Disorder and Dissolution 1. When there was no King in Israel who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the living Image of God the Tribe of Dan will have a dead Idol they break into Micha's House rob him of his Priest and and consecrated things and if you inquire how such Sacriledge Idolatry Felony and Burglary could escape their deserved punishment 'T is fully answered that there was no King in Judg. 18. 1 Israel no Heir of Restraint for so the King is called Vers 7. of that Chapter because He by his Inheritance is obliged to curb and restrain all headstrong Impieties and to cast up Boundaries against such overflowing Iniquities 2. At another time we read of an horrible Rape committed a Woman violently and shamefully abused by the extravagant Lust of barbarous Ruffians and the Spirit of God renders this also for the reason of that violent Vncleanness of Gibeah That there was no King in Israel 3. Lastly The Men of Benjamin became the bold Champions of Gibeah's Lewdness and being flesh'd with the double success of their evil cause they persisted in their Villany till all but six hundred were destroyed These surprized the Virgins dancing at Shiloth ravish'd them away by violence from their Parents and enforced them to Marriage of which Rape and Riot the reason rendred is the same as it was of the former In those days there was no King in Judg. 21. 23 25. Israel So that my Text you see is no single instance no particular strange casual or accidental Emergence but as it was in the beginning so it hath been ever since and will be undoubtedly to the Worlds end Where there is no King Gen. 36. 3. Deut. 33. 5 that is no ordinary Judge or Governour as the word is elsewhere taken every one will do that which is right in his own eyes My Text is made up of Confusion Anarchy and the sad Effects of it divide it and the World nor can you expect any perfect Method in the prosecution of such Disorders wherein we are concerned to take notice of these three Particulars I. The Tragical Antecedent wherein the great cause of Israels Miseries and from what remarkably fatal time they bore date is recorded In those days there was no King in Israel II. The Terrible Consequent or Israels dismal condition without their King Every one did that which was right in their own Eyes III. The Infallible Connexion between that Cause and this Effect the one is so intail'd upon the other that there is but an intermediate Comma hardly a breathing space between the loss of a King and Licentiousness Which makes the words by a clear Epiphonema to declare the great Benefit of a Legitimate King in Israel the Necessity of Laws and the Happiness of those People who live under such a Government as takes an impartial care of their execution which will bring the Text home from the Jews to the Gentiles from those in Israel to us in England Now the worst beginning that any Men living ever made was when we of this Nation began to be a weary of our Late Martyr'd Sovereign that being the fatal time from whence we may experimentally derive the Original Cause of all ours as the Holy Spirit hath here done of Israels Miseries which I therefore term 1. The Tragical Antecedent In those days there was no King in Israel After Sampson's death there was an Inter-regnum not under Othoniel but between Sampson's and Eli's Government to which Drusius and Tremellius think this instance relates Others say there was no Supream and continual ordinary Magistrate over the whole body of the People for the Judges were extraordinary raised at Gods pleasure over a part of the People and without absolute Authority and therefore the People Judg. 2. 17 would not hearken unto them because their Power was only of Direction not of Dominion they could counsel but not correct them There were at that time many Task-masters over Israel but no King in it Now the King is of as publick and universal Influence in his Dominions as is the Sun in the Firmament He being the Publick Ballancer of each Private Interest with which he is intrusted as the proper Guardian of Equity and Justice Custos utriusque Tabulae to whose Sacred Custody God hath committed the Two Tables of the Law and intrusted Him to see that we live soberly among our selves religiously towards God and righteously towards our Neighbours Rerum prima Salus una Caesar. Martial l. 8. Epigr. 