to own the People for his Brethren 1 King 12.24 You call your selves Christian Kings and Defenders of the Faith but like the Princes of the Gentiles you exercise Lordship over the People and against their Liberties Yea herein you are worse than Gentile Princes for they lorded it over Men but you lord it over Saints the true Nobles of the King of Heaven Acts 17.11 Isa 43.4 You say you are the Chief know then you are the Peoples Servants Matth. 20.27 How dare you force the free-born People of this Land to swear that you are their Lords when the Word of God sayes expresly you are their Servants How much better would it become you to be humble and respective to the People and acknowledge them for your good and favourable Lords as that great Emperour did than to be so haughty as you are as if the People were your slaves when in the mean while you live upon the Wages they give you and are Stipendiaries unto them A Servant honoureth his Master you are the Peoples Servants and ought to honour them You are not ignorant I suppose of that custom of the Roman Emperours to reverence and adore the People How little do you mind your duty to the People what is the service you do them for the wages you receive unless it be to make them slaves to your lusts Let humble David be your pattern who said unto the People That which seems best unto you will I do 2. A Word to subordinate Magistrates and Officers Are Kings themselves the Peoples Servants and must you be Lords What insolent and absurd behaviour have I seen at the Courts of Publick Judicature from Judges Justices yea inferiour Clerks themselves what malepert and saucy language will they give to men whose cloaks they are scarce worthy to carry Sirrah Knave and the like to those whose servants they are and whom they ought to honour But alas what is this to deeds what are you for the greatest part but very Caterpillars and devourers of the Land Is this your service to the People to eat them up as one would eat bread and make a prey of your Masters And you Constables and other Officers who hale men up and down to Prisons for conscience sake because they do what God commands them that beat wound yea kill men who are peaceably assembled to seek the Lord and build up one anothers souls Is this your faithful service to God and the People you were appointed by the Lord to serve the People for their good is this the good you do them But you will say We are commanded by the King and we must do it I answer Whether better to obey God or man judge ye The King commands you and what is his Command to stand against God's God hath said That which is altogether Just shalt thou do Deut. 16.20 And will you do that which is unjust because the King commands you it shews you fear him more than God The King is the People Servants as well as you and will you abuse your Brethren because their Servant bids you Pharaoh commanded the Midwives to kill the male Children Exod. 1.16 but the Midwives feared God and did not as the King of Egypt commanded them ver 17. If you had the fear of God that would teach you not to hale men to Prison where they are kept till they are stisled to death because a wicked King commands you Saul bid his Foot-men kill the Priests but the Foot-men would not put forth their hand to fall upon them 1 Sam. 22.17 You that are Constables and other Officers are you not ashamed to be more base and slavish than Saul's Foot-men Well know assuredly that the righteous Judge will call you to an account for the injury you have done in this kind and perhaps the People too before you are either willing or aware 3. A Word to the People Are Magistrates your servants then learn to be wise and know your Priviledges for time to come and be not frighted out of your Right and Reason at once by those Traitors and Rebels who would make you believe that it is Treason and Rebellion to call them to account for the Treason and Rebellion they are guilty of The People of Israel were wiser than to be frighted out of their Birth-rights by Rehoboams great words And Oh that my Countrymen would understand their Liberty and Duty in this case and not idolize those who are indeed their Servants Be not so foolish as to court your Servants while they make you slaves and put a yoke of iron on your neck For Magistrates who are made and maintained by us to protect us to oppress enslave and murder us is the highest Treason and Rebellion against God and us as all wise men know For our Servants who are sworn to defend us and seek our good thus wickedly to tyrannize over us is most superlative Treason and transcendent Rebellion Oh what a slavish spirit is there upon England at this day that we should suffer our enemies to domineer over us and give them such excessive wages for keeping us in slavery No wonder if this Land become a Chaos when things are turned up-side down Servants become our Masters This is the cause why Tyranny hath so much prevailed both in Church and State the People are not careful to preserve that Power God and Nature hath given them but suffer Magistrates and Ministers which by the Word of God are their Servants to encroach upon their Rights till at last they come to be their Lords This midwiv'd Lord Bishops into the world The Churches grew negligent and suffered the Ministers