in War Tumults Blood and Murder to ruin our Church destroy our Prince and all true Loyal men Is not this sufficient cause to make them look about them and now at length seriously to repent of and renounce all such impious ways and practices 3. Considering in the Third place That this seems to be both the greatest and the last means and method God may use for the bringing these men to repentance and a sound mind for what is there that can or will be prevalent with them if this be not If after all those demonstrations God has given us of his mercy and their impious designs you will not see and repent you give the world too much reason to believe that you lie under that Pharisaical judgment to have eyes and see not ears and hear not hearts and will not understand And therefore Sirs as you will answer it to your Consciences now and to God hereafter be rouz'd out of this fatal Lethargy and hearken to this awakening and perhaps last call of Almighty God be not still perverse and obstinate to your utter ruin both of Soul and Body 't is high time to look about you and now at length having seen all this to shew your Repentance which we earnestly hope and desire to see in these following respects which is our Fifth particular V. I. In an utter renouncing of your former ways and doings those especially that have had any manner of Aspect or tendency to the promoting or incouraging these impious designs and practices cast a serious sincere and impartial reflection upon your late and your former actions and see whether you have not one way or other justified incourag'd or promoted these designs whether by herding with the multitude against publick Rule and Government by countenancing or speaking or thinking well of them that did by acting or voting what you knew was displeasing to the King and contrary to the practice of undoubtedly Loyal men by discouraging truly Loyal honest Orthodox Preachers that would tell you the Truth without guise or dissimulation and adhering to or thinking well only of such that you knew or fancied to be otherwise In a word Examine your own knowledge and Consciences and make a thorow search of whatever way means or actions through fault or misfortune you have promoted the Cause and Interest of such as are thus Factious and Rebellious and be now at last convinc'd of your error detest what you have done this way with zeal and heartiness This is the first mark and token of Repentance we desire and expect from you 2. Hereupon ensues another very signal mark and token of your sorrow Repentance and true Conversion and that is a sincere and hearty Loyalty to your Prince That you practice this your selves and promote it among others to the utmost of your skill and power that whoever are in your families under your care or committed to your charge may be instructed in the sound Principles of Loyalty and Obedience according to the Doctrine and Institution of the Church of England And is it not high time seriously to enter upon this course and practice seeing the fatal designs and consequences of disobedience and Rebellion the works of those that forget or abandon their Duty and Allegiance to their Prince you will not and cannot secure your selves from such impious practices but by your being thus heartily and truly Loyal in Thought Word or Deed to the utmost of your Power for if it be only in outward formality or expression or according to the indifferent and moderate way and manner of some men 'T is such as will be neither acceptable to God serviceable to your Prince or safe to your selves Wherefore to shew your selves truly penitent you must endeavour to be eminently Loyal and remarkably Obedient and dutiful to the King for the future which is the only opposite to Faction Sedition and Rebellion 3. As another sign of your true Repentance we do exhort you to and expect from you a thorow and strict conformity to our Church The best if not only Constitution that does sincerely teach and promote true Loyalty and Obedience for you may take this as a sure rule which you 'l find true by constant observation and experience the more any do dissent from or dislike the present Constitution of our Church the greater friends or promoters they are or have been of what either was or tended to Sedition or Rebellion against which there is no prevention or security but by a firm and strict adherence to the Church of England And this besides other incomparable advantages shews the great priviledge of those who are truly of it and the miserable state of such that are bred up in any other courses Wherefore to repent of what you have been or done and to avoid or prevent such designs or calamity and to be heartily honest Dutiful and Loyal for the future You must be sincerely conformable to the Church of England studying it your selves and teaching others its Doctrines and Principles frequenting its Communion devoutly joyning in its Prayers and doing every thing that becomes a sincere Conformist and a true Churchman And thus as you have heard are you to manifest your Repentance First by an utter renouncing your former ways and practices that have been any ways Factious or Seditious Secondly to become heartily Loyal and dutiful to the King Thirdly sincerely and strictly Conformable to the Church And as we just now pray'd may God to this end take from them all their Prejudices and all their Passions their confident mistakes their carnal ends and their secular interests and open their eyes that they may see at least in this their day the things which belong to their peace and soften the