King DAVID's Deliverance and Thanksgiving Applied to the Case of Our King and Nation In Two SERMONS The one preached on the Second the other on the Ninth of September 1683. By JOHN CAVE Rector of Cold-Orton in Leicestershire And Chaplain to the L. Bishop of Durham Si quis unquam fuit inter Reges qui Davidis expressam maximè luculentam imaginem referret is sanè es ita ut nemo tecum eatenus comparandus esse videatur Amyrard Epistola ad Regem nostrum antè Paraphras in Psalmos Tum demum timentur Reges cum in populos incidit Domini pavor E periculis evadunt cum Deus dat salutem â—os eruit ex gladio maligno Bochart Epistola ad eundem The King's Glory is great in God's Salvation Honour and Majesty hath he laid upon him Psal 21.5 LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard M.DC.LXXXIII TO THE Right Honourable and Right Reverend Father in God NATHANAEL Lord Bishop of DURHAM And Clerk of the Closet to his Majesty MY LORD I Most humbly dedicate these plain Discourses to your Lordship which though unworthy of your notice I hope may not be altogether unuseful to some part of our World at least not to those of my own Charge among whom I am chiefly bound by my best endeavours to promote Religion and Loyalty I know your Lordship favours the Subject and that you support and adorn it much more by your great and eminent Example than ever I can do by Argument or Eloquence Yet I have reason to conclude that your singular Goodness and Candor will easily overlook or pardon what your Wisdom cannot patronize And because I am well assured that your Lordship is sufficiently apprehensive of the evil and spreading Effects of some Mens popular Prints as well as Preachings I hope you will be pleased to allow of my affectionate opposition under the conduct of more powerful Reasoners It is I confess too evident that the Misactings of the real Papists and of our counterfeit Protestants proceed rather from perversness of Will and frowardness of Temper than from error of Judgment or scruple of Conscience And therefore they seem to need more the Schoolings of the Law and the Rebukes of Authority than the Illuminations of the Gospel and the Warnings of the Scripture the Doctrines Exhortations Perswasives of our Reconciling Ministry And if they are not already past feeling and incurably obstinate are like to profit more under an equal distribution of the Acts of Justice than a right division of the Word of Truth Yet I have still the charity to think that many of those who by their fair Colourings and plausible Pretences have been drawn into Conventicles Covenants and the Society of a very vile Cause do not err altogether of malicious wickedness but partly through simplicity of Heart like some of those who followed Absolom And therefore though too guilty yet not incorrigibly so nor quite past the Cure at least not the benefit of softer Remedies and such we are commissioned to administer meek Restauratives and rational Confirmations But if our Sermons alone will not prevail with such as these they may happily give edg and success to the Secular Sword and make even the Law a ministration of Love as well as of Terror by teaching them to be subject not only for Wrath but for Conscience and to be Active as far as honestly they can before they be Passive in their Obedience assuring them that praesumptio est pro Authoritate imponentis that where they have not a clear and undoubted evidence of the contrary they may safely conclude that Right and Truth are on the Governor's side My Lord I publish this Discourse principally for the sake of such Men as these who have been preached into a dislike of our Civil and Ecclesiastical Polity and therefore may happily be preached out of it again Men whose Intentions possibly have not been so bad as their Cause but their simple Hearts have been beguiled with the good Words and enticing Speeches of those that promised Liberty and Reformation while themselves were the Servants of Corruption and of a base Interest Yet truly My Lord I cannot expect any very good Fruit of my own or of much better Sermons on the same Occasion even among this sort of Men if that visible Hand of Providence which hath of late so signally detected the Hypocrisy of their Party hath not already opened their Eyes touched their Hearts and in a good measure wrought off their Prejudices and prepared them for contrary impressions But if this Publication and the Prayers that attend it obtain not all the good Ends of its Design yet I shall think it speeds well if it meets with your Lordships Approbation or kind Acceptance as a real though a very mean Testimony of my grateful sence of your ample and obliging Bounty to My good Lord Your Lordships most faithfully and humbly devoted Servant and Chaplain JOHN CAVE King DAVID's Deliverance and Thanksgiving SERMON I. PSALM 18.48 49. He delivereth me from mine Enemies yea thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me thou hast delivered me from the violent Man Therefore will I give thanks unto thee or confess unto thee O Lord among the Heathen and sing Praises unto thy Name THis Psalm is a Song of Thanksgiving penned by King David in commemoration of his many wonderful and gracious Deliverances from the Conspiracies and Assaults of his Enemies the Philistims Syrians Moabites particularly rebellious Absalom and bloody Saul as appeareth by the Course and Method of the Story where it is recorded 2 Sam. 22. In it with an enlarged and exilient Spirit the Spirit of a King and of a Saint he celebrates the Almighty Power and Goodness of God by describing his Dangers in the most black and terrible Images and his Deliverances from them in all the advantages of Representation which the Wisdom of Royal and Religious Gratitude could supply Vers 4 5. The Sorrows of Death compassed me and the Floods of ungodly Men made me afraid The Sorrows of Hell compassed me about the Snares of Death prevented me He goeth down to the Grave yea to Hell it self to sample his Sorrows and his Fears the devilish Malice and Cruelty of his Enemies He goeth up to the Rocks the high places of Strength and Safety yea to Life and Salvation it self in its Eternal Fountain to furnish him with some suitable Illustrations of that great Mercy which so miraculously subdued his Enemies and supported his Empire In the Verses before my Text The Lord liveth and blessed be my Rock and let the God of my Salvation be exalted It is God that avengeth me and subdueth the People under me What follows is the Text to which I shall limit my Discourse at this time He delivereth me from mine Enemies yea thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me thou hast delivered me from the violent Man
