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A53335
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England's call to thankfulness for her great deliverance from popery and arbitrary power by the glorious conduct of the Prince of Orange (now King of England) in the year 1688 in a sermon preach'd in the parish-church of Almer in Dorsetshire on February the 14th, 1688/9 / by John Olliffe ...
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Ollyffe, John, 1647-1717.
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1689
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Wing O288; ESTC R17619
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23,014
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38
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A Thanksgiving-Sermon FOR Deliverance of this Kingdom FROM Popery and Arbitrary Power The Publisher to the Reader THIS Sermon had been published sooner had not the Carrier â—ept it several Weeks in his Hands before he delivered it yet I hope the pious Reader will not think it comes too late for publick Vse when he considers the Occasion and the Matter of it and how excellently well it is managed by the Reverend Author So great and amazing are the Providences of God towards us in England in delivering us from Popery and Arbitrary Power by the glorious Conduct of the Prince of Orange now our Gratious King that discourses of this Nature which so well represent the Glories of this Deliverance should never be esteemed unseasonable and 't is hop'd the Wisdom of the Nation will make the Duty of Thankfulness anniversary on this account that so the present and future Generations may praise the Lord for his Goodness and for his wonderful Works to us the Children of Men in this Island I heartily wish our present Murmurers commonly called Grumbletonians would but seriously consider how conspicuously the Wisdom Power and Goodness of God appear in the late Revolutions I think then they would be convinced if they do not wilfully shut their Eyes against the Beams of Divine Majesty how great their Sin is in provoking the great God at the Red-Sea even at the Red-Sea of our Deliverance by hankering after the Onions and Garlick of Egypt I pray God open all our Eyes that we may know in this our Day the things that belong to our Peace before they be hid from us Amen ENGLAND's CALL TO THANKFULNESS FOR Her Great DELIVERANCE FROM POPERY and ARBITRARY POWER By the Glorious Conduct of the Prince of Orange now King of England in the Year 1688. In a Sermon preach'd in the Parish-Church of Almer in Dorsetshire on February the 14th 1688 / 9 By JOHN OLLIFFE RECTOR there LONDON printed for Ionathan Robinson at the Golden Lion in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXIX PSALM cxxvi ver 3. The Lord hath done great things for us whereof we are glad THE Design of our assembling together at this time is to render Thanks to Almighty God for the late great Deliverance which he has wrought for us from the subtile and dangerous Attempts of our Popish Enemies to subvert our Government and Religion and to implore his farther Blessing and Assistance that that may be perfected which is so happily begun And surely if we have been awake to take notice of things if we have had our Eyes open to see and observe the several Transactions of Providence which have been in our Behalf in this respect we cannot but think this a very reasonable Service And you will easily perceive the Words which I have read to you out of the Psalmist to be a fit Subject of my Discourse upon this occasion This Psalm was composed as appeareth by the subject matter of it at the return of the Jewish People from Babylon after their long and hard Bondage there which was a Mercy of so great and strange a Nature that it filled them with Admiration and Astonishment to consider of it that they could scarce believe their own Eyes and Ears in what they heard and saw but were so surprized with it that they thought it to be but a Dream or Delusion of their own Fancies ver 1. When the Lord turned again the Captivity Sion we were like them that dream And the Heathen were as much amazed and startled at it as they ver 2. For then said they among the Heathens The Lord hath done great things for them It was the wonder of all that an Heathen Emperour of his own free motion should set at Liberty a captive People and send them to their own Land a People despised and scorned of all when it had been esteemed the Policy of all the former Kings to destroy and ruin that singular sort of Common-wealth that was separate from all People that had been the great Eye-sore of all the Nations about And this mighty Prince doth not only freely discharge them and send them back into their own Country but assists them in the building of their Temple and setting up the Worship of the true God of Israel whose Ordinances were different from all People well might they therefore be amazed and wonder at so strange a Revolution and turn of things And here in this verse now they ascribe and attribute all to God they own it to be his Work though Cyrus was the Instrument and that it was a great Work indeed which rightly called for Joy and Thankfulness The Lord hath done great things for us whereof we are glad And that which the Jews here say in their Thanksgiving and Praise I think we of this Nation have cause likewise to say at this time viz. That the Lord hath done great things for us and that there is justly due to him a Tribute of delightful Praise now as there was from them then Let us consider therefore I. The great Things that God hath done for us And II. The Praise that is due to him for the same I. Let us consider the great Things that God hath done for us which will appear to be great indeed if we consider them even nakedly in themselves and much more if they are considered in their Circumstances First The Things which God hath done for us are very great in themselves For it is no less than the saving of our English Government from apparent Ruin the recovering of our Rights from Arbitrary Invasions the securing of our Liberties and Properties and above all the preserving our Religion which was in manifest Hazard of being undermined and destroyed and the preventing the Massacres and Bloodshed which probably must have attended the same It is agreed on all hands that the English Government was in the way to ruin the force of Laws even in themselves as Laws was enervated and many mortal Blows were given to the Legislative Power it self in its very Fundamentals and the Rights of Men imbodied in Corporations and the particular Liberties of Persons were no longer secure to any when once they stood in Competition with Popish Designs But this inslaving of our Bodies and depriving us of our outward Rights was the least of those Miseries that were growing upon us and which we were already in part groaning under That which is worse is the Inslaving of our Souls and Consciences by a mighty Power which goeth to check-mate it with Almighty God himself This was coming on us amain like an overflowing Deluge invading the Land. For those that think most moderately of the Administration of things before must allow that all that Liberty that was promised or given was no farther intended than as it was hoped it might be an Introduction to a more Arbitrary Invasion of our Laws and a means of Establishment and Increase of the Romish Religion among us And it is well known what the
