Evangelium armatum, A specimen, or short collection of several doctrines and positions destructive to our government, both civil and ecclesiastical preached and vented by the known leaders and abetters of the pretended reformation such as Mr. Calamy, Mr. Jenkins, Mr. Case, Mr. Baxter, Mr. Caryll, Mr. Marshall, and others, &c.

Mr. Baxter's Theses of Government and Governours in General, Collected out of his Book called the Holy Common-wealth.

I. GOvernours are some limited, some de facto unlimited: The un∣limited are Tyrants and have no right to that unlimited Govern∣ment. P. 106. Thes. 101.

II. The 3. qualifications of necessity to the being of Soveraign Power are, 1. So much understanding, 2. So much will or goodness in himself, 3. So much strength or executive power by his interest in the People or others, as are necessary to the said ends of Government. P. 130. Thes. 133.

III. From whence he deduceth 3. Corollaries, (viz.)

• 1. When Providence depriveth a man of his understanding and intellectual Capacity, and that statedly or to his ordinary temper, it ma∣keth him materiam indispositam and uncapable of Government, though •…•…ot of the name. Thes. 135.
• 2. If God permit Princes to turn sowicked as to be uncapable of go∣verning so as is consistent with the ends of Government, he permits them to depose themselves. Thes. 136.
• 3. If Providence statedly disable him that was the Soveraign from the executing of the Law, protecting the just, and other ends of Govern∣ment,

• it makes him an uncapable subject of the power, and so desposeth him. Thes. 137.

IV. VVhereunto he subjoyns, that though it is possible and likely that the guilt is or may be theirs, who have disabled their Ruler by de∣lerting him, yet he is dismissed and disobliged from the charge of Go∣vernment; and particular innocent members are disobliged from being Governed by him.

V. If the person (viz. the Soveraign) be justly dispossest, as by a lawful War, in which he loseth his right, especially if he violate the Constitution and enter into a Military state against the People them∣selves, and by them be conquered, they are not obliged to restore him, unless there be some special obligation upon them besides their Allegi∣ance. Thes. 145.

VI. If the person dispossess'd, though it were unjustly, do after∣wards become uncapable of Government, it is not the Duty of his Subjects to seek his restitution. Thes. 146. No not although (saith he) the incapacity be but accidental, as if he cannot be restored but by the Arms of the Enemies or God or of the Common∣wealth.

VII. If an Army (of Neighbours, Inhabitants, or whoever) do (though injuriously) expel the Soveraign, and resolve to ruine the Common-wealth, rather than he shall be restored; and if the Com∣mon-wealth may prosper without his restauration, it is the Duty of such an injured Prince for the Common good to resign his Government, and if he will not, the people ought to judge him as made uncapable by Pro∣vidence, and not to seek his restitution to the apparent ruine of the Com∣mon-wealth. Thes. 147.

VVhere by the way we are to note, he makes the people judge of this and all other incapacities of the Prince, and consequently when or for what he is to be Depos'd, or not Restored by them.

VIII. If therefore the rightful Governour be so long dispossess'd, that the Common-wealth can be no longer without, but to the apparent hazard of its ruine, we (that is, we the people, or we the Rebels that dispos∣sess'd him) are to judge that Providence hath dispossess'd the former, and presently to consent to another. Thes. 149.

IX. When the People are without a Governour, it may be the duty of such as have most strength, ex charitate, to protect the rest from in∣jury. Thes. 150. And consequently they are to submit themselves to the Parlament, or to that Army which deposed or dispossess'd or murdered the rightful Governour.

X. Providence by Conquest or other means doth use so to qualifie some persons above others for the Government when the place is void, that no other persons shall be capable competitors, and the per∣sons (doth not he mean the Cromwels?) shall be as good as na∣med by Providence, whom the People are bound by God to choose, or consent to, so that they are usually brought under a divine obligation to submit to such or such, and take them for their Governous, before those persons have an actual right to Govern. Thes. 151.

XI. Any thing that is a sufficient sign of the will of God, that this is the person, by whom we must be Governed, is enough (as joyned to Gods Laws) to oblige us to consent and obey him as our Governour. Thes. 153.

XII. When God doth not notably declare any person or persons qua∣lified above others, there the people must judge as well as they are able according to Gods general rules. Thes. 157.

XIII. And yet All the people have not this right of choosing their Governours, but commonly a part of every Nation must be compelled to consent, &c.

XIV. Those that are known enemies of the Common good in the chiefest parts of it, are unmeet to Govern or choose Governours, but such are multitudes of ungodly vicious men. Pag. 174. So that if those that are strongest (though fewest) call themselves the Godly Party, all others besides themselves are to be excluded from Governing or choosing of Gover∣nours. And amongst the ungodly that are to be thus excluded, he reckons all those that will not hearken to their Pastors (he means the Presbyterian Classis) or that are despisers of the Lords-Day, that is, all such as are not Sabbatarians, or will not keep the Lords-Day after the Jewish manner, which they prescribe, and which is condemned for Judaism by all even

of the Presbyterian perswasion in the world, but those of England and Scot∣land ouely.

XV. If a People that by Oath and Duty are obliged to a Soveraign, shall sinfully disposse's him, and contrary to their Covenants, choose and Covenant with another, they may be obliged by their latter Covenant notwithstanding their former; and particular subjects that consented not in the breaking of their former Covenants, may yet be obliged by occasion of their latter choice to the person whom they choose. Thes. 181.

XVI. If a Nation injuriously deprive themselves of a worthy Prince, the hurt will be their own, and they punish themselves; but if it be necessarily to their well-fare, it is no injury to him. But a King that by war will seek reparations from the body of the People, doth put himself into an hostile State, and tells them actually that he looks to his own good more than theirs, and bids them take him for their Enemy, and so defend themselves if they can. Pag. 424.

XVII. Though a Nation wrong their King, and so quoad Meritum causa, they are on the worser side, yet may he not law∣fully war against the publick good on that account, nor any help him in such a war, because propter finem he hath the worser cause. Thes. 352.

And yet as he tells us (pag. 476.) we were to believe the Par∣laments Declarations and professions which they made, that the war which they raised was not against the King, either in respect of his Au∣thority, or of his Person; but onely against the Delinquent Subjects, and yet they actually fought against the King in person, and we are to be∣lieve (saith Mr. Baxter pag. 422.) that men would kill them whom they fight against.