can pray for nothing else in their behalf yet may we most charitably pray that God would give them Faith and Repentance though they come in even in the end of the eleventh hour of the day There was indeed in the miraculous days a miraculous Gift of discerning of Spirits and I will not say but St. John and other like inspired persons might be able hereby to perceive what men sinned unto death and when how and in what acts But I think there is none but mad men will in the present age pretend to this Gift and then there will be no knowing who will sin unto death that is be finally incredulous or impenitent except God should reveal it to us Besides as just now intimated none can be said to be incredulous or impenitent finally that is to their end till their end that is till their death and we do not teach to pray for any persons longer Wherefore it remains except God should reveal to any of us that such and such particular persons were incorrigible and by him eternally rejected from all Grace and so by immediate Inspiration or voice from Heaven interdict us to pray for them I conceive in the present â—â—ate of the Church we stand bound in charity to pray for all men at least that God would give them repentance as long as they are in this life or on this side Hell be they never so wicked Further 2. If that Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost which our Lord has declared Matt. xii 31 32. shall not be forgiven unto men either in this world or that which is to come were as in all probability it was the Jews malicious ascribing those Miracles to Beelzebub the Prince of Devils which in their Consciences they were convinced he did by the power of the Holy Ghost then by reason of the Cessation of Miracles no man of the present age is capable of it and therefore is no man now upon supposition of this sin to be excluded from our Prayers In a word as the world goes I know not how there is any maintaining Charity or the true Christian Temper without strict observing the Apostles injunction in my Text. For allow this that we are not to pray for those who have sinned a sin unto death and withal that sins unto death are in the present age as certainly to be known as they are commonly committed there will be few men if they have but ill nature enough to maintain enmities whose Malice will not byass their Judgments to pronounce their Enemies to have sinned a sin unto death and so there will be no loving of Enemies or praying for them at least there will be a proper method to absolve us from the Obligation of that our Lords Command of loving our Enemies and blessing those that curse us so proper to the Religion by him instituted Wherefore by the way give me leave from hence to recommend unto you the Prudence Piety and Integrity of the first Reformers of our Church and consequently the Soundness of the Reformation it self The first thing the Apostle gives in charge here to Timothy in order to the settling the Church of Ephesus is the due constituting the publick Prayers The first part of the Reformation was the compiling the Liturgy of our Church and that almost in the very form we at present have it The primitive publick Prayers by the Apostolical Injunction in the Text were to consist of Supplications Petitions Intercessions and giving of Thanks And St. Chrysostome on the Text tells us in his time the practice of the Church was accordingly The Priests all know saith he how this is performed every day both morning and evening Our Liturgy does consist of Confessions Suffrages or Litanies of Collects of Prayers for the whole Church Hymns and Eucharistical Devotions parts perfectly conformable to what was then both enjoyned and practised And these according to the Apostle were to be made for all men and as Chrysostome tells us were actually so made We pray accordingly in our Litany That it please thee to have mercy upon all men Besides we have other Prayers for all sorts and conditions of men But especially for Kingâ— saith the Apostle and all that are in Authority And that these Prayers according to Order in our Liturgy are offered up morning and evening I need not tell you but as led hereby proceed to my main design Proposition II. Publick Prayers of the Church in all kinds are to be made for Kings and all in Authority Nothing can be more expresly said in terms than this is in the present Text. And it gives a very great emphasis to the Apostles Injunction and so makes our Obliâ—ation to the Duty much the stronger if we consider when this Epistle was writ or in what days the Apostle laid this Charge on Timothy namely in the first year of Nero's being Emperor of Rome according to Baronius in his third year say others all agree 't was under his Empire What Nero was for a Monster of a man as to all Villanies imaginable I need not speak nor will you easily think the Governours sent by him viz. the Prefects of the Army or Provinces were most of them much better than their Emperour And such a long time continued the Emperours and the other Powers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Chrysostome In loc expresses it ungodly men succeeding ungodly men so that Quot erant eo tempore magistratus tot Ecclesiae hostes atque Idolatriae As many Bez. in loc Magistrates as there were so many Enemies were there of the Church so many Idolaters and God knows vast multitudes more by their example Yet even for these did the Apostle injoyn constant Prayers daily to be made in the Church So that we must necessarily if we mind this circumstance apply hereto that of the Apostle St. Peter as to be subject to so to pray for not only the good and gentle but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the froward or perverse Yet let none by the way be so vile as to make here any misconstruction God be blessed we have no need to apply this Emphasis in our circumstances We have a King most Gracious who protects us in our Religion and has again and again promised so to do of which we have most publick and ample assurance However as long as there are such infernal Spirits in humane shape as are at this day many of the Scotch Covenanters who will not so much as say God save or God blâ—ss the King to save themselves from the Gallows it was not fit to omit this observation of the Date of this Epistle For hereby let the King have been what he could be to them they are convicted by our Apostles Doctrine to have renounced their Christianity in this case with their Allegiance and Duty to their King let them dye what they would they dyed no Christians It is not impossible there are others in the world who though to
