faithfull He must trust And now to end at home David is gone long since to his Hope the Mercy of the Highest But a King a gracious King is living over us in Peace and Happinesse as our eyes see this day I know He remembers why God set Him over this great and numerous people that is in benedictione even to blesse them And that he hath been a Blessing unto them Malice it selfe cannot deny And I make no question but he will go on with the Text and be Blessings to them for ever For ever through his whole time and for ever in his generous Posterity Tu dedisti Gods gift is through all this and I will ever pray that it may never faile He hath given this people all His time the Blessing of Peace And the sweet Peace of the people is Praeconium Regnantium the Glory of Kings And Gods gift is in this too For though it be the King that Blesses yet it is God that gives Blessing to Blessing it selfe And suppose Peace end in Warre Tu dedisti Gods gift reaches thither too For the Battell is the Lords 1 Reg. 17. The Battell yes and the Victory For sayth S. Basil Dextera victrix Whosoever be the Enemy the right hand that conquers him is the Lords Now for his Blessing it is fit he should receive Joy But if he will have that true and permanent and no other is worth the having he must looke it in vultu Dei in Gods countenance If he looke it any where else especially where the joy of his countenance shines not there will be but false representations of joy that is not This day the Anniversary of his Crowne is to all his loving Subjects Dies Gaudii and Dies Spei A day of Joy and a day of Hope A day of joy For what can be greater than to see a Just and a gracious King multiplying his yeares And a day of Hope And what can be fitter than to put him in minde even this day that a Kings strength is at sperat in Domino His trust in the Lord the preserver of men Job 7. That as God upon this day did settle His Hope and His Right to this Kingdome upon Him So upon this day which in this yeers revolution proves His day too Dies Domini the Lords day as well as His hee would continue the setling of his Hope on him by whom all the Kings of the Earth beare rule Prov. 8. I say Settle upon Him and his Mercy that is the last The very feet of Kings stand High and in high places slips are dangerous Nothing so fit so able to stand by them as Misericordia Altissimi the Mercy of the Highest In the goodnesse and the power of this Mercy he hath stood a King now almost five and fifty yeares nay a King He was before he could stand Through many dangers the Mercy of the Highest hath brought Him safe Let Him not goe from under it and it followes my Text verse 8. His right hand shall finde out all that hate Him And for himselfe Non commovebitur He shall not be moved not miscarry And so we offer up our Evening sacrifice unto God for Him and for our selves that God will ever give and he may ever be a Blessing to is People That His yeeres may multiply and yet not outlive His joy That this day may come about often and yet never returne but In Gaudio vultus Dei in the joy of Gods countenance upon the King and In Gaudio vultus Regis in the Ioy of the Kings countenance upon the People That the mercy of the most High may give Him hope in the Lord and strengthen it That His Hope may rest upon the Mercy that gave it That in all His businesses as great as His place His Successe may be Non commâ—veri not to miscarry That He may goe on a straight course from Blessing others in this life to be Blessed Himselfe in Heaven And that all of us may enjoy Temporall Blessings under Him and Eternall with Him for evermore And this CHRIST JESUS for his infinite merit and mercy sake grant unto us To whom with the Father and the holy Spirit three persons and one God be ascribed all might Majesty and Dominion this day and for ever AMEN SERM. III. Preached on Monday the 6. of Feb. 1625. at Westminster at the opening of the PARLIAMENT PSAL. 122. ver 3 4 5. Jerusalem is builded as a Citie that is at unity in it selfe or compacted together For thither the Tribes goe up even the Tribes of the Lord to the Testimony of Israel to give thanks unto the Name of the Lord. For there are the Seats or the Thrones of Judgement even the Thrones of the house of David SOme are of opinion this Psalme was made by David and delivered to the Church to be sung when the Ark of God was carryed up to Jerusalem when Jerusalem was setled by David to be the speciall seate both of Religion and the Kingdome The people were bound thrice a yeere at Easter Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles to come up and worship at Jerusalem Deu. 16. And some think this Psalme was prophetically made to sing by the way to sing wheÌ„ they went up by the steps to the Temple And 't was fit for they came up with joy And joy is apt to set men a singing And at joy the Psalme begins I was glad when they said unto me We will goe into the house of the Lord. But whatsoever the use of this Psalme was in any speciall Service certaine it is that Jerusalem stands here in the letter for the City and in type