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soul_n ordinance_n power_n resist_v 4,907 5 10.4011 5 false
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A29916 Monarchy maintained in a sermon preached at St. Anne Blackfryers / by Titus Bruce ... Bruce, Titus, b. 1654. 1682 (1682) Wing B5221; ESTC R2486 8,581 28

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Mr. OKES WE desire you to print the Sermon you preached before the Judges at the Assizes at Reading the 12th of July 1681. Sir WILLIAM KENRICK High Sheriff Sir Jonathan Raymond Charles Garrard Esq Richard Palmer Esq John Breedon Esq John Whightwicke Esq George Blagrave Esq Gyles Hamley Esq John Wilder Esq William Reeve Esq Thomas Mason Esq Hugh Ferryman Esq Monarchy Maintained IN A SERMON Preached at St. Anne Blackfryers By Titus Bruce a Presbyter of the Church of England LONDON Printed by J. R. for Fincham Gardiner at the three Roses in Ludgate-street 1682. TO THE READER Reader IGnorance of the Divine Majesty of Heaven and interest here below are the chief Supporters of Faction and Schism Ignorance being the Mother of a blind Zeal and Interest the Guide of a Phanatical Conscience To inform the one I have expos'd my self to publick Censure To unmask the other I have compil'd these following Meditations Such as they are take them If thou art offended it shall not in the least dissatisfie me It is a Doctrine I will maintain Though I mingle my Blood with my Sacrifice The Loyal are exempted from censure if any gaul'd Beast is touch'd I shall only laugh to see him wince I know well enough how some Persons will resent this and I fear it will rather disturb their unsettled Spirits then work in them the least amendment If I labor in vain it is no more than what the best of men have done before me Moses and Aaron and all the Prophets were sent to a stiff-necked and disobedient People Men of rare accomplishments and indefatigable industry have spent their whole time and yet perhaps have not prevail'd with one refractory Sinner I do not expect to speed better than they the Subject of my Discourse being unpleasing to many and what is still worse we seldom read of a Rebel that ever had the Grace to Repent ROM 13.2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation I Read of a certain time when there was no King in Israel but every man did that which was right in his own eyes Four times I find this mentioned in Scripture and in this Anarchy so great was the peoples Impiety that we can hardly except amongst our selves find its parallel Micha turns Idolater the Danites Robbers and the Men of Gibeah commit a Rape upon the Levites Concubine So was our case when every Sniveling Phanatick proclaimed his own Humour set up the Calf of his own Brain and danc'd about it The Army dishonestly rob'd and plunder'd all that durst be honest every Minister is espoused to his several Congregation God Almighty is the Father which gives them in this mystical Marriage and when with the Levite before mentioned they have with much pains and patience long-suffering and meekness traveled to reclaim their Errours and call them back to their first Loves must they by the Benjamites those ravening Wolves which love to devour the prey and divide the spoil as their Father Jacob had prophesied of them Gen. 49.27 Must they I say by their Sequestrations ravish them from thence This was done when there was no King in Israel when every mans Sword was his own Carver and every ones Affections sat Judge of his own Actions we had then to our grief no King but thousands of Tyrants But God who is a God of Order pittying our Distractions out of this Chaos of Confusion commanded Light and Life giving us the Breath of our Nostrils the Light of our Eyes even our most Gracious Sovereign the Anointed of the Lord. This was the hand of God this is his own Ordinance and whosoever presumes to oppose it Contra animatam dei imaginem pugnat rebells against the walking representative of Omnipotency Inde Imperator unde homo the same hand which made him Man crown'd him King and this the Apostle testifieth when he saith there is no power but of God this consideration forc'd in St. Bernard so brave a Resolution that maugre the Confederacy of the World he would prove himself a Christian to God by a Loyal Subjection to his Sovereign Si totus orbis saith he adversum me conjuraret c. should the whole World conspire against me to compel me to act any thing against my King I would fear God and his ordinance and therefore durst not offend Religious Soul he would be no rebellious Covenanter no associating Traitor and he gives his Reason Non enim ignoro ubi legerim Qui Potestati resistit Whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation In which words we have three things to be considered first that Soveraign Power is an Ordinance of God Secondly Because it is so it ought not to be resisted Thirdly The Punishment of them who presume to resist of each in order To the first that Soveraign Power is an Ordinance of God When the pleasure of God had called the People of Israel to be his own peculiar Inheritance he did not presently and at the first establish one perpetual Form of Government or set the imperial Crown upon the Head of his anointed but ushers in the Royalty of a King with some inferior Subordination of Power from Captains he gave them Judges then Prophets then Judges again as if Almighty God contriv'd a way how best and upon the best experience he might be a safe-guard to his People But when these under Titles could not prevail against the daring Out-rages and bold Presumptions of the Tribes Then did he exalt his Throne creates his Viceroy and discovers his King upon his holy Hill of Sion Here God stops he proceeds no further no change from hence St. Austin proves Monarchy for this cause to be the best Government because it was the last which God establish'd When the deeds of darkness durst see the light and owl-ey'd Iniquity dar'd approach the Sun when the high hand of Impiety disdain'd the co-ercive Power of their inferior Magistrates God raised up a new Succession of Princes a race of Kings to suppress those Insolencies Hence St. Paul stiles them the Ministers of God his Revengers to execute wrath upon them which do evil In Kings saith Lactantius there is a double appearance they are men before God but Gods before men Their Commission is signed in Heaven Prov. 8.15 By me Kings Reign Their Authority is confer'd by Heaven They are the Anointed of the Lord Their Power descends from Heaven Psalm 21.1 The King shall rejoyce in thy strength O Lord and from hence we must of necessity conclude that Soveraign Power is the Ordinance of God But further to confirm this let us look upon the great Pattern of our Lives and Saviour of our Souls when he who is the Judge of Heaven and Earth stood before the Judgment Seat of Caesar to be adjudged he confesses himself to be the Author of that Power which spoke his