A Thanksgiving-Sermon Preached at SUTTON in SURREY, APRIL the 16th. 1696.  
Being the National Thanksgiving-Day FOR His Majesty's most Happy Preservation from the most Detestable Assassination, in order to a French Invasion.  
By HENRY DAY. M. A.  
LONDON: Printed for Richard Baldwin, near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane. MDCXCVI.   

A Thanksgiving-Sermon Preached at SUTTON in SURRY, etc.  PSALM CXXII. 6. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love thee. 
WHatever was the particular Occasion of this Pslam, 'tis commonly taken for a Song of Rejoicing after Victory, upon the Resettlement of the Kingdom of Israel in Peace and Quietness. The Royal Psalmist seems not to be better pleased with his Success (which was perhaps his winning the Fort upon the Rock of Zion), than with the Opportunity it gave him to go up to Jerusalem to praise the Lord of Hosts, that inspired him with Courage, and blessed him with Victory: Ver. 1. I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Ver. 2. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. Diodati paraphrases, We shall no more need to run here and there to do God's Service, as we did at other times, when the Ark removed from place to place; now that it stands still in Jerusalem, we shall not go any where else. Ver. 3. Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together. David having paid his Devotions, celebrates the Holy City; 1 st. for its Compactness; i. e. as some interpret, for its Uniform Beautiful Buildings; others, because of the joining of the low Town and Castle; for the latter, till the time of David, remained in the hands of the Jebusites, whom the Children of Judah could not drive out. He prosecutes his Praise of the City farther, taking notice that it was the place, Ver. 4. Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. Ver. 5. For there are set thrones of judgement, the thrones of the house of David. The chiefest Honour of Jerusalem is placed in these two things; it was the Place of Worship, and the Seat of Judicature; thrice in the year the Inhabitants go up thither to praise the Lord; there also sat the Sanbedrim, the Supreme Court of the Nation; moreover, there was the Palace of the King. For these several Great and Weighty Reasons, David owns it the Duty of himself and Subjects to pray for the Peace of Jerusalem. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love thee.  
The word Jerusalem is taken Properly for the City itself; or Metonymically, for the Inhabitants in general; or Metaphorically, for the Celestial City, the Heavenly Jerusalem. In this place it manifestly signifies the Inhabitants of Jerusalem in general, of what Order or Degree, what Quality or Denomination soever; every Man of them in particular is required to pray for the Prosperity of the whole Body of them in general. The Scripture never uses the word Jerusalem but in one of the three ways which I have mentioned; yet, I confess, it is applied sometimes to the Church of England; and by them that apply it so, the Church is restrained to signify none but the Clergy; but if other men had equal Heat of Fancy, they might with equal reason apply it to our Merchants, and the word Merchants might be restrained to the East-India Company, in contradistinction to the Interlopers.  
Without question the Royal Psalmist was sensibly concerned for the Prosperity of all Israel, and not of one Tribe only: 'Tis true, David was often piously busied in regulating the Service of the Temple; but we do not ever find, and cannot reasonably suppose him to have been so partial as to intercede with God only for the Levites, and so it went well with them, not to care how it fared with all the People besides. A Learned Man hath lately told us of a Muscovite Divine, that thought Heaven was made only for the Czar and the Boyars. David knew better; nor Heaven nor Earth was ever promised as an Inheritance to a particular Order of Men, with exclusion to others. In the New Testament we read, that God desires that all men, all in general, might come to the knowledge of the Truth, and be saved: And David desires that all his Subjects, all in general, may understand their Interest and their Duty; and by Associating for the Safety and Honour of his Sacred Person, of their common Religion, Laws, and Liberties, become settled in a happy Peace, and blessed with a full Prosperity.  
Granting that the distinction of Clergy and Laity is founded on the Word of God, yet surely Clergy and Laity ought not to have Distinct and Separate Interests; but as in One God they both believe, in order to their Everlasting Happiness; so by the same Laws they should both be willing to be governed, the same King they should both own for their RIGHTFUL and LAWFUL Sovereign; that so the Peace of their common Jerusalem, of their Native Country, may be promoted, the Prosperity of every Honest Man among them taken care of. Without this Unity of Interest, without this Unity of Allegiance, no Government can be settled on sure Foundations, no King secured from a Combination of Murderous Assassins.  
