constitution is onely by a surrender of the native right that every one had in himself from whence then can this majestie and authoritie be derived Again where the obligation amongst equals is by contract and compact violation of the faith plighted in the contract cannot in proper termes be called disobedience or contempt of authoritie it is no more but a receding from and a violation of that which was promised as it may be in States or Counties confederate Nature reason conscience scripture teach That disobedience to Soveraign power is not onely a violation of Truth breach of Covenant but also high disobedience and contempt as is clear 1 Sam. 10.26 So when Saul Chap. 11. sent a yoak of Oxen hewed in pieces to all the Tribes the fear of the Lord fell on the people and they came out with one consent 1 Sam. 11.17 so Job 11.18 He looseth the bonds of Kings that is he looseth their authoritie and bringeth them in contempt and he girdeth there loyns with a girdle that is he strengthneth their authoritie and maketh the people to reverence them Heathens observe that there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some divine thing in Kings Prophane Histories say that this was so eminent in Alexander the great that it was a terrour to his enemies and a powerfull Loadstone to draw men to compose the most seditious Counsels and cause his most experienced Commanders embrace and obey his counsel and command Some stories write that upon some great exigence there was some resplendent majesti◠in the eyes of Scipio This kept Pharaoh from lifting his hand against Moses who charged him so boldly with his sins When Moses did speak with God face to face in the Mount this resplendent glory of Majestie so awed the people that they durst not behold his glory Exod. 34. This repressed the fury of the people enraged against Gideon from destroying their idol Judg. 6. And the fear of man is naturally upon all living creatures below Gen. 9. So what can this reverence which is innate in the hearts of all subjects toward their Soveraigns be but the Ordinance unrepealable of God and the naturall effect of that majestie of Princes with which they are endowed with from above Ans. 1. I never heard any shadow of reason while now and yet because the lie hath a latitude here is but a shadow which the Prelate stole from M. Antonius de Dominis Archiepisc. Spalatensis and I may say confidently this Plagiarius hath not one line in his booke which is not stollen and for the present Spalato his argument is but spilt and the nerves cut from it while it is both bleeding and lamed Let the Reader compare them and I pawn my credit he hath ignorantly clipped Spalato But I answer 1. Soveraigntie is a beam and ray as Spalato saith of divine majestie and is not either formally or virtually in the people So he It is false that it is not virtually in the people for there be two things in the Iudge either inferior or supream for the argument holdeth in the majestie of a Parliament as we shall hear 1. The gift or grace of Governing the Arminian Prelate will offend at this 2. The Authority of governing 1. The gift is supernaturall and is not in man naturally and so not in the King for he is physically but a mortall man and this is a gift received for Salomon asked it by prayer from God There is a capacitie passive in all individuall men for it as for the officiall authoritie it self it is virtually in all in whom any of Gods image is remaining since the fall as is clear as may be gathered from Gen. 1.28 yea the Father the Master the Judge have it by Gods institution in some measure over son servant and subject though it be more in the supreme Ruler and for our purpose it is not requisite that authoritative majestie should be in all What is in the Father and Husband I hope to clear I mean it needeth not to be formally in all and so all are born alike and equall But he who is a Papist a Socinian an Arminian and therefore delivered to Satan by his mother Church must be the Sectarie for we are where this Prelate left us maintainers of the Protestant Religion continued in the Confession of Faith and Nationall Covenant of Scotland when this Demas forsook us and embraced the World 2. Though not on single man in Israel be a Judge or King by nature nor have in them formally any ray of Royaltie or of Magistraticall Authoritie yet it followeth not that Israel Parliamentarily convened hath no such authoritie as to make Saul King in Mizpah and David King in Hebron 1 Sam. 10.24 25. 1 Chro. 11.1 2. Chap. 12.38 39. One man alone hath not the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven as the Prelate dreameth But it followeth not that many convened in a Church way hath not this power Matth. 18.17 1 Cor. 5.1 2 3 4. One man hath not strength to fight against an Army of ten thousand doth it follow Ergo An Army of twenty thousand hath not strength to fight against these ten thousand So one Paul cannot Synodically determine the question Acts 15. It followeth not Ergo The Apostles and Elders and Brethren convened from divers Churches hath not power to determine it in a lawfull Synod And therefore from a disjoyned and scattered power no man can argue to a united power So not any one man is an inferiour Ruler or hath the rayes and beams of a number of Aristocraticall Rulers but it followeth not Ergo All these men combined in a Citie or Societie have not power in a joynt Politicall body to chose Inferiour or Aristocraticall Rulers 3. The P. Prelates reason is nothing All the Contribution saith he in the compact body to make a King is onely by a surrender of the native right of every single man the whole being onely a voluntary constitution How then can there be any majestie derived from them I answer Very well For the surrender is so voluntary that it is also naturall and founded on the Law of nature That men must have Governours either many or one supreme Ruler And it is voluntary and dependeth on a positive institution of God Whether the Government be by one supreme Ruler as in a Monarchie or in many as in an Aristocracie according as the necessitie and temper of the Common-wealth do most require This Constitution is so voluntary as it hath below it the Law of nature for its generall foundation and above it the supervenient institution of God ordaining That there should be such Magistrates both Kings and other Iudges because without such all humane societies should be dissolved 4. Individuall persons in creating a Magistrate doth not properly surrender their right which can be called a right for they do but surrender their power of doing violence to these of their fellows in that same Communitie so as they shall not now
doubt if the relation of a father as a father doth necessarily infer a Royall or Kingly authority of the father over the son or by natures Law that the father hath power of life and death over or above his children and the reasons I give are 1. Because power of life and death is by a positive Law presupposing sin and the fall of man and if Adam standing in innocency could lawfully kill his son though the son should be a Malefactor without any positive Law of God I much doubt 2. I judge that the power Royall and the fatherly power of a father over his children shall be found to be different and the one is founded on the Law of nature the other to wit Royall power on a meere positive Law The 2. degree or order of subjection naturall is a subjection in respect of gifts or age so Aristotle 1 Polit. cap. 3. saith that some are by nature servants his meaning is good that some gifts of nature as wisedom naturall or aptitude to govern hath made some men of gold fitter to command and some of iron and clay fitter to be servants and slaves But I judge this title to make a King by birth seeing Saul whom God by supervenient gifts made a King seemeth to ow small thanks to the womb or nature that he was a King for his crueltie to the Lords Priests speaketh nothing but naturall basenesse It s possible Plato had a good meaning Dialog 3. de legib who made six orders here 1. That fathers command their sons 2. The noble the ignoble 3. The elder the younger 4. The masters the servants 5. The stronger the weaker 6. The wiser the ignorant 3. Aquinas 22. q. 57. art 3. Driedâ— de libert Christ. l. 1. pag. 8. following Aristotle polit l. 7. c. 14. hold though man had never sinned there should have been a sort of dominion of the more gifted and wiser above the lesse wise and weaker not antecedent from nature properly but consequent for the utilitie and good of the weaker in so far as it is good for the weaker to be guided by the stronger which cannot be denyed to have some ground in nature but there is no ground for Kings by nature here 1. Because even these who plead that the mothers womb must be the best title for a Crown and make it equivalent to Royall unction are to be corrected in memory thus That it is meerly accidentall and not naturall for such a son to be born a King because the free consent of the people making choice of the first father of that Line to be their King and in him making choice of the first born of the family is meerly accidentall to father and son and so cannot be naturall 2. Because Royall gifts to reign are not holden by either us or our adversaries to be the specifice essence of a King for if the people Crown a person their King say we if the womb bring him forth to be a King say the opponents he is essentially a King and to be obeyed as the Lords annointed though nature be very Parca sparing and a niggard in bestowing Royall gifts Yea though he be an idiot say some if he be the first born of a King he is by just title a King but must have Curators and Tutors to guide him in the exercise of that Royall right that he hath from the womb But Buchanan saith well He who cannot govern himself shall never govern others 1 Assert de facto As a man commeth into the world a member of a politick societie he is by consequence borne subject to the laws of that societie but this maketh him not from the wombe and by nature subject to a King as by nature he is subject to his Father who begat him no more then by nature a Lyon is borne subject to another King-Lyon for it is by accident that he is borne of parents under subjâ—ction to a Monarch or to either Democraticall or Aristocraticall governours for Cain and Abel were borne under none of these formes of Government properly and if he had been borne in a new planted Colonie in a wildernesse where no government were yet established he should be under no such Government 2 Assert Slavery of servants to Lords or Masters such as were of old amongst the Iews is not naturall but against nature 1. Because slaverie is malum naturae a penall evill and contrary to nature and a punishment of sinne 2. Slaverie should not have been in the world if man had never sinned no more then there could have been buying and selling of men which is a miserable consequent of sin and a sort of death when men are put to the toyling paines of the hireling who longeth for the shadow and under iron harrowes and sawes and to hew wood and draw water continually 3. The originall of servitude was when men were taken in warre to eschew a greater evill even death the captives were willing to undergoe a lesse evill slaverie S. Servitus 1. de jur Pers. 4. A man being created according to Gods image he is res sacra a sacred thing and can no more by natures law be sold and bought then a religious and sacred thing dedicated to God S. 1. Instit. de invtil scrupl l. inter Stipulantem S. Sacram. F. de verber Obligat 3 Assert Every man by nature is a freeman borne that is by nature no man commeth out of the wombe vnder any civill subjection to King Prince or Judge to master captaine conquerour teacher c. 1. Because freedome is naturall to all except freedome from subjection to Parents And subjection politick is meerly accidentall comming from some positive lawes of men as they are in a politique societie whereas they might have been borne with all concomitants of nâ—ure though borne in a single familie the only naturall and first societie in the world 2. Man is borne by nature free from all subjection except of that which is most kindly and naturall and that is fatherly or filial subjection or matrimoniall subjection of the wife to the husband and especially he is free of subjection to a Prince by nature Because to be under jurisdiction to a Iudge or King hath a sort of jurisdiction Argument L. Si quis sit fugitivus F. de edil edict in S. penult vel fin especially to be under penall lawes now in the state of sinne The learned Senator Ferdinandus Vasquez saith l. 2. c. 82. n. 15. Every subject is to lay down his life for the Prince now no man is borne under subjection to penall lawes or dying for his Prince 3. Man by nature is borne free and as free as beasts but by nature no beast no Lyon is born King of Lyons no Horse no Bullock no Eagle King of Horses Bullocks Eagles nor is there any subjection here except that the young Lyon is subject to the old every foul to its damme
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 inferior to the hand and far more to the whole body as any part is inferior to the whole 2. Consider the King reduplicative and formally as King and by the officiall relation he hath he is no more then but a Royall servant an officiall meane tending ex officio to this end to preserve the people to rule and governe them and a gift of God given by vertue of his office to rule the people of God and so any way inferiour to the people 9. Those who are before the King and may be a People without a King must be of more worth then that which is posteriour and cannot be a King without them For thus Gods selfe sufficiency is proved in that he might be and eternally was blessed for ever without his Creature but his creature cannot subsist in being without him Now the people were a people many yeares before there was any government save domestick and is a people where there is no King but only an Aristocracy or a Democracy but the King can be no King without a people It is vaine that some say the King and Kingdome are relatives and not one is before another for its true in the naked relation so are father and sonne Master and servant Relata simul natura but sure there is a priority of worth and independency for all that in the father above the sonne and in the master above the servant and so in the people above the King take away the people and Dyonisius is but a poore Schoole-master 2. Asser. The people in power are superiour to the King 1. because every efficient and constituent cause is more excellent then the effect Every meane is inferiour in power to the end so Iun. Brutus q. 31. Bucher l. 1. c. 16. Author Lib. De offic Magistr q. 6. Henaenius disp 2. n. 6. Ioan. Roffensis Epist. De potest pap l. 2. c. 5. Spalato de Repu Ecclesiast l. 6. c. 2. n. 31. but the people is the efficient and constituent cause the King is the effect the people is the end both intended of God to save the people to be a healer and a Physician to them Esay 3. v. 7. and the people appoint and create the King out of their indigence to preserve themselves from mutuall violence Many things are objected against this 1. That the efficient and constituent cause is
