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A64881 A sermon preached before His Excellency, the Ld. Lieutenant and the two Houses of Parliament in Christ's-Church, Dublin when they first met there together on Sunday, October 16, 1692 / by John, Lord Archbishop of Tuam. Vesey, John, 1636-1716. 1692 (1692) Wing V284; ESTC R23591 11,307 22

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A SERMON PREACHED Before His EXCELLENCY THE L d. Lieutenant AND THE Two HOUSES of PARLIAMENT IN Christ's Church DUBLIN When They First Met there together On Sunday October 16. 1692. By JOHN Lord Archbishop of TVAM Publish'd by His Excellency's Special Command LONDON Printed for R. Clavel at the Peacock in St. Paul's Church Yard 1692. JUDG XVII 6. In those days there was no King in Israel but every Man did that which was Right in his own Eyes THE Book of Judges contains Memorials of the State and People of the Jews from the Death of Joshua to the Time that Eli Judged Israel with whose Government the first Book of Samuel begins and carries on their History We have here an Account of many Vicissitudes of their Government and of many very Remarkable Passages concerning the Manners and Behaviour the Sufferings and Deliverances of that Stubborn and Apostatizing People From the day that they left Egypt they were on every Turn murmuring against Moses their Deliverer all their Grievances are put to his Account If they at any time want Flesh or Bread or Water they immediately charge him with mis-management wish they had still continu'd Slaves so they might have eaten Onions and Garlick and Flesh in Egypt So that God was forc'd often to stop their Mouths by Miracles and sometimes to vindicate the Authority of his Servant by extraordinary Judgments on those that Rebell'd against it So difficult a thing it was to keep them to their Duty even when Moses was King in Jesurun and was Conducting them from Bondage into Liberty But they had not long past over Jordan and Enjoy'd Rest from their Enemies before they fell to their old Trade They serv'd the Lord all the days of Joshua and of the Elders that out-lived him but these were scarce Cold in their Graves and but just gather'd to their Fathers when there arose another Generation which knew not the Lord but did evil in his sight and follow'd other Gods insomuch that his anger often waxed hot that they could not stand against their Enemies Nevertheless upon their Repentance God still rais'd them up Judges and delivered them all the days of the Judge But as soon as he died they again corrupted themselves more than their Fathers and ceased not from their own doings nor from their stubborn way This is the Account we have of them in the Second Chapter which describes the Heads and Contents of the Book following which is fill'd with little else but such like various Turns of their Affairs of their Sins and their Punishments and of their Repentance and Deliverance The Text is an Historical Remark which the Collector of these Passages makes of a certain Inter-Regnum or Intercision in their Civil Government and of the Consequences that Naturally and Usually attend such a State and Frame of Things And accordingly I shall take an Occasion to offer to your Consideration the great misery of a People when they are without restraint from civil Government Which I shall with all plainness endeavour to lay before you from two Heads of Discourse which are obvious in the Text. I. Here is a Vacancy in the Throne In those days there was no King in Israel II. A General Debauchery or Universal Depravation of Manners Every Man did that which was right in his own Eyes When we have viewed and considered these Particulars I shall in a few Practical Inferences bring them home to our own Doors and there leave their Application I. Here is a Vacancy in the Throne There was in those Days no King in Israel By the word King in this Text we are not I conceive to understand that Form of Government only which we call a Monarchy but Civil Government in general if the Text did intend that Form precisely and exclusively of all others it would I confess be the strongest Argument of the Excellency and Usefulness thereof and a reflection upon all other Models as being less sufficient for their ends We might from such an Exposition infer That the Monarchical Government is the most Powerful and Effectual Restraint to the Passions and Vices of Men. As if we shou'd say There were other Governours the standing Council of the Great Sanhedrim and other Inferiour Judicatories but these could not check the insolencies of Men nor stop the course of impiety or violence these could not hinder or durst not punish the Riots and Unlawful Assemblies of the Wicked and Unruly Sons of Belial There was no King and therefore every Man did as he pleas'd as if no Lord were over them But I conceive such an Exposition is too narrow and not altogether true For as Solomon observes Prov. XXX 27. The Locusts who have no King yet go forth all of them by Bands So other Constitutions of Government may have Unity and order and strength to enforce their respective Laws and the Finger of their Discipline is found sometimes to be heavier than the Loins of Monarchy the Generosity and Clemency of Kings at least of some Kings Dispensing in some matters with a rigid conformity to their Laws while others who affect a shew of more liberty prove generally more severe Exactors of obedience And therefore by No King in Israel I am content you may understand a Cessation of Civil Authority in general and not of any particular Form of its Administration So that No King shall signifie no Government in Israel But then this kind of Government being here put to signifie any other we may reasonably conclude Either 1. That this viz. A Monarchy is the best of all the several kinds the most apt and sufficient for its ends Parcere Subjectis Debellare Superbos for the Terror of Evil Doers and the Praise of them that do Well Or 2. That that Government by which God presided over the Jews in the times of Moses and Joshua and the Judges did more resemble that of a King than any other sort of administration whether of Aristocracy or Democracy And therefore we may have leave to think that such a Paternal Government in a Gentle well-temper'd Monarchy is most like the divine Theocracy over that Nation and consequently where ever it obtains in any other is most Acceptable and Pleasing unto God as the nearest Approach to the Pattern in the Mount the primitive model Scheme which he contriv'd for his own People And therefore if any Form of Government be of Divine Right more than another such a kind of Monarchy bids fairest for the Character as being a Copy from the Divine Original The rays of Soveraignty did not indeed dazle the eyes here so much as in the Tyrannies of the Nations but they were more Benign and better suited to the Nature and Genius of a free People The circumstances of Majesty were not so glittering and gaudy nor the power so Absolute and Despotical but was sufficiently qualified to answer all the Necessities both of Prince and People Power is a wild and often a Destructive
