let us have recourse to the main Foundations the Body and Substance of Christianity the MISHPAT HAMELEK the Ius Regium the Fundamental Law of the Kings of Israel 1. Christianity obligeth us to believe not onely that Christ is God and that the Gospel is from God but that all the Circumstances of the Ministery of Christ and his Apostles were ordered by his Providence Why then were the Times of Tiberius and Caligula and Claudius and Nero out of the Series of the Time spun out from the Creation chosen and selected for the promulgation of the Doctrine of Obedience If harsh Administration of Power will exempt men from Obedience at that Time when Claudius or Nero was Romane Emperour why should the Holy Ghost move Saint Paul to write to the Romans They that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation So much briefly for the Gospel 2 As for the Ius Regium in the eighth of the the first Book of Samuel we finde the Israelites desiring a King and God though rejected by this motion commands Samuel to hearken to their voice Yet that they might know what they did and not be surprised believing they might cast off again their King at pleasure he charges him to protest solemnly and shew them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Translation renders it The manner of the King The Septuagint and all antient Eastern and Western Translations render it by words signifying the Law or the Right of the King JUS REGIUM This saith Samuel shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall take your Sons and Daughters your Vine-yards your Fields and your Flocks c. He tells them of harsh Administrations Was it the meaning of the Holy Ghost that de Iure Princes ought to do or that it was lawfull for them to do after the manner there described In the seventeenth Chapter of Deuteronomy we finde the Duty of the Kings of Israel described in a way directly contrary to this they were to fear the Lord and not to turn aside to the right hand or to the left from his Commandments Be wise now therefore O ye Kings be instructed ye Iudges of the Earth serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling Was it a Prediction of what would be their condition what would be the manner of their Kings Not that neither We do not read of any of the Kings of Iudah or Israel that proceeded to the height there expressed Even Ahab who sold himself to work wickedness did not take Naboth's Vine-yard by force he would not seise on it till Iezebel had brought about the pretense of a Legal Forfeiture What then is the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Surely it imports thus much that if all this hard usage should come upon them they might cry unto the Lord Verse 18 but that it would not dissolve Ius Regium the right of Sovereignty or enable them to resist their Kings or rebel against them II. There remains yet one Pretense to speak to it concerns Competition of Power either on 1. Pretenses of Succession into the Magistrate's place in case of failour of Duty or upon supposals of forfeiture of Power 2. Pretenses of the last resolution of Power into the people the diffused multitude or the people's Representative and the like Concerning which kinde of Pretenses I must repeat what hath been said of the other If they be admitted they are destructive to Magistracie If they be encouraged by Religion there will be reason that Magistrates be jealous over it But now is the Spirit of the Scriptures and the tendency of it entirely bent another way The New Testament affords no Instance in this kinde As to the Old I shall desire that two Instances may be considered 1. The Case of David and Saul 2. The Case of Corah and Moses which two Instances if the time would bear it would take in the Substance of all that may be alledged in this kinde 1. It is I conceive impossible to carry the first sort of Pretenses higher then they were stated in the Case of David and Saul Saul was at first declared and constituted King by Samuel acting in the Name of the Lord and when he had reigned two years the same Samuel in the Name of the same God before the same people denounces publickly that his Kingdom should not continue and that God had sought a man after his own heart because he invaded the Priest's Office After this he limits a certain day he tells him This day the Lord hath rent the Kingdom of Israel from thee and given it to thy neighbour because of his rebellion against God in the Case of Amalek The pretense of Failour and Forfeiture can go no higher Now for the pretenses of David to step into his Government and wrest it from him He was anointed by Samuel for ought appears without reservation for the life of Saul He was qualified for Government a valiant man a man of War prudent in matters a comely Person and the Lord was with him He had received Testimony from God of his Election the Spirit of God departed from Saul and rested upon him He had power in his hand he was set over the men of War accepted by all the people all Israel and Iudab loved him After all this you know