Innocency no Shield against Envy A SERMON Preached on Friday April 11. Being The Fast-Day Appointed by the KINGS Proclamation To seek Reconciliation with God c. BY GEORGE TOPHAM Rector of Boston in Lincolnshire Perused and approved of by the Right Reverend Father in God THOMAS Lord Bishop of Lincoln LONDON Printed for Thomas Fox and are to be sold at his Shop at the Angel in Westminster-Hall 1679. A SERMON Preached upon PSALM lix 3. For lo they lie waiting for my Soul The mighty men are gathered against me without any offence or fault of me O Lord. WHat the Argument of this Psalm is why when and by whom written the Title shews and tells us that it was Davids made when Saul sent and they watcht the house to kill him I shall not trouble your attention with the mystical or Prophetical sense of it either as it relates to Christ or his Church a discourse more proper for some other season but only with the Historical or Literal as it concerned King David and by his example all that succeed him in the like dangers and deliverances and at this time fit for our more than ordinary Consideration For it is a Psalm in which Israels sweet Singer makes his Address to his God by way of vindicating his own Innocency For lo they lie waiting for my Soul The mighty men are gathered against me without any offence or fault of me O Lord. Wherein be pleased to observe these particulars First Davids Petition ver 2. Deliver me from mine Enemies O my God Secondly A description of them 1. By their practices they lie waiting for my Soul 2. Of their persons the mighty men are gathered against me Thirdly His Justification Without any offence or fault of me O Lord. Lastly Upon his being delivered his resolution to praise God ver 16 17. Vnto thee O my strength will I sing for thou O God art my refuge and my merciful God Of these in order First Davids Petition Deliver me O my God And surely never did greater reason and encouragement center in any one person more than in this Princely Prophet Nor ever had any man better assurance of the Almighties favour than himself so that well may he stile him not only God but his God How had he raised him from a low estate to sit upon no less than the Throne of Israel changing his Shepherds Cap into a Crown his Coat into a Robe and his Staff into a Scepter How had he given him not only Courage to encounter but Power to Conquer that daring Philistim whose very Bravadoes frighted the Israelites out of their Valour and at once made them forget both God and themselves How oft had he turned his enemies Swords into their own breasts and maugre all their malice chained Victory to his Conquering Chariot Which made the Damosels of Israel at his Triumphant return playing sing and singing play Saul hath slain his thousands but David his ten thousands It were endless by retail to reckon all the donatives that Heaven bestowed upon this Prince To the no less joy of himself than the Envy and wonder of his Adversaries Yet the greatest wonder is How David a King and Saint both which intitle him to a more than ordinary interest in Gods protection for Kings are his Viceroys and Saints his Friends and David eminent in both relations should have enemies and rebels But if we rightly consider it will appear none since no state or condition of men upon earth is so exposed to dangers as theirs For it is one and not one of the least unhappinesses of the Sons of Adam to be by nature proud and impatient of restraint greedy of liberty always dissatisfied with the present and thirsting after Novelties scarce any content with their station Some are aspiring and would be higher others covetous and would be richer some revengeful and will be quarrelling some malicious some turbulent and many the like Now all this croud of inordinate passions dischargeth it self upon those in power and place hoping by some publick disturbance that in troubled waters they may catch that which calmer times would have conferred upon persons of better merit And the State the Employ the Condition of Kings gives some advantage to such intendments for they stand high all eyes are upon them nothing they say or do escapes observation and censure If any thing be amiss as in multiplicity of affairs it is impossible but there should they are sure to hear of it with all its hightning circumstances the giddy multitude not considering that there may be a great Sacriledge committed in Israel and yet Joshua not know of it Some errors will escape the best vigilancy that sin is not half cunning enough that hath not learned secresie yet when such miscarriages happen Magistracy must be traduced for it Nay how oft is their very innocency charged with aberrations Making good holy Davids assertion For lo they lie waiting for my Soul The mighty men are gathered against me without any offence or fault of me O Lord. Where be pleased to take notice how he describes his Enemies First By their policy lying in wait for his Soul that is for his life And how and when