Eben-ezer A Thankful Memorial OF GOD'S MERCY In preserving ENGLAND from the GUNPOWDER-TREASON 1605. Being a SERMON on 1 Sam. 7. 12. Prepared for Novemb. 5th to be Preacht at the Cathedral but Preacht for the most part of it at the Parish-Church of Temple in the City of Bristol on the 6th of Novemb. being the Lords Day By John Chetwynd M. A. Prebend of the Cathedral and Vicar of Temple in the City of Bristol Psal 118. 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made we will rejoyce and be glad in it LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Tho. Wall Bookseller at Bristol 1682. To the VVorshipful and his ever Honoured Friend and Kinsman John Harington of Kelston Esq one of His Majesties Justices of the Peace for the County of Somerset SIR I Have made bold to direct these Papers to you as a Testimony of my respect and as being assured that you are a true Protestant of the Church of England established by Law As for such as falsly and with a contradiction so term and call themselves Roman Catholicks I expect no such Readers As for Protestants in Masquerade whose worldly designs make them sit loose to all Religions they may see what may reform them if not convince them But as for your self and such as are Protestants out of conscience you and they who are peaceable Sons of the most Apostolical Church of England may read what may confirm them in their true faith and Worship and what may comfort and support them under any fears dangers hardships that may attend them in and for their so being and doing God being still the same yesterday to day and for ever He that hath delivered doth deliver will deliver To his blessing I commend these Papers To his protection and guidance your self and second-self with all your Family And subscribe my self Bristol Novemb. 16. 1681. Your most Resepctful Kinsman and humble Servant John Chetwynd A Memorial of God's most gracious preservations of England from the Spanish Invasion and Gunpower Treason Of an unknown Author Found by me among my Father's Papers thus directed To my Posterity GOD's ancient Church Two solemn Feasts did keep On Two set days by his own word directed When Pharoah's Host was drowned in the deep And when proud Haman's Treason was detected Two works of equal grace but greater wonder The Lord hath done sor us past all mens Reason When Papist did attempt to bring us under By Spanish Armado and by Piercy's Treason I and my house these great things will remember And in remembrance sanctifie two days In Augustone * 3. the other in November †5. Both made by God for us to give him praise Dear children charge the children after you Still to observe these Feasts as I do now Eben-ezer A Thankful Memorial of God's preserving England from the Gunpowder Treason 1605. 1 Sam. VII 12. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpeh and Shen and called the name of it Eben-ezer saying Hitherto hath God helped us TO regulate my discourse I have made choice of this Scripture as being in many particulars parallel to the occasion of the day and suitable to this great and solemn Assembly whose outward lustre and grandeur and other circumstances and expressions of rejoycing testifie our apprehensions of this day to be as it deserves to be with us a High Day a Holy day even a day which the Lord our God hath made marvellous in our eyes a Day to be had in everlasting remembrance never-to-be Ps 118 23 24. forgotten a Day of Gods making Some days may be said to be made by Gods flat Let it be made as all creatures besides man were But other days in which notable and memorable occurrences fall out may be said to be made with Gods faciamus Let us make as man was And such was this which God by saving preserving and delivering our King Church and State made marvellous in our eyes and calls for our rejoycing in it Such was the Jewish Passover such the day of our Saviour's Exod 12. Resurrection to which this Scripture is applied and such is this day The Memorial of the mercies on which exhibited we now celebrate Foelix fausta dies lux flava quinta Novembris And may it be for ever celebrated by us and our Posterity as long as the Sun and Moon endureth For this was the Lords doing and let it still be marvellous in our eyes So it was in David's day Thus it was in ours In David's a deliverance from great dangers all by Gods might all by Gods mercy and that not in small things as yet in them God is to be seen but usque Ps 118 12 15. ad miracula and that not only marvellous in it self for so all Zech. 9. 11. Gods works are which seem small because usual but wonderful in our eyes because rare In which we cannot but say Digitus Dei est hic And such was this our day In a most eminent manner Gods day both for the exceeding greatness of our danger and Gods gracious and wonderful deliverance when the Devils and the Jesuits and their bigotted Proselytes had laid their heads together to destroy our King and Church and State our Religion Liberty Lives when the Balak of Spain and the Balaam of Rome Thus far was the Preface to my Sermon prepared for the Cathedral on the 5th but our Reverend Diocesan preaching upon my desire in my turn I thought fit to preach it at Temple on the 6th being the Lords day in the afternoon omitting the foregoing Preface had conspired together our utter destruction We read Esther 9. 