Sin And no longer to insist upon this Mans Character He who Fears God doth exercise himself with the Blessed Apostle to have always a Conscience void of Offence both towards God and towards Men And this is his rejoycing the Testimony of his Conscience that in simpliciâ—y and Godly sincerity not by fleshly Wisdom but by the grace of God he hath his Conversation in the World Secondly I proceed to shew what it is to Honour the King This implieth these following Particulars 1. The Revering of Him as Gods Vicegerent as His immediate Representative Kings are called the Ministers of God He is the Minister of God to thee for good Rom. 13. 4. The Higher Powers in the same Chapter are said to be ordained of God v. 1. 2. There is no Power but of God the Powers that be are Ordained of God whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God for which reason as it follows They that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation Kings are said to Reign by God or by Virtue of the Commission they receive from Him By me Kings Reign and Princes decree Justice by me Princes Rule and Nobles even all the Judges of the Earth Prov. 8. 15. That is by God immediately Kings Reign and Inferiour Magistrates by God mediately as receiving their Commissions immediately from the King who is impowred by God to give them Again Kings are called the Anotnted of God even Cyrus though a Heathen Prince is so called Thus saith the Lord to Cyrus his Anointed Isaiah 45. 1. And Lastly God hath put his own Name upon them I have said ye are Gods Thou shalt not revile the Gods nor Curse or speak evil of the Ruler of thy People Exod. 22. 28. Now this being so in the Honouring of the King is manifestly implied the Honouring Him as Gods Vicegerent and Representative as the Person whom he hath Commissionated to Rule under Him This is to Honour the King which a Man may be short of doing and yet have Reverence for his Person For Honour or Reverence is due to all Men. Honour all Men saith the Apostle before my Text But to Reverence the King under the notion of Gods Minister Gods Deputy and Vicegerent this I say is to Honour the King This is to Honour Him as a King and therefore he who honours him not under this notion though he may honour that Person who is the King he doth not honour the King or which is the same thing he gives him not that Honour that is due to the King 2. In Honouring the King is implyed Expressing the Reverence we bear to him as God's Vicegerent by yielding Obedience to his Laws from a Principle of Conscience Whatsoever Honour we express to his Person that is not accompanied with the Observance of his Laws is insignificant Nay 't is a perfect Mockery of him And our King may say what our and His Great Master did Luk. 6. 46. Why call ye me Lord Lord and do not the things which I say This is shameful Hypocrisy And as without Obedience so without Obedience from a Principle of Conscience too our Honouring the King will fall far short of our Duty and be far from speaking us truly Loyal 1. To obey the Kings Laws merely for fear of the Penalties annexed to them is not Loyalty 'T is neither Christian nor true Loyalty This is not Christian Loyalty For the Apostle hath told us that We must needs be subject not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake Rom. 13. 5. And St. Peter saith 1 Ep. 2. 13. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man or to every Ordinance of Man which doth not contradict any Ordinance of God And God be thanked no People in the World have better Laws and Ordinances than those of our King are But now How doth the Apostle say we must submit to every Ordinance of Man it follows for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him c. Now to submit for the Lords sake and to submit for Conscience sake are the self same thing for the Lord alone can immediately bind the Conscience and the King binds the Conscience by his Laws as the Great God hath obliged us upon pain of damnation to observe them That is all such Laws as I now said as are not contrary to his own For as to all such as are contrary to them we must reply as the same Apostle did VVhether it be righteous in the sight of God to hearken unto men more than unto God judg ye Acts 4. 