first King of Israel was rather a monster than a man after the spirit of God had forsaken him the evil spirit was come upon him m 1 Sam. â—6 14 There were not many sins against God Man or Nature wherein he transgressed not yet his excesse was punished neither by the Sacerdotall Synod nor the secular Senate Who can loy his hand on the Lords Annointed and be guiltlesse n 1 Sam. 16 9 The very Annointment was the cause of Sauls immunity from all humane coersion as Augustine affirmeth Quaero si non habebat Saul sacramenti sanctitatem Aug. contr lit Petil l. 2 c. 48. quid in eo David venerabatur If Saul had not the holinesse of the Sacrament I aske what it was that David reverenced in him he honoured Saul for the sacred and holy unction while he lived and revenged his death Yea he was troubled and trembled at the heart because he had cut off a lappe of Saules garment Loe Soul had no innocency and yet he had holinesse not of life but of unction So far Augustine Who questioned David for his murther and adultery who censured Salomon for his idolatry though their câ—â—nes were capitall by the Law of God After that Kingdome was divided all the Kings of Israel and most of the Kings of Iudah were notorious Idolaters yet during those Kingdomes which endured above 200 yeares no Priest did challenge no States-men did claime power from the highest to punish or depose their Princes And the Prophets perswaded all men to obey and endure those idolatrous Princes whose impiety they reproved with the losse of their lives Christ sled when the people would have made him a King a Joh. 6.15 He payed tribute for himselfe and Peter b Mat. 17.27 When the question was propounded concerning the Emperours Subsidy he concluded for Caesar c Mat. 22.21 And standing to receive the judgement of death before Pilate he acknowledged his power to be of God d Ioh. 19.15 This Saviour of Mankind whose actions should be our instruction did never attempt to change that Government or to displace those Governours which were directly repugnant to the scope of information that he aymed at Iohn Baptist did indeed reprove King Herod with a Non licet e Mar. 6 18 but he taught not the Souldiers to leave his service or by strife and impatience to wind themselvs out of the band of allegiance wherin the Law had left them and the Gospell found them f Luk. 3.14 The Apostle delivered unto the Church the Doctrine of obedience and patience which they had learned by the Precept and observed by the practise of our Lord Christ Peter commandeth obedience to all manner of men in Authority g 1 Pet. 2.15 Paul forbiddeth resistance against any power h Rom. 13.1 2 3.4 And S. Iude maketh it blasphemy to revile Government or to speake evill of Governours i Iude 8. If therefore an Angell from heaven preach otherwise than they have delivered let him be accursed k Gal. 1.8 The second Chapter prooveth the same by the Fathers of the first 300 yeares THe true Church which had the Spirit of understanding to discerne the voyce of Christ from the voyce of a stranger never taught never practised never used or approoved other weapons than salt teares and humble prayers against the Paganisme Heresie Apostacy and Tyranny of earthly Kings Iustinus Martyr Tertullian and Cyprian shall beare witnesse for 300 years wherein the Kings and Potentates of the earth bathed themselves in the bloud of innocents and prosessed enmity against Christ and his servants Ad inquisitionem vestram Christianos nos esse profitemur c. At your inquisition we professe our selvs to be Christians though we know death to be the guerdon of our profession saith Iustin Martyr to the Emperor Antonius did we expect an earthly kingdom Second apolog ad Ant. Imp. p. 113. we would deny our Religion that escaping death we might in time attain our expectation But we feare not persecution which have not our hope fixed on the things of this life because we are certainly perswaded that we must dye As for the preservation of publike peace we Christians yeeld to you O Emperor more help and assistance than other men For we teach that no evill doer no covetous man nor seditious that lyeth in wait for bloud can have accesse to God And that every man doth passe to life or death according to the merit of his deeds Thus far he We saith Tertullian to Scapula the Viceroy of Carthage are defamed Tertull. lib. au Scap. for seditious against the Imperiall Majesty Yet were the Christians never found to be Albinians Nigrians or Cassians Albinus Niger and Cassius were traytors against Marcus Antonius Commodus Pertinax and Severus the Emperors but they that sweare by the Emperors deity the very day before they that vowed offred sacrifice for the Emperor's health are found to be the Emperor's enemies A Christian is enemy to no man much lesse to the Emperor knowing that the Imperiall Majesty is ordained of God and therefore necessarily to be loved reverenced and honored whose prosperity together with the welfare of all the Roman Empire they desire so long as the world standeth We do therfore honour