to see a plentiful Country turned into a barren Wilderness a free People that had many valuable rights made Slaves and dependants upon the Arbitrary Will of a Tyrannical Conquerour a pure Religion extirpated and Idolatry and Superstition set up in the room of it This must have been the miserable condition in which we should all have been involved If any think they should have fared better than their Neighbours upon the account of their own great Merits on the fair promises they may have had from abroad they have very wrong notions of Popish Gratitude and French Trust Alas Papists have engross'd all merit there is no such thing in Protestants and Promises made to the prejudice of the great Monarch or Holy Church are not to be kept All they could have hoped for is that if they would have gone some few steps further and turn'd their Religion they might possibly have been treated as the new Converts are in France but otherwise all the mercy to have been expected would have been this to have been eaten last though it has not always been so instances are not wanting where those Protestants that have been most zealous and forward in setting up a Popish Prince have been the first that had cause to repent of it In short whatever is dear to us as men English Men and Protestants must have been wrested from us 't is not to be supposed that being driven on by Rage and Revenge as well as Avarice and Ambition they should have used softer methods here than they do in their other Conquests where they tinge the Rivers with Blood where Sword and Fire devour all before them and if they would but totally extirpate the rational Inhabitants of the Country and leave none but the four footed ones of the Field and Forest the Beasts of burthen the Beasts of prey they would make very proper Subjects for such a Government But though God suffered them to go so far as they did in their Hellish Enterprize that the proof of it might be clear beyond denial or doubt yet was he pleas'd so seasonably to discover and defeat it that the mischief falls only on their heads that devised it and we may say with Israel he has not given us as a prey to their teeth our Soul is escaped as a Bird out of the Snare of the Fowler the Snare is broken and we are escaped with them let us also join in making such grateful returns to the Divine Goodness as the great Mercy calls for 1. Let us look up to God as the Author of it I do acknowledge it is not always safe or easy to determine what events are to be ascribed to God's special efficacious Providence and as the Lords doing and what are not yet in some there are such visible marks of Discrimination that a Man must be willfully blind if he does not distinguish them I may not at present enter upon this Argument and shall only say that in occurrances which are brought about unexpectedly but seasonably for the deliverance or good of a Church or Nation professing God's true Religion without their privity or assistance by invisible or incompetent means or by the Ministry or Instrumentality of such things as are only or immediately under the direction and government of God in such cases not to trace the out-goings of the Almighty where his footsteps are so plain is to be more stupid or Atheistical than the very Heathens Ps 126.2 Exod. 14.25 In our deliverance I will remark but two things which must lead us to God as the Author of it The design against the King's Life was prevented only by the discovery voluntarily made by some of those who were to be concern'd in the execution of it and the Invasion or Descent upon us was hindred by our Fleets being in such a readiness to guard our own Coasts and block up our Enemies in their Harbours But to what shall we ascribe all this was it through our Policy or Conduct that we had such a Fleet at home Were they not to have been gone long before to the Streights and stopt only by a contrary strange Wind which has hardly been known at that Season of the Year to sit so long in that quarter And to whom shall we attribute this but to him whom the Wind and Seas obey who brings the Winds out of his Treasures and makes them blow under Heaven whither he lists And what was it that made the discoverers confess the designed Assassination when 't was so near being Executed were they not Papists who are not generally over tender of the Blood and lives of Hereticks when their destruction may promote the good of Holy Church were they not engaged and encouraged in it by some of their Priests and no doubt assured if they lost their lives in the attempt of Eternal Life in Exchange and how came the Christian the Gentleman the Man to be too hard for the Papists Conscience Honour or Pity to be too strong for their Religion what or who touch'd their hearts and melted them into remorse and Confession Who but he who only knows and alone can change the heart take away the heart of stone and give one of flesh Him