else is due to him by virtue of his sovereign power; for sovereign power being immediately founded on the dominion of God hath from thence these two unalienable rights derived to it, to which all the essential rights of sovereignty are reducible: first, to command in all things as it judges most convenient for the public good, where God hath not countermanded; for the power of sovereigns descending from God can only be limited by God or themselves; for if they are limitable by any other power, they are subjects to that power, and so can no longer be sovereigns; and if they are limitable only by God or themselves, then where they are not limitable either by God or themselves, they must necessarily have a right to command. Secondly, the other unalienable right that is derived to them from God is, to be accountable only to God: for by deriving to them sovereign power, God hath exalted them above all powers but his own: and therefore, since no power can be accountable but to a superior power, and since sovereigns have no superior power but God, it is to God only, from whom they received their power, that they are accountable for the administration of it. These therefore are the natural rights of sovereign powers, and these rights remain entire and inviolate in them, notwithstanding their subjection to the mediatorial sceptre of our Saviour; as I shall endeavour to shew in the particulars.

First, Therefore by this their subjection to Christ they are not deprived of their natural right of commanding in all cases as they shall judge most convenient for the public good, where God hath not countermanded them: for the Christian religion is so far from any way retrenching the power of princes, that

it abundantly confirms and enforces it, by requiring us to submit to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake; to be subject to the higher powers, and that not only for wrath, but for conscience sake; to submit to principalities and powers, and to obey magistrates; to render tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour; i. e. to submit to all the lawful impositions of our princes, whether it be of taxes or of any other matter whatsoever; and in all the New Testament there is only one limitation made of our obedience, which is a natural and eternal one, and that is, that we ought to obey God rather than man; that is, when man's command and God's do apparently clash and interfere with each other for in this case the magistrate hath no right to be obeyed, because his will is countermanded by a superior authority: by which exception this general rule is confirmed, that in all cases whatsoever, whether temporal or spiritual, civil or ecclesiastical, sovereign powers have an unalienable right to be obeyed. For if their right to be obeyed in the kingdom of Christ extended only to civil and temporal causes, their authority would be very much lessened and retrenched by their subjection to our Saviour; since before their subjection to him it undoubtedly extended to all causes whatsoever; because being sovereign under God, it could have no other bounds or limits but what God had set to it; and therefore, since before their subjection to Christ God had bounded their authority by no other law but that of nature, it must either be made appear that the law of nature did then limit their authority only to civil causes, (which I am sure is impossible,)

or it will necessarily follow, that it extended also to spiritual and ecclesiastical; and if it did so then, it must do so still, unless it be made appear that Christianity hath retrenched and lessened it. It is true, Christ hath erected a standing form of spiritual government in his church; and it is as true, that all government, whether spiritual or temporal, includes a legislative power in it, or a power of commanding its subjects: but this is no limitation of the commanding power of sovereign princes, who must still be obeyed in all things where Christ hath not countermanded, though the church should command the contrary; for Christ never authorized the governors of his church to control the commanding power of princes, but hath left all matters of indifference as absolutely to their disposal and determination as ever they were before his spiritual government was erected; and matters of indifference are the sole matter both of purely civil and purely ecclesiastical laws; and therefore, after the church by its legislative power hath restrained any matter of indifference, the civil sovereign, in whose disposal all matters of indifference are, may, if he see good occasion, release and free it again, and impose the contrary matter of indifference; and if he doth so, all Christian people are obliged, by the express commands of scripture, to obey him; for the scripture commands of obedience to the temporal sovereignty have no such exception as this annexed to them, Except the church command the contrary. And in matters of duty what have we to do to make exception where God hath made none? And indeed where there are two legislative powers, the one must necessarily be subject to the other, or it will be impossible for the subject, in

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many cases, without sinning to obey either. whenever the commands of the civil state do happen to clash with the commands of the church, either the church must be obliged to submit to the state, or the state to the church, or the subject cannot possibly obey the one without sinning against the other. If it be said, that the church must submit to the state in things appertaining to the state, and the state to the church, and so both are supreme in their own province, I would fain know what is to be done when these two powers differ about the things which appertain to the one and to the other. The state saith, This appertains to me, and so commands it. The church saith, This appertains to me, and so forbids it. Now in this case it is certain that one or the other must be obliged to give way, or the subject can neither obey nor disobey either without sinning; and which soever of the two it be that is obliged to give way, by virtue of that obligation it must be subjected to the other: so that now the question is only this, Which of the two legislative powers is supreme? And it would be impertinent to say, that they are both supreme in their proper province, the one in civil, and the other in spiritual causes, because it is in suspense whether the cause in which they countermand each other be civil or spiritual; so that in this case I must either be obliged to obey neither, which is notoriously false, or, whatsoever the cause be in itself, to yield obedience to the one, and to disobey the other; and if I must obey the civil power, whether the cause be civil or spiritual, then the civil power must be supreme in both; as on the contrary, if I must obey the church power, whether the cause be spiritual or civil, it will as necessarily follow that the church pow

er is supreme in both. Which latter we are sure is false, as the scripture is true; for in civil matters it is agreed on all hands that the scripture concludes all men, as well clergy as laity, under the obligation of obedience to the civil sovereign, and that none are exempt; no not the apostles themselves, or the bishops succeeding them in the spiritual government, whether we consider them separately or conjunctly : and if in all civil causes I am obliged to obey the command of the civil power, then it is most certain that if the case in contest between that and the spiritual power be really civil, I am obliged to disobey the countermand of the spiritual power; but if on the contrary I must disobey the command of the civil power, supposing the cause to be spiritual, which way can I turn myself without danger of sinning so that unless one of these two powers are supreme in both causes, whenever any cause happens to be contested between them, (as to be sure many must between two rival powers,) I can neither obey nor disobey without sinning against one or both: and can we imagine that God, who is the God of order, and not of confusion, would ever involve us in such inextricable difficulties by subjecting us to two supreme powers that are subject to clash and interfere with one another? Wherefore, although, as I shall shew by and by, the church is invested with a legislative power, whereby it can restrain things that were free and indifferent for its own security, and decency, and order; yet this power is subordinate to the civil legislation, (which is in all causes supreme,) and cannot enact against it, control and countermand it in any indifferent matter, whether temporal or spiritual, but stands obliged to recede to