Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A49119
|
The history of Joshua applied to the case of King Charles II in a thanksgiving sermon / preached at St. Peters, Exon. on the 29th of May 1684, by Tho. Long, one of the prebendaries.
|
Long, Thomas, 1621-1707.
|
1684
(1684)
|
Wing L2970; ESTC R38031
|
17,673
|
33
|
how heavy such Royal Bloud hath lain on them and their children already and still cries aloud for more vengeance which would certainly fall on them did not the bloud of Christ speak better things than the bloud of Abel I know it is a hard thing to perswade some men that there hath been a Plot and Confederacy to take away the life of the King and it is the interest of some infidels not to believe it till they see it executed as in the case of the Royal Martyr And to others that have Christian and charitable principles it is so great a wonder that there should be any such Ruffians and Desperado's among us that should seek to take away his life in whom all their lives are bound up that it is no wonder if they could not believe it But their own tongues have testified it against them and made them to fall and the hand of God hath so fully discovered and defeated them that all the world except those whom the God of this world hath blinded do see it and are ashamed And all these endeavours to destroy the King God hath in great mercy converted to the magnifying of him When Joshua had passed over Jordan the use of that Miracle was to endear him to the people and to assure the people that the living God was with him Josh 3.10 and that all the people of the earth might see the mighty hand of God ch 4. 24. But though the mighty hand of the living God hath lifted up the King though God appeared unto him not once or twice as unto Solomon giving him great wisdom and lasting prosperity yet as Isaiah complains ch 26. 11. Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see how wonderfully God hath ordained peace for us and wrought all our works in us But they shall see and be ashamed of their envy to the people We have seen all the things that God did for Joshua but we have not yet seen all the great things that God will do for our King How God hath begun to magnifie him we have seen by many signes and wonders He honoured him with a signe in the Heavens a Star appearing at noon when he was baptized He honoured him with many wonderful deliverances at home and abroad when he was in his low condition He honoured him with many Graces preserving him in the true Faith and fear of his Name against the manifold temptations to which he was exposed in his banishment He honoured him with many special endowments that qualified him for Government above all his neighbouring Princes He honoured him by turning the hearts and affections of his People which had been long alienated from him He honoured him by the wonderful restoration of him to his Fathers Throne without the least opposition He honoured him by discovering and defeating the many secret Conspiracies of implacable and bloud-thirsty men and doubtless as he hath defeated these which are discovered so he hath many more which are not yet discovered He hath honoured him by making him beloved at home and feared abroad and putting the Balance of Christendom into his hands He hath honoured him by giving us for more than twenty years together the blessings of Peace and Plenty when the Nations round about us wallow in Bloud and Confusion yea Mercy and Truth are met together and Righteousness and Peace do kiss each other He hath honoured him with the Gift of Healing that loathsome Disease of the Kings Evil which otherwise would have destroyed the bodies of many thousands of his Subjects and in a good measure healing by a touch of his righteous and merciful government the Souls of many more of the like Evils in their hearts which might have destroyed Souls and Bodies eternally And it doth not yet appear how much farther God will go on to perfect that great work by which he hath begun to magnifie him but what hath been already done may serve to raise the confidence of all his Subjects in their Loyalty towards him and to strike a terrour into the hearts of all that hate him and are otherwise to mind them of the dishonourable end of Haman that would not honour him whom the God of Heaven hath delighted to honour Joshua himself was never so magnified as our King hath been Miracles were common in his days he and his people did eat and drink and were clothed by Miracles but such Wonders as we have seen cannot be parallel'd in any Age for a thousand years together They were so many and done in such an extraordinary and unexpected manner by the immediate hand of God that all that see it will say This hath God done for they may perceive that it is his work Joshua had a particular promise and immediate assistances from God our King onely a general promise and providence to depend upon Onely he was very couragious to believe and to do all that God required of him and many a time against hope he hoped in him and was holpen Joshua was to take the land of other Nations into possession our King regained