To the Right Honourable JAMES Earl of Perth, Lord Drummond and Stobhall, etc. Lord High Chancellor of the Kingdom of Scotland, AND JOHN Earl of Mellfort, Viscount of Forth, etc. Principal Secretary of State for the said Kingdom; Knights of the most Noble and most Ancient Order of the THISTLE: AND Of His Majesty's most Honourable Privy-Councel, in both Kingdoms of Scotland and England.  
May it please your Lordships,  
THe Illustrious Character, you deservedly bear, is no less demonstration of the King's profound Judgement, and Affection to His People, than marks of Honour to your Family, or Favour to your Persons. It is the Felicity of the Nation, as the King makes no Impress but on the finest Metals, no more does he employ Ministers, but such whose intrinsic Worth justifies His prudent Choice, and Endears Him to His People: We find by your faithful Management of the great Trust you have, that State Ministers are not now, as in some former Ages, Screens to the Prince, to keep off the popular Hatred of those Discontented at the Government: But rather like those reflective Glasses, which, by intercepting the Love of His People, double the same towards the Sovereign. The Interest your Fidelity to the King's Concerns has given you in his Majesty's good Opinion, you have Improven to the King's Mind, for the Happiness of His Subjects: The Boldness with which you assert his Right, the presence of Mind with which you unfold the well-meaned Overtures, but not so Happy, of others: The dexterity by which you manage your better laid Proposals; the unbiasedness of your Temper, which no consideration can induce to wrest Justice; the Zeal wherewith you encourage the Loyal, and dishearten the Factious; the Humanity, wherewith you receive Addresses from all, without respect of Persons, has a very auspicious Influence on the whole Nation, to confirm it in its Duty to the King, and Obedience to the Government.  
Virtuous and excellent Pesons, as they are more easily Exalted, and that with more Honour to the Prince, less Envy to the Court, and Grumbling to the People; so they prove more Faithful to their Trust, more Grateful to the King the Fountain of their Advancement, more Serviceable to the Public, more Acceptable to both God and Man: Hence it is, the great Figure you make in our Horizon is so little spoken against; Although the Conjunction of such Dignities in two Brethren at one time, has as rare Precedents in our Historians, as there are in them Examples of such a Constellation of Virtues, or the present Age affords Instances of such singular Accomplishments.  
He who knows and considers, 
K. Rob. III. Married to Arabella Drummond, Daughter to Sir John Drummond of Stobhall; She was Mother to K. James I.  how congenial Loyalty must needs be to your Noble Family, which has the Honour to be so early allied to the Crown, will less wonder yet at the benign Influences of the Throne, towards Persons, whose Integrity to the King, is not only conveyed with Their blood in a long Series of worthy Progenitors, but is the result of Conscience and sense of Duty: Yet do not I think, it was the Advantage of your Quality and Blood, so much as the Eminence of your Endowments has attracted the King's Good Will towards you: His Majesty, as an Angel of God, discerns where Heaven qualifies and prepares fit Instruments for his purpose and his People's Weal: And, as an observant Vicegerent, He seconds the more Curious Ingraving of the Divine Hand with some Strokes of his own: And where these concur in State-Ministers, the Kingdom is more Happy, than when according to Plato's Model, Philosophers govern, or Governors aim to be such.  
It is no small Joy and Satisfaction to all honest Hearts, and it has wonderfully revived the Spirits of the Loyal in the Nation; to see the Favour of the Court run in so right a Channel towards persons of such untainted Loyalty, Ability and Interest, who are no more united in Blood than in Noble Designs, for the Honour of the King, the Security of his People, and the Interest of his Service: No small Prognostic of perpetuating our Happiness under so Wise, so Gallant a Prince, and such Excellent Ministers.  
We now see these Happy Days, in which the King's Favour is not made mercenary, nor due Rewards of Loyalty misplaced on Intriguers with Faction: and that none can obtain them, but by his Fidelity, or retain them but by perseverance in his Duty.  
My Lords, It may be thought strange, considering how zealous a Protestant I am, I should have made bold to implore your Patronage, and perchance there will not be wanting some, who will whisper against it: But I dare openly own, what they dare but privately condemn, as no difference of Religion can alienate my affection and duty from my Prince; no more will it make me omit my respect to His Ministers, regard to their Authority, or obedience to their Command; my zeal for Religion will not raze the esteem I have for Worth and Virtue, so eminently set: And where could I dedicate a Discourse better, than to such conspicuous instances and promoters of it? I once entertertained the Vanity to have addressed it to His Sacred Majesty, whose Title to the productions of our Brains is no less, than to those of our Loins and Fortunes; But considering Princes are not to be rudely accosted by mean Persons, but to be approached with profound Reverence by the Mediation of others, I have presumed to publish this first Essay under your Honourable Names, which if it be so happy as to touch the King's hands, or get a glance of his eye, I am more rewarded than I could expect, or can deserve. I remember an expression of that Prodigy of Piety, Constancy, and Eloquence, King Charles I. 
Scrini Sacra.  in a Letter to the University of Cambridge, approving their Election of the Duke of Buckingham for their Chancellor, upon His Majesty's Recommendation, He says, We shall ever conceive, that an Honour done to a Person We Favour, is out of a Royal Respect had to Ourselves: As my respect to the King put me on this Service, so it has induced me to this Dedication, upon which account it is only acceptable to your Lordships, who make Persons affection to to the King the measure of your favour towards them: By which the World sees, the Kings concerns go nearer you than your own; to promote which, as there are none more sincerely set than you are, so there is none more cordially Prays, you may Live long for his Majesty's Service, for the Ornament of your Families, and the Happiness of the Nation, than  
My Lords, Your Lordship's Most Faithful, Most Humble, And most Devoted Servant. JOHN MACKGUEENE.   
Psalm 2.62. 
Yet have I set my King upon my holy Hill of Zion.  
SOme Virtuoso's of the Heathen World, who were puzzled at the unequal distribution of Things, resolved the events of this Life into mere Chance, or a Fortuitous concourse of second Causes: Others of them more Studious, and so more refined, attributed the good or bad success of Human Affairs, to the swinge of a fatal necessity; some looked no higher than to the Will, Conduct, Liberty and Wisdom of Man, as the great disposer of our Concerns: But those of greater perspicacy, and more elevated reason, referred the accomplishments or frustration of men's Designs to a higher Hand, 
Natura, Fatum, Fortuna Casus, omnia unius ejusdem Dei nomina.  even Divine Providence, which they meant under the various shapes and Names, the Vanity of some, the Ignorance of others, or the Superstition of a third Party gave it: And we, who have a more sure word of Prophecy, a clearer Light, and a surer guide, revere as the sole Arbitrator of the Emergencies and Transactions of this World, that superintends all our Actions and Contrivances, sometimes prospering the most unlikely, sometimes defeating the most promising, attempts, even those which have wind and tide, (so to speak) a concatenation of all necessary Causes, a concurrence of all probable Circumstances, to make them Auspicious, and Crown them with successful Issues: To convince us all, 
* Jer. 10.23.  That the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in him to direct his steps. And though Man proposeth, yet it is God disposeth, a clear instance of which, we have in this Psalm, and more particularly in our Text, Yet have I set, etc.  
This Psalm, as many others, represents to us mystically the Success of Christ's Kingdom, and the security of his Throne, maugre all the opposition of Men and Devils; but literally David's establishment in his Regal Office, and Royalty; after all his Troubles, in despite of all the Difficulties which lay in his way; and how fitly appliable to our Sovereign's advancement will anon appear.  
