power Iob 29. he tells us he delivered the poor that cryed the fatherless and him that had no helper the blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon him and he caused the widows heart to sing for joy he was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame he brake thâ— jaws of the wicked and pluck'd the prey out of his teeth And thus and by this means his glory was fresh upon him How blessed a thing is it thus when it may be truly spoken of our Supreme Authority as it is by Pontius Diaconus concerning Cyprian in the management of his Ecclesiastical power Nulla vidua reversa est sinu vacuo nullus indigens lumine non illo comite directus est nullus nudus auxilio de potentioris manu non illo tutore protectus est for to this end hath God raised them up and set them as the Sun in their respective Worlds to communicate to truth and holiness justice and whatsoever hath a Moral or Theological excellency and goodness in it the whole emanations of their light and influences The Author of the Records of the life of St. Cyprian tells us that he that at that time was to be Bishop of Carthage had need to be such an one Qui doceret poenitentiam lapsos veritatem haereticos unitatem schismaticos and therefore concludes upon the fixing of him in that imployment benè benè tunc verè spiritualiter contigit quod vir tam necessarius tam bonis rebus â— martyrio delatus est Happy was that providence that saved such an hopeful person fitted for such a necessary holy work I may truly say That that sacred person whom God hath re-invested in the Throne of these Kingdoms had need be such an one and more then such as having not onely a collapsed and disjoynted and disordered Church but divided and disparted State to set in order and therefore need to be such an one as Cyprian was Ingenii spiritualiter temperati qui inter resultantes collidentium fluctus iter medium librato limite gubernaret I remember Iustinian the Emperour in one of his Letters to Mennas Patriarch of Constantinople tells him that the end of his Office as Imperator was this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to keep the faith of Christ from being perverted and the friends of Christ for in those elder times the name of the Church was not appropriated to the Clergy from being persecuted and he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made it our principal care 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For which cause onely we are satisfied we are both put and prospered in the possession of this Throne This then being the end the pursuit hereof is the excellency of all Power and Principality 2. That is the Glory and Crown of Magistracy which is and tendeth to the greatest happiness of the people that live under their Government and Authority He is the Minister of God to thee for good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 13. 4. It is not unsuitable for Christian ears that saying of Metellus Numidicus a Roman Censor Dii immortales plurimum possunt sed non plus velle nobis debent quam parentes the gods may do more but they should not desire more good and profit to their people then their Princes should And it was no small part of the reason of the deifications of many of the Heathens gods that they had contributed some remarkable benefit to their people The Jews themselves will mourn if a Ruler dye or be afflicted that loved their Nation and built them a Synagogue The Sun it self is more glorious not so much by that light it hath but gives and communicates to this dark be-nighted Globe in which we live It is no unusual thing for the fondest people to deal with their Magistrates as the Frogs in the Fable with their King when they prove or by prejudicate vulgar opinion come to be mistaken as unprofitable or destructive to common benefit I would not have the people to be the Censors of the manners or deportment of their Princes so as to suck in the apprehensions of the discharge of their allegiance upon the supposed inconsistency of their Authority with common good but however it hence is manifest that the glory of their motion in that Orb of Supremacy in which they are fixed by God depends upon their beneficial communications to the real welfare and happiness of those that are concerned in the fatal effects of their Conjunctions Aspects or Eclipses Let me add then that your greatest benefit you can reap by any Authority over you is this in the Text when by the influence of that Power you become a City of righteousness holiness and truth having thereby the free distribution of justice amongst all and the full establishment of Truth in Doctrine Purity in Worship and an encouraged justified holiness in all that profess the name of God Alas the good that you should have by Magistracy doth not lie in the enjoyment of liberty to serve your lusts and the profane principles of a graceless spirit to set up the Idols and Errours of your own hearts and to enforce your will-worship or superstition upon the Consciences of others but it lies in the enforcing of duty holiness righteousness and reformation and the perpetual discouragement of whatsoever intrencheth upon the interest and propagation of grace and truth as it is in Jesus Christ. He doth you most good that makes you most good most Holy Orthodox Sincere living up to the