SERMON Preached at the Cathedral Church IN NORWICH, Upon the 11th of April, 1696▪ The DAY of His Majesty's CORONATION. By HENRY MERITON, Rector of Oxborough in Norfolk. LONDON: Printed, and are to be Sold by Eliz▪ Whi●●●ck near Stationers-Hall. 1696. 1 Sam. X. 24. And Samuel said unto all the People, see ye him whom the Lord bathe chosen, that there is none like him among the People; and all the people shouted and said, God save the King. IN the 8th Chapt. V. 5. the People of Israel repair Ch. 8. V 5. to Ramah, to the Prophet Samuel, and very pertly demand a King. At which he could not but express a just resentment; not because the desire of a King was sinful, for God Almighty V 6. Dent. 17. 15. had long since promised them one: But Gen. 49. 10. 1. The Demand was out of Season; they are impatient till the Promise had gone its full time, and so like overhasty Midwives spoil the Birth, and turn it into a curse to them, presently make us a King, say they. 2. The Manner was very impetuous and peremptory; they come strutting up to God's Deputy Samuel, not with an Humble Petition, but with a menacing Remonstrance; q. d. know that a King we will have, and therefore make us one, for there shall be one else, whether you v. 19 will or no. 3. They sinned in bearing such a fond affection to the Nations Fashion, to which they were not to be conformable at all; Have not all the neighbour Nations Kings to rule Num. 23. 9 them, and must we be like no body? They seem not at all to be solicitous about the Religion of their King, any more than others; if they have but a King, if he comes with whole Troops of Priests of Baal, never so professed an Idolater, resolving to force them to his Idol Sacrifice; no matter what God they have, so they have a King. 4. Their sin was a foolish piece of Infidelity, in quitting V 20. the Divine Protection, of which they had had so fresh Experience in the former Chapter; instead of a Cedar in Lebanon, they run under the shadow of a Bramble; instead of an Almighty Arm, they catch hold upon an Arm that, as the Scripture says, hath neither Sinew nor Bone in it, an Arm of Flesh. This might well stir up the Prophet's Indignation, to see the Great God of Heaven, as it were, Abdicated of his own People. Well, Samuel is commanded to comply with them, they shall have a King; see how frightfully he describes him, from Verse 11 to 18. I know some Interpret the Mispat here, to be a Patent for the Arbitrary Power of Princes; and think themselves obliged from this Scripture, very Loyally to offer their Sheep, Fields and Vineyards, Men-Servants, and Maid-Servants, Sons and Daughters, as a Sacrifice to that Bell and Dragon, of absolute Prerogative; as if the Case of Bathsheba and Naboath, were but the just Exercise of Kingly Power, and this Text were a Warrant for it. Ch. 10. 25. Thanks be to God, we have other Rules of Government, Ch. 10. 25. Rules, not from the Extempore dictates and wills of Princes, but Laws to be written in a Book, laid up before the Lord in the Sanctuary, as the Fundamental Constitutions, and Magna Charta of their Ezek. 45. 9 46. 18. Nation, by which they were to be Governed, as Deut. 17. 15, 16, 17. So then, these Verses seem only to be a Description of the manner of the King; they ask a King, according to the Fashion of their Neighbour Nations. Now we know, in those Eastern Countries they were all, as they are still, Arbitrary and Despotic; and such some of theirs proved to their Cost: God therefore does not here reach them out a benefit, Hos. 13. 11. but as it were hurls a King to them in his wrath. Hos. 13. 11. Saul himself though no doubt, he were a Man of rare Abilities and Virtues for the first quinquennium; See whom the Lord hath chosen, there is none like him, etc. yet afterwards the sweetness and mildness of his Government soured into Tyranny. In the Text we have Three things. The Choice of God. The Character of the King. The Approbation of the People, Expressed in an unanimous acclamation, God save the King. First, God's Choice: In the former Chapter we find Saul very Solicitous for his Father's Asses; and being reduced to extreme despair of finding them, bethinks himself of a Prophet, that perhaps might tell him some tidings of them; a specimen of his rustic Education, to repair to a Prophet of God, as common People do to a Wizard, to help them to their Goods again. Ch. 9 V 15. Samuel is made acquainted with his coming, v. 17. and commanded by God to Anoint him; he tells him, this is the Man whom he had Chosen. Hereupon, after some decent Ceremonies of his Entertainment on one side, and modest Excuses on the other, he Anoints him to be King. Secondly, The Character of the King, There was none Ch. 10. ●. like him among the People, Ch. 10. 10, 11, 24. gives him an ample Testimony. Besides, That he was a goodly Person, of a Portly and Majestic Mien, that became a King; he was endowed with other Moral Virtues, that might render him a most accomplished Prince. 1. Humility and Modesty; a lowly Mind in a lofty State; by how much the more rare and difficult it is, it's the more excellent and praiseworthy. The Great ones of the Earth, the lower they are, as the Stars of Heaven, they show the greater. How Modestly does he Excuse, and even Blush at the offer of a Crown: Am not I a Benjamite, the smallest of the Tribes, and my family the least of that Tribe too? Wherefore then speakest thou thus to me? Ch. 9 21. A Ch. 9 V 21. Kingdom to me, whose Birth and Education forbidden me any higher hopes than a Country Farm? Ch. 10. 22. Being taken by Lot, he runs away from a Sceptre, and hides himself in an heap of Stuff; he flies from a Kingdom, while it pulsues him; and used all Arts he could to escape a Throne. 2. He was endowed with Courage and Magnanimity, a proper Virtue for a King, that's to go in and out before his People, to be their Chiestain. Ch. 11. We have an undeniable instance of his Heroic Spirit, when Nahash the Ammonite durst make so dishonourable offers of Peace to Jabesh Gilead, no ways to be V 2. obtained but at the price of their Eyes. The Men of Israel, as if all had been Metamorphosed into the other Sex, when they should have list up their Sword and Fought, they list up their Voices and Wept so excessively, V 4. as if they would have saved the Ammonites the labour of putting them out by their Weeping. Saul comes out of the Field, astonished at such an Effeminacy; V 5. What's the business? says he, what means this whewling and crying among the People? As soon as they had told him the Melancholy Story, the Spirit of God came upon Saul, a Spirit of Fortitude V 6. and Courage, V 6. His Blood boils over in his Veins, he can't forbear expressing the most angry Resentment, and that by the oddest and unusual kind of Emblem, when he Summoned the People to his Assistance, by sending Mammocks of slaughtered Oxen about the Country, with a plain Comment upon't; So shall be done to those that shall deny their assistance, till we revenge the infamy, V 7. Verse 7. See immediately, his brave Soul was able to animate the whole Body of the Israelites, People quite dead before, into Life and Vigour; and The fear of the Lord came upon them, and they came out with one consent. V 7. 3. He was endowed with Wisdom; this is such a Princely accomplishment, that Solomon desires no more to go in and out before that great People. Ch. 11. We have a notable instance of his Martial Skill, in Mustering such an Army so suddenly and unsuspected of the Ammonites, in assaulting their Camp at the Morning watch, which put them into confusion; and the day dawning immediately, must help them to prosecute the Victory; as also in Marshalling the Army into Three Bands, so hemming them in, and encompassing them on every side, that none of them escaped. V 11. 