively called Spirituall Causes because handled in Commissary Courts wherin the King appoints the Commissary his Deputies and makes the Lords of the Session his great Consistory in all Ecclesiasticall Causes with reservation of his Supremacy and Prerogative therein 7. Supreame Iudge in all causes cannot be taken Quoad actus elicitos as if the King were to judge between two Sea-men or two Husband-men or two Trades-men in that which is proper to their Art or between two Painters certainly the King is not to Iudge which of the two draweth the fairest Picture but which of the two wasteth most gold on his Picture and so doth interest most of the Common-wealth So the King cannot judge in all Ecclesiasticall Causes that is he cannot Quoad actos elicitos prescribe this Worship for example the Masse not the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Therefore the King hath but Actus imperatos some Royall Politicall Acts about the Worship of God to command God to be Worshipped according to his Word to punish the superstitions or neglectors of Divine Worship therefore cannot the King be sole Iudge in matters that belong to the Colledge of Iudges by the Lawes of Scotland the Lords of Session onely may judge these maters K. Iames 1. Parl. 2. Act. 45. K. Iames 3. Par. 8. Act. 62. K. Iames 3. Par. 4. Act. 105. K. I. 1. Parl. 6. Act. 83. K. I. 1. Par. 6 Act. 86. K. I. 5. Par. 7. Act. 104. and that only according to Law without any remedy of appellation to King or the Parliament Act 62 and 63. Par. 14. K. I. 2. And the King is by Act of Parliament inhibited to send any private letter to stay the Acts of Iustice or if any such letter be procured the Iudges are not to acknowledge it as the Kings Will for they are to proceed unpartially according to Iustice and are to make the Law which is the King and Parliaments publick revealed will their rule King I. 5. Parl. 5. Act. 68. K. Ia. 6. Part. 8. Act. 139. and K. I. 6. Par. 6. Act. 92. most lawfull Nor may the Lords suspend the course of Iustice or the sentence or execution of Decrees upon the Kings private letter King I. 6. Parl. 11. Act 79. and K. Iam. 6. Par. 11. Act 47. and so if the Kings Will or desire as he is a man be opposite to his Law and his Will as King it is not to be regarded This is a strong Argument that the Parliaments never made the King supreame Iudge Quoad actus elicitos in all causes nay not if the King have a Cause of his owne that concerneth Lands of the Crowne farre lesse can the King have a will of Prerogative above the Law by our Lawes of Scotland And therefore when in the eighth Parliament King Ia. 6. the Kings Royall Power is established in the first Act the very next act immediatly subjoyned thereunto declareth the authority of thesupreame Court of Parliament continued past all memory of man unto this day and constitute of the free voices of the three estates of this ancient Kingdome which in the Parliament 1606. is called The ancient and fundamentall policy of this Kingdome and so fundamentall as if it should be innovate such confusion would ensue as it could no more be a free Monarchy as is exprest in the Parliaments printed Commission 1604. by whom the same under God hath been upholden rebellious and traiterous subjects punished the good and faithfull preserved and maintained and the Lawes and Acts of Parliament by which all men are governed made and established and appointeth the Honour Authority and Dignity of the Estates of Parliament to stand in their owne integrity according to the ancient and laudable custome by past without alteration or diminution and therefore dischargeth any to presume or take in hand To impugne the dignity and the authority of the said Estates or to seeke or procure the innovation or diminution of their power or authority under the paine of Treason and therefore in the next Act they discharge all Iurisdictions or Judicatories albeit appointed by the Kings Majesty as the High Commission
and counsell in assisting the King in acts of Tyranny and in oppression and in shedding innocent blood yea our confession tyeth us to deny helpe and comfort to the King in these wicked acts and therefore our helpe must be in the things that pertaineth to his Royall Office and duty only otherwise we are to represse all tyranny art 14. 4 To save the lives of innocents to represse Tyranny to defend the oppressed are by our confession good workes well pleasing to God and so is this a good worke not to suffer innocent blood to be shed if we â—ay withstand it Hence it is cleare as the Sunne that our confession according to the Word of God to which King Charles did sweare at his Coronation doth oblige and tye us in the presence of God and his holy Angels to rise in Armes to save the innocent to represse Tyranny to defend the oppressed When the King induced by ill counsell sent Armies by Sea and Land to kill and destroy the whole Kingdome who should refuse such a Service-booke as they could not in conscience receive except they would disobey God renounce the confession of Faith which the King and they had sworne unto and prove perfidious Apostates to Christ and his Church what could we doe and that the same Confession considering our bonds to our deare Brethren in England layeth bonds on us to this as a good worke also not to suffer their innocent blood to be shed but to defend them when they against all Law of God of men of State of Nations are destroyed and killed For my part I judge it had been a guiltinesse of blood upon Scotland if we had not helped them and risen in Armes to defend our selves and our innocent brethren against bloody Cavaliers Adde to this what is in the 24. Article of the same Confession We confesse whosoever goeth about to take away or to confound the whole state of Civill Polity now lonâ— established we affirme the same men not only to be enemies to mankind but also wickedly to fight against Gods Will. But these who have taken Armes against the Estates of Scotland and the Princes and Rulers of the Land have laboured to take away Parliaments and the fundamentall Lawes of this Kingdome ergo c. The Confession addeth 16. We farther confesse and acknowledge that such persons as are placed in authority are to be loved honoured feared and holden in most reverent estimation because that they are Lieutenants of God in whose Sessions God himselfe doth sit and Iudge yea even the Iudges and Princes themselves to whom by God is given the sword to the praise and defence of good men and to revenge and punish all open malefactors Ergo the Parliament and Princes and Rulers of the Land are Gods Lieutenants on earth no lesse then the King by our Confession of Faith and those who resist them resist the ordinance of God Royalists say They are but the Deputies of the King and when they doe contrary to his Royall Will they may be resisted yea and killed for in so farre they are private men though they are to be honoured as Iudges when they act according to the Kings Will whose Deputies they are But I answer 1. It is a wonder that inferiour Judges should be formally Iudges in so far as they act conforme to the will of a mortall King and not in so far as they act conforme to the will of the King of Kings seeing the judgement they execute is the King of Kings and not the Iudgement of a mortall King 2 Chro. 19. 6. 2. Royalists cannot indure the former distinction as it is applyed to the King but they receive it with both hands as it is applyed to inferiour Iudges and yet certaine it is that it is as ordinary for a King being a sinfull man to act sometimes as the Lieutenant of God and sometimes as an erring and misinformed man no lesse then the inferiour Iudge acteth sometimes according to the Kings will and Law and sometimes according to his owne private way and if we are to obey the inferiour Iudge as the Deputy of the King what shall become of his Person when Cavaliers may kill him at some Edge-hill for so they mock this distinction as applyed to the King in regard of his Person and of his Royall Office and for this point our Confession citeth in the Margin Rom. 13. 7. 1 Pet. 2. 17. Psal 82. 1. which places doe clearely prove 1. That inferiour Magistrates are 1. Gods ordinances 2. Gods on earth Psal 82. 3. Such as beare the Lords sword 4. That they are not only as the Confession saith appointed for Civill policie but also for maintenance of true Religion and for suppressing of idolatrie and superstition Then it is evident to resist inferior Magistrates is to resist God himselfe and to labour to throw the sword out of Gods hands 5 Our Confession useth the same Scriptures cited by Junius Brutus to wit Ezek. 22. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. and Ier. 22. 3. where we are no lesse then the Iewes commanded to execute judgement and righteousnesse and deliver the spoyled out of the hands of the oppressour For both the Law of God and the Civill Law saith Qui non impedit homicidium quum potest is homicidii reus est I will cast in a word of other Confessions lest we seeme to be Iesuites alone The Confession of Helvetia saith c. 30. de Magistratu Viduas pupillos afflictos asserat Every Magistrate is to defend the widow the orphan and the oppressed The French Confession saith art 40. Affirmamus ergo parendumesse Legibus Statutis solvenda Tributa subjectionis denique jugum voluntariè tolerandum etiamsi infideles fuerint Magistratus dummodo Dei summum imperium integrum illibatum maneat So cleare it is that all active obedience is due to all Magistrates and that that yoake of passive obedience is to be tolerated but conditionally with a dummodo so as the Magistrate violate not the supreme commandement of the King of Kings And we know accordingly Protestants of that Church have taken defensive armes against their King But our P. Prelate can say The Confessions of Scotland Helvetia France and all the Reformed Churches are Jesuiticall when as it was the doctrine of the Waldenses Protestants and Luther Calvin and others while as there was no Iesuite on earth The 37. Art of the Church of Englands Confession is so far from erecting an absolute power in the King that they expresly bring down the Royall Prerogative from the high seat and transcendent superlative power above the Law and expone the Prerogative to be nothing but meere Law-power We only say they ascribe that Prerogative to the King which the Scripture doth ascribe to all Godly Princes that is that they cause all committed to their trust whether Ecclesiasticall or Civill persons doe their duty and punish with the Civill sword all disobedient offenders In syntag Confess And
Kingdome by Statute of Parliament to be bestowed on the Kingdome and the King should sell no Acts of Justice for Subsidies 5. He dare not speake of the consequences if the King grant Bills of Grace and part with the flowers of the Crowne Ans He dare not say The people shall vindicate their liberty by selling Subsidies to buy branches of the Prerogative Royall and diminishing the Kings fancied absolutenesse so would Prelates have the King absolute that they may ride over the soules purses persons estates and Religion of men upon the horse of pretended absolutenesse 6. He feareth the Parliament sall upon Church businesse but 1. The Church is too weake already if it had more power the King might have more both obedience and service 2. The Houses can be no competent Iudges in point of Doctrine 3. For the King Clergy and Convocation are Iudges in all causes Ecclesiasticall Ans 1. This striketh at the root of all Parliamentary power 1. The P. P. giveth them but a poore deliberative power in Subsides and that is to make the Kings Will a Law in taking all the subjects goods from them to foment warre against the subjects 2. He taketh all jurisdiction from them over Persons though they were as black Traitors as breathe 3. And spoileth them of all power in Church matters to make all Iudges yea and the King himselfe yield blind obedience to the Pope and Prelate and their illuminated Clergie Sure I am P. Maxwell imputeth this but most unjustly to Presbyteries What essentiall and fundamentall priviledges are left to Parliaments David and the Parliament of Israel are impertinent Iudges in the matter of bringing home the Ark of God And for the Churches weaknesse that is the weaknesse of the damned Prelates shall this be the Kings weaknesse Yes the P. P. must make it true No Bishop no King 7. He feareth factious spirits will take heart to themselves if the King yield to them without any submission of theirs Ans The Princes and Iudges of the Land are a company of factious men and so no Parliament no Court but at best some good advisers of a King to breake up the Parliament because they refuse Subsidies that he may by a lawlesse way extort Subsidies 8. He desireth the Parliament may sit a short time that they may not well understand one another Ans He loveth short or no justice from the Parliament he feareth they reforme Gods house and execute justice on men like himselfe But I returne to the Scotish Parliament Assert 2. The Parliament is to regulate the power of the King The heritable Sheriffes complaine that the King granteth Commissions to others in cases perteining to their office Whereupon the Estates Par. 6. K. Iam. 5. Act. 82. dischargeth all such Commissions as also appointeth that all Murtherers be judged by the Iustice generall only And in severall Acts the King is inhibited to grant pardons to malefactors K. Ia. 6. Act. 75. P. 11. It is to be considered that King Iames in his Baslicon Doron layeth down an unsound ground that Fergus the first father of 107 Kings of Scotland conquered this Kingdom The contrary whereof is asserted by Fordome Major Boethius Buchannan Hollanshed who run all upon this Principle That the Estates of the Kingdome did 1. Choose a Monarchie and freely and no other Government 2. That they freely elected Fergus to be their King 3. King Fergus frequently conveened the Parliament called Insulanorum Duces Tribuum Rectores Majorum consessus Conventus Ordinum conventus Statuum Communitatum Regni Phylarchi Primores Principes patres and as Hollanshed saith they made Fergus King therefore a Parliament must be before the King yea and after the death of King Fergus Philarchi coeunt conciâ—ne advocatâ the Estates convened without any King and made that fundamentall Law Regni electivi That when the Kings Children were minores any of the Fergusian Race might be chosen to Reigne and this indured to the daies of Kennethus and Redotha Reâ— 7. resigneth and maketh over the Government into the hands of the Parliament and Philarchi Tribuum Gubernatores ordained Therius the 8. King Buchanan l. 4. Rer. Scot. calleth him Reutha and said he did this Populo egrè permittente then the Royall Power recurred to the fountaine Therius the 8. a wicked man filled the Kingdome with Roberies fearing that the Parliament should punish him fled to the Britaines and thereupon the Parliament choose Connanus to be Protex and protector of the Kingdome Finnanus R. 10. Decreed Ne quid Reges quod majoris esset momenti nisi de publici consilii authoritate juberent ne domestico consilio remp administrarent regia publicaque negotia non sine patrum consultatione ductuque tractarentur nec bellum pacem aut faedera reges per se patrum Tribuumve Rectorum injussu facerent demerentue Then it is cleare that Parliaments were consortes imperii and had Authority with and above the King When a Law is made that the Kings should doe nothing Injussu rectorum tribuum without commandement of the Parliament a Cabinet Counsell was not lawfull to the Kings of Scotland So Durstus Rex XI sweareth to the Parliament Se nihil nisi de primorum