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A50678
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A sermon preacht at the Cathedral Church in Norwich, upon the 11th of April, 1696, the day of His Majesties coronation / by Henry Meriton ...
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Meriton, Henry, d. 1707.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing M1815; ESTC R32083
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23,018
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40
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all our Israel render the most Cordial and Conscientious Obedience to him whom God hath chosen as one therefore that hath a Right to the Crown he wears I hope I have sufficiently proved this Point besides this Doctrine hath lately had the Westminster Stamp upon it and therefore now I trust it may go for currant I am sure the contrary that the King is not chosen of God and hath no Right to his Crown if it be not Treason yet is the Mother of it that Mother that lately went big with so many Granvils Fawkes Parryes and Throgmortons Clements and Ravilliacs but blessed be God the Monster miscarried The Nation seems at last to have the same Sence of the Mischievous Consequence of this Principle and therefore have justly arraigned and condemned it in their Associations Doth it not plainly follow from the Point proved that His present Majesty is chosen of God that we should rendeâ— the most Cordial Obedience to him as one that hath Right to Rule us Should we warily suspend and hover till Success and Victory satisfie our Tender Consciences and resolve our Doubts Should we only submit to him as a King de facto for Wrath till Opportunity offer it self to pay our Duty to another supposed de Jure for Conscience-sake Which is a Becket's Obedience Salvo jure Papae Should we shelter our selves under the shadow of his Government and creep into his Bosom only for Warmth and Vigour to sting him as soon as we dare Should we take Oaths to such a King as weak Stomachs do a Potion which we are ready to throw up again immediately or as an Amulet and Charm to keep off Danger Should we make it our business to damp and cool Mens Zeal to such a Government When we had one on the Throne too great a Friend to Popery God knows How were we then for the Divine Right of Government what a general Out-cry was there through the Nation for the great Diana of Absolute Prerogative Non-resistance Soveraign Power above Law Irresistable Tyranny we were ready to spit Hell-fire and Damnation in the Faces of every one that opposed And when some went about to remove a Popish Successor then the indefeasable and Divine Right of Succession is the Theme other Sins escape without much notice while Sacrilege Rebellion and Treason are the Wild Beast let loose to be chased and hunted down by us Do but mention a Bill of Exclusion all our Beacons are set on Fire as if Geneva and Scotland were pouring in upon us whole Hosts of Classes and Lay-Elders Presently we are deafned with the noise of 41 and Thousands of ghastly Spectrums are conjured up to scare little Children with for I dare say few wise Men were concerned at them But now that we have a Protestant King who when Popery was rushing in upon us hath thrown himself into that Flood to stem the Torrent with his naked Breast Good God what a cold â—it hath been upon us to assert his Government If a Man hath been never so little warm in the Justification of His Majesty he must be sure to run the Gantlope and to indure almost a St. Stephen's Martyrdom to be pelted with Stones or words almost as hard How have the Discreet and the Wise been applauded the Men of Temper and Moderation Hoc Ithacus velit There 's a Gentleman in the World that cares not how Soft and Moderate we are I warrant you I hope the late execrable Treason hath chafed our Zeal into a warmer Temper at last So that we shall not only yield our Obedience to His present Majesty for Conscience-sake as to one that hath a Right to govern us being chosen of God but with a Zeal suitable to the present Importance of the Duty 2. Let us pour out our Hearty Thanksgivings unto God that hath not only given us such a Ruler upon the Fifth of November but given him again to us by dashing that Murderous Design against him on the 21st of February This was a Design so plain and evident that it is not capable of a Sham no Meal-Tub or Presbyterian Plot can be devised to ballance it no Youths from St. Omers can be gotten to out-face it the most frontless Impudence begins to be ashamed of it and they whose Foreheads were hard enough to baffle the Design of 78 seem somewhat to blush at this of 95. This was again a Design so Mischievous to take away the Light of our Eyes and the Breath of our Nostrils They had obtained one part of Nero's Wish for all the People of England had morally but one Neck and they had like to have obtained the other to have cut it off at a Blow if the Almighty had not with-held them Those Artificers of the Church of Rome will be ashamed sure to see themselves out-done in their own Craft by our new Workmen in Iniquity to see a Modern Villany so far exceed their old Jesuitical patterns and faced with such an impudence as only