the Homage of a good Subject after he had been shut up in the Lions Den. He acknowledged him to be his King and honour'd him accordingly Dan. ij 24. O King live for ever And the Primitive Christians wished Julian himself Length of days and prosperity And as our Religion is not Evangelium armatum nor will suffer us to rise up against our King Vi Armis not to be done without the Violation of all the Laws of God and Man so neither shall we ever have occasion to do it as they had Precibus Lachrymis those pious Weapons with which the Primitive Christians overcame the Tyranny of their Persecutors Prov. xxi 1. For the King's Heart is in the Hand of the Lord and he who can turn it whithersoever he will hath inclined it hitherto and I trust will always do to the Protection of the Church of England Wherein we have his Royal Word for our Security and if that be not sufficient to allay Mens Fears and Jealousies I know not what will We can appeal to his Sacred Majesty how we adher'd as became us to his Right for Conscience-sake tho' against that which some short-sighted Polititians and worse Christians would have made us believe to have been our Interest We cannot but glory in the Reproaches and Injuries we sustain'd on his account from the Out-rages of the Mobile He is of too generous and gracious a Nature to use the Power which God hath given him to procure their Ruine who were always ready and ever will be to do their best to prevent his And therefore the Venient Romani the groundless Jealousies of Popery's coming in which alarums the Rabble shall not be such a scar-crow as to fright us out of our Wits and Religion nor shall it ever exasperate or enrage us to do any thing that is wicked upon the apprehensions of it nor to abandon our Loyalty Justice and moral Honesty to prevent it For it would be a Contradiction to maintain advance or establish Religion upon the Ruines of Justice which founds all Religion nor must God's Ordinance be secured in one point by endangering it in another No doubt but the King will gratifie his own Perswasion without any severe and cruel Methods on the other hand for he naturally abhors Sanguine Sacrifices Upon which consideration he hath been pleased by his own Royal and voluntary Declaration to renew and confirm to his Subjects the best Magna Charta that every they had A Blessing obtained without a Rebellion and which calls for a suitable Veneration and Return from his People He knows that ours is a Religion that hath always asserted the Rights of the Crown with Life and Fortune And how chearfully the Members of it have spent their Blood and Treasure in his own his late Majesty's and his Father's Service And how they stand affected to his Prerogative upon which they know all Popular Encroachments to be as fatal as Inundations of the Sea And that loose Reins cast upon the Neck of a Resty People will teach them a trick to throw their Rider till none can sit them And that none can live in the Communion of our Church who does not solemnly renounce all rebellious Principles and Practices and disclaim all Usurpations whatsoever upon Sovereign Powers He can never be over-ruled by any designing Men of what perswasion soever to put off his own generous Nature and innate Kindness to his old Friends He is very well content we should be as faithful to God as we are to him as true to our Religion as to our King God Preserve and Prosper him for it Alas We do but flatter our selves if ever we hope to be Govern'd without that which is commonly call'd an Arbitrary Power let the Word sound never so harshly The only question is Who shall have it Whether it shall be in the King or the People In one or many And the Denial of necessary Powers for the safety of the Kingdom which call them what you will are the Regalia the Inherent Rights of the Crown for Fear of Mis-Government is the ready way to lose all the Fruits and Benefit of Government it self for want of those powers to support it For 't is impossible for any Common-Wealth to subsist without that dreadful thing call'd Arbitrary Power if by Arbitrary you mean as I do Supreme and Absolute True it is That if this be vested in one the People are over-apt to call it Tyranny but if in many they are pleased to christen it by the glorious Name of Liberty Tho' if Tyranny consist not in the abundance but abuse of Power not in the uncontroulableness but unreasonableness not in the exercise but excess of it it will be as unjust and Tyrannical in them as in him so to use it Nor are Common-Wealths more secur'd from this sort of Tyranny than Monarchies Our own Statute Laws acknowledge 16. R. 2.5 25. H. 8.21 24. H. 8.12 That our King is subject to none but God and that he hath an Imperial Crown and they call his Kingdom an Empire And by the Common Law the King is neither inferior to the Three Estates nor co-ordinate with them but is Major Vniversis as well as Singulis Greater than all of them as well collectively as singly The Parliament doth but propound prepare and present the Project of the Law 't is the Royal Stamp that makes it one The sole Legislative Power is lodg'd in the King and to him saith Bracton belongs the interpretation of all Laws when made not in plain Cases but in New Questions and Emergent Doubts of which the King was the first and must be the last Judge too For if the People be Judge he is no Monarch at all and so farewel all Government There is no State in which there is not an ultimate