Selected quad for the lemma: city_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
B06421
|
A sermon preached at Windsor before his Majesty, the second Sunday after Easter, 1684. by John Archbishop of Tuam.
|
Vesey, John, 1636-1716.
|
1684
(1684)
|
Wing V282A; ESTC R185967
|
16,479
|
46
|
its Original is the Ordinance of God Rom. 13. As a City may elect a Mayor by priviledge of Charter but his Authority when elected is from the King so is the Kings from God where the People have the greatest share visibly in the Designation of the person but they onely prepare and dispose the matter in the political Generation but the Soul of Sovereignty is Divine and infused from above and not by low and popular traduction if you consider Government to take its Rise either from the Order of Nature or from Conquest or particular Designation either Divine or Humane And so much may suffice for the first Reason why Princes are called Gods and Sons of God they are begotten by him I have herein possibly made too bold with your patience though the temper of this Age be too just an Apology for my doing so But if ye suffer Fools as the Apostle speaks but I know not how gladly if every Journeyman become a Kings Monitor and every Pebble in the Guttur thinks it self a Jewel worthy of their Crowns or the Brests of Priests there to shine and rise up into Oracles suffer us also in the discharge of what we owe to Religion and our Sovereign to tire you a little on so necessary a Doctrine and such Inferences as fairly flow from it As 1. The Prince deriving his Authority from God it follows hence he is accountable to none but God He stands or falls to his own Master and he calls no man Master upon Earth This is truly in right reason a consequence from the Nature and End of Government There must be some person or persons according to the Frame of the Polity from whom there must be no Appeal Some Authority must be absolute and injusticiable or the Process will be infinite and the Grievance without Remedy and the circular and endless motion of Appeals more grievous than any Tyranny 2. If the Prince derive his Authority from God it follows again His Laws oblige the Conscience of the Subject Such as command lawful things for to an unlawful thing there can be no obligation because he hath no authority from God to make unjust Laws and therefore if he doth they do not oblige the Conscience of the Subject to that obedience which is called active though even in such cases he is obliged to subjection to endure the penalty which they call passive obedience But if the matter of the Command be a thing indifferent not forbidden by any Law of God Moral or Positive there the Prince creates an obligation in Conscience to conformity and obedience For men to think they must have the same liberty after they are entered into Society either Civil or Religious as before is contrary to the very nature and end of Society they must submit themselves in things lawful to the determination of the Communion whereof they become Members and the enquiry lies not whether the thing enjoined be expedient or inexpedient for of that the governing part must judge but onely whether it be lawful And it is lawful if not forbidden by God and if lawful before it becomes now after the Law necessary in its use and so is our obedience Nor doth this take away the natural indifferency of the thing nor the liberty of Christians nor exalt Princes into Gods Throne or make them Lords of Conscience for that is still free to judge of the natural indifferency any more than our obligation in Conscience to believe what the Apostles have delivered makes them Lords of our Faith a Title which they disclaimed as proper to him who is the Author and Finisher of it 2. Princes are called Gods not onely because he begets them but they are like God in the administration of their power Which is a reason assigned by Hierocles why the Heroes were called also the Sons of God in the Ethnick Theology Now Princes resemble God when they act by the same principle and for the same end 1. In making their Justice shine with equal dispensation on the Righteous and the Wicked and not onely in doing but in loving of Justice This carries a double benefit with it to him that sues for it and him that distributes it The love of Justice sweetens the toil of the Employment and makes that a Recreation which without it is a Drudgery for it is a joy to the Just to do judgement 2. Princes resemble God in Mercy This is the first letter of the Name whereby God proclaims himself to Moses Exod. 34.6 The Lord the Lord God Merciful and Gracious c. and herein he is principally to be imitated by such as are called by his Name in moderating the rigour of Law when men in their simplicity and honest meaning may fall within the lash of its severity or when the face of the Poor is ground and eaten up like Bread by the greediness of an Oppressor It is impossible but there should be frequently such cases wherein if the Letter of the Law be strictly observed the end will not and it is the Glory of a Prince in such cases to extricate persons out of the snares of legal Entanglements and his Prerogative is then much more advantageous to his Subjects than all their boasted priviledges I need not say on this occasion what Prince of the World is the most lively Image of this most Heavenly Attribute whose Mercy like the Divine Original is indeed over all his Works who makes not every man an Offender for a Word nor every Offence Capital but is strong and patient though provoked every day 3. Princes are like God when they act as by the same principles of Justice and Mercy so for the same end and safety of the Society They are therefore elsewhere stiled Restorers of Paths and Healers of Breaches and here the blessing of the Peace-makers falls upon their heads which saith our Saviour is to be called the Sons of God Mat. 5.9 and the more they intend this God-like end in preserving the peace not only of their own Subjects but of the World in general the better title they have to that Beatitude and nearer resemblance to the God of Peace There are indeed some Sons not very like their Father who resemble the great Destroyer rather that is daily seeking whom he may devour Such are Disciplines and Scourges in the hand of God as one of the Gothick Kings called himself to chastise the Christian World for their Luxury and contempt of God and his Commandments But though these are onely stimulated with the Lust of Domination yet they are over-ruled by the Divine Providence and directed to a point they thought not of and often forced to bring Glory to God in the conclusion though they designed onely their own in the first motion of their Arms. But what ever excesses the wantonness of Power may tempt some Spirits to they have the best right to this high Title of being the Sons of God and are the most natural
