a Prince may have Reasons for what he does which we are unacquainted with. The Arcana Imperii are a great way out of our fight, who Eccl. 10.20. are at a distance from the Throne: Curse not the Exod. 22. King, no not in thy Thought. Thou shalt not curfe the Gods, nor revile the Ruler of thy People.

28.

4. No Pretence of Allegiance or Duty will justify our Trust in a Prince, whofe vifible Conduct declares his Defiance to Heaven, and whose Arts of Government are level'd against the Laws of God, and thofe of the Realm over which he prefides. Magiftracy is an Ordinance of God; and we are bound by Divine Revelation, not only to fear God, but to honour the King. But if a Prince once break his Coronation-Oath, and invade the Liberties of his People, he is no longer a Prince, but a Tyrant; for certainly the People have as just a Right to the legal Government of the Prince, as the Prince has to the legal Obedience of the People. "And if our Monarchy (as one ob

ແ ferves) be in the very Frame and Conftitu"tion of it a limited Monarchy, and esta"-blished not upon the Imperial Laws of a few "vifionary Politicians, but upon the Funda"mental Laws of its own making, or allow"ing; then I muft folemnly profefs, that ei"ther I am uncapable of judging what Senfe "and Reafon is, or it must follow that an ab"folute Monarch, a Prince not bounded by "Law, but governing only by the Arbitrary "Motions of his own Will, is no King "of our acknowledging; our Conftitution

Dr. Wake in his Sermon preached at St. James's Westminster, April 16. 1696. Pag. 10.

"knows no fuch Monarch, nor did we ever "oblige our felves to obey fuch a one."

Upon these Principles proceeded the late happy Revolution in 88. and by these the Throne of our Gracious Sovereign Queen Anne is established, tho derived to her by a long Succeffion of Royal Ancestors.

To close this Head: If the greatest Prince upon Earth commands that which is contrary to the Word of God, 1 am bound to perform my Duty to God, before my Allegiance to my Prince. And for this we have the Determination of the whole College of Apostles; Then Peter and the other Apoftles answered and faid, We ought to obey God rather than Man. I proceed,

Secondly, To confider the Reason of the Dehortation in my Text, why we are not to put our Trust in Princes; and this is founded on the Incapacity of Perfons of that Character to help us: Put not your Trust in Princes, nor in the Son of Man, in whom there is no Help. If it be in their Power to relieve us, 'tis not always in their Inclination; and if they have a Will to protect and defend us, they may be deftitute of Power. 'Tis true, Religious Princes, like the holy Angels, excel in Strength, when their Thrones are fixed in the Hearts of their Subjects; yet even then there are ten thousand Things which we need, that they cannot beftow. But I fhall chufe to confider the Force of this, as 'tis amplified in my Text.

1. The Incapacity of Princes to help us is argued from their natural Frailty, they are fubject to Death as well as other Men: His Breath goeth forth, he returneth to his Earth.

K 3

?Tis

Acts 5. 29.

Ver. 7.

'Tis a lofty Character which the Holy Ghost Pfal, 82.6. gives to Princes; I have faid that ye are Gods, and that ye are all the Children of the moft High. Yet in the following Words he sets them with the lowest of the People, for he adds, Ye fhall die like Men. Princes are diftinguished from others in the Quality of Living, but (as one obferves) they are under the fame hard and inflexible Neceffity of dying; they cannot retain one Ray of the fuperficial Luftre of their Crowns, to enlighten the dark Shadow of Pfal. 49. 17, Death: Their Glory fhall not defcend after them. A Court lies as open to Difeafes as a Cottage; Crowns and Scepters, Armies and Fleets cannot awe or bribe the King of Terrors. Surly and inexorable Death pays no more deference to a strong and mighty Hero, crowned with Laurels, and used to Victories, than to a feeble Beggar that stoops almost to the Earth before he drops into it. All Flesh is Grafs, and the Glory of it as the Flower of the Grafs. Death ufes no Ceremony, but feizes all without dif tinction, rushes upon a Crowned Head as foon as another: hence arifes that Proverbial Expreffion, Strong as Death that fubdues all, cruel Ecol. 8. 8. as the Grave that fpares none. There is no Man hath power over the Spirit to retain the Spirit, neither hath he power in the day of Death, and there is no Difcharge in that War. As Royal Duft cannot be diftinguished from Common Earth, fo Death in his Approaches pays no more refpect to him that fills a Throne, than Pfal.89.48. to one that languifhes upon a Dunghil. What Man is he that liveth, and fhall not fee Death? Shall be deliver his Soul from the Hand of the Grave? Selah. If Dying be the way of all the Earth, and the Grave the House appointed

for

for all Living; then Princes, as well as others, must walk in the Gloomy Valley, and retire to the dark Chambers of Death. Their Breath will go forth, and they muft return to their Earth. Duft at first composed the Royal Fabrick, and to that it fhall be again reduced. All Human Bodies are made of the fame frail Materials; and the primitive Sentence, Duft thou art, and to Duft thou shalt return, refpects the Kings of the Earth, as well as the Subjects over whom they reign.

Nay, the Moral Glory of a Prince will no more fecure him from Death than his Civil Grandeur; for Good and Bad fall undistinguish'd. The meek Mofes King of Feshurun, as well as proud Pharaoh King of Egypt; Good Jofiah, as well as wicked Ahab; Religious David, as well as impious Saul, have fubmitted to the fame Fate. And now, how fhall I pronounce the fad Word! Glorious William the Third is fallen by Death, as well as unhappy James the Second. And because of the natural Frailty of good as well as bad Princes, the Pfalmift cautions against an abfolute Truft in them: The Breath of Princes is in their Noftrils, as well as of other Men; and fince they are thus fubject to Change and Death, they are no way fit for an Object of our abfolute Truft. For if our Dependence reft on a frail Creature, we may be difappointed at the very time that our Hopes are big, and our Expectations high. And this leads me to the fecond thing, which the Pfalmift urges to enforce his Caution against putting an entire Truft in Princes,

viz.

2. The immediate Confequence of their Death; In that very day their Thoughts perish. K 4

Not

4

Not that we are to imagine that the Soul at Death paffes into an unactive and thoughtless condition; that's a Notion contrary both to Reafon and Revelation.

It's contrary to Reafon; for this Principle fuppofes that the Soul either fleeps or dies, which no Reafon induces to believe, because the Soul is immaterial, and confequently immortal: That which is immaterial is not compounded of Parts; it has no corruptible Principles to render it capable of Diffolution, as all mixt and material Beings are. Now if human Spirits are immaterial, 'tis impoffible they fhould die: Tho I doubt not but that God can annihilate them, yet to fuppofe that the Soul dies with the Body, is to fuggeft its Materiality; which is an Hypothefis attended with many Abfurdities, for it affirms that Matter is capable of Cogitation; and what is the Confequence of that, but that Effects may exceed the Caufe that produc'd them? For how far does a noble Train of Thoughts exceed the moft refin'd Matter, whether in Rest or in Motion? If there be fuch a thing as pure Intellection, or abstracted Notions and Ideas of immaterial things, which depend not upon bodily Figures, it's impoffible that these Notions fhould be lodg'd in any Subject but that which is immaterial, and confequently immortal: and if the Soul be immortal, and never dies, to be fure 'tis active in the other State; for an unactive Spirit is a fenfless Paradox. Moreover, it has been remark'd, that many People have had clearer Notions, and a closer way of reafoning, juft as their Souls have been loosening from their Bodies, than ever they had before. Now if the Soul be material, as fome

dream,