A SERMON Preached in CHRIST-CHURCH, CORK, IN THE Kingdom of Ireland: Upon the 23d of April, 1696.  
BEING The DAY appointed for a public Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the Preservation of His MAJESTY's Sacred Person, and these NATIONS, from the late Horrid Conspiracy and Designed Invasion.  
By Walter neal, D. D.  
LONDON: Printed for Abel Swall and Tim. Child, at the West-end of St. Paul's Church-Yard. 1696.   
PSALM 144. the 9th & 10th Verses. 
I will sing a new Song unto thee, O God, upon a Psaltery and an Instrument of ten Strings will I sing unto thee: It is he that giveth Salvation unto Kings; who delivereth David his Servant from the hurtful Sword.  
AS the militant State which the Church of Christ is in, in this World( beset with as many Dangers as Enemies) calls upon all the Members of it not only to put on their Spiritual armor, but to secure the strongest of Allies, the Lord of Hosts to their side, by frequent Fasting, Supplications and Prayers; So every gleam of Victory and Success( since we shall not be perfectly triumphant till the Consummation of all things) but more especially remarkable Deliverance, should be gratefully acknowledged to be owing to his Assistance and Providence, and challenge the just Returns of Praise and Thanksgiving.  
This the Law of Nature, this the Law of God, and this the Command of the Government at present requires of us, in the Commemoration of those signal Mercies which are expressed in the Proclamation, the defeating a barbarous Design of Assassinating the King, and a French Invasion; and which I shall particularly insist upon when I come to my Application.  
In the mean time in order to our due Solemnizing this Festival, give me leave to propound to your View and Imitation the Example of holy David, a King and a Prophet: One who had experienced both the extremes of God's Providence, and knew how devoutly to behave himself in either: Afflictions made him humble and penitent, and Deliverances joyful and thankful; the former were the Subject and Cause of his Prayers, and the latter of his Praises; of which this Psalm seems to be an Epitome or Compendium.  
For tho' the Title of it in the Septuagint, and the Chaldee Paraphrase of the 10th Verse, mention goliath, as if it were written upon the occasion of that Victory; both the Situation of it,( almost at the latter end of the Book of Psalms) and the Context itself, show it to have been of a great deal later date, that is, when David was settled upon his Throne, when he was delivered, not only from his Enemies round about him, but from Insurrections within his own State; when God had subdued his People under him, ver. 2. from Treasons and Conspiracies, from Men of falsehood and under-hand Dealing, at the 8th and the 11th verses; whose Words, as they were not to be trusted, so their Oaths, as the arabic Version intimates, were too weak and brittle to bind them up to the practise of Loyalty or Fidelity. When he is, I say, delivered from all these, he breaks out, I will sing a new Song unto thee, O God, upon a Psaltery and an Instrument of ten Strings will I sing Praises unto thee: It is he that giveth Salvation unto Kings, that delivereth David his Servant from the hurtful Sword.  
In which words you may be pleased to observe,  

I. David's Joy and Thankfulness; in which may be considered, 

1st. The virtue itself; and,  
2dly. The Manner of expressing it.    
II. The Reason of these his Praises; which is twofold, 

1st. In general, because it is God that giveth Salvation unto Kings; and,  
2dly. More particular, because he delivered this King, even David his Servant from the hurtful Sword.     
To begin with the first of these, David's Praise and Thanksgiving, I will sing Praises unto thee.  
Whether an exact Uniformity of Worship, or different Modes of it, according to the Genius of particular Persons or Nations,( as some have thought) may be more acceptable to God, and suitable to Mankind, we will not inquire: Yet certainly that part of it in which all agree, must be looked upon as a Dictate of Nature, as an eternal Law of God, and therefore a most necessary part of Natural Religion. Mens Prayers may be as different as their Inclinations and Interests: Some may make Victims of that which others adore for Gods; but Praise is the universal Sacrifice in which all consent and agree. No Nation so rude and barbarous, no People so much without Law, or the Sentiments of Nature,( shall I say) as not to rank Ingratitude among the blackest of Vices, and to show their Thanks by their Praise.  
