Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	king_n	law_n	subject_n	4,732	5	6.6515	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55347	Passive obedience, stated and asserted In a sermon preached at Ampthill in Bedfordshire, upon Sunday, Septemb. 9. 1683. being the day of thanksgiving for the discovering and defeating the late treasonable conspiracy against His Sacred Majesities person and government. By Tho. Pomfret, A.M. rector of Ampthill, and chaplain to the Right Honourable Robert []ar, of Atlesbury.	Pomfret, Thomas, d. 1705.	1683 (1683)	Wing P2800; ESTC R217677	14,786	37

Jews we never read of any Party that rose up against their Kings though wicked and ungodly to vindicate themselves from their unjust Grievances which must needs arise by the Idolatry of such who Rul'd over them unless such who were peculiarly Authoriz'd from Heaven or such whose Actions are Recorded for History and Testimony of God's Providence in suffering them not of his Testimony in approving them Nay more the very Idols of the Heathens how grievous soever to the devout and pious Souls were not demolish'd by any private hand they were fain to suffer it it being not justly in their power to do otherwise And you may read of the indiscreet Zeal of a Christian Bishop who against the Emperours Command or Toleration throwing down an Idols Temple was the occasion of a violent persecution God is a God of Order and would have none go beyond their bounds but do their duty and commit the rest to his wiser disposal But however not to resist for that of all the rest is incompatible with Suffering You must therefore needs be subject Rom. xiii 5. For to say no more whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation It is in vain to say more being so plain to any man to understand that seriously thinks of a Day of Judgment when all the dawbing of Liberty and Property and Religion shall be wiped off and no pretence nor distinction satisfie against the Evidence of Truth and so plain expressions And if you please to have any more of God's mind you shall see in Scripture that He is so tender of Kings that not only they shall not be ill used but not so much as ill thought or spoke of Eccl. x. 10. Curse not the King no not in thy thought Nay and to prevent all Rebellion from shrouding it self under the new invented terms of Heats and Stirs God himself has declared Prov. xxx 31. Where the word of a King is there is power and who can say unto him What doest thou Against him there is no rising up This perhaps all men will agree to but when the Prince is evil and does wrong invades Property and intrenches upon Liberty or indangers our Religion For what then Why the Rule in Scripture relates to such Princes that are suppos'd to be Evil for no man will Curse him whom he thinks to be good and gracious but be he never so Evil Curse him not no not in thy Mind much less with thy Tongue and then to be sure to do him no harm with thy Hand when thou must not so much as intend or wish it in thy Thought Resist not Evil is our Saviour's injunction Mat. v. 39. we must hurt no man nay not that man from whom we receive hurt for no man must be his own Avenger If a private hand does me an Injury I have no way to defend my self but by the Magistrate and by the Law But then if my Prince does me Evil how shall I render Evil back to him It must be by some Power superiour to his but that is none but Gods Here therefore St. Paul's Rule comes in Rom. xii 37. Not to render Evil for Evil but to give place to wrath that is to the Divine Vengeance Evil Princes are to be referred to that and to this agree our Laws declaring That the King receives his Power only from Gods hand and therefore he is accountable only at His Tribunal Well but then the People are but in an ill-condition for if Kings who are for our defence shall turn Wolves and destroy us instead of being Nursing-Fathers shall eat up their Children if against Law they shall impose upon our Liberties and our Consciences and not allow a legal freedom in our Estates and Religion what then why the question still is whether they be Kings or not For if they be supreme we cannot controul nor correct what is above us Our present remedy is Patience and we must leave all the rest to God's Care and Punishment for we our selves are tyed up and we must not resist And say there is any Case in which we might what Case is that I hope we shall not admit it in all but then if you admit but one that will be as bad for seditious People will be sure their Case shall be that And if in any case at all it must be certainly in the Case of Religion and here indeed all our Rebells croud in Ay but the Scriptures which teach our Religion will not allow it in that Case neither For even then when the Emperours persecuted Christianity and lived upon Blood and satisfied both their Malice and their Pleasure in the death of Christians Yet still says St. Paul ye must be subject and ye must not resist for that will be your damnation and you had better dye Martyrs than Rebells Upon this reason the Christians always laid down their weapons and lifted up their hands in Prayer threw away their Swords and took up the Cross and fought for no Crowns but those of Martyrdom Yet still we hope we may be concerned for the Publick not that we have any private quarrels against the King or particular designs to make our selves great but however as Patriots of the People and Representatives of our Countrey we must prevent mischief and not suffer the Common-Wealth to