A SERMON Preached before the Mayor, aldermans, and Common-Council OF NOTTINGHAM, IN St. PETER's CHURCH, On the 14th of Febr. 1688/9.  
Being the Thanksgiving Day FOR Our Deliverance from Popery and Arbitrary Power.  
By W. Wilson, M.A. Rector of the said Church.  
LONDON, Printed for W. Ewrey at the Golden Lion and Lamb over against the Middle Temple Gate in Fleetstreet. 1689.   

To the Right Worshipful the Mayor, the Worshipful the Aldermen, and the Gentlemen that belong to the Common Council of the Town, and County of the Town of Nottingham.  
Gentlemen,  
A Although when I preached this Sermon I had no thoughts of making it more Public, than I did from the Pulpit, yet since you are pleased to Command it to the Press, (for thus I always interpret what You Acquest,) I could not be long unresolved whom to Address it to. That pious sense you have of that Mighty Deliverance which on this 14th day we did, and I hope always shall Commemorate with unspeakable pleasure in ourselves for the Blessing we have received, with greatfull acknowledgements for his Extraordinary Generosity, in putting himself in jeopardy for our Sakes, to our Great Deliverer, and with Songs of Praise, and the most lively and transported Affections to our God, who made this Excellent Prince the Man at his right hand for the re-establishing his Jerusalem, did easily reconcile a Discourse that was intended to excite suitable Affections for so great a Blessing. And it is the same Piety does not only encourage me to present it to, but does Entitle you to it: For the suitableness of the matter to the Disposition of your minds will, I can easily hope, as well prevail with you to overlook the meanness of the performance when you read, as when you heard it. That which God aims at in all his wondrous Works was the design of my preaching this Sermon: And if by being Published it does but contribute any thing toward the awakening that fear and awful regard to the Divine Majesty in the minds of Men, which he visibly calls for when his dispensations are as wonderful as they are compasionate and gracious, I shall then have great reason to thank you for your Importunities, and place it to those other accounts whereby you have obliged me to be, as indeed  
I am, Your very faithful and Humble Servant W. Wilson.   

A SERMON Preached On the 14th of February, 1688/9. BEING The Thanksgiving Day.  LUKE V. 26. 
And they were all amazed, and they glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, we have seen strange things to day.  
SO much do the divine Perfections transcend all that we behold in this lower world, that it is not possible but the contemplations of an infinitely wise and powerful Being should fill us with wonder and astonishment, if we could but rid our minds of those sensible impressions that fill our imaginations, and consider him either as he is in himself, or according to those Ideas of his excellent nature that he has imprinted upon our Souls; but to see him face to face, and know as we are known, is too great a thing for the condition of Mortals; this is the work and privilege of Angels and perfect Spirits, who dwell in that Glory that is unrevealed to us, and are the glorious Inhabitants of the City of the Living God, and honoured with the privilege of standing about his Throne, and being the ministering Spirits of his Providence, and which will be the blessing of us mortal creatures, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption; and we shall not only be received to an immediate fruition of him, but be rendered capable of seeing him as he is, by having the powers and faculties of our Souls exalted to the utmost perfection they are capable of.  
But while we have our habitation in the Dust, and converse among sensible objects, so much power have they over us, that they darken our Minds, and so much hamper and clog our Souls, that they either look no higher than to the things that sense or imagination do present us with; or if any time we by strong resolutions do rescue our thoughts from the objects of sense, and break those chains wherewith they lead our Souls captive, and lift up our Minds to contemplate the glory and excellency of the divine Nature, we know but in part, and see through a Glass darkly. Hence it comes to pass, that whenever God does in signal and remarkable effects display the wonder of his Power, or any other Perfection, we, like creatures bereaved of our senses, are struck with admiration and amazement.  
Thus it was with those Jews that beheld the miraculous cure of the Paralytic mentioned v. 18. they not only considered our blessed Lord as a mere Man, but as one of the meanest of his Brethren; and therefore when the Faith of the sick man, and that of those that brought him, did so far excite his compassions, that he not only granted him the cure that he came for, but that which was much greater, the Forgiveness of his sins; the Scribes and Pharisees not knowing him to be God manifested in the flesh, began to reason among themselves, and to charge him with Blasphemy, for assuming a power that does not belong to Man: But how much soever they were mistaken concerning the excellence and dignity of his Person, yet when they beheld the Paralytic to arise, and take up that whereon he lay, and to departed to his house, they could not withstand so great an evidence of a divine Power: The meaner their thoughts concerning him were, the more surprising was the miracle; it broke in upon their minds with the more force and violence, because it was but little they expected from one of his low character and quality. They were all amazed, and glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, we have seen strange things to day. And if we consider the occasion of this day's solemnity, we may discern so eminent an instance of the divine Power and Goodness as few Ages can parallel: We have seen a Kingdom distracted with fears, languishing under dismal apprehensions, destined to slavery, and, which is worse, threatened with Popery, restored to its self, and raised to life again in so miraculous a manner, as may well give us reason to say, We have seen strange things to day. That great and wonderful Person whom it has pleased God to make the instrument of our deliverance, has by his heroic actions gained himself so great a Character in the world, and so high a Reputation for his love of Religion, and zeal for the true Interest of Christendom, as might naturally prompt us to cast our eyes upon him as the only visible means to preserve us. But yet when we either reflect upon his or our own circumstances, so little methinks could be expected from him, when his own Country was extremely apprehensive of the threatening Power of a potent Enemy, and so much appeared to be requisite to our deliverance, when the Enemies of our Religion and Liberties seemed to have so strongly settled their interests, that we have great reason to stand amazed, and to glorify God, to be filled with fear, and to say, We have seen strange things to day.  