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 of Monarchy 9. No doubt saith he Hos. 4. They were Priests and Iudges Hos. 4. but they were over-awed as they are now J thinke he would say Hos. 3.4 otherwise he citeth Scripture sleeping That the Priests of Antichrist be not only over-awed but out of the earth I yeeld that the King be limited not over-awed I thinke Gods Law and mans Law alloweth 10. The safety of the King as King is not only safety but a blessing to Church and State and therefore this P. Prelate and his fellowes deserve to be hanged before the Sun who have led him on a warre to destroy him and his Protestant subjects But the safety and flourishing of a King in the exercises of an Arbitrary unlimited power against Law and Religion and to the destruction of his subjects is not the safety of the people nor the safety of the Kings soule which these men if they be the Priests of the Lord should care for The Prelate commeth to refute the learned and worthy Observator The safety of the people is the supreme Law ergo the King is bound in duty to promote all and every one of his subjects to all happinesse The Observator hath no such inference the King is bound to promote some of his subjects even as King to a Gallowes especially Irish Rebells and many bloudy Malignants But the Prelate will needs have God rigorous hallowed be his name if it be so for it is unpossible to the tenderest-hearted father to doe so actuall promotion of all is unpossible that the King intend it of all his subjects as good subjects by a Throne established on righteousnesse and judgement is that which the worthy Observator meaneth other things here are answered The summe of his second answer is a repetition of what he hath said I give my word in a Pamphlet of one hundred ninety and foure pages I never saw more idle repetitions of one thing twenty times before said But page one hundred sixty and eight he saith The safety of the King and his subjects in the Morall notion may be esteemed Morally the same no lesse then the soule and the body make one personall subsistence Ans. This is strange Logick the King and his subjects are Ens per aggregationem and the King as King hath one Morall subsistence and the people another Hath the Father and the sonne the Master and the servant one Morall subsistence but the man speaketh of their well being and then he must meane that our Kings Government that was not long agoe and is yet to wit the Popery Arminianisme Idolatry cutting of mens eares and noses banishing imprisonment for speaking against Popery arming of Papists to slay Protestants pardoning the bloud of Ireland that I feare shall not be soone taken away c. are identically the same with the life safety and happinesse of Protestants then life and death justice and unjustice Idolatry and sincere worship are identically one as the soule of the Prelate and his body are one The third is but a repitition The Acts of Royaltie saith the Observator are Acts of dutie and obligation Ergo not acts of grace properly so called Ergo We may not thank the King for a courtesie This is no consequence What fathers do to children are acts of naturall dutie and of naturall grace and yet children owe gratitude to parents and subjects to good Kings in a legall sense No but in way of courtesie onely
himselfe were borne of Kings where as God calleth the King their Shepheard and the people Gods stocke inheritance and people and they are not a disorderly body by nature but by sin in which sense the Prelate may call King Priest and people a company of Heires of Gods wrath except he be an Arminian still as once he was 3. If we are in ordinary providence now because we have not Samuels and Prophets to anoynt Kings to hold the designation of a person to be King to be the manifestation of Gods Will called voluntas signi is Treason for if Scotland and England should designe Maxwell in the place of King Charles our native Soveraigne an odious comparison Maxwell should be lawfull King for what is done by Gods Will called by our Divines they have it not from Schoolemen as the Prelate ignorantly saith his signified will which is our rule is done lawfully there can be no greater treason put in print then this QUEST XVI Whether or no a despotiticall and masterly dominion of men and things agree to the King because he is King I May here dispute whether the King be Lord having a masterly dominion both over men and things But I first discusse shortly his dominion over his subjects It is agreed on by Divines that servitude is a penall fruit of sinne and against nature Institut de jure personarum Sect. 1. F. de statu hominum l. libertas Because all men are borne by nature of equall condition 1 Assert The King hath no proper masterly or herile dominion over his subjects his dominion is rather fiduciary and ministeriall than masterly 1. Because Royall Empire is essentially to feed rule defend and to governe in Peace and Godlinesse 1 Tim. 2.2 as the father doth his children Ps. 78.71 He brought him to feed Iacob his people and Israel his inheritance Esa. 55.4 I gave him for a leader and commander to the people 2 Sam. 5.2 Thou shalt feed my people Israel 2 Sam. 5.2 1 Chron. 11.2 1 Chron. 17.6 And so it is for the good of the people and to bring those over whom he is a feeder and ruler to such a happy end and as saith Althusius polit c. 1. n. 13. and Marius Salomonius de princ c. 2. it is to take care of the good of those over whom the Ruler is set and conservare est rem illaesam servare to keep a thing safe But to be a Master and to have a masterly and herile power over slaves and servants is to make use of servants for the owners benefit not for the good of the slave L. 2 de leg L. Servus de servit expert Danae polit l. 1. Tolossan de Rep. l. 1. c. 1. n. 15 16. therefore are servants bought and sold as goods jure belli F. de statu hominum l. servorum 2. Not to be under Governors and Magistrates is a judgement of God Esa. 3.6 7. Esa. 3.1 Hos 3.4 Iudg. 19.1 2. But not to be under a master as slaves are is a blessing seeing freedome is a blessing of God Ioh. 8.33 Exod. 21.2 v. 26 27. Deut. 15.12 so he that killeth Goliah 1 Sam. 17.25 his fathers house shall be free in Israel Ier. 34.9 Act. 22.28 1 Cor. 9.19 Gal. 4.26.31 Therefore the power of a King cannot be an herile and masterly power for then to be under a Kingly power should both be a blessing and a curse and just punishment of sinne 3. Subjects are called the servants of the King 1 Sam. 15.2 2 Chron. 13.7 1 King 12.7 Exod. 10.1 2. Exod. 9.20 but they are not slaves because Deut. 17.20 they are his brethren That the Kings heart be not lifted up against his brethren And his sonnes Esa. 49.23 And the Lord gave his people a King as a blessing 1 King 10.9 Hos. 1.11 Esa. 1.26 Ier. 17.25 And brought them out of the house of bondage Exod. 20. v. 2. as out of a place of miserie And therefore to be the Kings servants in the places cited is some other thing then to be the Kings slaves 4. The Master might in some cases sell the servant for money yea for his own gain â—e might doe it Nehem. 5.8 Eccles. 2.7 1 King 2.32 Gen. 9.25 Gen. â—6 14 2 King 4.1 Gen. 20.14 and might give away his servants and the servants were the proper goods and riches of the master Eccles. 2.7 Gen. 30.43 Gen. 20.14 Job 1.3.15 But the King may not sell his Kingdome or Subjects or give them away for money or any other way for Royalists grant that King to be a Tyrant and worthy to be dethroned who shall sell his people for the King may not delapidate the rents of the Crown and give them away to the hurt and prejudice of his successors L. ult Sect. sed nostr C. Comment de lege l. peto 69. Sect. fratrem de lege 2. l. 32. ultimo D. T. and 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 Arnisaeus 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
must keepe covenant though to his hurt yea such a servant is not only not above his Master but he cannot move his foot without his Master The Governour of Britaine saith Arnisaeus being despised by King Philip resigned himselfe as Vassall to King Edward of England but did not for that make himselfe superiour to King Edward indeed he who constituteth another under him as a Legat is superiour but the people do◠constitute a King above themselves not a King under themselves and therefore the people are not by this made the Kings superiour but his inferiour Ans. 1. It is false that the people doth or can by the Law of nature resigne their whole liberty in the hand of a King 1. they cannot resigne to others that which they have not in themselves Nemo potest dare quod non habet but the people hath not an absolute power in themselves to destroy themselves or to exercise those tyrannous acts spoken of 1 Sam. 8.11 12 13 14 15 c. for neither God nor Natures Law hath given any such power 2. He who constituteth himselfe a slave is supposed to be compelled to that unnaturall fact of alienation of that liberty which he hath from his Maker from the wombe by violence constraint or extreame necessity and so is inferiour to all free men but the people doth not make themselves slaves when they constitute a King over themselves because God giving to a people a King the best and excellentest Governour on earth giveth a blessing and speciall fafour Esay 1.26 Hosea 1. v. 11. Esay 3.6 7. Ps. 79.70 71 72. but to lay upon his people the state of slaverie in which they renounce their whole libertie is a curse of God Gen. 9.25 Gen. 27.29 Deut. 28.32.36 But the people having their liberty to make any of ten or twenty their King and to advance one from a private state to an honorable throne whereas it was in their libertie to advance another and to give him Royall power of ten degrees whereas they might give him power of twelve degrees and of eight or sixe must be in excellencie and worth above the man whom they constitute King and invest with such honour as Honour in the fountain and honos participans originans must be more excellent and pure then the derived honour in the King which is honos participatus originatus 2. If the servant give his libertie to his master ergo he had that libertie in him and in that act libertie must be in a more excellent way in the servant as in the Fountaine then it is in the master and so this libertie must be purer in the people then in the King and therefore in that both the servant is above the master and the People worthier then the King and when the people give themselves conditionally and Covenant-wise to the King as to a Publique servant and Patron and Tutour as the Governour of Britaine out of his humour gave himselfe to King Edward there is even here a note of superioritie Every giver of a benefit as a giver is superior to him to whom the gift is given though after the servant hath given away his gift of libertie by which he was superiour he cannot be a superior because by his gift he hath made himselfe inferior 3. The People constituteth a King above themselves I distinguish supra se above themselves according to the fountaine power of Royaltie that is false for the fountaine-power remaineth most eminently in the people 1. because they give it to the King ad modum recipientis and with limitations ergo it is unlimited in the people and bounded and limited in the King and so lesse in the King then in the people 2. If the King turne distracted and an ill spirit from the Lord come upon Saul so as reason be taken from a Nebuchadnezzar it is certaine the people may put Curators and Tutors over him who hath the Royall power 3. If the King be absent and taken captive the People may give the Royall power to one or to some few to exercise it as custodes regni And 4. if he die and the Crown goe by election they may create another with more or lesse power all which evinceth that they never constituted over themselves a King in regard of fountaine-power for if they give away the fountaine as a slave selleth his libertie they could not make use of it Indeed they set a King above them quoad potestatem legum executivam in regard of a power of executing lawes and actuall government for their good and safetie but this proveth only that the King is above the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in some respect but the most eminent and fountaine-power of Royaltie remaineth in the people as in an immortall spring which they communicate by succession to this or that mortall man in the manner and measure that they thinke good And Vlpian and Bartolus cited by our Prelate out of Barclaius are only to be understood of the derived secondary and borrowed power of executing lawes and not of the fountaine power which the people cannot give away no more then they can give away their rationall nature for it is a power naturall to conserve themselves essentially adhering to every created Being For if the People give all their power away 1. What shall they reserve to make a new King if this man dye 2. What if the Royall line surcease there be no Prophets immediately sent of God to make Kings 3. What if he turne Tyrant and destroy his Subjects with the sword The Royalists say they may flie but when they made him King they resigned all their power to him even their power of flying for they bound themselves by an oath say Royalists to all passive and lawfull active obedience and I suppose to stand at his Tribunal if he summoned the three Estates upon Treason to come before him is conteined in the oath that Royalists say bindeth all and is contradictorie to flying Arnisaeus a more learned Iurist and Divine then the P. Prelate answereth the other Maxime The end is worthier then the meane leading to the end because it is ordained for the end These meanes saith he which referre their whole nature to the end and have all their excellencie from the end and have excellencie from no other thing but from the end are lesse excellent then the end that is true such an end as medicine is for health And Hugo Grotius l. 1. c. 3. n. 8. Those meanes which are only for the end for the good of the end and are not for their own good also are of lesse excellencie and inferior to the end But so the assumption is false But those meanes which beside their relation to the end have an excellencie of nature in themselves are not alwayes inferior to the end The Disciple as he is instituted is inferior to the Master but as he is the sonne of a Prince he is
