the Ages that are past There is no sort of humane Government which is not liable to some miscarriages and where the Soveraignty is invested in many there it is liable unto most Neither is it possible that there should be so much Tyranny in a Monarchy as there may be in a Republick unless we can imagine that one Tyrant may be guilty of more Outrages and Cruelties than thirty or forty who may have all the same Will and the same Power to do mischief that the one hath In a word all those good Offices and beneficial Acts of Government which the many Chief Magistrates in a Common-wealth can perform by the advantage of their number may be done much better and easier by one Soveraign Prince with the Assistance of his Counsellors and Ministers But the abuses of Supreme Power can never be so great or so many when it is committed unto one as they may be when it is committed unto many There is now only the last Observable in the Text to be considered by us namely the principal means of the happy and durable State of a Nation under Monarchy and that is the Wisdom of the Monarch his understanding and knowledge But by a man of understanding and knowledge the State thereof shall be prolonged Niloxenus being asked what was the best and most useful thing in the world Answered A King who being the Image of God is above all and commands all But when the King resembles God not only in his Supreme Power and Authority but also in his Divine Wisdom and Goodness When Light and Knoweldge and Vnderstanding and an excellent Spirit is found in him He is then certainly the greatest Blessing that Earth can enjoy or Heaven bestow A King that sitteth in the Throne of Judgment scattereth away all evil with his Eyes Prov. 20. 8. His Wisdom and Circumspection protects his numerous Subjects against those injuries which they may receive either from within by Disorders among themselves or from without by the Assaults and Invasions of a Foreign Power And this he doth by opposing and subduing the Authors of such Mischiefs For a wise King scattereth the Wicked and draweth the Wheel over them Prov. 20. 26. That is He discovers and dissolves the Associations of ill Men disperses their Assemblies breaks their Combinations and gives them the due Rewards of their unjust Enterprises The only Troublers of a State are wicked and unreasonable Men these therefore his Prudence suppresseth that he may procure and preserve a settled Peace and Tranquillity Thus the King by Judgment stablisheth the Land Prov. 29. 4. Although the common sort of People be of a perverse Nature Vain and Ignorant Proud and Contentious impatient of Restraint desirous of unbounded Liberty unwilling to be tied to Laws hard to be tamed and apt to run into Confusions yet the Prince who is well skilled in the Mystery of Empire bridles this Behemoth puts his hook into the Nose of this Leviathan reduceth the wild and boisterous Multitude to some Order and Quietness and by inflicting exemplary Punishments on some of the worst of them keeps the rest in due Bounds The Wise Monarch being well acquainted with the various Humours and Passions of Mankind and especially with that diversity of Temper and Manners which may be observed in his own Subjects applies himself properly to them and so manages them as to make their contrary Studies Inclinations and Affectitions joyntly conspire to advance the common Good He understands the Nature and Circumstances of his Affairs views things not only in their present Posture and superficial Appearance but searches them to the bottom enquires into the probable Issues and Events of them considers their Causes Concomitants Effects and Consequents with all their accidents and relations and useth not only his own Judgment but the best advice of the wisest men within his Dominions by which means he finds out the fittest Expedients for providing for the Safety and Prosperity of his Kingdom and the improvement of its Honour and Reputation His Laws are excellently contrived for the publick benefit not too gentle because such are seldom obeyed nor too severe because such are seldom executed He will reign in mens Hearts and Affections as well as over their Bodies and that he may be no less loved than feared he allays the Terror of Irresistible Majesty and the Dread of Supreme Power by gracious Assurances of his Royal Goodness He looks upon Justice and Mercy as the great Pillars that support his Government and hath an equal regard to them both His Throne shall be established in righteousness Prov. 25. 5. and upholden by mercy Prov. 20. 28. He is not so rigorous as to be wholly intent upon Justice nor so remiss as by his mildness to bring his Authority into Contempt He distinguishes Times and Seasons knows when to Pardon and when to Punish when to loosen and when to straiten the Reins of his Government He discerns Persons too not only who are good Subjects and who are Enemies or disaffected but also who are able and faithful Friends whose Reports he may credit whose Judgment and Integrity he may trust and who are dissembling Flatterers and Sycophants those Wolves in Sheeps clothing those sly Traytors under the Mantle of Loyalty He knows whom to employ and whom to reject whom to reward and whom to chastise Prov. 14. 35. The Kings Favour is towards a wise Servant but his Wrath is against him that causeth Shame The Constancy also of the Prince is a considerable part of his Prudence and he preserves the Nation he governs in a long and happy stability by being stable in his own Resolutions agreeable to himself suiting his Actions to his Words and those to his Principles and all to the Rule of right Reason For tho' he accommodates himself to the various circumstances of Things Persons Times and Events like the skilful Pilot who according to the different State of the Sea and the several changes of the Wind doth diversly turn and guide his Sails yet in all the Mutations Revolutions and Vicissitudes of his Affairs he persists unmoveably the same obviating every Emergency and managing every Case with a stedfast Presence of Mind and even Temper of Soul and a uniform Method of Procedure either regulated by his own former Experience or by the Observations of History In short the Glory and Majesty of a Wise Monarch shines always with the same bright Rays casting a fair Lustre and diffusing a benign Influence all about so that if any sort of People under his Dominions be not quickened and warmed by his kind Beams it is because their free passage is hindered by the gross Mists of Error Prejudice and Disaffection or by the interposition of some such Obstacles His prudent Administration makes his good Subjects happy But 't is no wonder if those men live somewhat uneasily under the most excellent Government who instead of Loyal Obedience to it are continually misrepresenting libelling and opposing
