IMPRIMATUR Haec Concio in 1 Pet. 2. 15. Guil. Sill R. P. D. Henr. Episc. Lond. Ã Sacris Dom. Ian. 28. 1677 8. Pag. 1. the last line but one for earnestly read earnest A SERMON PREACHED Before the Right Honourable Sir FRANCIS CHAPLIN Lord Mayor OF LONDON AT GVILD-HALL Chapell November the 18th 1677. By WILLIAM BATTIE Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty LONDON Printed by E. Flesher for R. Royston Bookseller to His most Sacred MAJESTY at the Angel in Amen-Corner 1678. TO THE Right Reverend Father in God ANTHONY By Divine Providence LORD BISHOP Of the Diocese of NORWICH My LORD THis Sermon had never been more publick then the Preaching of it made it had it not been complained of and represented by some of the Governours of the City of London for a Sermon that deserved to be Censured as reflecting upon the Government of the City Your Lordship being my Diocesan I have here presented your Lordship with the whole of what was preached humbly submitting my self and my Sermon to your Lordship's Censure It may be suspected that I have suppressed in the printing something that was preached which I have not done something may be added but nothing is diminished so that if there be no Reflexions upon the Government of the City in my Sermon now there were none then My Discourse as my Text did direct me was wholly to the Governed Directions to Governours as Governours from me would have been presumptuous and therefore I used none There is one Expression indeed in my Sermon to this purpose That were Laws duly executed men durst not despise and affront the Government so as they doe which Expression if it reflect any thing it is Praise and Applause to the Government and the Laws we are governed by and onely wisheth that the Mean whereby Government attains its End were sometimes looked a little better after Reflexions either upon the Government or Governours I ever thought improper for the Pulpit Nay I have ever hated them from the time that Pulpits were turned by such doings into Drums to beat up for Sedition and Rebellion remembring what the dismal Consequences of them have been to this Church and State I am so unwilling to reflect upon any that I am not pleased that the Vindication I have made of my self by the printing of my Sermon will reflect as it will upon the Misrepresenters of it accusing them except my pressing Subjection to Governours be reflecting upon the Government of the breach of the Ninth Commandment But the Slander I had not at all weighed but that it reflects upon the Government my sly Accusers seem so tender of For the Government will be suspected to be in evil Circumstances if it shall be found inconvenient to press due Subjection unto Governours and men will be made to fear that we are in such Times again as we were in about the time of the Scotch Invasion when they who appeared for the Government by adhering to their lawfull Governours were accounted the Delinquents whilst others were accounted the best Subjects as it is observed by him that hath lately writ the Life of Archbishop Bramhall when their Swords were drawn against him who could onely grant them Commissions and their Scabbards thrown away My Lord my appealing to your Lordship is in a right line and my presenting your Lordship thus publickly with my Sermon for as much as I doe it in my own Defence it will I hope in part excuse the Defects of it of which I am so Conscious that the Requests I had of Friends had not prevailed with me to publish it if I had not had this Provocation For the thing that I believe gave Offence my declaring that the Execution of the Laws is the best Expedient to preserve them from Contempt my Opinion herein I shall never retract and your Lordship's Government from the time of your Lordship's Translation to the Diocese of Norwich hath very much confirmed me and others in it And the Experience the Clergy have that it is not Preaching and Writing will so preserve the Peace as the Governours interposing himself to see the Laws observed doth oblige the whole Body of the Clergy to desire heartily the long continuance of your Lordship's Government over us and particularly Your most obedient Servant William Battie A SERMON Preached before the Lord MAYOR Novemb. 18. 1677. 1 S. PETER II. 15. For so is the Will of God that with Well-doing ye may put to silence the Ignorance of Foolish men WE do not in any of the Apostles Epistles meet with any particular Addresses to the Magistrates of the Age they lived in yet the Duty of Subjection unto Magistrates is frequently enjoyned all Christians whatsoever Husbands and Wives Parents and Children Masters and Servants have all the special Duties of their several Callings taught them in the Apostles Writings but for Magistrates though their Office is no-where so vindicated as by the Apostles yet the Persons under Subjection are the persons onely who are taught their Duty which is Subjection A Duty our Apostle as also the Apostle S. Paul is very earnest in the pressing upon the Christians of that Age and the more earnestly as is thought for these two Reasons 1. To prevent the Danger the new-converted Gentiles might be in of being leavened with the old Leaven of the Iews viz. a perverse and froward Disposition unto Magistracy A Leaven that had so soured that Nation that in the vogue of the world they were accounted for