THanksgiving is all the Tribute we can pay to Heaven; and 'tis so easie a return for our Beings, and the ma­ny Comforts we receive from thence, that he is very inexcusable and unworthy the Mercies he receives, who is backward in so easie an acknowledgment: hence the whole World has ever look'd on it as the securest way for continu­ing their present, and procuring new Blessings, to own God to be the Author of them, and to express their gratitude in Hymns and Sacrifices, and in other Acts of Devotion and Thanksgiving, as appears not only from the People of God in the Old Testament, but likewise from the yet remaining Devotions of the Ancient Heathen.

[Page 2] This Psalm is a solemn form used by the Jewish Church on such occasions: 'Tis not material to explain to you the first occasion of its being made; it sufficiently appears from my Text (which is the Introduction to it) that it was designed as a solemn return of Praise to God for redeeming the Israelites from Captivity, for delivering them from their Enemies, and bringing them back to their own Country, whence they had been driven by Violence and Oppression, vers. 39, 40.

Now this is so exactly our Case, and the design of our present appearing in this place, that I think there is no more incumbent on me, than to endeavour to beget in you a due sense of it, and to stir you up to an hearty acknowledgment of God's present Mercies to us; and I promise my self some success in this undertaking, and that the consideration of the following Particulars will make the same impression on eve­ry body concerned, as it hath done on me.

First therefore, Let us consider our Deliverance.

And Secondly, The Returns we are obliged to make for it.

In our Deverance we ought to reflect,

I. On the depth of the Contrivance and Design against us, from which God has graciously been pleased at this time to deliver us.

II. On the great extent of it. All Princes in Europe, especially such as profess the Reformed Religion, being struck at by it.

III. On the miraculous Concurrence of Providences for our deliverance, in breaking this Design so deeply laid, and vigorously prosecuted.

You all have suffered so much by this Design, and the memory of your Dangers and Deliverance from it is so fresh before you, that I need not trouble you with the particulars of it: 'Twas, in short, to destroy you and your Religion, and enslave all Europe under the Tyranny of the French King.

I. The depth of this Design appears, 1st, From the length of time, wherein it has been formed and carrying on. Some, and [Page 3] not without reason, date it from the very beginning of the Re­formation; some from the Restauration of the Royal Family, and some from the Pyrenean Peace; but as it immediately concerns these Kingdoms, we can trace it by many Foot-steps from the Year 1670. since which time, not only we, but all Europe, have groaned under the fatal effects of it: As to this Kingdom of Ireland, we find a Scheme of it laid down at large in a Paper formerly found in the Earl of Tyrconnell's House; then Collonel Talbot, dated July 1671. supposed to be drawn up by his Brother Peter Talbot, then Titular Archbishop of Dublin, and accidently dropt about that time; several Copies of which have for many years been in Protestants hands. In this Paper are proposed, The modelling the Army. The admit­ting Papists into Corporations. The bringing them to serve in Civil and Military Imployments, and the raising a vast Ar­my of them to be transported into England on occasion.

One Particular in this Paper is remarkable. 'Tis in these words; The Toleration of the Roman Catholick Religion in England being granted, and the Insolency of the Hollanders ta­ken down, a Confederacy with France, which can influence Eng­gland, as Scotland can also, will together by God's blessing make his Majesty's Monarchy Absolute and Real: Where we see that the Design was to make the King Absolute; and the means proposed, Toleration of Popery, a War with Holland, and a League with France, all which were at that time put in pra­ctice, and have been prosecuted vigorously to this Day.

But 2dly, We shall better understand the depth of this De­sign against us, if we reflect on the Power, Policy, and Num­ber of the Persons engaged. The Power and Money of France, the Cunning and Craft of the Jesuits, the numerous and bi­gotted Roman Clergy, the Wealth and Arms of England, were all to be employed to our Ruine; the Indigent and de­sperate Papists of Ireland were to be armed, and let loose up­on us: The Common Enemy of Christians, the Turks and [Page 4] Ravaging Tartars were called into Christendom to promote this Design, and their destructive methods of managing Wars by universal Slaughters, havock and burnings, brought into practice by the more Unchristian French: and to Crown their Design for the general Slavery and Desolation of Eu­rope, Protestants were cajoled, bribed or compelled to fight a­gainst, persecute and devour one another. All which might be proved by undeniable Instances, if this Sermon were de­signed for a History.

But 3dly, We may have a further Idea of the depth of this Contrivance from which God has hitherto delivered us, if we consider the Methods used for effecting it: Had it been hatch­ed in Hell, it could not have been more a mystery of Iniquity than it was; more Black and Villanous means could not have been applied to bring it to perfection.