They who shall interpret praying for the Peace of Jerusalem, to be nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, praying for the things which make only for the advantage of the Priesthood, they do as good as bid the Secular Power take care of itself, they alienate the Affections of the despised People from them, they enervate the force of their own wisest Instructions; in short, they very anti-Apostolically invert the honest Practice of St. Paul, hinted in that Divine Aphorism, We seek not yours, but you.  
I have said that the Word Jerusalem in the Text is to be taken Metonymically, for the Inhabitants of Jerusalem, and that in general, not for the Levites only, but for the Laic Vulgar also, even the whole Bulk of the Twelve Tribes.  
The next thing to be determined is, what King David meant by this Phrase, Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.  
That Teacher who throws out hard Words, and mysterious Expressions to the people, intends to amuse them, or has some other Design, not more honourable: But whoso uses Words and Expressions common, and plain, gives a fair testimony, that he has no sinister Ends to serve, when he delivers his Message. Few men care to trouble themselves with an inquiry after the sense of hard Words, and mysterious Expressions; but Words and Expressions common and plain they understand without an Interpreter; though yet by accident, through the untowardness of men of perverse minds, even the plainest things that can be said, shall need an explanation.  
I make no question, but the Enemies of David, who sought to cast him down from his Excellency, i. e. to dethrone him (for no mean Critics, of different Parties, suppose him, when he penned the 62d Psalms, to have been a Crowned Head) might satisfy the letter of this Text, and pray for the peace of Jerusalem; but, in that, they sought to dethrone him, it appears they did, or not understand the meaning of the words, or not obey it. They prayed for the Peace of Jerusalem, as Sinners do for the Grace of Repentance, who pray, but do not labour for the Grace they pray for: they prayed for the peace of Jerusalem, as some Nominal Protestants have done for the Church of England, at the same time they laboured to bring back merciless Tyranny, and foolish Superstition.  
To know the ways of righteousness, according to the Language of Scripture, imports not only bare knowing, but actual walking in those ways; and to remember the word of the Lord, denotes more than a simple calling it to mind, even a conscientious conformity to it: So the Command of praying for the peace of Jerusalem, implies an honest endeavour of every man in his Station to promote it. And what the Israelites were commanded to do on behalf of Jerusalem the Capital City of the Land of Promise, the Law of Nature, or right Reason commands every particular man to do, for the peace, and prosperity of that City, Kingdom, or Commonwealth, whose Protection, as a Member of the same Body Politic, he enjoys.  
Some of our Order, my Brethren, have been justly reproached for running too much out of their Province to meddle with Affairs that concerned them not, principally State-Affairs, in the late Reigns: And we all know out of what Design, and to serve whose Purpose, the Sons of Levi became the Disciples of Achitophel. But Morality being a part of what we are obliged to teach, I think none of you will say that I forget my Duty, if I spend some time to show you the Just Obedience due to the Legal Powers set over us; for as these, so is Religion, and we that preach it, ordained for the use and good of the Public.  
Our Prayers then for the Peace of the Kingdom of England, and for the renowned Metropolis, London, our great Jerusalem, and our Endeavours in our several Stations to promote that Peace, cannot be sincere and honest, unless we do these Three things.  
1. Own the Legality of the Government under the Administration of King William, our Rightful and Lawful King.  
2. Forbear traducing it, or patiently hearing it traduced.  
3. Associate for its defence against all the Enemies thereof whatsoever.  
1. Own the Legality of the Government under the Administration of King William, our Rightful and Lawful King.  
By nature all men are free, equal, and independent; no man can be moved from this State, and made a Member of a Community, or Government, but by his own consent; and when, for the better securing to himself his Temporal Interests, he has given his consent, and becomes a Member of a Community, or Government, he must be contented to regulate himself according to the Laws, and Measures, which shall be prescribed by the majority of the Government, or any number of men chosen by the Majority for that end.  
