Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	david_n	king_n	saul_n	12,106	5	9.9774	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28182	A sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons at St. Margarets Westminster, January 30, 1694 by Peter Birch ...	Birch, Peter, 1652?-1710.	1604 (1604)	Wing B2939; ESTC R12701	9,637	28

Mercurii 31 mo die Jan. 1693. Ordered THat the Thanks of the House be given to Dr. Birch for the Sermon by him preached before this House yesterday at St. Margarets Westminster And that he be desired to Print the same And that Sir Thomas Dyke and Mr. Hungerford do acquaint him therewith Paul Jodrell Cl. Dom. Com. A SERMON Preached before the Honourable House of Commons AT St Margarets Westminster JANVARY 30. 1694. By Peter Birch D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to Their Majesties LONDON Printed for Tho. Nott in the Pall mall and are to be Sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-hall 1694. 2 SAM I. 21. Ye Mountains of Gilboa let there be no dew neither let there be rain upon you nor fields of offerings for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away the shield of Saul as though he had not been anointed with oyl THis is part of the lamentation of David over Saul and an expression of his grief so raised and extraordinary as nothing but the greatness of the occasion could excite nor any raptures but those of a King and Prophet present us with It is over the fall of a Prince that was literally the Lords anointed and his Successor or if any prefer the being Vicegerents to their inferiours that was the desire and choice of the people Saul being advanced to the throne when Israel first grew weary of the Theocracy and desired a King after the form of other nations Besides that after his unction he had a new heart given him and was numbred among the Prophets so that his obsequies were fit only to be solemniz'd by one like himself the known inheritor of his Kingdom and Spirit To whose tears also it must needs have been a considerable addition that he had then raised an army which though not immediately employed against his master yet we find offered unto Achish and that it made the rear of his battel when he went out to fight against Israel and therefore it is no wonder that he whose heart smote him for offering violence but to the skirt of his Prince's robe should be overwhelmed at his death But besides these appropriate circumstances there are sufficient in this pathetick story to warrant our Churches accommodating it to the present solemnity For although few Texts of Scripture are exactly suited to those of providences and much less to that crime without a precedent in which all the villanies of our late confusions were compleated yet does this noble instance of David's piety to Saul teach us that our duty is practicable even against an apparent interest and the highest provocations We need not then spend time in making out the parallel or enquire whether God really suffered his anointed to fall by the hands of one he had disobediently saved 't is enough for us that David believed the Amalekites relation and that his carriage herein is recorded for our example to guide posterity in the same course He was at that time under more true discouragements from his duty than ever any rebel since invented false ones he had a just declared title to succeed had saved the honour of his Country and was the darling of his people and yet had grievances alone to plead where he had merited rewards For he was openly persecuted by Saul with a malice that seemed equally incapable of end or increase one that all his services and submissions together could never allay that had endangered the life of Jonathan for interceding and could ungratefully welcome him from the slaughter of the Philistins with seeking to strike him to the wall with a Javelin that as himself complains pursued him like a Partridge on the mountains and made his days as a shadow that declineth And yet when this heir of the kingdom saw the Crown and his Enemy fall into his hands together he does not basely trample upon his misfortunes or draw arguments from providences to conclude him rejected of God but forgetting his revenge he first vindicates the majesty of Saul by the death of his destroyer and then he piously laments over him not with a transient and retired grief as if he alone had been concerned but after the same manner as the Gospel now provides that supplications prayers and intercessions be made for Kings i. e. composed and solemnly performed in our daily offices so he likewise frames this divine lamentation enters it in his book of Jasher where his other hymns and spiritual songs were written and having according to the use of ancient times given it a title from the most eminent passage as was the bow of Jonathan he to make the sorrow universal commands it to be taught the children of Judah that all might learn with one heart and mouth to weep over the light and beauty of Israel Ye mountains of Gilboa c. If the whole earth was once accursed by heaven for the sin of man 't is but just that you O unhappy Mountains should for ever bid adieu to its blessings upon which the light of Israel was extinguished you deserve to lose your fertility and be given up to perpetual barrenness and may this expiate may you rather never more yield an increase sufficient for an offering unto the Lord than that his heritage should be brought to confusion and the blood of his anointed be required at our hands These two parts therefore the malediction and the reason of it I shall distinctly consider with relation to the present solemnity And 1. Of the malediction Let there be no dew nor rain upon you nor fields of offerings This we need not force into a Prophecy as if no rain or dew had ever since fallen upon Mount Gilboa and much less are we to esteem it only the rage of the Poet all rapture and hyperbole for if we pass on to its ground and design or compare it with other the like passages in several of the Prophets it will appear so far above a curse of fancy and presumption as to be founded upon one that is real and perpetually threatning 'T is comment enough but to repeat that one parallel instance of Job's cursing the time of his birth c. 3. Let. saith he the day perish wherein I was born and the night in which it was said there is a man-child conceived Let that day be darkness let not God regard it from above neither let the light shine upon it Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it let a cloud dwell upon it c. All which is not a piece of blasphemy or distrust in God but a designed demonstration of the bitterness of his troubles and the contempt he had of that life which sustained them for Job is before said c. 1. 21. not to have charged God foolishly he was long since resigned and had commenced the standard of patience And therefore those who first ignorantly call this murmuring and then excuse it by infirmity they might as well apologize for the Saviour of the world himself who