And in the general I may plead, that none is to be owned as a magistrate, but who some way is found in a promise; for there is no ordinance of God, no duty, no blessing, no good thing, either to be done or enjoyed, but what is in a promise; but tyranny, or owning of tyrants, or subjection to usurpers, is not, nor cannot be in a promise. We have many other promises about magistrates, as, that the Lord will be for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, Isa. xxviii. 6. A tyrant cannot be capable of this happiness, nor we under tyranny, nor any while they own them. Kings shall be the church's nursing fathers, and their queens her nursing mothers, Isa. xlix. 23. Kings are not always so, but all kings to be owned are such as can be so, at least they are never to be owned when they turn destroyers of what they should nourish; but tyrants can never be nourishers. It is promised to the Lord's people, if they will hearken diligently unto the Lord, and keep the sabbath, then shall there enter into their gates kings and princes, Jer. xxiii. 3, 4. But it is never promised, neither doth it come to pass in providence, that these duties procured tyrants.
There are many other promises to the same purpose: from whence may be concluded, the Lord will not always leave his people to howl under uneluctable tyranny, but will accomplish their deliverance in his own time and way, though we are not to look to miracles. Whence I argue, 1. Since all the ordinances of God, and rulers in a special manner, are appointed and promised as blessings, these cannot be owned for his ordinance, which are not blessings, but curses. 2. That which would vacate and evacuate all the promises of magistracy, cannot be a doctrine of God; but this that obliges to own tyrants and usurpers, as long as they are up, would vacate and evacuate all the promises of magistracy: for except the Lord work miracles, (which are not in the promise) and do all without means, they cannot be accomplished. For if any means be used, they must be such as will infer disowning of tyrants; for magistrates cannot be restored, except tyrants be removed; and whatever way they be removed without miracles, by others or their own subjects, they must still be disowned, and that before they be removed: for if they be to be owned before their removal, if they exist, cannot make them to be disowned: dispossession cannot take away their right, if they have it before.
2. There are many promises of breaking the yoke of tyrants, Isa. x. 27. "His burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck." And in that promise of the church's deliverance and enlargement, wherein they are prophetically urged and stirred up to some activity in co-operating with the providence, Isa. lii. 1, 2. "They are called to awake, and put on strength and their beautiful garments—and to shake themselves from the dust—and to rise and to loose themselves from the bands of their neck," that were captives. Here is not only a promise of deliverance or a ground of encouragement what the church may expect, but a promise of, and direction for their being active in delivering themselves, as men, from the encroachments that were made on their human liberties, that they should loose themselves from these bands. Whose bands? from their bands that ruled over them, and made them to howl, and the Lord's name to be blasphemed, (ver. 5) Here is a promise of breaking the bands of rulers, by them who howled under their subjection. And it also includes a precept, that people should not stay any longer under these yokes, than they can shake them off, or slip from under them. Hence we see we are not to ly stupidly sleeping, or sinking in the ditch, expecting the accomplishment of the promise of deliverance; but are to endeavour actively, in dependence upon the Lord's assistance, to deliver ourselves. Hence we may argue, 1. A promise by way of command, that a people under bands of oppressing rulers shall rouse themselves up to loose themselves from them, implies and infers a promise and a duty of disowning those rulers (for otherwise they cannot be loosed from their subjection.) But here is a promise by way of command, that a people under bands of oppressing rulers shall rouse themselves up to loose themselves from them: Ergo——2. If the removal of tyranny and usurpation be promised as a blessing, then those can never be owned to be the ordinance of God; for the removal of that can never be a blessing; but in these promises we see the removal of those is promised as a blessing: therefore they can never be owned.
Sixthly, To the same purpose we may cite some threatnings, that will confirm the same truth.
