or follow my business at home But if the King commands me abroad to serve him it is now a good work and my Duty to go abroad and serve him And so in other like cases But will some say What if the King should command us any thing that is unlawful What then must our Obedience be I answer 1. The King cannot be conceived to command us that is any men in our circumstances and conditions any thing but what he commands according to Law that is he can be conceived to command us nothing but what the Law commands And I must stand to it our Laws are good nay they are most excellent at least I could never find an ill one amongst those now in force This Supposition therefore is you see unreasonable and not to be put But you will say What if an ill Law should be made and our Obedience to it required These things are not in themselves impossiible I answer Under our Constitution and as the Frame of our Government stands if they be not impossible yet God be blessed they are most highly improbable and most unlikely But 2. And which for ever answers all There are few of us but have heard there is a double Obedience which may be paid to Governours Active or Passive Where the thing commanded is lawful to be done we ought to do it we owe active Obedience Eccles viii 2. I counsel thee to keep the Kings Commandment and that in regard of the Oath of God Thy Allegiance binds thee to it But in case the thing commanded be unlawful that is against any plain Command of God or that thou without Fraud or Dissimulation apprehendest and believest it to be so there is then passive Obedience that thou art to pay that is thou must meekly and patiently submit thy self to suffer whatever Penalty the Lawgiver thinks fit to inflict for the breach of his Law We may petition and supplicate for Forbearance and Mercy but in case we cannot obtain it we may not resist For whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation Rom. xiii 2. This is the Doctrine of St. Paul and it ever has been the Doctrine of our Church See the Book of Homilies And thus as to the first branch of Honour due to the King the Honour of Obedience A second Honour which we owe to him is that of Fealty and Allegiance The word Fealty signifies only Fidelity or Faithfulness and what the particulars of the Faith we owe to our Sovereign Lord the King are we know all of us by the Oath of Allegiance In particular as we are not to be false Traytors our selves so neither are we to connive at or conceal those whom we have reason to suspect to be such And hereunto we are all of us bound First By the Oath aforementioned which that none may think an Imposition upon us or contrary to the Laws of God or to our Christian Liberty behold it in the very Kingdom of Judah that is in the Kingdom which of all ever on Earth was that of Gods most peculiar Erection and Care We had just now one proof of it out of Ecclesiastes I counsel thee to keep the Kings Commandment by reason of the Oath of God that Oath we cannot well conceive to be any other than the Oath of Allegiance which they to whom he speaks had taken to their King and particularly to King Solomon the Penman of that Book But in 1 Chron. last 24. You have both the time and manner or ceremony of taking it Then Solomon sat on the Throne of the Lord as King instead of David his Father And all the Princes and the mighty Men and all the Sons of King David gave the Hand under Solomon so the Text runs in the Hebrew as you may see in the Margin of your Bibles And what that kind of speech signifies you may learn out of the Story of Abrahams Servant Gen. xxiv 2 3. Put I pray thee saith Abraham to his Servant thine Hand under my Thigh and I will make thee swear by the Lord the God of Heaven and the God of Earth The giving the Hand under one was the Ceremony of a most solemn Oath By the Lord that is By Jehovah the God of Heaven and the God of Earth So again when Jacob was dying in the Land of Egypt he sent for his Son Joseph and said unto him Put I pray thee thine Hand under my Thigh and deal kindly and truly with me Bury me not in Egypt but I will lie with my Fathers c. And he said swear unto me and he sware unto him Genes xxvii 29 30 31. So that this their giving their Hand under King Solomon was swearing to him in person their Faith and Allegiance You see then Divine Warrant for an Oath of Allegiance And hereby first I say are we bound to pay our King the Honour of Fidelity for this Oath we have all of us taken or if any of us be so young as not to have taken it such are to be minded that we here all of us call our selves English-men And every English-man is born as I may say with the Oath of Allegiance in his mouth our Fathers took it and stand bound for us and we therefore bound in them 2. We are bound hereto by the Principles of Equity and Justice those common grounds of the Laws of Nations and indeed the true Law of Nature We expect Protection from the King his Laws and Government and God be