A SERMON Preached before the Artillery-Company OF LONDON AT St Mary-le-Bow DECEMBER 2 1684. And now Published at their desire By BENJAMIN CALAMY D. D. One of his Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary LONDON Printed for John Baker Printer to the Honourable Society at the Three Pigeons in St. Pauls Church-yard 1685. To the Right Honourable Sir William Prichard Knight and Alderman President of the Artillery-Company To the Right Honourable Sir James Smith LORD MAYOR VICE-PRESIDENT To the Right Worshipful Sir Matthew Andrews TREASURER As also to the Right Honourable Earl of Aran Earl of Huntingdon Earl of Salisbury Lord Cholmondeley To the Right Worshipful Sir Richard Temple Sir Peter Daniel Sir Samuel Dashwood Captain William Davies STEWARDS And to the whole Court of Assistants Field-Officers Captains and Gentlemen Professing and Exercising Arms in that Renowned and Honourable Society Right Honourable c. SO many excellent Books have been of late Written in defence of Loyalty and the Government in answer to those virulent and Seditious Pamphlets and Libels that have been Published amongst us that we might reasonably hope there should be hardly now left one disaffected Man in the Nation Yet it appears by those discontents that are still whisper'd that there is great need of an anniversary meeting of this Illustrious Society which not only by their Example doth encourage others to be Loyal but can also force those to be such who perhaps might have but little mind to it otherwise And notwithstanding all that hath been said or Printed for obedience to Lawful Authority there are many so slenderly converted and so ready on all occasions to Relapse that there cannot but be frequent use of some plain Discourses to shew the wickedness as well as mischievousness of all disloyal Principles To do this in some measure is the honest design of the following Sermon which is now humbly presented to your favourable acceptance By Right Honourable c. Your most humble and most obedient Servant Benjamin Calamy A SERMON Preached before the Artillery-Company St. MATTHEW XXVI 52. Then said Jesus unto him put up again thy Sword into his place for all they that take the Sword shall perish with the Sword I Can easily imagine some amongst you upon the first hearing of these words ready to tell me that this advice of our Lords is by no means suited or proper to this illustrious Assembly consisting of Men so long Trained up and so excellently skill'd in Martial exercises To bid those who so well know the use of the Sword to put it into its place and suffer it to rust in its Scabbard sounds like a dismission or disbanding of this renowned and honourable Society and an hard censure of your noble Profession as unlawful or Antichristian and infinitely dangerous too if all they that take the Sword shall perish by the Sword But if we better consider what our Saviour here saith we shall not find any thing in this Text against the use of the Sword upon a just and necessary occasion or when it is duely put into our hands by those who have from God the power of the Sword committed to them For he did not command his Disciples to fling it away as of no further use under the Gospel as if no other Sword was now necessary but that of the Spirit or as if all Christians were bound tamely to yield up themselves an easy prey to violent and injurious Men and in no case to repel unjust force by force No our blessed Lord but a little before viz. the very same Night in which he spake the words of my Text had advised his Disciples those of them who had no Swords to sell their Garments and buy one thereby allowing them to provide Arms sufficient for their defence against lawless Robbers and Cut-throats who were very common and numerous in those Countries through which they were to pass for the propagation of Christianity Our Saviour did never intend to ty all his Disciples hands and expose them naked to be Invaded and Assaulted by any one that had a mind to it To oppose force against unjust force is allow'd to every Man by the Law of Nature which natural right our Religion hath not cancel'd nor restrained provided always that we thus draw our Swords only against private Persons and not against those who have Warrant or Command of publick Authority to vouch their force against us and that it be in such cases of extremity where we cannot defend our selves by the regular course of calling in the Assistance of the Law or Magistrate Nay further in the very words of my Text our Saviour doth expresly allow the use of the Sword in the hands of the Supreme power or by Comission and Authority from it For when he saith they shall perish by the Sword he means by the Sword of the Magistrate which shall justly cut off such Offenders Thus from the words themselves we have sufficient evidence that our Saviour did not forbid the use of the Sword either in our own necessary defence or at the Command and direction of the Supreme Governours In which two cases only it was ever lawful for private Persons