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
even to Peace in your selves than to Peace in the Kingdom that you listen not to the Counsels or Seductions of men who are so ready for Wars Account them to be what they are the Plague and Reproach of Christian Nations to be avoided and abhorred by all good men But I must conclude and I will trust we have none of this kind of men amongst us If you find any of them remember the course before prescribed neither to be of their Councils nor to keep what you know unconcealed I have thus endeavoured faithfully to set before you the way to Peace to Peace in the Kingdom and in the Church to Peace in the Neighbourhood and in the Family and finally to Peace with God in our own Consciences The God of Peace make us all careful in the Practice of what has been said and crown us all with the Blessing of such Peace To him be all Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen FINIS True Religion AND LOYALTY Inseparable The Nature of both opened and their Connexion proved IN A SERMON Preached at Bandon in the County of Cork in the Heat of Monmouths Rebellion And afterwards elsewhere 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 Of this SERMON THIS Sermon I preached twice the first time in the form 't is now in at Bandon while the late Rebellion in the West of England held the Minds of People even on this side the Water in no little Pain The second time in Christ-Church Cork on Sunday August 23. which fell into the time of the Assizes here and was the Day of Publick Thanksgiving for His Majesties late Victories I made then some small Alterations in it in part hinted in the Margin of the Book but chiefly I omitted the second Objection with its Answers wholly because I did not think there was then so much occasion for it as when I preached this Sermon the Month before And I added a little considerably in the end of it to make it more suitable to the Occasion I particularly press'd that part of Honour to the King which I had assigned to consist in Prayers of all kinds and so in Praising God in his behalf I urged this last point of Praise by consideration First Of the Opportuness of the Victory It was not too soon Had it been speedier some probably would have said the Attempt was contemptible and the whole had no danger in it Others would have still vaunted their Numbers and have said as far as they durst they were surprised they had not time to gather and come in A third sort would perhaps have suggested the Church of England Protestants had not time to shew themselves they would have struck in had there been space We had time God be blessed to shew our selves and did and not an hand amongst us against our King but all as one Man for him Nor on the other side was it too late The Kingdom laboured not so long under it as to tast the Miseries of a continued Civil War We felt a gentle Correction and no punitive Vengeance In a word it was in Gods time and that is ever the best Secondly I considered the Entireness of the Victory and with how litle Effusion of Bloud obtained especially on the side of the just Cause From these Two Heads chiefly I in more words endeavoured then to quicken Gratitude and Loyalty I see no occasion to report here the whole I then added but I thought fit to give this Intimation to the end that none who were Hearers of this Sermon when preached the second time might have reason to complain the printed Sermon has more or less in it than when delivered from the Pulpit Religion and Loyalty INSEPARABLE The Nature of both opened and their Connexion proved In a SERMON preached at Bandon in the County of Cork in the Heat of Monmouths Rebellion and afterwards elsewhere The TEXT 1 Pet. II. the later part of the 17th Verse Fear God honour the King WE find this Epistle to be entitled The Epistle general of St. Peter not inscribed as are St. Pauls To the Romans To the Corinthians To the Galathians or the like but General that is to all Christian People chiefly indeed designed to the dispersed Christian Jews to the Strangers scattered throughout Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithynia cap. I. 1. but not so particularly to them as to exclude the Gentile Christians amongst whom they lived and whither they were scattered For such early was the Condition of the Christian Church that its Members really were and so most naturally might be stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scattered Strangers or Pilgrims of the Dispersion From which Inscription it follows that the Duties here prescribed and pressed must be of general concernment and obligation to all Christian Ages Nations Sexes and Conditions whatsoever The Epiâ—â—le it self consists as I have lately on another occasion noted unto you of sundry Exhortations to particular Christian Duties and of Enforcements or Persuasives to them The Text is part of the Amplification of the seventh Duty herein pressed namely of Subjection and Obedience to the Powers God has set over us Ver. 13. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lords sake in which passage one expression must be warily understood for Government it self is from God But it is the form manner or particular frame of Government in every Kingdom or Nation which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Creature of Mans an Human Constitution Now saith he submit to every of these for the Lords sake Whether it be to the King as Supream This indeed was the first Form of Government in the World nor can as far as I see any other Form of Government be proved to be of Gods appointment mero motu of his own accord and free pleasure as we speak ever from the beginning For Moses was King in Jeshurun when the Heads of the People and Tribes of Israel were gathered together Deut. xxxiii 5. And the introducing the seventy Elders and so reducing the Form of the Government of Israel into a kind of Republick was upon the importunity and some degree of impatience of Moses Numb xi 11 12 c. at which God seems there not to be well pleased As neither indeed was he when the same sickle people afterwards acquiesced not even in that Government by their Elders But to return This same Exhortation he amplifies and presses ver 14 15. and so on till in ver 17. he concludes its general part in these words Fear God honour the King Wherein are two Duties manifestly injoyned us one to God Fear God The other to the King Honour the King Of each of these we will treat first singly or apart then of the Connexion of both which I affirm to be so far constant at least of the one side and so indissoluble that
particulars of that Honour we are to pay the King by the Law of Christ The Honour of Obedience of Faith and Allegiance of Supplies and Tributes of Candour and charitable Thoughts and lastly of our Prayers of all kinds Obj. 1. And all this is true will some say yes it were fit too to be practised were Kings such as they should be Answ 1. As to this vile Suggestion which it is too plain many more men harbour than dare speak out I might only give again the same Answer I have formerly given and say in one word we can find no fault in our King but what is more the three Nations than his own Guilt Our former Crimes therefore and the Effects they have had upon him cannot but most iniquitously and unchristianly be made Arguments for withdrawing our present Duties Answ 2. But once again Secondly Consider I pray you the Text and Context the emphasis both bear the Time in which and the Persons to which both were spoken and if we have not such an Answer hence to this Objectin as will make us all ashamed so much as to think of withholding any branch of the Honour mentioned due to our King I am much mistaken As to the Time it is most certain this Epistle must be writ either in the time of Claudius or Nero's Empire according to Baronius in the formers be it under whichsoever of the two they were both not only Heathens and Enemies to Christianity but villanously vitious Then as to the Persons if we consider to whom the Apostle directs these his Commands not only in general to all the Christian multitude but more especially to the dispersed Christian Jews in Pontus Asia c. this contributes further to the utter avoiding all the force can be conceived in this Objection The Jews we know were a people peculiarly chosen by God and by him priviledged above all Nations amongst other Promises made them that of dominion over the Nations was one especially eyed by them and nothing did they expect more constantly or passionately by the Messias then temporal Empire But even to this people and to the Christian that is the best part of them doth the very Apostle of the Circumcision preach Subjection Honour and Obedience even towards Heathen Emperours and Princes Now weigh the whole Emphasis Was it thus particularly and expresly commanded to the primitive that is the purest and most excellent Race of Christians that have lived in any ages of the world that they should be dutiful and obedient to their Princes though the worst of men Were these same Commands too in common without any exemption imposed upon the Jews that people peculiarly priviledged as it would seem to the contrary Nay were they as by name required to be subject and obedient to all the Kings of the Nations they should live under Were the Sons of God as I may stile them thus required to yield Subjection to Aliens and men without God in the world and can now any of us think that upon some private Reasons of our own we may forbear or do not owe like Duty to our Native Liege-Lord and Sovereign the same a moâ—â— Gracious Wise Just and Virtuous Prince for shame let us banish out of our Souls such Suggestions Object 2. But it may be further urged 'T is not impossible that a Princes Title may be disputable and what will you say in such a case Are we to obey Intruders against tht rightful Heir Answ 1. I answer first there was never any Title so just and indisputable but some unreasonable men have contested it We find by the sacred Story that when God appointed Kings by immediate nomination from Heaven there arose certain men Sons of Beliel who refused to own them yet was their Title no less Divine and just for all that But as to the Title of our present Sovereign I protest before God I cannot see any colour any shadow of plausible appearance that can be brought against it What man of any Face Reason or Conscience can disbelieve our late Gracious Kings voluntary Protestation both by Word of Mouth and under his Hand to his Privy Council and after publisht to the World Consider at what time it was made on what Inducements possible it could be made Had he not the Affections of a Father as well as of a Brother Was he likely to gain any thing by violating Honour and Conscience in avowing a falshood Or could any thing but Justice Care of his Peoples Peace and Safety together with pure Conscience and an entire regard of Truth move him to give his Royal Word Hand and in a sort Oath and that of his own accord