necessary the great Duty of this and of every Day namely to implore God's Mercy and Protection upon the King and his Kingdoms and his Direction and Blessing upon the publick Counsels Let my Counsel I pray be acceptable unto you Study to be quiet and to do your own Business and that lies not in the Court or in the Palace but here in the Temple 'T is not to listen at the Doors of the two Houses of Parliament or to Eves-drop the Council-Chamber but to wait in your proper Stations with Modesty and Patience what Avisoes and Commands are sent you from thence and to comply with them Instead of thronging and pestering the Galleries and Avenues of those places where Matters of State are upon the Table what a blessed Appearance were it in times of Danger such as this is to see the Church Doors alwaies open and the great Stream and Shole of People continually flowing thither and to find some of you alwaies upon the Floor there Weeping between the Porch and the Altar and saying Spare thy People Oh Lord and give not thy Heritage to Reproach Thou hast brought up a Vine out of Egypt Thou hast cast out the Heathen and planted it Let not the Wild Boar out of the Wood root it up nor the Wild Beast of the Field devour it Let thy Hand be upon the Man of thy right Hand whom thou hast made so strong for thy self Keep him as the Apple of thine Eye Hide him under the shadow of thy Wings Let his Dayes be many and his Reign prosperous and under his shadow let both Church and State long flourish And let them be confounded and driven backward as many as have Evil Will at Sion To furnish out an Office for such daily Devotions 't is but to take your Psalter along with you in your Hand which is full of them But especially let me commend to you that Decad of Psalms which begins with the livth and so on which may seem to have been put together on purpose for such an Occasion This would be indeed effectually to transcribe holy David's Copy in this his Exemplary and ardent Devotion which is the second Duty requir'd in the Text to prepare us for the protection of God's Wing There is but one more behind and that is 3 Constant Perseverance in both the former In the two former you have seen holy David putting himself under the shadow of God's Wings and making good his Refuge there by Acts of Faith and Devotion And being once there no storm shall beat him off No Discouragement shall drive him away No delay shall weary him out If God kills him 't is all one hee 'll trust in him still and die in his Arms For here he hath set up his Rest and Donec transierint he is steddily resolv'd his Refuge is and shall be here till these Calamities are overpast But here we must take heed of a great Mistake There are that hold the Donec in the Text too hard and stiff are too punctual and precise with God in it who will trust in him it may be and ply their Devotions just so long as till the Calamity be past But then on the sudden their Trust grows feeble and their Devotion cold and heartless No sooner deliver'd but like old Israel they forget God at the Sea even at the Red Sea Use him like Themistocle's Plane-trees under which men run for shelter in a Storm but the Shower once over they pluck off the Branches turn their backs and away Nay but there is in Scripture-language an infinite and an interminable Donec which never expires He knew her not till she brought forth Nay he never knew her In spight of Helvidius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Church stile her A Virgin before and in and after the Birth of our Lord and for ever Ay that 's the Virgin-Soul indeed that keeps ever close to her heavenly Spouse Not only runs under his Wings for Shelter when Calamities affright her saying Spread thy Skirt over me and then straies away again as soon as ever the flattering Calm and Sunshine of Prosperity tempts her abroad As our Lord hath given us an everlasting Donec Lo I am with you saith he till the End of the World Not that he will leave us then but take us yet nigher unto himself and so we shall ever be with the Lord as the Apostle speaks So must we also have One for him of the same Latitude and Extension For ever under the Shadow of his Wings till this single Tyranny as in the Old Translation till these Calamities as in the New or as the Hebrew implies till all and every of our Calamities be overpast Both before and in and after Calamities still under the Shadow of God's Wings While they last 't is In the Shadow of thy Wings will I trust and when they are past 't is In the Shadow of thy Wings will I rejoyce that 's all the Difference As the Scenes shift our Devotion must improve and advance too till our Prayer be heighten'd into Praise as I trust ere long it will be our Hope swallowed in Enjoyment and our Trust sublimated and made to flowre up into Joy and riumph When the same God that rais'd David from the Cave to the Throne shall translate us also from the Shadow of his Wings into the Light of his Countenance To the Beatifical Vision whereof He of his Mercy bring us who hath so dearly bought it for us Jesus Christ the Righteous To whom with thee O Father and God the Holy Ghost be ascribed of us and all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth Blessing Honour Glory and Power both now and for evermore Amen FINIS Orig. Philocal p. 59 Ps. CV 39. Jac. I. 11. L. 17. c. 12. In 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 17. 