Absolom Perhaps not His Cruelty it may be was not so great as his Ambition and he might be content to spare his Father's Head if he could take the Crown from it or else leave that horrid part of the Plot to the management of Achitophel and his bloody Complices Saul rather seems to be the Violent Man in the Text but we shall not stay to decide the competition where each of them seem to have but too just a claim to this ugly Character Proceed we then to the Second observable in David's Deliverances and that is the Author of them the great Governour of the World He hath delivered Thou hast delivered Indeed all Deliverances are the Works of God himself Psal 68.20 He is the God of Salvation to him belong the Issues from Death It is he alone that hath Goodness Strength and Wisdom sufficient to discover concealed Dangers and to deliver from them Goodness to exercise his Wisdom and exert his Strength Strength to serve and perfect his Goodness Wisdom to guide and manage both for a seasonable Detection and an effectual Defeat of the Conspiracies of subtil and evil-minded Men. But there are some reserved Cases which are more proper to God in which his Hand and Power is more visible and those are Cases of great Extremity such as Jonas's in the Whales Belly the three Children in the fiery Furnace Daniel's in the Lion's Den David's in the depths of his Distress and when he was wholly destitute of all humane Aid I looked upon my right hand and beheld Psal 142.4 but there was no Man that would know me Refuge failed me no Man cared for my Soul Then he adds vers 5. I cried unto thee O Lord I said Thou art my Refuge deliver me from my Persecutors for they are stronger than I thou art the helper of the helpless So here in my Text when Faction and Sedition was grown up to the height of Cruelty and Violence when the Plot was come to the Birth and the Fatal Blow ready to be given then God delivers by his Prerogative and David attributes it to him not only eminently but exclusively It is God that avengeth me it is God and none but He Thou hast delivered me from the Violent Man Thou and Thou only And he gathers so much confidence from the single protection of his God as I may so speak that he defies whole Troops and Armies of his Enemies Psal 27.3 Though an Host should encamp against me my Heart should not fear He had found by experience that when God alone appeared for him neither the Valour of Absalom the Policy of Achitophel nor the Power of Saul could prevail against him but he delivereth him from all his Enemies from these and from the worst of them the Cruel the Violent Man And so much for the Author of David's great Deliverances The Lord strong and mighty We come next to consider in a Third place The manner of this Deliverance which maketh it still greater and more to be regarded It was a Deliverance from all his Enemies the Murmurers of the Country and the Rioters of the City the Invaders of his Prerogative and the Conspirators against his Life neither was it only a Deliverance from them but a lifting him up above them and a confirmation of his Dominion We shall stay here a little to open these Particulars and shew you First of all That it was a compleat Deliverance Secondly That it was an advantageous Deliverance it put Him and his Affairs into a much better posture than they were in before First I say It was a compleat and entire Deliverance a Deliverance from all his Enemies and from all the Mischief and Violence they plotted against him Sometimes our Escape from one Enemy doth but expose us to another and when we flee from a Lion a Bear meets us Sometimes God delivers from Death but yet delivers up to Captivity As he would not suffer his People to be destroyed by Shishak King of Egypt Nevertheless they shall be his Servants 2 Chron. 12.8 that they may know my Service and the Service of the Kingdoms of the Countries He delivers them from Destruction but not from Slavery or he delivers out of Captivity but not without some Marks or Scars of their former hard Usage and Endurance They are saved like a Brand snatch'd out of the Fire in the Prophet Amos his Comparison scorched Amos 4.11 but not consumed Sometimes he vouchsafeth compleat Deliverance as he did to Daniel the Lions were so far from devouring him that they did him not the least hurt And as he did to the three Children the Fire was so far from consuming them that it did not singe them nor so much as the smell of it remain upon them And so it was here in this Case before us David was delivered from all his Enemies and from all the Effects of their Enmity from the Strivings of the People and the Violence of their Managers from that sort of Enemies that could colour and palliate their Designs speak Peace to their Neighbours and pretend fair to their King no less than from open and declared Rebels who carry Weapons in their Hands as well as Mischief in their Hearts Nay further he was delivered not only from Death but from Seizure and Imprisonment from