A SERMON Preached before the KING AT WHITEHALL, ON JANUARY the 30th, 1681.  
By HENRY MAURICE, B. D. Chaplain to His Grace the Lord Archbishop of CANTERBURY.  
Published by His Majesty's Special Command.  
LONDON, Printed by Samuel Roycroft, for Robert Clavell at the Peacock in S. Paul's Churchyard, 1682.   
ISAIAH XXXVII. 3. 
This is a day of Trouble, of Rebuke, and Blasphemy.  
IT was the manner of the Ancient Christians to observe the Anniverssaries of their Martyrs, not with the mournful Rites of a Funeral, nor the dejectedness of Fasting and Humiliation, but as the days of their Birth and Coronation, with the highest expressions of Joy and Thanksgiving, with the same cheerfulness and serenity that they had suffered. Nor could it be conceived proper to remember them with Tears, whose happy condition was raised above the assistance and charity of the Church's Prayers; for those glorious Spirits take sanctuary under the Heavenly Altar, where no Persecution, no Sacrilege can invade them. Those as the Fellow-sufferers of Christ, have the special privilege of immediate admission into Paradise: and though the passage be rough and boisterous, yet the speed and the dispatch is proportionable; and the Fire as it hastens to destroy, becomes at the same time a swift and rapid Chariot to transport the Martyrs into glory. What wonder then, if when one Member be so eminently honoured, the whole body take occasion to rejoice with it?  
But besides this recompense of the Sufferers, which the Church was wont to congratulate with a joyful Remembrance, the honour done to Religion by those who owned it with their dying Confessions, and subscribed it with their Blood, required yet a farther Acknowledgement and Thanksgiving. For what were the Passions of the Martyrs, but so many Victories of the Christian Faith, that proclaimed it to be stronger than Principalities and Powers: stronger than the Counsel and Indignation of Men: stronger than the desires of Life, or Terrors of Death? By these Conquests was the Kingdom of Christ enlarged; by these Invincible Sufferings was the perverseness of the Nations reduced. When Christians knew how to die better than to dispute, but none understood yet how to rebel for their Religion: What then can the Commemoration of these Victories be, but the common Triumph of Christianity?  
How then are we departed from this ancient and reasonable Practice? How comes this black and melancholy appearance to obscure, and as it were eclipse this Day of our Royal Martyr? Is the Crown of Martyrdom now become less glorious? or, is it not at least an equal recompense for the loss of Earthly Kingdoms? or the Cause for which he suffered, the Cause of God, and of his People, was it not sufficient to entitle him to the dignity of Martyrdom? This part admits of no suspicion, for the Title of the Martyr, as it is more honourable, so it is no less clear and undoubted than that of the King: Nay, the Malice of his Enemies, prophetic as that of Caiaphas, foretold this his heavenly Inauguration, and accomplished their own prediction, by making him a glorious Prince indeed.  
We bewail not him therefore at this time, but weep for ourselves and for our Country, stained with this Innocent and Royal Blood, which was shed not by the hands of a Pagan Invader (for so some of our Kings became Martyrs in the defence of their Religion and their People) but by a new and unheard of Treason of his own Subjects. And had the Conspiracy of a few desperate Wretches prevailed against him, the suddenness and secrecy of the stroke might have been our Excuse, and covered the Nation from the guilt and infamy of the Fact: But this Treason usurped the name of the Senate and People of the Land; and as if the Fears and Astonishment of the Nation had been taken for their consent and approbation, Murder was dressed up in the form of Public Execution, and the Coronation of the King was not more solemn, had hardly more Spectators than that of the Martyr. Had he fallen in the day of Battle by the blind and undiscerning fury of Rebellion, or afterwards in the dark recesses of his Prison; the reproach had been common to us with many other Nations: But this was the first time that Treason affected to make itself a Spectacle, and grew Impudent and desperate enough to undergo the horror and envy of a Public Regicide. And not content to trample all Earthly Majesty under foot, the name of God and of Religion, and what is our more peculiar disgrace, of Reformed and Protestant Religion, were brought to suffer together with our late Sovereign, while they were abused into a pretence to carry on, and to justify the Wickedness of this day.  