the Emperor in such sort as is lawfull for us and expedient for him we reverence him as a mortall man next unto God of whom he holdeth all his authority only subject to God and so we make him soveraigne our all in that we make him subject but to God alone So far Tertullian S. Cyprian sheweth many good reasons for the patience of the Saints in his book against Demetrianus God saih he is the revenger of his servants when they are annoyed Wherefore no Christian when he is apprehended doth resist or revenge himself against your unjust violence though the number of our people be very great The confidence we have that God will reward doth confirm our patience the guiltlesse give way to the guilty the innocent rest content with their undeserved punishment and tortures being certainly assured that the wrong done to us shall not be unrewarded The more injury we suffer the most just and grievous shall God's vengeance be on them that persecute us It is therfore cleare and manifest that the plagues which comed own from Gods indignation do not come through us poore persecured Christians but from him whom we serve for the wrong done unto us So far Cyprian As many as lived according to Christ's institution did never revile the government of Tyrants much lesse by force resist their violence following the patience of Christ who could by his own power the might of his Angels or the strength of his creatures have at the first withstood or at the last revenged the injury of the people Ioh 19.15 Iohn 8.22 Luk. 23.11 Mar. 15 15 Mat. â—7 27 28 29. the buffet of the Priests servant the
their City men women and children with the edge of the sword Did David for whom they were slain when he had Saul in his power take revenge or suffer his servants to do it when they were ready and offred themselves to slay Saul David b 2 Sam. 11.4.17 defiled Vrias his bed and caused him to be killed Did Absolon well to conspire against him that was both a murtherer and an adulterer Salomon c 2 Reg. 11.8 brought into the land many strange wives and as many different Religions into the Church Did the high Priest the Peeres the Prophets or the people offer to chastice or depose him Achab d 1 Reg. 21 8 9. suffered Jezabel to put Naboth to death and to kill the Lords Prophets Did Elias depose him intice his subjects to rebell against him or implore foraigne aide to destroy him Herod e Marke 6.27 Act. 12.24 beheaded John Baptist kill'd Iames imprisoned Peter and would have slain him also if he had not been delivered by an Angell Did Peter take vengeance on Herod which he might have done with a word as wel as on f Act 5.5 Ananias No he did leave him to the Lord whose iudgment insued in most g Acts 12.23 fearefull manner In a word wicked Princes have never been lawfully punished by Prelates Potentates or people of their Kingdome as the Papists and Puritans aver but must be reserved to the judgement of God as the Protestants affirme Gregory Nazianzen in this Oration at the funerall of S. Basil reporteth that the Emperor's Deputy in Pontus Basilius magnus commanded S. Basil to put out a widow that had taken sanctuary to save her selfe from forced marriage The Bishop not willing to violate the Ecclesiasticall Laws granted by the Imperial Majesty refused so to do The Governor call the Bishop before him threatned to whip him and to teare his flesh with iron books the people hearing that indignity offered to the Bishop fell to an uprore and would have slaine the Lieutenant Monodia Nazian inter opuscula Basil fol 95 had not that innocent man of God with much ado stayd that furious tumult delivered his persecutor from that perill to whose pleasure he did afterward submit himselfe The same Nazianzen for his admirable learning called the Divine writeth of Iulian the Apostata-Emperor's death Iulian was punished by the mercy of God thorough the teares of Christian men which teare were many and shed of many for that they had no other remedy against that persecutor Thus far Nazianzen This godly father lived under five Emperors Constantius Iulianus Valens 2 Oâ—at cont Iulian Valentianus and Theodosius in all which time he could finde no remedy against the Tyranny Heresy and Apostasy of Princes beside prayers and teares The Devill of Hell had not as yet hatched the distinctions of propriè and impropriè directé and indirectè simpliciter and secundum quid absolutè inordine ad spiritualia wherewith the Iesuites do fill the schooles with clamorous evasions the Church with erroneous superstition and many Christian states with tragicall sedition Lucifer Calaritanus in sundry books against Constantius useth many immodest and disloyall speeches but he perswaded not the Pope to depose him the state to punish him the people to rebell against him or forraine aide to suppresse him but threatened him with the dreadfull punishment of God He that in the servency of zeale durst call so cruell an Emperor Theef Church-robber Murtherer Beast Hangman Heretique Apostata Idolator the fore-runner of Antichrist and Antichrist himselfe