SERMON XII. ON THE KING'S HAPPY RETURN. SERM. XII. Ver. 6. I TIM. II. 1, 2. I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men: for kings, and for all that are in authority. ST PAUL in his preceding discourse having insinuated directions to his scholar and spi1 Tim. i. 3, ritual son, Timothy, concerning the discharge of his office, of instructing men in their duty according to the evangelical doctrine; (the main design whereof he teacheth to consist, not (as some men conceited) in fond stories, or vain speculations, but Ver. 5, 19. in practice of substantial duties, holding a sincere faith, maintaining a good conscience, performing offices of pure and hearty charity;) in pursuance of such general duty, and as a principal instance thereof, he doth here First of all exhort, or, doth Exhort that first of all all kinds of devotion should be offered to God, as for All men generally, so particularly for Kings and magistrates. From whence we may collect two particulars. I That the making of prayers for kings is a Christian duty of great importance. (St Paul judging fit to exhort thereto IIp@тor Távтwv, Before all other things; or, to Exhort that before all things it should be performed.) 2 That it is incumbent on the pastors XII. of the church (such as St Timothy was) to take SERM. special care, that this duty should be performed in the church; both publicly in the congregations, and privately in the retirements of each Christian: according to what the apostle, after the proposing divers enforcements of this duty, subsumeth in the eighth verse; I will therefore, that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath or doubting. The first of these particulars, That it is a duty of great importance to pray for kings, I shall insist upon it being indeed now very fit and seasonable to urge the practice of it, when it is perhaps commonly not much considered, or not well observed; and when there is most need of it, in regard to the effects and consequences which may proceed from the conscionable discharge of it. My endeavour therefore shall be to press it by divers considerations, discovering our obligation thereto, and serving to induce us to its observance: some whereof shall be general, or common to all times; some particular, or suitable to the present circumstances of things. I. The apostle exhorteth Christians to pray for kings with all sorts of prayer: with Aenoes, or Deprecations, for averting evils from them; with Пpooevɣai, or Petitions, for obtaining good things to them; with 'Erreutes, or occasional Intercessions, for needful gifts and graces to be collated on them: as, after St Austin, interpreters, in expounding St Paul's words, commonly distinguish; how accu Aug [Ep. CXLIX. (ad Paul.) Opp. Tom. I. col. 508 D, E.] XII. SERM. rately, I shall not discuss: it sufficing, that assuredly the apostle meaneth, under this variety of expression, to comprehend all kinds of prayer. And to this I say we are obliged upon divers accounts. I Common charity should dispose us to pray for kings. This Christian disposition inclineth to universal benevolence and beneficence; according Gal. vi. 10. to that apostolical precept, As we have opportunity, let us do good unto all men: it consequently will excite us to pray for all men; seeing this is a way of exerting good-will, and exercising beneficence, which any man at any time, if he hath the will and heart, may have opportunity and ability to pursue. No man indeed otherwise can benefit all: few men otherwise can benefit many: some men otherwise can benefit none: but in this way any man is able to benefit all, or unconfinedly to oblige mankind, deriving on any somewhat of God's immense beneficence. By performing this good office, at the expense of a few good wishes addressed to the Sovereign Goodness, the poorest may prove benefactors to the richest, the meanest to the highest, the weakest to the mightiest of men: so we may benefit even those who are most remote from us, most strangers and quite unknown to us. Our prayers can reach the utmost ends of the earth; and by them our charity may embrace all the world. And from them surely kings must not be excluded. For if, because all men are our fellowcreatures, and brethren by the same heavenly Father; because all men are allied to us by cognation and similitude of nature; because all men are I XII. the objects of God's particular favour and care: if, SERM. because all men are partakers of the common redemption, by the undertakings of him who is the common Mediator and Saviour of all men; and because all men, according to the gracious intent and desire of God, are designed for a consortship in the same blessed inheritance: (which enforcements St Paul in the context doth intimate:) if, in fine, because all men do need prayers, and are 4, 5, 6. capable of benefit from them, we should be charitably disposed to pray for them: then must we also pray for kings, who, even in their personal capacity, as men, do share in all those conditions. Thus may we conceive St Paul here to argue: For all men, saith he, For kings; that is consequently for kings, or particularly for kings; to pray for whom, at least no less than for other men, universal charity should dispose us. Indeed, even on this account we may say especially for kings; the law of general charity with peculiar advantage being applicable to them: for that law commonly is expressed with reference to our neighbour, that is, to persons with whom we have to do, who come under our particular notice, who by any intercourse are approximated to us; and such are kings especially. For, whereas the greatest part of men (by reason of their distance from us, from the obscurity of their condition, or for want of opportunity to converse with them) must needs slip beside us, so that we cannot employ any distinct thought or affection toward them: it is not so with kings, who by their eminent and illustrious station become very observable by us; with whom we have frequent transactions and mutual con XII. SERM. cerns; who therefore, in the strictest acception, are our neighbours, whom we are charged to love as ourselves; to whom consequently we must perform this most charitable office of praying for them. 2 To impress which consideration, we may reflect, that commonly we have only this way granted us of exercising our charity toward princes; they being situated aloft above the reach of private beneficence: so that we cannot enrich them, or relieve them by our alms; we cannot help to exalt or prefer them to a better state; we can hardly come to impart good advice, seasonable consolation, or wholesome reproof to them; we cannot profit or please them by familiar conversation. For, as in divers other respects they resemble the Divinity; so in this they are like it, that we may say to them, Ps. xvi. 2. as the Psalmist to God, Thou art my Lord; my may goodness extendeth not to thee. Yet this case may be reserved, wherein the poorest soul benefit the greatest prince, imparting the richest and choicest goods to him: he may be indebted for his safety, for the prosperity of his affairs, for God's mercy and favour toward him, to the prayers of his meanest vassal. And thus to oblige princes, methinks, we should be very desirous; we should be glad to use such an advantage, we should be ambitious of such an honour. 3 We are bound to pray for kings out of charity to the public; because their good is a general good, and the communities of men (both church and b Privatorum ista copia est, inter se esse munificos.—Auson. ad Gratian. Imp. [Opp. p. 699. Ed. Toll. 1671.] Absit, Auguste, et istud sancta divinitas omen avertat, ut tu a quoquam mortalium expectes vicem beneficii!-Mamert. Grat. Actio Jul. Imp. [cap. xxxii. Paneg. Vet. Tom. II. p. 207.] |