away our own Right yet we have no power to give away our Prince's Right Our Obedience is our Prince's Right and if he will not remit it we are bound to give it him For if in a Christian Common-wealth men should be free from Laws by pleading That they give offence then every man that had no mind to Obey would defend himself with this Plea and so it would be left in the Vp-shot to the Peoples pleasure whether they would obey or no. And consequently none or very few Laws would be observed And Secondly As our Obedience unto our Prince is not limited by a Case of Scandal so neither is it limited by a Scrupulous Conscience I mean when a man considering the Action that is commanded doubts that it is Vnlawful but he is not certain he hath some fear and distrust upon him but he is not fully perswaded he cannot shew where in Scripture it is forbidden but he only doubts Now though a man in his Private single Capacity is in such case bound to suspend Acting until his Conscience be duly inform'd because whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin i. e. whatsoever is not done in such case with a full perswasion that it is lawful is sin Yet when the Prince requires Obedience and we only doubt whether the Command be lawful we are then bound to obey the Prince because he commands and not to suspend acting because we are scrupulous For it is certain that we owe our Prince our Obedience but it is not certain that the Command is unlawful and it is our Wisdom and our Duty to adhere to the safer side For otherwise to refuse the Prince would be to run into a certain sin to avoid that which is uncertain To obey the Prince in such case is not for a man to act against his Conscience For a doubting Conscience is not properly a Conscience because it prescribes no Rules nor doth it like a Judge pass a Sentence neither can it excuse or condemn Nay Thirdly Subjection to the Prince is due neither can it be with-held from him no not by virtue of any Antecedent or Subsequent Vow Indeed it is written in the Law of Moses Numbers 30. v. 2. That if a man in a private Capacity vowed a Vow unto the Lord or swore an Oath he should not break his Word he should do according to all that proceeded out of his Mouth But if a Woman vow'd and her Father heard it and disallow'd it in the day that he heard it it is there also written That not any of her Vow was to stand The Reason is because she was under subjection And by as good Logick as any is the same may be concluded concerning the Obligation which lieth upon the people in respect of the Prince The Sovereign Prince is the Father of his people and therefore if the people should make a Vow and enter into a Solemn League and Covenant and the Prince should by a publick Declaration disallow it when he heard it such Vow of the people could have no binding power in it and there lay no Obligation upon any such Subjects from any such Vow that they should say they cannot obey in this or in that thing by reason of it For they are under Subjection This would hold if the Vow or Oath were a thing lawful in it self But much more will it hold then if the Oath is an unlawful Oath as it needs must be if people shall take an Oath and enter into a Covenant to alter the Government and depose their Governour and especially when they have before taken an Oath of Allegiance to their Governour and an Oath to maintain his Government Such an after-Oath of the Peoples is unlawful in it self and therefore not binding but they ought to obey the King for all that in what lawful Instances soever he requireth their Obedience This is the Extent of the Subject's Obedience as to the matter of it It now remains That Secondly We consider the Extent of it as to the Persons to whom it must be paid and that is General to all Principalities and Powers without any Limitation or Distinction Subjects are not only to obey them that are Religious and whom they acknowledge to be Christian but even those who are of a contrary Religion and when they persecute and oppose theirs Subjects must submit to those Princes if they be theirs For they are still the Ordinances of God whatever else they be Thus though the Principalities and Powers in St. Paul's time were Heathen and Enemies to the Faith of Christ and the Supream Power was then vested in Nero a very Cruel and a very Debauch'd Prince yet for all this the Christians were not to withdraw from him their Obedience It was not permitted to any of his Subjects to say of him that was their Prince neither is it permitted to any Subjects whatever to say of their Prince That he is an Ill man and a Tyrant and an Enemy to Godliness and a Hater of Christ and Religion and that therefore it being the Cause of Christ they are bound to stand up and shake off the Yoke and come forth for the help of the Lord