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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	heart_n	spirit_n	word_n	8,255	5	4.2520	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33247	A looking-glass for religious princes, or, The character and work of Josiah delivered in a sermon upon 2 Kings XXIII.XXV : the substance whereof was preached April 5 1691 at Pershore in Worcester-shire ... / by Richard Claridge ...	Claridge, Richard, 1649-1723.	1691 (1691)	Wing C4433; ESTC R2252	26,502	40

of converted Souls towards God are like the turnings of the Needle touched with a Load-stone to the North for being touched with the Magnet of his Love they draw incessantly towards him In such Souls the Attraction of Free-Grace is so strong that nothing can possibly prevent it The Saints are sensible of great slackness and backwardness in their Spiritual progress of many stops and hinderances in their Christian Race but they are secured against total and final Apostacy by Gods everlasting Covenant of Free-Grace sealed and ratified in the Blood of Christ by many sweet and precious promises to keep them from falling away by vertue of their Mystical Union with Christ and the Prayer and Intercession of Christ for them They meet with many Assaults from Sin Satan and the World but Sin cannot separate them from the Love of God in Christ because that is pardoned in the Blood of Christ Satan cannot vanquish them because Christ hath subdued him and the World cannot overcome them because Christ hath overcome the World But thô the Saints are secured from all danger of final and total Apostacy yet this is no ground of carelesness and carnal Confidence to them the way of their Salvation is of Gods own ordering and appointing and it is this Pet. 1.2 They are Elect according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father through Sanctification of the Spirit unto Obedience and sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ Mark this passage Through Sanctification of the Spirit unto Obedience they are not Elected to Salvation without the Spirits Sanctification unto Obedience but they are Elected to attain Salvation by Sanctification as the means to the End and being sanctified by the Spirit of God they are thereby enabled to perform Obedience to the Gospel God did not Elect them that they should be careless ●…ph 1.4 but that they should be carefull for they are chosen of him in Christ before the foundation of the World that they should be holy and without blame before him in love They are chosen to the Means and the diligent use thereof as well as to the End h. 2.10 For they are Gods Workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that they should walk in them This denotes their Course 't is a walking in good works they are Elected to live in the constant exercise of all Graces infused into them and of all Duties required of them They then most horridly abuse the precious Doctrine of the Saints Perseverance who call it a Doctrine of Looseness and Libertinism and pretend it takes away all Watchfulness and Diligence in Duty whereas it requires all possible strictness and exactness from the Saints And certainly no persons in the World can consider themselves under stronger tyes to Obedience than they who believe that 't is Gods method in their Salvation to bring them to it of Free Grace through Sanctification of the Spirit unto Obedience and Sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ For believing this to be Gods Way of Salvation they will endeavour to be found in it and knowing that God hath chosen them to Salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit Thes 2.13 15 17. and belief of the Truth they will pray that they may stand fast and have their hearts comforted and established in every good word and work Upon this Score it is namely Election in Christ and Sanctification of the Spirit that Princes become truly Religious and so highly eminent in the sight of God and by vertue thereof their Dominions are founded in Grace and have a Spiritual superadded to their Political Right I do not say that the Godly or Gracious only have a Political Right to Govern but that Gracious Princes have a double one First As Princes and Secondly much more I am sure much better as being gracious Princes By how much the Unction of the Spirit excells that of the Body by so much the Scepter polished with Grace outshines its Native lustre Impious Rulers are compared by Solomon to roaring Lyons and ranging Bears the most savage Beasts of prey Prov. 28.15 to set forth their Violence Cruelty and Oppression Lyons and Bears the Naturalists tell us are naturally crueller than other Wild Creatures but when pinch'd with hunger Sed cum fame premuntur seipsos crudelitate superant they exceed the cruelty of their Natures In those Creatures we have a lively portraicture of Arbitrary and Tyrannical Governours who as cruelly prey upon the poor oppressed People as they do upon the Beasts of the Field 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tenui populo Ar. Mont. Rom. 13.3 4. With a little variation of the Apostles words we may say of them They are a terror to good works and Revengers to execute wrath upon them that do well They are Perverters of publick peace and Order and men have no Security notwithstanding Law of Life or Property under them For they care not what ravage and spoil they make of their Counrrey vainly fancying the people are made for them not they made for the People contrary to what Seneca writes to Nero That the Commonwealth is not theirs to use as they list Non Republicam suam esse sed se Republicae de Clem. l. 1. c. 19. but they are the Commonwealth's Which makes me stand amazed when I read or hear what unsuitable Titles some Parazites give them and how Jeroboam's Herods Maximines Dioclesians and Julians Idolaters Adulterers bloody Persecutors and infamous Apostates are complemented with the glorious Appellations of the Lords Anointed Sen. Epist 5● Q. Curt. l. ● and Ministers of God as the Heathen Priests flattered Alexander and perswaded him to be Jupiters Son thô King Philip was his Father But as Wicked Rulers are like roaring Lyons and ranging Bears Isai 49.23 so Religious Kings and Queens are compared to Nursing Fathers and Nursing Mothers The Glory of God and Welfare of their People sway more with such than their own self-Interest or Personal Greatness They always postpone their private Advantages to the publick Good and make less reckoning of their own than their Subjects safety And this is notorious from those many dangers they voluntarily expose themselves to which 't is not imaginable they would ever do if they had not more regard to the Honour of God and the Subjects Weal than to their own Applause and Interests The Greek and Roman Histories inform us of some that sacrificed their Lives upon their Countries score as Codrus Decius and several others but whence sprang this adventurous Love from natural Courage Ambition vain Glory Affectation of a Statue superstitious observation of Oracles or the like But truly Religious Princes act from Nobler Principles and are moved by the mighty impulse of him who sits upon the Circle of the Earth Isa 40.22 23. and the Inhabitants thereof are as Grashoppers that bringeth Wicked Princes to nothing and maketh the Judges of the Earth as Vanity Now who

