Selected quad for the lemma: power_n
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A52041
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A letter of spirituall advice written to Mr. Stephen Marshall in his sicknesse by one of his brethren in the clergy, Mart. I, M DC XLIII.
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One of his brethren in the clergy.; Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655.
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1643
(1643)
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Wing M760; ESTC R26802
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14,741
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22
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ought not so to have interessed your selfe in them 1. The parties oppos'd and in collision against one another in this warre are on the one side the Kings Majesty assisted by the most considerable part of the Nobility and Gentry and Commons and all the Clergy that are indeed the true English Protestant Clergy and on the other side No King nor so much as an usurping pretended King but onely Subjects or such as ought to be such and have often sworne they will be such and among them the only forward persons are Sectaries such as abhorre the established Doctrine and Discipline of our Church as appeares in that wheresoever almost that Army comes there is all the violence and despight imaginable exercised against the Leiturgy and Ceremonies of the Church and persons of Church-men witnesse Canterbury Worcester Winchester Salisbury and the other day Lambeth And herein I accuse you first or rather I desire you that you would permit your owne thoughts to accuse you I doe not yet say to condemne you but accuse you that you have forgotten or wilfully transgressed the duty of a minister of the Gospell of Peace in being forward to kindle a warre of what nature or with what pretences soever Do you in the Gospell Master S. Marshall which is your Commission find any encouragements or which is more any command to foment Warre From whence are Warres in generall and fightings among you S. James will answer Come they not even {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} from your lusts which warre in your Members Christ our Master indeed sayes that he came to send fire and the sword upon the Earth shewing not what he intended or commanded but what through the wickednesse and malice of Satan and prophane men would be a consequent of the preaching of the Gospell even that Gospell which is not withstanding the Gospell of meekenesse and patience and charity viz that the enemies thereof would expresse all possible fury and rage against it For that fire as appeares in the text is the Baptisme of persecutions wherewith Christ himselfe and his followers were to be baptized a warre wherein he and they were to be patients only and not agents he came not to put the sword into the hands but into the bowels of his owne servants You stand therefore accused for being active your selfe and encouraging other Christians to be active and invaders in this warre for being a most unchristian Baptizer of Christians with this fire But secondly the accusation against you for being a fomenter of warre in Subjects against their lawfull Prince acknowledged for such both by you and them is farre more heavy and pressing I know you have pretty distinctions whereby you can gaine applause of your hearers by dividing the King from Charles Stuart and defending the one by murthering the other but remember now it is God your own conscience before whom I accuse you who will prove Judges too cunning for such distinctions For Gods sake therefore lay your hand upon your heart and aske your owne soule what pretence or excuse can be found for this in any law either of the Kingdome of England or Heaven Is there any one word either in the Common or Statute Law which allowes an English Subject with Armes in hand to resist the King in person Is he not indeed and as you have often sworne to acknowledge him the supreame Monarch in his dominions does not all exercise of coercion and power from all Courts issue by his writ Have not all subordinate Magistrates their power from him and therefore are they not with respect to him meere private persons Do the two Houses of Parliament themselves in all their addresses petitions c. unto His Majesty assume any other title unto themselves both severally and joyntly but onely your Majesties most humble and faithfull Subjects These things being so you knowing them to be so I beseech you next search diligently the Gospell find but one clause where you are allowed or where the least suspicion may be given you that you may hope that you may in any case be allowed to dispence with this your duty to His Majesty and I will confesse that you and your friends only have shewed your selves good Subjects and good Christians and that all we who pray for him and wish him victory in this warre are Traitors to him and Apostates from Christianity But no such thing appearing as you too well know for I wish for your owne sake that it were but ignorance that has made you so zealous in the cause as you have been how can you read or but think upon the beginning of the 13 Chap. to the Rom. without horrour and secret wishes that S. Paul had had no inke to write words that will prove so fatall against you Is that Chapter Master Marshall a part of that Covenant by which you must be judged at the last day And can you hope to appeare with any confidence when that Chapter shall be charg'd upon you Consider Sir from whom has the King His power is it not from God Does not S. Paul say expressely he is the Minister of God His Vice-gerent to exercise some Acts which not the consent of all the men in the world have right to invest him with For he beares the sword that is the power of life and death Has any man power over his owne life to relinquish it at his pleasure And it being sure he hath not can he communicate to another the disposition of his owne life over which no man but God only or they to whom God delegates his power have Authority no certainly Master Marshall There is no power at least no such power but of God the powers that are are ordained of God Insomuch that you will not find any example of Capitall punishments in the world exercised by any till God gave that power to man which to my understanding he first gave and then only in the case of murder to Noah Gen 9. 4 5 6. so that before it was under a dire punishment forbidden to kill even that murderous wretch Cain himselfe The people then though they choose the person of their King which questionlesse they did by direction from God at the first yet not they but God only gives him this supereminent power over life and death with regard whereto doubtlesse he call's Kings and all supreame Governours especially Elohim and saith By me Kings raigne whosoever therefore saith S. Paul resisteth resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation These will prove sad words Master Marshall to a dying man that is guilty he hath in so high a nature resisted and taught others to do so too Especially considering that these precepts of obedience were by S. Paul given to us Christians at a time when the world was governed by such prodigious Tyrants as no History mentions the like either before or after them as if God intended