I will at this occasion confine myself to the Literal Importance of the Text, and consider from it: First, The peculiar Interest God claims to himself in the Setlement of Kingly Government. I have set my King. Secondly, The Wise and Powerful Conduct of Divine Providence in making good his special Care of Kings, and bringing about their Settlement, notwithstanding the Rage and Malice, the Power and Plots of Enemies, whether the Contrivances, Wits, or Conspiracies of Grandees: Whether the Fury of an Heady Multitude, or vain Madness of Popular Faction; all which is expressed, or couched in the preceding Verses, recapitulated and wrapped in this short adversative Particle, Yet; Which how small soever it appear to you, is very Emphatic: The Filings of Gold are precious, and so are the least Expressions of Divine Writ: As we hang great weights on small Pins, and set large Wheels on work by little Springs, so, much is included in this small Syllable Yet; That is, Maugre all the rage of the Heathen, and the vain Imagination of the People, in despite of the Power of Adversary Princes, and the Policy of Rulers: I have accomplished my Purpose, and consummated my Work, Yet have I set my King, etc. I have laughed at their close-layed Projects, and derided their Counsel, I have blasted their Attempts with the breath of my wrath: I have quelled their force, and broken their Bands; I have mastered their Power, and daunted their Courage, and owned my Anointed: And instead of their breaking our Bands, or casting away our Cords, I have broken them with an Iron Mace, and crushed them as a Potter's Vessel; So much is imported in this Yet, Yet have I set my King, etc.  
As to the First, The peculiar concern God takes for Kingly Government: The general Providence of God is conspicuous in the Order and Variety, the Beauty and Harmony, the Diversity, yet Uniformity, observable in the frame of Nature: The Universe is no greater Monument of his Power, than 'tis a Mirror of his Providence: But his special Providence signalises itself in the Care of Kings, and Fate of Kingdoms; in disposal of Crowns, and conferring of Sceptres, in the mighty Revolutions of Government: As it is a great Diminution of the Reverence we own the Deity, to ascribe every petty Chance, every trifling Emergent to a special Surveyance; so not to range the Momentous transactions of the Lives of public Persons under his peculiar Inspection, not to attribute the signal Benedictions of Nations to his Conduct, is Profaneness or a piece of Presumptuous negligence. Well then may God claim a peculiar Interest in the establishment of Regal Authority so beneficial to Mankind, and advantageous to Christian Society. King's are the chiefest Objects of God's choicest Care, whom he tenders with more than ordinary Affection; It is he that advances them to their Thrones and establishes them thereon: This appears, 
Dan. 2.21. and 37. verse.   
1. 
* Prov. 8.5.  From the Divine Institution of this kind of Government, God says, By me King's reign, and Princes decree Justice: Whatever fanatics or Republicans say, Kings derive their Authority from a higher Fountain than the People, they have their Commission from Heaven, are God's Delegates, and Vice-gerents, not the Creatures of the multitude: And as Monarchy hath its Original from God, who settled this Model amongst his own peculiar People; so it carries more lively Vestigies of his Government of the World, than any other: Hence it is God communicates his Name, as well as Power to 
* Psal. 82 6.  Kings: 
* Cujus jussu & homines nascuntur, hujus jussu & Reges constituuntur apti iis qui ab ipsis regnantur, lib. 5. cir●a finem.  Iraeneus tells, Kings are constituted by the very same Authority and Command, by which Men are made and born, for the benefit of them over whom they exercise Jurisdiction: Kingly Government is no human Invention, for modelling the World into Order, no politic Contrivance for Disciplining mankind into Society: Much-lefs, an Artifice to gratify the Ambition of any who would vapour it in Pomp and Splendour: No, its Pedigree may be traced higher; it brings its extraction from Heaven and the state of Innocency will not exclude it.  
The general custom of Nations in owning and retaining this form, speaks out its Divinity, and the peculiar Interest of Providence in maintaining it; even these Nations, that are not more distant from others in Situation, than they are different in Manners; how wild soever the Soil be, without Culture; how Savage the People, without Arts, are yet under Monarchical Government: This 
Omni autem in re consensio ●mnium gentium lex natura putanda est Cicero.  Universal Harmony is no small Testimony to its Divinity; it must be some Extraordinary Beauty that conquers all Hearts, and sets it Trophies every where; which not only the best Polished and Civilised Nations in the World, but even Barbarous Scythians, rude Africans and Wild Indians are enamoured with: It must be Heavenly Manna that can satisfy every Palate, considering the contrary Tempers and different Dispositions of Men. It must needs be more than Human, that is revered in the dark Corners of America, as well as in the refined parts of Christendom.  
2. The peculiar Interest of Providence in reference to Kingly Government, may be demonstrated from the Provisoes scattered up and down his World, for the Security of those entrusted therewith: By which we see the Spirit of God strangely superintends the Cause of Kings; Moses lays a Bridle on our Tongues, 
* Exod. 22.28.  That we speak no Evil against them; 
* Eccles. 10.20.  Solomon will dive deeper, and not so much as allow an Evil Thought, not a Whisper or a Mutter, though in the secretest recess of our Dwellings: The Gospel is no less friendly, St. Peter and St. Judas go further, they conclude an inward Despection of them Criminous; surely if they would have the Tongue curbed from speaking, the Mouth from muttering, the Mind from conceiving Disloyalty: They would not have the Hands lift up against them in Cruelty and Blood: Jeremiah commands the Jews to pray for the Life of the King of Babylon: St. Paul exhorts Supplications to be made for Nero: Is it likely, they would allow their Subjects to petition them in Tumults, to starve them by Votes of Preclusion, to conspire against their Persons, or bandy against their Authority, to Invade their Territories with force, and die Scaffolds with their Blood: No, no, it would extremely detract from the Divine Wisdom, to establish a Polity, and make such Cautionary Laws for its Safety, and then approve the Seditious Fetches by which some Demagogues would undermine it, or the open Force by which some Saucy Encroachers would invade it: This were to counter-act his own Ordinance, and to resemble Charles the V his Disingenuity, who commanded Public Prayers to be made for Clement the VII throughout all his Dominions; when by his Authority his Captains held him Incarcerated.  
3. The Preservation of this Model in the World, from its beginning to this very time, notwithstanding of all the attempts of men to break it, or shake it off; is no small indication of God's peculiar concern for it: 
* Absistens a Deo homo in tantum effebit ut in omni inquietudine et homicid vel avaeritia versaretur, Iraeneas lib. 5. cir●a finem.  He that considers, how that since Lucifer's Fall (who was the first Rebel and Incendiary, let factious Schismatics and feditious Boutefeaves glory if they can in their common Father,) and Adam's Miscarriage, the whole race of Mankind became Turbulent and Ungovernable: How Contentious are some, and Ambitious are others: How Discontented are some, and cunningly Seditious are others, to work on their Tempers: He that considers the Inconstancy of the Populacy, the envy of Powerful Competitors; the Conspiracies of Grandees; the Jealousy of some State-Ministers among themselves, and their Treachery towards their Sovereign: 
* Est in omni populo quid malignum & qu rulum in Imperantes. Tacitus.  The Skittishness of People, and the Natural Untowardness that is generally in Men against their Governors: That notwithstanding all this, Monarchy should keep footing in the World: We may conclude, there is more than an ordinary Providence in it, and say in an Ecstasy, It is the Lord's doing, and is marvellous in our Eyes: It is he that giveth Salvation to Kings, and the Shields of the Earth belong unto God.  
