A SERMON Preached on SUNDAY The XXVI of July 1685. Being the Day Appointed for Solemn Thanksgiving to Almighty God for His Majesties late Victory over the REBELS Preached at Wakefield By Obadiah Lee M. A. and Vicar there Printed for and Sold by Elizabeth Richardson Bookseller in Wakefield MDCLXXXV A SERMON 2 Sam. 18.28 The latter part of the verse Blessed be the Lord thy God which hath delivered up the men that lift up their hand against my Lord the King The whole verse runs thus And Ahimaaz called and said unto the King all is well and he fell down to the Earth upon his face before the King and said blessed be the Lord thy God which hath delivered up the Men that lift up their hand against my Lord the King THis day being set apart not only as a weekly Sabbath Commemorating these Spiritual mercies which we receive by the Victorious and Triumphant Resurrection of the Lord of Life and Glory over our spiritual Enemies Sin Death and Hell but also by His Majesties Royal Proclamation as a day of special Thanksgiving to God for his happy Victory over his and our Enemies whom no former pardon could ingage nor acts of grace mollifie to a due discharge of their duty I thought this History this particular part of it now read to you would not be unsuitable to the occasion and accordingly made choice of it The Wise man tells us Eccl. 1.9 There is no new thing under the Sun and ver 10. Is there any thing whereof it may be said See this is new It hath been of old time which was before us Accordingly we have Absalom and Achitophel after some revolution of Ages once more upon the stage in these last and therefore worst of times pursuing the same methods of destruction under the same pretences and though Israels politick Achitophel did long since wisely dispose of himself to the Halter to save the Hangman a labour and their Rebellious Absalom was caught up between earth and heaven as unworthy of either the senseless Oak becoming a just avenger on him whom its likely the doting fathers indulgence would have spared yet severest instances of heavens wrath will not discourage those Ambitious spirits who have a glistering Crown and an advanced Throne in their prospect But blessed be God our Achitophels projects failing he dies of the sullens in a Foreign Nation and our Absaloms Rebellious rout is defeated and himself become a prey to Justice good news this and who fitter to have the first Tidings of it then Israels King Loyal and couragious Ahimaaz offers himself to Joab the General to be the first messenger of such happy Tidings and we have him delivering his message to the King in the words of my Text blessed be the Lord thy God which hath delivered up the men that lift up their hand against my Lord the King Thus you see my text is the first Tidings brought to King David of the total defeat of the Forces of Rebellious Absalom delivered in the pious strain of Thanksgiving and Praises to King Davids God blessed be the Lord thy God c. That I may the more clearly proceed in the handling of the text it will be not unuseful to give you an account of the occasion in order whereunto we must know that Absalom the main subject of the story was blest with that high Prerogative of being the King of Israel's Son one whom God had indowed with the most exquisite accomplishments of nature of goodly personage and surprizing beauty and comeliness the more remarkable because natures workmanship in none so exactly delineated in Scripture as this of Absalom as if God had in him given an exemplar of perfect beauty chap. 14.25 We read that in all Israel there was none so much to be praised as Absalom for his beauty from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him And no wonder that so goodly a presence a person endowed with such advantages attracts the eyes and affections of all beholders No sooner does he appear in Israels famous Metropolis but all the news and discourse was of the beauty and perfection of the young Absalom For the endowments of his soul he knew how to resent an injury hide his resentment with shows of kindness and take the surest and most opportune revenge Witness his behaviour towards his brother Amnon for the Rape of the beautiful Thamar so that he was a person of most profound dissimulation And as he was thus cunningly Revengeful so of an haughty Ambitious spirit as he was the Son of a King so ambitious to be one for no sooner had he obtained the King his Fathers pardon for his Brothers Murder and regained His Majesties favour but he appears in the splendor and state of heir apparent to Israels crown Beauty and greatness made him proud and great spirits will not rest contented with moderate prosperity and therefore because outward Pomp and unwonted shews of Magnificence affect the light minds of the vulgar Absalom to the height of his birth and the incomparable comeliness of his person adds the unusual state of a more than Princely Equipage chap. 15.1 He prepares him Chariots and Horsemen and fifty men to run before him And now his Chariots rattle and his pampered Horses praunce it proudly through Jerusalems streets with his fifty Footmen in goodly Liveries running before their glistering Master the City rings of the glory of their Prince and are ready to adore these continual triumphs of