his own Inheritance Joshua conquered by the Sword and ruled with a Rod of iron Charles by the Grace of God Joshua shed much bloud King Charles dryed that bloudy Issue which had so long defiled and exhausted the Nation Let not our Adversaries boast any more of their Successes as arguments that God owned their Good old Cause which was conceived by Perjury and Hypocrisie and nourished with Bloud and Cruelty Rapine and Sacriledge for many years but was destroyed by the hand of God in one day this Joyful day which we now celebrate And now I see nothing wanting but quiet and peaceable hearts Thankfulness and Obedience to the Law of God and the King to make us a happy people Onely the guilt and just fears of some men haunt and provoke them still to act over all those Tragical Scenes which for almost twenty years together made the three Nations so many Stages of Bloud and Confusion As for us let us now added to our Praises for the Mercies past and for the perpetuating of the Joys of this day our hearty Prayers to God that as he hath already equalled the Blessings and Successes of our King to those of Joshua so he would renew them to him every day that he may arrive to the age of Joshua and his care to magnifie God and establish his Worship and perpetuate it to succeeding Generations may increase with his years and that in his own due time God would exchange the Crown and Glories which he enjoyeth here for those which are prepared and reserved for him in Heaven hereafter FINIS BOOKS lately published by the same AUTHOR THe Unreasonableness of Separation the Second Part. Or a further Impartial Account of the History Nature and Pleas of the present Separation from the Communion of the Church of England Begun by Edw. Stillingfleet D.D. Dean of St. Pauls Continued from 1640. to 1681. With special Remarks on the Life and Actions of Mr. Richard Baxter No Protestant but the Dissenters Plot Discovered and Defeated Being an Answer to the late Writings of several Eminent Dissenters Wherein their Designes against the Established Church of England and the unreasonableness of Separation are more fully manifested Both printed by J. C. and Freeman Collins for Dan. Brown at the Black Swan and Bible without Temple-bar A Vindication of the Primitive Christians in point of Obedience to their Prince against the Calumnies of a Book intituled The Life of Julian written by Ecebolius the Sophist As also the Doctrine of Passive Obedience cleared in defence of Dr. Hicks Together with an Appendix being a more full and distinct Answer to Mr. Tho. Hunt's Preface and Postscript Unto all which is added the Life of Julian enlarg'd Printed by J.C. and Freeman Collins and sold by Robert Kettlewell at the Hand and Scepter over against St. Dunstan's Church King David's Danger and Deliverance or the Conspiracy of Absolon and Achitophel defeated In a Sermon preached in the Cathedral Church of Exon on the Ninth of September 1683. Being the day of Thanksgiving appointed for the Discovery of the Late Fanatical Plot. Printed by J.C. and Freeman Collins for Fincham Gardiner at the White-horse in Ludgate-street A Compendious History of all the Popish and Fanatical Plots and Conspiracies against the Established Government in Church and State in England Scotland and Ireland from the first year of Queen Elizabeth's Reign to this present year 1684. With Seasonable Remarks Printed for Daniel Brown at the Black Swan and Bible without Temple-bar and Timothy Goodwin at the Maiden-head against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street
by the consent of the whole congregation of the children of Israel who came together at Shiloh and set up the Tabernacle of the Congregation there for the Levites had no part among the people but the Priesthood of the Lord was their inheritance ch 18. 7. for the Lord had commanded by Moses to give them cities to dwell in with the suburbs thereof And the children of Israel gave to the Levites out of their inheritance at the commandment of the Lord ch 21. 2 3. See Numb 35.2 And all the cities which the Levites had were forty and eight with their suburbs ch 21. 41. And here to the immortal renown of Joshua we shall observe his and Gods great displeasure against such as withheld any of those things that were devoted to the Lord for ch 6. 24. the silver and the gold and other ornaments were to be put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. But Achan a sacrilegious person seeing among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment and two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight he coveted them and took them and hid them in his tent but they proved to be as so many coals from the Altar which were by the wrath of God kindled into such a flame as consumed all that he had for all Israel stoned them with stones and burned them with fire ch 7. 25. This sin of Achan was seconded by another sacrilegious sin of the Reubenites and Gadites that dwelt on the other side of Jordan for they raised another Altar or place of meeting besides that which Joshua erected at Shiloh and this is called a rebellion against the Lord ch 22. 