Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n
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A47416
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A sermon on the 30th of January, being the day on which that sacred martyr, King Charles the First, was murdered by John King, D.D. ...
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King, John, D.D.
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1661
(1661)
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Wing K509; ESTC R22466
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26,669
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96
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thus employed is no longer bare and common Oyle but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gifâ— of Grace which however vilified by Enthusiastiques and Solifidians betokens the Grace 〈◊〉 Christ unto Kings and prescribe necessary submission and duty unto their Subjects We are not whatever phantastique men may presume â—o spirituall in this life but that we stand in need of outward representations to carry on our faith and hope unto things spirituall the greatest favours unto lapsed mankind are the Sacraments where the visible and corporeall Elements are the meanes to convey by faith spirituall graces and the whole benefit of Christs sufferings unto us the sublimated and metaphysicall Professours of our times endeavour too irreverent a close with Almighty God they will have no King but Christ no Unction but that of the Spirit which is not that sober peaceable Spirit that leadeth into all truth but the Spirit of giddinesse Elihu's spirit the spirit of their belly which leadeth into all errour Carnal interests constraining them to shake off Gods Government in Princes to effect which the most compendious way is to throw all Ceremony which is unto Religion as the Scaberd unto the Sword to preserve it from the rust of contempt as Saint Augustinâ— speaks The sacred regards of Unction of King of Priest of Prophet of Churches of Tythes stand betwixt them and their sacrilegious ends they must be removed no railes or bounds must be set unto them they will up into the Mount and run the hazard if not of temporall flames yet certainly without hearty repentance of the Everlasting burnings These men who will be solely swayed by the guidance of their own spirit which being as various as the severall tempers of the Continents it inhabits will make Religion full of uncertainties meerly imaginary and wholly depending upon the doubtfull Insufficiencies of mens weak Conceptions so that hereby the essentiall truths of Religion must needs daily decay the substance thereof be reduced into the smoake of every mans unbounded Fancy and the Christian faith will die by degrees But Unction puts Gods Dominion into the Kings hands that must not be resisted for it is the resisting of God himselfe It is the very language of the Holy Ghost unto the â—en revolted Tribes that they resisted thâ— Kingdome of God in the hands of the Sonnes of David and Josephus assignes this the Cause of the subversion of them no memory of them being left The sedition saith he that they moved against Rehoboam establishing hiâ— Servant for their King was the originall of their mischiefs Ammon was a most wicked and idolatrous Prince yet God punished the Treason of his Servants against him because he was Gods Anointed Many sacred regards are by Unction conveyed from God unto Princes great cause then had the Prophet and people of Judah to lament the death of their good King Josiah The Anointed of the Lord That he was fallen into their pits 3. Of whom we said Vnder the shadow of his wings we shall live among the Heathen King Josiah his regall prerogatives and personall vertues were a protection unto his people he was the fountaine of their liberty and safety The happinesse of Subjects depends upon the wel-being of their Kings and the preservation of the Regall dignity is a sure pledge of Gods goodnesse the continuance of his favour unto a people for this cause is it that when the Apostle had exhorted that prayers should be made for all men 1 Tim. 2.1 as though this precept were too universall he reduceth it v. 2. unto Kings and adds the reason that ye may lead a quiet and peaceable life and for the same cause did the Prophet command the Israelites to pray for the King of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar This consideration also made Davids Subjects apprice his life at so high a rate is not now thy life worth ten thousand of ours The King is the Head of the people there is a sacred and neare relation betwixt them a disease or paine in the Head causeth a discrasie in the whole body an indisposition throughout all the members So the calamity and sufferings of the King affecteth every conscientious man in his Kingdome this honest zeale and pious sympathy between thâ— Heâ—d 〈…〉 the King and the people made our Prophet and the men of Judah so passionately bewaile the losse of their good King Josiah they promised unto themselves a lasting security in this life Of whom we said Under the shadow of his wings we shall live among the Heathen Gods grant of Regall prerogatives unto Josiah afforded not onely protection as the Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings our Saviours allusion to defend them from the Birds of prey but a strength also and vigorous warmth to make them grow up unto an ability to guard themselves and dwell with safety among the Heathen the known Enemies of their Nation and profession when then this Royall Oake was cut down and they deprived of the thriving benefits of its shelter their sorrows must needs plentifully spring up from the sense of so great and irrepaâ—â—able a losse and the fear of those stormes which now threatned to overturne their felicity But the depth of this sorrow was not to be fathomed when they found the bottomlesse Abysse of their own sinnes the head thereof that notwithstanding the great priviledges of Josiah's Regall dignity and pieâ—y that the fiercenesse of Gods greater wrath was so kindled against Judah that the Lord said I will remove Judah out of my sight as I have removed Israel and therefore that his fury without obstruction or let might be powred out upon them God suffers the breath of their Nostrils the Anointed of the Lord of whoâ— they said Under the shadow of his wings they should live among the Heathen Good King Josiah the life of their Religion Law he who was empowred by God with the Supreme Authority had a divine grant of humane Indemnity and Inviolability their righteous Justicer their Physitian their nursing Father their Protectour and the great Conservator of their Liberty and Safety To fall into their pits to die by the hands of his Adversaries being the second consideration in the Text. 2. The breath of our Nostrils c. was taken in their pits Here is the nulling of Gods letters patents and the grant of Regall prerogatives and beneficiall priviledges made unto King Josiah by a violent death God for the punishment of the people of Judah's sinnes takes away their pious Prince by the power of his Enemies The force of the relation betwixt the head and the members the King and the People is the true reason why God punisheth the best of Kings with temporall judgments for the offences of his Subjects as here in Josiah The anger of the Lord was moved against Israel and he moved David to number the people 2 Sam. 24.1 The divine Justice vindicated that sin of the King upon the people for whose
