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A59874
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A sermon preached at St. Margarets Westminster, May 29, 1685, before the Honourable House of Commons by William Sherlock ...
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Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing S3345; ESTC R21741
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10,171
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38
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of which Solomon speaks to be sure what he says must be eminently true of the most Noble Bloud A King's Son especially if he descend from an Ancient race of Kings has as much the advantage of Inferiour Nobles as they have of the Gentry or the Gentry of meaner People It is Royal Bloud which inspires a Princely Mind which is more Noble still the further it is removed from its Original I cannot now discourse to you concerning the Right of Succession it seems most Natural for a Son to be Heir to his Father and therefore to succeed to the Crown of which he dyed possessed for Power descends as well as an Estate as the Government of the Family was the Birth-right of the Eldest Son as his Fathers Heir But however that be if it be so great a Happiness to a Nation to have a King the Son of Nobles there is no such way to secure this as by a Succession of Kings of the same Royal Stock and Family whose Glory and Nobility increases with every Succession and gives a New Greatness and Authority to its Government But to hasten to a Conclusion the proper use of this discourse consists of two parts 1. To bless God for the Mercy of this Day 2. To be Loyal to our King 1. To bless God for the Mercy of this Day It would be too melancholy a Thought at this time to reflect on the sad face of things in these Kingdoms when an Excellent Prince was murdered by his own Subjects the Natural Heir of the Crown and the whole Royal Family forced into Banishment the Ancient and Loyal Nobility and Gentry under Imprisonments and Sequestrations the Church of England robbed of its Bishops and Clergy its Worship and Revenues while some mean and ignoble persons trampled upon Crowns and Mitres enriched themselves with the Spoils of Church and State usurped the Royal Power but governed like Slaves But this blessed Day put an end to all these Miseries and Confusions God by a wonderful Providence restored to us our King and Royal Family in Peace and Triumph without the noise and alarms of War without drawing the Sword or shedding English Blood He was driven out by Victorious Rebels at the expence of a vast Treasure and more Blood but was invited home again by a wearied and distracted People who now felt the difference between the Government of mean Usurpers and of a natural and High-born Prince And thus the Nation recovered its ancient Glory and every Subject their Just Rights and which is more valuable than all Civil Rights the free Profession and Exercise of their Religion according to the Doctrine and Worship of the Apostolick Church of England though some possibly may think it too late to glory in this now and it would be too late indeed and would lessen the Glory of this day were the most Holy Religion of the Church of England in any danger But next to having our King of the Communion of the Church of England we can desire no more than to have a King who will defend it which I am sure the Primitive Christians would have thought a great Blessing and therefore this is a joyful day still which brought back one Prince to restore the Church of England and another to protect it for far be it from me and from all Loyal Subjects to distrust those solemn and repeated assurances which our King has given us of this Matter A Prince whose Mind is as Great and Noble as his Birth who abhors all mean Arts and Equivocal Reserves and scorns either to dissemble what he believes himself or to speak what be does not think 2. As for Loyalty were it decent to conclude a discourse of Kingly Government without an Exhortation to Loyalty and Obedience it might be very well spared at this time in such a Presence whose Example preaches Loyalty to the whole Nation And therefore I shall not run over all the Topicks of Obedience but only urge some few things which are proper to this argument and to this present solemnity It is a great Happiness to a Nation to have a King who is the Son of Nobles This Happiness we at this day enjoy we live under the Government of a King who has Royal Bloud in his Veins and discovers a Great and Princely Mind in all his Actions and this secures us of as much Happiness as we can expect under any Government but it is not meerly the wise Conduct of a Prince but the governable temper of Subjects too which is necessary to make a Nation happy No Government neither of God nor men can make those happy who will not be governed Discontents and Jealousies and Seditions turn the Court into a Camp and exchange