men which seems very hard to flesh and blood We are apt to think we behave our selves well towards all men if we can bear their insolences forbear revenge and rest content under their provocations and think it to be a straining of the point too far to press us to give thanks for them But indeed in some cases we owe more 〈◊〉 than to our friends the one will conceal the other divulge our failings and seeing our hearts are so deceitful and our friends so partial let 's give thanks to God that we have enemies that will watch against and learn from thence to watch over our selves We are debtors to the poor and to the rich the poorest may lend us the subsidy of their prayers of their holy examples they may teach us meekness under hard treatments of men patience under the hand of God submission to poverty improvement of trials and afflictions which are mercies of so great value that we cannot expect any obligations equivalent from the richest 2. But especially we owe our supplications prayers intercessions and thanksgivings for Kings and all that are in authority under them If self were rightly understood this duty would be the easiest task that ever was imposed upon us for in praying for them we pray for the Nation and so for our selves the prosperity and success of the King is the prosperity of the whole Kingdom and as the Philosopher curst the man whoever he was that first divided bonum utile honestum that which is profitable from that which is just and righteous So may they be lookt upon as the common Plagues of a Nation who first divided the interest of the Prince from that of his People or first taught the People to set up an interest distinct and separate from that of their Prince 3. The Reasons which support so weighty a duty are next to be attended to and they are two The first is drawn from our clear duty the second from our unquestionable interest and consider the cause we have to acknowledge the goodness of God who has so strongly united both these that we can never fail in the former but we must be false to the latter 1. The former Reason is drawn from the conscience of the divine Command given forth by his Apostle l exhort under the authority of which Praecept the highest spirit must bow the stubbornest bend This answers all objections silences all disputes satisfies all scruples This Text is not constitutive of a new duty but declarative of an old obligation which from the beginning lay upon the Conscience this was not a duty now newly created but newly exemplified he does not now make a new bond but ties it closer that Conscience may feel its bonds when Conscience slumbers it must be awakened and when a Notion is much worn off it must be refresht and toucht up again to the Original 2. The other Reason is drawn from our own interest and advantage that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty Which Reason has two branches 1. Our civil interest will lie much in 't that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life 'T is but a languishing dying comfort we can take in any thing we call ours if we cannot possess it in Peace Security is the sweetness of Propriety whatever be the furniture of our table the sawce of every morsel is peace and quietness We look upon all our good things with a pitiful eye when we think they may be ours but for this moment The Sword of a foreign Enemy the Rapine of some petty Tyrant may sweep away what we have in an hour 2. Our Religious interest is greatly concern'd in this duty that we may lead a life in all godliness and honesty Reason then we have to pray and give thanks for our Rulers that we may and do lead such a life in outward peace with a freedom to worship our God according to his will reveal'd to us in his holy word From the words thus open'd many observations offer themselves I must content my self and I hope you with this one clear from the Text and pertinent to the present occasion Doctrine A religious and Loyal People can never want just cause to praise and give thanks to God for their Kings and Governours If they be bad yet we have reason to pray God would mend them and to praise God too that they are no worse that if they be not such as are eligible yet that they are such as are tolerable If they be good and gracious then the case is plain to pray he will confirm them and to give thanks that we who have neither merit nor meetness for so great a favour yet are blessed with it If God shall exalt the Nation we have cause enough to pray that he would not cast us down if he shall lay us low to bless his name that we are laid no lower If God shall prosper our King with success we have reason still to fear and pray that our turning those successes into wantonnes may not provoke God to turn his hand against us if he shall humble us with adverse providences yet will there remain matter of thanksgiving that we are not consumed We can never be so low but the everlasting arms are underneath us our enemies are never so high but the Almighty arm of God is above them Let the storms rise and roar and rage our God fits above them There 's matter of praise if it be a dead calm still we have reason to pray that storms may not surprize us The Psalmist has drawn the circumference of our rejoycing and our fears with great exactness Psal. 2. 11. Rejoyce with trembling Never such cause of rejoycing but it suggests matter of trembling never such cause of fears but it affords matter for hope place for faith and room for thanksgiving to God that we are not sunk in utter despair The Apostle 1 Cor. 7. 30. teaches us the due measure of sorrow To weep as tho we wept not and the true bounds of rejoycing too To rejoice as if we rejoiced not The former because God can 〈◊〉 â—way those tears from our eyes the latter because he canâ—allay 〈◊〉 most proâ—use rejoycing and mingle our cup of consolation with the waters of bitter affliction when God exalts us we are cautioned not to exalt our selves but our God when he abases us he would have us keep our hearts low but to lift the eye of our faith on high And this will be the true mean under the various dispensations of providence when God humbles us to be humbled when he chastises us to be chastifed but not sink in â—â—pondency when he lifts us up then to be lifted in praises The Apostle James ch 5. 15. instructs us that Prayer is the proper duty for a day of affliction that praise is the suitable duty for prosperity but yet sâ— that prayer is never out of season in our highest not praise