against the Mighty i. e. to pull down Kings and Kingdoms For Christ hath commanded all Subjects to submit themselves and render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's yea although Caesar should take no care to render unto God the things that are God's Nay Christ himself when upon an Occasion the People would have taken him by Force and made him a King refused it and chose to pay Tribute to Caesar yea though Caesar held his power from and under him And at another time he declared That his Kingdom was not of this World least his Souldiers should fight for him From whence also it may be concluded That since Christ's is a Kingdom of another Nature his Souldiers are not to fight against their Temporal Governour even in Defence of Christ himself Since the Expulsion of the Canaanites by Joshua there is no such thing in Nature as an Holy War though it be against Infidels to advantage Christ's Religion and destroy theirs and therefore when the Popes of old excited Christian Princes to the Expedition against the Turks for propagating the Gospel and when in the late great Rebellion amongst us the Presbyterians conspired against their Sovereign King Charles the First under pretence of setting Jesus Christ up upon his Throne they both of them prosper'd accordingly God as he hath not allow'd any such Wars in his Word so he blasted those by his Providence and that he will still blast all such Designs unto the end of the World I make not the least Question when I consider in the next place Thirdly How long this Law of Christian Obedience is extended in respect of Time There are some Laws in Scripture that bind only for a Time such as are the Divine positive Laws the Ceremonial of the Jews and such as the Apostles laid
Blood to the Crown and of his Unparallell'd Merits and his Interests to defend that Right against all Treasons and Traiterous Conspiracies whatever And First I shall crave leave to speak a few words with Reverence concerning his most Gracious Majesty's most undoubted Right of Blood c. It may seem needless to have his Majesty's Titles after Proclamation to be declared especially in the Pulpit Yet give me leave in Remembrance of the BLACK BOX and the Excluding Bill more Black than That and that still more Black and Bloody Association that follow'd it and which still worketh in the Hearts of the Children of Disobedience to put you especially of the Common Souldiery in Remembrance That our now Sovereign Lord King JAMES the Second is the now only surviving Son of King CHARLES the Martyr Grandson of King James that was of Scotland the Sixth of that Name and of Great Britain the First who was lawfully descended both by Father and Mothers side from King HENRY the Seventh and the Great ELIZABETH Daughter and Heir of Lionel Duke of Clarence third Son to Edward the Third Which King Henry the Seventh entailed the Crown of England by Act of Parliament upon the Issue of His and his Queens Body Lawfully begotten No Prince ever mounted the Throne of England with a Title more undoubtedly apparent and clear Clear as the Sun in its brightest Meridian Clear as the Late King could make it in a Declaration written with his own hand to prevent the now Rebels pretensions and to prevent and avoid any Disputes for time to come concerning his Now Majesty's Succession to the Crown His late Majesty's own Words to this purpose are published by the truly Loyal and Judicious Authour of the Address to the Freemen and Freeholders of the Nation Vid. part ◠p. 14 15 16 17 But Secondly Had not his Majesty been born to be a King I think there are but few that have the Honour to know him who do not think him the Worthiest Person to have been chosen our King For if ever we had a Prince that came to the Crown in the full Ripeness and Maturity as well of Royal Uertues as Years one who brought to the Government of his people all that Experience which others are a long time at much charge and more hazard to learn it is our present most Gracious Sovereign King JAMES A Prince whose Wisdom Justice and Mercy if men will be but so merciful to themselves as to do any thing that may deserve it A Prince whose Munificence and Magnanimity whose Sobriety and Temperance whose Courage to dare bravely in the greatest dangers equal to his Christian Fortitude in bearing the worst of Evils from the hands of a sort of Men-Devils among us A Prince whose firm Fidelity to his Friends and whose Zeal for the Honour of the English Name and Nation are so notoriously known both at home and abroad that even base Envy and Detraction have but render'd them the more acknowledged and Jllustriously Conspicuous All these shine by their Own Light and need not my dim Taper to shew them by But there is one Qualification which will gild and adorn his Crown and add a Lustre to