not the Kingdom so happy as ye could wish it to be then leave accusing of Governours and prescribing of rules and prosecuting your seditious bents and settle the Nation upon the first foundation stone upon which it was called a Reformed Church I believe those blessed Martyis had in them more purity then all the Saints that have come after them it is no good manners to say that the fore-Fathers wanted a little of the childrens wit or integrity Had men past through their flames I would think they might equal them in fervour and sincerity but I cannot endure whole skins to rectify that which their Ancestours bequeathed to after-ages with such a flaming sacrifice Those Martyrs stakes are more precious to me then all the holocausts of zeal which I have seen upon the Altar since I would wish no other Heaven then they do enjoy nor desire any purer Religion then they preached to succession out of that flagrant pulpit give me Elias mantle which he left behind him when he was carried a way in the fiery Chariot I would think to see a prime Kingdom if I could see the primitive Protestant There were never such fervent Preachers since neither can we find such Zelots Away then with the language of Ashdod and let us speak the true language of Canaan away with passion against innocent Ceremonies and let us double this indignation against branded hypocrisy and cursed impiety Let us renew the Martyrs sanctity and this Land may be the joy of the whole earth Virtue would adorn the Nation grace would beautify it let us be beautifull Saints and God hath beautifull blessings for us even a King in his beauty Thine eyes shall see the King in his Beauty Thirdly this doth shew that there is no Governour amiable which doth want Beauty There is no ill face like to an ill Governour there is no deformed Morian or Monster like unto a wicked Ruler When the wicked are in authority the people sigh Prov. 29.2 oh it is a wofull thing when Princes are rebellions and companions of thieves Is 1.23 for then They hunt every man his brother with a net Micah 7.2 and The wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous then himself Hab. 1.13 They pant after the dust of the earth over the head of the poor and turn aside the way of the meek Amos 2.7 They drink up the deep waters and fowle the rest with their feet Ezech. 34.18 In their skirts is found the Bloud of the souls of poor Innocents Jer. 2.34 When wicked men rise up men hide themselves Prov. 28.28 There is a lamentation upon the house-tops Jer. 48.38 All faces gather blackness Jocl 2.8 They eat their bread with quaking and drink their water with trembling Ezek. 12.28 Their nights of pleasure are turned into fear Is 21.4 and well may they for not man seemeth then to be the Ruler but some savage Beast a Leopard watcheth over the Cities Jer. 5.6 A Lion teareth in pieces for his whelps and strangleth for his Lionnesse and filleth his holes with prey and his dens with ravine Nah. 2.12 Then nihil absurdum quod utile nothing is absurd Thucyd. l. 6. Polyb. hist l. 8. Appian l. 2. de bel civ Iornand de red Get. Herod l. 3. Xiphil in vit Ant. Carac Plutarch Val. M. l. 9. c. 2. Sueton. in Vitel. that is profitable and inimicissimi sunp qui libertati patrocinantur They are counted most spightfull against authority which do defend their liberty Satellites sunt commune maleficium The soldiery are then a common bane Such a Ruler ambitum suum brachio metitur doth measure his ambition by his arm if he doth not want force he will want neither title nor treasure Optimis invidet deterrimis delectatur He is ever envious against the worthyes and delighted most with Miscreants Then with Caracalla their sword is their Rent-gatherer and with Simonides they had rather want friends then mony then they sprinkle with Mithridates their hospital gods with bloud and with Vitellius they think no odour upon earth so sweet as the smell of an enemies carkasse Have not we had triall sufficient of this yes men which stroked us till they got upon our backs then gave us enough of the spur which cried up the Gospel and made Trades-men Preachers which talked much of the purity of faith and brought in blasphemy which would set up Christianity by pulling down Churches and fill the Nation with wisdome by destroying the Universities which would help the people to freedome by free quarter and administer justice by taking away the lawes which would take Tyranny out of the Land by multiplying Taxes and confirm inheritances by sequestration which would convert men without a conference and draw people out of darknesse by a light within them which a horred coremonies and brought in imaginations and reformed a Church by plucking out her heart which would settle us in peace by laying us in prison and send us to Heaven by climing Gibbets Now is thereany Beauty in this Government as much as there is in a viper and a Crocodilt Whensoever ye have such Usurpers enter your houses look to have your keyes wrung out of your hands whensoever such Executioners come expect nothing but the losse of your necks Oh meddle not with them then that are given to change be not Confederates with them which would set up an unlawfull Governour for ye had as good bring into the Nation a Tormentour or an Headsman an unjust Ruler can never be amiable no the true Beauty is in the legitimate Magistrate the King Thine eyes shall see the King in his Beauty Fourthly this doth shew that a right King is a rare Beauty For can the eye of man behold a more choice Object upon earth then a lawfull and righteous King no when the righteous are in authority the people rejoyce Prov. 29.2 for such an one is the Minister of God for good Rom. 13.4 when a King doth reign in justice and Princes rule in judgement that man shall be an hiding place from the wind and a refuge from the tempest as rivers of water in a dry place and as the shadow of a rock in a weary Land the eyes of the seeing shall not be shut and the eares of them that hear shall hearken the heart of the foolish shall understand knowledge and the tongue of the stutterers shall speak distinctly Is 32.1 2 3 4. yea and it followeth in the 16 17 18. v. of that chapter that in such a Kings dayes judgement shall dwell in the desart and justice shall remaine in the fruitfull field the work of justice shall be peace even the work of justice and quietnesse and assurance for ever yea the people shall dwell in the tabernacle of peace and in sure dwellings and safe resting-places Now these words though they be spoken mystically of Christ yet literally they are meant of any good King for a good King how beneficial is he A King by iudgement maintaineth the Countrey Pro. 29.4 for he knoweth that he is therefore constituted King that he might do equity and righteousnesse 1. Kings 10.9 and therefore is a Copy of the Law put into his hand that he may learne to feare the Lord his God and keepe all the words of the Law and the Ordinances Deut. 17.19 Such a King will be like David who fed Jacob his people and
