a Government to its Dissolution And then again if there be in Scripture a peculiar notion of the word to Honour with our Substance and if the Holy Ghost instructs us there that to supply the wants and necessities of our Parents be another Branch of the Honour we owe unto them as our Saviour most expresly in St. Mark 10. and St. Paul also brings it under the same head Rom. 13. where he informs those Christians of their non-exemption from Tribute and implies it to be an act of Justice by his word then used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 render ye or restore tribute not so much a Gift as a Debt And it is but a very reasonable return indeed for our secure nights and our useful days for our peace and protection and all the opportunities serving unto life and godliness I say it is but a very reasonable return if we contribute to the necessary support of the Government yet still this ought so to be as in a way consistent with its Honour and Reputation The Boundaries and Stations of Nature can never be altered and a contumely offered from a Son cannot be commuted for by the performance of any other part of his Duty You will not much commend the Obedience or dutiful Regards of that person who shall offer to relieve the Necessities of his distressed Father but withall shall read him a petulant Lecture upon the ill management of his Estate and his spendthrift courses that shall exact accounts with all the rigour and scrupulosity of a Tasker and tye him up perhaps to such terms and conditions as shall be most grievous and burdensom if not impossible There seems to have been more ingenuity if not less wickedness in those Pharisees of old whom our Saviour reproves upon this score in the 7th of St. Mark they fairly dasht out this part of the Divine Law by their own Traditions and did not delude the wants and the expectation of their Parents with a Subsidie in one hand and a Remonstrance in the other by their Vow of Corban they put an issue to the matter and never let it come to a business of bargain and sale betwixt them or such vile higgling as can never shew with any decency unless betwixt an unbelieving Christian and a broking Jew Lastly The great and infallible Test of our Honour is Obedience Then are ye my Disciples indeed saith our Saviour if ye do whatsoever I command you All our Hosanna's and hails without this are downright mockery And yet I must confess also there is a sort of Obedience which hath little or nothing of Honour in it that which is forced and extorted by the fear of Penalties and that which is pickt and chosen for Conveniency and to serve an Interest and such is the restive and disputatious Obedience which will go not one step farther than a direct Precept of Scripture shall press it although it be in matters relating to the Publick welfare and where there is no Divine Precept to the contrary The Reason is because all this may be done where there is no Respect had to the Authority of the Law-giver and it is that alone which gives the formality and true stamp to Obedience Now if many shall be found wanting and defective in their Duty who yet keep the Law then where shall the Disobedient appear Nay in what Form of the Kings true Honourers and right Faithful Subjects must they be placed who not only violate the Laws but also teach men so to do and teach it not only by Example but by Precept by Institutes of Libertinism by distinguishing men out of their Loyalty and stating of Cases and Questions whereby the Law it self is made the only Criminal and suffers accordingly Among all the hellish Machinations and Devices which the Enemy of Mankind in the shape of an Angel of light hath hitherto used for breaking the Order and disturbing the Peace and Quiet of the World perhaps there hath not been a more dangerous one than that which of late hath appeared among us and is not unsitly called The Reign of Conscience I would not be thought to go about to expose so sacred a thing whilst I only express my resentment of those abuses which it suffers by the folly and wickedness of them who most delight to have the word in their Mouths and it is the greatest abuse certainly to Idolize it and so become Worshippers of our own selves to ascribe the supremacy and power of determination unto every mans private Conscience which the Law hath placed elsewhere for a known and publick resort The Oceanists are wont to tell us of an Empire of men so they call Monarchy and an Empire of Laws and that must be their own dear Common-wealth but here 's an Empire of Conscience which outs them both This must needs be the most Arbitrary of any other since men have learnt the artifice to manage Conscience like those Prisms or Mathematical Glasses which with a slight turn shall present any Colour which fancy or affection calls for that Reign must also be most tyrannical which knows no milder Punishment for every transgression than the pain of damnation and what Form of Polity must we call it when every man is