and figure for the State and the Church of Christ My Text looks upon both and upon the duty which the Jewes did then and which we now doe owe to both The Temple the Type of the Church that 's for God's service No Temple but for that The City the Type of the State that 's for the peoples peace No happy State but in that Both the Temple and the State God's house and the Kings both are built upon Pillars And it is not long since I told you out of Psal 75. that there are many times of exigence in which if God doe not beare up the Pillars no strength which the Pillars have in and of themselves can support the weight that lies upon them Be they Pillars of the Temple or Pillars of the State Therefore here to ease the Pillars God hath built up Buttresses if men doe not pull them downe to stay the maine walls of both buildings The Buttresse and support of the Temple is Religion God will not blesse the house if men doe not honour and serve him in it The Buttresse and stay of the Kingdome is Justice God will not blesse the State if Kings and Magistrates doe not execute judgement If the widdow and the fatherlesse have cause to cry out against the Thrones of Justice So
Heresie or Schisme into the Church at unity in it selfe He that fell among Theeves and was almost killed by the way was not going up to Ierusalem but downe to Iericho S. Luk. 10. from the Temple I warrant you And as S. Augustine speakes si non descendisset in latrones non incidisset if he had not been sinking and going downewards from God and from his Church he had not fallen into the hands of Theeves But 't is most fit in regard of the Church triumphant in Heaven For thither is no going but by Ascending Ascending still out of the dreggs of this sinfull life And he is miserably out of this way that sinks farther and farther into sinne and dreames he is in the way to Heaven Nor can any man say faine I would to Heaven but I want staires to ascend and get up For this Psalme is Psalmus Graduum a whole Ladder of steps from the Church here to the Church in Heaven And ' its not unfit neither to expresse what paines they then were content to take to serve God For from their remotest habitations and many were very farre off every Male came up thrice a yeere to the Temple to worship And they might not appeare before the Lord empty Exod. 23. No paines then too much no charge too great to serve GOD And notwithstanding both paines and charge properabant ascendere they made haste to come up Now the Church is at our doores and we care not for going into it And we come up empty handed else it were not possible so many Churches should lye so ruinous as they doe Will you give me leave to tell you the reason of this 'T is in my Text When this devotion was on foote Jerusalem was at unity in it selfe For so goes the Text. Jerusalem at unitie and then ascenderunt then they ascend by multitudes and their devotion with them And this falls in upon the Persons that went up to serve the Lord. And they were the Tribes Not all the Tribes Families and Kindreds of the earth No For the many by Idolatry had made themselves strangers to the true God of Israel But Tribus Domini the Tribes of the Lord they went up all of them The 12. Tribes from the Patriarks the seed of Jacob were then Gods peculiar servants They were made so in the Covenant The Testimony of it was the Law So this honour to be the Tribes of the Lord God's people was reserved in the band of Religion If they had not beleeved and served God they had not beene his They might have beene Tribes if you will without serving in the Temple but not Domini not of the Lord but by that service And they might have beene in some kinde of unity but not in Domino not in the Lord but by that union And they might have beene builded as a City but not ad Dominum to the Lord's honour and their owne salvation but by that faith And which was the honour of Jerusalem then in all David's time and Solomon's too All the Tribes went up All not a Recusant Tribe or Person among them Now I may not omit the place whither they were to ascend It was Jerusalem There the Temple In that the Arke In that the Law And the Law sayes not simply that they shal assemble and meet to serve the Lord but precisely that they shall doe it in the same place which the Lord shall chuse Deut. 16. And the Lord chose Sion the Temple at Ierusalem to be his place 2 Chron. 