4. He was endowed with Mercy and Clemency, this is the Glory of our Heavenly King, whose Mercy is over all his Works. Ch. 10. 27. He gives us such an instance of his Clemency, as is not easy to be paralleled. There were Men of Belial in those days too, that muttered and murmured at the God of Heaven, that he had made no better choice for them; is this the man that must save us? among so many Men of Honour and Experience, must such a Man as he be put upon us for our General? Yet he was none of the scum and dregs of the People neither, for his Father was a man of substance, as the Original Ch. 9 1. hath it. Ah pettish and fretful People, whom the Almighty God could not please in his Choice! but now in a scornful flere, they toss up their Noses at him as some do at a Dutch man: What follows? But he held his peace, passes by the affront with as much disdain, as 'twas offered. This spoke him a Person of such temper and moderation, as made him fit to command others, who knew so well how to govern himself. Again, When some in a transport of Zeal for their Captain, upon the signal Victory he had gained over the Ammonites, cried out, Who is he that said Saul shall not rule over us? bring out the man that we may put him to death. No, says Saul, there shall not a man be put to death to day, for this day hath the Lord wrought Salvation. Those scurrilous detractors he spares them being Israelites, as an unreasonable Sacrifice upon such a day of Jubilee for Israel's Salvation; he thought it more glorious then to kill his Enemies, thus to Conquer their Enmity. 5. In fine, He was furnished with all those Virtues that were to be desired in a Prince, according to the Prophecy, Ch. 10. V 6. The spirit of the Lord shall come upon thee, and thou shalt be turned into another Man, from a Country Swain, into a Courtier and Politician; from a Muleteer to a Lord General. 3. Israel's Approbation, expressed in an unanimous Acclamation; God save the King. And must I have the Honour to be instead of a Samuel, to present another King to you this day? a King whom the Lord hath Chosen; a King that hath none like him among the People; I doubt not but your thoughts have prevented me, it being so easy and obvious to find him out; it is King William, higher by the Head and Shoulders than Saul himself, in all Princely Virtues; a King whom I am assured the Lord hath Chosen; a King who hath none to compare to him among the People, and therefore deserves the same approbation and acclamation from you, God save the King. 1. I shall make it evident, he hath been called to Govern us by the voice of God, that God hath chosen him. I know there have been a sort of Men that have pressed this jure divino Doctrine to very untoward services, having never had right notions of this principle in their Heads; they have held wretched and dangerous inferences from it, the faster with their Teeth: when, if rightly understod it means no mischief unto Churches and States, but is rather a stay and support to them. That his present Majesty was invested with the Sovereignty over us, by the unanimous consent of Peers and People, I think none will deny. So that when I have made it appear, that the consent of the People is God's Voice, and ordinary call to the political Authorities that are set up in the World. The Conclusion will be easy from those Premises, that his present Majesty hath been chosen of God, and hath a right to the Crown he wears. I own there is an immediate Call, such as the call of Saul, David, Jehu; some Prophet hath been sometimes directed, by an immediate voice from God, go and anoint me Saul, David, Jehu, this is that choice or call that is not at all pretended to. Again, There is a Call that is ordinary and immediate: I know no other, nor any Body else, I suppose, but the consent of the People. 'Tis no hard matter to find instances of a Divine Authority, conveyed by the consent of Men: Marital Authority is Divine, yet fixed upon the Person by the Woman's free choice; so the Authority of Masters over Servants, yet the Person is determined by Compact and Agreement. 1. I shall lay down some reasons to prove, that this is now God's ordinary way of setting up political Governments in the World. 2. I shall prove, That political Authority over us can come no other way into the World, but by such a consent. 3. I shall give you some instances both Profane and Sacred of Governments in the World, that God has evidently thus set up. 1. I shall lay down my reasons, etc. 1. Then, Doth not right reason, which is a dictate of the Law of Nature, which is certainly the voice of God, direct Men into Society. It had almost like to have gone for a desinition of Man animal; sociabile and the Sacred Text tells us, 'tis not good for Man to be alone; and must not the same voice of God necessarily direct them to put themselves Vid. Puffend. p. 898. 1. 6. f. 3. Sect. 10. under some political Government or other, for their preservation. Sure the Reverend and Judicious Hooker conceived this Doctrine, that Government arose from the consent of the People, to be almost self-evident and an undoubted Principle, and therefore takes the liberty to assert it very confidently, without much proving of it: He tells you, it is impossible it should be otherwise; and if afterwards, any worthy Men seem to favour the contrary Opinion, such as the deservedly Celebrated Saunderson and Usher, it was when they saw a King so coursely handled by his People, and the just Prerogative forced to vail and make court to every Buffcoat Mechanic. In the heat of opposition they might strain the point too far, and to set the stick right, bend it so much on the other side. Had they lived in our days, I doubt not, but these good Men would either have renounced their Doctrine (if yet it were their Doctrine) or explained it to Mr. Hooker's sense. 2. Methinks again it's very natural to conceive, when People began to multiply into such a number, as to overstock that portion of that vast Common of the World, their first Plantation, they should, as Bees straightened for room, swarm and look for a new Hive. Now as soon as they begin to settle there, I pray what must be done by them, to keep them from the disorder of the state of Nature, where every one is Judge and King, equal and independent upon one another, as to any political Subjection they could owe to one another? Must they stand gazing to Heaven for a Governor, to be sent from thence to them, with all his implements of Arbitrariness, even the Yoke and Packsaddle for the working and loading of the Beast; as also the Curb and the Barnacle, to tame him with if he kick? Or, Must they be like those Men that sprung from Cadmus' Teeth, fall a kill one another, or fall to cutting of Throats for the Government? Would not Right reason which is the voice of God, as before, direct them to place a supreme Authority upon some or other of themselves, to be an umpire of their Controversies, and keep them in peace, according to such measures and limitations, as were thought fittest for the attaining the ends of Government, the Preservation of the People. Even in absolute Monarchies, where People put the greatest trust in Kings, they can yield up no Power but to those great Ends; and if they have unwarily contracted to other purposes, it is ipso facto, Null; being contrary to the obligation of a superior Law, the Law of Nature which is the Law of God, whose chief end is the preservation of the People. And thus it will be plain, without vexing the Scripture with strained interpretations, how Government can be an Ordinance of God, according to St. Paul, and yet an human Rom. 13. 2. Creature according to St. Peter. 1 Pet. 2. 