Shall even he that hateth right govern? But are not tyrants and usurpers haters of right? Shall therefore they govern? I think it must be answered, they should not govern. If then they should not govern, I infer, they should not be owned as governors. For if it be their sin to govern (right or wrong, it is all one case, for they should not govern at all) then it is our sin to own them in their government: for it is always a sin to own a man in his sinning.
The royal prophet, or whoever was the penman of that appeal for justice against tyranny, Psal. xciv. 20. does tacitly assert the same truth, in that expostulation, shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, that frameth mischief by a law? Which is as much as if he had said, the throne of iniquity shall not, no, cannot have fellowship with God; that is, it cannot be the throne of God that he hath any interest in, or concern with, by way of approbation: he hath nothing to do with it, except it be to suffer it a while, till he take vengeance on it in the end. And shall we have fellowship with that throne, that God hath no fellowship with, and that is not his throne, but the devil's, as it must be, if God doth not own it? Much may be argued from hence; but in a word, a throne which is not of God, nor ordained of God, but rather of the devil, cannot be owned (for that is the reason of our subjection to any power, because it is of God, and ordained of God, Rom. xiii. 1. And that is the great dignity of magistracy, that its throne, is the throne of God, 1 Chron. xxix. 23.) But a throne of tyranny and usurpation, is a throne which is not of God, nor ordained of God, but rather of the devil: Ergo——. The minor is proved: a throne of iniquity, &c. is a throne which is not of God, nor ordained of God, but rather of the devil; but a throne of tyranny and usurpation is a throne of iniquity: Ergo, it is not of God, and so not to be owned.
3. The Lord charges it upon Israel as a transgression of his covenant, and trespass against his law, that they had set up kings, and not by him, and had made princes and he knew it not, Hos. viii. 4. and then taxes them with idolatry, which ordinarily is the consequent of it, as we have reason to fear will be in our case. He shews there the apostasy of that people, in changing both the ordinances of the magistracy and of the ministry, both of the kingdom and of the priesthood, in which two the safety of that people was founded: so they overturned all the order of God, and openly declared they would not be governed by the hand of God, as Calvin upon the place expounds it. Whereas, the Lord had commanded, if they would set up kings, they should set none up but whom he choosed, Deut. xvii. 15. yet they had no regard to this, nor consulted him in their admission of kings, but set them up, and never let him to wit of it, without his knowledge; that is, without consulting him, and without his approbation, for it can have no other sense. I know, it is alledged by several interpreters, that here is meant the tribes secession from the house of David, and their setting up Jeroboam. I shall confess that the ten tribes did sin in that erection of Jeroboam, without respect to the counsel or command of God, without waiting on the vocation of God, as to the times and manner, and without covenanting with him for security for their religion and liberty; but that their secession from David's line, which by no precept or promise of God they were astricted to, but only conditionally, if his children should walk in the ways of God, or that their erecting of Jeroboam was materially their sin, I must deny; and assert, that if Jeroboam had not turned tyrant and apostate from God (for which they should have rejected him afterwards, and returned to the good kings of David's line) he would have been as lawful a king as any in Judah, for he got the kingdom from the Lord the same way, and upon the same terms that David did, as may be seen expressly in 1 Kings xi. 38. It must be therefore meant, either generally of all tyrants whom they would set up without the Lord's mind, as at first they would have kings on any terms though they should prove tyrants, as we have seen in Saul's case. Or particularly Omri whom they set up, but not by the Lord; 1 Kings xvi. 16. And Ahab his son, and Shallum, Menaham, Pekah, &c. who were all set up by blood and treachery, the same way that our popish duke is now set up, but not by the Lord, that is by his approbation. Hence I argue, those kings that are not owned of God, nor set up by him, must not be owned by us (for we can own none for kings but those that reign by him, Prov. viii. 15. and are ordained of him, Rom. xiii. 1.) But tyrants and usurpers are not owned of God as kings, nor are set up by him: Ergo——Again, if it be a sin to set up kings, and not by God, then it is a sin to own them when set up: for, that is a partaking of, and continuing in the sin of that erection, and hath as much affinity with it, as resetting hath with theft; for if they be the thieves, they are the resetters who receive them and own them.
