Therefore will I confess unto thee O Lord among the Heathen and sing praises unto thy Name In these words we have an account I. Of David's Deliverances from his Enemies vers 48. II. Of his devout acknowledgment of and thankful return for those Deliverances vers 49. First We have an account of David's Deliverances and therein these Observables 1. The Terms 2. The Author 3. The Manner thereof 1. The Terms of it or the Evils from which he was delivered expressed 1. More generally from his Enemies 2. More particularly from the violent Man 2. The Author of those Deliverances and that is God himself He hath delivered me from mine Enemies Thou hast delivered me from the violent Man 3. The Manner of these Deliverances Thou hast exalted me above those that rise up against me Secondly We have a devout Acknowledgment of and thankful Return for these Deliverances and Preservations Therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the Septuagint renders it will I confess unto thee O Lord among the Heathen and sing praises unto thy Name I purpose to speak of these in their order 1. Of the Mercy David's Deliverances 2. Of the Duty David's Confession and Thanksgiving And then make what Comparisons we fairly may between King David's and our King's Deliverances to excite us to the performance of the same Duty to promote the same religious Joy and Praise at the time of our Solemn Thanksgiving and Festivity I. First then for David's Deliverances Deliverance and Preservation are Acts whereby God repeats the Wonder and the Mercy of his Creation and giveth as it were a new Life in the continuance of the Old a kind of Resurrection and revival without any real death Psal 102.8 The People that shall be created shall praise the Lord i. e. say some the People brought from a low and despicable condition next to nothing or the People delivered from an imminent destruction The Deliverance of a King hath on it some special prints and signatures of the Divine Power and Goodness God delivered David from the Lion and the Bear and the uncircumcised Philistine when he was in a more private Capacity but his Protections in his Royalty were more eminent and remarkable and therefore he magnifies them in the Verses next to my Text. Great Deliverance giveth he to his King and sheweth Mercy that is signal and extraordinary Mercy to his Anointed And when he sings a new Song of Praise Psal 144.10 this is the Burthen of it It is he that giveth Salvation to Kings who delivereth David his Servant from the hurtful Sword In King David ' s Deliverances we may observe First The dreadful Evils and Dangers from which he was delivered expressed 1. More generally by Enemies Enemy is a word common to Men with Devils and David who stiles his Enemies as you heard Floods of ungodly Men compares his Sufferings under them to the Sorrows of Hell the effects of a deep and devilish Malice Though not only the Lives but the other Rights and Properties of Kings are made by God more sacred and inviolable than those of other Men and though Obedience to Authority is the Mother and the Nurse of VVelfare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Aeschilus his expression yet through the instigation of the Devil the first Plotter of all Mischief who is naturally and originally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a professed Enemy to God and consequently to all who resemble him in Power and Goodness are Discontents raised Sedition and Rebellion moved against the best Governors Moses met with great opposition and contradiction even his own Kindred Aaron and Miriam began to malign him To pass by other Instances we have a full one before us David I mean A Man after God's own Heart one who professed and countenanced the True Religion and a King of God's own making crowned anointed and placed in the Throne as it were by his immediate Hand who though he was a wise and gracious Prince and ruled them prudently by his Power yea though he was popular for some time and whatsoever the King did pleased the People I say notwithstanding all these happy Concurrences these Conspiracies as I may so speak of Vertue Right Prudence Clemency He could not sit quiet and safe in his Government He found many Enemies both at Home and Abroad His own Son rebelled against him And with Absolom went two hundred Men out of Jerusalem 2 Sam. 15.11 He attracts the People's Eyes by a Princely Grandeur and steals away their Hearts by a popular Compliance fair Speeches and obliging Condescentions He rises up early and stands in the way of the Gate and if any Man came nigh him to do him obeysance he put forth his Hand and