A DISCOURSE CONCERNING SUPREME POWER AND COMMON RIGHT.  
At first Calculated for the Year 1641. and now thought fit to be published.  
By a Person of Quality.  
LONDON, Printed for R. Chiswell, at the Rose and Crown in S. Paul's Churchyard. 1680.   

TO THE READER.  
THIS little following Treatise, concerning the Origination of Paternal Power, and the Derivation of all others from it, with Reflections upon Regal Government, and the Relative Duties both of King and People to each other, is, for Substance, only a Summary Collection, from the best Authorities, of such necessary and Practical Notions, as might have steered us in the most benighted and tempestuous times of the late unhappy (and almost unparallelled) Rebellion, and keep us within the Bounds of Duty and Allegiance, both to God and our King. But it lost its usefulness (being calculated for the high Distempers of that Age only) by miscarrying in the Press, and for some years irrecoverably concealed, and kept from its designed end by one (since dead) who communicated to me the following Discourse, which hath for some years lain in my hands as buried, unless something of the like Contagion should break out again, and give it a new Resurrection, as an Antidote against the spreading of so popular an Infection. But now I am prevailed with, upon the sad Prospect of things that threaten a relapsing into the like Dangers, by Popish Plots, and those many Sects, Distractions and Divisions amongst us, (some of whose Principles agree with the rigid Scotch Presbyters, and Jesuits, in their Tenants concerning the deposing of Kings, and the forfeiture of their Regal Power into the People and their Representatives,) to show both from Scripture, Antiquity, the Doctrine, Articles, Canons, Homilies, and Liturgy of the Church of England, which all agree with our ancient Laws and many late Acts of Parliament, That our Kings are only submitted by God to the direction, not coaction of Humane Laws: (as Mr. Faulkner in his Treatise upon that Subject hath lately and most learnedly made appear:) Yet Kings are not unconfined by the Laws of God and our Kingdom, which set just bounds both to King and People, to regulate their Actions by (as a middle thing between Supreme Power and Common Interest:) And our Municipal Laws may be straitened or enlarged in regard of the Sovereign's Exercise of Power, but cannot influence or affect the Power itself (which is of God) to alter or enervate the nature of it: Nor can it oblige to any thing, foro divino, but what is just in the means, as well as good in the end, and safe in regard of Humane Prudence: by which Rules we have much reason to believe our Superiors (as they yet have done) will take their measures, and neither countenance nor indulge the least evil of sin, to avoid the greatest evil of punishment: Yet if God (for our almost unpardonable provocation and abuse of those many Miracles of Mercy he hath hitherto preserved us by) should submit us to the implacable malice of our common Enemies the Papists at home and abroad, or to Civil Commotions within ourselves, to bring us again into Chaos and Disorder, in which we may need some assistance for our Conscientious Comportments, both with Prudence and Innocency; the ensuing Treatise may be of great use, there being things casuistically proposed and resolved, (with modesty and submission to others Judgements) in Relation to the late Rebellion, which may some way help us in other difficulties, if we fall under any; which that God in Mercy would avert, is the Prayer of,  
Your unknown Servant, etc.   

A DISCOURSE CONCERNING SUPREME POWER AND COMMON RIGHT.  

CHAP. I.  
AS God is a Spiritual King, so Kings are Humane Gods; his Picture drawn in Little, and the most express Image of his Power, receiving (as the Wax from the Seal) all the parts and proportions of the Print, in the largest Character, in which he shows himself in Civil Administrations: So as the endeavour of effacing any part of that just Power, where God hath Engraven it in his Deputies, is a Spiritual Treason and Rebellion against God himself. 
a Rom. 13.  For not only by me, but for me, King's Reign, saith God, 
b Prov. 8.15. Rom. 13.  in that he makes them his hand both to punish and protect by, and styles them for that end, nursing Fathers to the Church and State.  
Nor is the Stamp to be despised, though it be engraven but in Lead and Iron; the Power being the same in him (who by the undue exercise of a just Power, makes himself a Tyrant) as it is in a good King, and challenging the same Submission and Obedience in lawful things from us: It being not the Wax, but the Impression, that bears the value, as it is Gods. And therefore to wrest the Sword out of our Sovereign's hands (the best of Princes) is as much as we can to dis-enthrone God from his way of Rule amongst us, as the Jews did in the person of Samuel.  
For which Reason our Laws give the King a kind of Immortality here, in saying he cannot die: because his Power which is from above, passes, in the intendment of our Laws (by a kind of Pythagorean Transmigration) always into the next of his Line, and upon the failure thereof only it Escheats into the People, as to the Election of another person to Reign, but never was, nor is fundamentally in them, in regard of the Power by which they Govern. And the wisest People do (but as a Pipe, not the Spring) derivatively pass it into one man to actuate it, as the most absolute and perfect Government, and that which God only owns. For when he saith, By me Kings Reign, 
c Prov. 8.15.  he implies all other Forms of Government to derive their Pedigree only from men, not Divine Institution. They have his Permission, but Kings only his Commission; so as all other lesser Rivulets in the Administration of Justice in their Kingdoms, are in them, as their Spring, derivative from and subordinate to them: For the Supreme Power is ever annexed to the Persons of Princes, in whom it is seated; the Inferior only to the Offices of subordinate Administrations, which are always responsible to him that hath the Supreme Power. Else the God of Reason should make a Body without Reason (a Head) to govern it.  
The contrary Opinion to which clear Truth, hath caused the sad Tragedy of these benighted Times, and hath ever proved the Seminary of Anarchy and Confusion in all States, where it hath taken root and prevailed; though it hath for the most part withered and perished in the end, as having no true Principles of life and permanency, however for some time maintained by Tyranny and Oppression; as may be instanced in most of those Popular States that have been since the beginning of the World, which were but Weeds, no Plants of Gods setting. For subordination of Persons, which ariseth by degrees, should rest when it comes to the Sovereign, or all things would wheel into a Confusion.  
But God is a God of Order, 
d 1 Cor. 14.32.40.  and as his Power made all in Number, Weight and Measure, 
e Wisd. 11.20.  so his Providence upholds all according to the same Model, by setting a kind of Hierarchy and Regiment amongst all the several Societies of the Creatures, even from the lowest to the highest Story of created Being's, (so that levelling is contrary to his Design) and by a sweet subordination and symbolising quality and affection, even amongst Contraries, preserves the whole.  
First, In the Inanimate Creatures: For the Heavens have the Sun and Moon enthroned there to govern in their several Spheres, the one over the Day, and the other over the Night, which, with the Stars (though differing from one another in glory) make one uniform and glorious Structure; 
f Is. 60.13.  and though of several proportions, states, and inequalities, maintain a happy harmony amongst themselves.  
Secondly, In the Unreasonable Creatures: As in Bees, which of all others maintain a most perfect Polity of Monarchical Government amongst them, and are the best Emblems of good Subjects, painful in their labour, dutiful in their life, all uniting in Obedience to the service of their King, and supplying his weakness with their Wings, when he is unable to fly with his own (as some observe.) Nay all other Creatures from a Natural Principle mould themselves into a sociable subordination. Thus the Lion is King of all the savage Regiments of the Forest: the Eagle of Birds. Nay even Sholes of Fishes, Herds of Beasts, Flocks of Fowls, and the rest, have their Heads and Leaders.  
Thirdly, In Man's Soul; by placing the Understanding in it as the Sun in its Orb, the Moon and lesser Lights (as the Will and Affections) inferior to it in their Sphere and Station, to follow its Influences, and derive all their light and direction from it. Nor is it otherwise in the Body, which is compact of many Members, one more noble than another, yet all united under one Head, as supreme, from whence they receive Laws, and to which they pay Obedience; there being not the least Sinew, String, or Part unuseful.  
Fourthly, In the Church, State, and all Societies; there being in all, by his Ordination, superior and less Noble Offices; as in great Buildings, Rooms for State, others for more ordinary use and conveniency: In Clocks greater and lesser Wheels, every one, like Stones in an Ark, being of equal necessity, though not beauty, with the rest; yet all making but one Uniform and Glorious Structure. 
g Isa. 60.13.   
Fifthly, In Heaven itself: For there amongst the Angels there is a Gabriel, and in other Orders Cherubin, Seraphim, Thrones, Principalities, and Powers; teaching us that the more things draw to Unity, the nearer they are to Perfection, and Assimilation with God himself, who is not only a strict Unity, but Oneness in himself.  
Now upon this fundamental Principle, and according to these Natural Productions God doth will, in his voluntas signi, or beneplaciti, a Conformity to them in all things, but chief amongst Men (rational Creatures, if not believing Christians) by centring all Power (of Families, Societies, Kingdoms) in one Supreme and Paternal Head, both for perfection and permanence: So as all other Forms argue not only weakness in, but tend to the perversion, nay subversion of the Fabric, (the several Policies of Men would seem to raise) because not agreeing to the Model, which God first erected in Adam. For even there he established Regal and Paternal Power, that differ only in proportion, not similitude; (it being the same, as a Child is a Man in little.) For all Government was virtually and seminally in him, though spreading and propagating with the growth and Generations of Men, being first founded in Families, and with Ezekiel's Waters, rising by degrees from thence to the uniting of many, and incorporating them into Societies under one Head; till at last many Heads did centre in one Supreme, many natural Parents chose one common Parent to them all, one Pater Patriae, to whom they submitted the exercise of the Legislative Power; (which was before in every Father of a Family, who, over his own Children and Servants, had a Power even to Life and Death, and was their King) being guided to it both by dictates of right Reason, God's overruling Providence, the guidance of his Spirit, and immediate designation of the Person from him (as in the Jewish Commonwealth) till he settled it in a lineal Succession. That of Parents, Patriarches, Kings, being but the same Power, under several Dresses and Appellations, the same Beams of Majesty, though reflecting several Lustres, and challenging alike Obedience from all that are subjected to them, from one and the same Divine Right. So as the Duty of the fifth Commandment had been as binding upon Adam's posterity in the State of Innocency, had he stood, as upon us, though not promulgated till a thousand years after; but there would have been none of that reluctancy and opposition in us, nor of that oppression and irregularity in our Superiors, which we are now subjected to by our Sins, and his first disobedience to God.  
So that I conceive it can neither be rationally, nor upon grounds of Religion denied, that all just Power, especially the Government by Kings, derives its pedigree from Paternal, and is an Ordinance of God, springing out of a Natural and Eternal Principle, which hath ever been owned. First, In the exemptive Precept of their persons to be free from all other Power. 
h Prov. 21.3. Isa. 10.5. Pro. 8.15. Eccles. 8. 1 Pet. 2. Rom. 3.  Secondly, In the designation of the person. 
i Deut. 17.15. Job. 36.7.34.30. Hos. 13.11. Wisd. 6.3.  Thirdly, In the punishment of Rebellion against his sacred Ordinance. 
k Num. 16. 2 Sam. 1.4.14.15.  Fourthly, By the command of our Prayers for, and Obedience to them he hath set over us, though Wicked and Tyrants, 
l 1 Tim. 2.2. 1 Chron. 12.1. ●. Jer. 29.7.25.9. Dan. 3.21. Gen. 20.27. Bar. 1.15. Mat. 22.21. 1 Sam. 24.4.6.8.9. 1 Pet. 2.27.  for since the loss of our first Estate (wherein all should have continued in a sweet harmony and orderly subordination, and lived in an happy subjection, without any Schisms, or mutinous irregularities) we must submit to them, even in their Egyptian Tasks, as the just punishment of our Rebellions against God, and not Rebel against his Ordinances.  
And upon these grounds, saith Optatus, David, in fearing the Anointed, spared his Enemy King Saul, as he was God's breathing Image, the mortal picture of the immortal God, a piece made for lasting, wrought in Oil, at his Inauguration, and not to be defaced by any hand. A precedent worthy the imitation of these apostate times, wherein men's speculative Atheism hath made them such Monsters in Wickedness as to attempt to depose the King, to root up the tallest Cedars, to pull down and levelly all the high Mountains of greatness God hath set up; that they might introduce and usher in an Anarchy, or make the Bramble to Reign, bearing no Fruit but Thorns to tear and wound us; by it to efface all that is of God amongst men, both outward Majesty and Piety; when Regal Power (as it conveys itself from the Father to the Son, to a kind of immortalising itself here) is the legitimate Issue of God himself, (descended from him for the good and preservation of Men, in a safe and religious course of life) and ever bears his Stamp and Image, in regard of the Power, though the Persons that bear it sometimes (when they think not themselves safe under the Guard of their own Virtues and People's Affections) place their security in their strength, and their happiness rather in a Power to hurt, than in a just care to preserve their Subjects, (whose hearts they should account their best Treasury and surest Magazines) and so degenerate into Tyrants, and make that which is life to become death to us (as S. Paul saith in another case). Yet even then they are to be submitted to upon rational grounds, and that Government is to be chosen before any other, though Caesar's Image and Superscription were not stamped upon it by Divine Ordinance: All others being but Counterfeits of it, and of a more base allay, (little Money in great Medals,) when this, like the noblest Coins, contains much in little.  
But as there are many snares beset the Throne of Majesty, (though there is nothing on Earth so near the Deity, nor so commodious for the well-ordering of Humane society's:) the best Princes sometimes fall into great perplexities and difficulties; because perhaps wanting the Meander's Thread of free and honest Admonitions and Advice to extricate themselves, or by having their Ears dulled with Flattery (that Court-Earwig) or too tender to endure the too searching air of an ingenuous spirit, which speaks his own Duty, not his Sovereign's Affections.  
Man having lost the felicity of being a Law to himself, that should keep him from transgressing the limits of equal Justice to any other, hath cause to submit himself to Monarchical Government, as the most silken Rein and gentle Bit he can take on to restrain him in his deviations and start out of the right way of common Equity, though under an ill King, rather than a Popular State, or Elective Kingdom, which make a great show, and glorious ostentation of Liberty, though it is but Paint artificially laid on (like Absaloms 
m 2 Sam. 15. ,) a Varnish of Piety and public Utility, only to hid a Thraldom: For they are the greatest Servitudes imaginable, when submitted to, and are accompanied with the greatest Mischiefs (like the back-doors in great Houses) having many in-lets to Disorder, more than the other, and possess only 
n Hos. 8.4.  an Usufructuary and Gubernative Power to Rule, without any just Propriety in the Legislative, which none can pretend to, but such as are Commissioned from God, according to his revealed Will, and possess their Crowns by a lawful Civil Right; as in this Kingdom since the Conquest.  
For, first, (as a good Author observes to me) Succession in one Man (a King) disarms the Ambition of all daring and aspiring Spirits, who would be at the Stern (every one a Pilot) though they wrack the Ship through their Civil Contentions. Nay it takes away that ground of Emulation, that might justly be among men of one level (equals in Worth, Birth, and ennobled Virtues) to ascend the Throne, and hinders the fomenting of Factions amongst those, that in other Governments have the Suffrages to Elect to the Supreme Power, or any other eminent Place.  
Secondly, It prevents the exhausting of the Public Treasure many times, which those temporary Rulers are ever guilty of, holding it unnatural not to feather a Nest for their own young ones, (though by the pluming all others) and a weakness to live like Gods, and die like ordinary Men: And many Drains newmade, you know, will insensibly take away more water than one Stream, where it is always full Sea.  
Thirdly, It cures the windy swelling Tympany of Pride in those temporary Rulers, that are always in travel to bring forth a thing of their own shaping to succeed them in their Government, though against the Rules of it; (and who so fit a Portrait as some of their own Issue or Kindred?) as may appear in some of the Roman Emperors, and most Popular States, who (rather than fail in it) have nursed and raised up their design, not only with the Milk of Flattery and many vicious practices and indulgences, (the making of Factions; by the toleration of all evils) but fed and brought it to perfection with the blood of Civil Wars, and exhausting their Country's Treasure in Bribes and Profuseness, ever legitimating all undue ways to keep what they have no Title to, but by their Crimes; even to the subversion of Religion, with Jeroboam, not only in making Calves for (but of) the People, never wanting specious pretences to prop and uphold their rotten Pile, though not trusting to them. For you shall always find such Usurping Tyrants maintain the Martial Sword, when once unsheathed, to Oppression; that the Sword might maintain them, and protect them against the just revenge of an injured People.  
Fourthly, Elective and Popular States, as a breach in a Sea-bank, let in a deluge of confusion, (the Effect of Arbitrary Power) which, in such a tottering condition, is never maintained, but by greater wickedness (as Catiline said) than that which first form it: And therefore read all Stories, and you shall find that few Commonwealths, and such Kingdoms, have ever been happy for present felicity or continuance, not having had the poor comfort of being ruined by their Gods, but Men, by their Servants, not Masters; or else, Aetna-like, they have been always wasting themselves by fire in their own Bowels; Pride, Envy, and Avarice ever blowing it up into the flames of a Civil War, where there are many equal Competitors or Pretenders to Sovereignty: So as not the best and fittest (who will not ascend by such winding steps) but the most potent gain those Dictatorships; all which are just Punishments for endeavouring to form the Weapons of our strength, draw the Model and Materials of Government out of ourselves; Our own Reasons, when clouded with Passion, Interest, and Prejudice, not consulting with Religion; nor suffering God, that made the House, to order it.  
For when we so leave our Religion for our Reason, we lose both Reason and Religion. Which would oblige us to think ourselves safer under the protection of God's Ordinances, in whose hands are the hearts of Kings, (the restraints of Conscience,) than by any outward Force or Humane Providence without them. For by God's appointment Gods they are, and (as the Head, from whence all Veins distribute their Spirits equally, with respect to the higher and inferior Members) in a Body Politic maintain a happy Commerce and Traffic betwixt it and the most remote parts: Direction and Protection descending whilst Love and Obedience ascend.  
But besides this, have we not more Reason to expect happiness from a lineal Succession in Kings, than the Election of Men to that or any other Form? When, instead of a Mushroom, the growth of one night, (that springs perhaps out of the basest Excrements, and of such a lazy despondency of Mind as sinks him into the next degree to a Beast, making him to have no designs generous and noble to carry him beyond his own felicity) we shall have one whose blood is derived to him through the Veins of many Noble, Heroick, and Virtuous Progenitors, who becomes all Spirits, refined from those marish and terrene parts, which weigh down, or raise Vapours to eclipse others of a more base Extraction, when they aspire to great and generous actions.  
Nay this makes Princes live in their Posterities, when dead, and brings reverence to the very Swadling-Cloaths and Cradles of their Successors, as if they might Command Obedience before they could speak, (as Barclay observes.) Nor can it be imagined but that their high and virtuous Educations should infuse a Gallantry into them above Pride (saith the same Author) having been always used to the greatest outward Observances, and, by being so, placed above all Contempt; so as it cannot but nourish in them higher thoughts than either Hatred, Emulation, or Avarice produces, and free them from those self-reflections private Families are subject to, (as I have touched before;) because they are secured against the fears of Competitors in rule, and have settled supplies for their wants, enjoying in the Stream what others have but in the Cistern, and conveying it to their posterity, as their Patrimony and Inheritance; making them many times Heirs of the Goods of their minds, as well as Bodies, and to reap the Harvest, and crop of all their noble and growing Designs; (which, as Seed sown by them, will not perhaps ripen into Fruit in many years after.) For it is probable such will manure and nurse up with Industry and Care what their Predecessors planted.  
Nor can the Infancy and weakness of a Prince be of so bad a Consequence as a Popular State; because he is then in Guardian to the most able and faithful Great Ones, or the great Council of the Kingdom itself, which the wisest and best of Kings do always make use of to steer their Actions by. Nay, if that Government should for a time degenerate, it is more likely soon to recover, and unite again in one, when broken into many Interests, equally tainted with malignant Influences, and selfseeking designs.  
But not, with the Mole, to lose myself upon the face and superficies of things, when I may make my Habitation safe by digging deeper, (the best Foundations being lowest laid,) I shall return to my first design, and go to the Root of all, endeavouring to show that Regal Power was a Plant of Paradise of God's own setting, and so of Divine Right; and that the Sword which contends with the Sceptre, and raises itself upon the ruins of just Power, cannot be free from all the  sad Effects, which must eclipse the Glory of every Nation, and leave it no Trophies but such (as Pyrrhus once said of his Victories) as would undo the Conqueror, and appear best when shrouded under the Veil of true Repentance, and offered up again by a holy Restitution to the Altar, from which they were sacrilegiously taken: Such successes being our greatest vanquishments, and leaving us no just Title to make other use of our unjust acquisitions. Though Abishai would have preached David into a Murder and Rebellion at once, upon no better grounds than Gods delivering Saul into his power, 
o 1 Sam. 26.9.10.24.12.  had he not learned a better Divinity, measuring his Actions by Gods revealed Will, not outward Events; knowing he there writes in Characters, showing us his hand only, but not letting us at all read his meaning in them. 
p Deut. 9 2 Chron. 13.8.   
But to be a little more plain and perspicuous in so necessary a Truth, I shall endeavour, as in an Epitome or Index to those many large and learned Discourses that have been written upon this subject, to sum up the best Collections I can, and to digest them into this Method.  
First, To show that Kings are the Ordinance of, and hold their Supreme Power from God, not Man; and that they are only accountable to him for the use of it. Secondly, What that Power is, and how limited. Thirdly, That resistance in the Subject against that Power is in no Case warrantable. Fourthly, What Duties Kings own to their Subjects. Fifthly, What the Subject's Allegiance consists in to them.  
First, That Kings are the Ordinance of God; contrary to that of the Romanists and our new Statists. Reges coronas & sceptra ab hominibus recipiunt, & ad eorum placita tenent. 
q Bellarm. lib. 5. de Rom. Pon. cap. 7.  So Buchanan 
r De Jure Reg. apud Scotos.  Populus Rege praestantior etiam & major: Rex igitur cum ad Populi Judicium vocatur, minor ad majorem in jus vocatur.) For they are called God's by Institution and Appropriation from God: For, By me King's reign, saith he, 
s Prov. 8.15. Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2. Jo. 14.30. Hos. 13.11. Wis. 6.13.  and with my holy Oil have I anointed him; 
t Ps. 89.20.  not only to rule by, but for God too, as the most express Character of him upon Earth: Which made him lead his people by the hand of Moses and Aaron; (one Chief in Civil matters, the other in things concerning the Priest's Office, though with subordination.) Not one People by many Rulers, (much less the Ruler by the People) but by one in Chief under the conduct of God himself, and by his Authority; as may appear in that, and all other Instances of Regal Power. So as Kings are to be reverenced and distinguished from others, in regard of that Natural and Paternal Power God planted in Adam, and caused immediately after to derive from many Heads into one Chief, in one place; a cause of the division of the Nations amongst the Sons of Noah, as Monarch of the whole Earth after the Flood. 
u Gen. 10.32.  So as Kings are Gods, and to be obeyed.  
First, In regard of their Attribute of Power: For where the word of a King is, there is Power; 
w Eccles. 8.4.  that he might be feared; 
x Pro. 24.21.  and who may say unto him, what dost thou?  
Secondly, In that of Mercy: For there is Mercy with him that he may be feared; in that he beareth not the Sword in vain, 
y Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2.  but doth whatsoever pleaseth him, 
z Eccle. 8.3. 1 Sam. 8.  in giving gracious Indulgences.  
Thirdly, In regard of Majesty and Sovereignty: For God expresseth them by those highest Titles, (saith Calvin) 
a Inst. 4. l. cap. 20.  to affect us with the awful sense of the Divinity itself, and our Duty to them, in putting the Glory of his own name upon them. For 
b Ps. 82.6.  I have said ye are Gods; and not only so, but decreed and ordained it, it shall be so, even Gods before Men (though Men before God.) 1st, By Analogy. 2dly, Deputation. 3dly, By Participation. Thus Tertullian. 
c Lib. ad Scapalum  Cyrillus, 
d Ep. ad Thro. prefix. lib. advers. Julian.  Chrysostom, 
e Hom. ad Pop. Antioch.  Gregory, 
f L 9 Decret. 1 Tit. 3.3.  which is the reason of those high Titles of Prerogative the sacred Word styles them with, after the Israelites rejection of Samuel, (as that of God, in regard of the immediate rule they were to exercise over them) after their desire of a King; for before the Power was not vested in the Person of any, but ministerially only in regard of Exercise, which still proceeded from immediate and Divine Directions: But after he placed the Power in the person of the King 
g 1 Sam. 8.  to be accounted for only to God 
h Psal. 51.  as a punishment of the People's Rebellion against him, and desire of innovating their Form of Government. Nay, he then dignified the person of the King with all the Attributes of Majesty, to show that he left the power of ordering all things to the conduct of Man (though with an overruling Providence) which before derived immediately from himself; so establishing Monarchy, but no other Form of Government by any Divine Commission. And then he styles them,  
First, Children of the most high, 
i Psal. 82.  to show from whom the Inheritance of their Crowns descends, and that they are a middle thing, as it were, between Heaven and Earth, like a Cloud in the Air, above Man, and below God.  
Secondly, The Lords Anointed, 
k 1 Chr. 4.18. 1 Sam. 24.16.  and so Sacred by Consecration.  
Thirdly, The Angels of God, 
l 2 Sam. 14.20.  in regard of Wisdom.  
Fourthly, The Light of Israel, 
m 2 Sam. 21.17.  in regard of comfort and influence.  
Fifthly, The Kings of Nations, 
n Luk. 12.25.  in regard of their vast Empire.  
Sixthly, Nursing Fathers, and Nursing Mothers, 
o Isa. 49.23.  in regard of their tender Care and Affections to their People, and to sit in the Throne of God, 
p 2 Sam: 3.1. 1 Chron. 29.23. 2 Sam. 12.7. Isa. 62.3.  in regard of protection, as the Spring and Fountain from whence all Justice doth flow. And therefore the Queen of Sheba acknowledged of Solomon, That he was King, (as hath been said) not only from, but for God, to do Justice and Judgement 
q 2 Chron. 9.8.  for ever; 
r Job. 36.7.  Custos & moderator utriusque Tabulae. And not only so neither (though these are great Prerogatives) but even as God, (two Constellations in one Hemisphere, God and Man, neither eclipsing the light of the other) For so said Jacob to his Lord Esau, 
s Gen. 33.10.  vidi faciem ut faciem Dei, that is, saith the Chaldee, (as a Reverend Divine observes) God in him, as he was the Prince. For, Rex est animata Imago Dei, saith St. Augustine. And for this 'Cause it was said of Moses, (who, with the Patriarches and Judges, had the exercise of Regal Power successively before Saul's Inauguration) the Sceptre he held was God's, not his own, virga Dei in manu; 
t Exod. 17.9.  God and Caesar 
u Mat. 22.21. Prov. 24.21.  being to be obeyed tanquam conjunctae Personae.  
Nor is it St. Peter's calling all Magistracy an Humane Creature, and St. Paul's styling it God's Ordinance, contradictory one to the other. For one speaks of the Authority, 
w Rom. 13.  the other of the Laws or Ordinances made by such as he hath impowered to it, whether it be the King or those Commissioned by him, which St. Peter calls Humane Ordinances most properly, because made by Men, but intends not the King himself, as if he were made by the People, 
x 1 Pet. 2.  nor his Power, but the exercise of it; which, in regard of Circumstance, as Time, Place, Actings, etc. is by Custom or Municipal Laws become Humane.  
And now, after so great Light hath shined into the World, is it not strange that Men should seal up their Eyes, and choose to walk in darkness of Error? should trace the Paths of Disobedience and Rebellion, and by a daring Impiety heaping of one sin upon another (as the Giants of old did Pelion upon Ossa) should mount this Throne of God by force and violence 
y 1 Chron. 29.23.  to overthrow and divest him of all his Regalia and Sovereign Power on Earth, pulling the Crown from his Head, the Sceptre and Sword from his Hand, in the Person of our Sacred King, who as the sum and recapitulation of the Virtues of all his Predecessors, or as so many Lights in one Constellation, shows the Glory and Lustre of all; when a Heathen by the Light of Nature, even Aristotle 
z 1 Eth. c. 2.  as well as Calvin 
a 4 Inst. 20. Sect. 33.  did see something Divine in the Officers of Governors, who are called 
b Sap. 6 4.  The Officers of God's Kingdom.  
From whence the Schools conclude, That any the least Irreverence to a King, as to question our Obedience to him, may justly be called Sacrilege. And since Sacrilege is a violation or taking away of something that is Holy, it is evident that the Office and Person of a King is Sacred; so as one observes, Those Men that are most Sacrilegious against God and his Church, are most likely always to offer Violence to the Honour and Persons of their Princes, as too late experience hath taught us; and to deny themselves the greatest Blessing 
c Jer. 22.34. Num. 23.21. Isa. 49 22, 23.  to introduce the greatest Curse, Licentiousness and Confusion. 
d Prov. 28.2. Isa. 3.5.   
All which sad Effects are but the airy Offspring of a Platonic Speculation, a wild and untaimed seemingly wise Folly, in affirming that the People are in their Representative above the King; contrary to St. Peter's Doctrine, 
e 1 Pet. ● 13.  our known Laws (as may be seen in Bracton, and all our ancient Sages) the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance, which they have sworn; and his just Title, being ever acknowledged by all, Carolus (but) Dei Gratia, Charles, by the Grace of God, not Election nor Suffrages of the People. Though were it admitted that (in some places, as in Elective Kingdoms) or here in case of Escheat, (if there were none living that by lawful descent were right Heir of the Crown) the choice of their King were in the People, they can only hold forth the Person to the Power, if God have so in his Providence ordained it, 
f Deut. 17.15.  not give the Power to the Person; which is not habitually in them, (though by them mediately not immediately) conveyed, but in God's Unction and Approbation of the person. For Power (like the Soul in the Body, when reduced to its first Element) returns to God that gave it. And as in the Ordination of Bishops, though the choice sometimes was perhaps in the People, God was the Author, and other Bishops, by laying on of hands and Prayer, the immediate Instruments only of conveying the Power of their Ministerial Function to them, as an indelible Character, which their first Electors could not efface; nor any (unless it derived from the Supreme Civil Magistrate, under whom they lived) justly suspend in the Exercise; in that the Power doth ever derive from God, and by them.  
But for further illustration we will consider it in the more familiar Instances of free Elections. And first in Corporations, as in a Model, or hand contracted (which is but expanded, and the more stretched out in the highest Governments) where the Commons propound the Person for the succeeding Governor, the Representatives choose, and the King's Power invests, without which Act the rest are but Ciphers without a Figure; but having once Caesar's stamp and Image upon it, it becomes legitimate, current, and of value; so as none can clip or efface it to lessen his Authority (much less displace the Magistrate) but orderly, by the Power that set him up without much Crime, Rebellion, and hazard of damnation. 
g Rom. 3. 1 Pet. 2.   
A second illustration is, That the People by free Votes choose their Representatives in our Parliaments; yet the Power, by which they Elect, and that of the Elected, is derived from the King's Writ; so as they cannot for any miscarriage, or breach of trust in the Person recall their choice, or make a new Election in any case, without a new Warrant from the Crown, but do become instrumental in conferring that which is not at all inherent in them, as may more fully appear in the application of those similitudes to Kings where they are Elected; in that Almighty God, how tyrannous soever they prove, uses them but as he did Ashur, for the Rod of his Anger, 
h Isa. 10.5.  when he gives a King in his Wrath, 
i Hos. 3.  like Saul, to scourge the Rebellions of a people, not leaving them any just Power to depose him, or any remedy, or other appeal, than to him in Prayer: 
k 1 Sam. 8.18.  In that his Providence order all Actions and Events, and suffers no evil of punishment, without intitling himself to it; For there is no Evil in the Land, but I have done it, saith he: And therefore he accounts repining as impatience, resistance by force Rebellion against himself. For, as the Apostles were Christ's, Kings are Gods Ministers upon Earth, in as near a Relation. Nay himself, as it were, shows that all such Arrows are shot at them, wound him, when Christ says, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me, 
l Act. 9.4.   
And thus God expresses it both in Moses his case, 
m Num. 16.  where he made the dull and patiented Earth (the common Hackney to all injurious trampling) the severe Avenger of his dishonour; and so in Samuel's, 
n 1 Sam. 8.  though even then by the fore-designation of God, 
o Deut. 7.15.  the People's free Election was confined to Saul, the man that he did choose 
p 1 Sam 9.15, 16, 17. : For till then God did rule by immediate direction and revelation, those he appointed to be their Governors, and would not totally cast them off for their revolt, but still continued his goodness to them, even in his Indulgence of Anger; not leaving them to a factious and tumultuous Election, but ordered it by immediate command to the person he had fore-appointed, till he had settled the succession in David and his Seed: 
q 1 Sam. 16.  By it showing his dis-allowance of all popular and disorderly Elections; for even there where he permitted their concurrence in choosing the person, in whom all Power should habitually reside, and from whom its Actual Administrations should derive; he suffered them only to assist Samuel, in holding forth the Wax which he had appointed to set his Seal and Image upon, but not to give any Impression.  
Nor can it rationally be imagined by any man, that is a Christian, and acknowledgeth the Sword to be Gods, and that he that sheds Man's Blood, without his Commission, is guilty of Murder, how a power of Life and Death should be collated by any Community of Men, to one or more, when neither divisim nor conjunctim, they have power over their own, or one another's life: Nor could ever any pretend to it, (unless Parents and Heads of Families, by Divine, Natural and Paternal Right) but when derived from God the other way, and by his Commission exercised. Yet the People may in some sense be said to be the Pipe by which (not at all the Spring from which) the Power is derived; the Hand that holds the Burning-Glass to the Sun, no cause of those Rays of Power that shine upon it, and are contracted in it; or as the Men that lay out the dry Bones (as the Prophet did) whilst God breathes the Spirit of Government, and animates them for Action: In which we must next consider,   

