Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A37283
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A thanksgiving-sermon preach'd at Sutton in Surrey, April the 16th, 1696 being the national thanksgiving day for His Majesty's most happy preservation from the most detestable assassination, in order to a French invasion / by Henry Day ...
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Day, Henry, M.A.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing D463; ESTC R16920
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10,274
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30
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on all their gravity to vail their malignant Doctrins and Designs and make the best shew of Religion they can this is what they plead Vengance is mine and I will repay it saith the Lord I suspect these Men are Atheists at the bottom who hope by their wit to elude the Vengeance of the Magistrate and do not believe a future Judgment But I answer them we also read in Scripture He that spills Man's Blood by Man shall his Blood be spill'd But they will reply why should Vengance extend beyond the Persons that spill Blood I will rejoin why shall others by their ungodly Prints and Preachments tempt Murderous Assassines to do the vile deed If King William be an Usurper and a Tyrant then the horrour of the Assassination is taken off and his bold Enemies are not left unacquainted that old Greek and Roman Historians have celebrated the Murderers of Usurpers and Tyrants as Liberatores Patriae Deliverers of the Country It is of so violent and mischievous influence to lead a People to think that their King has no Title to his Crown and it is but just that Vengeance should reach them if their Doctrin reaches him But I shall be told let a Villany be as hainous as it will yet God has forbid private Revenge I will speak to that and borrow some words from the Author that has answered Sir R. Filmer of Government so Solidly that he will be as old as an Antediluvian Father or rather not die but be changed if he lives till his Book is well answered P. 229. Sect. 87. Man being born with a Title to perfect Freedom and an uncontrouled enjoyment of all the Rights and Priviledges of the Law of Nature equally with any other Man or number of Men in the World hath by Nature a Power not only to preserve his Property i. e. his Life Liberty and Estate against the injuries and attempts of other Men But to judge of and punish the breaches of that Law in others as he is perswaded the Offence deserves even with Death it self in crimes where the heinousness of the Fact in his Opinion requires it Hence I Argue That if upon the Murder of our King which God always forbid there were no Legal Successour but the Kingdom hurld into sudden Confusion and Anarchy then by the Law of Nature and Reason every particular Person had a right to Revenge himself to the uttermost upon the Murderous Assassines and all their Treacherous Adherents But I shall be told that this is not our Case no God be thanked it is not but we will not tamely part with our King for all that The Revenge which the Association threatens upon the violent or untimely Death of our King which God prevent is not a private Revenge but a Publick Solemn and Legal albeit not in the tedious usual Methods of Law which if at such time we were obliged to follow many of the most Guilty would have the Opportunity by one means or other to evade it But if every injured Subject be Commissionated to do the Traytours and their Adherents Justice 't is odds but they pay for their horrid Murder Pray Consider farther This Association is the most Solemn and Legal that can be imagin'd 't is an Association Enacted by the Supreme Authority of the Nation wherein the King himself and almost every particular Lord and Commoner join the King as to his part of it they to the whole wherein the People are duly called to join and have and are ready a vast majority to join they themselves not only by their Representatives but in their own proper Persons Then consider also that we have an Act for the continuing meeting and sitting of a Parliament in case of the King's death or demise c. so that this our Association even as to the Revenging part of it is all along Ascertained to be made good by a Legal Conduct I have yet one thing more to say in its behalf it is the best Expedient both for the Friends and Enemies of the Government that could be devised by the Wit of Man For now it may be Reasonably hoped that our King and his Government shall be safe since the destroyers of it are sure to be destroy'd themselves Dangers force improvident Men on wise Councils we had not been this day in the way of Settlement if we had not been a few daies agoe on the Brink of Ruine Therefore blessed be the name of God who hath disappointed the horrid designs of our Faithless and Cruel Adversaries who hath as it were forc'd us to Establish the Throne of our great Restorer our present King William forc'd us to Associate Vigorously in the defence of that Title which the consent of the People gave him which as hath