well as with a large one of others These three therefore To Eat and Drink in due season in due measure and of such viands as are convenient for us make up what we call Temperance in Diet. But this single Virtue as being the principal part of Sobriety and that which is mainly instrumental to preserve Reason and Consideration is put Synecdochically for a considerative Virtuous Temper and Practice in opposition especially to a voluptuous and sensual Life which whosoever give themselves up to whether noble or plebeian are neither sit for nor can mind or happily dispath Business And so the sum of the Royal Preachers Observation in the Text amounts to this 'T is a singular Blessing to a Nation to have a King nobly descended of a noble Mind not young or unexperienc'd not giving himself over to Pleasures and excess but grave abstemious considerative and virtuous And all this praised be our good God is a Blessedness which these Nations at present enjoy The Text being thus explained it follows that we speak distinctly to its parts which I shall not be curious in assigning It being a compound or copulative Proposition consists evidently of two simple ones the first whereof is Blessed art thou O Land when thy King is the Son of Nobles We ought then first to consider what Felicities they are which amount to a People by having their Prince of Noble Extraction And in answer hereto if my Discourse be not at present so perfectly or wholly Theological as I could desire or as are generally those with which I use to entertain you I must beg your pardon the nature of the Subject matter does not admit it But I am sure the End I drive at or that to which all tends is truly Holy Religious and Christian Now the great Benefits which reasonably a People may expect under such a Prince are I think chiefly these three Publik Wealth and Plenty Publick Ease or Liberty to enjoy what they have And Publick Quiet and Peace Blessings which one would think should endear the Government to us and which I am sure whether we will acknowledge or no the Kingdoms generally enjoy especially if we consider how at present it goes with other neighbouring Nations And these I say by Gods Blessing and upon our own Loyalty we may reasonably expect the continuance of under our Sovereign and the present Constitution that is while we are governed by Kings who are the Sons of Nobles For First With Noble Personages generally go Noble Estates and Revenues When men who were born Princes come to the Throne they carry with them thither their private Fortunes and former Principalities joyning all to the Crowns they take A great Felicity this to the Publick and much for the aggrandising a Nation as well as for the Ease of the middle rate of men on whom commonly all burdens fall Kings cannot be too rich though Subjects may 'T is for the Benefit of the whole body of their People that Princes abound They will then be better able to defend both themselves and Subjects and that with fewer lighter and more easie Supplies On the contrary where indigent and poor men come to rule though never so virtuous upright and just never so sweet generous and noble minded yet Necessitas cogit ad turpia a poor Princes own or the publick Necessities will put him on Practices dishonourable and which will be uneasie and grating on the the Subject For what vast Treasures are cessary to settle a new Prince What unthought of Expences incident Extraordinary Exigents of State private Accidents Families to be raised Dependants to be advanced and a multitude of like occasions Of all which the ordinary sort must bear the main burden Wherefore no such Oppressor as a poor Man in chief Power Prov. xxiii 3. A poor man that oppresseth the Poor is like a sweeping Rain which leaveth no Food Though therefore it was a King in the Text that said it yet it would seem of all Degrees the Commonality may in this respect most justly pronounce Blessed art thou O Land when thy King is the Son of Nobles Secondly The Sons of Nobles most generally prove Noble and Heroical themselves and of great and brave Souls Fortes creantur fortibus bonis Eagles naturally produce not Kites or Buzzards There is a Royal Spirit runs in Royal Bloud And it has been observed by the wisest and most impartial men such which are best Judges in these matters I mean least obnoxious to mistake and freest from Flattery that many Princes even while young and within those years which ordinarily denominate Children have far surpast in ripeness of Wit Prudence Counsel or like Qualifications the generality of adult persons of above twice their years though of liberal and good lettered Education also This amongst others was manifest to all the world in that blessed Prince Edward VI. King of England whom Cardan an Italian by Birth as well as Religion but one of the most learned men and greatest Philosophers then in the world having visited could not forbear wonder and giving him so great a Character as is scarce credible touching one of so few years It is too long to repeat the whole but in the end he expresly stiles him the Miracle of Nature And it is truly much to have been ever from the Cradle fill'd with great thoughts possest with Principles and Designs of publick Good and bred by Art as well as by Nature dispos'd and fram'd for Government Now this may be expected from the Sons of Nobles and is almost ever found in those who are born Princes They cannot well be base spirited but answer their Originals and Condition of Life From whence how naturally the forementioned Advantages will flow