to the King If we look upon them in their single persons which of them can pretend equality with or superiority to his Prince Who indeed but he that is as mad as the man in Bedlam that vainly imagins himself to be a King Or look upon them Representatively in the Church or in the Parliament in both they are subject to him first in the Church The Church as humbly and as expresly as she can acknowledgeth the King's Supremacy and her own subjection In her 37th Article she saith The King's Majesty hath the chief Power in his Realm of England and other his Dominions unto whom the chief Government of all Estates of this Realm whether they be Ecclesiastical or Civil in all Causes doth appertain and is not nor ought to be subject to any Foreign Jurisdiction To which she addeth Whereas we attribute to the King's Majesty the chief Government by which Titles we find the minds of some slanderous folks to be offended we give not to our Princes the ministering either of God's Word or of the Sacraments but that onely Prerogative which we see to have been given always to all Godly Princes in holy Scriptures by God himself that is that they should rule all Estates and degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil doers In the 3 part of her Homilie of Obedience she saith This is God's Ordinance God's Commandments and God's Holy Will that the whole Body of every Realm and all the Members and parts of the same shall be subject to their Head their King The like is said by her in the 5th part of her Homilie against Rebellion The holy Scriptures do teach most expresly that our Saviour Christ himself and his Apostles St. Paul St. Peter with others were unto the Magistrates and Higher Powers which Rul'd upon their being upon Earth both obedient themselves and did also diligently and earnestly exhort all other Christians to the like obedience unto their Princes and Governours whereby it is evident that men of the Clergy and Ecclesiastical Ministers as their Successours ought both themselves specially and before others to be obedient unto their Princes and also to exhort all others unto the same Our Saviour Christ likewise teaching by his Doctrine that his Kingdom was not of this World did by his example in fleeing from those that would have made him King confirm the same Expresly also forbidding his Apostles and by them the whole Clergy all Princely Dominion over People and Nations and he and his holy Apostles likewise namely Peter and Paul did forbid unto all Ecclesiastical Ministers Dominion over the Church of Christ See Can. 36. So in her 55th Canon she requires her Preachers before their Sermons to pray for the King 's Most Excellent Majesty as Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governour within this Realm and all other his Dominions and Countries over all persons in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil And as this Supremacy is now acknowledged See Fulwood's Roma Ruit c. 9. so it has been granted by the Church of England to her King ever since she was a Church except for those small spaces of time that the Pope usurp'd it after the Norman Conquest But in Henry VIII Reign it was fully resum'd and with the concurrence of all the Estates in Parliament resettled in the King And upon this principle our Reformation from all the other Popish corruptions was founded viz. that the King had the Supreme Power in the Nation and by that might protest against and reform all the Papal Abuses which had corrupted the Church and Kingdom And therefore those Sects and Parties of men amongst us the Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists Quakers c. are not to be accounted of our Church because they deny the King's Supremacy But are Retainers still to the Church of Rome being not yet reform'd from this Romish corruption of subjecting the King to the Church Next as the Church is subject to the King so is the Parliament The Parliament is called by the King 's Writ And when they meet they own his Supremacy and promise Allegiance to him upon Oath During their Session they can make no Laws by themselves but onely advise propound and petition what may be for the good of the Nation And therefore are called the Great Council of it consisting of Three Estates The Lords Spiritual and Temporal and The Commons the latter of which is said not to have been before the Reign of Henry III. who required their presence to Stem the Tide of his Barons Rebellion And although since through a long Tract of Time and the concessions of some Kings they have a claim to certain privileges yet sure not to that of Supremacy or Coordination with their Prince For any or all of them to say they are above or equal with him is a contradiction as well in Reason as Terms For besides what is urg'd before they may be adjourn'd remov'd prorogu'd or dissolv'd as the King pleaseth They live and die are and are not by one breath of his mouth Whence he is said to be Principium Caput Finis Parliamenti And to put all out of doubt of it several Parliaments have in several Acts and Statutes acknowledged the King's Supremacy and Sovereignty over them addressing to him under the Title of our Gratious Sovereign and our Dread Sovereign Lord the King His Most Excellent Majesty c. calling themselves his most dutifull and Loyal subjects None ever denied it but the Long Parliament under King Charles I. which was therefore since by another declared to be a Rebel Parliament Lastly the King is not subject to the Coercive Power of the Law There is no Law made but with His Royal Assent And when the Law is in force it can have no power over him because the Authority it hath it receiveth from him both as to the Being and Execution of it He can in dubious cases interpret the