A SERMON Preached at the Primary Visitation OF THE Most Reverend FATHER in GOD MICHAEL Lord Arch-Bishop of ARMAGH PRIMATE and METROPOLITAN OF ALL IRELAND AND Lord High Chancellor of the Same Held at Drogheda August 20. 1679. By RICH. TENISON Dean of Clogher DVBLIN Printed by Benjamin Took and John Crook Printers to the Kings most Excellent Majesty and are to be sold at His Majesties Printing-House in Skinner-Row 1679. To the most Reverend Father in God Michael Lord Arch-Bishop of Armagh Primate and Metropolitan of all Ireland and Lord High Chancellor of the same May it please your Grace SO great and high are your Graces zealous Affections and just Veneration for the best of Kings that no Sermon which is perswasive to Allegiance can pass unregarded by you but receives incouragement beyond its merit of which observed truth your Commands for this mean Discourse are an evident Demonstration I little thought having so happily escaped your learned Ear to undergo the Test of your most piercing Eye but having then preached Obedience to others I must practise it my self and submit to the kind Injunctions of so great a Superior 't is therefore laid at your Graces feet hoping my Loyalty will attone its many imperfections and the dayly fears of our Soveraigns Assassination may justifie its zeal and warmth For what tongue can be silent to see the Father of our Countrey assaulted with such variety of Deaths To see the Ponyard at his sacred Breast the fatal Dose preparing and the Gun ready to fire must fill every true Subject with horrour and resolution He is the Head of the Body Politick and as in the Natural all the Members strive to defend the Head and share in its pain so should it be in this the bloody hand which is lift up against him must wound all loyal souls the cursed Sword which strikes at him must pierce their hearts they must value the Life of their Prince infinitely above their own and run through the greatest difficulties to preserve him and if they dye in his defence they perpetuate their Name on Earth and receive the Reward of their Fidelity in Heaven which true Protestant Principle made many thousands in the late times leap into the midst of dangers and run through the armed Troops of their too potent Enemies their greatest force could not make them yield but they covered that Post with their Bodies which they could not maintain with their Arms and willingly died martyrs for their King their Religion and Country This my Lord many places can witness but none more in this Kingdom than this Loyal Town in defence of which your Graces valiant Brother famous for Courage and Conduct and many hundreds more did triumphantly lose their lives their blood ran in streams through our streets and like the brave Leonidas in the Straits of Thermopyle they with a small number opposed an Army and no doubt but there are vast multitudes in each of these Kingdoms who will imitate those Heroick spirits and cheerfully fall for the King and the Church And if ever good Subjects should demonstrate their Courage it is now if ever Protestants should love honour and obey their King it is now when the cruel Jesuits are plotting and consulting to murther him and subvert our Religion in this they are closely combined this they hold lawful and just as I have proved out of many of their Books besides Mariana though a Jesuit lately executed would confess none else of that Judgment But alas instead of uniting against them we bandy into Sects and Factions we run into Schisms and Divisions and make way for them to destroy us we forget how the Civil Discords of our Ancestours brought our King and Countrey under the Subjection of the Roman Emperour and I wish our violent heats about Religion do not at last bring our Church under the vassalage of the Roman Bishop and our State into some imminent danger for without an agreement in that our Kingdoms cannot flourish Where men differ in Ecclesiasticks they usually clash in Politicks and have their own intrigues and designs to promote their Opinions they are jealous and doubtful one of another and like the several Factions in Rome and Carthage while they pretend the good of the Commonwealth they destroy it Of this our late bloody and tragical Devastations are an undeniable Evidence and that we are falling into the same miseries again is more than probable for seditious and fiery spirits do now as formerly fill the floating heads of the vulgar with causless fears and jealousies and make the King and his greatest Ministers the common Subject of their Discourse and if all things be not done and timed according to their humour as if they knew all Reasons of State and had Intelligence from all parts of the world then do they calumniate and slander the Government and asperse those most who have ever been most eminent for their Loyalty to the King and the Church and would now die in their defence and thus are the people deluded and made subservient to some aspiring male-contents who by their Agents and Emissaries do in all places reflect on the Management of Affairs and make them Patrons of Popery who have ever abhorred it and were lately for their aversion to it to be cruelly murthered as is constantly affirmed by * Dr Oats's Nar. p. 16. 