These are the sad Reasons of our present affliction, that render the remembrance of this Martyrdom so bitter. These are the Clouds that overcast the day, and give it so different an appearance from the Feasts of the Ancient Martyrs. 'Tis this in fine which renders it so exactly agreeable to the description of the day in the Text; A day of Trouble, of Rebuke, and Blasphemy.  
The Trouble, as St. Jerom explains these words, belongs to us whose was the loss, whose was the sin. The Rebuke proceeds from God, whose Judgement this was. The Blasphemy is the part of our Enemies, who are glad of this occasion to insult us and our Religion. It is the Echo and repercussion of that execrable stroke, returned upon us with the censures and reproaches of the World. Of these I shall speak severally, according to the order of the Text, and begin with the Trouble of the day.  
(1.) Of all the Blessings God is pleased to bestow upon a Nation, there is none either more beneficial or more magnificent than a good King; who represents not only the Authority of the Universal Monarch, but the affection and tenderness of our Heavenly Father; and is the Image of the love and goodness, no less than of the Power and Majesty of God. What happiness may not a People enjoy under a Prince after Gods own heart? How must Religion flourish under his protection? how must Virtue reign in his Laws, and triumph in his Example? what Peace and Prosperity must adorn his Reign? what Security and Content must possess his Subjects, whose Power is sufficient to secure them against foreign depredations, and whose Justice and Clemency interpose between them and the Terrors of his own Power? This Condition of all things seems to approach nearest to that of God's Heavenly Kingdom, where the Saints do not Obey so much, as Reign together with their King. But when it shall please God to recall this great Instrument of Humane Welfare; when this mighty Vessel, that contained so many, and such variety of Blessings, shall be drawn up again into Heaven, and this Earthly God comes to die like other Men, the Joy and Delights of the People expire with him; and it is not an ordinary Affliction and Mourning that he leaves behind him, nor is any Loss lamented with more sincere or more obstinate Tears. The Heathen were so sensible of this Trouble, that to relieve themselves they ran headlong into Idolatry, and changed their Allegiance into Adoration. Nor would they be persuaded, that the best of their Kings did Die like one of the Common People, but that Death made them Invisible and Divine: neither would they be comforted otherwise than by this persuasion, That they still remained under the Government and Protection of their belov'd Princes. Thus Assyria, Egypt, and almost all the Nations of the Earth were first distracted into Superstition, and the People of Rome would not be satisfied for the loss of their first King, before the Senate had decreed Worship, for him they were suspected to have destroyed. Nay, sometimes this Trouble grew too strong for all the amusements of Superstition; and Osiris, notwithstanding the Opinion of his Divinity, was remembered with perpetual Lamentations.  
But be this the Extravagance, and Madness of Heathen Zeal. Even the People of God himself were not above the reach of this Trouble; and though they were taught, that the same Providence did always watch over them under all the differences of Government, yet they could not sustain the loss of a good Prince without some jealousy, that God was going to desert them; at leastwise, not without singular Trouble and Affliction. When Moses, the Great Prince of Israel, whose mighty Sceptre commanded the Sea, and made it a Bulwark and Defence for his People on the Right hand, and on the Left; in whose time plenty came down from Heaven in Bread and Flesh, and Rivers ran in dry places; Moses, the prodigy of Wisdom and Modesty, of great Understanding, and greater Mistrust of it; slow indeed of Speech, but wonderful in his Writings; Moses, the Meekest Man upon Earth, easy to forgive Injuries (and happy were it, if the same Virtue that is so forward to pardon, could as easily reclaim the Offender;) easy in the Concession of his own Prerogatives, and sharing his Authority with the Elders of the Congregation; Such a Prince in short, whose Government had more in it of the Father, than the King: When he came to take his leave of the People in order to go to the place where he must die, with how sad a Countenance, with what discontented Murmuring was he answered? He found their Affection now more querulous and ungovernable than all their former Seditions. And though Corah and his Faction had represented him odiously, as one that affected Arbitrary Dominion, yet when he came to Die, such was the People's resentments of that Loss, that God seemed to grow Jealous, and to mistrust their Affections towards Himself, and therefore thought fit to conceal him by a private Interment at some distance from the Camp, on a high Hill, from whence is the fairest Prospect over all the Land of Canaan. Nor could all this prevent the Grief and Lamentation of Israel for so great a Loss; for, notwithstanding they were upon the point of taking possession of the Promised Land yet, they deferred to accept the fruit of Forty years' labour and expectation, till they had paid a Sorrowful Duty to the Memory of Moses, whom they bewailed Thirty Days in an extraordinary manner; and Josephus adds, that they were never so much afflicted for any loss.  
