A SERMON Preached in the CATHEDRAL OF St Peter in York.  
On the Fifth day of Novemb. 1689.  
By William Perseus, M.A. Rector of West Heslerton, and Chaplain to the Right Honourable Lewis Earl of Feversham.  
Imprimatur, Charles Palmer, Rmo. in Christo Patri, ac Dno. Dno. Thomae Archiep. Ebor. à Sacris Domesticis.  
York, Printed by John Bulkley for Francis Hildyard at the Bible in Stonegate. 1689.   
Psal. 129.1.2. Verses, 
Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth may Israel now say:  
Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth; yet they have not prevailed against me.  
AMongst the many undeniable and irrefragable arguments that may be brought to prove the Existence of God, the consideration of the great Care which He the Supreme Governor and Moderator of all things hath in all Ages taken to preserve his small Flock, the Church, from the Paw of the Lion and the Bear; (notwithstanding all the Arts and Stratagems, all the force and cunning of her potent and vigilant Adversaries) seems to me not to be of the least moment to convince an Atheist of his impiety, a Pagan of his Infidelity, an Heretic of his Obstinacy, and a Schismatic of his dangerous and erroneous Opinions. For surely were there not a God in heaven that put a stop not only to the raging of the Sea, but the madness of the people: were there not a God who set Limits to the Waves, and bounds to the fury of Tyrannical Oppressors; were there not a God who put a Hook into the Jaws of the great Leviathans: the spiritual Church had long since been like some of the material Churches in the low Countries, quite under water: The Floods of Oppression had overflown her, and she had long ere this become a prey to those many Enemies which even from her infancy have Watched and Waited for her ruin and destruction. To see the Church like the Salamander, not only living in the fire of Afflictions but as it were receiving nourishment from the inoffensive Flames; to see the Holy Bush-burning without any detriment to its own substance, is a sufficient Argument that there is an Angel that Protects her, an invisible power that dwells within her, which preserves her body from scorching, though not always her Garments, her external Constitutions from the smell of the Fire: That such a small Vessel as the Church should Ride out so many blustering storms on a troublesome and tempestuous Sea, without bulging or leaking, without splitting on the Shelves, or being swallowed up of the Sands, must needs proceed from the skill and care of her indefatigable Pilot, and the strength of her invincible and irremovable Anchor: for what the Disciples said to Jesus when a sudden gust of Wind arose on the Lake, and filled the Ship with Water, Help Master or we perish, is most true of the Church in general: Were it not for his aid and assistance, for his continual presence, and express Commands, whom the Winds and Sea, and all boisterous and otherwise unruly passions obey, we should not only be tossed to and fro with every wind of uncertain Doctrine and so become unsettled in our Judgements, and Resolutions, but also we should suffer on the one side from Piratical Oppressors, and on the other from Heretical and Schismatical Intruders.  
It had been impossible for Christianity, like Rome now the great Opposer of it, which from a few scattered Cottages came to be the sovereign Commandress of the whole known World, to have stretched out her Empire so far, and wide as it is at this day, and that from so low and small beginnings, had not the Divine Spirit carried her on and protected her, assisted and upheld her in spite of all opposition, and contradiction whatsoever: Turning some unto that Faith which they but lately persecuted, discovering the wicked designs and machinations of others, and confounding all their devices; so that divers conversed with Lyens without and danger, and played upon the hole of the Asp, and the Den of the Cockatrice in great security, as was foretold by the Prophet concerning the first days of the Gospel. God hath built his Church upon a Mountain that cannot be shaken, on a Rock that cannot be moved; for though the rain descend, the Winds blow, and the Floods rise, though the Rain of adversity may wet her, and the Floods of persecution may rage's against her, and the furious blasts of discord and dissension may ruffle and discompose her outward Garments, yet the Church herself shall not fall, nor her Faith totally fail, nor even the Gates of Hell prevail against her; for she is founded upon a Rock, even the Rock Christ Jesus: he is her Saviour and deliverer, her Fortress and Castle of defence, under the shadow of whose Wings, under the coverture of whose gracious providence she shall be safe and secure till all Tyranny and Oppression, all rage and violence, all Envy and Malice be quite past and blown over: For though they have afflicted her from her youth may Israel now say, though many a time have they afflicted her from her youth, yet have they not prevailed against her.  
From which Declaration of the royal Psalmist we may observe.  
1. The inveterate Malice, and the unwearied Industry of the men of this world to ruin Zion, and to pull down the Walls of Jerusalem: Many a time have they afflicted her from her youth, many a time will they afflict her in her old age.  
2. The Frustration of their design, or the ill success that all those meet with who strive to oppose the Truth by Violence, or to detain it in ungodliness by Fraud. Yet have they not prevailed against me.  
3. The Retribution or return that the Church is bound to make, Deo statori & liberatori, to her Saviour and Deliverer, for the preservation of herself and the destruction of her Enemies. May Israel now say, ought Israel now to say.  
The frequent Declarations of the Mercies and Deliverances we receive from the hand of God; is a sign of the value and estimation we put upon them, and the ready way to increase their number. The Remembrance of the Church's danger and of her wonderful deliverance from it must be the burden of her Song of Thanksgiving: For so the ingemmation of my Text, as in other places seems to import.  
