Reason and Religion on their side to renounce the Authority of the one as of the other and if there were any case in which it might be lawful for us to cast off the Yoak of their Authority who should be judge of the Fact Neither the King nor his Subjects for both are Parties but Polybius his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Law of Hands the longest Sword must be the Arbiter of that Controversie and how bloody a sentence that will give on which side soever it light our Civil Wars and the fatal period of them may easily convince us by which all that we gain'd at last was an endless liberty of ruining one another without hope of redress Though the King should oppose Gods express and immediate Will and overturn the very Foundations of Religion yet the Almighty is able to defend his own Cause nor will He allow the People whose Passions Humours and Insolencies make them always unfit to become Reformers without and against his express warrant to usurp so great a Power as to pretend to any right to restrain the Royal Power which they never gave Let us therefore as becomes Solomon's Sons pay the Duty of Subjection to whatsoever Prince God in his over-ruling Providence shall think fit to set over us for though he were as bad as Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon we must either serve him or perish eternally and they prophecy a lye to you in Gods Name who preach any other Doctrine if the Prophet Jeremiah say true Jer. 27. 10 15 16. With what Alacrity then should we subject our selves to such a Pious and Gracious King as our is who if he be not in as much reverence with us as he is in esteem with God all our pretended Piety to the Deputer will never expiate our Disloyalty to his Deputy which will the better appear because the Obedience which God commands us to yield the King is but the payment of an Old Debt which is due by the Fifth Commandment to the Supreme Father of our Country to him as next Heir to Adam the first Monarch of the World in whom the Supremacy was as large and unlimited as any act of his Will for God gave him Dominion over the World and made him Sole Proprietor of it Gen. 1. 28. And if he had not been so expresly made the Sovereign Lord of the Vniverse by that Special Commission from the High Court of Heaven yet all Mankind being sprung from his Loyns were born in Subjection to him by the Law of God and Nature which invested him with a Patriarchal and Vncontroulable Power not only over his Children but also over those who were descended from them during his life which being transmitted after his death to his Eldest Son and Successor Seth Cain having forfeited his Birth-right by the Murder of Abel and so downwards in the right line there could never be a time till the Flood when the World was not under such a Monarchical Government Now when the Vniversal Deluge had swept away all Mankind but Noah and his Sons Noah was not Gen. 9. 2. Tenant in common with his Sons as one Lawyers Opinion is who was no better a Friend to the Crown than the Church for God would never have disinherited so just and pious a Prince as Noah whom he made the Restorer of all Mankind And therefore Cedrenus and Eusebius tells us as that Antiquary knew well enough that he by the Right which God and Nature had invested him with did Twenty Years before his death make a Partition of the World among his Sons allotting to every one his share which he confirmed by his last Will and gave it into the Hands of Sem and to him over and above his share after his death a kind of Supremacy as Lord in chief over the whole admonishing them to live peaceably and not to invade each others Territories Nor did the Kings lose their Ground till after Joshuah's time for then the tame People thought this Prerogative Doctrine which we now Preach to be wholsom Divinity and yet they were neither Evil Counsellors nor Flattering Courtiers nor Time-serving Priests who put him upon it nor was he himself thought a Tyrant for accepting such an Arbitrary Power over them as this would seem to be through a Pair of Modern Spectacles Josh 1. 10 11. And they answered Joshua saying All that thou commandest us we will do and whithersoever thou sendest us we will go according as we hearkned to Moses in all things so will he hearken unto thee and whosoever he be that doth rebel against thy Commandment in all that thou commandest him he shall be put to death And that the Kings of England hold their Imperial Crowns for so Nine several Statutes at least do call them by the Law of God and Nature subject to none but the Almighty and only Ruler of Princes and not by Human Institution hath been the agreement of all Parliaments though of different Interest Religion and Tempers whom they therefore styl'd their Supreme Natural Liege Lord Omnes sub eo ipse sub nullo nisi tantum sub Deo saith Bracton who was Lord Chief Justice in Henry the Third's time next under God and inferiour to none but