no better then Pests of Nations and Enemies of Mankind because they were stubborn and stiff-necked to Authority as Moses long before had found them 2. Again the Apostles are thought to be the more earnest in the pressing of this Duty writing in the Reign of the Emperour Nero whose many monstrous Wickednesses and particular Malice against Christians were likely to endanger the ensnaring of them into Temptations to despise and oppose his Authority and that to the great Scandal of their Religion the Devil needing nothing more to nip the Christian Religion in the bud then to get it voiced in the world for a Licencer of Sedition and Rebellion in case the Supreme Governour be vicious For this allowed who is so short-sighted as not to foresee that in succeeding Ages the Heads of Factions have nothing more to doe to promote their Treasonous Designs but to get the Supreme Governour represented to the People for an Idolater or a Tyrant And if then by Arms or Money they can get him in their power if they cut him off it is but writing over his Statue Exit Tyrannus and all is salved Well the Apostles to let the World know the Gospel allows no Disobedience upon any such account do the more earnestly press Subjection to Authority at the time the Roman Empire had as wicked a Governour as ever before or since And in the Verses before my Text he calls for this Subjection to Authority of whatsoever Rank or Degree whether
or a Mind full if of any thing of mischievous sly intents And indeed even all the Mischief of evil Reports happens from such persons the Clamours of foolish persons generally doing no hurt till persons in repute for Wisedom and Worth begin to listen to them The Receiver here is as bad if not worse then the Thief When one officiously told Simonides how evil things men spoke of him he made him this Answer Et quando tu tandem desines me auribus calumniari And when wilt thou leave slandering me with thy Ears Most excellent and highly worthy our imitation was the way of Constantine the Great in this point who burnt the mutual Accusations of his Clergy telling the Complainants he wished his Cloak large enough to cover all their Faults Were all men of his humour the Devil's work of raising and spreading Slanders would go but slowly on in the world were there no Receivers there would be fewer Thieves Let such then as would go for understanding men and sober Christians put on the angry Countenance at the hearing of all slanderous Reports which as the North-wind drives away Rain repells the Calumnies of a Backbiting tongue Secondly We learn here what little Cause they have to be troubled who make Conscience to discharge the Duties of their several Callings conformably to the Laws of the Church and Kingdom they belong unto whether Subordinate Governours in the Church and State or such as be in Subjection onely if now and then they meet with some harsh Censures for so doing considering what it is they are to be imputed to the Ignorance of Foolish men Nemo patitur Praejudicium ab iis quibus non est Iudicium Can we suffer by their Opinion who have no Judgment Let no man's heart fail him then nor encline him to a poor pusillanimous Compliance with the Humours to avoid the Clamours of Foolish men Falsus honor juvat mendax infamia terret Quem nisi mendosum mendacem That of S. Ambrose is Encouragement enough against all their scornfull Censures Si fuerit Praejudicium in seculo non erit in judicio Dei The Prejudices of the World prejudice us nothing before God No Wind shakes the Earth but the Wind within it If we keep our Consciences calm and clear concerning our due Subjection to God's Law and Man's we need not fear the shaking by any Wind without us and what shaking happens a good Conscience will so recreate us therein that we shall not need at all to value it III. Now for the Third thing the Duty of those who are evil spoken of towards them who speak evil of them which is to silence them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 os occludere to shut the Mouths of evil speakers In 1 Cor. 9. 9. it is rendered muzzle Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the Ox that treadeth out the Corn. But now may some say Who is sufficient for this thing Is it not a kind of impossibility that is here put upon us Were foolish Men as tractable as Oxen the matter might be thought feasible But Solomon represents them for persons wholly untractable Though thou bray a Fool in a Mortar among Wheat with a Pestill yet will not his Foolishness depart from him In Answer Here we are to distinguish of Fools according to the Distinction we have of Ignorance There is Ignorantia purae privationis and Ignorantia pravae dispositionis an Ignorance of Weakness and an Ignorance of Wilfulness So there is the weak Fool and the wilfull Fool. Now the weak Fool is the reputed Fool but the wilfull Fool is the Fool the Fool that Solomon found would take no impressions None so blind as they that will not see Some are blind through Ignorance some through Interest in whom the God of this World to use the Apostle's words hath blinded their Eyes being preingaged by their Interests they will not judge sincerely of Things and Persons Malunt nescire as Tertullian in his Apology hath it quia jam oderunt Now to stop the mouths of such from speaking evil of us is a very hard task To stop the mouths