Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n
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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