A SERMON Preached before the KING In the Cathedral Church of WINCHESTER, Upon Sunday, Septemb. 9 1683. BEING THE Day of Public Thanksgiving FOR THE DELIVERANCE OF His Sacred Majesty's Person and Government From the Late Treasonable CONSPIRACY. BY F. TURNER, D. D. Dean of Windsor.  Published by his Majesty's special Command. 
LONDON: Printed for Benj. took, at the Ship in S. Paul's Churchyard. 1683.   

A SERMON ON PSAL. cxliu 9, 10.  
I will sing a new Song unto thee, O God, and sing Praises unto thee upon a ten-stringed Lute;  
Thou hast given Victory unto Kings: and hast delivered David thy Servant from the peril of the Sword.  
IF ever any might presume to take up the words of David in another Psalm where he says in behalf of himself and of God's own People, Like as we have heard so have we seen in the City of our God, i. e. in the Church, God upholdeth the same for ever; We may be allowed to take them up at this time, and to speak them in our own behalf. If ever those words of his might be applied by way of comparing the Great Deliverances which Almighty God has afforded to Kings and Kingdoms in Ages past, with Mercies no less wonderful in the present Age; Then I may justly apply those words with reference to the words of my Text: I take it out of a Psalm appointed in part of our Office for this Solemn Thanksgiving; and there's none but at first hearing my Text read may see it as it were fulfilled once more in our own Story, and gloriously accomplished on this Good Day: for we hear in my Text of a Victory given by God to a King, and now we see a King who having stood as it were in a Battle not for a single day only, but for several months, his Enemies are so disappointed, and defeated now, that we may truly say, God has given him a Noble Victory: We hear of a King in my Text, Delivered from the peril of the Sword; for 'tis plain this Psalm was written by David after he was Established upon his Throne, since he speaks to God in the second verse, my Deliverer, my Shield, and he in whom I trust, who subdueth my People that is under me. But we cannot tell whether this Psalm were written before or after his Encounters with Absolom, the Son of his own Bowels that sought his Life, or with Sheba that managed a Rising in the City against him, till the Loyal Party of the City prevailed, and the Traitor lost his Head: therefore I make no reflection upon those passages, for 'tis more than I can prove that David himself reflected upon them, here. But there's no question he had an Eye to all the Terrible Hazards he had run before he was Crowned, when Saul and his bloody house were hunting him like a Partridge upon the Mountains: So that not his own House, which should be a Man's Castle and his Sanctuary; not his own Bed, which was made to be quiet in; not those very places whither he fled for Refuge, were free from the peril of the Sword.  
This than we hear from the Text compared with the Story of that King; and (to keep far enough off not only from cold and frivolous Parallels, but also from odious Comparisons) I shall only say, we see a King preserved from the same Implacable Enemy that has pursued him above these Forty Years; but a much more formidable Enemy since he concealed his Enmity, than when he declared himself openly, even by setting a Price upon the Most Sacred Head.  
But David in all these Reflections either upon his Dangers or his Deliverances, looks up to Heaven, he acknowledges, that the Race is not to the Swift, nor the Battle to the Strong; and tho' it be added by Solomon that Time and Chance happen to all things, his meaning was, that many things look indeed like Chance, though guided by a Hand of Providence, to most unseen, which yet was most visible to King David in the whole Course of his Fortunes; therefore he gives the Honour to God alone. He thanks him not only for his own prosperous Successes, but in behalf of all the Crowned Heads in the World, it is he that giveth Victory unto Kings: to the same Great God of Heaven he ascribes their Preservation from so many Horrid Conspiracies, as while there is a Devil in Hell, and so many of his Agents upon Earth, will never cease to be carried on; and when they are taken off, it is He the King of Kings that delivers his Servant David, or by parity of reason, any other Sovereign Prince, that may be styled his Servant, from the hurtful Sword.  
Lastly, to complete the Solemnity and Honorary Part of his Thanksgivings upon these Accounts, he resolves to celebrate his Victory and his Deliverance, with such Music as is proper to be used in the Worship of God, and together with Church-music to Introduce its best Sister and Heavenly Twin, i. e. Divine Poetry, wherein he will endeavour at Higher and Nobler Strains than ordinary. I will sing a new Song unto thee O God: I will sing Praises unto thee upon a ten-stringed Lute.  
Now I cannot deny but many of the modern Expositors are careful, in their Descants on my Text, to instruct us that the religious Use of Instrumental Music was purely Mosaical and Typical; that it was adapted to the grosser and duller Constitution of the Jewish Votaries, but by no means to be taken for our Pattern, nor imitated under the Gospel. But if all this were Typical, I would gladly learn what a Ten-stringed Lute was a Type of; I would fain know too, whether the Piety of those Reformers be so much more Refined and Exalted than was that of David, that they refuse and despise such low Dispensations as these, which he made good use of. I would willingly understand, why they are not as well pleased with good Instrumental Music in some few Churches, as they are with ill Vocal Music in many Churches. In short, if I find it in use with other Nations as old as Homer's time, with Nations who never received the Law, and with the Jews before they received the Law upon Mount Sinai, (for Miriam the Sister of Aaron and the Virgins that bore her Company to celebrate their Deliverance out of Egypt, played with their Timbrels and danced to the Song of Moses) I must conclude it a piece of Natural Religion, to which the common Light of Reason directs all Civilised Nations, especially upon any general Jubilee and Public Thanksgiving; and if ever any Prince and People had reason to sing Te Deum, to raise their Affections with Voices, and Strings and Instruments of Wind fit for their Songs of Deliverance (as David calls them) we have reason to do it on This Day.  
