Religion and my God But hold 2 Flesh whither does this Noble but Temerarious Zeal Transport thee Daniel Is this thy Kindness to thy dearest Self and hast thou no Regard to the Glories and Sweets of Life Is that Holy Fire that Devours its own Altar and Callest thou that Zeal that hurls thee into nothing and tempts thee to an Annihilation Is Death so desirable and such a Death as will gratifie thine Enemies too Whose Malice will Feast it self on thy Ruines with greater Luxury than the Lions Banquet on thy Flesh What is this but to Execute the Plot against thine own Life which they cannot perfect without thee and will thy God thank thee for Destroying thy Self and throwing away thy Life for a Nicety the Ceremony and Carkass of Devotion which his Grace is so ready to dispense with and for so little a time as a Month too Is he not the Father of Spirits and regards more the Oratory of a Sigh than all the luscious Expressions of the Lips Vnderstands he not the Language of the Soul and hearkens to the very desires of the Humble Maist thou not Offer up the purer Sacrifice from the Secret Altar of a Flaming Heart and be safe What an advantage hast thou to baffle the Conspiracy by a Mental Devotion and to Countermine the Villanies of their Cursed Policy by locking up thy Soul in its self Ah no! Spirit prevails The brave Votary scorns to compound with his God for his Life nor will save himself by so much as Latching the Door of his Lips He will not Stifle the Vent of his Soul thô it self were sure to fly through it He will glorifie God with his Speech thô he speak himself into Air He will not Disfigure the Body of his Duty to save his own from Mangling and would rather the Lions should open their Mouths to Swallow him than he by shutting up his to Imprison his Zeal and Affections He resolves that his Mouth shall Confess unto God and the World that his Heart believeth unto Salvation and while his Enemies were Watching Imagine this devout Supplicant thus pouring out his Soul unto God The PRAYER GOD of my Soul and of my Being the Glorious Jehovah that Inhabitest inaccessible Light and Everlastingness and humblest thy Self to behold the things that are in Heaven and Earth Hear and have Mercy Thou art God alone and besides thee there is none else What is this Darius whom these Men have blasphemously Exalted to Rob thee of thy Glory and Worship and made a God of him that cannot help that cannot Save himself or others O Pardon their Sin And this they have done with design to Rob me too of this Glorious Liberty of Access to thee my God who art the very Life of my Soul and whose loving Kindness is better than Life and without whom Life is none at all They would Shut me from thy Presence but do not thou Open the Door of thy Grace and my Soul that I may fly unto thee And thô these these mine Enemies lye in wait for my Blood Yet let me Praise thee with joyful Lips and Serve thee without Fear What though they have Decreed to take away my Life are not my Times in thy hand and without thee shall not fall an hair from my Head O give me a Faith beyond my Fear and a Courage beyond their Malice that I may Dye rather than disown thee and by Devoting my Self a Sacrifice to thy Glory may let all the World know that thou Lord art the only God that Savest the Souls of thy Servants who put their trust in thee Redeem thy Church and People But here a Noise Interrupts him They find him Praying v. 11. The Confederates cry out amain Treason Treason A Traitor against our King and his Law away with him to the Lions Darius himself cannot Save him These we may suppose were the Evidence ready to Swear against him who could safely take their Oaths without fear of Perjury that they heard him making his Petitions to the God of Heaven and so breaking the Decree And now has the Plot taken effect The Plot takes the Innocent man falls by the Councils of the Wicked Righteous art thou O Lord yet let me talk with thee of thy Judgments Wherefore doth the way of the wicked Prosper wherefore are they happy that deal very Treacherously Jer. 12.1 So foolish was I and Ignorant Surely thou didst set them in slippery places thou Castest them down into Destruction how are they brought into Desolation as in a moment they are utterly Consumed with Terrours Psal 73.18 19 22. Now may you see them troop together with Joy and speed to the Court They go to Court where they