his Provocations his Advantages and his Behaviour he durst not touch the Lord 's anointed and when another pretended to have done it at Saul's entreaty in extremis he revenged his death and lamented over him Ye mountains of Gilboa c. But that other Pretense that after a lawfull Sovereign is established according to the Supposition of my Text and my Discourse the power still remains in the people in the diffused body of them or their Representatives to alter the Government as they please it is in respect of Policy and Government what the Sin against the Holy Ghost is to Religion it destroys the foundations of the peace and safety of men and makes that to be the Artifice of man which is the Ordinance of God How much God abhorred this Pretense will appear in the Case of Corah and his company When God sent Moses to bring the Israelites out of Egypt he sanctified him and put his Name upon him Thou shalt be to him instead of God and when he had brought them forth he made him a Prince and a Law-giver over them The supreme Power was in Moses who called to his assistance a Senate or Parliament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consisting of the Heads of the Tribes of Israel In this Council Nature soon began to work some envied Moses whom God bad chosen and Aaron the Saint of the Lord. Dathan and Abiram the Sons of Eliab Heads of Families in the Tribe of Reuben thought both the Civil Power and if that must be transferred from the first-born to one Tribe the Priesthood also was due to them being Eldest Brethren of the Eldest
Against Resistance of Lawful Powers A SERMON PREACHED AT WHITE-HALL Novemb. V th 1661. By SETH WARD D. D. Chaplain to His Majesty Published by His MAJESTIE' 's Command LONDON Printed by Tho Roycroft for Iohn Martin Iames Allestry and Tho Dicas at the Bell in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXI TO THE Most High and Mighty PRINCE CHARLES the II. By the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. May it please Your Majesty IF when the present Service was with great Favour laid upon me by that most Reverend Person to whom I not onely ow Canonical Obedience but a free disposal of my Concernments I did not without fear address my self to the Undertaking and if now I make my humble approach into Your Presence with Diffidence and Trembling and without those Tokens of Ioy which would be agreeable to the Honour I have received in being by Your Majesty encouraged to make this Offering Your Majesty being as an Angel of God will graciously be pleased to discern that no Aversness from the service of Your Majesty and the Church Nor apprehension of Difficulty in what I was to undertake Nor fear of the Adversaries of the Truth have created these Passions in me but that they are wholly derived from other Causes For next to the greatend of all my hopes I shall not so earnestly snatch at any thing as the opportunities of serving God in that station he hath ordered for me in the Church of Christ in which service I apprehend the acts of Loyalty and Duty to Your Sacred Majesty and of teaching men so to be most eminently involved As for the easiness of this performance I am perswaded in my Conscience that to him who hath embraced Christianity in the true and genuine Spirit of itâ— and to those who without vile Affections and Carnal Interests shall apply themselves to know the Mind of God delivered in the Scriptures no one thing is more clear and evident or pressed more urgently by the Holy Spirit then is the Doctrine which I have delivered If there be such things as damnable Heresies the denial of Christ himself the Lord that bought us blessed for ever is not more truly an Heresie or a damnable Heresie then that Doctrine which doth encourage Subjects to despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities We are not to maâ—vail if we have seen that after this grand Heresie had broken its way thorough the Consciences of men the sholes of others passed clear without control â— and that those Doctrines and Practises which in the purest Times were abhorred as most heretical and profane were made the marks of the greatest Godâ—iness and instances of the highest attainments in Religion But on the other side it is considerable that in the late days of darkness and of gloominess God did not leave this Truth without witness but amidst all the Blasphemies wherewith Your Glorious Father now with God was in the day of His Calamity blasphemed even Rabshakeh was driven to acknowledge that the Doctrine of Resistance was a Mystery concealed from the Prophets the Apostles and Primitive Christians and reserved to be revealed in our Times upon whom the ends of the World are come And that our teaching Souldiers who taught the Nation with Briers and Thorns as Gideon did the men of Succoth not able to resist the Spirit speaking in the Apostles were wont to resort to this foolish Refuge that the Doctrine of Obedience was a present Truth an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to continue abusing the Saying of St. Peter