up Secondly The great cause we have to return thanks to God when he delivers 'em up I shall begin with the first od these viz. The great concern and interest God hath in the ovethrow of Rebels It is he who delivers 'em up T is true the success of War on which side soever it lights depends upon the divine Providence which having the disposal of all events whether they be adverse or prosperous turns the scale of victory on which side it pleases for the second causes upon which success and victory ordinarily depends is the good conduct of those who command and the strength and courage and expertness of those that execute all which are under the command and sovereign disposal of God who if he pleases can infatuate the wisest and most skilful Commanders blindfold their judgments confound their reason and turn their wisdom into folly so that they shall run quite counter to their own designs and blow up themselves with their own trains who if he doth not infatuate 'em can yet frustrate their wisdom and by a thousand accidents which they can neither foresee nor prevent baffle and defeat their most prudent and promising designs who if he pleases can divide and break the strength of the most numerous dissolve and confound the order of the best disciplined melt and emasculate the courage of the most resolute Armies and having the sovereign disposal of all the second causes of success in his hands 't is he alone that can decide the Battle and determine the hovering Victory to which side he pleases so that whether it lights on the right or wrong side on the usurping Rebels or lawful Prince's Crest 't is by his all-disposing direction and appointment for though the horse is prepared for battle and secondary causes concur as means and instruments yet victory is of the Lord Prov. 21.31 And though sometimes for wise and righteous ends he permits unjust Arms to prosper and triumph over a Righteous cause of which we have a woful instance in our memory yet ordinarily and regularly he declares on the righteous side and awards success according to the Justice of the cause For Battle is an appeal to God in which the contending Parties joyn issue to put their case into his hands and refer the justice of their cause to his award and determination and being hereby constituted the sole arbitrator between 'em he ordinarily decides the victory according to the right of the case and unless there be some very great reason moving him to the contrary awards it to the juster side They therefore who make and unjust War appeal to God in a wrong cause and therefore have all the reason in the world to expect that he will decide against 'em and finally award the victory to their enemies 'T is true God is not obliged in justice always to determine the Victory to the Just cause for there may be just reasons and many times there are moving him to the quite contrary Sometimes it may be more for the publick good of which he is the great conservator that this particular righteous cause should miscarry than that it should prosper and succeed in which case it 's but reasonable that he should rather permit a particular mischief than hinder a publick convenience Sometimes a good cause may be more effectually advanc'd by a present overthrow than by a victory and when this happens it 's a good reason why God should at present pronounce the sentence of victory on the contrary side Sometimes it may be necessary to deny success to those who have the righteous cause on their side in order to the crowning it with some greater blessing and to take away a less good to make room for a greater is such an exchange as is far from Robbery And lastly Sometimes for the sins of those on the right side may be such as do render it not only fit but necessary for God to make 'em examples to the world of his righteous severity And what greater severity can he express than to abandon a good cause and rather permit it to fall to the ground than see it upheld and supported by impious and prophane hands But though there are these and sundry other just reasons why God should not always award success and victory to the right side yet doubtless he ordinarily doth so for all war is either between one Prince and Nation and another or else between Princes and rebellious Subjects Now as for the first it is in most cases impossible for us certainly to determine which of the two parties hath the rightful cause because we do not understand the pretensions on both sides nor are we capable of judging of those nice reasons and intricate circumstances upon which their opposite claims depend and therefore though we through our pity and ignorance together do commonly pronounce the vanquished cause the best and upon that account do foolishly murmur at the decisions of Providence as if they were unjust and unequal yet God who sees through all the circumstances of things doth many times most certainly know the contrary and so determines the case contrary to our blind pity and ignorance according to his own infallible judgment and had we but the understanding of God I make no doubt but we should find many of those prosperous causes which we condemn for unjust to be most just and righteous and be fully satisfied that the awards of Providence in the case are much more equal than we imagine But then as for the other sort of war viz. That between Princes and their