they did this is set down 2 Sam. xix 11. when Sauls unbounded malice mist of its design by Davids avoiding his darted Javelin his hatred pursues him home Sending Messengers thither under the pretence of a visit to slay him and to bid him a good Morning with the loss of his life And though this Stratagem failed of its desired end as well as the other Saul will not fail of a further contrivance for his ruine and that of a most unpardonable nature To cozen under the colour of Amity is the most execrable villany And there is no defence for that Pistol that is charged with the Bullet of friendship yet such was this of Sauls Be thou valiant and fight the Lords Battels and I will give thee my eldest Daughter Merab to Wife for he said my hand shall not be upon him 2 Sam. xviii 17. David was now grown so popular that the King durst not offer him personal violence therefore he hires him into the jaws of death by no less a price than his eldest Daughter What a Saint what a Friend was Saul Yet he never intended more mischief to David nor more unfaithfulness to his God than in this offer for for all these fair flourishes he hoped David would have fallen by the Sword of the Philistins as appeared by the not performing of his promise for Merab was not given to David but to Adriel And now the breaking of his word must certainly be a sufficient oblation to his hatred No revenge knows no limits He has one plot more by which he does not doubt but to bring David to his Grave if he will but bring him an hundred Foreskins of the Philistins he has another Daughter which shall be his Wife And though the yonger yet the more
acknowledgments Yet these must be cried up for the Vertuoso's the Wits of the Age. It is strange it was not so thought of old and let who will admire them David sets a Fools Cap upon their heads Psal xiv 1. The fool hath said in his heart there is no God that is as the word there signifies no Judge no Providence and I hope you will not think the term uncivil it is not mine but his And would they but have recourse to their own Consciences consult those indeleble Letters there engraven and never to be rased out they must however puft up with pride and aiming to be singular and different in Paradoxism from all the world acknowledge that there is a good providence over them that orders all the Affairs of the world from the least to the greatest from Crowns and Scepters to the falling of a Sparrow on the ground and the very numbring of their hairs and joyn with holy David and say Vnto thee O my strength will I sing For thou O God art my refuge and my merciful God Having taken a view of Davids Innocency and the malice of his Enemies together with Gods delivering of him and his thankfulness Let me now beg your patience and attention to see how our gracious King runs parallel not only with him in his dangers but in his deliverances too And first as David having been oft delivered not only from the private designs of his Enemies but when their Rebellion was grown to that height and power as to force him from his Throne was brought back again by the powerful arm of Heaven had good reason to stile the Almighty not only God but his God So surely no Prince since Adams Creation ever had greater proofs of an Omnipotent Protection than our now mest gracious Sovereign How diligent how vigilant was Heaven in the securing of him when our Nation was in a flame of Rebellion from his Enemies who prized his destruction more than their own preservation And had not a more than ordinary Providence provided for his escape how had his Royal bloud been sacrificed as an Allay to their unheard-of Cruelty But above all that of his miraculous Restauration when his Adversaries thought themselves in secure possession when Church and State Religion and Learning Laws and Liberty were not only in danger but already devoured in the hope and expectation of his Enemies when Atheism and Ignorance were in a full and fierce torrent breaking in upon his Dominions and we his Subjects at the very brink of a remediless Confusion fit Objects either for the pity or the scorn of the World as they stood affected to us then even then when nothing but faith and that of the taller sort too could see any appearance of him did Heaven to the wonder and amazement of the world place him on the Throne of his Fathers All which may justly intitle him when in danger as well as David to say Deliver me O my God for lo they lie waiting for my Soul Now for Policy the next Parallel his Majesties Enemies that lie waiting for his Soul clearly out-vie and out-do King Davids Alas they in those more early days of Impiety were never acquainted with such contrivances and stratagems as the old Gentleman of Rome by his Agents the Jesuits teaches his Creatures in these of ours Who put on all the formalities of Religion and merit when they intend to murther Making good that Prediction of our ever blessed Saviour They shall kill you and think they do God good service And