4. The special concern of providence in behalf of Kings, appears in the sad and deplorable end of those, who either by open Violence, or secret Treachery, invade their Authority, or disturb their Government: God will not suffer such violations of his Ordinance to escape signal tokens of his displeasure; nor have there been any sinners more remarkable instances of divine vengeance, nor human justice, than such; witness Corah, and his Confederates; Absolom, and Achitophel; Zimri, and Joab; Sheba, and Amasa; our own Chronicles and Times afford fresh bleeding Examples, of the calamitous fall of some Families, once illustrious, but now levelled with the ground, with ignominy, and disgrace, as the just reward of their unjust aspiring, and rebellious opposing the Regal Authority, 
Judas 1.11.  these perished in the gainsaying of Core: Let all Rebels and Seditious Persons be afraid, since they trace the steps, they'll taste the punishment of such Criminals; Sedition is as odious now as ever, and the Divine Providence as ready to detect, and crush it, as ever.  
I will not entertain you with a politic Lecture on Government, this is not my province; nor will I so far disparage Monarchy, as to make any Comparisons betwixt it and any other Form, being fully assured not other Model has such a stamp of Divine Approbation, a King being the clearest reflection of the Deity upon Earth; nor will I adduce these irrefragable testimonies from the Hero's of the Church, who determined for Kingly Government, in an Age they were shattered with its frowns, more than cherished with its smiles, and felt its Prosecution more than Protection; nor will I heap up those Eulogies, with which the great Masters of human policy have raised it, beyond all saucy competition of inferior Models; only mind you of a pretty similitude of one of the Glories of his Age, the great Nazianzen, who speaking of the necessity of Government, and how Rulers are the Vice-gerents and lively pictures of God; he says, ordinary Magistrates are a contracted Character of God, or his Picture drawn to the neck and shoulders; these above them were his Picture drawn to the middle, but the King was his Portraiture in full length: And for the preference of Monarchy, i'll assert, it is the most Ancient, the most honourable, the most advantageous to the ends of Government, and happiness of Societies.  
1. Kingly-Government is the most ancient, even as old as the World, and in despite of all the haters of it, with it, and no sooner shall it receive its Funeral; though it may be rationally conceived, the World is near its dissolution, when so considerable a Pillar of its standing, is so barbarously attacked, and rudely inveyed against, by the enemies of all Order; indeed things that fortuitously start up by the policy of some Ages, or the custom of particular Nations, acquire not that Universal Reputation, or perpetual continuance, wherewith Monarchy has, and is like to keep footing in the World. 
Cortum est, omnes antiquas gentes regibus puruisse. Cicero.  It is beyond all peradventure, all Nations, any way famed for Antiquity, were in subjection to Kingly-Government, the Foundation was laid in Adam, nor did it expire with him, but was entailed on his Eldest Son, who, though short of his Brother Abel in piety, yet did not lose his Superiority over him, for it is said, his desire shall be to thee, and thou shalt rule over him. Dominion was not early founded in Grace, according to the whimseys of the Fifth-Monarchy-Men. It is certain, a Commonwealth without a King is the natural offspring of Ambition, and the product of a teeming Faction.  
2. Kingly-Government is the most honourable; blessed art thou, 
Eccles. 10.8.  O Land, when thy King is the Son of Nobles; upon this score we may vie with all the Kingdoms in the World, none of them can boast such a Series of Princes, such a Lineal Succession of Kings, in a regular and orderly Descent; what interruption of the Monarchy, what bandying of the Sceptre into different Families, without Alliance and Blood interest betwixt them, to the grievous convulsion of the Estate most Kingdoms in Europe have undergone, How short-lived has the Royal Power been in some Families, like a glazing Meteor or blazing Comet, whilst Ours, by the Divine Blessing, has been a fixed Star, or like the Sun, rather casting the benign influences, to the Elevation of our Nobility, the Cherishing of our Clergy, the Establishment of our Gentry, the Protection of our Commons? We admire a stately Palace for the orderly variety of its parts, and the beauty of its structure, but we so much the more regard and commend it, that it has stood out against wind and weather, and the injury of time, so many Ages. And certainly, since a special providence has through so many successive Generations signalised its care of our Monarchy, to the envy of our Neighbours, and astonishment of our Enemies, and transmitted the Crown in its Right and Lineal Course, to His Head, who now carries it, (who though it were not by inheritance, as it is indisputable, yet were it by merit His Right to wear it,) we may expect no common or ordinary Blessings, from One, to whom the Virtues of those Princely Hero's, are conveyed with their blood.  
You of the Nobility, my Illustrious Hearers, may be encouraged here-from, to Submission and Loyalty; You serve a King who is the Son of Nobles, who was Born to command you, and from his very Cradle has an Air of Greatness; Plutarch says, there is a certain Greatness, and innate Gallantry of Spirit, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Plut.  in those Descended of worthy Progenitors; such have spirit and courage for Heroic Achievements, whilst these Terrae Filii, these of obscure exstraction, have a great deal of Copper or Dross mixed with their Ore or Argent, are by Nature destined to low or sordid Employs: You serve no upstart of the Rabble, or creature of the Populace, nor a King by chance, but one who hath all the Majesty of a Prince, and the Gallantry of a Hero. It was the favour of His Predecessors, distinguished yours from their Neighbours, the Dignity of the Subject being a Ray from the Sovereign, as His is a Beam of the Divinity. How can you look on yourselves, and these Badges of His favour, by which you are Elevated above others, and not reflect Honour to the Original of your Grandeur? you should consider, that as the Painter consulted best for perpetuating his memory, when he indented his own Image in Minerva's Picture, that the one could not be erased without defacing the other. There is such an Union betwixt His Majesty and you, that an injury done him reflects as much dishonour as Ingratitude on yourselves, and the more the Sovereignty is depressed, the more you will ever be trampled upon; so that it is an equal wonder, a Nobleman should ever be a Traitor, as a Son become a Parricide, or a Wife Murder her Husband.  
3. Kingly Government is most accommodated for the safety of the Subject, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Polyb.  and the preservation of Peace and Prosperity in a Nation; the great Bulwark of a Kingdom's Felicity, are in Polybius' Opinion, Concord at home, and Strength against Foreign Invasion: Monarchy prevents the Emulations and Clashing of Subjects for Priority and Power; and so secures the State from Civil Commotions: And by uniting the Subjectsunder one common Head, it provides best against Foreign Encroachments.  
We ourselves know, that the short Misrule of our late Demagogues produced more mischief to their Nation, than the worst of our Monarches ever did, when they most outstretched their Power: And there are rare Instances upon Record of any of our Lawful Sovereigns, whose Miscarriages were not more than pre-ponderated by the Advantages of their Government: Neither Aristocracy, which is but the Grandees bandying into a Faction; or Democracy, which is a confused Popularity ranked into a Sham-Order, can ever make the Subjects so Unite at Home, or so Formidable to their Neighbours as Monarchy will make them; upon which account we may safely and firmly conclude, it is best accommodated for the Honour and Strength, for the Safety and Prosperity of a People.  
And were it not so, the Divine Providence, which disposes all things by the highest Wisdom, exactest Reason, and profoundest Justice, would not so signally own it; and this leads me naturally to the second Head: And that is, the Mysterious, Wonderful and Powerful conduct of Providence, in making good his special Care of Kings, and bringing about their Settlement, notwithstanding all opposition to the contrary; all which is included in this adversative Particle, Yet will I set my King, etc.  
I see Almighty God, not only Accomplishes his Work, but Magnifies and Extols the same; takes complacency in viewing the Parts, in recounting the several Circumstances that may enhance the same: That it may become at once the Object of his Enemy's wonder, and of his own rejoicing; of their Shame, and his Glory: Here in a Holy Triumph, he boasts that maugre all the rage of the Heathen, maugre all the Power of the Kings of the World, the Policy of the Rulers of the Earth; the Combination of their Associates, maugre all their Craft, and Cruelty, maugre their Spite and Strength, he did his work, Yet have I set my King, etc.  