would surely have encouraged the Pope the Peeres or the people to have removed that evil King and placed a better in his stead If there had been any such opinion in those daies as our moderne Iesuites and Puritans beare now the World in hand As this Father in his writings kept not the modesty of the other Fathers which lived in that age under Constantius so he did not continue in the unity of the Catholique Church Orat in obit sratris Satir. Lucifer saith Ambrose divided himself from our Communion though he were banished with us for our Religion When Ambrose was commanded to deliver up his Church in Millaine to Maxentius an Arrian Bishop he declared his resolution in a sermon to the people which were very sory for his departure Orat. Ambrosii adpopulum inter epist 32.33 Quid turbamini volens nunquam vos deseram Why are you troubled I will never willingly depart from you If I be compelled I have no way to resist I can sorrow I can weep I can sigh my teares are my weapons against Souldiers Armour Gothes such is the munition of a Priest by any other meanes than teares I neither ought nor can resist So far Ambrose Not disability but duty not want of strength and martial forces but a reverend regard of the Emperors Majesty commanded by the Law of God kept this blessed Ambrose from resisting For hé might easily have wrought the Churches liberty his own safety and the Arrians calamity by the overthrow of the Emperour through the force of the Garison in that City which refused to attend the Prince to any other Church than that wherein Ambrose was The stout and peremptory answer of the Captaines and Souldiers is thus reported by Ambrose in an Epistle to Mercellina a religious woman Si prodire vellet haberet copiam se praesto futuros Epist 35. The Emperor may go at his pleasure they would be ready to attend him if he would go to the Catholique Assemblies or otherwise they would keep on their way to that Congregation wherin Ambrose was Thus far the Souldiers They refused as you see to obey and preferred God's true Service before the Emperor's favour they reviled not his secred person they resisted not his Soveraign power but yeelded themselves to his mercy and pleasure Epist eadem to save their soules from Gods wrath and displeasure as we find in the same Epistle Vnum Iob miraturus ascenderam I went to Church to extoll the patience of Iob where I found every one of my hearts a Iacob worthy to be extolled In every one of you Iob is revived in each of you his patience and vertue shined what could be said better by Christian men than that which the Holy Ghost this day spake in you We beseech O Emperor we offer not to fight we feare not to dye we intreat your clemency Oh it was seemely for Christian Souldiers to desire the tranquility of Peace and Faith and to be constant in truth even unto death Thus far Ambrose S. Augustin relateth the same of the Christian Souldiers under Iulian the Apostata Emperor Iulianus extitit Imperator insidelis Iulian was an unbeleeving Emperor was he not an Apostata An Oppressor and an Idolater Christian Souldiers served that unbeleeving Emepror When they came to the cause of Christ they would acknowledge no Lord but him that was in Heaven when they were
scorn of Herod the judgment of Pilate and the violence of the souldiers He yeelded himselfe patiently to death to teach all his Disciples that an injury done by authority is patiently to be endured not forcibly to be repelled As soon also as Paul became a Christia his seditious and bloudy spirit which he had learned of the Pharisies was changed into a desire of peace and quietnesse He honored the heathen Magistrates as Agrippa Foelix and Lisias ratifying his doctrin by the practise of his life I know that Cardinall Alane Cardinall Bellarmin Ficlerus Simancha and other upholders of the Papall tyranny that Stephanus Iunius Franciscus Hottomanus Georgius Buchananus and other pillars of the Puritan anarchy do answer that the Church then as it were swathed in the bonds of weaknesse had not strength sufficient to make powerfull resistance But these Fathers that then lived do convince them and all other sectaries of falshood by making demonstration of the strength and potency of the godly Christians in case they would have put their forces to the strongest proofe Seeing that all publike places as Courts Camps Consistories Cities and countrey Villages were stored and furnished with men of that profession and quality as doth most evidently appeare by the words of Tertullian in his Apologetical defence of the Christians Vna nox pauculis faculis c. One night with a few firebrand would yeel us sufficient revenge if it were lawfull for us to requit evill for evill But God forbid that Christians should either revenge themselves with humane fire or be grieved to suffer that wherewith they are tried Were we disposed not to practise secret revenge but to professe open hostility should we want number of men or force of Armes Are the Moores or the Parthians or any one nation whatsoever more in number than