therefore let us acknowledge to be our Saviour and Deliverer and say if the Lord himself had not been on our side when men rose up against us they had swallowed us up quick when they were so wrathfully displeased at us 2. To him let us in the second place pay the tribute of praise and thanks for it this is what he expects call upon me in the day of trouble and I will hear thee and thou shalt praise me And very reasonable certainly for any benefit bestowed brings the person that receives it into debt to his Benefactor and thanks is the least part of payment if God has rescued us from the very Jaws of Death how ought we to glorify him both in Soul and Body which he has redeemed How should we excite all the powers of our Soul and Members of our Bodies to join in his praise Praise the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his holy name who saveth thy life from destruction and crowneth thee with mercy and loving kindness Awake also my Glory my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness O Lord and my Lips shall praise thee Has he preserved to us our Churches where we may have liberty to worship him in Purity and the beauty of Holiness has he secured to us those swept and garnisht Houses from the return of the evil spirit and shall not the Tribes go up thither to worship to give thanks to his holy name Has he continued to us a service in our own Language and shall we not join in it when we may sing with the Spirit and with the understanding also and can say Amen at the giving of thanks Have we still access to him through the Mediation and Intercession of our great High Priest only
A SERMON Preach'd at the Cathedral Church of Worcester Upon the Thanksgiving Day April 16. 1696. By W. TALBOT D. D. and Dean of Worcester Publish'd at the Request of the Mayor and Aldermen of that City LONDON Printed for T. Bennet at the Half-Moon in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCXCVI To the Right Worshipful Nicholas Fayting Esq Mayor and the Worshipful the Aldermen of the City of Worcester Gentlemen THE general Joy and Thankfulness which have appear'd throughout the Kingdom upon the discovery and defeat of the late Designs of France against Us make me hope that the Eyes of this People which some have been so busie to put out by all the Dust they could raise are at last clear'd and that many well-meaning Persons who have been misled by the Cunning of such as lie in wait to deceive do now begin to see that after all the pretences of Honour on the other side the Water and Conscience on this the Question is come to this short Issue Whether we will live like a Free-People under our English Laws and Government which have been so bravely asserted by our Ancestors and enjoy our Reform'd Religion which has been seal'd with the Blood of Martyrs of our Spiritual Fathers and Brethren in Christ or Exchange these for a French Servitude and Papal Bondage and bring a Yoke upon our selves and Posterity which neither we nor our Fathers have been able to bear This You and your Worthy Citizens were certainly sensible of when upon the late Thanksgiving-Day for the Deliverance of His Majesty and these Kingdoms from the designed Assassination and Invasion You appear'd in such Numbers in the House of God and exprest your respect to it in such Instances as have scarcely been parallell'd upon any occasion in this place I heartily wish That my Health and Leisure would have permitted me to have made that part of the Solemnity that fell to my share of a Piece with the others and that when all the rest deserv'd to be set in as bright a Light as that with which You illuminated your Streets upon the Evening of that Joyful Day it only might not have wanted a Veil to cover it But however needful it may be I am sure I must not offer at any Apology for making it publick None can be made on my part but what may be answer'd in those words of St. Peter to Ananias While it remain'd with thee was it not thine own And as to You Gentlemen Now it is yours tho' You may wish that I had made such a return to your Commands as the Elder Brother did to those of his Father in the Gospel who said Sir I go and did not rather than with the second profest my unwillingness to comply and afterwards repented and did it You must be contented to account for it to take it wholly upon your selves and not expect that I should say one word for it for that would be unwarily to intitle my self to its Defence when I can so fairly rid my hands of it and lay it at your Doors If any of those good Ends shall be served by Printing it which You spoke of when You honoured me with a Visit the Day after it was Preach'd I shall think it but reasonable that the acknowledgments thereof should be made only to You who must bear all the ill Consequences of it as having commanded it from me by your Authority which I do own is very great over Worcester Apr. 20. 