sea for water and for tendernesse softer not onely then water but then oyl To lay down as it were his own royall neck under the sword of the Angell when he saw it hanging over him by a lesse thrid then that of Damocles To open his own religious breast to receive the blow that he might ward it from the people To value the peoples safety so farre aboue his own as to interpose himself betwixt the sword and the slaughter O how farre doth he here renounce himself and recede not onely from royalty but from life it self It is much which is mentioned in the text that he should name the people first to the happinesse more that he should offer himself first to the punishment very much that he should put the people betwixt himself and the blessing farre more that he should place himself betwixt the people and the curse He made himself in this SPECULUM PRINCIPUM the mirrour of Princes a mirrour into which as we may well presume our Gracious Sovereigne King CHARLES hath made frequent and usefull inspections for it is manifest by many passages of his reign and happy government that the tendernesse of his love towards his people if it doth not fully reach yet it comes close up to the recessions of David It is the more remarkable for that he hath this virtue as it were in proper and by himself he is almost the sole possessour of it The most of ordinary men as living more by will then reason are all for holding so stiffe and inflexible so tenacious and unyielding even in matters of small moment that they will not stirre a hair-breadth Entreat them persuade them convince them still they keep to this principle and 't is none of the best Obtein all Yield nothing It is a nobler spirit that resides in the breast of our Sovereign as appears by his manifold yieldings and recessions Of such recessions we have many instances in the course of his Majesties government I might go as farre back as his first coming to the Crown when he receded from his own profit in taking upon him the payment of his Fathers debts which were great and but small supplies to be expected from an empty Exchequer yet the love of justice and his peoples emolument overswayed him and armed him with Epaminondas his resolution Totius orbis divitias despicere prae patriae charitate Having but glanced at that I might draw a little nearer to the third of his reign when in that Parliament of Tertio he was pleased to signe the so much desired Petition of Right a Title which I confesse takes me much both because it speaks the dâ—â—ifulnesse of the subject in petitioning although for right and the great goodnesse of a Gracious Prince who knows how to recede from power and in some case even from prerogative when besought by prayers and rejoyceth not to sell his favours but to give them For I have heard some wise men say That that single grant was equivalent to twenty subsidies But the time will not give me leave to dwell as I should upon particulars therefore I will call you nearer to the transient remembrance and but the transient for it is no pleasure to revive it of the commotions in the North. The eyes of the whole world were upon that action and they all are witnesses what pains and travell were taken what clemencie and indulgence was used what yieldings and condescentions both in point of hononr and power to purchase as it were by a price paid out of himself the peace and tranquillity of both kingdomes Whereby he made all men understand how much more pleasing it was to his Princely disposition with Cyrus in Xenophon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to conquer not by might but by clemency By clemency I say the word which I named before and I cannot name it too often It is the virtue God most delights in to exercise himself and 't is the copie also which he sets us to write after It is the virtue which draws both eyes and hearts unto it in that it maketh Royalty it self which is so farre above to become beneficiall and sovereign It corrects the brightnesse of Majestie calmes the strictnesse of Justice lightens the weight of Power attemperates whatsoever might cause terrour to our mind and liking If we never had known it before yet the onely time of this Parliament would teach us sufficiently how much we ow to the King's clemencie The laws and statutes which have been made this last year are lasting and speaking monuments of these royall recessions as well to posteritie as to our selves Surely if the true picture and resemblance of a Prince be in his laws it cannot be denied that in the acts for trienniall Parliaments for the continuation of the Parliament now being for the regulating of impositions pressing of souldiers courts of Judicature and others not a few of the like nature are the lineaments and expressions to the life of the perfect pourtraiture of a Benigne and Gracious Prince who seems resolved of a new way and hitherto unheard of by wholesome laws to enlarge his subjects and to confine himself Yet it may be said It is not his onely hand which is in these laws the proposall of them is from others although the ratification be in him Be it so But the ratification is ten-fold to the proposall nay it is the life and essence of a law So we ow the laws themselves to his goodnesse Nay and if it be granted that the proposall of such laws comes from others let us then look to the many gracious messages which occasionally have been sent at severall times to that great Assemblie