A Hind Let Loose, Part 3 · Head 2 (1 of 5)

A Hind Let Loose · Part 3 · Head 2 (1 of 5)

p. 268HEAD. II. The Sufferings of many for Refusing to oune the Tyrants Authority vindicated.

THe other Grand Ordinance of God, Magistracy, which He hath in His Soveraign Wisdom, Justice, & Goodness, appointed, ordained, & consecrated, for the demonstration, illustration, & vindication of His oun Glory, and the Communication, Conservation, and Reparation of the Peace, safety, order, Liberty, and universal good of mankind, is next to that of the Ministry of Greatest Concern: wherein not only the Prudence, Policie, Propertie, & Libertie of men, but also the conscience, Duty, & Religion of Christians, have a special Interest. And therefore it is no less important, pertinent, profitable, & necessary for every one that hath any of these to care & contend for, keep or recover, to inquire into and understand somthing of the institution, constitution, nature, & boundaries of the Sacred ordinance of Magistracy, p. 269than into the holy ordinance of the Ministry; So far at least as may consist with the sphere of every ones Capacity & Station, and may conduce to the satisfaction of every ones conscience, in the discharge of the duties of their relations. Every private man indeed hath neither capacity, concern, nor necessity, to study the Politicks, or search into the secrets, or Intrigues of Government, no more then he is to be versed in all the Administrations of Ecclesiastical Policy, and Interests of the Ministry: yet every mans Conscience is no less concerned, in distinguishing the Character of Gods Ministers of Justice, the Magistrats, to whom he owes & ounes allegiance, that they be not usurping Tyrants, everting the Ordinance of the Magistracy; than in acknowledging the Character of Christs Ministers of the Gospel, to whom he owes & ounes obedience, that they be not usurping Prelats or Impostors, perverting the Ordinance of the Ministry. The Glory of God is much concerned, in our ouning & keeping pure & intire, according to His will & word, both these Ordinances. And our Conscience as well as Interest is concerned in the advantage or hurt, profit or prejudice, of the right or wrong, observation or prevarication, of both these ordinances; being interested in the advantage of Magistracy, and hurt of Tyrannie in the State, as well as in the advantage of the Ministry, and hurt of Diocesan or Erastian Supremacy in the Church; in the advantage of Ltberty, and hurt of slavery in the State, as well as in the advantage of Religion and hurt of Profaneness in the Church; in the profit of Lawes and prejudice of Prerogative in the State, as well as in the profit of Truth and prejudice of Error in the Church; in the profit of Peace and true Loyalty, and prejudice of oppression and Rebellion in the State, as well as in the profit of Purity & Unity, and prejudice of Defection & Division or Schisme, in the Church. So that in Conscience, we are no more free to Prostitute our Loyalty & Liberty absolutely, in ouning every Possessor of the Magistracy; than we are free to Prostitute our Religion & faith implicitely, in ouning every Pretender to the Ministry. This may seem very Paradoxical to some, because so dissonant & dissentient from the vulgar, p. 270yea almost Universal and invetrate opinion & Practice of the world, that hitherto hath not been so precise in the matter of Magistracy. And it may seem yet more strange, that not only some should be found to assert this; but that any should be found so strict and strait-laced, as to adventure upon suffering, and even to Death, for that which hath hitherto been seldom scrupled, by any that were forced to subjection under a yoke, which they had no force to shake off, and wherein Religion seems litle or nothing concerned; for not ouning the authority of the present Possessors of the place of Government: which seems to be a Question not only excentrick & extrinsick to Religion, but such a State question, as for its thorny Intricacies & difficulties, is more proper for Politicians & Lawyers to dispute about (as indeed their debates about this head of Authority, have been as manifold & multiplied as about any one thing) than for Private Christians to search into, and suffer for, as a Part of their Testimony. But if we will cast off Prejudices, and the Tyrannie of Custom, and the bondage of being bound to the worlds Mind in our inquiries about Tyrannie, and suffer our selves to Ponder impartially the importance of this matter; And then to state the question right; We shall find Religion & Conscience hath no small interest in this business. They must have no snall Interest in it, if we consider the importance of this matter, either extensively, or objectively, or Subjectively. Extensively considered, it is the Interest of all mankind to know and be resolved in Conscience, whether the Government they are under be of Gods Ordination or of the Devils administration; whether it be Magistracy or Tyrannie; whether it gives security for Religion & Liberty, to themselves and their posterity, or whether it induces upon themselves, and entails upon the posterity, slavery as to both these invaluable Interests; whether they have matter of praise to God for the blessings & mercies of Magistracy, or matter of Mourning for the plagues & miseries of Tyrannie, to the end they may know both the sins & snares, Duties & dangers, Case & Crisis, of the times they …ive in. All men that ever enjoyed the mercy of a right Constitute Magistracy, p. 271have experienced, and were bound to bless God for the blessed fruits of it: And on the other hand, the world is full of the Tragical Monuments of Tyrannie, for which men were bound bath to search into the Causes, and see the effects of such plagues from the Lord, to the end they might mourn over both. And from the begining it hath been observed, that as Peoples sins have alwayes procured the Scourge of Tyrannie; So all their miseries might be refounded upon Tyrants encroachments, Usurping upon or betraying their Trust, and overturning Religion, Lawes, & Liberties. Certainly Mankind is concerned in point of Interest & Conscience, to inquire into the cause & Cure of this Epidemick distemper, that hath so long held the world in miserie, and so habitually, that now it is become as it were Natural to lye stupidly under it; that is, that old Ingrained Gangrene of the Kings Evil, or Complyance with Tyrannie; that hath long afflicted the Kingdoms of the world, and affected not only their backs in bearing the burden thereof; but thir hearts into a Lethargick stupor of insensibleness; and their heads in infatuating & intoxicating them with Notions of the Sacredness & incontroulablness of Tyrannie; and their hands in infeebling and fettering them from all attempts to work a Cure: Or else it hath had another effect on many that have been sensible of a touch of it; even equivalent to that, which an ingenious Author Mr Gee in his Preface to the Divine right & Original of the Civil Magistrate (to which Mr Durham is not absonant) expounds to be the effect of the fourth vial, Rev. 16. 8, 9. when in these Dog-dayes of the world, power is given to the Sun of Imperial, especially Popish, Tyannie, by their exorbitant streaches of absolute Prerogative, to scorch men with fire of furious oppressions, they then blaspheme the Name of God which hath power over these Plagues, in their Mal-content Complaints, grumblings, grudgings, and Murmurings under the miserie, but they do not repent nor give Him Glory, in mourning over the causes promeriting such a Plague, and their oun accession in exposing themselves to such a scorching sun, nakedly without a Sconce. Certainly this would be the remedy that Conscience p. 272would suggest, and Interest would incite to, an endeavour either of allaying the heat, or of subtracting from it under a shelter, by declining the oblique Malignity of its Scorching rayes. But will the world never be a wakened out of this Dream & dotage, of Dull & stupid subjection to every Monster that can Mount a Throne? Sure at length it may be expected, either Conscience from within as Gods deputy, challenging for the palpable perversion of this His excellent Ordinance, Or Iudgments from without, making sensible of the effects of it, will convince & confute these old inveterate Prejudices. And then these Martyrs for that universal Interest of mankind, who got the fore-start and the first sight of this, will not be so flouted as fools, as now they are. And who knoweth, what Prelude or Preparative, fore-boding & presaging the doun fal of Tyranny, may be in its aspirings to this hight of arbitrary absoluteness, and in the many questions raised about it, and by them imposed upon Consciences to be resolved. If we consider the object of this question; as Conscience can only clear it, so in nothing can it be more concerned. It is that Great Ordinance of God, most signally impressed by a very Sacred & illustrious Character of the Glorious Majestie of the Most High, who hath appointed Magistracy; in which, considering either its fountain, or Dignity, ends, or effects, Conscience must have a very great Concern. The fountain or efficient cause of Magistracy, is high & sublime. The powers that are be of God, not only by the all disposing hand of God in His Providence, as Tyranny is, nor only by way of naked approbation, but by Divine institution; And that not only in the general, by at least a Secondary Law of Nature, but also the special investiture of it, in Institution & Constitution, is from God; and therefore they are said to be ordained of God, to which Ordinance we must be subject, not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake; which is the Great Duty required in the fifth Command, the first Commandment with Promise; that hath the Priority of Place befor all the Second table, because the other Commandments respect each some one Interest, this hath a supereminent influence upon all. But Tyrannical powers are p. 273not of God in this sense. And it were Blasphemie to assert they were of the Lords Authorization, Conscience cannot bind to a subjection to this. Again the Dignity of Magistracy, ordained for the maintenance of Truth & righteousness, the only foundations of peoples felicity, whether temporal or eternal, including the bonds & boundaries of all obedience & subjection, for which they are intended & to which they refer, is supereminent; as that Epithet of higher added to the powers that are of God, may be rendered; making them high & sublime in Glory, whose highest prerogative is, that being Gods Ministers, they sit in the Throne of God, anointed of the Lord, judging not for man but for the Lord, as the Scripture speaks. To this Conscience is concerned in duty to render honour as due, by the Prescript of the fifth Commandment: but for Tyranny, Conscience is bound to deny it, because not due; no more than obedience, which Conscience dare not pay to a Throne of Iniqulty, and a Throne of the Devil, as Tyranny may be called as really as Magistracy is called the Throne of God. Next Conscience is much concerned in the ends of Magistracy, which are the Greatest, the Glory of God and the good of Mankind. And in the effects of it, the maintenance of Truth, Righteousness, Religion, Liberty, Peace, & Safety, and all choicest external blessings: But the ends & effects of Tyranny are quite Contrary, Domineering for pleasure, and destroying for profit. Can we think that Conscience is nothing Concerned here, that these great ends shall be subverted, and the effects precluded; and to that effect, that Tyrannie not only be shrouded under a Priviledge of impunity, but by our subjection & acknowledment of it, as a Lawful power, encouraged into all enormities, and Licensed to usurpe, not only our Liberties, but Gods Throne by an uncontroulable Soveraignty? But if we Consider the subjective Concern of Conscience, it must be very great: when it is the only thing that prompts to subjection, that regulats subjection, and is a bottom for subjection to lawful powers. If it were not out of Conscience, men that are free born are naturally such Lovers of Liberty, and under Corruption p. 274such lusters after Licenciousness, that they would never come under the Order of this Ordinance, except constrained for wraths sake: but now, understanding that they that resist the power resist the Ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation, they must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for Conscience sake. If Conscience were not exercised in regulating our duty to Magistrats, we would either obey none, or else would observe all their Commands promiscously, Lawful or unlawful, and would make no difference either of the matter commanded, or the power commanding: but now, understanding that we must obey God rather then man, and that we must render to all their dues, fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour, Conscience regulats us what & whom to obey. And without conscience there is litle hope for Government to prove either beneficial or permanent: litle likelyhood of either a reall, regular, or durable subjection to it. The discernible standing of Government upon conscientious grounds, is the only thing that can bring in conscience, & a conscientious submission to it; it being the highest & most kindly principle of, and the strongest & most lasting obligation to, any relative duty. It will not be Liberty of Conscience (as sayeth the late Declaration for it) but reality of conscience, and Government founded upon a bottom of conscience, that will Unite the Governed to the Governours by inclination as well as duty. And if that be, then there is needful a rule of Gods revealed preceptive will (the only Cynosure & Empress of conscience) touching the founding & erecting of Government, that it have the stamp of Gods Authority. It must needs then follow that conscience hath a very great concernment in this question in the General, and that before it be forced to an abandoning of its light in a matter of such moments, it will rather oblige people that are conscientious to suffer the worst that Tyrants can do; especially when it is imposed & obtruded upon conscince, to give its suffrage & express acknowledment that the present Tyranny is the Authority of God, which is so visible in the view of all that have their eyes open, that the p. 275meanest capacity that was never conversant in Lawes & Politicks can give this verdict that the Constitution & administration of the Government of the tuo Royal Brothers, under whose burthen the earth and we have been groaning these 27 years past, hath been a compleat & Habitual Tyranny, and can no more be ouned to be Magistracy the… Robbery can be acknowledged to be a rightful possession. It is so plain, that I need not the help of Lawyers & Politicians to demonstrate it, nor lanch into the Ocean of their endless debates in handling the head of Magistracy & Tyrannie: yet I shall improve what help I find in our most approved Authors who have enlarged upon this Question (though not as I must state it) to dilucidate the matter in Thesi, and refer to the foregoing Deduction of the succession of Testimonies against Tyranny, to clear it in Hypothesi. Whence we may see the occasion, and clearly gather the solution of the Question, which is this.

