made the Condition of Peace For tho it were Lawful for Subjects to Resist their Prince for subverting Laws surely this don 't make it Lawful for them to Murder him for observing the Laws which he is sworn to observe And therefore whether it were Rebellion or not before one would think it should commence Rebellion when the Scotch Covenant the Abolishing of Episcopacy and Liturgies that is of the Worship and Government of the Church Established by Law were made the necessary Articles of Peace without which a Prince who sued for Peace must be denied it by his own Subjects And yet it is much worse still when a Prince for the sake of Peace shall make such Concessions tho it may be to the diminution of his just Authority as the Estates of the Realm shall Vote Satisfactory and yet be Persecuted by a Prevailing Faction who had got the Power in their hands and did equally oppress both King and Subjects I need not comment upon these things you know the Truth and the Application of them 2 dly And yet it is a monstrous Aggravation of this when they had a yeilding and complying Prince in their hands as far as with a safe Conscience he could comply to arraign judge condemn and execute him For what Authority had they to judge and condemn their King How came they to be his Soveraign and He their Subject What Law or Rule made such an Example or President as this And if they had no Authority for it it was Murder and that the most execrable Murder the Murder of their King It was a Sarcastical Question of Pilate to the Jews Will ye crucifie your King This they were ashamed of and therefore Disowned him We have no King but Caesar If the murder of a private man be so great a crime because in the Image of God made he man what is the Murder of a King who is doubly Sacred doubly the Image of God both as a Man and as a King who is God's Minister and Vicegerent And yet a secret Stab or Poyson had been a civil way of Murdering Princes in comparison with this Mock-Scene and Pageantry of Justice For what a Tragical Sight was this How could Humane Nature bear such an Indignity To see a Crown'd Head which not long since received the humblest Submissions of his Subjects and had Life and Death at his disposal who was the Fountain of all Authority and Justice now Arraigned before his own Subjects treated with Ignominy and Scorn brought in Triumph through his own Palace where he used to Shine with an Awful Majesty and in the fight of the Sun in the fight of his own Subjects who scarce durst bestow a secret Sigh on him bow his Royal Head to the Murdering Axe I cannot bear telling thâ— Story and were it upon any other occasion I should think it very unmannerly to put you to so much pain as to hear it And if to this we add the Character of his Person and those Princely Vertues which adorn'd his life such Vertues as are rarely found in meaner Persons nay which would have adorned even a Hermits Cell it still aggravates the Iniquity of it But I shall not insist on this for he has drawn the Picture of himself in his admirable Book better than any one else can draw it It is an amazing Providence That God should expose the greatest Example of Piet yand Vertue that had sate upon the English Throne to such Indignities and Sufferings as in all the Circumstances of them had no Example What Wise Reasons God had for it we know not but I am sure thus much we learn That there is a Spirit of Zeal and Faction the Principles of which if not restrained will ruin the best Princes and over-turn the best Governments in the world for they make little difference between Princes where they can find Pretence and Power This was a very great Wickedness for which it becomes us as we do this day to humble our selves before God and to implore his Mercy to Pity and Spare us It is not enough to say That we had no hand in it that it was done before many of us were born or before we could know and judge any thing about it or that we did abhor and detest it when it was done This will excuse us from all Personal Guilt we shall not answer for it in another world but we may suffer for it in this National Sins bring down National Judgments which all men will more or less feel till they are removed by a National Repentance and Humiliation And therefore tho we cannot confess this Sin as our own Personal Guilt we ought to express our Publick Abhorrence of it to beg God to remove those Judgments which this Sin has both deserved and has brought upon us especially after so many days wherein we have been afflicted after so many years wherein we have seen evil 2. Which brings me to the second part of my Text Those many Evils we have seen and felt Those Judgments with which God has afflicted us for this Sin For so we have reason to believe when the Punishment bears the Character of the Sin upon it and is the natural effect and consequent of it I shall not give you a History of those late Tragical Times which most of you know as well or better than I do How