A SERMON PREACHED TO A Country Auditory Upon the Eleventh of November Being the DAY Appointed for a Solemn Thanksgiving For a Late VICTORY by SEA And His MAJESTY's Safe Return OUT OF FLANDERS By SAMVEL CLERKE B. D. LONDON Printed for W. Crooke And Sold by R. Taylor 1693. To the Right Honourable JOHN Lord CUTTS BARON of GOWREN My Lord TO whom could a Discourse of this nature I mean A Thanksgiving Sermon for the happy Deliverance of our Royal David from the hurtful Sword be more fitly Dedicated than to your Honour who so deeply shared in the Danger with His Majesty Accept of it Noble Sir not for its own Worth but as a Specimen of the Author's Sense of Your's and his Obligations to You. You by that of Vertue are arrived at the Temple of Honour Sir I beseech Almighty God that You may be ever in the Ascendent and that no malign Aspect may intervene at least to sully much less Eclipse Your Splendor till this Mortal shall have put on Immortality and You your Self become a Fixed Star in Heaven where is no Vicissitude or Alteration Thus Prayeth Your Honour 's most humble and Faithful Servant SAM CLERKE PSALM CXLIV Verses ix x. I will sing a new Song unto thee O God upon a Psaltery and an Instrument of ten Strings will I sing praises unto thee It is he that giveth Salvation unto Kings who delivereth David his Servant from the hurtful Sword HAving but heard these Words read there is scarce any One of so shallow a Capacity but may conceive them pertinent and suting well with the Time and Occasion of this our present Meeting For is here not mention made of Kings the Salvation of Kings nay of one above the rest David in great Danger yet delivered and that from the Sword too All very pertinent and congruous God had many times and often delivered David but he insists here chiefly on that one that both to us is proper and peculiar the hurtful Sword Now with me I beseech you dear Christians Behold our KING a Pious and Protestant Prince the Servant of God Jealous for the Lord of Hosts Zealous for his Church and People like the Royal Eagle throwing Himself between Them and Danger Behold Him by God delivered wonderfully delivered from the Death-threatning Cannon and the hurtful Sword And so the Words read are no other than a Comment upon the Day at once pointing out to us both our Happiness and our Duty Our Happiness in the Preservation of His Majesty our Duty in returning God Thanks for it which to encourage us also unto we have a Royal President before us who upon the very same account even God's Salvation and Deliverance snatches up his Psaltery tunes his Strings promises a New Song I will sing a new Song unto thee O God upon a Psaltery and an Instrument of ten Strings will I sing praises unto thee See here the Subject-matter of this Song a Song of thanksgiving Of Thanksgiving For what What Mercy what Favour is the holy man so thankful for It was no other than the King's Safety Because God the Preserver of Kings had here delivered his Servant David from the hurtful Sword He therefore resolves upon a new Song of Praise and Thanksgiving This is the Substance of my Text And as of what was then with great Joy sung by Israel so of what this Day we are called to Upon the receipt of any new Mercy God shall not load David with his Mercies but the Heavens shall Resound with his grateful Praises and Acknowledgments I will sing a new Song unto thee O God upon an Instrument of ten Strings will I sing praises unto thee He it is that giveth Salvation unto Kings who delivereth his Servant David from the hurtful Sword In which Words we have these Considerables 1. Here is Salvation given a Deliverance wrought 2. To or for whom To Kings in general to David in particular 3. By whom viz. by God 4. Here is the Return made by David both in behalf of himself and others I will sing c. Take the Whole summ'd up in two Theorems or Doctrinal Propositions 1. All Kings and under God's immediate Care and Protection but above all good Ones Or rather thus God giveth Salvation unto Kings in general but his Servants such as David was he delivereth in an especial manner He it is that giveth Salvation unto Kings who delivereth David his Servant from the hurtful Sword 2. Those that are thus delivered by him should praise God and be thankful to him I will sing a new Song unto thee O God upon a Psaltery and an Instrument of ten Strings will I sing praises unto thee In the discussing of which for my more methodical proceeding I shall speak to these severals 1. That God giveth Salvation to Kings in general with the Reasons why and manner how he effects it I shall descend 2ly to Particulars and make it good in David the Servant of