20 21. that Mordecai and Esther sent Letters with all Authority to all the Jews nigh and far that they should keep the 14th and 15th of the month Adar yearly as the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies and the month which was turned from sorrow to joy and from mourning to a good day that they should make them days of feasting and joy and of sending Portions one to another and of gifts to the poor because the Plot of Haman the enemy of all the Jews which he had devised against them was b◠Queen Esther's mediation to the King turn'd upon his own head and the Jews had ruled over them that hated them and Haman and his Ten sons were hanged Therefore the Jews ordained and took it upon themselves and upon their seed and upon all such as joyned to them so as it should not fail as it doth not to this day among them wherever dispersed though it be two thousand years since that they would keep these two days according to their writing and according to their apppointed time every year And that these days should be remembred and kept through every Generation every Family every Province Est 9. 27 28. and every City and that these days should not fail from among the Jews nor the memorial of them perish
and common way Ours by no information but inspiration by a Casual rather than a Grammatical interpretation of the dangers being past as soon as the Letter was burnt 3. Time The night before Haman intended to have beg'd Mordecai's life the King could not sleep calls for the Chronicles reads therein what faithful and eminent service Mordecai had done for him and enquiring and understanding that he had received no recompence he resolves to honour him Haman pronounceth how Mordecai should be honoured who was commanded to do what he proposed himself and as he thought for himself and according to the great grief of him he did perform the Kings Command and his own designed honour towards him Haman himself was by the King upon the Queens Complaint judged to be hanged which was done on the same day place gallows that he had designed for Mordecai 4. Issue Deliverance to both the net broke the Fowl escaped yea the Fowler himself taken Israel delivered Pharaoh drown'd Psal 124. Haman hang'd So was it with us and the Powder-Traytors they hoped that their designed puff and net should have divided and scattered our Noble Senators and ancient and glorious Structures and they themselves were deservedly hang'd and quarter'd and their heads and limbs set up on the tops of that house they designed to throw down So that what we read concerning the Jews may as fitly be applied unto us in the day that the enemies of the Jews of us Protestants Esth 9. 1. hoped to have power over them over us it was turned to the contrary that the Jews that our King had rule over them that hated them And oh let it still be marvellous in our eyes Let us be glad Ps 118. 24. and rejoyce in it And indeed Gods deliverances of England have been acts of Wonder Not to insist on the unexpected discovery of the present Popish Plot and let us pray for the full defeating of it the truth whereof I hope no good Subject or true consciencious Protestant dot\h any thing question being attested by such undeniable Evidences viz. his most Gracious Majesty whom God still preserve from it the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the whole House of Commons and which we have still cause to fear though several Artifices are used to smother and stifle it but let us remember that many times the less noise the more danger But to pass this as not so pertinent at present Our work is what the Psalmist was to consider the days of old and the years Psal 77 5 11 12. of ancient times to remember the works of the Lord even his wonders to meditate of all his works and to tell of all his doing Now these ancient mercies God hath made them that they Psal 111. 4. should be had in remembrance that we should declare them to our Children Moses spends the four first Chapters of Deuteronomy in recording of them and God himself made a Statute-Law to Israel which they observed for so we find them speaking I will utter dark Psal 78. 2 3 4 6. sayings of old which we have heard and known and our Fathers have told us We will not hide them from our children shewing to the Generations to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and the wonderful works that he hath done That the Generation to come might know them even the Children which should be born who should arise and declare them to their Children Now to mention no more There are two great deliverances ancient deliverances which God hath given to his Church and people in England from their inveterate and implacable enemies the Papiss From the Spanish Invasion in 88 From the Gunpowder Treason in 1605. Two such deliverances that our eyes have not seen nor our ears have heard nor could our Fathers tell us of the like One by Strand the other by Land One from a Fleet and as they call'd it an invincible Armado sent forth by the King of Spain's great and vast Charge long Preparation the Popes blessing furnished with his best and most zealous Soldiers all manner of Instruments of Cruelty Whips and Knives engraven in Spanish with words which in English are To cut the Throats of the English Hereticks The other from a Vault under ground charged with many Barrels of Gun-powder Billets and Faggots c. A Monks Invention that would had not God prevented with one blast destroyed both King and Kingdom the most sudden cruel and unmerciful instrument of Death Both of these gracious