to their Subjects any may easily see who pleases to consider the Case On the contrary when men either by the Sword or Popular Favour and Factions come to the Throne they retain dreadful tinctures of the Cruelty Bloudiness Partiality or other base Arts that advanced them Whence it comes to pass that they rule with Tyranny and Oppression at least that they generally administer pardon the solecism unequal and partial Justice Where they dare to punish they commonly though on slight occasions crush irreparably where they dare not they will not see but haply flatter or fawn at least basely dissemble and personate Justice only in being blind And what Grievances how great and various must arise hence is not easie I had almost said to imagine I am sure not to comprehend or determine Remember Jothans Parable Judg. ix 15. When the Bramble was advanced to be King over the Trees he said unto the Trees if in truth ye anoint me King over you then come and put your trust in my Shadow and if not let Fire come out of the Bramble and devour the Cedars of Lebanon The Bramble is no such tall erect or strong plant that its shadow was likely I should have said possible to defend the Trees
spoken unto them also Be ye still and know that the Lord is God But to conclude in a word to all laying aside our private Humours and little mutual Piques at Persons and Parties too if possible let us all joyn in a Quiet of Peace and Christian Charity which I toucht not till now resolving to close with it And to press this I should think no Argument need to be used but our own Interest Here are a multitude of us present that are old enough to remember what our eyes have seen and may we never see the second time the Miseries and Desolations the Cruelties and Ravages of Civil Wars Can we be fond of them or does not Horror seize us when we reflect on those dreadful Idea's though almost worn out For our own sakes then as well for Gods and Religions let us all study to be quiet and to do our own business And if we meet with any who either by their secret Perswasions or Combinations or by their whispering Fears and Jealousies Designs and Stories contrary to what you have heard of His Majesties Royal Intentions and Declaration who I say either by these or any other methods we have reason to believe are endeavouring to diâ—â—urb the publick Peace and embroyl things let us in the name of God discover them Better such men suffer than we than all And especially let us empty our own minds and dispossess our selves of such Jealousies Fears and Jealousies did undo us once God in his mercy restored all King and Church and Religion The same Fears and Jealousies have bid fair to destroy all again God has hitherto hindred it In the name of God let us not tempt him again thereby to destroy us or let not us our selves destroy our selves by the old unreasonable methods In a word as I have said before but repeat that it may be more surely practised Let us trust God and next trust our King be quiet loyal and circumspect in our places and I doubt not but all things will go well with us and the whole Israel of God Which God grant And to Him be all Glory Praise and Thanksgiving now and for ever Amen FINIS THE REASONS AND NEED OF Loyal Devotion Set forth in a SERMON Before the Mayor Aldermen and Citizens of Cork and many of the Countrey Gentry and others assembled in Christ-church in the City of Cork on St. Georges Day Apr. 23. 1685. being the Day of the Coronation of his Gracious Majesty James II. in England 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 AN Advertisement Touching This SERMON THe chief Design of this Sermon is to make people conscientious in daily Prayers for the King whether in publick or in private and by the by to vindicate our Church Liturgy from the imputation of Tautology charged upon it in this behalf by the old as well as present Dissenters An unkindness not to say an impudence in them which even His Blessed Majesty Charles I. â—â—ok notice of in his incomparable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chap. 16. how perfunctory many even of truly loyal and sober persons are apt to be in the usual Praiers for the King partly because tâ—ey occur so often that it seems a matter oâ— course partly for that they attend not distinctly how much both themselves and theirs as well as the whole three Kingdoms are concerned therein is more obvious than that â—â— need to take notice of it I could think on â— better Arguments to stick upon all men thaâ— what I have used and judged there coulâ— scarce come a better season than the day â—â— which I applyed them Some mens Objectioâ— I have chosen to answer rather covertly anâ— by way of anticipation than expresly to mention which way I took to avoid offence The present Sermon was only preached in thâ— Place and on the Occasion mentioned Goâ— make it useful to the End whereto it was design'd THE Reasons and Need OF Loyal Devotion Set forth in a SERMON before the Mayor Aldermen and Citizens of Cork and many of the Gentry assembled in Christchurch in the City of Cork on St. Georges day Apr. 23. 