THE Bishop of NORWICH's SERMON Preach'd before the House of LORDS On JANUARY 31. 1697. Die Lunae 7 o Februarii 1697. IT is Ordered by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament Assembled That the Thanks of this House be and are hereby given to the Lord Bishop of Norwich for his Sermon Preach'd before this House the One and Thirtieth Day of January last in the Abby-Church and he is hereby desir'd to Print and Publish the same MATTH JOHNSON Cler ' Parlamentor ' A SERMON Preach'd before the House of Lords IN THE Abby-Church at Westminster UPON Monday January 31. 1697. By the Right Reverend Father in God JOHN Lord Bishop of NORWICH LONDON Printed by R. R. for W. Rogers at the Sun against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet MDCXCVII 1 TIM II. 1 2. I exhort therefore that first of all supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men for kings and for all that are in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty NOtwithstanding the Care at first which was taken in planting the Gospel of Christ and that the Doctrines and Precepts thereof were publish'd by Men divinely inspired yet Errors of a dangerous nature did early creep into the Church Two of which are opposed by St. Paul in the Text the one concerned the Extent of the Christian Religion and the other related to the Subjection due to the Civil Magistrate It was a prevailing Opinion among the Jews who were the first Converts to Jesus Christ That his Gospel was only to be preached to themselves and that the Infinite Happiness promised in it should be limited to the People of their own Nation They were puff'd up with the long Course of Favours God had been pleas'd to vouchsafe unto them and could not endure with patience to hear and think that under the Dispensation of the Gospel the Gentiles should stand on a Level with them and become equally capable of the hopes and means of Salvation And as the Epicureans would have shut the Providence of God out of the World so They would have confined the illustrious Manifestations of it by Jesus Christ to the Seed of Abraham While indeed the Jews were under the peculiar Care of God the Laws he made to govern them were chiefly Political and had regard to their Publick Good and Safety as a Nation and Community like the Civil Laws of other Countries and Submission to them was enforced by Temporal Rewards and Punishments But when it pleased him to enact Laws which were for the Reformation of the Minds and Affections as well as the Manners of Men and which would not only advance their general Good in this Life but procure their Eternal Welfare in the next it seemed agreeable to his boundless Goodness and Wisdom that what he intended for the Advancement of Human Nature and the Reparation of his own Image in the Souls of Men which was defaced by Adam's Fall and Man 's own wilful Transgressions should reach to all who did partake of that Nature And this being the highest Favour his poor revolted Creatures were capable of receiving it was his merciful Resolution not to deny any of them the Means to obtain it Insomuch that the Merit of Christ's Death was to extend not only to the Seed of Abraham but to the whole Posterity of Adam That as in Adam all dye even so in Christ shall all be made alive And that God's designed Bounty by the coming of the Messiah should comprehend all Nations the Jews had sufficient notice from the Inspired Writers of their own Country And I will shake all nations and the desire of all nations shall come I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth And in support of this great Truth St. Paul doth exhort Timothy That Supplications be made for all Men Whether Jews or Gentiles Believers or Infidels of what Country of what Rank or Quality soever they be But the Occasion of our being at this time assembled will not permit me longer to insist upon the Refutation of this first Mistake of the Jewish Christians against which St. Paul's Exhortation is here directed I proceed therefore to the Consideration of the other immediately following which was Their Averseness to live in Subjection to the Civil Magistrate Their Untractableness and Disrespect to Rulers had appeared on several occasions especially since they were brought under the Roman Yoke and may probably be in some measure imputed to a wrong Interpretation which they had put upon a Precept that God gave them by Moses God had required them to make no King but of their own People One from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee thou mayest not set a stranger over thee which is not thy brother This made them unwilling to submit to any Foreign Power It is true while a liberty of Election continued they were to chuse a King of their own Nation but after God for the hardness of their hearts did suffer them to be subdued by their Neighbours and to be carried Captive into a strange Land it became their Duty to be subject to them who had brought them under their Power and to conform themselves to the Laws of the Emperors and Kings who protected them Now St. Paul having some cause to suspect since their Conversion to the Christian Religion that they had not quitted all their Prejudices and false Notions about Obedience and Submission to the higher Powers which they held under the Mosaick Dispensation does in the Text exhort and desire Timothy that as Prayers should