QUEST. XVIII. What is the law of the King, and his Power? 1 Sam. 8.11. This will be the manner of the King who shall reigne over you, &c. (2) to QUEST. XIX. Whether or no the King be in Dignity and power above the people? (1)

QUEST. XVIII. What is the law of the King, and his Power? 1 Sam. 8.11. This will be the manner of the King who shall reigne over you, &c. (2)

Ans. All this is an argument from fact. 1. A wicked Magistracie may permit perjurie and lying in the Common-wealth, and that without punishment; and some Christian Commonweales, he meaneth his own Synagogue of Rome, spirituall Sodome, a cage of uncleane birds, suffereth Harlotrie by Law, and the whores pay so many thousands yearely to the Pope, and are free of all punishment by Law, to eschew homicides, adulteries of Romish Priests, and other

greater sinnes: Therefore God hath given power to a King to play the Tyrant, without any feare of punishment to be inflicted by man. But 1. if this be a good argument, The Magistrate to whom God hath committed the sword to take vengeance on evill doers, Rom. 13.3, 4, 5▪ 6. such as are perjured persons, professed whores and harlots, hath a lawfull power from God to connive at sinnes and grosse scandals in the Commonwealth, as they dreame that the King hath power given from God to exercise all acts of Tyranny without any resistance. But, 1. this was a grievous sinne in Eli, that he being a father and a Iudge, punished not his sonnes for their uncleannesse, and his house, in Gods heavy displeasure, was cut off from the Priesthood therefore. Then God hath given no such power to the Iudge. 2. The contrary duty is lying on the Iudge, To execute judgement for the oppressed, Iob 29.12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. Ier. 22.15, 16. and perverting of judgement, and conniving at the heynous sinnes of the wicked, is condemned, Num. 5.31, 32. 1 Sam. 15.23. 1 King. 20.42, 43. Esa. 1.17. & 10.1. & 5.23. and therefore God hath given no power to a Iudge to permit wicked men to commit grievous crimes, without any punishment. As for the Law of Divorce, it was indeed a permissive law, whereby the husband might give the wife a bill of divorce, and be free of punishment before men, but not free of sinne and guiltinesse before God, for it was contrary to Gods institution of Mariage at the beginning, as Christ saith: and the Prophet saith, that the Lord hateth putting away. But that God hath given any such permissive power to the King, that he may doe what he pleaseth, and cannot be resisted: This is in question. 3. The Law spoken of in the Text, is by Royalists called, not a consuetude of Tranny, but the divine law of God, whereby the King is formally and essentially distinguished from the Judge in Israel: Now if so, a power to sinne, and a power to commit acts of Tyranny, yea, and a power in the Kings Sergeants and bloody Emissaries to waste and destroy the people of God, must be a lawfull power given of God: for a lawfull power it must be, if it commeth from God, whether it be from the King in his own person, or from his servants at his commandement, and by either put forth in acts, as the power of a bill of Divorce was a power from God, exempting either the husband from punishment before men, or freeing the servant, who at the husbands command, should write it, and put it in the hands of the woman. I cannot beleeve that God hath given a power, and that by Law, to one Man to command

twenty thousand Cut-throats to kill and destroy all the Children of God, and that he hath commanded his Children to give their necks and heads to Babels sonnes without resistance. This I am sure is another matter then a Law for a bill of Divorce to one woman, maried by free election of a humorous and unconstant man. But sure I am, God gave no permissive law from heaven, like the law of Divorce, for the hardnesse of the heart, not of the Iewes only, but also of the whole Christian and Heathen Kingdomes under a Monarch; that one Emperour may, by such a Law of God, as the Law of Divorce, kill, by bloody Cut-throats, such as the Irish Rebels are, all the Nations that call on Gods name, men, women, and sucking infants. And if Providence impede the Catholike issue, and dry up the seas of Blood, it is good: but God hath given a law, such as the law of Divorce, to the King, whereby he, and all his, may without resistance, by a legall power given of God, who giveth Kings to be fathers, nurses, protectors, guides, yea the breath of nostrils of his Church, as speciall mercies and blessings to his people, he may (I say) by a law of God, as it is 1 Sam. 8.9, 11. cut off Nations, as that Lyon of the world, Nebuchadnezzar did. So Royalists teach us.

