are likewise things of a contrary transcendency Abominations not capable of Expression which are wicked even beyond words and surpass description by reason of their Vileness If therefore you would conceive for I cannot express the Iniquity of those Practices Put your Thoughts into the most black and gloomy posture conceive an Action that a Jesuit would startle at muster up the bloody Villanies that Histories afford us remember Ravilliac that stob'd Henry the Fourth of France reflect on the Holy League when so many thousand Protestants were butcher'd Consider the Powder Treason which was to blow up the King and the Parliament cast into your minds the Groans and Cries of the massacred by the Rebels in Ireland and to these add the lamentable Miseries of our own Civil Wars All these sad and ghastly things put together may give us some Character of the business before us for all these perhaps were allotted for our Doom And who can tell the Miseries of a Kingdom without a Head and Fury and Slaughter ranging in every corner of it Who can express the dismal Consequences when a Good KING shall be taken off by salvage Villains and His Loyal People left at the mercy of Cruel and Blood-thirsty Men 3. Enforce the Caution That therefore we are not to consent if Sinners entice us to confederate in such Practices For their feet run to evil and make haste to shed blood And this sure is Argument enough to hinder Men from being taken by such Enticements for let the Proposals be never so large the Means to accomplish it never so feazable yet if they are to end in Blood 't is an amazing Discouragement tho precious substance is to be found and our Houses thereby to be fill'd with spoil yet if they are to be got by Murder it will stop any Man of but indifferent Principles from the Undertaking And surely Assassinating a KING and killing His Nobles and Magistrates and turning a Kingdom into Blood is Murder with a Witness What Arguments the Principal Confederates might use to entice others and what horrid Salvo's they might pick up for their Consciences must be uncertain in such dark and secret Conspiracies But it is certain that none of those Maxims of Rebellion which in the late Times were spread abroad to seduce the Multitude could have any colour of Pretence here 'T was then pretended that the King levied War against his Parliament that they fought not against Him but his evil and malignant Councellors and design'd no more but to bring Him to his Parliament the great Council of the Nation and the King 's best Councellor That the King tho he was Singulis Major yet he was Vniversis Minor tho he was greater than any Subject yet he was less than all the People that therefore the Representative Body of the People legally chosen might call him to account for Mal-administration of Government That the Power of the Kingdom was in that Collective Body and they might give out Commissions and raise Arms and Men for their defence These and such like Maxims first taken out of the Schools of the Jesuits were the Snares whereby unthinking Men were betray'd into Rebellion But what can be pleaded in this Case Blunderbusses and Pistols are a sure way indeed to take a King from evil Councellors but when they are levell'd at his Coach it can hardly be said that they are not design'd against Him but a malignant Party about him Wicked People may combine together and endeavour an Insurrection but sure they can't call Plotting Lawful Authority they can't say that Confederating Miscreants are greater than the King the Peoples Representative and have the Soveraign Power of the Kingdom The truth is here the Vizard is taken off and Treason appears bare-fac'd and in its own Colours And without any other Face or pretended Countenance the thing is downright Killing the KING and raising an Insurrection in His Kingdoms The Caution therefore in this Case is very forceable for if the most plausible Pretences for Rebellion have not Plea enough to tempt any honest Man what Enticements must those be which have none The Conclusion therefore is very firm from these Premisses If Sinners entice thee to such Practices consent thou not If these things be so very Evil so very Bloody then the advising not to joyn in them is an act as of Conscience towards God so of Kindness towards Men. He that sees a dangerous Precipice which others are blindly falling into and calls to them to beware deserves as well thanks for his love as praise for his fore-sight It is therefore the Goodness as well as Wisdom of Discerning Princes when they find subtle and designing Men busie in perverting and drawing away their People to forewarn them of the Mischief to lay open their Baits to uncover their secret and lurking Designs that those who have not abilities to consider the depth and mystery of such Arts should not unwarily be taken and ensnar'd by them to their own damage This seems to be the meaning