A SERMON PREACHED At Paul's Cross, August the 5. 1623.  
BY BARTEN HOLIDAY, Now Archdeacon of OXFORD.  
LONDON, Printed by William Stansby for Nathaniel Butter, and are to be sold at his Shop at Saint Austin's Gate in Paul's Churchyard. 1626.   

TO THE UNFEIGNED EXAMPLE OF GOODNESS EVEN IN THIS AGE, THE HONOUR OF NOBILITY, THE DELIGHT AND DEFENDER OF THE ARTS, THE FRIEND OF PERPETVALL holderness, THE REVIVER OF NOTTINGHAM AND DRAKE, THE HONOURABLE SIR FRANCIS STVART, HIS MOST DEVOTED BARTEN HOLIDAY WISHETH THE GLORIOUS EXTREMITY OF HIS MERIT.  
Most Noble Sir,  
WHen I see you peremptory to be good; I judge your unhappiness no less than your Virtue; and I think most men have my thought, though not my way. They judge you unhappy, because your Honour is not as large as your goodness; and they think kindly, though not exactly: that being no part of your unhappiness, because no part of your desire. But I judge you most unhappy, in that, being a rare example of Virtue in our Age, you want the comfort of that example, which other good men enjoy in the direct contemplation of you; and you enjoy not, through your own modesty: which denies you the reflective contemplation of yourself. And since it hath been your favour (and my blessing) to admit me to the prospect of your fair actions, I knew not how to return a more cunning thankes unto you, then to present unto you another prospect; the grateful prospect of our late Sovereign, and of your loved holderness; who may very well stand thus near in fame, having been as much united in danger and deliverance. And still it is so fare from being an untruth, that it is not so much as a paradox to affirm, that They both live; and, by their preservation, outlive not only the Gowries, but also their own Funerals. By the Sword of the Gowries they could have been but proved to be mortal: but by the execution of the Gowries they are proved to be immortal, and because they did not die then, they shall never die; nay, they are able to give life to their Epitaphs. And, only by this advantage of the argument, perchance even this trifle may steal into Posterity: though, alas, my desire is, that it may only last, till this story be delivered to Fame and Envy, by some nobler pen, than this rude one of  
Your Honour's most faithful Barten Holiday.   
PSAL. 18. Verse 48, 49. 
— Thou hast delivered me from the violent man.  
Therefore will I give thankes unto thee (O Lord) among the Heathen; and sing praises unto thy name.  
IF the voice of joy were not as loud as the voice of Treason, we could not upon this day hear the news of our own deliverance. But gratitude & Majesty command the ear; & when the King preacheth, Attention is Loyalty. My Text is King david's Sermon, and his Text is his preservation. God saves him; and he by an imitating thankfulness saves the story of God's mercy. His speech testifies his safety; but his confession his goodness: which the Lord protects and increases; And it increases like the protection, as if by a devout emulation it would as much requite as acknowledge the favour. Which being above the faint thankes of prose, he advances by the art and courage of a Song. His soul could no other way ascend, but by death or triumph: in which, his just exilience is so great, that one may fear he ought after treason to fear a nearer violence from his own joy. Yet he venter's this grateful trance; as if he were content to have a disease for his sake that had freed him from death. His Song is of deliverance, an act by which God repeats his creation, and makes the same creature, without death, revive. It is the friendship of his power; whereby he makes our safety as eminent as his love: which by this unfeigned Commentary upon our Creed, works in us an easy faith, that God is the Father Almighty. If we view the purchases of men we may observe, that they, who have laid out most labour upon opinion of mightiness, have had their greatest Fame take life from Ruin, and with a lamentable happiness made the epitaphs of nations the best annals of their immortality and fury. But the Almighty does not spend a creature in unmerciful vanity, the height of his glory being the humility of his compassion. And though the jew in his grammatical devotion trembles more at the found then the majesty of his name of majesty, jehovah; yet God himself hath taught us by a more canonical Catechism to pay our best adoration without precise sophistry to his name of salvation, his best name, jesus. And if you would see, how he delights to save, you may with delight see his variety of salvations. Sometimes you may see him save an infant; when he must stay for thankes, till by the leisure of nature, the understanding be made as capable of the blessing, as the body was. Sometimes you may see him save a mother; & as if he would make himself like his own work, be as tender over her, as she over her babe. Sometimes you may see him save the mighty; It was he that delivered Samson from the captivity of the cords: which he did not break by his own strength. The strength of his body lay in his hair: but the strength of his hair lay in his Vow; The Nazarite was stronger than Samson. Sometimes you may see him save a family: It was he that prepared Esau for jacob and his pilgrim-houshold▪ Esau that before lost his birthright, and now his malice. Nature vainly thought to make him Iacob's brother, but this was a task, that God kept for himself. Sometimes you may see him save a tribe; It was he, that in revenge of his abused Levite, made Israel so overact victory upon Benjamin, that they put six hundred of them