Study Besides these great persons of the first rate it cannot be denied but that there were in both Vniversities even for 7 or 8 years before His Majesties happy Restauration some choice men of admirable parts and improvements who as they had wonderfully retrieved Learning there in all its parts kinds so when they came out after into the world soon advanced Preaching to that degree of perfection which I know not whether ever before it so universally attained I could name many of them some now dead others still living but possibly it is yet too early however I must say of the Sermons of these men though for the present nameless what I did of theirs of the former rank I do not believe but they will ever be valued by all persons who have either a sense of Religion or tincture of Learning as long as the world stands But these great and admirable precedents had not been during the rage of the Rebellion and Schism nor at the expiration of it were they of force or prevalence sufficient to keep out a third sort of faulty or unprofitaâ—le Preaching which begun to creep in preâ—ently upon his Majesties Restauration For as it usualy comes to pass that from one extream men run into another so about that time the whole Order almost of such who were then as I may call them Inceptors in Preaching hearing the common Systems by judicious persons decried and not unjustly for that thereby all other Divinity in a manner save only a few modern Commentaries or Controversies of the times was justled out of doors and being by politer Studies prejudiced against both those unsavory strains of Preaching before mentioned these young Gentlemen made up pretty little moral Discourses I wish I could justly give that character to all the Essays I have heard read of such mens sometimes there 's too much indiscreet invection too much puerility or boyish imitation to deserve the name made up I say Discourses with little or no Divinity but all the flashes of Wit and flowers of Rhetorick they could in them or if a Text of Scripture now and then by chance came in it was rather by way of allusion mistaken in its superficial sense than masterly applied according to its true intent and purport which barrenness of fit matter hence came to pass They having not read the Ancients and digested Christian Doctrine as delivered by them a business that requires long time and a large measure of preliminary Learning to qualifie a man for it and having learnt to defie and scoff at without distinction all systematical Divinity it is plain they could have no Divinity but what they had confusedly and at random chanced to take in by the by in the course of their Education This poor pittance they drest up in choice words gay allusions and what other trimming their knowledge in History their reading in Classick Authors and the course of Philosophy they had gone through would furnish them with and a little above half an hours Discourse of this nature they called a Sermon Hereof also a multitude have sated the world and I wish we did not hear too many of them to this day from the Pulpit Of the florid Preachers a second sort there was and still is more judicious persons men well studied in Arts Sciences and all Humanity it were to be wished equally skilled in Divinity who yet labouring undeâ— the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the former immoderately affect a neat and correct Style and generally cannot descend to speak plain and easie Truths or Practicals seem to study that their Discourses may only hang in the ears and fancies of their Hearers not at all touch their hearts as if to deal with Conscience and work in men a sense of Sin or of Duty and concerns for their future estate belonged only to Enthusiasts and Fanaticks I must confess I am ignorant what good either of these kinds of Sermons I mean the Flanting and Romantick or the spruce and curious do either from the Pulpit or Press and I could instance in a great deal of evil they do especially from the former for the later it may be they only clog The Poet design'd Et prodesse delectare but these kind of artificious Preachers forget usually the former which is the chief and worthier part and their best Sermons are too commonly but pretty sacred divertisements I will not say laborious toys Versus inopes rerum nugaeque canorae Generally there is no one thing of moment driven on no main point of Christian Doctrine or Practice opened proved or perswaded through the whole Discourse I will be bound to produce some such Sermons as these every line of which a man shall read over with singular delight and I will forfeit a good wager that at the end an ordinary judicious and attentive Reader shall not be able to repeat any one entire Sentence or give an account of any substantial point he has learnt So that one would truly wonder how such learned men should be able to speak so long so curiously and so seemingly all to the purpose and yet in