Whilst Mortification and Penitance carry on an Interest, and seem to have designs on Heaven, this generous Duty without the blushes of a shame-faced Beggar, boldly offers that which God himself does not scorn to accept.  
Praise and Thankfulness differ only as a part, and the whole; the former, I say, is one part of the latter. Now Gratitude or Thankfulness is that virtue by which we make some convenient or fitting Return to another, for some Benefit received of him: And of this there are three parts.  

1st. In the Heart.  
2dly. In the Tongue; and,  
3dly. In the Hand.   
1st. In the Heart to acknowledge the Benefit. Our Praises are but Ironies and Mockeries, no better than the Soldiers, Hail King of the Jews, unless our Hearts go along with them. In which, to beget a due value and estimate of the Mercy received, be it what it will, it will be very proper to consider; The Giver, The Benefit itself, The Manner of giving, The Time when, and the Persons receiving. All which Circumstances( which I can but mention) duly weighed, especially in public Mercies and Deliverances, cannot but make us hearty sensible of God's Favours, and consequently thankful.  
2dly. There is a Gratitude of the Tongue, and that is it particularly which we call Praise and Thanksgiving; expressing the Tribute of a grateful Heart by suitable words, in commendation of the Benefactor, no less than acceptance of the Benefit. As the former is internal, this is external; to show to Men that temper of Heart, which is only visible to him who is the Searcher of it. God's Praises ought to be no less public than cheerful; Our honouring of him openly being an Excitement and Invitation to others to do the same, and so making his Name glorious among the Nations. And hence it was that David was not satisfied with his private Return of Praise in the Wilderness, but longed and panted as the Hart did after the water-brooks, to go with the multitude to the House of God, with the voice of Joy and Praise with the multitude that kept holiday.  
3dly, and lastly; There is a Thankfulness in the Hand; that is, such a kind of Gratitude that is shewed in dead as the former is in Word; by some Action or other endeavouring, according to our Abilities or Opportunities, to repay the Favour received. But in the Mercies of God( because as far above requital, as they are inestimable) we must express our Gratitude by performing acceptable Service to him, by avoiding Sin, by being merciful as he is merciful, forgiving as we desire Forgiveness, and giving of our own abundance to the poor, which are his Receivers, and which he will at last own as done unto himself. 
Mat. 25. 40   
Having thus briefly shewed what the Duty is, I come now to the second thing, David's way of expressing it, By Singing and Instruments of music; I will sing a new Song unto thee, O God, upon a Psaltery and an Instrument of ten Strings will I sing Praises unto thee.  
There hath not been a greater Prejudice against a pious devout course of living, or a more obstructive Impediment of Christianity, than an Opinion that it is an unpleasant tedious kind of a morose Life; a thing that lays a restraint upon all our Faculties, Passions and Pleasures, or rather that wholly denies the use of them all, and introduceth a kind of a Stoical Apathy. We confess that the Doctrine of Christ moderates our Passions, but doth not quiter destroy them; it abridgeth us of nothing but Excess, in which all 'vice, and Pain too, consists, and consequently makes our Pleasures greater by making them less. The Passions have certainly some use in Nature, or else surely God had never created them in Man: And our Saviour Christ came not to destroy the Law of Nature, any more than that of the Jews, but only to fulfil, accomplish and perfect both. Particularly this Joy, so natural to Man, so far is it from not becoming a Christian,( as some would make us believe) that the Apostle gives it the second place in his Catalogue of the fruits of the Spirit, Love, Joy, Peace, and which whoever denies it, I fear 
Gal. 5. 22.  wants the first of them, Love or Charity. The very name of the Gospel, 〈◇〉, signifies Good-news, or tidings of great Joy, and the whole design of it seems to be Joy and Comfort to all the World.  