his Great Name in Chronicle and that is his Ueracity And King JAMES the Second shall be known in the Ages to come by this Appellative of King JAMES the Just Prince of his Word Go to then all they that whine and fear for their Religion their Religion blush they and let them all be ashamed and confounded because of the Evils which they fear only because they are not Have we not for our Security as a Pawn the Word of a Prince who never yet broke his Word But if neither his Royal Title nor his Royal Merits may prevail with rash and unadvised Men to work them up to Obedience let it be consider'd in the Third place of what value his Interests are to secure and defend the Rights both of his Title and his Merits For though his Majesty hold all by Love all his Kingdoms and Countries having long since received him into their Hearts yet I shall here subjoin to the Honour of his Majesty the Comfort of his Friends and the Terrour of his Enemies these two Considerations First That his Majesty hath the undoubted Forces of England Scotland and Ireland and all other his Dominions and Countries in his own power and at his sole Command And the Numerous and very Loyal Addresses that have been sent from all the Quarters of these his Kingdoms are so highly expressive of a Godly Emulation in all his Loyal Subjects to serve him that it hath hitherto seem'd the only Contest within the three Kingdoms who should be the forwardest in Duty to vow their Lives and Estates a Sacrifice in defence of his Imperial Highness and the Prerogative What should I speak of his Militia of his Magazines and his Naval Forces at Sea and of his most Wise Council What of the Thrice happy Agreement which hath been all along and still is and which we beseech Almighty God to continue between him and his most Loyal Parliament Consider we Secondly His Friends and Alliances abroad and their mighty Puissance to assert his Right They are all of them of such Invincible strength and might both by Sea and Land as by God's continuing to bless the Union will give no Cause to fear either the growing Factions at home or the growing Greatness shall I call it of our Neighbour-Nation Nunc Causa valens causà mque tuentibus Armis And therefore as the King doth no doubt out of a most Religious and Godly heart so let us lift up our Hands and our Eyes to God on High and let us from the bottom of our Hearts beseech him to keep and defend His own King whom maugre all the Evil Designs of Evil Men among us he hath set on the Throne of the English Nation for the Glory of his Name and for the comfort of us his Subjects Let us pray for him and against his Enemies That God would abate their Pride and asswage their Malice and discover daily more and more and confound their Devices And to our Prayers let us each man in his Station manfully endeavour his Peace and our own in His. And to this End let all Murmurings and Repinings and Discontents towards the Government for ever cease from amongst us Let us follow Peace and the things that make for Peace and the things in which we may Edifie one another quietly submitting our selves to the Government that God hath set over us and blessing God that he hath accounted us worthy of so Good a Prince to Rule and to Reign over us and beseeching him to continue his Reign long and prosperous even for Many and for Many Years And to this Good Prayer let every one here present be concern'd to say Amen FINIS A Catalogue of some Books Printed for and Sold by Luke Meredith at the King's Head at the West End of St. Paul's Church-yard AN Introduction to the Old English History comprehended in Three several Tracts The First An Answer to Mr. Petyt's Rights of the Commons Asserted and to a Book Entituled Jani Anglorum Facies Nova The Second Edition very much enlarged The Second An Answer to a Book Entituled Argumentum Antinormanicum much upon the same Subject Never before Published The Third The Exact History of the Succession of the Crown of England The Second Edition also very much enlarged Together with an Appendix containing several Records and a Series of Great Councils and Parliaments Before and After the Conquest unto the End of the Reign of Henry the Third And a Glossary expounding many Words used frequently in our Antient Records Laws and Historians Published for the Vindication of Truth and the Assistance of such as desire with Satisfaction to read and truly understand the Antient English Historians and other Pieces of Antiquity By Robert Brady Doctor in Physick Two Treatises The First Concerning Reproaching and Censure The Second An Answer to Mr. Serjeant's Sure-Footing To which are annexed Three Sermons Preached upon several Occasions and very useful for these Times By the late Learned and Reverend William Falkner D. D. A Dialogue between a Pastor and