Jsrael his inheritance with a faithfull and true heart and ruled them prudently with all his power Ps 78.72.73 Or like Asah who made a covenant with his people to seek the Lord God of his Fathers with all their heart and with all their soul insomuch that he that would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be slayne whether he be small or great man or woman 2. Chron. 15.12.13 or like Jehosaphat who walked in the first wayes of his Father David Melius est civitatem regi à viro optimo quam à lege optimâ Arist politic l. 1. Pictor insignis qui non tantum oculos faciem verum totam imaginem varietate colorum honestat Franc patr Sen. de instit regis l. 2. tit 1. Sedente in se immortali Iudite p. Aemil l. 5. Regum oculis efficacia supra humanam vim inest P. Iovius hist l. 2. Herodot l. 2. Diodor. l. 12. Ced Rhod. l. 19. c. 29. Sigon l. 20. occid Imp. Evagr. l. 5. c. 13. Alex. ab Alex. l. 5. c. 9. Herodot l. 6. and sought the Lord God of his Fathers and walked in his Commandments and not after the trade of Israel 2 Chron. 17.3 4. A good King doth chiefly look to have his Throne established by righteousnesse Prov. 25.5 and that his people under him may lead a peaceable and a quiet life in all godlinesse and honesty I. Tim. 2.2 This is a good King and indeed his worth and value is scarcely known A good King is like a good Spring a good mine a good corner-stone a good Magazine a good Angel which made Aristotle to say that it were better for a City to be governed by the best man then by the best law because his life is a Law and there need no other precept but his precedent He is the rare Painter which maketh his whole Kingdom a picture drawn out with Orient Colours He is so transformed into God that as Ludovicus Crassus wished his son the people may see the immortal Judge sitting in him Which made Paulus Jovius to say that Kings had distinct eyes from other men because they look out with their Princely eyes minding onely the general benefit Such a Prince doth remedy the errours of former Governments as Micerinus did the high enormities of Cheops and Chephren which reigned before him in Aegypt In such an ones Government people leave groaning and there are nothing but laeta fausta pleasant and delightfull things to be seen at it was said of Sitalces or all grievances being removed the Nation liveth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without fear or perplexity as it was said of the reign of Alcimus That wise Governour doth make it his principal art to restore the ancient glory of a Nation as Justinian the great did or like that famous Tiberius the second he hath no other Princely ambition in his brest but that none of his predecessours might exceed him in piety or felicity That Prince is so honoured by the people that like another L. Pifo because he had done all things for the welfare of the Nation he shall be sirnamed Frugi the Profitable yea there are prayers made by the whole Land that such an one may not dye childlesse lest such a renowned family should perish as it is said of Ariston the King of Lacedemonia and if God send an heire for the Fathers virtues they are willing to have the childs name called Demarathus the peoples Darling And well may it be so for a good King doth take his Crown out of Gods hand and doth weare it for his honour his heart is in Heaven and his eye is upon the Church he doth first seek for the purity of religion and is carefull that sacrifices without blemish be brought to the Altar he doth look to conquer rather with his bended knees then his armed hand he doth love his Nobles and not despise his Commons he doth prefer a penitent before a Peere and a just liver before an high-borne Grandee he doth desire to have his Priests undefiled and his Judges uncorrupt he doth want no Majesty and yet doth abound in humanity his speech is gentle and his hand is soft he is passionate against incorrigible sinners and yet compassionate to remorse-full enemies he grieveth at intemperance and hateth blasphemy he liketh neither the laughing Projectour nor the weeping Sectary he would have his Sanctuary without indevotion and his treasury without injury his watchfull conscience is the Squire of his body and his deprecatory petitions his best Life-guard his innocent life is his ingraven Image and his pious examples his richest Medals he doth shine like a Sun himself and doth wish to have none but bright Stars about him next to his own pure heart he doth endeavour to have a pure Court he doth stand upon his own prerogative but catch at none of his people liberties he had rather gild a Kingdom then his Exchequer his Crown-land doth satisfy him better then breaking an Inclosure he can see a Vine-yard out of his Palace-Window without proclaiming himself Owner of it by an Ahabs evidence he would have the liberal Arts to flourish and make if it were possible every Mechenick a Lord of a Mannour he giveth all furtherances for free Trade and quick Merchandise he hoth affect none but the generous and scorn none but the proud he doth commiserate the wants of the poor and he would have the rich to build them Alms-houses he is wise and not vain glorious valiant and yet would never fight chast and yet not an Hermit sober and yet no water-drinker liberal and yet not profuse he is oftenest at his Chappel and oft at his Council-Table he hath a listening ear to just petitions but not to pragmatical motions his heart is set upon nothing more then repairing decayed places and erecting Monuments he would leave behind him a glorious Church and a setled Kingdom he doth govern for God upon earth that he may Reign with God in Heaven Now is not the presence of such a King an Heavenly present hath the rich hand of God a dearer pledge of favour to bestow upon his Bosome friends are all the splendid Spectacles of a Kingdom like to the face of such a Prince no doubtlesse he doth surpasse them all as far as light doth excell darknesse oh then how may all his Subjects have delight under his shadow and clap their hands together that they sive to see such happy dayes his name may be pleasure his Reign Triumph for when their eyes see such a King they see a King in