him so that his is Potestas Dei Vicaria a Ray of Gods Majesty who hath arm'd him with the Power of Life and Death by his Commission who alone could put the Sword into his hands for that purpose as being the sole Arbiter of Life and Death who only can take it away because he gave it For 't is plain to all who understand any thing but Rebellion that the Peoples Consent could not do it for they have not Power over their own Lives and so could not transfer that to another which they had not themselves His Title may well be Dei Gratia for of God does he hold his Crown in Capite 't is by his Grace that Kings are what they are and our Kings of England have their Crowns unquestionably established by an Inherent and Independent Right Antecedent to their Coronations by Birth-right by Consent by Prescription and by Law which are all the ways whereby any Right can be legally established and 't is the Power of God in their Hands to which we are required to subject our selves and the violation of every particular Law made by them does necessarily draw along with it the violation of the general Law of God by which he commands Matth. 22. 21. Obedience to them not with eye-service as men-pleasers but in singleness of heart fearing God and the King In which words we are diligently to observe two things 1. Their Methodical Order and Disposition Fear them both in their proper Order but First God and 't is 1 Tim. 6. 15. good reason for He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords If the King bids what God forbids and so the fear of both become incompatible you must obey God â—ather than Man because the Subordinate must
our first Parents for had they fear'd they had not fell but this their Guardian Angel being departed from them they quickly lost their Innocence and Paradise The only care must be that it be plac'd upon its right objects and these in Solomons Judgment are only two God and the King 1. He counsels us to fear God with a Filial Fear of Reverence and Circumspection a Consciencious Fear in Worshipping him and a Careful Fear of offending him such as becomes all ingenuous and dutiful Children who out of love to their Parents are afraid of displeasing them and of falling short of their duty to them which Filial Fear he who is born of God cannot put off but he will be fearful of any stone of stumbling in the whole course of his life which may make him fall into Sin and will make it his principal care and design to approve the sincerity of his heart to the piercing eye of a jealous God which Fear discovers it self not in a trembling amazement but in a chearful and uniform Obedience to all his Commandments which is such a divine fear as never damps his Spirits or robs him of those succours which Reason would afford him but makes him as bold as a Lyon and may Prov. 28. 1. therefore be justly termed the beginning or principal Prov. 9. 10. part of Wisdom And indeed what greater folly and madness can the most desperate Malefactor be guilty of than to commit Capital Crimes in the sight of his Judge And yet how easily are we tempted to offend the dreadful Majesty of the Omnipresent and Almighty Judge who observes our closest Actions and will infallibly call us to account for them and reward us according to what we have done in the flesh whether it have been good or evil When you walk in the ways of Math. 16. 27. Eccl. 11. 9. your own hearts and in the sight of your eyes remember that for all these things God will bring you to Judgment And knowing this terrour of the Lord let me perswade 2 Cor. 5. 11. you not to let your Lives give your Lips the lye when you say that you fear him but consider that you naturally fix your eyes upon that which you fear and cannot easily get that out of your minds which doth affright you If therefore you pretend to be afraid of Gods displeasure where is your tenderness of his Honour Your care to please him your zeal for his Cause and Service your delight in his Commands and your rejoycing to do his Will You cannot fear his Name and blaspheme it If against the clear evidence of his Word and your own Consciences you entertain any rebellious thoughts against the Lord whom you should fear you can neither escape his sight in this life nor his vengeance in the next Be not deceiv'd God is not mock'd by wearing his Livery and doing the Devil Service by talking as if you were inspir'd and had Cloven Tongues and yet acting as if you were possess'd as some Cloven Footed Protestants have of late done There is no way to please God 2 Cor. 10. 5. Jam. 1. 