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	resurrection_n	sabbath_n	11,414	5	10.0655	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B04311	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.	Lee, Obadiah, 1636 or 7-1700.	1685 (1685)	Wing L885B; ESTC R222844	9,795	31

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

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