the humblest of your Attendants give me leave to follow this dayes Solemnity with these honest Wishes That you Mighty and Princes that you who like Gods determine of other Mens Lives and Fortunes would consult both your Dignity and your Duty and consider that you are Gods Ministers as well as the Kings that you act by a Divine Commission as well as a Civil and that you are as much accountable to Heaven as to the State My Wishes therefore are that you may be as Zealous for Gods Interest as for their Majesties and do our Holy Religion as much Service as you do the Nation That Atheisme Debauchery and Prophaneness may be as severely animadverted upon by you as Dishonesty Injustice or Oppression And in sum that you would at least use an equal care to see the Laws of God executed against all Irreligion Vice and Immorality which are the Scandal and Bane of pure and undefiled Religion as to see the Laws of the Land executed against those other sins that are destructive of Humane Society That so we may be a Nation throughly reformed in our Lives and Manners as well as in our Faith and Publick Worship and that we may be delivered not only from other Mens Violence but from our own Reigning Vices the Blacker Slavery of the two And as I wish you thus concerned for the Practical part of our Religion so for the Political part also that the Established Church of England may be happy in your Incouragement and Protection Consider O ye Mighty that you are not only Christians at large but also Baptized into the particular Communion of the Church of England shew therefore your Affection to that Venerable Mother which so early received you into her bosome and take some care I beseech you that the more she indulges the worse she be not used and that the Charitable Liberty she has yielded to others may not embolden them to appear the more Virulent Enemies against her Lastly Let me beg that our Neighbours of the Countrey Magistracy would admit my good Wishes also Gentlemen though yours is not the Highest Station yet perhaps it is that upon which the motion of the greater Wheels does more depend than is usually considered For Kings and Parliaments may make as good Laws as they can and Judges may give as Severe Charges as they please yet if you are either remiss or partial in the discharge of your Trusts the course of Justice must needs be extreamly obstructed You are placed like the Dii Minores like Lesser Gods in your Countrey by your Diligence Justice and good Examples to carry on the orderly Work of Providence here below But if you cool in your Offices and for any private Respects of your own suffer our Laws to lye unexecuted You fail in the Duty you owe to your God and your King to your Countrey and your Character to your Honours and your Consciences and the guilt of disappointed Justice must needs lie heavy upon your heads And you will be so far from hearing any part of that God-like resemblance in the Text that you will rather prove meer Wooden Images of the Divine Justice and all the respect that is paid you will be but so much State-Idolatry Rouse up therefore the Old English Publick Spirit And be warmed with a Generous Ambition of making good the High Character in the Text. And as you stand like so many Gods above other Men so be useful as Gods Active Upright and Impartial as Gods in your several Stations And as Our King when he rose up like Moses to be the Deliverer of God's Church and People from an Aegyptian Bondage Exod. 7.1 like Moses he became as a God both to our Pharoahs and to our Aarons Exod. 4.16 that is the Scourge of Heaven upon our Persecutors and the Relief of Heaven to our Holy Ones and as he like Moses still heads the Body of Distressed Christendom Travelling through a Wilderness to a Land of Peace Whilst he as the Soul of that vast Body Animates and gives it both Life and Motion Life by that High Courage that hath so much of the Hero in it and Motion by that deep Wisdom that hath so much of the God in it May you all be provoked by so great so glorious an Example And become as Active and as Zealous to advance Religion True Christian Vertue and Peace at Home as he is to procure and extend them abroad May you all be concerned to Conquer and Exterminate Vice Prophaneness and Debauchery in your Countrey Tyrants more dangerous and more destructive to its Success and Happiness than either France or Rome can ever prove without their fatal Assistance That as our Monarchs may in the Language of the Text be called Gods to you Ye may be also Gods to us the Nations good Genii each of you one of Gods lower Vice-Royes in your respective Posts That so the State may be faithfully served Their Majesties Loyally Obeyed Our English Laws impartially Executed Our Holy English Church Defended and Encouraged that God may be glorified in you and you in him that you your selves