Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n
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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
nearness of our danger and all the Plotting of our Enemies T is God's time and Prerogative to save in the greatest extremity of Danger to save Isaac from the very Altar Daniel from the Den of Lions and the three Children from the burning fiery Furnace Such a Deliverance looks like the Deliverance of a God such a seasonable Salvation does most magnifie his Power his Wisdom and his Mercy So far was the Merciless Project for an utter Extirpation of the Protestant Religion carry'd on with all imaginable Secrecy that for all the frustrated Attempts in Q. Elizabeth's Reign towards a Resetlement of Rome's Supremacy in England Her overjoy'd Agents promis'd themselves now an ample Recompense and Satisfaction in their effecting this Master-Piece of Villany that might Supersede the Labour of any other Treasonable Contrivances But tho Rome had brought the Mighty Work unto the Birth She wanted Strength to bring forth How vain is the Devil 's and the Jesuit's Consult how unsuccessfully do they Club for the Ruin of a Kingdom when Heaven is pleas'd to Thwart their Destructive Designs They may confidently say as in the forementioned Letter to the Lord Mount-eagle Men shall receive a Terrible Blow and yet shall not see who hurt them They may pray for the Success of any Bloody Design against all they Damn for Hereticks as the Gun-Powder Traytors did Prosper O Lord their Pains that labour in this Cause day and night Let Heresie vanish like Smoke and let the Memory of it perish with a Crack all this while that God unto whom nothing is secret to whom the darkness and light are both alike beholds all their Revengfull Labours sees ev'ry Step they silently advance in their Designs and laughs at their Folly He hears their Uncharitable Prayers but it is to disappoint them for the Salvation of his Anointed and the Happiness of his People Many Devices are in their Hearts but the Counsel of the Lord and that alone shall stand even when the Wicked fall by their own Coxtrivances as the Gun-Powder Traytors did Some of them among whom was Catesby the Subtile Inventer of the Plot being Disabled by the Providential Blowing up of Gun-Powder it self which they were preparing for the Destruction of others as if this had been purposely design'd to make them more sensible of their lately intended Mischief Some being actually kill'd in their hasty Flight upon the Unexpected Discovery of their Bloody Purpose particularly by One Shot both Catesby and Percy from whose Dwelling the Powder was brought undiscover'd into the Cellar under the Parliament House And others being apprehended experienc'd how Benesicial the Plot won'd be as their Confessors told them in the Consequences of it as Beneficial as being fairly Hang'd for Treason Thus was The Lord known by the Judgment which he Executed By trapping thus the Wicked in the works of their own Hands And since God did so opportunely deliver our Fore-Fathers at the very Mid-night before that Morning in which they were appointed for the Slaughter by so Great Surprizing and Wonderful a Mercy all the Sons of After Generations shou'd be Confirm'd in a Comfortable Hope of God's Favour towards them when their Enemies seem to be in the greatest probability of compassing their Destruction For God is the same yssterday to day and for ever his Hand is not shorten'd that he cannot save Now as well as in Former Ages Godly Kings and States professing his Holy and Eternal Truth In Extream Distress therefore let the Resolution of every one of us be like that of Eliphaz in the book of Job I will seck unto God and unto God will I commit my Cause unto God who doth great things and unsearchable marvelous things without number who disappointeth the Devices of the Crafty so that their hands cannot perform their Emerprise he taketh the wise in their own craftiness and the counsel of the froward is carry'd headlong but he saveth the poor from the Sword and from the hand of the Mighty God does often give such a Deliverance to his People as is joyn'd with the Consusion of their Enemies The same Sea open'd a Way for the Israelites and a Grave for the Egyptians So that the Plots of the Wicked are vain not only because they are commonly frustrated in their Hopes of ruining by them Religious Kings and States but also because they prove in the end most destrnctive of their own Temporal as well as Eternal Happiness Thus tho' the Gun-Powder Traytors said in effect among themselves Come and let us root them out that they may be no more a People that the very Name of Protestant may be no more in Remembrance yet they imagined such a Mischievous Device as they were not able to perform they digged a Pit and sunk into the midst of it themselves Their Intended Mischief against the Lord 's Anointed like Arrows shot against Heaven return'd upon their own Heads and their Wickedness fell upon their own Pates So perished those Discontented Gentlemen and so let all their Enemies perish O Lord but let them that love thee be joyful and glad in thee and let all such as delight in thy Salvation say alway the Lord be praised That this Duty of Thanksgiving may be more cheerfully perform'd let Us now our Proposition rais'd from the two first Verses of our Text being dispatch'd take into Our Consideration the Third Verse containing the Royal Psalmist's Exhortation inferr'd from his foregoing Address to God and Man and Apply it to the Case of all such as are disaffected to the present Government Stand in awe and sin not Commune with your own Heart upon your Bed and be still When we are withdrawn from the Distracting Noise and Hurry of the world and the Stillness of Night favour 's our Recollected Thoughts we are well dispos'd for a Solemn Meditation on the most weighty Matters for a serions Reflection on our own ways on our Duty to God and the King At such a Season therefore do's the Psalmist advise his Enemies who had long in vain oppos'd his Government to reason with themselves about the wickedness of their Undutiful Carriage towards him and to have an awful Regard to the Omnipresent Omniscient and Almighty God as a special means to keep them from sinning against his Anointed for Plots carry'd on against Godly Kings God interprets as Acted against his Divine Majesty whose Vicegerents they are in this lower World Such is King David's Confidence in the Justice of his Cause that he seems willing to referr the whole matter unto their own Consciences wou'd they but lay aside all Passion Pride Revenge ' or Private Interest and give themselves time to judge calmly of things according to Reason Equity he does not in the least doubt but that upon such a deliberate Communing with themselves about the Folly of their Proceedings they wou'd soon be still or desist from all Traiterous Designs and Seditious Practices Here then let us a little while reason together