the end to no purpose at all 'T is but Read my Riddle what 's that some neat expressions or pretty flights of fancy may stick for an hour or day or two but no man's a jot wiser or better for all that 's said These and some other too commonly pleasing evils of which God blessing me I will some time or other speak more largely and as far as I can more perspicuously and elenchtically for many Preachers need it I will not say I was never guilty of myself at least not of some of them and in some Sermons but I can say I have long studied and endeavoured conscienciously to avoid and now perhaps through study particularly of plainness may be not unjustly thought to have run into a contrary extreme that of a poor jejune and trivial way yet I have the great Apostles practice herein to plead in the behalf of what I have endeavoured 1 Cor. xiv 19. In the Church I had rather speak five words with my understanding that is with being understood that I might teach others thâ—n ten thousand words in an unknown tongue and an artificial florid or affectedly lofty stile is to the common people ever such be it in what language it shall I may without vanity say in each of these Sermons there is substance there is at least some one necessary or profitable design carried on how far attained or perfected I leave the Reader to judge And as to Style though all be humble enough yet nothing I hope so sordidly plain as to be nauseous or unsavory Some people may be pleased to think I could have raised the Character of Speech if I had pleased but in such case I should have thought my self thereby the more unprofitable However whether I could or whether I could not it signifies not a farthing as to doing service in the Church
with us the God of Jacob is our Refuge Selah THere is nothing that could have mitigated or rendred so much as tolerable that Grief which we had conceived and with which we are still affected for the Loss of our late Most Gracious Sovereign but thâ— quiet and peaceable Succession of his Brother our present Sovereign to the Crown We cannot indeed but still retain a tender sense of so great a Loss and whether we will or no intermix Sighs with our Acclamations and drop Tears amidst our Joys There appears most evidently do what we can a strange conflict of Affections in the most of us not unlike to that which was in those Priests and Levites when the Foundations of the new Temple were laying some remembring the first Temple wept with a loud voice and others shouted for joy that they were now founding a second so that the noise of the shout of joy could scarce be discerned from the noise of them that wept Ezr. iii. 12 13. We may not dissemble it some such odd disorders we are in Yet when we consider that notwithstanding all our fears and others malice James the Second the Dear and Faithful Brother of Charles the Second of blessed memory the Son of Charles the First that glorious Martyr for his Religion and the Laws the Grandson of the great and happy King James the First in whom the three Crowns were happily united â—as succeeded and that without any Stir Tumults or Blood-shed but with the â—reatest Peace and Ease imaginable unto â—he Throne of his Royal Father and may we long hold it so may these days of â—eace long continue to Him and us when â—e consider this I say we ought to cheer â—ur selves and endeavour the tempeâ—ating our Griefs and composing our Minds Further when we add to the former â—onsideration that his present Majesty has â—raciously declared to the world and given â—is Royal Word that he will govern according â—o the Laws established that He will mainâ—ain our Religion and the Government of Church and State as they now stand that he â—ill imitate his blessed Brother and most espeâ—ially in his great Clemency and Tenderness to â—is People and that as he hath often hereâ—ofore ventur'd his Life in Defence of the Naâ—ion so he will still do his utmost to â—reâ—erve us in our just Rights and Libeâ—ties of all which we have this day a full and publick assurance When we add this I â—ay we ought to banish Grief from our hearts in our Souls to rejoyce to fall down before God and bless him concluding we have Charles the Second still after a sort alive and entire in Jameâ—â—he Second whom God long preserve Yet because it is impossible on a suddain to rid the world of Fears Jealousies and the like uneasie Affections because also there are to be found abroad though I hope not amongst us many unquiet and tumultuous Spirits who delight in Troubles and would fain be embroyling all again because also what I have said may not haply be by all believed or my self be deemed too credulous it may not be amiss or unseasonable to entertain you upon occasion of this Solemnity with some thoughts on this calming passage of the Royal Psalmist Be still and know that I am God I will be exalted amongst the Heathen I will be exalted in the Earth In what particular Crisis of the Jewish affairs or on what occasion this Psalm was first penned I have not found any so bold as peremptorily to ascertain By the Inscription of it it is directed to the Sons of Corah those famous Masters of Musick when the Jewish Choir was in its most slourishing state and so probably composed about Solomons Succession to the Throne Sure it is by its Contents its true date must be in very perillous or esse in tumultuous times Such Days and Affairs all those high expressions in it do most certainly import and the Affections that the holy Penman professes bespeak no less ver 1 2 3. God is our Refuge and Strength sings he a very present help in time of trouble Therefore will we not fear though the Earth be moved and though the Mountains be cast into the midst of the Sea Though the Waters thereof roar and be troubled though the