Tho this being no common Day I must be more particular than to spend all my time upon any Common-place; yet I have warrant enough to draw from the special Case of David towards some general Observations; for this Proposition, It is God that giveth Victory unto Kings, is virtually and implicitly universal; he does not say that God always gives them Victory: We know it has been given against the Best of Kings to the Worst of all his Subjects; but the meaning is, that whenever a King is a Conqueror, God gives him Victory: Nor does he say that Every Sovereign Prince is Constantly Delivered, as David was from the Peril of the Sword. Alas was our late Royal Martyr so Delivered from it? In the highest and truest sense of the word, he was never more delivered from all the Evils of this World than when he was delivered up by Gods unsearchable Counsels to the Will of his Enemies; but yet not so delivered as David with a Temporal Deliverance. This only can be gathered, that whenever these Sacred Princes are so delivered as to be preserved from the Sword, (and so they are most frequently;) so as to be rescued out of the very Jaws of Death, 'tis by an extraordinary Vigilance of the Divine Providence over them, 'tis God is their Guardian, and not Man. There is no King (says the same Royal Prophet in another place) that can be saved by the Multitude of an Host; a mighty Man is not delivered by much strength. i e. 'tis not the Number of his Forces that can secure the greatest Prince, nor the Courage and Power of the most Giantlike man, no, tho' he has never so numerous a Party on his side, that can Preserve or Sustain him. And as no King is to put his Trust in the Number or the Fortitude of his People, so neither is any People to Confide in the Wisdom of their Heads, or in the vastness of their Body, to oppose their Lawful Prince; for it follows, the Lord bringeth the Counsel of the Heathen to nought, He maketh the Devices of the People of none effect. Now in the Book of Psalms the Heathen do commonly signify the Godless-men: So 'tis as if he had said, whatsoever Godless men design or propose to themselves contrary to the Will of God, he blasts and frustrates their Plots, he dissipates all their Cabals, he unravels all their Intrigues, be they never so cunningly managed by such as have erected themselves into Secret Councils, be they never so strongly backed by Factious Associations; still God does in his good time make it appear, that he governs the World, he makes them feel his hand that think to wrest the Sceptre from them that hold it for him. Whoever they are that use indirect and unlawful means to Raise or Establish, or but to Secure themselves, to set up as it were for themselves, without God in the World; they take the certain course either to miscarry with their Design, or if they do gain their Point, yet their Success itself is a judgement upon them: proportionable to the greatness of their Sin will be their Punishment; which if it comes in this world, is commonly fetched out of the very bowels of the Sin that deserved it, and so as the Hand of God is illustriously visible in it.  
But to be more distinct, I shall lay the main design of my Text into these three Heads of my Discourse.  
1. I take the first of them from the very words of David, That since it is God who giveth Victory unto Kings, it is better to trust in the Lord, than to put any confidence in man.  
2. Secondly, That such as will not trust in God as a Deliverer from any Dangers they fear, but will take the Sword against their Lawful Prince upon any Pretence whatsoever; their Sentence is read in the words of our Blessed Saviour; They that take the Sword shall Perish by the Sword.  
3. Thirdly, That there is a Peculiar hand of Providence over Kings and Princes to deliver them from the hurtful Sword; and so also over all their Loyal Subjects and Good People, that will but trust God and walk in his holy ways.  
First then, Since it is God who giveth Victory unto Kings, it is better to trust in the Lord, than to put any Confidence in man. What need I look any farther for Proof of so plain a thing than to this Great Man in the Text?  
When he yielded to that great Temptation of Numbering the People, an Act which God interpreted to be relying on the Arm of Flesh, and priding himself in the many that he had at his Service, instead of depending upon God, than God was pleased immediately to show Himself; the vast Musterroll of his Fight men was quickly diminished by an Epidemical Plague, a Judgement worthy of God; a fair warning for every Great Man that puts his trust in the Multitude, especially for him that follows a Multitude to do Evil, tho' he vainly supposes that Good may come of it, or at least that a great Evil and Mischief cannot be avoided but by running along with the stream. This Principle of yielding, and steering a crooked Course for fear of the Torrent, was by a Noble English Martyr within the memory of man, most Christianly Confessed and Condemned with his last breath, as that which had brought upon him the Gild of Innocent Blood 
Ld. Capel. . In such hard Cases as these, the resolution of David (tho' somewhat of the latest for him after he had Numbered the People) should be our Rule, Let us now fall into hands of the Lord, for his mercies are great, and let us not fall into the hands of men: Then how low soever we may fall we are sure to fall decently, with an humble greatness, and with the honest Pride of a good Conscience; nay then we have reason to be confident, that God is on our right hand, therefore we shall not fall, by those floods of Belial; or, those overflowings of ungodly men, which made even David afraid; for God takes to himself this Glory, that He stills the raging of the Sea, and the noise of its Waves, and the madness of the People.  
