Selected quad for the lemma: world_n
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A43657
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Jovian, or, An answer to Julian the Apostate by a minister of London.
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Hickes, George, 1642-1715.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing H1852; ESTC R24372
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208,457
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390
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for the Joy that was set before him endured the Cross and despised the shame of it for which he is set down at the Right Hand of God When the (†) Acts 5. Apostles were beaten by Order of the Sanhedrim they departed from the presence of the Councel rejoycing that they were counted worthy to suffer for his Name And when (‖) Acts 16. Paul and Silas had been whipt with many Stripes and were hurried upon it into the innermost Prison and set in the Stocks there they prayed and sang Praises unto God doubtless for enabling them by the Assistance of his Holy Spirit to preach his word boldness and suffer patiently in his Cause How often doth St. Paul in his Epistles glory in his Infirmities which is a Scripture-term for Sufferings and with what pleasure doth he (†) 2 Cor. c. 6. c. 11. c 12. speak of his Afflictions Necessities and Distresses of his Stripes Imprisonments Labours Tumults Watchings Fastings Shipwrach and daily danger of Death Then the Christians suffered after the Example of their Saviour according to the Will of God who called them unto Suffering committing their Souls unto him as unto a Faithful Creator and for (†) Rom. 8.36 his Sake were killed all the day long and were accounted as Sheep for the Slaughter insomuch that in the time of Trajan Tiberius the President of Palastine gives this Account of their Passive Temper in his (‖) Usser ap Ign. p. 9. Letter to the Emperor I am weary with punishing and destroying the Galilaeans who are called here Christians according to your Majesties Command and yet they cease not to discover themselves that they may be slain I have laboured both by Entreaties and Menaces to make them conceal themselves from being known to be Christians but I cannot make them put an End to their own Persecution And when Arrius or Aurelius Antoninus Proconsul of Asia raised a severe Persecution against the Christians they presented themselves before him like an Army at which he being astonished contented himself to execute some few and cryed out unto the rest O wretched men if you have a mind to dye have you not Halters and Precipices enough but must you come hither for an Execution This Story is told by Tertullian to Scapula President of Carthage who also tells him That if he had a mind to go on with the Persecution so many thousands of Christian Men and Women of all Ages and Conditions would offer themselves unto him that he would be hard put to it to get Fires and Swords enougn to destroy them Hitherto and much longer they were so far from declining Sufferings or being terrified into Tumultuous Combinations with those Miseries which they foresaw that they freely offered themselves to the Fury of their Persecutors and strove as (†) Lib. 2. c. 47. Sulpitius Severus observes of the Dioclesian Persecution who should first enter the Lists of those Glorious Conflicts being more Ambitious of Martyrdom in those days than in after times of Bishopricks and the Greatest Preferments of the Church I have chosen these out of many more Instances to shew the Passive Temper of the Primitive Christians in Times of Persecution and to take occasion to enquire into the true Causes which made them and our own Ancestors after their Example so meek and calm chearful in such sad Tryals and so ready to lay down their Lives for Christ Now in this Enquiry into the Causes of such wonderful Patience and Alacrity we ought in the first place to assign a good Life or a Conscience void of Offence towards God and towards Man This is the Cornerstone in the Foundation of True Christian Confidence and Courage against the Fears of Death for he whose Heart doth not condemn him hath confidence towards God and need not fear him that can kill the Body but is not able to kill the Soul because he lived in the Fear of him who is able to destroy both Body and Soul in Hell Who is he that will harm you saith the Apostle if ye be followers of that which is good but if ye suffer for Righteousness-sake happy are ye and be not afraid of their Terrour neither be troubled Hence saith Justin Martyr of Crescens the Stoick who laid wait for his Life as Anytus and Melitus did for that of Socrates Crescens may kill me but he cannot hurt me And speaking of the Occasion of his Conversâ—ion to Christianity (‖) Ap. I. p. 50. When I saw the Christians saith he embrace Death and Torments without fear I thought with my self that they could not live in Sin and sensual Pleasure For what Epicure or Incontinent person that places his Happiness in pleasing the Flesh would so readily embrace death to deprive himself of his Felicity but rather strive to live here for ever The Second Cause of such wonderful Patience and Courage in the Confessors and Martyrs of the Christian Religion was Faith or their full and undoubted Perswasion of receiving those great Rewards which the Gospel promised them for Suffering according to that Definition of the Apostle which saith That Faith consists in the Substance or Confidence of things hoped for and in the Evidence of things not seen It was through this Faith that the Jewish and Primitive Christian Martyrs were tortured not accepting of Deliverance that they might have a better Resurrection i. e. the Resurrection of the Just that others of them had tryal of cruel Mockings and Scourgings yea moreover of Bonds and Imprisonments and that others also were Stoned Sawn asunder Empaled and slain with the Sword and lastly That others who took the allowed Benefit of Flight wandered about in Sheepskins and Goatskins and in Deserts and Mountains and in Dens and Caves of the Earth It was this Faith which the Apostle compares to a Shield and by which he saith the Just did live in times of Persecutions and overcame the World according to St. John who saith This is the Victory that overcometh the World even our Faith Hence saith the Apostle to the Hebrews Cast not away your Confidence which hath great Recompence of Reward in the full perswasion of receiving whereof he also said in his 2d Epist to Timothy I have fought a good Fight I have finished my Course I have kept the Faith Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord will give me at that day And for this cause saith he we faint not for though our Outward Man Perisheth yet the Inward Man is renewed day by day for our light Affliction which is but for a Moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory while we look not at the things that are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are Temporal but the things which are not seen are Eternal From these places it is plain that the Faith of the Primitive Christians was one main Cause of their Courage which the
