And if the Fear of God be considered as it is a filial Reverence compounded with Love it will be much more powerful to move and excite Obedience to him Reverence willingly offers readily pays and chearfully performs what was forced and constrained by meer Fear If Awe and Affection be united in a devout Veneration of the God whom we serve his Service which before was a Yoak and a Burden then becomes perfect Freedom so pleasant and so natural to us that to refuse it will be an Extinguishing of our own Joys a Resisting oâ— our own Desires and a Violence to ourselves A man that highly reveres another is as much inclined to please him as he is to please himself and as unwilling to offend him as he is to wound his own Breast Obedience therefore is an Inseparable Effect of filial Fear or Reverence And that which is so is the most certainâ— Mark of the Truth and Reality oâ— our Religion We all profess Religion and the Fear of God we all pretend the highest Awe and Reverence to his divine Majesty But do we sincerely endeavour to serve and please him Are we guilty of no wilful disobedience no chosen and deliberate violations of his holy Laws If we indulge any of these the true Fear of God is not in us For it is fourthly to be noted That these are the Contraries and Opposites unto this Fear All wilful and presumptuous Sins are perfectly repugnant to it These are Affronts and Contempts bold and Impudent Practices which carry the Marks of great Irreverence clearly written upon their Brow When men deliberately chuse to do those things which they plainly see and know to be contrary to the Divine Laws this is a manifest Discovery that there is no Fear of God before their eyes Let us therefore prove the truth of our Religion by the sincerity of our Obedience particularly by our Obedience to those Commands of God which require us to be Loyal to our Prince That we may fully shew what an Awful Sense we have of the Majesty and Soveraignty of the most high God both in our Words and in our Actions let both our Words and Actions declare how much we revere his Power and Authority not onely in himself but in those also whom he hath set over us And so I come to the second part of Solomon's Advice wherein we are admonished unto the Fear of God to subjoyn the Fear of the King who is Gods Vicegerent Of which I shall discourse in the same Method as I have done of the former by considering its Nature Degrees Effects and Contraries First As for the Nature of the Fear which we owe unto the King 't is very much of the same nature with that Fear which is due to God himself onely 't is inferior and subordinate to it For Kings are honoured in holy Scripture with the adorable Name of God And the Laws of England looking upon the King as a God upon Earth do attribute unto him in some Analogy diverse Excellencies that belong properly to God alone such as are a kind of Omnipotency in raising men from Death to life by pardoning whom the Law hath condemned a certain Omnipresency by his numerous Officers who every where represent him and little less than an Infallibility and an absolute Perfection of Wisdom and Righteousness For our Law will have no Error no Injustice no Folly no Imperfection whatsoever to be found in the King The Fear therefore which we owe to our dread Soveraign even like that which we render to the divine Majesty is a most profound Reverence for an high Esteem of and a most humble and dutiful Affection unto his Sacred Person and Authority It is a filial Fear compounded of Dread and Love For the King is the Father of our Country by whose Providence and Protection we are supported and defended by whose vigilant Care and Conduct we quietly enjoy all that we possess Of this as St. Jerom hath observed even the Philistines were so sensible that it was a constant Custom among them to call all their Princes by the name of Abimelech which signifies both Father and King And it was the Promise of God to his Church that in the Times of the Gospel Kings should be her nursing Fathers and Queens her nursing Mothers Which great Blessing hath been and is most visibly enjoyed by us in this Nation as much as by any People under Heaven Since then by being born the Kings Subjects we have the Happiness to be his Children the very law of Nature doth oblige us to pay him all the Awfulness and Affection and Duty of Children If I be a Father saith God where is mine Honour If I be a Master where is my Fear Now the King next and immediately under God is the great and common Father the supreme Lord and Master of us all And therefore secondly The Degrees and Measures of Honour and Fear which are due to the King are the very highest and the greatest next unto those that are due to God himself The supreme Power and Authority under God being lodged in the sacred Person of the Soveraign Prince he may justly demand the supreme Honour Within his own Dominions he is only less and lower than God he is greater and higher than all Ranks and Orders of Men. Yea all the States of the Realm