became their Fraternity when they had Travelled with Iniquity as the Psalmist says and brought forth Falshood and the bloodiest Designs that ever was contrived to be done by Day-light They had the boldness to lay the Monster at Heavens Gates and invite the Holy God to answer for it teling him plainly 't was his Cause that what they did was for him and his Religion Ah pudet haec dici potuisse That such an horrible thing should ever be committed in our Land This was so Bloody and Barbarous a Design that the Fifth of November seems to be jealous she should lose the honour of precedence They have stretched out their Hands but as the Psalmist says None of the men of might have found them At the instant when they should have struck the blow God sends a Cramp into them and down drops the bloody Sword and le ts loose a Tormentor upon some of their Consciences that never left stinging and lashing them with Terrors till they drove them to his Majesty's Feet crying out Non possum occidere Marium Sir I can't kill you and from that wrack they discover all Though some of the Party have Armed their Consciences with such a Callus that the Guilt of such a Treason could not be able to fix a Sting upon them or make them in the least sensible For God's sake let it not be Reported that Three Clergy Men of the Church of England should assist them to put on that Armour of Hell just when they were to encounter the King of Terrours and step into an Eternal State Ah tell it not in Gath publish it not in the Streets of Askelon least the Daughters of the Uncircumcised Philistins Triumph notwithstanding some of them have contest the Villany and I hope repented of it so that the snare is broken by the Snare-makers themselves and blessed be God we are Delivered Great God What Thanksgivings are due to thee for this Deliverance that contains in it so many Deliverances a Deliverance of our Laws Liberties Properties Lives and that which is dearer still our Bibles What Heart can be big enough to receive the Joy of it What Voices can be loud enough to sing thy Praises for it Shall we call to Heaven in Holy David's Rapture Psal 148. 2. to the Holy Angels to assist us with theirs while we are singing our Te Deums and Magnificats or shall we pause a while till we our selves be admitted into their Quire when our Harps shall be better Strung and our Voices more in Tune to joyn with them in that Anthem Rev. 5. 13. Blessing and Honour Glory and Power be unto him that sitteth on the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever In the mean time What shall we render unto God our Flocks and Herds are too scant a Sacrifice whole Lebanon will not be sufficient for Burnt-Offerings Let 's offer up our selves our Souls and Bodies as a living holy acceptable Sacrifice which is our reasonable Service let 's resolve as David truly Lord we will be thy Servants and this God shall be our God unto Death 3. Let 's pray for him whom the Lord hath chosen as the Israelites did here for Saul Le ts thus hold up his heavy Hands now that he 's going forth to Fight the Amalekites let 's fire all our Spiritual Artillery against that Agag as the Christians did against Julian when he sought against the Persians Let 's Petition for him as the Church did for David the Lord bless him in the day of his trouble the Name of the God of Jacob defend him send him help from the Sanctuary and strengthen him out of Sion Let 's pray That he may have health of Body length of Days Loyal Subjects Powerful Fleets and Armies Faithful Allies Success and Victory over his Enemies the stability of his Righteous Throne in this World and the Possession of a Crown of Righteousness in the World to come I hope there is none of us will yet continue so morose and sullen but as the Murmuring Israelites did at last being sufficiently satisfied with the Wisdom of God's Choice that there was not such another to be found among the People will joyn with us in the common Shout and Acclamation God Save King WILLIAM FINIS
of the Scepter he seemed to offer himself as another Isaac rather to be a Sacrifice for us then a Soveraign to us though I trust Jehovah Jireh God Almighty in Mercy to this poor Nation will provide himself another Had he been so fond of a Crown he might have enjoyed one to destroy a Neighbour State he chose rather to endure one to save ours 'T was then a Lumbardy Crown of Iron not worthy to be ravished by Blood and any but our Heroe as the Sammites with their Jewels would have been prest to Death with the weight of it Vlt. He hath actually delivered us from the Ammonites I am very loath to darken the Joy of this Day by calling you to a sad and mournful retrospect upon that dismal time when the Ammonites carried themselves so Tyrannically and Proudly over us when we were beaten as the Israelites in Aegypt but we must not cry burdened but we must not groan if we whimpered never so little in the most humble manner and Petitioned we were Imprisoned Fined Arraigned and Condemned We saw Religion lye a bleeding our Ark ready to be taken while we sate sighing and sobbing out our Icabobs after Catholique Arguments could do no good we expected nothing but Catholique Cruelty to be Drub'd and Dragoon'd out of our Faith and Converted