which we shall have many Princes and no Government but all contending for the Supremacy one to obtain his just Right others to acquire or to hold an unjust Possession Is the imitating of the Papists themselves in some of the worst of their wicked Practices a good Expedient to keep out Popery Or can this sinful Nation reasonably hope to prevent those Judgments of Almighty God which may be still hanging over us for the execrable Murder of the Royal Father by another high Injustice in disinheriting the Son And what if it should be granted that the Cause of mens Fears and Jealousies concerning the Future State of a Kingdom is true and real The worst that any good man can fear from any lawful Soveraign whatsoever is suffering under him but it is far better to suffer wrong than to do it And when suffering cannot be avoided as in this World it sometimes cannot 't is far more tolerable to suffer under the severest Government of one rightful Prince than under the illegal Tyranny of numerous Invaders who assume the greatest and most unbounded Power without the least right to any Authority Secondly do we desire never more to behold the infinite Outrages of an Army of Rebels with all the calamitous Appendages of Civil Broyls Are we unwilling to change again the Golden Scepter of our Ancient Monarchy into the Iron Rods of Republican Usurpers Let us then unfeignedly lament and in our Places endeavour to remove the crying Sins of our Land the indubitable Causes of such great and National Plagues And let us not think that Sedition and Treason are the only sins that destroy Kings and Governments and bring Confusions upon a People Although these more immediately do Execution yet there be others that make us liable to Condemnation If Atheism and Profaneness Swearing and Cursing Drunkenness and Debauchery Fraud and Oppression abound among us shall not God visit for such Transgressions as these especially when men glory in them and make them the Marks and Badges of their Loyalty as if they could not be good Subjects without Rioting and Ranting Tearing and Hectoring This Goddamming Tribe whatever their Pretensions or Intentions be are as real Enemies to their Soveraign and their Country as any of the Papists or Phanaticks For men may fight against their Prince though they be not up in Arms and give him a fatal Blow though they never Assassinate him All great and National Vices have Treason in them and are not only levelled against the Honour and Majesty of God Almighty but also against the Crown and Dignitie of the King and the Peace and Safety of the Kingdom Let us not therefore joyn with any Wicked men in their God-provoking and King-killing Sins whereby we shall contract at once the complicated Guilt Infamy and Misery of being Promoters of the Common Ruine But let us all unanimously according to the Station in which God hath placed us avoid discountenance and suppress all manner of Wickedness and Irreligion At least let us abate the Publick Guilt by lessening the Number of our own Sins Lastly since it is by a Wise Monarch by a man of understanding and knowledge that the happy State of a Nation is prolonged let us bless and praise God for remembring Mercy in the midst of Wrath for restoring our Gracious Soveraign after a long Exile to sit upon the Throne of his Father for wonderfully delivering him from all Hellish Plots and Conspiracies and for lengthening out our Tranquility under his most just and gentle and prudent Government humbly imploring the same Divine Protection over him for the future to establish his Throne and strengthen what hath been wrought for him that as our Church prays He may still continue to be a Religious Defender of the true Christian Faith a mighty Protector of his People and a Glorious Conqueror over all his Enemies that when he hath reigned many and many years with all Prosperity and Honour he may receive an immortal Crown and leave Flourishing Kingdoms to his Successor and Peaceful Times to his Subjects DUE AFFECTION TO THE MONARCHY SERMON IV. Preached May 29. 1684. Prov. XXVIII 2. But by a Man of understanding and knowledge the State thereof shall be prolonged ON the last Anniversary of our late Soveraign's Martyrdom the former part of this Verse which begins thus For the Transgression of a Land many are the the Princes thereof gave me occasion to consider the Plagues and Mischiefs of numerous Usurpers and many-headed Republican Factions together with the corrupt Fountain from whence they spring Arguments suitable to that Day of Darkness that Day of trouble and rebuke and blasphemy The latter Part of it will now furnish me with no less suitable matter of Discourse on this Day of Joy and Thanksgiving for the Birth and Happy Return of our present most August Monarch by whom through the great Blessing of Almighty God the flourishing condition of these Kingdoms was most auspiciously restored and hath been hitherto preserved In the whole Verse I noted these four things First the ill State of a Nation under Polyarchy or Plurality of Supreme Governours When many are the Princes thereof Secondly the notorious Cause of such a Judgment 't is expresly ascribed to the Wickedness of a People the Transgression of a Land Thirdly the opposite National Mercy or the Happiness of a Nation under a well settled Monarchy When by a man of understanding and knowledge the State thereof is prolonged Fourthly the principal means whereby so great a Mercy is procured The Wisdom of the Monarch his understanding and knowledge The Two former of these I have already discoursed of and now come to the Third of them The National Mercy or the Happiness of a Nation under a well settled Monarchy when by a man of understanding and knowledge the State thereof is prolonged By a Man that is to say by one Man one Soveraign Prince in opposition to the many Princes before mentioned And how great a Blessing a well settled Monarchy must needs be unto any Nation we may more than conjecture from the following Particulars in which I shall endeavour to give some account of its incomparable Dignity and Excellency beyond all other Models of Government First Monarchy is the Government whereby God himself hath always governed Angels and Men and all Creatures ever since they had a Being and always will govern them so long as any of them shall continue in Being God is a Great Monarch the King of all Kings and Lord of Lords the only absolute illimited and Supreme Potentate the one Almighty independent and eternal Rector of the Universe who ever did doth and shall rule and command all other Beings who alone hath all Power of himself and is the Fountain from whence all Dominion in any other is derived Thine O Lord saith David is the Greatness and the Power and the Glory and the Victory and the Majesty for all that is in the Heaven and the Earth