For 1st, We find Wicked and Treacherous Leagues and Conspiracies entred into in order to carry it on: One of which is more especially notorious and remarkable for its folly and falshood; A League so contrary to all sense as well as faith, that the great Princes concerned in it are yet ashamed to own it; a League so mischievous to Europe in general, and so destructive to England in particular, that it has brought them to the very brink of destruction: and it is only God's miraculous Provi­dence that could, or yet can preserve them: A League that broke the Ballance of Europe, so carefully preserved by our wise Forefathers, and by that means has advanced one, by de­pressing and sinking all the rest. This is that fatal Confederacy with France, proposed in the forementioned Paper: These are the Engagements of Friendship and Alliance which Monsieur D' Avaux, the French Ambassador, tells the States of Holland, in his Memorial of September 9. 1688▪ the King his Master had with the King of Great Britain: This is the Secret Treaty Ab­bot Primi tells us his Britannick Majesty signed in the Year 1670. whereby he should have secured to him an absolute Authority over [Page 5] his Parliament, and the re-establishment of the Roman Catholik Religion in his three Kingdoms: This is the Alliance with France which Maloony the Popish Bishop of Killaloo in a Letter of his to Bishop Tyrest of March 8th. 1689. (the Original whereof was found amongst the Bishop's Papers, and is rea­dy to be produced) is so very angry that some Trimmers (as he calleth them) obliged King James to disown; and this is the very source and fountain of all the present Calamities of Europe, but more particularly of ours.

A second method of carrying on of this Conspiracy to Ruin us, was by corrupting Ministers, by granting large Pen­sions, and multiplying Bribes. I wish this means of promoting this wicked design had stopped at Ministers, and that the ho­nour of Princes had set them above the suspicion of taking Bribes; for we are willing to think that it should be below the Majesty of a Crowned head to turn Pensioner, or to sell his Crown or People for Louis d' Ors.

A third means for carrying on this Contrivance against us, was Murthering and Poysoning; an Art too much practised of late in some Courts: and 'tis observable, that wherever the Life of a Protestant stands between a Papist and an Inheri­tance, it is of no long continuance; nor doth any Prince be­gin to appear vigorous or terrible to France, but he is in dan­ger to be taken off in the prime of his age, and that not with­out suspicion of foul play; witness Prince Lewis of Branden­burgh, and the Duke of Lorrain. There is much Gold in France, and there are every where wicked men ready to be bribed to do any thing; and 'tis not supposed of some, that they scruple much to make the experiment what it is able to do.

But 4thly, Where they could not Murther Protestant Princes, (it is hard to say where they have not attempted it) they en­deavour to defeat them of their Succession▪ We all are satis­fied that this was the only womb that conceived a Prince of Wales for us, and gave him a Birth. There was an attempt of [Page 6] the same kind in the days of Queen Mary, which did not suc­ceed to their mind; but time and experience make men wiser; hence it is that the contrivance that proved abortive then, did with us come to perfection; but in such a manner, that at the same rate (if allowed) we might be sure never to fail of an Heir to defeat a Protestant Successor.

A fifth means of promoting this design, was by calling the Turk into Europe, and by supporting that common Enemy of Christianity to the ruin of those that profess the holy name of Christ. And the French King, that he might embroil Christen­dom by Sea as well as by Land, has made his Pride stoop to his Interest, and condescended to buy a Peace with the Al­gerines, Covenanting with them, to assist them in their Pi­racies, and their enslaving Christians. A Man and his designs are known by his Friends and Confederates: Now the French King's Allies are the Bandity of Italy, the Pirates of Algiers, the Turks and Tartars of Asia, and the Tories of Ireland: What a mercy of God is it, to give us a Deliverance from the Con­spiracy and Designs of such Monsters!

The depth of this Design appears from a sixth method used to effect it, and that was to stir up and animate one party of Protestants to bite and devour another. 'Tis not bare diffe­rence of Opinion that makes men of different Sects so strange and unsociable to one another, as we commonly observe them to be; but their strangeness and enmity proceeds either from in­terest, or from some peculiar Principle that obliges them to persecute and destroy all that differ from them, tho in a trifle. Where neither of these happen, or where men of different Opi­nions are not encouraged or suffered to hurt one another, we see they live very easily and lovingly together, of which Holland is an undeniable instance, and likewise this City under our late common sufferings, in which the generality of Protestants not­withstanding their difference in Judgment, lived with much mutual confidence and friendship: but it is a Principle of the [Page 7] Roman Church, that every Prince is obliged to root out and de­stroy all Hereticks out of his Dominions, and that under no less a penalty than Deposition. This is required of Princes by the Councils of Lateran and Constance, and all Popish States and Princes have been so true to it in their practice, that I do not remember that there has been, nor believe that there is at this present, any Prince or State of that Persuasion, who doth Tole­rate any Religion besides their own in their Country, where they are able to suppress it with safety to themselves: and they have generally been so eager upon it, that many have attempt­ed it to their own destruction. No wonder therefore if their Persons and Religion be very odious to men of different per­swasions, since every body naturally hates one that is always ready to do him a mischief. But I wish that they had kept this Principle to themselves, and not industriously sowed it a­mongst Protestants, among whom they first by their Emissaries sow false Doctrines and raise Schisms, and then set up others to persecute and destroy those whom they themselves have se­duced. And when they have prevailed with one Party to bait, worry and exasperate another to the height, they then take them off for a time, and put the Rods and Axes into the hands of the oppressed; and whilst they yet smart under their suffer­ings, they stir them up and encourage them to revenge them­selves on their persecutors. By which Arts they make the breach irreconcilable and the difference, tho inconsiderable in it self, to become the ground of an eternal Schism and Feud between the parties whom they have thus dashed against one another.