joyned together all the Nobles and Commons and the whole Body of the People have not a Power and Authority equal to his All his Subjects whether Publick Magistrates or private men not only severally and apart but joyntly and together are under his Command For otherwise he would not be the King of a Kingdom or a Political Society united under one Form of Government but only a King of single men separately taken and so he would be a strange kind of Chimerical and imaginary Prince a King of nothing but a Rope of sands In the first Epistle of St. Peter Chap. 2. ver 13 and 14. that great Apostle makes this plain Distinction between our Subjection to the King and to all other Magistrates whether taken collectively or distributively We are to submit to the King as Supreme to all others as his Officers and Delegates Sent and Commissioned by him all of them together as well as each of them apart having received all their Power and Authority from him and he having received his from God alone For the King is no Substitute of the People but the Minister of God and his Power is the Ordinance of God This is the Voice of Scripture and of Reason and this I may with the greatest Confidence because I can with the strongest Evidence affirm it being not only the unanimous Opinion of all the Wisest Politicians and Statesmen in the World but also the Catholick Doctrine of the Christian Church for many hundreds of years together that a Monarch or Soveraign in his own Dominions hath no Superior but God Almighty And indeed it would be
with those who would exchange this sober rational well-tempered Religion either for the Extravagancies of Enthusiasm or the Follies of Superstition the Delusions of the Sectaries or the Idolatries of the Romanists Shall we joyn with those who would exchange decent and duly regulated Ceremonies either for rude and unseemly Gestures on the one side or for a Multitude of ridiculous and pompous Rites on the other who would turn pious and primitive Discipline into lawless liberty or intolerable Impositions sound and ancient Doctrine in all Points agreeable to the written Word of God either into uncertain and unwritten Traditions or into novel Enthusiastick Divinity and serious well compos'd Forms of Prayer understood by the People either into mere Battologies and Extemporary Effusions or into unedifying Masses in an unknown Tongue It is a great and a most true commendation of our Religion worthy to be ever remembred which was given by his late Sacred Majesty in some of his last Words to the then Prince of Wales our now most Gracious Soveraign His words are these I do require and intreat you as your Father and your King that you never suffer your Heart to receive the least check against or Disaffection from the true Religion established in the Church of England I tell you I have tried it and after much Search and many Disputes have concluded it to be the best in the World not only in the Community as Christian but also in the special Notion as Reformed keeping the middle way between the Pomp of Superstitious Tyranny and the Meanness of Fantastick Anarchy And as for the Government over us if Reason and Scripture may be heard it is the most excellent Form of Government It is a Monarchy and the best sort of Monarchy not a Despotical and Arbitrary but a Political or Paternal Monarchy such as is administred by Just and equal Laws not an Elective but an Hereditary Monarchy free from all Interregnum and from many Mischiefs to which Elective Kingdoms are subject It is such a Monarchy as by an adadmirable Temperament preserves at once both the just Liberty of the Subject and the Soveraign Majesty of the King It is a Monarchy of great Antiquity We have been under the Government of Kings beyond the utmost Records of all History Of Kings we may justly boast more than any other Nation in the World For it was our Island that yielded the first King and the first Emperor that ever embraced the Faith of Christ Lucius and Constantine Princes who in the Glory and Stability of their Actions abundantly answered the significant Omens of their Illustrious Names One of our Kings also was the first who cast of the Antichristian Usurpations of the Church of Rome and settled the Reformation by a Law And it hath been ever since under the same good Conduct of Kings that the true Christian Reformed Religion hath been hitherto preserved among us Shall we then be so unwise as to hearken to the Antimonarchical Insinuations of those restless Demagogues who would alter and change subvert and destroy this most excellent this most ancient Form of Government And what if some Men will not or cannot apprehend that our Government deserves to be thus extolled What if they suppose this Constitution to be none of the best Yet every plain Country-man may understand That the Mischiefs of a Change are unspeakable A Change of Government cannot ordinarily be introduced without a Rebellion and all the fatal Consequences that attend it a Rebellion which commonly begins with