of such from speaking evil of us who stop the mouths of their own Consciences whilst they speak evil of us is a work that never was nor will be done nor is it expected from us All that is required of us here as at all practicable by us is that with the Apostle we so demean our selves that we commend our selves to every man's Conscience in the sight of God and this is practicable to order our selves so that whereas wilfully Ignorant men speak evil of us as of evil-doers they may be ashamed and confounded at least in their Consciences when they accuse our good Conversation To put the case in their Compliance who are Magistrates or Ministers with the Commands of their Superiours Can we imagine that any in their Consciences do blame them for it especially when they shall consider that the Oath of God is upon them whereby they have solemnly bound themselves to the Obedience of those Commands No they doe it not and onely in a consciencious observing such Commands shall they stop the mouths of mens Consciences And if by not observing of them out of a poor pitifull cringing to be popular they study to stop mens mouths from hard words they shall therein open the mouths of their own Consciences and the Consciences of others justly to accuse them and they are onely weak Fools who will not account them for very Hypocrites and Dissemblers with God and the World But now for such whose Ignorance hath not this tang of Malice in it and who indeed know nothing of Things and Persons but as they have seen them at a distance and through the Prospective of other mens Prejudices and the Misrepresentations of their partial Guides it is possible by degrees to stop the mouths of such as the same Tertullian in his Apology Simul ac desinunt ignorare desinunt odisse The Cause being meer Ignorance as the Cause is taken away the Effect ceaseth and the silencing of them then is feasible And where it is but possible we are to endeavour it as the Apostle counsells In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if peradventure God will give them Repentance But now here the Question will be How must we doe it Suppose they accuse us for our good Conversation towards our Superiours our peaceable Subjection to their lawfull Commands what Expedient is there in this Case The Text tells us it is Well-doing We are never while we live to expect it in that way that some would have men to believe to be the Meekness and the Moderation the Apostle requires viz. by forbearing our selves the doing our several Duties conformably to the Commands of our Superiours and by the allowing the coaxing and applauding those who oppose themselves in their Prejudices and Misapprehensions For why this doth not remove the Cause of their
Prejudices their Ignorance and so is no more the way to cure them of their Prejudices then it is the Rider's way to make his Horse leave starting at the things he is afraid of by running him away from them which the Rider never doth but brings him nearer to them In like manner that they who speak evil of us may neither accuse us nor the things they are so apt to take offence at it must not be our way to humour them in their Shiness and Dislikes but in all the ways of Peace and Meekness to persuade them wishly to see into the inoffensiveness of the things and the little cause they have to startle at them and then which is the Expedient of the Text to set them an Example for their Duty in our own Well-doing which is the Fourth Particular IV. This is the way the Apostle prescribes a way so clearly the onely way to return wicked mens Reproaches to the best advantage to our selves that very Heathens have hit upon it Diogenes being asked by one how he might best revenge himself of an evil Tongue he makes this Reply Si teipsum quà m maximè Bonum Honestum virum praestiteris Thou wilt best acquit thy self of his Reproaches if in all things thou shalt behave thy self as becomes an Honest and an Upright man Now Well-doing is a very comprehensive word as the Psalmist saith of its Rule the Command of God it is exceeding broad and may be thought to put upon us the whole Duty of Man And indeed without walking so as the Grace of God teacheth us righteously godly and soberly in this evil World we do not come up to the Duty of Well-doing nor shall we silence Gainsayers especially such of us as through our Callings are more in the Eye of the World and who are sure though but Earthen Vessels to have fewest Grains of allowance given us But of Well-doing taken in this Latitude Well-doing in the Text onely means a Branch our walking righteously towards our Superiours For the Apostle having immediately before commanded them to submit themselves to every Ordinance of Man he here tells them that in so doing they would put to silence the Ignorance of Foolish men The thing plainly meant then is Submission to Authority according as he had directed them And calling this as he doth Well-doing it self we may well account it a considerable part of it and we may lawfully infer upon it that it is very much our Duty to give this Subjection to our Superiours And that it is so we have this farther in the Text to assure us of it That it is God's will we doe it which is the Fifth and last Particular in the Text. V. It is the Will of God we submit our selves to Authority And this I called the grand Motive of this