A SERMON Preach'd in the Cathedral Church OF St. Peter in York On the 6th of February 1685 6. Being the Day on which His MAJESTY began his Happy Reign By WILLIAM STAINFORTH Residentiary Canon of YORK Imprimatur Ro. Altham Rmo P. Dno Johan Archiep. Ebor. Ã sacris Domesticis YORK Printed by Jo. White for FRANCIS HILDYARD Bookseller at the Bible in Stonegate Anno Dom. M. DC LXXXVI To the Honourable SIR THOMAS SLINGSBY BARONET Sir I Humbly Present you with a Sermon which when it was preach'd met with such a favourable reception and kind entertainment from some of the Loyal and Judicious Auditors that they look'd upon the Printing it to be of public Vse and Advantage because it might as they thought in some measure at least contribute to the Reduction of such of His Majesty's Subjects as have been misled into seditious Practices and prevent others from falling into the snares of the same accursed Seduction and accordingly they importun'd me to make it as Publick as now it appears And tho' I took some time to consider before I would yield to their Requests yet when I had once resolved to comply with them I found no place for Deliberation to whom I should Dedicate it or whose Name I should borrow to give countenance and protection to it For the Design of this Sermon being to promote an holy Fear of God and a loyal Fear of the King no Person did or indeed could occur to my thoughts whose Patronage could be more proper or useful to a Discourse of this nature than your own because You Sir are so great an Example of those two necessary and indispensible Duties which are here recommended Your holy fear of God has been made visible to all who know you in your constant unalterable Perseverance in the Communion of the Reformed Church of England and in your zealous Concernment which upon all just Occasions you express for its true Interests and unalienable Privileges notwithstanding all the Temptations you may have met with either at Home or Abroad to corrupt your holy Faith and misguide your devout Affections Your loyal fear of the King has been as evident as the former throughout the whole course of your Conversation and most vigorously exerted and discover'd it self in sutable Effects and a Loyal Behaviour under the most frightful Posture and discouraging Circumstances of public Affairs when some were driven from their Duty and Allegiance by dismal Stories and factious Amusements and others were wheadl'd out of it by popular Addresses and smooth and crafty Insinuations And therefore you justly enjoy not only the Estate and Honourable Titles which belong'd to your Ancestors but also all that public Esteem and Reputation with your Prince and Country which their fam'd and celebrated Loyalty procur'd for them I need go no higher for a Proof of this than to your immediat Progenitor and Honourable Father Sir HENRY SLINGSBY who persever'd in his Allegiance to his Prince to such a degree of Faithfulness as made him Resist even unto Bloud not in a Fanatical but Christian sence and lay down his Life for his Natural tho' banished Soveraign whom no Terrours or Allurements of a remorseless and crafty Vsurper could oblige him to renounce So that Loyalty seems entail'd upon your Family and looks as if it were your Inheritance as well as your Choice convey'd in your Bloud as well as infus'd at your Baptism and descended upon you by your natural as well as spiritual Birth But however it is impossible that you should ever depart from your self or your Duty while you live in the Communion of the Church of England and make her Rules the Measures of your Subjection for she teacheth a perfect absolute unlimited Subjection by teaching all her Members to Obey all the just and lawful Commands of their King and with patience and resignation to suffer his Censures and Punishments where they cannot obey And I do not doubt but one great Reason among all the rest why you value and live in the Church of England rather than in any other Christian Society whatsover is because her Doctrine and Practices in point of civil Subjection are so conformable to those of our Blessed Saviour and his holy Apostles who died rather than they would resist those Soveraign Powers they liv'd under and who have forbidden all Resistance under the pain of eternal Damnation And may you long live in the Communion of this Holy Church to do Honour to God and Service to your Prince upon Earth and God out of his infinit Mercy in his due time receive you into the Church Triumphant in Heaven This is and shall be the constant daily Prayer of SIR Your most obliged and most humble Servant WILLIAM STAINFORTH Prov. 24. 