JOSIAH, the good, but unfortunate King of Judah, who had repaired the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, and restored the neglected and profaned Service of God into its ancient Purity and Splendour, having been unhappily slain in Megiddo, was lamented in an Unusual manner by the Inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem; nor was the Mourning ended within the accustomed time, but transmitted to Posterity. Jeremiah lamented for Josiah, and all the Singing Men and Singing Women spoke of Josiah in their Lamentations unto this day, and made it an Ordinance in Israel. And after the Return of the Captivity from Babylon, when one would think that all their former Sorrows had been forgot, yet this Grief was still fresh and undiminish'd; and the Prophet Zachary, when he would have described the Mourning of the Children of the Bride-Chamber, when Christ their Bridegroom should be taken from them, could not find a greater Instance than that for Josiah: It shall be like the Mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddo.  
But this is the least part of our present Trouble, nor would it be just to remember that Loss with so much Affliction, which God hath long since so gloriously repaired: Had our late Sovereign therefore died the death of Moses or Josiah, and the course of Nature, or the chance of War, or any thing else than our own Sin and Madness deprived us of so great a Blessing, the Trouble of this Day might have ceased before this time: but when we consider the Manner, and the Hands by which He fell, His Blood (like that of Murdered Persons, upon the approach of the Murderer) seems to run still afresh, and to fly in the face of this Guilty Nation, threatening it with yet more severe Judgements. For if the Sin of Corah, which proceeded no farther than Insolent Expressions against Moses and Aaron, (the lowest step of this days guilt, and scarcely to be reckoned in the Computation of it) was punished with Fire and Pestilence; How much sorer Punishments shall we expect, whose obliqne Contempt of Authority was soon improved into open Insolence, and (since no Faction did ever Insult a Prince they did not mean to destroy) that Insolence was asserted by Rebellion, and this carried on through Rapine, and Devastation, and Blood? And the success of that Rebellion rendering it still more daring and wicked, the Gild grew up with wonderful Increase, and exceeded all Computation and the Power of Discourse; for who can express the succeeding Treatment of Captived Majesty, the Indignities of His Imprisonment, of His Trial, of His Death, but with Tears, unless the greatness of the Trouble intercept even those Expressions? Who can reflect upon so barbarous a Fact without the greatest disorder and tumult of Thoughts? And now, if we yet retain any thing of English Nature and Affections, How can we look upon this Land thus defiled with Royal Blood, and laden with such crying Aggravations, and not weep over it? How can we reflect upon the Singularity of this Gild, and not be troubled with the apprehension of some Exemplary Vengeance, as new and singular as the Crime?  