an evil thing against them not curse them in our bed-chambers how do I think that Kings are pricelessely tendered by God Almighty and that they are his chief Favourites yea wherefore does he command so many prayers and supplications to be made for them and that with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 especially as if he would have the lips of a whole Nation to sacrifice for their safety and welfare if Kings were not the principal persons which God had under his protection and tutelage Well then if either Gods love or his lawes his titles or his priviledges his mission or commission his consecration or conservation his impresse or his Image his watchfull providence or his irefull vengeance concerning Kings be to be regarded we cannot imagine any persons more conspicuous or precious excellent or eminent then Kings No mans eyes can see no more exquisite and magnificent Creature upon earth then a King for Thine eyes shall see the King 1. This serves first to shew us the high sins of this Nation Applic. which for many years deprived us of this happy sight Did we not provoke the eyes of Gods glory yes we may discern it by the judgement upon our eyes We saw not a King God is deeply incensed when he doth take away the Diademe Ezech. 21.26 and people have been Transgressours to purpose when it may be said to them Where is thy King that should help thee in all thy Cities Hos 13.10 yea when the Crown is fallen from their head they may cry wo unto us we have sinned Lament 5.16 Have they not broken Gods Lawes grievously when the breakor shall come up before them and lay hold upon him that sitteth in the Throne so that the King shall go out before them and the Lord shall be upon their heads Micah 2.13 oh God is ready to disannull the Covenant which he made with his people when he doth break this staffe of Beauty Zach. 11.10 would to God then that we were as sensible of our Sins as our Sufferings and our wickednesse as our wretchednesse We lost the sight of a King for our guilty eyes and have we not gained the sight of him again with the some criminal eyes have we so minded and mortified revieved and renounced our known corruptions that we welcomed the King into a cleansed Land were there none but Penitents which fetched him in It is true that though there be corruption in the wound yet there is health in the medicine but do not we carry our old ulcers about us insomuch that though we have been wounded In vulnere samies in medicina purgatio yet we refuse to apply a plaister for cure so that our former botches remaining we have but brought home the King to a Lazer house Oh that we had had as much desire to renew our consciences as to renew our State and to take away the cords of our iniquity Chrys de pun s 3. Nos qui vulnerati sumus obligari poenitentia erubescimur Bern. Serm. de circumcis as to take off our fetters and to see the face of Christ as to see the face of the King but I doubt that there have been few of these desires or few of these eyes we had eyes to look onely to our deliverance not to our duties to the change of our miseries not of our manners n = * Laert. l. 5. Lyc 〈◊〉 n the scholar of Straton could speak so eloquently that he was called Glycon sweet speech but he wrot so harshly that no man would read what he penned So we are curious Rhetoricians to speak of good things but the worst Scribes in the world to write out accurately in our conversations what we have delivered elegantly with our tongues What we were at the beginning of our miseries the same we are still and have gotten no more mortification by passing through variety of calamities then fishes do get into them any salt tast by swimming a long time in brackish Sea-waters Apollon de Hist mirabil or then Eunomus did get any purging from his corrupt humours by taking two and twenty potions of Hollebore Oh inflexible hearts oh fruitlesse judgements It were well therefore that we would disperse that cloud that kept the light of the Sun so long from us do we suffer these thieves to range up and down at liberty till they have robbed us once more of our Gemme This had need to be the contrite Land when our impenitency hath done us so much mischief Oh let us know the trespasse by the punishment our sins stript us of much honour and left the Land naked when they plucked the Robe of Majesty from the back of it Let us know at last that our Sins are old Chasers when they drove a King out of the Land it is a judgement to be deprived of a King when it is an happinesse to see a King Thine eyes shall see the King Secondly this doth shew that the want of a King is the Iulet of all infelicity For how can that Land be happy where the eyes do not see a King no then servants ride on horseback 10. Eccles 7. The people shall be oppressed every one of another and every one of his neighbour the children shall presume against the ancient and the vile against the honourable Is 3.5 for when the Kings are fallen Hos 7.7 all welfare fall with them then presently they are mixt with strange worships strangers devour their strength gray hairs are here and there upon them Hos 7.8.9 yea when Princes are hanged up by the hand then the young are taken to grind and the children fall under the wood the Elders cease from the gate and the young men from their songs the joy of their heart is gone and their dance is turned into mourning Lament 5.12 13 14 15. nay God doth no sooner remove the Crown but the Kingdome is no more the same it was then presently God overturn overturn overturn Ezech. 21.26.27 when the true Shepherd is removed then there is nothing to be seen in the Nation but the instruments of a foolish Shepheard of such a Shepheard which will not look for the thing that is lost nor seek the tender Lambs nor heal that which is hurt nor feed that which standeth up but he shall eat the flesh of the fat and tear their clawes in pieces Zach. 11.15.16 Take away such a Shepheard and the poor flock goeth to woefull desolation for Arise oh Sword upon my Shepheard and upon the man that is my fellow that is Gods immediate Vicegerent and what then and the sheep are scattered and God turn his hand upon the little ones And in all the Land saith the Lord two parts therein shall be cut off and dye Zach. 13.7.8 So that where a King is wanting what but disorder distraction devastation and desolation is to be expected And have not we had experience of it yes so soon as a King was gone how did every one wear the