consilio acturum That he shall doe nothing but by counsell of the Rulers and Heads of the Kingdome The Parliament rejecting the lawfull sonne of Corbredus the 20 King because he was young created Dardanus the sonne of Metellanus King which is a great argument of the power of the Scottish Parliament of old for elective rather then hereditary Kings Corbredus secundus called Galdus the 21 King at his Coronation renouncing all negative voices did sweare Se majorum consiliis acquieturum That he should be ruled by the Parliament and it is said Leges quasdam tollere non potuit adversante multitudine Lactatus R. 22. is censured by a Parliament Quod spreto majorum consilio He appointed base men to publick Offices Mogaldus R. 23. Ad consilia seniorum omnia ex prisco more revâ—cavit did all by the Parliament as the ancient custome was Conarus 24. K. was cast in Prison by the Parliament Quod non expectato decreto patrum quod summae erat potestatis privatis consiliis administrasset Because he did the weightiest businesse that concerned the Kingdome by private advice without the judiciall Ordinance of Parliament that was of greatest authority Where is the negative voice of the King here Ethodius 2. the sonne of Ethodius the 1. the 28. King The Parliament passing by his son of the first Bed because he was a child had created Satrael his Brother King before a simple ignorant man yet for reverence to the race of Fergus kept the name of a King but the Estates appointed Tutors to him he was the 28. King Nathalocus the 30. K. corrupting the Nobles with buds and faire promises obtained the Crowne Romachus Fethelmachus and Angusianus or as Buchanan
calleth him Aenneannus contended for the Crowne the Parliament convened to judge the matter was dissolved by tumult and Rommachus chosen King doing all Non adhibito de more consilio majorum was censured by the Parliament Fergus the 2. was created King by the States De more Constantine 43. K. a most wicked man was punished by the States Aidanus 49. K. by the counsell of Sanctus Columba governed all in peace by three Parliaments every yeare Ferchardus 52. K. and Ferchardus 2. the 54. King were both censured by Parliaments Eugenius 62. K. a wicked Prince was put to death by the Parliament Omnibus in ejus exitium consentientibus Eugenius 7. the 59. K. was judicially accused and absolved by the States of killing his Wife Spondana Donaldus the 70. K. is censured by a Parliament which convened Pro salute Reipublicae for the good of the Land So Ethus the 72. K. Ne unius culpâ regnum periret Gregorius the 73. K. sweareth to maintaine Kirk and State in their liberties the Oath is ordained to be sworne by all Kings at their Coronation The Estates complaine of Duffus 78. K. because contemning the counsell of the Nobles Sacrificulorum consiliis abduceretur and that neither the Nobility must depart the Kingdome or another King must be made Culenus the 79. King was summoned before the Estates so before him Constantine the 3. the 75. K. did by Oath resigne the Kingdome to the States and entered in a Monastery at Saint Andrewes Kenethus the 70. K. procured almost per vim saith Buchanan that the Parliament should change the elective Kings in hereditary observe the Power of Parliaments After this Grimus and then Macbethus R. 85. is rebuked for governing by private counsell in his time the King is ordained by the States to sweare to maintaine the community of the Kingdome When Maccolumbus the 92. King would have admitted a Treaty to the hurt of the Kingdome the Nobles said Non jus esse Regi the King had no right to take any thing from the Kingdome Nisi omnibus Ordinibus consentientibus In the time of Alexander the 94. K. is ordained Acta regis oporteri confirmari decreto ordinum regni quia ordinibus regni non consultis aut adversantibus nihil quod ad totius regnistatum attinet Regi agere liceret So all our Historians observe by which it is cleare that the Parliament not the King hath a negative voyce The States answer to K. Edwards Legates concerning Balzees conditions in his contest with Bruce is That these conditions were made a solo Rege by the King only without the estates of the Kingdome and therefore they did not oblige the Kingdome In Robert the Bruce his Raigne the K. 97. the succession to the Crowne is appointed by Act of Parliament and twice changed and in the League with France Quod quando de successuro rege ambigeretur apud Scotos ea controversia ab Ordinum de creto decideretur Robert the 100. K. in a Parliament at Scoone moved the States to appoint the Earle of Carick his eldest sonne of the second Mariage to the Crowne passing his children of the first Mariage and when he would have made a Treatie he was told That he could not inducias facere nisi ex sententia conventus publici he could not make Truces but with the consent of the Estates of Parliament K. James the 1. could not doe any thing in his Oath in England The Parliaments approbation of the Battell at Stirling against King Iames the 3. is set downe in the printed Acts because he had not the consent of the States To come to our first Reformation Queene Regent breaking her promise to the States said Faith of promise should not be sought from Princes the States answered That they then were not obliged to obey and suspended her government as inconsistent with the duty of Princes by the Articles of pacification at Leith Anno 1560. Iunii 16. No peace or warre can be without the States In the Parliament thereafter Anno 1560. the Nobility say frequently to the Queene Regum Scotorum limitatum esse imperium nec unquam adunius libidinem sed ad legum praescriptum nobilitatis consensum regisolitum So it is declared Parliament at Stirling 1578. and Parl. 1567 concerning Queene Mary I need not insist here K. James the 6. Anno 1567. Iul. 21. was Crowned the Earle of Morton and Humne jurarunt pro co ejus nomine in leges eum doctrinam ritus religionis quae tum docebantur publice quoad posset servaturum contrarios oppugnaturum Buch. Rer. Scot. Hist l. 18. The three Estates revoke all alienations made by the King without consent of the Parliament Parliam K. Iames 2. cap. 2. K. Iames 4 5 6. Three Parliaments of K. Iames the 2. are holden without any mention of the King as Anno 1437. Anno 1438. Anno 1440. and the 5. and 6. Act of Parl. 1440. the Estates ordaine the King to doe such and such things to ride through the country for doing of Iustice And Parl. 1. K. Iames 1. Act. 23. the Estates ordained the King to mend his money But shew any Parliament where ever the King doth prescribe Lawes to the States or censure the States In the 1. Parl. of K. Iames the 6. the Confession of Faith being ratified in Acts made by the three Estates that the Kings must sweare at their Coronation In the presence of the eternall God that they shall maintaine the true Religion right Preaching and administration of the Sacraments now received and preached within this Realme and shall abolish and gain-stand all false Religions contrary to the same and shall rule the people committed to their charge according to the will of God laudable Lawes and Constitutions of the Realme c. The 1. Parl. of K. Iames the 6. 1567. approveth the Acts Parl. 1560. conceived only in name of the States without the King and Queen who had deserted the same So saith the Act 2. 5. 4. 20. 28. And so this Parliament wanting the King and Queenes authoritie is confirmed Parl. 1572. Act. 51. K. Ia. 6. and Parl. 1581. Act. 1. and Parl. 1581. Act. 115. in which it is declared That they have been Common lawes from their first Date and all are ratified Parl. 1587. and Parl. 1592. Act. 1. and stand ratified to this day by K. Charles his Parliament An. 1633. The Act of the Assemblie 1566. commendeth that Parliament 1560. as the most lawfull and free Parliament that ever was in the Kingdome Yea even Parl. 1641. King Charles himselfe being present an Act was passed upon the occasion of the Kings illegall imprisoning of the Laird of Langtoune That the King hath no power to imprison any Member of the Parliament without consent of the Parliament Which Act to the great prejudice of the libertie of the Subject should not have been left unprinted for by what Law the King may imprison one