Nature of that Religion is when once it hath got the Power in its Hands it will suffer none to stand by it whatever Laws Provisions or Promises are made for the securing of any other as is apparent from the Popish Management in the Neighbour-Nation where such a Persecution hath been set afoot and carried on against the Protestant Party as the Tongue of Man is not able to express nor the Pen of any to depaint in its right Colours And neither the Merits of that Party nor the Edicts and Laws that were in their Favour could ward it off which is an Evidence besides the many sanguinary Proceedings and bloody Massacres that have been before executed in that and other Popish Countries what we must have look'd for when once that Religion had got the Ascendant over us that it had been out of Fear of Danger it self What could we then have expected but that Prisons and Racks Confiscation of Goods and Fire and Sword must have been our Portion as well as our Neighbours having also had so many Testimonies and Marks of their Kindness to us in former Ages at home But we have cause to fear that this would not only have been the end of this Religion when once it could have come to its Growth and Establishment which must have been a long time first if that was to be procured by ordinary and common Methods But the fiery Zeal of our Enemies was too rapid and fierce to be contained within the ordinary Bounds of slow and usual Methods we must have expected it to have broken out far beyond and it is not to be doubted but if they could have been secure of their Arms at home and of a Fleet at Sea to have served the Design or as soon as they could have ordered the matter that it would have been so there should a forreign Force have then joyned with them and we should have had Swords and Guns to have converted Protestants which Arguments and Reasons had been too dull Tools to effect what the Politicks could not have brought about should have been attempted by main Might And what between the Prerogative of a bigotted Prince the Sentence of corrupt Judges the Colour and Favour of Laws to be procured for Popish Service and the Violence of an armed Force poor Protestants could have expected nothing else but to have been ground to peices as between so many Milstones And this was coming upon us a-pace if our Almighty Deliverer had not procured for us a Remedy in good time And if once England had become a Prey to Popish Rage which hath been justly esteemed the great Bulwark of the Reformation the Protestant States abroad had not been like to subsist long but in humane prospect of things must have undergone the same Fate And whose Heart would not ake then to consider the Power and Prevalence that the Romish Religion should have had not only among us but all Christendom over if God had not put a stop to its rising Greatness and beat off the Chariot Wheels by which our Enemies did drive so fast and in the nick of time drown the Egyptians before they could overtake his Israel The glorious Reformation which hath so long shined with a mighty Lustre must then have set in obscure Darkness And those Protestants that would still have kept the Faith and a good Conscience must have run to Caves and Holes of the Earth for Shelter for there had been no longer any place of abode for them in the City that is set on a Hill. Then you must have been bowing your Knees to Idols again and falling down before Stocks and Stones or would have had such a weight of Oppressions and Cruelties laid on that would have broke your very Backs and if we could not admit to bear the Load of all the Popish Superstitions we should have had a Load of another Nature that without the Strength of Martyrs we must needs have fallen under We must have taken the Mark of the Beast in our Foreheads or we should hardly have bought and sold in the Markets Then Traditions and Canons must have been our Rule rather than the Holy Scriptures Yea we should not have been allowed to have believed our own Senses nor to have made use of the most natural Right which belongs to us as rational Creatures to have judged for our selves but must have submitted Sense Reason Conscience Scripture and all to a pretended infallible Judge though we know not how he came by his Infallibility nor can see any thing in the World that he hath to say for it but big Words and proud Boasts But we must have put out our own Eyes and yet have been forc'd to have followed blind Guides If we had kept the Foundation we must have had Hay and Stubble built upon it and then if ever we had been saved it must needs have been with the greatest Difficulty imaginable We and our Children must have been nurtur'd up with corrupt Doctrines and false and lying Legends instead of being fed with the sincere Milk of the Word You must have had half Sacraments and Latin Prayers that you should not have understood what you had been about and you must have worshipped a little piece of Dough for a God conjured into a Deity by five words of the Priest when you may have as good an one your selves in your own Cupboards And if you could not have turned Papists throughly then at least you must have turned Hypocrites and dissembled before God and the World or else a Crusado of red Coats and Dragoons fit for the purpose would have tried their skill upon you But all this and much more which might be represented our gracious Saviour hath mercifully prevented and not only so but we have good hopes of such an Establishment and Settlement that all our other Grievances may be redressed likewise and Peace and Righteousness may flourish in our Land. I have good hopes that we shall not only be feoured from the Fears of Popery and Slavery but that we may see a long-look'd-for blessed Union among Protestants and Religion in its Power and Purity in good Reputation among us that it shall be a thing of as bad a Name to be a wicked Man as to be a Papist It hath been a mighty Work which hath been done already and that will give us Encouragement to hope for more if we thankfully accept and improve that which is begun You will all allow that these are great things indeed there being nothing that is more dear to Men then the saving of Life Liberty and Religion But these great things hath God done for us in this his wonderful Dispensation at this time Secondly It will appear that God hath done great things for us if we consider the Circumstances As that it was at a time when our Enemies were bold and confident when they thought all things secure to themselves and past danger of miscarrying they had the Advice and Assistance