may share in that Honour which you procure for him and that he may graciously reflect part of the Glory back upon your own heads which he shall receive upon your Account Do thus and as the great Reformer Jehosophat said to his Ministers of State Deal Couragiously and the Lord be with the Good And now Grant O Lord we beseech thee that the course of this World may be so peaceably Ordered by thy Governance that thy Church may joyfully serve thee in all Godly quietness through Jesus Christ our Lord To whom c. FINIS A SERMON Preached at NORTHAMPTON AT A VISITATION October the 10th 1694. By JOHN MANSELL Rector of Furthoe in the County of Northampton LONDON Printed by J. Richardson for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons in Cornhil over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil MDCXCV To The Reverend THOMAS WOOLSY D.D. ARCH-DEACON OF NORTHAMPTON SIR GIVE me leave to repeat the first Answer I returned to that Obliging Complement wherewith you softned the Command laid upon me to make this Sermon Publick which was that hitherto it was mine and I alone was accountable for all its Imperfections but if it came forth under the Authority of your Name it would become yours and you would be ingaged in its Protection Be pleased therefore Sir to receive what is yours into your Patronage And I hope the World will do me the Justice to allow that howsoever I may have failed in any other part of my performance yet I have given a very bold proof of my Obedience But Sir That discreetly managed Zeal which you express for true Practical Piety together with that great Temperâ— and exceeding Sweetness of Nature which appears in the severest Exercise of your Authority as they have in general procured you the Affections of your whole Clergy so they have particularly ingaged me to pay this Testimony
TWO SERMONS Both PREACHED At NORTHAMPTON ONE AT THE ASSIZES March 1693. THE OTHER AT A VISITATION October the 10th 1694. By JOHN MANSELL L.L.B. Rector of Furthoe in the County of Northampton Imprimatur Humf. Hody R. in Ch. Pac. D.D. Johanni Archiep. Cant. a Sac. Dom. Nov. 18. 1694. LONDON Printed by J. Richardson for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil MDCXCV A SERMON Preached at the ASSIZES HELD AT NORTHAMPTON IN March 1693. By JOHN MANSELL Rector of Furthoe in the County of Northampton LONDON Printed by J. Richardson for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil MDCXCV TO Francis Arundell Esq LATE High Sheriff OF THE COUNTY OF NORTHAMPTON Honoured Sir VVHEN you was pleased to Impose this Piece of Service upon me and thereby drew me out of that Privacy which I confess my self fond of because very sensible how well it becomes me I did not in the least think of being made more Publick But since the repeated Importunity of some to whom I owe Obedience being joyned to your own Desires and Encouragement have at last laid a kind of necessity upon me I gladly Sir Embrace this Opportunity of Expressing the Sence of a whole Neighbourhood who find themselves extreamly happy in your Presence and Authority amongst them Whilst leaving the Extravagant Persuit of I know not what Imaginary Gallantries to those Vain Souls that are not capable of more Rational Satisfactions You Sir Live Honourably in your Countrey where by an approved Loyalty to Their Majesties upon whose Prosperity that of the Whole Nation doth Depend By an Vnshaken Zeal for our Holy Religion and Established Church in whose Happiness that of the State is Inseparably Included By a Well-Regulated Family an Exemplary Oeconomy an Vpright Justice sweetned with a Peaceful Pacifying Temper You Worthily Endear Your self to all that are Wise and Good And do indeed Appear that Magistrate I have here endeavoured to describe May so Great a Merit never miss of as Great a Reward But may the Abundant Mercies of God continually Descend upon You Your Excellent Good Lady and most Hopeful Children that so my Countrey may never want an Arundel to do it Service and Credit nor any of Your House ever want that Respect and Honour so long Injoyed by the Cranes Your Ancestours This is part of the Dayly Prayers of Sir Your most Obliged Humble Servant JOHN MANSELL Old Stratford Octob. 15. 