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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30429	A sermon preached at the coronation of William III and Mary II, King and Queen of England, ---- France, and Ireland, defenders of the faith in the Abby-Church of Westminster, April 11, 1689 / by Gilbert Lord Bishop of Salisbury.	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1689 (1689)	Wing B5888; ESTC R19766	13,247	38

a great happiness when Rulers seem to have Justice so deeply rooted in their natures that every act of Injustice is as a Violence done them yet unless there is a more lasting Principle formed in them their Noble and Vertuous Inclinations will be so often crossed by prevailing Interests and they will find themselves so often beset with corrupt Men who court forbidden Gain and love the wages of unrighteousness that it will not be possible for them to maintain their Integrity if they have not a Principle within them of such force that it bears all things down before it and that is the fear of God This will possess their minds with a secret awe of that Supreme Being which sees all things and discovers even the hidden things of dishonesty This will accustom Princes to consider that how much soever they may be raised above their Subjects yet they are as nothing before that God who as he set them up by his Providence so he can pull them down at his pleasure Psal. 107. 4. He poureth contempt upon Princes and when he blasts the Counsels and intends to defeat the Designs of the Greatest and Loftiest Monarchs how easily do Crowns fall and Thrones shake This fear of God will make Princes often remember Psal. 82. 6 7. even in the Pride of all their Glory that though then they look like Gods yet they must die like Men this Prospect will make them think sometimes on the melancholy Reflections which the approaches of Death will probably raise within them if they at any time for the encrease of their Treasure or their Power or for any ambitious or ill Design have perverted Judgment or denied Justice if they have shed Innocent Blood or shut their Ears against the Cries of the Miserable The remembrance of these things will then raise Agonies in their Minds which they will not be able to soften by any of all those Diversions with which they entertained themselves in their Health and flourishing Condition The Violences that they have committed and the Blood which they have shed will then stick too close to their Thoughts to be easily shaken off by them Or if they could be so charmed with the sweetness of Empire that it should make them deaf to all Clamours in this World yet as soon as their Souls pass out of their Bodies they must leave their Crowns and all their Glory behind them and go into a state where all the Distinctions that now look so gay and so shining will signifie nothing unless it be to add to their Account to encrease their Guilt and to heighten their Condemnation Then they must appear at a Tribunal where there is no respect of Persons where the Cries of those Widows and Orphans whom they either made or oppressed or at least refused to relieve will be heard and every one of those Complaints against which their Greatness secured them when on Earth will be weighed in the Scales of Impartial Justice Then those Princes who have hardned themselves against the Miseries of Mankind against all that effusion of Blood and Desolation which their desire of Glory their Ambition or their Revenge occasioned in the injust Wars which they have made will find that they have a just and righteous God to deal with Joh. 34. 19. that accepteth not the Persons of Princes that revengeth Innocent Blood especially the Blood of his Saints and that will reward every man according to his works Mat. 16. 27. These are all Considerations of such mighty force which rise out of the fear of God that if Princes do not shut them quite out of their minds they will certainly make all their Maxims of Justice so much the firmer as they are graffed upon this stock and nourished with these and such like Reflections Ruling in the fear of the Lord does not only import that this is the Prince's secret Motive and constant Remembrancer but that the Fear of God becomes the Rule of the Government as well as the Principle of him that governs Few Princes are so bad as to own that they have no regard to Religion in any thing they doe It is a strong temptation to their Subjects to shake off their Yoke when they openly shake off God's but as many as make a pretence of their Religion do with it as they do who wear Masks which rather hide than disguise them for none take the Vizar for the true Face though it covers it They use Religion for the hiding some secret deformities but the Mask is so course that though all Men cannot see what is under it yet they plainly discern that it is but a Mask Hypocrisie as all other things that we wear is capable of new Fashions and of different Modes and the Skill of those who use it is to find out that which is most likely to take and to suit it with the present occasion In one Age the endowing of Monasteries and the building of Churches could sanctifie the greatest Monsters The Devotion of another Age was the carrying over vast Armies to be destroyed in the Holy Land At another time a Zeal for some new Doctrine or controverted piece of Worship was the Holiness in Vogue The being given up blindly to a Confessor the breaking of Faith and the persecuting of Hereticks to signifie a zeal for Holy Church can serve with some to cover a multitude of Sins At some times the Praying and Preaching with Appearances of Fervour and Devotion has a Charm that carries Nations after it And a Rigour in supporting Established Forms and the ruining of such as do not comply with them will also draw to it self great Applauses After all these Mistakes or Impostures the true Notion of ruling in the fear of the Lord is when Princes make that Religion which God has revealed the chief mark and measure of their whole Government When the encouraging and promoting of a vigorous Piety and sublime Vertue and the maintaining and propagating of True Religion by ways and means suitable to it is the chief design of their Rule When Impiety and Vice are punished and Error is repressed but without the ruine of such as are involved in it When the decency of the Worship of God is kept up without adulterating it with Superstition When Order is carried on in the Church of God without Tyranny And above all when Princes are in their own deportment Examples of the Fear of God but without Affectation and when it is visible that they honour those that fear the Lord Psal. 5. 4. and that vile men are despised by them then do they truly Rule in the Fear of God. When we see Kings become thus truly Christian Philosophers then we may expect to see the City of God the New Jerusalem quickly come down from Heaven to settle among us and if we may look for a glorious Thousand Years on Earth we may reckon that it is not far from us when we see Kings fall down before him

