A SERMON Preached before the KING AT WHITEHALL, ON THE Fifth of November, 1681.  
By GEORGE HOOPER, D. D.  
Printed by his Majesty's Command.  
LONDON, Printed for Mark Pardoe at the Sign of the Black-Raven over against Bedford House in the Strand, 1682.   
S. MATTHEW 22.21. 
Render therefore unto Caesar, the Things that are Caesar's; and unto God, the Things that are God's.  
THe Pharisees and the Sadduces, though divided in their Opinions and their Interests, yet both looking upon our Saviour as their common enemy (he equally opposing the Impiety of the one, and the Hypocrisy of the other) conspire together to entangle him in his talk; and make here in this Chapter their successive attempts upon him.  
THe first, that of the Pharisees, and which gave an occasion to the reply of the Text, was managed with address and design: they had so laid their Ambush, that which way soever he took, he might fall into the Snare and perish; the answer he gave, they expected, would certainly offend either the Zeal of the Jew, or the Power of the Roman.  
For the Jews, although they had now for a long while been under subjection to the uncircumcised; although their Great City had been ruined by the Babylonian, and their whole Nation transplanted, hardly a Stone left upon a Stone, nor a Jew in Judea; though, after their return from their Captivity, they were still Vassals to the Persian Empire, than part of the Conquest of Alexander the Great, after under the Syrian Kings, then reduced to the Roman Obedience by Pompey; (for their Chiefs, whether Princes or Priests, were still tributary and dependant;) yet they still retained their high Spirit, a peculiar sense of their Native Liberty and Sacred Prerogatives. But when afterwards the Romans took the Government into their own hands, removed their Tetrarch, and brought them into the condition of a Province, to be commanded now by one sent from Rome, who should have the Power of Life and Death, and Tax them at his will; this seemed insupportable to the greatest part of them, and was esteemed as unlawful as it was burdensome: that they were a holy People; their Persons and Estates sacred to God; and to give Obedience to any Foreigner, was to withdraw it from the Lord of Hosts. Nor shall we think it was any hard matter, to persuade a People so well satisfied of their National Privileges, and of so stubborn a temper, that it was an ungodly thing to suffer Impositions, to pay Taxes was Irreligion. He than that resisted this Heathen Authority, was the truest Israelite; the truest to the Liberty of his Nation, and the honour of his God; and as Moses had delivered them from the Egyptian Bondage, so they expected a Messiah, who should redeem them from the Roman: and if our Saviour pretended to be that great Person; he was, they thought, obliged to take this Yoke from off their Necks, and declare against the Roman Government.  
On the other side the Romans knowing what People they had to deal with; that they were a rebellious City, hurtful unto Kings, and unto Provinces, which would pay neither Toll, Tribute, nor Custom; for so they stand of old described to Artaxerxes; had a very watchful Eye over them, and were jealous of every Motion: They had their Spies, the Herodians here in the Text; and restrained their unquiet tumultuous Spirits, with severe exemplary Executions. So that to accuse one of a Crime against the State, as an Enemy to Caesar, was the greatest Revenge the most malicious Enemy could take; it was to expose him to certain Ruin, to an ignominious cruel Death. For so we find the Chief Priests, when they had taken Counsel together, to put Jesus to Death for Crimes, as they thought, against their Law; yet presenting him to Pilate with this Accusation. We found this Man perverting the People, forbidding to give Tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself, is Christ a King. We have them therefore here preparing that Article, whereby hereafter they intent to murder him. They endeavour now, by the Question they maliciously propose, to take such hold of his Words, that they may deliver him over to the Power and Authority of the Governor.  
