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A37274
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Sermons preached upon severall occasions by Lancelot Dawes ...; Sermons. Selections
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Dawes, Lancelot, 1580-1653.
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1653
(1653)
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Wing D450; ESTC R16688
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281,488
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345
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is naught in respect of that which followeth For whereas God challengeth this as a prerogative unto himself to bestow kingdomes on whomsoever he wil and placeth the Princes of the earth in authority next unto himselfe this they have perforce taken from God and bestowed it upon him that sitteth in the temple of God and advanceth himself above all that are called Gods It is he to whom if ye will believe him and his parasites all power is committed both in heaven and in earth He is that King of Kings and Lord of Lords by whom Princes rule and on whom the right of Kings dependeth all nations must fall down before him and all kingdomes must do him homage The greatest Monarch of the earth must prostrat himselfe before him and kisse his holy feet The Emperour if he be present when he taketh horse must hold the bridle when he lighteth he must hold the right stirrup when he walketh he must bear up his train when he washeth he must hold the bason when he would be born he must be one of the four that must carry him upon their shoulders in a golden chair 7. And as he takes upon him to give kingdomes to whomsoever he will like the Devil who told our Saviour Christ that all the kingdomes of the world were his and he gave them to whomsoever he would whereupon saith an ancient father mentitur diabolus quia cujus jussu homines creantur hujus jussu reges constituuntur the devil is a liar for by whose authority men were created by his are kings appointed as he takes upon him I say to give kingdomes at his pleasure so will he take them away when he listeth So farre is he from that obedience and reverence which every soul should give to the higher power Who knoweth not that Leo Isaurus for putting in execution a decree of a Councill held at Constantinople in his time touching the taking away of Images was first excommunicated and then deprived of all his revenues in Italy That Pope Zacharie deposed Childerick the French king that he might gratifie Carolus Mertellus and his son Pipin That the proud Venetian pedler Paul the second by a publike edict deprived of crown and kingdome George the king of Bohemia because he was an Hâ—ssite and stirred up Mathias the king of Hungary his son in law to warre against him What shall I tell you of the indignities offered in our own land against Henry the second and John king of England or of the buls of Pius Quintus sent against Queen Elizabeth of never dying memory whereby he hath excommunicated her absolved her subjects from their oaths of allegiance stirred up rebellions in these middle parts of Britain and taken upon him to bestow the regal diademe upon strangers God be thanked he that dwels in heaven and of right challengeth the authority of disposing the kingdomes of this world to himselfe laughed all their devises to scorn So that his Canons though they made a terrible noise yet no bullet was felt And his Buls which sometimes had such a terrible aspect that a whole provincial Synod durst scarse venture to bait them proved such cowardly dastards that every single adversary hath been ready to tugge them Much resembling the counterfeit shews of Semiramis when she warred against the king of India which a farre off seemed to be Elephants and Dromedaries but when they were throughly tried proved nothing but Oxen hides stuffed with straw Even so Lord God Almighty true and righteous are thy judgements That I may cut off this first branch of my Text my third and last inference shall concerne you R. H. whom the Lord hath placed at the seate of judgement Have Magistrates their authothority from God this concerns you in your places as well as the greatest potentate of the earth And therefore as on the one side it should be incouragement unto you to hold on in all godly courses ye have begun so on the other side it should worke in you an humble and thankfull acknowledgment of so rare a benefit Say not then within your selves that it was not your owne deserts the excellency of your wits the ripenesse of your judgements of so rare a benefit Say not then within your selves that it was your own deserts the excellency of your wits the ripeness of your judgements the deepnesse of your knowledge in the lawes the integrity of your persons that did advance you unto those roomes If these were meanes of your preferment yet have yee nothing whereof ye can justly boast because ye have all from him For Dei dona sunt quaecunque bona sunt Use then your places as received from him acknowledge God to be authour of your advancement and say with Mary in her Song he that is mighty hath done great things for us and holy is his name And so much of the first proposition The second followeth Magistrates are Gods Deputies 8 God as he is jealous of his honour so is he of his name too He will not give it unto any other but only so far as hath he some resemblance with him I find onely three in Gods booke to say nothing of that eternall essence to which it principally agreeth which have this name given them The first is Satan who by reason of his great and almost unlimited power which he hath for a time here on earth by ruling raigning in the hearts of the children of disobedience is called a God The God of this world 2 Cor. 2. 4. The second are the blessed Angels those yeomen of the guard in the Court of Heaven which wait about the throne of God These by reason of their supereminent offices are called Gods Thou hast made him a little inferiour to the Gods Psalm 8. 5. which the Apostle following the Septuagint transâ—â—teth Angels Heb. 2. 7 The third is the Magistrate who both in this Psalm and sundry other places of Scripture is called a God His master shall bring him to the Gods Exod. 21. 6. Thou shalt not rayle upon the Gods Exod. 22. 28. that is the Judges implying thus much that as they have a commandment and authority from God so they have in some sense the authority of God and do supply his room Therefore said Moses unto the Judges which he appointed in every city ye shall not fear the face of man for the judgement is Gods And Jehosaphat to those Judges which which he had set in the strong cities of Judah take heed what you do for ye execute not the judgement of man but of the Lord. 9. Now then if Magistrates be Gods deputies what reverence it behoveth each private person to exhibit unto them I appeal to the conscience of every particular There be many at this day who howsoever in common civility they will seem to give an outward reverence unto the Magistrate yet in heart they scorn and contemn sundry of them as perchance