to take their Power from them and when once they had let it go they could not recover it again And is it not the very same in Politick affairs when People are so void of reason as to give their own Power into the Magistrate's hands or let him encroach upon their Liberties can they expect any other but that he will be their Lord and they shall be his Vassals But that I may close up this Particular understand Parliaments are the Peoples servants we send them up as our Trustees to make Laws for our good if they make Laws for our hurt to oppress and injure us they are faithless and treacherous servants and ought to be dealt with accordingly The King Judges Justices Mayors Constables and all other Magistrates or Officers are our servants to protect us and secure us from Violence and Oppression if they break their Trust and oppress us the Law of God and Nature allows us to call our servants to account punish them according to their deserts and turn them out of our service CHAP. VI. Treating of some general Duties which Magistrates are obliged to 1. To Answer the End of Government 2. Keep and fill up their Relation 3. Observe the Law of God themselves 4. Exercise Justice 5. and protect the Land THe Duty of Magistrates falls next under consideration and
is one and the same they are both Servants to the People though in a different kind of Service Object But are not Magistrates called Gods How then can they be the Peoples Servants Sol. That is a Metaphorical Expression spoken not by way of Property but Resemblance we know Magistrates are not properly gods it were blasphemy to say so the names or attributes of God cannot without blasphemy be given to them it were blasphemy to call a King Jehovah or Lord God or the like or to give him any of God's Properties Omnipotent All-wise All-sufficient Eternal or the like they are called Gods because true Magistrates do in some higher Measure than private persons resemble the Wisdom Power and Justice of God which is the utmost can be proved from that Title this doth no way contradict their proper Title of Servants to the People For when a Magistrate is a terror to evil works and a praise to good Rom. 13.3 he is a Servant to the People for good ver 4. and in this service of his he represents the justice of God who rewards every man according to his works We must beware of straining Metaphors the proper title of the Magistrate which describes his relation is a Servant Of God To the People The Metaphorical Title of God describes his Virtues and Duties the Wisdom Faithfulness and Justice which a true Magistrate is indued with and rules in and the proper and metaphorical Titles are not repugnant to each other but this observe by the way that he that is destitute of those Virtues or neglecteth those Duties wherein a true Magistrate resembleth God may be more justly called a Devil than a God because he resembleth the Devil more than God If it be said that an unrighteous Magistrate by reason of his great power and external glory resembleth God I answer It is false for God hath no unrighteous or oppressive power neither hath given any such to Magistrates and therefore there is no resemblance between the power of a Tyrant or Oppressor and the Power of the Most Just and Righteous Jehovah The same I say of his external Glory for the Glory of God is in his Wisdom Justice Faithfulness and other attributes and the Works of Goodness Mercy and Righteousness which he doth which the outward powers and splendor of an unrighteous Magistrate doth no way resemble but it doth most aptly resemble the power and glory of the Devil whose Servant he is and whose works he doth Object But if the King be the Peoples Servant why is it that we read so often in Scripture that the People were used to salute the King with this Title My Lord the King and say they were his Servants Sol. Those are expressions of courtesie and respect commonly used not only to the King but private persons yea sometimes our inferiors Rebecka calls Abrahams Servant My Lord Gen. 24.18 Jacob calls his Brother Esau My Lord eight times in two Chapters Gen. 32. and 33. Obadiah calls Elijah My Lord 1 Kings 18.7 13. The very same Title that is usually given to the King and the same word in the Hebrew in all these places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the Levite in a way of courtesie sayes to the old man that came from his work out of the field Thy Servant Judg. 19.19 It is used so Gen. 42.10 2 Kings 1.13 and Chap. 2.6 And so it is to be understood when we read the People call the King My Lord and say they are his Servants it is an expression of courtesie not that they are in a strict and proper sence and in point of duty his Servants or the King their Lord for it is nothing so Thus we read 1 Kings 12.4 the People come and tender their Service to Rehoboam upon condition that he would ease them of their burdens they came with respectful courteous language unto him and thought to win him thereby but when he refused to perform his duty to them they make him know that in a strict and proper sence they were his Masters and could punish him for his faults and did deprive him of his Crown ver 16. And so the Parliaments of England and often the People without the Parliament have in their Addresses to the