Thirteen Sermons Author:William Cobbett Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: that the accusation might be such as to insure his destruction, and at the same time deprive him of the compassion of his fellow subjects, she caused him to be a... more »ccused of blasphemy; a very horrid crime in the eyes of all good men; and, therefore, the best calculated for the effecting of her nefarious purpose. But, now, mark well the dreadful means that she resorted to. She wrote letters in her husband's name to the Nobles and to the Elders ; that is to say, to the nobles and the magistrates, which magistrates were also the Judges. In these letters she desired the persons to whom they were written, to proclaim a fast, or religious festival; for we always find that when injustice and cruelty of the most atrocious and horrible description are about to be committed, the pretence of extreme piety, and the most glaring outward show of religion, are put in the fore-ground. " Proclaim a fast;" said this wicked woman, " and set Naboth on high, amongst the people; then set two men, sons of Belial, (that is to say, men of desperate wickedness) before him, to bear witness against him, saying, thou didst blaspheme God and the king; and then carry him out and stone him, that he may die." Horrible as was the import of this message, the base nobles, and the baser Judges, did as Jezebel had sent unto them. They proclaimed the solemn fast; they hoisted the religious banners; they invoked the assistance of the Almighty; they set Naboth on high among the people; they brought the two false witnesses to swear against him; and then, followed by the deluded crowd, they carried him forth out of the city, and he was " stoned with stones that he died!" Were it not for the information which history has afforded us, we should be led to believe, thatUiis was an imaginary case, or parable, intended to ill...« less