subtilly repeat the Contents of the Law to the King with a Cursed Policy of designing to oblige him to a Sacred and Inviolable observance of his own Edict e're ever they discover the Transgressor who they knew was so dear to him that for his Sake he might have strain'd his Prerogative unto the length of a Pardon if possible But having once oblig'd him by the honour of his Royal word to confirm the Decree then they presume to produce the Indictment and thus Address O King Live for Ever THat Daniel who pretends so much Love and Loyalty to thy Royal Person And Indict him so much Veneration and respect to all thy Laws He He is the first Rebell Ungrateful man that he is whom of a Captive of the Children of Judah thou hast loaded with such Honours whose very weight has unfortunately caus'd him to Stagger in his Loyalty and 't is visible Dread Sir that the Sublimity of his State has giddied him into Fanaticism too he Trants after other Gods as if thou O King wert not God enough for him who hast been so kind and Royal to him Never has the Largesse of Princely Bounty so unluckily miscarried by Ingratitude and Treachery which dares be so Insolent to give so pernicious an Example of first Violating that Law which he should have valued infinitely dearer than his Life and rather than have prostituted it to vulgar Contempt should have Sacrific'd the warmest Blood of his Heart to its Glory WE Pray therefore that he may Suffer the Pains and Penalties of the Irrevocable Decree He has so Prophanely Despised may receive the just Recompense of his haughty Rebellion and Pride Be thrown to the Lions Now is the King almost Dead with Sorrow The King repents Signing the Decree the fatal News more wounds his Royal Heart than the Prisoners he hath not a better Subject in the Kingdom who must now be rent from his Bosom by a Stratagem the malicious Imputations of Disloyalty and Rebellion he well knew were but the Proofs of his Innocency and their Malice This is so far from being a Service to his Majesty as 't is his Torment Have they Decreed him a God to this end to make him a miserable Prince The King himself Suffers
DANIEL IN THE DEN OR THE LORD PRESIDENT' 's Imprisonment AND MIRACULOUS DELIVERANCE REPRESENTED In a DISCOURSE from HEB. XI v. 33. By S. J. Rector of Chinner in the County of Oxon. DAN 6.23 Innocency was found in me and also before thee O King have I done no hurt LONDON Printed by J. A. for John Dunton at the Sign of the Black Raven in the Poultrey 1682. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE ANTHONY EARL of SHAFTSBVRY Late Lord PRESIDENT of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council My Lord HOly Writ acquaints us with many cursed Conspiracies against the Innocent and the Good But I find none more sottish and cruel than that we read of John 12. v. 10.11 Where the High-prists consult to put not Jesus only but Lazarus also to Death because by reason of him many of the Jews believed on Jesus Lazarus wasguilty of no Crime but because he was It seems his very Being and Life was fault enough which though redeem'd by a Miracle must now be destroyed by Malice For his bare Presence and Motion Drew Disciples his very Looks preached the Gospel he opened his Eyes and Taught And while thus doing he would never make an end of doing mischief to them Therefore they consult to dispatch him out of sight and to silence this Teacher by muffling him up in a Napkin again and laying him under a Stone It is certain My Lord that every Turn of your Head Glance of your Eye Motion of your Hand Step of your Foot is a vexation and a Plague to your Enemies the Papists who believe your very Shadow so fatal to all their Contrivances and Aims that whilst You live they Shrivel and Wither Your Breath strikes confusion to all their Plots and therefore no wonder they have variously consulted your Death as well as your Great Masters Lazarus must dye too But then to promote it by projecting a Design of setting Jesus against Lazarus and imposing a belief that He Innocent He should conspire the ruine of his Masters Honour and Kingdom is a Plot like to prosper into the same Glory of the Projectors as this your Lordship will hear of in the following Discourse One would swear such Men were Planet-struck their Counsels confounded from Heaven as the Languages at Babel and the Witnesses stammering out an improbable Evidence Praised