most obdurate heart into a meek humble and docible temper that they may no longer resist the truth bow down the stiff neck and the iron sinew take away the brow of brass and the whores forehead sweeten if it may be the gall of bitterness and loose the bands of iniquity and guide their feet into the ways of peace 4. After which you will be fit and ready for the Fourth and last advice which is to shew your Repentance by joyning with us in returning Praise and Thanksgiving to Almighty God for this great Deliverance for I dare say whoever is heartily thankful to God for this Mercy and Blessing was either altogether unconcern'd in those horrid designs from which we are thus deliver'd or does sincerely repent of them Let us therefore with one heart and voice glorifie God by giving him the honour due unto his Name The sole glory of our deliverance That we acknowledge it to be the Lords doing and the day which the Lord hath made And let us endeavour to express our gratitude not only with our lips but in our lives by giving up our selves to his service and studying to serve him all the days of our lives For the Lord your God he it is that fighteth for you Take good heed therefore unto your selves that ye love the Lord your God Josh 23. 10 11. And now I cannot instance in any one thing that does so much manifest our Religious Duty and Thankfulness together as that of Charity and Beneficence to the Poor the great obligation of a Christian at all times but peculiarly necessary and almost indispensable at a solemn time of Praise or Thanksgiving Were your Charity which we now beg of you for our Poor large or bountiful it would be but a slender return for this present Deliverance and the Mercies we enjoy by it However 't is an acknowledgment of God's goodness towards us which therefore we cannot omit without being insensible of his mercies or ungrateful for them May none of you therefore slight or neglect such a fair seasonable and blessed opportunity of shewing your selves Thankful to God Loyal to the King and Charitable to the Poor FINIS
A SERMON Preached at ISLINGTON Upon the 26 th day of July 1685 In the Afternoon Being the Day of Solemn Thanksgiving To Almighty God for His MAJESTIE' 's late Victories over the REBELS By Shadrach Cooke M. A. Chaplain to the Right Honourable the Earl of AYLESBVRY Behold their threatnings Acts 4. 29. Rusticus es Corydon nec munera curat Alexis Virg. LONDON Printed by R. N. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's-Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1685. To the Right Honourable ROBERT EARL of Ailesbury and Elgin Viscount Bruce of Ampthill Baron Bruce of Wharlton Skelton and Kinlos Lord Lieutenant of the Counties of Bedford Huntingdon and Cambridge Hereditary high Steward of the Honour of Ampthill Lord Chamberlain of His Majestie 's Houshold and one of the LORDS of His Majestie 's most Honourable Privy Council MY LORD I Humbly offer This to Your Lordship not only as an acknowledgment of Your Lordship 's many Favours and my hearty Gratitude for them but also with a design of craving Your Lordship's farther goodness in protecting This against the clamorous opposition of unreasonable men For by what I have already experienc'd I may easily guess at the unwelcome entertainment it is like to meet with from some for whom yet it bears the most Christian and Charitable design And though of late especially I have met with unkind usage and very severe reflections for doing my duty in speaking seasonable Truths yet I declare I think I could not be more Kind and Charitable even to our Enemies than in Preaching against what they are most guilty of And now the ensuing Discourse is so far from railing as they have term'd it their usual Character of what dislikes them that I hope it will appear to Your Lordship to have in it a good natur'd and Charitable intention For having before spoken to the subject of Praise for our late Deliverance for which I was disturb'd and bely'd in the very Church I thought I could make no better improvement of the late Solemn Thanksgiving than in the design of the ensuing Discourse which I lookt upon as peculiarly proper for the Afternoon being so sutable to that most pious Prayer for our Enemies therein appointed My Lord I shall forbear reflections on those who make severe ones on this and the like when they heard it from the Pulpit Considering it would be no very decent entertainment for Your Lordship and a means I hope to make them more candid Interpreters in the Reading than they were in the Hearing of it Though in the midst of all it has been I must confess no small support and satisfaction to me That I have had the particular signal Respect and Incouragement of that Reverend Canon for whom Your Lordship has so great and just esteem for some of those Discourses that have suffered under the untoward reproach of others Now Your Lordship knows with what Authority I might term Him one of the most Learned men and best Preachers of this Age. And when I consider This together with the cool reception even He found among some when he urg'd them lately and so well To give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's 'T is well the case is no worse with me But I must consider that minutes now especially are precious with Your Lordship And that high Place to which a most gracious and discerning Prince has exalted Your Lordship suffers too much by this tedious interruption And yet I have not performed what is the usual entertainment in these Applications Having given no account of Your Lordship's great