foolishness of Preaching by preaching that absurd and ridiculous Doctrine as the world then accounted it of a Crucified Jesus and it defended it self only by a resolute and patient suffering for the Name of Christ. This is the true temper and spirit of Christianity Under the most barbarous and persecuting Emperours no Christian ever suffered as a Rebel they gave no other disturbance to the Government than by confessing themselves Christians and suffering for it Their numbers indeed were very formidable but nothing else for in imitation of their great Master they went as Lambs to the slaughter and as sleep before their shearers are dumb so they opened not their mouths But notwithstanding this our daily experience tells us that when Religion is divided into Factions and Parties or rather men are divided into Factions and Parties upon account of Religion there is nothing more imbitters mens spirits against each other nor gives greater disturbance to publick Government All the troubles and miseries which for these late years have overwhelmed this unfortunate Island have been owing to this cause Religion has been made either the reason or the pretence of all Papists plot and conspire the death of a Protestant Prince to bring in Popery and profest Protestants it seems do the same thing to keep out Popery and thus a Protestant Prince and a truly Protestant or rather a true Primitive and Apostolick Church is in danger of both And is there not great reason then for Princes who love their Lives and their Crowns to keep a watchful eye over such busie potent and dangerous Factions shall it be called Persecution for Religion to punish Traitors or to keep under a factious and turbulent Spirit If the Consciences of Subjects will serve them to Rebel for Religion it seems a very hard case if the Conscience of the Prince must not allow him to hang 'em for their Rebellion and yet no wise Prince will put it upon that hazard neither if he can help it to suffer his Subjects to deserve to be hanged To curb a growing Faction by prudent and timely Restraints is a much better and safer way The truth of this is readily owned when it is applied to the Papists They are men of such dangerous Principles and Practices as not to be suffered to live in any Protestant Kingdom and truly so they are and thanks be to God we have very good Laws against them and whatever they may do in private they dare not out-face Government with their publick and numerous Conventicles they walk in the dark and dare not own themselves to be what they are But yet I cannot but wonder upon what Principles those men Act who are so Zealous against Popery and think it such an unpardonable fault in Governors to suffer any Papist especially a Popish Priest though never so obscurely and privately to live among us and yet at the same time think it Persecution a horrible Persecution not to grant a general Liberty and Indulgence to all other Dissenters The difference between these two cases must either respect their Religion or the security of the Government As for their Religion I believe Popery to be a very corrupt Religion and the greatest Apostacy from Christianity of any other Sect or Profession which deserves the name of Christian but yet I am so profest an enemy to Popery that Iabhor that Popish principle of persecuting men meerly for Religions sake which can no more be justified in Protestants against Papists than in Papists against Protestants It is certainly the duty of a Prince to use his power and interest to Establish the true Religion in his Kingdoms to encourage the sincere professors of it and to lay such restraints upon others as may be sufficient to make them consider and hearken to wise instructions that it may be no mans temporal interest to dissent from the Religion of his Prince and it is the duty of Church-Governors not to receive any into the Communion of the Church or to cast them out again who do not profess the same Faith or will not conform to the Worship and Discipline of the Church And this is all that I know of in this matter and if men will call this Persecution it is a sign they know not what Persecution means for the Primitive Christians who were indeed persecuted would have thought such usage as this a very easie and prosperous State So that the difference must lie if any where in the Security of the Government That no Protestant Prince or Kingdom can be secured from the attempts and Conspiracies of Papists whose Principles and Practices are destructive to Government and this is the very true reason of those severe Laws which were made in this Kingdom against Popery And it must be acknowleged that there was formerly a vast difference between Papists and Protestants upon this account and therefore a sufficient reason for any Prince to make a difference between them and I wish I could say it were so still but I dare not I cannot say so To deny that profest Protestants have ever Rebelled against their Prince is to deny that there ever was a Civil War in England that there ever was a Protestant Prince Murdered by his Protestant Subjects with all the mock-formalities of Law and Justice and he must have somewhat more than the impudence of a Jesuit that can deny this And I would to God we had but one instance of this though that was a very bad one it might have left some place for hope still that this was not the temper nor the Principles of the men but some unlucky juncture of Affairs which transported them beyond the bounds of their Duty and their own avowed Principles The happy Restauration of our Banisht Prince