being at Dublin in the month of March Ann. Dom. 1684. where with weeping Ireland I took my leave of the great and good Duke of Ormond I was according as usually when there invited to preach before the State at Christ-Church and having in that short stay of the few days I had made there met with divers Books some even in English which fell foul upon the Holy Scriptures especially upon the present Original of the Old Testament together with all Translations that closely follow it as our English Translations for the most part does and observing some men taking part with these Writers admiring and applauding their Books others some of whom should have understood better shaken by them so that some since have declared themselves to have been long in quest of Scriptures and notwithstanding all our Divines pretences not yet to know where to find them nay some further to have preached against the Peoples having and reading Scriptures in vulgar Languages I thought I could not by any one Sermon do a more seasonable service to our Church and indeed to the common Christianity than by drawing together the sum of the more considerable Plea's which have been brought chiefly by Spinosa Is Vossius and P. Simon the three Chieftains whose Spittle other less people lick up and vent against the validity or integrity of the Books of the Old Testament and consequently much enervating the New and by shewing the contemptible vanity the gross falsity or unsoundness of them all This I did briefly and have since publisht the Discourse with an Appendix I may say demonstrating the most suspicious Points asserted in it In this Discourse it could not be except I should have been grosly partial but that some passages must fall justifying our establisht Church against her adversaries of Rome But the main scope and design of my Sermon was plain enough against Antiscripturists in general And of the aforenamed Authors whom I mainly struck at and whose Doctrine I overthrew one was an Atheistical Apostate Jew the other a craz'd Admirer of Greek and Philology his Religion if any I may be confident is not Roman The third indeed a profest Son of Rome but so Heterodox that as I understood then and have yet heard nothing to the contrary that very Church has censured him and his Writings Now who could ever have thought that defending Scripture and the Hebrew Text against such Adversaries of whom not one man was an Oxthodox Roman Catholick could have been termed Imprudence Disloyalty â—nd fomenting Rebellion against the King Yet so it was that a certain Dignitary â—n August last as I have been informed â—resented a Paper to a Person of Hoâ—our wherein not only that Discourse â—nd its Author but certain Irish Proteâ—tant Bishops indefinitely were charged as follows I cannot understand the Policy of some Irish Protestant Bishops during the Heat of Argiles and Monmouths Rebellion which threatned the Ruine of their whole Order instead of preaching the Christian Doctrine of Loyalty and Allegiance at that time seasonable to go into into the Pulpit and amuse the Peo-with apprehensions of Popery which how Loyal soever their Intentions might be was doubtless no Disservice to Monmouth nor good Service to His Majesty because manifestly tending to alienate the Affections of the Subjects And of these Irish Protestant Bishops I hear I was the first named in the Margin of his Paper To this Imputation Civility and good Manners will not suffer me to return thâ— Language it deserves but in short as to the truth of matter of fact If the Bishoâ— of Cork did not in that season preach uâ— Loyalty and Obedience with all his mighâ— and possibly more than any one man â— Papist or Protestant within the Kingdom â— or if either at that time or any else hâ— did ever preach what may be justly termed the amusing the people with apprehensions of Popery the said Bishop offer himself to the severest Animadversions imaginable To the point then If the London Gazzetts may be credited Argile landed at Campletown in the Highlands of Scotland May 20. Ann. Dom. 1685. and seâ—â— out his Treasonable Summons May 2â— which day news came of his arrival tâ— Dunluce in the North of Ireland and oâ— June 21. ensuing he was brought in Prâ—soner to Edenburgh So that the Heat â—â— his Rebellion must fall between May 20. anâ— June 21. 1685. Further Monmouth landed at Lyme in the Evening June 11. and was routed July 6. bâ—twixt which days must also fall the Heâ—â— of his Rebellion My Sermon at Chrisâ— Church Dublin which was the only oâ— that Gentleman heard of me about thaâ— time and which certainly he aimed at was preached March 22. 