Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	day_n	law_n	word_n	11,415	5	4.4659	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61248	A sermon preached in the Cathedral and Metropolitan Church of St. Peter in York, January 30th, 1688/9, and published at the request of the auditors by William Stainforth ...	Stainforth, William, d. 1713.	1689 (1689)	Wing S5173; ESTC R13543	15,374	42

and to reade in it all his days that he might learn to fear the Lord his God and to keep all the words of this Law and these Statutes to doe them Now Josiah out of a just regard to the Authority of God and a tender respect to the Welfare of his People contains himself in the exercise of his Sovereign Power within those bounds which God had set him and administers his Government according to those Laws which God appointed to be the constant 2 Kings 23. 25. and fixed rules of it for so we are told that like unto him was there no King before him that turned unto the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might according to all the Law of Moses neither after him arose there any like him Where by all the Law of Moses must be meant the judicial as well as the moral and ceremonial Laws and consequently this noble Character of Josiah must imply his exact and punctual Observance of that in matters civil and political as well as his strict Conformity to the other in things of a moral and ceremonial nature And what greater Blessing could a Nation enjoy or wish for than such a King who was so admirably qualified and fitted for Government and who in his Government kept punctually to the legal constitution of it and inviolably observ'd all the publick Rules which either related to the Worship of God and the duties of Religion or to the civil Rights and Properties of the People And therefore the Death of such a King could not be reckon'd any otherwise than a publick Loss nor could the Notice of it be received by any thinking person without such a passionate and affective Grief as was suitable to the nature and moment of the Consequences which depended on it And accordingly when good Josiah dyed the whole Nation was ready to dye with Grief too ready to faint and sink under the sense of their Loss and the weight of their Affliction for as their Loss was extraordinary so their Grief was so excessive and so much beyond the ordinary rate of Mourners that it became proverbial and the Prophet Zachary could not find a more proper instance of Grief to represent the greatness of that Mourning which the Children of the Bride-chamber would express when Christ their Bridegroom should be taken from them than this wherewith the Death of Josiah was lamented for thus he describes it It shall be like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddo And indeed all Judah and Jerusalem had extraordinary reason to mourn at that extraordinary rate for Josiah not onely because he dyed but because he dyed in that surprising and astonishing manner Which brings me to consider III. What peculiar and additional Reason they had besides the general one to grieve and mourn for the Death of Josiah If good Josiah had dyed according to the ordinary course of Nature and gone to his Sepulchre and been gathered to his Fathers as a shock of corn fully ripened and in its proper Season as Eliphaz elegantly compares it though his Job 5. 26. death even under such circumstances had been a loss and an infelicity yet the consideration that he had lived so long and as long as the forces of humane Nature could hold out might have been a just abatement of their grief and disposed them to have born the Calamity with less Trouble and more temper of Mind But alas the case was quite otherwise for he not onely dyed in the prime of his Age in his full strength and vigour but he dyed too by the hands of Violence for he was slain in the day of Battel as he was endeavouring to oppose the King of Egypt and to stop his march towards the river Euphrates For an unlucky Egyptian drew his mischievous Bow and shot a fatal Arrow which gave him his mortal wound and soon put an end to his Life and to all the joys and delights of his people for they could not bear the death the untimely and violent Death of such an excellent King without being extremely concern'd at it and almost overwhelm'd with a deluge of grief and sorrow for it And indeed the manner of his death was a just occasion for so great a grief because it was so plain an indication of God's displeasure against them and so clear a Prognostick of Calamities and Miseries which would follow upon it For though Kings must dye like other men and though there seems nothing extraordinary in the untimely and violent death of a good King when we consider onely that they are made up of the same frail perishing materials with our selves and with the rest of mortal men are equally susceptive of the fatal impressions of a destructive Violence yet when we consider farther that the Providence of God does in an especial manner superintend and watch over good men and in a more particular manner over good Kings then we cannot reflect on the untimely and violent death of a Wise Holy and Just King without being convinced that Heaven is highly offended and has a dreadfull controversie with the Nation and has removed this great instrument of its Blessing out of the way that so its wrath may break in with greater liberty and fall down upon it with all the dispatch and execution imaginable And the Jews had a more than ordinary reason to make such a judgment on the untimely and violent death of their good King Josiah and to interpret God's permission of it as the effect of his sore wrath and heavy displeasure which he now seemed resolved to pour down upon them in such National Calamities and Miseries as should bear proportion to their own and their Ancestours provocations For they had been assured by Huldah the Prophetess that the Idolatries and Impieties of their Forefathers had kindled and blown up the wrath of God against them to such a degree that it should not be quenched but should flame out upon them in Judgments as signal as their Crimes and as extraordinary as their Offences which deserv'd it But notwithstanding for the sake of Josiah whose heart was tender and who 2. King. 22. humbled himself before the Lord God would defer the Execution of his wrath and not bring it upon them in his days And therefore as the Jews were warranted by this Prophecy to esteem the life of their King as the surest preservative of their own and to look upon his Person as an happy Skrene which interposed between them and the dismal terrours of God's justice and kept off his destroying hand from seizing and laying hold on their guilty Nation so they had reason to conclude from the manner of his death that God was quite wearied out with their provocations That his Patience and Long-suffering were utterly exhausted and that he was now sending down upon them all those tremendous judgments which their Prophets had so clearly foretold and their sins so loudly called

