Selected quad for the lemma: peace_n
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A49699
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The power of kings from God a sermon preached in the Cathedral Church of Sarum the XXIX day of June, 1683 upon occasion of the detection of the late horrid plot against the life of His Scared Majesty / by Paul Lathom.
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Lathom, Paul.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing L574; ESTC R25132
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20,903
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43
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pure and jealous eyes of Almighty God so both Prince and People are bound by that love they owe to God to delight to see it suppressed As it tends to bring down Gods Judgments upon a Nation so it promotes the interest of the Community to root it out and thereby to prevent or remove the Calamity As it corrupts the Morals of men so 't is for the honour and interest of all that it be extirpated that the People may be sound and healthy in their Souls and Princes have the glory of reigning over a vertuous people And as divers sorts of vices do naturally tend to disturb the peace and to hinder the welfare of the Nation so it is for the common good that this weed be cut down by the Sword of Justice 2. Preserving of Peace among men and securing each mans Liberty and Property unto him If we were here so free from the dominion of of Passions and inordinate Affections as we hope to be hereafter when we come to Heaven there would then be little need of the Magistrates Power or Office But the activeness of Interest and the unruliness of Passion produce such exorbitancies among men that if it were not for the Rods and the Axes of the Magistrate men would be too prone to live upon Earth as the Fishes in the Sea where the less are a prey to the greater The Law therefore was made for the lawless and the Magistrate bears not the Sword in vain but brings the very Sons of Belial to endure a Yoke and to the great good of the people takes care that the Kings peace be preserved 3. Stirring up the people and encouraging them to Industry Sloth and Vice and Poverty and Ruine are so nearly related that one doth almost unavoidably follow upon the other It is therefore for the interest and security of a People that the Prince doth with the Sword of Justice cut off those Vices that hinder men from being ingenious and industrious and by providing for their peaceable and quiet enjoying the fruit of their labours doth encourage them to industry by convincing them that their labour will not be thrown away And this tends at once to keep people orderly employed and thereby prevents their doing worse and it sharpens their intellectuals which are commonly dulled and rusted by sloth and desuetude and withal it brings Riches and Wealth as its attendant 4. Advancing the Interest and Honour of the Nation by forein Correspondencies and Leagues God Almighty hath so disposed of the good things of this World that what abounds in one place is wanted in another And if Commerce were not maintained with Forein Nations many of Gods good Creatures would be depretiated and disesteemed This forein Trade therefore lays a foundation of Wealth and Plenty in a Nation And without publick correspondence between the Kings of those Nations whose Subjects have Commerce together this Trade could not be allowed nor secured to them For what Nation doth ever make Capitulations of Peace or Trade with the Common People of another Country The Correspondence and agreement is with the Prince and not the Multitude And this maintains the Honour of that Nation and secures its interest in trading to the great enriching of a Land These are some of those blessings which a People reap by the Government of a good King assigned by the King of Kings to promote these good ends And these are some of those advantages which we in particular have so long enjoyed under the happy Reign of a gracious wise and Christian King namely by promoting those wise and just Ends which God himself hath designed which was the second branch of my Discourse Thirdly by the powerful and gracious providence of the All-wise God Kings are set upon their Thrones and upheld and continued there That there is 1. A special hand of divine providence seen in setting Kings in their Thrones is very evident Psal 75.6 7. Promotion cometh neither from the East nor from the West nor from the South but God is the Judg he putteth down one and setteth up another He is said to have given Nebuchadnezzar a Kingdom Power and Strength and Glory Dan. 2.37 And his hand is more especially seen in preserving the rights of those that have a just title to a Crown As in respect of our gracious King in particular Indeed he suffered him for a time to know affliction before he advanc'd him to glory as he dealt with David long since He suffered his Throne to be invaded and those that had killed to take possession For the iniquities of the Land many were the Princes thereof Prov. 28.2 But he was not long wanting to a righteous cause He suffered not the Hypocrite long to reign that the People might not be too much ensnared Job 34.30 And how wonderful were the workings of his Providence both in preserving the sacred person of our gracious King as under his own wings until the Tyranny of the wicked was overpast and also in his happy and peaceable Restauration at last unto the Throne of his Forefathers this generation I hope will never forget and generations to come will be informed of it We must needs say this was the Lord's doing and it is marvellous in our eyes and it is by him that our King reigneth 2. And as eminently is the hand of divine Providence seen in upholding and continuing Kings upon their Thrones as Kings are for the praise of them that do well and such need not to fear the Power for they shall have praise of the same so are they a terrour to evil doers for they know that the sword is not born in vain and of this sort are a great part of mankind who together with those that ambitiously aspire to be catching the Sword out of the Prince's hand do create much trouble to the reign and hazard to the life especially of a Good and Religious King and as it may be said of all men that we are encompassed with so many dangers daily that without God's good Providence upholding us we should not be able to subsist one moment In him we all live and move and have our being Act. 17.28 so it may more especially said of Princes that their Office exposeth them to so many dangers that without great help from God they could not escape And certainly as Kings are great Ministers of the Divine Providence and eminently useful to promote the Glory of God and the Good of the People so the same Providence doth concern it self more especially about the protection and preservation of them If it may be supposed that the Stars have influence upon all men for the lengthning or shortning their lives certainly stars of the greatest magnitude do attend Kings with their eminent influences to protect their persons and prolong their reigns How remarkably was this seen in preserving that wise and pious Princess Q. Elizabeth so that no weapon formed against her could prosper she appeared to be the