Mountains shake with the swelling thereof The removing of the Earth the roaring of Sea and Waters the shaking of the Mountains and their being thrown into the midst of the Sea are all but lofty Poetical ways of speaking design'd to express great Commotions in the State the unsettling or removing Foundations of Government All which when he had thus nobly sung he falls not in the other part but sweetly proceeds There is a River the streams whereof make glad the City of our God the holy places of the Tabernacles of the most High Jerusalem had not the advantage of any such mighty River as are those which have made great and wealthy divers Cities But there was the Brook Kidron which as 't is described above Jerusalem Eastward imparted a clear and gentle Stream for the watering of the lower City And there were besides the Waters of Siloah which augmented by a small Stream from the Fountain Gihon passed softly Isai viii 6. into Sion and in a manner close up to the foot of the Temple To which soever of these two our Royal Poet alludes either of them aptly resembles those secret and soft Refreshments which at all times relieve and bear up the Spirits of the true Israel They have not ever perhaps an irresistible Torrent of all the worldly Power Security and Interests that some could wish running strongly for them but in their most forlorn circumstances that their enemies can imagine them in they have easie secret and spiritual Comforts in a way of humble affiance in God and committing themselves and their affairs to his Gracious Conduct And sometimes when God thinks good in his Providence to appear for them more visibly as he has of old and more lately in a glorious sort for our establish'd Church the Emanations of his Power Wisdom and Goodness are in no cases more conspicuous than in their Protection God is in the midst of her she shall not be removed God shall help her and that right early ver 5. This he avows and that more loftily than any thing hitherto if possible This I say he avows v. 6. ever has does and will appear maugre all the Rage of some and the Combinations of other Enemies Let the Heathen rage and the Kingdoms be moved 't is but Gods uttering his Voice and the Earth melts away And now why should his Church at any time droop in Spirit or be dejected This Lord of Hosts is with us this God of Jacob is our Refuge to which he puts a Selah that is sing this Strain in your highest and fullest Musick Let the Earth ring of it And having thus far proceeded our sacred Authors Breast was now full enough of God to publish a kind of
us â—eyond Charity and Justice The hand of God we are sure is in all and that alone â—et us eye and pay thereto this first sort of Quiet the Quiet of Patience In your Paâ—ience possess your Souls Luk. xxi 19. And secondly there is yet a nobler deâ—ree of Quiet which also becomes us the Quiet of Faith and good Hope in opposition â—o a base Abjectness of Mind and Desponâ—ency Psal xxxvii 5. Commit thy way unâ—o the Lord trust in him and he shall bring â—â— to pass what thou dost justly desire There can no case so disasterous or despeâ—ate befall good men in which they ought â—o let go their Confidence in God Psal â—xii 8. Trust in him at all times O ye people â—our out your Hearts before him God is a Reâ—uge Let us first assure our Hearts before God of our honest and upright designs in â—ll things and then we ought to hold fast â—ur Confidence yes and even a Rejoycing â—f hope to the end Heb. iii. 6. and again chap. x. 35. Cast not away let not go your Confidence which hath great recompence of Reward Give me leave here to demand what reason have we not to hope well â— What almost colour have we for ouâ— Despondencies If we look up to God wâ— know that all things shall work together foâ— good to those who love him Rom. viii 28 If we look to our King I have already told you the blessed tidings which with as greaâ— assurance as can be this day has broughâ— us Truly I know nothing which should possess us with any fears of such impending Dangers as many imagine but only the publick Sins As to these let every one honestly reform his share thereof and theâ— let us trust God and believe our King and he of good heart Be still with a Quiet of Faith and there may yet be expected an happy course of things both in Church and State My Brethren the case is not with us as it seems to have been with the Faithful in this Psalm The Earth is not removed nor the Mountains carried into the midst of the Sea the Concussions are not so great as might have been feared and in all appearance will not be such And yet even in such case hear the Church in the words of the blessed Psalmist God is our Refuge and Strength our present help in the time of trouble Therefore will we not fear though the Earth be removed and the Mountains carried into the midst of the Sea Observe â—hough it were so or though it should be â—â— yet ought not the shaking of the worlds â—oundation to shake our Faith And it is till the more reasonable to press and â—aintain this the Quiet of Faith for that â—ertainly nothing can more operate to our Destruction than unreasonable fears and â—he hurries and extravagancies that they will put us into They will provoke God â—hey may provoke our King they will inâ—ect the Minds of many who haply are â—et stable and loyal and they will most â—isorderly influence the Actions of all Be â—ill therefore in Faith and good Hope Lastly the other part of holy Quiet lies â—n the exercise of Sobriety that we all of â—s observe Order keep each of us within his â—wn sphere enterfere not with one another â—r exceed not the bounds of our Calâ—ing It is a great evil of late that all sorts â—f men are stangely commenced Politiciâ—ns scarce a Farmer scarce a Foreman â—f a Ship but he can