Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n
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A65563
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Six sermons preached in Ireland in difficult times by Edward, Lord Bishop of Cork and Ross.
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Wettenhall, Edward, 1636-1713.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing W1521; ESTC R38253
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107,257
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296
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of all whom very briefly I shall present a Summulary or Abstract 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Supplications are generally understood such Prayers by which we deprecate Evils whence the word is anciently by St. Ambrose and St. Austin as well as by more modern Writers rendred Deprecations In plain terms we may conceive for our distincter understanding hereby meant such Prayers as now we style Litanies wherein we pray that God would deliver us from the several evils of Soul and Body And these are Impensior Oratio as St. Jerome glosses the word a more earnest kind of Prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Petitions or Prayers in a stricter sense of the name are such Addresses to God by which we ask that good things may be bestowed on us I judge hereby specially signified such Prayers as generally our Collects are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Intercessions or interposing with God for Interpellatio pro aliorum salute Theod Beza Cornel à Lapid c. the Safety of others seems very properly to denote such Prayers as have been ever since the primitive age used at the Communion for the whole Estate of Christs Church militant on Earth And then as to giving of Thanks whether for our own or others Mercies there can be no doubt of its plain certain difference from all the rest And not only the Te Deum other Hymns of the Church but in an especial manner the close of the forementioned Prayer blessing the Name of God for all his Saints which is a very ancient part of the Office of the Eucharist will properly suit thereto So that in short we find here the blessed Apostle prescribing or directing a kind of Liturgy in the Christian Church and that consisting of such parts and Offices as our present Service Book consists of And this he gives as the very first point in charge to Timothy To proceed Such Prayers as these must be made for all men This saith St. Chrysostome the Apostle begins with that his Injunction which follows For Kings and all that are in Authority might not be misjudged to proceed from slattery to them that were in power The Fathers conjecture is not to be contemned yet doubtless there was further reason for the Practice enjoyned it is but an agreeable product of the Christian Spirit or Temper Christianity both teaches and implants universal Charity We are to love all men and therefore to pray for all men For Kings and them that are in Authority The Greeks saith Grotius called the Roman Emperors Kings not regarding so much the name as the thing it self And then by proportion the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that are iâ— Authority will be the Presidents of the Provinces I acknowledge the note is learned and wholesom yet if we explain St. Paul out of St. Peter the Text will be more plain or the Words understood in a way more accommodate to the present forms of Government 1 Pet. ii 13 14. Submit your selves saith he to every Ordinance of Man whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as those that are sent by him By Kings we understand those who are supreme those who have within their Dominions the highest Authority under God and Christ independant on any other And such I conceive none here believe any one to be within these Kingdoms but His present Majesty James the second whom God preserve By Governours those who are commissionated by the Sovereign For both and all we are especially i. e. expresly by the Apostles command to supplicate in our publick Church Prayers There are more Heads might be insisted on from hence than I am willing to detain you with at present but of any two Propositions that I can pitch on deducible hence these following are most comprehensive of the whole 1. Prop. In the publick Service of the Church there ought to be Prayers Supplications Petitions and giving of Thanks for all men 2. Prop. In an especial manner such publick Prayers and that of all the kinds mentioned ought to be made for Kings and all subordinate Governours I will speak a few things briefly of the first as a good and proper foundation for it hath seemed such to the Holy Ghost in the Text as a proper foundation I say to the second We are in our publick Prayers to make Supplications Petitions and Thanksgivings for all men And I have already suggested the indefensible ground or foundation hereof Christianity teaches and induces universal Charity or Love to all men to Aliens and Enemies we know as well as to Fellow-natives and Friends I cannot therefore simply either approve or justifie that distinction which the parsimonious Charity of some applies here interpreting the All men in the Text meerly of the Genera singulâ—rum not the singuli Generum We are here commanded say they to pray for all sorts and degrees of men but not for all the men of each sort and degree there are many particular persons for whom we ought not to pray Obj. As to what they bring in proof hereof that the Apostle has given us a limitation 1 Joh. v. 16. There is a Sin unto Death I do not say that ye shall pray for it that is as appears by the Context for them who commit it I allow it Sol. to be true and God forbid but all men should allow it as such for 't is express Scripture but I assert it to be in the present state of the Church generally unapplicable as a rule of Practice For 1 What is a Sin unto Death pro hic nunc we know not I mean in this or that mans ordinary practice we are not able I am sure I have not met with that judicious person living who has dared to determine If God would be severe or but exactly just if as the Prophet speaks he should lay Judgment to the Line and Righteousness to the Plummet there is no Sin at all which would not be unto death but now that through Christ Jesus all who believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses Act. xxii 39. we know no Sins unpardonable that is unto Death but either 1. Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost which if we know what it is we cannot I think judge properly incident into the present age if we do not know though we should hear a man to commit it we could not be assured he in that sinned unto Death or 2. Such Sins which are an utter defeisance of the Covenant of Grace of which kind as far as I am able to see we know none but final Vnbelief and final Impenitence and till men are dead in their unbelief and impenitence we are not sure though we may strongly fear that God will not give them Faith and Repentance that is we are not sure their Unbelief or Impenitence will be final that is we know not that they have yet sinned unto Death Wherefore if they are so bad that we