to a happy flight: whereby they preserved the tribe, and conquered it. They delivered them from the Sword, by bestowing upon them too much fear of it. Sometimes you may see him save a nation: It was he that led Moses as well as Israel through the Sea, which was more obedient than Pharaoh to let them go, and hurried on each side into such reverend tumults to get out of the way, that Israel scarce trembled more at the Egyptian, then at their own deliverance. Sometimes you may see him save a King, and then he shows the supremacy of his mercy; whiles he makes him perceive, that he is less than God, by making him only less than God. Majesty is a deputy-divinity; and to deny Royalty is civil Atheism: God having proposed to man the visible Godhead of a King, as his own proportional and lawful image. A King is as sacred as sublime, and as great a part of God's jealousy, as of his love. God therefore often confounds the treason, but almost always the traitor. He places a King on high, to make us understand how near he is unto protection; He places a King on high, to make us understand how fare he is above the hand of the subject; which is to be employed, not to touch a King, but to defend him from being touched. The knee is a better subject than the hand; this may be always loyal, that always is safe; this may protect with a shield, that with a prayer: which the Lord doth more often prevent, then hear: the secret expedition of violence provoking as secret an expedition of deliverance. The deliverance of a King is the greatest Epocha in the Chronicle of God's mercies, and relieves the curiosity of expectation with a grateful period. Thus though in the Eternal there be properly no distinction of times, yet there is of wonders: which most prefer themselves to observation, when by a courteous almightiness they command us to rejoice, as much as to admire, and are indulgent to our necessary ingratitude, which looks more upon the benefit, then on the wonder. Yet is there one degree more of deliverance, when God makes himself rejoice as much as us; when he deliuer's a good King; by the same act of mercy protecting innocence with as much joy, as he does majesty with indignation. He was content to deliver Manasses; but he did delight to deliver Ezechias; the repetition of the deliverance being the profession of the delight; as if it had not been enough to save him but once, Disease laid a nearer siege unto him then Sennacherib; yet disease fled like Sennacherib, who ought to have fled more from his own blasphemy, then from the Angel. Against the Assyrian an Angel was made a soldier; but against death God himself came to the rescue. And yet has honourable mercy no higher degree to bestow upon a superlative friend, upon God's David? Yes. God did visit others, but lived with him. He was with him when he tore the Lion, as the Lion would have torn the Lamb, making the destruction as famous as the strength. He provided the peeble for his sling; whose active prevention gave not the Philistine the respite of fear or anger; but making his strength, as vain as it was great, with triumph committed him to death and scorn. Now these were david's deliverances, when he was a shepherd; (yet when God was his shepherd) but will you see his protections in his royalty, as illustrious, as his royalty? So peradventure we may find out, among his many traitors, his violent man, from whom he had equal glory and fear. If we look upon Abner, we may observe more power, than violence. Strengthened he was with Saul's army and son: but an easy quarrel between him and his Lord bestowed him upon David: who receiving at once peace and strength from his enemy, by a rare felicity saw his danger made his safety, And thus we have not yet found out david's violent man. If we look upon Absalon, we may observe more subtlety, than violence. Armed he was with Achitophel, against whose wisdom David had nothing equal, but his innocence, which invited God's mercy to such revenge, that by a compendious justice it made the wise traitor become his own executioner, and vain Absalon was only happy by being advanced to a deliberate destruction; And thus we have not yet sound out David's violent man. If we look upon Sheba the son of Bichri, we may observe more vanity, than violence. He fought more with the trumpet, than the sword; and raising rather a tumult, than a rebellion, almost as soon lost his head, as his loyalty. And thus we have not as yet found out David's violent man. We will not look upon Adoniah, and yet he was a goodly person; in whom we may observe more desire, than violence. But notwithstanding if we would look upon him, he will take sanctuary before we can see him; and from the horns of the altar make his pardon as soon known as his offence. And thus we have not as yet found out David's violent man. But if we will look back in story, we shall find an enemy of David's before all these both in time and fury. We shall behold Saul beginning a persecution with his own hand, which throws a iavelin at him; but it is guided by a better hand to a merciful error. We shall behold him sending messengers to kill him in the morning; as if they expected the light only to guide them to the certainty of the execution; lest peradventure by an unpardonable mistake they should commit a less villainy. But David's wife by a better light foreseeing the intent, shows that the night is as convenient for an escape as for a murder, and letting him down at a window makes the same darkness conceal their treachery; and delude it. We shall behold Saul himself hunting after him, as