put out and the Spark of his Fire shall not shine The Light shall be dark in his Tabernacle and his Candle shall be put out with him Job 18.5 6. i. e. his Honour and Glory shall be put out his Prosperity shall fade away and die 2. A good King is a good sign that God will not destroy the Kingdom 2 Kings 8.19 Yet the Lord would not destroy Judah for David his Servant's sake as he promised him to give him always a Light and to his Children therefore God would not destroy Judah because he had promised David to give him a Light that is a Successor in his Throne to give Light to his People therefore the giving of that Light was a Preservation to Judah from Destruction When God was provoked by Solomon who threatned him for his Idolatry and Breach of Covenant to rend the Kingdom from him and give it unto his Servant he was pleased to add Howbeit I will not do it in thy Days for David thy Father's sake but I will rend it out of the Hand of thy Son He would not for David's sake to whom God promised a Lampalways 1 Kings 15.4 Nevertheless for David 's sake did the Lord his God give him a Lamp in Jerusalem to set up his Son and to establish Jerusalem 3. A good King is Light to a Kingdom as he is a cause of Joy and Gladness to a Kingdom A bad King may cause carnal and profane Joy to the Wicked but then he is the Cause and Grief and Trouble to them that fear God We are not to call that Light which makes the Wicked to rejoice in their Wickedness and to glory in their Shame but then we have a Light when the Righteous rejoice Whon the Righteous are in Authority the People rejoice but when the Wicked beareth Rule the People mourn Prov. 29.2 Light is borrowed to express Joy and Gladness Light is sown for the Righteous and Gladness for the upright in Heart Psal 97.11 Then had the Jews Light and Gladness and Joy and Honour Esther 8.16 What a Constellation of Blessings what Clusters of Mercies and all in the Flower arise and spring up in a Land when such a Light is set up in the Firmament of a Kingdom in the Orb of Soveraignty 4. A good King is the Light and Glory of a Kingdom the Light of a People when he doth restore set up resorm and maintain Religion in his Kingdom such a King was David such a Blessing was he to Israel When the Ark of God was taken the miserable sorrowful Wife of Phineas called her Child's Name Ichabod because the Glory was departed from Israel and she said The Glory is departed from Israel for the Ark of God is taken 1 Sam. 4.21 22. Surely Salvation is nigh them that fear him that Glory may dwell in our Land Psal 85.9 Christ is called A Light to the Gentiles and the Glory of his People Israel Luke 2.32 Therefore then it is that Glory dwells in the Land when the Glory of Christ shines in his Worship Ordinances and People The Glory and Liberty of the Gospel in its Ministry Ordinances and Profession of its Truth and Beauty of Holiness doth exalt a Nation advanceth it in great Honour and then Glory doth not come as a Traveller to see a Country or a wayfaring Man that tarrieth for a Night but dwelleth in a Land when Religion pure and undesiled is entertained with Reverence and Honour in the King's Court in the Houses of Nobles and hath a free Passage throughout a Nation and is delivered from unreasonable Men A religious King is then the Light of Israel when the Lights of the World are set up kept burning brought from under Bushels and set upon the Table when good Men may be as good as they will and the wicked may not be as vile and bad as they would be 5. A good King is a Light to a Kingdom when he reigns in Righteousness David's Prayer for Solomon was Psal 72.2 Give the King thy Judgments and thy Righteousness to the King's Son This was his Prayer for him who was a Lamp which God promised to raise up in his place and when a King doth reign in Righteousness then he imitates and represents the Sun of Righteousnes Christ Jesus the King the Scepter of whose Kingdom is a Scepter of Righteousness Mal. 4.2 2 Sam. 23.3 4. who ariseth with healing in his Wings The God of Israel said the Rock of Israel spake to me He that ruleth over Men must be just ruling in the fear of God Now mark what a just King a religious King that ruleth in the Fear of the Lord shall be And he shall be as the Light of the Morning when the Sun riseth even a Morning without Clouds as the tender Grass springeth out of the Earth by clear shining after Rain i. e. he shall be a great Blessing a great Comfort and Cause of rejoicing to the People of God A King that reigns in Righteousness may yet further be compared to the Light as he doth by himself by his righteous Laws declare and enact what is just and right that by the Light of his Laws People may see the Light of the Rule and the Path of Righteousness that by his wise learned and upright Judges not to serve the Designs Will and sinful Pleasure of the King with a