Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A43909
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The History of self-defence, in requital to the history of passive obedience
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Seller, Abednego, 1646?-1705.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing H2138B; Wing S2456_CANCELLED; ESTC R14596
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33,640
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35
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against a Rabble that have no Authority at all For Tertullian tells us that they would not resist the Common People that assailed them without any Law and seems to put no difference between resisting Emperors and private persons as appears by his words Idem sumus Imperatoribus qui vicinis nostris Quodcunque enim non licet in Imperatorem id nec in quenquam We behave our selves after the same manner to Emperors as we do to our Neighbours Whatever is not lawful to do against the Emperor is not lawful against any Man And several of the Fathers thought it unlawful to kill even a private man upon their own defence See Ambrose de Offic. l. 3. c. 4. August Epist ad Public 154. de lib. Arbit c. 5. But which is yet more many of those Christians would not so much as flee from the fury of their Persecutors Yea Tertul. condemned flight in time of persecution lib. de suga in persecut Many of them run wilfully upon persecution when they had no call from God to do it Nay so ambitious were they of Martyrdom that the Church at last was forced to emit a Declaration that if any wilfully exposed themselves to danger unless he were taken up by the Persecutors he should not be reputed a Martyr So that as the practice of the Primitive Christians in these abovementioned is as all acknowledge no President for us so neither can it be in the other since it is certain that what they did was rather the Effect of a desire of Martyrdom which as Sulpitius Severus says they gaped more after than men in his days did after Bishopricks than a firm perswasion of the necessity of Non-resistance in all cases For we never read that they maintained it unlawful for People to defend themselves in any case And Besides They had no Law on their side and therefore their case was vastly different from ours who have our Religion and Liberties confirmed to us by so many Acts of Parliament But even then we find some Instances of self defence for about the Year 235 some men inhabiting Mareota with force rescued Dionysius of Alexandria out of the hands of those that were carrying him away see Blondel Schol in Grot. de Imp. Sum. Pot. And the same Blondel tells us that about the year 310 the Armenians defended themselves against Maximius who came against them with an Army because of their Religion And since the World was blest with Christian Emperors and had Laws made on their side we find Christians behaved themselves otherwise than they did under Heathen Emperors especially when they were under such Princes as Apostatized from the true Religion particularly Julian the Apostate For the Christians of those times did not only upbraid him and prayed for his Destruction but plainly shewed that if he had used forcible means against them they would have resisted him as plainly appears from Gregory Nazianzen Orat. 19. p. 307. and in his first Oration against Jultan And that Tyrant was sensible enough of that and therefore he never used open force against them but took what underhand Methods he could to supplant them as appears from the Words of the said Father Nos enim si vis inferatur acriores obstantioresque futuros ac Tyrannidi obnixum pietatis tuendae studium objecturos c i. e. If he had used violence he knew that we would be more Active and Refractory and would have opposed to his Tyranny a firm Resolution to defend our Religion c. I might adduce many other Authors of undoubted Credit to confirm this but more have been shewed already than the Champions of Non-resistance shall ever be able to answer and therefore for brevities sake I omit them and shall bring some Instances of the Primitive Christians defending both their Pastors and themselves against their Persecutors 1. When the Emperor at Macedonius Instigation emitted a Proclamation that the Churches of such as embraced the Creed Socrat. Hist Eccl. l. 2. c. 30. containing the clause of one Substance should be thrown down and the Commissioners for suppressing Churches went to put it in Execution a great number of Novatians and others that maintained the Doctrine of one Substance pulled down that Church removed it to another place and there erected it again Again Macedonius understanding that there were many both at Paphlagonia and Mantinium that could not be commodiously removed by Ecclesiastical Authority perswaded the Emperor to send 4 Bands of Souldiers into Paphlagonia to terrify the Inhabitants and make them turn Arians But the Inhabitants of Mantinium kindled with a fervent Zeal for the Orthodox Religion went against the Souldiers with cheerful minds and valiant Courage after they had mustered a great Body and provided themselves with the best Arms they could procure they marched to meet their Enemies and fought them in this Battel many of the Paphlagonians fell but few if any of the Souldiers escaped He likewise tells us in the same place that when this Macedonius was about to destroy the Temple in which Constantine lay interred and designed to translate the Emperors Bones the People resisted him and when he got the Bones carried into the Church where Acacius the Martyr was buried the Multitude of the contrary side ran thither in haste and this occasioned a very great Slaughter and the Porch unto the Street run with Blood and was full of Dead Bodies And the Emperor was mightily enraged at Macedonius for his precipitancy in this Action 2. The Christians in Persia when they were oppressed by Barabanes or Baratanes King thereof Hist Tripartit l. 11. c. 15. fled to the Romans to beg their help upon which and some other causes the Romans declared War against that King It is true they did not rise up against that King when they remained in his Countrey because they were not in a case to do it But Socrates lib. 7. declares that they came as Suppliants to the Romans and craved that they would commiserate their case and not suffer them to be so oppressed And the Emperor made this a great cause of the War And when the Persian King demanded back his Fugitives as our Non-resistance Gentlemen's most dearly beloved Champion did a few years ago they answered they would not do it and that they would not only endeavour to set the Suppliants at Freedom and deliver them from their Oppressors but also that they would undergo any thing for the good of the Christian Religion and as Socrates saith lib. 7. c. 18. they designed not only to aid them but also by all means endeavour to maintain the Quarrel of the Christian Religion 3. When Athanasius was forced to flee out of Alexandria and Gregorius was brought thither with armed Souldiers Socrat. Hist Eccles l. 2. o. 8. Greek Copy 11. and put in possession of the Church the Citizens of Alexandria notwithstanding that Syrianus the Captain under the Emperor was there with 5000 Armed Men were so displeased