Neither is it more sinful to express this Joy by singing or playing upon Instruments of music, which hath been the Custom( and that in H. Scripture no where condemned) not only of Christianity, but even of all Religions and States that ever were in the World. music was always thought to have something Divine and Charming in it: It is an endowment like Religion peculiar to Man alone, and which upon excess of Joy he so naturally breaks into, that the Delights of Heaven are expressed by little else but That and Love. And therefore the twenty four Elders before the Throne of God and 
Revel. 5. 8.  the Lamb, are said to have had Harps in their Hands. Hence all Religions, as endeavouring to use themselves here to what they hoped to be accomplished with hereafter, admitted Anthems and Instruments of music in their Devotions. I might instance in the Hymns to Jupiter, Mercury, Apollo, in the Orgia and Dithyrambicks to Bacchus, &c. the sound of the Cornet, Flute, Harp, Sackbut, Psaltery and Dulcimer, and all kinds of music before the golden Image which nabuchadnezzar 
Dan. 3. 5.  the King sat up. I might instance in those Jewish Feasts which were a part of their Religion, called 〈◇〉 from 
Deut. 16. 14.  the dancing used in them; and from which therefore, as from other Sacrifices, the Women( as the modern rabbis say) were not to be absent. I might instance in David, not only in his Exhortations all over this Book of Psalms, but in his Example, 2 Sam. 6. where it is said that he and all the house of Israel played on all sorts of Instruments, and danced before the Ark: Which tho' it were displeasing to Michal,( which by the way was an effect of jealousy rather than a just Dislike of the thing itself, as you may see by the Context) 
ver. 20.  was so acceptable to God, that he shewed his Approbation 
ver. 23.  of that by punishing her with Barrenness to her Death. Nay, we red that he ordained the use of Singing and Playing in the public Service; which, tho' intermitted for some time, was again revived by that good King Hezekiah; 
2 Chron. 29. 25.  Who set the Levites in the house of the Lord with Cymbals, with Psalteries, and with Harps, according to the Commandment of David, and of Gad the King's Seer, and Nathan the Prophet: for so was the Commandment of the Lord. And it followeth immediately after, that the Song of the Lord began 
ver. 27.  with the Trumpets and the Instruments, &c.  
Neither did this Custom cease at our Saviour's coming, for we red of the Hymni antelucani in the Emperor Trajan's time, to whom Pliny by Letter gives an account that the 
Lib. 10. epist. 101.  Christians met together before day to praise God in Hymns and Chorus's. The like we red in Lucian's Philopatris,( or whoever else was the Author of that Discourse) whose very Scoffs at, and ridiculing what he understood not, are a sufficient Testimony of the Custom.  
And as we should be thus joyful ourselves at the Commemoration of God's Mercies, and show it by that which will not only express but heighten it; so there is a way of communicating it to others, and making it diffusive, that is by Charity and Beneficence to the Poor. And therefore in the Jews Peace offerings, where they were commanded to seast before the Lord, a third part was reserved for a Feast for them, their Wives, and their Children; and another portion for the Widows and the Fatherless; that the Poor and Rich 
Deut. 27. 7.  might rejoice together, and that there might be no jarringstring, no Discord in that universal Harmony. This was David's Joy and Thankfulness, and this was his way of expressing it.  
But 2dly, what was the Reason of it? Why all this Singing and Praising? and, as the Prodigal's elder Brother said, What do these things mean? The reason in the Text is twofold; 
Luk. 1. 5. 2   

1st. In general, God giveth Salvation unto Kings; and,  
2dly. In particular, He delivereth David his Servant from the huriful Sword.   