The Disciples therefore of the Pharisees, who possibly were against the payment of Tribute, and the Herodians who were for it, being both here met together, the one to tempt, and the other to inform; begin their Discourse to him with this flattering treacherous Insinuation: Master, We know that thou art true, and teachest the Word of God in Truth, neither carest thou for any Man; for thou regardest not the Person of Men: thou art not afraid of the Government, and wilt not for fear disguise the Truth, as our Scribes and our Doctors do. Tell us therefore, what thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give Tribute to Caesar or not? But Jesus, as the Text proceeds, perceived their Wickedness, and said, why tempt ye me Hypocrites? Show me the Tribute Money, and they brought unto him a Penny; and he saith unto them, whose is this Image and Superscription? And they say unto him Caesar 's; then saith he unto them, returning them a precise distinct Answer, and no other than what they themselves had produced: Render therefore unto Caesar, the things which are Caesar 's; and unto God, the things that are God's. The Sovereignty of Caesar over you appears by his Prerogative of coining your Money: You know your Governor, for you see his Face; and in the Inscription, you read his Authority. Why therefore should you deny him the Testimony of your Subjection, and refuse to pay him Tribute? His Stamp I see is current with you, is the regulation of your Contract, the Standard of your civil Commerce: And, as in Payments, you can't refuse to accept it, so here you are obliged to give it. If Caesar be your King, this Payment he asks, is as due as any you demand: and that he is your Prince, the Money, you would withhold, of itself testifies against you. God does not here interpose any particular Claim; nor will he lend his Name to countenance your Disobedience against your King, and his Vicegerent. If indeed he sets up his Image in the Temple, you are not to suffer it for God's sake; and if he commands you to worship This, you are not to obey him: but to give It in Tribute is your Duty; it is that which God does so far not forbidden, that he does command: Give therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesar 's, and unto God, the things that are God's.  
The Words of our Saviour relate indeed to a particular Question, and chief there concern the giving of Tribute; but they are too the Foundation of a general Rule, and determine alike in all matters, that can come in dispute betwixt God's Supreme Authority, and that which is delegated to the Sons of Men. They importing, that some things there are peculiarly belonging to God, and some things belonging to the King; and, whose they are, we may know by the Inscription.  
And this Determination we shall crave leave to prosecute, that way the occasion of the Day leads: by representing, First, the Rights of God, and of Caesar. Secondly, the Usurpations of the Pope upon both; and Thirdly, the Redress and Reform.  
The Rights of God, and the King, and the Robbery the See of Rome has committed upon both, have been made so evident by others, that they will need here but a very brief Recapitulation.  
First, If we inquire what is God's, we are to consider him as Lord in chief, and sole Proprietor, whose is the World, and all that dwell therein. Part indeed of his Dominion, he hath been pleased to bestow on the Sons of Men; but so as to be held of him, by such Laws, with such Services, and under such Reservations, as it shall have pleased the Almighty Donor.  
1. He has therefore reserved to himself the power of declaring Laws, and those not to be overruled, nor superseded, but by himself; to bind every where, and for ever; to pass through all Countries, and continue to all Ages. And those you may read: he has delivered them in Writing.  
2. He has accordingly prescribed the Worship that shall be paid him, and the Services he expects. Those that are peculiar to him have his Image, his Mark set upon them, and are Incommunicable. For he is a jealous God, and will not give his Honour to another.  
3. And for this peculiar Service, he has chosen to be waited upon by a distinct peculiar People; that the Homage and Worship of the World may be presented to him in public, by proper hallowed Hands. And these Men, they too have their Character; you may know them whose they are, and to whom they belong.  
4. In the last place we may mention as proper to God, not what he has primarily reserved, but what afterwards his pious Servants out of Zeal and Gratitude have offered to him. Such are all Donations sacred to his Name, and appropriated to his Service. These Possessions and Revenues, whose they are, you will find too by their Inscription; look into the Charters of their Foundations, and you will see: they belong to God.  
In the next place consider we what is Caesar's: and if we look upon him, we shall know his Quality and his Value. Whose Image bears he? And whom does he represent? Is he not the Vicegerent of God?  
1. Wherever therefore his Sovereign, the Almighty, has not prevented him by any precedent Commands, there he has right and liberty to put forth his: in those cases to expect an active cheerful Obedience; and that we should in no case, and for no reason, resist.  
2. Be this Civil Government, Heretic or Infidel, we are not discharged of our Allegiance. We are obliged by the same Divine Authority to preserve our Religion under it, and to continue to it our Subjection. Nor are any Modern Governors of the Church greater than their Fathers the Apostles; who obeyed patiently the worst of Heathen Emperors; submitting either to their Edicts, or Persecutions.  
3. The Duty of the Christian Emperor being to restrain Vice and Irreligion, to promote Holiness, and the Worship of God; to him it belongs to order and direct the Church, the way he shall think most proper for those ends; to be its Temporal Overseer.  
These are the unquestionable Rights of the Civil Power, affirmed in our Articles, and asserted at large by others; and to be given up to it, by those that will render to Caesar, what is Caesar's.  