But if ever any one thought to carry all before him by the Number and Force of his Armed men, in spite of the Living God, it was Senacherib; The Speech that was spoken in his Name by Rabshekah to the People on the Wall, was like that of the Giant Capaneus, whom the Poet represents upon the Walls of Thebes daring and defying all the Gods of Heaven and of Earth. But when the Tumour of the Assyrians Pride was lanced by an Angel's Sword, (which in one Night cut off a hundred fourscore and five thousand of his fight men; and so gave a great Victory to the King of Israel, and so delivered Hezekiah the Son of David, from the hurtful Sword) then does not Senacherib blush by falling low on his Face to a God of wood or of stone to give himself the Lie; he that confessed no other God than his own strong Arm (to that alone he gives the Attribute of Omnipotence) he is found upon his Knees to his God Nisroch; he who not only despised the Servants and Worshippers of the God of Israel, but in comparison of his own strength, derided the Power of a Deity, and pricked all his Religion upon the end of his Sword, this Scorner of God is slain by two of of his own Sons while he was crouching to a thing without Sense or Life; in the very Act of his Public Adoration, God in his infinite Wisdom ordering it so, that he should seal his Faith (such a faith as it was) with his own Blood, that not only his Crime and his Punishment; but his Recantation too might be published to all the World.  
But sure I may take your Assent to this for granted, that 'tis better to trust in God than to put any Confidence in Man.  
2. I proceed in the second place to show more largely, That such as will not trust in God as a deliverer from any dangers they fear, but will take the Sword against their Lawful Prince, upon any pretence whatsoever, their Sentence is read in the words of our blessed Saviour, They that take the Sword shall perish with the Sword.  
This also will best appear by some clear and proper Examples, even David the Hero in my Text, He who had showed himself infinitely tender of touching the Lords Anointed, tho' himself were the next to succeed, when he made but one false Step in point of Duty to his King and Love to his Country, it cost him almost as dear as his very Life; for when King Saul had driven him from his Country, when being pursued and persecuted to extremity, he did but fly for refuge to the Philistines, those mortal Enemies of Israel, how quickly do they call his sins to remembrance? Is this not David of whom they sang one to another, Saul hath slain his Thousands and David his Ten Thousands? Then was he fain wisely to act the fool, and to counterfeit the Madman, to let his spittle fall down upon his Beard. Yet was not that so abject or so ridiculous a spectacle as to see one lick the spittle of the people from the very Ground, as the greatest man must do that would court a Party, and set up for base Popularity: He must be contented not only to play the fool for Company, and to cant with them; but he must play the Bedlam too, or else he must leave his Party. Well under this Disguise of a man that had lost his wits, and was not worth their looking after, David escapes from that fatal Court to a Cave; He raises some forces: nor was he to blame for this, to go about with a Guard, when his Life was unjustly attempted by the Philistines, the common Enemy. Every one (we are told) that was in debt, and every one that was discontented gathered themselves unto him; Multi quibus Vtile Bellum, many to whom War and Troubles would afford a subsistence: now he thought himself considerable enough with his flying Army to offer his service again to the same King Achish of Gath; and personating the Lunatic no more, he is kindly received there. And yet 'tis plain he never intended to make War on their Side against his own Prince and People, for while he dwelled among them he diverted and employed his Forces another way against some of the Borderers, the Old Enemies of Israel. But then to what cruel hardships was he reduced, even to put all to the Sword, that none might survive to tell any Tales of him? What pitiful Evasions; what officious Equivocations was he driven upon, to make the Philistines believe that he was hearty theirs? and than does King Achish bring him to the Test, to fight with Israel? And Achish said unto David, Know thou assuredly that thou shalt go out with me to Battle, thou and thy men. There's no stepping back for a man once engaged on the wrong side, he must either go throughout with his new Friends, or quit them in plain Field. He answers the Prince whom he had made his Master, in general terms, Surely thou shalt know what thy Servant can do. He and his men keep in the Rear on the Day of Battle; what he meant to do, or which way he designed to extricate himself out of these Difficulties into which his false Politics had cast him, 'tis impossible for us to determine. Perhaps he would have thrown himself and his Forces between the two Armies, to prevent the Fight and to mediate a Peace, and so he would have satisfied both his Obligations, the one of Loyalty to his Prince, the other of Gratitude to his Protector.  
But the Providence of God decided the Case and drew him out of the Snare, but made him take shame upon him, when the Princes of the Philistines urged their King to send him away in disgrace, Make this fellow return, and let him not go down with us to Battle, lest in the Battle he be an Adversary to us, for wherewith should he reconcile himself to his Master, should it not be with the Heads of these men? Thus they in a manner cashiered him, as one to be justly suspected for a double Traitor; and though they censured him unjustly, yet the whole Story may serve to strengthen my Conclusion; which David had often experimented to be most true; that as an humble Confidence of God's Protection over us, if we resolve to live in his most holy fear, is the most infallible course we can take to continue in safety, so on the other side all Policy that swerves from the strict Rule of Conscience, does rather procure than prevent extreme Danger.  
