Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n
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A37283
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A thanksgiving-sermon preach'd at Sutton in Surrey, April the 16th, 1696 being the national thanksgiving day for His Majesty's most happy preservation from the most detestable assassination, in order to a French invasion / by Henry Day ...
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Day, Henry, M.A.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing D463; ESTC R16920
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10,274
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30
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Head might satisfy the letter of this Text and pray for the peace of Jerusalem but in that they sought to dethrone him it appears they did or not understand the meaning of the words or not obey it They pray'd for the Peace of Jerusalem as Sinners do for the Grace of Repentance who pray but do not labour for the Grace they pray for they pray'd for the peace of Jerusalem as some Nominal Protestants have done for the Church of England at the same time they labour'd to bring back merciless Tyranny and foolish Superstition To know the ways of righteousness according to the Language of Scripture imports not only bare knowing but actual walking in those ways and to remember the word of the Lord denotes more than a simple calling it to mind even a conscientious conformity to it So the Command of praying for the peace of Jerusalem implies an honest endeavour of every man in his Station to promote it And what the Israelites were commanded to do on behalf of Jerusalem the Capital City of the Land of Promise the Law of Nature or right Reason commands every particular man to do for the peace and prosperity of that City Kingdom or Common-wealth whose Protection as a Member of the same Body Politick he enjoys Some of our Order my Brethren have been justly reproached for running too much out of their Province to meddle with Affairs that concern'd them not principally State-Affairs in the late Reigns And we all know out of what Design and to serve whose Purpose the Sons of Levi became the Disciples of Achitophel But Morality being a part of what we are oblig'd to teach I think none of you will say that I forget my Duty if I spend some time to shew you the Just Obedience due to the Legal Powers set over us for as these so is Religion and we that preach it ordain'd for the use and good of the Publick Our Prayers then for the Peace of the Kingdom of England and for the renowned Metropolis London our great Jerusalem and our Endeavours in our several Stations to promote that Peace cannot be sincere and honest unless we do these Three things 1. Own the Legality of the Government under the Administration of King William our Rightful and Lawful King 2. Forbear traducing it or patiently hearing it traduc'd 3. Associate for its defence against all the Enemies thereof whatsoever 1. Own the Legality of the Government under the Administration of King William our Rightful and Lawful King By nature all men are free equal and independent no man can be mov'd from this State and made a Member of a Community or Government but by his own consent and when for the better securing to himself his Temporal Interests he has giv'n his consent and becomes a Member of a Community or Government he must be contented to regulate himself according to the Laws and Measures which shall be prescrib'd by the majority of the Government or any number of men chosen by the Majority for that end No man in Civil Society ought to be exempted from the Laws of it for such an exemption brings him back to the state of Nature and in such a state every injur'd private man has a right to be reveng'd of him To apply this When the late King James after that he had tyrannically labour'd to alter the whole Frame of the Old English Government and utterly to root out the Christian Religion as it is profess'd and exercised by all that bear the name of Protestants did abdicate and renounce the Government of England Scotland and Ireland with their Dependences that would never basely yield themselves Popish Slaves to his Arbitrary Lust the Majority of the People chose their Valiant Deliverer to be their King to go in and out before them to fight their Battels and see their old Laws put in execution Now there is not an Englishman but according to the Law of Nature and Reason ought to be concluded by this Choice For as a Modern Author convincingly argues If the consent of the Majority shall not in reason be receiv'd as the act of the whole then nothing but the consent of every Individual can make any thing to be the act of the whole and then say I it is impossible there should be any such thing as Society I hope no man will he so foolish as to say That the Majority of the People chose King William to be their King in Fact but not of Right for they had not chose him to be their King if they had not been satisfied that the Tyrant his Predecessor had Forfeited and Renounc'd all the little Right that he could pretend to But supposing let me be pardon'd for so extravagant a Supposal that the Choice of the Oppress'd and Abandon'd People of England gave to King William only Possession of the Government and no Right since it came to pass I know not how he was not solemnly and expresly declar'd Rightful and Lawful till t'other day when it appear'd clear as the Sun that the de Facto Doctrine miss'd but narrowly of taking away not only both his Crown and Life but also our Religion Laws and Properties suppposing as abovesaid yet the present Parliament by whom the Nation is to be concluded have God be thanked at last recogniz'd King William as our Rightful and Lawful King He therefore that refuses to do the same being now by Law expresly call'd to it declares himself an utter Enemy to the Government and not only justly may but necessarily ought to be treated as such for the Safety and Preservation of the Government When Mercy to Restless Conspiring Traytors so plainly as in our Case appears to be Cruelty to the Government the Magistrates that show it cut not only their own Throats but the Throats of all Loyal Subjects who depend on their Vigilance Fortitude and Wisdom These seven Years that we have been disputing the Right of King William and the honesty of our Establishment what have we been doing but exposing his and our own Lives Religion Laws and Liberties to the bold Insults of bigotted Unreasonable Licentious Superstitious Needy Atheistical Men I do not think that all these Epithets belong to the Character of every Frenchifi'd Jacobite but if every one of them does himself Justice they will not leave me a word of Reproach upon my Hands 2. Our Duty of praying for the Peace and endeavouring to promote the Prosperity of our Nation obliges us to forbear traducing it or unconcernedly hearing it Traduc'd A discontented Reflection upon the Government naturally tends to weaken the Hands of it and cannot well be understood to be meant otherwise And since every particular is included in the acts of the Majority such Reflection is not more injurious to the Government than to the reputation of the Man who makes bold with it If a man cannot bring his mind to approve the Title of the Prince in Possession why is he so disingenuous as to