all Restraints of Power and Diminutions of Royalty as appeareth more fully by the Particulars of his Acknowledgment Psal 116.8 Thou hast delivered my Soul from Death mine Eyes from Tears and my Feet from falling And for this reason he stiles it Great because it was entire and compleat Deliverance Nay more than so Secondly It was a beneficial and advantageous Deliverance It placed him in better Circumstances than he was in before and by an admirable Contrivance of the Divine Providence his Danger confirms his Safety and the subduing of the People contributes to his greater Exaltation He delivereth me from mine Enemies yea thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me He speaks it with a special Emphasis and it may denote these two things 1. An Establishment of his Throne 2. An Encrease of his Glory 1. It denotes An Establishment of his Throne a new Guard and Defence upon his Person and Government Thou liftest me up it is as much as if he had said thou settest me out of the reach above the Power of those that rise up against me Psal 30.7 Lord by thy Favour thou hast made my Mountain to stand strong God gave him a new security of his Life and Peace not only by giving him the Necks of his Enemies delivering them mercifully into his Hands the Hands of Justice who had traiterously lifted up their hands the hands of Violence against his Crown and Dignity But also awakening Him his Counsellors and Magistrates by the escape of so imminent a Danger to greater Care and Vigilancy for the time to come It was Machiavel's Observation of the State of the Roman Empire
Therefore will I confess unto thee O Lord among the Heathen and sing praises unto thy Name In these words we have an account I. Of David's Deliverances from his Enemies vers 48. II. Of his devout acknowledgment of and thankful return for those Deliverances vers 49. First We have an account of David's Deliverances and therein these Observables 1. The Terms 2. The Author 3. The Manner thereof 1. The Terms of it or the Evils from which he was delivered expressed 1. More generally from his Enemies 2. More particularly from the violent Man 2. The Author of those Deliverances and that is God himself He hath delivered me from mine Enemies Thou hast delivered me from the violent Man 3. The Manner of these Deliverances Thou hast exalted me above those that rise up against me Secondly We have a devout Acknowledgment of and thankful Return for these Deliverances and Preservations Therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the Septuagint renders it will I confess unto thee O Lord among the Heathen and sing praises unto thy Name I purpose to speak of these in their order 1. Of the Mercy David's Deliverances 2. Of the Duty David's Confession and Thanksgiving And then make what Comparisons we fairly may between King David's and our King's Deliverances to excite us to the performance of the same Duty to promote the same religious Joy and Praise at the time of our Solemn Thanksgiving and Festivity I. First then for David's Deliverances Deliverance and Preservation are Acts whereby God repeats the Wonder and the Mercy of his Creation and giveth as it were a new Life in the continuance of the Old a kind of Resurrection and revival without any real death Psal 102.8 The People that shall be created shall praise the Lord i. e. say some the People brought from a low and despicable condition next to nothing or the People delivered from an imminent destruction The Deliverance of a King hath on it some special prints and signatures of the Divine Power and Goodness God delivered David from the Lion and the Bear and the uncircumcised Philistine when he was in a more private Capacity but his Protections in his Royalty were more eminent and remarkable and therefore he magnifies them in the Verses next to my Text. Great Deliverance giveth he to his King and sheweth Mercy that is signal and extraordinary Mercy to his Anointed And when he sings a new Song of Praise Psal 144.10 this is the Burthen of it It is he that giveth Salvation to Kings who delivereth David his Servant from the hurtful Sword In King David ' s Deliverances we may observe First The dreadful Evils and Dangers from which he was delivered expressed 1. More generally by Enemies Enemy is a word common to Men with Devils and David who stiles his Enemies as you heard Floods of ungodly Men compares his Sufferings under them to the Sorrows of Hell the effects of a deep and devilish Malice Though not only the Lives but the other Rights and Properties of Kings are made by God more sacred and inviolable than those of other Men and though Obedience to Authority is the Mother and the Nurse of VVelfare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Aeschilus his expression yet through the instigation of the Devil the first Plotter of all Mischief who is naturally and originally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a professed Enemy to God and consequently to all who resemble him in Power and Goodness are Discontents raised Sedition and Rebellion moved against the best Governors Moses met with great opposition and contradiction even his own Kindred Aaron and Miriam began to malign him To pass by other Instances we have a full one before us David I mean A Man after God's own Heart one who professed and countenanced the True Religion and a King of God's own making crowned anointed and placed in the Throne as it were by his immediate Hand who though he was a wise and gracious Prince and ruled them prudently by his Power yea though he was popular for some time and whatsoever the King did pleased the People I say notwithstanding all these happy Concurrences these Conspiracies as I may so speak of Vertue Right Prudence Clemency He could not sit quiet and safe in his Government He found many Enemies both at Home and