22. but by bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ Be ye therefore doers of his Word and not hearers only Indent not with him to spare you no not in your darling sins but resist them to the blood because the keeping of some of his Commandments will not expiate for the breach of the rest Make no League with any Gibeonite spare no Agag no ruling sin but crucifie the Old Man with his affections and lusts Dash all those Babylonish Brats against the stones which are Traytors to the Crown and Dignity of the King of Heaven throw them from you with the same indignation that you would do those loathsom things which you cannot behold without great distemper Let Christ be your King on Earth and he will be your Saviour in Heaven Be as ready to be over-ruled by him here as to be rewarded by him hereafter so shall you prove your selves to be Solomon's Sons indeed nay Sons of God and Heirs of Eternal Glory always provided that to this fear of God you add that of the King 2. My Son Fear the King God commands us to subdue our wills to that will of Man on Earth that he may the better subdue us to his own will in Heaven and accordingly our Saviour came into the World to take away the Sins not the Laws of it Nor was the Religion he established designed to loose the Reins of Civil Government but to keep Subjects under the same and greater Obligations than he found them to make sacred the Persons as well as Offices of Princes and to establish their just Prerogatives as being those Visible and Mortal Gods whom the Almighty had honour'd with his Name and to whom he had deligated his Vicegerent power over us and bound us not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake to obey and fear them as ordained of him and to reverence that Divine Character of Soveraignty which that his Ordination had impressed upon them Fear Good Kings as God Bad Ones for him though they should strain the necessary and essential Powers of Government beyond its due pitch and become as very Tyrants as Nero was whose Power was from God in St. Paul's Rom. 13. 1. 2. judgment though the abuse of it were from himself and his way of attaining it not justifiable For the Roman Emperors were not by right but by force then Lords of the World and yet he commands Every Soul Omnis anima quoniam ex animo to be sincerely subject to them and though they were unworthy of that Authority which they usurp'd and abus'd yet were they not in any case to be resisted under peril of Damnation 'T was God made Solomon King over Israel not the Priest or the People and he is said to have set him on 2 Chron. 9. 8. his own Throne to let the People know that he did immediately represent his Person and was in his stead among them as his Vicegerent and Lieutenant under him Inde est Imperator unde homo antequam Imperator Tertul. inde potestas illi unde Spiritus He made him a King who made him a Man and from him had he his Scepter from whom he had his Soul And this was no Court-Complement of Tertullian's None of those Love-Tricks which were plaid between the King and his People in the Honey-Moon of His Majesties Restauration as the Plato Redivivus who is not yet out of love with his Commonwealth Principles styles them nor did he speak it in his own Person but as the Judgment of the whole Catholick Church whose Cause he was then defending So that the King does not Reign it seems in the Judgment of the Primitive Church either by the Commission of the Pope or the Courtesie of the People who can no more chuse their Princes than their Parents and have as much
yield to the Supreme Gods Minister to the Master and Maker of us all and therefore though it may be sometimes necessary not to obey the King actively as it hapned to the Captive Jews under Nebuchadnezzar and to some of the Apostles under the Roman Emperors for they could not obey God and the King too and then the Case of Conscience was easily resolv'd in as much as his Commands were countermanded by an higher and greater Power and the Obligation of such irregular Precepts rescinded by a more indisputable Authority and a more indisputable Law than his even by the clear express word of God which is the Standard of Obedience both to him and the King and yet even then a passive Obedience was and is necessary in the Judgment of the first and best Christians who when they could not obey with Piety did dye with Patience and lay quietly down under the burden which they durst not bear they patiently expected a redress of such unusual Emergencies from the good Providence of God for whose sake they suffer'd them But alas In our Iron-Age a little Loyalty and less Religion serves most Mens turns there is nothing more pretended to nor any thing less practis'd than either and they who are most forward to dispute who is to be fear'd God or the King first or most are usually the Men who for all their tender Consciences which serve for nothing but to mischeif others and themselves seldom fear or obey either for if they did they would observe a little better than they do 2ly The close Connexion between God and the King 't is so near that there is no Disjunctive but a meer Copulative between them My Son fear thou God and the King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and be disobedient Sept. or contumacious to neither of them If there were not a God in Heaven there