CHAP. II. What Power Kings have, and how limited.  
AS I have endeavoured to make it appear, by what hath been said, that all Power is Originally, Fundamentally and Virtually flowing from God, and abiding in the King only as its Cistern and Receptacle, from whence it is conveyed to us by many Pipes of several sizes. Our inquiry must be how it is limited in itself or Execution: For resolution wherein we must go to the Standard of the Sanctuary, the Holy Scriptures; and there we shall see, That when God first gave a King in his Wrath, 
r 1 Sam. 8.  the cause of it was the People's being not satisfied with the Regal Power God did exercise over them in his Viceroys and Deputies before; but distrusting God Almighty, when they saw Nahash, King of the Children of Ammon, come against them, that he would not suddenly provide for their deliverance, they would have one in readiness always to go up and fight for them. Which distrust or despair of theirs, who had found so many miraculous Deliverances under God's Government, was that which so highly displeased God; and not simply the desire of a King) yet they neither desired to cast off God's Laws, nor his choosing the Person, as in Saul: nor is it said that the Kingdom of God is cast off at the Election of Saul; but they desired more sensible Evidences of Majesty and Glory, because Samuel held not forth the outward Pomp, Splendour, and Majesty of Heathen Kings, but (as a Type of Christ, whose Kingdom was not of this World) with Humility as well as Power. Upon which God gave them a King, after the manner of other Nations, 
r 1 Sam. 8. Dan. 5.18.19.  but withal commanded Samuel to let them know what kind of King they desired, even [Jus Regis] and that he should rule by absolute and unlimited Power, in regard of Man, (however he may want the immediate direction and overruling Grace of God) though not for want of a Rule for direction, 
s Deut 17.2. 2 Sam. 23.3.  in that 
t 2 Sam. 22.3.  he that ruleth over men must rule as in the fear of God, 
u Ezek. 46.16, 17, 18.  and not oppress the People. For no King can do that [de jure] justly in regard of his Office and Commission; yet from thence implying a Tyrant should be exempt from all account to Man, and free from any force or resistance, though he be exorbitant, and that Subjects are in such cases denied all Appeals but to God; as may be proved out of Samuel. 
w 1 Sam. 8.18.  Nay, against such a King there is no rising up, saith Solomon.  

x Prov. 30.31. Eccles. 8.  To which Calvin agrees in his Comment upon that place; for against Tyrannical Acts in a lawful King he allows no resistance in these words, Nec quicquam adversus Reges movere, licet Tyrannidem exerceant, & rapinis sint graves subditis, nullamque nec Dei, nec aequi rectique rationem habeant: For, Non vestrum est his malis mederi; hoc tantum est reliquum Domini opem implorare. 
y Instit. l. 4. c. 20.   
But though we find [Jus] a Right of security for Kings against all violence (as I have observed) we find no [Jus] right for Tyranny and Arbitrary Power, which is to be esteemed a sin, for which Kings are to account to God; and the rather because they are above all Humane Judicature, and only under him, as the People are under them: For which God styles him, Lord of Lords, and King of Kings. And upon this ground, though David had sinned against Vriah, first in defiling his Bed, then in murdering his Person, (both to be punished with Death by the Law of God, in any common man) but most in making him sin against his God, in Drunkenness, (by one sin to conceal another) he yet was never questioned for those black Deeds, but in his Confessions to God cries out, 
z Psal. 51.  Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: Quia cum Rex sim (saith the Gloss) quamvis contra Vriam deliquerim, non habeo tamen in terra qui me judicet, sed te in Caelo agnosco Judicem meum. (So also in Psalm, Miserere mei Deus, written by R. P. and dedicated to Thom. de Trugillo.) And Joannes Lorinus 
a C●mm. in Psal. 50.  saith to the same sense upon those words, [Tibi soli peccavi] quia solus potest cognoscere aut punire peccatum ipsius, qui Rex esset nec superiorem haberet. Thus St. Hierom 
b Ep. 22. & 4. Cassia Col. 20.  Quia non fuit qui arguere auderet Regem, qui posset accusare & punire: Vtpote cum quo nullus potestate par, nedum major esset, non est qui audeat dicere Regi Apostata, vocareque Judices impios, 
c Job 34.18.  nisi velit ipse impius haberi (ut Chrysostomus, ac Nicetas, & hoc loco Cyrillus notant.) In which accord Cyprian 
d Ad Novatian.  Ambrose, 
e Serm. 16. in Ps. 118.  Clemens Alexandrinus 
f 4 Storm. c. 6. Turracramata 1 Summae de Eccl. 1. Q. 92. ad 6.  Though Baronius in his Annals, speaking of the Sanhedrim (Anno Christi 31. Num. 10.) saith, That Herod, though a King, was cited thither for his Cruelty: But it was false by the Authority he quotes, 
g Joseph. Antiq l. 14. c. 17.  in that Josephus denies him to be a King then, but saith, That he was a Subject to Hyrcanus: For when Herod was cited by the Sanhedrim, his Father Antipater was living, (and Hyrcanus, than Highpriest and Prince in State and Right) who gave him notice of the Confederacy against him in the Synagogue; so as Baronius in that Instance (as Bishop Montague infers) only shown his good meaning to extend Papal Authority over Kings. Yet Herod, in revenge of it, took away their lives that convented him when he came to the Crown.  
And it is a Tradition among the Rabbins, That when King Jannaeus was commanded by the Sanhedrim to appear and answer before them, those who presumed to summon him, were shrewdly punished by the Angel Gabriel; which although it were perhaps fabulous, yet it is certain that the Jews in their Talmud 
h In Cod. Sanedrim c. 11.  have it as a confirmed Maxim; Regem suum non judicari, nec cuiquam licere in eum testimonium dicere. The King was not to be judged or accused by any, (according to that of Solomon,) 
i Prov. 17.26.  in that they are not Children of the most Voices, but of the most Highest; the People's approbation serving only ad pompam, but not ad necessitatem, in a King's Coronation. A Reason why Melchisedech was said to have no Father in regard of his Kingly Office; because Regal Power is an emanation from the Deity itself.  
Yet this exemption from all Humane Powers here, doth not exempt them from the highest Power; for than most properly, Judgement is mine, and I will repay, saith the lord Be wise now therefore o ye Kings, be learned ye that are Judges of the Earth; serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice before him with reverence, etc. lest ye perish from the right way, if his Wrath be kindled, yea but a little. 
k Psal. 2.10.11.12.   
Nay it is sometimes his greatest severity not to let them be punished here, 
l Hos. 4.14.  that they might bear the weight of his Wrath hereafter. 
m Heb. 1.12.  In that every one's account must be according to the Talents they receive, and Great Ones you know are hardly cleared. Nay Experience tells us, That he who falls from a high Scaffold or Pinnacle, is in more danger of irrecoverable hurts, than he that slips upon a level ground: So as this Opinion is no ground for Licentious Exorbitances in Kings, but a just stating of the question concerning Regal Power, which Originally is one and the same in itself, in all States where it is, though in many places, and according to several Forms limited and regulated in regard of Exercise and Execution only; which I shall endeavour to make yet more clear, though veritas in profundo (as one saith) Truth lieth not in the surface and superficies of things, but is almost buried under the Rubbish of false Opinions, or corrupted in the steam, before we come to the Fountain itself; and being much obscured by Clouds of Error, hath some (verisimilia) plausible mistakes received and digested by wanton Stomaches, which do morbum alere, non hominem. But it proves a Monster when pertinaciously held; For then the truth of God is detained in Unrighteousness: 
n Rom. 1 18.  And therefore I will go with St. Basil to the Mine (which was the Prophet's and our Saviour's advice) to search the Scriptures, 
o Joh. 5.29. Isa. 8.20.  and endeavour to follow the Vein of Truth, as it lies there, where we shall find that all things (even Hell itself) stand by a subordination; and that God did first settle it here in Adam, than Moses, from them to be derived to all posterities; wherein we will farther consider the Power, and then the Regulation of it.  
And first for the Power. As, Sapiens semper incipit a fine, saith the Philosopher, in that the end sets all a-working; let us consider how God in the conveying it out of himself, for Administrations in the Political and Civil World, did primarily intent the due ordering of things by it, according to the rules of Justice, Piety and Religion, that all might concentre in God's Glory and Man's Good; Order, Truth, and Justice being the only Foundations and Pillars of Government. For as in the lesser World of mixed Bodies, due temper and moderation of parts, and in the rational World Tranquillity of Soul by the subordination of inferior Faculties and Passions to the Sovereignty of Reason, preserves them; so in the great World propriety and enjoyment of our just and native Rights, with punishment of Offences, (which the mind of the Law, rule of Justice and Right, the measure of all things according to Equity and Reason under the Supreme Head) is that which preserves a happy Harmony and sweet Society amongst men.  
And for this end God gave his first Commission to Moses only, even Regal Power (which before was Natural and Paternal in Adam) both for expedition in Affairs of State, which could not be acted by many, and the prevention of Factions and Schisms, that Popular States are always subject unto; but this under certain Fundamental Rules (though he had immediate Revelation) to shape himself by, yet with an absolute Power, where God's Law did not restrain him, to be derived to all Kings for ever; who still are, or aught to be, the Depositories of that Supreme Authority; as to make War and Peace, to call and dissolve Assemblies both in State and Church Affairs; which (as the greatest Essentials of Regality 
p Num. 10.1, 2, 8. and 29.1. ) were only Originally in God himself, but since exercised and practised by all succeeding Kings, as may appear by multitudes of Scriptures 
q Jos. 1.17. and 34.18. 1 Chro. 15. & 23.3.6. 2 Chro. 15.14. & 20.21. & 25.5. & 34.31.32.33.  and the Stories of all Ages; so as none durst in former times have refused to come when called by them, 
r Num. 20.13.  though for matters of Conscience, (or a Diana) unless some Demetrius, or Crafts-man led on the Rout, as one observes upon the Text. 
s Acts 19.4, 23, 36.   
Nor is this only of Divine Institution, but founded in Nature, as hath been showed, (in that all the Conjugations of Sinews and Strength meet in the Head, the Fountain of Motion, from whence all the Members derive their Operations) and practised among the Heathen, by the Light of that Law only, as in Pharaoh, 
t Gen. 41.44.  and the Character God gave the Jews of their Kings when they asked one after the manner of the Nations. 
u 1 Sam. 8.  From whence we may conclude, That Moses had all Monarchical and Absolute Power, (in respect of the Jews radically in him, even Jus Regale) 
w Deut. 33.3.  and was in Rectitudine Rex, as well in Name as Power; 
x vers. 4.5.  which afterwards was transferred upon Saul, as a Punishment to the People for rejecting it in those God had appointed to conduct them by the immediate assistance of his Holy Spirit; But that he ever left (or gave) Commission for the exercise of this Power to a Community, can never be showed.  
Yet here God leaves not Tyrants to their own unbridled range and rapine (as the Wild Beasts of the Forests) without a rule both of Direction and Obligation, (as hath been showed) which ought to be the measure of all just Power, 
y Deut. 17. Gen. 17.6.49.10.  (though he did foretell what did or should follow;) for he no sooner establishes the Throne upon David and his Seed, but does it under a Covenant of Obedience, 
z 2 Chro. 6.16.7.17. 2 Kin. 11.6. Ezech. 37.12,  by the fail of which his Crown was forfeited to God only, not Men, upon any Compact or Condition betwixt him and the People. 
a 2 Sam. 5.  Yet had there been a stipulation between them, the violation thereof could not have evacuated his Power, no more than a Father's severity 
b 1 Tim. 6. 1 Pet. 2.18.  can cancel a Child's Obedience, it being only a peculiar of God's, by whom Kings reign 
c Prov. 8.15, 16.  to remove and set them up; 
d Dan. 2.21.  which made Nazianzen (in his first Oration against Julian) condemn those that would not depend upon God's Providence, and expect the execution of his Counsels upon Wicked Princes, whose hearts are in his hands, and He turneth them whithersoever he listeth; 
e Prov. 21.1.  but would be their own Gods and Deliverers; when Tyrants are God's hand upon us for our Sins: (So Peter Martyr, upon Rom. 13. out of Dan. 4.) Nay, Calvin saith, It is our fault if so great a Blessing be turned into our Punishment; it being but a just retaliation for our disobedience to God: For, [Secundum merita populi disponuntur corda Rectorum] according to the Deserts of a people the hearts of Governors are disposed, and the just Judge punisheth the faults of the Prince many times upon them that had caused him to offend, saith St. Gregory. 
f Ep. l. 2. Ep. 6.   
So as we may justly invert that of David, a King, to his People, and say, as Wicked Subjects of a pious Prince; Let thy Judgements, O Lord, fall upon us; but that innocent Lamb, what hath he done! that he should become a Sacrifice for us, who ought to sacrifice ourselves for him? since it is our Rebellions against Thee that have occasioned in us this Rebellion against so good a Prince, 
g 2 Sam. 21.1.  that by them thou mightest take occasion to be the more severe in thy Judgements upon our Nation.  
However, let us consider, there is something good in the highest Tyranny and ever to be preferred to Anarchy: For when there was no King in Israel, every one did oppress his brother, and act after the Lust of his own heart, not only rejecting their Civil but Spiritual Obedience to God; 
h Jud. 17.2.17.6.18.  whereas the Oppression of a Tyrant most commonly extends but to some; so as the good or evil Estate of Israel seemed to depend upon the having, or not having a King. And having thus showed how the Power of Kings is absolute, without dependency upon their Subjects, though limited in regard of their Sovereign God, I shall proceed to the exercise of it, and show how that may be bounded and moderated by Compact, the Indulgence of good Princes and municipal Laws.  