if he would drive him out of his country and wits: but David in the extremity of wit and banishment disguises himself in a safe madness, making it the best use of his reason to seem to have lost the use of his reason. We shall behold this violent man driving him again after his return, into caves and deserts; by a new cruelty banishing him thus in his own country. We shall behold him at last so outrun his own fury and company that he is left alone to his mercy, whom he teaches to be unmerciful. We shall see him become rather David's armour-bearer, than his enemy, losing unto him the spear, that he hunts him with; arming him thus at once with the opportunity and instrument of revenge. And might not David at this rare leisure of affliction justly cry out unto violent Saul, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Thus have you seen David's violent man: but now will you see his violent God? Behold the art of divine vengeance! The loss of Saul's life must not cost David the loss of his innocence. He has for a long time persecuted David, and now he returns to persecute himself. David found a wilderness to hide himself from Saul; but Saul can find no wilderness to hide himself from himself. His own fear and his sword quickly dispatch him. It had been too much glory to fall by the riotorious hand of David; it had been too much content to fall by the commanded hand of his own servant. David was revenged, when Saul was slain: but God was revenged when Saul slew himself. The heart of the King is in the hand of God; and is not the hand of the King in the hand of God? Saul fell by his own hand, and by Gods; His own hand acts the murder, but God's the revenge. Thus God delivers David from Saul by Saul. A deliverance almost as admirable for the instrument, as for the Author. You see then what God has done for David, now hear what David will do for God. And I may justly bid you hear, because he will give thankes unto the Lord; because he does give thankes unto the Lord. He does give thankes, whiles he does promise them, & whiles he confesses his debt, he pays it. Which payment by words is not more easy than true; it being a gift which accompanied a blessing, & is one. God never gives unto a good man a single blessing, but at the same time makes him both happy and graceful. And it is society of blessings our understanding may observe in those creatures that are without understanding: each good tree giving thankes for his goodness by his fruitfulness. Goodness is the looking glass, and gratitude the reflection; whereby the Creator beholds and applauds his own work. Which work was in David so unfeignedly exact, that God's goodness seemed to be reflected with as much similitude as delight; and with as much expedition as similitude. God delivers him from death, and strait he delivers himself from ingratitude. He does not give thanks unto his spear, or rather unto Saul's spear: which he used not unto victory, yet unto triumph. His happiness made Saul his captive, but his mercy did only take his spear captive. The spear in holy reverence did not touch Saul; but the dutiful mercy gave him a loyal wound. He does not give thankes to the swiftness of his beast, which might make his flight more speedy than his danger. We know of no horse he had, but his fear. He does not give thankes unto his sword. He fled without one, till he came to Ahimelech the Priest; of whom he was fain to borrow one that was his one, the sword, which he formerly won from Goliath. Yet David did no more hurt to Saul with it, than Goliath did to David with it. He does not give thankes unto his wit; which without strength may put a man in hope, but seldom in safety. He does give thankes unto the Lord, that in his flight afforded him direction and defence; and he delights to disgrace himself to thankfulness, whiles he makes himself no more part of the deliverance, than the argument. If some politic Discourser were to censure this business, he would invade it with the licence of fancy; and deliver unto us a new story of the same actions, making David as great a Politician as himself. He would tell us of his courtship with Ahimelech, by whom he was both said and armed: He would tell us of his judicious and wel-expressed madness before Achish the King of Gath: He would tell us of his four hundred Bankcrupts and discontents, whole despair he raised into courage, by making himself Captain over them at Adullam: He would tell us how he wrought upon the King by nothing upon his children jonathan and Michael, making him his friend and her his wife, by whom he made a discovery & advantage of the King's hate and fear: He would tell us that he spared Saul, not for Saul's sake, but his own since he might expect most certain 〈◊〉 from the guilt, and as certain pardon by the loyalty: Lastly, he would draw out such a necessity of deliverance in all his troubles from the united causes, circumstances and dependences of the actions, that both the danger and the glory would be all david's; and he would tell us that to oppose this, were to deny the principles of the great Patriarch Achitophel, and Saint Machiavelli; and thus would make God almighty so unacquainted with the business, as if he were wholly employed about some other piece of providence. But david's gratitude does abhor this guilty wisdom and he is so fare from not rendering thankes unto God, that he proclaims them; making them of as great extent as the liberty God brings him into. He counts it an ingratitude to praise God without witness; and he makes himself more thankful, whiles he makes others