23 25. those on whose Evidence most of our late Discoveries depend But your Grace well remembers this was their method in the beginning of our late troubles they according to Machiavals Advice did boldly libel and calumniate and to destroy both Church and State they subverted their strongest Pillars under the pretence of being corrupted and rotten with Popery and by clamour and noise made all Papists who were not as rash furious and disloyal as themselves Nay those holy Prelates whose most learned Works will be eternal Armeries and most impregnable Fortresses against the whole power of Rome were most unjustly and ingratefully branded with the same Character and such are now their Designs and Practices They would perswade the people to have an ill opinion of our Governours that they might the more securely carry on their own Designs But I hope God will infuse a spirit of Discerning into our King our Parliaments and Counsellors and that all who are in any Authority will fix one Eye on those subtile Vnderminers both of Church and State that while they are most zealous and intent and blessed be God they are so on the suppression of Popery our rigid Sectaries may not grow too numerous and formidable for when greedy and voracious flames seize on both ends of a Ship the middle part is like to perish and we know Diseases long neglected may prove destructive In the beginning of the Reformation the Genevian Infection did spread it self and the good Queen could not easily prevent it her Thoughts being chiefly employed in the Extirpation of Popery which dangerous Evil the wise King James
no. Fortasse reum faciat Regem iniquitas imperandi innocentem verò militem ostendat Ordo serviendi The Magistrate may offend in commanding but not he who obeys the Principium actionis is in him and he must answer for it Thus should we behave our selves when what is commanded is only doubtful or indifferent we should have meekness of Judgment complying and condescending Spirits we should distrust and reject our private humours and fancies for the general quiet of the Kingdom and by our Conformity to the Rules imposed shew our Honour to the King and never resist them unless they be clearly against the revealed Law of God In such case only have we liberty to deny but even then we must refuse it with all humility and meekness patiently undergo Imprisonment or Death but never use any open resistance and thus have all Nations understood the Power and Prerogative of Princes for were there Decrees to be opposed with Force and Violence no Order or Government could be in the World And therefore the very Heathens advise Subjects to dye Tacit rather than lift up a hand against their King though he were Tyrannical and did exact unlawful things The Gods have given Princes Power to govern and nothing is left to the Subject but the Glory of Obedience let them be what they will we must obey without resistance Many are the Laws and most severe were the Punishments which they ordained to defend the Majesty and Grandeur of their Kings their Prefects and Officers if the Souldier broke the Stick with which the Centurion struck him he was put to death This Nature taught them and there is natural Allegiance due from every Subject to the Prince of the Country where he is born though that Prince did not make him swear he transgresses the Law of Nature if he denies Fealty to him and whether ever he is sworn or no he is bound to be true to his native Prince for the Fidelity of Subjects proceeds originally from the Law of Nature which is eternal and unalterable and not from the obligation of Oaths and he violates this Law who doth not pay all Honour and Subjection to that Prince in whose Country he his born and resides though he never took Oath of Allegiance or Supremacy But if my King require an Oath from me to assure him of my Fidelity I must take it and I am guilty of Perjury as well as Disloyalty if I ever swerve the least tittle from it He is the Head of the Society or Community of which I am a member to him before my Oath I owed homage by nature and no Power under Heaven can discharge me from that natural Allegiance which I owe him nor absolve me from the Oath I have taken without his consent Beside all which the Law of God has in many places enjoyned Obedience to Kings and there are not more positive and plainer Commands for any Duty than for Honour Maintenance and Obedience to Princes and we find no persons exempted from it but both Clergy and Laity are subject to it as I shall fully prove by Scripture and Antiquity and all who derogate from the Honour of their native Prince who lessen his Authority and deny his Supremacy act quite contrary to this Text and in so doing are neither good Christians nor good Subjects But they who walk exactly according to this Rule who honour the King and no way entrench upon his Prerogative but support it in its just height and exaltation they are the best Christians and the truest Subjects and consequently ought to receive all Countenance Incouragement and Protection from Princes and so I hast to the next thing 2. Who are the great Violaters of this Text and their unjust Pretences They who chiefly oppose the true Protestant Doctrine of Obedience to Secular Princes are the Papists and the Separatists in this they agree and their Principles are very destructive to Government quite contrary to the Practice of the Primitive Christians and the indispensable Rules of Scripture