Crown and sit in the Chair of State peasants were Princes and Mechanicks Monarchs never such a spawne of new Lords nor a litter of upstart Rulers seen paradoxes were principles and Sanctity was little better then South-saying the Temple was a kind of Tiring-room liberty was leaguing free trade was purchasing Delinquents Estates and allegiance was conspiracy Were there ever so many fundamental Lawes overthrown so many families ruined so many millions spent so many bowels torn out in five hundred years within this Realm as there were in this short space of King-routing alas consciences estates priviledges speeches looks affections labours lawes lives were all subject to the will of the insulting Conquerour So that as Pyrrhus said of Sicily in respect of the Romans Sabell l. 9. Eâ— 4. and Carthaginians so might it be said of this Land in respect of our factious Rulers it was but the Stage where mad men plaid their prizes and as Ate is said to be cause of all the labours of Hercules so our ejecting a King was the Original of all the miseries of the Nation In those dayes when there was no King in Israel every man did that which was good in his own eyes Judg. 17.6 and we found it for humour was then order power was law and divination was the Divinity of the times The Fox-burrow of Triers took away mens gifts the Cutpurse-hall of a Committee of Indemnity took away mens rights and the bloudy Shambles of an High Court of Justice took away mens heads Oh sad age of arbitrary commands oh dismal Reigne oh miserable Realm without a King will ye ever engage again to be ruled without King or House of Lords will ye ever be ready to take an oath of Abjuration again against a single Person Then be ye for my part single and singular desperate and wilfull Bondmen For it is to make the whole Nation a slave to be destitute of a King the presence of a King being the preservation of a Kingdome for Thine eyes shall see the King Thirdly this doth serve to exhort us to be chearfull Seers For have ye got a King again to look upon Virg. visum mirabile Cunctis It is a sight that the eyes of a whole Nation might behold with admiration Do ye not blesse your eyes then that ye are seeing that which ye have been so long seeking for Do ye not know what ye could not see what ye would have seen what ye do see Do the delight of a Kingdom grieve you doth the desire of your eyes offend you Have ye not what can be seen can ye see a better If thine eye then offend thee pluck it out pluck out that evil glaucome out of thine eye The eye is the light of the body Have as clear an eye as can be to see so bright an Object Is there a diseased eye here oh cure the malady Are there any moles here away with such Blinkards are there any Bats here away with such unlucky birds Did the sight of Ostriches offend you and shall not the sigh of a Phoenix please you Quivis delectatur cum lumen videat Demosth Ficinus Every man is delighted when he doth see the light and what is a King but the Light of our eyes The eye doth receive the beams of the Sun in a spiritual manner so do ye the sight of a King that glorious Sun Was Jacob so delighted when he heard that his Son Joseph was alive that his heart failed him and his spirit revived Gen. 25.27.28 Were the Israelites so affected when they heard that the Arke which had a long time been kept captive amongst the Philistines was returning that they left their wheat-harvest to look upon the Arke 1. Sam. 6.13 were the Jewes in Shushan so transported that Hamans bloudy decree was reversed that it caused joy and gladnesse amongst them and they kept a Feast and a good day 9. Ester 22. then what great melody and festivity may it be to us that we have our Joseph to look upon our Arke gilded within and without to behold and a day of Purim to keep for a deliverance from the savagest decree that the malice of man could invent Oh that we have opportunity to commemorate these things that we have the happiness with our eyes freely to see them was it a joyfull thing once to hear of a King and shall it not be much more joyfull to see a King yes the sense of sight is much more perfect then that of hearing Sensus visus perfectior est auditu Plotinus If your eyes then should not take pleasure in that which was once so comfortable to your eares your eyes are wonderfully distant from your eares as Thales said Oh then that all the hearts of the Kingdome should not spring with joy that all the feet of the Kingdom should not leap with Triumph that all the eyes of the Kingdom should not gaze with pleasure to see such a solacing satisfying triumphant Object presented to the sight Ye have not now a King living or honoured beyond Sea or counted worthy of a Crown by very strangers which conversed with him but the faces of his own people are blessed with the sight of him he is come towards you he is come near you he is come home to you And what went ye out to see nay what is brought into your Throne to see Can there be a more bright amiable delectable splendid illustrious supereminent matchlesse majestical sight for the eyes of a whole Realm to look upon then a King no Thine eyes shall see the King Fourthly this serves to exhort all to make a King Royal. And how Royal but in being your selves Loyal How is he a King without Royalty and how are ye Subjects without Loyalty The Hebrewes have a Proverb that a man should fly out of that Kingdom where a King is not obeyed And doubtlesse no Nation shaken with a Quag-mire or tossed with an Earth-quake is more dangerous to stand upon Rebellions are the burning feavers of Realmes the Deluges of States the Eclipses of Nations the Hericanoes of Kingdomes Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft Sam. 15.23 for then all the Magicians are at work and using all the prestigiatory inventions of their black Art Simon Magus Balaam Jannes and Jambres had not more pernicious rules and practises then these State-witches they are like the Bythiae in Scythia which had four apples of the eye in their heads Plin. l. 7. c. 2. and killed all which they looked upon with their angry eyes Traitours upon earth are but the disciples of Judas or the State-students of Achitophel or the Spirits that learn their aspiring Art of Lucifer Goodly pedagogues that they are trained under if I would have an Academy of Hell set up I would have Traytours there commence and become Graduates The Law taught no such principles No The Fathers children must bow down before him that is in chief authority Gen. 49.8 Who can lay
