Preachers suffered in King James his Time all that he laid upon them and that with patience enough and since his Descrtion they have had no Temptation to speak either of Resistance or Non-resistance for the truth is that this is one of those sort of Doctrines which is in the Text but is not yet got into the Creed it may come into the Pulpit and may be kept out of it it will neither do King nor People good but when external Emergencies call for it In peaceable and quiet Times when Law and Justice flourish and there is little complaining either in House or Street if Preachers harangue upon Non-resistance they puzzle and confound the People and give 'em ill Work to find out possible Causes of Resistance and to examine the Grounds and Reasons for Non-resistance But when the People grow peevish and froward quarrelling and complaining against daring and designing upon the Government then the Doctrine of Non-resistance and S. Paul's Text for it may be brought forth to awe and scare them to terrifie and affrighten them to allay their heat and fury and to bring them to a more discreet Temper to the Exercise of Christian Patience and Modesty Upon this account many have much commended the Labors of the Church of England Divines in the late Times of Contrasts and Oppositions of Plottings and Counter-plottings because they did much good in supporting of the Government and for the restraining of the Madness of People and toward the prevention of Intestine Broils and Civil War But yet seeing the Preaching or not Preaching upon that Subject is matter of Prudence and depends upon times and seasons and many by considerations from whence it may either do good or harm it must be confess'd that Sermons of that sort were not every where received with the like favour and submission Because some feared that great Evil to the Kingdom and Nation might come from them inasmuch as they naturally tended not only to tame and subdue the People by allaying their zeal for their Civil Rights and Interests but likewise they might embolden evil Ministers and Counsellors to set the King upon the pernicious Project of making his advantage of the Subjects good nature and easiness toward the subverting of their Religion Laws Rights and the enslaving of the whole People For that reason many said that the Preachers were too warm and went beyond their boundaries for they ventured sometimes to treat upon matters that were only to be concerted betwixt the King and his People in a Parliament they did not think that the Magna Charta was against the Law of God tho it is not altogether the same with Samuel's Declaration 1 Sam. 8. They did not think that God would damn Men for defending and securing in all just and fair ways those Rights which they have received from their Forefathers by vertue of a National Constitution that has remained one and the same for some Hundreds of years They observed that there is but one Text declaring the damnation of Subjects resisting but there are Hundreds that threaten as highly Kings and Governors and Potentates who are injurious and oppressive of those that are under them Now if Charity govern Men in the choice of that Subject and it be designed to save the Souls of the People from damnation they wished that there were intermixed a little Charity toward the Souls of Kings that they too might be rescued from the damning sin of Oppression And it was thrown our with an under Correction that if Kings would venture against so many Texts upon Gods pardon to enlarge their Powers the People might as well venture against one to preserve their Rights Besides it was somewhat sharply and angrily said by the Men who had been intrusted in Parliaments and in the management of publick Affairs That seeing the Clergy challenged spiritual Powers by vertue of the Text and would not allow Kings or Parliaments to limit abridge or straiten their Rights They might well leave the temporal Power to the Text too which is the Law of the Land and the proper Interpreters of it which is a Parliament and not presume dogmatically to determine against the use of that which at sometimes is the onely natural and necessary means to obtain and secure to themselves Right and Justice Thus Men differed and spake their thoughts freely concerning the usefulness and effects of those Discourses especially as to the point of Prudence in the timing of them But yet whatever they said it is manifest that the Preachers designed no base or mean thing to betray their Countrey their Religion or the Laws to the arbitrary disposition of the King whilst they persuaded to Christian Patience and Submission because the same Men that preached up Non-resistance did with Courage and Spirit enough in proper time and place appear in the behalf of the Laws and the established Religion both against Popery and against all unjust usurpation of the peoples Rights and if at other times they did any thing toward the correcting a tumultuous and rebellious humor to prevent Civil War and Confusion the Nation has the benefit of their labours and all persons of Justice and Equity owe them due thanks But yet our Historian is as angry as if a Hare had crossed him in the way something has happened which he thought not of and who can help that He might have thought better They are in and perhaps he is out for that reason he will think that they have changed their Principles Alas this is gross mistake They did their duty in declaring to the people that they ought not to resist but they never became Warrantees to the late King that in case of Wrong and Injury they would not All the World knows that it is good for a Nation that the People should think that they ought not upon any pretence whatsoever resist their King so that the King does but at the same time remember that Oppression makes a wise Man mad and that an injured people always did and always will endeavour to recover or secure their Rights as well against their King as against their Neighbours He must have rare Skill in Language and Argument who can prevail upon a people to be willing to be Slaves when they may and ought to be free or to stand still and see their Goods taken from them merely because another has a mind to them If they must lose in one kind they expect to gain some other way for generally they are of Saint Peter's mind when he said to our Saviour Matth. 19. 27. We have forsaken all and followed thee what shall we have therefore The Question deserved an Answer and upon it our Saviour gave a most gracious promise of advantages in this World and in the other too Had we the like Promise in the Case of Submission or Non-resistance to Princes who will be Absolute and Arbitrary Divines would have a better Argument and might expect better effects of their
