Dr. FREEMAN's SERMON BEFORE THE HOUSE of COMMONS.  
November 5. 1690.   

Jovis 6. Die Novemb. 1690.  
ORdered, That the Thanks of this House be given to Dr. Freeman, for the Sermon he Preached yesterday before this House at St. Margaret's Westminster: And that he be desired to Print the same. And that Sir William Leveson Gower do acquaint him therewith.  
PAUL JODRELL. Cl. Dom. Com.   

A SERMON Preached before the Honourable House of Commons, AT St. MARGARET'S Westminster, On Wednesday the Fifth of November, 1690.  
BEING THE Anniversary Thanksgiving for the Happy Deliverance of King JAMES the First, and the Three Estates of the Realm, from the GUNPOWDER-TREASON; And also for the Happy Arrival of His present MAJESTY on this Day, for the Deliverance of our Church and Nation from Popery and Arbitrary Power.  
By S A. FREEMAN, D. D. Rector of St. Paul's Covent Garden, and Chaplain in Ordinary to Their MAJESTY'S.  
LONDON: Printed for Ric. Chiswell, at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Churchyard. M DC XC.   

A SERMON Preached before the Honourable House of Commons, NOVEMB. 5. 1690.  PSALM LXXXIX. 21, 22. 
I have found David my servant, with my holy oil have I anointed him.  
My hand shall hold him fast, and my arm shall strengthen him.  
THE Words contain in them God's gracious Promise to King David, of his special and more than ordinary Presence with, and Protection of him in the Administration of the Government he had called him to; And certainly, never had any person greater experience of it than David, both before and after his coming to the Crown: Witness, his Deliverance from the Paws of the Lion and the Bear, from the mighty Force of the uncircumcised Philistine, from the Persecutions of Saul, from the Rebellion of Absalon, from the secret Conspiracies of Domestic Foes, and the open Invasions of Foreign Enemies. Sometimes, indeed, it pleases God, for the Punishment of a wicked People▪ to suffer a Righteous and a Religious Prince, to fall by the hands of Violence, as was the Case of the good King Josiah: yet this is but rarely so; for the most part such Princes may promise themselves Safety and Success from the Providence of God; that God's hand will hold them fast, and his arm strengthem them; that the Enemy shall not be able to do them violence, nor the Son of Wickedness hurt them; that God will smite down their Foes before their face, and plague them that hate them.  
Three things are here to be considered.  

I. The Person to whom the Promise is made, King David.  
II. The Promise itself; viz. God's special Presence with him, and Protection of him. My hand shall hold him fast, and mine arm shall strengthen him.  
III. What are the proper Uses and Application of this Doctrine.   
I. The first thing to be considered, is, The Person to whom the Promise is made, King David, whom the Text considers under a twofold Character:  
As a Religious King, David my servant; And,  
As a Rightful King, With my holy oil have janointed him.  
1. As a Religious King, David my servant; Saul by his Disobedience had showed himself unworthy of the Government, and God's Favour; 
1 Sam. 15. 23.  He rejected the word of the Lord, says the Text, and thereupon God rejected him from being King, and resolved to translate the Crown to another Family: And amongst all the Tribes and Families in Israel, he pitched upon David the Son of Jesse, as the most fit, and best qualified Person for it: I have found David my servant; concerning whom God gave this Testimony, That he was a man after his own heart, and that he had done that which was Right in his eyes▪ A Good King is one; who is no less the Image of the Love and Goodness, than of the Power and Majesty of God; who no less represents the Affection and Tenderness of our Heavenly Father, than the Authority of the Universal Monarch; whose Care it is, That Religion flourishes, and the True Worship of God be established; That Justice be impartially administered; That Vice be subdued, and Virtue encouraged; That the One be shamed by his Example, and punished by his Laws; And that the Other Reigns and Triumphs under the Influence of both: One, who invades no Man's Property; 
1 Sam. 12 3.  Whose Ox or Ass have I taken? Whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? So Samuel, when Supreme Magistrate of Israel, justified his Integrity: Who uses not his Power to ruin his People, to undermine the True Religion, or to enslave their Persons; but to defend Both, and to preserve them in their Rights and Liberties: Who is truly Pater Patriae, the Father of his Country; having no distinct Interest from his People's, and making Their Welfare His highest Glory.  
