to destroy their Gates and Portcullis's As soon as he had done this he bravely turned them out of Doors and re-admits the Secluded Members who seeing how the Kingdom was enslaved and bent upon the King's return presently issued out Writs for a free Parliament which brought back his Majesty upon this Auspicious Day From this Enumeration of the Usurping Powers you may perceive to what a degree this poor Nation was enslaved under so many Tyrannical Successions It is impossible to tell how many Souls Lives and Noble Families were destroyed by them and how many Millions spent but from this short review which I have now given you you may perceive that first I undertook to prove That a People in a state of Prosperous and Successful Rebellion are in a state of Slavery and Captivity but especially a free People who of Subjects to a limited Soveraign under the Regulation of wholesom Laws become Slaves to the Arbitrary Power of their own Fellow Subjects who Govern by the Sword And so I pass to my Second Proposition to prove That a People cannot be delivered out of such a state of Slavery and Confusion without the special Providence and Assistance of God as it is written When the Lord bringeth back the Captivity in his People This David who was so great a King and so great a Polititian acknowledgeth also to Zadock the High-Priest 2 Sam. 15.25 The King said unto Zadok the Priest carry back the Ark of God into the City if I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me back again and shew me both it and his habitation Now this Religious way of speaking in David proceeded not from Fear or Superstition which is the Daughter of Fear for as Hushai told Absalom he was a Valliant and Mighty Man but from the rational and experimental knowledge he had of the Being and Providence of God He knew God as a Philosopher and he knew him as a Prophet Reason and Revelation had both taught him how God cannot but be concerned in the most minute Contigencies that happen to single Persons much more in the Revolutions of States and Kingdoms according to what he elsewhere saith The Lord is King for ever and ever he is a great King over all the Earth Ps 47.2 None but the Epicureans that over acknowledged the Being denied the Providence of God and their Opinion is more unreasonable than pure Atheism it self and all that ever acknowledged the Providence of God did believe that he imployed it in a most special manner over Human Societies and that the greater any Human Societies were they were the more special Objects of his Fatherly Care Indeed all Wise Men both among Jews Christians and Heathens have thought it very difficult and ordinarily presurnptuous to determine precisely what things happen by Gods special Providence and Assistance and what do not because his secret Influences upon the Understandings and Wills of Men cannot be distinguished from their own Judgment and free Choice but yet the Power and Wisdom and Justice and Goodness of God are so very discernable in some Events that we may without Presumption impute them to him as Judicious Criticks do Beoks to such and such Authors and from something that is Divine in the contrivance of them pronounce at first sight as a Limner did upon what was done in his absence on a Picture which he was drawing that the hand of Apelles had been there If you ask me what that is which makes a Man discern the special hand of God in any Event I might answer without any prejudice to the Cause of Religion that I cannot tell because the Characters of things though clearly understood are many times hard to be expressed As in the appearance of a good or bad Angel that is inexplicable which makes me discern at first sight that what I see is not an ordinary Man But lest this should look like shisting as all lawful advantages will be called in the cause of God I shall give you the Marks and Characters which the Sense of Mankind and the Common Divinity of all Nations hath set down as Rules whereby to know when any Humane Event is the Lords special doing and in so doing I shall apply the Wonderful Revolution from our Slavery and Captivity this Day as a pat Example to every one of those Rules 1. The first Character then whereby we may know when any Event is the Lords special doing or an Effect of his Special Providence is When it is brought about by Invisible Means or if by Visible yet by unlikely Means which are Inadequate Vnsuitable or Repugnant to the Effect For this Reason the Romans imputed that strange Revolution of their good Fortune after the Battel at Cannae to a special Over-ruling Providence and acknowleged that Hannibal was Defeated by the Gods Moventi a tertio lapide Hannibali Deos iterum Deos inquam necfateri pudebit restitisse faith the Historian which in allusion to the Psalmist may be rendered thus If it had not been for the Gods now may Rome say if it had not been for the Gods when the Carthaginians under Hannibal rose up against us they had swallowed us up quick so wrathfully were they