THIS Place as well as this Day is dedicated to the Honour of the great God, to the Celebra­ting of his Praise, and the Glory of the Deliverance and Victory that he hath given us. Those whom he has made the Blessed Instruments of procuring it to us, do so entirely offer up the Acknowledgments due for it to that Provi­dence which they signally Adore, that as they [...]ould not endure so sacrilegious a thought, as [...]he putting the Honour that belongs to Them in [...]he least degree of Competition with the Praises [...]hat are to be offered up to the Great KING of KINGS; so by a Modesty which gives a pecu­liar Grace to all they do, they cannot bear even [Page 2] that which is just, and in some sort necessary upon such occasions. In other Places and Courts, Invention and Fancy are put to the rack to find out the highest Figures, and the noblest Expres­sions to raise the Glory of Princes, even when their Successes do more eminently belong to some secret Design of Providence, since no share of them can be ascribed either to their Courage or Conduct. But here we are so confined by Or­ders which one knows as little how to obey, as how to disobey, that how large soever the Field, and how rich soever the Prospect is, it must ei­ther be quite overlookt, or if it be suffered to be shewed, it must be by Reversing the Tele­scope in Little and contracted. Princes, whose Actions are their own Panegyricks, cannot bear that others should make any for them; for what they themselves do, exceeds all that can be said by others: Whereas the want of real Merit must be hid or supplied by the false appearances of it▪ The Sun and Stars must be brought down, and in every comparison be humbled in the Prefer­ence that is to be given to the Flatter'd Prince▪ How many a Reproach must the Sun have endu­red in some Courts, if when the day is at it longest, the Prince had for some hours prevent­ed his Rising, and continued his watchful Fatigue [Page 3] till after he was Set; and that a Wound which made so wide a breach upon him by the certain­est Instrument of Death, could scarce interrupt his Motion. Here had been a copious Theme for Hungry and Mercenary Flattery: The Sun would have been for ever after that, despised as a diminution to their Prince's Glory, when com­pared to him. Impious Attempts which were once began, would have been pursued, of calling [...]im the King of Glory, who is strong and mighty in bat­ [...]l. One King was signally struck from Hea­ [...]en, for admitting Divine Honours that were offered up to him: That Jealous God who will not suffer his Glory to be given to another, [...]nows what are the properest Times and Me­thods for Punishing all the Blasphemy that is in [...]he Courts of Princes who encourage and en­gage their Subjects, or rather their Slaves, to fly to such an extravagant pitch. But to us, who ac­knowledg that Most High God, that rules in the Kingdom of men, Dan, 4. 25. and giveth it to whosoever he will, and that he sets up and pulls down accord­ing to the hidden Designs of his Wise Providence; As all that approaches to such irreligious Excesses, [...] matter of Horror; so the Princes we serve, make this an easie Duty to us, they being as deeply possessed with the Belief of Providence, [Page 4] as they are free from all those swellings which must be fed with gross and exorbitant Flat­tery.

And therefore I am not afraid to make this the Subject of my present Discourse: It ts God that giveth Salvation to Kings, that delivereth Da­vid his servent from the hurtful sword. If any considers the scituation of these words, between those that go before, and those that come after, they will see, that the Sentence is cut by this as an abrupt Meditation, which probably was to be sung by the Chorus; whereas what is be­fore and after, was, as is most likely, sung by single Voices in the person of David. The first part of this Verse contains a general Posi­tion, That the Advancement of Kings, and the Progress of Empires, the Victories obtained by them, their Escapes and Deliverances, is of God, and is the effect of signal Providences, that watch over them. The words that follow relate more particulary to David himself. [...] shall not determine whether the word hurtful or evil sword is only a Poetical Epithete, to swell up and beautifie the Period; or if it re­lates to poisonous Swords, that gave a certain Death with every wound.

[Page 5] In the second Verse that I have read, there is a Prayer for a complete Deliverance; that which is here celebrated being yet imperfect: therefore the Psalmist, returning to his former Thread, says, Rid me and deliver me from the hand, that is, from the power, of strange children, or the children of the strange God, that is, Ido­laters. Idols in the Scripture phrase are called strange Gods; and as the People of Israel are cal­led the Children of God, so Idolaters are called the Children of the Stranger, or of the Idol. There follows a description of Idolaters by their Words, and by their Actions: Their mouth speak­eth vanity; that is, either falshood, in which sense vanity frequently stands in Scripture; or words of arrogance and insolent scorn. Right-hand, in the phrase of the Old Testament, is to be understood, either of Oaths made by the Ceremony of lifting up the right-hand to Hea­ven, or of Compacts and Agreements confirm­ed by the joyning mens right-hands; from which came the phrase of the right-hand of fellow­ship. Their right-hand, that is, either their Oaths or their Covenants, is a right-hand of falshood, or of a lie, according to that in Isaiah 44. 20. A lie is in their right-hand. Since in all these they were double and false. The Characters here given [Page 6] them, may either be thus understood; They are false both in their Words and Oaths: or thus; There is much haughtiness and pride in their Discourses, and as much falshood in all their Treaties and Engagements.