But to confirm this observation from Experience older than David and yet still to keep within the Sacred story. The Men of Israel said unto Gideon (that was in the time of the Judges) Rule thou over us, both thou and thy Son and thy Son's Son also. Almighty God had chosen him before to be their Leader and Chief; but what they offer him now was more than an Act of Recognition, or an Acknowledgement of his Right; for by this Act they bind themselves and their Posterity to be subject to him and his. But how did they keep their Faith with him? Much at the same rate as the unconstant Multitude is wont to keep it. As soon as Gideon was dead, Abimelech his Son by a Concubine (as he is styled) insinuates himself into them; They furnish him with money under hand, wherewith he hires vain and light Persons to follow him; for commonly such are the Followers of Mock-Princes: with the help of this Noble Retinue he assassinates all the seventy legitimate Sons of his Father upon one stone; yet the People have still that wicked Partiality for him as to make him their King; But how did this Murderous Traitor and his Abettors prosper? Jotham the Youngest Son of Gideon and the only Son that survived the Massacre, cries as a Prophet from God against the Usurper; and denounces that fire shall come out of the Bramble (so in his Parable he calls that Base Son) and that this fire shall devour their Cedars of Lebanon, their Noble men that raised him. And presently after that, we shall find that their Underwoods', i e. the Common People were destroyed in the flame of their own blowing up. For the next account we receive is, that God sent an Evil Spirit between Abimelech and the men of Sichem: He sent i e. he suffered the Devil as his Instrument of Vengeance to go, and he gave him power over them: And now they grow as weary of their Pageant as once they were fond of it; they hold their Close Meetings against him, 'tis said they met in the House of their God to Eat and Drink, and to Curse Abimelech; this was to turn their Church into a True Conventicle, where they carried on the work of the day in their two laudable Exercises, whereof one was inveighing against the Government, though it was of their own setting up; and the other was indulging their sensual Appetites under the Cloak of Religion. Then we are told, the men of Sichem dealt Treacherously with Abimelech, as those that have once been fellow-Traitors to their Lawful Governors do seldom long continue faithful to one another. What Tumults there followed? What Insurrections? How the Fields were died with gore, and how much Blood ran down the Streets of their City, you may read in that noble Story; which finishes at last in the most ignominious Death of that mighty Man, who took not God for his strength, he perishes by the hand of a Woman. To make it the more remarkable; he that had murdered seventy of his Brethren upon one stone, has his own Brains dashed out by another stone: and to show that the hand of God was in all this, we are told expressly, And all the Evil of the Men of Sichem did God render upon their own heads, and upon them came the Curse of Jotham.  
But because this distrusting of God and (instead of doing that which David presses so passionately, O tarry thou the Lords leisure) being ready to say with that impious Nobleman that was at last trodden to Death by the People, Why tarry we for the Lord any longer? Because this fatal Impatience seems to be now one of our National Sins, I shall urge against the sad effects of it some such Examples as shall be National and Virtually a Multitude of Examples; Zedekiah the King of Judah having absolutely submitted to the great King of Babylon, 'tis said he Rebelled against King Nabuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: Therefore by the way, the resisting a Lawful Prince to whom an Oath of Obedience has once been taken, tho' he be a Heathen Prince, as Nabuchadnezzar was, is no better than a downright Perjury, and a wicked Rebellion. So Jeremiah the poor despised Prophet of God implies it to be throughout his Prophecy. But what if these men were perjured Rebels? yet this was always their Note concerning themselves, The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord are these, i. e. they were the Godly, they were the Saints; just as the True Protestant, the True Protestant, is now the Common Cry of those who think that Title a good Apology, and a sufficient Plea to legitimate Perjury and Rebellion, nay more, he is sure to be called a Factor for Babylon (as Jeremiah was called) that dares but call it Perjury and Rebellion. But by whatever Names they are pleased to call us, I must tell them by the way, since in Opposition to their Rebellion we have held our Lives so long at the mercy of their Perjury, and yet they have found to their Cost that we have stood our ground still in the Church of England; they that have tried us at this rate have given a sufficient proof that we are ready to lay down our Lives for the Church of England. We can say no more than this, and we ought to say no less. But to return from this short occasional digression to the Story of that Rebellion I was relating; What came of it? That easy misguided Prince Zedekiah was utterly lost, his very Eyes were not left him but only so long as to see his Sons put to the Sword; the Temple that was their Glory, and which they turned into their Vain Glory, was burnt by Nebuzaradun the Assyrian General, the main Body of the People was carried away Captive into that same Babylon, that Heathenish Country which they so justly abhorred.  
Again, the same turbulent and restless People being after many Ages in some degree re-establisht by the Valour of the Maccabees, had made an entire and necessary surrender of themselves to the Romans as to their Lords and Masters. Foyes fear of giving Umbrage to the Romans of any other Pretender to the Crown but Caesar, their carsed Politician Caiaphas was for putting our Blessed Lord to death: those two words Venient Romani, the Romans will come and take away both our Place and Nation, were effectual incentives to stir up the People to Cry, Crucify him, Crucify him: As now to Cry loud enough Popery will come in and swallow us up, serves all the turns of any great Incendiary to break through all Human and Divine Laws. But how were those Pharisees and Sadduces, those Hypocrites and Atheists destroyed by themselves? their shedding innocent blood (and it was the Blood of God) brought upon them a deluge of blood; at last their open Rebellion against the Romans, their lawful Governors at that time, caused their whole Nation to be plucked up by the very roots, and to make the Judgement more apparent, when Titus the Roman came and burnt their Temple again, so many Ages after its first Destruction, that second Desolation came upon them (says Josephus their great Historian) 
Josp. de Bell. Jud. l. 7. c. 9  in the same Month, on the same day of the Month that the former fell upon; and when by the same division of Priests and Levites, the same Divine Service was reading in course; viz. that Psalm, which was written in Admiration of God's vindictive Justice, O God, to whom Vengeance belongeth, thou God to whom Vengeance belongeth show thyself.  
