well as with a large one of others These three therefore To Eat and Drink in due season in due measure and of such viands as are convenient for us make up what we call Temperance in Diet. But this single Virtue as being the principal part of Sobriety and that which is mainly instrumental to preserve Reason and Consideration is put Synecdochically for a considerative Virtuous Temper and Practice in opposition especially to a voluptuous and sensual Life which whosoever give themselves up to whether noble or plebeian are neither sit for nor can mind or happily dispath Business And so the sum of the Royal Preachers Observation in the Text amounts to this 'T is a singular Blessing to a Nation to have a King nobly descended of a noble Mind not young or unexperienc'd not giving himself over to Pleasures and excess but grave abstemious considerative and virtuous And all this praised be our good God is a Blessedness which these Nations at present enjoy The Text being thus explained it follows that we speak distinctly to its parts which I shall not be curious in assigning It being a compound or copulative Proposition consists evidently of two simple ones the first whereof is Blessed art thou O Land when thy King is the Son of Nobles We ought then first to consider what Felicities they are which amount to a People by having their Prince of Noble Extraction And in answer hereto if my Discourse be not at present so perfectly or wholly Theological as I could desire or as are generally those with which I use to entertain you I must beg your pardon the nature of the Subject matter does not admit it But I am sure the End I drive at or that to which all tends is truly Holy Religious and Christian Now the great Benefits which reasonably a People may expect under such a Prince are I think chiefly these three Publik Wealth and Plenty Publick Ease or Liberty to enjoy what they have And Publick Quiet and Peace Blessings which one would think should endear the Government to us and which I am sure whether we will acknowledge or no the Kingdoms generally enjoy especially if we consider how at present it goes with other neighbouring Nations And these I say by Gods Blessing and upon our own Loyalty we may reasonably expect the continuance of under our Sovereign and the present Constitution that is while we are governed by Kings who are the Sons of Nobles For First With Noble Personages generally go Noble Estates and Revenues When men who were born Princes come to the Throne they carry with them thither their private Fortunes and former Principalities joyning all to the Crowns they take A great Felicity this to the Publick and much for the aggrandising a Nation as well as for the Ease of the middle rate of men on whom commonly all burdens fall Kings cannot be too rich though Subjects may 'T is for the Benefit of the whole body of their People that Princes abound They will then be better able to defend both themselves and Subjects and that with fewer lighter and more easie Supplies On the contrary where indigent and poor men come to rule though never so virtuous upright and just never so sweet generous and noble minded yet Necessitas cogit ad turpia a poor Princes own or the publick Necessities will put him on Practices dishonourable and which will be uneasie and grating on the the Subject For what vast Treasures are cessary to settle a new Prince What unthought of Expences incident Extraordinary Exigents of State private Accidents Families to be raised Dependants to be advanced and a multitude of like occasions Of all which the ordinary sort must bear the main burden Wherefore no such Oppressor as a poor Man in chief Power Prov. xxiii 3. A poor man that oppresseth the Poor is like a sweeping Rain which leaveth no Food Though therefore it was a King in the Text that said it yet it would seem of all Degrees the Commonality may in this respect most justly pronounce Blessed art thou O Land when thy King is the Son of Nobles Secondly The Sons of Nobles most generally prove Noble and Heroical themselves and of great and brave Souls Fortes creantur fortibus bonis Eagles naturally produce not Kites or Buzzards There is a Royal Spirit runs in Royal Bloud And it has been observed by the wisest and most impartial men such which are best Judges in these matters I mean least obnoxious to mistake and freest from Flattery that many Princes even while young and within those years which ordinarily denominate Children have far surpast in ripeness of Wit Prudence Counsel or like Qualifications the generality of adult persons of above twice their years though of liberal and good lettered Education also This amongst others was manifest to all the world in that blessed Prince Edward VI. King of England whom Cardan an Italian by Birth as well as Religion but one of the most learned men and greatest Philosophers then in the world having visited could not forbear wonder and giving him so great a Character as is scarce credible