be made for all kinds of Men so chiefly and in the first place for Kings and all that are in Authority In treating of which Argument I shall endeavour to shew 1. That it is not foreign to the Office of the Ministers of the Christian Church to remind the People of their Duty to the Civil Power 2. That the People are bound by the Laws of God and Nature to pray for those in Authority and to live in due Subjection to them 1. That it is not foreign to the Office of the Ministers of the Christian Church to remind the People of their Duty to the Civil Power Which Proposition may be grounded on the Exhortation of St. Paul to Timothy The Apostle did not think it sufficient when he writ to whole Churches to injoyn them to render Tribute 〈◊〉 and Service to Chief Governors and all in Authority under them but in his Epistle to Timothy who being made Bishop of Ephesus was about to order and establish the Worship of God in the Assemblies of the New Christians he does exhort and beseech him that their Publick Service should begin with Prayers for all Men and particularly for Kings And with equal Care and Zeal to preserve Christians from Seditious Designs and Plots against the Magistrate in his Letter to
of them who have the Legislative Power to make Laws to describe the Property of single Persons to try the Justice and Equity of Bargains and Contracts to estimate the Losses and Damages men suffer one by another By these Laws mens Labours and Service are to be rated Rewards or Punishments are to be measured out to Persons according as they shall advance the Welfare of the Society or it shall receive Detriment from them In a word the Civil Laws do allot what Tributes and Taxes each man shall pay to defend and preserve the Body Politick whereof he is a Part. 2. It is necessary that in all Societies there should be a Chief Governor to interpret the Laws and according to them to decide the Controversies between particular men without Favour and Affection or Prejudice and Hatred to any Party But if there was no Publick Person to expound the Laws every Private Man might understand them in his own Sense and make them bend to his peculiar Interest And hence it would follow that there would be as great and endless Strifes about the meaning of the Laws as would have been about the several Portions of Land in a Country before a general Division was made And therefore it is very clear and manifest in the Third Place 3. That all the Members of a Community are bound to submit to the Laws and Decrees of their Chief Governor For neither Laws nor a Governor can constitute a Society if private Men have Liberty not to submit to them Of what Use would Laws be if every one might interpret them to his own particular Advantage To what purpose should a Governor undertake to hear Causes if the People were not bound to stand to his Determinations This therefore never can happen in any Place without a Dissolution of the Government and the bringing all things into Confusion And Men in a State where every one presumes a Right in himself to oppose what he mislikes must not be thought an orderly and regulated Society but a disjointed and lawless Multitude Wherefore no one is to doubt but that God who is Author of Societies has given the Supreme Rulers in every Society a Right to so much Power as is sufficient to compel men to yield Obedience to the Laws and that he has obliged all Persons belonging unto it to submit to their Authority But now let us observe in the Revealed Will of God what further Approbation he has given of the Sovereign Powers over Nations and Kingdoms through his Providence settled in the World for the Good and Welfare of Men. When God did put the Children of Israel under his immediate Government we may take notice how severely he punished those who did mutiny against the Rulers that by his Commission acted under him Miriam was smitten with the Leprosy because she unadvisedly spoke against Moses Korah seduced some Malecontents into an Insurrection and the Earth opened and swallowed him and his Company for their Rebellion God so far countenanced the Erection of Sovereign Power over his own People the Jews as to grant their Petition for a King notwithstanding they did sin in rejecting him when they desired a king to judge them like all the nations And what is remarkable he caused their two first Kings to come to the Throne by his special Choice and Designation It is also worthy of noting That the usual Title and Stile of Kings in Holy Scripture is The Anointed of the Lord In which he forbids the reviling of Rulers and the cursing of the King even in our Thoughts he declares them his Representatives that by him they rule and decree Justice Nay he threatneth to pour his Judgments upon Jerusalem for their revolting from the King of Babylon after he had conquered their Countrey Our Saviour likewise whose Kingdom was not of this World was so far from designing any Alteration in the Forms of Government and Civil Laws of Nations that were agreeable to Reason and Morality that he confirmed their Establishment and did subject himself to the Supreme Authority of his own Time and Country by ordering Tribute to be paid to Caesar and in acknowledging to Pilate That his Power was given him from God Subjection to Kings and Governors is more largely and distinctly asserted by the Apostles who in their Divine Writings were