Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n
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A25201
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A sermon preached at the assizes held at Leicester for that county on the twenty third day of March, 1681/2 by Nathaniel Alsop.
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Alsop, Nathaniel.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing A2904; ESTC R23629
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20,188
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36
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thing asserted viz. The Duty it self which was Honour Honour thy Father c. Honour was always accounted as something inherent in the person honouring and so it may perhaps seem to be altogether at his own free disposal but the truth is this may become a Debt as well as any thing else and not to pay it where it is such is as direct a piece of injustice as to rob a man of any thing which is called his own Honour to whom honour saith the Apostle Rom. 13. where he speaks of rendring unto all their Dues If I be a Father where is my Honour saith the Lord God This Honour doth naturally look upwards and is thought to comprehend all those Duties which Inferiours owe to their Superiours as Love looks on every side and is called the fulfilling of all the Duties to our Equals Now if God who is infinite Perfection and boundless Excellency be the Object more of our Admiration and Extasie which is the excess of Reverence than any thing else then our Honour must ascend in proportion to those degrees of nearness which any Object makes in its approaches to the Deity and so we shall come at length to rest in that primitive gage which Tertullian acknowledges in the Name of the Christians of his time colimus Imperatorem tanquam hominem a Deo secundum solo Deo minorem We honour saith he the Emperour as a man but next and immediately unto God For the full import of the Duty we may draw it forth in three Notions of the word viz. Reverence Maintenance and Obedience The First is Estimation or Reverence which is that signification of the word which bears the stamp of common usage and this is addressed to the Person of our Civil Parent The Second is Maintenance which I think is a sense almost proper to Holy Scripture and respects his Regal state The Third is Obedience with relation to his Laws and Decrees But I must not discourse of it in this latitude should I pursue these severally I must of necessity intrench too much upon your patience and the succeeding business of the day I shall therefore confine my self unto the first of these at present but may chance to consider it as a Transcendent which is interwoven through the other two as they shall fall in mention But 1. Honour doth primarily denote the expression of our Estimation and Reverence for some Excellencies in our Superiours and can never be so fitly placed as when we direct it to our Supreme Governour It is a shame we should have mean thoughts of the Person whom God hath thought fit to be his Deputy and Representative upon Earth is he worthy to bear the Impress and Image of the Almighty's Power and Majesty and not deserving a reverent Idea in our thoughts and minds There was never any Nation that owned a devout sentiment for their Gods but paid a proportionable Honour to their Kings the Persians yielded a Divine Adoration to them both The Primitive Christians gave Reverence to the very Statues of their Emperours until Julian set up the Images of their false Gods by them with a design by that means to trepan them into Idolatry The Heathens generally for the Blessings of Peace Plenty and Protection which they injoyed thought it not enough to give the highest Reverence to their living Princes but after death by an Apotheosis did bestow a kind of Divinity upon them and to serve and worship these was the sum of their Religion But come we to the People of God God's own People the Jews and behold there how the holy Oil used in their Inaugurations did by its fragrant odour make the Royal Head on which it was poured as delightful and dear to them as the breath of their Nostrils and the mortality of a Prince was lamented among them as the quenching of the very Light of Israel Behold also among them what submission and deference they used in their Addresses to Majesty speak thou unto us and we will hear and do it is their voice in one place and it is noted for their usual ordinary temper 2 Sam. 3.36 that whatsoever the King did that still pleased all the People although it 's confessed upon the fret and ferment of Sedition they were as turbulent as any yet never was there a more strict Law given to secure the Honour of Soveraign Powers than God gave unto them which laid an Obligation not only upon the outward man but upon the words and thoughts also curse not the King no not in thy thoughts and certainly with the highest Reason for when the Honour of a Prince lies open to be invaded without fear his Authority is near wounding and his Person no ways secure Reputation both guards his Life and supports his Throne and they are ever the most dangerous Enemies to both that undermine him in the good opinion of his Subjects and render him cheap in those Eyes which should look up with the greatest Veneration a slanderous Tongue is a more speedy Instrument of Murther than a Sword of Steel and a virulent Libel of more certain dispatch than Gun-shot by how much it is easier to reach the Fame of a Soveraign Prince than to hit his Person In our Judicial Proceedings the common Accusation of Criminals lies for Offences against the Dignity as well as the Crown of our Soveraign Lord the King reckoning every violation of his Laws may stick reproach upon his Government but there are some Offences which strike at the very root of it the malicious Arts of lessening him before his People the levelling attempts to lay the Soveraigns Honour first in the dust knowing the whole Fabrick of the Government must follow after it And these are the Crimes which before Earthly Tribunals deserve severest Censures of all others not but that other sins in some respects may be found more sinful at the last day but because these are most destructive of Humane Society and most repugnant to the good and welfare of Mankind The Tongue saith St. James c. 3.5 is a very small Member but being set on fire from Hell being well warmed with that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which a little after he speaks of it can easily put the whole course of Nature into combustion and a short speech may contain that essential Poyson and Rancour of Malice in it as may impregnate the whole Sphere with infection and mischief These are usually the Springs and first Movers which bring on greater Revolutions And when Confusion and Desolation shall follow as a Flood and the Sword shall march in Triumph o're the Land and Ruine like a mighty whirlewind shall throw all into heaps then if perhaps you look for the kindly Fruits of Repentance from the Authors of such Calamity all must be only the acknowledgment of a little improvidence and that they never expected matters would have run on to that pass Whereas it is a most natural and necessary progress from the Defamation of