From which words I shall observe, 

1. How natural it is for men to be affected with admiration and astonishment at strange and unexpected Events. They were all amazed, etc.  
2. Upon what reason it is that we are so.  
3. That God does expect that the remarkable instances of his Power and Goodness should make such impressions on us.  
4. How much reason we have to be amazed, and to say, we have seen strange things to day, if either we consider the evils we were threatened with, or our deliverance from them.  
5. The great reason we have to fear and to glorify God.    
1. How Natural it is for Men to be affected with admiration and astonishments at strange and unexpected Events. There is so much Majesty and Greatness visible in all the works of God, so much Power and Goodness to be discerned in the most ordinary Occurences of the world, and the most common Dispensations of his Providence, as to those that have piety to remark them, and are so much governed by Religion as to look to the hand that does the one, and dispenses the other, do afford sufficient matter for Admiration, and reason enough to say, Great is the Lord and great is his Power, and his Understanding is Infinite. When holy David considered the Heavens, the work of his Fingers, the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, which he has ordained, he could not but with astonishment acknowledge that his Name was excellent in all the Earth; Psal. 8.3.9. That the Heavens declared his Glory, and the firmament shown his handy Work. That day unto day utters Speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. Psal. 19.1, 2. That there was so much art and contrivance in the work of the Creation as was an abundant proof of the Wisdom and Power of him that made the Worlds, and so much Beauty and Order in the several vicissitudes of Time, as is a magnificent testimony of the Wisdom and Goodness of him that ruleth in Jacob, and unto the ends of the World. And when he reflected upon the strange and prodigious Work of his own formation, he could not but acknowledge that God was a being of stupendious Operations, and that he was fearfully and wonderfully made. Psal. 139. ver. 14. And of all his works he declares that they are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein; That they are Hononourable and Glorious, and that they are Verity and Judgement. Psal. 111.2, 3.7.  
But yet as signal marks of the Divine perfections as the most Ordinary Events do bear, as serviceable as they are to the several Interests both of our Souls, and our Bodies, and as needful to our well-being in this life, we receive them generally as the Swine gather the Acorns from the Earth, without ever looking up to the Tree from whence they fall. But now when God does make us see strange things, things that bear very visible Characters of his Power or Wisdom, his Goodness or his Justice; when by his own Arm he gets himself the Victory, and scatters the Proud in the imagination of their hearts; the Visibility of his hand, and the Miracle of his Work, do, in spite of our stupidity, break in upon our minds, and force us to acknowledge that the hand of the Lord has done it. How carelessly soever we overlook the most excellent Pieces of a famed Artist, which we have opportunity to behold every day, yet when any thing New and Rare is exposed to view, we gaze upon and admire it, at the least for the Novelty, though we reap no benefit by it. And although the daily Blessings which we receive from the Hands of our Provident Father do very little affect us; yet when he exposes his Power and Goodness to our view in effects that exceed our expectations, we cannot but stand amazed, and acknowledge we have seen strange things.  
