Mr. TRENCHARD's SERMON Before the LORD-MAYOR, AT St. Mary-le-Bow, on May 29. 1694.   

Ashhurst Mayor, Martis Quinto die Junii 1694. Annoque RRs. & Reginae Willielmi & Mariae, Angl. etc. Sexto.  
THis Court doth desire Mr. Trenchard to Print his Sermon, preached before the Lord Mayor, aldermans, and Citizens of this City at the Parish Church of St. Mary-le-Bow, on Tuesday the Nine and twentieth of May last.  
GOODFELLOW.   

A SERMON Preached before the RIGHT HONOURABLE the LORD-MAYOR, AND Court of Aldermen, Of the City of LONDON. AT St. Mary le Bow, on the 29th. of May, 1694.  
By John Trenchard, M. A. Rector of Wraxhall in the County of Somerset, and Chaplain to the Right Honourable the Earl of Manchester.  
LONDON: Printed for Richard Baldwin, at the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane, MDCXCIV.   

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE Sir William Ashhurst, LORD-MAYOR OF THE CITY of LONDON. And to the Worshipful the Court of ALDERMEN.  
My Lord,  
WERE there no other motive besides the common Principles of Gratitude, to induce me to it, this present Dedication of my Sermon to your Lordship, would be but a just discharge of that Obligation which your many distinguishing Favours have made me a Debtor for.  
But since the narrow Confines of an Epistle Dedicatory, and the equally-insufficient Capacities of my Pen are utterly unable either to contain or express the grateful Sense of your Lordship's manifold Obligations; I shall therefore assign another Reason for flying to the Asylum and Protection of your Great Name and Authority, in this very Censorious and Ungrateful Age that we now live in.  
My Lord, 'Tis the apparent danger of Calumny and Misrepresentation for speaking my Thoughts so freely (nay, I will be bold to say, so like an Orthodox Churchman, and a True Englishman) on the late Anniversary Occasion, that puts me under a necessity of giving your Lordship this further Trouble.  
I need not repeat the Occasion, nor shall I recriminate (as I might fairly and justly do) on those that are now become my declared Enemies and open Revilers for speaking the Truth; for 'tis enough that I have your Lordship's Approbation of my weak, but well meant Performance. 'Tis your Lordship's Judgement alone, and known Integrity, which I value beyond a Thousand of those Jacobite Animadverters, who as I am too too sensible of it, would gladly take advantage of the Freedom and Sincerity of my following Discourse, in order to prejudice that Interest, and to frustrate those Hopes which I might otherwise reasonably pretend to with such as were signally Instrumental in the late blessed Revolution, and are still well affected to the present Establishment of their Most Excellent Majesty's Happy Government over us.  
Give me leave, My Lord, to observe, That the Impatience and Sourness of some men (those especially whose Heats and Violences in the late Reigns were like to have brought us into inextricable Difficulties and Confusions) are at present such, as will not suffer them to be contradicted; though their own Practices and Compliances have been a Public Confutation of, and a notorious Contradiction to All that they have either wrote or said on the following Subject. And by these very men am I threatened with a very severe Censure; and no question were it in their power to inflict it (so great is their want of Charity, and so much are their Tempers soured) I should receive at their hands a more severe Persecution.  
But thanks be to God for the Settlement of that Government over us, which at this time is mine and every other honest Man's security against so uncharitable and bigoted a Party.  
And what shall I say more in my own Vindication? When the Government itself, and the best Princes that ever swayed a Sceptre together, are not sufficiently privileged against the unhandsome and scurrilous Reflections of these Men; 'tis not to be expected that I, who have endeavoured (and am still ready on any further occasion) to justify the late Revolution, should pass by uncensured or uncondemned by 'em.  
When the sharp point of that Rigid Doctrine of their own Passive Obedience, was directed to them, they grew uneasy and Seditious, ('tis their own word) as well as other People, and made no scruple to speak evil of Dignities, nay, and to kick against the Pricks; though, as I am well assured, they are now highly offended at, and very angry with me for giving a more true and agreeable Explanation of that Doctrine.  
Those Men could afford to speak well of, and to desire the Prince of Orange above all things, at a time when their own turn was to be served; nay, they could sit quiet, wishing him Success in all his Undertake, when he Landed upon the Late King, and they could Address him to take the Administration of the Government upon him, though all this was notoriously contrary to their own so often avowed Passive Fidelity.  
And yet now, (so monstrous is their Ingratitude) as they cannot bear with a fair Vindication of the Deliverance itself, which most of them were either directly or indirectly Accessary to; so likewise they cannot forbear to slight and revile our Glorious Deliverer for preserving their Religion, Lives, and Liberties.  
But may the Justice of our Government exert itself in due time against these ungrateful and self-willed People. And may it make some Eminent Distinction (as of late it has begun to do in the Promotions that have been made) between its real and pretended Friends, in order to the better Establishment of things on a right bottom, and to the Settlement of a lasting Peace and Union amongst us.  
May Their Majesties have a long and prosperous Reign over us, notwithstanding all the trifling Exceptions, and Evil Surmises of these Men.  
To conclude, May Your Lordship still continue by the wise and just Administration of that Trust which is reposed in You, to be a Terror to all Evil-doers. And may all Your Successors take their Measures from that Exact Pattern which You have prescribed, in seeing Justice strictly and impartially executed on all Offenders.  
