THE DUTY OF Honouring the King And The Obligations we have thereto Delivered in a SERMON Preached at RICHMOND in York-shire on the 6th of February 1685 6. Being the Day on which His MAIESTY began His happy Reign At a general Assembly of the Loyal Gentry of those Parts held there on purpose to celebrate the KING 's quiet and peaceable Succession to the Throne of His Ancestors By Christopher Wyvil M. A. Fellow of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge and Chaplain to his Grace the Duke of Ormond Printed at the request of the Gentlemen that heard it Imprimatur Ro. Altham R mo P. D no. Iohan. Archiep. Ebor. Ã sacris Domesticis YORK Printed by Io. White for Richard Lambert Bookseller at the Crown within the Minster-Gates Anno Dom. M. DC LXXXVI To the Right Honourable CONYERS Earl of HOLDERNESS Lord DARCY and MEINIL My Lord THe only Reason that obtain'd my consent to the publishing of the ensuing Discourse was the Opinion they had who heard it that it might be serviceable to his Majesty by reducing some of His misguided Subjects into a right sence and practice of their Allegiance towards Him to which end I beseech our good God to give it his blessing And the Honour I have to be related to your Lordships truly Loyal and Religious Family obligeth me to Dedicate it to your Lordship most humbly begging your Lordship's acceptance of it as a Testimony of the Duty owing to your Lordship from My LORD Your Lordship 's Most obedient Grandson and Most humble Servant Chris. Wyvil THE DUTY OF HONOURING THE KING 1 Pet. 2. 17. Honour the King THat which in the Primitive Age of the Church raised many Enemies to the Christian Faith and induced the Potentates of the Earth to endeavour its extirpation was a groundless Suspition of its inconsistency with Civil Powers a Calumny invented no doubt and spread abroad by the Devil and his Agents on purpose to alienate the minds of men from making profession of it and to bring it into the contempt and hatred of Kings and Princes they being thereby perswaded that the Kingdom of Christ howsoever it was taught not to consist of this world was an encroachment upon their Dominions that the preaching of the Gospel howsoever it was said to be the Gospel of Peace carried nothing else with it but Fire and Sword wheresoever it was planted that Faction and Sedition Conspiracies and Rebellion were the only product of its Doctrine and that they who Taught and embraced it were no better then common Incendiaries Subverters of the public Peace and quietness Seducers of the People where they came and even turned the world upside down But the vanity and the falshood of this Suggestion both by the Practice of Christ and of the Writings of his Apostles doth sufficiently appear For our Saviour did not only give Commandment to his Followers to render unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's as well as unto God the things which be God's but that he might confirm his Doctrine by his own Example he patiently submitted himself to the Jurisdiction of an Heathen Governour freely owning the Power and Authority he had over him Nor were his Disciples less careful to imprint the same Doctrine in the minds of their Proselytes strictly charging them as to live in unity and concord one with another so more particularly to be obedient to Government and Governours and to pay a just deference to the Civil Magistrat St. Paul exhorteth every soul to be subject to the higher Powers and to pay tribute to whom tribute custom to whom custom fear to whom fear honour to whom honour is due And he chargeth Titus to put the People in mind of being subject to Principalities and Powers and to obey Magistrates Which Subject is also prosecuted by St. Peter in this Chapter of my Text where he exhorteth his own Countrymen the Iews that were dispersed here and there throughout Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithynia to submit themselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him And he had some special Reason for so doing for there was then as there is now a Generation of men that under a pretence of Christian Liberty thought themselves under no obligation to temporal Princes denying to pay them even civil Respect esteeming all men as equal and vainly imagining that no mortal man ought to be accounted a Prince or a Lord over them It was therefore but necessary for our Apostle to put these men in mind of their Duty and to require them so to be free as not to use their Liberty for a cloak of maliciousness but as the servants of God and to fear God yet so as to Honour the King also And it is very considerable that the Persons to whom he directs this Epistle were at that time under the Supreme Government of the Emperour Claudius a prophane Infidel and a cruel Tyrant a worshipper of the Heathen Idols according to the custom of the ancient Romans a Man naturally merciless and given to bloudshed and yet such an unbelieving and bloudy Oppressor this blessed Apostle doth exhort the believing Iews to honour Now if such deference was to be paid to him how much more reasonably is it due to a Christian King And with what alacrity should we be ready to yield it to our present Sovereign who hath not only shewn himself merciful already to a great degree in Pardoning the Lives of some of those Men