A Hind Let Loose
Buchanan. de jure regni.
10. If we will further consider the nature of Magistracy; it will appear what Authority can conscientiously be owned, to wit, that which is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Potestas, not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Potentia; Authorized Power, not Might or force; Moral Power, not merely Natural. There is a great difference betwixt these two: Natural Power is common to brutes, Moral Power is peculiar to men; Narural Power is more in the Subjects, because they have more strength & force; Moral Power is in the Magistrate, they can never meet adequately in the same subject; Natural power can, Moral only may warrantably exercise rule; Natural power is opposed to impotency & weakness, Moral to illicitness or unlawfulness; Natural power consists in strength, Moral in righteousness; Natural power may be in a Reut of Rogues making an uproar, Moral only in the Rulers; they cannot be distinguished by their acts, but by the Principle from which the acts proceed; in the one from mere force, in the other from Authority. The Principle of Natural power is its own might & will, and the end only self; Moral hath its rise from positive Constitution, and its end public safety. The strength of Natural power lies in the Sword, whereby its might gives Law; the strength of Moral power is in its Word, whereby reason gives Law, unto which the Sword is added for punishment of Contraveners: Natural power takes the Sword Math. 26. 52. Moral bears the Sword Rom. 13. 4. In Natural power the Sword is the Cause; in Moral it is only the Consequent of Authority: In Natural power the Sword legitimates the Scepter; in Moral the Scepter legitimates the Sword: The Sword of the Natural is only backed with Metal, the Sword of the Moral power is backed with God's warrant: Natural power involves men in passive subjection, as a traveler is made to yield to a Robber; Moral power reduces to Consciencious subordination. Hence the power that is only Natural not Moral, Potentia not Potestas, cannot be owned: But the power of Tyrants & Usurpers is only Natural not Moral, Potentia not Potestas: Ergo it cannot be owned. The Major cannot be denied; for it is only the Moral Power that is ordained of God, unto which we must be subject for Conscience sake. The Minor also; for the Power of Tyrants is not Moral, because not Authorized nor warranted nor ordained of God by His preceptive Ordinance, and therefore no Lawful Magistratical Power. For the clearer understanding of this let it be observed, there are four things required to the making of a Moral or Lawful Power; the matter of it must be Lawful, the Person Lawful, the Title Lawful, and the Use Lawful. 1. The matter of it, about which it is exerted, or the work to be done by it, must be Lawful & warranted by God; and if it be unlawful, it destroys its Moral being. As the Popes power in dispensing with Divine Laws, is null & no Moral Power: And so also the Kings power, in dispensing with both Divine & human Laws is null. Hence, that power which is in regard of matter unlawful, and never warranted by God, cannot be owned: But absolute power, which is the power of Tyrants & Usurpers (& particularly of this of ours) is in regard of matter unlawful & never warranted by God: Ergo —2. The Person holding the power must be such as not only is capable of but competent to the tenure of it, and to whom the holding of it is allowed; and if it be prohibited, it evacuates the Morality of the power. Korah & his Company arrogated to themselves the Office of the Priesthood, this power was prohibited to them, their power then was a nullity. As therefore a person that should not be a Minister, when he usurps that office is no Minister: So a person that should not be a Magistrate, when he usurps that Office, is no Magistrate. Hence, a person that is incapable & incompetent for Government, cannot be owned for a Governor: But the D. of Y. is such a person, not only not qualified as the Word of God requires a Magistrate to be, but by the Laws of the Land declared incapable of Rule because he is a Papist, a Murderer, an Adulterer &c. 3. There must be in Moral Power, a Lawful Title & Investure, as is shown above; which if it be wanting, the Power is null, and the person but a Scenical King, like John. of Leyden. This is essentially necessary to the being of a Magistrate; which only properly distinguishes him from a private man: for when a person becomes a Magistrate, what is the change that is wrought in him? what new habit or endewment is produced in him? he hath no more natural power than he had before, only now he hath the Moral Power, right, & Authority to Rule, Legally impowering him to Govern. Let it be Considered, what makes a subordinate Magistrate, whom we may own as such: It must be only his Commission from a Superior Power, otherwise we reject him: If one come to us of his own head, taking upon him the style & office of a Bailif, Sheriff, or Judge, and command our Persons, demand our purses, or exact our Oaths; we think we may deny him, not taking ourselves to owe him any subjection, not owning any bond of conscience to him; why? because he hath no lawful Commission. Now if we require this qualification in the subordinate, why not in the Supreme? Hence, that Magistrate that cannot produce his Legal Investure, cannot be owned: But the D. of Y. cannot produce his Legal Investure, his admission to the Crown upon Oath & Compact, and with the consent of the subjects, according to the Laws of the Land, as is shown above: Ergo —4. There must also be the Lawful Use of the Power; which must be not only legal for its composure, but right for its practice; its Course & Process in Government must be just, Governing according to Law, otherwise it is mere Tyranny: for what is Government, but the subjecting of the Community to the rule of Governors, for Peace & Orders sake, and the security of all their precious Interests? and for what end was it ordained, and continued among men, but that the stronger may not domineer over the weaker? And what is Anarchy, but the playing the Rex of the Natural power over the Moral? Hence, that Power which is contrary to Law, evil & Tyrannical, can tie none to subjection: But the power of the King, abused to the destruction of Laws, Religion & Liberties, giving his power & strength unto the beast, & making war with the Lamb Revel. 17. 13, 14. is a power contrary to Law, evil & Tyrannical: Ergo it can tie none to subjection: wickedness by no imaginable reason can oblige any man. It is Objected by some from Rom. 13. 1. There is no power but of God: The Usurping power is a power: Therefore it is of God, and consequently we owe subjection to it Ans. 1. The Original reading is not Universal, but thus 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 for there is no power if not from God: which confirms what I plead for, that we are not to own any Authority, if it be not Authorized by God. The words are only relative to higher powers, in a restricted sense, and at most are but indefinite, to be determined according to the matter; not all power simply, but all Lawful power. 2. It is a fallacia a dicto secundum quid: There is no power but of God, that is no Moral Power, as Universal negatives use to be understood, Heb. 5. 4. no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God; which is clear, must not be understood for the negation of the fact, as if no man at all doth or ever did take unto himself that honor, for Korah did it &c. but, no man taketh it warrantably, with a Moral right and God's allowance, without God's call: So also the universal imperative, in that same Text, must not be taken absolutely without restriction; for if every soul without exception were to be subject, there could be none left to be the higher powers; but it is understood with restriction to the relation of a subject. So here no Power but of God, to be understood with restriction to the relation of a Lawful Magistrate. It it also to be understood indiscriminately, in reference to the diverse species, sorts, & degrees of Lawful Power, Supreme & subordinate, whether to the King as Supreme, or to Governors &c. as Peter expresses it: Or whether they be Christian or Pagan: It cannot be meant of all universally, that may pretend to power, and may attain to prevailing Potency; for then by this Text, we must subject ourselves to the Papacy now intended to be introduced; and indeed if we subject ourselves to this Papist, the next thing he will require will be that. 3. To the Minor proposition, I Answer. The usurping power is a power: It is Potentia, I grant; that it is Potestas, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or Authority, I deny. Therefore it is of God, by His Providence, I concede; by His Ordinance; I deny. Consequently we owe subjection to it, I deny. We may be subject passively, I grant; Actively, out of conscience I deny. But some will Object. 2. Though the Power be Usurped, and so not Morally Lawful, in all these respects; yet it may do good, its Laws & administrations may be good. Ans. I grant, all is good that ends well and hath a good beginning. That cannot be good which hath a bad principle, bonum ex integra causa. Some Government for constitution good, may in some acts be bad; but a Government for constitution bad, cannot for the acts it puts forth be good. These good acts may be good for matter, but formally they are not good, as done by the Usurper: They may be comparatively good, that is better so then worse; but they cannot be absolutely, and in a Moral sense good: for to make a Politick action good, not only the matter must be warrantable, but the Call also. It may indeed induce subjects to bear & improve to the best, what cannot be remedied; but cannot oblige to own a Magistratical Relation.
II. The Nature of the power thus discovered, lets us see the Nature of that relative duty, which we owe & must own as due to Magistrates, and what sort of owning we must give them; which to inquire a little into, will give light to the question. All the duty & deference the Lord requires of us, towards them whom we must own as Magistrates, is comprehended in these two expressions, honor required in the fifth Command, and subjection required in Rom. 13. 1. &c. 1 Pet. 2. 13. &c. Whomsoever then we own as Magistrates, we must own honor & subjection as due to them: And if so be we cannot upon a conscientious ground give them honor & subjection, we cannot own them as Magistrates. The least deference we can pay to Magistrates is subjection, as it is required in these words; Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers, and submit yourselves to every Ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. But this cannot be given to Tyrants & Usurpers: Ergo no deference can be paid to them at all, and consequently they cannot be owned. That this subjection, which is required to the higher Powers, cannot be owned to Tyrants, will be apparent, if we consider. 1. The Subjection required is orderly subjection to an orderly power, that we be regularly under him that is regularly above: But Usurpation & Tyranny is not an Orderly Power, orderly placed above us: Therefore we cannot be ordely under it. This is gathered from the Original Language, where the powers to be subjected to are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ordained of God, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the Ordinance of God, and he that resisteth the Power is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Counter-ordered, or contrary to his orderly duty: So the duty is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 be subject. They are all words coming from one root, which signifies to Order: So that subjection is to be placed in order under another relative to an Orderly Superiority: But to occupy the seat of dignity unauthorized, is an Ataxie, a breaking of order, and bringing the Common-wealth quite out of order. Whereby it may appear, that in relation to an Arbitrary Government, there can be properly no 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , no orderly subjection. 2. The thing itself must import that relative duty which the fifth Command requires; not only a passive stooping endurance, or a • eigned Counterfeit submission, but a real Active duty including obedience to Lawful Commands; and not only so, but support & maintinance; and that both to the acts of his administration, and to his standing & keeping his station, assisting him with all our abilities, both human & Christian; And not only as to the external acts of duties, but the inward motions of the heart, as consent, Love, Reverence, & Honor, and all sincere fealty & Allegiance. But can a subjection of this extent, be paid to a Tyrant or Usurper? Can we support those we are bound to suppress? Shall we love the ungodly, and help those that hate the Lord? Can we consent, that we & our posterity should be slaves? Can we honor them who are vile, and the vilest of men, how high soever they be exalted? 3. The ground of this subjection is for conscience sake, not for wrath, that is, so far & so long as one is constrained by fear, & to avoid a greater evil, to stoop to him, but out of conscience of duty, both that of Piety to God who ordained Magistracy, and that of equity to him who is His Minister for good, and under pain of damnation if we break this orderly subjection Rom. 13. 2, 5. But can it be imagined that all this is due to a Tyrant & Usurper? Can it be out of conscience, because he is the Lord's Minister for good? the contrary is clear, that he is the Devils drudge serving his Interest; Is resistance to Tyrants a damnable sin? I hope to prove it to be a duty. 4. If subjection to Tyrants & Usurpers will inveigle us in their snares, and involve us in their sin & judgment, then it is not to be owned to them: But the former is true: Therefore the Latter. In the foregoing head I drew an Argument, for withdrawing from & disouning the Prelatic Ministers, from the hazard of partaking in their sin, and of being obnoxious to their judgment, because people are often punished for their Pastors sins; Aaron & his sons polluting themselves, would have brought wrath upon all the people, L • v. 10. 6. because the Teachers had transgressed against the Lord, therefore was Jacob given to the Curse & Israel to reproaches Isai▪ 43. 27, 28. and all these Miseries Lamented by the Church were inflicted for the sins of her Prophets and the iniquites of her Priests, Lam. 4. 13. the reason was, because they owned them, followed them, countenanced them, complied with them, or connived at them, or did not hinder or else disoune them. The same Argument will evince, the necessity of withdrawing our subjection from & disouning Usurping & Tyrannical Rulers, when we cannot hinder their wickedness, nor give any other Testimony against them, to avert the wrath of the Lord. If the defections of Ministers will bring on the whole Nation desolating judgments; then much more have we reason to fear it, when both Magistrates & Ministers are involved in, and jointly carrying on, and carressing & encouraging each other in promoting, a woeful Apostasy from God: when the heads of the house of Jacob, & Princes of the house of Israeel, abhor judgment & pervert all equity, the heads Judge for reward, and the Priests teach for hire, and the Prophets divine for money, and yet lean upon the Lord and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us: Then we can expect nothing but that Zion for their sake shall be plowed as a field & Jerusalem become heaps and the Mountain of the house as the high places of the forest, Mich. 3. 9, 11, 12. Certain it is that subjects have smarted sore for the sins of their Rulers: for Saul's sin in breaking Covenant with the Gibeonites, the Land suffered three years famine 2 Sam. 21. 1. and the wrath of the Lord could not be appeased, till seven of his sons were hanged up unto the Lord. What then shall appease the wrath of God, for the unp • ralelled breach of Covenant with God in our day? For David's sin of numbering the people, 70000 men died by the Pestilence. 2 Sam. 24. 5. For Jereboam's sin of Idolatry, who made Israel to sin, the Lord threatens to give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam 1 King. 14. 16. only they escaped this Judgment, who withdrew themselves and fell into Judah. For Ahab's sin of letting go a man whom the Lord had appointed to utter destruction, the Lord threatens him, thy life shall go for his life, and thy people for his people 1 King. 20. 42. Because Manasseh King of Judah did many abominations, therefore the Lord threatened to bring such evil upon Jerusalem & Judah that whosoever heard it his ears should tingle &c. 2 King. 21. 11, 12. and not withstanding of his repentance, and the Reformation in the days of Josiah, notwithstanding the Lord turned not from the fierceness of His great wrath, wherewith His anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked Him withal 2 King. 23. 26. which was accomplished by the hands of the Chaldeans, in Iehojakims time. Surely at the Commandment of the Lord came this upon Judah, to remove them out of His sight, for the sins of Manasseh according to all that he did, and also for the innocent blood which he shed ... which the Lord would not pardon 2 King. 24. 3, 4. And Jeremiah further threatens, that they should be removed into all Kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh for that which he did in Jerusalem Ier. 15. 4. Certainly these passages were recorded for our Learning Rom. 15. 4. and for our examples, to the intent we should not do as they did 1 Cor. 10. 6. and for our admonition verse. 11. Whence we may be admonished, that it is not enough to keep ourselves free of public sins of Rulers; Many of those then punished, were free of all actual accession to them; but they became accessory to and involved in the guilt of them, when they did not endeavor to hinder them, and bring them to condign punishment for them, according to the Law of God which respecteth not persons; or at least, because they did not revolt from them, as Libnah did: There might be other provocations on the people's part, no doubt, which the Lord did also punish by these Judgments; • ut when the Lord specifies the sin of Rulers, as the particular procuring Cause of the Judgment, it were presumption to make it the Occasion only of the Lord's punishing them: for plain it is, if these sins of Rulers had not been committed, which was the ground of the threatening & execution, the Judgment would have been prevented; And if people had bestirred themselves as became them, in repressing & restraining such wickedness, they had not so smarted; And when that sin so threatened & punished was removed, then the Judgment itself was removed or deferred. It is just & necessary, that the subjects being Jointly included with their Rulers in the same bond of fidelity to God, be liable to be punished for their Rebellion & Apostasy, when they continue under the bond of subjection to them. But how deplorable were our Condition, if we should stand obnoxions to divine Judgments, for the Atheism, Idolatry, Murders, & Adulteries of our Rulers, and yet be neither Authorized nor Capacitated to hinder it, nor permitted to withdraw ourselves from subjection to them? But it is not so; for, the Lord's making us responsable for their debt, is an impowering us either to repress their wickedness when He gives us Capacity, or at least to save ourselves harmless from their Crimes, by disouning them; that being the only way of standing no longer accountable for their faults.
12. It remains to Consider the Ends, for which Government was institute by God, and constitute by men: from whence I Argue, That Government that destroys the Ends of Government, is not to be owned: But Tyranny, and especially this under which we howl, destroys all the Ends of Government: Ergo it is not to be owned. The Minor I prove thus. That Government that destroys Religion & Safety, destroys all the Ends of Government: But this Popish & arbitrary Absolute power, destroys Religion & Safety: Ergo —It is evident both from the Laws of Nature & Revelation, that the Ends of Government are the Glory of God, & the good of Mankind. The first is the Glory of God, the ultimate end of all Ordinances; to which whatever is opposite, is not to be owned by them that fear Him: whatever power then is destructive to Religion, and is applied & employed against the Glory of the Uuniversal King, and for withdrawing us from our fealty & obedience to Him, is nothing but Rebellion against the Supreme Lord & Lawgiver, and a Traiterous Conspiracy against the Almighty; and therefore not to be owned: And they are enemies to Religion, or strangers to it, who are not sensible this hath been the design of the present Government, at least these 27 years, to overturn the Reformed Covenanted Religion, and to introduce Popery. Hence, seeing a King at his best & highest elevation is only a mean for preserving Religion, and for this end only chosen of the people to be Custos utriusque tabulae, keeper of both Tables of the Law, he is not to be regarded but wholly laid aside, when he not only moves without his sphere, but his motion infers the ruin of the ends of his erection, and when he employs all his power for the destruction of the Cause of Christ, and advancement of Antichrists, giving his power to the beast; he is so far from deserving the deference of the power ordained of God, that he is to be looked upon & treated as a Traitor to God, and Stated enemy to Religion & all Righteousness, The Second End of Government is the good of the people, which is the Supreme & Cardinal Law; Salus Populi est Suprema Lex. Which cannot be denied, if it be considered. 1. For this only the Magistrate is appointed of God to be His Minister, for the people's good Rom. 13. 4. and they have no goodness but as they conduce to this end; for all the power they have of God is with this Proviso, to promote His people's prosperity. (It were blasphemy to say, they are His Authorized Ministers for their destruction) to which if their Conduct degenerate, they degrade themselves, and so must be disouned. He is therefore; in his institution, no more than a mean for this end; and himself cannot be either the whole or half of the end, for then he should be both the end & the mean of Government; and it is contrary to God's mould to have this for his end, to multiply to himself silver & gold, or lift up himself above his brethren Deut. 17. 17, 20. if therefore he hath any other end than the good of the people, he cannot be owned as one of God's moulding. 2. This only is the highest pitch of good Princes ambition, to postpone their own safety to the people's safety. Moses desired, rather than the people should be destroyed, that his name should be razed out of the Book of life. And David would rather the Lord's hand be on him & his fathers house, than on the people that they should be plagued 1 Chron. 21. 17. but he that would seek his own ambitious ends with the destruction of the people, hath the spirit of the Devil, and is to be carried towards as one possessed with that malignant spirit. 3. Originally their power is from the people, from whom all their dignity is derived; with reserve of their safety, which is not the donative of Kings, nor held by concession from them, nor can it be resigned or surrendered to the disposal of Kings; since God hath provided, in His universal Laws, that no Authority make any disposal, but for the good of the people. This cannot be forfeited by the usurpation of Monarchs, but being alwise fixed in the essential Laws of Government, they may reclaim & recover it when they please. Since then we cannot alienate our safety, we cannot own that Authority which is inconsistent with it. 4. The attaining this end was the main ground & motive, of people's deliberating to constitute a Goverment; and to choose such a form, because they thought it most conducible for their good; and to admit such persons as fittest Instruments for compassing this end; and to establish such a Conveyance, as they thought most contributive for this end: When therefore Princes cease to be what they could be constitute for, they cease to have an Authority to be owned; but ceasing to answer these ends of Government, they cease to be what they could be constitute for. 5. For no other end were Magistrates limited with Conditions, but to bound them that they might do nothing against the people's good & safety: Whosoever then breaking through all legal limitations, shall became injurious to the Community, lists himself in the number of enemies, and is only to be looked upon as such. 6. For this end all Laws are ratified or rescinded, as they conduce to this end, which is the soul & reason of the Law: then it is but reason, that the Law establishing such a King, which proves an enemy to this, should be rescinded also. 7. Contrary to this end no Law can be of force; if then either Law or King be prejudicial to the Realm, they are to be abolished. 8. For this end, in cases of necessity Kings are allowed sometimes to neglect the Letter of the Laws, or private Interests, for the safety of the Community; but if they neglect the public safety, and make Laws for their own Interests, they are no more Trustees but Traitors. 9. If it were not for this end, it were more eligible to live in deserts than to enter into Societies: When therefore a Ruler, in direct opposition to the ends of Government, seeks the ruin not only of Religion, but also of the people's safety, he must certainly forfeit his right to reign. And what a vast as well as innocent number, have, for Religion and their adherence to their fundamental rights, been ruined, rooted out of their families & Possessions, oppressed, persecuted, Murdered, & destroyed by this and the deceased Tyrant, all Scotland can tell and all Europe hath heard. If ever the ends of Government were perverted & subverted in any place, Britain is the stage where this Tragedy hath been acted.
