zealous for but a Liberty in Religion that is that every one may have his liberty to be of any Religion or of none which serves the Atheists turn as well as the Sectaries but is not much for the honour or interest of true Religion So that whatever the pretences are it is an ambitious discontented revengeful spirit an uneasie restless fickle and changeable humour which disturbs publick Government and undermines the Thrones of Princes and therefore it is no wonder if the best Princes and the best Governments in the world be disturbed by such men David himself could not escape he had a great many enemies but Davids God was greater than they all for great deliverance giveth he to his King and sheweth mercy to his Anointed to David and to his seed for evermore There is something peculiar in these words which cannot be applied to any other Prince for as David was King of Israel so he was a Type of the Messias who was to descend from his loynes and that promise or prediction that he would shew mercy to his Anointed to David and to his seed for evermore received its full accomplishment in the Kingdom of the Messias who is said to set upon the Throne of David but yet those deliverances God wrought for David were personal too and an example of Gods care and protection of Pious and Religious Princes And when we see the same good providence watching over our Prince and securing him from the bloody designs of wicked men we have reason thankfully to acknowledge it as David did great deliverance he hath given to our Prince he hath shewn mercy to his Anointed Now know we that the Lord saveth his Anointed he will hear him from his holy Heaven with the saving strength of his right hand Some trust in Chariots and some in Horses but we will remember the Name of the Lord our God they are brought down and fallen but we are risen and stand upright My present Discourse therefore shall consist of those two parts 1. Briefly to observe to you those many great Deliverances which God hath wrought for our King 2. I shall make some practical Reflections on it especially with reference to this late Discovery 1. To observe to you those many great deliverances which God hath wrought for our King His troubles have not been much unlike I am sure not inferiour to Davids and his Deliverances have not been less strange and wonderful I am not a going to give you a History of his Life but only to point you to some remarkable passages of it which it becomes us all thankfully to remember I suppose no man doubts how many dangers a Prince is exposed to who flies before an enraged and victorious enemy who knows not whither to go where to hide himself whom to trust this was the condition of our Dread Soveraign who was hunted as a Partridge in the mountains pursued by his own Rebellious Subjects who had usurpt his Throne and thirsted after his Blood But then God found a hiding place for him and delivered him from the desire and expectation of his enemies But still his condition was calamitous he was forc't to live in Exile and Banishment divested of Royal power and all the ensignes of Majesty reduced to a precarious and sometimes a necessitous state while he saw his Friends impoverisht and ruined his Loyal Subjects opprest his Enemies triumphant too vigilant and too powerful to allow any hope to see an end of these troubles But that God who can do what he pleases and oftentimes does such things as no humane force nor power can effect put an end to these troubles also and restored him to his Fathers Throne in Peace and Honour and with the universal joy and triumph of his Subjects and I suppose you will reckon this a deliverance a great and wonderful deliverance both to Prince and People a deliverance immediately wrought by God without Humane policy contrivance or power To see a Prince whose Father was Murdered and himself forc't into banishment by his own Subjects without any power of his own without the help and assistance of Forreign Allies while his Friends at home were opprest while the same power that drove him out was still in the hands of his enemies while so many persons who were in greatest power were concerned for their own preservation to keep him out while those who wisht his return durst not whisper any thing tending to call the King back again I say to see a Prince in such circumstances without striking a blow without shedding a drop of Blood return again in the throngs and crouds and with the acclamations of his Subjects is no less a Miracle than dividing the sea to give a safe passage to the Israelites for the Psalmist represents it as an argument of equal power to still the noise of the the seas the noise of their waves and the tumult of the people This is the Lords doings and it is marvellous in our eyes now know we that the Lord saveth his Anointed he will hear him from his holy Heaven with the saving strength of his right hand And that good Providence which brought our King back again has watcht over him ever