would be no Gods on Earth nor would Mankind subject themselves to Government but that there is something of the Image of God in it to which they are bound by an Inherent Principle which Religion improves to pay a Natural Homage Our Civil Peace would soon be turn'd into a Civil War if it were not for this and therefore there never was any Nation so Impolitick and Bruitishly Barbarous but that they embrac'd and establish'd some Religion or other among them as knowing how great Influence it had on the Body Politick Religion when pure and undefil'd hath always prov'd a good Friend to Government and that Religion will at last be found to be best which befriends and strengthens it most and the better Christians Men are the better Subjects they will be for the Integrity of Christian Loyalty as Arnobius proves against the Gentiles is greater than that of any other Religion which was ever received in the World Vos Conscios timetis nos Conscientiam You are subject for fear your Disloyalty should rise up in Judgment against you before Men but we for fear our Consciences should accuse us before God 'T is the fear of him which begets in us the fear of the King who represents him and exercises his Authority over us Our Religion allows not the least opposition to be made by any private Man or any Body of Men to their Superiours but strictly and indisponsibly requires our Subjection to the Authority of the Worst Princes and forbids our laying violent hands on them though they were Tyrants and Invaders of the Peoples Liberties the very Worst of Men as well as Kings looks not upon their failings to be any abatement of their Power nor admits any Asylum for their Assassinates or Murderers And I may venture to say in all places without the hazard of a Quarrel That the Principles of the Church of England are as innocent and peaceable and at least as Auxiliary to the Civil Government as the Maxims and Articles of any Church under Heaven and much more than those of the Church of Rome or Geneva in respect of their extravagant Papal or Popular Power of the Conclave or Synod directly or indirectly exercis'd by either of them in Ordine ad Spiritualia and the Exemption of their Clergy from the Coercive Power of Princes Our Principles are and have in all Ages been truly serviceable to the Government of Civil as well as of Religious Societies and our Protestant Religion establish'd by Law hath the promise of this life and that which is to come and may justly be term'd the best Reason of State Nor can any thing be of greater importance to the Security or Ruine of the Kingdom than the well or ill Administration of it Most certain it is that no Society can be upheld without Oaths Promises and Engagements which are the Highest Security of which Mankind is capable nor can any of them hold unless Religion bind us to it and therefore in Machiavel's Judgment who was none of the best Friends to it 't is of great Importance to a State to preserve a worthy esteem of it And wise Princes will both in point of Gratitude and Interest cherish the National Religion which is a part of the Government and being bred up with it will be sure never to give it any disturbance by prohibiting and restraining all strange and new Religions which will only serve to exercise the Kings patience and keep him in breath with the Disturbances they will create among his Subjects of which the late times have been an unhappy instance for the prevention whereof God hath put the Sword into his hands and he must not bear it in vain but use it whilst he has it as a proper Instrument for the preservation of Peace and Piety in his Dominions This is that which makes his Authority so Sovereign and his Person so sacred that the Historian hath placed him next to God himself as well as Solomon Proximus Diis habetur per quem Deorum Majestas Justin 1. vindicatur There is but one fear in my Text which is due both to God and the King the Almighty hath joyn'd them together as well as Solomon and he would have us do so too therefore neither the Popes nor the Speakers Chair must be set between Gods and the Kings Throne no just Interposition of any third Person and Power for our Debt to God and the King commences from our Birth and the Duties of Obedience to God and of Allegiance to the King are of the first and greatest Importance the Obligation whereof must be first paid or else an Everlasting Judgment will be entred against us in this Life and infallibly executed in the next Now there are three sorts of People who do attempt to disjoyn God and the King in this kind The Papal Jesuite the Protestant Jesuite and he who pretends to be a Royalist and yet disgraces so good a Cause by his prophane Life The two first are Fratres in Malo Twins of Rebellion the Elder is of the Ignatian Fraternity and Roman Conclave who puts the Pope the Younger