Vertues and Accomplishments Nor should I need to do it if I could all mens mouths being sill'd with the Praises of Your Lordship and most noble Son who would almost convince us of the Natural Parental Production even of humane souls so exactly resembling Your Lordship in untainted Loyalty and Goodness And here I enter on a large field Your Lordship being the happiest of Parents having a truly Noble and most dutiful Off-spring And a Family that for a strict Conformity to the Church and stanch Loyalty to the King can scarcely be match'd or surpass'd by any I speak not these things out of design or flattery but can assert them from some experience and dare challenge any that know Ailesbury house to contradict me in the least particular Though I the less wonder at that strain of Goodness and Loyalty which runs through the whole Family when I consider that it has Two such eminent Examples which shine so illustriously before it And we all know that the best way to obtain my Lord's and Lady's Favour is to Fear God and Honour the King Which by the Grace of God shall evermore be the most hearty and constant endeavours of My Lord YOUR LORDSHIPS most Obliged Obedient and humble Servant and Chaplain SHADRACH COOKE IMPRIMATUR Jo. Battely RR mo P. D no Guil. Archiep. Cantuar. Ã Sacris Domesticis Ex Aedib Lambeth Aug. 1. 1685. A SERMON PREACHED On the 26. of July 1685. The day of Solemn Thanksgiving to Almighty God for His MAJESTIE' 's Late Victories over the REBELS S. MATT. XXI 32. And ye when ye had seen it repented not afterward WE are this Day to Bless and Magnifie the name of God who has manifested his great goodness towards our King and his Kingdoms in giving Him so absolute and signal victories over the late Rebels And I dare say that there is no truly honest Loyal Soul among us but does it with a great deal of hearty Zeal and Chearfulness For tell me did not your Hearts burn within you were you not wonderfully enlivened and almost transported at the first news or certainty of that utter defeat and overthrow Though which is very sad to think of we could not but observe nor can we well forget the quite different humour and behaviour of too many among us who shew'd as much as men could or dare their open dislike of God's special Providence in this matter I need not tell you how brisk and pleasant they would appear on every vain report raised by their own Party of the hopes or success of the Rebels in both Kingdoms and which is more prodigious what pains and industry they us'd to defame and discredit that good true news which they had no mind to believe Had we not seen it we could scarce have imagined that men should thus resolutely oppose the Truth and be so given over to believe a lye But when this Goodness of God became unquestionable and they were now utterly confounded and the Devil had no more lyes in store to buoy them up with Doth their belief and conviction now influence their heart and that their practice Since the Villany is so plainly discovered are they asham'd of or sorry for it Doth this goodness of God to others lead them to repentance Do they lay these things to heart Do they seriously consider that these Rebels their Adherents and Abettors are guilty not only of Imprudent hot or rash
Government and Constitution both in Church and State Which brings us to consider our second Particular II. The several Sects Parties and Divisions among us being the great Authors Incouragers and Promoters of these most impious designs and practices as being most agreeable to the Principles or Sentiments of these men for nothing can be more plain and demonstrable than that they have all of them made it almost their constant endeavour in all their discourses publick and private especially such as have been managed in a pretended religious way to set themselves all they could against the present Government and Constitution both in Church and State And were I at leisure to manifest this from what is the usual way and method of proving mens Principles I could abundantly confirm it from their numerous writings and professions in this kind the main drift of all or most of them as to this particular being to destroy the Church disturb the Kingdom debauch mens Principles and pervert the Scriptures so that I the less wonder at these practices which are but agreeable to their Profession and the very constant design and natural result of these Schisms and Factions for a man cannot be a Fanatick or Schismatick but he does and must actually forfeit his duty to the Church and the King Nor is this any more than what is agreeable to former and present experience That they have been the constant disturbers of our Israel is I think already manifest and might be more largely proved were there occasion for it And look now into the very late Rebellion and then tell me what you think of it whether it was not purely and solely Fanatical that the several Sects and Separatists from our Church were not chiefly or only concern'd and ingag'd in it some of their pretended Ministers were actually in it and most or all of them knew of it And as we before intimated I do verily believe that they did not act inconsistently to their own Ways or Principles if they have any And had I been one of the Party or Separatists I do not see how I could have acted congruously to my own pretences or that Schism or Separation had not I consented conspired or acted in these designs for promoting their True Protestant Cause against pretended Popery and Arbitrary Power Wherefore I do more wonder that any should be exempted from