My Lord, You have the Just Encomium's of all Honest and Good Men for Your great Zeal and Interity to the Present Establishment, and for the Upright and Conscientious Discharge of Your Great Office in this Famous City.  
And may the Rewards and Blessings of a Gracious and Bountiful God be still poured forth on Yourself and Family for the same.  
My LORD, Your LORDSHIP'S Most Obliged, Grateful and Obedient Servant, JOHN TRENCHARD.   

A SERMON Preached before the LORD-MAYOR, etc. MAY the 29th. 1694.  PSALM CXVIII. 22, 23, and 24 verses. 
The stone which the bvilders refused, is become the headstone of the corner.  
This was the Lord's doing, and it was marvellous in our eyes.  
This is the day which the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.  
THIS Psalm is generally thought to have been composed by that great Master of Poetry and Devotion, King David; and it further appears, both from the matter and style thereof, to have been a Pious and Gratulatory Hymn of his own penning, wherein he does very religiously acknowledge the special vouchsafement of God's Mercy and Goodness towards him, in that he was advanced so miraculously and providentially from the low and despicable State of a Shepherd; nay from the mean degree of a Fugitive or banished Person, to sway the Sceptre of God's People, and in the room of his Father Saul to be another King over Israel.  
My Text, 'tis true, is not uncommonly nor improperly understood by all Divines agreeable with that application of it to the same purpose which the Apostle makes in Acts 4.11,— to refer to Christ; who being the stone which the bvilders (i. e.) the Jews refused, and the Person which they did afterwards most despitefully Crucify, is now, being risen from the dead, become the head stone of the corner, or the chief Pillar and Foundation of the Church of God. And therefore in a Prophetical Rapture, being especially assisted thereunto by the Divine Spirit, the Royal Psalmist is supposed hereby to celebrate (even before it came to pass) the Resurrection of Christ our Redeemer from the dead, and to congratulate that most beneficial advancement of his Person to the Regalia, and Supreme Authority next under God his Father, in the Kingdom of Heaven.  
But waving this typical and figurative Interpretation (though no question sufficiently intended by our Royal Prophet in this Psalm) I shall take these words at present only in a literal sense, as they are part of that grateful and devout acknowledgement, which Holy David did humbly offer to the Divine Majesty for those repeated Deliverances which the watchful Eye of Providence had ever afforded him amidst all his manifold Dangers and Tribulations; but more especially for that unexpected and surprising Revolution in the Exaltation of his Person and Family to the Throne and Sceptre of Israel.  
Considering the extraordinary pre-eminence of King David above all other Kings, as well upon the account of his Prophetical Spirit, as of the peculiar designation by an immediate Divine Appointment, that he and his Family should sway the Sceptre of Israel; (which was such a Title to a Crown as no Kings out of the Jewish Oeconomy have ever since been able with the utmost assistance of all their Mercenary Advocates for Arbitrary Government, to justify a claim to): I say, considering this, and his other many personal Merits, especially his Exemplary Devotions, and the tender regard which he always had to the Profession of God's True Religion, it may, perhaps, be a just Scruple to some, how far such an occasional Comparison might be well prosecuted, which my Text invites me to make, between King David and that Prince, whose wonderful and happy Restoration to these Kingdoms we are this day convened, by the Order of our Government, to commemorate, and out of a religious sense of the great Blessing, to return unto God the Author and Procurer of it, our devoutest Acknowledgements, and most pious Thanksgivings.  
And though some Persons in the former Reigns have been perhaps too free and audacious in their Panegyrical Strains at such Anniversary Entertainments as this, when they thought it not amiss to draw both these Princes in the same Colours, making them Rivals and Competitors for the same Heroic Perfections and Kingly Qualifications (as if the latter, not unlike the former, had been a man, and what is more, a King too, after God's own heart) yet it will be pardonable, I hope, in me, if I make not too forward a step in daubing over the Characters of Princes: But however, this I will be bold to affirm, That if we examine the Journals of their persecuted and broken Fortunes, how very difficult and alike Providential the Circumstances of their Escape were from the deep-laid Treachery and Machinations of their Enemies, and how after their being forced to retire to Achish the King of Gath for Protection, they were wonderfully brought back again in Peace to their own Country, and alike rewarded with the Donation of a Crown for their Travel.  
If we consider these broken pieces of Story, with regard had to the special Providence of their unexpected Promotion, the Choice of these Words on the present Solemnity, may admit of a very tolerable justification.  
In discoursing therefore on the Words of my Text, as I have accounted for them, I shall in the first place observe how eminently the Providence of God is concerned in the Revolution and Alteration of Government.  
For thus the stone which the bvilders refused, became the head stone of the corner; and thus a Prince that had been formerly forced into Banishment, was afterwards recalled, and triumphantly brought back, pursuant to the then general Vote and Desire of the English Nation, to the Throne and Sceptre of his Ancestors: And this was the Lord's doing, and was marvellous in our eyes.  
2dly. I shall show the Reasonableness of our present Joy, and the Duty of this Day's Thanksgiving: This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.  
I shall in the first place observe, How eminently the Providence of God is concerned in the Revolution and Alteration of Government: For thus the stone which the bvilders refused, became the head stone of the corner; and thus a Prince that had been formerly forced into banishment, was afterwards recalled, and triumphantly brought back, pursuant to the than Genral Vote and Desire of the English Nation, to the Throne and Sceptre of his Ancestors: And this was the Lord's doing, and was marvellous in our eyes.  
