field of strong men 2 Sam. 2.16 thrust their swords in each other and so fall downe both together or if one party prove victorious it will purchase the conquest at so deare a price as the destruction of the Kingdome which will be done before And what is said Matth. 24.22 of the siege of Jerusalem is as true of our miserable times And except those dayes were shortened there should no flesh be saved Would to God I could as truly adde the words that follow But for the Elects sake those dayes shall be shortened However in my Doctrine there remaines an eternall truth that all loyall Subjects ought to be glad when their Soveraigne returneth in peace 18. Yea may some say David deserved to be welcomed indeed and at his return to be entertain'd with all possible expressions of gladnesse for he brought true religion along with him and setled Gods service in the purity and precisenesse thereof But now adayes all cry to have Peace to have Peace and care not to have truth together with it Yea there be many silly Mephibosheths in our dayes that so adore Peace that to attain it they care not what they give away to the malignant Ziba's of our Kingdom These say Yea let them take All lawes and liberties and priviledges and proprieties and Parliaments and Religion and the Gospell and godlinesse and God himselfe So be it that the Lord our King may come to his house in Peace But let us have peace and truth together both or neither for if Peace offer to come alone we will doe with it as Ezechiah did with the brazen Serpent even break it to pieces and stamp it to powder as the dangerous Idoll of ignorant people 11. I answer God forbid God forbid wee should have peace and not truth with it but to speak plainly I would to God men did talk lesse of truth and love it more have it seldomer in their mouthes and oftner yea alwayes in their heads and hearts to believe and practice it Know then that the word truth is subject to much Homonymie and is taken in severall sences according to the opinions or rather humours of those that use it Aske the Anabaptist what is truth and he will tell you Truth is the maintaining that the dominion over the creatures is founded in grace and that wicked men whereby they mean all such whom they shall be pleased to account and call so neither use the creatures right nor have any right to use them but may justly be dispossessed of them It is truth that all goods should bee common that there should be no civill Magistrate that there ought to be no warres but what they make themselves for which they pretend inspiration that children ought not to bee baptized till they could give a reason of their faith and that such as have been formerly must be rebaptized Againe Ask the Separatists what is Truth and they will tell you that the further from all ceremonies though ancient and decent the nearer to God that it is against the liberty of a Christian to be press'd to the forme of a set prayer who ought only to be Voluntaries and follow the dictate of the spirit that the Ministers made in our Church are Antichristian with many more Ask the Schismaticks of these times what is Truth and they will bring in abundance of their own opinions which I spare at this time to recite the rather because when the wheel of their fancie is turned about another spoak may chance to be verticall being so fickle in their Tenents that what they account truth now will perchance not be counted truth by them seven years hence 20. To come close to the answer I say that some of their pretended truths are flat falsities and others meer fooleries as it easily to prove in time and place convenient Secondly Grant some of them be truths yet are they not of that importance and concernment as to deserve to imbroyle a Kingdome in blood to bring them in David longed for the waters of the well of Bethlehem 2 Sam. 23.17 but when it was brought him hee checkt his owne vanitie and would not drink it because it was the blood of men that went in jeopardy of their lives But with what heart as men or conscience as Christians can Sectaries seek to introduce their devices with such violence unto the Church when they know full well that it will cost blood before it be setled and if it e're be done non erit tanti it will not quit cost being in themselves slight matters of mean consequence Thirdly Grant them not onely true but important if they be so desirous to have them introduced the way most agreeable to Christian proceedings is to have them fairely debated freely disputed fully decided firmely determined by a still voyce and not that their new Gospell should be given as the Law with thundering and lightning of Cannon fire and sword Fourthly Bee it affirmed for a certain truth that formerly we had in our Churches all truths necessary to salvation Of such as deny this I ask Iosephs question to his Brethren Is your father well the old man is he yet alive So how fares the soules of their Sires and the Ghosts of their Grand-fathers are they yet alive do they still survive in