Crecians and robbed the Temple of Apollo they slew many of them rased three of their prime Cities causing them to dwell afterwards in villages laid a taxe of threescore talents yearly for the repairing the Temple Oh then that that sin which hath been held a horrid crime amongst Heathens should be accounted a prime virtue amongst Christians is it not a shame that the light of Nature should shine brightlier then the light of the Gospel is it not a scandal that God should provoke such Professours to jealousy by a foolish Nation Shall Gentiles teach Christians Divinity how will these justify their selves at the last day when the Heathens shall rise up in judgement against them If ye are then to look upon a King as a King beware of Salomons winking eye When ye have not faithful eyes to look upon a King Chrys hom 55. in Iohan. ye will soon have treacherous feet yea amissis oculis frustra sunt pedes if your eyes have lost their reverence to a King your feet will soon have lost their obedience to him I trust our King hath none about him which are troubled in their eye-sight if he should then those which have bad eyes will soon have bad hearts I wish them all to have good optick nerves good Crystalline humours good visory spirits Pity it is that there should be any vermine at Court any spiders hanging upon the Kings rafters that there should be any bad tongues nigh to the Kings eares any bad eyes nigh to the Kings face no though there may be some distempered sights in the Kingdome yet it were shame and horrour if there should be a Polyphemus and a Cyclops howsoever a Tiresias and a Hypsea What they which eat the Kings bread and are sworne to preserve the Kings person not clear-sighted to see his honour then they deserve neither the eyes in their heads nor the necks on their shoulders The Furcifer is the fittest Oculist to cure such bloud-shotten eyes And as I would take all bad eyes out of the Court so my desire is to free the Kingdome from such bad-sighted people Rebellion is an high defect in the eye of Subjection therefore let all beware how they comply with the sand-blind stark-blind generation for If the blind lead the blind both will fall into the ditch Therefore if there be a King then amongst you give him the reverence and right of his Name that is be ye Loyal to him Do ye all then make a Covenant with your eyes not to look upon a maid that beautifull Damosel of disloyalty if she with her fair speech can make you to yield and with her flattering lips intice you to step in to her ye go like an oxe to the slaughter and like a fool to the stocks of correction till a dart doth strike through your liver or ye be as a bird which hasteneth to the snare not knowing that it is for your life Beware therefore that ye do not commit fornication with that noted prostitute she will bring you to a morsel of bread and hunt for your precious life howsoever a wound and dishonour ye shall get and your reproach shall never be wiped away Keep therefore a chast heart to your own Bridegroom and seek not after strange flesh If ye do commit uncleannesse ye may thank your wandring eyes and your eyes full of adultery Monarchy is that Government which ye ought to be espoused to Look therefore where ye should look and see whom ye should see and that is a King See him to be a King and see him as a King for that duty is that which must compleat the delight of my Text Thine eyes shall see the King Fifthly this doth serve to reprove them which would quite take a King out of the world which would not have one King for any eye to look upon these are the right Basiliskes to sting to death the Basilic calling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a King shall be so farre from being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the foundation of a Commonwealth that he shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mischief and destruction of a Commonwealth Good Commonwealth-men they are in the mean while which take away the honour and Ornament of a Commonwealth For a King in a Commonwealth is like the heart in the body the root in the tree the Spring in the stream the Eagle in the skye the Sun in the firmament these pink-eyed people look upon a King not only with disdain but defiance Neque mel neque apes Tryphon They like not the hony of Government nor the Bee that should afford it them This wild colt that he might not be backed at all neigheth up and down in the world against the Rider and saith Aristoph Tolle calcar take away the very Spur. To such a King is an heart-gripe an eye-sore yea they can look upon their Fawnes and Satyres Anakims and Zanzummims Arbahs and Ashbibenobs with more delight then upon a King What need have we of a King what doth a King amongst us They have cried themselves so long to be the free-born people of England that they would not onely be free in respect of liberty but free in respect of Soveraignty Oh this same Monarchy say they is the great bondage of the world King-ship and Gospel-ship cannot stand together Virgil. Cur non Mopse why not brother of Christ How can Christ be a King here when he saith that his Kingdom is not of this world doubtlesse these persons make themselves Angels which expect Christ to Reign over them Why may not Kings here exercise authority when Christ suffered them He paid tribute to Caesar and wished all men to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars Why do he himself often compare himself to a King and call himself the King of Kings if there should be no such thing as a King Was is not prophesied that Kings should be noursing Fathers to the Church yes and in the time of the Gospel it is said that Kings shall hate the Whore and eat her flesh and burn her with fire Rev. 17.16 and that not onely the people which are saved should walk in the light of the new Jerusalem but that the Kings of the earth should bring glory and honour to it Rev. 21.24 In what one place of the whole Scripture is it said that there shall be no Kings no I find it not in Holy writ but in holy fancy in the Acts of the Pragmatical I believe the religion of the businesse is rapine that such might share amongst them the Crown-Land every Mechanick might sit in a Chaire of State goodly Domination we should have under such Kings their free Monarchy would be as good as their free Ministery But let them leave fulminating against Kings for I do not find in the whole Bible one thunder-bolt cast at the calling If Scripture be their Rule I do not see there but that Kings may as well enjoy their Robes
ENGLAND'S BEAUTY In seeing KING CHARLES the SECOND Restored to MAJESTY Preached by THO. REEVE D. D. in the Parish Church of Waltham-Abbey in the County of Essex I have broken the bonds of your yoake and made you goe upright Levit. 26.13 In that day will I raise up the Tabernacle of David that is fallen and close up the breaches thereof and I will raise up the ruines thereof and will build it as in the dayes of old Amos 9.11 Sursum versus sacrorum fluminum feruntur fontes Euripid. LONDON Printed by I. R. for the Authour 1661 To the most Potent and Puissant MONARCH CHARLES the II. KING of GREAT BRITAIN c. DREAD SOVERAIGN GOD hath given us a Sight the Sight of your Self How many aking eyes where there once to see You how many ravished eyes may there be now to behold You Every one could not present such a Sight no He in Heaven Restituit Patriis Androgeona focis Hath restored You to your Fathers Throne to be looked upon as a glorious Spectacle Propert. l. 1. We saw for many years nothing but the horrid faces of strange Rulers and now we have your Face of true Majesty to bless our eyes with forma tum vertitur oris Antiquum in Buten Virg. Ae. neid 9. Oh that we had good eyes in our heads to discern the difference of Objects what a change is this that whereas we saw nothing but Usurpers in their Barbarousnesse Our eyes do now see a King in his Beautie Your absence was the Bane Your presence is the Beautie of the Nation To apply all this Beautie to Your Self perhaps would be judged flattery therefore have I endeavoured to shew Your three Kingdomes that there is a derivative Beauty in You namely that your Majestie is our Beautie For how is a Nation obscured if it hath not a King in it and how is it illustred if it hath a King reigning in Royal Splendour and Imperial dignity I wish that there be 〈◊〉 Iudges of Beautie in the Land and that there be none which are ready to strike at the face of Beautie It doth grieve me that when you have brought delight to the eyes of Millions and put peace into all hands yet that there should be left amongst us some glaring eyes and menacing