by such Apostolical Missionaries as are sent out of an Army We saw our Laws the only sences of our Liberties Properties Lives Religion trodden under foot these were look't upon as Fetters for us Slaves and Vassals and became not the Majesty of a Prince to wear whom they counted no less than God himself unbounded and unlimited by any Law but his own Will We saw our Prisons cram'd with the Patriots of our Country and our Benches filled with Traytors our Freeholds taken away from us by no other Law but a Sic volo sic jubeo for it is our Pleasure We have seen Gentlemen thrown out of Civil and Military Imployments who had sometimes been unadvisedly the Instruments of their Tyranny yet when the Hood was taken off and they came to see whither they were going so that they began to make a sudden Start and stop and could be whipt and spur'd no further we have seen them turned up like tired Hackneys for fresh ones fitter for their Drudgery Corporations have been garbled that we might have no Parliaments but as the Council of Trent was said to be guided by that Holy Ghost sent thither in a Cloak-bag from Rome no Parliaments I say but such as should have been guided by a Male from White-hall But I have not time to reckon up all their Ammonitish Dealings with us this only remains that our Misery to all appearance was irremediable no Peace or Covenant to be made with them but at the Price of our Senses 't was not an Eye would serve their turn we must neither Feel nor Taste nor See the Captains of these Ammonites have told us we must renounce our Senses and stoutly Believe that is in short we must turn Ammonites Thanks be to God our Hero hath delivered us from these Ammonites he hath rescued our Laws our Lives our Ten Commandments our Bibles the Light of the Gospel now shines for all the Flattering of these Night-birds about it who have but burnt their Wings and fanned our Light and made it shine clearer Blessed be God we may now look into our Bibles without a License and come to the King of Heaven without the Mediation of any Courtier but his Son we may obtain our Pardons at a cheaper Rate than at their Markets receive our God in the Sacrament without danger of eating of him exercise our Faith without hazard of our Eyes I know we have Sons of Belial can hear all that with a Scornful Smile I pray where say they was that great Danger you talk of these were only Imaginary Dragons and Serpents we feigned to our selves in the Air no such Monsters God be thanked were to be found on Earth Where were those Axes and Gibbets and Sambenits and Faggots you Dream of Good God no Danger Must not we flee from a Fire that was apparently breaking in upon us till we be burnt nor send for a Physician till we are Dead No Danger while we were in the hands of such Men who were under a Vow to destroy Hereticks and I cannot tell whither we might have trusted them for the keeping any other No Danger To be sure it was the greater for this false Cry to bring us into it The Net was not as Solomon says to be spread in the sight of the Bird and some must be imployed to cover the mouth of the Pit and by such false cries decoy us into it We are sure enough there was a Snare as I have sufficiently proved but Thanks be to God 't is broken and we are delivered And where are the Men now that have said Who is he that he should Rule over us Shall we say as these Israelites Bring them out that we may put them to Death As for those Miscreants who could not be satisfied with a Drunken Debauch at a Tavern unless they drank Healths to their Master as they called him in whole Bowls of English Blood I leave them to the Justice of the Government but for others that Conscientiously and Peaceably Dissent I only say God Almighty open the Eyes of these Men and for the Scandal they daily give to the Government Father forgive them for they know not what they do And now how can we sufficiently Praise that God that hath chosen such a Deliverer for us none like him among the People I know not whether he could have sent such another unless he had created one on purpose for this Glorious Design There have been some that would have adored him as a God for it and decreed him an Apotheosis To be sure he Merits more to be our Patron than another that hath so valiantly Fought the Dragon and rescued our Virgin Church the Purest and most Beautiful of any in the World The last Labour of our Hero remains to quell a Monster the Pest and Plague of Europe who is now forced to use his utmost Strength and Policy as a dying Serpeâ—t stretches out her self at full length he resolves I hear this Summer to give his deadly Kick and Spurn as a Beast about to dye And truly I do not doubt but with God's Blessing upon the Conduct of our Hero we shall yet point at that Lucifer if our Sins do not too much befriend him with Contempt and Scorn How art thou fallen thou Son of the Morning they that have seen thee shall narrowly look upon thee and say is this the Man that made the Earth to tremble that did shake Kingdoms and made the World as a Wilderness that destroyed Cities that terrible Leviathan see where he lyes sprawling upon dry Ground with the Almighty's Hook in his Nostrils Amen Amen Threesold use to be made of this Point 1. Let