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A59580
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The Church of England's doctrine of non-resistance, justified and vindicated as truly rational and Christian; and the damnable nature of rebellious resistance represented. By Lewes Sharp, rector of Morton Hampstead, in Devon.
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Sharpe, Lewes.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing S3007C; ESTC R219619
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98,872
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68
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Sword and might warrantably oppose force to force from worldly Powers they would in a military Way have assisted and defended me against the Jews when they apprehended and dealt with me as a Malefactor but they could not pretend any Commission from me to repel with armed Force the most injurious and violent Usage from the Higher Powers for I did expresly forbid it vers 11. Put up thy Sword into thy Sheath said he there to St. Peter who rashly from a wild and ungoverned Zeal drew it in his defence Sect. 38. If you compare the Evangelists together you shall find that Christ's Disciples asked him If they should smite with the Sword Luk. 22.49 and St. Peter probably being naturally somewhat too eager and having an extraordinary tenderness for his Master's Person and perhaps a little leavened with an expectation of a temporary Kingdom without staying for an Answer drew his Sword and smote of Malchus the High Priest's Servants Ear who was likely most forward and busy in seizing of Christ and what was the Event our Saviour for the Reparation of the Injury miraculously pieced it up again to his head vers 51. and severely reprimands Peter for his bold and unwarrantable Action vers 52. Put up thy Sword again into his place and he gave him a Reason for it which obliged him and will have an unlimited and universal Obligation on all Subjects to the End of the World for all they that take the Sword shall perish by the Sword Which Words as you may learn from the Margine of your Bibles have reference to Gen. 9.6 and Rev. â— 10 and are in truth part of the moral Law and clearly intimate that when private Persons not authorized by the Higher Powers do use the Sword in a vindicative and destructive Way they are Murderers let their pretensions be what they will and must expect their allotment Vengeance is mine saith the Lord Rom. 12.19 I will repay and none but such as are commissioned by God can wield the Sword of Justice and claim a Power of Life and Death over Men which Private Subjects cannot pretend And if St. Peter's Resistance not of Caesar himself or the High Priest himself but only of Inferiour Officers Commissioned by them for the Preservation of Christ and Christianity too for the Assailants aimed at the Destruction of both and this done too rashly and indeliberately without any prepensed prejudice and malice be so blamable and an usurpation upon God's prerogative because he was a Subject and had no claim to the Power of the Sword I 'm sure no Man in the same Relation can have a warrantable Ground to avenge himself on his Sovereign Lord the King or resist his Commissioned Officers Sect. 39. And our Saviour having chid and threatned Peter into Obedience he presently declares to him that it was a plain Resistance to the Nature of the Design he was to accomplish in the World to attempt the Defence or Promotion of it by armed Force and Violence Jo. 18.37 to this end saith he was I born and for this cause came I into the World that I should bear witness unto the Truth every one that is of the Truth heareth my Voice q. d. my Kingdom is to subsist by the Power of the Truth and not by the Power of the Sword and all that are heartily zealous for the Truth will voluntarily submit themselves to my institutions And that I have no mind to Rescue my Person and settle my Kingdom by Force of Arms levied against the Powers of the World thou mayest infer from hence for thinkest thou said Christ to Peter that I cannot now pray to my Father and he shall presently give Twelve Legions of Angels Mat. 26.53 Who owed Subjection and Obedience to no earthly Powers and so were fitter Assistance in such a Case than Peter and the rest of his Disciples were Wherefore if it had been necessary proper or agreeable to that constitution of Things he was about to Establish he could have relieved himself without St. Peter's help with a forcible Resistance but that would not effect his Ends but destroy them For how then said he shall the Scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be Mat. 26.54 Which foretold that he should quitely and patiently without any resistance submit himself to all sorts of ignominious and cruel sufferings from the Legal Powers of the World Is 53.3 to 8. Sect. 40. And as Christ preached and practiced the Doctrine of Non-resistance so did his Disciples and Followers also St. Paul in the first Verse of this Chapter where the Text is chargeth every Soul to be subject to the Higher Powers All Men of what Rank Order Degree or Quality soever the whole Body of the People as well as every individual Person which he enforceth with irresistible Reasons for there is no Power but of God the Powers that be are ordained of God whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God And the Roman Power of Government was at this time probably in Nero's hand who was not only an Heathen but also a Man most prodigiously Tyrannical a fierce and barbarous Enemy to Christians and their Religion and such a Monster of Villany and Wickedness as hath scarcely been known in the World and St. Peter taught the same Doctrine Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governours 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 that with well-doing you put to silence the Ignorance of foolish Men 1 Pet. 2.13 14 15. and as the Apostles taught others to do so they themselves did They submitted themselves to the Civil Powers where ever they came honoured their Persons and obeyed their Laws unless inconsistent with their Obedience unto God and then they chose rather to obey God than Man Acts 3.29 and when punished for disobedience to unreasonable and unjust Laws they suffered with great serenity and submission of Mind without passionate Perturbations or bitter Reflections or appearance of any Inclination to Resistance When they were injuriously imprisoned Acts 4.3 and beaten Acts 5.41 they did not exclaim revile or calumniate but went away rejoycing So when Herod had butchered St. James and consign'd St. Peter to the same Portion there was no spreading of Libels raising of Tumults or confederation of Factions in the City but they possessed their Souls in Patience and Prayers and Tears were their only Weapons of Defence And certainly there is scarce any particular Instance wherein Christianity did more triumph in the World than in their exemplary Submission to the Civil Powers especially in the patient Endurance of unjust Penalties on their Persons and Possessions Sect. 41. And hereby they declared an acknowledgment That God had decreed and predestinated them as they were Christians to be conformed to the Image of his Son in his