as they did other Scriptures to their own Destruction As for the Adversaries of the Truths which I have delivered either on the one hand or the other how great soever they may appear in their own Eyes or in the Eyes of their Admirers I humbly conceive it may be no Transgression of the Lines of Modesty if I shall freely profess that they are not terrible in mine no man hath more reason then my self to be laid low on the consideration of days and years withdrawn from that Study whereunto I had been consecrated yet after what hath been spoken me thinks in this Cause I should not fear My fear hath been that in a Cause of so great consequence so clear so nobly handled by the greatest Worthies of the Church of England I should not finde any thing to be tolerably spoken before the greatest and most revered Judgment under Heaven And I now tremble to think that such Failings as in the current of Pronuntiation might disappear being now brought to view the Present which I tender may instead of an Offering be an Offence My fear hath been and still is lest the Truth of that Gospel wherein I stand should any way suffer prejudice by the Weaknesses and Disadvantages wherewith it hath been delivered but we have a gracious God and Your Majesty is gracious I am not ignorant how much the true Cause of God in the World which is truly stated to lie against the Carnal and Spiritual wickedness of men is entrusted in the hands of Princes I know likewise and am assured that if men be taught or brought to believe that the utmost hazard of the greatest Transgressions is onely the loss of a few days or years of life such as they finde it it will be impossible for humane Laws to give check to the unruly Lusts of men or for Society to consist Knowing this and knowing likewise the Scandals laid upon Religion I have proposed in all humble sincerity to lay before Your Majesty the true state of these matters to separate the pretious from the vile the sincere spirit of Religion from the adulterate pretenses of it and if it should please the Authour of Religion and Government so far to bless my poor endeavours by unaffected and unstrained Arguments to do right to the Doctrine of our Church and render our Religion lovely in Your Eyes to represent to Your Majesty how much You have been favoured of God who hath so far wedded Your Concernments and interwoven his Interests with Yours and of how great Concernment it is to Your Majesty to endeavour the settlement of the true Religion and to exert that Power wherewith You are entrusted to the eradication of Atheism and Prophaneness and to the pulling down of the strong Holds of Satan That this Resolution is deeply fixed in Your Bosom God hath put into the Heart of Your Majesty to declare may the same God be pleased to perform this great and true Work of Reformation by Your Hand may Wickedness be rooted out and all things that are generous and praise worthy flourish in Your time may Your Majesty live many happy and glorious days upon Earth and be afterwards crowned with Glory and Immortality So prayeth Your Majestie 's most humbly devoted Chaplain SETH WARD ROM XIII 2. And they that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation AMongst all the Stratagemes of the Devil tending to the undermining
of Religion and the subversion of the Souls of men though there cannot be any more unreasonable yet there was never any more unhappily successfull then the creating and fomenting an Opinion in the world that Religion is an enemy to Government and the bringing Sincerity and Zeal in Religion into jealousie and disgrace with the Civil Powers It was by this Jealousie blown into the heads of the High-Priests and the Sanhedrim amongst the Iews and of Herod and Pontius Pilate that Christ himself the Captain of our Salvation the Authour and Finisher of our Faith was accused condemned and executed on a Tree By this the Apostles were haled before the Governours of Provinces forced from one City to flie unto another for this they endured bonds and imprisonment and sundry kindes of death It was through this Fancie that the Christians for three hundred years together endured the rage of Heathen Emperours being destitute afflicted and tormented Our Lord Christ was traduced as an enemy to Caesar a man refractory to the Roman Laws and a Non-conformist to the Religion and Laws of his Country The Apostles were charged as disturbers of the publick peace with turning the world upside down The Primitive Christians were accounted Enemies to the Common-wealth adverse and malevolent to the Empire and the Christian Religion it self was bruited and surmised to have something in it offensive and dangerous to the Civil Government as appears not onely by the Edicts of Heathen Emperours but also by the Apologies of Clemens Alexandrinus in his fourth Book Iustin Martyr Tertullian Athenagoras c. Neither was it thus onely of Old before the Roman Empire was become Christian but even since the time of Constantine down to our Fathers days nay to our own we shall finde the