21. My son fear thou the Lord and the King and medle not with them that are given to change CIvil Government is the great Comprehensive Wordly blessing for it is the Foundation of Peace and Quiet the Spring and Fountain of all those Inestimable Advantages which adorn and felicitate Humane Societies For without Government there would be nothing but Wildnes and Confusion Rapine and Violence and all the bloody Outrages of a barbarous and Merciles Inhumanity And therefore God who design'd the Happiness of man in his Creation not only implanted in his Nature strong and powerful Instincts after Society but also took care that he might Enjoy all the intended Blessings and design'd advantages of Society by instituting Government for its Support and preservation This is plain from that Authority and Dominion which God gave Adam over his Wife and all his Natural Descendents by vertue of which every man who was born into the World was born in a State of subjection and Ow'd Duty and Obedience to him from whom under God he derived his Natural Being So that Government began by the Divine Ordination as soon as there were any capable Objects for its Exercise and administration it being founded in Paternal Authority which as Families increased and multiplied grew up to the height and largenes of Imperial and Political Power Now of all the Kinds and Forms of Government Monarchy is not only the most Primitive and Natural but the most Compleat and Perfect for as it is most Conformable to the Heavenly Pattern and nearliest resembleth the Government of God So it is most Conducive to all those Useful and Beneficial purposes for which men enter into Societies and for which Government was instituted This might be prov'd by shewing that Monarchy has all those real advantages which any other Forms of Government can pretend unto without being subject to many of those Numerous Inconveniences and Mischiefs which inseparably attend them And of Monarchies that which is limited and Hereditary deserves the preference for its singular Value Usefulnes Now by a Limited Monarchy I mean such an One where the Supream and Unaccountable Power of the Prince as to its exercise and administration is under the direction of stated
to provoke his Almighty Justice by breaking any of his Known Laws than we should be willing to be Eternally miserable And for this very reason the Fear of God is so frequently injoyn'd us in the Holy Scriptures for this very reason the Fear of God is oftentimes put for the whole Sum of Religion and for all that Worship and Duty which we Ow to God for wheresoever it is truly grounded and deeply rooted all the other parts of Holines and Righteousnes will flow from it as from their Natural and proper Principle For it is impossible for any man to be affected with it and not feel the force and efficacy of its nature in a perfect subjection of his heart and an entire resignation of his Will to the commands and disposal of God Almighty 2. As we are Commâ—â—ded to fear God so also to fear the King and tho there is not an equal Reason yet there is a sufficient one for so doing For the King is Gods Vicegerent and Representative and is intrusted by him with the Temporal Power and Material Sword for the support of his Authority and Vindication of his Government God who has set him upon his Throne for the Good of the whole Community has furnished him with all those means which are necessary for the attainment of such an excellent end For He has not only given him Authority to Enact and prescribe Lawes for the Regulation of his Subjects but also Power to inflict Penalties upon such as dare to transgress them And indeed without such a Power of Coercion all his other Authority would prove lame and defective and insufficient for all those purposes for which it is Ordain'd For the Generallity of Mankind are not so ingenuous as to be wrought upon by rational arguments wise discourses nor to conform to the most prudent useful Rules upon the bare proposals of Authority There must be something to work upon their Fears as wel as to Convince their Understandings before they will learn or practise the Duty of Subjection And though the great inestible advantages of Order Government are sufficient Motives to engage any thoughtful and considering Person to Civil Obedience and a regular Submission to public Authority yet few men consider what is their true Interest or wherein their greatest Happiness consists or what are the best and most proper means to attain and secure it but live incogitantly carelesly without any other thoughts or reflections but what their impotent Passions and unruly appetites inspire them with And therefore it is no wonder that men generally are so turbulent and seditious in their natures and Inclinations and upon every provocation disgust nay upon every foolish Caprice Humour so ready to combine in factious designs and engage in rebellious enterprizes and to pull Ruin upon themselves by offering Violence to the Government But as this shews the Folly madnes of such People how little they understand either their Duty or their Happines So it demonstratively proves the Necessity of a Right to punish offenders of a Force sufficient to execute that Right in all those who are invested with Supream Sovereign Authority For tho' men will not be won to live dutifully and Loyally by the charms of Peace and the Blessings of Obedience yet they may be constrained and forc'd to do so by the Dreads and Terrors of Public Authority and Fear of Punishment will have its effects upon such Obstinate and unruly Tempers whom the Hopes of rewards can make no impressions upon For those men who through stupidity and dulness through Ignorance or Inconsideration have no affecting and lively sense of true Happines and Consequently are not to be mov'd by the proposals assurances of it to Keep within the bounds limits of their Duty yet cannot hinder themselves from being sensible of Pain and Torment nor so far harden fortifie their Natures against the impressions of Fear as not to feel the force and Power of that Passion when they lye under the apprehension of Impendent Ruine or approaching Misery And therefore as men naturally endeavour to avoid what they fear so it is necessary that the public Magistrate should be armed with such an Authority as may create Fear in all those who otherwise might be dispos'd to resist and rise up against Him that so He may constrain those by the Terrors of His Justice whom the effects of His Love Clemency Bounty could not Oblige to be Subject And accordingly that men might want no Motives to be Subject to Government God has arm'd Kings with an Authority to Threaten Punishments and a Power to inflict them So St. Paul teacheth us when he tells us that the Magistrate Rom. 13. 