be destroyed and therefore it may be more adviseable to cut off a dangerous Prince than leave it in his election and power to destroy Liberty and Property and Religion By this specious pretence it is that our Protestant Dissenters cover and defend their malicious purposes not remembring the Christian Rule given by St. Paul Rom. iii. 8. Not to do Evil that Good may come of it Those mischiefs which we fear hereafter if they cannot lawfully be diverted must be entertain'd whenever they shall happen with patience and submission and as in that there is more Christianity so too more Prudence and a nobler Courage for thus we preserve the present Peace leave future things to the dispositions of Providence and our own preservation to the Laws and an harmless Innocence We have a sort of hot-headed Republicans reprobating the Rights of the King and the noblest Subject by a kind of absolute and irrespective Decree against Religion Common-justice and the Laws not considering in the least the fatal consequences and horrid injustice so they can but wreck their malice upon the best of Kings and the most generous of Brothers But allowing those things by which they would blacken them are we to preserve that which they call Protestant Religion a composition of so many that in the whole mass it is none at all against all the Rules we are to take from our common Christianity as well as natural Justice Not to do Evil that Good may come of it is the direction of our Bible not to put that upon another which we would not endure that others should put upon

Passive Obedience Stated and Asserted IN A SERMON PREACHED At Ampthill in Bedfordshire Vpon Sunday Septemb. 9. 1683. Being the Day of THANKSGIVING FOR THE Discovering and Defeating The Late Treasonable CONSPIRACY AGAINST His Sacred Majesties Person and Government BY THO. POMFRET A. M. Rector of Ampthill and Chaplain to the Right Honourable ROBERT Ear. of Ailesbury LONDON Printed for Joanna Brome at the Gun in S. Paul's Church-Yard 1683. To the Right Honourable ROBERT Earl of Ailesbury One of the Lords of his Majesties most Honourable Privy-Council My Lord COuld I have taken the Confidence to have disputed your Commands this Discourse would not have needed that Protection and Favour which now it humbly begs Not but that I am well assured the Doctrines in it are truly Christian but it is sent forth into an ill natur'd and Plotting Age that will not give tolerable entertainment to any Principles but such as invite to Apostacy and Rebellion It is not therefore without extream Necessity that I press to Your Lordship in this Dedication the very asserting Primitive Religion and Christian Loyalty will need such a Patron And though it is no Secret to the World yet I cannot forbear declaring that I cannot have such a Defender as Your Self who does so generously practise both those Vertues I have seen in Your Lordship such Concernment for the Crown and the Establish'd Religion that I might presume of Patronage But I must beseech Your Pardon too that I present this of which I have so mean an Opinion my self to a Person for whom of all men I have the greatest Honour and from whom I have received the greatest Obligations But You loved the Subject and therefore liked the Sermon no Man ever having better joyned the Christian and the Statesman And truly my Lord I have been entertained with the greatest Delight as well as Advantage in Your own Discourses of Loyalty that it self in You being founded upon Principles truly Noble and Brave not living upon future Expectances but serving Your Prince as You do Your God by the Engagements of pure Love and undesigning Vertue And therefore in all Changes You was always Your Self no Change of State making You change Your Party This is removed as far from Vntruth as it is from Flattery that You can no more forsake Your King nor Your Religion that You can Your Self being one that values not Your Fortune nor Your Greatness above Your Vertues And as to this all men that know You will allow the Character so it is my happiness as well as interest that I can testifie it by a daily Experience having the honour of being My Lord Your Lordships most humble and obedient Chaplain Tho. Pomfret A SERMON ON I S. PET. ii 20 21. But if when ye do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God For even hereunto were ye called IT is not unknown to any man who has heard the Sermons or read the Books or remembers the Practices of all sorts of Dissenters from the Church of England but that they have been a People not only the most ungovernable but also the most destructive to the Peace and Dignity and Lives of Princes It cannot therefore be any thing strange to hear by the King's Declararation of a Conspiracy complotted against His own Life and Government since it is by such whose very Principles do so naturally tend to Sedition and Bloud And tho' indeed by God's wonderful Providence His Majesty hath been hitherto deliver'd from the Malicious Unchristian and cruel Designs of these men yet I cannot see without a continuation of Miracles how it is possible for our Government and Religion to be render'd in any degree safe unless such Positions be rooted out and renounced which plainly lead to disturb and ruin Kingdoms For since the Supreme Power is both by Gods express Order and the consent of all Nations absolute and unaccountable if you once take the Sword out of the Magistrate's hand and put it into the Peoples that Nation is presently in a state of War and every man may thrust his dagger