since Though he returned in a happy day when the Seas were smooth and calm when no frowns were to be seen on mens forheads but such cheerful looks as signifyed the inward pleasure and serenity of their minds yet it could not be expected that this calm would always last I think we may now venture to say without fear of being censured that there are two sorts of men that are restless and implacable and always working under ground and both of them with an equal pretence of Religion I mean the Papist and the Fanatick I shall not take notice of those several weak attempts they have made since the happy Restauration of our Prince there is something greater to imploy our thoughts at this time some more signal demonstrations of that great deliverance God giveth to his King We have now for many years had little other discourse than of a Popish Plot a wicked hellish design against the Life of our King and the Religion and Liberties of his Subjects This was a formidable design laid close and in the dark prosecuted with deep Counsels and combined interests We may remember for I think we cannot easily forget what horror and consternation surprized us at the news we lived in perpetual fear of the Life of our Prince in perpetual fear of our own how did the name of Popery deservedly stink among us how did men abhor a Religion which is nourisht with Blood with Royal and innocent Blood How zealous were men in their discoveries how watchful in their Guards how devout in their Prayers for the preservation of their Prince and of their Religion And though possibly we have not seen to the bottom of that Plot to this day and it may be never shall yet blessed be God
without it While our thoughts are wholly employed to secure our selves on one hand where our danger is present and visible it gives opportunity to an unseen and unobserved Enemy to assault us on the other When the Popish Plot was discover'd all mens mouths were opened against Popery we saw no other Enemy we feared none we suspected none nay when there was too much reason for our suspicions we would believe none we thought it impossible that men who exprest such an abhorrence and detestation of the Popish Plot should be laying new Plots themselves And we see now what advantage they made of our security And now the great danger is that the Discovery of this Anti-Popish Plot should make men secure of Popery and think there is no danger now from that corner For my part I am abundantly satisfied that we are in great danger of both and in the greater danger of both because their contrary assaults give great advantages to each other The Papists now may Father their Plots upon Protestants and Protestants upon Papists and we may be involved in Blood and Confusion and neither know our Friends nor our Enemies God of his infinite mercy preserve our King and these Kingdoms our Liberties Laws and Religion from the wicked conspiracies of all our Enemies Which is the last thing I shall recommend to you to praise God for his preservation of our King hitherto and earnestly to beg that the same good Providence would still watch over him for the time to come And certainly if ever we had reason to praise God for any Deliverance we have for this which is such a comprehensive mercy as extends to all our concernments of Soul and Body in this world If we value our own Lives our Liberties and Religion if we value the Security of the Government and the publick peace and safety we have reason to bless God for the preservation of our King Who can without horrour consider what a distracted face of things we had seen at this day had this Plot taken effect who knows who should have acted his part in that Tragedy by what Mark or Test they would have distinguished Friends from Enemies Or what comfort had it been to any Loyal Subject and good Christian to have survived the Murder of his Prince and the ruines of Church and State and to have been an eye-witness of those barbarous Villanies which would have been acted under a Mask of Religion Blessed be that God who giveth deliverance to his King and sheweth mercy to his Anointed Blessed be that Alwise Being who sits upon the Circle of the Heavens and sees and laughs at and defeats all the most secret Plots and Conspiracies of wicked men Let us bless God and let us honour our King and receive him with Joy and Thanksgiving as a new Gift and Present from the hands of God When we are heartily thankful for the mercies we have already received this will make our prayers more effectual for the continuance of them O Lord save the King who putteth his trust in thee send him help from thy holy place and evermore mightily defend him let his enemies have no advantage against him nor the wicked approach to hurt him Which God of his infinite mercy grant through our Lord Iesus Christ to whom with the Father and the holy Ghost be honour and glory and power now and for ever Amen FINIS 13 Rom. 2. 20 Psalm 6 7 8. 65 Psal. 7. 2 Psal. 1 2 3 4. 18 Joh. 36.
