Prevention as it is now with us which God and the King will use to keep the State and the Church from melting This Remedy and the Prevention is just the same is expressed first in the execution of Justice And this God promises for the King and the King promises under God I will judge according unto right saith God and I saith the King Now Iustice and Iudgement is the greatest binder up of a State The great bounder of Peace and Warre And it is not possible to find dissolving sinews in a Kingdome that is governed by Iustice For if the King flourish the Kingdome cannot melt And the Kings Throne that is established by Iustice Nay farther Nothing but Iustice can establish the Throne and make it firme indeed But when God blesses the King with a heart full of Iustice when God strengthens the King in the Execution of Iustice when the King followes God as close as he can with Ego judicabo I my selfe will looke to the administration of Iustice with which God hath trusted me there can be no melting about the Throne of the King none in the State none in the Church But then this Iustice which preserves the King and blesses the people must be habituall To doe Iustice casually though the thing done be just yet the doing of it is not Iustice The State may melt for all that because the Remedy is but casuall Again since the whole State hath interest in the Justice of the King his Iustice must be spreading over all persons and in all causes And so 't is plurall in the Text I will judge Iustitias for every mans cause so far as it is just Why but then must the King doe all this himselfe No God forbid that burthen should lye all upon him Moses was not able alone for that It was and it is heavie What then why then Jethro's counsell must be followed There must be inferiour Iudges and Magistrates deputed by the King for this Men of courage fearing God and hating Covetousnesse These must quit Moses from the inferiour trouble that he may be active and able for the great affaires of State For if they be suffered to melt and drop downeward there can be no standing dry or safe under them And hence it followes that Ego judicabo I will judge according unto right is not onely the Kings engagement betweene God and the People but it is the engagement of every Iudge Magistrate and Officer betweene God the King and the State The Kings power that 's from God The Iudges and the subordinate Magistrates power that 's from the King Both are for the good of the people That they may lead a peaceable life in all godlynesse and honesty All Judges and Courts of Iustice even this great Congregation this great Councell now ready to sit receive influence and power from the King and are dispensers of his justice as well as their owne both in the Lawes they make and in the Lawes they execute in the Causes which they heare and in the Sentences which they give The King Gods High Steward and they Stewards under him And so long as Iustice and Iudgement sits upon all the Benches of a Kingdome either it s not possible for Fluxes and Meltings to begin in the State or if they doe begin their Drip will be cured presenly Now while the King keepes close to Ego judicabo I will judge that which comes to me according unto right if inferiour Iudges which God forbid judge other than right they sinne against three at once and against God in all For first they sinne against the people by doing them wrong in stead of Iustice Secondly they sinne against their owne conscience not onely by calling but by sentencing Good Evill and Evill Good Thirdly they sinne against the King the fountaine of Iustice under God in slandering of his Iustice to the people with the administration whereof they are trusted under him And once againe for inferiour Governours of all sorts The King is the Sunne Hee drawes up some vapours some support some supply from us T' is true he must doe so For if the Sunne draw up no vapours it can powre downe no raine and the Earth may be too hard as well as too soft and too melting Now this Raine which descends and is first caused by the Sunne is prepared in the Clouds before it falleth on the Earth And all Great men that are raised higher than the rest especially Iudges Magistrates of all sorts they are the Clouds They receive the more immediate influence from the King and if they be Gods Clouds and retaine what he gave them they drop fatnesse upon the people But if they be clouds without water they transmit no influence If they be light clouds in the wind then no certaine influence If they be clouds driven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a whirlewind then it is passionate and violent influence And the Clouds I hope are not I am sure should not be thus betweene the King and his People There is then Ego judicabo I will judge according unto right both for the King and all subordinate Magistrates under him But here 's Ego judicabo and I will judge according to right for God too For many of the Fathers will have this to be Gods speech or Davids in the person of God And then whatsoever men do with Iustice and Iudgement God comes two wayes in upon the judgements of men to review them For first God comes in when the Earth is melting by violence and injustice And then Gods Ego judicabo I will judge is either in Mercy to repaire the breaches to stay the melting of the State or else in Iudgement to punish the debasers of Iustice And this God sometimes doth in this life But if he doe it not here yet he never sailes to doe it at the last and finall Iudgement to which divers of the Fathers referre this passage of my Text. Secondly God comes in when the Seats of Iustice