blisse in happinesse Oh no they are dead dead in soule dead in body dead temporally dead eternally dead and damned if so be wee had not all truth necessary to salvation before this time Yea let these that cry most for the want of truth shew one rotten kernell in the whole Pomegranet one false Article in all 39. Let them shew where our Church is deficient in a necessary truth But these men know wherein their strength lyeth and they had rather creep into houses and lead away captive silly women laden with infirmities then to meddle with men and enter the lists to combate with the learned Doctors of the Church 21. But it is further objected David brought home a true Peace with him which long lasted firm the showre of Ziba's rebellion being afterward quickly blown over But we have cause to suspect our Peace will not be a true Peace and an open wound is better then a palliate cure Would you have us put off our Armour to bee killd in our clothes and bee surprized with warre on a sudden when it will be past our policie to prevent or power to resist it 22. Answer There must at last be a mutuall confiding on both sides so that they must count the honesty of others their onely hostages This the sooner it be done the easier it is done For who can conceive that when both sides have suffered more wrongs they will sooner forgive or when they have offered more wrongs be sooner forgiven For our Kings part let us demand of his mony what Christ ask'd of Caesars coyne Whose image is this Charls's and what is the superscription RELIGIO PROTESTANTIUM LEGES ANGLIAE LIBERTATES
A SERMON PREACHED AT THE COLLEGIAT Church of S. Peter in Westminster on the 27. of March being the day OF HIS MAJESTIES INAUGURATION By Thomas Fuller B.D. LONDON Printed for Iohn Williams at the signe of the Crowne in Saint Pauls Church-yard 1643. A SERMON PREACHED at the Collegiate Church of S. PETER in WESTMINSTER on the 27. of March being the day of his MAJESTIES Inauguration 2. SAM. 19.30 Yea let him take All forasmuch as my Lord the KING is come againe in peace unto his own House IT is as naturall for malicious men to backbite as for dogs to bite or serpents to sting see this in Ziba who rais'd a false report on his master Mephibosheth and accused him to David when he departed from Jerusalem of no lesse then high Treason as if in Davids absence he affected the Kingdom for himself Well was Ziba studied in the Art of slandering to charge home and draw his arrow to the head for in haynous accusations when the wound is cured the very scarre will kill and though the innocence of the party accused may chance to cleare the main debt yet the arrerages of the suspition will be enough to undoe him But I wonder not at Ziba's accusing Mephibosheth I wonder at Davids believing Ziba at the first information of a single witnes and him a servant against his master without further proof as hearing both parties to proceed to censure and fine Mephibosheth with the losse of his lands was a piece of unjust justice wherein David cannot be excused much lesse defended All that can be said for him is this That not David but Davids distractions passed this sentence so that being in feare and fright and flight it can scarce be accounted his deliberate Act once he said in his hast All men are lyars and now being on the spurre in his speed he believes Mephibosheth was a Traitor 2. But it pleased Gods providence that in this chapter the tide was turned and David returned to Jerusalem where Mephibosheth meeting him was admitted to speak in his owne behalf and makes a plain and pithy narration of the matter Innocence hath so clear a complexion that she needs no painting and a good cause consisting in matter of fact when it is plainly told is sufficiently pleaded He shews how that violenta detentio withheld him from attending on David being no lack of his loyalty but the lamenesse of his legs which might and should have been helpt had not Ziba hindred it on purpose in refusing to saddle his Asse And thus having wrong'd his master at home he then traduced him abroad transferring his own guile to make it become the others guiltinesse Soon did David perceive his errour and to make amends did order That the lands should be held in Copartnership betwixt them Mephibosheth have one moiety and Ziba the other Why speakest thou any more of thy matters I have said it Thou and Ziba divide the lands 3. This did not satisfie Mephibosheth not because it was too little but because it was too much Hee now needs nothing seeing his Soveraign is returned in safety and therefore desires that Ziba may have All according to Davids former appointment Yea let him take All This he did partly perchance to assert the Honour of David It should never be said that David said any thing and it was not done what grants hee made Mephibosheth would make good though with the losse of his lands It beares no proportion to the greatnesse of Princes nor stands with the statelinesse of States to say and unsay doe and undoe order and disorder