Selected quad for the lemma: lord_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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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 M. A. LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane MDCXCVI A Thanksgiving-Sermon Preached at SVTTON in SVRRY c. PSALM CXXII 6. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem they shall prosper that love thee WHatever was the particular Occasion of this Pslam 't is commonly taken for a Song of Rejoicing after Victory upon the Resettlement of the Kingdom of Israel in Peace and Quietness The Royal Psalmist seems not to be better pleas'd with his Success which was perhaps his winning the Fort upon the Rock of Sion than with the Opportunity it gave him to go up to Jerusalem to praise the Lord of Hosts that inspir'd him with Courage and bless'd him with Victory Ver. 1. I was glad when they said unto me Let us go into the house of the Lord. Ver. 2. Our feet shall stand within thy gates O Jerusalem Diodati paraphrases We shall no more need to run here and there to do God's Service as we did at other times when the Ark removed from place to place now that it stands still in Jerusalem we shall not go any where else Ver. 3. Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together David having paid his Devotions celebrates the Holy City 1 st for its Compactness i. e. as some interpret for its Uniform Beautiful Buildings others because of the joining of the low Town and Castle for the latter till the time of David remain'd in the hands of the Jebusites whom the Children of Judah could not drive out He prosecutes his Praise of the City farther taking notice that it was the place Ver. 4. Whither the tribes go up the tribes of the Lord unto the testimony of Israel to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. Ver. 5. For there are set thrones of judgment the thrones of the house of David The chiefest Honour of Jerusalem is plac'd in these two things it was the Place of Worship and the Seat of Judicature thrice in the year the Inhabitants go up thither to praise the Lord there also sat the Sanbedrim the Supreme Court of the Nation moreover there was the Palace of the King For these several Great and Weighty Reasons David owns it the Duty of himself and Subjects to pray for the Peace of Jerusalem Pray for the peace of Jerusalem they shall prosper that love thee The word Jerusalem is taken Properly for the City it self or Metonymically for the Inhabitants in general or Metaphorically for the Celestial City the Heavenly Jerusalem In this place it manifestly signifies the Inhabitants of Jerusalem in general of what Order or Degree what Quality or Denomination soever every Man of them in particular is requir'd to pray for the Prosperity of the whole Body of them in general The Scripture never uses the word Jerusalem but in one of the three ways which I have mention'd yet I confess it is applied sometimes to the Church of England and by them that apply it so the Church is restrain'd to signify none but the Clergy but if other men had equal Heat of Fancy they might with equal reason apply it to our Merchants and the word Merchants might be restrain'd to the East-India Company in contradistinction to the Interlopers Without question the Royal Psalmist was sensibly concern'd for the Prosperity of all Israel and not of one Tribe only 'T is true David was often piously busied in regulating the Service of the Temple but we do not ever find and cannot reasonably suppose him to have been so partial as to intercede with God only for the Levites and so it went well with them not to care how it far'd with all the People besides A Learned Man hath lately told us of a Muscovite Divine that thought Heaven was made only for the Czar and the Boyars David knew better nor Heaven nor Earth was ever promised as an Inheritance to a particular Order of Men with exclusion to others In the New Testament we read that God desires that all men all in general might come to the knowledge of the Truth and be saved And David desires that all his Subjects all in general may understand their Interest and their Duty and by Associating for the Safety and Honour of his Sacred Person of their common Religion Laws and Liberties become settled in a happy Peace and bless'd with a full Prosperity Granting that the distinction of Clergy and Laity is founded on the Word of God yet surely Clergy and Laity ought not to have Distinct and Separate Interests but as in One God they both believe in order to their Everlasting Happiness so by the same Laws they should both be willing to be govern'd the same King they should both own for their RIGHTFUL and LAWFUL Sovereign that so the Peace of their common Jerusalem of their Native Countrey may be promoted the Prosperity of every Honest Man among them taken care of Without this Unity of Interest without this Unity of Allegiance no Government can be settled on sure Foundations no King secured from a Combination of Murderous Assassines They who shall interpret praying for the Peace of Jerusalem to be nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 praying for the things which make only for the advantage of the Priesthood they do as good as bid the Secular Power take care of it self they alienate the Affections of the despis'd People from them they enervate the force of their own wisest Instructions in short they very anti-Apostolically invert the honest Practice of St. Paul hinted in that Divine Aphorism We seek not yours but you I have said that the Word Jerusalem in the Text is to be taken Metonymically for the Inhabitants of Jerusalem and that in general not for the Levites only but for the Laick Vulgar also even the whole Bulk of the Twelve Tribes The next thing to be determin'd is what King David meant by this Phrase Pray for the peace of Jerusalem That Teacher who throws out hard Words and mysterious Expressions to the people intends to amuse them or has some other Design not more honourable But whoso uses Words and Expressions common and plain gives a fair testimony that he has no sinister Ends to serve when he delivers his Message Few men care to trouble themselves with an inquiry after the sense of hard Words and mysterious Expressions but Words and Expressions common and plain they understand without an Interpreter though yet by accident through the untowardness of men of perverse minds even the plainest things that can be said shall need an explanation I make no question but the Enemies of David who sought to cast him down from his Excellency i. e. to dethrone him for no mean Criticks of different Parties suppose him when he penn'd the 62d Psalm to have been a Crown'd
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