7. Would you have a reason why God tied them so strictly to one place 'T is not hard to give it That people were wonderfully prone to Idolatry therefore saith S. Basil God tyed them to one place of worship lest wandring here and there in strange places they might fall into the service of strange Gods And marke it God would then have but one Temple erected one Altar in one City that the people might not fall assunder into different superstitions and leave true Religion least followed And the Jewes seeing the command never halted in this duety so long as Jerusalem was at unity in it selfe But when that brake all misery began For no sooner had Jeroboam made a Rent in this unity and torne away ten Tribes from the house of David but by and by Samaria is as good as Jerusalem and the Calves in Dan and Bethel as good as that God that brought them out of the Land of Egypt 3 Reg. 12. So dangerous a thing it is when unity and God's command are broke together The Jesuit Lorinus tells us There are better causes to perswade us now to go on pilgrimage ad Limina Petri and the Jubilees at Rome than the Tribes had here to goe to Jerusalem What better causes The Jewes had Gods expresse commandement to goe to Jerusalem and the forme of worship that was there And what better warrant can any man or any people have than Gods command Let him or any other shew me such a command That all the whole Church of Christ all the Tribes which now serve the Lord must come in person or consent and doe it at Rome wee will never stay for Lorinus his better reasons Wee will take Gods command for a good one and obey it But they must not thinke to choak us with the wool that growes upon Pasce oves S. Iohn 21. which as the Fathers have diversly spunne out so no one of them comes home to the cloathing of Rome with such a large Robe of State as she challengeth And this in the meane time will be found true That while they seeke to tye all Christians to Rome by a divine precept their Ambition of Soveraignty is one and a maine cause that Ierusalem even the whole Church of Christ is not at unity in it selfe this day Now beside the honour and service done to God the people had many other benefits by comming up and meeting at Ierusalem Many but one more especially And that comes into the third commendation of Ierusalem the Government both Spirituall and Temporall For there also are the seates of Iudgement even the seates of the house of David So they might serve themselves at the seates of Justice while they went to the Temple to serve God In the Ascending 't was illuc thither And here at the sitting 't is illic there One and the same City honoured with God his Church and the King And it must needs be so For these three God the King and the Church that is God his Spouse and his Lieutenant upon earth are so neere allyed God and the Church in love God and the King in power The King and the Church in mutual dependance upon God and subordination to him That no man can serve any one of them truly but he serves all three And surely 't was in a blessed figure that Gods house and the Kings stood together at Ierusalem The Temple if I
David as Davids was now at Jerusalem A built A furnished A strong an honourable House I know you would You are a Noble a most Loyall People Why then I will not take upon me to teach but onely to remember you of the way The way is Am I out No sure The way is to set David once upon his owne feet to make him see the strength of the house which God hath given him to fill him with joy and contentment in his peoples love to adde of your oyle to make him a cheerefull countenance now that God hath anointed him with the oyle of gladnesse over you that in a free Estate he may have leisure from Home-Cares every way to intend the good and welfare of his people and to blesse God for them and them in God And for David God hath blessed him with many royall Vertues And above the rest with the knowledge that his House is a foundation A foundation of his people and of all the justice that must preserve them in unity and in happinesse But t is Domus ejus His House still even while t is your foundation And never feare him for God is with him He will not depart from Gods service nor from the honourable care of his people nor from wise managing of his treasure He will never undermine his owne house nor give his people just cause to be jealous of a shaking foundation And here in the presence of God and his blessed Angels as well as of you which are but dust and ashes I discharge the true thoughts of my heart and flatter not And now my Dread Soveraigne upon you it lyes to make good the thoughts of your most devoted Servant Thus you have seene as short a Mapp as I could draw of Ierusalem She was famous for her unity and blessed too when it was within her selfe Shee was famous for her Religion and devout too when all the Tribes went up to the Arke of the Testimony to give thanks to the name of the Lord. She was famous for Justice and successfull too both at home and against forreigne enemies when the Seates of Judgement Ecclesiasticall and Civill were all as their severall natures beare founded upon the House of David This Ierusalem of ours is now at unitie in it selfe And I see here Capita Tribuum the Heads and Leaders of the Tribes and People of the Lord come up and present in his Temple I would to God they were all here that with one heart and one mouth we might all pray unto God for all his blessings to come down and dwell in the House of David and to rest upon this great and honourable Councell ready to sit You are come up to begin at the Temple of the Lord. The Arke was wholly Ceremoniall that 's not here But the Testimonie of Israel the Law yea and a better Law than that the Law of Grace and of Christ that 's