it than that all should be in it for I cannot see how a man could be a Fanatick and could tolerably excuse himself in this case Nor do I think but that every one of them did as much carry on the Rebellion as all Loyal honest men were against it III. But did this need further proof 't is too plain and manifest from their continued impenitency Which is our Third particular Which is too evident either first from their own Profession or secondly their excuses for it or thirdly their continuance in their former ways and practices A greater sin than that which these men have been guilty of can hardly be imagin'd being as I have shew'd you very lately a complication of almost all kinds of wickedness bearing in it Treason Sacrilege Murder and what not And now when such as are thus guilty come to reflect upon themselves one would expect and hope for in this case a most profound humility and strict repentance but whether most or any of those that so justly suffer'd for this Cause have given sufficient demonstration of their extraordinary sorrow for their designs and practices let any impartial man consider When men come to dye especially in their strength and vigour they have then more abundant advantages to consider and understand their Case and Condition but have you known them then to deal plainly and freely as becomes such a state and circumstances 2 or do we not find in the Second place Excuses and Palliations instead of true sorrow and Repentance and as is said of a great one among them we find enough from them to shew their guilt but not their repentance Now seeing that many or most of them are so industrious in excusing themselves or others and take hold of any little opportunity either to justifie or extenuate their crimes This is too great a sign of an impenitent or relentless heart For the true and sincere penitent is more industrious to discover and aggravate than to hide or lessen his sin in This consists the true nature and comfort of Repentance If therefore you are Conscious to your selves or we find any to be given to the covering or extenuating these sins or the promoters of such horrid practices this I think is an undeniable proof to any sober judicious man of their continu'd impenitency 3 Especially if we add to this in the Third place The continuance in their former ways and practices Such people are not and cannot be accounted truly penitent who yet persevere and continue in their former courses which did really and actually encourage and promote these rebellious designs Whoever therefore are glad of any occasion or opportunity to vilifie the Church and reproach Government to discourage such that do their hearty endeavours for discountenancing Schism Faction and Rebellion that do herd among or can think or speak well of such that are known and profest enemies to the constitution both in Church and State This is a sign that such are so far from being penitent that they are rather harden'd and obstinate in their impieties IV. Though in the Fourth place we shall find that now especially they have great cause to be truly Penitent Considering I. First That by these late actions there is 1. given to the world a plain demonstration of such mens guilt and impiety Grant that some or many of them did follow these people or had a kindness for them out of a presumption of the goodness of their Cause or the strict piety of their persons Now upon this discovery and defeat of their Villany Men of any sence or reason cannot but have other Sentiments and must look upon themselves to be miserably deluded or mistaken in them so that now upon this better knowledge this thorow and indeed plain demonstration you may recede very justly and honourably and not suffer your selves to be any longer deceiv'd by them We may hope therefore and do expect that such who in the simplicity of their hearts were led away and seduc'd by them will now if ever come to themselves and if after such plain conviction and undoubted proof against them as this is they will still continue in the ways and courses of Faction and Sedition they can be accounted no better than incorrigible Rebels 2. Seeing withal in the Second place the Result of their Designs which is not any longer as some have been made to believe for the love or fear of God the Protestant Religion Tenderness of Conscience Christian Liberty and the like But as you have heard and seen the main drift and tendency of all is to imbrue a Nation
actions but of mortal and damnable sins and does it prompt them to suitable acknowledgments and expressions in Mourning Sorrow and Lamentation for this which is to us a good day a day of Joy and rejoycing to such as these should be a day of sorrow and humiliation not as some may make it because the mischief did not succeed but for their being any ways concern'd or instrumental in it for it will be your most aggravated crime and condemnation if you yet continue your obstinacy And ye when ye had seen it repented not afterwards So that this great goodness of God in our present most gracious deliverance should now at length prevail upon such who were concern'd in the Rebellion or any ways favourable to it to be sincerely penitent for their great sin in this case Though God knows and with sorrow we speak it their obstinacy appears even yet to be very great and almost incorrigible And ye when ye had seen it repented not afterward In speaking on this Subject I shall consider I. What it is in the case before us that should prevail with men to repent where we shall remember the great mercy and goodness of God in