above the Master But by this reason the shepherd should be inferior to bruit beasts to sheep And the master of the familie is for the familie and referreth all that he hath for the entertaining of the familie but it followeth not therefore the familie is above him The forme is for the action therefore the action is more excellent then the forme and an accident then the subject or substance And Grotius saith Every government is not for the good of another but some for its own good as the government of a master over the servant and the husband over the wife Ans. I take the answer thus Those who are meere meanes and only meanes referred to the end they are inferior to the end but the King as King hath all his officiall and relative goodnesse in the world as relative to the end All that you can imagine to be in a King as a King is all relative to the safety and good of the people Rom. 13.4 He is a minister for thy good He should not as King make himselfe or his own gaine and honour his end I grant the King as a man shall dye as another man and so he may secondarily intend his own good and what excellencie he hath as a man is the excellencie of one mortall man and cannot make him amount in dignitie and in the absolute consideration of the excellencie of a man to be above many men and a whole Kingdome for the moe good things there be the better they are so the good things be multiplicable as a hundred men are better then one Otherwise if the good be such as cannot be multiplied as one God the multiplication maketh them worse as many Gods are inferiour to one God Now if Royalists can shew us any more in the King then these two we shall be obliged to them and in both he is inferiour to the whole The Prelate and his followers would have the Maxime to lose credit for then say they the shepherd should be inferior to the sheep But in this the Maxime faileth indeed 1. Because the shepherd is a reasonable man and the sheep bruit beasts and so must be excellenter then all the flocks of the world Now as he is a reasonable man he is not a shepherd nor in that relation referred to the shâ—ep and their preservation as a mean to the end but he is a shepherd by accident for the unrulinesse of the creatures for mans sinne withdrawing themselves from that naturall dominion that man had over the creatures before the fall of man in that relation of a meane to the end and so by accident is this officiall relation put on him and according to that officiall relation and by accident man is put to be a servant to the bruitish creature and a meane to so base an end But all this proveth him through mans sinne and by accident to be under the officiall relation of a meane to baser creatures then himselfe as to the end but not as a reasonable man But the King as King is an officiall and Royall meane to this end that the people may lead a godly and peaceable life under him And this officiall relation being an accident is of lesse worth then the whole people as they are to be governed And I grant the Kings sonne in relation to blood and birth is more excellent then his Teachers but as he is taught he is inferiour to his Teacher but in both considerations the King is inferior to the people for though he coÌ„mand the people and so have an executive power of law above them yet have they a fountain power above him because they made him King and in Gods intention he is given as King for their good according to that Thou shalt feed my people Israel that I gave him for a leader of my people 4. Saith the P. Prelate The constituent cause is excellenter then the effect constituted where the constitution is voluntary and dependeth upon the free act of the will as when the King maketh a Vice-Roy or a Iudge durante beneplacito during his free will but not when a man maketh over his right to another for then there should be neither faith nor truth in covenants if people might make over their power to their King and retract and take back what they have once given Ans. This is a begging of the question for it is denyed that the people can absolutely make away their whole power to the King It dependeth on the people that they be not destroyed They give to the King a politique power for their own safetie and they keepe a naturall power to themselves which they must conserve and cannot give away and they doe not breake their covenant when they put in act that naturall power to conserve themselves for though the people should give away that power and sweare though the King should kill them all they should not resist nor defend their own lives yet that being an oath against the sixth Command which enjoyneth naturall selfe-preservation it should not oblige the conscience for it should be intrinsecally sinfull and it 's all one to sweare to non-self-preservation as to sweare to selfe-murther 5. If the people saith the Prelate begging the answer from Barclay the constituent be more excellent then the effect and so the people above the King because they constitute him King Then the Counties and Corporations may make voyd all the Commissions given to the Knights and Burgesses of the House of Commons and send others in their place and repeal their Orders therefore Buchanan saith that Orders and Lawes in Parliament were but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 preparatorie consultationis and had not the force of a Law till the people give their consent and have their influence authoritative upon the Statutes and Acts of Parliament But the observator holdeth that the legislative power is whole and intire in the Parliament But when the Scots were preferring Petitions and Declarations they put all power in the collective body and kept their distinct tables Ans. There is no consequence here the Counties and Incorporations that send Commissioners to Parliament may make voyd their Commissions and anull their Acts because they constitute them Commissioners if they be unjust acts they may disobey them and so disanull them but it is presumed God hath given no morall power to doe ill nor can the Counties and Corporations give any such power to evill for they have not any such fâ—om God if they be just acts they are to obey them and cannot retract Commissions to make just Orders Illud tantum possumus quod â—ure possumus and therefore as power to governe justly is irrevocably committed by the three estâ—tes who made the King to the King so is that same power committed by the Shires and Corporations to their Commissioners to decree in Parliament what is just and good irrevocably and to take any jâ—st power from the King which
not a power of meere Grace But 1. Though Princes may doe some things of Grace yet not of meere Grace because what Kings doe as Kings and by vertue of their Royall office that they do ex debito officii by debt and right of their office and that they cannot but do it not being arbitrarie to them to doe the debtfull acts of their office But what they doe of meere grace that they doe as good men and not as Kings and that they may not doe As for example Some Kings out of their pretended prerogative have given foure pardons to one man for foure murthers Now this the King might have left undone without sinne But of meere grace he pardoned the murtherer who killed foure men But the truth is the King killed the three last because he hath no power in point of Conscience to dispute with blood Num. 35.31 Gen. 9.6 These pardons are acts of meere grace to one man but acts of blood to the Communitie 2. Because the Prince is the Minister of God for the good of the subject and therefore the Law saith He cannot pardon and free the guilty of the punishment due to him Contra l. quod favore F. de leg l. non ideo minus F. de proc l. legata inutiliter F. de lega 1. And the reason is cleare He is but the minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evill And if the Judgement be the Lords not mans not the Kings as it is indeed Deut. 1.17 2 Chron. 19.6 he cannot draw the sword against the innocent nor absolve the guiltie except he would take on himselfe to carve and dispose of that which is proper to his master Now certaine it is God only univocally and essentially as God is the Judge Ps. 75.7 and God only and essentially King Ps. 97.1 Ps. 99.1 and all men in relation to him are meere ministers servants legates deputies and in relation to him equivocally and improperly Iudges or Kings and meere created and breathing shadowes of the power of the King of Kings And looke as the Scribe following his own device and writing what sentence he pleaseth is not an officer of the Court in that point nor the pen and servant of the Iudge so are Kings and all Iudges but forged intruders and bastard Kings and Iudges in so far as they give out the sentences of men and are not the very mouthes of the King of Kings to pronounce such a sentence as the Almighty himselfe would doe if he were sitting on the Throne or Bench. 3. If the King from any supposed prerogative Royall may doe acts of meere grace without any warrant of Law because he is above Law by office then also may he doe acts of meere rigorous Iustice and kill and destroy the innocent out of the same supposed Prerogative For Gods word equally tyeth him to the place of a meere minister in doing good as in executing wrath on evill doers Rom. 13.3 4. And reason would say he must be as absolute in the one as in the other seeing God tieth him to the one as to the other by his office and place yea by this acts of Iustice to ill-doers and acts of reward to well-doers shall be arbitrary morally and by vertue of office to the King and the word Prerogative Royall saith this for the word Prerogative is a supreme power absolute that is loosed from all Law and so from all reason of Law and depending on the Kings meer and naked pleasure and will and the word Royall or Kingly is an Epithete of office and of a Iudge a created and limited Iudge and so it must tye this supposed Prerogative to Law Reason and to that which is debitum legale officii and a legall duty of an office and by this our masters the Royalists make God to frame a rationall creature which they call a King to frame acts of Royalty good and lawfull upon his own meer pleasure and the super-dominion of his will above a Law and Reason And from this it is that deluded Counsellours made King James a man not of shallow understanding and King Charls to give pardons to such bloody murtherers as James a Grant and to go so far on by this supposed Prerogative Royall that King Charls in Parliament at Edinburgh 1633. did command an high point of Religion That Ministers should use in officiating in Gods service such Habits and Garments as he pleaseth that is all the Attire and Habits of the idolatrous Masse-Priests that the Romish Priests of Baal useth in the oadest point of idolatry the adoring of Bread that the earth has and by this Prerogative the King commanded the Service Book in Scotland An. 1637. without or above Law and Reason And I desire any man to satisfie me in this If the Kings Prerogative Royall may over-leap Law and Reason in two degrees and if he may as King by a Prerogative Royall command the body of Popery in a Popish Book If he may not by the same reason over-leap Law and Reason by the elevation of twenty degrees And if you make the King a Iulian God avert and give the spirit of revelation to our King may he not command all the Alcaron and the Religion of the Heathen and Indians Royalists say The Prerogative of Royalty excludeth not reason and maketh not the King to do as a brute beast without all reason but it giveth a power to a King to do by his Royall pleasure not fettered to the dictates of a Law for in things which the King doth by his Prerogative Royall he is to follow the advice and counsell of his wise counsell though their counsell and advice doth not binde the Royall will of the King I answer it is to me and I am sure to many Learneder a great question If the will of any reasonable creature even of the damned angels can will or chose any thing which their reason corrupted as it is doth not dictate hic nunc to be good For the object of the will of all men is good either truely or apparently good to the doer for the devill could not suite in marriage souls except he war in the cloths of an Angel of light sin as sin cannot sell or obtrude it self upon any but under the notion of good I think it seemeth good to the great Turk to command innocent men to cast themselves over a precipie two hundreth fadom high in the Sea and drown themselves to pleasure him So the Turks reason for he is rationall if he be a man dictateth to his vast pleasure that that is good which he commandeth 2. Counsellours to the King who will speak what will please the Queen are but naked empty Titles for they speak que placent non que prosunt what may please the King whom they make glad with their lies not what law and reason dictateth 3. Absolutenesse of an unreasonable Prerogative doth not deny
say Nathan and Samuel erred not as men because their persons were sacred and anointed and they erred not as Prophets sure Ergo they erred not all A King as a King is an holy Ordinance of God and so cannot doe injustice Ergo they must doe acts of Iustice as men 2. The inferior Iudge is a Power from God 2. To resist him is to resist an ordinance of God 3. He is not a terrour to good workes but to evill 4. He is the minister of God for good 5. He is Gods Sword-bearer his officiall power to rule may by as good right come by birth as the Crown and the Kings person is sacred only for his office and is annointed only for his office For then the Chaldeans dishonored not inferior Iudges Lam. 5.12 when they hanged the Prince honored not the faces of Elders It is in questiō if the Kings actual authority be not as separable frō him as the actuall authority of the Iudge Symmons p. 24. The King himselfe may use this distinction As a Christian he may forgive any that offendeth against his person but as a Iudge he must punish in regard of his office Ans. Well then Flatterers will grant the distinction when the King doth good and pardoneth the blood of Protestants shed by bloody Rebels But when the King doth acts of injustice he is neither man nor King but some independent absolute God Symmons p. 27. Gods Word tyeth me to every one of his personall commandements as well as his legall commandements nor doe I obey the Kings law because it is established or because of its known penaltie nor yet the King himselfe because he ruleth according to Law But I obey the Kings law because I obey the King and I obey the King because I obey God I obey the King and his Law because I obey God and his Law Better obey the Command for a reverent regard to the Prince then for a penaltie Ans. It is hard to answer a sick man It is blasphemie to seek this distinction of Person and Office in the King of Kings because by Person in a mortall King we understand a Man that can sinne 1. I am not obliged to obey his personall commandement except I were his domestick nor his unlawfull personall commandements because they are sinfull 2. It is false that you obey the Kings Law because you obey the King for then you say but this I obey the King because I obey the King The truth is Obedience is not formally terminated on the person of the King Obedience is relative to a precept and it is Men-service to obey a Law not because it is good and just but upon this