Selected quad for the lemma: honour_n
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A17300
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For God, and the King. The summe of two sermons preached on the fifth of November last in St. Matthewes Friday-streete. 1636. / By Henry Burton, minister of Gods word there and then.
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Burton, Henry, 1578-1648.
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1636
(1636)
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STC 4142; ESTC S106958
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113,156
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176
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hath to Pauls and that the daughter may be somewhat like the mother Ezech. 16. 44. As is the mother so is the daughter though the table doe not stand end-wayes an as Altat but with the end to the wall Well yet a rayle must be made about it to infinuate into the peoples mindes an opinion of some extraordinary sanctity in the Table more then in other places of the Church as the Pew Pulpit or Font. Yet all this may seeme tolerable and without danger Well the like is done in other places But this growes further on in many places adorations practised to this new Altar-God yea pleaded for in pulpits and in printed books yea that in sundry Colledges in the Universities the seminaries and seed plotts of learning and Religion so farre pressed as the exemplary practises of those that bee the Heads or Superiors there may any way draw and induce the inferior Students to their imitation either through feare of displeasure or for hope of preferrement Which how perillous it is tending to corrupt the whole land with superstition and Idolatry every one may see Well now what 's the next Thus farre wee now see Popery like a thiefe stollen in upon us step by step when wee as men asleep in our beds suspected no danger And perhaps the next degree will bee the placing of their God-Almighty in the Host or Pix visibly and conspicuously upon the Altar and a Masse with the piping of the Organs chanted unto it as the Israelites did about their Calfe Exodus 32. Therefore doth it not concerne Gods Ministers and people too even from the highest to the lowest as one man to stand out against this creeping gangrene that having begun but in the least member never ceaseth creping till at length it hath prevailed over the principall parts so brought death to the whole body and this such a death as kills the soule and bringe us all backe againe under the most intollerable yoake and bondage of Satan and Antichrist from the which the Lord had so mightily and mercifully delivered us Thus much of the feare of the Lord. Come we now to the next point which is the feare of the King In which we are to observe 1. The kind of this feare 2. The order of it next to the feare of the Lord 3. The Connexion of it with the feare of the Lord being so combined that the one cannot stand without the other First then for the kind of this feare I told you in the opening of the text that it is a Civill feare differing from the feare of the Lord which is a religious feare and so a part of his worship and consequently incommunicable to any creature Yet so as I told you there is a similitude betweene this Civill feare to the King and that religious feare of the Lord. As 1. as the true feare of the Lord comprehends in it all duties and services due from us to God so the feare of the King contaynes all duties due from Subject to their King 2. as the feare of the Lord is a filiall feare so the feare of the King 3. As the feare of the Lord is a feare of adherency so the feare of the King Of these in order and of the points of instruction thence arising Every true Subject and every true servant of God ought to feare his King that is performe all duties and offices whatsoever due from a subject to his Prince For the opening hereof wee must know that the feare of the King containes all duties of a Christian Subject to his King For that which is sayd here Feare the Lord and feare the King is expressed by Peter thus Feare God Honour the King As in the fifth Commandement Honour thy Father and thy Mother Here as by Father and Mother all Superiors that stand in a bond of relation to inferiours as Parents Masters Magistrates Ministers and above all the chiefe Magistrate the Prince is meant so under this word honor all kindes of duty and service due from all inferiours to their Superiours respectively are comprized This is expressed also by Peter Submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whither it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evill doâ—rs and for the prayse of them that doe well This is yet more fully and amply set downe by the Apostle Paul Rom. 13. Where this doctrine is not only prooved but pressed and confirmed by many strong reasons First the doctrine is propounded in the duty injoyned vers 1. Let every soule bee subject to the higher powers The Precept is universall to every creature not Pope nor Cardinall nor Prelate excepted All living under the Kings Dominion must bee subject to the King And the reasons are there rendred 1. Because those higher Powers are of God So as hee that resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God Secondly the penalty upon rebells They that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Rebells shall not escape eyther the just hand of man or of God whose ordinance is resisted in resisting of the power Thirdly from the excellent office that the Powers doe beare which is to execute justice and judgement betweene Subjects For Rulers are not a terrour to good works but to the evill And as he rewards the evill with punishment so the good with prayse For wilt thou not be affrayd of the power Doe that which is good and thou shalt have prayse of the same For hee is the Minister of God to thee for good but if thou doe that which is evill bee affrayd for hee beareth not the sword in vaine for hee is the Minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evill Fourthly there is a necessity of this subjection vers 3. Wherefore ye must bee subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake So as if feare of wrath be not a bond strong enough yet conscience is which will dispense with no man For Gods ordinance bindes the Conscience Fifthly from the end of paying tribute vers 6. For for this cause pay yee tribute also For what cause That is for they are Gods Ministers attending continually upon this very thing That is for the execution of justice in punishing the evill in praysing and countenancing the good And hereupon the Apostle reinforceth his exhortation as an use of the point Render therefore to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due custome to whom custome feare to whom feare honour to whom honour Againe to the former reasons expressed by the Apostle wee may adde one more answerable and correspondent to that fore-alledged of our obedience unto God for as I said in all things the feare of the King holds a resemblance with the feare of the Lord as being the most exact and perfect patterne of it even as God is the best patterne for a King and