Commission during Pleasure to take away the Lives of innocent Men to countenance false Witnesses perplex or threaten the True disannul Charters and the like Righteousness may run down like a mighty stream When these do distribute Justice between the King and his People and Subject and Subject when the Righteous will not be sold for a pair of Shoes when Righteousness is administred without Partiality then the King will find the Benefit and Comfort of his own Light for Righteousness and Judgment will be the Stability or Establishment of his Throne For by Righteousness the Throne is established Prov. 16.12 6. The King is a Light to Israel as David was for the Security and Protection received from him The Sun and Shield are well joined for the Comfort and Protection of God's People Psal 84.11 The Shields of the Earth belong unto the Lord Psal 47.7 Kings and Magistrates are those Shields and they are Nursing-Fathers and Nursing-Mothers they are like a Pillar of Fire for the Direction and Protection of Israel Hezekiah in the Type of Jesus Christ was foretold that he should be a King to reign in Righteousness and the Princes under him should rule in Judgment when it was so it followeth that he should be a hiding-place from the Wind and a Covert from the Tempest a hiding-place and Covert from the Wind and Tempest raised by the Devil and his Angels to trouble and unsettle the Nation 's Peace and Order and to keep off the Wind and Tempest Persecution and Tribulation which blow and beat upon the Church of God such a Light was David to Israel A Man
some one Parliament as we have had We thankfully acknowledg the Settlement of their Royal Majesties in the Throne and the Succession of the Crown and the Liberties of the People We gratefully acknowledg the Wisdom and Clemency of God in their Majesties choice of great Men of Temper for the Candle-sticks of their Sees We hope these will not think their Eyes so full of sight as to use others as if they had none but must resign their Consciences to their Conduct and drive them by force if they will not follow We hope and pray that as one Light hath brought forth more so all these Lights will find out and shew us the true Path of Church-Peace and Concord Let us hope that that Observation may not be a Proverb any more in Israel That Bishops always hindred the Progress of the Reformation As God made way for their Majesties Coming to the Throne of the Kingdom by a Vacancy so he hath made way for their coming to their Thrones in their Churches How many Vacancies hath God made by Death and how many Vacancies have others made by themselves And will they do nothing for God more than they who have always done too little one way and too much another Enough hath been said and written to file off the Asperity and Roughness of the temper of their Predecessors and every Succession exceeded the former in Impositions for which they pleaded Obedience more from the Supremacy of our Kings and Obedience to the Laws than the Nature of the things themselves or their Expediency but we have seen gracious Offers from our supream Governours at a temper therefore we fear no Obstruction from them and they have seen who they were that opposed it and have retarded it and know how they stand affected And surely now once again we may hope that they will not love their Enemies and hate their Friends God hath made way for it and the best in the Nation expect it Walk in the Light while you have the Light said Christ take the Opportunity while you have it In our Prayers for our Monthly-Fasts we do acknowledg there are Dregs in the Reformed Churches which we pray God to purge away Are not we one of those Reformed Churches and are these Dregs only in Foreign Churches and none in ours O see them and purge them out while we have Light to help us 5. Are our Lights but Lamps that may be quenched or if not quenched by Violence will go out of Course then this is one reason of the Mutability of the best State of a Kingdom and therefore good Kings do mightily oblige their Subjects and Posterity also When they spend their Days and Abilities in a holy religious righteous active and diligent course of Government when they lay out themselves continually from a Principle of sincere Love to God and his Glory and their Peoples Happiness for they know not how soon their Light may be quenched and then they are for ever laid aside and can do no good to themselves nor their Subjects 6. May our Lights be quenched O then when Kings prepare for War and Battel how piously should they prepare for Death and bless God for Life when they come off with it They who carry their Lives in their Hands who fear not the Face of an Enemy not of an Ishbi-benob should therefore fear God who can kill the Body and the Soul and cast both into Hell O fear him It will be an everlasting Shame and Dishonour to fall under the Power