4. beareth not the sword in vain for He is the Minister of God a Revenger to execute wrath on them that do evil And this shews that as we have reason to fear God so also to fear the King tho' not in the same degree and proportion Tho' the King cannot make us miserable to that degree which God can do because his Power is limited and cannot reach us beyond this Life yet He has Power to make us so far miserable as justly renders him an Object of Dread and Terrour to us For if we are unruly and disobedient and will not be kept within the compass of our Duty He has Power and Authority to do Justice upon us and inflict such Punishments as are proportionable to the Nature of our Guilts and agreeable to the Prescription of the public Laws In some Cases He can put Marks of public Infamy and disgrace upon us In others he can punish us in our Estates by setting pecuniary mulcts upon us In others he can add a further punishment to that and afflict us in our Bodies aswell as in our Purses In others where the Offence is capital as all Treason and Rebellion is He can Taint our Blood and Confiscate our Estates and put us to Death So that if we did but fear the King proportionably to the Evils which he can bring upon us we should not dare to provoke his wrath by offending against his Laws we should not dare to combine and Conspire against his Royal Authority nor move one Step which has any apparent Tendency either to destroy his Sacred Person or endanger the dissolution of his Government And I do not doubt if the stoutest and hardiest Rebel of them all always excepting those who are Rebels out of Principle and Conscience did but frequently and seriouslâ—â—â—â—…k upon the Ax and Gibbet and that infamous and untimely Death which is always the desert and commonly is the Fate of Rebels I say I do not doubt but these Reflections would so awaken their Fears as to Quell their Seditious Purposes and put a stop to their Factious Designs and suggest unto them such wise and prudent Counsels as would keep them Peaceable and Loyal under the best of Monarchies and the best of
Governments And for this very Reason the Fear of the King is commanded and injoyn'd us as if it were the whole of that Duty and Allegiance which we owe unto him Thus having Discourst in short upon those Duties of Fear which we owe to God and the King I proceed to make such Observations as may be gathered both from the Connexion of the Words and the Order of them 1. We may Observe that Religion and Loyalty have such a close dependence and strict connexion with each other that the wise Man puts them both together and injoyns them upon us in such a manner as if they were but one single indivisible Duty And certain it is that however some men may separate them in their internal persuasions or external professions yet in truth and reality they are always link'd and conjoin'd and inseparably accompany each other And this I shall make appear by shewing 1. That no man can be truly Religious who is not a Loyal Subject 2. That no man can be stedily and immoveably Loyal who is not truly and sincerely Religious 1. No man can be truly Religious who is not a Loyal Subject For what Duty is more clearly and strongly enforc'd upon us by the Laws of our holy Religion than this of Obedience and Subjection to Kings and Princes Government is God's Ordinance and Kings are his Vicegerents deputed by his Authority and Arm'd with his Power to keep the World in Order Peace and Quietness And that they may be secure in their Thrones and inviolable in their Persons and irresistible in their Administrations God has plainly taught us by the Light of Nature and the Revelation of his Word always to bear in our minds such awful regards to express in our Carriage such dutiful Respects as are suitable to the Excellency of their Character the Dignity of their Office and the Usefulness of their Institution How numerous are the Texts which might be produc'd out of the Old and New Testaments to this purpose wherein the Divine Original of Kingly Power is clearly asserted a willing Obedience to all their just and lawful Commands is indispensibly injoyn'd and all manner of Hostile and Forcible Resistance either of their Persons or their Authority is expresly forbidden and severely threatned so that if the Truth of Religion is to be judg'd by those Rules of Duty which God himself has deliver'd and if we are not to be reckon'd any further Religious than as we sincerely conform to those Rules it is plain that a Religious Rebel is as gross and palpable a Contradiction as a Sovereign Unaccountable Subject and it is in effect to say that a man lives under the Directions of God's Commands whilst he affronts the plainest Intimations and violates the clearest Injunctions of the Divine Will It cannot be denied that many have rebell'd out of conscience and taken up