King given him the Title of Lord in a way of honour and respect but when he hath refused to perform his duty to them and endeavoured by his unlawful Prerogative to abridge them of their Liberties they have made him understand his Relation and by force of Arms asserted their own Priviledges and sometimes compelled the King to perform his duty other times deposed him from the Government as the People of Israel did Rehoboam upon the same account and so have most if not all the Nations in the World done the same How common a thing is it in our ordinary Salutations to say we are such a ones Servant in a general and respective sence and in point of courtesie whose Servant we are not in a strict sence and point of duty Object But why may not Princes be Lords over the People as well as Masters Lords over their Servants for the word translated Master Ephes 6.5 Col. 3.22 signifies Lord Sol. 1. Because the Servant is inferiour to his Master and by his place obliged to serve his Master but here it is the contrary for the Magistrate is inferiour to the Commonwealth because he is made by and for them and his Office as I have shewed before is to be a Servant to the People Now a man cannot be in one and the same respect Lord and Servant 2. The Master pays the Servant his wages so doth not the Magistrate the People but the People pay him his wages So that this Objection is justly retorted upon those that urge it and in stead of proving the Magistrate to be the Lord and the People to be Servants proves the contrary that the Magistrate is the Servant and the People Masters Which not only the Philosophers and wise sort of the Heathens understood but many of the greatest Emperors in the World have confessed Augustus Caesar one that had the Empire of the world of whom we read Lu 〈…〉 1. would not suffer the People to call him Lord. Tiberius Caesar who succeeded him in the Empire of whom we read Luk. 3.1 forbid any man to call him Lord and took it as a reproach cast upon him for any one to call him so And in an Oration he made to the People he useth these words I have often do still afirm that a good and virtuous Prince whom you have entrusted with so great and large authority ought to serve the Senate and all the Citizens often and many times particular Persons neither do I repent of what I have said And I have acknowledged you for my very good and favourable Lords and do still acknowledge the same Thus you see the greatest Emperors of the world confessing themselves to be the Peoples Servants and the People their Lords or
because this Theam is so large that I cannot have room in this Discourse for all the particular Duties of Magistrates either Supream or Subordinate I shall only mention some general Duties under which many particular are comprehended 1. Then Magistrates ought to make it their great design both in their undertaking and exercising their Authority to answer the ends of Goverment and to prosecute those ends in the whole series of their transactions They should consider the greatness of the work they take in hand the strictness of the account they must one day give and examine well their own hearts whether they mean in undertaking what God did in instituting Goverment whether Gods ends be their ends whether they take the charge upon them for the glory of God and good of the People or for base ends of worldly honour and greatness Alas how few Magistrates are there whose hearts will not condemn them in this if they should but dare to put the question to them Where is the Governor to be found who doth not make his private interest his cheifest end that doth not take more care to honour himself and his posterity than God that doth not seek the Peoples goods more then their good as if the People had been made for them not they for the People This is the mark that Magistrates should level at in all their consultations How may I advance the Honour of God and promote the Peoples good like Titus Vespasian of whom it is recorded that he counted that day lost in which he had done no good 2. Magistrates must eye their relation and behave themselves in all respects conformable thereto 1. They must fill up their Relation You are Servants of God he hath entrusted you with Talents look you imploy them to your Masters use You are Servants to the People they have given you power to employ it in their Service they also pay you your wages Then serve the People not your selves O how many Rulers are thâ—re that instead of serving God and the People with their Power serve the Devil and their Lusts instead of serving the People serve themselves of the People You are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your service should be like those that travel in the dust that labour and take pains You are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Publique Servants or Workmen you are not to consume your time and treasures in idleness but painfulness You give the Lion the Unicorn and Beasts of prey for your Arms as if your Office did allow you to prey upon the People as you do it were far more sutable to your relation to give the Labouring Ox thereby to signifie that you know your place and mean to discharge the trust reposed in you by taking pains for the People You are called Repairers of Breaches which