To return to the first words in my Text.

There appear often Eminent Characters of God's Providence, in the raising up and pre­serving of Kingdoms, and in the Victories and Salvation given to Kings. If there is a Provi­dence that watches over any part of this lower World, then certainly the most eminent parts of it, upon which the rest does so much depend, are its chief care: This has been so universally confessed, that those among the Philosophers who thought it below the Infinite Greatness of the Divine Being, that it should take care of the most inconsiderable parts of the Creation, did yet believe that the greater and more important Transactions were conducted by it: Tho' this slowed from the low and narrow Conceptions which they had of God, as if an Universal Pro­vidence had been too great a distraction, and too mean a care for a Being infinitely Perfect. But there is such a Chain in all things, the most Important Matters taking oft their rise or turn [Page 7] from very inconsiderable Circumstances, that it is certain that either there is no Providence at all, or that it has no limits, and takes all things within its care. Yet God having put the whole Frame of Nature under certain Rules and Laws, the greatest part of Providence is only the Sup­porting and Directing of those Beings that do still act according to their own Natures; and in these, tho' Providence is less discernable, yet it is still the Spring of the whole Machine, which, tho' covered and unseen, gives motion to all the parts of it. There are other more solemn Occasions, in which some second causes are raised above their own pitch, and are animated beyond the ordinary rate; and others are at the same time as far depressed below themselves, the Spirits of the One abating, as much as those of the Other are elevated. This has never appear­ed with more eminent Characters than in the Revolutions of States and Empires, in which both the course of Natural Agents, the Winds and Seasons, and the tempers of mens minds, seem to have been managed by such a directi­on, that not only every thing, but every cir­cumstance has co-operated to carry on Great Designs in such a Conjunction, that those who observe them with due attention, are forced on [Page 8] many occasions to cry out, This is the finger of God! this is the Lord's doing! And we may the more certainly conclude, that such a Systeme of things is the effect of a special and directing Providence, when the tendency of it is to ad­vance some Design in which the Honour of God is more particularly concerned.

Cyrus, in whom the second Great Monarchy began, and by whom God's Judgments against Babylon, and the bringing back the Captivity of the Iews, were to be executed, according to what Isaiah had prophesied above 150 years be­fore he was born; Cyrus, I say, a small Prince, and doom'd to an early Death by a superstitious Grandfather, scaped that severe Fate, and was bred up in obscurity: He first dethroned Astya­ges, his Grandfather; and after that, he extended his Conquests into Lydia and Asia the less: Du­ring all the progress of his Glory, the Babylonians, instead of putting a timous stop to his Victories, thought only of fortifying their Capital City; which when they had done to a degree that al­most passes belief, he, by diverting the Course of the River, made himself Master both of City and Empire; and sent the Iews back to rebuild their Temple, retaining still his Authority over them.

[Page 9] When the final Period of this Monarchy came, then one of the smallest Powers in Greece did effect it. The Kingdom of Macedon had been one of the most inconsiderable of all that Body, tho it was become more Powerful in Philip's time. The Greeks had been twice attacked by the Persians, and vast numbers had fallen before handfuls of them; upon this, as had been pro­phesied by Daniel, Alexander, a Haughty, a Vain, and a Dissolute Prince, with an Army of 37000 men, invaded the Persian Empire, and after Three great Battels, in the First of which 200000 came against him; 600000 in the Second, and a Million in the Third, he carried his Conquests on to the Ganges with such a Rapidity of Victo­ry and Success, that nothing could stand in his way: Among the conquered Provinces, Tudea was one which came under his Protection, and continued for 146 years under that Branch of his Empire that reigned in Syria.

But to give another instance of this, that has a greater relation to the People of God, after the Iews had been long under the Syrian Yoke; An­tiochus Epiphanes, not content with the Subjection that they had paid his Ancestors, set himself to­tally to destroy both their Religion and their Nation; upon which Mattathias, the Father of [Page 10] Iudas, and his Brethren, a Priest full of Zeal for God and for his Countrey, was raised up to re­sist that Fury; he only began the opposition, but dying soon after, he left the conduct of the Deliverance of his Countrey from Persecution and Tyranny, to his Son Iudas Maccabeus, from whom it passed to his Brethren, and to their Po­sterity. A total Subversion of their Religion and Policy, was begun, and that according to the sense of all mankind, has ever been esteemed a Dissolution of Government; and Mattathias and his children their venturing on so dangerous an Undertaking, is reckoned up in the Epistle to the Hebrews, among the Heroical Attempts of Faith; it is reserved to the last place, and enlarged on in a variety of lofty Expressions, to shew that it was one of the greatest Performances of Faith: And it was so indeed, for it seemed to be a de­sperate Attempt, in which the best Success that, reasonably speaking, they could have expected, was a speedy and a glorious Death; they had nothing to trust to, but Miracles of Providence; they were few in number, destitute of every thing, and the Kings of Syria were Masters of all the Strong Places in Iudea, and poured in at se­veral times, Seven or Eight great Armies upon them: But that Deliverance which began in a [Page 11] Cloud that was no bigger than a hand-breadth, made such a Progress under several Heads who conducted the Iews with equal degrees of Pru­dence and Courage, that tho they were unpro­vided of all things, but what were afforded them from the Spoils of their Enemies; they, after a War of Twenty-four years Continuance, and a Series of constant and amazing Successes, be­came at last a free People, both with relation to their Religion and Government.