Well-doing for it is that beyond which we are not to enquire for any other God's Will being as the onely Rule so the onely supreme Reason of our Obedience And upon the account of this Motive alone we are sufficiently assured that it is not left to our Wills as an Arbitrary thing and in our Choice whether we will doe it or no but that it is a matter of necessity as the Apostle S. Paul is most express in it Ye must needs be subject This is such a Motive that as there can be no higher assigned so there needs no other Onely we are in such an Age wherein for want of good Discipline Disputing hath turned Obeying out of Doors so that except God reveal his Will in the terrible way he did upon Mount Sinai we are not carefull to hearken to it especially if our Wills be crossed by it But as our Saviour hath told us long since We have Moses and the Prophets the ordinary way and other Revelation there will be none till God reveal himself from Heaven in flaming Fire taking Vengeance upon the Transgressours of his Will Let this then satisfie us to persuade us to Obedience that it is the Will of God and thus revealed to us But if this will not prevail with us let it serve for a farther Motive to consider that in the great Day when God will reveal himself in that terrible manner of which the Apostle tells us 2 Thess. 1. 8. it shall then go hardest with Despisers of Government as S. Peter tells us 2 Ep. 2.9 10. where he saith that chiefly Despisers of Government among others are reserved to the Day of Iudgment to be punished 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Simple Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Scripture is rendred to mind to savour to affect so that the Compound may well be rendred persons that do not mind that will not relish that do not affect Government 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used by S. Iude when in the same manner he denounceth Judgment in the eighth Verse of his Epistle against such persons which we render there Dominion but there we have another word for despise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word saith Beza signifies to depose or remove a thing out of its place But the same Persons are meant in both places and there is no more difference between S. Peter's Despisers and S. Iude's Deposers of Government then between brute Beasts to which S. Iude in the tenth Verse compares them when under restraint and when at liberty which then shake off the service they had no mind to before They who are S. Peter's Despisers no Relishers of Government will when it lies in their way as Experience hath shewn this Nation be S. Iude's Deposers Deposers of Government and Governours too but both shall be reserved unto Punishment chiefly such saith S. Peter and saith S. Iude to the Vengeance of eternal Fire And the case being thus with Despisers of Government it would be well done by Governours not to give them the least occasion for it This is according to S. Paul's advice to Timothy in stead of exhorting the People not to despise Timothy he advises Timothy not to let them doe it his meaning is that he would have Timothy so to behave himself in the House of God as not to give them the least occasion for it Well the Despisers of Government bringing that Mischief they do to the Societies they belong unto and heaping to themselves such Wrath against the Day of Wrath it is an Office of Mercy to them besides what it is to the Government in Governours to their power to restrain them which they may doe and I think are bound to doe as they would not partake in their Sin in looking after the Execution of the Laws For were Laws duly executed men durst as well eat Fire as affront Authority and play with Penal Statutes Witness how tame not long since England Ireland and Scotland too were made and kept by a small number of the Inhabitants without a Toleration of Popery or Prelacy Well if this will not
prevail with us to make us submit unto Authority that it is the Will of God we doe it Consider we within our selves of this other Motive How we shall be able if we will not doe his Will to endure his Wrath which we see Despisers of Authority have no hopes of escaping but upon these Presumptions that there is no Credit to be given to the Holy Scriptures no Life to come nor Day of Judgment to be hereafter The Duty of Subjection is thus enforced and there are but few who do not at least in words own it to be due to Magistrates but how far and wherein lies all the Controversy Some there be who are against the Magistrate's meddling at all in Matters Ecclesiastical Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesia was the Objection of Donatus an old Separatist What hath the Emperour to doe with Matters concerning the Church To which Objection the Reply Optatus made was then judged fully sufficient The Commonwealth is not in the Church but the Church is in the Commonwealth and consequently the Governour of the Common-wealth is Governour also of the Church But that which meets with greatest opposition at this day is this That the Magistrate should give Commands in things indifferent pertaining to the Worship of God But this men quarrel at without any colour of Reason for the same For these things are the peculiar Province as to Church-concernments wherein the Legislative and Executive Power of the Magistrate is exercised Things of Divine Institution do require our Submission by warrant from a Superiour and Paramount Injunction and cannot be accounted Humane Ordinances or Things indifferent But as to these other things we have sundry Ordinances in the Holy Scriptures Esther 9. 