for the Law of God requireth all persons to obey their Kings if St. Peters words can have any influence on the Papists I need but name my Text which has no limitation in it but is directed to all men not imagining his Successors would have pretended the contrary but if they won't be concluded by him in this and other Texts let them hear what St. Paul says Ro. 13.1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher Powers if every soul must be subject the Pope and the Clergy are included and all are there commanded to obey under the dreadful penalty of Damnation But the Popes have since through Ambition and Avarice usurped a Power over Princes and the Jesuits the great Pillars of the Papal Throne have wrote much in defence of it though they can't but know that the Popes themselves observed this Rule for many hundreds of years and all the Bishops both of the East and West did exactly conform unto it L. 5. Orat in Aux Repugnare non novi dolere potero potero flere potero gemere lachrymae meae arma sunt c. says St. Amb. They claimed no Authority over them and made no resistance but with their Prayers and Tears Cum nefanda perpetimur ne verbo quidem reluctamur sed Deo remittimus ultionem Lact. l. 5. And Athanasius says Obedience to Magistrates was the universal Doctrine of the Church the antient Councils and Synods were called by the Emperours the Titles of their Acts are Sacra Synodus juxta religiosissimorum Christianissimor úmque Imperatorum nostrorum Praescriptum coacta Sacra Synodus juxta piissimorum nostrorum Imperatorum Decretum per Dei gratia m congregata Sometimes the Acts run Ex Jussu Ex Evocatione Ex Ordinatione Regum nostrorum c. They met by the Emperours Order Appointment and Writs 2 Cone Const as they acknowledge in their Letters to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and their Acts were made Authentick by their Confirmation The Bishops humble Addresses to the Emperours for Establishing their Canons and Decres and their Ratifications and Orders for Obedience to them are frequently recorded and all the Clergy of Rome as well as other places observed their Edicts and no news then of the Popes Supremacy as is confess'd by the Bishops who met at Bononia to settle the Church in the time of Julius the Third which Power did all along both under the Law and the Gospel belong unto Princes If you look in the Old Testament you 'l find they had power over the Clergy from the first settlement of Government amongst Gods own People Aaron obeyed Moses who was King in Jesurum in the 2 Chr. 23.21 You see both Clergy and Laity entring into a Covenant of Allegiance to young King Joash and then did Kings punish spiritual persons as well as others Abiathar was removed from the high Priesthood by King Solomon and Josiah Jehoshophat and other Kings
did reform Religion and banish Idolatry and in the New Testament Christ and his Apostles were all obedient to the Heathen Emperours paid them Tribute and owned their Authority in appealing to them from inferior Jurisdictions And long after them The Bishops of Rome were so far from having Supremacy over Kings that other Bishops would not yield to their Usurpation for Ann. 325 when Constantine called the Council of Nice the four Patriarkships were setled by the Suffrage of 318 Bishops and then it was decreed that the Bishop of Alexandria should have as much Authority in his Patriarkship as the Bishop of Rome had in his only the first Place was allowed him in General Councils he being Bishop of the Imperial City The Council of Constantinople in which were 150 Bishops and which was called by the Emperour Theodosius granted only a Primacy of Order to the Bishop of Rome and no more and Ann. 434 the Council of Ephesus which was summoned by the Emperours Order as the Acts do often shew which was honoured with the presence of 200 Prelates ordered no Bishop should usurp any Authority but what was always his And about eighteen years after when 430 Mitred Heads did adorn the great Council of Chalcedon they declared that though the Roman Bishop had the Precedency of Place yet was the Bishop of Constantinople equal to him in all things St. Peters Charter was not then urged Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and I will give unto thee the Keys of Heaven they knew no more was meant by the words than that as Peters Name signified a Rock such should he be strong and solid in the building of the Church and that nothing should prevail against the Faith he then had publickly professed so Chrysos Hil. and Cypr. understood it and so did St. Bernard long enough after them for he loudly inveighs against the Tyranny of the Roman Bishop and says to Eugenius who was Pope about 1145 Quid vos alienos fines invaditis disce tibi sarculo opus esse non Sceptro he denies St. Peters Charter and says Esto ut quacunque aliâ ratione hoc tibi vindices non tamen Apostolico jure nec illud dare tibi Petrus potuit quod non habuit He thought a Sheephook did better become that great Shepherds hand than a Scepter and that Peter could not consign that power to others which was never granted to him and as to the power of the Keys Christ gave it equally to all the Apostles Joh. 20.21 He did not then give it but according to his promise I will he afterward imparted it unto them so that 't is clear Peter had no personal Authority from