Even those who are not very apt to ascribe much to Providence, are oftentimes surprised into an unusual Admiration of Divine goodness by great and unexpected Revolutions, and till the next debauch does wear out the Impression, and cool the warmth of a heated fancy, do find themselves necessitated to deny there own Principles and to own the Hand that saves them: As mightily as their minds are prejudiced to the thoughts of an invisible Being, and as great an aversion to the Belief of a Providence as their lusts have warped 'em to: As wisely as they think they resolve Effects into their proper Causes, and as skilful as they take themselves to unriddle the great Mysteries of Nature, yet the unaccountable Occurrencies of the World are two big for their Abilities, and do so abash their mighty opinion of the depth of their Wisdom, and set the Providence that at other times they are unwilling to observe in so clear a light, as plainly convinces them of the unreasonableness of their Infidelity, and forces them to recur to that first and sovereign Cause which they are as unwilling to own as it is folly any longer to deny. There are arguments that reach the minds of all sorts of Men; and that not only make the careless to consider, but awake the stupid and alarm the Atheistical. There are things that scatter the doubts of the Sceptic, and leave not the profane at liberty to believe as they would, or as the interest of their Lusts do persuade them. They like lightning tear down all those prejudices that stand in their way, and with an irresistible force break in upon the Souls of the most dull and obstinate: And were they but as wisely and carefully improved as they are able to convince, they would undoubtedly drive Atheism and Irreligion out of the World. But the great mischief is, that howsoever the first attach is too violent to be withstood, such is the froward temper of Men wedded to their Lusts, that they will not be persuaded, although they are: But in a little time, when they have rallied their amazed Spirits, either employ their wits to solve the wonder, or profanely slight it. But how much resolved such men are against all Conviction, it abundantly manifests the mighty Power that is in such Occurrences, that it is able to put the most resolute wickedness to a stand. Such is the account that is given us of the perverse and stupid temper of the Israelites, that they were seldom or never any longer mindful of the God that brought them out of Egypt, than their erring humour was stayed by some wonderful work. But as apt as they were to forget their mighty Deliverer, yet as oft as he visited them, either with signal Muroies or Judgements, they saw his hand, and at least for a time gave thanks at the remembrance of his Holiness. Thus it is recorded of them, when they saw their Enemies overthrown in the Red Sea, That they Jang his Praise, though they forgot his Works. Psal. 106 12, 13.  
Humane Nature is so contrived that there is not a monster in Nature, nor an unseen or unheard of rarity, but has Power to six our Spirits, and work upon our Curiosity so far upon the first view, or notice of it, as to interrupt for a time, and put a stand to the most weighty affairs that are upon our hands. Strange and unusual sights do so insensibly glide into our minds, and captivate our affections, that we have not power to resist the charm; and according to their concernment and advantage to us, excite in us joyful transports, and endear the cause thereof to our Souls. This is the reason of all those Songs of Praise, and joyful Festivities, that we read were composed by Moses, when the Egyptians were drowned; by Deborah, when Barack subdued Sicera; and were instituted by the Jews when they were delivered from Haman's conspiracy, and the like. They saw strange things, and stood amazed; and how apt soever they were to start aside from the God of Isaac, yet when the Power and Goodness of his Works did check their wandering minds, They feared and glorified God.  
And, 2. The reason of this is because of the Agreeableness of Knowledge to the mind of Man; the little knowledge we have of the Divine Perfections; and the want of attending and applying our minds to the consideration of his Ecellencies so far as we know them.  
1. The Agreeableness of Knowledge to the mind of Man; which is as grateful to the discerning faculty of our Souls, as light or the most amiable Object is to the Eye. The understanding is no more satisfied with knowing than the Eye is with Seeing; and every faculty of our Nature must necessarily be delighted with that good that does belong to it, and in the enjoyment of which does consists it happiness. This the Devil did so well understand, that when he tempted Eve to disobedience, he represented the forbidden Fruit not only as good and pleasant Food, but as delightful to the Eyes, and a fruit to make her Wise: Taking an advantange from those desires, that are in the ruling Powers of our Bodies and Souls, the Eye and the Unnderstanding, to deceive and conquer.  
And now is it any wonder that a Creature that does aspire after Knowledge, and is so extremely satisfied with the emprovements of his Understanding, should be mightily affected with such strange things as present themselves to his contemplation, besides the ordinary course of Nature? There is something so grateful in Novelties as does not only prompt us to search after them, but detains us against our wills in the contemplation thereof: How much pleased are we to hear or read the strange reports of foreign Countries, the mighty exploits of great and heroic persons, and the accounts that such as have been in the remote parts of the World do give of their travels. 'Tis this unbounded desire of knowing does tempt Men to leave their native Soil, and carries them through a thousand dangers, to inquire after unknown customs and unheardof rarities of even barbarous Nations; and it is the same desire of and satisfaction in Knowledge that makes such strange occurrences as happen beside our expectation, to arrest our thoughts and spirits, and is the occasion of that admiration they generally fill us with; for while things are plain and accountable to us, we stay not to admire them, because our Minds do easily penetrate and see the utmost that is in them; but when Events are great and unusual, and the Causes thereof lie so deep and secret, that our Minds cannot presently and easily reach them, they call together our amazed Spirits, and suspend their operations upon the Body, that they may the more freely, and without interruption, contemplate the Wonder, and with stronger and more vigorous attentions pierce through the Difficulty to behold the Cause; and when the strongest efforts of our collected Spirits are too feeble to make the discovery, we stand still and admire what we are not able to comprehend.  
2. Because our knowledge of the divine Perfections is imperfect; although God has been pleased to imprint upon our Souls an Idea of himself, yet it is only such as the narrowness of our faculties can receive; we can no more comprehend the Immensity and Majesty, the glorious Excellencies and Perfections of an infinite God, than a small Bucket can hold the Water in the Ocean: 'Tis in the contemplation of his Works that we best come acquainted with his Boing and Excellency; but when holy Job had recounted them to himself, he at last broke out into that astonishment, Lo these are the parts of his ways, but how little a portion is heard of him? the thunder of his power who can understand? Job. 26.14.  