II. Neither are the Rights of God and the King more evident, than that the Pope has invaded both. His Usurpations are now grown as conspicuous as his Greatness; and to recount them all, would be to give a particular of his whole Authority.  
Every one knows, his Principality over the other Churches of the World, what an unjust Claim it is, and how meanly founded. How his Authority at first was no greater than that of his Neighbour Bishops; the Style the same, and his Holiness in common: His Precedence not in the Right of Saint Peter, but of a Capital City; and Addresses first made to him, not because he was next to God, but to the Imperial Court. How from the civility of a Precedence they claimed a Superiority; because they had been consulted with, they would afterwards command: from arbitrating of difference referred to them by their Brethren concerned, they usurped a Judicature: and then, when none durst contradict them, they could not err, and grew Infallible.  
It is too as well known, how taking advantage of the weakness of an old Empire, and making still conditions with the new; authorising the usurpations of others in countenance to their own; abusing to their private purposes the zealous Devotion of new converted Barbarians, and imposing on their unlearned Simplicity by the Authority of forged Donations and counterfeit Decretals; and having before by various Arts, and through the connivance or assistance of Princes, gained an absolute power over the Bishops of the West; They then, by the aid of the enslaved Clergy, and their Garrisons of Monks, attempted openly on the Princes themselves: confined their Jurisdiction; and forbidden them to meddle with the Persons or Revenues of ecclesiastics: Authoritatively interposed in all Differences, between Prince and Prince, or Prince and People; with their Spiritual Thunder in their hands, commanded the World to lay down, or take up Arms at their Pleasure: exercising every where by their Legates the Sovereign Power of Peace and War; giving the Law, and disposing of Crowns and Lands as they thought fit. He that disobeyed was first thrown out of the Church, and then out of his Country; his Subjects absolved from their Allegiance; and those justified that had a mind to rebel or to invade. They did the Holy Church and Saint Peter Service, that seized upon his Estate or his Person: He stood delivered up to Satan, to be Buffeted on Earth, and Tormented in Hell.  
These are the Steps to the Papal Throne; and when they were mounted, so have they Lorded it; trampling imperiously on the Necks of Kings and Bishops in an equal violation of all Authority Sacred and Civil. They are the first that directed pretended Holy Orders of men, and Sons of Perfection, in Separate Congregations, to despise their true Spiritual Governors: and first instructed Traitorous Subjects, to rebel against their King, the sanctified way.  
And these Injustices of their Growth, and violences of their grown Power, lie so open in the successive Annals of the Christian Times; That, to secure their Cause, they have reason to forbid the reading of all Histories, as well as of the Holy Bible. There we may as easily discern the beginning, and gradual advance of the aspiring Papacy, as of any other usurping Empire: and that this new Rome has, by means, as humane as those the Old practised, and with as little of divine Right extended the narrowness of its original Territory, into a Catholic Dominion. And there we shall find, as soon as it rises to its plenitude of Power, nothing but Robbery and Cruelty; the World in a perpetual Disturbance, by Interdicts and Excommunications; all the Wars and Confusions of whole Ages, commanded and managed by this unchristian Authority: Emperors at their Feet; kicked away; deposed by them, to be murdered by their Subjects, and their Sons: The Crowns of England and France given away on any distaste; as if those Princes had been only Vicars of the Church; and at best (what they forced one of ours to own) but Homagers to the Holy See.  
This Usage, on all occasions, Crowned Heads of their own Communion have felt from their Holy Father. But, if the Crime the Pope charged bordered on Heresy; Then the Thunderbolts flew, and the World was to Tremble: to invade that Prince was like a Journey against Infidels; to stab him meritorious; and the Assassin to be Canonised: and so in the last Age, on the Presumption of such a Sentence, died Henry the Third of France: The villainous Murderer in open Consistory recognized by the Pope for a Religious Hero; and the Relief of Paris, by such an ungodly Fact, compared with the Redemption of Mankind. Under the same Danger, by a more express Decree, lay Henry the Fourth his Successor: till he suffered himself to be Instructed, how he might be safe from the Master of the Assassins', the Old Man of the Mountains; and laid down his Conscience at the Pope's Feet, to hold his Life and his Crown.  