Christ over the rest of his Brethren neither did he arrogate the Name of Universal Bishop as Pope Gregory himself declares l. 4. Epis 76 and much less should his Successours claim that Title His Age and Gravity might give him a Primacy of Order but more we do not find And therefore the Priority of place was all that the first General Councils would allow to the following Bishops of that See and that only because Rome was the Seat of the Empire and when the Emperour removed to Constantinoplo or Ravenna the Bishops of those Places did contend with him for superiority Neither would the Bishops of Carthage Alexandria Millain and other Places yeild any thing more to Rome but said they were equall in their several Precincts The Greek and Roman Patriarcks and Archbishops governed their own Provinces without Usurping upon each other according to the Division of the Roman Empire they were quietly setled in the Principle City of each Province where the Roman President lived there did the Christian Metropolitan dwell the Bishops were Placed in their several Diocesses and were subordinate to their own Metropolitan and no other This was the true State of the Church then the Bishop of Rome had no Supremacy over Forraign Bishops much less over Kings but gave both that honour which was due unto them And thus did it continue till about 606 when Boniface the Third and sixty sixth Bishop of that See according to the best Chronologers usurped the Title of chief of the Bishops by the help of the cruel Phocas for Sabianus his Predecessor had it not and Gregory who was just before him did sharply exclaime against the Bishop of Constantinople who then began to assume it he called it Nomen Blasphemiae L. 4. Epis 76. and in his 83 Epis In isto scelesto Vocabulo nihil est aliud quà m fidem perdere But the judgment of that good Pope weighed little with his successours they Triumphed in that swelling Title But tho they dealt thus injuriously with their Brethren the Bishops to which some near them were soon drawn to consent but others in Africk and Cappadocia would not hear of it but severely rebuked them for their Pride they themselves did meekly Submit to the Authority of the Emperours De. Concil L. 3. C. 6. who did then and long after convocate and Dissolve Synods And as Cardinal Cusanus himself confesses did in Person or by their Deputies preside in Eight General Councills which they could not have done had the Pope been then Head of the Church They disposed of spiritual preferments and judged made Laws in Ecclesiastical affaires one was made by Honorius about the very Election of the Pope Gratian Dist 63. C. 23. what Edicts they decreed Damasus and other Popes made be read in all the Churches of Rome see the decree for the Consecration of Leo the 8. and the Council which gave Jus et potestatem eligendi pontificem to Charles the Great when he had secured and setled the western Empire which power his successours held till the Reign of Henry the fourth who confirmed the Election of Gregory the 7. C. 16.17 but was afterwards excommunicated by him There also will you find that the Pope durst not Consecrate Colonus without the Emperours licence There was no opposing them in any thing then the very time and place for holding Councils were ascertained by them You find Pope Leo with weeping Eyes begging Theodosius to have a Council in Italy which he refused Epis 24. and kept at Chalcedon and Commanded him to attend it and in all Places the Bishops then obeyed the Princes they lived under and did not pretend the Popes supremacy to defend them they thought it a sin as the sixth Council of Toledo declares it to question his Power to whom God hath given Authority over all but did every where patiently submit to what they inflicted upon them How silently did Eusebius Bishop of Samosatena go into banishment at the Emperours command and did not St. Cyprian do the like at the Injunction of the Proconsul of Affrick was not St. Cyril imprisoned by Theodosius junior and St. Chrysostom banished by Arcadius and many more by other Emperours what need I insist longer on this the greatests Bishops
not to believe the Popes power of deposing Indeed Emmanuel Sa wont have the King killed Voce Tyran till he be Excommunicated but then latâ sententiâ any one may be his Executioner And Suares says T is lawfull to Resist and kill your own King L. 6. c. 3 6. if you cant defend your selves otherwise from his violence and in another place he says such insurrections are no Treason but a Just war which Doctrine was defended by Dr. Petit upon the Murther of the Duke of Orleance Simanca says an heretical Prince must not only lose his Kingdom but his Children shall be debarred from the succession L. Dict. Philop. sec 2. p. 1.9 And Creswel affirms That if any King desert the Roman Religion all Divines and Canonists agree that by the Law of God Man he immediatly looses all power and dignity before the Pope give Sentence against him his subjects are free from all Oaths of Allegiance which they have taken and they may and ought if they have strength to depose him as an Apostat Heretick And says he This is the most certain Definit and undoubted opinion of the most learned men L. 6. de Reg. p. 59. Mariana says The King must be admonished to own the Popes Supremacy but if he wont they may kill him how highly does he