to destroy their Gates and Portcullis's As soon as he had done this he bravely turned them out of Doors and re-admits the Secluded Members who seeing how the Kingdom was enslaved and bent upon the King's return presently issued out Writs for a free Parliament which brought back his Majesty upon this Auspicious Day From this Enumeration of the Usurping Powers you may perceive to what a degree this poor Nation was enslaved under so many Tyrannical Successions It is impossible to tell how many Souls Lives and Noble Families were destroyed by them and how many Millions spent but from this short review which I have now given you you may perceive that first I undertook to prove That a People in a state of Prosperous and Successful Rebellion are in a state of Slavery and Captivity but especially a free People who of Subjects to a limited Soveraign under the Regulation of wholesom Laws become Slaves to the Arbitrary Power of their own Fellow Subjects who Govern by the Sword And so I pass to my Second Proposition to prove That a People cannot be delivered out of such a state of Slavery and Confusion without the special Providence and Assistance of God as it is written When the Lord bringeth back the Captivity in his People This David who was so great a King and so great a Polititian acknowledgeth also to Zadock the High-Priest 2 Sam. 15.25 The King said unto Zadok the Priest carry back the Ark of God into the City if I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me back again and shew me both it and his habitation Now this Religious way of speaking in David proceeded not from Fear or Superstition which is the Daughter of Fear for as Hushai told Absalom he was a Valliant and Mighty Man but from the rational and experimental knowledge he had of the Being and Providence of God He knew God as a Philosopher and he knew him as a Prophet Reason and Revelation had both taught him how God cannot but be concerned in the most minute Contigencies that happen to single Persons much more in the Revolutions of States and Kingdoms according to what he elsewhere saith The Lord is King for ever and ever he is a great King over all the Earth Ps 47.2 None but the Epicureans that over acknowledged the Being denied the Providence of God and their Opinion is more unreasonable than pure Atheism it self and all that ever acknowledged the Providence of God did believe that he imployed it in a most special manner over Human Societies and that the greater any Human Societies were they were the more special Objects of his Fatherly Care Indeed all Wise Men both among Jews Christians and Heathens have thought it very difficult and ordinarily presurnptuous to determine precisely what things happen by Gods special Providence and Assistance and what do not because his secret Influences upon the Understandings and Wills of Men cannot be distinguished from their own Judgment and free Choice but yet the Power and Wisdom and Justice and Goodness of God are so very discernable in some Events that we may without Presumption impute them to him as Judicious Criticks do Beoks to such and such Authors and from something that is Divine in the contrivance of them pronounce at first sight as a Limner did upon what was done in his absence on a Picture which he was drawing that the hand of Apelles had been there If you ask me what that is which makes a Man discern the special hand of God in any Event I might answer without any prejudice to the Cause of Religion that I cannot tell because the Characters of things though clearly understood are many times hard to be expressed As in the appearance of a good or bad Angel that is inexplicable which makes me discern at first sight that what I see is not an ordinary Man But lest this should look like shisting as all lawful advantages will be called in the cause of God I shall give you the Marks and Characters which the Sense of Mankind and the Common Divinity of all Nations hath set down as Rules whereby to know when any Humane Event is the Lords special doing and in so doing I shall apply the Wonderful Revolution from our Slavery and Captivity this Day as a pat Example to every one of those Rules 1. The first Character then whereby we may know when any Event is the Lords special doing or an Effect of his Special Providence is When it is brought about by Invisible Means or if by Visible yet by unlikely Means which are Inadequate Vnsuitable or Repugnant to the Effect For this Reason the Romans imputed that strange Revolution of their good Fortune after the Battel at Cannae to a special Over-ruling Providence and acknowleged that Hannibal was Defeated by the Gods Moventi a tertio lapide Hannibali Deos iterum Deos inquam necfateri pudebit restitisse faith the Historian which in allusion to the Psalmist may be rendered thus If it had not been for the Gods now may Rome say if it had not been for the Gods when the Carthaginians under Hannibal rose up against us they had swallowed us up quick so wrathfully