KINGS TO BE HONORED FOR THEIR OFFICE SAKE. 255

SERMON XXVII.

KINGS TO BE HONORED FOR THEIR OFFICE SAKE.

PREACHED ON THE KING'S ACCESSION, 1836.

JEREMIAH Xxix. 7.

"Seek the peace of the city, whither the Lord hath caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace."

THESE words are part of a letter which the prophet Jeremiah, remaining himself in Jerusalem, wrote by God's Holy Spirit to those of his countrymen, who had been carried away to Babylon before the rest.

The immediate object of this letter was, to quiet any feverish restless hope, which they might entertain, of speedy deliverance from that their sad captivity: knowing themselves, as they did, to be God's own people, but not having anything like a true notion of the greatness of their sin, and of the punishment which they were to expect from their offended Father. Besides, they had among them, not a few false prophets and diviners, who did their best to encourage and flatter them in false hopes.

Therefore, Jeremiah was directed by the Holy Ghost to stifle at once all such deceitful expectations, and to bid them make up their minds to the spending seventy years in captivity, so that very few indeed of those to whom he wrote, might expect themselves to return to their own land. That was his immediate object; and, in the meantime, he gives them instructions how they should behave in the land of their captivity. They should regard it for the time as a kind of home; should patiently and contentedly make the best of God's visit

ation. "Build ye houses and dwell in them; and plant gardens and eat the fruit of them; take ye wives and beget sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished."

Of course where they had their home, there they owed the duty of subjects. They owed peace and submission to the government, which protected them in so many comforts. Therefore it goes on as in the text: "Seek the peace of the city, whither the Lord hath caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it; for in the peace thereof shall

peace."

ye have There is a remarkable correspondence, in many respects, between this advice of the prophet, and the apostolical advice of St. Paul to Timothy, and through him to the church of Ephesus (of which Timothy was bishop), and to the church generally in those times; which advice you will find is put first in the special service for this day. "I exhort that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men; for kings, and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty." St. Paul is here directing the order of the church prayers, and the very first thing which he insists upon, is prayer for kings, and those in authority and, according to his direction, the church, in all times, has made special mention of those high persons in the most solemn part of her service, that is, in offering up her solemn intercessions, with the sacred bread and wine, to the Most High, before partaking of the holy communion. She prays then as you know, for all Christian kings, princes, and governors, and especially for our gracious king.

Again, as the reason assigned in Jeremiah is, "In the peace thereof ye shall have peace," so St. Paul's argument, why Christians should pray for heathen governors, is, "That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty."

But how is it that this direction of St. Paul answers so well to the advice of Jeremiah in the text? Because the condition of those, to whom St. Paul wrote, answered very nearly to the condition of the Hebrews in Babylon, to whom Jeremiah wrote. Both were in a kind of captivity, the one under the king of Babylon, the other under Rome, which in our Lord's time and after stood in the place of Babylon, being the imbodied representative and image of the power of this world, the antichristian power, which in all times has set itself against the saints of the Most High. The kings, therefore, and persons in authority, for whom St. Paul here directs that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings, should be made by the church in her liturgy, were aliens and enemies to Jesus Christ and his gospel, persecutors and hinderers of the saving truth of God, and servants and agents, so far, of the evil spirit, just as much or more than Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon had been and we know that Nebuchadnezzar not only wor shipped idols himself, but made an image of gold, and proclaimed destruction by fire to every one, who should refuse to worship that image. But for Babylon and Rome alike, as you perceive, God's people were directed to pray. The church, in her intercessions, was to include all, because God included all in his gracious purposes of mercy, through Jesus Christ. He would have all men to be saved, and, therefore, we must pray solemnly for all; even from his enemies and the persecutors of his gospel. The infidelity and persecution of rulers made no difference in the loyalty of the subjects.

Nothing is more evident than this in the history of the early Christian church; her history, during those three hundred years which passed between the death of our Lord and the time when the Roman empire became Christian. All that time the church was persecu ted more or less by the civil authorities, and Christians were in continual danger of their lives, for refusing to offer sacrifice to idols. Yet during the whole of that period, their conduct was such as is truly described in the

following words of an early writer: "How often do you, pagan emperors and powers, spend your rage upon us Christians! how often do your people attack us with stones and fires, and drag our dead bodies out of their very graves! Yet in what instance have you convicted us, bound together as we are, of any conspiracy against yourselves? and full as we are of a courage to endure even death, when have we made you, by any kind of suffering, pay for your injuriousness and cruelty toward us ?" Nay, "for the safety of the Roman emperors, we call regularly not on idols, but on the eternal God, the true God, the living God:" "we pray continually for all emperors, that their life may be long, their authority entire, their home safe, their armies strong, their counsellors faithful, their people good and honest, the world under their government at rest; whatever a man, whatever a king would desire, these things we pray for on their behalf:" "the rather, because we are directed by our sacred books, to pray to God in overflowing kindness, even for our enemies and persecutors.' "And this, although we are now more in number than any of your foreign foes; your cities, your islands, your strong holds, your very camps and senates are full of us: we might for strength, numbers, and spirit, be equal to any war whatever; but we have been taught in our school, that it is better to suffer death than to kill."

Such were the politics of the early, uncorrupt Christians; politics learned not of man, but of Jesus Christ and his inspired apostles.

And in this suffering, patient loyalty, the church went on, till it pleased God, that the kings and rulers of the world should themselves become Christians, that they should draw near with faith, and become nursing fathers and nursing mothers of the church, that is, head servants, especially trusted by her, and honored with the most glorious office of protecting and guiding her children bearing them in their arms, according to Isaiah's prophecy, and bowing down with them in humble submission to that kingdom, which is above all, and which can never come to an end. For this, undoubtedly,

is the true meaning of that famous prophecy of Isaiah, so often quoted when, in this country, the union of church and state is talked of. "Kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers:" not nurses to the church herself, as if she were an infant requiring their care; but nurses to the children of the church, to the little ones of Christ, under the church's direction: the church herself being described, in the very same verse, as a triumphant queen, receiving the homages of these very kings, emperors, and powers of the earth: 66 They shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and shall lick up the dust of thy feet."

Something of this sort did once happen, when first, by God's gracious overruling wisdom, the Roman empire became the empire of our Lord, and of his Christ; there were occasionally good and pious monarchs, who did submit themselves and their counsels, in the way thus prophesied, to the guidance and judgment of God's church; yet so that, in general, the will of God, and the word of his prophet, were but partially and imperfectly accomplished. Throughout the Christian world, the Babylonian power, the spirit of worldly pride and ambition, has still for the most part, been too strong for the church; either corrupting her inwardly, as in Rome, or openly overbearing and vexing her, as in many other countries.

Our own country, perhaps, has been more highly favored than any others in modern times with a pattern of a king, who really did strive to act the part of a nursing father, not of the church herself, whose servant he knew himself to be, but of her children under her direction. That king was Charles the First, and we know what return he met with from the world.

But, generally speaking, the church history of England, like the rest of modern church history, is sadly blemished with encroachments, more or less flagrant, of the old Babylonian or Roman spirit; sometimes the bishop of Rome, and sometimes our own government, have opened their mouths to speak great things against