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A33247 A looking-glass for religious princes, or, The character and work of Josiah delivered in a sermon upon 2 Kings XXIII.XXV : the substance whereof was preached April 5 1691 at Pershore in Worcester-shire ... / by Richard Claridge ... Claridge, Richard, 1649-1723. 1691 (1691) Wing C4433; ESTC R2252 26,502 40

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of converted Souls towards God are like the turnings of the Needle touched with a Load-stone to the North for being touched with the Magnet of his Love they draw incessantly towards him In such Souls the Attraction of Free-Grace is so strong that nothing can possibly prevent it The Saints are sensible of great slackness and backwardness in their Spiritual progress of many stops and hinderances in their Christian Race but they are secured against total and final Apostacy by Gods everlasting Covenant of Free-Grace sealed and ratified in the Blood of Christ by many sweet and precious promises to keep them from falling away by vertue of their Mystical Union with Christ and the Prayer and Intercession of Christ for them They meet with many Assaults from Sin Satan and the World but Sin cannot separate them from the Love of God in Christ because that is pardoned in the Blood of Christ Satan cannot vanquish them because Christ hath subdued him and the World cannot overcome them because Christ hath overcome the World But thô the Saints are secured from all danger of final and total Apostacy yet this is no ground of carelesness and carnal Confidence to them the way of their Salvation is of Gods own ordering and appointing and it is this Pet. 1.2 They are Elect according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father through Sanctification of the Spirit unto Obedience and sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ Mark this passage Through Sanctification of the Spirit unto Obedience they are not Elected to Salvation without the Spirits Sanctification unto Obedience but they are Elected to attain Salvation by Sanctification as the means to the End and being sanctified by the Spirit of God they are thereby enabled to perform Obedience to the Gospel God did not Elect them that they should be careless ●…ph 1.4 but that they should be carefull for they are chosen of him in Christ before the foundation of the World that they should be holy and without blame before him in love They are chosen to the Means and the diligent use thereof as well as to the End h. 2.10 For they are Gods Workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that they should walk in them This denotes their Course 't is a walking in good works they are Elected to live in the constant exercise of all Graces infused into them and of all Duties required of them They then most horridly abuse the precious Doctrine of the Saints Perseverance who call it a Doctrine of Looseness and Libertinism and pretend it takes away all Watchfulness and Diligence in Duty whereas it requires all possible strictness and exactness from the Saints And certainly no persons in the World can consider themselves under stronger tyes to Obedience than they who believe that 't is Gods method in their Salvation to bring them to it of Free Grace through Sanctification of the Spirit unto Obedience and Sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ For believing this to be Gods Way of Salvation they will endeavour to be found in it and knowing that God hath chosen them to Salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit Thes 2.13 15 17. and belief of the Truth they will pray that they may stand fast and have their hearts comforted and established in every good word and work Upon this Score it is namely Election in Christ and Sanctification of the Spirit that Princes become truly Religious and so highly eminent in the sight of God and by vertue thereof their Dominions are founded in Grace and have a Spiritual superadded to their Political Right I do not say that the Godly or Gracious only have a Political Right to Govern but that Gracious Princes have a double one First As Princes and Secondly much more I am sure much better as being gracious Princes By how much the Unction of the Spirit excells that of the Body by so much the Scepter polished with Grace outshines its Native lustre Impious Rulers are compared by Solomon to roaring Lyons and ranging Bears the most savage Beasts of prey Prov. 28.15 to set forth their Violence Cruelty and Oppression Lyons and Bears the Naturalists tell us are naturally crueller than other Wild Creatures but when pinch'd with hunger Sed cum fame premuntur seipsos crudelitate superant they exceed the cruelty of their Natures In those Creatures we have a lively portraicture of Arbitrary and Tyrannical Governours who as cruelly prey upon the poor oppressed People as they do upon the Beasts of the Field 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tenui populo Ar. Mont. Rom. 13.3 4. With a little variation of the Apostles words we may say of them They are a terror to good works and Revengers to execute wrath upon them that do well They are Perverters of publick peace and Order and men have no Security notwithstanding Law of Life or Property under them For they care not what ravage and spoil they make of their Counrrey vainly fancying the people are made for them not they made for the People contrary to what Seneca writes to Nero That the Commonwealth is not theirs to use as they list Non Republicam suam esse sed se Republicae de Clem. l. 1. c. 19. but they are the Commonwealth's Which makes me stand amazed when I read or hear what unsuitable Titles some Parazites give them and how Jeroboam's Herods Maximines Dioclesians and Julians Idolaters Adulterers bloody Persecutors and infamous Apostates are complemented with the glorious Appellations of the Lords Anointed Sen. Epist 5● Q. Curt. l. ● and Ministers of God as the Heathen Priests flattered Alexander and perswaded him to be Jupiters Son thô King Philip was his Father But as Wicked Rulers are like roaring Lyons and ranging Bears Isai 49.23 so Religious Kings and Queens are compared to Nursing Fathers and Nursing Mothers The Glory of God and Welfare of their People sway more with such than their own self-Interest or Personal Greatness They always postpone their private Advantages to the publick Good and make less reckoning of their own than their Subjects safety And this is notorious from those many dangers they voluntarily expose themselves to which 't is not imaginable they would ever do if they had not more regard to the Honour of God and the Subjects Weal than to their own Applause and Interests The Greek and Roman Histories inform us of some that sacrificed their Lives upon their Countries score as Codrus Decius and several others but whence sprang this adventurous Love from natural Courage Ambition vain Glory Affectation of a Statue superstitious observation of Oracles or the like But truly Religious Princes act from Nobler Principles and are moved by the mighty impulse of him who sits upon the Circle of the Earth Isa 40.22 23. and the Inhabitants thereof are as Grashoppers that bringeth Wicked Princes to nothing and maketh the Judges of the Earth as Vanity Now who