Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A57226
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Providence and precept, or, The case of doing evil that good may come of it stated and resolved according to Scripture, reason, and the (primitive) practice of the Church of England : with a more particular respect to a late case of allegiance &c. and its vindication in a letter to the author.
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Richardson, Mr.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing R1377; ESTC R24095
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23,343
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36
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belong especially when they are strong enough to Crush them into Obedience For that is it seems one Rule you go by to know when a Government is thoroughly settled Pag 6. But thanks be to God he hath given us a better for if Power to Crush be a sufficient one then no body can deny but Marssinello's was a thorough Settlement in Naples And though his Reign was but short yet his Power was great and he did Crush all that opposed him and had he not met with a Stroke from a Providential Hand which possibly thought Killing no Murther he might have lived to have given Laws like a Conqueror to that great and populous City And by your and Mr. Jenkin's Hypothesis a Divine Right for so doing Which brings me to the second Thing I promised viz. The examining those Texts of Scripture which you quote to prove your new Doctrines by And though those are several yet the main stress of the point lies on Romans 13.1 2. Pag. 19. Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers For their is no Power but of God the Powers that be are ordained of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Now I must confess since you have taken leave of your own Judgment of the Apostle's meaning in that Place it will be the more difficult to convince you by reason it will not perhaps sute so well with the present Case that you have in your Eye However from a knowledge of your humble Christian temper of not thinking your self too old to learn I will presume to attempt it Pres though I know at the same time my self uncapable and therefore am inclinable to believe you had far more perswasive Reasons for Recanting your former Tenets than what you are pleased to give us in Print But to the point 'T is true the Apostle requires a Subjection to the Higher Powers c. but can it be imagined that the Apostle means by the Higher Power any that shall attain or get possessed of it by Force or Violence which your Case according to your present understanding of the Apostle seems to imply Or by Subjection a transferring an Allegiance which becomes due only to a Rightful and Lawful Prince to another which has no other Right to be so but Power to Crush c. then it is rational to conclude There never was any such Thing as an Usurpation in the World and though some have waded to the Throne in Blood and their Crimes have been of a Crimson dye yet their being but once fixt there they become Innocent and as White as Snow And being invested with your Authority must not only be submitted to but owned as a True and Rightful Liege Lord and Sovereign And all for this Reason viz. They that Resist shall receive to themselves Damnation And yet with your good leave I suppose this word Resistance is not to be understood in such a Latitude as you would have us understand that of Power For then the Refusal of our Prince's Command let it be what it will would entitle a Man to Damnation For he that refuseth the Commands of his Prince doth resist Dan. 3 21. as Shadrach Meshach and Abednego for which they were all cast into a fiery Furnace which was indeed the heighth of Passive Obedience yet I believe no Body supposed them to be in that miserable state for disobeying the King's Command From which I observe as I have heard divers of your Function say we are not in many places of Scripture to take our blessed Saviour or the Apostles words in a strict literal Sense but according to the best Exposition that agrees with the general Scope and Design of the Gospel and then I am sure it is both natural and rational to understand that place of St. Paul viz. There is no Power but of God c. must be all legal and rightful Power which must certainly be imply'd as your self once thought you had sufficiently proved That there is no Power but of God is true indeed for God being Omnipotent there cannot be any Power but by his permissive or approbative Will which was always allowed of as a Divine Distinction of God's Will and without it how harsh and untunable would several Texts of the Bible sound in the Ears of a good Christian as for Instance Amos 3.16 Shall there be Evil in the City and I the Lord hath not done it And now to take this place in the Sense that you do the Apostle of Power is certainly to make God the first and prime Cause of all Evil that shall be done in a City or indeed any where else which Notion may serve well enough for an Atheist but how well it becomes any Body that pretends to Religion do you judge I pray how many Rapes and Robberies and cruel Murders I pray God they be not owing to such horrid Notions of Power giving a Right have been barbarously committed lately in our City and Liberties of London which Almighty God has been pleased to suffer and permit to be done by the powers of Hell and wicked Men which the but taking the foregoing Text in your sense of Power c. and it frees them all by charging the Crimes upon God himself which to me appears little less than Blasphemy and it would make an honest Christian's heart tremble with the thought of such a Notion And then again in the Cases of Pharaoh where it is said God hardned Pharaoh 's heart Now I know not what you may think but it is the Opinion of great Divines that those Words ought not to be taken in a literal Sense but that God knowing the baseness and falseness of his heart did permit the Sorcerers and Magicians of Egypt to imitate Moses and Aaron with their Enchantments which deluded Pharaoh to that degree that he thought it was nothing but the pure effects of Magick only he thought Moses and Aaron to be better Conjurers than the rest and so his heart became hardned through the belief it was all but a Trick And in like manner it may be said God hardens all our hearts when he through our high Provocations withdraws his Divine Spirit which no doubt was Pharaoh's Case from us and delivers us up to strong Delusions insomuch that we believe a Lye though in truth it proceeds from our own wilful stubbornness in not being governed by the truth of his Word which is the everlasting Rule we ought to be ruled by And if we once forsake that 't is but just that God should forsake us and then 't is no wonder if with Pharaoh we cry Who is the Lord that we should obey his voice We know not the Lord neither will we c. Ex. 5.2 From all which as one Text explains another 't is reasonable to conclude that St. Paul's requiring Subjection to all Powers his meaning is all lawful Powers
