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city_n	call_v	great_a	lord_n	5,583	4	3.6442	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86310	Queen Esthers resolves: or, A princely pattern of heaven-born resolution, for all the lovers of God and their country: opened in a sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons, at the monethly fast, May 27, 1646. / By Richard Heyricke, Warden of Christs Colledge in Manchester in Lancashire, and one of the Assembly of Divines.	Heyrick, Richard, 1600-1667.	1646 (1646)	Wing H1748; Thomason E338_11; ESTC R200845	22,360	35

sides waiting for Gods determination at last God in his glorious Majesty raysed himself from his Throne and effectually cryed out How shall I give thee up England how shall I give thee up and so without Conclusion and finall determination dissolved the Session to the admiration and astonishment of both parties Beloved the truth is we are yet in an uncertain and doubtfull condition none knows what the sentence shall be at last what God will do with us God hath already done as much above our hopes as our deserts God hath lengthned out our tranquillity he hath given us a breathing time great Salvation he hath wrought for us he hath given us Liberty and opportunity to work our salvation with fear and trembling beleeve it the Lord waits for something from us O yee that are the Lords remembrancers ye Senators ye Ministers ye people speak often in his ears give the Lord no rest ye Israel of God ye mighty Princes of the Lord ye men and women of Prayer O all ye that are before the Lord this day this Fasting day open your mouthes wide unto the Lord ask great things of God ye Noahs ye Daniels ye Iobs ye Moses ye Aarons ye Jeremiahs ye Ba●u●hs plead Englands cause with God and let not God go till he hath left the blessing behind him O pray pray pray with strong cryes and groans pray away what ever it is whether person or things that keeps God from us Esther Mordecai they of Shusan they prayed Haman and all the Conspirators dead together Haman and his wise Counsellors they for twelve Moneths together used Divination and Inchantment Esther in three dayes praying overthrew what they were contriving twelve Moneths nothing can stand against Prayer Prayer is omnipotent it is a Commander of the Heavens a Controuler of the Elements it commands God himselfe one prayerfull Christian may do more then ten thousand beside let not then God go lay hands upon him pray the sentence on your side You that are the Parliament of England act strongly for God act like your selves according to the trust reposed in you Did Publius Scipio a private man kill Tyberius Gracohus that did but lightly weaken the Common-wealth and shall we that are Consuls saith the Consul of Rome let Cataline alone to work a common-destruction let not Malignants rest quiet amongst you there can be no safety to our Country to our Religion whiles such misereants lurk in our dwelling little know we what Gun-powder Plots are now in hatching and how neer they are to the Birth whilst the Pope remains at Rome and the Devill in Hell and their Agents in England the sons of darknesse will be still working in the vault of Darknesse to ruine the children of light shew not the least countenance to the detestable Neutrality that is practised by many God writes in his books write you in yours all Neuters Enemies all that are not for you against you The Hedgehog the Hierogliphick of the Newter hath two holes the one towards the South the other toward the North when the South wind blows she stops that hole that is toward the North when the North wind blows she stops that towards the South such urchins are all Temporizers that halt betwixt two opinions And as for Apostates that are fals to their Covenant and to your State let not your eye pitty them let not your hand spare them execute justice to the enemies of the Common-wealth shew mercy with favour to your friends You my Beloved in the Ministery be zealous for God if God bids us prophecy nullus consultandi locus no choise is then best that Roman Magnanimity must then take place necesse ut eas non ut vivas Silvanus and Timotheus peremptorily told the Emperor Power thou hast O Emperor to punish us but never to drive us from the Tenets of our forefathers Eusebius refused to deliver Constantius the Emperor the Decree made by the Councell against the Arians though he threatned to cut off his hand yet he refused it Theodosius reports that the King of Scythia slew Anacharsis the Philosopher for worshiping the mother of the gods after the Athenian manner and the Evangelist records that twice our Saviour purged the Temple he that was the mirrour of Patience see how he looseth the Reines in an holy Indignation in Sacrilegious abuses in Religious quarrels The Multitude of the Offenders the might and malice of the Observers the danger of the Action nor the perill of the consequence stayes his hands but he scourgeth out the buyers and sellers out of the Temple Truly Phineas Zeal Iehu's March Iosiahs Resolution Luthers Heroicall Spirit are necessary for these times It is all one to deny the faith and not to maintain it silence strengthneth Error and they that through fear or negligence hold their peace like sleepy watchmen they betray the City when a truth in Religion is questioned when error is preferred