to right who ever doe not Shall not the Iudge of all the world doe right Yes no question And therefore even Kings themselves and all mighty men of the Earth and Iudges of all sorts have need to looke to their wayes For God is over them with Ego judicabo I will one day call for an accompt I will judge all the Executions of Iustice with which I have trusted them And this is the first Prevention of the melting of a Kingdome the first Remedy when it begins to melt The maintenance and Execution of justice The Second followes and it is the establishing of the Pillars of the Earth I beare up the Pillars of it I saith God and I saith the King Where first it is not amisse to consider what these great Pillars of the earth are The Earth it selfe that hath but one Pillar and that is the poize and aequilibre of the Center And that is borne up by the Word and Ordinance of God Thou commandedst and it stood fast And saith S. Ambrose it needs no other thing to stay it The kingdomes of the Earth they have more Pillars than one This one which is Gods ordinance for Government they have but they have divers Administratours of this ordinance And these Pillars are Kings and Peeres and Judges and Magistrates Not one of these under the nature of a Pillar not one but yet with a great deale of difference For though there be many Pillars yet there is but Vnus Rex one King one great and Center-pillar and all the rest in a kingdome doe but beare up under and about him The Church that is not without Pillars neither No God forbid And it resembles in this the kingdomes among which it sojournes The great Master-pillar Christ he is the Foundation of all the rest and other foundation can no man lay of the Church Next to Christ the Apostles the Disciples are Pillars too and so called Gal. 2. After these their Successours Bishops Priests the Fathers of the Church in their several ages they came to be Pillars and so shall successively continue to the end of the world And so soone as Emperours and Kings were converted to the Faith they presently came into the nature of Pillars to the Church too If any man doubt this truth I le call in the Pope himselfe to witnesse it There are two great Props or Pillars of the Church saith Leo the Kings authority and the Priests both these and the Pope was content then to put the Kings first And Kings saith Saint Augustine are indeed great Pillars of the Church especially if they use their power ad cultum Dei dilatandum to enlarge and support the true religious worship of God You have seene what these Pillars are Will you consider next what they have to doe both in Church and Common-wealth The office of a Pillar is knowne well enough what it is 'T is sustinere to prop and beare up the Earth Quantum est columnarum nihil sustinentium sed in ornamentum tantum I know in luxurient buildings many Pillars stand onely for ornament but beare no weight It is not so with Pillars that are crown'd Honour and ornament they have and they deserve it but they are loaded too Kingdoms and States the greatest the strongest in the world are as mouldring earth as men Juda at this time was Terra liquefacta like a dissolving Body They cannot stand sine Columnis without their pillars to beare them And therefore the King hath ever been accounted and truly columna stare faciens terram the maine pillar and stay of the State And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the King is the pillar the foundation of the people So S. Gregory for he bears subjectorum suorum onera not onely his subjects but their burdens too The office then of the Pillars is to beare but when is there use of them When why continually they can be spared at no time if they leave bearing the State melts presently We reade it foure times repeated in Scripture but upon two great occasions onely Idolatry and Abominable lust that there was no King in Israel Judg. 17. and 19. no King And still there followed a melting and a dissolving of the State Every man did what seem'd good in his owne eyes and the punishment was great At this time David was King of Juda and Ishbosheth would be King of Israel Joab was for the one and Abner with the other The Pillars here in stead of bearing fell a justling What followed Why you see Liquefacta est terra that kingdome melted The Pillars then can never be spared from their worke continuall use of them but yet at one time more need than another And the time of the greatest necessity of these Pillars is when there is any Liquefaction or weakening of the Earth And that is in the Text the Earth dissolving and then by and by recourse to the Pillars To the Pillars and therefore they which weaken the government nay which doe but offer to impaire the honour and reputation of the Governours are dangerous and unworthie members of any Common-wealth For to murmure and make the people beleeve there are I know not what cracks and flawes in the Pillars to disesteeme their strength to undervalue their bearing is to trouble the Earth and Inhabitants of it To make the people feare a melting where there 's none And what office that is you all know Continuall use there