supreme and inferiour all are entire And then Gods Ego judicabo I will judge is alwayes to confirme and countenance the proceedings of Iustice and to blesse the instruments And my Text hath it full For it is not here said I will judge the cause onely or the men only whose cause it is or the Iudges onely that sentence the cause but Ego justitias I will judge the very Iudgements themselves how right or otherwise thy passe And then this must needs be to confirme honour them if they be just or to condemne and dissolve them if they be unjust rather than they shal melt or dissolve the State or somtimes to send a melting into that State in which Iustice is perverted Now howsoever men somtimes breake from their duty in judging according to right yet there can be no question of Gods proceedings He will be sure to judge all things and all men according
mistake not upon the East and the Palace of Solomon upon the South side of the same Mountaine to shew that their servants and service must goe together too that no man might thinke himselfe the farther from God by serving the King nor the farther from the King by serving God The Kings power is Gods ordinance and the Kings command must be Gods glory and the honour of the Subject is obedience to both And therefore in the Law the same command that lay upon the people to come up illuc thither to Ierusalem the very same lay upon them to obey the Judges and the house of David illic when they came there To obey the Sanhedrim and the Judges Deut. 17. and both them and the King after the house of David was settled as in this place For then there was seated as divers of the Fathers and later divines observe both Authorities both of the Priests and of the King and his judges So the first lesson which the people doe or should learne by going up to the Temple is obedience to both spirituall and temporall Authority but especially to the house of David Well then illic there were the Seates or Thrones of judgement Of all things that are necessary for a State none runs so generally through it as justice and judgement Every part and member of a Kingdome needs it And 't is not possible Ierusalem should be long at unity in it selfe if justice and judgement doe not uphold it And 't is in vaine for any man whether he be in authority or under it to talke of Religion and Gods service to frequent the Temple if he doe not in the course of his life exercise and obey justice and judgement And this lesson Religion ever teacheth For it was the very end of Christs comming to redeeme us That we might serve him in holinesse and in righteousnesse S. Luk. 1. In holinesse toward God that 's first and then in righteousnesse and Justice towards men that 's next And they stand so that the one is made the proofe of the other Righteousnesse of Holinesse For he that doth but talke of Holinesse and doth unjustly therewhile is but an Hypocrite This for Justice the preservative of unity Now for the Seates of it They which are appointed to administer Justice and Judgemet to the people have Thrones or Chayres or Seâ—tes call them what you will the thing is the same out of which they give sentence upon Persons or Causes brought before them And they are signes of authority and power which the Iudges have And 't is not for nothing that they are called Seates For Judgement was ever given in publike sitting And there 's good reason for it For the soule and minde of man is not so settled when the Body is in motion For the Body moved moves the humours and the Humours moved move the affections and Affections moved are not the fittest to doe Justice and Judgement No Reason in a calme unmoved is fittest for that Now the Seates stand here both for the Seates themselves And so Sederunt Sedes is Active for Passive The Seates sate for The Seates are placed or for the Judges that sit in them or sederunt id est permanserunt for the perpetuity and fixing of the Seates of Justice The Seates must be in some reverence for the persons that sit in them The persons must have their Honour for the Office they perform in them And the Seates must be fixed and permanent that the people which are fallen into Controversie may know the illic and the ubi whither to come and finde Justice The words in my Text are plurall Seates of Iudgement And 't is observable For the exorbitances of men that quarrell others are such and so many that one Seat of Judgement onely was scarce ever sufficient for any State Seats they must be and they seldome want worke In the prime times of the Church Christians could not hold from going to Law one with another and that under unbeleevers 1 Cor. 6. To meet with this frailty of man God in this Common-wealth which himselfe ordered appointed not one but many Seates of judgement And therefore even the inferiour Seates howsoever as they are setled by the King and the State severally to fit the nature of the people in severall Kingdomes are of positive and Humane Institution yet as they are Seates of Judgement they have their foundation upon Divine Institution too since there is no power but of God Rom. 13. By these Seats of Justice and Judgement the Learned in all ages understand Iudiciary power and administration both Ecclesiasticall and Civill And they are right For the Sanhedrim of the Jewes their greatest Seat of Judgement under the King after they had that governement was a mixed Court of Priests and Judges Deut. 17. though other Kindomes since and upon reason enough have separated and distinguished the Seates of Ecclesiasticall and Civill Judicature Since this division of the Seats of Judgement there was a time when the Ecclesiasticall