3. After such instances as these, I shall need no more: and in hopes I have gained this second Point, that such as will needs take the sword against their lawful Prince shall perish with the sword, I make haste to my Third and Last Part, That there is a peculiar hand of providence over Kings and Princes; to deliver them from the hurtful Sword: so also over all their Loyal Subjects and Good People that will but trust God and walk in his Holy ways.  
Now then let us look back on the other side, and see but how well they fared in those same great Conjunctures and Revolutions who took the Prophet's Advice to cease from man, i. e. to trust in God: Upon how easy terms was the whole Nation offered by God to be preserved? He does as it were renew his old promise, to fight for them while they should hold their peace, if they would but reform their Lives: thus saith the Lord amend our ways and your do, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. See how God takes to himself the Ordering of State-affairs, as the first Mover and Manager of all second Causes, than I will cause you to dwell in the Land that I gave to your Fathers. But the greater number of that People would not take God's word, and he dealt with them accordingly: But how was the patiented and the peaceful temper of mind signally rewarded in the Preservation of Jeremiah, and the Remnant his little Party? how was submission and obedience to their Chief (though he were dead and gone) nobly requited to Jeremiahs' beloved Rechabites in that very time of the Siege? because they kept to those Constitutions which they had received from their Ancestor, they had a gracious and a glorious promise from God, Jonadab the Son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever. Under what part of Heaven soever they have lived, I believe God, that this Religious Family was preserved (when the whole Nation was almost extinguished) to last the outmost date of this most true Promise. And if any faith may be given to a Jewish Author, who Travailed over the greatest part of the habitable World, to visit the dispersed of his own Nation 
Benj. Tudel. ; he assures us in his Itinerary, that whatever becomes of his Countrymen the Sons of Abraham, yet the Posterity of Rechab do still subsist; that they enjoy a fair Territory; that they have built a strong City, (which they were not for bidden to do for their necessary defence) and are very formidable Neighbours to other petty States among the Arabs at this day. Just so it fell out again at the second destruction of Jerusalem, when the Romans took it; Gallus began the Siege, but raised it again without any reason imaginable, except this account may be given of it, that he was overruled from above, to open a passage for the Christians (who in those days followed nothing but Peace and Holiness) to fly to the Mountains; so that when Titus came a few months after to renew the Siege, there was not one Christian left in Jerusalem. 
Euseb. l. 3. c. 5.  We must needs believe the most Auihentick Writers of that Story, that the Christians all escaped to Pella, a City beyond Jordan, while the seditious Jews were not only cut off by the Romans, but were all the while killing and slaying, and damning one another.  
Take but one instance more of God's extraordinary Care of those that will but give credence to his Word, and keep themselves within any tolerable compass of doing their duty; but it shall be an instance reaching from the beginning to the last fatal End of the Jewish Government; for during all that time Almighty God was pleased to work more than an Anniversary Miracle for their sakes, when the Tribes of Israel went up to their great Solemnities thrice in the Year, leaving their whole Country naked and in a manner exposed to a Foreign Invasion, God visibly and gloriously performed what he had engaged to do for their Security; for he struck their Neighbour-Nations and Powerful Cities that were at Enmity with them, with Panic Fears, and the Terror of the Lord was upon them, that they durst make no Inroads on the Holy Land, however abandoned for the Time by most of its own Inhabitants: According to that assurance given 'em in that wonderful place of Scripture, Exodus, xxxiv. 24. For I will cast out the Nations before thee and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy Land when thou goest up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the Year.  
But if such and so extraordinary has been the Providence of God in the preservation of the obedient People; much more remarkable has the Divine Protection been over the Sacred Persons of Kings and Princes. I have not time to expatiate on so noble a Theme, I will come presently home to the wonderful Instance now before us, and to the peculiar business of this Day: How was our Native Country, this fruitful Soil, like to have been stained with a most barbarous Assassination of our Sovereign Lord the King and his Royal Brother, had not their Lives been precious in the sight of God There had an Acre of Ground been made an Aceldama, a Field of Blood, and consider pray, you that have in your minds the situation of the place where this most horrible Treason should have been acted; was there ever a place more cunningly found out for the Execution of so damnable a Design? an Enclosure, an errand Pound; in the midst of it a House as convenient for the reception of all the Conspirators as the Master of that House was proper to make One at the head of that execrable Crew. Set then before your Eyes those lamentable Images, (but most necessary to make us sensible of our great deliverance) a number of murderous fanatics in whose sight Blood was as nothing, and Royal Blood no more to them than the meanest, nay the more meritorious Sacrifice; suppose those Armed Traitors rushing out of their lurking-place, while our Fearless Princes had been talking of indifferent things, or while they had been reposing themselves in their Journey, penned up in a Coach, disabled even from drawing their Swords, or Dying Nobly; and for a few of their Guards what could they have done? Alas the Blow would have been given before they could have apprehended their Master to be in danger. This was a perfect Powder-Plot in the most literal sense, the deed had been done before the noise had been heard, the greatest Courage upon Earth had been useless there; in an instant the Furies had gained their hellish point, had not Heaven been watchful over us.  