Shall I give you another Instance of him, du­ring whose peaceful Reign, the Saviour of the World was born? Augustus was the Son of a Ro­man Knight, and was but Eighteen years old when his Uncle Iulius Caesar was killed, whose Usurpation upon his Countrey had rendred him and his Family the Objects of the Hatred of Rome; yet he not only scaped the first Rages of that Popular Fury, but was very soon at the Head of their Armies; he entred into the Triumvirate, and was in a few years rid of the other two; and after that first scene of Artifice and Cruelty was over, he became the Wisest, the Moderatest, and was the Happiest Prince, and the longest [...] of any in History, having had a course of Glory of Fifty-six years Continuance.

[Page 12] But not to weary you with a dry Recital of too much History, I shall conclude with one whose Circumstances were as remarkable in themselves, as in the Effects that followed on them: When Dioclesian and Maximian had, chiefly by the Instigation of Galerius, begun the last Per­secution of the Christians, the Design seemed so well laid, and was managed with so much Fury, that by all the appearances of things, it could not miscarry, when Successors were pre­pared to carry it on steddily; Galerius, that had been the most violent of all the Persecutors, ha­ving chosen Maximinus Daia, that had been an or­dinary Grazier, for his Successor, who had not any one quality to recommend him to that Ele­vation, but his Fury against the Christians: It is true there was a part of the Empire that fell not under the common Calamity; it was in­deed that part in which there were the fewest Christians. Constantius Chlarus had for Sixteen Years govern'd the West, first as Caesar, then as Emperor, in which time he had kept both Gaul and Spain in perfect quiet; he had reduced all Britain, and had frequently beat the Germains, and driven them beyond the Rhine: These Suc­cesses made him so formidable, that tho he was favourable to the Christians, and would not per­secute [Page 13] them in his share of the Empire, yet Ga­lerius durst not plainly fall upon him, but he had got his Son Constantine into his hands, and kept him about him at his Court in Nicomedia: His Father began to languish, and upon that sent for him, but Galerius put him off by de­lays; and tho he did not flatly refuse to let him go, yet he plainly saw that he had no mind to grant it. But Galerius happening as he often did, to get drunk, he obtained then his leave to be gone, and got his Seal for it. Upon this he went away immediately, and crossed the Sea, near to the place where Constantinople was after­wards built by him; and because he apprehended that Galerius when he came to himself would send after him, he took up all the Horses that were in every Stage, and at the end of it disabled them; so he passed quite through to Italy, and it was impossible for those whom Galerius sent after him, ever to overtake him: He came to his Father at York, whom he found just expiring: He immediately declared him his Successor; which he was not willing to accept of, till the Soldiery in some sort forced him to it, and made him take the Purple. He went over after that into Gaul, where his Father-in-law Maximian, who had abdicated the Empire, came to him, and [Page 14] intending to return to it again, he pretended kindness to his Son-in-law, the more effectually to betray him: He was practising upon his Ar­my, when he had advised himself to go on an Expedition with a small part of it; but Constan­tine was inform'd of this in time, and came back so quick upon him, that he being both afraid and ashamed, fled to Marseilles: Constantine pur­sued him, and those within refusing to stand by him, he delivered himself into his hands, who for two years after that, used him in all respects as became a Great Prince, and his Father-in-law. Yet nothing being able to overcome his restless Ambition, he solicited his Daughter to let him into her Bed-Chamber, while Constantine was in Bed; she thought her ties to a good Husband were stronger than to a bad Father, and there­fore discovered all to him; so an Eunuch was laid in the bed, and a door being left open by the Empress, Maximian came in and killed the Eunuch; Constantine was in the next room, and rushed in with some of his Guards about him, and Maximian being so fully convicted of the Crime, all the Grace that Constantine thought fit then to shew him, was to leave the manner of his Death to his own choice; he chose the worst, for he hanged himself. Another signal Instance [Page 15] of God's care of Constantine, was, that when he advanced towards Rome to possess himself of the Seat of the Empire, Maxentius, that was Maximi­an's Son, who had assumed the Power there, came out to fight him: But he had taken care the night before, to cut the Timbers and Beams of the Wooden Bridg over the Tyber, so that they must have cracked, if any great weight had been up­on them; and he reckoned according to the di­sposition of the Battel, that Constantine should be forced to take that Bridg, and so perish with its fall; but the issue of the Battel was such, that he himself was forced to pass over the Bridg, which crackt under him, and he was drowned in the Tyber. Through this tract of wonderful circumstances, was Constantiue brought to the Possession of the Empire, by whom not only the Persecution of the Christians was put to an end, but in pursuance of the Dream he had the night before, he defeated Maxentius, that represent­ed to him the Figure of the Cross, as that under which he was to conquer, he himself both turn­ed Christian, and made it the Religion of the Empire.