he that to his power doth not resist de suo damnabitur silentio shall be condemned for his silence Courage the Lord is with you And ye people of the land come forth and helpe the Lord against the mighty Curse ye Meroz saith the Angel of the Lord Curse ye bitterly the Inhabitants thereof because they came not to the helpe of the Lord to the helpe of the Lord against the mighty These are not the words of an angry passionate Prophet but of the Angell of the Lord not rashly thundered out from the Pulpit but zealously from Heaven not with meeknesse and calmnesse of Spirit but in bitternesse and fervency of Spirit Here is not a single Curse but a double a multiplyed Curse not against the professed open Enemies but against the lukewarm the feigned friends not against the Cities of the Cananites but against Meroz a City now in the Confines of Israel All Israel was against Achan and all Israel must be for the publike safety If any man draw back Gods Soul shall have no pleasure in that man they are no Israelites indeed that will sit still on this side Iordan whilst their brethren are in the field Be all active in your way for encouragement I will onely say this you shall see your desire of your Enemy your soul shall be filled with the goodnesse of the Lord for the first see Isaiah 60.14 The sons of them that afflicted thee shall come bending Unto thee and all they that despised thee shall bow down themselves at the soales of thy feet and they shall call thee the City of the Lord the Zion of the Holy One of Israel God will make the sons of Princes bow down unto you the greatest that have afflicted you and despised you shall lie at your feet For the second see the successe of this Resolution Esther 9.29 30 31 32. Your Fasts shall be turned into Feasts your dayes of mourning into dayes of rejoycing your good ones shall be made great the Esthers the Mordicais shall be advanced the Hamans the common Enemies shall be destroyed Religion shall be established the Peace and safety of the Country shall be secured Gods glory shal be exalted and you your selves highly Honoured God shall have the glory you the happinesse posterity the blessednesse of this desired Work FINIS Pro. 24.6 Doct. Exod. 32.26 Luke 14.26 1 Cor. 16.22 Eph. 6.24 Acts 21.13 Rom. 9.3 Exod. 32.31 32. 1 Joh. 3.16 Reason 1 Exod. 5.2 Dan. 4.30 1 Chro. 29 14. Heb. 10.5 Cant. 2.16 1 Sam. 2.30 Mat. 26.13 Luke 17.33 Mat. 10.1 Mal. 1.10 Prov. 19.17 Esth. 4.13.14 2 Esdr. 9. 40. to c. 16 27. Ezec. 9.4 Vse 1. Ezec. 37. Isa. 7.11 12. Isai. 53. Esth. 9. c. 10. v. 16. 2 Sam. 21.3 4 5 6. Exod. 21.30 Jer. 41.8 Revel. 18.6 Psa. 137.8.9 Lam. 3.64.65 66. Isa. 26.11 Mat. 23.35 Esth. 1.16 17 18. Ezra 7.26 2 Sam. 9.3 Esth. 6.1.3 1 King 22 19 20. Deu. 4.32 33 34. Judg. 5.23 Isa. 60.14

not all to God is not this equall In point of Honour They that honour me them will I honour God honours them that are of publike Spirits that will lay out themselves and what they have for God the greatest title of honour among the Romans was to be intituled patres patriae they had divine honours and were enrol'd among the Gods the name of Quintus Curtius of Attilius Regulus of Papilius Decius the father and son others are famous and renouned to this day Constantine had the name great and Theodosius had the name good not from the greatnesse of their Empire but from the goodnesse of their Religion You have studyed to set marks of honour upon them that have jeoparded their lives in the high places of the Earth King Darius upon a time opening a great Pomegranate and being asked of what he would wish to have as many as there were grains in that Pomegranate he answered presently So many Zopirusses Zopirus was a Valiant and Noble Commander who seeing the King his Master could hardly surprize Babylon where the trayterous Assyrians were intrenched put in execution this wonderfull and strange Stratagem he caused his servants to rent his whole body all over with scourging to slit his nose to cut his lips and eares then flying covertly to Babylon he made the Assyrians beleeve Darius had used him so because he had spoken in their behalf councelling him to break up his siege and to remove his Army from assaulting them they beleeving the story seeing his Massacred and dis-figured body they gave him the first command by which means he delivered them and the City into Darius power When the Lord Jesus heard of the faith of the Centurion the Text sayes He wondred 't is read he honoured it this raiseth a man above himself and sheweth that he hath more then man somewhat of God in him as there cannot be a greater reproach ignominy and obloquy upon the name of any then of them that have betrayed their Country their names shall rot for ever and their memorials shall perish it is their curse and let their heires inherit it The Jews to this day when they read this History of Esther as often as mention is made of Haman they stamp with their feet frown knock with their hands shout and make an hydeous noyse the name of the gunpowder Traytors is abhord and is in execration to this day and after ages will abominate their basenesse and villanies that have lifted up their hand against the Parliament but the Esthers the Mordicai's the Religious Patriots that have acted in the sphere the brave souldiers whose lives were not dear unto them the faithfull Ministers the