to attest the No-title of the present Rebellious Pretender and the most just and full Title of our present Sovereign Lord and King This one thing in may apprehension must for ever stop the mouths and satisfie the Minds of any that will hear Reason Answ 2. Again as to all that can be done by way of Ratification or to speak more properly Recognition of our Sovereigns just Title has it not been done If you consider the way of his coming to the Crown can it at all be said that he set up himself Was he not immediately recognized and proclaimed by the Nobility Privy Council and the whole body of his People as far as then appeared from the chief City of his Kingdoms throughout City and Country every where in the whole three Kingdoms Then to wave the Solemnities of his most August Coronation have not the full Houses of Parliament recognized declared and avowed him as their only right-right-Lord and King Are not all degrees and sorts of men concluded in and by their Representatives in Parliament 'T is rescinding and giving the Lye to our own act nay pardon the expression 't is Rebellion against the Laws and Statutes of the Realm against Acts of Parliament if such a thing as Rebellion against them be possible as well as Rebellion against the King for us to stagger or be falling off now But I hope I did not need to have been so particular and earnest in this place However the matter coming in my way I was unwilling to be wanting to my Duty and that any of you should be wanting to yours Wherefore to enforce now what I have been so long teaching and asserting dâ—e Honour to our King let us now consider the other point remaining the Connexion betwixt these two Duties Fear God honour â—he King The putting them thus immediately together seems to suggest that if we do fear God we shall honour the King and that by giving him all these branches or kinds of Honour mentioned Now the general Ground of this Conclusion is that the Fear of God is an universal and invariable Principle of most impartial Obedience to the whole Law of Christ He who fears God makes no such difference between the Commands of God as to account any small or such which he may wave at pleasure without
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
with us the God of Jacob is our Refuge Selah THere is nothing that could have mitigated or rendred so much as tolerable that Grief which we had conceived and with which we are still affected for the Loss of our late Most Gracious Sovereign but thâ— quiet and peaceable Succession of his Brother our present Sovereign to the Crown We cannot indeed but still retain a tender sense of so great a Loss and whether we will or no intermix Sighs with our Acclamations and drop Tears amidst our Joys There appears most evidently do what we can a strange conflict of Affections in the most of us not unlike to that which was in those Priests and Levites when the Foundations of the new Temple were laying some remembring the first Temple wept with a loud voice and others shouted for joy that they were now founding a second so that the noise of the shout of joy could scarce be discerned from the noise of them that wept Ezr. iii. 12 13. We may not dissemble it some such odd disorders we are in Yet when we consider that notwithstanding all our fears and others malice James the Second the Dear and Faithful Brother of Charles the Second of blessed memory the Son of Charles the First that glorious Martyr for his Religion and the Laws the Grandson of the great and happy King James the First in whom the three Crowns were happily united â—as succeeded and that without any Stir Tumults or Blood-shed but with the â—reatest Peace and Ease imaginable unto â—he Throne of his Royal Father and may we long hold it so may these days of â—eace long continue to Him and us when â—e consider this I say we ought to cheer â—ur selves and endeavour the tempeâ—ating our Griefs and composing our Minds Further when we add to the former â—onsideration that his present Majesty has â—raciously declared to the world and given â—is Royal Word that he will govern according â—o the Laws established that He will mainâ—ain our Religion and the Government of Church and State as they now stand that he â—ill imitate his blessed Brother and most espeâ—ially in his great Clemency and Tenderness to â—is People and that as he hath often hereâ—ofore ventur'd his Life in Defence of the Naâ—ion so he will still do his utmost to â—reâ—erve us in our just Rights and Libeâ—ties of all which we have this day a full and publick assurance When we add this I â—ay we ought to banish Grief from our hearts in our Souls to rejoyce to fall down before God and bless him concluding we have Charles the Second still after a sort alive and entire in Jameâ—â—he Second whom God long preserve Yet because it is impossible on a suddain to rid the world of Fears Jealousies and the like uneasie Affections because also there are to be found abroad though I hope not amongst us many unquiet and tumultuous Spirits who delight in Troubles and would fain be embroyling all again because also what I have said may not haply be by all believed or my self be deemed too credulous it may not be amiss or unseasonable to entertain you upon occasion of this Solemnity with some thoughts on this calming passage of the Royal Psalmist Be still and know that I am God I will be exalted amongst the Heathen I will be exalted in the Earth In what particular Crisis of the Jewish affairs or on what occasion this