God in my Text. 3ly In our Royal David King William in the Day 4ly I shall speak briefly to my Second Proposition And lastly I shall close up all with a seasonable Application To clear the Thesis That God giveth Salvation to Kings in general I shall proceed by a Threefold Gradation 1. Shewing That God giveth Salvation 2ly That he giveth Salvation unto Men above other Creatures And 3ly To Kings above other Men. 1. To give Salvation is so congruous to the Divine Nature that God claims it to himself as his Native Property and Peculiar Isa 43.11 I even I am the Lord and besides â—e there is no Saviour I even I am the Lord This redoubled I is emphatical and exclusive And besides me there is no Saviour They are but gross Idolaters that put their trust in Man Or with the deluded Papists set up for Saviours the Saints departed It is worth our Note what Ferdinand King of Arragon sending his Son against the Florentines spake to him Victoria mihi crede non hominum disciplinis nec industria comparatur sed Dei Optimi Maximi benignitate arbitrio Believe me Son Victories are not gotten by Art or Industry but given of God If we look into the Prophecy of Jonah what we meet with Chap. 2.9 may be said to be the Argument of the whole Book and might have concluded every Chapter therein viz That Salvation is of the Lord. The Mariners saith the R. R d. Bishop King in his Lectures on that Prophet might have written upon their Ship instead of Castor and Pollux Or the like Device Salvation is the Lord's The Ninivites might have written upon their Gates Salvation is the Lord's And whole Mankind whose Cause is pitied and pleaded by God against the hardness of Jonah's Heart might have written in the Palms of their Hands Salvation is the Lord's It is the Argument of both the Testaments the Staff and Supportation of Heaven and Earth They would both sink and all the Joynts be severed if the
Devil 's whole Employ whereas God preserves and saves both man and beast as before yet above all men Kings and above all Kings such pious Ones as our David was All Kings are hateful to the Prince of Darkness even an Ahasuerus an Ethnic King Esth. 2.21 He will cut him off if possible by his own Eunuchs but a David how oft shall he be set upon It is his own observation Psal 118 1â— Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall but the Lord 〈◊〉 â—â—lped me It is altogether needfull therâ— should be One to save Sinâ—â— there is one nay many to destroâ— But why is the Devil set so uâ—â—â— the destruction of Kings No doubt it is because Kings are Mortal Enemies to â—im By their Authority and Power it comes to pass that Sir is restrained and his Kingdom weakned Ye shall nâ—â— aâ— after all those things we do here this day every Man whâ—â— is right in his own Eyes Deut. 12.8 To do what ever a Man coâ—â—â— or would without Impunity is that wicked One's desire 〈…〉 cause it is for the advancement of his Kingdom to have it so Now when is it so but when there is no King When the Author of the Book of Judges would pourtraict to the life the sad and pitiable estate of Israel in the Intervals of Government he ascribes this as the main Reason for the Commission of their execrable Enormities That there was no King in Israel and by consequence no Peace no Justice no Religion For then every Micah will have his Closet of Idols and will worship as himself thinks fit Truly without Magistracy not only whatever is Sacred would be usurped abused destroyed but also there would be no such thing as Liberty and Property in this or any other Kingdom which the Generality make such a Clamour a Noise about Therefore if Men would not have â—hese entrenched upon and abridg'd no better way to seâ—ure them than by the preservation of their Governours more especially their Kings For these these are they that prevent such Enormities What the Soul is to the Body such is the King to the â—ingdom the Principle of Life the Spring of Mâ—â—ion the Vital Fountain of all Power and Activity Give me leave to speak once more and add That he is the Heir of Restraint Invested with the Sword Which he bears not in vain The Devil knows this to his Cost who is above all things for Anarchy and Confusion As God is for Decency and Order which if he cannot bring about then must Kings one after another be cut off and brought to utter destruction We see the Reason plain and obvious How the Devil does prosecute the ruine of Kings may not be amiss likewise by the bye to enquire briefly into We have his Emissaries set forth to the life Rev. 9.2 3. And he opened the bottomless Pit and there arose smoak out of the Pit as the smoak of a great Furnace and the Sun and the Air