A DISCOURSE CONCERNING SUPREME POWER AND COMMON RIGHT At first Calculated for the Year 1641. and now thought fit to be published By a Person of Quality LONDON Printed for R. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in S. Paul's Church-yard 1680. TO THE READER THIS little following Treatise concerning the Origination of Paternal Power and the Derivation of all others from it with Reflections upon Regal Government and the Relative Duties both of King and People to each other is for Substance only a Summary Collection from the best Authorities of such necessary and Practical Notions as might have steer'd us in the most benighted and tempestuous times of the late unhappy and almost unparallel'd Rebellion and keep us within the Bounds of Duty and Allegiance both to God and our King But it lost its usefulness being calculated for the high Distempers of that Age only by miscarrying in the Press and for some years irrecoverably concealed and kept from its designed end by one since dead who communicated to me the following Discourse which hath for some years layn in my hands as buried unless something of the like Contagion should break out again and give it a new Resurrection as an Antidote against the spreading of so popular an Infection But now I am prevailed with upon the sad Prospect of things that threaten a relapsing into the like Dangers by Popish Plots and those many Sects Distractions and Divisions amongst us some of whose Principles agree with the rigid Scotch Presbyters and Jesuits in their Tenents concerning the deposing of Kings and the forfeiture of their Regal Power into the People and their Representatives to shew both from Scripture Antiquity the Doctrine Articles Canons Homilies and Liturgy of the Church of England which all agree with our ancient Laws and many late Acts of Parliament That our Kings are only submitted by God to the direction not coaction of Humane Laws as Mr. Faulkner in his Treatise upon that Subject hath lately and most learnedly made appear Yet Kings are not unconfined by the Laws of God and our Kingdom which set just bounds both to King and People to regulate their Actions by as a middle thing between Supreme Power and Common Interest And our Municipal Laws may be straiten'd or enlarged in regard of the Soveraign's Exercise of Power but cannot influence or affect the Power it self which is of God to alter or enervate the nature of it Nor can it oblige to any thing foro divino but what is just in the means as well as good in the end and safe in regard of Humane Prudence by which Rules we have much reason to believe our Superiours as they yet have done will take their measures and neither countenance nor indulge the least evil of sin to avoid the greatest evil of punishment Yet if God for our almost unpardonable provocation and abuse of those many Miracles of Mercy he hath hitherto preserved us by should submit us to the implacable malice of our common Enemies the Papists at home and abroad or to Civil Commotions within our selves to bring us again into Chaos and Disorder in which we may need some assistance for our Conscientious Comportments both with Prudence and Innocency the ensuing Treatise may be of great use there being things casuistically proposed and resolved with modesty and submission to others Judgments in Relation to the late Rebellion which may some way help us in other difficulties if we fall under any which that God in Mercy would avert is the Prayer of Your unknown Servant c. A DISCOURSE CONCERNING SUPREME POWER AND COMMON RIGHT CHAP. I. AS God is a Spiritual King so Kings are Humane Gods his Picture drawn in Little and the most express Image of his Power receiving as the Wax from the Seal all the parts and proportions of the Print in the largest Character in which he shews himself in Civil Administrations So as the endeavour of effacing any part of that just Power where God hath Engraven it in his Deputies is a Spiritual Treason and Rebellion against God himself a Rom. 13. For not only by me but for me Kings Reign saith God b Prov. 8.15 Rom. 13. in that he makes them his hand both to punish and protect by and stiles them for that end nursing Fathers to the Church and State Nor is the Stamp to be despised though it be engraven but in Lead and Iron the Power being the same in him who by the undue exercise of a just Power makes himself a Tyrant as it is in a good King and challenging the same Submission and Obedience in lawful things from us It being not the Wax but the Impression that bears the value as it is Gods And therefore to wrest the Sword out of our Soveraigns hands the best of Princes is as much as we can to dis-enthrone God from his way of Rule amongst us as the Jews did in the person of Samuel For which Reason our Laws give the King a kind of Immortality here in saying he cannot dye because his Power which is from above passes in the intendment of our Laws by a kind of Pythagorean Transmigration always into the next of his Line and upon the failure thereof only it Escheats into the People as to the Election of another person to Reign but never was nor is fundamentally in them in regard of the Power by which they Govern And the wisest People do but as a Pipe not the Spring derivatively pass it into one man to actuate it as the most absolute and perfect Government and that which God only owns For when he saith By me Kings Reign c Prov. 8.15 he implies all other Forms of Government to derive their Pedigree only from men not Divine Institution They have his Permission but Kings only his Commission so as all other lesser Rivulets in the Administration of Justice in their Kingdoms are in them as their