blessed we do enjoy it Now is it not just that as we have Safety from him so he should have Security from us What Nation is there which gives not this Security to their Government Indeed it is the very Bond of Government without which it cannot subsist but all must run into Seditions Bloudshed Confusion Anarchy And therefore 3. We are bound to pay our King the Honour of Faith and Allegiance in our own Defence There are many who pretend and have long pretended God forgive them to be afraid of their Property Liberties and Religion My Brethren what can more certainly and fatally expose or destroy all these than Civil Wars And Civil Wars must needs immediately come in upon us if any of us at least any number of us start or swerve from our Allegiance Our King under God alone is able to protect us our Properties Liberties Religion and besides his Force Power he has manifested to the World Courage Will and Resolution enough to protect us In standing stedfast therefore we secure and preserve our selves and ours but if we stagger or fall off which God forbid we may weaken him but we shall destroy our selves I will add no more on this Point I trust I do not need Thus then as to the second branch of Honour due to the King the Honour of Fealty and Allegiance and our Obligations thereto The third follows Thirdly then We owe to our King by
render having compassion one of another if we take compassion strictly cannot be better rendred but then by compassion we must understand sympathising or being of like affection one with another as in Rom. xii 15. Rejoycing with them that rejoyce and weeping with them that weep He goes on Love as Brethren 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be ye lovers of the Brethren Be pitiful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of easie bowels i. e. be tender hearted so the self same word is more exactly rendred Ephes iv 32. Then as to the outward Product of such inward Temper it follows Be courieous and ver 9. Not rendring Evil for Evil or Railing for Railing but contrariwise Blessing knowing that thereunto are ye called that ye should inherit a Blessing Now to back or further enforce the latter part of this Exhortation he brings in as a proof of what he had last said namely that peaceable and sweet tempered men should inherit a Blessing two or three Verses out of the Old Testament Psal xxxiv 13. directing such Life and Temper as the true way to Blessedness part of which citation is our present Text Seek Peace and ensue it By which account thus given of the connexion of the Words it appears that amongst the several Christian Duties which concern us in order to present and future Happiness in order to inheriting the Blessing the study of Peace is one of principal note Seek Peace say both the blessed Psalmist and the Apostle and in them both Old Testament and New if you would inherit the Blessing promised in either The Words are not obscure but yet emphatical Seek Peace If either Peace or the ways and methods to it should be obscure or do not readily offer themselves make it your business by diligent and assiduous search to find out both one and the other And not only seek it but ensue or pursue it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word properly imports the following hard after that which flies As if he had said Though Peace should at any time seem upon the wing to be gone out of the Countrey or out of the World yet pursue her still Desist not from your endeavours to retrieve her and if you cease not to pursue you shall infallibly reach her here or in a better world To this passage of David and of St. Peter it were easie to annex divers others as express to the same purpose out of other parts of Holy Writ Hear our Lord himself Mat. v 9. Blessed are the Peacemakers for day shall be called the children of God And if you remark it most of the foregoing Beatitudes Blessed be the poor in spirit that is the humble and lowly minded Blessed be thee meek blessed the merciful c. are accommodable to the peaceable Spirit which has a most intimate kindred with Meekness Mercifulness Humility and other like Christian Graces Again hear the Apostle St. Paul Rom. xii 18. If it be possible as much as in you lies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on your side or as far as concerns you live peaceably with all men If any will not be at peace with you let it be their fault not yours Yet again Hebr. xii 14. Follow peace the same word as in the Text pursue peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. But why do I spend time in repeating what all know and have daily in their mouths To be short the Commands are so explicit and plain and have such Promises annexed to them and withal so often repeated in the Old Testament and in the New by our Lord himself by the Apostle of the Circumcision in the Text by the Apostle of the Gentiles in the places mentioned and by others elsewhere that we must need account