Last When the Israelites desired a King they asked him of God who first designed Him and by a Law never to be reversed reserved the Choice as a Prerogative peculiar to Himselfe Thou shalt make Him King whom the Lord thy God shall choose over Thee so that if he come in by any other way the Act is quarrell'd by the Prophet and disclaimed by God himselfe They have set up a King but not by me If by Succession it is God who Regulates and prolongs that happy Line Children are Gods blessing to every private family but an Heire to a Kingdome is His Blessing to a Land Which Blessing is enlarged in the goodnesse of the Successour Therefore when the good Emperour Marcus Aurelius perceived the ill inclination of his Sonne Commodus who was to succeed he wish'd himselfe dead But contrary to him Hiram congratulates those who were sent from Iudaea Blessed be the Lord God who hath given unto David a wise Sonne over this mighty People And this was that Sonne whom David professes the Lord Himselfe had made choice of Of all my Sonnes for the Lord hath given me many He hath chosen Salomon to sit upon the Throne of the Kingdome of the Lord over Israel Nor onely in these Calmes of Peace but in the Tempest of Warre where the Sword hewes out a title to the Crowne and the Robe of the Prince instead of Purple is Dyed in Blood Even in this storme is God the Pilot to guide all actions to His Ends In the passing away of the first Monarchies from the Assyrian to the Persian His hand was set to the deed visible upon the Wall and legible in those fatall Characters which told Belshazzar that the Date of his Kingdome was numbred and finished And truely if you consider the power of Belshazzar and the number of his tributary Princes and the strength of Babylon his Metropolis which was fenced with a treble Wall of great height and the difficulties Cyrus encountred at the assault being forced by many Channels and trenches to drain the River of Euphrates that so he might approach the Walls which otherwise had beene inaccessible you will perceive it was not an Arme of Flesh but the Ordinance of God which made Cyrus strong and successefull Let all the Kings of the Earth then Throw down their Scepters before this Maker of Kings and ascribe unto Him Their Kingdomes and their Power for they are His Tuum est Regnum Potentia 'T is part of the Doxology in Christs prayer Let them not reckon their Crownes the acquisition of their owne wisedome or strength as Iacob told Ioseph concerning his portion With my Sword and with my Bow I tooke it But cry with that victorious Captaine of the Lords Battailes The Sword of the Lord and of Gedeon The Lord first and then Gedeon Gedeon may be the instrument the hand to atchieve but God the Cause God the Guider and Director of the Stroke And as the King casts downe His Crowne before the Lord Let the People cast themselves down before the King They that lift up their hands against Him in publike Rebellion or their Tongues in murmur against his commands or their Hearts in disobedient and discontented thoughts are as ill Subjects to God as to the King You need not aske Whom have they resisted St. Paul tels you They have resisted the Ordinance of God for Non est potestas nisi à Deo He hath his power from God His Office is Gods Ordinance His person dignified by Him too Constitui Te I have set Thee up which is the Kings Exaltation my second point When our Saviour rebuked the unruly Wind and Sea the Disciples askd with wonder Who is this whom both Elements of Aire and Water obey If any enquire who he is before whom God hath prostrated the obedience of of his people by whom he calmeth the uproare of the multitude And strivings of the people He can be no other then the Man whom the King of Kings was pleased to honour above all the rest He may be greater then all the Rulers of the Earth the Lord Christ but lesse He cannot be then the Lords Annointed He may well be that Lord unto whom the Lord said sit Thou on my right hand untill I make thine enemies thy foot-stoole for the Text naturally beares it but meaner He cannot be then the Man of Gods right hand whom he hath set up and made so strong for Himself for His purposes It was an Argument of Gods mercy and care of the World that though the Apostacy of Mankind deserved in justice a finall dâ—ssoluâ—ion whereby all things might have reverted into their first Chaos yet in the very Act of His displeasure when He dissipated those who in the building of Babel cast up a Mound against Heaven and raised a worke to assault Him in his Throne He appointed a Ruler over every People when He divided the Nations CoÌ„mon-wealths without their Governor were like Ships without an Helme in danger to strike upon the Sand or break upon the Rocks The King is the States Pilot and His Law the Compasse By Him are we kept safe from Enemies who by invasion might break in upon us from abroad and by Him defended from Domesticke quarrels in which by falling foule on one another our Fortune might be broken into nothing Sheep without a Shepheard and Water without a Bank and a Body without an Head are Emblemes of a State without a King The King is the Head the People the Body He is the Shepheard they the Sheep Homer calls Menelaus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} And Moses beseeches God to appoint a man over the Congregation least they should be like Sheep without a Shepheard Lastly as Saint Iohn saith Aquae sunt populi The people are as an inundation of Water like the waves for number and for noyse and would resemble the wild disorder of a wrought Sea for David joynes the Noise of the waves and the madnesse of the people together did not the King by his Authority limit their inconstant motion So necessary is a King even as * Aire to our Breath 'T is Calvins expression and a true one The Prophet Ieremy calls Him the Breath of our Nostrils There is nothing which more clearely demonstrates the God of Order then the subordinate Government of the Kingdomes of the Earth Nor doth any forme of Government come so neere His Owne which is the Archetype the first and best patterne of all others as the Monarchall when a state is governed by a King as sole Commander over all For in this singularity of power that person who is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the lively Image of God will some way represent the Unity of his Maker too Therefore Gerson defines Dominion that it is a Soveraigne Rule eommitted to One Regnum describitur quod