What that Power is, and how limited.  
2. I say as God is Goodness and Power, and every perfection in himself, so he communicates of them in some degree to all, though most to Kings, (his moving Statues upon Earth) especially of those Attributes which most concerns the dispensation of Mercy, Justice and Judgement to the World. For Kings are maxim & proxime, seconds to God (as Tertullian saith) above all others, and as it were, his immediate Deputies upon Earth, to Govern us according to Principles of Common Equity, and his revealed Will, and such other Rules as the Indulgence of good Princes (from whom all other subordinate Powers derive, 
i Exod. 18. 1 Pet. 12.  as the Moon borrows her Light from the Sun) many times submit themselves to: For thus, though Monarchical Power be the same in root in all Kings, it doth not spread nor grow to one and the same height in regard of Exercise, but is with the free determination of their own Wills limited, ab externo, by some positive Law or Custom, which only obliges so far as the Law extends, and to that always, except it be in Cases of extremity and visible necessity; so as this restraint is Moral and Legal in itself, and in regard of mixture of persons with the King many times in the Exercise (not Supremacy) of his Power.  
From whence proceed the Voluntary Suffrages of all those he hath joined with himself in the fabrication of this Government, as in the making of Laws in our Parliaments. But this Indulgence of Kings ought to be always free, never forced; Kings having sometimes the Obligation of an Oath they submit to, to bind their Consciences, but never of a Militia to bind their Hands, if Caesar have his due. For though in Democratical and Aristocratical Commonweals the practice be contrary, we must consider them only as Governments of God's Permission, as a punishment upon a Nation; (for, For the Transgression of a Land many are the Princes thereof, 
k Prov. 28.2. ) and not of his Ordination, but differing as much in Constitution, as a sick and a sound man, weakness and perfection, and are as a Dwarf in nature, if not a perversion of it.  
For the Power of Arms, with other things for protection, (which none else ought to assume) are so essential to the being of a King by Divine Institution (who owes protection to his people from all violence Foreign and Domestic, as well as they him Obedience) as he cannot divest himself of them; because they are Fundamental and Inherent in his Office, and one of those Principles out of which it is elemented: 
l Num. 10. Deut. 33.3.4. 1 Sam. 8. 1 Pet. 2.  Otherwise he bears the Sword in vain, or rather but the Scabbard, when others have the Weapon, with Endeavours to sheathe it in his Bowels.  
Nor is it more impious than unreasonable for to affirm men can convey more than they are invested with, or that any should delegate a Power over others lives, that hath not an immediate Commission for it from God, since no man hath Power over his own, nor can shed Blood (though under the outward Formalities of Justice) without being Guilty of Murder, having no just Calling to it; the usurpation of an unjust Power being much worse than the most Tyrannical use of the Sword can be in the hands where God hath placed it, even in Kings, and such as act by Commission from them. 
m 1 Pet. 2.13, 14. Goe 9.5, 6.  So that, as our Saviour said to Peter, All they that take the Sword shall perish by the Sword, 
n Mat. 26.  because drawn without the consent of the lawful Magistrate; 
o Mat. 22.20. Job 19.11.  and if we once come but to say, with the Sons of Belial, Who is Saul or David, that we should serve them, that of the Atheist will soon follow 
p Job. 26.  Who is the Lord that we should serve him; in that those that reject his Ordinances, or act not according to them, renounce God; and then no Superior will be owned, but their own Lusts, which always possessed the Throne, when Israel had no acknowledged King, 
q Judg. 17.  and produced the Effects of Beasts, not Men.  
For as in all Popular States there are many Eyes to discern what is best, so there are many Heads to contrive their private Designs, many Ambitions to satisfy, many Lusts to obey, many Injuries to revenge, many Mouths to fill, (and many Hands to fight for Sin's Empire but Man's Slavery:) Whereas a good King will restrain those mischiefs, and in all just things make Salutem Populi supremam Legem; believing he cannot condescend too much to the corresponding Affections of the People: In that the favour of the King should be like the Dew upon the Grass, 
r Prov. 19.12.  to nourish and refresh them, and make them produce Fruits of Obedience to him; it being in the Body Politic, as in the Natural, an equal mixture of those Principles, out of which they are elemented, an even poise of humours, a due regulation of all the Powers, (in regard of exercise) with symbolising qualities in each towards one another, that preserves a State. Upon which grounds the happy constitution of our Kingdom, according to the Rules of Equity, is founded in three Estates, each having a Negative Voice, that none might be obliged to any Law, but by their own Suffrage; for in our Laws (as in sounds) the Harmony of all makes the Music.  
So as a middle temper, between Supreme Power and Common Interest, is that of which our Parliaments are fundamentally composed, which have the Legislative and Supreme Power (considering the King as a part of them) for the making of Statutes, as a measure between both, (as Nerves of a Body Politic) and to be as Bonds of a Civil Life; in that (like the Centre in the Circumference) they do, or aught to stand equal to all parts, and (with the Pin in the Balance) upright, to weigh unto every one their due according to Justice and Equity; That for the King's weighty Care and Protection of us, we might pay him an ingenuous Subjection, not Servitude but Obedience.  
Now though a Derivative Power cannot set new bounds to Sovereign Power, it may and aught to stand to keep those (the Sovereign Power hath assented to by a Law) in all ways, but force: Prayers and Tears, in Extremities, being, as St. Ambrose saith, the only Weapons we have Commission from God to use. For in such Cases, (if they prevail not) 
s 1 King. 8. 1 Sam. 8.18.  we must bear the Indignation of the Lord whatever it be, because we have sinned against him; the submission of his Will being the only way to compass our own, 
t Psal. 37.  and to be protected by him in the greatest miseries that can fall upon a State, 
u Isa. 43.2.  in that he is the Lord, and besides him there is no Saviour 
w vers. 11.  who makes the Army and the Power to lie down together, and to rise up no more. 
x vers. 17.   
Thus all Magistrates, as in the Septemviri of the Medes and Persians, 
y Dan. 6.14. Esdr. 1.19.  are Bounders in the Exercise of (but are no Sharers Originally in) the Supreme Power, which is ever to be submitted to, though not obeyed in contrary to Divine, 
z Act. 5.29.  and sometimes Humane National Laws: 
a Phil. 4.  For the just execution of which, Magistrates distributive are to take care, as the two houses congregative & conjunctive are in the making or repealing of them. And thus, and no otherwise is Supreme Power to be regulated; though there are a Rebellious People, Which say to the Seers, see not, and to the Prophets, prophesy not unto us right things, speak smooth things, and Prophesy Deceits, etc. and, 'Cause the Holy One of Israel to be forgotten before us. 
b Isa. 30.9, 10, 11.  And therefore I shall proceed to the third part, and speak a word of resistance in the Subject against the Sovereign Power.    

CHAP. III. That Resistance in the Subject, by force, against his Lawful Magistrate, is in no Case Lawful.  
AS the great World (even the whole frame of Nature) stands by a wise and apt combination of several Being's so contempered by Divine Providence, as all agree in a subordinate Obedience to make up one entire Body without any Reluctancy, Strife, or Rebellion against the superior and first Mover, though they are sometimes obstructed even to the Interruption of the whole course of things, and unhinging of many goodly pieces of it, as it were involuntarily, (as at the time of Our Saviour's Sufferings, when all the whole Creation seemed to have Compassion of him, except Man, for whom only he suffered; the glorious Sun withdrawing its light to put on blacks, and the dull Earth trembling under the weight of our Sins.)  
So likewise Man, as a Rational and the noblest of all God's Creatures, should much more observe the Law of his Maker, even the whole Oeconomy or Model of Government so deeply imprinted in his Soul, where Reason is enthroned for Sovereign, as a Beam or Lineament of God himself, (who is the only King of Kings upon Earth) to suppress and not suffer any exorbitant and tumultuous rising of the lower Passions and Affections to carry it to any exorbitancy, nor to indulge it to them, which still ought to observe a regular motion in their own Sphere, and leave the superior one to God's ordering in all their Irregularities. In that it is he alone that is the first Mover in, and sole Orderer of all Humane Affairs upon Earth, (for though the Obliquity of all ill Actions be from us, the Natural Power of doing any thing is from him) by it to show us, as by a clear light, the absolute submission (which is our Passive Obedience) we own our Lawful Sovereign, though Wicked, with the active in lawful Commands; yet not for themselves, but the Lord's sake, and as his Ordinance; 
c Rom. 13.2 1 Pet. 2.13.14 15.  for we are not to revile them, no not in upbraiding words. 
d Ecc. 8.4. Ex. 22 28. Act. 23.5. 2 Pet. 2. 2 Tim. 3. Jud. Epist.  And if we must not speak evil of the Rulers of the people, a majore, we may much less bind our Kings with Chains, and our Nobles with Links of Iron, (which only is God's Prerogative) though they be Heathenish and Tyrannous; which made David always Loyal to Saul, in all his Persecutions. (though 
e 1 Sam. 24.  a Tyrant by the abuse of Power, not Usurpation,) even when he himself was anointed of God, and chosen to succeed the other: 
f 1 Sam 16.  And this he performed as an Obedience to God: (for, The Lord forbidden that I should do this thing, saith he, 
g 1 Sam. 24.6. ) to whom only his appeal lay against Saul; though he was guilty of Murder, Sacrilege, Oppression, Witchcraft, and the greatest Crimes; because that by his Holy Oil (which is ever uppermost amongst all Liquors) God did design his Sovereignty and Superiority above all others, and made him capable of reserving a charge only at the Divine Tribunal. 
h 1 Sam. 24.12.   
And St. Paul in his time commanded no less Obedience to Claudius, in whose Reign he lived, (as Baronius conjectures) 
i 1 Tom. 11. An. 45.  knowing that a Claudius, a Nero, or a Cyrus, 
k Isa. 45.1.  because of the odour of that Ointment of Inauguration, are to be loved, never to be rejected by their Subjects: For God's Commissions to Kings are [durante beneplacito] during his pleasure, (who can by millions of ways take away their Airy Being's (the only difference between Sleep and Death) without an unnatural Parricide, or the rising of their People, if he think fit to ease them of such a servile condition as cruel Tyrants bring upon them) and not quamdiu se bene gesserint, by it to make their Subjects Judges of their Actions, who are only liable to the Directive (not Coactive and Coercive) Power of Laws. For as the Moral Law to the lively and true Members of Christ, they are only a Rule to order and guide (not to condemn) Kings, though, as an Ashur, the Rod of God's Wrath, the King should lie heavy upon his People in himself, or by inferior Powers.  
Much more therefore ought we to bear the Yoke of Christian Princes, (esspecially in such a mixed Government as ours, wherein the King de facto may invade our Liberties, but cannot without consent of both his Houses, de jure, change the Laws,) and much better endure Transient Acts, than a Model of Man's framing, which will be always subject to Arbitrary Changes. And thus Calvin understands 
m Inst. 4.20. Nu. 27.  what was imposed upon the Jews 
n 1 Sam. 8. Jer. 27.  not to be peculiar mandatum to them, but general, cuicunque delatum est Regnum ei serviendum, when he says, Ex quibus apparet subditos Regibus nec posse nec debere adversus ipsos quicquam movere, licet tyrannidem exerceant. So as by his sense the higher Power 
o Rom. 13.  is the Power above Subjects, and only below the highest Power of all, (even God) which St. Paul there expresses in the singular number often, to declare this Regal and Supreme Power to be in the King, and all others derivative from him, if St. Peter's be a good Comment upon it, 
p 1 Pet. 2.13.15.  where he styles the King as Supreme. For, Rex non debet esse sub homine sed sub Deo & Lege, the one for direction, the other for punishment: Under the Law, as a Rule; under God, as Judge of his Actions: 
q Eccle. 8.  which made David be put in Balance with all the People; 
r 2 Sam. 18.3.  for their telling him he was worth ten thousand was to be understood of all: As in Judas, 
s vers. 14.  where God's coming at the last Judgement is said to be with ten thousand of his Saints, instead of all, as is expressed by the Prophet Zachary. 
t c. 14. v. 5   
And therefore that now received (but much abused) Maxim, That the King is major singulis, universis minor, can in its just latitude be meant only of the Original and Fundamental Right the People had in the first Election of the Person to the Power (where God did not immediately appoint him) not of giving the Power to the Person; for that is only from God, who claims the Sword as his own Right, and will not have it used by any hand, to which he conveys it not by Humane (which is always accompanied with Divine) Right. And so it is to be esteemed of according to God's revealed Will, who never instituted other Government for Civil Regiment, but commands it (as other Spiritual Functions in the Church) for Divine Administration; there being no happy State in the perfection of Government without a Lawful King; nor Glorious Church without Episcopacy. (Nor can any other justly entitle themselves to the having a Divine Precept or Institution for their Practice.) So as if others have the esse, they want the bene esse of Government, though men have found out many other inventions for both.  
And therefore whosoever resist their Lawful Rulers by force, purchase to themselves Damnation, as they oppose the Ordinance of God, though in wicked ones, (yet Rulers if wicked, are to expect the same Reward.) For, saith Bucer, the word Subject signifies a fall and absolute Subjection to Rulers, and forbids all force; because, as another observes, 
u upon Tit. 3.  to be subject is to obey; and the rather because in the worst Government of any King, the protection we receive from it doth more than balance the Evils we perhaps might suffer under another Form. 
w Jud. 17.  And therefore, saith the Apostle) let every Soul (as well Spiritual as Temporal) be subject to Kings, (as the best Form of Ruling) in whom by God's Ordination the Habit of all Power resides (though the Act be in his Ministers) in all Causes (though not over them, but their Persons) as Supreme; (and qui tentat accipere, tentat decipere, saith Bernard.) So as none, but those that swear falsely in making a Covenant, and fear not the Lord, will say what should a King do to us? 
x Hos. 10.3, 4.  When, as it is in the Fable of Beasts, all should agree to choose the Lion for their King, rather than have none: For, praestat unum timere quam multos. And therefore it is probable God in his Providence (to prevent Inter-regnums, the mischiefs that did follow upon having no King 
y Judg. 17.  and the tumultuousness of Popular Elections) did settle Regal Powers in a succession of Blood first in David, though promised to Abraham, and prophesied of to Judah. 
z Gen. 17.6.49.10. 1 King. 11.14. Jer. 41.1. 2 Chro. 22.10.   
So as that Position of the Romanists, and our new Statists, (Simeon and Levi, Brethren in Iniquity) that Princes are made by the People, because made by the consent of the People; and that People Originally make the Magistrate, not the Magistrate the People, is most false; yet thus Parsons (in his Dolman) and many others, broached that seditious Position, with divers of the same nature, to stir up the People against Queen Elizabeth, persuading them they had power to dispose of the Crown, and might depose her, and transfer the Kingdom to the Infanta of Spain; and since that time both Junius Brutus, Buchanan, and others, like Sampson's Foxes, have joined with the Jesuits in this, though standing as Extremes in other things.  
But this Opinion (as a most Reverend Divine of our Church hath showed) hath no Foundation in Reason nor Scripture. For, saith he, from the Canon, the Powers that be are ordained of God. And how can man give the Sword (the power of Life and Death over others) that hath not power to take away his own life by any Natural or Divine Right? (For as hath been said, no man can convey to another what he hath not himself:) So that Power, wheresoever placed, is an Emanation from God immediately, and so to be obeyed only where orderly settled and constituted; For the Powers that be, saith the Apostle, 
a Rom. 13.  (whether by Election or Inheritance, Compact or just Conquest being once legally established) are of God, and may not be disturbed by their Subjects, in a way of Arms, or Force, for any Impiety, Tyranny or Oppression whatsoever; they having no Power over the person once invested in, and discriminated by the Power all Kings have by God's Ordination; for in all changes men can only choose the person, but never give the Power. As Silver that is mere Plate, if it be tendered for exchange, may be taken or left at the liberty of him, to whom it is offered; but when once stamped by the King, and Coined becomes currant and not to be refused. Or as Acts of Parliament, whilst Voted by the two Houses, have to this time been only Consents, but after the King's concurrence Statutes that bind the persons that Voted them, and all others; and not to be altered by them without his assent: So in Governments, or Governors, as soon as any are created by man, whether Kings Elective or by Succession, even St. Peter's Humane Creatures are by St. Paul called God's Ordinance, 
b Rom. 13.  and not to be resisted nor altered at the Will of the Electors, who irrevocably part with their own Right, as the Jewish Servant (by boring) made himself a Slave.  
For if there remained in them a Power dormant, to overrule and unmake them, whom they have once submitted to, then where were decency and order? 
c 1 Cor. 14.  Nay what Tumults, Disorders, and Massacres would arise from it, when Revenge would remove the one, or Ambition, Faction, and the like, set up another, to compass their own ends? (like Herodet a Persian King, who being a cruel Tyrant, when he could not find out a Law to warrant his unlawful Actions, found out another that he might do what he list.) And those that fear not God and the King (conjunctim, as one in regard of Divine Relation and Institution) are given to such changes, 
d Prov. 24.21.  though Christ himself, as man, gave the example of submission and acknowledgement of the Divine Right of Caesar's (and his Deputy Pilat's) Power, 
e Mat. 17.27. Joh. 9.11.  the conviction of which Truth fetched the Confession of it from a Popish Divine, 
f Royard. in Dom in 1. Advent.  Rege constituto, non potest Populus jugum subjectionis repellere.  
And though Bellarmine lays it as a Position, (as cited by Suarez 
g Li. 3. c. 3. p. 224. ) That the People never so give up the Act of Power unto the King, but that they retain the Habit still in themselves, it is contradicted by Suarez 
h Defend. Fid. Cath. l. 3. c. 3. p. 225.  in these words. Non est simpliciter verum Regem pendere in sua potestate a Populo, etiamsi ab ipso eam acceperit: for he adds, Postquam Rex legitime constitutus est, supremam habet potestatem in his omnibus, ad quae accipit, etiamsi a Populo illam acceperit. So Cuneris 
i L. de office. Princi.  Principis (sive Electione, sive Postulatione, vel Successione, vel belli jure Princeps fiat) Principi tamen facto divinitus potestas adest. Otherways there would be Sword against Sword, whereas God hath made but one, because for one hand, and will still be a Repressor of the Tumults of the People, which are more raging than the Waves of the Sea. 
k Ps. 65.7.  For that keeps its bounds, when the other will know none. 
l Hos. 5.10, 11.   
But here it is but he that resisteth, not he that obeyeth not, that purchases Damnation. For there may be not only a lawful but a necessary Disobedience, when the Commands of our Superiors run counter to God's revealed Will, 
m Acts 4.18, 19.5.29.  as in Daniel and the three Children. 
n Dan. 3.4.5. chap.  But even then resist not though a Nero, under whom some think St. Paul writ his Epistle to the Romans, and a little after felt some sparks of his Persecution, 
o Ep. 3.  as he was flagellum Domini, 
p Hos. 13.11.  by an Ordinative Permission.  
Nay further, our submission to such should be ex animo, (as Aquinas glosses) because the command is omnis anima. For it is not an Eye, but a Heart-service that God requires, even to our froward and perverse Masters; 
q 1 Pet. 2.18. Ep. 6.6.  knowing that God will both recompense and protect those that suffer according to his Will, and commit their Souls to him in well-doing; 
r 1 Pet. 4.19.  which made David conclude, They that know thy name will put their trust in thee, for thou Lord hast not failed them that seek thee, but wilt be their refuge in such times of trouble. 
s Ps. 9.9, 10.   
Nay the duty of not resisting may also be enforced from the contrary; when Christ in saying that, If his Kingdom were of this World, then would his Servants fight, 
t Joh. 18.36.  intimates, that we own our lives for the protection of our King's just Rights, but ought not to do any thing against them or theirs, whether concerning the Person or Posterity.  
For after the free Suffrage or Submission of a People to a Successive Monarchy, the Son and next in Blood have always a just right to the Crown (as in our Kingdom) upon the death of his Father, though wanting the Ceremony of Coronation, which doth but declare not convey the Right. Nor is it in the People's Power to revoke their former Concessions, no more than a Wife when she hath taken a Husband can divorce herself, or justly refuse him other duties, though he grow froward and unjust. And if it were otherwise how should we imitate Christ our General in his Passive Obedience, (as is commanded, 
u 1 Pet. 2.21. ) keep our Covenant in Baptism, (the Epitome of Christian Religion,) and make many living Christians by one dying Saint, (in that Sanguis Martyrum est semen Ecclesiae) or be Partakers of that Spiritual Good that comes by suffering, even the Trial of our Faith 
w 1 Pet. 1.7.  and Improvement of our Glory.  
So as the contrary Opinion must needs proceed from Infidelity or distrust, when we will be our own (God's) Deliverers, and not rely upon Providence for the Event in all Distresses, in only using such means as by his word are warrantable. And the Weapons of our Warfare, we know, are not Carnal, but Spiritual; 
x 1 Cor. 10.4. 2 Tim. 4.7.  even our whole panoply being but the Girdle of Verity, the Breastplate of Righteousness, the Sword of the Spirit, the Helmet of Salvation, and Shield of Faith, 
y Eph. 6.  by which we overcome the World. 
z 1 Joh. 5.4  And therefore Tertullian in his Apology against forcible entrance, 
a Text. 37.  gins with an Absit, and concludes, We must rather be slain than slay our Superiors. So Ambrose, 
b L. 5. Ep. ad Aurent.  Prayers and Tears are our only Weapons. And to that purpose speaks St. Cyprian, 
c Ad Demetriad.  Gregory Nazianzen, 
d Orat. 2. in Julian.  with all the concurrence of the Primitive times.  
Nor are we to submit for fear, (unless filial) or want of force, but Conscience sake: Nor can the New-minted Jesuitical Distinctions (of differing between the Person and the Power in their Rebellions, by placing it in the People, and the Administration of it only in the King) absolve their Consciences from the Gild, who de facto have resisted in our times; it being but a Popish Riddle (such as their Transubstantiation) in which they turn the substance of the Regality of Kings into a mere Chimaera, a fancied nothing, and make Accidents to subsist without a Subject, the Supreme Power without his Person; a Paradox that neither the Gospel nor the Law can unriddle.  
For they speak the contrary, in making the Supreme Power inseparable from the Person of a King, 
e 1 Pet 2.  especially ours, which is settled as well by Municipal, as Divine Law; as may appear by all the Laws of this Kingdom, both Customs and Acts, as well as by the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance, 
f Cook. fol. 36. 37.  which condemn such Monsters of Opinion to be illegitimate: 
g See Cook fol. 8. 35. So Pref. 4. part fol. 1. Bract. l. 1. c. 8. fol. 5. 6. 16. Ri. 2. cap. 5.24. Hen. 8. C. 12. D. etc. Stu. f. 43. Dier 29. Co. 11.90.93. 1 Eliz. c. 1. 5. Eliz. 1. Cook Calvin's Case f. 11. Exilium. Henricide Spencer. 1 Edw. 3. 3 Edw. 25. Calv. B. ●0. Cook 4. Parl. Inst. fol. 46. 7 fol. 30. 2 fol. 15. 1 Jacob. c. 1.10.33. Hen. 8.21.  And if the unhappiness of evil times and men have de facto done otherwise, and deposed, or destroyed, or rejected their Princes, they are to expect no Laurels nor Trophies for it; the memory and monuments of them being best buried in Oblivion: In that such Victories ought to be ashamed of themselves; for though such ways may seem right to a man, the end thereof are the ways of death. 
h Prov. 14.2.16.25.   
And thus having taken the Timber that grows upon other men's Soils, and squared it into a less Model for use, gathered the choicest Flowers out of other men's Gardens, and made them into a Nosegay, fit for every hand, to refresh the Spirits of such as are fainting under the persecution of these times for their Loyalties, (there being little of mine but the Thread that binds them) drawn my Oar out of others Mines to melt it into a small Wedg or Ingot, that every one might carry a stock of Knowledge about him, as a Counter-Charm to those seducing Spirits now raised among us, to withdraw men from their due Obedience, I desire every one to treasure up something for their use: and having proved all Power to be of Divine Right, and only subject to limitation in regard of Exercise, with a security against Force, though a Nebuchadonozor, or a Jeroboam 
i Jer. 29 7. Hos. 13.11.  be over us, I shall proceed to speak of the Duty of Kings; in which I shall not say much, since all are Doctors and read Lectures upon that subject, being all Eye for without (none for within) to take notice of the slips and failings of their Prince, which they always behold in a Multiplying-Glass, though by making too much Window they weaken the Walls, and cause Factions and Divisions that the Roof might fall, and then I am sure the Frame will not stand long, let them seem to underprop it with never so many specious pretences; (painted, but rotten Posts:) For as the firmness and uniting of the Walls support the Roof, so the Roof covers and preserves them from many an ill Blast that would otherwise weaken and overthrow them. But I spin this Thread too long on this Subject, and therefore I here wind it up, and proceed to consider,   