into his Neighbours side if he has a stronger Arm and a more bloudy mind To prevent this by Gods Ordinance and the agreement of all Common-wealths the Supreme Power only is to bear the Sword and that to defend every mans Right but no man to rise up upon any Pretence whatsoever against that A conclusion this that is founded by God and Nature Reason and Religion and has been consented to by all good Christians and wiser Heathens But some hot and troublesome men amongst us given up to Rage and Ambition have torn up the Foundations of Peace and Government and will endure neither Kings nor their Laws but hate their Power and would violate their Persons to bring in their own Devices and inlarge their Grandeurs Nay and that Christianity it self which is the greatest obligation in all the World to Peace and Obedience might have no effect towards the preservation of Gods Vice-Gerents they will make the Christian Religion the pretence to Rebellion and for the concernments of God practise directly opposite to all his Commandments and amongst the rest evidently against this of the Text where we are injoyn'd to suffer though it be for doing well Passive Obedience which is a patient and mild suffering the hard and unjust usages of Kings being both the Christians duty and profession that at once he might possess his mind in patience and secure the Publick Quiet But this meek and Christian Principle was of late called to an account and by Arguments of railery and contempt indeavoured to be hooted out of the World and represented to be mean and base tamely to suffer evil and far more honourable to be inroll'd amongst the Banditi and Russians than in the Catalogue of Martyrs And accordingly to give the more confidence to their horrid plot the Chaplain and the Goliah of the Conspiracy was sent forth to bid defyance to God and the King and the whole Army of Martyrs and to tell the World that his Masters were men of that mettle that with his own Julian they would turn Apostates to all Religion and rather than suffer as Christians confederate in Treason Upon this principle their wicked Design proceeded and therefore it is but needful that it be consider'd and for the future if possible prevented which I shall endeavour from the Text where we have a passive Obedience commended God's acceptation of it and our own calling to it Which I shall render more plain in these following Propositions I. That as Christians we are bound to do well though we suffer II. When we do well and suffer for it we must take it patiently III. If we do well and according to the Christian Rule we will rather suffer patiently than resist the power by which we suffer IV. That as all these are acceptable to God so to them all we are call'd by our Religion it is both the duty

us is the Rule of Equity and not to set the Nation into a present flame for fear heareafter a tempestuous Prince should Govern it is I presume a conclusion from Policy And though Self-preservation be a very dear Principle yet certainly not to be persued by the violation of those Rights that are establi●h'd by Divine and Humane Laws These are the things that we have so long and so justly complain'd of in the Tenets and Practices of our Adversaries of Rome but whilst we thus fear and strive and cry out against Popery shall we our selves maintain one of the saddest points of it in our Affronting Opposing and Conspiring against Kings glorying so long in the Word Protestant till we altogether disclaim the Christian and by a pretence of Zeal against one Religion become a scandal and a shame to all For as to Government you cannot tell me which is worst the Romanist or the Dissenter for if the King be inferiour to the Pope as the Jesuits or to the Presbytery and People as the other do affirm it is but charging him with misdemeanors in Government and then setting up the Pastoral-Staff of St. Peter or the Standard of Christ and you may call him to an account with Sword and Blunderbuss and yet be Innocent Thus the Scepter of the Prince be i● under the Keys of St. Peter or the Kirk of St. Andrew shall be Depos'd by every proud Priest or pragmatical Presbyter and it will be all one to the Monarchy which prevails the Pope or the Faction Nor is it any great matter what our People call themselves or of what Church they are for I am sure if they be Rebels they cannot be good Christians Therefore I was always of Opinion that those men who can think it lawful to fight against their Prince were the rankest Hypocrites in their pretences to Religion for such whose Consciences are Armour of proof against the plain demonstration of duty will stick at no other sin when their Ambition or Interest invites them to it I have therefore continually wonder'd how such as might easily be observed both to speak and practise ill things against the Government could ever be thought to be Sober and Pious People remembring that when St. Jude was giving an account of base and wicked men as a part of their Character tells us they despise Dominion and speaks evil of Dignities which as he makes the mark of a prophane and wicked person so the Apostle aggravates it by observing that it is an using the Prince worse than St. Michael would the Devil against whom he brought no railing accusation To which meek and Christian temper we shall the sooner be persuaded by considering the last Proposition IV. That to do well and suffer patiently is incumbent upon us by the Religion we profess To this we are call'd to do well and yet suffer to do well though we suffer to suffer patiently nay and to choose to suffer rather than resist or rise up It is Cowardise not Christianity to desist from doing well for fear of suffering evil nor are dangers or undoing or death it self Pleas sufficient to excuse us from the performance of what is just and good for this says S. Peter is the will of God that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men vers 15 16. as free but not using your liberty as a cloak of maliciousness but as the Servants of God that is as those who are called to imitate the Patience of a Crucified Lord and Master Christ gave his Disciples the exactest Rule of Patience say the Ancient Fathers not only not to resist but not to seem to go about it and from this place in the Text and vers 12. 