X.

Sion; hath raised our Church from the duft, and reefta- SERM. blished the found doctrine, the decent order, the wholefome difcipline thereof; hath restored true religion with its fupports, advantages, and encouragements.

Bleffed be the Lord, who hath granted us to continue these fixteen years in the peaceable fruition of those bleffings.

(If. xxx.

20.)

Praifed be God, who hath not cast out our prayer, nor Pfal. Ixvi. turned his mercy from us.

20.

Praised be God, who hath turned our heavinefs into joy, Pfal. xxx. hath put off our fackcloth, and girded us with gladness.

11.

Let our mouth Speak the praife of the Lord; and let all Pfal. cxlv. flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.

21.

The Lord liveth, and blessed be our rock; and let the God Pfal. xviii. of our falvation be exalted.

46.

Bleffed be the Lord God of Ifrael, who only doeth won, Pfal. Ixxii. drous things; and blessed be his glorious name for ever ; 18, 19. and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen,

and amen.

Blessed be the Lord God of Ifrael, from everlasting to Pfal. cvi. everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye1113.

the Lord.

48. xli. 13.

On Nov. 5, 1673.

SERMON XI.

ON THE GUNPOWDER-TREASON.

5.

PSAL. Ixiv. 9, 10.

And all men fhall fear, and shall declare the work of God; for they fhall wifely confider of his doing. The righteous Shall be glad in the Lord, and shall trust in him; and all the upright in heart shall glory.

SERM. IF we should search about for a cafe parallel to that which XI. we do now commemorate, we should, perhaps, hardly find one more patly fuch, than is that which is implied in this Pfalm and if we would know the duties incumbent on us in reference to fuch an occafion, we could scarce better learn them otherwhere than in our text.

:

With attention perusing the Psalm, we may therein observe, that its great Author was apprehensive of a desperate plot by a confederacy of wicked and spiteful enemies, with great craft and fecrecy, contrived against his fafety. Pfal. Ixiv. They, faith he, encourage themselves in an evil matter: they commune of laying fnares privily; they fay, Who shall fee them? That for preventing the blow threatened by this defign, (whereof he had fome glimpfe, or fome prefumption, grounded upon the knowledge of their implacable and active malice,) he doth implore divine protecPfal. Ixiv. 2. tion: Hide me, faith he, from the fecret counsel of the wicked, from the infurrection of the workers of iniquity. That he did confide in God's mercy and justice for the seasonable defeating, for the fit avenging their machina

Verse 7.

XI.

tion: God, faith he, shall fhoot at them with an arrow; SERM fuddenly Shall they be wounded. That they should themfelves become the detectors of their crime, and the inftruments of the exemplary punishment due thereto: They, Verle 8. addeth he, shall make their own tongue to fall upon themfelves all that fee them fhall flee away.

Such was the cafe; the which unto what paffage in the hiftory it doth relate, or whether it belongeth to any we have recorded, it may not be easy to determine. Expofitors commonly do refer it to the defigns of Saul upon David's life. But this feeming purely conjecture, not founded upon any exprefs words, or pregnant intimations in the text, I fhall leave that inquiry in its own uncer tainty. It fufficeth to make good its pertinency, that there was fuch a mifchievous confpiracy, deeply projected, against David; (a very great perfonage, in whose safety the public ftate of God's people was principally concerned; he being then king of Ifrael, at least in defignation, and therefore in the precedent Pfalm, endited in Pfal. Ixiii. Saul's time, is so styled ;) from the peril whereof he by11. the special providence of God was refcued, with the notable disappointment and grievous confufion of those who managed it. The which cafe (at least in kind, if not in degree) beareth a plain resemblance to that which lieth before us.

And the duties, which upon that occafion are fignified to concern people then, do no less now fort to us; the which, as they lie couched in our text, are these: 1. Wifely to confider God's doing ; 2. To fear; 3. To declare God's work; 4. To be glad in the Lord; 5. To trust in God; 6. To glory. Of which the first three are reprefented as more generally concerning men; the others as appertaining more peculiarly to righteous and upright perfons.

