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A30816
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The necessity of subjection asserted in an assise-sermon preached in the Cathedral Church at Sarum, July 17, 1681 / by John Byrom ...
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Byrom, John.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing B6408; ESTC R2657
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11,598
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34
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Countrey and resist the legal Magistrate They have cited that of the Royal Prophet in Psal. 149 8. where he speaks concerning binding their Kings in Chains and their Nobles with links of Iron but the words are directed only against those superstitious Heathens upon whom God design'd to execute his wrath for their gross Idolatry as is evident from the preceding verse and so nothing at all to their purpose Lastly not to rake into all their abuses they have cited and grosly misapplyed to themselves that saying of the Apostles we ought rather to obey God than men Acts 5.29 as if they without any disparity in the Case were acted by the same spirit that the Blessed Apostles were and pursued the same end and design with them it is easie enough to plead and distort Scripture The most â—bstinate Hereticks the most profligate Sinners nay Devils themselves can do it however then by a kind of profanation of the words they term'd their own ambitions and intemperate Desires Gods Cause however they encouraged the people to Arm as if to unsheath the Sword against the Lords Anointed was to fight the Lords Battels This is undeniably certain that no pretence whatever can justifie such proceedings for it is impossible for a man whatever is flourished to the contrary to be at once a bad Subject and a good Christian. What lastly shall we say unto them who under the colour of Christian Liberty would break down the fences of Government and lay it so wast that not so much as one stone should be left upon another The liberty which our Saviour purchased by the effusion of his sacred and inestimable blood is wholly spiritual and yet to serve such designs which I am unwilling to call to your thoughts these are some who would have it to be temporal but can any rational person believe that Christ who came to free us from Sin hath yet given us a freedom to do wickedly as we apparently must if we resist the lawful Magistrate whom Christ hath commanded us to obey This is such a solecism and wild contradiction that nothing but deep Atheism or if I may joyn such distant words together religious Phrensie can be guilty of it and in truth it may justly raise our Admiration that such persons as these claim to themselves the name of Protestant when Protestants as I have made appear from their respective Confessions disclaim and renounce such horrid Principles they may peradventure protest against the errors of Rome and in this they do well but they protest too against the truths of God and what distracting Schisms in the Church and convulsive Agonies in the State this at last may produce is easie enough to foresee without a Prophetique Spirit and therefore how justly they would appropriate to themselves this name when they who were first called thereby acted upon different principles I leave all considering men to judge And now my Lord having asserted the rights of that Power which causes your presence here and authorizes your judiciary proceedings among us give me leave to be your remembrancer that what subjection soever we owe to the higher Powers your selves are subject to the highest of all God he the supream and soveraign Judge of the World will call mankind to an account for their actions by Him we must stand or fall without an Appeal to another if it should be your unhappiness which God forbid to tread in the path of violence or wrong you cannot but expect a heavier doom than that which you here pronounce against the guilty But if you observe the rules of Justice and determine according to the tenor of it you will surely receive most righteous Judgment Judgment temper'd and sweetned with Mercy at the great Tribunal of Heaven and then it will be a comfort and pleasure unto you to behold your omniscient Judge and King whose countenance otherwise will shoot forth horror and dart amazing fearfulness then when the Statutes of Heaven are opened it will be more to your advantage and honour than that which you at present enjoy or can possibly expect from those that are made upon earth then in a word you will be exalted to an immortal state of Glory for happiness and justice are eternal Companions and cohabit in the Regions above for ever Let me therefore intreat you in the name of God to cast up your Eyes towards this glorious Eternity that neither fear nor 〈◊〉 those spiritual Traitors may cause you 〈…〉 of it 'T is true if we 〈◊〉 men we live in an Age wherein 't is impossible to please neither can it be in reason expected so long as the fury of Rome and Enthusiastique rage ferment and boil among us But this is your comfort that the discharge of a good Conscience will be pleasing to Him who can infinitely reward you and what ungrateful clamors soever you meet with in this world you will be sure by this means to hear most sweet Hallelujah's in the other In the mean time let us who are here unanimously pray That we may live in due subjection to the present that is to the best of all Governments and that God would so direct your design'd proceedings in this City and elsewhere that they may tend to the honour of our Soveraign Lord the King who sent you to the peace and welfare of this I wish I could not say divided People and to the re aladvancement of the divine Glory FINIS