1685. being the Day of the Coronation of His Gracious Majesty James II. The Text 1 Tim. ii 1 2. I exhort therefore that first of all Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of Thanks be made for all men For Kings and all that are in Authority WE are here assembled of our own free accord and by a general agreement amongst our selves upon occasion of His Majesties we trust most happy Coronation in England this present day and as we may guess about this time I believe if we think never so much on the Subject we can devise no other thing we can do whereby we can in this instant contribute to make his Crown sit long easie and secure on his Head but the offering up our hearty and sincere Prayers to that purpose which because in the present instance a free-will Offering ought for that reason after the manner of all free-will Offerings to be the more cheerful and affectionate I exhort therefore that first of all Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of Thanks be made for all men for Kings and all that are in Authority Which Exhortation manifestly depends on the 18th verse of the foregoing chapter This Charge I commit to thee Son Timothy that according to the Prophesies which have been of thee thou warr a good warfare that is thou diligently and strenuously discharge the Office of a Bishop As the Roman Emperors used when they sent forth their Prefects or Governours into their Provinces to give them their Instructions with them so says Grotius does St. In loc Paul here to Timothy and in him to other Bishops sent forth unto their Churches And of those Instructions this the due ordering and constituting the publick Prayers of the Church was the first I exhort therefore first of all for afterwards as we might shew you by particulars he gives him many further Commands Now as to the Contents of the publick Prayers or of Liturgies he requires that they consist of Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of Thanks and what is the particular import of these several terms ought at least in transitu as we pass to our main design to be considered Some have thought that one Theoph. Cast Cameron c and the same thing is here signified by several expressions only in divers regards so that the publick Prayers should be called Supplications as they testifie before God our wants Petitions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they express the desires of our Souls and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Intercessions as asking with humble boldness and not diffidently But I really believe St. Pauls words to have more Epistola 59. ad Paulinam in them and so St. Austin most fully of the Ancients and divers Moderns have taught us out
preached only in the place and on the time and occasion mentioned The Specialties of its Design may not perhaps be fully understood either by its Title or by the Text And therefore I thought fit to premonish that I aimed herein peculiarly at these Two Points First to conciliate the most I could to our present Sovereign in particular the good Opinion and hearty Affections of all sorts of People And next more generally to make them in love with and zealous for the Constitution or Frame of our Government It will easily be perceived how these are concerned through the several parts of the Discourse Nor have I been guilty in any thing I have said to either of these purposes of the least Prevarication or Discession from my own Thoughts for I really believe both His Sacred Majesty and the Constitution deserve much more than so shallow a person as my self can comprehend or say of either Only I could wish and I do most passionately exhort that one thing which I have here supposed and pleaded as an Argument of our Happiness might daily take more effect namely that His Majesties most exemplary Royal Virtues of strict Temperance Consideration Prudence and universal Seriousness may be closely imitated by all who presume to stile themselves his Friends For it is plain by one part of this Discourse that much both of His Majestys and his Peoples Blessedness depend hereupon and therefore let none think or calumniate that I promise or pretend to prove publick Prosperity on other Terms For publick Dissoluteness and a truly prosperous state of things are most incompatible The Good God increase amongst us the Virtues I have commended and multiply on us their Fruits and Consequents REX REGIVS Kings succeeding in a right Line a National Blessing Proved in a SERMON preached in Christ church at Cork Octob. 14. 1685. being His Majesties Birth-day The TEXT Eccles X. 17. Blessed art thou O Land when thy King is the Son of Nobles and thy Princes eat in due season for Strength and not for Drunkenness THe great Designs of our being assembled here this day I will presume are or ought to be chiefly these two First To pay God our more solemn Thanksgivings for our Gracious King and the Blessings we enjoy under his happy Reign And Secondly Together to possess both our own and others minds as universally as we can with deeper Impressions of our Duty to our King and fresh Resolutions of Loyal Adhesion Now these things being designed by us upon his Birth-day as this is whatever Advantages his Descent Family or Extraction which certainly have operated more to our Happiness than most are aware of may be conceived to add either to the quickening our Gratitude or fixing in us a more lasting sense of our Obligations and Duty ought not on this Solemnity in all reason to be omitted or to pass unconsidered The Text very pertinently suits with our designs and especially in that it asserts and celebrates as most conducive to the publick Good such peculiar circumstances and qualifications as God be blessed are most eminent and exemplary in our present Sovereign Blessed art thou O Land when thy King iâ— the Son of Nobles and thy Princes eat in dâ—â— season for Strength and not for Drunkerness King Solomon the Author hereof waâ— as much a Prince as a Philosopher as deeply