factious Combinations under Pretence of Defending Religion Liberty and Property proceeds by armed Force and all the Ways of secret Stratagem or open Assault and ends in Blood and Slaughter Spoil and Devastation Rapine and Plunder Oppression and Sacriledge a Rebellion I say which if prosperous and successful make a great Change indeed overturns all Order and Rule and licenses all the Injustice in the World lays the Reins upon mens necks and takes off the Restraints of their Appetites throws down the Fences of Law and leaves all open to the Incursions of Violence gathers mens Lusts into a common Storm and fills all things with Horror and Confusion breaks up the Foundations of the Earth and lets in a kind of Hell upon us All these dire Effects of Subverting the Government this Nation hath sadly felt and if we took any Notice of the Black and Fatal Day in the last week they must needs at this Time be fresh in our Memories But perhaps all this doth not discourage the men that are given to Change The seditious Incendiaries care not although the whole Kingdom be in a Flame if they can but warm themselves at the Fire and at the End of all this Blood-shed Ruine and Devastation they expect nothing less than the rich Spoils of a happy Victory and the Glory of Triumph I shall therefore consider in the last Place what may abundantly confute and confound such vain Hopes The dismal Presage in my Text concerning the swift Vengeance that shall surprize such ill Men and the unknown Misery into which both they and their Associates may tumble headlong For their Calamity shall rise suddenly and who knoweth the Ruine of them both that is both of them that are given to change and those that joyn with them Or else it may be understood of the Destruction that shall come upon them both from the Lord and the King Who can tell what terrible Judgment what heavy Punishment both God and his Vicegerent may inflict upon them Who can measure the divine Vengeance which is armed with infinite Power Who can limite or appease the Wrath of a King which is as the Roaring of a Lyon or as a Messenger of Death Kings are said to have long Hands and God hath longer and heavier which can soon reach and will most severely chastise such Disturbers and Overturners of Peace and Government In the Thirteenth to the Romans St. Paul hath very plainly foretold their Fate that they shall receive to themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judgment or as we render it Damnation If we take the Word in the mildest Sense the meaning is that according to the ordinary Course of Gods Providence they shall receive some grievous Punishment here in this World They seldom die the common Death of men nor are they visited after the visitation of all men but are usually cut off by the visible Strokes of Vindictive Justice And their Punishment is as signal as their Villany They resist the Ordinance of God and they receive a Punishment worthy of God Every Age hath afforded Examples of this but I will only instance in the Judgments which followed the first notorious Sedition that happened in World and the last great Rebellion in our own Nation That first Sedition of which we have a large and full Account in the sixteen Chapter of Numbers was the Insurrection of Corah and his Accomplices against Moses and Aaron under pretence of
very strange if any considering men should think otherwise For it is a manifest Contradiction to be a Soveraign or Supreme Prince and to have a Superior Those Kings who have any Power above them are only titular not real Kings The Soveraignty is always lodged where there is the highest Authority And according to the Constitution of our Nation it is most certainly in the King for the Lords both Spiritual and Temporal together with all the Commons assembled in Parliament do by a Solemn Oath acknowledge the King to be Supreme and themselves to be his Subjects and they have in publick Statutes particularly declared the sole Supreme Command and Government of the Militia ever to be and to have been by the Law of England the undoubted Right of his Majesty and his Predecessors and that both or either Houses of Parliament cannot nor lawfully may raise or levy any War offensive or defensive against his Majesty his Heirs and lawful Successors Neither can any Laws or Statutes be made by them but onely such as the King approves Neither is the King accountable to them or to any other or liable to be punished by them or by any other besides God These are the Essentials of Soveraignty or supreme Power to have the sole Power of the Sword to have the Legislative Power to have a Power which is irresistible and unaccountable and no way subject to the coercive Authority of any other Every compleat and Imperial Soveraign hath all these And that we are under such a Soveraign the whole Parliament did acknowledge in the 24. H. 8. c. 12. in which it was Resolved That by sundry Authentick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this Realm of England is an Empire and so