displeased at us Thus likewise the Jews were so amazed at the wonderful Manner of their Deliverance out of Captivity in which they had Lived 60 Years that they were like Men in a Dream and could scarce Believe the Truth for the Strangeness of the thing The Power and Wisdom and Goodness of God was so Visible in that unlikely revolution that they could not hold from crying out among the Heathen The Lord hath done great things for us the Lord hath done great things for us whereof we are glad They esteemed their Return from Captivity as great a Miracle as turning back the Streams of Nile and the Course of the Rivers in the South and though there was nothing so surprizing in it as in our Deliverance this Day yet God represented it to the Prophet Ezekiel by the Resurrection of Dry Bones to shew it was his special Work Son of Man faith he to him in the Visionary Valley full of Dry Bones Prophesie upon these Dry Bones Fzâ—k XXXVII and say unto them O ye Dry Bones hear the Voice of the Lord Thus saith the Lord to these Bones I will breathe upon you and you shall live and know that I am the Lord. So I Prophesied saith he as I was Commanded and there was a great Noise and behold a great shaking and the Bones came together Bone to his Bone And I beheld and lo the Sinews and Flesh came upon them and the Skin covered them above but there was no Breath in them Then saith he unto me Prophesie unto the Wind and say unto the Wind Come and Breathe upon these Slain and I Prophesied as he commanded me and the Breath came into them and they lived and stood upon their Feet an exceeding great Army Whereupon
A SERMON Preached at the Cathedral Church OF WORCESTER On the 29th of May 1684. Being the ANNIVERSARY DAY OF HIS MAJESTY'S Birth and Happy Restauration By George Hickes D. D. Dean of Worcester and Chaplain in Ordinary to 〈◊〉 MAJESTY Published at the Joint and Earnest Request of the MAYOR and ALDERMEN of Worcester LONDON Printed by R. E. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-Head in St. Paul's Church-yard and John Jones Bookseller in Worcester 1684. To the Right Worshipful FRANCIS HAINES Esq MAYOR And to the Worshipful the ALDERMEN Of the City of Worcester Gentlemen THE style of the Paper in which you sent me your joint and earnest Request to publish this Discourse was so respectful and obliging that I could not deny it without incurring the imputation of Rudeness especially seing it was the first Request of any Kind that you ever desired of me I need not tell the world how Loyal you are nor how Active some of you have been in Reforming this City the very Approving of this Sermon which all the Enemies of the Government will be sure to Condemn is a sufficient Testification that you are some of those Worthy Citizens who in the late distinguishing Times were too honest and too wise to be misled by those subtle and malicious Enemies of the Monarchy who are generally known by this Character that they are for the King against his Evil Counsellors and for the Protestant Religion against the Church I was very much pleased as well as surprized to find at my arrival on the Evening of the Anniversary Day of our most Gracious Soveraigns Birth and happy Return that this City now restored to its self had prepared to celebrate that Auspicious day in a most Solemn and Festival manner and I must bear you and your Loyal Citizens witness that I never saw more Conduct and Order in any Publick Procession more Gravity in any Publick Joy or more universal Temperance and Sobriety at any Publick Feasting among all Sorts of Persons exactly agreeable to that seasonable Exhortation with which I concluded this Sermon which now is no longer mine but Yours I am very sensible it deserves not half of that great Opinion which you have expressed of it and if it answer those Ends but in any tolerable and competent measure for which you desired me to make it publick especially among the People of this City to whom I am bound to have a particular regard I shall think my pains well spent and rejoyce that I was so happy as to testify in a way so serviceable to the Publick that I am Gentlemen Your most Affectionate and Faithful Friend and humble Servant George Hickes Psalm Psalm XIV v. 7. When the Lord bringeth back the Captivity of his People Jacob shall rejoyce and Israel shall be glad The whole Verse runs thus O that the Salvation of Israel were come out of Sion when the Lord bringeth back c. THIS and the foregoing Psalm were composed by David in the Rebellion of Absalom when the People of Israel had Universally revolted from the Allegiance which they owed to him and the Duty which they owed to God In the first Verse he gives us an account of the Authors and Ring leaders of this general Apostacy and Rebellion They were it seems an Association of Impudent and Atheistical Men who tho' they durst not openly deny the God of Israel with their Mouths yet they denied his Being and Providence or at least doubted of them in their hearts The Fool hath said in