65. He is the principal Pillar upon which the Stress of his Kingdom lies and as the King doth not live Sibi sed Populo so neither doth He die to his own but to their disadvantage and though ten thousand others might steal out of the World and no body mind or miss them yet the Loss of Him will be as soon felt as the plucking up of a substantial Stake out of a rotten Hedge or the removal of a Buttress from a declining Wall And when this Tutelar Angel of a Kingdom is recall'd 't is time for the Inhabitants to tremble for fear of the Destroying Angel's coming among them A King will be suddenly and soundly miss'd not only in Edom but in Israel which will quickly turn to a Babel without him in as much as that very Law by which we hold our Lives and Liberties will be but a Dead Letter unless it have his Authority to actuate and enliven it For let the Rule be never so strait and perfect it measureth nothing out of his Hand who hath skill to use it and when the Law hath defined what is Right or Wrong there will want a Judge to sentence for the Plaintiff or Defendant and let the Directive Power of the Law be never so good it must of necessity fall to the ground if there be not a co-active to assist it Libertas Libertate Perit to live as we please would be the ready way to lose our Liberty and undo our selves Tyranny it self were infinitely more tolerable than such an unbridled Liberty For that like a Tempest might throw down here and there a fruitful Tree but this like a Deluge would sweep away all before it and Confusion hath ever been found so much worse than the hardest Subjection and even the most corrupt Government so much better than a Civil War that it was over-ruled in Nerva's time by Fronto the Consul Melius est sub his Cardan Encom Neron c. 5 esse sub quibus nihil licet quam sub quibus omnia That it is better to live under the severest Prince where every Suspicion is made a Crime and every Crime Capital than to have none at all but a lawless Anarchy And therefore the want of a King of which Israel so much complains is a complicated Mischief involving many thousand Evils in it and such as are not to be calculated by any single person but we must all lay our heads together to sum them up which
in their Eyes and be thorowly convinced of the Truth of the third part of my Text viz III. The Infallible Connexion between that Antecedent and this Consequent the Loss of a King and Licentiousness In those days there was no King in Israel Quid plus velit ira There was no full stop to more Miseries yet there is but a meer Comma a short breathing space and it instantly follows Every Man did that which was right in his own Eyes We are not yet grown so old in our regained Happiness as to have out-worn the sense of our late Disorders Those Fatal Days are not yet forgot wherein the Cursed Regicides pull'd down Gods Deputy to set up Devotion defac'd the Churches to introduce a Form of Godliness and grub'd up the soundest and straitest Cedars of it by the Roots to plant a Grove of crooked hollow hearted Elders in their room till they came to hold the Laws themselves under Sequestration as well as the Rights and Revenues of the Crown and Church and of all such good Subjects and Christians as had Courage and Conscience enough to defend either Indeed we can hardly name that Wickedness which was not then Tolerated Countenanced Encouraged and Applauded when the Sword of the Spirit had once found a new way to the Conscience even by cutting thorow the Flesh From which horrible Enormities which a King in Israel would and when he is Dethron'd none else can prevent and remedy give me leave by way of Application to infer three things 1. The Necessity of Laws and Governours If all Men were Vertuous every Man would be a Law to himself but there being very few who can guide themselves and very many who will not be guided by others without constraint there is a visible need both of a Directive Power to make Laws and of a Coactive to put them in Execution The Law without the King is but a Dead Letter He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Living Law and as without Government there would be no Communities but rather Herds of Men so without such Coercive Power of his there could be no Government and if the Power of which the King is possess'd did not so vastly exceed that of his Subjects who are to obey that in case of a Contest it would be most unreasonable for them to hope to maintain their Cause and Party against him we should never be free from Tumults and Seditions and therefore Men being more Ruled by Hopes and Fears than by a sense of Duty and love of Goodness 't is necessary for the Maintenance of Societies not only that it be declared What Men ought to do but also that the Penalties be set forth which they ought to suffer upon the Violation of those Laws whereupon the Society doth subsist for which they are to be accountable to such who by their Oaths and Offices are bound to see the Laws obey'd and Offenders punished so that although there be Kings yet except they carefully execute their Laws that no Man be suffer'd to do what is right in his own Eyes without suffering the Penalties imposed by Law Disorder and Dissolution will quickly follow The Laws ought to be of an Vnyielding