the rule whereby God doth governe the best patterne of a Kings government and the reason is this Wee are to bee subject to our King in the performance of all due services by that bond or tye which not onely Gods Law and Ordinance but also the Kings Law doth put upon us You may remember I showed you before how Gods Law is the rule of our feare and service which wee performe unto his Majesty and to goe beside or transgresse this rule brings us under the guilt and penalty of rebellion I showed you also how wee are bound to serve God as our King by vertue of mutuall stipulation which God makes with us and we with him Semblably our subjection unto the King is to be regulated as by Gods Law the rule of universall obedience to God and man so by the good Lawes of the King And note the completenesse of this correspondence It stayes not here but holds also in that mutuall stipulation or Covenant which the King and his Subjects make at his Coronation Where the King taking an explicit solemne oath to maintaine the ancient Lawes and Liberties of the Kingdome and so to rule and governe all his people according to those Lawes established So consequently and implicitly all the people of the Land doe sweare fealty allegiance subjection and obedience to their King and that according to his just Lawes To this purpose it is that his excellent Majesty in the Petition of Right which he subscribed with his owne royall hand hath these words worthy to be written in golden characters The King willeth that right be done according to the Lawes and Customes of the Realme and that the Statutes be put in due execution and His Subjects may have no cause to complaine of any wrong or oppressions contrary to their just Rights and Liberties To the preservation whereof hee holds himselfe in Conscience as well obliged as of his Prerogative And after that in full Parliament he concluded with these words Soit droit fait come est desire Let right be done as is desired And then in his Majesties speech following And I assure you my Maxime is that the Peoples Libertie strengthens the Kings Prerogative that the Kings Prerogative is to defend the Peoples Liberties O blessed King ever may'st Thou live crowned with all blessings in Thy Royall selfe and Posterity being knit unto Thy people in this indissoluble bond And herein His Sacred Majestie shewed himselfe a Peereles Sonne to His Peerelesse Father who in his speech to the Parliament 1609. besides sundry other rare passages to the same purpose hath these words The King bindes himselfe by a double oath to the observation of the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome Tacitly as being a King and so bound as well to protect the People as the Lawes of his Kingdome and expresly by his Oath at His Coronation So as every Just King in a setled Kingdome is bound to observe that paction made to his people by his Lawes in framing his government agreeable thereunto according to that paction which God made with Noah after the deluge c. And therefore a King governing in a setled Kingdome leaves to be a King and degenerates into a Tyrant as soone as hee leaves off to rule according to his lawes And a little after Therefore all Kings that are not Tyrants or perjured will be glad to bound themselves within the limits of their Lawes and they that perswade them the contrary are Vipers and Pests both against them and the Common Wealth Which words beseeming a just King I have heere set downe as an honourable testimony of such a Father of such a Sonne and all to be for the stronger reason to all subjects to performe all due obedience to their Soveraigne For if your Gracious King doe so solemnly by Sacred oath ratified againe in Parliament under His Royall hand bind himselfe to maintaine the Lawes of his Kingdome and therein the Rights and Liberties of His Subjects then how much are the people bound to yeeld all subjection and obedience to the King according to his just Laws So much of the proofe of the point Now to the Uses Here 1. Not onely Papists but the religion of Popery it selfe come under the guilt and condemnation of Rebellion forasmuch as the maine Principle of Popery is to exalt and acknowledge the Pope as supreme over all Powers as Emperors Kings Princes States c. And therefore not unworthily is their Religion branded for Rebellion and their faith for Faction and their practise murdering of soules and bodies And though some Papists will take the Oath of Allegiance as subjects to their King yet they refuse the Oath of Supremacy as acknowledging their subjection to the King upon no other termes but as subordinate to the Pope as Supreme And so the Pope and not the King is the Papists King and Soveraigne And yet how is their rebellious religion nay which is rebellion it selfe fostered and fomented in our Land to the infinite dishonour not onely of God but of the King and His Supremacy and danger of the Kingdom if God in mercy doe not prevent it The ancient Church before Antichrist the great usurper mounted aloft acknowledged no Supreme above the Emperour or every absolute Prince in his Kingdome but onely God 2. For Exhortation Heere let all good Christians and royall subjects learne to yeeld all feare honour obedience to their Soveraigne following the direction and exhortation of the Apostle Let every soule be subject to the higher powers And render to all their dues Tribute to whom Tribute is due Custome to whom Custome Feare to whom feare Honour to whom honour And for the better stirring up of all those duties which subjects owe to their Soveraigne Let us often meditate of these reasons and motives fore-mentioned by the Apostle and especially considering That the King is Gods Minister to doe Iustice to punish the evill and to countenance and reward the good as also because hee attends continually upon this great office And lastly considering in speciall how our Gracious Soveraigne hath entered into Solemne and sacred Covenant with all his people to bee their King and Protector and to governe them according to his good and just lawes and to maintaine all their just Rights and Liberties and according to the Patterne of God himselfe whose vicegerent hee is to demaund of them no other obedience but what the good lawes of the Kingdome prescribe and require With what alacrity then and readinesse ought all Subjects to expresse their loyalty to their Prince and with all adde their dayly and fervent prayers and supplications for the life of our gracious King that under the shadow of his righteous and religious government wee may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godlinesse and honesty It followeth Feare the King that is with a filiall feare as the feare of the Lord is only keeping the difference that the one is a religious filiall