his Heart there is no God meaning most likely the Fool Achitophel or perhaps the Raw and Younger Fool Absolom And then for those that were of their Party they are saith he corrupt they have done abominable works there is none that doth good And then in the third Verse to shew how the Generality of the Nation had in a manner lost all Sense of their Duty they are all saith he gone aside they are all together become filthy or putrid there is none that doth good no not one In the fourth Verse He expresses his astonishment at the stupidity and blindness of the Conspirators that they should go on without any Sense or remorse in their Atheistical Practices of Rebellion and be so unjust and irreligious Have all the workers of Iniquity no Knowledge who eat up my People as they eat Bread and call not upon the Lord. In the fifth Verse he tells us that the Generality of the People were moved with fear to joyn with them but that it was a causeless mistrust and fear for want of considering That God will protect Righteous men and Causes There were they in great fear He addeth in a Parallel place Psal 53.5 where no fear was for God is in the Generation of the Righteous i. e. they were in a great fear fearing men more than God who taketh part with the Righteous aginst the Wicked In the sixth Verse he shews how the Conspirators laughed at the small Loyal Party which preferring their Duty before their Interest and trusting in the Protection of Heaven adhered to the King You have shamed the Counsel of the Poor because the Lord is his Refuge i. e. you have mocked and jeered the Poor Despicable Loyal Party because they make the Lord their Refuge And then in the last Verse he expresseth a great and longing desire for that happy time when God who dwelt in Sion would arise and shew himself in the Deliverance of him and his People O that the Salvation or Saviour of Israel were come out of Sion When the Lord bringeth back the Captivity of his People Jacob shall or ought to rejoyce and Israel shall or ought to be glad According to this which is the most genuine Explication of the Psalm I may without the least Violence to the Sense of the Royal Psalmist make these three Observations upon my Text which will be suitable to the Solemnity of this day 1. That the People in a State of prevailing or successful Rebellion are in a State of Slavery and Captivity This Observation I ground upon that remarkable Expression the Captivity of his People 2. That a People cannot be brought out of such a State of Slavery and Captivity without the special Providence and Assistance of God As it is written when the LORD bringeth back the Captivity of his People 3. That it is the Duty of a People so brought back out of Captivity to render Praise and Thanksgivings unto God When the Lord bringeth back the Captivity of his People Jacob ought to rejoyce and Israel ought to be glad First that a People in a State of prevaling and Successful Rebellion are in a State of Slavery and Captivity for a State of Slavery and Captivity consists in being obnoxious to the will and pleasure of an Unlimited Absolute and Arbitrary Power such as was the Power of the Ancient Roman Emperors of whom as our Learned Lawyer Fortescue observes out of Justinians Institutions the Civil Law saith
delivered us out of the hand of the Philistines and now he is fled out of the Land for Absalom and Absalom whom we rebelliously anointed over us is dead in Battel now therefore why speak ye not a word of bringing back the King These Considerations of the great Blessings they enjoyed under David would weigh nothing with them before but after they felt the Calamities of War and the smart of Arbitrary Government under a prevailing Traitor after they had run into that under Absalom which they had but feared under David then they saw their Errour and the men of Israel were angry with the men of Judah for not letting them join with them in bringing back the King And what happened unto the People of Israel and Judah under the prevailing Rebellion of Absalom hath happened I believe upon all the successful Rebellions in the World Did ever People rebell with success and mend their condition by it Nay did ever People succeed in Rebellion and not afterwards groan under the Arbitrary Dominion of the Victorious Rebels Or were Grievances and Oppressions ever sewer under Usurpers than under the lawful Head It is as I have shewn inconsistent with the Nature of that Arbitrary and Military Power with which Conquest doth invest every prosperous Rebel and though it be easie to reply that it is possible for one that rises up against his lawful Soveraign to be free from self-interest and ambition and purely to design the Ease and Liberty of his Fellow-Subjects yet in all the Instances and Examples of successful Rebellion very few or none such are to be found You see what Impostors Absalom and Achitophel were and how they falsified all their Pretensions to the credulous People and would the time permit and the Solemnity