We all know that these were the methods used to set us to­gether by the ears ever since the Reformation; and in the two last Reigns 'twas particularly observable, that Toleration and Persecution succeeded one another by turns, and were timed just as they served most effectually to set People a madding a­gainst one another. One day the Laws must all be put in exe­cution, and none must be a favourite that would not be forward [Page 8] to execute them; the next day the Persecution must not only be stopped, but the instruments of it exposed to the revenge of those they had exasperated, and forced to take their turn in suf­fering, by the Actions and Law-suits of such as they had wronged. Thus the common Conspirators against our Peace, Liberty, and Religion, blow the coals and kindled a flame a­mongst us that was like to devour us all: and 'tis God's great mercy that we have escaped it. These are a few of those con­siderations which might be offered to shew the depth of this design, from which our good God has graciously redeemed us.

II. But I haste to the Second Head of my Discourse, whence we may have occasion to magnify God's goodness in our Deliverance; and that is from the extent of the design against us, which was equal to its depth; it being of a vast and comprehensive Nature.

The true and great design was to satisfy the ambition of the King of France by advancing him to the universal Monarchy of the West: England might be cullied and wheedled with the imaginary pleasure of Mastering his Parliament, of getting his will of his People, and setling Popery: Holland with the hopes of gain and a free Trade; The Pope and Emperor with the speci­ous pretence of re-establishing the Catholick Religion▪ but the true and bottom-design was to enslave Europe, and to make the French King as great and as pernicious to the Western Prin­ces and States, as the Turk has been to the Eastern. And they did not miss the matter, who in the Emblem represented these two as sawing the Globe asunder, whilst the King of England's part was to pour in Oil to make the work more easie for them: a thing so destructive to the true interest of his Crown, that it is a miracle how he could be prevailed on to accept of the employment, much more how he should be able to prevail with his Subjects to assist him in it. Whatever be pretended of the stubborness or ungovernableness of the People of these Nations; it certainly argued a very passive and submissive tem­per [Page 9] in them to give Money so liberally, and to Fight so fiercely as they did, to destroy themselves and their fellow Protestants, to make sport for their common adversaries, and serve the in­terests of their most inveterate and most dangerous enemy, the French King.

Secondly, The Design was universal, and aimed at the de­struction and enslaving all the Kingdoms and States of Europe: No distinction of Protestant or Papist, Enemy or Ally. All were equally devoted to destruction in it.

The Duke of Lorrain was actually turned out of his Duke­dom. The Prince of Orange (his present Majesty) was depri­ved of his Principality of Orange. The Empire was partly to be given up to the Turk, and the remaining Princes were to ap­ply themselves to France for Protection, and to chuse his Son King of the Romans. The Dukedom of Savoy was to be brought in under the notion of Pupillage. The Princes of Italy were frightned, bought, or wheedled out of their strong Holds; and the Keys of their Country (such were Ca [...]al and Guastalla) put in­to French hands Sicily was perswaded to Rebel, and sollicited to serve the Spaniard, as they had done the French before in the famous Vespers, Genoa was to be Bombed, England bought, and Holland drowned. Spain had a Barren Queen designedly made so (as many believe) put upon him, that his Crown might fall to France by Succession. The Northern Kingdoms, whose cold and distance secured them from immediate attempts, were yet taken off from assisting their Neighbours, and bought into something worse than a neutrality. The great Contrivers and Managers of these, were the French King, the great Turk, and I need not name the third in the Triumvirate. 'Tis too much that we groan yet under the mischievous effects of their Con­spiracy; which has been no less pernicious to all Europe, than that of Antony, Lepidus, and Augustus was to the Roman Com­mon-Wealth. There is no doubt but all these have been designed, attempted, and almost brought to perfection within these 20 [Page 10] years by strength of this Confederacy: and there is not one Prince or State in all Europe that has not been concerned in the fatal effects thereof.

