Undutifulness and Violence must be utterly forborn Did he not pay Caesar his Tribute with a plain command that every Disciple of his should pay him his due Did he not Rebuke those who would have called for Fire upon the Heads of the Samaritanes Did he not recommend to us the Practice of his Humility Meekness and Patience under the Cross Was he not angry with Peter for drawing his Sword upon the Chief-Priests Servants Did he not own Pilates Power to have been from above Did he not submit to it when he had at his Command 12 Legions of Angels Did not every Instance of his Life shew us that 't is better far to Die then to Resist Why this was Christs Religion and this is Christianity that we should be Conformed to the Image of Christ Rom. 8. 29. That 's the Substance the Power the Life of Christianity That 's the business and Office of every Christian And though Men please themselves with other popular Names and call themselves the only true Catholicks on the one hand and the only true Protestants on the other yet as long as they are Disloyal on either hand as long as they are Gun-powder Catholicks or Cut-throat True Protestants as long as they shoot at Government either with Bulls or with Ordinances as long as Consults or Covenants are in Fashion with them and the King cannot be safe for them neither in the Field nor at Home as long as they Act after this Devilish rate they do but abuse themselves into a State of Damnation for all their fine Names they ought not to be called Christians or if they will wrongfully Usurp that Name too there are as good Christians as they with Korah and Judas and I had rather be a meer Philosopher or an honest Heathen then such a Christian And doth not the Gospel strictly Command us not to Strive not to Resist Evil but to be Charitable Patient and Peaceable to obey Magistrates to Honour the King to Submit to our Rulers to be Quiet to do our own Business and to be subject for Conscience sake many Commands more we meet with up and down which hallow the Authority and immure the Throne of the Chief Magistrate And doth not my Text award Damnation to every Rebel Why one would think that such Men did use some other Gospel since they have no benefit by this nothing but Damnation by the Gospel of Christ Certainly they have a Gospel by themselves Evangelium Armatum a Gospel that is covered in Armour and dipt in Blood For by ours there is no Salvation for them without such a Stinging Repentance as St. Paul describes in 2 Cor. 7. 11. But I shall not need to proceed further upon the proof of this Matter because the clearing of the 3d. Point will serve à Fortiori to confirm this Only give me leave before I come to it to note how the Apostle in my Text doth Limit Non-Resistance He forbids Resistance against the Governour in Chief against him that is the Fountain of all Authority in the Kingdom Let every Soul be Subject but to the Higher that is to the bighest or Supreme Powers And so in my Text he that Resisteth the Power meaning the same Power that is the Power the Authority the Magistrate that is over all Whether it be King as Supreme saith St. Peter 1 Pet. 2. 13. Supremacy was in the Crown in those days there the Highest Power is Lodged and that is the Power we must be subject unto for Conscience sake Other Usurping and pretending Powers Men may be forced sometimes to be subject unto upon pain of Plunder and Sequestration but the Supreme Power the King is he whom we must not Resist upon pain of Damnation There is in every Kingdom the Supreme and a Subordinate Magistracy So St. Peter doth distinguish between the King that is Supreme and Governours that are sent by Him The King is Gods Representative other Subordinate Governours are the King 's And as long as those Governours Act Regularly and according to their Commission they are to be obeyed too But I will speak a blunt Truth whatever be the Issue of it should our Nation be so unhappy again as it was in 42. when Inferior or rather Usurping Powers forsook their Allegiance Levyed a War Raised Arms Issued out Commissions and turned the points of their Swords against the Supreme and only Lawful Power it would be not only allowable and Lawful but 't would be the Peoples Duty and in point of Conscience a necessary Duty to Resist such Power even unto Blood though Ten Thousand Houses of Parliament were there so many should pretend to it Perhaps I might have spared that Hint in this Age when our former sufferings on each side should be enough one would think to make all Men Wise and for their Interest if not for Conscience sake to be Dutiful for the Future But I could not baulk it well without baulking something in my Text which forbiddeth all Resistance against the Supreme or Soveraign Power 3. That Power is priviledg'd from all Resistance though the King should happen to be a Wicked or an Heathen Prince which is the 3d. and last point and it is concluded from the Consideration of what those Princes were when the Apostles were planting Christianity