19. But God be praised VVe have not any occasion to use these words to our Governours Furthermore we are so to obey the King as not only not to disobey God in Obeying him but likewise so as to Obey God in obeying him And he obeyeth God in obeying the King who obeyeth him as God 's immediate Representative And thus to do as hath been shewed is to obey him as a King And therefore not so to do as it is inconsistent with Christian so also with true Loyalty But to obey him from mere Fear of Punishment is to give the King such Obedience as the poor Indians give to the Devil Worship It is to obey him only as one who hath gotten us under his Power and who will have his Will upon us whether we will or no. Thus we would obey the Great Turk were we his Vassals or any Usurping Tyrant and consequently to be subject to our Lawful King from the mere Principle of Fear is no Loyalty at all And 2. The like is to be said of Obeying him merely for our own temporal Interest for the making our selves Rich and Great under him or for the bettering of our Fortunes All Kings have ever had too many such Loyal Subjects who whilst Loyalty serves their turns set up for Mighty Royalists but when nothing more is to be gotten by it but especially when any considerable danger attends it shake hands with their Loyalty and will by no means be held to their Allegeance by the mere Sense of their Duty nor by the most Sacred Oaths again and again repeated That Blessed Martyr King Charles the First had woful experience of such Loyal Subjects and so hath our Present Gracious Soveraign had too When a King is in prosperous Circumstances and able to reward plentifully whatsoever Services are done him there needs nothing but an eager desire of Wealth or Honour or both to excite to the making a Mighty Shew of Loyalty But if he chance to be so Unfortunate as that more is to be hoped for by deserting his Interest than cleaving to it there is the Tryal of true Loyalty But if this Tryal happen as God grant it may never among us again that Subject who is indued with this Principle will be stript stark Naked of all his Enjoyments and part with his Heart-Blood to boot rather than forsake or prove false to
A SERMON PREACHED at the General Meeting OF Gloucestershire-MEN For the most part INHABITANTS OF THE City of London In the Church of St. Mary Le-Bow December the 9th 1684. By Edward Fowler D. D. LONDON Printed by T. B. for Braybazon Aylmer at the Sign of the Three Pidgeons in Cornhill M DC LXXXV TO MY Honoured COUNTRYMEN Mr. John Haynes Mr. Aaron Pengry Mr. Richard Bishop Mr. Gwynnet Freeman Mr. Edward Sandys Mr. Edward Davis Mr. Anthony Partridge Mr. Stephen Rose Mr. John Ferrers Mr. William Till The STEWARDS of the late Gloucestershire-FEAST Gentlemen THE Sermon which in complyance with your desire I Preached to a very Numerous Meeting of our Country-men and the Publishing of which you since Requested I here present you with And God grant that this plain Discourse Composed in a hurry of other Business may in some Measure Contribute to the better observance of the great Praecepts of Fearing God Honouring the King and Loving one another therein recommended and inforced Then shall I have great cause to be thankful as to Almighty God for His Blessing on this endeavour so to your selves for putting into my Hands this opportunity of doing good I am Gentlemen Your Affectionate Countryman and Humble Servant EDWARD FOWLER A SERMON PREACHED at the Gloucestershire-feast 1 Pet. 2. 17. Love the Brotherhood Fear God Honour the King THat the Religion of which our Lord Jesus is the Founder is most admirably fitted for the making Mankind as happy as they are capable of being in this world as well as in the world to come is a no less certainly true than common observation As also that it tends as much to the happiness of Societies and Bodies Politick as of single Persons And were I to give a Demonstration of this I should need to do more than propose to your consideration this one short Verse Honour all Men Love the Brotherhood Fear God Honour the King If Christians generally practised the four duties which our Blessed Lord by his Apostle St. Peter here enjoyneth if they gave all Men the respect due to Human Nature to the Relations they stand in to each other and the Rank and Circumstances God hath placed them in if they loved one another as Brethren the Children of the same Father indued with one common Nature and Redeemed by one Saviour if they Revered the Divine Majesty and dreaded the wilful Transgression of any one of his Laws and under God Honoured their Kings as his immediate Representatives and Vicegerents If I say Christians were generally as willing to put these Duties in Practice as they are to acknowledg their Obligation to them I need not tell you that to live in Christendom would be to live in a Heaven upon Earth and in all likelyhood in a short time the whole World would be taken into Christendom In the handling of this Text I shall begin with the duties of Fearing God and Honouring the King and spend the rest of my Discourse upon that of Loving the Brotherhood each of which three Arguments doth well suit with the occasion of this Meeting but more especially the Last In the Prosecution of these Words Fear God ' Honour the King I will endeavour to shew these three things First What it is to Fear God Secondly What to Honour the King Thirdly That there is a necessary Connexion between these two Fearing God and Honouring the King First We will shew and that very