took him and kissed him By these Artifices he soon gained many Associates who followed him some of them perhaps in the simplicity but the most and the most considerable in the malice and wickedness of their Hearts to the great endangering of the Crown and Life of his Father So apt are the Sons of Belial who can bear no Yoke to be complaining and quarrelling not only under the most Just but under the most merciful and easy Rule The Spirit that is in us lusteth to Envy and is ever and anon murmuring at petty Grievances and clamouring at every little Restraint of our Licentiousness as a violation of our lawful Liberties and Privileges and thereupon grounding Pretences for Rebellion which David in vers 43. of this Psalm calls the Strivings of the People The beginning of which Strife Prov. 17.14 as Solomon wisely observed is as when one letteth out Water which hath but a slender utterance at first but it soon swells and rages bears down all Dams riseth above all Banks and Bounds and spreads into a Flood of Vngodliness an irresistible Torrent of Fury Cruelty and Treason Which minds me of the 2. Second Thing and that which was the greatest and more particular Evil from which David was delivered the Violent Man Men whose Discontents at some seeming Errors in his Government soon expressed themselves in diminishing and defamatory Speeches Psal 89.51 wherewith they reproached the Footsteps of God's Anointed And from these proceeded to Seditious Petitions and Remonstrances under the colour of preferring a Suit or Cause as is expressed 2 Sam. 15.4 Or in the Language of our Times a Grievance of the Subject These Discontents by degrees were confirmed into a Resolution to seize his Guards and his Person and so to give Limits to his Dominion which perhaps he intimates by that gathering of the Abjects and rascality of the People together against him Psal 35.15 or elsewhere by the gathering of the Mighty or more frequently by their besetting or compassing him about on every side which traiterous Machinations terminated in the highest instance of Disloyalty a violent attempt upon his Sacred Life But if the Violent Man may not here be interpreted indefinitely or for a Band of Regicides may we fix it upon
The Lord hath delivered me out of the Paw of the Lion and out of the Paw of the Bear and he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistim And Psal 22.4 Our Fathers trusted in thee they trusted and thou didst deliver them What doth he conclude from hence Why that God would be equally gracious and deliver him too And indeed the experience of former Deliverances may well give confidence of the continuance of them that he that hath doth and will still deliver For to be sure 1. There can be no failure in his Ability and Power In Men there is many times this defect so that we cannot wisely and safely conclude of the one from the other of future from former kindness because their Power and Opportunity if not their Friendship may cease But now there is no such fear in reference to God His strength and might never abates His Hand is not shortned that it cannot save nor his Ear heavy that it cannot hear Darius set his Heart upon Daniel to deliver him and laboured it Dan. 6.21 but could not effect it but God sent his Angel and shut the Lions Mouths There is likewise 2. In God a perpetuity of affection 'T is of the Lord's Mercy that we are not consumed because his Compassions fail not And it is observable how our good King glorieth and flourisheth in this Confidence yea despiseth the Force and Policy of his Enemies thereupon Psal 2.1 2. Why do the Heathen rage and the People imagine a vain thing 'T is we know spoken prophetically of Christ's Kingdom but it had a primary relation to his own as the Type of that And he expresseth a great assurance that his Throne shall stand firm and unmoveable and all the Plots and Conspiracies the Rage and the Malice of wicked Men against it shall prove but vain Imaginations and Impotent Attempts Thus much for David's Confession and devout Acknowledgment of God's merciful Deliverance I will confess unto thee O Lord among the Gentiles I come now to the Second and last part David's chearful Thanksgiving I will sing of thy praise The ancient People of God were wont to record their special Mercies and Deliverances as in their Chronicles in the Names of their Children and of their Places so likewise in Spiritual Songs and Psalms Thus did Moses Israels Deliverance out of Egypt Deborah and Barak their victory over Sisera and Jabin King of Canaan Isaiah pens a Song of Thanksgiving before-hand for the Peoples return out of Captivity Chap. 