assisted with his Holy Spirit And to render their Precepts concerning Obedience to those who preside at the Helm and direct and rule Kingdoms and Nations the more effectual they back them with strong Arguments taken from the Profit which accrues to Societies through their respectful and dutiful Behaviour to the Civil Authority and from the Judgments God will bring upon Men of a rebellious and untractable Spirit St. Paul requires every Christian Soul to be subject to the Higher Powers because those Powers are ordained of God and because they that resist them do resist the Ordinance of God and by his Decree who will maintain his own Ordinances shall for their Sin of Resistance receive to themselves Damnation St. Peter enjoins Christians in general to be subject to the King who is Supreme and to Governors that are deputed by him for the Lord's sake and because so is the Will of God and both point to the Blessings and Benefits that will therefrom proceed to Men The one says Rulers are not a Terror to good Works but to the Evil And the other That they are for the Punishment of Evil-doers and for the Praise of them that do well St. Paul affirms That the Magistrate is the Minister of God to thee for Good that is for the support of Justice and Honesty and Peace among Men and that in defending the Authority of Governors we shall include our own Quiet and Safety It is not unworthy of notice when St. Paul urged the Duty of Subjection that Nero was Emperor one of the worst of Men and to obviate an Objection made by some since who had more regard to their own Will than the Word of God That the Primitive Christians did submit to the Authority of the Emperors because they being but a handful of Men had not Force sufficient to oppose them he adds That they were to be subject not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake that is not only for Fear of the Emperors who in their Rage might let loose their Armies upon them but upon a Principle of Duty and Justice in Consideration of the Advantage and Profit they gain by their Government And if we are to be Obedient to the Higher Powers for sake of Conscience then by Rule of Contraries we shall contract a guilty Conscience by our Disobedience The Sum of all is That we ought to pray for both in Publick and Private to Fear and Respect and Honour in our Behaviour Kings and Princes and other Magistrates and to submit to their Righteous Laws and Constitutions not only in regard they are set over us by God and Reign by his Commission but out of
good Will to Men who are protected in their Lives Freedoms and Estates through their Authority How wide then are they from Praying seriously in the Church or Closet for the Prosperity of the Civil Powers and the Blessing of God upon their Management of Affairs from Reverencing and Honouring them who speak Reproachfully of their Persons and make it their business every where to traduce their Actions and to incline the People to Sedition and Tumults The right ordering the Interest of a Kingdom is matter of great difficulty and needs the utmost Application even where the Subjects have their Prince in highest Esteem and concur with him in carrying on the Work but when bad Men by Slandering the Governors and Censuring their Proceedings whereof they commonly have but little Knowledge do create Misunderstandings between them and the People 't is next to impossible things should go well in a Nation And for the most part the Cure of the Faults they have detected does not near so much Service to the Publick as the Fears and Jealousies they stir up do harm No Government of what Form soever did ever arrive at that degree of Perfection as to have no Slips or Errors committed in the Administration The best of Kings while they carry Humanity about them must have failings neither is it to be expected what care soever is taken in chusing that all who serve the Crown should be both Able and Honest Princes are fain to make that use of the Eyes and Hands of other Men as it will be no wonder sometimes to meet with Mistakes in Matters resolved upon with the greatest Thought and Deliberation and where they act with all diligence and sincerity an unequal Distribution of Justice may happen and Rewards or Punishments not exactly always follow the Merit or Demerit of Men. They therefore must be thought to resist the Ordinance of God and to act against the true Interest of Kingdoms and Societies who upon Slips and Ordinary Miscarriages and perhaps great Hardships upon some Single Persons do attempt to change the Form of Government and openly oppose with Violence those in Authority For upon such rigid Terms as appear unpracticable both to the Reason and Experience of Men no Kingdom or State can stand Nothing therefore but the assuming a Power to set the Laws all aside a General Invasion of Property and the endeavouring to destroy the Fundamental Constitutions of a Society can break the Bands of it asunder and leave the People at liberty to take care of themselves But this was remote from the Case of our Martyr'd Sovereign King Charles I. whom there was so little Colour to charge with a Design to alter the Ancient and Legal Settlement of the Nation and to diminish the Force of the Laws that he seemed really persuaded they were ever on his side and upon all Occasions did openly condemn proceeding by Absolute Power And in the great