Abroad His own Son rebelled against him And with Absolom went two hundred Men out of Jerusalem 2 Sam. 15.11 He attracts the People's Eyes by a Princely Grandeur and steals away their Hearts by a popular Compliance fair Speeches and obliging Condescentions He rises up early and stands in the way of the Gate and if any Man came nigh him to do him obeysance he put forth his Hand and took him and kissed him By these Artifices he soon gained many Associates who followed him some of them perhaps in the simplicity but the most and the most considerable in the malice and wickedness of their Hearts to the great endangering of the Crown and Life of his Father So apt are the Sons of Belial who can bear no Yoke to be complaining and quarrelling not only under the most Just but under the most merciful and easy Rule The Spirit that is in us lusteth to Envy and is ever and anon murmuring at petty Grievances and clamouring at every little Restraint of our Licentiousness as a violation of our lawful Liberties and Privileges and thereupon grounding Pretences for Rebellion which David in vers 43. of this Psalm calls the Strivings of the People The beginning of which Strife Prov. 17.14 as Solomon wisely observed is as when one letteth out Water which hath but a slender utterance at first but it soon swells and rages bears down all Dams riseth above all Banks and Bounds and spreads into a Flood of Vngodliness an irresistible Torrent of Fury Cruelty and Treason Which minds me of the 2. Second Thing and that which was the greatest and more particular Evil from which David was delivered the Violent Man Men whose Discontents at some seeming Errors in his Government soon expressed themselves in diminishing and defamatory Speeches Psal 89.51 wherewith they reproached the Footsteps of God's Anointed And from these proceeded to Seditious Petitions and Remonstrances under the colour of preferring a Suit or Cause as is expressed 2 Sam. 15.4 Or in the Language of our Times a Grievance of the Subject These Discontents by degrees were confirmed into a Resolution to seize his Guards and his Person and so to give Limits to his Dominion which perhaps he intimates by that gathering of the Abjects and rascality of the People together against him Psal 35.15 or elsewhere by the gathering of the Mighty or more frequently by their besetting or compassing him about on every side which traiterous Machinations terminated in the highest instance of Disloyalty a violent attempt upon his Sacred Life But if the Violent Man may not here be interpreted indefinitely or for a Band of Regicides may we fix it upon
Cum Urbl Romae tanta Imperii magnitudo fatalis effet opprimi vehementissime affligi eam oportuit ut deinceps cautior prudentiorque fieret ad tantum Imperii molem acquirendam Mach. Disp l. 2 c. 29. That seeing it was destin'd to so much Grandeur it was convenient that it should be often Oppressed and Afflicted or at least Threatned and Endangered that her Rulers might become more prudent and wary in defending of it and procuring that greatness and splendor it was to arrive unto It was not therefore without reason that St. Augustine thought it necessary for those Heathens who deified all their Benefactors to build one Altar and pay some Homage to their Enemies as reputing them one sort of Benefactors Doubtless they keep not only the Courage but the Wisdom of a Nation awake and make other Princes as they did David more safe by making them less secure But as it denoteth the Encrease of his Safety So 2. Of his Glory and Honour In the time of trouble Psal 27.5 he shall hide me in his Pavilion Which speaks no less the Obscurity than the Safety of his Condition But in the time of Deliverance He shall set me up upon a Rock as it follows my Head shall be lifted up above my Enemies round about me It speaks the Height and Eminency of his Power and Greatness as Opposites illustrate one another The confusion of his Enemies makes his Crown flourish and his past Sufferings enlarge the Felicities of his present Peace like the Sun 's shining with a greater clearness after an Eclipse God communicates some of his Glory with his Goodness which leaves a Beauty Gloss or Lustre upon the Person like the shining of Moses his Face when he was with God in the Mount And as he giveth great Deliverance and sheweth great Mercy so he giveth great Glory to his King to David to his Anointed And he expresseth the same in the 25th Verse of this Psalm Thy hand hath holden me up and thy gentleness hath made me great Thy Gentleness the Septuagint renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy Discipline and the Hebrews derive it as Dr. Hammond and others have observed from a Verb which signifies to humble or depress plainly intimating that David's distress and danger set him higher in Honour and Dignity than he was before His Triumphs made him more glorious than his Tranquillity and he had never been so great in Chronicle if he had passed all his days in Peace With what Shouts and Acclamations of Israel was he welcomed home from his long Exile How doth the Pomp of his Restauration greaten proportionably to the Obscurities and Indignities of his Rejection Therefore when he thankfully recounts the Divine Mercies in other Deliverances he stiles God Psal 62.7 not only his Salvation but his Glory as before Psal 3.8 My Glory and the lifter up of my Head Which justifies our note upon this Circumstance of his Deliverance in the Text Thou hast lifted up my Head above those that rise up against me that is Thou hast given greater Lustre to the Jewels of my Crown and advanced me to greater Honour in the eyes and esteem of my People I may add one thing more here That this lifting up may seem to be a Pledg of his Heavenly Glory and of that never-fading Crown which should flourish upon his Head when everlasting