the Endeavour of Peace to be a Duty which the Holy Ghost has laid the greatest weight upon nor can he style himself a Christian who employs not this way his utmost power The rest of my Discourse therefore shall be taken up in recommending Directions for the more successful Practice of this Duty And these shall be proportionate to the several sorts of Peace and as neerly attemperated to the present publick Circumstances and Necessities as I can Now in our setting forth it will be meet to remember that Peace may be opposed to Discontent as well as to Strife and War Those who have inward Grudging and Dissatisfactions are as far from some sort of Peace as those who are engaged in actual or open Quarrels And a both regards Peace is either publick private or secret And the publick Peace â—gain is either Civil or Ecclesiastical First then as to Publick Civil Peace By Gods great Blessing we enjoy this here while our Neighbors every where on the other sides of the Water are embroiled For ever blessed be our good God who has singled us out as the peculiar Objects of this his Mercy at present yet let us study Peace also that is endeavour to keep it And to this purpose I can give no better directions than these following 1. Maintain entire and unspotted Loyalty I hope I shall not need much to press this Advice especially in this place The Commands for Subjection and Loyalty are as express in Scripture as are these for Peace but just now mentioned only it would divert us too much from our present purpose to alledge them now And I must tell you it is the peculiar Glory of the Reformation of the Church of England that as it was made by an happy Consent and Union of the Royal and Ecclesiastical Power of the Realm so the Professors of it can never be taxed in any points either of resisting or descrting their Prince In all the Wars since the Reformation in all the Plots old and new not one true Church of England-man to be found all along before any fell into such designs they were either leavened with Fanaticism and secretly fallen off from the Principles and Unity of our Church or open Apostates from her else they were never of us This might be proved by particulars but such proof is not for this Office or place only from what I have said I will infer if there should be any person here staggering in his Loyalty much more if a Desertor of it though yet but secretly that such person is neither Christian nor Protestant whatever he pretends He 's fallen off from his Christianity which commands Subjection and loyal Adhesion And he 's as much fallen off from the establisht reformed Church which ever taught and practised both Loyalty and Non-resistance witness our Book of Homilies and our Canons But I will quit this head as hoping it to be needless here long to be insisted on 2. In order to keeping and maintaining the publick Peace let every one be diligent in his own business and keep within the bounds of his own Calling This also is an express Command in Scripture 1 Cor. vii 20. Let every one abide in the same Calling
being at Dublin in the month of March Ann. Dom. 1684. where with weeping Ireland I took my leave of the great and good Duke of Ormond I was according as usually when there invited to preach before the State at christ-Christ-Church and having in that short stay of the few days I had made there met with divers Books some even in English which fell foul upon the Holy Scriptures especially upon the present Original of the Old Testament together with all Translations that closely follow it as our English Translations for the most part does and observing some men taking part with these Writers admiring and applauding their Books others some of whom should have understood better shaken by them so that some since have declared themselves to have been long in quest of Scriptures and notwithstanding all our Divines pretences not yet to know where to find them nay some further to have preached against the Peoples having and reading Scriptures in vulgar Languages I thought I could not by any one Sermon do a more seasonable service to our Church and indeed to the common Christianity than by drawing together the sum of the more considerable Plea's which have been brought chiefly by Spinosa Is Vossius and P. Simon the three Chieftains whose Spittle other less people lick up and vent against the validity or integrity of the Books of the Old Testament and consequently much enervating the New and by shewing the contemptible vanity the gross falsity or unsoundness of them all This I did briefly and have since publisht the Discourse with an Appendix I may say demonstrating the most suspicious Points asserted in it In this Discourse it could not be except I should have been grosly partial but that some passages must fall justifying our establisht Church against her adversaries of Rome But the main scope and design of my Sermon was plain enough against Antiscripturists in general And