because he said he had made it unduly and presumptuously, without consulting the nobility and people, and without their authority. William was received with great joy by the clergy and people, and saluted king by all, swearing to observe the ancient good and approved laws of England: and though he did but ill perform his oath, yet before his death, he seemed to repent of the ways he had taken, and only wishing his son might be king of England, he confessed in his last will, made at Caen, in Normandy,† that he neither found nor left the kingdom as an inheritance. If he possessed no right except what was conferred upon him, no more was conferred than had been enjoyed by the ancient kings, according to the approved laws, which he swore to observe. Those laws gave no power to any, till he was elected; and that which they did then give was so limited, that the nobility and people reserved to themselves the disposition of the greatest affairs, even to the deposition and expulsion of such as should not well perform the duty of their oaths and office. And I leave it to our author to prove, how they can be said to have had the sword, and the power, so as to be feared, otherwise than, as the apostle says, by those that do evil: which we acknowledge to be not only in the king, but in the lowest officer of justice in the world.

Absque generali senatus & populi conventu & edicto.
MATTH. PARIS. Gul. Gemit. &c.

† Neminem Anglici regni constituo hæredem; non enim Lantum decus hæreditario jure possedi. Ibid.

If it be pretended, that our latter kings are more to be feared than William the Norman, or his predecessors, it must not be, as has been proved, either from the general rights of kings or from the doctrine of the apostle, but from something else that is peculiar and subsequent, which I leave our author's disciples to prove, and an answer may be found in due time. But to shew, that our ancestors did not mistake the words of the apostle, it is good to consider when, to whom, and upon what occasion, he spoke. The christian religion was then in its infancy; his discourses were addressed to the professors of it, who, though they soon grew to be considerable in number; were, for the most part, of the meanest sort of people, servants, or inhabitants of the cities, rather than citizens and freemen; joined in no civil body or society, nor such as had, or could have, any part in the government. The occasion was, to suppress the dangerous mistake of many converted Jews, and others, who, knowing themselves to be freed from the power of sin and the devil, presumed they were also freed from the obligation of human laws. And if this error had not been cropped in the bud, it would have given occasion to their enemies (who desired nothing more) to destroy them all; and who, knowing that such notions were stirring among them, would have been glad, that they who were not easily to be discovered, had by that means discovered themselves.

This induced a necesssity of diverting a poor, mean, scattered people, from such thoughts concern

ing the state; to convince them of the error into which they were fallen, that christians did not owe the same obedience to civil laws and magistrates as other men, and to keep them from drawing destruction upon themselves by such ways, as not being warranted by God, had no promise of his protection. St. Paul's work was to preserve the professors of christianity, as appears by his own words: "I exhort, that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority, that we may live a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty. Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready for every good work." St. Peter agrees with him fully in describing the magistrate, and his duty; shewing the reasons why obedience should be paid to him, and teaching christians to be humble and contented with their condition, as free, yet not using their liberty for a cover to malice and not only to fear God, and honour the king (of which conjunction of words such as Filmer are very proud) but to honour all men, as is said in the same verse. This was in a peculiar manner the work of that time, in which those who were to preach and propagate the gospel, were not to be diverted from that duty, by entangling themselves in the care of state-affairs: but it does in some sense agree with all times; for it can never be the duty of a good man to oppose such a magistrate, as is the minister of God in the exercise of his office, nor to deny to any man that which is his due.

But as the christian law exempts no man from the duty he owes to his father, master, or the magistrate, it does not make him more a slave than he was before, nor deprive him of any natural or civil right; and if we are obliged to pay tribute, honour, or any other thing, where it is not due, it must be by some precept very different from that which commands us to give to Cæsar that which is Cæsar's. If he defines the magistrate to be the minister of God, doing justice, and from thence draw the reasons he gives for rendering obedience to him, we are to inquire, whose minister he is who overthrows it, and look for some other reason for rendering obedience to him, than the words of the apostles. If David, who was willing to lay down his life for the people, who "hated iniquity," and would not "suffer a liar to come into his presence," was the minister of God, I desire to know whose minister Caligula was, who set up himself to be worshipped for a god, and would at once have destroyed all the people, that he ought to have protected? Whose minister was Nero, who, besides the abominable impurities of his life, and hatred to all virtue, as contrary to his person and government, set fire to the great city? If it be true, that "contrariorum contraria est ratio," these questions are easily decided; and if the reason of things are eternal, the same distinction, grounded upon truth, will be good forever. Every magistrate, and every man, by his works, will forever declare whose minister he is, in what spirit he lives, and consequently what obedience is due to him according to the precept of the apostle. If any man asks, what

I mean by justice, I answer, that the law of the land, as far as it is "sanctio recta, jubens honesta, prohibens contraria,"* declares what it is. But there have been, and are, laws, that are neither just nor commendable. There was a law in Rome, that no god should be worshipped without the consent of the senate: upon which Tertullian says scoffingly, "That God shall not be God, unless he please man ;" and, by virtue of this law, the first christians were exposed to all manner of cruelties; and some of the emperors (in other respects excellent men) most foully polluted themselves, and their government, with innocent blood. Antoninus Pius was taken in this snare; and Tertullian bitterly derides Trajan, for glorying in his clemency, when he had commanded Pliny, who was proconsul in Asia, not to make any search for christians, but only to punish them according to law, when they should be brought before him. No municipal law can be more firmly established by human authority, than that of the inquisition in Spain, and other places: and those accursed tribunals, which have shed more christian blood than all the Pagans that ever were in the world, are commonly called "holy offices." If a gentleman in Poland kills a peasant, he is by a law now in use free from punishment, if he lay a ducat upon the dead body. Evenus the Third, king of Scotland, caused a law to pass, by which the wives and daughters of noblemen were exposed to his lust,

Cicero. ↑ Nisi homini Deus placuerit, Deus non erit.