peace and though excess and novelty of expensive bravery in publick persons give just cause to suspect either vanity or a Plot yet true hearted David misdoubts no such matter construes all as meant to the honour of a Fathers Court or the expressions of joy and thankfulness for a late reconcilement This gives advantage First to flatter and thereby gain the mobile to his designs he rises early stands in the gate and with prodigious humility in mascarade he courts the Communalty seems to pity the want of a free course of justice in which was he good Man concern'd none should have cause to complain See says he thy matters are good but alas none is deputed of the King to hear thee Knowing that no musick is more sweet to the Ears of the unstable multitude than to hear well of themselves ill of their Governours And now every one speaks of his praise crying out oh brave Prince Absalom the World hath not so compleat a Prince as Absalom Thus are the unwary unthinking subjects hearts stoln by the close Traytor from their lawful Sovereign but certainly as no natural face has so clear a white and red as the painted so such over fair shows are a just argument of unsoundness However having by these Arts scrued himself into the affections of the people the next advance must be a Cloak of Religion to perfect the treachery of an ungracious Son that carries Peace in his Name War in
his Heart and therefore because the more deformed any action is the fairer vizor must be put upon it Absalom forsooth must go to Hebron there to pay his Vows to the most High which he uttered when he was in trouble How glad is the good Old King at the News hereof that he hath a Son so goodly and withal so pious whom he dismisses loaden with a Fathers blessing but what trust is there in flesh and blood when David is not safe from his own Loyns Armed Troops willingly offer themselves to make up the train of this darling Prince and now he wants nothing but the Oracle of his age politick Achitophel to form the design him he gains who advises him first to ascend his Fathers Bed to prevent a future reconcilement and then to pursue his flying Fathers person yet David is not so deserted of God or Man but gathers an Army of Loyal Subjects though far inferiour to that of Rebellious Absalom which Army he first Musters and then dismisses while himself retires to Mehanaim to see the event of this fatal battel Well the battel is joyned and the Lord of Hosts with whom it is all one to save with many or with few takes part with justice and lets rebellious Israel feel what it is to bear Arms for a Trayterous Usurper the news of which we have in the Text. Thus I have given you as short account as I could of the occasion of the text it was rebellious Israels defeat and usurping Absaloms death that gave Life to these words I was going to draw the parallel sutable to this days joy but I suppose none that have heard the History can be to seek to draw the parallel Had not we also an Absalom our late Kings Son though Illegitimate one indowed with perfection of Body and Mind only with Absalom wanting Grace and Loyalty Was he not as high in the King his Fathers favour as ever Absalom was in Davids yet Royal favours work nothing upon a disloyal Heart for though he was as great and high as Riches and Honour could make him or a Subject in his circumstances could expect yet filius ante diem patrios inquirit in annos he searches his Fathers Register and finding him not old enough yet to dye he seeks by an untimely death to cut off his too indulgent Father and kind Uncle that he also might usurp the Throne And did not he use the same methods and tread in the same paths that Absalom did of old having rendered himself conspicuous by a more than common Valour and Conduct in foreign Wars he advances in honour and esteem and by his Princely train especially into the West which it seems he design'd for a more bloody Stage and prodigious flattery in self-disregarding familiarity with those of meaner quality he gained their affections and stole their hearts And now all mens mouths are filled with the praises of this young Prince he is become at once the darling both of King and Subject Munmouth's Health is drunk his Praises sung in every place but amidst the praises of the admiring vulgar black thoughts possess the disloyal heart Neither does he want an Achitophel the man with three Names that once betrayed the Grand-father and therefore the more likely to betray the Father too This cunning man fills the young head with aspiring projects and by his policy forms a Plot for the destruction of the King the then Duke of York our present Sovereign and ruine of the Government but through Gods special Providence this Plot was discovered and he who expected to be Proclaimed King was proclaimed a Traytor but the close Traytor quickly improves into an open Rebel he therefore no sooner hears of the death of the King but he provides himself with Arms and Ammunition and had his spies with Absalom in several parts of these nations to sound the affections of the people and make way for his ready reception and though his as well as Absalom's Achitophel was dead yet he pursues the design invades two nations at once by himself and accomplices and under the stale pretense of