of the aforenamed Authors whom I mainly struck at and whose Doctrine I overthrew one was an Atheistical Apostate Jew the other a craz'd Admirer of Greek and Philology his Religion if any I may be confident is not Roman The third indeed a profest Son of Rome but so Heterodox that as I understood then and have yet heard nothing to the contrary that very Church has censured him and his Writings Now who could ever have thought that defending Scripture and the Hebrew Text against such Adversaries of whom not one man was an Oxthodox Roman Catholick could have been termed Imprudence Disloyalty â—nd fomenting Rebellion against the King Yet so it was that a certain Dignitary â—n August last as I have been informed â—resented a Paper to a Person of Hoâ—our wherein not only that Discourse â—nd its Author but certain Irish Proteâ—tant Bishops indefinitely were charged as follows I cannot understand the Policy of some Irish Protestant Bishops during the Heat of Argiles and Monmouths Rebellion which threatned the Ruine of their whole Order instead of preaching the Christian Doctrine of Loyalty and Allegiance at that time seasonable to go into into the Pulpit and amuse the Peo-with apprehensions of Popery which how Loyal soever their Intentions might be was doubtless no Disservice to Monmouth nor good Service to His Majesty because manifestly tending to alienate the Affections of the Subjects And of these Irish Protestant Bishops I hear I was the first named in the Margin of his Paper To this Imputation Civility and good Manners will not suffer me to return thâ— Language it deserves but in short as to the truth of matter of fact If the Bishoâ— of Cork did not in that season preach uâ— Loyalty and Obedience with all his mighâ— and possibly more than any one man â— Papist or Protestant within the Kingdom â— or if either at that time or any else hâ— did ever preach what may be justly termed the amusing the people with apprehensions of Popery the said Bishop offer himself to the severest Animadversions imaginable To the point then If the London Gazzetts may be credited Argile landed at Campletown in the Highlands of Scotland May 20. Ann. Dom. 1685. and seâ—â— out his Treasonable Summons May 2â— which day news came of his arrival tâ— Dunluce in the North of Ireland and oâ— June 21. ensuing he was brought in Prâ—soner to Edenburgh So that the Heat â—â— his Rebellion must fall between May 20. anâ— June 21. 1685. Further Monmouth landed at Lyme in the Evening June 11. and was routed July 6. bâ—twixt which days must also fall the Heâ—â— of his Rebellion My Sermon at Chrisâ— Church Dublin which was the only oâ— that Gentleman heard of me about thaâ— time and which certainly he aimed at was preached March 22. 1684. that is two full months not only before the Heat of Argiles Rebellion but before any except Traytors knew of it and three months within three days before the Heat or commencing of Monmouths Rebellion or any saving the Rebels Traiterous Accomplices knew of that Therefore this Gentleman was fouly out in regard of time and the main point in his Accusation which will fix Imprudence or Disloyalty upon me being the timing my Sermon the whole Accusation must on this score fall For how could I by that Sermon preached at that time be serviceable to Monmouth in the time of his Rebellion and disserviceable to the King when the times fell at such distance and his Rebellion was not in being or thought of By what account will March the 22. be made the middle of June I am sure if I had in the least sowed any Seeds of Rebellion there were above an hundred wiser and loyaller and greater men than the Accuser in that Audience from whom I should both have heard of it and felt it But waving this Answer from the Timt which yet that Gentleman can never geâ— over was it all true that that Discoursâ— did tend to amuse the minds of men with thâ— apprehensions of Popery If I understand English to amuse the minds of men witâ— the apprehensions of Popery is to possesâ— them with fears that Popery will be introduceâ— or imposed upon them Now let me be dealâ— justly with and let not men be false to their own Sense in this point also Was there in that Discourse any one word pointing at or meddling with Designs of State or Statists Is the modest and peaceable endeavouring to settle the Grounds of our common Christianity and to confirm to mens Reason and Judgments the Divine Authority of Holy Scripture against the Wiles or Bravadoes of men who oppugn the Doctrine not only of our own but of the very Roman Church is this I say possessing the people with fears that the Government intends to establish Popery If it be said some parts of your Sermon were levell'd against certain Doctrines of the Papists as well as against the Tenets and Arguments of those men named I do not deny it but those parts tended only by strength of Argument and without any one virulent