were darkned by reason of the smoak of the Pit And there came out of the smoak Locusts upon the Earth And to them was given power as Scorpions of the Earth have power These are the Emissaries of that Infernal Monarch sworn Enemies as himself to Kings But what are these Locusts the Monks Fryars and Jesuits saith an Expositor upon the place are most fitly called so for their Numerosity and Voracity These like Locusts are great Wasters and Devourers and in other respects peculiarly like them which having no king go out by bands Prov. 30.27 Those whom our Psalmiâ— twice in this Psalm calls Strange Children these St. Johâ— styles Locusts here a Generation would I could not sayâ— better known to us than to David of which we have hâ—â— Swarms in our Age. Strange Children indeed a Generation of Men thaâ— term themselves of the Society of Jesus But was nâ—â— Jesus a Saviour If they bear his Name why then according to the import thereof do they not give Salvation I 'm sure to our cost we experience the quite contrary than these who worse spoken of and that not undeservedly For as Satan's Emissaries are they not Traytors to Kings and Betrayers of Kingdoms wheresoever they get footing I leave it to all the World to judge whether they be not strange Children who under the pretence of the Name of a false Jesus act quite opposite to the Nature of the true One. Destructions Treasons Seditions are they not their main Employ Have not we to our cost found it so We may truly comply with our Psalmist here That his strange Children and they are of the very same Progeny they are of one Stock and Lineage their marks correspond in all things These strange Children we have it twice repeated in this Psalm that it might not escape our Note see Verse 8.11 Their mouth speaketh vanity and their right hand is a right hand of falshood Are not our Locusts in all things like to these How dextrous are they at Lying What are their Equivocations better Do they not speak one thing and think another And that their right hand is a right hand of falshood whether they give it upon a Civil or Religious account their Faith or Oath is nothing worth their right hand is false â—nd deceitful both Mouth and Hand are alienated from â—heir Heart and Mind as that is from God I mean from â—he God of Truth for the Devil the God of this World is well pleased with it It is he that maketh use of these under â—hat Notion you pleaseâ— That of St. John's Locusts or David's strange Children these he makes use of to sharpen the hurtful Sword mix the Poysons and set on fire the Powder with which their King Apollyon gives diligent Command to his Agents as the King of Assyria did to his Captains 1 Kings 21.31 Fight not with small or great save only the King Him cut off any ways so you do it some ways by Sword Fire Carbine Cannon 'T is no matter which way so it be done This is their charge the King their Aim Concerns it not us now fervently to pray That there may be one to save since there is such a Legion to destroy that there may be one to cover the King with his Shield and Buckler since there are many to stretch out their hurtfull Swords against him Oh! let there be a Jesus to save while there is a Jesuit a Devil to destroy The reason why and manner how Kings are maligned and their ruin sought after you can be no longer ignorant of As long as there is a Devil in Hell who delights in and will be contriving the Misery and Confusion of Men So long will they be standing at the hands of Kings and endeavouring to stir up evil men against them And so long as Pride and Ambition Covetousness and Discontent find places to harbour in there will not wanâ— Traytors and Rebels Now the more dangerous and hazardous the condition of Kings is the more doth
up for the preservation of Kings He will make ready his Arrows upon their strings against the face of their enemies Psal 21.12 Then shall ye understand as in the case of Korah Numb 16.28 29 30 that the Lord himself giveth Salvation unto Kings when the Hand of the Lord is gone out against their enemies For he that durst break down the Hedge before mentioned what shall become of him Did not Sheba for this lose his Head Shimei his life and the two Eunuchs theirs What shall I add more Time would fail me to tell you of Baanah and Rechab Absalom and Achitophel Adonijah and Joab Zimri and Jozabad with infinite more who for attempting their Kings death procured their own by it Most sure it is that Salvation is of the Lord as Psalm 3.8 and as sure that He giveth Salvation unto Kings and delivereth David his Servant from the hurtful Sword Why is the Accent put upon Kings Doth not the Wing of Gods Providence