Selected quad for the lemma: saint_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
Priviledges but of Divine and Eternal Truths Laws and Rewards supernatural and celestial to fit and prepare refine and purifie us for the glory and bliss of his Kingdom in Heaven And therefore as to what concerns us as Members of a Nation or Body Politick he remits us to the Constitutions and Laws of that Kingdom whereof we are a part to be regulated and order'd according to the will of those he hath set over us and to demean and behave our selves suitably to that station rank and quality he as Universal Governour hath plac'd us in And as to this he hath sufficiently suppli'd us with Texts of Scripture so plain and evident that we may at once run and read them So Deut. 17.10 11. And thou shalt do according to the sentence which they of that place which the Lord shall choose shall shew thee and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they shall inform thee according to the sentence of the Law which they shall teach thee and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee thou shalt do thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee to the right hand nor to the left So Eccles. 8.2 I counsel thee to keep the King's Commandment and that in regard of the Oath of God So Mat. 22.21 Titus 3.1 So 1 Peter 2.13 14 15. Submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake whether it be unto the King as supreme or unto Governors as unto them that are sent by Him for the punishment of Evil-doers and for the praise of them that do well for so is the Will of God Now as in all these we are strictly enjoyn'd and commanded to obey the higher Powers and the matter of our Obedience as to its various Instances being not at all set down and determin'd in the holy Writ the Rule we are to walk and guide our selves by here is this viz. To obey and be subject to our Governours in all things that are not morally and intrinsecally Evil that is in their own nature and of themselves or made so by a positive Command of Gods disallowing and forbidding it as hath been already suggested And this is the resolution of the best Casuists and Divines I ever met with They tell us and in particular our Learned Andrews that Subjects are not to busie themselves about the things commanded to know particular Reasons for the Lawfulness but if after moral Diligence fit to be used in all Actions of Weight it appears not unlawful and forbidden by God they are to obey And the Reason is evident because the Superiour hath his Commission from God and so his Commands are to be looked upon as proceeding from God whose Deputy he is and therefore they are sufficient Ground and Warrant for our Obedience God having commanded us so frequently in Scripture to obey our King unless it appears clearly that He exceeds his Commission and that his Commands are cross to the immediate Commands of God I say clearly and evidently because in things doubtful we ought to obey the Command of a Superiour being a determining of the Doubt For though 't is true that no man ought to do any thing with a doubting Conscience for whatsoever is not of Faith is sin Rom. 14. ult yet the Command of a Superiour is sufficient Cause to remove the Doubt He being God's Deputy to resolve us in such doubtful Cases so that his Command is a resolving of the Doubt after which we ought no longer to doubt For as St. Bernard saith Ipsum quem pro Deo habemus in omnibus quae non sunt apertè contra Deum tanquam Deum audire debemus Him who is in God's stead to us we ought in all things which are not plainly against God to obey as God himself So the Learned Bishop excellently and rightly And somewhat after tells us That though Conscience is immediately a Iudge under God yet as the School-man Alex. of Ales observes it is only in such things as are immediately commanded or forbidden by God but in other things which he hath left to Authority it must be guided and regulated by Authority And that this Doctrine is so necessary in Praxi as Suarez well notes for the preserving of Government and preventing of Sedition that publick peace cannot otherwise be maintain'd So far He with more to the same purpose concluding the whole with this viz. That the Excellency of Obedience is to look at God's Will represented to us in his Substitutes which may make the same Act which it may be was sinful in Him that commands I suppose He means as to its Circumstances become an Act acceptable and rewarded by God in Him that obeys In a word If we would be throughly active in our Obedience to our Governours the Temper and Practice of the Children of Israel in the days of Ioshua would well become us and be a fit and worthy Example for us to transcribe and imitate And they answered Ioshua saying All that thou commandest us we will do and whithersoever thou sendest us we will go according as we hearkned unto Moses in all things so will we hearken unto thee only the Lord thy God be with thee as He was with Moses whosoever He be that doth rebel against thy Commandment and will not hearken unto thy words in all that thou commandest Him He shall be put to death Josh. 1.16 17 18. But then of the other side if it evidently and plainly appears that what our Superiour commands is directly and immediately contrary to the Word of God we are not any longer to yield an active but 2 ly Passive Obedience to Him i. e. we are not to do and perform it but patiently to suffer what He is pleas'd to inflict for our refusal 1. We are not to do it in that God hath antecedently oblig'd us hereunto by commanding the contrary and we are to obey God before man as being the supreme Lord and Ruler of all things and therefore where our obedience to man is an instance of our disobedience to God there we must disobey man at least not yield him Active obedience that we may actively obey God 2. But as we are not in this Case to obey so neither are we to withstand gainsay and impugn but humbly and quietly to submit to the punishment they shall impose upon us for our not obeying because all the Weapons Christ hath put into the hands of his Followers and Disciples wherewith to defend and revenge themselves in respect of the Magistrate especially are only Prayers and Tears And therefore all Conspiracies Treasons and Rebellions all seditious Pamphlets factious Meetings and disobedient Resistings are not to be nam'd amongst us with liking and Approbation as becometh Saints For if we 'll believe St. Peter this is thank-worthy if a man for Conscience towards God endure grief suffering wrongfully and if when ye do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently