"There are very many cases of war concerning which God hath declared nothing": a wartime sermon from Jeremy Taylor

During Remembrancetide this year, laudable Practice will be sharing extracts from some wartime sermons from Anglicans across the centuries. The purpose of this exercise is to indicate the nuances, reserve, and moderation in such preaching.

Today, a Taylor sermon from his Golden Grove collection (printed in 1651). Preached in the aftermath of Royalist defeat in the civil war - Taylor had been a chaplain to Royalist forces and was taken prisoner by Parliamentarian forces in 1645 - the sermon challenged pronouncements that the enemy was evil, that God's judgement upon the enemy was to be expected, and that God's purposes in time of war could be easily identified. This sermon was preached to the members of a household firmly committed to the defeated Royalist cause.

Whoever suffer in a cause of God from the hands of cruel and unreasonable men, let them not be too forward to prognosticate evil and death to their enemies; but let them solace themselves in the assurance of the divine justice by general consideration, and, in particular, pray for them that are our persecutors ... it is not always certain that God will be angry with every man by whose hand affliction comes upon us. And sometimes two armies have met, and fought, and the wisest man amongst them could not say that either of the princes had prevaricated either the laws of God or of nations; and yet, it may be, some superstitious, easy, and half-witted people of either side wonder that their enemies live so long. And there are very many cases of war concerning which God hath declared nothing: and although in such cases he that yields and quits his title rather than his charity and the care of so many lives, is the wisest and the best man; yet if neither of them will do so, let us not decree judgments from heaven in cases where we have no word from heaven, and thunder from our tribunals where no voice of God hath declared the sentence. But in such cases where there is an evident tyranny or injustice, let us do like the good Samaritan, who dressed the wounded man, but never pursued the thief; let us do charity to the afflicted, and bear the cross with nobleness, and 'look up to Jesus, who endured the cross, and despised the shame': but let us not take upon us the office of God, who will judge the nations righteously, and when He hath delivered up our bodies will rescue our souls from the hands of unrighteous judges.

From Taylor's sermon 'The Faith and Patience of the Saints', Part III, in The Whole Works of Jeremy Taylor, Volume IV. The picture is of the memorial at Marston Moor, commemorating the 1644 battle.

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