been well and truly observ'd is the only Title of all Lawful Governments and which no Prince in Christendom hath more fully and clearly than King William Together with him we by this Association take the most effectual course to preserve our Religion Laws and Liberties I have spake what I could call to mind upon a short Warning concerning the Duty enjoyn'd in the first part of the Text Pray for the peace of Jerusalem that duty is enforc'd with this Reason They shall prosper that love thee I make no doubt but God in his Mercy may have order'd much Prosperity to them that Fear him Honour the King and Serve their Country by secret ways of Providence into which we are not able to Penetrate But I am convinc'd by the Evidence of Sense that a conscientious performance of these Duties is a natural means for Men to procure and establish their own Prosperity Every particular Person Member of a Body Politick by being a Member of such Body authorises the Legislative Power to make Laws for him as the publick Good shall require of which the Majority of them who have the Legislative Power are Judges Now as a particular Person 's Consent is included in the Acts of the Majority so his Peace and Happiness is included in the Peace and Happiness of the State which the Majority govern A Man cannot serve the Publick but at the same time he serves his own private Interest also on the contrary he cannot do mischief to the Publick without doing mischief to himself while the Parliament as they are in Duty bound take care of the Sacred Life and Government of K. William they take care also of themselves and of all that is near and dear to them and I do not believe that there is a Man a single Man that is not a penny-less Beggar as well as a wretched Villain who would have found his account in the Success of a French Invasion I might run through all orders and degrees of Men among us Courtier Citizen Souldier Scholar Merchant Mariner c. their Immunities Charters Stipends Revenues Trade Pay are not safe to them without the safety of the King and Government the King and Government not safe without the Association Let us therefore my Brethren Heart and Hand Associate so shall our King and his Government prosper and every one of us as well as the King and Government Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem they shall prosper that love thee I was just going to dismiss you but just now there comes into my Head another sense of the Words They shall prosper that Love thee a sense very obvious and literal I cannot say I have met with it in any Commentator those Gentlemen are so ingenuous that 't is ever their Custom Transilire ante pedes posita to skip over the literal sense of a Text and run in quest of the figurative Senses and Mysteries The Sense I mean is this O Jerusalem they that love thee shall prosper for I David the Anointed of God and the choice of his People Israel will take care to reward them who are most zealous to preserve my Life and Support my Government I am apt to believe that David in these Words encouraged the honesty of his trustiest Liege-People assuring them who defended his Right against the Abetters of the House of Saul that their faithful Services should be amply rewarded that their Prosperity should be his Care as his sacred Life and just Right was theirs God grant that the Words which we have now heard with our outward Ears may be so inwardly ingrafted in our Hearts that they may bring forth in our Lives and Conversations Loyalty to King William Zeal for the Religion Laws and Liberties of Old England FINIS
be beholding to him for his Protection Let him pack up his awls and be gone to some more blessed Region where he may Sacrifice all that he has to the Divine Right of an Arbitrary Lord and if he manages his business well arrive at the Honour of sqeezing and oppresing others I do not remember any nation of Old but I am little read in History with whom it was safe to reflect on the Authority of the Government but that such as give themselves this liberty should enjoy and execute Offices of Honour and Trust Sure it was never so in any Nation or if it were they lived upon Providence by the day and took no care of themselves lest they should seem to distrust the goodness of God But it is not enough to forbear traducing the Government A good Subject will not patiently hear it Traduced Qui non vetat peccare cum potest jubet He that can and does not prevent a Sin tho' he join not in the immediate Act yet partakes of the Guilt What Son will endure to hear his Father abused and shall I without resentment hear the Father of my Country who freed me from insupportable Tyranny blackned with the Odious name of an Usurper God forbid When Absalom reproched his Father's Administration and rose up against him David took all prudent care to suppress the dangerous Insurrection but he had a tenderness for Absalom and took it ill that the forfeited Life of the Ambitious Youth was not spared but his valiant and faithful Captain Joab put it home to him 2 Sam. 19. 