Selected quad for the lemma: book_n
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A45461
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The Scriptures plea for magistrates vvherein is shewed the unlawfulnesse of resisting the lawfull magistrate, under colour of religion.
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Hammond, Henry, 1605-1660.
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1643
(1643)
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Wing H598A; ESTC R15561
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38,997
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35
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make head I doubt not but Tertullian a Presbyter that now laboured in converting and conforming Christians and was not alwayes in his study nay who had lately been a Lawyer and so not unacquainted with the publike might know and relate with far better authority then any who hath dared now to contradict him For for the art of ballancing the power of parties in a Kingdom and grounds of precise determination of such differences which as the Objecter denies Tertullian so he is unwilling to yeeld to the States-man himself you shall see anon that we have no need to make Tertullian master of it his relation will stand unmoved without it The second proofe to blast Tertullians relation is the ordinary one in fashion now adayes if any man differs in opinion from us presently to examine his whole life and if eveâ— he did or spoke any thing unjustifiable lay that vehemently to his charge and by that defame him and then we may spare the pains of answering his reasons disproving his assertion he once lied or sinned and therefore it is ridiculous to expect any truth from him The Argument is this He might mistake and miscarry in this for not long after he miscarried so grievously as to turn Montanist who called himselfe the holy Ghost c. Just as if I should resolve to beleeve no relation of any Minister present in either of the Armies of the strength of that Army untill I had examined and were assured that he were not a Chiliast an Arian nor guilty of any other Heresie condemned by the Church Yea and more till I had some degree of assurance that he never would be such Or as if I should resolve this man knew no Logick because in this period he offends so much against Grammar in these words to turne Montanist who called himselfe the holy Ghost where the relative who hath certainly no antecedent Tertullian cannot for he called not himselfe the holy Ghost but onely cited that stile so ordinary now adayes nos spirituales and all others animales psychici and Montanist cannot unlesse as once Areopagi signified the Areopagites so now by way of compensation Montanist must passe for Montanus for he it was that called himselfe the holy Ghost not all or any of his followers This way of concluding from a slip in Grammar an ignorance in Logick especially being backt with the suffrage of so many concluding Arguments will be as faire Logicall proceeding as to infer because Tertullian an afterward turned Montanist therefore then he spake he knew not what But then Saint Cyprian was no Montanist and yet he affirmed the same that Tertullian doth contra Demetrian As for the approving of dreames and furious fancies for true prophecies which is added to be revenged on Tertullian for contradicting this Objecter I confesse I excuse not him but wish we might learne any thing of him rather then that But I hope the narration we have now in hand was neither Maximilla's nor Prisca's dreams If it was a fancie it was quite contrary to a furious one And for the close of this Argument wherein the wâ—â—ning â—â— given as it were from Heaven how unsafe and dangerous it is to build on the authority of men as I desire the Reader may take it home with him and from thence resolve to beleeve no longer any thing upon this Objecters authoritie so denudats of all reason so I do not yet see why he that once erred must never be allowed to speak truth the making of true narrations being competible with the greatest heresie in the world The third Argument against Tertullians testimony is an observation of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that there is a pronenesse of inclination in much devotion in persons devoutly given to over-value the workes and piety of other men To which my onely answer shall be that yet I hope it is not observed that devout men are so strongly inclined to tell plaine lies to this end that they may make themselves over-valued by others This must be Tertullians infirmity if the objecter guesse aright being a Christian himselfe and in his apology labouring to raise an high opinion of Christians in the Gentiles to whom he writes to which purpose if he should forge falsities I must confesse it were a shrewd weakenesse very ill becomming devotion whatever the practice of later times may say in excuse of it The fourth proofe is from a second observation that in the pious and orthodox Fathers themselves there are some touches and streines some fibrae of the root of bitternes which afterwards grow ranke in the times of popery c. The Answ All that I can collect from hence toward the conclusion designed is that this objecters sence is that for Tertullian to say there were Christians enough in the Roman Empire to worke revenge on their oppressors was a spice of popery and so there is one new piece of popery more added to the many which this age hath concluded under that title above the inventory of the Trent catechisme And so now to debate this any further or professe my selfe to opine as Tertullian did is to acknowledge my selfe popish and that is as bad as praelaticall and so from henceforth all my arguments will but passe for temptations which none but carnall men must submit to be they never so demonstrative Yet must I have leave to wonder how in the close of this Section these words the sounder and more considerate knowledge of these latter times can have any reference to the point in hand For certainly for the strength of the then Christian party our knowledge in these latter times cannot be sounder or more considerate then theirs that then lived amongst them or if it be the words latter times will be improper for sure it will be affirmed onely of that time wherein Mr. J.G. wrote this part of this book for I am confident he was the first that ever revealed this act of more considerate knowledge to the world The fifth and last proofe is That whatever their number was yet it is no wayes likely they should be suffered to have any armes c. To which and to all the prudentiall state motives whereon it is grounded and so to all that Section I shall return no answer but the very words of Tertullian which if all put together they do not defend their author from all their assaults neither will I beleeve the Christians strength was sufficient to buckle with their adversaries His words are plain first if we would hostes exertoâ— agere deale like profest enemies desiisset nobis vis numerorum copiarum should we have wanted force of numbers i. men or armed souldiers for so sure copiae signifies Secondly he saith as plainly Castella vestra castra â—pâ—e vimus we have filled your Castles and Camps there sure they were armed and so the Thebaean Legion which yeelded themselves to the Emperours butchery wanted neither number nor Arms to have