the Hand of Aaron And after the Death of Moses the Supreme Authority of the Jewish Nation was still in a single Person being committed by God either to the High Priest or to some Eminent Man whom he was pleased to raise up such as Joshuah and the several Judges For that the High Priest or the Judge when there was one in those days had the Soveraign Power invested in him is evident from that Command of God Deut. 17. 12. And the man that will do presumptuously and will not hearken unto the Priest that standeth to minister there before the Lord viz. to the High Priest as the scope of the place plainly shews or unto the Judge even that man shal die and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel and all the People shall hear and fear and do no more presumptuously Is not this as great an Authority as any Monarch in the World can desire thus to have all Persons obliged to acquiesce in his determinative Sentence and final Decree and to have a Power to punish all wilful and presumptuous disobedience with Death Josephus expresly calls their Judges Monarchs and Grotius supposeth them to have all things belonging to Kings except their pompous Train and external Grandeur Isti verò Judices planè similes erant Romanis Interregibus nisi quòd Satellitium Pompam Regiam non habebant ac propterea nec Vectigalia exigebant If it be objected That in those days as some Texts speak there was no King in Israel The meaning of those places is not that the Judges were not real Monarchs but that at some certain times there was no particular Judge who sat as their Supreme Dictator and exercised regal Authority among them as also that the High Priest whose Office it was to govern when there was no Judge was negligent and careless of the publick Affairs And the great Blessings of Kings and Monarchs may be understood even by the horrid Impieties and Disorders that happened in those Days when there was no King in Israel such as was the detestable Idolatry of Micha in making himself Gods and consecrating one of his Sons to be his Priest the Sacrilegious Theft of the Danites who stole Micha's Gods and his Priest too the monstrous wickedness of the Benjamites of Gibeah towards the travelling Levite and his Concubine the dire effusions of Blood in the Civil War that ensued the extinction of the whole Tribe of Benjamin except six hundred Men the Destruction of forty thousand Men of Israel and the allowed Rape of six hundred young Women against their wills without the consent of their Parents and contrary to a publick and solemn Oath These and no better than these were the unhappy concomitants and consequents of having no King in Israel that is to say of having no Supreme Ruler who exercised a Soveraign Power among them as the Judge and when there was no Judge the High Priest ordinarily did The last of their Judges was Samuel and when he had governed many years the Infirmities of his Age and the Iniquities of his Sons whom he placed over them gave them occasion to desire a King that they also might be like all the other Nations and that their King might go our before them and fight their Battels Hereupon the Soveraign Power was translated from Judges to Kings and so it still was lodged in the Hands of a single Person Neither had their Kings any more Power than their High Priests and Judges had For Samuel and his Predecessors had as ample Authority as any Soveraign Princes although they were not called Kings But now like all other Nations their Governour was not only a King by the Supremacy of his Power but had the very Name and Title with all the pompous Magnificence and Ensigns of Royalty But here in the History of the Jewish State we meet with a remarkable Passage which deserves to be the more considered because divers have thought it a great Objection against Kingly Government The sum of it is this That God was extreamly angry with the Israelites for desiring a King and proclaimed his Indignation by loud Thunder-claps and a violent tempestuous Rain in Wheat-Harvest which made them confess that they had added to all their Sins this evil in asking a King From whence some of our Republicans conclude That Regal Power and Authority is so far from being of Divine Appointment that it is such a humane Invention as is displeasing unto God To this I answer That although God was angry with them for asking a King it was not for this Reason because he hath any dislike of Kingly Government He was not offended at the Act it self of desiring a King which is in it self very innocent and may often be most just and necessary but he was displeased at the manner and circumstances of it In desiring a King they asked a good yea an excellent Thing and a great Blessing from Heaven But God was angry because they asked this good Thing with an ill mind and at a time when they ought not to have desired it For First It may be conceived that they asked a King out of the Pride of their Hearts They thought it a disparagement to be subject to a Judge who â—ived among them without any great Pomp or State And although his divinely inspired Wisdom and immediate direction from Heaven abundantly comâ—â—ensated all the defects of External Magnificence they were unwilling to be under such a Governour but being ambitious of worldly Glory they would have such a Soveraign Prince as the other Nations had they would have a King to go out and in before them with all the visible Splendor of Royal Majesty Secondly Their desiring a King was accompanied with Infidelity and Distrust of Gods Providence and Protection For it was when they were in fear of an Invasion by Nahash King of Ammon And that it was this Diffidence of theirs rather than the Form of Kingly Government that God was displeased at is evident from Samuels Expostulation with them in which he briefly recounts Gods constant care for their Preservation in all their former Dangers and how by the Hands of Moses and Aaron and Jerubbaal and Jeptha and Samuel he had delivered them from all their Enemies on every side Thirdly They desired a King without any just Cause or legal Warrant or due Advice in a rash Tumultuous and Seditious manner at such a time when they had a Supreme Judge who was a Lawful Soveraign of Gods own Appointment Even in his Life and Reign they desired a King They had not the Patience to expect his natural Exit by Death but they would have this excellent Governour who deserved so well of their Nation Deposed and some other Advanced in his place God might therefore very justly be angry with them for rejecting so worthy and eminent a Person who was not only their rightful Prince but one who had Ruled with great Prudence
