Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A41888
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The great concern and zeal of a loyal people for a good king's preservation in the hazards of war. And the duty of such a people opened and enforced, in one of our monthly-fasts in a country parish. By the minister thereof.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing G1679; ESTC R212854
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49,196
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44
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some one Parliament as we have had We thankfully acknowledg the Settlement of their Royal Majesties in the Throne and the Succession of the Crown and the Liberties of the People We gratefully acknowledg the Wisdom and Clemency of God in their Majesties choice of great Men of Temper for the Candle-sticks of their Sees We hope these will not think their Eyes so full of sight as to use others as if they had none but must resign their Consciences to their Conduct and drive them by force if they will not follow We hope and pray that as one Light hath brought forth more so all these Lights will find out and shew us the true Path of Church-Peace and Concord Let us hope that that Observation may not be a Proverb any more in Israel That Bishops always hindred the Progress of the Reformation As God made way for their Majesties Coming to the Throne of the Kingdom by a Vacancy so he hath made way for their coming to their Thrones in their Churches How many Vacancies hath God made by Death and how many Vacancies have others made by themselves And will they do nothing for God more than they who have always done too little one way and too much another Enough hath been said and written to file off the Asperity and Roughness of the temper of their Predecessors and every Succession exceeded the former in Impositions for which they pleaded Obedience more from the Supremacy of our Kings and Obedience to the Laws than the Nature of the things themselves or their Expediency but we have seen gracious Offers from our supream Governours at a temper therefore we fear no Obstruction from them and they have seen who they were that opposed it and have retarded it and know how they stand affected And surely now once again we may hope that they will not love their Enemies and hate their Friends God hath made way for it and the best in the Nation expect it Walk in the Light while you have the Light said Christ take the Opportunity while you have it In our Prayers for our Monthly-Fasts we do acknowledg there are Dregs in the Reformed Churches which we pray God to purge away Are not we one of those Reformed Churches and are these Dregs only in Foreign Churches and none in ours O see them and purge them out while we have Light to help us 5. Are our Lights but Lamps that may be quenched or if not quenched by Violence will go out of Course then this is one reason of the Mutability of the best State of a Kingdom and therefore good Kings do mightily oblige their Subjects and Posterity also When they spend their Days and Abilities in a holy religious righteous active and diligent course of Government when they lay out themselves continually from a Principle of sincere Love to God and his Glory and their Peoples Happiness for they know not how soon their Light may be quenched and then they are for ever laid aside and can do no good to themselves nor their Subjects 6. May our Lights be quenched O then when Kings prepare for War and Battel how piously should they prepare for Death and bless God for Life when they come off with it They who carry their Lives in their Hands who fear not the Face of an Enemy not of an Ishbi-benob should therefore fear God who can kill the Body and the Soul and cast both into Hell O fear him It will be an everlasting Shame and Dishonour to fall under the Power of Death as an Enemy to God When they carry the Weapons of War how careful should they be to put on the whole Armour of God! What wise King will ingage in a War and make no Preparation for it that designs not to conquer What inexcusable Rashness and Madness is it for a King that is wise and valiant in the Eyes of Man to be unprovided for the last Enemy True he shall be destroyed but by whom Christ and he who doth savingly believe in him And Death destroys all that are not the living Members of Christ that are not saved by Grace and with what Shame and Contempt shall they rise out of their Graves which vain Men call a Bed of Honour though they come to it by dishonouring God that died in their Sin and not in Christ or in the Faith as Abraham and the Patriarchs did Heb. 11.13 c. 7. May the Lamps of Israel be quenched O then as truly as we love and honour them let us not idolize them nor think of them above what we ought to think Cursed is the Man that trusteth in Man and maketh Flesh his Arm and whose Heart departeth from the Lord i. e. by trusting in Man and making the Flesh his Arm that is his Confidence and Strength Jer. 17.5 This is the way to bring a Curse upon our selves and Death upon the Arm we trust upon It was a Presage of an approaching Death to that great Deliverer that died in his Glory Gustavus King of Sweden he thought God would e're long take him away because the People did over-value and deify him I beseech you let us pray and study for a true Christian Temper of Spirit towards the Lord of Hosts our King and the Cause of God 1. Let us assuredly look upon our King as a great Instrument in the Hand of the Lord of Hosts 2. The number of his Years are with God 3. His Work is measured out to him by God 4. Our Light sprang out of great Obscurity and from very small Beginnings See Bishop Burnet's Lett. from Nimiguen it was a great sign of following Successes and that he was singled out for great Actions when he was not afraid to encounter the most potent King of his Age growing greater daily by Successes and in his full Strength when the Condition of the States was desperate and irrecoverable if the then young Prince of Orange had but despaired also but even then he gave a check to that overgrowing Oppressor and is by the great Power of God being with him grown to be formidable to him and may the Sound of his Name by the Terror of the Almighty make his Sleep to depart from him and his Heart tremble when he thinks and consulteth what to do 5. What would we have God to do for us that he hath not done or is not ready to do Some considering true hearted wise Observers have faithfully declared what they thought to be the cause of many Miscarriages in England and Ireland by Sea and Land and in particular since our Monthly-Fasts were laid down and intermitted God hath not gone on to do us good though he hath not utterly departed from us But though our Sins have with-held good things from us we are in a better State both at home and abroad than we were when God sent us a Deliverer There is a Generation among us who have cast off the Fear of God a profane carnal sensual debauched Multitude that