First of the 1st. As Preservation being nothing else but a continued Creation, is counted among considerative Persons a Blessing little less than that itself; so the Salvation and Protection of Princes is a Blessing of God, inferior to none but the Institution and first Establishment of that Government. Without any Government at all, Men would be but a Society( pardon the Catachresis) of Wolves and Bears: Every ones Sword would be against his Neighbours Throat: The Weak and Innocent would be the Prey of the Violent, and Strength and Fraud would be the only standard of Justice. The Preservation therefore of this Blessing, Peace and Quietness, the health of the body-politic, without which( as in the Body-natural when sick) all other Pleasures and Delights loose their Gusto, and become insipid and tedious, may justly be the Subject of our Praise and Thanksgiving. And of all Governments, since Monarchy is, by undeniable Arguments, far the most eligible, God's Protection of Kings is much more to be lauded and magnified. If the Continuation of the former, in what condition soever, tho' with many defects, requires Thanksgiving, the Salvation of the latter challengeth the greatest ecstasies of Joy and Triumph. A King being the Representative of God himself, may be supposed to be his more immediate charge: If private Men and particular States( as Scripture seems to intimate, 
Mat. 18. 10 Dan. 10. 13, 20, 21.  tho' I neither affirm nor deny it) have their Guardian Angels; we may consequently conclude that Princes, as God's Lieutenants, are encompassed with Legions of such spiritual Guards.  
Neither is it only reasonable it should be so, but History shows de facto that it is so; and God hath in all Ages( and that almost miraculously sometimes) magnified his Mercy in delivering Kings and Princes above those of ordinary quality. Coesarem vetus, was enough to reassure the trembling Boat-man, when in a Storm he was carrying caesar over the Adriatique-Sea; as if his Person were so sacred, that Wind and Waves durst not hurt him. We seldom red of Kings, tho' daring oftentimes beyond their private Soldiers, slain in battle: We red of multitudes of Conspiracies against their Persons, but of very few that ever succeed; the reason of which we need seek no further for, than God's Protection and Salvation of them: It not consisting with his Justice and Purity( unless the Sins of the King or People call it upon themselves as a just Punishment) to concur with wicked Men to such horrid villainies.  
I might here be very large in showing how this Doctrine, that God giveth Salvation unto Kings, may be serviceable by way of practise both to Subjects and Princes. To the former, to honour and respect those who are the peculiar care of Providence; to consider them as sacred, anointed, and thereby set apart by Almighty God for the Representation of himself, and under him to govern the World; to look upon them as under the immediate shadow of the Almighty, invested and surrounded with troops of invisible Angels: And upon this consideration, not to dare so much as in thought to violate or profane that which is holy. And on the other side, it may be no less useful to teach Kings their dependence upon God; that tho' they may be supreme in their own Dominions, yet the higher than the highest regards them, and there 
Eccles. 5. 8.  be higher than they; that Reges in ipsos imperium est jovis; that their Trust should be neither in Chariots nor in Horses, 
Ps. 20. 6, 7.  but in the defence of the Almighty; that in him they should put their Confidence, transcribe the Copy of him they represent, govern their People with Justice and Clemency, as he doth the World, and serve him, as they expect their Subjects should obey them. Which brings me to  
The 2d, and more particular Reason in the Text for David's Joy and Thankfulness, not only because God giveth Salvation unto Kings, but because he delivered David his Servant from the hurtful Sword.  
And in this we may consider, 

1st, The Person delivered; and,  
2dly. The Dangers he was delivered from.    
1st. The Person, David, who was not only a King, but a Prophet: His Piety was no less glorious than his Royalty; His virtues outshone the Jewels of his Crown; His sceptre like that of the Messiah, of whom he was a Type, was a righteous 
Psal. 45. 6.  sceptre: He was a Man after God's own Heart, and therefore is here called his Servant, did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from any thing he commanded, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. For 
1 Kings 15. 5.  Princes no less than inferior Persons, have their Failings, and Humanity must be attended with some Imperfections, else Man would not be Man, but God.  
Now if the defence of an Established Government, if the Salvation of Kings in general, be a Mercy highly to be valued, and to be received with Praise and Thanksgiving; With what Raptures of Joy is the Deliverance of such a Good King to be entertained? The price and value of a thing in danger sets a greater Estimate upon it when recovered. The Woman who had only a bare and private Satisfaction in her ten pieces of Silver, yet when she had retrieved but one which she thought lost, she calls her Friends and Neighbours together to rejoice with her. But that which was of so considerable a value before, a Gracious Prince, the greatest Blessing kind Heaven can bestow upon a beloved Nation, to have him rescued from Danger and Destruction, is enough to make his People( for whom he wrote this Psalm) no less than himself, to sing new Songs and Praises unto God, upon the Psaltery and Instruments of ten strings.  
