Two Sermons in Bristol, Sermon 2
The second SERMON.
LAMENTATIONS 4.20.
The breath of our nostrils, the Anointed of the Lord was taken in their pits; of whom we said, VnderUnder his shadow we shall live among the heathen.
UPon the like mournful Solemnity the last year, we sat down and wept with this sad Elegie. We found the Scene too truly in England, the doleful Tragedy here, and our selves the wretched Actors of it. 'Twere but a joyless question to ask, as in the Poet,
—quae causa indigna serenos
Foedavit vultus,Virgil. aut cur haec vulnera cerno?
Oh how comes Majesty to be thus basely, thus barbarously treated? What mean such Instruments of Cruelty about the mourning Scaffold? Such numerous Troops of arm'd Assassinates so furiously raging with that cursed cry, Crucifie him, crucifie him: or in their own Language, Justice, Justice; that is, in plainer terms, We will have the King's Bloud.
Such were our woful Outrages. And instead of excusive Palliations, we must with one common blush confess, So it was.
Our Prophet's Jerusalem bleeds with us in Britain. The Zedekiah in the Text, proves to be our own Soveraign. The Pit wherein he was taken, the traiterous hands of his ungrateful rebellious Subjects. The Honorary Character here given to him, every way as proper in our case, the Anointed, the eminently Anointed of the Lord. And our concernment in his Weal or Woe, as deep as Israel's could possibly be in Zedekiah's. Our Prince was also the very Breath of our Nostrils; and under his shadow, had not we our selves laid violent bloudy hands upon him, we might have liv'd with much comfort, with much happiness and honour amongst the Nations. You have already received some abrupt account of these several particulars: the sadness of the matter invites not to any fresh insistance upon them.
'Tis the Glory of God, that he is able to bring good out of evil. 'Twill be at present our work from the remains of this Text, as far as we can, humbly to imitate God in so divine an Art, and to make tryal what good improvement we can likewise draw from so horrid, so great an evil; and that shall be twofold.
1. To make our penitential Lamentation together, for what was this day done.
2. To adjure one another to the utmost Allegiance, Loyalty, and Duty, as our preventives from relapsing into the like Villanies any more. All curious discourses may now be very well spar'd; the plainest matter (if truely pertinent) will be to this sad occasion most proper.
The first and fairest expression of our Piety, in reference to so unparallel'd a Murder, were plainly this: To bear a due sense of it, and to melt into a truly penitential sorrow for it. If David's heart so deeply smote him because he had cut off the skirt of Saul's Garment, how severely then ought our hearts to smite us, who have cut off not the Garment but the person; our Soveraign himself from the land of the living?
But sins (especially of this nature) are sooner committed,St. Aug. than repented of. Peccare non pudet—de ligaturâ vulneris erubescit. Where we could well enough brook the sin, we can by no means bear the shame. And 'tis one very hard abodement upon England at this day, that we are so loth ingenuously to acknowledge our iniquity in this particular.
I shall therefore, that I may the better promote that great humiliation which the day so earnestly calls for, lay before you these few aggravating considerations.
1. The violence this day committed; 'twas a most high affront to that Signature of Sacredness, wherewith God hath invested the persons of Princes. He hath said (and certainly he hath not said it in vain) Ye are God: Psal. 82.6.A kind of terrestrial Angels; Heavens Viceroys, 1 Chron. 29.23.sitting (as was said of Solomon) upon the throne of the Lord. 'Twas Solomon's Throne, and yet God's: 'Twas God's Throne, and yet Solomon's. 'Twas God's in way of donation, Solomon's in way of possession. And this in a true propriety of speech, Sic omnes throni Principum Dei throni dici possunt. Lavator in locum.Neither was this Solomon's single prerogative. The Thrones of all other Kings, the Thrones of our Kings, they are no less than the Thrones of God; that we might always look with the more aweful reverence upon them.
The Jews tell us, that man in his primitive condition had a bright mark set upon him, which they called foreign Pavor, at the sight whereof all inferiour Creatures stood in awe, and became subject to him: And this upon mans Apostacy, they say, became in a great measure lost. We may safely say this orient Signature 'tis fairly visible upon the persons of Princes, that their Subjects might fear and tremble before them. Oh let not us by our Rebellions attempt to deface it.
