Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n
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A29535
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Seasonable reflections on a late pamphlet entituled A history of passive obedience since the Reformation wherein the true notion of passive obedience is settled and secured from the malicious interpretations of ill-designing men.
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Bainbrigg, Thomas, 1636-1703.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing B474; ESTC R10695
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44,461
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69
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ought they to suffer if they did obey But because they will not obey their Prince he punishes and they suffer The Prince therefore in this case has no manner of Obedience But let us consider further tho we cannot barter with a Prince and give him Suffering instead of Doing yet we may be obliged to suffer and we may obey in doing and obey in suffering for so doing and that Obedience may be called Passive Obedience tho in truth and reality all the Obedience which we perform in this case is Active For we obey one and suffer from another we obey God and suffer from Man or we obey Man and suffer from God But because God hath commanded us not only to do our Duties but likewise has commanded us in certain cases not only to do but to be ready to suffer for so doing our obedience to this Command of suffering has been called by some Passive Obedience Now this is Great and Noble and speaks an excellency of Spirit which is most admirable for Men to do well and to continue in so doing whatever they suffer upon that account But as it is Noble so it is hard and difficult It is hard to be bound to confess Christ before Men that we may gain Heaven and at the same time to be forced to lose all that we have on Earth for so confessing This sets Body and Soul at variance nay the Soul is confounded in it self whilst hopes and fears engage one another in a severe conflict the one would gain and the other would not lose the one pulls upwards and the other downwards upon this account the thing is difficult But yet we must remember that for all the difficulty it is very practicable because it has been always required and always expected No Philosopher would ever allow him to be a good Man who would flinch from his Duty upon the account of suffering To do so they say is slavish and it is one of the Rules of the Pythagoreans that in the exercise of Vertue a Man must have nothing of the Slave in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he must have no regard for any thing but his Duty Hierocles p. 209. Tully in the 2d of his Offices will not allow it possible for a Man to be just or honest or good who fears either poverty or pain or banishment or death it self so as to be warped from right by the fears of them or by the hopes of any advantages that are contrary to them Horace that very easie Man who can never be thought by a Heathen to be an over-severe directer of Conscience expects from his just and good Man that he should bear up against Tyrant and Rabble and suffer all that their rage and fury can throw upon him and yet not veer in the least from his point but go on in his Duty steddily and firmly Justum tenacem propositi virum Non civium ardor prava jubentium Non vultus instantis Tyranni Mente quatit solidâ This Principle of suffering in a good Cause for the sake of Vertue Goodness and Righteousness or of doing our Duties notwithstanding that we must suffer lies so open and clear to the reason of mankind that Men of worth and honour in every Age could not fail to practise it And we Christians are bound to the observance of this Duty as others were before by the reason of the thing as well as by precepts of Christianity Whatever principle a Man has and whatever he accounts a Duty if he will be true and faithful just and upright it may sometime or other bring him under suffering and he must be content with it because it is base and unworthy in certain cases not to do it it is a betraying of our Consciences a forfeiture of all the good opinion that we can have of our selves Now if this be true and this be called Passive Obedience that must not be looked upon as a peculiar of Christianity or a new Doctrine introduced since our Saviour's days much less can any particular Church appropriate the Rule to it self because it lies in common to all mankind and has sometimes been practised by the little as well as by the great Some perhaps may have just cause to complain of false Casuists and base corrupters of the genuine sense of right Reason and true Christianity but when they have done it they have onely reproved a gross fault they must not expect any great honour for having had a right notion of a plain Truth If we would speak clearly we must confess that our blessed Lord has not heightened this Duty for he can expect no more sufferings than what Pain and Beggery and Death signifie but as a most gracious and tender Master he has made all these much more easie and portable than ever they were before and that in several ways As first by giving us most gracious Promises of Reward in another World in case we are called to suffer Matth. 5. 9 10 11. Secondly By assuring us that assistances of God's grace come in to our help whenever we do suffer Matth. 10. 18 19 Phil. 1. 29. Thirdly By giving us such thoughts of God as are most powerful to support us under all sufferings For what can dismay him that will think with S. Peter that he who suffers as a Christian or suffers according to the Will of God he may commit the keeping of his Soul to God in well doing as unto a faithful Creator 1 Pet. 4. 16 19. These things are beyond Philosophy and they are mighty supports to all Christians who must suffer for well doing These would acquit the justice of God if he had required sufferings as sufferings and made them so necessary means of Salvation that he would accept of none into Heaven but such as came thither as Martyrs through a flaming fire or a Sea of bloud But God is not so fond of suffering as to require them for their own sakes We are not bound like Baal's Priests to cut and flash our selves that we may please our God We are not bound to move others to cut our Throats or to threaten to kill them if they won't kill us as S. Augustine tells the Circumcellions did We ought not to give advantages and opportunities to wicked Men to execute their wicked purposes upon us In times of Persecution we are not bound to go out of our Houses and provoke an inraged multitude to throw us in the Fires or to the Lions This rashness has been condemned by whole Councils though at some time we may and must leave Father and Mother and House and Land and Life it self for Christ's sake and for the Gospels yet at other times we may keep them as well Tho the first Christians Acts 5. 41. did rejoice that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Christs Name and as it is Heb. 10. 34. they took joyfully the spoiling of their goods Yet they did as much rejoice and gave hearty thanks
