A SERMON Preach'd before the KING AT WHITE-HALL ON THE Fifth of November 1681. By GEORGE HOOPER D. D. Printed by his Majesties Command LONDON Printed for Mark Pardoe at the Sign of the Black-Raven over against Bedford House in the Strand 1682. S. MATTHEW 22.21 Render therefore unto Caesar the Things that are Caesar's and unto God the Things that are God's THe Pharisees and the Sadduces though divided in their Opinions and their Interests yet both looking upon our Saviour as their common enemy he equally opposing the Impiety of the one and the Hypocrisie of the other conspire together to entangle him in his talk and make here in this Chapter their successive attempts upon him THe first that of the Pharisees and which gave an occasion to the reply of the Text was manag'd with address and design they had so laid their Ambush that which way soever he took he might fall into the Snare and perish the answer he gave they expected would certainly offend either the Zeal of the Jew or the Power of the Roman For the Jews although they had now for a long while been under subjection to the uncircumcised although their Great City had been ruin'd by the Babylonian and their whole Nation transplanted hardly a Stone left upon a Stone nor a Jew in Judea though after their return from their Captivity they were still Vassals to the Persian Empire then part of the Conquest of Alexander the Great after under the Syrian Kings then reduc'd to the Roman Obedience by Pompey for their Chiefs whether Princes or Priests were still tributary and dependant yet they still retain'd their high Spirit a peculiar sence of their Native Liberty and Sacred Prerogatives But when afterwards the Romans took the Government into their own hands remov'd their Tetrarch and brought them into the condition of a Province to be commanded now by one sent from Rome who should have the Power of Life and Death and Tax them at his will this seem'd insupportable to the greatest part of them and was esteem'd as unlawful as it was burdensome that they were a holy People their Persons and Estates sacred to God and to give Obedience to any Forreigner was to withdraw it from the Lord of Hosts Nor shall we think it was any hard matter to perswade a People so well satisfied of their National Priviledges and of so stubborn a temper that it was an ungodly thing to suffer Impositions to pay Taxes was Irreligion He then that resisted this Heathen Authority was the truest Israelite the truest to the Liberty of his Nation and the honour of his God and as Moses had deliver'd them from the Egyptian Bondage so they expected a Messiah who should redeem them from the Roman and if our Saviour pretended to be that great Person he was they thought oblig'd to take this Yoke from off their Necks and declare against the Roman Government On the other side the Romans knowing what People they had to deal with that they were a rebellious City hurtful unto Kings and unto Provinces which would pay neither Toll Tribute nor Custom for so they stand of old describ'd to Artaxerxes had a very watchful Eye over them and were jealous of every Motion They had their Spyes the Herodians here in the Text and restrained their unquiet tumultuous Spirits with severe exemplary Executions So that to accuse one of a Crime against the State as an Enemy to Caesar was the greatest Revenge the most malicious Enemy could take it was to expose him to certain Ruine to an ignominious cruel Death For so we find the Chief Priests when they had taken Counsel together to put Jesus to Death for Crimes as they thought against their Law yet presenting him to Pilate with this Accusation We found this Man perverting the People forbidding to give Tribute to Caesar saying that he himself is Christ a King We have them therefore here preparing that Article whereby hereafter they intend to murder him They indeavour now by the Question they maliciously propose to take such hold of his Words that they may deliver him over to the Power and Authority of the Governour The Disciples therefore of the Pharisees who possibly were against the payment of Tribute and the Herodians who were for it being both here met together the one to tempt and the other to inform begin their Discourse to him with this flattering treacherous Insinuation Master We know that thou art true and teachest the Word of God in Truth neither carest thou for any Man for thou regardest not the Person of Men thou art not afraid of the Government and wilt not for fear disguise the Truth as our Scribes and our Doctors do Tell us therefore what thinkest thou Is it lawful to give Tribute to Caesar or not But Jesus as the Text proceeds perceived their Wickedness and said why tempt ye me Hypocrites Shew me the Tribute Money and they brought unto him a Penny and he saith unto them whose is this Image and Superscription And they say unto him Caesar 's then saith he unto them returning them a precise distinct Answer and no other than what they themselves had produced Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar 's and unto God the things that are God's The Soveraignty of Caesar over you appears by his Prerogative of coyning your Money You know your Governour for you see his Face and in the Inscription you read his Authority Why therefore should