But why are We concerned in this Trouble, who have no share in the Gild? For how many here present may justly boast their Services to that Excellent Prince, and the honour of Suffering with him? How many here present are the Noble Offspring of that brave, but unfortunate Loyalty, that contended so long with a Prosperous Rebellion, with unequal Force? How many more are wholly unconcerned in the Sin, who were yet unborn when this accursed thing was committed? Yet none above the reach of this Trouble, none beyond the necessity of this Humiliation: For Public Sins of such Example and Scandal as this, like the first Rebellion of Man, may remain a Debt upon Posterity, and involve more in the unhappy Consequences of it than the Seed of the Evil Doers. For when God upon this Occasion comes to reckon with a Nation, and to call all their Sins to Remembrance, who can endure the Visitation? Noah, and Job, and Daniel, may save their own Souls indeed by their Righteousness in such General Calamities; but few, I am afraid will be able to make use of their Plea, and stand upon their Righteousness and Integrity. They were but few, in comparison of the whole Body of the Jewish Nation, that were immediately concerned in putting our Saviour to Death: they were not many, and perhaps but a Mercenary Rabble, that Petitioned for his Crucifixon, and undertook to Answer all the Appeals of His Blood at their own, and their children's peril; yet when the time of their Visitation came, (which was not till Forty years after the Killing of their King, when most of his Betrayers and Murderers were dead) every Age, and Sex, and Family, did share alike in the Common Calamity, and the Famine, and Pestilence, and Swords of the Romans, had no Commission to distinguish; only the Christians are said to have escaped: And lest We might presume, and grow secure with this Example, we must remember, that the holiness of their Lives was no less wonderful than their Preservation. And if the Postnati, such as had yet done neither Good nor Evil, may have reason to apprehend the Consequence of this Day, the Remains of the Last Generation cannot be unconcerned in this Trouble; for they were all in some measure Accessary to this Evil; and if they were not the Instruments, yet were they the Occasion of what we now bewail, and by contributing every one his part to the general Provocation, helped to draw down this heavy Judgement upon us. Many, whose Arms and Affection waited upon the Royal Standard, fought against it more effectually by their Sins; and like the Soldiers of Ptolemy, the last of that Race, while they followed their pursued King, sunk the Vessel on which he was Embarked. In short, All had joined to provoke the Wrath of God, and Fanatic Fury was but the Instrument to Execute it. Therefore we will no longer regard those wretched Authors of this Cruelty, whose Memory is as odious and abhorred, as the Profane Relics of their Carcases; but we will look a little farther into the Nature of this Calamity, and in God's permission of so barbarous, and unnatural Wickedness, read the severity of his Judgement, and the sharpness of his Rebuke, the Second Part of this Days Character. It is a day of Rebuke.  
2. As it is a high Presumption to Interpret all the Acts of Providence, and Unchristian to resolve every Calamity into a Judgement; yet on the other side there are some so remarkable, so manifest Instances of God's Indignation, that there needs no Handwriting nor Prophet to explain them. There may be a mighty Wind, and yet God may not be in that Wind; there may be a Fire and Earthquakes, and God be in neither of them: But when Fire and Brimstone shall come down from Heaven to destroy Wicked Cities, Fire as prodigious and unnatural as the Lusts that kindled it; when an Earthquake, which is a kind of Sedition in nature, shall overwhelm the Seditious Corah and his Accomplices, and single them from the rest of the Congregation of Israel; there is no room either for Infidelity that believes nothing, or for Charity that believes all things, to dispute such Demonstrations of God's Judgements. Nor may we understand the Rebuke of God only from such Acts of his immediate and flaming Hand; but many of those Judgements which are Executed by the hands of Men are no less manifest. But of all the Evil Symptoms of God's Displeasure towards a Nation, there are few more certain, or more fatal, than the Murmuring and Sedition of the People. And though this may be of less Consequence when it is natural, and the effect of Tyranny or Oppression: yet when it is without Reason, and all hope and prospect of Advantage; when it is as unaccountable as the Misunderstandings of Babel, like Thunder in a clear Sky, it is to be accounted a Prodigy, and the Voice of God. When the happiest People on Earth, had They but a due sense of their happiness, secured with favourable Laws, and a more favourable Prince: When a Nation Wealthy and Prosperous, to the Enw of all their Neighbours, shall grow Discontented and Clamorous, fancy themselves oppressed; as Corpulent Persons imagine they are Hag-ridden: When they shall give themselves up to believe Lies, as Incredible as they are Malicious, and affect a Change when they know not what to wish; we must conclude with Elias, that this Evil is from the Lord, and that his hand is in the Infatuation.  