extend to all his Children Have not others a share therein too The Question is propounded by the Reverend and Learned Dr. Featly who thus answers his own Proposal Yes Gods Providence extends to all but yet Kings are nearest to his Breast they receive more warmth from him he hath a special care of them He keepeth them as the Signet of his Finger because in them the Image of His Majesty shineth most brightly It concerneth him in Honour â—â—ith he to maintain them that are his Vicegerent upon Earth It concerneth him in Love to defend the Defenders of the Faith and cherish the Nursing-Fathers of his dearest Spouse It concerneth him in Wisdom to save them who are the breath of so many thousand Nostrils to keep them whole who are the bond which holds together the Common-wealth In the danger of a King is the hazard of a State in the hazard of a State the ruine of a Church in the ruine of a Church God's House lieth in the Dust The Heathen Poet glanceth at this Truth when every where he stiled Kings διοτÏεφεῖς as it were bred up and fostered in the bosom of Jove in their Dialect Jehovah in ours Keep me saith David as the Apple of thine Eyes Who can endure the least prick in that tender place No more will God abide his Anointed to be touched 1 Chron. 16.22 You have heard dear Christians why God giveth Salvation unto Kings 1. Because they are his Vicegerents his Deputies and his Honour is complicated in their Salvation 2. Because the Devil that malicious one with his infernal Agents seeks their destruction And Lastly Because in their Salvation consists the Peoples happiness You have also heard why and how God giveth Salvation unto them Pass we now from the Thesis to the Hypothesis from Gods giving Salvation to Kings in general to his delivering David his servant in particular from the hurtful sword which is the 2. And next in order St. Paul tells us that God is the Saviour of all men but chiefly of them that believe and I shall dare to say the Saviour of all Kings but the Pious above all the reason for both is intirely the same We may gather it thus If the Divine Providence watcheth over Kings indefinitely Kings in general what must he needs do then upon those that are faithful and rule over such as are devoted to his Service If he is wonderful in the Kings of the Earth what then must he needs be in those Kings who are Nursing-Fathers to his Church and People If in an Ethnick Ahasuerus what in a religious David a devout a Pious Prince what a King is among men that is a David among Kings what then shall God do for him and for all like him As they are precious in the eyes of the Lord so will he think nothing too much for them Those things which are but single in other Kings we may find conjunct in David a King and a servant of God too wherefore because a King he will give him Salvation and because his Servant he will deliver him from the hurtful Sword Because a King he hath in common with all Kings Gods care attending him and because his Servant he hath a propriety above the rest as a King by him he Reigns as God's Servant he is directed and governed by him All Kings as immediately constituted by God are his Viceroys and deputed Servants he is therefore King of Kings Lord of Lords But yet all do not acknowledge God nor shew themselves his Servants His Servant Nebuchadnezzar so God spake by the Prophet Jer. 27.6 But did that great King acknowledge this No he neither acknowledged himself Servant nor God Lord. For so speaks he to the Three Children Dan. 3.15 Let us see what God can deliver you out of my hands Nor did Pharaoh acknowledge this Who is the Lord saith he Exod. 5.2 But our Psalmist was in another Note He is free in his acknowledgments this way Psalm 116.16 Behold Lord I am thy Servant I am thy Servant and the Son of thine Handmaid Nor did he say this only but in his works he shewed himself so He spake it not by const aint but he made it his business to do the will of God He was so solicitous in the Lords matters that he would not go up to his Bed nor take his rest till the Ark of God was provided for Psalm 132.2 3. In the bringing that back again among other Servants of God he so demeaned himself that Michel his own Wife despised him as contemptible for his humility 2 Sam. 6.20 But he never thought himself humble enough before the Lord never solicitous enough in performing his will David was truly God's Servant humble as a Servant faithful as a Servant a Servant according to his own heart 1 Sam. 13.14 Most truly therefore and to our purpose it is here said David his Servant Hereupon we have that of God concerning his Servant David Psalm 89.21 My own Hand shall help him and my own