1696. Gentlemen Your most Obedient and Faithful Humble Servant W. T. PSAL. CXXIV 6 7 8. Blessed be the Lord who hath not given us as a Prey to their Teeth Our Soul is escaped as a Bird out of the Snare of the Fowler the Snare is broken and we are escaped Our help is in the Name of the Lord who made Heaven and Earth The former Part of the Psalm is thus If it had not been the Lord who was on our side now may Israel say If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when Men rose up against us Then they had swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us Then the Waters had overwhelmed us the Stream had gone over our Soul Then the proud Waters had gone over our Souls Blessed c. THE Title of this Psalm shews the Author of it to be King David and the occasion of his composing it was certainly some signal Deliverance either Personal or National which God had bestow'd upon himself or his People Whether it were his Deliverance from the several Designs and Attempts upon his Life of his Father-in-Law King Saul or from the Conspiracy and Insurrection of his Son Absalom or from the Philistines who came up to seek him upon their hearing that he was anointed King over Israel in Hebron or from the Ammonites afterwards with their hired Succours the Syrians or whatever the particular Mercy was that the Royal Prophet had an Eye to when he made this Eucharistical Song 't is most admitably contrived and fitted for the Use of any Nation or People professing God's true Religion upon any eminent Deliverance of themselves or their Prince from the wicked Designs of the Enemies thereof I say of themselves or their Prince For David here makes this grateful Recognition of the Divine Goodness in the Name of Israel as if his People had been in great danger and very narrowly escaped when yet according to good Commentators 't was a personal Deliverance from a Design against himself that he here commemorates and indeed not without Reason for the Head and the Body-politick are very nearly related what touches the one must affect the other and if when one Member suffers another Member suffers with it when the Head is hurt the whole Body must sympathize with it I speak of such a Head as has that tender Care for the Members which that relation calls for that looks upon himself as exalted above them only that he may the better watch over them and more essectually provide for the Security and Common Good of the whole that is a true Father of his Country and treats his Subjects not as Slaves but Children that is a good Shepherd and feeds his People according to the Integrity of his heart and guides them by the Skillfulness of his hand as was said of David he does not defraud them of any thing that is their due much less does he butcher and make havock of them no that is the Character of the Robber who climbs into the Skeepfold only to steal and kill and destroy The good Shepherd is as careful of the Lives of his Sheep as of his own nay so much more so that when the Wolf comes he leaves not the Sheep but exposes himself in their Defence and rather than that Beast of Prey should catch and scatter and tear his Flock he ventures his own Life for them proving himself thereby to be no Thief or Hireling but the true Shepherd whose own the Sheep are He
of the Vngodly and let the oppressed Captive go free Great Reason therefore had Israel for such a miraculous Escape to make these Acknowledgments and Returns to the Author of it which we here see they did namely 1. To ascribe their Deliverance wholly to God as the doing of that right hand only which bringeth mighty things to pass If the Lord himself had not been on our side we had been swallowed up quick and the Stream had gone over our Souls 2. To give him the Praise due unto his Name for it Blessed be the Lord who has not given us over as a Prey to their Teeth 3. And Lastly to declare their Confidence in him and intire reliance upon his Power and Goodness for the time to come Our Help standeth in the Name of the Lord who hath made Heaven and Earth That God who manifested his Power and Goodness by Creating the World out of Nothing by a Word of his Mouth and giving Being to all the Creatures in it has as evidently shewn forth those glorious Attributes in our strange Preservation and Rescue out of the Hands of our formidable and implacable Enemies there will we therefore place our Confidence not fearing what Man can do unto us On God we will depend He only is our Rock and Salvation our Defence and Refuge through him we shall do valiantly and he shall tread down our Enemies This is that short Account of this Psalm of Israel's imminent Danger their wonderful Deliverance from it and grateful Behaviour thereupon I proceed now to take a View of our own Case It will not I suppose be expected that I should go about to prove the Plot That there has been a most Horrid and Hellish Design on-foot against the Life of our King and the