It was a vaunt of the Romane Empire and perhaps true enough that Solem utrumque currere in imperio suo cernebat The rising and setting Sunne were the extent of their Territory in the length But God onely is that great King in whose hand are all the corners of the Earth The Sonne of Man is Sole Lord of the Princes of the Earth Vnto Him the Ancient of daies gives such Dominion and such a Kingdome that all People Nations and Languages and all Powers serve and obey Him For the other that is the Popes Supremacy a thing not dream't of in the Churches purer times it is a pride ill comporting with the Mitre and much mis-becomming Peters Successour If Christ disliked the strife for precedence amongst the Disciples determining the controversie so that he who made himself Least was by Him reputed Highest we may well conclude that Princeps Apostolorum Prince of the Apostles was an attribute never begot in His purpose nor form'd in his Schoole In what Luciferian forge then may we believe that stile of Princeps Regum Lord of Kings and Disposer of Kingdomes was shaped If the Master allow not his Apostles to quarrell amongst themselves for Place can we thinke he likes that the Apostolicall See should justle with His Annoynted for the upper-hand whereas Pindarus could say that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Kings are the Highest upon Earth and a better Authour Super Imperatorem non est nisi Deus qui fecit Imperatorem God onely here is above the Emperor And yet He who is Servus Servorum A Servant of Servants in nothing but his Name hath by his aequivocall practise long attempted the lifting up his Triple Mitre above the Crown as Neptune once his Trident above Jupiter And whensoever He lists to abuse the Throne by setting his owne Chaire where that should stand He will abuse Scripture to make it good If He list to play at Foot-ball with Crownes spurning them into what Gole he pleases as once Celestin 4. settled the Crowne and then kickt it off the Emperor Henry 6. head He hath an Omnia sub jecisti pedibus ejus for his warrant Thou hast put all things under his feet If He will make the neck of the King his foot-stoole as Alexander 3. used the Emperour Frederick Barbarossa at Venice he quotes the Psalme for it Thou shalt tread the yong Lyon and the Dragon under thy feet If he desire to lift up his own Candlestick made of the Alchymy of swelling Ambition and Avarice wrought by the Jesuits the best Chymists of the world enchased and imbossed by the Canonists with titles of the richest Blasphemy which the tongue of men or divels could devise Dominus Deus noster Papa Our Lord God the Pope * Vice-God One who Non obstante jure Divino in despight of Gods Law does what he lists I say if he desire to set his counterfet Candlestick higher then any of the Seven Golden Candlesticks and then make his own dim Candle whose modest light ought To shine in good works before men blaze like a Comet to out shine the lights of Earth and vie with the Host of Heaven for Lustre he can finde Text for that too so did Innocent III. from Gods creating Two Lights one to rule the day the other to rule the night and blushes not to make Himself the Greater So that whereas Christ whose Vicar he calls himself is content with the stile of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Starre of the morning no proportion of light nor measure of brightnesse will serve as Emblem of his Power but the Sunne Not to trouble you farther if he desire to pare the Authority of Princes and make the King his Subject He will with Boniface 8. and Iohn 22 pervert this very Text I have set Thee over the Nations and Kingdomes The note is altered much since the daies of Gregory the great He as He acknowledgeth to Theotista the Emperour Mauritius his sister tooke his Bishoprick then as a Donative from the Emperour Eccè Serenissimus Dominus Imperator fieri jussit He was pleased to make him so Now in requitall his Successour takes upon him to make the Emperour Formerly the Pope was wont to begin His letters to Kings with this salutation Salutem in eo per quem Reges regnant Health and safety be to you in Him by whom Kings reigne now he salutes in his * own Name for he takes on him to dispose the Kingdome and command the King It was not so from the beginning Aaron the High Priest never quarrelled with Moses for the place but obeyed him in all things as Prince and Ruler And Salomon exercised his authority upon Abiathar thrusting him from his Priest-hood and bestowing it upon Zadoc Indeed the best Popes ever submitted to the Regall Authority one of them gives the reason Eleutherius by name who in an Epistle of his written to King Lucius sometimes King of this Island which Epistle is recorded amongst the Lawes of Edward the Confessour tells him Vicarius verò Dei estis in regno He was within his own Kingdome Gods Vicar set up with absolute power to governe the Person and the Place Church as well as State which