Such have been the Methods by which God has raised up Kings and Empires for the advan­cing the Glory of his great Name, for the punish­ing [Page 16] and humbling persecuting Tyrants, and for giving Salvation and Protection to his People.

But we need not weary our selves in seeking instances of this in past times, when in our own days, we have seen a Prince, born indeed to have a rank among Sovereigns, but with no intrinsick Power to support any great Undertaking; born an Orphan and an Abortive both, and, as to all appearance, crushed under a double misfortune: A Royal Family to which he was allied, was be­come an encumbrance to him, and his own was under a vast and a seemingly insuperable depres­sion; his Country ty'd up by Oaths to exclude Him; and those from whom in Justice and Gra­titude he ought afterwards to have promised himself a mighty Protection, leaving him to his own Strength and Conduct: yet, by a series of steps which need not be reckoned up, Him we have seen raised from a Plant that seemed to rise out of a dry ground, to be a Great Tree, under whose Shade all the Beasts of the Field come for shelter, and in whose Boughs all the Fowls of the Air come now to lodge. It is this very day two full years since he first set to Sea, to calm our Storms. The beginning was rough and inauspicious; yet even that seemed to be intended only to those about Him a Lesson [Page 17] which He had long before well learnt, of obser­ving Providence, and depending upon it. Since that time, fair Winds, good Seasons, prosperous Undertakings, happy Discoveries, Success and Victory, seem to have been chained to Him, and bound to follow Him; and now He has not only the Necks of His Enemies, but the Hearts of all His People, as well as the Hopes of all Europe fastned on him. He triumphs over His Enemies, as well by His Mercy in pardoning, as by His Courage in conquering; and, which is more, He triumphs over all the Accidents of Life by such an unshaken Equality of Mind, that His most glorious days and His less-prosperous hours do not create in Him any varieties of tem­per and behaviour. And what can we now think, but that a Life which has been a sequel of Won­ders, will be carried on and concluded as it hath been hitherto advanced; and that if there is a Ne­buchadnezzar, or an Antiochus Epiphanius, a Gale­rius, or a Maximinian now in being, that God is by This Hand to deliver his Church from them? For it is God that giveth Salvation to Kings; Psal. 2. 9. he puts down one, and setteth up another. He raiseth up Kings to break his Enemies with a rod of iron, Ps. 5. 12. and to [...]sh them in pieces like a Potters vessel; for the op­pression of the poor, and for the sighing of the needy, God will at last arise, and set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.

[Page 18] The second part of this Verse will also afford us matter of useful speculation, which is, the bringing the general Observation to a particular Head in the Instance of David, who was preser­ved from many Dangers, the Accidents of War, as well as the Attempts of Saul; He was raised up from being the youngest of many Brethren, and from looking after his Father's Flock, to be the Shepherd of Israel. Ps. 78. 71. God girded him with strength, and taught his hands to war, and his fingers to fight, and gave him the shield of his Salvation; he delivered him from the Lion and the Bear, Ps. 18. 35. and from the Phili­stine that defied the Armes of the living God; Ver. 43. he de­livered him also from the strivings of the people, and made him the Head of all the Nations round about him. Therefore it was that He, who had seen so ma­ny Essays of the goodness of God to him, be­sides his active Zeal when settled on the Throne for advancing God's Glory, and the beauty and solemnity of his Worship, he employ'd many of his thoughts and hours in composing this Book of Psalms, as the highest return he could make to God, that by the Elegance and Variety of those inspired Hymns, not only that Age and Nation, but all succeeding ones, might be furnished with a stock of the most elevating Devotions possible, which might give wings to their minds, and raise [...] them up towards God. So much of the David in [Page 19] my Text, which leads me to say somewhat of the David of the Day.

