Law of our Religion did they not violate what Commandment of our Saviour did they not scandalously break Mind it when you will they who are so ready to fight for their Religion are most afraid to suffer for it I only beg your Patience whilst I draw two Inferences from what I have now said 1. It is generally enquired here that if St. Peter upon so great an occasion as this might not draw his Sword against the Publick Officers by what Authority then doth the Bishop of Rome as his Successor challenge to himself a Superiority over Soveraign Kings and Princes and a power to Authorize their Subjects to take up Arms against the and to depose them I say with what colour of reason can they claim this Right by vertue of their Succession from St. Peter when you see St. Peter himself had not leave to oppose or resist the meanest Servants or Souldiers that came Armed with Publick Authority yet we are told that no less a Man than Pope Boniface the Eighth undertakes to prove from this very place that St. Peter and the Church had the power of the temporal Sword He said unto him put up thy Sword into the sheath using these words thy Sword Which I only mention to shew you to what pitiful shifts Men are put how they are forced to wrack and torture the Gospels when out of them they would get something that should countenance Sedition or Rebellion So contrary is the Doctrine of Resistance to the plain Rules of our Religion that those amongst us who have defended it in Print have at last acknowledged it a Mystery hid from former Ages and reserved for these last days of greater Light They were fain to pretend a new Revelation for it 2. From our Saviours words it undeniably appears that all taking up Arms against our Soveraign Lord the King or those Commissionated by him let the pretence be what it will is a plain damnable Sin No subject be he of what rank or order soever may draw the Sword let the occasion be never so great without sufficient Authority which he can have only from the Supreme Power it self I do not say we are bound actually to obey the Supreme Authority in all things We have an higher Lord and Master in Heaven to whom the greatest Monarch is equally accountable for all his Actions as his meanest Vassal And I must not for the sake of any inferiour Authority renounce my Faith and Allegiance to that Heavenly King of Kings and Lord of Lords The only difficulty then is if I must neither obey my Superiours when they Command things unlawful nor yet by force defend my self when they go about to punish me for my disobedience what remedy have I left me Must we all lose our Rights Liberties Religion and Lives whenever they chance to be invaded by our Governours and sit still with our hands folded up within our Bosoms I answer that against such inconveniencies as these which have sometimes happened in the World it is confessed that we have no other security but the providence of God which is over all his works and the goodness of our Governours who are under all possible moral obligations to rule with Justice mercy and equity and if they fail in their duties they shall find God a severe avenger But however we are not to use any force towards them any more than Children may against a froward and unkind Parent Fly from them we may and get out of their clutches but we must not do the least evil to them nor ever draw our Swords against them And it is the pleasure of God when such a necessity lies upon us that then we should exercise our Christian Patience and commit our Souls unto our Creatour being willing to lay down our Lives for his Honour from whom we received them As the Learned Grotius Comments upon the words of my Text. This is the middle way the Gospel prescribes to us in such difficult circumstances when we cannot without Sin obey and may not resist then quietly to submit our selves to suffer Gods will But thanks be to God as to our selves in this Nation these are only hard cases supposed by those who wished well at least to the late horrid Conspiracy on purpose to fright people out of their Allegiance and Obedience For we are so far from having any such occasion or pretence for resisting or using the Sword amongst us that besides the plain unlawfulness and wickedness of so doing we have all the obligations and endearments and interest to engage us to live quietly and peaceably that Subjects can possibly desire Can we wish for can we conceive a more Gracious Prince than him whom God hath set over us and hitherto preserved for the publick good and benefit of this Nation How mild and gentle how merciful and ready to forgive So tender of his peoples welfare so careful of their Liberties and Properties that it appears they are far better and more safe in his hands than our own Have we not excellent Laws to secure to us our Civil Rights and is not our Religion as well established as humane policy can do it Are we not on many accounts the happiest and most fortunate people in the World if we were but contented and pleased with our selves That a Nation of so great valour and natural courage of so great skill in feats of Arms and of such undaunted Spirits which if united