of the Puritanical Assembly or Classis which puts the People between God and the King and therefore I call the one a Papal and the other a Phanatical Jesuite for I believe them both to be Roman Pensioners two Parties commanded by one General because in all times when the Government hath been charging one of them in the front the other hath always treacherously attack'd it in the rear and as much of late as ever and both prov'd themselves in the end Abhorrers of Monarchy under-hand Contrivers and restless Opposers of it as they always pretend for Conscience sake out of a joynt design to make the King a Property and his Government Precarious Their Names are different but their Nature is the same in point of Disobedience And the third viz. The Prophane Liver who pretends to Loyalty by making no Conscience of his Duty towards God is also a false Traytor to the King notwithstanding the many good words he gives him and the great Honour he vainly boasts in all Companies to bear towards Him 1. Give me leave to set first to the Bar the Papal Jesuite who is all for the fear of God the Propagation of the Catholick Religion and of the Apostolical See of Rome but tell him of the fear of the King and then he leaves you as if the Pope and He were the Real Defenders of the Faith and the King only the Nominal and Titular one and accordingly he teaches his Profelytes to weigh out their Obedience to him by Drams and Scruples in a Pair of Jesuitical Scales makes the Prince stand to the Popes Allowance for Authority and takeâ— his leavings who of course exempts all the Clergy from their Obedience to their Natural Sovereign and makes them pay their Suit and Service to him as their Lord Paramount as if his Tribunal and Gods were but one and the Civil Magistrate by becoming the Son of the Church had lost his Secular Power An excellent Doctrine to convert Pagan Princes to the Christian Religion or Protestants to the Popish The fatal and pernicious Consequences of which Popish Principles our Parliaments have in all Ages as well before the Reformation as since expressed their just detestation of as appears by the Statute of Carlisle made 35 Edw. 1. and by that of Proviso's made 25 Edw. 3. and by many more in King Henry the Eighth's Reign who was both Parliamentarily and Synodically invested with the Supremacy in all Causes as well Spiritual as Temporal which was legally and essentially inherent in the Crown before the King of England being Supreme Ordinary by the Antient Common Law of this Kingdom of which those Statutes were not Introductory but Declarative And 't is a great wonder to me that every Prince in Christendom is not as much possess'd with an Anti-Papal Spirit at this day as ever King Henry the Eighth was considering what an Implacable Enemy the Pope hath been to the Dignity and Security to the Powers and Lives of all Princes especially such as he calls Heretical ones 2. The Protestant or Fanatical Jesuites if they would be content to be civil Subjects yet they will be Ecclesiastical Superiors they would have a King under them not over them The King must Command as they will have him or he is no King for them nor will they fear him but make him fear them if they can compass their ends He must do things against his Conscience Oath and Honour against the Fundamental Laws of the Land and the very being of the Government or else though they speak him as fair as they did his Roayl Father of blessed memory in the Covenant and so hide the Cloven Foot for a while with their broad Pharisaical Phylacteries and intrench themselves in the sure retreat of those popular and plausible Pretences of preserving His Majesties Person and the Protestant Religion yet they watch but for a fair opportunity to put off their Hypocritical Vizards and to make him feel the smart effects of their Implacable Enmity against him and let him see by woful experience how little they do either love or fear him as they did his Royal Father before him David was a Man after Gods own heart and had a Conscience truly tender I would to God all that are call'd so in our days were like it which made him so sensible of his fault in snipping off a small shred of the Skirt of Saul's Coat But our Dissenters Itching Fingers long to be tampering with the Prerogative and will cut off as much as they can get into their hands and throw it to the People as the Men of God did in the late â—â— Rebellion for so the deluded Multitude call'd them though they prov'd Men of War fir'd with Phanatical Zeal against the Most Christian Magistrate in the World our Martyr'd Sovereign The Black Coats of their Schism in stead of being Messengers of Peace sounded the Treasonable Alarms from such places as these though the Red Coats fought the Battles they taught their Congregations to construe the Singulis Major and Vniversis Minor after Buchanan's Translation and made them believe That the People which begins to be as fashionable a word now as it was Forty years since were as much above the King as the King is above the meanest of his