And indeed, when we consider that God in the Works that he has made has not done all that is possible with infinite Power, not only our knowledge of him must necessarily be imperfect, and very little portion of him be heard and seen in the Works of his Creation and Providence, but the strange and unusual occurrences of the World, that either depend upon no visible causes, or are in their circumstances too big for their agency, must necessarily fill us with admiration, and wrap our minds into a kind of ecstasy, because in them we see more of God's Power and Goodness, than is visible in the things we daily contemplate.  
Was it possible for us to see God face to face, and know so much of his excellent Nature as the Angels and perfect Spirits do, into how great astonishment would the first Revelation of so great Majesty and Glory strike us? Would it not seize us with as much pleasure and delight, and for the time give such a stop to the motions of our Spirits, that, like St. Paul in his rapture, we should not be able to tell whether we were in the Body or no? And how can it otherwise be but when God in his wondrous and strange works, as he calls them, does discoverment of himself, and the greatness of his Perfections than in those which we constantly contemplate, that according to the discovery we should be amazed, and glorify God, and fear, saying, We have seen strange things to day.  
3. Because we do not consider the divine Perfections so far as we are capable of knowing them, the things of this lower World have so much power over our Minds, and visible objects do so much lie in our way, we are so much commanded by our Senses, and Imagination does work so strongly in us, that the operations of our superior faculties are mightily checked and dulled thereby; and it is but at some times and seasons, and that with difficulty too, that we command our Senses to stand still, and call up our Minds to the more noble employment of contemplating the Glories of the divine Nature: God has been pleased to furnish us with such faculties, and to reveal himself under so great and excellent a character, that though we are not capable of knowing him as he is, yet we may know so much of him as is sufficient to excite becoming affections in us toward him; but while we converse with earthly and visible objects, our minds are drawn so much downwards, and become so overcharged with terrene affections, that it is with great difficulty that we exalt them to Heaven, and enter upon any serious considerations of the Glory of our Creator.  
But now when God by any visible demonstrations of his Being & Providence does discharge our minds of that weight that hangs upon them, like Men roused out of a dream, we wonder, and stand astonished at the Greatness of his Power, and Excellency of his Wisdom, and the Miracle of his Goodness: Though he has not left himself so much without witness, that the notice of his Perfections is altogether new to us, yet the consideration of them is; and by being raised to more brisk and vigorous Reflections than usually, we begin to say within ourselves, as the Jews did when they beheld this Miracle, We never saw it on this fashion, as Saint Mark's expression is, Ch. 2. v. 12. And,  
3. God does expect that the remarkable instances of his Power and Goodness should make such impressions on us. As the natural tendency of them is to awake us to those considerations of his Being and Providence, which are the proper exercise of our reasonable faculties, so the very reason of his doing them is, that he may overcome the stupidity of our Minds, and quicken that sense of his Majesty which worldly cares and solicitudes are apt to decay and stifle: He has made the glorifying his Name the great end of our Being's; and because we are too apt to employ our faculties so much in projecting for a temporal happiness, as in time to grow cool and languid in our affections toward him, he makes use of his strange works as an extraordinary means to remind us of our duty; and to be as stupid as Beasts before him, who are not capable of considering the greatness of his Power when he strikes so forcibly upon our Minds, is as well an argument that we have lost the sense of our duty, as that we have put off the genuine and proper affections of our Nature: For the reason why things of this Nature are called his wonderful Works is not because they are strange and astonishing to him, who very well knows the extent of his Power and Goodness, but because they ought to be so to us, whom he intends thereby to make more apprehensive of his Being, and more hearty to glorify him. All men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God, for they shall wisely consider of his doing: The righteous shall be glad in the Lord, and all the upright in heart shall glory, saith holy David, Psal. 64.9, 10. In which words the Royal Prophet does not only recount the Events which do naturally result from such eminent occurrences, but the duties we are obliged to upon the account thereof: For as he tells us, Psal. 111.4. God has made his wonderful Works to be remembered. The great design and intent of them is to oblige us more firmly to the interests of Religion, and to give us the most unanswerable reason for that love and dependence upon him, that he expects from us: And therefore he frequently charges it upon those whom he has so eminently discovered the Majesty of his Providence unto, as a prodigious ingratitude to him, as well as stupidity in themselves, when they make no such return unto him. Our Fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt, they remembered not the multitude of thy Mercies. Psal. 106.7. Let favour be showed to the wicked, yet will be not learn Righteousness, in the land of Uprightness will he deal iniquity, and will not behold the Majesty of the Lord. Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see. Is. 26.10, 11.  
