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A42790
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Three sermons preached in Lent and summer assizes last at Lancaster, and on one of the Lords days in the late Guild of Preston : wherein the nature of subjection to the civil magistrate is explained, the duty proved, and the clergy justified in pressing the same upon their fellow-subjects / by Thomas Gipps.
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Gipps, Thomas, d. 1709.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing G783; ESTC R27382
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51,822
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90
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Oracle yet certainly the Infallible Oracles of God does not allow us to maintain his Honour by dishonouring and illegal Resistance of our Natural Prince For God himself is able to defend it and has taken it into his own immediate Protection if the Prince apostatizes Nor may we upon Pretence of the purity of Divine Worship renounce our Lawful Soveraign That Dominion is founded in Grace is as wild a Paradox as that other of its being founded in Property and is so much the more dangerous in that being the Manufacture of Rome and transported hither by their Spiritual Merchants the Jesuites is bought up greedily by our zealous Hucksters the true Protestant Dissenters So far indeed the Government is beholden to them that they have almost monopoliz'd the Commodity But my Brethren ye have not I hope so Learned Christ I do not read that our Lord or his Apostles give us leave nor Encouragement to propagate Christianity by the Sword or to defend the Gospel by Tumult and Railing at Superiors or Threatening to advance another on the Throne whom we shall please to canonize for a Saint contrary to the Known and Fundamental Law of Succession Peter who mistaking Christs meaning when he bad the Disciples to furnish themselves with Swords briskly cut off Malchus's Ear but received this Check Put up thy Sword 'T is worth our while to take a view of our Lords Discourse and Behaviour on this Occasion For says he they that take the Sword shall perish by the Sword Thinkest thou not that I can pray to my Father and he shall presently give me more than twelve Legions of Angels for my Defence But how then shall the Scripture be fulfilled It was not then as some are pleas'd to affirm of the Primitive Saints for want of Power that our Lord would not resist but in Conscience to the Ordinance and in Obedience to the Authority of the Priests Besides Christ to make amends for the rashness of that hot headed Disciple was pleas'd by a miraculous Cure of the Wound to repair that publick Injury and Breach of the Peace for such it was Malchus being one of the High Priests Servants This I imagine gave such Satisfaction on all sides as you read not that the Crime was ever laid to Peters Charge nor rose up in Judgment against our Saviour Hence 't is very probable that St. Peter afterwards became a most Zealous Assertor of the Doctrine of Subjection as you will find in his first Epistle The Children of Israel under Pharaohs hard Bondage cryed unto the Lord And God undertook their Deliverance not by Encouraging them to resist the King and disturb the Peace by Rebellion But sending Moses and Aaron to supplicate in their behalf God himself condescended to send Ambassadors to him and became a peaceable Intercessor for them And lest Pharaoh as he did should look upon Moses's Message as a Sham and his Miracles as the Magical Tricks of an Aspiring Spirit how did God Evidence the Truth thereof With what Power and Might and outstretched Arms did the Lord of Hosts second his Petitions All the Resistance they offered was but running away and that too by the special Appointment of God When the Tyrant pursued them tho in a warlike Posture and Able in some Measure to sell their Lives at a dear rate yet they did not lift up their Hands against the Kings Army And when it must needs be God contriv'd and wrought their Deliverance without their active Resistance or the Breach of the Peace himself overthrowing Pharaoh and his Egyptians in the Red Sea God who is the Author of Peace and Order the Ordainer of Government seems always to have been so tender in this Point that he never has made use of his supreme Power and Prerogative so as to Commission or Justify any Subject in their Resistance of the Higher Powers no not when the Higher Powers have been rejected and their Successors appointed by God himself The Israelites petitioned Rehoboam for redress of Grievances and after denyal ten Tribes revolted but the Spirit of God has all along term'd it Rebellion Shew me if it be possible one single Instance in all the Changes of