In the first general Observation we are to consider 1. Who they are that are so malicious as to envy the peace of Zion, and so sedulous and diligent in contriving her Destruction.  
2. How frequent they are in their Attempts.  
3. By what ways and means they endeavour to bring their wicked and pernicious designs to pass.  
And this I shall show in the Phrase and Language of my Text.  
1. The Enemies of Zion are many. Their multitude renders them formidable: Illos defendit Numerus junctaeque Umbone Phalanges.  
2. Many a time do they renew their Assaults; Like importunate Beggars one or two denials will not shake them off; one or two, or twenty disappointments do not dishearten or cause them to desist from their interprize: This but whets their anger and inventions: Animos a vulnere sumunt: Like Antaeus they seem to receive vigour from their very falls. This shows their Obstinacy and inveteracy.  
3. They have many ways to execute their Fury and to bring their hidden purposes to perfection. The Sword and the Mattock. open Force, and hidden Treachery: I might put in the Pen likewise none of the least envenomed Weapons they make use of to accomplish their wicked designs: Besides a thousand little Arts they have to delude the Vulgar, and to hold silly ignorant people Captive this shows their Cunning. They do as Balaam did, at the request of Balak; 
Num. 23.13  if they cannot curse Israel from one Hill, they will try another, and another after that, to see if at length some one lucky hit may render their Fascinations and Enchantments prosperous and successful.  
1. The Enemies of the Church are many; Too many for me to speak to within the compass allotted for this Exercise; too many for the poor Church by her own strength to encounter, but not too many for her Almighty Patron and invincible Champion to deliver her from: For though all the Legions of Darkness should combine in one against her, and call in all their Auxiliaries to their assistance, all those who for the Virulency of their Principles, and the maliciousness of their practice, may be styled Devils incarnate, yet should they be as chaff before the wind, and the Angel of the Lord scattering them, as the fire burneth the Wood, and the flame consumeth the Mountains, so shall God persecute them with his Tempest and make them afraid with his Storm. Though they come about her like Bees yet shall they be extinct as the fire amongst Thorns, so suddenly shall they vanish and be no more. Though the Red Dragon open his mouth wide to devour her and her offspring, yet God will prepare a place-in the Wilderness for them to retire unto: And though he follow her thither, yet he shall give her the wings of an Eagle that she may fly away and be at rest: and though the Serpent cast whole Floods of Water out of his mouth to overwhelm her, yet the Earth shall preserve her, by receiving them into her large and vast Treasury As the Air before, so the Earth now, yea even all Elements shall by the direction and command of their Superior Agent, contribute to her security, and preservation. The Enemies of Zion are many: She may well say as David did in her person, All nations have compassed me about, they have consulted together with one consent, and are confederate against me; the Tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites of Moab, and the Hagaerens', those indeed who to our great trouble, (and the greater, because assisted by one who calls himself the most Christian King,) have overspread a considerable part of the once Christian Empire; Though the late prosperous successes of the Church's Arms make us to hope, that notwithstanding those indirect and unchristian practices, their late Half Moon is hastily declining to its utmost Wain. Gebal also and Ammon, and Amalek, the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre, Assur, also is joined with them and have helped the Children of Lot. The Enemies of Zion you see are many: The Vineyard which God hath planted for himself with his own right hand is infested, and troubled with many Adversaries that envy her Felicity, and endeavour her utter extirpation. There are wild Boars that break down her Hedges, and would lay her open, and make her common to the Beasts of the Wide, and unmanured Wilderness: And there are little Foxes that creep through them and crop her tender Budds: There are Sacrilegious Caterpillars that devour her fairest Clusters, her best and richest possessions: And there are Teredines little Creatures that worm themselves into the body of the Vine, and corrupt it, and others that gnaw at the very Root thinking to kill, and destroy it.  
I shall pass by her Foreign Adversaries, Atheists, and Infidels who deny the very Principles and first Grounds of our most excellent Religion, whose Eyes the God of this World hath so blinded that they cannot see the wonders of God's Law: and come to some of her domestic and homebred Foes, those that eat of her Bread and drink of her Cup, that partake of the same Ordinances, Communicate of the same Sacraments, that acknowledge the same faith, and yet either out of Pride or Ignorance, Folly or Conrempt lift up their heel against her.  
1. Some of those many Enemies of Zion that molest and disturb her are those who joining with her in her outward worship, in the observation of her excellent Discipline, and the belief of her sound and Orthodox Doctrine, do notwithstanding to their own shame, and the Church's prejudice departed from her in their practice, and manner of outward conversation: whose lives are no ways answerable to that most holy Religion which they profess. Qui aliud, aiunt, aliud vivunt. That speak the words of Simon Peter, and live the life of Simon Magnus. And truly these are none of the least Enemies that the Church of Christ hath; for there are no wounds like the wounds of a Friend, they strike deepest and are most unkindly resented. Such as these give advantage to the Gainsayers of the Truth, and make them speak evil of that most innocent Gospel that is first pure, and then peaceable. Methinks I hear our blessed Saviour saying to the sinning Christian that lives indirect opposition to those divine Precepts which he left to be the Rule and Guide of our Actions, something not unlike what the chaste and dying Arria said to her beloved Paetus.  
Vulnus judaeus quod fecit non dolet inquit;  
Sed quod tu facies hoc, mihi crede dolet.  