1. There are many threatnings against tyrants themselves. There are two mentioned, Jer. xxii. that seem partly to quadrate, and near of a piece with our misrulers; both because of the demerit of the threatning, and the likeness of the judgment threatned. The ground of it was "building their house by unrighteousness, and their chambers by wrong," ver. 13. And severally threatned: "Jehoiakim with the burial of an ass unlamented," ver. 18, 19. Coniah with a life without prosperity, and a death without issue to succeed, ver. 30. The first of these is verified in the elder of our royal brothers, the last is like to be of both. But that which I take notice of is, first, the demerit, building their house by unrighteousness, on which Whitehall is built with a witness: and particularly it is noted of Jehoiakim, as his crimson sin (to which his son Jehoiachin or Coniah served himself heir) that he burnt Jeremiah's roll, or causes of wrath; so did our dominators burn the causes of wrath (a book written by the commission of the general assembly) and the covenants. Then I note these words, ver. 15. "Shalt thou reign because thou closest thyself in cedar, &c." It is certainly not fit for us to say, He shall reign, of whom the Lord says, He shall not reign; but when we own the authority of those whom the Lord threatens they shall not reign, we say, they shall reign; for we say, they have a right to reign, and own ourselves obliged to do all that is required in our capacity to perpetuate their reign. There is a terrible threatning against Zedekiah, Ezek xx. 25,—27. "Thou profane," or as some translate it, "thou worthy to be killed," (Pool. synops. crit. in locum.) "wicked prince of Israel—Thus saith the Lord God, remove the diadem, take off the crown, this shall not be the same, exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high; I will overturn, overturn, overturn it, and it shall be no more until he come whose right it is, and I will give it him." Than which nothing can be more applicable to our princes, who are profane, and the patterns and patrons of it, whose diadem the Lord will remove; and if he threaten it, wo to them that contribute to hold it on. We see here a profane and wicked prince threatned to be overturned must not be owned, because he hath no right; but our excommunicate tyrant is a profane and wicked prince, threatned to be overturned: Ergo—There is another dreadful threatning against tyrants, Amos iv. 1, 2. "Hear this word ye kine of Bashan, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy—The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness, that lo the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks." Shall we own these, against whom the Lord hath engaged his holiness by oath so solemnly, that he will fish them with hooks? we may fear if there be such a tie as allegiance between them and us, that that same hook which fishes them may also catch us; as it is said of Pharaoh and his subjects, when he is hooked, then his fish stick unto his scales, and he and they are left in the wilderness, Ezek. xxix. 4, 5. that is, as Grotius expounds it, whoever are of his community shall be consorts in his calamity, Pool. Critic. in locum. If we then own them, we must be of their community, and so partake of their judgments.
2. There are many threatnings against illimited loyalty, and those who had more of that than religion: for this Ephraim was broken in judgment, because he walked willingly after the commandment, Hos. v. 11. And because the statutes of Omri were kept, and the works of the house of Ahab, therefore the Lord threatens to make them a desolation, Mic. vi. ult. And among other threatnings against the men of such universal loyalty, that is notable, Hos. x. 3. "Now ye shall say, we have no king, because we feared not the Lord, what then should a king do to us?" It is the just punishment of wicked loyalty, that prefers the fear and favour of kings to the fear and favour of God, that at length they are brought to that pass, that either they have no kings at all to look to, or else they have such of whom it may be said, they are no kings in effect; for they cannot act the part of kings to them that trust in them. Hence, 1. If to have really no kings be a punishment. 2. If those that have the name of kings, that can do no good, be no kings; then tyrants that can do no good, but a great deal of hurt, must be reckoned no kings also; but here it is threatned, people that had kings, that had the name, but could do no good, should reckon they had no kings: therefore much more may tyrants be reckoned to be no kings, who can do no good, but a great deal of hurt.
Seventhly, This truth is confirmed from scripture-prayers; whereof there are many against tyrants, none for them. Hence we argue, If we are not to pray for tyrants, then we are not to own them; for we are to pray for all that are in authority, 1 Tim. ii. 2. But we are not to pray for tyrants; Ergo, we are not to own them. The minor now must be proved. And this leads me to another subordinate question, which hath also been a head of suffering to some serious seekers of God in our land of late.
The profane emissaries of this and the late tyrant, sent out with bloody commissions to hunt after the Lord's hidden ones, in order to murder all whom they might meet with, that made conscience of adhering to every part of the present testimony; among other trapping questions to discover their prey, they used to put this to them as a discriminating Shibboleth, and tessera of owning the present tyranny, will you say, God save the king? and for refusing this, many have been cruelly murdered in the fields; and many before their bloody judicatories, have for this been arraigned and condemned, and executed to the death. Wherefore to this somewhat must be said, 1. By way of concession. 2. By way of vindication, of scrupling it, and suffering upon it.