Throne in their hearts which is a more sure and lasting establishment than his Sword can give him And then it is as little wonder That when such a King dyes the whole Nation is struck with Grief and invaded with Sorrow and bewails the said Accident with all the mournfull Expressions imaginable for the Love which they had for his Person and the benefits which they enjoy'd under his Government and the frightfull apprehensions which they may entertain on such a dreadfull change are so many powerfull causes to produce an universal Grief in their Minds and to croud their Eyes with Tears and to fill their Mouths with dolefull Complaints and Lamentations for all such changes are dangerous and full of hazard and though they do not always prove fatal and mischievous to the Government yet there is always reason to suspect that they may for where there is no cause to hope that things can grow better there is always cause to fear that they may grow worse And therefore whensoever a good King dyes Fear and Love combine and unite to afflict all his Subjects with a pungent and hearty Grief and People of all Nations and all Religions have felt and experienc'd this troublesome Passion on such a moving and affecting Occasion and have own'd and publish'd it by solemn and ceremonious Mournings and so in particular All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah which brings me to the II. Which is to consider how much the Jewish Nation were concern'd in this general Reason to grieve and mourn for the death of Josiah The general Reason which induceth any People to mourn for the death of a good King is as I have shewn you the consideration of those various Blessings and manifold Benefits which they reap'd and enjoy'd under the Exercise of his Sovereign Power and Administration of his Government For these Blessings are so near and concerning and do so sensibly touch us that we cannot consider the death of the happy instrument of them without being affected with a real and hearty Grief for the Loss of him Now that Josiah was such a King and such an Instrument will appear if we consider that He was endu'd with all those natural spiritual and moral Excellencies and Perfections which are necessary to make up and complete the just character of a good King and to render him the greatest Blessing to his People For 1. Josiah was a King of an excellent Understanding and Wisedom which in others is the fruit of long experience and much observation the acquist of study and industry seem'd to be innate to him and born with him For he gave early proofs of a Wisedom so extraordinary as no less distinguish'd him from his Subjects and set him above them than the Dignity of his regal Office and the Eminency of his supreme Power For as he began to reign when he was but eight years old so within eight years after he entred upon his Government the Wisedom which was so peculiar to himself brake out in a most conspicuous manner and the first Essays of it appear'd in that which is both the indication and beginning of true Wisedom for the Scripture tells us That in the eighth year of his reign while 2 Chron. 34. 3. he was yet young he began to seek after the God of David his father Afterwards he proceeded to consider the Actions of his Predecessors and according to the dictates of his own Wisedom and the counsels of the Elders which as Josephus observes he always took along with him he rectified their errours and mistakes with as much exactness and circumspection as if he had been an old man and promoted and imitated what he found established by them with good advice and settled upon just and weighty reasons 2. He was a King of extraordinary Piety For his Soul was filled with a just and powerfull sense of God which discover'd it self in suitable Acts of Holiness and correspondent Practices of Religion and Goodness throughout his whole Conversation He had a mighty and active Zeal for the Glory of God and could not endure that his Honour should be given to another or that he should have any Corrivals and Competitours in his Worship for he purg'd the Land from Idolatry by demolishing the Altars of Baal and destroying the Groves which were the places of their Idolatrous Worship and breaking their carved Images which were the Objects of it and putting to death their Priests who were the Instruments and Ministers of it and reducing the mis-led People to a just sense of their duty and service which they ow'd to the only true God the God of Israel He repair'd the decays and ruines of the Temple of the Lord at Hierusalem with extraordinary diligence and dispatch and adorn'd it not onely with material Ornaments but with the spiritual Beauty of Holiness by restoring the publick Worship of the true God to its ancient Glory and Purity Nor can we doubt but that the whole course of his Life was uniform and in all the parts of it consistent with his ardent and flaming Zeal for God's Worship That it was entirely govern'd by the same holy Principles and directed by the same holy Rules and was in all respects a bright and illustrious Example of sincere Piety and true Religion especially if we consider the glorious character which the Holy Ghost gives us of him in the Scriptures for there we are told That he did that 2 Kings 22. 2. which was right in the fight of the Lord and walked in all the ways of David his father and turned not aside to the right hand or the left 3. He was a King of strict and impartial Justice for he govern'd his People by just and equal measures such measures as were the legal standards of Right and Wrong and were essential and fundamental to that National Constitution For though God instituted the Jewish Monarchy and set Kings over them and vested their Kings with a Supremacy of Power yet he did not leave the Exercise of this Power to the boundless and mischievous Liberty of their own Wills but prescribed them certain Rules which they were inviolably to observe both in the Decision of Controversies concerning Civil Right and Property and in the management and determination of Criminal Causes And these Rules are known by the Name of the Judicial Law of the Jews in contradistinction both to the Moral Law which respected things of eternal and universal Obligation and to the Ceremonial Law which related to the positive and instituted Worship of God. And the Jewish Kings had no Authority to dispense with or abrogate this judicial Law either in whole or in part but were bound by the Command of God to conform themselves unto it as the standing and unalterable rule of their Government And therefore when the King came to his Throne and enter'd upon his Government He was commanded to write a Copy Deut. 17. 18 19 20. of the Law with his own hand