of all whom very briefly I shall present a Summulary or Abstract 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Supplications are generally understood such Prayers by which we deprecate Evils whence the word is anciently by St. Ambrose and St. Austin as well as by more modern Writers rendred Deprecations In plain terms we may conceive for our distincter understanding hereby meant such Prayers as now we style Litanies wherein we pray that God would deliver us from the several evils of Soul and Body And these are Impensior Oratio as St. Jerome glosses the word a more earnest kind of Prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Petitions or Prayers in a stricter sense of the name are such Addresses to God by which we ask that good things may be bestowed on us I judge hereby specially signified such Prayers as generally our Collects are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Intercessions or interposing with God for Interpellatio pro aliorum salute Theod Beza Cornel à Lapid c. the Safety of others seems very properly to denote such Prayers as have been ever since the primitive age used at the Communion for the whole Estate of Christs Church militant on Earth And then as to giving of Thanks whether for our own or others Mercies there can be no doubt of its plain certain difference from all the rest And not only the Te Deum other Hymns of the Church but in an especial manner the close of the forementioned Prayer blessing the Name of God for all his Saints which is a very ancient part of the Office of the Eucharist will properly suit thereto So that in short we find here the blessed Apostle prescribing or directing a kind of Liturgy in the Christian Church and that consisting of such parts and Offices as our present Service Book consists of And this he gives as the very first point in charge to Timothy To proceed Such Prayers as these must be made for all men This saith St. Chrysostome the Apostle begins with that his Injunction which follows For Kings and all that are in Authority might not be misjudged to proceed from slattery to them that were in power The Fathers conjecture is not to be contemned yet doubtless there was further reason for the Practice enjoyned it is but an agreeable product of the Christian Spirit or Temper Christianity both teaches and implants universal Charity We are to love all men and therefore to pray for all men For Kings and them that are in Authority The Greeks saith Grotius called the Roman Emperors Kings not regarding so much the name as the thing it self And then by proportion the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that are iâ— Authority will be the Presidents of the Provinces I acknowledge the note is learned and wholesom yet if we explain St. Paul out of St. Peter the Text will be more plain or the Words understood in a way more accommodate to the present forms of Government 1 Pet. ii 13 14. Submit your selves saith he to every Ordinance of Man whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as those that are sent by him By Kings we understand those who are supreme those who have within their Dominions the highest Authority under God and Christ independant on any other And such I conceive none here believe any one to be within these Kingdoms but His present Majesty James the second whom God preserve By Governours those who are commissionated by the Sovereign For both and all we are especially i. e. expresly by the Apostles command to supplicate in our publick Church Prayers There are more Heads might be insisted on from hence than I am willing to detain you with at present but of any two Propositions that I can pitch on deducible hence these following are most comprehensive of the whole 1. Prop. In the publick Service of the Church there ought to be Prayers Supplications Petitions and giving of Thanks for all men 2. Prop. In an especial manner such publick Prayers and that of all the kinds mentioned ought to be made for Kings and all subordinate Governours I will speak a few things briefly of the first as a good and proper foundation for it hath seemed such to the Holy Ghost in the Text as a proper foundation I say to the second We are in our publick Prayers to make Supplications Petitions and Thanksgivings for all men And I have already suggested the indefensible ground or foundation hereof Christianity teaches and induces universal Charity or Love to all men to Aliens and Enemies we know as well as to Fellow-natives and Friends I cannot therefore simply either approve or justifie that distinction which the parsimonious Charity of some applies here interpreting the All men in the Text meerly of the Genera singulâ—rum not the singuli Generum We are here commanded say they to pray for all sorts and degrees of men but not for all the men of each sort and degree there are many particular persons for whom we ought not to pray Obj. As to what they bring in proof hereof that the Apostle has given us a limitation 1 Joh. v. 16. There is