The Wounds that the malicious and bloodthirsty Jews made in my Hands my Feet do not trouble me being they were given me for thy sake do procure an Atonement for thee: but they are those which thou my Friend and Companion whom I loved as myself, those which thou who art a part of me, a Member of my Body givest me with thy Blasphemies, with thy Oaths and Execrations, those are the Wounds that stab me to the heart, that crucify me afresh, that put me anew to open shame. Pity it is that those who are right as to their understanding should be perverse in their Wills, and irregular in their Affections: That those who are so far enlightened in their minds should mix Heaven with Earth, light with Darkness, for what Fellowship or Communion is there between them. Oh! if there be any such here, let me beseech them by the Mercies of God, by the Bowels of Christ Jesus, not to Eclipse the Light of their Profession, by the dull interposition of their carnal and Earthly desires.  
2. Another sort of the Enemies of the Church, which do her and themselves no small prejudice, are those who by opposing her Doctrine, and separating from her Communion upon slight and frivolous pretences, do what in them lies to lose those Bands and Ligaments of Order that preserve her within the Terms and Limits of one entire Body and Society. What Opinion this sort of People, who out of an over nice and Curious Tenderness run from one extreme sometimes to another have, I know not; but this I think, that no rational unprejudiced person can altogether excuse them from giving Offence, and Scandal to the Catholic Church of Christ, whereof they either are or aught to be Members. If Laceration, if Distortion, if Mutilation bring pain, deformity and imperfection along with them, then sure I am that those who tear one Member from another, who divide the continuity of Christ's Mystical Body, and cut off divers from the whole, must needs not only spoil the Beauty and Comeliness of her who is the fairest of ten Thousand, but also bring torment and vexation, pains and diseases to the great and universal Congregation of the Faithful. These unnecessary, I may say scandalous Divisions, are as the Rickets which hinder the growth of the Church, that impair her strength, and make her Limbs knotty and disproportioned.  
3. The third, last, and most dangerous sort of those who afflict Zion, and seek her utter ruin and destruction that I shall mention, are those who either out of Ignorance, or secular Carnal self Interest, or both, corrupt her Doctrine, and either propose new, and unwarrantable Articles of Belief for the Terms of their Communion, and as the necessary conditions of Salvation, or else detain part of that which is necessary to be assented to, and practised; from the knowledge of those who are subject to their Authority, and Ministerial Jurisdiction. These deliver the Inventions of Men instead of the Oracles of God, and impose uncertain Traditions instead of Divine Truths upon the overcredulous and easily seduced Multitude: God hath commanded the Governors and Stewards of his Church to prepare wholesome Pottage for the Sons of the Prophets; but they who have long, (though upon false grounds) pretended to be folely authorized, and commissionated for that Employment have gathered wild Gourds, venomous Colloquintidu instead of favory favory Herbs, so that we are forced to cry out that there is Death in the Pot, there is no safety in eating and drinking with them after a Religious manner, no Communicating with them in in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper without danger of infection, till some Flour, which was Elisha's cure of the Deadly Pottage, be acknowleged to be in their Host; which they (for Reasons best know to themselves) will not allow of. They have so poisoned and Corrupted the pure Streams of God's Word, which should make glad the Church, which is the City of our God, that he that continueth to drink his fill of those putrified Waters without a special Antidote dyeth. Nay the Jesuits some of the greatest empoisoners, and Sorcerers have turned them, as once the River Nilo was, into blood; that is by their false comments and misinterpretations of the Sacred Writ they have extracted bloody and cruel Principles out of it. And by virtue of that unlimited, and  Authority they would falsely fetch from thence, assume to themselves a power (which they have but too often used) of Dethroming Kings and Princes: and by dissolving the bands of Allegiance, expose them to the rage and fury of their own Subjects; impudently denouncing the fatal Sentences of Deprivation and Destruction against those Sovereign and Anomted Heads, whose Authority is in those Sacred Volumus most plainly asserted; and their Persons most expressly protected. To pass by that rabble of Heretics that arose in the Primitive Times, (for the good Man had no sooner Sown his Wheat but the evil one scattered his tares amongst it) the Church of Rome as infamous now for her Apostasy, as she was once Famous for her Faith, hath wilfully incurred the severe penalty mentioned by St. John in the Revelations, adding to and diminishing from the express word of God; nay some of her Communion have been so impudent as not only to corrupt several places of the Holy Scriptures, but even to Abase the value of that which they have left untainted and untouched, Preferring their Canon Law, before the law of God, preferring the arbitray constitutions of St. Peter's pretended Successor to the undoubted and Divinely inspired writings of St. Paul: one instance of which I shall mention out of their own decretals: where it is said, Secundam accipere uxorem Secundum Apostoli praeceptum licitum est, Secundum vero veritatis rationem verè Fornicatio. That is as much as to say, that according to the word of God in Saint Paul's Epistles Second Marriages are lawful, but according to the word of God, as they would have it in their Canon Law written 1200 years after, 'tis plain Fornication. St. Paul gives a command to Timothy to keep safe that committed to his Charge, to preserve the Talon of Catholic Faith delivered to him unbroken and uncorupt, neither perverted or craked in its order by Schismatics, nor tainted in its Doctrine by Heretics: but it seems the Pope who so frequently and so easily, (though it may be not so cheaply) dispensed with others, hath given himself a Dispensation from this Golden Rule: making such an unequal Exchange with us, as Diomedes in Homer made with Glaucas for his Armour, brass for Gold: giving us brazen, impudent, counterfiet Traditions, for the Golden Armour of God's word which admits of no Dross, no Alloye.  