13. I may argue from the Covenant, that to own this Authority is contrary to all the Articles thereof. 1. That Authority which overturns the Reformation of Religion in Doctrine, Worship, Discipline, & Government, which we are sworn to preserve against the Common Enemies thereof, in the first Art. cannot be owned: But the present pretended Authority overturned (and continues more to overturn) the Reformation of Religion &c. Ergo it cannot be owned: for against what common enemy must we preserve it, if not against him that is the chief Enemy thereof? and how can we own that Authority, that is wholly employed & applied for the destruction of Religion? 2. If we are obliged to exstirpate Popery, without respect of persons, lest we partake in other men's sins; then we are obliged to exstirpate Papists without respect of persons, and consequently the head of them. (For how otherwise can Popery be exstirpated? or how otherwise can we cleanse the Land of their sins?) But in the 2d Art. we are obliged to exstirpate Popery without respect of persons, lest we partake in other men's sins: Ergo we are obliged to exstirpate Papists without respect of Persons and consequently the Crowned Jesuit, and therefore cannot own him; for how can we own him, whom we are bound to exstirpate? 3. If we be engaged to preserve the Rights & Liberties of Parliaments, and the Liberties of the Kingdoms, and the Kings Authority only in the preservation & defense of the true Religion & Liberties of the Kingdoms; then we cannot own his Authority, when it is inconsistent with, opposite to, & destructive of all these precious Interests, as now it is with a witness: But in the 3. Art. we are engaged to preserve the Rights & Privileges of Parliaments, & the Liberties of the Kingdoms, and the Kings Authority only in the preservation & defense of the true Religion & Liberties of the Kingdoms: Ergo. All allegiance that we can own to any man, must stand perpetually thus qualified, in defense of Religion & Liberty; that is, so far as it is not contrary to Religion & Liberty, and no further, for if it be destructive of these, it is null. If we should then own this man, with this restricted allegiance, and apply it to his Authority (as we must apply it to all Authority that we can own) it were to mock God & the world, and own Contradictions: for can we maintain the Destroyer of Religion, in defense of Religion? And the Destroyer of all our rights & Liberties, and all our legal securities for them, in the preservation of these rights & Liberties? that were pure Non-sense. 4. If we be obliged to endeavor, that all Incendiaries & Malignants &c. be brought to condign punishment, then we cannot own the Authority of the head of these Incendiaries & malignant Enemies: But in the 4. Art we are obliged to endeavor that all Incendiaries & Malignants &c. be brought to Condign Punishment: Ergo—The Connection of the Major cannot well be doubted: for is it imaginable, that the head of that unhallowed Party, the Great malignant Enemy who is the spring & gives life unto all these Abominations, shall be exempted from punishment? or owned for a Sacred Majesty? shall we be obliged to discover, and bring to Justice, the little petty Malignants, and this implacably stated Enemy to Christ escape with a Crown on his head? Nay, we are by this obliged, if ever we be in case, to bring these stated Enemies to God & the Country to condign punishment, from the highest to the Lowest: And this we are to do, as we would have the anger of the Lord turned away from us, which cannot be without hanging up their heads before the Lord against the sun, as was done in the matter of Peor Numb. 25. 4. For hath not he & his Complices made the Kingdom a Curse? and we with our own consent have made ourselves obnoxious to it, if we do not procure, each in our Capacities, and pursue these Traitors & Rebells, that the Judgment of the Lord be executed upon the accursed. 5. No willful o • poser of Peace & union between the Kingdoms is to be owned; but according to the 5. Art. we are obliged to ende • vour that Justice be done upon him: But this man & his brother have been willful opposers of Peace & union between the Kingdoms, all true Peace & union, except an union in Confederacy against the Lord; for they have taken Peace from both the Kingdoms, and destroyed & annulled that which was the bond of their union, viz. the Solemn League & Covenant. 6. If we are obliged to assist & defend all those that enter into this League & Covenant, in the maintaining & pursuing thereof, and never to suffer ourselves to be divided, to make defection to the contrary part &c. According to the 6 Art. Then we must not own the Butcher of our Covenanted Brethren, who hath imbrued • is hands in their blood, in the maintaining & pursuing thereof, and would have us withdrawn into so detestable a defection; for we cannot both own him as he requires to be owned, and as God requires every Magistrate to be owned (so as not to resist him under pain of damnation Rom. 13. 2) and assist our Brethren too in resisting his Murders; and our owning of him were a dividing of ourselves from our Brethren that oppose him, into a defection to the Contrary part, whereof he is head & Patron. Lastly in the Conclusion, we are obliged to be humbled for the sins of these Kingdoms, and to amend in a real Reformation: Whereof this is one to be mourned for, that after the Lord had delivered us from the yoke of this Tyrannical family, we again joined in affinity with the people of these abominations, and took these serpents into our bosom again which hath bit us so sore, and where-with the Lord hath scourged us severely. And if it was our sin to engage with them at first, then it is our sin to continue under their subjection: And is not consistent with that Repentance, that the Lord's Contendings call for, to continue owning that Power which was our sin to own at first.
III. In the Third place, I promised to confirm my Thesis from more express Scripture Arguments. Therefore I shall endeavor to gather them as briefly as may be 1. from Scripture Inferences, nearly & natively Consequential. 2. from Scripture Assertions. 3. from Scripture Precepts. 4. from Scripture Practices. 5. from Scripture Promises. 6. from Scripture Threatenings. 7. from Scripture Prayers.
First, I shall offer some Arguments deduced by way of immediate Inference, from the grounds laid before us in Scripture about Government: wherein I shall confine myself to these Particulars.
1. Let us Consider the Characters of a Magistrate, laid down in Scripture; and we may infer, if Tyrants & Usurpers are not Capable of these Characters, then they cannot be owned for Magistrates. For if they be not Magistrates, they cannot be owned as Magistrates: but if they be not capable of the Characters of Magistrates, they are not Magistrates: Ergo if they be not capable of the Characters of Magistrates, they cannot be owned as Magistrates. To find out the Characters of Magistrates, I need seek no further than than full place Rom. 13. Which usually, is made a Magazine of Objections against this Truth; but I trust to find store of Arguments for it from thence, not repeating many that have been already deduced therfrom. We find in this place many Characters of a Magistrate, that are all incompatible with a Tyrant or Usurper. 1. He is the higher power verse 1. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Authorities Supereminent, signifying such a Precellency as draweth towards it a recognition of honor: But this is not Competent to Tyrants & Usurpers; for they are the vilest of men▪ let them be never so high exalted, Psal. 12. ult. and if they be vile then they are to be contemned Psal. 15. 4. and no more to be regarded then Herod was by Christ, when he called him a Fox Luk. 13. 32. But more particularly let us consider what is the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , highness, or dignity of Magistrates, set forth in Scripture. They are styled God's not to be reviled Exod. 22. 28. among whom God Judgeth Psal. 82. 1. so called because the Word of God came unto them John 10. 35. But Tyrants are rather Devils, as one of them is called Lucifer Isai. 14. 12. and they that persecute & imprison the People of God, because acted by the Devil, and acting for him, do bear his name Revel. 2. 10. They are Devils that cast the Lord's witnesses into prison. The Magistrates Judgment is God's Judgment Deut. 1. 17. because it is not for man but for the Lord 2 Chron. 19. 6. and therefore Solomon is said to have sat on the Throne of the Lord 1 Chron. 29. 23. But it were blasphemy to say, that Tyrants Judgment, usurping the place without His warrant, and giving forth Judgment against His Laws & Cause & People, is the Lord's Judgment, or for Him, or that they sit on the Throne of the Lord. A Throne of iniquity is not the Throne of the Lord, for He hath no fellowship with it; The Tyrants Throne is a Throne of iniquity, Psal. 94. 20. Magistrates are truly to be subjected to & obeyed, as Principalities & Powers Tit. 3. 1. it is a sin to speak evil of them, verse. 2. for it is presumption to despise Dominion & speak evil of Dignities 2 Pet. 2. 10. Jude. 8. Bu • Tyrants are very Catechrestically & abusively Principalities & Powers, no otherwise then the Devils are so termed Eph. 6. 12. and there is no argument to own or obey the one more than the other: for if all Principalities & Powers are to be subjected to & owned, then also the Devil must, who get the same Title. To speak Truth of Tyrants indignities, cannot be a speaking evil of Dignities; for Truth is no evil, nor is Tyranny a Dignity. Hence they that are not capable of the Dignity of Rulers, are not to be own • as such: But Tyrants are not capable of the Dignity of Rulers, as these places prove: Ergo —Against this it is Objected, that Paul did apply this Character to the Tyrannical High Priest Ananias, whom, after he had objurgated for mani • est injustice, he honors with that Apology, that he wist not that he was the high Priest, for it is written, thow shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people Act. 23. 5. Ans. Though all should be granted that is in this Objection▪ yet our Argument would not be enervated: for grant we should not speak evil of Tyrants, that does not evince that we should hold them as Rulers; for we should bless our persecutors, Rom. 10. 14. and speak evil of no man Tit. 3. 2. that does not say, we should hold every man, or our persecutors, to be Rulers. The meaning must be, he knew not that he was the high Priest, that is, he did not acknowledge him to be either high Priest or Ruler, he could acknowledge or observe nothing like one of that Character in him: for as the high Priests Office was now null & ceased, so this Ananias was only an usurper of the Office, in place of Ishmael or Joseph, who had purchased it by money: And Paul had learned from his Master Gamaliel, Iudicem, qui honoris consequendi causâ pecunias dederit, revera neque Iudicem esse, neque honorandum, sed Asini habendum Loco. Tit. Talmud. de Synedrio. That a Judge who hath given money for purchasing this honor, is neither a Judge, nor to be honored as such, but to be held in place of an Ass. And it was common among the Jews to say, if such be gods, they are silver gods not to be honored, as is quoted by Pool Synopsis Criticorum &c. in locum. And that this must be the sense of it is plain; for he could not be ignorant that he was there in place of a Judge, being called before him, and smitten by him Authoritatively, whom therefore he did threaten with the judgment of God; it were wicked to think, that he would retract that threatening which he pronounced by the Spirit of God. And therefore this place confirms my Thesis: If a Tyrannical Judge, acting contrary to Law, is not to be known or acknowledged to be a Ruler, but upbraided as a whited wall; Then a Tyrant is not to be known or acknowledged as such: But the former is true, from this place: Therefore also the latter. Paul knew well enough he was a Judge, and knew well enough what was his duty to a Judge, that he should not be reviled; but he would not acknowledge this Priest to be a Judge, or retract his threatening against him.
2. He is of God & ordained of God: I proved before, Tyrants are not capable of this; yea it were blasphemy to say, they are Authorized or Ordained of God, by His Preceptive Will. Hence take only this Argument. All Rulers that we must own are ordained of God, do reign & are set up by God Prov. 8. 15. (for that & this place are parallel) But Tyrants do not reign nor are set up by God Hos. 8. 4. They are set up (saith the Lord) but not by me: Ergo we cannot own them to be ordained of God. 3. Whosoever resisteth this power ordained of God resisteth the Ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation verse. 2. This cannot be owned of a Tyrant, that it is a damnable sin to resist him, for it is duty to resist & also repress him, as is proven already, and shall be afterwards. Hence, whatsoever Authority we own subjection to we must not resist it: But we cannot own that we must not resist this Authority: therefore we cannot own it at all. Again, That cannot be the power not to be resisted, which is acquired & improved by resisting the Ordinance of God: But the power of Usurpers & Tyrants is acquired & improved by resisting the ordinance of God: Ergo their power cannot be the power not to be resisted. The Major is manifest: for when the Apostle says, the resisting of the power bring damnation to the resister, certainly that resistance cannot purchase Dominion instead of damnation: And if he that resists in a lesser degree, be under the doom of damnation: then certainly he that does it in a greater degree, so as to complete it, in puting himself in place of that power which he resisted, cannot be free. The Minor is also undeniable; for, if Usurpers acquire their power without resistence forcible & sensible, it is because they that defend the power invaded are wanting in their duty; but however Morally the Tyrant or Usurper is always 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or in contrary order to a Lawful Power. 4. Rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil, and they that do that which is good shall have praise of the same verse. 3. This is the Character & duty of righteous Magistrates, though it be not always their Administration: But an Usurper & Tyrant is not capable or susceptible of this Character, but on the contrary is & must be a terror to good works and a praise to the evil: for, he must be a Terror to them that would secure their rights & Liberties in opposition to his encroachments, which is a good work; & he must be a fautor, Patron, & Protector of such, as encourage & maintain him in his Usurpation & Tyranny, which is an evil work: And if he were a terror to the evil, then he would be a terror to himself & all his Complices, which he cannot be. Therefore, that power which is not capable of the duties of Magistrates, cannot be owned: But the Power of Tyrants & Usurpers is such: Ergo —We find in Scripture, the best Commentare on this Character, where the duties of a Magistrate are described. They must justify the righteous & condemn the wicked Deut. 27. 1. They must, as Job did, deliver the poor that cry and put on righteousness as a clothing— and be eyes to the blind & feet to the lame, and a Father to the poor—and break the Jawes of the the wicked Job 29. 12-17. Their Throne must be established by righteousness Prov. 16. 12. a King sitting on the Throne of Judgment must scatter away all evil with his eyes—then Mercy & Truth will preserve him and his Throne is upholden by Mercy Prov. 20. 8, 28. But Tyrants have a quite contrary Character: The Throne of iniquity frames Mischief by a Law, and condemns the innocent blood Psal. 94. 20. 21. They judge not the fatherless, neither doeth the cause of the widow come unto them Isai. 1. 23. They build their house by unrighteousness, & their chambers by wrong, and use their neighbors service without wages Ier. 22. 13. They oppress the poor & crush the needy Amos 4. 1. They turn judgment to Gall & the fruit of righteousness to hemlock, and say, have we not taken horns to as by our own strength Amos 6. 12, 13. These contrary Characters cannot consist together. 5. He is the Minister of God for good verse. 4. not by Providential Commission, as Nebuchadnezzar was, and Tyrants may be eventually, by the Lord making all things turn about for the good of the Church; but he hath a Moral Commission from God, & is entrusted by the people to procure their Public & Politick good at least. Now this, and Tyranny & Usurpation, are together inconsistible: for if Tyrants & Usurpers were Ministers for good, then they would restore the public & personal Rights, and rectify all wrongs done by them; but then they must surrender their Authority, and resign it, or else all rights cannot be restored, nor wrongs rectified. Hence, these that cannot be owned as Ministers of God for good, cannot be owned as Magistrates: But Tyrants & Usurpers, (and in particular this Man) are such as cannot be owned as Ministers of God for good: Ergo —Again, If Magistracy be alwise a blessing, and Tyranny & Usurpation alwise a Curse, then they cannot be owned to be the same thing, and the one cannot be owned to be the other: But Magistracy or the right-full Magistrate, is alwise a blessing; Tyranny & Usurpation or the Tyrant & Usurper, alwise a curse: Ergo —That the former is true, these Scriptures prove it. God provides him for the benefit of His people 1 Sam. 16. 1. a just Ruler is compared to the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without Clouds 2 Sam. 23. 4. So the Lord exalted David's Kingdom, for His people Israel's sake 2 Sam. 5. 12. because the Lord Loved Israel forever, therefore made He Solomon King to do judgment & Justice 1 King. 10. 9. when the righteous are in Authority the people rejoice —the King by Judgment stabilisheth the Land— Prov. 29. 2, 4. The Lord promises Magistrates as a special blessing Isai. 1. 26. Ier. 17. 25. and therefore their continuance is to be pray • for, that we may lead a quiet & peaceable life in all godliness & honesty 1 Tim. 2. 2. And they must needs be a blessing, because to have no Ruler is a Miserie; for when Israel had no King every man did that which was right in his own eyes Judge. 17. 6. and the Lord threatens it ar a Curse to take away the stay & the staff —the mighty man and the man of war, the Judge & the Prophet &c. Isai. 3. 1, 2 &c. and that the Children of Israel shall abide many days without a King, and without a Prince Hos. 2. 4. But on the other hand Tyrants & Usurpers are always a Curse, and given as such: It is threatened among the Curses of the Covenant, that the stranger shall get up above Israel very high—and that they shall serve their enemies which the Lord shall send against them—and He shall put a yoke of iron upon their neck, until He hath destroyed them Deut. 28. 43, 48. As a roaring lyon and a ranging bear so is a wicked Ruler over the poor people Prov. 28. 15. and therefore, when the wicked beareth rule the people mourn Prov. 29. 2. The Lord threatens it as a Curse, that he will give Children to be their Princes, and babes shall rule over them Isai. 3. 4. and if unqualified Rulers be a curse, much more Tyrants. They are the rod of His anger, and the staff in their hand is His indignation, His axe & saw & rod Isai. 10. 5, 15. It is one thing to call a man God's instrument, His rod, axe, sword, or hammer; another thing to call him God's Minister: there is a wide difference betwixt the instruments of God's Providence, and the Ministers of His Ordinance; those fulfill His Purposes only, these do His precepts. Such Kings are given in the Lord's anger Hos. 13. 11. therefore they cannot be owned to be Ministers of God for good. 6. He beareth not the sword in vain for he is the Minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon • im that doeth evil verse. 4. The Apostle doth not say, he that beareth the sword is the Ruler, but he is the Ruler that beareth the sword. This is not every sword; for there is the sword of an enemy, the sword of a robber, the sword of a common traveler, but this as a faculty of Political rule & Authoritative judgment. It is not said, he takes the sword (as the Lord expresses the Usurpation of that power, Math. 26. 52.) but he beareth the sword, hath it delivered him into his hand by God, by God's warrant & allowance, not in vain; to no end or without reason, or without a Commission, as Pareus upon the place expones it. He is a revenger to execute wrath, not by private revenge, for that is condemned Paulo ante Rom. 12. 19. not by providential recompense, for when a private person so revengeth, it is the providential repayment of God; but as God's M • nister, by Him Authorized, commissionated, & warranted to this work. Now this cannot agree with a Tyrant or Usurper, whose sword only legitimates his scepter, and not his scepter his sword, who takes the sword rather then bears it, & uses it without reason or warrant from God, in the execution of his lustful rage upon him that doth well, and hath no right to it from God. Hence, he that beareth the sword no other way but as it may be said of a Murderer, cannot be a Magistrate bearing the sword: But a Tyrant & Usurper beareth the sword no other way but as it may be said of a Murderer: Ergo —So much for the Characters of a Magistrate, which are every way inapplicable to Tyrants & Usurpers, and as inapplicable to this of ours as to any in the world.