Government among them where God contriv'd or countenanc't or the Spirit of God has commended or excus'd the Usurpation But this Point has been so learnedly handled and so fully demonstrated by many Excellent Pens of late that I think it needless at Present to enlarge my self farther on this Subject If it be objected that our Case is different from the Apostles and Primitive Christians our Religion being the Religion of the State establish'd by Law And blessed be God it is so Let our Mouths be filled with Laughter and our Tongues with Joy Let our Hearts be enlarg'd with Thankfulness to God and the King for this Unvaluable Blessing But if for our Unworthiness and Unfruitfulness under this Spiritual Advantage God as a Punishment of our Sins shall please to turn the Hearts of our Rulers against us and the Truths we profess What then May we revile them may we by force resist them may we secretly conspire against them may we murder or eject them God forbid Religion upon pretence of being the establish'd Law of the Land has no better Security thereby than those Laws by which we lay claim to our Temporal Interests It is then only to be considered as such as to the Formal Nature tho not as to the subject Matter of it So that look how we are to demean our selves towards our Governours upon the Violation of our Civil Rights of which I discours'd in the Forenoon the same Course we must take upon their Breach of Trust in our Spiritual We must by no means resist affront or libel them We must not bring railing Accusations nor vent venemous and spiteful Words against their Honour Safety and Government One Special Advantage we have as to our Religious concerns above our Temporal sc the Promise of the more immediate Care and Protection of God whose we are and whom we serve which is an Anchor of the Soul both sure and stedfast that if the Earthly Defender of our Faith leaves us God himself will receive us under his Wings and at last crown our Sufferings with a far more Exceeding and Eternal Weight of Glory But I proceed to the Second which is the Grand Query and Difficulty of all which many Men of Understanding and Sobriety Men of Interest in their Country make a mighty Question of For say they Saving to the Kings Person all due Honour and intire Submission may we not by Force resist his evil Counsellours his wicked Instruments his Cut-throat Officers those who for base and ambitious Ends invade the Peoples Liberties and Properties I reply No you may not which Conclusion I shall back with some following Reasons in Order whereunto I must premise first That I do not plead for active Obedience when the subordinate Magistrate Acts contrary to Law but against
unquestionable Maxim of our Holy Religion That we must not do evil that good may come 4. Conscience in this case which is but an irregular Passion and may rather be called Self-conceit or sullen Perswasion becomes a most daring Champion and that Cause is most likely to succeed wherein she is sworn of the Counsel or made use of in the Execution Hence both Ambitious Princes and Rebellious Subjects in their Foreign Invasions or Civil Wars still either in pretence or Truth have Painted Conscience and the Glory of God on their Ensigns thinking it sufficient to Excuse their outrages with the pretext of Godliness Some of you I know have read of the Holy War carried on by the blind Zeal of Christendom against the Saracens some have heard of the Holy League in France many of you of the Spaniards Invincible Armado Equip'd at the Request of his Holiness for the Propagation of the Faith most of you are sensible that there was lately a Solemn League and Covenant set up in this Kingdom for the Glory of God and we are at this day freshly Alarm'd with the Report of an Association These Proceedings are not to be wondred at since Religion hath ever by Experience been found first lyable to be deprav'd by ill Men then to be made a stalking Horse for the carrying on the most Impious Enterprizes Our Lord himself fore-told as much and this Mystery of Iniquity began to work in the Children of Disobedience at the very dawning of Christianity The first Hereticks and Schismaticks that sprung up in the Church Men that boasted of their Knowledge of the Divine Will as much as any among us ever did arrogating to themselves the Name of Gnosticks i. e. as the word imports Knowing Men who as they thought were fully acquainted with the Doctrine of God Yet among many other freakish Opinions deny'd Subjection due to the Magistrate and are describ'd as such by St. Jude Filthy Dreamers who defile the Flesh despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities 5. The Christian Religion is first pure and then peaceable as St. James teacheth us intimating that the Purity of it being first lost