here Here it is and open ready to teach the feare of the Lord which is the beginning of all wisdome Psal 111. In this Law you can read nothing but service to God and obedience to the House of David And so you find them joyned 1 S. Pet. 2. Feare God and honour the King And 't is a strange Fallacie in Religion for any man to dishonour the King and to make that a proofe that he feares God To the Temple and the Testimony you are come up When God would give Moses more speciall direction he declared himselfe from the Mercy-seat which was on the Arke Exod. 25. The Mercy-seat was wholly Ceremoniall as the Arke was on which it stood that is the Seate Ceremonie but the Mercy Substance And though the Seat be gone with Moses yet I hope God hath not left will never leave to appeare in Mercy to the House of David and this wise Councell If he appeare in mercy I fear nothing If he appeare otherwise there will be cause to feare all things And the way to have God appeare in mercy is for both King and People not onely to come to the Temple that 's but the outside of Religion but also to obey the Law the Testimonie Judgement went out from God lately and it was fierce How many thousands strong men which might have been a wall about Jerusalem hath the Pestilence swept away But his mercy soone overtook his Judgement For when did the eye of man behold so strange and sodaine abatement of so great Mortality A great argument that he will now appeare in Mercie And I cannot tell which hath got the better in the vie Your Honour or Your Religion that you have made suchhast to bring the Tribes to the Temple to give thanks to the name of the Lord for this The first Lesson of this dayes Evening prayer is Exod. 18. There 's the Story of Iethro's counsell to Moses for assistance of inferiour Officers This was not the beginning of that great and parliamentary Councell which after continued successefull in the State of the Iewes For that was set after by GOD himselfe Numb 11. yet I make no great doubt but that the ease which Moses found by that Councell made him apt to see what more he needed and so farre at least occasioned the settling of the Sanhedrim I take the omen of the day and the Service of the Church to blesse it That our David may be as happy in this and all other Sessions of Parliament as their Moses was in his Councell of the Elders That the King and his people may now and at all like times meete in love consult in wisedome manage their Counsell with temper entertaine no private businesse to make the publike suffer And when their consultation is ended part in the same love that should ever bring King and People together And let us pray That our Ierusalem both Church and State which did never but flourish when it was at unitie it selfe may now and ever continue in that Vnity and so bee ever successefull both at home and abroad That in this unity the Tribes of the Lord even all the Families and Kindreds of his people may come up to the Church to pray and prayse and give thankes unto him That no Tribe or Person for any pretences for they are no better may absent themselves from the Church and Testimony of the Lord. That the Seates of Iudgement Ecclesiasticall and Civill af all sorts may not only be set but set firmely to administer the justice of God and the King unto his people That all men may reverence and obey the House of David who it selfe upon God is the foundation of all these blessings That God would mutually blesse David and this People That so the People may have cause to give thankes to God for David And that David may have cause to take joy in the love and loyalty of his people and blesse God for both Till from this Jerusalem and this Temple and these Thrones Hee and wee all
the Church and the Common-wealth Gods house the Temple and the Kings house the house of David are met in my Text. And they would ever meet and in love no question did not some distempered spirits breath soure upon them For the Church cannot dwell but in the State Ye never read that she fled out of the State into the wildernesse but when some Dragon persecuted her Revel 12. And the Common-wealth cannot flourish without the Church For where the Church is not to teach true Religion States are enforced out of necessity of some to imbrace a false And a false is not a help to make a Kingdome flourish But when they dwell together when the Church the House of Grace is a welcome inmate to the State which is a wise fabricke of Nature then in the Temple there 's meeting The people goe up to blesse and praise the Name of the Lord. And then in the State ther 's meeting To settle the Thrones of Judgement to make firme the house of David And then and never but then Jerusalem that is both State and Church is a City as that is at unity in it selfe My Text is nothing but a most deserved praise of Jerusalem And not of the particular materiall Jerusalem alone but of any State of any Church that is as Jerusalem then was and that doth as Jerusalem then did This praise of Jerusalem both formall in it selfe and exemplary to us is set downe in