4. The prophet Habakkuk, in his complaint to God of the Chaldean tyranny, asserts that God hath made righteous, as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them, Habak. i. 14. Now how were they said to be without a ruler, when the Chaldean actually commanded, and absolutely ruled over them? yea, how can the fishes and reptiles have no ruler over them? If domineering be ruling, they want not that; when the weaker are over-mastered by the stronger, and by them made either to be subject, or to become their prey. But the meaning is, these creatures have no ruler over them by order of nature: and the Jews had then no ruler over them by order of law, or ordination from God, or any that was properly their magistrate by divine institution, or human orderly constitution.
We see then it is one thing for a people to have an arbitrary or enthralling tyranny; another to have true magistracy or authority to be owned over them; without which kingdoms are but as mountains of prey, and seas of confusion. Hence I argue, if the Jews having the Chaldean monarch tyrannizing over them, had really no ruler over them, then is a tyrant and usurper not to be owned for a ruler: but the former is true: therefore also the latter.
5. Our Saviour Christ delivers this as a commonly received, and a true maxim, John viii. 54. "He that honoureth himself, his honour is nothing." The Jews had objected that he had only made himself Messias, ver. 53. To whom he answers, by way of concession, if it were so indeed, then his claims were void, if I honour my self, my honour is nothing: and then claims an undubitable title to his dignity, It is my father that honoureth me. Here is a twofold honour distinguished, the one real, the other suppositious and null, the one renounced, the other owned by Christ, self-honour, and honour which is from God. Hence I argue, a selfcreated dignity is not to be owned; the authority of tyrants and usurpers is a self created dignity: Ergo——. This was confirmed above.
Thirdly, I shall offer some other considerations confirming this truth, from those scriptures which I class among precepts. And these I find of divers sorts touching this subject.
1. I shew before that the greatest of men, even kings, are not exempted from punishment, if guilty of capital crimes; for where the law distinguisheth not, we ought not to distinguish. There is one special and very peremptory law, given before the law for regulating kings, which, by that posterior law, was neither abrogated nor limited even as to kings, Deut. xiii. 6-9. If thy brother (and a king must be a brother, Deut. xvii. 15.)—entice thee secretly, saying, let us go and serve other gods—Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him, neither shall thine eye pity him. How famous Mr. Knox improved this argument, is shewed in the third period. That which I take notice of here is only, that kings are not excepted from this law; but if they be open enticers to idolatry, by force or fraud, persecution or toleration, as this idolater now reigning is palpably doing, they are obnoxious to a legal animadversion. As it cannot be supposed, that secret enticers should be liable to punishment, and not open avouchers of a desire and design to pervert all the nation to idolatry: that a private perverter of one man, though never so nearly and dearly related, should be pursued and brought to condign punishment, and a public subverter of whole nations, and introducer of a false and blasphemous idolatrous religion, should escape scot free. Let the punishment inflicted be in a judicial way, and of what measures it pleases the judge to determine, I shall not controvert here; only I plead, that idolatrous tyrants are not excepted from this law: and infer, that if they ought to be punished, they ought to be deposed; and if they ought to be deposed, they cannot be owned, when undeniably guilty of this capital crime, as was urged above.
To this I may add that part of that prophetical king's testament; who, being about to leave the world, under some challenges of maladministration in his own government, (for which he took himself to the well ordered everlasting covenant, for pardon and encouragement,) after he had shewn what rulers should be, he threatens, by antithesis, tyrannical pretenders, in these severe words, which do also imply a precept, and a direction how to deal with them, 2 Sam. xxiii. 6, 7. "But they of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away, because they cannot be taken with hands, but the man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron, and the staff of a spear, and they shall be utterly burnt with fire in the same place." Let these words be understood as a threatning against all the wicked in general, who are to be quenched as the fire of thorns; or particularly of the promoters of antichrist's kingdom, in opposition to Christ's, as some interpreters judge; it will not weaken, but confirm my argument, if kings who are ringleaders of that gang be not excepted.
