Richard Baxter his account to his dearly beloved, the inhabitants of Kidderminster, of the causes of his being forbidden by the Bishop of Worcester to preach within his diocess with the Bishop of Worcester's letter in answer thereunto : and some short animadversions upon the said bishops letter.

Mr. Baxter's Theses of Government and Governours in generall.

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

II. The 3. qualifications of necessity to the being of Soveraign Po∣wer 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 maketh him materiam indispositam and uncapable of Government, though not of the name. Thes. 135.
• 2. If God permit Princes to turn so wicked as to be uncapable of governing 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 Go∣vernment, it makes him an uncapable subject of the power, and so deposeth him. Thes. 137.

IV. Whereunto he subjoyns, that though it is possible and likely that the guilt is or may be theirs, who have disabled their Ruler by de∣serting him, yet he is dismissed and disobliged from the charge of

Government; 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 end enter into a Military state against the People themselves, and by them be conquered, they are not obliged to re∣store him, unlesse there be some special obligation upon them besides their Allegiance. Thes. 145.

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

VII. If an Army (of Neighbours, Inhabitants, or whoever) do (though injuriously) expel the Soveraign, and resolve to ruine the Commonwealth, rather then he shall be restored; and if the Com∣monwealth may prosper without his restauration, it is the Duty of such an injured Prince for the Common good to resign his Govern∣ment, and if he will not, the people ought to judge him as made un∣capable by Providence, and not to seek his restitution to the apparent ruine of the Commonwealth. Thes. 147.

Where 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 Commonwealth can be no longer without, but to the apparent hazard of its ruine, we (that is, we the people, or we the Rebels that dispossess'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 injury. Thes. 150. and consequently they are to submit themselves to the Parliament, or to that Army which deposed or dispossess'd or mur∣dered the rightful Governour.

X. Providence by Conquest or other means doth use so to qualifie some persons above other for the Government when the place is void, that no other persons shall be capable competitors, and the persons (doth not he mean the Cromwells?) shall be as good as named by Providence, whom the People are bound by God to choose, or con∣sent to, so that they are usually brought under a divine obligation to submit to such or such, and take them for their Governours, 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 qualified 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 com∣pelled 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 Part∣ty, all others besides themselves are to be excluded from Governing or choosing of Governours. As amongst the ungodly that are to be thus exclu∣ded he reckons all those that will not hearken to their Pastors (he means the Preshyterian 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 Scotland only.

XV. If a People that by Oath and Duty are obliged to a Soveraign, shall sinfully dispossess 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 welfare, 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 then 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 causae, they are on the worser side, yet may he not lawfully 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 Parliaments Declarations and Professions which they made, that the war which they raised was not against the King either in respect of his Authority, or of his Person; but only against Delinquent Subjects, and yet they actually fought against the King in person, and we are to believe (saith Mr. Baxter pag. 422.) that men would kill them whom they fight against.