1684. that is two full months not only before the Heat of Argiles Rebellion but before any except Traytors knew of it and three months within three days before the Heat or commencing of Monmouths Rebellion or any saving the Rebels Traiterous Accomplices knew of that Therefore this Gentleman was fouly out in regard of time and the main point in his Accusation which will fix Imprudence or Disloyalty upon me being the timing my Sermon the whole Accusation must on this score fall For how could I by that Sermon preached at that time be serviceable to Monmouth in the time of his Rebellion and disserviceable to the King when the times fell at such distance and his Rebellion was not in being or thought of By what account will March the 22. be made the middle of June I am sure if I had in the least sowed any Seeds of Rebellion there were above an hundred wiser and loyaller and greater men than the Accuser in that Audience from whom I should both have heard of it and felt it But waving this Answer from the Timt which yet that Gentleman can never geâ— over was it all true that that Discoursâ— did tend to amuse the minds of men with thâ— apprehensions of Popery If I understand English to amuse the minds of men witâ— the apprehensions of Popery is to possesâ— them with fears that Popery will be introduceâ— or imposed upon them Now let me be dealâ— justly with and let not men be false to their own Sense in this point also Was there in that Discourse any one word pointing at or meddling with Designs of State or Statists Is the modest and peaceable endeavouring to settle the Grounds of our common Christianity and to confirm to mens Reason and Judgments the Divine Authority of Holy Scripture against the Wiles or Bravadoes of men who oppugn the Doctrine not only of our own but of the very Roman Church is this I say possessing the people with fears that the Government intends to establish Popery If it be said some parts of your Sermon were levell'd against certain Doctrines of the Papists as well as against the Tenets and Arguments of those men named I do not deny it but those parts tended only by strength of Argument and without any one virulent
Veracity of this great Judge than of the Justice of his Sentence In other terms as our Lord the King is wise according to the Wisdom of aâ— Angel of God to know all things that are before him so we believe he spoke herein with the Sanctity of an Angel and no less according to the Sense of his Royal Heart than according to the Truth of the thing Wherefore undoubtedly let some men think or say what they please he does not estimate his Subjects Loyalty by a warpâ—g Conscience or versatil humour in Reâ—gion No good or wise man Much less â—rince can in his heart approve either â—redulity and Rashness in believing or â—nstability in what is once on sober â—rounds believed There is nothing more â—oathsome to a person of any sense of Worth or Honour than a readiness to â—hange a mans Perswasion because he apprehends it may turn to his Rise or secuâ—ar Advantage To be free and open and use that Parrhesy which Honesty and Vprightness ever may I took not up my Religion from the Placits of Man but from â—he holy Scriptures of eternal Truth delivered to the world by inspired men and faithfully transmitted to us by Gods holy Church which Scriptures I have been instructed in from a Child and have read over diverse times upon my knees before God as well as otherwise with all the care I could I have thence learnt amongst other parts of my Duty my Duty to God and my Duty to my King and if any man catch me wittingly and deliberately tripping in either I decline no Censure nor Punishment But I am almost daily told by men whose Insolence I believe His Majesty if he understood would little approve that my King is not of my Religion I still answer thereto I cannoâ— tell nor am I busie to enquire but I blesâ— God and night and day pray to him to blesâ— our Gracious King for that Liberty Protection and Encouragement which we Protestants of the establisht Church enjoy in our Religion under his sweet wise happy Government And as to His Majesties Religion I say he is no more accountable to his Subjectâ— for that than he is for his Crown nor may they any more censure than prescribe to him therein All that concerns them is to pray God would guide him and inspire with all Christian Temper and Counsel those to whom under God he commits the Guidance of his Conscience And having said thus much I will only add As to my Religion from henceforth let no man trouble me For ought I know I profess the Religion the King would have me For if I should profess my self of any other I should dissemble and that I believe His Majesty with reverence be it spoken would no more approve in me or any man else than God does I have thus said what I had to say of the Occasion of publishing these Sermons It remains to the full discharging my Promise that I say a few things of their frame or make They consist not then of any profound cuâ—â—us or refined Notions nor is their Style â—curate or correct But they are what I â—prehend Sermons ought to be plain hoâ—st and strong I mean their Language is â—sie natural and such generally which is â— soon understood as heard Their Matâ—â— nothing but what in the Subjects â—andled is the sum of our certain Christiâ—â—ity And