8. 18. 10. Ps. XVIII 10. Ex. XIX 4. Deut. XXXII 11. Rev. XII 4. Es. VIII 8. Gen. I. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gr. Schol. on Aratus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LXVI I. Chald. Engl. Gen. Ps. CIV 18. Psal. cix 10. Esa. xxx 3. Aristoph De Adorat lib. 16. Psal. xliv 6. xxxiii 16. Psal. lv 6. See his Life Psal. xxxvii 3-5 1 Pet. iv ult Prov. xix 29. Psal. xxxii 9. Psal. xxxi 24. Exod. xxv 20. Hebr. ix 5. Psal. cxxi 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. i. ult 1 Thess. iv 17.
Condition And may not God bespeak us too the People of England in the same language When we were enslav'd at home and so in worse than Egyptian Slavery and our Pharaoh and his proud Task-masters made even our Lives bitter to us in hard Bondage in Mortar and in Brick to build up their own proud Babels when they had now kill'd and also taken possession and divided the Spoil and said in a Frolick of their lusty pride We have devoured them and there is no Hope for them in their God Then on the sudden as an Eagle stirreth up her Neast and fluttereth over her Young and spreadeth abroad her Wings as Moses speaks in his admirable Song thus awakening and exciting their natural Activity and emboldening them to use it to the utmost and when that will not do taketh them up her self and beareth them away upon her own Wings So here The Lord alone did lead us and there was no Other with him that 's Moses's own Reddition When our own Pinion prov'd too weak and all our faint Flutterings to no purpose then by a Miracle of Wisdom Power and Goodness he took us up to that gallant and wonderful Flight even up to a higher pitch than we durst look and made us to ride upon the high Places of the Earth and set our Neast again amongst the Stars And now when restless and unquiet Men the true Spawn of him whose Tail drew the third part of the Stars of Heaven and cast them to the Earth would fain by their hellish Plots and Contrivances bring us down again from thence even down to the very Ground and lay all our Honour in the Dust When by their secret Machinations they are at Work on all hands to hurry us back into the old Confusions in Hope that out of that disordered Mass they may at length rear up a new World of their own But what a World A World made up of a new Heaven of Superstitions and Idolatries a new Earth too of Anarchy first and pretended Liberty but of Tyranny insufferable at the next Remove In such a dangerous State of Affairs as this whether should we rather nay whether else can we run for Help and Deliverance but under his protections the Stretching out of whose Wings fills the Breadth of thy Land ô England He can make all these Cockatrice Eggs on which this Generation of Vipers that eat out the Bowels of their Mother have sat so long abrood windy at last and addle and he will do it So that out of the Serpent's Root shall never come forth an Adder to bite us or a fiery flying Serpent to devour us He will confound these Babel-builders with their City and their Tower or Temple their foreign Politie and their strange Worship their novel Modes and Models of Government in Church and State and scatter them abroad from hence upon the Face of all the Earth Like as a Dream when one awaketh so shall he despise their Images and their Imaginations too and cause them to vanish out of the City and make the whole Bulk of their vast Contrivance to consume away like a Snail and become like the untimely Fruit of a Woman which shall never see the Sun He that at first made all things with an Almighty Word said only Let it be and it was so can with the same Facility unmake and annihilate those Worlds of Wickedness which these great Architects of Mischief have been so long projecting and building up 'T is but for him to say It shall not prosper or This shall not be and behold the mighty Machin cracks about their Ears and sinks into Ruine into Nothing leaving no Effect behind it more real or conspicuous than a more firm and lasting Establishment of that which God 's own Right Hand hath planted