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
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
it had been attended with many notable inconveniencies had it happened at any other time or in any other manner or by any other Instruments than it did Wherefore is it not most reasonable to conclude that it was the Consult of a special Providence since it was contrived in a manner so apparently worthy of the Divine Wisdorn and since the united Reason of Men and Angels could not have contrived it in a better way than it really fell out Certainly the seasonable contrivance of so many wonderful Scenes into every Act and of so many currious Acts into one harmonious Play must needs have been the study and invention of a very skilful Author even of the All-wise and Almighty Dramatist who hath the World for his Theatre and seldom less than a Kingdom for his Stage VI. Another sign of Gods special Providence and Assistance is when a remarkable Event happens to any especially to Publick and Illustrious Persons upon the same day in which another Accident as remarkable as that Exod. 12.41 happened to them before So the same day that the Children of Israel went into Egypt At the end of 430 years it came to pass on the self same day that all the hosts of the Lord went out from thence So the Altar was providentially set up by Judas Macchabeus on the self same day it had been profaned by the Tyrant Antiochus and so as our Church hath well observed it was not without a special Providence that on the self same day in which our Soveraign was born he should as it were be born again in being restored to his Triple Crown VII Another Rule whereby to know when any Event is brought about by Gods special Providence and Assistance is the Correspondency of it to the Prayers of Good Men especially of the King and the Church The Prayers of the Faithful of Faithful Kings especially as of Moses David and Jehosaphat not to mention others both Jewish and Christian Kings and Em peroursavail very much Nay we read of a Turkish King who by a short Prayer to Christ in the midst of a Battel turned the fortune of it when it was desperate against the perfidious Christians who had horribly perjured their Saviour's Name But when a King especially a King so Holy and Just as our late most blessed Soveraign shall Kneel before him who sits upon the Throne and cast his Crown at his Feet When a King so dear unto God as he was shall beg a Blessing of him almost with his last Breath as he did the deliverance of this Day there is great Reason to look upon the performance of it as a special Answer to such prevailing Prayers The King O Lord Ps 21 1.2 shall rejoyce in thy Salvation for thou hast granted him his Hearts desire and hast not denved him the request of his Lips But when not only the Beasts those Prophetical Emblems of Kings but the four and twenty Elders by which are meant Christian Bishops I say when not only Christian Kings but Bishops the chief Ministers of Christ and the whole Church over which they preside shall cast themselves down before the Lamb to acknowledg their sins and beg a deliverance of God then if ever must the Kingdom of Heaven suffer Violence and God appear to be a God that heareth Prayers Wherefore seeing it is the property of the infinitely Merciful God to hear Prayers especially the united Prayers of the King and the Church we have just presumption to ascribe this deliverance to his Special Favour in hearing thheir Conspiring Sighs and Devotions For if two as our Saviour said much more if a whole Church shall agree on Earth touching any thing they shall ask it shall be done for them of our Father which is in Heaven Such are the Characters of Gods special Providence and Assistance whereof any one appearing in any event is sufficient to justify the imputation of it to the special hand of God But that they should all be visible in one Event that such a mighty Revolution should be effected by very improbable means and fall out so seasonably to prevent the Destruction of a destitute exiled Prince and the utter ruine of a desperate Righteous Cause and a pure Apostolical Church that so much unspeakable good doth accrue by it to the Publick and that Oppressed right and innocency were thereby relieved and publick Justice done upon the Sons of Usurpation and Blood that so many various accidents should so happily conspire to bring it about and that it should happen upon the same day which was remarkable before for the appearance of the Star and our Soveraigns Birth Lastly that it should fall out in correspondence to the Prayers of good men especially of the King and of all that had kept their Garments unspotted in this suffering Apostolical Church Such a wonderful Complication of all these marks in one Event must needs force all but Atheists or Epicureans who are more absurd than Atheists to confess with David that it was the Lord who brought back our Captivity and cry out with the Church in the 118th Psalm This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes Which brings me in the third place to consider the duty which a People so wonderfully brought back from Captivity ought to perform which I told you was to render praises and thanksgivings to God as it is written in my Text When the Lord bringeth back the Captivity of his People Jacob shall or ought to rejoyce and Israel shall that is ought to be glad This is the import of these Phrases of