The Notion of a God and Providence are so reciprocally and so inseparably dependent upon each other, that there is no possibility of arriving at a rational perception of the one, without the necessary result and supposition of the other.  
For the Belief of the real existence of the one, does effectually establish the consequent Hypothesis of the universal Influence and Actuation of the other; as on the contrary, to deny either, is to take away the common Belief and Assent which is due to both.  
Because God and Providence are words of the same import and signification, though with this only difference, that one denotes the Person, or Infinitely Powerful Being that made the World at first out of nothing; and the other expresses, that necessary and essential Attribute of the Deity, his Infinite Wisdom, by which he presides continually over us, watching and ordering all things in it for the best, so as to prevent what must otherwise unavoidably come to pass, a general Ruin and Confusion amongst us.  
For were it true, which the Fools affirm in their hearts when they say that there is no God; and had there been no first and infinite Being to have given life by his bare fiat to all the other beings that are now Existing in the World, all things had for ever been locked up in the womb of an eternal and silent Chaos; and they would have still remained in the same unactive and insensible State, as they were once in before the Eternal Word gave Being and Existence to them, or put them into Motion.  
And so in like manner, were there at this time no such thing as a Superintending Providence to Direct and Order the Affairs of this World here below, but that all things, according to the Epicurean Conjecture, were abandoned to blind Fate and an uncertain Chance, the Disorders of the Universe would quickly become excessively great and intolerable. In short, were it not for the Direction of a Divine Providence, Nature itself after such a long series of Time must needs decay, and run from off its Hinges, and Mankind would be soon destroyed from off the face of the Earth.  
That God Almighty therefore does actually concern himself about the Administration of human Affairs; and that his Providence is eminently exerted over mankind in the various Revolutions and Alterations of Government that do ordinarily happen, will be abundantly evident from these following Considerations.  
First, From the Reason and Nature of Government itself, which being purposely instituted for the sake of Order, and a peaceable Harmony among sociable Creatures; I mean, for the Public Good and Benefit of the governed, rather than as some have fantastically imagined, to gratify the Boundless Luxury of any particular Person or Persons that shall so happen to be set over the rest, does therefore necessarily suppose the Care and continual Superintendency of an Alwise Being, that first qualified mankind for Society, and afterwards disposed them in so wonderful a manner as he has done, for the Terms of Subjection and Obedience.  
For seeing that all men are by nature equally ambitious of Power and Dominion, and alike impatient of being controlled and put upon by others, it must be the Power and Will of God alone, that should first incline men to forgo these their Natural Propensities of Tyrannising and Domineering over one another, and instead thereof to give up their Lives and Fortnnes so unanimously as they have done, to the Stated Forms of Civil Policy.  
For thus, Saul himself, though higher by the head and shoulders than the rest of his Brethren, had no Title by Nature or Birth, or any pretence to the Crown of Israel, till the foregoing Request of the People, and God's subsequent Designation, had first recommended him as fit to be their King: Nor had any of those barbarous Nations, in imitation of whose particular Forms of Government, the foolish Israelites were willing to quit their Theocracy, ever resigned themselves up to the Power and Conduct of one man, but that the Wise Disposer of things, who is he that stilleth the raging of the Sea, that represseth the Tumults of the People, had first prepared them by suitable Instincts, and previous Dispositions, to be so directed and commanded.  
Government then in general being an undoubted Ordinance of God, Rom. 13.2. though the Specification of it to this or that Form does always depend upon the different Climates of countries', and the various Complexions and Humours of People, according to that of St. Peter 1.2.13. who styles all the Species of Government (Monarchy itself not excepted) the Ordinance, or Creature of man, for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the expression; I say nevertheless, Government in general being an undoubted Ordinance of God, it must therefore be in all Times and Places of the World one of the Principal Concernments of his Directing and Superintending Providence.  
For an infinite Wise Being, such as the common Notion of Persection in the Godhead supposes him to be, could never Ordain and Appoint any thing to be, but that he must be thought likewise to be ever careful of it afterwards, and to provide always for its Continuance and Preservation. And therefore, if he Instituted Government at first in the World for the Public Good and Order of Human Society, he must be supposed to be still concerned in the Disposal and Administration of it, and to be privy to all the Transactions and Revolutions relating to States and Kingdoms.  
But Secondly, The Consideration of his Attributes of infinite Perfection in Power, Knowledge, Goodness, and Wisdom, do justly bespeak him to be the Mighty King of kings, and Lord of lords, and the only ruler of princes.  
His Omnipotence imports, That he is the Supreme Legislator and Governor of the whole Earth, and that all things are ordered according to his Will, or by his Permission; and that no Government is set up or pulled down, but through the  Superintendency of his Pleasure, who has before decreed to have it so, and has accordingly raised up fit and proper Instruments for the bringing it to pass.  
He it is that whistles for the fly out of Egypt, or the be out of the land of Assyria, Isa. 7.18. That stirs up a Pharaoh to persecute, or a Nabuchadnezzar to carry into Captivity his People. In a word, he it is that calls in Foreign Armies into a Nation to destroy it, or else finds Enemies enough at home to effect his purposes, when a Land is ripe for his Judgements, and that the measure of its Iniquity is full.  
In a word, He it is that prefers and degrades, for Reasons best known to himself; that gives Merit and Success to some bold Undertakers, and yet at the same time infatuates the Counsels, and defeats the Purposes of others. To use King David's words, who found it experimentally true; He it is that pulleth down one, and setteth up another: For promotion cometh neither from the East, nor from the West, nor from the South, but God is the judge, Psal. 75. v. 6, 7.  