insighted into Political Affairs as into Natural or Moral Sciences And we have many Proofs hereof in several Paragraphs or little Discourses of Political concernment in this Book This out of which the Text is taken is one but very short consisting only of two Aphorisms and those containing matter of his Observations or his Sense in brief touching the different Estate of Kingdoms according to the different Qualifications or Circumstances of their Princes Wo to thee O Land when thy King is a Child and thy Princes eat in the morning ver 16. The word Child here must not be taken strictly for an Infant but as both the Original signifies and the Septuagint have rendred it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a young person And it is in Scripture applied 1. To Age so as to signifie a young person 2. Because young persons used to be imployed in Attendance and Services to Condition and thus the young men in Scripture language very often 1 Sam. ii 13. 2 Sam. ii 14. c. is as much as the Servants or Attendants Or 3. To Vnderstanding in which regard King Rehoboam though then above one and forty years was said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 young and tender-hearted 2 Chron. xiii 7. All which acceptations are necessary here to be noted that the opposite hereof the Son of Nobles in the Text may be better understood Of Eating in the Morning c. we shall touch by and by In the mean while the sum of this his first Observation is That it is generally a great unhappiness for a Nation to have either a young ignoble shallow or voluptuous Prince God be blessed our Kings vilest Enemies can affix none of these to him But contrarily Blessed art thou O Land when thy King is the Son of Nobles and thy Princes eat in due season for Strength and not for Drunkenness That term the Son of Nobles is capable of a double sense Strictly and literally taken it signifies only a Person of Noble Extraction or descended from a Noble Family But taken according to the Hebrew Idiom as we say the Sons of Men that is Men so the Son of Nobles will be a Person of a noble Spirit generous great and brave Nothing hinders but we may understand the term both ways And in the Interpretation of Scriptures where several senses are probable and wholesome it is as one calls it a piece of spiritual Frugality to take both or even all It is indeed an holy making the most of Scripture And if we regard what was said before in the Explication of the word Child in the former verse that it signifies not only what we commonly mean by the name a person of few years but also either one of a mean or servile condition or even of a weak and mean Soul the Opposition which must be admitted between these two branches Wo be to thee O Land when thy King is a Child and Blessed be thou O Land when thy King is the Son of Nobles will enforce us to take this term in both the senses mentioned Then as to what may see dubious or obscure in the latter clause of the Text Eating in due season for Strength and not for Drunkenness seems at first only a description of temperate Diet. Eating in due season is opposed to Eating in the morning The morning is no season for men to set themselves to Eating but first for Devotion then for Business Eating for Strength and not for Drunkenness determines both the Quantity and Quality of our Food For it is plain men may make themselves drunk with a small measure of some kind of Liquors as
from the injuries either of Storms or scorching Heat Yet if the Trees would not accept of this its shelter as insignificant and ridiculous as it was from such a King nothing but consuming Fire was to be expected even to the very goodliest Cedar And the matter of fact proved such in that very case to which this Parable was adapted The men of Shechem ver 2. that is the Manassites and Ephraimites that inhabited that City and its Territories forgetting the Benefits they had received from Jerubaal upon Abimelechs insinuations and wheadling of them chose him who was only Jerubaals Natural Son by an Handmaid of his for their King rejecting Jerubaals legitimate Issue they furnish him with Treasure wherewith he hired vain and light men that followed him that is wherewith he raised a kind of a paltry Army By the assistance of these he goes and cuts off all the legitimate Issue of Jerubaal threescore and ten persons on one stone excepting only Jothan that fled But soon after God was meet with him and Jothans Curse which I before repeated befell both him and them God sent an evil spirit between the men of Shechem and Abimelech They dealt treacherously with one another For they conspire against him he chaseth them out of their City kills and slays as many as he could drives the rest into a Castle and by a stratagem burns a thousand of them in the Castle into which he had driven them Thus almost literally Fire comes out of the Bramble to consume the Cedars And in the end besieging a Tower into which another party of them had fled he is himself knockt on the head by a piece of a Milstone thrown down from the top of the Portal by a Woman Thus back again Destruction comes out from a Shrub to consume the very Bramble They rend and tear one another till the Bastard Prince and his People mutually perish by one anothers hand Nor is this a single or rare case as to matter at least of the Tyranny of ignoble persons It has been the Experience of all Ages and Countries that there is no such Cruelty and Invasion on all mens Rights Properties and even Lives as under upstart Governments and Governours But