As God in all the works of his Hands does aim at his own Glory, the exalting his Name, and the rendering his Perfections amible, and acceptable to the World, he expects that all his Creatures should concur with him in promoting these ends; and to receive the astonishing Effects of his Power and Goodness that he may not appear to have miscarried in his design. The Lord has made his holy Arm bare in the eyes of all the Nations, and all the ends of the Earth shall see the Salvation of our God. Is. 52.10. So that to see his Salvation is the grateful return that he looks for, when he makes his Arm bare, and stretches out his hand, to bring to pass the astonishing purposes of his Goodness. Thus when he sent his Son to be the Redeemer of Mankind, he styled him, The light to lighten the Gentiles, and the Glory of his People Israel; and this was such a manifestation of himself to the World, as did to a miracle exceed all those occasional appearances whereby he had made himself known to the preceding Ages. And the compassions he expressed to the house of Israel, even when by defiling their own Land by their do they had provoked him to scatter them among the Heathen, were for the sanctifying his great Name, which was profaned among the Heathen, that they might know that he was the Lord. Ezek. 36.23. Thus to observe his do is not only accounted a proof of our Wisdom, Let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth, and knoweth me that I am the Lord which exercise loving Kindness, Judgement, and Righteousness in the Earth. Ger. 9.24. but is both God's way of exalting his Name, and making his Praise Glorious, and that retribution which he expects from Creatures that he has obliged by such remarkable instances of the goodness of his Providence. Thus when he promised to plant in the Wilderness the Cedar Tree, etc. his purpose therein was that his People might see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord had done this, and the Holy one of Israel had created it. Is. 51.20. And accordingly 'tis made the mark of folly and stupidity, the Character of a brutish Man not to know, and of a Fool not to understand.  
And now having given this general Account of these words I come,  
4. To consider how great reason we have to be amazed and to say, we have seen strange things to day: For we have seen such things as will make the compilers of our History go near to be suspected by future Generations, as ingenious improvers of the circumstances of things, rather than read as the impartial deliverers of matters of Fact; For will it easily be believed that a free Prince should be so much in love with Bondage, as to be willing to take that heavy yoke upon his neck again, which his Predecessors had found so uneasy and troublesome while they bore it, and had taken care by many wholesome Laws to secure their Posterity from, when they had thrown it off: That he should be willing to admit of a Foreign jurisdiction into his Kingdom, which by those that maintain it would have been declared to be superior to his own, and to be so vigorously set upon this glorious project, as to frown upon those that were disirous to preserve all the Jewels of his Crown, and to maintain his Authority entire? Will it gain credit that the great and sworn Enemies of the Kingdom should be the directours if not the disposers of the public Authority; and they who had plotted the destruction of his Grandfather, and the whole Royal Family, in the most barbarous manner, should be cherished as the best and most Loyal Subjects? These are things so incredible that Posterity will read them with as much amazement as we have beheld them. But that it may appear how much reason we have to say we have seen strange things to day, give me leave to rimind you.  

1. Of the Evils that threatened us.  
2. Of our Deliverance from them.   
1. Of the Evils that threatened us. Which are of that dreadful Nature, that we may well say of ourselves that in our own eyes we were but as dead Men, since Death would have been much more welcome than the one, and the most savage Inhumanites must have been suffered if we could not have embraced the other: For we were not only proudly threatened that we should eat our own Dung, and drink our own Piss; but, which is most amazing, this was to have been the reward of our constancy to our God, our fidility to our Prince in his greatest extremities, and our zeal for the true interests of our Country: Virtues of that Noble strain and generous magnitude, as would have been caressed and encouraged by any Prince whose Principles are not debauched, and whose Generosity over ruled by a Bigotry to a Religion that knows neither Conscience nor Honour: But when a violent zeal to convent was adjudged the Character of a much greater Soul, and a more heroic Spirit, than to conquer Kingdoms, it became our crime that we could not obey God less than Man; a crime so heinous in the opinion of that Church that is much more zealous for her own than God's Laws, that nothing but the Death of such Obstinate Heretics could expiate. And since we could not suffer ourselves to be cajoled and complemented out of our Religion, nor would be so mannerly as to quit it as a Testimony of our Loyalty, we were, God knows, reduced almost to so deplorable a condition as would have made it impossible to have preserved our lives and our intregrity too: For to speak at once the mischief that for these late years we have trembled to think of, and almost felt, Popery was to supplant Protestantism; and since at no cheaper rate we could be made Papists, Slavery was to humble us, and a rampant Army to eat up our English Liberties; Evils that threatened us both as Men and Christians.  
1. We were threatened by Popery. A Religion that lays the most base and servile yoke upon the Souls and Consciences of Men; and that for the making Proselytes has shed more blood, and practised more dreadful Inhumanities' than ever Heathenism did. A Religion that would first have unmanned you, by depriving you of the use of your Reasons, and then have taught you the generous thing of believing Contradictions; that would have instructed you how to honour God by breaking his Commandments, and have made you excellent Catholics by teaching you to be Idolaters. A Religion so destructive of the very foundations of Faith, so wicked in its Principles, and so barbarous and bloody in its Practices, that I cannot but think it would be every whit as pleasing to God, and as becoming our own Nature to be of no Religion at all, as that which makes men ten times more the slaves of the Devil than they were by Nature.  