like dealing may all others dread who are involved in the like guilt To ballance this Instance 't is urg'd Isaiah Prophesied of Cyrus an Heathen Monarch by Name long before his Nativity for according to Junius from the time of the Prophecy to the fulfilling of it were 170 Years or after Grotius 210 and therefore the Prediction of Josiah is not singular I Answer their Case was very different Cyrus was foretold as a Passive Instrument to bring about the design of God's Providence in the Restauration of the Jews from their Babylonish Captivity and giving them Liberty to Re-edisie the Temple Josiah as an Active Instrument to accomplish God's Pleasure in the Extirpation of Idolatry in Judah and Israel Cyrus did the Will of God but 't was without any sincere Affection to or Religious Knowledge of God for God says twice to him Isa 45.4 5. Thou hast not known me Josiah perform'd the Will of God in Faith Love and Obedience to him He turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might Secondly Another thing extraordinary in Josiah was his most exact Conformity to the Divine Law in purging his Kingdom of Idolatry 2 Chron. 31.20 21. Hezekiah wrought that which was good and right and truth before the Lord his God and in every work that he began in the service of the house of God and in the Law and in the Commandments to seek his God he did it with all his heart This is an ample Character but Josiah's is somewhat fuller For he turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might according to all the Law of Moses His Conversion was Universal for he did all according to all the Law of Moses His Father and his Grandfather turn'd from the Lord and his Law but he made the Law of God his Counsellor He sought to the God of David his Father and declined neither to the right hand nor the left 2 Chron. 34.2 3. He Consulted not with a Carnal Priesthood and a sensual Sanhedrim but he sent to Huldah the Prophetess for Direction Many Princes will Reform a Little as Afa Jehosaphat Joash Amaziah who were good Kings so far as they did Reform but the Blot that is upon their Names is the High Places were not taken away 1 Kings 15.14 22.43 2 Kings 12.3 14.4 Now Josiah pull'd down these High Places he left not one of them remaining Indeed notwithstanding all he did or could do Idolatry was so riveted in many of the Princes Priests and People that Baal had a remnant among them Jeph 1.4 for he had his Chemarims his profess'd Priests and he had others too who pretended to be Priests of the True God but would be now and then tampering with Baal's Idolatrous Rites They durst not exercise their Idolatry publickly for sear of the King but they Worship'd the Host of Heaven on the house tops and swore by the Lord and Malchom V. 5. they mingled true and false Worship together And because there is often mention in Scripture of these High Places and the pulling of them down is recorded as an High Act of Reformation we will enquire what they were and this will not be loss of time because the Heathen had their High Places as well as the Jews The High Places then Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were Altars erected upon Hills upon which they offered Sacrifices the Heathen to their Idols and the Jews to the True God For after the Tabernacle and Ark were removed from Shiloh which was in the dayes of Eli when the Ark was taken and his two Sons Hophni and Phinehas were slain by the Philistines 1 Sam 4.3 4 11. The Jews used the High Places as most proper and convenient for their Worship thus Samuel and the People sacrificed in the High Place 1 Sam. 9.12.19 and so it continued 'till David brought the Ark to † 2 Chron. 1.4 Jerusalem and then it became the People's Duty to Sacrifice where the Ark was And hence we read that Solomon when the * V. 3. Tabernacle was at Gibeon and the Ark at Jerusalem sacrificing in the High Places and especially at the great High Place in Gibeon where thô the Lord appeared to him in a Dream by Night yet hath this Note of Irregularity put upon him Solomon loved the Lord walking in the Statutes of David his Father only he sacrificed and burnt incense in the High Places And the King went to Gibeon to sacrifice there for that was the Great High Place 1 Kings 3.3 4. After the Temple was built and the Ark placed in it the People were to bring their Sacrifices thither according to that in Deut. 12.13 14. Take heed to thy self that thou offer not thy burnt-offerings in every place that thou seest but in the place which the Lord shall chuse in one of thy Tribes there thou shalt offer thy burnt-offerings and there thou shalt do all that I command thee It was the People's sin to Sacrifice any where else but at Jerusalem thô they Sacrificed to the True God His positive Command made that to be Sin which was not sin before When he had placed his Name at Jerusalem and pitch'd his Tabernacle there thither the People were bound to bring all their Offerings But alas they soon forsook the Temple at Jerusalem and return'd to their High Places where not content to Worship the True God thô even that Worship perform'd there now was sinful because uncommanded they fell to Worshipping of Baal or the Sun and other Idols of the Nations which Worship notwithstanding they pretended it was for the Honour of the True God is every where condemned for abominable Idolatry Men may not intermeddle in the Worship of God to institute or alter according to their Fancies I know they endeavour to excuse their Innovations as Aaron did his Golden Calf who made proclamation and said To morrow is a Feast to the Lord Exod. 32.5 Not a Feast to the Calf they think Religion too plain of it self and therefore they will set it out in a more pompous Garb of their own devising which is very apt to take with Carnal Worshippers But is not acceptable with God because he approves of none no not that which Men call Divine Service because but of Humane Contrivance and neither in respect of Matter Manner or End such as is prescribed in the Word Jeroboam had invented a notable Semblance of Divine Worship and made it look as like that of God's own appointing at Jerusalem as might be But was God to be found in that Calfish Worship Surely No. And as he was not to be met with there so may we despair to find him in that Theatrical Worship which he hath not Ordained and wherewith the Ignorant World is cajol'd at this day There is a natural Inclination in Men to be mixing something of their own with