CHAP. IU. What Duties Kings own to their Subjects, with the Excellency of that Government.  
HAving endeavoured to show, as it were in Landscape and dark shadow only, the Great and High Prerogatives of Kings, not being able perfectly to describe them as they are in themselves without a seeming Court-flattery, (which yet might be forgiven given in these times, and in a Garrison, where Peace of Conscience is the only reward of Loyalty) I shall further show you the Excellency of Regal Government by its Effects. For so (as the Sun in Water) it is best seen in its Reflections, and the just Actions of Pious Kings, who are the Fountains of Honour, Justice, Power, and all other regular subordinate motions in the lower Spheres, (as the Vital Spirits in the Head are of all Natural Operations of the Body) are always best seen in their Piety and Moralities; the industrious endeavour of which makes their Mitres rather ponderous than glorious, as the Emblems of Christian Kings do show; in that the Cross is always fixed (but superior) to their Crown, to the imitation of their Master, who was Crowned indeed, but with Thorns; to teach them how full of vexing Cares and Troubles that Head should be subject to, that (as the Stern to the Ship) is to guide the great Bark of the State, not only in Calms but Storms, which best prove the Pilot. So as we may consider the Infelicities of Good Kings (with respect to this World) to be more in the Scale than their happiness; when they are not Lords but Stewards; not Owners but Dispenser's of all their glorious Attributes and Endowments. For Regal, is that Paternal Power in the fifth Commandment, which Philo Judaeus observes confines upon both Tables, that their Arms of Protection might extend to the keeping of both; and the greater the Trust the more severe the Account. In which there stands,  
First, a Charge of Power upon each King's Score (it being one of God's communicable Attributes) how he hath used the Sword God hath put into his hand, which St. Peter saith aught to be a terror to the Evil, not to the Good, (though a Protection to all against private wrongs) with the Militia and Power of making War or Peace: which is seated in them, and inherent, by Divine Right; 
k Num. 10. Deut. 17.  (as well as in our King by the known and established Laws, and magna charta 
l C. 2.6. & 7. & Ed. 7. C. 1.  and to the Son, 
m H. 3.  succeeding him;) and though it be regulated in the Exercise, 
n By 13. El. 1. etc. 6 1 E. 3. c. 5. 4 H. 4. c. 13 5 H. 4. 11 H. 7. c. 1. 2 E. ● 4. 5 of P. M. ●. 3. 4 Jac. c. 1. 22 E. 4.  the Parliament never did pretend to give the Power but to declare it.  
And thus Reynolds in his Comment on the 110 Psalms, 
o Upon Ps. 110.2.  amongst the [Jura Regalia] proper honour's belonging to the Person of the King (which none can use but in a subordination to him) doth reckon [Armamentaria Publica] the Magazines of all Military Provisions, (citing Gregory Tholos.;) 
p De Repub. l. 9 c. 1. Rom. 13. 1 Sam. ●0. 16.  by them to fence and impail God's Church and Vineyard both from the wild Boar and little Foxes; and the persons of men from Injuries and Violence; which are the greatest Privileges we can enjoy in this World, as may more clearly appear by the contrary Effects; (For things are seen carendo magis quam fruendo.) As in Judges, 
q Cap. 17.  where the decay of Religion, advancing of Idolatry, making Priests of the lowest of the People, and all other Civil (uncivil) Disorders proceeded from the want of this Power in one man, and are imputed to it, as to the efficient cause, though properly malum non habet efficientem, sed deficientem causam.  
And therefore we may expect great good from them, when so many Evils are occasioned by their want. For when there was no King in Israel, every man did what seemed good in his own Eyes, (saith the Spirit of God) disenthroning Reason, and making Lust their Law, and Rapes their boast. 
r Judg. 19  So that by just consequence the having of a good King is the proper Remedy of those Evils, who makes his just Power the measure of his Will, not his Will the measure of his Power. And therefore it is Enacted, saith St. Peter, in the style of a Lawgiver (as some observe) that all should be subject to him (at least in not doing his Lawful Commands, be punished by him.) 
s Rom. 3 4. Eccl●s. ●. Esdr. 7 25, 26, 27. Rev. 2.20.  And so we find it in all the Reigns of the good Kings of Israel; for there were no Micha's Idols nor High-places left; no Rapines nor Violences suffered; no acting of Wickedness under the Countenance of Laws and Acts; but, as Gods, 
t Ps. 82.6.  they meddled with the Affairs of God; as Nursing-fathers' they nourished the Church with the two Breasts of God's Word and Sacraments, through the Ministerial Administrations of Priests, and as public Ministers for good, 
u Rom. 13.  they restrained all other Uncivil Insolences, not suffering every man to be a King; nay more than a King, in doing what he list: for a King ought not to be a Jeroboam, favouring idolatry, or any false Worship; 
w 2 Chro. 10.14.  but a David, Learned, Pious and Wise, as an Angel of God, 
x 2 Sam. 19.27.  that Fraud, Injuries, and violence might be detected and restrained, Innocency relieved, Industry encouraged, Virtue rewarded, and Vice punished.  
Secondly, Justice Distributive is owing from a King to all his Subjects, as that which establishes his own Throne, (saith Solomon) and keeps the just Boundaries of [meum & tuum] Common Right amongst men (out of which, as Seeds, the large Harvest of Contentions grows:) For, Judicium or Potestas judiciaria is a peculiar of Royalty, in that the Administration is from the Prince as the Fountain of all Humane Equity (under God) deposited in the hands of inferior Officers: 
y Pr●v. 20.8.  For so he is interpretative in them, who, as his mouth, are to publish the Laws, and to execute those Acts of Justice and Peace which principally belong to his own sacred Breast. So Reynolds still in that place, alluding there to that of Joh. 5.22, 27. and drawing his Parallel from Christ, where he saith, The Father hath committed all Judgement to the Son, etc. And therefore herein a good King ought ever to make God's revealed Will, and the known Laws, (of which his sworn Judges are to be the Interpreters) the measure and rule of his proceed; and that under pain of Damnation, a severity from God, infinitely above the coercion of men: nor shall their punishment be less, who usurp the Exercise of this Justice without his Commission.  
Thirdly, Mercy must all derive from the King (as a Flower that groweth only in his Garland) a Gem which can shine only from the Diadem of Princes, For Jus vitae & necis, a Power of pardoning Condemned Persons, and delivering from the Terror of the Law, (though in some cases limited, as in wilful Murders, and the like) belongs only to him; being there deposited by God himself, and in no other Representative whatsoever; so that where Regal Government is settled, the Execution of any man (though wicked and deserving to die by the Law) is wicked, if not having the King's Commission for it.  
Fourthly, Honour (the ennobling of the Blood) is to derive from him, when Virtue or some Heroic Acts dignify the Person; for without that he that receives it is but a Label which bears the Wax, without any impression of the Seal, or as a rotten Post that bears a glorious Escutcheon. But for the more clear manifestations of this, his [Ornamenta Regia] Regal Ornaments, as a Crown, a Throne, a Sceptre, and the like, with the universally acknowledged Rights to them, speak him to be the only Spring, from whence it can flow, 
z 2 King. 12. ●2. 1 Kings 10.8.  and aught still to issue in lesser and greater Streams, by it to enrich the humble Valleys, and make them show gay, when adorned with those Flowers of the Crown for the encouragement of Virtue; (as he beareth the Sword to cut down Offenders and prevent their growth:) And as a Testimony hereof the Romans had wont to send to Foreign Kings in League with them, an Ivory-Sceptre, a Royal Robe, and Chair of State, 
a Tacit. Annal. l. 4.  to show in Hieroglyphic what they were.  
Fifthly, Kings own an Example of Virtue and Piety to their Subjects in that (instruimur praeceptis sed dirigimur exemplis, saith Seneca,) the Actions of great men have a Compulsory Power in them, [Regis ad exemplum] are an Eye-Catechism, and (as the Basilisk) by seeing they many times kill our Vices, or by being seen invite us to Virtue; Examples being the shortest way of teaching: For from that Milk we usually, as from our Mother's Breasts, suck our good or bad Inclinations. 
b Gal. 2.14.  Nay like the first Mover they carry all the Inferior Orbs with them, as the first Deer the Herd: When bad Kings, with the ill Influence of the Planets, kill more deadly than Poison in Plants, because coming from a more glorious Body, though the other be more Infectious.  
But herein we in this Nation have the advantage of all others: For if ever the Rays of Virtue had a Power of affimilating others into their own Divine Nature, the Beams of Goodness that shine upon us from the Example of our dear Sovereign (who, as a Combination or Conjunction of Graces, both Divine and Moral, hath all in himself that a finite and limited Being is capable of) must needs have a prevalency over us. Or if they make us not better, they will make us much worse, as they will rise up in Judgement against us to our greater Condemnation. And I am confident as he is an Active Example of Virtue, so he would be Passive to teach us how to suffer in a good Cause, though it were to pass through a Red Sea of his own Blood for the good of his People; Pelican-like to nourish us with the Spirits that flow out of his own Breast; and, by those Beams, to reflect a more glorious Lustre than in his Meridian and height of Greatness.  
But, not to suffer my Zeal to carry me besides my purpose, there is, amongst many others, one part of Duty most especially incumbent upon Kings. For,  
6. Lastly, as King's reign by God, so they should rule for him and the highest good of their People in matters of Religion, both in maintaining the Substance and Essential Parts of it, in their Vigour and Power, by Active Compulsions and Humane Restraints, to force the outward man to Obedience in things good in themselves, and to prescribe such Rules, Methods, and Boundaries in things indifferent, as may bring all to Uniformity in Worship, and may stand as a Wall or Fence to God's Vineyard, against the Invasions of the little Foxes of Schisms and Factions. And this not only for Decency, Order, and Significancy, but as that without which Religion itself cannot subsist: For though they are no parts of it, but Circumstantials, Essentials in a Well-formed Church cannot be maintained without them, no more than a Tree can be preserved to live without its Bark, or Majesty in a King without Reverence: For that, like the Skin to the Body, preserves it both in Being and Beauty; which occasioned St. Paul's Precept of having all things be done decently and in order, that is, according to appointment, as the Original 
c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  will bear it; so Dr. Hammond renders the Words. 
d 1 Cor. 14.40.   
For take away those Regulations of our Public Devotions, (which are as the Hemme, that strengthens the Garment, and keeps it Uniform,) all would resolve into Rents and Schisms, Chaos and Confusion. So as if the Church of God (his enclosed Garden) be not fenced by good Laws for Conformity, all Methods of Devotion are lost, and the Boars of the Forest (unruly men of Factious Spirits) will soon break in to destroy and root it up; and offer nothing but the blind and lame to God, in lose and untrussed postures, unbecoming the Greatness of an Earthly Prince in our Addresses to them, much more to our God, 
e Mal. 1.  by it to make their Superiors bend to them, if pertinacious obstinacy could do it, when they should bow to their Superiors, 
f Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2. Eph. 4. and 6.  according to the Oeconomy of Nature itself, where the inferior Orbs are to be guided and move by the highest Spheres: Otherwise the whole Fabric would be unhinged and fall in pieces, or at least grow weak by separation. For a Dispensation to several Forms of Worship in one Church would prove an Act rather of Division than Comprehension, increase Emulation and Factions, and plant a Seminary for a continued Schism: In that there could be no such Encouragement but there would be scandal and a way of seduction in it, to all Orthodox Protestants, and a Transmigration of Souls amongst themselves from the Father to the Son, with Encouragements and Supports from their profuse Zeal of the Proselytes to their Opinions. So as they would strengthen with time (in that Novelties never want Courtship and Adorers,) though the old way is (Regia via] God's way, and only to be contended for 
g St. Judas Ep.  and preserved by our Act of Uniformity.  
And in this respect Kings and Queens are chief styled Nursing Fathers and Nursing Mothers to the Church; Fathers for Provision and Protection; Mothers for their tenderness and care; when as by little Stratagems and Circumventions they bring their Children to an habituated Obedience, and keep Dangers from them by some outward and extraordinary Confinements, both for Honesty and Order. 
h 1 Cor. 14.40.   
So as Kings have no meaner a depositum committed to them, than the Crown and Throne of God and Christ in the Church: For they are as the Lions about the Throne, to secure and guard it; and as Lawgivers in indifferent things, 
i Deut. 33.4, 5.  (though subject to the direction of their Laws) and are with David to prescribe Rules for fixed Services and Devotions, 
k 1 Chro. 23.  and with Josiah to compel to Religious Duties and Laws of his commanding, (as is before expressed,) 
l 2 Chro. 34.33.  as Hezekiah did; 
m 2 Chro. 29. & 30. & 31.  which Constantine the first Christian Emperor imitated: 
n Euseb. de vita Constant. l. 2. c. 37, 38, 39  But they never (as Praxiteles the Painter made the silly People worship the Image of his Strumpet, under the Title of Venus) imposed the Visions of their own Fancies, nor licenced the crude and unnourishing Vapours of others empty Wits upon the credulous People, it being below the Majesty of Truth and Religion; but according to the sincerity of God's Law: not suffering their Lusts to guide them, which ever bring unconstancy with them, and make the Soul, like a distempered Body, never well in any position or condition. For than men (like Bees from one Flower to another) will be ever flying from one Change and Vanity to another, and not find enough to satiate the intemperate desire of change.  
So as it can be neither agreeable to Religion nor Prudence for a King to suffer variety of Postures and Forms in the outward Exercise of Religion; (for what is good is to be obeyed for itself; what, indifferent in Obedience to his Command, when in middle things Supreme Power chief consists.) And,  
1. For Religion, Kings ought to maintain it in its Essentials and Purity (without any Indulgence or Dispensations to any) as that only which can maintain them. 
o Prov. 16.12, 20, 28.  And such joseph's will be Storehouses in their Kingdoms, and as Elijah, Chariots and Horsemen for their security; there being no guard to that of Piety and Zeal for God's Glory, which they are entrusted to preserve, (even both Tables of the Law;) and are not to bear the Sword in vain, which is put into their hands for that use; Compulsion being necessary where Commands are contemned. 
q Luk. 14.23. Rev. 2.2, 6, 14, 15, 20. Ch. 3.15, 16.   
Nor doth Christ's Permission of the Tares to grow give any just Power of Toleration to Princes by God's Law in known Evils, or pertinacious contumacy to lawful Commands, but only permits mixed Assemblies, where, by reason of outward Conformity, none can discriminate the truly pious from the Hypocrite; by which he yet doth not forbid their Eradication absolutely, but for fear the good Seed also should be destroyed; when a Connivance to known Errors in Doctrine, (or to pertinacious Non-conformists in indifferent things) would make the Magistrate contract the guilt of their Crimes, (Judg. 5.23.) by confirming the one in their mistaken Doctrines, and the other in their superstitious believing indifferent things unlawful; even to an adoring the Idol of their own Fancy, uncharitably censuring of all others, (even the Church and Government itself;) though it bring Hell out of Heaven, (in a pretence of Devotion) and the Devil upon God's Shoulders to rule amongst us in Samuel's Garment, by the silly Charms of a seducing Spirit, through the warmth of Zeal, when it wants the light of Knowledge to guide it; though like the Volatile Spirits of Poisons, when unconfined, (by not being luted up in some Viol or Vessel) it evaporates into an Airy being, of use only to infect others that suck it in by a nearness of Conversation. So as some Ingredients of a seeming Cruelty in our Laws will prove the most Sovereign Mercy to reduce and recover them, and preserve the sound from their Contagion, if tempered in a proportion to their Crimes by pecuniary Mulcts or other Confinements; saving some by Compassion, others by Fears; 
r Judas ver. 22.23.  when the violation of any just Law, if wilfully done, is unlawful. Nay the least minute Atom or Airy Omission, if habitual, may become the greatest Crime, if done with Scandal and Contempt to Authority; in that the Transgression is against God's Ordinance, that requires Obedience to the Commander, not in the value of the thing commanded by him, it being no less Treason to coin a Farthing, that has the King's stamp upon it, than a piece of Gold, according to our Saviour's Rule; in that, He that offends in one wilfully, is guilty of the breach of all the Commandments, when upon equal Temptations he would break the rest; for one little wilful Sin, like the first drop in an Orifice, will usher in more, and dispose the whole Body to such Evacuations and Eruptions.  
2. In Prudence there ought to be no Indulgence, as to the Public Exercise of any false Religion or variety of Forms in outward Worship: For, what Unity, Decency, or Order can there be in setting up one Congregation against another? when Order is the Bond of Peace that keeps us in Unity: For once break that, or tie but with a slip-knot, and all will be dissolved and come to Confusion, which is the Womb of all Rebellion and Schisms.  
Nay, it were to depose Reason (the Supreme Monarch) and Enthrone the Inferior Members, which should submit, and not impose. And certainly the giving Ground in such a Duel would give Courage and Insolency in the Enemy to press for more; and the Pale of Law, that has a breach once made in it, will let out all the Beasts of the Forest to Rapine and Prey, to the loss of good Subjects, but not to the making any better. So as however wise Princes may enlarge any thing that is too straight in matters of Discipline, they will never let Clamour, or the Unjust Discontents of any Midwife in what they call Reformation; and much less a Toleration of all Sects and Errors.  
Nor can the King expect a Harmony amongst Antipathies by permitting several Forms in one settled Government, though the want of Power to maintain his own Laws may force him to unreasonable Condescensions; (for then a Dam against that Current would but enrage it to greater Violences) yet in such a Case I conceive he ought rather to make a General Rule of Conformity for all, if possible, than Differing-ones to Parties;) by it to lay asleep and bury all Animosities the other would maintain; and, like Oil upon Paper, would rather harden than soften such Rebellious Spirits, and render them rather conquerors than Supplicants: But I hope God will not submit his own Glory and our King to such an Eclipse, when nothing but necessity can make it lawful: Though probably such a Scheme by some may be set and calculated for our Horizon, when his Majesty's Compliance to some things has made them rather impose more than acquiesce in what they desired; for he that once gives Ground ever loses more in his Retreat; (unless it be to rally again with some Reserves to maintain his own Right more vigorously;) so as we ought still to contend to Blood for our King's Freedom in his Actings against such. Especially those whose Principles are for Resistance and Rebellion (not Submission) in things that are contrary to their seditious Principles; that hold it lawful to murder the King, (if not the man in whom the Regal Power is vested,) by dispoiling him of all his Regalia, and Essentials of Royalty; which were to un shakel madmen, and set them free to Fury and Rage, perhaps for the destruction of those that endeavoured their recovery and preservation, and not to strike Sparks into those Brands that need be quenched: but they heighten all into a Flame.  
Besides, it were unsafe to the Public Peace to permit the Factious Separatists (who are yet as Sand without Mortar, weak, dispersed and lose) to gather into Combinations and Confederacies, by which they'll know their own strength, and take advantage of others weakness to compass their own end, whose end is only (like Oil among other Liquors) to be uppermost, and bring all into a subjection to them, and to be able perhaps to give, not ask Dispensations.  
Nay it would reflect dishonour and disgrace upon our Government and Governors, and Discouragement to all Orthodox Professors, not to maintain what hath been prosperously practised among us since the Reformation, and hath had the Influences of Heaven to give it a Prolific Virtue, in producing a Loyal, Zealous and Pious People to beautify their Professions. And therefore Christian Kings should not be outdone by a Heathen inspired by God to it, but send out a Decree that whosoever will not do th' Law of God, and the King's Law, let him have Judgement without delay, whether it be to Death, or to Banishment, or to Confiscation of Goods, or to Imprisonment, 
s Ezr. 7.25, 26, 27.  which was in part practised by the Kings of Israel, 
t 2 Chro. 15.12, 13, 14, 15. & 29. & ●0. & 31. & 34.31, ●2, ●3. 1 Chron. 23.  and aught much more to be done under the Gospel, that hath more of light and direction in it to walk by; lest Liberty should turn into Licentiousness, in holding things contrary to the Analogy of Faith, and against the Rules of Charity, Purity, Loyalty, Sobriety and Expedience, to the disturbance of the Peace and Unity of the Church, which Good and Pious Kings ought always to prevent or restrain by wholesome and Penal Laws of Regulation, to encourage or fright their People the more to their Duties and Obedience; which I shall in the next place touch upon with a light and unskilful Pencil.   