Arms against their Natural and Sovereign Prince from an accursed Persuasion that they were not only allow'd but bound by the Laws of God to do so But as the Nature of things are stated and determined fixed and permanent and do not alter and vary with mens Opinions and Apprehensions about them so no Errors and Mistakes of ours about Religion can either turn that into a real Truth which is a certain falshood or convert that into a necessary Duty of Christianity which either in it self or in its consequence is an effectual Contradiction to any of its Precepts Now all Resistance of the Supreme Sovereign Power is plainly forbidden by the Laws of our common Christianity and therefore Resistance will ever be a sin tho' we are never so strongly perswaded of its being a Duty and for the same reason we shall always be so far Rebels against God as we are Rebels against the King And tho' it be true that a Conscientious Rebel is very much to be Pitied because what he does may be owing more to the Power of his Errour than to the Malice of his Will yet of all Rebels these are the most dangerous to the State and Government For he who is a Rebel out of Conscience is push'd on to his wickedness encourag'd to persevere in it by the most Powerful Motives which can influence affect humane Nature For he who is perswaded that his Sin is his Duty must needs look upon himself Oblig'd by the Authority of God himself to Commit it and has all those great and glorious rewards which are promis'd to any Christian and Vertuous undertaking to encourage and animate him to the practise of the Conscientious Villany And therefore the Supream Power can never be too watchful over the Motions nor keep too strict a hand over the Men of such Principles whose Faith is Faction whose Religion is Rebellion because nothing but a perfect Disability and want of Power in them can ever restrain their Wild and furious Zeal from making Attempts upon the Government and creating disorders in it These are so many Snakes and Vipers in the bosome of the State which whilest they are cherish'd with its Warmth and kindly influences are alwayes endeavouring to Sting it to death and to Eat out the very heart and vitals of its Constitution and no Trust or Confidence can reasonably be reposed in them until they abandon their factious Principles and be Converted to the Truth and the Government by a full and sincere Conviction of their Duty An Atheistical Rebel may be held from pursuing his factious designs by the Visible terrors of the Civil Magistrate Or he may be won over to the Government by those secular advantages which his peaceable Compliance with the present establishment may procure for him Or a Man who is a Rebel against his Principle aswel as against his Prince may consider his Folly and his Guilt and repent of it His Conscience may awaken and recover it self and arrest him with its dreadful convictions and by shewing him the black Impiety and inevitable danger of his Seditious proceedings bring him back to himself and to his Duty and beget in him firm and invincible resolutions of being faithful to his Conscience and to his Prince and of never departing any more from the Fidelity and Allegiance which is due to both of them But there are no grounds for conceiving any such hopes of a Conscientious Rebel for he is under the possession and Conduct of a Principle which is too strong and powerful for any Earthly Motives or Secular Considerations and all those Ingagements to Loyalty and Civil Subjection which have relation to another Life through the Malignity of his Error the Corruptions of his conscience are made to minister to his Rebellious purposes and to cherish Encourage him in his most Furious Zealous executions of them So that nothing but perfect despair an absolute Incapacity of Harming the Government can ever withhold a Conscientious Rebel from disturbing the Peace and endeavouring the Subversion of it And therefore nothing can be more Reasonable in it self
nor Useful to the Public nor Prudent in our Governours then to take all due care that those may never have any means nor opportunities of Embroiling the Quiet and shaking the Foundation of the Government who look upon it as a point of Conscience and as a part of Religion to be alwayes prepar'd and alwayes resolved to endeavour the Confusion and Destruction of it But what Monstrous Illusions and Diabolical Infatuations must they ly under who think Resistance of Sovereign Power in any case or upon any account whatsoever to be a Duty of Christianity or the Dictate of an Enlightened Conscience Who perswade themselves that they are obedient to the Impulses of Gods Spirit in resisting the Authority of His Vicegerent and are promoting the Honour of his Government in pulling down the Ordinances of his Providence For such are Kings who are set upon their Thrones by Gods Authority and appointment and in an especial manner bear the Impress and Character of his Divinity upon them For God himself tells us That by him Kings Reign and St. Paul saith There is no Power but of God and the Powers that be are Prov. 8. 