'Tis of some moment this way, what we finde reported concerning our own Realm. If a Villain pursued by his mean Lord, could but come and prostrate himself ad sacra vestigia, Plowden.that is, at the Kings sacred feet, he was then esteem'd as one safe at Sanctuary, his Pursuer might now trouble him no further.
And is the royal presence such an unquestionable Asylum to others? Oh then let Reason and Modesty judge how Sacred must the royal person it self be to the Consciences of all good men.
From the deep sense of this Sacredness it is, that the Addresses of religious persons to Majesty, are usually tender'd in Holy Scripture with the utmost lowliness; As an Angel of God, 2 Sam. 14.17.so is my Lord the King. The Princes Sphere, 'tis an Angelical Sphere; and in our access to such, we stand before those who are already foreign, as the Angels of God.
Holy men of old were far from contriving the base Artifices how to expose Majesty as cheap in the eyes of the People.Job 34.18. They thought not fit to say to a King, Thou art wicked; or to Princes, Ye are ungodly: Their Language and Carriage savor'd of a far better Spirit. Whether their Affairs went smooth or rough, they were still at this good frame,2 Sam. 19.29. My Lord the King is as an Angel of God.
These impressions were then indelible when temptations were most busie with David, and all outward circumstances concurrent to have made him (if possible) a bad Kings-man; yet then, even then, he retains his Loyalty and Veneration for his Prince as high as ever. God forbid that I should stretch forth mine hand against the Lords Anointed.1 Sam. 26.11.
This Sacredness of the Soveraigns person was held inviolable in the Jewish Church, where their express Doctrine was, that no creature may judge the King, this judgement 'tis left to the holy and blessed God alone.
Thus hath God set bounds (as at Mount Sinai) that the people might not rudely break through, or rush with insolencies upon those whose persons he hath made sacred.
2. The violence this day committed, 'twas a most unnatural breach of that neer connexion wherein God hath knit Prince and People together. The welfare of the one, 'tis the welfare of the other; the distress of either, the danger of both. This 'tis the plain language of the Text: He that runs may read it. Zedekiah's Calamity 'tis all Israel's Lamentation. Any evil befalling him, 'tis most deeply laid to heart by them.
We have in the Prophet Ezechiel an aenigmatical passage of this nature:Ezek. 19.14. Fire is gone out of a rod of her branches, which hath devour'd her fruit, so that she hath no strong rod to be a scepter to rule: this is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.
The Prophets phrase 'tis metaphorical. Zedekiah and his Sons were now miserably destroy'd and slain; the other Branches of the Royal Family inhumanely cut off. The first part of this dismal Tragedy 'twas acted by Nebuchadnezzar, at Riblah and Babylon: The second part wherein fire is said to have gone out of a rod of her Branches, and to have devour'd her fruit, so that she had no strong rod to be a Scepter to rule; this may (possibly) relate to Ishmael, mentioned in the 41 of Jeremy, who being of the Seed-royal, might be not improperly called one of the Rods of those Branches. Sure we are, fire came out from him, and devoured Gedaliah and 70 other eminent persons, as that Chapter sadly attests; so that there seem'd now no strong Rod left to be a Scepter to rule.
Hereupon the Prophet so pathetically cries out, This is a Lamentation, and for a Lamentation. foreign so the 70; it is, and it shall be a proverbial mourning, a precedent, a leading case to future Ages. Ad suos usque nepotes: as if the Prophet had said, While time, lives, this sorrow will scarce die. 'Tis not, The King is taken away, the Government broken up, and what care we? no, no, the Church resents it with a far deeper sympathy: the Funeral may be his, but the Mourning must be ours; both ours, and our Childrens after, us. We must go down sorrowing to the Grave. The joy of our heart is ceased, the crown is fallen from our head. May this Piety in Subjects toward their Soveraign live for ever.
'Tis thus in the natural body: He that wounds the Head, endangers the whole man. 'Tis thus in the civil body: The smiting of the Shepherd, 'tis the scattering of the whole Flock. We have the brighter side of this Truth, fairly exemplified in Solomon's case; where his Greatness and his Peoples Happiness,1 King. 4. his Grandeur and their Welfare, went hand in hand kissing and congratulating each other▪ Solomon he reigns over Israel;Vers. 1, 21. and they brought presents and served Solomon all the days of his life.