tooke too much upon them Too much indeede and lay heavy not onely upon ordinary Civill Courts but even upon the House of David and Throne of the King himselfe But God ever from the dayes of Lucifer gave pride a fall and pride of all sinnes least beseemes the Church May we not thinke that for that she fell But I pray remember 't was Fastus Romanus 't was Roman Pride that then infected this Church with many others The time is now come in this Kingdome that the Civill Courts are as much too strong for the Ecclesiasticall and may overlay them as hard if they will be so unchristian as to revenge But we hope they which sit in them will remember or at the least that the House of David will not forget That when God himselfe and he best knowes what he doth for the unity of Jerusalem erected Seates of judgement Hee was so farre from Ecclesiasticall Anarchie that he set the High-Priest very high in the Sanhedrim And Ecclesiasticall and Church Causes must have their triall and ending as well as others I know there are some that think the Church is not yet farre enough beside the Cushin that their Seates are too easie yet and too high too A Paritie they would have No Bishop No Governour but a Parochiall Consistory and that should be Lay enough too Well first this paritie was never left to the Church by Christ He left Apostles and Disciples under them No Paritie It was never in use with the Church since Christ No Church ever any where till this last age without a Bishop If it were in use it might perhaps governe some pettie City But make it common once and it can never keepe unitie in the Church of Christ And for their Seats being too high God knowes they are brought low even to contempt They were high in Jerusalem For all Divines agree that this in prime
for the sentence or execution accordingly But here Rufinus and Austin and other Divines tell me that judgement and righteousnesse in this place stand for that justice and judgement that the King is indifferently equally to administer to his people and so for one vertue Here is the vertue and the power both from the King and both from God The benefit of both are the peoples but from God by the King Therefore David prayes here not for one vertue for himselfe and another for his son but for one and the same vertue for both For the Sonne had as much need for this vertue as the Father the one being a King and the other to be one they both needed this great comprising Kingly vertue without which there can be no religious peaceable government over a people So justice and judgement in this place as usually when they attend the King containe the vertue it selfe and the power that brings this vertue to act The execution is as justice and the power to give sentence moderation and equity to smooth over the rigour of justice and all other vertues as far as they serve to strengthen or direct and keepe even the hands of justice prudence especially Then it is a wondrous necessary prayer here for if justice should not be in the Kings will which God forbid it must needs grow apt to turne to sourenesse And if judgement and execution follow not upon the sentence of justice the Kings hand must needs shake into remisnesse And one of these sourenesse will make judgement it selfe or the pretext of it a scourage for the people And the other remisness will make the people a worse scourge to themselves for want of discipline to keep them in order For of all scourges there is none answerable to the unrulinesse of the people Now this vertue as large as it is when it fills the heart of the King it is called another heart it puts on other dismensions for it furnisheth the Kings brest with all rectitude and prudence and rectitude is the being and prudence the moderation and guide of all justice for so without respect of persons it belongs to the wise and prudent Prov. 25. Nay further though this vertne be so large yet the heart of the King is so capacious that justice and judgement cannot fill it if it stand single therefore David prayeth not for judgement single but in the plurall number Give thy judgements And there is great reason that he should pray so for justice continuing one and the same vertue gives many times different judgements and it must needs be so and the King must needs be an instrument in them all And in the various occasions that himselfe and his people have use of This David found in his owne heart therefore he prayes for all And this pray we alway for the King for all judgement for the King So give Lord. And here it is fit for you a little to take a view of your owne happinesse and to blesse God for it for you live under a King that keeps his Laws in his life A King that lives so as if he were a Law himselfe and so needed none A King that plants his Judges so as they may equally distribute his judgement and justice to his people A King so blessed by God for your good that whether it be for his owne prayers or yours or both or neither but that God is pleased to shew his mercy and glory upon him to you certaine it is that God hath given him a very large heart and filled it to the brim with justice and judgement Take heed I heartily beg it of you I say it againe take heed I heartily beg it of you that no sinne of unthankfulnesse no base detracting murmuring sin possesse your soules or whet your tongues or sowre your brests against the Lord and against his Anoynted but remember in that these two things First remember that it is as easie for God to take away any blessing even the great blessing of a good King as to give it remember that And secondly remember that unthankfulnesse to God for so gracious