2dly. Let us consider the Troubles and Dangers he was delivered from; Who delivereth David his Servant from the hurtful Sword. The Expression in the Text is so general, that it comprehends almost all kind of Deliverances, and David had so many of them, that his Hundred and fifty Psalms are little more than so many Commerations of as many Deliverances. Innocence and Piety was even then exposed to danger, but the Providence of God absolved itself in its continual Protection. I need not instance in God's snatching him out of the Paw of the Lion and the Bear, when feeding his Father's Flock, nor out of the Hand of the more cruel uncircumcised Philistine; I will not insist on God's delivering him when persecuted by Saul, and hunted like a bide upon the Mountains; because as yet he was not of the number of those Kings, to which the Text saith God giveth Salvation, and therefore which cannot properly be the cause of this his Joy and Praise. But after his Temples were invested with the Royal Crown, and he was set upon the Throne, neither his Dangers nor God's Deliverances ceased, but they seemed for greatness to vie with one another. What need I instance in his Wars with, and Victories over, the Philistines, the Moabites, Hadadezar King of Zobab, the Syrians of Damascus, & c? His being rescued by Abishai, under God, 
2 Sam. 21. 15.  from the Sword or Spear of Ishbibenob the Giant, which weighed Three hundred weight? Insomuch, that his People petitioned him to go no more forth with them to battle, 
ver. 17.  least he should quench the light of Israel. But he wanted not Dangers and Afflictions at home, to entertain his active Spirit and Courage withal. He had Enemies in his own House, and there was a strong Conspiracy against him. 
2 Sam. 15. 12.  But God infatuated the Counsel of the Wise, subverted the Force of the Strong, discovered the Machinations of the Treacherous, and( bringing the Contrivers of them to condign Punishment) gave Salvation unto his King, and delivered David his Servant from the hurtful Sword.  
And now to exemplify the Text in our present sovereign, and the Mercies and Deliverances which we at this time commemorate: If I show how in a more particular respect he is like David, God's Servant, and how accordingly he hath been hitherto the Care of Providence, Praise and Thankfulness will be so natural a result from the consideration of it, that there will need but a very brief Exhortation to conclude the whole.  
First of the 1st. Tho' all Kings be the Ordinance of God, act by his Commission, and so in some sense may be called his Servants; yet we know that some transgress that Commission, or at least seem to be raised up by him like Saul and Cyrus only to be a Punishment to their Subjects, or a Plague to the World; and no wonder then if, like other more private Executioners, they are commonly the worst of Men. But when a David or a Josiah mounts the Throne, he is in a more peculiar sense God's King, and his more immediate Servant, inasmuch as he is visibly his Vice-gerent, fights his Battels, delivers his Subjects from their Enemies, and establisheth the Reformed Worship and Service of God in the Church.  
And to this doth our present Gracious sovereign seem not only to have been designed from the Womb, but to have been predestinated even before he was born. Under the enlivening Influence of his Parents and Family, did the first Seeds of the Protestant Religion, sown in the Low-Countries, and watered with whole Rivers of Blood in Duke D'Alva's Persecution, shoot up and flourish into a plentiful harvest, as at this day. By them was that industrious State formed, which hath since been a Bulwark against, and a Refuge from Tyranny and Popery, as it was at first erected in opposition to the Inquisition, the Emblem and Epitome of them both.  
And that the Security not only of that State, but of all Europe, from these, is the great and constant concern of His present Majesty, and consequently that He is doing God's Work; is evident from the History of His Life, which( if I had time, and it were proper, I might show you) hath been spent in little else: Witness His exposing Himself for the Service of His Country when but a Youth and ruddy, against those who had been Warriors from their Youth, and snatching Laurels at Three and twenty, from the Brows of gray-headed and experienced Generals. When by His singular( I had almost said single) Conduct and Courage, He rallied a few scattered and dispirited Troops, and forced a triumphant Enemy out of the bowels of a conquered Province.  