formall motive because it is the will of a mortall man to command it And Reverence Love Feare being acts of the Affection are not terminated on a Law but properly on the Person of the Iudge and they are modifications or laudable qualifications of acts of obedience not motives not the formall reason why I obey but the manner how I obey And the Apostle maketh expresly Rom. 13 4. feare of punishment a motive of obedience while he saith He beareth not the sword in vaine Ergo Be subject to the King And this hindreth not personall resistance to unjust commandements Symmons p. 27 28 29. You say To obey the Princes Personall commandement against his Legall will is to obey himselfe against himselfe So say I To obey his Legall will against his Personall will is to obey himselfe against himselfe for I take his Person to be himselfe Ans. To obey the Kings personall will when it is sinfull as we now suppose against his legall will is a sinne and a disobedience to God and the King also seeing the Law is the Kings will as King but to obey his Legall will against his sinfull personall will as it must be sinfull if contrary to a just Law is obedience to the King as King and so obedience to God 2. You take the Kings person to be himself but you take quid pro quo for his person here you must take not Physically for his suppost of soul and body but morally it is the King as a sinning man doing his worst will against the Law which is his just and best will and the rule of the Subjects and the Kings personall will is so far just and to regulate the Subjects in so far as it agreeth with his legall Will or his Law and this will can sinne and therefore may be crossed without breach of the fifth Commandement but his Legall Will cannot be crossed without disobedience both to God and the King Symmons p. 28. The Kings Personall will doth not alwayes presuppone passion and if it be attended with passion yet we must beare it for conscience sake Ans. We are to obey the Kings Personall will when the thing commanded is not sinne but his Subjects as Subjects have little to do with his personall will in that notion It concerneth his domestick servant and is the Kings will as he is the master of servants not as he is King in relation to Subjects but we speak of the Kings personall will as repugnant to Law and contrary to the Kings will as King and so contrary to the fifth Commandment and this is attended often not onely with Passion but also with prejudice and we owe no subjection to prejudice and Passions or to Actions commanded by these misordered powers because they are not from God nor his Ordinances but from men and the flesh and we owe no subjection to the flesh Doct. Ferne Sect. 9. pag. 58. The distinction of personall and legall will hath place in evill actions but not in resistance where we cannot sever the person and the dignitie or authority because we cannot resist the power but we must resist the person who hath the power Saul had lawfully the command of Arms but that power he useth unjustly against innocent David I ask when these Emperours took away lives and goods at their pleasure was that a power ordained of God No but an Illegall will a Tyranny but they might not resist nay but they cannot resist for that power and soveraigntie imployed to compasse these illegall commandments was ordained and settled in them When Pilate condemned our Saviour it was an illegall will ye◠our Saviour acknowledgeth in it Pilates power that was given him from above Answ. 1. Here we have the distinction denyed by Royalists granted by D. Fern but if when the King commands us to do wickednesse we may resist that personall will and when he commandeth us to suffer unjustly we cannot resist his will but we must resist also his Royall person What Is it not still the King and his person sacred as his power is sacred when he commandeth the subjects to do unjustly as when he commandeth them to suffer unjustly It were fearfull to say when Kings command any one act of idolatry they are no longer Kings if for conscience I am to suffer unjustly
is referred to them either to deny the truth of Christ and his name or then to suffer death the choise is apparently evident and this choise that persecuters referre us unto is to us a Commandement of God that we â—ust choose suffering for Christ and refuse sinning against Christ but the supposition must stand that this alternative is unavoydable that is not in our power to decline either suffering for Christ or denying of Christ bâ—fore men otherwayes no man is to expect the reward of a witnesse of Iesus who having a lawfull possible meanes of eschewing suffering doth yet cast himselfe into suffering neâ—dlesly But I prove that suffering by men of this world falleth not formally and directly under any divine positive Law for the Law of nature what â—ver Arminians in their Declaration or this Arminian excommunicate think with them for they teach that God gave a Commadement to Adam to abstaine from such and such fruit with paine and trouble to sinlesse nature doth not command suffering or any thing contrary to nature as nature is sinlesse I prove it thus 1. What ever falleth under a positive Commandemâ—nt of God I may say here undâ—r any Commandement of God is not a thing under the freewill and power of others from whom we are not discended necessarily by naturall generation but that men of the world kill me even these from whom I am not dâ—scended by naturall generation which I speake to exclude Adam who killed all his posterity is not in my free will either as if they had my common nature in that act or as if I werâ— accessory by counsell consent or approbation to that act for this is under the free-will and power of others not under my owne free-will Ergo that I suffer by others is not under my free-will and cannot fall under a Commandement of God And certainly it is an irrationall Law glorified be his name that God should command Antipas either formally to suffer or formally not to suffer death by these of the Synagogue of Sathan Revel 2.13 because if they be pleased not to kill him it is not in his free-will to be killed by them and if they shall have him in their power except God extraordinarily deliver it is not in his power in an ordinary providence not to be killed 2. All these places of Gods word that recommendeth suffering to the followers of Christ do not command formally that we suffer Ergo suffering falleth not formally under any Commandement of God I prove the Antecedent because iâ— they be considered they prove onely that comparatively we are to choose rather to suffer then to deny Christ before men Mat. 10.28 32. Revel 2.13 Mat. 10.37 Mat. 16.24 c. 19.29 or then they command not suffering according to the substance of the passion but according to the manner that we suffer willingly cheerfully and patiently Hence Christs word to take up his Crosse which is not a meere passion but commendeth an act of the vertue of patience Now no Christian vertue consisteth in a meer passion but in laudable habits and good and gracious acts and the Text we are now on 1 Pet. 2.18 19. doth not recommend suffering from the example of Christ but patient suffering and so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not simply enjoyned but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all feare ver 18. and the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to suffer with patience as 2 Tim 3.11 1 Cor. 10.13 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to suffer patiently 1 Cor. 13.7 Love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suffereth all things Heb. 12.17 if you suffer correction 1 Tim. 5.5 She continueth patiently in prayers Heb. 12.2 Christ endured the Crosse patiently Rom. 15.5 Rom. 8.25 Luk. 8.15 21.29 the derivats hence signifie patience so doe all our Interâ—reters Beza Calvin Marlorat and Popish expositors as Lorinus Estius Carthusian Lyra Hugo Cardinaliâ— expound it of patient suffering and the text is clear it is suffering like Christ without rendring evil for evil and reviling for reviling 3. Suffering simply according to substance of the passion I cannot say action is common to good and ill and to the wicked yea to the damned in hell who suffâ—r against their will and that cannot be joyned according to its substance as an act of formall obediâ—nce and subjection to higher powers Kings Fathers Masters by force of the fifth commandement and of the place Rom. 13.1 2. Which according to its substance wicked men suffer and the damned in hell also against their will 4. Passive obedience to wicked Emperours can but be enjoyned Rom. 13. but onely in the manner and upon supposition that we must be subject to them and must suffer against our wills all the ill of punishment that they can inâ—lict we must suffer patiently and because it is Gods permissive will that they punish us unjustly for it is not Gods ruling and approving will called voluntas signi that they should against the law of God and man kill us and persecute us and therefore neither Rom. 13. nor 1 Pet. 2. nor any place in Gods word nor any common Divinâ— naturall of nations or any municipal Law commandeth formally obedience passive or subjection passive or non-resistance under the notion of passive obedience yea to me obedience passive if we speak oâ— obedience properly called as relative essentially to a law is a chymera a dream and repugnantia in adjecto and therefore I utterly deny that resistance passive or subjection passive doth formally fal under either commandment of God affirmative or negative onely the unlawfull manner of resistance by way of revenge or for defence of Popery and false Religion and out of impatient tolleration of Monarchy or any Tyranny is forbidden in Gods word and certainly all the words used Rom. 13. as they fall under a formal commandement of God or words of action not of any Chymericall passive obediâ—nce as we are not to resist actively Gods ordinance as his ordinance ver 1.2 that is to resist God actively 2. We are to do good works not evil if we would have the ruler no terror to us ver 3. 3. We must not do ill if we would be free of vengeances sword ver 7. we are to pay tribute and to give fear and honour to the ruler ver 7. â—ll which are evidently actions not passive subjection and if any passive subjection be commanded it is not here nor in the first commandement commanded but in the first commandement under the hand of patience and submission under Gods hand in sufferings or in the third commandement under the hand of rather dying for Christ or denying his truth before men hence I argue here Rom. 13. and 1 Pet. 2. and Tit. 3. is nothing else but an exposition of the fifth commandement but in the fifth commandement onely active obedience is formally commanded and the subordination of inferiours to superiours is ordained and passive
obedience is no where commanded but onely modus rei the manner of suffering and the occasion of the commandement here it is thought that the Iewes converted under this pretext that they were Gods people beleeved that they should not be subject to the Romans A certaine Galilean made the Galileans beleeve that they should not pay tribute to Strangers and that they should call none Lord but the God of heaven as Ioseph saith Antiq. Iudaic. l. 20. c. 2. and De bell Iudaic. l. 7. c. 29. yea and Hieron Com. in 3. Tit. saith At this time the sect of the Galileans were on foot It is like the Jews were thought to be Galileans and that their liberty purchased in Christ could not consist with the order of master and servant King and subject And to remove this Paul establisheth Magistracie and commandeth obedience in the Lord and he is more to prove the office of the Magistrate to be of God then any other thing and to shew what is his due then to establish absolutenesse in Nero to be of God yea to me every word in the Text speaketh limitednesse of Princes and cryeth downe absolutenesse 1. No power of God 2. No ordinance of God 3. Who is a terror to evill but a praise to good works 4. No miniâ—ter of God for good c. can be a power to which we submit our selves on earth as next unto God without controlment 5. That passive obedience falleth formally under no commandement of God I prove thus All obedience lyable to a divine commandement doth commend morally the performer of obedience as having a will conformed to Gods morall Law and deformity betwixt the will of him who performeth not obedience involveth the non-obedient in wrath and guiltinesse But non-passive subjection to the sword of the Judge doth not morally commend him that suffâ—reth not punishmâ—nt for no man is formally a sinner against a morall law because he suffereth not the ill of puâ—ishment nor is he morally good or to be commended becâ—use hee suffereth ill of punishment but beâ—ause he doth the ill â—f sin And all evil of punishment uâ—justly inflicted hath Gods volunâ—as beneplaciti the instrumenâ—all and hidden dâ—cree oâ— God which orderâ—th both good and ill Ephes. 