Judicature which is not to be accountable and Queen Elizabeth used to say That she was to be accountable to none but God Nor did the Protestants call this Tyranny or Arbitrary Government in her Days And therefore let not the Dragon's Tail pretend now to lead the Head least after much fruitless Toil it draw the Body of Three Kingdoms into the Ditch Things are not always in themselves as they appear to us We see them but on the Dark side the King hath more Wisdom than to lay open the Arcana Imperii to us And if an Implicit Faith be due to the meanest Artificer in his own Art how much more is it due to the King in the profound secrets of Government His Actions are manifest but his Reasons seal'd up in the Cabinet of his own Royal Breast And if Bodinus says true Lib. 1. de Rep. c. 8. A Sovereign Prince may Derogate to the Law which he hath promised or sworn to keep if the Equity thereof be ceas'd and that of himself without the consent of his Subjects Suppose there were a Law That the People should pay no Taxes or Contributions to the publick Good
as obedient to his Commands as Israel was to Solomon's Whose Excellent President I have chosen to set before you to Copy after A Text which you must needs by this time see to be proper and pertinent and such as by the Blessing of God is made very seasonable and suitable to this Day 's Solemnity Which if it had fall'n into the hands of one whom better Parts and more Leisure had fitted for this Service might have afforded you a Discourse not Inferiour to what this great and first Anniversary Solemnity might teach you to expect But the happy Occasion of our meeting and your own obvious Meditations upon it will easily draw out the Paralel between this People in my Text and your selves without the help of a Preacher The main Ingredients which concur to the completing the happiness of any Kingdom you will find to meet here in my Text A Wise and devout King a Loyal and Religious People and a good understanding between them Solomon takes care to build and adorn the Temple of God and the People contribute freely and largely to it He brings the Ark of the Covenant into the City of David they attended it with all due Solemnity he establish'd Religion by a Law and the People take special notice of the Honour and Welfare of Religion under his Government Vers 11. of the Glory of the Lord filling the House of the Lord as a testimony of his owning what the King and they had done Vers 30. and of God's hearkning to the King 's and their Prayers in the House which he in their sight had newly Dedicated to him Prov. iij. 9. He honoured God with his substance and with the first-Fruits of his Increase he Sacrific'd Two and twenty thousand Vers 63. Oxen and an Hundred and twenty thousand Sheep They were well pleased with his Royal and Religious Performances and his Peace-Offering to the Lord this was the Joy of their hearts and they feasted themselves with the Remembrance of it to see Holiness and Happiness meet together Piety and Prosperity kiss each other Vers 65. Solomon held a Feast and all Israel with him a great Congregation Seven days and Seven days and on the Eighth day he sent the people away and they Blessed the King and went unto their Tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord had done for David his Servant and for Israel his people God hath blessed us with a Prince at this time not inferiour to him in my Text for his Knowledge and Conduct in Government one who hath been brought up most part of his Life in the School of Affliction which hath wrought Patience and Patience such Experience in him such knowledge of Men and Business that if he do not by Judgment Establish this Kingdom the fault will not be his but our own For we cannot expect either from God or the King to be made happy whether we will or no we may pull down Destruction upon our selves and our Posterity by the very same methods that we did in his Father's time we may be Destroyers of our selves and the establish'd Religion and make our selves Examples of God's and the King's Justice But if we will take Example of this people in my Text the Sons of Zerviah shall never be too hard for our David nor will he ever be out of love with us or our Religion Loyalty is the King's Joy the Kingdoms Happiness and the Subjects Glory and if all people would be Loyal no Kingdom could be miserable I am sure not ours All the ties of Duty and Gratitude do at this time indispensably oblige us to it and to give his Sacred Majesty the best assurance we can that we know our Duty and that we are firmly resolv'd to act according to it as did this people in my Text On the Eighth day he sent the people away and they blessed the King and went unto their Tents joyful and glad of heart for all the Goodness that the Lord had done for David his Servant and for Israel his People In which words there are Five Particulars observable I. Regia populi Dismissio the Royal Dismission of the People On the Eighth day he sent the People away II. Populi Benedictio Votiva the People's dutiful Valediction They blessed the King at parting III. Populi Submissio the Peoples ready Submission They went unto their Tents IV. Populi Exultatio the People's Satisfaction and Triumph They were joyful and glad of heart V. Exultationis ratio the good Ground and just Reason of their Triumph 'T was for all the goodness that the Lord had done for David his Servant and for Israel his People I shall