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A49121
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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 / by Thomas Long ...
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Long, Thomas, 1621-1707.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing L2972; ESTC R19771
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31,461
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48
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one Party still supplanting another Armies kept up by the several Factions and the poor Labourers must have fed those Vulturs with their own Vitals they must have partaken of their Sins too as well as of their Oppressions they must have been taught to blaspheme God as well as the King there would have been no Neuters but all Actives or Passives to mock God with Thanksgiving for their own Misery fast for Strife and Debate to violate their Oaths and Vows or to yield themselves a Sacrifice to the Rage of their Enemies Now when this abominable Desolation is prevented and God hath preserved Order Peace and Truth Justice and Righteousness so that every man may sit under his own vine and eat the Fruits of that and of Gods Vine also which he hath planted in the midst of us he must be an incarnate Devil that shall repine at such Blessings and pine away in his Iniquities As for us let our hearts be filled with Joy and our mouths with Praise Let the king rejoyce in God his Saviour and all that swear by him all the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that have kept their Allegiance put their trust in God for the mouth of them that speak lies and swallow Perjuries shall be stopped Psal 63.11 And indeed God hath done that for us which all the Wisdom and Learning the Laws and Penalties of the Nation could not do In vain have we endeavoured to confute their Fanatick Opinions and Doctrines which in vain have been confuted an hundred times This one act of God that hath pluckt off the hood from these Hypocrites and discovered their inward parts to be very wickedness and shewn us what they are by their fruits is an argument beyond any demonstration of Euclid to satisfie the world that under the Sheeps clothing they were as so many Wolves ravening for the innocent bloud both of Sheep and Shepherds but Pan curat oves oviumque Magistros God hath pluckt us out of their teeth And now there wants but one Parallel more to compleat our deliverance and perpetuate our happiness and that is wisely to consider with David quod retribuam Domino what returns we ought to make to God for all the benefits that he hath done unto us Good Mephiboseth was ready to part with all when the King was returned to his house in peace We cannot now sacrifice to our own nets to our own strength or wisdom or merit O let us not do it to our own Lusts to Intemperance and Excess to carnal Secrity and Impenitence nor to Malice and Revenge against any thing but those sins which war against God and our own souls and had brought us so nigh to a sudden death and to everlasting destruction but let us wisely consider the opportunities of knowing and doing in this our day of mercy the things that belong to our peace For God hath as many miraculous ways and methods to destroy us as he hath hitherto manifested to preserve us Especially let us guard our selves against those sins which had a more direct tendency to this accursed design the sins of Ambition and Discontent of murmuring and repining against and speaking evil of our Rulers of having itching ears after new Doctrines and seducing Spirits though they appear as Angels of light The two hundred men that went to Hebron with Absolon went in the simplicity of their hearts they were told onely of Sacrificing and Feasting of performing religious Vows and Covenants and serving God in a better and freer manner than they could do at Hierusalem and there indeed they might find all the elders of Israel consulting with Absolon and Achitophel Ch. 17.4 and voting for them and hear Achitophel pray Extempore as readily as any Modern Enthusiast for the Rabbins report of him that he had a new Prayer for every day in the year and there they were rapt with admiration at the Declamations of Absolon whereby he harangu'd the people spreading before them the miscarriages in his Fathers Government and promising them a redress of all their Grievances and restoring them to their ancient Priviledges of the people of God there they had Priests also who being accustomed to the shedding of bloud taught them that they might slay such as had their faces set towards Hierusalem with the same zeal and opinion of doing God service as they could kill an Ox for Sacrifice And though the Israelites were by nature cruel enough yet the Doctrine of these men like those of the Pharisees made them threefold more the children of wrath malice and cruelty than they were An ill Religion it is certainly that transforms Men into Beasts and a Flock of Lambs into a Den of Lyons but this some such Doctrines as I have mentioned can do Take heed therefore of leaving the established Worship at Hierusalem for the Conventicles at Hebron you know how great a matter a little fire kindleth when it is blown up from beneath When the People had been a little while at Hebron they could not return but having gone so far must go a little farther and proclaim Absolon reigneth in Hebron and then they must follow him from the Conventicles to the Camp and ingage in a Battel against David to their ruine and destruction Let us learn to be wise and sober from the effects of their folly and madness Let us study to be quiet and to do our own business not medling with things that are above us But as Soloman adviseth My son fear thou God and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change for their calamity shall rise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both Prov. 24.21 FINIS
