Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n
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A42817
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A loyal tear dropt on the vault of our late martyred sovereign in an anniversary sermon on the day of his murther.
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Glanvill, Joseph, 1636-1680.
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1667
(1667)
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Wing G813; ESTC R23392
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16,431
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44
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A LOYAL TEAR Dropt on the VAULT Of our late Martyred SOVEREIGN IN AN ANNIVERSARY SERMON On the Day of His Murther LONDON Printed by E. Cotes and are to be sold by Iâ—mes Collins at the Kings head in Westminster Hall 1667. The STATIONERS Advertisement THe Author of this being averse to the Printing Sermons a Friend of his who by his importunity had obtained a Copy of it sent it to me with his desire that I would publish it In which he was so earnest that I could not deny him especially he having threatned that if I would not some body else should do it I was loath to neglect an oportunity which I thought might help to the curing the mentioned humour in the Author and I knew would gratifie his Friends and others Being therefore assured by this Gentleman that he would procure me the Authors pardon for my printing this without his leave I have adventured to do so and I hope when he hath perused it I shall easily obtain the Readers JAMES COLLINS A FAST SERMON ON THE KINGS MARTYRDOM ROM XIII 2 And they that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation AS there are some Ages and Times that are more infested with unhappy influences from the Heavens and noxious reeks from the Earth which by poysoning the Air Roots and Herbs propagate that deadly venome into mens bodies that even wearies Death and gluts the Grave with its slaughters and was matter of our late miseries In like manner there are Times when poysonous Doctrines from the Pulpit and maligne humours in the Populace infect the Publick Air and spread a fatal Contagion into mens Principles and Manners which flies like Infection and destroyes like the Plague And if ever Times were under cross and unlucky Aspects if ever there were a publick Spirit of Phrensie mischief in the World in any days since the first certainly this Lot is fallen upon ours wherein mens Principles and Practices contend which shall out-do the other in the degree of Evil. And 't is hard to say which are worse Mens actions or opinions We are fallen into Times wherein among some 't is a piece of Gallantry to defie God and a kind of Wit to be an Atheist among others 't is Religion to be Phantastick and Conscience to be Turbulent and Ungovernable Nor have mens Practices come short of the malignity of their Belief but if possible have out-done it Atheism hath not rested in the judgment but proceeded to all enormities and debauches And we had not been called to the sad solemnity of this Day if Rebellion had slept in Opinion But alas the venome of the Asp hath swoln into deadly Tumors and those seditious Principles have shot their poysonous atrows into the vitals of the publick Body We yet feel the smart of those wounds and the Generations to come will wear the scarrs and the marks of our misery and our guilt What is past we may lament but cannot remedy What we may do and what we ought is to inform our selves better of the Duty we owe to God and those he hath appointed over us and to endeavour the suppressing those principles and aâ—â—â—â—ctions which breathed the Plagues that destroyed the Nation and would again burn us up in hotter Flames than those And if that fatal Fire which so lately prey'd upon our Peace and our Properties our Religion and our Government our Persons and our Friends hath not yet convinced us of the evils and danger of Resistance yet there is another and a greater as certain and more fatal threatned by the Apostle They that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Which words were spoken in the dayes of NERO who besides that he was an Heathen was a Persecutor and a Tyrant and the most infamous instance in Nature and yet this Monster is not excepted as to the Tribute of Obedience Whereas had this been said in the dayes of such a Prince as our CHARLES the First it might have been supposed that the vertue of the person claimed the reverence and subjection and not the capacity of the Prince And that 't was damnable to resist because he was Good not because he was Supream because he was a Nursing Father of the Church not because the Ruling Father of his Country 'T was an happy coincidence therefore to secure the Authority of the Magistrate which answers the greatest pretensions of Rebellion If Religion be pretended an Heathen must not be resisted If Tyranny 't is damnation to oppose a Nero. They that resist shall receive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wrath and judgment of God which implies the guilt and expresseth the danger Now to resist the Authority Providence hath set over us is so sinful and so dangerous principally upon this three-fold account RESISTANCE 1 Affronts the Authority of God 2 'T is contrary to the Spirit of Religion And 3 Destructive to the Interest of Societies The two former express the Guilt and the latter both the Sin and the Punishment And of them all in order 1 Then RESISTANCE is an affront to the authority of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord sets up Kings saith the Father And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kings are from God sayes the Heathen And a greater than both acknowledgeth Pilate's power to be from above The Scripture intitles God to all the Royal adjuncts and both Christian and Heathen Antiquity symbolize in this with the sacred Oracles which hath been largely proved by an excellent Prelate as I instance in some of his Particulars 1 The Kings person is said to be God's Great deliverance giveth He to HIS King 2 Sam. xxii 51 and He shall give strength unto HIS King 1 Sam. ii 10 Yea I have said ye are Gods saith the Text and consonantly Plato calls the King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of God among men And as the name of God is called upon his person so also is it 2 upon his Throne Then Solomon sate upon the Throne of the Lord as King instead of DAVID his Father 1 Chron. xxix 23 And saith the Queen of Sheba Blessed be the Lord thy God which delighteth in thee to set thee on HIS Throne 2 Chron ix 8 To a like sense also is that of Nestor to Agamemnon in Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iove lent thee thy Scepter and Jurisdiction 3 The Kings Titles also relate him to God viz. those of Gods Anointed and his Servant The former given even to Saul 1 Sam xii 3 and Cyrus Isa. xlv 1 and the later to Nebuchadnezzar Ier. xxv 9 The same also Athanasius gives to Constantius the great Favourer of the Arrians 4 The Kings power likewise is from God There is no power but of God and the powers that are are ordained of God saith the Apostle And the Pythagorean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hath given him Dominion Upon which account also Themistius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God sent Regal Power from Heaven And that a Kingdom is