2. If we consider the Scripture Resemblance • importing the duty of Magistrates, and the Contrary Comparisons holding forth the sin, vileness & villainy of Tyrants & Usurpers; we may infer, that we cannot own the last to be the first. First, from the benefit they bring to the Common wealth, Magistrates are styled. 1. Savior's▪ as Othniel the son of Kenaz is called Judge. 3. 9. and Ieho • haz in his younger years 2. King. 13. 5. and all good Judges & Magistrates Neh. 9. 27. But Tyrants & Usurpers cannot be such, for they are destroyers whom the Lord promises to make go forth from His people Isa. 49. 17. The Chaldea • Tyrant is called the destroyer of the Gentiles Ier. 4. 7. and the destroyer of the Lord's heritage Ier. 50. 11. wherefore they can no more be owned to be Magistrates, than Abaddon or Apollyon can be owned to be a Savior. 2. From their Pater • all love to the people, they are styled fathers▪ and therefore to be honored according to the fifth Command. So Deborah was raised up a Mother in Israel Judge. 5. 7. Kings are nursing fathers by office Isai. 49. 23. But that Tyrants cannot be such I have proved already; for they can no more be accounted fathers, than he that abuseth or forceth our mother. 3. From the Protection & shelter that people find under their Conduct, they are called Shields Psal. 47. Ult. The Princes of the people, the Shields of the earth, belong unto God. But Tyrants cannot be such, because they are the subverters of the earth. 4. From the Comfort that attends them, they are resembled to the morning light & fruitful shours of rain 2 Sam. 23. 4. They waited for me as for the rain, saith Job. 29. 23. But Tyrants cannot be resembled to these, but rather to darkness, and to the blast of the terrible ones Isai. 25. 4. as a storm against the wall, If darkness cannot be owned to be light, then cannot Tyrants be owned to be Magistrates. 5. From their Pastoral Care & Conduct and duty, they are feeders. The Judges of Israel are commanded to feed the Lord's people 1 Chron. 17. 6. David was brought to feed Jacob His people, and Israel His Inheritance Psal. 78. 71. But Tyrants are wolves not Shepherds. 6. By office they are physicians or healers Isai. 3. 7. That Tyrants cannot be such is proven above. Secondly on the other hand, the vileness, villainy, & violence of Tyrants & Usurpers, are held forth by fit resemblances, being Compared to these unclean creatures. 1. Tyrants are wicked Dogs, as they who compass about Christ Psal. 22. 16, 20. Saul is called Dog there, and in that Golden Psalm Psal. 59. 4. Saul & his Complices, watching the house to kill David, make a noise like a dog & go round about the City. 2. They are pushing Bulls Psal. 22. 12. and crushing Kain of Bashan, that oppress the poor Amos. 4. 1. they have need then to have their horns cut s • ort. 3. They are roaring Lions. that are wicked Rulers over the poor People Prov. 28. 15. Zeph. 3. 3. So Paul calls Nero the Lyon, out of whose mouth he was delivered. 2 Tim. 4. 17. 4. They are ranging bears Prov. 28. 15. So the Persian Monarch is emblemized Dan. 7. 5▪ 5. They are Leviathan the peercing Serpent & Dragon Isai. 27. 1. and have great affinity in name & Nature with the Apocalyptic Dragon: So also Isai. 51. 9. the Egyptian Tyrant is called Dragon. And Nebuchadnezzar swallowed up the Church like a Dragon Ier. 51, 34. See also Ezek. 29. 3. 6. They are wolves ravening the prey Ezek. 22. 27. evening wolves that gnaw not the bones till the morrow Zeph. 3. 3. 7. They are Leopards: So the Grecian Tyrants is called Dan. 7. 6. and Antichrist Revel. 13. 2. 8. They are foxes: So Christ calls Herod Luk. 13. 32. 9. They are Devils who cast the Lord's people into Prison Revel. 2. 10, 13. Now can we own all these abommable Creatures to be Magistrates? Can these be the fathers we are bound to honor in the fifth Commandment? They must be esteemed sons of dogs & Devils that belive so, and own themselves sones of such fathers.
If we further take notice, how the Spirit of God describes Tyranny, as altogether Contradistinct & opposite unto the Magistracy He will have owned; we may infer hence Tyrants & Usurpers are not to be owned. What the Government instituted by God among His people was, the Scripture doth both relate in matter of • act, and describes what it ought to be de jure, viz. That according to the Institution of God, magistrates should be established by the Constitution of the people, who were to make them Judges & Officers in all their gates, that they might Judge the people with just Judgment Deut. 16. 18. But foreseeing that people would affect a change of that first form of Government, and in imitation of their neighbouring Nations would desire a King, and say, I will set a King over me like all the Nations that are about me Deut. 17. 14. The Lord, intending high & holy ends by it, chiefly the procreation of the Messias from a Kingly race, did permit the change, and gave directions how he should be molded & bounded, that was to be owned as the Magistrate under a Monarchial form: To wit, that he should be chosen of God, and set up by their suffrages, that he should be a brother and not a stranger, that he should not multiply horses, nor wives, nor money (which are Cautions all calculated for the people's good, and the security of their Religion & Liberty, and for precluding & preventing his degeneration into Tyranny) and that he should write a Copy of the Law in a book. according to which he should Govern verse. 15. ad • in. cap. yet the Lord did not approve the change of the form, which that luxuriant people was long affecting, and at length obtained. For long before Saul was made King, they proffered an Hereditary Monarchy to Gideon, without the boundaries God's Law required; Which that brave Captain, knowing how derogatory it was to the Authority of God's Institution, not to be altered in form or frame without His order, generously refused, faying, I will not rule over yow, neither shall my son rule over yow, the Lord shall rule over yow Iud. 8. 23. But his bastard, the first Monarch & Tyrant of Israel, Abimelech, by sinstrous means being advanced to be King by the traitorous Schechemites, Jotham and other of the Godly disouned him: which, by the Spirit of God, Jotham describes Parabolically, significantly ho • ding out the Nature of that Tyrannical usurpation, under the Apologue of the trees itching after a King, and the offer being repudiate by the more generous sort, embraced by the bramble: Signifying that men of worth & virtue would never have taken upon them such an arrogant Domination, and that such a Tyrannicall Government in its Nature & tendency was nothing but an useless, worthless, sapless, aspiring, scratching, & vexing shadow of a Government, under subjection to which there could be no peace nor safety. But this was rather a Tumultuary interruption than a Change of the Government, not being universally either desired or owned; therefore after that the Lord restored the pristine form: Which continued until, being much perverted by Samuel's sons, the people unanimously & peremptorly desired the change thereof, and whether it were reason or not would have a King; as we were fondly set upon one, after we had been delivered from his fathers yoke: And the Lord gave them a King with a Curse, and took him away with a vengeance, Hos. 13. 11. as He did our Charles the Second. Yet He permited it, but with a Protestation against and conviction of the sin, that thereby they had rejected the Lord 1 Sam. 8. 7. and with a demonstration from Heaven, which extorted their own confession, that they bad added unto all their sins this evil to ask a King 1 Sam. 12. 17, 18, 19. And to deter & disswad from such a Conclusion, He appoints the Prophet to show them the manner of the King that should reign over them 1 Sam. 8. 9. to declare before hand, what sort of a Ruler he woud prove, when they got him; to wit, a mere Tyrant, who would take their sons and appoint them for himself, for his Chariots, and for horsemen, and to run before his Chariots, and make them his sowldiers, and laborers of the ground, and Instrument-makers, and household servants, and he would take their fields & vineyards—the best of them, and give unto his servants, in a word to make all slaves; and that in the end when this should come to pass, they should cry out because of their King, but the Lord would not hear them verse. 11-18, All which, as it is palpable in itself, so we have sensibly felt in our experience to be the Natural description of Tyranny, but more tolerable than an account of ours would amount to. It is both foolishly & falsely alleged, by Royalists or Tyrannists, that here is a grant of incontroulable absoluteness to Kings to Tyrannise over the people without resistence, And that this manner of the King is in the Original Mishphat, which signifies right or Law, So that here was a permissive Law given to Kings to Tyrannise, and to oblige people to passive obedience, without any remedy but tears, And therefore it was registered & laid up before the Lord in a book 1 Sam 10. 25. But I answer. 1. If anything be here granted to Kings, it is either by God's Approbation, directing & instructing how they should govern; or it is only by permission & providential Commission to them, to be a plague to the people for their sin of choosing them, to make them drink as they have brewed, as sometimes He gave a Charge to the Assyrian rod to trample them down as the mire of the streets: If the first be said, Then a King that does not govern after that manner, and so does not make people cry out for their oppression, would came short of his duty, and all behooved to Tyrannize and make the people cry out; then a King may take what He will from his subjects, and be approved of God: this were blasphemously absurd, for God cannot approve of the sin of oppression. If the Second be said, then it cannot be an universal Grant, or otherwise all Kings must be ordained for plagnes; And if so, it were better we wanted such nursing fathers. 2. Though Mishphat signifies right or Law, yet it signifies also, and perhaps no less frequently, Manner, Course, or Custom: And here it cannot signify the Law of God, for all these Acts of Tyranny are contrary to the Law of God; for to make Servants of subjects is contrary to the Law of God Deut. 17. 20. forbidding to lift up himself so far above his brethren, but this was to deal with them as a proud Pharaoh; to take so many for Chariots & horsemen, is also contrary to the Law Deut. 17. 15. he shall not multiply horses: to take their fields & vineyards, is mere Robbery, contrary to the Moral & Judicial Law, whereof he was to have alwise a Copy verse. 18. And contrary to Ezek. 46. 18. The Prince shall not take of the people's inheritance &c. This would justify Ahab's taking Naboth's vineyard, which yet the Lord accounted Robbery, and for which Tyrants are called Companions of Thieves Isai. 1. 23. & Robbers Isai. 42. 24. into whose hands the Lord sometimes may give His people for a spoil in Judicial providence, but never with His Approbation & grant of right: to make them cry out, • s oppression, which the Lord abhors Isai. 5. 7, 8. And if this be all the remedy, it is none; for it is such a Cry, as the Lord threatens He will not hear. 3. It is false that this manner of the King was registered in that Book mentioned 1 Sam. 10. 25. for that was the Law of the Kingdom, accordingly the Copy of which the King was to have for his instruction, containing the fundamental Laws, point blank contrary to this which was the manner of the King: There is a great difference between the Manner of the Kingdom, what ought to be observed as Law, and the Manner of the King what he would have as lust. Would Samuel write in a Book the rules of Tyranny, to teach to oppress, contrary to the Law of God? He says himself he would only teach both King & people the good & the right way, Sam. 12. 23, 25. 4. Nothing can be more plain, than that this was a mere dissuasive against seeking a King; for he protests against this Course, and then lays before them what sort of King he should be, in a description of many acts of Tyranny, and yet in end its said verse. 19. Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel, and said, Nay but we will have a King. Now what else was the voice of Samuel, than a disuasion? I am not here levelling this Argument against Monarchy in the abstract, that does not lie in my road. But I infer from hence. 1. If God was displeased with this people for asking & owning a King, who was only Tyrannus in fieri, and dissuades from the choice by a description of his future Tyranny; Then Certainly He was displeased with them when they continued owning him, when a Tyrant in facto esse, according to that description: But the former is true, Therefore also the latter. The Consequence is clear; for Continuing in sin is sin; but continuing in owning that Tyrant which was their sin at first, was a continuing in sin: Ergo —The Minor is confirmed thus: Continuing in counteracting the Motives of God's disuasion, especially when they are sensibly visible, is a Continuing in sin: But their Continuing in owning Saul after he became a Tyrant, was a Continuing in counteracting the Motives of God's disuasion, when they were sensibly visible. I do not say, because it was their sin to ask Soul, therefore it was not Lawful to own him, while he ruled as a Magistrate; And so if Charles the second had ruled righteously, it would not have been sin to own him: but after the Lord uses disswasives from a choice of such a one, and these are signally verified, if it was sin to make the choice, then it must be sin to keep it. 2. If it was their sin to seek & set up such a one before he was Tyrant, who yet was admitted upon Covenant terms, and the manner of it registered; Then much more is it a sin to seek & set up one, after he declared himself a Tyrant, and to admit him without any terms at all, or for any to consent or give their suffrage to such a deed: But the former is true: Therefore the latter: and Consequently, to give our consent to the erection of the D. of Y. by owning his Authority, were our sin. 3. If it be a sin to own the manner of the King there described, then it is a sin to own the present pretended Authority, which is the exact transumpt of it: But it is a sin to own the manner of the King there described, or else it would never have been used as a dissuasive from seeking such a King. 4. To bring ourselves under such a burden which the Lord will not remove, and involve ourselves under such a misery wherein the Lord will not hear us, is certainly a sin verse. 18. But to own or choose such a King, whose manner is there described, would bring ourselves under such a burden & misery, wherein the Lord would not hear us: Ergo it were our sin.
4. We may add the necessary Qualifications of Magistrates, which the Lord requires to be in all, both Superior & Inferior: And thence it may be inserred, that such pretended Rulers who neither have nor can have these Qualifications are not to be owned as Magistrates, no more than such are to be owned as Ministers who have no qualifications for such a function. We find their essentially necessary qualifications particularly described. Iethros Counsel was God's Counsel & Command; That Rulers must be able men, such as fear God, men of Truth, hating Covetousness Exod. 18. 21. Tyrants & Usurpers have none nor can have any of these qualifications, except that they may have ability of force, which is not here meant; but that they be Morally able for the discharge of their duty: Surely they cannot fear God; nor be men of Truth, for then they would not be Tyrants. It is God's direction, that the man to be advanced & assumed to Rule, must be a man in whom is the Spirit Numb. 27. 18. as is said of Joshua: what Spirit this was, Deut. 34. 9. explains, He was full of the Spirit of Wisdom, that is, the Spirit of Government; not the Spirit of infernal or Jesuitical Policy, which Tyrants may have, but they cannot have the true Regal Spirit, but such a Spirit as Saul had when he turned Tyrant, an evil Spirit from the Lord. Moses saith: they must be wise men & understanding and known among the tribes, Deut. 1. 13. for if they be Children or fools, they are plagues & punishments Isai. 3. 2, 3, 4. &c. not Magistrates, who are alwise blessings. And they must be known men of intergrity, not known to be knaves or fools, as all Tyrants are always. The Law of the King is, Deut, 17. 15. he must be one of the Lord's choosing. Can Tyrants & Usurpers be such? No they are set up, but not by Him Hos. 8. 4. he must be a brother & not a stranger, that is, of the same Nation and of the same Religion: for though infidelity does not make void a Magistrates Authority, yet both by the Law of God & man, he ought not to be chosen who is an enemy to Religion & Liberty: Now it were almost treason, to call the Tyrant a brother; and I am sure it is no reason, for he disdains it, being absolute above all. That good Kings Testament confirms this, the God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake, he that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God 2 Sam. 23. 3. But Tyrants & Usurpers cannot be just; for if they should render everyone their right, they would keep none to themselves, but behooved to resign their Robberies in the first place, and then also they must give the Law its course, and that against themselves. These Scriptures indeed do not prove, that all Magistrates are in all their Administrations so qualified, nor that none ought to be owned but such as are so qualified in all respects. But as they demonstrate what they ought to be, so they prove that they cannot be Magistrates of God's ordaining who have none of these qualifications: But Tyrants & Usurpers have none of these qualifications. Much more do they prove that they cannot be owned to be Magistrates, who are not capable of any of these qualifications: But Usurpers are not capable of any of these qualifications. At least they conclude, in so far as they are not so qualfied, they ought not to be owned but disouned: But Tyrants & Usurpers are not so qualified in anything: therefore in anything they are not to be owned but disouned: for in nothing they are so qualified as the Lord prescribes.
Secondly, I shall offer some reasons from Scripture Assertions.
1. It is strongly Asserted in Elihu's speech to Job, that he that hateth right should not govern. Where he is charging Job with blasphemy, in accusing God of injustice; of which he vindicates the Almighty, in Asserting His Sovereignty & Absolute Dominion, which is inconsistent with injustice: and shows both that if He be Sovereign He cannot be unjust, and if He be unjust He could not be Sovereign: which were horrid Blasphemy to deny. And in the demonstration of this, he gives one Maxim in a question, which is equivalent to an universal negative Job. 34. 17, 18. Shall even he that hateth right govern? and wilt thow condemn him that is most just? Is it fit to say to a King, thow art wicked? and to Princes, ye are ungodly? In which Words, the Scope makes it clear, that if Job made God a hater of right, he should then deny His Government; and if he took upon him to condemn Him of injustice, he should blasphemously deny Him to be King of the World. For it is not fit to say to any King, that he is wicked, or so ungodly as to be a hater of right; for that were treason, Lese-Majesty, and in effect a denying him to be King: much less is it fit to say to Him that is King of Kings. Here then it is affirmed, & supposed to hold good of all Governors, that he that hateth right should not govern, or bind, as it is in the Margent; for • abash signifies both to bind and to Govern, but all to one sense, for Governors only can bind subjects Authoritatively, with the bonds of Laws & Punishments. I know the following Words are alleged, to favor the incontroulableness & absoluteness of Princes, that it is not fit to say to them, they are wicked. But plain it is, the words do import treason against Lawful Kings, whom to call haters of right were to call their Kingship in question; as the Scope shows, in that these words are adduced to Justify the Sovereignty of God by His Justice, and to confute any indirect charging Him with injustice because that would derogate from His Kingly Glory, it being impossible He could be King & unjust too. So in some Analogy, though every act of injustice do not unking a Prince; yet to call him wicked, that is habitually unjust, and a hater of Justice, were as much as to say, he is no King, which were intolerable treason against Lawful Kings. But this is no treason against Tyrants: for Truth & Law can be no treason; now this is the language of Truth & Law, that wicked Kings are wicked; And they that are wicked & ungodly ought to be called so, as Samuel called Saul, and Elijah Ahab &c. However it will hold to be a true Maxim, whether we express it by way of Negation or Interrogation. Shall even he that hateth right Govern? But are not Tyrants & Usurpers haters of right? shall therefore they Govern? I think it must be answered, they should not Govern. If then they should not Govern, I infer, they should not be owned as Governors. For if it be their sin to Govern (right or wrong, its all one case, for they should not Govern at all) then it is our sin to own them in their Government: for it is alwise a sin to own a man in his sinning.
2. The Royal Prophet, or whoever was the Penman of that Appeal for Justice against Tyranny Psal. 94. 20. does tacitly Assert the same truth, in that Expostulation, shall the Throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, that frameth mischief by a Law? which is as much as if he had said, the Throne of iniquity shall not, no cannot have fellowship with God; that is, it cannot be the Throne of God that He hath any Interest in, or Concern with, by way of approbation: He hath nothing to do with it, except it be to suffer it a while, till He take vengeance on it in the end. And shall we have fellowship with that Throne, that God hath no fellowship with, and that is not His Throne but the Devils, as it must be, if God doth not own it? Much may be argued from hence, but in a word: A Throne which is not of God nor ordained of God, but rather of the Devil, cannot be owned (for that is the reason of our subjection to any power, because it is of God and ordained of God Rom. 13. 1. And that is the great dignity of Magistracy, that its Throne is the Throne of God 1 Chron. 29. 23.) But a Throne of Tyrannie & usurpation is a Throne which is not of God, nor ordained of God, but rather of the Devil: Ergo —the Minor is proved: A Throne of iniquity &c. is a Throne which is not of God, nor ordained of God, but rather of the Devil: But a Throne of Tyranny & usurpation is a Throne of iniquity: Ergo it is not of God & so not to be owned.