Laws and Religion of this Kingdom After the voluntary Depositions of several that were to be concerned in it and these confirm'd from abroad by the visible Preparations that were made on the French Coasts for a Descent upon us a great number of their Forces drawn down thither and Vessels ready to bring them over when the Signal an Account of the Dreadful Blow should be given them the mighty boast of their great Design and Confidence of Success which were express'd in Letters from some of the first Quality in that Kingdom and the Harangues of their Ministers at other Courts This confirm'd also at home by the Confessions of those who have been Convicted and Executed here who have all own'd the shares they were to have had in it upon their Deaths and some gloried in it While a Papist at his Execution looks back with regret upon the part he was to have acted in the bloody Tragedy as a Crime he was led into by his own Rashness and Passion as a Wickedness which he repents of and for the punishment of which particularly he acknowledges he was brought to suffer Death by the just Hand of God our Protestant Conspirators to the reproach I hope not of our Holy Religion which I am sure is far enough from countenancing such things but of their wretched Guides boast of the Villainy take Pride and Comforts at their Deaths in it so far were they from repenting or expressing the least Sorrow for it and yet had Absolution publickly after a very unusual manner which plainly shews what Thoughts their Confessors had of that Matter for which they died Blessed God! how amazing is it that any that had ever heard of thee or thy Nature or Properties especially that had ever look'd into those Revelations thou hast made thereof in thy Written Word should call the Assassinating the best of Princes and involving his Subjects in Blood Destruction of the best Church and the over-turning the best constituted Government in the World the Murdering their King in cold Blood and which must have been a consequence the Butchering of many Thousands of their innocent Fellow-Subjects the making all that surviv'd Slaves to France and Rome subjecting both their Bodies and Minds to the worst of Tyrannies How amazing I say is it that any should call these the Causes of God Religion and the Laws as if the Blood of Kings shed by their own Subjects was an acceptable Offering to God as if Religion were promoted by forcing us into the Communion of such a Church as will lock up the Scripture from us teach us to believe without Reason to Pray without Understanding and give the Worship of God to his Creatures as if our Laws would be safe in the hands of such a Guardian who Tyrannizes Arbitrarily over his own Subjects and would have had the pretence of Conquest to use us worse if possible If these are the Cause of God and Religion I know no such thing as the Works of the Devil and what we renounc'd as such in our Baptism was a meer Chimera This shews how much the Interest of a Party when a Man 's throughly embark'd can blind his Reason as well as harden his Conscience how dangerous it is to engage at all in a Faction since a Man knows not where he shall stop when he is once in how by steps he is lead to call Evil Good and Good Evil and practice accordingly and to make the measures of both the serviceableness or diserviceableness of any Action to the Party and how careful every one that has any regard for his Soul should be when he choosest out for the directors of his Conscience and intrusts with the Conduct of it But to return after all this I say 't would be but to abuse your Time and Patience to offer at any other proof of the truth and reality of the wicked Design whoever can call for further Conviction does the least need it 't is no breach of Charity to believe that none can pretend to doubt of it but such as know it too well Let us then briefly see what the Design was and as to that examine the same Particulars which we did in Israel's case who were engaged in it what they intended against us how near they were to effect it and how strangely we escap'd it Our Enemies like theirs were such whose Wrath was kindled against us Nothing under God has or does so much obstruct the aspiring and wicked Designs of our Neighbour on the other side of the Water as this Nation and Church nothing can satisfie the Pride and Ambition of that Prince less than an universal Monarchy and no Methods does he stick at how base and ungrateful how fraudulent and treacherous how violent and cruel soever that may promote his great end no ties of Honour and Conscience no Obligations of Justice or Mercy no Treaties or Leagues neither Word nor Oath can hold him but he breaks through them with as much ease as Sampson did the Wit hs that bound him which were as a Thread of Tow when it toucheth the Fire But while he makes War and disturbance every where that he may have quiet within that if at any time