A SERMON Preached at the ANNIVERSARY MEETING OF THE NATIVES OF St. MARTIN'S in the Fields At their Own Parochial Church, on May 29. 1684.  
BY RICHARD BIRD, A. M. Chaplain to the Right Honourable the Lord Precedent, and Lecturer of St. Mary Aldermanburic.  
Published at the request of the Stewards.  
LONDON. Printed for Samuel Keble at the Turks-Head over against Fetter-Lane in Fleetstreet. 1684.   

  

A SERMON Preached May 29th. 1684. ON St. Matt. 21.42:— The Stone which the Builders rejected, the same is become the Head of the corner.  
BY the Stone, which was here discarded and thrown aside, is certainly typified and prefigured the rejection of our blessed Saviour, the casting off and renouncing of the Messiah, who was sent into the world to be a light unto the Gentiles, and to be the glory of the people Israel. And the Builders, that thus despised his domination and rule over them, were the Scribes and Pharisees, those hypocritical and Sanctimonious Zealots, who all along most despitefully treated him, and at length glutted their malice and revenge by putting him to death. And after all his deep humility, rejection, and sufferings, God raised him from the dead, advanced him to his Kingdom at his own right hand, and so made him, though once a stone rejected by the bvilders, the chief and Head of the Corner, uniting both Jews and Gentiles into one Spiritual-building. And St. Peter proves as much in the audience of many thousands of the Jews, Nemine contradicente. Acts 4.11. Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, this is the stone that was set at nought of you bvilders, which is now exalted into Heaven, and become Head of the Church as well Triumpant as Militant here upon Earth.  
So that the Text as it is legible in the Gospels, undoubtedly points at the Crucifixion of the Messiah by the Scribes and Pharisees. But if we turn to the 118. Psalms, whence the words are quoted, than they may refer to the Psalmist himself, and the Jewish Rabbins universally so applied them, and that with good season, provided the Psalm be interpreted only as a song of thanksgiving and not as a Prophecy; for it exactly, corresponds to the condition and circumstances of David, who had been long exercised with many potent enemies and afflictions on every side; and had been opposed and rejected by the House of Saul, and the Chieftains of Israel in reference to his Kingdom; and had lain for some time under proscription and banishment: Yet God at length stood up in his defence, hearing him in all his troubles, redressing his grievances, helping him to subdue and discomfit all the various hosts of his enemies; and maugre all difficulties and oppositions bringing him back from exile, and establishing him on the Throne of his Kingdom over Israel as well as Judah; making him (though at first a stone rejected by the bvilders, yet at last) Head of the corner. Then did holy David pen this Psalm as 'tis conjectured, and afterwards Hymn it in the praise and glorification of God.  
And, as I doubt not but all the Loyal Hearts of Judah and Jerusalem did congratulate David, when he entered into the Royal City; and afterwards went into the Sanctuary to offer up unto God their sacrifice of praise and thanksgivings for returning their King home again. So now, let every member of this Loyal Assembly, according to the design and occasion of this  Anniversary Festival, pour out in the presence of God, all imaginable praise and glory for a deliverance, as stupendious and amazing for number, weight and measure, as ever God in his wise Providence dispensed unto the men of Judah, or any other people since the inchoation of the world.  
I appeal to the Chronicles of the most early times, and challenge all Registers of whatsoever Age to instance in any Kingdom or Republic, that has been reduced to so low an ebb, to such sad extremities, and so perfectly unable to emerge from the calamity: That were of such implacable enmities and discord within themselves, and so mortally cursed and hated by all neighbouring Provinces: and at last to be so miraculously redeemed out of every strait and difficulty; and that without the lest drop of blood, to the unspeakable joy of all our hearts and the amazement of all about us; and at a time, when no Soul alive could ever hope for or imagine such a sudden and prosperous turn of affairs in these Kingdoms.  
