than this Conceal them we must not Repeat them we cannot they are so many in number Forget them we dare not Disown them we will not God hath made us the very Darlings of Heaven and Happiness and courted us to Obedience by all the fair means imaginable and as if he meant to make us a president of Mercy to Posterity like Gideon's Fleece we have been full of the Divine Bounty when all the World besides was dry in comparison of us We came into no misfortunes like other Folks nor have we been plagued like other Men round about us Our Mess hath been like Benjamin's Five times bigger than the rest of our Brethren and we have plenty of all things richly to enjoy He hath not dealt with us after our Sins nor rewarded us according to our Iniquities and therefore let the unspeakable Goodness of our God lead us to Repentance or else the more he hath indulg'd us hitherto the greater reason have we to expect his severity for the time to come Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised when all the Malice and Power of Hell was raised to destroy him for keeping our gracious Soveraign under the shadow of his Wing to this day in assisting him by extraordinary Supplies of his Grace to undergo not only with Patience but Chearfulness the many Indignities they cast upon him and the Extremities to which they drove him and in giving him now at last the hearts of his Loyal Subjects and the necks of his Enemies Which I therefore mention under this Head because it is a Mercy to us as well as to him who are necessary Sharers in it And we were the most ungrateful Monsters in the World if we should not remember it and consider seriously how happy the People are who are in such a case yea how blessed are that People whose God is the Lord. Let us hang up our Votive Tables and manifest our publick and chearful Sense of these Mercies on this solemn Festivity and lest the more God in Mercy remembers us the sooner we forget both him and our selves let the rejoycing of our Lips be seconded with the reformation of our Lives 1 Sam. xij 25. For if we still do wickedly we shall be consumed both we and our King Let us love God and one another from this day forward more than ever we did for the King's sake The better Christians we become the better Subjects we shall be and the better Neigbours too Let us therefore forsake all those wasting sins which rob us of our Peace and Joy and remember that all outward formalities of Rejoycing are but insignificant Ceremonies if not accompanied with innocence and integrity To what purpose do we Ring our Bells Isai v. 18. if we resolve to draw Iniquity with Cords of Vanity and Sin as if it were with a Cart-rope till we pull down God's Judgments upon the King 's and our Heads To what end shall we kindle Bone-fires if we resolve to enkindle the Flames of God's displeasure by our provoking Sins to devour us into whose Hands it will be a fearful thing to fall for our God is a consuming Fire Heb. x. 31. Heb. xij 29. To what purpose do we please our selves if we resolve likewise to gratifie the King's and our Enemies nay and the Enemies of God and all goodness too For God's sake for the King's sake for the Church of England 's sake be dutiful Subjects to the King of Heaven in the first place and next under him to the King of Great Britain that God may never repent of his loving Kindness to him or us The Lord of Hosts who hath kept him in the day of trouble of his Infinite Mercy to him and us preserve him from it for the time to come the Lord help him from his Sanctuary and strengthen him out of Sion Let the Ark of his Presence be always precious to him and let the Presence of that Ark evermore preserve Him Let thy Hand O Lord be upon the Man of thy Right Hand Make him a constant Patron of thy Church and Truth Protect his Person and prosper his Government Bless him with wise and safe Councils and give him courage and constancy to pursue them Bless him in his Royal Consort our gracious Queen MARY the partner of his Afflictions as well as of his Glories and in that good time which shall be best for her and us fulfil her Joys and make her a fruitful Mother of many and happy Children and the King a Father of a numerous Posterity to Rule these Nations after him by Succession in all Ages and Generations O Lord Grant the King a long Life give him his Hearts desire and fulfil all his mind that we his Subjects under thee may see with joy and gladness of Heart That thou of thine infinite Goodness dost help thine Anointed and that thou wilt hear him from thy Holy Heaven and continue thy Loving Kindness to our David thy Servant and Israel thy People AMEN