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A03897
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The descent of authoritie: or, The magistrates patent from heaven Manifested in a sermon preached at Lincolnes assizes, March 13. 1636. By Thomas Hurste Dr. of Divinity, and one of his Majesties chaplains.
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Hurste, Thomas, d. 1680.
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1637
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STC 14007; ESTC S104349
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18,074
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38
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THE DESCENT OF AVTHORITIE OR THE MAGISTRATES PATENT FROM HEAVEN Manifested in a Sermon preached at Lincolnes Assizes March 13. 1636. By THOMAS HVRSTE Dr. of Divinity and one of his Majesties Chaplains Rom. 13.1 There is no power but of God LONDON Printed for Iohn Clark and are to bee sold at his Shop under Saint Peters Church in Cornhill 1637. TO MY VERY NOBLE FRIEND AND WORTHY Patron Sir WILLIAM SAVILE Baronet SIR BEing perswaded to make this Sermon legible I presently resolved to use your name for the Dedication As it is a favour from you I make bold to borrow it and as it is a testimony of due respect from me you deserve it Go on still in manifesting your unfained love to God and his Church your Prince and Country And that you may long continue to be as you are an ornament to your Family and a support to your friends shall be the prayer of him that is Yours in all hearty affection and due observance THO. HVRSTE Lednam Iune 1. 1637. Perlegi Concionem hanc cui titulus est The Descent of Authority c. nec in eâ quicquam reperio quò minùs cum utilitate publicâ imprimatur Sa Baker Ex aedibus Londin Iunij 14. 1637. THE DESCENT OF AVTHORITIE Gen. 9.6 Whoso sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood bee shed A Divine may speake of such Texts of Scripture that it may bee said as it was to hin that spake of Hercules his praises Quis eum vituperat Plutar. Apoph â—…ac as if that were to light a candle in the Sun-shine So when we Preachers speake of death mortality Gods mercy mans pronenesse to sinne c. Some may say or thinke Who doubts of this But for this Discourse that I am to speake of the just power of one man over another it may seeme to be Apocryphall or an Exchecker-chamber case Some especially inferiours thinke that one should bee as good as another that as wee were at our births and shall be at our deaths so in our lives we should bee equall Being Christian brethren in Divinity and partaking of the same Sacraments so Anabapâ—istically we should bee in Politicks and the pearching of one man above another is but humane invention and commanding policy Whereupon some inferiours are willing to obey principally for feare of punishment little for conscience sake To satisfie us all then that the superiority of one man over another is no humane usurpation but a divine institution not upheld only by the shores or underlaid with the bolsters of mans device but hath the foundation of Gods appointment take notice how that God who hath made in Heaven Angels and Archangels in the Firmament the King the Sun the Queene the Moone and the common people the Starres in the Aire the Eagle and the Flie in the Sea the Whale and the Herring upon Earth the Lyon and the Grassehopper hils and vallie leas and furrowes the same God hath appointed amongst men some like the Centurion to command Matth. 8.9 and others as the Centurions servant diligently to obey as in stature some higher like the Anakims and some lower as Zacheus Thus God hath ordered that Whoso sheds mans blood must not be reprieved till the day of Judgement or bee punished miraculously Acts 12.23 Isa 37 36. as Herod was by an Angel sent from Heaven or as in Sennacheribs Host where an Angel came and slew the Host but by man and not by Angels shall a malefactors blood bee shed Here then is Magna Charta or High Commission under the great Seale of Heaven directed to Magistrates Here is DEVS REGI for so he acknowledgeth DIEV ET MON DROIT And then give me leave to say a piece of your Commission before you goe to the Hall from hence it followeth CAROLVS but DEI GRATIA DILECTO ET FIDELI So then if any shall enquire in point of conscience as they did Luk. 20.2 By what authority you doe these things I meane divine Why you my Lords examine and give sentence the Justices herein concurre the Jurers finde guilty the Jaylors keepe sure the Plaintifs prosecute and the Executioners put to death here is prima lex societatis nervus