Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	ordinance_n	power_n	resist_v	4,907	5	10.4011	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30218	A sermon preached at the anniversary meeting of the natives of St. Martins in the Fields, at their own parochial church, on May 29, 1684 by Richard Burd, A.M., chaplain to the Right Honourable the Lord President, and lecturer of St. Mary Aldermanbury ; published at the request of the stewards.	Burd, Richard.	1684 (1684)	Wing B5616; ESTC R34772	15,233	51

praise of them that do well And Saint Paul in the 13th to the Romans is most full to this purpose Verse 1. Verse 2. Let every soul be subject to the higher powers And whosoever resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation And than concludes wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for fear but also for conscience sake out of a sense that it is a duty which God exacts at our hands And t is very observable that these precepts were all given at a time when those powers were Roman Emperours and cruel persecutors of Christianity to shew that no pretence of the wickedness of our Rulers can exempt us from this duty Nay in the case of our blessed Saviour and if ever resistance would be tolerated and indulg'd one might expect it in this And yet Christ would not allow of it but sharply rebuked Peter for drawing out his sword and smiting one of the inferiour officers saying they that take the Sword shall perish by the Sword And some learned men are of the opinion that the Souldiers which came to seize him had no warrant but was rather a rabble that broke out with swords and staves of their own accord and motion and yet Christ was so jealous of infringing the supream authority that he would not notwithstanding suffer any opposition to be made By the holy institutes and exemplar of our Saviour and his Apostles we must all pay obedience unto our Governours either active or passive active in the case of all lawful commands and passive when the thing enjoyned is repugnant to the letter of Scripture herein I confess we are not bound to act as they would have us but even this is a season for passive obedience and we ought quietly to undergo whatsoever is inflicted for such a refusal and not to secure our selves and rise up against them Nay it often happens out that worse evils and more bloodshed will follow resistance than by patiently suffering as hath been happily observed by some Historians that how bloody soever Nero was yet there was not so much blood spilt in his fourteen years reign as there was within a few months after his death Wherefore men had better patiently submit their necks to the Yoke than to rise up and rebel and so derive down greater judgments upon their own heads I am sufficiently sensible this is a very irkson doctrine to carnal and worldly minded people to the suggestions of flesh and blood and yet this is no more than what Christianity obliges us to if ever we hope for salvation and which the planters and propagaters of our Religion all stuck to and died by it But alas there is no such danger and trials now as there was in those days before Christianity was adopted into the Laws of the Empire we have no persecution raised against the Church but we all live in Luxury and ease as for what has been lately used against Dissenters ought not in any wise to be branded with so foul a character these are not persecutions but light and gentle admonitions only full of affectionate care and kindness sent to mind them of their duty to their Mother and to joyn in communion with that Church out of the Pale whereof Salvation can hardly be obtained The Pythagoreans were so passionately concerned when any one forsook their Schools that they presently carried out a Coffin after him and so gave him over for a lost and dead man And how I pray shall those amongst us be reckoned in a better condition who nere come near our assemblies but refuse canonical obedience and despise the Sacred standing Ordinances of the Church which are the very life and nourishment of all its members The meer suspension and deprivation whereof was that which made the Primitive Excommunicants as they lay weeping and condoling before the portal so importunately to request the prayers and intercessions of all good Christians when they entered the congregation for a plenary indulgence 〈◊〉 absolution of all their sins that they might again be admitted into a fellowship with the Church out of which no spiritual gift or blessing can proceed and 't is for this end only that our Rulers study now to bring some amongst us within the Pale they are wise Senators and know what is best and are kinder to them than they are to themselves and therefore they shake the rod over them being solicitous to scare and draw them to the constant frequenting the publick Oratories which is of such infinite concern to the everlasting welfare of their souls and this is all the severity that is exercised towards them and how can any shorter course be taken and what gentler lenatives can be applied to make them come in than this But nevertheless there is a loud out-cry made and a great talk of persecution and much muttering and complaining in our Streets and never more symptoms of Rebellion and disloyalty than now and which is most strange from those that call themselves Christians but how does it appear that they are such if they dont discover better principles We shall never find then out unless their actions be suitable to their their profession and therefore if they would be known they must be served as an unskilful painter does all his pictures when no eye can discover by the features and Lineaments whom they represent he is forced to subscribe their names so must these men have the name of Christ Stampt upon their fore head or else by their practises we shall never know them for Rebellion and disobedience is diametrically opposite to the institutes of Christianity and I have read that it is a mark to discover Mahometans by but never Christians before Secondly another argument I draw from the danger of its contrary which is this that disobedience unto Governours is as mortal and damning a sin as any of those that more immediately concerns the honour of God God holds the Balance even and bears an equal regard to all his sanctions and threatens no greater penalty for the breach of one than another but Wills our obedience to Governours as much as to himself God makes no difference but looks upon every sin with the same abhorrency and albeit he seems in Scripture to be more severe with the Jews for the sin of Idolatry yet this was only to put them farther off from it that being the first Religion of their Country and to which they was most prone and not but God hated all kind of vices alike and tho some be of a deeper tincture than others yet the Wages of every sin is death Rom. 6.23 God therefore lays no greater stress upon one precept than another but obligeth us to all his commands impartially and calls for our performance of those duties to our Neighbour and the several relations we standinone to another as much as those that more immediately concern his own worship Nay he is