2. As a Rightful King; With my holy oil have I anointed him. No Man can call in question David's Title to the Crown, unless he will dispute God's Right to dispose of Crowns as he pleases; for David was immediately Chosen by God, and Anointed by his Prophet. But this was peculiar to the Kings of Israel and Judah; no other Princes can produce such a Patent for their Crowns.  
That which comes the nearest, is, When God by a signal and wonderful Providence, for some Great and Noble Ends, to Save a Nation, or to Defend his Truth, or to abate the Pride and Insults of His and His Church's Enemies, pulls down Kings, and sets up Kings. But this is no certain way of arguing; Success does not always give a Title where it gives a Crown.  
The ordinary Means of conveying a Right to Govern, are, Either Conquest in a just Cause, The Election of the People, or Hereditary Succession: Ours is owned to be an Hereditary Crown, viz. Always descending to the next Heir, unless it so happen, that he be naturally or morally uncapable, and that the Public Good and Safety will be evidently endangered in his hands. Here it leaps over, not out of the Royal Line, but to the next, against whom there is no such Objection. The great End of Government is the Public Good and Safety; This for the most part is bound up in the Laws and Constitutions of the Community; and as all the Powers and Prerogatives invested by Law in the Prince, or Head of this Polity, are the better to enable him to execute those Laws, and maintain the Common Safety; so all the Oaths that are taken to him by the Subjects, are also in Subordination, and Subserviency to the Common Safety, to which they were antecedently obliged, and he as well 
Vid. Tract of the Unreasonableness of the New Separation.  as they sworn to preserve. And therefore the Lords and Commons of England, as is evident all along in the Course of our History, have always looked upon that Prince, who went about by an Arbitrary Power, in Contradiction to their Laws and Rights, both Civil and Ecclesiastical, to Enslave and Oppress them, as one that had laid down the English Kingship or Monarchy; and have made no Scruple on such a just Occasion, to withdraw their Allegiance from him, and to place another of the same Royal Line on the Throne of Majesty. So, that would Men lay aside their Prejudices and their Passions, their Piques and Revenges, their Peevish and Awkward, their Selfish and Narrow Spirits, they would soon perceive, that the Preservation of our Laws and Religion, wherein consists the Public Good of this Realm, (nay, which yet adds to it, the Preservation of the Protestant Religion and Interest all the World over▪ whereon the Glory of God, and the Salvation of Men's Souls do so much depend) have in a manner forced the Royal Diadem where it is: And this Consideration alone (had it not been seconded with a just Cause, and a prevailing Power in a Sovereign Prince) seems to me, to give an Undoubted Title.  
II. Here's the Promise itself.  
In the following Verses, from the 25th to the 30th, God promises David greatly to enlarge his Empire, to exalt him to the highest pitch of Human Power and Glory; to continue the Crown for ever in his Family, from which it should never be taken, as it had been from Saul's: But these may be thought peculiar to David, who was a Type of Christ as well as King of Israel; especially the last, which did not receive its full accomplishment, but in the Kingdom of the Messiah, who was to come of the Race, and is said to sit on the Throne of David.  
What he promises him in the Text, is, His powerful Presence with him, to protect him in all Dangers, to direct and assist him in all his just Undertake; to strengthen him against all the Enemies, both Domestic and Foreign, of his Crown and Kingdom; and this every Righteous and Religious Prince may ordinarily take Confidence in, and apply to themselves. And that,  
1. As they are God's Representatives and Vicegerents in the World. They are called Gods; and St. Paul styles the Supreme Magistrate, The Minister of God; Because we are not capable of an immediate Converse with Heaven, therefore does God govern us by Men like ourselves, and so puts part of his Power into their Hands; for as Prophets receive of the Spirit, so do Kings of the Power of God. Now, those who are employed by God to act for, and under him in the World, have reason to expect proportionable Assistance and Protection from him.  
