IF because there appear some remarks of ancient Solemnity upon this time, and because the esta­blished Liturgy doth oblige us to a religious re­gard to it, any man should inquire after the reason and intention of both, the question will be easily solved, if he do but heed the name and appellation of it, as it is commonly called the Rogation-week, or the Week of Prayers, that is, a time chosen and separated by the Churches Wisdom and Authority for Fasting and Prayers, the more solemnly to implore the mercy of God upon the World at a season, when commonly the rage of Epidemic diseases takes its beginning, the fruits of the Earth are in greatest danger to miscarry, and Wars are then ordinarily commenced, and Campagnes opened. Now this pious custom was so early an off-spring of Pri­mitive Devotion, that it was made a Constitution of the Church from a considerable Antiquity, and hath been ever since observed in most places of the Christian World, and particularly in all the Lutheran Churches ever since the Reformation, to this very day.

But how pious and reasonable, how ancient and uni­versal soever the observation hath been, yet the demo­lishers of our Rites and Order, have so prevailed with the people, that there's scarcely one of a hundred, that understands their duty in it, nor one of a thousand that [Page 6] have conscionably and duely practised and perform­ed it.

And yet I don't despair, but that some pious persons here before me, may be so affected with this short ac­count of their duty therein, that they may in some mea­sure answer the intention of this ancient Establishment, and the Command of this present Church to observe it.

Which that they may the better do, I have endea­voured to accommodate them with a suitable subject for their encouragement and direction, and that from the words now propounded. Pray without ceasing, or continually.

Which words offer these two occasions of discourse.

• 1. What is meant by continually praying, and how far the command of God lays upon us on that account.
• 2. The reasonableness of observing that command so represented, by several instances of advantages to engage us to the constant practice and performance of it.

1. What is meant by praying without ceasing or con­tinually?

And for the true understanding of this according to the several ways of speaking, which the best Interpreters have used, it signifies such an habitual frame and conti­nued state of mind, whereby we may and do so often perform the duty of prayer as is consistent with the dis­charge of other duties of Religion, and our necessary attendance upon the common business and affairs of the world in our lawful imployments, and that may reasona­bly comply with our natural infirmities as men. And in this we ought to have respect both to the private and publick performance of the Duty.

And then by praying continually as to the first I un­derstand [Page 7] the well management of our Devotions, as to those which we call private Prayers. Whether they be those of the Closet, which our Saviour mentions ( Mat. 6.) or those between married persons, which a great Divine of our Church supposed the Apostle to have in­timated as a duty, 1 Cor. 7. 5. or whether those of the family, where every supreme in it is a kind of Priest to God, to order the periods and circumstances of Gods service in his own house. And that man that hath given rules to himself for the ordinary performance of those several offices, such as a wise Guide of Souls may ap­prove, and the practice of other holy persons have ex­emplified, may be believed to have performed the duty of praying without ceasing, so far as concerns his private Devotion.

But then secondly, by the performance of the duty of praying continually as to the Publick Prayers, I mean a constant attendance upon them in all such appointed periods, which the Governors of every Christian Church must be supposed to have determined to be performed in some publick place set apart and consecrated to that service of God; whether they be in some certain sea­sons of the year, as this week of Rogation is one, or in so many days in the week, as by the frequent successions of the Lords day and other Festivals, and Fasts, or in so many divided portions of the day; and in all other contingent occasions of Christians assembling together for the service of God.

Which Periods being so set apart for God, and ap­pointed for our duty, do so indispensably oblige the Consciences of men, that no man can make a wilful omis­sion of them (especially if it be habitual) but he may be [Page 8] interpreted to have so far departed from God, and thrown himself off from his protection and blessing. And because I see the neglect of this duty to be so universal, (and amongst them particularly that otherwise pretend themselves to be a praying people to a greater degree than others) I desire but once to know from any of them what they can object against the obligation that I have affirmed to lay upon their Consciences, so as may solve their omission to a consistency with any real sense of Re­ligion, or the fear of God.

I hope they don't imagine the personal faults of them that administer, or the different manner of the admini­stration of those Offices (as with such Rites and Circum­stances which they perhaps dislike (because they will) and God hath not forbidden them, while the substan­tial Worship is preserved entire) can acquit them for their gross disobedience to God and man, and the into­lerable prejudice they make and encourage against the Governors, the Establishment, and the obedient Sons of the constituted Church, with which they are bound to hold Communion in such publick Offices.

Now that man that shall religiously and constantly ob­serve all such determin'd and commanded Periods, for the Service of God in publick, may be said to perform all that's obligatory in the Command of God for praying without ceasing, or continually in this second respect. And I think I may affirm, that the Apostle did princi­pally intend this kind of praying continually, by the command in my Text: and my reason is, because I find the same, and the like expression to be necessarily so in­terpreted, in other places of Scripture.

Thus when it's said, that Hannah went not out of the Temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night [Page 9] and day ( Luke 2. 37.) the meaning is, that she never failed to discharge her duty there, at all the appointed seasons of the Jewish Church. And when the Apostles, after Christs Resurrection, were said to be continually in the Temple, blessing and praising God ( Luk. ult. ult.) as it may be observed what veneration they had to the se­parated place the Temple, of which their ( [...]) upper Room was a part; so their being continually there, must mean that they made attendance to their Offices at all set hours, probably at those which were then in custom among the Jews, that is, at every third hour of the day. And of this practice we have several footsteps in the story of their Acts: and so Peter and John went up to the Temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour (our three a clock) Act. 3. 1. Which custom was after­ward in some resemblance continued in the Church, of which S. Cyprian makes mention in his Discourse upon the Lords Prayer.

