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A Thanksgiving Sermon.

as a Mercy which we ought to fet the highest Value upon, and fhould never forget; and that we may view it in this Light, let us confider,

I. What the vile and impious Defign of
the late Rebellion was, and how dread-
ful the Confequences would have been,
had not Providence fruftrated it.
II. The Progress made by the Rebels in
executing their Design.

III. The kind and feasonable Interpo-
fition of a Divine Hand, in their De-
feat and our Deliverance.

I fhall endeavour to lay these Things before you, as well as I can, in a small Compass; and then point out the Improvement which fhould be made of the great Mercy of God to us.

I. Let us confider what the vile and impious Design of the late Rebellion was, and how dreadful the Confequences would have been, had not Providence fruftrated

it.

It has long been the Happiness of Britons to live under the beft of Governments, in the quiet and undisturb'd Enjoyment of our Religion and Liberties, fecure in our Properties, and in the Poffeffion of every Bleffing belonging to us as a Free and Pro

teftant

A Thanksgiving Sermon.

7

teftant People. We have a moft gracious Prince upon the Throne, whofe Title is as firm as the Laws and Conftitution of this Kingdom can make it; fo that it cannot be difputed but upon Principles than which none can be more abfurd, deftructivè and Lavish a Prince who has no Interest feparate from that of his People, and who in the whole Courfe of his Reign has given the fulleft Proofs of an inviolable Regard to their Rights and Profperity: This must be acknowledged by all that will lay afide unreasonable Prejudices; and Malice itself cannot point out any Inftance to the contrary.

Now the execrable Defign of the Rebellion was, to dethrone our most excellent and rightful Sovereign, to fet afide for ever the Succeffion in his illuftrious Family, and to demolish the whole Frame, and tear up the very Foundations of a Government the beft fitted of any upon Earth to make Subjects fafe and happy.

into

With fuch a malicious Intention did a Company of wicked Men, without any Provocation or juft Reason for Complaint, and fome of them diftinguished by Marks of his Majefty's royal Favour, enter Measures, in Conjunction with our avowed Enemies abroad, to ruin and deftroy us: And that they might effectually do this; they would have fet an abjured, Popish

Pretender

T

8

A Thanksgiving Sermon. Pretender upon the Throne; one who has been long bred up amidst all the Tyranny, Superftition and Idolatry of the Church of Rome, and who would have come (had God, as a Punifhment for our Sins, permitted him) with a Heart full of Rage and Refentment, and with fuch an arbitrary, perfecuting and bloody Spirit, as must have fubjected us to the greatest Calamities.

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Some thoughtlefs and deluded People, I believe, have been ready to flatter themfelves, that the Cafe would not have been fo bad, if fuch a Revolution had been brought about, as it has been represented ; but fad Experience would foon have convinced them of their Miftake, and they would have feen their Folly with a Vengeance. The Pretender's Religion, I know, would have allowed him to promife fair to serve his own Ends, but it would have vacated the strongest Promises that he could have made to Proteftants, and damned him for performing them, to the Prejudice of the Catholick Cause, and for keeping Faith with Hereticks.

What then could we have expected had we fallen into the Hands of fuch a Tyrant Our Liberty would foon have been at an End; we must have seen with forrowful Hearts, our Laws trampled upon, our Properties unrighteously wrefted from us, free Parliaments abolifhed, and the

Lives

A Thanksgiving Sermon.

9

Lives of Proteftants always in Danger; nor can we think that any, would have been fuffered to make a Profeflion of the Reformed Religion without feeling the dreadful Weight of the Secular Arm, or that they could have efcaped, the molt cruel Perfecution without being falfe to God and Confcience. How foon would our folemn Affemblies have been at an End, and our Places of Worship taken from us? Minifters and their beloved Flocks could not have kept together; the free Ufe of the Scriptures would no longer have been allowed; Prayers in an unknown Tongue would have been the cftablifhed Worship; the Veneration of Saints and Images, the abfurd and monftrous Doctrine of Tranfubftantiation, and all the other grofs and pernicious Errors of the Antichriftian Church would have been forced upon us, and we muft either have been exposed to Hardships in diftant Regions, if we could have made our Escape, or Prifons, Gibbets and Flames must have been our Doom and Portion. Such Methods of Cruelty as thefe, and many more too fhocking to be mentioned, have been practifed by Papifts. This is well known, and they themfelves cannot have Impudence enough to deny it, when there are Facts without Number to prove the Barbarity, Attempts

B

10 A Thanksgiving Sermon.

Attempts may be made to foften Things; and fome may be fo weak as to be impofed upon by the artful Devices, and falfe Colours which defigning Men make ufe of to hide the Malignity of their Principles, and to make them appear harmlefs and benevolent; but this we may be affured of, that Popery is as bloody a Religion as ever it was; the Spirit which it breathes and infpires is cruel; "it is "calculated (as one well obferves) to fup

prefs the tendereft Emotions of Huma"nity," and it can be no wonder if it prevails against Good Nature it self, when People are taught that they make a Merit of deftroying their Neighbours that differ from them, and are fo blinded and wicked as to believe it. The Ethiopian cannot change his Skin: Sheeps Clothing could not alter the Nature of ravening Wolves, and if the Prince of Darkness fhould affume the Form, and put on the Appearance of an Angel of Light, he would be a Devil ftill,

We may conclude therefore, that if the Pretender to an hereditary Right to the British Crown fhould ever wear it, (which God of his infinite Mercy forbid!) we must be a miferable People, And what a kind and good Providence ought we to efteem it, that a Defign to bring us into fuch deplorable Circumftances has been fo

happily

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