measures as they had mutually agreed upon I am perswaded our Ark might have been safe enough for ever falling into the Philistins hands as of late it did Had Princes been taught that a Soveraign Power above Law hath nothing to do in Britain and that such as govern by Will and not by Law according to such stated Rules as are agreed upon by the People and Themselves cease to be Kings as King James said no Man in his Wits would have steered his Course directly upon a Rock he had been forewarned of or have been willing to have abandoned a Crown which might have been kept upon terms so easie honest and honourable If this had been taught them instead of an unaccountable jus-divinum that no Man could reach that set them upon a Pinacle too apt to make their Brains turn round we might perhaps have saved the Life of the best of Kings and prevented the Reign of the worst ever since the contrary Doctrine hath been taught I tremble to think what a Tragical scuffle and scramble here hath been for Fifty years between Property and Prerogative Sure enough old Sinon hath had an Hand in this I mean our Friends of the Church of Rome to promote such a Principle that might be a fatal Engine to break us to peices and blow up our Monarchs as they rejoyced to be sure when it was done I am sure the Principle which I have taught hath formerly been the received one of their Divines however to serve the present turn they so zealously and industriously promote the contrary for these Gentlemen use to shift Principles as we do Tools according as they have use of them Methinks I see the Philistins smile to observe how we have hugged and dandled that Delilah a Daughter of theirs that should one day have put out our Eyes at once made us Executioners of their Malice upon our selves and objects of their scorn I am afraid while they had cryed us up and extoll'd us as Loyal they would have laughed at us as Fools But I must pur off from this I hope I have sufficiently proved God's ordinary way of chusing Rulers is by the consent of the People and by consequence that his present Majesty being thus set up is chosen of God and therefore hath an undoubted Right to the Crown he wears There are a sort of Men cry out upon it as a Pragmaticall sauciness to meddle with the Grounds of Obedience unto Government as if it were meritorious to obey blindfold Indeed it were a great Point obtained if while so many scruple at and so many boldly dispute against the Right of his present Majesty and assert he hath no Right at all if they could set such Limits and Bounds about this wretched Principle as were once set about the Holy Mount that no Body might dare to come near or touch it If they could make it a kind of Sacriledge to pry never so little into that Ark or enquire into the reasons of our Obedience to it for fear the unreasonableness of their non-obedience should be discovered But what must an implicit Obedience be imposed upon us instead of an implicit Faith and would they have us obey like a company of Fools we know not why I know not a more rational reply that can be made to that important Question Why do you obey his present Majesty than this Because he hath a right to the Crown he wears which is the point I have proved And if my Reasons for such a Principle of Government were not of such force as I believe they are yet the Principle methinks deserves to be embraced of us for the service it hath done us in being the Foundation of his Majesty's Authority especially if we 2. Consider his Character that there is none like him among the People I shall pass by his other Excellencies and insist only upon those that are the necessary accomplishments of Majesty wherein I fear not to be excessive he being too great either to be flattered or duely praised All the Princes of Christendom subscribe to this that there is none like him and therefore have put the menage of their Affairs into his Hands I say all Princes but one who yet believes and trembles His Majesty is so considerable to the fears of that haughty Monarch that though he hath ever been thought to have had too nice and tender respect for his Honour as the only minion of his Age yet he hath been pleased of late as is plain to every Body that hath Eyes and will open them to humble himself to the mean drudgery of an Assassine to get rid of him by some proxy Bandittis he had mployed in that service And though our King Challenges him and bravely defies him every day in the Head of an Army yet he thinks it safer to procure him to be stabb'd in a corner then to meet him in the Field He begins to mistrust the force of his Arms and rely upon the safer Victory of a Poinyard or Steletto and the more easie dispatch of a Butcher or a Ruffian Si timidus est homicida est says Mauritius of Phocas if he be a Coward he 's an Assassine and I think I may conclude as truly if he be an Assassine