CHAP. V Of the Debt and Allegiance Subjects own to their Princes.  
NOW, that we may pay and retribute the Native Rights (rightly) which we own to the Person upon whom God hath fixed the Sacred Character of Supremacy, let us endeavour to set a true value and estimate upon the great benefits we receive by him, when we either find in the foot of the Account all the Glory of Religion, and happiness of a free People (if he Governs well) summed up in him, or when ill, not only the Exercise of many Christian Graces in us (God commanding our Submission to him) but sometimes the highest Crown of Martyrdom, when we suffer for Christ and a Good Cause, and are not only ready (with St. Paul) to do, but die for his Name: 
u Acts 21.  For by it we may make Tyrants and our greatest Enemies to become our best Friends, if we can but improve those holy advantages for our Spiritual Good, and make our Spirits, when extracted from the more earthly parts in all outward enjoyments, to multiply our Joys: so that were there not a higher Principle to move us, our own Interest and self-advantage (the delight and complaisance of a quiet Conscience) should naturally incline us to an holy gratitude to God for them, and oblige us to all proportionable returns; unless we will have the inanimate and irrational Creatures to rise up against us in Judgement. For thus the Rivers run back into the Lap of their Natural Mother, and offer up their streams there, as a just Tribute for having sucked and derived their nourishment from her Breasts. Thus the dull and heavy Earth doth put forth herself in an early Spring to make an Offering of her Fruits to man, for his labour and cost bestowed on her, and sends up an Incense to Heaven (confessed of the Spirits of her richest Flowers) in thanks for her fruitful Showers and sweet Influences by which they grow and flourish. Nay the most unnatural of all Birds, the Raven, became Elias his Caterer out of a natural gratitude to God (as some have observed) for feeding her young ones when she left them.  
And therefore let not these become, in this, reasonable Creatures, and we Men become Beasts, nay worse by our unthankfulness for Blessings by Afflictions; but most when we fail in our Duties to our Superiors for their benefits to us; the contrary being enjoined by God; who, because Princes are to rule for him, taketh care for them; and no sooner provides for his own Worship, but for their Honour, 
w Ex. 20.2, 3, 1●.  still coupling them with himself through all the Scripture: as 
x Prov. 24.21. Mat. 22.21. 1 Pet. 2.17.  Fear God, honour the King, that so both Law, Prophets, Apostles, nay the Son of God himself, might enforce it as a Duty upon us, as a learned Father of our Church observes. But not to lose myself in this Sea, we will follow the several streams that run into it, and show how they all meet there. And,  

First, of Obedience.  
1. The first great Outrent and Homage we are to acknowledge our subjection in is Obedience (in lawful Commands.) For so St. Paul to Titus, 
y Tit. 3.1.  commenting as it were upon the 13th Chapter to the Romans, expounds it. And, as the Learned observe, the very word [Subjects] signifies Obeyers in the Original, as an Essential Ingredient into an happy Government; which, with Solon, is ever most glorious, Si Populus Magistratui obediat, Magistratus autem legibus. But then this duty must be rooted in Conscience and spring from thence, in that we must obey for the Lord's sake, terminating it in him, because the bond to Civil Obedience is from Divine Ordinance, and that not only to the good, but froward Masters: 
z 1 Pet. 2.18. Eph. 6.  And then let it spread into every duty (even in all things 
a Col. 3.20.  Actively or Passively, obeying the Lawful, submitting our Persons, though not our Actions to the rest) 
b Act. 5.29.  to our King as he is Pater Patriae, 
c 1 Pet. 2.17.  of all others the Supreme Head; for only in rebus mediis L●x posita est Obedientiae; because, as I noted before, in things necessary by any Divine Law we ought to obey though no Humane Authority command them; in things unlawful we ought not to obey though commanded; and are only to obey for the Commands sake (not the things commanded) in things indifferent, which only become unlawful because forbidden, and are not forbidden because unlawful. For such Obedience is not only accepted with (but rewarded of) God; as in the Recabites, Jer. 35. and can only keep us in a serene and calm temper in the Body politic; so as a frown will not appear in the face of that great Ocean by the raging of Waves and madness of the People; nor will a wrinkle show itself to abate its beauty.  
2. We own Honour to him, and that as justly as Fear to God himself, being commanded to pay it to God in the Man, not to the Man, but as he represents God. And this (as the Flags and main Sails of a Ship) doth not only deck and adorn the Throne, but makes it bear up in all Wethers; nay, (as the Bark the Tree) doth preserve it in all its other Rights. For, let us but once slight or contemn the Person, (in saying, what is this Moses that takes so much upon him?) 
d Num. 9  and we shall soon despise his Power; nay God himself as represented in the King or Supreme. 
e 1 Sam. 1.8   
Upon which ground it is probable that God and the King are linked together: Fear God, Honour the King, 
f 1 Pet. 2.17.  to teach us that their Precepts are not two, but one and the same in Root, though the Fruit we must pay them is different. And therefore St. Paul in commanding all to submit to the higher Powers, concludes, to whom you own Honour, 
g Rom. 13.7.  (as to a Father, or to God, for God's command) 
h Isa. 49.23.  and this in our thoughts not to blaspheme them, 
i Eccl. 10.20.  in our words not to deprave them, 
k Ex. 22.28. Acts 22.5. Judas 8.  nor speak evil of them; in all our Actions to reverence them, as Gods upon Earth, his Chair of State, wherein Divinity itself is Enthroned, 
l Ps. 8●. 6. 2 Sam. 14.10 Num. 12.10. & 16.32.  though in the Person of a Wicked man: For though he forfeit his claim to double Honour, due to them that rule well, 
m 1 Tim. 5.  one to his Place, another to his Virtues,) he cannot divest himself of, nor justly be denied that Honour, Fear, Subjection, etc. which Subjects, as a debt and duty, must everpay to his Office and Supremacy, as a most learned Divine hath observed.  
3. We own Tribute both of our Persons and Purses. First of our Persons, for the just defence of our King and his just Rights. This is employed in those words of our Saviour, My Kingdom is not of this World, else would my Servants fight. 
n Joh. 18.36. 1 Tim. 22.  As also in respect of the Power of Life a King has over his Rebellious Subjects, that would not submit to his Government; 
o Luke 19.27.  which though a Parable may from the Application enforce it. And it may be further proved from his just Power of making War and Peace; 
p Num. 10.  as hath been showed fully from Scripture and our Law-books.  
Secondly, To this we must add the Tribute of our Purses; in that Money is one of the Pillars of Power, and the Nerves of War; Majesty without it being but the shadow of Regality, and without Power but a Speculative Greatness that hath the Vision of gallant things, but no means to detain them; because wanting of that Soul which should animate that (otherwise dead and useless) thing to Action. And therefore God hath provided against the Galilites and Herodians 
q Act. 5.37 Mark 12.17. Mat. 22.16.21.  in one and the same Command, resolving upon that Common Rule of Justice [suum cuique] for neither but against both; those that would give all to God and no Tribute to Caesar, or all to Caesar and nothing to God (divorcing those he hath joined together) by saying, Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. 
r Mat. 22.21.  Upon which ground (as I conceive) Dr. Reynolds still observes, 
s Ps. 110. pag. 128.  [Bona adespota incerti Domini vectigalia census, etc.] Concealments, Tributes, Customs, and the like, are Testifications of Homage and Fidelity belonging to the Personal Prerogative of Princes, and are (as the Apostle saith) due unto them. 
t Rom. 13.6, 7.  Thus Solomon levied, and the Princes with whom he held Correspondence, paid Tribute. 
u 1 Kings 4.21. & 9.21. & 10.10. Deut. 20.16.  Nay Christ himself paid it, (by his Command to Peter) though he was at the cost of a Miracle for it, 
w Mat. 17.27.  even to a Tiberius, a Wicked Prince, though it was the only Miracle he ever wrought in money matters, (as peculiar to Princes) whereas all his others concerned the general necessities of mankind.  
And we may further observe the justness of it from the Latin word Reddite, not Date, importing that it is not only lawful to pay, but unlawful to withhold it as a due; nay it should be willingly (the Offering of a free-heart.) 
x 2 Cor. 9.71.  So as Legal Customs, 
y Luke 3.3.  Taxes or Homage, 
z 1 Sam. 17.25. 2 Kings 15.19, 20.  Fines, 
a Est. 7.26.  Confiscations, 
b Ezr. 10.8.  are the just Rights of our Superiors. But extraordinary Impositions cannot legally be now laid upon us, (in any case but visible and immergent necessity) without the consent of both Houses of Parliament; it having been the Wisdom of our Predecessors (by the Indulgence of good Kings) to keep the Purse and the Power (by Municipal Law) divided, to prevent all Tyranny and Exorbitancy in the use of either.  
And if we own these Assistances to our lawful Sovereign, how are they guilty against God of a High Rebellion that reject and oppose him in their Superior, and do not endeavour by just duty to prop, but undermine his Throne? For if a Negative Obligation, not to aid him, be unlawful where God commands assistance; what is their Crime, but as the Sin of Witchcraft, that enter into an Engagement against him, who is to them God amongst men in the visible Character of his Power? (when all others are only Men before God:) So as he never countenanced any other Government than what was Monarchical, deposited and summed up in one Person, exercising the Power, though not always possessing the name of King. As appears by that of Judges, where it is said, every one did what they list when there was no King (that is, no supreme Judge, or lawful Magistrate) in Israel.  
Nay, even in Popular States (so natural a thing is Monarchy) in what hands soever the Power is, one Finger will still (as in natural Bodies) be found longer than the rest, and become a Kingly Tyrant by his overswaying Interest. And therefore let us not cast Pelion upon Ossa, heap Sin upon Sin, by countenancing such mushroom Alterations. Nay, he that is not against them is with them in this case, and so becomes guilty of their unfruitful deeds of Darkness, if not discountenancing and preventing them by all lawful ways; according to that of the Apostle, 
t 1 Thes. 5.  avoid all appearance of evil by appearing to disallow of it, never concurring actively with it, though we suffer to Bonds and death: For that will in the end prove our Crown of rejoicing, though the Absoloms of these times would with fair and specious pretences seduce us from our Allegiance. For it is better in this Case (contrary to David's choice) to fall into the hands of Men, (embalmed with Innocence to preserve our names from Infamy, and our Souls from Damnation) than into the hands of God, besmeared with the Leprosy of Sin, that must needs cause his rejection of us.  
But if the Despisers of God and their King will still pertinaciously maintain the black and horrid Sins of Oppression, Sacrilege, Murder, and the like; not only deposing, but despoiling them (as the greatest Delinquents) of all their just Patrimonies and Rights, by plundering the one, and vilifying the other, (in all things sacred, whether Places, Persons or Revenues, sanctified and discriminated by Gods own Institution) by profaning his Sanctuaries, and despising his Priests and Ordinances, 
d Lam. 31. Ps. 74.  they may be assured of a certain (if not swift) destruction to overtake them from the Authority of the like Precedents in all Ages, and the Word of God itself. For their Posterity here (like a Plaguesore in the Body growing out of their own putrefaction (their soul and ulcerous Sins) as the meritorious cause of Judgements will hasten them.  
Nor can they account themselves free from the other's guilt, who have not acted in their Crimes, if they have not some way opposed them 
e Judg. 5.23.  according to their several Callings and Capacities, being bound to it by the Laws of God, the Kingdom, and that of Natural Obligation to their Civil Parents, and common Charity to their engaged Brethren; in that Damnation will be chief pronounced against Sins of Omission, at the last day; which I express not to upbraid any, but to convince them; by it to make them steer a more safe course in Emergencies of the like nature, (if any shall hereafter happen) making God's Law the Compass by which they sail (even Heavenly Influences, not sublunary Agitations.)  
However, I hope they will keep themselves from a countenancing of, or compliance with the Persons and Actings of those that usurp the Supreme Power, (both in regard of Scandal to others, and contracting Crime upon themselves) by avoiding all Appearances of Evil, 
f 1 Thes. 5.  when Virtue and Vice border so upon one another, are so near in their Confines and so contiguous, as the least excess or defect makes a Natural Action many times an unnatural disorder, and a thing indifferent in itself become the parent of a great Sin.  
Therefore he cannot be innocent that holds Communion with those that are guilty of such high Crimes, in any thing that seems to countenance them; though God's Service be a thing pretended, as in their Thanksgivings and Humiliations; so St. Augustine. 
g Serm. 6. de verb. Dom.  For two will not walk together unless they agree, saith the Prophet. 
h Amos 3.3.  So as it is the duty of every Christian not to betray the truth by his Silence or Countenance, but to contend for it against all Actions that seem to favour the successes of an unjust Cause, grounded in Rebellion, or tending to the maintaining an Usurped Power. 
i Judg. 3.11.  And therefore we ought by separating from them 
k 2 Cor. 4.17.  to reprove their Errors; 
l Eph. 5.7, 11, 15.  in that our Actions have a Tongue in them, as well as the Corn, Earth, and other inanimate Creatures. 
m Psal. 19  So that though Humiliations and Thanksgivings are Pious and Religious Duties in themselves, yet when called to advance any unjust Interest, or to countenance it, our presence there entitles us to their Sin; (though we abhor it, and the Minister at that time preach against it) in that the end for which it was commanded terminates and specificates the Duty in all ordinary and public Interpretation; and makes us give, by our presence, Offence to the Innocent, confirm the Wicked, and partake of their Crimes; so as Disobedience in that case is better than Sacrifice. 
n 1 Sam. 15.   
Nay, I may not only appropriate others Sins 
o Psal. 50.28.  by Countenance, Approbation, or Imitation, (while living,) but may be guilty of Sin in others many thousand years after I am dead, (as well as I did Sin before I was born) when they sin by Example or Infusion derived from me. For as the long precogitation upon any sin with delight makes it an old and inveterate one before it be produced into Act, so fewer repetition of any sin by my Example or Authority (though committed many Ages hence) makes it a new sin to me, and to increase my Damnation; as is deduced most justly by Divines from the Parable of Dives, 
p Luke 16.  who reflected upon himself (not his Brethren) in his charity.  
And therefore let us walk with all preciseness, 
q Psal. 119.53.63.  hating Evil with a perfect hatred, and doing nothing that either may be made an Argument to confirm others in any evil way or action by our compliance; or be matter of just scandal to the Innocent and suffering Party; especially if our Judgements approve it not. For if I ought not to do a good Action, nor favour a good Cause, if not of Faith, 
r Rom 14.  I am much less excusable in countenancing an ill one, my Judgement in any thing dissenting. So that none can conscientiously and voluntarily act with those that usurp the exercise of Supreme Power in any Kingdom, in any thing that gives countenance to such an Authority, or is conducing to the establishing or maintaining of it, without contracting the guilt of all those sins and irregularities the others smoothed their way by to that assumed Greatness. For there are so many ways to contract others Crimes, as Junius and Piscator observes, 
s On Isa. 10.1.  that the very Scribe or Notary of an unjust decree, though but instrumental in it, is threatened with a Curse; a woe being pronounced both against them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that writ grievous things, which the other prescribed; as the Prophet expresses it. For we are commanded to walk honestly toward them that are without, 
t 1 Pet. 2.12.  not giving the least scandal in any thing: (What then is their guilt, who make or put on their own Shackles, and twist the Halter for the strangling of themselves, by departing from that Rule?) Though we may, in lawful Actions, submit to the Power of Usurpers, (especially when seconded with some Coercive Penalty) as in paying of Taxes, compounding for one's own Estate in case of sequestration, etc. where the least evil of Punishment only falls under Election; yet we ought not otherwise to countenance such a Party, for these ensuing Reasons, which may contribute some directions for men to walk by, in the sad and Labyrinthian turns of these times, by showing the unreasonableness of any such Compliance or Dissimulation by our Actings. And,  
1. First, All compliance in an unlawful thing, or that which I believe so, and every Act of Dissimulation, aught to be avoided, as it is opposite to sincerity and truth, which God commands in every Word and Act, there being nothing so contrary unto him as a Lie, nor so destructive of Humane Society; in that our Words are our common Coin, and aught to bear the stamp of the heart, both in regard of our Commerce with men, and Tribute we pay in them to God, 
u Psal. 5. Rev. 21.27.  nay to our own happiness; 
w Aug. c. 3. Tom. 3. Tho. Aquinas 2. 2 qu. 10. Art. 1.  yet when Words and Actions are of a double signification, and that no other is defrauded, misled, or justly scandalised by them, a man may use them by way of design, though Opus exterius naturaliter significat intentionem, 
x Aquin. 2. 2. qu 111. Art. 1. 2. Aug in Ps. 25.  as the Woman's of Tekoah to David, 
y 2 Sam. 14.  and Nathan, 
z 2 Sam. 12.   
2. Secondly, as it takes away the Glory and Crown of Martyrdom and Suffering for God and a Good Cause, and prevents the exercise and manifestation of Faith, Patience, Perseverance, and many other saving Graces (contrary to St. Peter and St. Paul in their whole Epistle.) Yet where there is a lawful means to preserve myself, I am bound to use it, (but not to tempt God by a temptation) in making dissimulation or outward compliance a way to preserve myself or Estate by; for that were to allow to every man a retreat in all Trials, and hold it forth as the Horns of the Altar by which he may be saved, and place truth in unrighteousness; though neither Law nor Gospel ever allowed of such a Dispensation, (as to deny a truth, or speak, or act a Lie for self-preservation;) but Elisha denied it to Naaman the Syrian: 
a 2 King. 5.  The Prophet's [God in Peace] being nothing but a Civil Farewell to him, no toleration for his bowing in the Temple of Rimmon, though he professed an uprightness of heart to the true God. Nay, St. Paul reproved it in St. Peter, 
b Gal. 2.  though but in an Act of Omission, a not doing what he might at some other times lawfully have forborn, even a not conversing with the Gentiles; because then proceeding from a servile fear it proved scandalous, and of ill Example: And if Christ, the Morningstar, [vincenti dabitur] be only given to them that overcome, what hope can they have that yield before the fight?  
3. Thirdly, All seeming outward Approbation of, or consent to any thing that is evil, makes us guilty of all the whole Chain of Sins the first Link draws along with it. For, if a Robbery in one occasion a Rape in his Companion, and that a Murder in a third, the first Approbation and Compliance in an unlawful King, and Confederacy in one evil makes all three guilty of all those sins. So if I but once give up my person to a free and voluntary Obedience to any unlawful Power, usurping the Crown in any thing that conduces to the support of it, (though not my heart) I do with Peter deny my own Master, (ore, si non cord) and not only forsake David for Absolom, but become guilty of our unnatural Rebellion, and the Innocent Blood it occasioned the expense of, with all its train of Vices. As Jerusalem, by countenancing the Persecution of the Prophets in her time, became guilty of the Blood of all the Righteous that had been slain in that Cause, from the first Martyr Abel to the Death of Zacharias. 
c Mat. 23.34, 35.   
For as I may be guilty of murdering one that overlives me, if I comply with the Wicked in designing of it, (though it fail in the Event) or but countenance it in the Attempt; so may I by an after- Approbation be guilty of a Murder committed a thousand years before. And therefore we are commanded to separate from Babylon in Practice and Communion, if we will not partake of her sins and punishments; 
d Rev. 18.  (as Daniel did from the Nation he lived in, though but in a Negative Precept: 
e Dan. 3.  For, what Communion can light have with darkness in what is ill, Christ with Belial, if we will keep ourselves void of offence towards God and towards Man? 
f Acts 24.  Thyatira's countenancing of Jezabel, being as hateful as Laodicea's lukewarmness. 
g Rev. 2. & 3.20.   
So that we ought to reprove and not become guilty of others Crimes by a  compliance; but (fearing God and the King, as Solomon commands) 
h Prov. 20.19.  avoid them that are given to change Loyalty into Licentiousness; Religion into Profaneness; Piety into Policy, Oblations into Ablations; 
i Prov. 20.25. Mic. 3.8. Acts 5.3, 5. Rom. 2 22  known Laws into Arbitrary Orders; Monarchy into Anarchical Tyranny; a Virgin into an Harlot, whose house is the way of Hell, going to the Chambers of Death, 
k Prov. 7.27.  by the prostitution of Religion, Law and Right. For know (saith Solomon) man's iniquity shall take and hold him in the Cords of Death, 
l Prov. 5.  that wilfully doth what is evil in itself, evil in his Opinion, or generally esteemed so of the best men, 
m Phil. 4.8  whether in thought or act. 
n Jer. 17. Jam. 1.15.   
4. Fourthly, We are the rather to avoid all such Compliance and Dissimulation, and to walk with all circumspection, in regard of Man's proneness to follow a Multitude to do evil, and to run upon the Bias of Popularity or self-interest: Especially since the Example of great men hath not only a persuasive but compulsory Power in it. 
o Gal. 2.  For he that in Authority countenances one Thief makes many. Nay, he will soon do what he should not, that doth all he may lawfully, not considering Expedience. So as rather than for to prejudice or scandalise others, we ought to suffer all things, 
p 2 Tim. 2.10.  and rather expose ourselves to all personal hazards in a strict walking and self-denial than comply willingly with the Apostatising Practice of these times, charactered by St. Paul 
q 1 Tim 3.  and St. Judas; and not only avoid every appearance of evil, but every lawful Action, that may be an inlet to a Temptation to ourselves or others; when difficulty is the Test of true Christianity, which ever makes men (with the Cypress-trees) keep their viridity and freshness (their Innocency) in the sharpest Winter, (the greatest dangers) and (with the Rose) smell best in the Still, when on the Fire.  
So as (with St. Bernard to Eugenius, 
r Baron. de consid. l. 3. ) all our Actions require [trinam considerationem] a threefold consideration, as a most learned Divine observes to me; an liceat, an deceat, an expediat; so as Discretion, Charity, and Edification, must be Inrgedients into all our Actions. For, [Quorum usus coercetur certis Circumstantiis, ea dicuntur non expedire, non dicuntur non licere.] 
s Cham. 3. Panstrat. 21.27.  All Circumstances are to be considered in lawful things, as Times, Places, Persons, Measures, Manner, to the making up of a lawful Action, otherwise a right end, without these, frees not the Action from being sinful in the Doer; 
t Aug. 4. contra Julian. 3.  though lawfulness in a strict sense looks but at the nature and quality of the thing itself, expedience at all Circumstances that conduce to any end.  
5. Fifthly, We are to avoid all such Compliance and Dissimulation, and to be jealous of ourselves in the least shadow of Evil, lest by an habitual countenancing of any evil act, we become worse than the first Authors of it, (who perhaps by their hearty Repentance have endeavoured their reparation) when by my countenancing, owning or maintaining any past Injustice or Oppression, I do not only contract the guilt of the first Contrivers of it, (for the Scriptures attribute to one what he approves of in another: So St. Augustine) 
u Serm. 6. de verbo Domini.  but entail a Curse upon my own posterity by it; 
w Exod. 20.5.  though the thing was done at first without my consent; nay, perhaps against my will. And thus Ahab was the reputed Murderer of Naboth by possessing the Vineyard, 
x 3 King 20.  and not reproving, but actually countenancing his Wife's action.  
A Precedent for those that now enjoy or purchase the Churches or King's Lands and Revenues, and had no other ways to make the Inheritance theirs, 
y Mar. 12.  but by killing the Heirs, (those Christ sent to possess them by lawful Title.) Nay the Owner of the spoils is (in my Judgement) in a more dangerous condition, than the first Designer of the sin; In that the one cannot consist with Repentance, (of which Restitution is a part) when the other, as a transient Act, may be sorrowed for, though effected in the most horrid way of dissembled holiness (which makes virtue itself ill-spoken of) when Fasting and Prayers are made preparatory to the worst design, putting on most of God, when they acted for the Devil. 
z Is. 29.13. & 19 Jer. 13.13. Ezech. 33. ●1, etc.   
6. Sixthly, Dissimulation or Compliance in evil is to be avoided in regard of that Rectitude we are to maintain in all our Actions: (For what Communion hath Light with Darkness?) Therefore, saith the Apostle, have no fellowship with its unfruitful deeds, but reprove them; doing nothing that may bear the appearance of evil. 
a 1 Thes. 5. ●2.  By which all State-Hypocrites and Hermaphrodites, that can serve all Sexes and Turns, and (Chameleonlike) assume all shapes, are condemned.  
Wherefore let us walk honestly, as in the day, free from all Artificial Umbrages and Disguises, (unless to conceal a truth only which we are not obliged to discover) maintaining a Conscience void of offence towards God and all Men.  
7. Seventhly, We are to avoid all such Compliance and Dissimulation, since all Aberrations from the Truth and our Duties (whether Dictum, Factum, or Concupitum) are in their own nature Damnable (saith St. Augustine) in that they all ought to be as intensively pure as our Prayers; especially our Actions, which are to others the Images and Counterparts of our Souls, and aught to be kept innocent in regard of ourselves. 2. To carry the probability of a fair Interpretation. 3. To be free from just offence, that we may be blameless in the midst of a crooked Generation, 
b Phil. 2.4, 15. 2 Cor. 4.17.  and approve ourselves in much patience in affliction. 
c 2 Cor. 6.   
For our Actions have a voice in them, so as every Dissimulation, or outward Compliance with any thing ill, speaks me guilty of it to God and men; in that signa exteriora non solum sunt verba, sed etiam facta; & mendacium est falsa significatio cum voluntate fallendi: So as every dissimulation is a species of a Lie, and can in no case be lawfully done; because, omne mendacium est peccatum, 
d Aug. l. 4. c. 7. Tom. 5  which we are commanded to hate, 
e Rom. 12.  and to have nothing to do with the stool of Wickedness, which imagineth mischief, as a Law. 
f Psal. 94.20.  For then, (incipit esse licitum, quod solet esse publicum; & desinit remedio locus, ubi quoe fuerant vitia mores sunt:) when they gather themselves together against the Righteous, and condemn the Innocent Blood, 
g vers. 21.  sin becomes natural to them.  
And that we may the better oppose those whom we are not to conform to; nor have any Fellowship with, 
h Rom. 12.2. Eph. 5.11. 2 Tim. 3. Gala. 5.  we must put on the whole Armour of God, to withstand in the evil day, 
i Eph. 6.  doing all things hearty, as unto God, and not to men, 
k Col. 3.23.  who are filled with all unrighteousness, and even Disobedient to Parents, Covenant-breakers, implacable, unmerciful, 
l Rom. 1.29.30, 31.  (all which was foretold should appear in the last times, under the pretence of Piety, the Mask or Form of Godliness) 
m 2 Tim. 3.  rejecting their King and Priests, 
n Hos. 10.  not enduring sound Doctrine, but heaping to themselves Teachers; 
o 2 Tim. 4.3.  not called, as Aaron was lawfully, 
p Heb. 5.  nor commissioned by any Mission from God, 
q Rom. 10.  to instruct his people, and dispense his Ordinances. And how this is now fulfilled in our Ears he that runs may read. For (as the Key to the Lock it's made for, the Print to the Seal) the Text fits the story of these times, and is the just Character of them 
r Hos. 5.4▪ 2 Tim. 2.19. Isa. 20.12. Mat. 15.8. Jer. 12.  that turn their hearts from God, and their very Devotions into sin, when by them they seek to give Countenance to Wickedness. 
s Ezek. 33. ver. 30.31, 32, etc.   
8. Eighthly, We must avoid all things evil or scandalous, lest some be withdrawn from their duties, and others confirmed in their wicked Practices by our ill example, which is the shortest way of teaching, and, like the ill influence of Planets, kills most deadly. Neither is it only the most persuasive Rhetoric and Oratory to weak understandings, but many times carries the force of a command, nay of a compulsion in it; (as may appear by the Apostle; 
t Gal. 2.14.  and, like Poison in the Blood, (that runs through all the Veins, taints, and discolours them) infects the very Air of our Conversation.  
And therefore on the contrary let us as we ought, rather suffer all for the Elect's sake, with St. Paul, 
u 2 Tim. 10.  and expose ourselves to all personal hazards, in a strict walking according to this rule, than comply in any unlawful act against Kings; for those are not Children of the most Voices, but of the most highest, as hath been said; the People's Approbation serving only ad Pompam, but not ad necessitatem. (Thus the first King Melchisedech was said to have no Father in regard of his Office, to show that Regal Power is an emanation from the Deity itself) and therefore the People cannot depose their Kings, nor their Progeny, because they are not of their making, (For, cujus est instituere, ejus est abrogare,) but still own them Obedience and all things tending to their outward glory and support.  
But our Royal Sovereign having also a Civil Right, by the Municipal Laws of this Nation, both to the Crown and all his other Regalia, Rights and Revenues, none can, but by a complication of many sins, (as Rebellion, Oppression, and the like) invade him in any of them, nor acquit themselves from the guilt of it, without opposing them that do it by all lawful means; being bound to it by (the Law of God and of this Kingdom) and a Natural Obligation and common Charity, which ties every man, not only to commiserate, but relieve another that suffers under unjust pressures; so as those neutral men, that stand upon a safe Shore, while the Ship is in danger, and afford it no help, cannot be found guiltless; because they have not endeavoured to deliver him that had no helper, nor broken the Jaws of the Wicked, and pulled the Prey out of their Mouth. 
w Job. 29●   
And if Damnation be to be pronounced against sins of Omission at the last day, as for not helping, not comforting those to whom we own it, but by a single Obligation of Charity, what Hell is hot enough for those that act against so many clear convictions, and endeavour to enforce others to approve of, or seemingly to Covenant and engage for, their Tyranny and Oppression; and like those that have a Plaguesore, desire to dilate and spread their Infection (their sin) to others, when he that maintains or approves of an unlawful act done, repeats it, and sins it over again, espouses the sin, and makes it so habitually his, as not to admit of any Divorce; but, as he that sets upon his house by Oppression or Injustice, entails a Curse upon it to the Fourth Generation: 
x Exod. 20.5.  So he that countenances or confirms another in any unjustifiable Action, and always approves it, doth as much as in him lies to make his whole life but one continued act of Wickedness, and entails it upon his Posterity.  
Nay our Charter for Heaven hath this condition in it, That we speak the truth from our hearts, 
y Ps. 15.  and in our hearts too, in Words, Actions, and Desires; for my inclination to a sin makes me guilty without the Act, (in that there is an Eye-Adultery and a Mental-Idolatry, the Devil's single money) and the connivance at (much more compliance with) fewer sin in outward appearance makes it mine (and so in God's account) though my heart disallow and detest it.  
For every Hypocrisy, Dissimulation, Guile, and the like, multiplies the sin, and makes it two to me approving it in any; for I contract both the guilt of the sin I countenance in another, and the Lie I am guilty of in myself by it; for my Hand, or Eye, or Foot, or any fictitious Action may tell a lie as well as my Tongue.  
But then every untruth is not a Lie, when I believe what I say upon fair and probable grounds, because mendacium consistit in voluntate; every thing having only so much more of inordinateness and obliquity in it, as it departs from what we believe or acknowledge to be truth.  
9 Ninethly, we must not comply in any thing ill, nor do the best Action, if we believe it bad, 
a Rom. 14.23.  nor countenance an ill cause, though to a good end, in that the man is by it divided, (the heart and the hand moving several ways) and becomes guilty of dissembling; which is no less (as hath been said) than a real acted Lie; and that every Lie is a sin, that ought not to be given way to 
b Rev. 22.  out of the contemplation of the greatest good, even the saving of Souls: 
c Rom. 3.8.  For the Ark must fall rather than be supported by Vzzah's hands, 
d 2 Sam. 6.6.  (any undue means) and not Sacrifice must be offered to God, rather than Disobedience: 
e 1 Sam. 15.  So that we must be sure that what we do be not only bonum, but been, good in respect of the means as well as end. For, with St. Augustine, (
f lib. 4 cap 7. tom. 5.  Quod est secundum se malum ex genere nullo modo potest esse bonum & licitum. Because (as Aquinas saith) ad hoc quod aliquid sit bonum requiritur quod omnia recte concurrant; in that Bonum est ex causa integra, malum vero ex singularibus defectibus:) A single defect making an Action sinful, when all Circumstances are required to concur in a good one; in that, omne verum est omni vero consentiens, & quicquid non licet certe non oportet, (So Cicero 
g Pro Balbo. ) For potest aliquid licere, & non expedire; expedire autem, quod non licet, non potest. 
h Aug. de Adult. Conjug. cap. 15.  So that I will conclude with St. Augustine, 
i Tom. 4. cap. 10. de mendatio.  and Thomas Aquinas excellently, Non licitum mendacium dicere ad hoc quod aliquis alium a quocunque periculo liberaret. And therefore, with the Divine Poet Mr. George Herbert, let us 
Dare to tell truth; there's nothing needs a ;  
A Fault, that needs it most, grows two thereby.  and let us purify our hearts, 
Jam. 4.8.  as well as cleanse our hands, if we will draw nigh unto God; 
k Jer. 17.  the Law of God requiring (an inward universality of the Subject) to walk in, as well as an Universal Obedience of the Precept to walk by.  
10. Tenthly, Yet all this doth not by way of Obligation extend to the speaking of the whole truth at all times, (as in Abraham's calling Sarah his Sister, to disguise his Relation to her as a Husband) 
l Gen. 20,  when God is not dishonoured, nor my Brother damnified by it; in that it may be but a concealing of something I am not bound to reveal; when Mendacium est, quip falsa significatio cum voluntate fallendi. 
m Aug. tom 4. l. 2.  And therefore I will conclude with St. Augustine, 
n Tom. 4. cap. 10. de mendacio,  it is lawful sometimes to hid a truth, (nay prudent and good;) but [non licet] it is never lawful to tell a , or to commit the least evil for the greatest good.  
And for these Reasons let us not comply in any thing that is malum in se, or malum quia prohibitum, or so only in our Opinions; but let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind what he should (or may) do, and not swerve from it in his Practice. But in indifferent things the Commands of the lawful Magistrate ought to cast the Scale and poise him to Obedience; which he ought to submit to in things evenly balanced, though he may perhaps a little scruple or doubt of the lawfulness of them. For there he is not his own man, but acts with relation to a further duty; Paternal Power swaying much in such cases, as we may see by an higher example. 
o Num. 30.  Otherwise there cannot be a greater contempt to God, than for a man to contemn the Power of his own Conscience, (saith Bonaventure,) or to appear what he is not; every simulation being a  (as hath been showed) when it hath not some signification in it more than is expressed; 
p Aug. tom. 4. lib. 2. Quest. Evang qu. 51.  and the Mouth that lies slays its own Soul, 
q Ezech. 16.  in that he dares God, yet fears man.  