is the just meaning of being Set over Nations and Kingdomes But much of your wonder concerning the Popes Ambition will be taken off when you shall know the Consistory to be a Competitour in the Canvase for Superiority above Kings Quotquot Christi aut Ecclesiae nomine censeri volunt Disciplinae sese subjiciant As many as are Members of Christ and of His Church must subject themselves to the Consistorian Discipline neither Emperour nor Bishop excepted And Beza is as zealous as he in the cause Quis tandem Reges aut Principes c. Who shall exclude Kings or Princes from this Non Humanâ sed Divinâ dominatione not Humane but Divine domination of the Presbytery Nay some of this rigid Sect have gone so farre that as the scornfull Bramble in the Parable of Ioâ—ham scratcht and contended with the Better Trees for the Kingdome they make the people scramble with their Prince for prioriâ—y and carry it too Populus potior Rege And another Populus Rege praestantior etiam major Populi in legibus ferendis summa potestas Lex Rege Populus lege potentior The People greater and better then the King The Law above the King the People above the Law Reade they that list they are the words of Buchanan I know I may take up the Prophets words in this particular I tell you a wonder which many whilst they heare will not believe But it is an undenyable truth Let the Allegations I have produced out of their owne Books testifie for me that I slander them not Whence you may plainly discerne that these two jarring
A SERMON PREACHED At St. PAVLS March 27. 1640. BEING THE ANNIVERSARY OF HIS MAIESTIES HAPPY INAUGURATION TO HIS CROWNE By HENRY KING Deane of Rochester and Residentiary of St. Pauls One of His Majesties Chaplaines in Ordinary LONDON Printed by Edward Griffin 1640. יהוה JEREM. 1.10 Behold I have this day set thee over the Nations and over the Kingdomes to Root out and to pull down to destroy and throw down to build and to plant DId not the solemne comming up of your Tribes to this Place and the publike preparation loudly speake that Festivall we meet to celebrate the very reading of this Text were Trumpet enough to proclaime the cause of your addresse and my appearing here I may begin my Sermon as David his Psalme I speake of the things which I have made touching the King and the Hodiè in the Text applies my speech to the season That God who This Day set Him over us warrants the occasion and this Scripture gives me matter The words were spoken immediately to the Prophet Jeremy a Sonne of Oyle by his Office though not of him but improperly and figuratively Quod dicitur Jeremiae Eccè constitui Te non dubium quin figurata tota locutio sit saith â—aint Augustin Jeremy then was the Messenger not the Party for which reason one Translation reads not Constitui but Legavi Te. Literally and Properly they are meant of Christ importing his Regall Power and the Latitude of His Kingdome Non ergo Ieremias sed Dominus Iesus Not Ieremy but the Lord Iesus saâ—th â—t Ambrose Nor is He alone St. Cyprian St. Chrysostome Victorinus and oâ—hers agree with him which makes good St. Hieromes attestation Multi hunc locum supâ—r Persona Christi intelligunt Divers understand this Text of Christs Person Neverthelesse as we dâ—aw Coppies without wrong to the Originall so without injury to the sense of the Text or the Person of Christ I shall apply the words to the King who in respect of his Office and Domination upon Earth is Christs Image and Deputy the Christus Domini the Lords Annoynted First therefore I shall from hence trace this Soveraigne Power to the very Spring discovering unto you the Author whose Ordinance Dominion is who is God Himselfe Ego Constitui I have set or I have Constituted Secondly the Person Exalted Thee Thirdly the Extent of this Exaltation Over the Nations and over the Kingdomes Fourthly the End or Exercise of His Power which is twofold 1. Destructive to Roote out and to pull downe to Destroy to throw down 2. Conservative To Build and to Plant. The Ecce here prefixt shall serve as an Herald to usher in my Discourse and Application Behold And sure an Argument wherein God and the King are interessed will deserve an Ecce Both these Persons meet in the Text yet in that order that the King may know his Dependance upon God and the People their obedience to the King even for this reason because God hath set him over them Where He comes priviledged by such an Author and vested with such Authoriâ—y He will deserve not an Ecce alone but an Osanna too Blessed be hee that commeth in the Name of the Lord For this I is the Lord I have set Though you finde no Name subscribed the Deed sufficiently declares the Author And where the Act is Eloquent other denominations are of little use Men are divided by their Tribes and distinguished by their Titles If God have any Name it is to be read in his Attributes the first of which is His Power and the effect of that Power Ego Constitui I have set thee up The Government of the Earth is in the hand of the Lord and when Time is He will set up a profitable Ruler over it saith the sonne of Syrac Heathens themselves were sensible of this truth Homer termes Kings {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and Callimachus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Off-spring of Iupiter So Tacitus Principes imperium à Deo habent eosque instar Dei esse Princes receive their Scepters from God and are in His stead Doe they not appeare worse then Heathens who goe about to fetch the derivation of Kings from any other Pedigree then this Those who either place the power of making them in the Pope as doe the Pontificials or in the People as Buchanan Populo jus est ut imperium cui vult deferat Or that joyne