endeavour to Explain and Apply each of these Particulars in its order The first whereof is I. Regia Populi Dismissio the Dismission of the People when and by whom it was made Arab. Octavo a septem postremis post solennitatem die On the Eighth from the latter Seven days Solemnity of the Dedication or Encoenia such as our Wake-Days and Church-Feasts are for in both Solemnities there were Fourteen Days Seven for the Dedication and the other Seven for the Feast of Tabernacles which began on the Fifteenth of September After the exact Termination whereof Solomon informed the People then Assembled from the Eastern to the Western-borders of his Dominions of their Duty to God and the King and having made a Collection among them to defray the charge of the Sacrifices which had been offer'd when they had done the business for and unto which he call'd them he lets them know That he was not willing to detain them any longer from their private Employments and that he dispensed with their farther Attendance and gave them leave to depart on the morrow Which they accordingly did on the 23. of September with their Hearts as light as their Purses they carried away little Money but much Mirth along with them into the Country and were so far from grudging what they had so piously spent in God's and the King's Service that they gloried in its Acceptance and thought their Moneys well bestow'd and their Journey well paid for The Subjection of the People to their Prince was then thought as natural as that of Children to their Parents they never dream't of a State of natural Freedom When he call'd them they came and when he dismissed them they went away I wish the same Prudence Temper and Moderation had always been in all our fellow Subjects then would not that wild Notion and seditious Opinion ever have been broached among us That the King cannot Prorogue or Dissolve his Parliaments in which his People are Representatively Assembled till their Petitions be answer'd and their Grievances redressed or that they may tarry till they dismiss themselves and not depart when the King thinks fit and convenient as Solomon's People in my Text did with great Submission and Satisfaction which they intimated to the King when it was
things which make for peace go along with them as far as you can with Truth and Charity and where you part let it be like Friends So shall we Edifie one another in our most holy Faith make the Pleasure of his Majesty's Government abate the Burden of it 1 Tim. ij 2. and lead quiet and peaceable Lives under him in all Godliness and Honesty as did this People in my Text under Solomon whose dutiful Submission to him is the next thing to be consider'd and recommended to your Imitation to wit III. Populi Submissio They went unto their Tents They knew 't was fit for them to depart when it was the King's Pleasure but yet to tarry till it were so They resolved not to continue longer nor yet to leave him sooner They would have been glad to have enjoyed the Blessing of his Presence longer but having receiv'd his Commands to be gone they departed and went unto their Tents every Man to his own Habitation without any Dispute or Regret to abide in his Calling to which he was call'd as a Member of the Common-Wealth to meddle with nothing but his proper business and left the Administration of Religion to the Priests and the Government of the Kingdom to Solomon Not from the Court to the Camp not from waiting on him to war against him but from the Temple to their Tents For St. Paul says That Kings are not by God's Sufferance Rom. xiij 1. but by his Ordinance and therefore even supposing them never so bad they are never to be resisted Vers 2. You may take up the Buckler of Patience but you must not take up Arms against them for Rebellion is such rank Poison to the Soul that the least Scruple of it is Damnable Ibid. the very Intention of it in the Heart is Mortal Our Religion will never suffer us to dispence with our Loyalty to serve any worldly Interest or Advantage no not for its own Defence It sets the Crown fast and easie upon the King's Head without Catechising him For be his Heart inclinable to any Religion or none it leaves him no Rival none to Insult or Lord it over him It disclaims all Vsurpation Popular or Papal neither Pope nor Presbyter may controul him none but the great God the only Ruler of Princes can over-rule him to whom 't is his Duty Glory and Happiness to be subject Tho' the King should not Please or Humor us tho' he should rend off the Mantle from our Bodies as Saul did from Samuel nay tho' he should Sentence us to Death of which blessed be God and the King there is no danger yet if we are living Members of the Church of England we must neither open our Mouths nor lift up our Hands against him but Honour him before the People and Elders of Israel 1 Sam. xv 30. We must imitate Jeremiah in Prison Daniel in the Lions-Den Amos struck through the Temples Zachariah Murder'd between the Porch and the Altar our blessed Saviour living under Herod and Tiberius and Crucified under Pontius Pilate His Disciples under Caligula Claudius Nero and Domitian Christian Bishops under Heathen Persecutors none of which ever Revil'd their Princes or Resisted them Who questioned Saul for slaying the Priests and revolting to Idolatry Who questioned Joram a Parricide and Murderer of his Nobles or Joash for his Idolatry and slaying the High-Priest Did the Sanhedrim do it Who questioned