meaning in severe cases remit the rigour and at any time suspend the penalty of the Law All Suits all Processes at Law all judicial proceedings whatsoever are from him All other our Magistrates Act by Commission from him and when he thinks good to recall his Commissions are no more than private persons without rule without power Hence was occasioned that Loyal Motto upon the Rings of some of our Late created Serjeants at the Law A Deo Rex à Rege Lex i. e. the Power the King hath is from God the Power the Law hath is from the King All this sure speaketh him not subject to the Coercive Power of the Law And what Although it be confess'd that at his Coronation he taketh an Oath before the People to Govern by the Law Yet is he not therefore Coordinate with or inferiour to the people or the Law because it giveth him no Right or Title to the Government The Right and Title
A DISCOURSE SHEWING That KINGS have their Being and Authority from GOD That therefore Good KINGS when Dead are lamented That all while Living are to be Obeyed AND That Treason and Rebellion are punishable both in this and the next World Preached the Sunday following the news of the Death of our late King of Blessed Memory Charles the Second By JOHN CVRTOIS Rector of Branston near Lincoln LONDON Printed for Jo. Hindmarsh at the Golden Ball against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1685. TO Sir HVMPHREY WINCH BARONET Honoured Sir I Present here a Discourse to you which I preach'd to my Parish the Sunday after we had heard of the Death of our late Sovereign By which you may see how faithfull I am to my Trust in instructing them to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's as unto God the things that are God's And I think it was receiv'd by them with that respect and affection that is due from all honest and good men to a Discourse of this nature A while after I had the opportunity to Preach it in the Cathedral at Lincoln where it was kindly resented by many Loyal persons of whom the number is very great in that City But there were a few Heterogeneous men crept in among them that were as much disgusted at it and no sooner out of the Church but they fell to calumniate and belye me perverting my intentions and laying to my charge things that I never said So that to vindicate my self from the Aspersions of these men I have made the Sermon publick as you see it after the same Copy by which I spoke it It will I presume endure such a publick Test For upon a strict review I find nothing there but what is agreeable to the Doctrine of our Church and the late General acknowledgments of our Loyal Nobility Gentry and Clergy in their Addresses to His Sacred Majesty And therefore I question not your Favourable acceptance of it in particular As it hath so it needs nothing else to commend it to you but the Loyalty of it which it is Argument enough that you approve of in all its Appearances because at the Critical time of Trial you abhor'd and withstood the Vnnatural and Vnchristian Bill of Exclusion and the same Party which in those days of iniquity would have Excluded His Sacred Majesty from his three Kingdoms would have also excluded you from the Parliament That all future Parliaments may consist of such worthy Members as you such as will distinguish betwixt Religion and faction legality and injustice such as will be as True to the Church and State as the King is pleased to be Gratious to them is the earnest prayer of Honoured Sir Your most obliged and most humble Servant JOHN CURTOIS ROM XIII 1. There is no Power but of God the Powers that be are ordained of God HAVING receiv'd the sad tidings of the Death of our most Gratious Sovereign Charles the Second I think it requisite to say something as early as I can that will be suitable to it And therefore I pitch upon this Subject as proper and seasonable to exercise your Devotions at this time In these words Saint Paul plainly teacheth this Doctrine That all Kings or Supreme Governours of Nations are Constituted of Almighty God and Rule solely by his Divine pleasure and Authority I shall clear this unto you and then draw an inference or two from it First This was eminently true of the several Governours of the Jews They had all particular and apparent Signatures and Impresses of the Image and Authority of God upon them For when from all the Nations of the World God had set apart the Jews to be the Object of his more immediate care he is said to have sent Moses to be a Ruler and Deliverer unto them by the hand of the Angel which appeared to him in the Bush By reason of which power so signally conferr'd by God he was intituled King in Jeshurun when the Heads of the People and the Tribes of Israel were gather'd together And when God was pleased to remove his servant Moses to a Crown of Glory in Heaven he nominated Joshuah to succeed him in the same Authority And after the removal of Joshuah he raised up Judges to them men of absolute and uncontrollable power for the time they continued inferiour to Kings onely in the title And lastly to oblige them with variety of dispensations at their own desire and according to a former promise of making them every way as Glorious as the Nations round about them he gave them many Governours with the Title of Kings too to go out before them and fight their battels But although the Kingdom of Israel might seem here to have had a more signal designation and her Governours a more particular commission from God than any other yet Secondly the Gentile Rulers were as truly the Ministers and Vicegerents of God in their respective Dominions though not so remarkably Thus Syracides saith Eccl. 17.17 in the division of the Nations of the whole Earth God set a Ruler over every people but