Confusion covereth his Enemies And thus much for what I thought requisite to be spoken upon the first part of my Text David's great and glorious Deliverance great in respect of the Evils he was delivered from great and glorious in respect of the Author and manner of his Deliverance We come next to II. The second General David's devout Acknowledgment of and thankful Return for this his Deliverance And if we look forward to his form of Thanksgiving we shall see how congruous and suitable it was to the manner of his Deliverance Psal 30.1 I will extol thee O Lord for thou hast lifted me up and hast not made mine Enemies to rejoice over me I will extol thee because thou hast advanced me I will rejoice in the Lord because my Enemies rejoice not over me But to keep to the Text we may Observe there First His pious and devout Acknowledgment I will confess unto thee So I crave leave to read it not only because it is so rendred by the Septuagint and in the Vulgar Latin but because it removes the seeming Tautology of our Translation and affords some distinct Matter of useful and seasonable Discourse For it seemeth to denote 1. If not David's conviction of the Being and over-ruling Power of God yet at least a further confirmation of his Faith therein and in that wise and good Providence which interesteth it self in humane Affairs and more especially in the ordering and governing the Kingdoms of the World and protecting in them his own Deputies and Representatives concluding also from some notable Circumstances in his own Case that verily there is a Revenge for the Wicked as well as a Reward for the Righteous Verily there is a God that judgeth in the Earth 2. It denotes his Resolution to adhere to this God and to continue stedfast in the practice and defence of his true Religion against all Temptations and Oppositions I will confess unto thee O Lord among the Gentiles The Gentiles themselves 't is true by that small knowledg which Sin had left them did discern somewhat of God in the most signal and remarkable Passages of his Providence yea their Poets sung unto and celebrated the Praises of their Gods under the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Givers of good Things The Roman Captains having conquered their Enemies In gremio Jovis Optimi Maximi deponitur quoties laetitiam nova victoria attulit Plin. Nat. Hist lib. 15. c. 30. took part of the Laurel wherewith the Trumpeters were crowned and laid it in the Lap of Jupiter But these Gentiles who were Aliens to the Common-wealth of Israel were no less strangers to David's God neither did they glorify him as they ought and were thankful to him Nay in his Trouble and Affliction they were ready to reproach him and other true Israelites for their trust in God for whoever they were who upon all sad Occasions were saying to him Where is now thy God It is said expresly Psal 44.14 Thou makest us a by word among the Heathen Psal 42.3 And therefore though his confusion in other respects was continually before him he shews that he was not ashamed of his God nor a weary of his Service by owning him in the sight of the Heathen who so much despised and dishonoured him by their Idolatries and vain Superstitions 3. This Confession argueth his confidence in the Divine Aid his dependance upon God for help and succour in the like danger For after this manner his Faith was wont to reason and draw conclusions from his own and others Experiences 1 Sam. 17.37
The Lord hath delivered me out of the Paw of the Lion and out of the Paw of the Bear and he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistim And Psal 22.4 Our Fathers trusted in thee they trusted and thou didst deliver them What doth he conclude from hence Why that God would be equally gracious and deliver him too And indeed the experience of former Deliverances may well give confidence of the continuance of them that he that hath doth and will still deliver For to be sure 1. There can be no failure in his Ability and Power In Men there is many times this defect so that we cannot wisely and safely conclude of the one from the other of future from former kindness because their Power and Opportunity if not their Friendship may cease But now there is no such fear in reference to God His strength and might never abates His Hand is not shortned that it cannot save nor his Ear heavy that it cannot hear Darius set his Heart upon Daniel to deliver him and laboured it Dan. 6.21 but could not effect it but God sent his Angel and shut the Lions Mouths There is likewise 2. In God a perpetuity of affection 'T is of the Lord's Mercy that we are not consumed because his Compassions fail not And it is observable how our good King glorieth and flourisheth in this Confidence yea despiseth the Force and Policy of his Enemies thereupon Psal 2.1 2. Why do the Heathen rage and the People imagine a vain thing 'T is we know spoken prophetically of Christ's Kingdom but it had a primary relation to his own as the Type of that And he expresseth a great assurance that his Throne shall stand firm and unmoveable and all the Plots and Conspiracies the Rage and the Malice of wicked Men against it shall prove but vain Imaginations and Impotent Attempts Thus much for David's Confession and devout Acknowledgment of God's merciful Deliverance I will confess unto thee O Lord among the Gentiles I come now to the Second and last part David's chearful Thanksgiving I will sing of thy praise The ancient People of God were wont to record their special Mercies and Deliverances as in their Chronicles in the Names of their Children and of their Places so likewise in Spiritual Songs and Psalms Thus did Moses Israels Deliverance out of Egypt Deborah and Barak their victory over Sisera and Jabin King of Canaan Isaiah pens a Song of Thanksgiving before-hand for the Peoples return out of