Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A46691
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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 ...
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Jay, Stephen, d. 1689.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing J497; ESTC R16865
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20,234
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40
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in the Plot and is Persecuted in the Captive basely Betrayed to Sign the Decree which Seals his own Vexation and Trouble 'T is they and not Daniel were guilty of the Treason against his Royal Tranquility and Peace Ill-condition'd Men Is this your Loyalty to your King must the Object of your Princes Favour become presently the Subject of your Hate must he not live because the King Loves and has Honour'd him Then is Royal Affection become miserably Ominous its Embraces are avoided as a Disease the Eye of its Favour become Mortal as a Basilisk's Unhappy Daniel to be so Lov'd and so Hated so passionately Lov'd by the King so universally Malign'd by his Nobles Here 's not one of all the Peers has a pity for thee The Princes Address for Execution But the King Demurrs they jointly Address for thy speedy Execution Nemine Contradicente The King singly demurrs and while he does so they impatiently Address a second time and had not so prosperously succeeded hitherto now to suffer their Plot to Perish in Embryo Malice makes them forget good Manners they incroach on Majesty grow Rude and Uncourtly Know O King that the Law of the Medes and Persians is that no Decree nor Statute which the King Establisheth may be changed v. 15. q. d. We have thee now at a Bay this Rebel may not be Pardoned the Laws of thy Kingdom will not bear it thô thou wouldest therefore in vain dost thou labour to deliver him for Dye he must and shall Fetter'd Majesty that canst not deliver thy Darling from the Lions that canst not Pardon him nor thy Self for Betraying him to his Enemies Now reap Darius the disquiet Fruits of thine own unadvisedness and haste 't is Death to thee to Suffer him to die yet he must here dies a Prisoner without whom the King himself lives not yet must dye God is bound up by his Decrees At length delivers him up and so is this Monarch He could almost himself have Suffered to save his Favourite alive yet must now Sacrifice him to the honour of his Laws How Sacred are those Obligations that manacle the hands of Soveraignty these call for the Offenders blood and shall have it Even Laws are Canibals too Then the King Commanded and they brought Daniel c. v. 16. But how do I see the great Darius hugging him in his Arms whilst he beholding him as he fears with his last eyes breaths out his very Heart to him in such dear Expressions as these And takes his last leave as lie fears DAniel my dearest Daniel the brightest Star that ever Illustrated a Princes Court the faithfullest Servant that ever bless'd a Master the very Glory and Flower of my Kingdom and Palace who art passing up into those more glorious Mansions where only dwell such Spirits as thine Thou wilt no more envy the Toys of Regality nor need the aiery Honours of an earthly Palace I am distressed for thee my dearest Daniel How willingly could I uncloath my self from these vain Badges of Majesty to pass into Spirit with thee were it not that I stay behind to Sacrifice Hecatombs of thine Enemies to thy Ghost who shall dearly pay the recompenses of their Envy and my loss But stay may not thy God meet thee in the Den as I have heard Shadrak's did him in the Furnace and methinks I have Faith to believe he will and least thine Enemies should think so too and send in Ruffians more cruel than the Beasts to destroy thee My care shall obviate that danger while I Seal thee up under the Protection of Heaven and thy God How stately passes the Captive to the Den He passes to the Den. richly Laden with the Trophies of his Princes affections and the Graces of his God! He leaves nothing behind him that he should take to Heaven with him but the Thoughts of Revenge which he therefore leaves because there is no room for them there Nay he could have even wish'd their Company with him whose causeless Malice had too subtilly contriv'd his designed dispatch from the World The Innocent Victim is now as Isaac upon the Altar but wants a Priest to Sacrifice him The Lions hurt him nor Is astonish'd at the Miracle of his own Deliverance and wonders to find better Friends in the Den than at Court A Spirit of Glory rests upon him which put the very Lyons in a fright They had no stomach to him who had no stomach against him and though his Enemies could have eaten him up they were more merciful and would not He had a Surplice of Innocence upon him which was Lyonproof It made him look Sacred and struck such a Reverence and Aw that they rather fawn and crouch then grin or wax surley He stands armed with the Shield of that Faith which wrought Miracles even this of Stopping the Mouths of Lyons Who were so Civil as not to fall out with him against whom God and the King had no Quarrel Daniel has done what he could He has done his Duty and God himself expects no more He has yielded his Life in Testimony of his Faith and now he will give it him back Because he was ready to lose it therefore shall he surely keep it Let Heaven dispose of us as it please 't is enough for us to resign our selves and be willing While Daniel is in Danger No Feasting at Court there 's no Feasting at Court the King himself Fasts for him that the Beasts may not Feast upon him Surfeits and Mirth speak little Sympathy with the Churches Sorrowes 'T was unnaturally done once of the Patriarch's to sit them down to Eat and to Drink while their poor Brother was Fasting in the Pit Gen. 37.24 25. A piece of Cruelty acted over again by their obdurate and ungracious Posterity Who fed on the Lambs of the Flock and the fat Calves of the Stall and Drank their Wine in Bowles but were not grieved for the Affliction of Joseph Amos 6.5 6. Nor could Musick be in season Nor Musick when the King himself was out of tune The Air of a Viol could not drive out of his mind the sad scrieches of his Friend while the Beasts as he fear'd were champing him in their Teeth Yet was there a brave Consort in the Den For the Snorings of the sleeping Lyons kept so Even an Accent that Daniel was ready to dance for Joy Yet could not the King close his Eyes The King cannot sleep while he is jealous his Favourite has none to close He had slept so soundly hitherto while this careful Superintendent had a Vigilant Eye over all his Affairs that he might well awake one Night to condole his loss and learn himself to watch when now his Watchman for ought he knew might be fallen asleep in Death Yet is Daniel awake too and while the Lyons Couch he gently lies by in peace and is here become the Guard of his intended Executioners God had shut their
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