as obedient to his Commands as Israel was to Solomon's Whose Excellent President I have chosen to set before you to Copy after A Text which you must needs by this time see to be proper and pertinent and such as by the Blessing of God is made very seasonable and suitable to this Day 's Solemnity Which if it had fall'n into the hands of one whom better Parts and more Leisure had fitted for this Service might have afforded you a Discourse not Inferiour to what this great and first Anniversary Solemnity might teach you to expect But the happy Occasion of our meeting and your own obvious Meditations upon it will easily draw out the Paralel between this People in my Text and your selves without the help of a Preacher The main Ingredients which concur to the completing the happiness of any Kingdom you will find to meet here in my Text A Wise and devout King a Loyal and Religious People and a good understanding between them Solomon takes care to build and adorn the Temple of God and the People contribute freely and largely to it He brings the Ark of the Covenant into the City of David they attended it with all due Solemnity he establish'd Religion by a Law and the People take special notice of the Honour and Welfare of Religion under his Government Vers 11. of the Glory of the Lord filling the House of the Lord as a testimony of his owning what the King and they had done Vers 30. and of God's hearkning to the King 's and their Prayers in the House which he in their sight had newly Dedicated to him Prov. iij. 9. He honoured God with his substance and with the first-Fruits of his Increase he Sacrific'd Two and twenty thousand Vers 63. Oxen and an Hundred and twenty thousand Sheep They were well pleased with his Royal and Religious Performances and his Peace-Offering to the Lord this was the Joy of their hearts and they feasted themselves with the Remembrance of it to see Holiness and Happiness meet together Piety and Prosperity kiss each other Vers 65. Solomon held a Feast and all Israel with him a great Congregation Seven days and Seven days and on the Eighth day he sent the people away and they Blessed the King and went unto their Tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord had done for David his Servant and for Israel his people God hath blessed us with a Prince at this time not inferiour to him in my Text for his Knowledge and Conduct in Government one who hath been brought up most part of his Life in the School of Affliction which hath wrought Patience and Patience such Experience in him such knowledge of Men and Business that if he do not by Judgment Establish this Kingdom the fault will not be his but our own For we cannot expect either from God or the King to be made happy whether we will or no we may pull down Destruction upon our selves and our Posterity by the very same methods that we did in his Father's time we may be Destroyers of our selves and the establish'd Religion and make our selves Examples of God's and the King's Justice But if we will take Example of this people in my Text the Sons of Zerviah shall never be too hard for our David nor will he ever be out of love with us or our Religion Loyalty is the King's Joy the Kingdoms Happiness and the Subjects Glory and if all people would be Loyal no Kingdom could be miserable I am sure not ours All the ties of Duty and Gratitude do at this time indispensably oblige us to it and to give his Sacred Majesty the best assurance we can that we know our Duty and that we are firmly resolv'd to act according to it as did this people in my Text On the Eighth day he sent the people away and they blessed the King and went unto their Tents joyful and glad of heart for all the Goodness that the Lord had done for David his Servant and for Israel his People In which words there are Five Particulars observable I. Regia populi Dismissio the Royal Dismission of the People On the Eighth day he sent the People away II. Populi Benedictio Votiva the People's dutiful Valediction They blessed the King at parting III. Populi Submissio the Peoples ready Submission They went unto their Tents IV. Populi Exultatio the People's Satisfaction and Triumph They were joyful and glad of heart V. Exultationis ratio the good Ground and just Reason of their Triumph 'T was for all the goodness that the Lord had done for David his Servant and for Israel his People I shall endeavour to Explain and Apply each of these Particulars in its order The first whereof is I. Regia Populi Dismissio the Dismission of the People when and by whom it was made Arab. Octavo a septem postremis post solennitatem die On the Eighth from the latter Seven days Solemnity of the Dedication or Encoenia such as