3. The Lord charges it upon Israel as a transgression of His Covenant, & trespass against His Law, that they had set up Kings & not by Him and had made Princes and He knew it not Hos. 8. 4. and then taxes them with Idolatry, which ordinarily is the Consequent of it, as we have reason to fear will be in our case. He shows there the Apostasy of that people, in changing both the Ordinances of the Magistracy and of the Ministry, both of the Kingdom & of the priest-hood, in which two the safety of that people was founded: So they overturned all the order of God, and openly declared they would not be governed by the hand of God, as Calvin upon the place expounds it. Whereas the Lord had commanded, if they would set up Kings they should set none up but whom He chose Deut. 17. 15. yet they had no regard to this, nor consulted Him in their admission of Kings, but set them up and never let Him to wit of it, without His knowledge, that is, without consulting Him, and without His approbation, for it can have no other sense. I know it is alleged by several Interpreters, that here is meant the tribes secession from the house of David, and their setting up Jeroboam. I shall confess that the ten tribes did sin in that erection of Jeroboam, without respect to the Counsel or Command of God, without waiting on the vocation of God, as to the time & manner, and without Covenanting with him for security for their Religion & Liberty: But that their secession from David's line, which by no precept or promise of God they were astricted to, but only conditionally, if his Children should walk in the ways of God, Or that their erecting of Jeroboam was materially their sin, I must deny; and assert, that if Jeroboam had not turned Tyrant & Apostate from God (for which they should have rejected him afterwards and returned to the good Kings of David's line) he would have been as Lawful a King as any in Judah, for he got the Kingdom from the Lord the same way, and upon the same terms that David did, as may be seen expressly in 1 King. 11. 38. It must be therefore meant, either generally of all Tyrants whom they would set up without the Lord's mind, as at first they would have Kings on any terms, though they should prove Tyrants, as we have seen in Saul's case. Or particularly Omri whom they set up, but not by the Lord 1 King. 16. 16. And Abab his Son, And Shallum, Menahem, Pekah &c. who were all set up by blood & treachery, the same way that our Popish Duke is now set up, but not by the Lord, that is by His approbation. Hence I argue, those Kings that are not owned of God, nor set up by Him, must not be owned by us (for we can own none for Kings but those that reign by Him Prov. 8. 15. and are ordained of Him Rom. 13. 1.) But Tyrants & Usurpers are not owned of God as Kings, nor are set up by Him: Ergo —Again if it be a sin to set up Kings and not by God, then it is a sin to own them when set up: for, that is a partaking of & continuing in the sin of that erection, and hath as much affinity with it, as resetting hath with thieft; for if they be the thieves, they are the ressetters who receive them & own them.
4. The Prophet Habakkuk, in his Complaint to God of the Chaldean Tyranny, Asserts that God hath made the righteous, as the Fishes of the Sea, as the Creeping things, that have no Ruler over them, Habak. 1. 14. Now how were they said to be without a Ruler, when the Chaldean actually commanded & absolutely ruled over them? yea how can the Fishes & Reptiles have no Ruler over them? If Domineering be ruling, they want not that; when the weaker are over-mastered by the stronger, and by them made either to be subject: ar to become their prey. But the meaning is, these Creatures have no Ruler over them by order of nature: And the Jews had then no Ruler over them by order of Law, or ordination from God, or any that was properly their Magistrate by Divine Institution, or human orderly constitution. We see then it is one thing for a people to have an arbitrary or enthra • ing Tyranny, another to have true Magistracy or Authority to be owned over them, without which Kingdoms are but as Mountains of prey, and Seas of Confusion. Hence I argue, If the Jews, having the Chaldean Monarch tyrannizing over them, had really no Ruler over them, then is a Tyrant & Usurper not to be owned for a Ruler: But the former is true: therefore also the Latter.
5, Our Savior Christ delivers this as a Commonly received & a true Maxim, John. 8. 54. He that honoreth himself his honor is nothing. The Jews had objected that He had only made himself Messias, verse. 53. To whom He answers by way of concession, if it were so indeed then His Claims were void, If I honor myself my honor is nothing: And then claims an indubitable title to His dignity, It is my Father that honoreth me. Here is a twofold honor distinguished, the one real the other suppositious & null, the one renounced the other owned by Christ, Self-honor & honor which is from God. Hence I argue, A self created dignity is not to be owned: the Authority of Tyrants & Usurpers is a self created dignity: Ergo —this was confirmed above.
Thirdly I shall offer some other considerations confirming this truth, from those Scriptures which I class among precepts. And these I find of diverse sorts touching this subject.
1. I show before that the greatest of men, even Kings, are not exempted from punishment and Capital punishment, if guilty of Capital Crimes: for where the Law distinguisheth not, we ought not to distinguish. There is one special & very peremptory Law, given before the Law for regulating Kings, which by that posterior Law was neither abrogated nor limited even as to Kings, Deut. 13. 6-9. If thy Brother (and a King must be a Brother Deut. 17. 15.)— entice the secretly saying let us go & serve other God's—Thow shalt not consent unto him nor hearken unto him neither shall thine eye pity him. How famous Mr Knox improved this Argument, is shown in the third Period. That which I take notice of here is only, that Kings are not excepted from this Law, but if they be open Intycers to Idolatry, by force or fraud, Persecution or Tolleration, as this Idolater now reigning is palpably doing, they are obnoxious to a legal animadversion. As it cannot be supposed, that Secret Intycers should be liable to punishment, and not open Avouchers of a desire & design to pervert all the Nation to Idolatry: that a private perverter of one man, though never so nearly & dearly related, should be pursued & brought to condign punishment, and a public Subverter of whole Nations, and Introducer of a false & blasphemous Idolatrous Religion, should escape Scot-free. Let the punishment inflicted be in a Judicial way, and of what measures it pleases the Judge to determine, I shall not controvert here; Only I plead, that Idolatrous Tyrants are not excepted from this Law: and infer, that if they ought to be punished they ought to be deposed; And if they ought to be deposed, they cannot be owned, when undeniably, guilty of this Capital Crime, as was urged above. To this I may add that part of that Prophetical Kings Testament; who being about to leave the world, under some Challenges of Mal-administration in his own Government (for which he took himself to the well ordered everlasting Covenant, for pardon & encouragement) after he had shown what Rulers should be, he threatens, by Antithesis, Tyrannical • pretenders, in these severe words, which do also imply a precept, and a direction how to deal with them 2 Sam 23. 6, 7. But they of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away, because they cannot be taken with hands, but the man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron & the staff of a spear, and they shall be utterly burnt with fire in the same place. Let these words be understood as a threatening against all the wicked in general, who ars to bequenched as the fire of thorns; or particularly of the Promoters of Antichrists Kingdom, in opposition to Christ's, as some Interpreters judge; it will not weaken but confirm my Argument, if Kings who are ringleaders of that gang be not excepted. I know some do understand this of Rebells against righteous Rulers: which though indeed it be a truth, that they that are such should be so served, and roughly handled with iron and the staff of a spear; yet it is not so consonant to the scope & connection of this place, showing the Characters of righteous Rulers and of usurping Tyrants, making an opposition between Rulers that are just ruling in the fear of God, and those that are Rulers of Belial, promising blessings upon the Government of the one & contempt & Rejection to the other, and showing how both should be carried towards: Neither does it aggree with the words themselves, where the supplement in our translation is redundant; for it is not in the Hebrw, the sons of Belial, only They of Belial, clearly relative to the Rulers of whom he was speaking before. And indeed the word Belial, in its Etymology is not more applicable to any than to Tyrants; for it comes from beli, non, and Hhall supra, because they will have none above them, or from beli non and Hhol jugum, because they cannot suffer a yoke, but cast away the yoke of Laws and the yoke of Christ, saying, let us burst His bands &c. Nor is it always aggreeable to truth, to understand it only of Rebells against righteous Rulers, that they can never be taken with hands: For as very rarely righteous Rulers have any Rebells, to be the objects of their rigor & rage; So when there are any, discreet & wise Rulers will find many ways to take & touch them, and quash or quiet them. But it is alwise true of Tyrants, for they can never be taken with hands, neither in a friendly manner, taken by the hand and transacted with in any bargain as other men, for they that would do so will find them like pricking & jagging briars, which a man cannot handle without hurt to himself; Nor can they be any other way repressed or restrained or touched, but by hands fenced with iron, that is, with the sword of necessity, or ax of Justice. And this is insinuated as duty, so to endeavor to exstirpate & eradicate such thorns, as pester the Common-wealth: but if it cannot be done, it must be duty & wisdom both not to medle with them, nor own them, no more than Jotham, who would not subject himself nor come under the shadow of the bastard bramble. I confess it is commonly taken as a threatening of the Lord's Judgment against these Sons of Belial: And so it is. But it teacheth also what men are called to, when they have to do with such, to wit, to take the same course with them as they would to clear the ground of thorns & briars. And that it is restricted to the Lord's immediate way of taking them off, is not credible: For, it can have no tolerable sense to say, they shall be thrust away because they cannot be taken with the Lord's hands: Neither is there need, that He should be fenced with iron &c. And let iron &c. be taken tropically for the Lord's sword of vengeance; yet how can it be understood, that He must be fenced there with? or that He will trust them away, as a man must be fenced against thorns? What defense needs the Lord against Tyrants? It is only then intelligible, that the Lord in His righteous Judgment will make use of men & legal means, and of those who cannot take them with hands, in His Judicial procedure against them. Hence I argue, If Tyrants are to be dealt with as thorns, that cannot be taken with hands, but to be thrust away by violence, Then, when we are not in case to thrust them away, we must let them alone, and not medle nor make with them, and so must not own them, for we cannot own them withount meddling, and without being pricked to our hurt: But the former is true: Ergo —Of this same nature, another threatening confuting the pretence of Princes impunity, may be subjoined out of Psal. 82. 6, 7. I have said ye are God's, and all of yow are Children of the most High, but ye shall die like men & fall as one of the Princes. From which words, the learned Author of the History of the Douglasses, Mr David Hume of God's craft, in his discourse upon Mr Craigs Sermon upon the words, doth strongly prove, that the Scope is to beat off all Kings, Princes, & Rulers, from the conceit of impunity for their Tyrannical Dominations; that they must not think to Domineer and do what they list, and overturn the foundations or fundamental Laws of Kingdoms, because they are gods; as if they were thereby incontrolable, and above all Law & punishment: no, they must know, that if they be guilty of the same transgressions of the Law, as other Capital offenders, they shall die like other men, & fall as Princes who have been formerly punished. It is not to be restricted to a threatening of Mortality; for that is unavoidable, whether they Judge justly or unjustly, and the fear thereof usually hath little efficacy to deter men from Crimes punishable by Law: Neither can it be understood only of the Lord's immediate hand taking them away, exclusive of men's legal punishment; for expressly they are threatened to die like Common men, and to be liable to the like punishment with them: Now common men are not only lyabl to the Lord's immediate Judgment, but also to men's punishment. Hence, if Tyrants and overturners of the foundations of the earth, must be punished as other men, then when they are such they cannot be looked upon as righteous Rulers, for righteous Rulers must not be punished: But the former is true: Ergo —According to these Scriptures, which either express or imply a precept to have no respect to Princes in Judgment when turning Criminalls, we find examples of the people's punishing Amazia &c. which is recorded without a challenge, and likewise Athaliah.
2. There is a Precept given to a humbled people, that have groaned long under the yoke of Tyranny & oppression, enjoining them, as a proof of their sincerity in humiliation, to bestir themselves in shaking off those evils they had procured by their sin. Isai. 58. 6. Is not this the fast that I have ch • sen, to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? which are all good works of Justice & Mercy, and more acceptable to God than high flown pretences of humiliation, under a stupid submission; and hanging down the head as a bulrush. We see it then a duty to relieve the oppressed, and to repress Tyranny, and break its yoke. If it be Objected (1) That these are Spiritual bonds & yokes, that are here commanded to be loosed & broken; or if any external be meant, they are only the yokes of their exactions & usuries. For Ans. I grant, that it is the great duty of a people humbling themselves before the Lord, to break off their sins by righteousness and their iniquity by showing mercy to the poor Dan. 4. 27. but that this is the only duty I deny; or that this is the genuine & only sense of this place, cannot be proved, or approved by the Scope; which is, to press them to those duties they omitted, whereby the poor oppressed people of God might be freed from the yokes of them that made them to howl, and to bring them to the conviction of those sins for which the Lord was contending with them, whereof this was one, that they exacted all their Labors, or things wherewith others were grieved (as the Margent reads) or suffered the poor to be oppressed. (2) If it be alleged, that this is the duty proper to Rulers to relieve the oppressed &c. I Answer, It is so; but not peculiar to them: yet most commonly they are the oppressors themselves, and cast out the poor, which others must take in to their houses. But the duty here is pressed upon all the people, whose sins are here cried out against ( verse. 1.) upon all who professed the service of God, & asked the ordinances of Justice ( verse. 2) upon all who were fasting & humbling themselves, and complained they had no success ( verse. 3.) the reasons whereof the Lord discovers ( verse. 4. 5.) whereof this was one, that they did not loose those bands, nor break these yokes, nor relieved the oppessed; And those works of Justice ( verse. 6.) are pressed upon the same grounds, that the works of mercy are pressed upon ( verse. 7.) sure these are not all nor only Rulers. Hence I argue, If it be a duty to break every yoke of oppression & Tyranny, then it is a duty to come out from under their subjection: But the former is true: therefore aso the latter.
3. In answer to that grand objection of the Jews subjection to Nebuchadnezzar, I show what little weight or force there is in it. And here I shall take an Argument from that same Passage. The Lord commands His people there, to desert & disoune zedekiah who was the possessor of the Government at present, and says, it was the way of life to fall to the Chaldeans Ier. 21. 8, 9. which was a falling away from the present King. Either this commanded subjection to the Chaldeans is an universal precept; or it is only particular at that time. If it be universal, obliging people to subject themselves to every Conqueror, then it is also universal obliging people to renounce & disoune every Covenant-breaking tyrant, as here they were to fall away from Zedekiah: If it be only particular, then the ouners of of Tyranny have no advantage from this passage. And I have advantage, so far as the ground of the precept is as moral, as the reason of that punishment of zedekias, which was his perfidy & perjury. Hence, if the Lord hath commanded to disoune a King breaking Covenant, then at least it is not insolent or unprecedented to do so: But here the Lord hath commanded to disoune a King: Ergo —
Fourthly we may have many Confirmations of this truth, from Scripture practices approven.
1. I was but hinting before, how that after the death of that brave Captain & Judge Gideon, when Abimelech the son of his whore, did first aspire into a Monarchy, which he persuaded the silly Schechemites to consent to, by the same Argument which Royalists make so much of, for asserting the necessity of an Hereditary Monarchy [ whether is it better for yow either that all the sons of Jerubbaa • —reign over yow or that one reign over yow. ] & by bloody cruelty did usurp a Monarchical or rather Tyrannical Throne of Domination, founded upon the blood of his seventy brethren (as we know, whose Throne is founded upon the blood of all the brethren he had) Jotham, who escaped, s •• rned to put his trust under the shadow of such a bramble, and they that did submit, • ound his parable verified, a mu •• all fire reciprocally consuming both the usurping King and his traitorous subjects: Neither did all the Godly in Israel submit to him. See Pool Synops. Critic. on the place Iud. 9. Here is one express example of disouning a Tyrant & Usurper.
2. I show before, how after the Period of that Theocracy, which the Lord had maintained & managed for some time in great mercy & Majesty in & over His people, they, itching after novelties and affecting to be neighbor-like, rejected the Lord in desiring a King; And the Lord permiting it, gave them a King in His wrath (the true Original & only Sanction of Tyrannical Monarchy) when the Characters of his Tyranny, presaged by Samuel, were verified in his aspiring into a great deal of absoluteness, especially in his cruel persecuting of David; not only the 600 men that were David's followers stood out in open opposition to him, but in the end, being weary of his Government, many brave & valiant men, whom the Spirit of God commends & describes very honourably, fell off from Saul, even while he was actually Tyrannising, before he was dead 1 Chron. 12. 1. &c. They came to David to Ziklag while he yet kept himself close because of Saul the son of Kish (N. B. now he is not honored with the name of King) they were armed with bows and could use both the right hand & the left. And of the Gadites, there separated themselves unto David men of might fit for the battle, that could handle shield & buckler, whose • aces were as the faces of lions verse. 8. And the Spirit came upon Amasai chief of the Captains, saying, Thine are we David & on thy side thow son of Jesse. Here was a formed Revolt from Saul unto David before he was King, for after this he was made King in Hebron, and there could not be two Kings at once. Hence I argue, if people may separate themselves from and take part with the Resister, against a Tyrant; then they may disoune him (for if they own him still to be the Minister of God, they must not resist him Rom. 13. 2.) But here is an example that many people did separate themselves from Saul and took part with the Resister David: Ergo —Here two of the first Monarchs of Israel were disouned, Abimelech & Saul.
3. The first Hereditary Successor was likewise disouned, as was hinted above likewise. The ten tribes offer to Covenant with Rehoboam, in terms securing their Rights & Liberties. They desired nothing on the matter, but that he would engage to rule over them according to the Law of God; To which when he answered most Tyrannically, and avowed he would Tyrannise over them, and oppress them more than any of his Predicessors, they fell away from him, and erected themselves into a new Common-wealth 1 King. 12. 16. So when Israel saw that the King hearkened not unto them, they answered, what portion have we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse, to your tents O Israel, now see to thine own house David 2 Chron. 10. 16. Now, however the event of this declared Revolt proved sorrowful, when they and their new King made defection unto Idolatry, yet if they had stated & managed it right, the Cause was good, justifyable, & commendable. For (1) We find nothing in all the Text condemning this (2) On the Contrary its expressly said, the Cause was from the Lord, that He might perform His saying which He spake by Ahijah 1 King. 12. 15. 2 Chron. 10. 15. And (3) When Rehoboam was preparing to pursue his pretended right, he was reproved & discharged by Shemaiah, ye shall not go up nor fight against your brethren, for this thing is from me 1 King. 12. 24. 2 Chron. 11. 4. (4) Whereas it is alleged by some, that this was of God only by His providence, and not by His Ordinance; the contrary will appear, if we consider, how formally & Covenant-wise the Lord gave ten tribes to Jeroboam 1 King. 11. 35, 37, 38. I will take the Kingdom out of his sons hand, and I will give it unto thee, even ten tribes; And I will take thee, and thow shalt reign according to all that thy soul desireth, and shall be King over Israel; And it shall be, if thow wilt hearken unto all that I command thee, and will walk in my ways and do that which is right in my sight, to keep my statutes & my commandments, as David my servant did, that I will be with thee & build thee a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel unto thee. Where we see, the Kingdom was given unto him on the same Terms & conditions, that it was given to David. He may indeed give Kingdoms to whom He wi • , by Providential grant, as unto Nebuchadnezzar and others; but He never gave them a Kingdom upon these Conditions, and by way of Covenant, that does always imply & import His Word, Warrant, & ordinance (5) If we consider the Cause of the Revolt, we will find it very just: for after the decease of the former King, they enter upon terms of a Compact with the successor, upon a suspensive condition, to engage into fealty & Allegiance to him as subjects, if he would give them security for their Liberties & Privileges. A very Lawful, Laudable & necessary transaction, founded upon Moral equity, & upon the fundamental Constitutions of that Government, and suitable to the constant practice of their Predicessors in their Covenanting with Saul & David. As for that Word 1 King. 12. 19. So Israel Rebelled against the house of David: It is no more then in the margent, they fell away or revolted; And no more to be condemned, then Hezekiah's Rebellion 2 King. 18. 7. The Lord was with him, and he Rebelled against the King of Assyria. That was a good Rebellion. Hence, If it be Lawful for a part of the people to shake off the King, refuse subjection to him, and set up a new King of their own, when he resolveth to play the Tyrant, and rule them after his own absolute power; then it is a duty, when he actually plays the Tyrant, and by his absolute power overturns Laws & Religion, and claims by Law such a prerogative: But the former is true: Ergo—See Ius Pepuli vindic. chap. 3. Pag 52.