deliverances from the hands of our most implacable enemies the sworn Vassal of the Papal Throne that sought not only and they are still of the same humour our Land and Estates and Livelihoods but our Lives our Souls our Consciences even our utter Destruction to have brought us under the Tyranny of a Foreign Prince and the unutterable and unconceivable Cruelty of the Papal Usurpation and Inquisition Not from roaring Enemies but such as were Vipers that sting to Death without any hissing at all Such was this deliverance the thankful memorial whereof we now celebrate From Hamans Plot to some From Babylons power and dominion to the rest To those who would not comply with them and embrace their superstitious idolatrous Principles and Practises to them from Death To those that were Protestants in Masquerade or Atheistical indifferent to all Religions notwithstanding fancy to the contrary that deliverance was from servitude slavery and bondage Englishmens Land and Goods let the Owners be what they will will be always judged by Jesuited Foreiners heretical when they are victorious over us which God forbid Have we then not great reason that are and have been the redeemed of the Lord whom he hath delivered from the Egyptian darkness of Popery from the worse than Babylonish Cruelty and barbarous oppression of Popish enemies from the Devilish Treachery and Conspiracy of others by the Discovery of the late Plot Have we not great reason I say to sing aloud with the Psalmist and say We will praise the Lord with our whole heart in the Assembly of Psal 111. 1. the upright and in the Congregation The works of the Lord are great sought out of all them that have 2. pleasure therein His work is honourable and glorious and his righteousness endureth 3. for ever He hath made his wonderful works to be remembred the Lord is 4. gracious and full of Compassion He hath sent Redemption unto his people c. 9. In furtherance of this common piety and to refresh our Memories and quicken our Devotion I have made choice of the Scripture first read as pertinent to the occasion Text Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpeh and Shen and called the name of it Eben-Ezer saying hitherto hath God helped us In which we have considerable 1. Something supposed 2. Something exprest 1. Supposed 1. Their danger from their enemies who were the Philistines 2. The cause of it Their
from their seed Thus it was with the Jews And have not we as much cause to remember with thankful rejoycing the great deliverance vouchsafed our Fathers and in them of us Certainly we have and therefore God having by a Miracle of Mercy prevented the barbarous and inhumane Design of the Papists the implacable enemy of all Protestants especially of English Protestants it was then lookt upon as a principal part of their thankful resentment by King James of famous memory and the then sitting-Parliament To enact the observation of one day viz. the fifth of November yearly to be observed as a thankful memorial of that wonderful Mercy Now God having by his Providence so ordered that this present year his day the Lords day the day which he hath made for the Remembrance of Christs Resurrection and all the Blessings that accrue by him and all we enjoy whether spiritual or external temporal or eternal are all from him deliverance from Hell Death and Damnation of soul and body deliverance from slavery and bondage and all external pressures are all from him and it being the principal work of this day Gods Holy Rev 1 day the Lords Holy-day to celebrate the thankful memorial of his Mercies And this day of Gods appointing immediately succeeding the day of the Kings appointment I have not thought it unfit nor any way inproper to lay before you what was prepared for yesterdays Solemnity in another place That so though the outward Pomp a necessary circumstance in that day may be left Yet the reality of our thankfulness might be expressed in this more private Assembly and we all put in mind and be stirred up as the Jews by the two days of Purim so we of England and we now present by the Solemnity yesterday according to the Law of Man and by what shall be now spoken on this day the day of our Rest and Rejoycing according to the Law of God may be stirred up to rejoyceful thankfulness for Gods goodness vouchsafed to us And indeed the remembring declaring and rejoycing in Gods wonderful works of Creation and providence as well as of Redemption are to have a principal part in the due Sanctification of our Christian Sabbath For the helping you wherein I shall lay before you what the Text first read presents us with Having first shewn you That we of England have as much reason and as great cause to celebrate two days yearly in the memorial of our deliverance from the Powder Treason as the Jews have for their deliverance from Haman The design of Haman and prosecution of it against the Jews was not so dangerous and mischievous as this Conspiracy of the Papists was against the English and Protestant Religion as will appear by many particulars parallel Circumstances in their Purim and our Powder Treason And indeed ours may be called Purim from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies fire as that from the Hebrew word Pur that signifies a Lot 1. Theirs by the sword from whence some might have escaped Ours by a blast of fire that would have spared none 2 Theirs would have destroyed Queen Esther and her people ours