OBJECTION I.  
Obj. 1. Ay but I deny the Premises and Ground of the former Conclusions: For every Dissimulation is not unlawful: Witness David's before the King of Achish, and Joshua's flying before Ai. Nor is every appearance in a disguise or seeming Untruth a , but in some cases lawful; as in Joseph's Carriage in Egypt towards his Brethren, and Naaman's bowing in the house of Rimmon, allowed by the Prophet Elisha; nor are these so many in-lets as you pretend.  
To this I answer.  
Answ. First, That the lawfulness or unlawfulness of no Action is to be grounded upon matter of Fact; for no Precedents of others actings ought to be be an Authority for us to imitate, though done by the Saints of God themselves; in that they are to be considered as men (Christianity not destroying Humanity) subject to many weaknesses and Infirmities, nay great failings in particular Actions, and may become the more dangerous to others by the eminency and reputation of the person; as that Body is most in hazard that hath a confluence of ill and noxious humours harboured under a seeming healthful Complexion; which, interrupting the Harmony of a well-tempered constitution, at last march under the colours of Innocency.  
Secondly, As to David's Case, 
1 Sam. 21.  [r] I say it was no act of dissimulation, but a prudent assuming of a lawful disguise for the preservation of his life; (for his Heart and Act both concurred in the means he used for his escape,) and had nothing in it of scandal, nor any countenancing of any thing evil, or of prejudice to any, but only a concealing of himself, and appearing as one that wanted the use of his understanding at that time, that he might the better enjoy and use it, when freed from his Enemies.  
Thirdly, To the Instance of Joshua's fleeing before Ai, I answer, It was lawful, being a Stratagem of War, having nothing of dissimulation in it. For as he had to do with Enemies, so the using of all Circumventions, and taking of all advantages was lawful to conquer them by (even by the Law of Arms and Nations) as well as force; and no more than all professed Enemies mutually profess and expect. For though all Capitulations, Contracts, and Promises must be Religiously observed with Enemies when made, (as long as War is denounced and continued,) Circumventions as well as Force are allowable; as in using their Colours, and the like, to bring them into Ambush; or with the Romans to throw Bread out of their besieged Capitol to the Gauls, to disguise their want when they were ready to famish, that the Conditions of Surrender might be the better; which St. Augustine with the Fathers and Schoolmen allow: though no Covenant made is ever to be broken with any, (where the violation is not first on the others part;) for then there can be no faith nor security in any thing, nor commerce, nor contract between men; and that breach of Faith made the Trojans, who could not be conquered by War, to be overcome by a pledge of Peace, when the Mask was taken for the Man, as in Absolom.  
Fourthly, I grant that every seeming untruth is not a , (nor every untruth itself; for, mentiri est contra mentem ire; so that if I speak a Falsehood, and believe it true, I yet do not tell a :) nor can dissimulation or Falsehood be imputed to Joseph, either in his representing the person of an Egyptian, or accusing his Brothers for Spies, or Benjamin for his Cup, 
t Gen. 42. & 43. 〈◊〉  because both his Words and Actions were for his brethren's advantage, and in their Interpretations and consequence significant of his intentions to bring them to him, though they were something dark and mysterious in themselves, after the manner of the Prophets, and use of all Nations; whose Actions are sometimes like the Hieroglyphics, which make every Feature speak a Precept, and every Circumstance to signify something to men of sense; so as all Ironies, Hyperbolical Expressions, Disguises, nay Reservations of a truth are justly to be exempt from the nature of a Lie in some cases, the Scriptures being full of them.  
For though my Tongue should be always in my heart, my heart needs not to be always in my Tongue. I may conceal a truth, not tell a , being not always bound to discover myself in Dangers or Trials, where God's Honour, or some duty to his revealed Will exacts it not. So that St. Augustine determines in Joseph's case, 
u Lib. Qu. super Gen. Q. 45.  and saith, Mendacium est enunciantis cum voluntate falsum enunciandi, or, cum voluntate fallendi. 
w Lib. de vera innocentia.  For Abraham, by calling his Wife Sister, [x] would not be known to be her Husband, 
Gen. 20  for fear of Abimelech; though she was both Sister and Wife to him.  
And thus our Saviour concealed his going up to Jerusalem from the Samaritans when asked the question, 
y Mat. 9  by saying, His hour was not yet come, (because the period of time was not then accomplished he fixed upon for his remove) though the Text saith he went immediately, and that 
z Luke 24.28, 29.  to his Disciples (for the Trial of their Affections, or perhaps intending it, if their importunities had not interposed;) he made as if he would have gone further and have left them, when he yet stayed in the next Village with them.  
By all which we are taught, That Piety is no Enemy to Prudence, though it no ways countenance Dissimulation, Equivocation, or any the least ill or unlawful Action in any: So that St. Augustine in Abraham's case, 
a Lib. Qu. super Gen. 4.46.  and upon that action of our Saviour's, 
b Qu. Evang. l. 2. qu. 41.  Quaelibet fictio non dicitur esse mendacium. Finxit se longius ire Dominus; non enim quod fingimus mendacium est, sed quando id fingimus quod nihil significat. Cum autem fictio nostra refertur ad aliquam significationem, non est mendacium, sed aliqua figura veritatis. As Nathan's Parable to David, 
c Aug. l. de mendacio cap. 5.  and Christ's of the lost Sheep, and lost Groat, etc.  
Fifthly, To that of Naaman's bowing the in Temple of Rimmon before the Idol (not to it) I say,  
1. It was not only a single but multiplied sin; (and no ways tolerated by the Prophet;) for, like Ezekiel's Wheels, 
2 King. 5.  one moved within the other; when first his acting against his Conscience (if he be presumed to have done what he asks a merciful dispensation for) drew him to an outward dissimulation (in appearing what he was not in heart) by countenancing Idolatry. Secondly, To a scandal of the Godly. And Thirdly, To a confirmation of the Pagan Worshippers in their Idol-service to their false Gods; which was a sin prohibitum quia malum, and so cannot rationally be presumed to have had any dispensation from the Prophet, (though for the gaining of Naaman to the Profession of the true God) when their Damnation is just that say, Let us do evil, that good may come, 
e Rom. 3.8.  or that Gods needs such humane Artifices, when men and Beasts take their Prey by craft.  
2. The Prophet's saying [go in peace] was but a civil Farewell, after the custom of that Nation, no allowance of Naaman in that sin, nor at all taking notice of his intention; because perhaps his reproof might then prove unseasonable to his new Convert, who (as our Saviour saith of his Disciples, when he had other things to declare unto them after their first Conversion) could not bear it, being but an Infant in Grace; a newborn Proselyte, capable only of milk, (the first Principles of Religion) not strong meat; in that it would rather turn into corruption and a surfeit to endanger, then nourish the man; so as it was in the Prophet a prudent silence only for that time, no connivance at his intended error.  
3. As Naaman's bowing was sinful in itself, and so in his Opinion (else why did he beg pardon in that particular from God?) out of the conviction of a natural Conscience, in that even to such what is not of Faith is Sin, 
f Rom. 14.23.  I conceive the Prophets [God in Peace] might have the nature of a Reproof in it, being as much as if he should have said, Well, since you find a check of Conscience at it, as a thing that needs a pardon, why do you not rather decline it (as you ought) than interrupt the Calm, Tranquillity and Harmony of a quiet mind, in which peace I wish you still to go forward, (by saying Go in Peace) without raising any such Earthquake or Commotion in yourself.  
4. In Naaman's Case, matter of just scandal was taken off (as some conceive) in that he publicly professed his disallowance of the Idol-Worship, and so could not confirm the Wicked, offend the Godly, nor misguide others by his performing of a Civil Duty; so as the Prophet might be thought rather to rectify a tender Conscience, by his words, than tolerate a sin, 
g Aug. Ps. 5.  when Naaman's intention was only to bow Civilly, not Religiously, with his King, not to the Idol.  
5. Lastly, Admit the Prophet did dispense with Naaman's civil bowing, as some conceive in respect of his late Conversion, being immediately commissioned by God for it in a thing not malum in se, (who as the Supreme Lawgiver could only dispense with his own commands;) if any man shall by that example presume to do what Naaman did, he doth not as Naaman did, unless he have the same Warrant, without which none ought seemingly to partake of others sins, 
h Eph. 5.7.11.  but rather reprove them, walking with all Circumspection in regard of the several ways they are to be contracted; though there are (as the Schools call them) [peccata compensativa] profitable sins, as in the Egyptian Midwives saving the Hebrews Children by a : But I commend only their Obedience to God, in not killing, not their excuse which needed pardon: Their Mercy was recompensed, their  not approved: Nor shall we ever be justified in the least degree of sinning, 
i 1 Tim. 5.22.  which may be contracted many secret ways, and more than most men usually apprehend. And therefore we ought to be very cautious of contracting sin, there are so many avenues to it: as,  
1. Consulendo, By advising others in evil, as Achitophel did Absolom to make good his Treason and Rebellion against David; but such shall be taken in their own snare and perish in and by their own counsels, saith Solomon.  
2. Adulando, By feeding other Vices, and nursing them up with the milk of Flattery, in calling good evil, and evil good, 
k Isa. 5.20.  which is a beautifying of a people (as the Pagan Negroes by painting) with Ink instead of Colours, 
l Isa. 9.16,  to which the greatest woe belongs; though the Wicked may bless for a time whom God abhorreth. 
m Ps. 10.3,   
3. Mandando, So Vriah's Murder and Drunkenness were David's sins, though effected by others.  
4. Consentiendo, For thus Saul became guilty of Stephen's Martyrdom. 
n Act. 22.20.  And therefore, If sinners entice thee consent thou not. 
o Pro. 1.10.  For, sentient eandem poenam qui consentiunt in eandem culpam.  
5. Provocando, By inflaming or enticing others to sin, as the Harlot in the Proverbs; 
Pro. 7,  for by setting any others house on Fire, we are sure to burn and consume our own, if contiguous to it, and be answerable for the other's damage.  
6. Participando, For if thou seest a Thief attempting to steal, and hast a power to hinder him and dost it not, thou art guilty of his Crime: The not preventing a sin in another, where I may do it lawfully, being a promoting of it: And then [aequum est ut qui participes fuerunt in peccato participes fiant in supplicio] it is but just that we suffer in the punishment, if we partake in the sin: 
q Rev. 18.4  For so Wrath came upon Jehoshaphat 
r 2 Chro. 19.2.  because he helped the Ungodly, and loved them that hated the Lord, when a good wish to a bad action is a partaking of the evil. 
s 2 Joh. 5.11.   
7. Omittendo vel connivendo, by conniving at or not reproving others; 
t Eph. 5.11. Leu. 5. Ezech. 3.  such a Love and Indulgence to my Brother being the greatest hatred; 
u Leu. 19.17.  as God hates us most when he seems not to hate us at all, by reproving and correcting us, but suffers us to go on in a course of sin. 
w Isa. 1.   
8. Defendendo, For he that defends or maintains a bad Cause or Action espouseth the guilt of it; in that, He that justifyeth the Wicked or condemneth the Just is abominable before or unto God, 
x Prov. 27.15.  and becomes the greater sinner, in that it hath more of deliberation, and perhaps less of Temptation in it than the other had.  
9 Praecedendo, By giving ill example. For if I pluck up the first pale in another's Enclosure, and engage others by my Example to lay it waste and common, I am guilty of their Trespass; as he that wilfully makes or enlarges any cuts in a Sea-bank is liable to repair the damages any receives by those Waters. For thus Jeroboam made Israel to sin (saith the Text) even exemplum dando, as well as imperando, and Peter the Jews. 
y Gal. 2.   
And to these I might add many other ways (as a learned Divine hath observed to me) by which we derive others sins upon ourselves; but is not this enough to make us vigilant over our Souls, since there are so many Avenues for sin to approach us, and that it is of so subtle and insinuating a nature, as (though the Guards be never so well kept) it will sometimes enter by a false pass, or glide in by the advantage of that gloomy darkness that over-shadows the best men? So as we need add (ballast to our sail) Examination to every Action, to poise and prove it by; it being a safe and noble, no melancholy thing (as one wittily observes) to be always in ploughing, weeding and worming a Conscience, in removing (Straws as well as Logs) occasions of Temptations, by trying and testing every thought, word and work to make them currant, by filing the Iron and melting the Ore, to clear and smooth the greatest difficulties, lest our spongy souls, apt to (receive any Liquor) suck in and embrace any sin, swell us into such an immense body of sin, as (through custom or impenitency) should become too big to enter into the Bethesda of Christ's Blood, (when what comes there is ever cleansed and cured.)  
And therefore, though prudence in declining evils of punishment be commanded 
z Mat. 10.16. , it must always be with Innocency: So as prudens simplicitas is the greatest Policy and best Fort to retreat to in all dangers, when the least ungirting a man's self (or allowed liberty) in any thing evil, by outward compliances or disguises, is but a prostitution of him to contempt, and would insecure the Interests of all men, and make all things uneasy to them in matters of Trust and Confidence, the period (as one saith) of cares, and only Pillow of rest for man's Spirit, when a pleasing entertainment to the Senses, may, as a Chamber of death, and Magazine of Corruption, become by its stench Poison to the Brain; and surely no man is the better for another's artificial sweetness, that feels the noisomness of his putrid and corrupted Lungs break in upon him through the thin Cloud of a perfumed breath. And he that strews a Pits mouth with Flowers and covers it with an Icy-crust (instead of a Crystal Pavement) for others fall and ruin, hath but more of Artifice, not less of Malice than a professed Enemy, but is more dangerous and destructive to all Humane Society; so as dissimulation is in no case to be allowed, being ill in itself, and the parent of so many mischiefs.  
Quest. 1. But admit God should for our Sins give us up for a time to the Arbitrary Tyranny of our State-Deformers, and permit, de facto, a change in the face, or rather a total Metamorphosis in our Government, how far may we obey?  
Answ. Why then men may in reference to their Power (while it continues and they command lawful things) obey; but not to the Authority. For once admit of a Conscientious Obedience as due to an Usurped Power, no State in the World shall ever be free from the Treacherous Practices and daring Attempts of ambitious Spirits, or be left means to recover their just Rights, if lost, when Power of Arms ought only to support the just Power of Princes, and not by Power to set up an Illegal and Usurped one.  
Yet Conquest sometimes, if grounded upon a just War (which cannot be between King and Subjects) may challenge a Conscientious Obedience, as well as a King that comes to a Crown by a just descent, (as ours;) yet the persons of such many times raise a Title from common, Humane and Municipal Laws also, to their Subject's Obedience, and many times by a mixture of both Humane and Divine, wove the strongest Thread; men being always more ready and prone to conform to their own than God's Laws. And therefore it was the wisdom of our former Monarches, comprehensively to engage their People (in the several Representatives) to all those Statutes they were to be governed by; constituting their Parliaments of the three Estates of Men; Clergy, Nobles, and Commons; by that temper and even poise of Power (in regard of the exercise of it) to bring in all to a cheerful Obedience, when their known Laws were the known Boundaries and middle things between Supreme Power and Common Right: By this, exrtacting, as it were, the purest Essence and Spirits out of all other Forms of Government, to make one perfect one, including the rest; as man doth the Inferior Creatures, having reason proper to himself, sense common with Bruits, and Vegetation with Plants; for thus we have Monarchy in our King, Aristocracy in the House of Peers, and Democracy in the House of Commons. And to prevent any exorbitancies in any one, all must concur to the making any Law, with the King's assent, not otherwise; and let him that affects either Arbitrary Power or Parity, but begin it in his own house, and he will never wish it should spread into the State of which he is a Member.  
Quest. 2. But may I not act under an Usurped Power, or a Power I conceive to be so, nor seemingly comply to preserve myself?  
Answ. No, not in any case to own the Authority, but Power: I am passive under some compulsion, and that in lawful things.   