were they displeased at us Thus likewise the Jews were so amazed at the wonderful Manner of their Deliverance out of Captivity in which they had Lived 60 Years that they were like Men in a Dream and could scarce Believe the Truth for the Strangeness of the thing The Power and Wisdom and Goodness of God was so Visible in that unlikely revolution that they could not hold from crying out among the Heathen The Lord hath done great things for us the Lord hath done great things for us whereof we are glad They esteemed their Return from Captivity as great a Miracle as turning back the Streams of Nile and the Course of the Rivers in the South and though there was nothing so surprizing in it as in our Deliverance this Day yet God represented it to the Prophet Ezekiel by the Resurrection of Dry Bones to shew it was his special Work Son of Man faith he to him in the Visionary Valley full of Dry Bones Prophesie upon these Dry Bones Fzâ—k XXXVII and say unto them O ye Dry Bones hear the Voice of the Lord Thus saith the Lord to these Bones I will breathe upon you and you shall live and know that I am the Lord. So I Prophesied saith he as I was Commanded and there was a great Noise and behold a great shaking and the Bones came together Bone to his Bone And I beheld and lo the Sinews and Flesh came upon them and the Skin covered them above but there was no Breath in them Then saith he unto me Prophesie unto the Wind and say unto the Wind Come and Breathe upon these Slain and I Prophesied as he commanded me and the Breath came into them and they lived and stood upon their Feet an exceeding great Army Whereupon
A SERMON Preached at the Cathedral Church OF WORCESTER On the 29th of May 1684. Being the ANNIVERSARY DAY OF HIS MAJESTY'S Birth and Happy Restauration By George Hickes D. D. Dean of Worcester and Chaplain in Ordinary to 〈◊〉 MAJESTY Published at the Joint and Earnest Request of the MAYOR and ALDERMEN of Worcester LONDON Printed by R. E. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-Head in St. Paul's Church-yard and John Jones Bookseller in Worcester 1684. To the Right Worshipful FRANCIS HAINES Esq MAYOR And to the Worshipful the ALDERMEN Of the City of Worcester Gentlemen THE style of the Paper in which you sent me your joint and earnest Request to publish this Discourse was so respectful and obliging that I could not deny it without incurring the imputation of Rudeness especially seing it was the first Request of any Kind that you ever desired of me I need not tell the world how Loyal you are nor how Active some of you have been in Reforming this City the very Approving of this Sermon which all the Enemies of the Government will be sure to Condemn is a sufficient Testification that you are some of those Worthy Citizens who in the late distinguishing Times were too honest and too wise to be misled by those subtle and malicious Enemies of the Monarchy who are generally known by this Character that they are for the King against his Evil Counsellors and for the Protestant Religion against the Church I was very much pleased as well as surprized to find at my arrival on the Evening of the Anniversary Day of our most Gracious Soveraigns Birth and happy Return that this City now restored to its self had prepared to celebrate that Auspicious day in a most Solemn and Festival manner and I must bear you and your Loyal Citizens witness that I never saw more Conduct and Order in any Publick Procession more Gravity in any Publick Joy or more universal Temperance and Sobriety at any Publick Feasting among all Sorts of Persons exactly agreeable to that seasonable Exhortation with which I concluded this Sermon which now is no longer mine but Yours I am very sensible it deserves not half of that great Opinion which you have expressed of it and if it answer those Ends but in any tolerable and competent measure for which you desired me to make it publick especially among the People of this City to whom I am bound to have a particular regard I shall think my pains well spent and rejoyce that I was so happy as to testify in a way so serviceable to the Publick that I am Gentlemen Your most Affectionate and Faithful Friend and humble Servant George Hickes Psalm Psalm XIV v. 7. When the Lord bringeth back the Captivity of his People Jacob shall rejoyce and Israel shall be glad The whole Verse runs thus O that the Salvation of Israel were come out of Sion when the Lord bringeth back c. THIS and the foregoing Psalm were composed by David in the Rebellion of Absalom when the People of Israel had Universally revolted from the Allegiance which they owed to him and the Duty which they owed to God In the first Verse he gives us an account of the Authors and Ring leaders of this general Apostacy and Rebellion They were it seems an Association of Impudent and Atheistical Men who tho' they durst not openly deny the God of Israel with their Mouths yet they denied his Being and Providence or at least doubted of them in