Barclaius l. 2. cont. Monarchoma. pag. 69. The Lord spake to Samuel the Law of the King, and wrot it in a book[gap], and laid it up before the Lord. But what Law? That same law which he proposed to the people when they first sought a King: but that was the Law contemning Precepts rather for the peoples obeying, then for the Kings commanding, for the people was to be instructed with those precepts, not the King. Those things that concerned the Kings duty, Deut. 17. Moses commanded to be put into the Arke, but so if Samuel had commanded the King, that which Moses, Deut. 17. commanded, he had done no new thing, but had done againe what was once done, actum egisset, but there was nothing before commanded the people concerning their obedience and patience under evill Princes. Ioseph. Antiq. l. 6. c. 5. he wrote [gap], the evills that were to befall them. Ans. It was not that same Law, for though this Law was written to the people, yet it was the Law of the King: and I pray you, did Samuel write in a booke all the Rules of Tyranny, and teach Saul and all the Kings after him (for this book was put in the Ark of the Covenant, where also was the booke of the Law) how to play the Tyrant? And what instruction was it to King or people to write to them a book of the wicked waies of a King, which nature teacheth without a Doctor?

Sanctius saith on the place, These things which by mens fraud, and to the hurt of the publick may be corrupted, were kept in the Tabernacle, and the booke of the Law was kept in the Arke. Cornelius a Lapide saith, It was the Law common to King and people, which was commonly kept with the booke of the Law, in the Arke of the Covenant. Lyra contradicteth Barclay, he exponeth Legem, legem regni non secundum usurpationem supra positam, sed secundum ordinationem Dei positam, Deut. 17. Theodat. excellently exponeth it the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome, inspired by God to temper Monarchy, with a liberty befitting Gods people, and with equity toward a Nation—to withstand the abuse of an absolute power. 2. Can any beleeve Samuel would have written a Law of Tyranny, and put that booke in the Arke of the Covenant before the Lord, to be kept to the posterity, seeing he was to teach both King and people the good and the right way, 1 Sam. 12.23, 24, 25. 3. Where is the Law of the Kingdome called a Law of punishing innocent people? 4. To write the duty of the King in a booke, and apply it to the King, is no more superfluous, nor to teach the people the good and the right way out of the Law, and apply generalls to persons. 5. There is nothing in the Law, 1 Sam. 8.9.11.12. of the peoples patience, but rather of their impatient crying out, God not hearing nor helping; and nothing of that in this booke, for any thing that we know, and Iosephus speaketh of the Law, 1 Sam. 8. not of this Law, 1 Sam. 12.

QUEST. XIX. Whether or no the King be in Dignity and power above the people? (1)

IN this grave question divers considerations are to be pondered.

1. There is a Dignity materiall in the people scattered, they being many representations of God and his Image, which is in the King also, and formally more as King, he being indued with formall Magistraticall and publick Royall Authority, in the former regard this or that man is inferiour to the King, because the King hath that same remander of the Image of God that any private man hath, and something more, he hath a politicke resemblance of the King of Heavens, being a little God, and so is above any one man.

2. All these of the people taken collectively having more of God, as being representations, are according to this materiall dignity excellenter then the King, because many are excellenter then one, and the King according to the Magistraticall and Royall Authority he hath, is excellenter then they are, because he partaketh formally of

Royalty, which they have not formally.

3. A meane or medium, as it is such, is lesse then the end, though the thing materially that is a meane, may be excellenter; every mean as a meane, under that reduplication hath all its goodnesse and excellency in relation to the end, yet an Angell that is a meane, and a ministring Spirit, ordained of God for an heire of life eternall, Heb. 1.13. considered materially, is excellenter then a man, Psal. 8.5. Heb. 2.6, 7, 8.

4. A King and leader in a military consideration, and as a Governour and conserver of the whole Army, is more worth then ten thousand of the people, 2 Sam. 18.3.

5. But simply and absolutely the people is above, and more excellent then the King, and the King in Dignity inferiour to the people; and that upon these Reasons. 1. Because he is the meane ordained for the people, as for the end, that he may save them, 2. Sam. 19.9. a publick shepheard to feede them, Ps. 78.70, 71, 72, 73. the Captaine and Leader of the Lords inheritance, 1 Sam. 10.1. to defend them, the Minister of God for their good, Rom. 13.4. 2. The Pilot is lesse then the whole Passengers, the Generall lesse then the whole Army, the Tutor lesse then all the children, the Physician lesse then all the living men whose health he careth for; the Master or Teacher lesse then all the Schollars, because the part is lesse then the whole: the King is but a part and a member (though I grant a very eminent and Noble Member) of the Kingdome. 3. A Christian people especially is the portion of the Lords inheritance, Deut. 32.9. the sheepe of his pasture, his redeemed ones, for whom God gave his blood, Act. 20.28. And the killing of a man is to violate the Image of God, Gen. 9.6. and therefore the death and destruction of a Church, and of thousand thousands of men is a sadder and a more heavy matter then the death of a King, who is but one man. 4. A King as a King, or because a King is not the inheritance of God, nor the chosen and called of God, nor the sheepe or flocke of the Lords pasture, nor the redeemed of Christ, for those excellencies agree not to Kings, because they are Kings; for then all Kings should be indued with those excellencies, and God should an be accepter of persons, if he put those excellencies of Grace upon men for externall respects of highnesse and Kingly power, and worldly glory and splendor; for many living Images and representations of God, as he is holy, or more excellent then a politique representation