13. Because God makes use of this human means, the consent of the People for setting up Governments in the World; so that the Supreme Power in Commonwealths comes, though by Men, yet not from Men, but from God's Command, expressed by the Law of Nature, or right Reason to promote the good and safety of Mankind. Thus also, all the Objections against the incapacity of the People, to confer the power of Life and Death not being vested with such an Authority themselves are easily answered, this Power of Life and Death being from God, though by the People, as much as the Government is: For the same Law of Nature, which (as I have said) is the Law of God, that directs Men to put the Government, must also direct them to put such a Power into the Ruler's hands, as might enable him to attain the ends of Government; which he could not do, if he had not Power over the lives of his Subjects in some Cases. 2. I shall prove to you, that 'tis impossible that political Government should ordinarily arise from any other source but this. There are but these 4 or 5 ways that offer at any plausible competition; 1. Paternity; 2. The divine Donation to the Heir of Adam; 3. Providence; 4. Conquest; 5. Prescription: But I shall prove none of these Five can be the Foundations of political Authority. 1. Not Paternity; for 1. That's no Obedience to a political Authority, (unless by way of Analogy) that's enjoined in the 5th Command; if it were so, I see not but such an Authority might derive from maternity as well as paternity, the same honour being to be given to the Mother by that Command, that's to be given to the Father, unless we have a Salic Law against the Fifth Commandment. 2. Paternal Authority is but of a short Duration, being only necessary to Discipline, and govern the weakness of the Child in Nonage, till he be arrived at the use of his Reason to guide himself, though a filial Reverence and Honour ought to continue indispensably till Death. 3. Political and paternal Authority are vastly different; for the Son may be a political Head to his Father, while his Father hath a Paternal Authority over him, as is evident in the instance of my Lord Darnly and King James, as also in Kish and Saul. 4. If political Authority arose from Paternity, it could extend no further than Paternity, a relation founded upon Paternity cannot be transferred, but you must transfer its foundation, the same Paternity with it, and so your Governor must be your natural Father as well as your King. 5. If political Authority arose from Paternity, every Father would be a King, and so we should have Kings enough: Every Town would not only be an Heptarchy but an Hecatontarchy, if there were so many Families there. I won't deny, but Fathers might be the first Monarches of the World, when Children were Men, and so out of the state of pupillage; they were like enough to submit to their Fathers as their Lawmakers and Governors; the Father must sure be fittest to be trusted with such a charge, Paternal affection must engage him to have a tender regard to the Properties of his Children: He also may be supposed to be endowed with greater Wisdom, and to be furnished with a larger Estate, that might fit him for the more chargeable parts of Government. Besides the custom of commanding them when Children, made it an easy transition, from Paternal to Political Authority, and therefore right reason might direct the Children to such a Choice; and from thence Paternal Authority passes into Political; and so, though Fathers might be Kings, yet they were not so as Fathers. 2. Political Authority cannot arise from the Divine Donation to the Heir of Adam. 1. For than we should be left in great perplexity, who that Heir should be, whether Daughters or Brothers, or younger Sons Sons should wear the Crown in case of Competition with 100 other Difficulties we should be entangled in, that are not determined in Scripture. Besides, We could certainly have but one King in the World: The Kings of the Earth, I believe, will give them but little thanks for this Doctrine; for it dismounts them all but one, and sends them to Blow; nay, that one, I fear, will be in danger too, who can derive his Pedigree perhaps no more from Adam then a Cromwell, or a Massaniello: Besides, if it were our good Fortune to find out this Heir, all the Kings of the Earth were bound to cast their Crowns at his Feet, if he were a Page, or a Linkboy. 3. Political Authority cannot arise from Providence; for Providence, though it order every thing, yet it ordinarily Authorises nothing; it's rather the disposer of things and actions, than their Rule and Measure. 4. Political Authority cannot arise from Conquest; for besides that, this Principle hath met with a warm Confutation. Slavery is so contrary to the genius of an English Man, that when I have heard some Men eagerly defend, that Conquest is the Foundation of our Government, I have rather thought it an Exercise of Wit; as was his that wrote a Panegyric upon Nero, then in good earnest. Good God that Men should sweat and toil so, to hammer out Fetters for themselves, and be so zealous to propagate a Doctrine of the Divine Right of Slavery. Nor 5thly, Can Prescription itself give title to an injurious Conqueror, as it is Prescription, a long continuance in Sin being its greatest aggravation; but either as Prescription is Authorized by the Customs and Constitutions of Nations, which to be sure implies Consent, or as such an Uninterrupted and Undisturbed continuance of the Power, infers the quiet and voluntary Submission of the People to it. A Man would be ready to believe, that those that go about to lay such Foundations of Government as are , had a spite against it, and designed the fall of it, while they set up such weak and rotten Principles to support it. And thus having shown how it's morally impossible, that Government should ordinarily come into the World any other way then this (whatever hath been offered by any I have considered) one would think this might save me any farther labour; yet to satisfy the unreasonable importunities of some, I shall show you some Instances both Profane and Sacred, of several Governments in the World, that God hath set up by the People's consent. 1. Profane. The Commonwealth of Venice had its Rise from hence, when they were broke in pieces by the Incursions of the Hunns; they gather the broken Splinters together; and presently, according to the dictates of the Law of Nature, rig themselves up into a new Commonwealth, in an inaccessible Nest of Islands, casting themselves under that Government they now flourish under. 2. Great Rome was beholding to this Beginning for her Government, while People flocked from every Quarter unto Romulus, a bold enterprising Captain, willing to share in the success of his Adventures; People that Dionys Halicar l. 2. sub initio Justin. l. 3. owed him no Obedience, till they voluntarily put themselves under his Authority. 3. I would know how the Parthenii fell into Government at Tarentum? they were the base born offspring of the Spartan Dames, begotten in absence of their Husbands in a tedious War; whom when they returned, they packed away to seek their Fortunes some where else. To be sure, not one of them had Authority over another by the Law of Nature, being all illegitimate; how, I say, did they fall into Government there, but by consent? Unless we should conceive, that after a long time dancing upon the wide Ocean, as Epicurus his Atoms in an infinite space, by good Fortune they Rendezvouzed upon the Coast of Italy, and by mere chance, and without any Design or Contrivance at all, they did coalesce into a Body Politic; and at adventure jumble themselves into a Government, that once gave such a trouble to the Roman Greatness. 