Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A29916
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Monarchy maintained in a sermon preached at St. Anne Blackfryers / by Titus Bruce ...
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Bruce, Titus, b. 1654.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing B5221; ESTC R2486
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8,581
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28
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Mr. OKES WE desire you to print the Sermon you preached before the Judges at the Assizes at Reading the 12th of July 1681. Sir WILLIAM KENRICK High Sheriff Sir Jonathan Raymond Charles Garrard Esq Richard Palmer Esq John Breedon Esq John Whightwicke Esq George Blagrave Esq Gyles Hamley Esq John Wilder Esq William Reeve Esq Thomas Mason Esq Hugh Ferryman Esq Monarchy Maintained IN A SERMON Preached at St. Anne Blackfryers By Titus Bruce a Presbyter of the Church of England LONDON Printed by J. R. for Fincham Gardiner at the three Roses in Ludgate-street 1682. TO THE READER Reader IGnorance of the Divine Majesty of Heaven and interest here below are the chief Supporters of Faction and Schism Ignorance being the Mother of a blind Zeal and Interest the Guide of a Phanatical Conscience To inform the one I have expos'd my self to publick Censure To unmask the other I have compil'd these following Meditations Such as they are take them If thou art offended it shall not in the least dissatisfie me It is a Doctrine I will maintain Though I mingle my Blood with my Sacrifice The Loyal are exempted from censure if any gaul'd Beast is touch'd I shall only laugh to see him wince I know well enough how some Persons will resent this and I fear it will rather disturb their unsettled Spirits then work in them the least amendment If I labor in vain it is no more than what the best of men have done before me Moses and Aaron and all the Prophets were sent to a stiff-necked and disobedient People Men of rare accomplishments and indefatigable industry have spent their whole time and yet perhaps have not prevail'd with one refractory Sinner I do not expect to speed better than they the Subject of my Discourse being unpleasing to many and what is still worse we seldom read of a Rebel that ever had the Grace to Repent ROM 13.2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation I Read of a certain time when there was no King in Israel but every man did that which was right in his own eyes Four times I find this mentioned in Scripture and in this Anarchy so great was the peoples Impiety that we can hardly except amongst our selves find its parallel Micha turns Idolater the Danites Robbers and the Men of Gibeah commit a Rape upon the Levites Concubine So was our case when every Sniveling Phanatick proclaimed his own Humour set up the Calf of his own Brain and danc'd about it The Army dishonestly rob'd and plunder'd all that durst be honest every Minister is espoused to his several Congregation God Almighty is the Father which gives them in this mystical Marriage and when with the Levite before mentioned they have with much pains and patience long-suffering and meekness traveled to reclaim their Errours and call them back to their first Loves must they by the Benjamites those ravening Wolves which love to devour the prey and divide the spoil as their Father Jacob had prophesied of them Gen. 49.27 Must they I say by their Sequestrations ravish them from thence This was done when there was no King in Israel when every mans Sword was his own Carver and every ones Affections sat Judge of his own Actions we had then to our grief no King but thousands of Tyrants But God who is a God of Order pittying our Distractions out of this Chaos of Confusion commanded Light and Life giving us the Breath of our Nostrils the Light of our Eyes even our most Gracious Sovereign the Anointed of the Lord. This was the hand of God this is his own Ordinance and whosoever presumes to oppose it Contra animatam dei imaginem pugnat rebells against the walking representative of Omnipotency Inde Imperator unde homo the same hand which made him Man crown'd him King and this the Apostle testifieth when he saith there is no power but of God this consideration forc'd in St. Bernard so brave a Resolution that maugre the Confederacy of the World he would prove himself a Christian to God by a Loyal Subjection to his Sovereign Si totus orbis saith he adversum me conjuraret c. should the whole World conspire against me to compel me to act any thing against my King I would fear God and his ordinance and therefore durst not offend Religious Soul he would be no rebellious Covenanter no associating Traitor and he gives his Reason Non enim ignoro ubi legerim Qui Potestati resistit Whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation In which words we have three things to be considered first that Soveraign Power is an Ordinance of God Secondly Because it is so it ought not to be resisted Thirdly The Punishment of them who presume to resist of each in order To the first that Soveraign Power is an Ordinance of God When the pleasure of God had called the People of Israel to be his own peculiar Inheritance he did not presently and at the first establish one perpetual Form of Government or set the imperial Crown upon the Head of his anointed but ushers in the Royalty of a King with some inferior Subordination of Power from Captains he gave them Judges then Prophets then Judges again as if Almighty God contriv'd a way how best and upon the best experience he might be a safe-guard to his People But when these under Titles could not prevail against the daring Out-rages and bold Presumptions of the Tribes Then did he exalt his Throne creates his Viceroy and discovers his King upon his holy Hill of Sion Here God stops he proceeds no further no change from hence St. Austin proves Monarchy for this cause to be the best Government because it was the last which God establish'd When the deeds of darkness durst see the light and owl-ey'd Iniquity dar'd approach the Sun when the high hand of Impiety disdain'd the co-ercive Power of their inferior Magistrates God raised up a new Succession of Princes a race of Kings to suppress those Insolencies Hence St. Paul stiles them the Ministers of God his Revengers to execute wrath upon them which do evil In Kings saith Lactantius there is a double appearance they are men before God but Gods before men Their Commission is signed in Heaven Prov. 8.15 By me Kings Reign Their Authority is confer'd by Heaven They are the Anointed of the Lord Their Power descends from Heaven Psalm 21.1 The King shall rejoyce in thy strength O Lord and from hence we must of necessity conclude that Soveraign Power is the Ordinance of God But further to confirm this let us look upon the great Pattern of our Lives and Saviour of our Souls when he who is the Judge of Heaven and Earth stood before the Judgment Seat of Caesar to be adjudged he confesses himself to be the Author of that Power which spoke his
