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A35085
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A sermon preached upon the anniversary solemnity of the happy inauguration of our dread soveraign Lord King James II in the Collegiate Church of Ripon, February the 6th. 1685/6 / by Thomas Cartwright ...
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Cartwright, Thomas, 1634-1689.
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1686
(1686)
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Wing C706; ESTC R21036
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21,714
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46
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A SERMON PREACHED upon the Anniversary Solemnity OF THE Happy Inauguration OF Our Dread Soveraign LORD King JAMES II. In the Collegiate Church of Ripon February the 6 th 1685 6 By THOMAS CARTWRIGHT D.D. Dean of Ripon and Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY LONDON Printed by J. Leake and are to be Sold by Walter Davis in Amen-Corner MDCLXXXVI To my LORD THE Lord HENRY EARL of PETERBOROW Groom of the Stole and First Gentleman of the Bed-Chamber to His MAJESTY one of the Lords of the Honourable Privy-Council and Knight of the Most Noble Order of the GARTER My LORD HOmilies are by our Rubrick and the Statute to give place to Sermons where they may be had and therefore the Minister who Officiates on the King's-Day is obliged rather to Preach a Sermon of his own Composing upon the same Argument than to Read the Homily concerning Obedience to Rulers and Magistrates This I doubt not was chearfully done by Persons and in Places of the greatest Eminency and we in the Country thought our selves bound to be as Dutiful as those in higher places as Affectionate to his Majesty's Service tho' not so Eloquent And tho' many of Richer Parts have of their Abundance cast much more into this Treasury yet Men of Meanest need not despair of His Majesty's Gracious Acceptance Mar. xij 42. whilst like the poor Widow in the Gospel they come to Express their Pious Officiousness to Support his Crown by their Oblations tho' they betray their Poverty by the Meanness of them and shew how much greater their Zeal is than their Abilities to serve Him This I did as well as I could in His Majesty's Collegiate Church of Ripon nor is it Ostentation that makes me Preach it over again from the Press but pure Charity towards the Cure of the Leprosie of those Rebellious Principles which every Priest must needs see tokens enough to discern to be that Plague in the Head which renders too many among our People so utterly unclean as that they are only fit to dwell alone and without the Camp of Israel Lev. xiij 44. ves 46. And as the Priest under the Law who attempted the Cure of any other Leper was by God's Direction to begin at the Right Ear xiv 14. and from thence to proceed to his Right Hand so I thought my self obliged to Print what I had Preach'd that they might Handle what they had heard and be the more perfectly Convinc'd how much it concerns us to Endeavour their Cure and them to join with us in our Prayers to God for the Perfecting it The Subject Convinces me how ready some will be to take Offence at the Author and Argument of this Sermon and tho' I neither fear the Censure nor court the Favour of Men so disaffected to the Government yet I thought my self obliged to make Choice of such a Patron as had been a Pattern of Loyalty to others and was Himself Able and Willing to Protect both and to Maintain that Truth which hath been the Rule of Your Life Your Lordships Devotion to Your Prince and Zeal for His Service being as well known as Your Person And tho' there be little in this Discourse Worthy of Your Judicious Eye or Owning Yet the Cause which it Pleads being That for which Your Honour hath always Expressed so Great a Concern as to venture Your Life and Estate in it makes me not Despair of its Acceptance And Your Eminent and Vndeserved Goodness of which I have had so long Experience secures my Pardon for Prefixing Your Name to it If my Abilities had born Proportion to my Will it should have been as far beyond as it now will fall short of Your Lordships Expectations But my Comfort is That as it gives me an Happy Opportunity to Testifie my Gratitude for Your former Favours so there will be a Power in Your Acceptance to make Plainness an Ornament and to Oblige others to think well of the mean but sincere Performances of him who accounts himself obliged to be as well as to subscribe himself My Lord Your Lordship's In all humble Duty and Unfeigned Observance THOMAS CARTWRIGHT 1 KINGS viij 66. On the Eighth day he sent the People away and they Blessed the King and went unto their Tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord had done for David his Servant and for Israel his People WE are now happily Assembled in the Collegiate Church of Ripon endowed and conferr'd upon us by the Bounty of our Royal Founder King JAMES the First of ever blessed Memory in the Second Year of his Reign to Celebrate Aug. 2. 