a Sin unto Death I do not say that ye shall pray for it that is as appears by the Context for them who commit it I allow it Sol. to be true and God forbid but all men should allow it as such for 't is express Scripture but I assert it to be in the present state of the Church generally unapplicable as a rule of Practice For 1 What is a Sin unto Death pro hic nunc we know not I mean in this or that mans ordinary practice we are not able I am sure I have not met with that judicious person living who has dared to determine If God would be severe or but exactly just if as the Prophet speaks he should lay Judgment to the Line and Righteousness to the Plummet there is no Sin at all which would not be unto death but now that through Christ Jesus all who believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses Act. xxii 39. we know no Sins unpardonable that is unto Death but either 1. Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost which if we know what it is we cannot I think judge properly incident into the present age if we do not know though we should hear a man to commit it we could not be assured he in that sinned unto Death or 2. Such Sins which are an utter defeisance of the Covenant of Grace of which kind as far as I am able to see we know none but final Vnbelief and final Impenitence and till men are dead in their unbelief and impenitence we are not sure though we may strongly fear that God will not give them Faith and Repentance that is we are not sure their Unbelief or Impenitence will be final that is we know not that they have yet sinned unto Death Wherefore if they are so bad that we
even to Peace in your selves than to Peace in the Kingdom that you listen not to the Counsels or Seductions of men who are so ready for Wars Account them to be what they are the Plague and Reproach of Christian Nations to be avoided and abhorred by all good men But I must conclude and I will trust we have none of this kind of men amongst us If you find any of them remember the course before prescribed neither to be of their Councils nor to keep what you know unconcealed I have thus endeavoured faithfully to set before you the way to Peace to Peace in the Kingdom and in the Church to Peace in the Neighbourhood and in the Family and finally to Peace with God in our own Consciences The God of Peace make us all careful in the Practice of what has been said and crown us all with the Blessing of such Peace To him be all Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen FINIS True Religion AND LOYALTY Inseparable The Nature of both opened and their Connexion proved IN A SERMON Preached at Bandon in the County of Cork in the Heat of Monmouths Rebellion And afterwards elsewhere By Edward Lord Bishop of Cork and Rosse Dublin Printed by A. Crook and S. Helsham for William Norman Samuel Helsham and Eliphal Dobson Booksellers 1686. Advertisement Of this SERMON THIS Sermon I preached twice the first time in the form 't is now in at Bandon while the late Rebellion in the West of England held the Minds of People even on this side the Water in no little Pain The second time in christ-Christ-Church Cork on Sunday August 23. which fell into the time of the Assizes here and was the Day of Publick Thanksgiving for His Majesties late Victories I made then some small Alterations in it in part hinted in the Margin of the Book but chiefly I omitted the second Objection with its Answers wholly because I did not think there was then so much occasion for it as when I preached this Sermon the Month before And I added a little considerably in the end of it to make it more suitable to the Occasion I particularly press'd that part of Honour to the King which I had assigned to consist in Prayers of all kinds and so in Praising God in his behalf I urged this last point of Praise by consideration First Of the Opportuness of the Victory It was not too soon Had it been speedier some probably would have said the Attempt was contemptible and the whole had no danger in it Others would have still vaunted their Numbers and have said as far as they durst they were surprised they had not time to gather and come in A third sort would perhaps have suggested the Church of England Protestants had not time to shew themselves they would have struck in had there been space We had time God be blessed to shew our selves and did and not an hand amongst us against our King but all as one Man for him Nor on the other side was it too late The Kingdom laboured not so long under it as to tast the Miseries of a continued Civil War We felt a gentle Correction and no punitive Vengeance In a word it was in Gods time and that is ever the best Secondly I considered the Entireness of the Victory and with how litle Effusion of Bloud obtained especially on the side of the just Cause From these Two Heads chiefly I in more words endeavoured then to quicken Gratitude and Loyalty I see no occasion to report here the whole I