We were along time like the Captive Jews in Babylon, a grievous and afflicted people; and had our Country depopulated by the inroads of mercyless and imperious Tyrants; its strength and sinews enervated by civil and intestine broils; our rights and liberties all infringed; our estates and fortunes confiscated; our lives exposed to insuperable hazards; whole families extinct and buried in ruins; the State and Government quite inverted and changed; all order and peacedissolved and broken up; the Sceptre and Royal Throne usurped; the late King, of ever blessed memory executed at his own door; his Sons and all the Royal Line proscribed out of the Kingdom; Several of the prime Nobility hastily dispatched to attend the Funerals of their Royal Master; and thousands of other inferior Subjects Ecclesiastical as well as Civil, had all their necks crushed to pieces by the Chariot-wheels of insulting Pharaoh. Yea Gods holy Vineyard too miserably laid waist and trodden under foot, and that very Church, which was once so remarkable for its Orthodox faith, good discipline, wholesome Canons, modest and decent way of worship, all brought to nought; and nothing but lose Doctrines and most damnable heresies succeeding in the room of them.  
To such an amazing height of misery and confusion was this Nation reduced, and such as this was our lamentable state and condition!  
And after those many attempts that were made, and all honest and ingenious minds had striven their utmost to stop this impetuous torrent and retreive their Country from such a Sea of miseries: when there was no hopes left, and the Nation just a sinking under its own burden: When the waters had almost drowned us and the streams had gone e'en over our Souls: Then did the Almighty lift up his voice out of the deep, and the floods straight obeyed and drive back again; then did God speak peace to this British Island, and wrought our delivery in a trice, infatuating all the Counsels of the Mighty, undermining all their projects and secret Machinations, strangely scattering all the bands and Militia of the Nation; and by an extraordinary act of grace and mercy, above our hopes, and beyond our merits, and with wonderful ease and safety, restoring our most gracious Sovereign to all his Kingdoms, and his Loving Subjects to their just rights and liberties; and withal bringing the Ark and our Religion home again, and establishing it on the same basis, with all its Episcopal constitutions; together with a profound peace and plenty, and an universal joy, and gladsomeness on every brow accompanying the return of so indulgent and merciful a Prince, even to the vilest and most profligate among his people; who, though he had been long discarded and lain aside, yet, you see, God on this day sat him on the Royal throne of his Fathers, and so the words of my Text are again made out.  
That very stone, which the bvilders rejected the same now, blessed be God, is head over England.  
The sin, which the Builders here in the Text were guilty of, was open Rebellion and disloyalty to our blessed Saviour, resolving that he should have no rule or Kingship over them, and that made them discard and lay him aside.  
Now this is still the same reigning iniquity, that was the occasion and commencement of our late unhappy broils, and which broke up the sluices, and caused all the forementioned, and much worse evils to gush in upon us.  
And therefore, that I may keep close to my Text, and answer the end for which I am appointed; and seeing the day also does so necessarily determine me to it, give me leave to show you, first, the duty of Subjects to their Governors, to tell you wherein it consists: Secondly, I will use two or three arguments to press you to a conscientious discharge of it, that we may all practice it better for the time to come, and study no more to reject and throw aside the head stone of the corner: Than thirdly and lastly, I will give some modest and short reflections upon the day, and so conclude.  
Begin we now with the first, to show you wherein the duty of subjects to their governor's consists; And among several branches that might be named I shall at present only speak to these four following.  
The first branch of our duty to Governors is, to honour and reverence their sacred Persons.  
Says the Apostle, fear God, 
1 Pet. 2.17.  honour the King. He gives us our duty to both in the same breath; and the reason why such great obeisance and humility ought to be paid to the person of the King is, because he is God's representative upon Earth. So that Kings and Princes must be looked upon, as upon them, on whom God hath stamped much of his own power and Authority, and therefore we ought to pay all honour and esteem, never daring upon any pretence whatsoever to speak evil of the ruler of our people. 
Acts 23.5.   
Nay! they that despise and set light by Princes, refusing the homage that is due unto them, expressly sin against the fifth Commandment, which obliges us to honour our parents, And the Magistrate is the Civil parent of all those that are under his dominion and Royalty; And the name is well deserved, because he takes care of our lives, defends us from all dangers, watches and superintends over us for our good, and so makes his Government a public and universal blessing to the Nation; And those, which refuse to honour the Civil Parent, do openly confront and violate one of the precepts of the second table.  
