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A38705
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Eucharistia, or, A Grateful acknowledgment unto heaven for the happy discovery of the late horrid plot with some brief and yet plain relmarques upon that hellish conspiracy : delivered in a discours unto a country auditory upon September IX, 1683 : being a day of publique and solemn thanksgiving appointed by authority for the said wonderful and blessed deliveranc / by a country parson.
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1684
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Wing E3386; ESTC R31451
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17,663
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30
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are concerned no further usually then to hear and judge not to be sentenced by it or him If God doth endure all this and yet do continue still his Church his Worship and his other Mercies Then we may well conclude and inferr Truly God is good unto Israel But I will not be this Fastidious Remembrancer These Arguments may prove his Goodness but certainly these Qualifications will not continue this his Divine Communicativ Goodness unto us The Limitation must suggest and declare them unto us which plainly and clearly acquaints us who God is thus good unto even unto such as are of a Clean Heart Truly God is good unto Israel even unto such as are of a Clean Heart It will not be improper to my Text as I have now handled it nor unseasonable upon this Day that his Sacred Majesties Declaration hath been read unto you to say some little matter of the great Deliveranc of our Gracious Prince and in Him of this Nation too we being the Israel of God in this sense as it representeth a Nation and Blessed be the Lord for some years a potent and flourishing One and may we long continue so to be unto the Terrour of our Enemies abroad and of all undermining Traytors at home who under the Vizard of Religion contriv Rebellion And this Deliveranc was from an horrid and direful Mischief plotted against our King by Absurd and Nefarious Persons whom no Obligations of Divine Goodness or Humane Kindness could keep from laying such an abominable Design against Him His Dearest and only Brother and all His Loyal Subjects that were in the three Kingdoms I hope all tru Christians of this Land have before this time offered to Heaven their personal and hearty Thanksgivings in their secret Retirements for Prayer and Praise and it is fit we should offer some more open Testimony and Acknowledgment I dare not doubt but that your Spirits are overjoyed with the Feeling and Reflection of so great a Deliveranc Give therefore your Hearts and Passions some ease by an Eruption of this joyfull Exclamation and now sensible Truth That Truly God is good unto our Israel It is evident unto those that consider the great Transactions of our Kingdom for about Twenty years last past That England never flourished in greater Splendor and Plenty then under the Reign of this present Prince and possibly had a Person of other Parts and Principles ruled in our Age our Condition had been much worse then now Praised be God it is Never could any Nation upon the highest Probability promise themselves greater Felicity then under His Government if the People of this Land be not wanting to themselves Never was there a greater Assuranc of the Truth of that place of Holy Writ that tells us The The Powers that be are ordained or ordered of God then under our present Government If we consider His Gracious Majesties many Deliverances from the Scaffold of his Pious Father of ever Blessed Memory unto his own Coronation and from thence unto this Day Our present Prince may Experimentally repeat a great part of St. Paul's sufferings 2 Cor. XI 26. In journeyings often in Perils of Waters in Perils of Robbers in Perils by mine own Countrymen in Perils in the City and I may add in Perils in the Country too if this late Cursed Plot had taken effect in Perils in the Sea and in Perils among false Brethren So that our Prince may say in St. Paul ' s words with a very little Variation vers 30. 