For when St. Peter wrote his First Epistle wherein he Charged Christians to Submit to the King as Supreme and unto Governours his Ministers of State Christians were so hardly dealt with that they were forced to Flee up and down into places where they could best shift into Pontus Galatia and divers Provinces more as we find at the beginning of that Epistle And Claudius himself who probably was Emperour at that Time was a Man of a Cruel disposition Zealous for Heathenish Idolatry Severe to all of a Foreign Religion so that he would not suffer the Jews to meet together saith Dio and at last he Expel'd the whole Body of Jews out of Rome Believers and Unbelievers too and that upon Christs account saith Suetonius such was the Emperour and such were his Ministers that they would not allow Christians neither the exercise of their Religion nor the Liberty of their Native Countries nor the protection of their own Houses and yet both Claudius and his Deputies must be submitted unto After Claudius immediately came Nero to be Emperour A man called a Lyon by St. Paul himself because he was of a Savage and ferine mind especially after he had got a tast of Blood that I may save Seneca's credit in his Book de Clementià A Man that kill'd his Tutor after all his Courtship of him that dispatche his Wife and Ript open the Bowels of his Own Mother A man that had a spight against every thing that was Good saith Tertullian and that some Christians took to have been the Antichrist spoken of For he was the Man that rais'd the first of the Ten Famous and General Persecutions that inflicted punishments upon Christians saith Suetonius put
A SERMON PREACHT On January 30th 1683. IN Westminster-Abby Before the REVEREND and HONOURABLE the KINGS JUDGES and Printed at their Request By Edw. Pelling Praebendary of Westminster and Chaplain to his Grace the Duke of Somerset Omnis quidem sub Rege ipse sub nulló sed tantùm sub Deo non est inferior sibi Subjectis non parem habet in Regno Bracton l 1. c. 8. A Deo Rex à Rege Lex LONDON Printed by H. Hills Jun. for William Abington next Door to the Wonder Tavern in Ludgate-Street 1684. To the Right Honourable Sir George Jefferyes Knt. and Bar. Lord Chief Justice of England and one of His Majesties Most Honourable Privy-Council My Lord I Do heartily wish that your Lordships desires had not been so Earnest and Pressing as they were to have this Discourse made Publick which I assure Your Lordship was not in the least by me designed to be sent abroad into the World Your Lordship knew those Obligations I lye under to Your Lordship as my Kind and Noble Friend and the Principle I go upon of submitting to Authority so that Your Lordship had me under a double tye both of Gratitude and Obedience I expect to bear a great many more hard Censures and Invectives for this though I have done no more then what I think was my bounden Duty to do But those things I have been so accustomed to hear that I am now Clamour-proof I had almost said that mine Ears are somewhat like a Traytors Conscience past all feeling But if I may have leave to express my Real thoughts I cannot but pitty Your Lordship and your Reverend Brethren for Causing this Sermon to be Printed because hereby you have made it your own and are Oblig'd in Honour to undertake for it and to be my Defendants if ever I should be Threatned to be brought upon my Knees or to hoâ—â— up my hand at the Bar for this as I have been threatned formerly for things of the like Nature And this I may think to be Security good enough But the mischief is that if ever thoâ—â— Canicular days should come again Your Lordships will be in greater Jeopardy then my self and then God help my Advocates as well 〈◊〉 Your Client Let times be as it shall please God It is my Lord your Honour that you are true to youâ— Duty and it is my satisfaction that I can in any thing Obey your Commands And I do it with the more readiness because it is observed how ready your Lordship and the rest of the Judges are to stand by the Interest of the Church and upon all Occasions publickly to Vindicate the Honour and Integrity of the Conformable and Loyal Clergy That the God of peace for whom you Judge will Vouchsafe to preserve you in your Great and Honourable Station and support your Courage and Bless your Labours in the Ministration of Justice and Eternally Reward your Faithfulness to the King to the Church and to the whole Nation is My Lord the hearty Prayer of Your Lordships most Obliged and Obedient Servant Edw. Pelling Rom. 13. 2. Whosoever therefore Resisteth the Power Resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that Resist shall receive to themselves Damnation WHen the Christian Religion began to be planted in the World there were four very Evil Men which in their turns Succeeded Augustus in the Roman Empire Tiberius Caligula Claudius and Nero the latter of whom was the Man that raised the first Persecution against Christians I do not know but the Providence of God might order it thus that all men might have the most early notices of their Duty to Princes and that together with the true Faith they might receive the necessary Doctrines of due Obedience and Subjection to their Lawful Governours whether good or bad It was under Tiberius that Christ the Great Bishop of all our Souls gave that Command of rendering to Caesar the things that were Caesar's Matth. 