No man in Civil Society ought to be exempted from the Laws of it; for such an exemption brings him back to the state of Nature, and in such a state every injured private man has a right to be revenged of him. To apply this; When the late King James, after that he had tyrannically laboured to alter the whole Frame of the Old English Government, and utterly to root out the Christian Religion, as it is professed and exercised by all that bear the name of Protestants, did abdicate and renounce the Government of England, Scotland, and Ireland, with their Dependences, that would never basely yield themselves Popish Slaves to his Arbitrary Lust; the Majority of the People chose their Valiant Deliverer to be their King, to go in and out before them, to fight their Battles, and see their old Laws put in execution. Now there is not an Englishman, but, according to the Law of Nature and Reason, aught to be concluded by this Choice: For, as a Modern Author convincingly argues, If the consent of the Majority shall not in reason be received as the act of the whole, than nothing but the consent of every Individual can make any thing to be the act of the whole; and then, say I, it is impossible there should be any such thing as Society.  
I hope no man will he so foolish as to say, That the Majority of the People chose King William to be their King in Fact, but not of Right; for they had not chose him to be their King, if they had not been satisfied that the Tyrant his Predecessor had Forfeited and Renounced all the little Right that he could pretend to. But supposing (let me be pardoned for so extravagant a Supposal) that the Choice of the Oppressed and Abandoned People of England gave to King William only Possession of the Government, and no Right, (since it came to pass, I know not how, he was not solemnly and expressly declared Rightful and Lawful till t'other day, when it appeared clear as the Sun, that the de Facto Doctrine missed but narrowly of taking away not only both his Crown and Life, but also our Religion, Laws, and Properties), suppposing as abovesaid, yet the present Parliament, by whom the Nation is to be concluded, have (God be thanked) at last recognised King William as our Rightful and Lawful King: He therefore that refuses to do the same, being now by Law expressly called to it, declares himself an utter Enemy to the Government, and not only justly may, but necessarily aught to be treated as such, for the Safety and Preservation of the Government. When Mercy to Restless Conspiring Traitors, so plainly as in our Case, appears to be Cruelty to the Government, the Magistrates that show it, cut not only their own Throats, but the Throats of all Loyal Subjects, who depend on their Vigilance, Fortitude, and Wisdom.  
These seven Years that we have been disputing the Right of King William, and the honesty of our Establishment, what have we been doing but exposing his, and our own Lives, Religion, Laws and Liberties, to the bold Insults of bigoted, Unreasonable, Licentious, Superstitious, Needy, Atheistical Men? I do not think that all these Epithets belong to the Character of every Frenchified Jacobite, but if every one of them does himself Justice, they will not leave me a word of Reproach upon my Hands.  
2. Our Duty of praying for the Peace, and endeavouring to promote the Prosperity of our Nation, obliges us to forbear traducing it, or unconcernedly hearing it Traduced.  
A discontented Reflection upon the Government, naturally tends to weaken the Hands of it, and cannot well be understood to be meant otherwise. And since every particular is included in the acts of the Majority, such Reflection is not more injurious to the Government, than to the reputation of the Man, who makes bold with it. If a man cannot bring his mind to approve the Title of the Prince in Possession, why is he so disingenuous as to be beholding to him for his Protection? Let him pack up his awls and be gone to some more blessed Region, where he may Sacrifice all that he has to the Divine Right of an Arbitrary Lord, and if he manages his business well, arrive at the Honour of sqeezing and oppresing others, I do not remember any nation of Old, (but I am little read in History,) with whom it was safe to reflect on the Authority of the Government, but, that such as give themselves this liberty, should enjoy and execute Offices of Honour and Trust! Sure it was never so in any Nation, or if it were, they lived upon Providence by the day, and took no care of themselves, lest they should seem to distrust the goodness of God.  