THE Necessity of Subjection Asserted in an ASSISE-SERMON Preached in the Cathedral Church AT SARUM July 17. 1681. BY JOHN BYROM M. A. Rector of Stanton-Quintin LONDON Printed for Benj. Took at the Ship in S. 〈◊〉 Church-yard 1687. To the Right Worshipful Thomas Gore OF ALDRINGTON Esq High Sheriff of the County of WILTS Right Worshipful SInce it was by the Influence and Power you have over me for my own Inclination would have led me to neither that I lately Preached and now Publish this ensuing Discourse I cannot but call it in some measure yours pardon my boldness herein and prefix your Name to give it shelter and protection I know too well that Censure abounds in this licentious Age and what less can I expect than the overflowings thereof from restless men whose spirits being always in a tumult do boldly reflect even upon that Authority it self whose Rights I assert and vindicate But I hope Sir when Reason and Truth cannot allay this intemperate heat a heat which more becomes the Alcoran than the Gospel that your Name alone may be able in some measure to do it I shall forbear Sir all endeavours to blazon your Worth since your own Learned Writings have done it already for me they speaking much more to your advantage than any thing that can be said by him who is Honoured Sir Your most humbly devoted and obliged Servant JOHN BYROM Stanton-Quintin Sept. 24. A SERMON On Rom. xiii 1 Let every soul be subject unto the Higher Powers THERE is nothing more conducible to the publick good than Civil Society it being the uniting cement of the World and at once the strength and glory of it If the Mass of Man-kind lay loose and confused like so many divided grains of Sand and acted at their pleasure without controul and government they would soon degenerate and grow into Wolves they would soon become a mutual vexation and fall a prey to one another To prevent which Nature it self hath made a very large and ample provision as having implanted in humane race an inclination to Society as also an understanding to know and a will to pursue those numerous conveniencies that flow from it No Nation was ever so irrational and savage as to live in a continual state of War the Thracians whose roughness hath given birth to a Proverb the Goths and Vandals that roul'd from the North with an Inundation of Cruelty and Barbarism the Americans that Worshiped Hell and adored their very Tormentor were notwithstanding tolerably sociable among themselves and had some kind of Government but where Civility obtain'd as it did in Greece and Ancient Rome there Government was preserved in due esteem and reverence and such excellent Laws were made in order thereunto that it is even now accounted a piece of Wisdom to be well acquainted with them In general the Principles of Nature teach and advise the usefulness and necessity of Civil Government and that it is both advantagious and just that one should be advanced to the highest degree and be honoured and obey'd for the good of all Neither is the Eternal Author of Nature less careful in declaring himself in this matter he having Enacted and Decreed in his revealed Will and all his Decrees like those of the Medes are unchangeable that Men should be United together as if they were all but one body and in order to this so desirable an Union be submissively obedient to the Lawful Magistrate Particularly when he was pleased to promulgate his Gospel to the World he discover'd and enjoyn'd anew not only the Duty we owe to Himself but that which we are obliged to pay unto them who are honoured with his Signature and Name Kings and Princes To omit other places at present that alone of my Text is an unquestionable evidence the Apostle in his name commanding Subjection so plainly and universally that nothing but Sophistry and Hell can evade it Let every soul be subject unto the Higher Powers The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated here Soul if we respect its first and original intendment signifies Breath but according to the more common and general use it imports the rational Soul of Man which therefore is called in Gen. 2.7 the breath of life Now because the Soul animates and enlivens the body otherwise a dull unactive mass it is somtimes taken for life which it gives Thus the lxxii Gen. 17.14 the Uncircumcised Man-child whose flesh of his fore-skin is not Circumcised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. The life of that person shall perish or be taken away Now inasmuch as the Soul distinguishes us from other Creatures inasmuch as thereby we are endowed with reason by which we are essentially men it is sometimes inclusive of the body also and signifies the whole Man Thus it is to be understood in various places of Sacred Writ and cannot be otherwise interpreted here As to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it properly denotes power in the abstract but it cannot be so understood here because it is impossible that that should receive the Subjection that is here required to be given it must therefore be taken for the Person impower'd for him in whom power and dominion are lawfully seated by virtue whereof he is superior to others in which sense it is likewise to be understood in Ephes. 1. and in other places The meaning then of the words Let every soul be subject to the Higher Powers is this Every person of what quality or condition soever he be must yield Subjection to the Supream Lawful Magistrate and to them who are put in Authority under him Pursuant to which I shall make it the subject of my following Discourse to evince by plain Arguments the Necessity of our submission and obedience to the Civil Magistrate The first Argument shall be taken from the Origine of Civil Power it being derived only from God The second from the Doctrine and Practice of Christ and his Apostles The third from the Nature of Rebellion which is in it self Damnable and Destructive of Salvation The fourth and last from the Universal consent of the Reformed Christian Churches who unanimously agree in it I. The Necessity of Subjection is evident from the Origine of Civil Power it being derived only from God Although the Divine Image is stamp'd upon man in general and indulg'd indiscriminately to all yet it is peculiarly imprinted upon Princes and therefore in Scripture they are called Gods the Authority which they Exercise is not owing to the People as some venemous Pens have drop'd to blast the Cedars of the Forest and to Poyson the Shrubs that are under them but to God alone who Reigns in Heaven and overrules the madness of the People What though Bellarmine De Concil l. 2. c. 19. and Buchanan De jure Regni apud Scotos p. 50. the one a Pillar of the Synagogue of Rome and the other an Advocate of popular confusion have met in the point Men who would willingly