In these he speaks onely by himself and in so gracious a manner that to read some passages would ravish a loyall heart as well as endear it In some of them we may see how he puts the happinesse of his people into the same proximitie with his own in others how he neglects his own for our accommodation In that of January the 20 you have these golden words That he will rather lay by any particular respect of his Own dignity then lose time for the Publick good That out of his Fatherly care of his people he will be ready both to equall and to exceed the greatest examples of the most Indulgent Princes in their Acts of Grace and Favour to their people Again in that of the 28 of January there is yet more tendernesse He calls God to witnesse and with him the attestation of that sacred name is very religious that the preservation of the publick peace the law and the libertie of the subject is and shall alwayes be as much his care and industrie as the safety of his own life or the lives of his dearest children Lastly in the other of the 15 of March there is more then yieldings and concessions a gracious prevention of our desires for he is pleased to excite and call upon that Great
prosperitie and safetie of the publick But alas there are few such spirits in our time It is a rate thing to find a private man who cordially devoteth himself to the good of the Communitie It was the complaint of Plato in his time That every man was impetuously carried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and of Thucydides the Historian in his Vnusquisque rem suam urget and of Tacitus in his Brivatacuique stimulatio vile decus publicum S. Paul himself was driven to this complaint Phil. 2.21 All seek their own Where he left we may take it up Our own settling our own securitie our own wealth our own advancement is all we generally look after There is hardly any man to be found whose bent is not towards himself Whereas the publick is the private infinitely multiplied and so much the more of nearer concernment as it is of larger extension whereas again man is onely a world in a figurative sense of speaking and that but a microcosme or little world that is in effect a small part of the great yet as in some other things so in this also it falls out The Allegorie devoures the letter the private eats up the publick the part the whole the overweaning respect to the little world doth every where almost overturn the greater I know there are many which make fair shews goodly pretences great ostentation of the contrary You shall have them often crying out The Publick the Publick and as fast as the Jews did The Temple the Temple but it is with the like insincerity for their aim is wholly for themselves So we shew our selves hypocrites even in things civill as well as in religion Each godly man is of another temper His word is that of S. Ambrose Mihi parcior foris totus or that of the Oratour in Salust Adsum en Caius Cotta voveo dedóque me pro Republica It was a brave resolution in a Heathen but it concerns us Christians more For he was onely a part of one Communitie we each of us have a share in two being members of the Church as well as the State So there is a double tie upon us and that we should daily remember it it is insinuated in the Lord's prayer in which as there is one expresse petition for the publick so there is a respect had to it in all There is nothing singular not an I nor a Me nor a Mine but all plurall We Vs Our noting that it is every mans duty even in his prayers to be zealous for the Communitie But the text will not allow me that scope to speak of this zeal to the publick as 't is the dutie of private men but as it is an excellencie of Kings and Princes It 's true I might call it a duty even in them also God requires it of them as a duty but it becomes us to repute it an excellencie both because the benefit is ours which redounds from thence and likewise because it is more eminent and illustrious in them then in other men In others it 's limited and ministeriall in a Prince supreme and universall He is the influxive head who both governs the whole bodie and every member which is any way serviceable to the bodie The glorious Sunne that gives light both to the world and to the starres themselves which in their severall stations are usefull to the world Here 's enough to define it an excellencie to have the care and trust of the whole in himself Yea but further to tender it as himself and to set the weal of the publick in equipage with his own happinesse and to fold them up together his own in the publick and the publick in his own is so high an ascent of goodnesse that it were a great wrong to such virtue to stile it by any lesse name then an excellencie In this particular I might easily be large but it requires not so much proofs as acknowledgements and retributions Therefore I will briefly proceed both wayes and first give you a few examples for proofs and then I am sure there is no man so unworthy but will think himself obliged to retributions The first example shall be taken from Moses whom Philo reckons among Kings and so doth the Scripture Deut. 33.5 For howsoever he had not the name he had the power and authoritie yet even in that power he was not more Regal then in his tendernesse over the people At one time his tendernesse was so great toward them that because he could not do them so much good as he desired he besought the Lord to take away