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world_n	fear_n	love_n	perfect_a	2,336	5	9.5198	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70493	A vindication of the primitive Christians in point of obedience to their Prince against the calumnies of a book intituled, The life of Julian, written by Ecebolius the Sophist as also the doctrine of passive obedience cleared in defence of Dr. Hicks : together with an appendix : being a more full and distinct answer to Mr. Tho. Hunt's preface and postscript : unto all which is added The life of Julian, enlarg'd.	Long, Thomas, 1621-1707.; Ecebolius, the Sophist. Life of Julian.	1683 (1683)	Wing L2985; ESTC R3711	180,508	416

The Afflictions which God sends do often bear an Inscription of those sins that procured them as when Josephs brethren were under apprehension of great fear they said one to another We are verily guilty concerning our Brother in that we saw him in the anguish of his Soul when he besought us and we would not hear him If we are opprest and persecuted by our own Country-men and false brethren let us consider whether we have not been such and dealt so with our Brethren If God permit us to be persecuted by a Christian Prince consider what guilt yet lieth on the Nation for the Persecution and Murther of a most Christian King and learn to improve the Judgment into a Mercy by repentance and patience under Gods afflicting hand If no such guilt lies upon us then think that God calls us forth as Combatants to shew examples of Christian Faith Love and Resolution in an Age that is corrupted by long prosperity and become effeminate and delicate through plenty and luxury and a Plethory is to be cured by Phlebotomy How the Church thrived under Persecution we have many instances The first Persecution scattering the Disciples caused the Gospel to be planted through the world and being planted the bloud of those that dyed made it so fruitful that the President of Palestine wrote to Tiberius that they were weary of slaying them who never so much as fled or hid themselves and yet multiplyed the more for being put to death Pliny also writing to Trajan complains prope jam desolata templa sacra Solennia diu intermissa It was otherwise when the Church flourished outwardly in the days of Constantius the Christians drove one another from the Altars and by their ambitious and popular Contests made the Sacrifices of God to be abominated by the heathen Whatever the punishment be we must accept it as the demerit of our Sins and as inflicted by a most righteous and glorious God And if because as in the days of Constantius we denie the power of godliness and exercise of Charity to one another it is just with God to deprive us of the very form of it and commit us to be Chastised by a common Enemy as they were by Julian We must bear the Indignation of the Lord because we have sinned against him Consider what Christ suffered for us he endured the Cross despising the shame and being now at the right hand of God calls on us to follow his Example promising that if we suffer we shall also reign with him And shall our Saviour be forsaken as soon as he is apprehended and be again called on to come down from the Cross that we may believe in him shall we draw back as the beasts were wont from that Altar which our Saviour hath sanctified and made our surest Sanctuary against Evils Think it not strange saith St. Peter 1.4.12 concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as if some strange thing had hapned to you but rejoyce in as much as you are made partakers of Christs sufferings that when his Glory shall appear ye may be glad with exceeding joy Would our Saviour have bid us to rejoyce and be exceeding glad when we suffer persecution for his sake if it were a thing impossible that as Afflictions do abound so our Consolations shall also With what an Emphasis doth the Spirit of God describe the blessedness of them that suffer or die for the sake of Christ 1 Pet. 4.14 the Spirit of God and of Glory i. e. the glorious Spirit of God resteth on you and vers 15. If any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God on this behalf And so St. John Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their works follow them Revel 14.13 Be thou faithful unto death to the suffering of death and I will give thee a Crown of life Revel 2.10 If we did indeed believe all that to be true which our Saviour hath told us we would not be offended at the Cross The growth of our fears is from the decay of our Faith Why are ye fearful O ye of little Faith Abraham who was strong in Faith was also perswaded that what God had promised he was able to perform and therefore offered up his onely Son who was dearer than his own life and left his Country and Kindred at the Command of God This was the Victory whereby the ancient Worthies overcame a world of Persecutors even their Faith that Faith that gave a subsistence to things to come and apprehended them as present that Faith that made them look through things Temporal to things Eternal They could as the Proto-martyr St. Stephen see the heavens opened and Christ standing at the right hand of God Et quid pulchrius Deo spectaculum quam Christianus cum dolore congressus quum adversum minas supplicia tormenta componitur No spectacle is more pleasing to God than a well-composed Christian conflicting with punishments and torments Christ as it were leaves his seat and stands up not onely to behold but to encourage and assist such Combatants Non enim nos spectat tantum sed in nobis ipse luctatur And when Christ takes all that is done to his Members as done to himself when in all their afflictions he is afflicted when he assures us as by his Word and Oath that he will never leave us nor forsake us And that all things shall co-operate to our good If the love of Christ were indeed shed abroad in our hearts it would constrain us to do and suffer any thing that he shall call or command us to do or suffer For there is no fear in love perfect love will cast out all base fears Love would so unite us to him whom we love that as nothing could on Christs part separate us from his love so neither would any thing on our part work a separation Rom. 8.38 And what is there in the world or in our selves of such weight as the full enjoyment of our Saviour may not outweigh here is nothing but sin and misery infirmities and temptations daily assaulting us and leading us Captives The very Heathen that had no hopes of a better life saw cause to be weary of this and esteemed it the greatest blessing not to be born but the next to it to die speedily But to us Christians to whom Cita mors est victoria laeta death should be esteemed a gain it is a passage from a vale of tears to a Crown and Kingdom where we shall be ever with the Lord. Wherefore lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees and make your selves ready for your last journey to your everlasting Rest. And let them that are called to suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to him in well doing as to a faithful Creator 1 Pet. 4.19 AN APPENDIX Containing A more full and particular Answer to

