Veracity of this great Judge than of the Justice of his Sentence In other terms as our Lord the King is wise according to the Wisdom of aâ— Angel of God to know all things that are before him so we believe he spoke herein with the Sanctity of an Angel and no less according to the Sense of his Royal Heart than according to the Truth of the thing Wherefore undoubtedly let some men think or say what they please he does not estimate his Subjects Loyalty by a warpâ—g Conscience or versatil humour in Reâ—gion No good or wise man Much less â—rince can in his heart approve either â—redulity and Rashness in believing or â—nstability in what is once on sober â—rounds believed There is nothing more â—oathsome to a person of any sense of Worth or Honour than a readiness to â—hange a mans Perswasion because he apprehends it may turn to his Rise or secuâ—ar Advantage To be free and open and use that Parrhesy which Honesty and Vprightness ever may I took not up my Religion from the Placits of Man but from â—he holy Scriptures of eternal Truth delivered to the world by inspired men and faithfully transmitted to us by Gods holy Church which Scriptures I have been instructed in from a Child and have read over diverse times upon my knees before God as well as otherwise with all the care I could I have thence learnt amongst other parts of my Duty my Duty to God and my Duty to my King and if any man catch me wittingly and deliberately tripping in either I decline no Censure nor Punishment But I am almost daily told by men whose Insolence I believe His Majesty if he understood would little approve that my King is not of my Religion I still answer thereto I cannoâ— tell nor am I busie to enquire but I blesâ— God and night and day pray to him to blesâ— our Gracious King for that Liberty Protection and Encouragement which we Protestants of the establisht Church enjoy in our Religion under his sweet wise happy Government And as to His Majesties Religion I say he is no more accountable to his Subjectâ— for that than he is for his Crown nor may they any more censure than prescribe to him therein All that concerns them is to pray God would guide him and inspire with all Christian Temper and Counsel those to whom under God he commits the Guidance of his Conscience And having said thus much I will only add As to my Religion from henceforth let no man trouble me For ought I know I profess the Religion the King would have me For if I should profess my self of any other I should dissemble and that I believe His Majesty with reverence be it spoken would no more approve in me or any man else than God does I have thus said what I had to say of the Occasion of publishing these Sermons It remains to the full discharging my Promise that I say a few things of their frame or make They consist not then of any profound cuâ—â—us or refined Notions nor is their Style â—curate or correct But they are what I â—prehend Sermons ought to be plain hoâ—st and strong I mean their Language is â—sie natural and such generally which is â— soon understood as heard Their Matâ—â— nothing but what in the Subjects â—andled is the sum of our certain Christiâ—â—ity And the Reasonings used in them I â—ope such as may convince There is at present a great complaint aâ—ongst the Book-sellers that there is nothing â—lls so dully as Sermons And yet I rememâ—er my Lord Verulam somewhere says in â—ommendation of the English Preaching â—hat if Preambles Transitions and passages which are purely matter of form with some such like particulars were taken out and the substance of our English Sermons extant collected into one Book it would certainly be one of the best Books in the world or words to this purpose Now what is the reason of the former complaint 'T is certain Sermons were no such Drugs in his days Has there then befallen any universal Degeneracy amongst us since his time which has altered the case None certainly universal for there have been better Sermons by far publisht since the death of that great Judge for such he was in all kinds of Learning than any I know before and particularlâ— those of the before at least matchless Bishop Sanderson And there are at this time in present being a great number of as excellent Preachers both in the City of London and disperst through the Kingdom oâ— England as most we can find to have liveâ— since the Apostles days many of whosâ— Sermons are in print But the truth of thâ— matter is this In the late days of the Liberty of Prophesying when every one took on him the honour not only of the Priesthood but even oâ— Apostleship that would and a bold pretencâ— to Grace Inspiration was enough to qualifie any man for the Pulpit there came for t such a swarm of putid and nonsensical as weâ—â— as too often unchristian Abortions of Preachments that mens stomachs then in a sorâ— turn'd many begun to abhor and ridicule thâ— Word of God and even the most sober sorâ— could not but loath such vile Entertainments Of this kind were all the Millenarâ— and generally all the Antinomian Rabble oâ— Preachers with more who followed the Parliament Camp whom I will not name Another sort there were who had some kind â—â— learning and seem'd at first hearing to havâ— something of soundness in them but in process all the Divinity you should find in their