amongst us When the Earth at first was without Form and void and Darkness hovered over the Face of the Deep the Spirit of God saith the Text mov'd upon the Waters The Word in the Original as St. Hierom tells us from the Hebrew Traditions implies that the Spirit of God sate abrood upon the whole rude Mass as Birds upon their Eggs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a Greek Author speaks elegantly and hatcht the Chaos into World by degrees digesting and in the mean time preserving and susteining it by kindly Heats and vital Incubations And to the like benign and gracious purposes doth God still spread the Wings of his good Providence over his People and their Affairs in calamitous times such as this is When he may seem to stretch out upon the Political World the Line of Confusion and the Plummet of Emptiness Tohu and Bohu the very Words which describe the first Chaos as 't is Es. XXXIV 11. And if hereupon we put our selves as we ought under the saving Influences of his Wings he will either digest our Confusions into greater Order and Beauty than before or at least support and chear us while we lie under them which is the third and last Priviledge implied in this Expression 3. Comfort and Refreshment in Calamities while they are upon us For the Wing is not only the Retreat of Safety from Calamities as in the first particular Nor only the Instrument of Deliverance out of Calamities as in the second 'T is also the Seat of Comfort and the Fountain of Refreshment when they lie heaviest upon us And here I might spend the Hour with much Delight for the Prospect is fair and large before me But I am sensible that I have already staid too long upon the first Head of Discourse propounded and so perhaps comply'd too much with the common Humour which loves rather to be tickled and amused with high Priviledge than instructed in necessary Duty I shall therefore make haste to seize what remains of the Time and improve it to let you see That All I have said hitherto and the Much more I might have said upon that first Head of Priviledges signifies nothing at all is all blank and Cypher to them that go not on chearfully to the Second that of Duty II. They that would be safe under God's Wings must not only please themselves with the general Speculation that Safety and Protection is there to be had They must also make their Refuge there they must put themselves under the Shadow of those Wings by their special Act and Deed must deliberately chuse and effectually place their last Resort there and if they will partake the Benefits must comply with the Obligations of such a State God is our Refuge and our Strength saith holy David most devoutly and most Methodically too For we must first make him our Refuge by flying to him before we can hope that he will be our Strength In vain do they dream of God's saving Protections that turn their Backs upon his Precepts and cast his Laws behind them 'T is true God's Altars are our Sanctuary an inviolable Asylum in our Sufferings and in
height of his Rock but in the Rock of Ages Though being a Man of War he well understood the grand Importance of a Castle well seated and fortified of a Mount or Rock inaccessible of a Cave in that Rock capacious and defensible such as Strabo tells us there were many in Palestine and such were probably the Cave of Adullan and the strong Holds of Engedi and the rest which we meet with so often in David's story yet sever'd and abstracted from the divine Protections he slights all these as Paper-walls and Cobweb-fortifications And knowing he could not be safe on this side Omnipotence he stiles God almost in every Psalm his Rock and his Castle his Fortress and his Strong-Hold his High-Tower and the Hill of his Defence that 's the first property of his Trust it begins in great Self-diffidence But Secondly It goes on in active Diligence The Young one hath its last Retreat indeed under the Dam's Wing Yet the little Wing it hath of its own it imployes to bring it thither The Eagle in Moses's Song as I noted before not only bears its Eaglets on her own Wings but stirs up her Nest too and provokes them first to do their uttermost Though David resolv'd well I will not trust in my Bow yet he us'd it sure It was not Goliah's Sword that could save him yet gladly he girt himself with it when the High Priest reacht it him There is no King saith he that can be sav'd by the Multitude of an Host yet he refus'd not the Voluntiers that came to List themselves under him He fled from Saul with all Diligence into the Cave though he had still a Refuge beyond it Though he sets up his Rest under God's Wings yet Oh saith he that I had the Wings of a Dove too that I might flie away to my Rest. The Moral and