power and that he govern us with his wisdom and skill Acceptis oculis praebuit Ille pedes Surely we have great reason to bless our God upon this head that God has graciously preserved a mutual confidence between the King and his people that they who have sought occasions for our disturbance upon this subject have found none that wicked men have been unsuccessful in their insinuations that the tares they have sown have yielded 'em no harvest § 7. Let us yet pray and not faint and pour out our souls in supplications to the Almighty the Lord of Hosts the God of Battel that his Majesties forces by Sea and Land may be crowned with glorious success that he may at length 〈◊〉 to Reason that mighty Nimrod who has taught us what we may expect from his prevailing Arms by the treatment he has given to his own too Loyal Subjects That Monarch is of the natâ—â—e of fluid bodies quae difficulter suis facile alienis termiâ—is contineâ—tur If then his own temper will not restrain him let God send out a powerful hand that can Let us therefore pray that the end of this bloody and expensive War may be an honourable and just Peace in which the Interest of the Allies may be secured the Interest of our own Nation in Trade recovered the Dominion of the seas vindicated but God deliver us from a Peace patcht up of plausible expedients palliated with fair pretences to cover the enemies secret purposes to violate it when he has filled his empty Coffers when he has recruited his exhausted strength by taking breath to build his Alliances upon the ruines of the dissolved Confederacy which like an old Ulcer ill healed and skin'd over waits only a flattering juncture to break out again with more threatning symptomes But let our Prayer and Peace be that of Hezekiah Isa. 39. 8. God is the word of the Lord for he said there shall be peace and truth in my days Nor do we want matter of thanksgiving for the successful and hopeful issue of this Summers Campaign Wherein the late boasted invincible Prince is proved to be conquerable and as we hope so we pray that this may be but an earnest of what God will further do for a Repenting Reforming Praying and Thankful People § 8. Lastly Let us keep up our Prayers in vigor that God will make our King a glorious instrument in the hand of his gracious power to suppress that daring wickedness that impudent profaneness which the Enemy sowed water'd and gave increase to in the late Reigns of unhappy memory That at least iniquity may stop its mouth and hide its deformed face that deeds of darkness may not defie the Sun that if men will sin they may however creep into those corners whither they had once driven much of Religion We must confess and lament that we have sins enow in the Armies to rout them without an Enemy Sins enow in the Fleets to sink them without a Tempest and sins enow on shoar to make us like to Sodom and Gomorrha but the more need we have to beseech heaven that he would not deal with us after our sins nor reward us according to our iniquities And that he would put upon our King the Honour of the famous Hercules who cleansed the Augaean Stables with turning the stream of the River through it a labour justly numbred amongst the twelve We look upon his Majesty as bearing a double Sword that of War and that of Justice we pray that he may bear neither in vain We have seen how wisely and strongly he has wielded the former we now pray for a Peace that he may have a Theatre whereon to wield the other And when God shall command him to sheath that of War he will invite him to draw the other To defend the innocent to plead the cause of the Orphan and Widow and to punish those wretches whose effrontery has dared both the Sword of God and the King We are ready to wonder what temptations these vile ones can pretend to their abominations The cheap swearer sells his soul for nothing The blasphemer makes bold to defile the sacred naâ—e of God with his unhaliowed lips and wâ—at wrong has his Creator done him The profuse drunkard seâ—ls his health for a pleasure that perishes in the using And here we would gladly find more matter of thanksgiving for what our King and those in authority under him have done to vindicate the name of God against these Agressors We thankfully own that some Remedies have been prescribed and applied but slight medicines do but iâ—ritate the disease some good Laws we have and some Proclamations for their execution against the Profanation of the Lords day against Cursing and Swearing but seeing execution is the life of the Law without which the Law is but a dead Letter and that there are so few men of Courage Zealous for the glory of God and the repute of our holy Religion to give life to those Laws by an impartial execution there is work still for earnest Prayer that God would take the work into his own hand and effect that by the Sword of his Mouth which the Mouth of the Sword cannot or they that manage it will not Forget we not however to return our humble thanks to God who has stirred up some from the Press and Pulpit to bear their testimony against the Iniquity of the day and for those zealous Magistrates especially in the City of London who have dared to punish where any have dared to offend and have been zealous for the honour of God against all the discouragements they have encountred in the way of their Duty 2. Proceed we now to our Second Inquiry what proper matter for thanksgiving to God we can find on the behalf of the King and those that are in authority § 1. And first let us begin our thanks to God that he has given us such a Prince to govern us A mercy for which we could neither pretend merit nor meetness A Prince that can shew that Title in reality which some others had only in formality our own deliberate consent and free choice I know Succession in the right line has made a mighty noise amongst us but surely raâ—ional creatures have their reason allotted them to know and chuse what 's best for themselves or let them quit their pretended superiority above the brutes And if there be any such thing the Election of the People gives the clearest Jus Divinum both to the kind or form of government and the person that must support and administer it Deut. 17. 15 That shalt in any wise set him over thee whom the Lord thy God shall chuse Where we cannot but observe 1. The act of the People Setting a King over them And this 2. In pursuance of the act of God chusing or pointing out the person whom the People ought to set up Now this manifestation of Gods choice in either is a way extraordinary