Sermons was pickt out of little Systems and Annotators beyond which very few of the men of those days ever went Henderson himself confessing to Arch-Bishop Vsher he had never read the Fathers and lay all in some Geneva-opinions servilely taken up a few terms of Art and Notions ill applied possibly not half digested or understood and in words and phrases of uncertain significations a vein of Canting running thro the whole Of these two kinds were I believe one tenth part of the Sermons preached and printed for neer twenty years together from the beginning of our late unhappy Civil Wars in England But God be blessed though such preaching was general yet was it not universal There were all along these times a secret stock of profoundly learned Divines excellent Preachers compel'd to be too secret God knows the remains of the old scattered Church and the Seed of our restored present establisht Church of England Arch-Bishop Vsher Doctor afterwards Bishop Saunderson Bishop and after the Restauration Arch-Bishop Bramhall Bp. Brownâ—ig Dr. Hammond Doctors and Bishops Jeremy Taylor John Pierson with many others these mens Sermons and many of their Discourses which though not printed Sermon-wise yet were divers of them first delivered in Sermons before ever printed in the form we have them no one I hope will account Drugs cast by or not think to deserve a very good place in his
SIX SERMONS PREACHED in IRELAND IN Difficult TIMES I. A Temper for Loyal Joy and Grief on Psal 46. ver 10 11. II. The Reasons and Necessity of Loyal Devotion on 1 Tim. 2. ver 1 2. III. The Way to Peace and Publick Safety on 1 Pet. 3. ver 2 IV. Religion and Loyalty inseperable on 1 Pet. 2. ver 17. V. Rex Regius on Eccles 10. ver â—7 VI. The Christian Law of the Sword on St. Matth. 16. ver 52. By EDWARD Lord Bishop of Cork and Ross LONDON Printed for William Whitwood at the Crown in Little-Britain 1695. Academiae Cantabrigiensis Liber TO His Grace MICHAEL Lord Arch-Bishop of Ardmagh and Primate of all Ireland one of the Lords Justices and Lord High Chancellor of the same c. May it please Your Grace WHen I preached the following Sermons I had no thoughts of Printing them Having now on some Reasons resolved to print them there is such a Congruity of Debt arises upon them from the Consideration of Your Graces Station and their Subject matter that were there no Obligation upon their Author they ought upon their own sole account to be addrest to no other within this Kingdom but Your Graces sacred Patronage They assert His Majesties Rights and his Subjects Duties And Your Grace here sustains and represents His Majesties Person in all the most ample capacities a Subject can do in Church in State and in the highest ordinary Judicature But My Lord I have besides this Debt on Them many Debts on my Self I can never forget the Entertainment Your Grace was pleased to give me at my first Arrival in this Kingdome neer fourteen Years ago when a perfect Stranger therein together with the sweet but effectual Interpositions of that Authority which then preserved me from Ruine And what is much greater the Constancy of Your Graces Favour ever since These things all live imprinted upon my very Soul and as they daily draw forth my most ardent Prayers to God for Your Graces present and future Felicities so as long as I am capable of Gratitude they shall be matter of my publick Gratitude and Acknowledgments As one instance whereof I beseech Your Grace to accept this present Recognition And here I could willingly have closed this Dedication but I must now beseech your Grace to become my Patron in another sense How of late I have been represented is more known than I could wish it were for the Representers sake How I deserved it no one better knows than Your Grace before whom I had the Honour to preach that so much scandalized Sermon on the first Sunday after Your Graces third Reception of the Sword In which Sermon if there had been any thing wherein I had made the least disloyal Glance I should not doubtless have carried it away without Animadversion both from Your Grace and Your Graces no less Loyal than Heroical and Honourable Collegue But I humbly conceive that as there was no Cause then administred to any ill Censure so it would have been no more proper for me then and in that Audience to have preach'd a Sermon solely pressing Loyalty and Allegiance than if a man should have come up amongst the Hundred and twenty assembled together at Jerusalem fresh after our Saviours Ascension and have set himself to perswade them to constancy in the Belief of their Lords Resurrection when they were all of them inspirited with zeal to die for it I chose therefore to perform the Office of preaching Loyalty and Allegiance in places and times which more required it and at that time and place I spoke what I thought might be of more universal Edification and Agreeableness I herewith present some of the Vouchers which I have of my Fidelity to His Majesty And I humbly pray and hope that if Your Grace should judge I ever needed or should need Testimonials of my Loyalty Your Grace would vouchsafe to represent these where and as occasion may serve God in his Mercy to the poor Church of Ireland long preserve Your Grace her happy Angel and a Refuge to My Lord Your Graces most Dutiful Servant E. Cork Rosse Cork Dec. 19. 