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B06421
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A sermon preached at Windsor before his Majesty, the second Sunday after Easter, 1684. by John Archbishop of Tuam.
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Vesey, John, 1636-1716.
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1684
(1684)
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Wing V282A; ESTC R185967
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16,479
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46
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Lords of their People who like Parents are always laying up for their Children esteeming their peace a common advantage the Glory of their Reign as the publick Good of the World is the Glory of God There is certainly great truth in that celebrated Aphorism Salus Populi Suprema Lex esto but the vulgar sense is to be corrected by considering what is meant by People Safety and Law 1. We are not to prescind the Head from the Members but by People to understand the whole Body all in as well as all under Government And so indeed the care ought to be mutual and reciprocal for neither can be safe when the other is in danger but the principal should be for the principal and vital parts and the best Armour placed on the Head and Heart Thus while David perceived his Kingdom to be exalted for the sake of Israel 2 Sam. 5.12 21.17 the People called him the light of Israel which they were fearful should be quenched 2. We are not to understand Safety in the most uncircumscribed and indefinite sense for Peace of any kind on any terms but such as the Apostle prescribes which by Prayer for Princes we may hope to enjoy under them 1 Tim. 2.2 a quiet and a peaceable life in all godliness and honesty Now happy are the People that are in such a case this is a blessing greatly desirable a Reformation heartily to be endeavoured when Peace and Godliness and Honesty meet together and kiss each other 3. Peace and Safety thus described is the Supreme Law that is the general Rule and Canon of Direction to all in their respective Stations it is the Princes Reason of State the Compass by which he steers the Government where plain and positive Law hath not directed and where it hath he must often leap over nay break through many positive Forms to come at it for that is the Supreme Law to which all positive Laws as inferiour must give place for the sake of that the Prince may dispence with these but that is indispensable it is superiour to him in a way of perpetual direction which he is the most proper Judge how to intend and follow This Law also is the Square and Reason of the Subjects obedience by which and Prayer they are more likely to obtain their end than by Rebellion and Schism that being a method of Gods appointing but this an unsanctified way that never will be blessed by him Thus you see this so applauded Maxim is far from confounding Government by making Rulers accountable to those they Govern that the Right to Govern is from the People if you divide the Head from the Body because their Good is the and of Government is a false Inference from a false Principle the preservation of the whole is the end and not of any part and if the good and safety of the People separately from the Prince were the Supreme Law yet it follows not that either his Right is derived from them or his account of the Administration must be made to them For God hath the same end the Common Good in the great Monarchy of the World and yet is not liable to an Indictment by his Subjects for any mal-administration And Parents and Masters of Families intend the same end in their petty Monarchies and are not questionable or punishable by their Children So that this cannot give Subjects any superintendency over the Princes Councils or Actions but obliges them rather in their private capacity of Obedience and Religion to conspire to the same end the Glory of God in the Publick Good Both these are designed by God and both by the Prince and the distinction is rather formal than real between them for though they may be distinguished they cannot be divided but are to be promoted by the same means God cannot be honoured by Sin and therefore we must not do evil that good may come of it God may suffer it for that end but we must not do it for that or any end No more must publick Safety and common Good be secured by any thing that is unjust or dishonest Religion must not be reformed by Rebellion nor destroyed for the sake of a palliated worldly Peace The very Heathens were so generous as to scorn by base Compliances and wicked Plots and Stratagems to preserve their Country and therefore a contrivance of Themistocles for the publick Good being imparted to Aristides was rejected by the Senate upon Aristides his Report that it was not honest concluding nothing profitable or honourable that was dishonest but when the common Good is carried on by just and wise Counsels a peaceable life is endeavoured by pious and honest policy the People have at once great safety and God great Glory and this is the care and travel Princes have under the Sun to be in continual motion that their Subjects might have the comfort of their Influences though they are too often requited with noisom stenches and stinking exhalations But as God is never weary of doing good to those who weary him and themselves with doing evil so neither should Princes though their Subjects prove ungrateful and rebellious Thus much of the second Reason why Princes are called Gods and Sons of God they are like him acting the same Attributes and for the same end 3. Thirdly and lastly They are so called because God as a Father takes a special care of just Governments and pious Governours There are sometimes Providences that seem anomalous and exceptions from this Rule when God suffers Religious Kings to be smitten by and for the sins of the People which is one of the heaviest Judgments that can befal a Nation to be made their own Executioners by cutting the throat of their own peace and happiness But as Princes are called Fathers of their Country and have bowels for their Subjects so hath God for Princes whose Seats could never be so secure amidst so many strivings of the People but that the Lord is King be the Earth never so unquiet and covers the head of his Anointed and bears up the Pillars of his Throne So we find notwithstanding all the Plots the secret Caballings and open and bold Designs of Davids Enemies Psal 2. God says Yet have I set my King upon my holy Hill of Sion exalted him to the top of Regal Power God seems to point at him with a hand out of the Clouds as a person reserved for some great work and by his miraculous deliverances eminently to declare him to be his Care and Darling Thou art my Son Psal 2.6 7. this day have I begotten thee Which Scripture though it had a literal verification in David and a mystical one in our Saviour may be accommodated to the Histories of other Empires and no where more fitly than to the modern state of this Kingdom in the support whereof the Divine Providence hath observably concerned it self when all the foundations of the Earth were out of course