2. As the Enemies of the Church are many, so are their Assaults frequent, their industry unwearied, and their malice still ragoing, though continually unsuccessful. Like Courageous Gamesters, two or three unlucky Games cannot, dishearten them, nay the more they lose, the eagerer they are thinking though in vain, that some one fortunate hit may make them amends for their former disappointments, and answer their so often deluded expectations. It was a great comfort to Israel that though Sisera had nine hundred Chariots of Iron, and a vast Army with which he harast and oppressed them for twenty years, that yet one overthrow given him by Deborah secured them from all such hostile Invasions for a long time after: But here it is as with the Hydra, out off one head and two springs up in the place of it: Though divers of the heads of the adversaries of Zion have been fixed on Poles for their Treachery and Rebellion, to be a terror and warning to others to avoid the same indirect Courses, lest they meet with the same fatal end, yet there have been always other Heads of the same Mould, and Figure, and are still busily plotting, and contriveing the downfall, and ruin of this poor Church of England, forsaken of those who should be her Friends, and exposed to those adversaries whose Designs is to Swallow both. And no wonder it is that these fiery Exhalations continue burning in their Malice for so many Ages together, seeing they have a plentiful Supply of unctuous, and Sulphureous matter from Hell itself which maintains the flames of Dissension which like the Funeral pile of the two irreconcilable Brothers, Eteoches, and Polmices whose Enmity lasted longer than their breath, divide themselves, as also the more vehement fire of Persecution.  
The Enemies of Zion are moved by a restless Spirit, even by him who is ever in action going too and fro about the Earth: and his chief business and design is to disturb the Peace of Zion and to hinder the welfare of Jerusalem; to pull down the old Temple of the Lord and to erect a new Chapel for his own Worship. From the infancy of Religion he began to persecute the holy Seed nor will he leave off to malign their happiness, and to create them trouble till this world be no more, and till they arrive at that unchangeable State of rest, and Security, which he being bound with his confederates in everlasting chains of darkness shall have no power though his perverse will shall still be the same, to desturb or molest. he seduced Eve in Paradise from the duty She owed to her Lord and Husband, and drew both of them from their Allegiance to their Supreme Head and Master: and thereby made them instrumental to their own and our Misery: He instigated Cain to Sacrifice his innocent Brother, endeavouring thereby to destroy the Church in the first Martyr and Confessor of it. Endless would it be, and indeed needless to run through the many oppositions that the chosen People of God met with by his sly, and cunning insinuations before their settlement in the promised Land: needless I say it would be to rehearse the several hardships they underwent, in a Congregation of reformed Protestants to whom the free use of the Sacred History of the Bible is allowed in their own tongue, wherein the several particulars relateing thereunto are contained. Were I indeed to Preach to an Assembly of Lay Papists, and had occasion to make use of any part of the Sacred writ, to give a demonstration of God's care of his People under their most cruel and severe Taskmasters, than it would be necessary to make a full, and perfect recital of all the circumstances belonging to such a deliverance; and that because their cunning and merciless Spiritual Guides as they call them, look up the Records of Eternal Truth from them, and keep them in ignorance of those wonderful works of God which he hath done for his chosen Seed: it being in some of the Catholic Countries as they are Styled, a crime within the compass of the Inquistion for any laic to have a Bible in the Vulgar tongue in his custody: but to you it is given to know those truths that concern your everlasting Salvation; and if it be not your own or your Parents faults you may be able to understand the whole Series, and method of God's Mercies to his Church from the beginning of the world till the Revelation of Jesus Christ; Happy are you if you know how to make a right use of this great Privilege to your own advantage: I shall therefore be very brief, and that rather to refresh your Memories, then to inform your understandings. I shall not stand to reckon up the several Depravations, Schisms, and persecutions that happened to the Children of Israel under the several Dispensations of the Old Law until the coming of our Saviour in the flesh: and then at the Entrance of the Captain of our Salvation on the great, and charitable work of our Redemption, Satan renews his Assaults, doubles his files, and again seeks to strangle Christianity in the very Cradle. He incites Herod to lay in wait for him, and what he could not accomplish by his Agents he attempts to perform in his own Person, after this he exposes him to the malice of the Scribes and Pharises, and at last when he thought his design finished, he was vanquished by the Cross, and the Death of Jesus proved the life of his Church: who knows not what Enemies, how powerful, and how cruel the first Propagators of the Christian Religion met with from his bloody Instruments in the first Ages, and Centuries of the Church? how they were thrown to wild Beasts, devoted to the flames, Broiled upon Gridireons', pounded in Mortars, and put to all the Torments that Man's malicious wit could invent, or his power execute: Afterwards when the Gospel of Grace, and Peace, had by its own innocent Arts and iresistable Charms, (the Divine Spirit working along with them) spread itself over a great part of the world, but then by degrees (as the best things here below are subject to corruption) became tainted with Errors, and overcast with Ignorance, and superstition, when a few (as most great things have small beginnings) to whom a light from above shined through the gross and thick Mist, being sensible of their Errors, and willing to Forsake them, and to bring others likewise out of them, Endeavoured to reform those dangerous, and damnable Corruptions which had (dureing that General state of darkness) crept into the Church; what opposition? what contradction? what Persicution? did those first Reformers, and Assertors of the true Ancient Catholic and Apostolick-Faith meet with from those whom either incorrigible Obstinacy caused to persevere in their ignorance; or whom carnal Interest obliged to act contrary to those Principles of light, and Knowledge where with they were informed. I might run this from the beginning of our own Reformation down to these very days, and show you how the several Enemies of the Church have been still hammering and beating out Plots, and making Fetters from time to time to Shackle us again, and to reduce us to our former Slavery. No sooner had we through God's providence escaped from the land of Darkness but the Egyptians as loath to lose so sweet and profitable a pray pursued us, useing all Arts, and means both force, and cunning, both threatings, and temptations to bring us back to our old house of Bondage: But this will more properly belong to the third head: which was this.  
