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A53971
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A sermon preacht on January 30th, 1683 in Westminster-Abby before the reverend and honourable, the Kings judges, and printed at their request by Edw. Pelling ...
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Pelling, Edward, d. 1718.
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1684
(1684)
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Wing P1096; ESTC R23221
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19,302
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48
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in a larger sense 1. In a strict sense when we find it in the Word of God to be Ordained by such an express Command as that the neglect thereof becometh Sinful Now when we speak of the Divine Right of Monarchy we do not mean that God did institute it so by his Express Command as if all other Forms of Government were absolutely Unlawful or as if it were unlawful for a Monarch to Contract his Power or set Limits to himself in the Use and Exercise of his Power No Princes may tye up their own hands themselves tho it be not Lawful for their Subjects to force Manacles upon them Kings may Abate much of their Greatness if they will 't is lawful for them to do it pro re natâ though it be Impolitick and Unsafe for them and for their Subjects too to do so at every Turn Therefore there is no ground for those Odious and Base Reflections which of late have been made upon the honest Clergy of this See Mr. Hunts Post-script Church as if they were Friends to Arbitrary Power and Tyranny and the like for asserting the Kings Power to be of Divine Original These are Lewd and Unjust censures But so it is that if any dirt can be raked out of the Kennel the Clergy shall be sure to have store of it thrown upon their Faces 2. A thing is said to be Jure divino in a Larger sense 1. When the Scriptures declare it to be Ordained of God though we cannot shew the Original Command or the precise time of its Institution 2. Or Secondly when we have strong and highly Probable Reasons to believe it tho there were no Declarations on that behalf 1. Partly from the great Congruity of the thing by reason whereof it seems to be Morally and Humanely Necessary 2. Partly from several Insinuations in Scripture which render the thing very Credible 3. And partly from the General practice of all Mankind who would not as we can suppose have consented in the Universal Observation of the thing had not God given some Law or other for it in the beginning Now then to apply this matter to our present purpose 1. Those places of Scripture which I have alleadged already do abundantly declare that the King hath his Power and Authority from God And this is enough to satisfie any Sober Man who hath any Reverence for the Scripture that Kingly Government was instituted by God as the best of Governments though we could not Trace the Institution of it clearly to the Fountain Head For in a matter of so Remote Antiquity it is not easie to Salve all doubts or to take away all occasion of Cavil from every Witty and Inquisitive Sophister As long as God hath declared that Kings Reign by Him 't is Reasonable for us to rest in that should we not be able to answer that Impudent Question which hath been ask't us of Late Where is the Charter for Kings 'T is in the Bible we see And that must satisfie me though I could not tell when or where or how it was first Signed 2. But then 2ly It hath been found by the certain Experience of all Ages that Monarchy is so Excellent so Incomparably beyond all other Forms so useful for the Ends of Government and in many Cases so extreamly necessary for the publick Good that 't is reasonable to conclude from the very Congruity of the thing that Kings were Ordained of God because 't is Reasonable to believe that in the Beginning God did Order every thing for the Best did Institute that Government which is most for the good of Prince and People too and made the World for us all not to plague one another but to be Happy in as long as we stay in it 3. Besides this Thirdly the Scripture gives us such plain such pregnant Insinuations touching matter of Fact in this point as do abundantly justifie the Jus Divinum of Regal power to be no Idle no Groundless Notion Go to the Creation and you will find that God Invested Adam with a plenitude of power over all Creatures over his very Wife and by consequence over all her Issue This the Apostle calleth a Law 1. Cor. 14 34. and as the Law which God gave to all his Works was to hold and last to the World's End so this Law touching Superiority and Subjection under one person seems as if it was intended to continue and to descend from Father to Son by Right of Primogeniture And this I take to have been the True Reason of that deadly Quarrel which Cain had against his Righteous Brother When he saw that God had a particular respect to Abel and his Offerings he was afraid lest Abel should go away with the Regal power and so he contrived to be rid of him not so much out of Envy as out of Ambition for fear he should lose his Birth-right To quiet his mind as to that God told him that if he did well he should have the Excellence that his Brothers desire should be subject unto him and that he should Rule over him which was the very Form of words whereby the Protoplast was invested with Authority over his Wife And St. Chrysoston Rightly observes that though God was displeased with Cain yet he did not presently deprive him of his just Authority and power but allowed him still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Priviledges of Primogeniture Thus it was in the Times before the Primo geniti per Patris aut Mortem aut absentiam paternam quodammòdo auctoritatem in fratres habebant Sed hoc jus Peccato amitti poterat Grâ—t Annot. ad Gen. 4. 7. Flood Right of Dominion was ordered by God to Descend by Inheritance and so it did actually descend where God himself did not cut off that Right which he had given for some Important Reasons In the times after the Flood Government went in the same Channel So Reuben was called the Excellency of Dignity and the Excellency of Power because he was the First-Born And Esau should have been a Lord and Prince over Jacob had he not Sold his Birth-right and because he Sold it he is called a Prophane person for Selling that which was not his own it was a Sacred thing a Donative from God therefore he was Cursed for Selling it for a mess of Pottage But here we must note that when Families increased so that they were forced to part into several Colonies for want of Room by the grant and Donation of the Father each Son became a distinct Prince having a distinct Empire over his own Family and by such Divisions and Subdivisions it came to pass that so many Monarchies were set up in the World in a short time Hence it was that Nimrod had a Kingdom of his own And the Scripture calls him a Mighty Hunter not because he was a Monarch but because he was a Violent Encroacher because not content with his own Empire he Invaded the Rights and Royalties