1685. THE Titles Texts Occasions Of the Several SERMONS I. A Temper for Loyal Ioy and Grief Text. Psalm xlvii 10 11. preached on Sunday Feb. 15. 1684. being the day of proclaiming His present Majesty and the second day after we had tidings of the Death of His late Majesty Charles the Second of blessed Memory II. The Reasons and Neéd of Loyal Devotion Text 1 Tim. ii 1. preached on St. Georges day April 23. 1685. being the day of the Coronation of His present Majesty III. The Way to Peace and publick Safety Text 1 Pet. iii. 11. preached in the Heat of Argiles and Monmouths Rebellion IV. True Religion Loyalty inseparable Text 1 Pet. ii 17. preached in the Heat of Monmouths Rebellion V. REX REGIVS Text Eccles x. 17. preached Oct. 14. 1685. being celebrated at Cork as His Majestys Birth-day VI. The Christian Law of the Sword Text Matth. xxvi 52. preached Octob. 23. 1685. being by Statute an Anniversary day of Thanksgiving in Ireland THE PREFACE TOuching these Sermons which I here publish Two things there are an account whereof I thought convenient to preface to them The Occasion of publishing them and their Frame or Nature where if I digress a little touching some ways of Preaching more usual than profitable I hope my design of doing thereby a publick good may plead my Excuse They were preached with a very single Eye or sincere Intention of conscientious performing my Duty and approving my self to God in my station by doing what lay in me at a time of exigence to confirm the wavering to animate the diffident to contain excite and advance all in their Loyalty and firm Adhesion to His Gracious Majesty our present alone rightful liege Lord and Sovereign And this End having been God be blessed happily attained and perhaps would have been by other means without these Sermons at least I am not so vain as to think otherwise there was therefore for this purpose no need of their publication nor had they for me ever been more heard of much less publickly seen but that the present Humours and Menage of some make it necessary for Churchmen not only to do their Duty but to let the world know they do it and that they are and will be honest And though I am well assured these Discourses will not only in such times as they were preached in but ever be serviceable to the Royal Interest and very beneficial to the Soul health of as many Subjects as will reaâ— them yet I will ingenuously confess thâ— conceit I had of the efficacy of them to these ends was not so great as would have prevailed with me at present to have publish'd them but that I thought it needful some people should hear of both Ears at what rate we poor Irish Protestanâ— Bishops in the Country preach It happened that
whosoever does fear God will honour the King I begin with the first of these the Fear of God not only because it stands first in my Text but also because it is in order of Nature the truest and only sure foundation of the other All Duties towards men when sincerely payed must have their foundation in our Dutifulness towards God When our Lord had occasion to touch on the true and natural Order of Christian Duties he tells us this is the first and great Commandment Matth. xxii 37 38. that we love the Lord our God with all our Heart with all our Mind with all our Soul and with all our Strength And the second is That we love our Neighbour as our selves teaching us hereby that we can never love our Neighbour as we should do except first we most entirely love God The loving God with all our hearts can only sweeten and influence our Souls into an universal Charity And proportionably in the present case the Fear of God can alone implant in our hearts universal and invariable Loyalty And therefore I must confess I cannot see how vicious men can be true Loyalists Natural Love Education Interest Fear and other like causes may beget and nourish a short temporary and partial Allegiance The vilest men may be subject for Wrath but good men only will be subject as the Holy Ghost directs for Conscience sake And such Loyalty will be impartial indefectible and eternally cordial Briefly therefore in the first place of the Fear of God Now by the Fear of God we are to understand such a constant Sense or Aw of God of his Sovereign Dominion Power Omniscience and Justice as restrains us from Sin and quickens us to Duty The Fear of God therefore first supposâ—s most deeply rooted in our hearts a real Belief of his Being and a sober Knowledge of his Nature He who doubts whether there be a God or is either ignorant or dubious of the truth of his infinite Perfections can never have in his heart a true Fear of him For as that Fear presupposes I say such Understanding and Belief so secondly it consists in at least most proximately and immediately flows from or depends upon a constant actual or virtual Attention to what we thus understand and believe of him The thoughts of him and of these his Perfections are generally ever and anon recurring and by that means habitually fixed in the mind The Thoughts I mean 1. Of his Sovereign Dominion and Authority over all He alone is King of Nations Jerem. x. 7. supream and most absolute over all Peoples and Kingdoms and Languages and over each individual Man And therefore who shall not fear before thee O thou King of Nations for to thee it doth appertain forasmuch as amongst all the wise men of the Nations and in all their Kingdoms there is none like unto thee 2. Together herewith do the thoughts of his Omniscience or actually knowing all things possess the heart for begetting in it that Temper which we call the Fear of God Psalm cxxxix 2 3 4 6. Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine up-rising thou understandest my thoughts afar off thou compassest my path and my lying down and art neer unto all my ways For there is not a word in my tongue but lo O Lord thou knowest it altogether Such Knowledge is too wonderful for me it is high I cannot attain unto it In other words it is not possible for any of us so intimately to know our our selves as God knows us I cannot tell what I shall think or what I shall not think to morrow perhaps not an hour hence But God knoweth my thoughts while they are yet afar off He by one simple incomprehensible act sees all things persons and actions past present and to come And whereas the Heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked so that a man himself knows not all the Wickedness of his own heart The Lord searcheth the Hearts and tryeth the Reins of the Children of Men all their Counsels and Contrivances all their hidden acts of Malice or Concupiscence are open and bare to him And therefore who can but fear before him Especially considering what also is another ingredient or ground to the Fear of God 3. That this same Omniscient God is also most just and holy Most holy so as that he can no wise approve or allow Sin Habbak I. 13. Thou art of purer Eyes than to behold Evil and canst not look on Iniquity that is God most perfectly abhors it And therefore he will most certainly punish it where persisted in or not repented of Rom. II. 6 8 9. He will render to every man according to his deed to them that are contentious and do not obey the Truth but obey Vnrighteousness Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish upon every Soul of man that doeth evil Yea so severe is Gods hatred of Sin that sometimes when upon mens Repentance he forgives their sin as to the eternal punishments he yet in his Wisdom and Justice sees fit to inflict upon them here some temporary punishments Psalm xcix 8. Thou answerest them O Lord our God thou wast a God that forgavest them though thou tookest vengeance of their Inventions which whoso considers must certainly fear before this holy God Add hereto lastly the attending to or consideration of his infinite Might Power As he hath resolved and will bring every work into Judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil Eccles vii last so is he able to effect it No Malefactors can possibly fly from or escape this Judge he has Emissaries enough millions of Angels good and bad to fetch all in And all shall appear before the Judgement-seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done 2 Cor. v. 10. Let us now put all these together Admit a man believes and actually thinks there is a great and glorious Majesty unseen indeed but seeing all who is Lord of Heaven and Earth and all in them this God is most holy and most just both resolved and able to bring all things into Judgment even to the very imaginations of the thought of mens hearts must not there needs amount hence a most profound Aw and Dread of this great God And must not this Fear both restrain such in whose Breasts it is conceived from wicked practices and excite and awaken them to all well-doing Thus then we have most plainly heard what the Fear of God is and together how it is begotten in the heart what roots or foundation it has Now for the second Duty Honour the King Honour imports or signifies an inward Esteem and outward Respect paid to any by reason of the Excellency we apprehend in them Thus in the beginning of this verse Honour all men For some Excellency there is in all men that is in every man more than in any other Creatures we know The Image of God is
desire at least which you can prove to be a publick Blessing what Blessing I say could you desire to enjoy from or under any Prince which is not at present indulged under our Gracious Sovereign Have we not Property and Liberty and if we will not break it our selves sacred as well as civil Peace In a word we are either stupid or besides our selves with prejudices if we are not sensible what Complications of Blessings we enjoy and we are most vilely ungrateful if being sensible thereof we pay not our ardent and cordial Praise to God for His Majesty under whom we enjoy them 2. Because true Gratitude lies not only in Words and Professions nor yet in some high-flown Ceremonies and Rodomontades amidst our Jollities and Revels let us be careful what we have been often exhorted to do that both our selves and all under us maintain unspotted Loyalty to our King This will be real Thankfulness to him and the contrary thereto which I hope we all abhor would be the highest and most unnatural Ingratitude both to God and him To be plain I do not believe as to the business of Rebellion there is any fear we of these parts shall ever break out into it or side with those who do I cannot be so unjust as so much as to surmise it but give me leave to tell you there are other Violations of Loyalty besides