His Omniscience and Omnipresence do justly entitle him to be the great Arbitrator and Umpire between several Kings and their Kingdoms, and between Sovereign Princes and their People. For there is no Plot or Conspiracy that can be hid from his alseeing Eye. He watches all our Actions, he hears all our Words, nay he understandeth the very secrets of the Heart, and tryeth the Reins; so that nothing can possibly escape his Knowledge.  
He therefore may be well supposed to know what Designs are forming by one Prince against another, what Treachery there is in their Treaties, and what notorious falsifications there sometimes are in their most solemn Vows and Promises. He is present also at all Cabals and Consultations, and will either blast or ripen their politic Devices, as shall best conduce to that great end which he proposes to himself in the Administration of his Government over us, I mean, his own Glory and our Good.  
He can easily penetrate the thick disguise of fair pretences, and is well acquainted with the inside of every man's heart. He can fathom the bottom of all the deepest Intrigues of State that have been, or shall ever happen to be carried on between a Prince and his People in the prosecution of a separate Interest: And when differences are on foot between them, as he is privy to the Designs, so he is able to prevent the mischief of either side, before the reciprocal Charges and Clamours which they make against each other shall have time to blow up the coals of their Contention into a flame, or improve their first misunderstandings into the bloody Acts of an open and implacable Hostility.  
Thus for instance, he can distinguish whether their Murmur, and whispered Discontentment's, have a true and just occasion, yea or no: If they are just and rational, he will perhaps regard their Complaints, and further all their Attempts whatsoever for the Redress of their Grievances, and the Recovery of their just Rights and Liberties. But if on the contrary, they are peevish and unreasonable Exceptions, only against the honest and well-meant Administration of their Governors, he will then frustrate all their Seditious practices, and by the Rod of the Civil Magistrate give them ample Chastisement for their folly: Thus according to that of the Psalmist 37.17. God breaketh the arm of the wicked. So on the other hand, he is not so insensible (as some Machiavillians may imagine) when Princes design the Ruin and Destruction of their Subjects (for the hearts of kings are in his rule and governance) he knows what Designs are clandestinely form and carried on by them and their Ministers for the subversion of a National Religion, and other Legal Immunities of a People; and if it so pleases him, than Achitophel and Absalom-like they shall not prosper, but be confounded.  
He sees the difference between just and unjust, and between right and wrong, and can readily adjust all the many bloody Controversies that have been started and bandied to and fro about Liberty and Prerogative: Because he knows the utmost Bounds of Prince's Power, and the Original or Fundamental Reason of their being so entrusted with it.  
Thus, for instance, if Princes employ their Power, and exercise their Authority for the common Weal of a Nation, God will undoubtedly crown all their Undertake with Success; and then, like Solomon, their Wisdom improving with that of their Government, they shall daily increase both in Power and in Riches.  
But if they begin to affect an unreasonable Jurisdiction, and to Tyrannize over the People, contrary to the implied Conditions of all Governments, which are no longer justifiable than whilst the primary ends of their Institution shall be observed in the Protection and Preservation of a People's Just Rights and Liberties.  
If Princes, I say, begin to affect such Abuses of Power as these, than it may reasonably be presumed, that he will cross and disappoint all their Measures, and cut them off as he did Reboboam, that early Affecter of Arbitrary Power, by the Loss of Ten Tribes from his Government. And thus, as Job long since observeth, does God pour out his contempt on some Princes, Job 12.21.  
But further; The Infinite Goodness and Wisdom of God is another special Qualification and Title in him to the Supreme Government of the Universe, and a sufficient reason to evidence this great truth which I have asserted, viz. That he does actually concern himself in the various Revolutions and Alterations that do occasionally happen throughout the several States and Kingdoms of the World. His Goodness disposes him to commiserate the Miseries and Calamities of an Enslaved and Oppressed People; and his Wisdom provides fit remedies against the times of their Distress, preparing all things necessary, the worthy Instruments and brave Undertakers, as well as the ways and means of their Deliverance.  
For his Goodness carries a very tender regard to the Peace and Welfare of Mankind, and to the Preservation of their Lives and Liberties; And his Wisdom can (at his pleasure) effectually secure them against any Attempts whatever, in the enjoyment of all those many invaluable Blessings.  
Thus for instance; out of Sacred History we have Rehoboam, who according to the Advice of his Flatterers, (the young Counsellors, and unwary Politicians that were about him) was fully resolved (instead of redressing Grievances, and gratifying the just Complaints of an Oppressed People) to load the Israelites with other additional and more heavy Impositions, and to make them feel (as the Advice was given) that his little singer should be more than all his father's loins.  
But yet it so pleased God in mercy to that People, to reserve a Jeroboam (though one, 'tis true, that afterwards made Israel sin) for the prevention of such Evil and Tyrannical Purposes.  
And so it came to pass by the Wisdom of the same good Providence of God, that Ten Tribes unanimously revolting together as they did, they bravely asserted their Liberty, and by the bold refusal of having him for their King, they preserved themselves a free and unenslaved Nation.  
For Modern Examples of the like kind (besides the late wonderful Revolution that occasions this present Solemnity) 'tis observable, that when the great and very Potent King of Spain was immovably fixed upon the oppression of his Subjects in the Low Countries, God's Providence was ready at hand to favour the Righteous Cause of the Oppressed, and he accordingly raised up as horn of salvation for them in these Kingdoms, our Renowned Virgin Queen of most blessed memory, to remove the ground and occasion of their just Complaints, and to establish their Freedom.  