And when in those appointed seasons they carefully made their attendancies, they might be said (in the most reasonable sense) to have prayed continually, as to the publick performance of the Duty.

Thus I have discharged my self of the first occasion of my Discouse from the word continually, or without cea­sing. The next that I am to address to, is, to shew the reasonableness of our making such a constant attendance upon all the Offices of Prayer, to which we have either piously obliged our selves in private, or are commanded to by Authority in Publick, by several instances of in­comparable advantages by it.

And the first instance is, That a continual attendance upon such Offices, is a continued payment of that Ho­mage we owe to God, as he is the great Creator, Go­vernor, [Page 8] [...] [Page 9] [...] [Page 10] and Preserver of the World, and an imply'd own­ing him to be the Soveraign Lord of all his Creatures, to order them, and dispose of them as he shall please: And thereby we do daily make an acknowledged dependance upon his Providence for all we have, and all we are: actually professing to Gods honour, that in him we live, move, and have our being ( Acts 17.) and that from him descends every good and perfect gift ( Jam. 1.)

Whereas an habitual omission of such Duties, amongst all the evils of their neglect, may be recounted a kind of dethroning God from his supreme Dominion, and be interpreted a disclaiming his universal Soveraignty over his created World, and indeed no small degree of pra­ctical Atheism, highly criminal, and dishonourable to him.

And for ought I know, the Epicureans who would believe the beautiful Model of the World to be the ef­fect of nothing but the casual confluence of Atoms, to exclude the necessity of believing the Being of a God; And the Stoicks, who would make all Events to be no otherwise governed, but by the necessary hits and con­nexion of second Causes, which they called Fate, to ex­clude a Providence: I say I know not, but those Philo­sophers might as justly be acquitted for the Errours of their Speculative, as the neglecters and despisers of Pray­ers may be excused from doing God as great a disho­nour by their practical Atheism.

And therefore I cannot but wonder, that any man that seriously believes that there is either a God, or a Providence, should not make addresses to the Majesty of his Person for the acknowledgment of his Soveraignty, and the devoutest applications to his love and goodness for their own safety and protection, by the daily tender [Page 11] of their Prayers and Supplications at all seasons both publick and private.

2. The second instance of the reasonableness of such a constant attendance upon Gods Service in prayer is, because as it professeth a belief of, so it makes and gives a continued use and improvement to, that very conside­rable part of our Redemption, the never-ceasing Inter­cession of Christ, who now sits at Gods right hand, at­tending the tender of mens Petitions, and as a Priest for ever to be daily offering up to God, as the private ad­dresses of his Servants, so also the conjoyned Supplica­tions of devout Assemblies.

But when those Offices are neglected, we do as much as in us lies to frustrate that grand Expedient of all our spiritual and temporal blessings; and may interpretative­ly be said, to put such an undervalue upon it, as to be thought guilty of treading under foot the Son of God, of counting the Blood of the Covenant a profane thing, and of doing despight to the Spirit of Grace ( Heb. 10. 29.) All which three terrible expressions of Guilt, and danger, do clearly refer to their sinful custom of for­saking Assemblies ( v. 25.)

3. The third instance of the advantage of our con­stant attendance upon Prayers publickly and privately is, that thereby we are continually upon our guard a­gainst those Armies of Temptations that march about us, under the Conduct of the Devil and the World, which are continually invading and assaulting our innocency; and that thereby we are continually countermining the secret Plots and Stratagems of our own deceitful Lusts, which are always warring against our Souls.

And this I offer not only as Prayers are the means of Grace in general, but as they are really effective of a [Page 12] proper defence against the temptations to every sin in particular and in its kind. How hardly can that tongue be conquered to comply with the common modes of oaths and cursings, blasphemies, and rants against God and Goodness, that was just now tinctured with words of holy applications to God in religious offices? Or how can those feet be swift to shed blood, or be travelling to the places of villany and debauchery, that were just before treading the Courts of Gods house, or helped us to yield our bodies to the prostrate postures of solemn Assemblies? Or can the thoughts of that man be readily ingaged in the pursuit of any sinful designs or satisfacti­ons, who just before had hallowed his mind with reli­gious intentions, and sanctified his heart with the holy offices of Prayer?

Further, that holy duty daily performed, will fortifie us against the daily incursions of temptations, by keeping alive in us to the last, that grand preservative of our in­nocency, our natural, and our acquired habit of reli­gious modesty, and by accommodating our passions (the common seat of most sins) to Religion and Vertue. Is any man afflicted (or sad?) let him pray, saith the Apo­stle, ( Jam. 5.) that is, the constant attendance on that duty will alleviate the burden of a sorrowful and dis­contented mind? Is any man merry? let him sing Psalms: that is, let him gratifie the present pleasantness of his Soul in such Assemblies, where the praises of God are managed with the sweet accents of musical harmonies, to prevent the excesses of sensual joys, and the sordid mirth of sinful societies. Can any man complain that his own natural constitution, or the untowardness of the instruments of his affairs, or the common unworthy car­riage of other men to him, do daily tempt him to ex­cesses [Page 13] of impatience, frowardness, and periodick fits of anger? let him here seek and attempt his remedy, and by experience he shall find, that his frequent ingagement in religious offices will allay those storms, and reduce his temper to the quietness and sweet easiness of a Lamb or Dove. Lastly, Is any man surpriz'd with the ruling passion of a sensual love? let him imitate the example of that wise and excellent Virgin, of whom I have read, that she commanded her fond Amorist to respite his ad­dresses to her, till he and her self had compleated forty days in Fasting and Prayer, by which religious expedi­ent she cured his folly, and preserved her own inno­cency.