4. The Carthaginian State owes her Original from hence: The Phoenicians flying from the rage of the Eastern Monarches, roaming up and down to find a calmer Climate, happened upon the Coast of Africa, where they, by Consent, erected a very formidable Commonwealth, that once shook the Capitol: We read not that they had either King or Senate with them, but what they made. 5. And why may it not be supposed, that the Saxons being a Free People, having Conquered this Island, should by their own free Consent set over themselves a King? I don't remember, that ever there was a settled King of the Saxons, or that he came over into this Island, much less that Seven did so: So that if there were Seven Kings here, they must be made so by the People upon mutual Compacts and Agreements. Those Seven Kings being antecedently Free from any Obligation to take such a charge upon them, how came they to be obliged to Minister Justice, and defend the People, but by their voluntary consent? In like manner, How came the People, who were Free before, from any Obligation to obey them as their Kings, to be obliged to it but by their own Consent? and why not according to such measures as these? The King to Govern by known Laws, none of which to be made, but by the Consent and Concurrence of the People; either by Themselves or Representatives, that they should all be called his Laws, run in his Name; and all should be bound to obey him in obeying them when they are thus Established, etc. Why may we not suppose this to be the Original of our Government? I am sure, no History can give us the birth of these Constitutions, and therefore they must be owned to be from the beginning. Neither doth this make every Monarchy Elective; for the People might Elect a Monarchy to be Hereditary; and so, though the Monarchy be Elected, it ought not to be called an Elective Monarchy. If it should be further objected, that Conquest and Usurpation exclude the consent of the People, the Reply is obvious; God in the ordinary course of his Providence, confers the Authority in those Cases, either by a previous consent of the People, or their subsequent submission. Neither can such a consent be counted the effect of force, though a consequent of it; but the genuine product of right Reason, which constrains the People, since they must be preserved, and that cannot be without a Government, to set up such an one as they can, when they cannot such an one as they would, even that of the Conqueror himself, while he assures them, he will Govern them according to the Laws of the Constitution. 2. My next instances are from Scripture. 1. The People of the Land took Jehoaz and made him 2 Kings 23. 30. King, immediately after Josiah's Death, though he was not the eldest neither, as is evident. 2. Zimri indeed sets himself up to be King, which though it was according to the word of the Lord against Baasha, yet not being done in God's own way, by the 1 Kings 16. 1. 9, 10. see v. 20. see 16. consent of the People of Israel, is called Treason, and all Israel regularly dethrone the Traitor, and make Omri King. Nay, God Almighty seems to be so tender of infringing this natural Right of the People, though he might surely have imposed a Government upon them, pro imperio; yet where he himself had Anointed a Person to be a King, he is pleased not to suffer him to execute that Authority over the People without their consent: He will not have the People acted like Machine's, or ridden as brute Beasts against their Wills; but allows them the natural Liberty of Men, to be Governed by their own free Choice; and owns their concurrence for the Establishing of such their King: For instance. 1. David, Tho' he were Anointed of God, yet he never acted as King, after Saul's Death, till he was fully Established in his Throne by the mediate call of God, the consent of the People. 2 Sam. 2. 4. 1. Then the Men of Judah make him King at Hebron. Still the House of Israel stand up zealously for Ishbosheth, the Son of Saul their Lord and Master; neither are they treated by the House of David as Rebels, in that Seven years' War between those two Competitors, and the reason was, David was never Established King in Israel all that time, by the mediate call of God, the consent of Israel as Ishbosheth was; and therefore when Ishbosheth was Treacherously slain by his Two Captains, the Sons of Rimmon, and they officiously bring his Head to David: He is so far from rewarding them, for Executing Ch. 4. v. 2. Justice upon a Traitor, that he gives Ishbosheth the Character of a Righteous Person; which I see not Verse 11. how he could have done, if David had been at that time King of Israel, and dealt with the Assassinates, just as he had before done with the Amalekite that slew Saul, Ishbosheth's Verse 12. Father; and yet there wanted nothing to have made David a King, and Ishbosheth a Rebel, but the Consent of the People of Israel, which was presently given unto David, upon the Death of Ishbosheth: After he had made a League with them, that is, taking a Coronation Ch. 5. 3. Oath, or promised them a temperate Reign, the People of Israel also made him King. Saul was immediately called of God to the Throne, but yet I don't see him overforward to make claim to the Government upon that call. We find him coming after that, not from his Palace, or the Council-Table, attended with his Guard the Corpse, his 1 Sam. 11. 6. Band of Pensioners; but as a Shepherd or Herdsman, leading of his Sheep, or driving his Oxen to Pasture, staying till he should have an opportunity put into his Hands, of approving himself a valiant Hero, fit to go in and out before the People, which the Ammonites did immediately by that bold affront they had provoked him with; which, when he had so gloriously Revenged, presently there was superadded to the immediate, the mediate Call of God, the Consent of the People: They went to Gilgal, and 1 Sam. 11. ult. there they made Saul King. 1 Kings 11. 29, 30. Jeroboam is another instance: 'Tis true, there was a Prophecy that Jeroboam should be King over Ten Tribes, but this did not make him King upon Solomon's death, and therefore he was too wary to jump into the Throne, upon the right that Prophecy gave him; but waits for the ordinaiy Call of God, the Consent of the People; having reason to conclude, that God that had promised, would so dispose of matters as to serve his Providence, for the bringing it about in his good time. Now observe, by what a Chain of Providence he at last comes to obtain that Call, the People's Consent. All Israel go to Sichem to make Rehoboam King, all this while here's not the least thought of Jeroboam; nay, Jeroboam goes along with them, to pay his respects to the 1 Kings 12. 1, 3. Heir apparent; there they transact with him for the administering Verse 15. the Government Justly and Righteously. Well, Rehoboam answers the People very hussingly, he bids them departed and be gone, commanding them, together with Jeroboam to wait his pleasure Three days hence. Jeroboam with the People, obediently and peaceably departed; he does not as yet snap at the Crown, but Verse 12. waits till Providence, by fair and regular ways, set it upon his Head. Jeroboam and the People come again the day appointed, when he and the People receive but a very churlish answer from Rehoboam; What, meddle with his Prerogative, offer to restrain his Sacred and Irresistible Tyranny? such Vassals and Slaves to be so bold, to present their Addresses and Petitions to the Son of Solomon? He threatens them the higher; tells them plainly, he would Rule them as he pleased, measure all right, as one of our Kings did once the Yard-wand, by the length of his own Arm; he would gall them with his Yoke, and flay them with V 13. 