againe whose first resolutions are presumed to be grounded on so good reason they shall need no revocation But chiefly he did it to shew the Hyperbole of his happinesse and Transcendency of his joy conceived at Davids safe return joy which sweld up him in full measure pressed down shaken together and running over Yet lest the least drop of so precious a liquor as this was being the spirits of loyalty distill'd should be spilt on the ground let us gather it up with our best attention and poure it in our hearts to practise it as it flowes from the Text Yea let him take All c. 4. The words contain a large Grant and a just consideration moving thereunto The large Grant let him Take All wherein observe the Granter Mephibosheth The Grantee Ziba and the thing Granted All i. e. house and lands and rents and profits and emoluments and obventions hereditaments with the appendants and the appurtenances thereunto belonging What the warinesse of modern men deviseth in many words and all twisted together few enough to hold in this litigious age wherein a span of land cannot be conveyed in lesse then a span of parchment see All these words summ'd up in this one word All in my Text let him take All Secondly Here is the consideration of the Granter which consisteth not in any mony paid or service perform'd by the Grantee but onely in respect of a generall good which God had bestowed on David and in him on all Israel Forasmuch as my Lord the King is come in Peace to his owne House 5. In prosecuting which parts I could desire that my discourse might have been open and champion to proceed in an even and continued style but my Text is incumbred with so many difficulties that my Sermon must rise and fall into hills and dales of Objections and Answers which Answers as so many fruitfull vallies shall afford us plentifull store of profitable observations 6. Object The first hill which we are to climbe is an objection if not within the walls yet surely in the suburbs of my Text Why may some say me thinks David doth Mephibosheth justice but by halfes For when his Innocence so plainly appeared the slanderer should have been soundly punished Thou and Ziba divide the land He should rather have divided Ziba's head from his shoulders Or of all the land leave him onely one Tree wherein hee should be justly executed as a land-mark to forewarne all deceitfull servants how they tread on so unwarrantable wayes What hope was there he would hereafter prove faithfull to his Prince that was false to his master Yea this was contrary to the fundamentall lawes of Davids family Psal. 101.5 Who so privily slandereth his neighbour him will I cut off Whereas Ziba here was so far from being cut off that he was both freely forgiven fairly rewarded for the malicious disservice he had done his master 7. Resp. I answer we must consider that Ziba was a considerable man in his tribe of Benjamin and probably might make a great impression on the people Besides great was his experience being an old Courtier of Sauls greater the allyance to him and dependance on him having fifteen sonnes and twenty servants All now officiously attending on King David at his return as it is in the seventeenth verse of this chapter Greatest of all was his will and skill to doe
mischef and therefore no wonder if David was unwilling to offend him Secondly consider David was at this time in the Non-age not to say Infancy of his new-recovered Kingdome Wary Physitians will not give strong purges to little children and David thought it no wisdome at this time on these Terms as matters stood with him to be severe in his proceedings but rather by all endeerments to tye and oblige the affections of his people the faster unto him We may see this in the matter of Shimei which immediately concerned David himselfe Yea when by Abishai he was urged and prest to punish him Shall not Shimei be put to death for this because he hath cursed the Lords annointed Yet Davids policy was so farre above his revenge that he not onely flatly rejected the motion but also sharply reproved the mover What have I to doe with you yee sonnes of Zerviah that yee should this day be adversaries unto me shall there any man be put to death this day in Israel for doe I not know that I am this day King over Israel He would not have the conduits run bloud on the day of his new Coronation nor would he have the first page in the second Edition of his Soveraignty written in red letters but rather sought by all acts of grace to gaine the good will of his Subjects Hence wee observe 8. Magistrates sometimes are faine to permit what they cannot conveniently punish for the present Thus sometimes Chirurgions leave their ulcers unlaunch't either because they are not ripe or because perchance they have not all their necessary instruments about them And indeed if Statists perceive that from the present removing of an inconvenience a greater mischief will inevitably follow 't were madnesse to undo a state for the present for feare it will be undone hereafter