4. The fourth Instance of advantage by our constant attendance upon God in Prayer, is, because that duty is the common Scene and opportunity for the exercise and improvement of all spiritual Graces; which as they were attained by the use of means, so are they maintained and improved by the constant practices of vertue, and the services of our God: And as the exercise of every particular duty improves its proper Grace, so does the duty of Prayer imploy and improve them all.

First as to Faith, every period in our Devotions is an act of that Faith by which a just man is said to live to God, and to all the purposes of a religious Conversa­tion. Then as to Hope, our constant Prayers feed it, and confirm it, and make the expectation of a future bliss lively and prevailing. There we are exercising and acting the precious Grace of Humility, making our selves dust and ashes in the apprehension of our selves towards God, and are tempering our hearts for all kinds of submission and condescension to men.

Here the Virgin ties on her girdle of Chastity, and [Page 14] the married pair are every day renewing their first be­troth, and fastning the knot of their promised love and fidelity to one another. Here the Subject does daily profess his Loyalty upon his knees, and guards the Crown and engageth his Faith for his Princes safety. Here we discipline all our inclinations to malice and revenge; here we forgive every trespass, and are softening our Souls for admission of terms of peace and reconciliation with all the World. In a word, our constant attendance on that duty will every day more and more be raising our hearts up to a pitch of heavenly Conversation with God and Angels, and preparing us to be fit Compani­ons of that blessed Society above, when God shall please to call us to it.

5. The fifth Instance of advantage which makes our constant attendance upon all religious offices highly rea­sonable, is, because it will make our time, our precious time, more accountable to God and our selves, by adjust­ing it into fit portions for the service of God. For if men were as curious of considering what accounts must be made of all the Talents with which they are intrust­ed, in order to the securing their future Bliss, they would begin to think that that of Time, which God hath put in our power, and left to our choice, for the good or bad imployment of it, were as considerable as any.

And if they would recount the mercy of enjoying Time, or foresee the conflicts of a dying Soul, when he is lamenting the loss of it, they would be as advisable in this point, as in any other concern of Religion. Now no proposal can be offered to a mind truly pious, where­by a man may better secure his time for a fair account with God, than by apportioning a considerable part of it in attendance upon the offices of Prayer, in the pe­riods [Page 15] chosen or appointed for it. At which seasons we should no more wilfully take a liberty to withdraw our selves from our duty, whether when our Closets or our Families, or when the set hours of Prayers at Gods House call for it, than we would lay our Consciences waste, by committing an enormous act of sin.

And as such a course of spending time will make that Talent of our lives happily accountable to God, so will an habituation of our selves to perform our duty at such appointed seasons, make our time easie and acceptable to our selves: (it's idleness and sin that makes time a burden, and our lives uneasie) and we should with the same pleasure think of those periods of Prayers, as we do entertain the seasons of our natural refreshments of meat and sleep, and as delightfully recount the hours of the day by them, as by any artificial division of time: and make us go as cheerfully to our devotions, when the Bell tolls, as when it rings us to our meals, or sounds a retreat to our labours, or as when the setting Sun tells the wearied Traveller that his journey is at an end.

6. The sixth and last Instance, by which it will appear that the constant attendance upon the offices of Prayer, must needs be reasonable, is, because it will be a consi­derable part of the discharge of the command of God upon us, to shew mercy, and to do good to those that need our help and relief.

For amongst the various capacities of doing good that God hath put in our power, one is, that we can succour and relieve the infelicities of the World, by the Charity of our Prayers. By them we can get bread at Gods hand for the distressed, as well as give it with our own. By them we can reach the sorrows of the Widow, and the heavily afflicted, and pass through the Walls and [Page 16] Bars of Prisons, to support and comfort the mourning Captive. By them we can fight for the Prince and the Church, when both in danger. By these we can clear the infectious Air in raging Pestilences, and water the dry Furrows when parched with drought, and fortifie our Peace when threatned with the Alarms of War: with all other the instances of doing good that hold pro­portion with these.

Now what can acquit any man to God or man, that understands his indispensable obligation of doing all the good he can, and can believe what God hath promised and done, to assure him of the success of his Prayers; I say how can any man acquit himself to God and man, that shall refuse any offices, or neglect any of those op­portunities, when Prayers are to be put up to God for either the common or the particular blessings of them that need them?

I wish the Consciences of men that have any designs for Religion (and they are infinitely unreasonable that have none) were sufficiently informed, and seriously af­fected in this case: our Assemblies would not be so thin, nor so unconcerned, when we are every day crying out for mercy, and pleading for blessings.

Now it is in this last Instance of advantage by our constant attendance to this duty, that we are at this time especially concerned: and therefore as upon this ground the ancient Churches took their just plea, for the first establishing a Week of Prayers, and why our Church have continued the obligation to observe it, so I shall there only fix my Application.

And then I say, That if ever there were an Age that called for this kind of Charity, and might lay claim to the benefit of a Week of Rogations, and all other the [Page 17] constantly performed offices of prayers for the good of Mankind, as necessary; it is now certainly the most pro­per time: the sad face, and deplorable state of the Chri­stian World, every where do now require it, now im­plore it.

And first the deeply afflictied Asiatic and Grecian Churches, the first Plantations of Christ and his Apo­stles, that have so long groaned under the heavy oppres­sions of him that bids defiance to the Christian name, lays claim to the Charity of your Prayers. But those Barbarians late approaches and successes must alarm your pity, if you can but consider the Hungarian and Polonian calamities.