Indeed the Divine Providence is conspicuously Triumphant in baffling the Attempts, and conquering the Enemies of Kingly Government, Yet have I set, etc. The Rage and Plots of God's Adversaries are Illuminating Shades to the Honour of the Victory; and the Glory of the Conquest, he obtains in behalf of his Anointed: O! the Mysterious Conduct of Divine Providence, which sports with the Strength, laughs at the Spite, makes a game of the Policy, and a pastime of the Power of poor Mortals; when levelled against his Purpose, and overrules their Counsels and Actings, to further what they intended to defeat: The Providence of God never appears with greater Lustre, his Oeconomy is never more wonderful, than in Converting the means of crushing, into occasions of more signal consummating his Work; as here, this magnifies his Wisdom, and exalts his Power, that he may well, like a triumphant Conqueror, brave it over his mastered Foes, or like as a Mariner (solaced with the after reflections on the past dangers of his tedious Voyage,) sits down and exults at the whistling of the Wind and the noise of the Waves, when his Ship is securely Harboured, and he himself past danger, Yet have I set, etc.  
This is our King's Birthday, and I know nothing more suitable to this days Solemnity, or the Text, than a few Reflections on some Circumstances relating to his Advancement to the Throne of His Ancestors, which may raise our esteem of God's Wisdom, and beget some Joy and Satisfaction in Us; in the survey of the Conduct of his Providence in subduing his Foes, we are not only truly Thankful enough, except we expand our Thoughts, and stretch our Fancy to contemplate the several Methods, by which the Factious Party sought to Justle Him from His Right: The viewing these in their just Dimensions, may conduce to the further Magnifying the Wisdom, and admiring the Righteousness of God.  
God should not lose his Honour, by omitting any remarkable Passage, or by a careless touch or superficial mentioning of these Stratagems, whereby they sought to cross his Providence, or frustrate his Council, in the Opposition they made against the King: And that the Conduct of Providence may appear in its Beauty; let us take a view of those Difficulties which seemed to obstruct; of these Intricacies which way laid; these Mountains of Opposition which withstood, these Intrigues and Cross actings which were like to Baffle our Sovereign's Ascent to the Throne; let me rip up the various Scenes of the restless Faction, by which they sought, and thought to stop His Passage thereto.  
1. The ordinary Prologue to all Mischief, the Embryo of Sedition, the Cockatrice Egg of Rebellion; repining Complaints, malicious Murmur, discontented Whispers; loaden with which, Designing Men sent to the several Corners of the Nation, to alienate their Hearts from the King, that Then, and now is; and dispose them to take Fire against a fit opportunity for the common Combustion of the Kingdom. The Devil, who himself was the first Rebel, inspires his Followers with cunning, and slight enough to manage his Treasonable Intrigues against Kings: And these Hellish Instruments vent Speeches of doubtful Construction, that like their Master's Responses may be interpreted either to good or evil Purposes in promiscuous Companies: They make such Insinuations against the Government, with Ifs and Ands, with Winks and Nods, and a thousand Grimaces, with Sighs and Sobs, that some well-meaning People are wheedled to think Them the only Patriots, the best Repairers of our Breaches, the fittest Redressers of our Grievances, and Reformers of our Disorders; If a Happy juncture of Affairs could promote such to bear sway: 
In serendo querelas & ambiguos de Galba sermons, Tacitus.  Thus Otho by his sligh Hits at Galba, and ambiguous Expressions concerning him, paved the way to his ruin: O! the pious Regrets, the heavy Sighs, the mournful Complaints these Hypocrites have belched out, with liftedup Eyes and Hands, with mortified Looks, but Cruel Hearts for the Oppressions of the Land: And when they have made Trial of People's Tempers, and disposed some by this previous Art to be of their Party, they advance a step further.  
2. These hollow Blasts and secret Whispers bluster out in scurrilous Libels, pestiferous Pamphlets, and licentious Invectives; whereby the King is Traduced, His Ministers Defamed, His Government Aspersed; These are the little Beagles, the Cruel Hunters, the Ringleaders of the Party, heat and ply the great Beast of many Heads, and few Eyes, and little Brains, (the Populacy with,) before they let go their great Buck-hounds, or appear with Cannons in the Field: These are light Forerunners of Fatal Conspiracies and Tragical Events, the ordinary Premises of Rebellion: Malicious Incendiaries will ever find or fancy Matter for Quarrel in the best modelled Government upon Earth: These who make bold with the King's Name, will not spare his Person, if a concurrence of advantageous Circumstances fall in to second their Hellish purposes: When People are shaken from that Reverence to the King's Name and Person, which is no less the Bulwark of their Safety, than it is the Guardian of the Sovereign's Dignity; there is an open door to all Insolent Invasions on his Authority: The Faction, knowing the Empire our Monarches have in the Hearts of their People, (beyond any other Kings in the World) have ever laboured by Reproaches and Calumnies to Alienate their Affections from them: This is indeed no new Stratagem of the Party; for as our Saviour says, So Persecuted they the Prophets that were before you: So Maligned they with their Libels and virulent Tongues the former Kings; so did they Slander their Ministers of State, Misrepresenting their Actings, and Plotted against their Lives.  
3. There is a Damned Conspiracy under the Flag of a Sham-Popish-Plot, set on foot, and carried on with such Hellish Artifice, as blinded the Wisdom of the Nation: And the Leaders of the Faction in this outdid their Predecessors, who seemed to have been but Puny-Pioneers for undermining the Government, in comparison of these Engineers: How far the King was Imposed upon, and his Parliaments deluded, the Issue (in the sad Executions, which if continued, had exhausted some of the Innocent and best Blood of the Nation,) has left upon Record: And if the Wisdom and Courage of his present Majesty had not a wakened the King, and the Honest of the Land to look about them, and detected the Cheat; We had been destroyed before we had apprehended any Danger: It is an old Remark, 
* Quibus de conjuratione comperta non creditur nisi occisis. Livius.  Conspiracies against the King and Government are not believed till perpetrated: One of the neatest Historians of our Nation, has this Politic Reflection on the Conspiracy against King James I. Which the Universal Benignity of his Nature, being one of the most Accomplished Princes, and best Loved by his People in the World, would not suffer his Council to believe any durst have attempted against so good a Monarch, though yet he perished by it: He says, 
Will. Drummond History James 1.  People believe not any Conjure against his Prince, till they find the Treason take effect; and distrust the Plot till they see him Dead: But the Death of such who are suspected to be Authors of Disorders in a Commonwealth, spares an infinite number of Lives, and much Civil Blood, when they are first surprised; neither are too strict Circumstances of Law to be observed, when a small delay may abolish all observing of Order and Laws: And indeed too much caution is needless, where necessity requires speed; dilatory Methods against Traitors has diminished the Authority of the Monarchy, and given too much time to its Implacable Enemies, to gather strength, and make head against it, to its dissolution.  
When Sedition peeps out through the crevice of Pamphlets and Libels, or shows its Horns in Tumults, it is in its Infancy, and may be suppressed with less expense of Blood and Money: But if it be permitted to commence to its full stature, and break out in a Monstrous Rebellion, the Actors are Burnt with the Flames of their own kindling, and Severity against the Ringleaders, is the Security of the Throne, and the Safety of the Government.  
4. The Party becoming bold, if not impudent with their Success, they'll scorn to deliver their Mind in Slie-insinuations, or ambiguous Phrases: They'll pull off the Mask, they'll quarrel at the King's Prerogative, limit and curtail it by Votes, Exclude the Righteous Heir, and Starve the King by discharging any to supply Him by Loan, or advance on His own Revenue; A Cruelty the meanest of the Nation would have justly counted intolerable; we may rationally enough conclude, these, who would have famished the King, would have cut his Throat if they could; and these, who would not permit him to improve His own, would never help him with theirs in his extremity. God knows, if the King were of such men's dieting, how slender would His Fare prove, how niggardly His Commons, and sorry His Allowance? He would have been little better than another Lazarus at the Gates of these Diveses, only with this dissimilitude, Dives denied but his own, but these Cormorants, would Judas like carry the Purse, snatch at Crown-Lands, and swallow Bishoprics, but starve their owners, as the Defenders of the Good Old-Cause did before.  