And for another Instance of this nature, but later date, it may suffice to remark the stupendious Proceed of Providence which both disposed and enabled those very People to repay our kindness to them with the very same good Turn done unto us.  
For when our Rights and Properties, and what should be dearer to us, our Religion, were just a breathing out its last, by reason of an upstart Popish Arbitrary Power that was then hurrying and huddling up all things together to complete our Confusions and Destruction, it pleased the Infinite Goodness of our Merciful God to put it into the hearts of these very People to furnish our King (the glorious Champion of England's, nay of Europe's Liberty) with means sufficient at once to attempt and accomplish our Deliverance. And this too, as we have reason to say, was marvellous in our eyes, and was undoubtedly the Lord's doing.  
In a word, The Divine Goodness does principally aim at, and intent throughout all his Administrations, the particular advantage of every Nation and People; and accordingly his Wisdom (being wholly intent on the Common weal and general good of Societies) is never deficient in its Operations towards that end, and never fails by some Expedient or other of bringing his great Designs, for the good and happiness of Mankind, to pass.  
Supposing therefore one Nation to be more refined and polite, upon the account of its Arts and Manners, than another, or to be very flourishing in any useful part of Learning, the method of God's Providence has been such, as to suffer a Neighbouring and more Barbarous People to be overcome by, and to be rendered tributary to such as were so civilised and improved.  
And thus Learning and Arms heretofore did usually march under the same Banners, and travel together out of one Country into another; and thus by the alternate Succession of the four great Empires of the World, a free circulation and communication of many excellent and many useful Arts and Sciences, were most happily begun and prepared for the universal benefit and satisfaction of Mankind.  
Upon this very account we may presume it was, that he permitted the Roman Eagle in times past to spread out her victorious Wings over the greatest part of the then known World for the sake of a general improvement and propagation of Arts and Sciences; and that by the general reception of the Roman Laws and Language, when the Emperors of Rome should become Christians, as afterwards they did, the great Mystery of Godliness, and the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, might obtain an easier passage, and a more agreeable admittance amongst them.  
To this Head I cannot forbear to refer one Instance more, (and though some persons may think it too foreign to the Argument in hand, yet, with submission I think it sufficiently vindicates the interposition of a Divine Providence in the disposal and administration of Human Affairs). For thus Augustus Caesar seems to have been purposely directed by the special Providence of God to tax the world, Luke 2.1. in that uncustomary manner as he did, that so every man repairing to his own City, Christ by that means might be born at Bethlehem, a City of Judah, according as it was foretold by the Prophet Micha 5.5. And so likewise, to verify the Prediction of another Prophet, was the very same Person confirmed and established in the free and undisturbed possession of his Empire; to the end, that as an Instrument wherewith to accomplish the Eternal and Irreversible Decrees of a Superintending Providence, he might shut the Temple of Janus, and settle an Universal Peace throughout the World against that time when the great Prince of Peace was to be born in it.  
But to wind up the whole thread of this Argument:  
Let us further reflect on these following Particulars, each of which well adverted to, will abundantly illustrate the truth of what I have thus in general terms endeavoured to assert.  
Had it ever constantly so fell out in the administration of a National and Public Trust, as it very usually does in the Transactions of a Domestic and Private Capacity; And had there ever been so many uninterrupted Successions of Wise and Warlike Princes to inherit a Crown, and to manage the weighty Affairs of some large Dominion, correspondent to what may be observed in many private Families, where there has been it may be a continual Generation of such as by their great Prudence and sagacious Conduct have increased and conveyed down an Improved Estate to their Posterities.  
The whole World would have truckled long since to the Arbitrary Subjection of some mighty Nimrod's Race; And all the Kingdoms or particular Forms of Government that are now extant among us, had but been so many precarious Tenors under some one great and Invincible Monarch.  
In Popular Governments there may be perhaps (for so 'twas among the Romans) a longer Succession of Worthy Magistrates and Brave Generals (the Condition and necessity of such Governments requiring it should be so) to secure men against the common danger of Foreign and Intestine Wars. But in this Case too there is commonly a due Crisis which puts a period to the Success and Prosperity of their Sat.  
For thus the excessive Wealth of Great men does either insensibly betray and deliver them over to Luxury, Licentiousness, and the most despicable degrees of Effeminacy in their Conduct: or else in time their Boundless Ambition and Mutual Contention among one another for Superiority, will effectually prepare a way as well for their own ruin, as the final Subversion of their admired Leviathan.  
But to reassume the first Observation, if we consider the Successions that have happened in most Countries, we may well conclude from it, that God's Providence for the Reason already suggested, is very nearly and intimately concerned in them all.  
For seeing God Almighty, whose Wisdom is unsearchable, and his Ways past finding out, is privy to, and has eternally foreseen all the Natural Consequences, and probable Event of Things; and knows very well, that in case he should give to this or that Nation a continual Race of Virtuous and Victorious Princes, that then neither the Rivers nor Seas, the Mountains nor Deserts would contain them, or restrain their unbridled Ambition from invading the Territories of a Neighbouring Prince: He therefore the better to keep the Balance even between them, and to preserve the distinct or separate Interest of Governments and Countries in the same manner, as he hath long since established and settled it, does very rarely bless any one Kingdom with Two Princes of the same Mind, or the like Virtues.  