Arm uphold him nor shall his enemies succeed against him nor shall the son of wickedness approach to hurt him i. e. in one word I will deliver him Now what God promised he perform 〈…〉 he save him from many shall I say dangers to keep to the Letter of my Text I shall rather say weapons keen drawn wielded against him He delivered him from the Sword of Goliah from the Javelin of Saul and which is most proper here from the hurtful Sword All Kings are God's Servants Ï€Ïὸς ἡγεμόνα απαίδευτον saith Plutarch for the common good of Mankind but David by a specialty He was God's most special care as in the Text He it is that giveth Salvation unto Kings who delivereth David his Servant from the hurtful Sword 3. Our Royal David God's Servant also and lately delivered is the next to be spoken to The same God delivered both both from the Sword from the hurtful Sword both I need not spend time in giving you the particulars you all know the
danger he was in danger so great that we can attribute it to nothing else but God's Care and Protection that he hath outliv'd it How was His Majesty wrapt over and over in the Snares of Death yet hath he broken the Snares and is escaped It is plain to all unbiass'd and considering men that never did a Nation enjoy more by a King than ours have done by this we have Never were People more happy than we might be under him if we please and were not the fault â—ur own Never was it more remarkably true that the Powers that are over us are set over us by God than in our Case His Majesty's coming in and Establishment here beâ—â—g a Miracle in the sight of all the World And I wish it â—ould not be said as truly too that never was a Prince exposâ— to more dangers and troubles than he has been Should we recollect the past Passages of his Life and soberly make remarks upon the same I do not well know whether we should more admire his Fate and wonder to see so many dangers and adversities should encounter to spend their spight against one man or that Providence and Care of Almighty God that hath still brought him through These Providences and Cares have been freshly instanced very lately in a Deliverance from a Conspiracy abroad hatched by a sort of men that nothing can oblige no kindnesses no endearments no not Religion it self the tranquill enjoyment of the true Protestant Religion Oh the barbarous intendments of the worst of Men Abhorrent in any but above any in our Clime Religious Plots Protestant Treasons oh Hellish Contradictions But can they deny what is obvious to all The King's hazards in Battel wherein not one but often he hath expos'd himself to the utmost dangers thereby greatly encouraging his friends and striking a dread and terrour into his enemies who never yet had the courage to withstand him Not to tell you of His Majesty's danger at the Boyne where a Cannon Bullet brusht upon his Shoulder it was no less than a Miracle that it did but brush him importing Heavens Care of him and that he was dear to God in his Preservation But perchance some may think this too foreign at least too antique and old I shall therefore produce a fresher Instance and that within the compass of this Days Thanksgiving being in Flanders from whence our Royal Sovereign not long since return'd an Instance no less miraculous thaâ— the former when another Cannon Bullet seeming to do him Homage kiss'd the place where he just before sat but yet came not there till he himself had quitted it which was not above a Minute An astonishing Deliverance The late Naval Victory can that be oppugn'd deny'd by any and was not the Hand of God in it It is as clear as the Sun in its Noon-Day Lustre that the Wind fought against the Enemy as the Stars once against Sisera The Wind hindred the French approaching us and gave us an opportunity of coming up to them which was no sooner done but God blessed His Majesty's Forces with that Success which usually attends his Royal Person than whom never any more signally delivered It is no new thing to hear of our Royal David and his troubles his reiterated troubles and dangers nor blessed be God for it to hear of his Deliverances also his repeated Deliverances The one runs parallel with the other litterally making that of our Psalmist good Psalm 34.19 Many are the afflictions of the Righteous but the Lord delivereth them out of all The truth is the Life of our King William the Third hath been a continual Scene of Providence and Danger even from the Cradle an Instance hardly to be seconded of God's great and special Care not rarely attending the Persons of those Princes to whom Religion and his Honour is dear 〈◊〉 I am perswaded they be to this our Sovereign