14. his Scorpions. This was infinitely more ingenuous, then to flamm the People off with fair Promises, Oaths, and Protestations of a just and temperate Government, which were never intended but as Sirens Songs, to draw them securely upon the Rocks of danger. Immediately the People think themselves fairly discharged Verse 15. of their Allegiance, and set up Jeroboam King. This act of Israel seems to be approved of God, he owns it as from himself, and charges a mighty Army raised for the reduction of Jeroboam to his Obedience, to disband again, without doing him any hurt. So that Hushai said very well, whom the Lord, and 1 Kings 12. 24. the People, and all the Men of Israel shall choose, his 2 Sam. 16. 18. will I be. Agreeable to that of Moses, thou shalt set him to be Deut. 77. 14, 15. King over thee, whom the Lord shall choose, which plainly shows, that notwithstanding God's immediate Call, and he hath chosen a Person to be King; he yet requires a concurrence of that Call that is ordinary, the Consent of the People, for setting him in the Throne; thou shalt set up him whom the Lord shall choose. But we are told by some, that this Hypothesis would make Government precarious, to let the People know they are so necessary for the modelling of it; 'twill make them resty and wanton with their Rulers, if they displease them never so little, that 'tis another Faux with his Lantern, ready to give fire to a train of Powder, and blow up all. But I hope this fright will soon be over, if we assure them, we never yet supposed the People that gave, could resume the Government, though if a Governor abandon his Government, by taking up another inconsistent with it; that is, if he takes up a Government by Will, and so quits the Government by Law, which by the way is the Government of our Constitution; I conceive the People are not only at liberty, but under the obligation of the Law of Nature, to provide for themselves. To me its one of the greatest inducements to believe the truth of this Doctrine, that political Authority is derived from God by the Consent of People; that it is certainly the only means to preserve Government, and keep it steady without tottering or shaking. Had that Doctrine been inculcated upon the minds of Princes, that they are originally from the People, and therefore are to Rule according to such measures as they had mutually agreed upon, I am persuaded our Ark might have been safe enough, for ever falling into the Philistines hands, as of late it did. Had Princes been taught, that a Sovereign Power above Law, hath nothing to do in Britain; and that such as govern by Will, and not by Law, according to such stated Rules, as are agreed upon by the People and Themselves cease to be Kings, as King James said, no Man in his Wits would have steered his Course directly upon a Rock, he had been forewarned of; or have been willing to have abandoned a Crown, which might have been kept upon terms so easy, honest, and honourable. If this had been taught them instead of an unaccountable jus-divinum that no Man could reach, that set them upon a Pinnacle, too apt to make their Brains turn round, we might perhaps have saved the Life of the best of Kings, and prevented the Reign of the worst, ever since the contrary Doctrine hath been taught: I tremble to think what a Tragical scuffle and scramble here hath been for Fifty years, between Property and Prerogative. Sure enough old Sinon hath had an Hand in this; I mean, our Friends of the Church of Rome, to promote such a Principle that might be a fatal Engine to break us to pieces, and blow up our Monarches, as they rejoiced to be sure when it was done. I am sure the Principle which I have taught hath formerly been the received one of their Divines however to serve the present turn, they so zealously and industriously promote the contrary; for these Gentlemen use to shift Principles as we do Tools, according as they have use of them. Methinks I see the Philistines smile to observe how we have hugged and dandled that Delilah, a Daughter of theirs, that should one day have put out our Eyes, at once made us Executioners of their Malice upon ourselves, and objects of their scorn: I am afraid, while they had cried us up, and extolled us as Loyal, they would have laughed at us as Fools. But I must put off from this; I hope I have sufficiently proved God's ordinary way of choosing Rulers, is by the consent of the People; and by consequence, that his present Majesty being thus set up, is chosen of God, and therefore hath an undoubted Right to the Crown he wears. There are a sort of Men cry out upon it, as a Pragmatical sauciness to meddle with the Grounds of Obedience unto Government; as if it were meritorious to obey blindfold. Indeed it were a great Point obtained, if while so many scruple at, and so many boldly dispute against the Right of his present Majesty, and assert, he hath no Right at all; if they could set such Limits and Bounds about this wretched Principle, as were once set about the Holy Mount, that no Body might dare to come near or touch it: If they could make it a kind of Sacrilege, to pry never so little into that Ark, or inquire into the reasons of our Obedience to it, for fear the unreasonableness of their nonobedience should be discovered. But what, must an implicit Obedience be imposed upon us, instead of an implicit Faith? and would they have us obey like a company of Fools? we know not why: I know not a more rational reply that can be made, to that important Question, Why do you obey his present Majesty? than this, Because he hath a right to the Crown he wears, which is the point I have proved. And if my Reasons for such a Principle of Government, were not of such force, as I believe they are, yet the Principle, methinks, deserves to be embraced of us, for the service it hath done us, in being the Foundation of his Majesty's Authority, especially if we▪ 2. Consider his Character, that there is none like him among the People. I shall pass by his other Excellencies, and insist only upon those that are the necessary accomplishments of Majesty, wherein I fear not to be excessive, he being too great either to be flattered, or duly praised. All the Princes of Christendom subscribe to this, that there is none like him, and therefore have put the menage of their Affairs into his Hands; I say, all Princes but one, who yet believes and trembles. His Majesty is so considerable to the fears of that haughty Monarch, that though he hath ever been thought to have had too nice and tender respect for his Honour, as the only minion of his Age; yet he hath been pleased of late, as is plain to every Body that hath Eyes and will open them, to humble himself to the mean drudgery of an Assassin, to get rid of him by some proxy Bandittis', he had mployed in that service. And though our King Challenges him, and bravely defies him every day, in the Head of an Army, yet he thinks it safer to procure him to be stabbed in a corner, then to meet him in the Field: He gins to mistrust the force of his Arms, and rely upon the safer Victory of a Poniard or Steletto, and the more easy dispatch of a Butcher or a Ruffian. Si timidus est homicida est, says Mauritius of Phocas; if he be a Coward he's an Assassin; and I think I may conclude as truly, if he be an Assassin he's a Coward: But to return; Were I to write the Character of an Hero, I must certainly set his Majesty before me as my pattern, and borrow every word of his Character from that Copy, and when you had read it, I am sure you could not but reflect, this must be King William. 