Whether a people, long oppressed with the encroachments of Tyrants & Usurpers, may disoune their pretended Authority; & when imposed upon to acknowledge it; may rather chiefe to suffer than to oune it?

To clear this question: I shall first premit some concessions, and then come more formally to resolve it.

I. It must be granted the Question is extraordinary, and never so stated by any writer on this head; which makes it the more difficult, and odious, because odd & singular, in the esteem of those who take up opinions rather from the number of votes than from the weight of the reasons of the asserters of them. It will also be yeelded, that this was never a case of confession for Christians to suffer upon. And the reason of both is, because, before these seven years past, this was never imposed upon private & common subjects to give an account of their thoughts & conscience about the Lawfulness of the Government they lived under. Conquerers & Usurpers sometimes have demanded an acknowledgment of their Authority; from men of greatest note & stroke in the Countries they have seised: but they never since the Creation urged it upon common people, as a Test of Loyalty; but thought alwayes their Lawes, p. 276& power to execute them on offenders, did secure their subjection. Or otherwise to what purpose are Lawes made, and the execution of them committed to men in power, if they be not thought a sufficient fence for the Authority that makes them; except it also have the actual acknowledgment of the subjects to ratify it? Men that are really invested with Authority, would think it both a disparagment to their Authority, and would disdain such a suspicion of the questionableness of it, as to put it as a queston to the subjects, whether they ouned it or not. But the Gentlemen that rule us, have fallen upon a piece of unprecedented Policy: wherein they think both to involve the Nation in the guilt of their unparalelled Rebellion against the Lord, by ouning that Authority that promotes it, and so secure their Usurpations, either by the suffrage of all that oune them, or by the exstirpation of the Consciencious that dare not, with the odium & obli…uie of being enemies to Authority; by which Trick they think to bury the honour of their Testimony. Yet in sobriety without Prophecying it may be presumed, at the long run this project will prove very prejudicial to their Interest: and herein they may verify that Scots Proverb, ov'r fast ov'r loose, and accomplish these Divine sayings He disappointeth the devices of the Crafty, He taketh the wise in their oun Craftiness, and the Counsel of the froward is carried head long. For as they have put people upon this question, who would not otherwise have made such inquiries into it; and now finding they must be resolved in conscience to answer it, when ever they shall be brought before them; upon a very overly search, they see terrible Tyranny witten in legible bloody Characters almost on all administrations of the Government, and so come to be fixed in the verdict that their conscience & the word of God gives of it: So it may be thought, this question now started, for as despicable beginings it hath, yet ere it come to a ful & final Decision, will be more inquired into through the world, and at length prove as fatal to Tyranny, as ever any thing could be, and then they may know whom to thank. But however though the question be extraordinary, and the sufferings thereupon be p. 277unprecedented; And therefore among other contradictions, that may be objected, that neither in History nor Scripture we can find instances of private people their refusing to oune the Authority they were under, nor of their suffering for that refusal: yet nevertheless it may be duty without example. Many things may be done; though not against the Law of God, yet without a precedent of the practice of the people of God. Though we could not adduce an example for it, yet we can gather it from the Law of God, that Tyranny must not be ouned, this will be equivalent to a thousand examples. Every age in somethings must be a precedent to the following, and I think never did any age produce a more honourable precedent, than this begining to decline a yoke under which all ages have groaned.

2. It will be also granted, It is not always indispensablie necessarie, at all times. for a people to declare their disclaim of the Tyranny they are under, when they cannot shake it off; nor, when they are staged for their duty before wicked & Tyrannical Judges, is it always necessarie to disoune their pretended Authority positively; when either they are not urged with questions about it, then they may be silent in reference to that; or when they are imposed upon to give their judgment of it, they are not alwayes obliged, as in a case of confession, to declare all their mind, especially when such Questions are put to them with a manifest design to entrap their lives, or intangle their Conscience. All Truth is not to be told at all times; neither are all questions to be answered when impertinently interrogate, but may be both Cautiously & Conscienciously waved. We have Christs oun practice, & his faithful servant Pauls example, for a Pattern of such prudence & Christian caution. But yet it were cruel & unchristian rigour, to censure such as out of a pious principle of zeal to God & conscience of duty, do freely & positively declare their judgment, in an absolute disouning of their pretended Authority, when posed with such Questions, though to the manifest detriment of their lives, they Conscienciously p. 278looking upon it as a case of confession. For where the Lord hath not peremptorily astricted His Confessors to such rules of prudence, but hath both promised and usually gives His Spirits Conduct, encouraging & animating them to boldness, so as before hand they should not take thought how or what they shall speak, and in that same hour they find it given them, it were presumption for us to stint them to our rules of prudence. We may indeed find rules to know, what is a case of confession; but hardly can it be determined, what Truth or duty we are questioned about is not, or may not be, a case of confession. And who can deny, but this may be in some circumstances a case of confession, even Positively to disoune the pretended Authority of a bloody Court or Council? when either they go out of their Sphere, taking upon them Christs Supremacy, and the Cognizance of the concerns of His Croun, whereof they are Judges no ways Competent; then they must freely & faithfully be declined. Or when, to the dishonour of Christ, they blaspheme His Authority, and the Sacred boundaries▪ He hath prescribed to all humane Authority, and will assert an illimited absolute Authority, refusing & discharging all offered Legal & Scriptural restrictions to be put thereupon (as hath been the case of the most part of these worthy though poor Martyrs, who have died upon this head) then they must think themselves bound to disoune it. Or when they have done some cruel indignity & despight to the Spirit of God, and to Christ His prerogative & Glory, and work of Reformation, and people, in murdering them without Mercy, and imposing this ouning of their King, by whose Authority all is acted, as a condemnation of these witnesses of Christ their Testimony, and a justification of their bloody cruelties against them, which hath frequently been the case of these poor people that have been staged upon this account: In this case, and several others of this sort that might be mentioned, then they may be free & Positive in disouning this Test of wicked Loyaltie, as the mark of the Dragon of the secular beast of Tyranny. And in many such cases, when the Lord gives the Spirit, I see no reason but that Christs witnesses p. 279must follow His Pattern of zeal in the case of confession, which He witnessed before Pontius Pilate in asserting His oun Kingship, as they may in other cases follow His Pattern of Prudence. And why may we not imitate the zeal of Stephen, who called the Council before whom he was staged stiff necked resisters of the Holy Ghost, Persecuters of the Prophets, and betrayers & Murderers of Christ the Just one, as well as the Prudence of Paul? But however it be, the present Testimony against this pretended Authority Lies in the Negative, which obliges alwayes, semper & ad semper; that is to say, we plead, that it must never be Ouned. There is a great difference between a Positive disouning, and a not Ouning: though the first be not alwayes necessary, the Latter is the Testimony of the day, and a negative case of confession, which is allwise clearer than the Positive. Though we must not allwise confess every Truth, yet we must never deny any.

3. It is confessed, we are under this sad disadvantage besides others, that not only all our Brethren, groaning under the same yoke with us, will not take the same way of declining this pretended Authority, nor adventure when called to declare their judgment about it (which we do not condemn, as is said, and would expect from the rules of equity & charity, they will not condemn us, when we find our selves in conscience bound to use greater freedom) But also some when they do declare their judgment, give it in termes condemnatory of, & contradictory unto our Testimony, in that they have freedom positively to oune this Tyranny, as Authority, and the Tyrant as their Lawful Soveraign. And many of our Ministers also are of the same mind. And further as we have few expressly asserting our part of the debate, as it is now stated: so we have many famous & learned divines expressly against, us in this point, as especially we find in their Comments upon Rom. 13. among whom I cannot dissemble my sorrow to find the great Calvin, saying, saepe solent inquirere &c. men often inquire, by what right they have obtained their power who have the rule! It should be enough to us that they do govern, for they have not ascended to this p. 280eminency by their oun power, but are imposed by the hand of the Lord. As also Pareus saying too much against us. For answer to this I refer to Mr Knox his reply to Lithingtoun, producing several Testimonies of Divines against him upon this very same head; wherein he shewes, that the occasions of their Discourses & Circumstances wherein they were stated were very far different, from those that have to do with Tyrants & Usurpers, as indeed they that are most concerned and smart most under their scourge are in best case to speak to the purpose. I shall only say, Mens averment in a Case of Conscience is not an oracle, when we look upon it with an impartial eye, in the case wherein we are not prepossessed… it will bear no other value, than what is allayed with the imperfections of fallibility; and moreover is contradicted by some others, whose Testimony will help us as much to confirm our persuasion, as others will hurt us to infirm it.