that the sex doth daily converse with children which is a meanes of encreasing love but also by a naturall sympathy between them Can a woman forget the child of her owne womb She loves others but much more that which is neerest of her blood a part of her selfe whom she loved before she either knew either name or sexe Can a woman forget the child of her wombe It s almost impossible but because such Monsters have been heard of in the world Saevus amor docuit natorum sanguine matrem Commaculare manus Therefore he adds Though she should yet I will never forget thee His love to his is more then a womans to her owne child He respects us as a member of his body to speak after the manner of men Nay as his dearest member as his eye nay as the chiefe part of his eye As the apple of his eye Zach. 2. 8. And though Baal as Elias mocked may perhaps be weary or be in pursuit of his Enemies or asleep and would be awaked Yet he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep Witnesse the wonderfull preservation of his Church against the persecutions and cruelties of Pharaoh Haman Antiochus Sennacherib Decius Dioclesian and other Pagans Valeâ—s and other Hereticks of old and many other both of former and last times whose names I will not now repeat because I may not load your eares with such harsh stuffe If I might presume upon your attention in this kind I had rather instance in this little Israel of ours since she fled out of the dark Aegypt of Poperie through the red Sea of Queen Maries Reign What curses hath the Romish Babylon intended Nay what hath he not intended against her He hath sent his fierce Buls to push her down to trample her honour in the dust He hath thundred out his Canons charged with bullets of Anathemaes against her He hath set open Hel gates for to this three-crowned Cerberus is given the key of the bottomlesse pit and sent out locusts to annoy her He hath used base flatterie open hostility cunning practises secret conspiracies dangerous treasons hellish deviles to overthrow her But behold the watchfull eye of God our heavenly Father over his Children His Bulls which in former times have seemed so wilde that scarce some hundreds met together in a Provinciall Synod duâ—st baite them have proved such cowardly Dastards that every single Curre hath been able to lugge them proving much like to the counterfeit shews of Semiramis when she was to fight with the Indian King which afar off seemed to be Dromedaries and Elephants but when they came to tryal proved nothing but Oxen hides stuffed and bumbasted with straw His Canons troll like Domitians thunder a noise heard but no bullet felt His locusts hurt none but such as had not the Seale of God in their foreheads His plots and devises against Queen Elizabeth and King Iames so defeated and brought to nought that maugre the beards of all Romish Traytors and in despight of all the Devils of Hell they were both brought unto their graves in peace Give me leave before I make use and application of this proposition to put you in mind of two deliverances which as they are never to be forgotten but to be written with pens of iron and the point of a Diamond in the tables of our hearts So do they give evident testimonie of the care which our heavenly Father beareth over his Chosen The one was in 88. when our Enemies were purposed to swallow us up quick they were so wrathfully displeased with us Then the Kings of the earth stood up and the Rulers Mâ—â—rulers Baâ—lac and Balaam the Spaniardâ— and the Pope tooke counsell together against the Lord and against his Anointed saying Come and let us root them out that they be no more a people and that the name of England may be no more in remembrance But what followed He that dwells in Heaven laughed them to scorne the Lord had them in derision He spake unto them in his wrath and did vex them in his sore displeasure He put a book in their noses and a bridle in their lips and carryed them back againe not the same way they came as he did Sennacherib but a strange and unknown way to the Spaniard for all his sayling through the cold Northern Seas and the boysterous Western Ocean Whence after Leviathan had taken his full of them and the Sea which then faught for England was glutted with the multitude of dead corps a few weather-beaten Souldiers returned home in torne and tattered Ships to carry their Master word that it was hard for him to prevaile where God was his enemie Pretty were those verses of Claudian spoken to Theodosius the first when hee prevailed against his Enemies by help of the wind which blew dust in their faces applyed to Queen Elizabeth O nimium dilecte deo cui militat aether Et conjur ati veniunt in praelia venti Turned thus to Queen Elizabeth O nimium dilecta deo cui militat aequor Et conjur ati veniunt in classica venti Neither is the Zelanders invention to be forgotten who upon this occasion in a new coine of silver stamped a Ship sinking with this motto Venit ivit fuit and in a coine of Gold Homâ— propouit Deus disponit 1588. This though of it selfe great may find examples parallel to it but the other which happened Novemb. 5. 1605. which is such that a man would scarcely beleive that the Devil himselfe though he be a subtle Serpent could invent so wicked a plot or he and all his Angels though they be murtherers from the beginning would not tremble to put in execution so cruel a device if wee shall turne over all Histories of ancient and later times we shall not finde one to match it What shall I say unto you by way of Preface but as Isaiah begins his Prophesie Hear heavns and hearken O earth Or with Ioel Heare ye this O yee Elders and hearken all ye Inhabitants of this land whether ever such a thing hath been in your dayes or in the days of your fathers or in the dayes of your fore-fathers Tell ye your children of it and let your children tell their children and their children tell another generation When Balaams servants did not onely wish as once that Barbarian did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor as Nero added when he set Rome on fire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when I am living let the whole World burne with fire but had almost put in execution their cruell intendments Nor as Tarquin in Livie and Periander in Herodotus to cut off the chiefe heads that there might be a paritie Cousin german to confusion amongst the rest but to cut off head and tayle branch and rush in one day To make the body of this Kingdome like dead Priamus in the Poet Avulsum humeris caput fine nomine corpus When that place which was ordained for the establishing