might be observed especially his answer to Pilate Joâ— 19.11 in acknowledgement of his legall power given him from above Be all that I shall observe is onely in the generall That he that had so many legions of Angels certainly sufficient to defend him and invade his enemies whatsoever will be thought of the Christians strength in Tertullians time to have done so too of which more anon did yet without the least resistance give himselfe up to suffer death And if it should be objected that this was to accomplish what God had decreed ought not Christ to suffer these things and thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and in obedience to that decree not as matter of example to us or of intimation that it had not been lawfull for him to have done otherwise To this I answer That as Christ was decreed to that death and non-resistance so are Christians if Saint Paul may be beleeved predestinated to be conformable to the Image of his Sonne Rom. 8. that is to that patern of his in suffering not fighting for Religion and that revelation of Gods will in that decree being supposed it will follow That though Christ might have lawfully done otherwise yet we Christians now may not especially being commanded to learn of him particularly his meeknesse i. especially that Lamb-like qualitie of the Lambe of God in his sufferings Isai. 53.7 So much for the examples of Christ Now for the like of Christians it will be needlesse to mention any other then those of whom Tertullian and Saint Cyprian speak being so perfectly home to the purpose Tertul. in Apol. c. 37. and his book ad Scapulam wholly to this purpose and Saint Cyprian in his book against Demetrianus c. the summe of which is this That the Christians of that age had strength sufficient either to have resisted or avenged themselves upon their â—eathen persecuting Governours but in obedience to the Laws of Christ chose rather to die then doe so The severall testimonies of which this is the Abstract being so fully produced by many and known by all it will bee more to purpose to vindicate them from all exceptions and intercept all evasions which the wit of this last yeere beyond all that any former age pretended to hath invented to evacuate those testimonies witnesse Goodwins Amicavalâ—eriâ— p. 230 c. and this I shall take leave to do at large because it is said many have been satisfied in the lawfulnesse of their present course by those Answers and Objections which that book hath helpt them to 1. It is objected the father Tertullianâ—migâ—◠〈◊〉 mistaken in making the estimate of the strength of Christians in 〈…〉 strength of them that were to oppose them This is in civill termes to 〈◊〉 Tertullians wrote he knew not what or at the softest he might be ignorant of what he affirmeth he knew and I am confident was more likely to know living thing their the objecter now seeing or conjecturing at the distance of so many hundred yeers who hath not the least authority which must be the Judge in matter of fact on his side against so distinct and cleare affirmation not onely of Tertullian in severall places and that in an apologie against the Gentiles who could and would certainly have tript him in so manifest a falshood if it had been such and though the negative Argument be not fully convincing that they did not thus trip him because we do not hear or read they did yet will this be of as much force as any he hath to the contrary This certainly the writing it to the Gentiles will be able to conclude that Tertullian had beene very imprudent and treacherous to his own cause to have affirmed a thing in defence of it which his adversaries could so manifestly have proved a falsity if it were not so as he affirmed but of Cyprian also who lived about the same time and no writer of that age or since produced I doubt not but I may say producible to the contrary Of the proofs that are offered to make it appeare possible and probable that Tertullian should be so mistaken the first is Because his was no point of faith c. 〈◊〉 therefore a devout father might fall under â— misprision herein I grant he might but that doth not prove he did no nor that it is probable he should be a more incompetent judge in such a matter then he that now undertakes to controll him Nay sure lesse reason is there to deny the authority of the ancients in matters of fact which if they were not evident to them must needs be much lesse evident to us who have no means to know any thing of them but their relations noâ— cause to suspect such relations but either by some impossibility in the things themselves which is not here pretended or by some other as authentick relation contradicting it which is as little pretended then of faith the ground of which being onely the written word of God is common with them to us and therefore may enable us to judge whether that which they affirm to be matter of faith be so indeed to be found really in that sacred Writ from whence they pretend to fetch it And whereas it is farther added That no rule of charity or reason bindes us to beleeve another in any thing which belongs to the art or profession of another and wherein himself is little versed or exercised I answer that this saying thus applied will take away the authority of a very great part of those Histories which no body yet hath questioned If it were spoken of Doctrines it might hold and sure to that belongs the axiom quoted Vnicuique in arte suâ credendum est but in narrations it is the unreasonablest thing in the world to require the Narrator to be of that profession of which he relates the fact for then no man must adventure to write a Kings life but a King and if Mr. M. Mr. A. or Mr. S. being Ministers of the Word shall write their â—â—tters concerning the Parliaments victory at Keinton and relate the number of the stain on that side so far inferiour to those on the Kings we must now upon this admonition retract that beleefe we then allowed them and begin now though too late to question whether it were indeed a victory or no which caused such solemn thanksgiving in this City But then secondly why this Relation should so wholly belong to the profession of another i. not to Tertullians I cannot yet discerne For the maine of Tertullians testimony was That the Christians chose rather to suffer then to resist though they were able because Christian Religion taught the one forbad the other and this sure was not without the sphere of the divine but for their strength to resist depending on the number of Christians not as even ballancing the heathens in the Empire but as very considerable and able to raise an army if they would