Nor was Israel at all eclipsed by it.Vers. 25. And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his Vine, and under his Fig-tree, from Dan to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon. Here needs be no envying: The Princes Felicities, they are as Aaron's rich Ointment, which presently ran down to the skirts of his Garments; where the Head is thus honour'd, the whole Body shares, and of course rejoyces with it.
The sadder, the darker side of the Cloud, we see that too fully verified in the unhappy interregnums under the Judges.Judg. 17 6. In those days there was no King in Israel: but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Right in their own eyes it might be, but wrong enough in the eyes of God and all good men. Gross Idolatry in Religion, the most odious Savageness in Conversation, as the Sequele attests. Such are the barbarous products of loose times.
Hitherto the Princes Soveraignty and the Subjects Safety, his Augustness & their happiness (as those wings of the Cherubims over the mercy-seat ) they meet and embrace each other. What God has thus exemplarily put together, 'tis pity that man should attempt or dare to put asunder.
The relative Titles which our ancient Laws with so much sageness use, may further confirm us in this point. Pater patriae, Medicus, Maritus regni: The Soveraign is the common Father of the Country: He the Physician, we the weak Patients; he the Husband, the Kingdom his Spouse, betroth'd to him with a solemn Coronation-Ring. His absence makes us a Family of desolate Orphans, an Hospital of languishing Patients, and the whole Kingdom a solitary helpless Widow expos'd to endless Oppressions. Such a Prince did we lose, and such were the Calamities that ensued upon it.
'Tis true, all specious perswasions were us'd to raise that wretched War against the King; nothing but golden Declarations set forth to reform Church and State, to remove evil Counsellors, to redress Grievances, and to secure Liberty and Property to the People. Dajustum sanctumque videri. So fair the pretence (it seems) must needs be. But alas, this Angel of Light soon vanished as a personated appearance, and the issue prov'd such, as we have but small joy to relate. A wilde Scepticism in Religion, an utter Subversion of Government, such excessive Taxes and Impositions, such fifth and twentieth parts, such Sequestrations and Decimations, such Views and Reviews, such plundring of Loyal Subjects and illegal sales of their Estates, such vast expence of Bloud and Treasure, as England till then had not known.
These sore pressures by degrees fill'd the whole Land with sighings, Vtinam viveret: Oh that the King were alive and upon his Throne again; for then was it better with us than it is now. Our sin became our punishment: In the day that we rebelled against our Soveraign, in that day we laid violent hands upon our own Happiness.
3. The violence this day committed, 'twas a most open Violation of all Laws both Divine and Humane; whatever may be the sinews of boisterous War, we are sure good Laws are the sinews of all civil Society and Peace; where they fall, we also fall with them: Plebs sine lege ruit.
That God who hath created man a reasonable creature, hath thereby shewed his intentions to govern us by such moral Ductures, his holy Commands and Laws: but these we wretchedly cast behind our backs.
As our soveraign Legislator, he hath set over us foreign, Supreme Powers. The persons commissionated, are honourably stil'd the Ministers of God;Rom. 13.1, 2, 4. and the Commission intrusted in their hands, no less than the Ordinance of God, thus issued forth for our good. And all this, while Princes were then open Pagans; with this severe caution added to the convert Christians of those times. That resisting this power, 'twould be a confronting the Eutaxie, the Oeconomie, and good Order of Heaven; a supplanting the true jus divinum, a despising not the Delegate, but the Original; not man, but God. Lord! how apocryphal were these great Doctrines of the Gospel esteemed in our late Rebellion! Or rather, what unchristian Christians were we then grown!
Solomon tells us,Eccl. 8.4. Where the word of a King is, there is power; that is, Authority and Majesty; and who may say unto him, What dost thou? 'Tis not for every clownish Peasant, 'tis not for every pragmatical Mechanick,Grotius. rudely to censure his Princes actions. Non potest ad rationes vocari: He is a Person too high to be cited before their Tribunal.
Thus our English Laws in all humble reverence of the Divine, tread plainly in the very same steps. Omnis sub Rege, Bracton.& ipse sub nullo nisi tantum Deo: We are Subjects to the King, he a Subject to none but God. If we do ill, the King is a Revenger to execute wrath upon us; if he does ill, Reges in ipsos imperium est Jovis, God himself will take cognizance of that matter in a Superiour Court.Idem. Satisque ad poenam, quod Deum habet ultorem. This is the check in his case; God stands ready both to inspect and punish his faults.