and Inflexible Temper and not such soft and easie things as to bend to their humour whom they ought to command Nor do I know any Rule either of Policy or Piety whereby the Conscience of the Superiour is bound to relax his Laws because the Inferiour thinks so For if one Man can make it necessary to change the Law in complyance with his Opinion then why not every one and so no Law shall be in force but what Malefactors have a mind to and every Man shall be bound to please himself in doing that which is right in his own Eyes which is the ready way to Nurse up Factions and Seditions to a Grandure so formidable as to be able when they see their own time to change the Government of Church and State 'T is sometimes necessary for the Publick Weal to punish Well-meaning Persons for such Offences into which they have been betrayed through their own Ignorance and Inadvertency and by the artifice of some Grand Seducers but it is always necessary to punish such who unless they mean better now than they did before mean to bathe their Tender Consciences in the Blood of our Gracious Sovereign and their fellow-Subjects and therefore it is high time for them who are in Authority not only to consider the present but to inlarge their Vigilancy for the times to come to permit nothing now which may hereafter shake the Throne of David and to bestir themselves against such Anti-Monarchical and Anti-Episcopal Spirits as have been Conjured up in this Rebellious and Disputing Age till they lay such Infernal Impostors and compel them to that Modesty and Obedience by the Sword of Justice to which all the Rhetorick and Reason in the World can never court them And I know your Lordships understand your selves and the present Distempers of this poor distracted Kingdom better than to hope to remove the Disease by feeding the Humour If the Foundations of Faith Good Life and Government be not secured by the due execution of the Laws we shall neither have Truth nor Peace long among us From whence we may infer 2. The great Benefit of a Legitimate King and his Government as of that in which our Strength lies as did Sampsons in his Hair which if cut off we should quickly betray our Weakness to the Philistines falling upon us Munimentum Gentis est Justitia Justice is the Fortification of a Kingdom and Laws the Soul of the Body Politick by which its parts are animated and set a work in such Actions as the common good requires which taught Plato to derive their Pedigree from Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And indeed the World which would otherwise be a Salvage Wilderness is by Government made a Terrestrial Paradice the Type and Representation of that which is Eternal whilst every Man sits under his own Vine and Figtree gathering his own Fruit and not reaching his Hand into anothers Vineyard Thus are Men by the Kings Power made just to others and themselves and as they may not offer violence so neither need they fear to suffer it they may not disturb their Brethrens Peace nor need they be jealous of their own no Man being permitted to do that which is right in his own Eyes unless it be also agreeable to the Laws of God and the King and the Outcries of such against the Magistrates as are thus happily bound by them to their Good behaviour are no more to be regarded by them than those of Mad-men against their Physitians Nor do Kings who are Gods among Men go out of their way in managing the Affairs of his Kingdom For if none had Power to order Matters of Religion there would be nothing but Confusion if any besides the Supream Magistrate nothing but Division and therefore the Jews tell
what we please for we cannot fathom the depth and deceitfulness of our own Hearts much less of the Hearts of other Men which are fruitful in evil and every day bring forth new Inventions Only this we know Cui plus licet quam par est plus velit quam licet We are all the worse for that which we mistake for Liberty mistake I say for to live as we please is indeed to lose our Liberty of which the Law is so far from being an Abridgement that it is the only Firm Foundation upon which it must be built if it stand for ever there being no True Liberty but under some Law to which when Men fling off their Obedience they bring themselves under the Devils Yoak nor is there any thing more unlike Liberty than that which they then contend for with so much heat and violence A Liberty to manifest our folly and wickedness to be unjust and unholy to injure our Brethren and our selves is but a Licence and Protection for Villany which is the greatest Slavery on this side Hell and yet a little more of this Liberty they would fain have who have had too much already unless they had used it better The Croud would fain be let loose to do what they please which Freedom that they may the