would be able to grapple with the strongest and most potent Kingdoms in the Earth that hath all things in it self that can be called good pleasant or desirable should yet weaken and destroy our selves by quarrelling amongst our selves or against our own King this is matter of wonder and astonishment to all the World beside The disloyalty of this Nation hath much broken our reputation and we once thought we had almost recover'd our credit again by the Triumphant Restauration of his present Majesty whom God long preserve till these late divisions and commotions and fresh conspiracies and renewed attempts against the Government have sunk us low in the esteem of all our neighbour Nations But Blessed be God that this Poyson of Faction and Sedition hath not infected all sorts of Men. There was preserved a remnant that never bowed their knees to Baal nor were carried away by the popular stream who preserved their integrity and Loyalty intire in the midst of that crooked and perverse Generation This Assembly here present is sufficient instance of the truth of what I say May the King never want such Subjects of such skill and courage of such Loyalty and honesty to defend his Royal Person and happy Government against Foreign Invasions and intestine Factions and Rebellions And give me leave to end all with this Prayer and I know you are such lovers of Peace that you will all say Amen to it However necessary the terrour of your Arms may be to the defence of the King and Church yet God grant that neither of them may ever have occasion to make use of your Sword or try either your skill or courage FINIS Three Books lately Published by Samuel Parker D. D. Archdeacon of Canterbury 1. AN Account of the Government of the Christian Church for the First 600 years 2. Religion and Loyalty the First part 3. Religion and Loyalty the Second part Also the right Foundation of Quietness Obedience and Concord by Clement Ellis newly published All sold by John Baker at the Three Pigeons in St. Pauls Church-yard
last resolved on his Death And who could be safe in their Lives and Estates if such exemplary vertue and innocence could not protect our Blessed Saviour So that here their civil Liberties and Properties were highly concerned If our Governours prevail and by such manifest injustice take away this Mans Life the Lord knows who of us by such wicked Arts and subornation of witnesses and methods of violence shall go next This is such an instance of Arbitrariness and Tyranny as is not to be endured by a free people 3. It is further to be considered that not only their civil Liberties and Birthright but the true Religion was also in great danger This person in whose defence St. Peter drew his Sword was no other than the Son of God the Saviour of the World that great Prophet of whom Moses spake of old time and whom their whole Nation had so long expected That Divine Preacher of Righteousness whom God had sent into the World these last days to instruct mankind and discover his whole will to us and by it to conduct us to eternal Life Now this feizing of his Person was a downright rejecting the true Messiah a design to root out his holy Doctrine which his enemies doubted not but would dy with him Who would not stretch a little and venture something in so Sacred and so Glorious a Cause Did it become the Disciples to stand upon little niceties and punctilio's of duty when they were haling away the Son of God himself as the vilest Malafactor and all that was dear to them lay at stake or needed they to fear Gods displeasure for rescuing one so dear to him out of the hands of those wretched Miscreants who would treat him with all imaginable spite and cruelty Thus you see it was their Love only and concern for the best person the best Religion that inspirited St. Peter and the Disciples with courage and resolution to attack the Souldiers and Officers that came against their Master 4. The force that was opposed or the ressistance that was made was only against the inferiour and meanest Officers and Servants The Sword was drawn neither against Caesar himself nor any sent by him as Herod or Pilate nor yet against any of the Chief Priests and Elders of the Jews themselves but only against some of their ordinary Malignant Servants and Officers and that too at a time when but very little power remained to the Jews who could not judge in Capital Causes nor put any to Death by their own Authority St. Peter might have pleaded that he design'd no hurt or mischief to the persons of his Governours whom he acknowledged to be Sacred and Inviolable that he owned the Authority of the Chief Priests and Elders did not fight against them but for them against their unjust Ministers who came treacherously in the Night to surprize our Saviour that they might deliver him up to Pilate the Roman President and this without any Commission from him who had the chief Juridiction in Jewry In short St. Peter only resisted unjust and illegal Violence He thought himself under the strongest Obligations of Love and Gratitude to his Lord and Master to do it It was zeal for Christ inflamed him he could not endure to see the Son of