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A47368
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A sermon preach'd before His Majesty at White-Hall, May 29th, 1668 by D.H. Killigrew ...; Sermons. Selections. 1685
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Killigrew, Henry, 1613-1700.
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1668
(1668)
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Wing K447; ESTC R597
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12,463
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39
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Augustissimi CAROLI Secundi Dei Gratia ANGLIAE SCOTIAE FRANCIAE ET HIBERNIAE REGIS Effigies A Hertsens Fecit HONY SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE A SERMON Preach'd before His MAJESTY AT VVhite-Hall May 29 th 1668. BY D. H. KILLIGREW Master of the SAVOY and Almoner to his Royal Highness the Duke of YORKE Published by his Majesties Special Command LONDON Printed by T. R. for R. Royston Book-seller to his most Sacred Majesty 1668. A SERMON Preach'd before His MAJESTY May 29 th 1668. WISDOME does not only do her works well but perceives that shee does so delights in their Beauty exults in remembrance of the master'd difficulty and triumphs ore the conquer'd Opposition Thus God stood-off as 't were from his great worke of the Creation when he had finish'd it applauded and bles'd it prided himself as I may say in his noble performance in that he had brought light out of darkness Order out of Chaos a World out of nothing In the like manner when he had here compos'd the Distractions and Confusions both in the Church and State of Israel by establishing David literally and Christ mystically on the Throne of the Kingdome he glorys in having brought about his great Designe laughs at the fruitless Opposition of his Adversarys at home and abroad of the Philistins the Moabites the Ammonites the Damascens the Amalekites of the King of Zoba and of all the turbulent and ambitious spirits of the house of Saul delights to recount their Might and their Machinations the more to signalize their Overthrow and to make his Victory illustrious For after all their rage their malice their Councells their combinations their seeming successes against him the Issue was this Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Sion We may observe in the words these three things 1. The Person establisht My King i.e. David literally so called and Christ Mystically 2. His Establishment I have set my King upon my holy hill of Sion 3. Gods Glorying in the fact that he had done it with such a Non obstante notwithstanding such Opposition and Contradiction Yet have I set my King 1. The Person establisht My King Gods King Not only holy Scripture but the writings of Heathens declare Kings to be sacred persons descended more immediately from the Gods and more particularly depending on them Kings are from Iupiter says Callimachus and nothing ever descended more sacred from him And Theocritus Kings are the special Care of the Gods And this Epithete's affected by Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God-lov'd Kings Indeed all Kings in general are Gods derive their Authority from him governe by his Permission and Providence as himselfe testifies By me Kings Reign But then he delights in a more especiall manner to stile Good Kings his to appropriate their Persons and own their Causes to interpret all things done to them as done to himself as at Verse 2. Why do-the Rulers take councell together against the Lord and against his Anoynted Conspiracys against the King are reckoned Conspiracys against God the resisting his Anoynted the resisting himself And thus if it be a Glorious thing to be a King 't is a Blessed to be a Good King for as splendor attends Majesty and Greatnesse protection and safety and felicity and the love of Heaven attend Righteousnesse But let us see why David is here more particularly call'd Gods King then others The First Reason we may say was because he was a King of Gods Making because he brought him to the Throne having no Title by Birth to it à Cautis ovium tuli te I called him from the Sheep-book to the Scepter And as these Persons which are of our Election preferring or favouring we call Ours this is my Schollar my Souldier my Officer because he was of my nomination my choosing my advancing so David was called Gods King because he was of his choosing and advancing his Right to the Crown was his immediate nomination he had no other Interest in the Royalty but the Interest he had in Gods favour and if he had not been Gods King he had not been King of Israel 2. David was call'd Gods King more particularly by reason of his many Deliverances of him he preserv'd him from the time of his first anoynting by Samuel from the jealousy of Saul and the malice of Sauls house conducted him through all the potent and perillous Oppositions of the Heathen as I shew'd and left him not till he had set him on his holy hill of Sion i.e. establish't him peaceably and Gloriously on the United Throne of Israel and Judah And for this reason David is not only call'd Gods King in my Text but in the following Verse his Sonne Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee The day of his Redemption and Promotion being counted the day of his Creation And the same words are apply'd to Christ in the like manner after his Resurrection Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee The day of his deliverance from death and the Grave is call'd the day of his Nativity or Generation the day in which God exalted him and Invested him with Power the day in which he begot him 3. David was call'd Gods King more particularly because he was a King of his likeing as 't is said After his own heart And in this sense also men say a thing is theirs when they approve it and are pleased with it above things of the like kind Horace is my Poet Tully is my Oratour Tacitus is my Historian because these hit my fancy and Genius In the Books of the Kings of Israel and Judah and the Chronicles of their Acts there 's registed a long Catalogue of them but though they were all Kings of Gods people they were not all Gods Kings in this last sense Kings of his liking he did not boast of many of them or own their proceedings but of those only which executed Justice and Judgement destroyed Idolatry and restored the true Worship the others though they wore the Crown they wore not the Praise of being Kings of Gods liking they were of the royal Vnction but not of this divine Relation And just after this manner Christ esteemed his Kindred not she that bare him was his Mother nor those that descended of the same stock were of his Alliance but they that heard his sayings and did them were his Mother his Sisters and his Bretheren 'T is not he that bears the Diadem and the Scepter not he that is of the Race of Kings that is anoynted by the Prophet shooted for the people praised by the hired Historian that is Gods King but he that does that which is Righteous in his sight the others may boast their Title from God but they can boast no title to him to his Approbation and liking and consequently not to his Protection and Blessing In the Hebrew Dialect things that excell in Greatness or Height above others are entitl'd to