of Death as an Enemy to God When they carry the Weapons of War how careful should they be to put on the whole Armour of God! What wise King will ingage in a War and make no Preparation for it that designs not to conquer What inexcusable Rashness and Madness is it for a King that is wise and valiant in the Eyes of Man to be unprovided for the last Enemy True he shall be destroyed but by whom Christ and he who doth savingly believe in him And Death destroys all that are not the living Members of Christ that are not saved by Grace and with what Shame and Contempt shall they rise out of their Graves which vain Men call a Bed of Honour though they come to it by dishonouring God that died in their Sin and not in Christ or in the Faith as Abraham and the Patriarchs did Heb. 11.13 c. 7. May the Lamps of Israel be quenched O then as truly as we love and honour them let us not idolize them nor think of them above what we ought to think Cursed is the Man that trusteth in Man and maketh Flesh his Arm and whose Heart departeth from the Lord i. e. by trusting in Man and making the Flesh his Arm that is his Confidence and Strength Jer. 17.5 This is the way to bring a Curse upon our selves and Death upon the Arm we trust upon It was a Presage of an approaching Death to that great Deliverer that died in his Glory Gustavus King of Sweden he thought God would e're long take him away because the People did over-value and deify him I beseech you let us pray and study for a true Christian Temper of Spirit towards the Lord of Hosts our King and the Cause of God 1. Let us assuredly look upon our King as a great Instrument in the Hand of the Lord of Hosts 2. The number of his Years are with God 3. His Work is measured out to him by God 4. Our Light sprang out of great Obscurity and from very small Beginnings See Bishop Burnet's Lett. from Nimiguen it was a great sign of following Successes and that he was singled out for great Actions when he was not afraid to encounter the most potent King of his Age growing greater daily by Successes and in his full Strength when the Condition of the States was desperate and irrecoverable if the then young Prince of Orange had but despaired also but even then he gave a check to that overgrowing Oppressor and is by the great Power of God being with him grown to be formidable to him and may the Sound of his Name by the Terror of the Almighty make his Sleep to depart from him and his Heart tremble when he thinks and consulteth what to do 5. What would we have God to do for us that he hath not done or is not ready to do Some considering true hearted wise Observers have faithfully declared what they thought to be the cause of many Miscarriages in England and Ireland by Sea and Land and in particular since our Monthly-Fasts were laid down and intermitted God hath not gone on to do us good though he hath not utterly departed from us But though our Sins have with-held good things from us we are in a better State both at home and abroad than we were when God sent us a Deliverer There is a Generation among us who have cast off the Fear of God a profane carnal sensual debauched Multitude that
THE Great Concern and Zeal OF A LOYAL PEOPLE FOR A GOOD KING'S PRESERVATION In the HAZARDS of WAR And the Duty of such a People opened and enforced In one of our MONTHLY-FASTS in a Country Parish By the Minister thereof LONDON Printed for Ionathan Robinson at the Golden-Lion in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1691. To all that sincerely fear God and honour King WILLIAM and Queen MARY THE Word of Authority to us is To your Prayers as the Word of a Commander to his Souldiers To your Arms. The Weapons of our Warfare are not Carnal but Spiritual Mighty through God to the pulling down of the strong Holds of Satan not only in the Hearts of Vnbelievers and Enemies of the Gospel battering yea casting down Imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the Knowledg of God and bringing into Captivity every Thought to the Obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.4 5. but the same spiritual Weapons are mighty against all the visible Armies and strong-Holds of the Devil under the Command of his Vice-Royes the declared Enemies of the true Church of Christ yea and of Mankind also according to the extent of their Power What mighty things are recorded to be done by One of those Weapons of our Warfare mighty through God in sensible Weakness and Self-distrust And what shall I more say For the Time will fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Sampson and of Jephtha of David also and Samuel and of the Prophets who through Faith subdued Kingdoms c. Heb. 11.32 33. Take notice how the Prophets Men of Peace are enroll'd among the Men of War And no wonder that when Victories and Conquests even over Kingdoms are attributed to Faith that then the Prophets