for if as no Body doubts there be any such thing as unlawful Power 't is Frenzy to suppose he should require Subjection to them any other ways than it is consistent with common Prudence and Self-preservation I mean such a Subjection as our blessed Lord tells us of which is paid to a Thief if he be stronger than the strong Man whose House he robs Mat. 12.29 Besides there be few but what knows there is a mighty difference between Subjection and Allegiance for Example If a Man lives in France or Spain or any other Princes Country he must nay ought to be subject to the Customs and Laws of any of those Princes Countries where he lives but at the same time his Allegiance can be due to none but him whose natural born Subject he is But the better to understand this place of St. Paul and to reconcile you if possible to your own former Notions of it let us compare it with another to the same effect for Divines tell us we must for the better understanding the Scriptures Prov. 8.15 compare one Text with another By me Kings reign and Princes decree justice That is all legal and rightful Kings and the Words imply as much for how can any Body be God's Vicegerent upon Earth without his Authority and then if so it naturally follows Eccl. 8.4 That where the word of a King is there is Power and who shall say to him What dost thou And And why Power because he holds his Authority immediate from God and to him only can be accountable for his Faults as several great Lawyers and Divines have often told us But it may be objected Has not any Body that can get themselves possest of a Crown and the Regalities thereunto belonging the same Authority since the Apostle says There is no Power but of God c. To which I answer That the Apostle means the same thing viz. Legal and rightful Power which is likewise there implied for Force and Violence are different things to Power and Authority for Power implies an Authority for its being put in execution which distinguisheth it from Force and Violence which is nought but to Pikes and Staves commanded by the Knave of Clubs knock out Peoples Brains to inform their Understandings But Power we know supposeth another thing and acts by a legal Authority as for Instance A Constable does not commit a Man where there is just Cause to the Stocks or Prison by vertue of the Watchmen and their Staves which attend him but by vertue of a legal Power and Authority which he derives from a Superior and that from another till it come to the Supreme which is under God the King only whose Authority cannot therefore be from the People who are subject to his but he not to theirs unless they could prove a legal Right to such a Power both from the Laws of God and the Laws of the Land where such things are done if not it cannot in the way of speaking be said to be done at all for it is very usual to say such or such a thing cannot be done when it cannot be done legally but in opposition to the Laws of God and Man And yet by sad Experience we know such things have been done nay to the very Alteration of Thorow Settlements I presume you will not deny and that possibly there may be persons in possession of what you call God's Power for there is none as you say but of him without his Authority if not the Holy Prophet was mightily mistaken Hos 8.4 They have set up Kings but not by me They have made Princes and I knew it not Now these Kings the Prophet mentions no doubt were in possession of all the Rights and Prerogatives c. which gave them the Title as the foregoing Text stiles them and yet God himself says He knew it not Which from your Argument of Providence appears very strange for that Providence should permit persons to be invested with God's Authority and he know nothing of the matter save only that they were in actual possession though not by him which is a strong Argument of the permissive and approbative Will of Heaven and none but what are fit for a dark Room and clean Straw but will allow it For how unreasonable is it to suppose that those Kings or Princes that are made so and not by God that is that attains to it by undue Methods can have his Authority And for that Reason God was pleased to shew his just Resentment of the Peoples going contrary to his Rule in those matters by leaving his Complaint upon Record They have set up Kings but not by me c. And since it appears that Kings may be set up and not by God then it naturally follows there may be two ways that persons may come to the exercise of the Supreme Authority that is to say a right and a wrong for I know no other distinction and I am sure our Saviour though in another Case says something to the same purpose Verily I say unno you Joh. 10.1 he that entereth not by the door into the Sheepfold but climeth up some other way the same is a Thief and a Robber And then consequently has but an indifferent Title c. Notwithstanding he may through Power and Strength be in possession c. And I do not doubt but what is required in a Priest having a legal Right to his Office the same will hold good in his Superior the King And so there was the less Reason for St. Paul speaking of the higher Powers to distinguish what sort of Power we ought to be subject to no more than what sort of Parents the Fifth Commandment requires us to honour But to make if possible the Case more plain we will compare St. Peter with St. Paul and though they differed in some other things of less moment 1 Fet. 2.13 14. yet they both agree as to this matter Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governors c. Now there is certainly two Things to be considered before this Submission can become due First The Lawfulness of the Authority that makes the Ordinances and Secondly The Lawfulness of the Ordinances themselves For this Place likewise cannot be taken in your Sense for if it should then it would oblige us to look no further but positively to obey our Prince's Commands without reserve let them be what they will and you know how much that is against the Grain of this Protestant Kingdom Then consequently we must understand St. Peter otherways then you now understand St. Paul viz. a Submitting to every Ordinance of Man that does not contradict those of God So that it is plain that Something is implied in those Words of St. Peter more than you are willing in your Case c. to allow or else they would be a downright Contradiction to what