But 3dly. This design was levelled more immediately at the destruction of the Protestants of Europe. The Extirpation of the Pestilent Northern Heresie has been long known to be the Prin­cipal Article in it, and was probably the pretence and bait that induced his late Majesty to espouse it. He was not fonder of be­ing obeyed without reserve than of propagating his Religion; and perhaps, he chiefly desired an absolute Authority over his Sub­jects, that he might compel them to come into the Bosom of his Church. What business had he with a standing Army, or numerous Troops of Dragoons, but to employ them as Missio­naries to convert his Heretical Subjects? The example of France had taught him their use; and that Dragooning was a much more effectual way to Reconcile men than Sermons, or Arguments. In short, by this Conspiracy, the Protestants of France are already destroyed: those of Savoy turned out of their Country: those of Holland have been invaded, and forced to co­ver themselves with their Waters. And as for us in Ireland, I need not tell you, how we have been used: The least hint is sufficient to refresh your memories; and the danger we have escaped, is yet so near, that it supersedes all necessity of a de­scription. It has been said of some, that when they have been shewed the next morning the danger they escaped in the night, they have died with apprehension. I am sure no Precipice can have a more dreadful prospect to those that have escaped it, than our danger ought to have, and will have to all that duly consider, and look back on it. But God has Redeemed, and Sa­ved us out of our Enemies hands: He has brought us back in­to our own Land, and we are now before him this Day to Magnifie him for our Deliverance. Let us therefore joyn in that which is the burthen of this Psalm, O that men would Praise the Lord for his goodness, and Declare the wonders he doth for the Children of men.

[Page 11] But 4thly. This Conspiracy had a peculiar respect to the Free States of Europe. 'Twas about the time of the entring into this League, that famous saying was applied to Holland, Delenda est Carthago. It was pretended to be of ill consequence to Princes and Crowned Heads, to let a Common-Wealth be their Neigh­bour, lest the fight and example of Liberty might influence their People: they combined therefore to destroy them, that the slaves of France might not understand, that there was a milder Govern­ment in the World, than the Tyranny of their Master. If his present Majesty cou'd have been prevailed on to come into the Confederacy, he needed not have ventured his Life to rescue England, and merited a Crown by such hazardous undertakings. He might have been a King out of hand in his own Coun­try, and secured of his Succession to the English Throne, but he scorned Crowns of Lewis's giving: much more one, that he cou'd not take without injuring his Country; the Liberty of which is due to his Ancestors, and the Preservation of it to Himself. But when they cou'd not corrupt, they resolved to de­stroy him; and that more particularly because they look'd on him, as the Patron and Defender of the Liberty of Europe, to which they on all occasions declared their enmity. 'Tis not imaginable, with what Passion and Zeal their whole Party here used to enlarge on the Praises of an Absolute Govern­ment, how impatient they were to hear any one name to them the Laws, the Liberty of the Subjects, or a Common-Wealth. No, the King's Will was the only Law they cou'd en­dure to hear of, and they mightily admired, and praised the sub­missive temper of the Mahometans, that counted themselves happy to be under a Power, which when it pleased might pre­sent them with a Bow-string. They did not mince the mat­ter, but openly professed, that they designed to free the King from the chains of the Laws, and the Pupilage of Parliaments: or as the Irish Proposals, I mentioned before, word it, make his Mo­narchy absolute and real. The very terms of the League, accord­ing [Page 12] to Abbot Primi, were to secure to the King an Absolute Au­thority over his Parliament, and the Re-establishment of the Ro­man Catholick Religion in the three Kingdoms of England, Scot­land, and Ireland.

But 5thly. This Confederacy, or rather Conspiracy, had a pecu­liar relation to Ireland. The great Body and Magazine of Men, whose hands were to perform this Work in these Kingdoms, were to be raised out of Ireland: The Irish Proposals, I have so often mentioned, promise 150000, part of them were to be the King's immediate Guards; part of them the standing Army of England; and all of them the Instruments of our slavery. In or­der to make them considerable, and to hire them to do their work cheerfully, Ireland was to be seperated from the Crown of England, and made independant on it. The English interest in it was to be destroyed, and the Protestants, under the notion of Whigs, Fanaticks, Cromwelians, rooted out of it. How near these things were to taking effect, you all can witness, they were not only designed and attempted, but actually, for the most part, executed upon us; our Estates were taken away, and this Kingdom cut off from England by Acts past in their late pretended Parliament, our Houses were filled with Soldiers and Dragoons, our Churches possessed by Romish Priests, our Persons shut up in Prisons, and our Religious Assemblies inter­dicted. Our Friends and Relations, our Nobility, Gentry, and Clergy, driven, for the most part, out of the Kingdom, attaint­ed for Life and Estates, and an Army ready to be transport­ed into England, if God had not put a stop to their Designs, and confounded their Devices. 'Tis by his Mercy we are Re­deemed from the Lands from the North, and from the South, and therefore let us give Thanks unto him, and Praise him.

