Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
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A47416
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A sermon on the 30th of January, being the day on which that sacred martyr, King Charles the First, was murdered by John King, D.D. ...
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King, John, D.D.
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1661
(1661)
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Wing K509; ESTC R22466
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26,669
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96
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transgressions he was suffered to sin Divinely holy Gregory secundum meritum plebiâ—â—m disponuntur Corda Rectorum According unto the deserts of the People the hearts of the Governors are disposed the just Judge punished the fault of the Offender upon them who had caused him to offend What an impious absurdity is it to slie in the face of our Prince for those errors which receive their birth strength from our own native corruptions we should rather say as Iob tels his supercilious Reprovers why persecute wâ— him since the ground of the matter is found in me Where the Prince is vitious the accusation properly lies against the Subjects whose sins make him so for as the prosperity of the King is the sure earnest of Gods favour unto a people as Saba shews the Israelites from the glory of King Salomons Court so is the oppression and misery even of the worst of Kings an infallible mark of Gods anger resting upon a pâ—ople as in King Saul Josiah's single default fighting with Pharaoh Necho without Gods allowance brings the punishment of a violent death upon him for that onely registred errour into which the peoples sin had pushed him their sins were now ripe for punishment by his one offence for whose punishment he was suffered even then to offend that so their judgments might commence from his death whose guilt permitted not unto him a longer life He fell into their pits a speech taken from Hunters who way-lay those Beasts they chase setting snares and toyles for them in those paths and places they run unto for refuge that they might know that since God had divested Josiah their sacred head of all Regal Prerogatives and let him fall by the practises and power of his cruel Foes they could no longer urge a respite from the execution of those judgments given against their former transgressions but acknowledge and bewail this sad and evil occurrent the violent death of their King the fatal consequence of their own sins for which there was now a recession of God in his Government by Josiah from them and an abandoning them up into the hands of Strangers and Usurpers from whom they could not but expect all the wearisom traverses of Tyranny the heavy weight of a continued Oppression and all those not to be reckoned unhappy inconveniences which attend upon a Government obtained by conquest supported by force and maintained and actuated by the Law of the sword so that even this violent death appears an absolute assurance of Gods mercy and goodness unto King Josiah to take him out of this life that he might not behold those wofull and thronging miseries which were ready to rush in upon and bear down the present for his sake onely happy condition of his Subjects which would have procured unto him more anxiety than the consideration of undergoing ten thousand violent deaths a good Prince having so strong a sympathy with his Subjects sufferings that he feâ—ls every pricking pang and painfull touch of their ttoubles in which respect this violent death was an incomparable favour unto him and which at first sight procures our wonder proves his greatest temporall blessing and the gracious reward of his eminent piety and so much the Holy Ghost tels us Because thine heart was tender and thou didst humble thy self before God when thou heardest his words against this place and against the inhabitants thereof and humbledst thy self before me and didst rend thy clothes and weep before me I have even heard thee also saith the Lord. Behold I will gather thee to thy Fathers and thou shalt be gathered unto thy Fathers in peace neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place and upon the inhabitants of the same So that as the Prophet Isaiah speaks we may Lay it to heart that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come Hezekiah's piety likewise found this divine favour a respite from the sight of those judgments his peoples sins had contracted that there should be peace and truth in his dayes and he thankfully and humbly acknowledgeth the greatness of that mercy These sad Considerations quickly pull up all the sluces of sorrow and let in flouds of tears to overwhelm them they lament and mourn with a great and grievous mourning All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah a mourning wherein the whole Kingdom wore the blacks of sorrow a mourning renowned for the universal and sad solemnity thereof a mourning made the highest prescription of mourning the utmost bounds and confines of sorrow as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo where every family of the whole Kingdome distinguisht themselves by the variety and solitariness of their sorrow every family mourning apart the Princes of the bloud apart the Priests apart the People by their several Families apart and all their Wives apart every part of every Family having a several share in this general sorrow and a particular part in this common sadness and Lamentation for Josiah the Priest and Prophet Jeremiah he is the chief Mourner composeth Josiah's Funeral Elegies this Book of the Lamentations gives them unto the skilful Quire to chaunt forth he begins the first sad Note the Singing-men and Singing-women consort with him in the doleful plaints and all Judah and Jerusalem make up the sad Chorus in this general sorrow Just cause had every man in Judah and Jerusalem to mourn for Josiah's death since every mans sin had made way by a severall wound to take away Josiah's life and so must needs bear a share in the crying guilt of his bloud which nothing but a floud of penitent tears could wash away This makes every mans particular sorrow as several lines meet in the centre of the Text the common cause of their teeming grief The breath of our Nostails the Anointed of the Lord was taken in their pits of whom we said Vnder his shadow we shall live among the Heathen From these sacred Truths naturally flow these divinely informing Conclusions That a good Prince is the life of Religion Law and civill Conversation That Kings by holy Unction as by Gods visible deed and conveyance are invested with the supreme Authority Inviolability and Indempnity and therefore to think reverently of them consecrated with so many mysterious regards and relations the characters of Gods supreme jurisdiction over man That Vnction suggests unto Kings that duty they stand obliged in unto their Subjects in the impartial distribution of justice to heal them to comfort them to nourish them That a good King is designed by God a Protector of his Subjects and the Conservator of their Liberty Safety and Peace That the best King may be punished with the greatest temporall punishment for the sins of his Subjects That the Errors of Kings take their rise from their Subjects sins That God first taketh away a good King before he will bring judgments upon his Subjects That Gods violent