Subjects The King say they and other Magistrates are but our Servants to protect us from Violence and Mene Tekel pag. 41. Oppression and if they break their Trust the Law of God and Nature allows us to call our Servants to account and to punish them according to their Demerits and to turn them out of our Service In good time and out of the World too as they did the Hist of In dep Part 2. Sect. 80 81 82. Royal Martyr as a Traytor to the Sovereignty of the People as that Insolent Judge Bradshaw then Impudently styl'd it which corrupt and false Principle of placing the Original of Government in our Sovereign Lords the People is not only derogatory to God whose Written Word it gives the lye to but is also destructive to the very being of Humane Society For if the Power be radically in them and only pass'd over by the Conveyance of a Common Consent with a Power of Revocation upon equitable Conditions express'd or imply'd of which the People shall be Judges it is but their recalling of that Power to which the Vnwary Mobile may be easily tempted for 't is Neutrum modo mas modo Vulgus and the Government is dissolv'd and so all our Happiness lies at the Mercy and Will of the Crowd which will make us a reproach to our Neighbours and Psal 79. 4. a scorn and derision as it hath already done in a great measure to all that are round about us We live in an Age wherein Men seem to call themselves Protestants not from that solemn and Honourable Protestation which was made by several Princes against the Errours and Superstitions of Rome and an Edict made in prejudice of
Amsterdam was stigmatiz'd as a dangerous person who design'd the Slavery of English-men and the Ruine and Extirpation of the True Protestant Religion Take heed to your selves whilst you may before your Happiness be fled too far out of distance to be retriev'd Meddle not with them who do not fear God and the King fear not their fear be not afraid without a cause but let the Isai 8. 12. Lord be your fear lest you involve your selves and others in the same Mischiefs which Solomon foretels will infallibly light upon the Heads of them who are given to change and of the Medlers too which never were nor will be good for any thing till they are rotten which brings me in the last place to the 3. Proper Suggestion upon which his Prohibition is grounded or the reason of this restraint laid upon his Son drawn from the Changers and Medlers doom for their calamity shall rise suddenly and who knows the ruine of them both detrahentis ei feventis eorum detractiones libenter audiendo of him who robs the King of the Honour due to him and of him who lends an itching ear to the disloyal Detractor for the Receiver is as bad as the Thief and he who does not apprehend and discover him whom he finds robbing the King of his Good Name and of his Subjects Hearts shall fare no better than he When God and the King exert their Power their Enemies ruine will be certain whether they be Changers or Medlers which is the first aggravation of their Judgment drawn 1. A Certitudine doubt it not their Calamity shall rise and they who would not in time fear shall then infallibly feel the just effects of their displeasure Be not deceiv'd God is not mock'd for whatsoever a Man Gal. 6. 7. sows that shall he also reap for he is no respecter of persons but his Judgments are true and righteous altogether Psal 19. 1. so that it must needs be a fearful and fatal thing for a Traytor to fall into the hands of the living God who hates Rebellion as the Sin of Witchcraft and will revenge it accordingly No Policy Plot or Strength of any created thing shall be able to rescue or reprieve them when once his Vengeance hath appointed their execution all their Slights and Tricks shall fail them at a dead lift an Ignoramus Jury cannot serve their turns for the sentence of this great Judge is irrevocable they shall soon be cut off as the grass and wither Psal 37. 2. as the green herb The Authority of God and the King must at any rate be redeem'd from contempt by the due execution of the Laws of both against obstinate Offenders and incorrigible Villains which is the Reputation and Life of the Government and therefore Kings do not only participate of Gods Power and Patience but must also imitate him in his Justice and his manner of proceeding against obstinate Rebels Whatsoever is necessary is also just and that must be done which cannot be avoided Without Government there would be no Communities of Men and without Coercive Power there would be no Government and as it is not Persecution but an Act of Mercy to cut off a Gangreen'd Arm from the Body Natural to preserve the Man from perishing so is it no less to the Body Politick to cut off those corrupt Members of the Commonwealth which hinder the Kingdom from flourishing to prevent those growing Mischiefs of which the Ringleaders of Rebellion are ambitious to be the Authors by smiting those with the Sword of Justice