better obtain they are taught by them who know best how to set a Rebellion on foot to pretend Conscience and an Inward Light for all their Aims and Actions how dark and dangerous soever which fond pretence hath in all Ages bid defiance to the Swords and Scepters of Sovereign Princes and Countermanded the Laws of their Inacting and whenever the Rabble had a mind to Rebel every thing they would have introduced or alter'd in the Government was their Conscience and their foulest Villanies were ready to justifie themselves by Scripture Authority Now by their Consciences for the Liberty whereof this Nation hath unhappily spent that Blood and Treasure which we might have kept for better purposes the modestest of them meant I think their Judgment and Opinion of their own Actions and did accordingly become Humble Petitioners to our Martyr'd KING of Blessed Memory that their Dictates might be certain Peculiars exempt from the Jurisdictions of their Sovereigns Decrees No Nation under Heaven hath been more over-stock'd with such Libertines than this of ours where they have been laying the Foundation for above forty years last past of the most loose uncertain and pernicious Religion in the World When they hear the Eccho of their own Lust and Concupiscence speaking within them they tell their deluded Admirers that it is the Voice of the Spirit and being once enlighted with such Illusions they bring in God to Witness against Himself and to speak by them from Heaven against what he hath declared before by his Son upon Earth upon which Foundation what a Babel of Confusion hath been erected and what foul Sins have advanc'd themselves upon these specious Principles even to the out-facing of all Authority we have sadly seen and felt too much already Men of Distempered Minds as well as Crasie Bodies being possessed with a discontent and dislike of things present do naturally imagine that any thing the Virtue whereof they hear commended by their Friends will help them and that most which they have tryed least and therefore they listen greedily to any Alterations of that Government which is uneasie to their Humours A Rent in the Church they hope may make up the Breaches in their Estates and Reputations and the Ruines of the Kingdom build up their Fortunes and therefore no wonder if they desire to acknowledge No King in Israel but Christ and every one to do that which is right in his own Eyes without the controul of his Governours who are intrusted with the Sword of Justice to repress those Armed Disorders which are embowel'd in that Trojan Horse which these Crafty Sinons would introduce Hoc Ithacus velit magno mercentur Atridae If this be admitted King JAMES His Prophecy will be soon fulfill'd The Pope will be brought into England upon the Puritans back And though I am so Charitable as to hope that they do not in the least design it yet I am also so purblind that I cannot see the least danger of his entrance any other way notwithstanding the many Jealousies of this kind with which we are daily alarm'd But alas What an Insignificant Cypher what a meer Picture of Authority would a King be if every private Mans perswasion which he has learn'd to call his Conscience should give check to the Magistrates Commands And how impossible is it for the King to abridge them of Liberty of Conscience the pleading for which makes so great a noise in the World For Liberty of Conscience rightly stated is an Internal and Invisible thing seated in that part of a Man of whose secret Operations which are but pure Speculations the Civil Power can take no Cognizance Men may think of things according to their own perswasions and assert the freedom of their Judgments in their Intellectual Kingdoms against all the Emperours in the World Nor is such a Private Sovereignty as this any Incroachment on the Prerogatives of Princes because Meer Opinions as such have no influence upon the Good or Evil of Humane Societies which is the proper Object of Government so that if the Opinion be shut up and muzled if it dwell quietly at home and take not the Air to molest and endanger others Authority lays no restraint upon it But when it sallies out of its own Sanctuary into outward Action and invades the Magistrates Territories till it come from Liberty of Perswasion to Liberty of Practice and throws 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such Fiery Darts of Satan among his Subjects Eph. 6. 