of the words of the Text the Caution King Solomon gives to his People against confederating with Men of Blood And this is one end of His Majesties Declaration discovering the Devices of Crafty and Wicked Men that so His Subjects might not be tempted by any Pretences that Cunning and Designing Men might make to draw them in which evidences as well his Affections to his People as Care to preserve his own Person and Government And it is an Instance of his Fatherly Care to forewarn his People from swallowing down any Enticements of that Nature from entring into such Company whose Converse and Behaviour is of so dark and bloody a Character And it is our duty not only in Conscience toward God not only in Allegiance and strict Duty and Justice but in gratitude likewise to our King to be extremely cautious of all such Insinuations of all Devices that would draw us into Blood Sedition or Rebellion Which that we may the better do we may consider 4. Some Rules and Directions as Expedients preventive of such Confederacies and such Practices 1. Be not over-bold and ready to Censure the Government This is a Duty we owe to one another much more to the Government and as entertaining the fairest Thoughts of Men and of their Actions contributes exceedingly to the quiet of Neighbourhood so using the same towards our Governours would be an excellent Expedient for Civil Peace And certainly the height of their Station and difficulty of their Work the multiplicity of the Affairs of Governours should challenge from us a candid and favourable Construction of their Actions When the Wisest do often miscarry in the conduct of little Matters when we often commit Disorders and Errors in the Government of our Private Families do we think that the Rule of a Kingdom and the great Business of a Nation can be always manag'd like the Kingdom of God without the least Mistake or Fault 'T is therefore monstrous and
unquam fuit publica Res ubi Ecclesia Tranquilltor We give thanks to our God whose Cause this is that in all the Kingdoms Dominions Common-wealths which have been added to the Gospel there is not so much as one Example of any such thing for we have overturn'd no Kingdom We have diminish'd no mans Dominion or Rights We have disturb'd no Common-wealths Hitherto they remain in their own Condition and in their Ancient Dignity The Kings of England Denmark Sweedland the Dukes of Saxony the Counts Palatine and other Protestant Principalities and Free Cities he there names All these says he have the same Rights and are in the same state they were before or rather in a much better because by reason of the Gospel they have their People much more Obedient Let them go into those Places where now through Gods Blessing the Gospel is taught Where is more Majesty Where less Pride and Tyranny Where is the Prince more Reverenc'd Where are the People less Tumultuous Where ever was the Common-wealth where ever was the Church more quiet and peaceable Thus far Bishop Jewel It is the Glory of the Reformation that as it proceeded by the most peaceable and orderly Steps so it held the most peaceable and orderly Doctrines The first Reformers neither in Opinion nor Practice maintain'd any thing that was infestuous to Common-wealths or injurious to Governours and they justly pleaded as the Primitive Christians did That they always paid Subjection to the Powers set over them that their Behaviour was meek and gentle that they always comply'd with the Will of their Rulers where they lawfully might and where they might not they submitted with patience and always chose rather to suffer than to be turbulent seditious and unquiet This was the first Reformation and this is the true Protestant Doctrine But alas since that Time there hath risen up another Protestant Religion and another Reformation there have been a Generation of Men of violent and furious Principles who were for Reforming by Destruction whose Religion was all Zeal i.e. Fire and Sword and who instead of Obeying were for Fighting and Rebelling for Conscience sake We may remember when Conscience took the Field and marcht with Powder and Bullet and brought a Protestant KING to the Block And the Deliverance we this Day thank God for manifests that these Principles are so far from being lost that they are heightned and improv'd This is a degree above Rebellion and the measures of King-killing are advanc'd very high when Blunderbusses are appointed to take off the Royal Family and numbers of Confederates to follow the Blow This Day therefore is the Text fulfill'd in our Ears that there have been Sinners who have entic'd who have said Come with us cast in thy lot among us i.e. in plain English Let us joyn together in an Association let us Covenant one with another let us lurk privily for the Innocent without cause For the Innocent without Cause indeed for what Cause had the King and His Loyal Subjects given them that they should pursue His Life and thirst for their Blood what mighty wrong had been done that nothing but the sudden destruction of Him and His Royal Brother could expiate and satisfie This is not this cannot be alledged Our Soveraign God be thanked is a Prince of incomparable Mercy and Goodness All the Nation feels His Influence and His healing Hand His Enemies not only live by His Favour but thrive also by His Grace and Bounty Some of the Confederates themselves have by Him been advanced to great Honours and Fortunes And are these the Qualities that must be hunted to Death Are these the Wrongs for which his People must be stirr'd up to worry Him Should a Heathen hear that the KING was to be Pistol'd His Nobles murder'd and His Kingdom rifled he could not but conjecture that he was a Nero at least a Prince fierce and cruel that he delighted in Oppression and Rapine that he kill'd his Subjects for Sport and Triumph and had done some unheard of Cruelties But when Mildness is the most conspicuous part of His Temper when His Mercy is thus far like God's as to be over all his Work when He is in truth the Breath of our Nostrils and the Delight of our Eyes what could exasperate and provoke even the worst Natures to such direful methods of Execution Nothing but the most fell and salvage Dispositions such as have the names of Men but the Tempers of Wolves and Tigers could engage Men to conspire to swallow Him up alive as the Grave and whole as those that go down into the Pit This is the first representing these Words accommodate to the occasion 2. The next is to lay down the Iniquity of these Practices and this sure needs no proof it hath no subterfuge evasion or excuse The Rebellious Spirits heretofore pretended the Face of Authority and a Parliamentary Power but what is this to Plots and Insurrections they pretended to raise Men by the Kings Power tho against His Person and will His Politic Capacity extend likewise to authorize secret Devices and Treachery They call'd their Forces the King's Armies tho they fought against Him and are these the King's Contrivances and the Kings Associations too which were intended to murder Him and overturn His Government They then call'd the People out to fight the Lords Battels but surely they will not call these the Lord's Plots and the Lord's Conspiracies These things are too obvious and the most Cunning and Politic can never clap such a Face and Disguise on them as shall make them appear otherwise than hideous and monstrous Our Saviour practis'd his own Religion the most exactly and then his Apostles and next after them the Primitive Christians all these suffer'd under the Iniquity of their Governours And what do they all but practise and preach Patience Meekness Gentleness Submission and Obedience They do not revile nor resist Authority they do not associate together to pull down the Government much less lay Plots to entrap the Lives of their Governours Suffering and Patience was Gospel then and Resistance and Sedition was Sin in those days But sure we need not go to Religion to disprove this Common Honesty will lay open its Vileness such Practices are without not only the Example of any good Christian but of any indifferently honest Heathen Ev'n Turks and Jews detest such things All Governments and all Common-wealths have abhorr'd Plots and Treacheries and those engaged in them have by all sorts of Men been esteem'd the Pests of Government and the Bane of all Society To conspire the death of any Man hath been always horrid and infamous but to lurk privily for the Blood of Kings and turn a Kingdom into slaughter is a Mischief of that magnitude that we want words to express it For as there are things of a transcendent Excellency which are too high to be pourtraited by Speech and are better admir'd and conceiv'd than discoursed of so there
A SERMON Preached at STOW IN THE COUNTY of BUCKS On the Ninth of September 1683. BEING The Day of Thanksgiving Appointed by the KING's DECLARATION FOR Acknowledging God's great Mercy in Discovering and Defeating the late Treasonable Conspiracy against His Sacred Majesty's Person and Government By THO WAGSTAFFE M.A. LONDON Printed by Samuel Roycroft for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-Head in St. Paul's Church-yard 168â— PROV I. 10 11 12 13 14 15 16. 10. My Son if Sinners entice thee consent thou not 11. If they say Come with us let us lay wait for Blood let us lurk privily for the Innocent without cause 12. Let us swallow them up alive as the Grave and whole as those that go down into the Pit 13. We shall find all precious substance we shall fill our houses with spoil 14. Cast in thy lot among us let us all have one purse 15. My Son walk not thou in the way with them refrain thy foot from their path 16. For their feet run to evil and make haste to shed blood THat Solomon by these words did not chiefly intend to caution men against joyning with common Thieves and Robbers against taking part with such who made Stealing their Trade and lay by the High-way to kill men for their Mony but that he had a further prospect to Thieves and Murderers of a more public nature To such Combinations and Confederacies as would pillage a Nation and involve a Kingdom in Blood seems not improbable for these following Reasons 1. Here is a set and continued discourse a thing carnestly press'd and recommended for several Verses together which is unusual in this Book and perhaps there is not the like instance in the whole Proverbs which shews that the Matter here spoken of is both of extraordinary weight and also that there is some aptness and disposition in men towards it to be ensnar'd by it Now though 't is well to perswade men from being common Rogues and Cut-throats yet sure there needs not much Cogency of Argument The matter is plain and obvious and the least Proverbial Sentence seems to be sufficient warning Open and barefac'd mischief needs not great Wisdom to discover nor much discourse or vehemency to forewarn But there are Villanies that have Cloaks and Covers fair and specious shews which require Art to unrip and take off And there are creeping and contagious Evils which easily infect the inconsiderate and unwary the unstable and hasty are apt to swallow any Bait that is well disguis'd In these cases therefore Caution is necessary and sure 't is not a fruitless earnestness to advise men to beware of joyning with those who may pretend they are plotting for God and conspiring for Religion when in Truth they are only lurking for blood and laying wait for spoil 2. Here is Caution against Enticements If Sinners entice thee And do common Thieves do this do they go about to gain a Party and make themselves strong by Numbers this is the way to ruine themselves and to lay them open to discovery a few are sufficient for the purposes of stealing and if they meet with Men of the same complexion they easily unite and there needs no great subtilty and contrivance to make them agree in the same common work but Associations are for the mighty Destroyers The Government is not easily oppos'd and Rebellions and Insurrections how few soever the Contrivers are must be the work of a Multitude Men of this Character therefore are the Sinners that entice They must have men to carry on their designs and they have Agents and Emissaries in all parts of a Kingdom to work upon the giddy to seduce the unsettled or discontented The great Enticers are the Prudent and Politic that are skill'd in all the arts of Insinuation that are excellent at creating Fears and Jealousies whetting Discontents and raising Storms in the minds of men that can conjure up Dangers in the most merciful and orderly Government and make men believe they are lost and undone when they are in the happiest condition of any people in the World These then are Enticers to purpose that can entice men out of their wits that can make them believe Impossibilities and Contradictions and give up their Faith to things as irrational and unaccountable as any Fable or Romance And to this may be added That to joyn together in common Stealing needs not nor can have any such cunning Methods What Arguments can there be to make a man a Thief What fair flourishes and pretences to win a man that hath any thing of Sobriety to their Company When they go to rob they do not tell one another that they rise to secure their Property they fight for Liberty and associate in defence of Religion but the business is plain and downright Villany But Treason and Sedition may be smooth'd over and there is art and contrivance to make men swallow Rebellion The People of Israel might be told they were a Free People that Solomon invaded their Liberties and Priviledges that therefore they did but themselves justice if they took the cause into their own hands and righted themselves that their King was a Favourer of Idolatry that they were Gods People and therefore ought to secure God's Rights as well as their own and not suffer any Innovation to be made in Religion that their taking up Arms therefore would not be Rebellion but a Spiritual work a setting up God's Cause and destroying his Enemies That God gave the Land of Canaan only to those that worship'd him rightly and kept his Covenant and that they were only the Persons that their King and those that adher'd to him had fall'n off from God and therefore had forfeited all their propriety in the Government and the Land That all the Right was devolv'd upon them the true Worshippers and they were by Gods Donation Heirs to the wicked and Idolatrous And therefore in rising against them they did but take the best course they could to gain their own These or such like ways of Enticement might be us'd by designing Men and such a cause will allow of a great many slights and politic Pretences whereas downright Thievery will admit of none Men cannot be perswaded when they go to steal and kill that they fight the Lords Battels and destroy the wicked and Heathen in the Land But Zeal and Conscience and sanctified Pretences may be set up to draw men into Rebellion and Treasonable Conspiracies and therefore 't is more likely that such were the Sinners that Solomon speaks of that entic'd men to confederate with them The conjunction of Thieves is but a Knot of a few but this is an Association a League a Conspiracy of many Murderers 3. These Expressions seem to intimate the same thing Let us swallow them up alive as the Grave and whole as them that go down into the Pit We shall find all precious substance we shall fill our Houses with spoil These import greater mischief and cruelty and
greater gain than is usually agreeable to the State of Confederate Robbers for though they may now and then murder men by the High-way though they may kill men in their beds yet what is this to swallowing men up as the Grave which swallows up Kingdoms and devours whole Generations 'T is Insurrections and Massacres that thus triumph in Blood Every Murderer kills a man but 't is only rebellious Leagues and treasonable Associations that have a stomach like the Grave that always eat and devour but are never glutted nor satisfied Neither is it for half a dozen Villains to promise to themselves and their Associates such mighty success as to swallow up all before them But deep Confederacies that are numerous and strong that have made a great part of the People These may think to sweep a Kingdom may make their Multitudes an Argument to invite others may encourage themselves and their Party with the facility of their Enterprize that they are able to swallow men that are alive as the Grave does dead men They shall easily seize them surprize them unawares and the quick shall fall into their hands as the Dead go into the Pit without strugling resistance or opposition And then for that other branch We shall find all precious substance we shall fill our Houses with spoil These are not the returns of common Robberies Men by taking a Purse or breaking open Houses do not expect to lay a foundation of wealth or greatness by such means to enrich themselves and gain great Estates But 't is very profitable to fish in troubled Waters The Common-wealth is a great Stake and if it might be shar'd would be a handsom supply for Avarice and Ambition The Temple of Solomon lately built which being very costly and therefore perhaps Idolatrous the Spoils of it would be a competent morsel and to be sure to kill the Heir and take his Inheritance To seize the Revenues of the Crown and Church is a way Ambitious and Designing men may have to find precious substance and to fill their Houses with spoil 4. Those words immediately after the Text seem likewise to favour this Opinion Surely in vain the Net is spread in the sight of any Bird And they lay wait for their own blood they lurk privily for their own lives that is Those bloody Attempts and Contrivances were in vain they would not come to the issue the Plotters expected for how close and privy soever they were manag'd and carry'd on He King Solomon had knowledge of them and in vain was the Net spread for him in his sight He knew their Devices and secret Machinations So that at length the Mischief they intended would fall on their own heads their laying in wait would catch their own Bloods and their lurking privily would turn to a Conspiracy against their own lives for upon Discovery the Law would lay hold of them and they would be brought to exemplary Justice These are the Reasons upon the account of which I conceive these Words of the Wise King had a main respect to Public Mischiefs to the Plots and Designs of wicked Men against him and his Government And if I may have leave to Conjecture they may have a more immediate relation to the Rebellious Principles and Practices first set on foot in the time of David his Father for tho after the defeat and death of Absalom the King return'd and govern'd the Kingdom in Peace yet it is not probable that all the Seeds of Sedition were so soon extinguished A Rebellious Ferment once raised in a People tho it may be calm'd and quieted yet it is apt to stir again upon any occasion or opportunity The same Principles and many of the Persons were still in being and tho for some time dormant might again be quickned by Politic and discontented Persons and they might again be blown up to the same Commotions by the same plausible Pretences that Absalom had used before These things Solomon seems to have an eye to and is vigilant against and therefore earnestly presses his People not to give ear to any such Insinuations And this being so the Text is a Caveat not to be entic'd nor ensnar'd by them My Son if Sinners entice thee consent thou not My Son is a Compellation of love and kindness and denotes the Fatherly Affection he had for his People The King here then if this Interpretation hits the true meaning exhorts all his loving Subjects not to entertain any mutinous and seditious Principles to beware of those Men that would tempt them into Leagues and Covenants of Blood and Rebellion And to enforce this upon them he tells them that the End of their Confederacies was only Murder and Spoil and how fair soever they might seem what allegations soever of Right and Justice they might make they were but crafty Devices to intrap the incautelous for in truth Their feet run to evil and make hast to shed blood In discoursing of these Words I shall endeavour 1. To represent them in a manner suited to our own Circumstances 2. To lay down the Iniquity of these Practices 3. To enforce the Caution That therefore we ought not to consent if we are entic'd to things of that Nature 4. To lay down some Rules as preventive Expedients to preserve us from them 1. To represent these Words in a manner suited to our own Circumstances Apol. pag. 74. Nos esse homines turbulentos Regibus Sceptra de manibus eripere populum armare Tribunalia evertere Leges rescindere possessiones dissipare regna ad popularem statum revocare The Incomparable Bishop Jewel in his Apology for the Church of England when it had been objected by the Papists That the Protestants wer turbulent Men that they took away Scepters from Kings that they arm'd the People that they overturn'd Tribunals that they laid aside the Laws that they broke in pieces mens Rights and Possessions that they turn'd Kingdoms to popular States c. After a sufficient detestation of all these things and having said That the objecting them against the Protestants was such a Calumny as was cast upon Christ and his Apostles Answers thus * Pag. 77. Argâ—onâ—s enim Deo nostro cujus haec solius causa est gratias in omnibus regnes ditionibus Rebusp quae ad Evangelâ—um accesserunt nullum unquam adhuc hujusmodi exemplum extitisse Nullum enim nos regnum evertimus Nâ—llâ—us ditionâ—m aut jura minuimus Rempub. nullam turbavimus Manent adhuc suo loco avitâ dignitate Reges Angliae Daniae Suetiae Duces Saxoniae Comites Palatini c. omnes eodem jure eodemque statu quo faerant antea vel potius quia propter Evangelium populum habent obsequentiorem multo meliore Eant sane in illa loca ubi nunc Dei beneficio auditur Evangelium ubi plus majestatis ubi minus fastus Tyrannidis ubi Princeps magis colitur ubi Populus minus Tumultuatur ubi
If Magistrates without fear transgress Gods Law Goodman pag. 139. and command others to do the same they have lost that Honour and Obedience which otherwise their Subjects ow'd them and ought no more to be taken for Magistrates but to be examin'd accus'd condemn'd and punish'd as private Transgressors By the Word of God when others will not do it a Private man having some special inward Call Obed. p. 110. Quoted by Bishop Bancroft in Dangerous Positiens may kill a Tyrant as Moses did the Egyptian as Phineahs the Leacherous as Ahud did King Eglon or otherwise a Private man may do so if he be commanded or permitted by the Common-wealth Perhaps by this time you may think I am quoting the Jesuits and picking King-killing Principles out of their Books and indeed the Doctrines are so very like they cannot easily be distinguished But these are the Positions of Knox Buchanan Goodman Famous Leaders and Setters up of the Presbyterian Discipline and a man would imagine the present Plot was fetch'd from these Authors the Doctrine and the Practice do so exactly agree and many Doctrines of the same Nature were publish'd and practis'd in the late Times It is to be hoped that many of our present Dissenters do not arise to the height of these Opinions however this Doctrine and this Behaviour too coming from men of their Way would make every good Man very well consider before he assembles with them And in truth All Dissenters of every kind as might easily be made appear when they come to state the measures of Obedience are very loose and slippery very Injurious to Princes and such as diminish the Rights of Government And therefore 5. Be Constant and Devout in the Communion of the Church of England as it is establish'd by Law It is the peculiar glory of this Church that it never hath either by Doctrine or Practice in the least encourag'd or countenanc'd any thing tending to Treason Sedition or Rebellion Men of this Communion have been eminent Sufferers for but never Opposers of Lawful Authority Here Obedience to Government is taught by the same Measures it was by our Saviour by his Apostles and by the Primitive Christians And this is so very obvious that the worst of her Enemies who have loaded her with other Contumelies could never yet have the face to charge her with Rebellion and Resistance of Authority Here therefore let us fasten our selves and we are secure from all Temptations of this kind and it is impossible that any Man so long as he continues in the Communion of the Church of England should be a Mutineer or a Traytor Let us consult both the former and the modern Arts of Disturbance and we shall find that Ambitious men never thought to make a Game here they always look'd upon it as a fruitless Attempt to practise upon Men of these Principles but the ways have been first to divide the Church to withdraw Men from her Communion and then they hop'd in time to work them to their Purposes and to bring them to make Head against the Government Were Men but united in this Communion there would be no room left for Rebellion no Instruments for Designing Men to work upon All the Pleas of fighting for Religion of resisting the Magistrate under the cover of Conscience would soon be at an end Let us all therefore heartily embrace this Let us be uniform to the Tenents and Doctrines as well as to the external Administration of the Church of England Let us as well be the Sons of it in mind as in outward Conformity And there cannot in humane measures be a better Expedient to preserve us from all Turbulent and Seditious Enticements 6. Let us be sincere in the performance of the purposes of this Day Let us heartily give Thanks to Almighty GOD for this Deliverance of our Gracious Soveraign His Royal Brother His Loyal Subjects and His Kingdoms from the horrid Attempts and Conspiracies of Wicked Men And this if we do it Conscientiously will certainly rescue us from all kind of Disloyal Thoughts He that as he should thanks God for the KING's Deliverance cannot himself administer to his Disturbance except he prays like a Pharisee with a devouring mind What greater Hypocrisie than to pour out our Thanksgiving to God for discovering the Contrivances against the Government and at the same time to have mutinous and ungovernable Inclinations This is to mock God and we pray for one thing and wish for another Let our Minds therefore go with our Prayers and if it doth not find us it will make us Faithful to the Government for Prayer is of a transforming nature and if we are just to God and our selves in it it will make us of the same Nature and Complexion our Prayers will slide into our Practices and we shall live as we pray Let us all therefore as we have the greatest Reason from the bottom of our Hearts return our Thankfullest Acknowledgments to Almighty GOD for his Infinite Goodness that by his good Providence hath kept our KING His Royal Brother and our Nation from becoming a Prey to Bloody and Ravenous Men. Let us do this in the sincerity of our Souls and then as for the present it winds up our Thoughts in contemplation of the Divine Mercy so it will for the future influence our Lives As it now frames us to be Thankful to GOD so if we are not Hypocrites it will make us Loyal to the KING SERMONS lately printed for Walter Kettilby 1. A Discourse to prove the strongest Temptations conquerable by Christians in a Sermon preached before the Lord Mayor Jan. 14. 1676 7. 2. The Spirit of Enthusiasm exorcis'd in a Sermon preached before the University of Oxford on Act Saturday July 11. 1680. 3. Peculium Dei A Discourse about the Jews as the Peculiar People of God in a Sermon preached before the Aldermen and Citizens of London Febr. 6. 1680 1. 4. The True Notion of Persecution stated in a Sermon preached at the Time of the late Contribution for the French Protestants 5. A Sermon preached before the Lord Mayor at Bow Church Jan. 30. 1681 2. 6. The Moral Shechinah Or a Discourse of Gods Glory in a Sermon preached at the last Yorkshire Feast June 11. 1682. All Six by George Hicks D.D. Prosecution no Persecution Or the Difference between Suffering for Disobedience and Faction in a Sermon preached at Bury St. Edmunds Suffolk March 22. 1681. The Modern Pharisees shewing the Principles of the present Jesuits and Puritans to be of the same evil Influence with the Ancient Pharisees Both by Nath. Bisbie D.D. Dr. Calamy 's Sermon preached before the L. Mayor at Bow-Church May 29. 1682. Mr. Kidder 's Sermon preached before the Lord Mayor July 16. 1682. Dr. Fowler 's Sermon preached at the Assizes at Gloucester Aug. 7. 1681. Mr. Young 's Sermon preached before the Lord Mayor Febr. 4. 1682. Mr. Hopkin 's Sermon preached before the Lord Mayor Sept. 3. 1683. Mr. Foxe 's Sermon preached at the Herefordshire-Feast July 3. 1683. The Originals of Rebellion Or The end of Separation in a Sermon preached Jan. 30. 1682. The Rebellious City Destroyed being an Anniversary Sermon in memory of the Dreadful Fire of London Sept. 2. 1666. Preached 1682. Loyalty Protesting against Popery and Phanaticism Popishly Affected in a Sermon preached Nov. 5. 1682. both by William Wray M. A. Ahitophel's Policy Defeated in a Sermon preached on the Thanksgiving-Day Sept. 9. 1683. Samaritanism Reviv'd in a Sermon preached by Luke Milbourne on the late Thanksgiving-Day Sept. 9. 1683. FINIS