the Reasonings used in them I â—ope such as may convince There is at present a great complaint aâ—ongst the Book-sellers that there is nothing â—lls so dully as Sermons And yet I rememâ—er my Lord Verulam somewhere says in â—ommendation of the English Preaching â—hat if Preambles Transitions and passages which are purely matter of form with some such like particulars were taken out and the substance of our English Sermons extant collected into one Book it would certainly be one of the best Books in the world or words to this purpose Now what is the reason of the former complaint 'T is certain Sermons were no such Drugs in his days Has there then befallen any universal Degeneracy amongst us since his time which has altered the case None certainly universal for there have been better Sermons by far publisht since the death of that great Judge for such he was in all kinds of Learning than any I know before and particularlâ— those of the before at least matchless Bishop Sanderson And there are at this time in present being a great number of as excellent Preachers both in the City of London and disperst through the Kingdom oâ— England as most we can find to have liveâ— since the Apostles days many of whosâ— Sermons are in print But the truth of thâ— matter is this In the late days of the Liberty of Prophesying when every one took on him the honour not only of the Priesthood but even oâ— Apostleship that would and a bold pretencâ— to Grace Inspiration was enough to qualifie any man for the Pulpit there came for t such a swarm of putid and nonsensical as weâ—â— as too often unchristian Abortions of Preachments that mens stomachs then in a sorâ— turn'd many begun to abhor and ridicule thâ— Word of God and even the most sober sorâ— could not but loath such vile Entertainments Of this kind were all the Millenarâ— and generally all the Antinomian Rabble oâ— Preachers with more who followed the Parliament Camp whom I will not name Another sort there were who had some kind â—â— learning and seem'd at first hearing to havâ— something of soundness in them but in process all the Divinity you should find in their Sermons was pickt out of little Systems and Annotators beyond which very few of the men of those days ever went Henderson himself confessing to Arch-Bishop Vsher he had never read the Fathers and lay all in some Geneva-opinions servilely taken up a few terms of Art and Notions ill applied possibly not half digested or understood and in words and phrases of uncertain significations a vein of Canting running thro the whole Of these two kinds were I believe one tenth part of the Sermons preached and printed for neer twenty years together from the beginning of our late unhappy Civil Wars in England But God be blessed though such preaching was general yet was it not universal There were all along these times a secret stock of profoundly learned Divines excellent Preachers compel'd to be too secret God knows the remains of the old scattered Church and the Seed of our restored present establisht Church of England Arch-Bishop Vsher Doctor afterwards Bishop Saunderson Bishop and after the Restauration Arch-Bishop Bramhall Bp. Brownâ—ig Dr. Hammond Doctors and Bishops Jeremy Taylor John Pierson with many others these mens Sermons and many of their Discourses which though not printed Sermon-wise yet were divers of them first delivered in Sermons before ever printed in the form we have them no one I hope will account Drugs cast by or not think to deserve a very good place in his
being also we cannot believe he will be true to himself we ought to conclude he will gain Glory to himself even by those very things by which we may foolishly imagine he forfeits or hazards his Glory Wherefore if we will not be most unreasonable we must be patient Again this Consideration also enforces particularly the Quiet of Faith If the Almighty and the Alwise has resolved that he will be exalted amongst the Heathen and in all the Earth too you may easily be confident he will be so A little Faith one should think should suffice men to believe God will be true to his own concerns that is to his Glory Truth and Church And lastly This no less enforces the Quiet of Sobriety For what greater madness can there be conceived when we prosess to believe God thus resolved and intent on his business and to have put all things into the wisest and best order than for us to interpose and disturb this Order And yet every man does disturb that Order who makes a step out of his Calling that is out of the Order Place and Degree God has put him into Wherefore seeing God not only governs the World in general but particularly directs all to the exalting of his own Glory if the Glory of God be dear to us as we profess it is and if we believe that God is God let us be quiet with a Quiet both of Patience Faith and Sobriety The third and last Argument in the Text perswading still the same Duty is Gods Presence Patronage and everlasting Constancy to