how miraculously he escaped the danger of Shipwrack in the Glocester Frigate how Providentially he was deliverred from the Barbarous assassination intended at the Rye And Lastly how wonderfully Successful his Arms were in the Suppression of the late Rebels both in England and Scotland when I say we reflect upon these things we cannot but discern and adore the good hand of God that out of such Perils both by Sea and Land hath reserved Him at last to Sway the Scepters of these Kingdoms and prospered the beginning of his Reign with a Victory so Remarkable and so much conducing to the good of his Subjects But particularly should we affectionately upon this Day Commemorate his quiet and peaceable Succession to the Throne of his Ancestors For when were consider how maliciously the Minds of ill men were not long since set against him what endeavours we made use of to exclude him from his just Rights Him the next Heir to the Imperial Crown of this Realm Him the intirely beloved Brother the only Brother of that most merciful Prince King Charles the Second Him the Son of that Royal Martyr King Charles the First Him that had often hazarded his Royal Life in the defence of this Nation and by his Courage and Conduct had gain'd Credit and Glory to it and farther what Rumors and Stories to that end were made of Him what bandyings and Consultations were held to work his Ruine and Subvertion and thereby to involve the whole Land in a Miserable Confusion and Sea of bloud and yet that notwithstanding all this all those restless endeavours of unreasonable men should be quite frustrated and brought to nought that the Strivings of the People should so soon be converted into a joyful reception of him and that he should so quietly and so peaceably enter upon the Entire Possession of his just Birthright and full Power without Bloudshed without Tumults without any Opposition with the joyfull Triumphs and Acclamations of all good men and receive no disturbance till the Late Unnatural Risings when I say we consider all this how great reason have we to Rejoyce Unfeignedly and most heartily to give the most Merciful God all Thanks and Praise who so wonderfully and so happily brought to pass the quiet Settlement of his Anointed and thereby delivered him and us from those Direful effects that must necessarily have been the sad Consequents of that black Bill of EXCLVSION Nor can it be any diminution of the honour or any reflection upon the memory of Our Late most Gracious Sovereign to make the Day on which he deceased a day of Joy and Thansgiving For we cannot but at the same time gratefully commemorate the many blessings we enjoy'd during the Reign of that most excellent Prince and in the midst of our Holy Triumphs for the happy Succession of the next Heir we cannot but affectionately remember that it was He next under God who by his Vigilant care and Prudent management of affairs allayed the heats and madness of the People stem'd the current of Popular fury brought the face of things to so good an issue and made the entrance to the Throne so plain and so easie for his Lawful Successor It was God's great mercy to us that he Lived so long to do so great things that he Died a quiet and a natural Death and after all the Storms and Tempests he strugled with left his Kingdoms in so serene a posture Wherefore whilst we endeavour to express our Joy and our Thankfulness to God for the King 's quiet and peaceable Succession let us not forget him who through God's blessing was the great cause and instrument of it So shall we honour the King that now is and not wrong the Memory of the King that is dead And I beseech you my Friends give me leave to exhort you to celebrate the Feast of this Day thankfully cheerfully and soberly not in Rioting and Drunkenness not in Licentiousness and Disorder lest whilst you pretend to observe it in honour of the King you should by your Intemperance dishonour God Having thus at large explain'd the Duty of Honouring the King and shewn you the chief Parts whereof it doth consist I shall in the 2d Second place but very briefly touch upon the Obligations we have to this Duty and so conclude 1st The first of which may be taken from the Consideration of the Authority by which he Reigns and that is no less then Divine for by me saith God Kings Reign and Princes decree Iustice by me Princes rule and Nobles even all the Iudges of the earth He derives not his Power from the People for they are but his Natural Subjects nor from the Solemnity of his Coronation for that is but a Ceremony of State nor from inherent or infused Grace for the most graceless Heathens have been invested with Sovereign Dominion but from the Constitution and appointment of God for there is no power St. Paul tells us but of God the powers that be are ordained of God Whence it is that all Kings and Supreme Rulers are called in Scripture the Lord 's Anointed And particularly Cyrus the Persian Monarch by Profession a meer Heathen is in Isaiah said by God himself to be his Anointed and all civil Magistrates those especially that have the Supreme Jurisdiction are also upon this accouut said to be Gods of whom God himself saith I have said ye are Gods and that very fitly and properly for they only act in his name by his Power upon his account and as God is the only Supream Governour over all the World so are these under him in their respective Dominions and so there may be as St. Paul saith Gods many and Lords many Usurpers that by Violence and Rebellion step into the Throne of Majesty such as was the Late Protector falsly so called have not this Prerogative nor is their power from God of such it is that God speaketh in the 8th of Hosea and the 4th verse they have set up Kings but not by me they have made them Princes and I knew it not But all Lawful Governours that come in by right and Lawful means such as beyond all condradiction is Our present Sovereign have their Character from the God of Gods and derive their Authority from a Divine Sanction Wherefore looking upon the King not barely as a Man but as a man by Gods appointment Reigning over us we cannot but find our selves oblig'd to Honour him Forasmuch as by honouring him we Honour the Ordinance of God and by not Honouring Him neither do we Honour the Ordinance of God We should Honour him for the Lords Sake who hath alwayes esteem'd any affront or disrespect done to His Anointed as if it had been directly offer'd to himself And if there be some degree of Honour due to the Kings Ambassadours abroad as they are his Representatives and to all Inferior Magistrates at Home as they act by his Commission and are sent by him how
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
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