a King at least being unaccountable for whatever he doth If this be the reign of Saints I see not but why the greatest Sensualists in the world may be reconciled unto it for Conscience at the most and where it is alledged with the greatest sincerity and truth is but an act of my own Practical Judgment which may be corrupted by Interest and Passion and as often as by following this I decline from the Rule and Measure that is set before me I do in effect make the last Appeal unto my Understanding Self And what is there in the world so grateful to a proud unmortified Spirit It 's one of the most luscious pieces of Sensuality which any carnal heart can wish for and what can the consequence be should it go on but the evacuating the use of the Law and all Judicial Proceedings i. e. in short the ruine of a Kingdom We sure the People of this Nation above all others in the World have infinite Reason to acknowledge it with all gratitude to Almighty God for assigning us our Lot in that Country which of old was called and still is would our little Discontents but let us know how to value it the Fortunate Island not so much for its temperate Climate but for that happy temper of the Constitution we now live under both with reference to the Concerns of our Souls and outward Estate Our Religion as to its Substance Divine and unalterable and as to its Mode and Exercise is establisht and setled with the concurrence of all the Wisdom of the Nation and by the Authority of the greatest Power under Heaven and cannot be changed or controlled by the Will or Arbitrary Imposition of any man The Bounds of our Liberty and Property
A SERMON PREACHED AT THE ASSIZES HELD AT LEICESTER For that COUNTY On the Twenty third day of March 1681 2. BY NATHANIEL ALSOP B. D. Rector of Church-Langton in the County of Leicester LONDON Printed for S. Carr at the Kings Head near the West-end of St. Paul's 1682. To the Right Worshipful RICHARD ROBERTS Esq High-Sheriff of the County of Leicester SIR WHen you pleased to lay this piece of Service upon me of Preaching at the Assizes I bethought my self how to discourse seasonably and profitably under the present State of Affairs and at such a general Assembly of the Country and soon came to a Resolution That to oppose something what my poor Talent could furnish out against the spreading of an Epidemical Evil too visible upon us could not be an improper Vndertaking And certainly he is but an ill Member of the Publick who at the time when a dangerous Fire appears breaking out will not bring his Bucket to the quenching of it If any shall except against my medling with Political Matters in the Pulpit they ought to reflect how our People are of late made all Statesmen and that to treat them as such at some times is become necessary to their Edification In the Publick Places of Conversation you shall have the Men of Trade arrogate as much Knowledge of Politicks now as heretofore their Representatives could arrive unto So that what is here touched upon as to these Matters is no ways meant ad Magistratum I presume not to instruct them therein but ad Populum still And to rectifie some Notions in them which might have a mischievous Influence upon Christian Practice I trust will not be thought forreign to the Business of a Divine The Sermon hapned to find a favourable Reception with its Audience and I never intended it should have gone further but some whose Judgments I ought to subscribe unto thought it might be more serviceable if made more publick and others whose Authority I shall never disobey were with some Importunities desirous to have it so And these are the true Causes of this Publication whereof I need not inform you Sir who your self are my best Voucher to the World for the Reality of this whole Matter And now Sir it begs leave to come forth under the shelter of your Name not only for the common Reason of such Dedications but chiefly because the subject Matter and Design of this Discourse requires the Protection of one like your self whose clear and disinteressed Zeal for the Publick is so exemplary among us And then the many Favours which I have received from you bind me to all Opportunities of Gratitude and to own it to the World how much I am SIR Your most faithful and obedient Servant Nathaniel Alsop EXOD. XX. 12. Honour thy Father and thy Mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee THE Law of the Decalogue recorded in this Chapter hath one pre-eminence above other parts of the Scripture if they were dictated by the Spirit of God this was also written by his Finger which may serve as a nota bene a Hand in the Margin to direct and engage our Observation That part of it which I have read is also recommended unto us by its singular Circumstances St. Paul observes it is the first Commandment with promise Ephes 6.2 And among the Moderns Grotius notes how fitly it stands in the front of the second Table agreeably to the method of the Roman Laws which in the first place secur'd the