purpose to kill David The judicious Peter Martyr doth conjecture that he might be girded about in sign of his being made some Officer in the Army and that he must do some great Action and meritorious Exploit which became the greatness of his Family and Strength and the Dignity of his Place This Story is brought in to illustrate the Danger and Deliverance of David and to set forth the Providence of God in great Straits and Dangers and to make God's People and their Enemies also know that let them have all the Advantages they can desire yet they shall not prevail against David and against Israel Let us not go over so large a Text without making some Observations 1. You read David's great Inequality and Disadvantage though when he was young he killed Gâ—liah but now David waxed faint In respect of Strength and stature what was David to him but now here 's David at a Disadvantage he waxed faint There may be sometimes great Disproportions between the Servants of God and the Enemies of God The Servants of God may in Appearance be much the weaker 2. The Assailant was a Man of note among the Philistines a Man of Name as Goliah was from whom some great Action might be expected The Enemies of God and his People may be furnished with Men extraordinarily fitted prepared and resolved Men pick'd out for Designs and Attempts pernicious to the People of God Here was a great Man a noted Man a Man of great Strength and Stature of desperate Designs for he thought of killing David and yet when many Wagers might be laid on the Philistines Head and Party it was so probable if not sure that such a Hand must needs prevail against David yet David comes off safe and his mortal Enemy falls and perisheth the Giant had an Opportunity to attempt and never was David in a worse case to make his Defence and yet the Design failed Such Men as these are not to be trusted to if we had an Army of them on our side nor to be feared See Mr. Jo. Mackenzie's Narrat of the Siege of London-Derry p. 2. col 1. The new levied Souldiers were to be all near six Foot high formidable for their Bulk whatever they were for their Courage though all our Enemies were such God can defeat them all Men cannot perform what Men would have them or hope from them How curious were our Enemies the Philistines in the choice of Regiments of great Stature and Strength what confidence was put in them and yet they proved but like Babes and Lubbars 3. This Ishbi-benob was girded with a new Sword that is as some conjecture he was newly made some great Officer from his being girded a Mark of Honour others that his new Sword was a newly invented Weapon for his turn and others think it might be a new Sword not used before the Edg of it was first to be tried upon David's Persâ—â— How proud might this Man be of his Name his Stature his Strength his Command and his Sword How often might he fancy David's Head upon his Sword 's Point See the Narrative of the French Joy for the Death of King William in the Battel of Boyn and his Body at his Feet and yet his Weapon shall not prosper against Good King David Our Enemies the Philistines have changed the way of fighting invented new Instruments of War to make themselves the more formidable how may their ambitious vain-glorious Ishbi-benobs boast what they will do with David kill him and then drag him in the Streets and Dunghils and yet David is preserved Men and Weapons are alike vain and ineffectual when God is a Shield to David and to Israel 4. This Ishbi-benob had David almost in his Power and within his reach for Abishai succcoured David who waxed faint Hence learn the Enemy of David may be prepared to kill may have a great Advantage over him being weak and faint and he had as fair and open Opportunity to make him think he had him as sure as if he were in his Hand and yet David escapes the Villain tho a Giant David was and our David may be in great Danger and nigh to Death and yet preserved Great Dangers make great Deliverances and the Deliverance is as sure in great Danger as in common and less How near was David many a time to be cut off yet he was delivered from the Hand of Saul and all his Enemies so we pray and trust that God will be a Shield and a Succourer of our David in all his Wars 5. He thought to have slain David or he spake as the word signifies of killing David perhaps by thinking of killing the King he was ambitious to have the Glory of winning the Field and routing Israel perhaps to avenge the Philistines so often beaten and destroyed by David his Spight and Aim was at David not to take him not to maim and hurt him but outright to kill him David had been successful and done great Services for Israel and for that the Philistines might hate him and have particular Designs upon him A victorious and a good King is hateful to Philistines The greater Blessing a good King is to the Israel and Church of God the more aimed at but when his Dangers are greatest God is nearest for his Salvation David was aimed at and he could not choose but know it for they sought him once before in particular yet David's Courage Religion Conscience and Care of Israel 2 Sam. â— 13 did oblige him to go down to the Battel David is faint and when faint the Enemy laid at him to have sped him and yet David is preserved It is extraordinary when God suiteth the Spirit of a King to his Charge and Dangers and that King who turns not his back upon God's Cause Religion and People may humbly expect that God will not turn his back upon him in his greatest Dangers but watch over him and preserve him The King 's wearing the Crown of England makes the Philistines aim the more at his Head His Greatness and Valour do multiply his Perils but God who made him great for this Work is mighty to save him 5. In ver 17. we have these Remarkables 1. A famous Act of Abishai the Son of Zeruiah who succoured David and he smote the Philistine and killed him 2. The Zeal and great Concern of the People for their King Then the Men of David sware unto him saying Thou shalt go no more out with us to Battel 3. The Reason for that Resolution and Zeal That thou quench not the Light of Israel that our Light and Glory may not be put out with thy Life who art the Light of Israel 4. David's Permission of that Oath and Resolution of the People and his Acquiescence in that Act for his own and their Preservation and Comfort In the first of these we have many things to observe 1st Abishai the Son of Zeruiah he was a valiant Man and David's