Israel is the Lord's portion And the same is signified by the men whom we are certain God inspir'd to reveal the truth The Prophet David speaking of Rulers in General calleth them Gods and the children of the most High Psal 82.6 And that of Solomon is as General Prov. 8.15 16. By me Kings Reign and Princes decree Justice By me Princes Rule and Nobles even all the Judges of the Earth And particularly in the Prophecy of Isaiah Isa 44.28 45 1. Cyrus the King of Persia is styled the Shepherd and the Anointed of the Lord. And in the Prophecy of Jeremiah Nebuchadnezzar Jer. 27.6 King of Babylon is styled his Servant And the Prophet Daniel telleth that King expresly Dan. 2.37 The God of Heaven hath given thee a Kingdom Power and Strength and Glory The Son of God himself said as much John 19.11 when he confessed that Power by which Pilate acted under the Roman Emperour to be given him from above And so his Apostle in the Text in the Reign of a Heathen saith There is no Power but of God the Powers that be are ordained of God Accordingly the first Christians taught L. 5. Contr. Har. Irenaeus saith that by whose appointment men are born by his appointment Princes are constituted Apol. c. 30. Tertullian saith that they have their Power thence whence they have their Spirit So Optatus lib. 3. There is no person Superiour to the Emperour but God onely who ordained the Emperour Nay the wiser Heathens that had any sense of Religion had the same sentiments of the Divinity of Regal Power This is the meaning of that Benediction of the Queen of Sheba when she was full of Admiration at the Wisedom of Solomon 1 King 10.9 Blessed be the Lord thy God which delighted in thee to set thee on the Throne of Israel because the
Lord loved Israel for ever therefore made he thee King to doe Judgment and Justice The Romans in their Lex Julia adjudged the same punishment to Treason as to Sacrilege Vlpian l. 7. De Off. Procons in l. 1. ff ad Leg. Jul. maj as looking upon an injury done to their Prince to be an injury also to Gods Hist Hea. Gods l. 3. p. 187. whose place of power upon Earth the Prince supplied The Kings of Egypt had Asps usually represented upon their Crowns to express the Holyness of their persons whom none ought to dishonour or injure without a signal punishment as being the most Sacred Images and Lieutenants of God upon Earth So firmly did the better sort of Heathens who believed an invisible over-ruling Being believe likewise the power of Kings to be derived from it Now it does not invalidate this Truth 1. That some Princes exercise their power Tyrannically and Rule wickedly oppressing and murthering their Subjects For the power is nevertheless of God though it be abused and perverted by men As it is in the case of Episcopacy the spiritual power by which the Bishops govern the Church must be acknowledged to be received from Christ though the Bishop of Rome Tyrannize in the exercise of it So it is in the case of Kingship and Regality God must be own'd to have conveyed and consigned over the Temporal Power to all Princes though the Grand Seigniour of the Turks and others play the Tyrants within their Dominions And yet we may not here conceive God to be Authour of the wickedness as of the Power for it is the Power onely not the abuse of it that is from God The latter proceeds from the Prince's evil heart alone God maketh him a Prince and he through the corruption of his Nature and the malitious Temptation of the Devil finds out many inventions to doe wickedly The Kingly Power as other good and perfect Gifts do descendeth from God although they may be all some time or other abus'd by evil instruments and to evil ends and purposes Our Saviour intimated this in granting Pilate's power to be from Heaven by whom he knew he should be sentenced to dye as a Malefactour St. Paul did the same speaking the Text in the days of Claudius or Nero two of the worst of men and the greatest Tyrants that ever were Neither 2. doth it invalidate this Truth that some Princes come to this Power by Conquest some by Election and others by Inheritance For these are but several ways and means of Conveyance and Investiture they are but as Conduit Pipes to carry the Water from the Fountain to separate places Still the Power is deriv'd from God to the Prince by which soever of these means he be invested with it 1. Although he fight for it and by the Sword maketh his way to the Throne yet when he is placed there he sitteth as God's Vicegerent having no Superintendent but God The People are all subjected to him by right of Conquest Or say it be 2. By Election by the Votes and Consent of the People that he is seated on the Throne yet being once there he becomes their Sovereign Lord Ruling by a Power Superiour to theirs For the Power is God's not the Peoples They are onely God's instruments in conferring the Regalia's and when the Ceremony is over have no more to doe but to obey And if it hold true in Conquer'd and Elective Kingdoms then how much rather 3. Deut. 21.15 In all those Nations where the Crowns are Hereditary the way which God appointed in Israel before their settlement in Canaan and after it did so signally bless in a numerous Succession of Heirs In all Hereditary Kingdoms the people have nothing to doe but upon the Death of their King immediately to obey the next Heir Apparent and humbly to recognize him for their Sovereign Their Approbation or Consent here is of no signification for he is born to Reign over them and whether they will or no doth rightfully inherit that Power which God hath entailed upon his Family And to speak something here particularly of our own Nation thus it is thanks be to God in the Kingdom of England And we have reason to thank God for it because we