the People in Commission with God abridging the Latitude of the Text and liberty of Gods institutions Deum Reges Instituere Regna Regibus dare Reges Eligere Populum Reges Constituere Regna tradere Electionem suo suffragio comprobare A Distinction whose termes are contrary to the Text 'T is there Constitui te God Institutes the People constitute the King God gives the Kingdome the people deliver it God elects but the People confirme the Election If this be true sure our Bibles are false and our interpretation as erroneous as our Texts Why doe not these Men who in many things so neerely parallel the Jesuites get leave from their Consistory as the other from the Conclave to frame an Index Expurgatorius to expunge those places of Scripture which make against them Blot out that of Daniel The most High ruleth in the Kingdome and giveth it to whomsoever He will You heard now who said the People had right to bestow it where they listed Blot out that of Moses Let the Lord God of the Spirits of all flesh appoint a man over the Congregation * Gods election is nothing unlesse the People approve it Lastly Blot out that of Salomon By me Kings reigne These men have more wisely ordered the matter And let Kings Themselves no more write Dei Gratiâ which Rebuffus notes to be the just acknowledgement of His Power who gave Them Theirs since 't is not so much By the Grace of God as by the favour and Leave of the People It was ignorance of the first Cause which threw a Myst of blindnesse upon the World which Myst for all the Beames of Knowledge that have shone upon it never since could cleare up For it is a permanent Error in man-kind to mistake the Instruments and Secondary Agents in Gods purposes for the Maine Efficient It is so in this where because in the setling or translation of Kingdomes some Intermediate Actors are used many ascribe thâ—se Effects to them which are onely the worke of God The Romans were wont variously to distinguish the derivation of their Empire By Force so Iulius Caesar was invested By the Senates Election so Tiberius By the Souldiers so Severus By Inheritance so Octavius Augustus But to what meanes soever they imputed their Emperours were it Birth or Conquest Election or Usurpation 't is God who gives the Title to Kingdomes by the First and He also directs and permits it by the
est Politia sub uno Bono Which Aristotle confesseth to be the most Divine and Ancient kind of Gubernation Vetustissima Divinissima Regis gubernatio Search the whole volume of holy Writ from Moses to the Iudges and from them to the Kings and tell me whether you finde more then One successively designed by God to be the Prince and Ruler of the people Indeed there is good naturall reason for it Should the Account of time be regulated not by the Sunne alone who is the Prince and Monarch of the Skie but by the joint Motion of the other Planets which were a kind of Oligarchy or by the Starres of the first Magnitude which are Optimates Coeli the Peeres of Heaven and were an Aristocracy what disorder would then creep into our Kalendar But how great would that Confusion prove if those Gregarian sparks those Plebeian lesser Starres which people the Skie and onely glimmer by that Contribution of Light which they receive from the greater Luminaries should have a predominant influence upon our Seasons To prevent therefore such irregular mischief the Creatour gave the rule of the Day to the Sun alone And He who kindled that Glorious light in the Firmament Set up also the King to governe by the splendour of his Authority upon Earth as being the Light of our Israel and Gods Lieutenant or so Plato calls Him as God amongst Men {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Nor onely amongst the people of God but in all other Nations of the world was the Authority at first singly invested in the King if you will believe Iustin the Historian Principio rerum gentium nationumque imperium penes Reges erat And though Livy reports that Regum imperium grave visum est Vnius Dominatio populo Romano displicuit the Romans disliked their Government under One and thought they should do better to put the command of the Common-wealth from a King to a Senate or to Consuls yet as Gregorius Tholosanus well observes in a very short time they deerely repented the errour of their alteration Magna vis necessitatis urgentis quae etiam superbissimos cogat stultitiam suam fateri aliquando resipiscere For not nine yeares after upon the insurrection of Manlius Octavius one of Tarquins Race they were forced to put the Government to one againe whom they stiled Dictatour who was indeed a Monarch for his time freely and absolutely commanding all for so is his Office described by the writers of the Graecian affaires as Gregor. Tholos observes {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} T is true that once in the Carthaginian warre against Hannibal the giddy multitude made two Dictatours Minutius Rufus and Fabius Maximus But upon the losse of that part of the Army which was led by Minutius whose pride and rashnesse by dividing himself from the counsels or help of his Colleague hazarded the whole Common-wealth they would have no more Dictatours then Fabius Nor did they ever after ordaine more then one even untill the time of Iulius Caesar who retained the stile of perpetuall Dictatour reducing the Roman Government according to the first forme into one Hand onely exchanging the title of King into Emperour I adde no more of this Plutarch tels us that in perillous times nothing so much conduceth to the safety of a State then Si unus in principatu unâ sententiâ liberâ impuni magistratu fungeretur so Gregor. Tholosanus renders him That one only exercised a free