And, not to mention their impotent Fury against our Henry the Eighth, their Former Defender; by the same Authority, and with as little effect, did four of that See successively thunder against our late Glorious Queen; and solemnly declare her deprived of her Kingdoms. As they had deprived her of those and her Life; if God would have suffered private Treachery, open Rebellion, or a Foreign Powerful Invasion to succeed. And in consequence of such a Declaration made by the last of them, and with as much Justice, was the Traitorous Attempt made, we this day remember; and King James of Blessed Memory, and the three Estates of the Realm together, condemned to one Fire.  
So do they give to Caesar his Due. And what then can Heretical Subjects expect? they are to fall by thousands, self-condemned, and without the Honourable Ceremony of a Bull: to be slaughtered, like Sheep abandoned by the angry Shepherd; as in the Butchery of Paris, or by the Wolves of Ireland. For Mercy is not the due of a Heretic; nor has he right to common Faith: his Life belongs not to him.  
But how is it that the great Spiritual Father deals with his obedient Children? Does he not render them their due? He, like an Old Roman Father, treats them with an unaccountable Power: allows them no Propriety; and denies them the use of all that their good God had given them.  
He takes out of their Hands the Holy Scriptures, the greatest Gift of the Holy Ghost; their only Comfort, and Instruction. And instead of it puts a Legend; for the Word of Life and Truth, unedifying fabulous Traditions: for Bread, a Stone; for Fish a Serpent. If that See had pretended but a little earlier Power over the Blessed Spirit, they might have commanded it not to write: however now they forbidden the People to read.  
He keeps from them the Legacy of their dying Saviour: one half, of the spiritual Nourishment bequeathed them.  
He denys them the use of their Understandings and Judgements, in almost all the Articles of their Faith: of their Senses too, in that of Transubstantiation.  
He takes from them the knowledge of the Prayers, offered in their Name: and lets them not understand their own Desires. So are the People to appear before God, dumb and Senseless; like one of their Idols. All is to be referred to the Priest; The Pardon of their Sins, is to depend on his Discretion: and the Efficacy of that part of the blessed Sacrament, that is left, on the Sincerity of his Intention.  
So is man rob of his Spiritual Consolation: and the good God of his gracious Purposes. But they are more bold yet with the Almighty.  
That Princes may not complain of respect of Persons; they absolve, in some Cases, from the Obedience of God himself; and avowedly allow, what he as positively forbids: authorize incestuous Conjunctions, and licence Perjury: pass Pardons for all Sins, committed against the Divine Majesty.  
They make the Authority of the Writings of God, to depend upon their own: and add to them as they see cause; creating new Articles of Faith, and Instituting almost a new Religion.  
They give away his Worship: make their devoutest Addresses, and pay their most humble acknowledgements, to the Virgin Mary; to Angels, to Favourite Saints. And, that there may not be wanting Rivals with our God,  
They create Saints; give Crowns above, as well as below: and dispose of Heaven as their own.  
They give Divine Honour to Bread; which they call a God: and to an Image; which to the Eye they might better Transubstantiate.  
And, to cover their Idolatry, they commit Sacrilege, steal away one of the ten Commandments; and by their Index Expurgatorius blot the two Tables themselves.  
So far has the Papal See been from observing the Rule of the Text; from giving to Caesar, what is Caesar's; or to God, what is God's.  
III. The Church, of which we have the Blessing to be Members, and whose Preservation we more particularly acknowledge this Day, with Thanks to God Almighty its defender, appears in its reformation, to have proposed to itself, this Rule of our Saviour's: to have had in it no other Design, than by a just and equal distribution to give to God, what is God's; and to Man, what is Man's. It has surveyed the several Claims in the name of God and of the King; has considered whose peculiar Stamp and Character those things, that were challenged, bore; and has restored them, by the direction of those Marks, to their rightful Proprietors. In this disposal of Rights, and general Restitution, it has not minded any Interest of its own; nor laid its Hands on what belongs not to it: It has not had any private Design, to gain by what it was to distribute: It has stood upright, and held the Balance steady; dealing to each their own, ingenuously, and with an impartial Hand.  
To God, as is most due, it renders first his own, to his Person, a Worship entirely Divine; an Honour not before lessened on any rival part of his Creation: to his Laws, an Obedience, which no other Command shall control, nor Dispensation release.  
To Prince's next, and those that are in Authority, it has restored the full exercise of their lawful Power: their Countries, and their People, again their own; no place privileged, nor Person exempted; no foreign Potentate sharing the Authority, nor dividing the Revenue; their Subjects bound in an Allegiance, not to be withdrawn on any Pretence, of Schism or Heresy; in the Power of no Consistory to discharge.  