Thefe duties it fhall be my endeavour fomewhat to explain and prefs, in a manner applicable to the present case. I call them duties; and to warrant the doing fo, it is requifite to confider, that all these particulars may be underftood in a double manner; either as declarative of event, or as directive of practice upon fuch emergencies.

SERM.

XI.

13. xiii. 11.

xix. 20.

When God doth fo interpofe his hand, as fignally to check and confound mifchievous enterprises, it will be apt to ftir up in the minds of men an apprehenfion of God's fpecial providence, to ftrike into their hearts. a dread of his power and justice, to wring from their mouths fuitable declarations and acknowledgments; and particularly then good men will be affected with pious joy; they will be encouraged to confide in God, they will be moved to glory, or to exprefs a triumphant fatisfaction in God's proceedings. These events naturally do refult from fuch providential occurrences; for production of these events fuch occurrences are purposely designed; and accordingly (where men are not by profane opinions or affections much indisposed) they do commonly follow.

But yet they are not proposed fimply as events, but also as matters of duty: for men are obliged readily to admit fuch impreffions upon their minds, hearts, and lives, from the special works of Providence; they are bound not to cross those natural tendencies, not to fruftrate those wise intents of God, aiming at the production of such good difpofitions and good practices: whence if those effects do not arife, as often notorioufly they do not in fome perfons, men thereby do incur much guilt and blame.

It is indeed ordinary to reprefent matter of duty in this way, expreffing thofe practices confequent in effect, which in obligation fhould follow, according to God's purpose, and the nature of caufes ordered by him. As when, for inftance, God in the law had prefcribed duty, and threatened fore punishment on the difobedient, it is Deut. xvii. fubjoined, And all the people fhall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously: the meaning is, that such exemplary punishment is in its nature apt, and its defign tendeth to produce fuch effects, although not ever, questionless, with due fuccefs, fo as to prevent all tranfgreffion of those Ha. xxvi. 9. laws. So alfo, When, faith the Prophet, thy judgments are in the land, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness: the sense is, that divine judgments in themselves are instructive of duty, it is their drift to inform men therein, and men ought to learn that leffon from

them; although in effect divers there be, whom no SERM. judgments can make wifer or better; fuch as thofe of XI. whom in the fame Prophet it is faid, The people turneth Ifa. ix. 13. not unto him that smiteth them; and in another, In vain Jer. ii. 30. have I fmitten your children, they received no correction. 3. As therefore frequently otherwhere, so also here this kind of expreffion may be taken chiefly to import duty. To begin then with the first of these duties.

V.

Neh. ix. 29.

ומעשהו השכילו

τὰ

I. We are upon fuch occafions obliged wifely to confider (or, as the Greek rendereth it, ovviéval, to understand, or to perceive, as our old tranflation hath it) God's doing.. This I put in the first place, as previous in nature, and influential upon the reft: whence (although in the Hebrew it be knit to the reft, as they all are to one another, by the conjunctive particle ve, and, yet) we do translate it cafually, For they shall wifely confider, for they shall perceive; because indeed without duly confidering and rightly understanding fuch occurrences to proceed from God, none of the other acts can or will be performed: attentive confideration is needful to beget knowledge and persuasion; these to breed affection and practice.

There are many who, in fuch cafes, are nowife apprehenfive of God's special providence, or affected with it; because they do not confider, or do not confider wifely and intelligently.

Some are very inobfervant and carelefs in regard to things of this nature; fo drowsy and heedless, as not to attend to whatever paffeth, or to mind what God acteth in the world: fuch as those of whom the Prophet saith, The harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are Ifa. v. 12. in their feafts: but they regard not the work of the Lord, Pfal. xxviii. nor the operation of his hands: that is, their minds are fo amused by wanton divertisements, their hearts are fo immerfed in fenfual enjoyments, as nowife to observe the most notable occurrences of Providence.

Others (although they do ken and regard what is done, as matter of news, or ftory, entertaining curiofity and talk: yet) out of floth or ftupidity do little confider it, or study whence it fpringeth; contenting themselves with

5. X. 4.