be God who hath frustrated hitherto all their Hellish attempts both against your Soveraign and Self May his Majesty live for ever a sure Defender of our Faith and Church And may your Lordship live too the Dread and Eye-sore of the Enemies of its peace And may You never be Imagin'd to be lessened in the Affections of your Prince nor in your own to the Interests of his Royal Person and Kingdom but may Realize in your Devotion to Majesty those Hyperbolical expressions of Allegiance and Duty wherewith Furre and Velvet have even tired the Court all this Year And let that idle imputation and reproach of a Republican Design be equally the Subject of your Diversion and scorn When all wise Men know you too Prudent and Politick to endeavour the unhinging those firm Establishments of Church and State to whose fixation and Glory you lent so Great an hand and I doubt not bear so true an Heart however enviously the contrary be insinuated by your Inveterate Enemies And no wonder when Jesus himself who dar'd the World and Devil to convince him of sin against God was yet Indicted of Treason against Caesar Joh. 19.22 and bawl'd to death by the Exclamations of those whose Hypocritical pretences to Loyalty serv'd only to mask very fitly the Face of their Cruelty From which God ever defend your Lordship and all Good Men. I am My Lord Your Lordships Most humble Servant S. J. HEB. XI 33. Who through Faith stopped the Mouths of Lyons THis Chapter as a Cabinet enrich'd with Variety of costly Jewels is all throughout Enamell'd with the Glories of Faith Some very Antique even from the first World the Lustre of Abel Enoch and Noah shine here The rest not Modern Abraham Isaac and Jacob Moses Samuel and the Prophets as Stars of the first Magnitude dart down their several Rayes and Influences upon the Church in all Ages and here altogether make up a glorious Constellation And thou Daniel the Prophet art not the least among all the Princes and Prophets of Judah for out of thee proceeded this Eximious Faith in the Text That stopped the Mouths of Lyons so as they could do thee no harm because Innocency was found in thee c. The Text being Historical will necessarily enforce me to give you a Cursory and Paraphrastical account of this Prophets Story and the several Remarques of his Life and Honours but especially of his Sufferings and Imprisonment and the Faith that procured him the Miraculous Deliverance from the Lyons Please you therefore to take a Transient view of him as the Holy Ghost has drest him up and display'd him before us in his own Book 1. In his Lineage and Descent 1 Daniel's high Birth he is if not of the Blood Royal at least of the Seed of the Princes and Noble Chap. 1.3 And the Great Soul that managed all his Actions with that Bravery and Courage confirms the highness of his Extract E fortibus creantur fortes Our Prophet was Born Honourable and the whole Series of his Life was no whit derogatory from but Ornamental to the Glory of his Birth 2. In the Beauty of his Personage 2 Perfect Beauty the Gracefulness of his Body vying perfection with the Graces of his Mind each striving in him for Superiority and both rendring him very amiable and lovely Chap. 1.4 3. In his excellent Breeding and Education 3 Good Breeding He is a choise Spirit cull'd out to be trained up and instructed by Royal Mandate in all the Learning of the Chaldees and taught the Mysteries and Policies of State that he might stand before the King verse 5. And is therefore wrought up to be a polished Pillar for the support of the Government 4. In the admirable Abstinence of his Youth 4 Admirable Abstinence he Religiously declines from the Luxuries of the Court and the Delicacies of the Kings Table and abstemiously satisfies himself with Pulse and Water v. 12. A Rare Example 5. In his Sublime Wisdom and Knowledge 5 Sublime Wisdom God also overlaying his humane Acquisitions with the Gold of Divine Grace Sanctifying him into a knotty and puzling Prophet hard to be understood and giving him a particular Skill and Understanding in Unridling Dreams and Visions of the Night v. 17. And dissolving hard Questions Cap. 5.12 As also the Spirit of Government and fitness for publick Affairs 6. In his Merited Promotion 6 Merited Promotion for his Wisdom he is preferred and made a Great Man by the King Lord Lieutenant over the whole Province of Babylon to inspect the Kings Treasures c. Cap. 2.48 And Chief Governour and Master of all the