But if these distant accents of sorrow cannot reach your hearts, yet let the near and loud Cry of those neighbouring Countries, that are harassed and undone by the conflicting Legions of so many Princes now en­gaged in War, awaken you to your most compassionate Prayers.

Let us have a care, that those poor ruined Countries may not take up Jerusalems Lamentation against us, O all ye that not only pass, but live by us, have ye no regard? ( Lam. 1.) O that God should lay it to your charge, as he did once to his people by his Prophet Amos, ( Chap. 6.) That we lye upon the beds of Ivory, and stretch our selves upon our Couches, &c. that we are drinking wine in bowls, immerst in all sensual pleasures, and are not grieved for the afflictions of Joseph, nor charitably concerned for their calamities. O to your prayers, and let your earnest supplications put a stop to the flames of Gods raging displeasure against them, lest for our ingra­titude and uncompassion, God should change the sad Scene, and afterwards make them Spectators of our [Page 18] ruines, that are such uncharitable beholders of their miseries.

But if the distant Alarms of Foreign Calamities can­not awaken us from our lethargic unconcernedness, yet sure there is something at home, that may more nearly affect us, and that may implore the charity of our daily Devotions.

And if there were nothing but the common miseries of Mankind among us, such as usually and universally follow Nations in their best peace and prosperity, yet no pious and considerate mind could want a sufficient subject matter for such offices of his Charity: Let us but consider how many poor Prisoners are now sorrowing in their strait confinements, how many of our brethren are roaring in torments, languishing in diseases, pinched with penury, strugling with difficulties to live, and in a thousand cases of distress, are crying for help in the bit­terness of their Souls. And can we think there's never a tear, never a petition due? Do these need no share in a time of Prayer, no concern in the offices of our daily Devotions?

But besides this, cannot a wise and pious heart, as things are at present, find any thing else, that begs the cha­rity of his Prayers? Is there no case, wherein we stand in need of the counsel and the aid, the care and prote­ction of a merciful God? For though God hath blessed us above any people of the World, under the happy Go­vernment of a gracious Prince, who hath wisely provided for our peace and plenty, when all the World besides are tossed up and down in miserable circumstances, yet are there no just fears, no real dangers set before us, for which it is needful to implore the mercy of a good God to prevent the approaches of many likely ensuing trou­bles? [Page 19] Yes certainly, no Nation in prosperous circum­stances could ever offer a prospect of more to a consider­ing mind.

Who can but suggest to himself thoughts of danger to the State, when he shall behold so considerable a part of the people to be so malicious to their Rulers of every kind, so seditiously disposed against all just Rules of Go­vernment, so wretchedly intractable to all Laws for sub­jection and obedience, so unfaithful to all the Sacred obligations of Oaths, and tyes of Conscience, and more­over so universally immoral and vicious, that we look like a people preparing our selves for our own ruine, if God prevent it not? The Charity of your Prayers is here seasonable, if you have any design of doing good to your selves and Country.

As to the Church, the poor Church of England, the Mirror and Miracle of the Christian World, a Church that never refused the exactest tryal from the Scriptures, right Reason, and the best Rules of Catholicism from the purest Antiquity; A Church that never had an ene­my, but the man was distinguishable by some remarks of ignorance, ill humor, or of driving on some base design; A Church that hath always stood an unshaken Bul­wark against the strongest invasions of her enemies of every side, she now needs your Prayers, and the especial protection of a merciful God. Her misery is, that she hath a long time layn between two Mill-stones, but they are now grinding her to powder, as the great Arch­bishop and Martyr forewarn'd his late Majesty of blessed Memory. She hath been hitherto hurrican'd with vio­lent tempests on every side, but now she is whirlwinded with their combin'd blasts; and must expect all the evils, that enmity and treachery, faction and prophaneness can bring upon her.

[Page 20] Where's your Prayers, your addresses for help? Are you not rather promoting your animosities, quarrelling with circumstances, picquering the Government, making stories of the infirmities of your Superiours, pursuing your base lusts and interests, when you should be on your knees, begging, and pleading, and crying for mer­cy? Can any think that we are in Jehosaphats case, that we know not what to do, and shall not our eyes be up­on our God, who is sufficient to help us, if we seek him? Are we with the Apostles in a sinking ship, and shall we not with them lift up our voices, and say, Lord, save us or we perish? Which if we shall daily and heartily do in our never-ceasing offices of Prayer to our merciful God, and shall withal repent and amend our evil lives, I doubt not, but that yet God will recover us from our dangers, and restore us to our safety. Or to use the words of the Prophet ( Hos. 6. with which I shall con­clude) Though he hath hitherto torn us, he will yet heal us; though he hath hitherto smitten us, he will yet bind us up: Which God grant for Jesus sake.

WE appear this day before the most high and holy God, to express our thank­fulness to him; as for the Birth, so for the Restauration of our gracious King. And to recount with all joy and grati­tude the concurrence of all those mercies we then recei­ved, and now enjoy, by the incomparable blessing of that happy day in both respects.

As we celebrate it as the day of his Birth, we may re­member that it had a remark upon it, of an Hactenus An­glorum nulli (as it was the Motto of the Medals disper­sed upon that day by his Royal Father) that is, No Eng­lish Prince was ever so born before, with so undoubted a Title to the three united Kingdoms, and many conside­rable Provinces abroad, annexed to the Imperial Crown of Great Britain.

