Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	king_n	samuel_n	saul_n	1,596	5	10.1155	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54465	A sermon preached on the 16th day of April 1696 in the parish church of St. Michael in New-Malton, being the thanksgiving day appointed for the discovery and disappointment of the horrible and barbarous conspiracy &c. / by William Perse.	Perse, William, 1640 or 41-1707.	1696 (1696)	Wing P1656; ESTC R25780	18,110	33

thoughts that tend to the Preventing and Disappointing the Conspiracy that is laid against them Thus God put it into the Heart of King James the First to unriddle that Mysterious Letter by which Interpretation that Horrible and Hellish Powder-plot of the Papists which was near its Execution was prevented Sometimes God raises good to a Prince and his Government from the Evil that was intended against it making the breaking-forth of the Treason instrumental to the Settlement and Security of those whose Ruine and Destruction was thereby maliciously endeavoured and design'd Thus after Abner the General of the Army had set up Ishbosheth the Son and Heir of Saul against David whom God had chosen to be King though he was not of the Royal Line and was defeated and disappointed of his great Expectations the House of David ever after as may be seen in the Second Book of Samuel c. 3. v. 1. waxed stronger and stronger and the House of Saul weaker and weaker from that very day And when Absalom's Treason was discover'd and brought to nothing it made abundantly for the Peace of David all his Reign after It settled the Hearts of the Twelve Tribes which were in part divided wholly towards him so that they all then unanimously Associated and friendly strove togther who should have the greatest share in him and do the most for him Sometimes God for the Preservation of the Person whom he intrusts with the Government inspires the Hearts of his Prophets with the Knowledge of the Secret Counsels of those that rise up against them and thereby eludes and disappoints the Success of their Designs Thus when the King of Syria warr'd against Israel he took Counsel with his Servants saying in such and such a Place shall be my Camp The Man of God immediately sent to the King of Israel to beware of passing to that place for thither saith he the Syrians are come down and he saved himself as the Text says not once nor twice that way Therefore the King of Syria was troubled and concluded that some of his own Privy Council had betray'd his Secrets till one of his Servants told him that none but the Prophet Elisha had revealed his most secret Intentions for saith he he telleth the King of Israel the Words that thou speakest in thy Bed-Chamber You see then that God is pleas'd in a more Peculiar manner to take upon himself the Care and Protection of his Anointed and to appear in sundry manners for the Discovery of those hidden Counsels that are hatch'd in the most Secret Places against them And this God does as I have already hinted for the continuance of the orderly Government of the World which would in every short Period of time be put out of Joynt if the Designs of Proud Ambitious and Revengeful Men who upon several Interests are ready at every turn to combine against those that are possess'd of the Seat of Honour and the Throne of Justice should obtain their design'd and intended Effect For the Welfare and Prosperity of the People are lock'd and treasur'd up in the Life and Safety of a Good Virtuous Valiant and Couragious Prince whose Life as the Children of Israel told King David as truly as well as affectionately in relation to the Publick Good is worth ten thousand of his Subjects Seeing their loss may easily be recruited and made up again but the loss of a good King is so much the greater by how much the harder to be repaired again Besides the dismal consequences that attend a Nation ween depriv'd suddainly accidentally and unexpectedly of him on whose staffe of Authority under GOD their Strength chiefly depended and relyed makes the Case most deplorable The Prophet Zachariah took two Staves the one he called Beauty the other Bands when those Two were broken and Three Shepheards cut off in one Month the Order of the Government wherein consisted its Beauty and its Bands wherein consisted its strength was dissolved and the Brotherhood between Judah and Israel was broken as you may see Zachariah 11.7 to the 14th upon this account God some particular Cases only reserv'd does usually defend those good Princes whom he raises up to be instrumental to the Peace and Prosperity of his People as he does the Earth it self with a Shield and protects them both from the open Assaults and the more dangerous hidden Plots and Conspiracies of their most furious and implacable Enemies Why then do these worse then heathen Miscreants from time to time conspire against the Lives of Princes and take Council together against the Lord and his Anointed saying Let us break their bands even the bands of their Lives asunder and cast their cords from us Why do they rage so furiously and imagine such a vain thing and contrive such designs as they are not able to perform For he that sitteth on high shall laugh them to scorn the Lord shall have them in derision when they least think of it he shall speak to them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure he shall break them with a rod of Iron and dash them in pieces like a Potters vessel Surely the reason why these mischievous workers of Iniquity in secret Places who lay in wait for Blood and lurk privily in corners for the Innocent without a cause are so bent upon these wicked and abominable Designs is their misapprehension of the Divine Nature They do not certainly believe that God takes any notice of what is done and acted in this Lower World but imagine that he sits an unconcern'd Spectator of the various Scenes that are presented on the Theatre of the Earth and that he lets every thing go on and succeed suitably to the Vigour and Energy of those Natural Causes by which it is managed without any interposition of his own Power to controul and check their Proceedings though he never so much dislike and disapprove of them or else they fondly conceive that their hidden Deeds of Darkness are unknown to him and that he cannot pierce into the depth of their secret Councels otherwise did they either believe that God took any particular Care of the Government of the World or that he was a discerner of the Thoughts and Intents of the Heart they would not be so foolishly impudent as to dare to Plot against the Lives and to devise and compass the death of those whom he hath more peculiarly shrowded under the wings of his particular and especial Providence This is the very Reason given by the Royal Prophet why these workers of Iniquity boast themselves in their Villanies Psal 9.4.7 They say the Lord shall not see neither the God of Jacob regard it But he presently convinces them of their Folly and Ignorance in the next Verse when he says Ye fools when will ye be wise He that planted the Ear shall he not hear He that formed the Eye shall he not see Yea he sees them in their most private Cabals and in their most secret

