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A44134
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The peoples happinesse a sermon preached in St. Maries in Cambridge, upon Sunday the 27 of March, being the day of His Majesties happy inauguration / by Ri. Holdsworth ...
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Holdsworth, Richard, 1590-1649.
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1642
(1642)
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Wing H2396; ESTC R22516
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27,766
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54
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Councell even the second time to prepare with all speed such Acts as shall be for the establishment of their priviledges the free and quiet enjoying their estates and fortunes the liberties of their persons the securitie of the true Religion now professed in the Church of England What now shall we say to these things Is not that of Solomon made good unto us Prov. 16.10 A Divine sentence is in the lips of the King Have we not good cause to take up Ezra's benediction Ezr. 7.27 Blessed be the Lord which hath put such things as these into the Kings heart Such things as these we were not so ambitious as to hope for I trust we shall not be so unworthy as to forget For my self I could wish that according to the dutie of this day I could set them forth as they deserve But they need no varnish of Oratorie neither was it my intendment to use them further then for the proof of the proposition in hand to shew you how this highest excellency of Princes in the care of their peoples happinesse is radiant in our Gracious Sovereign Yet you may remember also that I told you The point needs not so much proofs as retributions It cals aloud upon us for all dutifull returns of honour love obedience loyalty and thankfull acknowledgements into that Royall bosome the first mover and originall under God of our happinesse In the sphere of Nature there is none of us ignorant how willing the members are to make return to the head for the government and influence they receive from thence they will undergo hardship expose themselves to danger recede from things convenient nay necessary they will not grudge at any plentie or honour which is bestowed upon the head knowing by instinct that from the head the benefit of all redounds to them It is likewise obvious in the Regiment of families which are as States epitomized that both honour and dutie belong to the Paterfamiliâs not onely for the right he hath in the house but for the provision and support and comfort which all receive from him Now Kings by way of excellencie are Fathers who look upon all their subjects as so many children and with that noble Emperour account equally as daughters Rempublicam Juliam The very Heathen which saw onely the outside or Civill part reputed them as Fathers but the Prophet Isaiah when he speaks of the Church goes further and calls them Nursing Fathers Isai 49.23 a word which in propriety of speech might seem incoagruous because they have no more of the nurse then the bosome nothing at all of the breasts if what is wanting in the sex were not supplied by their tendernesse Benignitie and clemency and sweetnesse of disposition and facilitie of accesse and compassion toward the distressed these are their breasts more breasts then two the same both their breasts and their bowels which day by day they open to thousands severally and to all at once for the suckling and fostering of the publick Therefore it behoves us to think of returns By this word Christ read us the lesson Matth. 22.21 Render or Return unto Cesar the things which are Cesars or the things which are from Cesar The protection of lives and fortunes and worldly comforts let him have these back again in the honour love fear obedience supplies which belong to the Sovereigne Head and Parent of a beloved people that his throne may be established by your loyalty his reign still prosperous by your prayers blessings his life lenghthened by years taken forth of your own that so he may long rejoyce to say with David Happy are the people So I have done with the second step of the Gradation the speciall part of the argument here handled It is De felicitate Populi The third is yet more speciall It is not onely De felicitate Populi but De felicitate Populari that is De Hac felicitate Populi or De hoc Genere felicitatis Beatus cui SIC Happy they who are in SUCH A CASE or CONDITION What that condition is you may see in the former words in which there are severall blessings mentioned and all of them temporall Plenty is one in those words That our garners may be filled with all manner of store our oxen strong to labour our sheep bring forth thousands Peace is another in these words That there be no leading into captivitie no complaining in our streets Multitude of people especially such as are vertuous a third in those That our sonnes may grow up as the young plants our daughters may be as the polished corners of the temple The safetie and prosperitie of David their King a fourth or rather a first for it is first mentioned He giveth salvation or victorie to Kings and delivereth David his servant from the peril of the sword Of all these civill threeds the Psalmist twists this wreath of Happinesse Happy they who are in such a case Now hence ariseth the scruple Why David a man of so heavenly a temper and of so good a judgement in things which concern salvation that he is said to be A man after Gods own heart 1 Sam. 13.14 should place felicitie in these temporalls Devout S. Paul who of all others came nearest to Davids spirit had these outward things in no better esteem then as drosse Phil. 3.8 or dung and our blessed Saviour in his first Sermon Matth. 5. thought good to begin the chain of happinesse from povertie and to second it from hunger and to continue it from suffering persecution Non dixit BEATI DIVITES sed BEATI PAUPERES as S. Ambrose observeth In this I say is the scruple That Christ should begin blessednesse from povertie and David place it in abundance that things earthly should be as drosse to Paul and as happinesse to David This scruple wrought so farre with some Interpreters that they conceived it to be a defective or imperfect sentence and that the Psalmist uttered it in the person of a worldly man like that of Solomon Eccles 2.24 There is nothing better for a man then to eat and drink c. Therefore to take off the suspicion of a paradox they interpose Dixerunt BEATUM dixerunt POPULUM CUI HAEC SUNT Men usually say HAPPY ARE THE PEOPLE IN SUCH A CASE But we need not flee to this refuge It is neither a defective nor a paradox but a full and true proposition agreeable both to the tenour of other Scriptures and also to the analogie of faith For first the Psalmist speaks not here as in other places of the happinesse of a man but of the happinesse of a people it is not Beatus homo but Beatus populus In some other places where he treats of the happinesse of a man he circumscribes it alwayes with things spirituall a Psal 32.2 Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth no sinne and in whose spirit there is no guile b Psal 1 12.1 Blessed is the man