whosoever does fear God will honour the King I begin with the first of these the Fear of God not only because it stands first in my Text but also because it is in order of Nature the truest and only sure foundation of the other All Duties towards men when sincerely payed must have their foundation in our Dutifulness towards God When our Lord had occasion to touch on the true and natural Order of Christian Duties he tells us this is the first and great Commandment Matth. xxii 37 38. that we love the Lord our God with all our Heart with all our Mind with all our Soul and with all our Strength And the second is That we love our Neighbour as our selves teaching us hereby that we can never love our Neighbour as we should do except first we most entirely love God The loving God with all our hearts can only sweeten and influence our Souls into an universal Charity And proportionably in the present case the Fear of God can alone implant in our hearts universal and invariable Loyalty And therefore I must confess I cannot see how vicious men can be true Loyalists Natural Love Education Interest Fear and other like causes may beget and nourish a short temporary and partial Allegiance The vilest men may be subject for Wrath but good men only will be subject as the Holy Ghost directs for Conscience sake And such Loyalty will be impartial indefectible and eternally cordial Briefly therefore in the first place of the Fear of God Now by the Fear of God we are to understand such a constant Sense or Aw of God of his Sovereign Dominion Power Omniscience and Justice as restrains us from Sin and quickens us to Duty The Fear of God therefore first supposâ—s most deeply rooted in our hearts a real Belief of his Being and a sober Knowledge of his Nature He who doubts whether there be a God or is either ignorant or dubious of the truth of his infinite Perfections can never have in his heart a true Fear of him For as that Fear presupposes I say such Understanding and Belief so secondly it consists in at least most proximately and immediately flows from or depends upon a constant actual or virtual Attention to what we thus understand and believe of him The thoughts of him and of these his Perfections are generally ever and anon recurring and by that means habitually fixed in the mind The Thoughts I mean 1. Of his Sovereign Dominion and Authority over all He alone is King of Nations Jerem. x. 7. supream and most absolute over all Peoples and Kingdoms and Languages and over each individual Man And therefore who shall not fear before thee O thou King of Nations for to thee it doth appertain forasmuch as amongst all the wise men of the Nations and in all their Kingdoms there is none like unto thee 2. Together herewith do the thoughts of his Omniscience or actually knowing all things possess the heart for begetting in it that Temper which we call the Fear of God Psalm cxxxix 2 3 4 6. Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine up-rising thou understandest my thoughts afar off thou compassest my path and my lying down and art neer unto all my ways For there is not a word in my tongue but lo O Lord thou knowest it altogether Such Knowledge is too wonderful for me it is high I cannot attain unto it In other words it is not possible for any of us so intimately to know our our selves as God knows us I cannot tell what I shall think or what I shall not think to morrow perhaps not an hour hence But God knoweth my thoughts while they are yet afar off He by one simple incomprehensible act sees all things persons and actions past present and to come And whereas the Heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked so that a man himself knows not all the Wickedness of his own heart The Lord searcheth the Hearts and tryeth the Reins of the Children of Men all their Counsels and Contrivances all their hidden acts of Malice or Concupiscence are open and bare to him And therefore who can but fear before him Especially considering what also is another ingredient or ground to the Fear of God 3. That this same Omniscient God is also most just and holy Most holy so as that he can no wise approve or allow Sin Habbak I. 13. Thou art of purer Eyes than to behold Evil and canst not look on Iniquity that is God most perfectly abhors it And therefore he will most certainly punish it where persisted in or not repented of Rom. II. 6 8 9. He will render to every man according to his deed to them that are contentious and do not obey the Truth but obey Vnrighteousness Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish upon every Soul of man that doeth evil Yea so severe is Gods hatred of Sin that sometimes when upon mens Repentance he forgives their sin as to the eternal punishments he yet in his Wisdom and Justice sees fit to inflict upon them here some temporary punishments Psalm xcix 8. Thou answerest them O Lord our God thou wast a God that forgavest them though thou tookest vengeance of their Inventions which whoso considers must certainly fear before this holy God Add hereto lastly the attending to or consideration of his infinite Might Power As he hath resolved and will bring every work into Judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil Eccles vii last so is he able to effect it No Malefactors can possibly fly from or escape this Judge he has Emissaries enough millions of Angels good and bad to fetch all in And all shall appear before the Judgement-seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done 2 Cor. v. 10. Let us now put all these together Admit a man believes and actually thinks there is a great and glorious Majesty unseen indeed but seeing all who is Lord of Heaven and Earth and all in them this God is most holy and most just both resolved and able to bring all things into Judgment even to the very imaginations of the thought of mens hearts must not there needs amount hence a most profound Aw and Dread of this great God And must not this Fear both restrain such in whose Breasts it is conceived from wicked practices and excite and awaken them to all well-doing Thus then we have most plainly heard what the Fear of God is and together how it is begotten in the heart what roots or foundation it has Now for the second Duty Honour the King Honour imports or signifies an inward Esteem and outward Respect paid to any by reason of the Excellency we apprehend in them Thus in the beginning of this verse Honour all men For some Excellency there is in all men that is in every man more than in any other Creatures we know The Image of God is