26. We have Hezekiah's Song too after recovery from his desperate Sickness But to come home we have David penning this gratulatory Psalm and several others yea we read elsewhere of what and to whom he sung I will sing of Mercy and Judgment Mercy to my Self and Judgment to my Enemies Vnto thee Psal 101.2 O Lord will I sing And he danced to his own Pipe his Practices were Praises and all the Motions of his Life kept time and pace with the Musick of his Mouth I will behave my self wisely in a perfect way c. He shews his Thankfulness not only in a suddain Rapture or passionate transport of Joy but in a steady practice of Piety as appeareth by the following part of that Psalm where he seriously resolves upon the well-ordering and governing of himself his Family his Kingdom that he would be holy and upright in his Conversation that he would suffer no notorious wicked Person in his Court nay that he would endeavour to reform or root out all such out of his Dominions I will early destroy all the Wicked of the Land that I may cut off all the evil-doers from the City of the Lord. I have done now with David's Thanksgiving real as well as vocal yea I have done with my Text too as it concerns his Case but begin to consider it as it concerns our own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Paul speaks to transfer and apply it to our own King and his Deliverance the Blessings we all enjoy thereby and which this Day doth justly remind us of And I doubt not but it will be easily made appear how well the Text and the Occasion suit and agree together and that there is a manifest correspondence in the Subject the Terms the Author and the manner of the Deliverance It will behove us to compleat the Parallel by our devout Confession and Thanksgiving which I shall endeavour to assist you in by my Exhortation and Persuasives at the close of my Discourse But we are first to compare the Deliverances and there to shew 1. How they agree in the Subject And here I need not tell you that they were both Kings against whom there is or at least should be no rising up Prov. 30. And that their Monarchical Government was after the Image of God's Monarchical and such as continued in the World without interruption for 3000 Years together yet it is worth your better notice how much our Gracious Sovereign resembleth the good King in the Text. 1. In his way of Education being trained up for some time in the same School the School of Affliction where many Princely Vertues are most easily learned not only Piety and Patience but Prudence Caution Thrist Clemency Modesty and Moderation in time of Prosperity After David was King God would not admit him to the exercise of his Kingly Power before he had spent some Years under this Discipline Which was exactly the Case of our present Sovereign who was no ill Proficient under it as will appear when we come by and by to observe his Royal Qualifications But in the mean time I would note this That though our King was the Son of Nobles and this Kingdom the Inheritance of his Father's and his by an indisputable right of Succession as David's was not yet there was as immediate an Hand of God in his Restauration as in David's Advancement The Builders refused them both and threw them among the Rubbish of the People but God in their several times made them the head-Stones of the Corner and his Doings were alike visible and wonderful in each of them So that by a different a peculiar and more intimate relation to Heaven He may be said to be God's King and his Anointed and his Person and Power more sacred and venerable upon that advantage of Royalty And if his Justice in punishing none but the Violaters of his Laws or his Mercy in pardoning so many of them If his Prudence in Government or his condescending pleasantness in Conversation Nay if above all His Constancy in the true Religion are any ways apt to strengthen Loyalty or sweeten Obedience He is in all these another David And I give you this transient view of them to render the Villany of his Enemies black and horrid as Hell it self without Plea or Paint without the mixture of any fair Colour the least degree of excuse or mitigation Which brings me to the second thing in the