are hereby free from many mischiefs which unavoidably attend the change of Kings upon Conquests or Popular Elections Here God hath for many Ages past by wonderfull Providences made known the Family that is to Govern us so certainly and so apparently that none but he that desires to be a Rebel to God and the King will ever dispute the Title Whence it is become a Maxime in our Law that the King never dieth And that nothing is to be assented to in Parliament which tendeth to the disinherison of the Crown Hence also we find it ever subscribed to those Ensigns of Royalty which descend perpetually with the Crown Dieu Et Mon Droit God and my Right So in all publick Edicts we find this inserted Dei Gratiâ Rex By the Grace of God King of England And upon Twelve several Festival days in the year our King offereth upon the Altar a sum of Gold to God in signum specialis Dominii as a publick Acknowledgement That by his Grace alone he is King And this every man of us solemnly assenteth to that taketh the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy In the Oath of Allegiance we promise to bear Faith and True Allegiance to his Majesty his Heirs and Successours In the Oath of Supremacy we first utterly testifie and declare that the King's Highness is the onely Supreme Governour in this Realm And do therefore promise that we will bear Faith and True Allegiance to the King's Highness his Heirs and Lawfull Successours and will to our power assist and defend all Jurisdictions Privileges Preheminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the King's Highness his Heirs and Successours or united and annext to the Imperial Crown of this Realm So that by the way we may wonder at the great impiety of our late pretending Patriots who with so much heat and boidness Voted the Exclusion of the Rightfull Heir in plam contradiction not onely to their Natural Allegiance but also to their Promises and Declarations solemnly made by these Oaths They ought I think to seek God and the King's Pardon or a publick Repentance And when they are so ingenuous and not before we may in Charity hope that they will be better Christians and better Subjects for the future But to convince you more fully that our King by the unalterable Right of Inheritance Succeeding to the Crown Raigneth by God and him onely let us a little distinctly consider that there is neither person or thing within his Dominions but what are subject to him as by the ordinance of God and right reason so likewise by our own publick concessions The People are all so and so are the Laws The People of this Nation whether singly or Representatively considered are subject
he hath are Antecedent Both the Crowning and Proclaming of him are onely Publick Declarations that he is by Birth-Right in Lawfull Possession of it And if he should not observe his Coronation Oath who shall say to him thou art wicked and ungodly What Law is there that can reach his Sacred Person Or what particular man or company of men can exhibit a Commission from God to judge and condemn him But I shall prosecute this Argument no farther Enough is said to convince any reasonable man Thus I have made it clear to you that all Kings or other Supreme Governours of Nations are Ordained of God and owe their Sovereignty to God and God onely by what ways or methods soever they be invested with it whether by Conquest Election or Inheritance And that the King of England in particular who Reigneth over us by the indisputable Right of Inheritance is as truly God's Minister and Vicegerent as any other Prince can be knowing no Superiour but God Let us now draw an Inference or two from the premisses First Kings having their Being from God when God takes away from a Nation a Good and Gratious King one that Rules as well after his Example and Will as by his Power it becomes matter of publick mourning and lamentation Cruelty and Oppression are things so odious in their Nature and so mischievous in their consequences being as prolifick of evils as Pandora's Box Murther Depopulation and a long c. attending that a Tyrannical Prince soon groweth uneasie to his people the men as wicked as himself are weary of him impatient for his death curse and abhor him wish and conspire his ruine And though the good man dares not doe this because his Religion will not suffer it yet upon his fall he lifts up his eyes to Heaven and blesseth God for the deliverance whilst he hates the Treason Whereas on the contrary Love and Clemency and all the other Qualities of a Godlike Prince are so amiable and attractive so productive of publick benefits peace and plenty and every thing that conduces to make a Nation happy that when these are manifested the people rejoyce in their Prince while Living as the Light of their eyes and the Breath of their Nostrils they love him as their Father and depend upon him as their Saviour The profane equally with the pious are ready to rise up and call him blessed to esteem his Life worth ten thousand of their own and to offer up themselves and all they have in defence of his Royal Person But when God who gave them this blessing from Heaven is pleas'd to call it thither again than these Great Rejoycings are immediately converetd into sorrows as excessive They look upon their Prince indeed to be happy but upon themselves to be forlorn and miserable And therefore as Rachel when she had lost the Darlings of her Affections they grieve and will not be comforted till Nature hath had her Fill of Grief or the sorrow be in some good measure proportionate to the loss This hath been the general sense of the World from the beginning of it The antient Jews and Christians and Heathens also give Testimony to it When Moses died the Children of Israel wept for him in the plains of Moab thirty days Deut. 34. The visible assurance they had of the continuance of God's special care over them the Divine Accomplishments of Joshuah his Successour their earnest expectations of Canaan could not divert that mighty sorrow which they had conceived at the death of this excellent Prince who had preserv'd and brought them through the perils of the Wilderness to the confines of the promis'd Land So at the death of their King Josiah all Judah and Jerusalem mourned 2 Chron. 