Christian Shall the Priviledges which Christian Princes grant us be used as Weapons to fight and rebel against them Was it lawful for the Catholicks to rebel against Constantius when he was a declared Heretick and by great violence promoted that damnable Heresie as Bishop Vsher calls it suppressing and banishing the Orthodox and setting up the Arian Is it not said that if we suffer wrongfully i. e. against Law and Equity and take it patiently this is thank-worthy with God Can you without Sacriledge take away the Crowns from all the Martyrs that died ever since Julians time and tell us they died like Fools or mad men and were felo's de se for not selling their Lives at a dearer rate and like Sampson pull down the Pillars of the Empire with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If I must perish let the whole world perish with me Or can you think that they perished in the next world for perishing in this when Christ tells them he that loseth his life shall save it If it be unjust in the Prince to deprive us of our Rights against the Law of the Land is it not much more so for us to deprive him of his against the Law of God as well as that of the Land too And have we not generally I mean the Clergie at least Subscribed That it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever not of Religion nor of the Laws to take up Arms c. Non debet minor potestas irasci si major praelata sit The Laws of the Land must give place to the Law of God The contrary to all these are the monstrous Consequences of your new distinction that allows of Rebellion when we suppose the Laws of the Land to be on our side I say suppose them for Wars have been raised and maintained on such a false Supposition And if when the Prince declares that he doth and will govern by the known Laws we shall Remonstrate that he doth not and suggest our groundless and unreasonable Fears and Jealousies that he will not who shall be Judge in this Case Shall the people take the Sword in their hands to cut this Gordian-knot and cut us all in pieces We have God be thanked many good Laws for our security and a gracious Prince that hitherto hath and will govern by them but we have one great Law of God and another of the Land that though he should not yet we may not rebel That excessive commendation which our Author gives of Constantius makes me think he hath exceeded also in the dispraise of Julian p. 70. Never any man in this world set his heart so much upon any other thing as he did to see the Christians flourish and to have all the advantages of glorie and power And neither conquered Nations nor a well-govern'd Empire nor great Treasures nor excessive Glorie nor being King of Kings nor all other things which make up other mens notions of Happiness did delight him so much as to have the honour of bringing honour to the Christians and of leaving them established for ever in the possession of Power and Authoritie And yet as it was said of Naaman that mightie man of Valour But he was a Leper so it is recorded of Constantius he was an Arian and persecuted the Church of God I think I have said enough already to confute the insignificant Instances produced by our Author when I gave you the more sober sence of St. Gregorie himself of St. Basil Ambrose and Bernard all which lived when they had the Laws on their side and the best Religion in the world to defend and yet they durst not do it by the Sword if they could have done it for I shall not now question their power Tertullian did assert that of old and the Learned Hammond hath put the truth of it out of question in his Answer to Mr. Stephen Marshal But says our Author p. 70. For Julian who by his Baptism first and entring into Orders after and going to Church after that sufficiently engaged himself to maintain Christianitie to endeavour on the other hand to dispossess them of their Freehold is an insupportable injurie It was so indeed and I would have our Author consider whether for a man that hath been received into the Bosom of the Church and hath eaten of her Bread and approved of her Doctrine to become an Apostate from that holy Profession and expose that Church and Christianity it self to scorn and contempt be not to out-do Julian I shall desire the Reader patiently to look on while I remove those few Blockadoes which our Author hath laid in my way and then I shall attack that inchanted Castle wherein those two Giants think themselves so secure as to laugh at all opposition that can be made against them That of Juventinus and Maximus mentioned a third time in p. 72. is already level'd if there were a Sham-plot against them our Author seems to be one of their accusers for talking too boldly against the Emperour which they utterly denied A second Sham-plot was of Sacriledge p. 72. but I see no man concerned in that neither shall I fight with Shadows as our Author doth P. 73. Old Bracton is conjured up and he presently flies in the face of the Conjurers and tells them that when Laws are made by the consent of the people and the Royal Authority they cannot be altered or destroyed without the joynt consent of all those by whom they were concerned And yet the Laws of Queen Elizabeth for keeping her Subjects in due obedience are exploded as some of the Grievances of the Nation With what face can they plead the Laws of the Land for their security who daily violate and contemn them and teach others to do so And in p. 74. our Author is surprised with the Thebaean Legion which appeared to him as a Legion of Noon-day Devils and he wonders who should raise them up he cries out as that Legion Matth. 8.22 Art thou come to torment us What have we to do with thee O Thebaean Legion what have we to do with their Example No I 'll warrant my Author he shall never die for his Religion as they did he hath parted with that already for fear of what might come And this Thebaean Legion is such a terrible immortal Army as will defeat all Rebels to the worlds end Are we says our Author to go to Mass to morrow or else to have our Throats cut No nor are we to cut our Princes Throat to day for fear lest he should compel us to go to Mass to morrow Such fears were as groundless in the daies of Charles the First as of Charles the Second yet we see what was then done Again Are we under a Sentence of Death according to the Laws of our Country if we do not presently renounce our Religion No but if we presently renounce our Religion as our Author hath done and then contrive a Rebellion we are under a Sentence of a