of others who were Soveraigns within their Territories as well as himself Hence it is too that upon that â—ee Mr. Medâ—s â—iatrib in Gen. 10. Orderly dispersion of the Sons of Noah the whole Earth was by degrees divided into a great many Kingdoms so that of Noah Issue there were I know not how many Kings in a short time They were divided after their Tongues after their Families after their Generations in their several Nations and Countries as the Scripture often tells us Gen. 10. Thus all the Monarchies in the World were Founded not by Peoples chusing their Leaders and Governours but by Princes going out with their Respective Families and using a Soveraign Power over them pursuant to Gods Institution and Ordinance that the Head and Chief of a Family should have Dominion and Authority over the rest Hence also it was that we read of Twelve Princes out of the Loins of Ishmael and of several Dukes which Sprang out of the Loins of Esau For every Head of a Distinct Great Family was by the Divine appointment a King in his Nation and his Kingdom was of greater or less Extent as his Family was more or less Numerous And hence lastly it was that we Read of many Kingdoms in one Country as in Canaan for Instance because their Territories were according to their Numbers So that Antiently Principalities were but small till by the Union of many Great Families either by Conquest and Force or by Voluntary Submission Great Monarchies and Empires came to be Erected 4. And this brings me to the last Observable to prove the Jus Divinum of Kingly Power viz. The Universal practice of all Nations For nothing can be more plain than that Kingly Government was the only Government we know of in the whole World for some Thousand Years together The Greeks were under Monarchs all along till such a Frenzy possest some of them as hath possest some Bedlams among us to change their Old Government for a New nothing But their Madness did cost them very dear in the End they were Undone and Ruin'd by it as we should soon be by our Innovations In the most Antient Times there was no such thing as an Aristocratick or Democratick State And the Reason why the Jews would needs have a King though thy were under a Theocracy was because they would not be Singular therefore they would have a King to Judg them as all the Nations all other Nations had 1 Sam. 8. 5. Now Lex currit cum praxi the Universal Practice of the World is a strong argument to prove that there was some Antecedent Law which as they supposed did lay some Obligation upon them because people are not very forward to fall under Government of themselves supposing them to be in a State of Liberty Nor is it conceivable that all Men in the World should be of one mind or that one Form of Government should please all especially that Government which is in the hands of one Man We may as soon believe that all parts of the World did fall asleep at once and then all on a sudden did awake into so many Formed and Setled Monarchies By this time I hope it doth appear that there are stronger Reasons for the Doctrine of the Jus Divinum of Regal Power then that it should be lookt upon as a State Heresie of a Modern date and of dangerous Consequence The sutableness thereof to Humane necessities the Concurrence of Scripture-history which doth plainly Insinuate the Institution the Original the Usage of Monarchical Dominion together with the Suffrages of all Mankind who for a long Tract of Ages submitted unto it as if it were Entailed upon them from the beginning All this I say doth clearly argue as well the Truth as the Reason of this Proposition that the Kings power is Gods Ordinance Which serves also to baffle those Wild and groundless conceits which our Republican Spirits are so very fond of that there was once a State of Nature wherein all Mankind were Free under their own Power and at their own choice whether they would have Government or no Government and whether they would have this Form or another These and the like are no other then the Lewd and Idle conceits of Factious Brains For there never was such a State of Nature but in the Imagination of such Brainsick Men who have fancied a World in the Moon Whosoever has come out of the Womb hath been Born under Government nay under Kingly Government till Rebellion or Faction or the Love of Novelty altered the Natural and Regular course of affairs I do not blame Aristotle and other Old Infidels for not hitting well upon the True Original of Government considering they were not well acquainted with the Scriptures but spake for the most part by guess But I wonder at the confidence of Hobbs and other such Modern Politicians though in truth even they are for the most part Infidels too for talking so idly and unphilosophically as that Kings have their Authority by Compact and Covenant and the pleasure of the people so that they may Crown them or Un-king them as they think fit Doctrines which cost King Charles the 1st of Blessed Memory no less then his Crown and his Head too Whereas for many Ages after the Creation Regal Authority descended by Inheritance and as Nature gave a Man the Father-hood so the Authority which went along with it was Gods Donative people did no more chuse their Kings then Children do chuse their Fathers As for Common-wealths and Aristocracies and Elective States the World formerly was unacquainted with them nay the very Names of them were unknown No they are only so many Usurpations Degenerate and Bastard sorts of Government The Monarchical Form as it is far the best so 't is incomparably the Oldest and of Gods own Institution The rest are but Upstarts and Mushrooms of yesterday in comparison and I think 't is nothing but the necessities of some few places in the World that makes them either Tolerable or Lawful 2. I have done with the first point That the Kings Power is Gods Ordinance and it brings me to the 2d That because the King is Gods own Minister Ordained Supreme by his Commission no man must dare upon pain of Damnation to use any Violence against him they that Resist shall receive to themselves Damnation For if God will Judg the Open and the Secret Actions of men according to the Gospel and reward every man according to his Works what less can the bold Rebeâ— expect then the Severities of Judgment that presumes in spight of all the Out-cries of Conscience to act that which is so contrary to the Ends of Government so Reproachful to the Gospel so repugnant to the Spirit of its Author and its Laws Did not Christ suffer for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps 1 Pet. 2 21. Did not his Peaceable and Submissive deportment all along Teach us that all