But the Judgement of God may be yet more visible in the success of these Disorders, from his permitting them to proceed to Extremities, to Acts of unusual Violence and Cruelty. The Malice of the Devil, and the Wickedness of Men, are always contriving Mischief and Disorder in the World; and that their Designs do not take effect, is owing to those Invisible Chains of Divine Providence, that checks and restrains them. Therefore whenever these Furies are let lose, and permitted (for they need no other Commission) to destroy without Control; whatsoever Ravage they commit, we must impute not so much to their Malice, which is always the same, as to the removal of the Divine Protection; and look upon the Effects of their Cruelty, as the Execution of some Secret Judgement pronounced upon us. But the Divine Judgement is never more remarkable, than when he gives way and permission to such things as he most of all detests, and casts away without regard such things as were wont to be most dear to him: so that where Treachery and Falsehood, where impudent and fulsome Hypocrisy, when Perjury and Rebellion come to prevail and triumph over a Righteous Cause, there Wrath, we may be sure, is come to the uttermost: When God has recourse to such odious Instruments of our Punishment as these, the more vile or wicked they are, the more plain and more grievous is the Judgement. They that are overcome by the force of an Ambitious Conqueror, are a Lion's Prey, and fall by a Noble Fury; but for a great and generous People to become the portion of Foxes, to be devoured like Jezabel by sordid and Domestic Fury, to be made a Sacrifice to Hypocrites and Apes, the ridiculous Counterfeit and Burlesque of Men and Christians, is to be punished with the most Insolent Blasphemers of God, mentioned in the Second Psalm, not only with the fierceness of his Wrath, but with his Contempt and Derision.  
But when God shall forsake the Tabernacle in Shilo, and the Tent he has pitched among Men; when he shall deliver up Religion, and Royal Majesty, the most Sacred things on Earth, to the Insolence of Treason and Sacrilege, it is too clear, that he is wroth with his Inheritance. It is no Common Event; it is no Casual concourse of things; but by the Common Consent of Mankind, it is the manifest Rebuke and Judgement of God.  
The Heathen fancied sometimes, that they had fixed their gods so surely to the Temples and Altars dedicated to their Honour, that it was not in their power to forsake those Places of Sacrifice and Incense: But yet, when the Temples themselves were destroyed by Lightning, and the Altars and Images were struck from Heaven, they began to apprehend, that the Indignation of the gods against the Wickedness of the Worshippers, might prevail over all their affection and fondness to the Place and Rites of their Worship. And the Jews thought God so wedded to their Church and Nation, that it was not possible for him utterly to forsake them: For how could he relinquish his People whom he had Chosen, the Seed of Abraham his Friend? How could he forsake the Ark of the Covenant, and the Law written with his own hands? How could he cast away the Crown of David, which he had promised to preserve to his Posterity in a perpetual Succession? How could he abandon the House called by his own Name, the most happy Magnificent Habitation he had upon Earth? Or, could he forget all these things, yet surely he could not forget Himself; his Honour was so far engaged, he must for his own sake preserve what he had established. But if all these Considerations are neglected, and this People, together with their Religion, come to fall under the Feet of Heathen Oppressors, and all those Holy Things in which they trusted come to be carried away, to adorn the Triumphs of Assyrian or Roman Idols, the Judgement is then as manifest as the Calamity, and the Wrath of God becomes a bright and shining, as well as a Consuming Fire: Nor can the Provocation be ordinary, when God takes such Extreme Resolutions as these, against all the Reluctance and Contradiction of his own Goodness. Thou art Gilead unto me, and the top of Lebanon; but I will make thee a Wilderness, and Cities without Inhabitant; and in another place, Tho the King of Judah, were the Signet on my Right hand, yet would I pluck him off.  