extirpating Popery and Tyranny he breaks out into open Rebellion and pushes on to the issue of a Battel And though the Loyal Party was as far inferiour to the Rebels in number as those of David were to those of Absalom yet God who is the only giver of Victory by these few defeats the more numerous Rebels And we also had a valiant Ahimaaz Sir Theophilus Oglethorpe Great Grand-Son to the famous 〈◊〉 Tobias Matthews Arch Bishop of YORK our own Countrey man and he also of Sacerdotal Race to bring Englands King Tidings how the Lord had avenged him of his Enemies Thus you see the parallel holds in all the particulars and now I hope we may say all is well and how can we better express our praises to God for this wonderful mercy than in the words of the Text blessed be the Lord our God which hath delivered up the men that lift up their hand against our Lord the King In the Text are three things Observable 1. There were men that lift up their hand against the King The best of Kings have Enemies 2. These men thus lifting up their hand against the King are delivered up viz. to death and destruction Ruine is the ordinary consequence of Rebellion 3. The God of Israel blessed for thus delivering up the men that lift up their hand against the King of Israel Blessed be the Lord thy God c. 1. There were men that lift up their hand against the King This is supposed for if there had been none such there had been no blessing of God for delivering them up The best of Kings are not secure from the worst of Enemies such as dare to lift up their hands against them Moses was a Wise a Learned and a Pious Prince one set up immediately by God and proved his immediate call to the Government by most stupendous Miracles and yet this Moses is conspired against as an Usurper and a Tyrant one that took too much upon him and set himself above the Congregation of the Lord and tho these found a judgment worthy of God the Earth no longer able to bear those sinful burdens of it opened her mouth and swallowed them up so that they went quick into Hell yet Rebellion perished not with these Rebels David was one of Gods own chusing a Man after Gods own heart one that had often hazarded his Life for the defence of Israel his People yet we have this David complaining Psalm 3.1 Lord how are they increased that trouble me many are they that rise up against me an expression the more remarkable because pen'd upon his flight from Absalom he had foreign Enemies Ishbosheth Hanun Hadadezer the state of the Philistines he had homebred Rebels those that lift up their hand against him though their natural Prince Absalom Achitophel Amasa here Sheba Adonijah and Joab afterwards VSE 1 Let not
Kings and Princes then think it strange that such there are since such there have been indeed when one considers Rulers as an Ordinance of God the strict commands of obedience and subjection to them the judgments of God in this Life and that wrath that abides for such in the Life to come he would think there should be none that should dare to lift up their hand against the Lords Anointed but what will not men attempt for Rule and Domination but men first cast of the fear of God before they attempt to put Kings in Fear and where men have no regard to God and Religion what will they not adventure upon though it be to their own destruction and therefore having the example of so many pious good and wise Kings Rebell'd against and that under the fair disguise of Piety Religion and Liberty it may make us the less wonder that such there should be in our days VSE 2 Have the best of Kings their Enemies Let not us think the worse of them because they have such as lift up their hand against them You see none so good but had the like and therefore let not us harbour the worse thought of them for it and while they report them careless or tyrannical let us remember that it was Scripture long before this Rebellious age had a being is it fit to say to Kings you are wicked or to Princes ye are ungodly Job 34.18 We should not be ready to hearken to the cunning insinuations of Rebels but if we have but so much as thought evil against the King the Wise man advises us to lay our hand upon our mouth in token of shame and abhorrenbe of our selves for it Proverbs 30. 32. Thus much of the first thing in the Text there were men that lift up their hand against the King The best of Kings have their Enemies which I have been the briefer upon because it is only supposed and implyed in the Text. Secondly These men thus lifting up their hand against the King are delivered up to death and destruction Ruine is the ordinary consequence of Rebellion Those that seek to destory the King shall find destruction to themselves their mischief shall fall down upon ther own heads and their violent dealing shall come down upon their own pate Psalm 7.16 The Wise man who himself also was a King tells us Proverbs 17.11 An evil man only seeketh Rebellion and therefore a cruel Messenger shall be sent against him Cartwright understands this messenger by a Synecdoche pro omni infortunio seu plaga quacunque for all kind of misfortune or any sort of Plague or such a cruel messenger shall be sent against him as shall prove inexorable as shall inflict the utmost severity upon him Thus as one of the Criticks upon the place observes the Rebel dum quaerit malum alienum justo dei judicio consequitur malum proprium while he seeks anothers bane he finds his own Yea whosoever breaks the hedge of Government some Serpent or other shall bite him Eccles 10. 