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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A61497 The English case, exactly set down by Hezekiah's reformation in a court sermon at Paris / Dr. Steward ... Steward, Richard, 1593?-1651. 1687 (1687) Wing S5521; ESTC R3486 21,870 37

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himself to fit his hands for this work Did Hezekiah the King make his Person no less than plain Head of the Church of Iudah Were some Modern Tongues to have supplied Rabshakeh's place this is the Theam and this is the Phrase they 'd have chosen And yet I assure my self this pious Prince would have stood to 't that he was supreme Governour in all Causes and over all Persons so that upon provocation given he could no doubt have depos'd the High Priest as Solomon once did Abiathar But yet I beseech you observe 't is one thing to burn Incense anoaher to enjoin that this Service be still duly done One thing to offer Sacrifice another to command that no Sacrifice be offer'd but on that one Altar at Ierusalem The first of these belonged unto Aaron's Sons the other to the Heirs of David To bar Hezekiah this Power in the Church were to impair his Royalties and to deny that to the Crown of Iudah which all Princes have still challenged yea those without the Church the Kings of Nineveh and Monarchs of Assyria Their Swords were Ecclesiastical Thus that King proclaims a Religious Fast Ion. 3. And Nebuchad Dan. 3. 29. Thus from the beginning Christian Princes have still done the like and have let us see by their Laws that in point of Coercive Power they still kept the Church-supremacy as clearly appears in the Theodosian Code and in that of Iustinian in the Capitulars of Charles the great and such other collections Iustinian in an Ecclesiastical Novel comes fully home in this point Iubemus beatissimos Archiepiscopos Patriarchas i. Senioris Romae Constatinopoleos Novae Romae We command saith he and as some Copies have it under the pain of Deposition too the most blessed Archbishop and Patriarchs i. of Old Rome and of Constantinople then call'd New Rome c. If that Emperor might command all the Patriarchs themselves and that in a business Ecclesiastical too where then lay the Church-supremacy And these Novels of his were in so high esteem with St. Gregory the great that 't is plain in his Epistles he decides church-Church-causes by them and that with an Ita decrevit Dominus noster Imperator Our Lord the Emperor hath thus rul'd it in his Laws Besides most plain it is that the Old Hebrew Kings held the Work in my Text to belong to them as in chief And this Opinion God himself confirm'd for throughout their whole story you 'l find that Kings only are check'd when the Church was corrupt and they only prais'd when she mended In those Scriptures we read but of Three Noted Reformations and they were all done by their Kings By King Asa by this King in my Text and the last by King Iosiah Those High Places alone were pulled down by Asa which were set up to the worship of a false God. Hezekiah goes farther and destroys them too which were set up for the false worship though of the true only Deity Iosiah goes on and removes the Groves and such devices as those which Solomon and other Kings having of old set up they were again renew'd in the wicked Reign of Manasseh But grant a Christian Church to be indeed corrupt or that really men think it is so is 't not allowed by Christ's Law either for Subjects or others against the Will of the King into whose care she 's put by force of Arms to constrain or beat her to a Purity A case of conscience you 'l find whereby to resolve this decided by our Saviour's own Mouth in the 9th chap. of St. Luke where entring saith the Text into a Village of Samaria the Inhabitants were so far from receiving the Doctrine he intended to preach that indeed they endur'd not his Person Hence Iames and Iohn the Two Sons of Thunder begin straight to shew their Temper What! not receive Christ nor the Christian Faith Master shall we command fire from heaven For if Perswasion will not draw men unto the Gospel thou bring'st it must be done by Fire or by Sword. Our Saviour replies Ye know not of what spirit ye are Ye understand not at all what thing 't is to be a Christian. I came not to destroy mens Lives but to save them I came not to plant a Religion in Blood no I leave that to Turks and to Mahomet Had that been my Intent you Iames and Iohn had been no Apostles for me I would then have made choice of Commanders from an Army not of Fisher-men from their Nets And yet in these times have not we the like Sons of Thunder What I will they not receive the New Holy Discipline the very Scepter of Christ the Throne of his Mediatorship and indeed they could do little if they knew not how to cloath their new Fancies in good Words Lord shall we command Fire from Heaven or if you will Fire from Hell Shall we raise a Rebellion Shall we by a Covenant swear Christ into his Throne or forswear the King out of his What think ye will be replied to these and the like kind of men but ye know not of what spirit ye are It 's not lawful by Blood to bring in Christian Faith and is it lawful by Blood to bring in that thing which they of late call a Christian Government It 's not lawful to plant a Church by such Force and is it lawful thus to reform it They who think it is truly for my part I neither at all know of what spirit they are no nor of what reason neither This I well know of what spirit they are not they are of no spirit Evangelical So then to attempt to reform a Church in despite of the Prince whom God has now placed her under is to invade Royal Power and can be indeed called but a more zealous kind of Rebellion since to cure a Church by such drenches as these is no doubt at the same time to give Poyson to a Kingdom and 't was therefore decreed in that most ancient Council of Eliberis twenty years before that of Nice That if in hatred to Idolatry it self a private man would needs pull down Images he should by no means be esteemed a Martyr if he lost his life in that service And the Fathers there give their Reason because we have no example for this either from Prophets or Apostles No 't was their part to preach down High Places or Idols but they well knew 't was the Duty of Kings of Supreme Powers to remove them And he can be no Martyr for the first Table of the Law who is in the same deed a Transgressor of the second nor will God at all thank him as a Reformer of his Church who in the self-same Act is no less than a plain Traitor to his Deputy So that as for Subjects to take up Arms against their Kings is by the Doctrine of St. Peter and St. Paul in all cases damnable so specially to do this in point of our Religion which so much commends