3. As the Enemies of Zion are many, and their Assaults frequent, so they have many ways to accomplish, and bring about their Pernicious designs. They know that the same Stratagems in Warr are seldom twice used with good success: and therefore they vary their Arts, and change their Habits according to the times they live in, and the Persons with whom they have to deal. I might show you here what little and yet destructive Arts some of the Enemies of our Church breed amongst ourselves (doubtless deriveing their small buy Streams from the corrupt and infected Fountain of Rome) use to under mine her Foundations, and by dissolveing her Order endeavouring to subvert her very Constitution. But seeing the solemnity of this day, the happy day of our Deliverance from one of the most horrid Plots that ever was contrived against our Religion, and just upon the Brink of Execution, seems to Point to me to direct my Discourse to that Party who were the cruel Instruments, and Abettors of that hellish Conspiracy, I shall wave those lessor Disturbers of our peace, and come to that open, and professed Enemy of our Religion as by Law Established amongst us: Following the method that Gregory Nazianzone does in his first Invective against Julian, who would not meddle, as he tells us in the beginning of his Declamation, with Sehon King of the Amorites, nor with Og King of Basan, small inconsiderable Princes; and who only endamaged a little part of the Church Israel: but that he would direct his Arrows against that great Proud Spirit, that Dragon, that Apostate, that common Enemy, and disturber of Mankind. we will at present pass by those who do not Practise what they profess, though they are a great Dishonour to our Church; we will slip over in silence those who though in most Points they acknowledge her Doctrine, do yet without any real grounds descent from her Discipline, though this be an unknown injury and discredit to her, and as great an unhappiness to themselves, and come to this great Monster this red Dragon, red with the blood of the Saints, to this ungrateful Backslider of Rome who brings a disreputation on that once Famous Place where the Apostles of the Gentiles, and the great Minister of the Circumcision Preached up that pure and sincere word of Truth, which is their at this time, and hath been for some ages so abominable adulterated, and corrupted: Christ gave St. Peter the Keys and commanded him to lay aside his Sword, but his pretended Successor hath beaten them into two Swords a Temporal, and a Spiritual, with both which he Tyranizeth over the Kings and Princes of the Earth, witness those Emperors he hath Excommunicated with the one, that so he might the sooner, and easier dispatch them with the other.  
Should I recite the several Murders, and Massacres that the fierce Propugnators of the Romish interest have committed, that deluge of the blood of the Saints which they have spilt and the cruel and Barbarous torments they have exposed them to, my Sermon must become a Martyrology, and these few Papers swell into a Volume: all History that runs parallel with their Epoch abounds with instances of their cruelty and violence: Neither are their own writers shy in relateing the great Slaughters they, have made, and the many out rages they have committed for the propagation of their Religion, and the rooteing this pestilent Northerens Heresy of ours as they call it out of the world: glorying in their Villainies when Growned with Victory and triumph, but disowning them when Abortive and unsuccessful. And if this barefaced, and open way of proceeding will not serve their turns; if plain force will not prevail, then in the next place they have recourse to hidden Arts, and secret Treachery: what they cannot compass in the open field, they endeavour to effect by Ambush, by drawing those lives they aim at into a snare under the pretence of a Treaty for accommodation: witness John hus, and Hierome of Prague both betrayed by the Emperor's Letters of safe conduct into their Enemy's hands, and then Sacrificed to their Zealous fury: so unsafe is it to put any confidence in them whose Sacred Principle it is not to keep their promise with them whom they are pleased to brand with the title of Heretics. But more especially for ever be remembered the barbarous, and inhuman Massacre at Paris whither the chief of the Protestant party were decoyed under the pretence of an accord, and there miserably Butchered. Sometimes they work under ground showing themselves thereby the Children of darkness, they conceal their intentions the better to bring them to perfection: We ought to bless God daily for the many Seasonable Deliverances He hath at all times afforded us from the many Treacherous Designs which that restless party have contrived against the Persons of our Princes, and the Body of our Religion: but more particularly we have, as we ought, this Morning offered up the unbloudie Sacrifice of our Praise and thanksgiveing in the name and the sense of our Church to our gracious and merciful Preserver for the timely and happy discovery of that Powder Plot which was hatched in Hell, wrought in darkness, and should have been this Day executed in Clouds, and Pillars of Smoke: A Smoke like that which arose out of the bottomless pit, like the smoke of a Furnace; a smoke which would have Eclipsed our Sun and Moon; our King, and Prince: that would, have darkened the Stars of the first Magnitude our Nobles; as likewise the lesser Constellations, the lower house of Parliament: and which is more, and which, had been worse (though all was bad enough) a Smoke which had quite put out the Glorious Light of the Gospel, the very Eye, and Sight of this our most excellently Reformed Religion: and a smoke at last which like that ascending from the infernal Pit, would have brought whole swarms of Locusts, and Caterpillars, of Monks, and Friars, of Priests and Jesuits, which would have devoured all that had been green, and pleasant, all that had been pure, and wholesome in this our fruitful Land, through this fire (for their is no smoke but hath some fire) they intended to have Sacrificed our Consciences to the Moloch of Rome; that cruel Idol that kills soon those whom it embraces closest.  