the Deputy of the King Inferiour Iudges powers ordained of God Rebuked for perverting judgement They are the Ministers of God To resist them is to resist God They are Gods By this the Parliame nt of both Kingdomes ought to put to death cut-rhroat Cavaliers â—aising warre against the subject though the King commands the contrary Sac. Sanc. mai c. 4. pag. 46. How the King judgeth by inferiour Iudges Simmons loyall subjects beleif Sect. 1. pag. 3. The honour of an inferiour Iudge commeth neither from East nor from West more then from the King Argu. 9. Power of Kings and of inferiour Iudges differ gradually not specifically The specifick acts and formall object of Kings and inferiour Iudges are the same The same obligation of conscience that lyeth on the King in all things lyeth on the inferiour Iudge Inferiores Iudices sunt impropriè Vicarii Regis quoad missionem externam ad officium sed immediati Dei vicarii quoad officium in quod missi sunt Barcl l. 2. contr Monarchom p. 56 57. Arnisaeus de authorit Princ. c. 3. â— 9. Marant disp 1. Zoan tract 3. de defens Mynsin g. obs 18. cent 5. Symmons sect â— p. 2. The Iudges of Israel and the Kings after them differed but not essentially Sacr. sanct maj c. 7. p. 81 82. Nature is aâ— neare to Aristocracy as to Monarchy for the wise cannot be under the husband as a subject under a Monarch she by the fift Commandement haâ—h a joynt â—headship with the husband Iudges inferiour depend on the King in fieri when the constitution of the Kingdome is such but not in facto esse nor in their essence Arg. 10. Inferiour Iudges after the King is dead as also the States of Parliament remain Iudges Arg. 11. God not the absolute Prince maketh the inferiour Iudges No heritable Iudges according to Gods Word Inferiour Iudges more necessary in a large Kingdom then the Kfng and fo Aristocracy in that more sutable to the naturall end of government then Monarchy Principes sunt capitis tempora Rex vertex Elders of a land joyntly in Parliament must have as much if not more vis unita fortior then when they are divided in severall tribes â—ities shires but divided they are as essentially Iudges as the King The whole must have more power in extension then the part Jer. 38. 25 they had power against the Kings will to put Ieremiah to death Ieremiah saith Doe whatsoever seemeth good to you v. 10. The power of conveening Parliaments in the Estates without the King Ps 122. 2 3. Why are thrones set for judgement for all the tribes if only the King judge Tables in Scotland lawfull The inferiour Iudges are not subject in their conscience to the King in their acts of judgement either quoad specificationem to give unjust sentences at his will nor quoad exercitium to execute or not execute judgement for the oppressed Vnjust judgeing and no judging at all are sinnes in the States Junius Brut. q. 2. p. 51. vind contr Tyran The Parliament Iudges not advisers only Ieferiour Iudges not the Legats or Servants or Messengers of the King Publick Government belongeth to the States and Elders as to the King Arg. 8. Arg. 9. Arg 10. Arg. 11. Ferne par 3. Defence Sect. 3. pag. pag. 1â— The question is not if the King be so absolute as he is freed from all Morall restraint comming from Gods Law Sacr. sanc Maj. cap. 14. p. 1â—3 No resisting of the most Turkish Tyran by the Royalists way An absolute King more absolute then the Great Turke by Royalists way No law at all by Royalists way to impede a King from a super-inundation of overflowing Tyrannâ— 1 Arg. against Absolutenesse of Kings Why the King a breathing Law three reasons 2. Argument against an absolute King The People have no absolute power over themselves and so cannot make over any such power to the King Arg. 3. Against an absolute Prince Power Tyrannicall is not from God Barclaius contr Monarcho l. 2. pag. 62. That evasion removed Tyrannicall power is not from God but a power to do ill so as no mortall man may resist is from God Argum. 4. Against an absolute Prince A King as a King must be a plague iâ— God be the Creator of an absolute Prince The goodnesse of an absolute Prince in not putting forth his power in actuall destroying of the people hindereth not the power to be actu primo Tyrannicall Argum. 5. Against absolute Princes An absolute Prince against justice peace reason law c. Argum. 6. Against an absolute Prince It is against nature Arg. 7. Against an absolute Prince contrary to the fift Commandement Arg. 8. Against an absolute Prince The King remaineth a brother when he is King and may be rebuked may not take his neighbours vineyard from him A Damsell forced by the King may violently resist No sufficient meanes against all cruelties and unjust violences if an absolute Prince be from God all goe to confusion Barclaius cont Monarch l. 2 pag. 76 77. 9. Argument against an absolute Prince The conditions tacite or expresse upon which the Prince receiveth the crown fight with all absolute power Prerogative taken two wayes No Prerogative Royall in the Scripture Jus personae jus corouae The question touching Prerogative Royall vaine Prerogative Royall of Royalists Gods due Acts founded upon the soleâ— pleasure of the Agent proper to God A threefold dispensation A dispensation 1. of sole pleasure 2. of justice 3. of grace A twofold exponing of the Law by grace In re dubia possunt dispensare Principes quia nullus sensus presumitur qui vincat principalem l. 1. Sect. initium ib. Kings as Kings cannot doe things of meere grace because they must doe all ex debito officii by necessitie of their office Rom-13 4. Prov. 17. 15. Kings equivocally Kings The King may as well do acts of meer cruelty from his supposed Prerogative as acts of meer grace to one man out of the same fountain If Prerogative may over leap Law in one why not in twenty No Tyrant can do any thâ— most cruell act but under the notion of apprehended good Pretended Prerogative Royal of Royalists Tyranny Polanus in Daniel c. 5. 19. Rollocus com 16. ib. Th. Sanches de matr tom 1. l. 2. dis 15. n. 3. est arbâ—â—rii plenitudo nulli necessitati subjecta nulliusque publici juris regulis limita ta Baldus l. 2. n. 40. C. de servit aqua Sueâ—oni in Calign cap. 29. memento tibi omnia in omnes licere Coelius Rodigi l. 8. Lect. Antiq c. 1. Vasquez illust quest l. 1. c. 26. n. 2. A contradiction in Ferne. Treaties of Monarchicall Government c. 2. pag. 6 7. The King of Persia not absolute The Oath of Iudah to the King of Babylon tyed them notto renounce naturall selfe preservation Servants are not by 1 Pet. 2. 18 19. interdited of selfe-defence Declar. at New Market Mar. 9. 1641. Magna Charca against
