Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A33601
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A sermon preach'd before Their Majesties in St. James's on Advent-Sunday November the 28th, 1686 by Thomas Codrington ...
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Codrington, Thomas, d. 1691?
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1687
(1687)
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Wing C4879A; ESTC R40715
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18,164
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52
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may know they are Men For what is this else to say but that it is absolutely necessary for Men that they may know they are Men to live in a perpetual Subjection And to make us sensible of this our Obligation and prevent all endeavours to shake it off as it is this day said to us Reddite quae sunt Caesaris Caesari Give to Caesar what ye owe to Caesar live ever in a due Subjection to him The first of Men contracted a heavy Debt a long Score of Punishment by trying to unlink that Chain which held him in Subjection to God And their attempt to untwist the Line of that Submission which is due to Caesar hath cost many Nations dear and God knows better how to overlook his Own than Caesar's Injuries and sooner pardons what is most offensive to his best Friends in Heaven than what 's injurious even to his Foes on Earth For if sin be Conspiracy against God whoever sins acts the Conspirator and yet how soon and easily doth God by pardoning greatest Crimes forgive the worst of those Conspire against him and yet as if he set more by his Vassal then Himself how loud he threatens all that Plot mischief against Man how deeply he Resents each wrong that 's done him Matth. 25. Quod uni ex meis minimus feastis mihi feastis What ever injury says God you do to any of your Neighbours you do to Me and must expect an equal Scourge for doing it Now if what ever abuse we put upon the Meanest of our Fellow-Subjects God take so to heart can we frame Engins to bear down our King with and yet he not Resent it Can fierce battery of Tongue or Hand play with a daring Insolence on his Vicegerent's and God plant none against it Will he behold his Second-self Assaulted and sit down tamely with the Affront and neither by punishing Crime nor Criminal teach Men indeed to cry Quis noster Do-Dominus est Who is there to controul us No no Dear Brethren Kings are a Sacred Race God's first Anointed his chiefest Care the Apple of his Eye their Injuries are his Wrongs their Contumelies his Reproaches and to prevent all foul Attempts against them God shoots off friendly Warning-piece while he says 1 Chr. 16. 22. Nolite tangere cristis meos Take heed of touching my Anointed Words of a daunting nature and such as seem nearly to threaten all that presume to lift up hand against them Ask David why unjustly persecuted and that to Death by Saul and every hour in Danger while Saul Reign'd King He did not in the Cave where Saul was at his mercy by cutting him off put a final Period to those Fears those Dangers were never to have End while Saul had Being ask him I say why he forbore to do it and he will tell you Reg. 1. Non extendam manum meum in Dominum meum quia Christus Domini est I would not says he I durst not do it because Saul being one of my God's Anointed to have drawn a Sword against him to have laid violent hands upon him would have been to prepare the Block for my own Head to dress the Altar on which I could not but expect soon after to bleed my self a Victim And indeed so it is and we may observe as well in Sacred as in Prophane History scarce any one King though bloodiest Tyrant Murder'd by that Man on whom soon after the heavy Hand of Justice was not known to fall and Blood repaid with Blood Zacharias King of Israel Hela King of Juda Zenacherib King of Syria Reg. 3. 4. were all Three Murder'd by a Subject's Hand Jabes the Murtherer of Zarcharias Reign'd a few days and then himself by other hands was both Dethron'd and Murder'd The Sons of Zenacherib by whose Sacrilegious hands the King their Father fell never once grasp'd the Scepter never had Diadem on their Head but overtaken by revengeful stroke dropt both a sudden and signal Sacrifice to God's Just Anger Zambri whose bloody Arm King Hela fell by sate Seven Days Enthroan'd and then Awaken'd Justice as it were to make amends for the Delay dealt with him more severely then with either of the other Three Assassinates For as he sate Revelling in his Palace he saw his own Armed Troops beset him round and reading in their furious Look his own sad Destiny more instigated by those Terrours his then reviving Guilt surpriz'd him with then by the naked Swords which threaten'd him he set fire to the Roof which shelter'd him and by making himself a Prey to the raging Flames made known what fatal Blossom puts forth from Bud of Treachery and with Tragical Exit gave Subjects all to know that who lets Treason Hatch within his Bosom warms a chill Snake gives life unto a Serpent will sting him soon to Death Such is the usual Lot of all who Conspire against their Sovereign and at such rate it is still chastises that Horrid Crime of Regicide and therefore seldom 't is such Monster comes abroad But there 's another Way another Method to Undermine a King's safe Being more frequently made use of and so made use of as to find place amongst those very Actons call for Applause and carry look of Loyalty And this more refined piece of subtilty is to render weak the Staff Great Caesar leans on disable whom he most appears to trust to and run those down that are his chief Support and bear him up and to find out withal such fair pretence to do it as Caesar often knows not how to dis-approve nor yet allow of not how or to Unhead it or stop that Javelin he sees flee at him and is design'd through Subject's Breast to Wound him To which purpose we read Dan. 6. How the Prophet Daniel though an Enemy to his False Gods yet a True Friend to King Darius and highly Valu'd by him because found ever Just Upright and Loyal insomuch that as the Patriatch Joseph once in Aegypt so he in Syria next to the King sate first at the Helm of Government This caus'd the other Nobles of Darius to Huff and Bluster and though they knew Daniel to be no less Serviceable than Loyal to their King and that to Mow him down was to cut off Caesar's Right Hand run back the Peoples happiness and take away their Guardian-Angel from them They nevertheless Envy and Malice raging High within them resolv'd to be his Ruin And hereupon laying their Heads together as it were to Magnifie and Exalt their Caesar they frame an Edict in which all are Commanded under pain of Death for Thirty Days space to bend no Knee Adore or pay Homage to any Power but King Darius Good God! How high and ventersomly does Malice soar when once upon the Wing With what fierce speed o're King and Subjects Head does Envy Spur when it hath Game before it What Subtilties both make use of to Over-whelm the Innocent How soothing to a Proud