15. Rom. 13. ordain'd of God and that the Supreme Magistrate is the Minister of God and that no Resistance may be made to his Authority nor any Violence offer'd to his Person He tells us That we must be Subject to him not only for wrath but Conscience and that they who resist shall receive to themselves Damnation And the Example of Our Blessed Saviour and the Behaviour of his Holy Apostles and the Practice of the Primitive Christians were conformable to this Doctrine for they never disputed the Lawful Commands of their Governours Nor deny'd active Obedience to their Prince when it was consistent with the indispensible Duty which they Ow'd to God And when the Commands of their Prince were unreasonable and unjust and could not be complied with without violating their Consciences and offending God they neither open'd their Mouths in derogation of his Honour nor lifted up their hands in defiance of his Authority but with an admirable mixture of Meekness and Patience and Charity suffer'd when they could not obey and bore the Punishment which was inflicted And they who give any other Accounts of the Doctrines of true Christianity or of the Practices of its Primitive and Orthodox Professors do fouly misrepresent the one and injuriously bely the other and are as malicious Enemies to the Honour and Interest of our common Christianity as they are to the civil Authority of Soveraign Princes For Christianity is not only the most Pure but the most Peaceable and loyal Institution which ever was set on foot in the World It guards the Thrones and secures the Persons and supports the Authority of Princes with such strong and powerful Defensatives that no man can break through them but at the utmost peril of his Immortal Soul nor without incurring the Penalty of eternal Damnation And therefore every man ceaseth to be a Christian when he commenceth Rebel renounceth the Cross of Christ when he sets up a Standard against his Prince and has as little of true Religion as he has of Christian Loyalty in him 2. No man can be stedily and immoveably Loyal who is not truly Religious And this must needs be so because no men but such as are truly Religious are govern'd by a Principle which prompts them to a constant invariable Uniformity of dutiful Respect and Loyal behaviour towards their lawful Sovereign An Atheist who denies the Being of a God and a Prophane Person who lives without any fear of his Power or regard to his Laws are equally under the Dominion of Sense and the Government of its Appetites and are only swai'd by such Considerations as have respect to their temporal and Earthly Felicity Their Heaven is upon Earth and they neither look nor wish for any other Joys than what arise from the Indulgence and Gratification of their sensual Affections So that such men can have no other Motives to be Loyal than what the present Interests of this Life furnish them with For the considerations of God and Religion being laid aside there remains nothing but the good things of this World to affect them with and determine their Resolutions and therefore such men cannot be Loyal any further than the Hopes and Fears of this World will give them leave to be so Indeed it cannot be denied because it is matter of undoubted Experience that many Prophane and Immoral men have behav'd themselves with great Bravery of Spirit and Constancy of Resolution in the Service of their Prince Follow'd him in all the changes and revolutions of his fortunes stuck by him in his Extremest Necessities and worst Condition and expos'd their Lives and Fortunes to the Utmost hazards for the defence of his Person and preservation of his Government But what of all this the Evidence of this Experience and the certainty of this Fact does neither destroy the truth of this Position nor rebate the force of my reasoning about it For if all this Loyal behaviour did not proceed from an affecting sense of that Duty which we Owe to God nor from a Conscientious regard which we ought to have for all his Institutions If it was not the effect of a vertuous choice the result of pious and Religious considerations It can be ascrib'd to nothing but a casual contingent Principle such a Principle as might indifferently have made them false Traytors or faithful Subjects and consequently their Loyalty was not so much their Vertue as their good Fortune And therefore I think it no wonder at all that some men who gave great Proofs of an Unshaken Constancy and invincible Courage in the Cause of our late Royal Martyr should desert their former Professions and in some late juncture of Affairs give shrewd suspitions of a turbulent and seditious Spirit of malicious and spightful Designs against the Person and Authority of their Prince For all this may be easily supposed and accounted for without supposing any change in the Men The men their Principles may be the same that ever they were and though they exert and discover themselves in different and contrary Effects yet this contrariety of Appearance and Operation is consistent with the influence and efficacy of the same Numerical Principle which works contrarily according to the change of Seasons and the Alteration of Affairs and the Variation of their secular Interests and the different Apprehensions which they may have of the most likely Means to promote and secure them Formerly they might think it their only Interest to uphold Monarchy and defend its Inseparable and undoubted Rights against all the Rebellious Invaders of it and this Consideration might reasonably enough ingage them on the King's Side and keep them close Firm to his Party But of late they might alter their Thoughts as to the most probable Methods both of preserving and improving their secular Interests and