rejoycing and being glad They signifie Religious joy and gladness expressing it self and exulting in praises and thanksgivings unto God So in the 118 Psalm which the Royal Psalmist made after he was Anointed King of Israel The voice of rejoycing and Salvation is in the Tabernacles of the Righteous the Right hand of the Lord bringeth mighty things to pass the Right hand of the Lord is exalted the Right hand of the Lord bringeth mighty things to pass The Stone which the Builders refused is become the Head-stone of the Corner this is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our Eyes this is the day which the Lord hath made we will rejoyce and be glad therein bind the Sacrifice with Cords even unto the Horns of the Altar thou art my God and I will Praise thee thou art my God I will Exalt thee O give thanks unto the Lord for be is good for his Mercy endureth for ever Almost all the Psalmes of Praise and Thanks-giving are full of expressions of Joy and Gladness because Religious joy is the Fountain from whence all Praises and Thanksgivings do proceed and the proper passions and dispositions of mind which make them acceptable unto God Therefore saith the Psalmist in another Psalm O le joyful in the Lord O ye Lands Serve the Lord with Gladness and come before his presence with a Song This we have done and
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
delivered us out of the hand of the Philistines and now he is fled out of the Land for Absalom and Absalom whom we rebelliously anointed over us is dead in Battel now therefore why speak ye not a word of bringing back the King These Considerations of the great Blessings they enjoyed under David would weigh nothing with them before but after they felt the Calamities of War and the smart of Arbitrary Government under a prevailing Traitor after they had run into that under Absalom which they had but feared under David then they saw their Errour and the men of Israel were angry with the men of Judah for not letting them join with them in bringing back the King And what happened unto the People of Israel and Judah under the prevailing Rebellion of Absalom hath happened I believe upon all the successful Rebellions in the World Did ever People rebell with success and mend their condition by it Nay did ever People succeed in Rebellion and not afterwards groan under the Arbitrary Dominion of the Victorious Rebels Or were Grievances and Oppressions ever sewer under Usurpers than under the lawful Head It is as I have shewn inconsistent with the Nature of that Arbitrary and Military Power with which Conquest doth invest every prosperous Rebel and though it be easie to reply that it is possible for one that rises up against his lawful Soveraign to be free from self-interest and ambition and purely to design the Ease and Liberty of his Fellow-Subjects yet in all the Instances and Examples of successful Rebellion very few or none such are to be found You see what Impostors Absalom and Achitophel were and how they falsified all their Pretensions to the credulous People and would the time permit and the Solemnity of the day allow of it I could verifie the truth of my first Observation in many such Popular Cheats But I will wave all Foreign and confine my self to Domestick Examples to prove that a state of prosperous Rebellion is a state of Slavery and Captivity as King David in my Text and our late Blessed Soveraign who was wont to bewail the sad condition of his People in the late prevailing Rebellion frequently observed I need not tell you what fair Promises and gilded Pretences the Ring-leaders of it made unto the deceivable People They first possessed their Heads with imaginary Fears and Grievances and then promised to secure them against all the Dangers which they feared At first they exhorted and invited the Common Citizens and People and then Commanded them first they begg'd and borrowed Supplies of them and took their Money by way of Contribution and Loan but afterwards when they had got the Power into their own hands they levied it as fast by their own Authority and demanded it by way of Tax I shall say nothing of the illegality of their Rebellion against their Prince no Law being better known to the People than that which declares it to be High Treason to Levy War against the King but I design to set forth their oppression of their Fellow-Subjects and shew in a few Instances how they inverted all the Fundamental Laws of the English Liberties and how their little Finger was much heavier then their Lawful Princes Loins It is a Fundamental Law of the English Government and the first Article of Magna Charta Quod Ecclesia Anglicans libera sit habeat omnia sua Jura integra libertates illaesas That the Church of England shall be free and have all her Rights kept intire and her Liberties inviolable and yet to make Way for their Wicked and ungodly Ends they voted the Bishops out of the House of Peers where as Mr. Pryn afterwards told them they had sat in their Predecessors as long as the Lords Temporal had sat in their Progenitors and longer than the Representatives of the Commons of England had sat in the House of Commons The Lords at first refused to consent to such a fundamental alteration perceiving very well what might be the consequence theoreof upon which the People were brought down in Multitudes to the Parliament Doors to Cry against the Bishops several days successively till the