31. of that XI Chapter of the second Epistle unto the Corinthians If must needs Glory I will Glory of the things which concern my Deliverances the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ knoweth that I lye not I have a plentiful Subject to treat upon but because there is a Particular Day appointed for the Commemoration of this Mercy I will not now say much more but reserve my self till then for further Enlargement I must not therefore go much further out of a du regard to the limits and proportions of time allowed me and if I should now enlarge concerning our Princes Sufferings and Deliverances possibly some will tell me that they know the considerable Passages of his Life as well as my self they having been transacted within the compass of most of your Memories Indeed I may truly say That our Prince hath been the Darling of Heaven and possibly the greatest Instanc of its Protection since the Reign of that King who was a Man after God's own Heart And I am enclined to believ that when Posterity shall record the Transactions of his Reign they will either suppose them the Ingenious fancies of a Romanc or believ him to have been one whom the Providence of Heaven hath culled out of the vast Race of Reasonable Beings to be an Example of what Wonders the Almighty Potentate is able to discover for those that depend upon him and to signifie how solicitous the Great Governour of the Univers is for the safety and security of those Kings to whom his Gospel and tru Worship are as valuable as their Scepters These kindnesses of Heaven have been of late manifested in the Discovery of a Rebellion contrived by such Persons whom no Engagements no Civilities no Acts of Clemency no Indulgencies no Vows no Praetexts of Reformation could disengage from the most mischievous Attempts upon His Person upon His Subjects and upon every thing that can be believed estimable by the sincere Worshippers of the Peaceable and most Holy Jesus And therefore the Highest Thankfulness ought to be expressed both upon the Account of our regard unto him and to ourselves likewise if that Interest be Dearer to us All our highest concernments are centred in Him and next unto the kindness of Heaven are indebted to Him for their Settlement and Duration And His and our Adversaries so believed because they would mischief us by His Ruine O what ground therefore have we to be as Grateful unto Heaven for this Mercy as if in our own Persons we had been to be Executed and to have been the Marks at which their Blunderbusses Pistols were to have been aimed and levelled I will now conclude this Discourse and this Time with One Intercession unto Heaven in which I hope you will all joyn with me That all Rebellious Spirits like Sheba that shall enkindle I hope I may say the dead Ashes of Rebellion may have his End and forfeit their Lives that will Adventure so much as to entertain Rebellious thoughts against the Anointed of the Lord. Now before I conclude it will not be Improper to my Text as I have now handled it nor unseasonable because our Duty upon this Publique and Solemn Day of Thanksgiving to say somewhat of the Great Deliverance of our Gracious Soveraign and in Him of this Kingdom too We being the Israel of God not only as that Word representeth a Nation but also as it signifieth a Visible Church under the Gospel
being as pure and defaecate a Church as to its Doctrine and Discipline as any in the known World and pray we God that it may long to succeeding Generations continue so to be and that He would preserv Her so to remain against those malicious Enemies that have of late wickedly designed to deface Her Beauty and destroy Her Purity All Rebels use Religion as a Plea for Rebellion and none pretend more to keep up the Face and Notion of Israel as a Visible Church then they Religion is the Highest and Dearest Concernment in this World but it seems a destructiv Method for Men to secure their Salvation by such a Way as God hath declared will damn their Souls and such is the Way of Resistanc Rom. XIII 2. Whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinanc of God and they that resist shall receiv unto Themselvs Damnation No Persons take up Arms in Defenc of Religion that have any sense of it upon their Spirits Religion is a meek humble modest Principle and submissiv unto Government It instructs and prepares Men to dy rather then to resist Lawful Authority And were there any unmixt Zeal for Religion in this Plea can we believ the most Debauched wicked Persons should be so much concerned for Religion but it 's clear and evident it is not in truth Religion such Persons are so much concerned for but a Toleration of all Religions That is That they may profess any or indeed like some Indifferents in France or some Hobbists in England rather have no sense of Religion at all which answers the Purpose of the Atheist that denyeth a God as much as of our Dissenters Separatists which is not at all for the Credit Glory and Reputation of that Religion which hath any thing of Sincerity or Truth in it even of the Truth as it is in Jesus So that whatsoever the Pleas and Excuses of such Men are it is a proud imperious unpeaceable and implacable Temper which disorders publique Settlements and throws from the heads the Crowns and casts out of the hands the Scepters of Monarchs and Governors After this Introduction give me leav