Sanctity of the Government so this here containing the Nerves and Force of those special Laws which are the preservatives of Humane Society deservedly takes precedence of the rest As to the sense and meaning of the words the Jewish Interpreters and Christians do generally consent that the duty of Subjects to their respective Civil Governours is more than by Consequence and Reduction here intended Imperium sancitur praecipitur obedientia saith Melancthon upon the place And Calvin goes about to assign the Reason why a name of Nature is here given to a Political Relation It is saith he to soften the savage disposition of Man who is naturally impatient of Subjection to bring the stiff-neck and Iron Sinnew of corrupt Nature to the yoke of Obedience The Truth is what Zophar replies to Job Man is born like the wild Asses Colt all restraint is against the Grain every one naturally goes big with Caesar and cannot brook a Superior or else it may be the tang of our first Parents aspiring still ferments in the Blood to be tanquam dii equal to them that are called Gods It was therefore upon necessary considerations that St. Paul lays his Apostolical Injunction upon Titus the Man of God chap. 3. v. 5. to put them in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers and to obey Magistrates It is not enough this be taught and known but for the great moment of its practice it ought to be pressed and inculcated put them in mind If the Doctrine of Subjection which is as demonstrable as any Theorem in Euclid's Geometry was also as much abstracted from the Interests and Passions of Men as they are then might it expect as free and easie a passage but when this Nail must be driven against the inward resistance of Pride and Ambition of Envy Avarice and Revenge and such like impenetrable Opposites no wonder if a greater Force and better Skill be required and repeated strokes and it were to be wished that some one a Master of Assemblies had undertaken the fastening of it at this time in which vacancy the forementioned Causes have wrought with me also the meanest of my Brethren to attempt this part of my Office and Duty especially being stirred up with the great and crying Sin of the Times which is plainly a wantonness under the gentle Yoke a surfeiting upon the blessings of Government and I fear there is but too much cause to complain that it is fairly drawing on to an Open Contempt of Authority and who then is so hardy as not to dread the Event If such provocations as these should awaken the Vengeance of Heaven and move God by his immediate Arm to assert the Honour of his own Institution the Image of our distempered State any one may behold in the Glass of the Israelites It was at the time when their Supream Governour was one of the meekest and most merciful Men upon the Earth it was not long after their deliverance from the Aegyptian Bondage where they had smarted by the Impositions of the most cruel Taskmasters that ever an ingenuous People groaned under and yet upon every little Discontent if all things went not according to their own Hearts wish immediately they grow sick of the Government and quis est iste Moses Why doth this Moses and the Priest his Brother take so much upon them They grew weary of Manna and nauseated the Bread of Heaven because it was constant and
ever provided for them at hand but instead thereof asked Meat for their Lusts It was not enough to satisfy their natural Appetites and real Wants but their wandering Fancies and their various Dissenting Pallats must be humoured also and upon such distates like these they fell into frequent Mutinies and Associations against the Lord and against his Vice-gerent insomuch that Moses was forced to declare freely in that his Farewell-Oration which Josephus hath left penned unto us in the Fourth Book of his Antiquities That he was more often in hazzard of his Life from them than from any other of his Uncircumcised Enemies I shall not stay to adjust the Circumstances nor set the Members of the Comparison in joint but only to shew how far we have sunk from the Rule of our Duty and still are falling give me leave to point you back up as far as to the Source and Fountain of all Political Sanctions the Basis of Government the Cement of Societies the Princes heavenly and unforfeitable Charter comprehended in this short Precept Honour thy Father and thy Mother c. In which Words I shall observe no more Particulars than what are obvious unto every Eye As 1. The Stile or Title here given to the Supream Magistrate of a Parent 2. The Debt belonging unto him Honour 3. The enforcement of the Duty by a Promise but with the implication of a severe Threat that thy days may be long upon the Land c. 1. The Stile here is a Name full of Obligation and Endearment we find God himself often calling his People to reflect upon it to hold them fast to their Duty for I am a Father to Israel saith God Jer. 31.9 he pitieth as a Father Psal 103.13 with all the bowels and tenderness that