But it is a far grcater misery to be cut off from the wells of sal- vation, bari^d from the springs of ordinances; forced to creep thj-ough hy and obscure ways to get bread to relieve our souls ; to have, our teachers driven, inta coi-ners ; whiclx hath, been- the case of
God's people for many years in England. Now to be delivered from such miseries, is a mercy above all value.
Liberty to serve the Lord \vithout fear, liberty without a snarQ or hook in it, and a well settled durable hberty, for such is^ that we raay now (if ever) promise ourselves ; what soul can dilate itself wide enough, to take in the adequate sense of such a mercy ? We were glad of liberty from our enemies, when we sought it not ; we peaceably and thankfully improved it, though just fears and jealou- sies much darkened the lustre of it : But the Lord in this dispensa- tion of his providence will, I hope, so establish the just hberties of hi§ people, that it shall never be in the power of violent and wicked rnen any more to oppress them. There was a time when the witnesses of Christ lay dead, and their enemies rejoiced over them ; the Lord hath begun to revive them, and the time (I trust) even the appointed time is at hand, when they shall hear a great voice from heaven jussu supremi mag'istratus^ saith learned Mede) say- ing, come up hither ; and both England and France shall rejoice together in their spiritual, as well as civil liberties and mercies. What soul that loves Jesus Christ in sincerity, doth not feel itself cheered and raised in proportion to the hopes and evidences it liath of the approach of so great and desirable a mercy ?
(i2.) Then is any work of mercy and deliverance to the church deservedly stiled^?*^a^ ; when it is wrought out in an extraordinary^ way^ and the finger of God evidently seen therein. Thus it was with Israel in their introduction into the land of promiscj Psalm xliv. 3. " For they got not the land in possession by their own " swordj neither did their o^^Ti arm save them ; but thy right " hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance ; be^ '' cause thou hadst a favour unto them. "' It was not by the strength of their own arm, or the length of their own sword, that they subdued and conquered ; no, it was a smile of providence that did the work. The finger of God in providence appears in the secret influences of God upon the spu'its of men, infusing courage into the hearts of some, and sending faintness into the spirits of others; so that the feeble become as David, while the men of might cannot find their hands. This lifts up the wheels above the earth, as Ezek, i. 19.
(3.) The sudden production of mercy magnifies it. Mercies are highly to be prized, how long soever we wait for them ; but when the^ come surprisingly, they come with great advantage upon us, and have for that the more ravishing sweetness in them, Psalm exxvi. 1, 2, 3. " When the Lord turned again the captivity of Sion, *•• we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled " with laughter, and our tongue with singing; then said they *' among the heathen^ the Lord hath done great things for us.
^f whereof we are glad/' The change was so great, so sudden, that it amazed tlieni ; they took it rather for a phantom that delud- ed their senses than for a reahty. The deliverance was incredible, tliey could not believe themselves to be delivered, when they really were delivered. They fancied when they came to Jerusalem, that it was rather a pleasing dream of Jerusalem in Babylon, thaw so indeed. Are we indeed set at liberty to worship God at Jeru- salem ? Or are we mocked with a dream, and deluded with a pleasant fancy of such a mercy ? So again we read, Isa. Ixvi. 8, 9. *' Who hath heard such a thing.? Who hath seen such things.^ " shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day ? Or shall a ^' nation be born at once ? For as soon as Sion travailed, she *« brought forth her children." What, sow and reap in the same day ! The birth to anticipate the pangs of travail ! Who hath seen or heard such things, saith the prophet ? Surely England hath seen it this day. Cardinal Pool once abused this scripture in his leter to pope Julius the third, applying it to the sudden change of ^England Xo popery in the beginning of queen Mary's reign. But we are called this day to sanctify the name of God in a work oF providence, wherein the Lord hath indeed fulfilled it before our eyes ! So great and sudden ! " Great and marvellous are thy *' works, O Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, O ^'^ thou King of saints." Generations to come will tliink we do but hyperbolize, when they shall read the one half of the wonders ef our days.
(4.) When one mercy is an introdiictive leading mercy to many more that are greater than itself; that mercy which is so, though in itself it were never so small, well deserves the title of a great niercy, and may we not judge the present mercy to be such ? In the rending off these kingdoms from Antichrist, the tenth part of tlie great city is visibly fallen. Rome hath paid her tenths to Christ already, and that as an earnest of the whole, which is shortly to fall into his hands. Rome's glass was turned up by Christ more tlian 1200 years past, and in the judgment of very learned and searching men, is now almost run down. Antichrist hath lately had a triumph, and said, / sit as a queen^ and shall not see widow^ hood^ or loss of childre7i any mcyre. The kings of the earth hath given h-jvaiLiv Kcci i^adtav^ their force of arms, and power of laws unto the beast. But the Lord hath begun to shake heaven and earth, that the things whioli are made may be shaken down, and so to ruin him by the same means he first arose. He is taking to himself his power and reign, that the kingdom and dominion under the whole heavens may be the Lord's ; and that the work of provi- dence which we celebrate this day appears to me a great step U>- wards it. Call it Gad, for a troop follows it. Tlie world hath
found, and shall still find much truth in that observation of the learned * Dr. More : ' I am not ashamed (saith he) to profess
* that I think it clear, out of the Apocalypse, that the scene of
* things in Christendom will in a short time be very much changed
* for the better; the time of the church s appearing, that is truly *- apostolical both in life and doctrine, appears by the computation
< of prophesies to be very near at hand, when the witnesses shall
< arise, and the woman come out of the wilderness, and the king-
* doms of the -world shall be the kingdoms of the Lord, and his
* Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever. There is no sta^ ^ bility to be expected in the kingdom of men (but vengeance will
* ever and anon flow in upon them) till that city be raised, whose
* foundation is not only laid in twelve, but whose gates, tribes, an-