independent and uncontrol'd Authority over all Whereas commands depending upon divers votes beget distraction and ruine And as this course prevents warre so it best conserves peace Pacis interest omnem Potestatem ad unum transferri Indeed if there be but one soule to informe the naturall body why should there be more then one to rule the body of a State In the predominance of the will or the phantasie or the affections or the passions above reason which should be Soveraigne we see what a distracted Man is made Is it not the same in a State when phantasticke or wilfull or turbulent spirits rise up to contradict their Prince and disturbe a Realme I shut up this Point in the conclusion of Tacitus Unum imperii corpus unius animo regendum videtur T is best to trust the care of the Kingdome to that one whom God hath appointed over it I have set thee over the Nations and over the Kingdomes which imports the Latitude of His Power and is my third point It was an old complaint that ill Glosses corrupted good Lawes Those perversions have long since crept into the Booke of God and mens particular interests have distorted the Texts thereto their owne practises This Scripture hath not escaped the Rack of some Interpretations which would straine it to authorize an Vniversall Monarchy and others who from this foundation would raise the Popes Supremacy above Kings For the first I deny not the words taken in their primitive meaning import an Universall Soveraignty But it is in Him onely whose Inheritance is the Heathen whose title is King of Kings that is the Sonne of God for {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} His Kingdome ruleth over all But to extend this to any sonne of Man is contrary to Gods purpose and above mans capacity When Nebuchadnezzar is termed King of Kings 't is in respect of the many Tribuâ—ary Kings under him Quia multis magnis Regibus imperabat And when Cyrus professeth The Lord of Heaven and Earth had given him all the Kingdomes of the Earth All is taken Synecdochically for the Greatest or the Most So though Tidal be called King of the Nations he was only King of the Scythians But where this stile is left indefinite and absolute it belongs onely to Christ If then such a one as Salmander call himselfe Omnipotent or the Emperour of Bisnega delight to be stiled Magnarum Provinciarum Deus Dominus Orientis Austri Septentrionis Occidentis Maris The God of great Provinces Lord of the foure quarters of the Earth and of the Sea or the Persian Frater Solis Lunae siderum particeps Brother to the Sunne and Moone Kinsman to the Starres or Solyman the Turkish Emperour Lord of Lords I shall not much wonder These are such who in their timpanous excrescent Titles imitate Him of whom the Spirit of God testifies {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} A mouth was given Him which spake high Blasphemy But if any who should know Christ better and understand their owne limits are so excessive in their claimes as if all the world were made for one alone as Iuan de Puente settles it upon the Catholick King by assuming so much to themselves they detract from Christ usurping upon his right I deny not divers Kingdomes and severall Nations may be united under one Scepter
extreames Papacy and Presbytery whose faces stand contrary to each other whose opinions are opposite as the sides of the Diameter meet in this one Ecliptick line to darken the Authority of Gods Annointed To pluck Him down and hold Him under whom God hath set over Nations and Kingdomes to Root out and to pull down to Destroy and throw down to Build and to Plant which is the Exercise of his Regall Power and my last part When I consider the Majesty of a King his spreading Titles like Nebuchadnezzars Tree whose forehead toucht the Clouds whose stile reaches Divinity For God Himselfe hath said They are Gods When I consider the extent of his Command and the subjects of His Power I cannot but conclude with Livy Regnum res inter Deos hominesque pulcherrima A Kingdome is the most excellent thing in the eyes of God or men But when I consider the disquiet the frequent toyle and daily disturbance to which a King is submitted I may with another vary the stile Potentia quid est aliud quà m speciosa molestia Dominion is nothing but a glorious trouble They that onely looke upon the glittering matter of a Diadem and the Lustre of the Jewels set in it may apprehend somewhat to delight the eye but could they understand how many cares are lodged and concentred within the Pale and Circle of that Crowne I may in the words of a great King say They scarce would take it for the wearing though it lay in their way It was no doubt a sad Experience which wrung those words from Caesars mouth when you would name a Masse of cares and crosses Cogita Caesarem Think upon Caesar We who are shrubs and in the humble valley of a private life shrowd our obscure heads heare not the loud Tempests nor feele those incessant storms which beat upon the Cedar whose exalted top raises him neerer to the lightening and rage of the upper Element We who sit within our own thresholds and under our own Vines are not sensible of every noise and danger which threatens a State Post upon Post and Messenger after Messenger run to advertise the King and whosoevers Midnight is interrupted by the newes Ours can complaine of no disturbance We therefore who enjoy the blessing of His shelter and reape the fruits of His Care whose trouble is to confirme our quiet and whose broken sleeps as Epaminondas once told his Souldiers are to procure our sounder rest were there no command of God nor tie of Religion which should enjoyne us to obey and love Him whom He hath set over us might thinke our