But that we might not incroach upon Gods Prerogative, we have Angels set (as it were) with flaming Swords before us.Psal. 105.15. Touch not mine Anointed, curse not the King, Eccl. 10.20no not in thy thought. In the nearest Harmony wherewith our own Laws have most religiously determined, The very thoughts of evil against the King, though never spoken, they are treason; and could they be proved, they would be death.
Hence it is that so strict care is taken for the Person, the Life, the Crown and Dignity of the Soveraign in the Oath of Allegiance, which by Act of Parliament is to be administred to all forts of persons, that the Oath of God might make us the better Subjects to our King.
The same pious sence our Parliaments have as loyally from time to time expressed to our Kings: The Crown of England hath been so free at all times, 16 R. 2 d. 5.that it hath been in no Earthly subjection, but immediately subject to God. So one Parliament at another time, The King hath no Peers in his Land, and cannot be judged. And in King James's time the Parliament having agnized upon the knees of their hearts, their constant Faith, Loyalty, and Obedience to the King and his Royal Progeny, they proceed in all lowliness to this further Address:1 Jac. c. 1. We recognize, as we are bound by the Law of God and man, that the Realm of England, and the Imperial Crown thereof, doth belong to You by inherent Birthright. Which they beseech the King to accept as the first-Fruits of their Loyalty and Faith to his Majesty and his Posterity for ever.
And well had it been for us, had we kept these sacred Memorials, this sense of our bounden Duty, truly engraven upon our hearts: The Soveraign had not then been so heavy a Sufferer; the Subject had not then been so hainous a Criminal: but both eminently happy in Gods blessing.
The Counsel was certainly good, and well worthy his Robe,Judge Jenkins. who then gave it, Hold to the Laws, and the great Body recovers; forsake them, and it will certainly perish.
Men and Brethren, we have thus far made our Preparations for some penitential Sorrow. We have now to sit down together, as Job's three Friends, every one with our Mantle rent, and Dust upon our heads, making our confession, as Joseph's Brethren, Verily we are guilty concerning our Soveraign's blood.
Methinks we may see him religiously preparing himself the better to receive this bitter Cup, solemnly taking that divine Cordial, our Spiritual Viaticum, the blessed Sacrament, in commemoration of our Saviour's death.D. of Gloc. and Lady Elizabeth. Then embracing his Children (such as might come to him) with the tenderest affections of a most loving Father; and yet that Princely spirit of strength which so highly became a Royal Martyr, leaving his last Blessing and Counsel with them,Baker's Chron. 580 Fear God, love one another; forgive my Enemies, I my self have done it; but trust them not, for I have found them most false to me.
Methinks we may see the butcherly Irons and Ropes fasten'd to the Block and Scaffold,Baker's Chron. 581 to have forc'd and bound down Majesty with the utmost barbarousness, in case (which they feared) he should have resisted; who came, alas, as a Lamb to all this slaughter, in the glories of his Saviour's patience, no way discompos'd at the Vizar and disguise of the Executioner, who sought in the depth of his consciousness to conceal himself and his infamous person (if it could be) from the knowledge of God and man. But lo our Soveraign's serenity and condition! every place 'tis to him a Theatre for the exercise of his Piety and Vertue. In the very Agonies of Death, he closes as one already in Heaven. He endured the Cross, he despised the Shame, and through the joy that was set before him, leaves these holy dying words behinde him (as the Garments that fell from Elijah) in his very departing from us: I have a good Cause and a gracious God on my side. I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown, where no disturbances can come.
Methinks we may, without a Prosopopeia, hear the deep Groanings of the whole Land; without any Hypotyposis, we may behold a numerous train of Mourners from all parts attending that Funeral, which might then have no solemnity allowed to it.
Methinks we may see the Royal Family, though scatter'd through violence, yet upon this sad occasion, present as close Mourners, with that amazing Scripture dropping from their pale lips. As a man falleth before the wicked, so fell our Father this day.
Methinks we may see the Church, as Jerusalem, with Tears upon her cheeks, bitterly crying out, that our David who had set his affection so piously upon the House of God;Fuller's Church-History. another Constantine, a truly nursing Father, who was never sensible of any loss to himself, if thereby gain might redound to God; as our Historians so justly acknowledge of him. Methinks we cannot but see the Church lamenting that this Royal Patron of Religion and Learning was thus barbarously taken from us.