Yet all former Instances of Divine Judgements seem to be surpassed by the Rebuke of this Day: when the World, that was grown Old under the Tautologies of Sin, and the Circulations of repeated Judgements, was surprised with a New thing, which it could not have imagined, either that Men should ever be so wicked as to Attempt, or God so angry as to Permit. For this Day, a holier Religion than that revealed to Moses, was exposed to Contempt and Derision; and a Church more dear to God than that of the Jews, given up to Sacrilege and Oppression; a Church honoured with the first Royal Defender of the Christian Faith; preserved amidst the Corruptions of the World, and the Contradictions of Heresy and Schism; a Church lately Rescued from the Rust of a tedious Superstition, and the Tyranny of an Insolent and Powerful Impostor. And what is more singular, both in the Punishment, and the Sin, the Head, the Mortal and Earthly Head of this Church, an Orthodox and Holy Prince, whose Virtues raised him higher above the People than his Throne, and the least of whose Titles was that of a KING; Such a King, such a Man, was this day given up a Sacrifice, to a prevailing Rebellion; and as a Sacrifice led in Procession through pretended Courts, and the formalities of a Process, through infinite Indignities, to a Solemn and Ceremonious Slaughter. Pass over to the Isles of Chittim, and see: go unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see whether there be any such thing. And we may Answer in the words of Joel, There never was any such thing, nor ever shall be. And as the first part is sufficiently verified in the Singularity of this Judgement: so We beseech God the Promise may belong to us too, That there never may be any such thing; and that God would put his Bow in the Clouds, and declare, That he would never destroy us after this manner any more.  
And now, though the Loss may be Repaired, and the Gild done away by Repentance and Pardon; though Judgement may turn again into Mercy, and the Terrors of this Rebuke cease; yet who can wash away the Reproach and Infamy? who can silence the Blasphemy of this Day? which is the Last Part of the Character of the Day, It is a Day of Blasphemy.  
The English Nation had been long held in singular Reputation, for good Natured and Loyal Courage; and not only the Neighbouring Nations, but the more remote Parts of the Earth have been Witnesses of Their Dutiful Affection to their Kings, whom they followed in their Expeditions with forward and unwearied Duty. But alas! the Blasphemy of this Day has silenced all our Ancient Praise, and the Stains of this Royal Blood has Blemished all the Glories of our former Loyalty; and that Name which was once the Praise and the Dread of the Nations, by this Act became a Proverb of Reproach, a Detestation, and a Hissing among all People: Nay, We ourselves were almost ashamed of it, nor could we own the Name of English without Distinction or Excuse, without Diffidence and Blushing. And, what was there once left of the Name that we could own? the Honour and Majesty of it had been Ignominiously put to Death with our Martyred Sovereign; and the Sordid name of Common Wealth had defaced the Royal Image and Inscription of our Ancient Monarchy: nor could we tell ourselves whose the Vile Superscription was, and could not but be amazed with our own Blasphemy and Degradation of ourselves.  
Pontius Pilate, willing to give some check to the Importunate Malice of the Jews, who demanded the Crucifixion of our Lord, puts this harsh and dishonourable Question to them, Shall I Crucisie your King? That Name contains, if not always the whole Power and Authority, yet at leastwise all the Honour and Dignity of a People: He cannot be Crucifi'd, but Your Name must be Crucifi'd with him in the Inscription of his Titles. This was a Wickedness too great for the tender Consciences of Scribes and Pharisees directly to own: This was a Dishonour Jews could not digest; then, and ever since, the most Vile and Abject Race of Human Kind: Wherefore they first Disown him, and then desire he should be Crucifi'd; We have no King but Caesar, and therefore cannot be concerned in the Disgrace of this Person. And their Ignorance was their Excuse; They had never submitted to the Government of Christ; they never understood his Title. But the Blasphemy of this Day receives none of these Excuses; here can be no plea of Ignorance or Mistake: The Superscription of the Cross is here owned, as well as the Crucifixion; and the Treason was grown too Impudent and Vainglorious to dissemble or extenuate. And now, all that we can answer to this Blasphemy, is, but Repentance and Restitution, or rather the Mercy and Compassion of GOD, who has restored Us to our Ancient Honour and Dignity, by the Restauration of our Gracious Sovereign.  