THREE SERMONS Preached at the CATHEDRAL IN NORWICH And a Fourth at a Parochial Church in Norfolk Humbly Recommending I. True Reformation of our Selves II. Pious Reverence towards God and the King III. Just Abhorrence of Usurping Republicans And IV. Due Affection to the Monarchy By John Graile Rector of Blickling in Norfolk LONDON Printed for W. Kettilby at the Bishops Head in St. Paul's Church-yard 1685. To the Most High Puissant and Noble Prince HENRY Duke of Norfolk Earl Marshal of England Earl of Arundel Surry Norfolk and Norwich Lord Howard Mowbray Segrave Brews of Gower Fitz-Alan Warren Clun Oswaldestre Matravers Scales Graystock Furnedal of Sheffeild and Howard of Castle-Rising Constable and Governour of His Majesties Royal Castle and Honour of Windsor Lord Warden of the Forrest of Windsor Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk Surry and Berks and of the City and County of the City of Norwich c. May it please Your Grace AS there is a small Annual Rent payable to one of your Norfolk Mannors from that little Spot of ground which I possess so there is a great and perpetual Tribute of Honour due to your Grace from the Possessor of it And as the holding that Land gives me the Priviledge to be one of the Tenants of a most Just and Generous Lord so the Tenure of my Reason while I shall be Master of any will make it my Duty to be one of the most Humble most Awful and most Obsequious Admirers of such a truly Noble and Puissant Prince as Personal Virtue would have made your Grace if Glory of Ancestors had not This I have been ambitious publickly to acknowledge and I kneel to your Clemency for a Pardon of the bold Product of that Ambition the almost unpardonable Confidence of a Dedicatory Address from so mean to so great a Person and the presuming to offer such imperfect Discourses as these Sermons to your most piercing and discerning Judgment But whatever Defects they may labour under they were Preached with an Honest Design of doing God and the King the most seasonable Service I could in these Licentious and Seditious Times And they are now Published with an encouraging Hope as well as with an humble Desire of receiving the best Advantage they are capable of towards the promoting their well chosen Design if they may be sheltered under the auspicious and favourable Protection of such an Illustrious Patron of Pious Loyalty as the First and Highest Duke in England next to those of the Blood Royal manifesty is I had almost said necessarily must be Your Grace well knoweth that Loyalty is a considerable Part of Christian Religion and that it is no where more strenuously asserted than in the Church of England a Church signally Eminent as upon all other Accounts so particularly for requiring of all her Members the most faithful Allegiance and Subjection to their Lawful Soveraign his Heirs and Successors Hence it was that although the present Age hath afforded but few Proselytes from the Church of Rome to us and too many from us to them neither the Corruption of the Times nor the prejudices of Education nor the powerful Influence of the Neerest and Noblest Relations nor any of those tempting Considerations which bear so great a sway with other Men could keep Your Grace from the Communion of our Church a thing very memorable and worthy to be known by all Posterity both to our Churches eternal Honour and to Your Graces immortal Renown My Lord The very Height of your Dignity inferior only to Sacred Majesty and Royal Highness doth hardly equal the transcendent Height of your Great and Noble Spirit which makes it a Province worthy of an Angel to give a just Character of Your Grace and forbids my weak Pen to attempt it lest I should affront Your Heroick Virtue with a dissonant and deformed Panegyrick But yet as an Echo of publick Fame I shall adventure to repeat what with an unanimous Voice is generally said of Your Grace That none ever more deservedly enjoyed the Favour of his Prince or the love of his Country And long may your Grace live to enjoy more and more of both until you be at last translated from this great Happiness to a far Greater So prays My Lord Your Graces most humbly devoted Servant John Graile An Advertisement THE Author of these Sermons being induced to publish the three former by the Desires and Approbation of some considerable Persons who heard them preached hath chosen himself to add the fourth in which he hath endeavoured to finish what he began in the third He knows they are sent forth into a Learned and Critical and which is more discouraging into a Contentious and Censorious World But he is willing to sacrifice his Name and Reputation and whatever he accounts dear or pretious to the Cause of God and the King and to the Interests of Peace and Truth and Justice He is content to pass thorow evil Report or good Report if by the Divine Favour and Blessing these plain Discourses may be any way beneficial even to the meanest Readers by convincing them whom they are to Reform and whom they are to Obey and how impossible it is to be good Christians if they be not good Subjects that being preserved from the pernicious contagion of Seditious Principles and having a due sense of and a grateful Affection unto the most Ancient and Excellent Constitution of Government which God hath placed over us they may lead under it a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and Honesty THE CONTENTS SERMON I. OF true Repentance and Reformation of our Selves our universal Obligation to it the Divine Assistance we may expect therein and the present necessity of it not admitting any delays Preached Jan. 13. 16 77 78. On Jer. 35. 15 Return ye now every man from his evil way and amend your doings SERMON II. Of the Duties of Revering and Honouring God and the King and the danger of Associating with Seditious Innovators Preached Feb. 4. 16 82 83. On Prov. 24. 21 22. My Son fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change For their Calamity shall rise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both SERMON III. Of the Inconvenience of Polyarchy and Popular Soveraignty the Plagues and Mischiefs of Vsurpations and the true cause from whence they spring Preached Jan. 30. 16 83 84. On Prov. 28. the former part of the 2 Verse For the Transgression of a Land many are the Princes thereof but by a man c. SERMON IV. Of the Excellency of Monarchy and the great Blessing of a Wise Monarch Preached May 29. 1684. On Prov. 28. the latter part of 2. Verse But by a man of understanding and knowledge the State thereof shall be prolonged TRUE REFORMATION OF Our Selves SERMON I Preached Jan. 13. 16 77 78. Jer. XXXV 15. Return ye now every man from his evil way and amend your doings THIS Admonition how plainly soever it may sound