censure or dictate â—o the Government Certainly my Breâ—hren if we will think soberly of our â—elves we are not all of us Statesmen nay â—e are few of us fit to be such Let us â—herefore be content to be governed by â—hoâ—e that are wiser than our selves and each man keep to his own business Let Magistrates be vigilant in the Administration of Justice and restraining all that they find inclining to Turbulency Let Ministers each in their place be watchful over the Flock and if they observe a Sheep straying seek after and reduce it before it be lost We must above all men both by Precept and Practice put forwards an universal soberness of Order as well as of good Conversation And let the People in their several Orders mind their own Concerns whether of Trade or of whatever other kind Let no one be a Busiebody or Intermedler in other menâ— matters and above all not in State-Affairs I have heard by them that have been in Battles that if a Body can be but disordered and huddled they are presently routed they then destroy one another I am sure Confusion and mens disorderly going out of or beyond their places has a very fatal consequence in all other Societies of men and carries with it not only Destruction generally but a great deal of Guilt For where there is Confusion there is also every evil work Jam. iii. 16. In a word let those who are to govern govern and those who are to obey which I conceive is the part of most of us obey and the World may be still in quiet There is one kind of Soberness which I cannot forbear to touch on not yet suggested and that is Soberness in Talk and Language If any of us still will nourish Fears let us keep them to our selves and be giddy alone Let us not infect and disturb others I will suppose I need not much press this For a man would think some late practices amongst our Neighbours if not yet amongst us may have taught this part of the world Wit enough to be easily perswaded to regulate their Talk or hold their Tongue Thus far then of this excellent Duty so necessary at such seasons as this when mens Imaginations are so up an holy Quiet much becomes us and will be very serviceable to us which is as you have heard made up of Patience Faith and Soberness Now to perswade hereto The first Argument in the Text is Gods general Providence Know saith the Lord that I am God In other terms God rules the World A Sense of this one should think would easily quiet the most imbroiled or imbroiling Spirits There have been now of old a Sect of Wise men as they would be thought in the world who have conceived it to be too servile an impolyment and too much discomposive of that Serenity and eternal Peace which the Divine Nature must be conceived to be possest of for God to interpose himself in the Government or Managery of mundane affairs but these have ever been branded and that most justly by all truly wise men with the imputation of Atheism For it is the same thing as to all power and effect of Religion to deny God and to deny Providence For if God heeds not me nor concerns himself about me why should I consecrate and resign my self and all my concerns to him which is the primary and most essential act of all true Religion No no my Brethren both our Reason and Christianity will teach us better things
being also we cannot believe he will be true to himself we ought to conclude he will gain Glory to himself even by those very things by which we may foolishly imagine he forfeits or hazards his Glory Wherefore if we will not be most unreasonable we must be patient Again this Consideration also enforces particularly the Quiet of Faith If the Almighty and the Alwise has resolved that he will be exalted amongst the Heathen and in all the Earth too you may easily be confident he will be so A little Faith one should think should suffice men to believe God will be true to his own concerns that is to his Glory Truth and Church And lastly This no less enforces the Quiet of Sobriety For what greater madness can there be conceived when we prosess to believe God thus resolved and intent on his business and to have put all things into the wisest and best order than for us to interpose and disturb this Order And yet every man does disturb that Order who makes a step out of his Calling that is out of the Order Place and Degree God has put him into Wherefore seeing God not only governs the World in general but particularly directs all to the exalting of his own Glory if the Glory of God be dear to us as we profess it is and if we believe that God is God let us be quiet with a Quiet both of Patience Faith and Sobriety The third and last Argument in the Text perswading still the same Duty is Gods Presence Patronage and everlasting Constancy to his Church celebrated here by the Psalmist in the name of the Church for in the last verse he brings in the Church speaking thus The Lord of Hosts is with us the God of Jacob is our Refuge And it it is observable this is the great Chorus in this most glorious and lofty Anthem It in a sort began the Psalm God is our Refuge ver 1. but word for word we have in ver 7. and it closes all in the Text. Indeed the Consideration of Gods Presence with and Protection of his Church cannot be to much thought of nor too often sung by the Faithful The Lord of Hosts is with us the God of Jacob is our Refuge Oh! how sweet is it both to Ear and Heart He is with us not only as God but as the Lord of Hosts And should Hosts fail he is with us as a Refuge too and as may be supplyed from another place as our Portion and exceeding great Reward When poor Croesus not long before as much a prodigy of Wealth as then of Misery was led captive in Chains at the Command of his Conqueror Cyrus into whose hands he had fallen by the Fraud of Apollo otherwise to be called