1.11 for its rule and cause and hath not Gods will of approbation called voluntas signi for its rule both is contrary to that will I am sure Epiphanius li. 1. tom 3. heres 40. Basilius in Psal. 32. Nazianzen Orat. ad subd imperat Hilar. li. ad Constant. August citeth these words and saith the same If then passive subjâ—ction be not commanded non subjâ—ction passive cannot be forbidden and this text Rom. 13. and 1 Pet. 2. cannot a whit help the bad cause of Royalists All then must be reduced to some action of resisting arguments for passive subjection though there were ship-fulls of them they cannot help us Assert 3. By the place 1 Pet. 2. The servant unjustly buffeted is not to buffet his master again but to bear patiently as Christ did who when he was reviled did not revile again Not because the place condemneth resistance for self-defence but because buffeting again is formally re-offending not defending defending is properly a warding of a blow or stroak if my neighbour come to kill me and I can by no means save my life by flight I may defend my self and all Divines say I may rather kill ere I be killed because I am nearer by the law of naturâ— and dearer to my self and my own life then to my brother but if I kill him out of malice or hatred the act of defending by the unlawfull manner of doing becometh an act of offending and murther whence the mind of the blood-shedder will vary the nature of the action from whence this corolarie doth naturally issue that the physicall action of taking away the life maketh not murther nor homicide and so the physical action of offending my neighbour is not murther Abraham may kill his son he for whom the cities of refuge were ordained and did kill his brother yet not hating him he was not by Gods law judged a murtherer And 2. It necessarily hence followeth that an act which is physically an act of offending my brother yea even to the taking away of his life is often morally and legally an act of lawfull self-defence an offending of another necessitated from the sole invention of self-defence is no more but an act of innocent self defence if David with his men had killed any of Sauls men in a set battel David and his men onely intending self defence the war â—n Davids part was meere defensive for physicall actions of killing indifferent of themselves yet impâ—rated by a principle of naturall self-defence and clothed with this formall end of self-defence or according to the substance of the action the act is of self-defence If therefore one shall wound me deadly and I know it is my death after that to kill the killer of my selfe I being onely a private man must be no act of self-defence but of homicide because it cannot be imperated by a sinlesse dictate of a naturall conscience for this end of self-defence after I know I am killed Any mean not used for preventing death must be an act of revenge not of self-defence for it is physically unsuâ—able for the intended end of self-defence And so for a servant buffeted to buffet againe is of the same nature the second buffet not being a conducible meane to ward the first buffet but a meane to procure heavier stroakes and possibly killing it cannot be an act of self defence for an act of self defence must be an act destinated ex natura rei onely for defence and if it be known to be an act of sole offending without any known necessary relation of a mean to self-defence as the end it cannot be properly an act of self-defence Assert 4. When the matter is lighter as in paying tribute or suffering a buffet of a rough master though unjustly we are not to use any act of re-offending For though I be not absolute Lord of my owne goods and so may not at my sole pleasure give tribute and expend monies to the hurting of my children where I am not by Gods Law or Mans Law obliged to pay tribute and though I be not an absolute Lord of my members to expose face and cheeks and back to stripes and whips at my owne meere will yet have we a comparative dominion given to us of God in matters of goods and disposing of our members I think I may except the case of mutilation which is a little death for buffets because Christ no doubt to teach us the like would rather give of his goods and pay tribute where it is not due then that this scandall lay on the way of Christ that Christ was no loyall subject to lawfull Emperors and Kings And 1 Cor. 9. Paul would rather not take stipend though it was
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 exact usury not toward their brethren to be But that God should make a permissive Law that Ieroboam might presse all Israel to sinne 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 immutaâ—le 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 reason God may make a Law though against nature that a King should kill and murther without all resistance Answ. The question is not if God may make permissive Laws to oppresse the innocent I grant he may doe it as he may command Abraham to kill his son Isaac and Abraham by Law is obliged to kill him except God retract his Commandement and whether God retract it or no he may intend to kill his son which is an act of love and obedience to God but this were more then a permissive Law 2. We have a cleere Scripture for a permissive Law of divorce and it was not a Law tending to the universall destruction of a whole Kingdome or many Kingdomes but onely to the grievance of some particular wives but the Law of divorce gave not power to all husbands to put away their wives but onely to the husband who could not command his affection to love his wife But this law of the King is a Catholique law to all Kings for Royalists will have all Kings so absolute as it is sin and disobedience to God to resist any that all Kings have a divine law to kill all their subjects surely then it were better for the Church to want such nurse-fathers as have absolute power to suck their blood and for such a perpetuall permissive Law continuing to the end of the world there is no word of God Nor can we think that the hardnesse of one Princes heart can be a ground for God to make a Law so destructive to his Church and all mankinde such a permissive Law being a positive Law of God must have a word of Christ for it else we are not to receive it 2. Arnisaeus cap. 4. distru Tyran princ n. 16. thinketh a Tyrant in excercito becomming a notorious Tyrant when there is no other remedy may be removed from government sine magno scelâ—re without great sin But I aske how men can annull any divine Law of God though but a permissive Law For if Gods permissive Law warrant a Tyrant to kill two innocent men it is tyranny more or lesse and the Law distinguisheth not 3. This permissive Law is expressely contray to Gods Law limiting all Kings Deut. 17.16 17 18. How then are we to beleeve that God would make an universall Law contray to the Law that he established before Israel had a King 4. What Brentius saith is much for us for he calleth this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Law a licence and so to use it must be licentiousnesse 5. Arnisaeus desireth that Kings may use sparingly the plenitude of their power for publique good there must be saith he necessity to make it lawfull to use the plenitude of this power justly therefore Ahab sinned in that he unjustly possessed Naboths vineyard though he sinned specially in this that he came to the possession by murther and it was peculiar to the Iewes that they could not transfer their possessions from one tribe to another But if it be so then this power of absolutenesse is not given by permissive Law by which God permitted putting away of wives for the object of a permissive Law is sinne but this plenitude of power may be justly put forth in act saith he if the publique good may be regarded I would know what publique good can legittimate Tyranny and killing of the innocent the intentions of men can make nothing intrinsecally evil to become good And 6. How can that be a permissive Law of God and not his approveing Law by which Kings create inferiour judges for this is done by Gods approving will 7. It is evident that Arnisaeus his minde is that Kings may take their subjects vineyards and their goods so they erre not in the manner and way of the act so be like if there had not been a peculiar Law that Naboth should not sell his vineyard and if the King had had any publique use for it he might have taken Naboths vineyard from him but he specially sinned saith he in eo maxime culpatur c. that he took away the mans vineyard by murthering of him therefore saith Arnisaeus c. 1. de potest maj in bona privato 2. that by the Kings Law 1 Sam. 8. There is given to the King a dominion over the peoples sons daughters fields vineyards olive-yards servants and flockes So he citeth that that Daniel putteth all places the Rocks of the Mountaines the birds of the heaven Dan. 2. under the Kings power So all is the Kings in dominion and the subjects in use onely But 1. This law of the King then can be no ground for the Kings absolutenesse above Law and there can be no permissive Law of God here for that which assertâ—th the Kings Royall Dominion over persons and things that must be the Law of Gods approving not his permiting evil but this is such a Law as Arnisaeus saith 2. The text speaketh of no Law or lawful power or of any absolutenesse of King Saul but
the Lords act of feeding is mediate by the mediation of second causes if he feed Moses 40. dayes without eating any thing the act of feeding is immediate If God made David King as he made him a Prophet I should thinke God immediatly made him King for God asked consent of no man of no people no not of David himselfe before he infused on him the Spirit of Prophecy but he made him formally King by the politicall and legall Covenant betwixt him and the people I shall not thinke that a Covenant and Oath of God is a Ceremony especially a Law-covenant or a politicall paction between David and the people the contents whereof behoved to be De materia gravi onerosa concerning a great part of obedience to the fifth Commandement of Gods Morall Law the duties Morall concerning Religion and Mercy and Justice to be performed reciprocally between King and people Oathes I hope are more then Ceremonies Quest. 12. Whether or no is not the Common-wealth ever a Pupill never growing to age as a minor under nonage doth come not to need a Tutor but the Common-wealth being still in need of a Tutor a Governour or King must alwaies be a Tutor and so the Kingdome can never come to that condition as to accuse the King it alwaies being minor Ans. 1. Then can they never accuse inferiour Iudges for a Kingdome is perpetually in such a nonage as it cannot want them when sometime it wanteth a King 2. Can the Common-wealth under Democracy and Aristocracy being perpetually under nonage ever then quarrell at these Governments and never seeke a King by this reason they cannot 3. The King in all respects is not a Tutor every comparison in something beareth a Leg for the Common-wealth in their owne persons doe choose a King 2. Complaine of a King 3. Resist an Vzziah 4. Tye their elective Prince to a Law a Pupill cannot choose his Tutor either his dying Father or the living Law doth that service for him he cannot resist his Tutor he cannot tye his Tutor to a Law nor limit him when first he chooseth him Pupillo non licet postulare Tutorem suspecti quamdiu sub tutela est manet impubes l. Pietatis 6. in fin C. de susp Tutor l. impuberem 7. § Impuberes Iust. eod Quest. 13. Whether or no are subjects more obnoxious to a King then Clients to Patrons and servants to Masters because the Patron cannot be the Clients Judge but some superiour Magistrate must judge both and the slave had no refuge against his Master but only flight And the King doth conferre infinite greater benefits on the subjects then the Master doth on the slave because he exposeth his life pleasure ease credit and all for the safety of his subjects Ans. It s denyed for to draw the case to Fathers and Lords in respect of Children and Vassals the reason why Sons Clients Vassals can neither formally judge nor judicially punish Fathers Patrons Lords and Masters though never so Tyrannous is a Morall impotency or a politicall incongruity because these relations of Patron and Client Fathers and Children are supposed to be in a Community in which are Rulers and Iudges above the Father and Sonne the Patron and the Client but there is no Physicall incongruity that the politique inferiour punish the superiour if we suppone there were no Iudges on the earth and no relation but Patron and Client and because for the father to destroy the children is a troubling of the harmony of Nature and the highest degree of violence therefore one violence of selfe defence and that most jâ—st though contrary to nature must be a remedy against another violence but in a Kingdome there is no politicall Ruler above both King and People and therefore though Nature have not formally appointed the politicall relation of a King rather then many Governours and subjects yet hath Nature appointed a Court and Tribunall of necessity in which the people may by innocent violence represse the unjust violence of an injuring Prince so as the people injured in the matter of selfe defence may be their owne Iudge 2. I wonder that any should teach That oppressed slaves had of old no refuge against the tyranny of Masters but only flight for 1. The Law expresly saith That they might not only fly but also change Masters which we all know was a great dammage to the Master to whom the servant was as good as mony in his purse 2. I have demonstrated before by the Law of Nature and out of divers learned Iurists that all inferiours may defend themselves by opposing violence against unjust violence to say nothing that unanswerably I have proved that the Kingdome is superiour to the King 3. It is true Qui plus dat plus obligat as the Scripture saith Luke 7. He that giveth a greater benefit layeth a foundation of a greater obligation But 1. If benefit be compared with benefit it is disputable if a King give a greater benefit then an earthly father to whom under God the sonne is debtor for life and being if we regard the compensation of eminency of honour and riches that the People puteth upon the King but I utterly deny that a power to act Tyrannous acts is any benefit or obligation that the People in reason can lay upon their Prince as a compensation or hire for his great paines he taketh in his Royall Watch-Tower I Iudge it no benefit but a great hurt dammage and an ill of nature both to King and people that the people should give to their Prince any power to destroy themselves and therefore that people doth reverence and honour the Prince most who lay strongest chaines and Iron fetters on him that he cannot tyrannize Quest. 14. But are not Subjects more subject to their Prince seeing the subjection is naturall as we see Bees and Cranes to obey him then servants to their Lord. C. in Apib. 7.9.1 ex Hiero. 4. ad Rustic Monarch Plin. n. 17. For Jurists teach that servitude is beside or against nature l. 5. de stat homi § 2. just jur pers c. 3. § sicut Nov. 89. quib med nat eff sui Ans. There is no question in active subjection to Princes and Fathers commanding in the Lord we shall grant as high a measure as you desire But the question is if either active subjection to ill and unjust mandates or passive subjection to penall inflictions of Tyrannie and abused power be naturall or most naturall or if Subjects doe renounce naturall subjection to their Prince when they oppose violence to unjust violence This is to beg the question And for the Commonwealth of Bees and Cranes and Crown and Scepter amongst them Give me leave to doubt of it To be subject to Kings is a Divine morall Law of God but not properly naturall to be subject to coaction of the Sword Government and subjection to Parents is naturall But that a King is juris