22. 21. It was under Claudius that St. Peter the Great Apostle of the Jews taught the dispersed Converts to submit themselves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lords sake whether to the King as Supream or unto Governours sent by him c. 1 Pet. 2. And as 't is generally conceived it was under Nero that St. Paul the great Apostle of the Gentiles gave this so strict a charge Let every Soul be subject to the Higher Powers Because there is no Power but of God Had not this thing been a prime part of the Christian Religion we cannot conceive why such great care should have been taken to inform the whole World of it especially in times which afforded not any common encouragements thereunto Were it not a sad Truth that some will believe no more of the Scriptures then what serves their present Turn we might wonder how 't is possible for a Christian to be an Undutiful Subject For as that great Christian and Divine the Learned and Incomparable Dr. Hammond hath Of Resisting the Lawful Magistrate rightly observed In the New Testament especially in the Epistles of the Apostles which were all Written in time of the Reign of Wicked Heathen Bloody Adversaries of Christianity and can refer to none but those there is no one Christian Virtue or Article of Faith more clearly delivered more effectually inforced upon our Understandings and Affections to be acknowledged by the one and submitted to by the other then that of Obedience unto Kings So that it is not either Ignorance that can excuse or any allowable principle of Christianity that can encourage Resistance nor is it Zeal or Conscience that doth it though that has been pretended by some puling and ill natur'd Hypocrites but 't is either an haughty and unmanageable Spirit or an hankering after Spoyl or an Aking Tooth after Government or a Furious Rage for disappointments or Personal Spight or hopes of Revenge or the fear of Justice or a Restless Factious Humour or direct Devillishness and Atheism under the Bonnet of Religion some or all these things have ever been the true causes of those Riots which have been so Vexatious so Fatal to Soveraign Powers It being otherwise impossible that Men whose Consciences are so Enlightned by Gods own Word should be so Blind Wicked and Fool-hardy as to Rise up against their Prince at the manifest hazard of the Greatest and most Intolerable of all Evils For that is the Rebels portion if St. Paul may be credited That they who resist shall receive to themselves Damnation Yet I do not intend to declaim though the World might well bear with me and with all others should our mouths be full of the very Quintessence of bitterness especially when we reflect upon that most Horrid and Execrable Murder which was acted about this time upon the person of that Great Monarch and Martyr of whom the World was not worthy and perhaps will hardly ever see the like of him again It would be a pittiful and woful thing indeed should not
of others who were Soveraigns within their Territories as well as himself Hence it is too that upon that â—ee Mr. Medâ—s â—iatrib in Gen. 10. Orderly dispersion of the Sons of Noah the whole Earth was by degrees divided into a great many Kingdoms so that of Noah Issue there were I know not how many Kings in a short time They were divided after their Tongues after their Families after their Generations in their several Nations and Countries as the Scripture often tells us Gen. 10. Thus all the Monarchies in the World were Founded not by Peoples chusing their Leaders and Governours but by Princes going out with their Respective Families and using a Soveraign Power over them pursuant to Gods Institution and Ordinance that the Head and Chief of a Family should have Dominion and Authority over the rest Hence also it was that we read of Twelve Princes out of the Loins of Ishmael and of several Dukes which Sprang out of the Loins of Esau For every Head of a Distinct Great Family was by the Divine appointment a King in his Nation and his Kingdom was of greater or less Extent as his Family was more or less Numerous And hence lastly it was that we Read of many Kingdoms in one Country as in Canaan for Instance because their Territories were according to their Numbers So that Antiently Principalities were but small till by the Union of many Great Families either by Conquest and Force or by Voluntary Submission Great Monarchies and Empires came to be Erected 4. And this brings me to the last Observable to prove the Jus Divinum of Kingly Power viz. The Universal practice of all Nations For nothing can be more plain than that Kingly Government was the only Government we know of in the whole World for some Thousand Years together The Greeks were under Monarchs all along till such a Frenzy possest some of them as hath possest some Bedlams among us to change their Old Government for a New nothing But their Madness did cost them very dear in the End they were Undone and Ruin'd by it as we should soon be by our Innovations In the most Antient Times there was no such thing as an Aristocratick or Democratick State And the Reason why the Jews would needs have a King though thy were under a Theocracy was because they would not be Singular therefore they would have a King to Judg them as all the Nations all other Nations had 1 Sam. 8. 