that in the chiefe place Your Majestie may take a full account of the whole matter whereof nothing is concealed and so also as all Your loving and loyall Subjects may make good use of it Herein besides manie other things the reading whereof will not I hope be losse of time to Your Majestie I haue observed sundrie perillous innovations set on foot in this Your Kingdome worthie Your Majesties saddest consideration And to whom next unto God should I addresse my complaint herein but to Your Majestie whose honour I cannot but be most tenderlie sensible of so deeplie suffering in those Innovations herein mentioned For how frequentlie and Solemlie hath your Majestie made most Sacred Protestations to all Your loving Subjects that you would never suffer the least innovation to creep into Your Kingdome And here both for the comfort to us Your faithfull people and for the conviction and condemnation of our Innovators and for the refreshing of the memorie of Your Majesties Golden Sayings never to be forgotten as most honourable to Your Majestie let me set downe a few of them Your Majestie in Your Declaration to all Your loving Subjects of the causes that mooved You to dissolve the last Parliament published by Your Majesties Speciall command 1628. pag. 21. hath these words We call God to record before whom wee stand that it is and alwaies hath been our hearts desire to be found worthie of that title which we account the most glorious in al our Crowne DEFENDER OF THE FAITH neither shall wee ever give way to the authorising of anie thing whereby ante innovation may steale or creep into the Church but preserve that unitie of Doctrine and Discipline established in the time of Queene Elizabeth whereby the Church of England hath stood and florished ever since And in your Declaration prefixed to the Articles of Religion speaking of Ordinances and Constitutions in Convocation by Your Majesties leave and under Your Seale is added this Proviso Providing that none be made contrarie to the Lawes and Customes of the Land More might be added All which well considered how audacious yea how impious are our Innovatours how fearelesse of Your Majestie how regardlesse of Your Royall Honor that in their Innovations made such havocke commit such outrages and that upon the open theater New Rites and Ceremonies doe now not steale and creep into the Church but nudo capite are violently and furiously obtruded upon Ministers and people and that with suspension excommunication ejection out of house and home threatnings and thundrings to the refusers who dare not yeeld conformity unto them as being against both Law and Conscience and these your solemne declarations So as it seemeth these Innovators will put it to the triall whether their practises will more prevayle against your Majesties Solemne and Sacred Protestations to the contrarie which stand upon Record in aeternam rei memoriam that so they may as much as in them lyeth blast the beautie and glorie of Your Royall Name delivered in Annales to posteritie as if it should be said This King had no regard to sacred Vowes and solemne Protestations which God forbid it should ever enter into the thought of any of Your loving Subjects to suspect or whether your Majestie will looke moore narrowly into their desperate practises not suffering your self to be abused through credulitie of their blandishing flatteries and bainfull suggestions and Your people most intollerably oppressed under their lawlesse power will bee pleased upon others true reports true reports I say for who dare report falsely of them whom so few dare speake the truth against them they be so potent and vindicative to make a full Scrutiny and inquiry into their exorbitant and extravagant courses and thereupon to acquit Your honour in executing of Iustice upon the Delinquents I doe not charge any one particular person That honor is reserved to Your Majestie For as Salomon saith it is the honor of Kings to search out a matter And for me Your Majesties old and faithfull Servant while as Christ Minister a watchman of Israel yea a Sentinell perdu I discover both present and thereupon in my apprehension consequent dangers to my Soveraigne and his State and while as the poore sheep I appeale and complaine to my Shepherd oh never let my Shepherd either leave me in or deliver me into the power of the wolfe And while all along I plead for God and the King for Feare and Obedience and against Innovators the enemies of both oh let my God and my King protect their poore Servant against his adversaries the Innovators in my text Who if they quarrell these my charges I beseech Your Majestie lay Your charge upon them to make a full and cleare answer unto them What shall or can I say more Your Majesties wisedome can pierce deeper into this cause then my shallownesse is able to give intimation wherein you will easily discerne how deeply You are ingaged to close with God and Your good Subjects against all those Innovators the disturbers of the peace and