Primitiae Regiminis Davidici OR THE FIRST-FRUITS OF DAVIDS GOVERNMENT Vowed to God before and offered at his actual admission thereunto REPRESENTED In a Sermon at the Assises held at Reading for the County of Berks Feb. 28. 1653. By Simen Ford B. D. and Pastour of the Congregation at St. Laurence Church in the said Town Published At the joint desire of the High Sheriff and Justices of Peace for the said County which with some mis-reports since blown about concerning it and the Author inclined him to give way thereunto LONDON Printed by S. G. for John Rothwel at the Fountain and Bear in Gold-smiths Row in Cheap-side 1654. TO THE HONOURABLE Judge Atkins one of the Justices of the Common-Plea's as also to the right Worshipfull William Backhouse of Swallowfield Esq High Sheriffe of the County of Berks together with the right Worshipfull the Gentry both of and out of the Commission for the Peace of the said County and principally to those at whose request this Sermon was made publique My Lord and Gentlemen THis Sermon having adventured it self upon the hazardous Tryal of God and the Bench was adjudged to the Press when its Author was not by to plead on his own behalf who surely had he been privy to the Judgement which was onely reported to him by some few of the number would have intreated the Gentlemen not to adventure the reputation of their discretions upon a piece too unworthy the notice of such an Honourable Judicature I confesse I looke upon the comming under the Stationers Presse in these dayes as a punishment to a Sermon no lesse in its kind then that of the same denomination which you in some cases inflict upon offendors seeing it is thereby exposed to the weight of publique calumnies and reproaches of which I am sure mine shall not want its sufficient load The onely remedy I have herein is once more to present its case before you its Judges which I doe in this Dedication and to intreat you that the Grand-Inquest you impannell to enquire concerning it may be so wise as to understand the evidence of Truth that is in it and so honest as not to returne an Ignoramus for Billa vera Surely My Lord and Gentlemen you that are sufficiently acquainted with the Yerburies Chillendens Ives's and others of an inferiour Order whom it would be too much honor to name seeds-men of the Devil with whom this poore Town hath beene perpetually pestered and poysoned will I doubt not see cause for that tartnesse of application in the close for which I have been sufficiently persecuted by the tongues of those who found their backs too tender to be rubbed Those mens names and some of the Errors and Heresies they vented I represented to your last Grand-Jury and hoped they also would have seen cause either to have reported them to your Lordship and the Bench or at least not to have misreported me as some of them did to others as unable to justifie my charge My Lord and Gentlemen I commit the Vindication of my name and of this Truth first to God who I am sufficiently assured will bring forth its righteousness as the light and among men to your wiser and more impartiall judgements hoping that you will as farre as it concernes you impresse the substance of it upon your Consciences and walkings And I pray that that Edition may be correctior emendatior more perfect then the Originall Copy it self that you may live Sermons better then I can Preach or print them And upon that account I will preach and print as often as you please upon other terms I care not how seldome And this because I am Reading May 24. 1654. My Lord and Gentlemen Your most zealously affectionate well-wisher and upon that account servant in the Gospel SIMON FORD A SERMON Preached at the Assises holden for the County of Berks at Reading Feb. 28. 1653. Mr. William Backbouse of Swallowfield SHERIFFE PSAL. 75. 4 5 6 7. I said or rather I will say to the fools deal not foolishly and to the wicked lift not up the horn v. 4. Lift not up your horn on high speak not with a stiffe neck v. 5. For promotion cometh neither from the East nor from the West nor from the South v. 6. But God is the Judge he putteth down one and setteth up another v. 7. THis Psalm is a good Magistrates Directory because it is the Copy of that Kings heart who was a man after Gods own heart David at the time of the writing hereof is by most sound Interpreters supposed to have been in that Morning-Twilight of Royalty a midling condition between a King and no King which you have described 2 Sam. 2 and 3 Chapters Ishobsheth the son and heir of Saul the late King was yet strugling for ten parts in twelve of the whole Kingdome 'T was an hot dispute of two years continuance But at last Davids house grows stronger and stronger and Ishbosheths weaker and weaker chap. 3. 