Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A63886
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A sermon preached before the King on the 30th of January, 1684/5 being the fast for the martyrdom of King Charles the first of blessed memory / by Francis Lord Bishop of Ely, and Almoner to His Majesty.
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Turner, Francis, 1638?-1700.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing T3287; ESTC R3928
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11,974
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33
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the most bloody Zealots to Confess the guilt of Blood How forward to acquit themselves from so just a Charge 2. How necessary it is how absolutely necessary to lay them open to shew men of Blood their own guilt 3. Vpon whom should we intend to bring the guilt of Blood Vpon none but those that have brought it upon themselves And Who are those 4. Fourthly In all this we should mainly intend that which the Apostles intended to bring even the most Guilty to true Repentance 1. How backward are the most bloody Zealots to Confess the Guilt of Blood How forward to acquit themselves from so just a Charge Exactly at this pass are our English Regicides They kill'd and took possession as Eliah charges Ahab in the Case of Naboth Yet was their Case worse by far than that between Ahab and Naboth a King and one Innocent Subject for this the Regicides did to a great number of their Innocent fellow Subjects and this they did to a King as Eminent for all manner of Goodness as Ahab was remarkable for Extream Wickedness Yet if the Prophet Eliah should come again as some are of Opinion he shall come at the end of the World but if he should come at this time to deliver his Master's Errand to any of these he must expect no better Reception than Ahab gave Him Hast thou found me O mine Enemy for he becomes their Enemy that tells them the Truth Yet for all That Eliah like a Prophet from God immediately goes on I have found thee How gladly would they part with this odious Business out of their own Memories And how do they abhor us only for doing our Duty as the Apostles did here Calling their Sins to Remembrance They apply to this matter that saying of the Wiseman The Repetition of a matter separateth very Friends They would be Friends with us if we could find in our hearts to be their Flatterers They Complain as if it were ill-natur'd as if it were Uncharitable and Unchristian to mention their murdering of the King as if it were high time the Act for observing the Thirtieth of January were Repealed as if it were almost as great a Grievance as the 35th of the Queen To shew I do this sort of men no wrong How very few if any of those who took upon them to act as the King's Judges would take the Christian shame upon themselves when they came to suffer or profess the least regret for what they had acted Preach Repentance to them as was done to Several of them before their Deaths they would have us to know their names were inroll'd in the Book of Life their Calling and Election was sure And some of the last words which the Arch-Traytor was heard to utter were such as These I am sure I was once in Christ therefore ever in Christ I have kept it ever since for a Reply upon some well-meaning but ill-instructed People who are ready to Despair if they do not satisfie themselves of their being in the State of Certainty when they are dying that some of These whose hands were so full of blood yet were as full of this false Security as the most glorious Martyrs were of the true One If it were needful to give any more Instances I might shew by later Examples of the same Party to what a Reprobate Sense men may be given up that have once Sear'd their Consciences to stop their own bleeding at heart while they are shedding innocent Blood with their own hands while they break into Houses massacre Innocent men in their Beds mangle them with such Cruelty as the like was scarce ever heard of since Dolabella perform'd his Barbarous Exploit in the dead of Night upon Trebonius But that was for his being one of Caesar's Murderers Whereas these poor Sufferers were Guilty of no Crime but their being of his Majesties Guards And yet these same Monsters do in their Declarations solemnly protest they hold no Cruel Principles they would by no means be mistaken for men of Blood But the more Confident they are of their own Innocence and the more they turn away their Impudent eyes from seeing their own Guilt the more absolutely necessary it is for us to lay it before them which leads to my Second Part. 2. In this we do but follow the great Examples before us we do as was done by the Apostles And this ought to be done not barely for the sake of those that are guilty but also for the securing and preserving our own Innocence for He that hates his Brother is a Murderer says the Apostle and he that Suffers Sin upon him or does not reprove him for it is in another place of Scripture supposed to hate him Nor could St. Paul have enter'd this Protestation I take you to Record this Day that I am pure from the blood of all men but that he was able to add for I have not shunn'd to declare unto you all the Counsel of God Besides we are well aware that the voice of the meanest Blood much more of the Royalest if it still crys from the Earth will pluck down more Judgments from Heaven and that the most Innocent private man the most unspotted from Blood may yet be involv'd in those public Calamities We turn the Case upon our Selves the Case in the Second of Samuel that there was a Famine in the days of David three years year after year and David enquired of the Lord and the Lord answered It is for Saul and for his bloody House because he slew the Gibeonites for the Children of Israel had sworn unto them and Saul sought to slay them I do very well remember how pressingly this Case of the Gibeonites was urged in favour of those Murderers of the King that had render'd themselves But I must needs say it had been more pertinently urg'd if instead of Saul's putting to Death the Gibeonites after they had made a Covenant with Israel the Gibeonites had put King Saul to Death by vertue of a Covenant made among themselves without their King and against Him Now suppose those Gibeonites that were no better than Hewers of Wood and Drawers of Water to Israel had Constituted some of their Draymen a High-Court of Justice to Murder King Saul with a shew of Authority on their Side Then had a Famine ensu'd had a War follow'd upon That had a Pestilence began where the War had ended had the Capital City in which such a Tragedy was acted been reduc'd to Ashes and after all That had the Famine begun again David would scarce have needed to Consult the Oracle of God to Discover one great Cause of so many Judgments Since then Almighty God when he makes Inquisition for Blood he remembers them and forgets not the Cry of the humble as David the Party concern'd in the former Case has set it down Psal 9. 12. We had best make strict Enquiry and consider well as the Apostles did here before they would charge any