1694. A SERMON Preached at the ASSIZES AT NORTHAMPTON PSALM lxxxii ver 1. God standeth in the Congregation of the Mighty he judgeth among the Gods The Old Translation renders it thus God standeth in the Congregation of Princes he is a Judge among Gods VVHatsoever would have been the Condition of Mankind had they lived up to the God-like perfection wherein they were at first created Yet this is certain that in their lapsed State they could not have maintained themselves in any tolerable Peace and Order without the benefit of Humane Laws and the institution of Governments But though God so far indulged the necessities of our fallen Nature as to allow us Law-givers from among our selves Yet he kept the Supreme Legislative Powerstill in his own hands He himself always standing in the Congregation of those Mighty who prescribe Laws to all beneath them And though the Civil Magistrate be indeed his Minister invested with his Authority and beareth not his Sword in vain yet the most Sovereign Power of Life and Death is still in God himself who is therefore said to judge over those very Gods that pronounce sentence upon the Lives and Fortunes of Inferiour Men. Thus God standeth in the Congregation of the Mighty and judgeth among the Gods In this Psalm the inspired Asaph instructs Princes both in their Dignity and their Duty Beginning his Discourse with that Solemn Preamble in the Text wherein he adorns the Civil Magistrates with the most glorious of their Titles and yet presses them with the most awful considerations thereby shewing how reconcileable the Faithful discharge of a Preachers Duty may be to the Rules of Civility and good Manners Thus he Complements them with the Names of Princes and of Gods and yet warns them of an Almighty Superiour who stands above and overlooks them all and judges all they do For says he God standeth in the Congregation of the Princes he is a Judge among Gods For the more useful handling of which words I shall 1. Inquire who are the Mighty the Princes and the Gods here spoken of 2. What is meant by Gods standing amongst the one and judging among the other 1. Then by the Mighty and the Gods are doubtless understood Kings Princes and Governours and all that are put in Authority under them that is all Civil Magistrates in their due Subordinations And though perhaps to suppose that by the Mighty are meant only inferiour Magistrates and by the Gods Sovereign Princes themselves might sound like no ill gloss upon the words Yet I find that Expositors generally look no farther in both Expressions than to those Judges of Israel that used to Assemble in the Great Council of the Sanhedrim And to give unto them the Titles of Mighty and of Princes is not at all uncommon in Holy Scripture Verse 6. So for the more lofty Epithite of Gods we find it twice repeated in this Psalm And again Exod. 22.28 Thou shalt not revile the Gods nor curse the Ruler of thy people So also Exod. 21.6 where it 's observable that what we translate Judges is in the Original Elohim Gods and so in several other Texts But when we consider that what is rendered Mighty in the former part of the Verse is in the Hebrew the same Elohim and in the Septuagint the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with what we translate Gods in the latter part I think we need make no nice distinction between the two termes And though the Learned Grotius in the former clause sticks to the version of Synagoga Dei which is no more than the Congregation of God or Gods Congregation yet since in the latter clause he allows the Title of Gods to that Congregation the sence is not at all altered by his Criticisme But 2. For Gods standing in this Congregation and judging among those Gods Whether we take standing only for being present as in 1 Kings 17.1 or for being the Chief in Government Ezra 2.63 2 Kings 8.20 or for the Person that pronounceth Sentence which the Antients oftentimes did in an erect posture which seems to be aimed at Isa 3.13 In all these Senses God is present God presides God himself pronounceth Sentence among them so that standing and judging seem to be as nearly allied in Sence as Mighty and Gods From the words thus opened give me leave to present you with these Three Considerations 1. The Civil Magistrates Dignity 2. Their Subjection 3. Their Duty consequent to both 1. Their Dignity They are called Princes and Gods
may secure to our selves both the Honour and the Reward proposed in it Still remembring that Heaven is our great Province that Souls are the Noble Subjects which we are to work upon that Salvation is the Glorious Affair in which we are imployed Most happy we if we can untie our Affections from all Lower Meaner Ingagements and leaving the eager pursuit of those things to such as have not so much of Heavenly Business on their hands after the Moderate Provision for our own Families you will excuse this short Digression after the Moderate Provision for our own Families which whosoever doth not provide for is worse than an Infidel and I am not yet convinced that we are bound to Preach and Beg or which would come to much the same thing to trust our necessary Maintenance to the Charity of such as are not like to be over Liberal in Voluntary Contributions since they so much repine at our Legal Establishments But especially our Gentlemen of Estates ought not in Justice to call us Mercenary unless they will vouchsafe to take our Work upon themselves and so coming well provided