in such a State of Anarchy and Confusion For though the former like a Tempest may do considerable mischief here and there in some particular Cases and Instances the latter like a Deluge or epidemical Disease will carry down and destroy all that stand before it And thus it was determined by Fronto the Consul in Nerva's Reign Melius est sub his esse sub quibus nihil licet quam sub quibus omnia 't is better to be subject unto them under whom nothing is lawful than under them under whom all things are lawful That is the severest Restraints are more eligible than a boundless Liberty because 't is better and safer to be exposed to the danger of suffering than to the danger both of finning and suffering So that a rebellious Resistance breaking down and levelling the Boundaries of Government and Laws doth as it were let Hell loose upon us hearten and encourage all sorts of licentiousness and wickedness amongst us and bring us under a kind of present Damnation and fill us with Confusion and Terror round about Wherefore as one said of an ungrateful Man Ingratum dixi omnia dixi I have called him ungrateful and so have called him all that is naught So say I of a rebellious Man his guilt is so complicated that he is compounded of all that is naught Sect. 135. 3. The next thing to be considered is the Grounds upon which the Decree and Ordination of God to condemn rebellious Resisters of the Higher Powers to an everlasting destruction is founded O the Depth saith the Apostle Rom. 11.33 34. both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God how unsearchable are his Judgments and his Ways past finding out for who hath known the Mind of the Lord or who hath been his Councellor intimating that it becomes us rather to admire than to enquire into the Reasons of his Purposes Ways and Actings For He giveth not account is not obliged to account of any of his matters as Job speaks Ch. 33.13 and therefore it will be no absurdity to resolve the Reason of the Matter under consideration principally into the Sovereign Council and Pleasure of God's Will So he hath done even because so it pleased him to do Mat. 11.25 and this is as firm a Ground as the Mind of Man can rest or acquiesce on For God alone knows what becomes him to do and we may be sure that all his Ordinations and Dispensations are such as well beseem his infinite perfection in Knowledge and Wisdom Goodness and Righteousness and therefore he doth not will not cannot decree or do any thing amiss Wherefore God having expresly declared that they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation we cannot be much concerned by searching to find out the particular Reasons of this divine Constitution Sect. 136. But since God is pleased from his incomprehensible Grace to condescend to an Appeal sometimes to the Reason of his People to judge of the Equity of his Dealings especially in Matters of a Penal Nature Isa 5.3 Mic. 6.3 I shall endeavour to discover to you the particular Reasons of this Decree and Ordination from that Revelation as I conceive God himself hath made thereof to us And they are these Sect. 137. 1. Because a rebellious Resistance of the Higher Powers is a protested Defiance to God's own Order and a practical Condemnation and Subversion of it This reason is plainly assigned in the Words immediately precedent to the Text They that resist resist the Ordinance of God and therefore they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation God that made and preserveth all the World is essentially the absolute Sovereign Lord thereof The great King over all the Earth Psal 47.2 the Lord of Lords and King of Kings Rev. 17.14 He is exalted as Head above all 2 Chr. 29.11 and he as the most High ruleth in the Kingdom of Men and giveth it to whomsoever he will Dan. 4.25 and all Dominions serve and obey him Dan. 7.27 Act as his Ministers and Officers as 't is vers 4. and 6. of this Chapter Wherefore respectively unto God Obedience is the Duty and Work of all the World and as all that Authority and Power with which Men are invested to make and execute Laws is derived from him and to be administred in his Name so all that Subjection and Obedience which is exacted as due thereunto is from the Constitution of his Will 1 Pet. 2.15 and to be observed and performed for his sake vers 13. or as our Apostle in vers 5. of this Chapter for Conscience sake or from a Sense of that Duty we owe to the Sovereign Authority and Dominion of God himself Let the Ranks and Orders of Men be what they will Rulers or Ruled as their several Stations and Conditions are of God's appointment who will not have all to stand on the like Level but pulleth down some and setteth up others will have some to command and others to obey so their several Duties respectively to each other as well as to himself are of his prescription and injunction and consequently as Rulers cannot abuse their Authority and Power without violating the Trust committed by God to them and usurping upon the Authority and Power of God himself pretending to more than they partake of from him and have Commission to execute in his Name so neither can Subjects refuse Subjection and Obedience due to their Rulers without a Violation of a Trust from God and a confronting of his Authority and Power For the Authority and Power of their Rulers is the Authority and Power of God himself as hath formerly been proved and consequently a striving and contending against the Higher Powers is a fighting against God himself and they who presumptuously endeavour to destroy and trample on the Authority and Power of their Governours endeavour to destroy and trample on the Authority and Power of God himself and is not this a provoking of God to jealousy a Presumption that they are higher and stronger than he 1 Cor. 10.22 and doth such presumption deserve less than a State of Damnation 't is the Duty of all to submit unto God and to be contented yea well pleased with all that he requireth of them or imposeth on them and therefore it must needs be extreamly sinful and provoking to strive and fight against him Isa 45.9 Wo unto him that striveth with his Maker For when any man walketh contrary unto God God will also walk contrary unto him Lev. 26.23 24. and when the Contrariety of the Engagement and Action on the Sinners part is attended with the Perversness and Obstinacy of a rebellious Resistance the contrariety on God's part will be in fury vers 28. i. e. a contrariety to the utter-Destruction of the Rebel the fullest and compleatest Punishment Sect. 138. 2. Because a rebellious Resistance of the Higher Powers is a Sin of deliberate Choice inveterate Passion strong and confirmed Resolution a Conscience wasting Sin or in Tertullian's Words