hands The Jesuit to such may resigne his malicious eyes and mischievous hands What need those King-vexers and Gad-flyes of Monarchs plot treasons and kindle dissentions when we have Incendiaries and State-troublers of our own Ab pudeat certe pudeat Propert l. 2. For is it not an infamy that a Reformed Church should agree with the Church of Rome in the Gun-room that men should cast out Popery at the portal and take it in at the posterne Which of these are the better Subject Arcades ambo Horat. Both of them can level at Kings For the honour of religion then these must ever hereafter lay aside dissentions and lay down armes against Kings or else there will not onely be the treacherous and fatal Jesuit but the odious and omirous Protestant For conscience sake therefore I trust a King shall not need to fear a frighting or a fighting Protestant For must a face of Majesty smile upon all Designers or Beauty espouse it self to every Corrival or else shall there be weapons drawn to force favour and affection this is bad morality and worse divinity For where did they learn this sure I am not in Scripture for that saith Fear God and honour the King and I advertise thee to take heed to the Kings Commandment and that in respect of the Oath of God Therefore men must seem to have no reverence to Gods lawes nor dread of perjury or else their brains must leave plotting and their hands leave braining They may find these grounds of conspiracy in old Achitophel or new Mariana but confident I am that they cannot in the Old Testament or the new Except then they would burn their Bibles and make Humour their Holy writ they must consume to ashes such principles and practises We have been shamed enough farre and nigh for such paradoxes and stratagemes and cursed be they which do renew the next scandal The honour of the Church and the Beauty of the Kingdome are then gone Have Protestants against Papists sheathed up their swords and shall Protestants against Protestants unsheath theirs what against their fellow Professours what against their natural King oh inexorable oh incorrigible King-haters Men have been mad and some distempers we have lately found but surely this phrenzy will not alwayes last Let them look your Majesty through and what occasion can they find in you of disgust distast or so much as discontent So far as I can perceive your Majesty doth but seek your Native Right the established Religion the fundamental Lawes the Honour of the Highest the freedome of the meanest the welfare of the Nation the Peace of the Kingdome and they may see as well as I that your graces are conspicuous your qualifications eminent your carriage affable your Government mild your counsailes prudent your actions Heroical your life spotless and your conscience sincere except therefore they would have an Angel to reign over them where can they have in flesh and blood a more desired man what heart then can have a rancorous thought against such a King No I hope to see all your Enemies blush at their causeless anger and senseless spight yea to fall down at your Royall Feet and repent that they have been so inconsiderate and weep that they have been so unkind Bear but with their former failings pardon that which is past as what cannot that Royal Heart of Yours that is the living spring of clemency wash out of your remembrance and me think your Majesty should have felt the last of animosities and triumphs people will not alwayes kick against the pricks and run upon the speares spoint of divine lawes but do that which God hath obliged them to even honour your Person acknowledge your Authority submit to your Edicts admire your Perfections and be knit to you in the adamantine chains of Fidelity and Loyalty that this wasted Country may once again become a flourishing Nation and the Kingdom of Triumphs Thus in all Humility prostrating my Self at your Majesties Royal Feet and Praying for your long Life your increase of Princely Honours your lasting Peace and everlasting Blisse submissively I take leave and rest Your Majesties Devoted Subject in all unstained and inviolable Loyalty THO. REEVE ENGLAND'S BEAUTY Esay 33.17 Thine eyes shall see the King in his Beauty HEre is Senacherib in a fury and Hezekiah in a fray Senacherib was guilty of much rapine and he would authorize his robberies under Gods broad seale for thus saith his Commissioner General Am I now come up without the Lord against this place to destroy it the Lord said to me Go up against this Land and destroy it 2 Kings 18.25 so that prey is piety and
Crown and sit in the Chair of State peasants were Princes and Mechanicks Monarchs never such a spawne of new Lords nor a litter of upstart Rulers seen paradoxes were principles and Sanctity was little better then South-saying the Temple was a kind of Tiring-room liberty was leaguing free trade was purchasing Delinquents Estates and allegiance was conspiracy Were there ever so many fundamental Lawes overthrown so many families ruined so many millions spent so many bowels torn out in five hundred years within this Realm as there were in this short space of King-routing alas consciences estates priviledges speeches looks affections labours lawes lives were all subject to the will of the insulting Conquerour So that as Pyrrhus said of Sicily in respect of the Romans Sabell l. 9. Eâ— 4. and Carthaginians so might it be said of this Land in respect of our factious Rulers it was but the Stage where mad men plaid their prizes and as Ate is said to be cause of all the labours of Hercules so our ejecting a King was the Original of all the miseries of the Nation In those dayes when there was no King in Israel every man did that which was good in his own eyes Judg. 17.6 and we found it for humour was then order power was law and divination was the Divinity of the times The Fox-burrow of Triers took away mens gifts the Cutpurse-hall of a Committee of Indemnity took away mens rights and the bloudy Shambles of an High Court of Justice took away mens heads Oh sad age of arbitrary commands oh dismal Reigne oh miserable Realm without a King will ye ever engage again to be ruled without King or House of Lords will ye ever be ready to take an oath of Abjuration again against a single Person Then be ye for my part single and singular desperate and wilfull Bondmen For it is to make the whole Nation a slave to be destitute of a King the presence of a King being the preservation of a Kingdome for Thine eyes shall see the King Thirdly this doth serve to exhort us to be chearfull Seers For have ye got a King again to look upon Virg. visum mirabile Cunctis It is a sight that the eyes of a whole Nation might behold with admiration Do ye not blesse your eyes then that ye are seeing that which ye have been so long seeking for Do ye not know what ye could not see what ye would have seen what ye do see Do the delight of a Kingdom grieve you doth the desire of your eyes offend you Have ye not what can be seen can ye see a better If thine eye then offend thee pluck it out pluck out that evil glaucome out of thine eye The eye is the light of the body Have as clear an eye as can be to see so bright an Object Is there a diseased eye here oh cure the malady Are there any moles here away with such Blinkards are there any Bats here away with such unlucky birds Did the sight of Ostriches offend you and shall not the sigh of a Phoenix please you Quivis delectatur cum lumen videat Demosth Ficinus Every man is delighted when he doth see the light and what is a King but the Light of our eyes The eye doth receive the beams of the Sun in a spiritual manner so do ye the sight of a King that glorious Sun Was Jacob so delighted when he heard that his Son Joseph was alive that his heart failed him and his spirit revived Gen. 25.27.28 Were the Israelites so affected when they heard that the Arke which had a long time been kept captive amongst the Philistines was returning that they left their wheat-harvest to look upon the Arke 1. Sam. 6.13 were the Jewes in Shushan so transported that Hamans bloudy decree was reversed that it caused joy and gladnesse amongst them and they kept a Feast and a good day 9. Ester 22. then what great melody and festivity may it be to us that we have our Joseph to look upon our Arke gilded within and without to behold and a day of Purim to keep for a deliverance from the savagest decree that the malice of man could invent Oh that we have opportunity to commemorate these things that we have the happiness with our eyes freely to see them was it a joyfull thing once to hear of a King and shall it not be much more joyfull to see a King yes the sense of