Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A27357
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David and Saul, or, His Majesty's case and his enemies preached on the occasion of the Association / by T.B.
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T. B., countrey minister of the Church of England.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing B180A; ESTC R25900
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13,227
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31
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it hinder the Reformation of Religion for the People will fetch up the Ark with joy and fix it in a lawful Tabernacle till a Temple can be builded 3. God shews his Justice in discovering their wickedness and laying it open before the Sun that the horror of it may convince and deter all While sins are carried on in the dark and disguises are found to cover them Men sin securely and conclude that because the World doth not see God will not But when their sins are discovered and the hainousness of them laid before the World to their shame then they find That there is a God that judgeth Psal 58. 11. in the earth They may plot against the righteous and gnash on them with their teeth but God shall laugh Psal 37. 12 13. at them as foreseeing that their day is coming Little thought Saul to hear of his sparing idolatrous and persecuting Amalek by a Witches Familiar but he hath it told him with a vengeance and Satan could tell him too that as little as he thought of it God would set David on the Throne and establish him in it This was heavy Tydings and the sense of God's being departed from him and refusing to answer him and the reproach of Hell it self for his former Enormities strike him at the Heart and he falls into a fainting swoon out of mere anguish 4. The Justice of God is seen in being an Enemy to Wicked Workers and fighting against them It is not to be expected that God should be an Enemy to their Enemies and an Adversary to their Adversaries who forsake his Commandments and practice the contrary Would Men have him on their side they must be stedfast on his For God is 2 Chron. 15. 2. with us whilst we are with him but if we forsake him he will cast us off for ever Whilst Saul acts by Samuel's Direction matters go pretty well with him but when he stands upon his own Leggs he reels and totters his Spirit is in an hurry betwixt anger and fear and he is tossed with his own misgiving Imaginations no honourable Exploit adorns his Government but all goes on quite contrary and at last he disgracefully falls upon his own Sword out of mere Despair Behold now the Anguish he is in He hath no Anchor-hold nor any Expectation of the favour of God but a sad Indication of the contrary the sound of a shaking leaf terrifieth him and tho' his Army on Gilboa are Men resolved to fight yet Many of them deserting and going 1 Chro. 12. 20. to David and the rest having God against them his Heart fails him and a detestable Amalekite whose countrey he had partly spared doth him the last desired Office to let out his despairing Soul out of his dying Body And thus God manifested himself to be a God of Justice and that so eminently that all might see it Perhaps some Pretenders to Religion may blind their own Eyes and when God's hand is lifted up will not see Isa 26. 10. but God may so far convince them as to make them see and be ashamed for their envy against his people whom he delivers by their fall whatever others will do is no great matter all good Men are bound to take Notice of his Dealings and to adore him accordingly And this brings me to the last thing to be enquired into IV. Let us now see how God by his Justice on wicked Men gives cause of Praise to his faithful Servants Now this is manifest these Ways 1. By God's executing Justice on wicked Men and by the return of their Wickedness upon their own Heads makes way for the peace and security of his people which is matter of Admiration and Praise Upon the fall of Saul we hear no more of the encouraging of Informers nor any under an hazard for their adherence to God and his Ways There is now all possible Encouragement given to those that will cleave to God and none have any cause to complain of Grievances for Religion's sake only they who were Idolaters or Apostates find small Encouragement but as for them if they will complain because they are straitned in their Desires and fail of their Wishes of having Idolatry promoted let them grumble on If God will rescue his from the Iron Hands of Persecutors they have cause of Praise and Thansgiving to him When Constantinus Chlorus reigned and gave ease to the Christians in this our Nation who lately suffered the most horrid torments under Dioclesian how do the delivered Christians rejoice That they were not thought Criminals for Religion and that their Euseb lib. 8. cap. 12. Churches were not defaced nor they themselves persecuted But when his Son Constantine the Great reigned and slew both Maxentius and Licinius then they triumphed and rejoiced greatly and that which administred cause of Joy was that they were at liberty Religion in safety and that God had glorified his Justice on the most bloody Persecutors 2. It is matter of Joy That now a way is made for the propagation of Religion and the further spreading of it in the world When David was arrived at the Throne he had indeed many Forreign Enemies and very bloody but victorious Wars but this made many become Proselytes to the Jews and some Forreign Potentates became his Confederates And certainly those that did so did it not out of fear of his Conquering Arms or to prevent being the next Morsel to his Ambition but to confederate with him as the Captain of God's peculiar People And that this is highly probable Hiram's granting so much Cedar and so many Work men to the building of the Temple because he was ever a lover of David is a clear demonstration And others also were not wanting to send him great Presents which he dedicated towards 2 Sam. 10. 11. the building of the Temple So that Religion spread further and further and David's Government was an Enlargement to it When Constantine the Great had conquered the Pagan Emperors then the Kingdoms of the Earth became the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ Then was the Church farther propagated and Christianity was the Religion of the Empire and though Satan by Divisions Ambition and Heresies did much hinder its Purity and Progress yet it got above all and spread farther still 'till it had eaten out the heart of Paganism it self I cannot say what will be for the future but that the fall of wicked Men and the Peace of Protestants may be the Conviction of its blind Adversaries and the occasion of re-establishing the persecuted Reformed Churches abroad is my hearty and earnest Prayer And now I have dispatched these four Enquiries what remains for me to do but to apply this to our present Occasion which I shall do thus 1. This requires us to give God the Glory of his Mercy to us Of his Mercy I say who hath preserved our Dear and Dread Sovereign from Impending Mischief who hath preserved our