his Beauty Thine eyes shall see the King in his Beauty Fifthly this doth reprove the blind rage of a Conspiratour in opposing such a King he doth strike at the Beauty of the Land For is there a King in his Beauty then why do such an one endeavour to pluck away from the eyes of a Nation the most glorious sight that can be beheld What would such people have when will they be contented wherein shall they find satisfaction is there any thing upon earth which can keep them long quiet for except they would have their own wills be Lords of all Titles Procuratours for all general affairs Dictatours to rule all by themselves hold the helm of States in their hands order Gods Providence hold no Crown fit to be worn but that which their well-guiding hands shall set on be Supreme and Kings themselves can they desire to be more happy Do they contest with God because he hath made a people so blessed may not God say to them as he doth in the Gospel Is thine eye evil because mine is good For if they had not evil eyes and evil heads and evil hearts and evil hands they would never thus quarrel with Gods will and wisdome and goodnesse What are they weary of a Banquet doth a calm offend them is Sun-shine grievous to them is a gemme troublesome to them to enjoy is a King in his Beauty vexations to them to see alas poor sick eyes and litigious refractary spirits it is pity that ye were not all Secretaries of State and that God did not send his Decrees to you to have your pregnant approbation But this is mans turbulent murmuring nature that the best things are divers times the greatest grievances and that they which cannot govern themselves must be continually querulous against Rulers Ye take too much upon you said Corah and his complices Num. 16.3 Why hast served us thus said the men of Ephraim to Gideon and they chode with him sharply Judges 8.1 How shall he save us and they despised him and brought him no presents 1 Sam. 10.27 See thy matters are good and righteous but there is no man deputed of the King to hear thee oh that I were made a Judge in the Land that every man which hath any matter or controversy might come to me and I might do him Justice said Absalon of Davids Government 2. Sam. 15.3 4. So that there is no Government or Governour will please many men Plut. in Apoph Thus Aristodemus liked not the Government of Antigonus King of Macedonia because he was too liberal and the Court of Lysimachus must be found fault with because there were none but disyllabic men with two syllables in their names as Bythes Athen. l. 14. c. 3. Paris c. which had all the authority under him Augustus Caesar because he would never call the Praetorian bands fellow-soldiers but soldiers he never desiring to make use of them but when he was constrained and because he was so liberal to the Citizens Macrob. l. 2. c. 5. and respective to the Senatours and delighted much in singing he was by Timagenes Labeo and Pollio and some others not thought fit to govern So we have a generation of men still left amongst us that are apt to asperse the most meriting Prince and not onely to stretch out their slanderous tongues but their barbarous hands to pull him down what savage wars have we had in this Nation waged in a blind rage and not onely till the Land hath been sprinkled with the bloud of her Natives but the Scaffold died with the Bloud of a most Innocent King and this King-killing will be a Trade if God from Heaven do not strike an horrour and dread of such an impious act into their hearts Oh ye wild Furies then consider what ye have done consider what ye are about to do Christians ye are not are ye men what ye live in a Country to appal a Country to trouble her peace wa st her treasure to deprive her of the light of her eyes what is a family without a Master what is a Kingdom without a King Repent then for what ye have done and do not think that a pardon is easily gotten an Act of Indemnity may save your necks but it must be an high expiatory Act that must save your souls If David wept so bitterly for the murther of one Uriah ye had need have Davids penitential teares and his penitential Psalm for the thousands that ye have slaine and especially for the murther of that one King that was worth ten thousand of us Ye have immodest cheekes if they have no shame ye have flinty hearts if they have no remorse as stupidly as ye passe over such a guilt it is well if eighteen years repentance nay a strict penance of your whole lives can procure you a reconciliation in Heaven there is a great difference between a dispensation of your partial Prophets and justification at the white Throne of the Judge of quick and dead What then have ye still dry eyes and will ye shed no tears yes springs might gush out of the rocks hearts of adamant might cleave asunder Ahab might go softly and Judas out of horrour of conscience might cry out I have sinned in betraying Innocent Blood If ye have not Ahabs consternations and Judas ' s cryes ye will have frights and stings and yelles enough in Hell There is yet a means of attonement an opportunity of healing if ye be not of the number of them which have hearts that cannot repent Rom. 2.5 try what Suppliants and penitents ye can be ye had need go water every Camp where ye have fought your bloody Battles and to moisten the ground of that Scaffold where that execrable murther was committed with showres of salt water And if ye can work out your peace raise not another war in your consciences if ye can be made whole sin no more Your swords are sheathed draw them not again ye are sent home quietly hang not out a new flag of defiance What have ye to do to be States-men follow your callings and look to take the enormities out of your own lives what are ye to meddle with errours of Government no leave politicks to others neither ye nor your great Masters have any thing to doe with a Kings actions except it be by way of humble advise For Where the word of a King is there is power and who shall say to him what dost thou Eccles 8.3 What have Subjects then to descant upon a Kings Government as if they were his Supra-visours and Guardians The Lawes of God allow no such authority and it is but a State inchantment to say that the fundamental Lawes of this Kingdome have impowred any to call a King to a violent account He hath onely God for his Judge and all the people under him as Liege-men Beware therefore of those puling groanes oh here is a sick State come along with us to administer physick