Theodosius for Murderdering Six thousand innocent persons Who questioned Constance Valens or Julian the Apostate Who traduc'd their Persons or Dignities or offer'd them any tumultuous Affronts or Remonstrances So that unless we in these latter days do understand the Mind of God better than the Jewish Church and the Primitive Christians did we must not ask our Prince why he Governs us otherwise than we please to be Govern'd our selves We must neither call him to Account for his Religion nor question him for his Policy in Civil Matters for he is made our King by God's Law of which the Law of the Land is only Declarative 'T is God alone who can take Vengeance of him if he does amiss and proportion Punishments to his Person Upon his Providence are we oblig'd to depend who never fails to help Religious Men and Kingdoms in their Distresses Rom. viij 28. and makes all things work together for their good But I need not plead for Submission unto Evil Kings since God of his infinite Goodness hath bestowed so Good and Gracious a King upon us Who tho' he be not of our Religion had we but thankful Hearts to acknowledge his Favours his Kindness is as great to us as if we were of his for he is not a Nero but a Constantine the Great to us The Jews say That the Keys of the Temple were not hung at the High Priests Girdle but laid every Night under Solomon's Pillow as belonging to his Charge To establish Religion by a Law is the King's Province To uphold and maintain the Church and her Legitimate Children this he hath freely undertaken beyond our Expectations if not Deserts And if he be not so good as his Word at last I pray God the Fault be not ours The Ark of God was not shaken as many fear'd it would have been at the Death of our late gracious Soveraign Lord King Charles the Second but continued steady without the least Commotion No Cry in our Cities no Complaining in our Streets no Tears but those of Love and Loyalty The Lord is still with us and hath set another gracious King over us and the presence of God's Ark is once more secured to us even in Verbo Regis in the Word of a King which is as sacred as his Person and as currant as his Coin for in his Word there is Truth as well as Power Eccl. viij 4. And those early and most gracious Assurances of his Princely Piety and undeserved Goodness towards us made in his Privy Council this time Twelve-month have been still renewed repeated and multiply'd to us in despight of all our Ingratitude which would make a passage to Men's Hearts through their Brains if they had any and teach them first to admire his Goodness then to be confident in it and thankful for it and to say as Mephibosheth of David My Lord the King is as an Angel of God Do therefore what is good in thine Eyes 2 Sam. xix 27. Was he ever worse than his Word to any Man Or what ground hath he given any of us to apprehend that he ever will be so Who was ever so exceeding tender of his Honour as he so Just to all so Kind beyond example to his Friends and Servants How can we ever trust our Lives and Fortunes in safer Hands than his He hath done more than ever any of us durst ever venture to look for to give us Confidence in him enough to puzzle our Understandings as well as our Gratitude And how can he give us better security
than he has done Shall we suspect him without cause or remain dissatisfied when he hath given us the best Security that our Cause admits of Or quarrel for more when we have enough Or how can we ever hope to be the better by provoking him in whose Pleasure we are so Happy Why should we endanger the losing of those substantial blessings we have by snapping at the shadow which we can never catch and doth not belong to us if we could To suspect our Prince where we cannot help our selves is of all Fears the most unreasonable 'T is not safe by Insolence and Peevishness to provoke a meek and merciful Prince to Severity and Rigor Princes must not be upbraided with their Promises much less threatned and menac'd with audacious Expostulations if they do not perform them for their Promises are Donatives and 't is reason the Doner should have the explaining of his own mind when they to whom he promised it owe it chiefly if not only to his Grace and Favour 'T is therefore our interest as well as our duty to use our King with all the submissive Intreaties imaginable Irreverent Reproofs not becoming Subjects to their Soveraign And how can we declaim enough then against those Jugling Hypocrites among us who talk of nothing but their Zeal for Religion whilst they design nothing but Rebellion Who to get a misunderstanding between the King and his People use all the Black Art and Industry which quick-sighted Malice can teach them to Poison the unthinking People with strong Suspitions of his Majesties Truth Honour and Justice We must be wanting to our Religion King Church and State if we should tamely suffer our People to be seduc'd into such groundless Fears and Jealousies and not tell them That if these Profligate Wretches did not transgress all the bounds of Truth Reason and Modesty they could not possibly render him suspected much less odious and that if their Impudence were not equal to their Malice they could never make such false and scandalous Reflections upon his Person and Government as they daily do They would make us believe That we are upon the very brink of those Dangers which Wiser Men cannot see and complain of those Greivances which no body