the better preservation of Mankind he hath denounced a severe penalty against every one who should upon any unwarrantable Account Destroy the Life of another Declaring That whosoever should shed Man's Blood by Man his Bloud should be shed yet he hath thought fit to lay a particular Injunction upon all Persons not to offer any violence to those whom he for by him Kings Reign hath set in Authority over his People to which end he hath fixed a peculiar Mark and Character upon those whom he hath design'd and appointed for publick Offices of Trust upon whose welfare the safety of the whole depends to keep their Persons Sacred and Inviolable saying Touch not mine Anointed and do my Prophets no harm because by them he was to promulgate and put in execution those Laws and Precepts which if duely observed would keep the World in Peace and Prosperity here and lead them the way to Eternal Happiness hereafter And likewise to be a Terror to those who would not yield Obedience to his Commands for the Magistrate is not only the Minister of God for the incouragement of them that do well but likewise a Revenger to execute Wrath upon him who doth evil Touch not God's Anointed no not with the venemous Arrow of thy Tongue for he hath given a particular Charge that none should dare to Curse the Ruler of his People as it is Recorded Exod. 22.28 To which St. Paul alludes in the 23 of the Acts ver 5. when he was taxed for reviling the High Priest when he says I wist not Brethren that he was the High Priest for it is written thou shalt not speak evil of the Ruler of thy People and it was no less then death to do so as appears by what Abishai said concerning the Railer Shimei Shall not Shimei be put to death for this because he cursed the Lord 's Anointed And David when he dying left it in Charge to his Son Not to hold him guiltless but to bring down his Hoar-Head to the Grave with Blood and we find that he was afterwards slain upon that old score by Solomon's Commandment But here my Text seems to go further when the same Wise Man tells us That we must not only forbear from casting Reproaches and Calumnies upon our Governor by scurrilous and opprobrious Language thereby to make him vile and to blacken him in the Eyes and Esteem of his Subjects to the endangering his Person and his Government but we must not so much as in the secret of our Heart think evil of him nor wish his ill nor in our mind contrive to do him any Mischief for even that Thought of the Heart which was the first mover of the wicked Design for as our Saviour says Out of the Heart proceed Murders faise Witness and Blasphemies c. shall not go undiscovered before it come to its full execution and consequently shall not be unpunisht Curse not the King no not in thy Thought says the wisest of Princes nor the Rich no not in thy Bed-Chamber for a Bird of the Air shall carry the voice and that which hath wings shall tell the matter King Solomon to whom God had given a Wise and Understanding Heart had searched narrowly into the Causes of all things under the Sun and strictly examined as you will find throughout this whole Book of his Sermons all the Proceedings of God in the management of the Affairs of this World so far forth as they were knowable and apprehensible by their effects and does more particularly insist upon the various methods of his Providential Dispensations towards his Creatures than upon any other Subject whatsoever And upon a general Survey he acquaints us that he had observed that as God had not placed all things on a Level so neither had he left all things to be guided and order'd necessarily by the common Rules of Nature which he hath prescribed to the whole Creation but that sometime whenever he pleases he interposes his own Power for the bringing about his own Ends to the frustrating of those Designs which had they been left to work according to the strength and vigour of those proper Instruments and means whereby they were acted and carried on must have produced effects suitable to their respective Causes Thus he tells us that the Race is not always to the Swift nor yet the Battle to the Strong nor Bread to the Wise nor Riches to Men of Vnderstanding though these in their several ways are the best qualifications for the obtaining of those Ends And as God hath put a great difference between those of the same kind ordaining some to Rule and others to obey by which subordination the Government of the World is preserved in that uniform Harmony wherein it continues as to the main at this day so does he take a more particular Care of those whom he hath appointed for the administration of Justice and the preservation of the Rights and Liberties of his People committed to their Charge then of others of the ordinary sort and mould as knowing that they would be apt to be exposed to a thousand hazards and violences for the due execution of their Office it being a difficult matter to satisfie and please all Parties that sue to them for Justice and to gratifie all those who pretend by extraordinary Services to have merited great Favours from their Prince and then the Party who thinks himself wrong'd and aggriev'd for want of such a favourable Sentence as he expected in his Cause or who thinks he is not sufficiently rewarded according to his Deserts will be prone to Meditate and Study Revenge and to side with those who are discontented upon the same or any other Account And therefore the All Wise Moderator of the World hath thought fit in order to the keeping the frame of Government on the Wheels and to prevent that disturbance that would accrue to the Publick by the frequent Change and alteration of Magistrates and to encourage Persons qualify'd thereunto to take those weighty and troublesome Imployments upon them to secure and protect them with a higher and more defensible Mound and Bulwark of his special Providence then ordinary and to set a particular Watch over them so that there cannot be so much as the least Thought of evil designed against them nor the closest contrivance hatcht in the most secret Apartment of the Heart either against their Persons or their Government so long as they are approved by him and that they act in conformity to those great and good Ends for which he set them in those places of Trust as well as Honour but as it is known to him from whom nothing is hid so doth he in his own time when he sees all things ripe for execution send his Emissaries and dispatch his Messengers to discover the bottom of those damnable and hellish Conspiracies that are plotted against them and thereby to frustrate and defeat their deepest and most secret Designs for there is nothing