Terrors of those Tumults did force them to Consent After this was done to the Bishops they did what they pleased to the Loyal Clergy and the Universities Imprisoning and turning them out of their Free-Holds in a most Arbitrary and Tyrannical manner as may be seen in a little Book called the IIth Persecution and many other Narratives of the late Times to which I refer you for the particulars that you may see how little regard these Patriots of England falsly so called had to the first Article of the great Charter which concerns the Rights and Liberties of the Church But 2ly It is a fundamental Law of the English Liberty That no Free Man shall be taken or imprisoned without Cause shewn or be detained without being brought unto his Answer in due form of Law This is part of the 29th Article of Magna Charta and the whole Subject matter of the 28th of Edw. 3. and of the Petition of Right which these very same Patriots to endear themselves unto the People would not let the King rest till he had passed again and again Yet after they had got the Sword into their own Hands they Imprisoned whom they would thousands of Innocent Men and good Subjects of all Ranks without assigning any Reason but the general Reason of Malignancy and without bringing them to answer for themselves as the Law requires 3ly It is a fundamental Law of the English Government That no Man shall be disseized of his Free-hold or Liberties but by the known Laws of the Land This likewise is contained in the 29th Article of the great Charter and the 28th of Edw. 3. And it is that which makes England a Paradise and the English the most happy People in the World Yet these very Men from the moment they got the Power into their hands against all form of Law disseized sequestred decimated and forced Multitudes of Free-born Gentlemen of England to compound for their own Hereditary Estates 4ly It is a fundamental Law of the Liberties of England That no man shall be Condemned or put to Death but by lawful Judgment of his Peers or by the Law of the Land in an ordinary way of a Legal Tryal But these great Patriots and Patrons of the Peoples Liberties condemned one of the Kings greatest Subjects by an Arbitrary Ordinance made by the remaining Parts of both Houses united into one which made him say upon the Scaffold that he was not only the first Arch-bishop but the first English-man that dyed by an Ordinance of Parliament if the two Houses sitting without the King and in open Hostility against him much less if a part of the two Houses so sitting ought to be called by that happy and Honourable Name Lastly It is a fundamental Law of the English Government That if any other case than what
this still is our Duty to do on this auspicious Day We have offered up the Calves of our Lips the Sacrifices of Praises and Thanksgivings unto God with our Mouths and I hope our Hearts are Unisons with our Tongues We have sung unto the Lord as the Psalmist saith and heartily rejoiced in the strength of our Salvation we have sung Psalms and Anthems unto him because he hath done marvellous things and I hope in this solemnity our very Souls have magnified the Lord and our Spirits have rejoyced in God our Saviour and even hto te last moment of it let every Loyal Person say bless the Lord O my Soul Ps 103.1 and all that is within me bless his Holy Name Certainly it is our duty on this happy day to extol God and exult in the Salvation which he hath wrought for us and to acknowledge that this is the day which the Lord hath made the day of our going out of Egypt the day of our return from Captivity the day of the Dedication of our Temple and Altar nay the day of the Brittish Purim in which we ought to rejoyce as being the day wherein we rested from our Enemies and the month which was turned to us from Sorrow to Joy and from mourning into a good day that we should make it a day of Feasting and Joy Esth 9.22 and of sending Portions and guifts to the Poor For it is to the Mercy of this day that we owe our Lives our Religions our Liberties and Estates that every one of us can sit securely under his own Vine and call what he hath his own and therefore certainly we that ejoy so great a Deliverance by this day and such mighty Blessings consequent upon it as no other People in the World enjoy besides our selves if our hearts be not at discord with our Mouths in our present Devotions we cannot forbear to let the offerings of our Charity accompany our Sacrifices of Praise and do something considerable to exhilarate the Spirits of our poor brethren and make them partakers of our joy This day the sorrowful sighing of the Poor and of the Prisoners ought to come before us and more especially if we know any such who wereruined by the late Successful Rebellion them we ought to relieve They more especially ought to be the Objects of your Charity upon this Solemnity and therefore in the first place let us do good and distribute to those or the Poor Relations of those who were sufferers for their Loyalty and bore the greatest and bitterest part of that Captivity from which the Lord brought back his People upon this day I suppose there are such to be found among you the Monuments of your former Loyalty in the bloody Worcester-fight and I hope you will consider them as Martyrs and Confessors for our English Liberties and open your hand liberally towards them who yet bear in their Bodies or in their Distressed Families the Marks