the Devil of Delphos whom alone above all their Deities he had honoured with Gifts he requested of his Conquerour one small Boon before his Execution which he instantly expected namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that sending those Chains then as a Present he might ask that Grecian God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whether it were his Vsage to put Cheats upon Benefactors his Worshippers This was a Reproach indeed most justly due to the Father of Lyes But the Worshippers of the God of the God of Jacob can never lay such Imputation upon him Our Fathers trusted in thee they trusted and thou didst deliver them They cryed unto thee and were delivered they trusted in thee and were not confounded For thou art holy O thou that inhabitest the Praises of Israel Psal 3 4 5. And he the same God hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Wherefore let this Consideration also induce such Stillness and holy Quiet as has now several times been prest Particularly again this Consideration also most reasonably may induce the Quiet of Patience For whose Will ought we to pay more absolute Deference to than to the Will of our most faithful Protector our sure Refuge and eternal Portion The Quiet of Faith For who fitter to be relyed upon than he who never deceived a cordial Confident And the Quiet of Sobriety For if by exceeding our Calling or going out of our place we come into misery it is not so much God that has brought it upon us as we that have run our selves into it We might have been safe if we had kept within the Boundaries God set us I have now done with my Text at least in the Acceptation or Reference I chose to take it in I know not what remains except any should expect that I should touch upon it in that other Reference I said it might admit namely as applicable to the Enemies of the Church For to them also God may be conceived with great reason here to speak Be you still and know that I am God And there are not a few were they within hearing that have need of thi◠Lesson such I mean who have long hoped for and otherwise as well as in their mad Carouses prayed for the Confusion of our Church and Religion that is I may say it without the least Arrogancy or Prevarication the most loyal Church and Religion in the World that I mean by Law establisht God forgive them and in these hopes God deceive them In the mean while let them know the Lord is God And as we have made it our business to consider and study our Duty so by Gods Grace we will perform it We will be still that is patient and hopeful sober and loyal and we do not doubt but the Lord of Hosts will be with us and the God of Jacob will be still our Refuge We can with the assurance of good Conscience take up the words of that holy King Ahijah animating himself and his People in a more difficult condition than God be blessed ours is or we hope is like to be 2 Chr. xiii 10. As for us the Lord is our God and we have not forsaken him We have retained and do retain his Faith and Worship pure as once delivered to the Saints We have endeavoured and in humble sincerity we can say we do endeavour to perform the Conditions of his promised Presence and Protection and so long we depend upon his Promises Nor do we list to reflect upon our Adversaries Practices though we could Further besides our Gods Promises we have our Kings Promises too for the support of our Minds and some men must pardon us if we give a thousand times more credit to His Majesties Royal Word than to their airy Hopes or ventose Bravadoes We do not believe His Majesty will esteem their vain Insultings over their fellow Subjects any part of Loyalty or Service to him His Majesty has God be blessed amongst his very Enemies the character of a wise Prince and of a magnanimous Prince and there is nothing farther off from such Temper than to approve Insolencies Wherefore let as many of the Adversaries of our Church of all sorts as hear me this day take the Text as
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
save not only their Lives but their Estates they will and do pray for the King yet do it not either out of good Affection or Conscience of their Christian Duty Wherefore give me leave here besides the meer Evidence of the Text to add some other that the Duty we hence learn may appear to be of no such indifferent or inferiour rank as that men may omit or forbear it with a Salvo to their Integrity and good Conscience And though I know my Audience too well to judge them of this kind yet will not this be an unprofitable labour for certainly none of us can have too deep or quick a sense of any point of our Christian Duty Now in the entrance on this Evidence I will say in general we have all the Obligation to this Duty that we can have to any Duty in the World Besides the Obligation from human Laws which I will not yet touch on we have all obligation I can conceive possible 1. From Scripture and our common Christianity And 2. From Reason and Prudence And 3. From Equity and good Nature From Scripture or common Christianity The sum of the Obligations we can have thence can well amount no higher than express Commands and them urged with the greatest instance and constant Practice or Example As to Command Nothing can be as already said more express nothing more emphatical than the Text of which one thing remains that I have not yet noted namely how the Apostle in the progress of his Discourse presses this Practice with sundry Arguments and the greatest earnestness That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and Honesty ver 2. Here he presses it from the Fruits of this Practice This good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour ver 3. Here from the Will of God who would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the