Concerning their unmannerly meddling with the King's Prerogative in their Votes, I will only say, if the King had taken advantage of the Offers, which that transport of joy, affection, and zeal, at his Restoration, would have inclined his people to make him; (for then we were as men in a dream, as the Psalmist saith, we had such sorrowful Resentments of our petulant encroachment on the Sovereignty, such severe reflections on our Dis-loyalty, that we thought though we parted with all, we could not , or overact for the Interest of the Monarchy, which we found by the want of it, was the best preservative of our own,) there had not been room now for these Debates anent Prerogative and Privileges, Arbitrary Government, etc. and what not, which are so Seditiously set on foot, and managed so malapertly.  
I will not rake any further into the proceed and practices of a strong Party, in the grand Assembly of the Nation, and other Courts, I find them set out to my hand very lively and justly, 
Miles Burns Sermon before the University of Cambridge, on September 9  by a neater Pen, who has represented with equal Eloquence and Ingenuity, the devices and pragmatical fetches of the Faction.  
I'll only mention one Vote that passed the House, it was, that if any mischief befell the King, be sure the Papists would bear the blame of it, and undergo the punishment, whereby, any Fanatic Miscreant might securely prove Regicid, for by this he was sure not to be questioned or quarrelled; poor Innocents', be't to bear the infamy of the Fact, and fall Victims to expiate the guilt of others. The Papists, or any suspected to be so, were marked out to fall as Sacrifices to the cruel Saviour's of the Nation; for a slander and suspicion, was suffiient probation against these or the King's best friends, when great Degrees of Treason and Sedition in others were minced into Misprision of Treason, little Aborrations, and I know not what.  
This Vote was much like Nostredamus' Sons Prophecy, who foretold the City on such a day should be burnt, and accordingly set on fire, there want not some who Prophecy the very mischief they intent to perpetrate, there are who even wish these Confusions, they would bear the World in hand, they desire not to come to pass, and by faint speaking against slily animate people to these Seditious Methods and Treasonable Practices, they pretend to abominate; they give Life to these dangerous fears, unjust jealousies, and malignant discontents, they seem to harangue and remonstrate against. This is a refined piece of knavery the party has often used, even to wound the Government with such seeming kind, but venomous, Insinuations, and vent their malice in Charity's Livery; how like this is to his Hypocrisy, who betrayed our Saviour with a kiss, I leave you to determine.  
If it be now questioned, whether the Popish, or Fanatic Party, be most dangerous to the Government? or which of these, was the late King, or his present Majesty is in most hazard? To this I say, we all know who acted upon the Father, what was alleged others Plotted and Contrived against the Son; have not our King, our Nobles, our Priests, been dragged to Gibbets, haled to Scaffolds, made Tragical Spectacles of Ignominy and Dis-honour, by the cruel malice of the One, while the other ventured their Lives, and wasted their Fortunes, to serve and save oppressed Majesty, and support the Throne, when it was tottering? Did not some of the Romish Communion cleave to the King in His extremity, when, Loyalty was a Crime, and Rebellion Triumphant, while the other tacked about with the Times, stooped to prosperous Villainy, and Adored the mock-Idol of Tyranny and Oppression, of their own setting up. Have not State-Committies of Safety, and Kirke-Commissions for Reformation, belched out as cruel Edicts against men's Persons, Lives, Liberties, Offices, and Estates, and put them in Execution, with as much severtiy, as ever the Spanish Inquisition? Have not Home-Conventicles, and Republican-Clubs, sent out sparks, to the disturbance of the Peace, and the shaking of the Government, these several years, beyond any thing the Romish-Conclave was able to effectuate.  
If the one twit the Papists with a Jack Clement, who Murdered a King, they'll tell you of a more daring wickedness in Jack Presbyter, who Murdered another, but with some more ceremonious Sanctity, mock-Justice, and such like shameless Circumstances of damned Hypocrisy: 
One of the Murderers of the Archbishop of St. Andrews.  If you tell them of a Ravilliac, they'll answer, a Rathillat no more resembles the Name, than transcribed the Villainy. And now shall we think the Principles of Deposing Kings more Savoury in the Mouths of fanatics, than in some Popish-School-men? Shall we think the practice of King-killing and Assassinating Bishops, when it is for Religion, more Hallowed in Schismatical Butchers, than in some Romish Miscreants? Yet the Actors of these Barbarities, are the Chariots and Horsemen of Israel, the Patrons of God's Cause, the Precious ones of the Lord, the Saints and Martyrs of the Faction: But if these be the Prime Candidates of Heaven; then Shimei and Rabshakeh, Corah and Judas, and all the men of Belial need not question Assurance.  
5. The Faction think not themselves secure without a Covenant; they had experience of the Serviceableness of this to their Hellish Purposes: This was the Gideon Sword, with which they Threshed the Monarchy, and Sequestered the Church, cut off the Crown, and threw down the mitre: But they knew the Name was odious, and the Court would scent the Design, that well-meaning People would startle at the mention of a Word so Fatal to the Nations; as we cannot see the very Instruments wherewith our Friends are Butchered; and there is something I know not what in the Names of venomous Creatures, that grate our Ears, fret our Blood, and touch us with a secret Horror, so the Word Covenant would Alarm the Loyal of the Land, it must be smoothed and minced for these Ostrich-stomaches, tender of any thing but Monstrous Villainies, for these delicate Ears only erected for Seditious News, into an Association: But as Pirates change their Flag, but not their Purpose; Highwaymen their Habit, but not their Practice; Beasts of Prey their Habitations, but not their Savage Nature; so Rebels, retain their Bloody Designs under all Disguises: And as their Arch-leader Cromwell would not be called King, that he might act the Tyrant, and play the Destroyer in a Protectors habit; so the Covenant must be Antiquated, and an Association substituted in its room; and these are as like one another, as Judas and Iscariot, as Convertible as Cromwell and Usurper.  
It was truly strange, that after all our dear bought Experience, after the Blessings of the Restoration of the Monarchy, and our own Restitution to our Rights and Liberties thereby; after all the Discoveries of the Party, which a little glance backward might give people; any should have been deluded twice in one Age, by the very same Stratagems: There is a certain fascination in Sedition, when it can so successfully erect its Trophies on People's Credulity, and Debauch a Nation twice in one Age by the selfsame Methods.  
All Grand Conspiracies against the Government are carried on under a Sham-zeal for Religion, a Counterfeit Affection to the Public, a Crocodile Pity for oppressed Liberty, an earnest desire to Redress Grievances, and when these are managed with a Stentorian Voice, and Senatorian Gravity, with Shaftsburian Harangues, and Cromwelian Devotions, with Long Parliament Preachments, and Assembly Fasts, with Misplaced Curses, and Misapplyed Texts; with an O Yes, O Yes, the Cause of God, the Cause of God, and the other circumstances of Pageantry, which were tedious to rehearse; down must all go without pity, and the Work goes bravely on, though the King be Butchered, Religion Destroyed, under pretence of Defending of it it, Property fall Victim to the keenest or longest Sword, and Arbitrariness Introduced under a counterfeit Flag of staving it off.  
