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A51830
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Two sermons both preached at Northampton, one at the assizes March 1693, the other at a visitation October the 10th, 1694 by John Mansell ...
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Mansell, John, 1644 or 5-1730.
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1695
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Wing M513; ESTC R32049
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23,984
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and indeed when we look upon Princes as standing in the foremost Rank of Men and consider God as infinitely exalted above all the Ranks of Men and Angels we must needs confess their Names are properly made use of to denote what is eminent either in Office or in Honour and that there is very much in Civil Magistrates that raises them above the Level of other Men and makes them approach nearer to Deity will appear if we consider 1. Their Eminent Authority which in its Original is Gods 2. The Eminent Vertues which ought to qualife them for their High Office 3. Those eminent benefits which they confer upon the World 4. The eminent Honours that are due to the saithful discharge of their weighty Imployments In all which there is a certain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 somewhat that carries a stamp of Divinity upon it 1. Their Power and Authority which in its Original is Gods I have said ye are Gods saies our Authour ver 6. that is with respect to their Power for it is a remark of the forecited Grotius That the Title of Gods is never put upon Men but when it signifies the power of Life and Death as may be seen in his Notes upon Exod. 4.16 All Civil Fower therefore is Originally derived from God The Powers that be are ordained of God Rom. 13.1 and therefore the Old World looked upon their Princes but as so many visible Deities all Sons of the Supreme Jove All Children of the most High Verse 6. And thence it was that we see the Ancient Crowns composed of those golden Spires that best represented the rayes of Glory wherewith they circled the heads of their Divinities Thus God was generally owned to be the great sountain of all Government and Authority But for the better understanding in what limited sence I take all this I shall here premise 1. That it is only of Civil Right and Power that I am now speaking and therefore I do not think my self obliged to take notice of Paternal Authority though doubtless the first in the World Since that was a right purely natural and so comes not up to the present case Besides I suppose the full Natural Authority of a Father over his Children did in the beginning last no longer than the Son continued a Member of that Family and so lived one of his Domestick Subjects But when he married and began a Family of his own then he became as much a Monarch in his own House as his Father was in his But since this Natural Authority as to its chief Regalities hath long since ceased in all civilised Nations And all the Governments now in the World are wholly founded upon Civil and Legal Right And I take it for granted that what was meerly a Civil Right in its Original can never either by long prescription or continued Succession become a Natural Right Since the Nature of things never alters howsoever their circumstances may I wave therefore the first Government that was founded in Paternal that is in Natural Right And 2. I premise father That somewhat else besides the meer permission of God that only Universal Monarch without whose leave none of the Creatures he had made could have any Power over themselves or others and without whose communicating that Power to them they had no right to dispose themselves into any kinds of Civil Governments I say that besides all this somewhat else did contribute to the Establishment of such Humane mane Authorities as are now exercised in the World And that I humbly suppose to be the Natural Necessities of Fallen Men together with the Rational Use of those Faculties wherewith God had endued them For God having planted such Faculties in Men as enabled them to consult their Common Good and to provide for their own Peace and Interest And leaving them to the free use of those Faculties they soon found by an early experience how necessary it was to unite into Civil Societies which could not be done without the Enacting of Laws and the Constitution of Governours So that Men were naturally obliged to enter those Mutual Compacts and Politick Relations wherein some were to be governed and protected and others to be honoured and obeyed Neither yet was all this without God's Soveraign Intervention for though