briefly what is implyed in this Precept Fear God 1. To Fear God is to be possessed with an holy Awe and Reverence of his Infinite Majesty of his Glorions Attributes and Perfections Particularly of His irresistible Boundless Power of his Absolute Dominion over us and the whole World of His infinite Wisdom and Knowledg of His unspotted Purity and Holiness of His uncorrupted Justice and His inexhaustible Goodness The Fear of God doth presuppose an hearty belief and acknowledgment that all these Perfections are in the Divine Nature and implyeth in the first Place the being affected with Awe and Reverence towards God upon the account of all these He who understandingly believes the Existence of God must necessarily believe Him to be a Being Absolutely Perfect and Consequently must believe that He hath all these Perfections Of this Natural Light assures men no less than Divine Revelation And therefore the Philosophers who were hearty Asserters of the Deity which the Epicuraeans were not as Tully confidently and with great reason affirms have abundantly Preached this Doctrine as well as the Prophets and Apostles concerning God And he I say that Fears God doth so believe this Doctrine hath so lively and vigorous a Sense of the Truth thereof as to have an holy Awe and Dread of the Divine Majesty upon his Spirit upon the account of the foresaid Perfections of His Nature Each of which singly and much more altogether do make Him an Object of the Greatest Reverence Awe and Fear and each of them doth necessarily attract Fear from him who Considers it You may Object that the last of these Perfections viz. the Divine Goodness doth not seem to be attractive of Fear but of Love and Gratitude I Answer That it is no less attractive of Fear than of Love and Gratitude Not of a Slavish but of a Fillial Fear which is founded on Love and Gratitude and necessarily results from them And therefore the Prophet Hosea ch 3. 5. praedicts concerning the Children of Israel that They shall fear the Lord and his Goodness in the latter days 2. The Fear of God implyeth also the Expressing of this inward Fear and Reverence in our Outward Conversations in all the Actions of our Lives And it is impossible where there is an holy Awe of God in the Heart but it must express it self in the Life In short This is in the general the true Character of the man that Feareth God He is one who escheweth Evil. It was part of Job's Character that He feared God and eschewed Evil which are two Phrases to express the same thing and so are departing from evil and fearing God Prov. 3. 7. Fear the Lord and depart from evil He that Fearetb God is one that though he may happen to transgress a Law of God before he is aware and may be surprized into a sin yet dares not sin deliberately nor allow himself in the doing of any thing which God hath forbidden nor in the neglecting of any thing God hath commanded And therefore he endeavours sincerely to acquaint himself with his whole Duty He is one who dreads more to offend the great God than to provoke the greatest of Men As knowing that these have done their worst when they have killed the Body whereas Almighty God is able to destroy both Soul and Body in Hell Which is our Saviours Motive to the making of God the object of our greatest Fear Mat 10. 28. The Man that feareth God is so affected with those words as to be incomparably most afraid of the evil of
his Prince And Abundance of Brave Instances of such a Loyalty God be thanked We have known But he who will be Loyal no longer than he hath a Motive from Worldly Interest so to be is far from being Obedient to the Praecept in our Text of Honouring the King And consequently is a mere Pretender to Loyalty let him seem to value himself never so much upon it He may be rewarded by the King who knows not breats or inward Principles as a Loyal Subject but he must expect no reward from the King of Kings Thirdly I come to shew that there is a necessary Connexion between these Two Fearing God and Honouring the King We find else where likewise these two joyned together viz. by King Solomon Prov. 24. 21. My Son fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change And it follows For their Calamity shall rise suddainly and who knoweth the ruin of them both Or what ruin attends them both from God and the King And what hath by the way been more observed than the fulfilling of this Threatning upon Rebellious People and Traiterous Conspirators Now there is very great reason why these two Precepts should go hand in hand viz. Because there is a necessary Connexion between the Duties enjoyned in them and that a Mutual Connexion too So that he cannot honour the King that Fears not God and on the other hand he cannot Fear God who Honours not the King 1. He who Fears not God cannot Honour the King I have shewn that to Honour the King as such is to Honour him as God's