Truth ver 4. Here from the Divine Nature or Philanthropy and Goodness of God which we ought to imitate and ver 8. he concludes the Subject I will therefore that men pray every where namely in the kinds and ways before directed Again I say nothing can easily be more emphatical But we may look much further back Eccles. x. 20. Curse not the King no not in thine heart If negative Precepts as Divines tell us include the opposite affirmative this will be a Command to pray for Kings in our Souls as well as in our words and in secret as well as in our Churches However 't is well worthy our notice what sense the Jewish Doctors had of this Precept who tell us generally that throughout their whole Law Thoughts are no were forbidden nor can Sin be committed by them meerly except in the present case and in that other of worshipping false Gods And pursuant hereto which is very wonderful was their general practice yea even towards the Heathen Emperors When they chose all of the rather to dye than place Caius's Statue in their Temple they at the same time professed that they daily offered Sacrifice to the true God in their Temple for him Joseph de Bello Judaic lib. 2. c. 9. On such Practice now a long time received in the Jewish Church before Christ was it that the Apostles here so earnestly gives this in charge to Timothy We have seen thus the Christian Law oâ— Command and the ancient occasion therâ—of Now as to Christian Example There can be no doubt but that the Apostles Practice was agreeable to their own Doctrine And as for the succeeding ages of the Christian Church one passage of Chrysostom has been produced already and to wave that multitude of other Testimonies and some of the very Forms of Prayer which might be produced in this case we will content our selves with that known and most full one of undoubted authority in Tertullian who wrote about 200 years after Christ Thither that is to Heaven saith he we Christians looking up with hands or arms stretched open because innocent with heads and faces uncovered because we blush not without any instigator because from our hearts we pray for all Emperors beseeching to them a long Life a secure Reign a safe Family valiant Armies a faithful Senate a loyal Commonalty and a peaceable World and whatsoever are the wishes of men or of the Cesars themselves This was he able then most truly to plead in apology for Christianity and at that time and for above an hundred years after such a thing as a Christian King was not known When the Emperors became Christian you cannot but conclude it was much more so In sum then as to Obligation from Scripture and the common Chistianity if either express or importunate Command or constant Practice of the Christian Church which is the sum of what Obligations we can have thence will make it an indispensible Duty to pray for Kings we have both Now as to Obligations from Reason and Prudence perhaps that of our own Interest the Benefit which hence amounts to the publick and so to all private persons of whom the publick body is made up may be looked upon as the most effectual reason or best prudential ground assignable Interest commonly fails not to more let it then prevail here Let it therefore be considered 1. Kings and Governours are the Safeguard of the People the great Security of the publick Weal The Scripture expresly calls the Rulers of a Nation its Shields in Hos iv 18. We indeed in our Translation have the word Rulers there but in the original Hebrew it is the Shields which Text most naturally explains Psal xlvii 10. The Shields of the Earth belong unto the Lord that is the Kings of the Earth who are its Shields are Gods Subjects and peculiar right which is most plain by the foregoing verses ver 7. God is King over all the Earth Then he divides Earth into the Heathen and Jews ver 8. God reigneth over the Heathen ver 9. The Princes of the people are gathered together even of the peâ—ple of the God of Abraham Finally in the tenth verse he conjoyns or puts all together again The Shields of the Earth belong unto God he is greâ—tly exalted namely he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords Nor will any doubt the truth of this Scripture assertion or justice of the phrase who shall but think with himself what a forlorn helpless despicable thing the most populous Nation is without an Head In 1 Sam xi we have a Story which will fully illustrate this matter ver 2. Nahush the King of the Ammonites offers these insolent Conditions to the Israelites upon which he will accept them for his Servants On this Condition will I make a Covenant with you that I may thrust out all your right Eyes and lay it as a Reproach upon Israel And what said all the mighty men of Israel to this All the people lift up their voice and wept ver 4 All the people were not a few
preached only in the place and on the time and occasion mentioned The Specialties of its Design may not perhaps be fully understood either by its Title or by the Text And therefore I thought fit to premonish that I aimed herein peculiarly at these Two Points First to conciliate the most I could to our present Sovereign in particular the good Opinion and hearty Affections of all sorts of People And next more generally to make them in love with and zealous for the Constitution or Frame of our Government It will easily be perceived how these are concerned through the several parts of the Discourse Nor have I been guilty in any thing I have said to either of these purposes of the least Prevarication or Discession from my own Thoughts for I really believe both His Sacred Majesty and the Constitution deserve much more than so shallow a person as my self can comprehend or say of either Only I could wish and I do most passionately