Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
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A33467
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The power of kings, particularly the British monarchy asserted and vindicated, in a sermon preached at Wakefield in the county of York, Sunday, October the 30th, 1681 by William Clifford.
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Clifford, William, A.M.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing C4715; ESTC R18703
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16,088
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36
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is the most credible witness who telleth us that he did no Sin neither was Guile found in his mouth that when he was reviled he reviled not again that when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously in all things leaving us his Example that we should tread in his steps Thus Grotius And as the Law of Moses the Gospel and the Laws and Practice of all Christian Nations so the Law of Nature and all Civilized tho not Christian Nations do assert this Truth whereof Plato's Books of his Common Wealth are an ample Testimony And in the Twelve Tables which are believed to be of Grecian extract Greece having furnished all the Heathen World with Laws as it is probably supposed which contain the Fundamentals of the Old Roman Law Crimen laesae Majestatis is the first as being a guilt of the highest nature Hitherto we have seen what Primitive Custom hath for this Assertion It appears by what hath been spoken that we must be so far from questioning the Royal Prerogatives that we are obliged both by the Law of God Nature and all Nations to vindicate them though it be with peril of life And if our Superiours should Command us any thing as God forbid they should contrary to any of these Laws you hear what is enjoyned us We must lay our hands upon our Mouths and suffer with that Meekness which becometh our Profession remembring the Examples of our Saviour and the Primitive Christians whereof I have given you a full and I hope satisfactory account However I am assured that I have spoken the Judgment of the best and purest Ages of Christianity neither can any thing be sound in contradiction to this Doctrine in all the whole Life Actions or Sufferings of Christ nor in the constant and unerring Practice of the Primitive Christians nor in any of the Writings of the Apostles or Apostolick Men. I proceed therefore to shew 2. That for Subjects to question the Actions tho offensive or Authority of their Princes is inconsistent with the nature of the Kingly Office The Scepter is put into their hands by God Almighty alone and with that the Power he giveth them is so great as that he maketh them capable of being accountable to none but Himself only Thus he saith By me Kings Reign Of this Power King Solomons Sentence is very absolute Who shall say to a King what dost thou and of the unquestionableness and uncontroulableness of his Authority he further addeth The wrath of a King is as the roaring of a Lion who shall stir him up Things depending on another are governed by that on which they depend this is undeniable Thus the Lives and Liberties of Subjects do depend upon the good or evil Will of their Prince And thus much Pilate could alledge to our Blessed Saviour that he had power to condemn him and that he had power to release him whereupon our Saviour replied without any denial or refusal of the Power that he had no power at all but what was given him from above that is that Power wherewith he was invested and which he then exercised under the Roman Caesar was not only by the permission but also by the Order and Institution of God Were it so that the Actions of Kings or their Authority could be swayed or byassed by any other Terrestrial Power whatsoever except their own how Proteus-like would Government be How would the Laws of Mercy and Justice which are so essential to the Being of a Government that it cannot subsist without them be either wrested or quite antiquated by the Prevalency of a Party Admit but this and then we should soon be sensible of the Prophets complaint Justice is gone away backward having instead of Law Rule and Order nothing but Noise Distraction and Confusion Which brings me to shew 3. That for Subjects to question the Actions or Authority of their Prince is diametrally opposite to the Liberty of the Subject We are subjected unto lawful Earthly Powers That under them we may lead godly and peaceable lives saith the Great Apostle And that according to the Prophet Every man might fit under his own Vine and that none might make him afraid The enjoyment of our Lives and our Liberties too as well in Sacred as Secular things next under God we have from the Prudence of our Prince That our Lives have not hitherto been made a Prey to our Enemies it is because his Sacred Majesty maintaineth and defendeth them That our Liberties both in Religion and State have not long since perished away in our bosoms it is because we have a King to actuate and enliven them In a word That the Allies of Rome or Geneva have not long ere this extirpated the best Reformed Church in Europe the Church of England it is because his Sacred Majesty and his Predecessors and long may He and His Successors be equally prosperous have hitherto dispelled all those abominable Mists of Schism Sacriledge and Idolatry which they raised amongst us Hitherto I have shewed you That a KING is the Greatest of all Earthly Blessings the Defence of our Lives the Bulwark of our Liberties Surely I need not long stand to recommend it to you How many Hundreds yet alive have not long since seen our tumultuous World wherein tho Religion and Liberty were the Pretence yet Prophanity Atheism and Slavery were the Event Wherein our greatest Enjoyment was the blessed Hotchpotch of Democracy and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our Devotion instead of our pure and Primitive Liturgy was exercised in an halting Directory not only destructive of and contradictory to all Antiquity but also to it Self And the wholsom Laws of our Gracious and Natural Sovereign abrogated together with Himself to make way for worse And that which Crown'd the Happiness we had Reformation thrown amongst us with a Sword in its hand to let us see how basely we had abused the Power of the Sword in taking it from him who alone by the Law of God Nature and Nations did justly challenge it The abrogation of Civil Power makes every Man Sui juris so that take away the Supreme Power which is indeed the Life of all Laws and then all manner of Sins will be venial Heresie and Schism Murder Conspiracy and Rebellion the blackest Impieties these will never be boggled at For indeed that many Men abstain from the Commission of these Sins it is not because they are so much afraid of the Justice of God as of the Severity of the King who swayeth the Sword of Justice as Gods only Vicegerent And thus at the long run should we be brought into the lamentable condition of the wretched Hebrews of whom we find this Melancholy Complaint registred by the Prophet no less than four times together that in those days there was no King in Israel but every Man did that which was right in his own Eyes Which seasonably brings me to my Third Proposition namely