seasonable to sing unto the Lord a new Song to praise him in a high and exalted strain especially upon so signal a manifestation of Mercy and Judgment as that was which we celebrate this Day It was once said of Claudian That he wanted Matter suitable to the excellency of his Wit But where is Wit and Eloquence worthy of this Subject Who can utter these mighty Works of the Lord Who can shew forth all his Praise None so well as our chief Musician whose Tongue was as the Pen of a ready Writer And we cannot do it better than in a Psalm of his composing We have seen in Scripture how they were wont to praise God with Songs and Hymns And besides David we have instanced in Moses and Miriam Deborah and Barak c. and may add Simeon and Anna. In the Christian Church after they had ended their Love-Feasts they began their Hymns which were either taken from the Scriptures or of their own composition Which Pliny takes notice of as of a great part nay as of the whole in a manner of their Worship that they did Secum invicem carmen Christo quasi Deo dicere That they joined together in singing a Psalm to Christ as their God And indeed it hath been the general and authorised practice of all Nations in all Times by composed Hymns and panegyrical Elogies to express their Gratitude for the Gifts of Nature and for the Benefits indulged by Providence And shall not this stir our Emulation and kindle our Sacrifices Shall not our Devotion keep pace with if not outgo theirs Shall we not feel our Transports in so affecting an Occasion and in this sense give thanks unto the Lord among the Heathen and sing Praises unto his Name Surely if we consider the necessity as well as the comeliness and expediency of the Duty the Admonitions of the Prophets as well as the Precepts of Philosophers and the Examples of both if we consider the greatness and imminency of the Danger and consequently the blessing of the Deliverance we shall not want our Hallelujahs we shall not want any incitement to or assistance in this Duty of Thanksgiving but as we have great reason to bless God so I hope we shall make our boasts of him all the Day long What a deluge of Confusion were these poor Nations running into How deep were the Discontents of the People How ready the Tinder of unsatisfied Spirits in all Parts to take Fire and break out into a devouring and irresistible Flame Which would soon have made this good Land that was before them like the Garden of Eden to have been behind them like a desolate Wilderness How near was the Glory departing from our Israel How near was the Crown falling from our Head and all our Happiness expiring with the Breath of our Nostrils We know not where the Rage and Cruelty of our Enemies would have stop'd We know not how many besides his Royal Brother should have fallen on the Right and on the left Hand of the King But we know it was resolved to follow the Blow at Majesty with a Massacre and that several Persons of Quality and Place the Magistrates of our Great City and Subjects every where of most eminent and tried Loyalty were designed for immediate slaughter If this Conspiracy had taken place we should not in all likelihood have been so much as a People or a very miserable People if any at all For it is not so many Heads of Men jumbled together but so many placed in a due subordination under Rule and Government that make a People a Body or Society of Men. The very Life and being of a Nation are the Laws and Ordinances of it whether Civil or Sacred The Civil to make it a Kingdom and the Sacred to make it a Church When those are at any time demolished or dissolved we cease to be either Nation or Church and you may write Lo-ammi upon it yea Lo-ruhamah Hos 1.8 9. no People nor yet no Pity And these were destined to speedy destruction with all their sure Supporters by the Men of Violence we have before described Cursed be their Anger for it was fierce Gen. 48.7 and their Wrath for it was cruel yea rather blessed be the most High God who hath delivered these Enemies into our Hand and strangled all their teeming Hopes between the Womb and the World Indeed the horror of the Mischief intended may a little chill the Mirth of this Days Thanksgiving and cause us to rejoice with trembling even at this our Deliverance Yet may we hope withal that that which damps the Blaze will continue the Burning that such Abatements will help to keep Life in our Joy and prolong if not perpetuate our Sacrifice of Praise Perhaps the contrivance of this Bloody and Barbarous Design was therefore permitted that the disappointment might be had in everlasting remembrance and celebrated as it is this Day It may be this was done that we might say no more The Lord liveth who hath delivered us from the Treason of pretended Catholicks but the Lord liveth who hath delivered us from the Tyranny and bloody Rage of wild Fanatical Enthusiasts How should such Considerations as these the Considerations of our great Dangers and our gracious Deliverances enlarge our Hearts fill our Mouths act our Lives with the Praises of the Lord