Spring derivative from and subordinate to them For the Supreme Power is ever annexed to the Persons of Princes in whom it is seated the Inferiour only to the Offices of subordinate Administrations which are always responsible to him that hath the Supreme Power Else the God of Reason should make a Body without Reason a Head to govern it The contrary Opinion to which clear Truth hath caused the sad Tragedy of these benighted Times and hath ever proved the Seminary of Anarchy and Confusion in all States where it hath taken root and prevailed though it hath for the most part withered and perished in the end as having no true Principles of life and permanency however for some time maintained by Tyranny and Oppression as may be instanced in most of those Popular States that have been since the beginning of the World which were but Weeds no Plants of Gods setting For subordination of Persons which ariseth by degrees should rest when it comes to the Soveraign or all things would wheel into a Confusion But God is a God of
their Ministerial Function to them as an indelible Character which their first Electors could not efface nor any unless it derived from the Supreme Civil Magistrate under whom they lived justly suspend in the Exercise in that the Power doth ever derive from God and by them But for further illustration we will consider it in the more familiar Instances of free Elections And first in Corporations as in a Model or hand contracted which is but expanded and the more stretched out in the highest Governments where the Commons propound the Person for the succeeding Governour the Representatives choose and the Kings Power invests without which Act the rest are but Cyphers without a Figure but having once Caesar's stamp and Image upon it it becomes legitimate current and of value so as none can clip or efface it to lessen his Authority much less displace the Magistrate but orderly by the Power that set him up without much Crime Rebellion and hazard of damnation g Rom. 3. 1 Pet. 2. A second illustration is That the People by free Votes choose their Representatives in our Parliaments yet the Power by which they Elect and that of the Elected is derived from the Kings Writ so as they cannot for any miscarriage or breach of trust in the Person recal their choice or make a new Election in any case without a new Warrant from the Crown but do become instrumental in conferring that which is not at all inherent in them as may more fully appear in the application of those similitudes to Kings where they are Elected in that Almighty God how tyrannous soever they prove uses them but as he did Ashur for the Rod of his Anger h Isa 10.5 when he gives a King in his Wrath i Hos 3. like Saul to scourge the Rebellions of a people not leaving them any just Power to depose him or any remedy or other appeal than to him in Prayer k 1 Sam. 8.18 In that his Providence orders all Actions and Events and suffers no evil of punishment without intitling himself to it For there is no Evil in the Land but I have done it saith he And therefore he accounts repining as impatience resistance by force Rebellion against himself For as the Apostles were Christs Kings are Gods Ministers upon Earth in as near a Relation Nay himself as it were showes that all such Arrows are shot at them wound him when Christ says Saul Saul why persecutest thou me l Act. 9.4 And thus God expresses it both in Moses his case m Num. 16. where he made the dull and patient Earth the common Hackney to all injurious trampling the severe Avenger of his dishonour and so in Samuel's n 1 Sam. 8. though even then by the fore-designation of God o Deut. 7.15 the Peoples free Election was confined to Saul the man that he did choose p 1 Sam 9.15 16 17. For till then God did rule by immediate direction and revelation those he appointed to be their Governours and would not totally cast them off for their revolt but still continued his goodness to them even in his Indulgence of Anger not leaving them to a factious and tumultuous Election but ordered it by immediate command to the person he had fore-appointed till he had settled the succession in David and his Seed q 1 Sam. 16. By it shewing his dis-allowance of all popular and disorderly Elections for even there where he permitted their concurrence in choosing the person in whom all Power should habitually reside and from whom its Actual Administrations should derive he suffered them only to assist Samuel in holding forth the Wax which he had appointed to set his Seal and Image upon but not to give any Impression Nor can it rationally be imagined by any man that is a Christian and acknowledgeth the Sword to be Gods and that he that sheds Man's Blood without his Commission is guilty of Murder how a power of Life and Death should be collated by any Community of Men to one or more when neither divisim nor conjunctim they have power over their own or one anothers lives Nor could ever any pretend to it unless Parents and Heads of Families by Divine Natural and Paternal Right but when derived from God the other way and by his Commission exercised Yet the People may in some sence be said to be the Pipe by which not at all the Spring from which the Power is derived the Hand that holds the Burning-Glass to the Sun no cause of those Rayes of Power that shine upon it and are contracted in it or as the Men that lay out the dry Bones as the Prophet did whilest God breaths the Spirit of Government and animates them for Action In which we must next consider CHAP. II. What Power Kings have and how limited AS I have endeavoured to make it appear by what hath been said that all Power is Originally