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england_n	great_a	king_n	year_n	21,498	5	5.0090	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87498	The best fee-simple, set forth in a sermon at St Peters in Cornhil, before the gentlemen and citizens born in the county of Nottingham, the 18. day of February, 1657. Being the day of their publique feast. By Marmaduke James, minister of Watton at Stone, in the county of Hertford.	James, Marmaduke.	1658 (1658)	Wing J432; Thomason E955_2*; ESTC R207614	34,420	74

be preserved And now My Lord we Your Countrymen look upon You as that Sun into whose bosom their flames have shed their lights as somtimes the expanded streams of Brightness came in and made a Periwig of Glory for Heavens greatest Luminary on the fourth of the Creations day of which we are daylie more assured whilst by Your great Humility though an Eagle of the highest Ayr yet You disdain not to fly in the Train of the meaner Birds of your Country to perch with them and feed in their Avearies their late Feasts and shew them an example of imping their large Plumes in pious and charitable extensions towards the feathering and feeding of many other naked and hungry Birds of the same Covie Among others your Orator is in Arrears as for your Attendance on and Countenance encouraging his work so for somthing hid in the bowels of the subject of both his Discourses The first represented David a great Man putting himself into Gods Inns of Court and there Professing himself a Student of the Divine as you in great Condiscention have done of the Common Law Thy Testimonies I have c. The second shewed Jesus Christ that Lapis Theologicus as the Scripture calls him in whose quest we never labour in vain Destin'd by Heavens Colledge of Phisitians to be Bruised nay Calcind to Dust and burnt up in the Furnace of his Fathers wrath that so the World might boast at last of an Vniversal Medicine for all Patients whatsoever Thus have we seen Blood issuing from one part of the Body stopt by opening the Cock and letting the Sluce fly from another Vein It pleased the Lord to bruise him In which Noble Science as in all others the End crownin the Action is not obscure to the very Hospitallers who pray that your Lordship may amply receive your Fees from Gods not earthly but heavenly Angels And if your Lordship as 't is not doubted but you do to the Law and Phisick and Davids study of Gods Testimonies and Isaiahs sublime Chymistry you will without all peradventure be Entitled by posterity the English Trismegistus But I am afraid lest dealing too long in Phisick I should make your Lordship a Patient If any thing in these Sermons or this Epistle be ill resented as Luther was said by some to call S. James Epistle Camp dec rat Epistola straminea well may be sit down quietly then with a worse character of his that desires to be numbred amongst the faithfullest of them that honour your Lordships Virtues and is in the work of the Gospel Your Honours most humble and faithful Servant Marmaduke James Right Honorable and Beloved THe shortness of the dayes the coldness of the season and the remoteness of our Countrey ha's prevented I suppose the supplies intended for you which ha's occasioned my being here upon short warning to serve you this day as one out of due course both besides yours and my own expectation which I trust will plead excuse if you have not a discourse so well digested as so honorable and solemne an Assembly might seem to challenge Concerning our Countrey much more cannot be presumed as additional to what ha's been spoken in the two years past without some injurie to the bounds of modesty and truth which by no meanes ought to be offered from the Pulpit yet mee thinks it is not handsom that such a Solemnity as this is should pass without some glance at least upon the present occasion which in a particular or two I shall by Gods assistance and your patience dispatch The first is that not many years past you heard from a learned Person that in the Memorables of our Countrey there was none found that had possest the chief Magistracy of this City But now behold one in the Chair that is not onely by his Office Gods Steward and the Protectors and this great Cities but your Countries Steward also an Honour that few Countries in England of late years have arrived to viz. That a Steward has been their Supreme Magistrate The next thing that I would commend to you is two places of Scripture which I seldom reade but the fresh thoughts of Nottingham and Nottingham-shire come in both of them are in the Psalms spoken of Canaan and Hierusalem That of the Countrey in the 144th Psalm the four last verses That our Sons may be as plants our Daughters as corner-stones our garners may be full our sheep bringing forth thousands in our streets our oxen strong to labour and that there be no complaining in our streets happy are the people that are in such a case yea happy is the people whose God is the Lord. The other is spoken