I would not be thought to be so uncharitable as to think it impossible that any that profess it should be saved, or that they are in a worse condition than if they had been of none; for we do hope, that there may be some in that Communion whose Devotion and Piety may be so sincere that God may in Mercy overlook their errors; but if any of that Church be saved, we do not believe it is for the goodness of their Religion, but because their ignorance of the illness of it may be excusable in the sight of God. But it is sure no very great commendation of a Religion, that a man may be saved that professes it, if he have but the good fortune to believe & do he knows not what; but that he must certainly be in a very ill case if he understand it, and yet continues to profess it; and yet this is the Religion that threatened you; a Religion that no man can any longer profess with safety, than he is totally ignorant of it, or knows not that God has provided better for his Soul.  
'Tis true, we had the word of a King to assure us, that no such evil was intended us, but that our Religion should be upheld and maintained: And is it not pity but a person of his sacred Character had been of a Religion that would have suffered him to have been as good as his word: For at the same time that a Prince promises safely to his Haretical Subjects, he runs the hazard of being excommunicated and deposed; and as he desires to be reputed a Good Catholic, he is bound by the Decree of the 4th Lateran's Council to do his utmost to purge his Country of Heresy, and to extirpate those that obstinately adhere to and maintain it. So that suppose a Prince be never so sincere in making such Promises, and according to the most generous Principles of Humanity does incline to protect those whom his Church condemns and obliges him to extirpate, the forfeiting the Reputation of being a Good Catholic and his Crown to boot are two things so dreadful as will lay a strong Bias upon the most Noble temper.  
But besides, it is but two well known that this has been one of the Arts whereby poor Protestants in our Neighbouring Country have been reduced to the utmost extremity of Misery; that at the very time they were persecuting them, they gave assurances that the King had no design against their Liberties; and in almost all the Edicts that Prince set forth, he inserted some Article to lull them asleep; and when the elector of Brandenburg did intercede for them, that King assured his Highness, that so long as he lived no wrong should be done to his Subjects of the Reformed Religion; that he acknowledged them for good ones, and would maintain them in all their Privileges: But yet in the very self same instant that he gave this public assurance, he caused many of their Temples to be demolished, and others to be shut up; put the Ministers into Prison, and made Children to be taken from their Parents, and to be shut up into Convents, with a strict charge not to let their Parents see them. Such is the Spirit of Popery, and such are the methods it makes use of for the propagating itself; Methods that overturn the very foundations of Communities, and make Society far more uncomfortable than a Desert: And yet this is not the worst of it; for it is a Religion,  
2. That when all other methods failed for the making you Papists, endeavoured to make you slaves: And to a generous mind death is not so terrible as the insultings of a barbarous Army, and the insupportable Miseries of an Arbitrary Power. I speak not here my own sense of our lamentable condition, but that which the Composers of the Prayers for this joyful day, and an august Assembly has given as the reason of their appointing this Festivity; nay that which you and the whole Kingdom have complained of, and groaned under: For to what other purpose was a dispencing Power vested in our Prince, and stiffly maintained as the Diana of all his other Prerogatives, but that if his interests did so require, and his Soul could stoop to so base a thing, he might exercise an uncontrol'd. Authority over your Persons and Estates, and leave you no other way to help yourselves and ease your sad complaints but your Prayers and Patience: To what purpose were you deprived of your privilege of petitioning, a privilege which God, the supreme Monarch, not only allows, but charges the neglect thereof as a great impiety; to what purpose, I say, was this made a mark of Faction, and exclaimed against as a crime tending to Rebellion, but to teach you the tameness of the most sluggish Brute, to take up your burden, and bear your stripes, without any seeming sense of the weight and painfulness thereof? To what purpose was the humour of addressing for such things as were the Kingdom's Grievances promoted and encouraged, but to inure you to like the hardest things that should be put upon you by the Court? To what end was an Army kept up in a time of peace, but to make it fatal almost to groan in private under your calamities, and to give the Popish Faction an opportunity to advance their designs with more haste and fury, than they could by the slow steps of the preceding Reign? To this end were our Laws dispensed with, Judges displaced when their Consciences permitted them not to be the betrayers of their Country, and to act according to the Directions and Councils of Father Peter and his party, & Persons disabled by our Laws, put into Places of the greatest Trust and profit. In a word, for I need not set before you all the methods that have been taken for the destroying the fundamentals of our Constitution, since they are too fresh before you not to be remembered by you with bleeding hearts; to what purpose, I say, was the violent invasion of your Rights, and the treachery of surrendering your Privileges, but to give the Court a power to pack Parliaments at their pleasure, and to undo us by a Law?  