16. for separation from the true Worship of God and setting up a diverse Altar is the worst sort of Sacriledge Achan with-held onely some Ornaments these withdrew the Souls of Gods people from his service And in this case the children of Israel declared themselves enemies to the Reubenites whom they apprehended to separate from the established Worship at Shiloh for they had made not onely a very great Altar but made it after the fashion of the Altar of the Lord v. 28. and not after the fashion of an Altar of memorial ch 22. 10. And the reasons of their building of it were lest their Land should be thought unclean v. 19. and lest the children of Israel should say to their children Ye have no part in the Lord. For which cause the children of Israel gathered themselves at Shiloh to make war against them ch 22. 12. but they first sent Commissioners to treat with them ch 22. 13. Phinees the son of Eleazar the Priest and ten others with him who argued them out of their separation and desisted not until the Reubenites declared That it was not intended as an Altar for sacrifice distinct from that at Shiloh but onely as a memorial that the Lord was their God and therefore they called the name of it Ed i. e. a Witness of Gods wonderful works and mercies to them You see here what apprehensions the people of God had of the great sin and mischief of separation They accounted it first a Rebellion against God for God being one ought to have a uniform Worship Multiplicity of forms in Gods publick Worship would bring a contempt of all and from many the people would relapse to none Of which both Israel and England have had sad experience And this separation from the true and toleration of false Worship brought the Israelites to down-right Idolatry against which Joshua so earnestly exhorted the Israelites in the four last Chapters Secondly Different Modes in Religious Worship breed differences in affection and separation from the established Communion in the Church is followed with Sedition in the State against the Governours by whom that Worship is established and therefore the Children of Israel declared that the setting up of another Altar by the Reubenites was not onely rebellion against the Lord but against them v. 19. and a likely means to perpetuate division and discord between their succeeding Generations for their children would say to one another Ye have no part in the Lord. And by this Religious care for the uniform Worship of God God magnified Joshua in the sight of all the people But besides these Stirs on the other side of the Water Joshua was perplexed with the Strivings and Divisions of his People at home who being mingled with the heathen learned their ways and forsook the Worship of God at Shiloh There were some Princes of the Congregation who were surprised by the wiles and fair pretences of the Gibeonites to enter into a Covenant with them ch 9. v. 18. for they had sent their Elders who pretended they came from far their Garments were old their Bread mouldy and every thing about them smelt like a Good Old Cause They made Lyes their refuge for they came in zeal as they pretended for the Name of the Lord God of Israel v. 9. and v. 8. we are your Majesties Loyal Servants But these men were still as great strangers to the God of Israel as great enemies to his people as any of the Amorites or Jebusites and though they pretended to have come from far yet upon enquiry it was found that they were not three days journey distant from them their place and original discovered them to be Canaanites and their Elders to be new Impostors who having by their subtilty and importunity obtained a Toleration were intolerably troublesome to the Government And therefore the Princes of Israel are blamed for their fond credulity and indulgence to such a people for they took of their Victuals and perhaps some Presents and rashly comprehend them in a League But as the Text notes They asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord v. 14 But Gods Oracle plainly commanded that such Separatists should be rooted out The Hypocrisie of these Elders being known to Joshua though he granted them their lives which were forfeited to the Sword yet he denied them their liberty of Conscience v. 15. and made them hewers of wood and drawers of water for the service of the Altar of God v. 27. Next to these Gibeonites there were Jebusites also that had gotten such strong holds in the Land that they could not be cast out until the days of David for they had such confidence in their Telesms the Spels and Conjurations which they had made the blinde and the lame Images which they set up on the walls of Sion that they told David peremptorily Except he took them away which they thought he could never do he could not come in 2 Sam. 5.6 7. As if those Idols had been so many Guardian-Angels to protect them though they could neither see hear or move All these Parties were as Joshua told the people ch 23. 13. snares and traps unto them scourges to their sides and thorns in their eyes until they had utterly demolished and thrown down their Altars But all these