Fundamentally and Vertually flowing from God and abiding in the King only as its Cistern and Receptacle from whence it is conveyed to us by many Pipes of several sizes Our inquiry must be how it is limited in it Self or Execution For resolution wherein we must go to the Standard of the Sanctuary the Holy Scriptures and there we shall see That when God first gave a King in his Wrath r 1 Sam. 8. the cause of it was the Peoples being not satisfied with the Regal Power God did exercise over them in his Vice-Royes and Deputies before but distrusting God Almighty when they saw Nahash King of the Children of Ammon come against them that he would not suddenly provide for their deliverance they would have one in readiness always to go up and fight for them Which distrust or despair of theirs who had found so many miraculous Deliverances under God's Government was that which so highly displeased God and not simply the desire of a King yet they neither desired to cast off God's Laws nor his choosing the Person as in Saul nor is it said that the Kingdom of God is cast off at the Election of Saul but they desired more sensible Evidences of Majesty and Glory because Samuel held not forth the outward Pomp Splendour and Majesty of Heathen Kings but as a Type of Christ whose Kingdom was not of this World with Humility as well as Power Upon which God gave them a King after the manner of other Nations r 1 Sam. 8. Dan. 5.18.19 but withal commanded Samuel to let them know what kind of King they desired even Jus Regis and that he should rule by absolute and unlimited Power in regard of Man however he may want the immediate direction and over-ruling Grace of God though not for want of a Rule for direction s Deut 17.2 2 Sam. 23.3 in that t 2 Sam. 22.3 he that ruleth over men must rule as in the fear of God u Ezek. 46.16 17 18. and not oppress the
Repressor of the Tumults of the People which are more raging than the Waves of the Sea k Ps 65.7 For that keeps its bounds when the other will know none l Hos 5.10 11. But here it is but he that resisteth not he that obeyeth not that purchases Damnation For there may be not only a lawful but a necessary Disobedience when the Commands of our Superiours run counter to God's revealed Will m Acts 4.18 19.5.29 as in Daniel and the three Children n Dan. 3.4.5 chap. But even then resist not though a Nero under whom some think St. Paul writ his Epistle to the Romans and a little after felt some sparks of his Persecution o Ep. 3. as he was flagellum Domini p Hos 13.11 by an Ordinative Permission Nay further our submission to such should be ex animo as Aquinas glosses because the command is omnis anima For it is not an Eye but a Heart-service that God requires even to our froward and perverse Masters q 1 Pet. 2.18 Ep. 6.6 knowing that God will both recompence and protect those that suffer according to his Will and commit their Souls to him in well-doing r 1 Pet. 4.19 which made David conclude They that know thy name will put their trust in thee for thou Lord hast not failed them that seek thee but wilt be their refuge in such times of trouble s Ps 9.9 10. Nay the duty of not resisting may also be enforced from the contrary when Christ in saying that If his Kingdom were of this World then would his Servants fight t Joh. 18.36 intimates that we owe our lives for the protection of our King 's just Rights but ought not to do any thing against them or theirs whether concerning the Person or Posterity For after the free Suffrage or Submission of a People to a Successive Monarchy the Son and next in Blood have always a just right to the Crown as in our Kingdom upon the death of his Father though wanting the Ceremony of Coronation which doth but declare not convey the Right Nor is it in the Peoples Power to revoke their former Concessions no more than a Wife when she hath taken a Husband can divorce her self or justly refuse him other duties though he grow froward and unjust And if it were otherwise how should we imitate Christ our General in his Passive Obedience as is commanded u 1 Pet. 2.21 keep our Covenant in Baptism the Epitome of Christian Religion and make many living Christians by one dying Saint in that Sanguis Martyrum est semen Ecclesiae or be Partakers of that Spiritual Good that comes by suffering even the Tryal of our Faith w 1 Pet. 1.7 and Improvement of our Glory So as the contrary Opinion must needs proceed from Infidelity or distrust when we will be our own God's Deliverers and not rely upon Providence for the Event in all Distresses in only using such means as by his word are warrantable And the Weapons of our Warfare we know are not Carnal but Spiritual x 1 Cor. 10.4 2 Tim. 4.7 even our whole Panoplie being but the Girdle of Verity the Breast-plate of Righteousness the Sword of the Spirit the Helmet of Salvation and Shield of Faith y Eph. 6. by which we overcome the World z 1 Joh. 5.4 And therefore Tertullian in his Apology against forcible entrance a Text. 37. begins with an Absit and concludes We must rather be slain than slay our Superiours So Ambrose b L. 5. Ep. ad Aurent Prayers and Tears are our only Weapons And to that purpose speaks St. Cyprian c Ad Demetriad Gregory Nazianzen d Orat. 2. in Julian with all the concurrence of the Primitive times Nor are we to submit for fear unless filial or want of force but Conscience sake Nor can the New-minted Jesuitical Distinctions of differing between the Person and the Power in their Rebellions by placing it in the People and the Administration of it only in the King absolve their Consciences from the Guilt who de facto have resisted in our times it being but a Popish Riddle such as their Transubstantiation in which they turn the substance of the Regality of Kings into a mere Chymera a fancyed nothing and make Accidents to subsist without a Subject the Supreme Power without his Person a Paradox that neither the Gospel nor the Law can unriddle For they speak the contrary in making the Supreme Power inseparable from the Person of a King e 1 Pet 2. especially ours which is setled as well by Municipal as Divine Law as may appear by all the Laws of this Kingdom both Customs and Acts as well as by the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance f Cook fol. 36. 