and so does the Jesuit Ribadeneira also defend and extoll that inhuman Monk who murthered H. 3d. and calls that horrid wickedness C. 6. an admirable greatness of spirit and an Act not to be forgotten by which he had raised to himself a great and mighty name There does he Justify the Killing of Kings for the alteration of Religion and in the next chapter directs the manner how he would have them poysoned which very Book was approved of by their General the Visitor and other Grave and Learned men of the Jesuitical order It were endless to name all who maintaine this Opinion read Amphitheatrum Bonarsii and the Book De Abdicatione H. 3 and you 'l find the assassinating of Kings largly justified and in Franciscus Veronas Apology for the wicked Chastel Pars. 2. c. 2. you 'l see the Killing of Kings Vindicated with this Circumstance Non obstante decreto supradicti Concilij Constantiensis Privatis et Singulis licitum sit Reges et Principes Haereseos Tyrannidis condemnatos occidere Tho the Council of Constance decreed the Contrary yet may any Private man kill Kings and Princes condemned for Heresy and Tyranny Gretzer Burgoin Andreas Eudemons Apology for Father Garnet and many more too tedious now to mention are full of such discourses De. Pontif. Rom. Their great oracle Bellarmine cryes out Papa potest mutare Regna uni auferre atque alteri conferre c. The Pope as he is supream spiritual Prince may take a Kingdom from one and give it to another and in another place he says C. 7 if the King be Tyrannical or Heretical all agree that he may and ought to be deposed and pretends the Primitive Christians would have served them so but that they wanted strength though he well knew they abhorred such Doctrines when they were equal to their Adversaries as is fully evident from St. Cypr. Tert. St. Aug. and others which great Truth is confessed by Barclay and Tollanus and other of their writers They own it was not for want of strength the Christians did not Rebell but out of obedience to the Principles of their Religion But that Cardinals judgment prevayled more than all the Primitive Fathers he affirms all agree in it and who will contradict him seeing one Pope says Non eos Homicidas arbitramur Urb. 2 Rescrip de Occis Excom c. quos adversus Excommunicatos zelo Catholicae Matris ardentes eorum quoslibet trucidâsse Contigerit That good Pope counted them no Murtherers who out of zeal to the Catholick Church would kill those whom she Excomunicated Who will doubt this to be the Doctrine of the Roman Church when the infallible head thereof as they call him gives such great encouragement to slay all who are under that sentence or sees another Pope grant a Jubile to all Christendom for the Massacre of Paris or reads the Oration which his Holiness made upon the Murther of H. 3d which is attested by Father Warmington Sixt. Quint. who writ and distributed the copies among the Cardinalls to second which Guinard made a Book in praise of the Monk who did it and in it advised the like to be done to his successour which Ravaillac performed and was also justified in their Publick writings and the Doctrine of Deposing Princes is fully asserted in many other books dedicaed to the Pope and the greatest Cardinals and the Superiors of their Orders carrying their Approbation and Licence in the Front and not only particular persons Conc. Lat. 4. Can. 3. Tom. 28. but above a thousand of their Clergy at once invested the Pope with the Power of Excommunicating and Deposing such Princes as at any time should refuse to extirpate Hereticks And did not another Council ratifie the Deposing of Frederick the Second Conc. Lugd. T. 28. by Innocent the Fourth and their Doctors tell us plainly what may be done with them when the Pope has deprived them for which I might quote Creswell and Windeck and others who say that Subjects are bound in Conscience and by the Command of God to expel their Heretical Princes and that they hazard their Souls if they don't do it and that all Hereticks should be put to death they should be burnt or cut in pieces By which you see 't is not the opinion of one but of many and the Practice of their greatest Church-men hath been agreeable to this Doctrine I could name several of their Bishops who in this Kingdom turned their Mitres into Helmets and their Croziers into Swords and embrued their hands in the blood of the Kings good Subjects and who can tell when they will be of a better mind and more merciful disposition for their Jesuit Campian says He would have all know In Concer Eccl. anno 1583. that their Society which is spread over all the world has made a League a holy and solemn Oath that while any one of them is alive they will go on in using all ways to extirpate and root out Protestants and that they will pursue the Ruine of our Princes Person Religion and Kingdom and we have found his words true hitherto Becan l. 5. c. 16. Comp. Contr. And another of his Brethren says A Catholick Prince ought not to suffer a Heretick to live in his Dominions unless they be too numerous and strong for him or unless he fears some Heretical Prince will invade him for it And in the preceding Chapter he says Hereticks do more disturb the Christian Peace than Murtherers or Thieves but they may justly be put to death much more may Hereticks In order to which these Kingdoms were formerly given