1. He is a just and a righteous Prince, that came as a Dew, or rather as a shower of Rain upon the scorched Grass, that hath brought Law and Equity into Credit again; the Law that hath been jeered and hooted at as an old Elizabeth fashion; he hath repealed the ostracism of poor Banished Astroea; Justice now runs down like a mighty stream, to refresh the City of our God. His very Enemies, sure can make no exceptions to his Justice, unless because they have not found the edge of that Sword, turned more upon themselves, though that perhaps will be a fault no more. Here's now not violating Oaths and Promises (those shackles of Majesty, as some called them) to destroy Heretics, no inventing pretensions of Prerogative, or stretching Power as far as Will and Pleasure, to come at our Throats; never a Naboath hath now lost his Vineyard; the Will of the Magistrate is not now the measure of the Law, but the Law the measure of his Will, and this way only he's become an absolute Monarch over the Hands and Hearts of his Subjects. 2. He is eminently wise, whose Councils have ever been so prudent as if (as a Tyrant commanded his Picture to be drawn, with his Jupiter whispering in his ear) they were all inspired from Heaven. The laying the late Design, that still holds the World in an amazement, so secretly, without the least noise; and then executing of it, with a veni, vidi, vici, without Blows or Blood, and carrying it through so many intricacies and difficulties, in so rugged and uneven a Path, without a fall, nay perhaps without a false step or stumble, could never be from the conduct of an ordinary genius. I know some of his Enemies that smiled at it at the first, as being too bold and daring an Enterprise for him to undertake: he might even as well as they sneered, have tried to flap the Sun out with his Feathers; and therefore they confidently presaged, and kindly pitied the poor Prince's Ruin; concluding all this apparatus was but a Funeral Pomp for his Burial. 3. He is generous and public Spirited; whatever was left him by his Ancestors, or hath been given by the bounty of his Parliaments, 'tis Corban all dedicated to the service of his Country. Here are now no sums to count, for the bribing of Juries to take away men's Lives; no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as was said of Demosthenes, to stop the Mouth of Judges; upon his Exchequer may well be written, For God and his Country. 3. He is patiented and merciful, even to a Crime, that hath spared his Enemies, to the Hazard of himself and Government; those that have thirsted after his Blood, have not provoked him to shed a drop of theirs, his Laurels have hitherto grown and thriven, without such watering. When he first appeared amongst us, he did not hue himself a way through the thickest of his Enemies, or Erect a Trophy, as the Persian Tyrant did of their Sculls. And for a long time since, though we have seen some of them secured from doing mischief, we have seen no Scaffolds reeking with their Gore; though he hath Slain his Thousands, and Ten Thousands in the Field, yet he hath had no disposition to take away a single Life at the Bar. There have been Men of Belial, even with us too, that have not spared his Name and Honour, that have made sport with our Samson in every place, but still he hath kept Silence; he takes no more notice of them, than the Moon does of the little Curs that bark at her; he moves on still in his Orb, keeps steadily his course, continueth to scatter his benign influences of Protection and Grace, upon the Head of those very Dogs that bark at him. I know this hath been interpreted as an act of pusillanimity and cowardice; because sentence was not presently executed upon the Sons of Wolves and Tigers, (for Men sure they could not be) therefore, as Solomon says, They were hardened in their Villainies, and their hearts were set upon to do the greater mischief; that he spared them so long, they told us, 'twas not his Clemency but his Fear, and he durst not touch them: He thought his Clemency towards them, might have at last sweetened his Enemies into a Compliance and Obedience; but he finds whole Rivers of Oil will never soften a Flint, and rougher methods must be used to break them to pieces. I know not but the late loud crying Treason may have Roused a sleepy Lion, and awakened his Justice, when his Enemies are grown to such an height of Impudence, as to say plainly, with those mutinous Israelites, He shall 1 Sam. 11. 12. not reign over us: Come, let's kill the Heir, that the Inheritance may be ours; perhaps that may constrain our Jupiter to his Thunder, being so penned up with this dilemma, that either some few must perish or his People; he may force himself very piously, as Saul did wickedly enough, to offer up some few Sacrifices for their Safety. 4. He is true and faithful, who can no more break then others can keep their words. He cannot violate Leagues for his own Glory, nor be Perjured for God's; he cannot cancel the sacredest ties of Religion, for Religion; he hath not the confidence to publish to the World, as another hath done, that even when he granted his Edicts of Grace, he waited but an opportunity to infringe them, placing his chief Glory and Merit in a Religious Treachery. 5. He's truly Religious, sent to redeem our Captivated Ark, out of the Philistines Hands; to spread himself like an Elijah upon the poor dying Shunamite; fainting and languishing Protestancy, and restore her to life again, as a Moses, with the lifting up of his Rod, and a puff of his Mouth, to blow away all the Loeusts of Rome, and swarms of Mass Priests that pestered this Nation, and threatened a Spiritual Famine to it; instead of the Calves of Dan and Bethel, to restore to us the worship of the true Jehovah, instead of a Latin mummery, an intelligible Devotion. 6. He is Bold and Valiant, his Enemies must acknowledge him the most intrepid, that ever faced a Danger; there seems not to be a jot of that Passion of fear in his Constitution; he converses with 1000 of Deaths every Job 17. 14. day, as familiarly as Job did, that calls Death Father, Mother and Sister; he was never daunted though Death made never so near approaches to himself, as at the Boin when it clapped him on the Shoulder, as if it had Arrested him; but blessed be God, it was not in the King of Heaven's Name, and so he escaped. Death that King of Terrors, could not so much as affright or appall him in the least, till it so fatally wounded his second self; Death was faint to assault his Love, whilst it could not in the least excite his fear, or vanquish his Courage, and then our Sampson's Strength went away, and he became like other Men. 7. He is of an unparallelled Humility and Moderation; when he had done all things that made him worthy to Rule, he would do nothing that he might Rule, and if it might have been done without it, he ever esteemed it a greater Honour to be England's Saviour, than her Sovereign. Had not that Honour been conferred upon him, as Cato said when he was asked, why he had not his Statues, he could have been as well pleased the World should have asked, why he had them not, why he was not King? 'Tis a filthy Calumny to say, when he came over, his aim was at a Crown. Can not he have found a means to have given the late King the Glory of a Canonisation, as another King did Becket, if he had pleased? Did not he declare for a Parliament, and treat with King James about it? where King James himself was to have had a Negative, and 'twas somewhat unlike he would give his le Roy vult, to his own Deposing. Besides, 'Twas not then a Crown to be scrambled for through so many Difficulties, and Dangers that surrounded it. Nothing could have tempted a wise Man to have accepted of it, but the Glory of saving a Nation. Who would have affected to have climbed up such a Mount of Honour, for the fate of a Sisyphus, to be always Rolling of an heavy stone, or of a Prometheus to have so many cares, as so many Vultures, always gnawing at his Heart. When he accepted of the Sceptre, he seemed to offer himself as another Isaac, rather to be a Sacrifice for us, than a Sovereign to us, though I trust Jehovah Jireh God Almighty in Mercy to this poor Nation, will provide himself another. Had he been so fond of a Crown, he might have enjoyed one to destroy a Neighbour State, he chose rather to endure one to save ours. 