Selected quad for the lemma: prince_n
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A44765
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A discourse on persecution, or, Suffering for Christ's sake clearing the notion of it, and making a discrimination of just from vnjust pretensions to it : and passionately recommending true Christian suffering to all those who shall be call'd thereto : occasionally representing the folly and sinfulness of illegal, arbitrary courses for the prevention of it, and the security of our church / by John Howell ...
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Howell, John, b. 1658?
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1672
(1672)
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Wing H3130; ESTC R9661
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29,187
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50
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labour under them of Publick Prayer of the Publick and Solemn Administration of the Word and Sacraments and of other outward Exercises of Religion But these are but Means to promote and encourage to signifie and declare to the World our Faith and Obedience which two are the onely Substantials of Religion But now no Tyranny no Rage of Persecutors can force us to quit These To Believe and to Obey it is the Gift of God and thro his Grace lies in our own power so that Religion may be maintain'd amidst the worst and most bloody Persecutions abound and flourish under a Nero or Diocletian 'T is true indeed a Publick Solemn Profession of Faith and the several outward Acts of Religion are very highly convenient yea and necessary too when Men are at liberty for the one and the other But where this Liberty is perfectly denied their Necessity is ceas'd and a Dispensation follows of course God accepts here we need not doubt it the Will for the Deed. He knows when and how far we believe He knows the Measures of our Obedience and from what Principle it flows and where he finds us sound at the Heart he easily dispenses with the rest He is infinitely Wise and sees what we would do He is infinitely Just and requires not Impossibilities Thus may our Religion live and stand out maugre all the Enemy's Batteries against it maugre all the Powers and Stratagems of Hell call'd out for its Destruction And indeed if That must have suffered according as its Professors did it had been in every Mans power to rob us of it nay what thro the Malice and the Wiles of the Devil and what thro the Power and Wickedness of Men it had been lost undoubtedly lost stifled in its Infancy and we had scarce heard of the very Name of a Christian But thanks be to God the Case is quite otherwise For Christianity flourish'd most under its heaviest Pressures The Sufferings of some made others in love with such a Suffering Religion and for one Martyr there were gain'd several Converts to Christianity for there was a kind of Seminal Principle in the Martyrs Blood and out of their Graves sprung Christians And truly I cannot see why Religion may not thrive in the most Troublesom Times A sound Belief and a suitable Practice Piety and an entire Resignation of Mind Meekness and Sobriety Justice and Charity with the rest of the Principal Duties of Religion may be as religiously exercis'd and therefore as well accepted in Evil as in Prosperous Times Nay some eminent Vertues there are which must be reserv'd for Foul weather for a day of Adversity for indeed they can't be exerted at any other time For instance To be Patient presupposes Sufferings under which we may be so How can we take up the Cross unless there be one How can we forgive Injuries unless they have been offer'd us How can we do Good to our Enemies if we have none There must be some that Despitefully use us and Persecute us or how can we Pray for them that do so So that Persecution does Promote the Exercise and consequently Heighten the Glory of Christianity and does rather prune than root out its Professors which is agreeable to that of the Apostle to the Philippians c. 1 v. 12 13 14. But I would you should understand brethren that the Things which hapned unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospel so that my Bonds in Christ are manifest in the Palace and in all other places and many of the brethren in the Lord waxing confident by my Bonds are much more bold to speak the Word without fear Then what if we should suppose our Church to be in danger of Popery We may not we must not endeavour to preserve it by any Vnlawful means and with the loss of our Innocence No Religion needs not our help or our defence at least it requires not any Irregular course to support it If the Lord please he can and will defend it against all the Oppositions all the Machinations of its Adversaries If on the other side it be his pleasure to let it fall as indeed our Provocations many and great give us reason to fear it is fall it must notwithstanding all the Vnjustifiable Proceedings and Endeavours of Men. Except the Lord keep the City the Watchman waketh but in vain And do we think that the ready way to engage him to keep it is to offend him or that he will take care of us and our Religion when we neither care for him nor his Laws Or do we entertain a Fancy altogether as idle That he must assist us whether he will or no that he is under a fatal necessity of giving us his encouraging his helping Hand No certainly As he is in no wise forc'd to assist us so our Presumption and our other Sins are in no wise likely to invite him to it He sees nothing in our Irreligious Practices so pleasing as to oblige him to look upon us He sees nothing so inviting as our Resignation and our Obedience If we Resign up our selves wholly to him and Obey him in all his Commands he can and he will protect us for he that putteth his trust in the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good The holy Lives and the effectual fervent Prayers of the Righteous avail much but and if those few who mourn in Sion should not will our Sins be able to preserve us If Obedience cannot will Treason and Rebellion secure us Good God! that ever any who pretend to Reason yea and Conscience too should go about to secure Religion by the Violation of it that ever any should fancy they may be safe in their Sins yea and made so by them Certainly there is somewhat of Witchcraft in Rebellion and more than a bare Resemblance betwixt them or Men could never take up such Devilish Resolutions against all Law Reason and Religion and that too with a private self-flattery with the leave and with the applause of Conscience Then let us not bow to the sly Insinuations to the inchanting Delusions of the grand Deceiver If the Lord be God follow him and depend upon him This is Wisdom's Advice Commit thy Works unto the Lord says she and thy thoughts shall be establish'd that is thou shalt see the Accomplishment of all thy Laudable of all thy Innocent Designs and Desires Then why should we place our Hopes in our Armies and an uncertain Multitude for the Security of our Church when we may and ought to look up unto him who is the Author and Giver of all good things It is better to trust in the Lord than to put any Confidence in Man It is better to Trust in the Lord than to put any Confidence in Princes If the Lord be on our side we need not fear what Man doth unto us Tho all Nations compass'd us round about yet in the Name of the Lord we should destroy them He