Add to this, the base ingratitude that such men must needs be guilty of, that can find in their hearts thus to slight and contemn them after all the care and pains they have taken for their security and well-being. Lycurgus' the great Lawmaker, when he had allotted punishments to most vices, was asked why he had made no Law against the sin of ingratitude, and his answer was, that's res prodigiosa, a thing so monstrously wicked and absurd that no body in his wits can be guilty of it: And surely it must be ingratitude with a witness to deny honour and deference to those, by whose wise conduct and Government we own e'en our lives, fortunes, liberties, Religion, and what not.  
Let us all then like dutyful and Loyal subjects pay obeisance unto our Governors, and have a profound and awful reverence for their Personages, and esteem them sacred, in as much as they are Gods Deputies and Viceroys, whom next under himself he hath entrusted with the care and administration of his people. Should an Ambassador, as soon as he is come ashore, be abused and set at nought, the indignity does not terminate here, but lies upon the Prince which sent him, and who no doubt will avenge the wrong that is done him in the person of his Minister? or suppose a man should have his Picture stabbed through with a Sword, or a limb of it cut off, has he not great reason to resent the injury as done to his own person, and study a punishment accordingly? Why thus will God do to all those that affront the Supreme Powers, they being his Ambassadors and Delegates, and serve as so many pictures and images to represent Gods great power and Sovereignty over his people.  
Nay! God has given to Kings and Princes his own August and venerable name— I have said ye are Gods— And in the 1 Chron. 
Psal. 82.6.  the Throne, which they sat upon, is styled God's throne— wherefore seeing God himself has so highly Dignified them, as to set them on his Throne, and to call them after his own name, it is much more becoming all their subjects to keep their distance and pay homage before them, and to have an inward worship and esteem for them, which must be expressed by our outward mean and deportment, by humble and lowly prostrations, by a cheerful and ready compliance with their Commands, and that constantly and unfeignedly, without partiality or hypocrisy, having no by or sinister ends of our own, but doing it in great sincerity and truth. What a reverend Authorquotes and applies upon another occasion, I may, with small alteration use to this. Saith he, 'Tis a remarkable passage that Aelian the Historian gives of a proud man, who being to go into the presence of the Persian King, before whom he must make such adoration as he had no mind to give, he therefore let fall his Ring at his entrance into the presence-Chamber, and his stooping to take that up, passed for a worship of that great Majesty. So many persons seem outwardly to worship their Prince, and make very humble and lowly addresses unto him, when indeed they do but stoop to their own interest, and are but taking up some Court preferment, which they have more mind to than to be humble and Loyal.  
Secondly another branch of our duty to Governors is custom and tribute. We must pay them tribute.  
And this we are obliged to perform by the example of our blessed Saviour, who, when the Pharisees and Herodians asked him whether it was lawful to pay Tribute or not, he answered their Captious question, as his usual manner was, by putting another; saying, whose Image and superscription is this? Why Caesar's. Render therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's— And at another time when Christ was taxed and no Money to pay, rather than he would be thought refractory, he wrought a Miracle to pay his assessment.  
Nay! 
Mat. 17.28.  the Apostles afterwards, whose Epistles are only a comment upon our Savious sayings, acknowledges this. And St. Paul especially counsels the Romans to render to all their deuce, tribute to whom tribute is due, Custom to whom Custom, Fear to whom fear, Honour to whom Honour; and a little higher he assigns the reason why they must pay them Tribute, because they are Gods Ministersattending continually upon this very thing i. e.; for the safeguard and welfare of his people.  
God hath set them a part as his Vicegerents for the good of the people, and 'tis highly reasonable they should be maintained and supported by them. And indeed when it is considered what are the cares and troubles of that high calling? How many thorns are plaited in every Crown? We shall have but little cause to envy them, or retrench their deuce. Men generally admire the sovereign power and authority of Princes, the high honours and dignities, the vast revenues and exchequers, but never consider the insuperable hazards and perils, and what abundance of plots and conspiracies, rolling hastily, like the Waves of the Sea, one upon the neck of another, which are continually devised against them. They look upon one side of the Medal and there see a fair Image and inscription, but ne'er turn the reverse and behold the crosses and bars that are on the other. Tully somewhere in his Offices, tells us when Democles the great Parasite was arrayed like a Prince, and sat at a Table where there was a rich banquet provided for him; as soon as ever he saw the naked sword, with the point downward, hanging just over his head, he could not for his life taste of his entertainment, or take any comfort in the Royal attendance he had. By which ingenious emblem Cicero shows, that the life of a King, in the midst of all his pomp and grandeur, is in continual fear of Death. Wherefore let no man deny him his just tribute or subsidy, since he earns it dear enough in all conscience, when we reflect upon the many ears and disquietudes; the sudden frights and dangers his Sacred person is daily exposed to.  