is then of the Pillars But what then Can the Pillars beare up the earth in a melting time by their owne strength No sure that they cannot not at any time and therefore least at a melting time But what then Why then here 's Ego and Ego I beare up the Pillars that are about me saith David and I saith God beare up both these and David too And indeed all Pillars are too weake if they be left to themselves There must be one to beare them or else they can never beare the Earth One and it can be none under God Ego confirmavi 't is I that in all times have borne up the Pillars of it And it is per me by me saith God Prov. 8. that Kings reigne And per me by me is not onely by Gods ordination once set and then no more but by his preservation and his supportation too And as S. Augustine observes Quid essent ipsae columnae What could the Pillars themselves doe if they were not borne up by God But when it once comes to Ego confirmavi I beare up the Pillars there 's nothing then to be feared Now these of which we speake are not stony or insensible but living and understanding Pillars understanding therefore they feele Onus terrae the burden of the Earth which lyes upon them when the dull earth feeles not it selfe therefore as they feele so are they able to
mistake not upon the East and the Palace of Solomon upon the South side of the same Mountaine to shew that their servants and service must goe together too that no man might thinke himselfe the farther from God by serving the King nor the farther from the King by serving God The Kings power is Gods ordinance and the Kings command must be Gods glory and the honour of the Subject is obedience to both And therefore in the Law the same command that lay upon the people to come up illuc thither to Ierusalem the very same lay upon them to obey the Judges and the house of David illic when they came there To obey the Sanhedrim and the Judges Deut. 17. and both them and the King after the house of David was settled as in this place For then there was seated as divers of the Fathers and later divines observe both Authorities both of the Priests and of the King and his judges So the first lesson which the people doe or should learne by going up to the Temple is obedience to both spirituall and temporall Authority but especially to the house of David Well then illic there were the Seates or Thrones of judgement Of all things that are necessary for a State none runs so generally through it as justice and judgement Every part and member of a Kingdome needs it And 't is not possible Ierusalem should be long at unity in it selfe if justice and judgement doe not uphold it And 't is in vaine for any man whether he be in authority or under it to talke of Religion and Gods service to frequent the Temple if he doe not in the course of his life exercise and obey justice and judgement And this lesson Religion ever teacheth For it was the very end of Christs comming to redeeme us That we might serve him in holinesse and in righteousnesse S. Luk. 1. In holinesse toward God that 's first and then in righteousnesse and Justice towards men that 's next And they stand so that the one is made the proofe of the other Righteousnesse of Holinesse For he that doth but talke of Holinesse and doth unjustly therewhile is but an Hypocrite This for Justice the preservative of unity Now for the Seates of it They which are appointed to administer Justice and Judgemet to the people have Thrones or Chayres or Seâ—tes call them what you will the thing is the same out of which they give sentence upon Persons or Causes brought before them And they are signes of authority and power which the Iudges have And 't is not for nothing that they are called Seates For Judgement was ever given in publike sitting And there 's good reason for it For the soule and minde of man is not so settled when the Body is in motion For the Body moved moves the humours and the Humours moved move the affections and Affections moved are not the fittest to doe Justice and Judgement No Reason in a calme unmoved is fittest for that Now the Seates stand here both for the Seates themselves And so Sederunt Sedes is Active for Passive The Seates sate for The Seates are placed or for the Judges that sit in them or sederunt id est permanserunt for the perpetuity and fixing of the Seates of Justice The Seates must be in some reverence for the persons that sit in them The persons must have their Honour for the Office they perform in them And the Seates must be fixed and permanent that the people which are fallen into Controversie may know the illic and the ubi whither to come and finde Justice The words in my Text are plurall Seates of Iudgement And 't is observable For the exorbitances of men that quarrell others are such and so many that one Seat of Judgement onely was scarce ever sufficient for any State Seats they must be and they seldome want worke In the prime times of the Church Christians could not hold from going to Law one with another and that under unbeleevers 1 Cor. 6. To meet with this frailty of man God in this Common-wealth which himselfe ordered appointed