thing if it be not fix'd by Law and sweeten'd by some Allay and it becomes not only more useful and Beneficial by being somewhat Limited and Circumscrib'd but also more durable and strong by the willingness of the People to live under it where it is their Interest to support and Maintain it as well as Duty to obey it But in this Government of the Jews there could be no defect every want was supply'd by the special Providence of the All-Wise and Almighty Monarch For when the Lord rais'd them up Judges the Lord was with the Judge and deliver'd them out of the Hands of their Enemies all the days of the Judge Chap. II. 18. All the defect was in the Frowardness of the people when they would not hearken to their Judges Vers 17. but went a Whoring after other Gods either inventing new Gods or new-ways of worship after the fashion of their neighbours at last throwing off with their Religion even their form of civil Polity both which God had instituted for them Thus at one time as soon as Moses turn'd his back they cry out to Aaron Make us Gods to go before us and of their Idols so made These be thy Gods O Israel and at another time to Samuel for a King to Rule them after the manner of the Nations And these things became matter of Gods high and just Displeasure against them not that such a form was simply and in it self unlawful but because they were given to Change and grew weary both of the worship which he had prescribed for them and the Government by which he had deliver'd them at first out of Aegypt and carried them into Canaan and there frequently rescu'd them from such as oppressed and held them in Subjection The provocation had been equal to have desir'd a Parliament or any other Regimen than that which God himself had chosen for them and this appears in the reason he gives of his displeasure to Samuel 1 Sam. VIII 7. For in so doing they have not rejected thee but me that I should not Reign over them Having said thus much of the first thing in the Text viz. the dissolution of the civil Government among the Jews or the Vacancy of the Throne I need not trouble you with the enquiry about the period of time to which this observation refers about which I cannot find that Agreement on which one may build any certainty But certain it is it could not be after the times of Eli and of Sampson though it is so placed in the History because we find Phineas the Son of Eleazer was alive and attended the Altar even after this Chap. XX. 28. The things therefore here Recorded and in the following Chapters of this Book are most probably conceiv'd to happen soon after the death of Joshua and the Elders that were Contemporary with him when as you already heard they forsook the Lord and God forsook them and leaving them without Rule and Government to do what was right in their own Eyes they became an easie Prey to every Tyrant But it does not much concern us to know when those days were if there were at any time such days in which there was No King in Israel And that there were such appears by the frequent mention of this Phrase in several parts of this Book the Writer whereof seems not so Critical about the Chronology as the matters he relates as not confining himself so much to the Laws of Method as the simplicity of Truth And so I come from considering the Vacancy in their Government to view the Consequence of such a State II. In the Second Point in the Text which is this An universal Debauchery and Depravation of manners and who indeed could expect other Who that considers how difficult it is even with Bit and Bridle to restrain the hard mouth of the multitude It will try the Patience the Wisdom the Courage of the most able and experienc'd Rulers even in the best Governments when they are Arm'd with Power and bear not the Sword in vain to quench the Fire of Ambition and keep down the Passions of Men from boyling over into Lust and Rage and Revenge But when there is none to guide the Chariot to Address the Motion to check and arrest the Furies that draw it into what precipices will they not run God help those that sit in the One or stand in the way of the Other This State of things is Deplorable but 't is unavoidable from the Other every Man will then do what is right in his own Eyes Whether this Expression does more fully describe the Sinful or the Miserable estate of a People is a question but that it does both I think is none 1. It does import the Sinfulness and Wickedness of a People walking by this Rule For to do what is right in our own Eyes is what we daily confess to be our Sin in following too much the Devices and Desires of our own Hearts It is an Expression that is best measur'd by it's contrary viz. To do what is right in the sight of God And therefore we are Commanded Numb XV. 39. to seek his Statutes and not to go after our own Hearts and our own Eyes and throughout this Book these Phrases are set in Opposition to each other The Phrase indeed consider'd abstractively is capable of a better sence to follow the Conduct of Right Reason but it is plain that cannot be the Construction here but the contrary And I think there is no Expression that gives us a more full and compleat Character of a Person or a People wholly abandoned to a Vicious Profligate and Sensual Life 2. It does as necessarily imply the Miserable Estate of any People For no Man is secure of any thing though never so dear or valuable The World is too narrow for the Ambition and Avarice of Men They will not gaze like other Beasts in common but every man would have a property in all So that every man must be perpetually on his guard against his Neighbour and none can taste or enjoy his property for fear of loosing it Every Man then will be a Cain in his Family an Absolon in the Common-wealth and an Ishmael in the World His Hand against every Man and every Mans hand against him There needs not many words in a matter whereof all Men are convinc'd For if every Man do what he thinks right as he pleases and as he is able no man can be long pleased or secure of his Property his Liberty or his Life Men will grow without Religion and Law more destructive than Beasts without reason and neither of these are supposed in this Case to have any part Grace here is turn'd into Wantonness and Religion is used only as a Vizard to deceive Reason is turn'd into Craft and Power abus'd to Oppression the Weak become the prey of the Strong and the Simple of the Subtile Strength is the only Law of Justice and he that