You see then the Extent of this Design, that it took in all the Princes and States of Europe; that it struck at our Estates, our Liberty, our Lives, and above all at our Religion; that it was carried on by many and powerful hands, and by the most se­cret [Page 13] and efficacious methods. And who else cou'd defeat such a contrivance or put a stop to it, but the same God that bounds the Sea with a heap of dust, and says to the Waves thereof, hi­ther shall you come and no further?

III. Which is a proper Introduction to my third Head, the miraculous Concurrence of Providences for our Deliverance, in breaking this Design so deeply laid, and vigorously prosecuted. These were so many and so remarkable, that I doubt whether e­ver any Revolution was accompanied with a chain of such strange and unaccountable Accidents. I shall mention only a few, that every body must have observed, and leave you to judge, whether the Finger of God must not be acknowledged in them.

First therefore, It was strangely unaccountable, that the Pope, who seemed to have a great stake and interest in this Design, and, as one wou'd imagine, was most deeply concerned in the success of it, should upon a trifle break with the French King; and not only desert his Party, but most cordially espouse the opposite side: and that the King of France, who never before stuck at any thing when interest was in the case, upon the World's counting it base or wicked, shou'd refuse his Ghostly Fa­ther common Justice in Matters of so little moment as the Re­gale and Franchises. It is plain, that the Pope has right on his side in both these, and that the French King was not much concerned either in profit or honour to defend them: The Re­gale being a new Usurpation, and the Franchises an ancient Nusance: yet so obstinate have both sides proved in the contest, that we hope 'tis become irreconcilable. Now if this had not happened, the Counter-League of the Princes of Europe to the French Conspiracy cou'd hardly have been entred into or con­tinued; 'tis this takes off the odium from the Emperour and King of Spain of assisting his present Majesty to redeem Eng­land, and deprives the French King of the advantages he pro­posed to himself by declaring this a War of Religion: It being [Page 14] rediculous to pretend a Holy▪ War against the Father and Head of his Church. This aversion of the Pope to the French designs is an obstacle in the way that neither Lewis nor James, can yet get over, tho the one begs hard, and the other offers fair to remove it: Having profered the Pope all that he desired at first, and to ob­lige the French Clergy to own his Infallibility into the bargain.

Thus God shews, that the hearts of Kings are in his hands: that he can make them stoop and do mean things, when it will do them no good; and obstinate when yielding would be serviceable to them. It cannot but be esteemed a further Provi­dence, that two Popes should succeed one another of the same humour, which is not common, and should persevere in the same enmity to France.

But 2dly. It must be owned as a signal piece of Providence in God to have raised up a Man endued with the Courage, Closeness, and Activity of his present Majesty: Who durst at­tempt so strange, and inhumane probability, such an impracti­cable thing as our Deliverance. 'Tis a rare thing in the World that one Man should have the dexterity to engage, and the wis­dom to manage so many different Interests into a Confedera­cy, and argues a particular Providence.

3dly. It was another piece of Divine ordering, that his Ma­jesty should be so particularly interessed and engaged to under­take this Work before it was too late, and our destruction un­avoidable. If we had gone on a few years in the course in which we were, in all probability our condition would have become altogether desperate. But the eagerness of the Conspirators to cut off their present Majesties from all hopes of Succession to the Crown, made them introduce a Prince of Wales two or three years sooner than they were ready for him: they knew very well when he appeared, the persons concerned would be pro­voked to the height; and that then, if ever, their present Ma­jesties must appear for their Right, and the Kingdoms for their Deliverance; against which they were not as yet prepared: for [Page 15] they had not yet sufficiently trained the Irish, nor filled the Ar­my in England with Papists: for want of which they were not able to make any resistance against the Prince of Orange: Ha­ving awakened him before they were prepared for him, and necessiated him to make his descent into England, whil'st the Arms were still for the most part in the Protestants hands, and the Papists in no capacity to awe them.

4thly. The very pretended Birth of the Prince of Wales was so ill managed, that it was not so much as a well contrived Cheat. The very Papists complained of it, and that publickly in Print. There was published here, amongst many others under the late Government, a Virulent Paper against his present Majesty, Entituled, England's Crisis, or the World well amended. To give it the greater credit, the Author pretends to be a Protestant, and the evidence of truth forced from him this following passage. One reason of his (the Prince of Orange's) Expedition had at least a shew of Justice in the Quarrel; I mean the business of the Prince of Wales, which I cannot but confess, some People managed, as if they designed either that we should not believe at all, or if we did, our belief should be as implicit as to Successions and Inheritances here, as that of the Romanist is in his expectation of Inheriting the Kingdom of Heaven hereafter. This, it is true, they imputed to the Treachery of Councellors and Managers: But when their Zealots writ, and King James per­mitted such Accounts of that Matter to be published, 'tis a sign the business needed an Apology; and that by God's just Judg­ment on them, their usual dexterity failed them in it.

