2. SIBTHORPE. Sermon1 on Apostolic Obedience: Romans xiii. 7. The prince... hath his duty to direct, command and protect Which duties being performed by a Sovereign, he may rightly require these dues of subjects; yea, whether he perform his duty or not, he may require these dues of them, . . . to be honoured, obeyed and maintained . . . And as rulers may justly challenge this honour to their persons, so may they with no less. right call for obedience to their laws and commands, ... whether the prince be a believer or an infidel, whether he rule justly or unjustly, courteously or covetously and cruelly. For whereas there are but duo legis termini, two effects of the law-the one to perform the commandment, the other to undergo the punishment-if princes command anything which subjects may not perform, because it is against the laws of God or of nature, or impossible, yet subjects are bound to undergo the punishment without either resistance or railing or reviling, and so to yield a passive obedience, where they cannot exhibit an active one... Tribute, being due to princes by a triple obligation, . . . by the law of God, as the sign of our subjection; by the law of nature, as the reward of their pains and protection; by the law of nations, as the sinews of the state's preservation ... The consideration of which things (no question) made ... all antiquity to be absolutely for absolute obedience to princes in all civil or temporal things; and the more moderate modern divines. . . acknowledge in this particular, that if a prince impose an immoderate, yea an unjust tax, yet the subject may not thereupon withdraw his obedience and duty; nay he is bound in conscience to submit. Apostolic Obedience, shewing the Duty of Subjects to pay 1 Preached at the Assizes at Northampton, 22 Feb., 1626. ... 3. MAYNWARING. Sermon I1: Eccles. viii. 2. To ingeminate again the parts of the text; 1. Rex, a King: and what is higher in heaven or earth than a King, God only excepted? . . . 2. Mandatum Regis: and what is stronger than it? ... 3. Obedience to this commandment: and what more rightful, just and equal with men? What with God more acceptable?... Among all the powers that be ordained of God the regal is most high, strong and large: ... No power in the world or in the hierarchy of the church can lay restraint upon these supremes... Now to this high, large and most constraining power of Kings, not only nature, but even God himself gives from heaven most full and ample testimony, and that this power is not merely human but superhuman and indeed no less than a power divine... That sublime power therefore which resides in earthly potentates is not a derivation or collection of human power scattered among many and gathered into one head, but a participation of God's own omnipotency, which he never did communicate to any multitudes of men in the world, but only and immediately to his own vicegerents . . . The second point was Mandatum Regis; the commandment of the King... All the significations of a royal pleasure are, and ought to be, to all loyal subjects in the nature and force of a command. . . Nay, though any King in the world should command flatly against the law of God, yet were his power no otherwise at all to be resisted, but (for the not doing of his will in that which is clearly unlawful) to endure with patience whatsoever penalty his pleasure should inflict upon them who in this case would desire rather to obey God than man... But on the other side, if any King shall command that which stands not in any opposition to the original laws of God, nature, nations and the Gospel (though it be not correspondent in every circumstance to laws national and municipal), no subject may, without hazard of his own damnation in rebelling against God, question or disobey the will and pleasure of his Sovereign. 1 Preached at Oatlands, 4 July, 1627. ... To Kings therefore in all these respects nothing can be denied (without manifest and sinful violation of law and conscience) that may answer their royal state and excellency, that may further the supply of their urgent necessities . . . The third point is obedience... But there be pretenders of conscience against obedience; of religion against allegiance; of human laws against divine; of positive against natural; and so of man's wisdom against the will and wisdom of God. . . First, if they would please to consider that, though such assemblies as are the highest and greatest representations of a kingdom be most sacred and honourable and necessary also for those ends to which they were at first instituted, yet know we must, that ordained they were not to this end, to contribute any right to kings whereby to challenge tributary aids and subsidiary helps, but for the more equal imposing and more easy exacting of that which unto Kings doth appertain by natural and original law and justice, as their proper inheritance annexed to their imperial crowns from their very births. And therefore, if by a magistrate that is supreme, if upon necessity extreme and urgent, such subsidiary helps be required:-a proportion being held respectively to the abilities of the persons charged, and [so that] the sum or quantity so required surmount not too remarkably the use and charge for which it was levied :-very hard would it be for any man in the world, that should not accordingly satisfy such demands, to defend his conscience from that heavy prejudice of resisting the ordinance of God and receiving to himself damnation; though every of those circumstances be not observed which by the municipal laws is required1. Religion and Allegiance, in two sermons... ... by Roger 1 'By whom this doctrine [of the monarchy jure divino] came at first to be broached and brought in fashion amongst us, and what sad effects it gave rise to, I leave to historians to relate, or to the memory of those who were contemporaries with Sibthorp and Manwering to recollect.' (Locke, Of Government, cap. I.) There is too much cause to fear that the unhappy publication of this doctrine against the liberty and property of the subject (which others had the honour to declare before Mr Hobbes... I mean Dr Manwaring and Dr Sibthorpe), contributed too much thereunto [i. e. to the late rebellion].' (Clarendon, A Survey of the Leviathan, p. 55.) 5 ELIZ. CAP. XVIII. An Act declaring the authority of the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England and the Lord Chancellor to be one. Where some question hath of late risen, whether like... jurisdiction and power doth belong and of right ought to belong to the office of the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England for the time being, as of right doth and ought to belong to the office of the Lord Chancellor of England for the time being, or not . . . Be it enacted. . . That the Common Law of this realm is and always was... that the Keeper of the Great Seal of England for the time being hath always had and of right ought to have and from henceforth may have, as of right belonging to the office, . . . the same. jurisdiction... and advantages as the Lord Chancellor of England for the time being... as if the same Keeper of the Great Seal for the time were Lord Chancellor of England. INFLUENCE OF THE CROWN IN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS, 1570. The Lords of the Council to Archbishop Parker and Lord Cobham. Where the Queen's Majesty hath determined . . . to have a parliament holden at Westminster this next April, .. her Majesty hath called to her remembrance that though the greater number of knights, citizens and burgesses for the more part are duly and orderly chosen, yet in many places such consideration is not usually had herein as reason would, that is, to choose persons able to give good information and advice for the places for which they are nominated, and to treat and consult discreetly upon such matters as are to be propounded to them. . . . and therefore . . . have we for this purpose made special choice of your lordships, requiring you... to confer with the |