First, In the general, it will be necessary to premit by way of concession, 1. It is duty to pray, supplicate and interceed for all men, 1 Tim. ii. 1. not collectively considered nor distributively for every one universally without exception, but indefinitely and indiscriminately, for the kinds of every individual, for all sorts and sexes, of whatsoever nation or religion, Jew or Gentile, Christian or infidel, not excluding any for these distinctions: and not only so, but for every individual of the kinds, also conditionally, if they be among those all whom the Lord will have to be saved, verse 4. If they be among those all for whom the mediator gave himself a ransom to be testified in due time, verse 5, 9. If they have not sinned the sin unto death, for which we are not bidden pray, 1 John v. 19. Which, because we know not particularly who are guilty of it, charity will oblige us to take into our prayers many that may never be the better of them; yet it is necessary that we pray in faith, for what, or whomsoever we pray, at least, if I may so call it, we must have a negative faith, a belief that they have not sinned that sin unto death; which we cannot have at all, there being some whose demonstrations of desperate displays of affronted wickedness, and hatred of holiness may give ground to doubt of it, as Christians had of Julian the apostate. 2. We are obliged to love our enemies, to bless them that curse us, to do good to them that hate us, to pray for them that despitefully use and persecute us, Mat. v. 44. Accordingly our master, who commanded this, did give us a pattern to imitate, when he prayed, Father forgive them for they know not what they do, Luke xxiii. 34. And his faithful martyr Stephen, prayed for his murderers, Lord lay not this sin to their charge, Acts vii. the last verse. We are to pity them, and not to seek vengeance against them, for any injuries they can do to us. Yet, as this doth not interfere with a holy and zealous appeal to God for righting, and resenting, and requiting, the wrongs done to us, that he may vindicate us and our cause, and make them repent of their injuries done to us, to the glory of God, and conviction of onlookers, and confusion of themselves, which may well consist with mercy to their souls; so all we can pray for them in their opposition to us, is in order to their repentance, but never for their prosperity in that course.
And we may well imitate, even against our enemies, that prayer of Zechariah's, "The Lord look upon it, and require it," 2 Chron. xxiv. 22. But we are never to pray for Christ's stated enemies, as to the bulk of them; and under that formality as his enemies: for we must not "love them that hate the Lord," 2 Chron. xix. 2. but hate them, and hate them with a perfect hatred, Psal. cxxxix. 21, 22. We are to pray for the elect among them, but only to the end they may escape the vengeance, which we are obliged to pray for against them. 3. We are not to execrate our enemies, or use imprecations against any, out of blind zeal, or the passionate or revengeful motions of our own hearts: our Lord rebuked his disciples for such preposterous zeal, Luke ix. 55. "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of;" but against the stated and declared enemies of Christ, as such and while such, we may well take a pattern from the imprecatory prayers of saints recorded in scripture; such as do not peremptorily determine about the eternal state of particular persons: which determinations, except we be extraordinarily acted by the same spirit, whose dictates these are, are not to be imitated by us. We find several sorts of imprecations in the Psalms and other scriptures: some are imitable, some not; some are prophetical, having the force of a prophecy, as David's Psal. xxxv. 4. "Let them be confounded—that seek after my soul.—Let destruction come upon him," Psal. lv. 15. "Let them go down quick to hell." And Jeremiah, chap. xvii. 18. "Let them be confounded that persecute me,—destroy them with double destruction." Without this prophetical spirit, determining the application of these threatnings to particular persons, we may not imitate this peremptoriness. Some are typical of Christ's mediatory devoting his enemies to destruction; who as he interceeds for his friends, so, by virtue of the same merits (by them trampled upon) he pleads for vengeance against his enemies; which mediatory vengeance is the most dreadful of all vengeances, (Heb. x. 29.) So also, Psal. xl. He whose ears were opened, and who said, "lo I come,"—verse 6, 7. (that is Christ) does imprecate shame, and confusion, and desolation, ver. 14, 15. As also Psal. cix. the Psalmist personates Christ, complaining of, and imprecating against his enemies; particularly Judas the traitor, verse 8. It must be dreadful to be under the dint of the Mediator's imprecations; and also dreadful to clash with him in his intercessions, that is, to apprecate for them against whom he intercedes. But some imprecations against the enemies of God are imitable; such as proceed from pure zeal for God, and the spirit of prayer, as that, Psal. cix. last verse, "Put them in fear, O Lord, that the nations, may know themselves to be but men." Psal. lxxxiii. 