But it is not enough to forbear traducing the Government: A good Subject will not patiently hear it Traduced. Qui non vetat peccare, cum potest, jubet. He that can, and does not prevent a Sin, tho' he join not in the immediate Act, yet partakes of the Gild. What Son will endure to hear his Father abused, and shall I, without resentment, hear the Father of my Country, who freed me from insupportable Tyranny, blackened with the Odious name of an Usurper? God forbid. When Absalon reproached his Father's Administration, and rose up against him, David took all prudent care to suppress, the dangerous Insurrection, but he had a tenderness for Absalon, and took it ill, that the forfeited Life of the Ambitious Youth was not spared, but his valiant and faithful Captain Joab put it home to him, 2 Sam. 19 6. I perceive that if Absalon had lived, and all we had died this day, it had pleased thee well: Upon this honest Remonstrance, the good King was satisfied, and the Kingdom safe. Shall I hear mention the Heroic virtue of Lucius Junius Brutus, who when his own Sons were found engaged in the Conspiracy for bringing back the Proud Tyrant Tarquin, himself dragged them to condign punishment. Indeed the Romans in the Infancy of their State, were impartially zealous for the public Good, they Sacrificed not only their private Interests, but their natural Affection to it. But you had rather hear me deal in sacred Story. I will speak of David again, Psalm 62. 3. he expostulates with his Enemies in these words, How long will you imagine mischief against a man? I suppose some honest Secretary stood at his Elbow, and answered for them, As long as they are unpunished; for his very next words are, You shall be slain all of you, as a bowing Wall shall you be, and a tottering Fence.  
3. Our duty of praying for the Peace, and endeavouring to promote the Prosperity of our Nation, obliges us to Associate for its defence against all the Enemies thereof whatsoever.  
The great end why Men at first unite and associate into Bodies Politic, is, that they may be able to maintain their just Rites; and if Wicked Men among them by base Arts and Treacheries labour to betray the Community, they find it necessary to tie themselves in stricter Bands, for the discovery of their treacherous Enemies, and setting a distinguishing Mark upon them, that so, if they be longer endured in the Community, they may be prevented from doing it Mischief.  
Indeed, our first choice of the Prince of Orange to be our King, was in Law and Reason, the Act of the whole Nation; and our Oath of bearing Faith and true Allegiance to him, (if it be not shamefully misinterpreted) obliges us not only to live quietly under, but also actually to support the Government. But so it has happened, some among us, who as yet are contented to be called Protestants; nay, challenge the name of Church of England Men, have learned some Sophistical skill from the Schools of the Jesuits, whereby they miserably impose upon themselves and others; they prate and publish, that such Oath obliges them only to live quietly under King William, (tho' that is more than they will do; for under pretence of Charitable Collections for the relief of Non-Jurers Wives and Children, to raise vast Sums to promote a French Invasion, is not living quietly) and by no means will they admit that the Oath requires them to oppose the reduction of the Late King, whose Soul thirsts to be revenged of our taking the advantage of his Forfeiture. Well then! Hac non successit aliâ aggrediundum est via. This Oath will not hold them, we must try what an Association will do; for shall they Associate to destroy us, and shall not we do as much to preserve ourselves.  
When Jerusalem was Besieged by Titus there were three strange Factions in the City, that battled one another, as often as the Romans intermitted their Onsets; but when the Romans came on, they laid aside their intestine Hatred, and all united for the common defence of the City.  