you deny him the Testimony of your Subjection and refuse to pay him Tribute His Stamp I see is current with you is the regulation of your Contract the Standard of your civil Commerce And as in Payments you can't refuse to accept it so here you are obliged to give it If Caesar be your King this Payment he asks is as due as any you demand and that he is your Prince the Money you would withhold of it self testifies against you God does not here interpose any particular Claim nor will he lend his Name to countenance your Disobedience against your King and his Vicegerent If indeed he sets up his Image in the Temple you are not to suffer it for God's sake and if he commands you to worship This you are not to obey him but to give It in Tribute is your Duty it is that which God does so far not forbid that he does command Give therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesar 's and unto God the things that are God's The Words of our Saviour relate indeed to a particular Question and chiefly there concern the giving of Tribute but they are too the Foundation of a general Rule and determine alike in all matters that can come in dispute betwixt God's Supreme Authority and that which is delegated to the Sons of Men. They importing that some things there are peculiarly belonging to God and some things belonging to the King and whose they are we may know by the Inscription And this Determination we shall
crave leave to prosecute that way the occasion of the Day leads by representing First the Rights of God and of Caesar Secondly the Usurpations of the Pope upon both and Thirdly the Redress and Reform The Rights of God and the King and the Robbery the See of Rome has committed upon both have been made so evident by others that they will need here but a very brief Recapitulation First If we enquire what is God's we are to consider him as Lord in chief and sole Proprietor whose is the World and all that dwell therein Part indeed of his Dominion he hath been pleased to bestow on the Sons of Men but so as to be held of him by such Laws with such Services and under such Reservations as it shall have pleased the Almighty Donor 1. He has therefore reserv'd to himself the power of declaring Laws and those not to be overrul'd nor superseded but by himself to bind every where and for ever to pass through all Countries and continue to all Ages And those you may read he has delivered them in Writing 2. He has accordingly prescribed the Worship that shall be paid him and the Services he expects Those that are peculiar to him have his Image his Mark set upon them and are Incommunicable For he is a jealous God and will not give his Honour to another 3. And for this peculiar Service he has chosen to be waited upon by a distinct peculiar People that the Homage and Worship of the World may be presented to him in publick by proper hallowed Hands And these Men they too have their Character you may know them whose they are and to whom they belong 4. In the last place we may mention as proper to God not what he has primarily reserved but what afterwards his pious Servants out of Zeal and Gratitude have offered to him Such are all Donations sacred to his Name and appropriated to his Service These Possessions and Revenues whose they are you will find too by their Inscription look into the Charters of their Foundations and you will see they belong to God In the next place consider we what is Caesar's and if we look upon him we shall know his Quality and his Value Whose Image bears he And whom does he represent Is he not the Vicegerent of God 1. Wherever therefore his Sovereign the Almighty has not prevented him by any precedent Commands there he has right and liberty to put forth his in those cases to expect an active cheerful Obedience and that we should in no case and for no reason resist 2. Be this Civil Government Heretick or Infidel we are not discharged of our Allegiance We are obliged by the same Divine Authority to preserve our Religion under it and to continue to it our Subjection Nor are any Modern Governours of the Church greater than their Fathers the Apostles who obey'd patiently the worst of Heathen Emperors submitting either to their Edicts or Persecutions 3. The Duty of the Christian Emperor being to restrain Vice and Irreligion to promote Holiness and the Worship of God to him it belongs to order and direct the Church the way he shall think most proper for those ends to be its Temporal Overseer These are the unquestionable Rights of the Civil Power affirm'd in our Articles and asserted at large by others and to be given up to it by those that will render to Caesar what is Caesar's II. Neither are the Rights of God and the King more evident than that the Pope has invaded both His Usurpations are now grown as conspicuous as his Greatness and to recount them all would be to give a particular of his whole Authority Every one knows his Principality over the other Churches of the World what an unjust Claim it is and how meanly founded How his Authority at first was no greater than that of his Neighbour Bishops the Style the same and his Holyness in common His Precedence not in the Right of Saint Peter but of a Capital City and Addresses first made to him not because he was next to God but to the Imperial