much this unhappy Divided Kingdom suffered by a Bloody Unnatural War which ruined so many Noble and Flourishing Families made so many miserable Widows and Orphans spent so much Christian Blood and Treasure ruined the best Reformed Church together with the best Prince put the Sword into those mens hands who knew better than to part with it when they had it till they had carved out their own Fortune and Greatness I need not tell you That the fundamental Constitution of the English Government was overturned and exchanged for new Models which did not last long enough to be lick'd into any shape and at last dwindled and glimmer'd away in some short and faint Apparitions of Power How the Subject was all this while oppressed by the worst sort of Oppressors their Fellow-subjects and found a vast deal of difference between the Government of their King with all his Faults and their new Masters These things I say I shall pass over for thanks be to God there is an end of them and they remain only in Story as Sea-marks to warn us where the Rocks and Sands lie but such violent Storms as these seldom end without leaving a rowling and troubled Sea These terrible Convulsions of State like a sharp fit of the Gout when the pain is gone leave a great weakness upon the Government and make it very unquiet and liable to frequent Relapses As for Example This destroys all confidence between Prince and Subjects leaves ill Resentments Jealousies Distrusts which make Government uneasie and weak when a Prince cannot trust his Subjects nor Subjects their Prince but they guard and fence
against each other the one to secure his Crown the other their Liberties An unhappy state which must needs make all Publick Affairs move slowly and lamely and create many Inconveniences to a Kingdom both at home and abroad This temps Princes to affect Arbitrary Power when they feel their Crowns sit tottering upon their Heads and see themselves check'd at every turn and it may be finally stopt in the most generous Designs to advance the Glory Safety Riches and Power of their Nation nay find themselves too weak to secure their Government from Foreign Powers or from Home-bred Factions without it I believe no considering man doubts but that the late Attempts to introduce Arbitrary Power in form of Law were principally owing to the Tragedy of this Day And if it were possible any thing could excuse such Attempts this would have done it However we ought to acknowledge that those Difficulties we so lately strugled under and from which the good Providence of God has delivered us were the just punishment because the just desert and the unavoidable effect of our Sin While this is the state of things without setting up the Royal Standard or levying Forces Prince and Subjects however the matter may be dissembled are at War with each other and how uneasy a state this is and how much the Publick suffers by it our late Experience will tell us or nothing will Arbitrary Power and Popery were the two great Pretences to justify the War against King Charles I. Now whatever appearances there might be of the first through mistake and ill Councel and the necessity of Affairs which might misguide an Excellent Prince there was little pretence for the second besides a Fanatical Imputation of Popery to the Church of England of which that Prince was so zealous a Patron The Church of England I say the great Bulwark against Popery whose first Reformers sealed their Testimony against Popery with their Blood and whose many Learned Pens have defended the Protestant Cause to the great satisfaction of all the Protestant Churches and to the Confusion of their Popish Adversaries and that even in the late Reign when few other Pens durst engage in the Quarrel But observe now as Adonibezeck does how God has required us To prevent the vain Fears of Popery Protestants take Arms against their King barbarously murder him and drive their Princes to seek their Bread and to secure their Lives in Foreign Countries There one of them learns the Religion of those Countries which is a very convenient Religion for a Prince who affects to be Absolute And this brought our Fears upon us we saw a Zealous Popish Prince and Popish Bishops and such bold steps made to set up Popery as made us all tremble Righteous are thou O Lord and just are thy judgments On the other hand this makes Subjects very jealous of the Power of their Prince and ready to take all Advantages to lessen it which in time may prove very dangerous to Government at least will insensibly alter the Constitution For too little Power is as fatal to Government as too much nay in some junctures it is the most dangerous Extream of the two for what we call too much Power may be well used when in the Hand of a wise and good Prince And then the more the Power is the stronger and more flourishing must the Government and Nation be but too little Power can never Govern well when the Government is so weak that it can neither