if the King will not frame up such a Government as we desire we will teach him how to rule by the edge of our swords These are not Physicians but cut-throats God hath allowed no such Paracelsians in a Kingdom to cure a Kings distempers For if a King may not be provoked to wrath he may not be so far provoked as to fight for his life if he may not be spoken evil of or cursed his maladies are not to be remedied by cutting off his head This is rather to be Executioners then State-Doctours I never yet read that there could be a Lictor or a Spiculator or a Carnisex for a King Let the greatest Subjects then busy themselves in preparing Lawes for the Commonwealth and not in prescribing rules to a King in remedying the grievances of the Country and not in avenging grievances which may be suspected by a King in binding the people to obedience and not in bringing a King to account For they are but Subjects and they cannot adde to themselves one cubit above their stature If ye comply with such politicians ye do but please a company of seditious persons and incense the Nation in general for ye cannot do a greater injury to your Country nor offer a greater indignity and violence to true Patriots then to disturb the peace of the Land and to strike at a King For the Kings safety is the Kingdomes Triumph The Nation hath no greater joy then to see the King in his Beauty Thine eyes shall set the King in his Beauty Sixthly this serves to exhort all good Subjects not to disfigure the face of Majesty for if the Beauty of a King be the brightest thing that a Nations eyes can be fixed upon then what a dark Kingdom is there when a King does not shine out in Royal Splendour If every one would have his right that the Cotrager and Commoner would not lose his Country tenure nor the man of noble bloud and honourable family would not lose his peerage then why should not the King have his Jura regalia his Crown-rights I confesse the Propriety of the Subject and plead for it but I find likewise and am an Advocate that there may be Hammelech Melech The Right of a King 1 Sam. 8.11 it is a Right of great antiquity no fundamental Law can vy Seniority with it no multorum festorum Jovis glandes comedit it doth derive the pedigree 4. Nannaso there are antiquiores dipththerae to be brought for it indeed it is as ancient as the Institution now the word do naturally signify Right it is but Metaphorically translated Manner as Buxtorfius and Pagnine declare if it be a Right then it must continue as long as the original Hebrew hold The Text will not perish nor the Title It is the Kings Right but it is Gods Designation and Charter for the Crown I do not say the King should have all I know to the contrary but I say that the King should have his own none ought to say to the contrary especially when it is Jus divinum a Gods-right The Kings Right being setled upon Scripture it is firmer then if it were bottomed upon the best State-groundsel Some say that this is onely meant when God doth give a King in his wrath but I say then that they are in wrath for there is a great distance of time between Samuel and Hosee and between Saul and Jeroboam Kingdomes may have their particular Constitutions in accidental things which do belong to a King but not in the essence of a King especially not against the essence of a divine Institution Let all the just reverence that may be be given to humane Lawes but still let Scripture be sacred and inviolable or else what have we left that is stable infallible The handmaid must not rule the Lady or the star out-shine the Sun all the Sages of a Land must not be wiser then the Oracles of God Virg. 3. Aeneid Parcius istis Cedamus Phoebo moniti meliora sequamur A Prophet that hath understanding in the visions of God is not to be believed in this no If an Angel from Heaven should come and preach otherwise let him be accursed Galath 1.8 Well then what is the Beauty of a King what but his power Take a King without power and what is he but a Ghost without life a meer Phantasme and Apparition How can he do any thing that is Kingly either in setling Religion protecting the Church administring justice making leagues drawing his people to Humiliation for their sins in maintaining the liberties of his people at home or propulsing the violences and affronts of Adversaries abroad no he must sit by with tears in his eyes and deplore all exorbitancies and sad accidents but not be able to remedy them he hath a sympathy but he hath no Soveraignty he hath a will but he hath no power he hath a face but he hath no Beauty in it A Kings authority then is the true Majesty of a King till he can command like a King he doth but personate a King Oh then that the policy of many men is but to designe against the power that their chiefest drift is not in honouring and obeying a King but in restraining and regulating a King that when their purses are empty then they fill them by a Crown-quarrel that when their high parts are not considered then they will be observed to be Master-wits in seeking to master authority and to silence such a Mutiner a Challenger by many a good King must be preferred when many a loyal Champion of as good endowments and better worth must stand upon low ground and this popular Eare-wig creep to his desired height But away with these new dogmatizing principles of State-magick whereby Kings are conjured into politicians Circles or confined to their august limits This may be a Science but I am sure it is none of the liberal Sciences It is a pitiful thing when a King come to be tutoured under such Pedagogues he is then rather a Disciple a pupil then a King for he must do nothing but what is prescribed him nor order any thing but according to commensurations And this is rather Geometry then Monarchy or to make a Mathematical rather then a Majestical King Let the people have their birth-rights Liberties Priviledges but let not liberty eat up Royalty nor birth-right Crown-right nor priviledge Prerogative for then the judgement in Aegypt is fallen upon the Land that the lean kine have eaten up the fat and what then but a famine can be expected The people may be amiable but the King hath no Beauty or the soul of the Kings power is defunct and by a Pythagorean transmigration is past into the body of the people And how will Natives then disregard such a King and how will Forreigners insult over him he shall be able to act nothing neither at home nor abroad The thick smoak in the form of a cloud which was raised by one