What Memorials and Monuments and Ebenezers should we every where erect And how seasonably may we at this time take to our selves words The words of the Royal Prophet David Blessed be the Lord Psal 124.6 who hath not given us a Prey to their Teeth Psal 68.20 He is our God even the God of whom cometh Salvation God is the Lord by whom we escape Death God hath shewed us his Goodness plenteously and God hath let us see our Desire upon our Enemies And after these the words of the Courtly Prophet Isay in a way of holy Triumph over our Enemies Associate your selves O ye People and give ear Isa 8.9 10. O ye of all Nations or rather ye of the several Sects and Parties in this Nation Gird your selves and ye shall be broken in pieces Take counsel together Plot Conspire and it shall come to nought speak the word appoint one Time and Place after another for the execution of your bloody Purposes and it shall not stand for God is with us And that our glorying may not be in vain it will concern us very much to add Real Thanks to our Verbal not only to offer Praise but to order our Conversations aright Our Thanks must not stay in Words and Instruments but proceed on to return of Affections and Actions It must be Actio Gratiarum a doing a working of Thanks as one speaks When David had represented the difficulty if not the impossibility of giving God due and full praise Psal 106.1 Who can shew forth all his praise He tells us vers 3. who come nearest doing so viz. they that keep
are False Brethren who are good Subjects and who are Movers of Sedition and inordinate Seekers of Preheminence In a word who are the Friends and who are the Enemies not only of the Succession but of the Monarchy Yea God by this Deliverance hath told our King and his Magistrates as by a Voice from Heaven how much it concerns them to keep a watchful Eye and a strict Hand upon Men of such lewd loose and dangerous Principles to mark their Motions observe their Tendencies and by prudent and timely Restraints to ourb the first stirrings of Rebellion Yea from the miscarriage of this Attempt we may conceive some good reason to hope Psal 36.12 Psal 37.15 that the Workers of Iniquity are already fallen and are so cast down that they shall not be able to rise Their Sword shall enter into their own Heart and no weapon formed against us shall prosper But the Transgressors shall be destroyed together Psal 37.38 Isa 60.18 and the end of the Wicked shall be cut off and such Violence be no more heard in our Land We have reason to hope that God who hath graciously delivered the Soul of our King from this Death also hath now delivered his feet from falling that he hath not only stilled the Raging of the Sea the Noise of the Waves the Tumults of the People but thereby brought our Soveraign into his Haven And that the Winds and Storms which so lately shook and threatned our Royal Oak have only setled it and given it a surer and firmer rooting and that our Government stands upon a more stable and durable Basis than heretofore if God so please 2. We may look upon the Deliverance for which we bless God this Day not only as an occasion of mending our Fences of strengthning our Gates and our Guards and consequently re-establishing of our King's Throne but also as a means in the good Hand of God of enlarging his Dignity and Greatness God thereby encreasing his Glory bringing forth his Righteousness as the Light and his Judgment as the Noon-Day making his Majesty more terrible in the Eyes of his Enemies more dear and honourable in the Hearts of his Friends as a new Blessing from the Hand of God our Saviour SERMON II. PSALM 18.49 Therefore will I give thanks unto thee or confess unto thee O Lord among the Heathen and sing Praises unto thy Name WE have heard what are the Mercies and manifold Advantages of our King's Deliverance We are to see next What is to be the Return of his and our Devotion Yea we are taught already by the Royal Pattern in the Text it must consist of two parts I. An humble Confession II. A solemn Thanksgiving I am not here to tell you the King's Duty but our own by his pious Declaration and his appointment of this Day 's Solemnities He hath told us himself That he very well understandeth it and will be our great Example in his religious performance thereof When David kept a Fast all the People took notice of it 2 Sam. 3.36 and it pleased them they were delighted to do as their King did And it is the happiness of this Day which we now celebrate and we ought thankfully to acknowledg that we may bless God in our Congregations from the Example of the Court Psal 68.26 and the King the Fountain of