might in some measure have expiated their former guilt and they might have recovered their innocence and the reputation of Protestant Loyalty had they manifested the sincerity of their repentance by abhorring all the Principles and Practices of Rebellion but he must be a bold man indeed who dares make excuses for those who prove Rebels a second time and he must be a bolder Prince who will trust them And when every little Creature is so vastly concerned for Liberty and Property can we think our Prince should be the onely unconcerned Person when the Liberty and Property of his own Life and Crown is at stake Or can any reasonable man expect that he should encourage those Religious Factions which by frequent experience he finds troublesom and dangerous to his Throne When Religion turns into a State-faction to curb and restrain and quell such pretences is not to invade the rights of Conscience or the liberties of Religion but to secure the publick Peace and to prevent the occassions of new Rebellions And no sober Dissenter can reasonably blame his Prince for this though he may blame those and ought to express a just indignation against them who forfeit this liberty by abusing it for a Cloak
SOME Seasonable Reflections ON THE DISCOVERY OF The late Plot. BEING A SERMON Preacht on that Occasion By WILLIAM SHERLOCK D. D. Rector of St. George Buttolph-lane London LONDON Printed for Thomas Basset at the George in Fleet-street and Fincham Gardiner at the White horse in Ludgate-street 1683. The Preface to the Reader THe reason why I publish this Sermon is partly to gratifie the desires of some partly to prevent the misrepresentations of others but chiefly for the same end for which I preacht it viz. to take the advantage of this present opportunity to make some impressions upon mens minds which I fear at other times they will not so easily receive I hope all honest men even Dissenters themselves do from their hearts abhor those villanous designs against the Life of our King which God of his great mercy to these Kingdoms has so lately brought to light and while they are possest with such an abhorrence of the Treason it seems to me to be a very proper season to put them in mind by what means such evil designs have been first formed and encouraged and brought to ripeness and perfection that those who have been cheated into a Faction by some plausible pretences and have followed the general noise and outcry in the simplicity of their hearts may take warning for the future and avoid every step and advance towards Sedition and Treason as well as abhor the Treason it self It was impossible to do this without calling to mind a great many things which to be sure those who are any ways concerned are not now willing to hear of and that with such plainness as is necessary to convince men of the evil nature and tendency of such practices but God is my witness that I did not this with the least design to upbraid or reproach any men or party of men but with the same honest and charitable intentions though it may be not with the same skill that a Chirurgeon uses in searching a wound to the very bottom which is very painful indeed but absolutely necessary to a Cure Some persons I hear have objected against this Discourse that I seem to charge this Plot upon the Protestant Dissenters and insinuate that it is a Fanatick a true Protestant Plot. God forbid that all Protestant Dissenters should be concerned in this Plot I hope better things of many of them nor do I undertake to meddle with such matters All that I meant is nothing but what is evident to any man who believes a Plot that this horrible Conspiracy has been contrived and carried on by those men who of late have pretended to be the only true Protestants a name which they would not allow to any man who appeared zealously concerned either for the King or the Church of England Whether such men have any Religion or none whether they go to Conventicles or to give the better grace to the business sometimes hear the Common Prayer is all one to me I am sure the turbulent spirit which has of late acted our Dissenters and their unwillingness to believe any Plot still gives too just a suspicion of many of them Though we are all bound to praise and adore the Divine goodness in defeating such wicked designs yet I am so far from triumphing over these men that I cannot but pity and mourn over them my heart bleeds for that scandal that is done to Religion that advantage which is given to the common enemy for the sin and the fall of great Men and the ruine of Noble Families but what is done cannot be undone again our care must look forward to times to come to remove the occasions to root up the very seeds and principles of Sedition that these shakings and convulsions of State may at last settle in a profound and secure Peace and Tranquillity If this plain discourse can contribute any thing to so happy an end I have all that I aim'd at both in Preaching and Printing it however I have the satisfaction of an honest design which is a reward to its self and gives that inward contentment and pleasure which the reproaches and censures of the World which too often attend such undertakings can never disturb A SERMON XVIII PSALM v. 50. Great deliverance giveth he to his King and sheweth mercy to his Anointed to David and to his Seed for evermore THis Psalm was pen'd by David in a thankful remembrance of those many wonderful deliverances which God had wrought for him and particularly his deliverance from the hands of Saul a jealous powerful and implacable enemy as we are expresly told 2 Sam. 22. 