thankful. Their silence is a part and an increase of his speech, which is pointed by the respites of their admiration. No less than the whole people can be an auditor equal to david's joy; wherein you may behold a happy contradiction of Philosophy, extending an accident beyond a subject; david's joy is larger than his heart, and yet his heart is larger than all the people's; and his thankes likewise must not have the same bounds with his Dominions. He will commit his Psalms to fame and devotion, which shall faithfully deliver them unto the Nations; And the Nations shall rejoice to study God in David; and God shall rejoice to hear David in the Nations: and David shall rejoice to foreknow the joy of God and the Nations. This day in the Christian posterity of the Heathen, david's Prophecy is made story; and his Psalm is made our Psalm: whiles David gives us the words, wherewith we give thankes for him unto the Lord. But David cannot rest content with the tame thankes of words. He is not made more active by his fear, then by his joy; which sometimes moves his hand unto his Harp, as if it would make the soul by the finger impart harmony to the instrument, and by art not adulterate, yet multiply thankes. Sometimes it moves his whole body, which by the obedience of a devout Dance keeps time with the excitations of his soul: And sometimes it moves his voice by a song, by which the soul, whiles in the body seems to mount higher than the body. David could not always carry the pleasant burden of his Harp with him; but his voice was an easy and faithful companion. The most instructed pencil, that can express all passions, cannot yet express a voice; but the voice by a natural cunning can without the pencil express all passions. It can prolong itself into the slow not of sorrow, and teach the ear to suffer with the heart; It can sharpen itself into the clear accent of joy, and by purifying motion seem to make the spirits of the heart as light as the soul. When we sing, we commit an innocent flattery of ourselves, our own melody being the grateful cozenage of our minds without abuse. But when we sing a Psalm, we chastise the error of delight, and so please ourselves, that we please God. To sing Psalms is to prevent the joys of Heaven; but to sing Psalms of praise is to increase the joys in Heaven. The Angels rejoice at out godly sorrow; how much more do they rejoice at our godly joy! The Church triumphant makes up the anthem of the Church militant. Yet all our songs do not make God more great, but more gracious. He makes his praises our blessings. Thus we can then only with a modest and lawful wisdom praise ourselves, when we praise God. And this was an art, wherein David was no less skilful than happy: his whole life was but a blessing and a Psalm. If he kill a Lion or a Bear, he will strait be as thankful, as strong; and confess that though it were by the arm of David, yet it was by the strength of God. If he kill a Giant with the weapons of a shepherd, he will strait confess that God was the shepherd, which gave the weight & course unto the sling-stone. If in the Wilderness he lie hid from Saul by the protection of a rock, he will strait confess that God is the rock; and rather want an auditory, than a Psalm. If your devout wit will but mix his Psalms with his story, you shall scarce ever find him but fight and singing, or flying and singing, or mourning and singing, or triumphing and singing; but you shall never find him in a Psalmelesse action; as if the faculty of laughter were not more the property of a man, than a Psalm the property of a godly man; and it is as easily tuned as his affections, nay, it is tuned by his affections. These made up the quite in david's soul; and made the harmony of the soul descend to the sense by the artificial courtesy of the voice. His voice neither knew nor desired any other song, than the learned repetition of the name of the Lord, which was his only way of art, by which he should never be afraid to sing out of tune. The name of the Lord is the Grammar of his nature; which he suffers us to express rather by the alphabet, than the pencil. In this life God reveals himself more to our ear, than our eye; and in the next more to our eye, than our ear. Our sight is a sense not more clear, then bold, and as near to idolatry, as to curiosity. God therefore more often imparts himself by his voice, but most often by our voice; whiles he permits our mouths to be filled with his name, as our hearts with his love. And is there any heart or mouth more full of God, than david's? Is he not full both of his mercies and his praises? Were not all his deliverances advanced by the Chronicle and Trophy of a Psalm? Is not jerusalem as full of his voice, as of his victory? And is he not himself as weary, as glorious? Now therefore this royal Prophet may reign in peace, and now enjoy his thrifty deliverance. Deliverance is cheap, when purchased without blood. saul's persecuting hand is grown as weary as his foot; and with his life he has lost his kingdom and his fury. Absalon is no more, and has left no more of his treason, than the shame: Sheba is cut off, and has neither a head, nor a follower; and in delivered jerusalem is a noise of great joy, as free as the deliverance: and God vouchsafes to rejoice for his david's deliverance; and David is glad of the treason for the deliverance. And shall so great a triumph envy to impart itself beyond jerusalem? Or shall the noise more affect us, than the joy? Or shall not the happiness be as fare extended, as the danger? Surely without travel we may find