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A40759
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A sermon preached upon the 29th of May, in the parish-church of St. Margaret in Lyn-Regis in Norfolk, in a great presence by Tho. Fysh ...
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Fysh, Thomas.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing F2569; ESTC R17652
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17,320
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47
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Glimpse of Hope appeared from any Quarter or Region round about Even those that were most Loyally inclined found that by strugling in the Toyls they were more fatally entangled and while they played on the Game with an Unfortunate Hand instead of retrieving what was lost they only made new Additions to the Power and Courage of the Adversary All therefore they could do was to sit down and weep by the Waters of their Captivity when they remembred Sion and to joyn with the Guardian-Angel of the Land who doubtless as it is in the 1st Chapter of this Prophecy at the 12th Verse sympathized with the piteous Calamities of its Charge and would sollicite Heaven in some such Pious Expostulation as this How long O Lord of Hosts How long wilt thou not have Mercy on Jerusalem and on the Cities of Judah against which thou hast had Indignation this twenty Years Look down from Heaven and behold thy Church in Ruins and thy Vicegerent hunted as a Partridge on the Mountains and thy Gospel prostituted to the Lusts of Wretched Hypocrites or Ambitious Men and the whole Land over flown with Guilt or Fears or Blood How long wilt thou be wroth with thy People that prays and hide thy Face in an angry Cloud from Judah thy Sanctuary and Israel thy Possession Thou indeed hast been justly displeased at us But what are these Vsurpers that are at Ease that they thus help forward and aggravate our Affliction Vp then Lord and let not Man have the Vpper Hand Let not the Sword devour for ever nor Violence and Confusion be entailed on us and our Heirs for evermore Remember that the Wrongs done to thy Anointed below take Heaven at their Rebound and that he cannot be innocent to his God who is an Offender against his King Pity a Nation that has no Pity upon it self and scatter the People that delight in War and do Thou Lord help in Trouble for Vain is the Help of Man 'T is a Cause now fit for thee to appear in and since all other Medicines fail dispense to us out of the Treasures of Thy own Goodness and Benignity None now can Rival Thee in any Paâ—t of the Glory of the Work and Thou wilt thereby signalize thy Power no less than thy Pity and Compassion Let thy Hand be upon the Man of thy Right Hand and on that Royal Person whom thou so miraculously preservedst for thy own Self Make good the Happy Omens and Glorious Presages at his Birth and convince the World that the Heavens did not then smile on him in vain Settle us again upon the old Foundations and let not a Nation whom thou hast formerly signalized by a Train of Illustrious Mercies and Protections become the Scorn and Derision of our Enemies round about us Such were the sorrowful Accents and pious Breathings of God's Angels and Godly Men and at length to shew the prevalency of those Christian Weapons Prayers and Tears kind Heaven graciously was pleased to hearken and on the sudden removed all our Misery and took away our Reproach and as David by an unexpected Unction was taken from following the Ewes great with Young to feed Jacob God's People and Israel his Inheritance so here a new and far more glorious Scene did presently open and disclose and the Royal Interest from feeble and almost forlorn became as David and God by a mighty but gentle Spirit turned our Captivity as the Rivers in the South And as in the World's first Creation out of a Mass of Matter dark and disorderly blended and confused of jarring and disagreeing Natures he produced a comely and well compacted Fabrick of Government in Church and State which should move orderly and minister to the Good of each particular Being 2. As to the Condition of our Prince None ever so like David as He in Dangers and Deliverances and unexpected Advancement What though he was destined to a Crown by Divine Appointment and Decree who would not yet have preferred any private Station with Security before it rather than for ever on the Account of that Eminence be persecuted by the jealous Rage of Saul and the virulent Calumnies of Doeg and the fierce Insurrections of Sheba and the unnatural Rebellion of Absalom Unravel the History of both those Royal Persons and tell me if any two Characters do so justly agree How were Both couped up one while in such a Cave another in such a Wood forced hastily to flee to Moab and to Gath and thanks to that Providence that takes care of Kings found more Kindness and Shelter among uncircumcised Philistines than their own Subjects in their Rightful Dominions How did both receive in themselves each Moment the Sentence of Death by new Dangers and frightful Alarms And how were both sometimes in the greatest Perplexity and Doubt which they ought most to be jealous of the Violence of implacable Enemies or the Treachery of pretended Friends But why do I thus lay open the Distresses of Sacred Majesty to our own great Dishonour Let dark Shades for ever be drawn over the Visage of those Times let them never see the Light Let us no longer see such Misfortunes display'd as upbraid our Guilts no less than move our Pity but let us turn our Eyes on David Crowned in Hebron from his Exile in Gath. He asked Life of God and He with Life bestowed the Possession of a Crown in Peace He subdued the People under him and the Nations under his Feet and there remained no Strife at all but a Dutiful and Loyal Emulation who should be the First in bringing back the King And now the Daughter of Sion might well rejoyce greatly when her King came in such a meek and peaceful way not in confused Noises of War not in Garments rolled in Blood He came as the Rain into a Fleece of Wool and the Gentleness of his Entrance was at once an Earnest and a Shadow of the future Grace and Goodness of his Government And thus it appears that the State of our Kingdom and the Condition of our Prince From feeble became as David Which was the second Thing Thirdly The next is That hereby the Government was established not only in a Single Person but in his Lineage and House The House of David shall be as God What Aspect this may have upon the Spiritual Kingdom of the Messiah and what the Mystical Intendment and Sense in that regard may be I will not now enquire but with an Eye to the Temporal Government of the House of David I must consider wherein they so resemble God as that it may be accommodated to Soveraign and Hereditary Princes at large Now here I must first premise that Scriptures themselves do ascribe to them some Shadows of Divine Excellencies and Perfections and so also do the Sages of our Municipal Laws lest any should pertly here object that this Divinity is broached only by Court-Chaplains or Pensioners to Prerogative The Inspired Writings say that it is God whom Soveraign