And in this matter the Laws of our Religion have made no alteration We may still defend our selves by the Sword from the unjust Assaults of private Persons when we have no other Remedy and the Soveraigns of every Nation and Kingdom have the same power over their Subjects persons fortunes and lives that they had before Christianity appeared in the World that they had from the beginning since Men first entered into Societies and lived under Government Our Saviour therefore in my Text forbids the use of the Sword only on that particular occasion or the like on which it was drawn by St. Peter which was this A great company of Souldiers and other Officers from the chief Priests and Pharisees with the Traitour Judas to conduct them were sent to Apprehend our Blessed Saviour in the Garden whither he had retired This the Disciples thought a fit opportunity to shew their courage and constancy to their Lord and Master by venturing their own Lives to rescue him from the mercyless hands of his bloody enemies They asked him therefore Lord shall we smite with the Sword and St. Peter who was naturally of a more hot temper and bolder spirit than the rest of the Apostles without tarrying for an Answer drew his Sword and struck at the chiefest and most busy of them some guess him to be the Man that Commanded the Party and had the Warrant to seize our Lord and he out off his ear But our Saviour liked not this rash and ungovernable zeal and therefore intreated those who had him in their power to suffer him but so long till by a Miraculous touch he healed the Wound and turning to St. Peter bad him put up his Sword again into his place For at present there was not the least just occasion for it as great an one as
last resolved on his Death And who could be safe in their Lives and Estates if such exemplary vertue and innocence could not protect our Blessed Saviour So that here their civil Liberties and Properties were highly concerned If our Governours prevail and by such manifest injustice take away this Mans Life the Lord knows who of us by such wicked Arts and subornation of witnesses and methods of violence shall go next This is such an instance of Arbitrariness and Tyranny as is not to be endured by a free people 3. It is further to be considered that not only their civil Liberties and Birthright but the true Religion was also in great danger This person in whose defence St. Peter drew his Sword was no other than the Son of God the Saviour of the World that great Prophet of whom Moses spake of old time and whom their whole Nation had so long expected That Divine Preacher of Righteousness whom God had sent into the World these last days to instruct mankind and discover his whole will to us and by it to conduct us to eternal Life Now this feizing of his Person was a downright rejecting the true Messiah a design to root out his holy Doctrine which his enemies doubted not but would dy with him Who would not stretch a little and venture something in so Sacred and so Glorious a Cause Did it become the Disciples to stand upon little niceties and punctilio's of duty when they were haling away the Son of God himself as the vilest Malafactor and all that was dear to them lay at stake or needed they to fear Gods displeasure for rescuing one so dear to him out of the hands of those wretched Miscreants who would treat him with all imaginable spite and cruelty Thus you see it was their Love only and concern for the best person the best Religion that inspirited St. Peter and the Disciples with courage and resolution to attack the Souldiers and Officers that came against their Master 4. The force that was opposed or the ressistance that was made was only against the inferiour and meanest Officers and Servants The Sword was drawn neither against Caesar himself nor any sent by him as Herod or Pilate nor yet against any of the Chief Priests and Elders of the Jews themselves but only against some of their ordinary Malignant Servants and Officers and that too at a time when but very little power remained to the Jews who could not judge in Capital Causes nor put any to Death by their own Authority St. Peter might have pleaded that he design'd no hurt or mischief to the persons of his Governours whom he acknowledged to be Sacred and Inviolable that he owned the Authority of the Chief Priests and Elders did not fight against them but for them against their unjust Ministers who came treacherously in the Night to surprize our Saviour that they might deliver him up to Pilate the Roman President and this without any Commission from him who had the chief Juridiction in Jewry In short St. Peter only resisted unjust and illegal Violence He thought himself under the strongest Obligations of Love and Gratitude to his Lord and Master to do it It was zeal for Christ inflamed him he could not endure to see the Son of God so basely used Yet notwithanding all these Circumstances which I have alledged in his favour he was severely reprehended by our Saviour for drawing his Sword the fact