Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
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A23829
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A letter to a friend concerning the behaviour of Christians under the various revolutions of state-governments
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Allix, Pierre, 1641-1717.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing A1225; ESTC R14319
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18,890
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34
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Books lately Printed for Richard Chiswell DR Patricks Parable of the Pilgrim The 6th Edition Corrected Exposition of the Ten Commandments 8vo Private Prayer to be used in difficult times Sermon before the Prince of Orange at St. James's 20th January 1688. Sermon before the Queen at Whitehall March 1. 1688. Dr. Burnets Collection of Tracts and Discourses written after the Discovery of the Popish Plot from the years 1678 to 1685. To which is added A Letter written to Dr. Burnet giving an Account of Cardinal Pools Secret Powers The History of the Powder Treason with a Vindication of the Proceedings thereupon An Impartial Consideration of the Five Jesuits Dying Speeches who were executed for the Popish Plot 1679. His Vindication of the Ordinations of the Church of England In which is demonstrated that all the Essentials of Ordination according to the Practice of the Primitive and Greek Churches are still retained in our Church Reflections on the Relation of the English Reformation lately Printed at Oxford In two Parts 4 to Animadversions on the Reflections upon Dr. BVRNET's Travels 8 o. Reflections on a Paper intituled his Majesties Reasons for withdrawing himself from Rochester An Enquity into the Present State of Affairs and in particular whether we owe Allegiance to the King in these Circumstances And whether we are bound to Treat with Him and call him back or no A Sermon Preached in St. James's Chappel before the Prince of Orange 23d December 1688. A Sermon Preached before the House of Commons 31. January 1688. being the Thanksgiving day for the Deliverance of this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power His Eighteen Papers relating to the Affairs of Church and State during the Reign of King James the Second Seventeen whereof were written in Holland and first Printed there the other at Exeter soon after the Prince of Orange's Landing in England A Letter to Mr. Thevenot Containing a Censure of Mr. Le Grand's History of King Henry the Eighth's Divorce To which is added a Censure of Mr. de Meaux's History of the Variations of the Protestant Churches Together with some further Reflections on Mr. Le Grand 1689. Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Historia Literaria a Christe nato usque ad Saeculum XIV Facili Methodo digesta Qua de Vita illorum ac Rebus gestis de Secta Dogmatibus Elogio Stylo de Scriptis genuinis dabits suppositias ineditis deperditis Fragmentis deque variis Operum Editionibus perspicue agitur Accedunt Scriptores Gentiles Christianae Religionis Oppugnatores cujusvis Saeculi Breviarium Inseruntur suis locis Veterum aliquot Opuscula Fragmenta tum Graeca tum Latina hactenus medita Praemissa denique Prolegomena quibus plurima ad Antiquitatis Ecclesiasticae studium spectantia traduntur Opus Indicibus necessariis instructum Autore GULIELMO CAVE SS Theol. Profes Canonico Windssoriensi Accedit ab Alia Manu Appendix ab incunte Saeculo XIV ad Annum usque MDXVII Fol. 1689. OF THE Behaviour of Christians UNDER Various Revolutions IMPRIMATUR April 20. 1693. R. BARKER A LETTER TO A FRIEND CONCERNING THE Behaviour of Christians UNDER THE VARIOUS REVOLUTIONS OF STATE-GOVERNMENTS LONDON Printed for Rich. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCXCIII A LETTER TO A FRIEND Concerning the Behaviour of Christians under the various Revolutions of State-Governments THE Revolutions that so frequently happen in States may well engage an honest man to examine how Christians and the Church in geneneral ought to behave themselves in such kind of Revolutions I have therefore undertaken to answer your desire in as clear and perspicuous a manner as it is possible for me without making too particular a Reflection upon the present change of Government which hath put you upon proposing this question to me You desire to know of me whether it be lawful for a Christian to pray for a Prince whom he takes to be an Usurper and how the ancient Christians behaved themselves in the like Revolutions The First Point is a question of Right whether it be unlawful to pray for a Prince whom we believe to be an Usurper so as that all those who are of this Opinion are obliged to separate themselves from the Communion of those who believe him to be a lawful Prince it being impossible that those who think they ought to pray for a dispossessed Prince because they consider him as their lawful Prince should be present at the Prayers that are made for a Prince whom they consider as an Usurper The second Point is a matter of Fact which I might excuse my self from entring upon because it is certain that Christians are to order their Lives not by Examples but by Rules However for your satisfaction I will not refuse to take a a short view of the Behaviour of the Primitive Christians in such kind of Revolutions As to the first Point I answer That it is not only lawful for a Christian but that he is also obliged in Conscience to pray for those who are in possession of the Authority of the State wherein he lives if he hath a mind to obey the Apostle St. Paul and to follow the Principles of the Christian Religion I suppose that that which is the Duty of every Christian in particular is the Duty also of the Church in general forasmuch as the Church is nothing but an Assembly of Christians Take we a view therefore of the command of the Apostle St. Paul in his First Epistle to Timothy Chap. 2. v. 1 2 3 4. I exhort therefore that first of all Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving Thanks be made for all men for Kings and all that are in Authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and Honesty 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 unto the Knowledge of the Truth The learned Dr. Hammond hath thus paraphrased this Precept First In the first place therefore I advise thee and all the Bishops under thy Metropolis that you have constant publick Offices of Devotion consisting First Of Supplications for the averting of all hurtful things Sins and Danger 2dly Of Prayers for the obtaining of all good things which you want 3dly Of intercession for others and 4thly Of Thanksgiving for Mercies already received and all these not only for your selves but in a greater diffusion of your Charity for all Mankind 2dly For the Emperors and Rulers of Provinces under them to whom we owe all our peaceable living in any place in the exercise of Religion and virtuous Life and therefore ought in reason to pray and give thanks for them 3dly For this God under the Gospel approves of and requires at our hands 4thly In proportion to the example which he hath given us in himself who earnestly desires the good of all Mankind and useth all powerful means to bring them to reform their former wicked Lives and now to entertain the