Captivity Chap. 26. We have Hezekiah's Song too after recovery from his desperate Sickness But to come home we have David penning this gratulatory Psalm and several others yea we read elsewhere of what and to whom he sung I will sing of Mercy and Judgment Mercy to my Self and Judgment to my Enemies Vnto thee Psal 101.2 O Lord will I sing And he danced to his own Pipe his Practices were Praises and all the Motions of his Life kept time and pace with the Musick of his Mouth I will behave my self wisely in a perfect way c. He shews his Thankfulness not only in a suddain Rapture or passionate transport of Joy but in a steady practice of Piety as appeareth by the following part of that Psalm where he seriously resolves upon the well-ordering and governing of himself his Family his Kingdom that he would be holy and upright in his Conversation that he would suffer no notorious wicked Person in his Court nay that he would endeavour to reform or root out all such out of his Dominions I will early destroy all the Wicked of the Land that I may cut off all the evil-doers from the City of the Lord. I have done now with David's Thanksgiving real as well as vocal yea I have done with my Text too as it concerns his Case but begin to consider it as it concerns our own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Paul speaks to transfer and apply it to our own King and his Deliverance the Blessings we all enjoy thereby and which this Day doth justly remind us of And I doubt not but it will be easily made appear how well the Text and the Occasion suit and agree together and that there is a manifest correspondence in the Subject the Terms the Author and the manner of the Deliverance It will behove us to compleat the Parallel by our devout Confession and Thanksgiving which I shall endeavour to assist you in by my Exhortation and Persuasives at the close of my Discourse But we are first to compare the Deliverances and there to shew 1. How they agree in the Subject And here I need not tell you that they were both Kings against whom there is or at least should be no rising up Prov. 30. And that their Monarchical Government was after the Image of God's Monarchical and such as continued in the World without interruption for 3000 Years together yet it is worth your better notice how much our Gracious Sovereign resembleth the good King in the Text. 1. In his way of Education being trained up for some time in the same School the School of Affliction where many Princely Vertues are most easily learned not only Piety and Patience but Prudence Caution Thrist Clemency Modesty and Moderation in time of Prosperity After David was King God would not admit him to the exercise of his Kingly Power before he had spent some Years under this Discipline Which was exactly the Case of our present Sovereign who was no ill Proficient under it as will appear when we come by and by to observe his Royal Qualifications But in the mean time I would note this That though our King was the Son of Nobles and this Kingdom the Inheritance of his Father's and his by an indisputable right of Succession as David's was not yet there was as immediate an Hand of God in his Restauration as in David's Advancement The Builders refused them both and threw them among the Rubbish of the People but God in their several times made them the head-Stones of the Corner and his Doings were alike visible and wonderful in each of them So that by a different a peculiar and more intimate relation to Heaven He may be said to be God's King and his Anointed and his Person and Power more sacred and venerable upon that advantage of Royalty And if his Justice in punishing none but the Violaters of his Laws or his Mercy in pardoning so many of them If his Prudence in Government or his condescending pleasantness in Conversation Nay if above all His Constancy in the true Religion are any ways apt to strengthen Loyalty or sweeten Obedience He is in all these another David And I give you this transient view of them to render the Villany of his Enemies black and horrid as Hell it self without Plea or Paint without the mixture of any fair Colour the least degree of excuse or mitigation Which brings me to the second thing in the
Parallel 2. The Evils our David was delivered from and they too were Enemies and Sons of Violence 1. Enemies of all Sorts of several Countries of all Ranks and Qualities Gebal and Ammon and Amalek Roman English and Scotch Enemies Enemies of the Hills and of the Valleys Enemies of high as well as hot Blood Princes Nobles Commons and Mechanicks Yea the Enemies of our Lord the King seem to resemble those of our Lord Christ the Spiritual David Soribes Pharisees Sadduces Lawyers Preachers Hobbists who say there is neither Angel nor Spirit and by an easy Consequence neither God nor Devil Precisians and Zealots who would engross all Religion and prophane dissolute Persons who profess none And it is very observable that these sort of Men had a large share in the late Damnable Conspiracy And the Character which Eusebius long ago gave their Forefathers in Infidelity fits them exactly well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Confederacy Band or Club of Atheistical Deceit Men throughly Antimonarchical who can no more endure a God in Heaven than a King upon Earth He had Preaching Petitioning Voting Associating Enemies such as if you would believe them hated only Arbitrary Power dreaded Popery stickled for Legal Privileges and had no worse Design in seizing the King's Guards than the Defence of his Person the Reformation of his Council and Magistracy and the Security of Religion by finding out a better Successor to the Crown than God had yet provided But we may conclude from very ill Effects of the like demure and plausible Pretences to the Father how much Mischief was intended the Son even