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A59880
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A sermon preach'd before the Honourable House of Commons, at St. Margaret's Westminster, January the xxxth, 1691/2 by William Sherlock ...
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Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing S3350; ESTC R21693
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11,547
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38
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must reside in the Estates of the Realm for if at any time there be no Power in the Nation the Government is dissolved The Estates upon this great Exigency of Affairs assembled but did not pretend the Superior Authority of the People over Kings and their Power to judge depose and punish them but they only undertook to judge what properly falls under their Cognizance in such cases and what now lay before them whether the Throne were vacant and if it were how it must be filled And when those who were the sole and proper Judges of this Case had once determined it private Subjects according to the fundamental Reasons of all Governments were bound to acquiesce whatever their private Opinions were or else such State-disputes can never be determined but we must necessarily dissolve into Anarchy and Confusion Where there is no determination of the Law of Nature or of the Law of God against it as there is none about meer legal Rights the Resolutions of Government must determine the Consciences of private Subjects for the Power of Judging must extend as far as the just Power of governing does So that whatever dispute there may be about other Matters the late Revolution has made no alteration at all in the Principles of Government and Obedience It does not oblige us to own the Superior Power of the People over the King which would be a very tottering Foundation for Monarchy and could never support it long Those who believed the Doctrine of Non-resistance and Passive Obedience to be a good Doctrine before may think so still and be never the less Friends to the present Government and I have often thought it a wonderful Providence of God that in an Age wherein the strictest Loyalty and Obedience had been so earnestly pressed on Men so great a Revolution should be brought about while the generality of Subjects were meerly passive and surprized into a Deliverance But it is quite otherwise in the present Case the horrid Fact committed on this Day has poyson'd the very Springs and Fountains of Government and so deeply tinctured Mens Minds that I pray God we may not still live to see and feel the miserable Effects of it For when Men sit loose in their Obedience without the Restraint and Ties of Conscience nothing but Power can keep the disjoynted and incoherent Parts of such a Government together they are a fluid Body like the Sea which every breath of Wind puts into a new Disturbance and Commotion Especially when a Nation is already divided into Parties and Factions both in Church and State which are acted with a furious and restless Zeal and will be satisfied with nothing less than to be uppermost which is another Mischief our late unnatural War has left behind it Those bitter Animosities are not yet forgot nay they daily revive again and our old Quarrels are acted over with a new Zeal This is not only an uneasie but a very dangerous State for any movernment when there are two or three or more Parties in any Nation which contend to be uppermost and to oppress the others and are resolved to dislike and to misrepresent what the others do When a Name shall make common Friends and common Enemies and few Men have any regard to the Publick good if it be against the Interest of their Party Nay when good Success is grievous to them if they have not been the chief Actors in it and they are well pleased with the greatest and most irreparable Miscarriages if they give them any advantage over their Rivals though the Nation is in danger to be undone by them What difficulties does this impose upon a Prince when it is dangerous to choose any side and yet impossible to be thought of none These are some of those Evils which our own Sins and the just Judgments of God have brought upon us And when shall we see an end of these things When shall Peace and Righteousness and Truth take up their Habitation among us When will God return in Mercy Heal the Breaches of our Sion and Build up her Walls Now is the time if ever heartily to endeavour heartily to Pray for this That God would make us glad according to the days wherein he hath afflicted us and the years wherein we have seen Evil. 3. Which is the third part of my Text which I can but name Now in order to this God has done a great deal for us already if we will do any thing for our selves God hath advanced such Princes to the Throne whom we beseech him long to continue preserve and prosper there as seem on purpose fitted by Nature by Education by Religion by Interest to accomplish this glorious Work We have a King who was always in the Interest of his Country whose great Mind knows no greater Glory then to be a publick Benefactor to be a Patron to the Injured and Oppressed and to break the Chains and Fetters prepared for Europe A King who knows how to Govern a free People who knows the price of Liberty and what a value Mankind have for it A King who was never Personally concerned in any of our Quarrels and therefore has no Personal Resentments brings no Spirit of Revenge no Spirit of a Party to the Throne with him A King and Queen who by Education Principle and Interest are professed Enemies to Popery and the great Defence and Support of the Protestant Cause at home and abroad who teach and encourage Piety and Vertue by Their Examples as well as Laws and maintain and defend the Worship and Government of the Church of England and at the same time endeavour to soften and temper Mens passions with Ease and Liberty and God grant we may see the good effects of it for Liberty unless wisely used seldom proves a kindness even to those who have it So that all the old Complaints are redressed all the plausible Pretences for Faction are silenced by the Advancement of Their Majesties to the Throne Here is no appearing Danger of an over-growing Power and illegal Usurpations no oppression of the Subjects in their Just Rights no divided Interest between Prince and People unless People will divide from a Prince who makes their Safety Happiness and Interest his own nay who purchases their Ease and Security with the endless Fatigues and Hazard of his own Sacred Person Here are no fears of Popish designs no pretence for former Clamours of Persecution for Conscience sake and what have the most dissatisfied Men to complain of but only the pressing Necessities of Affairs and such unavoidable Miscarriages as such Necessities will always occasion under the best Government in the World And why then should we not all unite in such Princes and forget all former Quarrels why should we still divide into Parties when the Throne is of no Party and will admit of none what are those grievances still to make party quarrels unless Monarchy and the Church of England be thought the only remaining
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