King James Queen Prince Lords Commons the whole Flower of the English Nation met in Parlament 3. They had a set day which all knew ours uncertain secret known to none but themselves 4. Theirs was but an ordinary day ours a most magnificent day when the Kings Majesty and all the great States would have been in their Robes and greatest Glory 5. They poor captive Jews scattered and dispersed without power or policy living in subjection We a most flourishing Kingdom for wealthl power and policy under a most magnificent King Illustrious Nobles Reverend Prelates Honourable and worshipful and wealthy Knights Citizens and Burgesses even the Cream and Flower of the whole Nation 6. Consider the parties by whom their enemy was but one Haman a stranger by Nation a stranger in Religion an heathen Idolater ours no strangers by Nation all English men no strangers in Religion professing the same Christianity not Turks nor Pagans Infidels Moors or Indians though indeed much worse but Christians and such as would be thought true Catholicks yea the only Catholick Christians yea some of them which is among them more than Christians Jesuits Haman was wicked that is his title but these exceeded him in wickedness Haman was a declared enemy but these secret Vipers that eat through the bowels of their own Mother The malice of all men calling to it all the malice of the Devil did never invent the like in all ill Circumstances A degenerate Christian is the worst of men and the worst of men is the worst of Creatures and it 's grown into a Proverb amongst other Nations and these cruel treacherous Powder-Traytors gave too much ground for it An Englishman Italianate is a Devil incarnate 7. Consider we the colour and the cause of both Designs As all evil things usually have one thing for their colour and other for their cause In Haman the cause was Mordicai his not bowing The colour was they were of a different Law Hereticks They were not for the Kings profit In ours the Cause is not bowing to one viz. The Old Gentleman at Rome one prouder than Haman who have had Emperors to hold their Stirrups Kings to lead their Horses and kiss their feet The Colour pretended is zeal for Religion we were and still are in their accounts Hereticks and therefore must be kill'd blown up destroyed and they think they have St. Pauls Warrant for it for so it hath been urged Hereticum devita which we make but one word and that a Verb which we rightly translate avoid and they two words viz. a Noun and Preposition and so would have it signifie to kill De vita to take from life They consulted their Oracle the Provincial who answered them as Ahasuerus did Haman De populo fac quod libet Do with them as it seemeth good unto thee Esth 3. 11. 8. Consider we the event The Jews delivered Haman hang'd we preserved the Traytors suffered God was otherwise minded than Haman he would have destroyed a Nation but God preserved it Haman put the Lot into the lap but God drew it out And in this event consider 1. Means 2. Manner 3. Time 4. Issue 1. Means They to God by fasting and prayer to man by Queen Esthers Mediation to the King We used none nor could use any neither fasted or prayed suspected no evil and so could use no means to prevent it 2. Manner Though no means to God yet we had from God and so had they too but ours better both from and by a King Theirs from a King but from him came the Danger his Proclamation under hand and seal without which Haman could have done nothing Ours from a King but no danger from him He was as deep in the danger as we were Theirs by a King set right by Esthers Information in a regular
he made to one Fulco a French Priest who had told him that he had three very had Daughters which he wished him to bestow in marriage or else Gods wrath would attend him When the King had replied he had not any Daughter yes quoth the Priest Thou hast theâ—â— Daughters Pride Couetousness and Letchery The King replied My Pride bequeath to the haughty Templers and Hospitallers Speed Hist p. 480. my Covetousness to the white Monks of the Câ—stâ—ary Order and my Letchery to the Priests and Prelates for therein they took their greatest felicities How profitable Guests they are and have been to those persons and states that 〈…〉 and submit to them I suppose their proslyted begoâ—â—â— the Laity find to their great cost And we are informed by Authentick History that the Popes Authority hath been very chargeable and burdensom to the Kingdom of England not only by terrifying or alluring dving persons to give their Estates from their own Children and lawful Heirs under a pretence of Devotion to the Church and Charity to Souls to free them from Purgatory a place of the Popes own maiâ—ing but by the owned and publick exactions many ways emptying and impoverishing the Realm which King Henry the third was very sensible of who when the Pope in person and that was a less mischief than the entertaining of his power desired to come into England he denied him it being then said and it is and would prove as true still That the Pope is as a Mouse in a Sachel or a Snake in ones bosome that did ill repay the Hosts for their entertainment Speed Hist p. 538. And their Exactions were so great in the days of that King that a Cardinal truly told the Pope That England was to the Pope as Baalams Ass which had been so often wronged spur galled and cudgelled it was no marvel that now at last she opened her mouth to complain and for