our Wake-Days and Church-Feasts are for in both Solemnities there were Fourteen Days Seven for the Dedication and the other Seven for the Feast of Tabernacles which began on the Fifteenth of September After the exact Termination whereof Solomon informed the People then Assembled from the Eastern to the Western-borders of his Dominions of their Duty to God and the King and having made a Collection among them to defray the charge of the Sacrifices which had been offer'd when they had done the business for and unto which he call'd them he lets them know That he was not willing to detain them any longer from their private Employments and that he dispensed with their farther Attendance and gave them leave to depart on the morrow Which they accordingly did on the 23. of September with their Hearts as light as their Purses they carried away little Money but much Mirth along with them into the Country and were so far from grudging what they had so piously spent in God's and the King's Service that they gloried in its Acceptance and thought their Moneys well bestow'd and their Journey well paid for The Subjection of the People to their Prince was then thought as natural as that of Children to their Parents they never dream't of a State of natural Freedom When he call'd them they came and when he dismissed them they went away I wish the same Prudence Temper and Moderation had always been in all our fellow Subjects then would not that wild Notion and seditious Opinion ever have been broached among us That the King cannot Prorogue or Dissolve his Parliaments in which his People are Representatively Assembled till their Petitions be answer'd and their Grievances redressed or that they may tarry till they dismiss themselves and not depart when the King thinks fit and convenient as Solomon's People in my Text did with great Submission and Satisfaction which they intimated to the King when it was
A SERMON PREACHED upon the Anniversary Solemnity OF THE Happy Inauguration OF Our Dread Soveraign LORD King JAMES II. In the Collegiate Church of Ripon February the 6 th 1685 6 By THOMAS CARTWRIGHT D.D. Dean of Ripon and Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY LONDON Printed by J. Leake and are to be Sold by Walter Davis in Amen-Corner MDCLXXXVI To my LORD THE Lord HENRY EARL of PETERBOROW Groom of the Stole and First Gentleman of the Bed-Chamber to His MAJESTY one of the Lords of the Honourable Privy-Council and Knight of the Most Noble Order of the GARTER My LORD HOmilies are by our Rubrick and the Statute to give place to Sermons where they may be had and therefore the Minister who Officiates on the King's-Day is obliged rather to Preach a Sermon of his own Composing upon the same Argument than to Read the Homily concerning Obedience to Rulers and Magistrates This I doubt not was chearfully done by Persons and in Places of the greatest Eminency and we in the Country thought our selves bound to be as Dutiful as those in higher places as Affectionate to his Majesty's Service tho' not so Eloquent And tho' many of Richer Parts have of their Abundance cast much more into this Treasury yet Men of Meanest need not despair of His Majesty's Gracious Acceptance Mar. xij 42. whilst like the poor Widow in the Gospel they come to Express their Pious Officiousness to Support his Crown by their Oblations tho' they betray their Poverty by the Meanness of them and shew how much greater their Zeal is than their Abilities to serve Him This I did as well as I could in His Majesty's Collegiate Church of Ripon nor is it Ostentation that makes me Preach it over again from the Press but pure Charity towards the Cure of the Leprosie of those Rebellious Principles which every Priest must needs see tokens enough to discern to be that Plague in the Head which renders too many among our People so utterly unclean as that they are only fit to dwell alone and without the Camp of Israel Lev. xiij 44. ves 46. And as the Priest under the Law who attempted the Cure of any other Leper was by God's Direction to begin at the Right Ear xiv 14. and from thence to proceed to his Right Hand so I thought my self obliged to Print what I had Preach'd that they might Handle what they had heard and be the more perfectly Convinc'd how much it concerns us to Endeavour their Cure and them to join with us in our Prayers to God for the Perfecting it The Subject Convinces me how ready some will be to take Offence at the Author and Argument of this Sermon and tho' I neither fear the Censure nor court the Favour of Men so disaffected to the Government yet I thought my self obliged to make Choice of such a Patron as had been a Pattern of Loyalty to others and was Himself Able