Agreeable to which method of his Providence, it was, that Rehoboam succeeded Solomon, that after Hezekiah came Manasses, and so on in the several Reigns and Successions of the Kings of Judah and Israel.  
The like happened (as we read in Profane History) among the Romans, when Tiberius succeeded Augustus, and Domitian to Titus, etc. And there might be in the History of our own Nation, a Collection made by those that are better at leisure than myself to do it, of some Unhappy Princes that have not come up to the true Bravery, the exact Justice, and approved Wisdom of their Renowned Predecessors.  
Much to the same purpose, I might reflect on the many instances of unexpected Revolutions, which have befallen the several States and Kingdoms of the World, and so put it upon the experiment, whether 'tis possible for them to fail of giving your Conscience a due and sufficient Conviction, that God is the only Judge upon Earth, and Supreme Governor of the World.  
For we read in all Histories, of Persons of all Ranks and Orders, the Ignoble and Base, as well as the first and high born, that have been suddenly and unaccountably advanced to a Supreme and Sovereign Power. Now therefore to conjecture after all this, that such important Occurences as these have happened only by chance in the World, or that the God who numbereth the Hairs of our Head, and without whose Knowledge and Privity so inconsiderable a Creature as a Sparrow does not fall to the Ground: I say, to think, That such an Infinite and Perfect Being, as God is, who is Lord of all Things, and Judge of all Men, should sit by altogether unconcerned, as one that had no hand in these Affairs, which have so immediate a tendency to the Happiness or Infelicity of Mankind, would be a thought too too hard and absurd for a rational Creature to entertain of him, who is Infinite in Power, Wisdom, and Goodness; nay, and I had almost said, That 'twas as good for us to have no God at all, as to admit the Notion of such an one, that either cannot, or does not, or will not concern himself to direct and appoint fit and proper Substitutes to govern the World under him.  
When Good and Just Princes are exalted and promoted to a Throne, 'tis a public Benefit, and an inestimable Mercy to a People. 'Tis undoubtedly one main instance of God's special Favours and Goodness to a Nation, and such as ought to be a standing motive of their Repentance; nay such Mercies being Probationary ones, are to be looked upon as designed to make proof of our Gratitude and Obedience to that Infinite Goodness who does freely bestow them out of the Riches of his Mercy upon us.  
So on the contrary, when Evil and Tyrannical ones domineer and rule over us, 'tis an Argument of God's great Displeasure and Anger to a People. For such as these (and such have these Nations felt) are indeed very heavy and deplorable Judgements, and consequently are upon occasion the best Lectures that can be enlarged upon, in order to correct the Popular Vices of the Age, and to reform the Public and Crying Sins of a Nation.  
In a word, 'Twas God that, in mercy to the Israelites, rejected Saul, and promoted David. 'Twas he that divided the Kingdom of the Jews into Israel and Judah: That chose Jeroboam to be King over the Tribes that revolted, and afterwards upon due provocation overthrew Ahab, and Anointed Jehu to be King. 'Twas he that called in the Medes and Persians to afflict the Israelites for their Idolatry and other Abominations; and who afterwards, upon due humiliation, removed the Yoke of that insupportable State of Bondage. And 'twas no less than God himself, according to the Prediction of his Prophets, that raised up the Medes and Persians against the Chaldeans; The Grecians against the Persians; and lastly, the Romans against all other Nations; to work out and carry on the great Designs and Purposes of Infinite Power and Wisdom.  
To conclude; It was likewise God alone that facilitated the Attempts of Edward IU. and Henry VII. for the recovery of these Kingdoms, when they had been a long time banished from, and dispossessed of them; and when they landed with the Foreign Assistance of 〈◊〉 above 2000 Soldiers, and regained the Crown. And 'twas the same Good Providence of God which, in mercy to a distracted, divided, and almost undone People, effected this Day's Restoration with little or no opposition, I may say with less Blood.  
In short; 'Twas this that brought us all back again to our true Constitution, when the many notorious maladministrations and Violent Measures of the Late Reign had justly alarmed our Fears, and put us upon the necessity of a Natural State, wand'ring Minds, and Self-defence: In a word, 'Twas this, that when the Axe was laid to the Root of our Government, prevented the deadly designed Blow, and prepared a way for the Resettlement of our Church and State, as we now (blessed be God) do enjoy it. This was marvellous in our eyes, and was most certainly and undoubtedly the Lord's doing.  
I come in the last place to show the reasonableness of our present Joy, and the Duty of this Day's Thanksgiving.  
I have been, I must confess, somewhat longer on the first part of this Discourse, because I take it to be the most useful and edifying Enquiry of the two, in these Sceptical and Atheistical Times wherein we now live; which indeed are Times so desperately wicked, as to require new Proofs and Establishment from us, for the more effectual maintaining and asserting the very Fundamentals of our Religion.  
'Tis an Age this, which has Impudence and Profaneness enough in store to explode and ridicule upon all occasions the True and Orthodox Notions of a Superintending Providence; as if the God that made the World had nothing at all to do in the Appointment and Administration of the great Affairs in it. Or, as if he who created man at first, was no ways concerned, either to govern us by his own Eternal Decrees of Providence, or to see us governed by fit and proper Substitutes of his own designation.  
But I am apt to think that the succession of such Mercies as have befallen these Kingdoms, especially the happy Circumstances of our Present Establishment, are so many standing and convincing Evidences of such a Providence which I have been so long a contending for.  