as much fear and deliverance; we have not only david's Psalm, but himself and his God. The first David was persecuted to a prepared destruction; and our second David is invited to it. The story of which is the Psalm of is And it ought to be custom, as much as conscience to repeat this comfortable state homily; and to point out to posterius the many deliverances in this one deliverance which not to perform were to lose this solemnity, or to confound it with others. You shall see violence armed with secrecy; you shall see gold by the alchemy of treason changed into steel: You shall see a pair of brothers as firmly united by disloyalty, as by nature. Yet, did I say, you should see brothers? You shall scarce see the elder, who almost hides himself as cunningly as his intent; and by the speed of divine judgement is as soon beheld executed, as guilty. But the younger shall present and reveal himself to you. You shall see his bold heat venture at once upon majesty and wisdom: He is not daunted with the name or person of a King, no, not of his own. He is not suspicious of the circumstances of his own plot; But with blunt humility like his pretended affection he imparts unto his Sovereign a Legend of a solitary man, that he met burdened with melancholy, and a pot full of coined gold: He tell's how he suspected, examined, and with profitable secrecy imprisoned both; beseeching him with a like secrecy and speed to prevent a second discovery; the man and gold being not more strangers to him, than his own brother was as yet unto the happiness. The beginning of the temptation, you see, was from gold: but the mettle was better than the invention▪ For, what a dull thought was that, to invite him with wealth, whom neither want nor avarice could ever seize on? But you may be hold this temptation as easily overcome as resisted; and that made as low as the scorn of a King, which was as high as the desire of a traitor: who was abated by an answer not unlike that of our Saviour to the Devil. The Devil tempts him to throw himself down from the pinnacle; when our Saviour strait examines not the danger of the action, but the lawfulness; telling him, it was written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God: And in effect thus was this tempter answered. Thou shalt not tempt thy Lord, the King. For strait it was replied justly by the Law, and skilfully by the Lawgiver, that treasure belongs not to the King, except it be found hid under the earth; so that new treasure only is the new subject of a King. But see the subtlety of desire! This tempter urges the intention of his secret man, who would have made his gold as secret. And again behold how he is corrected by royal modesty, and taught the difference between humane and divine Majesty! This is the judge of thoughts, but that, but of actions. But such importunity might justly move the severest wisdom to curiosity, and search: And as the greatest understanding is sometimes the cause of the greatest danger: so his Royal person could never have been persuaded into this hazard by the ill-framed Poetry of the gold; but by his own deep apprehension. For knowing by inquiry both the coin and the man to be unknown, judiciously he suspected from the harsh instruction of experience, that it might be some practising gold hopefully put to use by a Foreigner with the expectation of interest from the commodity of a sedition. Yet his Heroic disposition deals with his golden messenger, as with a temptation; he overcomes him by flight. For being prepared for recreation he gets to horse, leaving his Informer with a halfe-answere between suspicion and neglect: showing himself covetous of nothing, but of his innocent sport. Yet a wise jealousy accompanying his delight moved him a little to retire, rather to find out the treason, than the gold. And with the courage of innocence be sends for his traitor; who with officious disloyalty attends his Sovereign; and by a wild mixture shows, that treason and sport are not incompatible. But this being ended, with most suspicious and unmannerly importunity, he moves his Majesty to his new journey, without the respite of taking a fresh horse. He had before by a pretended necessity of secrecy deprived him of counsel, and now he would not willingly let him have so much as a serviceable beast. But the glory of deliverance does not admit increase, but by increase of danger. His Majesty yields unto his request and haste, when the man strait makes a new request. For observing the Nobles to follow with a faithful and inconvenient speed, he desires, they should be sent back for a time, from this their duty, and the mystery: Gold was a Cordial, that would raise appetite; and his thrifty love would have the King have it all. But here his wit was a little too young for his treason: desiring both too openly and speedily to disfurnish his Majesty of his Counsel, his Horse, and his Attendance: who increasing by this, his suspicion with his danger, provided himself of all three. Of all which notwithstanding he was afterward again disfurnished upon entreaty; which ought not to have failed, lest it had made less the wonder. When the High Priest's Officers that came to apprehend our Saviour, were to be struck down backward, the Miracle did scorn the help & disgrace of a weapon. But his Majesty being as yet provided thus, proceeds on; his wisdom and suspicion making up a censure upon the man: whose visage was more beholding to nature, then to melancholy, which did disfigure it with variety of passions. The wildness of his eye and tongue seemed to accuse him