Rom. 13.2 in the books of some who term themselves true Protestants than in all those which are written by such as they justly condemn for Idolatrous and Traiterous Papists Let any of them read over all Coleman's Letters as printed by Authority and extract the most dangerous Positions for Rebellion in them and I dare parallel all of them in one Book of a Leading Dissenter which he yet stiles his Holy Commonwealth With what face can these men pretend any longer that they cannot through Scruples of Conscience come up to the Church of England in the practice of an innocent Ceremony who have outgone the Church of Rome as well in the practices as in the principles of Rebellion and Bloudshed The second Conspirator was Sheba the Son of Bichri of whom David was the more afraid because he came Sobrius ad evertendam Rempub. 2 Sam. 20.6 Now shall Sheba do us more harm than did Absolon But notwithstanding his professed Sobriety the Text calls him a man of Belial and as it is said when one mad Dog bites another and that a third they all run mad so the Venom of Achitophel's tongue infected all that conversed with him with perfect madness for who but a mad man would kick at the Crown of David and think to make a Foot-ball of it to be tossed by every Clown Yet this the vertuous and noble Sheba attempted He blew the trumpet against the Succession 2 Sam. 20.1 We have no part in David neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse every man to his tents O Israel And mighty numbers of the men of Israel withdrew from David to follow Sheba except the men of Judah who clave unto their King So great a Party had he formed in the City Abel that it was like to have perished with him but by good advice his head was cut off and so that Mischief prevented 2 Sum. 20.22 Yet this great man thought to do as Sampson to pull down the Pillars of the State and to slay more at his death than he had done in his life-time and as if it had not been enough to draw others into the same Perdition with himself in his life-time heacted so as to make Israel to sin after his death For what man that pretends to be a true Protestant would think it more eligible and thank God that he died by the Ax being condemn'd as a Traytor than to go to Heaven in flames of fire for the true Religion if it had pleased God to call him to a fiery trial The next person among David's Enemies was that Churl Nabal who was of the house of Caleb that Caleb I suppose of whom it is written Numb 14.24 that he was a man of another spirit who obeyed God and served his servant Moses fully And by the blessing of God and the Kings bounty he became a very great man and had large possessions all which were preserved to him by David 1 Sam. 25.21 I have kept all that this fellow hath in the wilderness so that nothing was missing of all that pertained to him Now David being in distress he sent ten young men to greet him in his name Peace be to thee and peace be to thy house and peace be to all that thou hast we come in a good day a day when Nabal kept a feast like the feast of a king and his request is very mean Give I pray thee to David and his servants whatever cometh to thy hand This was extremely modest where all was owing to intreat so small a pittance and there was extreme folly as well as ingratitude in denying a little portion to him that could have commanded all Yet hear the Answer of this Churl 1 Sam. 25.10 Who is David and who is the son of Jesse shall I take my bread and my water and my flesh and give it to men that I know not whence they be At which Answer David was greatly provoked being thus rewarded evil for good v. 21. and railed on v. 14. by him who had been a will unto him both by night and day that none did hurt him v. 16. for which he was sentenced to death But probably he might have obtained pardon from David if he could have pardoned himself but at the very hearing of the Sentence his heart died within him v. 37. and he became as a stone and within ten days after he was found dead The next Character of the Conspirators is that of Ziba who was a servant of the house of Saul as his Father had been in the first War against David a wealthy man he was too but a great part of his wealth was raked together by false Informations subtile Insinuations and Sequestrations As he never loved the King himself so he hated all those that did love him Mephiboseth the Son of Jonathan David's old and faithful friend gave order to Ziba to prepare his Asses that he might wait on the King in his distress but as he complains 2 Sam. 19.26 Ziba deceived him and yet he had the confidence to accuse his Master in a high degree ch 16.3 as if he tarried at Hierusalem with a purpose to make a Party for himself against David and had said To day shall the house of Israel restore me the Kingdom of my Father By such slanderous suggestions many of David's most loyal Subjects were rendred suspected of the People as Pensioners to a forraign power Promoters of an Arbitrary Government and evil Counsellors And so subtile and importune were the Informers in their Accusations that David was inclined to believe them rather than Mephiboseth who had been a great sufferer and hearty sorrower for him ch 19.24 He had neither dressed his feet being lame in them both nor trimmed his beard nor washed his clothes from the day the king departed until the day he came again in peace and ready he was to part with all that he had though to Ziba himself for the preservation of the publick peace yea let him take all for as much as my Lord the King is come to his house in peace This Ziba was a fellow-servant in the house of Saul with Doeg the Edomite that Doeg who at the command of Saul fell on Abimelech and the rest of the Priests of the Lord and slew in one day fourscore and five persons that wore the linen Ephod and their wives and their children and sucklings and all their cattle he slew with the edge of the sword 1 Sam. 22.18 And wherefore slew he them but onely for their fidelity to David because they gave him victuals and assisted him with a sword and prayed to God for him v. 10. when he was persecuted by Saul A cruelty which none of Saul's Footmen would execute v 17. but these children of Edom in the day of the distress of Hierusalem and Sion cryed out Raze it raze it even to the foundations thereof Psal 137.7 Ziba was a principal Persecutor of the Church of God next to Doeg he countenanced