Selected quad for the lemma: prayer_n
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A67247
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The antidote: or, a seasonable discourse on Rom. 13. 1 Shewing the necessity and reasonableness of subjection to the higher powers. With an account of the divine right or original of government. By John VValker, M.A.
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Walker, John, 1650-1730.
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1684
(1684)
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Wing W392; ESTC R222266
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59,633
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307
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them when He hath so liberally the Fleece This may with more reason and truth be expected from a necessitous Prince who to supply His wants is forced to use Arts and Stratagems to squeeze some full Spunges that He may not be quite drain'd and dried Himself and to extort that by Power and in an Arbitrary manner which Disloyalty and Undutifulness do rob and deprive Him of A strong and healthy Head in the political sence of it is always a sure indication and sign of a strong and healthy Body in that there is an immediate dependance and communication between the one and the other And when 't is otherwise in the natural and proper meaning of it 't is generally an undoubted symptom that both are disaffected the Body as well as the Head So that these men are as much out in their Physicks as Politicks 2. And as it is Unreasonable so is it Unchristian 'T is a Law of our Religion that we should pay unto Caesar his due of Tribute and less than what is sufficient to maintain His Crown and Dignity cannot be supposed to be His due And then if we do not give Him that but default from and pinch Him of it we act contrary to our Religion and Christianity We are to do our duty and leave the issue and event of things to God Let Him be never so bad Preces Lachrymae Prayers and Tears are all that we are to oppose against Him as I above inform'd you and most certain is it that Non sunt facienda mala ut eveniant bona We are not to do any unjust and evil thing in behalf of an undeniable and real good but when that we propose to our selves here is very uncertain and yet the sin and iniquity of our actings certain 'T is madness 't is presumption 't is the height of Impiety to abett and avow such wicked and irreligious courses and ways Add to this that we have had the woful experience how bad a sign of health a little Head is to the Body Politick or State how ill it secures the welfare and good of a Kingdom or People For when the Royal Martyr had with too great Condescentions too much lessened Himself did not some of the inferiour Members presently shoot up to a preternatural growth and bigness and as quickly draw away that juice and nourishment by which He should have been sustain'd Was not the Nation soon divided and in a tottering falling condition Were not Liberty and Property lost and the felicities of Peace exchang'd into a bloody War This was all the healthiness these Mens Policy procured us then I hope the Burn'd Child will dread the Fire Say then Supposing with them that Ship-money had been a publick Nusance and illegal had it not been better to have endur'd and undergone that than so many miseries and calamities that came rowling in upon us like a mighty torrent However it was not as illegal and unjustifiable as the Vote of Non-Addresses as making Laws and Ordinances without a King as erecting a High-Commission Court and Arraigning their Sovereign as cutting off His Head and plundering and sequestring whom they would without any truth of Law and Justice But it is always lawful 't is still just and Christian 't is still our duty to help and relieve the necessities and distresses of our lawful King and Governor even without forms of Law but never so to let both King and Kingdom fall and perish through our fears and jealousies our covetousness our pride and ambition This then is another duty we owe and are to pay unto them 4. The Fourth and last is our Prayers for Them And whether we consider Them in Their more private capacity as Men and Christians or in their more publick as Governors the reasonableness and necessity of this part of our duty will be very manifest and evident If as Men and Christians they generally and for the most part lye more open and exposed to the calamities and miseries incident to mankind to the assaults and batteries of the World the Flesh and the Devil than others whose greater privacy is a rampart and security against a great many temptations and dangers their more publick state and condition of Life renders them subject and obnoxious to They like the tall Cedars and high Turrets are sure to meet with every impetuous shock and blast of wind and foul weather when others as lower Trees and Structures by their being so escape their force and severity So that in this respect as They want greater strength and larger supplies of Grace to support and keep Them from falling so more prayers than their own and of these a greater proportion and measure answerable to their greater needs that by a kind of holy violence we may open the flood-gates of Heaven and derive the Divine Assistance Protection and Blessing upon Their Heads and Hearts Their Lives and Actions And this is no more than what our common Christianity suggests and a piece of Charity we owe unto the whole Race of Mankind Let him be Iew Infidel or Turk we are to pray for him It is that our Saviour enjoyns us as to our Enemies Pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you Mat. 5.44 And 't is St. Paul's Doctrine I exhort therefore that first of all supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men for Kings and all that are in authority for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour who will have all men to be sav'd and to come to the knowledge of the truth 1 Tim. 2.1 2 3 4. But if he be a Christian King one who hath submitted his Scepter to that of Christ and is partaker of the same Faith and Hope of Salvation then as we have new Reasons added to the former in as much as we are Members of the same mystical Body and so to be compassionate tender concern'd and careful for one anothers Good which is to be express'd as in other things so in an entercourse of Prayer one for another and the Apostle hath made it a necessary part of the Christian Armour Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all Saints so is the Obligation enhans'd and the Duty the more indispensable And this will yet farther appear to be the more so if we consider them as actually governing as those who have so great a People committed to their Charge and so wanting a greater and more excellent Spirit and Wisdom Judgement and Discretion Foresight and Prudence to assist direct and help them in all the great Affairs and Transactions of the Publick Now every good and every perfect gift being from above and coming down from the Father of Lights as St. Iames tells us and we are to ask to beg this wisdom and gift of God before we can have it and the effectual fervent prayers of