I know some do understand this of rebels against righteous rulers: which though indeed it be a truth, that they that are such should be so served, and roughly handled with iron, and the staff of a spear; yet it is not so consonant to the scope and connexion of this place, shewing the characters of righteous rulers, and of usurping tyrants, making an opposition between rulers that are just, ruling in the fear of God, and those that are rulers of Belial, promising blessing upon the government of the one, and contempt and rejection to the other, and shewing how both should be carried towards: neither does it agree with the words themselves, where the supplement in our translation is redundant; for it is not in the Hebrew. The sons of Belial, only they of Belial, clearly relative to the rulers of whom he was speaking before. And indeed the word Belial, in its etymology is not more applicable to any than to tyrants; for it comes from beli not, and Hhall above, because they will have none above them, or from beli not, and Hhol a yoke, because they cannot suffer a yoke, but cast away the yoke of laws and the yoke of Christ, saying, Let us burst his bands, &c. Nor is it always agreeable to truth, to understand it only of rebels against righteous rulers, that they can never be taken with hands: For as very rarely righteous rulers have any rebels to be the objects of their rigour and rage; so when there are any, discreet and wise rulers will find many ways to take and touch them, and quath or quiet them. But it is always true of tyrants, for they can never be taken with hands, neither in a friendly manner, taken by the hand and transacted within any bargain as other men, for they that would do so, will find them like pricking and jagging briers, which a man cannot handle without hurt to himself: nor can they be any other way repressed or restrained, or touched, but by hands fenced with iron, that is, with the sword of necessity, or axe of justice. And this is insinuated as duty, so to endeavour to extirpate and eradicate such thorns, as pester the commonwealth; but if it cannot be done, it must be duty and wisdom both not to meddle with them, nor own them, no more than Jotham, who would not subject himself, nor come under the shadow of the bastard bramble. I confess it is commonly taken as a threatning of the Lord's judgment against these sons of Belial: And so it is. But it teacheth also what men are called to, when they have to do with such, to wit, to take the same course with them as they would to clear the ground of thorns and briers. And that it is restricted to the Lord's immediate way of taking them off, is not credible: for, it can have no tolerable sense to say, they shall be thrust away, because they cannot be taken with the Lord's hands: neither is there need, that he should be fenced with iron, &c. And let iron, &c. be taken tropically for the Lord's sword of vengeance; yet how can it be understood, that he must be fenced therewith? or that he will thrust them away, as a man must be fenced against thorns? What defence needs the Lord against tyrants! It is only then intelligible, that the Lord, in his righteous judgment, will make use of men and legal means, and of those who cannot take them with hands, in his judicial procedure against them. Hence I argue, if tyrants are to be dealt with as thorns, that cannot be taken with hands, but to be thrust away by violence, then, when we are not in case to thrust them away, we must let them alone, and not meddle nor make with them, and so must not own them, for we cannot own them without meddling, and without being pricked to our hurt; but the former is true: therefore,—Of this same nature, another threatning confuting the pretence of the prince's impunity, may be subjoined out of Psal. lxxxii. 6, 7. "I have said, ye are gods, and all of you are children of the most high, but ye shall die like men, and fall as one of the princes." From which words the learned author of the history of the Douglasses, Mr. David Hume of Godscraft, in his discourse upon Mr. Craig's sermon, upon the words, doth strongly prove, that the scope is to beat off all kings, princes and rulers, from the conceit of impunity for their tyrannical dominations; that they must not think to domineer and do what they list, and overturn the foundations or fundamental laws of kingdoms, because they are gods; as if they were thereby uncontroulable, and above all law and punishment: no, they must know, that if they be guilty of the same transgressions of the law, as other capital offenders, they shall die like other men, and fall as princes, who have been formerly punished. It is not to be restricted to a threatning of mortality; for that is unavoidable, whether they judge justly or unjustly, and the fear thereof usually hath little efficacy to deter men from crimes punishable by law: neither can it be understood only of the Lord's immediate hand taking them away, exclusive of men's legal punishment; for expressly they are threatned to die like common men, and to be liable to the like punishment with them: now, common men are not only liable to the Lord's immediate judgment, but also to men's punishment. Hence, if tyrants and overturners of the foundations of the earth must be punished as other men, then when they are such, they cannot be looked upon as righteous rulers, for righteous rulers must not be punished; but the former is true: therefore,—According to these scriptures, which either express or imply a precept to have no respect to princes in judgment, when turning criminals, we find examples of the people's punishing Amaziah, &c. which is recorded without a challenge, and likewise Athaliah.