of the City in the 48th Psalm the three last verses Walk about Zion tell the towres thereof mark well her bulwarks consider her palaces that you may tell it to the generation following for this God is our God for ever and ever c. In these two Scriptures you have a description and a correction when David had described the prosperity of the Countrey in their Sons Daughters Sheep Oxen Plenty Peace hee begins to pronounce prosperity upon them but as one that had forgot himself and left out the main he corrects himself yea rather happy is the people whose God is the Lord. Just thus in the other Scripture when he had described the scituation beauty and strength of Hierusalem hee brings in the presence of God one would think strangely and independently as the complement perfection and summum totale of all that Cities happiness for this God is our God for ever and ever Truly Gentlemen this is the work that you and I have to do this day viz. to look upon all the reported beauties and virtues of your Countrey but as so many single figures till God the eternal Circle of Blessedness be added to them to make up the sum and therefore let it be our joint prayer that God may be our God our Countreys God for ever ever It is no difficult matter to shew that the obligements of God are as much upon you to be his people as ever they were upon Judah and Hierusalem to tell you if time would give leave that your Countrey doth match the Land of Canaan in plenty and pleasures and how farr that Town of Nottingham doth run parallel with Hierusalem Was Hierasalem set upon precipitious hills and is not Nottingham so and as the mountains stood about Hierusalem Psal 125. do they not so about Nottingham and as there were two famous Ascents in Hierusalem Mount Moriah upon which the Temple stood and Mount Zion where stood that lofty Tower of David incomparably perching over City and Countrey and is it nor so in Nottingham where upon one high rock as upon another Moriah stands that fair Church if my rule fail not some cubits bigger than the Temple and upon another yet higher mountain like that of Zion stands that ancient Castle over-topping Town and Countrey the lowest

Subjects which being good is no small addition to the glory of a Prince What Nation saith Moses is there in all the world so great and so glorious as thy people Israel There was but one people in all the world that was the Lord's people and David was their King and God's King He was not Rex Diabolorum as they say the King of England was the King of Divels Neither was he Rex Asinorum as they say the King of France is the King of Asses Neither was he Rex Hominum only as they say the King of Spain is the King of men But he was Rex Sanctorum the King of Saints wherein he assumes the very Title of God Rev. 15.3 O Thou King of Saints If we consider the settlement of this estate upon David and his Posterity We think an estate surely setled that is entailed upon the Crown but alas that Crown may fall in four or five hundred years and then what becomes of that Entail But David's estate was by God's Oath entailed upon the Son Once have I sworn by my Holiness unto David Psal 89.36 37. that his Seed shall be as the Sun before me and as the faithful witness in heaven If you lay these things together what an estate had David Nay rather what a heart had David to slight all these for these Testimonies We have not a drop to his bucket to his Ocean and yet alas how do our small estates draw our hearts from these Testimonies Let us mourn over this distemper Again If we consider how small a part of these Testimonies David had David had but eight books of the Scripture the five books of Moses Joshua Judges and Ruth this was all that David knew David had the Law it is true but he had none of the Gospel none of the Evangelists or Apostolical Epistles David had the Law but he had not any of the Commentators none of those Prophets called great or small lived in his time I dare be bold to say that that first Sermon of Christ in Matth. 5. is worth more then all that David knew David had the Letter that killeth but you have the Spirit that giveth life David saw through a Glass 2 Cor. 3.18 darkly but you with open face behold the glory of the Lord David lived in the Dawning of the day but you in those times when the Sun is in the full Heavens in its Meridian O what would David have said if he had seen the things that we see as Christ speaks Mat. 13.17 Many righteous men have desired to see the things that ye see and have not seen them Well Sir if you lay the greatness of this estate with the littleness of David's knowledge concerning these testimonies together for sic magna parvis componere solemus you will finde him a famous example and worthy your imitation But if any one should say what is the reason or what was there that David saw in these testimonies to lead him to his choice from so great an estate You have it in these words For they are the rejoycing of my heart And thus am I