rebellious Subjects it 's evident that Providence doth much more constantly decide the success to the just and righteous cause and give judgment on the side of the injured Prince against the Rebellious and usurping Subjects For if you consult History you will find that though for just and righteous ends God hath sometimes permitted Rebellions to succeed yet where he hath prospered one he hath usually cursed and blasted twenty And indeed since War as was before observed is an appeal to God the great Arbitrator of all events there are peculiar reasons why he should more constantly declare himself for the right side in a Rebellious war than in any other First Because Rebellion is an apppeal to him in a cause that is plainly and apparently unjust Secondly Because 't is an appeal to him in a cause that very nearly touches and effects his own Authority Thirdly Because 't is an appeal to him in a cause that is of all others most destructive of humane Society First Because Rebellion is an appeal to God in a Cause that is plainly and apparently unjust For in those wars that are between Princes and Princes the right or wrong of the case is many times not easily decidable the Meum's and Tuum's of Princes and Nations being very often so blended and confounded by Conquests Leagues and Intermarriages and revolutions of Empire that 't is not only difficult
Smyth Mayor Jovis xxx die Julii 1685. Annoque Regni Regis Jacobi Secundi Angl. c. primo THIS Court doth desire Dr Scott to Print his Sermon Preached in the Parish Church of S. Mary le Bow on Sunday last before the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Citizens of this City Wagstaffe August 10. 1685. Imprimatur Hen. Maurice Rmo Dom. W mo Cant. Archipe à Sacris A SERMON PREACHED Before the Right Honourable THE Lord Mayor AND ALDERMEN Of the CITY of LONDON At St. Mary le Bow July 26. 1685. BEING The Day of Publick Thanksgiving for His MAJESTIES late Victory over the REBELS By JOHN SCOTT D. D. Rector of St. Peters Poor London LONDON Printed by R. N. for Rob. Horne at the South Entrance of the Royal Exchange and Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1685. 2 SAM XVIII 28. And Ahimaaz called and said unto the King All is well And he fell down to the earth upon his face before the King and said Blessed be the Lord thy God which hath delivered up the men that lift up their hand against my Lord the King THIS Ahimaaz was a Soldier under Joab in the battle which he fought with Absalom the Rebellious Son of his too kind and indulgent Father King David who having newly pardon'd him that unnatural murder of his brother Amnon and received him into grace and favour and furnished him with a plentiful revenue and slendid equipage so that if he had pleased he might have lived in peace and glory and been a comfort to his Father a Patriot to his Countrey and a blessing to his Family and after he had finished the circle of a happy and prosperous life might have gone down with honour to his grave The foolish ungrateful young man being thereto excited partly perhaps by the insinuations of a company of crafty Male-contents but chiefly by his own Ambition imbarques himself in a wicked and desperate design against his Father's Life and Crown in order whereunto he industriously sets himself by mean and poor condescensions to cajole and inveagle the rude and giddy Mobile which partly by declaiming against the Male-administrations of his Father's Government partly by promising them a through reformation if ever he arrived to be a Judge in Israel he at length accomplished And now having formed to himself a strong and numerous party he gets his Fathers leave to make a progress to Hebron a factious town without doubt and it lay West-ward of Jerusalem under pretence of paying a Vow there for so Religion is the usual sham of Rebellion where being arrived with 200 men out of Jerusalem who followed him blindfold without either fear or wit he sends for one Achitophel who had been a Councellor to his Father but at this time as it seems probable was discarded the Court for some high misdemeanour this canker'd old wretch glad of the opportunity to revenge himself upon his Master immediately joins interests with his undutiful Son and thereby increases his party into a strong and numerous Army with which he marches against his King and Father and is overthrown in a pitch'd battle and notwithstanding his Father's orders to the contrary is slain by the hand of Joab who wisely foresaw that David could never hope to Raign in peace so long as the Rebel Absalom was alive Hereupon Ahimaaz the son of Zadock a valiant Soldier and swift and nimble foot-man desires Joab his General that he may be the messenger of the good tidings to the King but Joab having a kindness for the man and wisely considering that the news of Absalom's death would be very unwelcome to David and in all probability transport him into a high displeasure and so prove fatal to the deliverer at first refuses to let him go and in his room sends Cushi who was either a common or a foreign Soldier but Ahimaaz upon his importunate desire at length obtains of Joab leave to follow him and being much the nimbler out-runs Cushi and being arrived into the King's presence cries All is well being unable either through excess of Joy or want of breath to express his message at lagre after which having