Imperiorum Carions Chron. the divine Patent or grant Whoso sheds c. In which words we have Authoritatis prosapiam the progeny or pedegree the race or linage or if you will the Descent of Authority set out by Moses the ancient King of Heralds who hath informed us in all the ancient genealogies A discourse not unusefull to us all that Superiors may know how their tenure is but in capite God by a Licence of alienation hath assigned them and that inferiours may know why they owe suit service and homage to their superiors because their power stands not onely upon the crutches or stilts of humane power but upon the firme basis of divine institution that some should ride on horse-backe while others walke on foote For the evidencing hereof observe the Commission The first and more generall part of it is laid down Gen. 1.26 and 28. and likewise in the second verse of this ninth chapter Sciatis quòd assignavimus vos quemlibet vestrum conjunctim divisim to rule over fowles beasts fishes Thus far all mankind hath power And now in this verse read we have Assignavimus etiam vos we see who are of the Quorum even the Magistrates who have power over men The like we may read Wisdom the ninth from the beginning to the seventh verse As the Emperour of Germany is stiled Rex Regum so is a Magistrate over men who are petty Princes over the other creatures All mankinde are like Senatours all Kings but the Magistrate is perpetuus Dictator But it will be whispered by the Temporall power Trouble not your selfe for our Patent further than from our gracious King we have Jaylers and fetters halters and gibbets axes and scaffolds fire and faggots we will either finde or force obedience Abundans cautela non nocet The more tyes the stronger Mens Lawes may bee snapped asunder more easily Secular lawes and power are but the materials the hemp or haire Religion is that which entwines and makes it strong Men may hope that mans lawes may balke Agag and the fattest of the people but Gods Lawes say Quicunque they punish universally True the lawes of men are strong but behold a greater force a twofold cable Gods word prevailes more strongly Where there is either religious devotion or any melancholy jealous fearfulnesse or suspicion by nature there is a more serious apprehension of Gods displeasure than mans Saint Paul a wise Teacher knew what he did when hee used the double two-edged argument Rom. 13.5 We must needs obey not only for feare of punishment but also for conscience sake Observe among the Romists if they can but untie the double knot of conscience they care the lesse for the single tie of corporall punishment Assure but Ravaillac that it
is lawfull to lay his bloudy hands upon the Lords Anoynted and then he will feare but little hot burning pincers or the pulling in pieces with wilde horses When those moles the the Gunpowder pioners following their blinde guides were conceited that it was not unlawfull to fire that house wherein said they bloody lawes were made against them they then cared neither for Tyburn nor beheading And that bloody Assasine who not many yeares since slew a great Peere no doubt but that his bloody mis-led mind thought it lawfull If Divines do but once file off the fetters of divine lawes men will as fast snap asunder mens lawes as Samson did his coards Iames Clement whom the Leaguers hired to kill Henry the third and Iohn Chastell who intended to kill Henry the fourth were both taught by the Jesuites that the King was not to be obeyed if not allowed by the Pope Goodwins Annales page 23 Insurrection or rebellion never proves loud or dangerous till it pretend Religion The first noyse is for the libertie or priviledges of the people that is but like the outworkes but when the soule is pretended that is like the maine fort They begin thus The free-born Communaltie is oppressed with a small number though the calamities of this present life may with a constant patience bee endured yet the soule is to be redeemed even with a thousand deaths new formes of Religion are obtruded the constant pretence of all discontented giddy people Thus we see that the cause of Religion or the tie of conscience doth move the wheeles of all actions most forcibly Though it ill becomes them it is usually in the mouth of all seditious rebels and then in nomine Domini they are most violent The holy league and holy pilgrimes and the brethren are usually the nicknames of rebels Let it not then bee tedious for them who have their Patents sealed at Westminster to heare that they are also sealed with a teste meipso in Heaven The tye of conscience looking at Gods ordinance doth helpe to guard