God so basely used Yet notwithanding all these Circumstances which I have alledged in his favour he was severely reprehended by our Saviour for drawing his Sword the fact was condemned and those who should hereafter imitate him by taking the Sword in like cases Sentenced as worthy of Death 2. I proceed to enquire into the grounds and reasons upon which our Saviour blamed and condemned this Fact of St. Peter and we shall find these two 1. Because he had no competent Authority to draw his Sword 2. Because fighting in defence of our Saviour and his Religion was utterly inconsistent with his design and the Nature of his Kingdom 1. Because he had no competent Authority to justifie his drawing his Sword So saith our Saviour All they that take the Sword of their own heads who without leave or Commission usurp the right of the Magistrate shall suffer the punishment due by Law to Murderers who so sheddeth Mans Blood by Man shall his Blood be shed God Almighty is the sole Lord and Master of Life and Death No Man hath of himself power over his own Life much less over anothers and consequently cannot transfer any such power What is therefore called jus gladii or the power of the Sword must be put into the hands of the Soveraign by God alone whose Minister he is and not by the people who cannot give what they never had Who therefore Fights with the allowance or at the Command of the Supreme power fights by Gods Authority too by whose leave and appointment he takes away the Lives of the Kings enemies And to pretend to fight for God without any Authority from the King must either suppose a private direction and Commission from God which is all imposture or it makes every private person a Soveraign which is indeed to destroy the Nature both of Soveraign and Subject Our Blessed Saviour here pronounceth him worthy of Death who should draw his Sword either against or without a Lawful Authority though it be to secure the greatest innocence from the most unjust and illegal Persecution And can we then possibly desire a plainer or more express Text of Scripture against all resistance of Lawful Authority by force and violence than these words of our Lord. For if excepting the case of private defence in which the consent of the Supreme Power is supposed we are never to use the Sword but when we receive Authority to do it from the Publick Magistrate then to be sure it is never Lawful to use it against him unless we will imagine the King to Authorize Men and give them Commission to fight against himself as those in our late Rebellion did who pretended to fight against his Person by his Authority a conceit as absurd as Traiterous Now by this one precept of non-Resistance to the higher Powers our Saviour hath best secured the Rights of Princes the liberty of the Subject and the Peace of Societies 1. By this our Saviour hath secured the Rights of Soveraign Princes This being an essential part of the Soveraign power to be unaccountable and irresistable For that power which is to give account unto or may be resisted by any other power on Earth is not the Soveraign power of a Nation but it is subject to those who cannot controul it Thus if it were Lawful for the Body of the people in general or their representatives in any case to take up Arms and resist then is the King Soveraign only during pleasure and the people subject no longer than they shall think fit And it is truly said that He hath only an empty shadow of Power and Authority who is cloathed with the Robes of Majesty and is entrusted with the Scepter
A SERMON Preached before the Artillery-Company OF LONDON AT St Mary-le-Bow DECEMBER 2 1684. And now Published at their desire By BENJAMIN CALAMY D. D. One of his Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary LONDON Printed for John Baker Printer to the Honourable Society at the Three Pigeons in St. Pauls Church-yard 1685. To the Right Honourable Sir William Prichard Knight and Alderman President of the Artillery-Company To the Right Honourable Sir James Smith LORD MAYOR VICE-PRESIDENT To the Right Worshipful Sir Matthew Andrews TREASURER As also to the Right Honourable Earl of Aran Earl of Huntingdon Earl of Salisbury Lord Cholmondeley To the Right Worshipful Sir Richard Temple Sir Peter Daniel Sir Samuel Dashwood Captain William Davies STEWARDS And to the whole Court of Assistants Field-Officers Captains and Gentlemen Professing and Exercising Arms in that Renowned and Honourable Society Right Honourable c. SO many excellent Books have been of late Written in defence of Loyalty and the Government in answer to those virulent and Seditious Pamphlets and Libels that have been Published amongst us that we might reasonably hope there should be hardly now left one disaffected Man in the Nation Yet it appears by those discontents that are still whisper'd that there is great need of an anniversary meeting of this Illustrious Society which not only by their Example doth encourage others to be Loyal but can also force those to be such who perhaps might have but little mind to it otherwise And notwithstanding all that hath been said or Printed for obedience to Lawful Authority