When the same Antimonarchical Principles Jealousies and Pretences, (the Blinds under which Treason and Murder made their advance formerly) are now set on foot, though some of the Actors be changed, the same fatal Game is certainly intended to be Reacted in the Nation: This is not the Fanciful Idea of a Cloistered Monk, or the Chimerical fear of a Melancholy man; this is not the contemplative Notion of a sarcastical Wit, this is not a remote possibility, or uncertain contingency, but what we have heard with our Ears, saw with our Eyes, felt on our Backs, and known to our Cost.  
6. Sedition produces not all its ill Effects at once, but mends its pace by degrees, till it burst out in Thunder and drop Blood; thus impudently (after these several steps) it shows it bare face in a formidable Rebellion, Private Whispers, Licentious Invectives, Secret Conspiracies, Pragmatical meddlings, Presumptuous Encroachments, Factious Bandying ushered an open Rebellion in both Kingdoms. I will not interrupt the Joy of this day, by grating your Ears with recounting the dismal Consequences had issued upon the success of this Rebellion; if Providence had permitted so far the punishment of our Sins: Nor will I expatiate in aggravating the Injustice of the Attempt, or the perfidious Ingratitude and Treachery of the Actors; the Scars we yet retain of our late unhappy Troubles (which the signal Advantages of the Restitution of the Government, the Clemency of the late King, and the Conduct of our present Sovereign, (who then bore a great part of the Care without the Crown) have much worn off) are no sadder Indications of what is past, than Prognostics of the Calamitous events we had groaned under, if the Rebellion had prospered: And that will easily appear, if you consider these two particulars.  
1. The respite the Loyal of the Land had by the Blessings of the Restoration, has set the Teeth of Rebels on edge, who like Tigers and Woolves, and such Savage Creatures, have their edge whetted by being withheld so long from their Prey: And God knows, if they should Triumph over our Liberties and Trample our Honour in the Dust a second time, by a Prosperous Rebellion, without any Metaphor, our latter end would have been worse than the beginning: O what Cruel Imposers on the Consciences of others? What Violent Invaders of Property? What Insolent Oppressions of our Freedom, have they formerly proved, by which we may rationally conjecture, as they are improved in Cunning and Impudence for carrying on the same Villainous Methods, there cruelty were no less, if put in the same circumstances of Power and Opportunity.  
2. As their Malice was increased, so was their Hypocrisy, and Rebellion never marches more furiously, or Harasses more cruelly, than when it strikes and Fights in the Name of the Lord; when it comes with a Curse ye Meroz because they came not to help the Lord against the mighty; And Cursed be he that doth the Work of the Lord negligently, or keepeth back his Sword from Blood: A Religious Rebel, a Seditious Saint, a Gifted Brother, a Godly Schismatic with the Bible in one Hand, and a Dagger in the other; with the Kingdom of Christ in his Mouth, and Spite against the King in his Heart, will exceed a Jew in Obstinacy, a Turk in Cruelty; yea, out do an Indian in Barbarity.  
Thus I have drawn a Scheme of the Actings of the Party, unfolded their Wind, diffected their Artifice, by which they sought to Dethrone the King that lately was, and Exclude His present Majesty, in whose Exaltation to, and Preservation on the Throne, in despite of all the Machinations of the Faction, God has signally vindicated his Providence, and manifested his Care of Crowned Heads: That now like a triumphant Conqueror in a Holy Boast, he may say, Why did the Faction rage, and the People imagine a vain thing? Why did Grandees Combine? And Rulers take Council together? For all their Opposition, Yet have I set my King, etc. And we may say, He that sitteth in Heaven hath Laughed; the Lord has had them in Derision, he hath spoken to them in his Wrath, and vexed them in his sore displeasure.  
We now see God suffers Rebellious Contrivances to go on to some pitch of Maturity, and make some Progress, as the gradual steps of Advancement the restless Faction made; but it is for the further Confusion of the Actors, and the Illustration of his own Glory, in their more signal overthrow: For if such Courses were nipped in the Bud, or made too soon Abortive; it would bring less Shame to the Authors, less Terror to others, fewer Admirers of his Providence, or Reverers of his Justice: And this is a signal indication of God's peculiar Interest in our King, and special Care over him: That when the Party had closely and cunningly laid their Projects in their Clandestine Cabals, and brought them to the point of Execution, He disappointed their Devices, 
Job. 5.12.13.  that their Hands could not perform their interprises; He took the Wise in their own Craftiness and precipitated their Counsel: Yet have I set my King upon my Holy Hill of Zion.  
As God rejoices in bafling the Attempts, detecting the Cheats, confounding the Policies, and Conquering the opposition of His and the King's Foes, here, Yet have I, etc. So, let us in such miraculous trains of Providence, whereby the Plots and Power of the King's Enemies are defeat; let us Glory and Boast in the Name of the Lord, Who giveth Salvation unto Kings, and stilleth the Tumults of the People: Let us Triumph in such events of his Providence, as seal particular care of the King, his Affection to his Person, his concernedness for his Interest; with whose Preservation the Security of our Laws, the freedom of our Religion, the Honour of our Nation is twisted. Let us say with Ahimaaz, 
2 Sam 18.28.  Blessed be the Lord which hath delivered up the men, that lift up their Hand against my Lord, the King: Now know we, that the Lord saveth his Anointed; he will hear him from his Holy Heaven; By the strength of his Right hand he hath wrought Salvation for us: Some trust in Chariots, 
Psal. 20.  and some in Horses: But we will remember the Name of the Lord our God: They are brought down and fallen that risen up against us: But we are risen and stand upright. Behold, as Aged Men are revived with a present solace at the successful Encounters, and mastered Misfortunes, of their Youth: Or Travellers ravished in their Repose, with rehearsal of their toilsome Pilgrimage; so may we rejoice in consideration of the mysterious Conduct of Divine Providence, by which our King and the Nations have escaped.  
From the Conduct of Divine Providence in Settling our King on the Throne of his Ancestors, maugre all the opposition to the contrary: Let no cunning Achitophel flatter himself in his close-laid Designs; or Treacherous Absalon pride himself in his Power or Popularity: We see God either frustrates their Devices, 
Job. 5.12.  or weakens their strength, that they cannot accomplish them, or ensnares them in their own Craft, or precipitates their Counsels to their own undoing. The Policy of Man is too shallow to grapple with Infinite Wisdom; and his Power too weak to oppose Omnipotency. God beats men often with their own Weapons, and turns their Stratagems against themselves to their ruin, plays his Game by their Hand, when they least intent it; causeth their Policy to counteract itself, in accomplishing what it was designed to baffle, as in the case of Joseph, Moses, Jonah, and our Sovereign; we may transfer to the fraudulent practices of the Enemies of the King, what Jethro said of the Egyptians, in the thing they dealed proudly, God is above them; in the thing they dealed treacherously, God was above them: Yet have I set my King, etc.  
Let these who took encouragement to persist in their Villainies from the success of their Rebellion, and aspersed Providence upon this score, as approving their Treasons, like that Atheist, who, upon his fair gale, after he plundered the Temple, cried out, O behold, how God loves Sacrilege: Let them now behold, how God vindicates himself; and dashes their confidence, in detecting their Plots, and baffling their Attempts, in infatuating their Council, and crushing their Power; and now quit all Enterprises against that, which God so signally in the issues of his Providence takes under his Patrociny and favourable Protection: Let them now see their Argument turned against themselves; we see the Chase is quite turned: And though Providence suffer Treason and Rebellion to vapour it for a time, and bear all like a torrent before them: Yet she will not prostitute herself to befriend them still, she will not be violented long to favour Rebellion with success, or crown Treasons with Triumphs: God hath more than sufficiently vindicated his permissive Providence in winking at the Indignities done Charles the I. by his special care of his Posterity, in preserving them in their Exile; in returning them with such universal Acclamations, in advancing two of them peaceably to the Throne of their Ancestors, for all the Plots of their Foes, the policies of their Heads, the malice of their Hearts, or opposition of their Hands; And next the Miracle of the Restoration of Charles the II. The advancement of our present Gracious Sovereign to His Throne, through so many Difficulties, Intricacies and Obstacles, is matter of astonishment to all considering Persons; and speaks out a Chain of special Providence that encircles Kings: We may say, 
Psal. 118.23.  It is the Lord's doing, and is marvellous in our Eyes; we will rejoice and be glad for it.  
