A SERMON Preach'd before the KING A T St. James's-Chapel, ON THURSDAY, June 7. 1716. BEING THE Day of Publick Thanksgiving to Almighty God, for Supppreffing the late Unnatural Rebellion. By the Right Reverend Father in God, WILLIAM Lord Bishop of Sarum. Publith'd by His Majelly's Special Command. LOND O Ň: Printed for JOHN CHURCHILL, at the Black Swan in Pater-Nofter-Row; and JONAH BOWYER, at the Rofe in Ludgate-Street. MDCCXVI. 22862 d. 12 41 2.COR. I. IO. Who delivered us from fo great a Death, and doth deliver; in whom we trust, he will yet deliver us. F thefe Words I may fay, what our Saviour did to his Hearers, of a Paffage that he quoted out of the Prophet Efay, in the 4th of St. Luke, that this day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears. God Almighty has, in a wonderful Manner, delivered us from a very great Death; he has, by a Series of strange Providences, continued this great Deliverance to us hitherto; and I hope we are met this Day, with a fincere Purpose, to express both our grateful Sentiments of what he has done, and ftill does for us; and our Confidence and Truft in him, that he will yet deliver us. To forward and affift you in which Design, I shall I. Confider St. Paul's Deliverance, which he refers to in this Text; a Deliverance from В 2 Death, Death, a great Death, and fo great a Death; and of which he was in fuch imminent Danger, that he tells us, in the Verfe but one before, that he despaired of Life. II. I fhall take a View of our own Cafe. And if we have been threatned with a very great Death, the Destruction of all that is dear to us; (and this we have been fo near unto, that, in the Eye of Man, there was no Prospect of Efcape; but we were prefs'd, as the Apostle words his Cafe, out of Meafure, above Strength, above our own Strength and Power to help our felves, even to Desperation; fo that none could fave us, but he that he tells us faved him, even he that raifed the Dead;) and if we have been delivered from this great Death, and are still delivered; I may, I fuppofe, with good Reason, prefs you to imitate our Apostle's Behaviour upon his Deliverance. 1. By acknowledging God to be the Author and Continuer of our Deliverance. 2. By offering up our Praises and Thankf givings to him for them. 3. By raifing in our felves, from a just Sense of what God has done, and does do for us, a Ground of Truft and Confidence in him for the future, that he that has delivered, and does deliver, will also yet deliver us. I. I am to confider St. Paul's Deliverance; a Deliverance from a great Death. That this great great Death was fome imminent Danger that he was in in Afia, is certain, from the 8th Verse of this Chapter; where he fays, I would not have you ignorant, brethren, of the trouble that came to us in Afia: From whence, the fame Thread of Difcourfe is continued down to the Text. But what Particular Trouble it was, that he met with there, being not agreed upon by Learned Men; I fhall beg your Patience, while I endeavour to fettle that Point. Some of the Ancients, particularly Tertullian, (who is alfo followed by modern Commentators) do fuppofe the great Death, or great Danger of Death, mention'd in the Text, to be the fame with that which he refers to in the 15th Chapter of his First Epistle; where he fpeaks, v. 32. of his fighting with beafts at Ephefus; which was the Metropolis of the Leffer Afia. And fome are for understanding both one and the other, of an actual Encounter that he had with wild Beafts, on the Theatre there; to which he was condemn'd, as a Criminal; and from which he was miraculously deliver'd, by the mighty Power of God. But I must confefs, I think the Reason urged against this Interpretation, is of great Weight; viz. That it cannot be fuppofed, that fo remarkable a Paffage of his Life, fo wonderful a Prefervation, would have been omitted; either by himfelf, in the 11th Chapter of this Epiftle, where he particularly enumerates feveral of his Dangers and Deliverances; or by St. Luke, in the Ac |