by the same sort of Men who thus palliate Treason speak Peace to their Neighbours and are ready upon all Occasions to suggest to them that it is only their Love to their Country and their Zeal for their Religion which brings their Loyalty into suspicion Whereas in truth with all their fair Professions of their own Innocence and good Affection to the Government they take all Opportunities either secretly to whisper false Fears and Dangers into their Neighbours Heads or else to fill them with open Complaints and Invectives against the Remisness of some or the Rigor of others in Publick Places till at last they so poison and enrage their shallow Admirers that they are ready upon the first Occasion to break out into open Hostility and to break through all Difficulties and Dangers to accomplish their Bloody Purposes and so to become the other sort of Enemies we spoke of if not more dangerous yet more daring and violent who are all for killing and taking possession Who are for smiting the King but not the King only as Achitophel was but will have his dearest and only Brother his prime Counsellors Judges Magistrates to share his Fate And in their breathings out of Slaughter saying with that Enemy Exod. 15.9 We will pursue we will overtake we will divide the Spoil Our Lust shall be satisfied on them we will draw our Sword and our Hand shall destroy them Sure theirs would have been the Lust indeed the Sport and Wantonness of Cruelty to have killed and flayed and stifled as in their Revenge and Rage they propounded The Jesuited Papist that Man of Blood and Massacre to be sure will be presently taken upon suspicion for the Violent Man in our Case and upon a through-examination of his Principles and Practices in our own Kingdom and that not only in the days of our Fathers but in this present Age we can by no means acquit him He had his Head and Hand deep enough in the Popish Plot and no doubt acts still a subtil and spightful part among the several Sects of our Dissenters But in good earnest they deal a little too hardly with him who would lay this Plot too at his Door and give out That those very Men who open so loud against Popery and will never be gotten off of that haunt are themselves Papists But the folly of this setting the Devil against himself and making Satan to cast out Satan is manifest to all Men whose Reason and Knowledg is not as implicit and blind as the Papist's Faith and Obedience Methinks they had better try whether they cannot help their Cause a little by making the Iniquus Homo in the Text the same with the Inimicus Homo the Envious Man in the Gospel as St. Hierom doth and so shift off the Plot not to the Jesuit but to the Devil himself their common Counsellor and Prompter The King knows and we all know very well who our Violent Men were The great complainers of Violence and Oppression the True Protestants that seldom or never came to Church or at least came not to our Solemn Prayers or came not up to the heights of our Regular Service Such whom Indulgence and Toleration had emboldned to rebel for Dominion and to abuse their Liberty of Assembling for Devotion to meet together for War In a word a sort of Fanatick Miscreants who were as far from being true Protestants as they were from being good Subjects And it is God that hath in good measure avenged our David of these Violent Men. One fell by the Hand of God Another by his Own Some have suffered the Justice of the Nation some are fled from it and the rest are reserved in Custody where we leave them to the Justice of the Law and the Mercy of God And proceed to the 3. Third Particular The Author of the King 's and the Nations Deliverance from them God is seen indeed in the Judgments that he executes but they are his strange Work which he delights not in But Mercy is his Darling Attribute most natural and proper to him as I may so speak and he glorieth most in it Punishment is an Act of Power but Protection and Mercy are the Works of Honour And therefore Princes depute their Administration of Justice and their Power of punishing to their Officers but Acts of Grace and Pardon they reserve to themselves as a more sacred Impress and more immediate Character of Royalty In like manner God who is glorious in all his Attributes singles out his Goodness his Acts of Protection and Deliverance as the most eminent displays of his Glory and Greatness For when Moses desired to see his Majesty in its most ample extent in all its Pomp and Grandeur he only caused his Goodness to pass before him And as his Glory is seen more or less in every Act of his Goodness so it shines out fully in the preservation or deliverance of good and great Men who are Publick Blessings in whose Sufferings and in whose Salvation so many partake as being the Shields the Supporters and Foundations of a Nation in the Scripture-Allusions And seeing the Shields of the Earth belong to God as in regard of their Honour and Office so in regard of God's special care of and watchful Providence over them He being their Shield as they are ours some Beam or Ray of the Divine Soveraignty
