THE Bishop of NORWICH's SERMON Preach'd before the House of LORDS On JANUARY 31. 1697. Die Lunae 7 o Februarii 1697. IT is Ordered by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament Assembled That the Thanks of this House be and are hereby given to the Lord Bishop of Norwich for his Sermon Preach'd before this House the One and Thirtieth Day of January last in the Abby-Church and he is hereby desir'd to Print and Publish the same MATTH JOHNSON Cler ' Parlamentor ' A SERMON Preach'd before the House of Lords IN THE Abby-Church at Westminster UPON Monday January 31. 1697. By the Right Reverend Father in God JOHN Lord Bishop of NORWICH LONDON Printed by R. R. for W. Rogers at the Sun against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet MDCXCVII 1 TIM II. 1 2. I exhort therefore that first of all supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men for kings and for all that are in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty NOtwithstanding the Care at first which was taken in planting the Gospel of Christ and that the Doctrines and Precepts thereof were publish'd by Men divinely inspired yet Errors of a dangerous nature did early creep into the Church Two of which are opposed by St. Paul in the Text the one concerned the Extent of the Christian Religion and the other related to the Subjection due to the Civil Magistrate It was a prevailing Opinion among the Jews who were the first Converts to Jesus Christ That his Gospel was only to be preached to themselves and that the Infinite Happiness promised in it should be limited to the People of their own Nation They were puff'd up with the long Course of Favours God had been pleas'd to vouchsafe unto them and could not endure with patience to hear and think that under the Dispensation of the Gospel the Gentiles should stand on a Level with them and become equally capable of the hopes and means of Salvation And as the Epicureans would have shut the Providence of God out of the World so They would have confined the illustrious Manifestations of it by Jesus Christ to the Seed of Abraham While indeed the Jews were under the peculiar Care of God the Laws he made to govern them were chiefly Political and had regard to their Publick Good and Safety as a Nation and Community like the Civil Laws of other Countries and Submission to them was enforced by Temporal Rewards and Punishments But when it pleased him to enact Laws which were for the Reformation of the Minds and Affections as well as the Manners of Men and which would not only advance their general Good in this Life but procure their Eternal Welfare in the next it seemed agreeable to his boundless Goodness and Wisdom that what he intended for the Advancement of Human Nature and the Reparation of his own Image in the Souls of Men which was defaced by Adam's Fall and Man 's own wilful Transgressions should reach to all who did partake of that Nature And this being the highest Favour his poor revolted Creatures were capable of receiving it was his merciful Resolution not to deny any of them the Means to obtain it Insomuch that the Merit of Christ's Death was to extend not only to the Seed of Abraham but to the whole Posterity of Adam That as in Adam all dye even so in Christ shall all be made alive And that God's designed Bounty by the coming of the Messiah should comprehend all Nations the Jews had sufficient notice from the Inspired Writers of their own Country And I will shake all nations and the desire of all nations shall come I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth And in support of this great Truth St. Paul doth exhort Timothy That Supplications be made for all Men Whether Jews or Gentiles Believers or Infidels of what Country of what Rank or Quality soever they be But the Occasion of our being at this time assembled will not permit me longer to insist upon the Refutation of this first Mistake of the Jewish Christians against which St. Paul's Exhortation is here directed I proceed therefore to the Consideration of the other immediately following which was Their Averseness to live in Subjection to the Civil Magistrate Their Untractableness and Disrespect to Rulers had appeared on several occasions especially since they were brought under the Roman Yoke and may probably be in some measure imputed to a wrong Interpretation which they had put upon a Precept that God gave them by Moses God had required them to make no King but of their own People One from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee thou mayest not set a stranger over thee which is not thy brother This made them unwilling to submit to any Foreign Power It is true while a liberty of Election continued they were to chuse a King of their own Nation but after God for the hardness of their hearts did suffer them to be subdued by their Neighbours and to be carried Captive into a strange Land it became their Duty to be subject to them who had brought them under their Power and to conform themselves to the Laws of the Emperors and Kings who protected them Now St. Paul having some cause to suspect since their Conversion to the Christian Religion that they had not quitted all their Prejudices and false Notions about Obedience and Submission to the higher Powers which they held under the Mosaick Dispensation does in the Text exhort and