4. This same Jeroboam, when he turned Tyrant & Idolater, was revolted from and deserted by the Priests & the Levites, and after them out of all the tribes of Israel, by all such as set their heart to seek the Lord God of Israel; because that King, degenerating into Tyranny & Idolatry, had put them from the exercise of their office & Religion (as our Charles did, and ordained him Priests for the Devils & for the Calves: So they returned to Rehoboam, being induced by his administration of the Government, which for a time was better then he promised, for three years he walked in the ways of David & Solomon 2 Chron. 11. 13-17. Hence I argue, If Idolatrous Tyrants may be deserted, then they may be disouned; for when they desert them, they disoune them abroad, in coming under another Government; and if they may be disouned abroad, it is the same duty at home, though may be not the same Policy or Prudence.
5. Another example of the like nature we have in the reign of Baasha, who succeeded to Nadab Jereboam's son, whom he slew & reigned in his stead (the same way that the Duke came to the Throne) For he could not keep his subjects within his Kingdom, but behooved to build Ramah, that he might not suffer any to go out or come in to Asa. King of Judah, a good Prince, 1 King 15. 17. yet that could not hinder them, but many strangers out of Ephraim & Manasseh & Simeon fell to him in abundance, when they saw that the Lord his God was with him 2 Chron. 15. 9. Hence, If people may choose another King, when they see the Lord is with him, then they may disoune their Country King, when they see the Devil is with him.
6. When Jehoram the son of Ahab reigned over Israel, we have an express example of Elisha's disouning him 2 King. 3. 14. 15. And Elisha said unto the King of Israel, what have I to do with thee? — As the Lord of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the King of Judah, I would not look toward thee nor see thee, Here he declares so much contempt of him, and so little regard, that he disdains him a look. And if he would not regard him, nor give him honor, then he did not own him as King; for all Kings are to be honored, that are owned to be Kings really. It may be alleged by some: that Elisha was an extraordinary man, and this was an extraordinary action, and therefore not imitable. I shall grant it so far extraordinary, that it is not Usual to carry so to persons of that figure, and that indeed there are few Elisha's now, not only for his Prophetick Spirit which now is ceased, but even in respect of his Gracious Spirit of zeal, which in a great measure is now extinguished: He was indeed an extraordinary man, and this Action did demonstrate much of the Spirit of Elias, to have been abiding with him. But that this was unimitable, these reasons induce me to deny. (1) Prophets were subject to Kings as well as others, as Nathan was to David (1 King. 1. 32, 33.) every soul must be subject to the higher powers that are of God (2) All the Actions of Prophets were not extraordinary, nor did they everything by extraordinary inspiration; that was peculiar to Christ, that He could Prophecy & do extraordinary acts when He pleased, because He received the Spirit not by measure, and it rested upon Him. (3) this particular Action & carriage was before he called for the Minstrel, and before the hand of the Lord came upon him verse. 15. Ergo this was not by inspiration. (4) The ground of this was Moral & Ordinary, for hereby he only shown himself to be a person fit to abide in the Lord's Tabernacle, and an upright walker in whose eyes a vile person is contemned, Psal. 15. 4. and a just man, to whom the unjust is an abomination Prov. 29. 27. What further can be aledged against this instance, I see not. And I need draw no Argument by Consequence, it is so plain.
7. This same Jehoram, after many signal demonstrations of the power of God exerted in the Ministry of His Servant Elisha, which sometimes did extort his acknowledgment and made him call the Prophet his father, 2 King. 6. 21. yet when in the strait siege of Samaria he was plagued with famine for his Idolatry, in so much that the pitiful Mothers were made to eat their own tender Children; became so insolent a Tyrant, that being incensed into a madness of outrageous malice against the Prophet Elisah, that he sware, God do so to him & more also if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat should stand on him that day, accordingly he sent a messenger to execute it. But the Prophet, from a Principle of Nature & Reason & Law, as well as Grace, and by the Spirit of a man as well as of a Prophet, stood upon his defense, and encouraged those that were with him to keep out the house against him, saying, See ye how this son of a Murderer (a proper style for such a Monster of a King) hath sent to take away mine head ... 2 King. 6. 32. This is a strong Argument for self defense, but I improve it thus: If Tyrants may be opposed as sons of Murderers, & Murderers themselves, and no otherwise to be accounted then under such a vile Character, then can they not be owned as Kings: But here is an example for the first: Ergo —
8. This man's brother in Law, of the same name, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, who had the Daughter of Ahab to wife, and therefore walked in the way of the house of Ahab, gives us another instance. He turned Apostate & Tyrant, and Abimelech -like (or if yow will Yorklike) slew his brethren, and diverse also of the Princes of Israel; Moreover he made high places in the Mountains of Judah, and caused the Inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit • ornication, and compelled Judah thereto: For which Cause of his intolerable insolency in wickedness, Libnah one of the Cities of Priests in Judah, Revolted from him 2 King. 8. 22. because he had forsaken the Lord God of his fathers 2 Chron. 21. 10. which was the motive & impulsive Cause of their disouning him, and is not to be detorted to that restricted Cavil of Royalists, understanding it only as the Meritorous or procuring Cause of his punishment & loss sustained thereby; for it is not so said of the Edomites who revolted at the same time, as it is mentioned in another Paragraph; Neither of the Philistines & Arabians & Ethiopians, whose spirit the Lord stirred up against him; These were also a punishment to him: Nor would it found very suitably to be said, that they opposed him because he had forsaken the Lord God of his fathers: for that would insinuate some influence that his Apostasy had on them, as certainly it could not but have on the Lord's Priests that dwelt in Libnah, who understood by the Law of God, what was their duty to do with Intycers or Drawers or Drivers to Idolatry: And when they were not in capacity to execute the Judgment of the Lord, this was the least they could do, to Revolt. Here then is an example of a Peoples Revolt from a Prince, and disouning Allegiance to him because of Apostasy & Tyranny.
9. In this Kingdom of Judah, after long experience of a Succession of Hereditary Tyranny in many wicked Kings, the people after they had long smarted for their lazy Loyaltie in their stupid abandoning, forgetting, & foregoing this Privilege of disouning Tyrants, and keeping them in order, began at length to bestir themselves in their endeavors to recover their lost Liberties, and repress Tyrants Insolencies on several occasions. Wherein, though sometimes there were extravagances, when Circumstances did mar the Justice of the Action, and some did go beyond their sphere in tumultuary precipitations; yet upon the matter it was Justice, and in conformity to a Moral Command. One impregnable witness of this we have, in the pious Plot of Jehoiada the Priest, who being but a Subject, as all Priests were (as the deposition of Abiathar by King Solomon 1 King. 2. 27. proveth) entered into an Association with the inferior Rulers, to choose & make a new King; and notwithstanding that the Idolatress & She-Tyrant Athaliab, who had the Possession of the Government, cried Treason, Treason at the fact, they had her forth without the ranges, & slew her 2 King. 11. 14-16. This was according to the Law Deut. 13. And approven by all Interpreters, even Mr Pool in his Synopsis Critic. though alias Superlatively Loyal, yet approves of this, and says, she was an incurable Idolatress, and therefore deserved to be deposed by the Nobles of the Kingdom: And quotes Grotius in Loc. saying [she reigned by mere force & no right, and therefore justly repressed by force, for the Hebrews were to have Brethren for their Kings but not Sisters, Deut. 17. 15.] Hence if Tyrants may be forcibly repressed, then may they peaceably be disouned: But this example comfirms that: Ergo —
10. The Sacred History proceeds in the Relation, how this same Joash, the Son of Ahaziah, after he degenerated into Murdering Tyranny, was slain by Jozachar & Jehozabad 2 King. 12. 20, 21. But that was by his own Servants in private Assassination; therefore they are called Murderers by Amaziah his Son 2 King. 14. 5, 6. but upon the matter it was the Justice of God, which he deserved (if it had been duly execute) for the blood of the Sone of Jehoiada the Priest 2 Chron. 24. 25. So Amon the Son of Manasseh, for his walking in the way of his Father in Idolatry & Tyranny, and forsaking the Lord God of his Fathers, was slain in his own house by his Servants, who conspired against him; But though this was Justice also upon the matter, and consonant to the Command for punishing Idolaters & Murderers, yet because defective in the manner, and done by them that took too much upon them, in a perfidious way of private Assassination & Conspiracy, therefore the People of the Land punished them for it 2 King. 21. 23. 24. But the repressing & punishing of Amaziah is a more unexceptionable instance. The people made a Conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish, but they sent after him to Lachish and slew him there 2 King. 14. 19. after the time that he turned away from following the Lord 2 Chron. 25. 27. Which was according to the Command Deut. 13. which hath no exception of Kings in it. This Action was not questioned either by the people, or his Successor, as the forementioned Conspiracies were. His son Uzziah succeeding, who did right & consulted the Lord (2 Chron. 26. 4, 5.) did not resent nor revenge his Fathers death; which certainly he would have done, by advice of Zechariah who had understanding in the visions of God, if it had been a transgression. The famous & faithful Mr Knox doth clear this passage beyond Contradiction in his conference with Lithingtoun Hence I take an Argument a fortiori. If people may conspire & concur in executing Judgment upon their King turning Idolater & Tyrant; Then much more may they Revolt from him: But this example clears the Antecedent, Ergo.
11. The same power & privilege of people's punishing their Princes, was exemplified in the Successor of him last mentioned, to wit, in Uzziah the son of Amaziah, called Azariah 2 King. 15. when he degenerated into the ambition of arrogating a Supremacy, in causes Ecclesiastic & Sacred as well as Civil, his heart was lifted up to his destruction, for he transgressed against the Lord his God, and went into the Temple of the Lord to burn Incense. In which Usurpation he was resisted by Azariah the Priest, and with him fourscore Priests of the Lord that were valiant men, who withstood him, and told him it did not appertain to him to take upon him so much, and bade him go out of the Sanctuary, or else it should not be for his honor. Which indeed he stomacked at as an affront, to be controled & resisted; but in thinking to resent it he was plagued of the Lord with leprosy; which the Priests looking upon, they thrust him out from thence: And thereafter sequestered him from all Supremacy, both that which he had before in things Civil, and that which he was affecting in matters Sacred; for he was made to dwell in a Several house, being a leper, (the Law including (& here execute upon) the King as well as the beggar) and to resign the Government into his son Jotham’s hands 2 Chron. 26. 16-21. Where it appears he was not only excommunicated by a Ceremonial punishment, but also deposed Judicially. Whether he voluntarly dimited or not, it is to no purpose to contend: its evident, that by the Law of God, the actual exercise of his power was removed, whether with his will or against it, it is all one; And that he was punished both by God and by men is undeniable. Yea in this, his punishment was very gentle, and far short of the Severity of the Law; for by the Law he should have been put to death, for intermeddling with these holy things, interdicted to all but to the Priests under pain of death Numb. 3. 10. Numb. 18. 7. The stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death: All were strangers that were not Priests. Whence I argue, If a Prince, for his Usurpation beyond his line in things Sacred, may by the Priests be excommunicated, and by the people deposed; then may a Prince, not only Usurping a Supremacy (as Charles did) but an absolute power of overturning all things Sacred & Civil (as James doeth) & oppressing his subjects in all their Liberties, be disouned, a fortiori, for that is less than deposing or dethroning: But this Example clears the Antecedent: Ergo— See Knox discourse to Lethingtoun: Lex Rex Quest. 44. §. 15. pag. 461. Ius popul. chap. 3. pag. 56.
12. What if I should adduce the Example of a Kings Rebellion against, and Revolt from a Superior King, to whom he & his Fathers both acknowledged themselves subject? Surely our Royalists and Loyalists would not condemn this; and yet in justifying it, they should condemn their beloved principle of uncontroled subjection to uncontrollable Sovereigns possessing the Government. Ahaz became Servant to the Assyrian Monarch 2 King. 16. 7. yet Hezekiah his son, when the Lord was with him, and he prospered— Rebelled against the King of Assyria and he served him not 2 King. 18. 7. Hezekiah was indeed a King: but he was not Sennacherib's King; he acknowledges himself his vassal, and that he offended in disouning him verse. 14. which certainly was his sin against the Lord, to make such an acknowledgment: for if his Fathers transaction with the Assyrian was sin, then it was duty to break the yoke; if the Lord was with him in that rebellion, then it was his sin to acknowledge it to be his offense; And to make good this ackowledgment, it was certainly his sin to commit Sacrilege in robbing the House of God, to satisfy that Tyrant. By way of Supplement, I shall add that instance of repressing a mad & furious Tyrant, which all will acknowledge to be Lawful. Nebuchadnezzar was both stricken of God with madness, and for that was depelled from the Kingdom, according to the heavenly Oracle, The Kingdom is departed from thee and they shall drive thee from men, Dan. 4. 31-33. Calvin says upon the place, he was ejected as usually is done to Tyrants, by the Combination of the nobles & people, Pool Synopsis Critic. in Locum. Thus he was unkinged for a time, both by the just Judgment of God, and by the intermediation of the just Judgment of men; and could not be owned to be King at that time, when his nails were like birds Clawes, and he could not tell his own fingers: They could not own him to be the Governor then of so many Kingdoms, when he could not Govern himself. Hence, though this is an instance of Heathens, yet because they acted upon a rational ground, it may be argued: If Kings, because of Natural madness when they cannot govern themselves, may not be owned; Then also because of Moral madness, when they will not govern but to the destruction of Kingdoms, may not be owned: But the former is true: Therefore also the Latter. The same reason against the Government of Asses, will also militate against the Government of Tigers, the first is more eligible then the last.
Fifthly, This may be confirmed from Several promises in Scripture.
1. There are many Gracious & precious promises of Reformation of the Magistracy, and Restitution of good Rulers, as a great blessing from God to Mankind and to the Church Isai, 1. 26. I will restore thy Judges as at the first, and thy Counselors as at the beginning, afterwrrd though • shalt he called the City of righteousness. If Judges must first be restored before the City can be a City of righteousness, then they must be restored before we can own the Government thereof: for that Government under which it cannot be a City of Righteousness, cannot be owned: since it is no Government but a Rebellion & Combination of Thieves, see verse. 23. I do not here restrict the promise, as it is a Prophecy, to its exact fulfillment, as if no Government were to be owned but what answers this promise, of the restitution of the primitive order of Magistrates; but I plead, that when the Princes are rebellious & Companions of Thieves, the Government is not to be owned, till Judges be so far restored, as to reduce righteousness in some measure, which cannot be under Tyranny. And in the general I may plead, that none is to be owned as a Magistrate but who some way is found in a promise; for there is no Ordinance of God, no duty, no blessing, no good thing, either to be done or enjoyed, but what is in a promise: but Tyranny, or owning of Tyrants, or subjection to Usurpers, is not nor cannot be in a promise. We have many other promises about Magistrates, as that the Lord will be for a Spirit of Judgment to him that sitteth in Judgment, Isai. 28. 6. A Tyrant cannot be capable of this happiness, nor we under Tyranny, nor any while they own them. Kings shall be the Churches nursing Fathers and their Queens her nursing Mothers Isai. 49. 23. Kings are not always so, but all Kings to be owned are such as can be so, at least they are never to be owned when they turn destroyers of what they should nourish: But Tyrants can never be Nourishers. It is promised to the Lord's people, if they will hearken diligently unto the Lord, and keep the Sabbath, then shall there enter into their gates Kings & Princes Ier. 17. 24, 25. And if they will execute Judgment & righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor &c. they shall obtain the same blessing Ier. 23. 3, 4. But it is never promised, neither doth it ever come to pass in Providence, that these duties procured Tyrants. There are many other promises to the same purpose, from whence may be concluded, the Lord will not always leave His people to howl under ineluctable Tyranny, but will accomplish their deliverance in His own time & way, though we are not to look to Miracles. Whence I argue. 1. Since all the Ordinances of God, & Rulers in a special manner, are appointed & promised as blessings, these cannot be owned for His Ordinance, which are not Blessings but Curses. 2. That which would vacate & evacuate all the promises of Magistracy, cannot be a Doctrine of God: But this that obliges to own Tyrants & Usurpers, as long as they are up, would vacate & evacuate all these promises of Magistracy: For except the Lord work Miracles (which are not in the promise) and do all without means, they cannot be accomplished. For if any means be used, they must be such as will infer disouning of Tyrants; for Magistrates cannot be restored except Tyrants be removed, and whatever way they be removed without Miracles, by others or their own Subjects, they must still be disouned, and that before they be removed; for if they be to be owned before, their removal, if they exist, cannot make them to be disouned: dispossession cannot take away their right, if they have it before.
2. There are many promises of breaking the yoke of Tyrants Isai. 10. 27. His burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder and his yoke from off thy neck. And in that promise of the Churches deliverance & enlargement, wherein they are Prophetically urged & stirred up to some activity in cooperating with the providence, Isai. 52. 1, 2. they are called to awake & put on strength & their beautiful garments —and to shake themselves from the dust —and to rise and loose themselves from the bands of their neck, that were captives. Here is not only a promise of deliverance, or a ground of encouragement what the Church may expect, but a promise of & direction for their being active in delivering themselves, as men, from the encroachments that were made on their human Liberties, that they should loose themselves from these bands; Whose bands? from their bands that ruled over them, and made them to howl, and the Lord's Name to be blasphemed ( verse. 5.) Here's a promise of breaking the bands of Rulers, by them who houled under their subjection. And it also includes a precept, that people should not stay any longer under these yokes, than they can shake them off or slip from under them. Hence we see we are not to lie stupidly sleeping, or sinking in the Ditch, expecting the accomplishment of the promise of Deliverance, but are to endeavor actively, in dependence upon the Lord's Assistance, to deliver ourselves. Hence we may argue. 1. A promise by way of Command, that a people under bands of oppressing Rulers shall rouse themselves up to loose themselves from them, implies & infers a promise & a duty of disouning those Rulers (for otherwise they cannot be loosed from their subjection.) But here is a promise by way of Command, that a people under bands of oppressing Rulers shall rouse themselves up to loose themselves from them: Ergo —2. If the removal of Tyranny & Usurpation be promised as a blessing, then those can never be owned to be the Ordinance of God; for the removal of that can never be a blessing: But in these promises we see, the removal of those is promised as a blessing: Therefore they can never be owned.
Sixthly, To the same purpose we may cite some Threatenings, that will confirm the same Truth.
1. There are many Threatenings against Tyrants themselves. There are two mentioned Ier. 22. that seem patly to quadrate, and near of a piece, with our Misrulers; both because of the demerit of the Threatening, and the likeness of the Judgment Threatened. The ground of it was building their house by unrighteousness and their chambers by wrong verse. 13. And severally they are Threatened: Jehoiakim with the burial of an Ass unlamented verse. 18, 19. Coniah with a life without prosperity, and a death without issue to succeed verse. 30. The first of these is verified in the Elder of our Royal Brothers, the last is like to be of both. But that which I take notice of is, first, the demerit, building their house by unrighteousness, on which Whitehall is built with a witness: and particularly it is noted of Jehoiakim, as his Crimson sin (to which his Son Jehoiakim or Coniah served himself heir) that he burnt Ieremia • Roll, or Causes of wrath; So did our Dominators burn the Causes of wrath (a book written by the Commission of the General Assembly) and the Covenants. Then I note these words verse. 15. Shalt thow reign because thow closest thyself in Cedar &c. It is certainly not fit for us to say, he shall reign, of whom the Lord says, he shall not reign: but when we own the Authority of those whom the Lord threatens they shall not reign, we say, they shall reign: for we say, they have a rig • t to reign, and own ourselves obliged to do all that is required in our Capacity, to perpetuate their reign. There is a terrible Threatening against Zedekiah Ezek. 20. 25-27. Thow profane (or as some translate it; Thow worthy to be killed, Pool. Synops. Critic. in Locum.) wicked Prince of Israel —Thus saith the Lord God, Remove the Diadem, take off the Crown, this shall not be the same, exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high, I will overturn, overturn, overturn it, and it shall be no more until he come whose right it is, and I will give it him. Than which nothing can be more applicable to our Princes, who are profane, and the patterns & patrons of it, whose Diadem the Lord will remove; and if He threaten it, • woe to them that contribute to hold it on. We see here, a profane & wicked Prince threatened to be overturned must not be owned, because he hath no right: But our Excommunicate Tyrant, is a profane & wicked Prince threatened to be overturned: Ergo —There is another dreadful Threatening against Tyrants Am • s 4. 1, 2. Hear this word ye Kine of Bashan, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy — The Lord God hath sworn by His Holiness, that lo the days shall come upon you • , that He will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fish hooks. Shall we own these, against whom the Lord hath engaged His Holiness by Oath so solemnly, that He will fish them with hooks? We may fear if there be such a tie as Allegiance between them and us, that that same hook which fishes them may also catch us; as it is said of Pharaoh and his subjects, when he is hooked, then his fish stick unto his scales, and he & they are left in the wilderness Ezek. 29. 4, 5. that is as Grotius expounds it, whoever are of his Community shall be consorts in his Calamity, Pool Critic. in Locum. If we then own them we must be of their Community, and so partake of their Judgments.
