THE ORIGINAL of WAR OR THE Causes of Rebellion A SERMON Preached in the Castle of Exon On the 15th of January 1683. BEFORE The Right Reverend Father in God THOMAS Lord Bishop of Exon And other His Majesties JUSTICES of the Peace For the County of DEVON By THO. LONG Prebendary of St. Peters Exon. Rebuke the company of spearmen the multitude of the bulls with the calves of the people till every one submit himself with pieces of silver Scatter thou the people that delight in war Psal 68.30 Quem discordiae quem caedes Civium quem bellum Civile delectat eum ex finibus humanae naturae exterminandum puto Cicero Philip. 13. LONDON Printed by J. C. and F. Collins for Daniel Brown at the black Swan and Bible without Temple-bar and are to be sold by Walter Davies in Amen-corner 1684. TO The Right Reverend Father in God THOMAS Lord Bishop of Exon And other His Majesties JUSTICES of the Peace For the County of DEVON My LORD GENTLEMEN I Have the more readily complied with your Desires for Printing this Sermon that I may acquaint the Nation with an Exemplary instance of Religion and Loyalty which I beg your pardon for Reprinting in your Own words as followeth Devon ss Ad General Quarterial Session Pacis Dom. Regis tent apud Castr Exon. in pro Comitat. praed Secundo die Octobris Anno Regni Dom. nostri Caroli Secundi Dei gratia Angliae Scotiae Franciae Hiberniae Regis Fidei Defensor c. Tricessimo quinto Annoque Dom. 1683. WE have been so abundantly convinced of the Seditious and Rebellious Practices of the Sectaries and Phanaticks who through the Course of above One hundred years since we were first infested with 'em have scarce afforded this unhappy Kingdom any interval of rest from their Horrid Treasons as that we must esteem 'em not onely the open Enemies of our Established Government but to all the common Principles of Society and Humanity it self Wherefore that we may prevent their Horrid Conspiracies for the time to come and secure as much as in us lies our most Gracious KING and the GOVERNMENT from the Fury-and Malice of 'em we resolve to put the Severest of the Laws which we find too Easie and Gentle unless enlivened by a vigorous Execution in force against ' em 1. We Agree and Resolve in every Division of this County to require sufficient Sureties for the good Abearing and peaceable Behaviour of all such as we may justly suspect or that we can receive any credible Information against that they have been at any Conventicles and Unlawful Meetings or at any Factious or Seditious Clubs or that have by any Discourses discovered themselves to be disaffected to the present Established Government either in Church or State or that have been the Authors or Publishers of any Seditious Libels or that shall not in all things duely conform themselves to the present Established Government 2. Because we have a sort of False Men and more perfidious than professed Phanaticks who either wanting Courage to appear in their own shape or the better to bring about their Treasonable Designs privately associate with and encourage the Seditious Clubs of the Sectaries and with them Plot heartily against the Government and yet that they may pass unsuspected sometime appear in the Church with a false shew of Conformity onely to save their Money and the better to serve their Faction that we may if possible distinguish and know all such dangerous Enemies we will strictly require all Church-wardens and Constables at all our Monthly Meetings to give us a full account of all such as do not every Sunday resort to their own Parish-Churches and are not at the beginning of Divine Service and do not behave themselves Orderly and Soberly there observing all such decent Ceremonies as the Laws enjoyn And that they likewise Present unto us the Names of all such as have not received the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper in their own Parish-Churches Thrice in the Year 3. Being fully satisfied as well by the clear Evidence of the late Horrid PLOT as by our own long and sad Experience That the Nonconformist Preachers are the Authors and Fomenters of this Pestilent Faction and the implacable Enemies of the Established Government and to whom the late Execrable Treasons which have had such dismal effects in this Kingdom are principally to be imputed and who by their present obstinate refusing to Take and Subscribe an Oath and Declaration That they do not hold it lawful to take up ARMS against the KING and that they will not endeavour any Alteration of Government either in Church or State do necessarily enforce us to conclude that they are still ready to engage themselves if not actually engaged in some Rebellious Conspiracy against the KING and to Invade and Subvert his GOVERNMENT Wherefore we resolve in every Parish of this County to leave strict Warrants in the hands of all Constables for the seizing of such persons And as an encouragement to all Officers and others that shall be instrumental in the apprehending of any of them so as they may be brought to Justice we will give and allow Forty shillings as a Reward for