Selected quad for the lemma: church_n
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A53652
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A persvvassion to loyalty, or, The subject's dutie vvherein is proved that resisting or deposing of kings (under what spccious [sic] pretences soever couched) is utterly unlawfull / collected by D.O.; Herod and Pilate reconciled
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Owen, David, d. 1623.
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1642
(1642)
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Wing O704; ESTC R36621
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28,490
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36
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first King of Israel was rather a monster than a man after the spirit of God had forsaken him the evil spirit was come upon him m 1 Sam. â—6 14 There were not many sins against God Man or Nature wherein he transgressed not yet his excesse was punished neither by the Sacerdotall Synod nor the secular Senate Who can loy his hand on the Lords Annointed and be guiltlesse n 1 Sam. 16 9 The very Annointment was the cause of Sauls immunity from all humane coersion as Augustine affirmeth Quaero si non habebat Saul sacramenti sanctitatem Aug. contr lit Petil l. 2 c. 48. quid in eo David venerabatur If Saul had not the holinesse of the Sacrament I aske what it was that David reverenced in him he honoured Saul for the sacred and holy unction while he lived and revenged his death Yea he was troubled and trembled at the heart because he had cut off a lappe of Saules garment Loe Soul had no innocency and yet he had holinesse not of life but of unction So far Augustine Who questioned David for his murther and adultery who censured Salomon for his idolatry though their câ—â—nes were capitall by the Law of God After that Kingdome was divided all the Kings of Israel and most of the Kings of Iudah were notorious Idolaters yet during those Kingdomes which endured above 200 yeares no Priest did challenge no States-men did claime power from the highest to punish or depose their Princes And the Prophets perswaded all men to obey and endure those idolatrous Princes whose impiety they reproved with the losse of their lives Christ sled when the people would have made him a King a Joh. 6.15 He payed tribute for himselfe and Peter b Mat. 17.27 When the question was propounded concerning the Emperours Subsidy he concluded for Caesar c Mat. 22.21 And standing to receive the judgement of death before Pilate he acknowledged his power to be of God d Ioh. 19.15 This Saviour of Mankind whose actions should be our instruction did never attempt to change that Government or to displace those Governours which were directly repugnant to the scope of information that he aymed at Iohn Baptist did indeed reprove King Herod with a Non licet e Mar. 6 18 but he taught not the Souldiers to leave his service or by strife and impatience to wind themselvs out of the band of allegiance wherin the Law had left them and the Gospell found them f Luk. 3.14 The Apostle delivered unto the Church the Doctrine of obedience and patience which they had learned by the Precept and observed by the practise of our Lord Christ Peter commandeth obedience to all manner of men in Authority g 1 Pet. 2.15 Paul forbiddeth resistance against any power h Rom. 13.1 2 3.4 And S. Iude maketh it blasphemy to revile Government or to speake evill of Governours i Iude 8. If therefore an Angell from heaven preach otherwise than they have delivered let him be accursed k Gal. 1.8 The second Chapter prooveth the same by the Fathers of the first 300 yeares THe true Church which had the Spirit of understanding to discerne the voyce of Christ from the voyce of a stranger never taught never practised never used or approoved other weapons than salt teares and humble prayers against the Paganisme Heresie Apostacy and Tyranny of earthly Kings Iustinus Martyr Tertullian and Cyprian shall beare witnesse for 300 years wherein the Kings and Potentates of the earth bathed themselves in the bloud of innocents and prosessed enmity against Christ and his servants Ad inquisitionem vestram Christianos nos esse profitemur c. At your inquisition we professe our selvs to be Christians though we know death to be the guerdon of our profession saith Iustin Martyr to the Emperor Antonius did we expect an earthly kingdom Second apolog ad Ant. Imp. p. 113. we would deny our Religion that escaping death we might in time attain our expectation But we feare not persecution which have not our hope fixed on the things of this life because we are