2. As they are entrusted by God with the Management of Public Affairs, and so the welfare of the whole Community depending in a great measure upon their prudent Conduct and Safety. We have ten parts in the King, said the Ten Tribes; Thou art worth Ten thousand of us. And again, Thou shalt not any more go out to Battle with us, lest thou quench the Light of Israel, said the Israelites to King David. What the Sun is to the World, that is a Wise and Gracious Prince to a Nation, its Happiness, and its Glory. Now, we may be sure, that that Providence, which, as the Scripture tells us, extends its Care over the least and most despicable things, over the Birds of the Air, and the Beasts of the Field, will much more concern itself for things of a more worthy Nature, for Men, for Communities of Men, for Princes, the Life and Soul of Communities. God is more concerned in Many, than in single Persons; and since a Kingdom is the general Concernment of a King, a King must be the special Concernment of God. Kings by the Ancients were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Men kept by God, 
Hag. 2. 23.  He hides them under the Shadow of his Wings, he keeps them as the Apple of his Eye. He sets them as a Signet on his right hand. God hath this as his peculiar Title, 
Psal. 144. 10.  The God that giveth Salvation unto Kings.  
3. That I may put many things together and hasten: Good Kings may expect God's special Presence with them.  
In regard of the difficulty of their Office and Duty, being oft times to deliberate about the Fate of Kingdoms, to judge in Matters of a dubious and intricate Nature, and to engage in Enterprises of the greatest Hazard.  
In regard of the many Temptations, the Height of their Place and Power subjects them unto; The uncontrollableness of their Power, the abundance of their Wealth, the multitude of their Cares and Business, the Crowds of Sycophants and Flatterers that always follow the Courts of Princes, are very dangerous Snares to their Virtue; The Devil knows how much it would be for the advantage of his Kingdom in the World, to have the Governors of it on his side, that they cannot sin alone, but they must be followed by Troops, and therefore he's always watching occasions, and craving permission from God to seduce and pervert them.  
In regard of the many Dangers they are exposed to; Princes have not only many Potent Enemies from abroad, but for the most part many envious ill-willers and discontented Malcontents at home, that are always beating how to supplant or overthrow them.  
In regard, lastly, of some momentous and important Work and Business a Prince may be called to by God; Be it, for example, to put a stop to the spreading of Idolatry, or to give a check to the merciless Rage of Tyrants and Persecutors; This is the Cause of God, and he must be wanting to himself, should he be wanting to those whom he hath raised up for the defence of it.  
The Worthies of the Old Testament, Moses and Joshuah, and Gideon, and Barak, and Jeptha, and David, and many others, were bright examples of this; with whom God was peculiarly present, and sometimes after a miraculous manner. The Author to the Hebrews tells us what Heroical Achievements they performed by faith in God.  
I must not stay to lead you far back in other History, yet I cannot forbear mentioning the many wonderful Deliverances and Successes wherewith it pleased God to crown the Great Constantine, and our own Renowned and never to be forgotten Queen Elizabeth, whom God raised up, the one, for the Deliverance of his Church Universal from Heathen Rage; the other, for the Deliverance of this Church from Popish Fury: But I must pass over these and innumerable others, that I may come to them which I am concerned particularly to remember.  
What an admirable Providence was it, that discovered the Gunpowder Treason, the black Conspiracy of this Day, by the Lines of a dead Letter sent to the Lord Monteagle! What could it be but a Beam from Heaven that darted into the King's Mind a meaning quite contrary to the natural sense of the Words and all Grammatical construction! The expression was, The Danger is past as soon as you have burnt the Letter, which King James interpreted, as quickly, making it signify, the suddenness and quickness of the Blow intended.  