35.2 And Jerimiah lamented for Josiah and all the singing men and singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations and made them an ordinance in Israel and behold they are written in their lamentations He had purged their Religion from all Heathenish superstitions he had repair'd their Temple and restor'd the Worship of it to its primitive purity and so had endear'd them to God and himself And they thought in return they could do nothing too much to perpetuate the memory of his Goodness And therefore besides their mournfull Elegies at his Funeral they transmitted their Griefs to posterity in a Book of Lamentations Upon the death of Constantine the Great in Nicomedia Zuing. Theatr. Vol. 1. l. 1. p. 97. the first Christian Emperour who had not onely embrac'd Christianity himself but had industriously promoted it throughout the Empire his Souldiers were so overcome with sorrow that they tore their Cloaths cast themselves prostrate upon the ground dashing their Heads against the wall omitting no outward expression of Grief that a sorrowfull heart could dictate crying out in dolefull Accents that they had lost a Protectour a Guardian and a Father The Citizens at the same time as men out of their wits ran howling about the streets not able to suppress their Grief within Others as men amaz'd walk'd silently about with their Heads hanging down all complaining that they were no longer possessours of the comforts of this life And answerable to this were the sorrows of the Senate and People of Rome for his death At the Relation of it their Baths were shut up their Markets and Plays unfrequented and their publick sports and pleasures and days of Festivity neglected They could find no Alleviation to their Grief but by painting him above the Firmamental Regions partaking with other blessed Souls of Heavenly Glory and by petitioning his Son Constantius that they might have the Honour of interring his Remains at Rome And the like were the Resentments of the Roman Senate for Titus Vespasian Id. p. 98. one of their Heathen Emperours a Prince so universally fam'd for his Vertues that his Motto was Princeps bonus Orbis amor upon the news of his death they rushed into the Curia and there bewail'd their loss of him in Panegyrical Orations and could not be satisfied till they had decreed him the honour of an Apotheosis till they had Deisy'd and plac'd him amongst the rest of their Supernal Gods whence they might hope for some sarther Experiments of his favour and protection To name no more this is a Truth that our own experience testifies How grievous hath the Death of our Late Sovereign been to every one of us How full of surprize and sadness was the news of it At its first Reception we look'd as half Dead our selves and stood staring upon one another as men at our wits end Every eye was ready to drop a tear and every heart to breath a sigh I think I may truly say never was King of England so generally and so heartily lamented And is was no more than was due to a Prince so extraordinary Good as he was a Prince that exceeded all others in a benign and gratious Government a Prince to say all of him we can
in a little than whom we cannot expect we cannot wish we cannot pray for a better And I question not but his Memory will be ever pretious with us and we shall never mention him now dead but with that respect and honour that we serv'd him when alive Onely here I would advise that we reflect not on him as men without hope but as we look with an eye of sorrow back upon him so that with an eye of joy we would look forward upon his Successour our present King James II. by a true Lineal descent seated upon the Throne of his Fathers that we would hope from him all the generous Actions of his Ancestours We shall be very ungratefull and unworthy if we doe otherwise For this most Serene Prince hath more than once expos'd his Life to the mouth of the devouring Cannon and the as merciless Sea for our preservation And since the Death of his Royal Brother hath been pleas'd to give his Royal Word to preserve this Government both in Church and State as 't is now by Law Established A distrust of that would be an odious suspicion of his want of the sense of Conscience and Honour It would be likewise an impious distrust of God's Good Providence over us For we are told by Solomon Prov. 21.1 The King's Heart is in the Hand of the Lord as the Rivers of Water He turneth it whethersoever he will So much to our first Inference Secondly Kings having their Being and Authority from God are to be obey'd So St. Paul argues in this first verse of his 13th Chap. to the Romans Let every Soul be subject to the Higher Powers for there is not Power but of God the Powers that be are ordained of God And the like at the 4th verse c. He is the Minister of God a Revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil wherefore ye must needs be subject not onely for wrath but also for Conscience sake For for this cause pay ye Tribute also for they are God's Ministers attending continually on this very thing Render therefore to all their Dues Tribute to whom Tribute is due Custome to whom Custome Fear to whom Fear Honour to whom Honour So then every subject is to pay Obedience to his