Witness his quitting a soft Retirement amongst a loving and obliging People, to oppose the current of Romish Superstition and Arbitrary Government in a neighbouring Nation; which could requited him no otherwise, but with the glorious fatigue of reining in an head-strong Beast, and the continual exposing His own Life for her Preservation.  
Witness His Readiness to come over in Person( an Honour seldom vouchsafed by Princes) into this slighted and neglected Kingdom, to rescue our Persons from Slavery, and our Religion from Contempt and Persecution.  
And finally, witness His being the Head( shall I say) or the Life and Soul of a League against that Tyrant, who is the public Enemy of Christendom, and whose Lusts trouble the World. 'Tis His Forces, 'tis His Valour, 'tis His Conduct, and 'tis His Presence all the time of Action, that inspirits and actuates the whole Body of the Confederates; and gives us the Hopes, nay I may say the Assurance,( however late it may be) of answerable Success. And that the rather, because in all His Actions, not only His public Exploits, but His private virtues, He shows Himself a King of God's peculiar Election and Designation, and doing the Work which He is raised for, more especially His Servant.  
I proceed therefore now in the second place, to speak of His Deliverances, or to exemplify in Him what the Text saith of the Royal Psalmist, That God gave Salvation unto his King, and delivered David his Servant from the hurtful Sword.  
And here, His Perils and Deliverances out of them, are no fewer in number than the Battels He hath fought, or the Towns he hath taken; for in all of them His Courage hath been so daring, that it sought out Dangers, and pusn'd Him forward into the thickest of them: So that every time He hath engaged in Fight, His Escape hath been a Miracle, and hath demonstrated Him to have been the great Care and Cocern of Providence.  
How signal was the Hand of God seen not only in the numerous Fights and Sieges in recovering his own Country, in which He was always victorious; but in the battle of Seneffe, when like another David by a providential Abishai, He was rescued from the stroke of a French Ishbibenob, 
Ann. 1674.  who had an Advantage over Him?  
How was the almost fatal Bullet at the Boyn, that grased upon his Arm, diverted by His Guardian Angel?  
With what private whisper of Providence, did He remove from that three in Flanders, which was immediately torn 
Ann. 1692.  to pieces by a Cannot-shot?  
But how visible hath the Ruling eye and Power of that God, who gives Salvation unto Kings, been, in discovering those many Conspiracies hatched no less in St. germans, than in Versailles; in Hell, than Rome, against His sacred Life and Person? Enough to demonstrate at once the Persidiousness and cowardice of our Adversaries, the Dread they have of Him, and God's Protection over Him.  
I need not instance in any more than that which is the Occasion of this Day's Solemnity, and the Subject of our present Thanksgiving. Which as it is the last, so by the united Force and Malice of it, it seems to have been a dernier Effort, the sparring Blow of our Enemies; which being by the Providence of God disappointed and rendered ineffectual, our Joy is the more unbounded, in as much as we may hope their Attempts for the future will be discouraged.  
1st. For the Horridness of the Design; 'twas such, that( excepting it may be the Gun-powder-Treason) History cannot afford, nor Fancy invent a Parallel. It was an Attempt to make that possible, and actually accomplish, what the Tyrant vainly wished for, namely to strike off the Nation's Neck at a blow. He who is the Breath of our Nostrils, on whose Safety ours depends, and in whom under God we live and move, and have our Being; was to have been basely murdered, by those who durst not meet him in the field. Nor were the Assassins content with this, but( as the Insults of Cowards prosecute even the dead) a French Invasion was to have pursued the Blow, and to have torn and harassed the wretched Remains, the Trunk and carcase of the dispirited Nation. This Plot was not only against the King, and Us by consequence in His Person; but actually and personally against every Protestant in the Kingdom, against our Liberty, our Laws, our Religion, and our Lives. Which brings me to a  
2d Thing observable in this hellish Contrivance; which, as it exceeded all others in its Design, so in some remarkable Circumstances 'tis very different from all that went before it.  