selves bound to yield Him these duties as largely merited in the paines He takes to support our good and his continuall labour to effect that Peace which we more freely tast then He. I may justly use that speech which once the Poet to Augustus NoÌ„ tibi contingunt quae gentibus otia praestas Man is borne to labour saith Job The very Bread he eates is moulded with the toile of his hand and macerated with the sweat of his brow And truely if we observe it this bread of carefulnesse is served up to the Kings Board as part of his Dyet This Text will shew you of what graines it is made up and with what labour kneaded as if God had translated the First Mans Curse into the Best Mans Office You have heard of Swords broken into Plowshares and Spears into Sithes I can from hence tell you of Spades and Pruning-hooks turned into Scepters Adams Husbandry is a Type of the Kings Office Adam was set to digge and dresse the ground so is the King to Roote out and to Plant to cast down and Build Houses are indeed Epitomes of Kingdomes and Gardens Models of Common-wealths When God speaks of a Nation or Kingdome to build and plant it the King is both his Over-seer and Actour He is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} like a faithfull Architect He builds up the walls of his Jerusalem and repaires the breaches of Sion that so he may secure all from the searching drifts of fraud or gusts of open violence Nor is He Cementarius onely but in a sense Hortulaenus too His Office hath in it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} somewhat of the dressing of a Garden or husbanding ground Let not the Comparison seeme vile God Himself accepts it He is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} saith Christ the Husbandman and we {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} His husbandry He sowed us in the bed of Nature and will reape us in Glory hereafter He plants us in our severall vocations and by the irrigation of His grace quickens our Root and our Leaf our faith and our works which are the germination and fruit of that faith Mary Magdalen mistooke Christ for the Gardiner and Saint Augustin commends her mistake How can we dislike the figure in his Deputy the King when God is here pleased to expresse His Office by Planting and plucking up by the Root The disorders of the people are the rubbish of a Land their Vices like weeds the Schismatick is a Thorne in the sides of the Church the factious a Thistle in the State He that desires to make a cleer and flourishing Common-wealth must cleanse the soile from such rank weeds extirpe the Brambles and lop off the feare boughs else never can any Plantation of good Morality or Religion thrive I need not further pursue the Metaphor These last words present unto your view the two Pillars upon which a Kingdome leanes the Justice and Mercy of the King The one in the conservation of good Plants and cherishing such dispositions as are built for vertue to inhabit These are the Duo verba laeta saith Saint Hierom The other in punishing the bad expressed in Quatuor Tristibus in foure sad words though the Septuagint sets down but three {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} These Quatuor Infausta for our Trâ—nslation numbers them according to St. Hierom the Chaldee Paraphrase Rooting out and pulling down and destroying and throwing downe comprehend the Coercive power of Christ as King For which cause â—xpositors illustrate this place by the Iron Râ—d wherewith he bruiseth the Nations and the Sharp Sword in the Revelation This Coercive power hath he committed to his Deputy And it is one of the flowers of the Crown peculiar to his Regall Office Naturally and Regularly exercised by the King for by his masters warrant He beares the Sword and saith Saint Paul He beares it not in vaine Indeed He should beare it in vaine did it either sleep in the Soabberd through the slack execution of Lawes or when it should strik were it hindred and withheld by other hands who as Judges of the Kings Actions countermand that Authority which God intended as Absolute as it is Lawfull Much more if when it is drawne out the edge
should be turned against Him Arise O Sword and smite my Shepheard was the barbarous inhumanity used towards Christ and I confesse oft-times since practised upon His Vicegerent I doe not onely meane the Sword of Excommunication more frequently used by the Bishop of Rome then his Crosyer At which weapon also Knox and Buchanan have shewed themselves as cunning Fencers as he but the Materiall the Criminall Sword And this defended as stiffely by those you scarcely would suspect Men who like the mutinous Israelites upon all occasions of pretended discontent cry downe Moses and set up an Idoll made out of popular Votes and Contributions Men who have found an arme to weild the Sword of Justice which God never appointed in the mannage of which irregular Authority they have presumed to set the people on the Bench and place the King at the Barre Heare it justified by one of their own pennes Rex cum ad populi judicium vocatur Minor ad Majorem in jus vocatur when the King is cited by the People the lesse is brought in question by the greater Ecce iterum Buchananus est mihi saepe vocandus Ad partes This is strange stuffe which I know as much offends you who are dutifully met in the feare of God and in this Holy Place to do Honor unto His Annoynted whom He hath set over you to heare as me to rehearse How much more ingenuously mannerly do the Jesuits deale with Princes then these kinds of men Suarius in his Book written against our late learned Soveraigne Post quam Rex legitimè constitutus est supremam habet potestatem in his omnibus ad quae illaÌ„ accepit