or renounc'd nothing but Confusion and Disorder can be expected to follow from whence it has often come to pass that Men of Corrupt Minds perverse Sons of Belial have set up Religion to countenance their Rebellion and Christianity hath been frequently drawn in to bear a part in the most Bloody Tragedies that ever were Acted upon the Stage of the World Thus it hath been from the beginning and will continue thus to be notwithstanding our Blessed Lord and his Holy Apostles took the greatest care imaginable both by Example and Doctrine to prevent these Mischiefs St. Paul among the rest intending in these words now read either first as some imagine to overthrow that Rebellious Principle of the Gnosticks just now mentioned Despising Dominion and speaking evil of Dignities and to prevent its further growth among the new Converts at Rome Or Secondly as Grotius conjectures to obviate that plausible Argument which the Jewish Christians might possibly be ready to draw from that passage of Moses viz. Thou shalt in any wise set him King over thee whom the Lord thy God shall chuse one from among thy Brethren shalt thou set King over thee thou mayest not set a stranger over thee which is not thy Brother from whence they might gather that the Emperour being not their Brother not of the Seed of Jacob but a Stranger they were not obliged to Obey him Or Thirdly as some think to let the Roman Christians rightly understand his Doctrine and their own Duty namely that what he had before in this Epistle delivered concerning Christian Liberty was not to be stretch'd so far as to excuse their Subjection to the Temporal Magistrate Upon some one or more of these Accounts the Apostle reads them their Lesson here in the Text of which I shall give you the Explication and thence fully set forth the Nature of Subjection which is all I aim at at this time 6. The Grammatical form of the words is Imperative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by Consequence the words are Praeceptive importing a Duty properly so called unto which we are indispensably Oblig'd and which the Apostle more peremptorily presses in the 5 th Verse following Wherefore ye must needs be subject there is a Necessity laid upon you all The Romish Divines tell us that this is only Prudential Advice suited to the present Condition of the Christians who were then few and poor and unable to make resistance therefore was it unseasonable for them to exasperate the Emperour but their Interest rather and Wisdom to sit down patiently under Persecution waiting a more favourable time of asserting their Civil Rights and Liberty of Conscience and of pulling down that Cruel and Arbitrary Government of Nero. This Gap was first opened by the Papists through which many even Protestants in Profession have entred into the Field of Rebellion choosing rather to become Companions with those unruly Beasts in the Transgression than to be confin'd within the compass of Sobriety and the Peaceable Principles of the true Christian Philosophy But what I pray ye is or can be the meaning of those words Ye must needs be subject Not only for Wrath or fear of Punishment that is indeed a Prudential Motive fit for every reasonable Man to consider for his Worldly Interest but also for Conscience sake that 's without Question a Divine Evangelical one fit for every Christian to weigh in order to his Spiritual Interest Conscience I say towards God not for his own sake only but as St. Peter implies for the Lords sake in Honour and Obedience to the Law of God Let every Soul No Mortal Man is exempted neither Bishop nor Priest nor Subordinate Magistrate nor five hundred Princes of the Congregation Men of Renown Assembled no nor all the People of the Land Combin'd and Associated together can hold themselves excused Every Soul This Expression is borrowed from the Jewish Writers with whom it is very familiar to call Man Soul as indeed 't is not an unusual Idiom in our own Language that being a principal part Synechdochically put for the Man himself So that when St. Paul says Let every Soul 't is equivalent as if he should have said Let every Man or rather if we would render it to the full Let every living Man For so much the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denotes which most commonly in Scripture Language signifies the Life the Animal Life that Life which is common to him with the brute Beasts or else the Life relating to our Natural and Temporal Concerns Whence St. Paul opposes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Natural Man to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Spiritual Man From whence I draw this Conclusion that every true and sincere Disciple of Christ although he may and ought to preserve his Reasonable Soul his Conscience pure and