1. This Pious Prince though he were immediately advanced to the Throne by God himself could not escape the Conspiracies of his enemies both at home and abroad for Men of Turbulent and restless Spirits will be sure to find or make some pretences or occasions of quarrel under the most just and equal Government Sometimes men dispute the right of Succession but this they could not do here unless they would dispute Gods right to place and displace Princes for David was immediately chosen by God and anointed by his Prophet and yet this could not secure him from Conspiracies and Rebellions Others pretend great Oppression and Male-administration of Government though their licentious noises and clamours sufficiently confute it for men who are most opprest dare say the least of it The Liberties and Properties of the Subject is an admirable pretence to deprive the Prince of his Liberties and Properties and those who have any Liberty and Property to loose seldom gain any thing by this for when they have secured their Liberties and Properties against their Prince it is a much harder task to secure themselves from their fellow-Subjects Men who have no Property have some encouragement to Rebel and fight for Property for it is possible they may get something in the scramble when all Law and Property ceases but the property of the Sword but methinks men of Honour and plentiful Fortune should not be so zealous for transferring Properties to enrich Beggars and submit their necks to the Yoke and Government of their own Slaves which our late experience has taught us to be the glorious effect of Rebelling for Liberty and Property Others make Religion a pretence for their Rebellion Religion the greatest and the dearest interest of all but methinks it is a dangerous way for men to Rebel to save their Souls when God has threatned Damnation against those who Rebel but this is as vain a pretence as Liberty and Property for no men fight for Religion who have any Religion is a quiet peaceable governable thing it teaches men to suffer patiently but not to Rebel And were there any true concernment for Religion in this pretence can we imagine that the most profest Atheists the most lewd profligate wretches the greatest Prodigies and Monsters of wickedness should be so zealous for Religion But it 's evident it is not Religion such men are
zealous for but a Liberty in Religion that is that every one may have his liberty to be of any Religion or of none which serves the Atheists turn as well as the Sectaries but is not much for the honour or interest of true Religion So that whatever the pretences are it is an ambitious discontented revengeful spirit an uneasie restless fickle and changeable humour which disturbs publick Government and undermines the Thrones of Princes and therefore it is no wonder if the best Princes and the best Governments in the world be disturbed by such men David himself could not escape he had a great many enemies but Davids God was greater than they all for great deliverance giveth he to his King and sheweth mercy to his Anointed to David and to his seed for evermore There is something peculiar in these words which cannot be applied to any other Prince for as David was King of Israel so he was a Type of the Messias who was to descend from his loynes and that promise or prediction that he would shew mercy to his Anointed to David and to his seed for evermore received its full accomplishment in the Kingdom of the Messias who is said to set upon the Throne of David but yet those deliverances God wrought for David were personal too and an example of Gods care and protection of Pious and Religious Princes And when we see the same good providence watching over our Prince and securing him from the bloody designs of wicked men we have reason thankfully to acknowledge it as David did great deliverance he hath given to our Prince he hath shewn mercy to his Anointed Now know we that the Lord saveth his Anointed he will hear him from his holy Heaven with the saving strength of his right hand Some trust in Chariots and some in Horses but we will remember the Name of the Lord our God they are brought down and fallen but we are risen and stand upright My present Discourse therefore shall consist of those two parts 1. Briefly to observe to you those many great Deliverances which God hath wrought for our King 2. I shall make some practical Reflections on it especially with reference to this late Discovery 1. To observe to you those many great deliverances which God hath wrought for our King His troubles have not been much unlike I am sure not inferiour to Davids and his Deliverances have not been less strange and wonderful I am not a going to give you a History of his Life but only to point you to some remarkable passages of it which it becomes us all thankfully to remember I suppose no man doubts how many dangers a Prince is exposed to who flies before an enraged and victorious enemy who knows not whither to go where to hide himself whom to trust this was the condition of our Dread Soveraign who was hunted as a Partridge in the mountains pursued by his own Rebellious Subjects who had usurpt his Throne and thirsted after his Blood But then God found a hiding place for him and delivered him from the desire and expectation of his enemies But still his condition was calamitous he was forc't to live in Exile and Banishment divested of Royal power and all the ensignes of Majesty reduced to a precarious and sometimes a necessitous state while he saw his Friends impoverisht and ruined his Loyal