sight is much more perfect then that of hearing Sensus visus perfectior est auditu Plotinus If your eyes then should not take pleasure in that which was once so comfortable to your eares your eyes are wonderfully distant from your eares as Thales said Oh then that all the hearts of the Kingdome should not spring with joy that all the feet of the Kingdom should not leap with Triumph that all the eyes of the Kingdom should not gaze with pleasure to see such a solacing satisfying triumphant Object presented to the sight Ye have not now a King living or honoured beyond Sea or counted worthy of a Crown by very strangers which conversed with him but the faces of his own people are blessed with the sight of him he is come towards you he is come near you he is come home to you And what went ye out to see nay what is brought into your Throne to see Can there be a more bright amiable delectable splendid illustrious supereminent matchlesse majestical sight for the eyes of a whole Realm to look upon then a King no Thine eyes shall see the King Fourthly this serves to exhort all to make a King Royal. And how Royal but in being your selves Loyal How is he a King without Royalty and how are ye Subjects without Loyalty The Hebrewes have a Proverb that a man should fly out of that Kingdom where a King is not obeyed And doubtlesse no Nation shaken with a Quag-mire or tossed with an Earth-quake is more dangerous to stand upon Rebellions are the burning feavers of Realmes the Deluges of States the Eclipses of Nations the Hericanoes of Kingdomes Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft Sam. 15.23 for then all the Magicians are at work and using all the prestigiatory inventions of their black Art Simon Magus Balaam Jannes and Jambres had not more pernicious rules and practises then these State-witches they are like the Bythiae in Scythia which had four apples of the eye in their heads Plin. l. 7. c. 2. and killed all which they looked upon with their angry eyes Traitours upon earth are but the disciples of Judas or the State-students of Achitophel or the Spirits that learn their aspiring Art of Lucifer Goodly pedagogues that they are trained under if I would have an Academy of Hell set up I would have Traytours there commence and become Graduates The Law taught no such principles No The Fathers children must bow down before him that is in chief authority Gen. 49.8 Who can lay
as they their unlaced Jackets The Gospel doth take away from none propriety nor from Kings Prerogative Christ knew that Kings would be the best Guardians to his Church for from whom hath Christianity received more suffrage and Patronage favour and furtherance promotion and propagation then from Kings who were greater Foster-fathers to Religion then Constantine Theodosius Justinian Gratian Tiberius the second Theophilus and many others oh these were the great Pillars to support the building the Torch-bearers of faith the high Stewards in Christ Court and the high Chamberlains to the spouse of Christ Jesus The Church had never more Soveraignty then by these pious Princes wearing the Cross upon their Crowns When Kings had the command of the Churches mint there was coine truly stamped we had since little else but Alchynâ—y when these Fathers begat Children to God Almighty we had a lovely Progeny we have had since too many Harmaphrodites Aliud sceptrum aliud plectrum It is one thing to be a good Monarch another thing to be a good Minstrel vulgar spirits are not fit for publick Government Quid caeco cum speculo What should a blind man do with a glasse so what should an ignorant Plebeian do with the glasse of Magistracy Feli crocoton shall the Mouse-catcher weare the Robe of honour Alia Menecles alia Porcellus The Trades-man doth speak of one thing and the Prince of another What then is not every man fit to be a Prince and yet are there men apt to pull down Princes that Kings being stripped Canvas-coat might weare the Robe Alas è squila non nascitur rosa there must be an indoles for Government What then shall we have Prince blown away with a whirle-wind no Christ cannot spare them He which doth give lawes for Princes to be reverenced doth not make them Out-lawes Christ will not lose his chief and best servant out of his Family Christ doth find Princes so beneficial to him that his Kingdom and their Kingdom shall fall together And yet these Larves of profession Hob-goblins of Christianity Zanies of the Gospel Decoyes of faith and Cacodaemons of a Church what a clamour do they raise in the world to pull down all Princes But they which are Arch-Dissemble is in other things which say they are all spirit and yet we find them rank flesh which say they must not fight and yet they are ever with a sword in their hands which say they must turn the other cheek also and yet are ever anon fisting our cheeks which say that they desire nothing but liberty of conscience yet their practise hath been to inslave all them which are not of their own conscience which say that they would possesse the earth as the incek and yet have possessed the earth as the furious these men as they have been equivocal in all other things so much more in this of Government for they would have no Kings that Beggars might be Kings not to carry the name but to exercise the power of Kings to the height To get the Scepter into their hand how turbulent and truculent have they been Germany hath felt enough of them by the uproars which were raised by Thomas Muntzer John Buckhold David Georg Bernard Knipperdoling c. but the saddest Tragedy hath been reserved to be acted upon our Stage Who have refled houses and steyned the land with bloud more then the Anabaptists Levellers and fifth Monarchy-men In all the wars who were more forward and fierce then these whose voyces were louder whose swords were sharper who have shewn more rage against the Kingdome and more rancour against Kings Are not these the men which chased away our Dread Soveraign Charles the first of blessed memory from his Court which fought against him to the last stroke which when they had taken him prisoner carried him up down the Land in Triumph plucked him to prison when he was ready to be restored to his Throne which set up an High Court of Justice against him arraigned him cried out for Justice against him condemned him and the saddest word which ever was spoken in Christendom beheaded him Are not these the men which did vote that our Dread Soveraign Charles the second of blessed presence should never return to his Throne and when to astonishment he was voted in was there not their great Champion with his Myrmidons at his heels at Edge-hill what in him and his lay to keep him out when by Miracle he was brought into the Nation were not these the men which have been continually murmuring and mutining and breaking out into bloudy attempts threatning at one time that they would destroy the King and all the Royall race and assayling at another time to have blunderbussed both King and Kingdome Yet is it not to be feared that the wild beast of the Forrest shall be let loose to range again shall we hardly believe the Tiger to be cruel till he hath gorged himself with a general slaughter Are such to be won with kindnesse or reclaimed with clemency No I am afraid that they are Cockatrices that will never be charmed And yet some mortified man or other will be pleading for these self-denying brethren saying this will be the last of their practises and therefore pardon that which is past Pardon what till they dash out our brains with a pardon in their hands Is it pity to spare vermine Leopards Crocodiles Beware of Sauls pity in sparing Agag till the Kingdom be rent away for him or of Ahabs pity in sparing Benhadad till life go for life 1 Kings 20.42 Such prodigious male-contents are ominous and if they be not timely severely punished they threaten a bloudy fate to the whole Nation that the King shall be made a Sacrifice and the Kingdom a whole Burnt-offering What the last wind-up of such a connivence will be Plut. mox sciemus melius vate In a short time we may know better then if any Prophet foretold it Post rem devoratam ratio When all is devoured Seneca shall we then consult how to preserve our selves Is not the hazard at this time great yes men cannot eat with comfort nor trade with safety nor walk with confidence nor sleep with quiet so long as the Canaanite is in the Land The Kingdom cannot have peace till the head of Sheba be cast over the walls Let us not trust their soft speeches till they have made us speechlesse nor their pale faces till they have made us look with grisly faces I read of Mahometane Hermits which lived in woods as men dead to the world till they had gotten disciples enough about them and they set upon the King of Fez and Marocco Knolles in his Turkish History and deprived him both of Crown and life So this critical hypocritical generation will so long infatuate us with their tender consciences till they cut in pieces our tender heart-strings Robes and Rochets Stars and Collars of S. S. look to your selves if