of the day allow of it I could verifie the truth of my first Observation in many such Popular Cheats But I will wave all Foreign and confine my self to Domestick Examples to prove that a state of prosperous Rebellion is a state of Slavery and Captivity as King David in my Text and our late Blessed Soveraign who was wont to bewail the sad condition of his People in the late prevailing Rebellion frequently observed I need not tell you what fair Promises and gilded Pretences the Ring-leaders of it made unto the deceivable People They first possessed their Heads with imaginary Fears and Grievances and then promised to secure them against all the Dangers which they feared At first they exhorted and invited the Common Citizens and People and then Commanded them first they begg'd and borrowed Supplies of them and took their Money by way of Contribution and Loan but afterwards when they had got the Power into their own hands they levied it as fast by their own Authority and demanded it by way of Tax I shall say nothing of the illegality of their Rebellion against their Prince no Law being better known to the People than that which declares it to be High Treason to Levy War against the King but I design to set forth their oppression of their Fellow-Subjects and shew in a few Instances how they inverted all the Fundamental Laws of the English Liberties and how their little Finger was much heavier then their Lawful Princes Loins It is a Fundamental Law of the English Government and the first Article of Magna Charta Quod Ecclesia Anglicans libera sit habeat omnia sua Jura integra libertates illaesas That the Church of England shall be free and have all her Rights kept intire and her Liberties inviolable and yet to make Way for their Wicked and ungodly Ends they voted the Bishops out of the House of Peers where as Mr. Pryn afterwards told them they had sat in their Predecessors as long as the Lords Temporal had sat in their Progenitors and longer than the Representatives of the Commons of England had sat in the House of Commons The Lords at first refused to consent to such a fundamental alteration perceiving very well what might be the consequence theoreof upon which the People were brought down in Multitudes to the Parliament Doors to Cry against the Bishops several days successively till the Terrors of those Tumults did force them to Consent After this was done to the Bishops they did what they pleased to the Loyal Clergy and the Universities Imprisoning and turning them out of their Free-Holds in a most Arbitrary and Tyrannical manner as may be seen in a little Book called the IIth Persecution and many other Narratives of the late Times to which I refer you for the particulars that you may see how little regard these Patriots of England falsly so called had to the first Article of the great Charter which concerns the Rights and Liberties of the Church But 2ly It is a fundamental Law of the English Liberty That no Free Man shall be taken or imprisoned without Cause shewn or be detained without being brought unto his Answer in due form of Law This is part of the 29th Article of Magna Charta and the whole Subject matter of the 28th of Edw. 3. and of the Petition of Right which these very same Patriots to endear themselves unto the People would not let the King rest till he had passed again and again Yet after they had got the Sword into their own Hands they Imprisoned whom they would thousands of Innocent Men and good Subjects of all Ranks without assigning any Reason but the general Reason of Malignancy and without bringing them to answer for themselves as the Law requires 3ly It is a fundamental Law of the English Government That no Man shall be disseized of his Free-hold or Liberties but by the known Laws of the Land This likewise is contained in the 29th Article of the great Charter and the 28th of Edw. 3. And it is that which makes England a Paradise and the English the most happy People in the World Yet these very Men from the moment they got the Power into their hands against all form of Law disseized sequestred decimated and forced Multitudes of Free-born Gentlemen of England to compound for their own Hereditary Estates 4ly It is a fundamental Law of the Liberties of England That no man shall be Condemned or put to Death but by lawful Judgment of his Peers or by the Law of the Land in an ordinary way of a Legal Tryal But these great Patriots and Patrons of the Peoples Liberties condemned one of the Kings greatest Subjects by an Arbitrary Ordinance made by the remaining Parts of both Houses united into one which made him say upon the Scaffold that he was not only the first Arch-bishop but the first English-man that dyed by an Ordinance of Parliament if the two Houses sitting without the King and in open Hostility against him much less if a part of the two Houses so sitting ought to be called by that happy and Honourable Name Lastly It is a fundamental Law of the English Government That if any other case than what