The consideration of the Mysterious tract of the Divine Providence in behalf of the King, in mastering all the Lets, and conquering the hindrances of his just and deserved Exaltation to his Throne, may encourage Him and Us to trust the Divine Goodness for His Majesty's future Prosperity: These Oppositions in the Morning of his Reign, were but mists, through which he has broken Victoriously with Splendour: And we may rationally hope the rest of his days will be more Serene, and his End, like the Sun's Declension, in a beautiful Cloud: We need not fear his future Peaceful Reign; Seditions, Conspiraties, when they are detected, Popular Tumults, when they are suppressed, Intestine Insurrections, when they are crushed, Sham-Plots and Sancy Competitions, when they are basted, are the Security of the Throne, and the establishment of the Government: These are like Winds, which shake and threaten to pluck up Trees, yet strengthen their rooting; or like these morning Clouds which Eclipse the Sun, or darken the Air, but leave the one more sprightly, and the other more clear: That Chain of Providence which preserved him in his Exile, where the disaster of his Fortune did not depress the Gallantry of his Spirit, (as usually falls out in persons of an Ordinary Elevation) but it broke forth in his Military Encounters, to the Conquest of his Enemies, and the astonishment of his Beholders, and wonderfully restored Him and his Sacred Brother to their undoubted Rights, will not desert Him: These former instances are Ensurances to Us; He is God's darling, and the Object of his special Care, happy Presages of the same Providence, watchful Eye and tender regard of him still; We may allude to what David says, 
1 Sam. 17.37.  He that delivered him from the paw of the Lion, and out of the paw of the Bear, will not leave him in the hand of the Philistines: 
2 Chr. 1.10.  He that hath delivered him, and doth deliver him, will make his Days Many, His Reign Prosperous, His Enemies As straw trodden down for the Dunghill, 
Isa. 25.10.  His Subjects Happy, His Crown Flourishing, and his Armies Victorious.  
And it cannot be doubted but it will be so, if we answer the Design of Providence, and our Duty in Loyalty and Obedience; we should convince the World, that though the King be of a different Religion from us, yet Loyalty towards Him is an essential Ingredient of ours: Let us labour to exceed Papists in Affection to his Person, Obedience to his Laws, and Concernedness for the Safety of his Crown, and the Happiness of his Reign, that we may vindicate ourselves and our Religion from the unjust Aspersions of any Adversary: So the King, like a Loving Father, will make no discrimination, in the distribution of his Favour and Protection, for the different Features of his Children: We see this, and thank the King for it already; and we need not jealous the continuance of it, so long as we persevere in our Duty: Nothing can make us unhappy under his Government, or obstruct from us the benign Influences of the Throne, but our own ungovernableness: Let us, by all Offices of Humanity and Charity, treat our Fellow Subjects without distinction, since we all Worship one God, and serve one King, and hope to meet all in one Heaven: Let us forbear bitter Railing and Reviling, for there may be more of a hellish Spirit in that, than there is of Antichristianism in some objects of our Rage: And since our Hearts and Affections, our Prayers and Devotion meet in one Centre, as to the King's Welfare and Happiness; let this unite us in Love and Peaceableness together; let our contest be, which shall exceed one another in Loyalty and Humanity; not like the Briar and the Thistle, which shall rankle one another most, or fret our Superiors; but let it be, like that betwixt the Vine and the Olive, which shall be most beneficial; like that of Aristides to Themistocles, 
Plutarch vita Themist.  Laying aside private Piques, let us study which of us can be most Serviceable to our Country, most Dutiful to our Sovereign, and helpful to one another.  
And to rivet this Loyalty in your Hearts, let me offer some Considerations from Nature, from Reason, from Religion, and Interest. First, what Curtius observes, 
Ingenita quibusdam gentibus erga reges suos veneratio. Curtius.  That some Climates and Nations are naturally more disposed to revere and affect their Kings, than others, is true of the Body of our Nation: And of all People under Heaven, We are under the greatest Obligation to our Monarchy, and to assert the Kings Right; for two thousand years we knew no other Government, and the Reins were held in a Lineal Succession by the Forefathers of his Sacred Majesty, who now Happily sways the Sceptres over us: The Scotish Nation has been famed all the World over for its Loyalty and Courage; this was the Genius and Complexion of our Country, until our late unhappy Times; a Scots Traitor was of Old as contradictory, as a Drunken Christian, or an Innocent Robber: And it had been so still, if a new Sect or  Party had not sprung up here, and in our Neighbour Kingdom; who could reconcile Godliness and Villainy, Sacrilege and Saintship, Religion and Rebellion; great pretenders to Strictness, but affectors of Looseness; of strong Faith, but little Charity; of great Devotion, but little Honesty; of specious Names, but vicious Natures; of fair Pretences, but foul and abominable Practices: These, these, were they that debauched the Nation from its Integrity, and depraved some People with Disloyalty; God grant, we may recover our Ancient Reputation, and repair the Credit of our Country, by a steadfast Adherence to the Crown; 
Nunquam libertas gratior extat quam sub re●epto. C●audia.  and make some Compensation for the Indignities done the Father, the Disservice done the Son, the Ingratitude done the Duke, by a Dutiful Allegiance to the King.  
2. We have the greatest reason in the World to engage us to persevere in Loyalty; 
In regno naei sumus ubi parere est libertas. Seneca.  We live under a Monarchy that is the best tempered in the World, our Liberty and Happiness depends on our Obedience; and these are so twisted with the Sovereignity, that they stand or fall, live and die together: We have a King, whose tender years have not been corrupted with Luxury, but one who bore the yoke in his youth, and hath been early disciplined to Hardship, in whom there is nothing of Softness or Effeminacy to encourage the most daring Rebel: We have a King, who is no Novice to the Intrigues of State or Mines of Policy, one that will not be imposed on by the Craft of any Achitophel; one who is habituated to the difficulties of Government, whose Vigilance eased the Care, whose Policy prospered the Reign, of his Royal Brother, whose Sagacity detected afar off the Rebellious Designs of a Monstrous teeming Faction then, whose Courage and Resolution dashed their Impudence, and crushed their Insolence since: We live under a King, whose Stoutness and Conduct, whose Valour and Gallantry, has made him the Terror of his Foes, the Envy of his Neighbours, and the Darling of his Subjects. The Benignity of the King's Temper, the Clemency of his Nature, the Gentleness of his Reign, (which perhaps is beyond parallel; that for the Rebellion lately commenced, none fell in this Capital City, the seat of Public Justice, but two, by the Hand of the common Executioner) the firmness of his Word, which he signalised to the exasperating of a daring Faction; these, with the constellation of the other Royal Virtues which adorn his great Soul, are Presages of more Prosperity to those Nations from his Government, (though he differ from us in Points of Faith and Matters of Worship) than could be expected from a Spurious Competitor, or a Protestant Usurper: And when I have said so, I have wronged none by the Comparison but the King, and I am at his Mercy for it: But still I'll assert, we have all the Reason imaginable to maintain his undoubted Title with our Lives and Fortunes, against all the Protestant Rebels in the World: And that because,  
3. Our Religion ties us thereto, Loyalty is the Glory of the Truly Protestant Religion: And these who act otherwise, have its Form, but not its Power, and treat it not otherwise, than Joah did Amasa, under colour of affection to its Name, wound it under the fifth rib. No Religion in the World, no System of Divinity, no platform of Morality, no model of Policy, which the Sages of Greece, or the Senators of Rome ever invented, pressed Loyalty from such convincing Topics, or rational Arguments, as our Religion: Our Duty to the King stands on the same Basis in our Religion, with our Duty to God; its performance encouraged with the same Eternal Reward, riveted with the same weighty Considerations, its omission or neglect attended with the same Penalties and Dangers, that are entailed on contempt of God, or the greatest wickedness: Our Religion is no more positive against Whoredom and Drunkenness, than it is against Treason and Rebellion: And among us a Rebel against the King, under whatsoever pretence, is no more an Unnatural Scot than a Hypocritical Protestant: And so long as we Live and Act according to the Principles of our Religion, our Zeal for that will never make us Factious or Seditious: And the King will be encouraged to protect us in the Exercise of it. Therefore,  
4. Interest, which in this Selfish Age preponderates all other Considerations, should have a mighty influence on Loyalty and Peaceableness; Liberty and Property, the Darlings of Mankind, the Hue and Cry of the Faction, are never in hazard; but when the Sovereignity is invaded, and Prerogative impaired: We rebelled ourselves into Tyranny and Slavery, into Rapine and Oppression, Arbitrariness and Irreligion: He, that would comfortably enjoy the Fruit of his own Vine, and sit with Ease under his own Figtree, can do it most contentedly, when the King, like the Sun in a serene day, diffuses his warm and kindly Beams without disturbance: Our Liberty consists in our Obedience, our Submission to our Sovereign's Will is the rise of our Felicity: These, who seek to better their Estate by Sedition, are often undone by their Rebellion: We have bleeding Instances of these, who have fallen from their Legitimate Grandeur, by affecting and aspiring after unjust Greatness.  