his Church celebrated here by the Psalmist in the name of the Church for in the last verse he brings in the Church speaking thus The Lord of Hosts is with us the God of Jacob is our Refuge And it it is observable this is the great Chorus in this most glorious and lofty Anthem It in a sort began the Psalm God is our Refuge ver 1. but word for word we have in ver 7. and it closes all in the Text. Indeed the Consideration of Gods Presence with and Protection of his Church cannot be to much thought of nor too often sung by the Faithful The Lord of Hosts is with us the God of Jacob is our Refuge Oh! how sweet is it both to Ear and Heart He is with us not only as God but as the Lord of Hosts And should Hosts fail he is with us as a Refuge too and as may be supplyed from another place as our Portion and exceeding great Reward When poor Croesus not long before as much a prodigy of Wealth as then of Misery was led captive in Chains at the Command of his Conqueror Cyrus into whose hands he had fallen by the Fraud of Apollo otherwise to be called the Devil of Delphos whom alone above all their Deities he had honoured with Gifts he requested of his Conquerour one small Boon before his Execution which he instantly expected namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that sending those Chains then as a Present he might ask that Grecian God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whether it were his Vsage to put Cheats upon Benefactors his Worshippers This was a Reproach indeed most justly due to the Father of Lyes But the Worshippers of the God of the God of Jacob can never lay such Imputation upon him Our Fathers trusted in thee they trusted and thou didst deliver them They cryed unto thee and were delivered they trusted in thee and were not confounded For thou art holy O thou that inhabitest the Praises of Israel Psal 3 4 5. And he the same God hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Wherefore let this Consideration also induce such Stillness and holy Quiet as has now several times been prest Particularly again this Consideration also most reasonably may induce the Quiet of Patience For whose Will ought we to pay more absolute Deference to than to the Will of our most faithful Protector our sure Refuge and eternal Portion The Quiet of Faith For who fitter to be relyed upon than he who never deceived a cordial Confident And the Quiet of Sobriety For if by exceeding our Calling or going out of our place we come into misery it is not so much God that has brought it upon us as we that have run our selves into it We might have been safe if we had kept within the Boundaries God set us I have now done with my Text at least in the Acceptation or Reference I chose to take it in I know not what remains except any should expect that I should touch upon it in that other Reference I said it might admit namely as applicable to the Enemies of the Church For to them also God may be conceived with great reason here to speak Be you still and know that I am God And there are not a few were they within hearing that have need of thi◠Lesson such I mean who have long hoped for and otherwise as well as in their mad Carouses prayed for the Confusion of our Church and Religion that is I may say it without the least Arrogancy or Prevarication the most loyal Church and Religion in the World that I mean by Law establisht God forgive them and in these hopes God deceive them In the mean while let them know the Lord is God And as we have made it our business to consider and study our Duty so by Gods Grace we will perform it We will be still that is patient and hopeful sober and loyal and we do not doubt but the Lord of Hosts will be with us and the God of Jacob will be still our Refuge We can with the assurance of good Conscience take up the words of that holy King Ahijah animating himself and his People in a more difficult condition than God be blessed ours is or we hope is like to be 2 Chr. xiii 10. As for us the Lord is our God and we have not forsaken him We have retained and do retain his Faith and Worship pure as once delivered to the Saints We have endeavoured and in humble sincerity we can say we do endeavour to perform the Conditions of his promised Presence and Protection and so long we depend upon his Promises Nor do we list to reflect upon our Adversaries Practices though we could Further besides our Gods Promises we have our Kings Promises too for the support of our Minds and some men must pardon us if we give a thousand times more credit to His Majesties Royal Word than to their airy Hopes or ventose Bravadoes We do not believe His Majesty will esteem their vain Insultings over their fellow Subjects any part of Loyalty or Service to him His Majesty has God be blessed amongst his very Enemies the character of a wise Prince and of a magnanimous Prince and there is nothing farther off from such Temper than to approve Insolencies Wherefore let as many of the Adversaries of our Church of all sorts as hear me this day take the Text as