And as we celebrate it as a day of his Restauration, I may say it was with another, and a greater Hactenus, an Hactenus Regum nulli, that is, No King was ever so pre­served and restored, no Nation so unexpectedly and mar­vellously delivered.

Heaven signified the mercy of his Birth with the ap­pearance of a Star at noon; but at the day of his Re­stauration, [Page 22] he brought, as it were, the Sun it self to us, with the same joy as it appears to the poor Hyperboreans after a six months night, or as when it hath newly dis­pelled a dark and furious storm.

So that if we consider the day as the Anniversary of his Birth, then we commemorate the mercy of Gods bles­sing us with a King, whose unquestionable Title (by such a clear Succession from all that ever pretended an interest before, and which no Prince in Europe can pa­rallel) hath removed and silenced all possible pretensions of dispute; the fatal occasion of shedding so much Eng­lish blood through many former generations; and from which calamity we should never have been secured, if the Government had still stood upon the uncertain foot of the late Usurpations. A mercy big enough alone to perpetuate a day of thankfulness to all generations.

Or if we consider this day with respect to his Majesties Restitution, then we cannot but with the greatest joy remember the incomparable miseries from which the Church and State can thence date their renowned deli­verance. I say, if we consider the blessing of the day in either respect, it can want no title to claim the fullest manifestations of our thankfulness to God, that for those great ends, he was pelased to set his King upon his holy Hill of Sion.

That this Psalm was Prophetical and Typical of Christ, Expositors do easily agree to it; and that the literal sense concerned David upon his peaceable reset­tlement in his Kingdom after all his troubles, and pen'd on that occasion, no doubt is offered. And that it may be reductively applied to any other case, that holds re­semblance with that of Davids, (which I think none ever did so much as that of his Majesties) will be uni­versally [Page 23] acknowledged allowable and pious.

Therefore principally designing this last use of it, I shall offer from the words of my Text four Heads of Discourse, which will administer so many Reasons for this days Solemnity.

• 1. The Original of all Establishment in Government, Ego posui, I have set, &c.
• 2. The Quality of the Government here particularly established, Regem, A King.
• 3. The Extent of that Government, Vpon my holy Hill of Sion.
• 4. The Difficulty of the Establishment, yet, Yet have I set, &c.

1. The Original of all Establishments in Government, Ego posui, I have set. It's Gods own Ordination by which Kings are invested with Power and Authority to rule and govern, ( Prov. 8. 15.) A Prerogative which no Creature must presume to take from him, upon any pretence whatsoever, without a manifest violation of his Right and Honour.

And of this Divine Priviledge Christianity was so tender, that when the Powers were at the worst they could be, they were still acknowledged to be ordained of God, ( Rom. 13. 1.)

And on that account our great Lord in his person paid them all that honour and submission that ever had been before their due. And what copy our Saviour set, his Apostles exemplified in all their Practices and in all their Doctrines: which the first and purest Ages constantly followed, without the least interruption of their Loy­alty, upon the greatest provations to do the con­trary.

[Page 24] But besides a Constitution that's general and in com­mon with all Authorities from the Ego posui, I have set, we have here a meum Regum, a my King; a term of near relation and propriety given especially to Kings that are advanced or restored to their Thrones, by methods of especial favour, or that are set up for remarkable instan­ces of some extraordinary merciful Providence to the World.

And thus was David made a My King by the pregnant instances of Gods peculiar favour to, and marvellous de­liverance of him; as the Sacred History of his Life may easily inform us, if we had time to enumerate the parti­cular observations of it.

Now if any King might lay claim to a parallel Title to that happy appellation, our gracious Soveraign may do it: his case being as near a resemblance to Davids, in several circumstances of his preservation, as ever any Prince could pretend to, as will appear in my following Discourse.

Now when it thus happens, that God sets a Meum Re­gem, a My King over a People, they are to consider, that besides all the obligations of duty from the general Commandment, besides all the engagements of gratitude from the common mercies of being governed, there is a further additional obligation upon them, that over and above the performance of the ordinary acts of Loyalty, may challenge a tenderer and more curious regard and care to preserve his Person, Honour, Peace, and Plenty. And this to be done, not only when men are pleased and humoured, or when no fears and jealousies can possibly be suggested, or when no complaints can be found against evil Counsellors, corrupt Ministers of State, and of the abuses of such a Princes Court (for which if Subject [Page 25] may dispense their Loyalty at pleasure, then all the Re­bellions of the World are justifiable, and God hath made his own Representatives the most unfortunate of Mankind) but this tender care must also be allowed Kings, when their Subjects judge themselves to lye un­der any real inconveniencies of Government: which they must study no otherwise to avoid, but by supplica­ting the mercy of a good God, and by humbling them­selves for their own sins, by which (as it generally falls out) God was justly provoked, to lay such afflictions upon them: and not by taking a present revenge upon their Princes Authority or just Rights, by reproaches, base insinuations, and bold affronts.

And if in such cases the Constitution of the Nation al­lows tenders of a more solemn advice and counsel, let it be always done with the greatest love and tenderest re­gard to his Honour and Safety; and not with a drawn Sword in the one hand, and a Petition in the other, as putting it to a Princes choice, either to fight or bargain for his security, or meanly to submit to every imperious and unreasonable Proposal, so as to imbase or destroy his Soveraignty; for which in the end such Counsellors, and the whole Nation with them, will find themselves the greatest Losers, and of which this Kingdom hath had a sad and a sufficient instance, in the unworthy usa­ges of our late Majesty of most blessed Memory.