And no less visible was the Sword of the Lord, than the Sword of Gideon, in our late happy Happy and Glorious Revolution; when we consider with what an invincible Spirit of Wisdom and Courage His Majesty undertook the Cause of our Country; what general Desires and Inclinations were on the sudden kindled in men's Hearts towards Him, their Laws, and their Religion; What a burning Zeal and Vigour, what an universal Harmony of Affections, what a perfect agreement of Councils and Endeavours inflamed the Breasts of all Men; What a strange Folly and Infatuation blinded the Counsels of our Enemies; What guilty Fears and Cowardice seized their Spirits; How all was brought about by a dry Victory, without the expense of the Blood either of our Friends or Enemies; We must conclude, That God was with him of a truth, and that it was he that made it to prosper.  
III. It remains now only, that we consider what are the proper Uses and Application of this Doctrine. I shall name at present but these four. And,  
1. What a sincere regard and esteem ought we to have for those, for whom God is pleased to have so great and particular a concern? The Scripture is very strict in enjoining Honour and Reverence to them, we are commanded to fear the King, to obey him, to pay tribute to him; all just and legal Power and Authority is not to be resisted; this is the Ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. Wise and gracious Princes are so great Blessings to their Kingdoms, that in the Heathen World their Subjects not only paid them the highest Honours during their lives, but worshipped them too after their deaths. They could not imagine, that those who either by the invention of useful Arts, or the institution of an excellent Government, or by many noble Exploits and Deliverances had in a high degree obliged their Countries, died like other Men, they reckoned they became Divine, and were translated among the Gods, and so changed their Allegiance into Adoration. I mention this not for imitation, but as an infinite shame and reproach to too many Christians, who cannot find in their Hearts to make any other returns to their Princes for the innumerable Benefits and mighty Deliverances, they at the peril of their Lives and Blood have purchased for them, than Curses and opprobrious Language, than meditating Ruin and Destruction against them. What can we desire more, that is not by the blessing of God upon their Undertaking restored and confirmed to us? Our Laws have recovered their just Vigour and Authority, our Rights and Properties are secured, our Holy Religion safe, our Lives, and our Souls too, if we are not wanting to ourselves, out of danger. We feel indeed at present some Burdens and Taxes, but are they any other than what are absolutely necessary for our preservation, voluntarily imposed upon us by our Representatives in Parliament, And what are tolerable and easy when compared with the Slavery and Oppression we are freed from, and the far greater Miseries we had just reason to fear were coming upon us? We have nothing to complain of, unless it be that the Government is too mild and merciful to them who so little deserve it. Certainly they who so murmur and repine under this Golden Sceptre, consider not what it would be to feel the Iron Rod of French Cruelty and Popish Revenge.  
2. God's special Presence with and Protection of good Kings, shows how vain and foolish a thing it is, as well as sinful, to conspire against them. Never was there yet a Government or Governor that could give Content and Satisfaction to all its Subjects; so long as there are Devils in Hell that delight in the Miseries and Confusions of Men, and so long as there is Pride, and Ambition, and Malice, and Revenge, and Covetousness lodged in the Breasts of Men, must Princes expect to meet with those who envying their Power and Greatness, will be always contriving how to snatch it from them, or make them uneasy under it; some there are that affect a Change for Change sake, and therefore desire to be rid of their present Masters, only that they might have new ones: Others are for troubling the Waters, hoping thereby for an opportunity to heal their lame Fortunes in them; Others are against the Government, because the Government is against them; It's an Enemy to some men's Debaucheries, and they had as live part with their Lives as their Vices and their Pleasures; It's an Enemy to some men's Profits and Honours, they have lost something they had, or they want something they cannot get, they have no share in the Administration, no Place of Trust, no Post of Advantage in it, and some Men can be true to nothing but their own Interests, and because a Government does not serve their turn, they are for another that will; It's an Enemy to that which some Men call their Religion, I mean their Superstitious and Idolatrous way of Worship, and that State must not think to stand long, if the Devil and the Jesuit can help it, that does not fall down to their Dagon: But in vain are all the Attempts of Malice and Treason against those, who are compassed about with God's Favour as with a Shield. Good Princes are the peculiar Charge and Favourites of God; He in an especial manner interests himself in their Safety; and unless their Enemies are of God's Privy Cowcil, and can know beforehand that he'll suffer it, they can no more be secure of Success in their Conspiracies, than they can be of being too hard for the Almighty. Give me leave therefore in this case to apply the beginning of the 2 d Psalm, that was literally spoken of David, as well as figuratively of Christ; Why do the Papists rage, and the disaffected People imagine a vain thing? He that sits in Heaven shall laugh them to scorn; the Lord shall have them in Derision; yet have I set my King upon my Holy Hill of Zion.  