fulness of your light and putting a soul into your Worship and Profession by the Spirit and Power of Godliness I am not unsensible upon what foundations many thousands of persons do bottom their joy in the deliverance of this day I wish their joy were greaâ—â—â—â— but their grounds were better and that as their gladness is bottom'd on the expectations and hopes of some future good so that that good were somewhat of more Divine extraction and real excellency then what is in the eye of most of men Oh! what if we shall have a King and yet fear not the Lord what then should a King do to us what if we shall have no more Wars with men and yet still have the most fatal Wars with God what if we shall lie under less of suffering and yet live under more of sin what if we shall have better Laws but worser Lives what if our Liberties and Estates and we shall meet again and yet Christ and our souls shall part for ever and never meet more what if we shall have plenty but no piety a lawful merciful gracious King to Rule the outward man but a bloud-thirsty implacable Tyrant the Devil to hurry the souls of men to destruction Oh! Christians think of it There are too many who scandalize our Government and cast dirt upon the royal Scepter in promising to themselves I know not what licentiousness without a Curb revenge without a Law destruction of others without distinction Popery
thou and all thy servants This is a president worth the deepest consideration of such Kings who have been forced from their Throne as David was Ignoscere pulchrum est jam misero poenaeque satis vidisse precantem and so it comes to pass as is the observation of Bias 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fear not more their Prince then they are solicitous for his good and afraid of evil to befal him 3. They were such as preferred the peoples good above their own their Subjects were more dear unto them then their Scepter their Kingdom then their Crown When Ioshua divided the Land for the inheritance of the people it is remarkable he kept not a foot of it for himself nor had he any but what the children of Israel gave him Ioshua 19. 49. And when they put him as Masius judges by the advice of Eleazar the High Priest to ask for himself he fixed upon a very mean and contemptible place so mean that St. Hierom speaks in his Epitaph of Parlea that she was amazed when she came to the Tomb of Joshua quod ipse possessionum omnium distributor montana sibi aspera loca delegisset had ask'd for himself such a mountainous and mean possession in comparison of that of others No less remarkable is that of David 2 Sam. 24. 17. Let thy hand be against me and against the house of my fathers but as for these sheep what have they done and Moses Exod. 32. 32. who would rather wish to be blotted out of the book of God then that his wrath should break out against the people Such Princes are indeed not princeps but patres the Fathers of their Countries and do exercise as Seneca calls it potestatem patriam But further 4. They were such as were zealous for God and godliness set and sharpned the edge of their royal sword against sin and wickedness How passionately zealous in the cause of God was Moses when he sees the Idolatry of the people how earnest in his adjuring and exhorting the people to stick fast to their Religion before he went up to Nebâ— to dye there Ioshua could not 〈…〉 till first he had engaged the people to God in a soleâ—â— Covenant Josh. 24. David he fetched up the Ark of the Lord to Ierusalem and bought a place for the future Temple of it and Solomon he built it an House Quis mente sobrius regibus dicat saith St. Aug. Nolite curare in regno vestro à quo tueatur vel oppugnetur ecclesia domini vestri quis velit esse religiosus vel sacrilegus This is the glory and excellency of Princes that as they are Gods and Gods Vicegerents upon earth so nothing should be more sacred to them then the interest of truth and power of godliness and what mercy greater can befal a people then such a Magistracy For if the delirium regis the miscarriage of the Prince do cause such punishments on the whole body if the excellency and glory of any Government lie in the serviceableness thereof to promote and honour truth and godliness to discountenance and discourage errour and prophaness if as generally it is an holy Prince makes an happy people how great then is this mercy when God shall restore thee such Judges as at the first and such Counsellors as at the beginning But to conclude 5. They were such as what they were the same they continued to be till the end of their race till death it self made their sacred heads to stoop to its impartial stroke Indeed in the latter days of Solomon there arose some cloud upon the splendor of his former Government occasion'd by the influence of his Idolatrous Wives upon him so hazardous a thing it is for Kings to marry the Daughters of a strange god but yet he recovered himself from that declination and rose up to as great an altitude of holiness and zeal for God as ever formerly when his own experience had enabled him to pen the Book of Ecclesiastes Moses and Ioshua and David their care of their people lived till they died and what they were at first they were till the very last in their personal graces and profitable Government It is usual for Kings to