burning of beanes might more terrify Charles the fifth Iovius l. 37. hist Plut. in Alexandro and Francis the first at Villafrank they thinking that a Navy of the Turks had been coming and the very dead statue of Alexander at the Temple of Apollo at Delphos might make Cassander sooner tremble then the presence of a King will beget awe or reverence in such a Nation But some will say that Kings ought to have Counsellers and he must be guided by them Ought and must are high words It is convenient I confesse that Kings should have Counsellers for in the multitude of Counsellers there is health Salomon the wise was not without them but then these Counsellours must not be Compellers the King must be the Head of the Counsel a King must not be subjected to their excentrical humours if any such things should happen or to their self-willed and self-ended aymes for these should then be rather projectours then Counsellours or Dictatours then Directours all the Beauty should then be in the Counsellours cheeks and not in the Kings-face Let there be as many Counsellours then as ye will but still let the King have the liberty of election to accept or reject what in his Princely wisdome he thinks fitting for constraining advise belongs rather to headstrong surly Subjects then to true Counsellours A King no doubt may as well refuse ill counsel as ill meat ill weather ill lodging Bad company is dangerous and so likewise is bad counsel Is a King bound to walk in the dark to take receipts of all Empiricks to sail with all winds to go out of the way if his guides mislead him no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lucian in Asin Plut. in Themistoc It were better to run back in the middle of the way then to run wrong That Counsel may be followed there must be sancta penetralia justitiae the holy inwards of justice How is a King at liberty if his judgement be not free his captived person were something like to his captived reason Non per regulas juris communis tenetur sequi eorum consilium Pet. Greg. de rep l. 24. c. 8. quos adhibet consilio The King is not tyed by the rules of common justice to follow their Counsel whom he doth admit to Counsel no ordinary Client is limited to this How is it the Kings honour to search out a thing Prov. 25.2 if the Kings heart must ly in other mens brests why do David say Give thy judgements to the King Ps 72.1 if all the judgements of a Land lay in Counsellours lips or the King hath no commands of himself but by deputation No good King will refuse Counsel no wise King will yoak himself to Counsel The King might then make himself a slave the Church a vassal and the Kingdom a Bondman Then the Land hath lost her Liberty and he himself may lose his Crown For though noble Counsellours disdain to give any Counsel but according to honour and conscience yet there are a company of pragmatical Sages that will be Balaams Jonadabs old Achitophels or young Rehoboams Counsellours If the King then be necessitated to the wits or wills of all Counsellours where is his Scepter and Broad Seale Let there be then Majesty in Kings moderation in Counsellours Soveraignty in Kings sobriety in Counsellours dominion in Kings devoir in Counsellours For if the King be to sit in the Throne and he is the Law-giver of the Nation and people be to seek the Kings face and to listen to the Divine sentence that is to come out of his lips if he be to sit as chief and to dwell like a King in an Army if he be to send forth the Decrees and Nations be to bow down before him if young men ought to hide themselves from him and old men ought to arise and stand up if the voices of Princes ought to be stayed in his presence and after his words they ought not to reply if all the Land ought to wait for him as for the raine and to open their mouthes for him as for the latter raine then surely the best Councel the great Councel of a Kingdom is not circumscriptive to a King No good Counsellours know better fealty bad Counsellours ought to leave off this exiliency Let Magna Charta then be preserved and the petition of Right have all the right that is in it but let the Maxima Charta and the prescription of Kings Right be thought on with them and above them for it is the Elder Brother and of the Bloud Royal and ought to weare the Crown before all others If then the honour of God or the fear of his Lawes the Image of God in a Kings fore-head or the Scepter of God in his Hand a Kings Royal Ornaments or a Kings Royal Office the advancement of Religion or the protection of the innocent the obedience of Subjects at home or the dread of Forraigners abroad the duty that ye require from your children or the reverence that ye expect from Inferiours the peace of the Kingdom or the prosperity of the Kingdom carry any authority with you let the last word be spoken that may tend to the disparagement of the Kings dignity and the last arrow be shot that may be levelled to the diminution of his power let us fill his Coffers with Gold and his heart with confidence let us end all enmity in unanimity change all fiercenesse into fidelity let us fight no more against Kings but fold our armes in subjection let us all fall at the Kings feet and vow never again to strike at his head let us join no more battels but join hands weep that we have been such enemies and smile that we are become such friends let us rejoyce that we have gotten at home the Father of our Country be glad that we are coming home to our Mother Church let it comfort us that the King hath brought Bishops along with him to restore us to our first Faith and Judges to settle us in our old inheritances oh let it delight us that we are come to our wits and begin to remember that we are Country-men and that the malignity of the Church-fever is spent and that we begin to look upon one another as Fellow-Professours Let us say we will go together to the Kings Court and go together to the Kings Chappel that we will join together in allegiance and join together in worship adore the same God and knit our hearts to the same King All this is for the Kings honour and if we will have a King let us grudge him no honour Let it be our ambition to strive that we may be the most devoted people to a King to be the Nation of Loyalty the Island that will set up a magnificent King that no Subjects upon earth shall pay such Homage to a Soveraign as the English Protestant Oh let us adorn the Protestant and grandize the King For to make the King great it