they give to the man who is their supream Governour that power and Authority which is the ground of awe and reverence A Servant naturally feareth his Master yet often he giveth his liberty and resigneth it up voluntarily to his Master and this was not unordinary amongst the Iewes where the servant did intirely love the Master and is most ordinary now when servants doe for hyre tye themselves to such a Master and Souldiers naturally feare their Commanders yet they may and often doe by voluntary consent make such men their Commanders and therefore from this it followeth no way that the Governour of a City the Teacher the Master the Commander in War have not their power and authority only and immediatly from God but from their inferiours who by their free consent appointed them for such places P. Prelate This seemeth or rather is an unanswerable Argument No man hath power of life and death but the Soveraign Power of life and death to wit God Gen. 9.5 God saith thrice he will require the blood of man at the hands of man and this power God hath committed to Gods Deputy who so sheddeth mans blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by man shall die by the King for the world knew not any kind of goverment at this time but Monarchiall and this Monarch was Noah and if this power be from God why not all soveraigne power seeing it is Homogeneous and as Iurists say in indivisibili posita a thing in its nature indivisible and that cannot be distracted or impaired and if every man had the power of life and death God should not be the God of Order The P. Prelate taketh the paines to prove out of the text that a Magistracy is established in the text Ans. 1. Let us consider this unanswerable Argument 1. It is grounded upon a lye and a conjecture never taught by any but himselfe to wit that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by or in or through man must signifie a Magistrate 2. and a King onely 3. This King was Noah never interpreter nay not common sence can say that no Magistrate is here understood but a King the consequence is vaine his blood shall be shed by man ergo by a Magistrate it followeth not ergo by a King it followeth not there was not a King in the world yet as some make Belus the father of Ninus the first King and the builder of Babylon this Ninus is thought the first builder of the City after called Ninivie and the first King of the Assyrians so saith Quintus Curtius and others but grave Authors beleeve that Nimrod was no other then Belus the father of Ninus so saith Augustin Hierome Eusebius Hieronym And Eusebius maketh him the first founder of Babylon So saith Clemens Pirerius and Iosephus saith the same 1. their times 2. their cruell natures are the same Calvin saith Noah yet lived while Nimrod lived and the Scripture saith Nimrod began to reigne and be powerfull on the Earth And Babel was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beginning of his kingdome No writer Moses nor any other can shew us a King before Nimrod So Eusebius Paul Orosius Hieronym Iosephus say that he was the first King And Tostatus Abulens and our own Calvin Luther Musculus on the place and Ainsworth make him the first King and the founder of Babylon How Noah was a King or there was any Monarchicall government in the world then the Prelate hath alone dreamed it There was but Familie-government before this 2. And if there bee a Magistracie heere established by God there is no warrant to say it is onely a Monarchie For if the Holy Ghost intendeth a policie it is a policie to be established to the worlds end and not to bee limited as the P. Prelate doth to Noahs dayes all Interpreters upon good ground establish the same policie that our Saviour speaketh of when he saith He shall perish by the sword who taketh the sword Matth. 26.52 So the Netherlands have no lawfull Magistrate who have power of life and death because their Government is Aristocraticall and they have no King So all acts of taking away the lives of ill-doers shall be acts of homicide in Holland how absurd 3. Nor doe I see how the place in the native scope doth establish a Magistracie Calvin saith not so Interpreters deduce by consequence the power of the Magistrate from this place But the Text is generall He who killeth man shall be killed by man either he shall fall into the Magistrates hand or into the hand of some Murtherer so Calvin Marlorat And he speaketh saith w Pirerius not of the fact and event it selfe but of the deserving of murtherers and it 's certaine all murtherers fall not into the Magistrates hands but he saith by Gods and mans laws Ergo They ought to dye though sometime one murtherer killeth another 4. The Soveraign power is given to the King ergo it is given to him immediately without the consent of the people It followeth not 5. Power of life and death is not given to the King only but also to other Magistrates yea and to a single private man in the just defence of his own life Other arguments are but what the Prelate hath said already QUEST VIII Whether the Prelate proveth by force of reason that the people cannot be capable of any power of Government P. Prelate God and nature giveth no power in vain and which may not be reduced into action but an active power or a power of actuall governing was never acted by the Communitie therefore this power cannot be seated in the Communitie as in the prime and proper subject and it cannot be in every individuall person of a Communitie because Government intrinsecally and essentially includeth a specified distinction of Governours and some to be governed and to speak properly there can no other power be conceived in the Communitie naturally and properly but only potestas passiva regiminis a capacitie or susceptabilitie to be governed by one or by moe just as the first matter desireth a forme This obligeth all by the dictate of Natures law to submit to actuall government and as it is in every individuall person it is not meerly and properly voluntary because howsoever nature dictates that government is necessary for the safety of the society yet every singular person by corruption and selfe-love hath a naturall aversenesse and repugnancie to submit to any every man would be a King himselfe This universall desire appetitus universalis aut naturalis or universall propension to Government is like the act of the understanding assenting to the first undeniable principles of truth and to the wills generall propension to happines in generall which propension is not a free act except our new Statists as they have changed their faith so they overturne true reason it will puzzle them infinitely
and by that same law of nature no man is borne King of men nor any man subject to man in a civill subjection by nature I speake not of naturall subjection of children to parents and therefore Ferdi. Vasquez illustr quest l. 2. c. 82. n. 6. said that Kingdomes and Empires were brought in not by Natures law but by the law of Nations he expoundeth himself elsewhere to speak of the law of nature secondary otherwise the primarie law of Nations is indeed the law of Nature as appropriated to man If any reply that the freedome naturall of beasts and birds who never sinned cannot be one with the naturall freedome of man who are now under sin and so under bondage for sin my answer is That the subjection of the miserie of man by nature because of sinne is more then the subjection of beasts comparing spece and kind of beasts and birds with mankind but comparing individuals of the same kinde amongst themselves a Lyon with Lyon Eagle with Eagle and so Man with Man in which respect because he who is supposed to be the man borne free from subjection politike even the King borne a King is under the same state of sin and so by reason of sinne of which he hath a share equally with all other men by nature he must be by nature borne under as great subjection penall for sinne except the King be borne voyd of sinne as other men Ergo he is not borne freer by nature then other men except he come out of the wombe with a Kings crown on his head 4. To be a King is a free gift of God which God bestoweth on some men above others as is evident 2 Sam. 12.7 8 Psal. 75.6 Dan. 4.32 and therefore all must be borne Kings if any one man be by nature a King borne and another a borne subject But if some be by Gods grace made Kings above others they are not so by nature for things which agree to man by nature agree to all men equally but all men equally are not borne Kings as is evident and all men are not equally borne by nature under politique subjection to Kings as the Adversaries grant because those who are by nature Kings cannot be also by nature subjects 5. If men be not by nature free fâ—om politique subjection then must some by the law of relation by nature be Kings But none are by nature Kings because none have by nature these things which essentially constitute Kings for they have neither by nature the calling of God nor gifts for the throne nor the free election of the people nor conquest and if there be none a King by nature there can be none a Subject by nature And the Law faith Omnes sumus naturâ liberi nullius ditioni subjecti l. Manumiss F. de just jur S. jus autem gentium Ins. de jur nat We are all by nature free and D. L. ex hoc jure cum simil 6. Politicians agree to this as an undeniable truth that as domestick society is naturall being grounded upon Natures instinct so Politique societie is voluntary being grounded on the consent of men and so politique societie is naturall in radice in the root and voluntary and free in modo in the manner of their union and the Scripture cleareth to us that a King is made by the free consent of the people Deut. 17.15 and so not by nature 7. What is from the wombe and so naturall is eternall and agreeth to all societies of men but a Monarchie agreeth not to all societies of men for many hundred years de facto there was not a King till Nimrods time the world being governed by families and till Moses his time we find no institution for Kings Gen. 7. and the numerous multiplication of mankind did occasion Monarchies otherwise Fatherly government being the first and measure of the rest must be the best for it is better that my father governe me then that a stranger governe me and therefore the Lord forbad his people to set a stranger over themselves to be their King The P. Prelate contendeth for the contrary Every man saith he is borne subject to his father of whom immediately he hath his existence in nature and if his Father be the subject of another he is borne the subject of his fathers superiour Answ. But the consequence is weake every man is borne under naturall subjection to his father ergo he is borne naturally under civill subjection to his fathers superiour or King it followeth not yea because his father was borne only by nature subject to his owne father ergo he was subject to a Prince or King only by accident and by the free constitution of men who freely choose politick government whereas there is no government naturall but fatherly or martiall and therefore the contradictory consequence is true P. Prelat Obj. 2. Every man by nature hath immunity and liberty from despoticall and herill Empire and so may dispose of his owne at will and cannot inslave himselfe without his owne free will but God hath laid a necessity on all men to be under government and nature also laid this necessity on him therefore this soveraignty cannot protect us in righteousnesse and honesty except it be intirely indowed with soveraigne power to preserve it selfe and protect us Ans. The Prelate here deserteth his owne consequence which iâ— strong against himselfe for if a man be naturally subject to his fathers superiour as he said before why is not the sonne of a slave naturally subiect to his fathers superiour master 2. As a man may not make away his liberty without his own consent so can he not without his owne consent give his liberty to be subject to penall Lawes under a Prince without his owne consent either in his fathers or in the representative society in which he liveth 3. God and nature hath laid a necessity on all men to be under government a naturall necessity from the wombe to be under some government to wit a paternall government that is true but under this government politique and namely under soveraignty it is false and that is but said for why is he naturally under soveraignty rather then Aristocracy I beleeve any of the three formes are freely chosen by any society 4. It is false that one cannot defend the people except he have intire power that is to say he cannot doe good except he have a vast power to doe both good and ill Obj. 3. It is accidentall to any to render himselfe a slave being occasioned by force or extreame indigence but to submit to Government congruous to the condition of man and is necessary for his happy being and naturall and necessary by the inviolable Ordinance of God and nature Ans. If the father be a slave it is naturall and not accidentall by the Prelates Logick to be a slave 2. it is also accidentall to be under Soveraignty and sure not naturall
King by vertue of his covenant How can he faile against an obligation where there is no obligation but as a King he owe no obligation of duty to the people and indeed so doe our good men expound that Psal. 51. Against thee thee only have I sinned not against Vriah for if he sinned not as King against Vriah whose life he was obliged to conserve as a King he was not obliged as a King by any royall duty to conserve his life Where there is no sin there is no obligation not to sin and where there is no obligation not to sin there is no sin By this the King as King is loosed from all duties of the second Table being once made a King he is above all obligation to love his neighbour as himselfe for he is above all his neighbours and above all mankind and only lesse then God 4. Arg. If the people be so given to the King that they are committed to him as a pledge oppignorated in his hand as a pupill to a Tutor as a distressed man to a Patron as a flocke to a Shepheard and so as they remaine the Lords Church his people his flocke his portion his inheritance his vineyard his redeemed ones then they cannot be given to the King as Oxen and Sheepe that are freely gifted to a man or as a gift or summe of gold or silver that the man to whom they are given may use so that he cannot commit a fault against the oxen sheepe gold or mony that is given to him how ever he shall dispose of them But the people are given to the King to be tutored and protected of him so as they remaine the people of God and in covenant with him and if the people were the goods of fortune as Heathens say he could no more sinne against the people then a man can sin against his gold now though a man by adoring gold or by lavish profusion and wasting of gold may sin against God yet not against gold nor can he be in any covenant with gold or under any obligation of either duty or sin to gold or to livelesse and reasonlesse creatures properly therefore he may sin in the use of them and yet not sin against them but against God Hence of necessity the King must be under obligation to the Lords people in another manner then that he should only answer to God for the losse of men as if men were worldly goods under his hand and as if being a King he were now by this Royall Authority priviledged from the best halfe of the law of nature to wit from acts of mercy and truth and covenant keeping with his brethren 5. Arg. If a King because a King were priviledged from all covenant obligation to his subjects then could no Law of men lawfully reach him for any contract violated by him then he could not be a debtor to his subjects if he borrowed mony from them and it were utterly unlawfull either to crave him mony or to sue him at Law for debts yet our Civill Lawes of Scotland tyeth the King to pay his debts as any other man yea and King Solomons traffiquing and buying and selling betwixt him and his owne subjects would seeme unlawfull for how can a King buy and sell with his subjects if he be under no covenant obligation to men but to God only Yea then a King could not marry a wife for he could not come under a covenant to keepe his body to her only nor if he committed adultery could he sin against his wife because being immediate unto God and above all obligation to men he could sin against no covenant made with men but only against God 6. If that was a lawfull covenant made by Asa and the States of Iudah 2 Chron. 