Favourite of Heaven in her life and at last dyed in Peace and Honour in a good old age after a long and glorious reign belov'd by all good men while she lived and lamented by them at her death Did not the same Providence watch over her wise and peaceable successor delivering him from many attempts and particularly the most horrid that ever the Sun saw discovered And blessed be God he is still the same to our present Monarch protecting him from the rage of those that are his Enemies on both hands because he strongly maintains that Truth that is opposed by them both How many experiences hath God given us of discovering and disappointing their wicked Plots and Conspiracies against him and especially at this time in particular This gives us advantage to strengthen our Faith in the belief of God's care of our King and in him of us this encourageth us to hope and pray that no Treason formed against him may prosper that his Enemies of all sorts may be cloathed with shame but that upon himself his Crown may long and happily flourish and that after many and many years spent in a peaceable and glorious reign he may at last in peace exchange his corruptible for an incorruptible Crown even so Amen Fourthly by Authority immediately derived from the only wise God the great King of Kings Monarchy is established and Kings do hold their Scepters And that I may discourse upon this distinctly to the clearing of the truth to the confirmation of those that own it and to the conviction of gain-sayers I shall propose these four Questions 1. Whether Monarchy be that particular form of Government which God hath appointed and doth approve or whether there may not be another form of Government that may be competitor with it for desirableness or rather preferred before it 2. Whether Kings have their Power immediately from God or whether it be not conferred upon them by the People 3. Whether supposing that the People did confer the Power upon the Prince in the first institution of Monarchy it doth now lie in the Power of the People to revoke it 4. Whether the Power of Kings be so immediately subject unto God that no earthly Power can call the King to an account for the administration of the Government First Whether Monarchy be that particular form of Government which God appointed and doth approve or whether there be not other forms of Government for example a Democracy that may be commended equally with it or rather preferred before it I move this Question because we are fallen into an unhappy Age when men do assume to themselves if not a liberty of Prophecying or Conjecturing what form of Government will come next upon the stage and act its part amongst us yet at least a liberty of arguing pro and con making it a moot case whether Monarchy be the Government that God approves and whether the Nation might not be as happy or more under a Republick than a Monarchy In order to the stating of this Point I lay down these Assertions 1. It is certain that Monarchy is the most ancient Government of Mankind He that epitomized Trogus an ancient Writer tells us that Principio rerum gentium civitatum imperium penes reges erat And if in the search of Histories Sacred or Prophane there be no Footsteps of Democracy in the eldest Times then certainly a Republick is an Innovation And Innovations in the State are as dangerous as in the Church And if our Saviour convicted Practices introduced in later Ages by calling them back to the Original of things telling them that in the beginning it was not so Matth. 19.8 then sure I think the Antiquity of this Form pleads much for the preference of Monarchy 2. It is the Government that God set up over his own People of old I do not say that we are absolutely bound to the Jewish Model of Government or Laws any further than the common equity or benefit thereof doth oblige us But we may reasonably conclude that what Form of Government the infinite wisdom of God did know to be best that his infinite goodness would move him to establish amongst that People whom he had chosen out of all the Nations of the Earth to be unto him a Peculiar People Deut. 14.2 Now Monarchical Government was that which he set up among the Jews Even Moses was a Monarch and King in Jeshurun Deut. 33.5 Joshua and the rest of the Judges or Dukes were virtually though not formally Kings After them followed those that bore the Name and State of Kings but still their Government was Monarchical which is a great argument for its excellency 3. We read of no other Form of Government in Scripture but Monarchy This Argument is chiefly ad homines those that are ready so pertinaciously to stick to that Principle that the holy Scripture is a sufficient Rule in all things appertaining to Faith and Manners that they are ready to think an argument concluding negatively ab hâc authoritate to be firm and cogent that press us so much with the prohibition of adding to or diminishing from the Word of God and urge the great Curse to deter us these I hope will accept of what consequences do necessarily follow from those premisses And for as much as no other Form of Civil Government but Monarchical is found in Scripture therefore to attempt to set up another must be either adding to that Word or detracting from it or both And this Argument must hold strongly amongst all men of that persuasion 4. Monarchy doth most nearly resemble the Power and Authority of God the great King of Kings Originals give Pattern to all Copies and Copies must be corrected by them Now the Power of God as the Governour of the World is the Original and Pattern of all Government And consequently the nearer any Form comes to the resembling of his Government the better it is and the further off the worse But the great God of Heaven rules as a Sovereign Monarch whose Vicegerents all earthly Rulers are and to whom they must give an account And therefore Monarchical Government among men doth come nearest to this Pattern and consequently must be owned as the best Form 5. Monarchical Government is every way qualified to answer the ends of Government most advantagiously and therefore it is the best The ends of Government are making and executing Laws and protecting the People Now what way so expeditious for the making of Laws as when the Royal Assent breaths life into them when they are drawn up by the Counsels of many wise men and receive their Stamp of Authority from One One the Supreme Moderator and Adjustor of all different Interests and Opinions What Method so Uniform in the Execution of the Laws as when all Proceedings run in the Name of One and the same sacred Person What means so expedient to protect the People as when the Sword is in the hand of a Man that