2. There are many Threatenings against illimited Loyaltie, and those who had more of that than Religion: for this Ephraim was broken in Judgment, because he willingly walked after the Commandment Hos. 5. 11. And because the Statutes of Omri were kept, and the works of the house of Ahab, therefore the Lord threatens to make them a desolation Mic. 6. ult. And among other Threatenings against the men of such universal Loyaltie, that is notable Hos. 10. 3. Now ye shall say, we have no King, because we feared not the Lord, what then should a King do to us? It is the just punishment of wicked Loyalty, that prefers the fear & favor of Kings to the fear & favor of God, that at length they are brought to that pass, that either they have no Kings at all to look to, or else they have such of whom it may be said, they are no Kings in effect, for they cannot act the part of Kings to them that trust in them. Hence. 1. If to have really no Kings be a punishment, then such Kings as are a punishment cannot be owned to be Kings; for to have them cannot be a punishment, if the want of them be a punishment. 2. If those that have the name of Kings, that can do no good, be no Kings; Then Tyrants that can do no good but a great deal of hurt, must be reckoned no Kings also: But here its threatened, people that had Kings, that had the name but could do no good, should reckon they had no Kings: Therefore much more may Tyrants be reckoned to be no Kings, who can do no good but a great deal of hurt.
Seventhly, This Truth is confirmed from Scripture Prayers: Whereof there are many against Tyrants, none for them. Hence we argue, If we are not to pray for Tyrants then we are not to own them; for we are to pray for all that are in Authority 1 Tim 2. 2, But we are not to pray for Tyrants: Ergo we are not to own them. The Minor now must be proved. And this leads me to another subordinate Question, which hath also been a head of suffering to some serious Seekers of God in our Land of late.
The profane Emissaries of this and the late Tyrant, sent out with bloody Commissions to hunt after the Lord's hidden Ones, in order to murder all whom they might meet with, that made Conscience of adhering to every part of the present Testimony; among other trapping Questions to discover their prey, they used to put this to them as a discriminating Shibboleth, and Tessera of owning the present Tyranny, will yow say, God save the King? And for refusing this, many have been cruelly murdered in the Fields; And many before their bloody Judicatories, have for this been arraigned & condemned, & executed to the death. Wherefore to this somewhat must be said. 1. By way of Concession. 2. By way of Vindication, of Scrupling it and Suffering upon it.
First, In the General, it will be necessary to premit by way of Concession. 1. It is duty to pray, supplicate, & intercede for all men 1 Tim. 2. 1. not Collectively considered, nor Distributively for everyone universally without exception, but indefinitely & indiscriminately, pro generibus singulorum for all sorts & sexes, of whatsoever Nation or Religion, Jew or Gentile, Christian or Infidel, not excluding any for these distinctions: And not only so, but pro singulis generum also Conditionally, if they be among those all whom the Lord will have to be saved verse. 4. If they be among those all for whom the Mediator gave himself a ransom to be testified in due time verse. 5, 6. If they have not sinned the sin unto death, for which we are not bidden pray 1 John. 5. 16. Which, because we know not particularly who are guilty of it, Charity will oblige us to take into our Prayers many that may never be the better of them; Yet it is necessary that we pray in Faith, for what, or whomsoever we pray; at least, if I may so call it, we must have a negative Faith, a belief that they have not sinned that sin unto death; which we cannot have of all, there being some whose demonstrations of desperate displays of affronted wickedness, and hatred of Godliness, may give ground to doubt of it, as Christians had of Julian the Apostate. 2. We are obliged to love our Enemies, to Bless them that Curse us, to do good to them that hate us, to pray for them that despitefully use & persecute us Math. 5. 44. Accordingly Our Master, who commanded this, did give us a Pattern to imitate, when He prayed, Father forgive them for they know not what they do Luk. 23. 34. And His faithful Martyr Stephen, prayed for his Murderers, Lord lay not this sin to their charge, Act. 7. ult. We are to pity them, and not to seek vengeance against them, for any injuries they can do to us. Yet, as this doth not interfere with a holy & zealous Appeal to God, for righting & resenting & requiting the wrongs done to us, that He may vindicate us & our Cause, and make them repent of their injuries done to us, to the Glory of God, and Conviction of Onlookers, and Confusion of themselves, which may well consist with Mercy to their Souls: So all we can pray for them in their opposition to us, is in order to their repentance, but never for their prosperity in that Course. And we may well imitate, even against our enemies, that prayer of Zecharia's, The Lord look upon it and require it 2 Chron. 24. 22. But we are never to pray for Christ's stated Enemies, as to the bulk of them, and under that formality as His Enemies: for we must not love them that hate the Lord 2 Chron. 19. 2. but hate them, and hate them with a perfect hatred, Psâl. 139. 21, 22. We are to pray for the Elect among them, but only to the end they may escape the vengeance, which we are obliged to pray for against them. 3. We are not to exsecrate our enemies, or use imprecations against any, out of blind zeal, or the passionate or revengeful motions of our own hearts: Our Lord rebuked His Disciples for such preposterous zeal Luk. 9. 55. Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of. But against the Stated & Declared Enemies of Christ, as such & while such, we may well take a pattern from the imprecatory Prayers of the Saints recorded in Scripture; such as do not peremptorly determine about the eternal State of particular persons: which determinations, except we be extraordinarly acted by the same Spirit, whose Dictates these are, are not to be imitated by us. We find several sorts of Imprecations in the Psalms, & other Scriptures: Some are imitable, some not: Some are Prophetical having the force of a Prophecy, as David's Psal. 35. 4. Let them be confounded —that seek after my Soul—Let Destruction come upon him Psal. 55. 15. Let them go down quick to hell. And Jeremiah chap. 17. 18. Let them be confounded that persecute me—destroy them with double destruction. Without this Prophetical Spirit, determining the application of these threatenings to particular persons, we may not imitate this peremptoriness. Some are Typical of Christ's Mediatory devoting His Enemies to destruction; who as He intercedes for His friends, so by virtue of the same Merits (by them trampled upon) He pleads for vengeance against His enemies: Which Mediatory vengeance, is the most dreadful of all vengeances ( Heb. 10. 29.) So also Psal. 40. He whose ears were opened, and who said lo I come—verse. 6. 7. that is Christ) does imprecate shame & Confusion & desolation verse. 14. 15. As also Psal. 109. the Psalmist personates Christ, complaining of & imprecating against His enemies, particularly Judas the Traitor verse. 8. It must be dreadful to be under the dint of the Mediators Imprecations; And also dreadful to clash with Him in His Intercessions, that is, to apprecate for them against whom He imprecates, or pray for them against whom He intercedes. But some Imprecatio • s against the enemies of God, are imitable such as proceed from pure zeal for God, and the Spirit of Prayer, as that Psal. 109. ult. Put them in fear O Lord that the Nations may know themselves to be but men. Psal. 83. 16.— fill their faces with shame that they may seek thy Name. This is to be imitated in general against all the enemies of God Psal 129. 5. Let them all be confounded that hate Zion; without condescending on particular persons, except obviously & not odiously desperate, & presumptively Christ's implacable Enemies. 4. Touching Magistrates it is a great duty to pray, that God would give us Magistrates, as He hath promised for the Comfort of His Church Isai. 1. 26. Isai. 49. 2. Ier. 30. 21. Promises should be motives & foments of Prayer. We ought to pray against Anarchy as a Plague, and with all earnestness beg of God, that the mercy of Magistracy may aga • n be known in Britain, of which it hath been long deprived. 5. And when we have them, it is a necessary Duty to pray for them; for Kings and for all that are in Authority, that we may lead a quiet & peaceable life in all Godliness & honesty 1 Tim. 2. 2. Where it is specified, what sort we should pray for, and to what end. As we are not to pray for all men absolutely; for some, as they are declared to be out of the precincts of of Christ's Mediation, so they must be out of our Prayers: So there may be some in actual Rule, that may be excepted out of the verge of the Christians Prayers, as was said of Julian the Apostate. But he that is a Magistrate indeed, and in Authority, the subjects are to pray and to give thanks for him, not as a man merely, but as a Magistrate. Yea though they be Heathen Magistrates, Ezra. 6. 10. We may pray for all in Authority, two ways; As Men, & as Kings. As Men, we may pray for their Salvation, or Conversion, or taking them out of the way, if they be enemies to Christ's Kingdom, according as they are stated; and upon Condition, if it be possible, and if they belong to the Election of Grace. Though for such as are opposites to the coming of Christ's Kingdom, as it is a contradiction to the second petition of the Lord's Prayer [ Thy Kingdom come ] So in the experience of the most eminent wrestlers, they have found less faith & less encouragement in praying for them, than for any other sort of men. It is rare that ever any could find their hands, in praying for the Conversion of our Rulers. And though we pray that the Lord would convince them, yea & confound them, in mercy to their souls; yet this must never be wanting in our Prayers for Tyrants, as men, that God would bring them down, and cause Justice overtake them, that so God may be Glorified, and the Nation eased of such a burden. But if we pray for them as Kings, then they must be such by God's approbation, and not mere possessory Occupants, to whom we owe no such respect nor duty. For whatever the Hobbists, and the time-serving Casuists of our day, and even many good men (though woefully lax in this point) homolating both Doctrinally & Practically their heathenish notions, say to the contrary; I hope it be in some measure made out, that Tyrants are no more the Ordinance of God, nor to be owned as His Ministers & Vicegerents, than the Devil the Prince of this World for the Lord's Anointed, or Baals Priests for true Ministers. If we pray for them as Kings, we must pray for their peace, prosperity, & preservation, that their Government may be blessed with success, their designs not frustrated, nor their desires disappointed. This we cannot pray for Tyrants. 6. Albeit we may pray for the Peace of the Nation, and for the Government thereof, so far as it may conduce to our own & the Churches Tranquility, that we may live a peaceable & Godly life under it; yet this cannot be extended to the peace of Tyrants, for whom the best Prayer that we can bestow is, that the Lord would bridle & restrain them, that they may not m • r the Churches peace. That Command, Ier. 29. 7. Seek the Peace of the City, whither soever I have caused yow to be carried Captives, and pray unto the Lord for it, for in the peace thereof shall yow have peace, is apparent to have been but of a temporary nature, upon occasion of their Captivity there, until the 70 years should be expired, having it also declared by God, that their own peace was bound up in that of Babylon's: For after that time they are taught the contrary carriage towards that City, to depart, and pray against it, and exult & rejoice in its ruin; O Daughter of Babylon, happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thow hast served us, that dasheth thy little ones against the Stones, Psal. 137. 8, 9. The voice of them that flee out of the Land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of His Temple Ier. 50. 28. And Ier. 51. 35. The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say, and my blood be upon Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say. Certainly this is not the season to seek the Peace of Misticall Babylon, but to pray for the destruction thereof and all its supporters: Which we cannot do, if we pray for them that improve, employ, & apply all their power to support it, lest we pray contradictions; as many do, who pray against Babels brats and yet pray for the King: but the Comfort is this, that Nonsensical Prayers will do little good, little hurt, but to themselves that pray them.
Secondly, To vindicate the Scruplers & Refusers of such Compelled & extorted Devotion, in praying for Tyrants, I shall offer these Considerations.
1. The imposed form of it (which as it is found in the Original from whence it is taken, is only Paraphrastically expounded, God save the King; and most Catechrestically applied to Tyrants, being in the native sense of the words of this signification, Let the King Live; which is a very improper Wish for men of death, of whom God says, they shall die, and the Law says, they should die, for their Murders & Capital Crimes) must be taken either as an Adulatory Complement; or a Congratulatory honor; or a precatory benediction. The first, as it is extorted most illegally, so it can be rendered neither Civilly, nor Sincerly, nor Christianly: but all ingenuus men would think it a base imposition, to be forced not only to subject themselves to their Tyrannical Oppressors, but to flatter them as if they were not such. Whatever they may force the mouth to speak dissemblingly, they can never compel the heart to think, such wishes are due to them; and so they can never be Cordial, nor consistent with Candor; and to interpose the Holy & Dreadful Name of God, in a dissembling Complement, to flatter base men, is a horrid mocking of God, and a heinous taking His Name in vain, contrary to the Third Command. If it be a Congratulation (as always it is used in Scripture, and in all cases formerly; being never imposed on men by way of Compulsion, before this set of Tyrants started up, that know they can get no deference of honest men, but by extortion) It is the more abominable; not only for the Hypocrisy that is in it, but the Blasphemy, in giving thanks for the Promoter of the Devils Interest, and the Destroyer of Christ's, and the Liberties of Mankind. What have we to Congratulate him for, but for overturning our Laws & Liberties, and oppressing us in most grievous Tyranny? Besides to give the vilest of men when exalted any Congratulatory honor, is contrary to the fifth Command, as is shown above. And it were a forsaking of the Law, thus to praise the wicked, since they that keep the Law will contend with them Prov. 28. 4. If it be a Benediction, we cannot bestow it upon one whom our Father Curses, our Mother Curses, and all our Brethren. It is no less preposterous to bless whom the Lord declaredly Curses, than to Curse whom he blesses. The Curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked Prov. 3. 33. we cannot then bless that house. Nor can we bless them that our Mother curses, and cries for vengeance against, as she did against Nebuchadnezzar Ier. 51. 34, 35. Nor them against whom the blood of our dead Brethren hath a Moral Cry, How long O Lord holy & true doest thow not Judge & avenge our blood, Revel. 6. 10. And the vexed Spirits of our Brethren, yet houling under the same yoke, are puting up before the Throne of Grace, the same continued Cry, with incessant importunity, How long how long shall the wicked triumph how long shall they break in pieces thy people? O God to whom vengeance belongeth? Psal. 94. 1-4. Yea God hath said it, and we must not contradict it in our practice, against all Tyrants that wrest Judgment, and say unto the wicked thow art righteous, him shall the people, curse Nations shall abhor him, Prov. 2. 24. And this must stand registered as the everlasting Claise of all Zion's haters, to which all her Lovers must say, Amen, that they shall be as the grass upon the house tops and never have the benefit of the Churches benediction Psal. 129. 8. Neither do they which go by say, the blessing of Lord be upon yow, we bless yow in the Name of the Lord. This one word may be a sufficient Supercedeas from blessing any of the enemies of God, or of the Church, while acting in a declared opposition to God for the destruction of His people & interest.
2. Either this— Save the King, as they mouth it, and demand the repetition of it, is a Prayer; or it is not. If not, it must be a dreadful profanation of the name of God, to be commanded to speak to Him, and yet not to pray. If it be a Prayer, we would expect another way of dealing with us, if they really desired the benefit of our Prayers, than a threatening us with death if we did it not. And if they did desire it as Darius did, that we might offer sacrifices of sweet savors unto the God of Heaven, and pray for the life of the King and of his sons Ezra. 6. 10. we could not refuse to pray for him, so far as might consist with that Prayer of the same Darius, in that same decree verse. 12. that God may destroy all Kings & people, that shall put to their hand to alter and destroy the House of God. We can pray no Prayer inconsistent with this, And to pray that God would save this King, and yet destroy all Kings that put to their hand against His House, were to pray Contradictions. But they know they deserve no Prayers, and must force them if they get them. And all the world knows, that Compelled Prayers are no devotion; and if they be no devotion, they must be sin: Imposed Prayers, are not the Prayers that God will hear & accept; And if we have not the faith of acceptance in them, they must be sin, for whatever is not of faith is sin, Rom. 14. ult. All Prayers which God will hear, must proceed from the heart voluntarely and fervently, in Spirit & in Truth, with the whole heart. But imposed & compelled Prayers cannot be such; especially when they are not only by them imposed, but prescribed as to the form of them. Which sets and forms prescribed by men, and such men as usurp a Supremacy over the Church, cannot be subjected to, according to the Word of God, and the Principles of our Reformation.
3. That infallible Proposition of the Apostle, Whatsoever is not of faith is sin, must be urged yet a little further: And that with a reference, both to the Person required to be prayed for, and to the matter of the duty more generally. First if we cannot pray for this man, neither as a Christian, nor as a King, then we cannot satisfy this imposed demand; for it will not satisfy to pray for him as a Heathen: But we cannot in faith pray for him, either as a Christian, or as a King▪ Not as a Christian; for besides that he is an excommunicate Apostate (by a sentance which we believe stands yet rate in Heaven, Pronounced by a faithful Servant of Christ) and a Papist, which as such can no more be prayed for than the Pope as Pope;; for whom, and all the limbs of Antichrist; the only prayer that Protestants can pray, is, that the Lord would consume him with the Spirit of His Mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming 2 Thess. 2. 8. (we cannot reconcile the prayers of some, that pray against the Pope and his supporters, and upholders of his tottering Kingdom, and yet for this his Antichristian vassal) His rage & resolution in prosecuting a war against Christ and His followers, is such, that if we may make Comparisons, our faith will have little more ground to pray for James, than Christians of old could find for Julian, the the Apostate. Nor as a King, for that we cannot do, because he is none with God's approbation, and may not do, for a very heathen could teach us to pray, that God would destroy all Kings that put to their hand to alter & destroy the House of God, Ezra. 6. 12. And besides, in the Second place, with respect to the matter of the duty in general: That cannot be in faith which wants a warrant in the Word, either by precept, promise, or practice: But to pray for wicked Tyrants & Enemies of God, wants a Warrant in the Word, either by precept, promise, or practice. There is no precept for it, either General on particular, neither express, nor any to which this is reducible. And who dare add without a precept in the Worship of God, either for matter, or manner, or end, what He hath not commanded? for such presumption; Nadab & Abihu were destroyed Levite. 10. 1, 2. because they did that which the Lord had not commanded. What Command can there be for praying for that, which is against the preceptive Will of God? But it is against the preceptive Will of God, that there should be Tyrants: Therefore to pray that these may be preserved in the World, cannot fall under a Command of God. There is no promise for it, which is the foment & foundation of Prayer: We can pray for nothing that we have not a promise for, either General or Particular: But we have none, nor can have any, for the preservation of a plague to us, as Tyrants are. There is no Practice for it in Scripture, to pray for Kings that put to their hand to destroy the House of God. Samuel did indeed mourn for Saul▪ but the Lord reproved him for it, How long wilt thow mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from being King over Isrrel? 1 Sam. 16. 1. belike this reproof was for his praying for Saul's preservation as King, for otherwise we may mourn for wicked wretches, for their sin & Miserie both. But hence, if the Lord reprove His Servant for mourning for a King whom He disoun • d, then we may not pray for such a King whom the Lord disounes, as He disounes all Tyrants, for they are set up & not by Him! But the Antecedent is true in that example of Samuel: Therefore also the Consequent, that we may not pray for them as Kings, whom the Lord disounes.