themselves and the Roman Court they were like Ishmael every mans hand against them and theirs against every one How gentle and courteous kind and innocent they have been where they have had power all Histories record The destruction of the innocent Waldenses the treacherous Massacre at Paris the villanous and barbarous Murders of the Protestants in Ireland Piedmont and wherever they got power And though they may seem as mild innocent and harmless as Gregory the first when they have no strength they then do but hide their claws which are still sharp but when they have got power as fierce as Gregory the seventh that Brand of Hell Hildebrand who by poysoning seven of his Predecessors made way to the Papal Throne and when sate down in it managed it to the Ruin and Destruction of the German Emperor and Empire And what safety or security can any Prince have from them who not only teach it as lawful to kill or remove Kings but also as meritorious and have brought their accursed Doctrine into wicked practice in the murdering of two Kings of France successively one of them always of the Religion and the other turned to them viz Henry the third and fourth of France for the first of which stab'd by a treacherous Monk there was great rejoycing at Rome and a Panigerical Oration belch'd out of the Popes own mouth in the Conclave so that they not only think they may but applaud it as meritorious as appears by the writing of Mariana and others But this is not the Divinity of the old primitive Christians but of the new Jesuits who more properly may be called Jehusites driving furiously as he did to the Ruin and destruction of Kings by force and power of Arms if they can but if that fail if they want Vires they will try Virus when Sword and Gun cannot Poyson shall How often was that excellent Princess Queen Elizabeth never to be mentioned without Honour so assaulted and God preserve his most excellent Majesty that now is from it And if that fail they will try what Powder will do a Monks invention found out by the help of the Devil to the ruine and destruction of Mankind And had their wicked Plot took effect would have been the ruine of the whole Nation But blessed be God the snare was broken and we in our Progenitors were delivered and have a just occasion of rejoycing in this day which the Lord hath made Psal 118. 1. And thus you see the parallel of the Persons Philistines Papists 2. The cause of their Danger The receiving of the Ark the setting of it up reforming from Idolatry putting away Baalim and Ashteroth worshipping of God praying fasting meeting at Mizpeh Then the Lords of the Philistines set the battel in array against them v. 10. Was not our case parallel what makes the Pope and his Complices so maliciously set against the King and Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland was it not the bringing the Ark of true Religion which they despised and rejected and setting of it up and sanctifying those that should minister in it First begun by that Magnanimous and Heroick Prince King Henry the Eighth who like David being a man of Blood began Gods Temple but did not finish it but left it unto that most excellent and virtuous Prince Edward the Sixth the Josiah of his age that justly deserved the stile of Titus Delicium humani Generis who carried it forward notwithstanding the great opposition he met with from the Scottish Papists who at Muscleborough Field were worsted by a small handful of Englist Protestants notwithstanding their mighty Army which brought into the field with it their breaden-God-Altars Crucifixes and other Popish Trinkets had 24000. slain in the Encounter and of the English not above 100. And the same fate attended the Devonshire and Cornish Rebels that rose upon the same occasion And though it met with a sharp opposition and persecution by fire and faggot by the malice of those wretched Apostates from it Gardner and Bonner and the misguided zeal of Queen Mary yet then the tree of Religion though it withered in the leaf yet grew in the root being watered with the blood of many eminent Christians of all sorts learned and godly Divines and Bishops who in the former Kings reigns had helpt to introduce it and in hers confirmed the truth of it with their Deaths for it so that it quickly again flourish'd by the means of that most excellent Princess Queen Elizabeth of blessed Memory whom none except such as that foul-mouth Lyar and fugitive Jesuit Sanders will mention without Reverence much less speak ill of her By her means I say God establisht his Ark in our Israel his truth his Worship amongst us removed Baalim and Ashteroth the He-Saints and She-Saints that were set up and worshipped in Gods place Notwithstanding 1. All open opposition by force In Ireland by Stukely and Sanders in the North by No folk Northâ—â—â—elaâ—d and Westmoreland From Spains invasion in 1508. which had it in any measure succeeded