spoken unto them also Be ye still and know that the Lord is God But to conclude in a word to all laying aside our private Humours and little mutual Piques at Persons and Parties too if possible let us all joyn in a Quiet of Peace and Christian Charity which I toucht not till now resolving to close with it And to press this I should think no Argument need to be used but our own Interest Here are a multitude of us present that are old enough to remember what our eyes have seen and may we never see the second time the Miseries and Desolations the Cruelties and Ravages of Civil Wars Can we be fond of them or does not Horror seize us when we reflect on those dreadful Idea's though almost worn out For our own sakes then as well for Gods and Religions let us all study to be quiet and to do our own business And if we meet with any who either by their secret Perswasions or Combinations or by their whispering Fears and Jealousies Designs and Stories contrary to what you have heard of His Majesties Royal Intentions and Declaration who I say either by these or any other methods we have reason to believe are endeavouring to diâ—â—urb the publick Peace and embroyl things let us in the name of God discover them Better such men suffer than we than all And especially let us empty our own minds and dispossess our selves of such Jealousies Fears and Jealousies did undo us once God in his mercy restored all King and Church and Religion The same Fears and Jealousies have bid fair to destroy all again God has hitherto hindred it In the name of God let us not tempt him again thereby to destroy us or let not us our selves destroy our selves by the old unreasonable methods In a word as I have said before but repeat that it may be more surely practised Let us trust God and next trust our King be quiet loyal and circumspect in our places and I doubt not but all things will go well with us and the whole Israel of God Which God grant And to Him be all Glory Praise and Thanksgiving now and for ever Amen FINIS THE REASONS AND NEED OF Loyal Devotion Set forth in a SERMON Before the Mayor Aldermen and Citizens of Cork and many of the Countrey Gentry and others assembled in Christ-church in the City of Cork on St. Georges Day Apr. 23. 1685. being the Day of the Coronation of his Gracious Majesty James II. in England By Edward Lord Bishop of Cork and Rosse Dublin printed by A. Crook and S. Helsham for William Norman Samuel Helsham and Eliphal Dobson Booksellers AN Advertisement Touching This SERMON THe chief Design of this Sermon is to make people conscientious in daily Prayers for the King whether in publick or in private and by the by to vindicate our Church Liturgy from the imputation of Tautology charged upon it in this behalf by the old as well as present Dissenters An unkindness not to say an impudence in them which even His Blessed Majesty Charles I. â—â—ok notice of in his incomparable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chap. 16. how perfunctory many even of truly loyal and sober persons are apt to be in the usual Praiers for the King partly because tâ—ey occur so often that it seems a matter oâ— course partly for that they attend not distinctly how much both themselves and theirs as well as the whole three Kingdoms are concerned therein is more obvious than that â—â— need to take notice of it I could think on â— better Arguments to stick upon all men thaâ— what I have used and judged there coulâ— scarce come a better season than the day â—â— which I applyed them Some mens Objectioâ— I have chosen to answer rather covertly anâ— by way of anticipation than expresly to mention which way I took to avoid offence The present Sermon was only preached in thâ— Place and on the Occasion mentioned Goâ— make it useful to the End whereto it was design'd THE Reasons and Need OF Loyal Devotion Set forth in a SERMON before the Mayor Aldermen and Citizens of Cork and many of the Gentry assembled in Christchurch in the City of Cork on St. Georges day Apr. 23. 1685. being the Day of the Coronation of His Gracious Majesty James II. The Text 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 all that are in Authority WE are here assembled of our own free accord and by a general agreement amongst our selves upon occasion of His Majesties we trust most happy Coronation in England this present day and as we may guess about this time I believe if we think never so much on the Subject we can devise no other thing we can do whereby we can in this instant contribute to make his Crown sit long easie and secure on his Head but the offering up our hearty and sincere Prayers to that purpose which because in the present instance a free-will Offering ought for that reason after the manner of all free-will Offerings to be the more cheerful and affectionate I exhort therefore that first of all Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of Thanks be made for