Powers do represent that it is by the Beams of his Majesty they shine that He has said They are Gods that he puts the Sword of Justice in their Hands that 't is his Throne they fill and that Obedience to them is enforc'd upon their Subjects by virtue of a Divine Authority and Command And the Skilful in our Laws say That the Common Law by way of Similitude attributes to the King a Shadow of Divine Excellencies because he represents the Person of God and bears his Image As for instance Soveraignty all Lands being held of him Power he commanding his Subjects to go out of the Realm to War or making Foreign Coin Current by his Proclamation Majesty he neither taking nor parting with any Thing without Matter of Record except Chattels or such like below the Regard of Law Infiniteness after a certain manner being present in all his Courts and as it were in all places of his Dominions Perpetuity having perpetual Succession and being not subject to dye Perfection for no Laches Folly Infancy or Corruption of Blood can be judged in him Truth he cannot be estopped Justice He cannot be a Disseizor or do any Wrong These things I find vouch'd from such Authorities as that they seem to me to be Essential to our Constitution and to be as good a Comment as one would wish on that Branch of the Text now under Consideration that The House of David should be as God intimating many high and excellent Prerogatives they were invested in and encircled withal But I must confine my Discourse to narrower Bounds and therefore shall insist only on these two things 1. That in the Monarchy resembling God the Persons in Power were truly Supream 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unaccountable to any as God can be compelled by none nor be made accountable to them 2. That they resembled him in a kind of Immortality The King never died the Monarchy was Successive and Hereditary 1. They resemble God in being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 truly Supream and Unaccountable Some learned Men will have this to have been the main difference betwixt the Judges that governed Israel and the Kings of the House of David That the former were to render an Account to the State of the Administration of their Government which the latter were not to do but to God only The very nature of the thing indeed proves it self sufficiently For wherever Soveraign Power is once lodged because for the Spartan Shadows of a King and the Dukes of Venice I am not concerned to account here there is evidently vested a Freedom from all forcible Controll or Coertion And if David and his Race were Kings over all Israel they had the eminent controlling Authority over the scattered or united Power of the Body-Politick and so no Sanhedrim no Assembly no Consent of the People no Officers of State can be above them in the way of proper Rule or Jurisdiction and violently to touch them in the very Skirts of their Mantle is hugely culpable and criminal On the account of this Eminence they are fenced and immured by the Laws both of Earth and Heaven from the undutiful Thought and the sawcy Tongue as well as the rebellious and assassinating Hand We are not to curse the King so much as in Thought and we are not to revile the Gods or speak Evil of the Rulers of the People And blaspheming God and the King were Crimes that went coupled and hand in hand and St. Paul recanted a rash Word spoken against a Person in Power though horribly abusing it And 't is supposed that the old War of the Giants against the Gods meant no more than Insurrections of mighty Subjects against their Kings Sure we are that in a Divine Sense 't is no less than Resisting the Ordinance of God to resist them and They that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation And the Christian Duty of Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance has unshaken Foundations and inviolable Grounds in the Eternal Laws of Nature and Equity in the Essential Frame and Subordination of Politick Societies to some Supream in the Inspired Writings of the Old and New Testament in the Examples of the Holy Jesus and his meek Disciples in the Canons of the Church and the Statutes of the Realm in the Monuments of Primitive Christianity and the Sufferings of the most celebrated Martyrs As to this last I confess some have gone about to blast the Martyrs Lawrels and represent them to have undergone their Sufferings because they were weak in their Force or in their Understandings and so they foolishly or helplesly submitted to what could not be redrest And thus their Memories are Martyr'd as their Bodies were before and those illustrious passive Graces of Meekness and Resignation of Christian Patience and Taking up the Cross which are the bright Enamel of their Heavenly Crowns which are the just Imitation of our Suffering Lord which are the Eternal Theme of our Wonder and our Praise which in the Opinion of truly Good Men do embalm their Names below and which above have preferred them to the highest Seats in the Church Triumphant These I say are made to dwindle into mere politick Compliance with a helpless Necessity or are arraigned as Arguments of the Weakness of their Party or their Ignorance of their Rights and Privileges which Modern Professors it seems pretend now far better to understand in these Days of New-Light and by those extraordinary late Discoveries that have been made to the Kingdom of the Saints Suffice it us that we know the ancient Channel wherein Christianity ran how it was propagated and prevailed in the World when it went forth conquering and to conquer and yet knew nothing of making its Way by Violence or Armies by deposing of Kings or fighting for Privileges by Alterations of Governments or Dis-inherison of Princes that is in plain English when it was not acquainted with advancing Christ's Cause by reproaching his Religion or breaking any of his Commandments As for us who adhere to the Establishment in the Church of England It has hitherto been our just Glory of which none hereafter I hope shall deprive us that like the Wisdom from above our Doctrines are pure and our Principles and Practices peaceable opposite to Idolatry against God and Sedition against the King And as this Church has hitherto been so may it for ever stand the just Dread and Envy of our Enemies on either hand and be a lasting Monument of the true Temper and Genius of the Christian Religion till Time shall be no more But now because we have exempted Soveraigns from being justly obnoxious to Outward Force or Violence have we therefore cancell'd all Obligations upon them Have we made mere Power to be Right or Passion to be Law or left Appetite to range without either Rule or Bounds and so put them into such a State as is proper to none but the Great Leviathan who with full and Arbitrary Liberty rowls and sports himself