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
A Second Defence 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 Wherein is shewed What God hath done already for us by their Majesties Means in respect of our Civil and Religious Rights What present Supports he affords us under their Conduct The prospect we have of his future Care and Protection And the Invalidity of the Assertions of the REFVSERS of the New OATHS By R. CLARIDGE M. A. Rector of Peopleton in the County of WORCESTER London Printed for John Mountfort Bookseller in Worcester and sold by Richard Baldwin in the Old-Baily MDCLXXXIX Licensed Novem. 23. 1689. TO All that Cordially Love THE True Protestant Religion and Interest In the Parish of St. Swithin in WORCESTER Gentlemen I Presume to Entitle this Discourse to your Patronage not for any Correctness in it but because it was Well Meant and Preach'd among you And I do declare if any charge me with too much Keenness and Acrimony in my Reproofs that this is my Apology before God and the World I had no Intention to Expose but to Convince the Refusers of the New Oaths having no Pique or Quarrel at any Man's Person though I must be excus'd as to his Opinions and Actions I am fully satisfied in the Present Settlement and had no popular Applause or worldly Advantage in my Eye but the Justice of the Cause the discharge of my Conscience and sincere Affection to the true Protestant Religion and Interest I knew the Sores of my Country too well to bind them up with Lenitives when Lancing was more necessary St. Jude has told me that some must be saved with Fear pulling them out of the Fire and the Prophet was not to speak pleasing words but to Cry aloud spare not to lift up his Voice like a Trumpet and to shew the People their Transgressions and the House of Jacob their Sins When I considered the general Stupidity of the meaner sort the Indifferency and Luke-warmness of some of the better Rank and the Activeness and Intriegueing of the High-flown Monarchical Men I thought it not convenient to put Honey into the Sacrifice instead of Salt and to bring the smoothness and remisness of Eli when there was more need of the Zeal and Courage of Phinehas I am inform'd I shall meet with very severe Usage from some Men whose Names I purposely omit because we hope in due time they may see their Error and Retract Which is the hearty Prayer of Your most Affectionate Servant Richard Claridge THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE Present Government UNDER King William and Queen Mary c. ROM 8. 31. the latter part If GOD be for us who can be against us THOUGH God be the Soveraign Lord of All by Right of Creation Dominion and Providence in which Sense he is a God to the profest Enemies of his Truth as Jews Pagans Mahometans and Hereticks the Denyers of his Being not excepted they subsist and are maintained by his Bounty for he giveth them Life and breath and all things Acts 17. 25. and maketh his Sun to rise on the Evil and sendeth Rain on the Vnjust Mat. 5. 45. yet he is in a more special manner the God of the Faithful he is their God in Covenant and they his People Jer. 32. 38. To these he imparts his Graces and deals out his more than common Favours These are his Elect his Chosen out of the World A peculiar Treasure a Kingdom of Priests and an Holy Nation Exod. 19. 5 6. The School-men set forth their Relation to him in a three-fold Respect of his singular Care of them the Holy Service they perform to him and the great Reward where with he Crowns them And therefore with a little variation of the Words we may say to them as Moses did to Israel Happy-are ye O Believers Who is like unto ye O People saved by the Lord Deut. 33. 29. The eternal God is your Refuge and underneath are the everlasting Arms Deut. 33. 27. But though the Church be God's peculiar Favorite and under the watchful Eye of Heaven yet the Devil and his Instruments bear a mortal hatred to Her and render her Condition a perpetual Warfare upon Earth But her security being laid in the Divine Protection which still encompasseth Her with Favour as with a Shield Psal 5. 12. In vain are all Attempts and Designs of Her Enemies For If God be for us who can be against us I might consider these words with respect to the particular Cases of the Faithful and shew how God is with them by his Spirit Graces and Providence to Guide Assist and Protect them and how he secures them against the many Fears that arise from inward Corruptions and outward Assaults by strengthening their Faith against all that is formidable in the World and confirming their Hope in the Love of God in Christ Jesus from which nothing can separate them But having an intention to re-mind you of the signal Mercies vouchsaf'd this Nation no less shamefully abusted by some than unthankfully forgot or misapplied by others I shall handle them with relation to this Church and People And I. Give you the importance of this Phrase If God be for Vs II. Remember you wherein God hath manifested himself for Vs already III. Shew what Present Supports he affords Vs And IV. What prospect we have of his future Care and Protection of Vs I. Then this Phrase If God be for us imports two things God's Gracious Presence and His Particular Providence First by God's Gracious Presence with a Church or People I understand his being so with them as to set up and maintain Truth and Gospel his Worship and Ordinances amongst them and to gather to himself a willing and obedient People that desire to know him and his Law and to serve him with Reverence and Godly Fear and who diligently observe the Sacraments and Rites of his Institution against the apparent Encroachments made upon the Church by the Inventions and Traditions of Men For Humane Additions are not only Vncommanded but Forbidden in the Service of God and the Apostles Mat. 28. 20. and consequently the Church had the promise of God's Presence granted upon no other Terms but an exact Conformity to what he had Commanded There must be a Divine Warrant for our Faith and Practice let subtile Men devise what Distinctions and Evasions they can to reconcile the Scriptures and their Innovations or we cannot expect God's merciful Acceptance of our Services For to stamp any thing of but a Humane Original with a Divine Character and thrust it upon the Consciences of Men to bind unto Obedience is the advancing of our Own in Opposition to Christ's Supreme Authority who is the only Law-giver to his Church Secondly this Phrase If God be for us imports his Particular Providence over a People or Nation By which I mean his more immediate Concernment for them as when he visibly asserts their