ought they to suffer if they did obey But because they will not obey their Prince he punishes and they suffer The Prince therefore in this case has no manner of Obedience But let us consider further tho we cannot barter with a Prince and give him Suffering instead of Doing yet we may be obliged to suffer and we may obey in doing and obey in suffering for so doing and that Obedience may be called Passive Obedience tho in truth and reality all the Obedience which we perform in this case is Active For we obey one and suffer from another we obey God and suffer from Man or we obey Man and suffer from God But because God hath commanded us not only to do our Duties but likewise has commanded us in certain cases not only to do but to be ready to suffer for so doing our obedience to this Command of suffering has been called by some Passive Obedience Now this is Great and Noble and speaks an excellency of Spirit which is most admirable for Men to do well and to continue in so doing whatever they suffer upon that account But as it is Noble so it is hard and difficult It is hard to be bound to confess Christ before Men that we may gain Heaven and at the same time to be forced to lose all that we have on Earth for so confessing This sets Body and Soul at variance nay the Soul is confounded in it self whilst hopes and fears engage one another in a severe conflict the one would gain and the other would not lose the one pulls upwards and the other downwards upon this account the thing is difficult But yet we must remember that for all the difficulty it is very practicable because it has been always required and always expected No Philosopher would ever allow him to be a good Man who would flinch from his Duty upon the account of suffering To do so they say is slavish and it is one of the Rules of the Pythagoreans that in the exercise of Vertue a Man must have nothing of the Slave in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he must have no regard for any thing but his Duty Hierocles p. 209. Tully in the 2d of his Offices will not allow it possible for a Man to be just or honest or good who fears either poverty or pain or banishment or death it self so as to be warped from right by the fears of them or by the hopes of any advantages that are contrary to them Horace that very easie Man who can never be thought by a Heathen to be an over-severe directer of Conscience expects from his just and good Man that he should bear up against Tyrant and Rabble and suffer all that their rage and fury can throw upon him and yet not veer in the least from his point but go on in his Duty steddily and firmly Justum tenacem propositi virum Non civium ardor prava jubentium Non vultus instantis Tyranni Mente quatit solidâ This Principle of suffering in a good Cause for the sake of Vertue Goodness and Righteousness or of doing our Duties notwithstanding that we must suffer lies so open and clear to the reason of mankind that Men of worth and honour in every Age could not fail to practise it And we Christians are bound to the observance of this Duty as others were before by the reason of the thing as well as by precepts of Christianity Whatever principle a Man has and whatever he accounts a Duty if he will be true and faithful just and upright it may sometime or other bring him under suffering and he must be content with it because it is base and unworthy in certain cases not to do it it is a betraying of our Consciences a forfeiture of all the good opinion that we can have of our selves Now if this be true and this be called Passive Obedience that must not be looked upon as a peculiar of Christianity or a new Doctrine introduced since our Saviour's days much less can any particular Church appropriate the Rule to it self because it lies in common to all mankind and has sometimes been practised by the little as well as by the great Some perhaps may have just cause to complain of false Casuists and base corrupters of the genuine sense of right Reason and true Christianity but when they have done it they have onely reproved a gross fault they must not expect any great honour for having had a right notion of a plain Truth If we would speak clearly we must confess that our blessed Lord has not heightened this Duty for he can expect no more sufferings than what Pain and Beggery and Death signifie but as a most gracious and tender Master he has made all these much more easie and portable than ever they were before and that in several ways As first by giving us most gracious Promises of Reward in another World in case we are called to suffer Matth. 5. 9 10 11. Secondly By assuring us that assistances of God's grace come in to our help whenever we do suffer Matth. 10. 18 19 Phil. 1. 29. Thirdly By giving us such thoughts of God as are most powerful to support us under all sufferings For what can dismay him that will think with S. Peter that he who suffers as a Christian or suffers according to the Will of God he may commit the keeping of his Soul to God in well doing as unto a faithful Creator 1 Pet. 4. 16 19. These things are beyond Philosophy and they are mighty supports to all Christians who must suffer for well doing These would acquit the justice of God if he had required sufferings as sufferings and made them so necessary means of Salvation that he would accept of none into Heaven but such as came thither as Martyrs through a flaming fire or a Sea of bloud But God is not so fond of suffering as to require them for their own sakes We are not bound like Baal's Priests to cut and flash our selves that we may please our God We are not bound to move others to cut our Throats or to threaten to kill them if they won't kill us as S. Augustine tells the Circumcellions did We ought not to give advantages and opportunities to wicked Men to execute their wicked purposes upon us In times of Persecution we are not bound to go out of our Houses and provoke an inraged multitude to throw us in the Fires or to the Lions This rashness has been condemned by whole Councils though at some time we may and must leave Father and Mother and House and Land and Life it self for Christ's sake and for the Gospels yet at other times we may keep them as well Tho the first Christians Acts 5. 41. did rejoice that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Christs Name and as it is Heb. 10. 34. they took joyfully the spoiling of their goods Yet they did as much rejoice and gave hearty thanks