begin their Dominion with more acceptance then to continue it Mitissima sors est regnorum sub rege novo That Quinque unium Neronis is famous in that story of the Roman Caesars for so long none so good for ever after none so vile and wicked True it is that greatness is a sad temptation to put the best of men upon exorbitances Aeneas Sylvius in the Council at Basil contended stifly against the Pope when he got that Chair himself he was no more Aeneas Sylvius I shall not need to lay open the disadvantages of vertue that fall upon Princes when peaceably setled in the Throne the Lord I hope will give us to see the piety and integrity the moderation and clemency the unalterable zeal to the Protestant cause the fixed detestation of debauchery and prophaness the right understanding and apprehension of the principles and deportments of honest men however now aspersed all these and more then these precious pearls in the Imperial Crown of his sacred Majesty shall yet keep their orient lustre and unspotted brightness notwithstanding what attempts may be made by temptation to eclipse them or shadow off their vital influence from the people Such Princes were these who were the older better the longer they lived the more deeply did they love their people and the more dearly were they loved by them and went to their graves with common lamentation 4. I might add if God do restore to a people such a Government then their Government is vested in the hands of such as have parts and abilities from God for the fitting of them to manage their Authority God had put of the spirit of Government upon Moses and Ioshua and David and the whole earth came to hear the Wisdom of Solomon He himself that had had the experience of what was necessary for the Ruler of such a people cries out Eccles. 10. 16. Wo unto thee O land when thy King is a child viz. for Wisdom Soberness Judgment and Understanding and to the same purpose is Isa. 3. 4 5. But I shall conclude this with this Observation As the giving to a people of such a Government is a blessing so the restoring of it is much more for so the Text speaks I will restore or I will cause to return as the word imports thy Judges as at the first c. I have touched at some inconveniences of the force that may fall out upon legal gracious rightful Authorities And what woful effects do attend such violences and usurpations and therefore shall add no more But in such a day as this when God doth not only give but restore and cause to return a separated Husband to the bosom of his disconsolate Wife a banished Father to the arms of his
long-lamenting Children but I say in such a day and such a day is this Oh! how obliging is that Deliverance how full and fat and fruitful a Mercy is this I will restore thy Judges as at the first c. And so much shall serve for that Observation The excellency and the choicest chiefest blessing of Authority is when it hath an influence upon such persons as live under it to make them eminent for righteousness and holiness This is that which the Text sets down as the chiefest Ornament of the Imperial Diadem the Crown and Glory of Princes and that which procureth the greatest good and benefit of the people Afterwards thou shalt be called The City of righteousness the faithful City I shall hasten to a conclusion and therefore shall set before you onely these three Demonstrations of this Principle I know upon what foundations the most of men do build up their joys in the restitution of Authority some upon the outward pomp and grandeur of such Kingdoms some upon the hopes of raising themselves and their Estates and Fortunes by them some upon the perswasion of the harmony is betwixt their Princes and them in matters of judgment and the advantage thereby to promote and impose their principles about Religion and the things of God too many whose triumphing is bottom'd not so much upon the righteous establishment of the Throne as upon their own bewitching dreams and pleasant fancies of revenge and of opportunities thereby to pour out their wrath upon the people of their hatred such injury dare wickedness do to sacred Powers as thus to imagine it to furnish their lusts with strength and opportunity such an horrid aspersion dare men some unhappy men cast upon the glorious Scepter of Majesty And they are not few who this day are therefore blessing God because the Iron-rod of Usurpation is shiver'd to pieces and the Scepter is restored to its rightful Tribe whatever shall be the issue Yet thus it should be thus the Lord would have it be Yet Christians let me add that this this is that topmost branch of the glory of Princes when they are Instrumental to make their people a City that is eminent for righteousness truth and holiness That I may shut up your understandings under the conviction of this truth take but these Demonstrations of it 1. That is the Glory and Crown of Magistracy which in the attainment of it is the principal end of its institution by God The suitableness of things to the cause and reason of their beings and when they are effectual to the production of the work for which and for nothing else they were created appointed or raised up by God this is the glory this the beauty of them The institution of the Ministry of the Gospel is in order to the begetting of faith Rom. 10. is for the perfecting of the Saints and the building up of Christs body Ephes. 