4. But now when Tyrants go for Magistrats; lest my plea against ouning Tyranny, should be mistaken as if it were a pleading for Anarchy: I must assert, that I and all those I am vindicating are for Magistracy, as being of divine Original, institute for the common good of humane & Christian Societies, whereunto every soul must be subject, of whatsoever quality or Character, and not only for wrath but also for conscience sake (though as to our soul & conscience, we are not subject) which whosoever resisteth resisteth the ordinance of God, and against which Rebellion is a damnable sin, Whereunto (according to the fifth Commandment, and the many reiterated exhortations of the Apostles) we must be subject, and obey Magistrates, and submit ourselves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake, whether it be unto the King as Supreme &c. And we account it a hateful brand of them that walk after the flesh, to despise Government, to be presumptuous, self willed, and not afrayed to speakevil of dignities and that they are filthy dreamers who despise Dominion & speakevil of dignities, and of those things which they know not. We allow the Magistrate, in whatsoever form of Government all the power the Scripture, Lawes of Nature or p. 281Nations, or Municipal do allow him: Asserting that he is the keeper & avenger of both the Tables of the Law, having a power over the Church as well as the state suited to his Capacity, that is; not formally Ecclesiastical but objectively for the Churches good; an external power, of Providing for the Church, & Protecting her from outward violence, or in ward disorder; an imperate power, of commanding all to do their respective duties; a Civil power of Punishing all, even Church officers, for Crimes; a Secundary power of Judicial approbation or condemnation, or discretive, in order to give his Sanction to Synodical results; a Cumulative power, assisting & strengthening the Church in all her Priviledges, subservient though not servill, Coordinate with Church power not Subordinate (though as a Christian he is subject) in his oun affairs, to wit Civil, not to be declined as Judge, but to be obeyed in all things Lawful, and honoured & strengthened with all his dwes. We would give unto Cesar the things that are Cesars, and to God the things that are Gods But to Tyrants, that usurpe & pervert both the things of God & of Cesar, and of the peoples Liberties, we can render none of them, neither Gods, nor Cesars, nor our oun; Nor can we from conscience give him any other deference, but as an enemy to all, even to God, to Cesar, & the people. And in this, though it doth not sound now with Court parasites, nor with others that are infected with Royal Indulgences & Indemnities, we bring forth but the transumpt of old Principles, according to which our fathers walked when they still contended for Religion & Liberty, against the attemptings & aggressions of Tyranny against both.

5. It must be conceded, it is not an easie thing to make a man in the place of Magistracy a Tyrant. For as every escape, error, or act of unfaithfulness, even known & continued in, whether in a Ministers entry to the Ministry, or in his Doctrine, doth not unminister him, nor give sufficient ground to withdraw from him, or reject him as a Minister of Christ: So neither does every enormity, misdemeanure, or act of Tyranny, Injustice, perfidie, or profanity in the Civil Magistrate, whether as to p. 282his way of entry to that office, or in the execution of it, or in his private or personal behaviour, denominate him a Tyrant or usurper, or give sufficient ground to divest him of Magistratical power, and reject him as the Lawful Magistrate. It is not any one or tuo Acts contrary to the Royal Covenant or office, that doth denude a man of the Royal dignity, that God & the people gave him: David committed tuo acts of Tyranny, Murder & Adultery; yet the people were to acknowledge him as their King (and so it may be said of some others, ouned still as Kings in Scripture) the reason is, because though he sinned against a man or some particular persons, yet he did not sin against the State, and the Catholick good of the Kingdom, subverting Law; for then he would have turned Tyrant, and ceased to have been Lawful King. There is a great difference between a Tyrant in act, and a Tyrant in habit, the first does not cease to be a King. But on the other hand, as every thing will not make a Magistrate to be a Tyrant: So nothing will make a Tyrant habitu, a Magistrate. And as every fault will not unminister a Minister; So some will oblige the people to reject his Ministry, as if he turn Heretical, & Preach Atheisme, Mahumetanisme, or the like, the people, though they could not formally depose him, or through the corruption of the times could not get him deposed; yet they might reject & disoune his Ministry: So it will be granted, that a people have more power in creating a Magistrate than in making a Minister, and Consequently they have more right and may have more light in disouning a King, as being unkinged; than in disouning a Minister, as being un-ministerd. It will be necessary therefore, for clearing our way, to fix upon some ordinary Characters of a Tyrant, which may discriminate him from a Magistrate, and be ground of disouning him as such. I shall rehearse some, from very much approved Authors; the application of which will be as apposite to the tuo Brothers, that we have been burthened with, as if they had intended a particular & exact description of them. Buchanan de jure regni apud Scotos Shewes that the word Tyran… was at first p. 283honourable, being attributed to them that had the full power in their hands, which power was not astricted by any bonds of Lawes, nor obnoxious to the Cognition of Judges, and that it was the usual denomination of Heroes, and thought at first so honourable that it was attribute to the Gods: But as Nero & Iudas were sometimes among the Romans & Iewes names of greatest account, but afterwards by the faults of tuo men of these names, it came to pass that the most flagitious would not have these names given to their Children; So in process of time, Rulers made this name so infamous by their wicked deeds, that all men abhorred it as contagious & Pestilentious, and thought it a more light reproach to be called a hangman then a Tyrant. Thereafter he Condiscends upon several Characters of a Tyrant. 1. He that doth not receive a Government by the will of the people, but by force invadeth it, or intercepteth it by fraud, is a Tyrant; and who domineers even over the unwilling (for Rex volentibus Tyrannus invitis imperat) and procures the Supreme rule without the peoples Consent, even though for several years they may so govern, that the people shall not think it irksome. Which very well aggrees with the present Gentleman that rules over us, who, after he was by publick vote in Parliament secluded from the Government, of which the standing Lawes of both Kingdoms made him incapable for his Murthers, Adulteries, & Idolatries, by force & fraud did intercept first an Act for His Succession in Scotland, and then the actual Succession in England, by blood & treacherie usurping & intruding himself into the Government, without any Compact with, or Consent of the people; though now he studies to make himself like another Syracusan Hiero, or the Florentine Cosinodo Medices, in a mild Moderation of his usurped power, but the West of England, and the West of Scotland both, have felt the force of it. 2. Tyrannus non civibus sed sibi gerit imperium, neque publicae utilitatis sed suae voluptatis rationem habet &c. He does not govern for the subjects well-fare or publick ultility but for himself, having no regard to that but to his oun lust; Acting in this like robbers, who cunningly p. 284disposing of what wickedly they have acquired, do seek the praise of Justice by injury, & of Liberality by robbery; So he can make some shew of a Civil mind, but so much the less assurance gives he of it, that it is manifest he intends not thereby the subjects good, but the greater security of his oun lusts, and stability of empire over posterity, having some what Mitigated the peoples hatred, which when he hath done he will turn back again to his old manners, for the fruit which is to follow may easily be known both by the seed and by the sower thereof. An exact Copy of this we have seen within these tuo years, as oft before in the rule of the other Brother. After God hath been robbed of His prerogatives, the Church of her Priviledges, the State of its Lawes, the Subjects of their Libertie & property, he is now affecting the praise & captating the Applause of tenderness to conscience, and Love of Peace, by offering now Liberty after all his Cruelties; wherein all the thinking part of men do discern he is prosecuting that hellish Project, introducing Popery & slaverie; and overturning Religion, Law, & Liberty. 3. Regium imperium secundum Naturam est, Tyrannicum contra, Regium Liberi inter Liberos est Principatus, Tyrannus domini in servas &c. Tyranny is against Nature, and a Masterly Principality over slaves. Can he be called a father, who accounts his subjects slaves? or a Shepherd, who does not feed but devours his flock? or a Pilot, who doth allwise study to make shipwrack of the goods, and strikes a leak in the very ship where he sails? what is he then that bears Command, not for the peoples advantage, but studies only himself, who leadeth his subjects into manifest snares? he shall not verily be accounted by me either Commander. Emperour, or Governour? King Iames the 6^th also, in a speech to the Parliament anno 1609. makes this one Character of a Tyrant, when he begins to invade his subjects rights & Liberties. And if this be true, then we have not had a King these many years: the foregoing deduction will demonstrate, what a slavery we have been under. 4. Quid qui non de virtute certet c…m bonis &c. What is he then, who doth not contend for vertue with p. 285the good, but to exceed the most flagitious in vices? If yow see then any usurping the Royal name, and not excelling in any virtue, but striving to exceed all in baseness, not tendering his subjects good with native affection, but pressing them with proud domination, esteeming the people committed to his trust not for their safegaurd but for his oun gain; will yow imagine this man is truly a King, albeit he vapours with a numerous Lieveguard, and makes an ostentation of gorgeous Pomp? The learned Althusius likewise in his Politicks cap. 38. Num. 15. (as He is cited by Ius Populi chap. 16. Pag. 347.) makes this one Character of a Tyrant, that liveing in Luxury, whoredome, greed, & idleness, he neglecteth or is unfit for his office. How these suite our times we need not express; what effrontry of impudence is it, for such monsters to pretend to rule by virtue of any Authority derived from God, who pollute the world with their Adulteries & Incests, and Live in open defyance of all the Lawes of the universal King; with whom to exceed in all villanies is the way to purchase the Countenance of the Court, and to aspire to preferment? No Heliogabulus &c. could ever come up the length in wickedness, that our Rulers have professed. 5. Omnium vim Legum in se transferre &c. He can transfer unto himself the strength of all Lawes, and abrogate them when he pleases. King Iames the 6. in that fore-cited speech saith, a King degenerateth into a Tyrant when he leaveth to rule by Law. Althusius also loc. cit. saith, there is one kind of Tyranny which consisteth in violating, changing, or removing of fundamental Lawes, specially such as concern Religion; such, saith he, Philip the King of Spain, who, contrare to the fundamental Belgick Lawes, did erect an administration of Justice by force of armes; and such was Charles the 9^th of France, that thought to overturn the Salicque Law. All that knoweth what hath been done in Britain these 27 years, can attest our Lawes have been subverted, the Reformation of Religion overturned, and all our best Lawes rescinded; and now the Penal Statuts against Papists disabled & stopped, without & against Law. 6. Ad suum eum unius nutum omnia &c. p. 286He can revoke all things to his nod at his pleasure. This is also one part of King Iames the 6 his Character of a Tyrant, when he sets upon arbitrary power. And of Althusius loc. cit. when he makes use of an absolute Power, and so breaks all bonds for the good of humane Society. We allow a King an absolute power taken in a good sense, that is, he is not subaltern nor subordinate to any other Prince; but supreme in his oun dominions: or if by absolute be meant Perfect, he is most absolute that governs best according to the word of God. But if it be to be Legibus solutus, loosed from all Lawes, we thinke it blasphemy to ascribe it to any Creature. Where was there ever such an arbitrary & absolute power arrogated by any Mortal, as hath been claimed by our Rulers these years past? especially by the present Usurper, who, in this Liberty of conscience now granted to Scotland, assumes to himself an absolute power which all are to obey without reserve, which carries the subjects slavery many stages beyond what ever the Grand Seigneur did attempt. 7. Tyranno—ad cives opprumendos &c. For by a Tyrant strangers are imployed to oppress the subjects; They place the establishment of ther Authority in the peoples weakness, and think that a Kingdom is not a Procuration concredited to them by God, but rather a prey fallen into their hands; Such are not joined to us by any Civil bond, or any bond of humanity, but should be accounted the most Capital enemies of God and of all men. King Iames ub, supra sayes, he is a Tyrant that imposes un Lawful Taxes, raises forces, makes war upon his subjects, to Pillage, Plnnder, wast, & spoil his Kingdoms. Althusins ubi supra makes a Tyrant, who by immoderate exactions, and the like, exhausts the subjects, and cites Scripture Ier. 22. 13. 14. Ezek. 34. 1 King. 12. 19. Psal. 14. 4. It is a famous saying of Bracton, He is no longer King; then dum bene regit, while he rules well, but a Tyrant when-soever he oppresseth the people that are trusted to his Care & Government. And Cicero sayes, amittitis omne exceritus & imperit jiu, qui eo imperio & exercit… Rempublicans oppugnat. He loseth all legal power in & over an Army or Empire, who by that Government & army does obstruct the wel-fare of that republick. What oppressions & exactions p. 287by armed force our Nation hath been wasted with, in part is discovered above. 8. Althusius in the place above quoted, makes this an other mark, when he keepeth not his faith & promise, but despiseth his very oath made unto the people. What shall we say of him then, who not only brake but burnt, and made it Criminal to assert the obligation of the most solemnly transacted Covenant with God and with the people, that ever was entered into, who yet upon these termes of keeping that Covenant only was admitted to the Government? And what shall we say of his Brother succeeding, who disdains all bonds, whose professed principle is, as a Papist to keep no faith to Hereticks? 9. In the same place he makes this on Character: a Tyrants is he, who takes away from one or moe members of the common wealth the free exercise of the Orthodox Religion, And the Grave Author of the Impartial inquiry into the administration of affairs in England, doeth assert pag. 3, 4. whensoever a Prince becomes depraved to that degree of wickedness, as to apply & employ his power & Interest, to debauch & withdraw his subjects from their fealty & obedience to God, or sets himself to extirpate that Religion which the Lord hath revealed & appointed to be the rule of our living & the means of our happiness, he doth ipso facto depose himself, and instead of being ouned any longer for a King, ought to be treated as a Rebel & Traiter against the Supreme & Universal Soveraign. This is the perfect Protracture of our Princes; the former of which, declared an open war against Religion & all that professed it; and the Latter did begin to prosecute it with the same cruelty of persecution, and yet continues without relenting against us; though to others he tolerates it under the Notion of a Crime, to be for the present dispensed with, until he accomplish his design. 10. Ibid. he tells us, that for corrupting of youth he erecteth stage plages, Whore-houses, & other Play-houses, and suffers the Colledges & other Seminaries of Learning to be corrupted. There was never more of this in any age, than in the conduct of our Court, which like another Sodom profess it to be their design to debauch mankind in to all p. 288villanies, and to poison the fountains of all learning & virtue, by intruding the basest of men into the place of teachers, both in Church & University, and precluding all access to honest men. 11. Further he sayes, he is a Tyrant who doth not defend his subjects from injuries when he may, but suffereth them to be oppressed (and what if he oppress them himself?) It was one of the Lawes of Edward the Confessor, Quod si Rex desit officio, nomen Regis in eo non constabit. If the King fail in the discharge of his Trust & office, he no longer deserves nor ought to enjoy that name. What name do they deserve then, who not only fail in the duty of defending their subjects, but send out their Lictors & bloody Executioners to oppress them, neither will suffer them to defend themselves! But Althusius makes a distinct Character of this. 12. Then in fine, he must certainly be a Tyrant, who will not suffer the people, by themselves nor by their Representatives, to maintain their oun rights, neither by Law nor force: for, sayeth my Author Forecited, he is a Tyrant who hindereth the free suffrages of members of Parliament, so that they dare not speak what they would; And chiefly he who takes away from the people all power to resist his Tyranny, as Armes, strengths, & chief men, whom therefore though innocent he hateth, afflicteth, & persecuteth, exhausts their goods & livelyhoods, without right or reason. All know that our blades have been all alongs enemies to Parliaments; and when their Interest forced to call them, what means were used always to pacque & prelimit them and over-aw them, and how men who have faithfully discharged their trust in them have been prosecuted with the hight of envy & fury, and many murthered thereupon; And how all the armed force of the Kingdoms have been inhanced into their hand, and the people kept so under foot, that they have been rendered incapable either to defend their oun from intestine Usurpers, or forreign Invaders. All that is said amounts to this, that when ever men in power do evert & subvert all the ends of Government, and intrude themselves upon it, and abuse it, to the hurt of the Common wealth, and the destruction of p. 289that for which Government was appointed; They are then Tyrants, and cease to be Magistrates. To this purpose I shall here append the words of that forecited Ingenious Author of the Impartial Enquirie Pap. 13. 14. There can be nothing more evident from the light of reason as well as Scripture, than that all Magistracy is appointed for the benefite of mankind and the common good of Societies: God never gave any one power to reign over others for their destruction (unless by His providence where He had devoted a people for their sins to ruine) but on whomsoever He confers Authority over Cities or Nations, it is with this Conditional Proviso & Limitation, that they are to Promote their Prosperity & good, and to study their defence & Protection: All Princes are thus far Pactional—And whosoever refuseth to perform this fundamental condition, he degrades & deposes himself, nor is it rebellion in any to resist him; whensoever Princes ceases to be for the common good, they answer not the end they were instituted unto, and cease to be what they were chosen for.