Magicians and Wise Men cap. 2.28 4.49 And is fixed at Court Cap. 2.49 7. In his exemplary Piety 7 Exemplary Piety for through the whole croud of those distractions his Offices and Honours involve him in yet he passes to Heaven Thrice a day and commands Cares to stand below while himself climbs the Mount and dispatches Business with his God cap. 6.10 8. In his Religious Care 8 Religious Care for good Mens Advance for being himself now promoted to Honour he improves his whole Interest for the advancement of his Friends Men of the same excellent Spirit with himself to a share in the administration of the Government An act of great Piety to God good Policy to the King Great Favour to his Friends and great Comfort to the Church in her Affliction and Exile Daniel requested of the King and he set Shadrach Meshech and Abednego over the Affairs of the Province of Babylon Cap. 2.49 Lastly In the good Effect of his Care The good-Effect of that Care for these brave Men being now made publick Officers in the State and summon'd to obey the Idolatrous Decree of Nebuchadnezzar to which all his Princes Governours and other Officers had rendred a ready and undisputed Obedience These alone find a Faith and a Courage singly to oppose themselves and dare give check to the yet uncontrolled Torrent of his impious Law and Command owning the true God and professing the fulness of a generous confidence in his Power even to the very Face of the incensed Monarch Whose angry Commands therefore of aggravating their Torments in the Fire did but still increase the glorious Miracle of their Deliverance in and out of it and at last produce a Decree of Honour to the God and Religion they confessed and a greater Augmentation of Office and Power to themselves Cap. 3. So little do faithful Men disadvantage themselves by a fixed adherence to the Truth and Principles they believe and so greatly do they Honour their Profession and their God when in the Face of his Enemies and of Death it self they dare own him with constancy and courage And what assurance do such Men give to their Prince of all imaginable Truth and Fidelity in the Loyal discharge of their Duties and faithful answering to all the Confidence and Trust reposed in them with all security and peace What a service then did Daniel to the Crown in lifting Men of such Heroick temper into places of Authority and Power How happy is that Prince whose Affairs are so securely lodg'd in the ministration of those who had rather die than betray their Soveraign by an ill Act no not by an Easie humouring him in his Sin and sooner resign themselves into the hazard of his utmost displeasure than to flatter him in Designs so dishonourable to God pernicious to himself and opposite to their Principles and Conscience Daniel thus richly clad with all the Graces of a good Prophet Beloved of God and Nechadnezzar no wonder he is so oft proclaimed the Favourite of Heaven A man greatly beloved of God Cap. 9.29 10. v. 11.19 So being enriched with all the properties of a Prudent States-man no wonder he is so greatly beloved of the King as one replenished with the Spirit of the Holy Gods Chap. 4.8 9. In the full lustre of whose favour we may be sure he continued shining through the whole Series of this Monarch's Reign without Eclipse There are Love God then who can they but wrap themselves in the warm embraces of Earthly Majesty very fanatically hold the Bosom of Divine Love but for a cold Lodging 'T is pity such should pass from the Meridian of Royal favour into the obscurities of Divine Vengeance but they may I will get as close to my King as I can but it is good for me to draw near to God too least my Prince die as Daniel 's did and leave me miserable Nor is Piety it self a Protection that can justifie or secure me from the least affront to Royalty And the King too since if good Men must be loved as the Images of God's Holiness certainly good Princes as the more Express ones both of his Holiness and his Power Now whether upon his death our Prophet retired from Court A Stranger at Court in Belshazzar's Reign and betook himself to a private and more Sedate course of life to attend the immediate Service of his God Or whether Bellshazzar being a dissolute Prince gave no encouragement to so good a Man to continue about him Or whether He being