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A93841
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King David's case apply'd to King James and King William in a sermon preach'd at Christ-Church, Dublin, on the fifth of November, 1691 / by John Stearne ...
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Stearne, John, 1660-1745.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing S5358; ESTC R42759
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10,294
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16
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King David's CASE Apply'd To King James AND King William IN A SERMON Preach'd at Christ-Church Dublin on the Fifth of November 1691. By John Stearne Curate of St. Nicholas within the Walls and Chaplain to the Right Honourable Sir Charles Porter Lord High Chancellor and One of the Lords Justices of Ireland If your delight be in Thrones and Scepters O ye Kings of the People honour Wisdom that ye may Reign for evermore Wisdom of Solomon VI. XXI DVBLIN Printed by Andrew Crook on Ormonde-Key and are to be sold by Elishal Dolson at the Stationers-Arms in Castle-street and by Robert Thornton in Capel-street 1691. A SERMON ON Psalm IV. Ver. 2 3 4. O Ye Sons of men how long will ye turn my Glory into Shame how long will ye love Vanity and seek after leasing But Know that the Lord hath set a part him that is Godly for himselfe the Lord will hear when I call unto him Stand in aw and sin not Commune with your owne heart upon your bed and be Still GOdliness supports the Throne and more sets off a Crown than all its Jewels it makes a King safe in the Protection of Heaven Strikes his Enemies with Terrour and in his Subjects raises an Expectation of many glorious Dayes under his blessed Reign Such Royal Vertues enrich'd the soul of Henry the VII Emperour of Germany that as a very faithfull Historian informes the world ab uno ipso laborantis Imperil modela speraretur it might have been reasonably expected that by him alone the whole Body of the languishing Empire shou'd have been restor'd to an healthful State And did not the many and great Military Civil and Religious Accomplishments well known unto more than the Christian World in the fam'd Atchievements of our present Monarch bear up the linking Hearts of all our Protestant Kingdoms with the justest Hopes of seeing one happy day all the Miseries that oppress'd or threatned our Church and State seasonably remov'd or prevented by his Successfull Arm And according to such an Expectation the careful Providence of God the All wise Disposer of Crowns and Scepters has been so signally display'd in a long Series of Mercies to him in carrying on and in compleating that truly Christian Work that a man must be either willfully blind in not observing or basely ungrateful in not acknowledging that his Royal Person was the Chief Instrument of God in that surprizing Revolution which is deservedly the Joy of the present Generation and which will be the Wonder of future Ages The sudden News of such a Deliverer's Coming into England on this memorable Day was I conceive to many as the Angel's Message was unto the Shepherds at our Saviour's Comlng into the World Good tydings of great Joy for as if he had been a greater Light made to rule the Day of our Deliverance he still grew stronger as he advanc'd and with his prevailing Beams soon dispel'd those Clouds which had long hung over our Heads making all black and melancholy round about Us. Yet as the inconstant Jews presently forgat God their Saviour and lightly esteemed Moses his Servant whom he had chosen to conduct them with Wonders towards Canaan how soon did too many repine at the forward and almost uninterrupted Approaches of their own Happiness and Slander the Foot-steps of their great Deliverer Such is the uneasy humour of some that they are always discontented under their Oppressions and yet always undervalue the relieving Hand so that neither a Popish nor a Protestant King nor yet a most merciful God can please them Such dissatisfi'd Creatures were the Men that both by secret and open Methods oppos'd our Royal Psalmist Tho' God had excluded Saul for his wickedness given his Kingdom to a Neighbour that was better than He and tho' David was anointed by Samuel at Gods express Command yet how many in the Kingdom of Israel joyn'd their Endeavours with Saul's Malice to obstruct David's just Accession to the Crown And when Saul was fall'n ingloriously on the Mountains of Gilboa how many labour'd to promote the Interest of his Family and to disturb King David in his Possession Not only Forreign Nations the Jebusites and Philistines the Moabites Syrians and Amalekites set themselves against him