of Gods greatnesse and Majesty, such as the King is; because that which is the fruit of a love of God, which commeth nearer to Gods most speciall love, is more excellent then that which is farther remote from his speciall love; now though Royalty be a beame of the Majesty of the greatnesse of the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords; yet is it such a fruit and beam of Gods greatnesse, as may consist with the eternall reprobation of the party loved, so now Gods love from whence he communicateth his Image, representing his owne holinesse, commeth nearer to his most speciall love of election of men to glory.

5. If God give Kings to be a ransome for his Church, and if he stay great Kings for their sake, as Pharaoh King of Aegypt, Esa. 43.3 and Sihon King of the Amorites, and Og King of Bashan, Ps. 136.18, 19, 20. if he plead with Princes and Kings for destroying his people, Esa. 3. v. 12, 13, 14. if he make Babylon and her King a threshing-floore, for the violence done to the inhabitants of Zion, Ier. 51.33, 34, 35. then his people as his people, must be so much dearer and more precious in the Lords eyes, then Kings because they are Kings, by how much more his Justice is active to destroy the one, and his Mercy to save the other. Neither is the Argument taken off, by saying the King must in this question be compared with his owne people; not a forraigne King with other forraigne people over whom he doth not Raigne, for the Argument proveth that the people of God are of more worth then Kings as Kings; and Nebuchadnezer and Pharaoh for the time were Kings to the people of God, and forraigne Kings are no lesse essentially Kings, then Kings native are.

6. Those who are given of God as gifts for the preservation of the people, to be Nurse-fathers to them; those must be of lesse worth before God, then those to whom they are given, since the gift, as the gift, is lesse then the party on whom the gift is bestowed. But the King is a gift for the good and preservation of the people, as is cleare, Esa 1.26. And from this that God gave his people a King in his wrath, we may conclude, that a King of himselfe, except God be angry with his people, must be a gift.

7. That which is eternall, and cannot politically die, yea which must continue as the dayes of heaven, because of Gods promise; That is more excellent then that which is both accidentall, temporarie and mortall. But the People is both eternall, as People, because

Eccles. 1.4. one generation passeth away,

and another generation commeth: And as a people in covenant with God, Ier. 32.40, 41. in respect that a People and Church, though mortall in the individuals, yet the Church, remaining the Church, cannot dye; but the King, as King, may, and doth dye: It is true, where a Kingdome goeth by succession, the Politicians say, the man who is King, dyeth; but the King never dyeth, because some other, either by birth or free election, succeedeth in his roome. But I answer, 1. People by a sort of necessity of nature succeedeth to People, generation to generation, except Gods judgement, contrary to nature, intervene to make Babylon no people, and a land that shall never be inhabited, (which I both believe and hope for, according to Gods word of Prophecie) But a King by a sort of contingencie succeedeth to Kings: for nature doth not ascertaine us there must be Kings to the worlds end; because the essence of Governours is kept safe in Aristocracie and Democracie, though there were no Kings. And that Kings should necessarily have been in the world, if man had never fallen in sinne, I am not, by any cogent argument, induced to beleeve. I conceive there should have been no Government but these of Fathers & Children, Husband and Wife; and (which is improperly Government) some more gifted with supervenient additions to nature, as gifts and excellencies of Engines. Now in this point, Althusius polit. c. 38. n. 114. saith, the King in respect of office is worthier then the people; (but this is but an accidentall respect) but as the King is a man, he is inferior to the people.

But, 8. he who by office is obliged to expend himselfe, and to give his life for the safety of the people, he must be inferior to the people. So Christ saith, the life is more then rayment or food, because both these give themselves to corruption for mans life: so the beasts are inferiour to man, because they die for our life, that they may sustaine our life: And Caiaphas prophesied right, that it was better that one man die, then that the whole Nation perish, Joh. 11. v. 50. and in nature, Elements against their particular inclination defraud themselves of their private and particular ends, that the Commonwealth of Nature may stand, as heavy elements ascend, light descend, lest nature should perish by a vacuitie. And the good shepherd, Ioh. 10. giveth his life for his sheep. So Saul and David both were made Kings to fight the Lords battels, and to expose their lives to hazard for the safetie of the Church and people of God. But the