And if the Fear of God be considered as it is a filial Reverence compounded with Love it will be much more powerful to move and excite Obedience to him Reverence willingly offers readily pays and chearfully performs what was forced and constrained by meer Fear If Awe and Affection be united in a devout Veneration of the God whom we serve his Service which before was a Yoak and a Burden then becomes perfect Freedom so pleasant and so natural to us that to refuse it will be an Extinguishing of our own Joys a Resisting oâ— our own Desires and a Violence to ourselves A man that highly reveres another is as much inclined to please him as he is to please himself and as unwilling to offend him as he is to wound his own Breast Obedience therefore is an Inseparable Effect of filial Fear or Reverence And that which is so is the most certainâ— Mark of the Truth and Reality oâ— our Religion We all profess Religion and the Fear of God we all pretend the highest Awe and Reverence to his divine Majesty But do we sincerely endeavour to serve and please him Are we guilty of no wilful disobedience no chosen and deliberate violations of his holy Laws If we indulge any of these the true Fear of God is not in us For it is fourthly to be noted That these are the Contraries and Opposites unto this Fear All wilful and presumptuous Sins are perfectly repugnant to it These are Affronts and Contempts bold and Impudent Practices which carry the Marks of great Irreverence clearly written upon their Brow When men deliberately chuse to do those things which they plainly see and know to be contrary to the Divine Laws this is a manifest Discovery that there is no Fear of God before their eyes Let us therefore prove the truth of our Religion by the sincerity of our Obedience particularly by our Obedience to those Commands of God which require us to be Loyal to our Prince That we may fully shew what an Awful Sense we have of the Majesty and Soveraignty of the most high God both in our Words and in our Actions let both our Words and Actions declare how much we revere his Power and Authority not onely in himself but in those also whom he hath set over us And so I come to the second part of Solomon's Advice wherein we are admonished unto the Fear of God to subjoyn the Fear of the King who is Gods Vicegerent Of which I shall discourse in the same Method as I have done of the former by considering its Nature Degrees Effects and Contraries First As for the Nature of the Fear which we owe unto the King 't is very much of the same nature with that Fear which is due to God himself onely 't is inferior and subordinate to it For Kings are honoured in holy Scripture with the adorable Name of God And the Laws of England looking upon the King as a God upon Earth do attribute unto him in some Analogy diverse Excellencies that belong properly to God alone such as are a kind of Omnipotency in raising men from Death to life by pardoning whom the Law hath condemned a certain Omnipresency by his numerous Officers who every where represent him and little less than an Infallibility and an absolute Perfection of Wisdom and Righteousness For our Law will have no Error no Injustice no Folly no Imperfection whatsoever to be found in the King The Fear therefore which we owe to our dread Soveraign even like that which we render to the divine Majesty is a most profound Reverence for an high Esteem of and a most humble and dutiful Affection unto his Sacred Person and Authority It is a filial Fear compounded of Dread and Love For the King is the Father of our Country by whose Providence and Protection we are supported and defended by whose vigilant Care and Conduct we quietly enjoy all that we possess Of this as St. Jerom hath observed even the Philistines were so sensible that it was a constant Custom among them to call all their Princes by the name of Abimelech which signifies both Father and King And it was the Promise of God to his Church that in the Times of the Gospel Kings should be her nursing Fathers and Queens her nursing Mothers Which great Blessing hath been and is most visibly enjoyed by us in this Nation as much as by any People under Heaven Since then by being born the Kings Subjects we have the Happiness to be his Children the very law of Nature doth oblige us to pay him all the Awfulness and Affection and Duty of Children If I be a Father saith God where is mine Honour If I be a Master where is my Fear Now the King next and immediately under God is the great and common Father the supreme Lord and Master of us all And therefore secondly The Degrees and Measures of Honour and Fear which are due to the King are the very highest and the greatest next unto those that are due to God himself The supreme Power and Authority under God being lodged in the sacred Person of the Soveraign Prince he may justly demand the supreme Honour Within his own Dominions he is only less and lower than God he is greater and higher than all Ranks and Orders of Men. Yea all the States of the Realm joyned together all the Nobles and Commons and the whole Body of the People have not a Power and Authority equal to his All his Subjects whether Publick Magistrates or private men not only severally and apart but joyntly and together are under his Command For otherwise he would not be the King of a Kingdom or a Political Society united under one Form of Government but only a King of single men separately taken and so he would be a strange kind of Chimerical and imaginary Prince a King of nothing but a Rope of sands In the first Epistle of St. Peter Chap. 2. ver 13 and 14. that great Apostle makes this plain Distinction between our Subjection to the King and to all other Magistrates whether taken collectively or distributively We are to submit to the King as Supreme to all others as his Officers and Delegates Sent and Commissioned by him all of them together as well as each of them apart having received all their Power and Authority from him and he having received his from God alone For the King is no Substitute of the People but the Minister of God and his Power is the Ordinance of God This is the Voice of Scripture and of Reason and this I may with the greatest Confidence because I can with the strongest Evidence affirm it being not only the unanimous Opinion of all the Wisest Politicians and Statesmen in the World but also the Catholick Doctrine of the Christian Church for many hundreds of years together that a Monarch or Soveraign in his own Dominions hath no Superior but God Almighty And indeed it would be