20. we find a religious Festival appointed by Mordecai without any Command from God for it And in the Book of the Maccabees we reade of another Festival instituted by Iudas Maccabaeus and the Iews which was afterwards approved of by Christ's presence at it And in the New Testament we find the Rulers of the Church imposing their Commands in things indifferent as they thought expedient for the present good of the Church The things indeed are called necessary but considering what some of these things were it is plain they were onely called so with relation to their End being at that time judged necessary though not in their Nature yet in their Use for the present quiet and composure of Differences in the Church And as soon as the black Cloud of Persecution was dispersed by Constantine the Great this Authority in matters Ecclesiastical was assumed by the Monarchs of the Christian World and very much to the Satisfaction of the Fathers of the Church in those times Felix est necessitas saith S. Augustin quae nos cogit ad meliora And thus he adviseth the Powers then in being Forìs inveniatur necessitas intus nascetur voluntas Let there be a Power without and there will be a Will within And what is very considerable here The Injunctions of Superiours in these things have never been disliked but by the Factions they have run cross to If Calvin's Opinion will weigh any thing with the Men who now oppose themselves and scruple in these matters we have it at large in his Epistle to the Duke of Somerset the Protectour in the days of Edward the VI. where he adviseth the Protectour in these words Statum esse Catechismum oportet statam Sacramentorum Administrationem publicámque Precum formulam There ought saith he to be a set Catechism a set Form for Administration of Sacraments and a set Form of publick Prayers from which it may not be lawfull for the Pastours of the Church to depart and vary as they please And that as he tells us for these Ends That the Ignorance of some may hereby be relieved the wanton Lightness of others in affecting and meditating Novelties restrained and then that the Agreement among your selves and with other Reformed Churches may be known to the World Which be all very good Ends and the bare mentioning of them is enough to satisfie any that Calvin did not think the Forms usefull onely for those Times and as things then stood as Separatists at this day persuade their Proselytes but for succeeding Ages also For in what Age may it not be necessary to have these good Ends looked after And in the same Epistle he tells the Protectour he understood there were two sorts of Seditious persons in this Kingdom then who have continued ever since and been as very Thorns in the side of the Government from that time to this as ever the Canaanites were to the Israelites The one sort he tells him were those who would by no means forgo the Superstitions of Rome the other sort he styles Cerebrosi and Phrenetici Brain-sick Phreneticks who under a pretence of Gospel-Liberty endeavoured the introducing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all Disorder and Confusion into the Church wherein to use his own words though something harsh excitantur à Satana nominatim they are prompted by the Devil himself that the World may take offence at the best Religion as the Fomenter of Rebellion in the State and Confusion in the Church This is his Censure and as severe is his Direction but it 's Calvin's Merentur quidem tum hi tum illi Gladio ultore coërceri Both these sorts of Seditious persons deserve to be restrained by the Sword which God hath put into thy Hand And Beza's Opinion is the same also in these matters What Laws the Magistrate makes in things indifferent for the sake of Order and Decency in the Church they are to be observed of all Godly men and they so far bind the Conscience that no Knowing and Understanding man can without Sin either doe what is forbidden or omit what is commanded And after the Copy of these great Men did the Presbyterians of the late Times write The bare Injunctions of Parliament were held Canonical in these Matters when time was They are the words of a known Tractate Licensed by Mr. Downham No man that is endowed with right Reason but will acknowledge there is a Necessity of a Government If of a Government then of Vniformity else it will be confused Therefore there is a Necessity of suppressing all Conventicles and that all men should observe such Order Time and Place and publick Gesture as the Parliament by the Advice of the Assembly shall appoint And no man that hath any use of Conscience in any thing but must acknowledge that he is to obey the Laws of the Land in which he lives in all indifferent Things or else he is Turbulent and deserves Censure even for matters concerning Worship Thus far that Authour who was not alone in the opinion in the late Times that the Supreme Power may give Command in these things Whence it appears That they who could not endure the Constitutions of their Superiours in these Matters could when they became Superiours themselves call