'Twas then a Lombary Crown of Iron, not worthy to be ravished by Blood, and any but our Hero (as the Sammites with their Jewels) would have been pressed to Death, with the weight of it. Vlt. He hath actually delivered us from the Ammonites: I am very loath to darken the Joy of this Day, by calling you to a sad and mournful retrospect upon that dismal time, when the Ammonites carried themselves so Tyrannically and Proudly over us; when we were beaten as the Israelites in Egypt, but we must not cry, burdened, but we must not groan, if we whimpered never so little, in the most humble manner, and Petitioned, we were Imprisoned, Fined, Arraigned and Condemned. We saw Religion lie a bleeding, our Ark ready to be taken, while we sat sighing and sobbing out our Icabobs after Catholic Arguments, could do no good; we expected nothing but Catholic Cruelty, to be Drubbed and Dragooned out of our Faith, and Converted by such Apostolical Missionaries, as are sent out of an Army. We saw our Laws, the only senses of our Liberties, Properties, Lives, Religion, trodden under foot; these were looked upon as Fetters for us Slaves and Vassals, and became not the Majesty of a Prince to wear, whom they counted no less than God himself unbounded and unlimited, by any Law but his own Will. We saw our Prisons crammed with the Patriots of our Country, and our Benches filled with Traitors, our Freeholds taken away from us, by no other Law but a Sic volo sic jubeo, for it is our Pleasure. We have seen Gentlemen thrown out of Civil and Military Employments, who had sometimes been unadvisedly the Instruments of their Tyranny, yet when the Hood was taken off, and they came to see whither they were going, so that they began to make a sudden Start, and stop, and could be whipped and spurred no further, we have seen them turned up like tired Hackneys, for fresh ones fitter for their Drudgery. Corporations have been garbled, that we might have no Parliaments; but as the Council of Trent was said to be guided by that Holy Ghost sent thither in a Cloak-bag from Rome, no Parliaments, I say, but such as should have been guided by a Male from Whitehall. But I have not time to reckon up all their Ammonitish Deal with us, this only remains, that our Misery, to all appearance, was irremediable, no Peace or Covenant to be made with them, but at the Price of our Senses; 'twas not an Eye would serve their turn▪ we must neither Feel, nor Taste, nor See; the Captains of these Ammonites have told us, we must renounce our Senses, and stoutly Believe; that is in short, we must turn Ammonites. Thanks be to God our Hero hath delivered us from these Ammonites, he hath rescued our Laws, our Lives, our Ten Commandments, our Bibles; the Light of the Gospel now shines, for all the Flattering of these Night-birds about it, who have but burned their Wings, and fanned our Light, and made it shine clearer. Blessed be God we may now look into our Bibles without a Licence, and come to the King of Heaven without the Mediation of any Courtier but his Son; we may obtain our Pardons at a cheaper Rate, than at their Markets; receive our God in the Sacrament without danger of eating of him; exercise our Faith without hazard of our Eyes. I know we have Sons of Belial can hear all that with a Scornful Smile, I pray where, say they, was that great Danger you talk of, these were only Imaginary Dragons and Serpents we feigned to ourselves in the Air,, no such Monsters, God be thanked, were to be found on Earth▪ Where were those Axes, and Gibbets, and Sambenits, and Faggots, you Dream of? Good God, no Danger! Must not we flee from a Fire that was apparently breaking in upon us, till we be burnt, nor send for a Physician till we are Dead? No Danger? while we were in the hands of such Men who were under a Vow to destroy Heretics; and I cannot tell whither we might have trusted them for the keeping any other. No Danger? To be sure it was the greater for this false Cry, to bring us into it. The Net was not, as Solomon says, to be spread in the sight of the Bird, and some must be employed to cover the mouth of the Pit, and by such false cries decoy us into it. We are sure enough there was a Snare, as I have sufficiently proved, but Thanks be to God 'tis broken, and we are delivered. And where are the Men now that have said, Who is he that he should Rule over us? Shall we say as these Israelites, Bring them out that we may put them to Death? As for those Miscreants, who could not be satisfied with a Drunken Debauch at a Tavern, unless they drank Healths to their Master, as they called him, in whole Bowls of English Blood, I leave them to the Justice of the Government; but for others that Conscientiously and Peaceably Dissent, I only say God Almighty open the Eyes of these Men, and for the Scandal they daily give to the Government, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. And now how can we sufficiently Praise that God, that hath chosen such a Deliverer for us, none like him among the People; I know not whether he could have sent such another, unless he had created one on purpose for this Glorious Design: There have been some that would have adored him as a God for it, and decreed him an Apotheosis. To be sure he Merits more to be our Patron, than another, that hath so valiantly Fought the Dragon, and rescued our Virgin Church, the Purest and most Beautiful of any in the World. The last Labour of our Hero remains to quell a Monster, the Pest and Plague of Europe, who is now forced to use his utmost Strength and Policy, as a dying Serpent, stretches out herself at full length, he resolves, I hear, this Summer, to give his deadly Kick and Spurn, as a Beast about to die. And truly I do not doubt, but with God's Blessing upon the Conduct of our Hero, we shall yet point at that Lucifer, if our Sins do not too much befriend him, with Contempt and Scorn; How art thou fallen thou Son of the Morning, they that have seen thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and say, is this the Man that made the Earth to tremble, that did shake Kingdoms, and made the World as a Wilderness; that destroyed Cities; that terrible Leviathan, see where he lies sprawling upon dry Ground, with the Almighty's Hook in his Nostrils, Amen, Amen. Threesold use to be made of this Point. 