then added but I thought fit to give this Intimation to the end that none who were Hearers of this Sermon when preached the second time might have reason to complain the printed Sermon has more or less in it than when delivered from the Pulpit Religion and Loyalty INSEPARABLE The Nature of both opened and their Connexion proved In a SERMON preached at Bandon in the County of Cork in the Heat of Monmouths Rebellion and afterwards elsewhere The TEXT 1 Pet. II. the later part of the 17th Verse Fear God honour the King WE find this Epistle to be entitled The Epistle general of St. Peter not inscribed as are St. Pauls To the Romans To the Corinthians To the Galathians or the like but General that is to all Christian People chiefly indeed designed to the dispersed Christian Jews to the Strangers scattered throughout Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithynia cap. I. 1. but not so particularly to them as to exclude the Gentile Christians amongst whom they lived and whither they were scattered For such early was the Condition of the Christian Church that its Members really were and so most naturally might be stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scattered Strangers or Pilgrims of the Dispersion From which Inscription it follows that the Duties here prescribed and pressed must be of general concernment and obligation to all Christian Ages Nations Sexes and Conditions whatsoever The Epiâ—â—le it self consists as I have lately on another occasion noted unto you of sundry Exhortations to particular Christian Duties and of Enforcements or Persuasives to them The Text is part of the Amplification of the seventh Duty herein pressed namely of Subjection and Obedience to the Powers God has set over us Ver. 13. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lords sake in which passage one expression must be warily understood for Government it self is from God But it is the form manner or particular frame of Government in every Kingdom or Nation which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Creature of Mans an Human Constitution Now saith he submit to every of these for the Lords sake Whether it be to the King as Supream This indeed was the first Form of Government in the World nor can as far as I see any other Form of Government be proved to be of Gods appointment mero motu of his own accord and free pleasure as we speak ever from the beginning For Moses was King in Jeshurun when the Heads of the People and Tribes of Israel were gathered together Deut. xxxiii 5. And the introducing the seventy Elders and so reducing the Form of the Government of Israel into a kind of Republick was upon the importunity and some degree of impatience of Moses Numb xi 11 12 c. at which God seems there not to be well pleased As neither indeed was he when the same sickle people afterwards acquiesced not even in that Government by their Elders But to return This same Exhortation he amplifies and presses ver 14 15. and so on till in ver 17. he concludes its general part in these words Fear God honour the King Wherein are two Duties manifestly injoyned us one to God Fear God The other to the King Honour the King Of each of these we will treat first singly or apart then of the Connexion of both which I affirm to be so far constant at least of the one side and so indissoluble that
upon a strict Examination a little arrogantly thus expostulates with him viz. Knowest thou not that I have power to crucifie thee and have power to release thee Jesus answered thou couldest have no power over me except it were given thee from above John xix 10 11. In which words if we consider who Pilate was namely the Roman Governour sent to them by Cesar the Supreme we have a most plain Testimony that however wicked Supreme Powers may be or however wickedly they may use their Power yet is their Power given them by God and none may invade it or take upon him to exercise it but as they shall impart or delegate it The Power of the Sword therefore or of Life and Death is by God committed only to the Supreme Magistrate that is as I presume none here will scruple within these Kingdoms to his Majesty Thirdly From hence it necessarily follows that No one of himself can be Lord of his own Life For he is no more to execute the power of the Sword upon himself than upon another because he as well as others is a Subject I know the contrary practice namely dispatching a mans self out of life has been celebrated as an heroically virtuous act by divers Heathens and some great persons amongst them have been admired and commended for it extremely But of all Examples Heathen mens are surely least to be drawn into Rules for the Authorising of doubtful Actions There is a Book also writ by a Christian Doctor of our Church which is rather slandred than truly reported to maintain the Lawfulness of Self-slaughter But those who have read and understand that Book know the Authors design therein was but