Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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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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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