Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
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A48377
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A sermon preached at Whitehal upon the 29th day of May, 1670 being the day of His Majesties birth and happy restoration / by John Lake ...
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Lake, John, 1624-1689.
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1670
(1670)
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Wing L197; ESTC R8143
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18,867
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54
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Person exalting And they are no less so Secondly For the Exaltation it self God hath set him set him upon the throne of his Fathers or rather made him to surmount them all Some of their Thrones might seem but a Footstool to his Set him above the heads of his enemies and raised him upon their ruines The lower he was cast down before the higher hath God set him up at the rebound And like a broken Bone that is well set he is become stronger for breaking He that was so broken as if never to be set again is so set as I hope never to be broken again Set where the sons of wickedness and violence may and no doubt do fretfully repine at him but cannot reach him Set as far above their envy as our hope Whom they set at naught and would allow him no place in any part of the Building God hath set in the highest part of the cheifest place upon the very head of the corner And this passeth me from the Exaltation it self to Thirdly The state of Exaltation God hath set him as King After the head of Gold was broken off much to do there was to set up another in place of it First Two Houses were set up which devoured all the rest and one the other Then Keepers of Liberties after we had lost them A Grand Visier with his Janizaries next setteth up himself not to shelter but to over-drop us and protect us to our ruine To rule Loyal obstinacy with an Iron rod and to measure Justice by Power After all this the fragments of a shattered Senate are set up again but these like the Ruines of an old House stand not long Out of their rubbish riseth up a Committee of Safety but which cannot contrive their own Thus one Chimerical Form of Government was set up after another Anarchies Polarchies Oligarchies Tyrannies and none would stand At length God taketh the matter upon himself and setteth his King up and in him tieth a knot upon our changes and setleth the floating Island upon its Basis again The Lord our God is with us and the shout of a King is amongst us A King I say with all his Royal Complements Whilest other Kings have their Crowns crossed he hath his Cross crowned and the fire of affliction did but embellish and burnish it for him Never any of his Royal Progenitors wore a more rich and radiant It was much to have been feared that if ever he was set up at all it would be but in the Form of a Sovereign A King not bearing the Sword or bearing it in vain Such a King as the Jews in their cruel sport made Christ when they gave him a Reed for a Scepter Indeed a King and no King Some such gay-nothing the shadow of a great name many that pretended much zeal for the King no doubt had designed But the happiness and comfort was that God would have him his King not theirs And so a King to purpose A King invested with Regal both Honor and Power A King as a King should be even a King that is Supream And that fully answereth the state of Exaltation Then Fourthly For the Seat God hath set him upon an Hill made his Sovereignty to be recognized Here is no co-ordinate coequal corrival power of Parliaments or Presbyteries with him No Sovereign Authority of the People above him None to watch much less to Mate him as of late we have seen No reducing him into Order by force and Arms no distinguishing him out of himself nor setting up his Politick against his Personal capacity Singulis Major Vniversis Minor Greater then each less then all with the like unhallowed Divinity belcheth not from the Pulpit and Press as it was wont Now Royal Majesty looks like it self and these umbrages vanish before it This Mountain of the Lord is established in the top of the Mountains and the little Hills do their obeysance You are taught to submit to the King as supreame to pay the lowest homage to Him as to the Highest Power upon Earth But then again he is set upon an Holy Hill The Sacredness of His Person and Office is recognized and both secured as farr as the Religion of Oaths the Severity of Laws and the sincerity of our own Declarations can do it No Blaspheming of our Earthly God is allowed no Warr levyed by His Power against His Person no Tribunal erected without Him against Him above Him but we are made to profess an hearty abhorrence of all such Traiterous Positions and Practises I doubt not but in Tertullians phrase Tert. Apoâ— ca. 35. Post parricidarum vindemiam racematio superstes After a vintage a bloody vintage of such Parricides large gleanings are left Men of the like sanguinary mindes who by the Fathers Blood would trace the Son our now Dread Soveraign to death But if the Holiness of the Hill whereon God hath set his King and the bounds which Authority hath set to that again cannot restrain them yet the horrour of it may If one of these Beasts but touch the Mountain he shall die Once more he is set upon Gods Holy Hill of Sion His Supremacy in all Causes and over all Persons is recognized and like a truly Nursing Father he improveth it for the benefit of the Church God who preserved him constant in his Religion against Scandals at home and Temptations abroad has made him as resolute to preserve it His very first care was to bring back the Ark and set it upon Sion by him and by wholsom Laws to settle it there and what was his first I doubt not will be his last care to see the Church Free and Flourishing again and to behold Sion yet once more a Praise in the Earth Like that Religious Emperour of old he hath set his Crown upon the Bible and engaged his Power for the defence of it Fixed upon his Sion he would neither change it for Babels seven Hills and the Garish Lady that sitteth upon them though time was when they louted low to him and with the most slie insinuations sollicited a Change nor would he since descend from it to her that fitteth Undressed in the valleys but where God hath set him he holds his Seat still and thence dispenseth His Dews and Influences to the Church Thus the Seat also fitteth him as exactly as if made for him only we might well wonder to see him there was it not for 5 The Irresistible Power of God in all this which carry'd on our Dread Sovereign through those insuperable difficulties and sad discouragements which lay in his way and yet set his King upon his Holy Hill of Sion A matter which passeth all conceipt and belief That a Persecuted Prince and here let me have your pardon if I present Royal Majesty in its Eclipse again after twelve years Banishment when his Name and Memory with long Tract of Time was almost worn out only some Loyal Spirits wore Him Graven on their hearts when His