And here we see no Politic reserve: that our Church has not provided for itself any other Refuge, but in the Providence of God, and the Piety of the Civil Power. What was not her own, she has given out of her Hands: where she can't communicate, yet there she will obey; and where she can't obey, she is ready to endure; expecting her Reward in Heaven. Not ignorant, how much she suffers now from the Contradiction of disloyal Men, for the Truth of this Doctrine, and how much by its meekness, she stands exposed to future Persecution; yet she professes to know too, that her Saviour's Kingdom is not of this World: that the Rendezvous against a Prince is not protected by being in a Church: turns not her Congregations into Armies. That the Sword is joined with the Keys; and that Excommunication is armed with any civil Penalties; It acknowledges to be, from the Care and Authority of the Civil Government: that thence it has its temporal Power over Subjects; so far is it from assuming any over the Superiors themselves. And, though parties, seemingly opposite, agree in the contrary Opinion; we take not that for an Argument of its Truth: equally detesting the Holy League of the one, and, the Solemn League of the other.  
If the Caesar be Heathen, and like him in the Text; so far our Church obeys: If he professes the Faith, and she finds him in her Assemblies; she gives him as his own, the supreme Direction and Guidance of ecclesiastic Affairs, to settle its outward Policy, and be its Moderator and Governor. And yet gives not so much, as to take away from the Ordination of God. Her Minister's act under his Protection: but in virtue of a Commission from above; of an Authority spiritual, and derived by other Hands.  
So far hath the Church of England been from opposing, or flattering the Civil Power; neither exalting its self against the Prince, nor the Prince against God: in a constant Uniform Practice of this Rule of the Text: Giving to Caesar, what is Caesar 's; and to God what is God's.  
In the same temper, and with the same impartiality, she has endeavoured to reduce all things to their ancient Limits; and render to every one their Due. Arrogates not to herself an Infallibility in her decrees: but permits to every private Person to judge, and Consider: and yet authorises not a wanton giddy Spirit, a Judgement without Discretion; but advises the unlearned to attend to those that are over them: Neither grossly to think, they cannot err, nor easily to think, they do. Keeps a mean between a blind Obedience, an implicit Faith: and betwixt a blind Disobedience, a froward contemptuous rejecting, of what a Congregation of God's People shall Decree. She has restored to the People, the one half of their Lord's Supper; the Blood, the Life of the Christian Sacrifice; detained before by a sacrilegious Impropriation. Directs to discern the Elements of the Communion, from the corporal Substance of Christ; and from common Food: to receive them with Reverence, but not with Adoration. Renders into their Hands the Holy Scriptures; intercepted by the Roman See. Hides them not under the Cover of a strange Language; nor in the Closets of the Doctors: but sets them on a Candlestick; that they which come in, may see the Light. Takes not from them the Word of God, lest they should misenterpret it; but labours that they may not: Admonishes, Interprets, and Explains. Let's them understand their God, speaking to them; and themselves, speaking to God: returns them their Prayers in their own Tongue: returns them I say. For neither was it thought fit, to departed from those old Forms of Supplication, which God had been pleased to accept from Holy Men of the first Ages, which had been Consecrated by the Mouths of the best Christians; neither was it to be imagined, that God was to be pleased with the variety of a new Phrase, or surprised by an extempore Petition. In like manner she prays not to Saints; but mentions their Names with Honour: uses not the intercession of their Merits; but thanks God, for their Example. And as the Substance of our Worship is not oppressed and overcharged with Ceremony and Circumstance; so neither is it left neglected, and unattended: We wait upon our God, with the whole Man; in composure of Mind and Body.  
And thus has the English Church rendered to every one their own: purged from Superstition, and free from Novelty; reform from Abuse and Corruption on all Hands; it deservedly takes place of those of the last Ages; and may be ranked with the first, and best Centuries. The primitive Christians, if they could be supposed to return upon the Earth, would profess our Faith; for it is theirs: and would certainly be of our Communion, for here they would find their own Doctrine, and their own Government. An Universal Infallible Bishop, they had never been acquainted with: and, of a Church without a Bishop, they had never heard.  