15.13 That whosoever would not seeke the Lord God of their fathers should be put to death whether small or great whether man or woman this obligeth the King for ought I see and the Princes and the people but it was a lawfull covenant ergo the King is under a covenant to the Princes and Iudges as they are to him it is replyed If a Master of a Schoole should make a law whoever shall goe out at the Schoole doores without liberty obtained of the Master shall be whipped it will not oblige the Schoole-master that he shall be whipped if he goe out at the Schoole doores without liberty so neither doth this Law oblige the King the supreame Law-giver Ans. Suppose that the Schollars have no lesse hand and authority magisteriall in making the law then the Schoole-master as the Princes of Iudah had a collaterall power with King Asa about that law it would follow that the Schoole-master is under the same law 2. Suppose going out at Schoole doores were that way a morall neglect of studying in the Master as it is in the Scholars as the not seeking of God is as hainous a sinne in King Asa and no lesse deserving death then it is in the people then should the Law oblige Schoolmaster and Scholler both without exception 3. The Schoolemaster iâ— clearely above all lawes of discipline which he imposeth on his Scholars but none can say that King Asa was clearely above that law of seeking of the Lord God of his fathers Diodorus Siculus l. 17. saith the Kings of Persia were under an oath and that they might not change the Lawes and so were the Kings of Egypt and Ethiopia The Kings of Sparta which Aristotle calleth just Kings renew their oath every moneth Romulus so covenanted with the Senate and People Carolus V. Austriacus sweareth he shall not change the Lawes without the consent of the Electors nor make new lawes nor dispose or impledge any thing that belongeth to the Empire So read we Spec. Saxon. l. 3. Act. 54. and Xenophon Cyriped l. 8. saith there was a covenant between Cyrus and the Persians The nobles are crowned when they crown their King and exact a speciall Oath of the King So doth England Polonia Spaine Arragonia c. Alberi Gentilis Hug. Grotius prove that Kings are really bound to performe Oathes and contracts to their people but notwithstanding there be such a covenant it followeth not from this saith Arnisaeus that if the Prince breake his covenant and rule tyrannically the people shall be free and the contract or covenant nothing Ans. The covenant may be materially broken while the King remaineth King and the subjects remaine subjects but when it is both materially and formally declared by the States to be broken the people must be free from their Allegiance but of this more hereafter Arg. 7. If a Master bind himselfe by an Oath to his servant he shall not receive such a benefit of such a point of service if he violate the Oath his Oath must give his servant Law and right both to challenge his Master and he is freed from that point of service an Army appointeth such a one their Leader
all in one day to his sword were they obliged by this Oath to prayers and â—eares and only to suffer and was it against the Oath of God to defend themselves by Armes I beleeve the Oath did not oblige to such absolute subjection and though they had taken Armes in their owne lawfull defence according to the Law of Nature they had not broken the Oath of God The Oath was not a tye to an absolute subjection of all and every one either to worship Idols or then to sly or suffer death Now the Service-booke commanded in the Kings absolute authority all Scotland to commit grosser Idolatry in the intention of the work if not in the intention of the Commander then was in Babylon We read not that the King of Babylon pressed the consciences of Gods people to Idolatry or that all should either sly the Kingdome and leave their inheritances to Papists and Prelates or then come under the mercy of the sword of Papists and Atheists by sea or land 3. God may command against the Law of Nature and Gods Commandement maketh subjection lawfull so as men may not now being under the Law of God defend themselves What then Ergo we owe subjection to absolute Princes and their power must be a lawfull power it no waies is consequent Gods Commandement by Ieremiah made the subjection of Iudah lawfull and without that Commandement they might have taken Armes against the King of Babylon as they did against the Philistines and Gods Commandement maketh the Oath lawfull As suppone Ireland would all rise in Armes and come and destroy Scotland the King of Spain leading then we were by this Argument not to resist 4. It is denyed that the power Rom. 13. as absolute is Gods ordinance And I deny utterly that Christ and his Apostles did sweare non-resistence absolute to the Roman Emperour Obj. 2. It sesmeth 1 Pet. 2.18 19. if well doing be mistaken by the reason and judgement of an absolute Monarch for ill doing and we punished yet the Magistrates will is the command of a reasonable will and so to be submitted unto because such a one suffereth by Law where the Monarches Will is a Law and in this case some power must judge Now in an absolute Monarchy all judgement resolveth in the Will of the Monarch as the supreame Law and if Ancestors have submitted themselves by Oath there is no repeale or redresment Ans. Who ever was the Author of this Treatise he is a bad defender of the defensive warres in England for all the lawfulnesse of warres then must depend on this 1. Whether England be a conquered Nation at the beginning 2. If the Law-will of an absolute Monarch or a Nero be a reasonable Will to which we must submit in suffering ill I see not but we must submit to a reasonable will if it be reasonable will in doing ill no lesse then in suffering ill 3. Absolute Will in absolute Monarches is no Iudge De jure but an unlawfull and a usurping Iudge 4. 1 Pet. 2.18 19. Servants are not commanded simply to suffer I can prove suffering formally not to fall under any Law of God but only patient suffering I except Christ who was under a peculiar commandement to suffer But servants upon supposition that they are servants and buffeted unjustly by their Masters are by the Apostle Peter commanded v. 20. to suffer patiently But it doth not bind up a servants hand to defend his owne life with weapons if his Master invade him without cause to kill him otherwise if God call him to suffer he is to suffer in the manner and way as Christ did not reviling not 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 Magistracy 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 Rebells 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
suffer of wicked men falleth under no Commandement of God except in our Saviour A Passion as such is not formally commanded I meane a Physicall Passion such as to be killed God hath not said to me in any Morall Law Be thou killed tortured beheaded but only be thou patient if God deliver thee to wicked mens hands to suffer these things 3. There is not a stricter Obligation Morall betwixt King and people then betwixt Parents and Children Master and servant Patron and Clients Husband and Wife the Lord and the Vassell between the Pilot of a Ship and the Passengers the Physitian and the sick the Doctor and the schollars but the Law granteth l. Minime 35. De Relig. sumpt funer If these betray their trust committed to them they may be resisted if the father turne distracted and arise to kill his sonnes his sonnes may violently apprehend him and bind his hands and spoile him of his Weapons for in that he is not a father Vasquez Lib. 1. Illustr question c. 8. n. 18. Si dominus subditum enormiter atrociter oneraret princeps superior vassallum posset ex toto eâ—imere a sua jurisdictione etiam tacente subdito nihil petente Quid papa in suis decis Parliam grat decis 62. si quis Baro. abutentes dominio privari possunt The servant may resist the Master if he attempt unjustly to kill him so may the Wife doe to the Husband if the Pilot should wilfully run the ship on a Rock to destroy himselfe and his Passengers they might violently thrust him from the Helme Every Tyrant is a furious man and is morally distracted as Althusius saith Politi c. 28. n. 30. seq 4. That which is given as a blessing and a favour and a Scrine betweene the peoples liberty and their bondage cannot be given of God as a bondage and slavery to the people But the power of a King is given as a blessing and favour of God to defend the poore and needy to preserve both Tables of the Law and to keepe the people in their liberties from oppressing and treading one upon another But so it is that if such a power be given of God to a King by which Actu primo he is invested of God to doe acts of Tyranny and so to doe them that to resist him in the most innocent way which is selfe defence must be a resisting of God and Rebellion against the King his Deputy then hath God given a Royall power as incontrollable by mortall men by any violence as if God himselfe were immediatly and personally resisted when the King is resisted and so this power shall be a power to wast and destroy irresistably and so in it selfe a plague and a curse for it cannot be ordained both according to the intention and genuine formall effect and intrinsecall operation of the power to preserve the Tables of the Law Religion and Liberty Subjects and Lawes and also to destroy the same but it is taught by Royalists that this power is for Tyranny as well as for peaceable Government because to resist this Royall Power put forth in Acts either waies either in acts of Tyranny or just Government 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 provâ— 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
when Nero commandeth unjust punishment because Nero commanding so remaineth Gods Minister Why But when Nero commandeth me to worship an Heathen God I am upon the same ground to obey that unjust will in doing ill For Nero in commanding Idolatry remaineth the Lords Minister his person is sacred in the one commandment of doing ill as in inflicting ill of punishment And do I not resist his person in the one as in the other His power and his person are unseparably conjoyned by God in the one as in the other 2. In bodily thrusting out of Vzzah from the Temple these fourscore valiant men did resist the Kings person by bodily violence as well as his power 3. If the power of killing the Martyrs in Nero was no power ordained of God then the resisting of Nero in his taking away the lives of the Martyrs was but the resisting of Tyranny And certainly if that power in Nero was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a power ordained of God and not to be resisted as the place Rom. 13. is alleaged by Royalists then it must be a lawfull power and no Tyranny and if it cannot be resisted because it was a power ordained and settled in him it is either setled by God and so not Tyranny except God be the Author of Tyranny or then settled by the devill and so may well be resisted but the Text speaketh of no power but of that which is of God 4. We are not to be subject to all powers in concreto by the Text for we are not to be subject to powers lawfull yet commanding active obedience to things unlawfull Now subjection includeth active obedience of honour love fear paying tribute and therefore of need force some powers must be excepted 5. Pilates power is meerly a power by divine permission not a power ordained of God as are the powers spoken of Rom. 13. Gregori mor. l. 3. c. 11. expresly saith This was Satans power given to Pilate against Christ. Manibus Satanae pro nostra redemptione se traddit Lyra. A Principibus Romanorum ulterius permissum a Deo qui est potestas superior Calvin Bâ—za Diodâ—tus saith the same and that he cannot mean of Legall power from Gods regulating will is evident 1. Because Christ is answering Pilate John 19.10 Knowest thou not that I have power to crucifie thee This was an untruth Pilate had a command to worship him and beleeve in him and whereas Ferne saith Sect. 9. pag. 59. Pilate had power to judge any accused before him It is true but he being obliged to beleeve in Christ he was obliged to be perswaded of Christs innocency and so neither to judge nor receive accusation against him and the power he saith he had to crucifie was a Law-power in Pilates meaning but not in very deed any Law-power because a Law-power is from Gods regulating will in the fifth Commandment but no creature hath a lawfull or a Law-power to crucifie Christ. 2. A Law-power is for good Rom. 13.4 A power to crucifie Christ is for ill 3. A Law-power is a terrour to ill works and a praise to good Pilates power to crucifie Christ was the contrary 4. A Law-power is to execute wrath on ill-doing a power to crucifie Christ is no such 5. A Law-power conciliateth honour fear and veneration to the person of the Judge a power to crucifie Christ conciliateth no such thing but a disgrace to Pilate 6. The Genuine Acts of a lawfull power are lawfull Acts for such as is the Fountain-power such are the Acts flowing therefrom good Acts slow not from bad powers neither hath God given a power to sin except by way of permission QUEST XXX Whether or no Passive Obedience be a meane to which we are subjected in conscience by vertue of a Divine Commandement and what a meane Resistance is That Flying is Resistance MUch is built to commend patient suffâ—ring of ill and conâ—emne all râ—sistance of Superiors by Royalists on the place 1 Pet. 2.18 Where we are commanded being servants to suffer buffets not onely for ill doing of good masters but also undeservedly and when we doâ— well we aâ—e to suffer of these masters that are eviâ—l and so much more are we patiently without Resistance to suffer of Kings Bâ—t it is cleare the place is nothing against Resistance as in these Assertions I cleare Assertion 1. Patiâ—nt suffâ—ring of wicked men and violent resisting are not incompatible but they may well stand together So this consequence is the basis of the argument and it is just nothing To wit Servants are to suffâ—r uâ—jâ—stly wounds and â—uâ—â—â—ting of their wicked Masters and they aâ—e to bear iâ— patiently Ergo Servants are in conscience obliged to non-resistance Now Scripture maketh this clâ—ar The Church of God is to bear with all patience the 〈◊〉 of the Lord because she hath sinned and to suffer of wicked enemies which were to be troden as mire in the streets Micah 7.9 10 11 12. but withall they were not obliged to non-resistance and not to fight against these enemies yea they were obliged to fight against them also If these were Babilon Iudah might have resisted and fought if God had not givâ—n a speciall commandement of a positive law that they should not fight if these were the Assyrians and other enemies or rather both the people were to resist by fighting and yet to endure patiently the indignation of the Lord. David did bear most patiently the wrong that his own son Absolon and Achitophel and the people inflicted on him in pursuing him to take his life and the kingdom from him as is cleare by his gracious expressions 2 Sam. 15.25 26. chap. 16. ver 10 11 12. Psal. 3.1 2 3. Yea he prayeth for a blessing on the people that conspired against him Psal. 3.8 Yet did he lawfully resist Absalom and the conspiratours and sent out Ioab and a huge army in open battel against them 2. Sam. 18.1 2 3 4 c. and fought against them And were not the people of God patient to endure the violence done to them in the wildernes by Og king of Bashan Sihon king of Heshbon by the Ammorites Moabites c I think Gods law tyeth all men especially his people to as patient a suffering in wars Deut. 8.16 God then trying and humbling his people as the servant is to endure patiently unjustly inflicted buffets 1 Pet. 2.18 And yet Gods people at Gods command did resist these Kings and people and did fight and kill them and possesse their land as the history is cleare See the like Iosh. 11. ver 18 19. 2. One act of grace and vertue is not contrary to another Resistance is in the Children of God an innocent act of self-preservation as is patient suffering and therefore they may well subsist in one And so saith Amasa by the spirit of the Lord. 1 Chro. 12.18 Peace peace be unto thee and peace to thy helpers for God helpeth thee Now David in that and all