distractors of the unitie of Your Kingdome so as thereby You shall become the most glorious Prince in Christendome formidable to Your enemies and amiable to all Your good Subjects whose hearts and affections being indecred hereby will become a richer Mine to Your Majestie then all the Westerne Indies to the King of Spaine And if my stile seeme sharper then usuall be pleased to impute it to my Zeale and Fidelitie for God and for Your Majestie when I am to encounter with those that he adversaries to both And if any word have dropped from my pen which malice may pervert and wrest to my prejudice I beseech Your Majestie to be my Iudge Your selfe and to consider as on the one side a weake man so on the other a Minister of Christ whose message hee durst not but faithfully discharge to his uttermost power and at his uttermost perill Nor must I looke to fare better then the Prophets of old who complained of those who made a man an offender for a word and laid a snare for him that reprooued in the gate Yea then Christ himselfe whom the Pharisees thought to intangle in his words Yet my comfort is that a Prince so gracious so righteous so religious shall be my Iudge And if my simplicitie shall be by my captious Adversaries found worthy of censure for a word misplaced or so I shall the more willinglie undergoe their censure so as they may haue their condigne punishment according to the Law for their most perrillous Innovations In fine my last comfort is and will be that in case they shall for the present beare me downe together with so Noble a cause as this is which yet I know will in time beate all us Adversaries downe sith it is Christs owne Cause I haue been a true witnesse of Christ and a faithfull subject of Your Majestie in thus freeing mine owne soule by discharging of my duety What ever become
of my body which is every day threatned by Pursuivants to bee haled to Prison if Your Majesties Iustice and good Lawes doe not all the better safeguard mee But prison or not prison I heartily thanke my Lord Iesus Christ who hath accounted mee faithfull and called me forth to stand for his cause and to witnesse it before all the World by publishing my said Sermons in Print that thereby also I might cleere both the cause and my credit which they haue publikely before hearing branded with sedition All which I humbly commit to Your Majesties Royall Patronage as Who next under God are most interessed in the Cause Now the Lord Iesus Christ the King of Kings and Lord of Lords so unite and combine your heart unto Himselfe that You being guided by His Spirit of Wisedome and Vnderstanding of Councell and strength and of the feare of the Lord You may doe Valiantly and prosper in stopping the course of all Innovators and Backe-sliders into Popery that so with and under Christs Kingdome Yours may be established in Righteousnesse to You and your Royall Posteritie untill time shall be no more Which is the daily Prayer of Your Majesties dutifull Servant and Subject HENRY BVRTON FOR GOD AND THE KING PROVERBES 24. 21. 22. My sonne feare thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change For their calamity shall rise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both THis time is a time of sorrow and humiliation but this day a day of joy and festivity to bee celebrated in this our anniversary thankfull remembrance of a great and memorable deliverance as on this day 31. yeeres agoe So as this day falling in so sad a season is like a starie peeping and shining forth through the cloudes of a dolesome duskie night and by and by ready to be overclouded againe Such is our joy such is our sorrow this long that short this a summer and a winter plague that a widowes joy a blaze and away Yet sith God is pleased in the midst of judgement to remember Mercy there is no reason that this calamitous time should so farre dampe us as to deprive both us of our comfort and God of his glory this day Therefore wee may say with David Why art thou cast downe o my soule I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God Or as Psal. 101. I will sing of Mercy and Iudgement And surely that joy is soundest which is seasoned with some sorrow As saith the Psalmist Serve the Lord with feare and rejoyce with trembling It 's good to be merry and wise as saith the Proverbe Sadnesse is as salt that seasoneth our mirth and preserues it from corruption Well blessed be God who in the midst of many sad dayes hath sent us this joyfull day to sing praise unto him for that mercy which hath made it a day of joy unto all good Christians and all good Subjects in this land Sutable therefore to the occasion of this day and season I have made choice of this Text It comprehends one of those wise Sentences Counsells or Proverbs which King Solomon a Preacher also inspired with the spirit of Wisedome from God hath left recorded for instruction of the Church of God in all ages If wee seeke to find the coherence or dependance of these words wee may quickly loose our selues and our labour For this Booke of the Proverbs is fitly compared to a bagg full of sweete and fragrant spices which shuff led and shaken together or taken single doe yeeld forth a most pleasant and comfortable odour Or to the Starres in the firmament each in itselfe glorious and independent of another yet all receive their light from the Sunne Like as Eccles. 