his Parishioner touching the Lord's Supper Wherein the most material Doubts and Scruples about Receiving that Holy Sacrament are removed and the Way thereto discovered to be both plain and pleasant Very useful for Private Christians in these Scrupulous Times By Michael Altham The Second Edition To which are added Some short Prayers fitted for that Occasion and a Morning and Evening Prayer for the Use of Private Families Sober and Serious Considerations Occasioned by the Death of His Most Sacred MAJESTY King Charles II. of ever Blessed Memory And the Serious Time of LENT following it Together with a Brief Historical Account of the First Rise Progress and Encrease of Phanaticism in England and the Fatal Consequents thereof Now made Publick in tendency to the Peace of the Kingdom By a Gentleman in Communion with the Church of England as now by Law Establish'd The Songs of Moses and Deborah Paraphras'd with Poems on several Occasions Never before Published To which is added A Pindarick on Sir Roger L' Estrange The End of the Catalogue
A SERMON Preached in the Cathedral Church OF BRISTOL JUNE xxi MDCLXXXV Before His GRACE HENRY DUKE of BEAVFORT His MAJESTIE's Lord Lieutenant for that City and County By RIC. THOMPSON D. D. Dean of Bristol and Chaplain in Ordinary to his late Majesty LONDON Printed for Luke Meredith at the King's Head at the West End of St Paul's Church-yard 1685. To His Grace HENRY Duke of BEAVFORT Marquess and Earl of Worcester Baron Herbert of Chepstow Ragland and Gower Lord President and Lord Lieutenant of Wales and the Marches Lord Lieutenant of the Counties of Gloucester Hereford and Monmouth and of the City and County of Bristol Lord Warden of His Majesty's Forest of Dean and Constable of the Castle of St Briavells Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter Gentleman of His Majesty's Bed-Chamber and one of His Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council May it please Your GRACE I Was far from making the same Estimate of this Discourse which was put upon it by the Generality of Your Grace's Souldiers who heard it preach'd But since Your Grace hath had the Charity to think it worthy Theirs and other Peoples Reading I am resolved not to dispute Your Grace's Great Judgment and so do most readily submit it to the Press regardless of other mens Censures whilst Your Grace is pleased to look on it as a Dutiful and well-meant Performance Henceforward if any ask What is in this Discourse that should move Your Grace to Order its being thus publick I answer It was design'd to promote Loyalty the same Loyalty which now stands the Top and Comble of Your Grace's most Illustrious Titles and Characters which render'd You all along a Great Favourite of our late deceased Sovereign and makes You most Dear unto his present Majesty which prevail'd with Your Grace in the very worst of Times to assert his Majestie 's Interests in Contempt of all Your Own in defiance of the Excluding Bill and all the Trayterous Votes and Designs of the Associated Commoners who promoted it In short which brought Your Grace now down to Bristol by Your Vigilance and Resolution to secure this City for his Majestie 's Service at a Time when the Mock-King of Lyme had assured his Adherents That this City was most certainly his own But Your Grace hath so effectually suceeded in Your Vndertaking that the Daring Rebels had only so much Courage as to look upon the City at four Miles distance and wish it theirs The only Assault which they made upon Your Grace was a Volly of Lyes For having scarce laid it they raised their Siege with many bitter Cursings and Execrations of Your Wise Conduct at Midnight cowardly running away No wonder then that All honest and Loyal hearts within this City are now blessing God for Your Grace and celebrating Your deserved Praises as the only visible Means under Him that hath secur'd to them their Estates their Liberties and their very Lives As for my self the remembrance of my own Escape shall always live fresh in my mind and I shall not fail to owne it to Your Grace upon all Occasions as becometh May it please Your Grace Your Grace's most Humble and most obliged Servant Richard Thompson TITUS iii. v. 1. Put them in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers to obey Magistrates and to be ready to every Good Work THESE Words are part of those Instructions which St. Paul gave to Titus touching those Matters of Doctrine which he would have him vigorously to insist on in his Course of Preaching among the people of Crete They enjoin a peaceable and submissive behaviour in all Christians towards the Government under which they live Government being so great a Blessing to Mankind that without it the World would be no better than a savage Wilderness and an Habitation of Wolves and Tygers