37. which condemn such Monsters of Opinion to be illegitimate g See Cook fol. 8. 35. So Pref. 4. part fol. 1. Bract. l. 1. c. 8. fol. 5. 6. 16. Ri. 2. cap. 5.24 Hen. 8. C. 12. D. c. Stu. f. 43. Dier 29. Co. 11.90.93 1 Eliz. c. 1. 5. Eliz. 1. Cook Calvin's Case f. 11. Exilium Henricide Spencer 1 Edw. 3. 3 Edw. 25. Calv. B. â—0 Cook 4. Parl. Inst fol. 46. 7 fol. 30. 2 fol. 15. 1 Jacob. c. 1.10.33 Hen. 8.21 And if the unhappiness of evil times and men have de facto done otherwise and deposed or destroyed or rejected their Princes they are to expect no Lawrels nor Trophies for it the memory and monuments of them being best buryed in Oblivion In that such Victories ought to be ashamed of themselves for though such ways may seem right to a man the end thereof are the ways of death h Prov. 14.2.16.25 And thus having taken the Timber that grows upon other Mens Soyles and squared it into a less Model for use gathered the choicest Flowers out of other mens Gardens and made them into a Nose-gay fit for every hand to refresh the Spirits of such as are fainting under the persecution of these times for their Loyalties there being little of mine but the Thread that binds them drawn my Oar out of others Mines to melt it into a small Wedg or Ingot that every one might carry a stock of Knowledg about him as a Counter-Charm to those seducing Spirits now raised among us to withdraw men from their due Obedience I desire every one to treasure up something for their use and having proved all Power to be of Divine Right and only subject to limitation in regard of Exercise with a security against Force though a Nebuchadonozor or a Jeroboam i Jer. 29 7. Hos 13.11 be over us I shall proceed to speak of the Duty of Kings in which I shall not say much since all are Doctors and read Lectures upon that subject being all Eye for without none for within to take notice of the slips and failings of their Prince which they always behold in a
of Charity in the doing or not doing it as in the Instance before of eating or not eating of Flesh at any time to the scandal of my weak Brother b 1 Cor. 8. when free in the aequilibrium of choice Yet if any necessity of nature or other great prejudice to my Person or Fortune depends upon my not eating I ought to eat Flesh though to the scandal of another rather than impair my health or bring any great mischief upon my self by the Omission of it For there though the thing be indifferent in it self it is not so to me such Natural or Moral Necessity interposing From whence I conceive I may safely conclude against the former Objection That no conscientious Obedience is due to such an exercise of Power as is there proposed no nor submission in indifferent things if done with scandal to others because not imposed by a lawful Power to determine my choice yet where my personal freedom self-preservation or any great prejudice to my Estate in which my Posterity is concerned be put into the Scale to weigh against an unwilling scandal I may submit for that alters the case in relation to Conscience though not the nature of the thing for there I owe a prudent submission when by the rule of Charity which is but to love my Neighbour as my self I am to prefer the well being of my self and mine to an offence taken by not willingly given to another where a compulsory Injunction and Power inforceth my submission to an indifferent thing it being agreeable to the Law of God Nature and Nations to preserve my self by all lawful ways OBJECTION III. Object 3. If it be so that honest and well-meaning men may not be in any case voluntarily instrumental under an usurped and unlawful Power to the executing the known Laws by which distributive Justice between Party and Party Religion Peace and Propriety may be maintained and perhaps some advantages gained by which they may much improve the Interest of their lawful Soveraign which they prefer in their wishes to their own Being and that if they decline a making use of such opportunities and that all men should walk by the same Rule there must necessarily follow Oppression Atheism and Anarchy the Womb of all Confusion that would reduce all things into the first Chaos so as nothing but darkness and disorder would cover the Earth which their Omissions may contract the guilt of when in acting with the present Power for these ends they do but choose the least of Evils and have no thought of doing the least Evil and so may act Answ As I said The least Evil is not to be committed nor allowed to produce the greatest good c Rom. 3.8 and that there the choice is not between Evils of Punishments where the least may be chosen but between an Evil of Sin which I have proved an outward Compliance in an Unjust Cause or with an Usurped or unlawful Power especially against a just claim to be and no Sin being as the Schools determine in the number of things eligible Malum non est in numero eligibilium propter aliud bonum in that actus peccati non est ordinabilis in bonum finem So Thomas Aquinas d 2. 2. Qu. 110. Art 3. And upon the Egyptian Midwives and Rachels Pious Ly it is concluded by St Augustine e sup Ps 5. Peter Lombard f Lib. 3. dist 38. and Thomas Aquinas d 2. 