but as if there had been a joynt-conspiracy to cross the six'd Resolve of Heaven a considerable Number of the Jews comply'd with Abner's design to place Saul's Son upon the Throne This as many Judicious Expositers do conclude was the special Occasion upon which David compos'd the present Psalm In the first Verse he appeals to God as the Witness Judge and Defender of his righteous Cause gratefully owns his past Mercies to him in the Day of Trouble humbly prays for future and then in our Text addresses his Speech unto the Sons of Men by a double earnest Interrogation implying at once the greatness of his own Concern and of their Folly in opposing him How long will ye turn my Glory into Shame how long will ye love Vanity and seek after lies How long will ye think to deprive me of that Honour which God's Goodness has conferr'd upon me How long will ye look upon me as an Ambitious Usurper and expose me as such unto the scorn and contempt of the people How long will ye make it your Business and Satisfaction to contrive encourage and carry on such traiterous Counsels Designs and Plots against my Life and Crown as will most certainly prove vain Devices and lying Imaginations most grossly disappointing all your big Hopes of compassing my ruine in the end God has already often heard my Prayer and enlarged me when I was in Distress and therefore he will hear me when I call upon him hereafter to confound your Devices Be not therefore O ye Sons of Men any longer so bold and foolish as to persist in such unsuccessfull and and unjust Attempts but know assuredly that I am so far from ambitiouslly aspiring unto the Throne of Israel that God has qualifi'd me by his holy Oyl for the Government of that People over whom he hath wonderfully set me apart or in an extraordinary manner made me King that I may Act for himself for his Honour in promoting his true Religion in the Land and thereby advance the Happiness of all his People committed to my Charge Having thus acquainted you with the most probable Occasion of this Psalm and given you a very natural Explication of our Text in particular I shall not any further enlarge upon the words as relating to K. David and his Enemies either in Saul's or his own Court but raise from them one Proposition of more general concernment and fairly apply it to the Double Blessing which we ought to celebrate this remarkable Day Namely the great deliverance of our three Kingdoms from Popery by the timely Discovery of the Gun-Powder-Treason to the peaceful K. James the First and the great Deliverance of the same Kingdoms from the same misery by the seasonable coming of
King William the Third into England For tho' his Landing was design'd on the Fourth of this Month Providence deferr'd it 'till the Fifth as if the Birth of so great a Prince of the Antient and most Illustrious House of Nassaw and his Marriage with so great a Princess as our now Most Gracious Queen had already suficiently signaliz'd one Day to after Ages or as if it wou'd make us more mindful of God's mercies to us on the Fifth of November by delivering us twice from Popery on the same day in the Years 1605. and 1688. A Year as wonderful for God's bringing safely King William's Navy to the salvation of England as the Year 1588 was for God's destroying the King of Spain's Armada which as if it had been really Invincible proudly threatned England with a most dreadful Invasion So that three days especially in this Month of November deserve a more particular Remark in our Reform'd Kingdoms The Fourth on which in the Year 1650 God with an hopeful Prince of Orange blesled not only the United Provinces for such a Blessing was too great for one particular State but the whole Protestaut world and on which also in the year 1677 God bless'd the same Prince of Orange with a Royal Consort The Seventeenth on which the Light of the Gospel after the black Night of Queen Mary's Reign began to shine forth in the Glorious Rising of Queen Elizabeth And the Fifth on which a most Horrid Work of Darkness was design'd for the final Extinction of the same Blessed Light but was at the very Midnight immediately foregoing most happily discover'd by the wonderful Providence and Mercy of God to her Successor as well in the defence of the truly Catholick and Apostolick Faith as in the English Throne K. James the First The History of this Damnable Plot and this unexpected Disappointment to the bloody Hopes of Rome will ensily come under this one Proposition which according to my Promise I now raise from the two first Verses of my Text. Tho' Godly Kings wonderfully set apart by God do answer Gods expectation in making his true Religion their principal Care yet the Sons of Men do often vainly endeavour to