three things And they sever the Text into three parts For first here 's the unity of Jerusalem 't is builded as a City at unity in it selfe Secondly the Religion of it For thither the Tribes go up even the Tribes of the Lord to the Testimony of Israel to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. Thirdly the Government of it both spirituall and temporall For there are the Seats of Judgement even the Seats of the house of David The first commendation of Jerusalem is from the unity and concord that is in it 'T is like a City that is compacted together That 's for the buildings no desolation in the midst of it saith S. Basil 'T is like a City at unity in it selfe That 's for the Inhabitants For the beauty and artificiall joyning of the houses is expressed but as a type of this unity When men men dwell as neere in affection as their houses stand in place 'T is a great ornament of a City that the buildings be faire that they stand not scattering as if they were afraid each of other But wheresoever 't is so the City is beholding to unity for it Let the Citizens breake their unity once they 'l spend so much in quarrels that they cannot build the City No other times but when the Inhabitants are at peace can build Nor no other time can keep them from waste But what Hath God care of houses out of question not but for the Inhabitants that dwell therein He that taketh the simple out of the dust and lifts the poore out of the mire Psalm 113. loves not man for his house nor no City for the buildings Jerusalem will not let mee wander for an instance For here so long as the Inhabitants served God and were at unity what City like Jerusalem The City of the great King S. Mat. 5. The glory of the whole earth Thren 2. But when they fell from God to Idols from unity to heart-burnings among themselves what then became of Jerusalem what why just that which our Saviour foretold S. Mat. 24. That one stone should not be left upon another that should not be thrown downe not one neither of Temple nor City And so it came to passe before Adrian left it If any man threfore will have his house stand he hath no way but this to labour that Jerusalem the City may serve God in unitie Now Jerusalem is by way of singular eminence called here a City compacted together And David himselfe might best call it so For before Davids time Salem and Sion were two Cities The Jewes dwelt in Salem but the Fort of Sion was yet held by the Jebusites 1 Chron. 11. Two Cities the upper and the lower Two people the Jewes and the Jebusites Two most different Religions the worship of God and Idols till Davids time But then a City most compacted together The Buildings and the Cities joyne Beniamin and Iuda dwell there together Nothing then but unitie We are yet within the walls of the City that 's too narrow We must enlarge the Type to the State and to the Church Saint Hilary puts me in minde that my Text reades not Jerusalem is a City as if that were all it meant to speake of but Sicut civitas as a City just as you see that so the State so the Church The City the Modell if you will but the Building these And for the State first That 's sicut Civitas as the City just so Walls and Towers and Forts are things of second consideration ordo politicus the wise ordering of the people in concord and unity is simply the strongest wall of a State But breake unity once and farewell strength And therefore disjoynted factions in a State when they worke upon division are publica irae divinae incendia the publike kindlings of Gods anger and they burne downe all before them And God seldome suffers these to fire a State till himselfe be heated first with the sinnes of the State But then he will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel Gen. 49. Nay scatter Jacob and Israel it selfe for them And my Text hath it not simply like a City at unity but at unity together or in it selfe And this the better to resist forraine malice It were happy if all States Christian especially were at unity in themselves and with their neighbours And the Church prayes that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered But when the Ambition of neigbouring States will admit nor safe nor honourable peace then there 's most need Jerusalem should be at peace and unity in it selfe Need yes need with a witnesse For all division if it be voluntary 't is an opening if it be violent 't is a breach Both make way for forraine force Thus it was with Jerusalem of old when shee lost her unity For faction within the walls was a helpe to Titus and his siege without And long after when the Christians had won it from the Saracens their owne divisions among themselves to their losse and shame let in Saladin the Soldan of Egypt And this hath beene often fatall upon our Jerusalem For scarce ever did a great enemie enter this Kingdome but when it was not sicut Civitas like a City at unity in it selfe Not at unity opened the doore to the enemie still For Toustain's division and inrode made way for the Norman And there were more divisions than one to helpe in the Dane And