touching one of so few years It is too long to repeat the whole but in the end he expresly stiles him the Miracle of Nature And it is truly much to have been ever from the Cradle fill'd with great thoughts possest with Principles and Designs of publick Good and bred by Art as well as by Nature dispos'd and fram'd for Government Now this may be expected from the Sons of Nobles and is almost ever found in those who are born Princes They cannot well be base spirited but answer their Originals and Condition of Life From whence how naturally the forementioned Advantages will flow to their Subjects any may easily see who pleases to consider the Case On the contrary when men either by the Sword or Popular Favour and Factions come to the Throne they retain dreadful tinctures of the Cruelty Bloudiness Partiality or other base Arts that advanced them Whence it comes to pass that they rule with Tyranny and Oppression at least that they generally administer pardon the solecism unequal and partial Justice Where they dare to punish they commonly though on slight occasions crush irreparably where they dare not they will not see but haply flatter or fawn at least basely dissemble and personate Justice only in being blind And what Grievances how great and various must arise hence is not easie I had almost said to imagine I am sure not to comprehend or determine Remember Jothans Parable Judg. ix 15. When the Bramble was advanced to be King over the Trees he said unto the Trees if in truth ye anoint me King over you then come and put your trust in my Shadow and if not let Fire come out of the Bramble and devour the Cedars of Lebanon The Bramble is no such tall erect or strong plant that its shadow was likely I should have said possible to defend the Trees
save not only their Lives but their Estates they will and do pray for the King yet do it not either out of good Affection or Conscience of their Christian Duty Wherefore give me leave here besides the meer Evidence of the Text to add some other that the Duty we hence learn may appear to be of no such indifferent or inferiour rank as that men may omit or forbear it with a Salvo to their Integrity and good Conscience And though I know my Audience too well to judge them of this kind yet will not this be an unprofitable labour for certainly none of us can have too deep or quick a sense of any point of our Christian Duty Now in the entrance on this Evidence I will say in general we have all the Obligation to this Duty that we can have to any Duty in the World Besides the Obligation from human Laws which I will not yet touch on we have all obligation I can conceive possible 1. From Scripture and our common Christianity And 2. From Reason and Prudence And 3. From Equity and good Nature From Scripture or common Christianity The sum of the Obligations we can have thence can well amount no higher than express Commands and them urged with the greatest instance and constant Practice or Example As to Command Nothing can be as already said more express nothing more emphatical than the Text of which one thing remains that I have not yet noted namely how the Apostle in the progress of his Discourse presses this Practice with sundry Arguments and the greatest earnestness That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and Honesty ver 2. Here he presses it from the Fruits of this Practice This good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour ver 3. Here from the Will of God who would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the Truth ver 4. Here from the Divine Nature or Philanthropy and Goodness of God which we ought to imitate and ver 8. he concludes the Subject I will therefore that men pray every where namely in the kinds and ways before directed Again I say nothing can easily be more emphatical But we may look much further back Eccles. x. 20. Curse not the King no not in thine heart If negative Precepts as Divines tell us include the opposite affirmative this will be a Command to pray for Kings in our Souls as well as in our words and in secret as well as in our Churches However 't is well worthy our notice what sense the Jewish Doctors had of this Precept who tell us generally that throughout their whole Law Thoughts are no were forbidden nor can Sin be committed by them meerly except in the present case and in that other of worshipping false Gods And pursuant hereto which is very wonderful was their general practice yea even towards the Heathen Emperors When they chose all of the rather to dye than place Caius's Statue in their Temple they at the same time professed that they daily offered Sacrifice to the true God in their Temple for him Joseph de Bello Judaic lib. 2. c. 9. On such Practice now a long time received in the Jewish Church before Christ was it that the Apostles here so earnestly gives this in charge to Timothy We have seen thus the Christian Law oâ— Command and the ancient occasion therâ—of Now as to Christian