Rights or to deliver us from doing our Duties 3. We may accept of deliverance and that in ways extraordinary without making the strictest examination of all the niceties doubts scruples which may occur in the case Thus certainly St. Peter did in that remarkable action related Acts 12. He left his Chains his Goal his Guards and followed his Deliverer tho he had all and many more causes for scruple than those which now adays give so much trouble and seem so insuperable For First He was committed to Prison by his King upon that account he might have thought it his Duty to obey in all things lawful and patiently to submit in the rest or else according to the other way of expressing it That what he could not give to his Prince in Active obedience he ought to make up in the Passive Secondly His King went in the way of Justice and designed to bring him to a Tryal Upon that he might have thought that a secret withdrawing of himself would disparage his Cause and in the Opinion of others speak him guilty Thirdly His King acted in behalf of the established Law and Religion Josephus tells us he was one who had a great zeal for the Jewish Constitution Polity and Worship Upon that account St. Peter might think that his King acted from Conscience according to his Duty in prosecuting of him and therefore he was bound at the command of his King to declare plainly and openly upon what grounds he a private person undertook to draw people off from the settlement and a long and most legally established Worship to a new one especially he could not but see what himself taught 1 Pet. 3. 15. That it is the Duty of every Christian to be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh a reason of the hope that is in him Fourthly The Case of his Guards of the Keepers of the Prison-gates was most deplorable he could not but see that his escape would be charged and revenged upon them upon that he might think that he ought not to do evil that good may come of it to save his own life he ought not to give cause and reason for executing of so many innocent Men. Fifthly There is another thing which though much less yet may give matter of scruple for what will not that in this sudden flight it is not likely that he should pay his Jaylor for Fees or Diet. Upon this account he might think that his Honesty would be questioned and he would be accused of doing wrong and defrauding another of his dues and that other Christians who should afterwards be committed would suffer hardship and ill usage for his sake and therefore he had better stay where he was and give his Jaylor and his Prince and the Law all they could require and take from him and so pay down a compleat Passive Obedience in full measure and tale by dying to gratifie his Prince's humor and expect the Reward of his Action from God This he might have thought but he did not for he followed his Deliverer out of the Prison and took care to make good his deliverance by absconding for near five years after as Computers reckon it Had he been under those strait boundaries of Conscience in this case which others think they are Had he had their Rules of Duty could he have seen it to be his Duty to stay in Prison and suffer according to the will of his King he could not have followed his Deliverer though he had been an Angel Gal. 1. 8. and he could never have prevailed upon himself to have believed that an Angel of God would have moved him to act contrary to his Duty He accepted of deliverance and the whole Church that then was blessed God for it and in like cases so may and ought others to do and that without penetrating into all the grounds of nicety and scruple which Men seldom do but when they design to seem extraordinary and then usually they refine upon Morality and set down Rules of Duty which neither Humane Nature can bear nor Christianity requires and for the most part they are against the good of Societies and do alike mischief to Kings as to Subjects Seeing then we are not by Gods Law so abandoned to the will and humor of a Man though he be our King but that when he proceeds in Methods of doing wrong and injury of ruling by Power against Law we may flee from him we may plead our Cause and Right against him we may pray to God to give a stop to him and we may accept of deliverance from him We must say that the modern Doctrine of Passive Obedience is stretched beyond its bounds for we are not obliged to make it our business to give and pay him that which he has no right to take we are not obliged to put our selves into his way and give him opportunity to cut our throats We are not obliged not to move others to intercede for us and if they can with justice to defend and preserve us we are not obliged to refuse a deliverance if it comes to us But if Force prevails and we are to be knock'd down by Violence against Right and Justice we must take care to fall as decently as we can submitting to God's Providence and giving all respects to our King as far as our Case will allow if our Calamity comes from him For this will bring credit to our Memories and to our Religion and may do good to others who shall be in our condition by appeasing of wrath and displeasure how unjustly soever conceived against them or us I will end this Discourse with one Remark upon the Case of Isaac He was a noble instance of a very extraordinary Obedience he submitted entirely to the Will of his Father and of his King for Abraham was both to him but yet the Praise of that wondrous Action related Gen. 22. falls to the Father and not to the Son Much is said of Abraham's Faith and little of Isaac's Obedience whatever other Reasons there are for it one is very obvious and plain That it might not be a President from whence Kings might measure their Rights and Subjects their Duties So much of Obedience Active and Passive The next thing to be treated of is the Doctrine of Non-resistance This our Historian tells us has been avowed by the Church of England ever since the Reformation Preachers and Writers have declared for it and that with a great deal of warmth and much advantage especially in latter days Upon this Account he would have it thought That Men have swerved from their Principles and that this Doctrine as well as the other is more illustrious in Writings than in Lives Now this Censure I challenge to be very hard and unreasonable because it does not appear that those Men who preached up Non-resistance before have ever preached for Resistance since nor have they who persuaded others to Non-resistance resisted themselves The