prosperous would have been seconded by a it one bred Rebelion of which Sir Walter Raleigh saith That it only dâ—need a Morice on our English Seas And as another 〈…〉 not one bullet into the shore lost many thousand mâ—n and near 20â— ships whereas we lost but one in all Vessel and not an hundred men 2. All secret machinations treacherous Contrivances by poyson pistol dagger powder by Campion a French Lopez a Jew Creighton a Scot some vile Bygotted Gentleman and many others Thus that most excellent Princess notwithstanding all opposition by force and fraud that was made against her maintained Gods Ark not only twenty years as at Kirjath-jearim but twice twenty and five years and died in peace and serenity of mind in her bed in a good old age even the age of man in Moses's time seventy years and doth well deserve notwithstanding all the barkings of lying Papists and the belchings of impure Mouths against her that part of her Epitaph She is she was what can there more be said In earth the first in Heaven the second Maid Which Ark so setled her Successor King James of blessed Memory the most learned and most peaceful Monarch of Great Britain and Ireland maintained continued and established which exceedinly provoked the malice of the Popish Philistines against him Hence they contrived Watson and Clark Cobham and Raleigh's Conspiracy against him in 1603. and that failing this most Hellish Powder-Treason no doubt devised by the Devil but acted by his Instuments Piercy Katesby Digby and others who intended to blow up the King Queen Prince and the great States and Commons of the Land then met in the Upper-House of Parliament and then to lay that horrid fact to the Puritans Sham Plots you see are none of their new devices and so to have taken up thence a pretence by the help of Foreigners whom they had tampered with to root out Protestants and their Religion and establish Popery which no question is and will be their perpetual design and endeavour But blessed be God for ever blessed be his Holy Name God intervened and overruled and O let him do so still and turned Esth 9. 1. it into the contrary God made that day which had they had their wits should have been for Villany and cruelty the most unfortunate day such as Nov. 5. eye hath not seen nor ear heard of unto us most joyful and most glorious when by Gods infinite Goodness and his then most excellent Majesties most fortunate Interpretation of a passage of one of their own Letters which passage was The Danger will be over as soon as the Letter was burnt which was as a learned Prelate speaks more casual than rational not by Grammatical Learning but by divine Revelation and Inspiration and by his Bp. Andrews faithful Councils diligent and discreet Inquisition and search discovered and prevented though those Monsters of men and the Vassals of the Pope had taken the Sacrament of secrecy and the time was near for the execution of it Thus was our great danger by our gracious God prevented and their own deserved ruine by themselves procured The remembrance whereof we ought in all solemn manner to celebrate every fifth of November as we do and long may we and our posterity do it And as we are directed in a Prayer and Thanksgiving in the Office appointed for that day joyfully to bless God and earnestly to intreat him to root out that Babylonish and Antichristian Sect whose Religion is Rebellion whose Faith is Faction whose practice is murdering of souls and bodies from whose Treachery Cruelty Rage Malice good Lord deliver us Amen Text. Then Samuel took a stone c. saying hitherto hath the Lord helped us Having in the former dispatched the first thing proposed viz. What was in the Text supposed their danger and the Cause of it and their enemies I now come to the second thing viz. What is expressed Time will not allow particular insisting on those many things which the Text in its parts would present us with I shall sum up all in these two things 1. Gods helping them 2. Their sense of and thankfulness for that help 1 Gods helping them which though last in words yet being first in nature I shall first speak to and as I proceed compare Gods helping them with his helping us Now what their deliverance was the Text shews us After the Ark was taken by the Philistines at the news whereof and of his two Sons death old Eli died and Ickabod was born â— the glory was departed and they for twenty years were in an afflicted and therefore lamenting Condition v. 1. being fallen into the sin of Idolatry v. 3. Under the bondage of the Philistines who disarmed them left not a Smith c. Samuel having been always a Prophet and Instructor of them never ceasing to pray for them Cap. 12. 1. He having reproved them for exhorted and prevailed with them to put away Baalim and Ashteroth their He-Gods and She-Gods and to serve the Lord now as a Judge in which Office he seems now to be inaugurated he summons them to Mizpeh in order to their further Reformation to fast and pray and confess their sins which the Philistines hearing of they gathered themselves together with an hostile intention No new thing for Satan to imploy his Instuments in the obstructing of good actions At the hearing of whose gathering together the Israelites were afraid being unarmed and unprepared to encounter with them v. 7 and therefore despairing of their own apply themselves to Samuel to pray for Gods help that he would save them v. 8. They were sensible of their own sinfulness being Idolaters and knew that God would not hear sinners They were assured of Samuels Holiness and Innocency and therefore of Gods favour towards him Hence they desired him to pray for them when they were apprehensive of their own unfitness and indisposition to pray for themselves where by the way observe Though graceless sinners in their prosperity scorn and abuse Gods faithful Ministers yet have they then a Conviction in their own Consciences of their Innocency and in time of their distress will seek to such to pray for them as Pharaoh to Moses the people to Samuel they sent not to their fellow-Idolate's nor Pharaoh to the Magicians then Moses then Samuel must be desired to pray for them Thus it is and will be with intelligent though graceless people in reference to scandalous and careless Ministers who do delightfully associate them in their sinful and unwarrantable practices of drinâ—ing swearing dicing c. even those persons who seem to applaud flatter and admire them yet in their sober moods have so much conviction that in their thoughts they condemn them as the blemishes of their Function and in the 'r extremitiâ—s little regard their Prayers for them then an Innocent Moses though many times rejected then an holy and blameless Samuel shall be sought to then pray for us then
