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A53752 A plain sermon preached to a country congregation in the beginning of the late rebellion in the west published for the instruction of country people in their duty to the King, and the refutation of some slanderous reports raised upon the preacher / by Vin. Owen. Owen, Vin. 1685 (1685) Wing O832A; ESTC R20886 19,128 36

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and the Powers that be are ordained of God And therefore if we be truly Christs Servants we shall be as truly the Kings Subjects and faithfully perform the Dutys of such because Christ hath so commanded us 2. By the Higher Powers you are not to understand any thing distinct from the Persons in Power but the Persons in Power themselves This is evident from the Context for the Higher Powers in the Text are no other then the Ruders in the 3d. vers which Rulers are called in the same verse the Powers Besides Power and Authority abstracted from the Persons in whom it is cannot be said to do what the Power or Powers are said to do viz. to commend or encourage aveng or punish Add to this that the Apostle having mentioned the Power vers the 3. and the Praise which they that do well have from it he adds immediately vers the 4th For he that must needs be the Person in Power is the Minister of God to thee for good and he bears not the Sword in vain c. Nor can we think this use of the word strange because 't is thus used more than once in the Holy Scriptures See Luke 12. vers 11. and Chapter 8. of this Epistle verse 38. when the Principality and Powers mentioned are certainly the the Princes and Men in Power which should permute Christs Disciples for their Faith and because 't is thus used frequently in Human Authors as might easily be shewed you if I did think it necessary And indeed Common Reason will teach us thus to interpret it for Power separated from the Person in whom it is is but a Chimera or figment of the Brain and serves to no purpose at all in the lives of men In Notion as we say they are distinct and may be considered assunder but indeed they are one and the same and cannot possibly be divided And therefore they that resist the Persons of them that are in Power resist their Power and Authority too The King of Syria that commanded his Captains to sight neither with small nor great 1 King ult v. 31. 2 Sam. 17.1 2. 1 Sam. 24.4 but against Ahab did bid them fight against the King of Israel And Achitophels Counsel was not only against David but against the King also And when David cut off the Skirts of Saul's Garment his heart told him that he had injured the King the Anointed of the Lord. To say that Ahab Saul or David could be touched wounded slain and their Power or Authority not violated is to speak superfine nice and to use the common phrase of of some men unscriptural Nonscence to mince and distinguish things into just nothing the Power and the Person in whom 't is Seated being inseparable And this I have noted for the Condemnation of those who were the Authors of that Distinction betwixt Power and Person as if one might fight against the one and not against the other And much more of those who could not only distinguish betwixt the Power and the Person but could Arm the Authority or Power against the Person that bare it For so in the late damnable Rebellion the Commons that raised it did pretend the Kings Authority to take Arms against Himself and though they took his Person Prisoner and cut off his Head yet they pretended that they did not design to hurt the King A most Hellish Device and beyond any of old Achitophels framed on purpose to overturn all setled Goverments and to bring Confusion and destruction upon all Human Society Against which our Laws have since very well provided requiring all persons admitted to Offices and Places of trust to abjure or renounce upon Oath the Trayterous position of taking Arms by the Kings Authority against his Person Indeed 't is hard to imagine that any rational People should ever entertain such a Trayterous Position the Authority which is for the safety of Subjects being manifestly much more for the safety of the Sovereign But what the Devil can do in the world by Gods permission and what power he has over men even wise men in wordly matters that love not the Truth in sincerity but hold it in unrighteousness is plain as in other things so in the prevalence of this senceless Doctrine in the late Times and by the backwardness of many to renounce it even in ours 3. When the Apostle saith that every Soul must be subject to the Higher Powers we must not understand it as if he meant that we must be subject to all the Powers that are in any part of the world and may take upon them to command us for what have we to do with the Powers of France or Spain or any other Countrey and what have they to do with us but we must understand it of our own Higher Powers i. e. of those whom God hath set over us and are his Ministers to us for our good Other Powers have their people and subjects and they and their Bounds are known They are concerned only to command their own Subjects and their Subjects are concerned to obey them only And let them see to the Practise of their Duty They have nothing to do with us nor we with them but as we have Powers or Governors of our own so we must be subject to them and them only If therefore any Foreign Prince or Potentate shall take upon him to command us we may we must slight his commands and resist his Forces if he uses any to compel us that we may discharge or Duty to our own King and Governor God has not commanded us to Serve several Masters of different interest and designs nay he has forbidden it in that he has set One over us and commanded us to be subject unto him And this is the more to be remembred by us because of the Popes claim what Power and Authority not only over us but over those Powers also which are set over us by Almighty God Believe the Pope and you must believe that we are his subjects and that the King is so likewise that he can depose him and give his Crown and Kingdom to another if he sees cause that he can loose the Bond of our Allegiance and empower us to fight against him and cast him out of his Throne This Power the Popes of Rome have claimed but as we are sure Christ never gave it them so we cannot own any such Power in them but we must be guilty of the breach of our Duty towards the King And against the owning of any such Power the Oath of Supremacy is a necessary and wise Caution 4. By the Higher Powers we must understand not only the Highest Power in the Kingdom i. e. the King but the Powers also that are subordinate to him and commissionated by him 'T is not said the Highest Power or Higher Power but the Higher Powers 'T is not to one only but to many that we must be subject but to those many not as Coordinate for