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A33467
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The power of kings, particularly the British monarchy asserted and vindicated, in a sermon preached at Wakefield in the county of York, Sunday, October the 30th, 1681 by William Clifford.
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Clifford, William, A.M.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing C4715; ESTC R18703
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16,088
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36
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is the most credible witness who telleth us that he did no Sin neither was Guile found in his mouth that when he was reviled he reviled not again that when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously in all things leaving us his Example that we should tread in his steps Thus Grotius And as the Law of Moses the Gospel and the Laws and Practice of all Christian Nations so the Law of Nature and all Civilized tho not Christian Nations do assert this Truth whereof Plato's Books of his Common Wealth are an ample Testimony And in the Twelve Tables which are believed to be of Grecian extract Greece having furnished all the Heathen World with Laws as it is probably supposed which contain the Fundamentals of the Old Roman Law Crimen laesae Majestatis is the first as being a guilt of the highest nature Hitherto we have seen what Primitive Custom hath for this Assertion It appears by what hath been spoken that we must be so far from questioning the Royal Prerogatives that we are obliged both by the Law of God Nature and all Nations to vindicate them though it be with peril of life And if our Superiours should Command us any thing as God forbid they should contrary to any of these Laws you hear what is enjoyned us We must lay our hands upon our Mouths and suffer with that Meekness which becometh our Profession remembring the Examples of our Saviour and the Primitive Christians whereof I have given you a full and I hope satisfactory account However I am assured that I have spoken the Judgment of the best and purest Ages of Christianity neither can any thing be sound in contradiction to this Doctrine in all the whole Life Actions or Sufferings of Christ nor in the constant and unerring Practice of the Primitive Christians nor in any of the Writings of the Apostles or Apostolick Men. I proceed therefore to shew 2. That for Subjects to question the Actions tho offensive or Authority of their Princes is inconsistent with the nature of the Kingly Office The Scepter is put into their hands by God Almighty alone and with that the Power he giveth them is so great as that he maketh them capable of being accountable to none but Himself only Thus he saith By me Kings Reign Of this Power King Solomons Sentence is very absolute Who shall say to a King what dost thou and of the unquestionableness and uncontroulableness of his Authority he further addeth The wrath of a King is as the roaring of a Lion who shall stir him up Things depending on another are governed by that on which they depend this is undeniable Thus the Lives and Liberties of Subjects do depend upon the good or evil Will of their Prince And thus much Pilate could alledge to our Blessed Saviour that he had power to condemn him and that he had power to release him whereupon our Saviour replied without any denial or refusal of the Power that he had no power at all but what was given him from above that is that Power wherewith he was invested and which he then exercised under the Roman Caesar was not only by the permission but also by the Order and Institution of God Were it so that the Actions of Kings or their Authority could be swayed or byassed by any other Terrestrial Power whatsoever except their own how Proteus-like would Government be How would the Laws of Mercy and Justice which are so essential to the Being of a Government that it cannot subsist without them be either wrested or quite antiquated by the Prevalency of a Party Admit but this and then we should soon be sensible of the Prophets complaint Justice is gone away backward having instead of Law Rule and Order nothing but Noise Distraction and Confusion Which brings me to shew 3. That for Subjects to question the Actions or Authority of their Prince is diametrally opposite to the Liberty of the Subject We are subjected unto lawful Earthly Powers That under them we may lead godly and peaceable lives saith the Great Apostle And that according to the Prophet Every man might fit under his own Vine and that none might make him afraid The enjoyment of our Lives and our Liberties too as well in Sacred as Secular things next under God we have from the Prudence of our Prince That our Lives have not hitherto been made a Prey to our Enemies it is because his Sacred Majesty maintaineth and defendeth them That our Liberties both in Religion and State have not long since perished away in our bosoms it is because we have a King to actuate and enliven them In a word That the Allies of Rome or Geneva have not long ere this extirpated the best Reformed Church in Europe the Church of England it is because his Sacred Majesty and his Predecessors and long may He and His Successors be equally prosperous have hitherto dispelled all those abominable Mists of Schism Sacriledge and Idolatry which they raised amongst us Hitherto I have shewed you That a KING is the Greatest of all Earthly Blessings the Defence of our Lives the Bulwark of our Liberties Surely I need not long stand to recommend it to you How many Hundreds yet alive have not long since seen our tumultuous World wherein tho Religion and Liberty were the Pretence yet Prophanity Atheism and Slavery were the Event Wherein our greatest Enjoyment was the blessed Hotchpotch of Democracy and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our Devotion instead of our pure and Primitive Liturgy was exercised in an halting Directory not only destructive of and contradictory to all Antiquity but also to it Self And the wholsom Laws of our Gracious and Natural Sovereign abrogated together with Himself to make way for worse And that which Crown'd the Happiness we had Reformation thrown amongst us with a Sword in its hand to let us see how basely we had abused the Power of the Sword in taking it from him who alone by the Law of God Nature and Nations did justly challenge it The abrogation of Civil Power makes every Man Sui juris so that take away the Supreme Power which is indeed the Life of all Laws and then all manner of Sins will be venial Heresie and Schism Murder Conspiracy and Rebellion the blackest Impieties these will never be boggled at For indeed that many Men abstain from the Commission of these Sins it is not because they are so much afraid of the Justice of God as of the Severity of the King who swayeth the Sword of Justice as Gods only Vicegerent And thus at the long run should we be brought into the lamentable condition of the wretched Hebrews of whom we find this Melancholy Complaint registred by the Prophet no less than four times together that in those days there was no King in Israel but every Man did that which was right in his own Eyes Which seasonably brings me to my Third Proposition namely
