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CHAP. XXXVIII. Of the excessive burdenings of the Comminalty.
AS it is a just and approved thing before God, to do ho∣nour and reverence to Kings and Princes, and to be subject under them in all obedience; so it is a reason∣able and allowable duty to pay such tributes and sub∣sidies (whereby their great charges and honourable estate may be maintained) as by right or equity are due unto them: and this is also commanded by our Saviour Christ in expresse words, when he saith, Give unto Caesar that which is Caesars. And by the Apostle Paul more expresly, Pay tributes, render unto * 1.1 all men their due: tribute to whom tribute belongeth, and custom to whom custom: Marke how he saith, Give unto all men their due: and therein observe, that Kings and Princes ought of their good and just disposition to be content with their due, and not seek to load and overcharge their subjects with un∣necessary exactions, but to desire to see them rather rich and wealthy, than poor and needy; for thereby commeth no profit unto themselves. Fur∣ther it is most unlawfull for them to exact that above measure upon their Commons, which being in mediocrity is not condemned: I say it is un∣lawfull both by the law of God and man (the Law of God and man is tearmed all that which both God and man allow and agree upon, and which a man with a safe conscience may put in practise:) for the former we can have no other schoolmaster nor instruction, save the holy Scripture, where∣in God hath manifested his will unto us concerning this very matter; as in Deuteronomy the eighteenth, speaking of the office and duty of a King, he forbiddeth them to be hoorders up of gold and siluer, and espousers of many wives, and lovers of pride: signifying thereby, that they ought to contain themselves within the bounds of modesty and temperance, and not give the raines to their owne affections, nor heape up great treasures to their peoples detriment, nor to delight in war, nor to be too much subject to their owne pleasures: all which things are meanes of unmeasurable ex∣pence: so that if it be not allowable to muster together multitudes of goods, for the danger and mischief that ensueth thereof, as it appeareth out of this place; then surely it is much lesse lawfull to levy excessive taxes of the people; for the one of these cannot be without the other: and thus for the Law of God it is clear, that by it authority is not committed unto them, to surcharge, and as it were trample downe their poor subjects, by unmeasurable and unsupportable impositions.
As for that which the Prophet Samuel in the Name of God giveth no∣tice to the Israelites of, touching the right of a King; wherein he seemeth to allow him the disposition of the goods and persons of his subjects: I an∣swer first, That God being an immoveable Truth, cannot contradict him∣selfe by commanding and forbidding the same thing; and secondly, that the word of the Text in the Originall signifieth nothing else but a custome or fashion, as it appeareth by the 1 Sam. 11. 13. besides, the speech that the Prophet useth, importeth not a commandment, but an advertisement