1. Let all our Israel render the most Cordial and Conscientious Obedience to him whom God hath chosen, as one therefore that hath a Right to the Crown he wears: I hope I have sufficiently proved this Point, besides this Doctrine hath lately had the Westminster Stamp upon it, and therefore now I trust it may go for currant. I am sure the contrary, that the King is not chosen of God, and hath no Right to his Crown, if it be not Treason, yet is the Mother of it, that Mother that lately went big with so many Granvils, Fawkes, Parryes, and Throgmortons, Clements and Ravilliacs, but blessed be God the Monster miscarried. The Nation seems at last to have the same Sense of the Mischievous Consequence of this Principle, and therefore have justly arraigned and condemned it in their Associations. Doth it not plainly follow, from the Point proved, that His present Majesty is chosen of God, that we should rende● the most Cordial Obedience to him, as one that hath Right to Rule us. Should we warily suspend and hover till Success and Victory satisfy our Tender Consciences, and resolve our Doubts? Should we only submit to him as a King de facto, for Wrath, till Opportunity offer itself to pay our Duty to another supposed de Jure, for Conscience-sake? Which is a Becket's Obedience, Salvo jure Papae. Should we shelter ourselves under the shadow of his Government, and creep into his Bosom, only for Warmth and Vigour to sting him as soon as we dare. Should we take Oaths to such a King, as weak Stomaches do a Potion, which we are ready to throw up again immediately, or as an Amulet and Charm to keep off Danger. Should we make it our business, to damp and cool men's Zeal to such a Government. When we had one on the Throne, too great a Friend to Popery, God knows, How were we then for the Divine Right of Government, what a general Outcry was there through the Nation, for the great Diana of Absolute Prerogative, Nonresistance, Sovereign Power above Law, Tyranny, we were ready to spit Hell-fire and Damnation in the Faces of every one that opposed. And when some went about to remove a Popish Successor, than the indefeasable and Divine Right of Succession is the Theme, other Sins escape without much notice, while Sacrilege, Rebellion and Treason, are the Wild Beast let lose to be chased and hunted down by us. Do but mention a Bill of Exclusion, all our Beacons are set on Fire, as if Geneva and Scotland were pouring in upon us whole Hosts of Classes and Lay-Elders. Presently we are deafened with the noise of 41, and Thousands of ghastly Spectrums are conjured up to scare little Children with, for I dare say few wise Men were concerned at them. But now that we have a Protestant King, who when Popery was rushing in upon us, hath thrown himself into that Flood, to stem the Torrent with his naked Breast, Good God what a cold ●it hath been upon us to assert his Government? If a Man hath been never so little warm, in the Justification of His Majesty, he must be sure to run the Gantlope, and to endure almost a St. Stephen's Martyrdom, to be pelted with Stones, or words almost as hard. How have the Discreet, and the Wise, been applauded, the Men of Temper and Moderation? Hoc Ithacus velit, There's a Gentleman in the World, that cares not how Soft and Moderate we are I warrant you. I hope the late execrable Treason hath chafed our Zeal into a warmer Temper at last: So that we shall not only yield our Obedience to His present Majesty for Conscience-sake, as to one that hath a Right to govern us, being chosen of God, but with a Zeal suitable to the present Importance of the Duty. 2. Let us pour out our Hearty Thanksgivings unto God, that hath not only given us such a Ruler upon the Fifth of November, but given him again to us, by dashing that Murderous Design against him on the 21st of February. This was a Design so plain and evident, that it is not capable of a Shame, no Meal-Tub or Presbyterian Plot can be devised to balance it, no Youths from St. Omers can be gotten to outface it, the most frontless Impudence gins to be ashamed of it; and they whose Foreheads were hard enough to baffle the Design of 78, seem somewhat to blush at this of 95. This was again a Design so Mischievous, to take away the Light of our Eyes, and the Breath of our Nostrils! They had obtained one part of Nero's Wish, for all the People of England had morally but one Neck, and they had like to have obtained the other, to have cut it off at a Blow, if the Almighty had not withheld them. Those Artificers of the Church of Rome, will be ashamed sure, to see themselves outdone in their own Craft, by our new Workmen in Iniquity, to see a Modern Villainy so far exceed their old Jesuitical patterns, and faced with such an impudence, as only became their Fraternity▪ when they had Traveled with Iniquity, as the Psalmist says, and brought forth Falsehood, and the bloodiest Designs that ever was contrived to be done by Daylight: They had the boldness to lay the Monster at Heavens Gates, and invite the Holy God to answer for it; teling him plainly, 'twas his Cause; that what they did was for him, and his Religion: Ah pudet haec dici potuisse, That such an horrible thing should ever be committed in our Land. This was so Bloody and Barbarous a Design, that the Fifth of November, seems to be jealous she should lose the honour of precedence. They have stretched out their Hands, but as the Psalmist says, None of the men of might have found them: At the instant, when they should have struck the blow, God sends a Cramp into them, and down drops the bloody Sword, and let's lose a Tormentor upon some of their Consciences, that never left stinging and lashing them with Terrors, till they drove them to his Majesty's Feet; crying out Non possum occidere Marium, Sir, I can't kill you; and from that wrack they discover all. Though some of the Party have Armed their Consciences with such a Callus, that the Gild of such a Treason, could not be able to fix a Sting upon them, or make them in the least sensible. For God's sake let it not be Reported, that Three Clergy Men of the Church of England should assist them, to put on that Armour of Hell, just when they were to encounter the King of Terrors, and step into an Eternal State: Ah, tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the Streets of Askelon, lest the Daughters of the Uncircumcised Philistines Triumph! notwithstanding some of them have contest the Villainy, and I hope repent of it; so that the snare is broken by the Snare-makers themselves, and blessed be God we are Delivered. Great God, What Thanksgivings are due to thee for this Deliverance! that contains in it so many Deliverances; a Deliverance of our Laws, Liberties, Properties, Lives, and that which is dearer still, our Bibles. What Heart can be big enough to receive the Joy of it? What Voices can be loud enough to sing thy Praises for it? Shall we call to Heaven in Holy David's Rapture, Psal, 148. 2. to the Holy Angels, to assist us with theirs? while we are singing our Te Deums and Magnificats; or, shall we pause a while, till we ourselves be admitted into their Choir, when our Harps shall be better Strung, and our Voices more in Tune to join with them in that Anthem, Rev. 5. 13. Blessing and Honour, Glory and Power be unto him that sitteth on the Throne, and to the Lamb for ever and ever. In the mean time, What shall we render unto God? our Flocks and Herds are too scant a Sacrifice, whole Lebanon will not be sufficient for Burnt-Offerings. Let's offer up ourselves, our Souls and Bodies, as a living, holy, acceptable, Sacrifice, which is our reasonable Service; let's resolve as David, truly Lord we will be thy Servants, and this God shall be our God unto Death. 3. Let's pray for him whom the Lord hath chosen, as the Israelites did here for Saul; Let's thus hold up his heavy Hands now, that he's going forth to Fight the Amalekites; let's fire all our Spiritual Artillery against that Agag. as the Christians did against Julian, when he sought against the Persians. Let's Petition for him, as the Church did for David, the Lord bless him in the day of his trouble, the Name of the God of Jacob defend him, send him help from the Sanctuary, and strengthen him out of Zion. Let's pray, That he may have health of Body, length of Days, Loyal Subjects, Powerful Fleets and Armies, Faithful Allies, Success and Victory over his Enemies, the stability of his Righteous Throne in this World, and the Possession of a Crown of Righteousness in the World to come. I hope there is none of us will yet continue so morose and sullen, but (as the Murmuring Israelites did at last, being sufficiently satisfied with the Wisdom of God's Choice, that there was not such another to be found among the People) will join with us in the common Shout and Acclamation, God Save King WILLIAM. FINIS.