I shall not stand to multiply instances I will only note This is the first of the three things for which the Earth is disquieted and which it cannot bear For a Servant when he reigneth Prov. xxx 22. For they bring with them Spirits unequal to their new Place Wherefore blessed art thou O Land when thy King is the Son of Nobles Thirdly The Title of Kings the Sons of Nobles is generally certain and their succeeding or coming to the Crown peaceable uncontroverted submitted to and quiesced in by all Now this is an unspeakable Benefit to a Nation when Kings dye almost like other men and the Government as an Estate in Fee descends to the rightful Heir without noise and publick concussions when there are no Earthquakes as I may call them in the Commonwealth but as in the Succession of other Noble Men to their Palaces Lands and Honours there is only the alteration of a single person or two If you come into the Family you shall find few new Faces but generally the House looks all as it did the old Servants still fill their old Places and no Servant is at a loss for his Portion in due season How easie must this be to the People scarcely perceptible and in a manner only a vicissitude or kind of exchange of Happiness Whereas the setting up of new Titles has inunmerable Inconveniencies and cannot be effected if at all without great and lasting Commotions 'T is difficult to do long a doing and perhaps never well done And in all these stages of its progress a Plague to the People This is so clear that I confess I am amazed that any men who pretend to Sense and Judgment should be so fond of an Elective form of Kingship or what is much the same altering the true legitmate Succession And now I have named it and indeed I named it with design as being most pertinent to my Subject let me conjure you all in the name of God and as you tender your own and your Posterities Welfare that you never hearken to men who would instill such Notions God be blessed the Crisis is over and there 's no danger I think at present of any mens being about attempting matter of practice of this kind But I say suffer no little State-menders to possess you or yours with any such Speculations or Notional imgagitations Stick to Solomons Doctrine in my Text of the happiness of being governed by Kings the Sons of Nobles in an uninterrupted Line and never hear of otherwise transferring Royalty And here give me leave in a few words as the last Argument to assert the Peoples Happiness in being under Kings the Sons of Nobles to shew you out of Scripture something of the mischief of Elective Kingdoms which too many in these Nations of late years have madly driven at As long as I keep to Scripture I may suppose my self not much if at all out of my Kew First In such cases on every change it cannot be comprehended or stated how great the publick Sufferings or miseries may may prove but in the general it is most certain the people must suffer much at least all mens Rights Families and even persons must be in perpetual turmoil and danger by reason of the uncertainty as well as variations of Kings or of the particular methods of Government sometimes it will not be known who is King one party will contend one is another will say theirs is and however the Power that made one King to day can unmake him to morrow and amongst so changeable a Generation as they say we Islanders be indeed as all mankind is there can be expected no stability Be pleased to see instances to this purpose out of holy Scripture The People of Israel who I am sure were no Islanders I mean the ten Tribes fell off from the House or Line of David which God had chosen and set over them and they would choose for themselves and a very popular man they did choose for their King namely Jeroboam the Son of Nebat 1 King xii 20. After Wars Disorders and Desolations which lasted all his days and during which in one Battel there fell of the Israelites 2 Chronicl xiii 7 c. five hundred thousand chosen men which would make five greater Armies than I think we have usually heard of in this age and perhaps is a greater number of fighting men than many populous Kingdoms such as are now adays can send forth and from which neither Jeroboam nor his People ever recovered themselves ver 20. After Jeroboams two and twenty years Rebellion against God in corrupting his Worship and People with Idolatry for which they were finally destroyed as well as against two of his lawful Sovereigns successively after all this Iliad
of Miseries the Lord struck him and he died His Son Nadab succeeds him indeed or as some think reigned together with him towards the latter end of his days However before he was well warm in his Throne Baasha a person of another Tribe who had no pretence to the Crown but who might quickly have as good a Title to it as either Jeroboam or Nadab had conspired against him and slew him as would seem in the head of his Army and reigned in his stead 1 King xv 27 28. But how long will this new Title stand After Wars again upon Wars all his days his Son Ela succeeds him but within two years Zimri Captain of half his Chariots conspired against him and slew him as he was drinking himself drunk in the House of Arza his Steward Upon this Zimri sets up himself chap. xvi 9. 