thereby to cut off all imaginable pretences of disobedience for ever Had not the Jewes as great Civill Priviledges as wee granted by God himselfe had not they a command not to set a stranger over them yet when a stranger had violently usurped this power does not Christ command us to give to Caesar that tribute a signe and acknowledgment of that Authority which was Caesar's Then can zeale for Religion dispense with you thinke you Did Saint Paul say yee must needs be Subject not onely for wrath but Conscience sake and whosoever resisteth receiveth to himselfe Damnation and were not the persons against whom resistance was thus strictly forbidden Caligula or Claudius or Nero's Persons that abhorr'd and as farre as the whole power of mankind could prevaile endeavoured to destroy Christianity it selfe And can setling a new discipline or rooting out some speculative errours allow you to resist a good Christian Protestant Prince So true a Protestant according to the established Religion of England that I am perswaded he hath scarce one Subject more hearty and zealous and constant in it and more ready to sacrifice his life for it then himselfe But you have beene taught of late and have taught others to say that His Majesty is bound by promise and oath to such and such things and with these promises received his Crowne which is forfeited when these promises are broken Do you indeed thinke Sir that any of your Masters beleeve themselves when they make such objections was not His Majesty a King invested with his full power before he made these promises at his Coronation or does he tell you that he quits and releases unto you your allegeance when he failes in any of these promises He will be answerable to God for injustice and perjury if he breake his promises and that will be punishment sufficient without your endeavours to dethrone him and take away his life The King of England all the world knowes is not a Duke of Brabant or King of Arragon that receives his Crowne conditionally with power of revocation when the conditions are broken You know this well enough Sir and therefore I advise you to prepare an answer for Saint Paul The other ground whereon the Articles of your accusation shall be lai'd does respect the causes or pretences of this horrible un-Christian warre which are either Civill viz. vindication of the Liberties of the Subject and Priviledges of Parliament c. or Spirituall namely the purging of Innovations in the Church and setling the Protestant Religion of this Kingdome in the purity thereof It may be you will reckon among Spirituall grounds the dividing all the revenues of Churchmen amongst I know not yet whom For the first If it did appeare that His Majesty not onely had in times past but for the future did resolve to entrench in the highest degree upon both these notwithstanding trienniall Parliaments yet let me speaking to you as to a Clergy-man from a Clergy-man aske you whether the Gospell doth warrant us the ministers thereof to incite and provoke Subjects to warre and bloudshed for any worldly causes whatsoever For consider Master Marshall are Christian Subjects bound in Conscience not to suffer the effects of Tyranny Cannot they be saved under an oppressing cruell Governour Is the patitient suffering ones selfe to be defrauded and injured by a lawfull Ruler become a sinne Truly Sir I am so farre from thinking so that I cannot find in mine heart to preach against those patient Citizens in London who without resistance suffer themselves to be plundered by these who certainely were not borne their Princes to whom they never tooke any oathes of allegiance neither can I condemne that man as out of the Gospell who would rather deliver his purse unto a theife then endanger the wretches life by resisting him and fighting for it This therefore being so that it may consist with a good conscience to be wronged and if it were not so S. Paul would never have said why do ye not rather take wrong why do ye not rather suffer your selves to be defrauded viz. then goe to law c. I wonder what Text you could make use of to bring this within a Sermon-businesse to perswade Subjects rather then suffer such things to endanger their own lives and the life of their anoynted King yea and the soules of both too though he had beene a Tyrant This was certainly a great fault in you Sir and your party Though there had beene not only rationall suspicions but apparent proofes that oppression and Slavery were threatned to this Nation You might have found Textes in the Gospell wherein in such cases mention was made and advises given for the practice of certain Christian vertues called meekenesse and patience and praying for enemies and resignation of our selves to Gods good providence and acknowledging that our sinnes have deserved that for them God should deliver us over into the hands of Tyrannicall Governours These Textes which every where offer themselves you should have studied and these vertues you should have commended to your hearers as seasonable on such occasions which I pray you not to interpret to be boasting If I tell you that such is my practice in these dayes wherein there is so great occasions given for the exercise of such Christian vertues and given by persons in whose innocence and Justice you do much confide and not resisting and rising up in Armes against them and revenging our selves of our sufferings upon the persons and rights of those whom we were borne to live under and to whom we had taken so many Oathes of Duty and Loyalty For mine owne part I assure you Sir if it should please God that you and your masters should in the end Legally become our Governours either in Civill or ecclesiasticall matters be as rigorous and austere as you please I do promise you in the presence of God who knowes me though you do not and will punish me if I lye that I will never exhort any man to revenge and opposition against you never will I sollicit petitions to threaten you nor tumults to advise you If you should command me to do things unlawfull or enjoyne me to subscribe to doctrines which I thinke erroneous I will not do those things nor professe such doctrines but however I will never resist you but either by flying from you or suffering as meekly as I can the punishment and penalties that you shall inflict on me and I do here engage my selfe to procure you as many fellow-patients as possibly I can these things I take leave to tell you upon supposition that all pretended miseries were indeed apparently comming on us and inevitable but onely by these to my understanding unlawfull meanes But now Sir since no such thing appeares probable or almost possible to any man that hath in him left one grain of Christian charitie since whatsoever former pressures we groaned under as Ship-money and Monopolies are not onely so absolutely taken