Psalm was first penned I have not found any so bold as peremptorily to ascertain By the Inscription of it it is directed to the Sons of Corah those famous Masters of Musick when the Jewish Choir was in its most slourishing state and so probably composed about Solomons Succession to the Throne Sure it is by its Contents its true date must be in very perillous or esse in tumultuous times Such Days and Affairs all those high expressions in it do most certainly import and the Affections that the holy Penman professes bespeak no less ver 1 2 3. God is our Refuge and Strength sings he a very present help in time of trouble Therefore will we not fear though the Earth be moved and though the Mountains be cast into the midst of the Sea Though the Waters thereof roar and be troubled though the Mountains shake with the swelling thereof The removing of the Earth the roaring of Sea and Waters the shaking of the Mountains and their being thrown into the midst of the Sea are all but lofty Poetical ways of speaking design'd to express great Commotions in the State the unsettling or removing Foundations of Government All which when he had thus nobly sung he falls not in the other part but sweetly proceeds There is a River the streams whereof make glad the City of our God the holy places of the Tabernacles of the most High Jerusalem had not the advantage of any such mighty River as are those which have made great and wealthy divers Cities But there was the Brook Kidron which as 't is described above Jerusalem Eastward imparted a clear and gentle Stream for the watering of the lower City And there were besides the Waters of Siloah which augmented by a small Stream from the Fountain Gihon passed softly Isai viii 6. into Sion and in a manner close up to the foot of the Temple To which soever of these two our Royal Poet alludes either of them aptly resembles those secret and soft Refreshments which at all times relieve and bear up the Spirits of the true Israel They have not ever perhaps an irresistible Torrent of all the worldly Power Security and Interests that some could wish running strongly for them but in their most forlorn circumstances that their enemies can imagine them in they have easie secret and spiritual Comforts in a way of humble affiance in God and committing themselves and their affairs to his Gracious Conduct And sometimes when God thinks good in his Providence to appear for them more visibly as he has of old and more lately in a glorious sort for our establish'd Church the Emanations of his Power Wisdom and Goodness are in no cases more conspicuous than in their Protection God is in the midst of her she shall not be removed God shall help her and that right early ver 5. This he avows and that more loftily than any thing hitherto if possible This I say he avows v. 6. ever has does and will appear maugre all the Rage of some and the Combinations of other Enemies Let the Heathen rage and the Kingdoms be moved 't is but Gods uttering his Voice and the Earth melts away And now why should his Church at any time droop in Spirit or be dejected This Lord of Hosts is with us this God of Jacob is our Refuge to which he puts a Selah that is sing this Strain in your highest and fullest Musick Let the Earth ring of it And having thus far proceeded our sacred Authors Breast was now full enough of God to publish a kind of
perfectly practised by any but such Serpents will slipperily insinuate themselves into your Company be sure then as soon as you know them to discover both them and whatever you know of their Projects Councils that immediately In the name of God let nothing of this kind sleep with you Let not that false opinion of I know not what vain honour which has made some men to their costs shy of impeaching others betray you to conceal what may operate to your own and the publick Ruine Certainly my King my Countrey the Church or if these be less dear to any my Family and my self ought to be loved first and before any particular Friend or Associate Consult therefore chiefly the welfare of these And I pray you remember concealing Treason is Treason not only by the Laws of England but by the Old Judicial Law amongst the Jews which derived from God himself According to this Divine Law or the Mishpat Hammeluchah the Statutes of the Kingdom a Book written by Samuel at the command of God and said to be laid up before the Lord 1 Sam. x. 25. Saul pronounces them guilty of High-Treason who knew when David fled and did not shew it 1 Sam. xxii 17. And his Sentence had undoubtedly been just had either David or the Priests been guilty of the matter of Fact charged respectively on them Even the principles of common reason and justice the grounds of all good Laws will conclude as much Wherefore we ought to look upon it as a matter against good Conscience as well as against Prudence and Common Law to conceal such treasonable discourses or designs as come to our knowledge 5. Spread not those Idle Stories or Suspicions which go up and down of publick Dangers If you can in the beginning trace them to their head to any true or probable Original so as to fix them on their malicious Authors do so and as before said discover them Then in all likelyhood you have put an end both to the Lye and its Mischief You have crusht the Cockatrice in its Egg. Otherwise know they are devised by cunning and ill-affected Men and put into Fools Mouths to report that the Devisers may take their advantages of those reports either by affixing their