Prince as being the Minister of God No man no order of men can plead exemption or dispensation from it For the words are general and indefinite and being of a moral nature comprehend all Potentates and all Subjects in all times and places This is the sense of the most ancient and learned Commentatours upon the place And according to them that of St. Peter in his 1 Epistle and 2 Chap. Hath the same extent and meaning where he bids Submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil-doers and for the praise of them that doe well For so is the will of God that with well-doeing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men But these Apostolical precepts must be understood to extend no farther than to things warrantable by a previous Law of God For if a King command or enact any thing that is contrary to what God hath already declar'd to be his will therein the Subject is to not yield obedience to him The reason of it is because God is Superiour to the King and all the Authority the King hath he hath received from God And therefore no good Christian will nor ought to obey his Prince any farther than it may be consistent with his primary duty to God And the Apostolical practice herein is a good comment upon the Doctrine When some of the Apostles were commanded by the Sanhedrim of the Jews not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus Act. 4.19 they gave this Answer Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God judge ye for we cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard And afterward when they charged them with neglect and disregard of their commands saying did we not straitly command you that you should not teach in this name Act. 5.29 and Behold you have fill'd Jerusalem with your Doctrine they answer'd and said We ought to obey God rather than men The like to which had been done before by some holy men of God under the old Testament When King Nebuchandnezzar had set up a Golden Image and had made a decree that every person under his Government should fall down and worship it Dan. 3.18 and that he that deny'd it should be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace Shadrach Meshach and Abednego would not regard his Decree and told him they would not serve his Gods nor worship the Golden Image which he had set up And when King Darius had Dan. 6.7 10. Established a Royal Statute that whosoever should ask a Perition of any God or Man for thirty days save of himself he should be cast into a den of Lyons The Prophet Daniel when he knew the King had sign'd this writing went into his house and his window being open in his chamber he kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks unto his God as he did aforetime From all which it is evident that the Commands of a King are obligatory to every Subject except where they cantradict the Commands of God and then the Subject may lawfully deny the performance of them But then he ought to be well satisfyed by serious and deliberate examination of the matter that what he so refuseth bears a real contrariety to the Commands of God For a Conscience not thus rectify'd cannot justifie any such refusal These Holy Men indeed now mention'd deny'd obedience to the commands of their Governours but First they were truly satisfied that in performing of them they should directly violate the Laws of God And after all if a man cannot with any satisfaction to his soul to give an Active Obedience to the Laws of his Prince yet he must yield a Passive Obedience i.e. if he cannot with a good Conscience doe the Law he must quietly suffer the penalty of it he must not refist his Prince with force or violence but patiently submit to the punishments he shall inflict upon him This is a Doctrine that is harsh to flesh and bloud and so indeed are most of the Doctrines of the Gospel but is as clearly the Christian's duty as any other there revealed St. Paul is as urgent for this Passive Obedience as for the Active in the verse following the Text. Whosoever therefore saith he resisteth the power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation And so is St. Peter in the words following those afore-cited from him Servants be subject to your Masters with all fear not onely to the good and
gentle but also to the froward for this is thankworthy if a man for Conscience toward God endure Grief suffering wrongfully For what glory is it if when ye be buffeted for your faults ye shall take it patiently But if when ye doe well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God And then he proposeth Christ as the great pattern and exemplar for it For even hereunto were ye called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffer'd threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously And both St. Peter and St. Paul with all the other Apostles acted answerably to this Doctrine and their Master's example This we are ascertain'd from their Acts recorded by St. Luke and from other Histories of their Lives The Governours of the Church that followed the Apostles in the first Centuries and so had reason to understand their Doctrine best exactly transcrib'd this Copy publickly teaching and practising the same Euseb l. 3. c. 36. p. 108. ed S. Polycar Ibid. l. 4. c. 15. p. 132. Cypr. ad Demetr Ep. 83. §. 