If ever you hear God's Providence called in question by our bold Atheists, choke them with the fire at Newmarket, which hastening the King away, spoiled the whole Train that was laid, and by the loss of a few Houses prevented three great Kingdoms from perishing together in one Flame. For can you believe or imagine that all would have ended in a Massacre of the Royal Family? No, doubt you not, the Massacre would have been carried on as far as they could against all the Royal Party. What else could they intent? what other thing could they wish? what other cause of acting so detestable a Treason? for to take off a most merciful King, and his next Successor, who next to him has showed himself of a most reconcileable Temper; to do all this with a purpose of calling in the next of Kin to the Crown, who was bound in honour and conscience to take vengeance upon them; or with a purpose of setting up some other single Person that had no Right; this is a degree of madness which none of these shrewd fanatics have to plead in their own excuse. Bring forth the Blind that have Eyes, and the deaf that have Ears (as Isaiah speaks) If any man will not see a thing so clear as this, or if any one will not hear this certain truth, That this Conspiracy was the goodly fruit of that Worthy Association; the design of which was to establish their Commonwealth in the State, and to introduce a Chaos or deformed mass of all Religions under the false Pretence and counterfeit Title of One Protestant Religion in the Church. But then to bring this to pass, tho' God only knows what they could have effected, yet they must needs have intended to cut off immediately all men of note that had adhered to the Crown, all that had been true to the Church, all that had behaved themselves honestly in the last perplexed Five years: Ye had all been Popishly Affected at least, and the Protestant Flails (as they call 'em) had flown about your Ears long ago. My thoughts are lost and drowned in the horror of what would have followed; I may be allowed to use that Metaphor of Drowning, for David uses it here, praying Almighty God to save him and deliver him out of the great waters, from the hand of strange Children; for a Popular Insurrection is like an inundation in the Night, when the Sea beats down its walls: A Tyrant makes indeed a horrible noise like Thunder, but he, like that, does seldom destroy any great numbers; but an Enthusiastic Multitude breaking lose, does, like the raging waves, make no distinction or stop, it bears down all impetuously that stands before it. I speak not only with regard to those Loyal Noblemen and principal Ministers of State, and Magistrates of the great City, that were marked out and condemned to have fallen with the King, and a particular Butcher provided for each one of them, But I must say it to all the worthy Patriots in this Great Assembly, they ought to make a present of their Lives and give them back again to the Service of God (whose Service is perfect Freedom) for perhaps there is not a man among them but owes his Life to the Goodness of God in this discovery; for what did not those Barbarians swallow in their own thoughts? Whose Blood did not those Cannibals thirst after? Upon whose Estate and Fortunes had they not fixed their envious and impudent Eyes? As great a shame as it is for some profligate and desperate Wretches to have been left out of the Cabals that managed this Conspiracy, merely because they knew them to be made up of so much Treachery and Falseness, they would not be true, no not to themselves; So great a Shame would it have been for any Worthy Men not to have been in their List of Men worthy; It would have been a Scandal indeed for any man of Honour and of Conscience to have been suffered to Live by them, to have survived the Royal Family, and so many good Subjects as would have fallen with it, had the Villains prevailed.  
And yet perhaps they would have spared the Complying men as not worth their Anger, such men as resolve to thrive under all Governments, or can at least be well content to sit still, indifferent and unconcerned whatever Religion is uppermost in the Church: they are Animals incombustible for Religion, (as one defines them) and whatever Interest prevails in the State, they laugh at the Notion of being State-Martyrs.  
I wish this sort of men who please themselves with being so Passive in so Active times as these, would consider what kind of Censure or Sentence rather, an Heathen Legislator has passed upon them; Amongst the Laws of S●lon (says Plutarch, the writer of his Life) that is very peculiar and surprising, which makes all those Infamous, who stand Neuters in a Sedition: for it seems he would not have any one Insensible and Regardless of the Public, and securing his private affairs glory that he had no feeling of the Distempers of his Country, but presently join with those that had the Right upon their side, assist and venture with them rather than shift out of harms-way, and watch who would get the better. These are the words of that wise man, stating and declaring the concern that every Private man ought to show when his Prince or his Country are in danger.  