FINIS ADVERTISEMENT AT the Instance of many Eminent Persons of both Churches Superiours are consenting that of the English Sermons Preach'd before Their Majesties since the First Sunday of October last some be made Publick And because that which open'd the Preaching at Windsor has been much desir'd and the longest expected I Present the Reader with it in the First place The Author bids me Apologize for it as a slight Thing run up in haste But since it was well receiv'd it would be to question the Judgment of that most Honorable and most Learned Auditory to make any Excuse or to give it you with any Alterations or Amendment You have it therefore as it was spoke and will be follow'd by others of the same Hand he hopes more Correct
A SERMON PREACHED upon the Anniversary Solemnity OF THE Happy Inauguration OF Our Dread Soveraign LORD King JAMES II. In the Collegiate Church of Ripon February the 6 th 1685 6 By THOMAS CARTWRIGHT D.D. Dean of Ripon and Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY LONDON Printed by J. Leake and are to be Sold by Walter Davis in Amen-Corner MDCLXXXVI To my LORD THE Lord HENRY EARL of PETERBOROW Groom of the Stole and First Gentleman of the Bed-Chamber to His MAJESTY one of the Lords of the Honourable Privy-Council and Knight of the Most Noble Order of the GARTER My LORD HOmilies are by our Rubrick and the Statute to give place to Sermons where they may be had and therefore the Minister who Officiates on the King's-Day is obliged rather to Preach a Sermon of his own Composing upon the same Argument than to Read the Homily concerning Obedience to Rulers and Magistrates This I doubt not was chearfully done by Persons and in Places of the greatest Eminency and we in the Country thought our selves bound to be as Dutiful as those in higher places as Affectionate to his Majesty's Service tho' not so Eloquent And tho' many of Richer Parts have of their Abundance cast much more into this Treasury yet Men of Meanest need not despair of His Majesty's Gracious Acceptance Mar. xij 42. whilst like the poor Widow in the Gospel they come to Express their Pious Officiousness to Support his Crown by their Oblations tho' they betray their Poverty by the Meanness of them and shew how much greater their Zeal is than their Abilities to serve Him This I did as well as I could in His Majesty's Collegiate Church of Ripon nor is it Ostentation that makes me Preach it over again from the Press but pure Charity towards the Cure of the Leprosie of those Rebellious Principles which every Priest must needs see tokens enough to discern to be that Plague in the Head which renders too many among our People so utterly unclean as that they are only fit to dwell alone and without the Camp of Israel Lev. xiij 44. ves 46. And as the Priest under the Law who attempted the Cure of any other Leper was by God's Direction to begin at the Right Ear xiv 14. and from thence to proceed to his Right Hand so I thought my self obliged to Print what I had Preach'd that they might Handle what they had heard and be the more perfectly Convinc'd how much it concerns us to Endeavour their Cure and them to join with us in our Prayers to God for the Perfecting it The Subject Convinces me how ready some will be to take Offence at the Author and Argument of this Sermon and tho' I neither fear the Censure nor court the Favour of Men so disaffected to the Government yet I thought my self obliged to make Choice of such a Patron as had been a Pattern of Loyalty to others and was Himself Able and Willing to Protect both and to Maintain that Truth which hath been the Rule of Your Life Your Lordships Devotion to Your Prince and Zeal for His Service being as well known as Your Person And tho' there be little in this Discourse Worthy of Your Judicious Eye or Owning Yet the Cause which it Pleads being That for which Your Honour hath always Expressed so Great a Concern as to venture Your Life and Estate in it makes me not Despair of its Acceptance And Your Eminent and Vndeserved Goodness of which I have had so long Experience secures my Pardon for Prefixing Your Name to it If my Abilities had born Proportion to my Will it should have been as far beyond as it now will fall short of Your Lordships Expectations But my Comfort is That as it gives me an Happy Opportunity to Testifie my Gratitude for Your former Favours so there will be a Power in Your Acceptance to make Plainness an Ornament and to Oblige others to think well of the mean but sincere Performances of him who accounts himself obliged to be as well as to subscribe himself My Lord Your Lordship's In all humble Duty and Unfeigned Observance THOMAS CARTWRIGHT 1 KINGS viij 66. On the Eighth day he sent the People away and they Blessed the King and went unto their Tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord had done for David his Servant and for Israel his People WE are now happily Assembled in the Collegiate Church of Ripon endowed and conferr'd upon us by the Bounty of our Royal Founder King JAMES the First of ever blessed Memory in the Second Year of his Reign to Celebrate Aug. 2. 