in humane shape rending and devouring one another Wherefore Christ when he came into the World though he resolved to set up a New Religion in it and knew that the present Powers would Oppose and Persecute the Professors of it to Death yet did he take care withal to counsel his Disciples and Followers patiently to suffer their utmost rage and cruelty rather than there should be any violent Alterations made in the Kingdoms of the Earth upon the very score of his Religion He would not have Princes turn'd out of their Temporal Jurisdictions nor the Sword wrested out of their Hands in order to the Establishment of his Own Throne neither would he that his Kingdom should go up with the Noises of Axes and Hammers If the Rulers of the World would keep up their old Religion and oppose his he would not have Fire to come down from Heaven to consume them nor Fire from Hell to blow them up but that all that were his Servants indeed should overcome with Patience and Meekness and shine in the whiteness of Innocency and not look dreadful with Garments roll'd in Blood And therefore he hath given it in charge to all the Ministers of his Gospel To put all the Professors of his Religion in mind To be subject to Principalities and Powers to obey Magistrates and to be ready to every Good Work In which words Two things are observable I. What the Duty of all Christians is who live under Government viz. To be subject c. II. What the Duty of all the Ministers of Christ's Gospel is viz. To put the people in mind to be so I shall only be able to speak to the First of these at this time viz. The Duty that God hath bound upon all Christians that live under Government viz. To be subject to those Principalities and Powers under which they live Where my work will be to shew Two things I. Wherein the Practise of this Duty doth consist 2. The Extent of it I. I shall shew wherein the Practise of this Duty of Subjection doth consist Now the Practise of this Duty of Subjection consists in Three things First In paying an Active Obedience to all our Prince's Just Commands Secondly In suffering patiently in case they should oppress and punish us for not observing even their Vnlawful Commands Thirdly In honoring the Persons of the Princes under whom we live First This Duty of Subjection it requires we should give an Active Obedience unto all our Prince's just Commands i. e. We are to own their Authority in all things that are not sinful for us to do For in such cases we may not satisfie our selves that we are ready to undergo the penalties of Laws For the Design of the Law is to have Men Obey not to have them Punished And Men ought in those cases to be subject not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake i. e. for the Lord Christ's sake by whom our Consciences are obliged It is said of Aristippus That being asked what he had benefited by Philosophy he Answered To live uprightly and justly although there were no Laws to compel or Gods to punish him And if
an Heathen Man acted by the meer Light of Nature could do so much much more should Christian Men do considering that they live under a much higher and a more Noble and Advantageous Institution Christian Men should hold themselves obliged to observe in their Actions all the ends and designs of the Christian Laws and comply with them and not think themselves blameless by coming up only to the Letter of them For he whose Obedience reaches no higher observes the Law only for Wrath's sake and to save himself in an whole Skin For he would break the Letter as well as the Intention if he could save himself harmless Such a Man doth not Obey for Conscience sake And it is against all the Laws of Christ for Christian Men to study only how to find out flawes in their Prince's Laws and to satisfie them only so far as those words in rigor do require But they should hold themselves obliged to do all that in them lyeth to answer the full design and intention of them Nor Secondly Doth our Duty require That Christian Men do the Commands of their Princes where they are Just but also That they should suffer patiently under them in case they should oppress them and they should not resist them even although they punish them for not observing their sinful Commands Indeed in case their Commands are sinful they may suspend their Active Obedience but it must be certain that they are so before they refuse doing them And they are then only so when they require what God hath forbidden as Nebuchadnezzor when he required the Three Children to fall down and Worship the molten Image that he had set up or when they forbid what God hath required as when Darius made a Law That no Petition should be made for Thirty Days together unto any God but to himself only In which cases we are to Obey God rather than Man And then