the governed part unless we should fancy the Root were made and nourished of the Branches and the Father of the Children But thus much of the Order of Nature which was soon altered and broken in pieces by force 2. For secondly Men still increasing and multiplying their natural Obligations of obedience to remoter Parents in the direct line as well as love to Relations in the collateral grew weaker and colder and the farther the lines were drawn from the Centre the further they were removed from one another and so as the Tree became a Forest the Forest soon became a Wilderness And then the Passions of Men were let loose and grew wild and they began to range abroad and to prey upon each others Possessions and some grew Mighty Hunters and by force or fraud drove their Neighbours into the toyl and made them submit to their Yoke and Tyranny which they did not out of choice but of necessity as the Reed bends onely because it is forced by the Storm that otherwise would break it I doubt not but it will be allowed me that it is the Conquerours Sword that carves out what Right he hath and not the Peoples courtesie and favour which here is not supposed nor desired and I shall in return as readily yield that meer Conquest gives no Right nor lays any obligation on Peoples Consciences to obey There must be some Title antecedent by Descent or particular divine Designation or Compact or a voluntary Submission afterward at least to legitimate the Force and entitle the Conquerour to a just Possession But if without these he have any Right it is visible it is without and not from but against the People and their Consent And thus much of Force and Conquest 3. God himself in his love and care for some portions of Mankind hath not onely raised and qualified men that seem born for Government but sometimes immediately conferred a Title or sent a Prophet to anoint them So Moses Joshua and the Judges and several Kings were set up by God or a Prophet in his name and on such a Message they ascended the Throne and ruled the People without desiring any suffrage from them so as to derive their Title from it Davids substantial right to the Crown was his Unction and Divine Designation by the Ministry of the Prophet Samuel 1 Sam 16. V 1. 13. 2 Sam. 2.3 2 Sam. 5.3 which the men of Judah and Israel did severally recognize in Hebron by repeating of the Ceremony The King further making a League with those of Israel before the Lord that is to govern by the Lawâ— God had prescribed by his Servant Moses whâ—â—â— is an Act of Grace resembled by the Coronatâ—â—â— Oath of our Kings and not such a stipulation bâ—tween David and the Israelites as that a failure on his part should devolve the Government upon them for how should that escheat to them which he held not of them his Right being divine and antecedent to their submission So then in this way of particular designation by God no Right is derived from the People If it be any Case it is 4. By Popular Election when the People to prevent the mischief of an evil Governour or Usurper or the want of Government which in our lapsed State is the greatest Evil of all meet chuse such a Person as they judge best qualified for the ends of Government and invest him with all the Powers and Liberties of which they were possessed by the Law of Nature obliging themselves to defend his Person and obey his Laws 1. They elect the Person but possibly they are not so free in this Action as they fansie will they exclude the Divine Providence and allow God no share in their Councils Will they confine him to his own Heaven and challenge the management of all Affairs here to themselves We are neither such automatous Machines as move onely as we are set and directed nor such absolute Lords of our Actions as we imagine our selves we cannot bring about always certainly what we freely design but God often steps between the purpose and the event and at other times addresses our free motions by an unseen hand So that the People may name the Person but God chuses he speaks by their voice and acts by their hands Psal 75.7 for he is the Judge that putteth down one and setteth up another 2. When the Prince is elected the People invest him with Power that is with all they have and more they cannot give But there is a Power necessary to Government which the People never had and therefore could not give that is of punishing capitally which the Prince either usurps or derives from some higher Principle So that the People can onely make a Golden Calf or an Idol but not a God If the Prince had no Power but from them the Government would be weak and insufficient for the ends of it for without Capital punishment he could not be a terrour to Evil doers Rom. 13. But the People never had this Power I mean the governed part radically in them because no man ever had it singly before Government was setled No man hath more power over another in the State or Notion rather of Nature than over himself But no man hath a right to dispose of his own life he cannot kill himself without sinning and therefore he cannot have as a private person this right over another and if he have not this right in himself over himself neither can he transfer it to another and if one cannot neither can two nor three nor any number for Number may give Force but no Right if an hundred set on one man and kill him without Authority it is as much murder as if but one had done it To sum up this therefore Men embodying into a Society and submitting to one person or more part onely with what they have their Liberties and Possessions but over their Lives having no right they can make no disposal and therefore the exercise of this Power in the Prince can be no issue from the People for then the Stream must run higher than the Spring but from God whose Prerogative it is both to give Life and to take it away and not to be challenged by any person for Vengeance is mine but to whom he communicates it And therefore the Prince strikes with Gods Sword and the Apostles Expression is very accurate Rom. 13.4 when he says he is the Minister of God an Avenger for wrath I am not ignorant that the whole series and Scale of Magistracy as well the King as Supreme as Governours sent by him is called by the Apostle a humane Creature to whom yet he enjoins subjection â— pet â— 13 for the Lords sake as the Fountain of the Authority Men may be Instruments in the Election and the safety of Humane Society may be the end of their choice on which accounts the Government is there called a Humane Ordinance which in