he 's a Coward But to return Were I to write the Character of an Heroe I must certainly set his Majesty before me as my pattern and borrow every word of his Character from that Copy and when you had read it I am sure you could not but reflect this must be King William 1. He is a just and a righteous Prince that came as a Dew or rather as a shower of Rain upon the scorched Grass that hath brought Law and Equity into Credit again the Law that hath been jeered and hooted at as an old Elizabeth fashion he hath repealed the ostracism of poor Banished Astroea Justice now runs down like a mighty stream to refresh the City of our God His very Enemies sure can make no exceptions to his Justice unless because they have not found the edge of that Sword turned more upon themselves though that perhaps will be a fault no more Here 's now no violating Oaths and Promises those shackles of Majesty as some called them to destroy Hereticks no inventing pretensions of Prerogative or stretching Power as far as Will and Pleasure to come at our Throats never a Naboath hath now lost his Vineyard the Will of the Magistrate is not now the measure of the Law but the Law the measure of his Will and this way only he 's become an absolute Monarch over the Hands and Hearts of his Subjects 2. He is eminently wise whose Councils have ever been so prudent as if as a Tyrant commanded his Picture to be drawn with his Jupiter whispering in his ear they were all inspired from Heaven The laying the late Design that still holds the World in an amazement so secretly without the least noise and then executing of it with a
of the Scepter he seemed to offer himself as another Isaac rather to be a Sacrifice for us then a Soveraign to us though I trust Jehovah Jireh God Almighty in Mercy to this poor Nation will provide himself another Had he been so fond of a Crown he might have enjoyed one to destroy a Neighbour State he chose rather to endure one to save ours 'T was then a Lumbardy Crown of Iron not worthy to be ravished by Blood and any but our Heroe as the Sammites with their Jewels would have been prest to Death with the weight of it Vlt. He hath actually delivered us from the Ammonites I am very loath to darken the Joy of this Day by calling you to a sad and mournful retrospect upon that dismal time when the Ammonites carried themselves so Tyrannically and Proudly over us when we were beaten as the Israelites in Aegypt but we must not cry burdened but we must not groan if we whimpered never so little in the most humble manner and Petitioned we were Imprisoned Fined Arraigned and Condemned We saw Religion lye a bleeding our Ark ready to be taken while we sate sighing and sobbing out our Icabobs after Catholique Arguments could do no good we expected nothing but Catholique Cruelty to be Drub'd and Dragoon'd out of our Faith and Converted by such Apostolical Missionaries as are sent out of an Army We saw our Laws the only sences of our Liberties Properties Lives Religion trodden under foot these were look't upon as Fetters for us Slaves and Vassals and became not the Majesty of a Prince to wear whom they counted no less than God himself unbounded and unlimited by any Law but his own Will We saw our Prisons cram'd with the Patriots of our Country and our Benches filled with Traytors our Freeholds taken away from us by no other Law but a Sic volo sic jubeo for it is our Pleasure We have seen Gentlemen thrown out of Civil and Military Imployments who had sometimes been unadvisedly the Instruments of their Tyranny yet when the Hood was taken off and they came to see whither they were going so that they began to make a sudden Start and stop and could be whipt and spur'd no further we have seen them turned up like tired Hackneys for fresh ones fitter for their Drudgery Corporations have been garbled that we might have no Parliaments but as the Council of Trent was said to be guided by that Holy Ghost sent thither in a Cloak-bag from Rome no Parliaments I say but such as should have been guided by a Male from White-hall But I have not time to reckon up all their Ammonitish Dealings with us this only remains that our Misery to all appearance was irremediable no Peace or Covenant to be made with them but at the Price of our Senses 't was not an Eye would serve their turn we must neither Feel nor Taste nor See the Captains of these Ammonites have told us we must renounce our Senses and stoutly Believe that is in short we must turn Ammonites Thanks be to God our Hero hath delivered us from these Ammonites he hath rescued our Laws our Lives our Ten Commandments our Bibles the Light of the Gospel now shines for all the Flattering of these Night-birds about it who have but burnt their Wings and fanned our Light and made it shine clearer Blessed be God we may now look into our Bibles without a License and come to the King of Heaven