6. It will not be denyed but when the Case is so circumstantiate, that it would require the arbitration of judgment to determine whether the King be a Tyrant or not, that then people are not to disoune him: for if it be a question, whether the people be really robbed of their rights & Liberties, and that the King might pretend as much reason to complain of the people their doing indignity to his Soveraignty, as they might of his Tyranny; Then it were hard for them to assume so for the umpirage of their oun Cause, as to make themselves absolute judges of it, and forth with to reject his Authority upon these debateable grounds. But the Case is not so with us: no Place being left for doubt or debate, but that our fundamental rights & Liberties Civil & Religious are overturned, and an absolute Tyranny exactly Characterized as above is established on the ruines thereof. Hence we have not disouned the pretended Authority, because we judged it was Tyrannical, but because it was really so. Our discretive judgment in the case was not our rule, but it was our understanding of the rule, by which p. 290only we could be regulated and not by the understanding of another, which cannot be better nor so good of our grievances, which certainly we may be supposed to understand best our selves, and yet they are such as are understood every where. To the question then, who shall be Judge between these Usurping & Tyrannizing Rulers & us? we answer briefly & plainly, We do not usu…p a judgment in the case, pretending no more Authority over them in our private Capacity than we allow them to have over us, that is none at all? Nor can we admit that they should be both Judges & party; for then they might challenge that prerogative in every case, and strengthen themselves in an incontrollable immunity & impunity to do what they pleased. But we appeal to the fundamental Lawes of the Kingdom, aggreeable to the word of God, to Judge, and to the whole world of impartial Spectators to read & pronounce the judgment. L…x Rex Quest. 24. Pag. 213. sayeth in answer to this: There is a Court of Necessity no less than a Court of Justice; And the fundamental Lawes must then speak, and it is with the people in this extremity as if they had no ruler. And as to the doubtsomness of these Lawes he sayeth (1) As the Scriptures in all fundamentals are clear▪ & expone themselves, & actu primo condemn Heresies: So all Lawes of men in their fundamentals, which are the Law of Nature & Nations, are clear (2) Tyranny is more visible & intelligible than Heresie, and its soon discerned—The people have a Natural Throne of Policy in their conscience, to give warning, & materially sentence against the King as a Tyrant—where Tyranny is more obscure; and the thread smal that it escape the eye of man, the King keepeth Possession, but I deny that Tyranny can be obscure long.