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Divine Good is the assertion of Plato and confession of Cyrus All the Kingdoms of the Earth hath the Lord of Heaven given me 2 Chron. xxxvi Yea and Tiberius acknowledgeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Kingdom is from God And Daniel minds Nebuchadnezzar The God of Heaven hath given thee a Kingdom Power and Strength and Glory Dan. ii 27 And Athanasius in his Prayer for Constantius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou hast given this Kingdom to Constantius thy servant These I think are testimonies enough to prove that Kings wear Gods Image and Authority And therefore Menander calls the King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God's living Image and the Pythagorean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The King is the Figure of God among Men. But besides all this there is evidence enough in the nature of the thing to prove that Kings have their Power and Authority from God and are no Substitutes of the People which I thus inferr God made the World and consequently the World is his and his alone is the Right to Govern it But he being of such immense perfections that our Frailty cannot bear his immediate converses 't is necessary that he rule us by men like our selves and put the Sword into the hands of Creatures of our own make This he doth and hence it follows that they that Rule are Gods Substitutes and no Creatures of the People For the People have no power to Govern themselves and consequently cannot devolve any upon another Upon the whole then I conclude that the same Commands and Authority that oblige us to obey God bind us to revere those that so signally wear his Image and he that disobeys the Vice-Roy affronts the Soveraign He that resists resists the Ordinance of God saith the Apostle and who can lift up himself against the Lords Anointed and be guiltless saith David in the case of Saul And thus I have dispatched the first viz. Resistance affronts the authority of God with which Kings are invested as I think I have made evident from testimony and the nature of the thing Secondly Then RESISTANCE is opposite to the Spirit of RELIGION Religion is of a calm and pacifick temper like that of its Author whose voice was not heard in the street It subdues our passions and governs our appetites it destroyes our pride and sordid selfishness it allays the tempests and speaks down the storms of our natures it sweetens our Humours and pollisheth the roughness of our tempers it makes men gentle and peaceable meek and compliant This was the Spirit of the great exemplar of our Religion this was the genius of his Doctrine and his Practice He commands the payment of all Duties to Caesar He acknowledgeth Pilates Power to be from above He commands his Disciples to pray for their Persecutors He permits them to flie not to oppose He rebukes Peters violence to the High Priests servant and the revenge of the Disciples when they called for Fire from Heaven He paid Tribute submitted to the Laws of the Sanhedrim and to that unjust sentence against his life This was his temper and the Apostles who lived among his enemies and theirs and met with severity enough to have sowred their Spirits and exasperated their Pens to contrary resolutions and instructions Yet as true Followers of their dear Lord they faithfully transmit to us what they had learnt from him viz. That we should obey those that have the rule over us submit to every ordinance of man pray for Kings and all in authority submit to Principalities and Powers and to obey Magistrates And those Noble Spirits of the first Ages after who began to be Martyrs as soon as to be Christians who lived in the Fire and went to Heaven wrapt in those Flames that had less ardor than their love These I say amidst the greatest and fiercest Fires that Cruelty and Barbarism had kindled paid the Tribute of a peaceable and quiet subjection to their Murderers and made unforced acknowledgments of the right they had to their obedience Nor do we ever read of any attempts they made to free themselves by resistance though as Tertullian saith they were in powerful numbers mingled in their Villages and in their Cities yea in their Castles and in their Armies Yea there is an illustrious instance of passive obedience in the Thebaean Legion whose tenth man being executed for not offering Sacrifice to Idols they quietly submitted to the cruelty And a second Decimation being commanded by Maximinian the Author of the first one of their great Commanders an excellent Christian perswades them to suffer it with the same patience because it was not with their Swords they could make their way to the Kingdom of Heaven but by another kind of Warfare And now if after all this and infinitely more that might be said on the subject to pretend Religion and plead Scripture for Rebellion is impudent and shameful an affront to Religion and a Lie in the face of Conscience And those that cannot discern those great lines of their Duty which are set upon the High places and shone upon with a full beam and yet can find sin in little harmless circumstances which nothing hath forbidden but the coyness and perversness of their own humour are like him that could see the Starrs at Noon but could not see the Sun and could spye the shadows made by the Mountains in the Moon but could not discern the greater spots upon its visible surface And for men to strain at the decency of an Habit or the usage of a Ceremony when they can swallow Rebellion and Sacriledge without chewing is to be like him who durst not eat an Egg on Saturday but made nothing to kill a Man Doubtless had the Scripture said by a thousand part so much for the Ius Divinum of Presbytery as it hath for obedience to Authority had there been one plain word against Conformity as there are many against Rebellion that would have been worn bare upon the tongue and have filled the World with endless importunities But the Injunctions and Commands of Obedience are against our humours and opinions against the darlings of our phansies and the interest of our Party and therefore here we must shuffle and evade cogg and interpret by Analogies of our own making by the Rules of our Sect and the Authority we worship by Necessity and Providence and any thing that will colour Sin and cozen Conscience that will turn Religion into the Current of our appetites and make Scripture speak the language of our humours Thus Religion and divine Authority shall be reverenced and pleaded when they agree with mens own measures and send any light or advantage to the Favourites of their affections But when they cross their Models oppose the people of their imaginations and call them upon duties that are displeasant the case is altered the great motives of perswasion have lost their power and influence and Religion can do nothing with them Thus