all men for Kings and all that are in Authority Which Exhortation manifestly depends on the 18th verse of the foregoing chapter This Charge I commit to thee Son Timothy that according to the Prophesies which have been of thee thou warr a good warfare that is thou diligently and strenuously discharge the Office of a Bishop As the Roman Emperors used when they sent forth their Prefects or Governours into their Provinces to give them their Instructions with them so says Grotius does St. In loc Paul here to Timothy and in him to other Bishops sent forth unto their Churches And of those Instructions this the due ordering and constituting the publick Prayers of the Church was the first I exhort therefore first of all for afterwards as we might shew you by particulars he gives him many further Commands Now as to the Contents of the publick Prayers or of Liturgies he requires that they consist of Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of Thanks and what is the particular import of these several terms ought at least in transitu as we pass to our main design to be considered Some have thought that one Theoph. Cast Cameron c and the same thing is here signified by several expressions only in divers regards so that the publick Prayers should be called Supplications as they testifie before God our wants Petitions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they express the desires of our Souls and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Intercessions as asking with humble boldness and not diffidently But I really believe St. Pauls words to have more Epistola 59. ad Paulinam in them and so St. Austin most fully of the Ancients and divers Moderns have taught us out
minds Herewith let us silence others 'T is a wholesome stop to put to the jealous Surmises and Discourses of those who delight in ill Presages God governs all God is Judge himself In the mean while let us endeavour to mold our Minds into a perfect Submission to the Divine Disposal still trusting God and hoping the best for God be blessed I say again we see yet no other reason And thus far as to Methods for preserving the Publick Civil Peace It may here perhaps be expected that I say something as to the Publick Peace of the Church God be blessed also in this kind we are much quieter here than are others in other places My meaning is those who are not of us at least hereabouts are not yet so insolent as to disturb us However to speak out in this case I know but one effectual way to restore more perfect Peace to our Church here or to preserve what we have at present and 't is this That those who call themselves Protestants would unite in Religion or publick Worship and be all of one piece I mean that the several sorts of Dissenters would come in to the publick establisht Church for mine own part I am amazed to see that any of them who have but a fair pretence to Sobriety should in our present circumstances stand out As to the Enthusiastical part of them there can be no Action of theirs which a man ought to wonder at for be it never so wild it is still agreeable to the Measures they have taken But that Men should allow our Doctrine to be sound our Worship so far forth pure that they can with good Conscience joyn therein our Sacraments valid so as that they do and must derive their being Members of Christs visible Church from hence that they or their Principals were baptized in our Church and in a word our Church to have reformed from all gross Corruption and yet that they should think themselves bound in Conscience to separate from us to set up themselves against us Church against Church Altar against Altar to the weakening both of themselves and us and all this in a time when none cry out more than themselves of publick Dangers for want of Unity this I must again profess makes me stand amazed In such exigences will they allow nothing to be sacrificed to publick Peace Nothing to publick Safety They must needs see by their own Obstinacy they have put it out of our hands to help them and will they notwithstanding still continue their Separation I have at other times put the Question whom or what Church will they join with if they still remain separate from us Will they ever be Straglers unfix'd without Form Government or any manner of Union and Coalition In the name of God if nothing else let what they are still crying out of the publick Dangers if they believe themselves that there are such let I say their Sense of the publick Danger drive them to take refuge in the Arms of their forsaken Mother which are ever open to receive them I will add no more This is the only mean of any tolerable Ecclesiastical Peace which I can think of amongst us here And the good God unite our hearts to fear him and love one another and then this Counsel will soon take effect I am now to proceed to private Peace and the methods probable to it By private Peace I mean Peace in the Neighbourhood and Peace in the Family This certainly