Court How from the civility of a Precedence they claim'd a Superiority because they had been consulted with they would afterwards command from arbitrating of difference referred to them by their Brethren concern'd they usurp'd a Judicature and then when none durst contradict them they could not err and grew Infallible It is too as well known how taking advantage of the weakness of an old Empire and making still conditions with the new authorizing the usurpations of others in countenance to their own abusing to their private purposes the zealous Devotion of new converted Barbarians and imposing on their unlearn'd Simplicity by the Authority of forg'd Donations and counterfeit Decretals and having before by various Arts and thorough the connivence or assistance of Princes gained an absolute power over the Bishops of the West They then by the aid of the enslaved Clergy and their Garrisons of Monks attempted openly on the Princes themselves confined their Jurisdiction and forbid them to meddle with the Persons or Revenues of Ecclesiasticks Authoritatively interpos'd in all Differences between Prince and Prince or Prince and People with their Spiritual Thunder in their hands commanded the World to lay down or take up Arms at their Pleasure exercising every where by their Legates the Sovereign Power of Peace and War giving the Law and disposing of Crowns and Lands as they thought fit He that disobey'd was first thrown out of the Church and then out of his Country his Subjects absolv'd from their Allegiance and those justified that had a mind to rebel or to invade They did the Holy Church and Saint Peter Service that seiz'd upon his Estate or his Person He stood delivered up to Satan to be Buffeted on Earth and Tormented in Hell These are the Steps to the Papal Throne and when they were mounted so have they Lorded it trampling imperiously on the Necks of Kings and Bishops in an equal violation of all Authority Sacred and Civil They are the first that directed pretended Holy Orders of men and Sons of Perfection in Separate Congregations to despise their true Spiritual Governours and first instructed Traiterous Subjects to rebel against their King the sanctified way And these Injustices of their Growth and violences of their grown Power lie so open in the successive Annals of the Christian Times That to secure their Cause they have reason to forbid the reading of all Histories as well as of the Holy Bible There we may as easily discern the beginning and gradual advance of the aspiring Papacy as of any other usurping Empire and that this new Rome has by means as humane as those the Old practised and with as little of divine Right extended the narrowness of its original Territory into a Catholick Dominion And there we shall find as soon as it rises to its plenitude of Power nothing but Robbery and Cruelty the World in a perpetual
well enough United to withstand their continued Attempts against this Body and this Constitution they direct all their Aim apply their open Force and their secret Practices This which God forbid if they should ruine they may think it would be no difficult thing to destroy the other ill grounded disunited Societies that are among us ty'd together by no Government consenting in no form of Doctrine met together upon Fancy and Humour holding they know not what and agreeing they know not how Neither are they so barren of mischievous Invention as to be at a loss if Poison Dagger or Powder fails they can work on other Mines and lay other Traines than those of this Day It is indifferent to them by what sort of Artifice the Frame of our Government flies asunder what it is that Tears and Rends and breaks in pieces our Church and State whether the matter that is to scatter us be under the places of our Assemblies or in them whether Houses are burned by their Wildfire or Mens Minds inflamed and our Cities in a more dangerous Combustion whether our Religion be ruin'd by them or by their friends Debauchees Atheists or Enthusiasts They thankfully accept the Pains those of the Separation take to divide and distract us the liberal Present they make of our whole Church into their Bosom contentedly allow all their Clamour against Popery if they will but serve them so far as to fasten that odious Popery upon us glad to see the Papal Designs executed at the Expence and Scandal of those that bear a Protestant Name to see their Brethren of the Recusancy as vigilant and vigorous at it as if they were some new Order of the Popes and had a General at Rome so well agreed that we are never in more Danger from the one than when we are threatned by the other Then our Church is not capacious enough and should be rebuilt say those that would pull it down then its Gates are not broad enough and Breaches to be made wide enough for an Enemy to come in On this side the Papist Mines on that the Dissenter Countermines till by both the Foundation is sapped and the Fabrick sinks Our growing Schisms giving our common Enemy certain Hopes of our future Ruine and furnishing them now with the best Argument for a Head of Unity and an Infallible Judge Other Plots and Designs which those of the Church of Rome may have it may not be in the Power of private Persons to encounter To oppose them there may be the Work of