For Conclusion, let me add these three Directions, which may be helpful to preserve us in Loyalty to the King; and they are patly adjusted to what I have already said, and to our Circumstances.  
1. Let us not entertain in our mind's Discontent at the public Administration of Affairs; It is out of the abundance of the Heart the Mouth speaketh, the Hand acteth; if our Hearts be seasoned with Affection to the King: Neither Murmurs nor Invectives will find matter within us to work on; People may be overawed from Seditions Speeches and Practices by the Severity of the Law, and the Watchfulness of Rulers: But if Discontent be harboured in our Spirits, it will break out on the first opportunity: The more wary we are this way, the Government is more Safe, and we the more Happy; People that resolve within them prejudice against their Rulers, are driven to shoot beyond their Mark, and commit Outrages they never dreamed, nor thought possible for them once to have fallen into: I believe Judas never intended to commence Traitor, when he began to play the Thief, nor did his Follower's purpose to bring the King to a Scaffold, when they first indulged themselves in Maligning his Government, and Aspersing his Person; but in no Sin more than in Sedition and Treason: They must needs run whom the Devil drives; Beware then of Discontent, the very first Seeds of Mischief.  
2. Let us never be Imposed upon by the same Stratagems, by which we were formerly deluded; the Clamorous Harangues of some Factious Demagogues against Tyranny and Arbitrary Government; which were never felt till the King was dethroned and Rebellion Prosperous: The great Darlings of the Populacy, are Religion and Property; and these cunning Men that ride it as they please, make Zeal for these, a Coverture for their Covetous Projects and Ambitious Designs: And People are so easily tickled with the Beauty of the Pretence, that they are precipitated or e'er they are ware into dismal Courses, destructive in the Issue to both: So that they are made to truckle under their Usurpation, who pretended the greatest affection to their Liberty, and vapour it with the property of the Subject, and the Sacrilegious Spoils of the Church: Tyranny is a Child of the Crowd; and never any have more furiously Spurgalled that great Beast, than those who have crouched and fanned to cajole it; and when it is wheedled out of its Wit and Interest, as well as out of its Submission and Obedience; there is something set up like Massinello in Naples; something, as a Judicious and Loyal Author has it, That is a King Incognito, 
Nalson's common In●erest cap. 4.  or in Disguise, or a Tyrant in the Dress of a private Man; though he were called, The Protector of the Nation.  
As Satan is never more to be dreaded, than when he transforms himself into an Angel of Light; and is never more a Devil, than when he appears a Saint: So the Enemies of the Government are never more to be suspect, than when they speak much good of God, and ill of the King; and think their Zeal for the former, a Passport for Injuries done the Later; whereas God in his Word, makes Obedience to our Superiors, the Test of our Dutifulness to himself: Do not think, after our dear-bought Experience of the Hypocrisy of the Party, that their specious Pretences for Religion and Liberty will justify, yea or extenuate our sordid compliance, for all our good meaning.  
There is not the least question, but as in Absalom's unnatural Rebellion, some in the simplicity of their Heart went with the Drove; so in our late Wars, many well-meaning persons were cheated out of their Duty and Loyalty, who came too late to their Wits, the just conviction of their Folly, or a due sense of their Sin, when they found they were deceived; their honest Meaning mis-improven, their Help mis-applyed, even to the ruin of what they intended to maintain and promote: Yet what the better was the King of their Honest Intentions or Loyal Affections, when they were active Instruments of bringing about the Mischiefs, under which He and the Kingdoms were Oppressed: Their Honest Meaning might extenuate their Fault, and blunt the edge of their self-stinging Reflections, and put them in probable capacity of God's Mercy and the King's Clemency; because they might say with the Apostle, They did it in Ignorance; But in the Issue there was no difference, God and the King, Religion and the Government, Liberty and Property, suffered by the Zealous mistakes of the deluded Innocents', as well as by the furious practices of Designing Incendiaries: Nay, the more really Honest some were, who were stolen off their Feet, the more Pernicious was their Error in Debauching others from their Duty; the more influential their example to the detriment of the King, and the ruin of the Nation.  
Let us reflect on the Tragical Catastrophe, and dismal end of Treason and Rebellion; 
Consilia callida & inhonesta prima fronte festa, tractatu dura, eventu tristia. Liv. lib. 31.  seditious Attempts and Designs, how pleasing soever they seem to be in the beginning; how promising and flattering soever they appear in their first Aspect, yet in the Progress they prove dangerous, and in the Issue fatal. The fond hopes of aspiring Spirits, by which they build Castles in the Air, flatters them to their undoing, like some Serpents, which tickle and wound at once; and that which in the Project promises them a great reward and advantage, is in the Issue full of danger and difaster: The fair Designs of Traitors, are but the haught and painted Images of a deceitful Dream, instead of which they meet with an inglorious End. Many Instances from divine and human Stories could be adduced of this kind; ambitious Men, who leap to Greatness too soon, repent their Madness too late, and often Hopp without Heads; but few read their own Destiny in such sad Precedents as are on Record, or look upon such fatal Examples as their own Mirrors, though few or no Sins bear greater Stigmas of Divine Vengeance, or marks of Human Justice than Treason and Rebellion; the Fomenters or Promoters of such Villainies are scorched with the Flames of their own kindling: And were there no more to caution us against such Practices, than the tender consideration of our Families, who would embark with a Factious Party, if it were no more but for this, that the Dowry and Inheritance he leaves his Wife and Children, are Poverty and Infamy; and though the Clemency of the King forgive the Gild, yet this removes not the Ignominy. Well! let me shut up all with Solomon's advice, Fear God and Honour the King, and meddle not with those that are given to Change: 
Prov. 24.21, 22.  For their Calamity shall arise suddenly, and who knoweth the ruin of them both.  
FINIS.