4. Moreover to confirm this yet further: That Prayer is not of Faith, and so sin, which is contrary to the Precepts of God, and his promises, and the practices of the Saints: But praying for wicked Kings their preservation, is contrary to these precepts, promises, & practices &c. Ergo —It is contrary to some Divine precepts, both Affirmative, & Negative. There is an Affirmative precept, prescribing what Prayer should be used under the Domination of Tyrants, that they should weep and say, Spare thy people O Lord, give not they Heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them, wherefore should they say among the people where is their God Joel. 3. 17. If it be a reproach to be under Heathen Rulers, and if we should pray that they may not Rule, but that Our God may show Himself where He is, and who He is, in delivering His people from their Domination; Then it is contrary to this, to pray for the preservation of Tyrants, that do rule over them to their destruction & reproach: For it is contradictory to pray, that they may not Rule, and that they may be preserved in Ruling. There is a negative precept, prohibiting the salutation of Heretics and Enemies of the Gospel, which will condemn this salutation of Heretical Kings: for in the Original God save the King is no more than a solemn salutation, or apprecatory Wish that he may prosper. 2 Epist. John. verse. 10, 11. If there come any —and bring not this Doctrine—neither bid him God speed, for he that biddeth him, God speed, is partaker of his evil deeds. God speed, in the Greek, is the same with God save, in the Hebrew. If then we must not say, God save a Heretic, neither must we say God save an Hertical King, or a Popish Tyrant, a sworn enemy to the Gospel of Christ, and the coming of His Kingdom. This is also inconsistent with that Rule & Directory of our prayers, commonly called The Lord's prayer, not only because it cannot be reduced to any of its petitions (which are comprehensive of all that we are warranted to pray for) but because it is contradictory to the Second which is, Thy Kingdom come. The Coming of Christ's Kingdom in our Land cannot consist with the preservation of the Tyrants reign, which is Satan's rule: for Antichrists • Satan's Kingdom, and Christ's, cannot be promoted both at once. It may be also demonstrated, that it is inconsistent with all the petitions of that perfect form of prayer. With the first, Hallowed be thy Name; for when they who rule over His people make them to howl, then His Name continually every day is Blasphemed Isai, 52. 5. yea much profaned in the frequent repeating that imposition. With the Second, Thy Kingdom come for when He takes unto Him His great power & Reigns, then is the time He, will destroy them that destroy the earth, Revel. 11. 17, 18. It is against the third, Thy will be done —for it is against His preceptive will that there should be a Throne of iniquity, it shall not have fellowship with Him; as it would have, if according to His will. And therefore Habbakkuk pleads from the Lord's Holiness & Righteousness against Tyrants, Habbak. 1. 13, 14. It is against the fourth, Give us this day our daily bread, to pray for them that rob us of it, whom the Lord hath set over us for a plague, to domineer over our bodies, and all the means of life Neh. 9. 37. The Saints there make a Complaint of Kings, and pray to remove them, not to save them: The Church also prays agains • base Rulers on this account, because under them they get their bread with the peril of their lives Lam. • . 8, 9. It is against the fifth, Forgive us our debts or sins; for if we pray for taking away the guilt of sin, we must also pray for removing the punishment; whereof this is one, to be under Tyrants: And if it be sin which brings on such a judgment, then it is sin to pray for the keeping of it on & continuing thereof: And though we should forgive their sin against us, yet we ought to complain against their sins against God, and the Church, in defiling it, & shedding the blood of the Saints Psal. 79. 1-7. It is against the sixth, Lead us not into Temptation and deliver us from evil: for their Government is a continued tract of Temptation, they being a snare on Mizpah & a net spread upon Tabor Hos. 5. 1. And if we pray to be delivered from all evil, then we must pray to be delivered from Tyranny, which is a great evil. It is against the Conclusion also for thine is the Kingdom —& Glory: Tyrants being stated in opposition to the Glory of God. Again, in the next place, it is against many promises of giving good Rulers, and of breaking the yoke of Tyrants (as I cited several above) Neiether of which can consist with the preservation of Tyrants, if such a Prayer should be answered according to the idol of the heart of the supplicants: for if God should save this man as long as we may pray for him as a King, then all the promises of a Change & Revolution are precluded. Lastly, it is contrary to the constant tenor of the Saints prayers against thee Enemies of God. Deborah prayed upon the destruction of a Tyrant, So let all thine enemies perish O Lord Judge. 5. ult. Jotham prayed against that bastard King, let fire come out from Abimelech & devour the men of Shechem, and— let fire come out from the men of Shechem & devour Abimelech, Judge. 9. 20. David prays against Saul, whom he calls Cush the Benjamite in the title of Psal. 7. alluding to Kish his Father, or because he was no better than an Ethiopian a Cushite Amos 9. 7. and could no more change his manners than an Ethiopian can change his skin Ier. 13. 23. See Pool Synops. Critic. in Locum. Where it is proven that this was Saul; against him he prays that the Lord would awake to Judgment Psal. 7. 6. and that He would break the arm of the wicked and the evil man Psal. 10. 15. that He would not slay them (to wit suddenly or in a common way) lest the people forget, but scatter and bring them down and consume them in wrath, that they may not be, that it may be known God ruleth in Jacob to the ends of the earth Psal. 59. 11, 13. This is a Psalm against Dogs verse. 6. what Dogs? Saul and his men watching David, See the Title. As also it is against Saul that he prays, that the Lord would not grant his desires nor further his devices, and as for the head of them that compassed him about (which was Saul) let the mischief of their own lips cover them Psal. 140. 8, 9. There is also a prayer that the Saints may execute vengeance & the judgment written upon Tyrants, and bind them with chains Psal. 149. 7, 8, 9. The Church is brought in praying for vengeance against the Babylonian Tyrant, Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon hath devoured me—the violence done to me and my flesh be upon Babylon shall the Inhabitant of Zion say Ier. 51. 34, 35. Paul imprecates any man that does not love the Lord Jesus, let him be Anathema Maranatha 1 Cor. 16. 22. and sure no Tyrant, persecutor & subverter of Christ's Kingdom, can be a Lover of Christ. The Martyrs under the fifth seal slain for the Word of God, and the Testimony which they held, are brought in crying against the Tyrants that murdered them, How long! O Lord, Holy & True, dost thow not judge & aveange our blood, Revel. 6. 9, 10. Which though it be to be understood of a Moral Cry of blood, as Abel's blood cried against Cain; yet ought to be a pattern of our prayers against such Bloody Enemies, imbrewing their hands in the blood of our Brethren, for which we ought to pray that the Lord would haste to make inquisition. Durham Observes from this place, that God's people in a holy way may pray for vengeance upon persecutors.
5. Let us consider the person & matter, for whom and for what this prayer is extorted. Either it is for the personal salvation of James the Papist: or the Royal preservation of James the Tyrant. It will not satisfy to pray, that if it be possible, and if it were the Lord's will, he might be taken to Heaven, that so we might be quit of him. Neither were it Lawful to pray that, except we prayed first, that he might repent of this his wickedness, if perhaps it might be forgiven him, as Peter directed Simon M • gus to pray for himself Act. 8. 22. for it is unlawful to pray for the salvation of a Papist, except upon supposition of his repentance & relinquishing Popery. We must pray nothing but according to the Will of God; and it is not the Will of God, that they that have & keep & will not part with the Mark of the beast, should be saved, for he is adjudged of God to drink of the wine of His wrath Revel. 14. 9, 10. So we cannot pray for him as a Christian, which he is not; Nor as a Papist, except that he may get repentance. Nor can we pray for him as a King, which he is not; nor as a Tyrant, except that he may repent of & relinquish his Tyranny & Usurpation: for Tyrants as such cannot be saved, no more than Papists as such; for Tophet is ordained of old yea for the King it is prepared — Isai. 30. 33. We cannot then pray for his salvation, except we pray for his repentance, and relinquishing all his sins, and so we must pray for his relinquishing his Kingship, and that he may cease to be King; for that is his sin, that he hath made himself King without God, and against the Laws of the Land. And now while • he continues such, we must complain in prayer, not for his Misgovernment only, but for that he Governs, and desire to be delivered from him. See Gees Magistrates Original pag. 258. But now considering what a Man, and what a King he hath been, guilty of Murder, Adultery, Idolatry, under sentence of the Law both of God & Man; We can pray no otherwise for him, than for a Murderer, Adulterer, or an Idolater. We cannot pray for him as Cloathed with Authority, or that the Lord may bless his Government for that is his sin & our Miserie that he is a Governor: And his Throne is a Throne of iniquity, which we dare not pray may have fellowship with God. Can we pray that God would bless him on a Throne of iniquity? Could we pray, that the Lord would bless a Drunkard in his drunkenness, abusing his enjoyments? Or a Thief in Stealing his, though he used his purchase never so soberly? What if prevailing Robbers by Land, or pirates by sea, preying upon all passengers, should require this as the sign of subjection to them, and only condition whereupon such as they apprehended & overcame should be suffered to live, that they should pray for preservation & prosperity to them? Would not this be wickedness thus to pray for Thieves & Robbers? And are not Tyrants the greatest of Thieves, that rob & destroy twenty for one of private Robbers? And do they not require this as such a sign on such a Condition?
6. Lastly, then the plea will be reduced to this, that it is exacted as a Badge of Loyaltie, and Sign, Tessera, & Sbibboleth of owning the Authority. Which I have at this length endeavored to prove, cannot be conscientiously Ouned by us, in these circumstances. And even by this Argument: That Authority which we cannot pray for we cannot own: But we cannot pray for this Tyrannical Authority: Ergo —The Minor I trust is in some measure made manifest, by what is said above. And so I conclude this Head, with that form of prayer, that I use for the King. O Lord God to whom vengeance belongeth, show thyself; lift up thyself thow Judge of the Earth, render a reward to the proud. Lord how long shall the wicked? how long shall the wicked Triumph? Shall the Throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, that Frameth Mischief by a Law? The Mighty & Terrible God, destroy all Kings & people, that put to their hand to alter & destroy the House of God. Overturn, Overturn, Overturn this Throne of Tyra • ny, and let it be no more, until he come whose right it is.
HEAD III. The Refusing to Swear & Subscribe the many unlawful imposed Oaths, for which many have suffered great Cruelties; Chiefly that of Abjuration which was the Cause of Several their Suffering to Death, Vindicated.
ANother Great Head of Grievous Sufferings in this fatal Period, hath been, that during this Stated War between Christ and His Enemies in Scotland, He hath no wanted Witnesses, who in their Wrestlings for the Word of God and the Testimony which they held, thought it their duty to refuse all illegally imposed & wickedly required Transactions with His Declared Enemies, and tampering any manner of way with them, in taking or subscribing any of their conscience-conzening Impositions of deceitful & destructive Bonds & Oaths, obtruded by men who have cast off all sense of a Deity or regard to Humanity, upon the Consciences of poor people, to debauch them and cast them down from the only excellency, or integrity, that was left them: Whereby (though they have missed of their design as to some, who through grace have escaped the snares of these fowlers, and in resisting have overcome through the blood of the Lamb) they have prevailed to inveigle the Generality, even of the Professors of this Generation, into such a degree of defection & wretched Complyance with all their snares, that as it Prognosticates universal desolation ineluctable (if it be not prevented by Repentance, as universal as the Complyance hath been) So it proclaims the infamy of the Complyers perjury, as indelible as their perfidy with whom they have complied. The Consideration of which woeful Apostasy, in its various steps by which it hath been propogated & promoted, ought to deter & demur all the fearers of God, that would not partake of its threatened punishment, from venturing anymore to come near the brink, or border of such precipices, and paths of the destroyer, when so many have stumbled, & fallen, & been hooked, & snared, & taken; yea not so much as to look near them, lest they be left to follow their look, but to stand aloof from every appearance of Transacting with these Man-Catchers, yea Conscience-Catchers, who are so cunning to ensnare & destroy; as their predicessors, to whose sins & Judgments also they serve themselves heirs, are described by the Holy Ghost Ier. 5. 26.—29. They lay wait as he that setteth snares, they sct a trap, they catch men—their houses are full of deceit, therefore they are become great & waxen rich—shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord? Many and manifold have been the snares, traps & gins, laid in the way of Professors of this Generation & Nation, by these Mischief-hatchers, these keen & cunning persecutors, the party now regnant or rather raging, in madness & malice against Christ and all that are Loyal & zealous for His Interest against their Encroachings thereon; Where by they have caught & cozened many out of their Conscience, & have broken the neck of some, the Peace of others, & the heart of not a few. Yea no Nation can be instanced, wherein so many Oaths & Bonds, have been imposed on people's Consciences, so nawseating for naughtyness & number as well as noxious in their nature, in an Age, as have been in Scotland within these 27 years past; on design to wast all remainder of Conscience, or sense of Religion among people, that so having worn out the awful impression of it, they might introduce what they would, upon a people involved in the same Apostasy with themselves: And either to incorporate all with themselves in the same Combination against the Lord, or to exstirpate all Dissenters, who should discover any tenderness of Conscience, in not going along with them in the same excess of riot. And to the end they might have the greater concurrence & countenance, with the help of hells Policy, they contrived them in such terms, as might engage many to take them, and load the Recusants with odious obliquies, either as silly Scruplers, or seditious Schismatics, or Rebells. For this hath been all along their grand project, to Level their designs against Religion, not directly & formally under that notion, but obliquely to the destruction of the Lovers & Professors of it, under the Nick-name of fanatical Enemies to Government. Of these ensnaring Engines levelled to these ends, some have been more patent & open, others more laten • & hidden; both have made a prey of people, the last chiefly. For a snare, the more latent & hidden it be, and the more varnished over with the vermilion of pretended honesty & innocence, it is the more dangerous; and will be • o accounted by all the Circumspect & Cautious, as in its design more destructive, and in its effects when discovered more dolorous, than that which is more open & manifest. A hook, the bra • er that it is busked; and the better that it is baited, the surer and more successful it is to catch the simple fish; if it want its busking, they will not so readily bite at it. In vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird: yet, though this is a Truth, such silly birds have the bulk of us been, such silly doves without a heart, and so senslessly stupefied, as to suffer ourselves to be blind-folded & hood-winked into snares, of such a manifest baseness, as none could be readily supposed might fall into, who did not brutishly abandon all common sense of Reason, besides Religion: As the Test, and Oaths of arbitrary Allegiance, Bands of Conformity & irregular Regulation &c. Some again, and these Alas! too many, have been ensnared with snares of a more smooth, soft, & subtle Complexion, and poisoned with gilded arrows, coloured over with the specious pretexts of the enemies relenting Condescendency & tenderness, stooping now to universal & general terms, obviously thought capable of a very good Construction, and daubed over with the untempered mortar of the frequency of the almost universally unscroupled subscription of very good & Consciencious men, and the rarity of Recusants lying under the reproach of some few, wild, fantastical fools. These well busked hooks have caught many; of which sort have been many banded Indemnities, and easily swallowed Oaths thereunto appended. Though the present indeed is contrived without gins of this sort, and now all these snares of Oaths and Bands are as illegally taken away as they were before imposed; upon the same design, to catch silly fish by other methods; not with hooks as before, but with a large spread net, to hale the whole School to Antichrists shore; And to put to proof & practice the vastness of that Leviathan Prerogative of Absolute power, to dispense with all Oaths; especially because, in all of them even the most monstrous, people might think there was some tie Obliging them to maintain the Protestant Religion, therefore to obliterate that, & bury it in oblivion, all now are taken away; But the guilt of them still remains upon the Land, and the grievous Cry of sufferings for refusing them still continues; And therefore the iniquity of them must be looked unto & lamented, and that with an eye to the account & reckoning must be rendered for them, to a Greater Judgment than that of Creatures. But among all these destructive & diabolical devices, there have been none more charming & cheating, than that Cunningly Contrived Oath of Abjuration, as it is called, enjoined to be taken by all within the Kingdom, by a Proclamation about it Representing a late Declaration, emitted by that party whose sufferings I am vindicating (as a Manifesto of their Grievances, and necessities to fall upon severe Resolutions towards their Enemies) under▪ the most odious Character, that the malice of men helped with hells hatred could devise; And requiring all to Abjure it in the most peremptory manner, and under the severest penalty, that ever was heard. This Oath, I say, was contrived with such cunning, and followed with such keenness, that it hath involved moe under its obligation, and engaged more to subscribe it, than any other that went before it: because it hath been painted over with such pretexts, as never any before was capable of. The pressing of it hath been so impartial, upon all travelling in the Country &c. And their acceptance of the Pass annexed to it thought so necessary, as without it no business could be gone about. Its subscription so universally unscrupled, even by the Generality of great Professors & Ministers too; the thing abjured represented so odious, as no honest man could refuse to renounce; And the matter renounced, under its best aspect & Construction, esteemed only a paper Declaration, of a party very despicable, wherein the Principles, profession, or Confession of the Church seems no way concerned; and if any way concerned, yet the Concern appearing so small, as few or none durst state their Sufferings upon that head. Yet I believe, if either such as have taken it, or others that may have the temptation of the like hereafter, will impartia • lie ponder it; so much iniquity may be discovered in it, as may oblige the one to mourn in the sense of its sinfulness, and the other to beware of its danger. And so much the rather would I offer this to Consideration, that I know one who was woefully wheedled into it, that found the bitter effects of this poisoned pill in his wounded Conscience, after reflections on the deed, in such a measure that he despaired of ever recovering Peace. And this man had as much, and more to say, to justify his deed, than any that ever took it; having it with all the advantages that ever it could be tendered with: for, being urged thereunto before the Iusticiary, he expressly refused to disoun that Declaration, and the Principles whereupon it was founded, and told them that it was misrepresented in the Proclamation: And when they yielded to an abstract disouning of it in so far as the Proclamation represents it, or if so be it might be so represented, he gave in a sense in writ, wherein he would take it; showing that upon supposition the Declaration did assert such things as was represented, he would disoune it: And after the sense was accepted as satisfactory, he refused to swear after the ordinary manner, following the Clerks blind manuduction, but behooved to have it written down: And when it was written, with express specification of that Apologetical Declaration, he refused to swear it, till it was altered and corrected, And the Word pretended put in the stead of it: which done, before he subscribed it, he protested it might be constructed in no other sense, than the genuine meaning of the words he delivered in, and that it might not be reckoned a Complyance for fear of his life: yet not withstanding of all this, he lost the Jewel of inward peace, and knew the terror of the Lord for many days. Therefore I shall chiefly insist on discovering the iniquities of this last Oath, called the Abjuration Oath, both because it is the smoothest, and more generally taken than any other, and approven by many that condemns the rest, and the refusing it hath been punished by death, and most illegally pressed upon all, under the penalty thereof, as none of the rest was; And because as all other Oaths successively imposed, were so contrived that the last did alwise imply & involve the substance of the former, So it will appear that the iniquity of none of the preceding Oaths was altogether wanting in this. But to the end, both the Complication of the iniquities of this Oath may be evidenced, and the Continued strain of all the Oaths (which have also been heads of suffering, though not to this degree) may be discovered; I shall touch somewhat of all the sorts of them, And show that their iniquity cleaves to this last Oath: And then come to canvass this Oath itself, After I have premitted some General Concessions.
First, In a few Words some General Concessory propositions may be premitted.