without the Mediation of any Courtier but his Son we may obtain our Pardons at a cheaper Rate than at their Markets receive our God in the Sacrament without danger of eating of him exercise our Faith without hazard of our Eyes I know we have Sons of Belial can hear all that with a Scornful Smile I pray where say they was that great Danger you talk of these were only Imaginary Dragons and Serpents we feigned to our selves in the Air no such Monsters God be thanked were to be found on Earth Where were those Axes and Gibbets and Sambenits and Faggots you Dream of Good God no Danger Must not we flee from a Fire that was apparently breaking in upon us till we be burnt nor send for a Physician till we are Dead No Danger while we were in the hands of such Men who were under a Vow to destroy Hereticks and I cannot tell whither we might have trusted them for the keeping any other No Danger To be sure it was the greater for this false Cry to bring us into it The Net was not as Solomon says to be spread in the sight of the Bird and some must be imployed to cover the mouth of the Pit and by such false cries decoy us into it We are sure enough there was a Snare as I have sufficiently proved but Thanks be to God 't is broken and we are delivered And where are the Men now that have said Who is he that he should Rule over us Shall we say as these Israelites Bring them out that we may put them to Death As for those Miscreants who could not be satisfied with a Drunken Debauch at a Tavern unless they drank Healths to their Master as they called him in whole Bowls of English Blood I leave them to the Justice of the Government but for others that Conscientiously and Peaceably Dissent I only say God Almighty open the Eyes of these Men and for the Scandal they daily give to the Government Father forgive them for they know not what they do And now how can we sufficiently Praise that God that hath chosen such a Deliverer for us none like him among the People I know not whether he could have sent such another unless he had created one on purpose for this Glorious Design There have been some that would have adored him as a God for it and decreed him an Apotheosis To be sure he Merits more to be our Patron than another that hath so valiantly Fought the Dragon and rescued our Virgin Church the Purest and most Beautiful of any in the World The last Labour of our Hero remains to quell a Monster the Pest and Plague of Europe who is now forced to use his utmost Strength and Policy as a dying Serpeâ—t stretches out her self at full length he resolves I hear this Summer to give his deadly Kick and Spurn as a Beast about to dye And truly I do not doubt but with God's Blessing upon the Conduct of our Hero we shall yet point at that Lucifer if our Sins do not too much befriend him with Contempt and Scorn How art thou fallen thou Son of the Morning they that have seen thee shall narrowly look upon thee and say is this the Man that made the Earth to tremble that did shake Kingdoms and made the World as a Wilderness that destroyed Cities that terrible Leviathan see where he lyes sprawling upon dry Ground with the Almighty's Hook in his Nostrils Amen Amen Threesold use to be made of this Point 1. Let
consent He will not have the People acted like Machines or ridden as brute Beasts against their Wills but allows them the natural Liberty of Men to be Governed by their own free Choice and owns their concurrence for the Establishing of such their King For instance 1. David Tho' he were Anointed of God yet he never acted as King after Saul's Death till he was fully Established in his Throne by the mediate call of God the consent of the People 2 Sam. 2. 4. 1. Then the Men of Judah make him King at Hebron Still the House of Israel stand up zealously for Ishbosheth the Son of Saul their Lord and Master neither are they treated by the House of David as Rebels in that Seven years War between those two Competitors and the reason was David was never Established King in Israel all that time by the mediate call of God the consent of Israel as Ishbosheth was and therefore when Ishbosheth was Treacherously slain by his Two Captains the Sons of Rimmon and they officiously bring his Head to David He is so far from rewarding them for Executing Ch. 4. v. 2. Justice upon a Traitor that he gives Ishbosheth the Character of a Righteous Person which I see not Verse 11. how he could have done if David had been at that time King of Israel and dealt with the Assassinates just as he had before done with the Amalekite that slew Saul Ishbosheth's Verse 12. Father and yet there wanted nothing to have made David a King and Ishbosheth a Rebel but the Consent of the People of Israel which was presently given unto David upon the Death of Ishbosheth After he had made a League with them that is taking a Coronation Ch. 5. 