A SERMON Preached at the CORONATION OF WILLIAM III. and MARY II. King and Queen OF England France and Ireland DEFENDERS of the Faith IN THE Abby-Church of Westminster April 11. 1689. By GILBERT Lord Bishop of Salisbury Printed by Their Majesties Special Command LONDON Printed for J. Starkey and Ric. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXIX THE SERMON AT THE CORONATION OF K. WILLIAM and Q. MARY 2 SAM XXIII 3 4. The God of Israel said The Rock of Israel spake to me He that ruleth over men must be just ruling in the fear of the Lord. And he shall be as the light of the morning when the Sun riseth even a morning without clouds as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain IT is the peculiar glory of Humane Nature that Man is made after the Image of God and therefore the distinctions of Honour among Men ought to be taken from the Characters of the Divine Nature and Perfections that appear in them Higher degrees of Capacity bring men so much the nearer to the Infinite Compass of that Eternal Mind The Elevations of Greatness are approaches to that unbounded Power to which all things are subject Yet though there is somewhat in these which is apt to strike the World with admiration there is another resemblance of the Divinity which has a more peculiar beauty in it that consists in Justice and Goodness The other may subdue the World but this only overcomes mens hearts and triumphs over their Thoughts as much as the Greatest Monarch can do over their Persons Power without Goodness is the justest Object of mens fear and aversion and every man is on his guard against Wisdom when it is not guided by Justice An Elevation of Condition without a more real Dignity inherent in the mind is only the exposing of those who are cloathed with that ill deserved Greatness to a brighter light and more observation by which their Defects which might have passed without any unkind Comments made on them if they had lived in a greater obscurity become the more Conspicuous and are by consequence the more censured Those who are raised up to a high Eminence of Dignity are so much the more accountable both to God and man not only for all the Ill which either they themselves or others acting in their Name or by their Example may have done but likewise for all the Good which they might have done but did not And as they have much to answer for to God so likewise men expect much from them and will be severe in exacting that to which they think they have so just a right God will indeed forgive their Errors if they repent of them but men will not be so merciful They will vent their Indignation if they cannot on their Persons yet at least on their Memories The Flatterers of the Roman Emperors were not more Ingenious in Inventing new Rites of Divine Adoration to their Arrogant Masters during their lives than their Oppressed Subjects were to find out peculiar marks of Infamy for the loading their Memories after their death And it is certain That as the Memory of Good Princes shall be in everlasting remembrance so the Memory of Bad ones shall either quite perish or shall rot either they shall be quite forgotten or they shall be remembred indeed but it shall be with all possible scorn and horror Therefore it is that David being to leave these as his last words to all posterity as well as to Solomon and such as should descend from him and intending to put all the weight in them that could be in words he introduces them with much pomp to give them the more authority It is not only said that these are his last words tho that must naturally create respect especially when it is a King that speaks after long Experience and a Reigns as full of all varieties of Accidents as any is in History But Attention is also here raised by a Poetical redoubling of many lofty Expressions David the Son of Jesse said the man that was raised up on high the Anointed of the God of Jacob and the sweet Psalmist of Israel said And because the Instruction that was to be given was too Important to rest upon a Human Authority how eminent soever it might be another set of Expressions that are yet more sublime comes after these The Spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue The God of Israel said the Rock of Israel spake to me He that ruleth over men must be just ruling in the fear of the Lord. Here are the true measures of Government it is a Rule and not an Absolute Dominion it is a Rule over men and not a Power like that which we have over Beasts In a word it is the Conduct of free and reasonable Beings who need indeed to be governed but ought not to be broken by the force and weight of Power Those who manage this Power and Rule over Men must be just and act according to those Eternal and Unalterable Rules of Truth and Goodness which are both included in the word Just. This is Universal and binds all Princes equally but such as have the advantages of a more particular Revelation of the Will of God come under another Obligation of Ruling in his fear and of administring that Authority which is put in their hands according to that light with which he has blest them These words contain the Duty and give the Character of a good Prince and those which follow set forth the Happiness of such a Government from two very natural Figures which are apt to make great Impressions on us A temperate Air and a clear Sky a fair Morning and an unclouded Sun are things which do not only please but animate they quicken and exhilarate our Spirits and a kindly Spring in which all the Productions of the Earth shoot out abundantly upon the due intermixtures of Rain and Sun of Heat and Moisture gives the Earth a new Face and a new Life to all that dwell upon it And he shall be as the light of the morning when the Sun riseth even a morning without clouds as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain These being Blessings which all Men feel and in which every Man rejoices it was a very natural Piece of Rhetorick to set forth the Happiness of a good Government under such Figures This then which is so Elegantly commended to us is a Rule and a Rule over men It is a Rule and not an Arbitrary Power without Laws and Measures Man is indeed born free and so he has a Right to Liberty but he is born likewise with so much frailty in his Composition that he wants Conduct and must be kept under Rule It is a Question not easily determined whether a State of Liberty without any restraint that leaves all Men to a full freedom of acting as