Thirdly, another branch of our duty to Governors is this, we must daily put up our prayers to God for them.  
This also is laid down by the Apostle, 
Tim. 2.1. 2, 3.  I exhort therefore first of all, that supplications, and Prayers, and intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men, for Kings and all that are in authority under them, that we may all lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty; and the prayers which are thus put up for the preservation of the King, and all that are in commission under him, will wheel about and soon recoil into our own bosoms, because the blessings, which they receive from God, and which we ought constantly to pray for, tends to the good of the people, that every man may happily enjoy himself, and eat the fruit of his Labour under his own Vine, and under his own Figtree.  
Wherefore if we had no Love for our Governors or our Country, yet for our own sakes and the interest of our several friends and relations, it concerns us to supplicate heaven in their behalf, that they may be our strength and fortress our defence and Buckler in time of need; that God would so rule their hearts, and strengthen their hands, that they may neither want will nor power to punish wickedness and vice, and to maintain Gods true Religion and virtue; that they may all give us wise and wholesome Laws for the retrenching our exorbitances and the government of our lives, for the bridling our unruly wills and affections, and to get the mastery over our passions, and to fright us by severe penalties from the perpetration of every thing that is evil and sinful: And sure I am that many of us are beholding more to the good government we live under, then to our own principles for being such as we are; for if the Laws of the Land did not tie men up, and make it death to commit Murder, rapine, or Robbery, I am confident men would as frequently be found culpable herein, as in Swearing, Drunkenness, Fornication, Profaning the Sabbath, and the like. And therefore we have all great reason to uphold the Government and to pray for our Senators, and to bless and praise God night and day for putting it into their hearts for providing thus for our Souls as well as our bodies, for publishing such gracious edicts, and constituting such easy and gentle Laws, Which ought to be the pride and glory of the English subject.  
It is storied of the people in China, that if any of them have a mind to travel abroad and set but one foot out of their own Country, they must never return home again; and was there not great policy in the Magistrates for promulgating such a decree? for if once the Chinesses should venture to go out and behold what great liberty other Countries enjoy above what they do in their own, there would quickly be not a man left for the Governors to rule over. But thanks be to God, our case is widely distant from other Countries, and no people ever enjoyed a more relax and gentle Government, where the reins are in a manner fling upon the necks of the Subjects; and all its laws are calculated solely for the pleasure and ease, for the interest and profit, for the safeguard of our souls as well as our bodies: and never earth bore a more gracious Prince, a more indulgent and merciful Sovereign than wields the Sceptre in these Kingdoms; and therefore we have all the reason in the world to supplicate and interceded with God for the preservation of his Majesty's most Sacred person, and the Government as it is by Law established.  
But fourthly, the last branch of our duty to Governors is this, entirely to resign ourselves into their hands and submit to their good will and pleasure in all things. Now because this part of our duty is most scrupled at, and a great deal worse practised by us, I shall therefore carefully consider it by itself, and with that freedom and plainness as becomes the place where I now stand, and use but these three arguments to engage your performance of it. And afterwards I will hasten to a conclusion of the whole.  
My first Topick is this, obedience and subjection to Magistrates is one of the essential marks of our Christian profession.  
A Primitive Saint, in the infancy of the Church, was always better known by his Catholic charity, and patiented submission to persecuting Emperors than by all the other graces in the whole Systom of Divinity: It was the undoubted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and best distinguishing note, whereby you might judge infallibly of the professors of christianity from any others whatever; because no other religion enjoins such an exact observance of the commands of our governor's. this is strictly charged by saint Peter, Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake, whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governors as those that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well. And Saint Paul, in the 13th. to the Romans is most full to this purpose. 
Verse 1. Verse 2.  Let every soul be subject to the higher powers— And whosoever resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation: And than concludes, wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for fear but also for conscience sake, out of a sense that it is a duty which God exacts at our hands. And 'tis very observable, that these precepts were all given at a time when those powers were Roman Emperors, and cruel persecutors of Christianity, to show that no pretence of the wickedness of our Rulers can exempt us from this duty.  