Authoritie as well as the Sheriffe with the posse Comitatûs Seeing then you please to usher Preface and auspicate your waightie affaires with prayers and prayses here in this sacred House after the example of all good Christians holy men in the old Testament Yea and the devout Heathen also who did usually begin à Deo Optimo Maximo So you come hither to do him service to acknowledge your dependance upon him As a labourer or workman comes to know his pleasure that sets him on worke so you here to be directed by Gods Word We of our Tribe can do no lesse but give you your due namely that your power stands not onely upon the supporters of mans policy but the strength of the divine Graunt Therefore as it is Psalme 45.4 Good lucke have you with your honour ride on with the word of truth and righteousnesse Your Commission is both from God and the King It is appointed that Who so sheds mans blood by man c. as may appeare by the meaning of the words which come now to bee opened unto us Herein is layd down the just power and authoritie of the sword not excluding Ecclesiasticall or Oeconomicall that of parents or masters but the publique temporall power is here more principally intended because it speaks of bloud-shed This verse is set like Bifrons Ianus or like Noah who had reference to both Worlds so this verse is a reason both of the former and latter verses 1. God is carefull to prevent the eating of blood verse the 4. that man should have no taste thereof and by that abstinence so much the more abhorre murther and crueltie The reason whoso sheds c. 2. It is a reason of the 7. verse Men may bee encouraged to bring forth fruit and multiply because God hath taken such a course for our safety and preservation by pinioning and swadling the hands of murtherers A man may plant set and sow in a garden with hope and chearefulnesse when it is well fenced hedged walled or empaled The fortification must bee answerable to the danger Murther began betimes even with Cain God bids bee fruitfull for hee hath taken a course with murtherers be they high or low rich or poore for it is said Quicunque generall and indefinite as Peter said Acts 10.34 I perceive there is no respect of persons with God as hee sends his raine to fall and his Sunne to shine so hee would have justice administerd impartially Musculus observes allegorically but it is som-what farfetched Of every Beast ordinary inferiour men that are kept under or of man that is bee hee noble learned wise or any wayes excellent Sheddeth mans blood that is mortally and wilfully And here observe 3. things 1. That any kinde of death is here forbidden as well as the effusion of blood bee it by poisoning strangling or otherwise A man may shed blood and not kill as Chirurgions and a man may kill and not shed blood as poysoners and stranglers 2. Phlebotomy is not here forbidden the opening or cutting of a veine which is not mortall but the taking away of life is here ment which lies in the blood as it is in the fourth verse The heart-blood is the shop or seat of life Hence it is said that though the braine be of greater dignity yet the heart is of greater necessity because it is the fountaine of life No shedding of blood though mortally is here meant if it be done by the Magistrate agreeably to the lawes of God and men no more than the plaintifs Iurers Executioners are guilty for it is said Rom. 13.4 The Magistrate beareth not the sword in vaine But private men upon private quarrells are here restrained 3. Observe that blood-shed is here put for it selfe and other sinnes for this power of the Magistrate is not restrained onely to murther and other causes capitall yea and to criminall but to civill also Else there would be no use of any Bench but that which is for life and death Here then other causes are to bee understood although denominatio fit à principaliori parte This maine offence is branded by name as being inconsistent with society So that this is a principall not the onely sinne for Magistrates to punish as usually the oath at large is given to the fore-man and all the rest are implied Although God be a patient God Rom. 15.5 yea the God of patience and when wee make bold to expresse him by borrowed speeches we say he hath leaden feet hee came sostly and convented Adam deliberately yet he will not suffer the murtherer to stay till the great Assizes at Doomes-day but hee must be punished here by his Lieutenant man This hatefull sinne is is named here we see for all the rest When Saint Paul had a Viper upon his hand Acts 28.4 the Barbarians cried No doubt this man is a murtherer They thought murder to be the non-such of sinnes