come to the second particular and the last thing that is the Theory in David's example For they are the rejoycing of my heart wherein you have three things insinuated First saith hee they are my Joy Joy is that flower that groweth out of every good and so far do we account any thing good as it is joyfull to us As if David should say I profess I have found more joy in these Testimonies then ever I did in my Crowns and Kingdoms It is a mistake when men think that a religious life is a sad melancholly cynical life It is true the life of a Christian is a life of temptation affliction a life of sorrowing and teares for sin and yet it is a joyful life for we finde joy in our very sorrows As dying and behold we live 2 Cor. 6.9.10 as sorrowfull yet alwayes rejoycing The Apostle brings in sorrow with a sicut sicut Dolentes as sorrowful as if our sorrows were not reall sorrows as if they were but Analogical or similitudinous sorrows But our joy real verè semper gaudentes alwayes rejoycing and truly if you look upon all the sons of affliction in Scripture you will finde they had their time of joy poor Joseph that was so innocently cast into the dungeon and those heavy irons layed upon his young and tender legs the text faith Psal 106.18 the very irons went through his soule yet he had his time of joy and David after hee was hunted by Saul like a Partridge upon the Mountaines had yet his time of joy And Job after Satan had discharged all the arrowes of his wrath upon him had his time of joy And Paul in the midst of those many deaths hee was as sorrowfull but alwayes rejoycing men may think what they will but the state of a Christian is a joyfull state for they are the joy c. The second thing observable is the intention of the deepness of his joy for they are the joy of my heart As if David should say my Crown and Kingdoms Wives and Children they are the rejoycing of mine eyes of my sensual and bestial parts but truly my rational and deep joyes they are from thy Testimonies for they are the rejoycing of my heart It is one thing to be merry ore tenus this the men of the world have it is another thing to be joyful this only the Saints have As the Poet speaks of the river Nilus that it is very deep and the waters are very swift and yet a by-stander would scarcely think they did move at all The joyes of a good man are deep and swift joyes and yet to others they are scarce seen to move there was such a difference in Davids comforts as there is betwixt the dew and the groundraine you know Sirs that in a hot parching season if there comes-a coole night and a fine dew upon the grasse in the morning it is a great refreshing but alas when the Sun is up an hour or two that dew is gone but if there comes a ground-rain that lasteth for eight and forty or threescore hours that reaches the root of the grasse and trees what a new face doth it put upon the Creature The comforts that David had from Absolom Amnon Tamar and his temporal concernments were like the dew for an hour or two but then were scorched but the joys hee had from these testimonies are like unto the ground-rain that reached his heart root for they are the joyes of my heart The last thing observable is how David doth place all the springs of his comforts in these testimonies For they They are the rejoycings of my heart As if a good man should fetch all his comforts from these testimonies and certainely we forget our selves when we do otherwise and therefore it is that God doth usually blast all the other objects of

the children of blessedness that exemption that is there from sin sorrows temptations tribulations persecutions c. It conveys and assures all the estate unto them insomuch there was never any childe of God could ever lay claim to God Christ to the Spirit to Grace to Glory but by these Testimonies Hence David knew what he said Psal 19.11 Moreover by them is thy servant warned and in keeping of them there is great reward That reward is no less then Heaven it self Hence it is that the Word is so often called The Gospel of the Kingdom Yea The Kingdom of heaven it self Repent Mat. 4.23 Mat. 24.14 for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand Mat. 4.17 The Kingdom of God is come unto you Hence Paul Luk. 10.9 when he bids farewel to the Ministers of Miletus I commend you saith he to God and the Word of his grace Acts 20.32 that is able to give you an inheritance amongst them that are sanctified giving thanks unto God that hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Not only in the light of glory but in the light of grace and of these Testimonies For thy Law is a light unto my feet Psal 119.105 and a Eamp unto my paths And thus have we done with the second thing propounded to wit What is meant by this Inheritance and in what sense these Testimonies became David's Inheritance and so we come to the improvement of all by way of Application Use 1 If it be so that the Word of the Lord is his peoples inheritance Then we see the reason