own Malice on innocent Men or by gaining some plausible pretence for the Spleen they would wreak so that they may be able when time comes with some colour to call Spite and Wrong by the names of Justice or Self-Defence In Levit. xix 16. we have a peculiar precept which explains the ninth Commandment fitly to our present purpose Thou shalt not go up and down as a Talebearer amongst thy People nor shalt thou stand against the Blood of thy Neighbour To spread Reports and Tales is one of the most mischievous kinds of bearing false witness And there are publick Tale-bearers as well as private ones Truely there are some that seem to make it not so much a Trade as the Business of their Lives they catch up all the Rumours that are going and have their Customers both to bring them in and to vent them too These people are ill members both of Church and State Particularly I cannot but take notice of a Story very fresh and brisk in the Country That the English are combining in a design to rise and cut all the Throats of the Irish And on the other side many of the English are told and believe as much of the Irish towards them What are these but Devices of wicked men or of the Devil by them to put us upon the imbruing our hands mutually in one anothers Bloud On neither side in the present circumstances of both is the thing either probable or so much as possible As to the English was there ever yet such a thing heard of upon the face of the Earth as a Massacre by Protestants Those men who know our Religion know the Principles of our Religion will not suffer it Nay further it is not possible at present as were easie to shew 'T is well if we are able to defend our selves Is it not a pleasant thing to see in a Parish between three or four hundred people ly by night out of their Houses for fear of two or three Families in which there are not Seven persons able to bear Arms For shame let not people suffer themselves to be thus abused Then as to the other side touching the rumoured danger of a Massacre upon the English by the Irish Is not this at present a plain abominable Device to put us together by the Ears set on foot by them who desire an advantage against us to the end that if by these affrightments they can tempt any weak persons of us to any irregular actions they may more justly seek occasion of Revenge by their own hands or otherwise accuse and misrepresent us I confess this is out of my Province a little but I could not forbear it For Gods sake and our Countreys sake and our own sake let us all joyn together to bring to light the Authors of these Reports but however let us not suffer our selves to be so far ridden by them as to be their Juments or Beasts of burden to carry such forged Wares up and down the Countrey Sixthly as another Preservative of publick Peace I take it to be good Advice that we pass not bad Interpretations on the Acts of the Government a fault that more people are guilty of then I am willing so much as to characterize I pray you remember Charity ever requires us to think the best 1 Cor. xiii 5 6 7. Charity thinketh no evil rejoyceth not in iniquity which as appears by the opposites may be interpreted maketh not advantage of falshoods but rejoyceth in the truth beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things does not readily give men up for desperate and incorrigible endureth all things or grows not impatient upon every matter of suspicion that offers it self Some haply will say this Text treats only touching the Duties of private Charity towards one another Be it so but do I owe all these Offices of Charity to each private man and not to the most considerable body of men which I can pick out in the Kingdoms to Magistrates and Governours To deal more roundly Must I have Charity for every particular man yea even for Enemies and none for my King and his Council To be short then if we love the publick Peace let us neither make ill constructions our selves of publick Actions nor silently admit them when we hear them made by others Let us at least profess our Charity and that we hope better than some interpret or others fear Lastly and to conclude all the advice on this Head for the possessing our own and one anothers minds with Quiet Let t is remember what I have formerly prest God rules over all His hand is in all And let us be content he should govern Herewith let us still any risings in our
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
upon a strict Examination a little arrogantly thus expostulates with him viz. Knowest thou not that I have power to crucifie thee and have power to release thee Jesus answered thou couldest have no power over me except it were given thee from above John xix 10 11. In which words if we consider who Pilate was namely the Roman Governour sent to them by Cesar the Supreme we have a most plain Testimony that however wicked Supreme Powers may be or however wickedly they may use their Power yet is their Power given them by God and none may invade it or take upon him to exercise it but as they shall impart or delegate it The Power of the Sword therefore or of Life and Death is by God committed only to the Supreme Magistrate that is as I presume none here will scruple within these Kingdoms to his Majesty Thirdly From hence it necessarily follows that No one of himself can be Lord of his own Life For he is no more to execute the power of the Sword upon himself than upon another because he as well as others is a Subject I know the contrary practice