Nay! in the case of our blessed Saviour; and if ever resistance would be tolerated and indulged, one might expect it in this; And yet Christ would not allow of it, but sharply rebuked Peter for drawing out his sword and smiting one of the inferior officers, saying, they that take the Sword shall perish by the Sword: And some learned men are of the opinion, that the Soldiers which came to seize him had no warrant but was rather a rabble that broke out with swords and staves of their own accord and motion; and yet Christ was so jealous of infringing the supreme authority, that he would not notwithstanding, suffer any opposition to be made.  
By the holy institutes and exemplar of our Saviour and his Apostles, we must all pay obedience unto our Governors, either active or passive; active in the case of all lawful commands, and passive when the thing enjoined is repugnant to the letter of Scripture: herein, I confess, we are not bound to act as they would have us; but even this is a season for passive obedience, and we ought quietly to undergo whatsoever is inflicted for such a refusal, and not to secure ourselves and rise up against them. Nay! it often happens out that worse evils and more bloodshed will follow resistance than by patiently suffering; as hath been happily observed by some Historians that how bloody soever Nero was, yet there was not so much blood spilt in his fourteen years' reign as there was within a few months after his death. Wherefore men had better patiently submit their necks to the Yoke, than to rise up and rebel, and so derive down greater judgements upon their own heads.  
I am sufficiently sensible, this is a very irkson doctrine to carnal and worldly minded people, to the suggestions of flesh and blood, and yet this is no more than what Christianity obliges us to, if ever we hope for salvation; and which the planters and propagaters of our Religion all stuck to and died by it. But alas there is no such danger and trials now, as there was in those days, before Christianity was adopted into the Laws of the Empire; we have no persecution raised against the Church, but we all live in Luxury and ease, as for what has been lately used against Dissenters, ought not in any wise to be branded with so foul a character, these are not persecutions but light and gentle admonitions only, full of affectionate care and kindness, sent to mind them of their duty to their Mother, and to join in communion with that Church, out of the Pale whereof Salvation can hardly be obtained. The Pythagoreans were so passionately concerned when any one forsook their Schools, that they presently carried out a Coffin after him, and so gave him over for a lost and dead man. And how I pray shall those amongst us be reckoned in a better condition, who ne'er come near our assemblies but refuse canonical obedience and despise the Sacred standing Ordinances of the Church, which are the very life and nourishment of all its members: The mere suspension and deprivation whereof was that which made the Primitive Excommunicants, as they lay weeping and condoling before the portal, so importunately to request the prayers and intercessions of all good Christians, when they entered the congregation, for a plenary indulgence 〈◊〉 absolution of all their sins, that they might again be admitted into a fellowship with the Church, out of which no spiritual gift or blessing can proceed, and 'tis for this end only that our Rulers study now to bring some amongst us within the Pale, they are wise Senators, and know what is best, and are kinder to them than they are to themselves, and therefore they shake the rod over them, being solicitous to scare and draw them to the constant frequenting the public Oratories, which is of such infinite concern to the everlasting welfare of their souls; and this is all the severity that is exercised towards them, and how can any shorter course be taken, and what gentler lenatives can be applied to make them come in than this.  
But nevertheless, there is a loud outcry made and a great talk of persecution, and much muttering and complaining in our Streets, and never more symptoms of Rebellion and disloyalty than now; and which is most strange, from those that call themselves Christians? but how does it appear that they are such, if they doubt discover better principles? We shall never find then out unless their actions be suitable to their their profession, and therefore if they would be known they must be served as an unskilful painter does all his pictures, when no eye can discover by the features and Lineaments whom they represent, he is forced to subscribe their names; so must these men have the name of Christ Stamped upon their fore head or else by their practices we shall never know them; for Rebellion and disobedience is diametrically opposite to the institutes of Christianity, and I have read that it is a mark to discover Mahometans by, but never Christians before.  
Secondly, another argument I draw from the danger of its contrary, which is this, that disobedience unto Governors is as mortal and damning a sin as any of those that more immediately concerns the honour of God.  