an absolute Prince How the King is Lord of the Parliament Monarch Governa part 2. c. 1. pag. 31. Sac. sanc Mai. c. 14. p. 144. Princes are not to be invested with power to all Tyranny upon this pretence that they cannot do good except they have also absolute power to do evil Sae Maj. pag. 145. Sacr. sanc Maj. c. 16. p. 170 171. A power to shed innocent blood is no part of a true Prerogative The King because of the publikenesse of his office inferiour to subjects and other Iudges in many priviledges Loyall subjects belief Sect. 6. p. 19. Barcl l. 4. c. 23. p. 325. Humane Laws as penall take life from Law makers as reasonable they have life from the eternall Law of God The King not greater then the Law No necessitie that an unjust will of a King be either done by us or on us The King hath no Nomothetick power his alone Symmons Loyall Subject Sect. 5. pag. 8. Prerogative Royall warranteth not the Prince to destroy himselfe nor is the people to permit him to cooperat for destruction to themselves The King inferiour to the People Parliaments supplicate not the King ex debito Sac. sanct maj â— â— p. 103 104 Subordination of the King to the Parliament and coordinatioÌ„ both consistent Do. p. 3. Sect. 4. pag. 2â— Temperament of all the three in a limited Monarchy Burel Ad verfus Monarchomachous l. 1. pag. 24. A King as King how excellent a head of the people how contrary to a Tyrant The King as an erring man no remedy against confusions and oppressions of Anarchy A Court of necessity and a Court of Iustice Humane Laws not so obscure as Tyranny is legible Ferne part 3. sect 5. pag. 39. It is ridiculous to say a King cannoâ— be so void of reason as to destroy his people Part. 3. sect 5. pag. 39. If there be a civill restraint from mans Law laid upon the King it must be forceable It s more requisite the people religion and Church be secured then one man D. Ferne p. 3. sect 5. pag. 40. To swear to an absolute Prince as absolute is an oath Eatenus in so far not obligatory Difference betwixt a Tyrant in act and a Tyrant in habit Epist 45. The tragicall end of many Tyrannous Princes Reasons why the Peoples safetie is the Soveraignes Law A good Prince is to postponâ— his own safetie to the safetie of the people Sac. sane Maj. c. 16. 159. Dr. Ferne Conscience not satisfied Sec. â— p. 28. The King in his government is to seeke the safetie of the people not himselfe Sac. sanc maj â—â— 160. Iac. Armini Declar. Remonstrant in suod dordrac The Royalists principles drive at this to make none Kings but only rank Tyrants Vindix regum pag 65. Sac. sanc Mat. 16 pag. 161 162 163. Sacr. san Mai. pag. 165. The subjects may gratifie the King for doing what he is obliged to doe by his office Sac. sacr Mai. pag. 170. Page 172. Symmons hath the same very thing in his Loyall Subjec unbelief p. 39. Page 175. The safetie of the people far above the King Page 176. A King may though we should deny all Prerogative breake through the letter of a Law for the safety of the whole Land The Kings supposed Prerogative nothing in comparison of the lives and blood of so many thousands as are killed in England and Ireland The power of the Dictator no plea for a Prerogative above Law Pag. 177. Sac. sanc maj cap. 16. The Law above the King in four considerations The meaning of this The King is not subject to the Law The Law above the King in supremacy of constitution In what sense the King may do all things Plutarch in Apotheg l. 4. The King under the fundamentall Laws Whether the King be punishable or be to he punished Two divers questions Magistratus ipse est judex executor contra scipsum in propria causa propter excellentiam sui officii l. se pater familiaâ— l. boc Tiberius Caesar F. De Hered hoc just The King above some Lawes The King above Lawes that concerne subjects as subjects Some Lawyers and Schoolemen free the King from the Law Reasons to prove that the King is under the Law That a King hath no superiour but God a false ground to liberate the the King from the coaction of Law Argum. 2. Argum. 3. A Tyrant in exercise may be punished by the confession of our adversaries Winzetus Barclat Hag. Grotius But how this can consist with the doctrine of Royalists I see not to wit Once a father alway a father once a King ever a King None can punish a King save God Almighty say they Arg. 4. The King under the strictest obligation of Law Arg. 5. A King remaineth a man and a sociall creature Sac. sanc Mai. c. 15. p. 146 147. In what considerations the people is the subject of all politike power Sac. Mai. p. 147 148. C. 15. p. 148. Stollen from Arnisaus Dâ— authorit Prin. c. 4. num 5. pag. 73. If David in his Murthering Vriah and his Adultery sinned against none but God Arg. 6. The place Psa 51. Against hee only have I sinned Discussed Against thee only c. cannot exclude men as if David had sinned against no mortall men on earth as Royalists would teach Sac. sanct maj pag. 153. Gods delivering his people by Iudges and by Cyrus nothing against the power of a free people That the people may swear a Covenant for Reformation of Religion without the King is proâ—ed A twofold exposition of Lawes A Rule to expone Lawes The King not the sole interpreter of the Law The Kings conscience no rule of judging to the inferiour Iudge The King not the authentick peremtory and Lordly interpreter of the Law Argum. 1. â—rguâ— 2. The Will of the King is not the sense of the Law The King is King according to the Law but not King of the Law Argum. 3. Arg. 5. There can be no written Law if the King only be the authentick expositor of the Law Imperator so leges in scrinio condere dicit l. omnium C. de testam Arg. 6. Arnisaeus de authori Princ. c. 1. n. 2. The state of the question concerning resistance Arnisae 16. n. 4. If Kings be absolute by divine Institution then all Covenants restraining them must be unlawfull spoiling of Kings of that which God hath given them Resistance in some cases lawfull according to D. Fern. De author Princ. c. 2. n. 10. Royalists hold it lawfull to resist an inferiour Iudge The Exactors of unjust tribute not easily to be resisted Arguments for the lawfulnesse of resisting unjust violence Argum. 1. Argum. 2. Argum. 3. Argum. 4. Arg. 5. Arg. 6. The Kings person as a man in concreto and as a King and his office in abstracto are very different in this dispute Sacr. sanc Reg. Mai. c. 1. pag. 2. Arnisae de authoritat Princip c. 4. n. n. pag. 96. Every one
are for the heir as the mean for the end But the King is for his Kingdom as a mean for the end as the watch-man for the Citie the living Law for peace and safetie to Gods people and therefore is not heres hominum An heir of men but men are rather heredes regis heirs of the King Arnisaeus Many Kingdoms saith he are purchased by just war and transmitted by the Law of heritage from the father to the son beside the consent of the people because the son receiveth right to the Crown not from the people but from his parents nor doth he possesse the Kingdom as the patrimony of the people keeping onely to himself the burden of protecting and governing the people but as a proprietie given to him lege regni by his parents which he is obliged to defend and rule as a father looketh to the good and welfare of the family yet so also as he may look to his own good Answ We read in the Word of God That the people made Solomon King not that David or any King can leave in his Testament a Kingdom to his son 2. He saith The son hath not the right of reigning as the patrimony of the people but as a proprietie given by the Law of the Kingdom by his parents Now this is all one as if he said The son hath not the right of the Kingdom as the patrimony of the people but as the patrimony of the people which is good non-sense For the proprietie of reigning given from father to son by the Law of the Kingdom is nothing but a right to reign given by the Law of the people and the very gift and patrimony of the people for Lex regni This Law of the Kingdom is the Law of the people tying the Crown to such a Royall Family and this Law of the people is prior and ancienter then the King or the right of reigning in the King or which the King is supposed to have from his Royall father because it made the first father the first King of the Royall Line For I demand How doth the son succeed to his fathers Crown and Throne Not by any promise of a divine Covenant that the Lord maketh to the father as he promised that Davids seed should sit on his throne till the Messiah should come this as I conceive is vanished with the Common-wealth of the Iews nor can we now finde any immediate divine constitution tying the Crown now to such a race nor can we say this cometh from the will of the father