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. §.
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-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
either now living or in the memory of many of us dead If our King be not fully of our Religion who were they that when they had by rebellious Arms first deposed then murdered the Father afterwards drove the whole Royal Progeny into strange Countries where they found more kindness from them of a foreign Religion than from the body of their native Subjects God divert from the three Nations the Plagues yet due to that Rebellion and its consequent Villanies In the mean while let the present consideration how Princes miscarriages light heavy and that most justly on their Subjects as well as on the contrary their prudent and pious Conduct so vastly advanceth both the spiritual and temporal Prosperity of their people let I say this most reasonable consideration move all of us to be duly devout in offering Supplications Prayers and Intercessions for our King and all sent by him Those great Rationalists who scarce will admit any other Law of Nature allow Self-preservation to be such I say even this obliges us to pray for Kings and that most ardently 't is an act in our own defence and for our own advantage But I trust we are most of us acted by more generous Principles let me therefore propound such also I say then lastly we are obliged in charity and good nature to this Duty And truly there is something of this in what I said but just now Who will not think himself bound to pity and as long as he lives pray for those whom his own Sins have provoked God to suffer to fall into Sin But to wave any such consideration put the case Kings were advanced so far above the race of Mankind that they could not either through human frailty or Gods vengeance on their peoples Sins fall themselves into any sin or do any thing amiss yet are they not thereby supposed impossible or uncapable of feeling their proper miseries And who knows not that all Crowns have their Weight and I may say their Thorns too Pardon that expression who knows not I must recall it Indeed none know the pressures of Crowns but those who wear them The infelicities of being in power especially in the highest place of power are greater than can be easily accounted To make a good man great is but to desire or necessitate him to be miserable for the publick Good to say nothing of perpetual cares waking nights and thoughts which the hearing of Chronicles read will not always divert of the most poynant sense of publick Straits national Affronts and a thousand things that will not enter into my head this one misery is enough to make any earthly Throne eternally uneasie that upon the poor Prince ever was and will be charged all publick Evils either his male-administration or some other his Personal guilt is still cryed out of though he in the mean time be never so wise vigilant virtuous or innocent Thus 1 Sam. xxx 6 the Amalekites invade Ziklag and carry the Women away captive and the people instead of rescuing them talk of stoning David These and such like miseries whoso consider will surely never think he can pray too often for his King I might speak of Obligations from humane Laws for humane Laws to this effect have there ever been not only in Christian but in Jewish and even in Heathen Countries Thus Darius when he ordered a kind of Endowment of the Jewish Temple required that the Priests should offer Sacrifices of sweet Savours unto the God of Heaven and pray for the Life of the King his Sons Ezr. vi 9 10. And it may be collected by parity of Reason from 1 Macc. xii 11. as well as more expresly by what is above said out of Josephus that the Jews practised accordingly The primitive Christians we have seen did it without any Imperial Laws and sine Monitore But what should I speak of such Laws amongst us In a word and to conclude the whole Evidence for this Duty If there may be any Obligation laid upon us which is not grounded upon Scripture Reason or humane Laws that is upon divine moral or political Principles of Justice Charity and Equity all which it is plain we have in the present case then I shall confess there is some Obligation wanting which might have been laid upon us to be assiduous or instant in Prayer for our King But because if even new Grounds of Duties could be assigned and humane Nature and Society should come hereafter to be regulated according to other measures than the World has hitherto known yet these will be obligatory still Therefore I must say after the Apostle I exhort that Supplications and Prayers Intercessions and giving of Thanks be made for all men For Kings and them that are in Authority And when I have in a very few words press'd the Practice of what I have hitherto been demonstrating to be our Duty I shall conclude First therefore in the name of God let none of us in what capacity soever whether private or publick persons be wanting to this Duty Be we what we will we are or would be looked upon as Christians or Friends to humane Society We are not such as plead for mens living wild and savage upon the face of the Earth If we be not such we are then concerned and held fast in the Tyes before-mentioned Wherefore In those publick Prayers which the Church has provided for us and most Christianly according to the Apostolical Injunction and primitive Pattern put into our mouths let us be cordial and sincere let them not pass over with us as matter of meer Form and Custom but honestly engage our Hearts in zealous desires and fixt resolutions of Loyalty I have heard it has been objected against our Liturgy that Prayers for the King occur therein too often that there is in this behalf a great deal of vain Repetition a Fault taxed by our Lord in the Prayers of Heathens It were an easie thing to vindicate our service-Service-Book from Tautology even in this regard were there now either Time or Need. In a word there never comes two Prayers for the King in the same Office of the same kind or to the same purpose And it is to be remembred diverse kinds of Prayers are commanded Supplications Petitions Intercessions and giving of Thanks are to be made for all men For Kings and them in Authority Or if there were any such yet new Affections still added to Prayers coming over again at some distance will as much make them new Prayers as our Lords greater Earnestness in the Garden made the Prayer which he uttered the third time in the same words no vain Repetition If we have any sparks of Reason in us let us be ashamed of such pretences We will tell the world that what some scrupulous persons thus plead against our Liturgy that it too frequently applies to God in behalf of the King will ever we hope operate to the maintaining it What these account its Fault may