Is it nothing to you all, that see and hear the signal steps of Providence, that have so gloriously watched over, and conducted this our David? I reckon not among the greatest of these, his being raised up to a Throne of such high Dignity among the Kingdoms of the Earth, by a Title, that, let ungrateful men say what they will, has more both from God and man in it, than any the World has seen for many Ages. But Kingdoms and Crowns are so distributed in the World according to the secret Designs of Providence, that this singly is but an ordinary Blessing, and given in common to him with other Crowned Heads. To be a Deliverer of Mankind, a Preserver of Religion, a Fence a­gainst Tyranny and Cruelty; to have for his first Essay saved his own Countrey from utter ruine, when it seemed to be in its last Agonies; and to have not only resisted, but beat back a mighty Torrent that swept every thing before it; to have stopt the blackest Designs that were formed a­gainst Religion and Liberty both there and here; for the preserving the United Provinces, and their Religion and Government, was at that time likewise the saving this Church and Nation; so soon did he begin to be a Deliverer to us: this, [Page 20] perhaps, was not then known to every one; but we do now all know, that we were to have been the second Sacrifice); All this, I say, one should think was Greatness and Glory enough to have fallen to any one mans share. But that a reserve of Blessings should yet be kept in store for the same Person, is a peculiar Favour of Heaven; and shews us, That this is the man whom God delights to honour, and whom he has made strong for himself. That the day of our Extremity being come, when we saw the Net spread over us, and that a little time was only wanting, to model the Army, and to make a Parliament, that just then the conjuncture of Affairs over all Europe, and the disposition of all mens minds in the Netherlands, the Errors and Follies of our Enemies, both within and without this Kingdom, with the zealous assistance of our Friends and Allies; but above all, That the In­sensible Creation, the Seas, the Winds, and the Seasons, should all have joined together to pro­mote that great Undertaking, shewed the care and tenderness of that wise Conduct that watched over us. Every one of these Particulars is extraor­dinary in it self; but the conjunction of them all together is such a scene of Wonders, that no man who knows the contexture of all the parts of this Deliverance, can look upon them, without seeing such a prospect of Providence as raises his [Page 21] Mind into all the heights of Joy and Wonder. But to view next the second Scene of God's raising his Glory on this Stage, when our Sins had for a while retarded the progress and the finishing of our Hap­piness, when many among our selves were wishing to be again in Egypt, and were saying, We will not have this Man to rule over us; when many of those who had formerly aggravated our Dangers, as much as any, were changing their Stile, and fancying that a Power thrust upon us from France, and sup­ported and guarded from thence, was, or would be a tame and harmless thing, and seemed to forget all the Affections that Nature gives for our Country, and that Religion gives for the Church of God, so that a new and perhaps a greater Crisis than the for­mer had returned upon us; then it was that our David resolved to be no longer a Spectator and a Director of his Forces, and to make War by Proxy, but again to venture that sacred Life, in which, if in a Day of rejoicing we may mix any Complaints with our Jubilee, we must venture to say, that by a Courage which is too prodigal of that in which we have all so great a share, even while he preserves us by his happy Genius, yet he exposes us too much by the repeated Dangers to which that Life is expo­sed, by which as we all live, so all Europe is kept united against the great Destroyer and Enemy of Mankind.