at length into such a Deluge of boundless Wickedness as quite extinguished the Light of our Israel and pulled down upon as so singular an Instance of the Divine Vengeance as no Nation had felt before the most barbarous and unparallel'd Murder of one of the best Kings â—hat ever sat upon a Throne our late most Gracious Soveraign From hence 〈◊〉 say it will appear that this Days humble and mournful Reflection on â—hat blackest of Britain's Tragedies is 〈◊〉 great and common Duty to which â—…ll even the most innocent Natives of his piacular Island are indispensibly obliged These Conclusions I take to be clearly inferred from those Premises and I believe no sober and knowing Man can think otherwise if he seriously and thorowly consider this Royal and Divine Aphorism which came from the Pen of Solomon and the Mouth of God For the transgression of a Land many are the Princes thereof But by a man of understanding and knowledge the State thereof shall be prolonged In which words there lie before us these Four Observables First a publick National Judgment and that is the ill State of a Nation under Polyarchy or Plurality of Supreme Governours when many are the Princes thereof Secondly the notorious Cause of such a Judgment it is expresly ascribed to the Wickedness of a People the transgression of a Land Thirdly the opposite National Mercy or the Happiness of a Nation under a well settled Monarchy when 〈◊〉 a man of understanding and knowledge the State thereof is prolonged A man that is to say one Man one Soveraign Prince in opposition to the many Princes before mentioned Fourthly The principal means whereby so great a Mercy is procured and that is the Wisdom of the Monarch his understanding and knowledge I begin with the first of these the National Judgment many Princes by which it is plain we are to understand Supreme or Soveraign Princes For many inferior Magistrates or subordinate Governours are at all times necessary to every State and Kingdom even in their most peaceful and flourishing Condition It is therefore the multiplication of Soveraigns that Solomon here speakes of by many of whom may be meant either many lawful Soveraigns or many Usurpers both which are publick Evils although the latter be the more signal Judgment First then by Princes in the Text we may understand lawful Soveraigns and of them there may be either many successively or many at once There may be many successively in a Monarchical State sometimes by the very Nature of the Constitution as in an Elective Monarchy where the Crown is not inviolably fixed in one Royal Family and in the one â—ight Line according to Priviledge of â—irth and Proximity of Blood but is conferred on various Persons of divers Families or different Lines according to the Will and Pleasure of the Electors This is an ill State in comparison of Hereditary Monarchy At the Death of every Prince 't is subject to an Interregnum in which the whole Frame of things may be unsettled and every new Election not only commits the Administration of Affairs to untried hands but may also expose the Kingdom to great Chages and dangerous Revolutions arising from the opposite Interests Affections and Inclinations of various Families and consequently of such Persons as are chosen out of them Indeed if it happen that the Elected King be the Son of Nobles as Solomon speaks if he descended from the Sacred Race of Kings and hath been educated among Princes from his Youth iâ— he hath not only the Title Place and Office but the real Majesty and Authority the God-like Spirit the Wisdom Justice and Clemency of a King matters may go well while he Reigneth Blessed art thou O Land when thy King is the Son of Nobles Eccles 10. 17. But if it so fall out as it often may iâ— an Arbitrary Election that the Prince be chosen out of the meanest of the People if he be a Person of low Birth and servile Condition the Kingdom can never be happy under such a Governour For a Servant when he reigneth is one of those three things for which the Earth is disquieted and one of the four which it cannot bear Prov. 30. 21. 22. Sometimes also by the Will and Pleasure of Heaven and by the Visitation of God there may be many Princes successively even in an Hereditary Monarchy when by reason of the frequent Deaths and short Reigns of Kings there is a Succession of divers of them within a few years This is generally disadvantageous to the Happiness of 〈◊〉 Nation if it doth not prove fatal to When there is such a Mortality of Monarchs that the Earthly Gods die â—â—ster than common Men when the children of the most High are brought â—â—w and not one alone but many of â—â—e Princes fall by an untimely Dissolution before they can bring their deâ—…ns and endeavours for the safety and â—elfare of their People to any good â—aturity and when the Crown thus swiftly passing from one to another is devolved upon Infants who are unskilful in the Arts of Empire obnoxious to the unfaithfulness of Tutors and easie to be misled by the treacherous Conduct of ill Ministers this ruffles the publick Affairs and usually causeth great discomposures Wo to thee O Land when thy King is a Child Eccles 10 16. Although this Wo may be in good measure prevented where the Change and the loss of Princes is recompensed by the continuance of the same wise Counsellors and the defect of Age made up by the uncorrupted Innocence and the early Piety of the Crowned Child But as the having many Princes successively is sometimes the misfortune oâ— the best of Monarchies so the having many together and at once is the constant mischief of a Republick when the Soveraignty is actually invested more than one either in a certain number of Select Persons which is incoâ—modious enouh or which is muâ—â— worse in the very Multitude and general Crowd in the whole Body of 〈◊〉 People the Head and the Feet 〈◊〉 Brains and the Heels the Honouraâ—â—â— the Wise the Sober and all the base and blind and boisterous Rabble having their share in the Government I deny not that these Republicks are lawful Powers in those places where by Divine permission they have had a durable continuance and establishment Long Possession may give them a Title and as bad as they are Use and Custom and the Situation of some Countries may make them tolerable in some few particular places Neither will I say that Solomon did expresly and designedly pronounce this Sentence concerning them The truth is they cannot boast of so great Antiquity It doth not appear that any such Forms of Government had ever been heard of in his Days But because many in this Age and in this Nation have been such fond Admirers of Common-Wealths I shall for their sakes enquire whether these rare Models of Government although they do not fall directly under Solomon's Censure be really any better