was condemned and those who should hereafter imitate him by taking the Sword in like cases Sentenced as worthy of Death 2. I proceed to enquire into the grounds and reasons upon which our Saviour blamed and condemned this Fact of St. Peter and we shall find these two 1. Because he had no competent Authority to draw his Sword 2. Because fighting in defence of our Saviour and his Religion was utterly inconsistent with his design and the Nature of his Kingdom 1. Because he had no competent Authority to justifie his drawing his Sword So saith our Saviour All they that take the Sword of their own heads who without leave or Commission usurp the right of the Magistrate shall suffer the punishment due by Law to Murderers who so sheddeth Mans Blood by Man shall his Blood be shed God Almighty is the sole Lord and Master of Life and Death No Man hath of himself power over his own Life much less over anothers and consequently cannot transfer any such power What is therefore called jus gladii or the power of the Sword must be put into the hands of the Soveraign by God alone whose Minister he is and not by the people who cannot give what they never had Who therefore Fights with the allowance or at the Command of the Supreme power fights by Gods Authority too by whose leave and appointment he takes away the Lives of the Kings enemies And to pretend to fight for God without any Authority from the King must either suppose a private direction and Commission from God which is all imposture or it makes every private person a Soveraign which is indeed to destroy the Nature both of Soveraign and Subject Our Blessed Saviour here pronounceth him worthy of Death who should draw his Sword either against or without a Lawful Authority though it be to secure the greatest innocence from the most unjust and illegal Persecution And can we then possibly desire a plainer or more express Text of Scripture against all resistance of Lawful Authority by force and violence than these words of our Lord. For if excepting the case of private defence in which the consent of the Supreme Power is supposed we are never to use the Sword but when we receive Authority to do it from the Publick Magistrate then to be sure it is never Lawful to use it against him unless we will imagine the King to Authorize Men and give them Commission to fight against himself as those in our late Rebellion did who pretended to fight against his Person by his Authority a conceit as absurd as Traiterous Now by this one precept of non-Resistance to the higher Powers our Saviour hath best secured the Rights of Princes the liberty of the Subject and the Peace of Societies 1. By this our Saviour hath secured the Rights of Soveraign Princes This being an essential part of the Soveraign power to be unaccountable and irresistable For that power which is to give account unto or may be resisted by any other power on Earth is not the Soveraign power of a Nation but it is subject to those who cannot controul it Thus if it were Lawful for the Body of the people in general or their representatives in any case to take up Arms and resist then is the King Soveraign only during pleasure and the people subject no longer than they shall think fit And it is truly said that He hath only an empty shadow of Power and Authority who is cloathed with the Robes of Majesty and is entrusted with the Scepter
in the World most infamous for their Cruelty Injustice and Oppression and yet these must not be resisted by Christians Nay if we consider the reason of the case it will appear as necessary that we should be forbidden to resist those who Rule Arbitrarily and unjustly as well as the best and most gracious Princes Since it is so easy a matter to cheat the common people into a bad opinion of their Governours who are always apt to suspect the worst of those above them And if it had been Lawful to have resisted Arbitrary Power every King good or bad would have been at the mercy of the people For what Prince can ever hope by the most equal Government and most mild administration to avoid the infamy of Tyranny and Arbitrary power when our present most Gracious Soveraign and his Father of ever blessed Memory could not do it This is the first reason why our Saviour on this occasion forbad St. Peter the use of the Sword not only because the time was now come wherein the Messiah was to suffer and dy but because St. Peter had no Authority for the drawing of it and it was against the Lawful powers All they that take the Sword shall perish with the Sword 2. There was another reason for which our Saviour condemned St. Peters using his Sword upon this occasion because fighting in defence of himself and his Religion was utterly inconsistent with his design and the Nature of his Kingdom Thus himself tells Pilate St. John 18.36 My Kingdom is not of this World If my Kingdom were of this World then would my Servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews but now is my Kingdom not from hence The Apostles were much mistaken when they thought to