18. They who are impatient of rule over them have ruine very near them Need I prove this by Examples it hath been the observation of some that the ruine of no sort of sinners hath been so sudden so unavoidable as the Rebels We read of none in Scripture who opposed Authority but have been punished eminently in this Life nor hardly do we read of a Seditious person who was not taken away by a violent death The first example of Rebellion was also a sad example of Gods great judgement upon them that they who had given future ages a patern for the Sin should give them also an example of suffering Korah and his Accomplices were the first that rose up to oppose Authority and they who by their sin had provoked heaven and disturbed earth heaven and earth conspire together for their ruine The Earth opening her mouth to swallow into her bowels the Ring-Leaders of the Rebellion as unworthy to live upon the face of it so that as the Psalmist expresses it Psalm 55.15 An horrible death seiz'd upon them and they went quick into Hell when such wickedness was in their dwellings and among them And immediately Heaven it self appears in flames of fire to act a second part in that avenging Tragedy on the rest of the two hundred and fifty Complices who were ready to cry up the Rebels as the good people of the Lord so that though they had escaped the astonishing Chasma yet vengeance suffered not to live Thus God by his immediate and astonishing judgments on the first Authors of Rebellion recorded in the Annals of Scripture does shew to all succeeding Ages how displeasing this sin is So that let pretences be never so popular and seemingly Religious the persons concerned never so great and famous yet God is no respecter of persons in the execution of his judgments This present Story where my Text is gives another dreadful instance of the truth of this Doctrine but this I need but name now because I have enlarged upon it before in the introduction to my discourse And had Zimri Peace that slew his Master no certainly Baasha conspires against his Master Nadab and slew him Zimri by a retaliation of Treason conspires against his Lord and Master Elah the Son of Baasha and slew him but so little Peace had Zimri after his Conspiracy that within seven dayes a short reign he is Besieged by Omri and all Israel and since it would be no better he in a desperate fury kindles his own funeral Pile casts himself into the flames of his own kindling burns the Kings Palace over his head and thus puts an end to his Treason and Life And that Monster Phocas who slew his Lord and Master Mauritius how lamentable was his Life How dreadful and detestable his death During his short reign he was so transcendent for Vice and Wickedness that he was called the calamity of the Roman Empire His actions were ever unprosperous who ever he engaged against he was overcome and by the loss of many Provinces he so weakned the Empire that it never recovered its former strength and splendor and in the end he became so hateful to all men that his own Son-in-law with others conspired against him and brought him to Heraclius the Emperour of the East by whose Command his Head Feet and secret Members were cut off and the stump of his Body given to the Souldiers to be burnt with Fire Maximus who slew the good Emperour Gratian was himself betrayed by the same Souldiers whom he had stirred up against his Prince and in whom he reposed his trust who seiz'd on him deprived him of his Habiliments and Ornaments of Empire presented him bound like a slave to Theodosius and before his face tore him to pieces Another sad Example this days occasion does present us with a Person who might have liv'd the happiest of Subjects the honour of the Nation by Rebellion become a prey
to deserved Justice and a Ruine to all his Confederates Reason I Rebellion is a sin against God himself though intended chiefly for the ruine of his Vicegerents We cannot lift up a hand against the Lords anointed but we lift it up against the Lord that made him so we cannot Rebel against Authority but we Rebel against God I do not speak this of my self Scripture it self speaks as much Numbers 16. Korah and his Accomplices rose up against Moses and Aaron but we find in the 11th verse of that chapter that God takes it as done to himself it was against God that they set themselves so in Moses his speech to Korah For which cause thou and all thy company are gathered together against the Lord. So in the recital of this History Numbers 26. 