who smote the King and their fellow Subjects with the Fist of Violence 'T is Power that begets Fear and Fear that makes Gods and Rules the World and accordingly the Pulse of the Government beats high or low with that of the Supreme Magistrate whose remisness and connivance does prognostick the decay of an unsetled Government Toleration as harmless and reasonable a thing as it now seems was once thought intolerable by them who now earnestly plead for it and will be found if ever tryed as I hope it never will to be the cause of many more Evils than we can easily foresee and will render the Diseases and Distempers of the State as well as of the Church more strong and powerful than any Remedies and that King who will make his Enemies believe that he is afraid of danger in the discharge of his Trust shall never live without it 'T is better to venture some trouble at hand and run the hazard of Legal Executions than to fall under certain ruine though somewhat farther distant The Crowd is rather to be awed than reason'd with by Lawyers it being Fear and not Love or Judgment which is their proper Passion for though none are so bold and insolent in their Juncto's and Cabals as they yet none so faint-hearted and fearful apart 'T were well if Love could but 't is necessary that Fear should Rule the World and therefore 't is safer to work upon them by a Power which may cure the one than by any advantage that may excite the other which they will perversly impute to unavoidable good Nature Fear Oversight or Weakness and if any of them seem converted by it and are wrought over into a better mind or put by Preferment into an hot fit of Loyalty they will cool on a suddain and prove like Witches able to do hurt but no good at all to the Government to raise the Devil of Discontent and Rebellion but not to lay it whereas if the Prince punish them by the severity of the Law he will oblige them or others to the observance of it ever after nor will they love him for his Clemency till he have first taught them to fear him for his Justice and Resolution 'T is impossible ever to oblige them for they will make one Concession only the Foundation of another Request and having used themselves to desire more than in duty becomes them they will never think themselves safe without the Sword and Scepter as well as the Crosier and Miter in their Hands It will but elevate them in their Hopes and make them more insolent in their Demands Having offended the King they will never think themselves safe till they are above his reach and have either so disarm'd him or arm'd themselves as not to fear him And for as much as it hath been always found by experience that they who least consider danger in the doing their Duty fare best still therefore does it concern the King and all who are put in Authority under him to crash this Cockatrice in the Egge as soon as they discover it Serò Medicina paratur cum mala per long as convalâ—êre moras Blessed are they that Psal 106. 3. keep Judgment and he that does Righteousness at all times Fiat Justitia ruat Coelum is as good a Maxim in times of Peace as War and they who do their Duty without disputing the success shall never
graciously accepted and honour'd them by making the Prince of Wales our present Gracious Sovereign whom God long preserve the Captain of it The then Loyal City of York receiv'd his Sacred Majesty when he was driven out of This by Seditious Tumults and thither did he assemble his great Council And if I had not trespass'd already too much upon your Patience or did in the least suspect that you needed more Motives to Loyalty than those which this Text and my Discourse on it hath already afforded you I should descend to some Local and Personal Obligations which lie more upon You than other Men to engage you to it I could easily reckon up many Towns and Fields in your County besides your Metropolis in which your Loyal Ancestors did sacrifice their Lives for his Service especially at the fatal Battel of Marston-More Nor can I forget those who died Martyrs for their Loyalty on Tower-Hill whose Loyal Blood runs still in the Veins of their Children I dare not be so uncharitable as suspect that you Inherit the Estates of your Loyal Ancestors without their Virtues and I hope you will convince the World that Yorkshire Men are born in too free an Air to have their Spirits tainted with Schism or Sedition which are the most pernicious Pests and Plagues of any County where they reign for which things sake the Wrath of God comes upon the Children of Disobedience There never was such a Superfoetation of those Brats in any Age as in this to our shame be it spoken wherein Men lately acted as if they design'd to put Loyalty out of Countenance and ridicule it out of the Kindgdom If any of You were unhappily seduced into such Disloyal Conspiracies I hope you have ask'd God and the King Pardon for it and that you will always do as much as in you lies to shew