of their Loyalty for the King and of their Sufferings for the Church We cannot offer up unto God any Sacrifice more acceptable than the supplies which in gratitude to him for our Deliverance we shall give to them this day and if our Charity be such as becomes our present Devotion we need not fear but that God will accept our Alms and Oblations and that our Prayers and our Alms will go up for a Memorial before him who hath done so great things for us and by his Almighty Power and Allwise Providence turned our Captivity as the Rivers in the South These are the duties proper to this day but then we must further understand that if our Joy be pure and genuine and such as really proceeds from a grateful and Religious Sense of Gods Goodness it will shew itself in the Fruits of true Piety towards God and of True and conscientious Allegiance to the King whom God so miraculously restored unto us all the Days of our Life He that pretends Religion towards God and yet makes use of it as a Cloak of Maliciousness to Cover his Disaffection and Disloyalty to the King that Mans Religion let him shew never so much Zeal for preserving the Protestant Religion is Pharisaical and vain and utterly unacceptable in the sight of him who will have every Soul to be Subject to the Higher Powers And on the other hand he who pretends Loyalty to the King and expresses it in such a manner as must needs be offensive to God and sober Men that mans Loyalty subverts the Kings Throne and provokes God to let the Enemies of the Crown multiply and prosper to punish the Wickedness of such profane Royalists who in that Bacchanal manner by which they Testify their affection to the King disgrace his Majesty and dishonour God He that truly Fears God will Honour the King and not meddle with those that are given to Change and he that truly Honours the King in the Christian notion of a King as the Image and Lieutenant of God will be sure to Honour him by whom Kings Reign and express his Zeal for him and his Joy for his Restauration in such Ways and Measures as shall not pollute any Festival Solemnity or turn our indulgence into Riot or Excess God forbid that Loyalty more than any other Christian Virtue should be made a pretense for such unworthy Greek Practises and God forbid that any of the English Melchites or Loyal Subjects of the Church of England should find no other ways of declaring their Zeal and Affection for their Soveraign than such as will render them the Scorn and Reproach of theirs and the Kings Enemies and a Scandal to the Royal Cause Let us in God's Name rejoyce in the Kings Salvation but in such a manner as will consist with the strict Rules of Christian Sobriety Let the Fear of God temper our Mirth for the Deliverance of the King let us wish him Health and say with Daniel O King live for Ever but at the same time let us remember him who hath Cloathed him with Majesty and in whose Rule and Governance the Hearts of Kings and Princes are God indeed hath given Wine to chear the Heart of Man but then we must in our Mirth remember what he hath told us that Wine is a Mocker and that strong drink is rageing Prov. 20 1. and whosoever is deceived thereby is not Wise God indeed hath given us leave to Eat and Drink to kill Beasts to mingle our Wines and furnish our Tables upon Festivall Occasions but then as Christians it becomes us to remember at our Feasts that whether we eat or drink 1 Cor. 10.31 or whatsoever we doe we must do it to the Praise and glory of God who on this day brought back the Captivity of his People and therefore doth expect that Jacob should Rejoice and Israel should be Glad for the wonderful deliverance which by his Special Providence and Assistance he hath brought about Now to God our Mighty Deliverer and Saviour who giveth Victory unto Kings the God to whom alone our Gracious Soveraign is Subject and next under whom he is Supream within these Realms unto the Allwise and Almighty God of whose institution Kings and Kingdoms are unto the Allwise Almighty God and Creator King of Kings and Lord of Lords be ascribed as is most due Eternal Praise Honour Majesty and Glory by us and by the whole Church Militant and Triumphant now and Evermore FINIS Page 17 line penult for 60 read 70. Sermons written by the same Authour and Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-head in St. Pauls-Church-yard 1. A Discourse to prove the strongest Temptations are conquerable by Christians A Sermon Preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor of London and Court of Aldermen Jan. 14th 1676 7 2. The Spirit of Enthusiasm Exorcised In a Sermon Preached before the Vniversity of Oxford On Act-Sunday 1680. 3. Peculium Dei A Sermon Preached before the Honourable the Aldermen and Citizens of London on February 6th 1688 8 0 1 4. The true Notion of Persecution in a Sermon preached at the time of the late Contribution for the French Protestants 5. A Sermon Preached before the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Citizens of London on Jan. 30th 1681 2 6. The Moral Shechinah or a Discourse of Gods Glory In a Sermon Preached at the York-shire Feast In Bow-Church June 11 1682. 7. A Sermon Preached at the Church of St. Bridget on Easter-Tuesday being the first of April 1684 before the Right Honourable Sir Henry Tulse Lord Mayor of London and the Honourable Court of Aldermen together with he Governours of the Hospitals upon the Subject of Almsgiving