and like the Earth our Government seemed to hang without any hold But though God be terrible among other Kings of the Earth and is now dashing them in pieces like a Potters Vessel he hath set ours upon his holy Hill of Sion where may the same Goodness long and long preserve him That what hath been said may be made useful 1. Since Princes are called Gods it would be their care to walk worthy of that high calling and honour their own Character by defending his Worship and Worshippers from Contempt that hath so honoured them neither suffering their Power to degenerate into Cruelty or Tyranny for that were of Gods to become Devils nor their zeal for Justice and Religion into Sloth and Lukewarmness and Neutrality for that were to become Idols that have eyes and see not ears and hear not for then the latter part of the Text will appear like the writing on the Wall to Belshazzar in the height of all his jollity When the swelling Titles fume in the head and they are elevated like Alexander with vain thoughts of being really what they are onely called God will call them to account who hath said they shall die like men and there will be no distinction in the Grave the Crown will leave no impression on the Scull But let us leave them to be chastized by him against whom onely they sin and 2. In the next place consider what shall be done to them whom God hath so honoured as to give them a Name above every Name Surely they will reverence my Son saith God in the Parable and surely so we should But alas to the reproach of the Christian Name both that which calls her self the Holy and the Catholick and many that would be thought the True Protestant and Reformed Church have eaten of sower Grapes and their Childrens Teeth are set on edge while both Revile and Crucifie our Church between them that so sincerely preaches and practises the Doctrine of Loyal Obedience that let a Prince be of any Religion as to his private Faith it would be his Interest to have all his Subjects of that of the established Church of England I shall crave leave to speak a little to those of each hand though I fear I shall become their Enemy because I tell them the truth Nothing is more current in the Court of Rome than the Doctrine of the Popes Supremacy over Princes it is the Test of Roman Orthodoxy This is acknowledged by many who yet will not allow it the Doctrine of the Church of Rome and I wish for my own part it were not But what is that they call the Court of Rome The Pope and Conclave and their Retinue of Canonists and other Expectants of Preferment And what is the Church The Pope and General Council In both which this Doctrine is so plainly taught that it is hard to tell which is the Mother of the Child To Quote particular Authors were an endless labour Aquinas rules the Case for the School and in Bellarmine Aqu. 22. q. 12. a. 2. Bell. Rom Pont. l. 5 c. 8. 9. Val. tom 3. disp 1. qu. 12. punct 2. Valentia and many others we have the Usage and Practice of the Court in the Catalogues of Princes deposed from whence they argue this may be done because it hath been but the History is better than the Logick But that which is chiefly considerable is the Canon of the Council of Lateran 4. Council of Lateran ch 3. which in point decrees such Princes as will not expel Hereticks out of their Dominions to be Excommunicated and their Subjects absolved from their Allegiance and their Kingdoms to be given to Catholick Princes There is a Salvo for the Supreme Lord if he obstruct not the Sentence that is they will not depose him if he submits like the Condition in the Covenant to fight for the King if he would fight for it If it be said this is a part of the Discipline and not the Faith of the Church the matter is not much mended nor Princes better secured by the distinction since we know they are as rigid exacters of Obedience to the Rule of Discipline as of Faith But thus by their Canon of Discipline they make void the Law of the Fifth Commandment discharging Subjects of their Duty to those whom God and Nature hath commanded them to honour and obey Now this Council if any deserves with them the name of General consisting of 1215 Fathers one for every Year from Christs Nativity to the Year of its Assembling Convened and Confirmed by the Popes Authority and is accordingly owned as such even by two succeeding General Councils Constance and Trent in the mouth of which two Witnesses Const Sess 30. Trid. Sess 2â— Cap. 5. whereas Trent bears onely witness to it self the Authority of this Council is more than abundantly confirmed The Issue is this 1. A General Council declares the Doctrine of the Church 2. The Fourth of Lateran is a General Council in the judgment of those of Constance and Trent 3. That hath decreed the Deposing of Princes if they expel not Hereticks after admonition out of their Dominions this then is the Doctrine not of Jesuits onely their Order being founded some Centuries after nor of the Court but even of the Church of Rome And yet I would not accuse all that hold Communion with it of an explicit belief of this Doctrine there are many whose Loyalty is so sound and healthy that it is not to be tainted by the pestilential Air they breath in who would desert that Church in which they believed such things were taught Such I onely desire neither to believe our Priests who charge them with it nor their own who deny it till like those Noble Bereans they have consulted their own Editions of their Councils their Eyes and common Sense and then they will discern by whom they are abused and of what Leven they are to take heed and beware 2. But while I am speaking of these things methinks I hear a Voice saying unto me as unto the Prophet Ezek. 8.6 Son of man seest thou what they do they of the Church of Rome turn thee yet again and thou shalt see greater abominations a People as distant from the Papists as one Pole from the other in the interest yet parallel with them in the mischief of their Faction who pretending to be Israelites have whet their Swords among the Philistins and entered into the secret of our Adversaries Those men in their zeal for God rebel against his Authority and serve their Prince as the Heathens were thought to worship Mercury by throwing Stones at him in kindness to the Reformation they stab it to the heart and under Jacobs smooth voice make it feel the rough hands of Esau endeavouring to destroy at once the best Government the best Monarchy and Monarch and Religion in the World 1. The best Government A Monarchy the first and most natural Form a Form that