will not be done without diligence Magistrates are by their Office Nursing Fathers then learn of Moses to carry the People in your bosome as a nursing father doth the sucking child Numb 11.12 and shew your readiness to serve all particular persons as often as you can that they may have occasion to say you are the servants of God to them for good Rom. 13.4 Remember that which is reported of Titus Vespasian who is said never to have sent away any person sad from his presence 2. Be sure you keep within the circumference of your relation you are Publique Servants take heed you do not forget your selves and your relation and please your selves with dreams of Lordly Power over the People whose servants you are Be provident of the Peoples Treasures be humble in the Peoples presence be curteous and affable in your carriage amiable in your countenance labour to win the Peoples love by kindness and respect Like Trajan the Emperour who behaved himself so to the People as he would have an Emperour to have done to him if he had been a private person Remember the miserable ends of Lascivious Sardanapalus Luxurious Vitellius Prodigal Heliogabalus Bloody Nero and others who kept not within the bounds of their relation If you transgress the limits of your station and spend your time in wantonness luxury prodigality and tyranny the People one time or other will remember their relation though you forget yours It hath been observed by Historians of the Inhabitants of this Isle that though they endure long they will not endure alwayes They will bear much before they call their servants to account but at last they use to make all even Remember that proverb of a wise King Oppression makes a wise man mad The Wrath of a King is like the roaring of a Lion we grant it But the Wrath of the People is like the Raging of the Sea which will overwhelm a thousand Lions in an instant You seem at present to imitate Canutus once King of this Island who sitting in his Royal Chair by the Sea side challenged a Lordly Power over the Ocean and forbid the waves to touch his Robes threatning them if they did presume to disobey his commands but the sturdy waves not valuing his Lordly threats approached his person wet him to the thighs and skirts forced him to remove his Chair and retreat and made him know the Ocean was above him Beware of dallying too long with the British Seas and lording it over the multitude of Waters if once a Spring-tide arise and Tame and Humber overflow they will acknowledge little homage to your Lordships and perhaps shew less They will make you to remove your Chairs as Canutus did and perhaps renounce your Titles also They will wet your thighs and cool your lusts and wash your filthy bloody skirts those Rivers know no Lords 3. A third duty of Magistrates is To observe the Law of God themselves that so they may by their example induce the People to the same Hearken not to those wicked Earwigs those open Enemies to God the world and most of all to your selves who tell you that you are above the Law They serve their own bellies and know no other God They are the greatest Plague and Judgment of the Land such Lepers should not be endured in the English Camp Such filthy Lawyers and Prelates are the Foxes and Wolves who annoy this Commonwealth it never will be well with us till they are taken Varlets that have respect of persons and will transgress for a piece of bread Prov. 28.21 What seared consciences and whorish foreheads have those men that dare to say that the King is above the Law when as the Lord hath given a strict and particular charge to the King to have a copy of it by him and reade therein all the dayes of his life that he may learn to fear God and keep all his Statutes Deut. 17.18 19. If you think you have such immunity above other men put your finger in the flames and try what priviledge you shall have more than others O know that if you break the Law of God the same place is
Masters The same in effect did Trajan the Emperor confess that he was inferiour to the People for when the Praetor delivered him the Sword at his Inauguration he returned it to him again with these words Take this Sword use it for me if I do that which is good but if otherwise against me and that so much the more because it is the more wicked for one that Rules over all to transgress the Law himself He was far from pretending to impunity that his person was Sacred and must not be touched whatsoever wickedness he committed but like a wise man and good Governour he resolved to do nothing worthy of punishment or if he did he submitted himself to the stroak of the Sword as much as any other person was to do and it is observable that it was not for want of power he spake this for the Empire was then at the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the highest or very near it Theseus in like manner a most wise and valiant King of the Athenians acknowledged the Peoples power to be above his and affirms yea glories in it That in Athens the People Reigned I could quickly tire both my self and you with Testimonies of this nature from Philosophers Orators and others but I know the judgement of any man is no proof and I have given sufficient proof from Scripture and Reason already and therefore I shall not fill up my Papers