16. as may inflame and wound them 't is both his Duty and Interest to have a care of the Publick Weal and to put a Bit in the Mouth of such an head-strong and unbridled Liberty as would run full speed into all the Mischiefs and Enormities imaginable God knows the generality of Mens Consciences are very insufficient and incompetent Judges of their own Actions and to leave them to the Government of their own Delusive Perswasions were in effect to deliver them up to Satan to be abused and tormented with every Lust which had debauched their Understandings We have seen of late years what a Cross-grain'd Thing this Liberty of Conscience is how many Rebels it Armed and how many Drums it beat up for Reformation till Humour Prejudice and Peevishness prevailed to Murder the Best of Princes Nor can we be reasonably startled at any greater Symptoms of the departure of that Happy Government which God hath now blessed us with than every Mans resolving to be over-ruled by none but his own Perswasions from the growth of which pernicious Delusion Good Lord deliver us For if there were No King in our Israel we should soon feel by these Mens Actions what were Right
Munster The Popes of Rome for all their Age and Holiness have more than once attempted to commit a Rape upon the Crown and Church of England and we have also smartly felt how hard the Hearts and Hands of those Tender Consciences were which were Nurs'd up at Geneva The Foxes did then as they do now look several ways but we find our Fields wasted and can hardly tell which were the greater Trespassers and God forbid that either of their Dominions should ever be founded in His MAJESTIES Grace I hope this Nation lies under no Disloyal Temptations to a Second Holy War because we cannot yet have forgot what a vast Expence of Blood and Treasure the First cost us I doubt not but our former Experience will Discipline us into an abhorrency of all those Vnnatural Methods which may infer the like Catastrophe It is not long since the Lord turned again the Captivity of our Sion and are we already so sick of our Liberty and so fond to go back as if with the male-content Israelites our Delight were in Egypt and we long'd to be Dancing after the Phrygian Musick of Drums and Trumpets What is it that you want to compleat your Happiness unless it be to understand it better and to be more thankful for it Will not the Miracle of the Kings and Churches Restauration rise up in Judgment against us if we so soon grow a weary of our Deliverance as to blaspheme GOD and the KING and deflower the Beauty of his Crown with Satyrical Invectives and gratifie his Enemies with Libels against his Person and Government The very Heathens themselves had Divinity enough to pay Devotion to their Princes Imperatori tanquam praesenti corporali Deo Fidelis est praestanda devotioo and if our Religion do not improve our Loyalty beyond theirs it is not from above and we shall be found Rebels against Heaven as well as Him For they who do not obey the King who is a Visible God will never obey God who is an Invisible King If therefore you desire to approve your selves good Subjects and Christians invent not any Evil Stories of Him whom God hath set over you falsly believe them not easily report them not disloyally aggravate them not spitefully scatter them not industriously but apprehend such Disloyal Thiefs whom you take a Pillaging your Princes Good Name the forward Receiver of any evil report being as bad as he that brings it And remember that Railing against Kings was a Capital Crime in David's Judgment who commanded Solomon to put 1 Kin. 2. 9 Shimei to death for it Let all your things be done with Charity but let that Charity begin at home and let the Father of your Country and your Mother Church taste the first fruits of it As many as are acted by calm and peaceable Principles have as much Liberty by Law as they can desire and much good it may do them For those who are otherwise minded it were an unpardonable Diminution of the Wisdom and Authority of the King and Parliament to say they deserv'd it Unless there be five or more assembled together over and besides those of the same Houshold where their Conventicle or Assembly is the Law made Ann. 22 CAROLI Secundi for the Prevention and Suppression of Seditious Conventicles takes no Cognizance of them and yet still they complain of Want of Liberty Now it cannot be a Liberty of Serving God which they want for he hath promised that Wheresoever two or three are met together in his Name he will be in the midst of them and the Law allows them this and as much more but it must be a Liberty of increasing their Factions till their Numbers may come to give Laws to the Government His MAJESTY hath done nothing to impose upon their Consciences I wish I could also as truly say that they had done nothing to oppose his Authority for the Benefits whereof that we may bless God as becomes us and pray the more heartily for its continuance I shall descant in the close of my Discourse upon 3 Our Happiness under a Monarchical Government which hath this prescription and advantage above all other forms that it carries a more evident stamp of Divine Institution than any other and is the more likely to avoid or put an end to all Divisions whatsoever For where there are many Governours there must needs be Differences where there are few there easily may be where there is but one there cannot the intermediate Officers having their Subordination either to other and all to him who as God said to Moses hath need of such Vnder-Officers Numb 11. 