the Reddition of All is but thus much We all of us have Wings of our own too Faculties and Abilities that must be us'd Why else were they given us though they must not be trusted in The most excellent Father Paul of the Servi of Venice was Libell'd in the Holy Office as they call it for advising one that pretended to immediate Inspirations and Assistances to use humane Means and Industries and so to expect God's Blessing But the Inquisitors were for once so wise as to absolve him without Examination Our Psalmist states the matter well Trust in the Lord saith he but be doing Good too and so verily thou shalt be fed Commit thy way unto the Lord and He shall bring it to pass But walk in it thy self how is it else thy way Commit the keeping of thy Soul saith the Apostle and so commend the keeping of the publick too to God But still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in well-doing in doing thy Duty in thy Station in all the instances of it In the Age of Miracles indeed when the Sea divided and suddenly turn'd green Meadow and when an Angel went forth and dispatcht so many Thousands in a Night well might the watch-word be Stand still and see the Salvation of God The Lord shall fight for you and ye shall do nothing But the season is chang'd and 't is now Come forth and help the Lord against the Mighty and work out your own Salvation and so the Salvation of the Nation too because 't is God that Works that is St. Paul's Logick We must not presume to use our Lord as Herod did call for him when we please to Work us a fine Miracle neglect our Affairs and leave them embroyl'd and ruffled on purpose that he may come down 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to disentangle them The Glory of God descends not visibly now adayes upon our Palaces as of old upon the Tabernacle of the Congregation to rescue our Moses and Aaron from being massacred by a desperate Knot of Mutineers Nor doth the Earth open her Mouth any longer to swallow up our Rebels and Traitors alive 'T is a Scepter of ordinary Justice not a Rod of Wonders that fills the Hand of our Governours We must not expect that a good Cause should work alone of it self by Way of Miracle Believe it it must be prudently and industriously manag'd too or it must at last miscarry For Instance the Instance of the present time The Devils of Sedition and Faction of Treason and Rebellion those Familiars of Rome and Rhemes and S. Omers the Jesuites I mean that have so long possess'd and agitated a wretched part of this Nation will never go out from hence and leave us at quiet no not by Prayer and Fasting only Nay the best Laws we have the best you can make if they be not steddily and severely executed will prove too slight a Conjuration for these sturdy evil Spirits of Disobedience There is another and a better Flagellum Daemonum than that of Hieronymus Mengis and his fellow Exorcists Holy Water is a Trifle and holy Words will not do it There is no such thing as Medicina per Verba Words and Talk will never cure the Distempers of a Nation Deaf Adders refuse all the Voice of the Charmer charm he never so wisely If in good Earnest we would be rid of this Legion and say as our Lord to the deaf and dumb Spirit Go out and enter no more What shall I say In short Solomon ' s Rod for the back of Fools that grow troublesome or dangerous as it may be prepar'd and manag'd is a very powerful and effectual Exorcism Untamed Horses and skittish Mules that will have no Understanding are not edified at all by calm reasonings and Instructions and meek Remonstrances nor in any other method so well as by Davids Expedient In Fraeno Camo their Mouths must be kept in with Bitt and Bridle that it may not be possible for them to fall upon you and so ye may be secure of them But the fitting up of David's Bridle and Solomon's Rod and the right Use of both is the Business of another Place I shall resume the general Thesis and so shut up this Particular I say then They trust not in God they presume and tempt him who work not together with him but receive his Aids in vain and look that He should bring about in extraordinary manner what they take no care of themselves but lie flat upon their Backs looking upward and will stir neither Hand nor Foot to help themselves Nay but Viriliter agite conforabit Cor as 't is in the Psalm play the men your selves Do All that you can or ought to do within your proper Sphere and so God will strengthen your Hearts all ye that put your Trust in the Lord. Wings as they are the Covert of Safety so also the Emblems of Diligence and the Instruments of Activity And as they shew us our Priviledge may teach us also this part of our Duty to trust only in God's Wings but to use our own too that