7. I shall grant that many things are yeeldable even to a Grassant Dominator, & Tyrannical Occupant of the place of Magistracy, as 1. There may be some cases, wherein its Lawful for a people to yeeld subjection to a Lawless Tyrant, when groaning under his overpouring yoke, under which they must patiently bear the in…nation of the Lord, because they have sinned against Him, until He p. 291arise & plead His oun Cause & execute judgment in the earth (Mic. 7. 9.) until which time they must kiss the rod as in the hand of God, and oune & adore the holyness & Soveraignty of that Providence that hath subjected them under such a slavery; and are not to attempt a violent ejection or excussion, when either the thing attempted is altogether impracticable, or the means & manner of effectuating it dubious & unwarrantable, or the necessary Concomitants & consequents of the cure more hurtful or dangerous than the disease, or the like. As in many cases also a man may be subject to a robber prevailing against him: So we find the people of Israel in Egyt & Babylon &c. yeelded subjection to Tyrants. But in this case we deny two things to them (1) Allegiance or active & voluntary subjection, so as to oune them for Magistrats (2) Stupid Passive obedience, or suffering without resistence. For the first, we owe it only to Magistrats, by virtue of the Law either Ordinative of God, or Constitutive of man. And it is no Argument to infer; as a mans subjecting himself to a Robber assaulting him, is no soild proof of his approving or acknowledging the injury & violence committed by the robber, therefore a Persons yeelding subjection to a Tyrant a Publick robber does not argue his acknowledging or approving his Tyranny & oppression. For, the subjection that a Tyrant requires, and which a Robber requires, is not of the same nature: the one is Legal of subjects, which we cannot oune to a Tyrant; the other is forced of the subdued, which we must acknowledge to a Robber. But to make the Paralell; If the Robber should demand, in our subjecting our selves to him, an ouning of him to be no robber but an honest man, as the Tyrant demands in our subjecting our selves to him in ouning him to be no Tyrant but a Magistrate, then we ought not to yeeld it to the one no more than to the other. For the Second, to allow them Passive obedience is in-intelligible Non-sense, & a meer Contradiction: for nothing thats meerly passive can be obedience as relative to a Law, nor can any obedience be meerly passive, for obedience is always active. But not only is the inaccuracy of the Phrase excepted against, but also that p. 292position maintained by many, that in reference to a yoke of Tyranny there is a time which may be called the proper season of suffering, that is, when suffering (in opposition to acting or resisting) is a necessary & indispensible duty, and resisting is a sin: For if the one be an indispensible duty, the other must be a sin at the same time: But this cannot be admitted. For, though certainly there is such a season of suffering, wherein suffering is Lawful, laudable & necessary, and all must lay their account with suffering, and litle else can be attempted but which will encrease sufferings; yet even then we may resist as well as we can: and these two, Resistence & Suffering at the same time, are not incompatible: David did bear most patiently the injury of his Sons usurpation, when he said, let the Lord do to me as seemeth Him good 2 Sam. 15. 26. ch. 10. 12. and betaketh himself to fervent prayers Psal. 3. and yet these were not all the weapons he used against him, Neither did he ever oune him as a Magistrate. We are to suffer all things patiently as the Servants of the Lord, and look to Him for Mercy & relief (Psal. 123. 2.) but we are not obliged to suffer even in that season, as the slaves of men. Again, suffering in opposition to resistence, does never fall under any moral Law of God, execept in the absolutely extraordinary Case of Christs passive obedience, which cannot fall under our deliberation or imitation; Or in the case of a positive Law, as was given to the Iewes to submit to Nebuchadnezzar, which was express & peculiar to them, as shall be cleared. That can never be commanded as indispensible duty, which does not fall under our free will or deliberation, but the enemies will as the Lord permits them, as the Case of suffering is. That can never be indispensible duty which we may decline without sin, as we may do suffering if we have not a call to it; yea in that case it were sin to suffer, therefore in no case it can be formally indispensibly commanded, so as we may not shift it if we can without sin. Suffering simply the evil of punishment, just or unjust, can never be a conformity to Gods preceptive Will but only to His Providential disposal, it hath not voluntas signi for its rule, but only voluntas beneplaciti. p. 293All the Commands that we have for suffering, are either to direct the manner of it, that it be Patiently & Chearfully, when forced to it wrongfully 1 Pet. 2. 19, 20. or Comparatively to determine our choise in an unavoidable alternative, either to suffer or sin: and so we are commanded rather to suffer than to deny Christ, Math. 13. 33. and we are commanded upon these termes to follow Christ to take up His Cross, when He layes it on in His Providence Math. 16. 24. See at length this cleared Lex rex Q. 30. Pag. 317-320. otherwise in no case subjection even Passive can be a duty; for it is allwise to be considered under the notion of a plague, Judgment, & Curse to be complained of as a burden, never to be ouned as a duty to Magistrats. As we find the Lords, people resenting it as a servitude, under which they were servants even in their oun Land, which did yeeld increase unto the Kings whom the Lord had set over them because of their sins, Neh. 9. 36. 37. 2. In diverse cases there may be some Complyance with a meer occupant, that hath no right to reign; as upon this account the Noble Marquis of Argyle and Lord waristoun suffered for their Complyance with the Usurper Cromuel. Such may be the warrantableness, or goodness, or necessity, or profitableness of a Complyance, when people are by Providence brought under a yoke which they cannot shake off, that they may part with some of their Priviledges for the avoidance of the loss of the rest, and for the conveniency & profit, peace & safety of themselves and their Countrey, which would be in hazard if they did not comply; they may do whatsoever is due from them to the Publick weal, what soever is an office of their station or place, or which they have any other way a call unto, whatsoever may make for their oun honest interest, without wronging others or the Countries Liberties in their transactions with these Powers, even though such a Complyance may be occasionally to the advantage of the Usurpers: Seeing good & necessary actions are not to be declined for the ill effects that are accidental to them, and arise from the use which others make of them. But though this may be yeelded in some cases to such Usurpers, especially Conquerers, that p. 294have no right of occupying the empire, but are Capable of it by derivation from the peoples consent: yet it must not be extended to such Usurpers as are also Tyrants, that have no right of their oun, nor are capable of any, and that overturn all rights of subjects. To such we can yeeld no Complyance, as may infer either transacting with them, or ouning them as Magistrates. We find indeed the Saints enjoyed Places under these, who were not their Magistrates; as Nehemiah, & Mordecai, and Esther was Queen to Ahaswerus. But here was no Complyance with Tyrants (for these Heathens were not such) only some of them were extraordinary Persons, raised up by an extraordinary spirit, for extraordinary ends, in extraordinary times, that cannot be brought to an ordinary rule, as Esthers Mariage; and all of them in their places kept the Law of their God, served the work of their generation, defiled not themselves with their Customes, acted against no good, and engaged to no evil, but by their Complyance promoted the wellfare of their Countrey, as Argyle & waristoun did under Cromuel. Again, we find they payed Custom to them, as Neh. 9. 36. 37. and we read of Augustus his taxation universally complyed with Luk. 2. 1-5. and Christ payd it. This shall be more fully answered afterwards. Here I shall only say (1) It can never be proven that these were Tyrants. (2) Christ Paid it with such a Caution, as Leaves the title unstated; not for conscience (as tribute must be paid to Magistrats Rom. 13. 5, 6.) but only that he might not offend them (3) Any other instances of the Saints taxations are to be judged forced acts, badges of their bondage, which if they had been exacted as tests of their allegiance, they would not have yeelded. Strangers also, that are not subjects, use to pay Custom in their trafficquing, but not as tests of their allegiance. 3. There may be also in some cases obedience allowed to their Lawful Commands, because of the Lawfulness of the thing commanded, or the coincidency of another Just & obliging Authority commanding the same. We may do many things Tyranno Iubente which he commands, and Tyranno premente which he enforces, and many things also ipso sou volente seu nolente whether he will or not p. 295But we must do nothing Tyranni jussu upon the consideration of his Command, in the acknowledgment of obedience due by virtue of Allegiance, which we oune of Conscience to a Lawful Magistrate. We must do nothing which may seem to have an accessoriness to the Tyrants unlawful occupancy, or which depends only on the warrant of his Authority to do it, or may entrench on the Divine Institution of Magistracy, or bring us into a Participation of the Usurpers sin. In these cases we can neither yeeld obedience in Lawful things, nor in unlawful: Nor can we oune absolute subjection, no more then we can oune absolute obedience; for all subjection is enjoined in order to obedience: And to plead for a Priviledge in point of obedience, and to disclaim it in point of subjection, is only the flattery of such, as having renounced with conscience all distinction of obedience, would divest others of all priviledges, that they may exercise their Tyranny without Controll. Napthali pag. 28. prior edit. 4. There may be Addresses made, to such as are not rightful Possessors of the Government, for justice, or mercy, or redress of some intollerable grievances, without scruple of accepting that which is materially justice or mercy, or seeking them at the hand of any who may reach them out to us, though he that conveyes them to us be not interested in the umpirage of them. Thus we find Ieremiah supplicated Zedekiah for mercy, not to return to prison: and Paul appealed to Cesar for justice. But in these Addresses, we may not acknowledge the wicked Lawes that brought on these grivances, nor conceal the wickedness no more than the miserie of them which we have endured, nor may we oune the Legal power of them that we address to take them off, nor signify any thing, in the matter or manner of our Representations, that may either import a declining our Testimony for which we have suffered these grievances, or a contradiction to our declinature of their pretended Authority: Only we may remonstrate what cruelties we have endured, and how terrible it will be to them to be guilty of, or accessory to our blood in not pitying us; which was all that Ieremiah did. And as for Pauls appeal, we find p. 296he was threatened to be murdered by his Countrey-men Act. 23. 14. from whose hands he was rescued, & brought before the judicatory of Festus the Roman deputy, not voluntarely; thence also they sought to remand him to Ierusalem, that they might kill him Act. 25. 3. whereupon he demands in justice that he might not be delivered to his accusers & Murderers, but claims the benefite of the Heathens oun Law, by that appeal to Cesar. which was the only constrained expedient of saving his oun life Act. 28. 19. by which also he got an opportunity to witness for Christ at Rome. But as shall be cleared further afterwards; Cesar was not an Usurper over Iudea: which not obscurely is insinuated by Paul himself, who asserts, that both his person, & his Cause Criminal of which he was accused (it was not an Ecclesiastical Cause, & so no advantage hence for the Supremacy) appertained to Cesars Tribunal, and that not only in fact but of right Act. 25. 10. I stand at Cesars judgment seat where I ought to be judged. We cannot say this of any tribunal, senced in the name of them that Tyrannize over us. 5. I will not stand neither upon the Names & Titles of Kings &c. to be given to Tyrants & Usurpers, in speaking to them or of them, by way of appellation or compellation: for we find even Tyrants are called by these names in Scripture, being Kings de fact… though not dejure, and indeed not impertinently Kings & Tyrants for the most part are reciprocal termes. But in no case can we give them any Names or Titles, which may signify our love to them whom the Lord hates or … hate the Lord 2 Chron. 19. 2. or which may flatter them, which Elihu durst not give, for fear his Maker should take him away Iob. 32. 22. or which may be taken for honouring of them, for that is not due to the vile… of men when exalted never so high Psal. 12. ult: a vile person must be contemned in our eyes Psal. 15. 4. Nor which may any way import or infer an ouning of a Magistratical relation between them & us, or any Covenant transaction or Confederacy with them, which in no termes with them as such we will say or oune Isa. 8. 12. Hence many sufferers upon this head so bear to give them their Titles.