with their own Patrimonial Possessions they may if they please do the Work of the Lord gratis and then indeed our Pains and Pensions may both be spared But until then it is most equal that those whose Portions have been spent to prepare and fit them for this Imployment should find a Decent Livelyhood in it that those who serve at the Alters should be maintained by the Altars and that those who Preach the Gospel should live upon the Gospel these Labourers being certainly as Worthy of their Hire as any others But this care being thus moderately taken and we not minding the Maintenance more than the Altars nor the Living more than the Gospel nor yet working chiefly for filthy Lucre like meer Hirelings But knowing that the care of our Selves and Families ought to come vastly behind the care of our Peoples Souls Happy we If we take such heed to our selves and to our Doctrine as to save our selves and those Flocks of ours that ought to be as dear to us as our selves And Happy You our Brethren of the Layity for whom God hath made so Wise so Gracious a Provision and called forth Men so compleatly qualified for the Care of your Souls and to carry on the great Work of your Salvation God himself calls them your Watchmen and his own Angels teaching you thereby to look upon them as so many of your Angel-Guardians Happy you therefore if you behave your selves neither Unworthy of Gods Care nor theirs if you neither disappoint God's Gracious Design nor their Pious Endeavours if you neither disrespect their Sacred Character nor grieve their Righteous Souls by obstinate and perverse Refusing their Instructions nor yet put a slight at once both upon Gods Common Providence and their Holy Labours by lightly forsaking their Ministry meerly because you fancy some others better For the Established Laws of every Christian Land are Gods Common Providence in that Land And if you Act contrary to those Laws by separating your selves from our Legal Assemblies without being fully convinced that you cannot be saved in them and believe it no other reason will pass either with God or Wise Men and they would be Bold Accusers of the Brethren who durst to charge us thus highly If you do thus you affront Gods Providence by pretending to provide better for your selves and are indeed grown wanton with too much Bread But happy should both we and you be if we would both joyn to carry on that great Work which God designed for both our good and both having that Heaven in our View which he has proposed for both our Incouragements We Zealously Leading and you diligently following we drawing you on with all the fervency of Words and the more powerful Motives of Holy Examples and you yielding your selves up to the force of that double Conduct we following our Lord Jesus and you following us God may be faithfully served by us all and all of us may be graciously accepted of by God that so Heaven may be our Journeys-End and Salvation our Mutual Entertainment when you shall all be Priests as well as we and we shall all be Great and Rich as well as the best of you And as we have both joyned like Companions Guides and Friends to go into the House of the Lord together here below so we may there be for ever United in Love and Charity in Peace and Glory in the Beatifick Vision of our God and in the Everlasting Armes of that Jesus whom our Souls have loved Keep we beseech thee O Lord thy Church with thy perpetual Mercy and because the frailty of Man without thee cannot but fall Keep us ever by thy help from all things hurtful and lead us to all things profitable to our Salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom with thy Self and the Blessed Spirit be all Adoration Honour and Obedience both now and for ever Amen FINIS Books Writ by his Grace JOHN Late Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury FOrty Two Sermons and Discourses upon several Occasions most at Court in Four Vol. 8 vo The Rule of Faith Or An Answer to the Treatise of Mr. J. Sergeant c. 8 vo Six Sermons concerning the Divinity and Incarnation of our Blessed Saviour Of the Sacrifice and Satisfaction of Christ and of the Unity of the Divine Nature and the B. Trinity c. against the Socinians 8 vo Six Sermons newly Printed one concerning Resolution and Stedfastness in Religion One of Family-Religion Three of Education of Children and One of the Advantages of an Early Piety 8 vo Now Re-Printing in 12 mo A Perswasive to frequent Communion in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper 8 vo alone stitcht price 3 d. or in 12 mo bound price 6 d. A Discourse against Transubstantiation 8 vo alone price 3 d. stitcht The Exact Effigies of His Grace John Late Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury on a Large Sheet of Paper Curiously Engraven by R. White Price 12 d. All Printed for B. Aylmer and W. Rogers