Power. State.
THere is no stretching of Power; ’tis a good Rule, Eat within your Stomach, Act within your Commission.
They that govern most make least Noise. You see when they row in a Barge, they that do drudgery-work, slash, and puff, and sweat; but he that governs, sits quietly at the Stern, and scarce is seen to stir.
Syllables govern the World.
[All Power is of God] means no more than Fides est servanda. When St. Paul said this, the People had made Nero Emperour. They agree, he to command, they to obey. Then Gods comes in, and casts a hook upon them, keep your Faith: then comes in, all Power is of God. Ne∣ver King dropt out of the Clouds. God did not make a new Emperour, as the King makes a Justice of Peace.
Christ himself was a great obser∣ver of the Civil Power, and did many things only justifiable, because the State requir’d it, which were things meerly Temporary for the time that State stood. But Divines make use of them to gain Power to themselves, (as for Example) that of Die Ecclesiae, tell the Church; there was then a Sanhedrim, a Court to tell it to, and therefore they would have it so now.
Divines ought to do no more than what the State permits. Before the State became Christian, they made their own Laws, and those that did not observe them, they Excommunicated, [naughty men] they suffered them to come no more amongst them. But if they would come amongst them, how could they hinder them? By what Law? by what Power? they were still subject to the State, which was Heathen. Nothing better expresses the Condition of Christians in those times, than one of the meetings you have in London, of Men of the same Country, of Sussex-Men, or Bedfordshire-Men; they appoint their Meeting, and they agree, and make Laws amongst themselves [He that is not there shall pay double, &c.] and if any one mis-behave himself, they shut him out of their Company: But can they recover a Forfeiture made concerning their Meeting by any Law? Have they any power to compel one to pay? but afterwards, when the State became Chri∣stian, all the Power was in them, and they gave the Church as much, or as lit∣tle as they pleas’d; and took away when they pleas’d, and added what they pleas’d.
The Church is not only subject to the Civil Power with us that are Prote∣stants, but also in Spain: if the Church does Excommunicate a Man for what it should not, the Civil Power will take him out of their Hands. So in France, the Bishop of Angiers alter’d something in the Breviary; they complain’d to the Par∣liament at Paris, that made him alter it again, with a [comme abuse.]
the Parliament of England has no Arbitrary Power in point of Judicature, but in point of making Law only.
If the Prince be servus natura, of a servile base Spirit, and the Subjects liberi, Free and Ingenuous, oft-times they de∣pose their Prince, and govern themselves. On the contrary, if the People be Ser∣vi Natura, and some one amongst them of a Free and Ingenuous Spirit, he makes himself King of the rest; and this is the Cause of all changes in State, Common-wealths into Monarchies, and Monarchies into Common-wealths.
In a troubled State we must do as in foul Weather upon the Thames, not think to cut directly through, so the Boat may be quickly full of Water, but rise and fall as the Waves do, give as much as conveniently we can.