Subjects opprest his Enemies triumphant too vigilant and too powerful to allow any hope to see an end of these troubles But that God who can do what he pleases and oftentimes does such things as no humane force nor power can effect put an end to these troubles also and restored him to his Fathers Throne in Peace and Honour and with the universal joy and triumph of his Subjects and I suppose you will reckon this a deliverance a great and wonderful deliverance both to Prince and People a deliverance immediately wrought by God without Humane policy contrivance or power To see a Prince whose Father was Murdered and himself forc't into banishment by his own Subjects without any power of his own without the help and assistance of Forreign Allies while his Friends at home were opprest while the same power that drove him out was still in the hands of his enemies while so many persons who were in greatest power were concerned for their own preservation to keep him out while those who wisht his return durst not whisper any thing tending to call the King back again I say to see a Prince in such circumstances without striking a blow without shedding a drop of Blood return again in the throngs and crouds and with the acclamations of his Subjects is no less a Miracle than dividing the sea to give a safe passage to the Israelites for the Psalmist represents it as an argument of equal power to still the noise of the the seas the noise of their waves and the tumult of the people This is the Lords doings and it is marvellous in our eyes now know we that the Lord saveth his Anointed he will hear him from his holy Heaven with the saving strength of his right hand And that good Providence which brought our King back again has watcht over him ever since Though he returned in a happy day when the Seas were smooth and calm when no frowns were to be seen on mens forheads but such cheerful looks as signifyed the inward pleasure and serenity of their minds yet it could not be expected that this calm would always last I think we may now venture to say without fear of being censured that there are two sorts of men that are restless and implacable and always working under ground and both of them with an equal pretence of Religion I mean the Papist and the Fanatick I shall not take notice of those several weak attempts they have made since the happy Restauration of our Prince there is something greater to imploy our thoughts at this time some more signal demonstrations of that great deliverance God giveth to his King We have now for many years had little other discourse than of a Popish Plot a wicked hellish design against the Life of our King and the Religion and Liberties of his Subjects This was a formidable design laid close and in the dark prosecuted with deep Counsels and combined interests We may remember for I think we cannot easily forget what horror and consternation surprized us at the news we lived in perpetual fear of the Life of our Prince in perpetual fear of our own how did the name of Popery deservedly stink among us how did men abhor a Religion which is nourisht with Blood with Royal and innocent Blood How zealous were men in their discoveries how watchful in their Guards how devout in their Prayers for the preservation of their Prince and of their Religion And though possibly we have not seen to the bottom of that Plot to this day and it may be never shall yet blessed be God
there was enough discovered to prevent the mischief we still enjoy our Religion we still see our Prince and rejoyce under the benigne influences of his Government hitherto God hath saved his Anointed from a Popish I pray God still defend him from a Fanatick Plot. A Fanatick a true Protestant Plot surely that is impossible there can be no danger from that corner this is only a scandal cast upon innocent and peaceable men Truly this has been so often said and with so much confidence that we had like not to have believed it possible till it had been too late It was sufficient to prove any man to be a Papist who durst own it possible for such good men to Rebel or Plot against the King and Government and yet it was very hard not to think that possible to be done which had been done once already and that so lately as not to be forgot though it was pardoned an Act of Oblivion could not wipe it out of mens memories especially when they saw the same things begin to be acted over again with the same Religious pretences I am apt to think we had been more secure from the Popish Plot than for ought I know we may yet be had not these men abused peoples fears and dangers of Popery to the disturbance of the Government and to the carrying on their Antimonarchical and Fanatick designs We remember how soon the Popish Plot was turned into a great noise and cry against the Church of England and no way was thought so fit to keep out Popery as to pull down the Church and thus the poor Church of England which had escaped the rage and fury of Rome had like to have been sacrificed to a true Protestant zeal which no doubt had given a fatal blow to Popery Hoc Ithacus velit magni mercentur Atridae How things proceeded after this to the disturbance of the publick peace and the interruption of the ordinary course of Justice you all know as well as I and wise men quickly saw and honest men could not forbear warning the people whither these things tended and they met with a good reward for it they were all Papists in Masquerade and especially the Loyal Clergy were loaded with all the contempt and ignominy which an inraged and envenomed zeal and some witless