there are many so slenderly converted and so ready on all occasions to Relapse that there cannot but be frequent use of some plain Discourses to shew the wickedness as well as mischievousness of all disloyal Principles To do this in some measure is the honest design of the following Sermon which is now humbly presented to your favourable acceptance By Right Honourable c. Your most humble and most obedient Servant Benjamin Calamy A SERMON Preached before the Artillery-Company St. MATTHEW XXVI 52. Then said Jesus unto him put up again thy Sword into his place for all they that take the Sword shall perish with the Sword I Can easily imagine some amongst you upon the first hearing of these words ready to tell me that this advice of our Lords is by no means suited or proper to this illustrious Assembly consisting of Men so long Trained up and so excellently skill'd in Martial exercises To bid those who so well know the use of the Sword to put it into its place and suffer it to rust in its Scabbard sounds like a dismission or disbanding of this renowned and honourable Society and an hard censure of your noble Profession as unlawful or Antichristian and infinitely dangerous too if all they that take the Sword shall perish by the Sword But if we better consider what our Saviour here saith we shall not find any thing in this Text against the use of the Sword upon a just and necessary occasion or when it is duely put into our hands by those who have from God the power of the Sword committed to them For he did not command his Disciples to fling it away as of no further use under the Gospel as if no other Sword was now necessary but that of the Spirit or as if all Christians were bound tamely to yield up themselves an easy prey to violent and injurious Men and in no case to repel unjust force by force No our blessed Lord but a little before viz. the very same Night in which he spake the words of my Text had advised his Disciples those of them who had no Swords to sell their Garments and buy one thereby allowing them to provide Arms sufficient for their defence against lawless Robbers and Cut-throats who were very common and numerous in those Countries through which they were to pass for the propagation of Christianity Our Saviour did never intend to ty all his Disciples hands and expose them naked to be Invaded and Assaulted by any one that had a mind to it To oppose force against unjust force is allow'd to every Man by the Law of Nature which natural right our Religion hath not cancel'd nor restrained provided always that we thus draw our Swords only against private Persons and not against those who have Warrant or Command of publick Authority to vouch their force against us and that it be in such cases of extremity where we cannot defend our selves by the regular course of calling in the Assistance of the Law or Magistrate Nay further in the very words of my Text our Saviour doth expresly allow the use of the Sword in the hands of the Supreme power or by Comission and Authority from it For when he saith they shall perish by the Sword he means by the Sword of the Magistrate which shall justly cut off such Offenders Thus from the words themselves we have sufficient evidence that our Saviour did not forbid the use of the Sword either in our own necessary defence or at the Command and direction of the Supreme Governours In which two cases only it was ever lawful for private Persons And in this matter the Laws of our Religion have made no alteration We may still defend our selves by the Sword from the unjust Assaults of private Persons when we have no other Remedy and the Soveraigns of every Nation and Kingdom have the same power over their Subjects persons fortunes and lives that they had before Christianity appeared in the World that they had from the beginning since Men first entered into Societies and lived under Government Our Saviour therefore in my Text forbids the use of the Sword only on that particular occasion or the like on which it was drawn by St. Peter which was this A great company of Souldiers and other Officers from the chief Priests and Pharisees with the Traitour Judas to conduct them were sent to Apprehend our Blessed Saviour in the Garden whither he had retired This the Disciples thought a fit opportunity to shew their courage and constancy to their Lord and Master by venturing their own Lives to rescue him from the mercyless hands of his bloody enemies They asked him therefore Lord shall we smite with the Sword and St. Peter who was naturally of a more hot temper and bolder spirit than the rest of the Apostles without tarrying for an Answer drew his Sword and struck at the chiefest and most busy of them some guess him to be the Man that Commanded the Party and had the Warrant to seize our Lord and he out off his ear But our Saviour liked not this rash and ungovernable zeal and therefore intreated those who had him in their power to suffer him but so long till by a Miraculous touch he healed the Wound and turning to St. Peter bad him put up his Sword again into his place For at present there was not the least just occasion for it as great an one as