for all this are they not in the least liable to the Censure of any Man No Tribunal under Heaven hath power to take cognizance of them or call them into question The Prophet in our Text tho a King confesseth his Transgression but it is with Reserve of Justice unto none but to him whom alone he owned Superiour and therefore he crieth Against thee only have I sinned That some of our Moderns might evade this plain sence of the Text they have invented one which as they think will do the business Namely that David sinned in a double respect One as a King Another as a Private Person If these be not the Notions of Forty Eight let the World judge As he was a Private Person say they he was offensive to his Neighbour as well as to God having been injurious to Vriah To which I answer Davids Repentance here was either Feigned or Sincere Feigned it could not be as appears by the circumstances neither will they suppose it And if Sincere how cometh it to pass that in his Confession he hath no respect to his injured Neighbour But here lieth the bottom of the business If they could juggle the World into a belief that David sinned as a Private Person then the unavoidable consequence would be That he must be obnoxious to that Law which he had offended and no Man is ignorant that the punishment of that Sin whereof David was guilty was Death by the Mosaical Statute What is this but to seek a pretence for Regicide That David was injurious to Vriah I do fairly and readily grant But that he was a Private Person neither They nor all the World will ever be able to convince me it being not only absurd but impossible To say that such a one is a King and a Private Person too is a flat contradiction which can never be reconciled for wherever the one is it is impossible for the other to be there also at one and the same time But whether David were Private or no this was not the thing they aimed at which was that he might be liable to Terrestrial Punishment and then whatsoever looked tho never so ill like an Argument must be brought to maintain it Thus do Men become the Patrons of Error and render themselves contemptible to all discerning Persons David was no Private Person after he was Anointed this was nothing therefore but a distinction they had invented and fitted for their purpose and either it as I have shewed or our Logic must be false Let them shew us one Example and it shall be enough of any Law either Divine or Humane of any Civilized Nation in the World that owneth it but this they cannot being only ingaged to their own crazed Heads for it David was a King and as such was as other Kings above the Law Kings have Power to dispence with the Law at their pleasure Neither is there the severest Punishment the Law can inflict but it is in the Power of the King to remit it of this David could not be ignorant nay he seems to imply as much here and by how much the more he knew himself exempted from the Mosaical Law by so much the more earnest here he seemeth to be with God for a Pardon to whose greater Tribunal only he could be accountable And of this his Earnestness the Original is a sufficient witness wherein the Pronoun is twice repeated Against thee thee only have I sinned But I hast to be more particular wherein I shall undertake to prove That For Subjects to question the Actions tho Offensive or the Authority of their Princes is a thing that is most clearly Repugnant to Primitive Custom Inconsistent with the nature of the Kingly Office And Diametrically opposite to the Liberty of the Subject 1. It is Repugnant to Primitive Custom That which Men call Religion will in no wise allow the Prerogatives of Kings to be called in question Thus the thing was amongst the Hebrews when they requested for a King to rule over them like as other Nations had the Prophet answereth them that they should have a King and that their King should take their Wives and Children their Servants and Cattel for his use and service as you may read at large Sam. 1. 8. But that which is very observable is that the Prophet in the whole description of that their King who we know was none of the best never so much as setteth the least bound or limitation to his Power maketh no observations of the extent of his Authority Whereas if either this or any other of the Precedent or Succeeding Authors of the Old Testament had but made any cases of Resistance or Restraint I make no question but the Antimonarchical Spirits of these Times would have been diligent in the search and discovery of them But so far was this from the business of Samuel and the rest of the Prophets that they enjoyn Obedience even to the worst of Kings tho it be not only to the hazard of Goods but Life And we do find it twice pronounced to make the Obligation greater concerning one of the most Insolent and Unjust of all their Kings Who can lift up his hands against Gods Anointed and be guiltless That Golden Sentence of the Psalmist therefore must of necessity have a like Relation to all Rulers Touch not mine Anointed And as the Law so the Gospel runneth high concerning Majesty Our Saviour prohibiteth us from doing any man Injury or Injustice but much more must we pay that Reverence and Respect to Caesar which himself paid and commanded us to do the like You will never find him controverting the Actions of Caesar or his Delegates but willingly submitting to whatsoever they imposed as you may clearly see in the Case of Tribute wherein he proved to St. Peter that such as were Freeborn were not liable to Taxation Nevertheless saith he lest we be troublesom go thou to the Sea and taking up a Fish in his mouth thou shalt find a piece of Money that give them for thee and me Nay so far was Christ satisfied of the Power of the Roman Emperour that he suffered Death upon the Sentence of Pilate the Governour not because he wanted Power to make Resistance as Porphyrius Julian and some others did vainly affirm against the Primitive Christians but because he would not in the least seem to make any Exception from that General Rule of Obedience to Superiours that he had laid down for otherwise as he said he could pray to his Father who could send him more than Twelve Legions of Angels to be his Assistants and to rescue their Sovereign Lord and Creatour from the violence of that hour Thus also we find the Disciples treading in their Masters steps St. Peter and St. Paul those two great Doctors of the Circumcision and Uncircumcision asserting this Royal Prerogative Submit your selves unto every Ordinance of Man saith Peter whatsoever some of his Successours have to say to