Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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B06421
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A sermon preached at Windsor before his Majesty, the second Sunday after Easter, 1684. by John Archbishop of Tuam.
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Vesey, John, 1636-1716.
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1684
(1684)
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Wing V282A; ESTC R185967
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16,479
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46
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A SERMON Preached at WINDSOR Before his Majesty the Second Sunday after Easter 1684. By JOHN Archbishop of TVAM Published by his Majesties special Command LONDON Printed for Robert Clavel at the Peacock in St. Pauls Church-yard 1684. And are to be sold by Samuel Helsham Bookseller in Dublin A SERMON Preached at WINDSOR PSAL. 82. ver 6 7. I have said ye are gods and all of you Sons of the Most High but ye shall die like men THe Holy Scriptures afford no where a more solemn Charge and Exhortation unto Justice than in the Psalm whereof the Text is a part from which be pleased to consider two things 1. A full concession of the great Dignity and Authority granted to Princes and Civil Rulers I have said ye are gods c. 2. An Admonition of their being accountable for the Administration of it But ye shall die like men Ye are gods but ye are but mortal ones of the same frail condition with those your poor Creatures that worship and adore your Power When men are advanced to any height their heads grow light and giddy and they are too apt to despise those below them as of a smaller size and stature than themselves The Psalmist therefore dwells not on the intoxicating Argument of Power but immediately calls down the thoughts of Princes from their golden heads to consider of their feet of Clay He no sooner wishes them joy of their Honour but lest their spirits should be exalted above measure and grow too fine and volatile he fixes them with Grave-dust presenting them with a Scepter and a Spade the Royal Robes and a Winding-sheet together I have said ye are gods but ye shall die like men Before we consider what is here said viz. Ye are gods it may be proper to enquire who it is that says and to whom it is said 1. Who hath said Great Persons have often this frailty among others that though they most need they can least endure plain and wholsom instruction the benefit whereof is often lost for want of Prudence in the Address The Psalmist therefore to give weight and authority to what he says to the Princes of the World personates the Almighty in the delivery of this charge whom he places in the Throne Vers 1. as a Judge among the Gods not as an unconcerned Spectator but as a severe Monitor and Observer of their Actions come down on purpose to take notice of the discharge of that duty which their high Titles and Commissions require of them God standeth in the Congregation of Princes So that David doth not here usurp an Authority over his Equals as a Reprover and Instructer but with great solemnity and Majesty brings in God as speaking in his own name So that this is emphatically Gods word that is here spoken and so our Saviour says referring to this Text Joh. 10.34 to whom the Word of God came And where the Word of God is there is Power with him in the supreme right of disposal who at first made all things cloathed the World when it lay naked in its Causes and imperfect Potentiality and then ranged the various Orders and Classes of the Creation according to the Idea's he had conceived in his eternal Mind in which he hath ever since preserved them by the breath of the same Power which once discontinued the Axes of the World would crack and the whole Frame like an old House would tumble and fall in pieces Since therefore all things do so essentially depend upon him he may well be presumed to have a right to govern what he first raised out of nothing and always maintains at his own charge and to make what distinctions he pleases among the works of his own hands on one piece of Clay putting the Image of a Prince on another the Picture of a Beggar forming that to a noble and this to an ignoble service So that things are and must be what he is pleased to call them It is God that hath said Ye are gods But to whom doth he speak And that is the second Enquiry 2. To whom is this said I have already supposed it to Princes and Civil Governours though I am not ignorant that these words are challenged as the Churches Patrimony by Pope Gregory the Great in an Epistle to Mauricius the Emperour But if the Words were addressed to Church-men it is plain from the stile of the Psalm it was in their Civil Relation and Capacity And all that can be inferred is onely that it was not then nor is it now unlawful for an Ecclesiastical person to exercise Civil Power when God and the King appoint them to it But the Powers are in their natures distinct And what was done by the High Priest under the Jewish Theocracy must not be drawn into Example under the Gospel for our Saviour affirms his Kingdom is not of this World and hath thereby for ever discharged spiritual Persons from temporal Power by virtue of their Office either directly or in order to spiritual purposes but he hath not made the man uncapable by placing him at his Altar of serving Princes in sitting Stations when by them they are thereunto appointed nor is any Person less qualified as one may think for being the Kings Servant for his standing in some respects nearer than others to Him by whom Kings reign And since a prudent and pious conduct of both Powers may make each promote the private ends of the other and the common end of both the Glory of God why should they be thought so insociable as never to be exercised by the same Person Nor indeed are they by those very men who declare most against Church-mens medling as they phrase it in Civil Affairs for who are more forward in such matters when they have opportunity without Authority than such as exclaim against our Church-men for those Civil Trusts and Honours granted them by Authority And while they preach against the exercise of a derived Power under Princes are aspiring after one paramount to them Princes are called Gods and Ministers are called Angels let every one abide in that Calling wherewith he is called for as that Priest or Angel that arrogates the Title of a God smells strong of the Pit and savours of the Pride of Lucifer so on the other side they who condemn all Civil Power as unlawful in the Church are too like Antichrist indeed Exalting themselves above all that is called God in the State 3. Having seen by and to whom these words are spoken let us now consider the meaning of what is said Ye are gods and all of you Children of the most High There is on every Creature some Character of Divinity but God hath placed his Image upon Man impressed himself on our Nature as the Prophet on the Child and shed his likeness on us so that by reflecting on our selves we may know as in a Glass and darkly what God is but as he hath honoured our Nature with his