11. and immediately slew all of Baasha 's House Here was a Recompence for Baasha's Treason But before Zimri had reigned over part of Israel full one week another part of the people would have another King and set up Omri on which Zimri burns himself in his own Palace And now ver 21. Israel is divided not only from Judah as before but within themselves divided into two parts saith the Text For half of the People followed Tibni to make him King and half Omri To be short from the time the Israelites fell off from the Royal Line that God had set over them and betook themselves to Kingchoosing from that Revolt I say to Omri which was somewhat less than five and forty years if rightly computed they had six Kings indeed but not one year of Peace and of their six Kings as far as I can find only two died the death of other men so frequent and so dismal were the Alterations of Government so unhappy the state of things I will pursue the History of this Kingdom no further as to this particular of the uncertainty of Titles and frequent Changes which you see must needs happen and when they happen they rend Nations in pieces and leave nothing stable durable or secure only out of what you have heard of the deplorable state into which this People brought themselves by breaking off the Succession and running into this kind of Elective Kingdom I cannot but note to you Secondly The dreadful Cruelties and Bloudshed which commonly ensue on such Elections to establish the New Prince Thus as soon as Baasha obtained the Throne he smote all the House that is Kinred Allies and most likely all the Adherent of Jeroboam he left not one of them that breathed until he had destroyed them 1 King xv 29. which though it were Baasha's Wickedness and Gods just Judgment executed on Jeroboams Family however by a villanous Agent yet in point of Policy and Security to himself he was in a sort necessitated to it Now so great a Slaughter certainly could not but be a sore publick Wound I might shew many instances of the like practice in in others but it is not pleasing to rake in Bloud Lastly Whereas it is ordinarily pretended by our modern State-menders that reducing Kingdoms as near as may be to an Elective form is the best method to secure a Succession of good and virtuous Princes the contrary hereto appears by this instance The People of Israel after this new modelling their Kingdom upon rejecting the true Heir descendent and electing out of themselves a King had through the Judgment of God withdrawing his Grace in punishment of their Rebellion and Revolt from this time till the utter Dissolution of their Kingdome nineteen Kings successively and not one good amongst them all And no wonder saith a sober Author For First It was a Kingdome whose Foundation was laid in 1. Rebellion 2. Schism Secondly It was maintained by a Politick Idolatry in the continuance of Jeroboams Golden Calves Thirdly Polluted with the Bloud of many of their Kings few of them going to their Grave Sicca morte by a Bloudless death And therefore having continued two hundred forty one or as others calculate two hundred fifty eight years in the ninth year of Hosea 's Reign which was the seventh of Hezekiah King of Judah the King and People of Israel were carried away Captives by Shalmanezer King of Assyria and never returned again for God removed Israel out of his sight 'T is so said twice 2 King xvii 18 23. And 't is observable no one knows to this day what 's become of these ten Tribes But even during the whole state or most settled time of their Kingdome they had no face of true Religion nor indeed any Religion constant amongst them but a Gallimafry of all the Gods and Idolatries of the Nations according to the Honour or Interest of their Kings On the other side the Kingdome of Judah which continued under the Rightful Succession and was Hereditary stood near one hundred and forty years longer than that of Israel and they had amongst their Kings many great Saints as Asa Jehosophat Hezekiah Josiah and diverse others And though the Worship of God were often foully corrupted in the Reign of some of their Kings yet as that Corruption still came in from the Kings of Israel or from Affinity or League with them so by the Succession of good Kings it was restored again and both the Church and Face of Religion kept up amongst them till it pleased God for their treading in the steps of the People of Israel to send his Church into Captivity there to be cured of Idolatry Which Cure when wrought though there still remained a general Cachexy or disorder of Manners yet it pleased God to bring back for a while their Captivity and to give them a new footing in their own Land till out of that Royal Stem was born our Lord Jesus the promised Seed of Abraham the Son of David according to the Flesh but declared by Power and Resurrection from the dead the Son of God the Lord of Lords and King of Kings blessed for evermore of whose Kingdom there shall be no end To sum up all If then there be any men to whom perpetual unsettledness and dangers to themselves and theirs to whom continued ages of War to whom ever and anon recurring Murder of Kings Massacres of Families together with all Violence and Tyranny over the people and even Arbitrary Religion as well as Government Vsurpation on God and Man be pleasing such men may plead these Arguments to enamour the world with the model of Elective Kingdoms But on the contrary If Publick Wealth Ease and Quiet I may add if continued Liberties settled Religion and general Stability as far as the state of sublunary affairs does admit be more amiable we have reason to stick to a true Legitimate Succession For it was the Observation of the wisest of Kings Blessed art thou O Land when thy King is the Son of Nobles and we see how far it proved so in the Kingdom of Judah We have hitherto as I think