to offer some few Inferences for Practice which may have a respect unto that Dangerous and Damnable Plot whose Discovery we do and are upon this Day Solemnly and thankfully to Commemorate and Remember 1. Consider how hazardous and destructiv the Diversities and Differences of Opinions in Religion are unto the Truth of that Doctrine which I have now handled from this of Israel and this Nation being a Visible Church and how disadvantageous prejudicial and Perillous such Opinions and Practices are unto the Publique Tranquillity Safety and Interest of this Kingdom Christianity is the strongest Defenc and securest Fulciment of Monarchy both in its Mandates and Exercise It enjoyns submission unto every Ordinanc of Man for the Lord's sake 1 St. Pet. II. 13. It instructeth us to pay the Obligations we owe to all Persons in their several Capacities Rom. XIII 7. Render therefore unto all their Dues Tribute to whom Tribute is due Custom unto whom Custom Fear to whom Fear Honor unto whom Honor. It commands Obedienc to our Governors in all lawful and honest Matters and patiently to lay down our Lives rather then to Rebel and the Holy Institutor of our excellent Religion was the greatest Instanc of this Doctrin and lived as He commanded His Disciples and Followers Tho He was Son Heir to the King of Kings and could command more then twelv Legions of Angels unto his Assistanc yet He looked not upon Himself as the Emperor's Competitor nor laid He any claim to the Roman Throne His Empire was not from Below but from Above and therefore He would not engage His Disciples in his Defenc as He declares unto the Roman President when He was brought as a Criminal before his Tribunal St. John XVIII 36. Jesus answered My Kingdom is not of this World If my Kingdom were of this World then would my Servants fight that I should not be delivered unto the Jews but now is my Kingdom not from hence This is the proper and genuin Temper of our Religion Under the severest Torments of the Heathen Governors no Disciple of the Meek and Holy Jesus ever died as a Traytor Tho their Force was considerable yet after the Example of their Gracious Master they suffered with the same Meekness as did the Lamb of God that came to take away the sins of the World 2. Consider how hazardous and destructiv a violent excessiv over-heated Zeal is tho it be for that which is Dearest unto us whatsoever secret murmurings or private repinings might underhand influenc some powerful Persons among us who understand how to abuse the Passions of the Mobile yet this is very apparent that the first seen Opportunities or Startings of these late Miseries and Plots which have hazarded the Safety of our Prince and threatned the Destruction of the Monarchy were founded in a warm Passion against the Popish Interest and for the Security of our Protestant Principles The Popish Confederacy was first designed those Purposes and Contrivances excited and awakened the Suspitions and Jealousies of all inquisitiv and sober Persons And the Respect and Regard Men had to their Soveraign and their established Profession raised their Zeal into so great a Fervor and Heat as foreboded a General Destruction and became more terrible and dreadful then the mischiefs it designed to avert and to secure us from There is nothing so destructiv as Zeal when it imperiously governs and overtops the Consultations of Reason and beats down the Arguments of Religion And upon this Account it is too frequently known that Persons who enter upon designs with a warm Pretenc of Conscienc unawares fall into Seditions against the Civil Government and are usually immediatly obliged beyond the Innocency of their first Intentions Nay so far engaged many times that they cannot retire or come back with any Credit or Reputation but must either overcome or be beaten Let us then have an especial regard concerning our Zeal that we do not err and take that for Coelestial Fire which is a Flame that comes from below and is no higher then the Earth or rather beneath that from the Bottomless Pit An Holy and Devout Zeal will engage us to a greater affection for our Religion then for our lives Such a Zeal will keep us within the limits of our Duty to our Neighbor and Brother upon Earth especially our Rulers and Governors whatever proposal of profit should tempt us to the contrary To despise Dominions and speak evil of Dignities in St. Judes Phrase vers 8 of that Epistle and to form designs and conspiracies against the Government is a Zeal like the Wisdom that descends which is not from Above but is earthly sensual and devilish for where envy and strife is there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consusion that is Tumult and Unquietness St. Jam. III. 15 16. 3. Let antecedent Instances and Examples and