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A43673 A sermon preached at the Cathedral Church of Worcester on the 29th of May, 1684 being the anniversary day of His Majesty's birth, and happy restauration / by George Hickes ... Hickes, George, 1642-1715. 1684 (1684) Wing H1867; ESTC R20005 24,972 46

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thou fallen from Heaven O Lucifer Son of the morning how art thou cut down to the ground Thou who didst make the Earth to tremble and shake the Kingdoms thereof Lastly when he as brought to that prodigious Strength and Greatness as to be Courted by the greatest Monarchs and thought to fix the Succession in his tainted Blood when he had been set by his Flatterers in a Throne and the Crown and Scepter laid at the Idols Feet then came the hand writing suddenly out against him and the Stone which he and the Builders before him had rejected like the stone in the Vision cut out of the Mountain without hands smote the Image that Prophetical Symbol of many Governments and broke in pieces the Iron the Clay the Brass the Silver and the Gold and they became like Chaff and the wind carried them away but the Stone which smote the Image became a great mountain even like mount Sion which cannot be removed and is the joy of the whole Earth To conclude even then when the Royal Interest was desperate and in Human probability must have utterly perished had not the deliverance happened when it did when not the People only but the Princes of the Earth counted our Soveraign smitten and afflicted of God and shunned him as the Heard do an hunted or embossed Stag then sudden confusion came upon his Enemies as sorrow upon a Woman in Travel then God said of them as of Cyrus his Anointed He is my Shepherd and set him upon the Throne of his Father David and made his Enemies lick the Dust When he was ready to sink under the Waves of Affliction upon which he had walked not without a Miracle so many years then didst thou stretch forth thy Arm unto him O righteous Jesus when he was become like a broken Vessel and seemed cleam forgotten as a dead man out of sight then didst thou O Lord overtun overturn overturn till he came whose right it was III. Another Character of Gods special Providence and Assistance in any Event is The mighty good which thereby accrues to the publick state of things and the persons upon whose welfare the publick doth depend To ascribe every petty Accident to a special Providence would look like Lightness and Superstition and it would be Profaness to father upon God the mischiess which we bring upon our selves by our own Sin and Folly but that great and beneficial Events ought to be ascribed to his particular hand is the common Creed of all Mankind For it is demonstrable from the Nature and Attributes of God that he doth govern Human Affairs and that being admitted it must needs follow in the Second place that he takes special care in ordering those Events which are of publick moment and benefit to Mankind and peculiarly those which concern any People that are of his Houshold which is the Church of God There was never any thing which seemed more contingent than the selling of Joseph into Egypt yet God did order it by a special Providence that he might be an Instrument in the time of Dearth of saving his Fathers House It was not you saith he to his Brethren but God who sent me hither to preserve you a Posterity on the Earth Gen● 45.5 7 8. God sent me before you to save your lives by this great deliverance and hath made me a father to Pharaoh and Lord of his hourse and Ruler throughout all the land of Egypt which was then more than ever the Granary of the World So likewise in the story of Esther that she should be chosen into the Seraglio of Ashuerus among a crowd of other Virgins seems a matter of Fortune or common Providence and yet it was contrived by God for the deliverance of his People and the Providential Scene which depended upon it was perhaps as miraculous as ever was acted upon the Stage of Human Affairs But of all the remarkable Events in Sacred or Profance History none hath been a greater Blessing to any Prince or People than the Revolution of this day hath been to us and our King As for us we were delivered by it from Egypt and Babylon at home from dome-stick Captivity from Servitude of all Servitudes the most intolerable under the Tyrannical Empire of our own Mamalukes and from that Evil under the Sun when Beggars and Servants were Lords and Princes and Princes and Lords Beggars and Slaves We were delivered by it from Military and Arbitrary Power indeed from the Tyranny and Insolence of Vsurping Sultans in several Forms and Successions of Government who broke the bonds of Law in sunder as Sampson did the green Wit hs like Threds of Tow and made their Will and Pleasure our Law In a word we were restored by it to our natural King and Government to the Father of our Country and in him to our Lives our Religion our Liberties and Estates As for his Majesty he was restored by it to the Inheritance of Three Kingdoms where his Dominion is from one Sea to the other and from the Flood unto the Worlds end Of Three Kingdoms where his Subjects are his Children and where even his Merchants as the Prophet Speaks are Princes Isai 23.8 and his Traffiquers the Honourable of the Earth Lastly of Three Kingdoms where he sits on his Throne like God holding the Ballance of the World and represents him above all other Monarchs in this that he is the Moderator of Peace and War among Princes and can Set up one and Pull another down These are the Temporal Blessings which he and we enjoy by it and the Spiritual are no less considerable than these For after our return from Captivity the Temple was soon Rebuilt the Altar speedily set up and the Lawful Priesthood restored again Wherefore since the revolution of this Day was such an unspeakable Blessing to the Three Nations and so highly beneficial both to Church and State common Reason and Religion will Award the Contrivance of it to Gods Wisdom and the Execution of it in all its parts to his Almighty Arm. IV. Another mark of Gods Special Providence and assistance in any Event is When it falls out very seasonably for the relief and Vindication of oppressed Innocence and brings along with it the just Execution of publick Vengeance upon the Nimrods of Humane Societies the Sons of violence who live by Oppression and Prey God is naturally the Protector of Innocent Men and Righteous Causes and tho' in Wisdom he cannot acquit and condemn reward and punish here as he means to do hereafter when the great Tragecomedy is done yet lest in the mean time the Spectators should have Sinister Thoughts of his Providence he is forced to come as it were from behind the Curtain and kill a Bloody Tyrant like Herod with Blasphemy perhaps in his Mouth and sitting in his Royal apparel upon his Throne Though it would be inconsistent with his Wisdom in the Present State of things to extirpate the Bears and Wolves