exhort that one thing which I have here supposed and pleaded as an Argument of our Happiness might daily take more effect namely that His Majesties most exemplary Royal Virtues of strict Temperance Consideration Prudence and universal Seriousness may be closely imitated by all who presume to stile themselves his Friends For it is plain by one part of this Discourse that much both of His Majestys and his Peoples Blessedness depend hereupon and therefore let none think or calumniate that I promise or pretend to prove publick Prosperity on other Terms For publick Dissoluteness and a truly prosperous state of things are most incompatible The Good God increase amongst us the Virtues I have commended and multiply on us their Fruits and Consequents REX REGIVS Kings succeeding in a right Line a National Blessing Proved in a SERMON preached in Christ church at Cork Octob. 14. 1685. being His Majesties Birth-day The TEXT Eccles X. 17. Blessed art thou O Land when thy King is the Son of Nobles and thy Princes eat in due season for Strength and not for Drunkenness THe great Designs of our being assembled here this day I will presume are or ought to be chiefly these two First To pay God our more solemn Thanksgivings for our Gracious King and the Blessings we enjoy under his happy Reign And Secondly Together to possess both our own and others minds as universally as we can with deeper Impressions of our Duty to our King and fresh Resolutions of Loyal Adhesion Now these things being designed by us upon his Birth-day as this is whatever Advantages his Descent Family or Extraction which certainly have operated more to our Happiness than most are aware of may be conceived to add either to the quickening our Gratitude or fixing in us a more lasting sense of our Obligations and Duty ought not on this Solemnity in all reason to be omitted or to pass unconsidered The Text very pertinently suits with our designs and especially in that it asserts and celebrates as most conducive to the publick Good such peculiar circumstances and qualifications as God be blessed are most eminent and exemplary in our present Sovereign Blessed art thou O Land when thy King iâ— the Son of Nobles and thy Princes eat in dâ—â— season for Strength and not for Drunkerness King Solomon the Author hereof waâ— as much a Prince as a Philosopher as deeply insighted into Political Affairs as into Natural or Moral Sciences And we have many Proofs hereof in several Paragraphs or little Discourses of Political concernment in this Book This out of which the Text is taken is one but very short consisting only of two Aphorisms and those containing matter of his Observations or his Sense in brief touching the different Estate of Kingdoms according to the different Qualifications or Circumstances of their Princes Wo to thee O Land when thy King is a Child and thy Princes eat in the morning ver 16. The word Child here must not be taken strictly for an Infant but as both the Original signifies and the Septuagint have rendred it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a young person And it is in Scripture applied 1. To Age so as to signifie a young person 2. Because young persons used to be imployed in Attendance and Services to Condition and thus the young men in Scripture language very often 1 Sam. ii 13. 2 Sam. ii 14. c. is as much as the Servants or Attendants Or 3. To Vnderstanding in which regard King Rehoboam though then above one and forty years was said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 young and tender-hearted 2 Chron. xiii 7. All which acceptations are necessary here to be noted that the opposite hereof the Son of Nobles in the Text may be better understood Of Eating in the Morning c. we shall touch by and by In the mean while the sum of this his first Observation is That it is generally a great unhappiness for a Nation to have either a young ignoble shallow or voluptuous Prince God be blessed our Kings vilest Enemies can affix none of these to him But contrarily Blessed art thou O Land when thy King is the Son of Nobles and thy Princes eat in due season for Strength and not for Drunkenness That term the Son of Nobles is capable of a double sense Strictly and literally taken it signifies only a Person of Noble Extraction or descended from a Noble Family But taken according to the Hebrew Idiom as we say the Sons of Men that is Men so the Son of Nobles will be a Person of a noble Spirit generous great and brave Nothing hinders but we may understand the term both ways And in the Interpretation of Scriptures where several senses are probable and wholesome it is as one calls it a piece of spiritual Frugality to take both or even all It is indeed an holy making the most of Scripture And if we regard what was said before in the Explication of the word Child in the former verse that it signifies not only what we commonly mean by the name a person of few years but also either one of a mean or servile condition or even of a weak and mean Soul the Opposition which must be admitted between these two branches Wo be to thee O Land when thy King is a Child and Blessed be thou O Land when thy King is the Son of Nobles will enforce us to take this term in both the senses mentioned Then as to what may see dubious or obscure in the latter clause of the Text Eating in due season for Strength and not for Drunkenness seems at first only a description of temperate Diet. Eating in due season is opposed to Eating in the morning The morning is no season for men to set themselves to Eating but first for Devotion then for Business Eating for Strength and not for Drunkenness determines both the Quantity and Quality of our Food For it is plain men may make themselves drunk with a small measure of some kind of Liquors as