Methinks we may see the whole People trembling as at that great Mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddon, when Josiah, the desire of their eyes, the joy of their hearts, was now no longer with them.
This was that distressed day wherein the beauty of Israel was slain amongst us. Ye Daughters of England, weep over your murdered Soveraign, who clothed you in Scarlet, and put upon you Ornaments of Gold; who crowned the Land with such Riches and Plenty. Oh tell it not in Gath, oh publish it not in the streets of Ascalon, that other Countries (if possible) might neither hear nor know what Christians, what Protestants this day so prodigiously did before all Israel, and before the Sun.
And that the measures of Inhumanity might be full and running over, when it came to our Soveraign's Interment, though divers noble Lords entreated the rights of Christian burial for their Royal Master,Fuller's Church-History. and the then Lord Bishop of London stood ready with tears to have officiated that last service to the remains of Mortality now to be deposited in the joyful hopes of a blessed Resurrection; yet neither were able to prevail: so that silence and sorrow were the onelyonly circumstance of remark, the sad ceremonies of State to so great a Funeral. But we must draw the Curtain (as in Agamemnon's case) —Tanto par nulla figura dolori.
We must greatly blush, as persons who stand ashamed, yea even confounded, that ever so odious an evil was wrought amongst us. Were the several sad circumstances of it gathered together, & laid in order before our eyes, we might say as once the Tribes of Israel in another case, There hath no such deed been done, nor seen, from the day that England became a Christian people to this day. Consider of it, become truly humble under it, and lastly watch with all unfeigned sollicitude against whatever might endanger our relapsing into it.
Which leads to the second particular mentioned at first. There are divers things of unhappy tendency this way. Give me leave to enter some needful Caveats against them, and then I close.
1. The first shall be against erratick disloyal opinions. The Head usually betrays the Heart, and debauches the Life. On the one hand, when Papists shall grow leven'd with Jesuitical insinuations, that 'tis a meritorious work to dispatch an excommunicated Prince, and that the Assassinate shall forthwith become a Saint; when Popes shall proudly tread upon the necks of Kings, and take upon them to absolve Subjects from their due Allegiance; when they shall exalt themselves above all that is called God, setting the Crozier above the Scepter: then 'ware Kings and Kingdoms, danger is not far off.
And on the other hand, when a Fanatical Vertigo shall creep into the heads of others, that the Saints must by all means govern the world▪ which Saints are they; the next work is commonly this, Let us kill the Heir, that the inheritance may be ours.
The late Rebellions in Scotland, scarce yet quietly allayed, are too ready an instance of this nature. What influence the extravagant Opinions of some of their former great Kirk-men might give to such bad practices, I shall not here determine. Their Positions have been such as these: Kings and Governours have their Authority from the People, and upon occasion the People may take it away again. So one of them, He that by Excommunication is cast into Hell, is not worthy to enjoy any life upon Earth. So another. And when a Party of this humour had taken a very odde way to make the King their own,Spotswood History. by a forcible detaining his person at Ruthuen, 1582. that they might thereby bring him to their own wills, though the action were Treason by the Law of Nature and Nations, adjudged by the Estates of Scotland as Crimen laesae Majestatis, and the insolence so deeply resented by the King himself,K. James. that he cried out he was a Captive, and desired all his good Subjects to procure his liberty; yet the Kirk-Assembly stands up to justifie it, and ordains all to be excommunicated, and subject to further civil punishment, that agreed not with them herein.
There is a full, though joyless truth in the common Observation: Superstition (whether Popish or Fanatick) where-ever it takes place, introduceth a new Primum Mobile, which commits a Rape upon the Spheres of the civil World, and puts all into utter Confusion.
Thus delirous did we also grow in England; so far transported with these religious Frenzies, that after many lesser Skirmishes against the innocent Rites of the Church, men drew up at last into open Battalia against the State. The Walls became scal'd & taken; any House of Lords was voted useless; a single Person (that is, the King) was voted needless; and the life of our Soveraign traiterously taken away by an infamous Conspiracy of men, pretendedly stil'd an High Court of Justice. Such was the Series; Wild Opinions led the Van, and open Rebellion brought up the Reer.