but the Grandchild of Nebuchadnezzar his Daughters Son might be too young to hear of the Memorable passages of Daniel's Wisdom and Service in the Life of his Grandfather and perhaps bred elsewhere at a distance from the Court Or whether times had worn off the Memory and Novelty of these Transactions Or what else I know not But he seems a perfect Stranger now in the Palace Till Letters by a strange hand without an Arm occasion his Summons to Court again Where it seems Belshazzar and his Lords were acting the Religion of the Quakers but understand not their own Institution it puzled the whole Council of the Wise Men to understand it too till the Q. But sent for in a fright And promoted by him Mother thinks that One Daniel might whom she therefore recommends to the King There is a Man in thy Kingdom of an excellent Spirit and Knowledge c. Let Daniel be call'd Chap. 5.12 Who is therefore sent for and highly caress'd with proffers of Dignity and Honour which he brave Man as nobly slights and knows that Princes in a Fright use not to bid low for their ease Let thy gifts be to thy self and give thy rewards to another yet I will read the Writing v. 17. And generously gives his Majesty a cast of his Office to settle again his trembling Heart But Oh! in the Mystical Characters was lapped up the Tragical Prophesie of his doom It seems he wanted some Grains of that Weight and worth which should have rendred him Currant in the Ballance Too vain and light a Prince to support the Massiness of Empire For as Esau ravenously eat up his Birth-right so he as prophanely drinks away his Kingdom and no Cups please him to tipple in but the poor Captive Ones of the Sanctuary upbraiding Heaven that could not redeem them from his gods He so little remembred his Grandfathers grazing in the Fields as a Beast that himself was become a greater Brute in his Palace and forgets that the very Breath of his Nostrils is a Tenant at will to his Maker No wonder then that Heaven rings his passing Bell. And though he calls for a Priest yet he cannot revoke the immutable Decree which seals him up to destruction However e'er he go has this Policy left that he hopes to bribe Heaven to a Reprieve by exalting so God-like a Man as Daniel a Friend of the gods to Honour and Proclaims
How do I see them Chuckle Which they are sure will take and bless their Wits in this New Contrivance A Plot so exquisitely woven that there is no room for so much as the least fear or Jealousie of its Miscarriage and failure They question not the success in the least He must turn Atheist to prevent the danger and forsake his God or his Life Projecting Heads may plod together and jumble out a Decree of Death Yet to as little Reputation or Issue as a Club of Physicians that Vote that Disease to be Mortal which Heaven cures by a Figg Take Counsel together and it shall come to nought Speak the word and it shall not stand for God is with us Isa 8.10 The Decree is universally agreed on by the Peers They bar Prayer by Decree And the Monrach address'd for his Royal Assent They Enact him a God by Law upon Earth and make it Death to acknowledge another in Heaven They put a Trouble upon him to receive all the Addresses of Men and Create Thirty Holy-dayes for all his fellow Deities to rest in Whosoever shall ask a Petition of any God or Man for Thirty Dayes save of thee O King c. vers 7. Let him dye for me that withholds the just Tributes of Honour due unto Caesar as the Visible Idea of the Invisible God and his Great Lieutenant upon Earth But whoever shall idly presume to invest an Earthly Majesty with Worship proper only to the King of Heaven is so far from being Caesar's Friend that he betrayes his Lord to Herod 's Fate and shouts him into his Grave Dominum denm nostrum Papam Extr. Johan 22. Tit. 14. c. 4. Thus his Blasphemous Parasites have Deified their Lord God the Pope into infinite scorn and contempt Darius consults not his Cabal to unriddle this Flattery in his Nobles Which Darius too ha stily Signs much less does he apprehend any treacherous Design in the bottom but is willing to interpret it pure Loyalty and a Politick advance of his Glory and greater security in his Empire now at his first approaches unto it and therefore easily inclines to the proffered Honour and since they will have it so is content to justle out his Maker from his Throne for a Month. Therefore God