King making his son King For 1. there is no Scripture can warrant us to say The King maketh a King but the Scripture holdeth forth that the people made Saul and David Kings 2. This may prove That the father is some way a cause why this son succeedeth King but he is not the cause of the Royaltie conferred upon the whole Line because the question is Who made the first father a King Not himself nor doth God now immediately by Prophets anoint men to be Kings then need force the people choose the first man then must the peoples election of a King be prior and more ancient then the birth-law to a Crown And election must be a better right then birth 2. The question is Whence cometh it that not onely the first father should be chosen King but also whence is that whereas it is in the peoples freewill to make the succession of Kings go by free election as it is in Denmark and Pol yet the people doth freely choose not only the first man to be King but also the whole race of the first born of this mans Family to be Kings All here must be resolved in the free will of the Communitie now since we have no immediate and propheticall enthroning of men it is evident That the lineall deduction of the Crown from father to son through the whole line is from the people not from the parent Hence I adde this as my sixth Argument That which taketh away that naturall aptitude and natures birth-right in a Communitie given to them by God and nature to provide the most efficacious and prevalent mean for their own preservation and peace in the fittest Government that is not to be holden but to make birth the best title to the Crown and better then free election taketh away and impedeth that naturall aptitude and natures birth-right of chosing not simply a Governour but the best the justest the more righteous and tyeth and fettereth their choice to one of a house whether he be a wise man and righteous and just or a fool and an unjust man therefore to make birth the best title to the Crown is not to be holden It is objected That parents may binde their after Generations to choose one of such a line But by this Argument their naturall birth-right of a free choice to elect the best and fittest is abridged and clipped and so the posterity shall not be tyed to a King of the Royall Line to which the Ancestors did swear See for this the learned Author of Scripture and Reasons pleaded for defensive Arms. Answ Frequent elections of a King at the death of every Prince may have by accident and through the corruption of our nature bloody and tragicall sequels and to eschew these people may tie and oblige their children to chose one of the first born Male or Female as in Scotland and England of such a line but I have spoken of the excellencie of the title by election above that of birth as comparing things according to their own nature together but give me leave to say That the posterity are tyed to that Line 1. Conditionally So the first born ceteris paribus be qualified and have an head to sit at the helm 2. Elections of Governours would be performed as in the sight of God and in my weak apprehension the person coming neerest to Gods judge Fearing God hating covetousnesse and to Moses his King Deut. 17. one who shall read in the Book of the Law and it would seem now that gracious morals are to us insteed of Gods immediate designation 3. The genuine and intrinsecall end of making Kings is not simply governing but governing the best way in peace honesty and godlinesse 1. Tim. 2. Ergo These are to be made Kings who may most expeditely procure this end neither is it my purpose to make him no King who is not a gracious man onely here I compare title with title 7. Argument Where God hath not bound the conscience men may not binde themselves or the consciences of the posterity But God hath not bound any nation irrevocably and unalterably to a Royall Line or to one kinde of Government Ergo No nation can binde their conscience and the conscience of the posterity either to one Royall Line or irrevocably and unalterably to Monarchy The proposition is clear 1. No Nation is tyed jure divine by
bondage Exod. 2. 23 24. and they were not to serve the Gods of Egypt nor were of the Kings Religion And therefore his Argument is thus A number of poore exiled strangers under King Pharaoh who were not Pharaohs Princes and Peeres could not restraine the Tyrannie of King Pharaoh Ergo the three Estates in a free Kingdome may not restraine the Arbitrarie power of a King 2. The Prelate must prove that God gave a Royall and Kingly power to King Pharaoh due to him by vertue of his Kingly calling according as Royalists expone 1 Sam. 8. 9 11. to kill all the male children of Israel to make slaves of themselves and compell them to worke in brick and clay while their lives were a burden to them And that if a Romish Catholique Mary of England should kill all the male Children of Protestants by the hands of Papists at the Queenes commandement and make bondslaves of all the Peeres Iudges and three Estates who made her a free Princesse yet notwithstanding that Mary had sworne to maintaine the Protestant Religion they were to suffer and not to defend themselves But if God give Pharaoh a power to kill all Israel so as they could not controll it then God giveth to a King a Royall power by office to sinne only the Royalist saveth God from being the author of sinne in this that God gave the power to sinne but yet with this limitation that the Subjects should not resist this power 2. He must prove that Israel was to give their Male-children to Pharaohs Butchers for to hide them was to resist a Royall power and to disobey a Royall power given of God is to disobey God 3. The Subjects may not resist the Kings Butchers coming to kill them and their Male-children For to resist the servant of the King in that wherein he is a servant is to resist the King 1 Sam. 8. 7. 1 Pet. 2. 14. Rom. 13. 1. 4. He must prove that upon the supposition That Israel had been as strong as Pharaoh and his people that without Gods speciall commandment they then wanting the written Word they should have sought with Pharaoh and that we now for all wars must have a word from Heaven as if we had not Gods perfit Will in his Word as at that time Israel behoved to have in all wars Judg. 18. 5. 1 Sam. 14. 37. Esa 30. 2. Iere. 38. 37. 1 King 22. 5. 1 Sam. 30. 5. Iudg. 20. 27. 1 Sam. 23. 2. 2 Sam. 16. 23. 1 Chron. 10. 14. But because God gave not them an answer to fight against Pharaoh therefore we have no warrant now to fight against a forraign Nation invading us the consequence is null and therefore this is a vain Argument The Prophets never reprove the people for not performing the duty of defensive wars against Tyrannous Kings Ergo There is no such dutie enjoyned by any Law of God to us For the Prophets never rebuke the people for non-performing the dutie of offensive wars against their enemies but where God gave a speciall command and responce from his own Oracle that they should fight And if God was pleased never to command the people to rise against a Tyrannous King they did not sin where they had no commandment of God but I hope we have now a more sure word of prophecie to inform us 5. The Prelate conjectureth Moses his miraeles and the deliverance of the people by dividing the Red Sea was to forbid and condemn defensive wars of people against their King but he hath neither Scripture nor Reasons to do it The end of these miracles was to Seal to Pharaoh the Truth of Gods calling of Moses and Aaron to deliver the people as is clear Exod. 4. 1 2 3 4. compared with Chap. 7. vers 8 9 10. And that the Lord might get to himself a name on all the earth Rom. 9 17. Exod. 9. 16. and 13. 13 14. and 15. 