your selves thankful for their Mercies I know how ill it becomes me to give my Betters that which I need too much my self and therefore I shall refer you to the Counsel of a Great Country-man of your own who is now plac'd above censure and being dead does yet speak Sir John Packering Lord Chancellor of England in Queen Elizabeth's Reign that which he then gave the Parliament in that Glorious Age of Reformation I hope I may without offence to all good Men repeat to you whose Advice was this Listen not to the wearisom Sollicitations of the new-fangled Refiners commonly called Puritans who disturb the good Repose of Church and Common-wealth whom you will find more dangerous than the Jesuites in poysoning the Hearts of good Subjects under Pretence of Conscience to withdraw them from their Obedience with whom though in other Points they pretend to differ yet do they joyn and concur with them in separation of themselves from the Vnity of their fellow Subjects and in abasing the sacred Authority and Majesty of their Prince which 't is the Common Interest and Advantage of Mankind to uphold and honour I am sure 't is both our Duty and Interest to hazard our Lives in his Majesties Service against all Rebellious Opposers whatsoever before they be tamely taken from us as we know whose were by Usurping Insolent Traytors We shall have liv'd too long if we out-live the Loyalty of English-men which is the Priviledge and Glory of free-born Subjects and should be the Security of our Gracious Sovereign in his Just Prerogatives Nature teaches all Men to guard the Head even with the hazard of the other Members and can we so easily forget how soundly we were fleec'd by Vsurping Tyrants that we will twice in an Age listen to those Country-men of Publick Spirits as they did then and do still call themselves who shall tempt us to refuse what is just and necessary for the support of the Government under a lawful Prince who requires less than every good Subject is cordially willing to contribute upon such Honourable Emergencies They who will not part with half so much for a Common Good as they will prodigally spend upon a Boon Companion or a Common Miss do neither fear God nor the King as they ought to do If there be any thing in Fame worthy of your Ambition True Piety and Loyalty the Methods prescrib'd you in my Text are the shortest and surest way to it for Posterity will reflect upon your Actions without Prejudice or Interest and Canonize the best Christians and Subjects for the Greatest Men of the Age This is the Beauty of that Image in which we were made the fairest Vestment that our Souls can be adorn'd with till they are Cloath'd with Immortality and if you wear this Livery the King of Heaven will make you free of a better City than this One not made with Hands free Denizons of the New Jerusalem As therefore you tender the Glory of God the Credit and Increase of your Religion by Law established your own Temporal and Spiritual Happiness here and your Eternal hereafter withdraw your selves from the Society of Men of Rebellious Principles whether they bring them from Rome or Geneva from the Conclave or a Conventicle and be as active to maintain the King in his Just Rights and Royalties as the Roman or Republican Agitators have been to undermine them and unless you are Sick of your Religion Laws and Liberties and I pray God we prove not so beyond all hopes of recovery let us all shew as much Zeal in defending them against the Kings and Gods Enemies as they do Earnestness in assaulting them and him through their sides If not for Honour and Loyalty sake as we desire to hear in other Nations and After-Ages if not for Wrath and fear of ruine to our selves and Families yet for our Oaths and Gods sake for the Churches Conscience Posterity and Peace sake let us sincerely practise Subjection to God and the King as becomes good Christians and Subjects for our Blessed Saviours sake that Great Patron and Pattern of Obedience and pray unto him that he would scatter all His and the Kings cruel Enemies that delight in Blood Infatuate the Counsels of their Achitophels and root out all those Babylonian Antichristian and Anti-Monarchical Rebels who have decreed in their Hearts and Cabals against our Gracious Sovereign as the Aramites did against the King of Israel Fight neither against small nor 1 King 22. 31 great but only against the King of Great Britain and said of our Jerusalem the Church of England Pull down the Fences of it rase it even to the Ground that the Confusions of Babel may be heard no more among us but we become like Jerusalem a City at Vnity within it self Let this thine Almightly Work O King of Kings and only Ruler of Princes appear unto thy Servants and the Glory of it to their Children So we thy People will give thee thanks for ever and will be always shewing forth thy Praise from Generation to Generation through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen FINIS