5. Now Lex currit cum praxi the Universal Practice of the World is a strong argument to prove that there was some Antecedent Law which as they supposed did lay some Obligation upon them because people are not very forward to fall under Government of themselves supposing them to be in a State of Liberty Nor is it conceivable that all Men in the World should be of one mind or that one Form of Government should please all especially that Government which is in the hands of one Man We may as soon believe that all parts of the World did fall asleep at once and then all on a sudden did awake into so many Formed and Setled Monarchies By this time I hope it doth appear that there are stronger Reasons for the Doctrine of the Jus Divinum of Regal Power then that it should be lookt upon as a State Heresie of a Modern date and of dangerous Consequence The sutableness thereof to Humane necessities the Concurrence of Scripture-history which doth plainly Insinuate the Institution the Original the Usage of Monarchical Dominion together with the Suffrages of all Mankind who for a long Tract of Ages submitted unto it as if it were Entailed upon them from the beginning All this I say doth clearly argue as well the Truth as the Reason of this Proposition that the Kings power is Gods Ordinance Which serves also to baffle those Wild and groundless conceits which our Republican Spirits are so very fond of that there was once a State of Nature wherein all Mankind were Free under their own Power and at their own choice whether they would have Government or no Government and whether they would have this Form or another These and the like are no other then the Lewd and Idle conceits of Factious Brains For there never was such a State of Nature but in the Imagination of such Brainsick Men who have fancied a World in the Moon Whosoever has come out of the Womb hath been Born under Government nay under Kingly Government till Rebellion or Faction or the Love of Novelty altered the Natural and Regular course of affairs I do not blame Aristotle and other Old Infidels for not hitting well upon the True Original of Government considering they were not well acquainted with the Scriptures but spake for the most part by guess But I wonder at the confidence of Hobbs and other such Modern Politicians though in truth even they are for the most part Infidels too for talking so idly and unphilosophically as that Kings have their Authority by Compact and Covenant and the pleasure of the people so that they may Crown them or Un-king them as they think fit Doctrines which cost King Charles the 1st of Blessed Memory no less then his Crown and his Head too Whereas for many Ages after the Creation Regal Authority descended by Inheritance and as Nature gave a Man the Father-hood so the Authority which went along with it was Gods Donative people did no more chuse their Kings then Children do chuse their Fathers As for Common-wealths and Aristocracies and Elective States the World formerly was unacquainted with them nay the very Names of them were unknown No they are only so many Usurpations Degenerate and Bastard sorts of Government The Monarchical Form as it is far the best so 't is incomparably the Oldest and of Gods own Institution The rest are but Upstarts and Mushrooms of yesterday in comparison and I think 't is nothing but the necessities of some few places in the World that makes them either Tolerable or Lawful 2. I have done with the first point That the Kings Power is Gods Ordinance and it brings me to the 2d That because the King is Gods own Minister Ordained Supreme by his Commission no man must dare upon pain of Damnation to use any Violence against him they that Resist shall receive to themselves Damnation For if God will Judg the Open and the Secret Actions of men according to the Gospel and reward every man according to his Works what less can the bold Rebeâ— expect then the Severities of Judgment that presumes in spight of all the Out-cries of Conscience to act that which is so contrary to the Ends of Government so Reproachful to the Gospel so repugnant to the Spirit of its Author and its Laws Did not Christ suffer for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps 1 Pet. 2 21. Did not his Peaceable and Submissive deportment all along Teach us that all