5thly. It was a peculiar Providence in this Affair, that King James did not adhere determinately to any Councels or Coun­cellors; but did things irresolutely and by halves. I find Papists in their Letters to him complaining of this, and cautioning him against it; one intreats him for God's sake, not to listen to trimming Councellors, whose aversion to his Religion, and cunning design of spinning out his Life with their Pian Piano put them [Page 16] upon urging to him, that great alterations are dangerous, when car­ried otherwise, than by slow and inperceptible degrees. The same tells him, that nothing causes irresolution more than a medley of Councellors of a different Religion from their Prince, yet King James could never free himself from this Medley: And that is the reason that his Actions were never of a piece; and that he commonly spoiled his business by doing too much, and yet too little; thus he ought either not to have brought any Irish or French into his Army, or made the whole intirely Papists. He ought either to have accepted the French King's Assistance and Fleet without reserve, or else broken with him altogether, and declared against him: But by hanging between both he lost the affections of his own Subjects, which might have sup­ported him, and the benefit of Foreign Assistance, his doing and undoing things had the same effect, in which, and many other particulars, his not sticking intirely to one sort of Councellors was to us a great Providence.

I must reckon it as a sixth, That the States of Holland should without scruple trust their All into His Majesty's Hand, and be content to run his fortune; which they plainly did in his Expe­dition. We all know that the Vnited Netherlands are a free Peo­ple, most Jealous of their Liberty, and who have done and suf­fered more to maintain it, than perhaps any Nation in the World. And as they are jealous of their Liberty, so they are close and wary, and not apt to venture too much at one slake. Now that such a People should commit the absolute disposal of their Navy, their Armies, and their Money, the very Sinews of their State, to one Man, and venture all in the same Bottom with him, was an unbounded Trust and Kindness, as his Majesty himself is said to have expressed it to them. They trusted not only him, but the Winds and Seas for his sake: And tho' they had such intire confidence in his Conduct and Faith, as not to ask him what he designed, yet the hazard of a Winter-Voyage, where the whole of their State was at once exposed to the Mercy of [Page 17] a Tempest, was sufficient to have stumbled them, had not the same God, that inclined the hearts of Israel as of one man to­wards David, knit their hearts to him and made them tender of his Life and Person, where they without hesitation ventured their State.

7thly. It must be owned as an effect of the same Providence, that King James's Court and Ministers were so blinded, that they could not see into his present Majesty's designs: And so secure that they would not give credit to the many Advices given them of these Preparations, of which we can give no other ac­count than that of Job, Chap. 5. 13. He taketh the wise in their own craftiness, and the councel of the froward is carried headlong; they meet with darkness in the day, and grope in the noonday, as in the night.

8thly. I shall only mention King James's deserting his Army in England, on which if he had absolutely cast himself, and de­pended on their Fidelity, it is certain by what has happened since, that a great part of them would have stood by him. There were enough to make a vigorous Opposition, who were wil­ling to run his Fortune, if God had not enfeebled their Courage, and put fear in their Hearts. It was this opened the way to one of the greatest Revolutions that ever happened in that Kingdom, almost without a drop of blood; which must be owned as a singular Providence.

9thly. It was an over-reaching act of Providence, to make that the Key to open a way for our settlement, which was pro­jected by our Enemies, as the certain means to embroil us for ever. I suppose no body doubts, but those who advised King James to desert the Kingdom, believed, that we could never come to a settlement without him: and yet the event proved directly contrary to their expectation; for his presence in all probability had been such a rub to our settlement, that it had not been easie to get over it. It was indeed strange we should come to a Resolution so soon, especially where the weight of the [Page 18] matter was so great, and the opinions of men so divided, that in the near equality of voices, the wisest could not foresee how it would end, till Heaven it self determined it. For what else could have brought such different Interests and Judgments to acquiesce in the conclusion?

Neither, in the 10th place, must we imagine that the strange and absurd division of Protestants in England into Jacobites and Williamites, happened without a Providence. Whatever sence some may have of it in other respects, we of this King­dom must own it as a great and signal Mercy. King James and his adherents here reckoned upon a strong and numerous Party in England, and were affraid if they had utterly destroyed us, that they should have lost them, and therefore in many cases were obliged to bear an easier hand towards us, than otherwise they would have done. And whatever Favour or Forbearance we received from them, was intirely due to this consideration. This was the use God made of this Faction, and now it has served his purpose, I hope he will extinguish it.