running out into open Arms or Warlike Hostility against our Kings to which Violations the Manners and Humours of the late Age have rendred most of us of the present Age too much addicted I will reckon up three of them and I in the name of God as you would not approve your selves unthankful to God and the King warn you all of them In the first place I name unreasonable fears so unreasonable indeed as to be grosly unjust because they are both against what His Majesty has promised and against what we yet find he does perform Now shall we neither believe a King upon his Word nor upon his Performances What a miserable condition are Princes in if they of all men are the persons who on no terms may be credited or trusted Let us in the name of God take heed of such monstrous Disloyalty Akin hereunto are Secondly Those abominable Misconstructions which too commonly the generality of men are apt to put upon particular acts of the Government If a Prince take but a prudential course to secure his Authority there are many shall say he makes preparation to destroy his People Now what an unreasonable thing is it to imagine any Prince should wittingly set himself to destroy his People Does he not thereby not only manifestly every minute hazard his own Life for every minute may malice be working but even directly destroy himself as a Prince In the multitude of People is the Kings Honour but in the want of People is the Destruction of the Prince Prov. xiv 28. to destroy therefore his People is I say to destroy himself And certainly if there be any Prince living that by his Actions may seem to have been prodigal of his peoples Lives of all the Princes in Christendom our present Sovereign never did nor indeed any of this Line ever give any reasons to be suspected hereof Wherefore let us abhor also this degree of Disloyalty And the same let me say Lastly As to Misreports which are as frequent as Misconstructions and but the effects of them for still Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak This is an Evil expresly forbidden within two verses of my Text. Curse not the King no not in thy thought ver 20. Cursing in the Hebrew Idiom usually signifies only speaking evil of Now so much as a thought hereto we may not advance much less may we directly break that Command transumed from the Old Testament into the New and strictly exemplified by the great Apostles practice Act. xxiii Thou shalt not speak evil of the Ruler of thy People though as in that case a Jew Infidel or vilest enemy to Christianity I pray you let us all be tender of these three lesser instances as to some they may seem of Disloyalty as knowing that they lead to greater indeed to direct and the highest Treason To conclude the whole Let us first of all keep close each of us to God in a conscientious discharge of our Duty to him trusting in him at all times and pouring out our hearts before him especially whensoever we are amused or afraid Psal lvi 3. What time I am afraid I will trust in God Let us next maintain our Duty to our King trusting him also as under God our Safeguard and Defender conceiving of interpreting and reporting all his Actions as fairly as we can which is no more than both in Loyalty Justice and Charity we are bound to Let us lastly be as helpful sweet and obliging to one another as we would have others to be to our selves In a word let us be easie to our selves and others and by this means as we are at present so I doubt not but we may continue a blessed Land under Kings the Sons of Nobles and Princes who eat for Strength and not for Drunkenness The continuance of which Mercy God grant to us through Jesus Christ our Lord. To whom c. FINIS THE Christian Law OF THE SWORD Both as to its Publick Private Use Briefly stated in a SERMON AT Christchurch in the City of Cork Preached upon Octob. 23. being by Statute an Anniversary Thanksgivng in the Kingdom of Ireland In the year 1685. By Edward Lord Bishop of Cork and Rosse Dublin Printed by A. Crook and S. Helsham for William Norman Samuel Helsham and Eliphal Dobson Booksellers 1686. Advertisement THis Sermon being drawn up at first in haste I had once thought to have alter'd some small Irregularities in its Method which that haste occasioned Of the seven Points which in a general sense I call Conclusions I would have advanced three under the style of Propositions namely these First That God alone Originally and Sovereignly has the Power of Humane Life and Death Secondly That the Derivative or Delegated Power hereof in every Kingdom or Commonwealth is immediately from and under God in the supreme Magistrate alone Thirdly That the supreme Magistrate exerciseth this Power either in the Administration of Civil Justice or of Lawful War And from these three I would have deduced the other Points viz. That no one of himself is Lord of his own Life and the rest as Conclusions in a stricter sense and by a closer method of consequence But upon better consideration as I think I resolved not to alter the Frame of the Discourse from that wherein it was at first contrived and delivered but to publish it nakedly such as it was born Besides the grand Design here carried on all along which is to assert the Sovereign Power of the Sword under God to the supreme Magistrate alone there are several lesser ones