And though all this Reproach and Obloquy may be justly come upon us, yet what has our Innocent and Holy Religion done to be Involved in the same Blasphemy? The rest of the Calamity was grievous enough, and like the Arrows of God sticking in the Flesh; but this breaks the Bones, according to the Expression of the Royal Psalmist, My Bones are smitten asunder, as with a Sword: while mine Enemies that hate me, cast me in the Teeth. Nor was it any Personal Reproach that wounded him so deep, but the Dishonour of God: Namely, while they daily say unto me, Where is now thy God? And I would to God, the Enemies of our Religion had wanted so fair an occasion to Blaspheme it: just, there can be none; and this is but too plausible. For, when Religion was made the Disguise of a most Unnatural Treason; and the most Wicked Wretches upon Earth did Impropriate to themselves the Name of Saints, together with all the Sacred Functions of the Ministry, and took a singular delight in the style of a Preaching and Praying People: When Prayer and Fasting was made the Prologue to some Bloody Tragedy, and served as the Eve or Vigil to the Day of Sacrifice: When Scripture was alleged in Defence of the greatest Villainies, even that of this Day; and where Scripture could not be colourably perverted, Immediate Revelation was pretended, and Special Commission from God: In sum, When all the Mischiefs which We now bewail, were carried on under the disguise of Conscience and Religion, what wonder is it if the Name of God, upon this occasion, be Blasphemed among the Gentiles? Great and grievous was the Blasphemy, and too fatal was the Influence it had upon Weak Minds, that had been Trained up in the Opinion of Christian Religion. Many began to run away from all Form and Appearance of Religion, and were afraid to make any show of Piety, for fear of being suspected for Rebels and Impostors: Many were ashamed of that Profession that was covered with so much Infamy and Reproach; and True Piety was almost out of Countenance, and forced to hid itself. Yet, after all this, The Blasphemies of Irreligion are but false, and mistaken Triumphs. For if a True Jewel lose nothing of its Value, because there are many Counterfeit; if the sincere and precious Metal preserve its Esteem, notwithstanding all secret practice to Embase it; If an Angel of Light cannot lose his Integrity and Honour, because Satan transforms himself into his Likeness; why should Christian Religion, why should Holiness and Virtue suffer for the Wickedness of detected Hypocrisy? Nay, on the contrary, it is clear, that the Real Value of any thing makes Men so industrious to Counterfeit; and if there were not some great Excellency in True Godliness, Evil men would never take the pains to pursue the Shadow of it, and to carry on their Wicked Designs under that Disguise.  
But, besides the Common Enemies of Christian Religion, the Peculiar Adversaries of the Reformation are not wanting to so fair an Occasion of Blaspheming it. The Church of Rome, which we charged but too truly with the Treasonable Doctrine of Killing Kings, and Practices correspondent, do not neglect to return the Charge with Insolence and Triumph, and appeal to this day for the Loyalty of Protestant Religion. It cannot but be a great grief to any one, who owns the least Affection to that Name, under which so many Noble Churches united against the Common Oppressor, that any who make Profession of it, should give the Enemy so great occasion to Blaspheme. But Men will take what Appellations they please, and Act afterwards as they think fit; and it would be too hard measure to charge the Crimes of some Usurpers upon the whole Denomination: the Lewdness of the Gnostics might have been as reasonably charged upon Christianity; and the Piracy which the Turks exercise under the Counterfeit of our Colours, may with the same Justice be imputed to Us. And this is our Comfort in the present Case, That whatever Agreement the Authors of this Days Wickedness may own with other Churches, they have done us the Favour to disown Us. And doubtless We have great Reason to own the Kindness of their Separation. They went out from Us, and would not be of Us; because Our Doctrine was too Loyal and Passive for Men of so fiery Temper: and the greatest Tyranny they found in Our Religion, was the Restraint that it laid on the Conscience of Men from resisting against the Higher Powers: This was, nay is yet, more grievous to them than all the pretended Oppressions of the Hierarchy; This is a more real and greater grievance to their Consciences than all the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church: And had they been Enemies only to the Dignity of our Church, or the Decence of our Worship, some Accommodation might be expected; but alas, these things are but Pretences, to cover the Restless and the Factious Spirit, and to disguise their Practices against the Government. 'Tis this we know not how to reconcile to our Communion; 'Tis this which no honest Comprehension can admit: Nor is this a new Charge raised by Zealots of Our Church to render them odious to the Government: For a Great Statesman of this Nation, and reputed no Ill Friend to the Party, has long ago acquitted Us from any note of Persecution on their Account, and confesses Their Sedition to have been the sole ground of all those Laws that have been made against them; and adds, in behalf of the Government then, That it was Wise enough to distinguish between Conscience and Faction. And how much Wiser, at leastwise more Knowing in that Point, sad Experience has made us since, I need not say, This Day shall speak it for me.  