Perchance the wisdome of our Parliament may suffer in the censures of such who fathome mysteries of state by their owne shallow capacities for seeming to suffer Sectaries and Schismaticks to share and divide in Gods service with the Mephibosheths the quiet and peaceable children of our Church And indeed such Sectaries take a great share to themselves having taken away all the Common Prayer out of most places and under pretence to abolish superstition have almost banish't decency out of Gods Church But no doubt the Sages of our State want not will but wait a time when with more conveniencie and lesse disturbance though slowly surely they will restraine such turbulent spirits with David in my Text who was rather contented then well pleased to passe by Ziba for the present 9. Object Yea but may some say this speech of Mephibosheth cannot be allowed either in piety or policie For if he speak true then he was a foole and if he spake false then he was a flatterer If he spake true then he was a foole for what wise man would at once give away all that he hath Charity may impart her branches but she must not part with her root The wisdome of our grand Charter hath provided That no offender though for an hainous fault should be so heavily amerced but alwaies salvo suo sibi contenemento What favour is afforded to malefactors Charity surely should give to its selfe as not thereby to prejudice and impaire her owne livelihood I commend the well bounded and well grounded bounty of Zacheus Luke 19.8 Behold Lord halfe of my goods I give to the poore But with Mephibosheth to give All his goods and that not to the poore but to a couzening cheating servant was an action of madnesse How would he doe hereafter to subsist Did he expect hereafter to be miraculously fed with Manna dropt into his mouth Or in his old age would he turne Court almes-man and live on the bounty of others And grant he could shift for himselfe yet what should Micah his son doe and his future posterity If he spake false then he was a flatterer and said it onely to sooth David when he meant no such matter But Court-holy-water never quenched any thirsty soule Flatterers are the worst of tame beasts which tickle Princes even to their utter destruction 10. Resp. I answer He was neither foole nor flatterer but an affectionate Subject and at the present in a mighty passion of gladnesse But first we must know that it behoved Mephibosheth to doe something extraordinary and in his expressions to exceed the size and standard of common language were it onely to unstain his credit from the suspition of disloyalty Ziba had cast upon him Secondly Mephibosheth was confident and well assured that whatsoever David did for the present yet hereafter when sufficiently informed of Mephibosheths innocence hee would make not onely competent but plentifull provision for him But lastly and chiefly we must know that these words of Mephibosheth were spoken in a great passion of joy and passionate speeches must alwayes sue in Chauncery and plead to have the equity of a candide and charitable construction allowed them Let us not therefore be over-rigid in examining his words when we knew his meaning that he was affected with an unmanageable joy at Davids safe return Rather hence let us learn 11. Speeches spoken in passion must not be strercht so farre as they may be strain'd but have a favourable interpretation for such is the very nature of passion that it can scarce doe any thing but it must over-doe Seest thou then the soule of a man shaking with feare or soaring with joy or burning in anger or drowning in griefe meet his words with a charitable acception of them and defalke the extravagancies of his expressions The wringing of the nose bringeth forth bloud saith wise Agur Prov. 30.33 And he who shall presse and wrack and torture speeches spoken in passion may make a bloudy construction thereof besides beyond against the intent of him that spake it But let us content our selves that we know their meaning and not prosecute much lesse persecute their words too farre as here in my Text wee know the mind of Mephibosheth was to shew That hee was soundly sincerely and from the ground of his heart glad when he said Yea let him take All forasmuch as c. 12. Come we now to the consideration of the Grant Forasmuch as my Lord the King is come in peace unto his own house Behold in the words a confluence of many joyes together First The King there is matter of gladnesse for all Subjects in generall Secondly My Lord the King Mephibosheth was Davids servant in Ordinary or rather his extraordinary Favorite and this made his joy to be greater Thirdly Is come againe is come backe is returned and therefore more welcome after long wanting The interposing of the night renders the arising of the sunne more desired Princes presence after some absence more precious Fourthly To his own house Why were not all the houses in Israel Davids houses Are not Kings alwaies at home whilst in their kingdom True all the houses in