transgressions he was suffered to sin Divinely holy Gregory secundum meritum plebiâ—â—m disponuntur Corda Rectorum According unto the deserts of the People the hearts of the Governors are disposed the just Judge punished the fault of the Offender upon them who had caused him to offend What an impious absurdity is it to slie in the face of our Prince for those errors which receive their birth strength from our own native corruptions we should rather say as Iob tels his supercilious Reprovers why persecute wâ— him since the ground of the matter is found in me Where the Prince is vitious the accusation properly lies against the Subjects whose sins make him so for as the prosperity of the King is the sure earnest of Gods favour unto a people as Saba shews the Israelites from the glory of King Salomons Court so is the oppression and misery even of the worst of Kings an infallible mark of Gods anger resting upon a pâ—ople as in King Saul Josiah's single default fighting with Pharaoh Necho without Gods allowance brings the punishment of a violent death upon him for that onely registred errour into which the peoples sin had pushed him their sins were now ripe for punishment by his one offence for whose punishment he was suffered even then to offend that so their judgments might commence from his death whose guilt permitted not unto him a longer life He fell into their pits a speech taken from Hunters who way-lay those Beasts they chase setting snares and toyles for them in those paths and places they run unto for refuge that they might know that since God had divested Josiah their sacred head of all Regal Prerogatives and let him fall by the practises and power of his cruel Foes they could no longer urge a respite from the execution of those judgments given against their former transgressions but acknowledge and bewail this sad and evil occurrent the violent death of their King the fatal consequence of their own sins for which there was now a recession of God in his Government by Josiah from them and an abandoning them up into the hands of Strangers and Usurpers from whom they could not but expect all the wearisom traverses of Tyranny the heavy weight of a continued Oppression and all those not to be reckoned unhappy inconveniences which attend upon a Government obtained by conquest supported by force and maintained and actuated by the Law of the sword so that even this violent death appears an absolute assurance of Gods mercy and goodness unto King Josiah to take him out of this life that he might not behold those wofull and thronging miseries which were ready to rush in upon and bear down the present for his sake onely happy condition of his Subjects which would have procured unto him more anxiety than the consideration of undergoing ten thousand violent deaths a good Prince having so strong a sympathy with his Subjects sufferings that he feâ—ls every pricking pang and painfull touch of their ttoubles in which respect this violent death was an incomparable favour unto him and which at first sight procures our wonder proves his greatest temporall blessing and the gracious reward of his eminent piety and so much the Holy Ghost tels us Because thine heart was tender and thou didst humble thy self before God when thou heardest his words against this place and against the inhabitants thereof and humbledst thy self before me and didst rend thy clothes and weep before me I have even heard thee also saith the Lord. Behold I will gather thee to thy Fathers and thou shalt be gathered unto thy Fathers in peace neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place and upon the inhabitants of the same So that as the Prophet Isaiah speaks we may Lay it to heart that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come Hezekiah's piety likewise found this divine favour a respite from the sight of those judgments his peoples sins had contracted that there should be peace and truth in his dayes and he thankfully and humbly acknowledgeth the greatness of that mercy These sad Considerations quickly pull up all the sluces of sorrow and let in flouds of tears to overwhelm them they lament and mourn with a great and grievous mourning All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah a mourning wherein the whole Kingdom wore the blacks of sorrow a mourning renowned for the universal and sad solemnity thereof a mourning made the highest prescription of mourning the utmost bounds and confines of sorrow as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo where every family of the whole Kingdome distinguisht themselves by the variety and solitariness of their sorrow every family mourning apart the Princes of the bloud apart the Priests apart the People by their several Families apart and all their Wives apart every part of every Family having a several share in this general sorrow and a particular part in this common sadness and Lamentation for Josiah the Priest and Prophet Jeremiah he is the chief Mourner composeth Josiah's Funeral Elegies this Book of the Lamentations gives them unto the skilful Quire to chaunt forth he begins the first sad Note the Singing-men and Singing-women consort with him in the doleful plaints and all Judah and Jerusalem make up the sad Chorus in this general sorrow Just cause had every man in Judah and Jerusalem to mourn for Josiah's death since every mans sin had made way by a severall wound to take away Josiah's life and so must needs bear a share in the crying guilt of his bloud which nothing but a floud of penitent tears could wash away This makes every mans particular sorrow as several lines meet in the centre of the Text the common cause of their teeming grief The breath of our Nostails the Anointed of the Lord was taken in their pits of whom we said Vnder his shadow we shall live among the Heathen From these sacred Truths naturally flow these divinely informing Conclusions That a good Prince is the life of Religion Law and civill Conversation That Kings by holy Unction as by Gods visible deed and conveyance are invested with the supreme Authority Inviolability and Indempnity and therefore to think reverently of them consecrated with so many mysterious regards and relations the characters of Gods supreme jurisdiction over man That Vnction suggests unto Kings that duty they stand obliged in unto their Subjects in the impartial distribution of justice to heal them to comfort them to nourish them That a good King is designed by God a Protector of his Subjects and the Conservator of their Liberty Safety and Peace That the best King may be punished with the greatest temporall punishment for the sins of his Subjects That the Errors of Kings take their rise from their Subjects sins That God first taketh away a good King before he will bring judgments upon his Subjects That Gods violent