OBJECTION II.  
Object. 2. But if a People depose their lawful King, (for a Tyrannical and exorbitant use of a just Power, or to preserve Religion itself) be it by War or otherwise; and by assuming the Power, place it in many, or one, that wholly employs it for the maintenances of the true Religion and just exercise of the known Laws, may I lawfully and conscientiously obey him?  
Answ. That it is not lawful to acknowledge such an Authority just, and in that notion to obey it, because the Supreme Power in any one Person is derived from God, and is Paternal, founded in Adam upon Natural and Paternal Principles, never collated by man, but is absolute and unlimited in regard of Humane Influences upon it in its first collation, 
c 1 Sam. 8.  though limited in respect of Divine Precept, 
d Deut. 17.  in regard of Exercise, and sometimes by National and Municipal Laws; (through the Indulgence of good Princes) yet Kings are never subject to the Coactive but Directive Power of them, and answerable unto God only (as David was, 
e Psal. 51.  not to man for their violation,) from whom they hold their Commission. 
f Prov. 8.25. Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2. Hos. 13.11.  And therefore by Precept they are exempt in their Persons from all other Powers, 
g Prov. 21.3. & 8.15. Eccles. 8. 1 Pet. 2. Rom. 13.  as immediately designed by God in their individual persons to be obeyed, 
h Deut. 17.15. Job 3.6, 7. & 34.30. Hos. 13.11. Wisd. 6.3.  with a brand and desert of punishment upon all those that resist or rebel against them, 
i 1 Sam. 8. Num. 16. 2 Sam. 1.4. & 15.15.  as if done against God; 
k Rom. 13.  when our Prayers, Tribute, Reverence, Assistance, and Obedience are an Homage we own them, though Wicked and Tyrants, (where the Divine Providence concurs with other just, mediate, instrumental ways for the making their Titles lawful) 
l 1 Tim. 2.2. Jer. 25.9. & 29.7. Dan. 3.21. Gen. 20.27. Mat. 22.21. 1 Sam. 8. & 24. 1 Pet. 2.27.  as they are God's breathing Images, the Mortal Pictures of the Immortal God, saith Optatus, even Gods before men, 
m Ps. 82.6.  though men before God. First, By Analogy. Secondly, Deputation. Thirdly, Participation. So Tertullian, 
n Lib. de Scapul.  Cyrill, 
o Epist. ad Theod. prefix. lib. advers. Julian.  Hierom, 
p Ad Pap. An●i Greg. l. 9 decret. 1 Tim 3.3.  etc.  
Nay, this truth hath been derived to us from all Antiquity as well as Scripture, and was never contradicted till the Romanists and Schismatics, (like Simeon and Levi, Brethren in Iniquity) as Samson's Foxes, concurred (though looking contrary ways) to the setting all Cristendom on Fire by it, and broached the contrary Doctrine. As Buchanan 
q De Jure Regis apud Scotos.  and Bellarmine, 
r De Rom. Pont. l. 5.  though all antiquity be against them, as Calvin acknowledgeth, 
s Inst. l. 4. c. 20.  and as appears by multitudes of Authors both ancient and Modern. 
t Glos. Incog. in Ps. 50. R.P. dedicated to Tho. de Trugil. Loranus. in Ps. 50. Hieron. Ep. 22. & 46. So St. Chrysost. in Ps. 50. as cited by Cyril. So Cyprian ad Novatian. Ambros. Serm. 16. in Ps. 118. Clemens Alex. l. 4. c. 6. Turrecre. 1 Sum. de Ec. 1. Q 92  Which ought to convince our late Statists (the Corahs', Dathans and abiram's of these times) of their Errors, and satisfy all men, that the person in whom the Supreme Power is placed, cannot by any Tyrannical Act, or Introducing Heresy, forfeit his Right; and that none ought nor can Conscientiously obey it in another, that assumes or accepts it from an unjust Collation, though for the best ends imaginable.  
Yet if the Objection be still framed and pressed (as I suppose it is) by the Actors in our present troubles (the sad effects whereof are but the Airy Offspring of their Platonic Speculations, a wild and wise folly) they may receive a further satisfaction from our known Laws, (as may be seen in Bracton and all our ancient Sages) the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance, and our King's just Title, acknowledged by all Carolus Dei Gratia, not by the People's Suffrage; his Coronation not making but declaring him King only. Nor ought it to be otherwise in Popular States, where, by Universal Suffrage and consent, the People have lawfully placed the exercise of the Supreme Power in many (retaining the esse, perhaps, not been esse, of Government) there being no rising up, or opposition lawful against the Supreme Power, or those we conceive lawful Magistrates. 
u Rom. 13.   
Now upon these grounds (that the Supreme Power is not Originally, Fundamentally, and radically in the People, but in that single Person God hath by Prescription, Succession, and Inheritance, or other Humane Rights commissioned for it) there is no just means of assuming it into the People, and their transferring it upon any; nor can any such act be lawful, whether by the Pomp and Artifice of a pretended Justice, or the Power of the Sword; both which do but heighten the Crime, according to the weight of Circumstances in either; the one clothing the Devil in the Robes of Justice and Majesty; the other making the Sword the unjust Arbitrator over the Lives, Liberties, and Fortunes of many innocent persons, without any lawful Power, 
w Mat. 26. Joh. 10.10.  and against all our known Municipal Laws; when in such a case no Title of Conquest can lie; for that must be ever grounded upon a just War, which is always constituted of these essential parts. 1. A Just Power. 2. A Just Cause. 3. Just means to prosecute it. None of which can concur in Subjects taking up Arms against their lawful Sovereign, or Warrant Obedience to any other, without countenancing Injustice, Violence, Oppression, etc. 
x Mat. 26. & 22, 24. Joh. 19.10.  which is in no case lawful; no dispensation being lawful to any Action that partakes of the nature of sin.  
For with the Hypocrite, to do a seeming good, to let in or countenance any evil (for the most pious ends) is but to bring in Religion upon the Devil's Shoulders, and follow a seeming Triumph to Hell.  
So as all that can be done under such a Government is but a prudent submission to the Power in things indifferent, without giving any countenance to the Authority that imposes it, or just scandal to our weak Brethren. For then even lawful and indifferent things in their nature, are not at all times expedient to be done, saith St. Paul; 
y 1 Corin. 6.12.  as in the Instances of eating or not eating; 
z 1 Corin. 8.13.  but we may or may not, according to several Circumstances. For,  
1. A thing indifferent may become ineligible unto me, in regard of use or exercise, where a lawful Power interposeing determines my choice either way, if the thing be equally indifferent, and stand, like the Pin in the Balance, in an even poise; (all Obedience to the Supreme Magistrate depending in its just latitude upon things indifferent to be done, or omitted;) upon which ground (as a learned man observes) God made choice of a Fruit in Paradise, indifferent in its own nature to be eaten or refused, for the trial of man's Obedience in the State of Innocency, to teach us that the interposing of a Command from a just Authority ought in all things indifferent to determine our choice; and by making it a duty takes off all just cause of scandal to others; for in this way scandal is taken, not given; in the other I am guilty of Disobedience to my Superior, 
a Rom. 13.  as my Magistrate, of scandal to him, as my Brother, and of ill example to all if I do the contrary.  
Though my choice may, nay aught to be determined in the use of an indifferent thing, rather than break a rule of Charity in the doing or not doing it; as in the Instance before of eating or not eating of Flesh at any time to the scandal of my weak Brother, 
b 1 Cor. 8.  when free in the aequilibrium of choice. Yet if any necessity of nature, or other great prejudice to my Person or Fortune depends upon my not eating, I ought to eat Flesh though to the scandal of another, rather than impair my health, or bring any great mischief upon myself by the Omission of it. For there, though the thing be indifferent in itself, it is not so to me, such Natural or Moral Necessity interposing.  
From whence I conceive I may safely conclude against the former Objection, That no conscientious Obedience is due to such an exercise of Power as is there proposed; (no nor submission in indifferent things, if done with scandal to others, because not imposed by a lawful Power to determine my choice;) yet where my personal freedom, self-preservation, or any great prejudice to my Estate (in which my Posterity is concerned) be put into the Scale to weigh against an unwilling scandal, I may submit; for that altars the case in relation to Conscience, though not the nature of the thing; for there I own a prudent submission, when by the rule of Charity (which is but to love my Neighbour as myself) I am to prefer the well being of myself and mine to an offence taken by, not willingly given to another; where a compulsory Injunction and Power enforceth my submission to an indifferent thing; it being agreeable to the Law of God, Nature, and Nations, to preserve myself by all lawful ways.   

OBJECTION III.  
Object. 3. If it be so that honest and well-meaning men may not be in any case voluntarily instrumental under an usurped and unlawful Power to the executing the known Laws, by which distributive Justice between Party and Party, Religion, Peace and Propriety may be maintained, and perhaps some advantages gained, by which they may much improve the Interest of their lawful Sovereign, (which they prefer in their wishes to their own Being) and that if they decline a making use of such opportunities, and that all men should walk by the same Rule, there must necessarily follow Oppression, Atheism and Anarchy, the Womb of all Confusion, that would reduce all things into the first Chaos so as nothing but darkness and disorder would cover the Earth, which their Omissions may contract the guilt of, when, in acting with the present Power for these ends, they do but choose the least of Evils, and have no thought of doing the least Evil, and so may act.  
Answ. As I said, The least Evil is not to be committed nor allowed, to produce the greatest good: 
c Rom. 3.8.  and that there the choice is not between Evils of Punishments where the least may be chosen; but between an Evil of Sin (which I have proved an outward Compliance in an Unjust Cause, or with an Usurped or unlawful Power, especially against a just claim to be) and no Sin, being (as the Schools determine) in the number of things eligible. (Malum non est in numero eligibilium propter aliud bonum, in that, actus peccati non est ordinabilis in bonum finem. So Thomas Aquinas 
d 2. 2. Qu. 110. Art. 3. ). And upon the Egyptian Midwives, and Rachel's Pious ; it is concluded by St Augustine, 
e sup Ps. 5.  Peter Lombard, 
f Lib. 3. dist. 38.  and Thomas Aquinas, 
d 2. 2. Qu. 110. Art. 3.  That no man ought to tell a  to preserve a Life, nor for any Spiritual Good. Though St. Augustine saith wittily, 
g Tract. 5. Tom. 9 super Joan.  Nemo habet de suo, nisi mendacium & peccatum; when all truth comes from the Fountain of it, God. 
h Eccles. 7. Jam. 1.  And St. Ambrose 
i Tom. 4.  (upon those words, Quis ex vobis arguit me de peccato?) Omne mendacium fugiendum est tam in verbis quam in operibus, etc. all outward dissimulation is to be avoided; when Opus exterius naturaliter significat intentionem. 
k Aquin. 2. 2. Qu. 111. Art. 11. Qu. 111. Art. 2.   
And we should be the more careful not to make Hell the way to Heaven, (Vice to introduce Virtue) when even lawful Actions become sins, if done with scandal to others, and that some higher end or duty determine not my choice in them (as I have determined in another case of Conscience concerning Actions in themselves indifferent:) For the least defect or excess makes a lawful Action become sinful; and a willing countenancing of any sin draws on the toleration of all, and like the Spirits in the Blood, will soon run through the whole Body of sin. For, with Aquinas, 
l 2. 2. Qu. 110. Art. 2.  veritas aequalis est, cui per se opponitur magis & minus. So as in doubtful Cases Gerson's rule is good, 
m Par. 2. Reg. mor.  (Ab omni actu, cui non est necessario astrictus, teneatur desistere) where scandal may be given.   

OBJECTION IU.  
Object. 4. Ay but Salus Populi est Suprema Lex: So as I may act voluntarily with and under an usurped Power, though against legal settlements and known Laws for the preservation of the Commonwealth, and that by a Law of necessity, which gives the Law to all Laws, and warrants the doing of that which otherwise is unlawful; for by this our Saviour seems to justify his Disciples gathering Ears of Corn on the Sabbath-day, and urges the Authority of David's Example for it. 
n Mat. 12.   
Answ. 1. It is true that Salus Populi est Suprema Lex, in reference to Humane and Municipal Laws; for so Kings, in whom the Supreme and Legislative Power resides, may for the good of their People, in great Exigents, act besides, nay against the known National Laws of their Kingdom, but not contrary to any Divine Sanction.  
Answ. 2. I acknowledge that necessity is a very powerful Argument, both before God and man, to excuse (not justify) an ill Action: For so God himself, the Supreme Lawgiver, hath sometimes been pleased in a Gracious Condescension to man's infirm condition, to dispense with his own Laws, as well as Kings with theirs, in Cases of great necessity, as may be instanced. But this hath been ever in things only [mala quia prohibita] evil because forbidden; as in Ceremonial and Judicial Laws; never in any thing that is [malum in se, & prohibitum quia malum,] evil in itself, and forbidden because specifically so: Such as are Schisms, Heresies, Idolatry, Rebellion, Usurpation, Oppression, Murder, Sacrilege, and the like; for in these God never leaves his Servants without a just way of extricating themselves from any such necessity of acting, by enabling them to dare to die rather than do any thing that in its nature is evil. and, by suffering according to the Will of God, to commit the keeping of their Souls to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator: 
o 1 Pet. 4.19.  Otherwise no man shall ever have the Honour and Reward of suffering for and with his Saviour, nor have means to manifest and exercise his Faith, Patience, Fortitude, Perseverance in well-doing, and many other Graces.  
Answ. 3. For the Example brought out of the twelfth of Matthew, to prove the human lawfulness of doing an unlawful thing in case of necessity, only to preserve a single person, (as in David) which a fortiori, from the less to the greater, must be the more justifiable for the preservation of a Commonwealth: It appears that our Saviour doth approve of his Disciples in gathering the Corn on the Sabbath, by David's Example as it was made lawful by an Humane Necessity, in a Ceremonial Precept only. Nevertheless, as Lord of the Sabbath, he did then cancel the duty of that Ceremonial Law of not gathering any thing upon that day, as appears by the Context.  
Yet our Saviour in citing David's eating the Shewbread, did not free David from the breach of a Ceremonial Precept, (For the Text saith expressly, it was not lawful for him, nor those with him to eat it, but only for the Priests,) but urgeth it for the illustration of God's Indulgence and Mercy to the frailty of his nature in so great a Humane strait under the Law, in a thing only malum quia prohibitum; that they might the less wonder at his compassionating his Disciples weakness, in taking that they might conceive to be against a Ceremonial Precept only, and that under the Gospel, for the relief of nature in an extremity.   

OBJECTION V.  
Object. 5. Well, but if it be not lawful to comply voluntarily with an Usurped Power, by which I may be said to give it countenance and reputation, may I not yet act under it in things good or indifferent in their own nature, when they are commanded under a Coercive Penalty; and that for the preservation of myself and Posterity, which the Law of God, Nature, and Nations oblige to?  
Answ. A Passive Submission to the present Power may in some such Cases be lawful. For I am not bound to tempt a Temptation, nor, with the Porpus, to seek and hunt the storm, where it may be honestly avoided; self-preservation being so natural, as by instinct it catcheth at any thing, that may but stay or support it; as a Hop for want of a Pole will clasp and embrace a Nettle to stay it from falling. But here we must be cautious, and distinguish between the acting of a Magistrate and other inferior Employments, which perhaps may be preparatory only to some Administrations of Justice, or yet of less importance. Yet in case of Magistracy we must distinguish between Causes Criminal and merely Civil. For,  
1. In Causes Criminal, where Blood is by the Law required to expiate the Offence, I conceive it wholly unlawful to act, in that they must derive their Commission for it from them, who have a just Power of conveying it by Divine Commission and the known Laws; or else they do not take but wrest and force the Sword out of God's hand: and he that so sheds man's blood with it, by man shall his blood be shed; in that he doth it without any lawful call, without which no man can act but in a private capacity; and than it were murder in any to kill a Murderer: and he that as a Magistrate will do a thing that requires the just Influence of Supreme Power to make it lawful, doth tacitly own that Power to be in him or them from whom he derives his Power to act. Especially in the Method of proceeding against Malefactors in Criminal Causes, where the frame of the Indictment and reading the Commission must be understood an owning a just Power to be in them from whom they derive theirs; in that no private person or Community of men, unless combined into a lawful Government, ever had the Power of Life and death in them. For it is by that Power only men justly suffer; (not the Law, which is only a Regulation of the exercise of it;) so as any man may press the desert of death against a Wicked Malefactor by the Law, as preparatory to Sentence and Execution, but must not be active in the latter without a just Commission, in that all men ought to act in a lawful posture and subordination only. For if the Power Originally be invalid, it cannot derive a just one, by virtue of which men may operate; no more than a sulphurous Spring can send forth a sweet stream; for, with Aristotle, Quod deest in causa deest in effectu.  
2. In cases merely Civil, between Party and Party, I am something doubtful how to determine, if compelled to accept of a place of Judicature; though perhaps in some Cases I may be morally bound (from the Object it points at) to act, without any outward force upon me, in the name (not virtue) of the Usurper, where the thing is intrinsically good, or hath the countenance of ancient and known Laws, but never to the countenancing or upholding of the Power; so as I may act under, but not for it in such cases. And in others, when I have refused and resisted it, as far as I can with safety to my Person and Fortune, I conceive I have taken off all matter of just scandal of giving any countenance to the present Power, and rather show my disapproving of it; when force and compulsion only hath determined my choice, and that only to a submission, in reverence to the Power that is upon me, (but not to any just Authority in the Imposer, which Conscience would oblige unto.)  
Nor do I in this consider myself vested in any just capacity for the doing any distributive Justice, so as to force a Conscientious Submission from any to my Determinations, but only as an Arbitrator to mediate a just end of differences, which the necessity of the times (all other Channels, by which Justice as a stream should derive to us, being wholly obstructed) enforces all men to a voluntary and free submission unto.  
And therefore with these Limitations it may perhaps be lawful, so as neither by Oath or Acting, I own the exercise of the Supreme Power as just in them that assume it, nor endeavour to countenance or support it; which Cautions all Callings of men, especially Commissioned Officers, are to observe under an unlawful and usurped Power, that possesses only an usufructuary and gubernative one to rule, without any just propriety in the Legislative Power, to which none can pretend, but such as are commissioned by God according to his revealed Will, and possess their Titles by a lawful and civil Right. For in an unlawful posture of subordination none can have a just Power derived. Though (as I said) perhaps in some cases, where I am morally bound to a thing intrinsically good, I may act in the name (not Power) of the Usurper. Neither do those abused Texts 
p Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2.13.  oblige us further; for God cannot breathe hot and cold in the same words, i. e. countenance Rebellion under a pretence of lawful Obedience.  
3. Lastly, For other inferior employments; in things absolutely in their own nature lawful, men may, as an Act of Submission under a Power, comply passively; (though no Beam of any just Power appear in the Person commanding;) so as it be involuntary, and with a public owning the dislike of it.  
Nay there may be perhaps a voluntary and yet lawful acting in some such Capacities in things of, an inferior nature, when men do it rather by permission of than commission from the Usurpers of the Supreme Power, having their Call only from the ancient and known Laws of the Kingdom, as Constables, Bailiffs, etc.   

OBJECTION VI.  
Object. 6. Well, if it be not lawful to countenance or any way support an unjust Power, it is not lawful to pay Taxes, Customs, Excise, etc. when imposed, and to maintain a War against a Just Title.  
Answ. Every Voluntary Act herein is sinful, and not to be done; in that the matter, manner, and end ought to be good in every Action. And in this case, though it may be in some cases lawful to submit to such Payments, I ought rather to die than do any thing willingly that may advance those ends for which it is designed.  
But then if the demand of it comes seconded with a Power and direction to levy ten times as much if refused, the state of the question is altered and directs me to an act of prudence in chooseing the less evil of punishment, (which will be rather a weakening than strength to the Usurper, who would make an advantage by my refusal,) without contracting the guilt of the Tyrants misapplying it. For the compulsion in the Law itself looks only at the money, not the employment of it, and directs my choice to what is least penal; and takes off all just cause of scandal, when my intentions in paying are as far distant from his in receiving as Heaven from Hell. And though this particular case be hardly to be found amongst the Casuists, it is thus resolved in other Notions; to which I will propose a Parallel or two for illustration (never questioned or condemned by any I suppose as unlawful) having Universal Consent and Practise for it. But first I shall answer another Objection.   