1604. according to the Laudable and Religions Practice of good Subjects in former Ages the Joyful Inauguration of his Grandson our Gracious Soveraign Lord King JAMES the Second on the First Day of the Second Year of his Reign And we may now remember with Comfort and Satisfaction to our Consciences how the Men of Ripon or our Friends of Ripon as they Ironically call'd us were singled out and traduced not many Years since by Julian Johnson Ferguson and other hot-spurs of the same Faction and Sedition who were then carrying on an Accursed Conspiracy against the Crown and Church of England and Exposed to the Madness of the People to be Ridicul'd and Revil'd for our early and then unfashionable Loyalty expressed in our Address in hopes that they might either have Laugh'd or Frighted us out of our Duty and Religion Now that we may testifie to the World our unmoveable Steadiness and the renewed Evidence of our Fidelity to the Crown in all unshaken Principles and Practises of Loyalty let us do the proper Work of the King's Day in its season Let us Bless God for the miraculous Disappointments of all the malicious Hopes and infernal Designs of those Blood-thirsty Men being not only agreeable to their Anti-Monarchical and Anti-Episcopal Principles but in truth inseparable from them Let us be joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord hath done for David his Servant and for Israel his People Shew your Love to his Person and your Zeal for his Government resign up your selves as you have done your Charter to Him not doubting of a proportionable Favour and Encouragement and as you have stood to your Prince in his severest Tryals according to your bounden Duty so let it not be in the power of any Discontented Persons whatsoever to Taint you with the least blemish of Disloyalty We want nothing blessed be God and the King as to our External State but what to wish for Do we not enjoy Peace Plenty and Liberty nay and the Best Religion in the World and why then should we disquiet our selves or others with the fanciful Imaginations and unreasonable Fears of future Evils for which in reality there appears no Foundation but in our own distemper'd Brains Let us do our Duty and the King his Pleasure let us not prevaricate with God or him but be
the Homage of a good Subject after he had been shut up in the Lions Den. He acknowledged him to be his King and honour'd him accordingly Dan. ij 24. O King live for ever And the Primitive Christians wished Julian himself Length of days and prosperity And as our Religion is not Evangelium armatum nor will suffer us to rise up against our King Vi Armis not to be done without the Violation of all the Laws of God and Man so neither shall we ever have occasion to do it as they had Precibus Lachrymis those pious Weapons with which the Primitive Christians overcame the Tyranny of their Persecutors Prov. xxi 1. For the King's Heart is in the Hand of the Lord and he who can turn it whithersoever he will hath inclined it hitherto and I trust will always do to the Protection of the Church of England Wherein we have his Royal Word for our Security and if that be not sufficient to allay Mens Fears and Jealousies I know not what will We can appeal to his Sacred Majesty how we adher'd as became us to his Right for Conscience-sake tho' against that which some short-sighted Polititians and worse Christians would have made us believe to have been our Interest We cannot but glory in the Reproaches and Injuries we sustain'd on his account from the Out-rages of the Mobile He is of too generous and gracious a Nature to use the Power which God hath given him to procure their Ruine who were always ready and ever will be to do their best to prevent his And therefore the Venient Romani the groundless Jealousies of Popery's coming in which alarums the Rabble shall not be such a scar-crow as to fright us out of our Wits and Religion nor shall it ever exasperate or enrage us to do any thing that is wicked upon the apprehensions of it nor to abandon our Loyalty Justice and moral Honesty to prevent it For it would be a Contradiction to maintain advance or establish Religion