Representative But how can he Honour the King as Representating God in his Kingdom who hath no due Reverence for God Himself Again you heard that to Honour the King is to express our Reverence by submitting to his Government and observing his Laws from a Principle of Conscience and for God's sake But how can he who Fears not God thus submit and be obedient to the King Who can expect that he should obey the Kings Laws because God ' hath commanded him who makes no Conscience of living in disobedience to Gods own Laws A man that is so void of the Fear of God as to live in the plain Breach of his Holy Commandments will make no bones of breaking the Kings Laws when he thinks he may do it safely and it makes for his Interest This is so evident as to need no more words He again that Honours not the King cannot be said to Fear God For as the Apostle faith He that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him And â—f we love not our Brother whom we have seen how can we love God whom we have not seen so he who Honoureth not the King who Reigneth by God and hath his Authority from Him doth not Honour or Fear Him by whom he Reigneth and who hath given him his Authority He who revereth not the Divine Authority which displayeth it self in Gods Vicegerents will not revere it in God Himself And the like is to be said as to Obedience to the Kings Laws he who makes not Conscience of obeying these supposing them not contrary to the Laws of God will not be obedient to Gods own Laws Because it is a great Law of God that we should obey such Laws of our Kings To make a short Application of this past Discourse As we would have our Professions of Loyalty believed to be syncere let us give the World a demonstration thereof by our Fearing of God If we be Prophane and Wicked though we may do some Externally Loyal Actions and may be in some Instances what the World calls Loyal yet 't is manifest from what hath been said that we are devoid of the true Principle of Loyalty and may no more be called Loyal Men than in regard of our doing some Externally pious Actions we may be called Godly men Besides can People who live in the constant Transgression of the Kings Laws be said to be Loyal men But if we are Debauched and Wicked if we stick not at profaning the Name of the Great God by Swearing or can give our selves leave to be Intemperate Drinkers or to commit Uncleanness or the like we break our Kings Laws as well as Gods Even nine Commandments of the ten are incorporated into the Laws of our Country and so no doubt would the tenth have been too but that the Sin of Covetousness being a Sin of the heart falls not within the reach of Human Cognizance Pretend we therefore to Honour the King as much as we please if we live not Sober Righteous and Godly Lives we are insyncere in such a pretence The Loyalty we brag of lyes but in a few Instances and in these I need not mind you again we are not truly Loyal as not being so from the true Principle And therefore our Loyalty is by no means such as his Majesty can securely trust and confide in King David was very sensible that those who Fear not God are not to be trusted as Faithful Subjects For he saith Psal. 101. 5. c. A froward heart shall depart from me I will not know a wicked Person Who so privily slandereth his Neighbour bim will I cut off Him that hath a high look and a proud heart will not I suffer Mine Eyes shall be upon the Faithful of the Land that they may dwell with me He that walketh in a perfect way he shall serve me c. For God's sake what Security can we give of our faithful Adherence to God's Vicegerent in all his Circumstances if we are false and perfidious towards God Himself and live in the Breach of that Solemn Vow we made in Baptism and renew from time to time in the Lord's Supper viz. To for sake the Devil and all his Works the Pomps and Vanities of this wicked World with all the Sinful desires of the Flesh so as not to follow or be led by them What Security can he give that the Oath of Allegeance shall bind him fast who makes nothing of breaking so much stronger a Cord And therefore as we would have all to conclude that we Honour the King let all be satisfyed by our Lives and Conversations that we Fear God And let us Abominate such Shameful Hypocrisy as to pretend to Honour the King whilst we don't Fear God or to Fear God whilst we Honour not the King And so much for these two Precepts Fear God Honour the King I now go back to that which praecedes these viz. Love the Brotherhood or Love the Brethrem Now Men are our Brethren either in a more large or strict Sense In the most large Sense of all Men of all Nations and Religions even Turks Jews and Infidels are our Brethren That is as we have all one God for our Father Have we not all one Father hath not one God Created us saith the Prophet Mal. 2. 10. And all Men are Brethren as they proceed from one