every Nonconformist-Preacher that shall be so secured And we Resolve to prosecute them and all other such Dangerous Enemies of the Government and common Absenters from Church and frequenters of CONVENTICLES according to the Directions of a Law made in the Five and Thirtieth Year of the Reign of Queen ELIZABETH Entituled An Act for the keeping Her Majesties Subjects in due OBEDIENCE Lastly That we may never forget the infinite Mercies of Almighty God in the late Wonderful Deliverance of our Gracious KING and His Dearest BROTHER and all His Loyal Subjects who were designed for a Massacre from the Horrid Conspiracy of the Phanaticks and their Accomplices and that we may perpetuate as well our own Thankfulness as their Infamy that the Generations to come may know their Treachery and avoid and never trust men of such Principles more and also that we our selves may perform our publick Duty to Almighty God before we enter upon the publick Service of our Country We Order Resolve and Agree with the Advice and Concurrence of the Right Reverend Father in God our much Honoured and Worthy Lord BISHOP to give and bestow for the Beautifying of the Chappel in the Castle of EXON and for the erecting of decent Seats there Ten pounds And we will likewise give continue Six pounds to be paid yearly to any one of the Church of Exon whom the said Lord BISHOP shall appoint to read the DIVINE SERVICE with the Prayers lately appointed for the day of Thanksgiving on the Ninth of September last and to Preach a Sermon exhorting to OBEDIENCE in the said Chappel on the first day of every General Quarter-Sessions of the Peace held in the said Castle to begin precisely at Eight of the Clock in the Morning And may the Mercies
you may do God and the King your selves and your Country most acceptable Service For in this Text you have a discovery of the first most secret motions that tend to War and Confusion which as it is said of the Basilisk being first seen they die but if they surprize us we perish I shall therefore wave all formalities and delays and become your humble Sollicitor to take immediate cognizance of the merits of the Cause that OLD CAUSE which hath formerly involved the three Nations in War and Confusion and is like to set us all on a flame a second time And I doubt not to produce such clear and unquestionable evidence concerning the matter of fact that not one though interessed and prejudiced person shall return an Ignoramus but agree fully in the Verdict with St. James That the wars and fightings among our selves can proceed from no other cause but those lusts that war in our members And in this I dare make every man a Juror being as well under the Oath of God in his Baptism as the Oath of the King in his Allegiance both which oblige him to discover and bring to condign punishment those lusts that fight against God against the Peace of our Soveraign Lord the King and the temporal and eternal Peace of our own Souls Three things the Text directs us to enquire into 1. The matter of Fact Wars and fightings 2. The Persons engaged Among you or between your selves viz. the twelve Tribes to whom St. James writes this Epistle 3. The Original whence these Wars came which our Apostle assures us was from no other cause but those lusts which did war in their members First of the matter of Fact which was more than private Stirs and Heats as some term them there was some fire and flames and Behold saith our Apostle how great a matter a little fire kindleth it proceeded to Open Hostility and Murther For although by Gods just Judgment upon them they had been for above an hundred years under the Power and Government of the Romans and owned no King but Caesar by whom they were permitted the enjoyment of their Religion Laws and Liberties under the easie tribute of one peny yearly for each person which was the ordinary pay of a Labourer or Souldier for one days service yet did they not onely often rebel against their lawful Governours on the account of that Tribute but frequently by more than Civil Wars did execute most barbarous and bloudy Fights among themselves being divided into many restless Factions each striving to be uppermost until they were all ruined This our Apostle plainly expresseth v. 2. Ye fight and war and again ye kill and desire to have i. e. to get dominion and unlawful possessions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word is and it seems to refer to a Generation of men that called themselves Zealots who under a pretence of Justice and Religion made it lawful to kill and destroy all that opposed their ingrossing the Power Wealth and Trade of the Nation for that was the Religion of those men And thus began those unnatural Wars the People were perswaded by these Zealots that their Religion Laws and Liberties were invaded by their King that Prince of Peace the anointed and Holy One of God Against whom the great Council and some chief Priests stirred up the People and conspired to put him to death And having all the Factions at their beck against him as their common Enemy that would let in the Romans upon them and having by many intolerable affronts and indignities driven him from his Royal City and hunted him from place to place they corrupted a Judas to betray him for a sum of money and by Subornation of false Witnesses and a Pagan Judge and mockery of Justice they murthered him as it were at the Gates of his great City Jerusalem whose thirst of bloud he had a little before endeavoured to quench by a floud of tears O Jerusalem Jerusalem which killest the Prophets c. This our Apostle observes ch 5. 