But now for any of those that are in a public trust or have a more special obligation to be upon the watch for the safety of the King and Kingdom; if such men are asleep David being yet a subject, tell's them plainly, as the Lord liveth (says he) ye are worthy to die, because ye have not kept your master the Lords Anointed. Awake than you that together with the land which the Lord gave to your Fathers, inherit their virtue too, the old English Loyalty and Courage: lay out your thoughts upon something more worthy of yourselves than are thoughts only of your own security: let every one in his Station do his duty fearlessly: And they that do so prove for the most part the wisest as well as the most conscientious, the safest as well as the noblest and best Patriots; let us set it down to ourselves that Honesty is the true Policy, and let none make that accursed Conversion of the Proposition, as if Policy were the true Honesty; unless they mean to revive that old abominable Gnostick Principle of compliance with any Usurpations, or Impositions, for fear of Suffering, for fear of that which a Christian would rather wish for his own sake, could it be without other men's guilt, i. e. the Crown of Martyrdom; Ita te alius senem cum Petro cingat, That was St. Hierom's good wish to Damasus then Bishop of Rome, So let another hind thee when thou art old, as St. Peter was bound, that was, to be carried to Martyrdom. This would seem but a course Compliment, a piece of ill Courtship now, A wish (says Erasmus) if any now should make it in behalf of his Holiness and present it in an Epistle to him, I wonder (says he) what Reward he would assign him? Crucem opinor. But let the worst come to the worst (as they say) if this be the worst, that it shall please Christ to call any of us as the Angel from Heaven called St. John the Apostle, come up hither, shall it be enough to deter us from going thither, that first he may happen to call us as he did St. Peter, Fellow me, that is through death? What a noble Army of Martyrs have followed the great Captain of our Salvation? The Church the Field of God has been manured, and enriched with the noblest compost in the World, the Blood of Martyrs; The times and seasons of the Year are bounded out and signalised by the dying Days of Martyrs: The Christian Temples are dedicated to the Memorials of the Martyrs, and Miracles were undeniably wrought at the Monuments of the Blessed Martyrs. After all this, men of soft and smooth insinuations would introduce a Principle of Self-Preservation (as they call it) as if it were unworthy, as if it were unlawful to suffer any thing like Martyrdom, nay as if it were more Christian to be Rebels and Regicides, than be so much as Confessors in the Cause of Christ.  
But we that have been saved from the Massacre, we that have received a great and new Mercy ourselves in this last wonderful Deliverance of the King from the hands of his Enemies; have we not reason to sing a new Song unto God, to sing praises unto him? And I make no doubt but many of those his Enemies will now change their note, and let them sing our new Song, and let it come from the ground of the Heart, as the Psalmist speaks, Give thanks, O Israel, to God the Lord in the Congregation, from the ground of the heart, let them join with us here in the Offices of the Church to bless Almighty God for this Day, and for this happy Discovery; Upon these terms they are welcome not only to our Communion, but to that of the Angels in Heaven; for there is joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one Sinner that Repenteth, then much more joy over many Repenting Sinners. But then I must press them vehemently to bring forth fruits worthy of Repentance. What Love; what Duty do they owe to God and the King, out of pure gratitude for being afforded as great a deliverance as ours, a deliverance from themselves, from the Plague of their own hearts? If they sorrow after a godly sort, as the Corinthians did for having sided with that Incestuous Person, they will run through all the Apostles scale of Repentance. What carefulness will it work in them? what clearing of themselves? what indignation? yea what fear? yea what vehement desire? yea what zeal? yea what revenge? If any Catiline hereafter shall dare to come into the Senate, they will presently rise from his Side, (as Caesar and Crassus did, though they both had abetted him formerly;) he will see himself deserted, and ready to be detected by those that once encouraged him; Thus they may easily recover the false steps they have made by the Services they may do; and all this is little enough for their own and the Public Security. For I must needs observe to you, that the King in my Text after he had offered Thanks to God for delivering him from the peril of the Sword, did not yet think himself so mighty safe, but that he had need to Pray in the very next words, Save me and deliver me from the hands of strange Children! and what sort of men were those? his open Enemies? No, they were the strange Children that dissembled with him. For there are many that kiss the hand which they would cut off, and we know by what Name he was called who Kissed his Lord and Master even then when he led up the Band of men to seize him: it was the Traitor Judas; yet did not Christ reject his Address, but gave him the title of Friend. But our Blessed Saviour himself has given out the surest Test for pretended Converts, and he gave it to St. Peter upon foresight that he would deny his Master, when thou art Converted strengthen thy Brethren; such Infant Converts as those whose tender and weak Loyalty is now in danger of being over-laid and stifled by the pressing importunity of the Party: They whose own Eyes are opened should endeavour to reduce those whom their ill Example has been the cause of misleading. But especially they that have been guilty of Spiriting others away (for so it may well be called,) They ought to have dreadful apprehensions of the Curse upon those that lead the Blind out of the way, unless they take care and pains to bring them home to their Duty. And now is the time, now that such hidden works of darkness have been brought to light; that they must be blind indeed who will not see them: now that such prodigies of Villainy, have been discovered, that he is the greatest prodigy of all that disbelieves, or denies them: Now that also so great a number, tho' I will not say the third Part of the Stars are smillen down (as they were in St. John's Vision) yet now that so many who shined heretofore in their proper Orbs are fallen: Now the Apostle will be allowed to be in the Right, that Evil Communications corrupt good manners; and tho' it is now to be hoped that noble minds will consort with none hereafter as their Friends but with those of their own temper; but tho' not presently as Friends, until they have reason to believe their Friendship on both sides is founded upon Virtue, yet as Physicians, I must tell them from our Blessed Saviour, the whole need not the Physician, but those that are sick; then certainly those that are poisoned have not only need but right to have an Antidote given 'em by the same hand that hurt 'em. And what a noble change, or rather what a glorious Transfiguration would be wrought upon these men, that were lately such instruments of Mischief; would they now turn Saviour's in their kind, such as the Prophet gives God thanks for, thou gavest them Saviour's who saved them out of the hands of their Enemies. Nehem. ix. 27.  
