poet in a satire, could say, when they had imprinted that name upon his memory, Tarquin the Proud.

To those therefore that have insinuated themselves into the friendship of the king, without these two endowments: if the king hath always Christ for his example, if he say to them, Amice, quomodo intrasti? Friend, how came you in? If you had not this wedding garment on, or if this wedding garment were not your own, but borrowed by an hypocritical dissimulation, Amice, quomodo intrasti? Though you be never so much my friend, in never so near place to me, I must know how you got in; for, I have but two doors, (indeed, not two doors; but a gate, and a wicket; a greater, and an inferior way,) a religious heart, and useful parts: if you have not these, if you fear not God, and if you study not, (as I do) the welfare of my people; you are not come in at my gate, (that is, religion) nor at my wicket, (that is, the good of my people :) and therefore, how near soever you be crept, I must have a review, an inquiry, to know, quomodo intrasti, how you came in.

But for those which have these two endowments, (religion, and care of the public) we have the word of the King of kings, of God himself, in the mouth of the wisest king, King Solomon, The king shall be his friend: and the king hath Christ himself still for his example, who loved them whom he loved to the end: for, as long as the reason, upon which he grounds his word remains, Regis verbum regi rex est 7, The king's word, the king's love, the king's favour, regi rex est, is a king upon the king, and binds him to his word, as well as his subjects are bound to him.

To recollect and fasten these pieces; these be the benefits of this pureness of heart, and grace of lips, first, that the king shall take an immediate and personal knowledge of him, and not be misled by false characters, or false images of him, by any breath that would blast him in the king's ear. And then, that he shall take it to be his royal office, and Christian duty to do so; that to those men, whom he finds so qualified, he shall be a friend in all those acceptations of the word in our text: amabit, he shall love them, impart his affections to them; sociabit, he shall asso

86 Matt. xxii. 12,

87 Demosthenes.

ciate them to him, and impart his consultations unto them: and sociabit again, he shall go along with them, and accompany their labours, and their services, by the seal of his countenance, and ratification; and docebit, he shall instruct them clearly in his just pleasure, without entangling, or snaring them in perplexities, by ambiguous directions. This is the capacity required (to be religious and useful;) this is the preferment assured, The king shall be his friend; and this is the compass of our text.

Now, beloved, as we are able to interpret some places of the Revelation, better than the fathers could do, because we have seen the fulfilling of some of the prophecies of that book, which they did but conjecture upon; so we can interpret and apply this text by way of accommodation the more usefully, because we have seen these things performed by those princes whom God hath set over us. We need not that edict of the senate of Rome, Ut sub titulo gratiarum agendarum, That upon pretence of thanking our princes, for that which, we say, they had done boni principes, quæ facerent recognoscerent, good princes should take knowledge what they were bound to do, though they had not done so yet.

We need not this circuit, nor this disguise; for God's hand hath been abundant towards us, in raising ministers of state, so qualified, and so endowed; and such princes as have fastened their friendships, and conferred their favours upon such persons. We celebrate, seasonably, opportunely, the thankful acknowledgment of these mercies, this day: this day, which God made for us, according to the pattern of his first days in the creation; where, vesper et mane dies unus, the evening first, and then the morning made up the day; for here the saddest night, and the joyfullest morning, that ever the daughters of this island saw, made up this day. Consider the tears of Richmond this night, and the joys of London, at this place, at this time, in the morning; and we shall find prophecy even in that saying of the poet, Nocte pluit tota, showers of rain all night, of weeping for our sovereign; and we would not be comforted, because she was not : and yet, redeunt spectacula manè, the same hearts, the same eyes, the same hands were all directed upon recognitions, and acclama

EB Matt. ii. 18.

88

tions of her successor in the morning: and when every one of you in the city were running up and down like ants with their eggs bigger than themselves, every man with his bags, to seek where to hide them safely, Almighty God shed down his Spirit of unity, and recollecting, and reposedness, and acquiescence upon you all. In the death of that queen, unmatchable, inimitable in her sex; that queen, worthy, I will not say of Nestor's years, I will not say of Methusalem's, but worthy of Adam's years, if Adam had never fallen; in her death we were all under one common flood, and depth of tears. But the Spirit of God moved upon the face of that depth; and God said, Let there be light, and there was light, and God saw that that light was good. God took pleasure, and found a savour of rest, in our peaceful cheerfulness, and in our joyful and confident apprehension of blessed days in his government, whom he had prepared at first, and preserved so often for us.