To conclude therefore with the reasonableness of our present Joy, and the Duty of this Day's Thanksgiving, in as few words as I can conveniently use on this Grand Occasion, give me leave to observe, That though God's Mercies to these Kingdoms have happened to be liable to several Abuses (as all Blessings are when bestowed on any Person or Persons who afterwards prove ungrateful) and though they have been perverted perhaps to many evil and pernicious purposes, viz. to the apparent hazard of this State and Kingdom, and to the notorious scandal of our Church and Religion:  
Yet this ought not in reason to abate the first obligations of our Gratitude, nor in the least measure to impair that natural notion or grateful sense of God's Goodness which all Mankind, either actually have, or aught to have for Signal Benefactions and Providential Deliverances.  
Nor would I be understood to contend altogether for particular days and periodical returns for Persons and Names, or for mere forms, nor for the sake of any Politic and State-compliance only, but rather for a constant and Religious sense of our thankfulness to God upon the account of his public Benefits and National Mercies, as likewise for a substantial and devout expression of our Joy upon all solemn Occasions to him for the same.  
I need not press home any Arguments for the particular duty of Gratitude, as the occasion of this days Jubilee and Thanksgiving might otherwise require from me; because I hope that in so refined an Age, we are none of us grown such Apostates to good Manners and true Religion, as to scruple the returning due Thanks and Acknowledgements for the Benefits which the extraordinary Providence of God has already vouchsafed to us, and which we trust he will still continue to vouchsafe to these Nations.  
The reasonableness therefore of our present Joy will be best evinced from these following Reflections.  
In the First place; The great and chiefest Blessing of our Restoration, for I know of no other significant enough to be mentioned in this place, was, That it reduced our Confusions, and composed our Disorders: That from the mischiefs of Anarchy, it improved our condition to the benefits of a certain and fixed Form of Government: That from no King, no Lords, and no Commons, I mean, duly Assembled in Parliament, it brought us to what was anciently, what is now, and what we hope will ever be Recognized as our true Constitution, a Mixed, or Limited Government, made up of each of the Three particular Forms, viz. a Monarchical, Aristocratical, and Democratical Power.  
A Form of Government this, if well Administered, and justly Adhered to, that affords all Conveniencies and Advantages imaginable, that can be reaped or enjoyed from under any of the Three distinct Species, and yet secures us from all the Inconveniences and Disadvantages that through an Unlimited Jurisdiction can possibly result from either of them apart.  
In short, a Form of Government this, which does eminently distinguish us from the Inhabitants of all the other parts of the World beside, as having provided very amply for the greatness and glory of the Monarch, for the dignity and authority of the Nobility, and for the freedom and liberty of the Commonalty, without entrenching upon, or interfering with one another's distinct Powers and Capacities, which would be to the general Confusion and Detriment of the whole.  
In a word, A Government this, which makes our Prince the truly greatest, our Nobility the most Honourable, and our Commons the freest and most happy of any in Europe.  
The next Blessing obtained by the Restoration, and which might well be insisted on as a very strong and pregnant Argument for our present Joy, is the Resettlement of a True and Orthodox Religion among us, in the room of the wild Phanaticisms, the Enthusiastical practices, and abominable Blasphemies of the late times; I mean, the Re-establishment of a Church that dispenses the Holy Word and Sacraments of our Lord Jesus Christ with a Primitive Purity, and approved Devotion.  
A Church this is, that whatever some of her Members have unadvisedly and unwarrantably done, yet of Herself is not any whit uncharitable to those that shall differ from Her in Judgement, provided men's scruples are truly Serious and really Conscientious. Nor are Her Doctrines, whatever indiscretions the heat of Times, and prevalent Factions of a Court may have transported and betrayed some Persons into, at all prejudicial to the ascertained Rights and Liberties of a Free People. They were never designed, however they might happen to be Preached up and applied by some particular Persons, to advance the Arbitrary measures of a self-willed Prince.  
And it cannot be thought that this were intended to inculcate the Duty of a blind Obedience, which supposes a servile Compliance with all Commands whatsoever, without the least Reserve or Hesitation about the Reasonableness and Justice of them: Nor to tie up the hands of a People, when a Prince should Commission his Booted Apostles to Rifle them of their Goods, to Dispossess them of their Estates, and to rob them of their Lives, in order to make them fit Converts for Popery and Slavery.  
Alas! it cannot in reason be thought, That our Church, whose Doctrines are all so Sound and Rational, should ever intent such a Passive Obedience as this, in cases where the Law and the King's Will do not jointly concur to make up the just and indispensable Obligation of such a Bowstring Duty.  
For 'tis plain, that our Church (with respect to Civil Rights, etc.) can require no other Obedience (nor indeed does it) than the State can, or does lawfully require of us too. So that the Obedience which is due to the Supreme Powers, is a Legal Obedience only, and no more; such, I mean, as subjects us to the Penalties of a known Law, to which our own Consent was likewise had before it could have any force at all to affect or hurt us; and not to the uncertain Capriccios and unforeseen Violence of any one single Person's Will that shall happen to get the Administration and Execution of a National Trust into his Power.  
And this, I take it, makes a wide difference betwixt us and Primitive Christians, who lived under the Absolute Dominion of the Roman Emperors; for with them, to whom the Will of their Prince was an effectual and binding Law, such a Notion as Passive Obedience in the rigid sense that some Men have talked and preached it up, might be perhaps a very true, and a sound Doctrine. But to our everlasting Comfort, the Case is otherwise here, where the Law is the only Measure and Guide of our Obedience, and where we are not to obey either Actively or Passively, but as the Laws of the Land, the Common Safety of the People, and good Manners, shall therein direct us.  