1 2 3. seq But of the Prelates conjecturall end the Scripture is silent and we cannot take an excommunicated mans word What I said of Pharaoh who had noâ—â—is Crown from Israel that I say of Nebuchadnezzar and the Kings of Persia keeping the people of God captive P. Prelate So in the Book of the Judges when the people were delivered over to the hand of their enemies because of their sins he never warranted the ordinary Iudges or Communitie to be their own deliverers but when they repented God raised up a Iudge The people had no hand in their own deliverance out of Babylon God effected it by Cyrus immediately and totally Is not this a reall proof God will not have inferiour Iudges to rectifie what is amisse but we must waite in patience till God provide lawfull means some Soveraign power immediately sent by himself in which course of his ordinary providence he will not be deficient Answ All this is beside the question and proveth nothing lesse then that Peers and Communitie may not resume their power to curbe an Arbitrary power For in the first case there is neither Arbitrary nor lawfull supreme Iudge 2. If the first prove any thing it proveth That it was rebellion in the inferiour Iudges and Communitie of Israel to fight against forraign Kings not set over them by God and that offensive wars against any Kings whatsoever because they are Kings though strangers are unlawfull Let Socinians and Anabaptists consider if the P. Prelate help not them in this and may prove all wars to be unlawfull 3. He is so Malignant to all inferiour Iudges as if they were not powers sent of God and to all Governours that are not Kings and so upholders of Prelates and of himself as he conceiveth that by his arguing he will have all deliverance by Kings onely the onely lawfull means in ordinary providenâ—â— and so Aristocracy and Democracy except in Gods extraordinary providence and by some divine dispensation must be extraordinary and ordinarily unlawfull 2. The Acts of a State when a King is dead and they choose another shall be an Anticipating of Gods providence 3. If the King be a childe a captive or distracted and the Kingdom oppressed with Malignants they are to waite while God immediately from Heaven create a King to them as he did Saul long ago But have we now Kings immediately sent as Saul was 1. How is the spirit of Prophecie and Government infused in them as in King Saul Or are they by propheticall inspiration anointed as David was I conceive their calling to the throne on Gods part do differ as much from the calling of Saul and David in some respect as the calling of ordinary Pastors who must be gifted by industry and learning and called by the Church and the calling of Apostles 4. God would deliver his people from Babylon by moving the heart of Cyrus immediately the people having no hand in it not so much as supplicating Cyrus Ergo The People and Peers who made the King cannot curb his
his power If we obteine this which Gods Word doth give us we have enough for our purpose though Vzzah kept the naked title of a King as indeed he tooke but up roome in the Catalogue of Kings Now if by Law he was cut off from actuall governing Whether he was willing or not willing to denude himselfe of Reigning it is all one And to say that furious men ideots stupid men and Children who must doe all Royall acts by Curators and Tutors are Kings jure with correction is petitio principii for then hath God infused immediately from heaven as Royalists teach us a Royall power to governe a Kingdome on those who are as capable of Royaltie as blocks I conceive that the Lord Deut. 17. 14 15 16 17. commandeth the people to make no blocks Kings and that the Lord hath not done that himselfe in a binding Law to us which we have no commandement from him to doe I conceive that God made Josiah and Joash Kings typicall and in destination for his promise sake to David while they were Children as well as he made them Kings but not actu completo ratione officii to be a rule to us now to make a Childe of sixe yeares of age a King by office I conceive Children are to us only Kings in destination and appointment And for Idiots and Fooles I shall not believe let Royalists breake their faith upon so rocky and stony a point at their pleasure that God hath made them Governors of others by Royall office who can scarce number their own fingers Or that God tyeth a people to acknowledge stupid blocks for Royall Governours of a Kingdome who cannot governe themselves But far be it from me to argue with Bellarmine From Vzziah his bodily leprosie to inferre that any Prince spiritually Leprous and turned Hereticall is presently to be dethroned Nothing can dethrone a King but such Tyrannie as is inconsistent with his Royall office Nor durst I inferre that Kings now adayes may be removed from actuall Government for one single transgression It is true 80 Priests and the whole Kingdome so serving King Vzzah their motives I know were Divine proveth well that the Subjects may punish the transgression of Gods expresse law in the King in some cases even to remove him from the Throne but as from Gods commanding to stone the man that gathered sticks on the Sabbath day we cannot inferre that Sabbath-breakers are now to be punished with death yet we may well argue Sabbath-breakers may be punished and Sabbath-breakers are not unpunishable and above all Law So may we argue here Vzzah though a King was punished Ergo Kings are punishable by Subjects Quest 16. Whether or no as the deniall of active obedience in things unlawfull is not dishonourable to the King as King he being obliged to command in the Lord only so the deniall of passive subjection to the King using unjust violence be also no dishonouring of the King Ans As the King is under Gods Law both in commanding or in exacting active obedience so is he under the same regulating Law of God in punishing or demanding of us passive subjection and as he may not command what he will but what the King of Kings warranteth him to command so may he not punish as he will but by warrant also of the supreame Iudge of all the earth and therefore it is not dishonourable to the Majesty of the Ruler that we deny passive subjection to him when he punisheth beside his warrant more then its against his Majesty and honour that we deny active obedience when he commandeth illegally else I see not how it is lawfull to fly from a tyrannous King as Elias Christ and other of the witnesses of our Lord have done and therefore what Royalists say here is a great untruth namely That in things lawfull we must be subject actively in things unlawfull passively For as we are in things lawfull to be subject actively so there is no duty in point of conscience laying on us to be subject passively because I may lawfully fly and so lawfully deny passive subjection to the Kings will punishing unjustly Quest 17. Whether may the Prince make away any part of his Dominions as an Iland or a Kingdome for the safety of the whole kingdomes he bath as if goods be like to sinke an over burthened Ship the Sea-men cast away a part of the Goods in the Sea to save the lives of the whole Passengers and if three thousand Passengers being in one Ship and the Ship in a storme like to be loosed it would seeme that a thousand may be cast over-board to save the lives of the whole Passengers Ans The Kingdome being not the Kings proper Heritage it would seeme he cannot make away any part of his Kingdome to save the whole without the expresse consent of that part though they be made away to save the whole In things of this kind men are not as the commodities of Merchants nor is the case alike as when one thousand of three thousand are to be cast into the Sea to save all the rest and that either by common consent or by Lots or some other way for it is one thing when destruction is evidently inevitable as in the casting so many men into the Sea to save the whole and many Passengers and when a King for peace