have they not turned their Pens into Pen-knives multiplied the School into a Camp Arguments to Armies teaching all their Proselytes dismal Conclusions Indeed what mask do they not make use of to destroy and promote faction Observing that Maxim of their old Roman Masters Divide impera and to this end have they not been nay are they not Presbyterians Anabaptists Libertines Pagans any thing so they be not Subjects Most if not all the storms that have been raised in Christendom since Charlemains time are owing to the Pope and his Ministers And I hope it will be no digression for the King of England never dies to let you see how industrious they have been in all Ages to bring this Nation under the Romish slavery ten times worse than that of Egypt And though our Kings have been more kind and generous Vassals than any of their Neighbours though they were as obedient Sons as any that ever owned St. Peters Keys as liberal in their erecting and endowing Churches and Monasteries as any Princes in the world as the many stately and magnificent Structures before the hammers of their own impieties rung their passing-knels in each corner of the Land did and their ruines still do sufficiently witness yet none have been so ungratefully requited as they No Crown suffered so much ignominy and bondage under the Tyranny of the Roman Prelate as this of England For no sooner had the munificent Monarchs of this Nation built so many famous Fabricks but the Pope claimed the investing and Collating of them Not that the Church might be better provided for but that by Bribery and Simony he might enrich his Treasury of which though many instances might be given let that of Walter Gray set down by a Monk of their own speak for all the rest Matth. Paris in Johan p. 263. who for his investiture at Rome obliged himself to pay to the Pope ten thousand pounds sterling in those days enough for a Kings Ransom This was the end for which the Pope had used so many Policies taking the advantage of the necessities of Kings and their rebellious Subjects This was it for which so much bloud had been shed for which above an hundred set Battels were fought since Gregory VII This was it for which those that suffered in the Popes claim for it were stiled Martyrs put into the List of Saints and were sure to do Miracles after their death This was it which made Vrban the Second espouse the Interest of Anselm who was fled from his own Prince William Rufus and liking the prudence of that Fugitive made use of his Counsel and gave him the Archbishops Pall thereby voiding the Investiture he had received from the King his Master and obliging him with the gift of that he had nothing to do with to a dependency on him And what disturbances followed both to King and State Matth. Paris in Guliel Rufo the above-cited Monk has largely set down Neither did this quarrel die with Vrban and King William for no sooner had Henry the First of that name ascended the Throne and Paschal the Second seated himself in St. Peters Chair but he justified as well as his Predecessor the Archbishop in his Rebellion against his Sovereign and sends him a Mandate to declare that no Lay man should have power to confer any Investiture Upon which this Bishop devoted to the Roman Interest began to degrade his Brethren promoted by the
of Frederick Barbarosa This is he that can give and take Heaven away at his pleasure Mat. 4.9 a Priviledge that great Usurper his Father never challenged Nay Cerem Sacra l. 1. §. 7. c. 6. this is he that has encroach'd upon the highest Prerogatives and Titles of God himself Pope Sixtus the Fourth out of his singular modesty assumed that authority which not only we but all the Primitive Christians thought to belong to Christ alone All power is given me both in heaven and Earth Pope Paul the Second was stiled a Celestial Majesty which all know is only proper to God Pope Sixtus Quintus called the Corner-stone in Sion due to the Son of God And in the last Council of Lateran it was decreed that the Pope must be adored by all Nations and that he is most like unto God Yea we are further told in the same place that he must be adored with the same Adoration enjoyned Psal lxii All the Kings of the earth shall worship him in which Text the Adoration proper to our ever-blessed Saviour is understood and so it is taken by Tertullian So that if David were permitted to speak from the dead he must needs acknowledge and say that those of his though mighty were far inferiour to these enemies of his Majesty Which brings me to the next considerable Without any offence or fault of me O Lord. And does not our gracious King run parallel with him in this What Prince ever writ his favours in such engaging Characters as he has done That were his Adversaries any thing but what they are Vassals to the Roman greatness he must for ever have endeared and secured their obedience A Prince whose unspotted Innocency is such that no fancies or fears disturb his breast for as he is guilty