To confirm the truth of this Notion, I shall even refer ye to the whole Occasion, Progress, and Success of the late Revolution, and to those many excellent and unanswerable Discourses that have been purposely wrote for the just Vindication of our Proceed.  
For seeing that our present King, the Glorious Restorer of our violated Laws and Liberties, was so generously invited into this Kingdom, and afterwards so bravely assisted and accompanied in his Marches to this City, and at length so unanimously voted to the Throne by those that were principally of the Church of England; I mean by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and by all the Commons; 'tis therefore very violently to be presumed, That they thought it high time to rectify, or rather to reject a Notion, which a little better experience had informed them, was not the real Intendment, nor the true Construction of the so much talked-of Doctrines of our most excellent Church.  
In a word, the restoring us to Order and Decency in our Church, to good Discipline, and Sacred Orders, to able Pastors, to discreet Rulers, was a true Cause of abundant Joy to our Afflicted and once Miserable Zion; and a good reason (if we value the peace of Jerusalem) that we should as yet rejoice and return unto God our due Praises and Thanksgivings for the same.  
And what though the vicious Practices, and licentious Indulgences of the late times, which were but the natural and proper Effects of Plenty and Prosperity, did somewhat obscure the Lustre of this day's Mercy and Restoration? And what tho Foreign Politics, and a Foreign Religion, which came over along with it, were like to have Eclipsed our Light, and to have brought in another Egyptian Darkeness and Slavery upon us, yet God be thanked we are rid of those our just Fears, and we have still, notwithstanding all that is past, a good and firm ground for our present Joy and Thanksgiving. Because these present Times are in a great measure the product of that Revolution: Insomuch, that had not the Restoration of King Charles the Second preceded, the late Revolution which we have all of us had our hands in either more or less (a Revolution that is now our happiness, and has proved to the advantage and satisfaction of all Europe beside) had never come to pass.  
To conclude, and sum up all, Had it not been for the Restoration, we had never enjoyed, what now we have, the best Constituted Government in the World; nor had we been blessed with the very best King and Queen that ever lived in any Age before them. A King that fights our Battles, and exposes his own Person to all Dangers for the Religion, Lives and Liberty of his Subjects. And a Queen that takes all imaginable Care for the Eternal Welfare of our Souls; that not only prays for them herself, and that prescribes the model of a most Virtuous and Religious Life for us to Copy after; but that in all her Promotions in the Church has taken an effectual Course to provide fit remedies for the importunate Evils of a lose and degenerate Age. I mean Persons eminent for Learning and Religion, and Men of approved moderation to heal the Sores of our Church, and to cure those many Distempers of Irreligion, which the several Factions and Heats of the late Enthusiastical Times have so notoriously fomented and bred amongst us.  
In short, according to Isaiah's Prophecy, 49.23. We have now, thanks be to God for them, (and God long preserve them to us) a King and Queen that are truly and literally a nursing Father, and a nursing Mother to the Church and People of England. In a word, two Princes of our own Choice, and according to our own hearts desire; And therefore if the greatest Temporal Blessing which the Infinite Benefactor can bestow on a Nation be a sufficient Reason for our present Joy and thanksgiving, 'twill then be our indispensable Duty to be hearty and sincerely thankful.  
Which brings me to speak of the Duty of this Day's Thanksgiving.  
But having exercised your Patience too much already, I shall therefore add a very few words on this Head.  
First, Ye are to consider, That as it is not the Design of our Present Government, in continuing the observation of this Day, to try the Strength and Zeal of a Party (as perhaps was the usual Practice and Abuse of it in the late times) so ye are to conclude, that the Business or Duty of this Day's Thanksgiving does not consist in loud Acclamations of Joy, and a vain Repetition of Huzzah's, nor in Sumptuous Fireworks, and Ringing of Bells, or other such like popular entertainments, which generally speaking, do end in nothing that is good, but are such expressions of Joy, as serve only to promote Tumults and Disorders, Drunkenness and Licentiousness amongst us; and are therefore upon that account, a very improper and unsuitable return to the Supreme Governor and Great Benefactor of Mankind, for the Blessed Revolutions which he has been the Principal Author and Contriver of in these Nations, in order to our Peace and Happiness.  
But Secondly to conclude all; ye are rather to look up unto God only as the Fountain and Foundation of all these Blessings.  
Ye are to address your Thanks to the Divine Majesty with the humblest sense imaginable of your unworthiness of these his manifold Benefits, and having made your suitable acknowledgements and returns of Praise and Thanksgiving to the Great and Merciful God, in the most Devout and Seraphic Strain that ye are able to reach to, ye should still continue to admire his Goodness, to adore his Wisdom, and dread his Power.  
In short, for these good things which God hath blessed us with, we ought to repay him with a Good and Religious Life, and to walk before him in Holiness and Righteousness all our days.  
Which that we may all do, God of his Infinite Mercy grant us Grace.  
Now to God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, be ascribed, as is most due, all Honour, Praise, Might, Majesty, Glory and Dominion, both now and evermore. Amen.  
FINIS.   

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Historical Letters written by the Doctor during his stay in Italy. 〈◊〉 Volume, which completes all his Works, was never before publish●● English; and this is also to contain a Key to the Voyage and large Expla●●●●ons of the most difficult Passages, never before published in any Langu●●●.  
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