1. This day-star of approaching Royalty being thus got above the Horizon and fore-telling the nearness of the Sun to dispel the mists of his long doubts and fears it is supposed sets Davids harp and heart in tune and thereupon he takes occasion to testifie his thankfulness in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or triumphant thankful Ode His thankfulness is partly Verbal in the acknowledgement of Gods faithfulness in so near an issue of an expected mercy for this he means by the nearness of Gods name v. 1. and of his Soveraign Power and Justice in the way wherein he accomplished it v. 7 8 9. And partly Real in the resolvedness of his heart to repair the breaches and ruines of Sauls dissolute Government The whole State both Ecclesiastical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dissolutus liquefactus fuit and Civil was like a melted Vessel run into a lump of confusion and disorder for that is the Original emphasis of that phrase The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved v. 3. And there was no hope that ever it would be a Vessel for honour or use any more except a skilful Founder undertook to new cast it Such an one was David and that he might give assurance of his undertaking he before-hand declares the mould or model unto which he will reduce it 1. He will first cement the broken pieces of the old frames viz. Religion Law and Justice which are the pillars of all Government 2. He will secure those pillars from the insolent petulancy of bold and presumptuous offenders by a severe execution of the utmost severity and rigour of divine and humane Laws upon them And both these he will do upon the consideration of his conscientious obligation thereunto and that upon this account because all his power is confessedly subordinate to Gods which is the sum of my Text and the following verse I will say for so I read it with Paraeus and Musculus unto the fools deal not so foolishly c.
thoughts which upon better advice he would see cause not to stand to you shall hear him back it in another Psalm I will early destroy all the wicked of the Land Psa 101. ult Observe from the time That Magistrates reforming resolutions must be speedily and effectually prosecuted For 1. Good resolutions will cool again when they are off from the fire of a present good mood if they be not speedily put in execution 2. Delays in this case are dangerous when the fire once gets to the house top the least delay will quickly render it unquenchable If a small Army be suffered to entrench and victual themselves a great strength will have enough to do to conquer them If the Sea break in upon a Land it may be at the first a little labour will repair the bank but if it be neglected but a few dayes all the Country cannot turn it out again Novi ego quod primo fuerat medicabile vnlnus Neglectum longae damna tulisse morae Wickedness will spread as a Gangrene and especially 2 Tim 2. 17. that which the Apostle speaks of in that place Heresie and toleration makes it incurable 3. Opportunities and seasons of doing good are not in our hands but Gods This is the ground of that advice of Mordecai to Hester Who knoweth but that thou art come to the Kingdom for such a time as this Hester 4. 13. And this leads me to the second general part of my Text the ground of Davids resolution For promotion cometh neither from the East c. Which words are an universal negation of creature-power in the managery of State-affaires further then Gods Providence co-operates with it Men are apt to expect advancement from second causes Politicians use to have their Engines at work in all Quarters Such correspondencies in the East and such in the West c. And they are apt to conclude if but such or such a designtake one of many that makes for their advantage And when their plots are spoiled in one part yet they maintain hope from another quarter of the world And indeed This is the spring of all manner of irregular compliances with those from whom we expect furtherance in our designs that we look upon them as our advancers Thence saith Solomon many seek the Rulers favour Prov. 29. 26. and that with sordid and horrid encroachments upon the principles of ingenuity and conscience licking up the very spittle of great ones as is reported of Dyonisius his flatterers and conforming to their very vices and imperfections as is reported of Alexanders courtiers that imitated his wry neck And in the last Kings reign in the encroachments upon the publique liberty by Ship-money and Monopolies His Judges all but one or two that went with honour to their graves perswaded him 't was Law and his Divines 't was Conscience As if they had both been of the mind of Cambyses his Councellors who advising with them in a case of incestuous marriage they told him all the Statute Law of the Land was against him but there was another Law that the King might do what he would Now the ready way to keep men from irregular courses for advancement is to perswade them O that God would do it that vain is the help of man Trust not in Princes nor in the son of man saith David in whom there is no help Psal 146. 3. And Cursed be he that maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord. Creature-confidence is the mother of Apostasie and defeatment Jer. 17. 