such Principles As may be seen at large in the Decree and Oath 5. According to these Infernal Principles in the late Times of Distraction this was usually their most Illogical Assertion That it was lawful to fight against the Kings Person with his Power and that the King might be killed in his Personal or Private Capacity as they called it and yet his Power never the worse for it his Authority not suffering A strange Metaphysical Notion And so likewise that St. Paul speaking of Kings meaneth the Kingly Office not his Person with much more of this Nature Thus do they make the King a meer Platonical Idea a Quality not a Personal Subsistence As if the King of England were nothing but CAROLVS REX written in Court-hand without either Flesh or Blood If it be so to what purpose are those significant Solemnities used at the Coronations Why are they Crown'd Inthroned Inoyled but to shew their Personal and Imperial Power and Supremacy in Military Judiciary and Religious Matters That the Kings Authority may be where his Person is not if this be their meaning is most true but that his Person may be where his Authority is not is most false And a King without Personal Authority is a Contradiction and no King How dull were the Primitive Christians that could not bethink themselves of this Distinction what Blood and Martyrdom might it have saved But let these faint Chimera's vanish 6. They say that if we ascribe so much Power to the King Religion cannot be safe but that he may alter it at his Pleasure And so He may Neither is the Power of Kings in any thing more visible than in establishing such Modes of Public Worship as they think fit This is sufficiently asserted and maintained by the most Political Authors that hitherto I have met withal Were not the Religious Rites in Judea altered according to the Genius of the Prince Thus we find the Rites of Ahaz altered by his Son Ezechias which Manasses his Nephew again restored but by Josias they were again abolished Thus if they demand why in the Reign of Queen Mary the Romish Religion and in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth the Reformed Religion prevailed there can be no other Reason be given but that next under God it was Ex Reginarum Arbitrio It is an Old and unanswerable Maxim Qualis Rex Talis Lex And if every Magistrate must be devested of his Power because it is possible He may abuse it then should we have no Power at all at least no Exercise of Power there being the same Reason to fear every Man alike because the Axiom Nemo est qui falli neque at includeth all But why our King may not be intrusted with the same Power seeing he cannot well use it worse wherewith they durst intrust their Protector is a Paradox to me Or suppose this should fall out which always doth not that a King should alter the received Religion yet may we have sufficient comfort if we consider that the Hearts of all Men are in the hand of the Lord but more especially are the Hearts of Kings in his Power and as the Rivers of water he can turn them as he pleaseth It is Gods work you hear to sway the Inclinations of Kings let us then beware how we meddle in it His Power is so unspeakable that he can equally effect his Will as well by Evil as by Good Kings Sometimes Prosperity and sometimes Adversity is more profitable for the Church And if the Prince be Pious then the Truth flourisheth under him and if he be Ungodly it will be Evil for the Church but worse for him whose Condemnation shall One day be augmented answerably to the greatness of his Charge And in the mean time Rebellion will be so far from being agreeable that it will every way be contradictory to a Christian Profession Well said Saint Augustine Reges cum in errore sunt pro ipso errore leges contra veritatem ferunt cum in veritate sunt similiter contra errorem pro ipsa veritate decernunt ita legibus malis probantur boni legibus bonis emendantur mali But I hast to my Fourth and Last Proposition namely 4. That since the Persons and Powers of KINGS are esteemed Sacred both by the Laws of God Nature and all Nations to exhort all Men that they be to the utmost of their Power careful not to violate so great a Priviledge The Duty of Obedience to Kings was a thing so well known and so firmly believed in the Primitive Times that the Christians then stood in need of no other Arguments to perswade them to it but such as Christ and his Apostles left upon Record And seeing that those who lived so near the Apostles Days were so extraordinarily tenacious of this Duty it raiseth Admiration in me to consider That some Men amongst us who do at least pretend to as great Sanctity as ever any Primitive Christian had should go about to raise Arguments to defend their Taking up of Arms against their Lawful and Christian Princes from the same Sacred Scriptures which the Ancients thought laid sufficient Obligation upon them as I have largely shewed in the preceding Parts of this Discourse to obey even the worst of Heathen Powers That both God Nature and Nations have priviledged Kings I have already fully shewed and I trust so fully as to render it however to all good Men indubitable the Authorities that I have made use of are such as are altogether unquestionable For next to the Sacred Scriptures which we all equally own and adhere unto I have urged only such General Councils and Ancient Synods as have hitherto been approved by the whole Christian World And for the Testimonies of the Fathers or Others that I have used they are from the best and most Authentic Editions However therefore this Discourse may relish it concerneth not me seeing that I am assured that I have all along Impartially spoken the Mind of the Catholic Church And that to this very day there hath not been a General Council truly so named or any other Ancient tho not Oecumenical Synod duly and regularly called and debating or an Authentic Copy of any Father that have delivered otherwise If our Adversaries can produce the contrary we challenge them in the Name of God to do it if they cannot which is I am certain much more easie then let their Brainsick Notions cease to be imposed upon the Vulgar Multitude who are more apt to be taken with Flatteries of their Chimerical Greatness and Supremacy with Noise and Impudence than with any sober Reason or sound Arguments But let Us who have so good Authority for our Warrant as the Voice and Universal Practice of the Primitive Church resolve in spight of all Contradiction to be ever Conscious of our Duty Methinks the very consideration of our Interest and Society should put us in mind of Subjection for what a Polity else should we