not one but many Seates of judgement And therefore even the inferiour Seates howsoever as they are setled by the King and the State severally to fit the nature of the people in severall Kingdomes are of positive and Humane Institution yet as they are Seates of Judgement they have their foundation upon Divine Institution too since there is no power but of God Rom. 13. By these Seats of Justice and Judgement the Learned in all ages understand Iudiciary power and administration both Ecclesiasticall and Civill And they are right For the Sanhedrim of the Jewes their greatest Seat of Judgement under the King after they had that governement was a mixed Court of Priests and Judges Deut. 17. though other Kindomes since and upon reason enough have separated and distinguished the Seates of Ecclesiasticall and Civill Judicature Since this division of the Seats of Judgement there was a time when the Ecclesiasticall tooke too much upon them Too much indeede and lay heavy not onely upon ordinary Civill Courts but even upon the House of David and Throne of the King himselfe But God ever from the dayes of Lucifer gave pride a fall and pride of all sinnes least beseemes the Church May we not thinke that for that she fell But I pray remember 't was Fastus Romanus 't was Roman Pride that then infected this Church with many others The time is now come in this Kingdome that the Civill Courts are as much too strong for the Ecclesiasticall and may overlay them as hard if they will be so unchristian as to revenge But we hope they which sit in them will remember or at the least that the House of David will not forget That when God himselfe and he best knowes what he doth for the unity of Jerusalem erected Seates of judgement Hee was so farre from Ecclesiasticall Anarchie that he set the High-Priest very high in the Sanhedrim And Ecclesiasticall and Church Causes must have their triall and ending as well as others I know there are some that think the Church is not yet farre enough beside the Cushin that their Seates are too easie yet and too high too A Paritie they would have No Bishop No Governour but a Parochiall Consistory and that should be Lay enough too Well first this paritie was never left to the Church by Christ He left Apostles and Disciples under them No Paritie It was never in use with the Church since Christ No Church ever any where till this last age without a Bishop If it were in use it might perhaps governe some pettie City But make it common once and it can never keepe unitie in the Church of Christ And for their Seats being too high God knowes they are brought low even to contempt They were high in Jerusalem For all Divines agree that this in prime
should be meane where the Church which is Gods House is let lye so basely For he that hewed Timber afore out of the thicke Trees was known to bring it to an excellent worke but now they have beaten downe all the carved worke thereof with Axes and Hammers Psal 74. So that now I doubt we must vary the Prayer from Sit pax to Sint muri not presume to pray there may be peace and plenty within the Walls but that the very walls themselves may stand But yet I will doe the People right too For as many of them are guilty of inexcusable sinne both by cunning and by violent sacrilege so are too many of us Priests guilty of other as great sinnes as sacrilege can bee for which no doubt we and our possessions lye open to the waste It must needs be so For the hand of sacrilege it selfe though borne a Theefe could never touch Palatia Ecclesiae the Palaces of the Church as long as God kept the wall of it But while our sins make God out of Peace with the Walles while he is at Diruam I will breake the wall thereof Esay 5. it is in vaine to shift off by humane policies for the Palaces cannot stand Sixthly I may not omit that while the Prophet prayes here for the State and the Church and them that pray for both yet his expression is not Pro orantibus but Pro diligentibus not for them that pray for it but for them that love it Let them prosper that love it and wish it good So the prayer as Euthym observes did not comprehend the Jewes onely but as many of other nations too as were Diligentes lovers of Jerusalem And indeede these two to love and to pray for the State and the Church make one in my Text For no man can pray heartily for them but hee that loves them And no man that truly loves them can abstaine from praying for them and the peace of them This is certaine neither love nor prayer can stand with practising against either nor with spoile and rapine upon either Nor is Diligentibus te that love thee an idle or an empty specification in the prayer of the King For as Jerusalem had so hath every State and every Church some false members whose hearts are nearer the enemy than Jerusalem Therefore sit Pax sed diligentibus let there be peace but to them that love thee But if any man have a false heart to Jerusalem let him have no portion in the prosperitie of it Thus you see the Prophets care is for Jerusalem For this State and Church he would have you pray In this prayer he would have you beg for Peace That which he