6. I perceive that if Absalom had lived and all we had died this day it had pleased thee well Upon this honest Remonstrance the good King was satisfied and the Kingdom safe Shall I hear mention the Heroick vertue of Lucius Junius Brutus who when his own Sons were found engaged in the Conspiracy for bringing back the Proud Tirant Tarquin himself dragged them to condign punishment Indeed the Romans in the Infancy of their State were impartially zealous for the publick Good they Sacrificed not only their private Interests but their natural Affection to it But you had rather hear me deal in sacred Story I will speak of David again Psalm 62. 3. he expostulates with his Enemies in these words How long will you imagine mischief against a man I suppose some honest Secretary stood at his Elbow and answer'd for them As long as they are unpunish'd for his very next words are You shall be slain all of you as a bowing Wall shall you be and a tottering Fence 3. Our duty of praying for the Peace and endeavouring to promote the Prosperity of our Nation obliges us to Associate for its defence against all the Enemies thereof whatsoever The great end why Men at first unite and associate into Bodies Politick is that they may be able to maintain their just Rites and if Wicked Men among them by base Arts and Treacheries labour to betray the Community they find it necessary to tye themselves in stricter Bands for the discovery of their treacherous Enemies and setting a distinguishing Mark upon them that so if they be longer endur'd in the Community they may be prevented from doing it Mischief Indeed our first choice of the Prince of Orange to be our King was in Law and Reason the Act of the whole Nation and our Oath of bearing Faith and true Allegiance to him if it be not shamefully misinterpreted obliges us not only to live quietly under but also actually to support the Government But so it has happen'd some among us who as yet are contented to be called Protestants nay challenge the name of Church of England Men have learn'd some Sophistical skill from the Schools of the Jesuits whereby they miserably impose upon themselves and others they prate and publish that such Oath obliges them only to live quietly under King William tho' that is more than they will do for under pretence of Charitable Collections for the relief of Non-Jurers Wives and Children to raise vast Sums to promote a French Invasion is not living quietly and by no means will they admit that the Oath requires them to oppose the reduction of the Late King whose Soul thirsts to be reveng'd of our taking the advantage of his Forfeiture Well then Hac non successit aliâ aggrediundum est via This Oath will not hold them we must try what an Association will do for shall they Associate to destroy us and shall not we do as much to preserve our selves When Jerusalem was Besieg'd by Titus there were three strange Factions in the City that battled one another as often as the Romans intermitted their Onsets but when the Romans came on they laid aside their intestine Hatred and all united for the common defence of the City Nature teaches the worst and the simplest of Men this common Prudence to Associate for their common Defence I am sure we have now had a demonstration That not King William nor any Friend of the Government under him can possibly be safe without it even they that have been unwilling to think that King James could forfeit his Crown were he never so great a Tyrant even they have seen with their Eyes and heard with their Ears those Evidences that he was like to have been brought home not Re-inthron'd Boufflers would have taken care of that at the charges of their ruin also and the ruin of their Families Therefore after the Oath of Allegiance which so many Jacobites have play'd with it is not only prudent but just and necessary that an Association be requir'd under a severe Penalty A Command without a Penalty has not the face of a Law the Person to whom it is given must be very well dispos'd if it pass but for so much as good Counsel-Rewards are proper encouragements to Vertue but Penalties are the necessary sanction of Laws therefore well and wisely like King Williams true Liegemen and old England's genuine Patriots have the King and Parliament enacted that whoso refuse the Oaths shall be deem'd as a Papist convict and he that speaks or writes against it as Illegal shall be deemed a promoter of the designs of King James and a betrayer of our Religion Laws and Liberties and yet for all this so tinctured with their old leaven are some sour minds that they pretend Conscience against one Clause in the Association which is this and in case his Majesty come to any violent or untimely death which God forbid we do hereby further freely and unanimously oblige our selves to unite Associate and stand by each other in Revenging the same upon his Enemies and their Adherents In truth the Men that Scruple this Clause would be glad to be excused from the Declaration that goes before nay I am afraid had rather absolved the Traytors than oppose their Treason but they shall Associate they shall or the World shall see that Conscience is not the Reason of the refusal When they put