12. 11. The words of the wise are as goads and as nayles fastened by the Masters of assemblies which are given from one Shepheard This one Shepheard is Christ the Sunne of Righteousnesse who inlightens all the Prophets Or heere are studds of silver in borders of gold Cant. 1. 11. Or apples of gold in pictures of silver Prov. 25. 11. And these things belong to the wise v. 23. The words recited containe three things in generall 1. an Exhortation 2. an Admonition 3. a reason of the admonition The Exhortation in these words My son feare thou the Lord and the King The admonition in these words And meddle not with them that are giuen to change the reason of the admonition in these words For their calamity shall arise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both In the Exhortation these particulars are considerable 1. The Person Exhorting and that is King Solomon instructing the people as from Gods owne mouth 2. The persons exhorted to wit all Gods people represented heere in the singular number under the name of one sonne and this by a neere bond of relation by a strong cord of affection distinguishing him from others and appropriating him as Gods owne peculiar My Sonne The duty exhorted unto is feare the object of this feare is twofold 1. The Lord. 2. The King In all which we are to observe three things 1. The order of this feare first the Lord and secondly the King 2. the connexion of these two as things inseparable in this duty of Feare Feare the LORD and the KING 3. The speciall property of this duty as peculiar to the child of God above all other Mysonne feare THOV the Lord and the King as if Solomon should have said My sonne how ever the sons of Belial the men of the world cast off all feare both of God and man yet feare THOV the Lord and the King This is the resolution of the Exhortation 2. In the Admonition wee are to note three things 1. The admonition it selfe meddle not 2. Who they be of whom Gods children are admonished namely such as are said here to be giuen to change 3. The antithesis or opposition betweene these changlings and them that truely feare God and the King 3. In the reason of the admonition annexed which is taken from the dangerous condition that these who are given to change are obnoxious unto wee observe 1. The matter of their danger in these words Calamity and ruine then the manner of their calamity and ruine set downe 1. In it's suddennesse and 2. in its certainty It shall rise suddenly and lastly the unexpected meanes of their ruine contrary to all outward appearance And who knoweth the ruine of them both That is though there be no outward appearance of ruine to these men but that all things prosper with them and seeme to be on their side yet their ruine shall be from both these as wee shall further open by and by Now having distributed the words into their severall parts and that without curiosity taking them as they lie naturally in the text come wee briefely to give you the sence of the words First My sonne a compellation frequent and familiar
property peculiar to him So Psal. 25. 12. What man is HEE that feareth the Lord Find me such a man give wee such a man Why what of him Hee is in speciall favour with God Him shall he teach in the way which hee shall choose Yea God will acquaint him with his Secrets as accounting him his most intimate friend For v. 14. The Secret of the Lord is with them that feare him And these are so rare like to rich and rare jewells that Solomon himselfe could find but one man of a thousand But especially doth the eminency of that man that truely feares God appeare when other feares stand in opposition against it as feare of cruell men losse of liberty livelyhood and the like As Moses his rod was not so famous for being though miraculously turned into a Serpent for even the Magitians of Egypt by their inchantments could in show turne their rods also into Serpents but herein it was admirable in the eyes of all the Beholders that thus being a Serpent it devoured all the Magitians Serpents And such is true feare in Gods Child when it stands in emulation or opposition with other feares though they seeme never so terrible as the Magitians Serpents yet it overcomes and devoures them all Such was Daniels feare devouring the terror of the hungry Lyons which could not devoure him such the feare of those 3. Children who feared neither the Kings bigge and furious threats nor his seven fold heated fiery fornace Such was Nehemiahs who being threatened mooved to fly answered should such a man as I fly So as indeed the true feare of God is true fortitude and magnanimity For this who will not admire Elias