a King is the very ready way to doe it remember that too therefore looke to these things in time I but what then hath a King enough when God hath given him justice and judgement May his prayers then cease for himselfe as your prayers for him hath he no more need of God when God hath once given him judgement O God forbid surely he hath and it is to be presumed that the King daily prayeth I am sure his duty it is to pray that God would ever please to continue and increase the righteousnesse and judgement he hath given to him Nor can I think but that David was very oft at this prayer too for he saith Psal 99. The Kings power loveth judgement And it is more then probable that that he loved he would pray for he prayed to have it and to increase it And he that prayes so oft Psal 119. I say so oft that God would keepe him in the way of his commandements and cause him to make much of his Law he must of necessity be presumed to pray for justice and judgement which is the vigour of all Lawes divine and humane And Kings have great need oft to pray for this grace and for the continuance and increase of it too For Kings stand high that is true but the higher they stand the more they are exposed to tempests wind-shakings that passe lover the lower vallies with the lesse noyse danger And Kings are great That is true too but the greater they are the stiffer are the blasts of all temptations on them to batter at least to would be wise For certainly there can be no kingdome rightly constituted further than God himselfe comes in in laying the foundation of it in true impartiall judgement When the foundation of a kingdome is perfectly laid which is a blessing seldome perfect in al things in any kingdome whatsoever yet no kingdom can continue upon such a foundation longer than it stands upright upon it If it sway on either side if it fall not presently it growes weaker still the more it leanes away from justice and judgement which is Gods And as it is with kingdomes in their foundation and superstructure so it is with Kings too that are to manage and dispose them for if any King thinke himselfe sufficient by his owne vertue against the difficulties of a kingdome by his owne justice and wisedome and integrity he will find by his losse a Nebuchadnezar in his greatest greatnesse Dan. 4. that he all his vertue cannot long keep up no not a setled King Therefore David was wise as well as religious that he went to God for his judgements without which he nor his Son after him he knew was able to hold up the kingdome Give the King thy judgements O God And what did David with them when he had them What
David as Davids was now at Jerusalem A built A furnished A strong an honourable House I know you would You are a Noble a most Loyall People Why then I will not take upon me to teach but onely to remember you of the way The way is Am I out No sure The way is to set David once upon his owne feet to make him see the strength of the house which God hath given him to fill him with joy and contentment in his peoples love to adde of your oyle to make him a cheerefull countenance now that God hath anointed him with the oyle of gladnesse over you that in a free Estate he may have leisure from Home-Cares every way to intend the good and welfare of his people and to blesse God for them and them in God And for David God hath blessed him with many royall Vertues And above the rest with the knowledge that his House is a foundation A foundation of his people and of all the justice that must preserve them in unity and in happinesse But t is Domus ejus His House still even while t is your foundation And never feare him for God is with him He will not depart from Gods service nor from the honourable care of his people nor from wise managing of his treasure He will never undermine his owne house nor give his people just cause to be jealous of a shaking foundation And here in the presence of God and his blessed Angels as well as of you which are but dust and ashes I discharge the true thoughts of my heart and flatter not And now my Dread Soveraigne upon you it lyes to make good the thoughts of your most devoted Servant Thus you have seene as short a Mapp as I could draw of Ierusalem She was famous for her unity and blessed too when it was within her selfe Shee was famous for her Religion and devout too when all the Tribes went up to the Arke of the Testimony to give thanks to the name of the Lord. She was famous for Justice and successfull too both at home and against forreigne enemies when the Seates of Judgement Ecclesiasticall and Civill were all as their severall natures beare founded upon the House of David This Ierusalem of ours is now at unitie in it selfe And I see here Capita Tribuum the Heads and Leaders of the Tribes and People of the Lord come up and present in his Temple I would to God they were all here that with one heart and one mouth we might all pray unto God for all his blessings to come down and dwell in the House of David and to rest upon this great and honourable Councell ready to sit You are come up to begin at the Temple of the Lord. The Arke was wholly Ceremoniall that 's not here But the Testimonie of Israel the Law yea and a better Law than that the Law of Grace and of Christ that 's here Here it is and open ready to teach the feare of the Lord which is the beginning of all wisdome Psal 111. In this Law you can read nothing but service to God and obedience to the House of David And so you find them joyned 1 S. Pet. 2. Feare God and honour the King And 't is a strange Fallacie in Religion for any man to dishonour the King and to make that a