certainly perswaded that we must dye As for the preservation of publike peace we Christians yeeld to you O Emperor more help and assistance than other men For we teach that no evill doer no covetous man nor seditious that lyeth in wait for bloud can have accesse to God And that every man doth passe to life or death according to the merit of his deeds Thus far he We saith Tertullian to Scapula the Viceroy of Carthage are defamed Tertull. lib. au Scap. for seditious against the Imperiall Majesty Yet were the Christians never found to be Albinians Nigrians or Cassians Albinus Niger and Cassius were traytors against Marcus Antonius Commodus Pertinax and Severus the Emperors but they that sweare by the Emperors deity the very day before they that vowed offred sacrifice for the Emperor's health are found to be the Emperor's enemies A Christian is enemy to no man much lesse to the Emperor knowing that the Imperiall Majesty is ordained of God and therefore necessarily to be loved reverenced and honored whose prosperity together with the welfare of all the Roman Empire they desire so long as the world standeth We do therfore honour the Emperor in such sort as is lawfull for us and expedient for him we reverence him as a mortall man next unto God of whom he holdeth all his authority only subject to God and so we make him soveraigne our all in that we make him subject but to God alone So far Tertullian S. Cyprian sheweth many good reasons for the patience of the Saints in his book against Demetrianus God saih he is the revenger of his servants when they are annoyed Wherefore no Christian when he is apprehended doth resist or revenge himself against your unjust violence though the number of our people be very great The confidence we have that God will reward doth confirm our patience the guiltlesse give way to the guilty the innocent rest content with their undeserved punishment and tortures being certainly assured that the wrong done to us shall not be unrewarded The more injury we suffer the most just and grievous shall God's vengeance be on them that persecute us It is therfore cleare and manifest that the plagues which comed own from Gods indignation do not come through us poore persecured Christians but from him whom we serve for the wrong done unto us So far Cyprian As many as lived according to Christ's institution did never revile the government of Tyrants much lesse by force resist their violence following the patience of Christ who could by his own power the might of his Angels or the strength of his creatures have at the first withstood or at the last revenged the injury of the people Ioh 19.15 Iohn 8.22 Luk. 23.11 Mar. 15 15 Mat. â—7 27 28 29. the buffet of the Priests servant the
commanded to adore Idoles and to offer sacrifice they preferred God before their prince But when he called upon them to war August in Psal 124. and bad them invade any Nation they presently obeyed They did distinguish their eternall Lord from the temporall King yet they submitted themselves to their temporall Lord for his sake that was their eternall King Deschism Donatist Lib. 3. So far he Optatus Milevitanus is another pregnant witnesse Cum super Imperatoren nemo sit nisi solus Deus Seeing there is no man above the Emperor beside God alone which made the Emperor Donatus by advancing himselfe above the Emperour doth exceed the bounds of humanity and maketh himself a God rather than man in that he feareth and reverenceth him not Com. in Evang Ioh l. 12. c. 36. whom all men should honor next after God So far Optat. S. Cyril is of the same judgment Cui legis prevaricatores liberare licet nisi Legis ipsius authori Who can acquit them that break the Law from transgression beside the Law-giver As we see by experience in all humane States no man can without danger breake the Law but Kings themselves in whom the crime of prevarication hath no place For it was wisely said of one that it is a wicked presumption In Epist. ad Timoth. c. 2. v. 1. to say to a King Thou doest amisse So far he And also S. Chrysostome What meaneth the Apostle saith he to require Prayers Supplications Intercessions and Thanksgiving to be made for all men He requireth this to be done in the dayly service of the Church and the perpetuall rite of Dive Religion For all the faithfull do know in what manner prayers are powred out before the Lord morning and evening for all the word even for Kings and every man in authority Some man will peradventure say that for all must be understood of all the faithfull Which cannot be the Apostles meaning as may appeare by the words following viz for Kings seeing that Kings neither did then nor in many ages