namely dispatching a mans self out of life has been celebrated as an heroically virtuous act by divers Heathens and some great persons amongst them have been admired and commended for it extremely But of all Examples Heathen mens are surely least to be drawn into Rules for the Authorising of doubtful Actions There is a Book also writ by a Christian Doctor of our Church which is rather slandred than truly reported to maintain the Lawfulness of Self-slaughter But those who have read and understand that Book know the Authors design therein was but to move men to more charitable Judgment than usually is put on such who lay violent hands upon themselves and that he perswades amongst others by this great Argument that the Act does not ever preclude Repentance but that 't is possible the very Attrition which some such persons may be thought to have in articulo mortis in the very expiring their Souls may be interpreted by God as a sincere Sorrow Now his supposing this act pardonable upon Repentance admits it to be a Sin and then being by us known or even but strongly conceived to be so it will be damnable For he that doubteth is damned if he act because he acteth not of Faith Rom. xiv ult To be short the instances we find of it in Scripture are only of wicked and desperate men and that when they have been rejected by God forsaken by his Spirit and an evil Spirit has seised them Thus as to Saul long before that desperate act of falling on his own Sword 1 Sam. xxxi 5. The Spirit of God had departed from him and an evil Spirit from the Lord troubled him chap. xvi 14. that is he was in a sort permitted to the Devil to be actuated by him So as to Judas after the Sop Satan entred into him John xiii 27 and then he quickly sold and betrayed his Master and went and hanged himself Laqueo Traditor periit Laqueum talibus dereliquit says St. Austin ad Petilianum The Traytor dyed by the Halter and left the Halter only to such as himself The like deplorable and dreadful condition as to his spiritual concerns at least may we reasonably conclude that Devilish Counsellor Achitophel to have been in when being enraged that Absolon would not take his hellish Advice he also went home and hanged himself Besides these three I remember no instance in Canonical Scripture of any who directly slew themselves Sampson indeed as in case of other Miracles done by him so by immediate and extraordinary impulse of the Spirit of God that is by Divine Warrantie and Command pull'd down the Philistines great Hall of Judgment upon them and himself amongst them But this is only parallel to a great Soldiers going on certain death to defeat the Enemy when duly commissioned so to do and therefore must not come into account here There is besides in the Apocryphal Books an instance of one who acted most barbarous violence on himself first falling on his own Sword and then pulling out his very own Bowels and throwing them amongst his Enemies rather than he would fall into their hand to dye by them and he is there commended for that inhumane act which is stiled dying manfully 2 Maccab xiv 42 c. But as that Book according to what the Author of it himself in the two last verses confesses in effect was not written by Divine Inspiration so were there nothing else in it to prove it Apocryphal this alone that it commends what is so much against Nature both for the matter and manner of the Action were abundantly sufficient But besides it is most true what was well said in another case by an old Bishop of Carlisle in Richard the Seconds time We are not to live by examples but by Laws The Law of God runs indefinitely and so because there is no ground for a Restriction as to this case universally thou shalt not murder that is neither another nor thy self Which Interpretation must indeed of necessity be admitted here for that our Lord himself makes the Love which we bear to our selves to be the measure or standard of the Love we owe to others Thou shalt love thy Neighbour saith he as thy self Which extending to all the Precepts of the second Table will as to this run thus thou shalt no more murder thy Neighbour than thy self that is first of all thou shalt not murder thy self And though there be not in the Law of God any Precept more particular or more expresly prohibitive as to this act as neither is there upon very grounds against several other most unnatural Sins that might be named yet is there all Reason in the world against it For let us faithfully examine Is the Root whence this act proceeds such from whence good Fruit may be expected Is its true cause at any time good or truly praise-worthy Was there ever person yet who laid violent hands upon himself who did it not either out of Pride Cowardice Rashness or mad Despair Out of Pride I say because either he would not crouch to his betters or else see his equals become his superiors or out of Cowardice as afraid to suffer what his Enemies might put him to now in both these cases is it not more brave to dare to live or out of Rashness and Madness or Despair as impatient of present evils and hoping in this Life no better state And if out of any of these is it at all commendable True Philosophy it self taught better and forbad Injussu Imperatoris id est Pythagoras teste Cicene in Cat. Maj. Dei de Praesidio statione vitae decedere The true Christian like a good Soldier must not forsake his post except the great Emperor of the world the Almighty God by his Law or Providence command him thence * L. Cum autem 23. §.