desire Timothy that as Prayers should be made for all kinds of Men so chiefly and in the first place for Kings and all that are in Authority In treating of which Argument I shall endeavour to shew 1. That it is not foreign to the Office of the Ministers of the Christian Church to remind the People of their Duty to the Civil Power 2. That the People are bound by the Laws of God and Nature to pray for those in Authority and to live in due Subjection to them 1. That it is not foreign to the Office of the Ministers of the Christian Church to remind the People of their Duty to the Civil Power Which Proposition may be grounded on the Exhortation of St. Paul to Timothy The Apostle did not think it sufficient when he writ to whole Churches to injoyn them to render Tribute 〈◊〉 and Service to Chief Governors and all in Authority under them but in his Epistle to Timothy who being made Bishop of Ephesus was about to order and establish the Worship of God in the Assemblies of the New Christians he does exhort and beseech him that their Publick Service should begin with Prayers for all Men and particularly for Kings And with equal Care and Zeal to preserve Christians from Seditious Designs and Plots against the Magistrate in his Letter to
Titus by him constituted Bishop of Crete he presses him to put the Churches in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers to obey Magistrates to be ready to every good Insomuch as Timothy is required That in his Office of Publick Prayer Kings should have a principal part and Titus hath order in his Sermons to put the Hearers in mind of their Duty to the Supreme and Subordinate Powers Whatever therefore is declared a Duty of our Holy Religion and is contained among the Apostolical Precepts must not only be a Subject proper but very necessary for Christian Ministers to explain and seriously recommend unto the People There was more cause for making this Observation which arises directly from our Text because it hath been often objected to the Clergy when they preach Loyalty and Submission to the Government that they exceed the Bounds of their Office and meddle with Matters which do not belong to them As if a Christian Minister could go beyond his Commission while he contained himself within the compass of his Bible and only published those Doctrines unto the Congregation which our Lord Christ and his Holy Apostles had taught before him If any therefore have been worthy of blame for their Discourses on these Arguments it must proceed from want either of Judgment or Sincerity in their Performance We do not therefore pretend to excuse either those who have taught the People to speak Evil of Dignities and would have disposed them to Mutiny and take Arms against their Sovereign Lords or those who would persuade Governors to Rule by Arbitrary Power and not to have respect to the Laws and the general Good in their Administration Such Men indeed transgress their Commission and Act without Integrity or Skill in both the Extremes and ought not to be esteemed Friends either to the Prerogative of Princes or to the Liberty of the People For neither the one nor the other can be stretched beyond the Measures of Law and Justice without hazard of being broken But then this is not the only Case in which Men may betray the defects of their Understanding or of their Honesty seeing other Religious Matters have likewise their Extremes and we need not seek much or go far for a pertinent Instance For in the same Verse that St. Paul does bid Titus to put them in mind to be subject to Principalities he also requires him to exhort them to be ready to every Good Work Now Good Works are a most noble and necessary Subject for Preachers to treat of in the Pulpit and they hardly can compose a Sermon without having occasion to make mention of them And yet some have set too high a rate even upon Good Works and others have as much undervalued them The Romanists over-rate them while they contend they are meritorious and that God is bound to reward those who do them making that a Debt of his Justice which is the effect alone of his free Grace and Mercy On the other hand the Antinomians and Solifidians as they are called do put too low a Value on Good Works by not allowing them according to the ordinary Laws of the Gospel to be necessary Ingredients of the Condition upon which the Christian man shall be justified When yet our Saviour hath declared that the truest Test we can give of our love of him and the way to enter into Life is to keep his Commandments and St. James does pronounce That faith without works cannot save us Wherefore to conclude this matter Accusations and Clamour should never divert us from our Duty but they ought to make us more diligent and exact in the manner of doing it We proceed therefore to shew 2. That the People are bound by the Laws of God and Nature to pray for those in Authority and to live in due Obedience to them The Obligation upon Men to be Subject to Kings and Princes hath been made appear from the Holy Scripture in part already But before I fetch further Proof from thence it may be of advantage to this Point to enquire what Evidence there may be for it from Reason and natural Light The Evidence from the Light of Nature and Reason will be strong if it can be proved that the Original of Society is from God and that