should have an eminent place among the greatest Men of greatest Name And this Power of Faith is not lost but wants Exercise for this is the Victory which overcometh the World even your Faith 1 John 5.4 5. And that which overcometh the World and that mighty evil Spirit in it can subdue a Kingdom at any time when God pleaseth and the time of its destruction is come This Faith is exercised in Prayer and by Prayer winning and engaging the mighty God of Jacob the Lord of Hosts to be on our side Our Enemies cannot stand before us they shall fall and perish the strong shall be as Tow. One Man shall chase a thousand and two ten thousand Deut. 32.30 Jos 23.10 The Church of God is both beautiful and formidable Cant. 6.4 Terrible as an Army with Banners Her Majesty and Stateliness is set forth as an Army with Banners and her exceeding great Power in her Faith and Prayers Believers in regard of the Power of their Faith are more terrible than Armies saith Excellent Mr. Durham If one Jacob as a Prince prevailed and by his Strength had Power with God Hos 12.3 4. What cannot many do that weep and make Supplications What cannot an Army of Believers do What cannot an Army do that by an united Faith with Sighs and Weeping take Heaven by violence Faithless spiritless faint formal Prayers put into rank and file and displayed in the finest Eloquence do no Service at all such Prayers do but beat the Air. That same Language in which God speaks to us is the most proper for us to pray to God that Word by which God worketh Faith in us is that which best suiteth the Prayer of plain-hearted Faith It is an Observation of Eminent Mr. Charnock which deserves to be engraven on our Hearts When God would do any mighty Work in the World he stirs up his People to pray for it and their Prayers by his own appointment have a mighty influence upon the Government of the World for when they come before him in behalf of his Church in general he doth indulge them a greater Liberty and Boldness and as it were a kind of Authority over him than upon other occasions of their own Isa 45.11 Thus saith the Lord The Holy One of Israel and his Maker Ask of me things to come concerning my Sons and the Work of my Hands command ye me God would be more positively Treat of Provid p. 71. Fol. confidently and familiarly dealt with about the Concerns of his Sons though they were things to come to pass in after-Ages Rev. 8.3 4. The great Changes in the World are an Answer to those Prayers which are offered unto God Holy Brethren The Work of God hath been very great in some eminent part of the World in some Countries and Kingdoms and the Prayers of the Faithful have prevailed much But was there ever at any one time so great a Work as is now a doing in our Days Are not the great Affairs of the Sons of God in all Protestant Churches I say in all Protestant Churches drawing near to a Determination The Issue of this War is like to be the Rise or Fall not only of many in Israel but of all the Israel of God confederate in the true Religion of Jesus Christ O then is not this the time for us to be of one Heart and Soul deeply humbled sincerely mourning crying and sighing for the Abominations that are yet in our Jerusalem Cities and Countries weeping and making Supplication and with the most reverent and awful Adoration make us bold with the Highest Majesty of the Holy One the Saviour in a time of trouble as he alloweth us Monsieur Jurieu fulfilling of Prophecies and others Even to command him concerning his Sons and the time to come which many of his Servants wait for and say as Luther Fiat voluntas mea Let my Will be done Holy Brethren partakers of the Heavenly Calling Give me leave to engage you to be more abundant in the fervent Prayers of Faith and of true Penitent reformed in Heart and Life Consider how much of this great Work lies upon you at this time Who can tell what your Prayers may do under God by his appointment The Proclamation for these Fasts reacheth to the Realm of England the Dominion of Wales Town of Berwick upon Tweed O that all from sixteen to sixty in these Bounds were fit for Prayer to bear Arms these spiritual Arms O then how might we hope that even she that tarrieth at Home and is fervent in her Closet may divide the Spoils of the greater Spoiler of all he can lay hands on But O how weak are we how divided how unprepared What Help can we look for from them that are disaffected to the King and Queen and troubled at this glorious Revolution How do they murmur that God should do what seemeth him good for his Peoples Good How many are there that do not as much as appear to Fast How many are for the Liturgy of James not the Apostle's which hath been reputed spurious by many of our most Learned Divines and Bishops but the Apostate's How many half yea half-quarter observers of those Holy and solemn Days How like are these to old