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A31405
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A sermon preached in a country-audience on the late day of fasting and prayer, January 30 by a priest of the Church of England.
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Cave, John, d. 1690.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing C1585; ESTC R36288
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19,279
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33
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the Emperours by submitting to Christianity suffer any diminution in this part of their Royalty witness Constantine who honoured Bishops very highly and yet he reserved to himself the power of purging the Church from Idolatry and establishing the worship of God Enseb l. 2. de vit Constant c. 1. Theod. l. 5.20 by his own Imperial Edicts Witness Jovinian and Theodosius who by their own immediate Acts restored and reformed the pure religion which Julian and Valens had so much corrupted and destroyed Witness Justinian Novel Constit 131. who established the Code of the Universal Church consisting of the Canons of the four first General and five ancient Provincial Councils and commanded them to be kept as Laws I cannot stay here to give more instances of this nature seeing what hath been said already doth sufficiently shew that Kings and Magistrates have a great influence upon the Church upon our living godlily and therefore are to be pray'd for as such who may and do contribute very much either to the destruction or to the defence of the Faith the true Religion I need not tell you what a necessary dependance all the civil interests of a Nation have upon their Head and Governour nor have I time to shew you what glory the honour of a Prince reflects upon his people what protection and security they have in his power his Wisdom his vigilance and his goodness I can only tell you that his good is a common good and therefore to be prayed for as well for our own sake as his that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty That is the first motive to pray for Kings because the general safety peace prosperity and piety of a Nation depends so much upon them A further encouragement to this duty 2. In a second place may be this viz. That the prayers and piety of Subjects do very much contribute to the procuring and preserving of good Kings and Magistrates As for the iniquity and irreligion of a people God many times justly deprives them of a good Prince by suffering him to fall into sin and mischief which was the case of the incomparable Josiah 2 Kings 23.25 So by religion and righteousness is a Nation exalted and a Throne established If the wicked be taken from before the King his Throne shall be established in righteousness Prov. 25.5 If the prayers of single persons are so prevalent for themselves and their friends what great things may we expect from the united devotions of many good men in behalf of a person whose good redounds to many and whose happiness is a publick benefit As you have heard If prayer in such a case do not move God to convert a King from all sin and make him do all the good which is in his power yet we may hope it will at leastwise obtain that restraining grace for him which will keep him from being worse and hinder him from doing that evil to himself or the publick which before he was inclined to We are apt to impute the ill management of things and the evils that ensue thereupon to the weakness or wickedness of Kings which perhaps may more justly be charged upon the sins the profaneness and indevotion of the subject which very often provokes God to withdraw his guidance and direction his grace and assistance from Princes giving them up to be swayed by ill counsel to be overpowered by temptation to be drawn by their own lusts and passions to commit such folly and wickedness as becomes a plague and a scourge to a sinful people Psalm 106.32 For the peoples sake it went ill with Moses when he spake unadvisedly with his lips Davids sin in numbering the people was but a judgment executed on them for their own wickedness 2 Sam. 24.1 The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel for their sins no doubt and he moved David against them to say Go number Israel and Judah To instance in the case which was too much our own It was the peoples sin and not his surely which provoked God to deliver up the best of Kings into the hands of bloody and deceitful men to be abused and vilified and afterwards murthered by them If his good subjects had spent as much time in serious prayer for him as those hypocritical Traytours did in their mock devotions we might happily have enjoyed him longer 3. We are to pray for Kings because it is the only way the generality can do them service in Those that cannot help them by their counsel nor their Purses may by their prayers This way the charity and kindness of the poorest Cottage may visit and relieve the Court it self and the greatest King may be indebted for his preservation his life his health the success of his affairs to the prayers of his meanest Vassal 4. Christian prudence directs and Christian charity inclines us to pray most for such as most need it Now there are none in many respects more indigent and necessitous than the greatest Princes and Potentates none that need prayers and intercessions more than they and that 1. In respect of their great duties 2. Their manifold temptations 3. Their numerous enemies some in one way and some in another projecting against them 1. Their duties are great and difficult It is a very hard matter to rule well a great deal of Wisdom a great deal of study and care of strength and industry is required to make a good Governour The Master or Ruler of a Family a little Commonwealth as Aristotle calls it hath a great deal more to do a great many more solicitous thoughts about him a great many more troublesome businesses upon his hands than one of a single though a dependent capacity ordinarily hath The Governour then of a Kingdom which contains not only many Families but many Corporations and Cities will find the cares and troubles of provision and protection to encrease and multiply proportionably Epicurus who would by no means deny the being of a God yet disowned his providence and he did it with some shew of complement and civility pretending that it must needs be a great interruption of his ease and tranquillity to concern himself in the government of the World the ordering guiding controuling disposing of things so much below himself In this indeed he bewraies a very erroneous a very unworthy conception of the Supream Ruler of the World as if the ways and actions of the most perfect Being were subject to the same streights confinements and fatigues as ours are whereas his wisdom knows all things without so much as the labour of discourse and his power can do all things without Stratagem or contrivance But the Gods of the Earth 't is true Kings and Magistrates who in many things not only represent but resemble the God of Heaven in this are very unlike him They do not attain their Wisdom without diligent search experience and observation nor employ either it
