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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A41762 The Grand problem briefly discussed, or, Considerations on the true mature and limits of obedience and submission to governours with respect to the different forms of an absolute and limited monarchy / by a divine of the Church of England. Divine of the Church of England. 1690 (1690) Wing G1506; ESTC R28666 8,624 14

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Spiritual Kingdom which He caused miraculously to encrease and prosper by those very means of persecution blood and slaughter by which they endeavoured to destroy it But after that the powers of the Earth were themselves added to the Church it was but just that as the Church imparted to them spiritual good things so she should partake of their carnal Accordingly the Christian Emperours gloried in being Defenders of the Faith enriching the Church with Revenues dignifying it with ample privileges supporting it with Laws and defending it with the power of the Sword And by these means God now preserves his Church as He did before by miracles And after the Church hath thus acquired many Civil Rights and the protection of good and wholsom Laws it would be vain presumption for Christians to neglect the use of these means to defend themselves against the violence of Tyrants and expect that God should deliver them by some miraculous method As the Children of Israel in the Wilderness were miraculously sustained with Quails and Manna and water out of a Rock and clothes that waxed not old But after they were settled in Canaan they had not those extraordinary Provisions but were to live by their labours tilling the ground and reaping the fruits of the Earth and it would have been strange presumption in them to have omitted these endeavours and sitting still have alwayes expected to have been fed with Quails and Manna So the Christian Church was in the first Ages under Persecution as in the Wilderness preserved by an extraordinary and miraculous Providence But after the Church was incorporated with the Civil State and enjoyed peace and the protection of humane Laws it was no longer to expect such favours And for any now to quite the security of Laws against the violence of Persecutors and rely only on Divine Providence for deliverance is like expecting Quails and Manna in Canaan 't is to tempt rather than dutifully to rely on Divine Providence Finally As to the last difficulty viz. That according to this account there would be no such thing as Martyrdom 1. I grant there is not that place for actual Martyrdom the Church being now under a limited Government as there was under an absolute one in the primitive times And what though the Church be altered in some such circumstances Then it had frequent miracles which now are ceased as well as the opportunities of Matyrdom 2. To those that desire this Glory I may say as the Apostles did to some that were fond of Circumcision He is not a Jew only who is so outwardly so neither is he a Martyr only who expires in the flames but he also who in disposition of Soul is resolved and ready to suffer if called to it Besides There are no doubt many instances of Mortification Self-denial extraordinary Charity c. as great and as difficult and as meritorious as the plain suffering death by the Sword or Axe of an Executioner Let us labour to excel in these and so we may obtain a reward equal to the glory Martyrdom Now as to our present circumstances I cannot conceive what can be urged against these things but Either 1. The Obligation of our former Oath of Allegiance or 2. The publick Declaration against taking up Arms against the King upon any pretence whatever 1. As to the former I think the matter of that Oath is expired as certainly as if the Nation had been absolutely conquered For though all the people were not the Governing part was and the Government it self utterly unhinged And if any thing was done in those Revolutions which scrupulous persons now dislike to be sure they were not accessory to it and may therefore now submit as conquered persons especially if they desire protection from the present establishment 2. As to the Declaration It must be construed Secundum Analogiam Legis not to make the Prince absolute But upon condition the Fundamental Constitution of the Government be preserved it is then unlawful for Subjects any or all to take up Arms against their Sovereign FINIS