be glad in it O let us joyfully thankfully and affectionately remember the Mercy of this deliverance vouchsased to us in our Forefathers reflect upon the greatness of our Danger and Gods wonderful goodness in our escape from it Our Case was that of the Church Men rose up against had Ps 124. swallowed us quick and their mischievous device like proud and overflowing waters against which there can be no defence had gone over our soul so that had not Gods mercy intervened we had been a prey to their teeth but blessed be God our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the Fowler The Net was broken and we were delivered and all by the help of the Name of the Lord who made Heaven and Earth In which case of theirs as in ours were joyned Cruelty Malice Violence Policy Subtlety and an irresistable Force such as is the overpowring of Fire and Water that burns and destroys without Remedy And herein see and consider the greatness of Gods Mercy in this Deliverance It was a great State-Mercy but a greater Soul-Mercy for hereby the glorious Gospel of lesus Christ is continued to us O say not of this as Let of Zear It is a little one Gen. 19. 20. Let this Mercy then be writ in the Records of our hearts as well as Statutes that as what Mordecai had done was read by Ahasuerus so this may be by us not only that we may know it and minde it but that we may as Ahasuerus did for Mirdecai and say What hath been done for God What shall we do for him Let us therefore I beseech you answer God's expectation because of this and all other his former and latter Deliverances for therefore are we put in minde of them And know we that if we do not we may expect that God will expostulate with us as he did with Israel 8. I brought you out from Egypt and brought you forth out of Judg. 10. 8 9 10. the house of bondage 9. And I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all that oppressed you and drave them out from before you and gave you to â—â—â—d 10. And I said unto you 〈◊〉 the Lord your God sear not the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell but you have not obeyed my voice Yea we justly may fear that he will answer us in our Intreaties and Dangers when we cry unto him as he did them 11. Did not I deliver you from the Egyptians and from the Amorties from the children of Aâ—â—â—â— and from the Philistins Judg. 10. 11 12 13 14. 12. The Sidonians also and the Amalekites and the Meabites did oppress you and you cried unto me and I delivered you out of their hands 13. Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods wherefore I will deliver you no more 14. Go and cry unto the Gods which ye have chosen let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation Change we the names and the things agree Let us then answer God's expectation since God by this great Deliverance hath continued his Gospel and O Lord continue it to us and our Posterities O let us 1. Prize it As that which exalts a Nation lifts it up as it did Capernaum unto Heaven He hath shewn his word unto Jacob his statutes and his judgments unto Israel He hath not done Psal 147. 19 20. so with any Nation and as for his judgments they have not knewn them 2. Improve it Otherwise it will prove a Judgment to us yea the Judgment This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness The neglect of the Gospel Joh. 3. 19. casts down to Hell and makes our escape impossible Mat. 13 50. 3. Walk worthy of it answerable unto it and to God's expectation Heb. 2 3. from us because of it Let your conversation be as becometh the Gospel Walk worthy of the Vocation wherewith we Phil. 1. 27. Ephes 4. 1. are called And thereby adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour in Tit. 2. 10. all things To these ends Joshua minds Israel of what God had done for them and amongst other things How Balak Son of Zippor Josh 24. 9. 10. King of Moab arose and warred against them and called Balaam the Son of Beor to curse them But he would not hearken unto Balaam but he blessed them still and delivered them out of Balak's hand And after many other signal Mercies shewed to them he concludes with God's expectation from them Now therefore 14. fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth and put away the gods which your Fathers served on the other side the flood and in Egypt and serve ye the Lord. And as it was then so it is still God's expectation from us upon our Deliverancs is That we should serve hem without fear Luke 1. 74. 