I need not give you a Resation of that wicked and pernicious design; their late Practices, and contrivances to overturn the Foundation of our Religion hath sufficiently revived the memory of their ancient detestable conspiracies, and of this unparallelled one among the rest; so that now almost every Child is made acquainted with it, and the Fathers shall teach their Children as the Psalmist says upon the like occasion, 
Psal 78, 4.5.6.7.  that their Posterity may know it, and the Children that are yet unborn, to the intent that when they came up they might show their Childdrens the some etc. and therefore I shall pass on to something else. These ways they have to offend their Enemies, other ways they have to gain Friends and to obtain Proselytes, one way is by speaking them fair with large Promises of Indulgence and Preferment: how many hath the hope of Liberty to do what they please upon easy terms of Absolution Seduced from the Truth, and caused them to make Shipwreck of their Faith? And as they have this way to gain them so they have another to retain them: false signs, lying wonders, and counterfiet Miracles: for certainly as the delusions of the Egyptian Sorcerers were in some measure a cause why Pharouh was more perverse, and his heart more hardened against the Children of Israel, so the strong opinion that the vulgar have of the reality of those signs and wonders that are pretended to be wrought amongst them is a great reason of the continuation of their Spiritual Captivity. These ways and several, others they have to promote their cause, and make their worse than Egyptian sorceries to prevail but to no purpose, for there is one in Heaven that laughs them to scorn; for as Balaam when Divinely inspired said: 
Num. 23.23.  Surely there is no Enchantment against Jacob; neither is their any Divination against Israel: according to this time shall it be said of Jacob, and of Israel, what hath God wrought? which makes good the next General I am to speak to which must be acceptable to all good men.  
The Frustration of their design: or the ill success which they meet with, that strive to oppose the Truth by violence, or detain it in ungodliness by fraud: yet have they not prevailed against me.  
Many are the inventions of the wicked, many their Plots and Stratagems, many their devices, and subtle Machinations, but the Counsel of the Lord that shall stand! As Satan and his Instruments are restless Persecutors of the Saints; so is God a sure rescuer, and Preserver of them: Though the red Dragon call together all his infernal Legions; 
Rev. 22.7.  all the Principalities, and Powers of darkness, all the numerous host of the bottomless Pit; yet the victory shall remain with Michael: for indeed it is Imper congressus, a very unequal Match? for although the Devil in Scripture be styled the strong one, yet hath he to deal with a stronger than himself, with one who can when he pleases restrain his fury, and dispossess him of all the advantageous Holds he hath gotten) and disappoint him and his Agents of their most forward and pregnant hopes even upon the Edge, and point of their accomplishment. As the Enemies of Zion have many ways, and many means to afflict her, so God hath many ways, and many means to protect and defend her. I cannot show all the ways, and Methods which our Almighty Preserver makes use of to save and deliver his Chosen, because many of the Paths of his secret Providence are unknown to us, and past finding out: neither can I insist long upon those several ways, that are discovered to us in holy writ, which his divine wisdom uses for their continual Preservation: I shall instance in the two most comprehensive Methods I can think of and be as brief in them as I can.  
1. The special Providence of God is wonderfully shown in the singular Protection of his Servants from those dangers that arise from necessary causes, from such as act from their natural inclinations, or at least ways without much premeditation or design.  
2. His infinite Love to his People is more Eminently discovered in the various Methods he takes to secure them from the mischiefs that are designed them by voluntary Agents. But before I treat of either of these I must premise this by way of caution; That God does not always make use of any peculiar providence for the preservation of his dearest Children either from dangers ariseing from necessary, or free Agents, and therefore we are not rashly to judge of all those who come to any Misfortune either from the one, or the other Cause. Sometimes he suffers his chiefest Favourits to be sawn asunder, to pass through the flames, and those of whom the world was not worthy to be stoned, and slain with the Sword, here in suffering the Malice of the wicked for some private end of his own to take its natural course, and to obtain its designed Purpose; sometimes likewise he suffers his own Children to come to sudden, and as we call them untimely Ends; by some unforeseen, and therefore unavoideable accident: but chiefly and generally speaking God as I shall show you is pleased to give signal Evidences of his particular care of his own People, in preserveing them from the many fatal dangers they are subject to from the one and the many bloody contrivances that threaten them from the other Cause.  