Example There can be no doubt but that the Apostles Practice was agreeable to their own Doctrine And as for the succeeding ages of the Christian Church one passage of Chrysostom has been produced already and to wave that multitude of other Testimonies and some of the very Forms of Prayer which might be produced in this case we will content our selves with that known and most full one of undoubted authority in Tertullian who wrote about 200 years after Christ Thither that is to Heaven saith he we Christians looking up with hands or arms stretched open because innocent with heads and faces uncovered because we blush not without any instigator because from our hearts we pray for all Emperors beseeching to them a long Life a secure Reign a safe Family valiant Armies a faithful Senate a loyal Commonalty and a peaceable World and whatsoever are the wishes of men or of the Cesars themselves This was he able then most truly to plead in apology for Christianity and at that time and for above an hundred years after such a thing as a Christian King was not known When the Emperors became Christian you cannot but conclude it was much more so In sum then as to Obligation from Scripture and the common Chistianity if either express or importunate Command or constant Practice of the Christian Church which is the sum of what Obligations we can have thence will make it an indispensible Duty to pray for Kings we have both Now as to Obligations from Reason and Prudence perhaps that of our own Interest the Benefit which hence amounts to the publick and so to all private persons of whom the publick body is made up may be looked upon as the most effectual reason or best prudential ground assignable Interest commonly fails not to more let it then prevail here Let it therefore be considered 1. Kings and Governours are the Safeguard of the People the great Security of the publick Weal The Scripture expresly calls the Rulers of a Nation its Shields in Hos iv 18. We indeed in our Translation have the word Rulers there but in the original Hebrew it is the Shields which Text most naturally explains Psal xlvii 10. The Shields of the Earth belong unto the Lord that is the Kings of the Earth who are its Shields are Gods Subjects and peculiar right which is most plain by the foregoing verses ver 7. God is King over all the Earth Then he divides Earth into the Heathen and Jews ver 8. God reigneth over the Heathen ver 9. The Princes of the people are gathered together even of the peâ—ple of the God of Abraham Finally in the tenth verse he conjoyns or puts all together again The Shields of the Earth belong unto God he is greâ—tly exalted namely he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords Nor will any doubt the truth of this Scripture assertion or justice of the phrase who shall but think with himself what a forlorn helpless despicable thing the most populous Nation is without an Head In 1 Sam xi we have a Story which will fully illustrate this matter ver 2. Nahush the King of the Ammonites offers these insolent Conditions to the Israelites upon which he will accept them for his Servants On this Condition will I make a Covenant with you that I may thrust out all your right Eyes and lay it as a Reproach upon Israel And what said all the mighty men of Israel to this All the people lift up their voice and wept ver 4 All the people were not a few
whosoever does fear God will honour the King I begin with the first of these the Fear of God not only because it stands first in my Text but also because it is in order of Nature the truest and only sure foundation of the other All Duties towards men when sincerely payed must have their foundation in our Dutifulness towards God When our Lord had occasion to touch on the true and natural Order of Christian Duties he tells us this is the first and great Commandment Matth. xxii 37 38. that we love the Lord our God with all our Heart with all our Mind with all our Soul and with all our Strength And the second is That we love our Neighbour as our selves teaching us hereby that we can never love our Neighbour as we should do except first we most entirely love God The loving God with all our hearts can only sweeten and influence our Souls into an universal Charity And proportionably in the present case the Fear of God can alone implant in our hearts universal and invariable Loyalty And therefore I must confess I cannot see how vicious men can be true Loyalists Natural Love Education Interest Fear and other like causes may beget and nourish a short temporary and partial Allegiance The vilest men may be subject for Wrath but good men only will be subject as the Holy Ghost directs for Conscience sake And such Loyalty will be impartial indefectible and eternally cordial Briefly therefore in the first place of the Fear of God Now by the Fear of God we are to understand such a constant Sense or Aw of God of his Sovereign Dominion Power Omniscience and Justice as restrains