9. This is that Dathan and Abiram which were famous in the Congregation who strove against Moses and Aaron in the company of Korah when they strove against the Lord mind it it was against Moses and Aaron that they strove and yet withal it was against God himself and then no wonder that such find a judgment worthy of God Reason II It is against the whole Community Rebellion is universally destructive and the more universally influential to evil the greater the Sin and the greater must needs be the punishment Rebels are hostes humani generis Enemies to mankind St. Paul tells us not only that Rulers come from God but they are set up for our good they are the Ministers of God to thee for good whosoever thou art whether High or Low Rich or Poor they are ordained of God for all our good even all mankind without whom the World would be like a Wild Forest wherein the weaker Beasts become a prey to the stronger and men in it like the Fishes of the Sea it is the Prophet Habakkuks similitude Habakkuk 1.14 the greater devouring the less without these mankind could not continue they therefore that are Enemies to these must needs be Enemies to mankind If then we would eschew ruine let us flie Rebellion if we would not fare ill let us do well carry our selves peaceably and quietly in those places wherein Providence hath set us for who is he that will harm you if you be followers of that which is good 1 Pet. 3.13 Thirdly The third thing in the Text is the Praise and Thanksgiving Blessed be the Lord thy God that hath delivered up the men that lift up their hand against my Lord the King This is the main of the Text where we have three things Observable First This Valiant Ahimaaz does not ascribe the Victory to their own valour and conduct to their Arms or Armies but to him who stiles himself the Lord of Hosts it is by him that these Enemies of the King those that lift up their hand against him were delivered up to ruine and destruction And should teach us to do the same in the like case it is God that puts Valour and Courage into Souldiers that gives Wisdom and Conduct to Officers that gives Victory and success to Armies And then what better use can we make of this dayes Celebrated mercy than a Deo gratias Blessed be God that he hath delivered up the men that lift up their hand against our Lord the King Mercies vouchsafed especially delivering mercies Victory over Enemies should be received with Thanksgiving and Praise to God who is mighty in Battel The Second thing observable Ahimaaz in this Doxology calls God King Davids God certainly he is the God of the whole Creation the God of the Spirits of all flesh especially the God of Israel a people in Covenant with him whom he had then chosen for his peculiar inheritance And yet he is in a peculiar manner the Kings God not only by special Ordination as he that set him up at first but by special preservation as he that kept him there where he at first set him up viz. on the Throne of Israel and thus though God be the God of all yet he is in a peculiar manner wonderful among the Kings of the Earth To this God Ahimaaz ascribes the glory of the Victory and gives the Praise The Third thing observable and herein he is a fit example for us to follow Bless God for this mercy this day Celebrated which we shall see we have the greater cause to do if we consider what might have been the effects of this Rebellion had it succeeded It is true they pretended to rise up against Popery and for the Liberty and Priviledge of the people opprest by Tyranny and it s very likely they would have made good their promise in their own sense for Rebels promises are alwayes equivocal the Popery they declared against would have proved Episcopacy the effect of it the subversion of the Church of England for that we know is Rebels Popery had the success been answerable to their desire we should have had no Bishop but Bishop Ferguson with his Lay-Elders And they would its like have secured the peoples Liberties and Properties but it would have been in their own hands where it would have been no easie thing to have got them out again And as for the King that they would have set over them he would have dwindled into a Duke of Venice where all might have been transacted according to the dictates of the infallible Senate These Hoghen Moghens would its like have prefer'd their King to the new nothing of a Stat-holder while they themselves had ruled the roast for cut but once the line of Royal Succession and none can be King but by the long Sword or the peoples bounty And they are like to Reign as Kings indeed who are beholden to the people that they are so The Bill of Exclusion would have made Kingly Government precarious would have brought in Arbitrary Government indeed much worse than that which our Malecontents have wrongfully complained of and then have we not great cause to bless God for this days mercy One thing I would mind you of and then shall put an end to my discourse Let us have a care while we bless God we do not dishonour him let us not bless him as if he was some Heathenish Bacchus pleased with full Cups and honoured with intemperance which we should be the more careful in because it is the Lords day which certainly upon no occasion should be profaned and therefore let us be careful to be Religious while we have a grateful sense of this dayes mercy We cannot its true Praise God too much but we may easily drink too much and drunkenness is but a bad conclusion of a Lords Days Sacrifice I shall end where I did begin blessed be the Lord our God that hath delivered up the men that lift up their hand against our Lord the King To which God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be given for this and all other his mercies all Honour Glory Praise and Thanksgiving now and for ever Amen FINIS