whose hands were unnaturally lift up to take away his but by his Sacred Word which was wont to be more unalterable then any of the Laws of the Medes and Persians and by his repeated promises which he hath made unconstrain'd unaskt unsought for God Almighty bless his Royal heart for it hath given us sufficient assuranccs that he will support and defend our Church It is one great excellency of our Holy Faith that as it is very consistent with order and civil Society and fitted for the prosperity and Happiness of men of all degrees So the just Rights and Priviledges of temporal Princes cannot be better secured then by the rules of its Doctrine all persons by the Christian Religion being enjoyned obedience to those in Authority not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake every man as he is bound to fear God being also obliged to honour the King And we cannot but admire and adore the Wisdom and goodness of God that when for the preservation of Order and Government in the World he did ordain that Power and Authority by which Kings do reign and Princes decree justice he did at the sametime determine to provide for the support of it and took great care for the securing of their Persons from violence and their Crowns from contempt as by many good Laws and precepts so more especially by that
reflections upon them or shewing their islike of them or setting themselves up for Politicians and reformers of what their idle fancy may think amiss and let no man amuse himself or others with fears and jealousies of ills to come we know not when nor how to perplex our selves with such thoughts and to vent them abroad is not only to wrong the King's Justice the King's Wisdom and the King's Goodness but to distrust the Providence of God too Thirdly The blazoning abroad the King 's personal Errours and Failings may also be very prejudicial to his honour and make some of his weak Subjects conceive an ill Opinion of him It is I suppose a Saying in the common Law that the King can do no wrong that is no wrong which any humane Law or Judicature can call him to an account for But as he is a Man and subject to the like Frailties with our selves He may have several deviations from the Law of God to whom only he is responsible for them There is no man upon Earth that liveth and hath not some Failings and is not guilty of some Miscarriages and Sins and happy is he that hath the fewest and the least to answer for and we cannot expect that the King who is subject to greater Temptations then other men should be wholly without But then for us to pass our Censure upon them and make them the subject of our daily Discourse is not only the height of rudeness and unmanner liness but a great Affront to his Sacred Person and directly tends to his public Defamation We should rather endeavour to conceal them and not talk of them at all or if we do it should only be to extenuate and lessen them and as far as we can make good excuses for them That Christian Charity which obligeth us not to judge our Brother will much less suffer us to do so of our King What Man would be pleas'd to have his own Failings or the Failings of his own Father publickly expos'd and made the common talk of the Country And is it fitting that we should deal less respectively with the Father of it The King's Reputation ought to be as dear unto us as our own or any of our nearest and dearest Relations and Friends and if we have a true honour for him we must not nay we cannot do any thing that may ruine it that may but lessen or shake it 5thly Honouring the King doth require that we should submit our selves to him and obey all his just and lawful Commands readily and cheerfully without murmuring without regret without repining at or complaining of them We should behave our selves towards him like the Soldiers of the Centurion in the Gospel to any of whom if he said go he went or to another come and he came or to another do this and he did it Without this Submission Obedience we shall but imperfectly fulfil the Duty of my Text For to pretend to honour the King and at the same time to disregard his lawful Commands is in effect a manifest rejection of his Authority a great affront to his Soveraign Power and a plain violation of that dutiful respect that is due unto him Honour is that which an Inferior ought to pay to a Superior nor can he better evidence the reality and sincerity of it then by his obedience to what shall lawfully and justly be imposed upon him Whence it is that those whom we heartily honour we are ever ready to obey cheerfully attending upon the Execution of their will and pleasure designing thereby to testifie the deference and regard we have for them Nor can we do less towards the King's Majesty if indeed we sincerely and unfeignedly do honour him Nay we have somewhat a greater Obligation to be obedient to Him then to any other Man for all the King's Laws and Commands so far forth as they are not contrary to the Laws and Commands of God do bear the Stamp of a divine Sanction and those things that in their own Nature are purely indifferent do then cease to be so when by him they are enjoyn'd or forbidden And he being God's Representative upon Earth they do upon that account expect and demand our just compliance with them If indeed his Laws should