to move men to more charitable Judgment than usually is put on such who lay violent hands upon themselves and that he perswades amongst others by this great Argument that the Act does not ever preclude Repentance but that 't is possible the very Attrition which some such persons may be thought to have in articulo mortis in the very expiring their Souls may be interpreted by God as a sincere Sorrow Now his supposing this act pardonable upon Repentance admits it to be a Sin and then being by us known or even but strongly conceived to be so it will be damnable For he that doubteth is damned if he act because he acteth not of Faith Rom. xiv ult To be short the instances we find of it in Scripture are only of wicked and desperate men and that when they have been rejected by God forsaken by his Spirit and an evil Spirit has seised them Thus as to Saul long before that desperate act of falling on his own Sword 1 Sam. xxxi 5. The Spirit of God had departed from him and an evil Spirit from the Lord troubled him chap. xvi 14. that is he was in a sort permitted to the Devil to be actuated by him So as to Judas after the Sop Satan entred into him John xiii 27 and then he quickly sold and betrayed his Master and went and hanged himself Laqueo Traditor periit Laqueum talibus dereliquit says St. Austin ad Petilianum The Traytor dyed by the Halter and left the Halter only to such as himself The like deplorable and dreadful condition as to his spiritual concerns at least may we reasonably conclude that Devilish Counsellor Achitophel to have been in when being enraged that Absolon would not take his hellish Advice he also went home and hanged himself Besides these three I remember no instance in Canonical Scripture of any who directly slew themselves Sampson indeed as in case of other Miracles done by him so by immediate and extraordinary impulse of the Spirit of God that is by Divine Warrantie and Command pull'd down the Philistines great Hall of Judgment upon them and himself amongst them But this is only parallel to a great Soldiers going on certain death to defeat the Enemy when duly commissioned so to do and therefore must not come into account here There is besides in the Apocryphal Books an instance of one who acted most barbarous violence on himself first falling on his own Sword and then pulling out his very own Bowels and throwing them amongst his Enemies rather than he would fall into their hand to dye by them and he is there commended for that inhumane act which is stiled dying manfully 2 Maccab xiv 42 c. But as that Book according to what the Author of it himself in the two last verses confesses in effect was not written by Divine Inspiration so were there nothing else in it to prove it Apocryphal this alone that it commends what is so much against Nature both for the matter and manner of the Action were abundantly sufficient But besides it is most true what was well said in another case by an old Bishop of Carlisle in Richard the Seconds time We are not to live by examples but by Laws The Law of God runs indefinitely and so because there is no ground for a Restriction as to this case universally thou shalt not murder that is neither another nor thy self Which Interpretation must indeed of necessity be admitted here for that our Lord himself makes the Love which we bear to our selves to be the measure or standard of the Love we owe to others Thou shalt love thy Neighbour saith he as thy self Which extending to all the Precepts of the second Table will as to this run thus thou shalt no more murder thy Neighbour than thy self that is first of all thou shalt not murder thy self And though there be not in the Law of God any Precept more particular or more expresly prohibitive as to this act as neither is there upon very grounds against several other most unnatural Sins that might be named yet is there all Reason in the world against it For let us faithfully examine Is the Root whence this act proceeds such from whence good Fruit may be expected Is its true cause at any time good or truly praise-worthy Was there ever person yet who laid violent hands upon himself who did it not either out of Pride Cowardice Rashness or mad Despair Out of Pride I say because either he would not crouch to his betters or else see his equals become his superiors or out of Cowardice as afraid to suffer what his Enemies might put him to now in both these cases is it not more brave to dare to live or out of Rashness and Madness or Despair as impatient of present evils and hoping in this Life no better state And if out of any of these is it at all commendable True Philosophy it self taught better and forbad Injussu Imperatoris id est Pythagoras teste Cicene in Cat. Maj. Dei de Praesidio statione vitae decedere The true Christian like a good Soldier must not forsake his post except the great Emperor of the world the Almighty God by his Law or Providence command him thence * L. Cum autem 23. §.