OBJECTION VII.  
Object. 7. It is true, every Act hath only so much of sin as it hath of the will in it; but here what you do cannot be said to be merely Passive, or Involuntary, but a mixed Action, partly constrained and partly free, and so in some measure sinful, as involving your consent.  
Answ. I confess man in all things works as a rational Creature, and doth nothing but of choice; his will being never forced, as Natural Agents are, from the impulse of a Foreign Power; so that it is his choice not necessity which fixes him, be the thing in its nature eligible or not: but this happens not in this case; For if the question were whether I would pay Taxes, etc. to the ends proposed, or lose all, I ought to part with all, and my Life too, rather than do it.  
But if it be reduced to this: Will you give me so much money, or let me take all you have, or ten times as much? then the choice is merely between evils of punishment, in which the Law of Nature obliges me in prudence to choose the least; as also the Law of Charity; and is so universally understood to free me both from scandal and sinister interpretations; Compulsion in Law never implying more than submission to the Act: and then when all Power of resistance is taken from me, and no liberty of Election left, whether I will part with so much Money or not; but that my liberty is limited to one Object only, the evil of suffering in a less or greater degree; I may pay the Money assessed without any check of Conscience, in sensu diviso, abstracted from all ill, but not in sensu composito, as parting with it to a sinful end.  
Nor doth the intention of the Imposers (though it binds not in Usurped Powers) extend further than to our submission to the payment of the Money they require; (though they declare the end for which they intent it) or else to undergo the Penalty they require; as may appear by all the Ordinances of these times. And for Parallels to this,—  
1. Consider, That if Thiefs assault me upon a way, and swear to kill me, if I will not give them a Bond for an hundred pounds, to be employed for the corrupting of some Virgin's Chastity, or other Wicked end, and will have it inserted in the Conditions I am to subscribe, I ought not to do it for a World.  
But if the condition be only to pay so much Money, I may yield to it as a ransom for my life. For it then becomes a choice of the least evil of punishment only, (without countenancing or contracting any evil of sin;) which I am obliged to by the Law of self-preservation, especially when my Actions declare no more.  
2. Consider, If a lawful King, disputing his just Rights against the actual Invasion of his Rebellious Subjects, shall place all his Treasure and Magazines in some strong Garrison, there to be kept as the Nerves and Sinews of his War, as Pillars and Supports of his Royalty, and intrust them into some Loyal hand to keep and defend them for his Service, they cannot be delivered up to his Enemies (to prove his Master's Ruin when designed for his strength) without great sin, till held and disputed beyond all probability of longer defence, or hope of relief, because something of his Sovereign's Interest remains still in his Power.  
But when it can be no longer kept by force, it is a duty upon him, both for the preservation of himself, and the Loyal Party with him, to surrender upon Capitulation, rather than become a wilful Sacrifice; all Election being taken from him but that of the less evil of punishment, when he only parts with what he cannot keep, to preserve himself for some fairer opportunity of serving his King, which proportion holds in our payment of Taxes, when the demand is seconded by a Compulsory Power.  
For there Natural Equity permits a Passive Submission; and in things not absolutely necessary by Divine Sanction, as in observing the Rules and Canons of the Church, in Ceremonies, Forms of Prayer, and Liturgies, etc. For there Omissions are no acts of Contempt, nor just cause of scandals, if we are forced to it.   

OBJECTION VIII.  
Object. 8. Well, admit that it be not lawful voluntarily to obey, but passively only to submit to the Impositions of those that usurp an unjust Power, I may yet (to ransom my person in case of restraint or Imprisonment, and to enjoy the benefit of Laws and protection of the present Government) engage to be true and faithful to them, rather than to continue both in Misery and Incapacity of ever paying that Tribute of Homage and Allegiance I own my just Sovereign, either in aiding or assisting to the recovery of his just Rights.  
Answ. In this case, Faithfulness implying Trust, Duty, and Active Obedience, (as in the Revelations, Be faithful unto Death, and I will give thee a Crown of Life; and so understood in Common Notions) you ought not to do it. For though you cannot pay the Debt of an Operative Allegiance to the right Owner, it is not in your Power to transfer his Right to another; the Duty of Subjects to their Kings, deriving from God's Precept, not Man's Donation; so as it falls not under the consideration of things Arbitrary, Obedience being simply good or evil, as it is objected.  
And therefore all I conceive we can do in this case lawfully, is but the giving of a Negative Assurance not to act any thing against them, so long as we remain under their protection; which once made, we ought to be faithful in the observing, till our condition be enlarged by Exchange, Ransom, or some other way of Providence, which ever presumes the means to be lawful, as well as the end good. For this is but a submission to my fate, with an Improvement of my Condition, no restraint of my Power; (but the exercise of it for a time) a prudent Election of the least evil of Punishment, without any Ingredient of the evil of sin: For so we may keep Loyal, and strengthen in the Habit, when suspended in the Act, and interrupted in the mafestation of the Duty; a wrong possession de facto, never cancelling the Owners right de jure, but engages all honest men's Compassions to the oppressed, and Prayers for their restitution; and not, with the Pagan Indians, to worship the Devil, ne noceat; or for the Temptations of Greatness or Power. 
q Mat. 4.  So as our Oaths and Engagements must be always, as the Casuists determine, 1. Super re licita. 2. In bonum finem. 3. Never contra pactum aliquod prius initum; which the equity of the thing and some just occasion may again call me to upon a former tye or Obligation; for if otherwise taken they engage us only to an hearty Repentance for having taken them.  
And all this we ought to do out of an humble and reverential awfulness to the Person and Commands of our King, not servile Affection, (as not consisting with a noble and ingenuous nature) but a filial one, issuing from love: For this is grounded upon the Law of Nature, and should be filial, as Power itself is Paternal. 
r Leu. 19.3. Pro. 14.21.  And therefore my Son, (saith Solomon) fear God and the King; for as the King to God, so the Subjects are to the King, and he is a middle thing in regard of just Power, between them and God. Nay, he is so much Gods (nay God to us) in regard of the immediate Power and delegation he hath from God, (that Josephus to distinguish Monarchical Government from all others framed by men, calls it theocraty, that of God) which, in the Inventory of all Blessings of this life, was by Ezekiel accounted the greatest: (Ezek. 16.3.) And, as a Beam from the Sun, it is so inseparable from the person, where it is once legally settled in a King and his Progenitors, as it is with us, (owned both by the Articles of our Church, Canons, Homilies, Laws, and Oaths, both of Supremacy and Allegiance) that nothing but death can divide them.  
For though some Kings have been deposed by Rebellions, and others forced to resign their Crowns, as Edward the Second, (see Baker's Chronicle) they were never divested of the Habit of Power (de jure) but only deprived of its exercises (de facto:) And though that of Resignation, can hardly be justifiable in any case, it ought never to be done but to his lawful Successor, (as it was in the Instance mentioned) without throwing off God, (as in the rejection of Samuel) where his Providence had otherways settled the Right; in that where the Divine Constitution hath placed the Supremacy in any, God still expects from him a just managing of that Power for the advancement of his Glory, and good of his people, which he can never cast off, no more than a Father, Wife, or Child can discharge themselves from the mutual duty, of those Relations, so long as they continue.  
Nor is this slightly to be passed over when the single duty of fear, due to the King, 
s Eccl. 12.13.  is comprehensive of all others; for as Love, it is a Catholic Grace, runs through all our Actions, and is a Watch upon them for their Regulation; or, as the Life and Soul that animates them; and the more it is free, the more it dilates to show itself, (saith Irenaeus) in just duties; and makes our Filiation under the Gospel of much more liberty than the condition of Servants under the Law, as it imports a voluntary Reverence or Worship: for so Fear and Reverence in the Language of the Spirit speak the same thing. 
t Eccl. 1. Ps. 5.7. compared with Ps. 132.7. Ps. Ps. 95. Mal. 1.6.   
But to test ourselves in this duty, we may know it by our fear of God, which includes it; as God will know (that is take notice of) our fear of him, by that to our Superiors. As in Abraham's Sacrifice, where though intuitively and eternally he knew that Abraham feared him, yet he would not own it, but from the evidence of his outward expressions: 
u Gen. 22.13.  And thus our Saviour would only take notice of St. Peter's love to him by feeding his Flock, 
w Joh. 2 P. 17.  though he well knew his Affections before, which was also the reason of Job's Trials. 
x Job. 1.   
Nor is this a slight Argument, (as a Reverend Divine observes) but grounded upon an impregnable Reason and Syllogism framed by the Spirit of God, 
y 1 Joh. 4.  who concludes by a Topick rule, That if we love not the general Image of God in our Brethren, whom we do see, we cannot love God whom we do not see, but in such Shadows and Representations. And if by my want of Affection and Charity to my Brother, and the fruit of it, God concludes against my love to him, he will do it much more for the want of our duty of fear to our King, (who is not only his general, but the particular and peculiar Image of his Divine Power and Glory, to whom fear is originally due,) which made Jacob to say of his Lord Esau, 
z Gen. 32.10.  vidi faciem ut faciem dei: And Moses, 
a Num. 16. Exo. 16.8.  Your murmur are not contra nos sed contra Jehovam.  
Nay, thus God himself saith of the ten Tribes revolt, 
b 2 Chr. 13.8.  they resisted the Kingdom of God in David's Son; and to Samuel, 
c 1 Sam. 8.7.  non te sed me. So as our failings in this, or any other way to our Prince, is a disobedience to God himself, as their hearts are said to be in his hands by appropriation. Therefore, my Son, (says he, not Sons) give me thy heart, 
d Pro. 24.21.  in exchange for those many hearts I have submitted unto you, when you shall appear in Power and Majesty; and this to speak the near ground of Relations between God and his Vicegerent; and instruct us that we ought to be Sons to the King in our Duties, if we will be Heirs to God, and Inheritors of his Glory.  
For as in that where he said, The Poor ye shall have always among you, Christ did not only foretell but propose it, as a Glass to represent God's bounty to us, and an Object for the exercise of ours to him; so in promising Kings should be our Nursing-fathers', he doth as it were promise us some Beams of his Majesty and Goodness should shine through that Glass, and always be amongst us, for the comfort of his people, and commands our Reflections of Gratitude and Obedience to himself in them.  
For when we look upon the Actions of Kings, we terminate not ourselves in their persons, but the power of God working in them, (when lawfully deputed:) which makes the Schools call Rebellion Sacrilege, in that King's Persons are sacred, and that God is opposed and violated in them, who hath given them a right of propriety in Power, (not an usufructuary one only) such as one King may gain in another's Kingdom by a just War; yet of right he ought only to hold it till Reparation be made for the first Injury done, and the Expense he hath been forced upon for the Vindication of himself and his Rights.   

OBJECTION IX.  
Object. 9 But if a Nation be invaded, when under an Usurped Power, (by a Foreign King or People) without either just Title or Ground of War, I ought to assist the Usurper in the defence of it.  
Answ. In this Case I ought only to join with any Force to defend myself and the Kingdom against any such Invasion, so as I neither fight for the Usurper's Interest and Establishment, nor against those of my lawful Sovereign.  
But out of this Bough many Branches spring, that afford Fruit of excellent taste and nourishment, could I but gather and press them; but I leave them for an abler hand, and period my Lines and the Reader's trouble in what I have expressed already.  
In which Resolutions, if I have been too severe and rigid, I shall willingly and readily retract my error upon the Evidence and Conviction of better Reasons: For I only hold forth this Glow-worm-shine, and little twilight, to afford some glimmering in these benighted times, by which men may guests at the way they should choose to walk in, (though difficult and rugged) and to provoke some of the great Luminaries, who had a fixation in the Orb of our late glorious Church; or other Orthodox Divines (Stars too, though of a lesser magnitude) to send forth some clearer Beams and more wholesome Influences, both to guide and refresh us in this Wilderness we walk in: (inhabited rather by Beasts than rational Creatures:) there being no subject more proper and useful to these times, wherein, if we should but see Diogenes in his busy search, and ask what he strove to find, he would answer, Hominem quaero.  
Nay, I confess I am wholly eccentric in my motion, being out of my own Sphere; and have nothing but Pious Intentions, and a Holy Zeal (for a Rachel's Mantle) to cover this weak Essay with, and to hid it from the severe censure of a more exact Inquisition. Only the Rule I propose to myself, is, in all doubtful and controverted Cases of Conscience, to determine in that which is the strictest, and hath most of self denial in it, in regard of the proneness of Man's Nature to strain his Fetter and pass his Bounds; and because the least sin (like the falling of the first drop in the Orifice, or the first Sand in the Hourglass) disposeth to and prepares the way for more; and many times, if allowed, proves the most dangerous, in that it refers more to Infinity itself, and grows into Habits, because repeated without notice or purpose of limitation; when great devastating Sins Alarms the Soul to a speedy discounting them by repentance, and as great Fish-bones, that are not easily swallowed, stick in the mouth and are spit out again.  
How Conscientious then ought we to be in every Action, since the doing of an Act, good in itself, becomes sin to me, if I be not fully persuaded of the lawfulness of it, and the Compliance with others in any thing that is evil in itself (though I do believe it lawful) makes their sin become mine. For so St. Augustine 
e Serm. 6. de verb. dom.  saith, the Scriptures do attribute to one what he acts by (or approve of in) fewer person: Thus the Prophet attributes the Murder of Naboth to Ahab, in saying, Thou hast killed him: 
f 3 King. 20.  because he disallowed it not when done; though it was not he, but Jezabel, that contrived and acted it without his knowledge: And thus the Jews are charged by St. Peter to have killed the Lord of Life; though they did it not actually, nor was it lawful for them (as they confessed) to put any man to death; yet their guilt was more than the Romans, in that they had Malice in their hearts to prosecute it, when the other had hands only dipped in his Blood.  
Therefore walk (saith the Apostle) with all Circumspection, or Preciseness, as the word bears it) 
g Eph. 5.15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  recoiling from all sorts of Evils in their first approach; as the Blood in the Body will do from any apprehended danger, to fortify the most vital parts. For if we must account for every vain thought, 
h Jam. 4. Jer. 4.14.  (though thought be so near nothing as no man can think what it is) how should we avoid the least act of scandal to our Brethren, or compliance in the most minute sin, when the smallest sins many times prove more dangerous than greater, (as is before expressed:) For like Worms they get insensibly into the heart of the Fruit, and destroy it; when the great Birds, that fall upon the Tree, are watched and driven away.  
Thus small Distempers many times kill, where a strong Fever would not; in that they infuse their Venom by gentle insinuations, not to be discovered, when the other by Assaults gives Alarm to our watchfulness. Nay, great sins discounted, or not repeated, are not so dangerous as the least, multiplied without our care or notice; in that (as I said) they refer more to infinity itself, when augmented without purpose of limitation. For thus our pale-faced, weak (but repeated) sins, become many times more deadly, than our scarlet and impudent ones repent of.  
Therefore let us be so far from making little account of great sins, as to make great account of little ones. For if the owning or patronising the least minute Atom, airy sin, be so dangerous, and (when alone) sits in State, and draws a whole Train of Vices after it; what hope is there of those men, who, on the contrary, are so far from making great account of little sins, as they make little or no account of great ones; and yet assume the disguise of Piety, as the hating of Idolatry, when they commit Sacrilege. 
i Rom. 2.22.  by it, and their Hpocrisie, making themselves more guilty than they could be in the thing they abhor? For (as one says wittily) the Idolater is but mistaken in his God, the other thinks God is mistaken in him; the one dishonours, the other undeifies his God. Yet the men of our times, who make themselves the only Church of God, and reprobate those who are of the true Church, are not only guilty of this, but many other crying sins; which they not only Act, but Enact, as a Law; as Bloodshed, Oppression, Profanation of God's Rights and Ordinances; by which you may know them not to be yet born of God, 
k 1 Joh. 3.  for those sin not, (not such great known sins, not with a deliberate purpose to sin.)  
And therefore let us neither adhere to their Persons, (how seemingly holy soever they are in other things) nor countenance that Cause, that causes so many crying Disorders and Impieties. For, (as St. Cyprian saith) ea non est Religio, sed dissimulatio, quoe per omnia non constat; when as Religion teacheth us to walk in an orderly, sincere, universal, and uniform observance of all God's revealed Will, and so walking to persevere. For they (and they only) who are constant unto death shall enjoy a Crown of Life; which I hearty wish to the greatest Enemies of God, our just Cause, and our Persons; beseeching God, that (though they send us through a red Sea of our own Blood to our Heavenly Canaan, and, with Mahomet's Tomb, hang us between Heaven and Earth, as unworthy of either) they may yet become Instruments of restoring Peace and Truth in this Kingdom, and account those fair and spotless Lilies greater Ornaments to th●i● Garlands, than all their Roses of Bloody Trophies. And that they may make God and the Kingdoms good the only Centre and Circumference of all their Thoughts, Words, and Actions; truly repenting of their Sins, that by God's Mercy they may obtain Pardon for them, and not be left in hardness of Heart, Blindness and Impenitence, (a Judgement beyond all Judgements, as it is a Judgement that hath no sense of Judgement, and yet hath both Sin and Punishment in it.) And though they have resolved all Law into the Sentence of the Sword, and almost all Gospel into the private whispers of a seducing Spirit, God in Mercy keep them from the destruction of the one, and afford them Mercy in the other for their Conviction and Amendment; and let not the Spiritual Lethargy of Sin any longer stupefy their Consciences, but awaken them to an active endeavour of repairing their Errors, and restoring of God's Truth, that their Souls may be saved.  
5. Lastly, Prayer is the great Outrent and Homage the Subject, as a duty, owes his Sovereign.  
Now as Prayer is the top-Branch of all our Duties to God, and the most prevailing Oratory for his Blessings upon a Nation, we must pray for them as men, but first as Kings, that we may lead a peaceable and quiet life under them, in all Godliness and Honesty. 
l 1 Tim. 2.  And therefore in the practice of that Duty I shall wind up my Discourse,     

Humbly beseeching God, that as he hath given us a Caesar for Piety exemplary, for Prudence as an Angel of God, knowing both good and evil, who by day as a Cloud, and as a Pillar of Fire by night, doth go before us to direct, comfort and refresh us in all our wearisome marches and hard sufferings; not refusing to wade through another red Sea, though tinctured with his own Blood, for the regaining and maintaining of Truth and Peace amongst us; that God would give us Grace truly to value so great a Blessing in our King; and for his Fatherly Kindness to us, to pay all filial Obedience to him. And let us never cease humbly to pray thee, O Lord, still to establish the Crown upon the Head of him and His Posterity, till Shiloh come.  
Plead thou this Cause of our King, O Lord, (or rather thine own Cause) and fight against those that fight against Him; hate them not so much, as not to seem to hate them at all, (by letting them still prosper in their Wickedness;) but correct them, to amend them here, that they may not be condemned hereafter; and make Him the more Pious by His Pressures, the more just by their Oppressions, and every way the better for, and more glorious by His Sufferings.  
Make His Enemies as the Dust before the Wind, and the Angel of the Lord scattering them; but upon His Head let His Crown ever flourish.  
And thou, who art the Supreme Goodness, so temper thy Justice, we beseech thee, as to make thy Strokes become Mercies to Him, that He may read thy favour in thy frowns, and not turn thy Rod into a Serpent, thy Antidote into Poison,) but make thou it, like Aaron's, in the end to bud, and bring forth the blessing of a happy Peace to Him and us.  
Yet let Him not so value Peace as to prefer it to Truth; (for a just War is better tban an unjust Quiet,) but as His and our Sins have let in one, so make our Sufferings by, and Sorrows for them, to fit us for the Blessing of the other; and us by following Righteousness to find a happy rest.  
In the mean time, sanctify and preserve Him from all the Artificial Undermine and open Violence of Bloody and Wicked Men; prepare him for all Events, and give him an holy use of all thy varied Judgements, and make Him to make a pious advantage of His Enemies, and they to become His best Friends; when by sucking the Venom and Poison out of their Injuries, He can (by a charitable forgiveness) turn them, through God's Mercies, into the richest Cordial Spirits, to refresh His Soul with in His greatest Conflicts and Faintings.  
And ever give Sentence with Him (O God) and defend His Cause against the : Let not the Justice of it sink under the weight of the Sins of His Party, nor the not only acted (but enacted) Rebellion, Sacrilege, and Oppression of His Enemies, separate any longer between them and thee, nor us from one another, but unite us all in inward Affections, and the Bond of an outward Peace; and that we may maintain truly zealous hearts to our God, Loyal to our Sovereign, and loving one towards another.  
Protect Him by thy Power against all His Adversaries, guide Him by thy Grace in all His Actions, bring him to His Throne again with Happiness, Safety and Honour; re-establish Him in all His just Rights, and grant that all those committed to His charge may lead a peaceable and quiet life under Him, in all Godliness and Honesty: and that as He hath always defended thy Faith, so thy Faith may still defend Him; and He make it His Endeavours to restore thy Worship to its ancient Purity, thy Church and Ministers to their ancient Glory, and Himself and Kingdom to a happy and established Peace.  
And for this end, calm (O Lord) the raging of the Sea, and the madness of His Pepole; bound their Passions; turn their outward Form into the substance of Religion; let all their Schisms end in a Charitable Accord, their Errors in Truth, their Rebellion in Loyalty; that as they have requited Him Evil for Good, and Hatred for His , they may now have hearts to repent of their Evils done, and he one to forgive those he hath suffered by them.  
Still preserve Him a Faithful Servant to thee (though His Subjects be false to Him) and ready to undergo the greatest Injuries, rather than to consent to the least Sin: Give Him a heart to part with all for thee, but nothing of thine; and though they would Vn-King Him by their Demands, let Him not Unman Himself in His Condescensions; (depose the just Sovereignty of Reason in Himself,) nor prefer any preservation to that of His own Conscience; but in all things to preserve His Subjects just Rights, without enslaving Himself or His.  
Make thy Will (O Lord) the Rule of His, and thy Glory and thyself the Centre and Circumference of all His Thoughts, Words, and Actions: Give Him a free submission to thee in all Events; extricate Him from all His troubles; carry Him through all Difficulties; increase in him all saving Graces; subdue in Him all Corruptions; pardon all His Sins; sanctify unto Him all Afflictions; guide him in all His ways; supply Him in all His wants; lay no more upon Him than He may be able to bear, but with the Temptation give Him a means to escape, even the Snares of Sin and Malice of His Enemies: and make Him not only be ready to suffer, but to die for the name of JESUS; in Affections and Habit ever, yet never in Act, a Martyr, unless for the advancement of thy Glory and His, by one dying Man to make many living Saints, to increase the joys of the Saints in Heaven, though it would take from us the greatest upon Earth.  
Give Him (O Lord) a dry Victory over all His Enemies, and not the Temptation of a Bloody Conquest: But if by those Issues thou wilt recover our weak and dying State, come again with healing in thy Wings, and once more restore what we have lost, and give what is wanting to the manifestation of thine own Glory. So be it, Lord JESUS,  
Amen. Amen.   
FINIS.