Devil still managing the same pretense carrying on the same Anti-Christian Mysterie of Iniquity which began to work in the time of our Lord Christ and his Apostles Those that profess to know the Arcanum Imperii and publickly proclaim themselves to the world to be qualified for Molders of Common-wealths and Dictatours to Princes are the Writers of Politicks Machiavel abroad and others nearer home some of these pretending Discoveries of things unknown to all our Fathers if they be strictly analysed will be found to resolve their whole Mysterie into this one pretense that Religion in the height and exaltation of it is prejudicial to Policy and that to be a thorow-paced a sincere and zealous Christian is to be dangerous to the State As the remedy for which evil they have thought fit and necessary to enervate the Principles of all Religion so far as to remove the Doctrine of Cood and Evil the Immortality of the Soul the Rewards and Punishments of the world to come that so Religion may appear wholy to derive from Policy How destructive these Doctrines are not onely to the Souls of men in reference to the world to come but to the Interests of this life the regular and secure acquisition and enjoyment whereof are entirely derived from the great and everlasting Ordinance of Government I am not now called to speak But surely it cannot be unnecessary to endeavour to state this Question to search into the grounds of this pretense to examine thorowly from whence all this clamour these fears and jealousies whence all this mighty scandal hath arisen The Gospel of our Saviour is not like the Alcoran which hates the light and abhorrs a strict examination of the Principles whereon it stands When the Iews contended with our Saviour and opposed his Doctrine he defired to bring the matter in question to a rational decision Iohn x. The Question there was Whether he were the Son of God And he propounds them this fair 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verse 37. If I do the works of my Father believe me if I do not believe me not And I verily as a Minister of Christ though the meanest of ten thousand am bold in the power and through the evidence of the Truth of the Gospel to say Let the Adversaries of Religion search and look let them employ their Wit their Industry their Logick if any thing can be found in the Principles of Christianity prejudicial to the power of just and lawfull Magistrates Nay moreover if it be possible for Men or Angels to state the rights of Civil Government upon clearer and firmer Principles to secure them by more powerfull Obligations to urge them upon men by more efficacious Motives of Rewards and Punishments then those are which the very Foundations of Christianity do expresly propound then let the Gospel and the Ministers of it endure all that contempt and obloquie which these men desire to cast upon them As for the Foundations of our Religion there are those that tell us that Christianity is founded upon Cephas which is indeed by interpretation a Stone but the Apostle tells us Eph. ii 20. that we are built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-stone wherefore by these the present Question is to be decided If any men at any time taking upon them the Sacred name of Christians have swerved from the rule of their Profession and acting contrary to the Spirit of Christ have made that Holy Name to be blasphemed it is reason that they be esteemed the utter Enemies of Christianity and that they themselves should bear their Condemnation but to charge their Exorbitancies upon that Profession which they have profaned and injured is such an injustice as cannot consist with Moral Honesty or Philosophical Ingenuity So then hìc Rhodus hìc saltus As Saint Paul 1 Cor. xv 14 17 20. concerning the Resurrection of Christ If Christ be not risen our Preaching is vain and your Faith is vain but now is Christ risen so I If within the compass of those Foundations which I have mentioned be found any colour or shadow of licence for any person whatsoever upon any pretense whatsoever to entrench upon the power of lawfull Magistrates if any Warrant at all for open Rebellion or privy Conspiracies for Murthering or deposing of Princes or absolving Subjects from their Allegiance then let Kings cease to be our nursing-Fathers and Queens to be our nursing-Mothers let David look to his own house let the light of our Eys the breath of our Nostrils the Restorer of Religion the Defender of our Faith look rather first to defend himself It will then be reasonable to expect that the Kings of the earth should stand up and the Rulers take Councel together against the Lord and against his Christ that they should break their bonds in sunder and cast their cards from them then our Preaching is vain and your Faith is vain But now indeed the Case is otherwise and that evidently What the Laws of men could never do with all their Temporal Rewards and Punishments in that they are weak that Christianity in the true Spirit of it performs to the utmost height that is