God holds the Balance even and bears an equal regard to all his sanctions, and threatens no greater penalty for the breach of one than another, but Wills our obedience to Governors as much as to himself. God makes no difference, but looks upon every sin with the same abhorrency, and albeit he seems in Scripture to be more severe with the Jews for the sin of Idolatry, yet this was only to put them farther off from it, that being the first Religion of their Country, and to which they was most prone; and not but God hated all kind of vices alike, and though some be of a deeper tincture than others, yet the Wages of every sin is death; 
Rom. 6.23.   
God therefore lays no greater stress upon one precept than another, but obligeth us to all his commands impartially, and calls for our performance of those duties to our Neighbour, and the several relations we standinone to another, as much as those that more immediately concern his own worship. Nay! he is sometimes pleased to dispense with the non performance of his own Laws, but never those that relate to the good and benefit of mankind.  
But notwithstanding the Scribes and Pharisees of old had a mind to be more civil to God than he would have them, and were resolved to give his Laws the preeminence, and ne'er matter all the other commandments, so they did but observe what belonged to the service of God; and therefore they stood up mightily for his Worship and Glory, and were strict observers of the Sabbath, and very zealous in defence of their Religion, and cried up every where the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, and all the while neglected every other duty of equal moment and concern, lived in open rebellion to their Rulers, proved annoyance to the state, had no bowels of mercy and compassion, but devoured Widows houses, and were greatly injurious to their Neighbour's interest.  
And I am afraid we have many such now a days, who are great Champions for the Church, and are very forward to maintain the cause of God, and think themselves highly obliged to observe his Laws and Ordinances, but ne'er matter how negligent and remiss they are of others: Who take great care to discharge their duty of the first table, and yet can freely indulge themselves in a manifest violation of those of the second; as if Religion was designed to be a supersedeas to common honesty, and if we did but often invoke God in our prayers, we might afterwards go lie, cheat, and abuse our neighbour. I have the charity to believe that many of them are not given to profane the Sabbath, to cursing or swearing, to drunkenness or fornication, nor to any such gross and sensual immoralities, but none more guilty of Spiritual and Pharisaical vices than they; there are none so proud and cenforious, so covetous and worldly minded, so false and hypocritical, so factious and seditious, and so disobedient unto Princes and Governors as they are. And if these be not mortal and damning sins what are? and yet all this is pretended to be done out of pure zeal to God and Religion: but if we trace out the first Authors and abettor of this surious and misguided zeal, we shall quickly find them to be the Jesuits. For there is no footsteps of this in the records of very early times, but just upon the breaking out of the Reformation than this active fiery zeal began first to blaze, and kindle, and embroil the whole nation out of zeal to their Idolatrous rites and ceremonies: and before our Island could be throughly purged from all the Jesuits and Seminary Priests that swarmed amongst us, they they rubbed their leprosy upon some of our honest Country men, and e'en left the infection behind them. So that this ardent zeal for Religion was an old Jesuitical Church engine, though now moved about and played by other hands. And this Andrea's Abbess Haberfeild in his Letter to Sir William Bosewell plainly declares.  
But thirdly and lastly, whether we will be obedient to our Governors or not, yet God will have his ends served in the world.  
Says Solomon, there are many devices in the heart of man, 
Prov. 19.21.  nevertheless the Counsel of the Lord that shall stand. How void of sense and reason is it then, for such mortal creatures as we are to pretend to have our wills fulfilled before Gods, and to order all things in the world as we would have them? are we able to baffle the counsels and purposes of the Almighty, or to invert and change the course of his Providence? can we cancel the sacred ordinances of Heaven, and make the everlasting decrees of none effect? no! the divine appointments must stand for ever, and are fixed and unalterable as the centre of the earth; and what from all eternity was preordained must so happen out and come to pass, though it be never so contrariant to the humours and fancies of unquiet men. Why then will any interpose and grapple with the Almighty, turn Rebels and affront his Viceroys and study to dismount those whom he hath appointed to rule over us? if God should suspend his providence and suffer Rebellion to ride triumphant and grow prosperous, yet alas it is but for a while, and then the Scene changes, and a new face of things straight appears: So that although God may a little procrastinate and adjourn the execution of his designs, yet they shall take place, when he sees it fitting and convenient, and then must all Rebels be debased and punished, and them that should preside over us again exalted.  
