A Commendatory SERMON PREACH'D November the 4th, 1709. BEING THE BIRTH-DAY OF King William, Of Glorious Memory.
By Daniel de Foe.
LONDON:
Printed by
J. Dutton
; near
Fleet-street.
A Commendatory SERMON Preach'd
November
the 4th, 1709.
1 Chap. 2 Book of Samuel, 24.
Ye Daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who cloathed you in Scarlet, with other Delights; who put on ornaments of Gold upon your Apparrel.
NOW, Gentlemen, you will pardon me a Digression, when I shall remind you that this is the 4th Day of
November,
the initial Day of
Euroupe
's Liberty, the great Dawning of this Age's Glory; the Day that God has hallow'd or set apart to be praised in, for that unvalued Blessing of King
William
's Life. On this Day it began. The Thankfulness of honest Men for the inestimable Gift, shall never fail to be revived this Day, while they have Hearts to own it, or
Britain
has honest Men left to know the Hand that saved them, or to remember whose glorius Instrument he was, to assault Tyranny, and the most triumphant Enemies of God's Church, and his People's Liberty.
May this Day be Sacred to his Memory,
and it
will be so,
while there are any such thing as honest Men in this Part of the World— The Reflection upon the least temporal Mercy ye enjoy,
ay and some spiritual ones too,
must bring back your Memory to
this Day,
and by this Day to the Person by whose Name 'tis call'd I know 'tis hard, as a Reverend Prelate of this Church once took notice,
for English Men to remember Twenty long Years behind them, especially so dispised a thing as a Benefector
But an
English
Man cannot look round him a Day in his Life, but he is as necessarily brought to a Remembrance of King
William.
I had almost said, as he is
of a Governing Providence in the World. Nor is
any thing prophane to joyn them; For by Him, as Instrument, has Providence brought to pass for us all the Wonders of the last Age—An Age big with mighty Events, swell'd with the glorious Revolutions of Kingdoms, and the mighty Downfall of Hell's monstrous Schemes, laid deep, and politickly derected at the Interest and Kingdom of Christ Jesus in the World.
William
was the Thunderbolt that split all the mighty Work, that blow up the Foundation of the Devil's Kingdom in
Europe
; that shook the vast Fabrick, and left it so weak, that even a Woman is thought on, Can an English Man go to Bed, or rise up, without blessing the very Name of King
William
? His Perils have been our Safety, his Labours our Ease, his Cares our Comfort, his continued Harassing and Fatigue, our continued Calm and Tranquility.
When you sit down to eat why have you not Soldiers quarter'd in your Houses to command your Servants and insult your Tables? 'Tis because
King William
subjected the Military to the Civil Authority, and made the Sword of Justice triumph over the Sword of War, When you lye down at Night why do you not bolt and bar your Chamber, to defend the Chastity of your Wives and Daughters from the ungovern'd Lust of raging Mercenaries? 'Tis because
King William
restored the Sovereignty and Dominion of the Laws, and made the Red-Coat World Servants to those that paid them. When you receive your Rents, why are not arbitary Defalcations made upon your Tennants, arbitary Imposts laid upon your Commerce, and oppressive Taxes levied upon your Estates, to support the Tyranny that demands them, and your Bondage made strong at your Expence? 'Tis because
King William
re-establish'd the essential Security of your Properties, and put you into that happy Condition which few Nations enjoy, of calling your Souls your own. How came you by a Parliament to ballence between the Governed and the Governing, but upon King
William
's exalting Liberty upon the ruin of the Oppression? How came you to have Power to abuse your Deliverer, but by the very Deliverance he wrought for you? He gave you that Liberty you afterwards took to insult him, and supported you in those very Priviledges you ungratefully bullied him with. You could not with all your brutish skill provoke him to be a Tyrant, He abhorr'd Oppression, and scorn'd to practise it, and he that had Fire enough to assault all your Oppressors, and a Hand strong enough to wrestle with an establish'd and confirm'd Tyrant, had yet Meekness enough to let you oppress him, because he would not oppress you, and saw you ungrateful enough to oppose not your Benefactor only, but your own Felicity for his sake.
Yet to the last he fought for you against foreign Tyranny, and kept his Foot upon the Neck of your secret Usurpers; He trod upon them. And those than courted him at Home to resent your Ingratitude, received his constant Frown; This was the Man that liv'd for you, and yet died by you, and hearken to it with Regret, and reproach your selves with it whilst you live, He died murther'd by your Unkindness.
Heaven, that honour'd him here, and receiv'd him from hence, has shown some dreadful Instances of his Abhorrence of the Manner he was treated here, and has resented the particular Insults done to his Name, as if done to himself; And I wish I could not say, Heaven seems to punish us Nationally for our National Usage of this Prince, who was his eminent Instrument to us for Good.