would have others doe he doth himselfe He prayes both for Ierusalem and for them that pray for it That which he also prayes for is peace and prosperity This peace he would have in the Walls and this prosperity in the Palaces From thence he knowes it will diffuse it selfe to meaner houses Yet it seems by the way that that ceremoniall Church had both Walls and Palaces And last of all that this Peace this Prosperity might be the reward onely Diligentium of such as love both State and Church And now there is a little behind For my Text is an Exhortation and preacheth it selfe Rogate Pacem pray for the Peace of Ierusalem Pray for it Why it seemes strange to me that any age should be weary of Peace or need an exhortation to pray for it either in Church or Common-wealth Yet the age in which David lived was such For though the instant time of the composure of this Psame was a time of Peace yet it was but a time picked out in an age that loved not Peace David tells us so himselfe a little before my Text Psal 120. My soule hath long dwelt among them that are enemies unto Peace I labour for Peace but when I speake unto them thereof thy make them ready to battel So there he speakes for peace And in my text he exhorts to pray for Peace And after that himselfe prayes for peace And all this is little enough among them that love not peace Howbeit take this with you They beare not the best mindes Cases of necessity and honourable safety alwayes excepted that desire the waters either of the Church or the Common-wealth should runne troubled that they may have the better fishing And the Historian sets his brand upon them Who are they whom peace cannot please Who Why Quibus pessima est immodica cupiditas They whose desires are worse than naught in their Object and void of all moderation in their pursute This I am sure of since David at the placing of the Arke exhorts all sorts of men Rogare pacem to pray for the peace of Ierusalem he did not intend to leave out the Priest whom it concernes most to preach peace to the people neither the High-Priest nor the rest but they should be most forward in this duty This for the Priesthood then And Christ himselfe when he sent out the Seventy to preach gave them in charge to begin at every house in which they entred with Peace Peace be to this house S. Luk. 10. And he that preacheth not peace or labours not for it must confesse one of these two Namely that he thinkes David was deceived while he calls to pray for peace Or that himselfe is disobedient to his call Calvin is of opinion that he which will order his prayers right must begin not with himselfe but at Dominus Ecclesiae corpus conservet That the Lord would preserve the Body of his Church It is just with the Prophet Peace for Ierusalem For if any man be so addicted to his private that he neglect the common State he is voyd of the sense of piety and wisheth Peace and happinesse to himselfe in vaine For whoever he be he must live in the Body of the Common-wealth and in the Body of the Church and if their joynts be out and in trouble how can he hope to live in Peace This is just as much as if the exterior parts of the body should think they might live healthfull though the stomack be full of sick and swoln humours To conclude then God hath blessed this State and Church with many happy yeers of Peace and plenty To have had peace without plenty had been but a secure possession of misery To have had plenty if it were possible without peace had been a most uncertaine possession of that which men call happinesse without enjoying it To have had both these without truth in Religion and the Churches peace had been to want the true use of both Now to be weary of peace especially peace in Truth is to slight God that hath given us the blessing And to abuse peace and plenty to Luxurie and other sins is to contemn the blessing it selfe And there is neither of these but will call apace for vengeance
My exhortation therefore shall keepe even with S. Pauls 1 Tim. 2. That prayers and supplications be made especially for Kings and for all that are in authority that under them we may live a quiet and a peaceable life in all godlinesse and honesty Here S. Paul would have you pray for the King And in my Text the King would have you pray for the State and the Church His peace cannot be without theirs And your peace cannot be without his Thus haveing made my Text my Circle I am gone round it and come backe to it and must therefore end in the poynt where I began Pray for the peace of Ierusalem Let them prosper that love it Peace be within the walls of it and prosperity within the Palaces That the Peace of God which passeth our understanding here may not leave us till it possesse us of eternall Peace And this Christ for his infinite Merit and Mercy sake grant unto us To whom with the Father and the holy Spirit be ascribed all Might Majesty and Dominion this day for evermore Amen SERM. II. Preached at White-hall on the 24. of March 1621. being the day of the beginning of His Majesties most gracious Reigne PSAL. 21. 