with transcribing other mens judgements but mention one or two places worthy our consideration out of the new Testament which are the Testimony of Christ himself and Paul his Apostle and with a few Inferences from the whole close up this Chapter The first is that of our Saviour Mat. 20.25 to 28. The Princes of the Gentiles exercise Dominion over them and they that are great exercise Authority over them but it shall not be so among you but whosoever will be great among you let him be your Seavant And whosoever will be chief among you let him be your Servant This Text holds out these things following First That there were two great political Evils among the Gentiles 1. Their Princes lorded it or exercised Dominion over them they would not keep within the bounds of their relation which God and Nature had set out to Governours to be Servants to the People but they would be Lords over them whose Servants they were in right And therefore it is that Christ useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they exercise Lordship against them as much as to say their Lordship is against the Liberties and Priviledges of the People against the Good and Benefit of them whom they Govern Their Prerogatives abrogate the Peoples Rights 2. The great men exercise Authority over them not the wise men or the good men who were best qualified for Government but those who had great titles and riches were Rulers over them which was contrary to the Light of Nature which the Gentiles were endued withal as I have shewed at large under the qualifications of Magistrates Governours were not chosen for their Virtues or Goodness but for their Greatness Secondly Both these evils are forbid among Christians It shall not be so among you You that will be my followers shall not imitate the wicked manners of the Gentiles Your Princes shall not be Lords over you they shall not exercise Lordship against the Liberties and Priviledges of their Brethren But whosoever will be chief among you which must be the chief Magistrate unless you will allow any other above him let him be your servant They that are great shall not exercise authority among you but they that are Wise Good and Faithful men such as fear God and hate Covetousness you shall not choose men to Govern for their Greatness sake but for their Goodness Object But is not this place to be understood onely of Ministers that they are not to be Lords over the People Sol. There is no reason for such a restriction for the same evil that was practised by the Gentiles is forbid among Christians It shall not be SO among you How was it among the Gentiles He doth not say their Priests but their Princes lorded it over them But it shall not be SO among you your Princes shall not do so Christ knew well enough that his Church would encrease and many millions own his Gospel and therefore carefully laies down Rules beforehand how the Princes of Christians should behave themselves Again our Saviour puts it in the most comprehensive terms imaginable Whosoever will be chief among you let him be your servant be he who he will that is chief he is but your servant at highest And Christ allows of a chief Magistrate but the Gospel knows no chief Minister For though Paul saith 2 Cor. 11.5 he was not behind the very chief of the Apostles he means not that any Apostle was by his Office above others but chief in labours and gifts and so some might exceed others And in regard this Precept is so consonant to the Light of Reason Law of God and that of Rom. 13.4 where the Magistrate is called A Servant to the People I wonder any should go to restrain it onely to Ministers it being given in such extensive universal terms Another place like to this is 1 Cor. 8.5 6. There are many that are called gods and lords but to us there is but one God the Father and one Lord Jesus Christ As if he should have said there are indeed among the Heathens many gods they live in Idolatry but we Christians own but One God Many of the Gentiles are so vain-glorious that they will have earthly Lords but we Christians own none for our Lord but Jesus Christ that is no titular Lords such as exercise lordship over the People 1. Then A Word to chief Magistrates Kings Princes c. Learn to know your selves your places and relations Alas how few of you that wear Crowns and sway Scepters understand your relation and he is like to rule well that knows not his place Beware of those flattering and covetous Priests and Lawyers who will say any thing for advantage and flatter you out of your own reason The Word of God Law of Nature and your own Reason if you have not lost it will tell you that you are Publick Servants to the People who gave you your Power and pay you your Wages For shame make no more pretences to a Lordly Power over the People whose Servants ye are talk no more of your Lordships unless you mean to declare your selves Tyrants Rulers chief Magistrates we own but not to be our Lords but Servants according to the Word of God You know no other name to call the People by but Subjects the Law of God will teach you a better name to call them Brethren and not to lift up your hearts in a lordly manner above your Brethren This was the appellation David used to give the People 2 Sam. 19.12 And the Lord commands proud Rehoboam