defend it self nor its Subjects and therefore the just Rights and Prerogatives of the Crown and the necessary Powers and Authority for Government ought to be as dear to Subjects as their own Rights and Liberties are It is certain Power will be somewhere if the Prince loose it the People will get it and when once the People gain such a Power as to top their Prince there is an end of Monarchy As absolute Power changes the Constitution of a Legal and Limited Monarchy into an Arbitrary Government so a precarious depending Power changes the Monarchy it self into a Venetian State Both which Extreams wise Men who love the English Government would by all means avoid and it is a very great mischief when Princes or Subjects are violently Tempted to either of the Extreams and this we owe also to the Sin of this Day Another very lasting and fatal Evil of such Examples as that of this day is that it infects Mens minds with loose Notions of Government and Obedience which are at first invented to justifie such Actions and which People are sooner taught then untaught As that all Power is radically in the People and therefore but a trust which a Prince must give an account of which he may be deprived of for the Abuse of which he may be Punished even with Death by his own Subjects Nay there are some among us who charge all Men who deny this with being Enemies to the Constitution and with reproaching the Wisdom and Justice of the Nation in the late happy Revolution which they think can be defended upon no other Principles But as wise Men and as hearty Friends to the present Government think otherwise and I am sure it would be no Service to the Government to perswade all who cannot own these Principles to disown and renounce all that has been done But how does it appear that the late Revolution turned upon these Principles The Undertaking of the Prince of Orange now our Gracious King needed none of these Principles to justify it He was no Subject of England but an Independent Prince and so nearly related to the Crown that he was concerned to see the Succession secured and the Government kept upon its ancient Bottom which was thought so just and honourable and necessary an Undertaking that Men of all Principles seemed very well satisfied with it even those who think the Matter carried so far that they cannot now comply with the present Government in so much that some who are the greatest Sufferers at present by their Non-compliance could not be perswaded at that time to declare their abhorrence of it The great Body of the Nation stood still and looked on wished well to the Prince without wishing ill to the King's Person or to the just Exercise of his Authority And I am verily perswaded there were very few even among those who were more active who at that time while the King continued with us ever thought of more then to obtain a free parliament by whose mature Counsels the Law might be restored to its due Course and the Religion and Liberties of England secured But the King would not stand this Tryal but disbands his Army withdraws his Person without leaving any Authority behind him to administer the Government No body ever thought that this was a perfectly free and voluntary Act but however gone he was and had left no body behind him to govern by his Authority and then the Government was either dissolved or the Power
The Dean of St. Pauls's SERMON Before the Honourable House of Commons On the 30 th of January 1691 2. Lunae 1 mo die Februarii 1691. ORdered That the Thanks of this House be given to the Dean of St. Paul's for the Sermon Preached before this House at St. Margaret's Westminster the 30 th day of January last And that he be desired to Print the same And that Sir Tho. Darcy and Mr. Biddolph do acquaint him therewith Paul Jodrell Cl ' Dom. Com. A SERMON Preach'd before the HONOURABLE House of Commons AT St. MARGARET's WESTMINSTER January the XXXth 1691 2. By WILLIAM SHERLOCK D. D. Dean of St. Paul's Master of the Temple and Chaplain in Ordinary to Their MAJESTIES LONDON Printed for William Rogers at the Sun over-against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleeâ—street 1692. A SERMON Preach'd before the HOUSE of COMMONS On the XXXth of January 1691 2. XC PSALM 15. Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us and the years wherein we have seen evil THIS Psalm as the Title tells us and as Learned Men generally agree is a Prayer of Moses penned by him as is supposed after God had pronounced that final Sentence against the Israelites That none of that great Army which came out of Egypt from twenty years old and upwards should enter into Canaan but should all die in the Wilderness excepting Caleb and Joshua And therefore he complains We are consumed in thy anger and by thy wrath are we troubled Thou hast set our iniquities before Thee our secret sins in the light of thy countenance For all our days are passed away in thy wrath we spend our years as a tale that is told Which is literally true of no other period of the Jewish Church but this when God in great anger had condemned them all to die in the Wilderness They lived then to little other purpose but to pass away the time as men tell Stories till forty years should put an end to them all But in my Text and some Verses before he prays for and foretells a more happy state of the Jewish Church when all the Troubles they had suffered for so many years in Egypt and the Wilderness should come to an end and they should be setled in a quiet possession of the promised Land Return O Lord how long and let it repent thee concerning thy servants O satisfy us early with thy mercy that we may rejoice and be glad all our days Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us and the years wherein we have seen evil So that in my Text there are three things considerable 1. The first is implied That sin for which God thus punished them For that it was for their sins not only the Justice of the Divine Providence supposes when the Calamity is National but the Psalmist expresly affirms v. 8. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee our secret sins in the light of thy countenance Which intimates that there were more sins than one and some of them very secret ones too for which God punished them For so commonly it is that a great many sins such as we have forgot or took little notice of are brought to account when some one great Provocation tempts God to publick Acts of Vengeance If we apply this to the Case I before mentioned then it is very evident what this provoking Sin was viz. Their murmuring against that good Land their rebelling against God and Moses their attempt to make them a Captain to return into Egypt and to stone Caleb and Joshua who encouraged them to go up and take possession of the Land which God had promised to their Fathers Num. 14. 2. Their Punishment The continuance and severity of it They were to wander in the Wilderness Forty Years and to die there without entring into that good Land 3. Moses's Prophetick Prayer That God would return to them in Mercy and recompence these Sufferings by giving them a quiet possession of the Land of Promise Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us and the years wherein we have seen evil Our case which is the occasion of this present Solemnity differs somewhat from this in every particular but yet bears such an Analogy and proportion to it that I shall take occasion from hence to discourse to you on these Three Heads 1. The Sin which we this day Lament 2. The Evils and Calamities which we have now for more than Forty Years in some degrees or other and sometimes very severely suffered under as the natural effects or just Punishments of that Sin 3. What a happy Prospect we have of an end of all these Evils if we can be contented to be Happy 1. As for the First The Sin we this Day lament I shall make no scruple to call it what you have this Day in your Publick Prayers to Almighty God confessed it to be The Barbarous Murder of an Excellent Prince And those are guilty of base Hypocrisie and put a great Contempt upon God who join in the Devotions of this Day and don't think it so Besides our imploring the Divine Mercy and Forgiveness I have sometimes thought that such an Annual Solemnity as this is due to the Memory of our murdered Prince the least Recompence we can make to him and yet the greatest thing we can now do for him To celebrate his Funeral with a Religious Pomp and to shed Penitential Tears upon his Grave And indeed such an Honourable Presence as this gives an illustrious Testimony to him and vindicates his Memory from those scurrilous Reflections which are made on it by envenomed Pens I shall not dispute the Lawfulness of Resisting the King's Authority whether it were Lawful for the Parliament to take Arms against the King to Defend the Laws and Liberties of their Countrey for whether it were or were not all Wise and Good Men must abominate the Villany of this Day as we know many of those did who began the War without being aware what the end of it would be For suppose which is all that can be asked in this case That in a Limited Monarchy the Estates of the Realm have Authority to maintain the Laws and Liberties of their Countrey against the Illegal Encroachments and Usurpations of their King How does this justifie the Murder of King Charles For 1. They could pretend to no farther Right than to keep the King within the Boundaries of Law and when they were secured of this they had nothing else to do but to lay down their Arms and return to their Duty for he was their King still and they his Subjects and if it were no Rebellion to resist his illegal Usurpations yet it must be Rebellion to oppose him when he was contented to Govern by the Measures of Law if there be any such Sin as what men use to call Rebellion Especially when the Subversion of the Laws and Government and Established Religion of the Nation is