hath been accepted in the World governed by one Supreme Head and King having Dignity and Royal Estate of the Imperial Crown of the same The Kings Majesty being therefore the only Supreme Governour in his Dominions next under God and having full perfect and entire Jurisdiction and Authority from God alone which no other Magistrates have but by Emanation from him ought to be revered by us with the highest Degrees of Awfulness and Veneration that can justly be paid to any Person or Power upon Earth The Fear and Hoour we owe to him is greater than we owe to any other and is the very greatest that can possibly be expressed except only that Divine Honour and Adoration which is peculiar to the Deity Thirdly This Awful Fear of our Soveraign Prince if it be really within us will have the very same Effect that the Fear of God hath It will produce a most humble and loyal Submission a most faithful and dutiful Obedience to him We shall execute his Commands with Chearfulness and bear with Patience what he inflicts upon us We shall carefully endeavour to observe and keep all his just Laws that is to say all those which are not contrary to the Laws of God And if it so happen that we cannot comply with his Injunctions by Reason of their Repugnancy to the Divine Commands then we shall meekly and quietly submit to the Penalties that ensue such non-complyance There is but one only case wherein a good and loyal Subject who duly fears and honours his Prince will refuse to obey him and that is when such Obedience will by no means consist with his Obedience to God then indeed he will obey God rather than Man because he fears God more than any mortal Man more than the greatest Monarch in the World But there is no Case whatsoever wherein he dareth either to resist or reproach the Person or the Authority of the King or to offer any Indignity to him For in the fourth and last Place it is to be remembred that all Acts of wickedly presumptuous Disobedience all Oppositions by Force of Arms all reviling Expressions and all manner of Affronts are the most manifest Contradictions to the awful Fear of Soveraign Majesty Where the Word of a King is there is Power Eccles 8. 4. But if his Word be slighted and his Power despised he is not honoured as a King Who may say unto him what doest thou None surely can without great irreverence Is it fit to say to a King thou art Wicked or to Princes ye are Vngodly Job 34. 18. No it is very unfit it is one of the highest Instances of Impudence Rudeness and Unmannerliness It is such Behaviour as doth no way consist with the Deference Obsequiousness and profound Lowliness which ought to be in Subjects But what is it then to take Arms against him Is it not plainly a fighting against God whom the King represents and with whose Authority he is invested Prov. 30. 31. A King like God is one against whom there is no rising up No not upon any pretence whatsoever without open Perfidiousness and Rebellion of which when any are guilty they not only affront their Prince and contemn his Laws and Government they not only act contrary to their Duty and Allegiance but they totally cast off the very State and Quality and Relation of Subjects yea they are such Monsters of Men as do in a great Degree renounce humane Nature and common Civility They are as natural Brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed So St. Peter describes them 2 Pet. 2. 10 12. If we have therefore any Fear of God or the King if we have any Regard to Religion or Loyalty Humanity or Civility we will abhor the thoughts of ever joyning with such salvage untamed ungovernable Creatures such Wolves and Tygers in humane Shape as Rebels and Traitors are Yea if we desire to keep our selves out of danger we will have nothing to do with any of the Friends or Correspondents of such ill men with any factious Designers who do more remotely attempt to destroy the Government by introducing the Changes and alterations of it Which brings me to The third Observable in the Text The useful Caution against Joyning or Associating with seditious Innovators Meddle not with them that are given to change That is joyn not thy self to any turbulent Sect or Party whose Discontent with the present State of Things or desire of Novelty makes them affect a change especially in those two great Interests of a Nation Religion and Government both which the due Fear of God and the King would preserve inviolate Now by how much the better the established Religion and Government is by so much the worse and the more detestable are all such Combinations and Confederacies for the Change of either of them Upon which Account I verily believe no People in the World have greater Reason to hearken to this Counsel of Solomons than we have For wherefore should we desire or endeavour an Alteration either of our Religion or our Government Our Religion is the true Christian Religion restored to its primitive Purity and reformed from the Corruptions and Abuses both of Hereticks and Schismaticks And shall we joyn