4. and therefore the Apostle concludes that the influence of his Apostleship upon the Thessalonians suitable to this reason for which he was sent by God this was his glory and his crown of joy 1 Thes. 2. 20. True it is that the choicest Instruments are not always bless'd with the real production of that which is the end of their ordination and appointment the Prophet Isaiah complains that he had laboured in vain and spent his strength for nought but where there is a disposition frame and spirit in such persons suitable to the end of their institution a labouring and wrastling for the effecting thereof so that the frustration ariseth not from the carelesness unsuitableness indisposition of the persons imployed in such an office but from the wilfulness unflexibleness hardness of the object there and in such a case though Israel be not gather'd yet such persons in the eyes of God are glorious Isa. 49. 5. As thus it is in the case of Ecclesiastical so also in that of Civil Powers and Ordinances While men are so taken up in the consideration of Magistracy I would wish them to ponder for what end and reason it was that ever such an Ordinance or thing was appointed by God And let me freely speak it this in the Text was the end thereof That the societies of men might have truth and justice righteousness and holiness running down as a mighty stream in the midst of them When God raised up Moses what was his work but this Numb 11. 12. Carry my people this people of the Lord in thy bosom as the Father doth the sucking-child Rom. 13. He is the Minister of God to thee for good to be a terrour to evil doers but a praise to them that do well Isa. 49. 22. Thy Kings sometimes shall be and ever should be thy Nursing-Fathers and Queens thy Nursing-Mothers This was the glory of Constantine in Lactantius Thou art he saith he qui primâ—â— Romanorum principum repudiatis erroribus majestatem dei veri singularis cognovisti honorâ—sti Princes are not raised up to serve themselves or live in the Pomp and Pleasure of this life much less to serve the lusts of their people and patronize the Atheism and Irreligion or false Religions of their Subjects It is a most cursed reflection upon the honour of our Soveraign that the practice of so many men takes now the liberty to break out in such a violent stream and torrent of prophaness that men begin to be daring and bold in their Oaths and Drunkenness their May-Pole horrid and Heathenish Idolatries their prophanation of Sabbaths and contempt of Ordinances that Popery and the grandest Factors for that interest do lift up their heads with so much imperiousness as if the restoring of our Government to its proper Chanel would be the justification or allowance of these or any of these impieties Alas Christians Curse not the King no not in your thoughts do not apprehend things so injurious and reflecting upon his sacred Crown and Dignity The end of his Royal Power is the punishing suppressing restraining of all such Cursers Swearers Drunkards Sabbath-breakes the lifting up of the happiness and peace of the holy and righteous and peaceable in the Land whom you despise scorn reproach and trample under your feet And therefore the Lord forgive those of you that talk most of your affection to his sacred Majesty and yet do thus conceive and represent him by your practise to the blackest staining of that Princely honour and esteem which should be sacred amongst all people To propagate preserve and prosper righteousness truth and holiness in their Dominions this is the end of Magistracy this is the beauty the most orient perfection in the Imperial Diadem and upon this foundation it is that the glory of Constantine Iustinian and other Christian Princes hath been raised up to such a lasting fabrick as stands still to this day undefaced in their sacred Monuments When Iob a person and Prince of great Authority gives an account of the right administration of his
without a penalty and what they please to impose upon the Worship and Worshippers of Jesus Christ without a Scripture Should it be so which God forbid the thoughts of should enter into my heart yet were this a good for thee and that good which God hath raised up his Anointed ones to accomplish for thee Oh! let it not enter into your thoughts lest the very Birds of the Air do tell the matter Thus poyson were better for the body then suitable nourishment and liberty safer then restraint to him who through phrenzies or other strong distemper hunts after nothing more then opportunity to destroy himself I know indeed there are many blessed fruits which these Kingdoms may joyfully and warrantably and with much confidence expect to be the product of this blessed restitution of his sacred Majesty Such as are the vindication of this Church and Kingdoms honour the wiping off the aspersion and rouling away the reproach of disloyalty from too many upon whom it is too familiary but most unjustly cast the settlement of our peace and the prosperous future state of all but let me say of this If God shall as we hope and pray he will by the influence of the Kings Authority sentence the reproachers of his ways and people into everlasting silence muzzle the mouth of blasphemous swearers rout the societies of abominable