Duty and Interest UNITED IN PRAYER and PRAISE FOR Kings and all that are in Authority From 1 Tim. II. 1 2. BEING A SERMON Preach'd at WESTMINSTER Upon the late day of Thanksgiving SEPT 8. 1695. By V. A. Minister of the Gospel LONDON Printed for John Barnes at the Crown in the Pall mall MDCXCV Duty and Interest Vnited in Prayer and Praise FOR The King and all that are in Authority FROM I 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 all that are in Authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty THE visible Degeneracy of what we call Religion from its Original in the Scripture and its fairest Copy in the purest Primitive times has filled the hearts of the more considering persons with great sadness Could we view our faces in that Glass we should either correct our deformities by it or as some are too ready to do break the Glass that it may not at once shew us and upbraid us with them For whether it be that aiery Speculations have eaten out the practice or fiery contentions about matters of lower concernments have starved the Spirit of Zeal for the great and weighty things of Religion or the deluge of prophaneness which threatens to lay morality and godliness under water be too strong for us to stem the Current most certain it is that the Christian Religion has had its beauty so miserably effaced has been so wretchedly misrepresented or so little represented to its advantage that its open enemies have dared to triumph over it and it s few cordial friends have found much difficulty and discouragement to support its credit Amongst the many Instances of the decay of Religion in this present Age the great Neglect of praying to and praising God for our Governors supreme and subordinate has been one which perhaps has render'd them less zealous for and possibly jealous of Christianity as that which has not very favourable aspects upon the Persons and Thrones of Princes or at least the Professors of it have horribly contradicted their own avowed Principles and that which they pretend to be the only Rule of their Faith has but a slender influence upon their Consciences Now as I have a clear Warrant from the Text and as â—ound an Invitation from the gracious Providence of God that smiles upon us I will endeavour first to shew what it is we owe and then to awaken the sleepy Consciences of men to pay what they owe both in Prayer and Praise to God for Kings and all that are in Authority The Text therefore gives us clear Direction in three momentous points 1. The Matter of our Duty or what we owe. 2. The Objects of the duty or to whom we owe it 3. The Reasons of our duty why we owe it 1. If we heedfully attend to the first of these or what we owe The Text has reduced them to these four particulars 1. That we offer up to God supplications 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 earnestly to wrestle with the Almighty that he would divert his anger or whatever calamities judgments plagues may be in the womb of that anger from them that his vigilant eye would discover his powerful hand turn away and defeat all those machinations which may be formed against their persons and governments in a word that he would secure them against those evils to which their high station and the discharge of their weighty duties therein may expose them 2. That we also present our prayers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to God on their behalf that he would fill them with all those graces wisdom counsel understanding courage that may qualifie them for their arduous calling that he would prosper and crown them with glorious success in all their lawful and honourable undertakings 3. That further we make intercessions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for them that God would not only bless them but make them blessings to their Subjects and happy instruments to procure much good to all that come within the sphere of their power and calling 4. We owe this further that we return thanks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to God for them for all the good that they have done or that was in their hearts to do for all those deliverances God has wrought out for us by them and for all that courage and conduct which God has bestow'd on them to render them serviceable and for all that God has done for them in their preservation All this we owe and are further instructed how we must pay it from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which will instruct us 1. that we perform all this with the greatest vigour of Soul and application of Conscience 2. That we do it constantly with unwearied perseverance The nature of the word implies the former and the form of the word the latter 2. The Object of our duty is express in these words for all men for Kings and all that are in authority only be it observed that tho we owe to our King prayer and praise yet these duties these debts must be paid to God and we shall acquit our selves both as Christians and good Subjects when what we owe for them we do not pay it to them but to God on their behalf The persons to whom we owe supplication prayer intercession and thanksgiving are here either described in general or in special 1. In general we owe it to All men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 none so low but our prayers may help them none so high but our prayers may serve them none so good but may need none so bad but may claim a share in our prayers We are indeed taught to distinguish between the violent men of the world as they are our enemies and as they are the enemies of the Lord and of his Christ under the former consideration let us pray that God would forgive them convert them restrain them wherein if our charitable prayers reach not their hearts they will return into our own bosoms And for this we have precept from and precedent in our Lord and Saviour Precept Mat 5. 44. Love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you pray for them that despightfully use you and persecute you Precedent Luke 23. 34. Father forgive them for they know not what they do But as they fall under the other dismal character our prayers ought to be of another temper that God would convert 'em there we would begin but if they proceed as implacable enemies of Christ we pray that he would defeat their counsels insatuate them in all their contrivances break their powers disappoint them in all their expectations and seeing we pray for no more than we know Christ will do that he would overthrow and confound them and all their mischievous devices But the Text enjoyns us not only to pray but to give thanks for all