A Prince 〈◊〉 Pious as Valiant and as forward to Praise God his Saviour as he is ready to deliver him which brings me to my 2d Proposition That those that are delivered should praise God and be thankful to him 1. Common Morality doth inform every common capacity of this common Principle in Divinity We must be thankful unto them who have been bountiful unto us Whereupon Alexander who exceeded all in Bounty and Caesar who exceeded all in Patience yet it was observed that the â—â—e did never give to and the other never forgive an ungrateful person Yea the very Heathen in their moral Favours feigned Ixion because he had been unthankful to Jupiter who saved his Life to be tortured and tormented on a Wheel crying τὸν á¼Ï…εÏγÎτην ἀγαυαῖς ἀμοιβαῖς á¼Ï€Î¿Î¹Ï‡Î¿Î¼Îνους τίμεσθαι Oh remember to be grateful to your Benefactors Si ingratum dixeris omnia dixeris saith the Learned Seneca but a Pagan Him that thou callest ungrateful thou callest all to nought And Socrates another Learned Heathen did see and say ἀκαÏιστίαν ἀδικίαν εῖ̔ναι that Vnthankfulness is a gross act of Injustice nay Injustice against God saith holy David as depriving him of that quit-rent due to him the great Lord of the Universe so Psalm 50.15 Call upon me in the day of trouble I will hear you and thou shalt praise me 2. Nature doth teach us this Lesson of Grace for naturally every effect must be brought back to his cause Now God is the cause of all things and persons and the preserver of them too therefore whatsoever we have and whatsoever we are must be ascribed to God Hence is that challenge of St. August Confess 4.4 Quis Laudes tuas enumeret unus quas in se uno expertus est What Man alive is able to praise God for his Goodness which he alone hath received in his own Person certainly we should be all Bankrupts if we were called upon for this one Debt Since now the very Heathens press this duty warmly and since there is a generous gratitude in Nature what else means that of Israel's sweet Singer Psalm 19.1 The heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy-work How much more does gratitude become God's Children Honour is due there is none but will grant it to the Creator from the creature and who so tender of this his honour as his Children and Servants Now what course take they for it How do they give it him Who so offereth me Praise and thanksgiving saith God he honoureth me Psalm 50.23 The Property of God is benefacere and the property of Man is benedicere God doth bless Man with his benefits and Man doth bless God for them I need not tell you that the Heathen after they had escaped shipwrack hung up their Votivas Tabulas to Neptune and after Victory besides Supplications they did put Garlands upon the Images of their Gods and left the chief spoils taken in War in the Temple of Mars I need not tell you that the Jews by the Command ment of God reserved a golden pot of that
Mannah in the Ark in memory of that Mannah which fell in the Wilderness and in a thankful acknowledgment to eternise the Memorial of their passages out of Egypt and freedom from Servitude they altered their Calendar and made that Month in which God by Moses delivered them out of the House of Bondage the beginning of their Months Exod. 12.2 Let it suffice to tell you that the Holy David in the reflections he made either upon his danger or deliverances ever looks up to Heaven and acknowledges that the Race is not to the Swift nor the Battle to the Strong but that God alone giveth Victory unto Kings How doth he launch forth in the praises of God his deliverer Psalm 92.1 It is a good thingto give thanks unto the Lord and to Sing praises unto thy name O thou most High Likewise Psalm 34.1.2 I will bless the Lord at all times his praise shall continually be in my mouth My Soul shall make her boast in the Lord the humble shall hear thereof and be glad Also Psalm 146.12 Praise the Lord O my Soul While I live will I praise the Lord I will Sing praises unto God while I have my being Again Psalm 115.1 Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and thy truth sake And Psalm 116.12 13. What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me I will take the cup of Salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. Thus in the Text I will Sing a new Song unto thee O God! upon a Psaltery and an Instrument of ten strings will I sing Praises unto thee Holy David as some conceive was therefore stiled a Man after God's own heart because he abounded much in Praise and Thanksgiving Somewhat now briefly by way of improvment and I have done To wave generals what I have further to say I shall reduce to our present Case and so the Vse I shall