2. Qu. 110. Art 3. That no man ought to tell a Ly to preserve a Life nor for any Spiritual Good Though St. Augustine saith wittily g Tract 5. Tom. 9. super Joan. Nemo habet de suo nisi mendacium peccatum when all truth comes from the Fountain of it God h Eccles 7. Jam. 1. And St. Ambrose i Tom. 4. upon those words Quis ex vobis arguit me de peccato Omne mendacium fugiendum est tam in verbis quam in operibus c. all outward dissimulation is to be avoided when Opus exterius naturaliter significat intentionem k Aquin. 2. 2. Qu. 111. Art 11. Qu. 111. Art 2. And we should be the more careful not to make Hell the way to Heaven Vice to introduce Vertue when even lawful Actions become sins if done with scandal to others and that some higher end or duty determine not my choice in them as I have determined in another case of Conscience concerning Actions in themselves indifferent For the least defect or excess makes a lawful Action become sinful and a willing countenancing of any sin draws on the toleration of all and like the Spirits in the Blood will soon run through the whole Body of sin For with Aquinas l 2. 2. Qu. 110. Art 2. veritas aequalis est cui per se opponitur magis minus So as in doubtful Cases Gerson's rule is good m Par. 2. Reg. mor. Ab omni actu cui non est necessario astrictus teneatur desistere where scandal may be given OBJECTION IV. Object 4 Ay but Salus Populi est Suprema Lex So as I may act voluntarily with and under an usurped Power though against legal settlements and known Laws for the preservation of the Common-wealth and that by a Law of necessity which gives the Law to all Laws and warrants the doing of that which otherwise is unlawful for by this our Saviour seems to justifie his Disciples gathering Ears of Corn on the Sabbath-day and urges the Authority of David's Example for it n Mat. 12. Answ 1. It is true that Salus Populi est Suprema Lex in reference to Humane and Municipal Laws for so Kings in whom the Supreme and Legislative Power resides may for the good of their People in great Exigents act besides nay against the known National Laws of their Kingdom but not contrary to any Divine Sanction Answ 2. I acknowledg that necessity is a very powerful Argument both before God and man to excuse not justifie an ill Action For so God himself the Supreme Law-giver hath sometimes been pleased in a Gracious Condescention to man's infirm condition to dispence with his own Laws as well as Kings with theirs in Cases of great necessity as may be instanced But this hath been ever in things only mala quia prohibita evil because forbidden as in Ceremonial and Judicial Laws never in any thing that is malum in se prohibitum quia malum evil in it self and forbidden because specifically so Such as are Schisms Heresies Idolatry Rebellion Usurpation Oppression Murder Sacriledg and the like for in these God never leaves his Servants without a just way of extricating themselves from any such necessity of acting by enabling them to dare to dye rather than do any thing that in its nature is evil and by suffering according to the Will of God to commit the keeping of their Souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithful Creator o 1 Pet.
or lawful Magistrate in Israel Nay even in Popular States so natural a thing is Monarchy in what hands soever the Power is one Finger will still as in natural Bodies be found longer than the rest and become a Kingly Tyrant by his over-swaying Interest And therefore let us not cast Pelion upon Ossa heap Sin upon Sin by countenancing such mushroom Alterations Nay he that is not against them is with them in this case and so becomes guilty of their unfruitful deeds of Darkness if not discountenancing and preventing them by all lawful wayes according to that of the Apostle t 1 Thes 5. avoid all appearance of evil by appearing to disallow of it never concurring actively with it though we suffer to Bonds and death For that will in the end prove our Crown of rejoycing though the Absoloms of these times would with fair and specious pretences seduce us from our Allegiance For it is better in this Case contrary to David's choice to fall into the hands of Men embalmed with Innocence to preserve our names from Infamy and our Souls from Damnation than into the hands of God besmeared with the Leprosie of Sin that must needs cause his rejection of us But if the Despisers of God and their King will still pertinaciously maintain the black and horrid Sins of Oppression Sacriledge Murder and the like not only deposing but despoyling them as the greatest Delinquents of all their just Patrimonies and Rights by plundering the one and vilifying the other in all things sacred whether Places Persons or Revenues sanctified and discriminated by Gods own Institution by prophaning his Sanctuaries and despising his Priests and Ordinances d Lam. 31. Ps 74. they may be assured of a certain if not swift destruction to overtake them from the Authority of the like Precedents in all Ages and the Word of God it self For their Posterity here like a Plague-sore in the Body growing out of their own putrefaction their soul and ulcerous Sins as the meritorious cause of Judgments will hasten them Nor can they account themselves free from the other's guilt who have not acted in their Crimes if they have not some way opposed them e Judg. 5.23 according to their several Callings and Capacities being bound to it by the Laws of God the Kingdom and that of Natural Obligation to their Civil Parents and common Charity to their engaged Brethren in that Damnation will be chiefly pronounced