recovered himself a little he throws himself at the King's feet and in a transport of Joy and Thanksgiving thus expresses himself Blessed be the Lord thy God which hath delivered up the men the lift up their hand against my Lord the King In choosing which words for my Text upon this joyful occasion God knows I have no design to insult and trample on the memory of that wofully mislead and unfortunate Gentleman who was Captain of that late black Rebellion the happy overthrow and conclusion of which we are now thankfully commemorating For though it cannot be denied but that his unnatural and undutiful behaviour to his late most gracious Father and Soveraign did but too justly intitle him to the Name and Character of Absalom and that his Rebellion against Infidelity to and barbarous aspersions of his present Majesty who was always his generous Patron and Benefactor do but too deservedly brand him the perfidious and ungrateful Absalom yet considering the Relation he bore to our late dear Soveraign of ever blessed Memory the promising blossom of his Youth before it was blasted with wild and boundless ambition and the glorious sphere in which he once moved where had he not aspired to the Seat of the Sun he might have shone among Stars of the first magnitude and shed forth a benign influence upon his Country and Family Considering these things I say I am so far from triumphing on his ruine that I heartily lament and bewail his being seduc'd into the crimes that were the cause of it and detest those cursed Achitophels that seduc'd him only to make him the tool of their own dire revenge and restless ambition and if God so please may that same Justice which hath reach'd him lay hands on them and by a yet more infamous punishment revenge his sin and ruin on their heads And since his memory cannot live with honour I heartily wish it might dye in oblivion that so having paid that debt which Law and Justice and the necessary reasons of things exacted of him it might never hereafter be remembred against him how desperately he broke through all the ties of Nature Honour Gratitude and Religion to precipitate himself into a shameful and untimely fate But this being only a hopeless wish I shall in pity to his memory forbear running the odious parallel between Absalom and him through all the black circumstances of their sin and punishment having said enough already and yet no more than what was necessary to explain the sutableness of the Text to the occasion Blessed be the Lord thy God who hath delivered up the men that lift up their hand against my Lord the King In which words there are two things observable First The great concern and interest God hath in the overthrow of Rebels It is he that delivers 'em
but sometimes impossible to determine on which side the Right lies and tho' the contending Princes may in most cases perhaps be able to inform themselves whether the Cause they contend for be right or wrong yet the people can be no competent Judges of it but are obliged to acquiesce in their Princes judgment and to follow 'em with an implicit faith so that if they are in the wrong 't is through invincible ignorance which renders their case extreamly pitiable and excusable before the just and righteous Tribunal of God And therefore though He most perfectly understands on which side the Right lies be the case never so perplexed or intricate yet his compassion to their mistaken innocence may in concurrence with other reasons especially when their enemies sins do outvy the justice of their cause sometimes prevail with him to give judgment of Victory on their side But as for Rebellion the injustice of it is far more visible and apparent every man knows or might easily know if he were not extreamly wanting to himself that his King is the Vicegerent of his God and that being so he is indispensibly obliged by all the ties of Reason and Religion to submit to his Will and reverence his Person and bow to his Authority and that he cannot lift up his hand against him without fighting against God himself the truth of which is as obvious to our natural reason and as plainly asserted in holy Scripture as of any Proposition in Religion so that I dare boldly affirm a Man may find as fair pretexts for any vice whatsoever even for Drunkenness Whoredom or Perjury as ever were made for Rebellion And were I to set up for a publick Patron of wickedness I hardly know a villany in nature so black and monstrous which I could not more plausibly recommend to Mens reason and consciences than this of resistance against lawful Authority which is such a complication of Villanies such a loathsom mixture of Hellish Ingredients as is enough to nauseate any Conscience but a Devil 's And though Conscience and Religion are the Colours it usually marches under yet is the imposture of this pretence so fulsome and barefac'd that no Man in his wits can be innocently abused by it For certainly that Man must have a great mind to rebel his will must have a strong Bias of pride or discontent faction or ambition in it that in despite of all the evidence from Reason and Scripture to the contrary can perswade himself that it is lawful for him and much less that it is his duty to lift up his hand against his Soveraign And therefore for Men to appeal to God in a cause so apparently wicked is not submissively to refer themselves to him