of Rods the Scorpions of Usurpers with the heaviest Stripes the Lashes of base-bred and new-rais'd Tyrants In this case Fire hath come out of the Bramble to consume the Cedars of Lebanon or to speak plainly zealous Incendiaries those crackling blazing Thorns being all in a flame have burnt down the Royal Palaces and put whole Kingdoms into a combustion On this occasion the very Abyss of Sedition hath been opened the Smoke of hellish Faction hath ascended and the Sun and the Air have been darkened by reason of the Smoke and out of the Smoke there have come Locusts Their Faces have been as the Faces of Men and their Hair as the Hair of Women but their Teeth as the Teeth of Lions They have carried kindness and humanity in their Countenances and smooth fairness in their Pretences but their Actions have been Savage and Cruel They have seemed to have only Breast-plates of Iron and defensive Armour but their sound hath been as of many Horses and Chariots running to the Battel loudly proclaiming an offensive War And they have had Tails like unto Scorpions and Stings in their Tails with Power to hurt Men certain Months and Years They have had a King too a King like the Angel of the bottomless Pit in Hebrew Abaddon in Greek Apollyon Such horrible Plagues as these have been sometimes used to chastise a Land when she hath filled up the measure of her Iniquities And an impious People have the more Reason to expect these or such like Judgments from Heaven according to the degree of their Guilt because publick Societies of States and Kingdoms can suffer no other Punishments but only such as are inflicted in this present Life Particular Sinners who shall receive their Doom at the last Day may sometimes pass thorow this world with Impunity But all Political Bodies and Communities of Men will be dissolved before the final Judgment and therefore the Holy and Righteous God hath always a time sooner or later to punish sinful Nations here upon Earth unless his just Vengeance be prevented by a general Repentance Neither are these Calamities only sent down from the Justice of Divine Providence they also naturally spring up from the Transgression of a Land The prevalency of Vice and the general dissoluteness of Manners doth in its own Nature produce many great and publick Mischiefs Pride and Self-conceit Ambition and Covetousness Uncharitableness and Animosity Hatred and Envy Malice and Revenge are the very Seed and Spawn of all Factions and Seditions Treasons and Conspiracies Insurrections and Rebellions Subversions of Government and Changes of Governours Whence come Wars and Fightings among you saith St. James are they not hence even from your Lusts which war in your Members When Men have dethroned their Reason that private Monarch which God hath set up within them to rule â—ll their inferior Powers and suffer'd the promiscuous Democratical Crowd of â—ebellious Passions to usurp that Royal â—uthority it is no wonder that being â—laves to so many Lords and Tyrants within themselves they desire to bring â—â—eir Country under as many and as 〈◊〉 Princes too it is no wonder that â—…ey are then so turbulent and vexaâ—…us in humane Societies so zealous for â—â—lling down the publick Soveraign alâ—… and for placing themselves and others of their own Rank in his room The restless Lusts of Men if predoâ—â—nant and generally raging in a Nation must inevitably excite and foment mutual Enmities and Discords intestine Commotions Civil Wars and various Disturbances in which the tossing and wavering Government hath no fixed Establishment but is continuly new modelled changed and altered by every Faction that can usurp it The wicked are like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest whose Waters cast up mire and dirt Isa 57. 20. Wickedness brings a Land into such an unquiet and tumultuous State that the very mire and dirt the vile dregs of the Populace do often times get uppermost Thus we plainly see that the Tyranny of many Princes and numerous Usurpers is both the just Punishment and the natural Effect of the reigning Power the over-spreading Dominion of men Lusts and Sins It remains that I consider the two last Observables in the Text the National Mercy or the Happiness of a Lanâ— under a well settled Monarchy wheâ— by one Soveraign Prince When by 〈◊〉 man of understanding and knowledge the State thereof is prolonged and the principal means whereby so great a Mercy is procured The Wisdom of the Monarch his understanding and knowledge But that I may not be thought guilty my self of a bold Usurpation in detaining you too long beyond my Commission I shall omit what I had prepared to speak upon these copious Heads of Discourse and shall only conclude with some brief Application First then if many Princes be publick Evils and for the most part National Judgments the penal Indications of the Wrath of God for the Transgression of a Land how great is the Folly of their Wickedness who desire and chuse Gods Plagues who contend and wrestle for the Vengeance of Heaven and will not be content without it We have lived in an Age in which men have Fasted and Prayed and Fought for the procuring of Divine Judgments for the subversion of our Lawful Government the extirpation of our excellently tempered Monarchy and the setting up the Usurping Powers of a many-headed Democracy We have had Bon-fires in our Streets and loud Thansgivings in our Pulpits when the desired Calamities have been obtained when the raving Petitions of such bewitched Enthusiasts have in just Punishment been granted them yea some of their Lay-Preachers solemnly praised God for that very prodigious Sin and Judgment which was the cause of this days Fasting and Humiliation Such was the infatuating perverseness the senseless extravagance the impudent wildness of their monstrous Impiety And is it not strange that even now after the Impostures of Religious Rebels have been so plainly detected after all that our Eyes have seen and our Ears heard of the Miseries and Calamities which Seditious Republicans have brought upon us Men should attempt the dissolving the Ligaments of the Monarchy a second time and the opening a Door to let in another Scene of numerous Usurpers to enslave and ruine us That the Machinations of the late Conspirators had a direct tendency this way needs no Proof And all Wise men can easily judge whether the cutting the great Cable that holds the Government or the violating the Fundamental Hereditary Right of Lineal Succession to this Imperial Crown would not be like to have the very same pernicious Effects Will our Fears of our Roman Adversaries justifie a Contrivance so manifestly contrary to Law and Equity to our most Solemn Oaths both of Allegiance and Supremacy and to those very Interests of Peace and Religion which are supposed to be in danger Is not this the ready way to introduce Wars and Confusions in which we shall have many Religions without the settlement of any in