their hearts The Fool hath said in his Heart there is no God meaning most likely the Fool Achitophel or perhaps the Raw and Younger Fool Absolom And then for those that were of their Party they are saith he corrupt they have done abominable works there is none that doth good And then in the third Verse to shew how the Generality of the Nation had in a manner lost all Sense of their Duty they are all saith he gone aside they are all together become filthy or putrid there is none that doth good no not one In the fourth Verse He expresses his astonishment at the stupidity and blindness of the Conspirators that they should go on without any Sense or remorse in their Atheistical Practices of Rebellion and be so unjust and irreligious Have all the workers of Iniquity no Knowledge who eat up my People as they eat Bread and call not upon the Lord. In the fifth Verse he tells us that the Generality of the People were moved with fear to joyn with them but that it was a causeless mistrust and fear for want of considering That God will protect Righteous men and Causes There were they in great fear He addeth in a Parallel place Psal 53.5 where no fear was for God is in the Generation of the Righteous i. e. they were in a great fear fearing men more than God who taketh part with the Righteous aginst the Wicked In the sixth Verse he shews how the Conspirators laughed at the small Loyal Party which preferring their Duty before their Interest and trusting in the Protection of Heaven adhered to the King You have shamed the Counsel of the Poor because the Lord is his Refuge i. e. you have mocked and jeered the Poor Despicable Loyal Party because they make the Lord their Refuge And then in the last Verse he expresseth a great and longing desire for that happy time when God who dwelt in Sion would arise and shew himself in the Deliverance of him and his People O that the Salvation or Saviour of Israel were come out of Sion When the Lord bringeth back the Captivity of his People Jacob shall or ought to rejoyce and Israel shall or ought to be glad According to this which is the most genuine Explication of the Psalm I may without the least Violence to the Sense of the Royal Psalmist make these three Observations upon my Text which will be suitable to the Solemnity of this day 1. That the People in a State of prevailing or successful Rebellion are in a State of Slavery and Captivity This Observation I ground upon that remarkable Expression the Captivity of his People 2. That a People cannot be brought out of such a State of Slavery and Captivity without the special Providence and Assistance of God As it is written when the LORD bringeth back the Captivity of his People 3. That it is the Duty of a People so brought back out of Captivity to render Praise and Thanksgivings unto God When the Lord bringeth back the Captivity of his People Jacob ought to rejoyce and Israel ought to be glad First that a People in a State of prevaling and Successful Rebellion are in a State of Slavery and Captivity for a State of Slavery and Captivity consists in being obnoxious to the will and pleasure of an Unlimited Absolute and Arbitrary Power such as was the Power of the Ancient Roman Emperors of whom as our Learned Lawyer Fortescue observes out of Justinians Institutions the Civil Law saith
quod Principi placuit Legis habet Naturam that the Princes pleasure was a Law Or such as was the Power of all Kings in the Kingdoms of Ancient Times founded after the Flood when as Justin in his Epitome tells us arbitria Regum pro Legibus erant that the will of the King was a Law unto the People Or lastly such as is now the Power of the Turkish Russian Persian and Morocco Emperors who rule purely by Regal Authority without any Political Regulation having Absolute Uncontrollable Power over the Lives Fortunes and Liberties of their People and of whom I may truly say as Daniel said of Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 5.19 for the Majestly that the High God hath given unto them all their People Nations and Languages tremble before them for whom they will they slay and whom they will they keep alive whom they will they set up and whom they will they pull down I say Civil Slavery or Capativity consists in being obnoxious to such an Unlimited Arbitrary Dominion as this which rather deserves the name of Military than Civil Power but the People that are Subject to a Conquering Rebel or Rebels are subject to such an Unlimited Absolute and Arbitrary Power which is under no Civil Regulation but as the forecited Fortescue wisely saith of meer Regal Power it can give Laws to the People and lay all manner to Taxes and Burdens upon them without their consent and let me add take away their Lives by a High Court of Justice or by any other Arbitrary way without Tryal by Law or Peers nay without any Tryal at all For their Power is an Usurped Military Power not under the wholsom regulation of Laws but as Arbitrary as the Sword and as Tyrannical as