rather of distraction than treason, and without art to argue, that his displeased spirit had a less Enemy, than a King. A severe brother might peradventure by striving to make him tame, make him wild, and as much raise his fury as depress his delight. His Majesty was attended with this conjecture and the subject of it: who does solicit him to such mystical secrecy, as if he mistook his own Religion, and had revealed it not to a King, but to a Priest. And being almost at the end of his journey, though not of his purpose, he rides before with as much haste as care to prepare and accompany his brother; with whom, that he might not fail on any side of dissimulation, be quickly returns to meet his Majesty. Who being entertained with some delay and excuse was feasted by a traitor without poison. It was a rare dulness in one that had been an Italian traveller! But it seems his Lordship was there so wholly employed in the study of the Magic Character, that he could not intent the drudgery of poison. But this great Politician being by his own reciprocal plot sent out by the King to entertain the guests; the King is by his familiar traitor admonished of the opportunity as precious, as the gold. Wherefore only with his attendance and direction he passes through a Labyrinth of rooms, as intricate as the heart of a Villain. All which, as they passed through, his attendant locks with most accurate fear. At last they enter a small Study; and this he likewise locks with equal jealousy. Oh, he would fain have shutout God and protection! But can contraries rest long together? Or can Majesty be so patiented of treason? The Cloud must break, and the battle of the Thunder must be reported. Thus long you have beheld the man; but now you shall see the violence of the man. And that you may behold the contexture of his treason, now ye shall see the prisoner that he promised, changed into an Executioner. You shall see a man and a Dagger; weapon enough to make a traitor; and yet you shall behold him almost made innocent by fear. But with as much, though a better fear, you will behold the violent man: who now changes his countenance, when he should change his heart; and increases his treason, by laying aside a great part of it, dissimulation. He now covers his head, when he deserves rather to lose it; and shows it to want as much wit, as Loyalty, that did not understand, in what presence it was. After he had armed himself thus with his haste and irreverence, he spoils his servant of his dagger, who would as willingly have been rid of his master, as of his weapon: which when he has, (see a danger fit for a deliverance!) he holds the point of it to the breast of his King; when the point of his conscience ought to have wounded his own breast. And now, alas, the weakness of fury! What can thy violence do now, O violent man? Thinkest thou by thy wild hand to move the fixed purpose of the Almighty? Thinkest thou by thy rashness to frustrate the divine deliberations of our wisest Henry? Thinkest thou by thy folly to confound the greatest heir of his wisdom, in whom was to be accomplished the marriage and glory of two Nations? Alas, vain hand, that was no more able to change the Successor, than the succession! But you shall see what he does, or rather hear, what he says. His fury begins already to faint into words; yet so execrable, as if he would change his treason into blasphemy, and now threaten God in stead of the King; who must not upon pain of death open a window, or but his lips to proclaim the traitor. O the perverse folly of villainy, that would give Laws to the Lawgiver, and make Majesty as dumb, as Treason ought to be! But see more folly yet! This traitor would change himself into a judge, and seem as just as he is ridiculous. He will not have him die without sentence; and yet he will sentence him without witness: and so at once accuses him, and pronounces him guilty of the death of his father. He had before violated his Majesty, but now his innocence. But, O now, to see the power of a King armed with God He tries if he can tame his fury into sleep by awaking his conscience; or else to make the point of his Dagger as dull as this. He tells him of the violent eloquence of blood; which will cry out as loud as conscience: He tells him of the necessary inheritance of revenge; which will as certainly find an heir, as his Crown: He proves himself innocent from the execution of his father by the most innocent argument of Law and Nature; it being done by public act, which may err ignorantly, but never boldly; and at that age, which had not manned him to the exercise of his right; so that he was then more his King, than his judge: He calls to mind his religion, which might move some fear: He unwillingly repeats some favours, which might move love, He offers secrecy and pardon, which might raise his hope: When behold a tame Traitor! His body has forgot the bargain of his mind, and begins again to uncover the head; as if he would confess his understanding were convinced. But it had been happy if this loyalty had descended from his head to his heart. And yet he vows, he will not be such an execrable Traitor as he thought to have been: now he will vouchsafe not to murder him. You see the degrees of amendment; he seems already to have reform his head and his hand. But he will not as yet leave off to be King; wherefore leaving his Majesty confined to silence and expectation, he does appoint him, whom first he appointed to kill him, now to keep him. Out he goes, and locks them up together; perchance to make good his first story of the man