he hath made Government necessary to Mankind and consequently hath obliged every Man to comply with and submit to all things necessary to uphold Rule and Discipline in Bodies Politick In order to make which out I shall shew 1. That God hath qualified and fitted the Nature of Man for Society 2. That Man has a great Love Appetite and Desire to Society 3. That the Wants and Deficiencies unavoidable in the present State cannot be supplied without Society and other Mens Assistance 4. That unless Men submit to the Authority establish'd in every Society for the Government of it no Society or Community can subsist or continue 1. That God hath fitted and qualified the Nature of Man for Society is manifest both from the Faculties of the Mind and the Powers of the Body wherewith he hath endowed him Man is furnisht with Reason and Memory and Speech and Bodily Strength which are so many Qualifications for the making him a sociable Creature since they are all contrived and may be used as well for the benefit of others as of our selves and Speech seems for no other end designed than Conversation and the furtherance of Mutual Good Man by the Exercise of his Reason does discover a difference between things that some are Good and others Evil those things he judges Good which will preserve and improve the Faculties and Powers of his Being and those Evil which have a tendency to corrupt and destroy them Next by comparing his own Nature with other Mens and observing the respects they have one to another he concludes that what is Good or Evil for him will be so for other Men that what contributes to his own Safety or Destruction in the same Circumstances will do so to theirs who have the like Intellectual Faculties and Corporeal Powers with himself Hence he advances to find out the different degrees of goodness in things and to compute how much one Good exceeds another and he cannot but determine that the Good which is durable is to be preferr'd to that of short continuance that what causes Peace and Tranquility of Mind is more to be esteemed than what procures freedom from Pain and Ease of the Body and that Goods of every kind are so much more valuable as they are more diffusive And therefore what is good for him and for others also is a greater good than what is so for himself alone and that in proportion every Good is still the greater by how much the more have benefit by it and consequently his Reason will engage him constantly to pursue and promote the most Universal and Publick Good in which his own will ever be involved before and above all others Moreover Men
have much help from their Memory in forming Notions of Truth and Falshood and of the Good and Evil in things by recalling the Times and Actions which are gone and by recollecting what Fruits such Courses of Life did produce and what was the gain or loss such Deeds did bring along with them So that in passing Judgment upon Matters in view they may be directed not only by the Objects which at present work upon their Senses but consult the Register of all that are past and therefrom collect that the same Causes will have the same Effects and so get Instructions how by changing the way to attain the Good in the pursuit whereof before they miscarried and to escape the Evils into which by Ignorance or Rashness they formerly had fallen Then lastly By Speech which would be of no use without Society Men are enabled to communicate to each other not only their present Thoughts but their former Experience and so to arrive at the same Opinions of things and at length to agree upon such Rules in ordinary Dealings which they shall judge to be for the general Good 2. We prove Order and Government to be ordained of God from the great Love and Appetite all Men have for Society Where an Appetite is universally rooted in the Nature of any kind of Beings we can attribute so general an Effect to nothing but the Maker of those Beings As all the Faculties of Men are fitted for mutual Intercourse so no Desires are more constant or stronger than those of conversing one with another How great is the Delight that arises from Virtuous Friendship How unspeakable the Pleasure which springs up in our Souls from Opportuninities to imitate our Glorious Lord and Maker in doing good to great Numbers Actions of this kind are most agreeable to our Sense and Reason And we cannot return Acts of Gratitude to our Friends do Deeds of Charity to the Poor or shew Kindness to any in their present Distress without sweet and pleasing Reflections and feeling the truest inward Satisfaction As to them who pretend to be most delighted with hiding themselves from the World it is enough to answer That they could not retire with safety and freedom from fear were they not protected by the Laws of the Community and the Care of those who apply themselves to Publick Business and that their Retirement would prove very uncomfortable had they not the Works of such Persons to entertain themselves with in their Closets whose Company they decline abroad 3. That the Deficiencies and Wants unavoidable in the present state cannot be supplied without Society and other Mens Assistance No living Creatures have such need of one another as Men they cannot come into the World without much help and when in it they know no means to support themselves it is for a long time that