The serpent salve, or, A remedie for the biting of an aspe wherein the observators grounds are discussed and plainly discovered to be unsound, seditious, not warranted by the laws of God, of nature, or of nations, and most repugnant to the known laws and customs of this realm : for the reducing of such of His Majesties well-meaning subjects into the right way who have been mis-led by that ignis fatuus.

Answer

That Royalty and all lawfull Dominion conside∣red in the abstract, is from God, no Man can make any doubt, but he who will oppose the Apostle, the * 1.1 powers that be are ordeined of God; and God himselfe who saith, by me Kings raigne and Princes decree Iu∣stice. * 1.2 But the right and application of this Power and Interest in the concrete to this particular man, is many times from the grant and consent of the People. So God is the principall Agent, man the Instrumentall; God is the Root, the Fountain of Power; M••n the Stream, the Bough by which it is derived; the Essence of Power is alwayes from God, the Existence some∣times from God, sometimes from Man: yet Grant and Consent differ much, and Consent it selfe is of severall kinds, explicite or implicite, antecedent or subsequent, a long continued Prescription or Posses∣sion of Soveraignty, without Opposition or Relucta∣tation,

implies a full Consent, and derives a good title of Inheritance, both before God and Man. These grounds being laid, take notice of fower grosse Errors, which the Observer runns into in this Se∣ction.

First he supposeth that all Dominion, is from the grant or consent of the People; whereas in truth all Dominion in the abstract is from God. The People could not give what they never had, that is, power of Life and Death: But true it is, that Magistrates in the concrete, are stiled the Ordinance of Man; subjectively because they are Men, objectively because * 1.3 they raigne over Men, and many times effectively, be∣cause they are created or elected by Men. But this last holds not in all cases, I say nothing of such Kings as were named immediately by God: Those whose Predecessors or themselves have attained to Sove∣raignty by the Sword, by Conquest in a just Warre, claime immediately from God. Those also who were the first Owners or Occupants of waste Lands, might admit Tenents or Subjects upon such Conditions as they themselves would prescribe. Thirdly, those who plant at excessive Charge in remote parts of America, will give and not take Laws from their Colonies. Fourthly, upon the spreading of a numerous Family, or the great increase of Slaves and Servants, ditis ex∣amen domus, how often have the Fatherly or Ma∣gistrall power been turned into Royalty? And though these were but petty Kingdoms at the first; yet as great Rivers grow from the Confluence of many little Brooks; so by Warrs, Marriages, and Treaties, they might be enlarged. In all these Cases there is

no Grant of the people. This i•…•… one Error.

His S•…•…cond Error rests in the Hypothesis; His Ma∣jesties originall Title to this Kingdome was not E∣lection, either of the Person, or of the Family, but Conquest, or rather a Multitude of Conquests, the very last whereof is confirmed by a long Succession of foure and twenty royall Progenitors and Predecessors, glorious both at home and abroad, in Peace and War, except •…•…hen this dismall and disasterous question, did eclipse t•…•…eir lustre, and hinder the happinesse of this Nation, •…•…n the D•…•…yes of King Iohn, Henry the third, Edward and Richard the second, or in the bloody Warres between the two Houses of Yorke and Lan∣canster, which were nothing else but the fruits and con∣sequents thereof. Neither can the Observer collect from he•…•…e, that this is to enslave our Nation as Con∣quered Vassalls. It is a grosse fallacy to dispute ae dic∣to simpli•…•…ter ad dictum secundum quid, from the right of absol•…•…e Conquerers, to His Majesty now, as if so many good Lawes, so m•…•…ny free Charters, so many acts of Grace in so long a succession had operated no∣thing. This is a second Error.

Thirdly, the Observer teacheth, that subordinate Commm•…•…nd is as much from God as Supreme. His Majesty i•…•… much bound unto him, to make his Royall Commands of no more force by Gods Institution•…•… then a Pe•…•…ty Constables. We have hitherto learned otherwise, that Kings hold their Crowns and Scepters from God, and subordinate Magistrates have their places by Commission from them. But it is fa∣miliar with these men, to leap over the backs of inter∣medious

Causes, and derive all their fancyes from God as the Heathens did their Genealogies; whereby they destroy the Beauty and Order of the World, and make many superfluous Creatures, which God and Na∣ture never made. In summe, Subordinate Com∣mands are from God, yet neither so immediately, nor so firmely as supreme: but as a row of iron rings touch∣ching one another, and the first touching the Load-stone, * 1.4 in their severall degrees, some more loosely, some more re∣motely then others; The case is not altogether like for Regall and Aristocraticall Power: One God in the World, one Soule in the Body, one Master in a Fa∣mily, one Sun in the Heaven, and anciently one Mo∣narch in each Society. All the first Governours were Kings. Both Forms are warranted by the Law of Na∣ture, but not both in the same Degree of Eminency. If an old Man had the eye of a young Man, he would see as well as a young Man (said the Philosopher) the Soule of an Ideot is as rationall, as the Soule of a States man, the difference is in the Organ: So the Soule of Soveraign Power, which is infused by God into Democracy or Aristocracy, is the same that it is in Monarchy: but seeing the Organ is not so apt to attain to the end, and seeing that God and Nature do alwayes intend what is best; and lastly, seeing that in some Cases the existence of Government as well as the essence is from God, who never inst•…•…tuted any form but Monarchicall, the Observer might well have omitted his comparison.

The fourth aand last Error is worst of all, [That usurped and unjust Dominion is referred to God as its Authour and Doner, as much as hereditary.] This is

right, we have been taught otherwise, before a se•…•… vaine upstart Empericks, in Policy troubled the world, that Dominion in a tyranicall Hereditary Gover∣nour, is from God even in the concrete, (I mean the po∣wer not the abuse) that such an one may not be resiste•…•… without Sinne, that his Person is sacred: But contra∣rywise, that Dominion in a tyranicall Usurper or In∣truder is indeed from God permitting, wheras he coul•…•… restrain it, if it pleased him; or from God concurring by a generall influence, as the Earth giveth nourish∣ment to Hemlocks, as well as Wheate, in him w•…•… live, we move, and have our being, or from God orde∣ring and disposing it as he doth all other accidents and events to his own glory; but that it is not from God as Author, Donor, or Instituter of it. Neither dar•…•… we give to a Tyranicall Usurper the essentiall Privi∣ledges of Soveraignty; we deny not that any Sub∣ject may lawfully kill him as a publicke Enemy, without legall eviction. Much lesse dare we say wit•…•… the Observer, that Power usurped and unlawfull, is as much from God, as Power Hereditary and lawfull. If it be so, cough out man, and tell us plainly, that, God is the Author of Sinne.

Notes

• * 1.1

  13. 1.
• * 1.2

  8. 15.
• * 1.3

  1 Pet. 2. 13.
• * 1.4

  Philo.