Discourses But seeing the Non-resisters have no promise of Pardon for their other sins and so of Salvation the Non-resisters who have forsaken all must come to S. Peter's Query and ask What shall we have therefore And the Resisters who have saved all will hope to escape damnation as well for that sin as for all the rest It must be confess'd that there are many and good arguments from Reason from Policy from Law from Scripture for Submission or Non-resistance of Kings and that of bad as well as good and in most cases too But when the main stress of the Assertion is laid upon one Text of St. Paul which threatens no less than damnation to the Offenders against that Point there must be great care taken to fix the true sense of the Text or else Men will deduce from thence very incredible things which will easily be discovered to be false and so instead of recommending a Duty they will blemish it and beget in the people a disgust to it And who knows but some of the inferiour Clergy in the late times might offend in this kind seeing it was generally said that they had too great a regard for a busie Writer who then presumed to lay down monstrous and destructive Principles against the National Constitution and yet dared to challenge to himself the Title of being a gentle Guide or humble Hinter to those Gentlemen Tho he and they did make great use of that Text yet both might be mistaken in the sense of it it is not unlikely and it is possible that their mistakes in the event may have done good to the Nation for extravagant Discourse like harsh Physick many times operates the quite contrary way from what was designed After all their noise and pudder I must say that I do not find that Men have spoken clearly either the Nature of the Sin or the Weight of the Punishment They do not tell us what Resistance signifies nor yet who are the particular and onely Objects of a damning Resistance nor yet lastly whether Damnation in the Text speaks nothing less than downright Hell and Eternity of Torments for many sins may be in their nature damnable but they that have committed them need not presently be concluded certainly to be damned Denials Refusals Oppositions made against Opinions Desires Demands especially if others be solicited to join in with the Opposers may in a large sense be said to be Resistances but yet such actions may be far enough from being damning sins or else many times woful must be the condition of Privy Counsellors of Parliament Men Lords and Commons and of Judges who will not allow of Kings Patents which are against Law Suppose such a Case should have happened amongst us which once was betwixt Ahab and Naboth must he that acted Naboth's part be damned for refusing to part with or exchange his Inheritance Or suppose such another clownish Churl as Nabal who sent the unmannerly answer to David or had it been to Saul a King in possession If in consequence to that Answer when the Commissioned Officers came against him to kill and spoil him and all his he had appealed to Law and stood upon his defence till the matters were brought to a legal Trial he might be said then to have resisted and therefore perhaps he might have deserved to have been whipped for his sauciness but it is somewhat too much to think that he must needs be damned for it But David's case is much worse when his Master sought his life he listed Soldiers and seised upon strong Holds and stood upon his defence in a way that looks like open defiance so far was he from submitting or surrendring himself to Saul's Officers or Saul himself and after all we do not find that he repented of this Sin or begg'd God's pardon for it What now can we have no hopes of God's mercy toward David Must he for that resistance certainly be damned or if he had a particular Dispensation from God yet I fear his Soldiers had not and their case must then be deplorable for the reason and justice of Gods proceedings in the case was the same always and St. Paul's Text does not seem to speak a new designment of God to raise the Interests of Kings higher and subject the People lower than they were before Something therefore for David's sake should be thought on that the Text should be so limited that we may have some hopes for him and for his Soldiers too But yet we have a nearer Case that is piteous and deserves some thoughts and that is the Case of George Walker poor Man he is one of Solemon's wise Ones who by his wisdom has saved his City He has done a brave Action and all that hear it commend and admire it excepting the late King's Soldiers and perhaps in their hearts they admire him too But after all the praises and commendations of the generality of Mankind and those coming freely and sincerely upon the supposition of true Interest without design of daubing or flattering the great and the proud must I say this Man after all this be thrown into Hell and damned as one of the worst of Miscreants Such judgments as these will confound the genuine and most delightful Idea's that Men have of God's Goodness and Wisdom they may serve perhaps to adorn a Discourse for absolute Reprobation or upon the excellency of damning for damnings sake without regard to Sin but they can have little other use for glory to God or Man for good of King or People These and many other Cases ought to be well considered before we fix the Sence of the Text because as in all Sciences one Truth agrees with another so in the Interpretation of Scripture every single Text that stands by it self must be expounded according to the Analogy of Faith that is the general Agreement of the rest But Secondly There is further Matter of Consideration about the Person that is to have the Benefit of Non-resistance it is many times very difficult to discover who He is and it would be hard if upon a Mistake in that point the erring Person should be damned in the strict sence of the Word There is something that governs in human Affairs beyond the Thoughts and Imaginations of Men the Wheel goes smoothly on but of a sudden meets with a rub and the Carriage perhaps is overturned the headless Multitude then stare and wonder and say the like was never seen before and yet the like has oft happened What seemed to be ruled is over-ruled and then men seek for their Rule and know not where to find it Thus men are almost fatally confounded they think and act contrary to one another and yet each believes himself in the right and that he has strength and clearness of Reason on his side It s very possible that our Historian is still for King James and thinks him now as truly King of England as he was before And it is very