proofe that he feares God To the Temple and the Testimony you are come up When God would give Moses more speciall direction he declared himselfe from the Mercy-seat which was on the Arke Exod. 25. The Mercy-seat was wholly Ceremoniall as the Arke was on which it stood that is the Seate Ceremonie but the Mercy Substance And though the Seat be gone with Moses yet I hope God hath not left will never leave to appeare in Mercy to the House of David and this wise Councell If he appeare in mercy I fear nothing If he appeare otherwise there will be cause to feare all things And the way to have God appeare in mercy is for both King and People not onely to come to the Temple that 's but the outside of Religion but also to obey the Law the Testimonie Judgement went out from God lately and it was fierce How many thousands strong men which might have been a wall about Jerusalem hath the Pestilence swept away But his mercy soone overtook his Judgement For when did the eye of man behold so strange and sodaine abatement of so great Mortality A great argument that he will now appeare in Mercie And I cannot tell which hath got the better in the vie Your Honour or Your Religion that you have made suchhast to bring the Tribes to the Temple to give thanks to the name of the Lord for this The first Lesson of this dayes Evening prayer is Exod. 18. There 's the Story of Iethro's counsell to Moses for assistance of inferiour Officers This was not the beginning of that great and parliamentary Councell which after continued successefull in the State of the Iewes For that was set after by GOD himselfe Numb 11. yet I make no great doubt but that the ease which Moses found by that Councell made him apt to see what more he needed and so farre at least occasioned the settling of the Sanhedrim I take the omen of the day and the Service of the Church to blesse it That our David may be as happy in this and all other Sessions of Parliament as their Moses was in his Councell of the Elders That the King and his people may now and at all like times meete in love consult in wisedome manage their Counsell with temper entertaine no private businesse to make the publike suffer And when their consultation is ended part in the same love that should ever bring King and People together And let us pray That our Ierusalem both Church and State which did never but flourish when it was at unitie it selfe may now and ever continue in that Vnity and so bee ever successefull both at home and abroad That in this unity the Tribes of the Lord even all the Families and Kindreds of his people may come up to the Church to pray and prayse and give thankes unto him That no Tribe or Person for any pretences for they are no better may absent themselves from the Church and Testimony of the Lord. That the Seates of Iudgement Ecclesiasticall and Civill af all sorts may not only be set but set firmely to administer the justice of God and the King unto his people That all men may reverence and obey the House of David who it selfe upon God is the foundation of all these blessings That God would mutually blesse David and this People That so the People may have cause to give thankes to God for David And that David may have cause to take joy in the love and loyalty of his people and blesse God for both Till from this Jerusalem and this Temple and these Thrones Hee and wee all
be known that due may be performed unto it Now the Cause of God meant here though it be proposed as Causa una one cause yet 't is very large and comprehends many particulars under it Some directly concerne God and some onely by reflex But God is so tender of his Iustice and his Honour that nothing can so much as touch upon him but 't is Gods cause presently In as much as ye have done it or not done it to one of these little ones you have done it or not done it to mee S. Matt. 25. And so goes the Text Gods Cause all and but one whether it be directed against him or reflected upon him Whether it be the Reproach which the Sonne of God suffered for us Or the troubles and afflictions which we suffer for him 't is Gods Cause still and accounted as one As one And yet I finde three things agreed upon to be principally contain'd in this Cause of God First the Magistrate and his Power and Justice And resist either of these and ye resist the power and the ordinance of God Rom. 13. There 's Gods cause plaine And the Eye of nature could see Aliquid Divinum somewhat that was divine in the Governours and Orderers of Common-wealths In their very Office In as much as theyare singled out to be the Ministers of divine Providence upon Earth And are expresly called the Officers of Gods Kingdome Sap. 6. And therefore the Schoole concludes that any the least irreverence of a King as to dispute of his Iudgements And whether we ought to follow and obey him Sacrilegium dicitur is justly extended to be called Sacrilege And since all Sacrilege is a violation of some thing that is holy it is evident that the Office and Person of the King is sacred Sacred and therefore cannot be violated by the Hand Tongue or Heart of any Man that is by deed word or thought But 't is Gods cause and he is violated in him And here Kings may learne if they will I am sure 't is fit they should that those Men which are sacrilegious against God and his Church are for the very Neigbourhood of the sin the likeliest men to offer violence to the Honour of Princes first and their Persons after Secondly the cause of the Church in what kind soever it be Be it in the cause of truth or in the cause of unity or in in the cause of Right and meanes 't is Gods cause too And it must needes