XVI.

that without our heavenly Father, not fo SER M.
much as a sparrow falls to the ground, or
a hair of our head perishes: And it was a
very unworthy Notion of God in fome
Philofophers to imagine, that whilst he
governed Kingdoms, he could not at the
same time attend to the guidance and di-
rection of smaller things. But in respect
to Us, the Effects of Providence are more
confiderable, and the Footsteps of it are
more eafily traced, and the Events which
it produces require greater and more pub-
lick Acknowledgments, when the Fates
of whole Nations are therein concerned.
There is one reafon also in the Nature of
things, why Providence fhould more vi-
fibly concern itself with what whole Na-
tions and People are interested in; and
That is, that particular Perfons are to
have their exact and particular Retribu-
tions in a future State; but great Con-
fpiracies, and overflowing Tyrannies, con-
fidered as fuch and in a Body, must have
their defeat in this world; and National
Bleffings muft of neceffity be Temporal:
Not indeed for any neceffity on account
of strict Justice; (because That may as
well

SER M.well be fatisfied in the Life to come;) XVI. but for the publick manifeftation of Providence to the World, and of God's immediate Judgments in the prefent State.

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BUT the Time will not permit me to enlarge farther on this head. I fhall therefore only apply briefly what has been faid, to our present Occafion, and fo conclude.

AND here I need not detain you with a particular Narrative of the dark Confpiracy which was defigned to have been executed as upon This Day: I need not aggravate the incredible Barbarousness of this Attempt, which is not to be parallelled in all the Hiftories of Time, and which a great many even of the Romish Communion, have themselves been afhamed of and defirous to difown: I need not represent the great Craft and Cunning wherewith this Defign was laid; undifcoverable, as they thought, by any Wif dom or Chance: They took crafty counfel against thy people, and confulted against thy bidden ones; they faid Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Ifrael may be no more in remem-: brance

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XVI.

brance; Pf. lxxxiii. 4. I need not repeat to SER M.
with what Secrecy this whole matter was
you
carried on; fo that the words of David are
moft fitly applicable to this Occafion; Pf.
Ixiv. 5. They shoot in fecret at the perfect,
they encourage themselves in an evil matter,
they commune of laying fnares privily, they
Jay Who fhall fee them? and ver. 6. They
Search out iniquities, they accomplish a di-
ligent fearch; both the inward thought of
every one of them, and their heart is deep.
It would alfo be fuperfluous to give a
particular account how this Confpiracy
was discovered; how God fkot at them
fuddenly with a swift arrow,
and their
own tongues made them to fall; how (as
the wife man expreffes a like matter,
Ecclef. x. 20,) a Bird of the air carried
the voice, and that which has wings dif
covered the matter. For all these tranf-
actions have been often fully and lively
reprefented to you, and it would be but
tedious to repeat them again.

I NEED not likewife enlarge upon the
particulars of the Second Deliverance,
which we this Day commemorate. The
thing itself is ftill fresh in all our Me-

mories;

SER M.mories; and every one that has any just XVI: Senfe of the inhumane Barbarity of the Popish Religion, and of the extreme wickedness of that Great Apoftacy fo largely prophefied of in the New Testament, cannot but be fenfible of the Greatness of every escape from it, being a Deliverance from the worst and most dreadful Slavery both of body and mind; together with the Strangeness of the means by which it was brought about, and the Suddennefs and Eafinefs of its Accomplishment.

OMITTING therefore to repeat things already fo well known, I fhall chufe rather to conclude my Difcourfe with fome practical Inferences fuitable to the Occafion. And

ift; Ir the Providence of God has certainly a peculiar influence over all the great Events that happen to Mankind ; and if the Bleffings and Deliverances which we this day commemorate, carry upon them as vifible characters of that divine Providence, as any that were ever bestowed upon any People; then ought the expreffions of our Acknowledgments and Thanksgivings to God upon this occafion,

cafion, to be proportionably great and SER M. fervent. That in the general the Provi- XVI. dence of God has a peculiar Influence over all the great Events that happen to Mankind, I have endeavoured to prove in the fore-going Difcourfe; and that the Deliverances we this Day commemorate in particular, carry upon them as vifible characters of that divine Providence, as any thing less than a direct Miracle can F poffibly do; is evident from all the circumstances of their accomplishment. For if the Strangeness of Events compared with the ordinary courfe of things; if the difproportionateness of means and causes to their effects; if weakness triumphing over formidable Strength, and Succeffes unufual like thofe recorded in Scripture; if the difappointment of the greatest cunning, and infatuation of the if the discovery profoundest Politicians ; of the fecreteft and moft cautious Plots, by improbable means, and unaccountable accidents; if bringing to nought the greatest and beft laid enterprizes, at the very point of their being put in execution; if wicked men's infnaring them

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