3. God's special Presence with and Protection of good Kings, calls upon us to pray for the continuance of it to those whom in his good Providence he hath set over us; the Mercies God promises, he expects should be fetched down by Prayer. Now Kings being the main Instruments of Providence, whereby God conveyeth his Favours and dispenseth his Justice to a People, as we cannot expect to be happy and prosperous, but by their means; so we cannot expect that they should be a means of it, unless by fervent and devout Prayer, we engage the continual powerful Presence of God with them: Not to invoke the Blessing of God upon Governors, is to disown God's Government of the World whose Ministers they are: And how can that People expect to be blessed by God, who disown his Government? There are none but must be sensible how much the welfare of this Kingdom is bound up in the Preservation of this Government. In all likelihood our Religion, our Laws, and our Liberties will stand and fall with our Princes; we are therefore highly obliged, if not for theirs, for our own Sakes, to lift up our Hearts and our Voices to Heaven for them. I hope we have not yet forgot the Day of our Distress, what passionate Prayers we then sent up to Heaven to take pity on us: And God was pleased to hear the Prayers of his People, He raised us up a Deliverer, and has thereby encouraged us still to pray, Strengthen, O Lord, that which thou hast wrought for us: Cloth all his Enemies with Shame, but upon himself let his Crown flourish.  
4. God's special Presence with and Protection of righteous and religious Princes, calls upon us to bless God for the two great Deliverances of this Day. An eminent Jesuit, Campian by name, long since declared in Print, that 
Camp. Epist. 10. ad Conc. Reg. Angl. p. 22.  their Society had made a Holy League and solemn Oath, that as long as there were any of them alive, they would destroy heretical Princes by all means possible; and as for the English Nation they would procure and for ever pursue its Ruin, and the utter Destruction of its Religion. And to do them right, hitherto they have made good their Oath; how unwearied and restless have their Malice and Rage been against us?  
The Royal Family of the Stuarts, to begin 
Sir Edw. Cook's Speech at Gar. Trial.  no higher, are indebted to them for many signal Kindnesses: What strong Endeavours were made to keep King James the First from the Crown? Garnet a Jesuit brought two Breves from Pope Clement the 8 th' to exclude him, commanding all Catholics, both Clergy and Laity, not to suffer him, or any other that was not a Catholic, to succeed to the Crown. Parsons another Jesuit, under the Name of Doleman, wrote against his Title, and set up another, that of the Infanta of Spain against his; after a most rude and insolent manner, blackening his Name, and loading his Actions with the most spiteful Calumnies; But when after all their Attempts, they could not hinder him from coming in, they resolved by dreadful blow of Gunpowder to rid themselves at once both of him, and his whole Family: A Villainy so black and odious, that the Papists themselves are ashamed to own it, and would fain have it pass for a State-trick, and a Plot of an Eminent Minister at that time against them: But this was an invention of their own, not thought of till long afterwards, not in the least mentioned nor pleaded by any of the Conspirators in their defence. 
Pr●fat. mon. p. 146. Hist. Gunpowder Tr. p. 232. Delr. disquis. mag. l. 6. c. 11. Pr●fat. mon. p. 8, 9  But, on the contrary, 'twas confessed by the Traitors themselves, justified by some of them, owned by Sir Everard Digbies Letters now made public, taken care of beforehand not to be discovered in Confessions, The Success of it prayed for under the name of a great Design in hand, for the good of the Catholic Cause, The disappointment of it sorely lamented; but in all Probability, had it succeeded, would have been welcomed at Rome with as public Festivals and Triumphs, as the great Thuanus, an Historian of their own, informs us, the Parisian-Massacre was, wherein 30000 Protestants were slain in one Night. But blessed be God who hath hitherto defeated the malicious Purposes of the inveterate Enemies of our Church and Nation, that brought to light that Work of Hell and Darkness, and hath preserved us in the Enjoyment of the Benefits of that great Deliverance to this Day.  