of our dear Mother the Church with Gall and Wormwood Should we follow their corrupt Expositions they would make the Waters of the Sanctuary like those of Babylon where we may sit down and weep when we remember Sion They pretend to Reformation but in the mean time would trample Conscience Obedience Religion and Duty both to God and Man under foot The Reverend Bishop Davenant in his twelfth determined Question tells us Induant quam velint pietatis Larvam isti Magistratuum Reformatores c. Let them mask under what Vizard they will Religion may be their Plea but Rebellion is their Practice There is no pretence whatsoever should make us Rebel We should not only serve the Vespasians who are the love and delight of Mankind but we should take the advice of the Apostle 1 Pet. 2.13 To submit our selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake and he liv'd in the time of Tiberius and Nero who were stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heaps of Morter tempered with Blood Take the Sweet-Singer of Israel for your Pattern and I chiefly propound him because he is honoured with the glorious Character of being a man after God's own heart see the History 1 Sam. 26. When Saul's guilty Conscience gave him leave to fleep in the Trenches of Hachilah with his men of War about him we shall find as many Arguments to arm David's hand against him as ever met to depose a Sovereign Title First on Saul's part He was an unnatural Tyrant against his own Son Jonathan He was a bloody Persecutor of the Priests of God commanding them to be slain because their hands had been with David He was a sacrilegious Usurper of the holy Offices He was a demoniacal furious Man possess'd with a Devil Next on David's part His Life was sought for and by sparing Saul in all humane probability he destroyed himself He had all the opportunity that Night and Security could administer unto him He was a Successor to the Kingdom by the Prophets Unction and yet for all this as if he had been a Champion to maintain the right of Princes he stops Abisha's hand with a Quis unquam who can lift up his hand against the Lords Anointed and be guiltless The Helvetian Divines have prepared an Anathema against all those who either openly by offence or privately pretending defence shall oppose their Magistrates There is a Damnamus pass'd upon them the Churches Sentence is pronounced and they will find Heaven as inflexible as their rebellious Hearts I am amazed when I behold the purest time of our Religious Fore-Fathers and see those blessed Martyrs even when they were dress'd up in Flames and accompanied Elijah to Heaven in a fiery Chariot when they were grinding between the Teeth of Lyons and were driven up to the tops of Mountains as so many Sheep to the Slaughter when their ingenious Torturers were overcome at their own Art and could invent no Punishment equal to their Patience even then at their hour of Suffering to hear them Pray for their Persecutors to hear them poure out their Souls in their most pious Devotions for a Blessing on the Heads of those Tyrants under whom they suffered and we who enjoy all those Blessings which a peaceable Government can in rich a Land with which sit every man under his own Vine and under his own Fig-tree partaking of our own Labours and the fatness of the Earth that we who are at rest on every side when the rest of the Christian World is imbrued in Blood that we I say should not be contented and yield all faithful and thankful Obedience to God's Vice-gerent I cannot but wonder when I hear mention of the Loyalty of some Heathens some of them exposing their Bodies to the deadly stroke of their Enemies to secure the Persons of their Emperors others leaping alive into their Funeral Piles as if they could do them no later no greater Service Are we Christians Are we Protestants What think we then of that Branch of the Protestation that we will maintain the establish'd Doctrine of the Church as it stands in opposition to Popery and Popish Innovations This Position of Bellarmine will shew us part of the Doctrine of the Church of Rome Non licere Christianis tolerare Regem Haereticum Princes falling into Apostacy from the Faith or Heresie in the Faith loose all Dominion over their Subjects How much worse than these were some amongst us who under a pretence of Religion commit a Rape upon Right and destroy the Faith's Defender I dare oppose this 13. of the Romans against the Power of Men or Devils that would trample upon the necks of Kings Let every Soul be subject v. 1. mark the style There 's a Statute Law enacted in the High Parliament in Heaven which no man which owes a Soul may Break without High-Treason against man and higher Impiety against God The most Refractory will have a specious Pretence they make it a matter of Conscience the Devil transforms himself into an Angel of light but they make no Conscience to disobey Their Plea for Rebellion is the same by which the Apostle shews the necessity of Obedience v. 5. Ye must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for Conscience-sake To this let me add that Precept of the Reverend Bishop Taylor The Law of God commands us therefore we must make a Conscience of keeping the just Laws of our Superiors and although the matter before the making of the Law was indifferent yet now the Obedience is not indifferent And again Lift not up thy hand against thy Prince upon what pretence soever but bear all Personal Affronts and Inconveniencies at his hand and seek no Remedy but by Patience and Piety The most Reverend Bishop Cranmer in the days of King Henry the Eighth in his Exposition of the Fifth Commandment tells us that by it we are bound not to withdraw our Fealty Truth Love and Obedience from our Prince for what cause soever it be nor yet for any cause may we conspire against his Person nor do any thing towards the hinderance or hurt thereof or of his Estate The Pious Bishop Latimer tells us that we may for nothing in the World Rebel against the Ordinance of God that is the Magistrate These glorious Saints and holy Martyrs did in their actions confirm their Doctrine and in the days of Queen Mary received the triumphant Crown obeying her in suffering for that which their Consciences would not give them leave actually to perform After them comes that painful and Reverend Bishop Jewel disputing with Harding issues in the Story of Chilperick King of France His Nobles deposed him the Commons were convented and the Pope confirmed it Rebellion as well strengthned as heart could wish yet his Successor Pipin scarce ever with quiet enjoyed the Kingdom and of nine Generations which were all of that Race that succeeded hardly one was found which went down to his Grave in Peace These are men