be so For Christ and his Church are Head and Body Ephes 1. And therefore they must needs have one common cause One cause And you cannot corrupt the Church in her Truth or persecute her for it nor distract her from her Vnity nor impoverish and abuse her in her Meanes but God suffers in the oppression Nay more no man can wilfully corrupt the Church in her doctrine but he would have a falfe God Nor persecute the profession of the Church but he would have no God Nor rent the Church into Sects but he would have many Gods Nor make the Church base but he would pluck GOD as lowe were God as much in his power as the Church is And therefore the Churches Cause is Gods Cause And as Eusebius tells us when by Stephen Bishop of Laodicea the state of that Church was much hazarded it and the meanes of it were mightily upheld by God himselfe And Elias Cretensis goes full upon it in the generall 'T is Gods cause any controversie that he debates against his Enemies Now this ever holds true in whatsoever the Church suffers for the name of God and Christ And therefore if either State or Church will have their cause Gods the State must looke their proceedings be just and the Church must looke their Devotions and Actions be pious Else if the State be all in worme-wood and Injustice if the Church savour of impurity and irreligion If either of these threaten either Body neither can can call upon God then For sinne is their owne and the Devills cause no cause of Gods who punishes sinne ever but never causes it Thirdly 'T is Gods cause which is directly against himselfe when Injustice that he will not or weaknesse that he cannot Arise and Helpe are most unworthily nay blasphemously cast upon him The very Text you see calls it no lesse than blasphemy And as S. Basil tells us 't was audacter effusa most audaciously cast into the face of God But how I pray How why they persecuted the Church of Christ with great extremities and then because God did not alwayes and in all particulars deliver it Deum ut infirmum traducebant they accused God of Impotencie Rabsaches case before Christ in the flesh Which of the Gods have delivered the Nations that serve them that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem 4 Reg. 18. Pilates case to Christ Have not I power to crucifie thee and power to loose thee S. Joh. 19. Julians case after Christ For while he raged against the Christians hee turn'd the contumely upon God And charg'd omnipotence with weakenesse So you see the Cause of God what it is and withall that it is many and but one Many in the circumference of his creatures which fill up the State and the Church and yet but one in the point of that indivisible Center which is himselfe Well we have found Gods cause as 't is tumbled upon the earth But what is it the Prophet would have God doe to it What Why that followes Iudica Pleade it Judge it Maintaine it Lord. For the King and the State For thy Church and Service For thy selfe and thine honours sake Thou hast made their cause thine owne therefore maintaine it as thou doest thine owne Now this God is never wanting to doe nor never will be So farre as Justice and Religion make the cause his he will Plead it first and Maintaine it after But yet he doth not this alwayes with a Judgement that is visible to us Nor with such a one as will make enemies confesse that Gods maintenance is on our part And therefore as Ruffinus thinkes these words are not onely a Prayer that God would Arise and maintaine his cause but that he would so plead it that he would make the Justice and Right of it appeare to Enemies and Opposers and the maintenance evident to friends and defenders of it So maintaine thy Cause is as much in effect as make the world know 't is thine and thou wilt maintaine it That from Gods maintenance the cause may have lafety And from our hope of maintenance we may receive Comfort Why but why should God plead judge and maintaine his owne Cause Is the Prayer of the Prophet just Yes no question For the Cause of God is ever just and therefore ought ever to be maintained Nor is it any partiality in God to his owne Cause that he comes to judge it But he is forced
are they Nothing but a heape of most infirme and miserable creatures which you can never be as long as God gives his Judgements to the King and his Righteousnesse to the King sonne I have now done with the first generall part of the text and it is time to descend from the King to his Son the second part of the Fathers Prayer And thy Righteousnesse to the Kings sonne give Lord. Where first though it be not exprest in the text it may easily bee conceived that such a King as Dauid prayed for a Son before he prayed for Righteousnesse to be given him and though David had divers sonnes before yet in some respect or other they were all to David as no sons therefore there is no question to be made but he prayed for him I and therefore too when God had given him Solomon he calls him not bare his sonne but his onely sonne 1 Chron. 29. And no marvell since he was that son that God himself appointed to succeed in the kingdome for David 1 Chron. 