13 14 15 16. of the Fourth Chapter they gather it and to Christs Example they conform it whose Example is propounded to us in the following verses who exalted also every vertue and therefore this of Patience and Obedience to their just perfection and so enjoyns it to his Disciples This made the Christian Church grow up to its height and splendour for it was not the Sword of Fighting Men but the Bloud of Patient Christians that spread the Name of Christ and so gloriously defended it it being the Christians Principle to Suffer for his Name not fight for it but to be sure rather to Suffer than Rebell And if you ask the first times of Christianity both their Actions and Words express as much The Thebaean Legion consisting of near Seven Thousand Christians when the Emperour Maximinian under pain of death commanded them to Sacrifice to Idols what did they they stood not upon their guard though they could easily have done it but suffered themselves to be decimated by the hands of some few Executioners sent on purpose and after that they threw down their weapons and submitted their Necks and unarmed Bodies to the Sword of the Tyrant Hoc solum reminiscentes says the Story se illum confiteri qui nec reclamando ad occisionem ductus est only remembring this that they confessed themselves to be his Disciples who was led like a Lamb dumb before his shearers who did not open his mouth And we read of as great a number under Valens the Arrian Emperour who without any resistance submitted themselves to his Fury and Violence Nor was it as the Author of Julian pretends though against all the faith of History that in these Examples there wanted power of Resistance and Tertullian tells the Emperour as much Externi sumus vestra omnia implevimus c. cui bello non idonei non prompti fuissemus etiam copiis impares qui tam libenter trucidamur si non apud istam disciplinam magis occidi liciret quam occidere What Armies says he were we not sufficient to grapple with though we were fewer who are yet so willingly slain if by our Religion it were not more lawful to suffer and be kill'd rather than to kill others by defending our selves S. Cyprian says as much and Lactantius thus expresses Patience Ideo cum tam nefanda perpetimur ne verbo quidem reluctamur sed Deo remittimus ultionem When we suffer such horrible things we do not so much as resist them in words but commit the revenge only to God Thus they chose to suffer and thought themselves called thereunto by their Religion And if we would be truly Christians this must be our temper this our practice And I hope in what concerns our duty whether to God or Man we shall take our measures from Christ and primitive Religion and not from such hot and rebellious Zealots who with God in their mouths will violate all that is sacred and just in their actions I would only say one thing more Here is an horrible Plot discovered against the Life of the King and His Royal Highness and this calls upon us all who have but an ordinary kindness and respect to His Majesty and the Government for two

duties The First is to pay unto God an hearty Acknowledgment for his tender and particular Providence over the King and indeed in him over us all since in his Preservation we injoy our Lives and Estates our Liberties and Religion The other duty is to set a mark upon those Men and such Principles which would have murdered the best of Kings and the most Loyal part of the Nation under a pretence of defending Liberty and protestant-Protestant-Religion How far this wretched Plot it self is believed or whether believed to be the Plot of those Men against whom it is both Charged and Proved I cannot say but this I will say that the Practice of what they would have done is so like what by their Preachers they are taught to do that if we do but consider by whom the Dissenters are led it is no wonder at all to find them so ready to do mischief And as I was saying at first that their Principles do so naturally tend to Rebellion that they can never be made good Subjects but by renouncing their Masters and their Doctrines So I now add that if there be any one of them that is kind to the Government it is the goodness more of his Nature than Persuasion if they do believe their own Guides I shall instance but in a few but those few such as were notoriously active in the destruction of the Royal Martyr and have been Teachers of the People in Conventicles since the Return of his present Majesty Mr. Calamy in a Speech at Guild-Hall upon the calling in of the Scots to assist the Rebellion to encourage so Pious a Cause did assure his Auditors that had he himself as many Lives as Hairs upon his Head he would Sacrifice all in that Quarrel A blessed President for a factious People Nay and as to that very