How are we, notwithstanding our Victories, yet embarrass'd in that cruel and bloody War, which we reproach'd him for not ending sooner? We have not yet arriv'd to that Partition-Treaty, that we threw in his Face, And if greater Conditions have been seemingly offer'd us, they have been but seemingly so, without any Security for their being made effectual. We have had Reason now to see our Reproaches of King
William
unjust, who we redicul'd for not beating the
French,
while he has rather harden'd himself this Year, than submitted, after he has been five Times overthrown.
Let us look back to King
William
's Part in this War, and imagine
Lewis
XIV. in the state he was in when that War began. Not all the Princes and States of
Europe
united, would have begun a War against him. His Armies numerous in Men, and all those Men veterans in War, and flush'd with Conquest; his Treasures in a Kind infinite, his Generals experienc'd and enterprizing; himself 20 years younger and vigorous. I tell ye none of ye all would have ventur'd to begin the War, nor would you have been in your Wits, if you had. It was a Work only fit for a
William,
a King that could conquer by being overthrown, that could struggle with Impossibilities, and could penetrate into the remotest Events.
Let any Man look into the Temper of our Nation at this time, and they will find we are not now fit for a Disaster, as we were then; we have fought the
French,
and beaten them, thank God for it; for Woe to us if we had lost the Day! How would our Credit have been run down, our Bank being push'd at, our General insulted, our Ministry abus'd, as if really Men were now in God's stead.
And that the Duke of
Marlborough
could not only fight for Victory, but command it, But King
William
saw Victory even in the want of Success; He lost the Battles, and won the Day, and in this I am not too forward, if I say, he fought as never Man fought and conquer'd▪ He fought with a fierce victorious Enemy abroad, with cruel and intolerable Deficiences at Home, and yet he fought! Any body but King
William
would have yielded to insuperable Difficulties, but he fought on, and reduc'd the King of
France
at last, to seek Peace, acknowledge him King, and affront the Refugee that he fought to restore.
Thus he broke the first Power of the invincible
French
Empire; He broke their old Veterans, and exhausted their immense Treasures; He took the haughty
Lewis
by the Throat in the flower of his Strength, and set his Foot against him, when he was another kind of
Ltwis
than he is now. And tho' I would not lessen the Glory of the present Conquerors in the Field, yet as a Mine under a great Rock, tho' it cannot entirely blow it away, yet shakes it, and dislocates it, so as to make it easier for Workmen to remove; So King
William
shook the Foundations of
French
Power in such a manner, as has made it much easier for others to crush it entirely, than it would otherwise have been.
At last Heaven, provok'd at your Treatment of this Prince, removed him from us, and were it not a Debt due to his Memory, I should bury in silence the barbarous Abuses of him after his Decease; but particularly the Article of the Horse. The King was thrown by his Horse, or rather his Horse fell with him, by which his Majesty received some hurt in his Collar-Bone, which as it was thought hastned his Death, tho, it is evident he did not die of that Hurt.
Now let them not only blush, but tremble at the Event, who have insulted his Memory, by cannonizing in their Cups the Horse that threw down the King, drinking a Health to the Beast, less so by far than the Bruits that drink it, and rejoycing in the Disaster. Let such no more talk of Calves Head Clubs and Feasts of Triumph, tho' vile enough too, insulting the Dead; but nothing can match the Infamy of this Practice, odious both to God and Man. How odious it is to Man, I think I need not insist upon; no honest Man can think of it without Horror; But how odious to God it is, you shall all be judge.
Now, Gentlemen, pray remark it, to the Honour of Divine Vengeance, and to the extraordinary Conviction of all that can open their Eyes to the Methods of the Almighty, in his examplar Dealings with impious Men; That of the scandalous Wretches, who have thus insulted the Memory of King
William
in this Nation, by drinking the Horse's Health that hurt him. I can give you Account of at least Eleven, that have had their Brains dash'd out, or their Necks broke, by falls from their Horses; Besides some that have been very much hurt, but have had Time spar'd to them for Repentance, And if ye think it for your Instruction, I may hereafter give you their several Histories. Pray mark the Retaliation, I say it again, All by falls from their Horses.
Can we have have a greater Testimomy of the abhord Wickedness of the Thing? Has Heaven, in any Age, given a greater Witness to the Honour or Memory of any Man in the World? You may read plainly, how dear his Name is to the Divine Power, who concerns his Justice so remarkably to retaliate the Injuries done it. That the Party, who espouse these People, may read their Crime in their Punishment. Let the Remnant take heed,
Now Joy and Pleasant Hearts be your Portion, who commemorate this Day, that Drink a Temporate Glass to the Prosperity of all that love
King William
: that bless his Memory, and hand on a grateful Sence of his Actions to the Ages to come. And may all that envy and repine at his Glory, or at the great Things we enjoy from his Conduct, be disragarded and disappointed, till they repent, or do worse.
FINIS.