in his sight It is good counsel for us to be sure which Zophar gave Job If iniquity be in thy hand put it far away and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles Job 11.14 For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot thou shalt be stedfast and shalt not fear There will be no fear no danger where there is no guilt Nothing but our sins can alienate us from the favour and the protection of the Almighty nothing else can defeat our Prayers infatuate our counsels weaken our endeavours give courage and success to our adversaries If our Religion have better effects upon us than theirs hath upon them if it make us more righteous more sober more godly more charitable more peaceable more loyal than theirs doth them if it exceed theirs as much in its efficacy as it doth in its principles God will then easily be intreated for us he will be sure then to be on our side and we need not fear what man can do unto us We need not fear the subtilty or the strength of our Enemies but we may hope upon good grounds that the same Almighty Saviour who delivered this Kingdom and Church from that formidable and as it seemed invincible Armado in 88. That he that blew up the deep design of the Powder Plotters and by a miraculous discovery did then preserve our King our Princes Nobles and the whole Parliament and with them our Liberties and Religion from a dreadful destruction That he that hath so often disappointed the confidence defeated the counsels laid open the most secret Plots of our Romish adversaries against the lives of our Protestant Rulers and the Being of our Protestant Religion That he that brought order out of the greatest confusion of a Civil War and a lawless Government he that so powerfully and graciously restored our present Sovereign recovered our State and Church from their desolate ruines and hath by a no less wonderful providence lately preserved our King from so many devilish conspiracies against his Crown and Life I say we have good reason to hope that the God who hath hitherto delivered us will still do so in our greatest fears and perplexities if we turn from our evil ways by repentance and turn unto him by earnest and fervent Prayer He will not cast off his people Psal 94.14 nor forsake his inheritance Thus have I shewed you that in our general Prayers for all Men we are under an especial obligation to pray for the Church and Country whereof we are a part and I have directed you how to pray how to ask so that you may obtain I must proceed to shew you in the next place that as you are to pray for the whole body of the Kingdom so more especially for the Head and Governour of it for the King as supream and all Magistrates under him and this my Text exacts of me I exhort first of all that Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men for Kings and all that are in authority whether they be good or bad for the good that God would be pleased to confirm and prosper them in their vertuous proceedings and keep their hearts sound in his Statutes for the bad That he in whose hands are the hearts of Kings to turn them whithersoever he will would convert and reform them by a mighty grace that he would pardon their sins that he would subdue them to his obedience over-rule them by his power and restrain them from acting any thing either to their own or the publick detriment The Kings whom the first Christians were to pray thus for were not only Heathens without the Church but bitter Enemies to it and bloody persecutors of it for Idolatry Cruelty and Tyranny humani generis portenta the Monsters the Prodigies of their time and kind yet these wicked Kings and Emperours must be prayed for much more Christian Princes the nursing Fathers of the Church much more our own King in whose life and welfare we are so nearly concerned Let us pray heartily for him what we pray every day for him that he may alway incline to Gods will and walk in his way beseeching Him also by whom Kings reign to establish his Throne defend his person direct his Counsels and shew him the things that belong to his own peace and the peace and security of his people I shall give you some reasons and motives to enforce this duty 1. Such as are more general to move us to pray for all Kings at all times 2. Such as more particularly should stir us up to pray for our own King at this time I begin with the first 1. One great motive to pray for Kings and all in Authority is the motive in my Text viz. That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty The whole Kingdom share in the well-doing and prosperity and also in the miscarriages and misfortunes of a Prince He is the light of his Israel if he be quenched nay if he be but clouded or eclipsed what darkness and confusion what discomfort and horrour presently overwhelms the whole State As the Sun and Stars are ordained in nature to give vigour and life to Trees Plants and other sublunary creatures so is the face and countenance of Authority sanctified by God for the cherishing and quickning for the strengthing and refreshing all the seeds of piety and religion that are by our ministry sown in the hearts of men Their laws their protection and their example have an influence upon godliness as well as honesty The power and Jurisdiction of Christian Princes reaching the Church as well as the State And however Mariana and other Jesuites have determined ut nihil Princeps de religione statuat Mariana cap. 10. excluding Kings from all Ecclesiastical government and making St. Peters pretended successour the Pope sole Monarch here yet if the high Priest had arrogated so much in Davids time He himself had not ordered the courses and attendance of the Levites as we read he did 1 Chron. 9.22 23. nor in Hezekiahs time 2 Chron. 30. who himself appointed the services of the Priests and Levites and gave special order by Royal Edict for the celebration of the great Passover and that too at an unusual time Yea it might easily be shewed that the Sovereigns among all people not only Christians but Heathens have both claimed and exercised power over religious persons and in religious causes as well as others Arist Polit. l. 7. c. 8. The great Philosopher tells us that the first and principal thing in a Commonwealth is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a care of religion and in the Scriptures we find not only the Kings of Israel such as Moses Josuah David Solomon Asa Jehosapaht Hezekiah Josiah c. but the King of Babylon and Darius the Persian publishing their Edicts to and fro about the worship of their false Gods and of the true God also Neither did