Principle upon which this wicked Plot was grounded viz. the pretence of preserving Liberty and Religion he delivers his Opinion That for Peace and Reformation it is commendable to Fight against the King's Command Pag. 29. Theses The Pope in his Chair could not have determin'd more magisterially nor to more mischievous purposes And indeed the Jesuit and the Presbyterian proceed by the same measures for to gain the People to Fight against their Prince they will at any time make over to them the Sovereignty And then as Mr. Calamy asserts all Loyal Subjects as now it is pretended are the betrayers of Religion and Liberty and those says he that fought under the King's Banner did endeavour by all bloudy and traiterous ways to subvert Religion and Property So that here is Treason found in the King against his Sovereign Lord the People Therefore he declares the Rebellion to be so much God's Cause that whoever dyed in it would dye a Martyr Sermon to the Peers Mr. Jenkins another of the same holy stamp after the War which he had Preach'd up was ended and he had leisure to calculate the Thousands both of Men and Money consumed upon that fatal occasion and had also weighed the King's Bloud and all his Subjects that had been Murder'd against the Covenant he sets down his Opinion at the foot of the Account that the removal of the King and Bishops was a sufficient payment for all the ●oin and Treasure that had been spent in those ●●●traction●●● So that it is no wonder at all that these men value not the bloud of Kings nor their People Reformation and protestant-Protestant-Religion will answer for it all And for that you shall hear Mr. Baxter too who has still the guidance of Consciences and is Master of a Conventicle declaring That where Religion and Liberty are the question it is not to be question'd at all but that the King and all that adhere to him may be murder'd Upon this account perhaps he declares to the whole World by way of boast that he had Preached Thousands into the War and that his own being ingaged in it was the greatest outward Service he ever perform'd to God Pag. 141. H. C. Nay and lays down that infamous as well as Treasonable Principle That if he had taken up Arms against the Parliament his Conscience tells him he had been a Traytor A rare Christian Conscience for a Preacher of Christ and one that had taken the Oath of Allegiance to declare it to be Treason to defend his Liege Lord. But this Gentleman was better read in Scripture than our Laws and indeed one would think so that shall see him urge all those Texts of it that were intended for lawful Governours to press Obedience to the usurped Powers those he said could not be ●●ed without damnation but the King might for Loyalty in this Man's Divinity is the unpardonable Transgression For Rebellion against the King he thinks needs no Repentance or no Mercy and therefore says he having searched into the matter of Fact as to my concernment in the War I am so far from Repenting that I could not forbear doing the same under the same circumstances And truly Custom in this matter is a very fine thing he that has practised so well against one Prince can tell how the better to deal with another And as to Princes in general the late Dr. Owen that had so many Disciples at his feet has declar'd That when Kings command unrighteous things and their Subjects do obey them no doubt but the destruction of them both is just and righteous And it is no doubt if these Casuists could determine it as readily by the Sword as with their Pens And though indeed they have Hypocrisie and Impudence equal to their Wickedness and would bear the World in hand that they are Harmless and Innocent yet from them it is that the Easie and the Zealous are taught to desie Government and put in practice the worst Principles of their Masters I need not instance in any more particulars Calvin and Beza Knox and Buchanan have taught the whole Herd of Dissente●● such horrible things that as they themselves ha●● manag'd them have in all Nations prov'd to the continual disturbance of the Peace and to the Murder of a great many Princes as does appear in History And indeed the first Man in Story that spake evil of Kings was a Separatist St. Ambrose tells us of Lucifer Caralitanus who spoke hard things of Constantius the Arrian Emperour but the Father observes that he was one that did Separate from Church-Communion After that the Popes of Rome and with them since have joyn'd the Presbitery both the one and the other having declined from Primitive Piety fell off from their Loyalty also and reckon it no Sin to Curse or Rebell against their Prince But in all the first times of Religion for some hundreds of Years the Christians by their Books and by their Bloud gave Testimony that Kings are in no case to be Conspired against or Resisted Hence Tertullian tells us for the honour of Christianity that when there was a Rebellion made against a Bloudy and a Cruel Emperour out of pretence for Religion and the Publick-Good the Christians then would not be insnared into Evil by the glorious Baits of Liberty and Religion And to conclude Christ never gave any other Rules than what are in the Text Obedience and Patience the one when the Prince commands as he should and the other when he commands what he ought not And thus we either obeying or suffering like Christians shall dye like such and He that calls us to Grace will one day bring us to Glory and Crown both our Doings and our Sufferings with Peace and Glory and Immortality FINIS