of nothing so there is nothing he dreads He is the very Compound of Charity and Compassion For he pities those that will not pity themselves and whilst they contrive his destruction his Prayers ascend heaven for their pardon Nor can the utmost of their malice provoke him to a retaliation having learnt not only of God but the King his Father to forgive his very Enemies Now to study to design and plot the ruine of such a Prince must make a strange aggravation of the Crime and render the Conspirators much more black not only to this but to all succeeding Ages especially when they shall find that some of them were indebted to his bounty for their bread O but he will not admit of the power of our Father the Pope and all Obligements all Oaths all that is Sacred are too weak to engage and bind our Loyalty when he claims not only Rivality but Supremacy And therefore Great Sir pardon us we will serve you in any thing else but when that Interest is on foot when he enjoyns and commands us we are bound and that under no less penalty than eternal damnation to devest our selves of all to promote it Is this the cause is this his offence is this his fault What if the Pope command his Majesty to break the Sacred Mandates of the Almighty and kneel before an Idol and offer his Invocation unto others than God What if he appoint him other Redeemers than Christ and other merits for his Propitiation than those of his obedience in the Death of the Cross What if contrary to the Apostle he tell him that the Bloud of Jesus cleanseth him not from all sin and will send him to be cleansed in an imaginary fire of Purgatory and fright his Conscience to drain his Purse Must he to please the unmatchable pride and insatiable griping of that Tyrant hood wink his Reason befool his Conscience make shipwrack of his Faith and blindly and wilfully inslave himself and his Subjects under the yoke of the Romish bondage Or else be deposed and murthered and his Kingdoms disposed of at the Popes pleasure Good God! how contrary is this to the Religion of the ever blessed Jesus to the practice of his Apostles and the Primitive times Our Saviour himself was so far from pretending to a disposal of temporal Empires that he refused to divide Inheritances among Brethren as a thing that belonged not to him in Luke xii 14. And for the Apostles how earnestly did they exhort and persuade their Auditors to be obedient not only for wrath but for Conscience sake Not because the Emperours had their Swords in their hands and might therefore punish them but because God did command and require it of them That known passage of St. Paul may serve for an abundant evidence Rom. xiii 2. where he not only affirms That whosoever resisteth the power resisteth the Ordinance of God but also that they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation And that the ancient Christians were of the same temper with their Master and his Apostles submitting themselves to the penalties of those Laws whose Injunctions they thought it not lawful to observe is clear from Tertullian and others And this they did too not as that great Cardinal would have the world believe because they wanted force and power to resist Bel. lib. 5. de Rom. Pont. cap. 4. 7. but in a real practice of the Precepts of the ever blessed Jesus Tertullian and Cyprian two Ancient Fathers being under the Persecution of the heathen Emperours do make their Apologies in behalf of the Christian and Catholick Church Tertal Apol. contra Gentes cap. 37. Tertullian thus God forbid that our Christian Profession should be revenged by Humane Power or should grieve to suffer that whereby we are tried Although if we would become either secret or open revengers of our own wrongs could we want either number or power What War is there that we are not fit for yea and ready also to undertake if that our Religion taught us not rather to be killed than to kill for the profession thereof Cyprian ad Demetr And St. Cyprian Our Professors saith he do not take revenge against unjust violence though our people be more in number And agreeing hereto when the Theban Legion which consisted of six thousand six hundred sixty six Christian Souldiers were by the Emperour Maximian commanded to offer Sacrifice to the heathen Gods though they refused to obey his commands yet when he upon that refusal commanded every tenth man to be slain they suffered themselves so to be without any the least resistance looking upon themselves as obliged by their Religion to obey him either actively or passively Thus the Supremacy and Power in those days was in the Emperours and Obedience was held better than Sacrifice And this owned and practised by several of the Popes of Rome themselves as Binius and Baronius two Witnesses against whom I hope they will take no exception have set down yet I shall only produce three of them that number having always looked upon especially of such men sufficient for any Test And the first is Pope Leo the first who made