make of what has been deliverâ—d will have a threefold aspect To the Enemies of our King to the King himself To us his Loyal Subjects 1. Hath God who giveth Salvation unto Kings â—me after time more especially at this time delivered our Royal David from the hurtfull Sword I shall then improve it to the discouragment of all Traitors and Ill-minded Persons against him to let them see how hopeless and improbable all their wicked attempts against him are like to be Oh that they would consider what a Darling of Providence hitherto our King William hath been and how probable all attempts against him will be in vain as they have yet all along been tho' never so closely and cunningly and probably contrived His Enemies may plot design conspire rebel they may stamp and rage and fret and storm but all to no purpose for if God be for him who can be against him 2dly Is God so tender over Princes Safety as hath been told you and ought not they to be as tender of his Honour is he so gracious to them and ought not they to be as grateful to him to come yet nearer home Is our Royal David delivered from the hurtful Sword and shall he not sing a new Song a Song of Praise Beloved he needs no Spur that is free of himself shall he not do it what mean I to render that in the least suspicious which is obvious and plain and past all doubt for he both knows his duty and makes a Conscience of performing it I prae sequar is a thing most abominable to our King William whether in the Field or in the Chappel Does he confront the Enemy a malicious a Death-threatning Enemy Eamus may most justly be his motto Come Let us go He couragiously leads on all the rest Does he return Victorious God shall be sure to hear of him upon the Organ and other loud-sounding Instruments will he sing Praises unto him This needs no further confirmation than our calling to mind this day we now keep by Their Majesties Appointment to preserve from oblivion his wonderful Preservation from imminent destruction attended blessed be God with a noble Victory and as not content himself to do it to make use of our Psalmist's words Psalm 15.14 He enjoins us also to offer unto God praise which 3dly Suggests it our duty as well as his We are all to write after the Copy set us and as we partake of the benefit so are we to make one in the duty of Praise and Thanksgiving Salvation is come unto our Israel out of Sion and therefore must Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad Days of Mercy call for Days of Thankfulness and publick Mercies for publick and extraordinary Thanks Thanks real not verbal only Thanks are not thank-worthy if they float only in the mouth for a time and spring not continually from the heart if only lip-deep and reach not our lives When our Praises are obediential then and only then are they acceptable unto God Saul could not blind Samuel's eyes with his many good Morrows that the People saved the best of the Cattel for Sacrifice Hath the Lord saith he as great delight in Burnt-Offerings and Saerifice as in obeying his voice behold to obey is better than Sacrifice and the fat of Lambs 1 Sam. 15.22 As if he had said What Saul thinkest thou to bribe God with a Sacrifice while thou art disobedient to his Command Dost thou take the Swan and stick the Feather in the room Dost thou deny him thine own heart to obey his word and give him a Beasts heart in Sacrifice for it Is this the Oblation that he hath required or will accept Truly God rises â—angry from our Thanksgiving-Feasts if Obedience be not a Dis◠〈◊〉 the Table without this we and our Sacrifices may burn togeâ—her If we sing a new Song if we sing praises unto God the Son of Syrac â—ill tell us that Praise is not comely in the month of a Sinnor for it was not sent him of the Lord. To conclude when a motion was made in â—he Senate of dedicating a Statue of massie Gold to the Honour of Germanicus Tiberius the Emperor opposed it but upon a very plauâ—ible pretence that Images of Brass and Gold are subject to many â—asualties they may be stolen away they may be defaced and batterâ—d foul indignity and scorn may be put upon 'em These are the Staâ—nes of Virtue and Altars of Fame which are set up in Mens Hearts Such Altars hath our Sovereign erected in the hearts of all his loving and loyal Subjects upon which we offer this day throughout all his Dominions the Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving for His Majesties marvelous Deliverance in his Royal Person and the Success of his Arms. Psalm 19.2 One day shall tell another and one night shall proclaim it to another the great things the Lord did at this time for his Anointed Δόξα μόνῳ τῶ Θεῶ FINIS