and Willing to Protect both and to Maintain that Truth which hath been the Rule of Your Life Your Lordships Devotion to Your Prince and Zeal for His Service being as well known as Your Person And tho' there be little in this Discourse Worthy of Your Judicious Eye or Owning Yet the Cause which it Pleads being That for which Your Honour hath always Expressed so Great a Concern as to venture Your Life and Estate in it makes me not Despair of its Acceptance And Your Eminent and Vndeserved Goodness of which I have had so long Experience secures my Pardon for Prefixing Your Name to it If my Abilities had born Proportion to my Will it should have been as far beyond as it now will fall short of Your Lordships Expectations But my Comfort is That as it gives me an Happy Opportunity to Testifie my Gratitude for Your former Favours so there will be a Power in Your Acceptance to make Plainness an Ornament and to Oblige others to think well of the mean but sincere Performances of him who accounts himself obliged to be as well as to subscribe himself My Lord Your Lordship's In all humble Duty and Unfeigned Observance THOMAS CARTWRIGHT 1 KINGS viij 66. On the Eighth day he sent the People away and they Blessed the King and went unto their Tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord had done for David his Servant and for Israel his People WE are now happily Assembled in the Collegiate Church of Ripon endowed and conferr'd upon us by the Bounty of our Royal Founder King JAMES the First of ever blessed Memory in the Second Year of his Reign to Celebrate Aug. 2. 1604. according to the Laudable and Religions Practice of good Subjects in former Ages the Joyful Inauguration of his Grandson our Gracious Soveraign Lord King JAMES the Second on the First Day of the Second Year of his Reign And we may now remember with Comfort and Satisfaction to our Consciences how the Men of Ripon or our Friends of Ripon as they Ironically call'd us were singled out and traduced not many Years since by Julian Johnson Ferguson and other hot-spurs of the same Faction and Sedition who were then carrying on an Accursed Conspiracy against the Crown and Church of England and Exposed to the Madness of the People to be Ridicul'd and Revil'd for our early and then unfashionable Loyalty expressed in our Address in hopes that they might either have Laugh'd or Frighted us out of our Duty and Religion Now that we may testifie to the World our unmoveable Steadiness and the renewed Evidence of our Fidelity to the Crown in all unshaken Principles and Practises of Loyalty let us do the proper Work of the King's Day in its season Let us Bless God for the miraculous Disappointments of all the malicious Hopes and infernal Designs of those Blood-thirsty Men being not only agreeable to their Anti-Monarchical and Anti-Episcopal Principles but in truth inseparable from them Let us be joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord hath done for David his Servant and for Israel his People Shew your Love to his Person and your Zeal for his Government resign up your selves as you have done your Charter to Him not doubting of a proportionable Favour and Encouragement and as you have stood to your Prince in his severest Tryals according to your bounden Duty so let it not be in the power of any Discontented Persons whatsoever to Taint you with the least blemish of Disloyalty We want nothing blessed be God and the King as to our External State but what to wish for Do we not enjoy Peace Plenty and Liberty nay and the Best Religion in the World and why then should we disquiet our selves or others with the fanciful Imaginations and unreasonable Fears of future Evils for which in reality there appears no Foundation but in our own distemper'd Brains Let us do our Duty and the King his Pleasure let us not prevaricate with God or him but be
things which make for peace go along with them as far as you can with Truth and Charity and where you part let it be like Friends So shall we Edifie one another in our most holy Faith make the Pleasure of his Majesty's Government abate the Burden of it 1 Tim. ij 2. and lead quiet and peaceable Lives under him in all Godliness and Honesty as did this People in my Text under Solomon whose dutiful Submission to him is the next thing to be consider'd and recommended to your Imitation to wit III. Populi Submissio They went unto their Tents They knew 't was fit for them to depart when it was the King's Pleasure but yet to tarry till it were so They resolved not to continue longer nor yet to leave him sooner They would have been glad to have enjoyed the Blessing of his Presence longer but having receiv'd his Commands to be gone they