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A33467 The power of kings, particularly the British monarchy asserted and vindicated, in a sermon preached at Wakefield in the county of York, Sunday, October the 30th, 1681 by William Clifford. Clifford, William, A.M. 1682 (1682) Wing C4715; ESTC R18703 16,088 36

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the contrary for the Lords sake whether it be unto the King as Supream or unto Governours substituted by him for the punishment of Wickedness and Vice and for the praise of them that do well for so is the will of God that in well-doing ye may put to silence the Ignorance of foolishmen Answerably hereunto S. Paul clearly evinceth the necessity of Obedience to Supream Powers telling us that such are ordained of God for which very reason saith he ye must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake for he that resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God But notwithstanding all this our Enemies keep rubbing up the old Sore and in defiance of all our Persuasions and good Councils to the contrary they will understand St. Paul better than he understood himself Just in another Case like to Andreas Althamerus who having taken up an Opinion prejudicial to Obedience and Good Works and being not able to reconcile it with the Doctrine of St. James doth fairly therefore give St. James the Lio in a Book printed since Mr. Calvins Reduction of Geneva at Strasbourg So they tell us that they are willing to Obey Powers could they have such Powers as the Apostle meant of when he writ this Epistle Wherein alas they are miserably mistaken for the Apostle writ this Epistle to his Romish Converts when they were under the Government of a Cruel Heathen Emperour Thus easily can Mens Fancies lead them to assert they know not what Both They and We have the greatest cause to bless God that we are not under such a Power as then was And that which claimeth the next degree of our Assent after our Saviours Doctrine and the Apostles is the Suffrage of the Universal Church together with the Practice of Primitive Christianity the best if not only Interpreter of the New Testament He that consulteth these will find them unanimously asserting the Proposition we have now in hand And what good Laws were made for securing the Royal Rights of Kings I shall refer the more Intelligent to read in the Universal Code wherein you have the Four General Councils of Nice Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon with the Five Primitive Synods of Ancyra Neocesaria Gangres Antioch and Laodicea all which have been all along received and approved by the Universal Church of Christ And as this was the Opinion of the whole Catholick Church so doth it still remain and long may it do so there being no one Church in the known World asserting otherwise nor any sound and sober Member of any Church as far as I was ever able to learn Except a few deluded Creatures in the Church of Rome and a handful of Zealous Fools in the Reformed Churches who have made themselves ridiculous and contemptible in the Eyes of all thinking and judicious Persons by asserting that which the uninterrupted Opinion and Universal Practice of the Christian Church for Fifteen Hundred years and upwards hath flatly contradicted And whether the Judgments of a few and those it may be for the most part Ignorant or the Opinions of Thousands who for their great Piety and exemplary Loyalty are of precious Memory be in a Case of so great moment as this to be preferred he must have abjured his Reason that cannot easily distinguish However it be we need go no further to learn Loyalty than our own Church All the Laws of this Realm both Sacred and Civil do teach us what it is The Oath of Fidelity which I suppose most Men have taken is sufficiently plain and obligatory to which I remit you And let any Man consult that together with his own Interest and Safety and then let him be Disloyal if he can Neither did any of the Ancient Fathers recede one jot from the Apostolical Doctrine and Practice It is the greatest wickedness in the World to resist the Supream Power saith Clemens in his Constitutions And tho you blast our Fame saith Tertullian speaking to the Romans by saying we are Injurions to Majesty yet can you find no such Man amongst us for tho we have filled not only the Country but the Court yet are we averse to Rebellion Our Saviour hath taught us and St. Peter hath taught us saith Nazianzen against Julian not to resist Lawful Authority meaning the Emperour but rather to suffer it is lawful for us to flee our Saviour hath permitted it so did St. Athanasius so did St. Cyprian neither have we any other Remedy left us but Prayers and Tears And when an Emperour offered Violence to some of the Christians what Pious Advice doth Ambrose writing to Auxentius give them Beware saith he of any weapons but your Tears with these you may but with any other you may not resist And that which will be the glory of the Christian World to the end of the World as it will likewise be the shame of those that contrived and acted that Tragedy an-indelible Example of Christian Patience is that of the Theban Legion which consisted of near Seven Thousand Christian Souldiers who being in the Field and having their Swords drawn in their hands and of sufficient Power to defend themselves and rout the Forces of the Emperour yet suffered themselves quietly and calmly to be Martyred rather than to obey the severe and unmanly Edict of Maximian I might give Examples in every Century down to these very Times and I might have done it without going far from home It is not long since the whole Church of England was Martyred in the Cause of her Sovereign Lord. Let those who were the Designers and the Actors of that Unevangelical Zeal live unparallel'd and die unpitied But I shall content my self and I hope satisfie every Honest man and modest Christian with that which St. Chrysostom hath said upon the words of St. Paul Rom. 13. Wherefore ye must needs be subject whosoever ye be tho an Apostle Evangelist Prophet or whoever else you must needs be subject for if Christ and his Apostles saith he thought it requisite to be subject to Pagan how much more requisite then must it needs be to be subject to Christian Princes Besides the Fathers I promised you the Judgment of the Immortal Grotius who hath been miserably misunderstood by some in this Point no man ever yet having asserted and defended the Prerogatives of Kings with such strength of Antiquity such sober solid and substantial Arguments as that Learned Man hath done And his Observation amongst many others of great worth is this That the Gospel is a more exact Rule and a more pure Institution than ever yet appeared in the World and consequently doth require a more perfect and intire Patience and Obedience and therefore we cannot without great Sin and the highest Injury to our Blessed Lord and his Gospel recede from that exact Obedience which he hath enjoyned and whereof he hath made himself our Example And how he behaved himself the Apostle