the Civil Government for Military Force and Power and the best Prince in the World can never govern to so great advantage who is forced to govern by the Sword But when Subjects love and reverence their King and always believe well of him when they obey his Laws and comply with all reasonable Intimations of his will that is when they may be governed like Subjects not like Slaves then a King has a fair occasion to exercise all the Princely Vertues and peaceful arts of Government to make his Reign prosperous and his Subjects happy I know no Prince in any age under whom an Obedient and Governable People might have lived more happily than our late Martyred Sovereign and yet what miseries and confusions did a Factious and Turbulent Zeal create which ended in as doleful a Tragedy as ever the Sun saw And when we remember those times and consider how little a Nation gains by Seditions and Rebellions unless men love Rebellion for Rebellions Sake there can be no great temptation in it though it were no Sin Nay we may observe that as an ungovernable temper will disturb the best and Wisest Governments so Loyalty and Obedience is a powerful Obligation on Princes to rule well for Princes must value Obedience and Subjection as they do their Crowns To this we owe the present Security and Protection of the Church of England for if there were nothing else to be liked in it yet a generous Prince cannot but like and reward its Loyalty and it would seem very harsh for any Prince to desire that Religion should be turned out of the Church which secures him in a quiet possession of his Throne And therefore to conclude I would desire you to observe that it is a Church of England-Loyalty I perswade you to This our King approves commends relies on as a tried and experienced Loyalty which has suffered with its Prince but never yet rebelled against him a Loyalty upon firm and steady Principles and without reserve And therefore to keep us true to our Prince we must be true to our Church and to our Religion It is no Act of Loyalty to accommodate or complement away our Religion and its legal Securities for if we change our Religion we must change the Principles of our Loyalty too and I am sure the King and the Crown will gain nothing by that for there is no such lasting and immoveable Loyalty as that of the Church of England I deny not but some who are Papists in some Junctures of Affairs may and have been very Loyal but I am sure the Popish Religion is not the English man may be Loyal but not the Papist and yet there can be no security of those mens Loyalty whose Religion in any case teaches them to rebel God grant the whole Nation may follow the Example of this Honourable Senate to be Loyal to their Prince Zealous for the Service of the Crown and true to the Religion of the Church of England as dearer to them than their Lives To God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost three Persons and one Eternal God be Honour Glory and Power now and ever Amen FINIS Sabbati 30 die Maii 1685. Ordered THat the Thanks of this House be given to Dr. SHERLOCK for His Excellent SERMON yesterday Preached before this House And that he be desired by this House to Print the same And that Mr. Dolben do present him with the Thanks and acquaint him with the Desire of the House Paul Iodrell Cler. Dom. Com. 126 Psal. 1 2.
A SERMON PREACHED At St. Margarets Westminster May 29. 1685. Before the Honourable House of Commons By WILLIAM SHERLOCK D. D. Master of the Temple And Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty LONDON Printed for I. Amery at the Peacock in Fleetstreet and A. Swalle at the Unicorn at the West-end of St. Pauls Church-yard 1685. 10 ECCLES 17. Blessed art thou O Land when thy King is the Son of Nobles WHen the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion we were like them that dream Then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing then said they among the heathen The Lord hath done great things for them Which the Psalmist spoke of the deliverance of the Jews from the Babylonish Captivity but is very easily and naturally applied to the Occasion of this present Solemnity For I hope we have not so soon forgot with what surprizing Joy we beheld our banished Prince return again to his Throne who brought back with him our Laws our Liberties and our Religion that is brought England into England again which was banished with its Prince without changing its Place and Climate And though that beloved and admired Prince who gave the first lustre and glory to this day now sleeps with his Fathers and has onely left us the memory of his Princely Vertues to adorn the Records of Time and the Succession of English Kings yet this day ought not to be forgot which restored to us not onely a Mortal Prince whom we could not expect should live for ever but the Royal Family which we hope and pray may be Immortal Though the Great CHARLES be dead the King lives still in his Royal Brother who was the Rightful