feels or suffers Did our Religion ever Flourish more than now Were we ever more Considerable either at Home or Abroad Would you fain see another Rebellion spring out of the Ashes of the Two last if not sit still Trust God and the King let them Govern the Kingdom and be thankful to his Majesty for keeping such Guards about him Rom. xiij 3. as may be a Terror to Evil-doers and a safeguard to them that do well Consider well Whether the greatest Sticklers for the Church of England at this time be most conformable to it themselves whether they themselves are obedient to the Civil and Ecclesiastical Laws which they seem so Zealous to maintain that they fear we shall all be undone if any one of them be broken Take heed there be not Anguis in Herba Look well about you before you leap into their Snares May not a Private subject by their good leave break Twenty Laws with less Noise than their Soveraign one Do not they act like Men who have a design to beget a Misunderstanding between the King and his People and hope to gain something of both if they could inflame the Crowd into an Insurrection Do they not long to set the Kingdom on Fire to warm their own Fingers and to enrich themselves as some once did with the Spoil and Plunder of their Neighbours Will you tamely suffer them to pull down the goodly Fabrick of Church and State to mend their own Fortunes which are as desperate perhaps as their Designs And will you venture the spoiling of all in hopes of mending your selves in One Circumstance Did not God ordain Adam to rule over his Wife without giving her or her Children any Commission to limit his Power What was given to him in his Person was also given to his Posterity and the Paternal Government continued Monarchical from him to the Flood and after that to the Confusion of Babel Gen. x. 10 11. when Kingdoms were first erected and planted over the Face of the Earth And so what Right or Title the People can have or what Commission either of Limitation or Mixture to restrain that Supremacy which was as unlimited in Adam as any Act of his Will it being due to the Supreme Fatherhood or from what time it commenced the Scripture no were tells us Where is the Peoples Charter extant either in Nature or Scripture for invading the Rights of the Crown Or what Authority can they have from either to introduce their Devices of presiding over Him whom God and Nature hath set over them Nay how vain and void of Sense are all these Popular Projects Who can set such bounds to his Prerogative as to impose Penalties on him if he exceed or put those Conditional Limitations in Execution Nor can the King himself divest himself of his Supremacy or discharge his Subjects of their Allegiance And if any Monarch will be so free-hearted as to lay down his Lawful Power at his Subjects Feet if he will throw up that Commission which he had from God independant of any other and take a New one from his Subjects as some Inferiour Magistrates do from him quam diu se bene gesserit or durante beneplacito populi during the Pleasure of our Sovereign Lords the People he forgets that it was a Divine Hand coming out of the Clouds which set the Crown on his Head and that when there was but One good King upon the Face of the Earth only Solomon their Original was deriv'd from God above and not from the People beneath For 't was God himself who best knew it that said By me Kings Reign Prov. viij 15. Be their Religion and Administration of their Office what pleases them they are of God's making and must not be of the People's marring Our King comes to his Crown by Lineal Descent from the Loins of our David He is no Alien or Stranger to the Royal Race nor does his Promotion come either from the East or from the West But 't is God who hath set him over us with his holy Oyl hath he anointed him and set him on his Father's Throne 'T is to God's Grace alone that we owe our King and by the Royal Concessions of him and his Ancestors do we enjoy our Liberties and Properties And the Duty of Subjects to their Princes of Servants to their Masters and of Children to their Parents is obliging to them tho' they never swore to do it for 't is not the Result of Christianity or Policy but a principle of Nature which Religion doth not alter but establish Tho' Darius were an Alien and an Enemy to his Religion compelling to Idolatry and kept the People of God in Captivity as Slaves yet Daniel paid him
but what every Man himself pleas'd or that none should be pressed to fight against a Common Enemy this would look like a Glorious State of Liberty indeed through a pair of Popular Spectacles But if the King who is the best Judge of publick Necessity should see this would presently ruine his Kingdom he were not true to his Trust which God hath reposed in him if he should suffer them to keep their Money for his and their Enemies to make merry with and not call them both in their Purses and Persons to defend him and themselves against such Invasions So that the King may it seems make use of his Prerogative as God does of his Omnipotence upon some extraordinary Occasions For as my Lord Hobart well observes Colt and Glover against the Bp. of Litchfield The Statute Laws are made to ease him of his Labour not to deprive him of his Power and that he may make a Grant with a Non obstante to them And indeed the Power of Dispensing with particular Laws in some Emergencies is such a Lex Coronae such a Prerogative without which no