What great advantage the Contrivers of our misery gained by this forward Treachery, and what use, when the posture of their affairs would have permitted, they might at least make thereof, the lamentable case of those of New-England is a very sad and lively instance: For no sooner were they possessed of their Charters, but their new Masters who were set over them told them that their Charter being gone, their Title to their Lands and Estates were gone therewith, and that all was the King's; that they represented the King, and that therefore all persons must take Patents from them, and give what they saw meet to impose, that so they might enjoy the Houses their own Hands had built, and the Lands which at vast Charges, in subduing a Wilderness, they had for many years a rightful possession of; and accordingly the Governor ordered the Lands beloning to some in Charles Town to be measured out and given to his Creatures, and Writs of Intrusion to be issued out against others: And if there were any that were so hardy as to offer to maintain their Rights by a course at Law, they were imprisoned and fined: Such was the miserable state that People were reduced to, and which the violent Counsels of the Romish Party filled the Minds of the whole Kingdom with frightful apprehensions of.  
But God, who at sundry times, and in divers manners, saved our Forefathers from the hellish Conspiracies of these wretched Men, has been pleased mightily to interpose in our favour, and to deliver us from the dread of Romish zeal and bigotry. Which brings me,  
2. To consider our Deliverance, which is so conspicuous a demonstration of the amiableness of the divine Perfection, and the goodness of his Providence, that we have infinite reason to say, We have seen strange things to day: For we have seen the fairest prospect, and the most assured hopes, Popery ever had of settling among us since the Reformation, defeated and disappointed; not only the arguments of the Romish Missionaries baffled, (for if the Field was to be won with no other weapons but these, I dare say, that they themselves have long ago seen reason sufficient to despair of a conquest,) but their Dragoons, whose weapons of cruelty they much rather depend upon, vanquished and scattered. It is not my design to insult upon the misfortunes of an unhappy Prince, whom the Counsels of that restless Party have undone: But this I may say, that since he was so unfortunate to espouse an Interest so contrary to that of his Kingdom, which ought to have been his dearest, and the Counsels of Jesuits influenced the public authority, as our Danger was the more threatening so our Deliverance is the more amazing. Such are the Principles, so black the Designs of that restless Party, that as by their frequent endeavours to subvert our Religion and Government, they have given us but too great reason to say, It is impossible that State should ever continue long in peace and quiet which they have opportunities to creep into; but when they find ways not only to corrupt a Court, but to pervert a Prince, and unhappily to engage him in their designs, as his case is much to be lamented, their attempts grow more bold and daring, and the safety of a State must necessarily be put into the greatest extremity of hazard; and this is that which does magnify the Deliverance we now bless God for: For we have not only seen the great Incendiaries of Kingdoms, the spiteful Enemies of our Religion and Liberties, chased from their private Cabals, and ferreted out of their holes and dark retirements, but from their Schools and Colleges, from the places of of greatest Trust, and public Employments; and above all, from their Chairs of Confession, and the King's Privy Council; we have seen a Church doomed to ruin, and violently shockt by the vigorous attacks of implacable foes, to triumph over the infatuated Counsels of Priests and Jesuits, and a State threatened with a Government of the French mode rescued out of the hands of French and Irish; a Church to stand in spite of Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and a State preserved in spite of dispensing Judges; we have seen the enemies of our Church and State falling, I cannot say into the Pit that they dug for us, (for God knows they dig as deep as Hell, and nothing on this side utter destruction can possibly satisfy their rage and fury,) but from the greatness of their expectations, and, I hope, from all possibility of ever occasioning the like convulsions among us; in a word, we have seen the worst of Enemies baffled, and the best Religion and Government in the World preserved: and I had almost said, (which is the only Blessing we want to complete our happiness,) that we have seen a broken Church made whole, and Protestants united; but though this as yet is the matter of our Wishes and Prayers, yet I hope we have seen, at least I am sure we ought, a very fair step towards it in the uniting of our hearts and affections, and that whatever is wanting towards so great a Blessing, is as much the desires of our Souls as the generous endeavours of our honourable Convention. This, this alone will fully complete our Deliverance, for as there is nothing has given the Romish Party so great an advantage against us as our Divisions, so nothing will give us a more assured conquest over them than our Union; and how much soever we own to that good and great Prince, whose zeal for Religion, and concern for the good of Christendom, prompted him to hazard his Person through Winds and Waves into a foreign Country, at a season when Navigation is most dangerous, and Armies retire to warmer Quarters than the Field covered with Snow, or soaked with Rain, yet 'tis only than I shall begin to think we are fully delivered, when like Brethren we dwell and assemble together in Unity. And now what remains but we should consider,  
5. What reason we have to fear and glorify God. As our danger was from Jesuits, the worst of Enemies, and our Deliverance from Popery and Slavery, the greatest of evils that can threaten our Souls and Bodies, these are such things as may well astonish us, and teach us to fear and glorify God.  