drunkards into corners that they dare not see the Sun clear the streets and empty the houses from the provoking crew of Sabbath-breakers and set up with encouragement the Worship of the Gospel the practise of holiness in all orders of men pray let me say of this as David of Goliahs sword There is none like that other things do well but this excels them all For however distastful these things may be and cross to the grain of many too many with us yet this would be the greatest mercy to your souls your eternal precious souls ten thousand to one to be shipwrack'd and lost if left to the boundless liberty of your own hearts and this would be the greatest mercy even to your outward estate For what hopes of any blessing from above where settlement and prosperity is abused where that deliverance which should be the grave is made but the womb and birth of that wickedness Idolatry and unreformedness that doth and will keep up the controversie with God without composure Hence it hath so often come to pass that people who have not become holy by being made externally happy in such eminent ways of deliverance as this have so often seen the speedy eclipse of the brightest Sun of their own prosperity Certainly if the toleration of Prophaness and Heresie and Idolatry in the Church be crudelis misericordia a thing that carries in it more of cruelty then of charity to the souls of men and if the drawing of the sword of Ecclesiastical power in the hands of the Ministers of the Gospel against the growing corruptions of their Flock be an act of the greatest mercy as appears 1 Cor. 5. the same will hold in its proportion in Civil Powers of whom let me shut up this and say They are then the farthest off from doing unjusty when they make us the furthest off from doing wickedly they have then been truly Fathers of their Country when they have made their people at least professedly children of their God they have then done their Subjects the greatest good when they have put a stop to sin which is their greatest evil they are then most like Gods when by their power the people are less like Devils they may save souls by the loss of sensuality save life by the loss of unbounded liberty save the truth by the casting over-board the sinking weight of humane innovations save the Church by the necessary allay into some common mediocrity of inconsistent parties and principles and entail happiness upon the Throne by setting up holiness and truth in all their people What Cyprian writes to the Confessors shall close up this for us in our lower or Princes in their greater elevations Ea concedere quae in perniciem populi vertant est decipere nec erigitur sic lapsus sed per offensam dei magis impellitur ad ruinam 3. Lastly That is the excellency and glory of Magistracy which tends most to their own eternal blessedness and acceptation with God We should judge that to be the Crown of Princes here which shall be their Crown at the great day of the appearing of Jesus Christ. The eminent grace of the Thessalonians their purity and constancy in the faith the Apostle calls 1 Thes. 2. 19. his hope and the Crown of his triumphing before the face of Jesus Christ at the day of his coming and even an Heathen himself could say Consulere patriae parcere afflictis for â caede abstinere dare orbis quietem sacule pacem suo hac summa virtus petitur hâc coelum viâ this is the way to everlasting rest for Royalty Oh! what account could Ieroboam give of his Idolatry Ahab of his cruelty Gallio of his indifferency the Arrian Emperours of their Heresie Nero of his inhumanity Iulian of his Apostacy when they stand before the judgment-seat of God the King of Princes how would then those things which Lactantius observes made the corrupt and sinful world to repute them as gods then confine them for ever to the society of Devils Give me that which God will own which the King of Kings delights to honour when the secrets of all hearts shall be made manifest and according to the real goodness of their ways every man shall have praise of God Those things cannot be the desirable things of Government which prove to be the damning and defiling things of Governours at that day nor can that be other then the perfection of it now which then proves to be the approbation of it with God Judge you therefore within your selves wherein the choicest beauty and greatest blessing of Authority lies whether in suffering their Dominions to be an habitation of Devils a Cage of every unclean Bird to be Magna latrocinia the stages of prophaness and impiety the Nurseries of Heresie Superstition and Popery the grief of Saints and the provocation of God or in causing them so far as the influence of their sacred power can extend to become the Cities of righteousness truth and holiness This this is that which shall have its euge at the last and be crowned with the royal approbation of God himself when all other their works shall be burnt up as dross hay straw and stubble I have done with that and shall have done all when I have spoke a word of this last Observation viz. To have our Judges restored as at the first and our Counsellors as at the beginning our Authority such as shall be 〈◊〉 to make us a City of faithfulness truth and righteousness 〈◊〉 are mercies which it is the method of God to give a 〈◊〉 when by his pâ—â—ging