Nature teaches the worst and the simplest of Men this common Prudence, to Associate for their common Defence. I am sure we have now had a demonstration, That not King William, nor any Friend of the Government under him, can possibly be safe without it; even they that have been unwilling to think that King James could forfeit his Crown, were he never so great a Tyrant; even they have seen with their Eyes, and heard with their Ears those Evidences, that he was like to have been brought home, (not Reinthroned, Boufflers would have taken care of that) at the charges of their ruin also, and the ruin of their Families. Therefore after the Oath of Allegiance, which so many Jacobites have played with, it is not only prudent, but just and necessary, that an Association be required under a severe Penalty. A Command without a Penalty has not the face of a Law, the Person to whom it is given, must be very well disposed if it pass but for so much as good Counsel-Rewards are proper encouragements to Virtue, but Penalties are the necessary sanction of Laws; therefore well and wisely, like King William's true Liegemen, and old England's genuine Patriots, have the King and Parliament enacted, that whoso refuse the Oaths, shall be deemed as a Papist convict; and he that speaks or writes against it as Illegal, shall be deemed a promoter of the designs of King James, and a betrayer of our Religion, Laws, and Liberties; and yet for all this, so tinctured with their old leaven, are some sour minds, that they pretend Conscience against one Clause in the Association, which is this, and in case his Majesty come to any violent, or untimely death (which God forbid,) we do hereby further freely and unanimously oblige ourselves, to unite, Associate, and stand by each other, in Revenging the same upon his Enemies and their Adherents— In truth the Men that Scruple this Clause, would be glad to be excused from the Declaration that goes before, nay, I am afraid had rather absolved the Traitors, than oppose their Treason; but they shall Associate, they shall, or the World shall see, that Conscience is not the Reason of the refusal. When they put on all their gravity to veil their malignant Doctrines and Designs, and make the best show of Religion they can; this is what they plead— Vengeance is mine and I will repay it saith the Lord,— I suspect these Men are Atheists at the bottom, who hope by their wit to elude the Vengeance of the Magistrate, and do not believe a future Judgement. But I answer them— we also read in Scripture, He that spills Man's Blood, by Man shall his Blood be spilled. But they will reply, why should Vengeance extend beyond the Persons that spill Blood? I will rejoin, why shall others by their ungodly Prints, and Preachments tempt Murderous Assassins to do the vile deed? If King William be an Usurper and a Tyrant, than the horror of the Assassination is taken off, and his bold Enemies are not left unacquainted, that old Greek and Roman Historians have celebrated the Murderers of Usurpers, and Tyrants, as Liberatores Patriae, Deliverers of the Country. It is of so violent and mischievous influence to lead a People to think, that their King has no Title to his Crown, and it is but just, that Vengeance should reach them, if their Doctrine reaches him. But I shall be told, let a Villainy be as heinous as it will, yet God has forbid private Revenge. I will speak to that, and borrow some words from the Author that has answered Sir R. Filmer of Government, so Solidly, that he will be as old as an Antediluvian Father, or rather not die, but be changed if he lives till his Book is well answered, P. 229. Sect. 87. Man being born with a Title to perfect Freedom, and an uncontrolled enjoyment of all the Rights and Privileges of the Law of Nature, equally with any other Man, or number of Men in the World; hath by Nature a Power, not only to preserve his Property, i. e. his Life, Liberty and Estate, against the injuries and attempts of other Men: But to judge of, and punish the breaches of that Law in others, as he is persuaded the Offence deserves, even with Death itself, in crimes where the heinousness of the Fact, in his Opinion requires it. Hence I Argue, That if upon the Murder of our King, which God always forbid, there were no Legal Successor, but the Kingdom hurled into sudden Confusion, and Anarchy, then by the Law of Nature and Reason, every particular Person had a right to Revenge himself to the uttermost upon the Murderous Assassins, and all their Treacherous Adherents. But I shall be told, that this is not our Case; no, God be thanked, it is not, but we will not tamely part with our King for all that: The Revenge which the Association threatens upon the violent or untimely Death of our King, (which God prevent) is not a private Revenge, but a Public, Solemn, and Legal, albeit not in the tedious, usual, Methods of Law, which, if at such time we were obliged to follow, many of the most Guilty would have the Opportunity, by one means or other, to evade it. But if every injured Subject be Commissionated to do the Traitors and their Adherents Justice, 'tis odds, but they pay for their horrid Murder.  
Pray Consider farther, This Association is the most Solemn and Legal that can be imagined; 'tis an Association Enacted by the Supreme Authority of the Nation, wherein the King himself, and almost every particular Lord and Commoner join; the King as to his part of it, they to the whole, wherein the People are duly called to join, and have, and are ready a vast majority to join, they themselves, not only by their Representatives, but in their own proper Persons.  