when hee retorted K. Ahabs words upon him I have not troubled Israel but thou and thy Fathers house c And Elisha who being brought before the King of Israell said to him Were it not that I regard the presence of Iehoshaphat the King of Iuda I would not looke toward thee nor see thee Such a spirit of holy feare was in the Martyrs and Confessors Maris Bishop of Chalcedon being blind and cōming before the Emperour Iulian the Apostata called him Atheist Apostata and a desertor of the faith And when Iulian objected to him his blindnesse and asked him upbraidingly If his God the Galilean meaning Christ could not cure his blindnesse he replied But I thanke my God that I am blind that I may not behold such a wretched and Impious Apostata as thou art It were endlesse to recite examples in this kind except to convince the cowardise of our times But yet this Parrhesia this liberty and freedome of speech in such cases is not without the feare of God but is a branch and fruit that springeth of it And this feare showeth it selfe in sundry manners according either to the present occasion or the naturall disposition of a child of God being seasoned and sanctified and guided by Gods Spirit Sometimes it showes it selfe in meeknesse and mildnesse sometimes in a greater measure of zeale and roughnesse and yet all from the selfesame spirit of godly feare Of this latter kind are those former examples Of the former that of a poore English Bishop whom when Theodor the Grecian Archbishop of Canterbury without any just cause deprived of his Bishopricke saying Although wee can charge you with nothing yet that wee will we will Sic volo sic jubeo the poore Bishop humbly replyed Paul appealed from the Iewes to Caesar and I from you to Christ. And how many godly Ministers in these our dayes being most unjustly and illegally yea and in canonically also and that in a most barbarous and furious insolent manner suspended excommunicated outed of their livings and so deprived of all livelyhood and meanes to maintaine themselves their wives and children and withall rayled upon and reviled and most outragiously used as if they were dogs and not men have cause and occasion so to answer those that thus use them Paul appealed from the Iewes to Caesar and we from you to Christ. But what care these miscreants for Christ who thus persecute him in his members and Ministers Yet this is a comfort to all such Ministers as stand for Christ that as they appeale and commit their cause to him whose cause it is so hee will certainly vindicate both his righteous cause his faithfull servants in due time When Stephen was stoned he saw Christ standing at the right hand of God as ready to revenge his cause which not long after he did upon all the obstinate and rebellious Iewes in Ierusalem Vse 1. Now for use of this point it first gives occasion to Christians in these dayes of lukewarmenesse and apostacy to make proofe of their graces and especially of the feare of the Lord in them whither it be such as devoures and swalloweth downe all worldly feares Secondly sith this feare is so excellent and rare wee should be the more earnest in getting it as he in the Gospell was to buy the goodly pearle He gave all he had for it And surely it was richly worth it For as Christ saith What shall it profit a man if he shall win the whole world and loose his owne soule Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soule A man may by his discretion or Christian Prudence as they call it so carry the matter as to secure himselfe from feare of the world for he can give way and conforme himselfe quietly to all humaine impositions and can commaund his conscience to beare with them notwithstanding it doe secretly whisper in his eare that this ought not to be done as being an intollerable dishonor to Christ a disgrace to his Ministry a forfeiture of his Christian liberty a Scandall to Religion and a base betraying of the cause of Christ and of the salvation of his owne soule But yet he wants not reasons for it Thereby he shall preserve his Ministry and his credit too in not being accounted refractory hee shall thus purchase his peace and retaine his meanes for him and his without which he and they must begge and the like Alas poore soule what 's thy Ministry worth when thou hast abased it and inthralled it to be impious inventions and impositions of men or when thou injoyest it with the losse of its vigor power dignity authority or when thou retainest it together with thy outward liberty livelyhood peace credit with the misjudging world and loosest thy Christ thy peace of conscience thy credit with all good and wise men yea heaven and all what will all thy discretion and Christian prudence advantage thee O let us rather learne to bee fooles for Christs cause let us feare the Lord and not men not the world It 's Christs counsell to all his that are his friends saying I say unto you my friends Bee not affraid of them that kill the body and after that can doe no more but I will forewarne