seemeth to be eclipsed in their Dangers but all its Glory breaks forth in their Deliverance As all Kings are God's Kings and his Anointed by Name and Office by special Propriety and Representation So the King in the Text and our King are his by most signal and eminent Preservations Protections and Deliverances such as proclaim their Divine Author preach God to an unbelieving World and give him all the visibility that his Nature is capable of Psal 58.11 So that a Man any Man a mere Man one that hath none but the light of Natural Reason to see by may say Verily there is a God that judgeth in the Earth However that taking Title of Liberatores Paetriae The Saviours of their Country should have been misapplied to the Murderers of their King God hath been really our Juvans Pater our mighty Helper in distress the Father and Author of his Majesty's Deliverances in a most apparent manner at several times and by various means I had almost said Miracles And if we do not trace the Providence of God in relation to him so far back as his wonderful escape at Worcester We must reflect upon it in his coming home from Exile because perhaps we have not yet in the Story of any Times at least not of our own Nation a more plain discovery of the Hand of God a more convincing demonstration Dan. 4.32 That the most High ruleth in the Kingdom of Men and giveth it to whomsoever he will And I hope it may help to promote the Joy and Thanksgiving of this present Day and to confirm our Faith in the Divine Power and Mercy If we call to mind his Wonders of Old particularly that great Miracle of his Majesty's Restauration A Work which was accomplished by the Arm of God made bare devested of all Humane Assistance For our Gracious King whom God keep-long there was not possessed of his Throne until his Friends had in vain tried all ways to restore him and his Enemies essayed whatsoever their utmost Malice and Cunning could suggest against him A formidable and succesful Army was scattered without a Blow a Victory obtained without Fighting the Enmity slain without the Wounds of our Enemies Terrible things which we looked not for were wrought for us by the Hand of the Almighty in a kind of Parallel and Proportion to the Deliverance of Israel at the Red Sea We all stood still and saw the Salvation of God And truly whilst we consider the indefatigable and crafty Endeavours of the Popish Faction ever since to introduce their Religion either by laying aside or taking off quâcunque arte omni-ratione an Heretical Prince as they esteem ours And on the other hand whilst we consider the menacing Ambition and Revenge of others whom I would rather call Protestors than Protestants the Interest they had in the factious enraged Multitude whom they had stirred up as Corah Dathan and Abiram did the People against Moses and Aaron and the assistance they had from their many Preachers of Sedition who in their several Quarters or Congregations like Sheba the Son of Bichri blew a Trumpet and said We have no part in David neither have we any portion in the Son of Jesse Or like the Gracchi at Rome who could talk the People into Mutiny at their pleasure Or lastly like Demetrins the Silver-smith who by one Seditious Oration filled with Vproar the whole City of Ephesus Again whilst we consider how many Seditious and Scurrilous Pamphlets were put into trusty Hands who were ready to lend them to some and talk them over to others with their own Additions and Remarks for the more effectual promoting Rebellion and Treason throughout the Land for the conjuring up of those Venti Typhonici restless and violent Spirits whose work it is to take Peace from the Earth and to cast all into Confusion Once more Whilst we consider the great spreading of that Malignant Popish Principle even amongst our True Protestants as they loved to call themselves That Finis dat non tantum amabilitutem sed bonitatem mediis and that we may do Evil that Good may come of it that we need not stick at any thing though never so lawless and violent for that which we think to be God's Cause and the Interest of Religion I say whilst we consider the variety of the Enemies of the Government their Quality Number Strength their Stratagems Associations Conspiracies we cannot but discover Miracles of the Divine Power and Goodness in our King 's continued Defence and Preservation only short if short at all of those of his happy Return to us from a tedious Exile Yea what a visible signal Hand of Providence was there in his and the Kingdom 's Deliverance from this Plot the most barbarous and bloody that was ever laid since the Gun-powder Treason For how much of Accident and Casualty soever there appeared to be at first in the Fire at Newmarket we cannot but conclude by the happy Event that God was in the midst of that Fire and that it was not kindled so much in Judgment to the particular Sufferers as in Mercy to the King and to the whole Nation a Fire of Defence and not of Destruction And we may say We were delivered without a Comparison without a so as by Fire God who is sometimes said to make his Angel-Ministers a Flame of Fire may by as easy a Figure be said to have made that flaming Fire a Guardian Angel a Minister of Preservation to the King and Kingdom And that when the Conspirators were ready to seize upon the Royal Prey and divide the Spoil crying out with David's Enemies Ah so would we have it persecute and take him Psal 71.11 for there is none to deliver And methinks 't is strange that the Plotters of and Well-wishers to that hateful Iniquity should not be more forward to give glory to God who hath spoken to them out of the Fire and that in so remarkable a Circumstance of their Defeat they should not be more ready to own the Eye and Hand of that God Psal 33.10 who bringeth the Counsel of the Heathen to nought and maketh the Devices of the People to be of none effect Strange that they should be no more ready to acknowledg with us Psal 37.39 That the Salvation of the Righteous is of the Lord and that he is their strength in the time of Trouble That it is he that avengeth our King he that subdueth the People he that delivereth him from his Enemies and from the Violent Man But so much for the Author of this Deliverance the God of our Salvation 4. For the manner of it It was a Defence and a Dignity as well as a Deliverance 1. It was a Defence God hath made it a new Settlement to his Throne an addition of Strength and Security to his Empire by washing off the Paints the Colourings and Counterfeits both of Religion and Loyalty shewing him who are True Protestants and who