I do not find that in the beginning there was any particular Revelation commanding Men to Model themselves into such Methods of Civil Government But they were all at first meerly the Dictates of Natural Reason grounded upon the Sence of Humane Necessities Yet seeing it was God that planted this Principle of Reason in us therefore all that duly springs from that Principle may justly be said to proceed from God its Authour and so to have a Divine Authority though not immediately founded upon any positive Divine Command Add to this that what is founded in Natural Reason is one Branch of the Law of Nature as much the Law of God as any Revealed Law whatsoever But farther God set his own Seal to this Institution of Civil Government and by several of his own subsequent positive Laws required Men to submit unto those Methods of Government to whose Birth the Necessities of Humane Nature and the Dictates of Humane reason seemed so much to contribute Lastly God himself took the very same Methods when he chose the Jewish Nation to be his own immediate Subjects whose Government though fundamentally a Theocracy yet it underwent various kinds of outward Administrations Aristocracy Oligarchy Monarchy both Elective and Hereditary And at last after the mixt Government between the Great Captains and the Sovereign Pontifs which succeeded the Babylonian Captivity it settled in a compound Title of Success Merit and Election in the Asmonaean Family I do not add that of Conquest there being a wide difference between Conquering a Nations Enemies especially by the Assistance of its own hands and Conquering the Nation it self Thus the Machabaean Line excluded that of David and those Hero's rising up the great Deliverers of their Church and Countrey from the extreamest Oppression both in their Religious and Civil Rights Nothing less than a Crown was thought an Equal Reward for so Glorious a Merit Neither was the Old Davidean Title ever put in as a Bar to the more deserving present Possessours But the same Providence watched over them and doubtless by its Ministers required the same Allegiance to them as to the Princes of the former Race The case is easily applyed Thus the Origin of all Government is absolutely from God from his leave and permission from those Laws of Reason that he planted in Mens Natures enabling them to take the best measures for their common Good and Safety from his own following positive Commands confirming what that Reason had dictated from his own Example and from that visible Providence whereby he supports Civil Right and Government in the World consideration 2 2. Those Eminent Vertues wherewith they ought to be qualified for the discharge of their
TWO SERMONS Both PREACHED At NORTHAMPTON ONE AT THE ASSIZES March 1693. THE OTHER AT A VISITATION October the 10th 1694. By JOHN MANSELL L.L.B. Rector of Furthoe in the County of Northampton Imprimatur Humf. Hody R. in Ch. Pac. D.D. Johanni Archiep. Cant. a Sac. Dom. Nov. 18. 1694. LONDON Printed by J. Richardson for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil MDCXCV A SERMON Preached at the ASSIZES HELD AT NORTHAMPTON IN March 1693. By JOHN MANSELL Rector of Furthoe in the County of Northampton LONDON Printed by J. Richardson for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil MDCXCV TO Francis Arundell Esq LATE High Sheriff OF THE COUNTY OF NORTHAMPTON Honoured Sir VVHEN you was pleased to Impose this Piece of Service upon me and thereby drew me out of that Privacy which I confess my self fond of because very sensible how well it becomes me I did not in the least think of being made more Publick But since the repeated Importunity of some to whom I owe Obedience being joyned to your own Desires and Encouragement have at last laid a kind of necessity upon me I gladly Sir Embrace this Opportunity of Expressing the Sence of a whole Neighbourhood who find themselves extreamly happy in your Presence and Authority amongst them Whilst leaving the Extravagant Persuit of I know not what Imaginary Gallantries to those Vain Souls that are not capable of more Rational Satisfactions You Sir Live Honourably in your Countrey where by an approved Loyalty to Their Majesties upon whose Prosperity that of the Whole Nation doth Depend By an Vnshaken Zeal for our Holy Religion and Established Church in whose Happiness that of the State is Inseparably Included By a Well-Regulated Family an Exemplary Oeconomy an Vpright Justice sweetned with a Peaceful Pacifying Temper You Worthily Endear Your self to all that are Wise and Good And do indeed Appear that Magistrate I have here endeavoured to describe May so Great a Merit never miss of as Great a Reward But may the Abundant Mercies of God continually Descend upon You Your Excellent Good Lady and most Hopeful Children that so my Countrey may never want an Arundel to do it Service and Credit nor any of Your House ever want that Respect and Honour so long Injoyed by the Cranes Your Ancestours This is part of the Dayly Prayers of Sir Your most Obliged Humble Servant JOHN MANSELL Old Stratford Octob. 