us in the face and mediation of Jesus Christ In our selves we are vile and unlovely but in the beholding of him alone there is aboundant to make us amiable in thine eyes Aboundant in the purity of his incarnation aboundant in his death and passion aboundant in his victorious resurrection and ascention Through these we intreat thee to look upon us through the veil of our nature which he took through the merits of that precious bloud which he shed through the sweet odor of the satisfaction of obedience which he performed through the attonement which he purchased the reconciliation which he wrought and the intercession which he makes at thy right hand And having thus looked upon him look upon us give us grace to look upon our selves to examine our own wayes to try and to search our own hearts to leave no sin unrepented of open our eyes that we may see them open our hearts that we may mourn for them strengthen our endeavours to strive against them Make us truely to consider with our selves and to understand what we have done what adventurous courses we have taken how holy a name it is we have profaned how righteous a law that we have broken how happy a state that we have lost how blessed a recovery that we have neglected how good a spirit that we have grieved how righteous a father that we have provoked And by these considerations weary us and shame us out of our sins into the true trade of piety and love of thy holy name that loving thee we may seek thee and seeking thee find thee and in finding thee hold thee and in holding thee we may apply our selves to walk in those wayes that are approvable in thy sight For the time past of our lives it may suffice for it is enough O Lord it is enough and too too much that we have spent the prime of our years and the first fruits of our time in the vanities of this world and the lusts of the flesh hitherto O give us grace so to order our steps that we may consecrate whatsoever of our future age remains wholly unto thy service hereafter that we growing on forward from grace to grace from virtue to virtue from one degree of righteousnesse to another in the end of our dayes we may enjoy likewise the end of our hopes the salvation of our sinfull souls in Jesus Christ In whose name we are bold to continue these our weak prayers unto thee not onely for our selves but for the estate of thy holy Catholick Church wheresoever dispersed over the face of the whole earth that thine eyes may be alwayes open towards thine inheritance to enlarge her borders to water her growth to gather her dispersions together to make up her breaches to fulfill her moneths of travell to establish her station that howsoever the winds blow and the rain fall and the flouds lift up their voice the house which is built upon thy self may stand and the gates of hell may not prevail against it In this universalitie we humbly beseech thee to pour down thy blessings upon that part of thy fold in this land O let the light of thy countenance still shine upon us in the pardoning our many backslidings in the continuing our peace and plenty and all other benefits we do enjoy by thy Gospel that as thou hast fixed more eminent tokens of thy love among us then among other nations so thou wouldest give us grace also to bring forth fruit proportionable to so plentifull means even worthy amendment of life that thou mayest continue to be unto us a good and a gracious God and we may continue to be also unto thee a chosen Generation a royall priesthood a holy nation a peculiar people even thine own pleasant plant Blesse all estates and conditions herein from the highest to the lowest and more particularly we intreat thee for our gracious sovereign Lord the King's Majesty Charles by thy grace King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the true ancient Catholick and Apostolick faith and over all persons and in all Causes as well Ecclesiasticall as Temporall within these his Majesties Realms and Dominions next and immediately under Christ supream Lord Governour Bless him in his Royall Person establish his Throne in Righteousnesse unto himself set him as a seal upon thy heart and as a signet upon thine arme that as thou hast made him unto us precious as the light of our eyes so let him be tender unto thee as the apple of thine that he may prove an incomparable instrument of thy glory here and a vessel of glory hereafter Blesse him as in his Royall Person so in the comfort of his beloved Consort the fruitfull Vine the most excellent Lady our Gracious Queen Mary and in the hopefull growth of his Royall Posterity the precious Pledges of thy love unto this Land the Noble Prince Charles the Duke of York and the Lady Mary And in the happy reestablishment of those other illustrious Branches of the same Royall Stock beyond the seas the most renounced Lady the Lady Elizabeth and her Princely Issue For the better effecting whereof be pleased to be assistant to all their allies and confederates to prosper their designes to fight their battels to go in and out before their armies to crown thy servants with new victories that yet at length thy poor distressed people may returne with joy to their ancient habitations that peace may be planted upon earth for the further propagating of thy Gospel the advancement of thy truth and the consummation of thy Kingdome Be pleased likewise to be gracious to all the people of this land from the Cedar of Lebanon to the Hysop upon the wall let thy severall graces distill down upon their heads for the discharge of those particular places wherin thou hast set them The spirit of knowledge and piety upon the head of Aaron the Prelacy of the Church the most reverend Arch-bishops and Bishops and from thence to the skirts of his cloathing the inferiour ministers The spirit of wisdome and understanding upon the Lords of His Majesties most Honourable Privy Councell and all the true hearted Nobility The spirit of Justice and integrity upon the Judges and Magistrates of this land The spirit of increase and fructification upon all Schools of learning especially upon those two famous Universities Cambridge and Oxford and in Cambridge upon the good estate of S. Johns Colledge The spirit of obedience and fear of the Lord upon all the commonalty in particular upon the condition of this great and populous City The spirit of patience and consolation upon all thy poor afflicted members especially those commended to thee in our prayers at this time be pleased to compasse them about with thy blessings to establish thy mercies to replenish them with the graces of thy holy spirit to make the light of thy countenance to shine in their hearts to fill them full of heavenly comfort to support