A Thanksgiving-Sermon Preach'd at SUTTON in SURREY APRIL the 16th 1696. Being the National Thanksgiving-Day FOR His Majesty's most Happy Preservation from the most Detestable Assassination in order to a French Invasion By HENRY DAY M. A. LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane MDCXCVI A Thanksgiving-Sermon Preached at SVTTON in SVRRY c. PSALM CXXII 6. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem they shall prosper that love thee WHatever was the particular Occasion of this Pslam 't is commonly taken for a Song of Rejoicing after Victory upon the Resettlement of the Kingdom of Israel in Peace and Quietness The Royal Psalmist seems not to be better pleas'd with his Success which was perhaps his winning the Fort upon the Rock of Sion than with the Opportunity it gave him to go up to Jerusalem to praise the Lord of Hosts that inspir'd him with Courage and bless'd him with Victory Ver. 1. I was glad when they said unto me Let us go into the house of the Lord. Ver. 2. Our feet shall stand within thy gates O Jerusalem Diodati paraphrases We shall no more need to run here and there to do God's Service as we did at other times when the Ark removed from place to place now that it stands still in Jerusalem we shall not go any where else Ver. 3. Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together David having paid his Devotions celebrates the Holy City 1 st for its Compactness i. e. as some interpret for its Uniform Beautiful Buildings others because of the joining of the low Town and Castle for the latter till the time of David remain'd in the hands of the Jebusites whom the Children of Judah could not drive out He prosecutes his Praise of the City farther taking notice that it was the place Ver. 4. Whither the tribes go up the tribes of the Lord unto the testimony of Israel to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. Ver. 5. For there are set thrones of judgment the thrones of the house of David The chiefest Honour of Jerusalem is plac'd in these two things it was the Place of Worship and the Seat of Judicature thrice in the year the Inhabitants go up thither to praise the Lord there also sat the Sanbedrim the Supreme Court of the Nation moreover there was the Palace of the King For these several Great and Weighty Reasons David owns it the Duty of himself and Subjects to pray for the Peace of Jerusalem Pray for the peace of Jerusalem they shall prosper that love thee The word Jerusalem is taken Properly for the City it self or Metonymically for the Inhabitants in general or Metaphorically for the Celestial City the Heavenly Jerusalem In this place it manifestly signifies the Inhabitants of Jerusalem in general of what Order or Degree what Quality or Denomination soever every Man of them in particular is requir'd to pray for the Prosperity of the whole Body of them in general The Scripture never uses the word Jerusalem but in one of the three ways which I have mention'd yet I confess it is applied sometimes to the Church of England and by them that apply it so the Church is restrain'd to signify none but the Clergy but if other men had equal Heat of Fancy they might with equal reason apply it to our Merchants and the word Merchants might be restrain'd to the East-India Company in contradistinction to the Interlopers Without question the Royal Psalmist was sensibly concern'd for the Prosperity of all Israel and not of one Tribe only 'T is true David was often piously busied in regulating the Service of the Temple but we do not ever find and cannot reasonably suppose him to have been so partial as to intercede with God only for the Levites and so it went well with them not to care how it far'd with all the People besides A Learned Man hath lately told us of a Muscovite Divine that thought Heaven was made only for the Czar and the Boyars David knew better nor Heaven nor Earth was ever promised as an Inheritance to a particular Order of Men with exclusion to others In the New Testament we read that God desires that all men all in general might come to the knowledge of the Truth and be saved And David desires that all his Subjects all in general may understand their Interest and their Duty and by Associating for the Safety and Honour of his Sacred Person of their common Religion Laws and Liberties become settled in a happy Peace and bless'd with a full Prosperity Granting that the distinction of Clergy and Laity is founded on the Word of God yet surely Clergy and Laity ought not to have Distinct and Separate Interests but as in One God they both believe in order to their Everlasting Happiness so by the same Laws they should both be willing to be govern'd the same King they should both own for their RIGHTFUL and LAWFUL Sovereign that so the Peace of their common Jerusalem of their Native Countrey may be promoted the Prosperity of every Honest Man among them taken care of Without this Unity of Interest without this Unity of Allegiance no Government can be settled on sure Foundations no King secured from a Combination of Murderous Assassines They who shall interpret praying for the Peace of Jerusalem to be nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 praying for the things which make only for the advantage of the Priesthood they do as good as bid the Secular Power take care of it self they alienate the Affections of the despis'd People from them they enervate the force of their own wisest Instructions in short they very anti-Apostolically invert the honest Practice of St. Paul hinted in that Divine Aphorism We seek not yours but you I have said that the Word Jerusalem in the Text is to be taken Metonymically for the Inhabitants of Jerusalem and that in general not for the Levites only but for the Laick Vulgar also even the whole Bulk of the Twelve Tribes The next thing to be determin'd is what King David meant by this Phrase Pray for the peace of Jerusalem That Teacher who throws out hard Words and mysterious Expressions to the people intends to amuse them or has some other Design not more honourable But whoso uses Words and Expressions common and plain gives a fair testimony that he has no sinister Ends to serve when he delivers his Message Few men care to trouble themselves with an inquiry after the sense of hard Words and mysterious Expressions but Words and Expressions common and plain they understand without an Interpreter though yet by accident through the untowardness of men of perverse minds even the plainest things that can be said shall need an explanation I make no question but the Enemies of David who sought to cast him down from his Excellency i. e. to dethrone him for no mean Criticks of different Parties suppose him when he penn'd the 62d Psalm to have been a Crown'd