their Parents provide all Necessaries for their Subsistence Many sudden Calamities and Disasters befal Man which would presently make an end of him did not his Neighbours come to his relief He is liable to numerous Diseases which he cannot cure or prevent some whereof not only disorder his Blood and Spirits but deprive him of the Use of Reason in which distressed Condition he owes his Life under God wholly to the Compassion and Care of his Friends Moreover to make Men more ready to do good Offices God hath put Passions in them whereby they are deeply affected with the Prosperity or Misfortunes of them with whom they converse The good success of the Affairs of their Allies does stir up secret Joy and Pleasure in their Minds and the fear of any harm hapning to them is the cause why they bring in more speedy and ample Supplies for their Deliverance out of Trouble But that our Passions should not transport us into any Excess hurtful to our selves or others God hath put them under the Government of our Reason So that any Mischief coming to us by their Unruliness must be imputed to our own want of Care and Consideration More Reasons was there now time of the necessity for Men to confederate and join together in Bodies by Rules and Covenant might be offered Nature teaches us that what it hath left in common ought to be divided into shares for while men have nothing proper to themselves the use of things would be the occasion of perpetual Quarrels they would ever be contending who should be the first Possessor of this or that Portion of Land and how long they should keep Possession of it Insomuch that it is of absolute necessity there should be general Rules to separate and distinguish one man's Share and Propriety from anothers which are what we mean by Laws And the making an equal Division among all Parties in like Circumstances is stiled Justice Which Virtue the Philosopher thinks more difficult to be practised because it primarily has relation to the good of other men but the rest of the Virtues to our selves Indeed there could be no Encouragement for Man to labour and cultivate the Earth if there were no Laws to restrain the Strong from taking by Violence or the Weak from secretly purloining the Fruits and Products of his honest Industry or to punish the Malicious Person whose Spite and Ill Nature should prompt him to do a shrewd Turn to his Neighbour Wherefore those Savage People among whom little Government Order or Discipline is visible seem to be in a state of Life not much preferable to that of the Wild Beasts of the Forest They both spend their Time in hunting for their Food and there is no great difference between the Huts of the one and the Dens of the other Nay Birds and Beasts by Instinct of Nature delight to flock and herd together and to receive some low degrees of Advantage from such imperfect Society as they are capable of by their Nature 4. That unless men submit to the Authority erected and establish'd in every Society for the Government of it no Society or Community can subsist or continue If the Providence of God hath so contrived the state of things that Mankind cannot live happily in the World out of Communities or Confederate Bodies and if Subjection to the Sovereign Power in every Community be required absolutely to the Preservation of it then God has made Subjection a Duty incumbent upon the Members of the Community The Truth of this Assertion will be more clear and evident by considering the several things required to the Constitution of a Society or Community which I take to be these Three 1. That there should be Laws enacted and published for the Government of the Society As I have shewn it to be the Dictate of Nature that the Earth and the good things it does bring forth should be divided among men for upholding Peace and Order in the World so it is plain that what Portion thereof every particular man should enjoy must be determin'd by the Laws of the Community where he resides It is the Work
of them who have the Legislative Power to make Laws to describe the Property of single Persons to try the Justice and Equity of Bargains and Contracts to estimate the Losses and Damages men suffer one by another By these Laws mens Labours and Service are to be rated Rewards or Punishments are to be measured out to Persons according as they shall advance the Welfare of the Society or it shall receive Detriment from them In a word the Civil Laws do allot what Tributes and Taxes each man shall pay to defend and preserve the Body Politick whereof he is a Part. 2. It is necessary that in all Societies there should be a Chief Governor to interpret the Laws and according to them to decide the Controversies between particular men without Favour and Affection or Prejudice and Hatred to any Party But if there was no Publick Person to expound the Laws every Private Man might understand them in his own Sense and make them bend to his peculiar Interest And hence it would follow that there would be as great and endless Strifes about the meaning of the Laws as would have been about the several Portions of Land in a Country before a general Division was made And therefore it is very clear and manifest in the Third Place 3. That all the Members of a Community are bound to submit to the Laws and Decrees of their Chief Governor For neither Laws nor