Then consider also, that we have an Act for the continuing, meeting and sitting of a Parliament in case of the King's death, or demise, etc. so that this our Association, even as to the Revenging part of it, is all along Ascertained to be made good by a Legal Conduct.  
I have yet one thing more to say in its behalf, it is the best Expedient, both for the Friends and Enemies of the Government, that could be devised by the Wit of Man: For now it may be Reasonably hoped that our King and his Government shall be safe, since the destroyers of it are sure to be destroyed themselves.  
Dangers force improvident Men on wise Councils; we had not been this day in the way of Settlement, if we had not been a few days ago on the Brink of Ruin. Therefore blessed be the name of God who hath disappointed the horrid designs of our Faithless, and Cruel Adversaries, who hath as it were forced us to Establish the Throne of our great Restorer, our present King William, forced us to Associate Vigorously in the defence of that Title, which the consent of the People gave him, which, as hath been well and truly observed, is the only Title of all Lawful Governments, and which no Prince in Christendom hath more fully and clearly than King William. Together with him, we by this Association, take the most effectual course to preserve our Religion, Laws and Liberties.  
I have spoke what I could call to mind, upon a short Warning, concerning the Duty enjoined in the first part of the Text, Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, that duty is enforced with this Reason, They shall prosper that love thee.  
I make no doubt but God in his Mercy may have ordered much Prosperity to them that Fear him, Honour the King, and Serve their Country, by secret ways of Providence, into which we are not able to Penetrate: But I am convinced by the Evidence of Sense, that a conscientious performance of these Duties, is a natural means for Men to procure and establish their own Prosperity.  
Every particular Person, Member of a Body Politic, by being a Member of such Body, authorises the Legislative Power to make Laws for him as the public Good shall require, of which the Majority of them who have the Legislative Power, are Judges. Now, as a particular Person's Consent is included in the Acts of the Majority, so his Peace and Happiness is included in the Peace and Happiness of the State which the Majority govern: A Man cannot serve the Public, but at the same time he serves his own private Interest also; on the contrary, he cannot do mischief to the Public without doing mischief to himself, while the Parliament, as they are in Duty bound, take care of the Sacred Life and Government of K. William, they take care also of themselves, and of all that is near and dear to them, and I do not believe that there is a Man, a single Man, that is not a penny-less Beggar, as well as a wretched Villain, who would have found his account in the Success of a French Invasion.  
I might run through all orders and degrees of Men among us, Courtier, Citizen, Soldier, Scholar, Merchant, Mariner, etc. their Immunities, Charters, Stipends, Revenues, Trade, Pay, are not safe to them without the safety of the King and Government; the King and Government not safe without the Association. Let us therefore, my Brethren, Heart and Hand Associate; so shall our King and his Government prosper, and every one of us, as well as the King and Government, Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem, they shall prosper that love thee. I was just going to dismiss you, but just now there comes into my Head another sense of the Words— They shall prosper that Love thee— a sense very obvious and literal: I cannot say I have met with it in any Commentator; those Gentlemen are so ingenuous, that 'tis ever their Custom, Transilire ante pedes posita, to skip over the literal sense of a Text, and run in quest of the figurative Senses and Mysteries. The Sense, I mean, is this- O Jerusalem, they that love thee shall prosper, for I David, the Anointed of God, and the choice of his People Israel, will take care to reward them who are most zealous to preserve my Life, and Support my Government. I am apt to believe that David in these Words encouraged the honesty of his trustiest Liege-People, assuring them who defended his Right against the Abetters of the House of Saul, that their faithful Services should be amply rewarded, that their Prosperity should be his Care, as his sacred Life, and just Right was theirs.  
God grant that the Words, which we have now heard with our outward Ears, may be so inwardly engrafted in our Hearts, that they may bring forth in our Lives and Conversations, Loyalty to King William, Zeal for the Religion, Laws, and Liberties of Old England.  
FINIS.