So stands our Church, upon a Rock; beaten upon by Waves on all sides: and, were the strength of its Adversaries, only in their Arguments; secure enough. It stands firm, and upright: leans on neither side; and by its Frame, is in no danger of falling. But the Malice of its Enemies is restless: they assault openly, and privately undermine; no way left unattempted; not by Men above, nor by Hell beneath: if they can't throw down; they blow up.  
And, amidst all the Antichristian Variety of Ruin, which the Contrivance of those of Rome has designed against this Church and Nation; None, so unlikely to be prevented, so sure and speedy in the Execution, so like themselves, and of so Catholic a Destruction, as that of this Day. When the Invention of a Monk, applied by the Malice of a Jesuit, had well nigh gratified their Roman Master, with the Wish, of one of his Heathen Predecessors, another vice-God; and dispatched a Nation, at a Blow. Neither have we had any Reason to think, that the same sort of Men, are now more quiet, or grown more Merciful: their frequent Disappointments may have only enraged them; and the memory of this Day they are to blot out, with the success of another.  
They have always acted, with the greatest Violence against this Kingdom, and against this Church: and for the same reason. Our Country, for it's natural Strength, great Riches, and Courage of its Inhabitants, is the firmest Support of the other Protestants: and, as soon as this Island were reduced; the Conquest of the other Heretics, as they call us, might be easy; weak as they are, and divided. With the same Prospect are their Designs, within this Kingdom, levelled against our Church, as it stands here established. That is their great, and considerable Enemy. A Church regularly founded, by full Authority, Temporal, and Spiritual; not tumultuously Collected. It's Doctrine bottomed on the sure Basis of the Scripture; Apostolical in its Government, and its Ministers; having on its side, all that true Antiquity, which they themselves vainly pretend. A Church they are not able to reproach, either with Novelty, or Sedition: whose Learning has been eminent to their Confusion; and whose Interest, by the Grace of God, has yet been well enough United, to withstand their continued Attempts: against this Body, and this Constitution, they direct all their Aim: apply their open Force, and their secret Practices. This (which God forbidden) if they should ruin; they may think, it would be no difficult thing, to destroy the other ill grounded, disunited Societies that are among us, tied together by no Government, consenting in no form of Doctrine, met together upon Fancy and Humour, holding they know not what, and agreeing they know not how.  
Neither are they so barren of mischievous Invention, as to be at a loss if Poison, Dagger, or Powder fails: they can work on other Mines; and lay other Trains, than those of this Day. It is indifferent to them, by what sort of Artifice, the Frame of our Government flies asunder: what it is, that Tears, and Rents, and breaks in pieces our Church and State: whether the matter, that is to scatter us, be under the places of our Assemblies, or in them: whether Houses are burned by their Wildfire; or men's Minds inflamed, and our Cities in a more dangerous Combustion: whether our Religion be ruined by them; or by their friends, Debauchees, Atheists, or Enthusiasts. They thankfully accept the Pains, those of the Separation take to divide and distract us: the liberal Present they make, of our whole Church into their Bosom: contentedly allow all their Clamour against Popery, if they will but serve them so far, as to fasten that odious Popery upon us: glad to see the Papal Designs executed, at the Expense and Scandal, of those that bear a Protestant Name: to see their Brethren of the Recusancy as vigilant and vigorous at it, as if they were some new Order of the Popes, and had a General at Rome; so well agreed, that we are never in more Danger from the one, than when we are threatened by the other: Then our Church is not capacious enough, and should be rebuilt, say those that would pull it down; then its Gates are not broad enough, and Breaches to be made, wide enough for an Enemy to come in. On this side the Papist Mines, on that the Dissenter Countermines: till by both the Foundation is sapped, and the Fabric sinks. Our growing Schisms giving our common Enemy certain Hopes of our future Ruin; and furnishing them now with the best Argument, for a Head of Unity, and an Infallible Judge.  
Other Plots and Designs, which those of the Church of Rome may have, it may not be in the Power of private Persons to encounter: To oppose them there, may be the Work of other Hands; and the proper Business of Authority; (for we are to give to Caesar, what is Caesar's.) But to oppose their most dangerous Designs, and that without which no other can prevail, that is in our own Power. It is every particular Man that is to hinder his being disunited; to prevent and disappoint the Advantages expected from our Divisions. And to exhort and beseech Men to lay aside private Animosities, humorous and fanciful Distastes, in matters of Religion; to keep the Unity of the Spirit, in the Bond of Peace; is a fit and necessary Duty at all times, in an Age that wants Charity so much, and has so little of Christian Condescension: but at this time more eminently seasonable, and absolutely necessary. To agree now in the Service of God, as it is the Duty of each in private; so it is the Interest of the public. The House of God its self, if divided against itself, cannot stand. Whatever other Instruments of our Ruin, those of Rome may have; let no Protestant suffer his Zeal to be made one.  