1604. according to the Laudable and Religions Practice of good Subjects in former Ages the Joyful Inauguration of his Grandson our Gracious Soveraign Lord King JAMES the Second on the First Day of the Second Year of his Reign And we may now remember with Comfort and Satisfaction to our Consciences how the Men of Ripon or our Friends of Ripon as they Ironically call'd us were singled out and traduced not many Years since by Julian Johnson Ferguson and other hot-spurs of the same Faction and Sedition who were then carrying on an Accursed Conspiracy against the Crown and Church of England and Exposed to the Madness of the People to be Ridicul'd and Revil'd for our early and then unfashionable Loyalty expressed in our Address in hopes that they might either have Laugh'd or Frighted us out of our Duty and Religion Now that we may testifie to the World our unmoveable Steadiness and the renewed Evidence of our Fidelity to the Crown in all unshaken Principles and Practises of Loyalty let us do the proper Work of the King's Day in its season Let us Bless God for the miraculous Disappointments of all the malicious Hopes and infernal Designs of those Blood-thirsty Men being not only agreeable to their Anti-Monarchical and Anti-Episcopal Principles but in truth inseparable from them Let us be joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord hath done for David his Servant and for Israel his People Shew your Love to his Person and your Zeal for his Government resign up your selves as you have done your Charter to Him not doubting of a proportionable Favour and Encouragement and as you have stood to your Prince in his severest Tryals according to your bounden Duty so let it not be in the power of any Discontented Persons whatsoever to Taint you with the least blemish of Disloyalty We want nothing blessed be God and the King as to our External State but what to wish for Do we not enjoy Peace Plenty and Liberty nay and the Best Religion in the World and why then should we disquiet our selves or others with the fanciful Imaginations and unreasonable Fears of future Evils for which in reality there appears no Foundation but in our own distemper'd Brains Let us do our Duty and the King his Pleasure let us not prevaricate with God or him but be
things which make for peace go along with them as far as you can with Truth and Charity and where you part let it be like Friends So shall we Edifie one another in our most holy Faith make the Pleasure of his Majesty's Government abate the Burden of it 1 Tim. ij 2. and lead quiet and peaceable Lives under him in all Godliness and Honesty as did this People in my Text under Solomon whose dutiful Submission to him is the next thing to be consider'd and recommended to your Imitation to wit III. Populi Submissio They went unto their Tents They knew 't was fit for them to depart when it was the King's Pleasure but yet to tarry till it were so They resolved not to continue longer nor yet to leave him sooner They would have been glad to have enjoyed the Blessing of his Presence longer but having receiv'd his Commands to be gone they departed and went unto their Tents every Man to his own Habitation without any Dispute or Regret to abide in his Calling to which he was call'd as a Member of the Common-Wealth to meddle with nothing but his proper business and left the Administration of Religion to the Priests and the Government of the Kingdom to Solomon Not from the Court to the Camp not from waiting on him to war against him but from the Temple to their Tents For St. Paul says That Kings are not by God's Sufferance Rom. xiij 1. but by his Ordinance and therefore even supposing them never so bad they are never to be resisted Vers 2. You may take up the Buckler of Patience but you must not take up Arms against them for Rebellion is such rank Poison to the Soul that the least Scruple of it is Damnable Ibid. the very Intention of it in the Heart is Mortal Our Religion will never suffer us to dispence with our Loyalty to serve any worldly Interest or Advantage no not for its own Defence It sets the Crown fast and easie upon the King's Head without Catechising