punish'd his rash and unadvised Folly and Pride whose hand Signs the Decree which afterwards makes his Soul to Ake and because he did not sleep on 't a-non cannot and endanger'd the breaking his Heart as well as his sleep Vndigested Counsels issue from us with as little benefit or comfort to our lives Note as crude and unconcocted Meats from our Stomacks which because too greedily taken in and swallowed are the more speedily cast up again leaving us empty and dissatified if not very sick and diseased Whereas timely deliberation hatches our Conceptions into life and perfection and yields us the Honour as well the Interest of our Patience 'T is an unpardonable Crime in a Politician to cry afterwards Vtinam non fecissem Would I had not done it and he was no Fool who demurr'd with a Cras tibi Respondebo To morrow I will give you an Answer The Sagacious Daniel quickly penetrates through this shallow Design Daniel discovers the Plot. He easily sees the Warrant for his own Execution written on the back-side of this plausible Decree yet will not prevent it His Great Soul bids defiance to it and them that fram'd it He scorns to live when he cannot serve his God yet will serve him though he die for it He will not neglect his Duty for Thirty Days together no not to save his Blood But resolves rather to pass into Immortality to serve him there In vain sayes Solomon is the Net spread in the sight of any Bird Note for then he will fly from it but here is One that discovers the Snare yet has courage enough to fly into it Nor is it worth living where we cannot enjoy the true ends of Life and when Death it self is but an opening into the joyful Liberties of Eternity The King having pass'd the Law The Trepanners begin to sneak about the Lord Presidents Lodgings Malice degenerates them into Eves-droppers they creep up and down under his very Windows If the Casement chance to flye open the project thrives their hopes swell and the Blood capers in their Veins Yet scorns to dissemble his Religion And he brave Spirit opens it on purpose to let them see and know that he dreaded not their impious Law nor would slack an Ace of his Daily Zeal and Devotion to his God and this he did When he knew that the Writing was sign'd v. 10. 'T was below his Great Person and Spirit to deny or dissemble his Religion Faith and Love makes him trusty to it against all Conspiracies of Men or Devils And what know we Some are set to watch him but some so were impudent as to steal up Stairs and peep through the very Key-hole to discover but the first Motion towards a Genuflection But when those Sacred joynts incline to bend to the resolved Worship how greedily do they suck in the very first Spiration and preparatory Sighs they draw in that Incense which Perfumes the Chamber but they resolve shall Poyson the Priest They hearken not for Zeal but Itching they lift not up Hands but Ears and thô they hear him Confess so tenderly as Heaven it self is Melted with his Pathetick Expressions yet they Congeal and are Petrified But brave Belteshazzar He is acted by Contests of how little do we know what various Passions agitate thy Sacred Breast at this time what contests between Nature and Grace Flesh and Spirit Or wer 't thou all Soul and transported beyond the Cares and remembrance of thy Mortal and Suffering part that I hear thee break into such Raptures as these What! and must I forsake my God now or not Live 1 Spirits and forsake him too upon such unhappy Terms as these to gratifie the Wishes of these Malicious Confederating Heathens Is Devotion become fatal and must Prayer it self Kill Cannot I go to my God but the next Step must be to the Grave 'T is worse than Death to live but one Day without him who is the Life of my Soul how then shall I live Thirty Must I wear these Fetters upon mine Affections and Lips which these Mens Envy and Cunning have clapt on me with design to Enslave me for ever Rather let the Beasts tear open a Passage for this Captive within me to pass into the Liberties of Everlastingness than thus to be Cag'd up in so insufferable a Vassalage Do they think to immure up my Soul Let them rend me from the Court of Darius my Heaven is not there as is theirs My Body is the Kings to his Pleasure and Service but my Soul is Gods unto his I 'le venture an Ingorgement into the Bowels of the Lions e're they shall glory over mine Apostacy from my