Cause which he most commonly does by Instruments unthought of or perhaps despised by the Enemy but specially Commission'd by God to accomplish their Deliverance in the others overthrow Now the Providence of God may be considered either more largely which I call his general or in the former Restriction which may be termed his particular Providence To his general Providence are subject all things in the World the smallest and most inconsiderable in our Esteem are not excluded The very hairs of our head are all numbred Mat. 10. 29 30. and two Sparrows sold for a Farthing fall not on the ground without it They that have excepted Inferiour Matters from it as being in their Opinion derogatory to God's transcendent Majesty to stoop so low have instead of magnifying lessen'd his Royal Prerogative his Providence being as uncircumscrib'd as his Essence and Dominion It was therefore a gross Error in Aristotle to confine it to the Moon by shutting out all things below as Athenagoras Clemens Alexandrinus Epiphanius and Thedoret testifie but far more palpable in St. Hierom a Learned Father of the Church who in his Commentary upon Habak cap. 1. makes it an Absurdity Ad hoc Dei deducere Majestatem To bring down the Divine Greatness to such small things as the Flies Gnats and Fishes he there speaks of For we are not says he such foolish Flatterers of God to be injurious to our selves by granting to Irrational Creatures the same Providence with us When both Reason and Revelation teach us to believe the Universality of its Extent Reason informs us that God is the first Mover and the first Cause and therefore all inferiour Movers and secondary Agents must depend upon him and that no Creature is absolute and self-sufficient but would instantly dissubsist without his Concurrence The Scriptures ascribe even the most despicable things to him such as Frogs Lice Flys and Locusts Exod. 8. 10. cap. and bring within the Line of his Providence not only intellectual and sensitive Beings but Plants Meteors and all things Psal 147. 8 16. But of all sublunary Things Man made after the Image of God falls more expresly under his Care For as he made him a little lower than the Angels so he hath exalted him above the other Creatures and crown'd him with Glory and Honour Psal 8. 5. And if Man singly considered be so near unto him then much more Man in Society Bodies and Communities of Men. His Particular Providence is conversant about Good Men and especially about a People or Nation professing and practising his Holy and Eternal Truth for 't is not a bare and abstract Profession 't is not the Pomp and Splendour of our Devotions nor the crying out with those Jews in the Prophet The Temple of the Lord Jer. 7. 4. but plainness and sincerity of Heart and a truly vertuous Uniform Life that will entitle us to his Gracious Favour And for a People thus Evangelically qualified the Right Hand of the Lord bringeth mighty things to pass And as in Common Calamities the Good oft-times suffer with the Bad though with this difference the Good are better'd and refin'd thereby and the Bad become much worse so in Publick Mercies the Evil participate with the Righteous and are preserved for their Sakes Thus the Prayers of Moses prevailed for the Idolatrous Israelites Exod. 31. 7. to 15. and the Peoples requesting Samuel to pray to God for them that they died not 1 Sam. 12. 19. intimates their Safety lay in his Intercession And this shews though the Wicked are by far the major part what exceeding Love God hath for his People when his Mercy shall preserve the very Tares for the Wheat sake But now though the Wicked share with the Godly in Publick and National Mercies yet the uses are vastly different which they draw therefrom the Godly are excited to Humility Thankfulness and Obedience to closer Communion with God and warmer Resentments of his Love whereas the Wicked suck Poison out of his Goodness by unthankfully abusing it to Luxury Wantonness and taking occasion thereby to sin more confidently and securely I wish besides that other of murmuring and censuring grown too common among us the sin of prophane Ingratitude be not laid to our Charge For since our late Great Deliverance how few with the one Leper return Glory to God Luke 17. but how many with the other Nine forget him Nay do we not rather seem to have an Inclination to our former Slavery than any true Affection to our present Freedom as though to walk at large were less desireable than Chains and Confinement The old Romans were so foolishly superstitious as to build an Altar to a Feaver and so become Worshippers of their Diseafe and is not our Folly altogether as great to Idolize our Enemy and make inevitable Ruine our Sanctuary To put the Sword which we ought to keep for our Defence into an Adversary's Hand to protect us is as unpardonable a Weakness as to throw our selves into the Fire in hopes of being saved by a Miracle When God prescribes Means and secondary Helps we must obey his Order and implore his Blessing in the use of them Though God be pleased sometimes to Act extraordinarily not only without but contrary to means yet we must not leave the usual way of Providence and presently expect Wonders We know who hath said That man liveth not by bread alone but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God Mat. 4. 4. and yet that word is annex'd to Bread and not to Stones and 't is not Trusting but Mocking and Tempting of God to fast till Stones should be converted into Bread. Nothing is impossible to God but what implies Weakness or Contradiction he can as easily defeat our Enemies without Fleets and Armies as he smote Sennacherib's Camp and made them in one night all dead Corps 2 Kings 19 35. But as the Sword of Gideon was to go along with the Sword of the Lord as a Testimony of Obedience not an Addition of Strength Judg. 7. 18. and as David though he confess'd The Lord saveth not with Sword and Spear yet took a Sling and a Stone for his Weapon 1 Sam. 17. 47 49. So must we depend upon God in the use of his appointed Means not in Confidence of their Help but in Obedience to his Divine Order And thus trusting in him in a dutiful Subordination to his Providence we may be sure of his Gracious Protection Then will he be with us as he was with Moses and Joshua He will not fail us nor forsake us Josh 1. 5. And in this Confidence we may safely acquiesce if II. In the second place we consider wherein God hath manifested himself for us already and in what Particulars we have tasted of his Goodness As the Mariner after a long and difficult Voyage being at last safe come Home looks back with wonder at those Rocks and Shelves those Storms and Pyrats