but openly to mock and affront him were the case obscure and difficult though it were unjust it were excusable and might fairly admit of a reference to the righteous arbitration of God but to make a vexatious appeal to his Judgment again in a case which he hath so often and so expresly judged already is a common Barratry 't is not to consult but to tempt him and under pretence of submitting to his determination openly to defy his authority in effect 't is to appeal from his will to his providence and to bespeak him to declare himself against his own declaration In this case therefore where the injustice of the cause is so apparent and consequently the appeal to him about it is so prophane and insolent God is more peculiarly concerned as soveraign arbitrator to award for the right side by delivering up the Rebel as a sacrifice to the just Revenge of his injured Prince Secondly Rebellion is an appeal to God in a cause wherein his own Authority is very nearly touched and affected in Wars between Princes and Nations the unjust side indeed offends against his Authority by refusing to submit to the Laws of Justice and consequently are accountable to him for high undutifulness and disobedience which is no more than the common case of all wilful offenders against the Laws of Heaven but in the case of Rebellion there is not only a peremptory disobedience to those Laws of God which require our dutiful submission to our lawful Superiours but also a direct renunciation of the divine Authority it self For all soveraign power is immediately founded in the Dominion of God who being the supreme Lord of the World no Person can have right to govern in his Kingdom under him but by commission from him for every supreme Authority is the head and fountain of all other Authorities so far as it extends and if it be not so it cannot be supreme So that unless all Authority be derived from God he can have no such thing as a supreme Authority in the World and if it be all derived from him then all those persons who are vested with supreme Authority under him must derive and hold it immediately from him and if they hold it immediately from him they can be accountable for the exercise of it to none but him and if so then for any of their Subjects to presume to call 'em to account by a publick form'd Resistance is to arraign God's own Authority and invade his peculiar t is to thrust him out of his Throne and set themselves down in it and there to summon his Authority before 'em and require it to submit its awful head to their impious doom and sentence For since in their several dominions all soveraign powers are next to and immediately under God 't is by his Commission alone that they act and therefore to his Tribunal alone that they are accountable so that by resisting them we do as directly resist God whose Deputy-Governours they are as a Neopolitan doth the King of Spain by levying Arms against his Vice-Roy of Naples and by refusing to obey their just and lawful commands we demur to God's Authority who in every Just thing they impose or require speaks to us by their mouths and commands us by their Laws for so the Scripture tells us not only that they are ordained of God and that to resist them is to resist the Ordinance of God not only that they are the Ministers of God and that therefore for Conscience sake or in reverence to his Authority which they bear they are to be obeyed Rom. 13.1 2 3 4 5. but also that they judge for God and not for men 2 Chron. 19.6 and that therefore their judgment is God's Deut. 1.17 Whilst therefore we behave our selves factiously and rebelliously towards those whom God hath set over us we live as Out-laws in the Kingdom of God without any respect to that visible Authority by which he governs the World And if this be so then for Subjects to rebel against their Prince is neither better nor worse than to appeal to God against his own Authority and to put this impious case to him whether it be He or they that have the right of Governing the
World for this is the natural language of every rebellious appeal to God Lord we refer it to thee whether it be not just and lawful for us to take up Arms against thee to renounce and cast off thy Dominion over us and fly in the face of all that visible Authority by which thou art pleased to rule and govern us Judge now we beseech thee between thy self and us let the event decide the right of the case and do thou prosper and succeed us in this our undertaking according to the justice and righteousness of our cause When therefore his own Authority is thus nearly touched by an appeal so Impious and Audacious it 's high time for him unless some mighty reason intervene to the contrary to stir up his strength and make bare his Arm in the vindication of his injured right and affronted Authority and by delivering up the insolent Rebel to condign punishment to assert and maintain his Dominion over the world Thirdly and Lastly Rebellion is an appeal to God in a cause that is of all others the most destructive of humane Society Which is another peculiar reason why God should decide against it rather than against any other unjust war whatsoever For God being the Soveraign head of humane Society we may be sure that the principal end of his Government is the publick good that being infinitely happy within himself and from the immense perfections