Here again; the Winds and Seasons, the Cou­rage [Page 22] and Fidelity of all about him, the feeble Coun­sels and Conduct of the Enemy, conspired of his his side; but above all, the Watchfulness of Provi­dence shewed it self in Instances that Posterity will be tempted to think the Contrivances of a happy I­magination to beautify our History. But Inventi­on could hardly be so bold or so fruitful, as to re­present a Prince just in the Eve of a Day, upon which not only the Security of his Throne, but that which to a Mind like his is much more valuable, the Preservation and Happiness of his People depended, receiving a Wound by that, which of all the Inven­tions of giving Death, is the most infallible, and yet so slight a Wound, that it seemed sent upon no other Intent, but that the firmness of his Mind, upon so extraordinary an Accident, and the care of Heaven in so critical a minute, might be shewed in the pro­perest time, and in the sight of all his Army, both for animating and assuring them, that there was an invisible Guard watching about the Person of him, under whose Standards they were to triumph next day. This prov'd so inconsiderable, that it neither hin­dred the continuance of a Fatigue of nineteen hours that day, nor a return to one of sixteen the next, in which his Presence was every where so necessary, that the slightest Wound which had disabled him from that, might have proved a mortal one to us all. The Glories of that Day, that was neither stained [Page 23] with a great effusion of Blood, nor with any of that sort that might have lessened the beauty of the Victory, the entireness of the Defeat, the Consequences that followed upon it, the Quiet that it secured to us here as well as that it procured there; the unhappy State out of which it delivered us, when we were beginning to languish by a Misfortune which I un­willingly mention, because nothing that is melan­choly ought to be mixed with the Joys of this Day. All these things carry in them such matter of reflecti­on, that tho I must now croud them together, yet they are capable of affording great variety of thoughts. Our Spirits here were as much depressed, as those of some unnatural English-men were exalted in the prospect they had of the approaching Ruin of their Country. Some were not ashamed to say, that we needed fear nothing from the French, they would not hurt us: and thus the terriblest of all the Calamities that can befal our Nation, was set forth by some as an innocent, or rather as a desirable thing, that would prove a Deliverance and not an Invasi­on. While this Fermentation was working, even in the very moment in which we wanted so mighty a Support, came the happy News which put a new face upon our Affairs. Some feared that in the ab­sence of our Sun we should have only had a faint Moon-light to guide us, and that the gentle Hand which then held the Rudder should have proved too [Page 24] feeble for such rough Work, especially when the first Essay was in a Storm, and that there was an E­nemy so powerful triumphing in view, and on our Coasts, and so many ill Instruments at work within. But to our Admiration, and to the eternal Praise of Divine Providence, we found we had another Sun in our Firmament, and that Spirit which till then Gentleness and Modesty had shut in, now finding that the Conjuncture required it, shewed it self with so much firmness and so bright a lustre, that we began to doubt whether one Soul did not ani­mate both, and give its Influences equally in both. So much Skill in Government, tempered with so much Softness, such a dexterity in Management, such a constancy of Devotion, and so unwearied an application to Business, are things so much out of all common Roads, that we must look up to Heaven, and acknowledge that this was of God, that has rai­sed up and conducted these our Deliverers and Pre­servers. He has also literally preserved our David from the hurtful or the evil Sword, since we know that the chief of our Enemies in the secret Correspon­cies, encouraged themselves, when the prospect of their Affairs seemed melancholy and desperate, with a reserve of Hope from the Negotiation of an Assas­sinate whom they had employed: but God has de­livered his Servant even from this evil Sword; and to crown all the Blessings of this Year, he has now [Page 25] given Him the Hearts of his People, in so eminent a manner, that the Q. Elizabeth's Days seem to return again upon us, in which the Purses of the Subject were that happy Queen's never-failing Treasure, who reckoned that their Money was never more their own, and never better placed, nor better im­ployed, than when it was in the Queen's Hands. She twice discharged the Subjects of the Taxes they had given her for a War, when a Treaty of Peace put an end to her Warlike Preparations. Such a Justice to her self, and to her People, gave her so sure a Title to their Wealth, that she was indeed the Mistress of it all, and knew that she could call for as much of it as the Publick Occasions required. When we see the same Confidence in the Crown returning in the Nation, which has been so long and so fatally interrupted, we may then reckon that our Kings are become truly great, and the Masters of the whole Property of England, not by the strain­ed and false Pretensions of a devouring Preroga­tive, but by the surest and best-grounded Domini­on, which they have over the Hearts of their Peo­ple, which must infallibly draw every thing else after it: For a Nation can deny nothing that it can give, when it is both asked and laid out for their own Defence and Preservation.

And now, DREAD SOVERAIGNS, suffer me, in the [Page 26] Name of God, to turn my self to You. It cannot seem a small thing in your Eyes, that he has not on­ly raised you up to so sublime a Dignity, and set a Crown of pure Gold on your Heads, but that he has watched over your Persons, and blessed your Councils, that you both do now shine with the Lu­stre becoming each Sex, the one with the Glory of a Conqueror of Enemies, and the other with the softer Rays of a Preserver of your People; that this has given you the Hearts of your Subjects, and made you the Terror and Dread of your Enemies, of which they have made an ample confession, in those barbarous Jollities upon the supposed Death of You, Great Sir, every extravagant Demonstra­tion of that inhumane Joy, being a loud discovery of what they apprehended from You. God has drawn the Eyes of all the World upon You, who hope that by You that tempestuous Sea, whose Inundations have destroy'd so many Countries, shall be shut up within Bounds, and that You shall set Bars and Doors to it; and that by You God shall say to it, Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further▪ and here shall thy proud Waves be staid. It is from You that Europe expects Liberty and Peace, and the Reformation a Recovery and a new lustre. By You exiled Princes hope to be restored to their Rights, and exiled Subjects to their Houses, Churches, and Edicts. It is from Your Influence that our Elder [Page 27] Brethren, the first begotten of the Reformation, or rather the last Remnant of True and Primitive Chri­stianity, hope to be confirmed in the Settlement that their Prince hath granted them. It is from Your Counsels and Arms, that both Your Subjects and Your Allies expect a happy and a secure Peace. What more could have been hitherto done for the gradual raising of your Glory than has been done? You are now advanced to be as true Representatives of God, as Mortals can be made, since from your Power, your Justice, your Wisdom, and your Goodness, so great a part of the World waits for happy Influences, for great Undertakings, and for glorious Successes, that shall be the Joy of the pre­sent Age, and the Wonder of the next.