p. 2978. It will be yeelded very readily by us, that a Magistrate is not to be disouned meerly for his differing in Religion from us, yea though he were a Heathen. We do not disoune our pretended Rulers meerly upon that account, but chearfully do grant & subscribe to that Truth, in our Confession of faith chap. 23. § 4. That Infidelity or difference in Religion, doth not make void the Magistrates just & Legal Authority, nor free the people from their due obedience to him: On which our Adversaries have insulted, as if our Principles & Practices were therby disproved. But it is easy to answer 1. let the words be considered; and we are confident, that no sober man will think, the acknowledgment of just & legal Authority & due obedience, a rational ground to infer, that Tyranny is thereby either allowed or priviledged, Napth. Pag. 60. Prior Edition. 2. Though Infidelity or difference of Religion does not make void Authority where it is Lawfully invested; yet it may incapacitate a person, and Lawfully seclude him from Authority, both by the word of God, which expressly forbids to set a Stranger over us who is not our brother Deut. 17. 15. Which includes as well a stranger of a strange Religion as one of a strange Countrey, and by the Lawes of the Land, which do incapitate a Papist of all Authority, Supreme or subordinate. And so if this Iames the 7/2 had been King before he was a Roman Catholick, if we had no more to object, we should not have quarrelled his succession. 3. We both give & grant all that is in the Confession, viz. Dominium non fundari in gratia, that Dominion is not founded on Grace. Yet this remains evident, that a Prince who not only is of another religion, but an avowed enemy to & overturner of the Religion established by Law, and intending & endeavouring to introduce a false, heretical, blasphemous, & Idolatrous religion, can claim no just & legal Authority, but in this case the people may very Lawfully decline his pretended Authority; Nay they are betrayers of their Countrey & Posterity, if they give not a timeous & effectual Check to his Usurpings, and make him sensible that he hath no such Authority. Can we imagine, that men in the whole of that blessed work so remarkably led of God, being convocate p. 298by a Parliament of the wisest & worthyest men that ever was in England, whom they did encourage, by writing, & preaching, & every way to stand fast in their opposition to the then King displaying a banner for his prerogative (a court dream) against Religion & Liberty; should be so far left, as to drop that as a principle & part of our Religion, which would sacrifice Religion it self to the lust of a raging Tyrant? Must we beleeve, that a Religion-destroying Tyrant is a righteous Ruler? And must we onne him to be a Nursing father to the Church? Shall we conclude that the common bounds & Limits, whereby the Almighty hath bounded & Limited Mankind, are removed by an Article of our confession of faith, which hereby is turned into a Court creed? Then welcome Hobs de Cive, with all the rest of Pluto's train, who would bable us into a belief, that the world is to be governed according to the pleasure of wicked Tyrants. I would fain hope at length the world would be awakened out of such ridiculous dreams, & be ashamed any more to oune such fooleries. And it may be, our two Royal Brothers have contributed more to cure men of this Moral madness, than any who went before them. And this is the only advantage, I know, that the Nations hath reaped by their reign.

9. Though we deny that Conquest can give a just Title to a Croun; yet we grant in some cases, though in the begining it was unjust yet by the peoples after consent it may be turned into a just Title. It is undenyable, when there is just ground of the war; if a Prince subdue a whole Land, who have justly forfeited their Liberties, when by his grace he preserves them, he may make use of their right now forefeited, and they may resign their Liberty to the Conqueror, and consent that he be their King upon fair & Legal & not Tyrannical conditions. And even when the war is not just, but successful on the invading Conquerours side, this may be an inducement to the Conquered, if they be indeed free and uningaged to any other, to a submission, dedition, & delivery up of themselves to be the subjects of the victor, and to take him for their Soveraign: as it is like the case was with the Jewes in Cesars time, whose Government p. 299was translated by dedition to the Roman power; in the translation when a doing there was a fault, but after it was done it ceased; though the begining was wrong, there was a post-fact which made it right, and could not be dissolved without an unjust disturbance of publick order. Whence, besides what is said above, in answer to that much insisted Instance of Christs paying tribute, and Commanding it to be paid to Cesar, the difficulty of that instance may be clearly solved. That Tribute which he paid, Math. 17. 24. &c. and that about the payment whereof He was questioned Math. 22. 21. seem to be two different Tributes. Many think very probably they were not one & the same Tribute. Its a question, for whom & by whom that of Math. 17. was gathered; its most likely it was gathered by the officers of the Temple for its service: however the payment was made with such caution (tacitely declining the strict right to exact it from him, but to avoid offence, in an act in it self unobliging) that their claim is left as much in the dark, as if the question had never been moved. The other Math. 22. was exacted for Cesar: but to that captious question our Lord returns such an Answer, as might both solve it, and evade the snare of the proponders, giving a general Rule of giving to God & to Cesar each their oun, without defining which of them had the right to the payment in question; whether Cesar should have it, or whether it should be payed only for the Temples use: Upon which they marvelled; which they needed not do, if they had understood in His words an express & positive declaration of an obligation to make that payment to Cesar; for then they would have obtained one of their ends, in making Him odious to the people, who were not satisfied with the payment of it. But however, the knot is loosed by considering, that they were now Lawfully subject to the Roman Emperours as their Governours, to whom they were obliged (I do not say Christ was) to pay tribute. For they had yeelded themselves unto & ouned the Roman Dominion, in Pompey, Cesar Augustus, & Tiberius, ere this question about Tribute paying was proposed to our Saviour, and therfore they who stuck at the payment of p. 300it were a seditious party dissenting from the body of the Nation: Else it is not supposable readily, that their Dominion in Iudea could have been exercised long without some consent, sufficient to legitimate it to the present Rulers, And this is the more likely, if we consider the confession of the Iewes themselves, disavowing the power of Capital punishment; It is not Lawful for us to put any man to death, And ouning Cesar as their King, with an exclusive a brenounciation of all other, we have no King but Cesar: As Paul also acknowleeges he ought to be judged at Cesars bar, in his appeal to Cesar. It is also acknowledged by very good Authors, that this was the tribute which Iudas the Galilean stood up to free the people from, and that the sedition of those Iewes that folowed him mentioned Act. 5. 37. who mutinied upon this occasion, was according to Gamaliels speech disallowed by that Sanhedrin or Council of the Iewes. And it may be gathered out of Iosephus, that the Iewes of Hircanus his party came under the Roman power by consent & dedition; while they of Aristobalus his party looked upon the Romans as Usurpers. Which difference continued till our Saviours time, when some part of them acknowledged the Cesarean Authority, some part looked upon it as an Usurpation, and of this generally were the Pharisees. To confirm this, Calvins Testimony may be adduced, upon Math. 22. who sayeth, the Authority of the Roman Emperours was by common use approved and received among the Iewes, whence it was manifest that the Iewes had now of their oun accord imposed on themselves a Law of paying the tribute, because they had passed over to the Romans the power of the sword.And Chamiers Panstrat Tom. 2. lib. 15. cap. 16. pag. 635. what then? if Cesars Authority were from bad beginings, did therefore Christ untruly say it was from above? Can no power at first unjust, afterward become just? if that were so, then either none, or very few King…oms would be just.

