Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n
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A63880
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A sermon preached before the Lord Mayor and the Court of Aldermen at Guild-Hall Chappel on the 7th of May 1682 / by Francis Turner ...
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Turner, Francis, 1638?-1700.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing T3281; ESTC R1763
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16,172
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40
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Orators nay by the Great Cardinal Perron himself in a very august and solemn Assembly at Paris a power frequently practis'd and exercis'd to the great shame and ruin of Christian Kingdoms These seem to pervert the place that is almost parallel to my Text 1 Pet. 2. 13. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as unto those that are sent by him c. One would think they read the words of St. Peter thus Submit your selves to me or to my successor as supreme and unto Kings as to Governours sent by him But is there not a many-headed Party of Sectaries yet still usurping that honourable Name of Protestants as guilty of owning the like Principles and of acting accordingly Have not Three Kingdoms but lately felt it in the Death of our Holy King by wicked hands in the fall and bloodshed of many a Hero in Authority under him in the loss of our Peace and quietness in the decay of all Godliness and Honesty These have attempted to set one part of my Text against the other whereas we are call'd upon here to pray for Kings and all in Authority these have introduc't a distinction of taking Arms by the King's Authority against his Person But as there is light and heat where the body of the Sun is not for we enjoy light and heat upon Earth when the Sun is in Heaven and yet to be sure where the body of the Sun is there is also light and heat in the highest degree that is in the fountain of them both So 't is true the King's Authority may be where his Person is not but yet 't is certain wheresoever his Person is there is also his greatest Authority So that to take up Arms by his Authority yet against his Person is indeed to fight by his Authority yet against his Authority which is most full of contradiction And where his Person is not yet if none act and if nothing be acted but by his Commission and according to his Laws that is still by his Authority 't is the same thing the King is present there God imparts to them whom he calls Gods as it it were a Ray of his own Attribute to be by their Influence in a maner omnipresent within such a district and compass of their own Dominions Political Virtue goes out of them into others when they shall think fit to have it so But some of the stiffest Defenders of our late See Doctor Hammond 's pieces against Resistance See Bellarmin de potestate Temporali Pontif. Rom. lib. 5. cap. 7. horrid Rebellion are agreed with the great Champion of the Papal Universal Monarchy to offer another and that a bolder distinction and he tells us plainly that the Primitive Christians wanted not Authority and Right to resist upon occasion and to make head against the Civil Powers but that they wanted strength in those first Ages So that for seven hundred years after Christ this priviledge of the Church to assert Her Rights though it came to resisting of the supreme Magistrate was it seems wrapt up in silence A fair prescription of seven hundred years and of the very first years of Christianity too against such a Priviledge In the mean time what becomes of his great Canon of the Council of Trent to interpret Scripture according to the Ancient Fathers He that says St. Peter and St. Paul were not subject as other men to the higher Powers for fear he should be forc'd to acknowledge their Successors are in like manner subject I will not ask how he answers the plain words of Scripture which he thinks to elude Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers But I would ask how close does he keep to the Church for seven hundred Years and to the Fathers who he pretends are his Guides See but how well he agrees with St. Chrysostome upon the place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though thou art an Apostle says he though thou art an Evangelist though thou art a Prophet whosoever thou art thou art subject to the Higher Powers But will they say our Saviour himself wanted Power or else he had exercis'd his Prerogative over Kings and Princes in the midst of his Enemies Did he want Power then when he controul'd all evil Spirits and cast out Devils with the word of his Power which is more than the greatest Monarch upon Earth could do more than King Saul could do to cast out his own evil Spirit Then when he bid the Dead come forth and presently the Earth gave up her Dead Did he want Power then when he commanded universal Nature when even the Winds and Seas obey'd him when he shew'd by his feeding so many thousands with a few Loaves and Fishes at how easie a rate he could have maintain'd and defray'd the most numerous Armies whereupon they would have taken him by force to make him a King But he no sooner perceiv'd it than he departed into a Mountain alone chusing to be an Anchorite rather than wear a Crown and lose his beloved Title Isai 49. 7. a Servant of Rulers yet whom Kings should see and arise Princes also should worship He that had more than twelve Legions of Angels at his call if he would but have pray'd his Father to send them one might wonder what hinder'd him from giving the word to one of them that came to strengthen him in his bloody sweat why did he not bid him strike the Tyrant Herod or thunder-strike the Roman Governour Pilate but that he confesses himself subject to him That Pilate had power given him from above that is in right of his Masters the Romans now lawful Soveraigns of the Jews who had surrendred their Vid. Josephi Antiqu. Judaic lib. 14. cap. 8. Empire to Pompey the Great for the use of the Roman State even the Power of Pilate as one in Authority under the Imperial Romans was ordain'd of God Therefore you see our Saviour not only paid the Tribute-money to Caesar but his Life-blood too nay he yielded himself to their Inferiour Officers and menac'd the chief of his own from whom this Power of Popes in opposition to Kings is pretended to take its rise he threatned St. Peter I say with perishing by the Sword for drawing his Sword against those common Souldiers the Governour had sent to apprehend him And was it only weakness that the Apostles forbore opening and executing their Commission as Earthly Potentates as if St. Paul could not as easily have struck dead the Jewish High-Priest Ananias that smote him on the Face as St. Peter struck another Ananias with his Wife Saphira But that Husband and Wife were counterfeit lying Christians like these that we have to deal withal they were no Kings nor were they in Authority under them Had they been such no doubt St. Peter was better taught by this time than to have us'd them so roughly For otherwise could not St. Peter