28. and such a son is alway worth the praying for Well but what then when God had given David Solomon when God hath given any other King a son as he hath given our gracious King Gods name be ever blessed what then is the Kings prayers then or the peoples at an end No nothing lesse nay there is more need a great deale both for the King for the people to go on in their prayers as David did that the same God that hath given his judgements to the King will proceed and Give his Righteousnesse to the Kings sonne For it is a greater blessing to the King when God gives his Righteousnesse to his son than when he gives him a son For if Solomon succeed not David in his love to the Temple as well as the Throne if he inherit not the truth of his fathers Religion as well as the right of his Crown if he follow not his Fathers devotion and pray for Justice and Judgement to be given him as well as other temporary blessings the very blessings of the Son would end in bitternesse and be the discomfort and dishonour of the Father But it is the wise and prudent Sonne that is the Fathers Crown and the Mothers joy Prov. 10. And then the blessing of Sonne is a blessing indeed David saw this therefore he continued his prayers And it is more than fit for other Kings to doe so too Thy Judgements Lord give the King and thy Righteousnesse to the Kings son And for the people they have great need not onely to say Amen to the prayers of the King but to repeate the prayer and with fervencie to drive it in at the ears of God that so their children after them may be as happy under the Sonne as they themselves were under the Father while God gives both the Father and the Son zeale to his truth and judgement over his people And here I should take occasion to tell you of the care and devotion of our David in his dayes and of his prayers both for himselfe and his Sonne but that the age is so bad that they will not beleeve that he is so good beyond them And some for they are but some are so waspishly set to sting that nothing can please their eares unlesse it sharpen their edge against authority But take heed for if this fault be not amended Justice may seize upon them that are guilty God knows how soone And the Kings Judgement that God hath given him may pull out their stings that can imploy their tongues in nothing but to wound him and his government Well these must not divert me or any good subject from praying for the King and the Kings Sonne The Kings Sonne blessed name what imports then to a King surely David knew well therefore you see he leaps for joy into this prayer in the first words of the Psalme Some tell me this name imports at large the King and his posterity Sonnes or Daughters not distinct And I confesse the least is Gods great blessing upon a people For the wise Historian tells us that Plena c. The Kings house full of them is the Kings security and the kingdomes too and our Prophet proclames as much for he proclames him blessed that hath his quiver full of them he shall not be ashamed when he meets his enemy in the gate Psal 112. But when I find it Filio Regis the Kings Sonne I think David made a difference and had a speciall eye upon Solomon that God had given him to succeed after him 1 Chron. 28. Well then be it to the Kings Sonne Why but then is it but to one out of doubt where there is but one there can be no question but when there are more Sons than one as David had and other Kings may have there the Kings Sonne in the text stands for that Sonne that in the course of the kingdome is to inherit and to be King after him Not that prayer is not neeessary or not to be made for Gods blessings upon them all But because in the course of time the sterne is to be held by that hand therefore the prayer is most necessary to fill that hand with justice and judgement of the Kings Sonne and to season the Kings Sonne with justice and judgement So then the Son in the text was Solomon not borne first for he had other brethren living but designed by God and by David himselfe to be King after him designed by David therefore he had great reason to pray designed by God therefore David had reason to hope that God would give him a spirit of government And it was so for God gave him plenty of wisdome and store of justice 2 King 1. The Sonne with which God hath blessed onr King and us as natus haeres borne heire and I hope designed and marked out by God for long life and happinesse In all things like Solomon God make him saving in those things in which Solomon fell from these prayers of his Father Now as it was to David so it is to any King a great happinesse to have a Son to pray for For first there is scarce such another exercise of a Kings piety as to pray for his Sonne Secondly there is scarcely such another motive to make the King carefull of his Sonnes education as this prayer is For the more David prayed to God for Gods justice and judgement to descend upon his Son the more he seemed to see what a want it was for the Sonne of a King to want justice and judgement and the more he sees what this want is the more undoubtedly must he indeavour by prayer to God and his owne indeavour to looke to it for the vertuous education of his Sonne For it is impossible almost that he that prayes to God to give should not also indeavour that it may be given For when we our selves pray for any thing that prayer if it be such