is to make our selves happy and honourable for there is no greater delight and dignity to a Country then to have a King exalted the blessing and Beauty of a Kingdom is to see a King in his Beauty for Thine eyes shall see the King in his Beauty Well in conclusion let me bring home the joy of the Text to our own hearts and present the sight in the Text to our own eyes The prophesy was first fulfilled upon Jerusalem and we have had it in as memorable and miraculous a way seconded and doubled upon us We have been Spectatours of Wonders Fathers to their children may relate them whatsoever dolorous things for a while afflicted our eyes yet these sad Objects are removed and we have beheld those things which are pleasant to the eyes Our eyes have seen the King in his Beauty Had not our King as fierce enemies as Hezekiah yes Senacherib ranged over this Country and made all the Land to tremble that hammer of the earth dashed all in pieces for he and his Rabshakehs and Rabsarisses and Tartans made a Land that was like the Garden of Eden like a desolate wildernesse neither high-wayes nor high Rulers fields nor Forrests Cities nor Castles were secure but our wards and our woods our heritages and our honours our labours and our lawes our reputations and our religion our beasts and our beds our tillage and our Tables our Tabernacles and our Temples our backs and our necks were subject to the fury of our Adversaries for what were we but an harrassed Land a plundered Nation a sequestred people Our enemies ruled over us with rigour and made our lives bitter unto us Cities were turned into heaps and the houses of Ivory perished the shield of the mighty was vilely cast away and nothing amongst us but wastes and groanes chaines and gibbets all the mirth of the Land was gone and the very Songs of the Temple were turned into howlings we even stood amazed under our disasters and even despaired ever to see better dayes Many a cord was let down to pluck us out of misery but Hic funis nihil attraxit This rope drew nothing many means used to preserve us in the storm but Deus praevertit anchorae jactum God prevented the casting forth of the Anchour so that absumpta salus nec spes jam restat Iüli All safety seemed to be taken from us and there was no hope appearing to repair our broken fortunes our hearts even failed us and we were ready to ly down in our confusion for when any gave us comfortable words to expect yet happier we accounted them velut aegri somnia vana As sick mens dreams and gave no other but a kind of diffident answer Alas who shall live when God doth these things Num. 24.23 Yet how hath God cleared the Land of Senacherib saved us by a mighty deliverance Senacherib is vanished and Hezekiah desired Hezekiah admired Hezekiah Hezekiah the King of high preservations Hezekiah the King of conspicuous qualifications doth appear we may carve the whole Text graven in capital Letters golden Characters and celestial impresses upon our hearts for We have seen and we have seen a King and We have seen a King in his Beauty Oh Heaven hath presented to us this sight this is the Object of Miracles We may draw nigh and see this great sight Exod. 3.2 Hath this been done before or in the dayes of your Fathers Joel 1.2 no there hath not been the like neither shall there to many generations we may count it as one of the chief of the wayes of God for a King that could not enter the Land nor safely set his foot upon any corner of the Nation now with Hezekiah he may see the Land afar off and walk upon the length and bredth of the Land Who hath heard such a thing who hath seen such things Is 66.8 doubtlesse that in Num. 23.23 may be applyed to us According to this time it shall be said of Jacob and Israel what hath God wrought what an incredible an ineffable and an invaluable thing Blessed be the Omnipotent God and blessed be his potent Champion which hath made the Land happy in the sight of a King in the sight of such a King I say of such a King who cometh to us with a right Title one Usurper more would have quite broke the heart-strings of the Nation with the right Religion a Papist or a Phanatick would have after so many factions fractions shivered the Church into nothing but sherds with the right Princely endowments who hath in him a treasury of moralities may be a pattern to all the Princes of his time for true virtue An Hereditary King an Orthodoxe King a Compleat King what can the eye of the Nation look upon with more satisfaction no Our eyes do see a King in his Beauty we do see him so in his personal Beauty and God forbid but we should give him all the National Beauty that may be Confesse his right and give him his right welcome him home with melody and bestow Majesty upon him make him as great as he doth desire to make us mighty we were never happy before he came we are unhappy if we know not how happy we are since his coming he hath redeemed us out of errour out of bondage out of despair O Redeeming King Let us not serve him now as the Israelites served Moses who were ever groaning till they had a Deliverer and ever murmuring after they had a Deliverer No let our joy in him be answerable to the comforts he hath brought along with him and our peerlesse esteem of him be answerable to his prizelesse worth Consider his devout Heart and his divine Lips what zeal he doth bear to the truth and what hatred he doth carry to an Oath how he hath preserved his Religion amongst the Jesuits and is come to his Subjects to tell them what a Protestant he is consider his chast eye and his sober Palate his soft bowels and his just hand how he is fragrant with almsdeeds and doth shine in wisdome how he was patient under afflictions and is humble in prosperity how he hath forgiven his enemies and is daily preferring his Friends how the whole Land doth not exceed him in Candour nor the whole earth in valour consider what he hath done for your consciences what for your liberties what for your Lawes what for learning what for a flourishing trade and what for a setled peace consider if he be not the prime man that could have comforted you if he be not the onely man which could have made you happy and will ye open your eyes and not open your lips give him your acclamations and not give him your affections shall English-men have the best King and be the worst Subjects be the ferventest Desirers of a King and the ficklest Reverencers of a King what still squint-eyed rank-breathed half-hearted still Censurers Malecontents Mutiners Send for Senacherib