Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A66059
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A sermon preached before the King upon the twenty seventh of February, 1669/70 by John Lord Bishop of Chester.
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Wilkins, John, 1614-1672.
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1670
(1670)
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Wing W2210; ESTC R10977
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9,714
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38
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Government and puts them into a preternatural course as a Noble Author hath elegantly expressed it The two grand Relations that concern Society are Government and Subjection And Irreligion doth indispose men for both these 1. For Government Without Religion Magistrates will lose that Courage and Confidence belonging to their stations which they cannot so well exert in punishing the offences of others when they are guilty of the same or the like themselves Those that sit on the Throne of Iudgment should be able to scatter away evil with their eyes as Solomon speaks Prov. 20. 8. By their very presence and look to strike an awe upon offenders Which will not be so easily done if they should lye under the same guilt themselves Sine Bonitate nulla Majestas saith Seneca The very nature of Majesty doth denote Goodness as well as Power And without this Governours may easily lose that Reverence which is due to them from others and consequently that Authority which they ought to have over them When they cease to be Gods in respect of their Goodness they may diminish in their Power And though they should be able to keep men under as to their Bodies and Estates yet will they decline as to that awful love and reverence whereby they should sway over the Hearts and Affections of men The Philosopher in the fift Book of his Politicks doth lay it down as a rule for Magistrates That they must be careful to give publike testimonies of their being religious and devout for which he gives this double reason Because the people will be less subject to entertain any jealousie or suspition of suffering injury from such whom they believe to be religious And withall they will be less subject to attempt the Doing of injury against such as knowing that good Magistrates are after a more especial manner under the Divine Favour and Protection having God to fight with them and for them 2. The want of Religion will indispose men for the condition of Subjects and render them loose and unstable in those duties of obedience and submission required to that state How can it be expected from that man who dares affront and despise God Himself that he should have any hearty reverence for His Deputies and Vicegerents Those who are destitute of Religion and Conscience as they are not to be trusted in any ordinary private duty towards those with whom they converse much less can they be useful in any such extraordinary Action whereby the publike welfare is to be promoted Where there are no seeds of Piety and Virtue there can be nothing of Honour or Magnanimity He that is subject only upon the account of Wrath and the power of the Sword which is over him will be no longer so when he hath an opportunity of escaping or resisting that Power Nor is there any possible way to secure men in their quiet subjection and obedience but by their being obliged for Conscience sake And therefore such kind of persons as by their open prophaness and contempt of Religion do endeavour to destroy Conscience from amongst men may justly be esteemed as the worst kind of Seditious Persons and most pernicious to Civil Government Whatever Disputes have been raised concerning the lawfulness of punishing men for their dissenting Consciences in matters of Religion yet never any man questioned the lawfulness of punishing men for their prophaness and contempt of all Religion Such men as renounce Conscience cannot pretend that they suffer for it And certainly this Vice doth upon many accounts deserve the greatest severity of Laws as being in its own nature destructive of the very Principles of Government and the Peace of all Human Societies Besides the Mischiefs consequent upon it from Divine Vengeance So that upon all these accounts there is just reason to inferr the truth of this Proposition That Religion is totum hominis in this first sense as it referrs to the Essence of Man considered either Separately or as a Member of Society 2. 'T is so likewise with respect to the Happiness and well-being of Man That is properly said to be the chief End or Happiness of a thing which doth raise its nature to the utmost perfection of which it is capable according to its rank and kind So the chief good belonging to a Vegetable or Plant is to grow up to a state of maturity to continue to its natural period and to propagate its Kind which is the utmost perfection that kind of Being is capable of And whereas Sensitive Creatures besides those things which are common to them with Plants have likewise such faculties whereby they are able to apprehend external objects and to receive pain or pleasure from them Therefore the Happiness proper to them must consist in the Perfection of these Faculties namely in sensible pleasures the enjoying of such things as may be grateful to their sences But now Mankind if we will allow it to be a distinct rank of Creatures superior to Brutes being endowed with such Faculties whereby 't is made capable of Apprehending a Deity and of expecting a future state after this life It will hence follow That the proper happiness of man must consist in the perfecting of this Faculty namely in such a state as may reconcile him to the Divine Favour and afford him the best assurance of a blessed Immortality hereafter Which nothing else but Religion can so much as pretend to And that this is most agreeable to Natural Light may appear from the Testimonies of several of the wisest Heathens Pythagoras Plato Epictetus c. who assert a Man's Happiness or chief End to consist in a likeness or resemblance to the Divine Nature In following of God Endeavouring to imitate Him whom we worship which are but several descriptions of Religion 'T is true indeed the nature of Man by reason of those other Capacities common to him with Plants and Brutes may stand in need of several other things to render his condition pleasant and comfortable in this World as Health Riches Reputation Safety c. Now herein is the great advantage of Religion that besides the principal work which it doth for us in securing our future Estates in the other World It is likewise the most effectual means to promote our happiness in this World and that not only Morally upon account of that Reward which Virtuous Actions do entitle a man unto from a just and a wise Providence But Naturally also by reason of that Physical efficacy which the Duties of Religion have in procuring for us each of those things wherein our Temporal Happiness doth consist in promoting the welfare not only of particular persons but of publike Communities of Mankind in general and of the whole Vniverse Insomuch that if we could suppose our selves in a capacity of capitulating with God concerning the Terms upon which we would submit to this Government and to chuse the Laws we would be bound to observe It were not possible for us