as it ought sets an edge on our indeavours because in a manner it assures us that God will give what we aske if we indeavour by Gods grace as we aske And for our owne particular I doubt not but we shall see Gods grace plentifully given to the Kings Sonne after his pious Fathers carefull successefull indeavour in his education That his heart may be full of justice and his hand of judgement against the time come that the judiciary power must descend upon him And if you marke it here the blessing that David desires for the Kings Sonne is the very selfe-same that he askes for himselfe Righteousnesse that is Justice and Judgement And there is great reason for it for this vertue is as necessary for the Sonne as for the Father The same Crown being to be worne by both The same Scepter to be welded by both The same people to be governed by both The same Lawes to be maintained by both Therefore the same vertue is necessary for both And the copulative in the text And thy righteousnesse for the Kings Sonne joynes David and Solomon the Father and the Sonne in one prayer for one blessing And this example of Davids prayer is a great leading case for Kings for this holy and pious King David this King full of experience what the greatest want of a King might be he doth not aske at Gods hand for his Son long life an inlarged kingdome heaps of wealth though that be very necessary but the grace of judgement and righteousnes that so he may be able to goe through with the office of a King that is Davids prayer And other blessings come within the adjicientur Mat. 6. they shall be cast into the lap of the King if he first seeke the Kingdome of God in the administration of Justice and Judgement to the people For Kings are ordained of God for the good of the people And this David understood well for himselfe acknowledgeth it Psal 78. that God therefore made him King that he might feed Jacob his people and Israel his Inheritance that he might feed them and as David knew this so he practised it too for he fed them with a faithfull and prudent heart and governed them wisely with all his power And even with this goes along the prayer of the Church for the King that he may ever and first seeke Gods honour and glory and then study to preserve the people committed to his charge to preserve them which cannot possible be without Justice and Judgement For as Austine proves at large there is no bond of unity or concord that can be firme without it And I will not tell you but Solomon may what a King is that hath not the grace of Justice Prov. 28. But however the more are you bound to God Almighty that hath given you a King so full of Justice and Judgement as you have found him to be And it is worthy our consideration too how David and Solomon agree in their prayers and what a Kings Son may learne when he is exampled by such a Father For we find when Solomon came to yeeres and wore the Crowne he fell to prayer too and his prayer was built upon the same foundation The prayer of David Solomon the son meet at once For David did not simply pray for wisedome but for that wisdome that might enable him to governe the people And indeed all the wisdome of a King especially to direct Justice and Judgement is the very ready way to all Kingly wisdome Therefore Davids prayer went up first for Justice because without that there is no wisdome There may be wilinesse if you will to resemble wisdome but there was never any wise King that was not just And that policy will be fouud weake in the end that perswades any King against Iustice and Judgement And as before it was not Judgement alone that David desired for himselfe but it must be Tuam thy Iudgement So Righteousnesse alone doth not content him for his Sonne but it must be Tuam too Thy righteousnesse And indeed morall Iustice alone cannot possibly be enough for a Christian King Religious and pious Iustice must come in too He must take care for the soules as well as for the bodies and goods of his people Therefore one of the Churches prayers is that the King may study to preserve the people not in wealth onely and in peace but in Godlinesse too He must so give the people their owne that is Iustice as that he command the people to give God his owne that is Justice with Religion And there is no King nor no Kings Sonne can possibly doe this unlesse God give them the spirit of Judgement and Justice God must first give it the King before the King give it the people And it is Give Lord For as Morall Justice onely will not serve so neither will Theological but only qua datur as it is given For as it is acquisita as it is learned by study be it by study or practise so it is speculative or operative by rule that is the most but as it is given so it is at the heart and so the King is not onely active by rule but it makes the King and the Kings Son to be in love and to joy in the judgment that they are to put in excution Then the King is fitted indeed for government when there is the love of Justice and truth in the inward parts Psal 51. For then they cannot but practice what they love I and then that Justice which is within at the heart is vera tua truly Gods Righteousnesse and for this Justice and Judgement I shall therefore continue Davids prayer and go on Give Lord thy judgement to the King and thy righteousnesse to the Kings son For if God doe not give it is not possible for Justice and Judgement any other way to descend into the heart of the King and the Kings Son None but God can see to drop Justice and Iudgement into the deep heart of the King none but onely Pater luminum the Father of Lights that stand over and sees how to doe it And yet I must tell you here that while he prayes for Gods Iustice and Iudgement for himselfe and his Son it must be understood with a great deale of difference and and that in two respects First because Gods Iudgement as it is in God is substantiall It is so in God as it is his essence himselfe This way no King is capable of Gods Justice because it is his essence But Iustice as it is given to the King is a quality an accident and that is separable if God either leave to give or desist from preserving that that he hath given therefore Kings have great need to pray for this Iustice because they can neither have it nor keepe it without him Secondly because Iustice as it is in God is Lumen all light so bright that even impious men themselves cannot but accknowledge it even