1. To fear: For as the Passions God has planted in our Nature were designed to be serviceable to the ends of Religion, it is highly reasonable that we should fear the Lord of Hosts, and at all times tremble at his Majesty; but when he represents himself fearful in praises, and terrible in his do, it is very fit that a Creature that is apt to fear where no fear is, and to dread the effects of a much less power, should be struck with an awful regard of his glorious Majesty, and feel our Souls stirred within us to such apprehensions as are suitable to the greatness and glory of his Works. Tremble thou earth at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob. Ps. 114.7. Though God in respect of the immensity of his Being be always present with us; so that if we should take the wings of the Morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea, yet there his hand leads us, and his right hand holds us; yet the greatness of his do among the Children of Men are such glorious manifestations of his presence, that we, who at other times see very little of him, cannot but behold it; and when God does put on righteousness as a Breastplate, and a Helmet of Salvation on his Head, it is a time that our fear should be as great as his Attributes are conspicuous, and that the glory of his presence in dispensations so full of wonder, should take down all hour high thoughts, and abash us into the most humble frame. I am troubled at his presence, when I consider I am afraid of him, saith holy Job, Ch. 23. v. 15. And again, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seethe thee, wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes, Ch. 42. v. 5, 6. to such a low and humble posture was this good man brought when he saw, nay, when he considered the presence of God. And it is not only that which God designed we should be wrought to by the consideration of his glorious Attributes, when he gave us the affections of our Nature, but what the astonishing Dispensations of of his stupendious Providence ought more effectually to cast us into.  
2. To glorify God; to ascribe to him the honour of his do, and with Souls full of gratitude to say, This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes; this is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it; For as the divine purpose in such mighty and admirarable occurrences, is to restore a decaving Piety to life, and to renew the impressions of his Perfections in our Souls, which Time and secular cares are apt to wear our, so it highly becomes us to express our resentments in the efforts of the most livey and vigorous Piety. O God, my heart is fixed, I will sing and give praise, even with my glory, i.e. with my tongue, and all the faculties of my soul, which are the glory of humane nature, will I commemorate thy goodness and signal mercy. Awake Psaltery and Harp, I myself will awake right early. I will praise thee among the people, and I will sing Praises among the Nations; For thy mercy is great above the Heavens, and thy Truth reacheth, unto the Clouds. Be thou exalted O God above the Heavens, and thy Glory above all the earth. Psal. 108.1, 2, etc. 'Tis not enough indeed that we can ascribe to the great virtue of that Heroic Prince whom God in mercy raised to be our Deliverer. It was not the glory of a Crown that tempted him to so hazardous an enterprise; for besides that a little time would in all probability have given him a more easy possession thereof, his Piety would never have permitted him to have invaded the right of so near a Relation as a Father, if his Piety to God had not strongly prompted him to endeavour the preservation of those sacred Truths which he beheld to be miserably invaded, and ready to be destroyed: But it was the settling a tottering state, and the supporting a sinking Church, nay the securing the little tranquillity that was left to all the Reformed Churches in Christendom from the furious insults of those that threatened them with utter extirpation. This was the thing that he declared for, and so true has he been to his Declaration, that he much rather deserves the Character of the Just, and the Faithful, than any other Prince to whom with the greatest industry it has been given: For when he might have taken the Crown as the fruit of his Labour and Conquest, he waited till it was given him by the Honourable Representatives of the Kingdom, with the Concurrence of the Peers, as the Reward of his Merit.  
But as it is not without the Lord that is come up to this Kingdom, while we admire his Wisdom and Conduct, his Courage and Success, let us remember to give God the Glory of so mighty a Deliverance. Let us in contemplation of so signal a Blessing say with the Psalmist. The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear; The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid. Though an host of Men should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though War should rise against me, in this will I be confident. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his Temple. For in the time of trouble he shall hid me in his pavilion: in the secret of his Tabernacle shall he hid me, he shall set me up upon a Rock. And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine Enemies round about me; therefore will Loffer in his Tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who only does wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious Name for ever, and the let whole Earth be filled with his Glory, Amen, Amen.  
FINIS.   

Books sold by George Monk, at the White Horse without Temple Bar, and William Ewrey, at the Golden Lion and Lamb, over against the Middle Temple Gate.  
COllections of Travels Through Turkey into Persia, and the East-Indies. Giving an account of the Present State of those Countries. As also a full Relation of the Five years' Wars, between Aureng-Zebe and his Brothers in their Father's Life time, about the Succession. And a Voyage made by the Great Mogul (Aureng-Zebe) with his Army from Dehli to Lahor, from Lahor to Bemher, and from thence to the Kingdom of Kachemire, by the Mogul's, called, The Paradise of the Indies. Together with a Relation of the Kingdom of Japan and Tunkin, and of their particular Manner and Trade. To which is added a new Description of the Grand Seignior's Sergalio, And also of all the Kingdoms that encompass the Euxine and Caspian Seas. Being the Travels of Monsieur Tavernierbernier, and other great Men: Adorned with many Copper Plates.  
The Lively Oracles Given to us: or the Christian's Birthright and Duty, in the Custody and Use of the Holy Scripture: By the Author of whole Duty of Man.