King by office is obliged to expend his life for the safety of the people of God; he is obliged to fight the Lords battels for them, to goe betwixt the Flock and death, as Paul was willing to be spent for the Church. It may be objected, Jesus Christ gave himselfe a Ransome for his Church, and his life for the life of the World, and was a gift given to the world, Ioh. 3.16. & 4.10. and he was a meane to save us: And so what arguments we have before produced to prove that the King must be inferior to the people, because he is a ransome, a meane, a gift; are not concludent. I answer: Consider a meane reduplicatively, and formaliter, as a meane, and secondly, as a meane materially, that is, the thing which is a meane. 2. Consider that which is only a mean, and ransome, and gift, and no more; and that which, beside that it is a meane, is of a higher nature also. So Christ formally as a meane, giving, 1. his temporall life; 2. for a time; 3. according to the flesh: For, 1. the eternall life; 2. of all the Catholike Church to be glorified eternally; 3. not his blessed Godhead and glorie, which, as God, he had with the Father from eternitie. In that respect Christ hath the relation of a servant, ransome, gift, and some inferioritie in comparison of the Church of God: and his Fathers glory, as a meane, is inferior to the end, but Christ materially, in concreto: Christ is not only a meane to save his Church, but as God, (in which consideration he was the immortall Lord of life) he was more then a meane, even the author, efficient and Creator of heaven and earth: and so there is no ground to say that he is inferiour to the Church; but the absolute head, King, the chiefe of ten thousand, more in excellencie and worth then ten thousand millions of possible worlds of men and Angels. But such a consideration cannot befall any mortall King; because, consider the King materially as a mortall man, he must be inferior to the whole Church, for he is but one, and so of lesse worth then the whole Church, as the thumbe, though the strongest of the fingers, yet it is inferior to the hand, and far more to the whole body, as any part is inferior to the whole. 2. Consider the King reduplicative, and formally as King, and by the officiall relation he hath, he is no more then but a Royall servant, an officiall meane, tending, ex officio, to this end, to preserve the people, to rule and governe them; and a gift of God, given, by vertue of his office, to rule the people of God: and so any way inferiour to the people.

9. Those who are before the King, and may be a People without

a King, must be of more worth then that which is posteriour, and cannot be a King without them. For thus Gods selfe sufficiency is proved, in that he might be, and eternally was blessed for ever, without his Creature, but his creature cannot subsist in being without him. Now the people were a people many yeares, before there was any government (save domestick) and is a people where there is no King, but only an Aristocracy, or a Democracy; but the King can be no King without a people. It is vaine that some say, the King and Kingdome are relatives, and not one is before another; for its true in the naked relation, so are father and sonne, Master and servant, Relata simul natura; but sure there is a priority of worth and independency for all that, in the father above the sonne, and in the master above the servant, and so in the people above the King, take away the people, and Dyonisius is but a poore Schoole-master.

2. Asser. The people in power are superiour to the King, 1. because every efficient and constituent cause is more excellent then the effect. Every meane is inferiour in power to the end, so Iun. Brutus, q. 31. Bucher l. 1. c. 16. Author. Lib. De offic. Magistr. q. 6. Henaenius disp. 2. n. 6. Ioan. Roffensis Epist. De potest. pap. l. 2. c. 5. Spalato de Repu. Ecclesiast. l. 6. c. 2. n. 31. but the people is the efficient and constituent cause, the King is the effect, the people is the end; both intended of God to save the people, to be a healer and a Physician to them, Esay 3. v. 7. and the people appoint and create the King out of their indigence, to preserve themselves from mutuall violence. Many things are objected against this, 1. That the efficient and constituent cause is God, and the people is only the instrumentall cause; and Spalato saith, that the people doth indirectly only give Kingly power, because God, at their act of election, ordinarily giveth it. Ans. The Scripture saith plainly, as we heard before, the people made Kings, and if they doe, as other second causes produce their effects, it is all one that God as the principall cause maketh Kings, else we should not argue from the cause to the effect amongst the creatures. 2. God by that same action that the people createth a King, doth also, by them, as by his instruments create a King, and that God doth not immediatly, at the naked presence of the act of popular election, conferre Royall dignity on the man, without any action of the people, as they say by the Churches act of conferring Orders, God doth immediatly without any act of the Church, infuse

from Heaven supernaturall habilities on the man, without any active influence of the Church, is evident by this, 1. The Royall power to make Lawes with the King, and so a power eminent in their states representative to governe themselves, is in the people, for if the most high act of Royalty be in them, why not the power also? and so what need to fetch a Royall power from Heaven, to be immediatly infused in him, seeing the people hath such a power in themselves at hand? 2. The people can, and doth limite, and bind Royall power in elected Kings,