scriblers could cast on them Whole vollies of Pamphlets flew about to poyson the people with lewd and Seditious Principles but to talk or write or preach about Obedience to Government or patient suffering for a good cause was to betray the Protestant Interest and to invite a Popish Successour to cut our Throats and what all this ends in thanks be to God we now see and I hope time enough to prevent it I do not pretend to tell you any thing which you do not all know Time and the care of our Governours and the guilty Consciences of Rebels and the good providence of God I hope will make further Discoveries and bring these secret works of darkness into open view but we know enough to praise God for his great deliverance which he hath given his King we know enough to admire and adore that infinite wisdom who by the most seemingly casual and contingent events can so easily disappoint and defeat the designs of wicked and bloody men Who ever suspected that the fire at Newmarket was sent by God for the preservation of our King and his Royal Brother for the preservation of these Kingdoms of our Liberties and Religion Wonderful are thy works O Lord and thy ways past finding out This short account I have given you is an excellent Comment upon my Text a case very parallel to Davids The deliverances of our Prince are no way inferiour to that mercy God shewed to David when he delivered him from the Lyon and the Bear from the uncircumcised Philistin from a persecuting Saul from a Rebellious Absolom from a Treacherous Achitophel from the strivings of the people Great deliverance sheweth he to his King and sheweth mercy to his Anointed 2. And thus I proceed to make some practical Remarks and Observations on this which was the thing I principally designed And they are these 1. What a vain and fruitless attempt it is to Plot against the Life and Crown and Dignity of our Prince when God undertakes the defence and protection of him Setting aside the wickedness and impiety of it it is a foolish and dangerous design Whoever considers only the probable events of humane actions will be easily convinc't how unlikely it is that such Plots should take effect To miss the very critical mâ—nute spoils all the design and yet after all the skill and contrivance they can use there are ten thousand casualties to disappoint them Such designs cannot be acted alone but require numerous confederates and what security can there be that no one man in such a number shall betray the Secret Some possibly may be toucht with remorse and horror of Conscience may be frighted with the very thoughts of that Villany which they designed to act and then they need no body to betray them but themselves for no man can long together conceal the fire which burns in his own breast Other men may get into the company and acquaint themselves with all their Intrigues and act so cunning a part as to be mistaken for confiding persons may appear most zealous and most forward in the business and all this while betray their Counsels and put an effectual stop to them when they are ripe for execution and it is impossible for the cunningest men to prevent this who have not a Casement into mens Breasts Other men who enter into the Confederacy to make their Fortunes may happen to consider that it is much the safest and most effectual way to do this by discovering the Plot than by acting it The power of Wine sometimes unlocks a Secret and saves a Kingdom some unexpected Quarrels and Animosities among the Conspirators a mutual jealousie of each others greatness a hasty dispute about dividing the Riches and Honours and Power of the Nation before they have it may tempt them to hang one another and leave the Spoil which they had already devoured in their hopes and expectations to the right owners A desire to rescue some friend out of the common ruin may save a Kingdom Walls and Hedges have Ears and the very Birds of the Air may tell the matter Their Cabals may be observed and suspected and their affectation of Secrecy may betray them Their guilt is often seen in their looks and creates jealousies and suspicions of some secret design and an unlucky word which he meant nothing by who spoke it may make them think themselves discovered and this is a ready way to make them discover themselves The Heart of the stoutest Rebel may fail him when he comes to give the fatal blow or he may miss of his aim or his Gun may not go off or he may distrust his own escape
of maliciousness And if we ever desire to see the peace and prosperity of our Sion is it not high time to unite in Religion which is the onely thing that can bless us with a firm and lasting peace All our late troubles have been owing to the differences of Religion and while the cause of dissentions remains though there may be some expedients at present found out to palliate the distemper yet nothing can remove it All men seem to be very sensible of this and very desirous of an Union but the question is how or in what we shall Unite Shall we unite in Popery God forbid the salvation of our Souls is somewhat dearer to us than temporal peace and that we believe to be exposed to infinite hazard in the Communion of so corrupt a Church A firm and universal Agreement indeed in any thing will secure the publick peace but we must not make our Religion so wholly subordinate to temporal ends If we can save our Souls and secure the publick peace together such a Religion ought to be chosen upon a double account but if both these interests cannot be united we must take care to save our Souls and trust the Providence of God