In the Reign of King Charles the First, they carried on the same Design; They began with a Plot to murder the Archbishop, and to take away the King's Life, happily discovered by means of Andrea's ab Habernfield. What savage and inhuman Cruelties they committed in Ireland, I tremble to mention, wherein a 100000 Protestants were barbarously murdered in 
See Dr. Pet. du Moulin. Vind. of Prot. Relig. ch. 2. p. 58. and his Reply to a Person of Honour, p. 4, 5.  cold Blood: What hand they had in kindling and carrying on that cruel and unnatural War, and in the execrable murder of that incomparable Prince, how at their Consults they voted 'twas for the Interest of Holy Church, and how active and instrumental they were to promote the Councils that did it, has been offered to be proved against them.  
In King Charles the Second time; Into what innumerable Sects and Factions did they break us; what fiery Strifes, what implacable Animosities, (which, God help us, are burning to this very day) did they blow up amongst them? How dextrously did they manage the contending Parties, encouraging now one and then the other, till they had almost beat out one another's Brains? And then at last by plotting to take away the Life of that Prince, (who was now thought, it seems, to stand in their way) and to give a Toleration to the Popish Party, how advantageously did they prepare the way for a total Extirpation, as they called it, of the Northern Heresy, which they doubted not to effect under the Reign of a more resolute Prince, that should more heartily and vigorously espouse their Cause? And you all know how near they were to the accomplishing of it.  
Good God What a black and melancholy Prospect of things was then before us? What a horrible Storm hung over our Heads, threatening Ruin to every thing that was dear to us, and to entail Slavery, Ignorance and monstrous Errors, even Transubstantiation itself, upon our Posterity? How were we daily threatened with an Army of Foreigners, and those the most infamous for Blood and Cruelty, and some of them actually brought in upon us.  
But blessed be God who hath put an end to our Miseries, and almost to our very Fears; who put it into the Heart of the King to come in to our Succour, and who made even the Winds and the Waves propitious to him and his glorious Enterprise.  
Blessed be God who hath preserved him hitherto, to settle and establish us in that Salvation, which under God he hath wrought for us; who suffered not the fatal Bullet that came so near him, to do him Mischief; nor the Swords of his Enemies that thirsted for his Blood, to touch him; who preserved him safe in the Crowds of his Enemies, and in the midst of innumerable Dangers, and after a signal and glorious Victory, landed him safe again on our joyful Shoar.  
Blessed be God who hath given him the Hearts of his Parliament, and the Affections of his People.  
Blessed be God for his Heroic Spirit of Wisdom and Magnanimity, for his merciful Disposition, for the Justice and Equity of his Government, for his sincere Love to the Church, for his unshaken Constancy to the Protestant Religion and Interest, and for his Fatherly Care and Tenderness over all his Subjects.  
May his Life be long, and his Reign prosperous; and may the English Nation, under his Auspicious Conduct and Victorious Banners, become a Terror to its Adversaries, Deliverance to the Oppressed, and as heretofore, so for ever, the Bulwark of the Protestant Religion.  
To the only wise God our Saviour, be all Praise and Glory, both now, and for evermore. Amen.  
FINIS.   

Advertisement.  
A Sermon Preached at the Assizes held at Northampton, August the 26 th', 1690. Before the Right Honourable Sir Henry Pollexfen, Lord Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas. By Sa. Freeman, D. D. Rector of St. Paul's Covent-Garden, and Chaplain in Ordinary to Their Majesties.  
A Sermon Preached before the King and Queen, at Whitehall, on the 19 th' Day of October, 1690, being the Day of Thanksgiving, for his Majesty's Preservation and Success in Ireland. By the Right Reverend Father in God, Gilbert Lord Bishop of Sarum.  
Both Sold by Richard Chiswell, at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Churchyard.