It may and must be a just Argument with us and our Posterity after us, to be sober-minded. There is a chastness, and there is a wantonness of spirit in things pertaining to Religion. The sober Christian chastly consists with the plain Soul-saving Truths of God. The wanton Professor is fond of every strange face he sees, As Sampson in his wandring Amours, none of the Daughters of Israel could please him; he must needs have a Dalilah from among the uncircumcis'd Philistims: by which means both he and all Israel fell with him.
The case 'tis too applicable to our selves. The venerable Orders of a reformed Church, the mildest Laws of a well-constituted Kingdom, cannot (it seems) please many mens minds; they must needs have some other Dalilahs of their own: God forgive it. And I beseech you, my Brethren, hold fast a form of sound words, and labour to steer your whole Conversation by the Spirit of a sound mind.
2. A second Caveat I must as heartily enter, is against excentricalness of Carriage. We are almost as many Rulers as ruled: Rather Privy Counsellors, and chief Ministers of State, than ordinary Subjects: Great Agitators, exercising our selves in matters too high for us. This apparently endangers the whole.
The Locusts mentioned in the Prophet, break not their Ranks, they thrust not one another, they march every one in his Path; but we, like some bad Husbands at home, spend most of our time abroad: mightily taken up about the Duties of others, but supinely negligent in our own.
These St. Peter couples with very coarse company: Let none of you suffer as a murderer,1. Pet 4.15. or as a thief, or as an evil doer, or as a busie-body in other men; matters. The Apostle shakes them all together in the same bag: murderers, thieves, busie-bodies, and evil doers; as several sorts of jayl birds, all of them selons and criminals against the divine Law.
I shall not compare these sins one with the other, to extenuate here, or to aggravate there. The whole Assembly will rather say, God of his mercy keep every honest man from falling into any of them.
'Twere certainly both modesty and prudence, for every man to wash his hands from that pragmaticalness with which this Age is so much defiled.
Unless some evil Spirit troubles and haunts us, which God forbid, otherwise what hinders, but that we might (according to that Apostolical Counsel) study to be quiet, and to do our own business? taking that good advice, of learning every man his own Lesson:
quem te Deus esse Jussit,Persius.
& humanae quâ parte locatus es in re.
When the eye, the hand, and the foot keep steady to their own proper offices, then is the whole body most happy and like it self.
3. The next thing we have as much cause to take notice of, is the instilling of strange false suggestions into the minds of others. Such impressions are easily made. In all History the people greedily receives them, but scarce ever parts with them.
The evil Spies were very industrious this way: They buz'd such formidable stories up and down, that Israel concluded themselves quite undone;Numb. 14.1. And all the Congregation lifted up their voice, and cryed; and the people wept that night. But pray was there any real cause for all these panick frights and fears? Surely no. Joshua tells them more comfortably,Vers. 9. The Lord is with us. And Caleb, to whom God himself gave this high testimony,Numb. 13.30. that he had followed God fully, 'tis said of him, that he stilled the people. He did a far better office in Gods account that quieted, than they who thus troubled the peoples minds. If evil surmisings be a fruit of the flesh, we may justly suspect amusing insinuations are the cursed root from whence they grow.
Absalom had perfectly learned this knack of popular wheedling:2 Sam. 15.3. And Absalom said, See, thy matters are good and right, but there is no man deputed of the King to hear thee. Things (it seems) went very bad, and were likely to grow dayly worse: But is there no remedy in such a dangerous conjuncture of affairs? If Absalom would but please to speak out, it may be he knows of some expedient that would relieve us; yes he does. And rather than we shall want it, he will be so kind as to expound his mystical Riddle, and tell us what it is.Vers. 4. And Absalom said, Oh that I were made judge in the land, that every man which hath any suit or cause, might come to me, and I would do him justice.
A brave contrivance, well worth his good wishes to the peoples welfare! They must be courted (it seems) into their own ruine. Lord! what a religious cheat is here, to steal away the hearts of the People from their lawful Prince! Yet thus the Scene was laid, and thus a most unnatural Rebellion was soon after rais'd; only a just God brought it severely home upon the heads of the Rebels, the first raisers of it.
David (it seems) neglects them, Absalom is the onelyonly man that takes care for them; 'tis but rising up briskly for Absalom, and all is well. Here's the poyson'd Arrow that flieth by day, here's the devouring Pestilence that walketh in the darkness. God preserve us from it.
