Sermon 31 August 1685 2
The source for this document is https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A58782.0001.001
Project Note
This is licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND. This license allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator.
The source of this document is the Early English Books Online (EEBO-TCP) website. Those books were transcribed in a character for character manner and can be very cumbersome to read since there was no standard spelling during that time. Many spelling variations such as "unlesse", "vnlesse", and "vnles" regularly appear.
This project was conceived to clean up those books as much as possible and make them more accessible to the interested reader, leading to the creation of a massive list of variant spellings and their corrections. This was used to clean up the text, but is of course only as complete as the list itself. Because of the nature of the original transcription, some words have missing characters or places where the original language (e.g., Greek) was not transcribed. This effort does not change that. Be aware that the original transcription can also be faulty and in some cases entire sentences may be missing.
Although this is no substitute for a properly compared, proofed, and scholarly edition, I believe that the result is a document which is far more accessible, particularly for searching for terms using standard spelling. The document has been cleaned and presented in what I hope is a pleasing and useful format for the vast majority of Christian brothers and sisters who just want access to read these spiritually nourishing works.
However, a word of warning: The Puritans were a very diverse group of people and their age was characterized with godliness, but also much upheaval, disputation and strife. They disagreed on many doctrines and some of these works contain less orthodox or Scriptural views than others. The reader is strongly advised to read with discernment, particularly if it is unknown whether author is trustworthy.
This project took a huge amount of time and skill to bring to fruition. I would particularly like to thank David Jonescue for the initial list of Puritans he found on EEBO and the concept behind this project as well as the continuous, unceasing efforts toward seeing this complete. Without his labor, this would not be available. Alex Sarrouf was invaluable in providing the initial list of over 7,000 spelling variations he had identified and corrected, as well as continuing to review more than 16,000 additions to that list for any typos.
Logan West
(with David Jonescue and Alex Sarrouf)
www.puritansearch.org
AN ABSTRACT (With REMARKS ) OF Dr. Scot's Sermon, PREACHED At Chelmsford Assizes, Aug. 31. 1685. WHEREIN The Doctor prophetically gives his Opinion of the Consequences of the late Revolution, concluding with an excellent Character of King JAMES the Second.
St. Luke 19. 22.
Rev. 2. 5.
London, Printed in the Year 1693▪
To the Gentlemen of the Vestry of the Parish of St. Giles in the Fields, in the County of Middlesex.
Gentlemen,
THis little Piece is dedicated to you by a true Lover of your Souls, being an Abstract with Remarks, of an excellent Sermon formerly preached by your now Reverend Doctor, as a Test of whose Veracity this is presented to you. And as it is hoped you will be careful to examine the Doctrines of your Preachers by the Word of God, the holy Scriptures, which is the prime and chief Rule to try the Doctrines of Men by (like the noble Bereans, who searched the Scriptures whether those things were so; i. e. Whether the Doctrines of the Apostles did agree with that Rule and Standard,) so likewise that you will consult as a subordinate Rule, the Books and Writings of your said Reverend Doctor (to whose Conduct you have resigned your Souls) which he made and wrote before these Backsliding and Apostate Times; wherein Men have learned to prevaricate, and prefer their Interest to their Duty, (your Spiritual Guides themselves having stumbled and fallen,) that you may be the better able to judge whether he gives you the true Interpretation of the holy Text, according to the Analogy of Gospel Faith and Manners, or preaches 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , another Gospel, which will Anathematize an Apostle or an Angel, it being your Duty to hold fast the Form of sound Words, and to be Followers of Men as far as they are of Christ.
You'll pardon this Address, coming from one who seeks not yours but you; and who is,
Gentlemen,
Your humble Servant, and sincere and faithful Monitor, Philalethes.
Nov. 6. 1693.ADVERTISEMENT.
SOme Envious Man designing totally to suppress and rob the World of the Benefit of it, having bought up all the Copies that he could meet with, of Dr. Scot 's excellent and famous Sermon preached at Chelmsford Assizes, I have thought fit, and that out of an honest and charitable Design for the public Good, to make this Abstract of the most remarkable Passages in it. And I pray God (to use the Author's Words in his Epistle Dedicatory with a little Alteration) it may answer my honest Intention, which is to do Good to the World by it, to open the Eyes of those miserable misled Souls that in numerous Droves have been seduced into Faction and Disloyalty and to direct their wandering Steps into the Paths of Righteousness, Peace, and Obedience.
An Abstract (with Remarks) of Dr. Scot's Sermon, preached at Chelmford Assizes, on Rom. 13. 1. Let every Soul be subject to the Higher Powers, &c.
HEre is the Extent of this Duty, it is to every Soul; that is, to every Man, of what Order, or Degree, or Quality soever; whether he be High or Low, Rich or Poor, Spiritual or Secular, none are exempted, Let every Soul be subject; without any exception either of St. Peter and his Successors, or of the Body of the People; for the Reason extends equally to both, because the Powers that are are ordained of God; they are by God's Commission, and rule by his Authority; and therefore neither the Bishop of Rome, nor the Majority of the People, can claim exemption from this Duty of Subjection, without arrogating to themselves an Authority superior to God's.