5 6. But where then is the spring of preferment And from what Fountain doth it flow The last part of my Text tells you God is the Judge he putteth down one and setteth up another Of which in a few words and then I shall dismiss you with a word or two by way of application to the present occasion Observe hence All the Translations of Civil power in the world are the effects of a Divine and that a just Providence God works these changes and that as a Judge in a judicial way There is nothing in the world of more common observation and less solemn and sanctified meditation then the various turnings of the wheel of Providence One while a David taken from the Sheep-coat from following the Ews great Psal 78. 71. with young and advanced in Homers phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be a Shepherd of men his Sheep-hook changed into a Scepter and his seat of turf to a Royal throne A Joseph from an imprisoned slave to a Royal Favorite A Gideon from a threshing Jud. 6. 11 floor raised to be a Saviour of Israel and his threshing instrument of wood changed into one Isa 41. 15. of iron to thresh the mountains as God himself phraseth it Hester a poor captive maid advanced to a royal bed Hest 2. 6 17. And in prophane stories a Dictator from the Plough and an Emperour from the hog-trough a third from keeping the Cowes c. And our Hen. the 8. took his two great favourites the one from the Slaughter-house and the other from the Forge On the other side Adonibezek a mighty Prince Jud. 1. 7. Dan. 4. 28. made Fellow-Commoner with the Dogs and Nebusbadnezzar a mightly Conquerour and one that lifted his horn to a great height turned a grazing with the Oxen and Herod in his most sumptuous apparel and amidst the shouts and acclamations of his people reduced from a conceited God to be the most loathsome of men a living Acts 12. 23. carrion arrested by the vilest of creatures upon the suit of his affronted Creator A great Haman feasted with the King one day and made a feast for Crowes the next Hest 7. 10. And in humane stories who knows not that Bajazet one of the greatest Commanders in the world was carried about in an Iron-grate to be a footstool to an insulting Conquerour That Belisarius the famousest General that the later Age of the Roman Empire knew and in greatest favour with Justinian his Prince was reduced to that want that he was fain to beg for his living Date obolum Belisario This is commonly the lot of great Favourites Fatum potentiae rarò sempiternae sayes Tacitus quippe satias capit aut illos cùm omnia tribuerunt aut hos cùm nihil reliquum est quod cupiant The common fate of worldly preserment that it seldome lasts Princes being either cloy'd with giving their favours or subjects with receiving them when they have no more to give nor these to receive And in our dayes these changes and revolutions of the wheel of Providence have been ordinary We have seen in one Royal Family and that one of the most eminent in these parts of the world a great and puissant Monarch in the face of the Sun at noon-day at the gate of his own Palace in the most populous City of these three Nations in the midst of thousands of his passionate well-wishers and zealous partizans laying
his head upon a fatal block three Queens of his line and alliance reduced to the Contribution of Foraigners for a mean subsistence and a numerous issue of the same family crushed under the same wheel of Providence in whom not many years since these Nations rejoyced as the budding hopes of an uninterrupted succession We have seen a Parliament the darling of the people sitting under the protection of a perpetual Act crumbled into piecet and at last wholly dissolved with the crucifige of that very people that a few years since cryed Hosanna and prostrated their very hearts at their seet to pave them a triumphant entrance into that trust they had elected them unto We have seen a formidable Meteor of Policy lately elevated to a great height of confidence and presumption lifting up the horn on high or as a Learned Jew reads the words against the high God and speaking with a stiffe neck caught R. Immanuel like Abrahams Ram by the horns in a bush and made a just sacrifice to the scorn and contempt of all men and their Arm withered in the very act for stretching them out against the Prophets of the Lord. In a word such changes of publique affairs as if the starres or those that pretend to great familiarity with them had been but ordinary Prophets they could not have overseen without an inexcusable neglect Such wonderful and momentous Providences as all Europe is concerned in should not in my judgement have been omitted among our Calculators who are at leisure to take abundant notice of that farre more inconsiderable thing the Clergy except possibly they calculated the Common-wealths Nativity upon black Munday when they had not light * The day of the great Eclipse 1652. concerning which our Star-gazers prognosticated such mōstrous darkness but were confuted by the event Acts 1. 