against Sins of Omission at the last day which I express not to upbraid any but to convince them by it to make them steer a more safe course in Emergencies of the like nature if any shall hereafter happen making God's Law the Compass by which they sail even Heavenly Influences not sublunary Agitations However I hope they will keep themselves from a countenancing of or complyance with the Persons and Actings of those that usurp the Supreme Power both in regard of Scandal to others and contracting Crime upon themselves by avoiding all Appearances of Evil f 1 Thes 5. when Vertue and Vice border so upon one another are so near in their Confines and so contiguous as the least excess or defect makes a Natural Action many times an unnatural disorder and a thing indifferent in it self become the parent of a great Sin Therefore he cannot be innocent that holds Communion with those that are guilty of such high Crimes in any thing that seems to countenance them though God's Service be a thing pretended as in their Thanksgivings and Humiliations so St. Augustine g Serm. 6. de verb. Dom. For two will not walk together unless they agree saith the Prophet h Amos 3.3 So as it is the duty of every Christian not to betray the truth by his Silence or Countenance but to contend for it against all Actions that seem to favour the successes of an unjust Cause grounded in Rebellion or tending to the maintaining an Usurped Power i Judg. 3.11 And therefore we ought by separating from them k 2 Cor. 4.17 to reprove their Errours l Eph. 5.7 11 15. in that our Actions have a Tongue in them as well as the Corn Earth and other inanimate Creatures m Psal 19. So that though Humiliations and Thanksgivings are Pious and Religious Duties in themselves yet when called to advance any unjust Interest or to countenance it our presence there intitles us to their Sin though we abhor it and the Minister at that time preach against it in that the end for which it was commanded terminates and specificates the Duty in all ordinary and publick Interpretation and makes us give by our presence Offence to the Innocent confirm the Wicked and partake of their Crimes so as Disobedience in that case is better than Sacrifice n 1 Sam. 15. Nay I may not only appropriate others Sins o Psal 50.28 by Countenance Approbation or Imitation while living but may be guilty of Sin in others many thousand years after I am dead as well as I did Sin before I was born when they sin by Example or Infusion derived from me For as the long precogitation upon any sin with delight makes it an old and inveterate one before it be produced into Act so another's repetition of any sin by my Example or Authority though committed many Ages hence makes it a new sin to me and to increase my Damnation as is deduced most justly by Divines from the Parable of Dives p Luke 16. who reflected upon himself not his Brethren in his charity And therefore let us walk with all preciseness q Psal 119.53.63 hating Evil with a perfect hatred and doing nothing that either may be made an Argument to confirm others in any evil way or action by our complyance or be matter of just scandal to the Innocent and suffering Party especially if our Judgments approve it not For if I ought not to do a good Action nor favour a good Cause if not of Faith r Rom 14. I am much less excusable in countenancing an ill one my Judgment in any thing dissenting So that none can conscientiously and voluntarily act with those that usurp the exercise of Supreme Power in any Kingdom in any thing that gives countenance to such an Authority or is conducing to the establishing or maintaining of it without contracting the guilt of all those sins and irregularities the others smoothed their way by to that assumed Greatness For there are so many ways to contract others Crimes as Junius and Piscator observes s On Isa 10.1 that the very Scribe or Notary of an unjust decree though but instrumental in it is threatned with a Curse a woe being pronounced both against them that decree unrighteous decrees and that write grievous things which the other prescribed as the Prophet expresses it For we are commanded to walk honestly toward them that are without t 1 Pet. 2.12 not giving the least scandal in any thing
a compulsion in it as may appear by the Apostle t Gal. 2.14 and like Poyson in the Blood that runs through all the Veins taints and discolours them infects the very Air of our Conversation And therefore on the contrary let us as we ought rather suffer all for the Elect's sake with St. Paul u 2 Tim. 10. and expose our selves to all personal hazards in a strict walking according to this rule than comply in any unlawful act against Kings for those are not Children of the most Voices but of the most highest as hath been said the Peoples Approbation serving only ad Pompam but not ad necessitatem Thus the first King Melchisedech was said to have no Father in regard of his Office to shew that Regal Power is an emanation from the Deity it self and therefore the People cannot depose their Kings nor their Progeny because they are not of their making For cujus est instituere ejus est abrogare but still owe them Obedience and all things tending to their outward glory and support But our Royal Soveraign having also a Civil Right by the Municipal Laws of this Nation both to the Crown and all his other Regalia Rights and Revenues none can but by a complication of many sins as Rebellion Oppression and the like invade him in any of them nor acquit themselves from the guilt of it without opposing them that do it by all lawful means being bound to it by the Law of God and of this Kingdom and a Natural Obligation and