6. Ye have condemned and killed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Just One Parallel to Acts 3.14 Ye denied the Holy One and the Just and desired a Murtherer to be granted unto you And now that the Royal sence was digged down what could be expected but a deluge of Bloud even the days of Vengeance wherein all things that were written were to be fulfilled Luke 21.22 And Judgment was to begin first at the house of God Accordingly we find Acts 6.9 that Some of the Synagogue of the Libertines and Cyrenians c. accused St. Stephen the Proto-Martyr For they being not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake and by his sharp but just reproofs ch 7. 5. being cut to the heart v. 54. the People Elders and Scribes caught him and brought him to the Council and set up false witnesses which said that he had spoke blasphemous words against Moses and against God and would change their customs ch 6. 11. And him they prosecuted with a rage that reached up to Heaven for they gnashed on him with their teeth and cried with a loud voice for his bloud and stopped their ears to all sober counsels and ran upon him with one accord and stoned him calling upon God and praying for his enemies Lord lay not this sin to their charge Acts 7.60 Then Herod their usurping king vexed the whole church imprisoned St. Peter and slew James the Brother of our Lord with the sword And those men of whom the world was not worthy were counted worthy to die and die they did like worthy men for they took joyfully the spoiling of their goods and had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings bonds and imprisonment and being tempted to deny the faith chose rather to be sawn asunder and slain with the sword What havock was made of the Flock of Christ by these grievous Wolves after that the chief Shepherds were smitten is too large to be repeated Onely as Geographers are wont to describe great Countries and Cities Battels and Devastations in a little Map I shall present you with a prospect of those Wars as it was delineated by our Saviours own hand whereof it was impossible but every tittle should be true Mark 13.9 He says They should deliver one another to the council and beat them in their synagogues That brother should betray brother to death and the father the son and children should rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death that a mans foes should be those of his own house and whoever did kill his disciples should think that he did God good service That there should follow those wars great afflictions pestilences famines such as had not been from the beginning of the world That they should fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive into all Nations and Jerusalem should be trodden down of the Gentiles Luke 21.23 for their enemies should cast a trench
the Reigns of the Kings of England by any Tyrannical acts of theirs in 500 years The Persians therefore after the death of their Kings allowed the liberty of five days wherein every one might do as when there was no King in Israel to convince them that submission to the worst Governours is better than to have none 4. Nor can any plea from Religion warrant wars and fightings among us for we are Christians and not Jews and we are under such obligations to peace that unless we can produce as clear warrant from Scripture for war and fightings among our selves we act more like Pagans than Christians Peace is the last legacy that our Saviour left us and by his Apostle he enjoyned us if it be possible and as much as in us lyeth to live peaceably with all men and he makes peace a condition equal with Holiness without which we can never see God On which grounds the Primitive Christians thought it unlawful to exercise war on any pretence whatsoever they were enjoyned to take up the Cross and not the Sword they were to love their enemies and not to hate their friends they prayed for those that persecuted them but did not persecute those who prayed with and for them The Apostles of our Lord did by preaching the Gospel subdue Kingdoms but they wrought righteousness too and did more for the securing the Imperial Crowns than all their own Laws could do And this was one argument by which Tertullian recommended the Christians to the clemency of the Roman Emperours That none of them were Nigriani or Cassiani they never abetted the Rebellions of Niger or Cassius And this should for ever endear the Communion of the Church of England that as it teacheth That it is not lawful on any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King