us from Sin and quickens us to Duty The Fear of God therefore first supposâ—s most deeply rooted in our hearts a real Belief of his Being and a sober Knowledge of his Nature He who doubts whether there be a God or is either ignorant or dubious of the truth of his infinite Perfections can never have in his heart a true Fear of him For as that Fear presupposes I say such Understanding and Belief so secondly it consists in at least most proximately and immediately flows from or depends upon a constant actual or virtual Attention to what we thus understand and believe of him The thoughts of him and of these his Perfections are generally ever and anon recurring and by that means habitually fixed in the mind The Thoughts I mean 1. Of his Sovereign Dominion and Authority over all He alone is King of Nations Jerem. x. 7. supream and most absolute over all Peoples and Kingdoms and Languages and over each individual Man And therefore who shall not fear before thee O thou King of Nations for to thee it doth appertain forasmuch as amongst all the wise men of the Nations and in all their Kingdoms there is none like unto thee 2. Together herewith do the thoughts of his Omniscience or actually knowing all things possess the heart for begetting in it that Temper which we call the Fear of God Psalm cxxxix 2 3 4 6. Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine up-rising thou understandest my thoughts afar off thou compassest my path and my lying down and art neer unto all my ways For there is not a word in my tongue but lo O Lord thou knowest it altogether Such Knowledge is too wonderful for me it is high I cannot attain unto it In other words it is not possible for any of us so intimately to know our our selves as God knows us I cannot tell what I shall think or what I shall not think to morrow perhaps not an hour hence But God knoweth my thoughts while they are yet afar off He by one simple incomprehensible act sees all things persons and actions past present and to come And whereas the Heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked so that a man himself knows not all the Wickedness of his own heart The Lord searcheth the Hearts and tryeth the Reins of the Children of Men all their Counsels and Contrivances all their hidden acts of Malice or Concupiscence are open and bare to him And therefore who can but fear before him Especially considering what also is another ingredient or ground to the Fear of God 3. That this same Omniscient God is also most just and holy Most holy so as that he can no wise approve or allow Sin Habbak I. 13. Thou art of purer Eyes than to behold Evil and canst not look on Iniquity that is God most perfectly abhors it And therefore he will most certainly punish it where persisted in or not repented of Rom. II. 6 8 9. He will render to every man according to his deed to them that are contentious and do not obey the Truth but obey Vnrighteousness Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish upon every Soul of man that doeth evil Yea so severe is Gods hatred of Sin that sometimes when upon mens Repentance he forgives their sin as to the eternal punishments he yet in his Wisdom and Justice sees fit to inflict upon them here some temporary punishments Psalm xcix 8. Thou answerest them O Lord our God thou wast a God that forgavest them though thou tookest vengeance of their Inventions which whoso considers must certainly fear before this holy God Add hereto lastly the attending to or consideration of his infinite Might Power As he hath resolved and will bring every work into Judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil Eccles vii last so is he able to effect it No Malefactors can possibly fly from or escape this Judge he has Emissaries enough millions of Angels good and bad to fetch all in And all shall appear before the Judgement-seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done 2 Cor. v. 10. Let us now put all these together Admit a man believes and actually thinks there is a great and glorious Majesty unseen indeed but seeing all who is Lord of Heaven and Earth and all in them this God is most holy and most just both resolved and able to bring all things into Judgment even to the very imaginations of the thought of mens hearts must not there needs amount hence a most profound Aw and Dread of this great God And must not this Fear both restrain such in whose Breasts it is conceived from wicked practices and excite and awaken them to all well-doing Thus then we have most plainly heard what the Fear of God is and together how it is begotten in the heart what roots or foundation it has Now for the second Duty Honour the King Honour imports or signifies an inward Esteem and outward Respect paid to any by reason of the Excellency we apprehend in them Thus in the beginning of this verse Honour all men For some Excellency there is in all men that is in every man more than in any other Creatures we know The Image of God is