2. All the weapons they used themselves in desence against the severity of the Pagan Emperours and all they taught to be used by every Christian were their Prayers Fasting and Tears And so it came to pass that when Christianity had gain'd ground on Heathenism and was so far advanc'd in the Empire that the Christians equall'd if not exceeded the Heathens in number and courage Tertul. Apol. c. 37. p. 30. Naz. in vec 1. in Jul. p. 94. they generally valued their Faith and Allegiance more than their lives and chose rather to open their Breasts to the point of the Emperour's Sword Just Mart. Apol. 2. Vsser ep Ign. p. 9. Lactan. de Just l. 5. c. 13. p. 495. Tertul. ad Scap. c. 1. p. 72. than lift up their own against his Their Persecutors in the heat of their Cruelty saw this and confess'd it And the Apologists for Christanity rejoyc'd and glory'd in it as one great cause of the propogation of their Religion Agreeably to these first and purest Ages of Christianity the Church of England teacheth her Children not to resist or rebell against their Prince This she doeth very copiously and strenuously in her Homily against Disobedience and Rebellion set forth in the Reign of Q. Elizabeth Which because she doth so largely there insist upon it I shall rather chuse to refer you to for your better satisfaction than mention any particulars from it It was necessary this Doctrine should be vehemently press'd in the days of that Queen because there were then a company of men started up that began to corrupt and ridicule it Bell. de Rom. Pontif. l. 3. c. 9. l. 5. c. 7. Knox to Eng. and Scot. p. 78. Hist p. 343. Buch. de jure Regn. p. 61. Bp. Bancrost danger Positions such as Bellarmine the Romanist the two Presbyterian Scots Knox and Buchanan and our first Nonconforming Divines men who as the Apostle saith of some other enemies of the Truth could not but be willingly ignorant But they had the Luceferian Ambition to be above all that are called Gods to be Kings themselves and therefore had brazen'd their Foreheads and were resolv'd to say any thing that would serve their designs in dethroning the Rightfull Sovereign And indeed there is nothing in the World could doe it more effectually than this for the Subject being once persuaded of the Lawfulness of Resisting his Prince any little humour or passion any private grudge or animosity would be soon heated into open Rebellion And so it follow'd the viperous progeny of these men in after years improv'd and promoted their Fathers principles They sate brooding a while upon that Cocatrice's Egg and then Rebellion and Regicide sprang from it The Malecontented people did actually rebel and King Charles I. was murthered And not satisfied with that the same men have with the same Trumpet of late sounded another Alarm to Battel And therefore it is but necessary that the Clergy of the Church of England should as loudly sound a Retreat by proclaiming the duty of Nonresistence and Passive Obedience And it is their glory and their honour that they doe so because they are hereby true to God the King and the Church Speech concerning Bill of Exclusion printed for Baldwin Notwithstanding some of the Excluding Speech-makers cast it into their Teeth as their shame and reproach The shame be onely theirs that contrary to Oaths and protestations throw dirt in the face of their Venerable Mother and for no other reason malign their Spiritual Guides but because they tell them the Truth That of St. Paul is very Applicable to them 2 Tim. 3.8 As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the Truth men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the Faith but they shall proceed no farther for their folly shall be manifested unto all men as theirs also was I will say no more than that the very Heathens will rise up in judgment against the men of this leaven Tac. Hist l. 4. c. 8. For Marcellus told the Romans that Subjects might wish for good Princes but ought to bear with any And Pliny That as mem are Reverent in their behaviour when they converse with God Praef. ad Admiran Rom. so ought they to be in their deportment to their King And as the Supreme part of the World is above the disturbance of the lower Regions so the Courts of Princes are not to be profan'd with the rude approaches of their people L. 2. exem Po. c. 16. So Sacred and revereable was the Person of a King among the Antient Heathens by the mere light of natural Religion After all this some perhaps may Quaere in particular What if Our King should actually endeavour to destroy the Religion that is now by Law Establish'd or punish us for the open profession of it might we not then Lawfully take up Arms and list up our hands against him in defence of Religion To this I cannot answer better than in the words of the Learned Dean of Canterbury viz. Letter to late Lord Russel That the Christian Religion doth plainly forbid the resistence of Authority That though our Religion be Established by Law yet in the same Law that Established our Religion it is declared that it is not lawfull upon any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King Besides that there is a particular Law declaring the power of the Militia to be soley in the King and that tyes the hands of Subjects though the Law of Nature and the General Rules of Scripture had left us at liberty which I believe they doe not because the Government and peace of Humane Society could not well subsist upon those Terms Thus the