a righteous man availing much how very necessary will our Prayers be that God would give them such a portion of Wisdom and Understanding that they may be as Instruments of his Glory so true nursing Fathers to his Church and People In praying for them we pray for our selves the Good and Happiness is ours in the result and consequence When we pray for Wisdom and Understanding for our Governours as Solomon did for himself we in effect pray that God would be pleas'd to grant us to lead a quiet and peaceable Life in all godliness and honesty When we beg the Prosperity and Happiness of their Thrones we petition for our own Welfare When we desire him that they may be men fearing him and hating Covetousness we at the same time beseech him that he will make them a Wall and Buttress a Refuge and Strength unto us his People Because if they are truly wise happy and religious these and many more Blessings will devolve upon us and be the Felicity and Good of such a People and Nation For Wisdom in a Prince will make him have a tender Regard and Care for the Subject in that his Welfare depends on and is twisted with theirs His Prosperity and Happiness will make him liberal and free and ready to help and assist them and his Piety effectually incline and move him to banish all Wickedness Injustice and Oppression And if he doth thus act and this is his Practice and Business will not his Prosperity his Happiness and Good be ours and so we abundantly recompenc'd and rewarded for our Supplications and Requests to the Father of Lights on his behalf But were there no such Good redounding to us to be expected and hoped for from our thus acting yet are we to do and perform it otherwise Sin and Iniquity will lye at our Door We are not boldly to question with God concerning the Justice the Wisdom and Equity of the Command that is no part of our Province what concerns us is Obedience and with that we are to busie and employ our selves Suppose then our Governour is as cruel and as wicked a Tyrant as Maximian was who cut to pieces the Thaebean Legion must not we therefore pray for him 'T is in some mens Divinity and Religion denied we must not and the Reason they give is because we are not to pray for one that we certainly know will oppress God's Church and People But the Answer to this is Whether the Word of God doth enjoyn and command this If it doth not as it cannot well be suppos'd to command and forbid the same thing then their Resolution being without Ground and Warrant nay contrary to the Word is unholy and unchristian and so not to be followed That it hath no Ground in Scripture will appear from its Contrariety thereunto and that it is contrary thereunto will be no less evident if we consider that without any Limitation or Restriction we are positively commanded to pray for our Enemies and to love them as I have above shew'd Now if God hath commanded us to pray for them we cannot be suppos'd to offend him in doing our Duty nor can we be thought to pray against the Church of God any more then God himself can be said to be for them and against it when he permits and suffers them miserably to tear and distress it for his permission is no Argument of his approving or liking what they do for then he must approve of every Sin because he permits it which is Blasphemy to assert no more are our Prayers for them a praying for their Sin i. e. for its Success and Effect which yet must be suppos'd or else we cannot be said to pray against the Church Nor is their making Havock of God's Church the necessary Effect and Consequent of his Permission in that then his permitting it must be the necessary Cause thereof and so consequently not they but he the Author of it and of all the Evil and Injustice attending it No more are our Prayers the necessary Cause of their acting thus wickedly or that the necessary effect of Them because if they were they would always produce the same effect whether we prayed for Them our selves or others which is false and contradicted by Experience That They then are cruel Oppressors of Gods People is not from Gods permission or our prayers for to both the one and the other this is extrinsecal and accidental Neither is their Dignity Authority Riches Prosperity or any temporal Good They enjoy that may be looked upon as the success of our prayers the necessary cause hereof but Their wicked and evil Hearts These may indeed be incentives and motives hereunto and so may the best things that are be perverted and abused to evil but then this is not the fault of the things but of the men and so is it here Our prayers then being not justly chargeable with this Evil certainly nothing of lesser moment as our prejudice and passion ought to prevail so far upon us as to make us omit so necessary a practice and duty But whether this or somewhat worse hath not had too great a share in the Objection I shall leave to these mens Consciences to judge and determine Only I desire them they would be pleased so far to give me leave as to acquaint and inform them of this farther additional truth viz. That the outward calamities and pressures of the Church being only Temporal Evils not Moral and Internal ones and permitted by God to wise and holy purposes should our prayers for wicked Governours so far contribute hereunto as to enable them to afflict and grieve the Christian Church as the Roman Caesars did of old and the whole of the Objection was true as 't is indeed false yet nevertheless we ought to prefer and chuse the doing of Christs Commands before the enjoyment of the greatest Temporal Emolument and Good or avoiding the greatest Temporal Calamity and Evil. And that therefore were our Governour and King the greatest Persecutor and Tyrant imaginable we are to pray for Him did He afflict and vex the Church of Christ never so much we are to offer up our Petitions to God for His Welfare and Good The Reason is because whosoever shall break one of these least Commandments and shall teachmen so shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. 5.19 I have now according to my proposed method consider'd and dispatch'd the several particulars of that Subjection and Duty we owe to the Higher Powers and so have abundantly shewed you what that Subjection and Duty is and wherein it doth consist I now come in the third place to consider who are the Persons to pay this Subjection and they are according to the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every Soul that is Every Man all indiscriminately And though this may be sufficiently understood