Wherefore let this rally up the Spirits of every wise and Religious Prince; seeing there is a God above, who beholds all the struggle of their enemies, and and knows how hard they bore against the curb, and fain would trample them underfoot. And although the affairs of their Kingdoms may be sometimes in a sad plight, and look towards a change. Yet God can work miracles, and make the wind tack about, and in an instant rescue them out of every strait and difficulty. Who could have thought, when Joseph was betrayed by his Brothers and fold into Egypt a slave, should at last be Lord over Pharaohs household? When Ionas was cast into the Sea and swallowed up by a Whale, to have met him afterwards preaching at Nineveh? When Nebuchadnezar, was grazing in the forest among the Beasts, to see him again governing in Babel? When the Jews were so totally routed by the Chaldees, who sacked Jerusalem, burnt their Temple, and carried them Captive into Babylon, should at last be restored and set at liberty by that heathen Persian Monarch Cyrus? When that same Jesus, who was so reproachfully handled, and so barbarously crucified by the Jews, should after his death be adored by Kings, and Emperors, and his Cross an Ornament to Crowns and Sceptres? When our most gracious Sovereign, who was so long depulsed from his Throne, discarded by his subjects, proscribed out of the Land, should at last be installed Sovereign Lord over England, Scotland, and Ireland.  
Thus you see, God is able to set all things to rights again? and though he sometimes stands by and suffers wicked Men to act their pleasure; yet after a while the counsel of the Lord that shall stand, which ought to be a support and encouragement to all Governors, and a terror to the obstinate and Rebellious, for whether men will be obedient to them or not, or whether they discard and lay them aside, or whatever they are pleased to do with them, yet God's ends must be served in the world, his Will shall be done be the Earth never so impatient; and that very Stone which the bvilders rejected, shall in his good time be made Head of the Corner.  
Having thus dispatched the chief matters I designed at the beginning, I will only now give some short and modest reflections upon the day, and so conclude.  
If all the Topics that I have now urged for obedience unto the King and Government we live under, be not sufficient, I hope the memory and experience of our late unhappy troubles will abundantly prevail upon the most stiff necked amongst us. Let any of our sectaries look back and consider the sad posture of affairs in the year 41. and recount, if they can, all the evils and mischiefs that gushed in upon the Nation during the Civil Wars. I say let any of them that survived the calamity, and had been for sometime under the hatches, confess if they would pay so dear for Rebellion once more; whether they could ever find in their hearts to set one foot towards the introducing again such dolorous and bloody times in these Kingdoms; which I can parallel to nothing but a kind of Interregnum where after the death of the Alcade or chief Governor, the people are allowed to do all manner of villainies until another is chosen. Or to that sad time among the Jews, when there was no King in Israel, in the which every man did that which was lawful and right in his own eyes.  
The old civilised Romans had such an opinion of the augustness of their City, that to be proscribed or banished was counted a capital punishment, and a civil death thought equal to a natural. O that I could persuade all of you to be such brave spirited Romans, and to have such a regard for this Royal City, the Metropolis of our Nation, never to commit any base or disloyal action as to merit proscription from it, but be as constant and true to the King, as we are fully convinced the Natives of this place are, by this solemn anniversary Festival; and if several Countries heretofore strove which should have the honour of Homer's birth, sure it is no small addition to our happiness, seeing this very Parish is honoured with so good a King's Nativity as well as ours: And if we enjoy not now all the rights and privileges, which hath been long since continued to this our Imperial City, we may e'en thank some of its Pharisaical members, who by their open Rebellions have forfeited the great Seal and Charter of it.  
I pray God then, we may all lay it to heart and let our Rebellion terminate here, and every man sit down content, and eat the fruit of his labour under his own Vine, and under his own figtree. For what can any expect by disturbing and thwartning the Government, but abundance of evils and calamities must ensue; And then how deep will their guilt be, and what a great deal of blood must be Spilt, and how many lives lost in such wild heats and combustions. Xerxes, when he beheld his army pass before him, it drew tears from his eyes, that a hundred years hence there would not be a man of them left. Here was something of good nature, but we strive, as fast as we can, by our fierce debates and quarrelings to destroy and be the death of as many, and to imbrue our hands one in another's blood.  