16.——"fill their faces with shame that they may seek thy name." This is to be imitated in general against all the enemies of God, Psal. cxxix. 5. "Let them all be confounded that hate Zion;" without condescending on particular persons, except obviously and notoriously desperate and presumptively Christ's implacable enemies. 4. Touching magistrates it is a great duty to pray, that God would give us magistrates, as he hath promised for the comfort of his church, Isa. i. 26. Isa. xlix. 2. Jer. xxx. 21. Promises should be motives and foments of prayer. We ought to pray against anarchy as a plague, and with all earnestness beg of God, that the mercy of magistracy may again be known in Britain, of which it hath been long deprived. 5. And when we have them, it is a necessary duty to pray for them; "For kings and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty," 1 Tim. ii. 2. Where it is specified, what sort we should pray for, and to what end. As we are not to pray for all men absolutely; for some, as they are declared to be out of the precincts of Christ's mediation, so they must be out of our prayers: so there may be some in actual rule, that may be excepted out of the verge of the Christian prayers, as was said of Julian the apostate. But he that is a magistrate indeed, and in authority, the subjects are to pray and to give thanks for him, not as a man merely, but as a magistrate. Yea, though they be heathen magistrates, Ezra vi. 10. We may pray for all in authority, two ways; as men, and as kings. As men, we may pray for their salvation, or conversion, or taking them out of the way, if they be enemies to Christ's kingdom, according as they are stated; and upon condition, if it be possible, and if they belong to the election of grace. Though for such as are opposites to the coming of Christ's kingdom, as it is a contradiction to the second petition of the Lord's prayer, (thy kingdom come.) So, in the experience of the most eminent wrestlers, they have found less faith, and less encouragement, in praying for them, than for any other sort of men. It is rare that ever any could find their hands in praying for the conversion of the rulers. And though we pray that the Lord would convince them; yea, and confound them, in mercy to their souls; yet this must never be wanting in our prayers for tyrants, as men, that God would bring them down, and cause justice overtake them, that God may be glorified, and the nation eased of such a burden. But if we pray for them as kings, then they must be such by God's approbation, and not mere possessory occupants, to whom we owe no such respect nor duty. For whatever the Hobbists, and the time serving Casuists of our day, and even many good men (though wofully lax in this point) homologating both doctrinally and practically their heathenish notions, say to the contrary; I hope it be in some measure made out, that tyrants are no more the ordinance of God, nor to be owned as his ministers and vicegerents, than the devil the prince of this world for the Lord's anointed, or Baal's priests for true ministers. If we pray for them as kings, we must pray for their peace, prosperity, and preservation, that their government may be blessed with success, their designs not frustrated, nor their desires disappointed. This we cannot pray for tyrants. 6. Albeit, we may pray for the peace of the nation, and for the government thereof, so far as it may conduce to our own and the church's tranquillity, that we may live a peaceable and godly life under it; yet this cannot be extended to the peace of tyrants, for whom the best prayer that we can bestow is, that the Lord would bridle and restrain them, that they may not mar the church's peace. That command, Jer. xxix. 7. "Seek the peace of the city, whithersoever I have caused you to be carried captives, and pray unto the Lord for it, for in the peace thereof shall you have peace," is apparent to have been but of a temporary nature, upon occasion of their captivity there, until the 70 years should be expired, having it also declared by God, that their own peace was bound up in that of Babylon's: for after that time they are taught the contrary carriage towards that city, to depart, and pray against it, and exult and rejoice in its ruin: "O daughter of Babylon, happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us, that dasheth thy little ones against the stones," Psal. cxxxvii. 8, 9. "The voice of them that flee out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of his temple," Jer. l. 28. And Jer. li. 35. "The violence done to me, and to my flesh, be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say, and my blood be upon Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say." Certainly this is not the season to seek the peace of mystical Babylon, but to pray for the destruction thereof, and all its supporters: which we cannot do, if we pray for them that improve, employ, and apply all their power to support it, lest we pray contradictions; as many do, who pray against Babel's brats, and yet pray for the king; but the comfort is this, that nonsensical prayers will do little good, little hurt, but to themselves that pray them.