The sum is, Bless God that you have not only a King, but a My King, one whom he hath so especially preser­ved for, and miraculously restored to, you. This is the first Head of Discourse, the Original of all Establishments in Government.

2. The second Head was a consideration of the Qua­lity [Page 26] of the established Power, that God was pleased to set over them, and that was a King, he gave them the blessing of a Monarchy, a Vicegerency of Power and Government most like to God himself that gave it, (the [...] the one God) and for which reason, with more congruity and decency he allows the Monarch the Credit and Honour of his own Name: I have made thee a God to this people, saith the Almighty to Moses: And I have said, that is, I have made you Gods, ( Psal. 82. 6.) A Government which God established over the especial part of Mankind his Church, under Christ his anointed King, as my Text prophesied, and David typified. A Government of which the holy Scripture only gives us an account in all its Histories, and in all its directions to rule and to obey.

All other Authorities are mentioned but as Gods Creatures, (I Pet. 2. 23.) but the Monarch as himself, dignifying him with his own Name and the Ministration of his own Soveraign Authority, and grand instances of his Providence over the World.

But I shall advance the reason of this days Joy on that account, by offering to you two great advantages of Mo­narchical Government above all others.

• 1. It is more noble and honourable than any other form of Dominion, and renders a Nation more conside­rable and renowned in the eye of the World. It is fresh in our memories, that in the days of our Common­wealth (as they called it) we were a reproach to all our neighbouring Nations, a scorn and derision to them that were round about us. And when our Natives walkt in the streets of Foreign Cities, (from whom before we had the Priviledge of a kind acceptance above any People in the World) the finger of scorn was lifted up against [Page 27] us; our name was Schellam, and our entertainment an exprobration of such shameful practices, as by the ex­ample of which, the Turk might plead innocency, and the Salvages justifie their Barbarisms.
• 2. Monarchical Government, as it is more honoura­ble, so most safe, because, like a well fixed Centre of Power, it will terminate and combine all lines of interest in one point of Authority. And it appears to be so cer­tain an Expedient of the safest Peace, that whensoever a defection, or any contingency of State have laid designs for a multiplication of Supremes, nothing hath so infal­libly confounded the Nations where they have happen­ed. When Gods ancient people fell to a division be­tween two Kings, ten Tribes revolting to Jeroboam; then began that sad Scene of troubles to that great people, which enjoyed Halcyon days of peace, when they were centred in one Solomon.

And we read of the vast Roman Empire, that when Constantine had divided his Kingdoms among three, (though his own Sons) the division was occasional of such ruinous inconveniencies, that it gradually lost its greatness, till it withered and lessened to a name.

What was the State of our ancient Heptarchy, but a collision of inconsistent Powers, which kept the Na­tion in a continual state of War, till a resolution into one Monarchy ended the controversie?

And lastly, let us look a little back upon our late un­parallel'd Confusions, and you'l find, that the Contri­yers of them could never have insinuated themselves into so many advantages for a War, had they not laid their ground upon a pretended Coordination of Power in the two Houses with the King, or not found out two Supre­macies in his Person, one in his Natural, another in his [Page 28] Politick capacity, pretending to fight for the one, where they actually pursued the destruction of the other.

Now if any Republican should murmur, object, and say, That some Cities and Societies of Merchants have not only subsisted, but flourished under popular Go­vernments. I answer, that such Societies have always been most safe, when they have kept up the nearest re­semblances to Monarchy among themselves; and that great State that pretends least to it, may in time be ei­ther necessitated to chuse a Monarch of their own, or ad­mit him whom they at first threw off, or shrowd them­selves under the Protection of some other, or be swal­lowed up by one that can controul their Greatness.

Now bless God for the mercy of this Day, that made us Subjects of this happy Government; and that he hath put the Nation under the safe Authority of a fixed Mo­narch, who just before stood wavering upon the points of contending Swords for its Protection: and was con­tinually hurried up and down by the violence of every tempest of War, that came from the several Quarters of different Interests. In those days our Governors were all along they, that wore the longest Sword, and were the present most successful Invaders, and every he, that had most strength to bind our hands, rifle our Liberties, and despoil our Proprieties. That had it not been for the kind Theocracy of a gracious God, who shewed us Mercy in the midst of Judgment, to keep us together by a most wise and unaccountable Providence, the whole Nation had several times run into one great riot of dis­order, every man had invaded every man with the most horrid acts of cruelty and savagery.

Therefore rejoyce, O Britain, that the Power that is now set over thee, is not any new Model of Govern­ment, [Page 29] no new Set of Militeers, no Table full of a packt Company that eat and govern in the same posture; but a gracious Monarch, a King, who came to deliver thee out of the hands of thy Oppressors, the nerves of whose loyns should strengthen and uphold thee, not whose weight should crush and oppress thee: whose Scepter might become a Crosier to thee, whose Crown a cove­ring, and whose Throne a Mercy-seat.

And thus I have discharged my self of the second Head of my Discourse, and accent of thankfulness, and

3. I come to the third, the Extent of the Monarchs Government, it is upon Gods holy Hill of Sion, that is, over the Affairs that concerned Religion, as well as those that respected the Civil Welfare of his Subjects. Thus Moses had the disposal of both the Trumpets to convo­cate Assemblies both of Ecclesiastick and Temporal concernment. Joash had the Testimony put into his hand, as well as the Crown set upon his head (2 Chron. 23. 11.) And as our Saviour, when he came to establish his Religion, made no alteration (no not in the least in­stance) of that practice in his Life or Doctrine; so that Power over Ecclesiastick Affairs and persons, was allow­ed and continued to all the Roman Emperours as soon as they assumed the Christian Profession (as Socrates the Historian affirms.) And S. Austin assures us, that the Power of Kings extended not only to those things ( quae pertinent ad humanam societatem, sed quae pertinent ad divinam Religionem) which pertained to humane So­ciety, but those that concerned the divine Religion, ( Lib. 3. contra Cresconium.)