imprisoned with a great treasure; though rather the true prisoner was the treasure. And can any man imagine now, that in this den of treason a King should find reverence, where his Majesty had no guard but his innocence; nor any subject but a traitor? Yet, behold this traitor tremble-downe upon his knees: He had no other way, but this descent of posture, to make the King seem to be in a Throne. Prostrate thus he pleads more for his own innocence, then for the King's Pardon, protesting himself not to know, for what intent he was put there. He had sworn a truth, though he had not sworn truly; For though he had known, for what purpose his master put him there: yet he little knew, for what purpose god put him there: which was, without violence to confound violence; and by a dutiful fear to correct & amaze his master. Who speedily returning from his brother with a double fury is vexed with the danger & delay of opening the door. O how he could have wished here for our saviour's Miracle, to have entered now the door being shut! But being entered, his fury is so forward, that he forgets to shut the door, which he feared to open. Now he comes no more to give sentence, but to execute it; and to begin, offers to bind his Royal hands. But the violent man mistook the degree of the execution; This was not to begin it, but overact it: To bind a King, is to murder Majesty. Which his high Majesty as highly conceiving, arms himself with the magnanimity of innocence and indignation; and scorning the Traitor as much as death and bondage, grapples with them all. When be hold the earnest Villain being about to mis-use his hand to his sword, the right hand of the King forceably instructs both his hand and his sword to a better deliberation, his left hand arresting him by the throat: When the violent man, like the Devil (that sometimes imitates God) practices and enlarges the imitation of the King, clasping him so with his left hand by the throat, that part of his fingers did violate his sacred mouth. He would by no means have God hear the voice of the King: he was himself afraid now to hear the voice of the King: But that which should have been his least fear, was his greatest; He was more afraid of some loyal subject, then either of God, or the King. Who dragging him from his more retired and guilty side of the room, presented part of his Majesty at the window. His Keeper had obediently prepared him this liberty of air, and now he recovers the like liberty of voice, proclaiming the treason, though not the traitor. The Nobles were by this time both feasted and deluded: for missing the King, it was as hard to find direction to find him, as to find him; the elder traitor, as if he would add Magic to his treason, causing them to wander in the error of his circle. And indeed it proved an error more to himself, then to them; who find the King, by going the wrong way to find him, by going astray under this window. This was the nearest way to his voice, though not to his person: to which they now do likewise seek the nearest way with divided haste. The most go the most known way, and err again; not because it was not the right way, but because it was not the ready way; the door being locked with a double key, the one of treason, the other of Divine Providence, which would thus increase the glory of the deliverance. Which seeming to come slowly, the King strives to meet it, drawing the violent traitor out of the dungeon of the study to execution. And first to get this stiffnecked man under the yoke of subjection, he gets his violent head under his arm; then to make him cry God and his King mercy, he victoriously brings him upon his knees; and that he might still press nearer to deliverance, he drives this perverse man backward to destruction; and being about to execute him himself with the traitors own sword, (that he might perish by his own sin and weapon) behold a more easy deliverance and judgement come in the faithful and happy hand of immortal Ramsay; by whose repeated strokes his treason fainting-out with his blood, he is no longer the combatant, but the scorn of a King: who taking him by the shoulder dishonours him headlong down the stairs; upon which he is received with new wounds; as if after punishment for his treason, they would make him suffer a second death for his fury, and in one brother execute both the traitors. And thus you see, tempted justice can be as violent as violence; and make treason as accursed in the success as it is in the guilt. Behold the King in safety already; and are not we already in a Psalm? No, we must stay a little; we have the cause of joy; but not as yet the leisure of it. For by the same by-way that deliverance came in, behold new fury marches in, as fierce as despair, or its own last agony. Behold Gowry entering with a drawn sword in each hand; as if the madman would have lent one to his brother's fury: Upon his head he has a steel bonnet, belike to defend the fine plot that was in it. His attendants were seven, a number here as execrable, as elsewhere mystical; every one has one drawn sword, and is as much as half his leader; who with the preface of death and blasphemy enters the presence of a King: when the King, that had no weapon but his courage, is by the faithful violence of his few servants shut-backe into the little study; which, to purchase pardon for its former guilt, that it might not be ruined with its master, is reform into a place of as unexpected deliverance, as it was of danger. And these few Protectors with valour equal to their necessity, receiving many traitors and