I TOLD them we did not pray for Charles Stuart, but for all Christian Kings, Princes, and Governors.* They replied, in so doing we prayed for the King of Spain, too, who was their enemy and a Papist,* with other frivolous and ensnaring questions, and much threatening; and, finding no colour to detain me, they dismissed me with much pity of my ignorance. These were men of high flight and above ordinances, and spake spiteful things of our Lord’s Nativity.* As we went up to receive the Sacrament, the miscreants held their muskets against us, as if they would have shot us at the altar; but yet suffering us to finish the office of Communion, as perhaps not having instructions what to do, in case they found us in that action. So I got home late the next day; blessed be God!
* See 1 Timothy 2:1, where St Paul exhorts St Timothy “that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.”
* See however Matthew 5:44: “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”
* The objection seems to have arisen from a misreading of Galatians 4:10, taking it to mean that St Paul did not want Christians to observe a religious calendar. Yet the same St Paul ignored the pleas of friends and risked death just to be at Jerusalem for the anniversary of Pentecost, a Christian holy day taken over from Judaism and, as it happens, one of the days suppressed by Parliament in 1647. See Acts 20:16 and following. Galatia was an exceptional case, in which Christians fearful of persecution had undergone circumcision, and were identifying as Jews by observing Jewish festivals and regulations. That fear explains why Paul accused these ‘Jews’ of appeasing the idols they had once served, i.e. the gods of Rome.