upon the Ruines of Justice which founds all Religion nor must God's Ordinance be secured in one point by endangering it in another No doubt but the King will gratifie his own Perswasion without any severe and cruel Methods on the other hand for he naturally abhors Sanguine Sacrifices Upon which consideration he hath been pleased by his own Royal and voluntary Declaration to renew and confirm to his Subjects the best Magna Charta that every they had A Blessing obtained without a Rebellion and which calls for a suitable Veneration and Return from his People He knows that ours is a Religion that hath always asserted the Rights of the Crown with Life and Fortune And how chearfully the Members of it have spent their Blood and Treasure in his own his late Majesty's and his Father's Service And how they stand affected to his Prerogative upon which they know all Popular Encroachments to be as fatal as Inundations of the Sea And that loose Reins cast upon the Neck of a Resty People will teach them a trick to throw their Rider till none can sit them And that none can live in the Communion of our Church who does not solemnly renounce all rebellious Principles and Practices and disclaim all Usurpations whatsoever upon Sovereign Powers He can never be over-ruled by any designing Men of what perswasion soever to put off his own generous Nature and innate Kindness to his old Friends He is very well content we should be as faithful to God as we are to him as true to our Religion as to our King God Preserve and Prosper him for it Alas We do but flatter our selves if ever we hope to be Govern'd without that which is commonly call'd an Arbitrary Power let the Word sound never so harshly The only question is Who shall have it Whether it shall be in the King or the People In one or many And the Denial of necessary Powers for the safety of the Kingdom which call them what you will are the Regalia the Inherent Rights of the Crown for Fear of Mis-Government is the ready way to lose all the Fruits and Benefit of Government it self for want of those powers to support it For 't is impossible for any Common-Wealth to subsist without that dreadful thing call'd Arbitrary Power if by Arbitrary you mean as I do Supreme and Absolute True it is That if this be vested in one the People are over-apt to call it Tyranny but if in many they are pleased to christen it by the glorious Name of Liberty Tho' if Tyranny consist not in the abundance but abuse of Power not in the uncontroulableness but unreasonableness not in the exercise but excess of it it will be as unjust and Tyrannical in them as in him so to use it Nor are Common-Wealths more secur'd from this sort of Tyranny than Monarchies Our own Statute Laws acknowledge 16. R. 2.5 25. H. 8.21 24. H. 8.12 That our King is subject to none but God and that he hath an Imperial Crown and they call his Kingdom an Empire And by the Common Law the King is neither inferior to the Three Estates nor co-ordinate with them but is Major Vniversis as well as Singulis Greater than all of them as well collectively as singly The Parliament doth but propound prepare and present the Project of the Law 't is the Royal Stamp that makes it one The sole Legislative Power is lodg'd in the King and to him saith Bracton belongs the interpretation of all Laws when made not in plain Cases but in New Questions and Emergent Doubts of which the King was the first and must be the last Judge too For if the People be Judge he is no Monarch at all and so farewel all Government There is no State in which there is not an ultimate Judicature which is not to be accountable and Queen Elizabeth used to say That she was to be accountable to none but God Nor did the Protestants call this Tyranny or Arbitrary Government in her Days And therefore let not the Dragon's Tail pretend now to lead the Head least after much fruitless Toil it draw the Body of Three Kingdoms into the Ditch Things are not always in themselves as they appear to us We see them but on the Dark side the King hath more Wisdom than to lay open the Arcana Imperii to us And if an Implicit Faith be due to the meanest Artificer in his own Art how much more is it due to the King in the profound secrets of Government His Actions are manifest but his Reasons seal'd up in the Cabinet of his own Royal Breast And if Bodinus says true Lib. 1. de Rep. c. 8. A Sovereign Prince may Derogate to the Law which he hath promised or sworn to keep if the Equity thereof be ceas'd and that of himself without the consent of his Subjects Suppose there were a Law That the People should pay no Taxes or Contributions to the publick Good