11thly. God in his Providence so ordered it, that King James found an unexpected diversion in Ireland, that employ­ed all his Forces till things were setled in England, and till his present Majesty had leisure to break the Enemies power in Scot­land, and prepare for the Conquest of Ireland. Had King James on his Landing in Ireland, found no opposition in it, but been intirely at Liberty to joyn his Forces with that Party that ap­peared for him in our neighbouring Kingdom, every one is sen­sible, how fatal the event might have proved, not only to Eng­land, but also to the Liberty of all Europe. But it pleased God to find him work here by an unexpected Opposition, which not only imployed, but ruined his best men; and lost him such an Opportunity as never could again be expected. If we consider the Places and Persons that made this Opposition, it is a Miracle that they should undertake, much more that they should succeed in it, and it looks as if God Almighty in his Providence had [Page 19] raised them up for that juncture, and inspired them with Reso­lution in an extraordinary manner, to shew his power in their weakness, and his care of us, in the seasonableness of their un­dertaking. Our Enemies were very sensible of the unlucki­ness of this accident, as they called it, and curst Derry and Eniskillin, as the occasion of the ruin of their affairs.

12thly. It was certainly a great Providence to us, that his Majesty in person should undertake the Reduction of Ireland. At a time, and in such circumstances, that King James and his Party judged it impossible, and promised themselves, that they had made him such work at home, that he should rather fear an Invasion from Ireland, than think of an Expedition into it. But the Providence of God by his single Courage and Resoluti­on broke all their measures, and put them out of those methods, which they imagined so well concerted, that it must be impos­sible to defeat them.

13thly. Can it be ascribed to any thing else than a singular Providence, that they should mistake themselves, and disregard the advices, or rather (as they themselves used to call them) their Orders from France, so as to put themselves to the hazard of a Battel, when delay was so much their interest whatever it cost them, and so easie to them had they not been infatuated?

14thly. It was no less an over-ruling Providence, that an Army so well Trained, Disciplined, and Armed, and so advanta­giously posted, should make so little opposition. The advantage of their Post by all intelligent men was reckoned above three to one; and it had been impossible to beat them from it, had not the God of Battels enfeebled their hearts, and animated his Majesty to an Attempt, that seems next in strangeness to that of Jonathan's on the Philistines: and which perhaps only his Majesty of all men living would have attempted.

15thly. Add to this, the strange panick fear that seized the vanquished. Tho' their Troops were for the most part untouched, and a very few fallen, yet such a dread and terror possessed them, [Page 20] as did formerly the Syrians at Samaria, and they fled where no man pursued them. King James did not stop till he get out of the Kingdom, and his Army fled as far as the Sea would let them, had they had Ships they would have gone all togo­ther.

16thly. I must remark it further as a peculiar Providence, that his Majesty's victory happened▪ at such a critical time, that the Peace of England, nay perhaps the fate of Europe depended on it. Had it but been delayed one week, no body knows what would have been the consequence.

17thly. The saving of this City of Dublin from so often threatned, and as both we and the generality of our Enemies believed, resolved destruction, is another piece of Divine good­ness, and withal so strange, that we can give yet no account of it, or so much as guess at what altered their resolution. I need only mention this to most of my Hearers, to fill their Hearts with Admiration, and open their Mouths with Thanksgiving to God for the Miracles of his Mercies.

18thly. And yet there is still behind a greater Miracle and Mercy than this, and which we can hardly think on without Terror, and that was the miraculous preservation of His Ma­jesty's Person in the Battel. To whom we may apply what David affirms of himself, there is but a step between me and death, our danger came nearer even within a hair's breadth. If there were no dangers and difficulties in life, we should not be sensi­ble of particular Providences: But one such escape as this a­wakens the sence of Religion, and of God's Power more in our hearts than many years of even and uninterrupted happiness. We must acknowledge, that all our Lives in him were at the Mercy of that one Bullet: and 'twas surely the God of Battels in his unspeakable Mercy and Providence preserved us. If Thousands of us had died, the Enemy would not have cared for us. And notwithstanding they lost the Battel, yet they would have counted it a Victory, and their loss sufficiently ballenced by [Page 21] the single life of his present Majesty. 'Tis certain they would willingly have given their Army for it. And this alone is suf­ficient to teach us how to value it, and what thanks we owe to God for preserving it.

In short, we had not, neither have we yet in our utmost view another Chance to save us, our Liberties, Estates, or Religion, but this one, of His Majesty's coming to the rescue of these Kingdoms: and his undertaking it has been car­ried on by such a miraculous chain of Providences, that we must acknowledge, that it is by the Grace of God, that Wil­liam and Mary are now our King and Queen. Perhaps they have more visible Reasons to put that in their Titles than any Princes in Christendom.

Let us therefore own the whole of our Deliverance to be a Work of God, and ascribe it intirely to him, without assu­ming any part of it to ourselves. God in his Providence has so ordered the matter, that we in this place have had no hand in it, or pretence to it. And as for others, it plainly ap­pears not to be so much a work of man, or carried on by hu­mane means, as by the over-ruling Providence of God. 'Twas manifestly God, rather than the People, set our King and Queen on the Throne. The People obstructed it as much as they could, by their Divisions; the Nobles opposed it; the Mighty stood up to hinder it; the Nations combined against it; but God had them in derision, and not only de­livered Their Majesties from the striving of the People, but also made them their Head: 'Tis He, the most High, that ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whom­soever he will: 'Tis He raised up King William to be a Deliverer to us. And, to summ up all, 'Tis he that deli­vered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us. And therefore to him be the sole glory of it.