1. That Oaths both Assertory and promissory are Lawful, will not be denied but by Quakers &c. It is clear, Swearing is a Moral duty, and so material, that oftentimes it is used for the whole Worship of God Deut. 6. 13. Thow shalt fear the Lord thy God, and shall serve Him, and Swear by His Name Deut. 10. 20.— To Him shalt thow cleave & Swear by His Name. The reason is, because by whomsoever we swear, Him we profess to be our God, and invocate Him as witness of our hearts uprightness, & honest meaning in the thing sworn, according as it is understood by both parties, and as aveanger if we prove false. Hence every Oath which doth not bind us faster to serve & cleave to Him, is but a breach of the Third Command. Again it is not only Commanded as a duty, but qualified how it should be performed Ier. 4. 1, 2. Where it is required of a people returning to the Lord, to Swear in Truth, in Judgment, and in Righteousness. Hence every Oath which is not so qualified, and does not consist with a penitent frame, is sin. It is likewise promised in the Covenant, that Believers shall speak the language of Canaan, & swear to the Lord Isai 19. 18. every Oath then that is not in the language of Canaan, is unsuitable to Believers, that is to say, Consentaneous to the Word of God, and Confession of our faith. Again, He that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of Truth Isai. 65. 16. and therefore that Oath which is not according to Truth, is dishonorable to the God of Truth. If all the Oaths imposed upon Scotland these many years, were examined by these Touch-stones, they would be found all naught. So giving Bands for security, which for obligation are equivalent to promissory Oaths, are also Lawful materially: but with the same qualifications, otherwise they are sinful.
2. This duty when suitably discharged, truly, judiciously, righteously, in the fear of God, according to His. Will, is in many cases very necessary. Not only in vows, in which God is the party, in matters morally necessary, to keep the righteous Judgments of God, Psal. 119. 106. Nor only in National Covenants for Reformation, and promoting the Interest of Christ, whereof we find many Instances in Scripture, in Moses, Joshua, Asa, Hezekiah, Josiah, Ezra, Nehemiah, their making & renewing such Covenants by Oath, coming under the dreadful Curse of it if they should break it. And this may make our hearts meditate Terror, for the universal unparalelled Breach of Solemn Covenants with God, that exposes the Nation to the Curse of it. But also in human Transactions, whereunto God is invocated as a Witness; as in National Transactions, at choosing & inaugurating their Magistrates, for security of Religion & Liberties, as we have many examples in Scripture. Seldom indeed do such bonds hold Tyrants, but it is this Generations indelible brand & bane, that without this they have come under the yoke of ineluctable slavery, and have entailed it upon posterity. As likewise in Contracts & mutuàl Compacts of Friendship or stricter Association, when Edification or other Sa • faction or security Calls for it, as Jacob sware to Laban, David to Jonathan &c. In which the matter must be clear, & mutually understood, & honestly meant, without (equivocation & mental Reservation, and all ambiguity, as also possible & likely to continue so: for otherwise, it were but a mocking of God & man, to swear a thing we either cannot or will not perform, according to the meaning of him in whose favors the Oath is given. But withal we ought to be sparing in such things, except where the matter of the Oath or Band is weighty & necessary, & not multiply them needlessly upon formality or Custom: for if there were suitable Confidence in one another, there would not be need for so many of these securities. And specially in Relative stipulations betwixt man & wife &c. Where an indissolvable relation is entered into. And in a particular manner, even in things Civil, when we are called thereunto by a Lawful maigstrate, for deciding of Contraversies, or our own vindication, or to Confirm our Obligation to some duty, An Oath for Confirmation is an end of all strif • Heb. 6. 16. But alwise in this the matter must be Lawful, according to the will of God, and true, & certainly known, and also necessary, weighty, useful, worthy of such Confirmation, for the Glory of God, and the good of our Neighbor, that His Holy Name be not • aken in vain; for otherwise if the matter be false, God is made Witness of a lie; if uncertain, Conscience Condé • ns us that we know not, nor care not, what we call God Witness to; if unlawful, then God is called to approve what He hath comdemned, and so to contradict Himself which is horrid Blasphemy. With all which Cases, if we compare & examine all these Delusory Oaths, & hell-devised Impositions on Consciences in these days, obtruded to debauch & ensnare them; Not one of them, levelling all at one design, how smoothly soever conceived, can be taken without a wound & wramp to the Conscience.
3. Of all these Cases, only two are applicable to our imposed Transactions with our wicked Rulers, to wit, in the matter of friendly Contracts, or in the matter of Judicial Appearances before them, and Swearing and Banding before them, and to them. In both which, there must be a sort of Confederation with them. In Contracts with them it will not be doubted: And in Judicial submitting to their Authoritative Impositions of such Securities, it is evident, there must be also a Confederation with them, not only in acknowledging their Authority, but in coming under mutual exacted stipulations; wherein, by taking these Oaths & Bands, we give them security of orderly • ubjection, as members of the Community whereof they are Judges, and get their security of acquittance, and that we shall not be molested nor prosecuted among the Recusan • s. Now concerning this Confederation, I shall concede in two cases it may be owned, and Consequentially Oaths & Bands may be given to men of their stamp. 1. A Confederation which is more Discretive or Discriminative may be allowed to them; that is, such bargains wherein they and we are kept still divided as two parties, and not under one Incorporation, as in Contracts of Conhabitation, living under them as Tenants, buying & selling, and the like. But we cannot enter into a Confederation unitive with them, which may make us one body or party. 2. A Confederation which is necessary & unavoidable; when either an unavoidable strife or contention doth arise between them & us, whereupon we are compelled to answer in Law, and can no otherwise be decided but by our Oath of Confirmation, which is an end of all strife; or when we are falsely accused of some odious & heinous Crime, as of Murder or Adultery: It is then Lawful & necessary to vindicate ourselves, by giving all these Legal Confirmations that we are free of these things; for otherwise to lie under the imputation of such enormities, were shamefully scandalous to Religion. But we cannot allow any Transactions of this sort, which are elective & voluntary, to make or pursue either peace or pleas with them, when our own Interest or benefit draweth us thereunto, but ere we go to Law or give Oaths & Bonds to and before the unjust and perfidious, and such also as we cannot own as Magistrates, we would rather take wrong & suffer ourselves to be defrauded, as the Apostle adviseth 1 Cor. 6. 1, 7. It was not unlawful, as Expositors show from that place, for the Corinthians to answer in Law for their own vindication, being pursued by a Heathen, but it was utterly a fault to go voluntarly one with another. And if to pursue a brother was a fault, then much more to go to Law with an Apostate, with whom there should be less meddling. And if to go before the unjust Magistrates, as these Heathen Judges were at Corinth who yet were Magistrates, was utterly a fault, then much more to go before such as have neither rightful nor righteous Authority at all: Which yet must be acknowledged, if we take Oaths & Bands before them; for none can exact these but acknowledged Magistrates. Hence it is apparent, it would be an Elective Confederation with these wicked Usurping Judges, when brought before them to take their tendered Oaths and Bands, not as parties pursued before them, but as transacting with them, with whom as well as before whom we must give these Confirming Securities: And so not only must we acknowledge them to be God's, among whom the Lord • itteth, whose Holy Name is interposed in such Solem Transactions, but also we must swear & enter in bands to them as they require. This indeed is necessar when called before them against our will, and accused of horrid Crimes; as was always in the imposition of the Oath of Abjuration audaciously imputed to the Refusers, that they asserted Murdering Principles, and owned it Lawful to kill all that served the King; In such a Case, to declare with the most solemn Asseverations, for vindication of Truth, that we disoune not only all such Assertions, but all such thoughts as that it is Lawful to kill all that serve the King, or any that serve him because they serve him, or because they have injured us any manner of way, & to declare our abhorrence of all Murder & Assassinations. But to swear such things to them, when we are altogether innocent, would be a granting that we were legally suspect, by offering a legal purgation. And so all the Subjects of Scotland should take upon them to purge themselves from a suspicion of Murder, which were odious. And to abjure a Declaration as asserting such things, when it asserts no such thing, is a Swearing to a lie.
4. All Solemn Securities of Oaths, or Bonds that are Sacred Promises, are stricti juris of most strict & indispensible obligation, as Mr Durham on the Third Command shows in many cases: No man's loss or private prejucice can make it void (though we swear to our own hurt we must not change Psal. 15. 4.) Nor indifferency in the matter, if once engaged in (for then our Souls are bound Numb. 30. 2.) Nor deceit of others, if the deceit be circumstantial only, as in the Gibeonites case: Nor the exstortion of it by fear or violence, if the matter be Lawful: Nor rashness and sin in the manner, if Lawful in the matter, as with the Gibeonites: Nor another meaning afterwards devised, not according to the Imposers mind, nor our own at first who took it (thats but a swearing deceitfully Psal. 24. 4.) Nor any good meaning or design in reversing the Oath ( Saul was punished for breaking his Oath with the Gibeonites, out of zeal 2 Sam. 21. 2.) Nor though the Oath be conceived by Creatures, (as by the Altar or Temple &c. Math. 23. 20-22. Nor when the thing becomes impossible, if that possibility could have been foreseen or prevented: Nor any other secret meaning, by equivocation or mental reservarion, which are abominable: Nor any Dispensation from Pope Or King: Nor any other posterior Oath. None of these things can make an Oath void, but if we have bound ourselves God will require it; for who so despises an Oath, by breaking the Covenant, when lo he hath given his hand be shall not escape, God will recompense it Ezek. 17. 18, 19. They are null indeed & of no force, when they become bonds of iniquity tying to things unlawful or impossible; or when the thing sworn is not in our own power Numb. 30. 5. Or when there is deceit in it, not in Circumstantialls only, but in Essentialls; Or when it hinders a greater good; when the case Materially altereth; or when the party sworn to relaxeth us. All these do condemn the horrid breach of the Sacred & Solemn League & Covenant, and Confutes the perverting & wresting the words of it in the third Article, as if it did oblige to Allegiance to Tyrants; for in that case the obligation is unlawful, and there is a deceit in essentials, and the case materially altereth (for in the Covenant we are bound to the King, not to a Tyrant) and the party sworn to hath relaxed us long ago, by annulling the Covenant yet all these things prove, that the Covenant is still in force: And that all the Oaths & bonds contradictory to it, are sinful: and yet, though it be sinful to take them, and sinful to keep them, it is nevertheless perjury to break them, especially to them whose erroneous conscience is bound by them, under a Notion of their Lawfulness. And in a special manner, it is here conspicuous, how deceitful a jugle that sinful shift of many hath been, that they could subscribe an unlawful bond under a penalty; As for example, to answer to their Courts, or to go to Church, or separate from the persecuted Meetings of the Lord's people, under such a penalty, which they thought to pay the penalty would clear them of, as if it were only an Alternative band. The iniquity of this Juggle will appear, if we consider, such Bonds cannot be Alternative: for Alternatives are always disjunctive, binding equally either to this or that; and the one Alternative is no more determinately enjoined by the Imposer, than the other. And so, if these Bonds were Alternative, it should be in the binders choice, whether to Answer the Court, go to Church, to separate Meetings; Or pay so much money. But it is not so, for the Stipulation & promise is determinate to the obligation, for which the bond is required, and the penalty is annexed, as a punishment of the breach of that obligation. And that fancy of cluding the bond by paying the penalty, would quite enervate all security among men, in their mutual compacts of that nature; and under that pretence, they might give a satisfactory Complyance to the most wicked imposed obligation imaginable • to subscribe the Turks Alcoran, with a reserved intention only to pay the imposed penalty. Which Reservation is so far from being suitable to that Christian Simplicity the Gospel requires, that it does not answer that Moral honesty that our concern in the good of human Society calls for. Its incumbent on all that expect to Dwell in God's Holy hill, to have this requisite qualification for one, though they swear to their own hurt they will not change it, and they must be far from swearing deceitfully: And Consequently, if they bind themselves by a promise, which a Christian should be no less tender of than of his Oath, they must keep it. And besides, to condescend that that penalty or fine should be paid, by ourselves or friends in our behalf, were to condescend that these Enemies should be enriched by our own or the spoil of our friends, upon the account of the forfeiture of our promise; which seems such a dishonest & dishonorable thing, that an honest heart would disdain it. And though this should be flouted as foolish preciseness, to choose rather to lie still & suffer in such a case; yet it may be considered that Christ's Cross, even with reproaches, is alwise a better Choise, than the works Ease, purchased at any price which is a hire for Christ's enemies.
5. All Divines and Casuists do grant, that an Oath must be taken in his sense & meaning who tenders it, and in whose favors it is conceived: because Oaths and Bonds are for security, and therefore whosoever would deal honestly & Christianly in taking an Oath, must take in the sense that it is understood by such as impose it: Otherwise the Holy Name of God should be taken in vain, and the swearers & promisers shall deal deceitfully, in frustrating the end of the Oath or bond, and the design of the tenderers thereof. And therefore, as Reason & Religion requires, that all Oaths or Bonds be so conceived and enunciated, that all concerned may understand them, and if there be any doubt how far they bind, the Imposers should explain the same, as Abraham did to his servant: So Conscience requires, that they be always taken in the Imposers sense, and as they discover their sense & sentiments of them, and not according to the meaning that we may think the words Capable of; Nor yet according to the wheedling explications that they may give or allow, which are as deceitful & insnaring as the things themselves. Nor is it to be looked upon as a favor to get a Liberty to put a sense upon them, contrary to their known meaning; for that is but a Liberty to mock God, to mock others, and ourselves too, and nothing but a snare to the Conscience. And to put a Gloss upon printed Oaths or Bonds, which in strict Construction they will not bear, and then to subscribe them inte • ninis as offered, is not only an entangling our selves into the bond of sinful Oaths & Bonds, but to stumble the Godly, and harden the wicked in the present, and to mock posterity in future ages; who shall see the Oaths in terminis subscribed, but not the sense they were taken in, See Apolog. Relat. Sect. 14. It is known by manifold experiences that it is dangerous to hearken to their overtures who study to ensnare us, but far more hurtful & hateful to propound overtures to them. For they interpret it a Ceding and giving ground, and when they see a man beginning to yield, then they will seem to be very condescending, even to accept of little at first that they may draw him on to more: like cuning Anglers, sometimes recoiling & drawing back the well baited & busked hook, to invite the poor unwary fish to pursue, and sometimes leting it run away with the hook, when it begins to bite kindly: So when thy find a man offering & ready to accept of Accommodations, they will be very yielding and easy, but with a design to hook him. But Conscience can find no safety at present, nor satisfaction afterwards in accommodations with them. For it is plain to all that are not blinded with Ignorance, or partiality, or a Judicial stroke, that our Imposers are such sons of Belial as cannot be taken with hands, or by the hand; And if we reflect upon the matters upon which these Accommodations are to be offered or accepted, they are not things upon which we may come & go, upon our discretion, as we do with our own particulars, or with Problems to be disputed, or ambiguous propositions capable of different senses; but matters so & so circumstantiate, as do require the positive determinate Judgment of the Conscience, Concerns of Truth & falsehood, duty & sin, which cannot admit of Accommodation, or dispensation, or Reservation, or any other sense than the Imposers and they that state their Inquisition about such things do own, and are observably known to have & maintain about them. Otherwise, all other forged Accommodations are but tampering tricks, juggling with juglers, deceiving the deceivers, in such a way as does not well consist with the simplicity of the Gospel, or the doves innocence: for what is that but a swearing or promising deceitfully! Psal. 24. 4. a conceiving & uttering from the heart words of falsehood Isai. 59. 13. a false Oath Zech. 8. 17. which are hateful to God, who will be a swift Witness against 〈◊〉 swearers Mal. 3. 5. Neither will they be so easily deceived, for they will readily yield to accommodations, or any tolerable sense that we can put upon their snares; for they reckon that a yielding in part, and are glead to find us so far justifying their acts & impositions, as by our offer practically to declare they bear a good sense, and they will come many ways to our hand to get us kooked so.
Secondly, These things being premitted, I shall offer Reasons why it was necessary in point of Conscience, to Refuse all the Oaths hitherto tendered, and Consequently Consciencious Sufferers upon this Account will be vindicated. And first some General Reasons against all of them together, and Then a Word to each sort of them.
1. There is one General Argument, that will Condemn coming in any terms of Oaths or Bonds with that party, that have broken the Covenant, overturned the Reformation, and destroyed the people of the Lord: Because such Transactions with them (as is hinted above) are a sort of Confederacy with the known Enemies of Truth & Godliness, importing a voluntary subjection to them, Complyance & Incorporation with them, as members of the same Community, whereof they are acknowledged to be head. Now all such sort of Confederacy with such malignant Enemies of God and of the Church, is unlawful, as Mr. Gillespie demonstrates in his Useful Case of Conscience, concerning Associations & Confederacies with Idolaters, or any known Enemies of Truth & Godliness. Though Civil Compacts for common Commerce may be allowed, as Abram was confederate with Aner, Eshcol, & Mamre Gen. 14. 13. Jacob Covenanted with Laban by way of Lawborrowes Gen. 31. 44. But Sacred Confederations of this sort, are unlawful from these Arguments. 1. The Law of God condemns them Exod. 23. 32. Thow shalt make no Covenant with them, nor with their gods, they shall not dwell in thy Land, lest they make thee sin against me —Where not only Religious Covenants are discharged in a toleration of their Idolatry, but familiar Conversation also, they shall not dwell in thy Land. If then we must not suffer them, if in Capacity, sure we must far less be imposed upon by them; if we are not to be familiar with heathens, far less with Apostates, that calls themselves Christians: for the Apostle lays much more restraint from communion with them, than with Pagans 1 Cor. 5. 10, 11. The reason of the Law, lest they make thee sin, as long therefore as there is that hazard of sinning, the Law obliges to that caution. So Exod. 34. 12-16. Take heed to thyself lest thow make a Covenant with the inhabitants of the Land—lest it be a snare—but ye shall destroy their Altars—lest thow make a Covenant with them —and they go a whoring after their gods and thow take of their daughters unto thy sons —Here again, all Sacred Transactions are discharged, upon a Moral & perpetually binding ground, and all Toleration is prohibited, and Conjugal Affinity. Such compliance brought on the first desolating Judgment, the flood on the old world ( Gen. 6. 1, 2, 3.) when the Godly conformed & incorporated themselves, and joined in affinity with that ungodly crew, from whom they should have separated themselves. Likewise Deut. 7. 2, 3, 4, 5.— Thow shalt make no Covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them, neither shalt thow make marriages with them—for they will turn away thy son from following Me—so shall the anger of the Lord be kindled against yow—but thus shall ye deal with them, ye shall destroy their Altars. Where all Transactions with a people devoted to destruction are discharged, even that of toleration of Malignant enemies; according to which precept, David resolveth to destroy early all the wicked of the Land, and cut off all wicked doers from the City of the Lord Psal. 101. 8. Mark this All, of what degree or quality so ever, without respect of persons. And lest it should be thought this is meant only of these seven Nations there enumerate, the Law is interpreted by the Spirit of God of many other Nations; where Solomon is condemned for joining in affinity with other wicked people, besides these 1 King. 11. 1, 2. So that it is to be understood generally: against Confederacies with all, to whom the Moral ground is applicable, & the danger of insnaring the people of God. It is clear likewise, we must have nothing to do with the wicked, but to treat them & with them as enemies Psal. 139. 21, 22. with whom as such there can be no Confederation; for that supposes always the enmity is laid aside, but that can never be between the Professors of Religion and the professed Enemies thereof: but that must always be the language of their Practice, Depart from me ye workers of iniquity, for the Lord hath heard me Psal. 6. 8. The command is peremptory & perpetual, for sake the foolish, Prov. 9. 6. make no friendship with them, Prov. 22. 24. Say not a Confederacy to them Isai. 8. 12. Where it is clear from the opposition in that Text, betwixt Confederating with the wicked and the fear of God, that the one is not consistent with the other. There is an express discharge to yoke or have any fellowship with them 2 Cor. 6. 14. to the end— for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? —what Concord hath Christ with Belial?—wherefore come out from among them and be separate —2. Many fad & sharp reproofs for such Transactions & Confederations, do conclude the same thing Iud. 2. 1, 2, 3.— Isaid—ye shall make no league with the Inhabitants of this Land, yow shall throw down their Altars, but yow have not obeyed my voice, why have yow done this? Wherefore—I will not drive them out from before yow