etiamsi à Populo illam acceperit Admit the King were made by the people as it is quite otherwise He is constituted by God yet being made he hath an absolute independant and unquestionable Authority over the People And Mariana thus writes Adjuncta est Regia Majestas quasi Multitudinis Custos The King is that Person unto whom God hath committed the charge and custody of the people A truth which ye have the more reason to value since it comes from their pens whom you all know to have been none of the best friends to Soveraignty But Magna est veritas Great is the truth every where and great this truth which extorts consent from these and will evict it from all but such who praeposterous to Gods order and method will needs read this Text backward turning the heeles to Heaven the head to Earth whiles they goe about to whelme the Kingdome over the King and set the Nations that is the people above Him whom God hath set over them I have set Thee over Nations and Kingdomes I have done with the Text and should here end But your expectation and the duty I owe to this Day require some just Commemoration from me Here therefore my Eccè turns to you who in your relation to the Text are concerned with the King If I have hitherto spoken of a King is he King for his own sake or for yours No the Text tels he is Super vos constitutus He is set over you As God then hath given him the Kingdome so he hath given you the King Vobis datus est and in that gift as he hath Crowned the King with a Crown of Gold he hath Crowned you with a Garland of Peace There was a time when there was no King in Israel would you know the Character of that time Every man did what was good in his own eyes No Law then but Lust and Will the Rule of each ones Actions Might arm'd with injury and violence made the weaker Subjects and outrage was authorised by the power of the Actour Think how beyond all expression miserable your case were should the anger of God cause those times to revert upon you When barbarous Rapes and hoâ—rid Massacres cries wherewith your eares have never been acquainted should sound in every corner of your City Here then begin your thanks to God that to prevent all these mischiefes He hath given you a King And now as God once said to Moses in the top of Mount Pisgah let me say to you Lift up your eyes Westward and Northward and Southward and Eastward Look upon any other parts of the World which are governed without a King or where there is a King yet so abridgd in his Authority that He is as it were in Wardship to a Senate or some such Supervisors in Saint Pauls phrase Vnder Tutours and Governours and from the manifest inconveniences which Plurality of Rulers hath produced in the World for They are a punishment to a Land learn to prize your own happinesse under one Ruler as he in Homer {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and to pray that those may never be Masters of their will who would subject either Him or you to then Tumultuous Parity Look forth yet once more upon Kingdomes governed by formes Monarchall and Absolute as yours and think whether Talem Constituit whither God hath set such a one over them as over you Whether the People in Davids words are in such a case as you free to the exercise of true Religion and quietly enjoying every man his own and from these steps you will finde cause abundant to raise the measure and to multiply the acts of your thankesgiving to Almighty God and to say He hath not dealt so with any other Nation When in the gratefull apprehension of these blessings you have applied unto your selves what I have now said I shall most properly apply all other circumstances of this Text both to the Day and to the Person in whose honour it is solemnized I may indeed justly take up the words of our Saviour in the Gospell This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your eares Fifteene yeares are now fully run out since God who Taketh away and setteth up Kings did with one hand both take from us and restore He translated one King into his own Kingdome established another upon this Throne Thus Dominus dedit Dominus abstulit The Lord gave and the Lord tooke away Blessed be the Name of the Lord This very day was our Skie darkned and by the setting of a Sunne ever Glorious and Memorable in his Race an unnaturall mid-night threatned us even at Noone day for then He fell yet I may truely say Sol occubuit nox nulla secuta est though that Light was taken from our eyes no night ensued for a New Light kindled out of His Ashes began to shine upon us and that Stella de Jacob in a good sense That Starre of Jacob who was risen long before and though at some distance sparkled in our hopes now increasing in the proportion of his light appeared as he drew neere a perfect Sunne in our Zodiack Where ever since He hath happily runne and may he there long continue
in Himself and longer in His Posterity even whilst the Sunne and Moon in the Firmament continue their Motion and Light That so this Hodiè in my Text may beare towards Him some part of that signification which it doth to Christ his Master whose yesterday and to day is for ever This day hath God set Him up and Over Nations and Kingdomes literally so Those who are well read in the Schoole of Honour and have taken the Altitude of Princes Titles define foure Dukedomes to the making of a Kingdome and foure Earledomes to each of them How God hath magnified that sacred Person whom He hath set over you may be discerned in the number of His Realmes Under His Scepter are Severall Kingdomes and shall I say different Nations or rather what more commends the skill and confirmes the greatnesse of the Builder Two of Them by Union made One According to that of