7. enough to erect their Scheme However at the present let them passe with this mcmento that it is not for vain man to know the times and seasons which the Father hath kept in his own power and that undoubtedly God Almighty is better able to keep his own counsel then to acquaint the Starres with such affairs or at least their Secretaries who make a livelihood of blabbing all that they know and more too But to leave this digression This is that great Truth which Scripture so much inculcates upon men that it seems are very slow of heart to beleeve it How often doth God tell us this truth in various forms of expressions That be raiseth the poor out of the dust and lifteth the needy from the dunghil that he may set him with Princes Psal 113. 7. That he poureth contempt upon Princes and maketh them to wander in the wildernesse whiles on the other side he setteth the poor on high Psal 107. 41 42. that he raiseth the beggar from the dunghill and maketh him to inherit the Crown of glory because the pillars of the earth are his 1 Sam. 2. 7 8. that he cuts off the spirit of Princes and is terrible to all the Kings of the earth Psal 76. 12. Insomuch that it seems wonderful to me that after so much clear conviction both from Scripture and experience the lustre of present greatness should usually so blinde the eyes of great ones and flatter them with a perswasion of immunity from these changes as it doth That their inward thought should still be that which this Psalmist notes as a great folly That their houses shall continue for ever and their dwelling places to all generations Psal 49. 11. That they conceit their mountain to be so strong that they shall never be moved Psal 30. 67. That when men cast about all manner of ways for advancement they should not so much as think of God nay that they should entertain an Atheistical conceit that a conscientious walking with God is the only way to spoil their preferment As if indeed that which Balak told Balaam who was a little too nice for his design were true that the Lord keeps men from honour Num. 24. 11. That he that wil be great must have a conscience as large as his designs lest being too straight-laced it cause miscarriage That seeming good should be accounted a more ready road to greatness then being so Surely did men believe God to be the Soveraign Disposer of all preferments they would in reason be able to conclude that he would advance his own servants rather then others if advancement be good for them But because men do not cordially believe this Truth therefore they neglect him and prostitute their consciences to the base lusts of others Insomuch that a man would think when he reads the stories of some great Politicians lives that the Devil and they had struck a bargain upon the terms which our Saviour refused Luke 4. 6. All this power will I give thee and the glory of these Kingdoms for that is delivered to me and to whomsoever I will I give it If therefore thou wilt worship me all shall be thine Or that they had been bred with that great French Courtier that chose a part in Paris before a part in Paradise Or Lastly that they had learned those Heathen Politicks of Flectere si nequeo superos Acberonta movebo Virg. And Varo regustatum digito terebrare salinum Contentus perages si vivere cum Jove tendis Pers How much better were it for men to keep Gods high way to greatness which though it may seem the farther way about to them that are in haste yet considering that he that maketh haste to be rich cannot be innocent as Solomon sayes Prov 28. 20. and that they that purchase the whole world with the losse of their own souls get nothing when a dying conscience casts up their accounts Matth. 16. 26. it is the nearer way by farre Especially when we have Gods solemn engagement for it that those that honour him he will honour and they that despise him shall be sleightly esteemed 1 Sam. 2. 30. Lastly considering this great Truth I cannot but wonder at the spirit that those men are of who in such changes as fall out against the grain of their expectations carry themselves rather like Atheists then Christians under them 1. Sometimes in a pet at God himself throwing off that mask of Religion which they had hoped might have advantaged them and because this evil is from the Lord they are resolved to wait upon him no longer like that wicked Prince who is branded upon record for that ungodly resolution 2 Kings 6. 33. How many have all Ages of the Church known who because they could not obtain their designed greatness by profession of Orthodoxy and Piety have attempted to recover it by Apostacy and Persecution 2. And sometimes in a furious and Diabolical rage fuming and foaming against the Instruments causing or occasioning them How familiar a thing hath it been with our deboist gallantry in these late years to drink healths to the confusion of this