restoring of publick Worship is avow'd to be this that they may offer Sacrifices of sweet Savour to the God of Heaven and pray for the Life of the King and of his Sons So Artaxerxes another mighty Monarch but a Pagan still had the same veneration for these Divine Offices the same sollicitude that Intercessions should be made to God for him and his Posterity not without dreadful Apprehensions of a judgment worthy of God if his solemn and decent service were neglected Ezra 7. 23. Whatsoever is commanded by the God of Heaven let it be diligently done for the house of the God of Heaven for why should there be wrath against the King and his Sons But then this Duty of praying for our Governours is so well establisht by the Apostle's express direction here and by the constant practice of the most Apostolical times as makes it a most indispensable Office in the Christian Church and methinks 't is very observable how St. Paul here has fenc'd and guarded this Duty of ours so as to leave no room for any to evade it as if he had foreseen there would be a sort of Men and they liv'd within our Memories Men who instead of praying for their King would learn to pray against him But then if all Kings according to the rule in my Text ought to be prayed for they who suppos'd their King was not to be prayed for any longer no wonder if they advanc'd to the next immediate Consequence to make him no King at all nor is it strange if those in the Neighbour Kingdom who of late had the hardiness openly to excommunicate his Majesty and many others in Authority under him delivering them over to Satan instead of praying for them as their Governours forthwith proceeded to refuse them all manner of Allegiance and Obedience but now allowing such Men all their most unjust prejudices against the persons of their Governours yet does St. Paul in this place oblige both them and us to make Intercessions for Kings as Kings for all in Authority as lawful Magistrates whether just men or no he binds them to whom he writes to pray for the conversion of wicked unconverted Heathen Potentates for it follows immediately upon my Text For this that is this praying for all Men for Kings and all in Authority this is good and acceptable in the sight of God and our Saviour who will have all men to be sav'd and come to the knowledge of the Truth where the Duty of praying for the Conversion and Salvation of those at the Helm of State who all were arrant Pagans is repeated and reinforc'd Again in the 8th verse St. Paul is pleased to rivet this Injunction I will therefore that men pray every where lifting up holy hands without wrath or doubting methinks the Apostle forbids the Christians here to be either censorious or scrupulous as if their Prayers for the worst of Heathens whether publick or private persons should not be accepted as he hath told them before that this is good and acceptable and in my Text he expresses himself in such terms as may best secure his precept of praying for Kings from the most perverse disputings as if he had taken it for granted that some might in time arrive at that height of uncharitable Insolence as to determine of Christian Princes that they were in that case wherein St. John seems to dispense with St. Pauls precept here of praying for all men there is a Sin unto Death saith St. John I do not say ye shall pray for it but St. Paul in my Text has provided even against this supposition though the Charity that hopeth all things were overcome so that the Spiritual welfare of a Nero or some other cruel Pagan and most malicious Persecutor of the Christian Faith were not only doubted but in a manner despair'd of yet such a temper is found as no wonder if the Apostle has bounded and limited these great things exactly such provision is made that as their Prince he was to be pray'd for still That they might lead a quiet and peaceable life Thus it was in the case of that impious wretch Licinius Colleague and Partner of the Empire with the Glorious Constantine that same Licinius who became a bloody Tyrant a Ravisher of Christian Virgins a Murderer of holy Bishops a most violent Persecutor of the Church when he first broke out upon the Christians the first thing he did saith Eusebius was to turn all the Christians Eccles Hist lib. 10. cap. 8. out of his family so as much as in Him lay miserably stripping and depriving himself of the help of their Prayers which they according to the institution of our Fathers us'd to pour forth to God for him and for all men no doubt it refers to my Text and to this Apostolical Constitution and the same Eusebius speaking of this wicked Licinius now grown to the height of impiety He pulled down divers Churches saith that Historian and shut up others that none of those who us'd to frequent them might assemble there and perform Divine Service to the most high God for he was of opinion saith he that they made no Prayers for him there being induc'd to that opinion as being conscious to himself of his own crimes which implies sufficiently that they did make Prayers for him still though he thought the contrary But Secondly we are not only to pray for Kings but for all in Authority under them in which how the Ancient Church behav'd her self let one of the Fathers inform us We pray saith he for all Emperours for their long life for the peace of their Empire for the safety of the Royal Family for valiant Souldiers under them for a faithful Senate an honest Commonalty a quiet World and whatsoever else ought to be the subject of our Prayers as he is a man whom we pray for or as he is Caesar But is it enough that we pray for Kings and for all in Authority some have been praying for them after a fashion that have at the same time been fighting against them We must all pray to this end and with this design that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life which is my Third particular Now if the Church of Christ be so indispensably bound to Pray for Peace and if our lives ought to be answerable to our Prayers since praying for Peace is but mocking of God without keeping the King's Peace too then let not any pretend to be good Christians and sound members of Christ's Church unless they be also good Subjects Let none lay any claim to Godliness nor yet to Honesty whose heart is not set to lead a quiet and peaceable Life let all Ecclesiastical Power that exalts it self above the Civil for its Destruction instead of its Edification be lookt upon as a mere Antichristian Imposture My aim is first against the Power of Deposing Kings that has been often claim'd by the Bishop of Rome maintain'd by his flattering