To be truly opposite to the Church of Rome, to prevent their future Designs, and in gratitude for our past Deliverances; let us, in obedience to the direction of the Text, and in imitation of our Church, render to every one their Due. To the Constitution of the Church, that just and thankful Testimony, that nothing can be more contrary to the Falsehoods, Usurpations, and Corruptions of the Romish See: nothing more agreeable to the Peace, good Order, and Government of the Kingdom. In the head of this Church, to Caesar, what is Caesar's; a grateful loyal Resentment of the great Blessings, we enjoy under his Gracious Government: no half-Subjection nor Popish Conformity to his Laws; an Obedience, clear of Roman Shifts, and Jesuitical Evasions: not setting up a private Antipapal Authority, to absolve ourselves in some cases, from our Allegiance; and deny his majesty's Supremacy, in favour of our own.  
To God, particularly on this Occasion, all Honour, Thanks, and Acknowledgement. That he was first pleased to shine early upon this Nation, in the returning Light of the Gospel, the Doctrine of the Reformation: discovering to us, as it were by a new Revelation, his true Religion, freed from the Corruptions, and Impostures of Men; from a Burden of Ceremonies, almost Jewish; and an Idolatry, almost Pagan. That he was pleased, during the Reign of the succeeding Princess, to continue this his blessed Gift to us; to the Confusion of all the Enemies of our Faith, and Country, both at home and abroad. And particularly under her Successor King, that the Divine Majesty was pleased, by a singular extraordinary Providence, to disappoint a Treason, unexampled in its Malice, and of an unheard Design: The Prince of Darkness himself contriving and labouring the horrid Plot beneath; God watching from above, and confounding the accursed Work, by a Miracle almost as great, as if the Train had took, and he had stopped the Blow: that he has been pleased since still to defeat, by a constant jealous Care, the restless Enemies of our Peace and Religion; preserving from their Malice and Treachery that Sacred Head, next and immediate under God, our Governor and defender: preserving us all to his true Worship, from Confusion and War: whose Grace it is, that we assemble, as at this time, in Peace and Safety; worship him, as here, in Purity.  
Neither is this all, on this Occasion, we own our God: We are to continue our Thanks beyond the Day; and express ourselves sensible of the Divine Favour, by improving it to the most Advantage. We stand still obliged to a farther Justice, to give our Protestant Religion its Due, and let It have its proper blessed Effects.  
That the Purity and Reformation of our Religion, be not only read in our Articles, and Liturgy; and those framed by the Piety of our Ancestors: but seen on our own Persons, exemplified in our Lives. That our Worship of God, discover by the Intenseness of the Devotion; that it is not distracted by any other Object, nor diverted on Saints and Angels. That it appear not, by our slackness at the Holy Communion; that we could have been without the Use of Both Kind's. That it be visible, by our zealous attention to our Prayers; that we Understand them: and, by our Obedience to God's Word; that we have Read it: not from impious Allusions, and such Profanations; as may almost justify the Papal Prohibition. Let us show, by the frequency of our own Charities, and Devotions, now; that we think those of Others for us, after our Death, of no avail: by our abhorrence of all Sin; that we account none Venial: and, by the religious Carefulness of our Lives, that we trust not to Indulgences, or easy Absolutions. They, that doubt of a Possibility of Salvation for those of the Other Communion, in This, let them secure their own: and, while we profess, by good Works we cannot Merit Heaven; let us not, by bad, Deserve a greater Damnation.  
These are the proper▪ Tests of a true Protestant; and signs of a holy Zeal▪ Other noisy Clamours, and angry Heats against Rome, have no more of Religion in them; than is in the loud sounds on that occasion we hear from the tops of our Churches; or in the Fire, that burns in the Streets. If we would entirely banish Popery; let none of its Corruption be retained in our Manners; let our Lives, and our Conversations Protest. So shall we best thank God for the Mercy of this Day; and engage his Protection for the future.  
FINIS.