holy Hill of Sion the place of his publick service and worship Psal cxx 4. whither the Tribes went up the Tribes of the Lord to the Testimony of Israel which speaks their Supremacy in all Causes and over all Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil As nothing so high but the Hill sets them above it So nothing so holy but this Hill of Sion sets them over it Nor would God ever have set his King upon Sion if he must have had nothing to do in sacred matters David well knowing for what end God had set him there streight way fetcheth the Ark and setteth it by him and withal setteth order for the whole service of the Tabernacle and appoints the Priests and Levites and all the rest that attended upon Sacred Ministrations their several dignities courses and offices And all the pious Kings whom God set there after him followed his pattern The Jews had a saying and there was sense and signification in it That the Keys of the Temple were laid every night under Solomons Pillow A prime part of the Kings office and charge being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the care of Religion and matters Divine to see that God and his service suffer no detriment Then they serve God as Kings when they do that service which no other can do for him to establish Religion as a Law and none oppose the Laws provided in that behalf but who are enemies to the Religion too To speak them Keepers of both Tables the Commandment concerning them is set 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the confines of both as that wherein they concenter and that Kings thus conveniently situated may look to Religion with the one eye as well as to Civil Justice with the other Up to the Temple on the top of Mount Sion as well as to Jerusalem at the bottom of it Optatus accounts it a piece of Donatus his wonted fury and it was no better Optat. lib. 3. no other to cry out Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesiâ What hath the King to do with the Church For he hath much to do in ordering though not in administring in disposing though not dispensing the affairs of it To do what Hezekiah did namely to cause the Priests and Levites to sanctifie Gods House and to fulfil their Office not what Vzziah did to invade and usurp it To see God have his Incense not to burn it himself And that is the third and last step which setteth Kings at their just elevation Gods holy Hill of Sion speaketh their Supremacy in all Causes and over all Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil There is one and but one thing now behinde viz. Fifthly The irresistible power of God in all this who whatever stands in his or their way Yet setteth his Kings upon his holy Hill of Sion Neither their place and power as Kings nor their vertue and merit as good Kings can secure them from the strivings of the people Some unquiet spirits are still ready to cry out Nolumus hunc We will not have this man to reign over us and the most just and moderate Prince is in account a Tyrant to one part or other Moses hath his Korah and Miriam David his Absolom and Sheba Solomon his Adonijah The meekest the religiousest the wisest of Kings some or other consulting to cast him dwon from his Excellency or as another Translation hath it to put him by whom God would exalt Psal lxii 4. The Hill whereon Gods sets his Kings is oft-times so steep and craggy that they are forced like Jonathan and his Armor-bearer to climb up their hands and their feet 1 Sam xiv 13. and when they are up there are Venti Typhonici those violent and turbulent spirits which will not suffer them to rest High as this Hill is it is not above such Winds and Storms Onely the Kingdom of Heaven is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as cannot be shaken Not one upon Earth but hath been shaken all to pieces and yet for all this God setteth up his Kings Mountains of Opposition shall be levelled and laid flat before this Hill What art thou O great Mountain before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a Plain Zech. iv 7. If at any time they are cast down God most-what sets them up again if not in their Person yet in their Posterity and if one line fail eeketh it with another Their glory is great in Gods Salvation Psal xxi 5 7. and through the Mercy of the most High they do not miscarry As opposition riseth against them he enableth them to rise against opposition yea to rise by it till they rise above it And first or last setteth up his Kings upon his holy Hill of Sion Thus I have also run through the words as by parity of Reason they are applicable to other Kings and like a well-set picture they look indifferently upon all of them But though all Kings are interessed yet some have a double portion in them and our Royal Sovereign above the rest in his this days happy Restoration to his Kingdoms A Transaction which was the very Transcript of the Text and the Text may seem a Prophecy of it rather then an History Herein therefore we may and must read it over again else we should be injurious to both and it is as legible in the face of this day as if written with a Sun-beam upon a Wall of Chrystal And First For the Person exalting It was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God and God as it were out of an Engine Psal lxxxix 20. He that found David his servant found our Dread Sovereign also and found him when all hopes were lost Onely he whose help beginneth where humane help endeth turneth back his captivity as the Rivers in the South and our Occidental Sun when darkness was upon the face of our whole Earth becometh oriental again This is the Lord who hath shewed us light Haec mutatio dexterae excelsi The right hand of the most High hath done this For us in all this we were Sicut somniantes like them that dream if we did so much as dream of it And it is well if Posterity rather admiring then believing a work of such power and wonder think us not to have been in a dream all the while For those enterprizes and attempts which were at any time designed to this end they vanished into air and nothing Either the worst counsels were followed or the best succeeded not God reserving the honor of all to himself And by all means let him have it and the King entirely for his own together with it So his as I will be bold to say no other King in Christendom is none by so immediate right nor by so manifold Names and Titles His in his marvelous preservation his in his gracious sustentation his in his powerful restoration and his still in his merciful protection from the pride and malice of men and from the strife of Tongues Thus fit the words are for the