his life Numb 11.15 At another time he was so perplexed with the fear of their destruction that he requested of God either to keep them still in the land of the living or to blot him out of the book of life Exod 32.32 hereby shewing himself not onely the miracle of Nature as Philo calls him but of Grace too in pledging for them that which was more worth then his life his very salvation It was a rare ex ample of Castor and Pollux so highly magnified by Authours That being twinnes and as the Poets feigned one born mortall the other immortall Pollux to shew his love to his brother yielded so farre as to take to himself a part of his brothers mortalitie and to lend him as much of his own immortalitie being better pleased to enjoy a half immortalitie with the good of his brother then a whole one alone by himself It is known by all to be a fiction yet if it were true it is farre short of this proffer of Moses He knew full well what belonged to immortalitie and to the favour of God yet in effect he beseecheth God either to take them into his favour or to put him out of it as content to hazard not half his immortalitie but all out of his love to the Israelites notwithstanding they were a people ungratefull both towards him and towards God After this of Moses I know no example so transcending as that of the Prophet David who besides that he urgeth it almost in every Psalme The peace of Jerusalem The salvation of Israel The felicity of Gods chosen The blessing of the people in one place he argues for it even to his own destruction You have it 1. Chron. 21.16 17. It is there recorded that seeing the angel of the Lord with his sword drawn over Jerusalem to destroy it he thus reasons with God for the safeguard of the publick Me me adsum qui feci IT IS I EVEN I IT IS THAT HAVE SINNED In me convertito ferrum LET THY HAND BE AGAINST ME AND AGAINST MY FATHERS HOUSE NOT ON THY PEOPLE FOR THESE SHEEP VVHAT HAVE THEY DONE He that considers these words will hardly be able to tell what most to wonder at the condescending of his love or the overflowing He declared here saith S. Chrysostome a depth of love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an affection more spacious for love then the
is the beata vita hominis so fully that a man cannot be happy either way nec absque Deo nec extra Deum not without God because he is the Doner not out of God because he is the thing it self and all which belongs to it As S. Ambrose of the foure beatitudes in S. Luke compared with the eight in S. Matthew In istis octo illae quatuor sunt in ist is quatuor illae octo and as King Porus when Alexander askt him how he would be used answered in one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is like a King Alexander again replying Do you desire nothing else No saith he all things are in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So in this which we are now about it holds much more both the foure and the eight and all beatitudes they are in God so that he who hath God must needs have all things because God is all things There is no notion under which we can couch beatitude but we may find it in God by way of eminencie if as a state of joy or glory or wealth or tranquillitie or securitie God is all these if as a state of perfection salvation retribution God is all these not onely the giver of the reward but the reward it self both our bonum and our summum A Christian is never truly happy till he can find himself and all things in God The fruition of God it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Pelusiota speaks the very top of the spire or pinacle of beatitude both here and in heaven In hoc uno summitas beatitudinis eliquatur to use Tertullians words Were a man in paradise were he in heaven it self and had not God he could not be happy Were he on Job's dunghill in Daniels den in the belly of hell with Jonah nay in the infernall hell with Dives and yet had God he could not be miserable for heaven is wheresoever God is because his influxive presence maketh heaven That 's the Ordo influxûs I mentioned for which he is said to be our God Besides this there is ordo Divini cultûs on our part The respect of our being serviceable to him when we love him and fear him and honour him and adhere unto him as we ought To all these there is blessednesse pronounced in severall Psalmes to those that fear him Psal 128.1 to those that keep his testimonies Psal 119.2 to those that trust in him Psal 84.12 If we take it thus the point is this in summe There is no true happinesse but in the worship and service of God Felices sunt qui Deo vivunt that 's S. Bernards Servire Deo est regnare that 's S. Ambrose his expression As much as this The godly man is onely the true happy man Yet we must understand it aright It is not to serve him onely in outward profession which either makes us his or him ours There are many who pretend to serve him who cannot challenge this interest for they serve him but with their lips in act themselves and their own pleasures in this both hypocrites and idolaters that under the shew of one God set up many to themselves The Epicure he makes his belly his God the lascivious man his lust the voluptuous man his pleasure the factious man his humour the covetous man his mammon I name this last It is the observation of S. Austin in his 7 book De Civitate Dei and of Lactantius in his second De Origine Erroris That avarice gives laws to religion