things which do immediately pertain to a King should have an inherent dignity in them yea Valer. M. l. 3. c. 1. it is not fitting reliquias Regis jacere inhonoratas that the very Reliques of a King should remain without honour as Val. Maximus saith concerning Perses Traseas though a great Priest in Rome was accused because he was not present in the beginning of the year to take the solemn Oath to the Emperour Tacit. l. 16. nor did appear at the publication of the publick vowes for his health So any thing which tends to the diminution of a Kings honour is reprehensibile and criminal Cicero pleading for Deiotarus a King saith Semper in hac civitate regium nomen sanctum fuit Tull. orat pro Deiotaro The name of a King was ever holy in this City So that is the best City and Country where the name of a King is most Sacred the person of a King most reverenced Wherefore doth the Scripture say Fear God and honour the King 1 Pet. 2.17 but that God would have a King to be honoured as well as himself to be feared There was a custome in Lacedemonia that men should rise up to none but the King Neraclides in Lacedem rap and the Ephori and doubtlesse a distinct veneration do belong to Kings He that doth take away from a King his prepotency and Supremacy had as good steal the Crown Jewels The Voon that is the King of Japonia had a ponyard lying on the one side of his Throne and a bow and arrowes on the other side of his Throne to shew that they which did wound the Kings honour were fit to be dispatched out of the world Ioh. Mâ—tellus and I think that our Kings have a Scepter and a Sword for the same end Facilem se praebeat Princeps Callistrat l. 5. coguit § 1. sed contemni non patiatur Let a Prince shew himself affable to the people but let him not suffer himself to be contemned For if he hath lost his dignity he is a King but without Royalty An arrogant Courtier or an insolent Statesman that is too bold with the Kings power is next to a Rebel which doth fight against him with an armed hand A wise counsel is requisite for a King but counsel had need have in it two grains of modesty to one of direction If it troubled David so much that he had cut off the lap of Sauls garment then how may it trouble them which cut off half of the Robe of Majesty Tacit. l. 1. annal Auctoritas Principis nata est ex metu admiratione The authority of a Prince is begotten of fear and admiration When a King then hath lost his dread and reverence he is but a painted Sun Vulgus facile insolescit Q. Curt. l. 8. The vulgar is apt to grow insolent but this audaciousnesse is to be repressed Arist l. 5. polit c. 11. Dio. Cass l. 52. hist Therefore Aristotle would not have too much honours given to Subjects lest they should hold themselves Compeers with their Prince Periculosum semper est nomen privati hominis supra principis attolli It is ever perillous for the name of any private man to be equalled or preferred before the Prince Majestas in Principe est velut anima regni Seneca l. 1. de Clem. Dio Cass l. 41. histor Majesty in a Prince is as it were the soul of the Kingdom Quam tuta navigatio est ubi nautae gubernatori non pareant what safe sayling is there where the Mariners do not obey the Ship-Master Contempt is as great a seeds-man of rebellion as hatred for the one is begotten of ambition as well as the other of discontent It was contempt which raised up Arsaces against Sardanapalus Dion against Dionysius Cyrus against Astyages and Senthes against Amadocus oh it is an heavy thing when subversa jacebit Pristina Majestas soliorum Plut. in Rom. Apoph O Remp. brevi perituram in quâ viri principes Consultant populus autem imperitae plebeculae decernit P. Crinit l. 1. de honest disciplin c. 4. When the Majesty of Thrones come to be subverted Coturnix a Quayle saith Hesychius doth come of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both which words do signify a bird as if a Quayle were the bird of birds now one of these Quayles fighting with many birds remaining Conquerour over all Erotheus the Procuratour of Egypt bought and thinking that it was as good in tast as in fighting he kild it and eat it which Augustus Caesar hearing of he sent for Erotheus and nailed him to a shipmast because for his appetite he had destroyed a Victorious Bird. If he were so severely punished which abused a Royal Bird then what may they deserve which abase and vilipend Royal Dignity Petrus Crinitus hath a notable discourse that when Anacharsis came to Athens and saw the Princes but onely giving counsell for things to be done the people decreeing all he cried out Oh Commonwealth in a short time coming to ruin where the Princes propound things and the people determine them So if a Prince be not Superiour in command it is to take in pieces the joints of a Throne and to bring down a King that should order all to the wills of Inferiours Let as much honour as can be be given to faithfull Counsell but still let the Prerogative be inviolable It is good advise if well listened to which is given in the 8. of Eccles 2. I advertise thee to take heed to the Kings Commandment and that in respect of the Oath of God because God hath precepted and swore a whole Kingdom to the Commandement of a King For wherefore is he a King if he should stand by to see his Commands vilified and neglected would a master of the anvile or the awle or the frippery wares be thus used Let every one then have his right honour to whom honour belongeth Royalty to whom Royalty belongeth If a King doth want his just authority he is but an appellative King For what is it to see a King weare Robes sit in a Throne hold a Scepter if he doth want his Soveraignty this is but to see a King in his Bravery and not a King in his Beauty In beauty there must be no skarre so in the Government no restraint of just authority He is never a compleat King till there be inconcussa libertas Amb. Petrarch unshaken liberty in governing Leo ubicunque est Leo est A Lion wheresoever he be he is a Lion so a King whersoever he be he must be reigning The King must give the word to the whole Nation all must incline to follow him Judg. 9.3 they must be at his bidding 1 Sam. 22.14 At his word they must go out and at his word they must come in Num. 27.21 They must move forward backward as he doth give the charge A resplendent King
iudgement maintaineth the Countrey Pro. 29.4 for he knoweth that he is therefore constituted King that he might do equity and righteousnesse 1. Kings 10.9 and therefore is a Copy of the Law put into his hand that he may learne to feare the Lord his God and keepe all the words of the Law and the Ordinances Deut. 17.19 Such a King will be like David who fed Jacob his people and Jsrael his inheritance with a faithfull and true heart and ruled them prudently with all his power Ps 78.72.73 Or like Asah who made a covenant with his people to seek the Lord God of his Fathers with all their heart and with all their soul insomuch that he that would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be slayne whether he be small or great man or woman 2. Chron. 15.12.13 or like Jehosaphat who walked in the first wayes of his Father David Melius est civitatem regi à viro optimo quam à lege optimâ Arist politic l. 1. Pictor insignis qui non tantum oculos faciem verum totam imaginem varietate colorum honestat Franc patr Sen. de instit regis l. 2. tit 1. Sedente in se immortali Iudite p. Aemil l. 5. Regum oculis efficacia supra humanam vim inest P. Iovius hist l. 2. Herodot l. 2. Diodor. l. 12. Ced Rhod. l. 19. c. 29. Sigon l. 20. occid Imp. Evagr. l. 5. c. 13. Alex. ab Alex. l. 5. c. 9. Herodot l. 6. and sought the Lord God of his Fathers and walked in his Commandments and not after the trade of Israel 2 Chron. 