Kingdom can be well Govern'd but Justice will be turn'd into Wormwood For there never was yet nor ever will be any humane Law fram'd with such exact Skill and Policy that it might not on some occasion or other be burdensom to the Subject and obstructive to the publick Good of the Common-Wealth There being particular Cases and Exigencies so infinitely various that 't is impossible for the Wit of Man to foresee or prevent them And therefore in all Government there must be a power Paramount to the written Law and we have good reason to bless God that this is lodg'd but in one and in him whom he hath set over us to be his Vicegerent by whose Authority they who break the Letter of the Law in pure Zeal and Loyalty to serve the ends of Government and to uphold the Crown on the right Head that does and ought to wear it may be releiv'd and pardon'd and rewarded too Suppose a Statute-Law made in Heat when the Nation was in a great Fright and Ferment and upon the false Suggestions and Depositions of them who were afterwards judicially convicted of being Perjur'd Villains should happen to run the Kingdom into one Mischief out of pure Zeal to avoid another Or suppose it should rob the King of his Rights of Government or his Subjects of their Birth-right or incapacitate them to serve him as by Oath and Duty bound even to the Quelling of an Invasion or open Rebellion which he could not do without their help Must the Kingdom be consum'd in a general Conflagration as the greatest City of it once was by Law If Contra Hostem Publicum quilibet Homo Miles be as true as it is a Common Maxime That every Man is in Commission to suppress a publick Rebellion then why such an Out-cry as if we were all undone or might be so by force of Popish Arms Why should Protestants only be at liberty to spend their Blood for the King and Kingdom 's Safety and the Papists sit still and look on Or why may not the King suspend such a Law when there is Hannibal ad portas as the Diseases of State and the various Exigences and posture of Affairs require and his own Prudence and Discretion shall direct him or invite him to it I do not see what irregularities might not be fairly excused in such Exigences by that Supreme Law of Necessity which bears down all Transgressions The King hath indeed promised to Govern by Law but the safety of the People is an Exception implied in every Monarchical Promise Nor must Policy or Popularity prevail against Piety And I am afraid that some of them who object this so smartly against the King have forgot how many statute-Statute-Laws they themselves have broken and never yet call'd to account for them For which they have reason to bless God and the King and to be so very well pleased with his Clemency to them as not to grudge others to be sharers with them in the like Indulgencies We enjoy enough and we have no reason to desire that Men of as unquestionable Loyalty as our selves should be starved because they are not of our Religion when we neither deny them to be God's Israel nor the King's People We do not say That the Church of Rome is not a True Church tho' we affirm it to be a Corrupt one we like their Body well but not their Vlcers nor have we left Them but their Errors 'T is the same Naaman and he a Syrian still but Leprous with them and Cleansed with us Which we speak not out of censure but grief for we pity their Errors pray for their Conversion and long for a Re-union upon Terms of Faith Truth and Charity Nor indeed were we Catholicks or Christians if we did not And that the King may be convinc'd that we do it from the bottom of our Hearts Let him see that we envy none of his Perswasion any Expressions or Marks of his Royal Favour which he thinks fit to confer upon them and that our Eye is not Evil because he is Good We live I know in an unhappy Age wherein every Man is made to pass for a Romanist in Masquerade who will not be a bore-fac'd Rebel He must break all the Ties of Faith Truth and Justice and tamely subject all the Laws of God and the King to the imperious Dictates of some sly popular Incendiaries or else he is condemn'd without Mercy for a Betrayer of his Country and one who is willing to part with his Birth-right Priviledges and Religion But I have not so learned Christ nor am I afraid or ashamed of any Nick-Names that shall be given me for doing my Duty A good Conscience never wants courage nor does the Owner of it care more what Men say than what they dream of him when he discharges it And my Prayer to God shall always be That the People of England those especially committed to my charge may prove themselves as Loyal as did the People in my Text Who left the Government of the Kingdom to Solomon and went unto their Tents joyful and glad of heart which is the Fourth part of my Text to wit IV. Populi Exultatio the People's Triumph They were joyful and glad of heart The Wise-man tells us That there is a time to Weep for the sins and sufferings of our selves and others and such was that which we celebrated on Saturday last and a time to Rejoyce for the light of God's Countenace lifted upon us and our Relations For this we never had a more seasonable time than that which gives a Being and Authority to our present meeting Which affords us as much reason to rejoyce as the People in my Text had Joy being an Eccho a Religious Repercussion arising from the enjoyment of God's Mercy and a fulness of joy a dutiful Correspondence to the fulness of God's