departed and went unto their Tents every Man to his own Habitation without any Dispute or Regret to abide in his Calling to which he was call'd as a Member of the Common-Wealth to meddle with nothing but his proper business and left the Administration of Religion to the Priests and the Government of the Kingdom to Solomon Not from the Court to the Camp not from waiting on him to war against him but from the Temple to their Tents For St. Paul says That Kings are not by God's Sufferance Rom. xiij 1. but by his Ordinance and therefore even supposing them never so bad they are never to be resisted Vers 2. You may take up the Buckler of Patience but you must not take up Arms against them for Rebellion is such rank Poison to the Soul that the least Scruple of it is Damnable Ibid. the very Intention of it in the Heart is Mortal Our Religion will never suffer us to dispence with our Loyalty to serve any worldly Interest or Advantage no not for its own Defence It sets the Crown fast and easie upon the King's Head without Catechising him For be his Heart inclinable to any Religion or none it leaves him no Rival none to Insult or Lord it over him It disclaims all Vsurpation Popular or Papal neither Pope nor Presbyter may controul him none but the great God the only Ruler of Princes can over-rule him to whom 't is his Duty Glory and Happiness to be subject Tho' the King should not Please or Humor us tho' he should rend off the Mantle from our Bodies as Saul did from Samuel nay tho' he should Sentence us to Death of which blessed be God and the King there is no danger yet if we are living Members of the Church of England we must neither open our Mouths nor lift up our Hands against him but Honour him before the People and Elders of Israel 1 Sam. xv 30. We must imitate Jeremiah in Prison Daniel in the Lions-Den Amos struck through the Temples Zachariah Murder'd between the Porch and the Altar our blessed Saviour living under Herod and Tiberius and Crucified under Pontius Pilate His Disciples under Caligula Claudius Nero and Domitian Christian Bishops under Heathen Persecutors none of which ever Revil'd their Princes or Resisted them Who questioned Saul for slaying the Priests and revolting to Idolatry Who questioned Joram a Parricide and Murderer of his Nobles or Joash for his Idolatry and slaying the High-Priest Did the Sanhedrim do it Who questioned Theodosius for Murderdering Six thousand innocent persons Who questioned Constance Valens or Julian the Apostate Who traduc'd their Persons or Dignities or offer'd them any tumultuous Affronts or Remonstrances So that unless we in these latter days do understand the Mind of God better than the Jewish Church and the Primitive Christians did we must not ask our Prince why he Governs us otherwise than we please to be Govern'd our selves We must neither call him to Account for his Religion nor question him for his Policy in Civil Matters for he is made our King by God's Law of which the Law of the Land is only Declarative 'T is God alone who can take Vengeance of him if he does amiss and proportion Punishments to his Person Upon his Providence are we oblig'd to depend who never fails to help Religious Men and Kingdoms in their Distresses Rom. viij 28. and makes all things work together for their good But I need not plead for Submission unto Evil Kings since God of his infinite Goodness hath bestowed so Good and Gracious a King upon us Who tho' he be not of our Religion had we but thankful Hearts to acknowledge his Favours his Kindness is as great to us as if we were of his for he is not a Nero but a Constantine the Great to us The Jews say That the Keys of the Temple were not hung at the High Priests Girdle but laid every Night under Solomon's Pillow as belonging to his Charge To establish Religion by a Law is the King's Province To uphold and maintain the Church and her Legitimate Children this he hath freely undertaken beyond our Expectations if not Deserts And if he be not so good as his Word at last I pray God the Fault be not ours The Ark of God was not shaken as many fear'd it would have been at the Death of our late gracious Soveraign Lord King Charles the Second but continued steady without the least Commotion No Cry in our Cities no Complaining in our Streets no Tears but those of Love and Loyalty The Lord is still with us and hath set another gracious King over us and the presence of God's Ark is once more secured to us even in Verbo Regis in the Word of a King which is as sacred as his Person and as currant as his Coin for in his Word there is Truth as well as Power Eccl. viij 4. And those early and most gracious Assurances of his Princely Piety and undeserved Goodness towards