17.3 4. A good King doth chiefly look to have his Throne established by righteousnesse Prov. 25.5 and that his people under him may lead a peaceable and a quiet life in all godlinesse and honesty I. Tim. 2.2 This is a good King and indeed his worth and value is scarcely known A good King is like a good Spring a good mine a good corner-stone a good Magazine a good Angel which made Aristotle to say that it were better for a City to be governed by the best man then by the best law because his life is a Law and there need no other precept but his precedent He is the rare Painter which maketh his whole Kingdom a picture drawn out with Orient Colours He is so transformed into God that as Ludovicus Crassus wished his son the people may see the immortal Judge sitting in him Which made Paulus Jovius to say that Kings had distinct eyes from other men because they look out with their Princely eyes minding onely the general benefit Such a Prince doth remedy the errours of former Governments as Micerinus did the high enormities of Cheops and Chephren which reigned before him in Aegypt In such an ones Government people leave groaning and there are nothing but laeta fausta pleasant and delightfull things to be seen at it was said of Sitalces or all grievances being removed the Nation liveth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without fear or perplexity as it was said of the reign of Alcimus That wise Governour doth make it his principal art to restore the ancient glory of a Nation as Justinian the great did or like that famous Tiberius the second he hath no other Princely ambition in his brest but that none of his predecessours might exceed him in piety or felicity That Prince is so honoured by the people that like another L. Pifo because he had done all things for the welfare of the Nation he shall be sirnamed Frugi the Profitable yea there are prayers made by the whole Land that such an one may not dye childlesse lest such a renowned family should perish as it is said of Ariston the King of Lacedemonia and if God send an heire for the Fathers virtues they are willing to have the childs name called Demarathus the peoples Darling And well may it be so for a good King doth take his Crown out of Gods hand and doth weare it for his honour his heart is in Heaven and his eye is upon the Church he doth first seek for the purity of religion and is carefull that sacrifices without blemish be brought to the Altar he doth look to conquer rather with his bended knees then his armed hand he doth love his Nobles and not despise his Commons he doth prefer a penitent before a Peere and a just liver before an high-borne Grandee he doth desire to have his Priests undefiled and his Judges uncorrupt he doth want no Majesty and yet doth abound in humanity his speech is gentle and his hand is soft he is passionate against incorrigible sinners and yet compassionate to remorse-full enemies he grieveth at intemperance and hateth blasphemy he liketh neither the laughing Projectour nor the weeping Sectary he would have his Sanctuary without indevotion and his treasury without injury his watchfull conscience is the Squire of his body and his deprecatory petitions his best Life-guard his innocent life is his ingraven Image and his pious examples his richest Medals he doth shine like a Sun himself and doth wish to have none but bright Stars about him next to his own pure heart he doth endeavour to have a pure Court he doth stand upon his own prerogative but catch at none of his people liberties he had rather gild a Kingdom then his Exchequer his Crown-land doth satisfy him better then breaking an Inclosure he can see a Vine-yard out of his Palace-Window without proclaiming himself Owner of it by an Ahabs evidence he would have the liberal Arts to flourish and make if it were possible every Mechenick a Lord of a Mannour he giveth all furtherances for free Trade and quick Merchandise he hoth affect none but the generous and scorn none but the proud he doth commiserate the wants of the poor and he would have the rich to build them Alms-houses he is wise and not vain glorious valiant and yet would never fight chast and yet not an Hermit sober and yet no water-drinker liberal and yet not profuse he is oftenest at his Chappel and oft at his Council-Table he hath a listening ear to just petitions but not to pragmatical motions his heart is set upon nothing more then repairing decayed places and erecting Monuments he would leave behind him a glorious Church and a setled Kingdom he doth govern for God upon earth that he may Reign with God in Heaven Now is not the presence of such a King an Heavenly present hath the rich hand of God a dearer pledge of favour to bestow upon his Bosome friends are all the splendid Spectacles of a Kingdom like to the face of such a Prince no doubtlesse he doth surpasse them all as far as light doth excell darknesse oh then how may all his Subjects have delight under his shadow and clap their hands together that they sive to see such happy dayes his name may be pleasure his Reign Triumph for when their eyes see such a King they see a King in
his Beauty Thine eyes shall see the King in his Beauty Fifthly this doth reprove the blind rage of a Conspiratour in opposing such a King he doth strike at the Beauty of the Land For is there a King in his Beauty then why do such an one endeavour to pluck away from the eyes of a Nation the most glorious sight that can be beheld What would such people have when will they be contented wherein shall they find satisfaction is there any thing upon earth which can keep them long quiet for except they would have their own wills be Lords of all Titles Procuratours for all general affairs Dictatours to rule all by themselves hold the helm of States in their hands order Gods Providence hold no Crown fit to be worn but that which their well-guiding hands shall set on be Supreme and Kings themselves can they desire to be more happy Do they contest with God because he hath made a people so blessed may not God say to them as he doth in the Gospel Is thine eye evil because mine is good For if they had not evil eyes and evil heads and evil hearts and evil hands they would never thus quarrel with Gods will and wisdome and goodnesse What are they weary of a Banquet doth a calm offend them is Sun-shine grievous to them is a gemme troublesome to them to enjoy is a King in his Beauty vexations to them to see alas poor sick eyes and litigious refractary spirits it is pity that ye were not all Secretaries of State and that God did not send his Decrees to you to have your pregnant approbation But this is mans turbulent murmuring nature that the best things are divers times the greatest grievances and that they which cannot govern themselves must be continually querulous against Rulers Ye take too much upon you said Corah and his complices Num. 16.3 Why hast served us thus said the men of Ephraim to Gideon and they chode with him sharply Judges 8.1 How shall he save us and they despised him and brought him no presents 1 Sam. 10.27 See thy matters are good and righteous but there is no man deputed of the King to hear thee oh that I were made a Judge in the Land that every man which hath any matter or controversy might come to me and I might do him Justice said Absalon of Davids Government 2. Sam. 15.3 4. So that there is no Government or Governour will please many men Plut. in Apoph Thus Aristodemus liked not the Government of Antigonus King of Macedonia because he was too liberal and the Court of Lysimachus must be found fault with because there were none but disyllabic men with two syllables in their names as Bythes Athen. l. 14. c. 3. Paris c. which had all the authority under him Augustus Caesar because he would never call the Praetorian bands fellow-soldiers but soldiers he never desiring to make use of them but when he was constrained and because he was so liberal to the Citizens Macrob. l. 2. c. 5. and respective to the Senatours and delighted much in singing he was by Timagenes Labeo and Pollio and some others not thought fit to govern So we have a generation of men still left amongst us that are apt to asperse the most meriting Prince and not onely to stretch out their slanderous tongues but their barbarous hands to pull him down what savage wars have we had in this Nation waged in a blind rage and not onely till the Land hath been sprinkled with the bloud of her Natives but the Scaffold died with the Bloud of a most Innocent King and this King-killing will be a Trade if God from Heaven do not strike an horrour and dread of such an impious act into their hearts Oh ye wild Furies then consider what ye have done consider what ye are about to do Christians ye are not are ye men what ye live in a Country to appal a Country to trouble her peace wa st her treasure to deprive her of the light of her eyes what is a family without a Master what is a Kingdom without a King Repent then for what ye have done and do not think that a pardon is easily gotten an Act of Indemnity may save your necks but it must be an high expiatory Act that must