ought to be pursued and sought by all to be restored if violated and maintained if on foot or in present being I will not say that such private Discords are always or ordinarily the grounds of publick Broils but I may say most truly they prepare men for them When men are discontent at home or in the Neighbour hood they are ready for any turbulent and desperate Imployment which may capacitate them to revenge themselves or serve to divert their uneasie Condition If there be at any time publick Disturbances arising any person setting up new Titles Interests or Designs then every one that is in debt every one that is discontent every one that is in distress gathers themselves unto such or such a Pretender and he becomes a Captain over them 1. Sam. xxii 2. It was so then and this I verily believe at present arms more Rebels of of the common sort than any thing else Men exhaust their Estates neglect their Callings run a gadding after I know not what or whom by such means become engaged in private Quarrels or in wants and straits and then War is an admirable Refuge for them And to palliate all 't is the easiest thing in the world to play the Hypocrite and pretend the Cause of God and Religion when all that is at bottom is only Rapine or Revenge Wherefore it being not at all out of the way to publick Peace to provide for keeping the private admit a few words thereof And the first means hereto is for men to be fully and honestly imployed Iâ— would be much for the Happiness and Quiet of every Neighbourhood and Family if as every one has or may find a Calling though some of more liberal Imployments than others so every one would as before advised be assiduous and diligent thâ—â—â—in Ne nil ageretur amavit sometimes in some kind comes to pass One sort of people when they have nothing to do fall in love but others fall a quarrelling with their Neighbours become Tatlers Buâ—ibâ—dies or it may be fall into little Clubs grow debauch'd frequently tipple or somewhat like it and then their tongues walk throughout the Earth by which courses they breed more Quarrels and Mischief then can easily be thought of Plenty Ease Wantonness and Idleness have produced this Humour Industry Business Labour and Sobriety would soon cure it and lay the foundations of private Peace Secondly Learn and resolve on so much Christianity as to contemn and pardon 〈◊〉 Offences I am sure our Lord commands this or more Matth. v. 39. Whosoever shâ—ll smite thee on the right cheek turn to him thâ— other also that is be so far from revenging a smal wrong such as a single Box of the Ear as rather by thy Patience to expose thy self to a second accordingly as he does who turns his cheek to receive another And I pray you consider the reasonableness of not meditating Revenge or exacting punctual Satisfaction in all such smal injuries or affronts Is the Vindication of thy self or gaining Right in so trivial points worth the inquietude of mind the disturbance and turmoil it costs most times also it requires more than meerly work of Thought to right our selves so that I may truly say the Satisfaction if justly estimated will not quit a mans pains to get it Thirdly If you would have your Families and Neighbourhood in Peace be not curiously inquisitive into others actions and affairs for they who are so create to themselves and Neighbours
of Miseries the Lord struck him and he died His Son Nadab succeeds him indeed or as some think reigned together with him towards the latter end of his days However before he was well warm in his Throne Baasha a person of another Tribe who had no pretence to the Crown but who might quickly have as good a Title to it as either Jeroboam or Nadab had conspired against him and slew him as would seem in the head of his Army and reigned in his stead 1 King xv 27 28. But how long will this new Title stand After Wars again upon Wars all his days his Son Ela succeeds him but within two years Zimri Captain of half his Chariots conspired against him and slew him as he was drinking himself drunk in the House of Arza his Steward Upon this Zimri sets up himself chap. xvi 9. 11. and immediately slew all of Baasha 's House Here was a Recompence for Baasha's Treason But before Zimri had reigned over part of Israel full one week another part of the people would have another King and set up Omri on which Zimri burns himself in his own Palace And now ver 21. Israel is divided not only from Judah as before but within themselves divided into two parts saith the Text For half of the People followed Tibni to make him King and half Omri To be short from the time the Israelites fell off from the Royal Line that God had set over them and betook themselves to Kingchoosing from that Revolt I say to Omri which was somewhat less than five and forty years if rightly computed they had six Kings indeed but not one year of Peace and of their six Kings as far as I can find only two died the death of other men so frequent and so dismal were the