1 God's care is remarkable in the preservation of his Servants from dangers ariseing from natural Causes: He oftentimes for the Safeguard and Protection of his People either restrains the violence and Malignity of them, or else altars, or suspends their Property: Thus he restrained the consumeing nature of the fire in the over heat Furnace into which the three-childrens, (the bold opposers of Jdolatry to the King's face) were cast, So that they walked unconcernedly in it, as though they had only been surrounded with a harmless Lambent flame. Thus the viper that fastened on St. Paul's hand by the wonderful Providence of God, (whose first motion's all natural Agents must needs obey) had lost its innate venom, which was turned into an innocent juice: and this is one of the promises which our blessed Saviour made, to his Disciples a little before his Ascension mentioned by St Mark: They shall take up Serpents, 
Mark. 16.18.  and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them. we are told by Job that the stones of the field shall be in League with the Righteous, 
Job. 5.27.  and that the beasts of the field should be at peace with him. Thus God shut the Mouths of the Lions, and took away their ravenous appetite, to preserve his Servant Daniel, whose only crime was his Devotion, his not daring to offer up any Petition but to his God only. and we know that the stones which the people of Lystra (the same persons whom St Paul had lately before Restrained with much ado from Idolatry.) 
A●●s 14.19.  threw at that great Apostle, were more favourable to him then the hard hearts of the misguided rabble; Thus the fire shall not burn, nor the viper sting, nor the Lions devour, nor the stones kill, nor the Oil Scald, (St John's deliverance at Patmos) when God is pleased to appear for the security and Preservation of those who stand up in opposition to Idolatry and Superstition in defence of his own true worship.  
2. The special Providence of God is most Eminently discovered in the several methods he takes to secure them from the violence intended them by voluntary Agents. And this God does sometimes by turning the hearts or those who wish evil unto Zion into a friendly compliance with her. thus he protected his servant jacob twice in the same journey, when Laban pursued him, and his incensed Brother Esau went forth to meet him. Sometimes by turning the fury and violence of the enemies upon themselves: Thus the war between the Turks, and the Persian was for a long time the Safeguard, and preservation of the Christians in Hungary: and often times the jealousies and contests amongst the several Sects of the Mahometans have diverted the arms of those Infidels, or recalled them from the advantages they had gained by their vast multitudes: sometimes God is pleased to send Panic fears, and general consternations amongst the Enemies of Zion, thereby making them afraid of their own shadows, and causeing them to fly when there is none to pursue. 
Kings 2 book 7.6.  Thus he made the Syrians to here the noise of Chariots and Horses, even as the noise of a great host, and they arose and fled, and left all their Furniture and provision behind them to the great comfort of the almost starved Samaritans. At other times he preserves his Servants by discovering the councils, and revealing the designs of those that seek their destruction: thus God by the Prophet Elisha discovered the secret Cabinet Councils of the King of Syria, by which means the King of Israel saved himself: otherwhile he smites them with blindness, as he did he great host that came to entrap the Prophet Elisha and takes them in the same snare they laid for others. Sometimes he infatuates their Councils, making them thereby instrumental to the preservation of those whom they had marked out for destruction: Thus the writing of an ambiguous Letter to the Lord Mounteagle to dissuade him from coming to the House that day was a Secondary means of preventing that bloody, and horrid design which should on this day have been executed, and for the happy discovery whereof we have this Morning paid our grateful acknowledgement to our Merciful Saviour and Deliverer.  
And as God hath many ways so he hath many means to protect his Chosen, and to suppress either the force or to defeat the cunning of their Adversaries: As his Angels, his Ministering Spirits sent abroad continually for the good of his Elect: witness Sonacheribs vast army destroyed in one night by them: his Magistrates which are the Shields of the Earth, and his Ministers which are the Chariots and horsemen of Israel. But in all these we must look up to God, the first Mover of the wheel and return our Praise and thanksgiveing to him, to whom it alone belongs, which brings me to the last head The duty of the Church; the thankful retribution she is bound to make to her great Champion, and Defender of all her deliverances: may Israel now say. The remembrance of her past dangers ought to be the Burden of her Song of thanksgiving: as the Reduplication in the Text, and in other places of the Psalms seem to import Not unto us, not unto us O Lord but unto thy Name be glory; they compassed me about, they compassed me I say about, but in the Name of the Lord I will destroy them. All the redoublings almost that we meet with are but so many repetitions of God's favour, and Mercies, whereby we are the more effectually and strongly stirred up to a cheerful thankfulness to him who is the Giver of all victory and the only Preserver of all those that fear him, and put their trust in his mercy.  
