Bolton - Houston-Packer Collection BX9339.B65 A2 1641

Difcourfo of true happineff. ver faw, norfonne ofmen enjoyed. I will onelyname-two which cannot but be frefh in every mans memory -The con- tinuing ofour peace, at the deathofour late Soveraigneofe- ver glorious memory :' And our deliverance from theGun- powder Treafon ; ofwhich two,when firft everyman heard, me thinkes he fhould have beene afraid, lefthe had beene ina dreame : as it isfaidof the Ifraelites, Pfalme i 26. When the Lordbrought akatine the captivity ofSion, Wee Were like them thatdreame. Both that, and thefe our bleiings were things fo incredible,and beyondall expeelation. Youknow, a little before theQueenes death, the wife were at their wits end, and every one flood amazed and a- fionifhed for the fearer his heart did feare. The Jefuites: from beyond feas infolently infulted over us, and told us in. their booker, thatthis Kingdome would Thorny become a prey to thegreedy ambition ofall the neighbour nations;; that hugeclouds ofbloodhung over our heads, and would: melt and diffolve at the Qeenes death. But it was neither fo, norfo. They are the falfe prophets of the Beaft in the Revelation, nomarvell though they lied : For he that dwels in the heavens laughed them to fcorne, our gracious God hadthem in derifion. And when Divels and Papifts looked and wifhed, that this land ihould have beene clothed even with blcod andfr °, as with a garment ; out of the infinite . depthofhis unlèarchablemercies, he covered it withpeace, joy, and happineffe, even as the fbas are covered with wa- ter. In the Gun-powder Treafon,tle necke.ofour. whole State both. ofChurch and Common-wealth,. the gloryof this fa- mous and floùrifhing Itingdome,(the.hopeofpofterity) was (asit were) upon theblocker The infirument t fdeath was lifted up by the damned inftrument of the Popesmalice, and cruelty,., bee waseven re-dÿ togive, the mortali ftroke and hadnot theAngell of the Lord ftepped in,. in thevery. nicke; hadnot our mercifull God, by his moft miraculous' andimmediate providence, put to his helping hand; when ogr cafe wasdefperate., and all hope paft,hehad cut offfrani PS

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=