Alterations of Government so unhappy the state of things I will pursue the History of this Kingdom no further as to this particular of the uncertainty of Titles and frequent Changes which you see must needs happen and when they happen they rend Nations in pieces and leave nothing stable durable or secure only out of what you have heard of the deplorable state into which this People brought themselves by breaking off the Succession and running into this kind of Elective Kingdom I cannot but note to you Secondly The dreadful Cruelties and Bloudshed which commonly ensue on such Elections to establish the New Prince Thus as soon as Baasha obtained the Throne he smote all the House that is Kinred Allies and most likely all the Adherent of Jeroboam he left not one of them that breathed until he had destroyed them 1 King xv 29. which though it were Baasha's Wickedness and Gods just Judgment executed on Jeroboams Family however by a villanous Agent yet in point of Policy and Security to himself he was in a sort necessitated to it Now so great a Slaughter certainly could not but be a sore publick Wound I might shew many instances of the like practice in in others but it is not pleasing to rake in Bloud Lastly Whereas it is ordinarily pretended by our modern State-menders that reducing Kingdoms as near as may be to an Elective form is the best method to secure a Succession of good and virtuous Princes the contrary hereto appears by this instance The People of Israel after this new modelling their Kingdom upon rejecting the true Heir descendent and electing out of themselves a King had through the Judgment of God withdrawing his Grace in punishment of their Rebellion and Revolt from this time till the utter Dissolution of their Kingdome nineteen Kings successively and not one good amongst them all And no wonder saith a sober Author For First It was a Kingdome whose Foundation was laid in 1. Rebellion 2. Schism Secondly It was maintained by a Politick Idolatry in the continuance of Jeroboams Golden Calves Thirdly Polluted with the Bloud of many of their Kings few of them going to their Grave Sicca morte by a Bloudless death And therefore having continued two hundred forty one or as others calculate two hundred fifty eight years in the ninth year of Hosea 's Reign which was the seventh of Hezekiah King of Judah the King and People of Israel were carried away Captives by Shalmanezer King of Assyria and never returned again for God removed Israel out of his sight 'T is so said twice 2 King xvii 18 23. And 't is observable no one knows to this day what 's become of these ten Tribes But even during the whole state or most settled time of their Kingdome they had no face of true Religion nor indeed any Religion constant amongst them but a Gallimafry of all the Gods and Idolatries of the Nations according to the Honour or Interest of their Kings On the other side the Kingdome of Judah which continued under the Rightful Succession and was Hereditary stood near one hundred and forty years longer than that of Israel and they had amongst their Kings many great Saints as Asa Jehosophat Hezekiah Josiah and diverse others And though the Worship of God were often foully corrupted in the Reign of some of their Kings yet as that Corruption still came in from the Kings of Israel or from Affinity or League with them so by the Succession of good Kings it was restored again and both the Church and Face of Religion kept up amongst them till it pleased God for their treading in the steps of the People of Israel to send his Church into Captivity there to be cured of Idolatry Which Cure when wrought though there still remained a general Cachexy or disorder of Manners yet it pleased God to bring back for a while their Captivity and to give them a new footing in their own Land till out of that Royal Stem was born our Lord Jesus the promised Seed of Abraham the Son of David according to the Flesh but declared by Power and Resurrection from the dead the Son of God the Lord of Lords and King of Kings blessed for evermore of whose Kingdom there shall be no end To sum up all If then there be any men to whom perpetual unsettledness and dangers to themselves and theirs to whom continued ages of War to whom ever and anon recurring Murder of Kings Massacres of Families together with all Violence and Tyranny over the people and even Arbitrary Religion as well as Government Vsurpation on God and Man be pleasing such men may plead these Arguments to enamour the world with the model of Elective Kingdoms But on the contrary If Publick Wealth Ease and Quiet I may add if continued Liberties settled Religion and general Stability as far as the state of sublunary affairs does admit be more amiable we have reason to stick to a true Legitimate Succession For it was the Observation of the wisest of Kings Blessed art thou O Land when thy King is the Son of Nobles and we see how far it proved so in the Kingdom of Judah We have hitherto as I think