Men and Brethren, let us not deceive our selves. False suggestions of this nature, they are as Brutus dagger at Caesar's heart; a secret stabbing of any Government. But we are perswaded better things of England, and such as may become that gratitude which we all owe to God and our Soveraign, for that Peace and Plenty, that Liberty and Property, those many comforts both for Soul and Body, which we so freely enjoy under his Government.
4. A fourth thing, as natural for us to take heed of as any of the former, is, a froward murmuring against those whom God hath set over us. This was the great sin of Israel in the Wilderness:Exod. 16.2. And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron. How hard is it to please some people!
God had brought Israel safely out of their House of Bondage with an out-stretched arm; they were now travelling to the Land of Promise, feasted day by day with Angels Food, supplied from the Rock with streams of Living Water, which followed the Camp where-ever they went; directed by a Pillar of Light through their whole Journey; their Cloths still fresh (without any waxing old for forty years together) upon their backs; yet they murmur. So querulous a creature is man.
They murmured against Moses. Never had man deserved more highly of any people, than Moses of them. He had waved all the Honours of the Court and Crown of Egypt for their sakes; he had chosen to suffer the sharpest afflictions with them; he had manag'd their affairs with that happy conduct, that they were now brought fairly from the reach and power of their Oppressors; yet they murmur against him with that rage and bitterness, that he mournfully complains to God, He was even weary of his life, and knew not how to bear the burden of this wayward People. It becomes us to be truly faithful to the welfare of others; but let no man ever expect that good services should be always duely resented by those for whom they are done.
They murmur against Moses and Aaron, against Church and State, highly discontented at the posture of things in both.Vers. 8. But says Moses, What are we? your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord. Take heed, in Gods name take heed; murmurings against Moses and Aaron, murmurings against Church and State, may be murmurings against God himself.
He that has said thou shalt not revile the Ruler of thy People, it may be will not take it well at our hands if we shall dare to despise Dominions, and speak evil of Dignities; as if depretiating of Majesty were grown some essential branch of the Subjects Liberty.
'Twas, no doubt, upon weighty grounds, that the Parliament expressed their sense with so much freedom and plainness to our present Soveraign in this matter: The growth and increase of our late Troubles and Disorders, Ca…ol. 2. cap. 1. Proem.did in a very great measure proceed from a multitude of seditious Sermons, Pamphlets, and Speeches, dayly preached, printed, and published, with a transcendent boldness, defaming the person and government of his Majesty. These (we see) went before, and all know what followed soon after: Upon Cadmus sowing these Serpents teeth, whole Troops of armed men forthwith grew up.
We find Corah a very busie seditious Stickler this way: And because he saw he could effect but little alone, he draws in 250 Princes of the Assembly, Leading-men with the people, into his Party; and now both he and they thunder to purpose, Majesty becomes confronted to his very face.Numb. 16.3. And they gathered themselves together against Moses and Aaron, and said, You take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them: wherefore then lift you up your selves above the congregation of the Lord?
You King Moses, and you Priest Aaron, you take too much upon you. They charge them as plain Invaders of the Peoples Rights, as persons that went about in an arbitrary tyrannical way to set up themselves far above what they ought.
But there was a still and secret Snake hid in the grass,Jos. ant. l. 4. c. scarce yet discovered. Haec Cores videri volens reipublicae curam habere: hoc interim reverâ agens, ut concitato populo honorem invaderet. His words were softer than Oyl, yet were they drawn Swords; smooth Pretentions of a Publick Good, but the devillish designe at the bottom (says Josephus) 'twas this, how he might attack the Government, and usurp it himself.
God saw it, and God punisht it. The ground clave asunder that was under them. Numb. 16.31, &c.The earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and all that appertained to Corah, and all their goods. And they went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them. And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them. Thus ended that wretched Mutiny; They perisht (says St. Jude) in the gainsaying of Corah.
Men and Brethren, there is no administration of Government upon the face of the Earth, without many defects. From the Cottage to the Throne, we are all but men: 'Tis the peculiar glory of Heaven, that that place, and that alone, is free from all imperfections. However, the Mercies we enjoy under our Government, they are many, even to the envy of other Nations. And oh that we did but understand our own Happiness! it might fairly silence our Murmurings, and fill our lips with David's praises, The lines are fallen to us in pleasant places.