Point he was believed to depart farthest from the Law it may be said in abatement of what he did himself that he acted by the Advice of his Council and followed the Resolution of all his Judges Men not put into Place to serve a Turn but of Eminent Abilities in their Profession and hardly in other respect blameable for the Execution of their Trust How sincere he was in his Intentions to Rule by Law we learn from the Solemn Protestation he made at a time when Success did most attend his Arms. I do promise to Almighty God as I hope for his Blessing and Protection that I will to the utmost of my Power ' defend and maintain the True Reformed Protestant Religion establish'd in the Church of England And do solemnly and faithfully Promise in the sight of God to maintain the Just Privileges and Freedoms of Parliaments and to Govern by the known Laws of the Land to my utmost Power And when I willingly fail in these Particulars I will expect no Aid or Relief from any Man or Protection from Heaven Agreeable to this Principle was his Behaviour during the time of the War As his Courage and Firmness of Mind were Conspicuous in the Dangers of Battel so was his Moderation in the use of Victories He did temper his Success and the Advantages of his Sword with Mercy and ever manifested a readiness to forgive Injuries and to heal the Wounds and Breaches of his languishing Kingdom But how much his Enemies sunk below their first Golden Pretences of Reforming our Religion and removing the Grievances of the People we may instruct our selves both from their own Writers and the sad and dismal Confusion of Church and State which followed In their Petitions with the things plausible that the King was always willing to grant they mingled still something unto which in Honour and Conscience he could not yield And as their Sword got ground so did their Modesty and Sense of Duty decrease and the Extravagancy and Unreasonableness of their Demands enlarge it self till at length nothing less would satisfy than the Concession of such Powers to themselves as would subvert the Constitution of the Realm And by these Unchristian Ways they endeavoured to render all the well-intended Proceedings of that Excellent Prince harsh and odious unto the People and at last brought him to the Fatal Block A Prince of incomparable Virtues scarce equalled by any who have sat on Thrones or out-done by those who have made Religion the Profession and Business of their Lives such Piety Temperance Chastity Innocent Chearfulness and Wisdom eminently appeared in his whole Conversation that he made himself an Illustrious Example of Godliness and Virtue to all his Subjects So devout and hearty a Worshipper of God that neither his Business nor his Pleasures put by his Hours of Prayer and Attendance on Divine Service But he never shewed himself more Great and Glorious than in his Sufferings nor gave greater Demonstrations of his Goodness Fortitude Prudence and Constancy than when his Friends and Servants were removed who might Advise Aid and Comfort him Under his last Illegal and Inhuman Treatment to the Hour of Death he did not any thing misbecoming the Majesty of a Great King or unsuitable to the Piety Meekness and Resignation of a good Christian But now we ought not to impute this Barbarous Murther to the whole People of the Realm since of the Nobility and Gentry much the greater Number all along firmly adhered to the Interest of the King and kept stedfast to their Duty No nor to the whole Parliament which first levied War against him for many of them seemed to have honest Intentions though they were much misguided And before the Members of most Publick Spirit and greatest Reputation for their Integrity were secluded the House of Commons no Progress could be made therein they having come to an Opinion That the Points the King had conceded were sufficient for them to proceed upon to reconcile Parties and to establish the Peace and Quiet of the Kingdom
upon a good Foundation No nor yet to all the Army who fought against him in the Field for they were also garbled and pick'd and a Faction only among them called Agitators who had got the Power in their hands did go through with and perpetrate this horrid Wickedness Concerning which a Person of the greatest Truth Probity Honour and Command in the Army affectionately declares his Sense in these Words My afflicted and troubled Mind for it my earnest Endeavours to prevent it will I hope sufficiently testify my Abhorrence of the Fact And what might they not do to the lower Shrubs having thus cut down the Cedar Indeed there is such Testimony from Authors of great Credit of the Insincerity and Ill Practice of many of the Roman Communion notwithstanding they declared for the King and rid in his Armies that they cannot be cleared from having had some Hand in his Death For as they had heightned and fomented the Misunderstanding and Divisions between the King and People at first so divers of them under a Puritanical Disguise were listed with the Parliament Forces and did through the Course of the War secretly blow the Flames and push on our Ruin and Confusion they having had it resolved in a Consult That it was lawful to put the King to Death But what part soever the Scots had acted before in our Troubles the Parliament of Scotland did by their Commissioners signify their utter Dislike of the Proceedings