of its preservation to this day notwithstanding all those floods of malice that have been vomited out against it by Satan and his Instruments What is the reason that the Assyrian and Persian Monarchs and those bloody Roman Emperours that would have blotted out the name of this Book from under heaven could never effect it What is the reason that that Fox the Pope by all his subtilty could never destroy it somtimes setting the Church above it somtimes corrupting it with false glosses somtimes obscuring it from the people What 's the reason that those Locusts that are come out of the bottomless pit I mean the Seekers and Ranters and Quakers who crying up a light within them to destroy this glorious light without them could never effectuate Why you have the reason in the Text It is an Inheritance It is no easie matter to divide betwixt an Heir and his Inheritance A young Heir may be under a Cloud or a Sequestration for a time but Inheritances will revert God's entails are stronger then man's and so long as God hath an Heir a Childe upon earth it is impossible to destroy this Book this Inheritance Heaven and Earth shall pass away before one jot Matth. 5.18 one tittle shall pass from it Use 2 If it be so That these Testimonies are such an Inheritance then that man that hath an Interest in them hath little cause to be discontented in his condition If thou beest a rich man then bless the Lord that hath given thee both a portion in this life and that which is to come And if we have any Country-man here that is a poor man let him not say he is very poor having an interest in that which David prizeth above all his Crowns but let him say Psal 116.7 Return unto thy rest O my Soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee Use 3 If it be so That this Word of the Lord be such an Inheritance What is the reason that in these our days it is so slighted and the love of many grows so cold towards it We have a saying That rich men never want Heirs they may want children but they never want heirs Take the most mortified man and him that is the most withdrawn from the pleasures and profits of this life if he hear of any Inheritance fallen presently he saddles his Horse and rides away for possession for saith he it is an Inheritance If men did believe that this were such could they slight it as they do When the Son of man comes shall he finde faith in the earth Truly Sirs we have cause to think that the last age of the world is upon us I might stand here and lament over the sad Apostacy of these times and might take up the expostulation of the Prophet Jeremiah Ierem. 2.5 What iniquity have your Fathers found in me that they are gone away from me What evil Christian hast thou ever found in this Book that thy soul should loath it What is the reason Is it that of the Poet Inopem me copia fecit Hath plenty made thee poor Or Hath the abundance of this spiritual Manna given thee a surfet Or is it that of the Philosopher Nimis sensibile destruit sensum Art thou blinde by looking upon the Sun Or hath the glorious light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ put out mens eyes Well Sirs Let others do what they will you that are my Country-men you that fear the Lord amongst them hold fast this Book for it is your life and the length of your days and when any one attempts to seduce you from it say unto him as Naboth did unto Ahab Ahab was a King 1 Kings 21.3 and he proffered a valuable consideration and it was but for a temporal inheritance God forbid that I should part with the Inheritance of my forefathers Have all my Progenitors lived upon this estate and shall I now debauch it God forbid There is Abraham Isaac and Jacob and Job and David and Daniel and Paul and Peter and Latimer and our Countryman Cranmer and all these Patriarchal men and thousands more that are now sate down in the Kingdom of Glory by vertue of this inheritance God forbid that ever we should part with the inheritance of our forefathers And that I may fasten this Exhortation upon you we shall a little open to you in the conclusion of our discourse the famous example of David It is to be considered either first in the Practique or secondly in the Theory of it The Practique is considerable either first what the temporal estate that David had was Or secondly what of these Testimonies David knew For the first I believe that David had the greatest estate that ever mortal man had except it was A dam in innocency I know the story of Darius Alexander Caesar Charlemaine and those great and mighty men upon the earth yet under favour David seems to transcend them if these three things be considered David had a considerable bredth of ground over which he ruled he ruled over Palestina which was somtimes the seat of seven Kingdoms over the Philistims over Ammon Moab Amaleck c. and if you compare 2 Sam. 8. with the History of Josephus you will find him to be Lord of the greatest part of the Eastern world But If you consider the quality of his