And this I have said to those deluded men who I hope are coming to themselves. But for the Atheists who make up one main strength of the Party against us; I will not lose my time in exhorting them to be Loyal, but rather employ it in imploring for them this only Charity of which they are capable, that they may be severely punished and treated according to their merit. Let not such wretched men be bolder in Blaspheming God and the King, than we are in Asserting and Maintaining our Duty to them both. To what a height of this Virtue was David come, when he was able to say like one who had no longer any human thoughts about him, the Zeal of thy House hath eaten me up, as a mighty flame devours whatever stand in its way: and it follows, the Rebukes of them that rebuked thee are fallen upon me. Again the same Royal Confessor, for thy sake (says he) have I suffered reproof, shame hath covered my face, i. e. (says S. Austin upon that Psalm) I was contented to be thought a shameless person, because I would not be ashamed of my Religion. Thou hast need of this Confidence (says he) to encounter some People's impudence; When they upbraid thee for being a worshipper of one that was hanged upon a Tree, if thou dost blush for shame thou art Guilty (says he) of a grievous Sin— Quid fronti times quam signo crucis armasti— prorsus esto frontosus. (i. e.) Remember that thou wert armed in thy forehead with the sign of the Cross, (so long ago it was used) therefore be not weak-foreheaded (says he) in the Cause of God.  
As Heroic an example of such a pious magnanimity as this in David, was that in King Lewis of France, I mean him whom they style the Saint, and well they may style him so upon this account; that having made an Edict against Atheistical or profane talking, with this Penalty annexed, that the Guilty Person should be Branded in the Forehead with a hot Iron, when great Intercession was used to procure a Pardon for a certain Right Honourable Offender, the King commanded that Execution should be done immediately, and added this memorable saying, That he would gladly t●●e the Brand in his own Forehead, on condition the name of God should no more be blasphemed in his Kingdom.  
But having done with our Enemies, before I conclude, there is somewhat to be said to our Friends, to ourselves: If we sing a new Song unto God for this Deliverance, If we sing praises unto him, than the Son of Syrach will tell us, that praise is not comely in the mouth of a sinner, for it was not sent him of the Lord. If therefore we will sing a new Song of Praise to God as we ought to do, than we must lead new lives too: we must consider that the most deceitful enemy of all is within, Intus hostis, intus periculum, and the greatest victory that we have to gain in this world, is over ourselves, and within ourselves; a victory over our own unruly passions within us; For he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a City, Prov. 16. 32. and a victory over the many Temptations from without, conspiring with the Tempter's within us; For he that resisteth pleasures crowneth his life, Ecclus. 19 5. This were indeed a glorious victory: 'tis properly that which the Apostle calls overcoming the world: and if Alexander deserved to be styled the Great for Conquering but some parts of it, when yet his wild Appetites had the dominion over him; then let but these be subdued, and we justly triumph.  
Such a deliverance from our Lusts, would be a mercy transcendently greater than even this by which God has given us our lives; for that would save our souls too. The greatest courage in the world may find room enough to exercise and show itself in a through Penitent; as 'tis excellently argued by S. Chrysostom, That David showed a more undaunted greatness of mind in daring to think of surmounting the sin, and the shame, and to set up again for a Saint, after his foul, Treacherous, and Bloody Offence in the matter of Uriah, than he had shown ' in his single Combat with Goliath of Gath. But a Victory that gives not God this glory, a Victory that leaves it to be said of us, they repent not to give him Glory, such a Victory may be more perilous than even the Sword itself from which we are delivered. Good Fortune, unless we use it reverently, joining good Minds to good Fortune, may be one of the dangerousest things that can happen to us: But as to mend our lives would be to make the best use of our present advantage; as to forsake our sins would be the bravest conquest over ourselves: so it would be the height of Gratitude for our Deliverance. The Heathens on such an occasion as this would have built a Temple to Jupiter the Conservatory But this would be done like Christians indeed, to dedicate ourselves as Temples of the Holy Ghost, to God the Preserver of men, as the Prophet styles him.  
Let this great work be done, and then we may conclude with the Psalm, and secure ourselves of all the Temporal Blessings here annexed to sincere Piety, That our Sons shall grow up as the young plants, That our Garners shall be full and plenteous with all manner of store, That our sheep shall bring forth thousands and ten thousands, that so there may be no decay, no leading into captivity, nor no complaining in our streets; Happy are the people that are in such a case; yea, Blessed are the People who have the Lord for their God: which God we ought All to Adore, Invoke, and most humbly Beseech that the Church, which it was his good Providence so to Reform, as to make it the Best, the Purest, the most Apostolical of any Church upon Earth; This he would vouchsafe to Preserve (now that all her Enemies are vanquished by dint of Argument) from Perishing by the Sword in the Person of Her Gracious Sovereign, since she never takes the Sword against Her Lawful Sovereign. To which good Prayer let me but add those Petitions which a most ancient Writer tells us the Primitive Christians used to make for their Emperor; For his long Life, for the Peace of his Empire, for the safety of the Royal Family, for Valiant Soldiers under him, for a Faithful Senate, an Honest Commonalty, a Quiet World, and whatsoever else ought to be the subject of our Prayers, as He is a man whom we pray for, or as He is Caesar.  
And we may the better hope that God will accept these Prayers we make for the KING, because the King himself is here in Devotion with us to say AMEN.  
FINIS.