after serve the living God but continued obstinatly in infidelity which by course of succession they had received Thus far Chrysost See the preface before Basilic Dor. Our Modern Reformers teach us that which Paul and Chrysost neither knew nor beleeved that wicked Princes are not to be prayed for but to be resisted c. When the faction of Eutiches had prevailed against the Catholikes Leo the first had no other remedy than Prayers to God sighs teares and petitions to the Emperor Omnes partium nostrarum Ecclesiae c. All the Churches of these parts Bpist 24. ad Theod. Imper. all we Priests even with sighs and teares beseech your Majesty to command a generall Synode to be held in Italy that all offences beeing remooved there may remaine neither error in Faith nor division in Lâ—â—e Favor the Catholiques grant liberty to protect the Faith against Heretiques defend the state of the Church from ruin that Christ his right-hand may support your Empire Thus far Leo. When Gregory the great was accused for the murther of a Bishop in prison he wrote to one Sabinianus to cleare him to the Emperor and Empresse Breviter suggeras serenissimis Dominis meis Epist. lib. 7. Epist 1. You may briefly enforme my soveraigne Lord and Lady that if I their servant would have busied my self with the death of the Lombards that Nation would by this time have had neither Kings nor Duks nor Earles and should have been in great confusion and division but because I stood in aw of God I was ever afraid to meddle with the shedding of any mans bloud So far Gregory These Lombards were Pagans invaders of the Countrey ransackers of the City persecutors of the Saints robbers of the Church oppressors of the poore whom Gregory the first might and would not destroy quia Deum timuit because he seared God It is very like that his successor Gregory the 7 feared neither God nor man when he erected the papall croisier against the regall scepter and read the sentence of deprivation against the Emperor Henry Ego authoritate Apostolica c. I by the power Apostolicall do bereave Henry of the German Kingdome and do deprive him of all subjection of Christian men absolving all men from the allegiance which they have sworne unto him And that Rodolph whom the Peeres of the Empire have elected may govern the Kingdome I grant all men that shall serve him against the Emperor forgivenesse of their sins Carol. Sigon de Regoo Itâ— l. 9. in vita Hen. 3. in this life and in the life to come As I have for his pride dejected Henry from the Royall dignity so I do exalt Rodolph for his humility to that place of Authority Thus far Gregory the 7. Benno Gard in vit Greg 7. It is no wounder that Gregory his chaire clave a sunder as some writers affirme at the giving of this sentence because the proud Pope and his wicked sentence were too heavy a burthen for Peters stoole of humility to beare The fourth Chapter proveth the Immunity of Kings by the Fathers of the third 300 yeares AFter the death of Gregory the great which was about the year of our Lord 604. Sabinianus did succeed him who lived but one yeare after whom came Boniface the 3 which obtained of Phocas to be called Vniversall Bishop since that time periit virtus Imperatorum pietas Pontificum the Emperours waxed weake and the Bishops wicked What the judgement of those Fathers then was concerning subjection to wicked Kings I will make evident by the testimony of of Gregorius Turonensis Isidorus Damascenus Beda Fulgentius Leo the 4 and the Fathers astembled in a Councell at Toledo in Spaine Gregory Turonensis acknowledgeth such an absolute power in Childerick a most wicked King of France Histor lib. 5 cap. 1. as was free from all controll of man Si quis de nobis Rex justitiae limites transcendere voluerit c. If any one of us O King do passe the bonds of justice you have power to correct him but if you exceed your limit who shall chastice you We may speake unto you if you list not to hearken who can condemn you but that great God who hath pronounced himself to be righteousnes Hactenus ille Isidorus saith no lesse for the immunity of the Kings of Spaine Let all earthly Princes know that they shall give account of the Church which Christ hath committed to their protection Yea whether the peace and discipline Ecclesiasticall be advanced by faithfull Kings or dissolved by the unfaithfull he will require a reckoning at their hands which hath left his Church in their power So far Isidor John Damascene pleadeth not only for the Exemption of wicked Kings themselves but also of their Deputies Parallâ—l 〈◊〉 1. c. 21. The Governours saith he which Kings create though they be wicked though they be theeves though they be