A grateful acknowledgement of Benefits received is one of the first Principles and common notions we bring into the world along with us: neither have we only the indelible and indispensible Law of Nature to commend this duty of gratitude to us, but the positive command of God himself to enforce the commemoration of either particular or national deliverances, under no less apenalty than the absolute forfeiture of them: God will by no means admit that his mercies should be writ in Sand to be washed away by the next coming in of the Tide; but that they should be recorded in such lasting Characters that may transmit them to succeeding generations. He commanded a Pot of Manna to be preserved in his Tabernacle to testify to after ages that miraculous Providence where by he sustained the Children of Israel for forty years in the dry and barren Wilderness: And when the waters of Jordan were dried up to afford an easy passage to that vast army into the promised Land, we find that Joshua erected 12 stones in the place where the waters were cut off, to be a perpetual Memorial of that wondrous separation: Nay we are told that in the same place where they passed over the Red Sea, the Print, and Footsteps of that Stupendious March. May be seen to this day, as a lasting Monument of that Miraculous Preservation: I shall not stand to justify the truth of that bold and seemingly improbable relation; but sure I am that the signal steps, and prints of this days wonderful deliverance remain fresh in this Nation to this present time, for though many noble, and Eminent neighbouring Structures have since (not without suspicion of indirect contrivances from the same cruel hands) felt the fury of the merciless Flames: yet those ancient, and glorious Piles of building at Westminster, where the Plot was laid, where the seen was contrived, and which were designed, for one common heap of rubbish, stand hitherto as a monument of our Church's triumph, and their shame, and at once bid defiance to the jaws of Time, and their inveterate Malice.  
Let not therefore the complicated Blessings which by the happy discovery of this days horrid Treasons descended upon this Nation be blotted out of our remembrance so long as we wish well to the English Monarchy or to the Protestant Religion; for to this days Triumph we own the Preservation of both.  
Nay lest the remembrance of those Miraculous Deliverances that God hath bestowed upon this Kingdom by snatching it out of the bloody Jaws of Popery should ever be forgotten by us; he hath been graciously pleased, as it were to refresh our Memories, and to reprint the Characters of his goodness to be continued to our Posterity, to signalise once more the same day of the same Month, and the same date of the year with fresh instances of his gracious Providence over us, and his singular protection of us, and our most excellent Religion. Mikeing 88 in this wonderful Century, and the now twice happy fifth of November, (the glorious day of his present Sacred Majesty's Arrival in England, for the Preservation of our Liberties and Religion) the joyful Seasons once more of our deliverance from that fearful inundation of Popery that was ready to break in upon us.  
Let us therefore offer unto God our Protector, and Preserver a double Tribute of thankfulness for the joint Deliverances vouch safed to us, and our fore Fathers on this Solemn Festival, which deserves to be marked with a new Star, and coloured with a fresh, and richer grain in our English Calendar.  
Deliverances by which we are rescued from being carried back to our old abandoned Egypt of Idolatry, and Superstition. Mercies to which we own the continuance of many noble Families which otherwise had been blown up without any Luxury or Prodigality of their own: and lastly Mercies to which we must ascribe the free Excercise of our Religion, and our meeting together in this venerable, and Agust Place appointed for God's holy Worship; (a place to which that Party were lately too near Neighbours, and which they looked upon with too greedy an Eye) whereby we have this opportunity of Magnifieing that gracious Providence which countermind all their hellish Plots in both the Miraculous Revolutions.  
And set us show our Gratitude to Almighty God on this great occasion chief by wishing well unto Zion, and doing the things that may conduce to her Peace.  
Let us not be accessary to our own Misfortunes in calling down judgements from Heaven, in removeing those Golden Candlesticks which are yet, God be praised, (and long may they continue so) fixed in our Sanctuaries either by the wickedness of our lives, or the viciousness of our Principles. Let there be no Divisions among us, the fomenting of which is the ready way to blast, and sully those extraordinary blessings which we at present enjoy; and which an unanimous conformity to the most pure and excellent rules and Discipline of our Church, is the most likely, and prudential way to confirm to our further Benefit, and advantage. Let those who upon slight, and trivial Grounds separate from our Communion consider seriously with themselves, who they were, that have ever since the Reformation been the stout opposers of Popery, and who they now are which appear as the resolute Champions of the Protestant Religion against all its Enemies whatsoever. And then let them be ashamed to stand out any longer against them, who have always stood in the Gap to Defend them, and the Faith which they Profess.  
Let them all run into the Arms of our common Mother the Church of England, and rest assured that they cannot but be safe unde her Shelter whom God hath so miraculously restored, and preserved: And let all acquiesce in the wise, and the sober determinations of those Reverend, and pious Compilers of the most excellent form of her Discipline which as well as her Doctrine, some of them sealed, and confirmed with their best blood. For we may assure ourselves of this Truth, that as a Church over burdened with a multitude of Ceremonies is like a Bird with great Wings, many gay Feathers, and a small light, empty useless Body; So that Church (if we may call it one) that despises all outward Decency, and Order, is like the unplumed Jay in the Fable, a trouble to herself, and laughing stock to her Neighbours.  
Lastly let us endeavour to be Sober in our Judgements, prudent in our Conversation; putting on a calm, meek, obedient, teachable Temper; not affecting singularity, but agreeing as in one Faith, one Hope, one Baptism, in the acknowledgement of one Lord, and Saviour of us all: So likewise in one outward form of worship, even that Incomperable one which is so happily (and long may it be so) Established by Law among us.  
And let Us, bless and Praise God for all his Mercies; and than God shall bless us, and continue this most excellent Religion which we profess, and enjoy, in spite of all its Adversaries, and Opposers whatsoever, to us, and our Posterity for many and many Generations; till all Churches shall be gathered into one, and united to their Supreme head Christ Jesus our blessed Saviour, and Deliverer, to whom with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, three Persons, and one God be ascribed oll Power, Praise, Honour, and Glory for ever and ever, Amen.  
FINIS.