save your souls If David wept so bitterly for the murther of one Uriah ye had need have Davids penitential teares and his penitential Psalm for the thousands that ye have slaine and especially for the murther of that one King that was worth ten thousand of us Ye have immodest cheekes if they have no shame ye have flinty hearts if they have no remorse as stupidly as ye passe over such a guilt it is well if eighteen years repentance nay a strict penance of your whole lives can procure you a reconciliation in Heaven there is a great difference between a dispensation of your partial Prophets and justification at the white Throne of the Judge of quick and dead What then have ye still dry eyes and will ye shed no tears yes springs might gush out of the rocks hearts of adamant might cleave asunder Ahab might go softly and Judas out of horrour of conscience might cry out I have sinned in betraying Innocent Blood If ye have not Ahabs consternations and Judas ' s cryes ye will have frights and stings and yelles enough in Hell There is yet a means of attonement an opportunity of healing if ye be not of the number of them which have hearts that cannot repent Rom. 2.5 try what Suppliants and penitents ye can be ye had need go water every Camp where ye have fought your bloody Battles and to moisten the ground of that Scaffold where that execrable murther was committed with showres of salt water And if ye can work out your peace raise not another war in your consciences if ye can be made whole sin no more Your swords are sheathed draw them not again ye are sent home quietly hang not out a new flag of defiance What have ye to do to be States-men follow your callings and look to take the enormities out of your own lives what are ye to meddle with errours of Government no leave politicks to others neither ye nor your great Masters have any thing to doe with a Kings actions except it be by way of humble advise For Where the word of a King is there is power and who shall say to him what dost thou Eccles 8.3 What have Subjects then to descant upon a Kings Government as if they were his Supra-visours and Guardians The Lawes of God allow no such authority and it is but a State inchantment to say that the fundamental Lawes of this Kingdome have impowred any to call a King to a violent account He hath onely God for his Judge and all the people under him as Liege-men Beware therefore of those puling groanes oh here is a sick State come along with us to administer physick
if the King will not frame up such a Government as we desire we will teach him how to rule by the edge of our swords These are not Physicians but cut-throats God hath allowed no such Paracelsians in a Kingdom to cure a Kings distempers For if a King may not be provoked to wrath he may not be so far provoked as to fight for his life if he may not be spoken evil of or cursed his maladies are not to be remedied by cutting off his head This is rather to be Executioners then State-Doctours I never yet read that there could be a Lictor or a Spiculator or a Carnisex for a King Let the greatest Subjects then busy themselves in preparing Lawes for the Commonwealth and not in prescribing rules to a King in remedying the grievances of the Country and not in avenging grievances which may be suspected by a King in binding the people to obedience and not in bringing a King to account For they are but Subjects and they cannot adde to themselves one cubit above their stature If ye comply with such politicians ye do but please a company of seditious persons and incense the Nation in general for ye cannot do a greater injury to your Country nor offer a greater indignity and violence to true Patriots then to disturb the peace of the Land and to strike at a King For the Kings safety is the Kingdomes Triumph The Nation hath no greater joy then to see the King in his Beauty Thine eyes shall set the King in his Beauty Sixthly this serves to exhort all good Subjects not to disfigure the face of Majesty for if the Beauty of a King be the brightest thing that a Nations eyes can be fixed upon then what a dark Kingdom is there when a King does not shine out in Royal Splendour If every one would have his right that the Cotrager and Commoner would not lose his Country tenure nor the man of noble bloud and honourable family would not lose his peerage then why should not the King have his Jura regalia his Crown-rights I confesse the Propriety of the Subject and plead for it but I find likewise and am an Advocate that there may be Hammelech Melech The Right of a King 1 Sam. 8.11 it is a Right of great antiquity no fundamental Law can vy Seniority with it no multorum festorum Jovis glandes comedit it doth derive the pedigree 4. Nannaso there are antiquiores dipththerae to be brought for it indeed it is as ancient as the Institution now the word do naturally signify Right it is but Metaphorically translated Manner as Buxtorfius and Pagnine declare if it be a Right then it must continue as long as the original Hebrew hold The Text will not perish nor the Title It is the Kings Right but it is Gods Designation and Charter for the Crown I do not say the King should have all I know to the contrary but I say that the King should have his own none ought to say to the contrary especially when it is Jus divinum a Gods-right The Kings Right being setled upon Scripture it is firmer then if it were bottomed upon the best State-groundsel Some say that this is onely meant when God doth give a King in his wrath but I say then that they are in wrath for there is a great distance of time between Samuel and Hosee and between Saul and Jeroboam Kingdomes may have their particular Constitutions in accidental things which do belong to a King but not in the essence of a King especially not against the essence of a divine Institution Let all the just reverence that may be be given to humane Lawes but still let Scripture be sacred and inviolable or else what have we left that is stable infallible The handmaid must not rule the Lady or the star out-shine the Sun all the Sages of a Land must not be wiser then the Oracles of God Virg. 3. Aeneid Parcius istis Cedamus Phoebo moniti meliora sequamur A Prophet that hath understanding in the visions of God is not to be believed in this no If an Angel from Heaven should come and preach otherwise let him be accursed Galath 1.8 Well then what is the Beauty of a King what but his power Take a King without power and what is he but a Ghost without life a meer Phantasme and Apparition How can he do any thing that is Kingly either in setling Religion protecting the Church administring justice making leagues drawing his people to Humiliation for their sins in maintaining the liberties of his people at home or propulsing the violences and affronts of Adversaries abroad no he must sit by with tears in his eyes and deplore all exorbitancies and sad accidents but not be able to remedy them he hath a sympathy but he hath no Soveraignty he hath a will but he hath no power he hath a face but he hath no Beauty in it A Kings authority then is the true Majesty of a King till he can command like a King he doth but personate a King Oh then that the policy of many men is but to designe against the power that their chiefest drift is not in honouring and obeying a King but in restraining and regulating a King that when their purses are empty then they fill them by a Crown-quarrel that when their high parts are not considered then they will be observed to be Master-wits in seeking to master authority and to silence such a Mutiner a Challenger by many a good King must be preferred when many a loyal Champion of as good endowments and better worth must stand upon low ground and this popular Eare-wig creep to his desired height But away with these new dogmatizing principles of State-magick whereby Kings are conjured into politicians Circles or confined to their august limits This may be a Science but I am sure it is none of the liberal Sciences It is a pitiful thing when a King come to be tutoured under such Pedagogues he is then rather a Disciple a pupil then a King for he must do nothing but what is prescribed him nor order any thing but according to commensurations And this is rather Geometry then Monarchy or to make a Mathematical rather then a Majestical King Let the people have their birth-rights Liberties Priviledges but let not liberty eat up Royalty nor birth-right Crown-right nor priviledge Prerogative for then the judgement in Aegypt is fallen upon the Land that the lean kine have eaten up the fat and what then but a famine can be expected The people may be amiable but the King hath no Beauty or the soul of the Kings power is defunct and by a Pythagorean transmigration is past into the body of the people And how will Natives then disregard such a King and how will Forreigners insult over him he shall be able to act nothing neither at home nor abroad The thick smoak in the form of a cloud which was raised by one