whil'st generally sub obtentu Numinis cupiditas colitur Yea and S. Paul expresseth it more punctually That covetousnesse is idolatry Col. 3.5 And the covetous man an idolater Ephes 5.5 For he doth the same to his gold that the heathen did to their idoles he makes his gold his God his God because his joy and his care and his confidence Those pictures he worships though otherwise he abhorres idoles to these he offers his service he gives them his heart he extols them ascribes unto them the glory of his happinesse These are thy gods O Israel which brought thee out of the land of Egypt this money got thee such a preferment procured such a deliverance prevailed in such a suite It 's the secret idolatrie which runnes through the world But such men as these they are as farre from God as from his service and as farre from happinesse as from God Whosoever will make sure of the Lord to be his God he must put the idoles out of his heart he must go out of himself he must not willingly harbour any sinne Sinne separates from God excludes from happinesse cuts off both priviledges of God's being ours and our being God's Yet there is one thing more with which I will conclude Since it is so that happinesse is seated in these mutuall intercurrences of calling the Lord our God and our selves his people and seeing religion is the Vinculum unionis which makes these mutuall interests intercurrent and couples them together it follows as the upshot of all That the chief and choicest part of Nationall happinesse consists in the puritie of God's worship in the enjoying of God's ordinances in the free passage of the Gospel that is in the truth and integritie of religion In this alone there are all sweets all beauties all blisses all glories It is as the ark of God to Israel and as the golden candlestick to the Churches the elevating principle which advanceth a Christian Nation above the heathen and the reformed Churches above other Christian Nations and this Iland in which we live I may say without arrogancie above all There is no Nation in the world which hath had the condition of religion so pure and prosperous as we for almost these hundred yeares It 's true if God calls us to account we cannot say that we have answered our opportunities we find not wherein to boast of our righteousnesse for vve are a sinfull people vvhose lives for the most part of us are as much vvorse as our means and professions better then in other places It is true also that of later yeares the love of religion in most hath grovvn cold and the puritie by some hath been stained and corrupted and I vvill not novv discusse vvhere the fault hath been the rather because it is every mans endeavour to remove it from himself Onely I will adde thus much That wheresoever the fault is there is no man hath shewed himself more forward to reform it then the King himself But Princes cannot alwayes attain their ends according to their liking because they see with other eyes and execute with other hands then their own And if we should cast the faults of men upon authoritie we should do wrong I fear to those who do not deserve it for even this very yeare notwithstanding the reformation of corruptions hath been with so much zeal and diligence endeavoured yet the end is not attained Nay in some respects it is so farre set back that to my understanding the state of religion hath never been worse since the first reformation then this present yeare in respect first of the greatnesse of our distractions which have divided us all one from another then of the multitude of sects and sectaries which cry indeed as the Jews before them Templum Domini but with a worse addition ut Templum Domini diruatur Lastly in respect of the many dishonours done to the service of God with so much scorn and scandall to religion that in forein parts they question whether all this time we had any No doubt all this is come upon us for our sinnes let us remove them and then God will blesse our studie of reformation But yet in the mean time let us remember that message which the good Bishop sent to Epiphanius Domine sol ad oscasum descendit Our sun-shine is but yet declining it may come to set if we now begin to disgust this greatest blessing of religion which God hath bestowed upon us Let us learn to regard it more to love it better to blesse God for it and for his government who upholds it a Prince so devout and religious in his own person that if all were like him we should have a Kingdome of Saints In this respect we may use Velleius his words of his Majestie Cùm sit imperio Maximus exemplo Major est The lustre of his pietie surpasseth the lustre of his empire If therefore that of Synesius be true That men generally affect to write after the copies which are set by their Princes it behoves us all both to take out the lesson and to blesse God for the copie And moreover as this day puts us in mind let us all send up our most affectionate prayers that his Throne may be established by Righteousnesse his Crown exalted with Honour his Scepter be for power like Moses rod for flourishing like Aaron's that his happy reigne may in himself outlive us all and in his posteritie be perpetuated to all generations that succeeding ages may confesse Surely God hath been favourable unto this land and hath not dealt so with any Nation O how happy are the people that are in such a case Yea how happy are the people which have the Lord for their God! FINIS