10. As Tyranny is a destructive plague to all the Interests of men & Christians; So Anarchy, the usual product of it, is no less pernicious, bringing a Community into a p. 301Paroxysme as deadly & dangerous. We must oune Government to be absolutely necessary, for the constitution & conservation of all Societies. I shall not enter into a disquisition, let be determination, of the Species or Kind of Magistracy, whether Monarchy, Aristocracy, or Democracy, be preferable. My dispute at present is not levelled against Monarchy, but the present Monarch: Not against the Institution of the Species (though I beleeve, except we betake our selves to the Divine allowance & permission; we shal be as pusled to find out the Divine Original of it, as Cosmographers are in their search of the Spring of Nilus or Theologues of the Father of Melchizedeck) but the constitution of this Individual Monarchy established among us; which in its root & branch, Spring & streams, in its Original, Nature, ends, & effects, is Diametrically opposite to Religion & Liberty; And because its Contagion, universally perverting & corrupting all the ends & Orders of Magistracy, doth affect & infect all the subordinate officers, deriving their power from such a filthy fountain; we must also substract & deny their demanded ackowledgments, as any way due, so long as they serve the pride & projects of such a wicked power: And do not reckon our selves obliged by Covenant, or any otherways (though in the third Article of the Solemn League, we are bound to preserve the rights & priviledges of our Parliaments, & consequently the honour & deference thats due to our Peers, or other Parliament men, acting according to the trust committed to them, but not when they turn Traitors ingaged in a Conspiracy with the Tyrant) to oune or defend a Soul-less shadow of a Court Cabal, made up of persons who have sold themselves to work wickedness, in conspiring with this throne of iniquity against the Lord, which is all we have for a Parliament, whom we can in no ways oune as our Representatives, but must look upon them as perjured & perfidious Traitors to God & their Countrey, which they have betrayed into the hands of a Tyrant; And therefore divested of that power & Authority, which they had of the people as their Representatives, which now is returned to the fountain. And therefore p. 302we must act as we can against them, and also what is necessary for securing of our selves, Religion & Liberty, without them. We would think Nobles, ennobled with virtue, a great Mercy & encouragment. And if they would concur in the Testimony for Religion & Liberty, we would be glad that they should lead the van and prove themselves to be powers appointed by God, in acting for Him & His Interest. But for the want of their Conduct, we must not surcease from that duty that they abandon, nor think that the Concurrence of Peers is so necessary to legitimate our actions, as that without that formality our resolutions to maintain the Truth of God on all hazards, in a private Capacity, were unlawful in the Court of God & Nature: But on the contrare must judge, that their relinquishing or opposing their duty, which before God they are obliged to maintain, preserve, & promove, is so far from loosing our obligation, or eximing us from our duty, that is should rather press us to prosecute it with the more vigour, without suspending it upon their precedency. For now they can pretend to no precedency, when they do not answer the end of their erection, and do not seek the publick good but their oun private advantage, they cease to be the Ministers of God & of the people, and become private persons. And reason will conclude, that when the Ephori or Trustees betray their Trust, and sell or basely give away the Liberties & Priviledges of the people, which they were entrusted with, the people cannot be brought into a remediless condition; if a Tutor waste & destroy the pupills estate,the Law provides a remedy for the pupil Ius popu. vind. cap. 15. pag. 335. 336. The remedy in this case can only be, as every one must move in his oun sphere, while all concur in the same duty; So if any in higher place become not only remiss, but according to the influence of their power would seduce others into their Apostasie, it is their duty to resist & endeavour their Reformation or removal: And if these more eminently entrusted shall turn directly Apostates, & obstructive & destructive to common Inte…, the people of an inferior degree may step forward p. 303to occupy the places, & assert the Interests, which they forefault & desert. Neither is this a breach of good order; for Ordor is only a mean subordinate to, & intended for the Glory of God & the peoples good, and the regulation thereof must only be admitted as it is conducible & not repugnant to these ends. A Generals command to his souldiers in battel, does not impede the necessity of succession, in case of vacancy of any charge, either through death or desertion, even of such as in quality may be far inferior to those whose places they step into, Naph. Pag. 151. Prior Edition. I do not assert this for private peoples aspiring into the Capacity of Primores or Peers; but that they may do that which the Peers desert, and dare not or will not do, if the Lord put them in a Capacity to do it. And more plainly I assert, that if the Peers of the Land, whose duty it is principally to restrain & repress Tyranny, either connive at it or concur with it, and so abandon or betray their Trust, then the Common people may do it; at least are obliged to renounce, reject, & disoune allegiance to the Tyrant, without the peers. For which I offer these reasons 1. Because all men have as much freedom & Liberty by nature as Peers have, being no more slaves than they; because slavery is a penal evil contrare to nature, and a miserie consequent of sin, and every man created according to Gods image is res Sacr… a Sacred thing; And also no more subjects to Kings &c. than they; freedom being natural to all, (except freedom from subjection to Parents, which is a Moral duty & most kindly & natural, and subjection of the wife to the husband &c.) but otherwise as to Civil & Politick subjection, man by nature is born as free as beasts; No Lyon is born King of Lyons, nor no man born King of men, nor Lord of men, nor Representative of men, nor Rulers of men, either supreme or subordinate; because none by nature can have those things that essentially constitute Rulers, the calling of God, nor gifts and qualifications for it, nor the election of the People. 2. The original of all that power, that the … or Representatives can claim, is from the people, not from themselves; from whence derived p. 300duplicate page p. 301duplicate page p. 302duplicate page p. 303duplicate page p. 304they their being Representatives, but from the peoples Commission or Compact? when at the first constit…tion of Parliaments or publick Conventions for affairs of State, necessity put the people, who could not so conveniently meet all, to confer that honour & burden upon the best qualified, & who had chief Interest, by Delegation. Hence if the people give such a power, they may wave it when perverted, and act without their oun impowered Servants. 3. The peoples power, is greater than the power of any delegated or constituted by them; the Cause is more than the effect; Parliament-men do represent the people, the people do no not represent the Parliament: They are as Tutors & Curators unto the people, and in effect their servants deputed to oversee their publick affairs, therefore if their power be less the people can act without them. 4. It were irrational to imagine, the people committing the administration of their weighty affairs unto them, did denude themselves of all their radical power; or that they can devolve upon them, or they obtain, any other power but what is for the good & advantage of the people; therefore they have power to act without them, in things which they never resigned to them: for they cannot be deprived of that natural aptitude, & natures birth right, given to them by God & Nature, to provide the most efficacious & prevalent means for the preservation of their Rights & Liberties. 5. As the people have had power before they made Peers, and have done much without them; So these Primores could never do without them, therefore in acts of common Interest, the Peers depend more upon the people than the people does upon them. 6. All these primeve rights, that gave rise to Societies, are equal to both People & Peers, whereof the Liberty to repress & reject Tyranny is a chief one. The People as well as Peers have a hard in making the King, and other Judges also, as is clear from Deut. 17. 14. Iudg. 9. 6. 1 Sam. 11. 15. 2 King. 14. 21. therefore they may unmake them as well as they. To seek to preserve the ends of Government, when they are over-turned, is essentially requisite to all Societies, and therefore common & competent to all Constituents of these p. 305Societies, Superiours or inferiours. The Glory of God & Security of Religion, the end of all Christian Government, doth concern all equally. As every one equally is bound to obey God rather than man, so violence in this case, destroyes both the Commonwealth, & maketh the end & the means of Government, and the injured persons obligation thereto to cease, and this equally to every man of Private or publick Capacity. In the Concern of Religion at least, We must not think, because we are not Nobles or in Authority, that the care of it or Reformation thereof does nothing pertain to us; Nay in that, and carrying on the work thereof, there is an equality; As in the erection of the Old Testament Tabernacle, all the people were to contribute a like, half a shekel Exod. 30. that it might be for a rememberance before the Lord. Hence it followes, if we disoune the Supreme Ruler, and the inferior confederate with him, and cannot have the Concurrence of others; Now through the manifest & notorious Perversion of the great ends of Societie & Government, the bond thereof being dissolved, we Liberated there-from, do relapse into our Primeve Liberty & Priviledge, and accordingly as the similitude of our Case & exigence of our Cause doth require, may upon the very same Principles again joine & associate, for our better defence & Preservation, as we did at first enter into Societies Naph. P. 150. yet, whatever we may do in this case; We are not for presumptuous Assumptions of Authority, which maleversers have forefaulted: Neither are we for new erections of Government, but are for keeping the Societie of which we are members intire, in an endeavour to have all our fellow members united unto God & to one another, in Religion & Liberty, according to the bond of the Solemn League & Covenant. Certain it is that Greater Societies under one Government, may in some cases make a Secession, & divide into Lesser without sedition: or else, how would there be now so many distinct Common-wealths in the world? seeing at first all was under one head: and how comes it to pass, that there are so many Kingdoms in Europe, when it can be instanced when all, or the most part, p. 306were under on Roman Emperour? But this in our Circumstance is no way expedient, neither was it ever in Projection. But our aim is to abstract our selves inoffensively, and maintain our rights that remain unrobbed, and to adhere clossly to the fundamental Constitutions, Lawes, & Laudable Practices of our native Kingdome.