are chiefly protected by Heaven those that keep divine things under Lock and Key but that treasure them up in a faithfull heart When David by sin dishonour'd God and defam'd Religion his four-fold Fortification little profited him but that security which the power of the Heathen united with the disaffection of his Subjects could not shake his rebellious Son alone drove him from and he fled ingloriously and left his impregnable Sion and all the Pledges of Gods favour and residence with him behind him confessing that when he had violated their Sanctity he had invalidated also their Power of Protecting and though he possess'd still the Curtains of the Tabernacle the Deity was fled from him And little will it profit us to have the Gospel among us nay to have it more purely Preacht than to any other People under the Sun if we are the worst Auditors of it of any other People under the Sun to have the Sacraments more rightly administer'd if we are the wickedst Receivers of them 'T is the holy Use of holy Ordinances that make them a guard and defence Righteousness as 't is the Honour of the Soul so 't is the best Armour of the Body and does not only as the Psalmist says Bring peace at the last but as the Apostle teaches safety at present For who is he that shall harm you says he if you follow that which is good 'T was the Custom of the Ancient Heathen when they Besieg'd a City in the first place to endeavour to entice out the Guardian Deity by alledging the Injustice of the Inhabitants and inviting it to reside with a more holy People ut habeat te Vrbs melior acceptior que Holding it impossible to prevail against the Out-works when this Divine In ward strength stood firm The Sanctity of a Christian is this little retir'd Deity in the Chappel which if it cannot be charm'd or entic'd out by Temptation the Malice of Earth and Hell cannot prejudice the Person in whom it dwells The Prophet Eliah was call'd The Chariots and Horsemen of Israel but much more deservedly may Justice Piety and Sanctity be styled The Chariots and Horsemen of a Kingdom And when God by the Restauration of his Majesty and true Religion gave us the Opportunity of exercising all Vertues Civil and Divine he put it also into our hands to be as safe and well fortifi'd as we cared or desir'd to be he made our Condition as secure as a Mortal condition could be made and if our Mountain be turn'd into a Wheel our Rock into a Rolling-stone 't is our sins that have unfixt and loosen'd its Roots and while we are led by vanity what wonder is it that the Kingdom fluctuates after the manner of Vain and Unstable things If we consider Lastly how great and difficult the work was to set the Kingdom again upon its Basis after it was so utterly subverted to raise up the Truth and Splendor of the Church so long deform'd and Opprest by Schism and Sacriledge we may allow God also as high nay a higher cause of Glorying in our behalf than for establishing the Church and State of Israel But the time suffers me not to insist on this particular neither is it very necessary to do it we having all here been Witnesses and Partakers of what has pass'd and this will be the properer Task of another Age. Instead therefore of dressing up a Triumph for God into which also our own Vanity or Spleen may be apt to insinuate it self I shall imploy the few words yet allow'd me to speak to excite our Thanks for these things And if the Benefits we have receiv'd are such as are worthy of Gods Glorying undoubtedly they are Worthy of our highest acknowledgments I say of Ours in the most General and Universal comprehension both of Prince and People not of the Prince alone as some are willing to reckon the Benefits his Majesty has receiv'd not to revere him the more for being so much in Gods Favour but to make him more indebted to God than themselves as if because this is call'd the Kings day all the Mercies of it and all the Thanks for them were to be put upon his account Undoubtedly the Kings Obligations to Heaven are infinite but was he only restor'd this day to his Crown and Countrey Or were not all we likewise re-call'd from the same Banishment or from Prisons and Sequestrations Dungeons and Gibbets at home to enjoy our Lives and Liberties our Religion and Estates Has all the delicious Fare of the Land been serv'd to the Kings Table All the Gold lace been worn upon his back Nay but I behold many at this instant standing like Kings in the presence of the King and 't is to be complain'd of that the Enjoyments of many Out-vie his in their proportion Is there then no Thanks of our Own due to God We have this Obligation even more than the King has that we have him that yet and yet we enjoy this Principle of Union this Bond of Peace this Foundation of Security and Prosperity O let us not forget in the loud joyes and Gaiety and Festivity of this day the daies of sadness and silence of scarcity and Doubtfulness of Soul when we had no King when a Villain sat in the Throne when our hatred and Aversion rul'd over us the Scourge of Loyalty and the Oppressour of Religion and Justice Let us not forget the Time when to be Noble was to be Guilty and to be Orthodox an Enemy to the State Again when to be a Mechanick made room for the Person in the Courts of Judicature and a Fanatick quallify'd him for the highest Charges and Honours and our Great Ones bow'd down to these or bow'd under a sad necessity The remembrance of these things will make us readily acknowledge the Mercies of this Day to have infinite and General to us all and not only heighten but ennoble and sanctifie our Joy make the Feast resound with Thanksgiving Praises of God and not only with loose and confus'd Mirth Riot and Excess it will preserve us from falling into that fatall Ingratitude which accompanies Prosperity and which God in the People of Israel warns all Nations of and yet which all more or less fall into The forgetfulness of the Arm that deliver'd them and the Goodness that made them Great And in the midst of our Felicity we shall remember our Duty and our Ease shall not corrupt our Manners nor our Power and Affluence be snairs either to our selves or others And then God will also delight more and more to shew us Mercy and we shall not fear the Potency and Ambition of our Neighbours abroad nor our worse Enemies Poverty and Distraction at home Schism shall not spread ore the Kingdom like a Gangren nor Discontent be catching and communicative like a Plague open Rebellion shall be dasht and the secret Treason that lurks in a Counsel shall be seen through and God will repeat and iterate his glorying we have heard this day in the Person of our King and of his Posterity to all Ages even till all Kingdoms are swallow'd up in the Kingdom of Heaven Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Sion Which God of the riches of his Mercy grant and to which Almighty Eternal and most Gracious God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Glory and Thanksgiving this day forth and for evermore Amen FINIS