with our other concernments Shall we then unite with the different Sects and Parties of Christians which are among us This is to unite without Union It is to unite indeed against something but to unite in nothing The several parties of Dissenters who separate from the Church of England differ as much from each other as they do from us They may unite and combine together in pulling down but they can never unite in setting up any thing they can unite in Tumults and publick Disturbances but they can never unite in Peace When they had pulled down the Church of England they could set up nothing in its room but a prodigious encrease of Heresies and Schisms There is nothing then to unite in but the Church of England as by Law established which will both secure the interests of our Souls and the publick peace And why should we not unite in this Church which is the Glory and the Bulwark of the Reformation the envy and the terror of Rome Whose Fathers and first Reformers were Martyrs against Popery and who her self has been a Martyr for Loyalty Those infinite dangers we are surrounded with on all hands methinks should strongly encline all honest men impartially to examine the reasons of their Separation and I am confident not onely what has been formerly written in the Defence of this Church but what has been lately offered for the satisfaction of Dissenters would open the Eyes of all sincere men to see their mistakes if they would but calmly without prejudice or passion read and consider it It is demonstrable we can unite no where else and is it a desirable state to be perpetually strugling and contending with intestine Commotions to be hating reviling undermining each other For Gods sake beloved Christians let us at last consider the things which make for peace and those things whereby we may edifie each other And in order to do this I observe further 3. How dangerous a rash boisterous intemperate Zeal is though it be for the best things and against the worst Whatever private discontents revengeful or ambitious designs might secretly act some great men who know how to practise upon the zeal and the ignorance of the people yet nothing is more evident than that the first visible occasion of these new Troubles and Conspiracies which have endangered the Life of our King and the Ruine of his Government was laid in a mighty zeal against Popery and for the preservation of the Protestant Religion The Popish Plot was the first Scene in this new Tragedy Those bloody designs raised the fears the jealousies the indignation of men and a love to their Prince and to their Religion kindled and blew up their Zeal into such a violent flame as threatned an universal desolation and became more formidable than the danger it intended to remove A great and passionate Zeal like a distempered love blinds mens eyes and makes them mistake both their Enemies and their Friends It fills their head with endless jealousies and fears and makes them start and run away from their own shadow Such a boisterous Zeal is the Frenzy and Calenture of Religion which makes men uncapable of all sober Counsel and prudent Resolves and precipitates them into the most wild extravagant and irreligious attempts There is nothing more pernicious than Zeal when it gets a head and bears down all the considerations of Reason and Religion before it When men are conscious to themselves that they are engaged in a good Cause and have honest designs it makes them more bold and venturous for though few men dare own it yet the actions of too many sufficiently proclaim that they think they may strain a point and dispense with strict duty when it is to serve a good Cause when the honour of God and the interest of Religion is concerned such a zeal does violently push men forward but it does not steer well nor observe its Compass and thus it is too often seen that men who begin with a zeal for Religion insensibly slip into State-Factions and are engaged vastly beyond what they first designed and engaged so far that they cannot retreat with safety or honour but must either Conquer or be Conquered Let us then above all things have a care of our Zeal that we may not mistake an earthly fire which burns and consumes for that divine and harmless flame which is kindled at Gods Altar A true Zeal for Religion is nothing more nor less than such a hearty love for it as makes us very diligent in the practise of it our selves and contented if God sees it fit to lay down our lives for it and very industrious to promote the knowledge and practise of Religion in the world by all lawful and prudent means A true Christian Zeal will not suffer us to transgress the strict bounds of our duty to God or of our duty to Men especially to Kings and Princes whatever flattering prospect of advantage it may give To lie to forswear our selves to hate and revile each other to Reproach and Libel Governours in Church and State to stir up or countenance with the least thought any Plots Seditions or Rebellions against the King is not a Zeal for God nor for Religion for this wisdom is not from above but is earthly sensual and devilish for where strife and contention is there is confusion and every evil work 4. Let our past experience therefore teach us to watch over the least stirrings and first appearances of a seditious and factious Spirit either in our selves or others however it may be disguised with a pretence of Religion Faction like other Vices has but very small beginnings but when those beginnings are indulged it soon improves and gests strength Omne in proecipiti vitium stetit