But now to Return to the Blasphemy of the Church of Rome: If Community of Name be not so much to be regarded, as Agreement in Doctrine, our Accusers will be found to have a greater part in these Sectaries, than We; for both Agree in the Fundamentals of Rebellion, and the Lawfulness and Merit of Resisting the Higher Powers. And if we Trace backward the Footsteps of our Troubles, we may easily see, that it was from thence the Faction borrowed their Arguments; and from their Catholic Authors, the Semons and Speeches of the Party, had derived all the Art and Colour of Their Treason. But, this is not a Time to Justify, but to Humble ourselves; nor is it so material, from whence these Barbarous Men derived their Principles of Disloyalty, since it is too certain that they own all their Success and Advantages to our Sins; as these Increase, so do They; they have both one Common Fate, they multiply and decrease together. Our Profaneness and Contempt of Religion, begets in them a Contempt of Authority and the Laws; and the Neglect of that Holy Service we pretend to Extol, adds greater Numbers to our Enemies, than all their Arts and Industry can pervert. If we would weaken that Faction, let us take away the Support they have among ourselves, the Open scandal and Viciousness of our Lives; and then they are lest without Pretence, and fall without our Trouble. Let us confute their Reproaches by a Reformation of our Manners, and detect their Hypocrisy, not by washing off the Paint with satire, but by Confronting their Pretence and Form with solid and sincere Piety: Without this, all other Means will be to little purpose. Without this, Loyalty is but Affectation, a thing no less Unserviceable, than it will be Uncertain; for he who Fears not God, will have but little Reverence for a Man, whatever Title or Authority he may bear; and he who has no due Conscience of his Duty to his Prince, and Obeys not for God's sake, but his Own, is a Servant but during his own Pleasure or Advantage: Or, if the Treacherous foundation do not betray that frail Faith to Change and Ruin, yet what Fruit can be hoped from the Services of those who are at defiance with GOD, upon whom all the Success does depend? Be not deceived, God is not mocked, especially not by an open and professed Contempt: and if the different Mockeries of Hypocrisy and Profaneness should come to Contend for Victory; who can tell, but that God should rather Incline to favour the Shadow and Resemblance of Religion, rather than a Wanton Contempt of all that is Sacred and Good; and that Scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites of transparent Disguise, may yet be preferred to Sadduces and Libertines, that believe neither a Spirit, nor a Resurrection, and Live, as if neither Body nor Soul were to render any Account? And now let us Learn from this Unhappy Day, (and how shall we Learn, if this cannot Teach us) the Necessity of Joining Religion to Loyalty, to Fear God and the King together. It is the same Power that is to be Reveronced in both, they cannot be separated but to the manifest Disadvantage of all Human Authority. Let us Lastly, out of a due Sense of the Trouble, Rebuke, and Blasphemy of this Day, Learn, to detest all the plausible Beginnings and Witchcrafts of Rebellion, and Confirm ourselves with steadfast Resolutions of perpetual Obedience to our Sovereign: And further, Since it is not the Affection and Loyalty of Men, but the Favour of GOD that supports the Royal Throne; Let us Beseech Almighty God, That he would Protect the Person of his Anointed, and make the Government to Prosper in his Hands; that at length He would Recompense all the Sufferings of the Royal FATHER, with Double Blessings of Prosperity upon the SON, Our Dread Sovereign, that under him We may live Quiet and Peaceable Lives, in all Godliness and Honesty, in all humble Obedience and Loyalty.  
FINIS.