Saul insomuch though he were his irreconcilable Adversary he would not even stretch forth his hand against him he had not the new way to expound Scriptures unto his own distorting passions though that course was pressed upon him with the advantage of a Crown he checks the wrested and carnall application The Lord forbid that I should do this thing yea when the Son of a stranger an Amalekite who might perhaps plead ignorance of the sacred relations by Unction although Saul had already received his deaths wound beside that it might be counted a kind of rescue to save him from being taken Prisoner and come alive into the enemies hands and that he might seem also to have merited by preserving the Regalia the Crown and royal Habiliaments from the Enemy and presenting them unto the lawful Successor David yet he is so awed with the sacred regards conveyed unto King Saul by Unction that he punisheth him with death for shortning Sauls life as for the breach of a known and natural right How wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand against the Lords Anointed David honoured Saul for his holy Unction living and revenged him being dead A King in his Kingdom is solo Deo minor inferior unto God onely sayes Tertullian and then surely above his people Deo subditus subject to God onely sayes St. Ambrose unto Valentinian Princeps legibus solutus est that the King is free from the power of the Law is a Maxime as old as Christianity that is from the penalties of it Laws have onely a directive no coercive power over him though not as a moral man yet in his politick consideration he is above the Law Divino sunt judicio reservandi Reges Kings stand or fall unto their own master God satis est ad poenam quod Deum habeant ultâ—rem it is sufficient that God will punish their Crimes he is the onely Judge not the people unto whom our Appeal lies against the injuries of their proceedings in such cases our proper address is unto Gods Tribunal if arbitrary Government Oppression Murther Sacriledge Demonaick possession Witchcraft of all which sins King Saul was notoriously guilty could give sufficient warranty unto his punishment by his Subjects and were the people competenâ— Judges the peoples hate of Saul and Davids merit from them and suffrings from Saul might probably lead him to propound the people an High Court of Justice but informed by a better spirit than that which actuates these times he puts up his Charge against Saul even when his life was in his power unto God unto whom the judgment of Kings belongs in these words The Lord judge between thee and me and the Lord avenge me of thee but mine hand shall not be upon thee yea afterwards upon Sauls continuance of his mortal hatred and bloudy persecution of David and his Followers and that Abishai preached unto David the modern doctrine the divine and infallible equity of outward Successes that God had delivered King Saul into his hands and offered himself a ready Executioner of the fact David countermands â—is active and interessed malice cloaked with usual pretensions of Religion and Liberty Destroy him not for who can stretch forth his hand against the Lords Anointed and be guiltless but he refers for remedy unto the proper Court of Justice against Kings the Lord shall smiâ—e him or this day shall come to dye or he shall descend in Battel and perish the Lord forbid that I should stretch forth mine hand against the Lords Anointed Saul had not Innocency and yet he had Sanctity not of Life but of the Unction which even in wicked men is holy saith Saint Augustine The first and best Christians continued their practice towards their most reâ—â—actory and imperious Emperors when Valentinian the Younger dispossessed the Orthodox of their Churches in Millain and gave them unto the Arians Saint Ambrose the Bishop onely offered up his supplications unto God to alter the Emperors purposes Adversus Arma Lacrymae meae Arma sunt against Armes teares are my defensive weapons aliter nec debeo nec possum repugnare no other way ought I or can I resist saith he the carriage of the Citizens of Millaine was the same exhibiting their Petition unto the Emperour they all crie out Rogamus non pugnamus We humbly intreat you oh Emperour we fight not against you The testimony of Plynius secundus given unto Trajan that the Primitive Christians practiced nothing against the received Laws and were ready rather to suffer then oppose procured them not onely a respite from their bloody persecution but also the free exercise of their Religion Teares and Prayers unto God and humble supplications unto Princes the ancient Christians held the onely powerfull means to divert their miscarriages they never denyed them any duty of Subjection Saint Austustine witnesseth that this was the behaviour of the Christian Souldiers even under Julian the Apostata an Idolater When Maximus entred Italy with a great Army under pretence of restoring the Orthodox ejected by Valentinian who patronized the Arrians he was held by the Orthodox but for a Tyrant and was so far from receiving assistance from them that they overthrew him and established Valentinian And as Unction is the divine seal of supreme power Indempnity Inviolability unto Kings so doth it likewise suggest unto them the duty of the Regall Administration towards their Subjects That as Oyle is of a spreading diffusive quality So in the Prince is required Impartiality and Justice equally distributive unto all As Oyle likewise hath in it a lenitive and healing vertue So should the Supreme Magistrate be an Healer and binder up of the wounds and sores of his Subjects Oyle hath in it also an especiall vertue to comfort and strengthen the parts unto which it is applyed So is a King the Minister of good unto his Subjects for good he is to cherish vertue to esteem honest and commendable Action in which sense are Kings stiled by our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Benefactors Luke 22.25 Adde hereunto that Oyle is of a nourishing and cheering quality and taken as sustenance is of easie fine distribution causing a good and wholsome nutriment therefore it is reckoned among the principall blessings of a land so is the Grace and Countenance of a King of a nourishing and improving operation The Kings favour is like the dew upon the grasse Prov. 19.12 in which respect God promiseth unto the Christian Church that Kings should be nursing Fathers and Queens the nursing Mothers thereof Isa. 49.23 Thus we see the many sacred Impressions of Divine Jurisdiction imposed by God himself on Kings through holy Unction whereby his Dominion over Mankind is delegated unto Kings the Lords Anointed God by this Symbole and outward signe agreeable and connaturall unto man consigning the ordinary exercise of his Government over Mankind unto them so that the holy Oyle