expresly fixeth it there as any man may see he doth in the first Epistle of St. Peter Chap. 2. Verses 13 14. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him St. Peter here requires subjection to all humane Power and Authority which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 humane Creature or Constitution not as if it were so the Ordinance of Man as not to be the Ordinance of God for then St. Peter would contradict St. Paul but because the Power and Authority which is appointed by God is managed exercised and executed by and among and over men and for the good of men Although he calls it the Ordinance of man he exhorts to submit to it for the Lords sake which plainly signifies that whatever hand men have in the establishment and the exercise of Civil Government yet it is appointed by God and derived from him But that which I chiefly observe in this Apostolical command is that St. Peter manifestly asserts the Soveraign Power of Kings and Monarchs but not of the Senate or the People According to his Politicks the King is the sole Supreme Governour and all others are commissioned by him and ought to live in subjection to him They were to obey Claudius the then Roman Emperor as their highest Lord and Governour next and immediately under God they were also to submit to Furius Camillus Scribonianus and to the other Roman Procurators in their several Provinces but these they were to obey under the Emperor only as his Officers and Ministers only so far and so long as they derived Authority from him Thus we see Christ and his Apostles acknowledged approved and confirmed that Monarchical Power by which they found the World governed and gave no encouragement to the novel Opinions of those State-menders who are for setting up a popular Soveraignty Fifthly Monarchy hath in it self a real and intrinsick Dignity and Excellency beyond all other Models of Government It is most agreeable to Nature and to the common Genius of Mankind 'T is most easie and safe most worthy and honourable and most apt to procure and promote the chief ends of Government having far more advantages and fewer inconveniences than any Aristocratical or Democratical State We see there is but one Head over the several Members of the Natural Body and 't is almost as monstrous to have it otherwise in the Body Politick There is but one Mind or Understanding to govern all the humane Passions and executive Powers and if any of them command and control in the place of Reason it is a Rebellion and Usurpation By the Ordinance of Heaven one Sun rules the Day and one Moon the Night but if divers Suns appear at the same time or if Comets give light instead of the Moon these are look'd upon with horror as the Prodigies of Nature and the terrifying Omens of Wars and Plagues and dire Calamities coming upon the world Among the Bees as Naturalists observe a little Monarch governs the whole Swarm Of the Cranes one flies before and leads the company Among Sheep and other Cattle one guides the Flock and is as it were Herdsman to the rest Thus there appears some resemblance of Monarchy thorow the whole course of Nature And if it had not been hugely agreeable to Mankind it could never have so universally prevailed as it hath it could never have so long continued the standing Government of all Ages and of all Nations except a very few For the number of Common-wealths that have been erected in the world compared with the Monarchies and Regal Governments is as small and inconsiderable as the number of strange and monstrous Births compared with those usual and natural Productions which daily appear according to the regular course of Things And of those few Common-wealths some have been forced to return to Monarchy that they might not be ruined under their new Models No other Government hath such a stable Foundation for its own continuance or for the firm and durable support of the Peace and Happiness of the People governed as Monarchy hath When the different Interests and distracted minds the various Inclinations and the contrary Humours of the many chief Magistrates of a Republick are ready to tear the State in pieces the Monarch rules and governs all things with an easie peaceful and undisturbed Determination having none to contend with him or to controle him Where Many govern there will be inevitable Divisions and Dissentions among them and we know that a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand But such Discords and Dangers cannot arise where the Soveraignty is in a single Person The Monarch also may readily and speedily at any Time or in any Place Judge and Decree concerning the publick Affairs But the several Governours in a Republick must appoint a Time and Place when and where to meet together and after they are assembled there are frequently many long and tedious debates before any thing can be effected if they do at last agree what to determine In short all those inconveniences of a Popular Government mentioned in a former Discourse are avoided in Monarchy If it be said that the Wisdom Judgment Counsel and Conduct of many may be much better than of one alone This is true But then we should consider that there is a great difference between Ruling and Ministring Ordering and Assisting Commanding and Counselling The Aid and Advice of many Wise men may be greater and better than of one Without Counsel saith Solomon purposes are disappointed but in the multitude of Counsellors they are established And again In multitude of Counsellors there is safety But what his Opinion was of a Multitude of Princes my Text hath sufficiently discovered In weighty Affairs 't is good to hear the several Judgments and Opinions of many but the resolving and determining what Counsel is to be followed the Decreeing and Commanding what shall be done is best and soonest performed by one He who hath compared the various Opinions of divers wise Counsellors in any Case shall be able to give a Judgment thereupon like an Oracle He who hath considered and digested all their Arguments both on the one side and on the other may easily and speedily determine the matter which many cannot do without great difficulty and long contention As for the common Objection that Monarchy is apt to degenerate into Tyranny and that the Liberties and Properties of the Subject are more secured and better preserved in a Republick this hath been confuted by our own sad experience under the late Usurping Common-wealth of England when we saw more Tribunals of Iniquity more Invasions of Property more unjust Arbitrary and Tyrannical Proceedings against our Lives and Liberties and all our dearest Enjoyments in the space of four or five years than our Ancestors ever suffered under any of the preceding Monarchs perhaps under all of them in all