against the Sacred Person and Life of the King And many at home how instrumental soever they had been in the Calamities which befel the King did earnestly in Numbers petition for the Preservation of his Life The Churches of the Reformed Religion beyond Sea preached against the abominable Wickedness designed and condemned the Actors in Synod Foreign Ambassadors by their Mediation would have prevented the Commission of so crying a Sin And the Bulk of our Nation did lament groan and miserably sink under the Weight of it and performed what Right they could to the Memory of the Blessed Martyr whose Life their united Endeavours could not save Insomuch that the sharpest and most spiteful Writer against his Royal Person and Cause having observed that the Inimitable Virtues of the King in his calamitous and afflicted State had made a wonderful Change in the Minds even of those who first resisted him though in a Season too late to rescue him from the hands of the Bloody and Inexorable Men who put him to Death could not but acknowledge That they who before hated him for his Misgovernment nay fought against him with display'd Banners in the Field now applaud him and extol him for the Wisest and most Religious Prince that lived However it is most certain and ought humbly to be confess'd if the Crimes in a manner of the whole Kingdom had not been great and manifold and the Faults of all Parties had not provoked God in high measure to be displeased with us he would not have permitted this wasting and destructive Judgment to have fallen upon our Land The Downfal of the Best Constituted Church in the World the Wound to Religion the Subversion of the Laws the Devastation of Right and Property the Slaughters the Banishments the Imprisonments which were consequent upon this Dismal Stroke it does not behove me now to relate But I ought according to the Office of the Day to exhort you to return Thanks to Almighty God who was graciously pleased to restore his Son King Charles II. to the Throne of his Father and with him the Church and Laws to their Ancient State and Condition Nay We the Sinful People of this Land have yet more and fresh Arguments of rendring Praises and Thanksgivings to our God who when our Religion Freedoms and Laws no long time since were reduced to Extremity of Danger insomuch as the whole Nation even to a small Handful of Men did despair of their Continuance among us was pleased then to secure them and work a Deliverance for us by His Excellent Majesty King William May God long preserve Him and Them unto us May the Sense of the Divine Mercies and the Remembrance of the great Hazards we so narrowly escaped prevail with us all seriously to repent and to amend our Hearts and Conversations May a Stop be put to Irreligion Prophaneness and Immorality Sins too notorious in our Countrey May the Love of God and of the Publick Weal of Justice of Honesty of Charity and Good Will one towards another have a daily Increase among Men of all Ranks and Conditions So that he may delight still to dwell with us and to do us good and be mercifully pleased to suffer us and our Posterity to abide in the Profession of the true Religion with Peace and Safety under his Protection FINIS BOOKS Printed for William Rogers ARchbishop Tillotson's Works containing Fifty four Sermons and Discourses on several Occasions Together with the Rule of Faith Being all that were published by his Grace himself and now collected into one Volume To which is added An Alphabetical Table of the Principal Matters Folio The Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Narwich's Two Sermons of the Wisdom and Goodness of Providence preach'd before the Queen at Whitehall August 17. and 24. 1690. on Prov. 3. 6. A Sermon preach'd at St. Andrew's Holbourn June 28. 1691. on Gal. 6. 7. Of Religious Melancholly A Sermon preach'd before the Queen at Whitehall March 6. 1691. on Psalm 42. 6. Of the Immortality of the Soul A Sermon preach'd before the King at Whitehall on Palm-Sunday 1694. on Matth. 10. 28. A Thanksgiving Sermon preach'd before the King April 16. 1696. on Psal 50. 15. Dr. Sherlock Dean of St. Paul's Practical Discourse of Death Octavo Ninth Edition A Practical Discourse concerning a Future Judgment Fourth Edition Octavo A Discourse concerning the Divine Providence Second Edition Quarto A Vindication of the Doctrine of the Holy and Ever Blessed Trinity and the Incarnation of the Son of God Third Edition Quarto An Apology for Writing against the Socinians Quarto The Present State of the Socinian Controversy and the Doctrine of the Catholick Fathers concerning a Trinity in Unity Quarto The Danger of Corrupting the Faith by Philosophy A Sermon Quarto A Vindication of the Sermon in Answer to some Socinian Remarks Quarto The Doctrine of the Fathers and Schools considered Concerning the Articles of a Trinity of Divine Persons and the Unity of God In Answer to the Animadversions on the Dean of St. Paul's Vindication of the Doctrine of the Holy and Ever Blessed Trinity By J. B. A. M. Presbyter of the Church of England Quarto A Defence of the Dean of St. Paul's Apology for Writing against the Socinians Quarto A Defence of Dr. Sherlock's Notion of a Trinity in Unity Quarto The Distinction between Real and Nominal Trinitarians examined In Answer to a Socinian Pamphlet Quarto Mr. Tyrrel's General History of England both Ecclesiastical