we that are spread over all the World We are not of you and yet we have filled all the places and rooms which you have Your Cities Islands Castles Towns Assemblies your Tents Tribes and Wards yea the Imperiall Pallace Senate and seats of Iudgment For what war were not we able ready though we were fewer in number than you that go to our Martyrdom so willingly If it were not more lawfull in our Religion to be slaine than to slay We could without armour not by rebelling against you but by departing from you do you displeasure enough even with our separation For if so great a multitude as we are should break out from you in any other corner of the world the losse of so many citizens would shame and punish you You would feare to see your selves left solitary even amazed as among the dead You should then see silence and desolation every where You would have many more enemies than inhabitants Whereas now you have fewer enemies because of the multitude of your citizens that are almost all Christians Haec Tertullianus We see by these three witnesses that the Church of God in the first 300 years wanted neither number of men strength nor courage to resist persecution and to have established the Christian Faith if that course had been lawfull but because their Lord had given them no sword to strike withall they chose rathe to be crowned Martyrs for their Religion than to be punished as traytors for rebellion What number of men what strength of armes had the Church thinke you the next 300 years after it had been backed by Princes defended by Laws provoked by Honorable favors to professe Christianity Yet all that while the servants of God neither did nor would resist Apostasie Heresie or Tyranny but yeelded their lives with all submission though they wanted neither meanes nor multitude convenient for any wars as the next chapter by impregnable demostration shall shew The third Chapter prooveth by the Fathers of the second 300 years that the pleasure of Princes must be endured with patience when their decrees cannot be obeyed with a good Conscience THe next 300 yeares the Christians did as patiently endure Heresie Apostasie and Tyranny to the glorious tryall of their Faith and the eternall reward of their Patience Whereof wee have a cloud of witnesses namely Hosius Liberius Athanasius Hilarius Basilius Magnus Gregorius Nazianzenus Lucifer Calaritanus Cyrillus Alexandrinus Optatus Milevitanus Ambrosius Augustinus Chrysostomus Leo the first and Gregory the great Hosius was a famous Confessor in the Church before Constantine the great a worthy Bishop during that Emperor's raigne and after his death greatly esteemed of all good men yea even of Constantius the Arrian Emperor himselfe for his old age great experience excellent learning and good conversation When this worthy Prelate was commanded by the Emperour to subscribe to the condemnation of Athanasius he returned to the Imperiall Majesty this stout constant Christian and dutifull answer Ego confessionis munus imple vi primum cum persecutio moveretur ab avo tuo Maximiniano Obsequere scribe contra Athanasium qui enim contra illum scribit ille planeonobiscum c. I was then a confessor when your grandfather Maximinian persecuted the Church And if you do now raise persecution I am ready to endure any thing rather then bettray the truth and shed innocent bloud I do not like your manner of writing against Athanasius Cease from it be not of the Arrian opinion Give no eare to the Eastern Bishops beleeve me rather that for age might be your grandfather Leave off I beseech you and call to mind that you are a mortall man Feare that dreadfull day of Iudgment Enterpose not your selfe O Emperor into the Ecclesiasticall service neither command us in this kind to condemne the innocent but learn rather of us God hath entrusteed your Majesty with the Empire and committed unto us the service of the Church he that with an envious eye maligneth your Imperiall Soveraignty contradicteth the ordinance of God Hosius apud Athan. ad solitariam vitam agentes Take heed O Prince least drawing to your selfe the right of the Church you become guilty of grievous transgression It is written Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that appertaine to God it is therefore neither lawfull for us Priests to usurpe your Kingdome nor for you Princes to meddle with the sacred service and sacrifices of the Church Thus far Hosius You see the grounds that this good Bishop stood upon rather resolved to suffer any death or torture than by his consent to betray the truth or to condemne the guiltlesse He admonisheth freely and reprooveth sharply he offereth his life to the Prince's pleasure It was far from his meaning to revile the sacred Majesty or to stir up any rebellion against this Hereticall Emperor which infringed the Canons of the Church without all regard of truth or equity to serve the humors of the Arrians and to wrek his anger on them all which yeelded not to that Heresie Liberius a Bishop of Rome did neither excommunicate nor depose this