These are strange and preposterous do and very ill-timed, and most unchristian breaches, and hearty to be lamented and sorrowed for, and do much weaken our Nation, and fit us for a final overthrow. I remember Josephus says, the unhappy divisions that were among the Jews in the time of their Siege did more shake the foundations of their City than Titus his whole Army without the Walls. And in another place, he has most impartially related, that there was no care of Religion, no zeal for the Law amongst them, because there was nothing but bandings and factions in their Synagogues. And I am afraid that our zeal for small and indifferent matters, for circumstantials only, hath quite eaten up the very Spirit and life of our Religion; and well may we be boar down by the common enemy, when we do all we can by our devilish and inhuman breaches to prepare the way and accelerate his coming in.  
And besides this, there is such a surplusage of Atheism and profaneness, of irreligion and ungodliness abounding every where, that notwithstanding what Juvenal remark long ago— omne in praecipiti vitium Stetit— all vice was at the height. Yet if it be possible the times we now live in are worse; And albeit some would insinuate, that it is the humour of every age to cry down their own times; yet iniquity is now grown so bare faced and rife in our streets that there is not the  umbrage or colour for such a pretext. And was there nothing more, his is enough to throw us out of the protection of the Almighty, and to make us the fag-end and refuse of God's Creation. For what says Solomon, righteousness exalteth a Nation but sin is the reproach and confusion of any people. And to use the words of a great man, the experience of every age has made this good: All along the history of the old Testament, we find the interchangeable providences of God towards the people of Israel always suited to their manners; they were either prosperous or afflicted according as virtue and piety flourished or declined amongst them. And God did not only exercise this Providence towards his own people, but he dealt thus with other Nations. The Roman Empire whilst the virtue of that people continued firm, was strong as iron as 'tis represented in the prophecy of Daniel, but upon the dissolution of their manners the iron began to be mixed with miry clay, and the feet upon which the Empire stood to be broken in pieces.  
No doubt than but it was our own exceeding guilt and sinfulness that destroyed the nation, and plunged us into such an abyss of misery and confusion. But seeing this happy day hath given us a blessed resurrection to life again, and turned all our heaviness into joy and rejoicing; O sing therefore unto the Lord a new song, for he hath done marvellous things; 
Psal. 98.  with his own right hand and with his holy arm hath he gotten himself the victory. Praise the Lord upon the harp, sing to the harp with a Psalm of thanksgiving; with trumpets and Shawms, O show yourselves joyful before the Lord the King. Let the sea make a noise and all that there in is, the round world and they that dwell therein. Let the stoods clap their hands, and let the hills be joyful together before the Lord. For this Nation was sunk deep into the earth, but now it hath lift up his head again. The people all lived under bondage and thraldom, but now are at perfect liberty, and enjoy their own. Oppression and Tyranny before infested the land, but now mercy and truth are met together, and righteousness and peace have kissed each other. The hinges of the Government that were all disjointed and broken, are now redintegrated, and turn upon the same axle. Our most gracious Sovereign who had been so long banished on a foreign shore is now landed again, and become the delight and glory of three Kingdoms: That very Sun which before was shrouded and set, is now stepped from behind the cloud, and shines upon us with all his heavenly and benign influences.  
In a word.  
Seeing this day than hath put a final period to all our grievences, Oh let us study to be peaceable and quiet, and not Physick our distemper to a worse, but learn the lesson of obedience better for the time to come, and mind the peace and prosperity of our Nation, and the preservation of his Majesty's most sacred Person, who after several years' hazards and turmoils, by his own Countrymen and by Foreigners; and after all those attempts and offers that were made by the Priests while he was beyond sea, to pervert him from the true Religion, blessed be God, yea! thrice blessed be God, who preserved him all along through the Wilderness, and at length brought him back in the same faith and profession as he went out. And let us all now implore the continuance of God's mercy towards him, that his Reign may be long and prosperous and his years many; that he would bless him both in body and Soul, and give him the hearts and love of all his Subjects; that he would make him wise as an Angel of light, and a faithful Minister of justice among his people; that he would give him the victory over all his enemies, at home and abroad; and let them be driven back and put to confusion that wish him evil; that he would set a Crown of pure gold upon his own head, and so make him for ever happy in this life, and when that dismal night draweth near in which we must part with him, Crown him everlastingly in the world to come.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 
FINIS.