perfectly practised by any but such Serpents will slipperily insinuate themselves into your Company be sure then as soon as you know them to discover both them and whatever you know of their Projects Councils that immediately In the name of God let nothing of this kind sleep with you Let not that false opinion of I know not what vain honour which has made some men to their costs shy of impeaching others betray you to conceal what may operate to your own and the publick Ruine Certainly my King my Countrey the Church or if these be less dear to any my Family and my self ought to be loved first and before any particular Friend or Associate Consult therefore chiefly the welfare of these And I pray you remember concealing Treason is Treason not only by the Laws of England but by the Old Judicial Law amongst the Jews which derived from God himself According to this Divine Law or the Mishpat Hammeluchah the Statutes of the Kingdom a Book written by Samuel at the command of God and said to be laid up before the Lord 1 Sam. x. 25. Saul pronounces them guilty of High-Treason who knew when David fled and did not shew it 1 Sam. xxii 17. And his Sentence had undoubtedly been just had either David or the Priests been guilty of the matter of Fact charged respectively on them Even the principles of common reason and justice the grounds of all good Laws will conclude as much Wherefore we ought to look upon it as a matter against good Conscience as well as against Prudence and Common Law to conceal such treasonable discourses or designs as come to our knowledge 5. Spread not those Idle Stories or Suspicions which go up and down of publick Dangers If you can in the beginning trace them to their head to any true or probable Original so as to fix them on their malicious Authors do so and as before said discover them Then in all likelyhood you have put an end both to the Lye and its Mischief You have crusht the Cockatrice in its Egg. Otherwise know they are devised by cunning and ill-affected Men and put into Fools Mouths to report that the Devisers may take their advantages of those reports either by affixing their own Malice on innocent Men or by gaining some plausible pretence for the Spleen they would wreak so that they may be able when time comes with some colour to call Spite and Wrong by the names of Justice or Self-Defence In Levit. xix 16. we have a peculiar precept which explains the ninth Commandment fitly to our present purpose Thou shalt not go up and down as a Talebearer amongst thy People nor shalt thou stand against the Blood of thy Neighbour To spread Reports and Tales is one of the most mischievous kinds of bearing false witness And there are publick Tale-bearers as well as private ones Truely there are some that seem to make it not so much a Trade as the Business of their Lives they catch up all the Rumours that are going and have their Customers both to bring them in and to vent them too These people are ill members both of Church and State Particularly I cannot but take notice of a Story very fresh and brisk in the Country That the English are combining in a design to rise and cut all the Throats of the Irish And on the other side many of the English are told and believe as much of the Irish towards them What are these but Devices of wicked men or of the Devil by them to put us upon the imbruing our hands mutually in one anothers Bloud On neither side in the present circumstances of both is the thing either probable or so much as possible As to the English was there ever yet such a thing heard of upon the face of the Earth as a Massacre by Protestants Those men who know our Religion know the Principles of our Religion will not suffer it Nay further it is not possible at present as were easie to shew 'T is well if we are able to defend our selves Is it not a pleasant thing to see in a Parish between three or four hundred people ly by night out of their Houses for fear of two or three Families in which there are not Seven persons able to bear Arms For shame let not people suffer themselves to be thus abused Then as to the other side touching the rumoured danger of a Massacre upon the English by the Irish Is not this at present a plain abominable Device to put us together by the Ears set on foot by them who desire an advantage against us to the end that if by these affrightments they can tempt any weak persons of us to any irregular actions they may more justly seek occasion of Revenge by their own hands or otherwise accuse and misrepresent us I confess this is out of my Province a little but I could not forbear it For Gods sake and our Countreys sake and our own sake let us all joyn together to bring to light the Authors of these Reports but however let us not suffer our selves to be so far ridden by them as to be their Juments or Beasts of burden to carry such forged Wares up and down the Countrey Sixthly as another Preservative of publick Peace I take it to be good Advice that we pass not bad Interpretations on the Acts of the Government a fault that more people are guilty of then I am willing so much as to characterize I pray you remember Charity ever requires us to think the best 1 Cor. xiii 5 6 7. Charity thinketh no evil rejoyceth not in iniquity which as appears by the opposites may be interpreted maketh not advantage of falshoods but rejoyceth in the truth beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things does not readily give men up for desperate and incorrigible endureth all things or grows not impatient upon every matter of suspicion that offers it self Some haply will say this Text treats only touching the Duties of private Charity towards one another Be it so but do I owe all these Offices of Charity to each private man and not to the most considerable body of men which I can pick out in the Kingdoms to Magistrates and Governours To deal more roundly Must I have Charity for every particular man yea even for Enemies and none for my King and his Council To be short then if we love the publick Peace let us neither make ill constructions our selves of publick Actions nor silently admit them when we hear them made by others Let us at least profess our Charity and that we hope better than some interpret or others fear Lastly and to conclude all the advice on this Head for the possessing our own and one anothers minds with Quiet Let t is remember what I have formerly prest God rules over all His hand is in all And let us be content he should govern Herewith let us still any risings in our