5. The last Caveat I shall need to adde, is this: Let us take heed that we with-hold not the due Supports of Government. A churlish Egyptian may possibly demand the full tale of Brick, and yet afford no Straw; but the true Christian, the loyal Subject, cheerfully renders tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom: and ingenuously considers, That Government is scarce likely to protect us, that is not duely supported by us.
'Twere but a low-priz'd kindness, demurely to say, Be thou warmed, be thou clothed. For our parts, we wish very well to the Government: But if after all these fair words, we give not those things that are needful, God may justly ask us, as in that Scripture, What doth this profit? Jam. 2.16.All wise and good men know, Imperium sine vectigalibus retineri nullo modo potest: CiceroIf Government be essential for us, these Supports are as truly essential to that.
We read of Saul, when he was anointed and inaugurated into his Kingdom, some still despised him, and brought him no presents; But says the Holy Ghost, They were the children of Belial. 1 Sam. 10.27.Saul indeed wisely overlook'd it, but they nevertheless offended very highly in it; They brought him no presents, but he held his peace. In raising the Tabernacle, in supplying the Crown, divine Wisdom thought not the Free-will-offerings of the people any disparagement to either. Nor did God check or obliquely frown upon, but express a very kind acceptance of both. Moses with much honour records the one; And the children of Israel brought a willing offering to the Lord. Exod. 35.29.And the Author of the books of Samuel makes as respectful mention of the other;2 Sam. 19.32. Now Barzillai (that worthy Patriot in his Country) provided the King of sustenance while he lay at Mahanaim. And I hope in things of this nature, God of his mercies will ever give a most endeared mutual good understanding between Prince and People amongst us.
I must conclude. This day was our royal Orpheus and his Harp, King and Kingdom, barbarously torn in pieces by furious Bacchides: A Theam beyond all expression bad.Sen. Epist. We read of Cato, Hunc civitas diu ignoravit, nec intellexit nisi cum perdidit. The present Age understood not his worth: He was better priz'd, more feelingly lamented, when lost and gone. The like Reflections must we make upon this horrid action: We have rebelliously cut off a Prince of most incomparable Pieties and Vertues; invidiously traduc'd in life, but shining (as Caesar's Star) with greater brightness after his death.
The Devil of Rebellion hath been at length driven out of the Land. He seemeth for present to walk up and down in dry places. God forbid that evil Spirit should ever return and find our hearts (as that house) garnisht and ready again to receive him.
'Twere but a specious kind of Hypocrisie, to disclaim the execrable Enormities of the late times in words, and yet to abet Disloyalty afresh in our deeds; like those Jews that built fair Sepulchres for the former Prophets, but still went on to stone those that were for present amongst them.
There is one, and but one way before us, in any measure to wash out so foul a stain, and that must be sincerely and practically this: For the wretched Indignities thus offered to such a Father, to take all faithful care that we repay a double Loyalty, the utmost Allegiance and Duty to the Son.
Which God through his Grace enable us all to do.
AMEN.
Several TRACTS Printed for Henry Brome, and Written by Mr. L' Estrange;
Being most against POPERY, and Being most PRESBYTERY, Viz.
THe Relaepsed Apostate,
Toleration discussed.
The Growth of Knavery.
Tyranny and Popery.
Reformed Catholick.
Free-born Subject.
The Case put for the D. of York.
The Appeal from the Country to the City Answered.
Seasonable Memorials.
A Dialogue between Cit and Bumpkin, in Two Parts.
A further discovery of the Plot.
Discovery on Discovery.
A Narrative of the Plot.
The Committee, or Popery in Masquerade.
Answer to Libellers.
Richard against Baxter.
Ephraim and Zekiel, being his Case.
An Appeal to the King and Parliament.
And besides,
The History of the Plot, in Folio.
Erasmus's Colloquies against Popery.
Seneca's Morals.
The Guide to Eternity.
Cicero's Offices in English.
Five Love-Letters.
—His Vindication.
Dr. Woodford on the Psalms, and his Divine Poems.
Camfield of Angels.
Dr. Comber on the Common-Prayer, in 4 Vol.
—His Right of Tythes.
—His Exposition on the Church-Catechism.
—His Advice to the Roman Catholicks.
Christianity no Enthusiasm.
The Love of Jesus.
The Christian Education of Children.
The Education of Princes, in Twelves.
FINIS.
End of the text · Samuel Crossman, Two Sermons in Bristol (1681)