As the rule is true, Cum de malo principe posteri tacent, manifestum est vilem facere præsentem", when men dare not speak of the vices of a prince that is dead, it is certain that the prince that is alive proceeds in the same vices; so the inversion of the rule is true too, Cum de bono principe loquuntur, when men may speak freely of the virtues of a dead prince, it is an evident argument that the present prince practises the same virtues; for, if he did not, he would not love to hear of them. Of her, we may say (that which was well said, and therefore it were pity it should not be once truly said, for, so it was not, when it was first said to the emperor Julian) Nihil humile, aut abjectum cogitavit, quia novit de se semper loquendum; she knew the world would talk of her after her death, and therefore she did such things all her life as were worthy to be talked of. Of her glorious successor, and our gracious sovereign, we may say; Onerosum est succedere bono principi, It would have troubled any king but him, to have come in succession, and in comparison with such a queen. And in them both we may observe the unsearchableness of the ways of God; of them both, we may say, Dominus fecit, It is the Lord that hath done it, and it is wonderful in our eyes"1: first, that a

89 Plinius ad Trajan.

90 Ibid.

91 Psalm cxviii. 23.

woman and a maid should have all the wars of Christendom in her contemplation, and govern and balance them all; and then, that a king, born and bred in a warlike nation, and so accustomed to the sword, as that it had been directed upon his own person, in the strength of his age, and in his infancy, in his cradle, in his mother's belly, should yet have the blessed spirit of peace so abundantly in him, as that by his councils, and his authority, he should sheath all the swords of Christendom again. De forti egressa dulcedo, sweetness is come out of the strong, in a stranger manner, than when Samson said so in his riddle; and howsoever another wise king found it true, Anima saturata calcabit favum, The person that is full despiseth honey 3, they that are glutted with the benefits of peace, would fain change for a war; yet the wisest King of all hath pronounced for our king, Beati pacifici, Blessed are the peace-makers". If subjects will not apprehend it with joy here, the king himself shall joy hereafter, for, Therefore (says that Gospel) therefore, because he was a peace-maker, he shall be called the child of God. Though then these two great princes (of whom the one con-regnat Christo, reigns now with Christ, the other reigns here over us, rice Christi, for Christ, were near in blood, yet thus were they nearest of kin, quod uterque optimus", that they were both better than any other, and equal to one another. Dignus alter eligi, alter eligere, that she was fittest in that fulness of years, to be chosen and assumed into heaven; and he fittest (as St. Paul did because it was more behooveful for his brethren) to choose to stay upon earth, for our protection, and for our direction; because (as in all princes it is) vita principis perpetua censura, there cannot be a more powerful increpation upon the subjects' excesses, than when they see the king deny himself those pleasures which they take.

As then this place, where we all stand now, was the sanctuary whither we all resorted this day, to receive the assurance of our safety, in the proclamation of his undoubted title to this kingdom, so let it be our altar now, where we may sacrifice our humble thanks to God, first, that he always gave the king a just, and a

92

Judges xiv. 24.

95 2 Tim. ii. 12.

93 Prov. xxvii. 7.

94 Matt. v. 9.

96 Plin. de Nerva, et Trajan.

religious patience of not attempting a coming into this kingdom, till God emptied the throne here, by translating that queen to a throne more glorious. Perchance he was not without temptations from other men to have done otherwise. But, ad principatum per obsequium venit", he came to be king by his obedience, his obedience to the law of nature, and the laws of this kingdom, to which some other king would have disputed, whether he should have obeyed or no. Cum omnia faceret imperare ut deberet, nihil fecit, ut imperaret; all his actions, all that he did, showed him fit for this crown, and yet he would do nothing to anticipate that

crown.

Next let us pour out our thanks to God, that in his entrance he was beholden to no by-religion. The papists could not make him place any hopes upon them, nor the puritans make him entertain any fears from them; but his God and our God; as he brought him via lactea, by the sweet way of peace, that flows with milk and honey, so he brought him via regia, by the direct and plain way, without any deviation or descent into ignoble flatteries, or servile humouring of any persons or factions. Which noble, and Christian courage he expressed more manifestly, when, after that infamous powder-treason, the intended dissolution, and conflagration of this state (that plot that even amazed and astonished the devil, and seemed a miracle even in hell, that treason, which, whosoever wishes might be covered now, is sorry that it was discovered then, whosoever wishes that it might be forgotten, wishes that it had proceeded; and therefore let our tongue cleave unto the roof of our mouths, if we do not confess his loving kindness before the Lord, and his wonderful works before the sons of men) then I say, did his majesty show this Christian courage of his more manifestly, when he sent the profession of his religion, the Apology of the Oath of Allegiance, and his opinion of the Roman antichrist, in all languages, to all princes of Christendom. By occasion of which book, though there have risen twenty Rabshakehs, who have railed against our God in railing against our religion, and twenty Shimeis, who have railed against the person of his sacred majesty (for I may pronounce that the number of them who have barked, and snarled

97 Pacatus ad Theodosium.