But remember, O ye Kings, that to whom much is given, of them much shall be required; and if You expect from those that You imloy, degrees of Fide­lity, Zeal, and Application, proportioned to the Fa­vours and Trusts You bestow upon them; think a little, I know You do a great deal, what Examples of Piety and Vertue You ought to set your People, and how much You ought to imploy your Autho­rity in promoting his Glory, who has covered You with so much of his own Image. Ordinary degrees of Zeal may be accepted from those of a lower Form, but the highest pitch of it is the least Sacri­fice that You can offer. The discountenancing [Page 28] and driving from You all that prophane scorn of Religion and Vertue, which has so deeply infected the Nation, that strong Remedies must be used before we are purged from it. The disgracing and punishing such as are not ashamed of the most open and crying Vices, the encouraging Vertue by all the distinguishing Marks of your Favour to those who pursue it. The Reforming your Court and your People, and particularly that Body which of all o­thers should need your Care least, but I am afraid does it but too much, I mean those who Minister in Holy Things: these are the Returns that God ex­pects from you. I know all cannot be done at once, and the leisure as well as the calm of Peace will be necessary to bring this about. But as your resolving on it inwardly before God, will be ac­cepted by him who knows the sincerity of your Hearts, and does not oblige you to endanger the Publick too much, by a violent and precipitated Cure: So when it is once understood that You are settled in these Noble Purposes, this will make the execution of them easy to You. And to conclude, I must crave leave to add one thing more; Your Royal Grandfather, who had great Vertues in him­self, was perhaps too easy to Vice in others, and from hence sprang in a great measure the ruin of his Af­fairs; for dissolute and depraved Men will be al­ways truer to their Vices, than to their Masters. I [Page 29] am not afraid of Your displeasure for this freedom, it becomes the Place I am in, and the Station You have raised me to; and I am sure the other parts of this Discourse, which the Occasion has made ne­cessary, have been much more uneasy to You than this is.

But David's Joy was not so entire, when he com­posed this Psalm, that there was no need of pray­ing for a further and a more compleat Deliverance; therefore he adds to this joyful Note a mournful One; Rid me, and deliver me; he was yet encom­passed with Idolaters, and not only common Idola­ters, but Men whose Morals were as defiled as their Worship; who were Treacherous and Insolent, to whose Oaths and Treaties no regard was due, who in the time that they made up their Treaties, were intending to break them, which is imported in this, that a Lie was in their right Hand; and whose Mouths were full of Insolence, daring Pride, and haughty Scorn: who how much soever they depressed their God by their Idolatry, yet were swelled up in them­selves to all the Caresses of lofty Arrogance; they perhaps loved to be celebrated by Statues, Titles, and Inscriptions, which might render their Names Immortal, tho they could not make their Persons so: They might delight in all the Contrivances of servile Flattery, to set them above all other Mortals, [Page 30] and by hearing that oft said, they might fancy themselves to be really so; they might suffer all the Topicks of Flattery to be exhausted, and all the Me­thods of it to be imployed in adoring them with that Tinsel. It might be understood that it was the surest way of raising ones Fortune much more infallible than any Merit whatsoever, to find out some new Strains of Commendation; and when that once appear'd, then Minds made for nobler Purposes when pressed with a lowness of Fortune, would stoop to the abjectest Things of Humane Nature by turning their Wits to every Artifice that might give a false Light and Lustre to counterfeit Ware.

But to compleat the Character of David's Ene­mies, we are to consider them as breaking through the sacredest Bonds, and protesting that they would maintain them in the midst of the most publick Vio­lations of them, as if they had been equally voi [...] both of Truth and Shame, giving and breaking their Faith as oft as either their Interests or their Va­nity required it, violating the Ties of Nature, as wel as breaking the bonds of humane Society, robbin [...] all their Neighbours, invading Orphans trusted t [...] their Care, and ruining whole Provinces after the [...] had purchased their Protection at the most extrava­gant Rates, sparing neither Age nor Sex, but destroy­ing both Cities and Countries, and hoping to com­pensate [Page 31] for all the Crimes to which their Ambition [...]nd Fury could lead them, by a pretence of Zeal for [...]eir Idol, and that way of Idolatry which best plea­ [...]d them; and yet sometimes with the basest sort [...] Idolaters, who beat and whip their Idols when [...]ey think they are not favourable enough to them, [...]ey might even rob their own Idol, and profane eve­ [...] thing that had relation to it, when they them­ [...]lves were not made the chief Idol, and served with [...] deepest Veneration: Such were many of the Ido­ [...]ers of the Heathen Nations. Perhaps the Cha­ [...]ters I have set them out in, may not all frequent­ [...] meet in the same Persons: yet tho many In­ [...]ances of every part of this Description might soon [...] found out, I will not interrupt the Chearfulness [...] this Day, by setting before you Objects that [...]st give horrour: Nor will I seek for any of these the present Scene of the World, nor examine any [...] our David's Enemies, and see how well these [...]haracters may fit them. We serve Princes who [...]e as little to hear their Enemies reproached, as [...]emselves commended; but it will be no hard [...]ing, upon a general Survey of the present State [...] Europe, to pronounce who seem to be born to the Blessings, and who the Curses and Plagues the Age.