1st. That here are professed Protestants engaged in a Popish Plot, to extirpate the Protestant Religion: 〈◇〉, Et tu Brute? Infatuated Men! to be so tamely made Instruments in their Enemies hands, to do their Work, and their own Business; and to hope for advancement in a Revolution, which if it should have succeeded, their Reward in all probability would have been only Ulysses's Favour, to have been devoured last. Ungrateful Men both to their King and to their God! to endeavour to Assassinate Him, who daily exposeth His Life for the Security of them, and their Religion: and who kick and spurn at the Mercies of God, refuse the Deliverance which( beyond the utmost of their Wishes and Expectations) he hath wrought, and run back to the Leeks and Onions( I and the Brick-kills) of Egypt.  
But 2dly, Here is in this Plot remarkable, that both Papists and pretended Protestants( for I have much ado to call them so, and 'twill require the help of metaphysics to distinguish them) confess the Fact, and( what even the French for all their native Assurance, are ashamed of) Glory in it. Is the murder of a Prince, whose Protection we enjoy, is the subverting the Religion we profess, and is the giving up the Nation to a Foreign Power, no Crime? if acted with a design of restoring one Man to his pretended Right, tho' universal Right be sacrificed to his sole Will and Pleasure? Yes, certainly they are most grievous ones, and of the blackest die; but more so, if we shall consider the Vanity of the Design, since in the end, tho' he may have the empty Name of King, He, as well as they whom he hath pawned beyond Redemption, must be perpetual Slaves to the Mortgagee. Not to do Evil, that Good may come of it, nor to commit the most barbarous villainies for the Honour and Good of the Church, I am sure is at least as much a Principle of the Protestant Religion, as Passive Obedience can be pretended to be of the Church of England: And therefore let these Men be of what Church they please, as their Practices tend to the Advancement of Popery, so their Principles you see are Popish.  
But to prosecute the Invective no further, and to conclude all abruptly,( seeing I am sensible I have detained your Patience too long) I will urge no other Arguments to you to sing new Songs unto God, and to praise him upon Instruments of many Strings, for defeating this Hellish Conspiracy, for rescuing our sovereign from the Fatal Stroke, and Us from the dangerous, but inevitable Consequences of it; than to recapitulate and propound again to your Consideration, The Value of the Person delivered, and His Relation unto us; Not only the Deliverance of the King, but of the Government and of ourselves, from utter ruin and Destruction. Not an ordinary King, to whom, God hath given Salvation, but David his Servant, whom he hath delivered from the hurtful Sword. A King, on whom not only the sole Welfare of His Subjects upon several politic Accounts, but on whom the Safety of Christendom, and the Protestant Religion, does depend. One to whom, under God, we owe our Lives and Liberties, the Liberties of our Persons and our Consciences, which may we ever enjoy. What remains then, but that we make our Churches and Houses resound the Praises due to God for His and Our repeated Deliverances?  
And that our Thanks may, not only terminate in empty words, but show it's proceeding from the Heart by its Effect upon the outward Actions, let us demonstrate it by Faith, and Prayer to God for the Continuance of our Preservation, by Unity among ourselves, and by Obedience to our King; which will give us Confidence to trust in God still, and not only make us happy at present, but lay a foundation for the future. When without murmuring or desponding, without reflecting upon those whose Interest and Honour it is to use all possible means to secure and defend us, and without affrighting ourselves with causeless Jealousies and Suspicions, we shall rely and depend upon that God, who hath by so many Experiments demonstrated himself to be on our side.  
So shall our Victories be continued, our Success stable and permanent, and the Dread of us, as of the Israelites of old( having the same insuperable conductor and Ally) shall fall upon the Nations round about us: So shall we have nothing to do but to sing Praises and Hymns, and to make our whole Life here but one Day of Thanksgiving, till it shall be swallowed up in everlasting Hallelujahs in Heaven.  
Which God of his infinite Mercy grant: To whom be all Honour, Power, Might, Majesty and Dominion, from this time forth and for evermore. Amen.  
FINIS.