17. because he is not able to bear the burden alone We have a KING after Gods and our own Heart may his Reign be long and prosperous He is Gods High Steward and Minister and You My Lords are His from whom you derive your Authority for the punishment of Evil-doers that we may lead a peaceable Life in all Godliness and Honesty If therefore any have done what is right in their own Eyes but not in those of the Law I doubt not but that you will let them know that There is a King in Israel by bringing them to suffer what is right in yours that whosoever will not do the Laws of our God and the King may have Judgment Ezra 7. 26 executed speedily upon them whether it be death or to banishment or to confiscation of goods or to imprisonment Which benefit whilst the Country reaps by the execution of your Trust who are the Kings best Life-guard in times of Peace the very feet of those who bring tydings of your coming will be beautiful on the Mountains and your Honours will be received with the greatest alacrity and demonstrations of Joy imaginable as Good Angels of God and the King to whom we are in such deep Arrears of Duty and Allegiance that we can never pay him the Interest of our Obligations Nemo Patri Patriae parem refert gratiam etiamsi vitam impendat No Man can be grateful enough to his Prince though he sacrifice his Life to his Service Indeed we are blind to our own Interest if we do not tender him as the Apple of our Eye Submit both our Persons and Estates to be commanded at his pleasure in as much as all our private Concerns are imbark'd in that Publick Bottom whose Exigencies must be supplied with Men and Money according to the Kings Discretion who with the Advice and Assistance of his great Council the Parliament is the best Judge of Publick Necessity As we are all comprehended in so are we obliged to the good of the Nation upon which whatsoever we bestow returns to our selves the King having no more than the serious care of a Publick Guardian to lay out our Services and some part of our Estates for our own good of which no Revenue remains to himself but care and trouble If Men did bear true Faith and Allegiance to God and the King and would stick to the plain Principles of the Gospel and of a Vertuous Life their very Souls would be subject to the Higher Powers and Disobedience would be to them as it is to God as hateful as the Sin of Witchcraft and contempt of Authority though in the smallest matters would appear to deserve the greatest punishment and they would then take better care to secure their own Consciences and the Publick Peace than to arraign the Prudence of Authority and the Justice of Laws at the Bar of their private Discretion by the odious Name of Persecution in so licentious a manner as they now generally do and controul the Wisdom of their Superiours because they have little or none themselves Then would they also perceive how just and necessary it is that since Men have not all one Reason in them they should at least have one Power over them to render such Acts ineffectual by the due execution of Impartial Justice which might be done by any to the disturbance of the Community When there was No King or Judge in Israel Religion first then all went to rack But God having now blessed us with a King and his Judges thanks be to him we have no need to fear the return of such Disorders neither Micha for all his Wealth nor Dan for all his Forces nor Gibeah for all their Multitude no discontented Persons or Parties of what Faith or Faction soever may do what is right in their own Eyes unless they mean to suffer what is right in yours who are as much bound in Conscience to execute the Laws as they would make us believe they were to break them Nor will you be the worse beloved of God or good Men for preserving an opinion of your Justice and Severity but be highly applauded here and rewarded hereafter Hereby may you promise your selves our bended Knees at the Throne of Grace for your long Lives and endless Happiness You will be feared of the Kings and your Enemies and be beloved of his and your Friends Your Mother Church will bless you and God for you and your Father which is in Heaven will bestow upon you a Crown of Eternal Glory saying Well done good and faithful Servants enter into the Joy of your Master where you shall be eternally blessed with what we now desire to ascribe to the Great Judge of Heaven and Earth all Honour Power and Glory AMEN FINIS