QUESTION 2: Whether it is lawful to resist a ruler who
violates the law of God, or ruins His Church; by whom, how, and to what extent
it is lawful.
“But who may punish the king (for here is question of
corporal and temporal punishment) if it be not the whole body of the people?
For it is the people to whom the king swears and obliges himself, no more nor
less, than the people do to the king. We read also that king Josiah, when he
was twenty-five years old, together with the whole people, made a covenant with
the Lord, the king and the people promising to keep the laws and ordinances of
God; (2 Chr. 34:31-33) and for the better fulfillment of this agreement, the
idolatry of Baal was presently destroyed. If any will carefully examine the
Holy Bible, he may well find other testimonies to this purpose.”
“For it makes no sense to cause the people to promise to be
the people of God, if they are also obligated to allow the king to draw them
after false gods. If the people are absolutely in bondage, why are they commanded
to take order that God be purely served? If they cannot properly perform their
obligations to God, and if it is not not lawful for them to keep their promise,
shall we say that God has made an agreement with them, who had no ability
either to make a promise, nor to keep a promise? But, in making a covenant with
the people, God openly and plainly shows that the people are able to make,
hold, and accomplish their promises and contracts. For, if someone who bargains
or contracts with a slave or a minor is not worthy to be heard in public court,
shall it not be much more shameful to lay this charge upon the Almighty, that
He should contract with those who had no power to perform the conditions of the
covenant?”
“In like manner when David commanded Joab and the governors
of Israel to number the people, (1 Chr. 21) he is charged with having committed
a great sin; for even as Israel provoked the anger of God in demanding a king
in whose wisdom they seemed to place their safety, even so David did much forget
himself in hoping for victory through the multitude of his subject. This is
very much like the abominable idolatry mentioned elsewhere in Scripture of
"sacrificing to their net, and burning incense to their dragnet."
(Hab. 1:16) The governors, seeing that it would bring evil on the people,
hesitated at first. But then, when the obligation to carry out the command
became too heavy for them to resist, they went ahead with the census; in the
meantime all the people were punished. Then David, and also the elders of
Israel, who represented the whole body of the people, put on sack-cloth and
ashes. This practice was not done when David committed those horrible sins of
murder and adultery. It is clear that in this last act, all had sinned, and
that all should repent; and finally that all were chastised: David, who had
provoked God by so wicked a commandment, the governors, who as peers and
assessors of the kingdom, ought in the name of all Israel to have opposed the
king, and the people, by their connivancy and over-weak resistance, who allowed
themselves to be numbered without a fight. In this respect, God acted much like
a chief commander or general of an army: he chastised the offence of the whole
camp by a sudden alarm given to all, and by the exemplary punishments of some
particulars to keep all the rest in better awe and order.”
“It is then lawful for the people of Israel to resist the
king, who would overthrow the law of God and abolish His church. And not only
that, but also they ought to know that if they neglect to perform this duty,
they make themselves guilty of the same crime, and shall bear the punishment
along with their king.”
“If their assaults are verbal, their defence must be
likewise verbal; if the sword is drawn against them, they may also take arms,
and fight either with tongue or hand, as circumstances warrant. Even if they be
assailed by surprise attacks, they may make use both of ambushes and
counterattacks, since there is no rule in lawful war that directs them to use
one over the other, whether it be by openly attacking their enemy, or by
waylayings; provided always that they carefully distinguish between
advantageous stratagems, and perfidious treason, which is always unlawful. But
I anticipate an objection at this point. Will you say that a whole people, that
beast of many heads, must run in a mutinous disorder, to order the business of
the commonwealth? What address or
direction is there in an unruly and unbridled multitude? What counsel or
wisdom, to manage the affairs of state?
When we speak of all the people, we understand by that, only those who
hold their authority from the people, that, the magistrates who are inferior to
the king, and whom the people have substituted, or established, an assembly
with a kind of tribunal authority, to restrain the encroachments of
sovereignty, and to represent the whole people.”
“They obey Caesar while he commands in the quality of
Caesar; but when Caesar exceeds his bounds, when he usurps that dominion which
isn't his, when he attempts to assail the Throne of God, when he wars against
the Sovereign Lord, both of himself and the people, they then think it
reasonable not to obey Caesar. Yet,
after this, to speak properly, they do no acts of hostility. He is properly
called an enemy who stirs up or provokes another, who, out of military
insolency prepares and sets forth parties to war. Only after they have been assailed by open
war, and close and treacherous surprisals; and death and destruction surrounds
them, do they then they take arms, and wait their enemies' assaults. You cannot have peace with your enemies
whenever you want; for if you lay down your arms, if you cease making war, they
will not respond by disarming themselves, and lose their advantage. However, with these men, desire but peace and
you have it; quit attacking them, and they will lay down their arms; cease to
fight against God, and they will presently leave the field. Will you take their
swords out of their hands? Then all you have to do is to abstain from striking,
seeing that they are not the assailants, but the defendants; sheathe your
sword, and they will presently cast their buckler on the ground, which has been
the reason that they have often been surprised by perfidious ambushes, of which
our times have afforded too many examples.”*
Christ, not man, is King!
Dale
*The PDF of
this work is available at www.arts.yorku.ca/politics/comninel/courses/3020pdf/vindiciae.pdf. All quoted content was excerpted from this
work.
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