15. 1694. A SERMON Preached at the ASSIZES AT NORTHAMPTON PSALM lxxxii ver 1. God standeth in the Congregation of the Mighty he judgeth among the Gods The Old Translation renders it thus God standeth in the Congregation of Princes he is a Judge among Gods VVHatsoever would have been the Condition of Mankind had they lived up to the God-like perfection wherein they were at first created Yet this is certain that in their lapsed State they could not have maintained themselves in any tolerable Peace and Order without the benefit of Humane Laws and the institution of Governments But though God so far indulged the necessities of our fallen Nature as to allow us Law-givers from among our selves Yet he kept the Supreme Legislative Powerstill in his own hands He himself always standing in the Congregation of those Mighty who prescribe Laws to all beneath them And though the Civil Magistrate be indeed his Minister invested with his Authority and beareth not his Sword in vain yet the most Sovereign Power of Life and Death is still in God himself who is therefore said to judge over those very Gods that pronounce sentence upon the Lives and Fortunes of Inferiour Men. Thus God standeth in the Congregation of the Mighty and judgeth among the Gods In this Psalm the inspired Asaph instructs Princes both in their Dignity and their Duty Beginning his Discourse with that Solemn Preamble in the Text wherein he adorns the Civil Magistrates with the most glorious of their Titles and yet presses them with the most awful considerations thereby shewing how reconcileable the Faithful discharge of a Preachers Duty may be to the Rules of Civility and good Manners Thus he Complements them with the Names of Princes and of Gods and yet warns them of an Almighty Superiour who stands above and overlooks them all and judges all they do For says he God standeth in the Congregation of the Princes he is a Judge among Gods For the more useful handling of which words I shall 1. Inquire who are the Mighty the Princes and the Gods here spoken of 2. What is meant by Gods standing amongst the one and judging among the other 1. Then by the Mighty and the Gods are doubtless understood Kings Princes and Governours and all that are put in Authority under them that is all Civil Magistrates in their due Subordinations And though perhaps to suppose that by the Mighty are meant only inferiour Magistrates and by the Gods Sovereign Princes themselves might sound like no ill gloss upon the words Yet I find that Expositors generally look no farther in both Expressions than to those Judges of Israel that used to Assemble in the Great Council of the Sanhedrim And to give unto them the Titles of Mighty and of Princes is not at all uncommon in Holy Scripture Verse 6. So for the more lofty Epithite of Gods we find it twice repeated in this Psalm And again Exod. 22.28 Thou shalt not revile the Gods nor curse the Ruler of thy people So also Exod. 21.6 where it 's observable that what we translate Judges is in the Original Elohim Gods and so in several other Texts But when we consider that what is rendered Mighty in the former part of the Verse is in the Hebrew the same Elohim and in the Septuagint the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with what we translate Gods in the latter part I think we need make no nice distinction between the two termes And though the Learned Grotius in the former clause sticks to the version of Synagoga Dei which is no more than the Congregation of God or Gods Congregation yet since in the latter clause he allows the Title of Gods to that Congregation the sence is not at all altered by his Criticisme But 2. For Gods standing in this Congregation and judging among those Gods Whether we take standing only for being present as in 1 Kings 17.1 or for being the Chief in Government Ezra 2.63 2 Kings 8.20 or for the Person that pronounceth Sentence which the Antients oftentimes did in an erect posture which seems to be aimed at Isa 3.13 In all these Senses God is present God presides God himself pronounceth Sentence among them so that standing and judging seem to be as nearly allied in Sence as Mighty and Gods From the words thus opened give me leave to present you with these Three Considerations 1. The Civil Magistrates Dignity 2. Their Subjection 3. Their Duty consequent to both 1. Their Dignity They are called Princes and Gods