Israel And that First By such a Confession unto him as implieth 1. An acknowledging and owning though not by a new yet by a repeated and renewed Homage the Infinite Being Power and Providence of God that the Lord liveth and that to him belong the Issues from Death That Power belongeth unto him and in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength That he is able not only to work but to command not only to command but to create Deliverance and fetch it out of the greatest distress and desolation when there is none to help or vain is the help of Man That he goeth forth in his strength conquering and to conquer That he hath repayed Fury to our Adversaries and Recompence to our Enemies given Salvation to our Prince and delivered Charles his Servant from the murthering Blunderbuss God who dwelleth in a Light inaccessible which neither the Eyes of our Sense or Reason can bear doth yet after a sort shew himself in this lower World to pious Observers in the ordinary effects of his Wisdom Power and Mercy But is much more visible in such extraordinary Acts of Protection and Deliverance as this which we now celebrate upon this there are such special impresses of Divinity that we must be sensless and stupid at least Irrational as well as Irreligious if we do not see and own God in it if we do not regard the Lord in such Works consider and acknowledg him in such wonderful Operations of his hands 2. This Confession implieth a stedfast adherence to God a walking in his Name being faithful to his Covenant constant in his Religion zealous for his Glory in the midst of the greatest temptations to Apostacy We must confess him among the Heathen When the King like that religious Emperor sets his Crown upon the Bible and the Power of the Prince is a guard and support to the Power of Godliness when the profession of the True Religion maketh us Rich and Honourable in the World and all about us are ready to commend encourage and wish us good Luck in the Name of the Lord God will want no Votaries none to make their boasts of him and to tell of all his marvellous Acts. When God causeth the South Wind to blow upon his Garden and the Sun of Prosperity to shine gently upon his Field the Church the shallow-rooted Corn will put forth and spring up as fast as the rest but it cannot abide unseasonable Weather too much Heat or Cold nips or blasts it Every one will be a Saint when Religion is in Credit and Godliness is Gain but when Tribulation or Persecution ariseth because of the Word by and by many are offended and slink away from a perillous Profession Such were the Samaritans that when the Jews were in prosperity would profess themselves to be of the Jewish Religion but when the Jews were in Adversity would disclaim them and their Religion Such were those wavering Time-servers who were Protestants in King Edward's Reign Papists in Queen Mary's and as true Protestants again as ever in Queen Elizabeth's Days And many such there are now among us whose Religion is their Interest who are wise to understand the Times and to save their Purses But if Worldly Considerations make other Men Converts God grant they may never make us Apostates That neither the spoiling nor the encrease of our Goods may move us from our Christian Stedfastness and Resolution It is storied of a famous Nobleman Hormisdas who when he was deposed from all his Honours because he would not forsake his Religion and afterwards restored to them again as a new Temptation to renounce
Peoples Rights and Liberties thereby to instigate them to that resistance which if it escape the like punishment in this World as it seldom doth shall be sure if unrepented of to receive the same Damnation in the next Because whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and he will make them know so sooner or later by the Vengeance which he executeth upon such Resisters And 2. By those wonderful Preservations which he vouchsafeth to the Persons of Kings their Protections being great and extraordinary as their Dangers are Whence they had the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 given to them by the Ancients particularly by St. Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We pray for Kings whom God takes into his peculiar Care and Safeguard How many Assassins have found themselves daunted with the Rays of Majesty And Gowrie's Consp fol. 6. like Gowries Man who when he was prepared to kill King James trembled in his presence and fell to adore him How divinely was the same King preserved from a deeper laid Treason when the Match was ready to give fire to the Powder I cannot stay to instance in the many Preservations and Deliverances of his Glorious Predecessor Queen Elizabeth We may see this Goodness of Almighty God to Princes Protestant Princes his Kings and his Anointed nearer home and in a more affecting Instance our own gracious Soveraign whose many admirable Deliverances speak him the special Favourite of Heaven Perez was wont to call himself Camb. Eliz. Part 2. Monstrum Fortunae the Prodigy of Fortune and our Prince may appear to us Monstrum Providentiae the Prodigy of Providence taking the word as Scaliger applieth it to Virgil Monstrum sine labie a Prodigy of Perfection And let us beseech Almighty God still to deliver him from the Evil Man to preserve him from the Violent Man to keep him from the Snare they have laid for him and from the Grins of the workers of Iniquity and that we and all his Subjects duly considering whose Authority he hath may faithfully serve honour and humbly obey him in God and for God according to his blessed Word and Ordinance through Jesus Christ our Lord who with him and the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth ever one God World without End Amen ERRATA Pag. 16. Line ul◠read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pag. 17. l. 2. 〈…〉 Pag. 24. l. 24 〈…〉 Pag. 53. l. 25. 〈…〉 An Eucharistical Ode to God our Deliverer on the happy discovery of the late Treasonable Conspiracy I. THou Great JEHOVAH Mighty King Who can enough thy Praises sing Or e're enough thy mighty Acts make known Which thou great God hast shown To us thy chosen Flock To us thy small but still beloved Stock Wondrous O Lord are all thy Works and great Thy Mercies ever Infinite Thou Sion's Foes does still defeat And bring'st their darkest Plots to light II. Great King had'st thou not lent thine Aid And all our Foes dismaid Had not thy piercing Wisdom all their Secrets seen We thy peculiar Lot had been Under th' insulting Tyranny Of a Malignant Enemy Who would have all thy Temples raz't And laid their stately Buildings waste Religion would have been no more Nor any left thy Holy Name t' adore But we should all have gone Hurri'd by a relentless Foe to swift Destruction III. But silly Mortals think in vain E're to obtain What the Almighty does deny In vain they his great Power defy And think in vain to hide what he can soon espy He all their subtil windings sees And all their hidden Mysteries His all-discerning Eyes can trace Them through all their hidden ways Can all their deep Designs reveal Tho dark as Night and laid as low as Hell IV. 'T was He the Mighty HE Who sav'd us from the Enemy Did save our King and Land From out the fierce Destroyers violent Hand Their specious Shews and subtle Arts Could not deceive the searcher of their Hearts He true Religion could descry From mere Hypocrisy He knew those painted Tombs outside Did but within a rotten Carkass hide He knew their Secret Plots and them betraid Into the Snare which they for others laid V. So perish all who Israel's Peace molest Who Israel and God alike detest May Sion's Foes be to confusion brought And all who her Destruction sought Who would have Israel's King destroy'd And all the Royal Race beside May all such Plots as these Be brought to light and may at ease Our Israel enjoy an everlasting Peace While we our daily Hallelujah's sing To our Deliverer Israel's Mighty King VI. Begin my Song begin And thou great God of Verse and Harmony Some of thy Fire into my Breast infuse Inspire my dull and groveling Muse That I may Verse such as may please thee bring Such as the God-like David us'd to sing Such as shall worthy be Of Heaven and Thee Grant I may sing thy Praise In fittest Numbers tuneful Lays Which may thy wondrous mighty Works declare And make thy bounteous Acts appear That the deluded World may all believe 'T is God our God alone can Safety give VII When Wicked Men begin to rage Thou only canst their Wrath asswage Thou who can'st still the Winds can'st calm the Seas And make 'em sink into a tranquil Peace Thou Men more boisterous than they Can'st eas'ly calm for all things thee obey All things act by thy command All things are moved by thy Hand And Men in vain thy mighty Power withstand VIII All Creatures if they could would sing thy praise But Man alone knows all thy ways Him thou hast exalted far Above what other Creatures are Hast made him Lord of all below And taught him how both Good and Ill to know He then shall never cease to sing Of all thy wondrous Acts O King Of all thy Kindness lately shown To this our Nation We all extol thy Name with one accord Extol and magnify thee only gracious Lord. Hallelujah JOHN CAVE the Son of Linc. Col. Ox. FINIS