of his own nature he can have no self ends to serve in ruling and governing the world but that his great design is to Bless his Subjects and by diffusing his goodness through the world to make 'em all partakers of his happiness And if it be so then we may certainly depend upon it that as those things and actions are most grateful to him which are most beneficial so those are most odious and offensive to him which are most prejudicial to the world Now there is no one thing whatsoever that is more beneficial to the world than Government which is the soul of Humane Society by which it exists and operates without which it must inevitably dissolve and its united parts immediately disband and fly in pieces For an ungoverned Society of men is no better than a herd of Wolves and Tygers whose cross interests inconsistent humors extravagant passions and affections are perpetually prompting 'em to tear and worry one another by reason of which it is impossible for 'em to live together with any comfort or security but either they must submit their passions to be restrained by Law and their interests to be ballanced and adjusted by Government or withdraw themselves like other beasts of prey into dens and secret retirements and there live poor and solitary as Batts and Owls do and subsist like Vermin by robbing and filching from one another Since therefore Government is so indispensably necessary for the Common-weal of men to be sure God who is supream Lord of all and the great end of whose Government is the good of the whole must have a very tender respect and regard for it and an implacable aversion to every thing that is destructive to it Now it 's certain there is nothing so destructive to Government as Rebellion For as for wars between Prince and Prince and Nation and Nation they are indeed the plagues and scourges of Nations by reason of the slaughters and devastations they carry with 'em but they subvert not Government which is the life of Nations whereas Rebellion carries the same slaughters and devastations with it and besides that it strikes at the very foundations of Government For though the design of the Leaders of Rebellion is not to destroy Government but to usurp and ravish it out of the hands of the lawful possessors yet their practice tends directly to the destruction of it For whenever Subjects levy Arms against their Soveraign they actually throw off the yoke of his Government and if they may throw off his they may for the same reason throw off anothers till at last they have thrown off all and utterly dissolve themselves into a wild Tumult and Confusion which being once admitted Government can have no other foundation to rest on but the humor and caprice of a wild multitude that is to be governed no otherwise and no longer than it pleases And how is it possible for any frame of Government whatsoever to subsist upon such fickle and mutable principles So that when Subjects Rebel against their Soveraign they appeal to God against the very being of Government it self which is the life and soul of all humane Society and do in effect desire him finally to determine by the issue and event of things whether it be just and reasonable that they should be ruled and governed When therefore the point they contend for is so apparently destructive to humane Society of which he himself is the supreme head and Soveraign and the final decision of it is refer'd to his Arbitration We have all the reason in the world to presume that he who is the God of order and not of confusion will without some mighty inducement to the contrary damn the Rebels cause and award success and Victory to the Government Since therefore there are so many peculiar reasons why the Lord of hosts the mighty God of War should arm his Almighty power against the Rebelliuos this ought to caution us not to engage our selves in any Factious Disloyal or Rebellious design against our Prince and Government because in so doing we take the most effectual course that it 's possible for men to do to oblige the Almighty Providence of Heaven to fight against us For there is no one sin in all the black Catalogue of the works of darkness which God is more concerned to punish in this life than this of Treason and Rebellion And accordingly if you consult those monuments of divine vengeance which are transmitted to us both in Sacred and Prophane history you will find that there are none of any sort so numerous and remarkable as the dire and infamous Tragedies or Rebels And though from these no certain conclusion can be made of the fate and issue of all particular Rebellions because there are instances of some that have prospered and succeeded and particularly of one among our selves and in our memory which next to the Rebellion of the fall'n Angels was perhaps the most Barbarous and Infamous that was ever acted on the stage of nature Yet this I am certain of that were it my design to draw down some exemplary judgment on my own head and even to entail the vengeance of heaven upon my self and my prosperity I could not propose to my self a more probable and effectual way than Rebellion Which of all the crimes and villanies that have ever been perpetrated either by Devils or men hath ever proved most fatal to the Actors of it Wherefore as we would not make our selves the marks of divine vengeance and expose our guilty heads to its