appose their Persons and to disturb their Government What can be more evident to all the world than the Truth of this Assertion in the many Contrivances Designs against K. James both before and after his coming to the Crown of England Shou'd I particularly acquaint you with all the illegal base Methods which the Enemies of that Crowned Head took to hinder his succeeding in the Throne of England my discourse wou'd soon swell beyond the ordinary limits of a Sermon Therefore considering especially that most of this Honourable Auditory are no strangers to the transactions of our own Kingdomes I shall be content to take notice but of one Historical Passage in relation to K. James which may be sufficient to demonstrate how vainly the Sons of Men contriv'd endeavour'd to turn his Glory into Shame This day will tell you that I mean the Gun-Powder-Treason A Wickedness so detestable to all that have not cast of Humanity and so great in it selfe that it neither needs nor will easily allow of any Aggravation But the more Universal and Cruel It was in the Intention of our Enemies the more gratefully shou'd we acknowledge the merciful Providence of Almighty God in delivering from it as on this day K. James with the three Estates of the Realm of England assembled in Parliament to the Glory of his Name and the Preservation of the Protestant Religion in these Kingdoms When many secret Plots had been laid in vain and many open Attempts had prov'd unsuccessful when neither the thundering Curses of Four Holy Fathers Paul the IV. Pius the V. Gregory XIII and Sixtus the V. nor the great Condescention of Pope Pius the IV. cou'd prevail when neither the Spanish Armada nor the Italian Arts could speed against the Providence of Heaven which carefully preserved the Learned and Religious Queen Elizabeth to the forty fifth Year of her Reign and the sixty ninth of her Age Pope Clement the VIII wisely foreseeing the vanity of striving against a Monarch that was so much the delight and care of Heaven thought it the most politick way to provide timely against any other Heretick's succeeding in the Throne of England And the more effectually to compass this Design of His Holiness two Breves were speedily dispatch'd into England strictly enjoyning both the Clergy and Laity not to suffer any but a sworn Papist to take Possession of the Crown after Q. Elizabeth's death or which was the same not to let K. James be King of England From this Command of the Pope the Gun-Powder-Treason or the Plot of blowing up the Parliament house according to Camden and other good Historians took its Rise for these Breves had so powerfully wrought upon Catesby the Contriver that altho' his Holiness's Design had been long negotiated in vain he could never be quiet nor content to be damn'd alone but having by the ready Assistance of the Devil luckily hit upon this compendious method of destruction by Gun-Powder and thinking the Plot of some of his party against the King's particular life but a pittifull under taking and not any considerable service to the Catholick Cause he brought several by degrees into his own Conspiracy A design which as we learn from the Consession of Guido Faux the person that boldly undertook to lay the lighted Match unto the Trains of Gun-Powder Catesby judg'd most proper because it was sittest that Justice and Punishment shou'd be executed in that Place where their Religion had been in their opinion unjustly suppress'd by Penal Laws But were the Jesuits unconcern'd in a Plot for Murdering an Heretical King and People No certainly it had fix'd an eternal Blot upon their Character had they been idle when their great Master the Devil who was a Murderer from the Beginning was close at Work These siery Spirits therefore besides other Encouragement and Assistance assur'd the Laity of a plenary Absolution soon remov'd the Scruple of their tender Consciences about destroying the Righteous with the Wicked Catholicks and Hereticks together and more strictly oblig'd them All to perform their Oath of Secrecy and Perseverance in the great Undertaking by their own addred Sacrament All this being done and all the necessary Materials not for building but for blowing up the Parliament House being at length convey'd into a convenient hired Cellar the joyful Day drew near but the Letter sent unto a Noble Lord from one of the Conspirators to diswade him from appearing in the Parliament house on the fifth of November and upon a deliberate repeated Review of which the Gun-Powder Plot was happily discover'd was mistaken in telling him that God and Man concur'd at this time to punish the Iniquity of the Times The Sons of Men indeed were ready but God with a watchful Eye of Mercy and Compassion saw the