wounds did by rare victory Chastise them to example, the compendious hand of happy Ramsay striking Gowry and the Treason through the heart. You see what God has done for his anointed; now hear what his anointed does for him. And you will marvel at the Royal wit of his piety: which makes God's blessing the thankes for itself. God blessed him highly, when he first anointed him: and when he delivered him, did he not anoint him again? Yes, now he is anointed with an oil of gladness; and this gladness is the thankes for the anointing. Behold what he does: Having collected himself and his dispersed Nobles, he falls on his knees, paying his thankes unto God with that body, which he had preserved; and in that mindful manner of humility, to which by divine help he had forced his enemy. And now encircled by his Servants with loyalty and joy, he is the first Evangelist of his own deliverance; as willingly professing the miracle as the victory. The King gives thanks, and God is both his argument and his auditor; He lead him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an Eagle stirs up the nest, flutters over her young, spreads abroad her wings, takes them, bears them on her wings: so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange God with him. And now let the blasphemous Stoic predestinate God, ungratefully abusing his ftee mercy by the bondage of Fate. Let the Epicure conceive a Providence more delicate than his own fancy, and with ridiculous impiety busy himself about his lazy God, who lies retired from the prospect and fable of the world. Let the patroness of treason with impotent malice still deny this treason, and be guilty of it. Let them for ever envy, and increase our joy. Let them be angry with God's mercy and his King: And thy King, O Lord, shall prove his deliverance by his thankfulness; and thy King, O Lord, shall prove the integrity of his thankfulness by thy jealousy; and thy King, O Lord, shall prove himself safe from thy angry jealousy by the continuance of thy mercy. Hear an argument as hard to be deluded as the Almighty. The jealous God has since delivered his anointed from the admirable danger of the Powder-treason; therefore he does delight in the grateful institution of this days unfeigned thankfulness. And this thankfulness shall be told, no doubt, in time unto the Heathen, unto our Heathen, who are ordained to conversion and this joy by the instruction of our Virginian Apostles. And we ought to rejoice with a great joy, as confident as the fury of this treason. And we ought to understand the greatness of this joy, without which we had heard no more noise of the Powder-plot, then by rare mercy we did of the Powder. Besides here the Dagger was at the breast of a King, and there was bloodshed in this wonderful deliverance; but in that, though most wonderful, the Powder did not desperately betray itself into a flame. And we ought not to leave out our thankes and honour unto him, whom God's choice brought-in as the honourable instrument of this deliverance. But what monument shall we provide for him? Should we lay-up his sword, like the sword of Goliath? Alas, that were to preserve rust as well as fame. Should we erect a Statue? Why, that will prove as mortal as his body. Sure then, we will fasten this label to the mouth of fame, wheresoever the Gospel of the deliverance from Gowry shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that Ramsay has done, be told for a memorial of him. And for our Lord the King, what glory shall we give unto him? Surely, we must acknowledge him the friend of God, the favourite of the Almighty; whom God has reserved as the great example, wherewith he will instruct this later World! Whom he has proposed as the proof and subject of his Almighty mercy! Whom he preserved for the uniting of the Britainies, a work that required no less preface than this Miracle! We have heard the lamentations of our neighbours, the blood of whose King was suffered to be shed like their tears; whiles we have enjoyed our King and ourselves! Happy art thou, O Israel; who is like unto thee, O people? saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency. The King life's, and his people must rejoice! and every street must profess the flaming emblem of this affection! and the loudest music of our Temples must recompense their inarticulate thankes by repetition! The King life's and his people must rejoice: Awake psaltery and Harp; awake, Deborah, awake, utter a Song: Arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive. The King life's, and we must rejoice. His God did not let his enemy exact upon him; nor the son of wickedness afflict him: But has exalted his horn like the horn of an Unicorn; he has anointed him with fresh oil. His enemy bowed at his feet, he fell, he lay down; at his feet he bowed, he fell; where he bowed, there he fell down destroyed. The friends of Gowrie whispered among themselves, why is he so long in coming? Why is the report of his triumph so slow? His wise Counsellors answered, yea, their fear returned answer to them; Have they not killed? Have they not divided to every man a Province? To Gowrie a Crown set with royal Diamonds; with royal Diamonds set with curious work, to be fitted for the brow of him that takes the spoil? So let all the enemies of the King perish, O Lord! and let the treason of this day be the triumph and instruction of our Nephews! And let the deliverance of this day be made as glorious as the Conspiracy was secret! To the God of this day, the God of our David be ascribed the joy and glory of this day.  
The end.