him For be his Heart inclinable to any Religion or none it leaves him no Rival none to Insult or Lord it over him It disclaims all Vsurpation Popular or Papal neither Pope nor Presbyter may controul him none but the great God the only Ruler of Princes can over-rule him to whom 't is his Duty Glory and Happiness to be subject Tho' the King should not Please or Humor us tho' he should rend off the Mantle from our Bodies as Saul did from Samuel nay tho' he should Sentence us to Death of which blessed be God and the King there is no danger yet if we are living Members of the Church of England we must neither open our Mouths nor lift up our Hands against him but Honour him before the People and Elders of Israel 1 Sam. xv 30. We must imitate Jeremiah in Prison Daniel in the Lions-Den Amos struck through the Temples Zachariah Murder'd between the Porch and the Altar our blessed Saviour living under Herod and Tiberius and Crucified under Pontius Pilate His Disciples under Caligula Claudius Nero and Domitian Christian Bishops under Heathen Persecutors none of which ever Revil'd their Princes or Resisted them Who questioned Saul for slaying the Priests and revolting to Idolatry Who questioned Joram a Parricide and Murderer of his Nobles or Joash for his Idolatry and slaying the High-Priest Did the Sanhedrim do it Who questioned Theodosius for Murderdering Six thousand innocent persons Who questioned Constance Valens or Julian the Apostate Who traduc'd their Persons or Dignities or offer'd them any tumultuous Affronts or Remonstrances So that unless we in these latter days do understand the Mind of God better than the Jewish Church and the Primitive Christians did we must not ask our Prince why he Governs us otherwise than we please to be Govern'd our selves We must neither call him to Account for his Religion nor question him for his Policy in Civil Matters for he is made our King by God's Law of which the Law of the Land is only Declarative 'T is God alone who can take Vengeance of him if he does amiss and proportion Punishments to his Person Upon his Providence are we oblig'd to depend who never fails to help Religious Men and Kingdoms in their Distresses Rom. viij 28. and makes all things work together for their good But I need not plead for Submission unto Evil Kings since God of his infinite Goodness hath bestowed so Good and Gracious a King upon us Who tho' he be not of our Religion had we but thankful Hearts to acknowledge his Favours his Kindness is as great to us as if we were of his for he is not a Nero but a Constantine the Great to us The Jews say That the Keys of the Temple were not hung at the High Priests Girdle but laid every Night under Solomon's Pillow as belonging to his Charge To establish Religion by a Law is the King's Province To uphold and maintain the Church and her Legitimate Children this he hath freely undertaken beyond our Expectations if not Deserts And if he be not so good as his Word at last I pray God the Fault be not ours The Ark of God was not shaken as many fear'd it would have been at the Death of our late gracious Soveraign Lord King Charles the Second but continued steady without the least Commotion No Cry in our Cities no Complaining in our Streets no Tears but those of Love and Loyalty The Lord is still with us and hath set another gracious King over us and the presence of God's Ark is once more secured to us even in Verbo Regis in the Word of a King which is as sacred as his Person and as currant as his Coin for in his Word there is Truth as well as Power Eccl. viij 4. And those early and most gracious Assurances of his Princely Piety and undeserved Goodness towards us made in his Privy Council this time Twelve-month have been still renewed repeated and multiply'd to us in despight of all our Ingratitude which would make a passage to Men's Hearts through their Brains if they had any and teach them first to admire his Goodness then to be confident in it and thankful for it and to say as Mephibosheth of David My Lord the King is as an Angel of God Do therefore what is good in thine Eyes 2 Sam. xix 27. Was he ever worse than his Word to any Man Or what ground hath he given any of us to apprehend that he ever will be so Who was ever so exceeding tender of his Honour as he so Just to all so Kind beyond example to his Friends and Servants How can we ever trust our Lives and Fortunes in safer Hands than his He hath done more than ever any of us durst ever venture to look for to give us Confidence in him enough to puzzle our Understandings as well as our Gratitude And how can he give us better security