But who knows not, that if a man would pretend to an accumulation of Authorities, he might be as lu­xuriant [Page 30] in the case of this Royal Right, as in any other that can be named, to the shame of both the Roman and Presbyterian pretensions.

Now in this capacity of Power the Church of England ownes and receives, swears and submits it self to the So­veraigns of these Nations. And it is the joy and bles­sing of the day, that his Majesty was restored to the assumption of that Power over our Sion, as well as over our Jerusalem. But that which advanceth our joy and gratitude is, that there never was a season when a poor languishing Church more needed the assistance and pow­er of such a Regal Authority, not only to protect, but to deliver and restore her. And the mercy of her delive­rance will appear by these several instances of her cala­mity at that time.

• 1. Rejoyce, O Daughter of Sion, for thy King, like another Zerobabel, came after the days of a long Capti­vity, to restore the Houses of God, which were either miserably ruined, or shamefully defaced, and daily as­saulted, with a down with them, down with them even to the ground, to their pristine beauty and order: and to repair in all places, what the enemy had done wick­edly in the Sanctuaries, which before had laid so forlorn and despicably neglected, that they looked in most pla­ces, as if some Dioclesian or Apostate Julian had been attempting the ruine of Christianity it self.
• 2. God did then graciously send his King to our Sion, to patronize the case of his own afflicted Order that mi­nister to his Service, which a long time had become the miserable objects of popular fury: some of which they had murthered, others exiled to seek their bread in desolate places, many they immured in nasty Prisons, innumera­ble they deprived of support and livelihood, abetting [Page 31] every Abject to trample upon them, to ruffle and bait them with the most ignominious usages. But then came the Messenger of God our gracious King, to bring the glad tidings of their restitution to their Places and Offi­ces, Protection and Revenues, which the men in sheeps clothing had devoured and rob'd from God, that their persons might be cheap, and their offices contemptible.
• 3. God at that time seasonably sent his King to repair the breaches of our Sions Unity, which she had so lost, that she then exceeded all parallels of confusion. Here was Ephraim against Manasse, and Manasse against E­phraim, and both against Judah ( Isa. 9. 21.) Here was I of Paul, I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, (1 Cor. 1. 12.) That the Church became like the Ephesian Tumult, some were crying one thing, some another, till all our Assem­blies were confounded ( Act. 19. 32.) But to compleat our Sions misery, she was not only broken in pieces, but every divided Party was always dissolving into lesser subdivisions. The universal Fate of all Schismatical se­parations, as S. Austin particularly observes of the Dona­tists, that they were ( in minutissimas partes concisi) minced into the smallest particles of Faction.
• Lastly, God sent our King seasonably then to Sion, to restore that faith to us, which we profess to have been that, which was once delivered to the Saints, and that dares only stand the tryal of all the acknowledged Rules of Catholicism. Which at the time of his Majesties Restauration, was so confounded with all the erroneous Doctrines that ever before had born the name of Here­sie, that had Quod vult Deus lived at that time, he might have spared S. Austins large enumeration, by having them all (and more) in his view, at one prospect. The good old way, and all the ancient paths of Truth, were [Page 32] now grown up and laid common, and so many false Me­teors were kindled up in every corner, that the poor people stood at a gaze what way to take, what light to follow.

These be several instances of our Sions calamity and deliverance, and the reasons of her present thankfulness. But now if any ungrateful person should go about to lessen our Joy, and reclaim and say, That the Expedient hath not throughly attained its end; yet he must con­fess, that God gave it as sufficient to do its full work, and it certainly had done it, if our demerit of such a mercy had not been too great, and our improvement of it too little.

And though because the obstinate Samaritans did di­sturb the work, because they might not build with us after their own fashion, and by false accusation obstru­cted the full completion of the building, so that the old men began to cry and murmur, that it fell short of the splendour of the former; yet as it is, there is no good man but may see enough, and enjoy enough, as grate­fully to acknowledge the mercy of the deliverance, and the blessing of Gods setting his King our Soveraign upon his holy Hill of Sion.

And thus I am acquitted of the third Head of my Dis­course, the Extent of Regal Government, and so I am ingaged in the

4. Fourth and last, which is the consideration of the greatness of the mercy of Davids resettlement, from the grand difficulties of the attainment, Yet have I set, that is, in despite of the greatest opposition and the strongest improbabilities. For though the Heathen fu­riously raged, and the people imagined a vain thing, [Page 33] though the Kings and Rulers of the Earth opposed him with their power and counsel, that is, though his Son Absolom and a considerable part of his Kingdom made a defection from him at home, and the Moabites, King of Zabah, the Syrians of Damascus, the Amalekites and Ammonites sometimes opposed him abroad (2 Kings 8.) yet in contradiction to all these difficulties, and after all these dangers did God set him upon his holy Hill of Sion.

This was Davids Yet, and can we not celebrate as great an one for our gracious Charles? Yet certainly, and by far every way a greater; God brought him to his Throne through severer difficulties, stronger oppositi­on, and upon far lesser hopes and probabilities. Who could believe that power less able to prevent the admis­sion of the Son, that was strong enough to bring so great and so good a Monarch, as his Royal Father, to the Scaffold? Or can we think that those men should ever indulge the safety of the Branch, that had confidence and malice enough to destroy such a Body and Stock of Royalty? But we may measure the difficulties and ob­stacles of his Majesties Restauration by these particular Rules of Observation.