[Page 22] And now, that God has so signally appeared for us, let us (which was the Second general Head I proposed) consider what returns we are obliged to make him.

First, Let us remember, that it was not for nothing that he delivered us. He had certainly a peculiar design in sa­ving us from the hands of our Enemies, by so many and so remarkable Providences, even that we might serve him with­out fear. Let us therefore employ those Lives, Liber­ties, Estates and Churches to his Service, that he has pre­served for us, and restored to us. Let us avoid those Pro­vocations that induced him to bring such heavy Judgments upon us: and let us remember, how easie it is for him to bring us to a condition much worse than that from whence he delivered us; and assure our selves, that if instead of serving him, we serve his Enemies, the Devil, and our Lusts, he will make his Providence as signal in our future punish­ment, as it has been in our present deliverance. It were ea­sie to point out the Sins that provoked God, and occasioned our late Sufferings, and the same Causes will always have the same Effects.

2dly. Let us own God's goodness to us in our late Suffer­ings; how in the midst of his Anger he remembred Mercy; how he made our Sufferings easier to us than we expected, and Relieved us sooner than we cou'd have reasonably ima­gined. He continued us among the Living, when we ex­pected Death. He gave us Hearts to bear up under our Pressures; and made us Unanimous and Kind to one ano­ther. He preserved us from Famine and Pestilence, which we feared; and granted us, for the most part, opportunity of meeting together, to Worship him; and in many things rather afforded our Enemies an occasion of shewing their Malice, and wicked Intentions against us, than of executing them. So that we must acknowledge with the Psalmist, that the Lord has chastned and corrected us, but hath not given us over unto death.

[Page 23] 3dly Let us be thankful to God for our Deliverers, and thankful to them for the great Pains they have taken, and the great Dangers they have run to effect it. This is in a manner all we can return them at present, for all the Pains and Costs they have been at for us; and for all the Generosity they have shewed towards us; our Enemies having disabled us in a great measure either to help our selves, or make any retribution to them. However, what we can do, let us do chearfully. And let us return at least our hearty Acknowledg­ments and Prayers to God for them: Especially for Their Majesties, whose parts have been so signal in it, that they re­vive in our minds the Memories of the ancient Hero's the Kings and Queens of England, the Edwards, Henries, and Elizabeth, that made us safe at Home, and dread­ful to our Neighbours. If we consider what we have seen the King do in Ireland, and what part her Maje­sty in the mean time acted in England, it must be our own faults if we are not a happy People under such Princes, and we must be very ungrateful both to God and them, if we are not sensible of his goodness, in blessing us with such Gover­nours; either of which seems capable of Governing much larger Territories, than they yet possess; And I hope, as they are entitled to them, so in time they will acquire them.

4thly. Let us spare no Pains nor Cost to perfect this Happy Work of our Deliverance; and let us remember, that if this had not happened, we must have lost our Estates and Liber­ty, and perhaps together with them our Lives. Who would not within these last three years have given one half of his Estate to save the other? And then what great matter if we give half of our Incomes for some years, to enable Their Majesties to secure the whole to us, since whatever it cost us, 'tis but restoring part of what we have saved, or had re­stored by Their means.

[Page 24] 5thly. Let us not Grudge or Murmur at the Hardships or Difficulties, with which we may be obliged to struggle for a few years. No great Cure was ever perfected without put­ting the Patient to some pain, and then why should we ex­pect it? those that saw not what we suffered under the late Government, may think some things hard at present. But I observe, that the People of this Kingdom, that seem to have the greatest cause to complain, are best satisfied; which gives us rea­son to suspect, that if any complain, 'tis rather from their dis­satisfaction with the present Government, than their particular uneasiness. And I am afraid some amongst us are become like the Roman Common-Wealth in the time of Sylla, which, as the Historian observes, could neither indure its Wounds nor its Remedy: 'Tis want of experience in the World for any one to expect, that such a great Revolution should be brought about, without exposing many to Hardships and Difficulties. But he that has Patience shall see the end of his Hope.

Lastly, Let us lay aside all Animosities amongst Ourselves, and all Virulency against our Enemies. Let us be Charitable to the Distressed, and mindful of those that have not yet obtain­ed their share in this Deliverance. Let us perform our Vows and Engagements to God, which we made in our distress. Let us say aside Self-interest, and set ourselves to lay the Founda­tions of a Solid Peace, in Piety and Justice. That the God of Peace may delight to bless us and our Governors; and grant us an Intire Victory over our Enemies; a Happy Union and Agreement amongst Ourselves: and minister unto us many more Occasions of Thanksgiving.