so it was the testimony of the Royal Martyr to our present Soveraign that scarce any one who was a beginner or active prosecutor of the late war was a true lover embracer or practiser of the Protestant Religion established in England which neither gave such rules or set such examples And on the contrary ever since those twin-Monsters of Jesuitism and Fanaticism were born into the world together there hath not been one considerable League Covenant or Association of people against their Prince any single Assassination of Kings or Massacre of the people any Consults for Division War and Confusion but one or more of the Conclave of Rome or Conventicles of Separatists and both under a pretence of zeal for Religion have been the first contrivers and executioners of them Ob. But it hath been objected that the Primitive Christians had no Laws to confirm their Religion and Worship as we have and therefore it was not so lawful for them to defend their Religion by Arms as it is for us Ans 1. It is strange that our Laws should be made a pretence for Resistance which declare that it is not lawful to resist on any pretence whatsoever 2. The Primitive Christians who never bore Arms against their persecuting Princes would much more abhor to do it against Christian Governours that favoured and protected them they would never turn the Laws against the Law-makers and use them as Forts and Sanctuaries to secure and protect Rebels 3. If this plea might be admitted the best Princes would be in most danger for by this rule if we lived under a Pagan and persecuting Prince that never favoured us with one good Law we might not resist him but if under a Prince that made it his business to secure Religion by the best Laws such as presume they are of a better Religion than their Prince and can judge of the Laws better than the Law-giver might justifie a Rebellion against him and so the best Prince would be most miserable and the same Laws that secure our Religion would destroy his Crown On such a principle when Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown and found Popery established by a Law her Popish Subjects which were then the greatest number might have rebelled against her which yet they durst not do on this false principle of some true Protestants 4. If Subjects may resist as often as discontented and designing men shall tell them that the King doth not favour that Religion which the Laws do and shall influence the people with fears and jealousies that their Religion is in danger and make them Judges of the Actions and Conduct of their Governors the best of Princes who certainly ought to have some allowance for humane passions and infirmities as well as other men would daily forfeit their Crowns But lastly when the Religion and worship which we profess is established by Law how vile and absurd is the pretence of those men for Resistance who live in open defiance of those Laws and in opposition to that Religion and worship which is established by them to which if they did with Christian meekness conform there would be no hurting nor destroying in all the Land And if neither Religion nor Law will warrant wars and fightings among us then the pretence of Conscience will vanish for Conscience is nothing else but a conformity of our actions to the known Laws of God and of our Superiors not contrary to the Laws of God Now when the Law of God says we must obey our Superiors for Conscience sake and our Superiors command nothing contrary to those Laws which Laws forbid us to resist on any pretence whatsoever there can be neither Law nor Conscience to justifie Resistance but it proceeds from the lusts of ungodly men whereof this is a certain proof that when such Pretenders to Religion and Conscience do succeed in their Rebellion the Cloak is thrown off and those lusts which seemed dormant or couchant appear rampant and grievous Wolves creep out from under the Sheeps clothing which spare neither Sheep nor Shepherds nor those that helped to run down the Prey with them so they may kill and take possession Having thus proved our Apostles assertion in general That Wars and Fightings among us can proceed from no other cause but our Lusts I shall onely point you to a few of those Lusts that are the principal Incendiaries The first and chieftain of which is that Pride and Vain-glory which abounds in the hearts of Pharisaical men who seek to have their Persons had in admiration because of advantage and for want of ordinary qualifications and honest means pretend to extraordinary gifts and revelations of the Spirit and speak great words of vanity or by fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple and speak perverse things contrary to the Doctrine received from the Apostles to draw away Disciples after them When Josephus relates the miserable Wars of the Jews he gives us an account of the several Factions and Sects among them that acted in those Wars such as the Pharisees and Sadduces the Essenes and the Zealous who were the chief Boutefeus And our Saviour and his Apostles observe