Gentleman as was reported put this Dilemma in the House of Commons which I never yet heard satisfactiorily Answered Either the Statutes of King H. 8. about Succession were Obligatory or Valid or they were not If not then Acts of Parliament which impeach the Succession are without any more ado Null and Void in Law but if they were by what authority was the House of Suffolk Excluded and King James admitted to the Crown contrary to many Statutes against him notwithstanding all which the (t) Jacob. I. High Court of Parliament declared That the Imperial Crown of this Realm did by Inherent Birthright and lawful and undoubted Succession descend unto his Majesty as being lineally justly and lawfully next and sole Heir of the Royal Blood Here His Succession is owned for Lawful and Vndoubted against the foresaid Acts Lawful not by any Statute but contrary to Statutes by the Common-Law of this Hereditary Kingdom which seems to Reject all Limitations and Exclusions as tending to the Disinberison and Prejudice of the Crown For as the Most Learned and Loyal (u) Third part of The Address to the Freemen c. p. 98. Sir L. J. represented to the House of Commons a Bill of Exclusion if it should pass would change the Essence of the Monarchy and make the Crown Elective or as another (x) Author of the Power of Parliaments p. 39. Ingenious Pen saith It would tend to make a Foot-ball of the Crown and turn an Hereditary Monarchy into Elective For by the same Reason that one Parliament may disinherit one Prince for his Religion other Parliaments may disinherit another upon other Pretences and so consequently by such Exclusions Elect whom they please The next Reason which seems to make an Act of Exclusion unlawful is the Oath of Supremacy which most of the Kings Subjects are called to take upon one Occasion or other and which the Representatives of the Commons of England are bound by Law to take before they can sit in the House By this Oath every one who takes it swears to Assist and Defend all Jurisdictions Priviledges Preheminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highness his Heirs and lawful Successors or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm And I appeal to every Honest and Loyal English-man whether it be not one of the most undoubted transcendent and Essential Rights Priviledges and Preheminences belonging to the Kings Heirs and united to the Imperial Crown of England that they succeed unto the Crown as it comes to their turn according to Proximity of Blood Secondly I desire to know Whether by Lawful Successors is not to be understood such Heirs as succeed according to the common Rules of Hereditary Succession settled by the Common-Law of England and if so how any Man who is within the Obligation of this Oath can Honestly consent to a Bill of Exclusion which deprives the next Heir and in him virtually the whole Royal Family of the Chief Priviledge and Preheminence which belongs unto him by the Common-Law of this Realm Or how any Man who hath taken this Oath which is so apparently designed for the Preservation of the Rights and Priviledges of the Royal Family can deny Faith and true Allegiance to the next Heir from the Moment of his Predecessors death according to the Common Right of Hereditary Succession which by Common-Law belongs unto Him and is annexed to the Crown What Oath soever is made for te Behoof and Interest of the Kings Heirs and Lawful Successors in general must needs be made for the Behoof and Interest of every one of them but the Oath of Supremacy so made for the Behoof and Interest of the Kings Heirs is apparently in general to secure the Succession unto them and therefore it is undoubtedly made to secure the Succession to every one of them according to the Common Order of Hereditary Succession when it shall come to their turn to succeed I have used this Plain and Honest Way of arguing with many of the Excluders themselves and I could never yet receive a satisfactory Answer unto it Some indeed have said with our Author that the Oath of Supremacy is a Protestant Oath and so could not be understood in a Sense destructive to the Protestant Religion which is a meer Shift and proves nothing because it proves too much For according to this Answer we might dispense with our sworn Faith and Allegiance to a Popish King if any should hereafter turn such because the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy are Protestant Oaths and are not to be understood according to them in a sense destructive to the Protestant Religion Secondly Though they are Protestant Oaths yet they respect not the King and his Heirs as Protestants but as lawful and rightful King and Heirs according to the Imperial Law of this Hereditary Kingdom and therefore Moderate Papists will take the Oath of Supremacy as well as of Allegiance as indeed it was for substance taken in the Time of (y) 35 H. 8. ch 1. § 11. H. 8. which they could not do were they made to the King and his Heirs as Protestants But Thirdly As they are Protestant Oaths they bind us the more Emphatically to assist and defend the King against the Vsurpation of the Pope who pretends to a Power of Deposing Kings and of Excluding Hereditary Princes from the Succession Witness Henry the 4th and therefore as all good Protestants are bound by these promissory Oaths to maintain the King in the Throne so are they bound to maintain and defend their Heirs and Successors when their Rights shall fall I have joyned the Oath of Allegiance with the other of Supremacy because in it we also swear to bear Faith and true Allegiance to the Kings Heirs and Successors and Him and them to defend to the utmost of our Power And I here protest to all the World That when I took these Oaths I understood the Words Heirs and Successors for such as hereafter were to be Kings by the Ordinary Course of Hereditary Succession And I appeal to the Conscience of every Honest Protestant if he did not understand them so Other Excluders I have heard maintain that the King and Three Estates in Parliament had a Power by an Act of Exclusion to discharge the People of this part of their Oaths Of bearing Faith and true Allegiance to the Kings Heirs and Lawful Successors but this seems contrary to the following Clause of the Oath of Allegiance which is also to be understood in the other of Supremacy I do believe and in my Conscience am resolved that neither the Pope nor any other person whatsoever hath Power to absolve me of this Oath or any part theoreof And I appeal even to Mr. J. Whether a Man can be absolved from a Promissory Oath by any Power upon Earth but by the Person or Persons to whom and for whose behoof it was made To assert that the King by the Consent of the Parliament