plainly interfere with the Laws of God if he commands any thing that is manifestly contrary to the will of God revealed in his Word if what he enjoyns be in it self directly sinful we must then say with the blessed Apostles of our Lord that it is better to obey God then Men. But we that live under the happy Government of these Nations and in the Reign of so just a Prince need not trouble our thoughts with such Supposals however neither upon such an account nor upon any other pretence whatsoever should we use any violence towards him or make any resistance against him but we are by Scripture by Reason and the consent of Antiquity strictly obliged either actually to perform his Will or patiently suffer his will to be done upon us This is the Doctrine of the Catholick Church This the Doctrine of the particular Church of England this the opinion of all Orthodox Loyal and good men This was the profession and Practice of the Primitive Christians 6thly And lastly Honouring the King doth require that we should at some certain time and in some solemn manner celebrate the memory of any notable atchievement performed by him of whatsoever deliverance out of Eminent dangers or happy success in great undertakings or extraordinary blessing upon his Person and Government hath through Gods Providence befallen him or us through him and that we should endeavour the best way we can to testifie the joyfulness of our hearts and our sincere thankfulness to God Almighty for the same The doing of which as it is a very good and laudable Custom received in all Countries practised throughout all Ages so it is a direct Honouring of him we thereby giving some demonstration that we love and respect him that his Happiness and his Life are of great Concern to us Solemn times of Festivals and Public Thanksgivings for the Divine favours and Benedictions confer'd upon our Sovereign do well express the sense we have of them and are a good Sign that we highly value and Esteem them and for a man upon such occasions to give no indication of joy no testimony of gratitude to God for them looks as if he were discontented at the Kings Prosperity or not well pleas'd with it or could heartily have wish'd it had been otherwise And if any Nation under Heaven ever had a just cause of such Solemnities certainly we of this have not the least For if we call to mind what mercies and deliverances God was graciously pleas'd to vouchsafe our King both before and since his coming to the Crown how after a long and tedious Banishment from his native Country he was again with his late Royal Brother brought back in Peace
Kingdoms good to wage War against whom we are bound to fight and ventured our Lives and Persons in his just defence which should be as much at his Command and Service as our Estates and Fortunes His Domestick Enemies of the two are the worse for a man can have no worse Adversaries then those of his own Houshold a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand and if an house be divided against it self unless the good hand of Providence intervene the ruine of that house must needs be near Now his Majesties Domestick Enemies are those of his Natural Subjects that being instigated by the Devil do bear an ill will to his Person and carry on evil Designs and evil Practices against his Government Of which some perhaps may be in open Rebellion and with a bare face commit Acts of Hostility against him And a Man would really wonder that there should ever be such Monsters in Nature such unnatural bruit Beasts as thirst after the Bloud of their own Father endeavour to rip up the Womb of their own Mother and seek the subversion of the Place of their own Nativity the which all they may be suppos'd to do that draw their Swords against their Liege Lord and Sovereign and by a civil War disturb the public Peace And it is but the last Years Revolution that makes us experimentally know that there may be Devils upon Earth in humane shape as well as there are really Devils in Hell and as these rebel against God so do they rebel against Gods Vicegerent Now when Rebels are got to such an Head as to appear in open Arms it is the part of good Subjects to shew themselves for the Kings side by resisting and opposing them by preventing their Numbers to encrease by cutting them short of Relief by Declaring openly against them by animating each other to withstand them all of them in their several Capacities contributing some way or other to quell and subdue them Again others there are of the King 's Domestick Enemies that appear not so openly but yet covertly manage the same mischievous and treasonable Designs And they are by so much the more formidable dangerous by howmuch the more unperceivable and unsuspected their ways and methods of Proceeding are such are they who will not professedly declare and level War against him but they will lay cunning Plots and privy Conspiracies to deprive him of his Life Others will profess an abhorrence of such a bloody Enterprize and declare that they have no ill will towards His Person but yet they will not stick at seizing of his Guards taking Him out of the hands as they think of evil Counsellers and keeping Him under a Restraint till he shall be forced to comply with their unreasonable Demands or they will endeavour as was the Saying