To Moses the children of Israel say thus:"Speak thou to us,and we will hear thee;but let not God speak to us,lest we die."This is absolute obedience to Moses.Concerning the right of kings,God Himself,by the mouth of Samuel,saith,"This shall be the right of the king you will have to reign over you.He shall take your sons,and set them to drive his chariots,and to be his horsemen,and to run before his chariots,and gather in his harvest;and to make his engines of war,and instruments of his chariots;and shall take your daughters to make perfumes,to be his cooks,and bakers.He shall take your fields,your vineyards,and your olive-yards,and give them to his servants.He shall take the tithe of your corn and wine,and give it to the men of his chamber,and to his other servants.He shall take your man-servants,and your maidservants,and the choice of your youth,and employ them in his business.He shall take the tithe of your flocks;and you shall be his servants."This is absolute power,and summed up in the last words,you shall be his servants.
Again,when the people heard what power their king was to have,yet they consented thereto,and say thus,"We will be as all other nations,and our king shall judge our causes,and go before us,to conduct our wars."Here is confirmed the right that sovereigns have,both to the militia and to all judicature;in which is contained as absolute power as one man can possibly transfer to another.
Again,the prayer of King Solomon to God was this:"Give to thy servant understanding,to judge thy people,and to discern between good and evil."It belonged therefore to the sovereign to be judge,and to prescribe the rules of discerning good and evil:which rules are laws;and therefore in him is the legislative power.Saul sought the life of David;yet when it was in his power to slay Saul,and his servants would have done it,David forbade them,saying,"God forbid I should do such an act against my Lord,the anointed of God."For obedience of servants St.Paul saith,"Servants obey your masters in all things";and,"Children obey your parents in all things."There is simple obedience in those that are subject to paternal or despotical dominion.Again,"The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses'chair,and therefore all that they shall bid you observe,that observe and do."There again is simple obedience.And St.Paul,"Warn them that they subject themselves to princes,and to those that are in authority,and obey them."This obedience is also simple.Lastly,our Saviour Himself acknowledges that men ought to pay such taxes as are by kings imposed,where He says,"Give to Caesar that which is Caesar's";and paid such taxes Himself.And that the king's word is sufficient to take anything from any subject,when there is need;and that the king is judge of that need:for He Himself,as king of the Jews,commanded his Disciples to take the ass and ass's colt to carry him into Jerusalem,saying,"Go into the village over against you,and you shall find a she ass tied,and her colt with her;untie them,and bring them to me.And if any man ask you,what you mean by it,say the Lord hath need of them:and they will let them go."They will not ask whether his necessity be a sufficient title;nor whether he be judge of that necessity;but acquiesce in the will of the Lord.
To these places may be added also that of Genesis,"You shall be as gods,knowing good and evil."And,"Who told thee that thou wast naked?Hast thou eaten of the tree,of which I commanded thee thou shouldest not eat?"For the cognizance or judicature of good and evil,being forbidden by the name of the fruit of the tree of knowledge,as a trial of Adam's obedience,the devil to inflame the ambition of the woman,to whom that fruit already seemed beautiful,told her that by tasting it they should be as gods,knowing good and evil.Whereupon having both eaten,they did indeed take upon them God's office,which is judicature of good and evil,but acquired no new ability to distinguish between them aright.And whereas it is said that,having eaten,they saw they were naked;no man hath so interpreted that place as if they had been formerly blind,and saw not their own skins:the meaning is plain that it was then they first judged their nakedness (wherein it was God's will to create them)to be uncomely;and by being ashamed did tacitly censure God Himself.And thereupon God saith,"Hast thou eaten,"etc.,as if He should say,doest thou that owest me obedience take upon thee to judge of my commandments?Whereby it is clearly,though allegorically,signified that the commands of them that have the right to command are not by their subjects to be censured nor disputed.
So that it appeareth plainly,to my understanding,both from reason and Scripture,that the sovereign power,whether placed in one man,as in monarchy,or in one assembly of men,as in popular and aristocratical Commonwealths,is as great as possibly men can be imagined to make it.And though of so unlimited a power,men may fancy many evil consequences,yet the consequences of the want of it,which is perpetual war of every man against his neighbour,are much worse.The condition of man in this life shall never be without inconveniences;but there happeneth in no Commonwealth any great inconvenience but what proceeds from the subjects'disobedience and breach of those covenants from which the Commonwealth hath its being.And whosoever,thinking sovereign power too great,will seek to make it less,must subject himself to the power that can limit it;that is to say,to a greater.
The greatest objection is that of the practice;when men ask where and when such power has by subjects been acknowledged.But one may ask them again,when or where has there been a kingdom long free from sedition and civil war?In those nations whose Commonwealths have been long-lived,and not been destroyed but by foreign war,the subjects never did dispute of the sovereign power.But howsoever,an argument from the practice of men that have not sifted to the bottom,and with exact reason weighed the causes and nature of Commonwealths,and suffer daily those miseries that proceed from the ignorance thereof,is invalid.For though in all places of the world men should lay the foundation of their houses on the sand,it could not thence be inferred that so it ought to be.The skill of making and maintaining Commonwealths consisteth in certain rules,as doth arithmetic and geometry;not,as tennis play,on practice only:which rules neither poor men have the leisure,nor men that have had the leisure have hitherto had the curiosity or the method,to find out.