Neighbouring Country are said to have done who by a general Allowance of all sorts of Worship had made their Consciences so pliable that they could renounce their Bible when it serv'd a Turn and cry they were Hollanders and not Christians But secondly As the Government has no reason to grant so it may be considered further that our Dissenting Brethren have no reason to expect a Toleration And here I shall not need to mind them of the Old Non-conformists Opinion in the Case who plainly declar'd that to Allow of different sorts of Worship was inconvenient unreasonable and extremely dangerous to Church and State I would only offer to consideration Whether We if We were in Their Circumstances and They in Ours might in any reason expect This Liberty from Them What would they say shall we admit of That which we verily believe is unlawful Would you have us Allow openly to Allow of That in others which we cannot Allow in our selves Would you have us wanting in our Reâ—pect and Care for your Souls which we are oblig'd to upon a double account as Christians and as Governours To countenance That which is or That which is taken for a Sin is a Sin And to encourage it by the way of Toleration is to countenance it with a witness And how can we do This thing and sin against God and our own Consciences This sure is what every of them would be ready to offer This is what they with reason might And now do but invert the Scene and we have the plain Case between us and them Our Governours know and are persuaded that Separation from our Church is Schism and that Schism is a very grievous Sin They cannot unconcernedly see any Persons engag'd in it and for Those who are under their Government and Care they cannot give them That Liberty which would prove mischievous in the abuse of it and is therefore onely desir'd that it may be abus'd So that for them to expect a Toleration is to expect That which cannot reasonably be expected it is to expect That which they themselves if they were in Power would never grant or think it reasonable that it should be expected from them indeed it is to expect That which several of them will not at present Allow to their own Children and Dependents I would not be mistaken I do not nor can I approve of Compulsion in all Cases Religion is such a Worship and Service of God as supposes the Concurrence of the Will and now the Will cannot be forc'd it is free as Thought and is persuaded by Words rather than Blows as Lactantius well observ'd No Humane Laws or Power can possibly take hold of it it is out of the reach of Fire and Faggot and all the Affrighting Instruments of Cruelty so that it is impossible to be Compell'd properly speaking to any Religion and therefore it is unreasonable any Man should be Compell'd to the Profession of any Indeed it does not lie in any Mans power to be of what Religion himself pleases tho as to the outward Profession it does and now no one can be oblig'd beyond his Power And certainly it is very hard that a Man should Suffer for not Professing that Religion which he cannot heartily embrace and is therefore oblig'd not to profess But then I must observe on the other hand That there are some Opinions have a natural tendency to Mischief to Civil Jars and Vnchristian Divisions to Fatal Disturbances in Church and State And tho a bare Dissent in Judgment may not should not yet These whereever they are found do iustly come under the Lash of the Law and if the Church had no Power to shut out the Refractory and Disobedient nor the Civil Magistrate any to suppress Heresies and Schisms and Disorders in the Church there were nothing then to be expected but Anarchy and Confusion and every Evil work Alas we do not live in a Golden Age that Men should be suppos'd Governable without Laws or Laws available without their Sanctions Rewards and Punishments Some Men cannot others hardly can be kept within tolerable Bounds notwithstanding them And what would these be what would they do if there were none Conscience is frequently too too frequently abus'd and made a Cloak for all manner of Villanies at best 't is a prevailing Principle with those only who have it many have it not and the Magistrate's Sword of Justice has more Rhetorick far than the Terrour of the Lord to persuade such Men And Those whom Religion cannot allure or engage the Gibbet can and often does Affright into Obedience Many who would not stick at Assassinating Princes Destroying the Church and Massacring Man Woman and Child that stood in their way are yet kept in by the Execution of wholesom Laws and he must be a Bigot indeed of a very lewd Religion too that shall do these things when he must run the danger the immediate danger of his Life for his pains So then You see the Necessity of Laws for Societies and Sanctions for Laws and may readily guess how miserable This Church and Nation were if there were none or indeed if those that are should never be Executed These things consider'd I cannot see with what Forehead any Man can blame our Governours either for Making or Executing the Laws especially they have none at all against meer Dissenting much less any that are Sanguinary as our Roman Neighbours have they have none of any kind that in the least savour of Cruelty or Rigour They never do after the manner of Rome extort Mens Opinions from them by Racks and Tortures and then let loose the Laws upon them after a Discovery They are favourable as may be and slow in inflicting of Punishment of which This is a fair Argument That the loud reiterated Clamours and Out-cries of the Faction are not punish'd at all These would not certainly they would not be more favourably dealt with in any Establish'd Church of Christendom neither could we as I said before expect more or so much Favour from them if they were as some of them have been and have again endeavour'd very lately endeavour'd to be in the Seat of our Governours Surely then it would much better become them and they would act more like good Subjects and good Christians and Men of Reason if they would consider of things before they presume to complain of their Governours and over-liberally promise themselves a Reward for I know not what Services to I know not whom I am sure for none to Christ and his Religion when they Suffer as generally they do for their Disservice and Disobedience to That Authority which Christ has given to the Higher Powers and whereto he has very plainly commanded all of us to be Subject I say It were Wisdom in them and it is their Duty to consider seriously to consider These things before they presume to speak evil of their Rulers and charge them with Rigour Tyranny and what not If