common Charity which tyes every man not only to commiserate but relieve another that suffers under unjust pressures so as those neutral men that stand upon a safe Shore while the Ship is in danger and afford it no help cannot be found guiltless because they have not endeavoured to deliver him that had no helper nor broken the Jaws of the Wicked and pulled the Prey out of their Mouth w Job 29â— And if Damnation be to be pronounced against sins of Omission at the last day as for not helping not comforting those to whom we owe it but by a single Obligation of Charity what Hell is hot enough for those that act against so many clear convictions and endeavour to enforce others to approve of or seemingly to Covenant and engage for their Tyranny and Oppression and like those that have a Plague-sore desire to dilate and spread their Infection their sin to others when he that maintains or approves of an unlawful act done repeats it and sins it over again espouses the sin and makes it so habitually his as not to admit of any Divorce but as he that sets upon his house by Oppression or Injustice entails a Curse upon it to the Fourth Generation x Exod. 20.5 So he that countenances or confirms another in any unjustifiable Action and always approves it doth as much as in him lyes to make his whole life but one continued act of Wickedness and entails it upon his Posterity Nay our Charter for Heaven hath this condition in it That we speak the truth from our hearts y Ps 15. and in our hearts too in Words Actions and Desires for my inclination to a sin makes me guilty without the Act in that there is an Eye-Adultery and a Mental-Idolatry the Devil 's single mony and the connivance at much more complyance with another's sin in out-ward appearance makes it mine and so in God's account though my heart dis-allow and detest it For every Hypocrisie Dissimulation Guile and the like multiplies the sin and makes it two to me approving it in any for I contract both the guilt of the sin I countenance in another and the Lye I am guilty of in my self by it for my Hand or Eye or Foot or any fictitious Action may tell a lie as well as my Tongue But then every untruth is not a Lye when I believe what I say upon fair and probable grounds because mendacium consistit in voluntate every thing having only so much more of inordinateness and obliquity in it as it departs from what we believe or acknowledg to be truth 9. Ninethly we must not comply in any thing ill nor do the best Action if we believe it bad a Rom. 14.23 nor countenance an ill cause though to a good end in that the man is by it divided the heart and the hand moving several ways and becomes guilty of dissembling which is no less as hath been said than a real acted Lie and that every Lie is a sin that ought not to be given way to b Rev. 22. out of the contemplation of the greatest good even the saving of Souls c Rom. 3.8 For the Ark must fall rather than be supported by Vzzah's hands d 2 Sam. 6.6 any undue means and no Sacrifice must be offered to God rather than Disobedience e 1 Sam. 15. So that we must be sure that what we do be not only bonum but bene good in respect of the means as well as end For with St. Augustine f lib. 4 cap 7. tom 5. Quod est secundum se malum ex genere nullo modo potest esse bonum licitum Because as Aquinas saith ad hoc quod aliquid sit bonum requiritur quod omnia recte concurrant in that Bonum est ex causa integra malum vero ex singularibus defectibus A single defect making an Action sinful when all Circumstances are required to concur in a good one in that omne verum est omni vero consentiens quicquid non licet certe non oportet So Cicero g Pro Balbo For potest aliquid licere non expedire expedire autem quod non licet non potest h Aug. de Adult Conjug cap. 15. So that I will conclude with St. Augustine i Tom. 4. cap. 10. de mendatio and Thomas Aquinas excellently Non licitum mendacium dicere ad hoc quod aliquis alium a quocunque periculo liberaret And therefore with the Divine Poet Mr. George Herbert let us Dare to tell truth there 's nothing needs a Ly A Fault that needs it most grows two thereby and let us purifie our hearts Jam. 4.8 as well as cleanse our hands if we will draw nigh unto God k Jer. 17. the Law of God requiring an inward universality of the Subject to walk in as well as an Universal Obedience of the Precept to walk by 10. Tenthly Yet all this doth not by way of Obligation extend to the speaking of the whole truth at all times as in Abraham's calling Sarah his Sister to disguise his Relation to her as a Husband l Gen. 20 when God is not dishonoured nor my Brother damnified by it in that it may be but a concealing of something I am not bound to reveal when Mendacium est quippe falsa significatio cum voluntate fallendi m Aug. tom 4. l. 2. And therefore I
Rebellion under a pretence of lawful Obedience 3. Lastly For other inferiour employments in things absolutely in their own nature lawful men may as an Act of Submission under a Power comply passively though no Beam of any just Power appear in the Person commanding so as it be involuntary and with a publick owning the dislike of it Nay there may be perhaps a voluntary and yet lawful acting in some such Capacities in things of an inferior nature when men do it rather by permission of than commission from the Usurpers of the Supreme Power having their Call only from the ancient and known Laws of the Kingdom as Constables Bailiffs c. OBJECTION VI. Object 6. Well if it be not lawful to countenance or any way support an unjust Power it is not lawful to pay Taxes Customs Excise c. when imposed and to maintain a War against a Just Title Answ Every Voluntary