11. We oune the obligation of our Sacred Covenants, unrepealably & indispensibly binding to all the duties of Christian subjection to Magistrates. But we deny, that hereby we are bound either to maintain Monarchy, especially thus perverted; nor to oune the Authority of either of the two Monarchs that have Monarchized or Tyrannized over us these 27 years past. For as to the first we assert, that that which is in its oun nature Mutable, cannot be simply sworn unto to be maintained & preserved, but Hypothetically it most, else it were simply sinful; since it were to make things, in their oun nature and in the Providence of God changable, unchangable; yea it were a doun right swearing not to comply with, but to spurn against, the various vicisitudes of Divine Providence, the great Rector of the Universe. And it is unquestionable, that when things alterable & unalterable are put in the same Oath, to make the Engagment Lawful the things must be understood, as they are in their oun nature and no otherwise: else both the Imposer & the Taker grievously transgress; the former, in taking upon him what is in the power of no Morta, and a Contradicton to the Prerogative of the Immorta God; and the other, in ouning that power as just. Hence when these two fall to be in the same Oath, they must be so understood as it may not be made a snare to the conscience of the Sweaer. For it may fall so out in the Providence of God, that the Preservation of both is in all respects made impossible: And an adhesion to the one, may so far interfere with the Preservation of the other, as if the Mutable and that which hath no objective obligation be stuck to, the other, which with the loss of all Interests we are to maintain, must be abandoned; yea, that which was sworn to be maintained as a mean only, & a mutable one too, may not only cease to be a mean, but may actually destroy the p. 307main end, and then it is to be laid aside, because then it inverts the order of things. Hence also it may be questioned, if it were not more convenient, to leave out those things that are alterable in themselves, out of the same Oath with things unalterable, and put them in a distinct Oaths or Covenant by themselves; as we see Iehojadah did 2 King. 11. 17. He made a Covenant between the Lord and the King & the people, that they should be the Lords people; between the King also & the People. Here are two distinct Covenants; the one made with God, about things eternally obligatory, wherein King & people engage themselves upon level ground, to serve the Lord, and Joash the King his treacherous dealing with God in that matter brought the Curse of that Covenant upon him: The other Covenant was Civil, about things alterable, relating to Points of Government & Subjection. And as he, by virtue of that prior Covenant, had obliged himself, under the pain of the Curse thereof, to carry as one Covenanted to God with the people, and so not to Tyrannize over his brethren: So the people, by virtue of that same Covenant, were to yeeld obedience, but in nothing to acknowledge him as having power or Authority to countermand Gods Command; Neither had it been an act of disloyaltie, to have broken doun his Groves, which he had with the addition of the guilt of Perjurie set up, and to have bound his ungrateful hands from the blood of the Gracious Zechariah: A perfect parallel to our Case under the former dominator, save that it was out-done as to all dimensions of wickedness by him. To speak more plainly, the Religious part of our Covenant is of an Eternal obligation: but as to the Civil part, it is impossible it can ever be so, unless it be well & Cautiously understood, that is, unless instead of any species of Government, as Monarchy, &c. we put in Magistracy it self. For this is that power which is of God: but Monarchy &c. is only a humane Creature, about the creation whereof men take a Liberty, according to what suits them best in their present Circumstances. And as to this Species of Monarchy; men are never left at Liberty▪ to cloath therewith any inept or impious Person. And p. 308they are perfectly loosed from it. 1. when that Species of Government becomes opposite to the ends of Government, and is turned Tyranny, especially when a legal establishment is pretended; then it affects with its contagion the very species it self: The house is to be pulled doun, when the Leprosie is got into the walls & foundation. 2. when as it is exercised, it is turned inept for answering the end of its erection, and prejudicial to the main thing for which Government is given, to wit, the Gospel and the coming of Christs Kingdom: hence it is promised to the Church, Isai. 49. 23. Kings shall be nursing fathers to the Church—And Isai. 52. 15. It is promised to the Me…iator, that Kings shall shute their mouths—I. e. never a word in their head, but out of reverence & respect to His absolute Soveraignty, they shall take the Law from Him, without daring to contradict, far less to take upon them to prescribe in the House of God, as they in their wisdom think fit. 3. when Providence, without any sinful hand, makes that species impossible to be kept up, without the ruine of that for which it was erected: when things come to this push & pinch, whosoever are cloathed with the power are then under an obligation to comply with that alteration of providence, for the safety of the people; else they declare themselves unworthy of rule, and such who would sacrifice the interest of the people to their particular interest; in which case the people may make their Publick servant sensible, he is at his highest elevation but a Servant. Hence, now when this species named in the Covenant, viz, Monarchy, is by Law so vitiate, as it is become the mean & instrument of the destruction of all the ends of that Covenant, and now by Law transmitted to all successors as a hereditary, pure, perfect, & perpetual opposition to the coming of Christs kingdom; So that as long as there is one to wear that Croun (but Iehavah will in righteousness execute Coniahs doom upon the race Ier. 22. ult. write this man childless—) and enter heir to the Government as now established, he must be an enemy to Christ; there is no other way left, but to think on a new Modell moulded according the true Pattern. As to the Second, we are far less obliged to oune p. 309& acknowledge the interest of any of the two Monarchs, that we have been Mourning under these many years, from these Sacred Covenants. For as to the first of them, Charles the 2. Those Considerations did cassate his Interest, as to any Covenant obligation to oune him. 1. In these Covenants we are not sworn absolutely to maintain the Kings Person & Authority, but only Conditionally, in the Preservation & defence of Religion & Liberties. Now when this Condition was not performed, but on the contrare professedly resolved never to be fulfilled; And when he laid out himself to the full of his power & Authority, for the destuction of that Reformed Religion & Liberties of the Kingdom; which he solemnly swore to defend when he received the Croun, only in the termes that he should be a Loyal subject to Christ, and a true & faithful Servant to the people, in order to which a Magistrate is chosen, and all his worth, excellency, & valuableness consists in his answering that purpose; for the excellency of a mean, as such, is to be measured from the end, and its answerableness thereunto: We were not then obliged, to maintain such an enemy to these precious Interests. 2. Because, as the people were bound to him, so he was bound to them by the same Covenant, being only on these termes entrusted with the Government: All which Conditions he perfidiously broke, whereupon only, his Authority & our Allegiance were founded; And thereby we were loosed, from all reciprocal obligation to him by virtue of that Covenant. 3. Though he and we stood equally engaged to the duties of that Covenant, only with this difference, that the Kings Capacity being greater, he was the more obliged to have laid out that power, in causing all to stand to their Covenant Engagments, as Iosiah did 2 Chron. 34. 31, 32, 33. (But alas there was never a Iosiah in the race) yet he rose up to the hight of rebellion against God and the people, in heaven-daring insolency, and not only brake but burnt that Covenant, and made Lawes to case & rescind it, and made a not-concurring in this Conspiracy a note of incapacity for any Trust, in Church or State. Therefore to plead for an ouning of him in this case, were only concludent of this, p. 310that the Generation had dreamed themselves into such a distraction, as may be feared will be pursued with destruction, and make such dreamers the detestation of posterity, and cause all men Proclaim the righteousness of God, in bringing ruine upon them by that very power & Authority they ouned in such circumstances. 4. It is a known maxime, Qui non implet conditionem a se promissam cadit beneficio; & qui remittit obligationem non potest exigere. He that does not fulfill the conditions falls from the benefit of it, and whoso remitts the obligation of the party obliged upon condition, cannot exact it afterwards. So then it is evident that the subjects of Scotland, were by King Charles the 2^de his consent, yea express command, disengaged from so much of that Covenant as could be alledged in favors of himself: So that all that he did, by burning & rescinding these Covenants, and pursuing all who endeavoured to ad…ere to them, was a most explicite Liberating his subjects from, & remission of their Allegiance to him (and in this we had been fools, if we had not taken him at his word) yea he rescinded his very Coronation, by an act of his first Parliament after his return, which did declare null & void all Acts, Constitutions, & establishments, from the year 1633 to that present session, not excepting those for his oun Coronation, after which he was never recrouned, And therefore we could not oune that right, which himself did annul. But as for his Royal Brother, Iames the 7/2 we cannot indeed make use of the same reasons & arguments, to disoune him, as we have now adduced▪ yet, as we shall prove afterwards, this Covenant does oblige to renounce him. So it is so clear, that it needs no Illustration, that there lies no obligation from the Covenant to oune him: And also that for this cause we are obliged not to oune him. 1. Because as he is an enemy to the whole of our Covenant, and especially to these terms upon which Authority is to be ouned therein: So he will not come under the bond of this Covenant, nor any other compact with the people, but intrude himself upon the Throne, …n such a way as overturns the Basis of our Government, and destroyes all the Liberties of a free people, which by Covenant p. 311we are bound to preserve, and consequently as inconsistent therewith, to renounce his Usurpation. For, a Prince that will set himself up without any transactions with the people, or conditions giving Security for Religion & Liberty, is an Usurping Tyrant, not bounded by any Law but his oun lusts. And to say to such an one, Reign thow over us, is all one as to say, come thow and play the Tyrant over us, and let thy lust & will be a Law to us: which is both against Scripture & Natural-sense. If he be not a King upon Covenant termes, either expressly or tacitely, or general stipulations according to the word of God & Lawes of the Land, he cannot be ouned as a father, Protector, or Tutor, having any fiduciary power entrusted to him over the Commonwealth, but as a Lawless & absolute Dominator, assuming to himself a power to rule or rage as he lists: whom to oune were against our Covenants; for there we are sworn to Maintain his Maj. just & Lawful Authority, and by consequence not to oune Usurpation & Tyranny, stated in opposition to Religion & Liberty, which there also we are engaged to maintain. Sure, this cannot be Lawful Authority which is of God, for God giveth no power against Himself; Nor can it be of the people, who had never power granted them of God to create one over them, with a Liberty to destroy them, their Religion & Liberty, at his pleasure. 2. As he is not nor will not be our Covenanted & sworn King (and therefore we cannot be his Covenanted & sworn subjects) So he is not nor can not be our Crouned King, and therefore we must not be his Liege subjects, ouning fealty & obedience to him. For according to the National Covenant; as all Lieges are to maintain the Kings Authority, consistent with the subjects Liberties; which if they be innovated or prejudged, such Confusion would ensue, as this realme could be no more a free Monarchy—So for the Preservation of true Religion, Lawes, & Liberties of this Kingdom, it is statute by the 8 Act. Parl. 1, repeated in the 99 Act. Parl. 7. ratified in the 23. Act. Parl. 11. and 114 Act. Parl. 12. of King Iames 6. and 4 Act of K. Charles 1. that all Kings & Princes … at their coronation & p. 312reception of their Princely, Authority, shall make their faithful Promise by their solemn Oath, in the presence of the Eternal God; That enduring the whole time of their lives, they shall serve the same Eternal God, to the utter-most of their power, according as He hath required in His most holy Word, contained in the Old & new Testaments, and according to the same Word, shall maintain the true Religion of Christ Jesus, the preaching of His holy Word, the due & right Ministration of the Sacraments, now received & Preached within this realme (according to the Confession of faith immediatly preceding) and shall abolish & gainstand all false religion, contrary to the same; And shall rule the people committed to their charge, according to the will & Command of God, revealed in His fore-said Word, and according to the Laudable Lawes & Constitutions received in this realme, no wayes repugnant to the said Will of the Eternal God; And shal procure, to the uttermost of their power, to the Kirk of God & whole Christian people, true & perfect peace in all time coming; And that they shall be careful to root out of their Empire all Hereticks & Enemies to the true Worship of God, who shall be convicted by the true Kirk of God of the foresaid Crimes. Now this Coronation Oath he hath not taken, he will not, he cannot take; and therefore cannot be our Crouned King according to Law. As there be also many other Lawes incapacitating his admission to the Croun, being a Professed Papist, and no Law for it at all, but one of his oun making by a Pacqued Cabal of his oun Complices, a Parliament, wherein himself presided as Commissioner, enacting matterially his succession, and rescinding all these Ancient Lawes: which Act of Succession (which is all the legal right he can pretend to in Scotland) because it cannot be justified, therefore his right cannot be ouned, which is founded upon the subversion of our Ancient Lawes. But as he cannot be our Legally Crouned King, so he is not so much as formally Crouned. And therfore before his Inauguration, whatever right to be King (whom the Representatives may admit to the Government) he may pretend to, by hereditary p. 313Succession; yet he cannot formally bemade King, till the people make a Compact with him, upon termes for the safety of their dearest & nearst Liberties, even though he were not disabled by Law. He might, as they say, pretend to some jus ad rem, but he could have no jus in re. The Kings of Scotland, while uncrouned, can exerce no Royal Government; for the Coronation in Concret, according to the substance of the Act, is no Ceremonie (as they, who make Conscience it self but a Ceremony, call it) nor an accidental ingredient in the Constitution of a King, but as it is distinctive, so it is Constitutive: it distinguished Saul from all Israel, and made him from no King to be a King, it is dative & not only Declarative; it puts some honour upon him that he had not before. 3. Though the Lawes should not strike against his Coronation, And though the Representatives Legally should take the same measures with him that they took with his brother, and admit him upon the termes of the Covenant; yet after such doleful experiences of such transactions with these Sons of Belial, who must not be taken with hands, nor by the hand, it were hard to trust, or entrust them with the Government, even though they should make the fairest Professions: Since they whose Principle is to keep no faith to Hereticks (as they call us) and who will be as absolute in their promises as they are in their power, have deservedly forefeited all Credit & Trust with honest men; so that none could rationally refer the determination of a half Croun reckoning to any of them, far less oune them & their Government in the Managment of the weightiest affairs of State, since their Male-versations are written in such bloody Characters, as he that runs may read them. At least it were wisdom, & is our duty, to take our Measures from the General Assemblies Procedure with the other Brother, before his admission to the Government, to suspend our Allegiance to him until Authority be Legally devolved upon him, and founded upon & bounded by termes giving all security for Religion & Liberty.