SOME Seasonable Reflections ON THE DISCOVERY OF The late Plot. BEING A SERMON Preacht on that Occasion By WILLIAM SHERLOCK D. D. Rector of St. George Buttolph-lane London LONDON Printed for Thomas Basset at the George in Fleet-street and Fincham Gardiner at the White horse in Ludgate-street 1683. The Preface to the Reader THe reason why I publish this Sermon is partly to gratifie the desires of some partly to prevent the misrepresentations of others but chiefly for the same end for which I preacht it viz. to take the advantage of this present opportunity to make some impressions upon mens minds which I fear at other times they will not so easily receive I hope all honest men even Dissenters themselves do from their hearts abhor those villanous designs against the Life of our King which God of his great mercy to these Kingdoms has so lately brought to light and while they are possest with such an abhorrence of the Treason it seems to me to be a very proper season to put them in mind by what means such evil designs have been first formed and encouraged and brought to ripeness and perfection that those who have been cheated into a Faction by some plausible pretences and have followed the general noise and outcry in the simplicity of their hearts may take warning for the future and avoid every step and advance towards Sedition and Treason as well as abhor the Treason it self It was impossible to do this without calling to mind a great many things which to be sure those who are any ways concerned are not now willing to hear of and that with such plainness as is necessary to convince men of the evil nature and tendency of such practices but God is my witness that I did not this with the least design to upbraid or reproach any men or party of men but with the same honest and charitable intentions though it may be not with the same skill that a Chirurgeon uses in searching a wound to the very bottom which is very painful indeed but absolutely necessary to a Cure Some persons I hear have objected against this Discourse that I seem to charge this Plot upon the Protestant Dissenters and insinuate that it is a Fanatick a true Protestant Plot. God forbid that all Protestant Dissenters should be concerned in this Plot I hope better things of many of them nor do I undertake to meddle with such matters All that I meant is nothing but what is evident to any man who believes a Plot that this horrible Conspiracy has been contrived and carried on by those men who of late have pretended to be the only true Protestants a name which they would not allow to any man who appeared zealously concerned either for the King or the Church of England Whether such men have any Religion or none whether they go to Conventicles or to give the better grace to the business sometimes hear the Common Prayer is all one to me I am sure the turbulent spirit which has of late acted our Dissenters and their unwillingness to believe any Plot still gives too just a suspicion of many of them Though we are all bound to praise and adore the Divine goodness in defeating such wicked designs yet I am so far from triumphing over these men that I cannot but pity and mourn over them my heart bleeds for that scandal that is done to Religion that advantage which is given to the common enemy for the sin and the fall of great Men and the ruine of Noble Families but what is done cannot be undone again our care must look forward to times to come to remove the occasions to root up the very seeds and principles of Sedition that these shakings and convulsions of State may at last settle in a profound and secure Peace and Tranquillity If this plain discourse can contribute any thing to so happy an end I have all that I aim'd at both in Preaching and Printing it however I have the satisfaction of an honest design which is a reward to its self and gives that inward contentment and pleasure which the reproaches and censures of the World which too often attend such undertakings can never disturb A SERMON XVIII PSALM v. 50. Great deliverance giveth he to his King and sheweth mercy to his Anointed to David and to his Seed for evermore THis Psalm was pen'd by David in a thankful remembrance of those many wonderful deliverances which God had wrought for him and particularly his deliverance from the hands of Saul a jealous powerful and implacable enemy as we are expresly told 2 Sam. 22. 1. This Pious Prince though he were immediately advanced to the Throne by God himself could not escape the Conspiracies of his enemies both at home and abroad for Men of Turbulent and restless Spirits will be sure to find or make some pretences or occasions of quarrel under the most just and equal Government Sometimes men dispute the right of Succession but this they could not do here unless they would dispute Gods right to place and displace Princes for David was immediately chosen by God and anointed by his Prophet and yet this could not secure him from Conspiracies and Rebellions Others pretend great Oppression and Male-administration of Government though their licentious noises and clamours sufficiently confute it for men who are most opprest dare say the least of it The Liberties and Properties of the Subject is an admirable pretence to deprive the Prince of his Liberties and Properties and those who have any Liberty and Property to loose seldom gain any thing by this for when they have secured their Liberties and Properties against their Prince it is a much harder task to secure themselves from their fellow-Subjects Men who have no Property have some encouragement to Rebel and fight for Property for it is possible they may get something in the scramble when all Law and Property ceases but the property of the Sword but methinks men of Honour and plentiful Fortune should not be so zealous for transferring Properties to enrich Beggars and submit their necks to the Yoke and Government of their own Slaves which our late experience has taught us to be the glorious effect of Rebelling for Liberty and Property Others make Religion a pretence for their Rebellion Religion the greatest and the dearest interest of all but methinks it is a dangerous way for men to Rebel to save their Souls when God has threatned Damnation against those who Rebel but this is as vain a pretence as Liberty and Property for no men fight for Religion who have any Religion is a quiet peaceable governable thing it teaches men to suffer patiently but not to Rebel And were there any true concernment for Religion in this pretence can we imagine that the most profest Atheists the most lewd profligate wretches the greatest Prodigies and Monsters of wickedness should be so zealous for Religion But it 's evident it is not Religion such men are