shew their zeal for their Master by setting upon and destroying of his enemies They had another warfare to be engaged in They were to glorify our Saviour by suffering all manner of evils chearfully and conrageously for his sake and this our Saviour taught them by this rebuke of St. Peter He himself came into the World a pattern of meekness and lowliness of the greatest humility and most unwearied patience and these were the Vertues that were to crown his Disciples and to recommend his Religion to Mankind He did not intend to send out his Apostles as so many Captains and Generals by force to subdue the World to his obedience but he sent them out as Sheep amongst Wolves exposed to all manner of evil treatment which they were bravely and generously to endure for the sake of their Master and his Religigion was to thrive and flourish by being Persecuted to get ground by being opposed and to be propagated by the passive valour and courage of Christians Force of Arms and the Sword were no likely means to beget in Men that Dovelike Childlike innocent and quiet meek and gentle Spirit which his Doctrine was designed to implant in all that were called after his Name Thus the posture of St. Peter confessing the name of Christ with his Arms and Legs stretched out upon the Cross at Rome was much more becoming an Apostle of the Crucificed Jesus than brandishing his Sword in his hand and fighting in defence of his Master And this way did the Primitive Christians and Martyrs shew their Love and constancy to their Saviour and his Religion by suffering gladly the spoiling of their Goods by rejoycing in the midst of scorching flames not by fighting for it or making it a pretence to Rebel Though they wanted not force nor numbers sufficient to have opposed their Heathen Emperours and shaken their Thrones yet they willingly submitted to the unjust Sentence of their Governours after the example of their Lord and Saviour and the Apologist for them boasts that none of them ever were found Guilty of Conspiracies against the Emperours their holy Discipline teaching them rather to be killed than to kill Thus Mauritius who Commanded the famous Thebaean Legion which being all Christians yielded themselves to Death under Maximianus told his fellow Souldiers how much afraid he was lest they being Armed should under pretence of defending their fellows have resisted the Emperour and hindered their Martyrdom When as he tells them this was forbidden by Christ who would have that Sword which the Apostle had drawn in his defence to be put up Here then my Brethren is the only case wherein Religion needs your valour or calls for your courage Not to be ashamed of it in a wicked Generation not to forsake it because of the Cross with which it may sometimes be attended to value pleasing God and your own Consciences above your Lives or all this World calls dear This is like true Souldiers of Jesus Christ this is to be like the great Captain of our Salvation and to follow him as our Leader and by this we shall gain admittance into his Heavenly Kingdom But to fight for the setting up of Christs Kingdom to Rebell that we may avoid suffering for our Religion or to take up Arms for the preservation of it was never heard of till the days of our New Reformers In truth all this noise about resisting for the preservation of our Religion is a meer cheat and nonsense No earthly power can reach it or hinder Men from being as Religious as they will or as God hath Commanded them It is only to save themselves from suffering for their Religion if the Supreme Magistrate should at any time Persecute the professors of it that raises all their intemperate zeal and heat and how agreeable that is with our Saviours Command of taking up his Cross I leave to every Man to judge If St. Peter might not draw his Sword to keep our Saviour from suffering much less may we to keep our selves from it I shall only here add one observation which I find made from this fact of St. Peters that is He who was so forward to draw his Sword in defence of his Master was the first that shamefully denied him and Swore and Curs'd that he never knew him The reason of which is guessed to be that he was afraid of being found out to have been the Person that smote the High Priests Servant and therefore would not own any Relation to our Saviour but however this be I find this very useful observation made upon it by an excellent Writer of our Church that thus it very often happens this is commonly the fate of such Men who are so ready to draw their Swords upon all occasions for Christ and his Religion and Gospel against their Superiours that they renounce their Saviour and all his Beligion before ever they lay down their Swords again Witness those Traitors that embrued their wicked hands in his late Majesties Blood What zeal for Religion did they first pretend what tenderness of Conscience what honesty and integrity did they make shew of and when they were enter'd and dipt in Rebellion what Barbarity what Villany did they stick at what