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A56751 The unlawfulness of stretching forth the hand to resist or murder princes with the principal cases about resistance, considered, in two sermons : the first preacht upon the last thirtieth of January, the other, upon the day of thanksgiving, for the deliverance of the King and kingdom from the late treasonable conspiracy / by William Payne ... Payne, William, 1650-1696. 1683 (1683) Wing P912; ESTC R22908 23,488 47

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be of no Religion at all Treason in Papists is like Original Sin to Mankind they all have it in their Natures though many of them may deny it or not know it and tho' it break not out in all to the same outward Extravagancies but in Protestants it is like the Italian Distemper it was first brought from another Country and is no way natural to our own tho' the Infection has been taken by too many who had an ill Temper prepared for it and others if they take not Care are liable to catch it by the Lewdness of Ambition Revenge or Discontent There is no Church in the World that I know of but the Romish which teaches Treason I wish I could say there were no Men but they who did so but if there be too many it cannot however with Justice be charg'd upon any Protestant Church who all disown it any more than Atheism or Polygamy can be charged to the Church of Rome because some of their Members have defended and beenguilty of those Crimes but where ever it is in Pope or Presbyter in Conclave or Classis in Jesuite or Fanatick 't is to be abhorred detested abominated by every good Christian and he that can think upon it without doing so and not let his Heart and his Tongue rise up against it may in time I doubt be brought to commit it Stretching out the hand to resist the Prince is most plainly unlawful as I showed you formerly from the Examples and the Principles of the Christian Religion from the Constitution of our own Government and from the consideration of the publick Good and Peace of the World and that to Murder or take away his Life is the most horrid guilt that can be I then understood that Phrase of Stretching out the hand in both those Senses and so it takes in both the Parts of this present Conspiracy and indeed though Monsters do not use to be alike yet this does so much resemble that other Treason in its main parts and in its manner of production that I could think of nothing fitter to shew the Villany of this and to antidote mens minds against the like for the future then by reviving the same thoughts in your minds and by proceeding further on the same Subject and especially in that Method which shall meet with those Objections which are brought against that Duty of Nonresistance those are chiefly some outlying Cases as they account them which come not into this general Duty but are Exemptions from it and these are they by which Men are generally drawn into Treason which is a Sin too ugly in its looks to tempt Men if it wore not a Vizard 'T is these Cases which by a Rebellious Witchcraft are cast like Mists before Mens eyes and so they are jugled and seduced into the saddest Treasons and Conspiracies though a great many of them are like the Proposals of Mathematicians to move the Earth if you grant them such and such Postulala and allow things to be so ordered as they would suppose which can never be really done and the Earth is in no danger to be moved for all their Demonstrations yet these Men do really move the Kingdom and turn it out of its place by fancied and Romantick Cases which it is impossible perhaps should ever come into practice But I intend to consider such Cases as are thought more probable and plausible and which are the common Stumbling-blocks that lie in the way of this Duty and cause a great many as they did our present Conspirators to fall into that Treasonable Gulph which wholly swallows them up if they come too near the brink of it They are these four The Case of Religion The Case of Legal Rights The Case of Natural Defence and the otherwise Remediless Case of Mankind by the Encroachment of Princes 1. The Case of Religion which is the greatest and most important Concern to Mankind wherein their Souls and their Eternal Fortunes lie all at stake and both they and their Posterity may loose what is more valuable then their Lives or Estates if they stand not up sometimes and fight for their God and their Altars which were Considerations that always inspired Men with the greatest Courage and Resolution If a Prince shall set up a false and Idolatrous Religion and attempt to destroy the true Worship of God here they think both a Zeal for him and Religion and a Care of their own and their Posterities Salvation calls loudly upon them to resist him to the utmost and with the noble Maccabees to shed the last drop of their Blood for their Religion and their Temple If the Protestant Religion be like to be overthrown and Popery to be brought in this is such an allarum to those who love the one and hate the other as will not fail to bring in vast numbers forcibly to Resist that Prince who shall ever attempt it and think it their duty so to do To which I shall give this general Answer That we may show our Zeal and our Love to our Religion a better way then by thus Resisting and Fighting for it for that is to do what our Religion expresly forbids which can no way consist with that love we should have for it They who are such Gallants for their Religion as immediately to draw and fight for it do commonly abuse and prostitute it to some ill and Carnal ends and are seldom such chaste and constant and pure Lovers of it as they pretend Our Saviour and his Apostles had without doubt as much love for Christianity and were as zealous to preserve and maintain it as we can be but yet never thought fit to show it this way by Resisting the Authority that then was though it did all it could to destroy it There is another and a much better way to demonstrate the highest Affection for our Religion and that is by suffering for it and enduring all manner of Evils rather then forsaking it and this is a likelier Method to preserve and propagate it and to transmit it down to Posterity both with safety and credit By this very way Christianity has come down to us in a Channel of blood indeed but that drawn from its own Friends and Professors who laid down their Lives for it but not the least drop from its Enemies The Maccabees were zealous indeed for their Law and fought for it but not against their own Lawful Prince but an Enemy that invaded them for such was Antiochus who used all manner of provoking Impiety and barbarous Cruelty against the Jews who were not his rightful Subjects and might therefore rescue themselves from his Oppression and unjust Usurpation At other times when any of the Jewish Kings set up Idolatry and Worshipt Baal or other False Gods none of the Prophets who were the mo●st zealous Lovers of their Law and rebuked the Princes for those Faults to their very Faces did yet ever call upon the Elders or encourage the People