• 1. God restored him when the poor deluded Vulgar had been unweariedly taught, that the War commenced against his Royal Father and his House, was to be ac­counted The Cause of God, and that the Masters of the Plot (the better to secure their design) had wrought a great part of the people to a belief, that there lay all ob­ligations upon their Consciences, to destroy every thing and person that stood a defence to his late Majesty and his Family. And we all know, that those men will be hardly perswaded to change their mind, that have once [Page 34] made it their Religion to continue in their opinion. And whose life can be safe against him, who can think he does God good service to murther him?
• 2. God restored him after his Enemies had had a con­siderable time (twelve years from the day of his Right) to settle themselves in their Usurpations, by trying all kinds and modes of Parliamenting, and by experiment­ing all Models of governing, and accomodating all their Tyrannies with such softning names, as might best court the people into an acceptance of them. And so some­times they were Keepers of their Liberty, at another time they were a Committee of Safety, and at last it was a Protectorship of their Priviledges. But in the mean time the poor banished King was to be believed, first an Alien, and then an Enemy to their concerns; and by all possible Arts of Malice to be made odious and unacce­ptable to the Nation.
• 3. God then restored him, when he had never a Fo­reign Prince or State effectually to espouse his Interest. And when the Usurpers were grown so considerable, as to be courted and addressed to, by several neighbouring Princes: among which, if any one was suspected to af­ford his exiled Majesty any aid or favour, they found other Princes as considerable, to balance him against all attempts of succour, though it were in contradiction to the Nations publick interest, and its common safety: so that it might be then said of his Majesty as his Example David said of himself, that his very acquaintance were afraid of him, and conveighed themselves from him, and that no man cared for his Soul.
• 4. Fourthly and lastly, God then restored him, when he was at the lowest hopes and expectations of any relief or help from his Loyal Friends at home. They had at­tempted [Page 35] to the last shift for his deliverance. They had moved every stone, and turned all possibilities, but their endeavours had been always baffled, and at last so perfectly defeated, that their persons were exposed to the watchful malice of their implacable enemies, to mur­ther, banish, or imprison them as they pleased. And their Fortunes either so altogether ruined, or miserably harassed, that whereas before those Loyal Souls had furnished his Majesty with considerable sums for his re­lief, they were now so disabled and desperately discou­raged, that they either could not, or durst not afford him a sufficiency for his ordinary support.

These were the difficulties and obstacles of his Maje­sties happy Restauration, than which in the prospect of humane judgment, none could be imagined more obsti­nate or insuperable, or render his condition more hope­less and desperate. But then God took the matter in­to his own hand, and himself (as he had done for Da­vid before) sent down from on high to fetch him home ( Psal. 18. 16) He divided the waters of strife on the one hand and on the other, to make way for his passage, and proclaimed to the World (to his own Honour and our Joy) that in defiance to all his Enemies power and greatness, malice and contrivements at home, in despite of all the compliances of his false friends abroad, and notwithstanding all the incapacities and despondencies of them that loved him here at home, Yet have I set my King, my Charles, upon my holy Hill of Sion.

Having thus discoursed what conquest God made up­on the obstacles and difficulties of his Majesties Restau­ration, and how he helped his Anointed with the whol­some strength of his own right hand ( Psal. 20.) as we must first give to God the honour due to his own great [Page 36] Name, so also let us oblige our selves to the strictest re­gard to his Majesties preservation and safety, lest we defame our present profession of Gods especial favour to him, by exposing him to the same difficulties to preserve his Throne, that he met with to attain it.

Hath God given him to us by the complicated Right of his Birth and Restauration, and shall not we preserve him now we have him by the tenderest Love and Loy­alty we can possibly express? Can any ingratitude be so great, any disloyalty so enormous, as so to confront such a great mercy of God, as must seem to reproach the very instances of its execution for his preservation? Did God bring him home from an Exile, and shall we abet those persons and their contrivements, that tend directly to the carrying him back to the same unhappy state? Did God allow him an Oak to cover him, and shall we turn it into a Cross to crucifie him? Were men of a dif­ferent perswasion made instrumental to his safety, and shall we that are of the same Communion with him, en­danger it by our bold separations and unsatiable desires of change?

Especially let us guard his Throne with the Militia of our devoutest Prayers, whose keen earnestness may wound his Enemies in the fifth rib every day. Let us pray that a Colony of Angels may garrison his habita­tion, and a Wall of his Subjects Love, Faith, and Loy­alty secure his Sacred Person from every Invasion upon his Peace or Honour.

O let us beg for the longest thred of time that morta­lity is capable of, that may not only carry him to an or­dinary old age, but may lengthen out his life to such an unusual duration, that it may pay us back again the many years his Exile lost us. But above all, let us be [Page 37] sure to secure his Throne with vertuous and religious lives. There is a kind of Treason in sin: upon the ac­count of which it was once threatned, that ye shall pe­rish ye and your King. And Ezra penitently acknow­ledged to God, That for our iniquities we and our King and Priests have been delivered up, &c. ( Ezr. 8.) O let therefore the vertuous and exemplary lives of his Ma­jesties Friends cloath his Enemies with shame, baffle all their Pretensions to better Manners, and perfectly silence their (for the most part unjust) declamations against the irregularities of the Loyal; that so every good Subject may think and testifie, that it is not enough to proclaim and say, but also to live

God save the King.