their dues tribute to whom tribute is due Custom to whom Custom Fear to whom fear Honour to whom Honour and a little higher he assigns the reason why they must pay them Tribute because they are Gods Ministersattending continually upon this very thing i. e. for the safegard and welfare of his people God hath set them a part as his Vicegerents for the good of the people and 't is highly reasonable they should be maintained and supported by them And indeed when it is considered what are the cares and troubles of that high calling How many thorns are platted in every Crown We shall have but little cause to envy them or retrench their dues Men generally admire the soveraign power and authority of Princes the high honours and dignities the vast revenues and exchequers but never consider the insuperable hazards and perils and what abundance of plots and conspiracies rolling hastily like the Waves of the Sea one upon the neck of another which are continually devised against them They look upon one side of the Medal and there see a fair Image and inscription but ne're turn the reverse and behold the crosses and bars that are on the other Tully somewhere in his Offices tells us when Democles the great Parasite was arrayed like a Prince and sat at a Table where there was a rich banquet provided for him as soon as ever he saw the naked sword with the point downward hanging just over his head he could not for his life taste of his entertainment or take any comfort in the Royal attendance he had By which ingenious emblem Cicero shews that the life of a King in the midst of all his pomp and grandeur is in continual fear of Death Wherefore let no man deny him his just tribute or subsidy since he earns it dear enough in all conscience when we reflect upon the many eares and disquietudes the sudden frights and dangers his Sacred person is daily exposed to Thirdly another branch of our duty to Governours is this we must daily put up our prayers to God for them This also is laid down by the Apostle Tim. 2.1 2 3. I exhort therefore first of all that supplications and Prayers and intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men for Kings and all that are in authority under them that we may all lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty and the prayers which are thus put up for the preservation of the King and all that are in commission under him will wheel about and soon recoil into our own bosoms because the blessings which they receive from God and which we ought constantly to pray for tends to the good of the people that every man may happily enjoy himself and eat the fruit of his Labour under his own Vine and under his own Fig-tree Wherefore if we had no Love for our Governours or our Country yet for our own sakes and the interest of our several friends and relations it concerns us to supplicate heaven in their behalf that they may be our strength and fortress our defence and Buckler in time of need that God would so rule their hearts and strengthen their hands that they may neither want will nor power to punish wickedness and vice and to maintain Gods true Religion and virtue that they may all give us wise and wholsom Laws for the retrenching our exorbitances and the government of our lives for the bridling our unruly wills and affections and to get the mastery over our passions and to fright us by severe penalties from the perpetration of every thing that is evil and sinful And sure I am that many of us are beholding more to the good government we live under then to our own principles for being such as we are for if the Laws of the Land did not tye men up and make it death to commit Murder rapin or Robbery I am confident men would as frequently be found culpable herein as in Swearing Drunkenness Fornication Prophaning the Sabbath and the like And therefore we have all great reason to uphold the Government and to pray for our Senators and to bless and praise God night and day for putting it into their hearts for providing thus for our Souls as well as our bodies for publishing such gracious edicts and constituting such easie and gentle Laws Which ought to be the pride and glory of the English subject It is storied of the people in China that if any of them have a mind to travel abroad and set but one foot out of their own Country they must never return home again and was there not great policy in the Magistrates for promulgating such a decree for if once the Chinesses should venture to go out and behold what great liberty other Countries enjoy above what they do in their own there would quickly be not a man left for the Governours to rule over But thanks be to God our case is widely distant from other Countries and no people ever enjoyed a more relax and gentle Government where the reins are in a manner flung upon the necks of the Subjects and all its laws are calculated solely for the pleasure and ease for the interest and profit for the safegard of our souls as well as our bodies and never earth bore a more gracious Prince a more indulgent and merciful Soveraign than weilds the Scepter in these Kingdoms and therefore we have all the reason in the world to supplicate and interceed with God for the preservation of his Majesties most Sacred person and the Government as it is by Law established But fourthly the last branch of our duty to Governours is this entirely to resign our selves into their hands and submit to their good will and pleasure in all things Now because this part of our duty is most scrupled at and a great deal worse practiced by us I shall therefore carefully consider it by it self and with that freedom and plainness as becomes the place where I now stand and use but these three arguments to engage your performance of it And afterwards I will hasten to a conclusion of the whole My first Topick is this obedience and subjection to Magistrates is one of the essential marks of our Christian profession A Primitive Saint in the infancy of the Church was alwaies better known by his Catholick charity and patient submission to persecuting Emperors than by all the other graces in the whole Systom of Divinity It was the undoubted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and best distinguishing note whereby you might judge infallibly of the professours of christianity from any others whatever because no other religion enjoyns such an exact observance of the commands of our governours this is strictly charged by saint Peter Submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supream or unto Governours as those that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and for the