75. in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life Not that we might exclaim against the foulness of the Fact or inveigh against the Monsters that were the Actors of it or bless our selves for so fair an Escape or keep a day in the Memorial of it much less were we liberate that we should become Libertines To sit down to Eat and to Drink Healths after new and unseeming Modes and to rise up to Play But that we might serve God in Holiness and Righteousness all the days of our life Serve we ought though we should not be delivered as the holy Martyrs did The three Princes in Daniel and Job resolved he would though God should kill him How much Job 11. 15. more ought we when we are delivered and that aforehand by way of prevention to render unto God Evangelical and acceptable Service and Sacrifice of Thankfulness and Love Serve Him we must then in Holiness and Righteousness and that not only in the sight of men but before him and that not for a spirt or fit but all the days of our Life Let not our Holiness be as the Pharisees in our Fringes and Phylacteries in outward expressions in hearing the Lectures of the Law no matter how we live Let not our Holiness be like the Sadducees live indifferently well but believe neither Spirit nor look for any Resurrection Not like Agrippa's who was half perswaded Not in Holiness only not in Righteousness only but in both and that for ever And as for our present deportment Let us rejoice in the day which the Lord hath made When God calls to fasting it is a sin to feast and when to rejoycing it 's a sin to mourn Isa 20. 13. Had this Plot taken effect to the desire and expectation of the Neh 8. 9 10. Projectors there would have been a Jubile in Askalon Shall we not then rejoyce and be glad outwardly in body inwardly in Spirit let our joy be such as may be seen and perceived by face voice
countenance habit and gesture bind the sacrifice with cords unto the horns of the Altar Let our hearts Psal 118. 27. be glad and our Glory our tongue rejoyce Bless the Lord Psal 16. 9. in the Congregation Let the Singers go before and the Players Psal 68. 25. 26. on the Instruments follow after Let us say with the Psalmist My lips shall greatly rejoyce when I sing unto thee and my soul which thou hast redeemed My Tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long for they are confounded they are brought unto shame that seek my hurt But let us be sure that our joy and rejoycing may be in the Lord such as God may be pleased with Not in the day of our Kings deliverance make our selves or others sick with bottles of Wine not sit down to eat and Hos 7. 5. drink healths and rise up to play for with such mirth God is Exod. 32. 6. not well pleased but doth threaten to spread the dung of such 1 Cor. 10. 5. feasts upon their faces and curse their Blessings Mal. 2. 3. Now that our rejoycing may please God we must begin with Halelujah and end with Hosannah David gives us a pattern Open to me the gates of Righteousness Psal 118. 19. 25. I will go into them and I will praise the Lord. Save now O Lord I beseech thee I beseech thee send now prosperity Thus should we be joyful in Gods house of prayer but still Isal 56. 7. remember to rejoyce in trembling because we know not what a Psal 2. 11. day may bring forth Prov. 27. 1. Joyn we then praise and prayer thanksgiving for the mercies we have received and prayers for the mercies we still stand in need of All the Psalms are reducible to two words Halelujah and Hosanna not to be severed Neither of these if alone will prosper nor are acceptable when not united O then let us now do both praise God for our former and latter Deliverances from the many attempts of our Popish Adversaries the Spanish Invasion Gunpowder Treason many preservations of Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory and our own deliverance from their truly real Plot and intended Mischief which God preserve us from Pray unto him for the continuance of his gracions providence over us and protection of us For suppose that all were dead that sought our lives Say they are but is the Devil dead too If he be not it steds not much if they were His Powder Mill will still be going he will be as busie as ever in turning over all his devices in turning himself into as many shapes as Proteus and all to turn us to mischief And therefore we have and shall have always cause to follow our Halelujah's with our Hosanna's pray as well as praise in reference to our Popish Adversaries That God would abate their pride asswage their malice and confound their devices That the Life of our most Gracious King may be preserved the Protestant Religion our Lives and Liberties secured from all the devilish attempts of our implacable enemies the Jesuits and their Proselytes Oh let all that are now in the House of the Lord especially those amongst us that are of the House of the Lord earnestly and affectionately pray for our most Gracious King as in duty we are bound because God commands it and out of respect to 1 Tim. 2. 2. our own tranquility that is wrapt up in his safety that God would continue forth his goodness towards him and bless him with length of days with strength of health with the encrease of all Honour and happiness with Terror in the eyes of his Enemies with Grace in the eyes of his Subjects with whatsoever David or Solomon or any other King that was happy was blessed with a long continuance of the Peace and Glory of his Kingdoms on earth and with the eternal Kingdom of Glory and Peace in the highest Heaven To which God bring us all for his infinite mercy through Jesus our blessed Saviour Amen Amen FINIS