can be shewed he corrects as a Father Prov. 3.12 alwaies within measure and less than our Offences deserve and upon the same score he also claims the observance of Sons Mal. 1.6 And no doubt but this Title here given to Kings and Sovereign Powers is very apt to move Obedience to becalm the strivings of the People and to smooth the Yoke of Government which some Belialites will always spurn at but what doth Moses then or rather the Lord himself thus speak unto us meerly because of the hardness of our Hearts Doth he condescend to such mean Artifices to treat us by the Popular courses of Ambition which is wont to stroak and sooth the Beast which she designs to ride No I suppose the soft and endearing stile here used is more than a Colour of Rhetorick and shall therefore take the occasion which is fairly offered to reflect upon the Original of Civil Government and the rather because if it shall appear to be founded in the Natural Right of Paternal Authority as the most judicious do affirm it will prepare the way for that which follows and the Duty of the Text will be inferred by a necessary Logical deduction The stile of the Text being a Name of Nature and Authority too suggests unto us in all our researches after the Rise and Birth of Dominion to have one Eye to the Order and Course of Nature so that to understand the Original of Civil Power we must ascend to the true Original of Mankind and this Method will bring us to acknowledge the Truth of that Aphorism of St. Irenaeus Cujus jussu nascuntur homines hujus jussu Reges constituuntur There have been perhaps as many Opinions concerning the Origine of the World as concerning the Origine of Government and all of them wide of Truth But then as Tatianus from a malicious Adversary of Religion confesseth himself to have been converted to the Faith of the Holy Scripture by that satisfactory and consistent account which it gives of the Creation of the World so the beginning of Civil Power and Dominion which the same part of Holy Writ accounteth for also if duly considered may as well convert the seditious underminers of Government and turn the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just when it shall appear that it was neither blind Chance nor steep Ambition nor prevailing Usurpation nor Pacts and Covenants nor any happy Occurrence nor the longest Sword nor most Voices which made the first distinction betwixt King and Subject That the first common Parent of Mankind was invested with a Soveraign Power and acted as Monarch of the World there are few will question that will not also call in question the History of Moses When Adam who had Dominion given him by God over all the Creatures disposing of his Sons to one committed the Tillage of the ground to another the care of the Flocks and Herds where then was the Equality of Persons where the Community of Goods And if the World was at length peopled by the Offspring descended from this Stock it will be difficult to conceive how and when such a state of Natural Freedom should be introduced The great Master of Politicks Aristotle saw this without his Bible and although for want of the Divine Oracles he was forced to wrap his head in the dark and inextricable Clouds of Eternal Successions yet he saw a necessity of asserting a Natural Subordination where there was a Natural Succession and came at length to conclude that the greatest Kingdom in process of time grew from a single Family as a large spreading Branch shoots from a slender Stock It may be the stile of Royalty was not heard of 'till the World was well on towards 2000 years old that came in with the other Trappings and Ornaments when Monarchy became magnificent and pompous in the Eyes of the People but if we look after the Essentials of Power we shall find them lodged in the first Parent of Mankind and transmitted as an Inheritance by the First-born of the Family And to deduce this there is no better Clew than the Sacred History it self which leads us down from Adam the Universal Monarch by the Patriarchal Line unto the first Plantation of the World after the Flood when several Colonies were led out by their respective Heads and became distinct Kingdoms whereof the Sons or Grand Children of Noah were Kings by a Fatherly-Right Right as appears at large from Gen. 10. and among Humane Authors most accurately from that barbarous Writer at the end of Eusebius's Chronicon whom for the sake of the Subject which he handles the great Scaliger thought worthy to be joined with those renowned Pieces of Antiquity If we follow the Abettors of this Hypothesis and travel farther by the same Thred of Scripture History into the Land of Canaan we shall find there in a Country of no great Compass above 30 Kings at one time in that little Land And at this day they tell us if we look into the state of Affairs in the Indies and those Countries of late and new discovery where they live by the Dictates of simple and untaught Nature without the invented Models of Policy we