and the Design of that ungrateful Traytor the late Earl of Shaftsbury leisurely to walk His Majesty out of His Dominions by setting up factious Clubs and Cabals of disaffected and discontented People by subtile and crafty Insinuations withdrawing the Vulgar from the Duty of their Allegiance infecting their Minds with seditious Principles and making them sit for any sudden Assault and Insurrection which things they do some for some particular disgrace which they deservedly received at Court seeking to revenge their private Quarrel by setting the whole Nation on a Flame some out of Pride and Ambition not thinking themselves sufficiently rewarded for their former Services some out of a vain affectation of Popularity desiring to be esteem'd the Head of a Party some out of a design to fish in troubled Waters and to become gainers by public Destractions and lastly some for the meer sake of doing Mischief like the Scottish Ferguson that remorseless Villain that when the accursed Treasons of his Confederates were hapily detected had notwithstanding the boldness to profess that for his part he would never be out of a Plot as long ashe liv'd Now when such men are busied upon such hellish Contrivances it is the Duty of all those that truly Honour the King to be assisting to him in counterplotting their Designs in suppressing their Meetings in making if possible a discovery of their Actions and bringing their Persons to condign Punishment Particularly it should be the Endeavour of all inferior Magistrats and subordinate Officers who are to be a terrour to evil Works to take care that the King suffers no wrong by such Workers of evil that none of His just Rights and Prerogatives be invaded and violated by them to keep the Populacy quiet and make them do their own Business to suppress seditious Tumults in time lest by connivance and forbearance they become too headstrong and unruly and by a vigilant Circumspection to look well to the Trust which their great Master hath reposed in them Nay it concerns all the loyal Party when the Faction grows insolent and daring it mainly I say concerns us all to be no less couragious and active according to our power in asserting the King's Cause and vindicating his honour and not to suffer it to be run down by Noise and Clamour and by Fury and Violence in such a Case to sit still and be afraid to own Him is to betray him and quietly permit him to become a Prey to those that hate him we should speak our Minds freely and act boldly in the Defence of him and chuse rather to be buried in the Ruines of the Royal Family if that must fall then part with our Loyalty and side with their Enemies But Thirdly As we may be very instrumental in promoting the King's honour by relieving his Wants and by assisting him against all his Enemies so likewise may we be so in praying unto God for him which as it is a Duty enjoyn'd us by St. Paul exhorting us to pray as for all Men so more particularly for Kings so it is in its self most easie and in every Mans power to perform For whereas all men have not wherewithal to contribute towards the relief of the King's wants all men may nevertheless pray for Him The poorest man in his Dominions can make him this Offering and the richest can afford him nothing better He that begs his bread from door to door and is himself destitute of present Sustenance may enrich his Prince by the Tribute of his Prayers and advance him higher then all the Kings of the Earth And again whereas all the King's Subjects are not nor indeed conveniently can be actually engaged in his Service by fighting for him and assisting him against his Enemies yet they may all pierce Heaven by their Prayers and derive down showers of blessings upon his Armies and make them Successful and Victorious Now those things which we should chiefly beg of God for him are that he may be endowed First With all Spiritual blessings with the Piety of David with the Wisdom of Solomon and with a daily supply and encrease of all other gifts and
of Honouring the King a Duty upon which many others do mainly depend a duty incumbent upon all the Kings Subjects in what parts of his Dominions soever they live by whatsoever Titles they are distinguished whether they be Noble or Ignoble whether they be Lay-men or Ecclesiastical Persons a Duty which if rightly practised would tend to the universal good and welfare of the whole Kingdom and of every member of it 't would make the King great at Home and considerable Abroad that we may therefore rightly understand it that we may all duely practise it and carefully avoid what is forbidden by it I shall by Gods assistance in my following discourse endeavour to do these two things 1. To explain the Duty and the several parts of it And 2dly To shew the Obligations we have to it 1. First for explanation of the Duty by Honouring the King may in short be meant an awful framing and composing of the whole man respectively to his Authority For it hath respect to the very cogitations of out hearts to which none but God and our selves are conscious it concerns our speech and puts a bridle upon our tongues it hath an eye upon our actions and directs the regulation of them But that we may more fully discern what it doth positively require what consequently it doth plainly forbid be pleas'd