other Hands and the proper Business of Authority for we are to give to Caesar what is Caesar's But to oppose their most dangerous Designs and that without which no other can prevail that is in our own Power It is every particular Man that is to hinder his being disunited to prevent and disappoint the Advantages expected from our Divisions And to exhort and beseech Men to lay aside private Animosities humorous and fanciful Distasts in matters of Religion to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace is a fit and necessary Duty at all times in an Age that wants Charity so much and has so little of Christian Condescension but at this time more eminently seasonable and absolutely necessary To agree now in the Service of God as it is the Duty of each in private so it is the Interest of the publick The House of God its self if divided against it self cannot stand Whatever other Instruments of our Ruine those of Rome may have let no Protestant suffer his Zeal to be made one To be truly opposite to the Church of Rome to prevent their future Designs and in gratitude for our past Deliverances let us in obedience to the direction of the Text and in imitation of our Church render to every one their Due To the Constitution of the Church that just and thankful Testimony that nothing can be more contrary to the Falshoods Usurpations and Corruptions of the Romish See nothing more agreeable to the Peace good Order and Government of the Kingdom In the head of this Church to Caesar what is Caesar's a grateful loyal Resentment of the great Blessings we enjoy under his Gracious Government no half-Subjection nor Popish Conformity to his Laws an Obedience clear of Roman Shifts and Jesuitical Evasions not setting up a private Antipapal Authority to absolve our selves in some cases from our Allegiance and deny his Majestie 's Supremacy in favour of our own To God particularly on this Occasion all Honour Thanks and Acknowledgment That he was first pleased to shine early upon this Nation in the returning Light of the Gospel the Doctrine of the Reformation discovering to us as it were by a new Revelation his true Religion freed from the Corruptions and Impostures of Men from a Burden of Ceremonies almost Jewish and an Idolatry almost Pagan That he was pleased during the Reign of the succeeding Princess to continue this his blessed Gift to us to the Confusion of all the Enemies of our Faith and Countrey both at home and abroad And particularly under her Successor King that the Divine Majesty was pleased by a singular extraordinary Providence to disappoint a Treason unexampled in its Malice and of an unheard Design The Prince of Darkness himself contriving and labouring the horrid Plot beneath God watching from above and confounding the accursed Work by a Miracle almost as great as if the Train had took and he had stopt the Blow that he has been pleased since still to defeat by a constant jealous Care the restless Enemies of our Peace and Religion preserving from their Malice and Treachery that Sacred Head next and immediate under God our Governour and Defendor preserving us all to his true Worship from Confusion and War whose Grace it is that we assemble as at this time in Peace and Safety worship him as here in Purity Neither is this all on this Occasion we owe our God We are to continue our Thanks beyond the Day and express our selves sensible of the Divine Favour by improving it to the most Advantage We stand still obliged to a farther Justice to give our Protestant Religion its Due and let It have its proper blessed Effects That the Purity and Reformation of our Religion be not only read in our Articles and Liturgy and those framed by the Piety of our Ancestors but seen on our own Persons exemplified in our Lives That our Worship of God discover by the Intenseness of the Devotion that it is not distracted by any other Object nor diverted on Saints and Angels That it appear not by our slackness at the Holy Communion that we could have been without the Use of Both Kinds That it be visible by our zealous attention to our Prayers that we Understand them and by our Obedience to God's Word that we have Read it not from impious Allusions and such Profanations as may almost justifie the Papal Prohibition Let us shew by the frequency of our own Charities and Devotions now that we think those of Others for us after our Death of no avail by our abhorrence of all Sin that we account none Venial and by the religious Carefulness of our Lives that we trust not to Indulgences or easie Absolutions They that doubt of a Possibility of Salvation for those of the Other Communion in This let them secure their own and while we profess by good Works we cannot Merit Heaven let us not by bad Deserve a greater Damnation These are the proper Tests of a true Protestant and signs of a holy Zeal Other noisy Clamours and angry Heats against Rome have no more of Religion in them than is in the loud sounds on that occasion we hear from the tops of our Churches or in the Fire that burns in the Streets If we would intirely banish Popery let none of its Corruption be retained in our Manners let our Lives and our Conversations Protest So shall we best thank God for the Mercy of this Day and engage his Protection for the future FINIS