Act herein is sinful and not to be done in that the matter manner and end ought to be good in every Action And in this case though it may be in some cases lawful to submit to such Payments I ought rather to dye than do any thing willingly that may advance those ends for which it is designed But then if the demand of it comes seconded with a Power and direction to levy ten times as much if refused the state of the question is altered and directs me to an act of prudence in chooseing the less evil of punishment which will be rather a weakening than strength to the Usurper who would make an advantage by my refusal without contracting the guilt of the Tyrants misapplying it For the compulsion in the Law it self looks only at the money not the employment of it and directs my choice to what is least penal and takes off all just cause of scandal when my intentions in paying are as far distant from his in receiving as Heaven from Hell And though this particular case be hardly to be found amongst the Casuists it is thus resolved in other Notions to which I will propose a Parallel or two for illustration never questioned or condemned by any I suppose as unlawful having Universal Consent and Practise for it But first I shall answer another Objection OBJECTION VII Object 7. It is true every Act hath only so much of sin as it hath of the will in it but here what you do cannot be said to be meerly Passive or Involuntary but a mixed Action partly constrained and partly free and so in some measure sinful as involving your consent Answ I confess man in all things works as a rational Creature and doth nothing but of choice his will being never forced as Natural Agents are from the impulse of a Foreign Power so that it is his choice not necessity which fixes him be the thing in its nature eligible or not but this happens not in this case For if the question were whether I would pay Taxes c. to the ends proposed or loose all I ought to part with all and my Life too rather than do it But if it be reduced to this Will you give me so much money or let me take all you have or ten times as much then the choice is meerly between evils of punishment in which the Law of Nature obliges me in prudence to choose the least as also the Law of Charity and is so universally understood to free me both from scandal and sinister interpretations Compulsion in Law never implying more than submission to the Act and then when all Power of resistance is taken from me and no liberty of Election left whether I will part with so much Money or not but that my liberty is limited to one Object only the evil of suffering in a less or greater degree I may pay the Money assessed without any check of Conscience in sensu diviso abstracted from all ill but not in sensu composito as parting with it to a sinful end Nor doth the intention of the Imposers though it binds not in Usurped Powers extend further than to our submission to the payment of the Money they require though they declare the end for which they intend it or else to undergo the Penalty they require as may appear by all the Ordinances of these times And for Parallels to this 1. Consider That if Thieves assault me upon a way and swear to kill me if I will not give them a Bond for an hundred pounds to be employed for the corrupting of some Virgins Chastity or other Wicked end and will have it inserted in the Conditions I am to subscribe I ought not to do it for a World But if the condition be only to pay so much Money I may yield to it as a ransom for my life For it then becomes a choice of the least evil of punishment only without countenancing or contracting any evil of sin which I am obliged to by the Law of self-preservation especially when my Actions declare no more 2. Consider If a lawful King disputing his just Rights against the actual Invasion of his Rebellious Subjects shall place all his Treasure and Magazines in some strong Garrison there to be kept as the Nerves and Sinews of his War as Pillars and Supports of his Royalty and intrust them into some Loyal hand to keep and defend them for his Service they cannot be delivered up to his Enemies to prove his Masters Ruine when designed for his strength without great sin till held and disputed beyond all probability of longer defence or hope of relief because something of his Soveraigns Interest remains still in his Power But when it can be no longer kept by force it is a duty upon him both for the preservation of himself and the Loyal Party with him to surrender upon Capitulation rather than become a wilful Sacrifice all Election being taken from him but that of the less evil of punishment when he only parts with what he cannot keep to preserve himself for some fairer opportunity of serving his King which proportion holds in our payment of Taxes when the demand is seconded by a Compulsory Power For there Natural Equity permits a Passive Submission and in things not absolutely necessary by Divine Sanction as in observing the Rules and Canons of the Church in Ceremonies Forms of Prayer and Liturgies c. For there Omissions are no acts of Contempt nor just cause of scandals if we are forced to it OBJECTION VIII Object 8. Well admit that it be not lawful voluntarily to obey but passively only to submit to the Impositions of those that usurp an unjust Power I may yet to ransome my person in case of restraint or Imprisonment and to enjoy the benefit of Laws and protection of the present Government engage to be true and faithful to them rather than to continue both in Misery and Incapacity of ever paying that Tribute of Homage and Allegiance I owe my just Soveraign either in aiding or assisting to the