to take notice of these following particulars 1. Honouring the King doth require a Reverential esteem of him an inward respectiveness of the soul to him so as in our thoughts to have a worthy opinion of him and to think of him very highly according to the dignity of his Office and the eminent Character he bears amongst us Such no doubt was that honourable account which the Subjects of King David had of him when they own'd him to be worth ten thousand of them as you may find in the Second Book of Samuel the 18th Chapter and the 3d. verse as likewise when in the same Book of Samuel the 21st chapter and the 17th verse they held him to be the Light of Israel Such were the thoughts which men conceived of Zedekiah who yet was no very good King when upon his fatal Captivity under the King of Babylon he was lamented by the character of the breath of their nostrils Such every lawful Governour that sits upon the Throne of Majesty ought to be esteem'd such apprehensions should every one of us have of our King We must have so great thoughts of his high Calling as to look upon him to be Gods immediate Vicegerent within his own Dominions and to be accountable to him only for what he doth for where the word of a King is there is power and who may say unto him what dost thou we must esteem him under God to be the Supream Governour and not imagine that any man or any number of men either within or without his Realms hath any power or Superiority over him In which respect it was that Saul was said by Samuel to be the head of the tribes of Israel the King is called Supream in this very chapter of my text and by the good Lawes and Constitutions of this Land our present Sovereign is declared to be So in all Causes and over all persons to think otherwise of him is to wrong him and detracts from that honour which by the Laws of God man belongs unto him Let the Votaries of the Church of Rome who think the Pope to be above him and the upstart Sect of Presbyterians or Independents that would have him truckle under the Cognizance of their Classical meetings See how at the last great day they will answer to God their denyal of this part of his just prerogative The Loyalty of the Church of England teacheth us another Doctrine we all being thereby obliged to believe that the King hath all Power both Ecclesiastical and temporal and so long as we are members of this Church we must do him that right and afford him that honour in our hearts as to be firmly perswaded that no humane Authority is above his or equal to it that none may constrain or limit it And as we are not to lessen his Sovereignty in our thoughts so neither should we think ill of him much less devise or contrive any evil against him Honour is properly an inward act of the Soul which if it be true and sincere cannot afford harbour for any base intentions or treacherous designs evil purposes and malitious imaginations can no more consist with it then Light with Darkness or love with hatred and for a man to profess that he honours the King and at the same time to entertain thoughts and designes of harm against his Crown and Dignity is like Ioab to speak fairly and friendly to his Neighbour and presently to smite him under the fifth rib to the very heart The imaginations of our hearts 't is true are only known to God But if they be void of that due regard we should have for our Sovereign if they give way to any bloody intendments and Teasonable Practices although no mortal man that is not made privy to them can make them known yet that all-searching eye that pierceth into the very secrets of the heart can and often doth discover them be they never so cunningly closely contrived by wayes methods sufficiently declaring his care and providence in the protection and preservation of his Vicegerent And because the persons of Princes are more Sacred then the persons of private men therefore God hath promised in his holy word that curses tho' but in the heart conceived against them shall be detected by the Birds of the Air that is in some Notorious and Remarkable manner if by ordinary means they cannot be revealed So detestable in the sight of God are but the least intentions of evil against the Lords anointed And may all those Devilish devices be confounded and those false and evil thoughts blasted that shall at any time be hatched in the breast of any man against the Life or against the Honour of our Lord the King Now when this Reverential Esteem and Awful regard for the King is once well setled and grounded in the heart it will soon exert it self in real and substantial matter in outward and visible Signes that may plainly testifie and manifest our inward respect Honour conceived in the thoughts will not rest wholly there but will be productive of apparent indications of it 't is the root that gives life and nourishment to the branches that sprout up from it the Original and Spring from whence several considerable Duties as so many rivulets from the Fountain-head do naturally flow 't is not sufficient to pretend an inward respectiveness without giving an outward and sensible evidence thereof for that would be but vile mockery as on the other hand an outward submissiveness without an inward hearty and sincere reverence would be but downright hypoerisy Wherefore 2dly Honouring the