us made in his Privy Council this time Twelve-month have been still renewed repeated and multiply'd to us in despight of all our Ingratitude which would make a passage to Men's Hearts through their Brains if they had any and teach them first to admire his Goodness then to be confident in it and thankful for it and to say as Mephibosheth of David My Lord the King is as an Angel of God Do therefore what is good in thine Eyes 2 Sam. xix 27. Was he ever worse than his Word to any Man Or what ground hath he given any of us to apprehend that he ever will be so Who was ever so exceeding tender of his Honour as he so Just to all so Kind beyond example to his Friends and Servants How can we ever trust our Lives and Fortunes in safer Hands than his He hath done more than ever any of us durst ever venture to look for to give us Confidence in him enough to puzzle our Understandings as well as our Gratitude And how can he give us better security
the Homage of a good Subject after he had been shut up in the Lions Den. He acknowledged him to be his King and honour'd him accordingly Dan. ij 24. O King live for ever And the Primitive Christians wished Julian himself Length of days and prosperity And as our Religion is not Evangelium armatum nor will suffer us to rise up against our King Vi Armis not to be done without the Violation of all the Laws of God and Man so neither shall we ever have occasion to do it as they had Precibus Lachrymis those pious Weapons with which the Primitive Christians overcame the Tyranny of their Persecutors Prov. xxi 1. For the King's Heart is in the Hand of the Lord and he who can turn it whithersoever he will hath inclined it hitherto and I trust will always do to the Protection of the Church of England Wherein we have his Royal Word for our Security and if that be not sufficient to allay Mens Fears and Jealousies I know not what will We can appeal to his Sacred Majesty how we adher'd as became us to his Right for Conscience-sake tho' against that which some short-sighted Polititians and worse Christians would have made us believe to have been our Interest We cannot but glory in the Reproaches and Injuries we sustain'd on his account from the Out-rages of the Mobile He is of too generous and gracious a Nature to use the Power which God hath given him to procure their Ruine who were always ready and ever will be to do their best to prevent his And therefore the Venient Romani the groundless Jealousies of Popery's coming in which alarums the Rabble shall not be such a scar-crow as to fright us out of our Wits and Religion nor shall it ever exasperate or enrage us to do any thing that is wicked upon the apprehensions of it nor to abandon our Loyalty Justice and moral Honesty to prevent it For it would be a Contradiction to maintain advance or establish Religion upon the Ruines of Justice which founds all Religion nor must God's Ordinance be secured in one point by endangering it in another No doubt but the King will gratifie his own Perswasion without any severe and cruel Methods on the other hand for he naturally abhors Sanguine Sacrifices Upon which consideration he hath been pleased by his own Royal and voluntary Declaration to renew and confirm to his Subjects the best Magna Charta that every they had A Blessing obtained without a Rebellion and which calls for a suitable Veneration and Return from his People He knows that ours is a Religion that hath always asserted the Rights of the Crown with Life and Fortune And how chearfully the Members of it have spent their Blood and Treasure in his own his late Majesty's and his Father's Service And how they stand affected to his Prerogative upon which they know all Popular Encroachments to be as fatal as Inundations of the Sea And that loose Reins cast upon the Neck of a Resty People will teach them a trick to throw their Rider till none can sit them And that none can live in the Communion of our Church who does not solemnly renounce all rebellious Principles and Practices and disclaim all Usurpations whatsoever upon Sovereign Powers He can never be over-ruled by any designing Men of what perswasion soever to put off his own generous Nature and innate Kindness to his old Friends He is very well content we should be as faithful to God as we are to him as true to our Religion as to our King God Preserve and Prosper him for it Alas We do but flatter our selves if ever we hope to be Govern'd without that which is commonly call'd an Arbitrary Power let the Word sound never so harshly The only question is Who shall have it Whether it shall be in the King or the People In one or many And the Denial of necessary Powers for the safety of the Kingdom which call