or for help from another King maketh away part of his Dominion The Lord is here to be waited on in his good Providence and events are to be committed to him but far lesse can it be imaginably lawfull for a King to make away a part of his Dominions without their consent that he may have help from a forraign Prince to destroy the rest This were to make merchandize of the lives of men Quest 18. Whether or no the convening of the subjects without the Kings will be unlawfull Answ The convention of men of it self is an indifferent thing and taketh its specification from its causes and manner of convening though some convention of the Subjects without the King be forbidden yet Ratio Legis est anima Legis The reason and intent of the Law is the soul of the Law Convention of the Subjects in a tumultuary way for a seditious end to make war without warrant of Law is forbidden but not when Religion Laws Liberties Invasion of forraign Enemies necessitateth the Subjects to conveen though the King and ordinary Iudicatures going a corrupt way to pervert Iudgement shall refuse to consent to their conventions Upon which ground no convention of Tables at Edinburgh or any other place An. 1637. 1638. 1639. can be judged there unlawfull for if these be unlawfull because they are convention of the Leagues without expresse Act of Parliament then the convention of the Leagues to quench a house on fire and the convention of a Countrey to pursue a Wolf entered in the Land to destroy women and children which are warranted by the Law of
nature should be lawlesse or against Acts of Parliament Quest 19. Whether the Subjects be obliged to pay the debts of the King Answ These debts which the King contracteth as King in Throno Regali the people are to pay For the Law of nature and the divine Law doth prove That to every servant and Minister wages is due Rom. 13. 5 6. compared with Vers 4. and 1 Cor. 9. 9 10 11 12. 1 Tim. 5. 18. If the Prince be taken in a war for the defence of the people it is just that he be redeemed by them So the Law saith Tit. F. C. de negotiis gestis F. C. Manda But when Fer. Vasquius illust quest l. 1. c. 7. n. 6. Vicesimo tertio apparet c. saith If the Prince was not doing the businesse of the publike and did make war without advice and consent of the people then are they not to redeem him Now certain it is when the King raiseth war not onely against his Oath and saith God do so â—o me and mine if I intend any thing but peace yet maketh war and also raiseth war without consent of the Parliament and a Parliament at that time convocated by his own Royall Writ and not raised and dissolved at all but still sitting formally a Parliament if he borrow money from his own Subjects and from forraign Princâ—s to raise war against his Subjects and Parliament then the people are not obliged to pay his debts 1. Because they are obliged to the King only as a King and not as an enemy But in so raising war he cannot be considered as a King 2. Though if the people agree with him and still acknowledge him King it is unpossible Physicè he can be their King and they not pay his debts yet they sin not but may ex decentia non ex debito legali pay his debts yet are they not obliged by any Law of God or man to pay his debts but though it be true by all Law the King be obliged to pay his debt except we say that all the peoples goods are the Kings a compendious way I confesse to pay all that any voluptuous Heliogabolus shall contract yet it may easily be proved That what his subjects and forraign Princes lent him to the raising of an unjust war are not properly debts but expences unjustly given out under the reduplication of formall enemies to the Countrey and so not payable by the Subjects and this is evident by Law because one may give most unjustly moneys to his neighbour under the notion of loan which yet hath nothing of the essence of loan and debt but is meer delapidation and cannot properly be debt by Gods Law for the Law regulateth a man in borrowing and lending as in other politike actions if I out of desire of revenge should lend moneys to a robber to buy powder and fewel to burn an innocent Citie or to buy armour to kill innocent men I deny that that is legally debt I dispute not whether A. B. borrowing money formally that thereby he may buy a Whore shall be obliged to repay it to C. D. under the reduplication of debt or if the borrower be obliged to pay what the lender hath unjustly lent I dare not pray to God That all our Kings debts may be payed I have scarce faith so to do Quest 20. Whether Subsidies be due to the King as King Answ There is a twofold Subsidie one Debitum of debâ— another Charitativum By way of charitie a Subsidie of debt is rather the Kingdoms due for their necessitie then the Kings due as a part of his rent we read of Custome due to the King as King and for conscience sake Rom. 13. 5 6. never of a Subsidie or taxation to the Kings of Israel and Judah at any convention of the States Augustus Caesar his taxing of all the World Luk. 2. for the maintenance of Wars cannot be the proper rent of Augustus as Emperour but the rent of the Romane Empire and it is but the fact of a man Charitative subsidies to the King of indulgence because through bad husbanding of the Kings rents he hath contracted debts I judge no better than Royall and Princely begging Yet lawfull they are as I owe charitie to my brother so to my father so to my Politique father the King See Ferd. Vasq illust quest l. 1. c. 8. who desireth that Superiors under the name of Charitie hid not rapine and citeth Cieer gravely saying offic l. 1. Nulla generi humano justitiae major pestis est quam eorum qui dum maximè fallunt id agunt ut boni viri esse videantur c. Quest 21. Whether the Seas Floods Road-wayes Castles Ports publike Magazine Militia Armour Forts and Strengths be the Kings Ans All these may be understood to be the Kings in divers notions 1. They are the Kings quoad custodiam publicam possessionem as a pawn is the mans in whose hand the pawn is laid down 2. They are the Kings quoad jurisdictionem cumulativam non privativam The King is to direct and Royally to command that the Castles Forts Ports Strengths Armour Magazine Militia be imployed for the safetie of the Kingdome All the Wayes Bridges the publike Road-wayes are the Kings in so far as he as a publike and Royall watchman is to secure the Subjects from Robbers and to cognosce of unknown Murthers by himselfe and the inferior Iudges yet may not the King imploy any of these against the Kingdome 3. They are the Kings as he is King quoad officialem Regalem publicam proprietatem for he hath a Royall and Princely propriety to all these as his own in so far as he useth them according to Law And thus they are 4. The Kings also quoad usum in regard of officiall use But they are the Kingdomes quoad fructum in regard of the effect and fruit 2. They are the Kingdomes sinaliter being destinated for the safetie and securitie of the Kingdome 3. They are the Kingdomes quoad proprietatem propriam legalem stricté sumptam according to the proper and legall proprietie And are not the Kings proper heritage as he is a Man 1. Because he may not sell these Forts Strengths Ports Magazine Bridges c. to a stranger or a Forraigne Prince 2. When the King is dead and his Heires and Royall line interrupted these all reâ—aine proper to the Kingdome yet so as the State cannot as they are Men make them away or sell them more then the King for no Publike persons yea the Multitude cannot make away the securitie safetie and that which necessarily conduceth to the securitie of the Posteritie The Lord build his owne Zion and appoint Salvation for walls and bulwarks FINIS ERRATA In the Preface p. 4. l. 5. for who is r. which is PAge 14. Line 9. for he read they ib. l. 39. for is r. it s p. 24. l. 19. adde not ib. l. 27.