You have here the Matter of this Duty, and that is to be subject; in which comprehensive Phrase is included the whole Duty of Subjects to their Princes and Governors, honoring their Persons, reverencing their Authority, assisting them against their Enemies, defending the Rights of their Government, and conscientiously rendering to them their Customs and Tribute, but more especially and particularly it includes our free and ready Submission to them in yielding a cheerful Obedience to their Commands, so far as we can innocently and consistently with our Duty to God; and where we cannot, in patiently undergoing all those Pains and Penalties they shall think meet to inflict on us for our Disobedience, in suffering their unjust Persecutions without murmuring or clamour, without disturbing their Government, or resisting their Authority, or endeavoring to repel their Force with Force, but meekly submitting our Cause to God, who is the Patron and Protestor of oppressed Innocence.
This Duty of Subjection to our Superiors, implies our meek and patient Submission to the Penalties of their Laws, when upon a full Perswasion of the unlawfulness of them we cannot actually comply with them; for when the Commands of our Prince do interfere with the Commands of God, it is an undoubted Rule, That we must obey God rather than Man: But then at the same time that our Allegiance to the Throne of Heaven obliges us to refuse Active Obedience to our temporal Prince, it indispensably obliges us to render Passive, and not to use any Violence against him, though it be in the Defense of our Estates, or Liberties, or Lives, or which ought to be dearer than all, our Religion; for the just use of Violence is founded in a just Authority over the Person upon whom it is exercised, and supposes a Right in him that uses it to call the Person to account against whom he uses it, and punish him according to his demerit, without which Right the use of Violence is an injurious Outrage and Oppression; but Sovereign Princes are in their several Dominions next to and immediate under God, the most high Sovereign of the World, and therefore having no Authority but his above them, are accountable only at his Tribunal; so that for Subjects, in any Case whatsoever, to offer Violence to their Prince, is to usurp the Throne, and invade his Sovereign Tribunal; for in offering Violence to them we claim a Superiority over them, and in so doing impiously trespass upon the Peculiar of the Almighty, and arrogate his Divine Prerogative of being King of Kings, and Lord of Lord's: For since God alone is placed above them, as being the sole King of Sovereign Kings, how can we assume Superiority over them, without setting ourselves in the Place of God? Unless therefore we will render our selves guilty of the highest Affront to, and Prophanation of, the Divine Majesty, we have no other Remedy, when ever we are reduced to that Extremity, as that we cannot obey our Prince without disobeying God, but to discharge our Duty courageously, and faithfully, and meekly, and quietly to submit to the unjust Persecutions of our Prince, referring our Cause to that Sovereign Tribunal before which Princes and Peasants must one day give Account together, for every unjust and unrighteous Action. And though this may seem a hard Chapter to those who consider only one side of the Case, yet there is nothing more apparent than that the Liberty of resisting Princes would prove a far greater Mischief to the World than all the Cruelties and Oppressions of the most barbarous Tyrants; for what though there was never any Governor so wise and good as not to be chargable with some Faults and Miscarriages, we ought to consider that our World must be governed by Men, and not by Angels, and that perhaps there never was any Lawful Prince so bad, the Benefits of whose Government did not far outweigh the Mischiefs of his Tyranny; and therefore it is wisely eligible for us rather to suffer a less Evil than to deprive ourselves of a greater Good.
The third and last Consideration in this Duty, viz. the Object of it, the Higher Powers; by which its evident we are to understand the Persons of Sovereign Princes and Governors, and not the Laws and Constitutions, as some of our Republican Doctors pretend; for this Epistle was writ either under Claudius or Nero, whose Wills were the only Laws they governed by, and yet these were the Higher Powers to whom the Apostle requires our Subjection; and those whom he here calls the Higher Powers, in the third Verse he calls the Rulers, and in the fourth Verse he tells us that this Higher Power is the Minister of God, a Revenger to execute Wrath upon him that doth evil, which must necessarily be meant of the Governors, and not of the Laws; and accordingly St. Peter thus explains it, 1 Pet. 2. 3. Be subject to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the King, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as Supreme, which is the very Word that is used here for the Higher Powers; so that by the Higher Powers here, must be meant the Person or Persons that are rested with the Supreme and Sovereign Power.
Now the Supreme Power to which we in this Nation owe subjection is the King, whom our Laws do declare and recognize to be our Supreme and Sovereign Lord; for so, for instance, the Statute of Premunire declares, That the Crown of England is in no earthly subjection, but immediately subject to God in all things touching the Regality of the same. —And in other Laws it is declared to be High Treason to Levy Arms against the King, either within or without the Realm, and that it is unlawful for both or either Houses of Parliament to raise or levy War offensive or defensive against his Majesty, or his Heirs and Lawful Successors; and that it is not Lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King, and that we are to abhor that traitorous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person, or against those who are commissioned by him.