them what you will are the Regalia the Inherent Rights of the Crown for Fear of Mis-Government is the ready way to lose all the Fruits and Benefit of Government it self for want of those powers to support it For 't is impossible for any Common-Wealth to subsist without that dreadful thing call'd Arbitrary Power if by Arbitrary you mean as I do Supreme and Absolute True it is That if this be vested in one the People are over-apt to call it Tyranny but if in many they are pleased to christen it by the glorious Name of Liberty Tho' if Tyranny consist not in the abundance but abuse of Power not in the uncontroulableness but unreasonableness not in the exercise but excess of it it will be as unjust and Tyrannical in them as in him so to use it Nor are Common-Wealths more secur'd from this sort of Tyranny than Monarchies Our own Statute Laws acknowledge 16. R. 2.5 25. H. 8.21 24. H. 8.12 That our King is subject to none but God and that he hath an Imperial Crown and they call his Kingdom an Empire And by the Common Law the King is neither inferior to the Three Estates nor co-ordinate with them but is Major Vniversis as well as Singulis Greater than all of them as well collectively as singly The Parliament doth but propound prepare and present the Project of the Law 't is the Royal Stamp that makes it one The sole Legislative Power is lodg'd in the King and to him saith Bracton belongs the interpretation of all Laws when made not in plain Cases but in New Questions and Emergent Doubts of which the King was the first and must be the last Judge too For if the People be Judge he is no Monarch at all and so farewel all Government There is no State in which there is not an ultimate Judicature which is not to be accountable and Queen Elizabeth used to say That she was to be accountable to none but God Nor did the Protestants call this Tyranny or Arbitrary Government in her Days And therefore let not the Dragon's Tail pretend now to lead the Head least after much fruitless Toil it draw the Body of Three Kingdoms into the Ditch Things are not always in themselves as they appear to us We see them but on the Dark side the King hath more Wisdom than to lay open the Arcana Imperii to us And if an Implicit Faith be due to the meanest Artificer in his own Art how much more is it due to the King in the profound secrets of Government His Actions are manifest but his Reasons seal'd up in the Cabinet of his own Royal Breast And if Bodinus says true Lib. 1. de Rep. c. 8. A Sovereign Prince may Derogate to the Law which he hath promised or sworn to keep if the Equity thereof be ceas'd and that of himself without the consent of his Subjects Suppose there were a Law That the People should pay no Taxes or Contributions to the publick Good
Mercy Our returns must be answerable to our receipts Nor will true Gratitude be either sullen or silent If God gives us an Harvest of Mercy he expects a Tithe of Joy The People in my Text thought themselves infinitely happy that they had been any ways serviceable to their Soveraign's satisfaction And his gracious acceptance of their performances fill'd their Hearts so brim-full of Joy that it ran over at their Mouths as it is expressed in the Fifth part of my Text To wit V. Exultationis Ratio The just Cause of their Triumph which is also the cause of our present Assembly All the Goodness which the Lord hath done for David his Servant and for Israel his People God's Goodness is never entertain'd as it ought to be if not with Joy and Gladness of Heart the very end at which his Benefits aim being to make glad the Hearts of Men. And if such strong Cordials as these which are now Administred to us will not revive our drooping Spirits and make the Life of Joy return into our Hearts 't is because we are dead in Trespasses and Sins Either we are not sensible of his Favours or think them not worth our Regarding if we strive to smother them and will not give our hearts leave to inlarge upon them as the Jews here did who were truly sensible of what great things the Lord had done for their Nation and how little they deserved them 1. Regi The first thing at which they seem'd so transported is for the Mercies of God shewn to David in Himself and in his Posterity to Him and to his Son Solomon who succeeded him to whom he had given such an extraordinary Gift of Wisdom and Vnderstanding as no meer mortal Man could plausibly pretend to For which his People do not force a smile in their Faces but their Joy was Real and Cordial it kept their residence in their Hearts Not like some in this Kingdom who were never more merry then at his Majesties Afflictions and yet now upon the Turning of the times fashion themselves to shew a Mirth as well as they can from their Teeth outwards and pretend to be affected with Joy for that which if their former Words and Actions are to be credited is their greatest Grief that they are not able to hinder They are now Joyful as they were before Loyal only in Hypocrisy But tho' the King and his People may God is not to be deceived he searches the secret Corners of your Hearts and if this Days Joy be not rooted there he will never accept it As your Satisfaction is so will your Rejoycing be Joy being but an Expression of that Pleasure which we take in the Enjoyment of what we intimately wish'd for And if we understood either our Duty or our Interest our Necessities or Convenience must needs concentre in the happiness of our Gracious Soveraign which is Essential to our own For unless God's Goodness be shewn to David his Servant Israel his People must never expect it And therefore when they alledg'd the Cause of their Joy they give the King's Happiness the Pre-eminence which it ought to have and assign that for the First and Greatest It is now seasonable for us to consider how Gracious God hath been to that Glorious Martyr King Charles the First in preserving and recalling his Posterity to their own People and Inheritance in setting his Two Sons upon his Throne Those Stones which the Builders rejected have since been made the Head of the Corner This is the Lord 's doing and it ought to be marvellous in our Eyes and matter of Joy to our Hearts His late Majesty of Blessed Memory knew full well that he was oblig'd by all the Ties of Honour Justice and Conscience to maintain the Crown in its due and Legal course of Descent as he did against that Traiterous Bill of Exclusion which some restless Men would have Intruded upon him who used all the Black Arts of Hell to rob his present Majesty of his Birth-right and Succession and would have perverted the universal Principle of all Nations and acted contrary to the express Word of God to compass his Ruine as if any unnatural Injury might have been done that good might have come of it Tantum Religio potuit suadere Malorum Not considering that the securing of Religion could not have been that way attempted but with open Violation to it self and Justice But Liberty and Religion are two such powerful Words of Enchantment that the very noise of them produces real effects in the World and terrible ones too For the unthinking and easily-deluded Multitude are by the sound of these made Instruments to destroy the things themselves which they so eagerly contended for and cheated of all their golden Expectations at last of which they dream'd at first Next to this we are oblig'd to bless God for the many perils which his Majesty hath escaped by Sea Ps cxxiv 4. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side the waters had over-whelmed him and the streams had gone over his soul For his last miraculous Deliverance from the sinking Gloucester-Frigat that he did not then lose his Life with his Ship whilst a great part of his Retinue perished in his sight But that the God of our salvation who shews his wonders in the deep saved him out of many waters for our preservation and this days solemnity We are likewise to bless Almighty God for snatching him out of the Jaws of Destruction by delivering him miraculously from that Vnnatural and Hellish Conspiracy and Rebellion which was the natural Product of their Black Bill of Exclusion For they who would have Excluded the present King confessed with their last Breaths That they would have Murder'd the former as well as him From whence God's almighty Arm did rescue them and us even because he had a favour unto us The Enemies of our Soveraign Lord the King are brought down and fallen but we are risen and stand upright Nor shall any Weapon which is formed against the Lord 's Anointed prosper Lastly We are to bless God for his deliverance from Two Rebellions in the First and his Peaceable entrance on the Second Year of his Reign to whom next to God and his good Angels we are most beholden for our national Happiness for all those miraculous Concurrences of his Providence which gave the Consecration to this glorious Day All which comprehensive Mercies call aloud upon us to sacrifice our unfeigned hearty Publick Thanks with one Heart and Voice to God for his transcendent Favours to David our King and Israel his People 2. Populo To Israel his people who by Solomon's means were freed from their Enemies and Bondage and kept in Peace and Safety Great is the goodness of God to the Land of our Nativity He hath made it both the envy and glory of the World Never had any Nation greater Evidences of his loving Kindness than we have had nor more at any time