6 7. For thou hast set him as Blessings for ever thou hast made him glad with the joy of thy countenance Because the King trusteth in the Lord and in the mercy of the most High he shall not miscarry MY Text begins where every good man should end that is in Blessing Not an Esau but he cryes when the Blessing is gone Gen. 27. This Psalm is a Thanksgiving for David for the King In Thanksgiving two Blessings One in which God blesseth us and for that we give thanks The other by which we blesse God For he that praiseth him and gives him thanks is said to blesse him Exod 18. Now we can no sooner meet blessing in the Text but we presently find two Authors of it God and the King For there is God Blessing the King and the King Blessing the people And a King is every way in the Text For David the King set the Psalme for the People and the People they sing the Psalme rejoycing for the King And all this is that the King may rejoyce in thy strength O Lord v. 1. And when this Psalme is sung in Harmonie between the King and the People then there is Blessing This Psalme was sung in Ierusalem But the Musicke of it is as good in the Church of Christ as in their Temple Nor did the spirit of Prophecie in David so fit this Psalme to him as that it should Honour none but himselfe No For in this the learned agree That the letter of the Psalme reads David that the Spirit of the Psalme eyes Christ that the Analogie in the Psalme is for every good King that makes David his example and Christ his God The Psalme in Generall is a Thankesgiving for the happy estate of the King In particular it is thought a fit Psalme to be recited when the King hath recovered health or when a gracious King begins his Reigne Because these times are Times of Blessing from the King And these are or ought to be times of Thankesgiving from the people My Text then is in part for the day For I hoped well it would have been Tempus restaurationis a time of perfect restoring for the Kings health and thankes were due for that And it is Dies creationis the Anniversary day of his Crowne and thankes is due for that And there is great reason if you will receive the Blessing that you give the Thankes The Text it self is a reason of that which is found v. 5. There it is said that God hath laid great dignitie and honour upon the King And here is the Meanes by which and the Reason why he hath laid it there So three parts will divide the Text and give us order in proceeding The first is the Meanes by which God layes honour upon the King Not honour onely which they all have as Kings but that great honour in his salvation which attends good and gracious Kings And the Meanes are two-fold in the Text Dando Laetificando By Giving and by Joying By giving the King as a Blessing to the people Thou hast given him or set him as Blessings for ever And by Joying the King for blessing the people Thou hast made him glad with the joy of thy Countenance The second is the Reason both of the Honour and of the Meanes of laying it upon the King And that is Quia sperat Because the King puts his trust in the Lord. The third is the Successe which his Honour shall have by his Hope That in the mercy of the most High he shall not be moved he shall not miscarrie I begin at the first The Meanes by which God adds Honour even to the Majesty of Princes And because that doubles in the Text I will take the first in order which is Dando Thou laist great Honour upon the King by giving or setting him as Blessings for ever In which Meanes of laying Honour the circumstances are three And the first of the three tels us what a King is and that 's worth the knowing And marke the Holy Ghost how he begins He describes not a King by any of his Humane infirmities such as all men have And no meane ones are registred of David the particular King spoken of No that had been the way to dishonour the King which is no part of Gods intention But hee begins at that which crownes the Crowne it selfe He is Benedictio a Blessing and no lesse to the people And therefore in all things and by all men is to be spoken of and used as a Blessing Now it is one thing for a King to bee blessed in himselfe and another thing to be given or set Vp as a Publike Blessing to other men David was both and he speakes of both A King then is a Blessing to or in himselfe as the Septuagint and Tremellius give the words Dedisti illi benedictiones Thou hast given blessings to him when by Gods grace he is Particeps sanctificationis Partaker of Gods hallowing Spirit For no man King or Subject can be blessed in his soule without Religion and Holinesse And if these be counterfeits such also is his Blessednesse But a King is given as a Blessing to others when in the riches of Gods grace upon him he is made Divinae Bonitatis fons medius A mediate fountaine of Gods goodnesse and bounty streaming to the people When he turnes the graces which God hath given him to the benefit of them which are committed to him For marke the Heavens and the Earth will learne God did not place the Sunne in the heavens only for heighth but that it might have power to Blesse the inferiour world with Beames and Light and Warmth and Motion David was thus and thus was Christ