burning of beanes might more terrify Charles the fifth Iovius l. 37. hist Plut. in Alexandro and Francis the first at Villafrank they thinking that a Navy of the Turks had been coming and the very dead statue of Alexander at the Temple of Apollo at Delphos might make Cassander sooner tremble then the presence of a King will beget awe or reverence in such a Nation But some will say that Kings ought to have Counsellers and he must be guided by them Ought and must are high words It is convenient I confesse that Kings should have Counsellers for in the multitude of Counsellers there is health Salomon the wise was not without them but then these Counsellours must not be Compellers the King must be the Head of the Counsel a King must not be subjected to their excentrical humours if any such things should happen or to their self-willed and self-ended aymes for these should then be rather projectours then Counsellours or Dictatours then Directours all the Beauty should then be in the Counsellours cheeks and not in the Kings-face Let there be as many Counsellours then as ye will but still let the King have the liberty of election to accept or reject what in his Princely wisdome he thinks fitting for constraining advise belongs rather to headstrong surly Subjects then to true Counsellours A King no doubt may as well refuse ill counsel as ill meat ill weather ill lodging Bad company is dangerous and so likewise is bad counsel Is a King bound to walk in the dark to take receipts of all Empiricks to sail with all winds to go out of the way if his guides mislead him no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lucian in Asin Plut. in Themistoc It were better to run back in the middle of the way then to run wrong That Counsel may be followed there must be sancta penetralia justitiae the holy inwards of justice How is a King at liberty if his judgement be not free his captived person were something like to his captived reason Non per regulas juris communis tenetur sequi eorum consilium Pet. Greg. de rep l. 24. c. 8. quos adhibet consilio The King is not tyed by the rules of common justice to follow their Counsel whom he doth admit to Counsel no ordinary Client is limited to this How is it the Kings honour to search out a thing Prov. 25.2 if the Kings heart must ly in other mens brests why do David say Give thy judgements to the King Ps 72.1 if all the judgements of a Land lay in Counsellours lips or the King hath no commands of himself but by deputation No good King will refuse Counsel no wise King will yoak himself to Counsel The King might then make himself a slave the Church a vassal and the Kingdom a Bondman Then the Land hath lost her Liberty and he himself may lose his Crown For though noble Counsellours disdain to give any Counsel but according to honour and conscience yet there are a company of pragmatical Sages that will be Balaams Jonadabs old Achitophels or young Rehoboams Counsellours If the King then be necessitated to the wits or wills of all Counsellours where is his Scepter and Broad Seale Let there be then Majesty in Kings moderation in Counsellours Soveraignty in Kings sobriety in Counsellours dominion in Kings devoir in Counsellours For if the King be to sit in the Throne and he is the Law-giver of the Nation and people be to seek the Kings face and to listen to the Divine sentence that is to come out of his lips if he be to sit as chief and to dwell like a King in an Army if he be to send forth the Decrees and Nations be to bow down before him if young men ought to hide themselves from him and old men ought to arise and stand up if the voices of Princes ought to be stayed in his presence and after his words they ought not to reply if all the Land ought to wait for him as for the raine and to open their mouthes for him as for the latter raine then surely the best Councel the great Councel of a Kingdom is not circumscriptive to a King No good Counsellours know better fealty bad Counsellours ought to leave off this exiliency Let Magna Charta then be preserved and the petition of Right have all the right that is in it but let the Maxima Charta and the prescription of Kings Right be thought on with them and above them for it is the Elder Brother and of the Bloud Royal and ought to weare the Crown before all others If then the honour of God or the fear of his Lawes the Image of God in a Kings fore-head or the Scepter of God in his Hand a Kings Royal Ornaments or a Kings Royal Office the advancement of Religion or the protection of the innocent the obedience of Subjects at home or the dread of Forraigners abroad the duty that ye require from your children or the reverence that ye expect from Inferiours the peace of the Kingdom or the prosperity of the Kingdom carry any authority with you let the last word be spoken that may tend to the disparagement of the Kings dignity and the last arrow be shot that may be levelled to the diminution of his power let us fill his Coffers with Gold and his heart with confidence let us end all enmity in unanimity change all fiercenesse into fidelity let us fight no more against Kings but fold our armes in subjection let us all fall at the Kings feet and vow never again to strike at his head let us join no more battels but join hands weep that we have been such enemies and smile that we are become such friends let us rejoyce that we have gotten at home the Father of our Country be glad that we are coming home to our Mother Church let it comfort us that the King hath brought Bishops along with him to restore us to our first Faith and Judges to settle us in our old inheritances oh let it delight us that we are come to our wits and begin to remember that we are Country-men and that the malignity of the Church-fever is spent and that we begin to look upon one another as Fellow-Professours Let us say we will go together to the Kings Court and go together to the Kings Chappel that we will join together in allegiance and join together in worship adore the same God and knit our hearts to the same King All this is for the Kings honour and if we will have a King let us grudge him no honour Let it be our ambition to strive that we may be the most devoted people to a King to be the Nation of Loyalty the Island that will set up a magnificent King that no Subjects upon earth shall pay such Homage to a Soveraign as the English Protestant Oh let us adorn the Protestant and grandize the King For to make the King great it
is to make our selves happy and honourable for there is no greater delight and dignity to a Country then to have a King exalted the blessing and Beauty of a Kingdom is to see a King in his Beauty for Thine eyes shall see the King in his Beauty Well in conclusion let me bring home the joy of the Text to our own hearts and present the sight in the Text to our own eyes The prophesy was first fulfilled upon Jerusalem and we have had it in as memorable and miraculous a way seconded and doubled upon us We have been Spectatours of Wonders Fathers to their children may relate them whatsoever dolorous things for a while afflicted our eyes yet these sad Objects are removed and we have beheld those things which are pleasant to the eyes Our eyes have seen the King in his Beauty Had not our King as fierce enemies as Hezekiah yes Senacherib ranged over this Country and made all the Land to tremble that hammer of the earth dashed all in pieces for he and his Rabshakehs and Rabsarisses and Tartans made a Land that was like the Garden of Eden like a desolate wildernesse neither high-wayes nor high Rulers fields nor Forrests Cities nor Castles were secure but our wards and our woods our heritages and our honours our labours and our lawes our reputations and our religion our beasts and our beds our tillage and our Tables our Tabernacles and our Temples our backs and our necks were subject to the fury of our Adversaries for what were we but an harrassed Land a plundered Nation a sequestred people Our enemies ruled over us with rigour and made our lives bitter unto us Cities were turned into heaps and the houses of Ivory perished the shield of the mighty was vilely cast away and nothing amongst us but wastes and groanes chaines and gibbets all the mirth of the Land was gone and the very Songs of the Temple were turned