a deep melancholy seized closely upon him in which the Guilt of so much innocent Bloud as he had spilt might perhaps somewhat touch him but without doubt that which stuck nearest to him was his real consideration that he could never ascend to such a height of Sovereignty as his ambitious desires had long gaped after And these sorrows and perplexities of his restless mind meeting with some natural infirmities of his Body struck him into a sharp and severish distemper of which in a few days notwithstanding his own and his Chaplins Revelations to the contrary he died in great discomposure upon the same day of the month whereon he had been twice wonderfully victorious After his death his Carcase though it was artificially embowelled and embalmed with Aromatick Odours wrapt also in six-fold Cerecloth and put in a sheet of Lead with a strong wooden Coffin over it yet did it in a short time so strangely ferment that it burst all in pieces and became so noisome that they were immediately necessitated to commit it to the Earth and to celebrate his Funeral with an empty Coffin And here I cannot but add that his memory will ever stink as did his Body both equally loathsome and abominable to all Good Men. Wretch that he was who to perfect the sum of all his Villanies added this as the last Figure that when he had solemnly protested to take care for the safety and welfare of his Prince he brought him to the Block and struck off his Head before his own Royal Palace in the face of the Sun and the People and even then wip'd his mouth and said he had done no wickedness But neither yet had the Divine Vengeance left him For although he had at his death usurp'd the Sepulchre as in his life the Throne of a King yet he was not suffered to remain there in peace or to mix with Royal Dust but not long after his Interrment was dig'd up and drawn thence on a hurdle to Tyburn the place which he did best deserve and become where he hung stinking in his corruptions with as much Shame and Infamy as before he had lain in State and Grandeur a reproach to all prosperous wickedness and a scare-crow to Rebellion And this reminds us also of the inglorious ends of many of his Fellow-Trytours who died about that time by the hand of the Common Hangman and whose Head and Quarters are yet standing upon the Bridge or other places of our Metropolis as lasting monuments of their villany And happy had it been for some of later date if these or any other examples could have given them warning those late Rebells against King Charles II. many of whom we all know have had the same Fate with their predecessours to suffer the legal punishment due to their crimes And one of them to avoid the Hand of publick Justice as Achitophel and Zimri fell by his own became his own shamefull Executioner Thus you have seen from the beginning of the World to our own Age the Actours of Rebellion and Treason exemplarly punished But I deny not that there have been of old and yet are some Rebels and Traitours that go to their Graves in peace like other men dying natural and easie deaths Yet this ought not to be any plea for or encouragement to their wickedness because we see God hath given example enough to the contrary in terrorem to affright others from it And however it be as to this present World we are ascertain'd he hath awarded everlasting punishment to it in the next So we hear from St. See Dr. Hammond's Ann. on that place Paul in the verse following the Text They that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation Which in its utmost extent must necessarily mean that they who by force or violence do oppose their Lawfull Sovereign in this Life shall after this Life ended be condemn'd eternally to suffer the Torments of Hell Verily there is a God that judgeth in the Earth And though some of his Acts of Providence are here unsearcheable and past finding out by the short Line of Man's finite understanding yet in the next Life he will abundantly convince the World that he will doe right Psal 58.11 that he will as he hath said render to every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality Rom. 2.6 7 8 9. eternal Life But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the Truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil Therefore Sirs if you have any regard to the Commands of God if you have any regard to your Temporal and Eternal Happiness never resist the Lord 's Anointed never privately plot or publickly fight against your King It is to be feared that our present Sovereign will have the same enemies all his Ancestours had since the Reformation I mean the Fanatical part of the Nation who have been all along declar'd enemies to the Monarchy and the Church The Jesuits those creatures of Ignatius Loyola that were created on purpose to embroil and destroy every Reform'd Regal and Ecclefiastical Government and are accordingly sworn to it first instill'd their Antimonarchical and Schismatical principles into them and still under the disguise of holy and sanctified Brethren and fine pretences of Gifts of Prayer and Gifts of Preaching and the like intoxicating whedles they nourish and maintain the same And while they are willing to be deceiv'd and run into Conventicles where these poisons are infus'd notwithstanding the many Warnings they have had from the faithfull Ministers of our Church in printed Sermons and other Treatises what hope can we have of better things from them But be not you of them partake not with them in their sins least you partake with them in their punishments Remember always and follow that pertinent Advice of St. Paul Rom. 16.17 Mark them which cause Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine which you have learned and avoid them And that of Solomon Prov. 24.24 My Son fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change Finally be ever ready to aid and assist the King against all his enemies whatsoever to the utmost of your powers and capacities And be ever praying for him that Almighty God would secure his Sacred Person from the secret conspiracies and the violent outrages of seditious bloud-thirsty-men that he would strengthen his Arm and render him perpetually able to make good his most gratious Promise to preserve the Government both in Church and State as 't is now by Law Established Grant this O Lord for the sake of thy Blessed Son by the powerfull Operation of thy Holy Spirit To whom be ascribed for ever all Power and Dominion Amen FINIS