the Prophet Faciam eos in gentem unam I will make them one Nation How that Cement which combin'd them is now grown loose or that distance appeares to make them look like Two againe becomes not me to dispute I will rather pray that He who is the Great Peace-maker may in his good time close the rupture and as our Gracious Soveraigne hath by all meanes endeavoured their Re-uniting in this according to the Text truely Cementarius So in the returne to their Obedience unto Him They may be rendred One with Us againe Onely this with much joy I must take leave to say That what ever else occasions the difference Religion cannot be the Cause It was blasphemously spoken by Rabshakeh Let not thy God deceiv◠thee in whom thou trustest In all Christian modesty I say to you Let not any on whose trust you relie Those who undertake to speak from God deceive you by perswading This to be the Cause I appeale to their own Conscience if they dare be tryed by truth whether in any One Fundamentall point our Church hath shrunk from the Orthodox Faith or fallen neerer to Popery Now then at the first Reformation Our Sacraments as then so now administred that no jealousie of Romish Superstition or slighting profanation can taint either Him that Gives or those that Receive Our Ceremonies the same and Those much praised and indeed admired by learned Bucer in his Censure passed upon the English Liturgy at the request of Archbishop Cranmer Egi gratias Deo qui dedisset vobis has Caeremonias eo puritatis reformare nec enim quicquam in illis deprehendi quod non sit ex verbo Dei desumptum aut saltem ei non adversetur commodè acceptum And by Calvin earnestly commended to those English who fled to Frankeford whom he exhorts to Conform And as he perswades them to be lesse Rigid Vos ultra modum rigidos esse nolim so He professeth that himself would become more moderate and if ever he lived to Print his works anew correct those asperities which gave offence Hoc quoque non gravatim agnosco Nos si quandò recudantur opera nostra quae rudiora erant expolire mitigare quae asperius dicta c. Denique in quibus offensionis periculum veremur moderari etiam mitigare Lastly our Book of Common Prayer whose Forme for the generall is according to Mr. Calvins own Rule in his Epistle to the L. Protector of England Setled and Constant whose particular Matter by Bucer Peter Martyr and other learned Divines who lived in the Time of the Reformation was approved as a work beyond Exception every way consonant to the Word of God * In descriptione Communionis Quotidianarum Precum nihil video in Libro esse descriptum quod non sit ex Divinis Literis desumptum si non ad verbum ut Psalmi Lectiones tamen sensu ut Collectae For which cause he exhorts that with all religious care it should be retained and vindicated from neglect Religione igitur summâ retinenda erit vindicanda haec ceremonia This I say continues not varied from the second Service Book of King Edward VI but in some Two Circumstances One in the Litany where somewhat is left out the Other in the Communion where somewhat is added as the Act before our own declares And therein Those very words whose omission in the last Printed Service Books occasioned so much Cavill are justly the same with King Edward the Sixths Service Book of the first Edition If any doubt the truth of what I deliver let their own Eye resolve them It was St. Pauls commendation of the Berans that they took not things upon trust but themselves searched to see if they were so indeed I would faine commend their Example to you who if you can be content so to do you wil neither be misperswaded by any who for their own ends suggest apparant falshoods nor prejudicate those who contradict them You see the Latitude of the Kings Domination considered in the Subjects Nations and Kingdomes Will you see in what manner He hath exercised His Power over Them And here I appeale to all Under what Kings Scepter hath been greater care taken to prevent Divisions and weed Faction out of the Church Witnesse that Declaration of his Majesty which banish'd those abstruse controversies concerning Gods Decrees of Election or Reprobation from the Pulpit Themes which onely filled the Hearers with scruples and sent them home with feares Teaching by it busie men to preach Christ as they ought not Themselves by venting their dangerous wit or Spleen Or when hath more sedulitie been used to remove all scandalous Rubbish out of the State which ill morality or lawlesse abuse of locall custome had contracted When held Distributive Justice which Plato terms {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Prop of Kingdomes a more equall Ballance to give every man his owne Or when hath Criminall Iustice been tempered with more Mercy It was a just complaint of Draco'es Laws in Lacedaemonia that their Execution was as bloody as their Character for they were written in Bloody Letters And the Romans lamented the cruelty of those Tribunals where the cheape Proscription of Lives made the Judgment Seate little differ from a Shambles Poore men sould for shoos so the Prophet Or as the Turks to this day sell heads so many for an Asper If there be as I would hope otherwise any such amongst us who make such low account of mens lives that they destroy where they might Build hopes of amendment or Pluck up by the Root where they need but pare the Leafe If there be any who in discharge of such places are governed more by Custome then Conscience who take dark Circumstance and lame surmise for Evidence rashly giving Sentence and as precipitately proceeding to Execution Let their own Soules runne the fearefull hazzard of this Account They learne it not from Him who placed them on the Tribunall whose