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A33249
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A second defense of the present government under K. William and Q. Mary delivered in a sermon preached October the 6th 1689 at St. Swithin's in Worcester ... by R. Claridge.
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Claridge, Richard, 1649-1723.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing C4435; ESTC R37670
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18,377
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36
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censured by Aristotle as Tyrannical and not to be endured in a Free-born Nation It has also been the almost constant practice of our noble Progenitors to assert their Rights and account with their Kings for subverting the Legislature and were never Condemn'd by any but the Asserters of a Compleat Imperial and Independent Sovereign 3. Their Third Assertion is That the King is irresistable and unopposeable In Answering of this I would by no means be thought to open a Gap to Rebellion and expose Crowned Heads to the Danger of Mutinies and Insurrections no I would have the King have all the Security that either the Law or the Hearts and Hands of his Subjects can give him for Government and Subjection are the Ordinances of God and as by him Kings reign and Princes decree Justice so ought the People to Obey not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake Yet there are many Cases as the Learned Grotius shews wherein Resistance is Lawfull As when a King Abdicates the Government or Alienates the Kingdom or makes War upon his People or invades their Property and if we go to Scripture we shall meet with divers Examples of Resistance and all uncondemn'd Thus the People rescued Jonathan from the Sword of Saul who had sworn to put him to Death For the People said unto Saul shall Jonathan dye who hath wrought this great Salvation in Israel God forbid as the Lord liveth there shall not one hair of his Head fall to the ground for he hath wrought with God this day So the People rescued Jonathan that he dyed not And David's Question Will the Men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hands of Saul implys he would have defended that Place against him if he could have been sure of the Inhabitants Was the Doctrine of Non-resistance practised by Elijah when he destroyed Two Captains and their Companies with Fire from Heaven which King Ahaziah sent with Orders to bring him to him the manner indeed was extraordinary by Miracle but the Matter the destroying the King's Messengers was as much done by his voluntary Resistance and the same as if the Sword had cut them off Nor understood Azariah and the Fourscore valiant Priests that were with him the modern Notion of Passive Obedience for when Vzziah the King went into the Temple to burn Incense 't is said they withstood him and bid him go out of the Temple and when he refused they were so ignorant of Vzziah's being irresistable that they thrust him out thence Nor doth the Gospel destroy the great Principle of Self-Preservation but support and encourage it those Places that enjoin Obedience to the Higher Powers condemn not Self-Defence from impending Ruine Whilst Christianity was under Heathen Governours and all the Laws of the Empire were against it Christians were obliged to the Duties of Non-resistance but since all the Laws are made in Favour of our Religion we may lawfully maintain it against Arbitrary Oppressions and Illegal Violence 4. Whereas they say the Old Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy are indissoluble it is Answered they were Protestant Oaths and ought not to be expounded to the prejudice of the Protestant Religion When therefore a Prince shall go about to subvert the Protestant Religion which those Oaths were design'd to preserve both the Matter it self and formal Reason of the Obligation are taken away and the Oaths cease to be of Force The Coronation-Oath is made a meer Complement when they tell us it imports only a Moral Obligation a mutual Stipulation is a tie upon both parties and one would think the Prince's Oath should as much bind him to govern according to Law as the Oaths of the People determine their subjection to the Government In all Contracts each party is conditionally oblig'd and we are bound to him on condition he be true to us If then one party shall remain bound when the other hath broken his Faith Covenants are insignificant and yield no security at all If Kings could derive their Pedigrees in a Right Line from Adam or produce a personal Commission from Heaven the foremention'd Assertions might have some pretence which now have none 2. We may be cautioned from hence that seeing God is for us not to prove Rebells and by our Sins fight against him The extraordinary things he hath done for us as they should never be forgot so the sense of his present Protection should engage us to Obedience The Israelites were brought out of Aegypt through a Wilderness into Canaan by a Mighty Hand and stretched out Arm Psal 105. 45. but it was for this end That they might observe God's Statutes keep his Laws Joh. 5. 14. And our Saviour made the impotent Man whole with an express Charge to sin no more A serious Thought of what Mercies we have undeservedly received and what we may in all likelihood expect should be a double enforcement to Renovation of Life The Riches of God's Goodness should not harden our Hearts but lead us to Repentance Do we enjoy the Free Exercise of our Religion whereof our Sins might have deprived us Remember it is our duty to walk worthy of it and to Adorn it by an Holy Conversation Are our Properties secured to us beyond our Hopes Let us then be content every one with his own and not invade his Neighbours Are our Liberties and Immunities restored Let us enjoy them without an invidious look upon our Brethren and grudging at that Freedom which they as Fellow-Protestants ought to have in common with us Do the Blessings of Peace and Plenty flow in upon us from every quarter of our Island Let us not surfeit our selves with Fullness by making Provisions for the Flesh to fulfill the Lusts thereof Let us live in Christian Unity and Friendship in our respective Stations and use our Plenty with Thankfulness and Moderation with Acts of readiness to supply the Wants and Exigencies of the State and of Charity to relieve the necessities of the Poor By the one shewing our selves Loyal Subjects and by the other Compassionate Samaritans by both Good Christians Let us put on the Lord Jesus Christ and honour his Precepts by dutifully conforming to his Example Let us put on his Sobriety and Temperance his Chastity and Purity his Bowels and Mercy his Meekness and Patience in opposition to Riot and Drunkenness to Chambering and Wantonness to Strife and Envy to Wrath and Anger Let the same Mind be in us which was in him and for demonstration thereof let us Love as Brethren be Pitiful be Courteous no longer wrangling about the Accidents while we agree in the Substance of Divine Worship 'T is far more honourable for Christians to be led by God's Goodness than to be forc'd and driven by his severity The sinning away his Graces and Mercies to us does make them serve the more to incense his Justice The greater Obligations he lays upon us the heavier will be the Punishments of
is parallel to our case we may apply it to our selves and it does as truly belong to us as to whom it was made if we are under equal Circumstances and Qualifications For whether things present or things to come they all pertain to Believers because they are Christ's and Christ is God's 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. All our Title to the Promises depends upon our Covenant-Relation Now the Covenant consists of Mercies promised on God's part and Duties commanded on ours which are so inseparably connected that the latter must of necessity be done to give us any rational inducements to hope the former For God doth not fulfill his Promises in us only but by us too and those things which in regard of his Word are his Promises are also in regard of his Command our Duties 3. From the Examples of the Faithfull who all along proceed upon this Topick and have left their Experiences of God's Deliverances for Documents to us we may draw the like comfortable inferences that they did Thus when the Israelites were afraid of the Giants of the Land Moses encouraged them with this Argument Dread not neither be afraid of them the Lord your God which goeth before you he shall sight for you according to all that he did for you in Aegypt before your Eyes And in the Wilderness where thou hast seen how the Lord thy God bare thee as a man doth bear his Son in all the way that ye went until ye came into this Place Deut. 1. 29 30. 31. And again I commanded Joshua saith he at that time saying Thine eyes have seen all that the Lord your God hath done unto these two Kings So shall the Lord do unto all the Kingdoms whither thou passest ye shall not fear them for the Lord your God he shall sight for you Deut. 3. 21 22. So David argued when he was to fight Goliah The Lord that delivered me out of the Paw of the Lyon and out of the Paw of the Bear he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine 1 Sam. 17. 37. And so the Faithful in the Prophet Art not thou he that didst cut Rahab and wound the Dragon Art not thou he that didst dry the Sea the waters of the great deep that madest the depths of the Sea a way for the ransomed to pass over Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion and everlasting joy shall be upon their head Isa 51. 9 10 11. To these and the like Examples which are written for our Learning that we through comfort of the Scriptures might have hope we may subjoyn our own Experience of God's goodness whereof no Nation ever had more and which the Apostle saith worketh hope Rom. 5. 4. and learn from the Passages of God's Providence to Dr. Reynolds cod loc our selves or others to treasure them up that they may be for Rules and Precedents to us for after-times Let us then though we are too apt to doubtfulness and diffidence look forward with Faith and Confidence banishing all despairing and uncomfortable thoughts to those Halcion-days that are coming on And resting intirely on him who hath promised not to turn away from his People to do them good that he will Ordain in his own good time that long wished for Peace in Church and Common-wealth which seems to be a work reserv'd for the WORTHY PATRIOTS of this Age and unto which appears a general Inclination in Protestants of every denomination The uses of this Discourse may serve 1. For Reproof 2. For Caution and 3. For Encouragement 4. For Reproof and that of two sorts of Persons The Bigotted Papist and The Titulary Protestant 1. The Bigotted Papist who obstinately shuts his Eyes and will not see the wonderful Hand of God in our Deliverance who turns all into Ridicule and chooses rather to attribute his disappointments to Cross-Accidents Perfidious Souldiers a Poyson'd Nation mistaken Counsels and the like than to that Eternal Mercy Wisdom and Justice which deny'd success to him and gave it to us Who continues in the Communion of that Apostatical Church which God hath visibly cast off and forsaken for her spiritual Adulteries and other detestable Crimes Whereas he should endeavour by Humiliation Fasting and Prayer to come to a right understanding of God in his Judgments and his in them that they are the fruits of Sin and should lead him to Repentance and teach him Righteousness There is a twofold use of God's Judgments the one sensual and the other spiritual the first is that which hardned Impenitents make of them but the second is appropriate to the truly Faithful These hear the Rod and who hath appointed it Mic. 6. 9. but they draw Judiciary upon their wilful Obduration St. Augustin saith of Pharaoh Deus induravit per justum judicium Pharao per Liberum Arbitrium He hardned himself Voluntarily and God Judicially Exod 7. 13 10 1 20 27. For God is often said in Scripture to harden the Heart but he doth it not by infusing any Evil Qualities but sometimes by forsaking and not hindering the Sinner and sometimes by delivering him over to vile affections and a reprobate Mind Rom. 1. 26 28. This distinction is sound but the Blasphemy of Florinus and the Heresy of Pelagius must be carefully avoided It is one of the saddest Symptoms in the World when the Sinner is not softened under the mighty hand of God but Anvile-like grows harder under Blows and a most infallible sign that God will not desist but proceed in his Judgments against the Incorrigible because he will overcome when he judges and for that reason will judge till he overcomes If therefore the Papist will stop his Ears closeh is Eyes that he may neither hear with the one nor see with the other his Resolution is desperate and madness incureable and God will leave him to himself as he did Ephraim because he is joyned to Idols let him alone Hosea 4. 17. But as he is not Spiritually wrought upon so neither is he to any degree of Common Civility for he is so very ingrateful to those that give him his Life that were it in his Power he would requite their Clemency with a barbarous Assassination And this he gives us occasion to believe not only by his unquiet deportment and inveterate Rancour which expresses it self in Groundless Calumnies False Reports Seditious Libels Bitter Invectives and Perpetual Plotting against the Government But also by the avow'd Doctrines and Authentick Principles of his Church for having implicitly resign'd his Soul to the Paternal Conduct of those Holy Fathers the Priests and Jesuits our Sacramentally-sworn Enemies he is under a Filial Obligation to destroy us as oft as those Blessed Guides shall see it good for the Catholick-Cause 2. The Titulary Protestant falls next under Reproof and deserves to be reprehended as publickly as he privately attacks us 'T is true he pretends to be of our Communion but seeing