Heir of his Crown and the Partner of all his Joys and Sorrows who was banished with him and who returned with him and augmented the brightness of this day by his united Beams a Prince who equals the greatest Examples of former Kings and as we have reason to hope will leave a greater to those who follow It was not the Throngs and Crowds of People which met their returning Prince nor those loud and joyful Acclamations wherewith they welcomed him to his Country and Throne it was not the external Pomp and Splendour of the Show though as magnificent as Art and Nature could make it nay it was not meerly the transporting sight of a Prince who was now endeared by long Absence and by the Oppressions and Injuries of Usurpers who after ten thousand Indignities returned with all the Expressions of a Princely Goodness and Indemnity I say though these were all very affecting Circumstances and added much to raise and heighten a present Passion yet they were not the true Glory of this day which consisted in restoring the English Monarchy in the Royal Line for this we bless God and for the continuance of this we pray this day and if we believe King Solomon there is great reason for both for it is as great a Blessing as any Nation can enjoy Blessed art thou O Land when thy King is the Son of Nobles The words are so plain that I cannot think of any plainer to express their sence by and therefore not to loose time in a needless Explication there are three things observable in them 1. That Kingly Government is a great Blessing for it cannot be a Blessing to have our King the Son of Nobles if it be not a Blessing to have a King 2. That the noble Descent and Extraction of a King is a great Blessing to a Nation as my Text expresly says Blessed art thou O Land c. And the natural inference from this is 3. That an Hereditary Monarchy is a great Blessing for we are secure that our Kings are the Sons of Nobles when the Son inherits the Fathers Crown 1. That Kingly Government is a great Blessing As for that Dispute Whether Kingly Government be by Divine Right if by Divine Right we mean a positive Law and Institution of God that all Nations shall be governed by Kings I find no such thing in Scripture which is the onely Revelation of the Divine Will but if by Divine Right we mean onely such an intimation of the Will of God as we can learn from the appearances of Nature and Providence I dare boldly affirm that Kingly government is by Divine Right that is is most agreeable to all those notices we have of the Will of God from the original frame and constitution of Nature and from the dispensations of Providence which though it be not sufficient to condemn all other Governments as unlawful yet it advances Monarchy above all other Forms of Government when it appears that God himself has at least given the preference to it The History of the Creation is a plain proof of this for God made but one Man to whom he gave the Dominion and Empire of the World who was the natural Lord as well as Father of all his Posterity which is as good an argument for the natural institution of Monarchy as Gods creating but one Man and one Woman is against Divorce which yet is our Saviours Argument 10 Mark 7 8 9. Thus it was at the new peopling of the World after the Floud God left but one Independent Head of a Family Noah who had a Paternal and Regal Authority over his Sons and their Posterity So that Mankind were born under a Monarchical Government which therefore is the first and the most natural Government instituted by God by the very Laws of our Creation for when God made but one Man who by the Law of Nature has a right to Govern his own Children who then were all Mankind he made him a natural Monarch We have no Histories of those Times to acquaint us how the Government descended but we have all the reason in the world to believe that as Adam and Noah govern'd by a Paternal Right so when Mankind increased and grew too numerous to dwell together they were formed into distinct Kingdoms under the Government of the Heads and Princes of their several Families for in those days they knew no other right of Government but what was Natural and Paternal I urge this onely to prove that Monarchy is the original form of Government instituted by God himself not that every Monarch must have the same right to Government which Adam and Noah had for then there is no Prince in the world can make good his Title to the Crown But these are very distinct questions what is that form of Government which God appointed and by what right a particular Prince can challenge this Authority In the first Ages of the World while the Lineal descent of Families was known there could be no dispute about the Succession but when the numbers of men increased and Families were divided and sub-divided and intermixt with each other when these little Independent Princes invaded their Neighbours and enlarged their Dominions by force and power the right of Government altered but the