Horsemen the Chariots of Israel they shall be had in everlasting remembrance their names shall be perpetuated to all generations and their memory shall live for ever Jael shall be blessed above women and David for killing Goliah shal marry the Kings daughter and his house shall be free in Israel He is worthy He loved our Nation and hath built us a Synagogue Where ever saith Christ this Gospel shall be preached in the whole world there shall also this that this woman hath done for a memoriall of her Pilate is gibbited up in the Creed for condemning Christ whilst Christ for dying for his people Is exalted above all principalities and powers In point of Policy were there nothing but self self security and safety yet this would prompt us to it Christ layeth it down as an irrefragable Axiom Luke 17.33 He that loseth his life shall preserve it No man can give a cup of cold water but shall have his reward Who saith God hath shut my door for nought God is not nor cannot be a barren wildernesse He that hath pitty on the poor lendeth unto the Lord and that which he hath given will he pay him again read what Mordecai told Esther when her fear at first prevailed with her chap. 4. v. 13 14. Think not with thy self that thou shalt escape in the Kings house more then all the Jews for if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time then shall there inlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place but thou and thy fathers house shall be destroyed and who knoweth whether thou be come to the Kingdome for such a time as this A gratious spirit cannot enjoy it self while the publike is in danger that History is worthy your observing though Apocryphall A spark is safer in the fire then separate alone how easie may it be quenched joyn'd to the rest it preserves it self and may burn them that seek to extinguish it a drop taken from the rest instantly dryes away in the sea it lives whiles the sea lives one souldier from the Army in continuall danger in the Army safe certainly that policy is folly that councel foolishnesse that leaves men to themselves to divide from the whole He that bottles all the Tears that numbreth all the hayres that pondreth all the steps that keepeth all the Bones so that not a tear shall be lost not a hair fall not a foot dash against a stone not a bone break if God takes care of the tears the hairs the out-goings the bones of his people how much more for their Liberty for their livelihood for their blood for their lives for their bodies for their souls peruse the sacred book of God search all the Annals the Histories the Records of the Bible and finde me one one example one man one woman that ever were of publike spirits that did but lay to heart the miseries of the Country that did but weep and mourn for the Abominations and Desolations and see if God did not ever preserve them if he was not a Sanctuary a City of Refuge a hiding place a Royall Pavilion to them I could give twenty instances how God hath preserved them Enoch Noah Lot Jeremy Barach Ebedmelech God gives in expresse charge Ezek. 9.4 Go through the midst of the City through the midst of Jerusalem and set a mark upon the foreheads of them that sigh and that cry for all the Abominations that be done in the midst thereof Certainly they that will not perish for their Country shall perish without it or with it whereas they that care nor to perish so that their Country perish not they may be saviours to themselves and to the Country neither they nor the Country shall perish witnesse the successe and issue of this Resolution of Esthers perishing and thus much for the Observation and Confirmation I come in the third and last place to the Use and Application Learn God sometimes brings his people into a perishing condition he leaves them hopelesse and helplesse as Orphans and Widdows the Jews they were at this time in a low and sad condition the Decree was gone forth the day was assigned the Executioners ready the Israel of God they have been as a valley of dead dry bones

as her predecessor Vasthi how easie had it been for her to have over-looked the calamity of her people she that before neglected her Husband her Soveraign how would she have here under-valued her servants her subjects her wise Ladies would have perswaded her yea she would have said her self it had been an unnecessary anxiety to have interrupted her mirth with the thought of their misery a businesse beneath the State of a Queen to undertake the rescue of a few despised Country-men especially with the hazzard of the forfeiture of her honour the high displeasure of the King the danger of the Law the hazzard of her life the small hope of successe This certainly would have been her voyce if they perish they perish but Religious Esther she more esteemeth of her peoples safety then her own her life is bound up in theirs if they perish she could not live she would have been more miserable had she surviv'd their Misery who could desire to live when the Country is dead all owe more to their Country then to themselves this Esther knew which thus strengthned her resolution together with the preservation of her Religion a second consideration 2. Religion is the very Nerves and sinews of the Common-wealth the very heart and prime fountain of life and livelihood the Crown the glory of a Nation the beauty the strength