[Page 32] But what or whosoever our Enemies may be, both Kings and Subjects ought to join in their most earnest Prayers to God, that we may be delivered from all the Children of the strange God, who may think that the offering up those that are of a diffe­rent Worship to that of their Baal, is a Sacrifice that will atone for all the Rapine and Bloodshed, and every others Immorality of which they may be guil­ty. It was no wonder that David by repeated Pray­ers desired to be delivered from such Enemies; for we find this Petition, and this Character of them is twice in this short Psalm, with this addition in the 7th verse, that imports their Strength and Num­bers; Send thy Hand from above, rid me and deliver me out of great Waters, from the Hand of strange Chil­dren. We who are now the happiest Nation under Heaven, want nothing to make us the most mise­rable, but to fall under the Power of those who have no remnants either of Truth or Goodness left in them.

But while our Kings are consulting, and our Par­liaments are assisting, while our Fleets and Ar­mies are a preparing, and our Allies are uniting; while the joint Endeavours of so many within and without the Kingdom, are all at work to pro­cure us an entire riddance and deliverance from the Hands, the rough and Iron Hands of these our [Page 33] Enemies; There is one thing I am afraid is too ge­nerally neglected or forgotten, and that is, our pray­ing to God earnestly to rid and deliver us from those false and cruel Men. We have been this last Sum­mer frequently brought together to fast and pray for Success and Victory; God has heard our Pray­ers, and in that has given us all possible encourage­ment to continue our praying to him. We are now, as to outward appearance, following the Me­thod that he has prescribed; Psal. 50. 12. Call upon me in the day of Trouble; I will hear thee, and thou shalt glorify me. We have called, God has heard, and we are now glorifying his Name, and rejoicing in the great Sal­vation that he hath wrought for us: And if we desire a return of such happy Occasions, we must in the mean while continue our most earnest Pray­ers to God; and when we are called on to it, we must return to our monthly Fasts and Humiliations. It did not derogate neither from David's Courage nor Conduct, that he acknowledged God was his For­tress, Ver. 2. his high Tower, his Shield and Deliverer, in whom he trusted; who subdued his People under him; and being full of the sense of his Glory, he reflect­ed on himself, and on all his People as nothing; Lord, what is Man, that thou takest knowledg of him, or the Son of Man, that thou makest account of him? Man is like Vanity, his days are like a Shadow that pas­seth [Page 34] away: Therefore it is that he prays earnestly, Bow the Heavens, O Lord, and come down.

Here is a Noble Pattern to excite and encourage our Devotion, and we have all reason to conclude, that the Blessings we now Celebrate, are in a great measure owing to the Prayers of those happy Souls that have been the Intercessors for the Nation, of which it is not to be doubted but we have a great many among us, for it is certain that we have never seen a more solemn Observation, as to all outward appearance, of such Days as was on those month­ly Returns; and tho many were very bare-faced in their neglect of them, and others that should have animated the Publick Zeal, were extream cold in the observance of them, yet much earnestness and fervour shewed it self in many places. We see God has heard the Prayers of those who cried mightily to him; and we have all reason to hope, that he who has deliver'd us from so great a Cala­mity as then threatned us, will still hear and deli­ver us, if we continue still to call upon him.

But let the Murmurers and the Troublers of our Israel say what they will, God hath wrought in the midst of us a mighty Deliverance, and he will perfect and stablish that which he hath wrought for us, if we do not, by our Ingratitude and Rebel­lions, stop that course of Blessings that seems ready [Page 35] to flow in upon us, as soon as we are delivered from our Enemies, and from the Hands of all that hate us. Then we may hope to have the True Religion, and the best Church in the World established among us, and the Reformation by our Means secured and maintained elsewhere: We may hope to see this Nation become the Center of the Union and Peace of Europe, that shall assert and warrant it a­gainst every bold or perfidious Invader: We may hope to see this vvhole Island become one Church and one Body, as it has one Head; and the neighbouring Island set upon a Foundation liable to no more Shakings nor Convulsions. We may hope to see Law and Justice become the constant and certain Measures of our Government; Chari­ty and mutual Forbearance, become the Strength as vvell as the Ornament of our Church, and our Church become the Pattern, as vvell as the Glory, of the vvhole Reformation. And in conclusion, vve may hope to see our Princes Heads still co­vered with fresh Lawrels, ever triumphing over their Enemies, and yet never making themselves Enemies to any, but to the Invaders and Enemies of Mankind; giving Security to all about them, and in a length of Days, and a stability of Peace, giving a fulness of Wealth and Happiness to all that are under them; an encrease of Trade, an [Page 36] improvement of Soil, and such an advancement of the Prosperity of the Nation, as is expressed in the followed words of the Psalm, That our Garners may be full, affording all manner of Store; that our Sheep may bring forth thousands, and ten thousands in our Streets: That our Oxen may be strong to labour; that there be no breaking in, nor going out; and that there be no complaining in our Streets. Happy are the Prin­ces, and happy is that People that is in such a Case; yea, and happy are the Princes, and happy is that People whose God is the Lord.