who are in Possession of the Sovereign Authority It follows from this Principle that we cannot lawfully pray to God for any but those whose Title to the Sovereignty we own to be rightful And I maintain that if this Conclusion which is drawn from the Principle I oppose be true it is impossible for any Christian Church to subsist in any State and that consequently the Conclusion as well as the Principle from whence it so naturally flows cannot but be false I desire you Sir to take notice that I affirm that it doth not belong to a Christian as such to examine whether he who hath the power over a Society possesseth the same by a Just Title or by Usurpation I acknowledge indeed that it is the right of the Society and its Representatives to examine this question but I flatly deny that it belongs to the Church or to any of the people considered as Christians to discuss the Titles of their Sovereigns Christians in as much as they are Christians are in a State in the same manner as Physicians who in that capacity have nothing to do to meddle with Affairs of State tho' they may take cognizance of them as they are Citizens Affairs therefore of State must not be regulated by any but those who are called to the management of them And forasmuch as the People are bound to submit themselves to the resolution of their Representatives the Church accordingly is obliged to own him for a lawful Sovereign of the State whom the Managers of the State own for such by ordaining Tribute to be paid to him and Prayers to be offer'd up to God for him c. This is my Position the Truth whereof I shall here set forth with a full and convincing evidence First Jesus Christ declared that Tribute ought to be paid to those whom the greatest part of the Jews lookt upon as Usurpers I mean the Roman Emperors and who indeed had usurpt the Power they themselves had formerly enjoy'd 2dly Our Saviour did plainly suppose that the prosperity of their Emperors ought publickly to be prayed for in the Temple as was constantly done to which the Zealots of the Jews opposed themselves for otherwise he ought rather to have joined himself to these Zealots and forbornt entring into the Temple in case he had not approved the Prayers there offer'd up for such Governors 3dly St. Paul taught that we are bound to pray for those that have the Authority in their hands without ever making the least distinction between those that were possest of this Authority by a lawful or unlawful Title Now where the Law doth not distinguish it is plain that neither ought we 4thly It hath been the constant practice of the Christian Church to pray for those that had the Sovereign Authority without ever allowing themselves the Liberty to judge of the Validity or Invalidity of the Titles of those that were in possession thereof This practice of the Church in all times and in all places is so uncontested a matter of Fact that we may defie any Person whatever to produce any one single example of a Schism that hath happen'd in the Church on a pretence like to that on which they have formed one of late viz. where one party of the Church maintain'd that they ought not to pray for a Prince in Possession because his Title was not lawful and separated themselves from those that submitted to him that was in Possession It is visible that according to the contrary Principle if the Church had not only a Right to examine the Title of Sovereigns but were also under an obligation so to do for fear of offering displeasing Prayers to his Divine Majesty in favour of an Usurper that it was of indispensable necessity for the Apostles to have made an exact draught of Politicks fram'd according to the Nature and Rights of the Government which they ought to have transmitted to their Successors in writing It would have been necessary also in the Church to instruct the Bishops and all the Clergy conformably to this Scheme of Politicks to the end that they might afterward instruct the Church and yet we do not find a tittle of all this neither in the New Testament nor any other Books of Antiquity Tho' without this so necessary precaution it cannot be imagin'd but that a vast number of Schismes must have been formed by occasion of so many Revolutions that have so strangely changed the Face of Governments from the time of our Saviour to this present We must therefore of necessity own either that none of the ancient Christians ever thought of discharging a duty so essential to the Christian Religion in the most important Acts of Devotion or that the Christians never believed that it was their business to examine the Rights of Sovereigns much less that they were obliged so to do to the end they might be in condition to offer their prayers to God with a good Conscience I have told you Sir That the Christian Religion could never have been admitted or have subsisted in any State if our Saviour had given another Rule to his Apostles than that which he hath given them And accordingly I entreat you to consider with your self a little what would have become of the Christian Religion if the Church had undertaken to examin the Titles of Sovevereigns Can you believe in good earnest that ever she would have met with an easie entrance into the World if it had been known that those who preached it entred into a State with a design and under obligations of examining the Titles of those who govern'd it and with a design of charging upon the Subjects as their duty an enquiry of this Nature I am certain that we cannot meet with any thing like this neither in the Writings of the Apostles nor in the Writings of the ancient Doctors of the Church particularly in their Apologies wherein they have refuted the principal grounds for which the Emperors rejected the Christian Religion and proscribed it Yea I am very ready to be so just to those who are of the contrary Opinion as to believe that they would have more Prudence than to make any such kind of Declaration to the Indians or Chinese if they had a mind to go and Preach the Gospel amongst them But some it may be may be apt to perswade themselves that the profession of the Christian Religion is the rather to be received upon this Condition of engaging Subjects to examin the Title of their Soveraigns and the whole State For indeed it may be thought what can be more advantageous to a Society or a Prince than Souls of so tender a conscience as are unwilling to pray for a Prince till they have discuss'd the point whether their Titles be lawful But yet I know not whether they would have been able to make the Gospel to be Received on those terms For 1. It plainly appears that they must have left all those Countries which from