his helpâ—rs were resisters of King Saul 3. The scope of the place 1 Pet. 2. is not to forbid all violent resisting as is clear he speaketh nothing of violent resisting either one way or other but onely he forbiddeth revengefull resisting of repaying one wrong with another from the example of Christ who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not Tâ—erefore the argument is a falacy ab â—o quod docitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad illud quod dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though therefore the master should attempt to kill an innocent servant and invade him with a weapon of 〈◊〉 1. Suddenly 2. Without all reason or cause 3. Vnavoidably Doctor Ferne in that case doth free a Subject from guiltynesse if he violently resist his Prince Ergo the servant who should violently resist his Master in the aforesaid case should and might patiently suffer and violently resist notwithstanding any thing that Royalists can conclude on the contrary 4. No Prince hath a Masterly or herile dominion over his subjects but onely a free ingenious paternall and tutorly over-sight for the good of the people Rom. 13.4 The Master especially in the Apostle Peters time had a dominion over servants as over their proper goods 2. Assertion Neither suffering formally as suffering and so neithâ—r can non-resisting passive fall under any morall law of God except in two conditions 1. In the point of Christs passive obedience he being the eternall God as well as Man and so Lord of his owne blood and life by vertue of a speciall commandement imposed on him by his Father was commanded to lay downe his life yea and to be an Agent as well as a Patient in dying Ioh. 10.18 Yea and actively he was to contribute somthing for his own death and â—ffer himself willingly to death Mat. 28.20 And knowing the houre that he was to depart out of this world unto the Father Iohn 13.1 would not onely not flee which is to Royalists lawfull to us a speciall point of resistance Ioh. 14.31 Ioh. 18.4 5 6 7. and but upbraided Peter as the Agent of Sathan who would disswade him to die Mat. 16.22 23. and would fight for him And he doth not fetch any argument against Peters drawing of his sword from the unlawfulnesse of self-defence and innocent resistance which he should have done if Royalists plead with any colour of reason from his example against the lawfulnesse of Resistance and self-defence but from the absolute power of God 2. From Gods positive wil wâ—o commanded him to die Mat. 26.53 54. if therefore Royalists pâ—ove any thing against the lawfulnesse of resisting Kings when they offer most unjustly violence to the life of Gods servants from thiâ— one meerly extraordinary and rare example of Christ the like whâ—reof was never in the world they may from the same example prove it unlawfull to flee for Christ would not flee Psal. 40.6 7. Heb. 10.6.7 8 9. Ioh. 14.31 Ioh. 18.4 5 6 7. 2. They may prove that people sought by a Tyrant to be crucifyed for the Cause of God or to reveale and discover themselves to an Armie of men who come to seek them Ioh. 13.1 2. Ioh. 18.4 5 6 7. 3. That Martyrs are of purpose to goe to the place where they know they shall be apprehended and put to death for this Christ did and are willingly to offer themselves to the enemies Armie for so did Christ Ioh. 14.3 Mar. 14.41 42. Mat. 26.46 47. and so by his example all the Parliament all the Innocents of the Citie of London and Assemblie of Divines are obliged to lay downe Armes and to goe to their owne death to Prince Rupert and the bloody Irish Rebels 4. By this example it is unlawfull to resist the cut-throats of a King for Cesar in his owne Royall person the High Priest in person came not out against Christ. Yea it is not lawfull for the Parliament to resist a Iudas who hath â—led as a traiterous Apostate from the Truth and the Temple of Christ. 5. It is not lawful for innocents to defend themselves by any violence against the invasion of superiours in D. Fernes three cases in which he alloweth resistance 1. When the Invasion is sudden 2. Vnavoidable 3. Without all colour of Law and Reason In the two last cases Royalists defend the lawfulnes of self-defence 6. If the example be pressed Christ did not this and this he resisted not with violence to save his owne life therefore we are to abstaine from resistance and such and such meanes of self-preservation then because Christ appealed not from inferiour Judges to the Emperour Caesar who no doubt would have shewne him more favour then the Scribes and Pharisees did and because Christ conveyed not a humble supplication to his Soveraigne and Father Caesar then because he proffered not a humble petition to Prince Pilate for his life he being an innocent man and his cause just because he neither conduced an Orator to pleade his owne just cause nor did he so plead for himselfe and give in word and writ all lawfull and possible defences for his own safety but answered many things with silence to the admiration of the Judge Marke 15.3 4 5. and was thrice pronounced by the Judge to be innocent Luke 22. ver 23. because I say Christ did not all these for his owne life therefore it is unlawfull for Scotland and England to appeale to the King to supplicate to give in Appolâ—gâ—â—s c. I thinke Royalists dare not say so But if they say he would not resist and yet might have done all these lawfully because these be lawfull meanes and resistance with the sword unlawfull becâ—use He that taketh the sword shall perish by the sword Let me Answer then 1. They leave the argument from Christs example who was thus farre subject to higher powers that he would not râ—sist and plead from the unlawfulnesse of resistance this is petitio principii 2. He that taketh the sword without Gods warrant which Peter had not but the contrary he was himselfe a Sathan to Christ who would but councell him not to die but there is no shadow of a word to prove that violent resisting is unlawfull when the King and his Iâ—ish cut-throats pursue us unjustly onely Christ saith when God may deliver extraordinarily by his Angels except it be his absolute will that his Son should drink the cup of death then to take the sword when God hath declared his will on the contrary is unlawfull and that is all Though I doe not question but Christs asking for swords and his arresting all his enemies to the ground Ioh. 18.6 backward is a justifying of selfe-defence But hitherto it is cleare by Christs example that he onely was commanded to suffer Now the second case in which suffering falleth under a Commandement is indirectly and comparatively when it commeth to the election of the witnesse of Jesus that it
God and the people is only the instrumentall cause and Spalato saith that the people doth indirectly only give Kingly power because God at their act of election ordinarily giveth it Ans. The Scripture saith plainly as we heard before the people made Kings and if they doe as other second causes produce their effects it is all one that God as the principall cause maketh Kings else we should not argue from the cause to the effect amongst the creatures 2. God by that same action that the people createth a King doth also by them as by his instruments create a King and that God doth not immediatly at the naked presence of the act of popular election conferre Royall dignity on the man without any action of the people as they say by the Churches act of conferring Orders God doth immediatly without any act of the Church infuse from Heaven supernaturall habilities on the man without any active influence of the Church is evident by this 1. The Royall power to make Lawes with the King and so a power eminent in their states representative to governe themselves is in the people for if the most high act of Royalty be in them why not the power also and so what need to fetch a Royall power from Heaven to be immediatly infused in him seeing the people hath such a power in themselves at hand 2. The people can and doth limite and bind Royall power in elected Kings ergo they have in them Royall power to give to the King those who limit power can take away so many degrees of Royall power and those who can take away power can give power and it is unconceiveable to say that people can put restraint upon a power immediatly comming from God if Christ immediatly infuse an Apostolick spirit in Paul mortall men cannot take from him any degrees of that infused spirit if Christ infuse a spirit of nine degrees the Church cannot limit it to six degrees only but Royalists consent that the people may choose a King upon such conditions to raigne as he hath Royall power of ten degrees whereas his Ancester had by birth a power of foureteen degrees 3. It is not intelligible that the Holy Ghost should give Commandement to the people to make such a man King Deut. 17.15 16. and forbid them to make such a man King if the people had no active influence in making a King at all but God solely and immediately from Heaven did infuse Royalty in the King without any action of the people save a naked consent only and that after God had made the King they should approve only with an after-act of naked approbation 4. If the people by other Governours as by heads of families and other choise men governe themselves and produce these same formall effects of Peace Justice Religion on themselves which the King doth produce then is there a power of the same kind and as excellent as the Royall power in the people and no reason but this power should be holden to come immediatly from God as the Royall Power for it is every way of the same nature and kind and as I shall prove Kings and Iudges differ not in nature and spece but it is experienced that people doe by Aristocraticall guides governe themselves c. so then if God immediatly infuse Royalty when the people chooseth a King without any action of the people then must God immediatly infuse a beame of governing on a Provost and a Bailiffe when the people choose such and that without any action of the people because all Powers are in abstracto from God Rom. 13.2 and God as immediatly maketh inferiour Iudges as superiour Prov. 8.16 and all promotion even to be a Provost or Major commeth from God only as to be a King except Royalists say all promotion commeth from the East and from the West and not from God except promotion to the Royall Throne the contrary whereof is said Ps. 75.6 7. 1 Sam. 2.7 8. not only Kings but all Judges are Gods Ps. 82.1 2. and therefore all must be the same way created and moulded of God except by Scripture Royalists can shew us a difference An English Prelate giveth Reasons why People who are said to make Kings as efficients and Authors cannot unmake them the one is because God as chief and sole supreame Moderator maketh Kings but I say Christ as the chiefe Moderator and head of the Church doth immediatly conferre abilities to a man to be a Preacher and though by industry the man acquire abilities yet in regard the Church doth not so much as instrumentally conferre those abilities they may be said to come from God immediatly in relation to the Church who calleth the man to the ministery yea Royalists as our excommunicated Prelate learned from Spalato say that God at the naked presence of the Churches call doth immediatly infuse that from Heaven by which the man is now in Holy Orders and a Pastor whereas he was not so before and yet Prelates cannot deny but they can unmake Ministers and have practised this in their unhallowed Courts and therefore though God immediatly without any action of the people make Kings this is a weake reason to prove they cannot unmake them As for their undeleble character that Prelates cannot take from a Minister it is nothing if the Church may unmake a Minister though his character goe to prison with him we seeke no more but to anull the reason God immediatly maketh Kings and Pastors ergo no power on earth can unmake them this consequence is as weake as water 2. The other cause is because God hath erected no Tribunall on earth higher then the Kings Tribunall ergo no power on earth can unmake a King the Antecedent and consequence is both denyed and is a begging of the question for the Tribunall that made the King is above the King 2. Though there be no Tribunall formally regall and Kingly above the King yet is there a Tribunall vertuall eminently above him in the case of tyranny for the States and Princes have a Tribunall above him 3. To this the constituent cause is of more power and dignity then the effect and so the people is above the King The P. Prelate borrowed an answer from Arnisaeus and Barclay and other Royalists and saith If we knew any thing in Law or were ruled by reason Every constituent saith Arnisaeus and Barclay more accurately then the P. Prelate had a head to transcribe their words where the constituent hath resigned all his power in the hand of the Prince whom hâ— constitutes is of more worth and power then he in whose hand they resigne the power so the proposition is false The servant who hath constituted his Master Lord of his liberty is not worthier then his Master whom he hath made his Lord and to whom he hath given himselfe aâ— a slave for after he hath resigned his liberty he cannot repent he