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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
about a quiet Submission to that Mighty Monarch whose Glory too many have vainly endeavour'd to turn into Shame tho' God has wonderfully set him apart for the Preservation of his People and the True Religion in more than our own Kingdoms For the Restoration and Security of the Romish Worship many Plots against King James the First both in Scotland and in England were Contriv'd and Carry'd on but Heaven disappointed all And as the like Reason or Pretence rather engag'd the Sons of Men in the Last Reign to make use of the most Unjust Methods and most Lamentable Shifts to put King William for everby the Succession so the same God did not only enable him to Conquer all those Difficulties but has also since Confirm'd him in the Possession of the Throne by a Compleater Victory over his Enemies The Hand of God has been so visible in cutting off many of them in driving others round the Nation and in scattering some from one Kingdom to another that some of themselves have heavily curs'd their Pretended Heir to our three Kingdoms as one Great Cause of all their Miseries The Prince of Wales indeed sounds like an Immediate Heir to the Crown of England but that Adopted Child of Royal Grace might have been as properly call'd King of Salom as Prince of Wales for we know neither his Father nor Mother nor Descent neither his Beginning of Days nor since he is got into France are we like to hear of his End of Life So that to borrow the Expression of a Learned Paraphrast concerning Melthizedeck he stands in Story as a kind of Immortal Prince without any Successour Tho' this Cheat was too gross to pass with the more Discerning People yet certainly it might in time have made a good After-Game for a great part of the Nation and the longer such an Imposture had kept Possession in the Minds of Men it wou'd have been remov'd with greater Difficulty Timely therefore did the Prince of Orange too Wise to be Impos'd on by a Pack of Women Knaves and Jesuites and too Brave and Daring to be frighten'd out of his Undoubted Right by any Hunslow Campaigns Resolve upon and prepare for the Deliverance of three Kingdoms from Popery and Slavery and on this Noted Day he came He came the Great Defender of our Faith and all that is dear to us in Mortality And since Almighty God has been so Prodigiously Merciful to these Nations as to raise up such a Mighty Deliverer for us in the Day of our Distress let us when we are out of the Throng of Worldly Concerns consider with our selves how little Reason we have to be Dissatisfy'd under the Present Government or rather how highly our Careful Monarch has oblig'd us all to study to be quiet and do our own business and so make his Reign easy unto him and a Blessing unto our selves The Sun has not twice gone his Annual Round since God and King William went forth with our Army to Battle and to Victory And can we already forget what Miseries we Suffer'd and what we Fear'd Had not the All-Wise God put a timely stop to the Violent Proceedings of some Bigotted Papists who strongly influenc'd the whole Party we might easily have foreseen that our Nation in a short time wou'd have groan'd under all those Miseries which our Brethren of the Reform'd Churches abroad have suffer'd under the Unmerciful Powers of France We cannot surely but remember when men imagin'd craftily against us and Gravely laid their Heads together in a Mock-Parliament House to undo us with One Consent when they said and were as good as their word Come and let us take to our selves the Houses of God in Possession And is it a Grateful Return for a Deliverance from such Inveterate and Implacable Enemies and the Restoration of our Pure Publick Worship for any to continue still so foolish as to imitate the peevish Israelites who desir'd a Deliverance from Egypt and when they were Deliver'd as earnestly wish'd to return unto their old Slavery O ye Sons of Men How long will ye live Dissatisfy'd as if you pray'd for nothing more than to have our Holy Altars again abus'd by Superstition and Idolatry how long will ye love Vanity As if you wou'd be glad once more to see this House of God sinely Dress'd with Babies and Pictures the Entertainment and Diversion of Children Fools Men shou'd consider that as Relapses in the Natural Body are commonly more Fatal than the First Disease so shou'd we again fall under Popery our Last Estate would be worse that the First And shall any endeavour to bring upon themselves and others their Former Miseries with an Unsupportable Addition of New Calamities Let us therefore be so Truly Wise as to Commune with our own Hearts about these things and be still under the Present Dispensation of Providence Surely whatsoever may be the Opinions of any Interested Persons in our own Kingdoms Forreign Nations will Condemn us for perfect Madmen if we do not in this our day so consider the Things that belong unto our Peace as to sit still under our own Vines and Fig-Trees and cheerfully eat the Fruit of our own and of our Royal Master's Labours Since we have the greatest reason to address unto our King as St. Paul did to his most Noble Faelix Seeing that by thee we enjoy great Quietness and very Worthy Deeds are done unto this Nation by thy Providence we accept it always and in all places with all thankfulness Seeing we are oblig'd unto so Just an Acknowledgment surely we shou'd be so far from harbouring any Seditious Murmurings or Disloyal Thoughts that we shou'd rather every night before we give any Sleep unto our Eyes or Slumber to our Eye-lids upon our Bed earnestly beg a Blessing upon that Royal Person thro' whose most Generous Affection most Undaunted Courage and most Prudent Conduct we all under God do dwell in Safety all the Day and lie down in Peace at Night Shou'd any Dissatisfy'd Persons object against this that since the Papists Live and are Mighty 't is in vain for any Preachers to talk of dwelling safely I reply to such in our Saviour's words why are ye fearful O ye of little Faith Since God has at sundry time and in divers manners deliver'd their Fathers and themselves from a great Death from the Lyon and from the Bear they ought with the United Strength of Faith and Reason to conclude that if they put their Trust in him he will yet deliver them from ev'ry Uncircumcis'd Philistine And I wou'd have them consider moreover as a full Answer to all such Unreasonable Murmurings that it is not their Business to understand the Deep Intrigues of State and that it must be a very Impertinent Boldness to enquire into the Secret Reasons of them let them therefore mind what more nearly concerns them and particularly at this time the Generous Spirit Quiet Carriage of Mephibosheth under the loss of his own Estate as it is written for our Instruction in the 2. Sam. 19.30 When the King had given part of his Estate to the Treacherous Ziba saying Thou and Ziba divide the Land Mephibosheth in the Transport of his Unmanageable Joy at the General Happiness of the Nation upon King David's returning home from Battle does not only consent to what King David granted unto Ziba his Malicious Enemy but as if the Safety of a King on the Preservation of whose Royal Person the Publick Welfare did depend had been a sufficient Portion for any Loyal Affectionate Subject he thus resigns his whole Estate Yea let him let even Ziba that labour'd to take away my Life and Reputation take all seeing that my Lord the King is come again in Peace to his own House The Application of this Historical Passage being very easy I hope you will make it unto your selves for I cannot allow my self the Liberty of any further Enlargement To close all therefore Since we have now such a Godly Protestant King and such a Pious Protestant Queen upon the Throne as our Kingdoms have never enjoy'd together Since God has Signally Bless'd with many Victories shall I say or with one continu'd Conquest our Glorious General whose Immortal Actions not only the Present Generation but late Posterity after all that their Gratitude can perform must leave to be Compleatly Rewarded in a rieher world when God shall have put all Enemies under his Feet even the Last Enemy that shall be destroy'd Death it self In a word Since God has Mercifully Answer'd all our Prayers and Disappointed all our Unreasonable Fears and Jealousies let not the harsh Ungratefull Voice of Murmuring interrupt our more sweet acceptable Acclamatinons of Joy but Stand in awe and sin not against God or his Anointed Commune with your own Hearts upon your Beds and be Still FINIS