into howlings we even stood amazed under our disasters and even despaired ever to see better dayes Many a cord was let down to pluck us out of misery but Hic funis nihil attraxit This rope drew nothing many means used to preserve us in the storm but Deus praevertit anchorae jactum God prevented the casting forth of the Anchour so that absumpta salus nec spes jam restat Iüli All safety seemed to be taken from us and there was no hope appearing to repair our broken fortunes our hearts even failed us and we were ready to ly down in our confusion for when any gave us comfortable words to expect yet happier we accounted them velut aegri somnia vana As sick mens dreams and gave no other but a kind of diffident answer Alas who shall live when God doth these things Num. 24.23 Yet how hath God cleared the Land of Senacherib saved us by a mighty deliverance Senacherib is vanished and Hezekiah desired Hezekiah admired Hezekiah Hezekiah the King of high preservations Hezekiah the King of conspicuous qualifications doth appear we may carve the whole Text graven in capital Letters golden Characters and celestial impresses upon our hearts for We have seen and we have seen a King and We have seen a King in his Beauty Oh Heaven hath presented to us this sight this is the Object of Miracles We may draw nigh and see this great sight Exod. 3.2 Hath this been done before or in the dayes of your Fathers Joel 1.2 no there hath not been the like neither shall there to many generations we may count it as one of the chief of the wayes of God for a King that could not enter the Land nor safely set his foot upon any corner of the Nation now with Hezekiah he may see the Land afar off and walk upon the length and bredth of the Land Who hath heard such a thing who hath seen such things Is 66.8 doubtlesse that in Num. 23.23 may be applyed to us According to this time it shall be said of Jacob and Israel what hath God wrought what an incredible an ineffable and an invaluable thing Blessed be the Omnipotent God and blessed be his potent Champion which hath made the Land happy in the sight of a King in the sight of such a King I say of such a King who cometh to us with a right Title one Usurper more would have quite broke the heart-strings of the Nation with the right Religion a Papist or a Phanatick would have after so many factions fractions shivered the Church into nothing but sherds with the right Princely endowments who hath in him a treasury of moralities may be a pattern to all the Princes of his time for true virtue An Hereditary King an Orthodoxe King a Compleat King what can the eye of the Nation look upon with more satisfaction no Our eyes do see a King in his Beauty we do see him so in his personal Beauty and God forbid but we should give him all the National Beauty that may be Confesse his right and give him his right welcome him home with melody and bestow Majesty upon him make him as great as he doth desire to make us mighty we were never happy before he came we are unhappy if we know not how happy we are since his coming he hath redeemed us out of errour out of bondage out of despair O Redeeming King Let us not serve him now as the Israelites served Moses who were ever groaning till they had a Deliverer and ever murmuring after they had a Deliverer No let our joy in him be answerable to the comforts he hath brought along with him and our peerlesse esteem of him be answerable to his prizelesse worth Consider his devout Heart and his divine Lips what zeal he doth bear to the truth and what hatred he doth carry to an Oath how he hath preserved his Religion amongst the Jesuits and is come to his Subjects to tell them what a Protestant he is consider his chast eye and his sober Palate his soft bowels and his just hand how he is fragrant with almsdeeds and doth shine in wisdome how he was patient under afflictions and is humble in prosperity how he hath forgiven his enemies and is daily preferring his Friends how the whole Land doth not exceed him in Candour nor the whole earth in valour consider what he hath done for your consciences what for your liberties what for your Lawes what for learning what for a flourishing trade and what for a setled peace consider if he be not the prime man that could have comforted you if he be not the onely man which could have made you happy and will ye open your eyes and not open your lips give him your acclamations and not give him your affections shall English-men have the best King and be the worst Subjects be the ferventest Desirers of a King and the ficklest Reverencers of a King what still squint-eyed rank-breathed half-hearted still Censurers Malecontents Mutiners Send for Senacherib
then again if Hezekiah do not please you Oh the variable and unstable spirits of men what Scepticks are we in politicks what Criticks in Government we do but desire to enjoy a Blessing and then complaint of wants we do but desire to see a King and then spy faults we are glutted with a taste and heavy-eyed with a sight take a gust and shut up our lips stare a little and then turn away our eyes please our fancies and affect no longer delight our selves with a gaze and then disdaine But oh beloved were we sick for a King and are any now weary of him no very Esau me think should fall upon the neck of such a Jacob weep at the meeting very Shimeis mouth should leave foming and he should fall down at the feet of such a David and ask pardon when he sees him returning the most heart-brent enemies that ever the King had methink should give over all their spleen and rancour and admire his clemency and magnify his graces If these should hold their peace the stones would speak so if these will not prize such a King very Infidels would honour him Oh therefore let every Subject in the Realme know their own King their lawfull King and give him cordial respect faithfull obedience and an eminency of affection Let Noble-men love him for as he is the Fountain of their honours so he hath restored their honours to them let Clergy-men love him for he is a Sanctuary to the Sanctuary let Judges love him for he hath put life into the Lawes and given them a resurrection let Merchants love him for they which were ready to turn Bank-rupts may yet again turn Bankers let all the Land love him for there is not a corner of the Nation but he hath filled it with joy and replenished it with blessings Well let us all gather together weep for joy that after so many miseries we live to see such Halcyon dayes and sing for joy that after so many dismal sights we have eyes in our heads to see this one sight this onely sight this reviving ravishing sight even to see the King in his Beauty Thine eyes shall see the King in his Beauty And as we have seen the sight so let us not lose the sight that after we have seen the King in his Beauty we should see a King in Bloud no if the Lawes of God and the Mercy of the King cannot quench Fire-brands but there should happen to be new flames new wars let all faithful Subjects be dismembred rather then one Member of his Sacred Person should be wounded and let every loyal Hand in the three Nations be cut off rather then the traiterous hand should touch his Royal Head For if we should be deprived again of the King in his Beauty the Beauty of the Land is gone and the misery of the Land will renew we shall have old plundring and rifling and sequestring and imprisoning and braining gibbetting again if the King suffer let not us think to scape scot-free if the King dye let not us think to live long after him no let us resolve of a general Massacre and a Funeral of the whole Nation Now that King and Kingdom may be secure let us make sure of him that is the Keeper of Israel oh how safe might we be under his everlasting Armes He would be the sheild of our help and the sword of our excellencies Oh therefore let us not provoke the eyes of his glory and he will watch for our defence let us not break his Lawes not a bone of us shall be broken let us weep out our former corruptions with tears and shew our selves to be alive from the dead by our regenerate faces let every Royalist turn the greatest Penitent and truest Saint as we account our selves the most Orthodox Professours so let us declare it by our mortified lives and pure consciences So may we defy all the enemies in the Nation for in despight of all their fury and maugre all their malice Jerusalem shall be a quiet habitation a Tabernacle that cannot be removed her stakes shall not be taken away but we shall here long see a King in his Beauty and hereafter see a King in his Glory which that we may do the Lord grant for his mercies sake Amen FINIS