a Governor can constitute a Society if private Men have Liberty not to submit to them Of what Use would Laws be if every one might interpret them to his own particular Advantage To what purpose should a Governor undertake to hear Causes if the People were not bound to stand to his Determinations This therefore never can happen in any Place without a Dissolution of the Government and the bringing all things into Confusion And Men in a State where every one presumes a Right in himself to oppose what he mislikes must not be thought an orderly and regulated Society but a disjointed and lawless Multitude Wherefore no one is to doubt but that God who is Author of Societies has given the Supreme Rulers in every Society a Right to so much Power as is sufficient to compel men to yield Obedience to the Laws and that he has obliged all Persons belonging unto it to submit to their Authority But now let us observe in the Revealed Will of God what further Approbation he has given of the Sovereign Powers over Nations and Kingdoms through his Providence settled in the World for the Good and Welfare of Men. When God did put the Children of Israel under his immediate Government we may take notice how severely he punished those who did mutiny against the Rulers that by his Commission acted under him Miriam was smitten with the Leprosy because she unadvisedly spoke against Moses Korah seduced some Malecontents into an Insurrection and the Earth opened and swallowed him and his Company for their Rebellion God so far countenanced the Erection of Sovereign Power over his own People the Jews as to grant their Petition for a King notwithstanding they did sin in rejecting him when they desired a king to judge them like all the nations And what is remarkable he caused their two first Kings to come to the Throne by his special Choice and Designation It is also worthy of noting That the usual Title and Stile of Kings in Holy Scripture is The Anointed of the Lord In which he forbids the reviling of Rulers and the cursing of the King even in our Thoughts he declares them his Representatives that by him they rule and decree Justice Nay he threatneth to pour his Judgments upon Jerusalem for their revolting from the King of Babylon after he had conquered their Countrey Our Saviour likewise whose Kingdom was not of this World was so far from designing any Alteration in the Forms of Government and Civil Laws of Nations that were agreeable to Reason and Morality that he confirmed their Establishment and did subject himself to the Supreme Authority of his own Time and Country by ordering Tribute to be paid to Caesar and in acknowledging to Pilate That his Power was given him from God Subjection to Kings and Governors is more largely and distinctly asserted by the Apostles who in their Divine Writings were assisted with his Holy Spirit And to render their Precepts concerning Obedience to those who preside at the Helm and direct and rule Kingdoms and Nations the more effectual they back them with strong Arguments taken from the Profit which accrues to Societies through their respectful and dutiful Behaviour to the Civil Authority and from the Judgments God will bring upon Men of a rebellious and untractable Spirit St. Paul requires every Christian Soul to be subject to the Higher Powers because those Powers are ordained of God and because they that resist them do resist the Ordinance of God and by his Decree who will maintain his own Ordinances shall for their Sin of Resistance receive to themselves Damnation St. Peter enjoins Christians in general to be subject to the King who is Supreme and to Governors that are deputed by him for the Lord's sake and because so is the Will of God and both point to the Blessings and Benefits that will therefrom proceed to Men The one says Rulers are not a Terror to good Works but to the Evil And the other That they are for the Punishment of Evil-doers and for the Praise of them that do well St. Paul affirms That the Magistrate is the Minister of God to thee for Good that is for the support of Justice and Honesty and Peace among Men and that in defending the Authority of Governors we shall include our own Quiet and Safety It is not unworthy of notice when St. Paul urged the Duty of Subjection that Nero was Emperor one of the worst of Men and to obviate an Objection made by some since who had more regard to their own Will than the Word of God That the Primitive Christians did submit to the Authority of the Emperors because they being but a handful of Men had not Force sufficient to oppose them he adds That they were to be subject not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake that is not only for Fear of the Emperors who in their Rage might let loose their Armies upon them but upon a Principle of Duty and Justice in Consideration of the Advantage and Profit they gain by their Government And if we are to be Obedient to the Higher Powers for sake of Conscience then by Rule of Contraries we shall contract a guilty Conscience by our Disobedience The Sum of all is That we ought to pray for both in Publick and Private to Fear and Respect and Honour in our Behaviour Kings and Princes and other Magistrates and to submit to their Righteous Laws and Constitutions not only in regard they are set over us by God and Reign by his Commission but out of