their Lusts will make it and if they do not oppress the People after they have mastered the Lawful Government it is generally because their Policy over rules their Ambition and Cruelty and not that they are truly good It is seldom that Rebels have any regard or tenderness to the Peoples Blood or Treasure or if as Cicero saith of men who make their Interest their Supream End the goodness of their Nature may chance to over-rule their Evil Principles yet the People that are subject unto them are all the while in the Lions Den the Beast may perhaps be good humoured and Generous but still he may eat them when he will Therefore every successful Rebellion makes the victorious Rebel a grand Seignior the Sword is his Title and his standing Armies the Laws by which he Governs so that in the most absolute Monarchy that ever was Rebellion may alter the Governors but not the Government which will be still as Arbitrary as the will and pleasure of the Conqueror can make it and all the Benefit that People under such a Revolution can possibly reap by a prosperous Rebellion will only be that of the Ass in the Fable who complained that tho' he had changed his Master and Paniers very often yet still the burden was the same I say in the most Arbitrary Government where the People are perfect Slaves Rebellion will not likely mend their condition because the Conquering Rebels will still be their Lords and Masters and they must still abide Slaves They change their Master but not their Service their Lords but not their Vassallage all the difference is that they have an Usurper or Senate of Usurpers to rule over them instead of their Natural Soveraign and have set up their Fellow Subjects in his Place This generally speaking is so true and so agreeable to the common report of Histories that would the Subjects of the most Absolute Monarch consider it they would never follow the most plausible Ring-leader into Rebellion against their Natural Soveraign but most of all would the People of a limited and regular Government who have their Properties and Liberties secured by Law consider That a Conquering is an Absolute and Unlimited Power they would abhor the thoughts and abstain from all appearance of Rebellion which in the end must either render their own Soveraign or the Victorious Usurpers which is ten times worse absolute Lords over them and themselves by consequence perfect Slaves For if their rightful Soveraign against whom they rebell prevail then they and their Estates must ly at his mercy and they will be content on any condition to redeem their forfeited lives but if their pretended Patriots their Leaders into Rebellion prevail then They become their Absolute Soveraign and may dispose of their Lives and Fortunes without asking their consent What can hinder a successful Traitor at the Head of his Conquering Legions from doing what he pleases And who even among those who first set him up and lent him their Assistance dares say unto him What dost thou 2 Sam. 15.5 At first he was their humble Servant he did obeisance unto them and put forth his hand unto them and kissed them at first he sighed for their unhappiness and bemoaned their Grievances and begs but their own assistance to set them free but as soon as he prevails then they must say unto him as the Trees said unto the Bramble in the Parable of Jotham Come thou and reign over us Judges 9.14 15. and when it is once come to that then he will plainly say unto them If in truth ye anoint me King over you then come and put your trust in my shadow but if not let fire come out of the Bramble and devour the Cedars of Lebanon Soon after Absalom had stoln away the hearts of the People by his fair Carriage and Speeches the next News was Absalom reigneth in Hebron and in his short Reign or Usurpation he and his Captains did so enslave and oppress the Subjects of David after they had revolted from him that he compared their condition under the Power of their young Idol to Captivity saying When the Lord bringeth back the Captivity of his People Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall be glad He had assured them before that he desired nothing more 2 Sam. 15.4 than to be in a condition to remove their Grievances Oh saith he that I were made a Judge in the Land that every man that hath any suit or cause might come unto me and I would do him justice This and such like was his Language at first but when he had got a great Army at his Command and had beat the King out of Jerusalem then he could lye with his Father's Concubines upon the top of the House in the sight of all Israel and he and his Adherents could eat up the people as they eat bread The poor oppressed Commonalty saw their own slavery too late and when God besides their expectation had delivered them from it they were so glad of it that they were at strife throughout all the Tribes who should bring the King back Oh said the men of Israel the King saved us from the hand of our Enemies 2 Sam. 19.9 10. he