3. Oath or promised them a temperate Reign the People of Israel also made him King Saul was immediately called of God to the Throne but yet I don't see him over-forward to make claim to the Government upon that call We find him coming after that not from his Pallace or the Council-Table attended with his Guard de Corps his 1 Sam. 11. 6. Band of Pensioners but as a Shepherd or Herdsman leading of his Sheep or driving his Oxen to Pasture staying till he should have an opportunity put into his Hands of approving himself a valiant Hero fit to go in and out before the People which the Ammonites did immediately by that bold affront they had provok'd him with which when he had so gloriously Revenged presently there was superadded to the immediate the mediate Call of God the Consent of the People They went to Gilgal and 1 Sam. 11. ult there they made Saul King 1 Kings 11. 29 30. Jeroboam is another instance 'T is true there was a Prophesie that Jeroboam should be King over Ten Tribes but this did not make him King upon Solomon's death and thefore he was too wary to jump into the Throne upon the right that Prophesie gave him but waits for the ordinaiy Call of God the Consent of the People having reason to conclude that God that had promised would so dispose of matters as to serve his Providence for the bringing it about in his good time Now observe by what a Chain of Providence he at last comes to obtain that Call the Peoples Consent All Israel go to Sichem to make Rehoboam King all this while here 's not the least thought of Jeroboam nay Jeroboam goes along with them to pay his respects to the 1 Kings 12. 1 3. Heir apparent there they transact with him for the administring Verse 15. the Government Justly and Righteously Well Rehoboam answers the People very hussingly he bids them depart and be gone commanding them together with Jeroboam to wait his pleasure Three days hence Jeroboam with the People obediently and peaceably depart he does not as yet snap at the Crown but Verse 12. waits till Providence by fair and regular ways set it upon his Head Jeroboam and the People come again the day appointed when he and the People receive but a very churlish answer from Rehoboam What meddle with his Prerogative offer to restrain his Sacred and Irresistible Tyranny such Vassals and Slaves to be so bold to present their Adresses and Petitions to the Son of Solomon He threatens them the higher tells them plainly he would Rule them as he pleased measure all right as one of our Kings did once the Yard-wand by the length of his own Arm he would gall them with his Yoak and flea them with V. 13. 14. his Scorpions This was infinitely more ingenuous then to flamm the People off with fair Promises Oaths and Protestations of a just and temperate Government which were never intended but as Sirens Songs to draw them securely upon the Rocks of danger Immediately the People think themselves fairly discharged Verse 15. of their Allegiance and set up Jeroboam King This act of Israel seems to be approved of God he owns it as from himself and charges a mighty Army raised for the reduction of Jeroboam to his Obedience to disband again without doing him any hurt So that Hushai said very well whom the Lord and 1 Kings 12. 24. the People and all the Men of Israel shall chuse his 2 Sam. 16. 18. will I be Agreeable to that of Moses thou shalt set him to be Deut. 77. 14 15. King over thee whom the Lord shall chuse which plainly shews that notwithstanding God's immediate Call and he hath chosen a Person to be King he yet requires a concurrence of that Call that is ordinary the Consent of the People for setting him in the Throne thou shalt set up him whom the Lord shall chuse But we are told by some that this Hypothesis would make Government precarious to let the People know they are so necessary for the modelling of it 't will make them resty and wanton with their Rulers if they displease them never so little that 't is another Faux with his Lanthorn ready to give fire to a train of Powder and blow up all But I hope this fright will soon be over if we assure them we never yet supposed the People that gave could resume the Government though if a Governour abandon his Government by taking up another inconsistent with it that is if he takes up a Government by Will and so quits the Government by Law which by the way is the Government of our Constitution I conceive the People are not only at liberty but under the obligation of the Law of Nature to provide for themselves To me its one of the greatest inducements to believe the truth of this Doctrine that political Authority is derived from God by the Consent of People that it is certainly the only means to preserve Government and keep it steddy without tottering or shaking Had that Doctrine been inculcated upon the minds of Princes that they are originally from the People and therefore are to Rule according to such