I could never have imagined we could be so abandoned of our 〈◊〉 , as in the same Age to act over the same 〈◊〉 again; but if, as a just Punishment of our Sins, God should permit us to be so far infatuated, as to sell our Liberties again for fear of being enslaved, to fight against the Principles of our Religion in the defense of it, to rip up the Bowels of our native Country to preserve it; and in a word, to go to cross a pile with a Company of beggarly Male-contents for our own Estates and Fortunes, and run our selves into present and certain Mischiefs to prevent future and contingent ones; if these things, I say, should happen again, which God forbid, a very small Prophet may easily foretell the woeful Consequences of it; and when we shall see our Fields strewed over again with the Carcasses of our Friends and Relations, our Cities, Towns and Countries, laid waste by an unnatural War, and shall come to cast up our Accounts, and to reckon all the Blood and Treasure we have spent only to purchase Confusion or Slavery, then we shall remember perhaps with Tears in our Eyes, That it was nothing but a Surfeit of Happiness that caused our Misery.
Consider, That upon our dutiful Subjection to our Prince, the Honor of our Religion depends,—
If once it should appear that our Religion is mischievous to Government, Mankind would soon conspire to proclaim War with it, and to decry and exploid it as a public NUSANCE to the World.
And I verily believe should Men consult the Devil himself, what course they were best to take to blast the Honor of Religion, he could not direct them to a more effectual one than under sanctified Pretences to turn Rebels to the Government; and accordingly heretofore the Adversaries of Christianity could find no such effectual Calumny to blast and expose it as this, that it was an Enemy to the Civil Government; as wisely enough considering That could they infuse into Mankind a Belief of this Scandal, there was nothing could be more conducive to antidote Men's Minds against it, and to render it Base and Infamous in the Opinion of the World; whilst therefore we conduct any Seditious Design under the holy Banners of Christianity, we join hands with our open and professed Adversaries, and endeavor so far as in us lies to defend their most malicious Calumnies against it. Whilst therefore we make our Religion a color for our Faction and Disloyalty, we confess it to be guilty of the most infamous thing that it was ever charged with by the worst of its Enemies; viz. That it lays Trains of Factious Principles in Men's Hearts and Consciences, on purpose to blow up Thrones and Governments, and throw the World into Ruins and Confusions.
Consider, That upon our faithful Subjection to our Prince, the Safety of our Religion depends; for there is nothing iu the World can more endanger our Religion than our making it a pretence for Rebellion; for hereby we inevitably expose it to the hatred of Princes, and do what in us lies to arm their Power against it; for by our Actions we do in effect make this open Declaration to them. Sirs, To tell you plainly you may thank our Religion for our Disobedience; we would be Loyal, but it will not suffer us; and therefore ye were best have a care of it, it will undermine your Thrones, and will one time or other arm the hands of your People against your Persons and Dignities: When therefore we set up our Religion against our Governors, we force them in their own Defense to set themselves against it, and to endeavor as far as in them lies to root it out of the World; and if being provoked by our Sedition they should ever draw their Swords against it, it may thank us for it, who first began the Quarrel, and gave the Challenge, and did in effect declare by our Actions, that unless they forced us to lay down our Religion, our Religion would force them to lay down their Crowns; yea, and though we should succeed in our Rebellion, and prove too hard for our Governors, yet first or last our Religion will be sure to smart for it.
Lastly, Consider that if we of this Nation had no other Motive, yet in mere gratitude we stand obliged to render our faithful Subjection to our Prince; for considering with what an easy and indulgent Government, and with what a Succession of excellent Princes God Almighty hath blessed us, I know no Nation under the cope of Heaven that may be so happy as our selves, if we please; for as our Government is, in the Frame and Constitution of it, a most easy Yoke, and gentle Burthen, so, for sundry Ages, we have had Princes as gentle and gracious as our Governments; Princes that have studied our Ease and our Happiness, and that have in nothing so much exceeded as in their Mercy and Indulgence towards us.
Not to mention that pious and every way incomparable Prince Charles I. whose sacred Blood is such a Monumental Shame to Treason and Rebellion, as must make Rebels and Traitors, if they have any modesty in them, blush and be confounded for ever.
And then that Reverend Author proceeds to give an admirable Character of King James the Second.— And now to him (that is, King Charles the Second) in despite of all the Hellish Machinations of a restless Faction, our present Rightful Lord peaceably succeeds; a Prince whom God seems to have reserved on purpose to make us amends for the unestimable Loss we sustained in Charles the Wise and Good: And indeed considering the Great and Princely Virtues which adorn his Mind, and shine through the whole Sphere of his Activity, we have all the Encouragement in the World to promise ourselves a Continuance of those Halcion days, under his happy Influence, if by our intestine Seditions we do not cloud and disturb them, that we have se long enjoyed under the Auspicious Reign of his Brother. For if from an undaunted Courage and Firmness of Mind; if from an immense Greatness and Generosity of Soul; if from an inflexible Sincerity and Integrity of Manners; if from an impartial Justice, sweetened with an endearing Benignity of Temper; if from the fair Conjunction of all these Royal Virtues in a Prince a People may presage their own Happiness, we have all these to build our hope on in our present Sovereign.