some of our late Deliverances II. The persons that yet continue Impenitent III. The little or no grounds or reasons we have to believe them Penitent Notwithstanding IV. The great cause they have to be so at this time or occasion V. We shall lay down the more particular signs or tokens of their Repentance which we may and do justly expect from them I. Were we to consider the several mercies favours and deliverances God has bestowed upon us the time would fail us to speak of them However we may very usefully for a while entertain our selves on this point by representing to you some short account of those many and great deliverances God has given us from these Phanatical Republican Spirits that are near at hand or fresh in our remembrance 1. And here we might in the first place bring to Your minds the Great Rebellion which some of you have known or been concerned in which cannot but call to our minds the dismal Scene of a most distrest and unhappy Nation overwhelm'd with Blood Ruin and Confusion both in Church and State and will be evermore black and remarkable for that most horrid murder of the best of Kings But how good and gracious was God towards us even in the midst of this great Calamity for that good Prince who is lately gone to his long home and our present Soveraign that were the great sufferers in those times and chiefly aimed at were wonderfully preserv'd in great dangers by land and by water and at length brought to succeed and sit in their rightful Inheritance And indeed when we consider the present we have great reason to call to mind and bewail those rebellious times for These among us have been some of the very same men that were then notorious for this villany and is no doubt the self-same Phanatical Spirit that runs through all these designs which is and ever will be addicted to Treachery and Rebellion So that we do in a great measure owe all or most of our present Sects Factions or Parties to those times These being the Tares now grown up that the Devil did then sow among the Wheat 2. The next remarkable deliverance from this sort of men is very legible in that impious design of Excluding our present Prince from What was inviolable by the strictest laws of God and Nature A design full of Ingratitude and Irreligion Therein more resembling a Fanatick contrivance He that had suffer'd such hard things for his Countries good and was banish'd from his own home He that had ventur'd his own life and lost his dear Royal Father in the defence of Truth and a good Cause He who when restor'd to his own Country and native soil would yet again resolutely hazard himself in a most dangerous Naval fight He that has often ventured his life for the defence of this Nation must now for a requital be debar'd from that his most undoubted and inviolable Right in it What an unparallell'd baseness and ingratitude is this and such as will be a lasting shame to the Impenitent Promoters and Abettors of it in all ages Being withal most unchristian prophane and impious contrary to our Solemn Oaths and all the obligations both of Scripture and Conscience So that for the honour of our Nation and Religion too all honest Loyal Churchmen must look upon and bless God for our deliverance from that impious unchristian and truly Fanatick Conspiracy 3 Which brings us to consider a Third Instance of their wicked designs and our great deliverance That of the Rye Conspiracy being the result of their disappointment in their former design for when the pretence of Law would not effect their business now comes out That their black hellish contrivance of Murdering the Royal pair after a most dismal and horrid manner which when one of the design'd Actors in it did openly confess He acknowledgeth himself to be a Hearer of the Baptists Independents and Presbyterians Now we cannot but look upon this to be a most Providential and remarkable Instance of Gods wonderful mercy and deliverance towards us A sudden fire hastning Their return before the Villans were ripe and prepar'd for that horrid execution 4 And now as a branch and consummation of that and all their other Plots let us as behoves us consider and reflect upon our deliverance from their late horrid traiterous Conspiracy that unnatural open Rebellion for which we are now especially to magnifie the Lord and exalt his Name together I shall not need surely to spend much time in shewing you the heinousness of all Rebellion and this in particular having done it already in some late Discourses only let us remember that our Religion our Prince the lives of all honest men and whatever is dear to us in this world were in danger by the designs of these ambitious restless and bloud thirsty men To whom had God given us over as a prey as our sins most justly deserved our bloud would have been spilt like water upon the ground we must have lost all that is dear to us in this world and we should have been overwhelmed in a deluge of Sects and Heresies of wars and confusions of which we could not have expected to see any other issue than the final ruin and destruction of this Kingdom and God's Church among us This is in short the account of our deliverance or the grounds of our Joy for it and certainly if any thing can make us truly chearful and pleasant and heartily thankful to God we have abundant reason to be so for this his present mercy and goodness towards us Who has so graciously rescu'd us from these most accursed and damnable designs contriv'd and carried on by the several Sects and Parties of pretended Religion the known and avowed enemies to the present