the perfection the Spirit the soul of a Kingdome In Religion is Embarqued the publike safety when that is aimed at the danger is dreadfull the losse beyond recovery Eli's heart trembled whilst the Arke was in the field in doubtfull disputation but when he heard the Arke was taken he fell from his seat whose heart was sooner broken then his neck yet with that he dyed Happy death that made him not out-live the losse of the Arke none but Atheists that know no life but the present but they make Religion the first thing The Heathen is recorded to all ages for the laying aside his Father Wife and Children and taking the care of his Country gods few make Religion their businesse especially they that sit at the top of the wheel cloath'd in soft rayment dandled on the knee and lul'd in the bosome of soveraignty there are that will sell Paradise for Paris and will launce no farther forth then they may return safe again but Esther is of a more divine temper she stands up for the defence of her Religion In her Religion she saw the glory of God had founded it and it could not be ruin'd without a manifest hurt to the glory of that God which was dearer to her then her own life the third and last encouragement Nothing is more dear yea so dear to a Religious soul as the glory of God the glory of its own soul is valued at a cheap rate in respect of this Gods glory is the supream the highest glory the sun of glory if that be darkned though all the stars shine it is still night whereas if that shines in its glory though no stars shine yet it is day Chrysostome professed he loved nor honoured Rome so much for her Antiquity her multitude of inhabitants her sumptuous fair buildings the great priviledges and immunities of the Citizens the beauty and glory of the City as for that the Lord of Glory was held forth there in the preaching of Peter and Paul Heaven it self is not so glorious as a poor Country Village where the King of glory is preached Queen Esther rather then the glory of God should be obscured by a black cloud of his servants blood rather then the miscarriage and downfall of Religion should open the mouth of blasphemy to spit reproach in the face of Gods people she will stake her owne soul lay her life at pawn to redeem the glory of God from such an injury Finis dat amabilitatem the end beautifies the enterprize if any end can adde glory to any surely this doth multiply on the head of Ester she is resolved actum est it is done already in her unbended resolution she cloaths her self with Virtue and puts on courage with her Jewels Thus accompanied with Divine beauty and heavenly Valour she sets forward to her already bleeding Nation her Weapons are faith and prayer her Armour courage and resolution her Attendants beauty and virtue her word Si pereo pereo nor can danger difficulty or impossibility Haman Death nor Devill turn her back again Go I will Thus you have heard with what cautions with what courage and wisdome Queen Esther and by her Example every good Christian ought to enter into a Resolution here was an absolute integrity of all concurrencies which made this resolution good acceptable to God comfortable to her self profitable to her people The person that made it fitly qualified the end moving sufficiently warrantable the circumstances honest and seasonable the means direct and lawfull Here was no defect iniquity and exorbitancy of any particular but a generall combination of all requisites The Resolution was necessary and religious which will the better appear if we compare what Queen Esther did in Persia with what the Scriptures testifie the Saints and servants of God have done at other times and ought to do at all times which is my second thing the Doctrine and the confirmation of it In the Cause of God Religion and our Countries we are not to passe for perishing Gratious and Religious spirits neither are nor ought to be out-dared in the cause of God Religion and their Countries safety by the fear and danger of perishing They that are on Gods side as Moses proclaimed in the gate they are to know neither father nor mother but every one to stay his brother companion and neighbour Christ teacheth us to hate father and mother and wife and children and Brethren and Sisters yea and our own lives also when they stand in competition with God Saint Paul saith 1 Cor. 16.22 If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha he speaks not of the Jews and Heathens but of Christians the Apostle blesseth those and prayes for them that love Jesus Christ in sincerity Ephes 6.24 Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity as the blessing is so is the curse Anathema Maranatha to them that love not the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity None can love Jesus Christ in sincerity that love their lives before and above Christ Saint Jerome protested he would trample upon Father and Mother if they hindred his way to Christ Cursed be he said that noble Marquesse that counts the whole world to one houres enjoyment of Jesus Christ Saint Paul could not by the prayers and teares of his friends be kept back from going to Hierusalem though the Spirit witnessed Bonds and afflictions did attend him there why do ye break my heart for I am ready not to be bound onely but also to dye at Hierusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus