our selves so free from the Defilements of Sin that Iniquity may not be our Ruin For to illustrate this when Balaam would have Cursed the Israelites but had not power to do it he told Balak God did force him contrariwise to bless them as it is in the 20th Verse of this Chapter of my Text Behold I have received commandment to bless and he hath blessed and I cannot reverse it And then ensues the true Cause of this Blessedness in the next Verse He hath not beheld Iniquity in Jacob neither hath he seen Perverseness in Israel The People were Holy and Righteous and so long God's Especial Presence was with them as the following words do declare The Lord his God is with him and the shout of a King is among them But yet when a little after they were subjected to Sin and committed Lewdness and Folly and bowed down to other Gods then God withdrew his gracious Presence and instead thereof sent a Plague among them which lessened their number by Twenty and Four Thousand that were quickly swept away Numb 25. Whereby we see it is the Evil of Sin that causeth the Evil of Punishment one particular Act whereof is enough to provoke Divine Justice to strike and satisfied it must be either by Contrition and true Sorrow of Heart here or Pain hereafter And then how aggravating is it for Men to proceed still in an Habit and Custom of the highest Provocations without any Remorse or Consideration at all of the Evil of their Doings Notwithstanding God's calls to Repentance and Amendment at one time by Judgments inflicted upon a People or Nation and at another time impendent and hovering over their Heads like a huge black Cloud threatning a most violent Storm From which near and approaching Danger nevertheless when God hath made a way for an escape and a great Deliverance then for Men to be unthankful after fears of Evil to murmur at Mercy To be pleased no way neither in Danger nor out of it is a strange and almost if not altogether an unpardonable Crime for the Sin of Ingratitude in its own Nature must needs be very heinous and provoking in the Eyes of a most Wise and a Good God especially when Mercies are extraordinary in their kind and like to Miracles then to be angry even as Jonah because Nineveh was not destroyed To be displeased at the great Instrument under God of our Deliverance and in the Heart to desire Spoilers to Invade the Land is Malicious and Spiteful And in the Mind to wish for and bid welcome to the Forces of a known Foreign Tyrant who know no other than to Burn and Destroy when and where they have Power and thus in effect to hope for Slavery is a Wickedness and Folly scarce or not at all to be parallei'd in any History But now let the People of this Land shew themselves unto the World to be a Wise and Understanding Nation let us all declare our selves to be Men of Reason and Prudence by being sensible of our late wonderful Deliverance and knowing our present Happiness Let us be just unto God by due praises to him for this great Blessing upon us Let the Te Deum be always in our Mouths and the Trisagion sounding out of our Lips Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts with continual Hallelujahs praise ye the Lord praise O ye Servants of the Lord praise ye the Name of the Lord. O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his Mercy endureth for ever Let the Redeemed of the Lord say so whom he hath Redeemed from the Hand of the Enemy And next let us render unto Caesar our due Tribute of Thanks and Faithful Obedience for venturing his Life for us and Fighting our Battels Nay this to the King and Queen both let us give for their Zeal and Courage and great Conduct of Affairs for their good Will and tender Affection towards us all Let us be sensible of our Happy Condition under the Influences of their most Auspicious Government and let us Congratulate one another therein because they will by the Blessing of God support and defend us and our Religion our Laws and Liberties And then let us manifest unto the World that we do fully know and understand and are satisfied that God hath undeservedly and greatly Blessed us with a most Religious Wise and Gracious King William and Queen Mary For whom let us pray That God will grant Them an Happy Meeting by the King 's Safe Return from the Wars with Victory and all Good Success and that He will Establish Them in the Thrones of Their Kingdoms and Enable Them to lay a lasting Foundation to the Peace and Tranquility of Our Church and These Nations That They may be Victorious over All Their Enemies both by Sea and Land and strengthen the Hands of Their Allies against the Great Troubler of our Israel and the Common Disturber of all Christendom that Their Reign may be Prosperous and Their Days many Their People Loyal and Dutiful Subjects unto Them And that They may Both so serve God here that when He shall be pleased to Call Them from these Earthly Crowns unto Himself He may Crown Them with Eternal Glory and Felicity in the highest Heavens In which Prayer let the whole Nation join together and to it now let all this Congregation say Amen The GLORY Departed SERMON II. ON THE DEATH Of Our Late Most Gracious Queen Mary II. Of Blessed Memory Preached in Mortlake-Church in Surrey on the Third Day of March 1694. ISAM iv 22. The Glory is departed from Israel IN a most sad and lamentable manner is this Scripture of late fulfill'd in your Ears And Oh! that my Head were Waters Jer. 9.1 and mine Eyes a Fountain of Tears that I might weep Day and Night for the unspeakable Loss of that Glory which is departed from our Israel by the surprising Decease of Our Most Gracious and Pious Queen Mary of Ever Blessed Memory The Solemnity of whose Funeral beging near it may be proper now to speak of her Majesty of whom we said Under Her Shadow with the Joint-protection of His Most Excellent and Sacred Majesty King William we shall live among our greatest Enemies And through the Mercy of God who gave unto us those two Unparallel'd Virtuous Princes we shall they Reigning over us in defiance of the proudest Powers enjoy our Religion our Laws and Liberties have all Rights Immunities and Privileges restored to our Nation setled and confirmed unto us and our Posterity on a lasting Foundation Yea although we have lost the Best of Princesses we still hope by God's Grace for those Blessings through our Surviving Soveraign's Auspicious and Valiant Endeavours through his Wisdom and the great Counsels of our August Assembly the thrice Honourable Senators of our Land But alas the unexpected Breach that is made is Dismal and Amazing when God had given us a double portion of his Spirit of Love and Kindness in two such
on the good and sendeth Rain on the just and on the unjust After such Charity 't is impossible for us to doubt of her Faith and Hope but we may rest assured that both were very great And in short that she might finish her Course with Joy she left not the great Work of Repentance to the last Call but with the Wise Virgins had her Lamp ready trimmed with Oyl in it when the Bridegroom came requiring her to come away So did she watch that when her Lord came expecting immediate Attendance she was not found Sleeping nor Trifling or wasting away her precious time but in the Exercise of all those Christian Graces which with her humble Submission and Resignation to God's Will through Christ translated her from the Corruptible Crowns here below to an Eternal and Glorious Diadem above when being Faithful to her Death God gave her a Crown of Life O to her most Happy and Glorious Second Coronation in the highest Heavens while we Mortals here below lament our Loss which is her Gain Thus have I Coasted upon the Sea-shore of those Graces and Virtues which did shine on Earth in God's Anointed and the Nursing-Mother of our Church And to launch out farther into the unfathomable Ocean of them would require more time with a stronger and larger Vessel than my poor Talent can equip and send out into so vast a Deep An Ocean of them I mention because her Brook became a River and her River became a Sea a main Sea Ecclus 24.31 encompassing that whole Globe of Goodness which was inherent in Her Majesty while she acted in that great Sphere of Glory and Honour here to save our Church and these Nations and the sinking Parts of Europe out of the Hands of their Potent and Common Enemy which was purely Her Majesty's Design and is the Intent of the Mighty NASSAU our Most Gracious King And so to prevent a Rushing Destruction at Hand and be the Deliverers of many Nations and People from Ruin by the Power put into their Hands through God's Merciful Providence when the Nobles and Patriots of this Nation made their Requests to Their Majesties and the Peoples Cries and humble Prayers and Solicitations by their Representatives wrought upon them to fill the Empty Throne therefore This did not I hope infrinnge or trespass against the Fifth Commandment when the People of the Land took them and made them KING and QUEEN their Crowns were even forced upon their Heads for the Salvation of our Church and an Universal Deliverance from the approaching Thraldom of a Foreign but yet too Near and too Potent an Enemy I Challenge the World then to find out any Blemish or Spot in that Bright and most Clear Luminary which now the Curtain being drawn by the interposition of the great Vail and Canopy of the Heavens between her and us suffers an Eclipse in respect of our selves but not of her who enjoys a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory And yet Her Just Title here was Glorious too MARY the Second by the Grace of God QUEEN of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. But she added thereto the Choicest Ornaments and most precious Rubies in her Crowns the Transcendent Virtues of her most Comely and Graceful Person with great Majesty outwardly and all Mercy within So that as our Loss is more than we can express so are her due Praises beyond all the Flowers of Rhetorick and Art of Elocution To Enumerate whose Virtues as the Honourable House of Commons said were to aggravate our Sorrow Address to the King Dec. 31.1694 Wherefore a mighty Glory is departed from us from the Christian World from all true Protestants chiefly whose great Hope and Joy and Comfort she was And France it self tho' different in Religion from us is not free from that Cloud of Darkness whether sensible of it or no that covers us by the Decease of Her Most Excellent Majesty That such an Unparallel'd Good Princess had so Just a Title to that Crown from Her Royal Ancestors For not to insist upon all that we might we will only mention that our Valiant King Edward the Third but for the unjust Salique Law was Heir to France after the Death of Philip the Fair * Philip Duke De Valois the other See Sir R. Baker's Chron. Life of Edw. 3. being then according to some Histories the nearer in Blood of the Two Competitors but drawing his Pedigree by a Female Our Victorious King Henry the Fifth was Proclaim'd in France as well as in England to be the only Regent of that Realm and Heir Apparent to that Crown Whose Son the Devout King Henry the Sixth was not only Proclaim'd but with all usual Ceremonies Crown'd in Paris King of France And now consider we what profound Veneration and Love had this our Great Princess gain'd in the Minds and Affections of those beyond the Sea What Universal Affliction is in those Countries she lived in What huge Expressions of Sorrow for her Death do they give Blessed be they of the Lord for the great Honour and Kindness they bare to her when she was in a strange Country But O the unexcuseable Ingratitude of those who did not the like to Her Majesty in the Land of her Nativity When in other Parts of the World she so drew the Eyes and Hearts of all People after her that she was Beloved to Admiration and was their great Desire But now she is taken from us as well as from them Of whom the World was not worthy she being too Good and Virtuous for this Wicked and Adulterous Generation And so like another Astraea she is fled to Heaven for a Resting-place And what Vows would we make What Prayers would we offer up to Enjoy her again What Returns of Praises and Thanksgivings would we present to God in imitation of David and all Israel when they brought home the Ark But alas she is gone and shall not return to us Which sad Affliction is enough to damp and weigh down the greatest Spirits and to strike us all Dumb that we open not our Mouths only by the way of Mourning and Humiliation because it is God's doing who in the Flower of her Days as well as of our Hopes sent forth his Decree to call her hence To reverse which if it had been the Blessed Will of the Lord what Prayers what Sighs and Tears were poured forth and Means used that the Distemper might not prevail over her nor the King of Terrors Conquer by to us such a bitter Destiny cutting so early the Thread of so Precious a Life so universally desired long to remain But Oh! the Hand of the Lord hath been very heavy upon us for our Sins and to the utmost period of her Race here she hath suddenly and unexpectedly run So that with Job we may now say Our Harp is turned to Mourning Job 30.31 and our Organ into the Voice of them that weep
Pleasure O therefore great is the Deliverance beyond the Comprehensions of our Understandings And praised be the Lord who hath not given us over for a prey unto their Teeth for our Soul is escaped as a Bird out of the Snare of the Fowler the Snare is broken and we are delivered For which may all that are or would have been sensible of the Black Device if it had taken its Dismal Effect Bless and Exalt God's holy Name May all the good People of this Nation Obey their Sovereign Lord the KING's Commands in such manner as may be acceptable to God And as His Majesty doth so may they acknowledge the singular Mercy and Goodness of God See His Majesty's Most Gracious Speech to Both Houses of Parliament Feb. 24. 1695. May all His Subjects Piously and Joyfully keep this Day and ponder the Occasion of it in their Hearts with a Perpetual Thanksgiving to the utmost extent of their Lives for so great a Salvation May it make such deep and lasting Impressions in their Souls Yea let them tell it to their Childrens Children that the Generations to come may Bless God for it And may no Rank or Quality Sex Order or Degree think themselves exempted from their Duty on this Day which the KING with the Advice of his Nobles hath thought fit to apply to so Solemn and Sacred a Use But praise the Lord ye House of our Israel praise the Lord ye House of Aaron praise the Lord ye House of Levi ye Clergy of this Land Ye that fear the Lord praise the Lord and confess he is Gracious and his Mercy endureth for ever Kings of the Earth and all People Princes and all Judges of the World Young Men and Maidens Old Men and Children praise the Name of the Lord for his Name only is Excellent and his Praise above Heaven and Earth He shall exalt the Horn of his People all his Saints shall praise him And now pray we unto God to open Mens Eyes that they may see and know those things that belong unto their Peace that they may not be Credulous of Dreams and Fancies nor give heed unto Fables As if that Monarch who has Troubled Christendom a long time has Cruelly Persecuted and Tormented Protestants and has laid waste Defenced Cities into Ruinous heaps as if he would shew all Clemency and Kindness to us as if he would make every one Happy and Great with large Donatives of Riches and Honour Fields and Vineyards and all the Delights of the Sons of Men which to think is very incongruous to Reason and dissonant to the Sentiments of common Prudence unless he and all his Admirers and Favourites loved the People of this Nation better than they do and except we would abandon our Religion which may we never so much as think of doing nor fear his Menaces or any high and lofty Looks But keep we stedfast to our God and our Faith to our Duty and Allegiance unto our Sovereign Lord the KING's Majesty to our Laws our Liberties and our Country and to one another in Love and Unity And may god shower down His Blessings upon us and make His great Salvation for which we now offer unto Him the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving a Pledge of more His abundant Favours to His Anointed and His Subjects And let us always therefore have somewhat of a Divine and Holy Song or Eulogy in our Mouths Plenteously may we be furnished in the Song of Moses and the Children of Israel of Deborah and Barak and in that great Magazine of Praises and Benedictions the Book of Psalms together with many other places of the Sacred Canon of Scripture Let us often think of God's Mercies to us and make Melody in our Hearts unto Him with such Excellent and Proper Lessons as may be taken out of those Breathings of the Holy Ghost Let Lute and Harp awake and let us awake right early with the high Praises of God in our Mouth Let this be the Badge of our Honour and Gratitude Praise ye the Lord. Let us bind it as Signs upon our Hands and Frontlets between our Eyes together with the Te Deum the Benedictus the Magnificat and like Joyous and Devout Trophies of God's Salvation Evermore with the Choir of Saints and Angels above Chanting forth the Trishagion Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabaoth Heaven and Earth are full of the Majesty of thy Glory Glory be to thee O Lord Most High Finally As we praise God this Day for His Admired Mercy so let us Beg His Continuance of it to us and pray heartily that the now ensuing Campaign may be Victorious both against Fâ—ance and the Ottoman Empire and that an Honourable and Lasting Peace to England and Her Allies and Friends may succeed thereupon and that God will be pleased to Bless with Length of Days and Riches and Honour in His Throne here and to Crown afterwards with a far more exceeding and Eternal Weight of Glory in the highest Heavens His Anointed Servant our Dread Sovereign Lord and Lawful and Rightful KING WILLIAM Amen FINIS
hath done great things for us whereof we rejoice And this affirm we in defiance of all who deny Him or his Providence whether in Thought or in Act or be it by both And for all this may we fear Him may we love Him above all things in Heaven and in Earth May all our Hearts all our Souls our Minds and our Strength have a full share in this Affection towards God and so by the Operation of every Faculty and Power in us proper thereto may we take our fill in loving Him that as He hath loved us so the love of Him may dwell plenteously in us To excite us the more to our Duty of Love and Praise Adoration and Thanksgiving it is requisite that we consider what and how great the Blessing is wherein consists the Salvation wrought so lately in our Land And of the Blessing of God now upon us and His Salvation vouchsafed unto us none can be ignorant forasmuch as all know that God Almighty has manifested his Providence his Power and Mercy towards His Most Excellent Majesty and His People by laying open the Depths of Satan and the secret Intentions of wicked Men that He has Discovered and Delivered the King from an Horrid and Barbarous Conspiracy of Papists and other Trayterous Persons to Assassinate and Murder His Royal Person and the Kingdom from an Intended Invasion by the greatest Enemies to its and all Europe's Repose the French By which great Deliverance the King 's Royal Person is saved from Destruction His Government Secured and this Realm Freed from that Total Subversion of its Religion Laws and Liberties which if God had not thus mercifully interposed would have been the Fate of it Lo this is the Blessing and it is very great this is the Salvation we now give thanks for and it is wonderful Here is repeated Mercy and Goodness to an unwise and foolish People who have ill requited God with Ingratitude for His former Loving-kindnesses But as we now meditate on His Mercy so may we with Rivers of Tears in our Eyes think of the other Method God so lately used to reduce us unto a right Sense of our selves by the Deplorable Loss of that most Virtuous and Pious Princess the Queen of Blessed Memory who fell by a heavy stroke alas To us it was God punishing us for our many Provocations our Incorrigible and Undutiful Behaviour to Him that He might melt us thereby into Sorrow and Repentance that He might force us to humble our selves with Weeping and Fasting and to cloath our Souls with Mourning Attire when the thick Cloud of his Anger overspread these Nations by Her Death And now again He invites us to Him in love for lo the Bright Beams of His Mercy shining every where He hath called us this Day out of the Houses of Mourning into those of Joy He hath put a new Song into our Mouths even a Thanksgiving unto our God for the Safety of our Most Serene and Illustrious Monarch KING WILLIAM the Father of our Country the Great Joy and Hope and Support of many Nations the most Heroick and Noble Patron and Assertor of ours and all Europe's Liberties by whose Crown falling from His Head and so the Glory departing again from us God might have laid us with Bleeding Hearts in Dust and Ashes have heaped upon us all the Mischiefs that the Rage and Madness of our Incensed Enemies could bring who would have number'd their Merits by the quantities of our Blood they should have caused to run in our Streets when the more of us they had killed the more Service to God they would have boasted that they had done like that Duke D'Alva who assumed much Glory and Honour to himself for the Slaughter he made of many Thousand Protestants or Hereticks by such Men of Blood falsly so called But O that Men would praise the Lord for his Goodness and declare the Wonders he doeth for us the Children of Men when by a Miracle of Mercy we are saved from that Wo and Destruction which otherwise would at this time have been raging by Fire and Sword in these Islands with Apparent Danger of Ruin and Desolation upon all the Confederate Countries by that Ambitious Prince who has hunted after the Precious Life of our KING that he might Subdue the Nations to the Rod of his Power and tread them under his Feet But behold the Justice of the Lord as well as his Mercy in the King's Salvation For what had Men to do to take God's Prerogative out of His Hands and to number the King's Moments of Life by the time they should set a Fatal period thereto So long as God hath bound up his Soul in the Bundle of Life and may it be I pray God for many Years even to a good Old Age those who have to do with the Stool of Wickedness may sit thereon long enough Plotting and Contriving his Death thus imagining or framing Mischief by their own Wicked Counsels as a Law or Decree written like but more Cruel than those of Draco said to be in Blood and yet shall not be able to prevail with all the Powers of Hell on their side For no Sorcery no Divination no Inchantment no Conspiracy or Weapon form'd against this Mighty Defender of our Faith and of the Liberties of Europe can prosper so long as the Lord is on our side so long as He is the Rock of our Salvation and He will not leave us nor forsake us if we do not leave Him first O therefore draw we near unto Him in Faith and full Assurance of His continual Favour and keep we from every wicked thing from Atheism of the Mind from Atheism of the Will and the Act From Profaneness in our Hearts in our Words and in our Deeds Let us Religiously observe this Day with an holy Joy that it may be acceptable unto the Lord. Let no vain Oaths cause the Land to mourn nor any other Sin of our Souls or Bodies pollute this Day And let us observe every Lord's Day with greater distinction from other Days than we have hitherto done And so may we now turn unto the Lord and prosper May we wash off all Stains and Blemishes of past Ingratitude and be thankful for evermore hereafter And then will we say unto the Grand Enemy of Europe The Virgin Isa 37.22 the Daughter of Zion hath despised thee and laughed thee to scorn the Daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her Head at thee Then the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church of England for her Faith is Built on a Rock and He who is truly the Defender thereof shall stand by Her with Power from God to preserve Her as He hath promised to do to His utmost To our Consolation then be it spoken That Great Deliverance giveth God unto His King that he is a Tower of Salvation unto him and sheweth Mercy unto His Anointed Wherefore will we rejoice and sing triumphantly The Lord liveth and blessed be
Fire against the Fury of the Enemy He wrought sundry times and in divers manners strange and wonderful Deliverances for the Children of Israel time after time when they repented of their Sins and cried unto him he raised up a Deliverer to them who delivered them So he raised up his Anointed Cyrus to loose the Bonds and Fetters of the Seventy Years Captivity to let the Prisoners return free to their own Land insomuch that he made a Proclamation and put it also in Writing concerning the Reedifying of the Temple or House of God Ezra 1. Here was Joy after much Sorrow a sweet Refreshment of Pleasure after the Wormwood and Gall of so long an Affliction in a strange Land And so after the Days wherein our Saviour himself cohabited on the Earth with a sinful Generation of Men and as he had suffered so left he his Followers to a wide World of Persecutions yet how did God deliver his Apostles St. Peter out of Prison by the Conduct and Ministry of an Angel and St. Paul frequently out of Perils of divers kinds And though Ten great Persecutions raged against the Christians to devour them by so great a Flood cast out of the Serpents Mouth to carry away if possible by its violence the Woman that brought forth the Man-child yet all could not effect the Cursed Design And the Efforts of those persecuting Emperors of Rome Nero Domitian Decius and the rest were all in vain as to the utter Extirpation of Christianity though they caused whole Clouds of Martyrs to Seal their Faith with their own Blood and endeavoured to abolish the very Name of Christ by inflicting most Cruel Deaths and Tortures upon his Saints on Earth Nay Dioclesian's Persecution the last of the Ten though of a long continuance and so hot and severe that it is said some Thousands were slain almost every Day in the Year And who being a Prince of such infinite Ambition that he commanded himself to be worshipped as God and therefore had so great an Antipathy to Christianity that his whole Reign might be called one perpetual Persecution yet it pleased God to preserve his Church still Though the Woman was forced to fly into the Wilderness yet there had she a place prepared of God and there was she sed She had a Being still though under a Cloud and in Obscurity But then after so many black and dismal Days the Sun began to shine clear those Clouds of Egyptian Darkness were by the good Providence of God dispell'd and Heaven with a serene Aspect did smile on the Church that had held out so long and kept her Faith under the Sword and fiery Trials of so many persecuting Tyrants And Emperors themselves became Nursing-fathers unto her Constantius Chlorus was as it is said though not a known Christian himself yet a Friend to those that were such But next after him his Son Constantine the Great the first Emperor that countenanced the Gospel and embraced it publickly was a most Loving Father to the Church who Nursed her tenderly when he became a most Zealous Professor of her Faith and the Gospel of Christ by an extraordinary Providence as it is described in History after this manner At the same time that he was saluted Emperor in Britain Maxentius was chosen at Rome by the Praetorian Soldiers and Licinius named Successor by Maximianus the associate of his Father Chlorus whereby he had two Competitors for the Empire Being pensive and solicitous upon these Distractions he cast his Eyes up towards Heaven where he saw a lightsome Pillar in the form of a Cross wherein he read these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hereby Conquer thou As much as if it had been said to him Turn Chrishian and thou shalt get the Victory and be Emperor of Rome And it is further said That the next Night our Saviour appearing to him in a Vision commanded him to bear that Figure in his Standard and he should overcome all his Enemies this he performed and was accordingly Victorious For what could hinder him then when once become a Soldier of Christ he had him for his Chief Captain or General and all the Hosts of Heaven to side with him Now if any Person hath not Faith enough to believe this Relation of this great Christian Emperor's Conversion that it was thus strangely brought to pass Yet that by the great Providence of God he was Converted to the True Faith that he was a Nursing-father to the Church of Christ and a great Lover and Favourer of Christians and so in this respect an Enemy to those that were Enemies to the Cross of Christ and the Christian Religion no intelligent Person will doubt Now besides the many and wonderful Deliverances of the Church in former Ages we may meditate upon what great things God hath wrought for her in these Nations since the Reformation To recount them all is needless for who is he that hath not heard of them But to speak once for all it is worth our notice and observation that as in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Five Hundred and Eighty Eight a mighty and vast Navy with Considence and Ostentation enough by the Vain-glorious Name of an Invincible Armada was set out for the Destruction of us and our Church which by the good Providence of God was defeated and scattered and with Infamy came to nought So when time that under God worketh all things had spun out an Hundred Years more making the next Eighty Eight Memorable and Glorious there came forth another Fleet or Navy for our Help and Deliverance from apparent Dangers for the Security of our Religion the Church and Nation and by the Blessing of God had Power to prevail for our Good and Safety under the Conduct of that Wise and Valiant Prince who is now our Most Gracious King and Mighty Deliverer So that if our Enemies had but Egyptians Eyes in their Heads and their Understanding in their Hearts they might see and know that this is the Finger of God and that it is hard for them to kick against the pricks and fight against God Although he did once suffer him in whose Strength they repose all their Confidence to take his Pastime like the Leviathan in the Waters and for some time to shew his Power on the Deep Yet may God one Day when he cometh out boasting in his own Strength put his Hook in his Nose and his Bridle in his Lips and so give him proud Sennacherib's Fate and Doom with Shame and Confusion make him glad to return as well as he can the way that he came This let us hope for because God will defend his Church and People to save them for his own sake and for all his Faithful Servants sake and under the Wings of his Almighty protection we shall find shelter and abide in safety and the Stars in their Courses shall fight against our Enemies But yet by way of Application this is upon condition that we keep
and with him sit down in the Ashes And we may mourn with the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddon as all Judah and Jerusalem did for Josiah Zech. 12.11 2 Chron. 35.25 And as the Prophet Jeremiah lamented for him so have we cause to do the like for our Deceased Gracious QUEEN Our Singing-men and Singing-women may as theirs did a long time for that good King speak of her in their Lamentations We have too sad Cause to Transcribe a Copy from them to make it an Ordinance in our Israel and from their Original to write us a Book of Lamentations and therein The Joy of our Heart is ceased our Dance is turned into Mourning Lam. 5.15 16. The Crown is fallen from our Head wo unto us that we have sinned Thus let us humble and afflict our Souls before God who is justly displeased for our manifold Iniquities and Contempt of his Mercies and in the midst of our Sorrows pray we him to remember Mercy And when we have poured out our Souls with the bitterest Grief and Sorrow of Heart for our inexpressible Loss in such a deep sense as so sad an Occasion requires let us say Ver. 19. Thou O Lord remainest for ever thy Throne from Generation to Generation Ver. 21. Turn thou us unto thee O Lord and so shall we be turned renew our Days as of old renew them O Lord and continue them unto us in our Gracious KING WILLIAM And God be praised that we Enjoy him together with our Religion our Laws our Liberties and Properties What a Mercy is it that we have His Majesty still In whose Preservation not only the Welfare of his own Subjects but of all Christendom is so nearly concerned See the Addresses of both Houses to His Majesty Dec. 31. 1694. As the Right Honourable the House of Peers and agreeably thereto the Honourable Commons have in their great Wisdom pronounced Let us then turn from the Evil of our Ways and lift up our Hands and Hearts to Heaven that God may be Gracious to us in granting Him a long and happy Reign over us And pray we that God will Support and Comfort His Majesty and Us under the Burden of His and Our Great Loss (a) In His Majesty's Gracious Answer to the Address of the House of Peers Dec. 31. 1694. which He was pleased to declare is above what he can express And that he was able to think of nothing but it (b) Answer to the House of Commons Address So sharply did his Grief thereupon assail and pierce his Royal Heart Tho' always known to be of such Heroick and Invincible Courage that nothing could dismay him this sad Affliction alone Conquered him has been of such weight as to over-burden and sink his Spirits the like to which no Difficulties no Dangers could ever before effect not Ten Thousand Messengers of Death flying about him Behold how he loved Her Pray we then to God to be His Majesty's Comforter in this great Trial and to make us all most Dutiful and Obedient Subjects unto him paying him double Homage and Fealty that we may not once waver in our Fidelity but multiply in our Hearts Zealous Prayers and all good Desires for his Long Life and Prosperity and then we may expect to Enjoy a large share of Her Late Majesty in Him He will not only Defend us as He hath done but also will be unto us in her stead by His more abundant Favours to us if an addition can be made to His former because Virtue and Goodness were conjunctive in Their Majesties what One did was generally the Act of Both. And as they by Marriage were one Flesh so they seem'd by an Happy Unity and Concord in every thing to have one and the same Mind as if they had had but one Soul Therefore I say we may trust He will take all the Care of us upon himself and be unto us both as KING and QUEEN to do us all the Good that lies in His Royal Power Wherefore to conclude as we mourn for Her Majesty and desire to Consecrate her Memory to be for Ever Blessed thus paying our last Tribute unto Her in Tears So let us with the highest Deference Honour and Obey His Majesty the Great Patron and Assertor of the Liberties of Europe of Ours chiefly And let us always Pray GOD Save KING WILLIAM Amen The Living Lord a Rock of Salvation SERMON III. Preached in Mortlake Church in SVRREY April the 16th 1696. Being the Day of a General Thanksgiving for the Preservation of the KING from the Intended Assassination of His Royal Person c. 2 SAM xxii 47. The Lord liveth and blessed be my Rock and exalted be the God of the Rock of my Salvation THat the Merciful and Gracious Eye of God's Wonderful Providence hath in a most Signal manner watched over this Nation for good especially since the Blessed Reformation is beyond all possibility of Contradiction That he hath been sundry times and in divers manners a Rock of Salvation unto it by many powerful Deliverances thereof from Evil is as certain as if it were a thing proved by Mathematical Demonstration To recount and inlarge upon all which time would fail me But for a full Testimony unto my Assertion let us look back into the Annals and Histories of Times past but of One Century of Years and part of another and by those lasting Monuments of the Dead let us ask our Fathers and they will shew us our Elders and they will tell us what great and marvellous Things God did in the Days of Old for them and us their Posterity They were Eye-witnesses in times past and Partakers of the Goodness of the Lord unto the Sons of Men in this sinful Land And are not we in this respect the like to the full in our Generation as they were in theirs Or rather hath not God superadded to us and made his present measure of Grace and Favour to overflow amongst us by his great Salvation given unto us Of which every one who will not close his Eyes hath ocular and sensible demonstration laid before him in view in such large and legible Characters that he that runs may read it And this we may all read in the Book of our own Remembrance that when our Consciences were in apparent danger to be Inslaved with Erroneous Doctrines Superstition and a False Way of Worshipping God or else our Lives must be Sacrificed to the merciless Fury of our Implacable Enemies that when our Laws our Liberties and Properties were to be swallowed up by such a Power as would know no Limits Then God that heareth Prayer the Prayer of the Humble and Afflicted heard our Petitions and when we could not imagine which way the Salvation should come or by whom under him it should be effected then he appeared to be a God who judgeth the Earth and bowed the Heavens and came down sending to our Aid with the Arm of Power and
Crowning with Glorious Success His Present Most Excellent and Sacred Majesty our Most Gracious Sovereign and Rightful Lord KING WILLIAM For whom all Praise Adoration and Thanksgivings which the Finite and Weak Understandings and Faculties of Mortal Men can give unto an Infinite Being an Immortal and Omnipotent God are a Tribute due unto Him But though God be always Merciful there are Sons of Belial who will be most Wicked will Murmur and Repine and even Despise and Cross the Divine Goodness and will not have Him to Reign over us whom God hath appointed to be our King and hath made next to Himself our Mighty Deliverer Against whom nevertheless that there should be Men Living under the Benign Influences of His Merciful and Happy Government who Conspire with Gall and Bitterness of Spirit not only to Dethrone Him but Insidiously and Basely in a most Barbarous and Inhuman manner to take away His Sacred Life by the Assassination and Murder of His Royal Person notwithstanding all his Clemency and thereby to make way for a Foreign and Arbitrary Power to rush in upon these Nations of Great Britain and Ireland to the Destruction of our Religion Laws and Liberties It would seem incredible to Men of Reason and Ingenuity be to them more than a Paradox but that it is no longer in the dark being now clearly discovered and the Good God be Blessed and Praised therefore the Mischief most providentially prevented Wherefore Sing we every one with holy David in the front of this Divine Canticle Ver. 2 3. or Psalm The Lord is my Rock and my Fortress and my Deliverer The God of my Rock in Him will I trust He is my Shield and the Horn of my Salvation my high Tower and my Refuge my Saviour Thou savest thine Anointed and Us from Violence And again join we with the Royal Psalmist in a joyful Hope and Confidence in God in Acclamations of Benedictions and Praises unto Him evermore rejoicing and saying The Lord liveth and blessed be my Rock and exalted be the God of the Rock of my Salvation Which words are part of holy David's Song of Deliverance this Chapter and the 18th Psalm being of one and the same substance but run with a little variation of reading in some parts wherein that great Saint then but Militant did Celebrate the Solemnities of an holy Triumph and Praise to the God of his Salvation who had preserved his Person from the great Dangers that had threatned him from the violent Hands of Saul and other his Inveterate Enemies who had by various Snares and Stratagems sought his Life for thus we find the Preface or Inscription to this Thanksgiving Hymn of the sweet Psalmist of Israel And David spake unto the Lord the words of this Song in the Day that the Lord had delivered him out of the Hand of all his Enemies and out of the Hand of Saul And with such a lofty strain of Melody and delightful Harmony has he run through this his Noble Anthem as must needs Charm his chief Musician both in setting and playing the Tune proper to it And also with a Ravishing Delight raise and exhilarate the Spirits of the whole Choir those concern'd therein either with Vocal or Instrumental Musick those that sang or those that play'd on the Organ Harp or Cymbal c. chearing and refreshing even the Hearts and Souls of all then present And most grateful are his Acknowledgments of God's Gracious Benefits unto him flowing from many of his Holy and Essential Attributes from his Free and Immense Goodness and Mercy his Incomprehensible Wisdom Infinite Justice and Power and that great Providence which attended him through so many various Scenes of Troubles in the most difficult Stages of his Life Very expressive also is he of the Sense he had of the Dangers he escaped Such like as those out of which God Blessed be his Holy Name for it lately deliver'd our Most Gracious King even the Waves and Snares of Death the Floods of ungodly Men their deep and subtil Plots and Conspiracies their violent Stratagems and Devices as unavoidable as Floods and Inundations of Water are till God puts a stop to them by his Omnipotent Command Hitherto shalt thou come and no further When after such a wondrous and special manner he is pleased to be present as holy David hath set him forth with the highest flights of Divine Rhetorick using many exalted Metaphors to express the same as of the Earth trembling and shaking as also the Foundations of Heaven it self being put into the like terrible Commotions with such Thunders and Lightnings Storms and Tempests of his Wrath as aforetime had really destroy'd the Enemies of his People And then after many Blessed Eulogies and Seraphical Raptures of Holy and Eloquent Dictates from that Spirit which taught him how to pray unto as well as to praise his Mighty Deliverer he closes the whole Encomium with glorying in the God of his Salvation and yet further Returns of Blessing and Thanksgiving to him part whereof the Text doth especially denote unto us The Lord liveth and blessed be my Rock and exalted be the God of the Rock of my Salvation For the Interpretation and Explanation of which and for our present Edification on this Day of a General Thanksgiving throughout this Nation for His Majesty's Blessed Deliverance and our Happiness thereby I shall observe these Two following Particulars First Holy David's Joyful and Triumphant Acknowledgment of God and his Providence in the former words The Lord liveth Secondly His grateful Return to God of Benediction and Praise or Exaltation for his Wondrous and Powerful Deliverances of him from the Mischiefs formed against him Emphatically expressed in the following parts of the Text and blessed be my Rock and exalted be the God of the Rock of my Salvation First The Lord liveth is a Recognition of God and His Providence even with an Extasie of Joy The Royal Saint being Transported thereby into Triumphant Acclamations in consideration of God's Potent Deliverances and Manifold Benefits through abundance of various and critical Circumstances of his Race under the Sun frequently rescuing him out of the very Jaws of Destruction as they were ready to tear him in pieces as from Saul's Javelin at one time his and other wicked Mens Instigations their Combining Plots and Snates and Conspiracies to snatch away his Life at other times For all which he might with great Reason pronounce The Lord liveth As for Deliverances from great and apparent Dangers especially from the intended Mischief of Bitter Enemies it is very proper for Men to express their grateful Sentiments in these or words of like consonance and import There is a God a God that Ruleth all a God that helpeth in time of need yea and when we are Poor and Naked Blind and Lame that without him we should be remediless being our selves neither able to see the approaching Destruction nor to ward off the Blow if we have time to see it