indeed it is thank-worthy if a Man for Conscience sake towards God endure Grief suffering wrongfully For even hereunto were we called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an Example that we should follow his steps who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffer'd he threatned not but committed himself to him that Judgeth Righteously And yet Thirdly Whether the Obedience which Christian Men pay to their Princes be Active or Passive only the Doctrine thereof doth most expressly require That Christians should at all times and places pay all due Honor to the persons of those Sovereign Princes they live under And that they should treat them as having a Character of the Divinity set upon them because both their Persons are Sacred and the Scripture it self calls them Mortal Gods Now the Practice of this Duty will be indifferently well secured by observing these Negatives Not to deprave the King's Government by loud Murmurings by Libels or other Seditious Discourses to alienate their Subjects hearts For as Subjects may not touch their Princes with a Violent Hand so neither may they smite them with a Virulent Tongue No nor take delight in those that Discourse licenciously of Them or their Affairs To Honor the Person of the King obligeth us in no sort to intrench upon his Royal Prerogative nor to meddle in any thing that speaks and constitutes him King for these things are against his Honor and to the Diminution of his Crown We must not so much as blazon his personal Infirmities if we knew any that he had and least of all think that God hath put it in our power to say to his King What dost thou But every one ought with profound Modesty and Humility to behave himself towards him and to speak Vnpleasing Truths with greatest Distance and Fear when they are called to it For Kings are not to be put to Shame A Man must have a special and particular Commission from God by an extraordinary Revelation before he can reprove a King And such Commission no Man now can pretend unto Indeed in the Great Emergencies of the State his Subjects when he calls them together for that purpose may with all Humility and Submission Address to him and in the meekest manner represent what they take to be the evil Consequences of things But Remonstrance and Vproar and Tumult are contrary to the Majesty of a King before whom all things ought to be calm and serene And then as to the Affirmative part of this Duty of Christian Obedience to Honor the King requires That his Subjects should not only speak him fair but do him good blessing him and praying for him and rendring him Tribute And even when they so do if they would approve themselves followers of Christ and speak in the language of the Holy Spirit they may not say they give the King this or they give the King that For all that Subjects possess is not their own God hath one part due to him and Caesar hath another and when they pay them they do but render them their due Nor hath the King only a share in their Estates but their very Lives also are his And so it is become their Duty to Fight for their Prince's Safety And whoever doth not upon Occasion Honor his Prince on this manner he cannot be said truly to fear God For these are all alike branches of that Duty which the Gospel doth require when it would have us Submit for Conscience sake and for the Lord's sake I come now to consider in the 2d Place the Extent of this Obligation both in respect of the Obedience it self as to the Matter of it and of the Persons to whom and the Time how long this Precept is of force First In respect of the Obedience it self it is so Vniversal that it 's not limited by the usual limits of Mens Actions consider'd in their single capacity not by Scandal not by a Scrupulous Conscience no nor by any Antecedent or Subsequent Vow First Obedience and Subjection to the King is not limited by Cases of Scandal Indeed such is the Strictness of the Christian Religion That it will not allow a Man in a single capacity to exercise his just Liberty in some Actions whereby a weak Brother may be offended And there may be an Obligation of Charity that may bind this Duty upon a Man in his private Capacity But if the Prince require such a Man's Obedience in such or such matters of Practice as are lawful to be done and other private persons shall pretend themselves offended thereby and so incline to fall into Sin Why here notwithstanding this we are bound to obey our Prince Because the avoiding Scandal is but an Act of Charity but to Obey the Prince is a matter of Justice and we are always bound to pay Debts of Justice before Debts of Charity When we forbear an Act only to avoid Scandal we recede from our own Right which we may do but when the Prince enjoyns even the Act which we did before avoid though we may give